#WHEN has he ONCE been a legitimate mentor

[mulders-nose]

If anything... sydney is carmy's mentor if we're being honest with ourselves

[disgracefulthings]

Bingqiu Modern Day Gang AU where...

...Shen Yuan is transmigrated into a world where he is part of a Chinese gang, and as one of its most ruthless members, Shen Qingqiu. However, Shen Yuan does a bad job of playing the role he's in because he's too nice. When he goes to collect 'protection' money from businesses, he makes sure to ask if they are being protected well and if they are in need of anything. When he is sent to collect some loans, he extends due dates and helps the person with budgeting. When he needs to take care of a rival gang in their turf, he asks them to politely leave and most of the rival gang falls in love and agrees right away (the few who do not fall for his charm end up being dragged or knocked out by their own gang).

Eventually he meets the leader of the most dangerous gang, Luo Binghe. Luo Binghe was once part of Shen Yuan's current gang, but he was left to die after a shootout with another gang by Shen Qingqiu, his mentor. Shen Yuan is unaware of their shared past, and Luo Binghe has been confused by the rumors of a sweet Shen Qingqiu. Luo Binghe confronts his old mentor hoping to get some answers about his change (and probably also get some revenge while he's at it), when he is greeted by Shen Yuan handing a street kid some money to help his ailing mother, and when he turns towards Luo Binghe he gives him the sweetest smile. All plans of revenge fly out the window and Luo Binghe now wants to change careers from gang member to Shen Qingqiu's wife.

Soon enough Shen Yuan's gang ends up turning into a legitimate business because they noticed that Shen Yuan gets sad when they hurt people, and they can't have that! They're wary of Luo Binghe following him everywhere, but they allow it because he keeps Shen Yuan safe (until he makes his intentions clear to romance him, then it's war where everyone at once tries to become Shen Yuan's wife).

Shen Yuan grows attached to the community as the story goes on, and by the end he is happy that he is able to keep the people he cares about safe and happy

(and maybe a minor Moshang subplot where Shang Qinghua handles the financials of Shen Yuan's gang, while spying on it and reporting to Mobei-Jun, Luo Binghe's second in command. Mobei-Jun falls in love and decides to protect the weakest gang member he has ever met, while Shang Qinghua is intimidated by but also horny for Mobei-Jun)

[rayshippouuchiha]

I've been reading through your various 'Ready Made Family' posts - very interesting premise! And given Isshin's lack of parenting skills, it doesn't take much suspension of belief to imagine. I digress - my fav is UraIchi, of course, but I had a thought about Kyoraku's verse. (Besides how amazing Unohana is as Ichigo's mentor, that is.) In all the other ready made family verses, Ichigo at one point returns Urahara or Aizen's affection, or at least does things that point to her moving in that direction, like letting Kisuke babysit the twins. With Kyoraku, I get the impression that she has no interest whatsoever, and wouldn't care if he dropped dead. Does Kyoraku ever do something that changes her opinion of him/proves he's worthy of consideration for a romantic relationship?

Kyoraku starts to change his image in Ichigo's eyes the moment he legitimately gets serious about something.

Cause see here's the thing, their first introduction? Kyoraku comes right out the gate not only with the heavy-handed flirting but his word choice was less than good.

"Oh,” a voice, warm and husky and filled with a lazy kind of cheer, calls out then, “who’s this little beauty, Ichinose? Don’t tell me you’re taking her back to the 11th. Haven’t seen Kenpachi in a while but she’d be wasted on him.”

There are a couple of ways a statement like that could be taken and after so long spent working her ass off to take care of the girls with no male "protector" around? Needless to say Ichigo has run into those kinds of assumptions more than once in the past and has had to shut them down just as quickly.

Plus his general laidback attitude? That flirty, work-avoiding personality he puts forward to most everyone else? It doesn't come across well to Ichigo in the beginning thanks to Isshin-related trauma.

But let Kyoraku get serious? Let him show Ichigo that there's more to him than sake drinking and flirting? And that's when she'll start looking at him a bit differently.

[gofancyninjaworld]

No one is born knowing how to communicate

A: And that's okay...

Dr Kuseno made it look so easy. He just swanned into Saitama's apartment, proferred him a gift of beef and the hero's hostility melted away.

Fubuki felt positively foolish, and yet encouraged.

Since then, however, she's found that the only thing meat bribes pull in are dogs. Literal dogs:

And even dogs need more than meat to be loyal.

What gives? Well, it's obvious that Fubuki mistook Dr Kuseno's gift for a bribe: more on that later. Probably. And yeah, it's funny, but it's more interesting than that.

Learning how to communicate is complex. There are a ludicrous number of unspoken conventions and rules in every human society, so much so that we don't fully learn how to smile socially until we're in our forties. Dr Kuseno carefully judged his gift: he had a legitimate reason to offer Saitama a gift in the first place, out of gratitude for Saitama going out of his way to mentor Genos. Then he chose a gift Saitama would be sure to appreciate and presented it at a time when Saitama would be thinking about dinner. The worst that could have happened is that Saitama took the gift but insisted on the doctor going home (and taking Genos with him) -- it would still have left the desired positive impression. And things went really well. Kuseno made it look effortless.

Fubuki is only in her early twenties and her experience to date has been far from typical. She's learned that either she can intimidate people or she can flatter them into doing what she wants. With Saitama (and later Bang, Bomb, and Kuseno), she has to learn how to talk to more powerful people whom she cannot overpower, over whom she has no leverage, and who are unimpressed by her looks, simpering, or flattery.

Fortunately, Fubuki is nothing if not astute. She's worked out that she needs to develop complementary skills if she's to make herself useful to the S-Class heroes she wants to hang with. How to talk to them to get the help and cooperation she desires? Ah, that's a work in progress.

B: ...Unless it's not

Let's move onto another miscommunication.

Something that I hadn't before was that, unlike the webcomic version where Saitama only thinks to himself that Genos seems depressed, in the manga, Saitama out and out asks him if this is the case. He wants to know.

It mirrors King asking Saitama that very same question and getting Saitama to open up and be vulnerable for the first time (ever, in any version of the story). So it is very appropriate to see Saitama trying to do the same for Genos, particularly as he is openly fond of the guy.

However, it goes wrong. Saitama feels himself under pressure to say something wise to make it better. So he puts on his best 'confident' face and inadvertently makes everything much worse. Oh dear. What makes this particularly painful in the manga is that Saitama is much more invested in trying to reach Genos, and it's made Genos think that Saitama saying that he doesn't see what he's doing must mean that earlier times when he's praised him must have been just Saitama being nice. For sure, Genos could have pushed back and made Saitama clarify what he meant, but he's even worse at communicating: and Saitama's glib remark about being bright struck him square in the insecurities.

I'm going to come to something that I only realised once I started typing this up. Even though I've pointed out their abilities to communicate, neither King nor Kuseno have the perfect words to say. Kuseno started out by first committing a faux pas in bringing his great big outside boots into Saitama's flat, then nearly boring Saitama to death with a long-winded explanation. King started out by trying to guess what was bothering Saitama. Both, however, did the most important thing about effective communication: they picked up on their going wrong and changed tack.

It's not about saying the right thing: it's about responding to the person you're talking to.

The thing that King did that Saitama was trying to do for Genos was to ask Saitama open questions, and shut up in the interim, letting Saitama talk to fill in the silence. He'd only speak to ask more open questions when Saitama ran out of things to say, and through that, gently started to challenge Saitama's thinking.

But doing so means being comfortable with several seconds of silence. And that is excruciating. It is almost irresistible to jump in and say something, anything. And it would have been a longish wait, for Genos to slowly sit down and decide to start speaking, which might well have started being about something only tangentially related to his worry. King did that for Saitama: Saitama started out talking about what was bothering him on the surface -- being too strong -- before eventually coming to what was really bothering him, feeling lonely and profoundly isolated from everyone around him. Saitama does not yet know how to wait a person out.

It's a problem in this case because it's introduced a big barrier between those two, not an insurmountable one for sure, but one that could easily compound later.

Ah well, no one is born a communicator. We just have to wait and see if they work out a way to open up and be honest with each other. So it goes! There's more ways to introduce conflicts than to have a monster trample Tokyo, after all!

And so help me, the struggle to learn how to communicate is 1000% worthwhile.

[sunderwight]

So apparently Ryan Condal has said that the vision Daemon had of himself as Aemond was because Daemon feels somehow responsible for the creation of Aemond.

I don't get why Daemon would feel that way, however. I don't think any sufficient groundwork has actually been laid for that interpretation. Daemon has barely interacted with Aemond, he didn't train him, mentor him, and he hasn't even provoked him. You can't even draw much of a cause or effect between Daemon's relationships with characters around Aemond, like his conflict with Otto, and the person Aemond has become.

So I'm disregarding that explanation in favor of my own:

Aemond is the second son, the talented dragon rider, the guy who obviously has some contentious feelings about his older brother and the throne, the one who is the better fighter, the one who clearly feels like an outsider even among his closest relatives. Whether Daemon knows all of that or only some of it, it's clear that he and Aemond share more or less similar positions in their immediate families. The parallels are too numerous to escape even casual observation.

Daemon has so far gone out of his way to avoid viewing the Hightower Targs as actual kin to him. Those aren't his nephews and his niece, they aren't his brothers true children, they are the spawn of Otto Hightower's scheming. Functionally Daemon treats them more like the Westerosi standards for bastards than for legitimate relatives, basically viewing them with suspicion when he isn't just disregarding them outright. Once the usurpation actually happens, he immediately leaps at the chance to claim them as unambiguous enemies.

But on some level, he does know that they are still his kin. That they belong to the same small pool of dragon riders and nobility of Valyrian descent, which are categories that are important to him, and that he prides himself on. How can he not?

Him seeing himself as Aemond is a confrontation of the connection he has tried to deny, and that connection adds an extra layer of guilt and condemnation to his own actions, because it emphasizes that he directly caused the murder of his own grand-nephew. It also serves as a threat, because if Daemon is feeling at all bad about any of the horrible things he's done (which other visions imply might be the case, or else they wouldn't disturb him), then his worst nightmare right now is probably the guy on the other team who has the capacity and inclination to do similar things. Finally, by looking at Aemond he can also see himself from the outside, to some extent, and that's deeply uncomfortable for him because he thinks this guy sucks and should be killed.

Unless something happens to refute this interpretation, I'm going to keep it, I think. It's not the he feels responsible for Aemond, it's that he is increasingly disturbed every time he is confronted with the similarities between himself and his nephew.

[manyu-ten]

I know when it comes to shipping, people like to shrink the age-gap between certain characters and I'm all like: nah. No, don't minimize the age-gap!! The inherent power imbalance that comes with one of the pair being a good chunk older than the other can be so so delicious if done right.

Like, no, you are not in a relationship of equals!!! Maybe you can fight just as good, maybe when it comes to base-book smarts and knowledge you can go head to head, but experience is such a huge part of mental and emotional development. You can see all the signs of a subtle manipulation, but still fall face first into it because the disconnect between what you know and what you actually understand is something that must be kindled through experience.

The older one can have the best of intentions for the younger one, only have their best interests at heart, but they still have to follow through on their own laws of morality, ethics and discipline to make a relationship like that work.

Now to the good stuff:

JayGrant in any setting other than a High School AU has gotta have an age-gap for me.

Canonically, there's like 6-8 years between Dick and Jason (and I always go with the 8) and Grant is supposed to be about 1-3 years older than Dick (and I always go with the 3).

That's an 11 year age gap. There is no way in hell that alone isn't an inherent power imbalance. I love the little idea that Jason's death marked Grant's resurrection, so Grant would have been dead about two to three years. Physically, he'd probably be about the same age as Dick once he comes back but chronologically, he's still three years older.

And I need that to be a huge problem for Dick. He'd lose his goddamned mind. His own very complicated issues with his brother aside—thats!!! Still his baby brother!!! With Grant Wilson??? Absolutely not. Ain't nobody a bigger JayGrant hater than one Dick Grayson. He will pull out every problematic piece of information against Grant he can in order to fuel propaganda against this man.

Grant knows damn well the power he holds over Jason. I mean, anyone with decent eyes can see that Jason desperately wants someone to lead him, love him and protect him. If he wasn't so pathetically obsessed with the boy, all of Dick's biggest fears would be even more legitimate. The problem is. That Grant is so genuinely down bad for Jason its equal parts utterly endearing and absolutely embarrassing.

Like. Sir. That kid is 21. You are 32. Please get a grip on yourself. (Don't get a grip on yourself the shit thats wrong with you is so fucking funny ).

Like, Grant is the type of person to count the number of eyelashes on Jason's waterline as he's sleeping. He's that type of fucking freak. He'd be ecstatic when he realizes Jason has way more eyelashes than the average person.

Grant is the type of person to bring Jason the neatly dismembered body of one of his enemies the same way your cat might bring you a dead mouse as a token of their love.

And anyone with proper mentors in their life would see those crimson red flags a mile away and make the nearest exit. Jason, a mentally disordered, recently out of their teens young man with daddy AND big brother issues longer than the golden gate bridge, who also failingly tries to show love and affection for people through horrible actions (i.e. Brothers in Blood even though that was a lowkey shitty comic) would SWOON. He's falling head over heels so fast he's gonna give himself whiplash.

They have a Sicko4Sicko dynamic that everyone is mildly disgusted, infinitely disturbed and uncomfortably attracted to.

[strayheartless]

To your Mountain Kid/Jungle Kid HC, I bet Zack and Cloud bond over not being such nErDs as AGS (affectionately).

Genesis' parents probably raised him on the classics, emphasizing education and achievement over everything.

Gillian was a whole Shinra scientist, and probably raised Angeal with all the knowledge she could provide, because education is often vital to escaping poverty. And because she's a nerd.

Sephiroth "Lab Experiment" Crescent...no further commentary needed.

Any funny scenes of ZC vs the AGS nerds?

❤️

Cloud and Zack Bond over superstitions that are somewhat similar between Gongaga and Nibelhiem. They find out that both Villiages have similar superstitions surrounding Shoes. In Gongaga its bad luck to put new Shoes on the table; while in Nibelhiem its Bad luck to leave shoe's on the table and extra bad luck if one of them falls off the table.

They also bond over the Cryptids that live in their respective woods, and AGS are forever horrified when Cloud goes into great detail about the Nibelhiem not-possom, which is infinatly more fucked up than anything they have ever heard. Zack then tells them about the Gongaga Frog man and its game over, no one can sleep.

Cloud once cussed Angeal out for stiring a pot anti clockwise. He then proceeded to tap every potato against the side board until Angeal saked him why and Cloud looked at him like he'd lost dang his mind as he replied "does Banora not have Potato mites??"... Angeal then goes on a three day Moogle rabbit hole to find out what the hell potato mites are and why Nibelhiem is effected by them so badly.

Cloud and Zack once had a fight with Sephiroth over the scientific likelyhood of world events being predicted by sparrow/parrot bones. It got so heated Zack (not Cloud) threw a lightning spell at his head. They are no longer allowed to apply science to country boy religious practices.

Cloud once slapped Genesis square in the face for rocking an empty rocking chair.

While on mission in Modaohiem during their first few weeks as mentor and student, Angeal started whistling in the dark, and Zack nearl had ten blue fits on him.

Angeal grew up never wasting food, but he has to sit and marvel at how far Cloud takes 'waste not, want not' as a mantra. It's round about the time that Cloud not only makes soup, but also makes fertiliser for Angeals plants that Angeal realises he knows nothing.

Sephiroth nearly lost his mind when he found out that both Zack and Cloud take their paychecks in hard cash and don't trust the banks. Like he legitimately couldn't fathom why they wouldn't have bank accounts, or debit cards.

Genesis thought he knew everything there was to know about ancient literature, But Cloud and Zack both know word of mouth Stories that he has NEVER heard before and has been told on pain of death that if he writes them down, no one will ever find his body.

Sephiroth is pretty no nonsense about most of the boys superstitions, but even he has to admit that when it comes to weather prediction on missions, Cloud is usually right.

There was one very memorable time in Nibelhiem, when They all got sent out for mushrooms for dinner, and Angeal 'plant expert' Hewely swore blind he knew the differences between mushrooms, only to have Cloud save him three seperate times from eating death caps.

Cloud once threw Salt in Sephiroths face after he heared he'd been down to the old train yard (you know the one with the ghosts).

Genesis met Claudia strife while on mission in Nibelhiem once and she thought he was a Cryptid trying to lure her into the woods. she slapped him. why do people keep slapping him?!

[thetallowman]

Just finished my reread, so now it's speculation time.

There's something like fifteen different conspiracies currently gunning for gain in Asphodel at the moment, so I'm not even going to try to parse their specific movements. What I've been thinking about are the big "mystery" questions we've been given clues towards.

Firstly, who is The Hated One? I don't think it's the Odyssean, since Cleon speaks of his patron quite easily. But I do think it's connected to the Odyssean (and thus his flowers), with the Odyssean's decline a side casualty of efforts made to contain it - diminishing his myth as collateral damage for destroying another. I could see a wife (the one he wed to settle down, bringing her own legend into the relationship), all of his wives (ritually entombed and back for revenge), or a heretofore unmentioned child (the first seed he planted on Asphodel soil).

Alternatively, The Hated One could have been an enemy of the Odyssean - something he defeated during his reign, to be so well remembered as a hero. The most likely candidate there seems to be the old death god Cleon also spoke about - a theory supported by the murderer-projection carrying a sickle, and possibly related to the Asphodel Crowns now choking up his "fields." (This could also be related to the whole ritual entombment thing the king supposedly did, being that it took place in the "cork" of the prison, and that it was several stories up.)

As far as where the cult comes into things, I'm convinced that it actually legitimately is a cult of the Golden Ram. Or was, at least. My theory is that within the center of the brackstone maze lives a minotaur - a combination of man and beast, the stitching together of two gods that were once seperate. Malicious syncretism, if you would. The Hated One gets a way around its chains, feeding under a new name, while the cult gets the blood of its god, weakened enough to cut without the need for payment. (The Ram would be the "precious" thing that was chained to the murderer-projection.)

The last question is who's masterminding all this - who stands to gain when all the seperate plot-trolleys start crashing together. It could be Apollonia - all the evidence against her actually being involved is based on character witness, which could have radically changed if she's stuck in a contract or verging up on being a Saint (though of course Song should have seen that). It could be Menander - he's been plundering the shipyard, which involves digging under the capital, he specifically bought up a bunch of old papers, and everyone seems to underestimate him (but again, Song's laid eyes on him). And of course, it could be Cleon - he's got a sinister contract, access to old documents, and he's (maybe) descended from ancient royalty; if the island burns to the ground, he's well-placed to rule the ashes.

But I think, rather, that the mastermind is Penelope.

Firstly and most obviously, Angharad thought of her as looking young - a generic descriptor of beauty from a character quite prone to giving those... or more cycnically, the "restoration" promised by the cult. Secondly, Song has never been in the same room as her; she could very easily have a direct and dangerous contract. Thirdly, known conspirator Gule has spent significant time around her, ostensibly as a mentor to her son, enough so that he felt comfortable recruiting Angharad in her guesthouse. And fourthly, it would be extremely funny if Angharad were to go three for three for having just the worst possible taste.

[caer-gai]

For the character ask game: 1, 2, 3, 9, 12, and 16 for Guinevere, Kay, and Hector! ☺️

Yay!! Thank you for the ask!

1 what do you like or dislike about this character?

We'll start with Kay he's easy. I love his loyalty, his grumpiness, the way he keeps ending up mentoring children despite claiming he hates them. The tired old soldier who really wishes the younger generation would shut up and listen. The sibling angst. He's my guy for sure lol

As for Hector he's just a little guy. Just a sad wet guy trailing after an older brother who isn't even aware.... truly a man I love. Surprisingly wild amounts of gender head cannons but we don't have to talk about that yet.

Guinevere.... I'll be honest I'm pretty neutral on her. I do wish we could stop having so much discourse around her because I always feel really nervous posting about her. (For the controversial thoughts dm me I'm not saying anything publicly)

2. What is your favorite canon thing about this character?

Kay it's alll about the loyalty the absolute devotion but also he's not exactly what you expect of a character in that role.

For Hector I just really love the dynamics he has

For Guinevere I think my favorite thing is her defense of Kay in the knight in the cart that was for sure the moment that made me go "oh, maybe I've been wrong about her". Pro tip of you want me to like a character have them be unexpectedly kind to Kay or a similar character lol

3. Least favorite thing about this character

Throwing me to the sharks I see/joking

Ok for Kay it's when he's just mean with no nuance or anything. The complexity is what makes him tasty otherwise he's just an asshole

I don't have one for Hector except that he's NOT FUCKING IN ANYTHING

Guinevere....ok hot take time: she doesn't need to be completely justified or evil guys. She can just be a person. Like she's not even real y'all we can chill out a little and explore possibilities and messiness and rest knowing no one was actually harmed.

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Kay: Absolutely not. Never. I'm horrible about assuming people are mad at me and I cry very easily it would not be fun for either of us.

Hector: sure he seems chill I'd just have to hide all of Lancelot whump fics lol

Guinevere: as long as she's chill with me drawing her secret lover in a corset and nothing else. Tbh we'd probably get along pretty well

12. Headcanons....

KAY LOST TO BEAUMAINS ON PURPOSE I SAID WHAT I SAID

Less of headcanon and more of a making my own canon but I think King Ban legitimized/claimed Hector and Hector and Lancelot lived as brothers for at least a little bit.

Big fan of Guinevere being friends with Kay, idk if that's really a headcanon tho lol

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

Ok so necessary disclaimer shipping anything is fine it doesn't hurt anyone irl <3 have your fun and let others have fun. That being said...

Kay: Kay/Arthur,and Kay/Gareth. I'll accept Gawain/Kay, I won't pretend that I don't understand it but it's just weird with how i tend to interpret their dynamic. All that said I'm not absolutely opposed to certain extremely dark and whumpy scenerios but that's not something I'm ready to talk about here just yet

Hector: does he have any ships? I legitimately don't think i've seen him shipped with anyone before lol

Guinevere: Once again i'm not sure I have any I don't like that I can think of.

Thanks again for the ask!! <3

[mimiri22-6]

oh yeah

I finlly watched Monkie Kid. Been meaning to for years, but kind of forgot it existed at some point. It was Amazing, in All terms of the word. Kind of perfect timing actually since season 4 was made 'available(?)' this year(idk how airing works for the show in gen yet).

I just really wanted to say, Several times while watching, even just in the first season, *deep breath* MK HAS 2 DADS!!! WOOOOO!!! Like it's not even subtext or implied!!! It was straight up Stated!!! In! The! Most! Recent! Season! HOLY SHIT IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD!!!

Holy shit Red Son! I was So prepared to go through some kind of redemption arc for him and him leaving his verbally abusive demon family, BUT NO! NO HOLY SHIT! THE DEMON FAMILY IS SO SOFT FOR EACHOTHER! OMG! I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO LOVE THEM!

Spider Queen and her goons, is it weird I kind of ship her w the Scorpion Demon? Idk, when that ep happend the first person I thought to be her companion was the Spider Queen.

Lady Bone Demon; I Loved hating her at first, how dare she give MK more insecurities, but now I just Love her. Like that final scene w her?! Lifechanging. This show really, like really, said 'everyone is the hero of their own story'. And they said it twice to really get it across!

The most recent season, AH, holy shit. EVERYONE IS THE HERO OF THEIR OWN STORY! It's True!!

Mai and Mk are NEVER gonna be an item and they touched on it in the first freaking season like, nahnahnah, we aren't like that. People w opposite genders Can be bffs with no undertones! I AM SO FUCKING HAPPY! SVTFOE COULD NEVER!

Mai is badass girl without Being the badass girl that everyone has to coment on how she's a badass everytime shes a badass!! FUCKING THANK YOU!

Monkie King is complex w a complex past and people that hate him for reasonable reasons. Mistakes were made, miscomunication without cringing, just Actual Miscomunication where both parties don't show their full hand. Holy Shit Macaque!

Macaque was So good! Once again I thought he was just gonna be another villain that was 'betrayed' by Sun Wukong. And Yeah! He Was! Or he Really thought he was and then Wukong doesn't try to mend their relationship. Leaving it to fester and Hurt. BUT MACAQUE IS STILL A SWEETHEART WHAT WHY HOW?!!?! My fucking god I love him.

Every Character Has Layers! Sunny has ptsd, Pigsy is actually the heart of the group, Tang isn't just a scared bookworm, Mai isn't just tough, Mk smiles to hide the pain, Sun Wukong has set fire to so many bridges in persute for immortality, Macaque helps the gang So many times over, DBK loves his wife and son unconditionally, Lady Iron Fan loves her husband and son to the point that she preotects her son from a possessed dbk, Red Son Also helps the gang several times over, Spider Queen wanted to be a good queen even if she wasn't, LBD was doing what she though was right, Azure was taking down a Tyrant to save Multiple Planes, No One Was Flat!

NO MISSES! Every ep I was Ready fo More!

Mk, holy shit, Mk. I could project onto this kid until the end of time. He's open for trans headcannons, he has so many dads and mentors, so many adults to turn to for different things, he's legitimately afraid he's not enough and previous enemies Stick w him. He Thinks 20 miles an hour, he has adhd, not in cannon but Very implied, can't focus, thinks outside the box, no one is Surprised when he has a good plan, no one is surprised when he Succeeds. He Does take time to think his next moves when he Needs to. He gets Angry. He's insecure, he's Developing. He's Actually different from his s1 conterpart, but he's also Exactly the Same. No Matter What, Despite Everything, He's Still MK. I don't think I've Ever encountered a character that that rings So True with. Despite everything, it's still you. What has to change and Can change Has Changed, but he's still hyperactive, he's always been a bit sad inside, but he's still putting on a smile to lighten the mood, he's still trying to help people.

This Entire essay started because I just wanted to say the pig and the glasses guy are so gay for eachother it's barely even subtext, there is no heterosexual explaination for so many of their interactions. Now I have this. -_-

tldr; Monkie Kid is one of the best shows I've Ever watched. And every ep is only 10 minutes long! How did they manage that?!

P.S. 4 final things

They/Them Prissy Bird(I screamed for a solid minute when I realised they so clearly went by they/them pronouns)

Tang is ace af

Red Son has Two Hands and I am So on Board w that mentality. I love himb so much. Finally, a poly ship where I don't just want to Really close a triangle. I can picture it So well in my brain, Please tell me I'm not the only one w this mentality

I love this show so fking much I just thought I'd let you know again

[sepublic]

As I ponder how the Monster Realm's arc goes, I'm also reconsidering the climax(es).

The original and current(?) idea is that the Monster Fighters and co. defeat each warlock individually within Narellus' mansion; I want to see each Warlock shine on their own, be pushed to the very end and unveil a final, most powerful spell that's unlocked by plunging their Magestone into their spine. Very painful, but I think it's cool.

The Council of Warlocks is defeated, their plans seemingly disrupted with the ritual requiring thousands, if not millions of followers to pour their magic in at the same time. But they do escape, and somehow, through some loophole, they find another method of reviving Magic, set up earlier in the story by both protagonists and antagonists.

Then we get a big fight, against all seven warlocks at once; Because I want to see this, I want to see a cool fight where we see the entire group work together in synergy, and be at their strongest. And that makes it all the more satisfying when they are defeated, even as a group. But the warlocks nevertheless accomplish the alternate ritual; Magic is resurrected, and through the warlocks' control attacks their enemies. But the Monster Fighters help bring back Magic's soul for a moment to undo the ritual, reverting Magic's body into the Magestones.

Of course, before the whole series of final showdowns with the warlocks, there'd be Khemh's betrayal; This would lead to the Monster Fighters having to rely on the Council of Warlocks to help them, which leads to the warlocks seizing Khemh's entire kingdom, and through this victory legitimizing themselves to a bunch of other communities, which results in them pledging loyalty, and thus providing the numbers needed to attempt the ritual. Hence the assault on Narellus' mansion, where it first takes place.

But I've reconsidered re-ordering stuff; What if the warlocks get the numbers they need without defeating Khemh, who hasn't come up with his plan yet. The Monster Fighters assault the living mansion with their allies, they defeat each individual warlock. And with that, the plan is butchered; Perhaps the warlocks are taken prisoner within Khemh's personal dungeons, and he lays claim to all seven Magestones. Or they're defeated and the Magestones are claimed by the Monster Fighters.

The story is seemingly over, the warlocks have been defeated and they can't accomplish their big endgame without the Magestones, problem solved! The Monster Fighters meet up with Khemh in his capital. And then he reveals his plan to bring the sun to the Monster Realm so he can take over; A goal even more devastating than Majikus', which would unfortunately force the Monster Fighters to ally with the guys they just defeated and have been fighting this whole time. Maybe it was always Khemh's plan, even.

And he has the Magestones, having accepted them for safekeeping from the Monster Fighters earlier, or doing it right now. With no other option, the Monster Fighters summon the warlocks, who with their regathered armies lay siege to Khemh's palace. They take back the Magestones, and with them defeat Khemh together as a combined team. This leads to the warlocks having a surplus of followers due to everyone else being intimidated by their comeback. And they try the ritual, all over again, and succeed this time; You already know what happens next.

I think this could work better, because it does break up the monotony of a bunch of warlock showdowns, one after another, and could make Khemh's betrayal hit harder, and make more sense; He still needs the Monster Fighters so he's not just gonna reveal things despite suspecting they'll object. Granted, that might happen because of the Monster Fighters snooping around and finding out anyway, forcing Khemh to come clean in the hopes of convincing them.

But as I've said, it makes it seem as if the adventure IS over, that it's all done... Only for the classic video game twist of, Your guide and mentor has been using you the whole time for THEIR evil plan!!! And it makes the Monster Fighters feel even worse because they thought they'd just beaten the warlocks and saved the day. But by defeating Khemh they just have to give the warlocks what they need, so it just feels as if all their progress has been undone.

For the record, it doesn't have to be; Their work in preventing the warlocks from massacring certain groups and whatnot could still pay off. There could still be another kind of progress. And the Monster Fighters could get stronger from all of the battles, making them more capable of defeating the warlocks in the final hour when it all comes down to this battle.

Plus they can’t be blamed, Khemh necessitated the warlocks’ victory by choosing to be greedy instead of just sticking with his own kingdom as he originally intended; The warlocks are the primary villains but Khemh is the greater evil. He changed his mind, it didn’t have to be this way, he undid all that progress and made it seem meaningless.

It was his arrogance that forced the Monster Fighters to defeat him too. But Khemh might just try and convince them not to summon the warlocks because it'll undo their progress, it'll undo the work of their predecessors; And even after the warlocks are summoned, in his desperation he might try and get them to go back and forth again after everything.

It lends to the uncertainty and regret of the situation; The Monster Fighters JUST defeated the warlocks, only to help them defeat Khemh?! Maybe they should’ve teamed up with the warlocks from the start, and then committed themselves fully. At the very least, starting as warlock allies to take out Khemh, and then stopping the warlocks definitively, would’ve been far less of a waste of time, far less of a back and forth. It’d make the Monster Fighters seem less indecisive and/or treacherous about their allegiances.

Narellus is pushing the narrative that the Monster Fighters are now our friends, and hell Majikus herself might actually adopt this idea wholly, delusional and self-convinced enough to see the Monster Fighters' brief alliance as the proof they need to believe the warlocks are people they should support, if they really care about the Monster Realm! Surely it's safe to assume, because anyone with common sense would've figured it out by now from all this; And that fuels Ruby's lowest point, meant to precede her victorious high.

Plus, Khemh being taken out by the full Council of Warlocks together could better set up the antagonists as a threat when they're a team; They were defeated as separated individuals, cut off from one another. But now they'll make sure to stick together, and have shown exactly what they can do.

And the last time our heroes beat the warlocks, they also had help from Khemh. Khemh didn't want to drag himself into a war, not until he knew he had to; Before that, he relied on proxies like the Monster Fighters whom he couldn't be definitively blamed and targeted for. He waited for a decisive moment like at the mansion to begin and end his war with the warlocks, when their armies had been softened already by the Monster Fighters.

This minimized Khemh's own casualties, while also dedicating as many soldiers as possible into one battle to ensure its victory (because if they'd already been at war, they'd have been spread out defending Khemh's kingdom from all directions by the warlocks' other forces). But now the heroes don't have Khemh's help anymore, so what hope do our Monster Fighters have? Which makes the power-up from Magic in the end really even the odds, and makes the defeat of a fully-united council feel more earned and meaningful.

I could also insert a moment when Majikus is defeated the first time, a "We're all going to burn!!!" breakdown. And of course the protagonists and viewer dismiss this because she's a fascist who thinks the world will fall apart without fascism. But then she's vindicated on some level when because the warlocks were defeated, it allowed Khemh to take the Magestones and attempt to literally burn everything with the sun.

So when she takes back control thanks to our own protagonists, it just proves to her that she's right, she IS the hero they need to protect them from those who would hurt the Monster Realm!!! And the heroes genuinely consider it, for a moment, in their disillusioned state; Before they remember, oh right, the lesser evil is still evil.

Maybe instead of having the supporters they need before Khemh's betrayal, and trying that twice, doesn't happen; Instead the warlocks find a loophole through some powerful artifact, idk. They realize they don't need X number of followers now, allowing them to proceed with the plan a lot sooner. This hastens the protagonists' successful assault, which leads to the loophole being destroyed, thus rendering Plan B forever out of reach.

But then Khemh shows his true colors, the warlocks are needed, and their big comeback is what finally gets them the followers they need; So again, the protagonists genuinely thought they had nothing more to fear after the first win, because it's not as if the warlocks are gonna get any more followers after this, it's not as if they already have that number and just need to get the Magestones back. Their loss at Narellus' mansion delegitimized them, right?

But the original Plan A wins out in the end, after all; No thanks to the heroes. It's a classic fake-out victory trope (toootally not inspired by Ninjago's first season hahaaaa), with an extra twist between the fake and real final battles; That twist is the reason the actual final battle occurs, despite Khemh being opposed to the warlocks the whole time. It's less of an exhausting back and forth between fighting individual warlocks and then Magic and finally the united council.

And defeating the warlocks the first time isn't exactly pointless (in the sense that it only exists to create a false lull of security), because it does lead directly into a major story event regarding another hidden antagonist, which leads into him being defeated, allows for another attempt by the primary villains, etc.

In fact, you know what? There doesn't even have to be an initial loophole ritual for the protagonists to stop; It could just be that they chose to take down the warlocks in a big assault because it was a good opportunity to do so, and they had allies.

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 290, Replies Part 2

1) “You say he tossed you aside and forgot about you, but we know they all think you died, they even have a memorial to you, hell Endeavor was praying at it, it didn’t seemed like he didn’t cared that much. Sure, that was after he started to regret his actions, but still.”- Reminder: At least half of this is him intentionally twisting the facts to suit his public narrative. What Endeavour actually felt or did at the time is still unknown, but everything Toya is saying about himself should be taken with a massive grain of salt. If there’s truth in what he’s saying, it’s only because he’d decided the truth would hurt more than a manipulative lie.

2) “no wait a second, isn’t Toya- Dabi- fuck it, Tobi supposed to be the oldest one? Also, if they had you as this “super hero project” then why did they had another kid?”-Toya is alone in the training room, not being mentored by Enji, and then says that he’d go on to complain/vent about it to his younger brother afterwards. This means he was choosing to train by himself, but running into the stumbling block of his natural incompatibility with his own fire powers, and saw it as him having been “abandoned” by his own father after he just wasn’t genetically perfect enough for him, choosing to put his focus on a younger child who’d have the perfect combination. It’s why he expresses camaraderie towards Natsu, another “failure”, but hatred and dehumanisation towards the “success” Shoto, who got everything Toya has literally been killing to possess just by being born. Whilst complicated, he does seem to have some vestiges of care towards his fellow “failures”, but either animosity or apathy towards his parents, and sheer loathing towards the one he saw as “stealing” his place to exist in the world.

3) “Oooooookay Tobi, glad to know that yeah you really were around when Shoto was born, but because you’re talking about how he was a “success” then this means that you were around when he got his quirk, which would be like, 3 to 4 years old if I recall correctly

and you decided that you’d kill the baby…

…

yeah okay I’m not that surprised by the Twice thing anymore.”- It’s unclear if he meant killing Shoto once he’d become a legitimate hero in the industry to spite his father’s dreams and ambitions, or if he always had the desire to kill Shoto just from the moment of his existence but never really acted on it. Either way, he’s always seen Shoto as his enemy to kill, not his family.

4) “Holy fuck okay seems like Dabi is off his fucking rockers right now.

Jesus.

Alright let us see where this is gonna go, but damn I already see this won’t end well.”- Toya’s always been mad as a hatter. He’s just very good at acting sane (Not that different from the rest of us, really ), and now the mask is off, he’s putting that acting skill to use in emphasizing his insanity and irredeemable nature.  He is his family’s shame, and the world will witness and remember him forevermore because of this.

(MHA ch 279) 5) “Toga please, look at his fucking arm, that thing was never okay to begin with.”- His arm, or his mind? Either one works really, this boy be nuts.

(MHA ch 244) 

6) “The wizard there was… weird, now that I think about it. He was really focused on taking down Endeavor, like the hero was to blame for everything wrong going on with society and only he knew it, but… it wasn’t clear what exactly triggered this. We know what Endeavor did wrong, but he wasn’t supposed to know that. I do wonder why he suddenly thought that Endeavor is the harbinger of their destruction, even though for society in general he is starting to surpass expectations.”- Turns out it’s because the prodigal son himself made him aware of the PLF’s plans and his own personal one to destroy Endeavour on a public scale, aware that Starservant was so unbelievable as a source of information that nobody would trust a thing he said, and that the old man’s only course of action was to try and remove Endeavour and get a new number one in his place, one which wouldn’t cause a societal loss of faith if his dark secrets were exposed and who was genuinely worthy of the position. all of which was only to help bolster Endeavour’s confidence in himself that he was doing the right thing before Dabi swooped in to take it all away and laugh in his face about it. 

(MHA ch 250)

7) “Oh thank god it wasn`t… It seems like it was merely a stalker obsessed with Endeavor, a rare thing to see to be honest, but oh lord why do I feel this character will do something creepy?”- Turns out, not so rare when the head stalker is creating proxy stalkers to prop his old man up so he can knock him down all the pegs, and the whole of hero society with him. (MHA ch 252) 8) “Ah, right, Ball-pondering wizard did try to take down endeavor, almost forgot about it- But I didn`t forgot about the fact he seemed… strangely aware of something… something dark, darker, yet darker…”- Calling back to his failed attack on Endeavour is a neat little narrative trick to tie these two, seemingly-unrelated villains together and help factor in the reveal that Dabi’s the one who’s been pulling their strings the whole time, making him the overarching villain of this mini-arc

(MHA ch 251) 9) “GODDAMMIT NOW I`M QUESTIONING IF TOYA DIDN`T DIED BECAUSE ENDEAVOR REFUSED TO KILL A VILLAIN IN THE PAST- HORIKOSHI CAN YOU FUCKING STOP I`M TRYING TO STAY LOYAL TO MY DABI THEORY”-Good for you for sticking to the correct theory, though it’s possible that Dabi intentionally nudged Ending into targeting one of his family members around Endeavour to grant his insane wish instead of just attacking the man himself and praying for an over-strong blow. For Toya, he’d know that would dig deep into the pain caused by his own ‘demise’, and such emotional anguish for Endeavour was reward enough for him to suggest it to the insane psycho.

10) “Not like Twice at least

Sorry Tobi, you continue your little dance there, although I doubt that Endeavor is even listening right now, he’s still too shocked.”- Toya does not wish to let the past pain fade and the wounds heal, because he never stopped festering in his own anguish over being rendered “irrelevant” for the purpose he was born for. And so, in his spite, he refuses to die or go quietly into the night, using his own family drama as a springboard to launch an attack on the very image of heroics themselves, all to spread the pain beyond even those he’s personally involved with. This isn’t about spreading a message, it’s about spreading suffering and hopelessness for all, in the darkest hour.

11) “holy crap okay yeahSeems like someone is having the best day of his life indeed”- He’s been waiting for this all along, trusting nobody with the truth, hiding everything about himself, all to twist the situation to his advantage, and now it’s finally paid off better than he ever could have imagined, all without relying on outside help. It’s not just his spiteful retaliation on “Dr Frankenstein”, it’s his success at doing this all solo, proving how competent he is in comparison to Shoto.

12) “Dabi is the oldest, and then there’s Fuyumi and Natsu, then Shoto. Dabi says that he was born because Endeavor wanted a super-mega-perfect hero to surpass All Might, but Tobi also said that during his time training there, which should be when he was at least 3-4, Natsu was already there, and he wasn’t a baby, if Tobi was going to him to cry. If endeavor had Tobi, why did he had another two kids? And he implied that he met Shoto and wanted to kill him, but if that was the case then shouldn’t Shoto at least recall his existence?”- At the very least, Shoto has vague memories of Toya from afar, watching him play with the others before getting dragged away to train. However, they never got closer than that, and afterwards, Toya apparently had his accident that disfigured him and lead to them assuming he was dead. By all accounts, Shoto seems to have never really been able to interact well with his family until Endeavour finally became the number one hero, by which point Toya had been “dead” for years. @thelreads

[mermaidsirennikita]

omg your description of the Ramin/Sierra rendition of point of no return scratched a brain itch I've had for years bc YES! That's literally why that song hits so hard for me! Do you have any book recs that would fit that sexually charged vulnerable angry energy? 🙏 or books where one of the pair is "monstrous" in some way?

Lol yes! I love that energy.

As a sweeping generalization, of course, I must recommend Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark, because they will always give you that "scary man/seemingly fragile woman who's made of steel and the sexuality is WEIRD" energy.

I would especially recommend A Hunger Like No Other (Lachlain very literally takes Emma captive, dubcon and all, and has this resentful hate her/love her thing with her for a while, at the same time considering her His Precious, also he's been underground for 150 years and when they meet she tries to run and he pins her to the ground and goes "DO NOT RUN FROM ONE SUCH AS ME" and it's a banger).

Dark Needs at Night's Edge has a virgin vampire hero and a ghostly heroine who performed as a ballerina, imprisoned together, and he's fully crazy and also afraid of like, unleashing himself on her. It's soooo angsty and sad and horny. Take a shot every time Conrad licks a vampire fang because Kresley's vampires have fangs that lengthen when they're horny.

Lothaire, obviously, once again has a virgin kidnapped by a man who hasn't had sex in............ in Lothaire's case, like 2,967 years. Lothaire is super resentful of Ellie, while also being drawn to her, and the feeling is mutual. Another incredibly horny book, but what I really love is that he like... has to actually learn that there is a difference between possessing someone and loving them. Because in his heart, Lothaire is like, 11.

Shadowheart by Laura Kinsale LOL FULL. FUCKIN. STOP. A medieval romance between a teenage girl (like she's 17, y'all have been warned) and the man she met when she was six and he was sixteen and he dropped her off at her sister's place like so much garbage then went off to do more assassin things. Allegreto. Is. CRACKED. You can see him as a teen in For My Lady's Heart, and he's cracked there, too! Just a broken twisted man who likes to kill people and also submit to a good flogging from the woman he forced to marry him! I laugh and I cry. This is beautifully written and hot and absolutely will give you that "ingenue is mentored by her evil mentor but also has the ability to emotionally crush him" material. There are also so many scenes in this book where Allegreto is like, shaking while Elayne touches him in a sexual manner~, like soaked chihuahua shaking cock out and leaking like a faucet, and that's very Phantom imo. Heads up though the first sex scene in this book is noncon, though it is very "old school historical consummate the marriage she says no but she enjoys part of it and oh hey we've discovered he's into being hurt" noncon. He's also super dangerous and kinda monstrous!

Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt. I bring this one up because again, villain romance; the heroine is not at all an ingenue, but the hero is a campy, ridiculous man who like, kills people while completely naked and wearing a bejeweled robe. But he's also, like, legitimately insane due to profound abuse he suffered as a child (heads up; sexual abuse, animal torture to psychologically abuse a child, the works) and as he falls in love with her this super intense vulnerable bond forms between them. This is very "he's physically beautiful but mentally wrecked" on the monster scale.

The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt is a softer, less insane touch but may also give you that vulnerable angsty angry sexuality with the added benefit of a hero who also feels monstrous because of his looks. The hero has disfiguring smallpox scars and the heroine is his secretary with whom she forms a very Rochester/Jane bond, but he needs to marry a woman on his level and women won't have sex with him for free because of his face (I mean, he also doesn't try to be fair) so he goes to this fancy brothel. Heroine finds out and is pISSED because they had unresolved sexual tension and so she sneaks into the brothel wearing a mask and has sex with him by the dark of light.

Mafia Madman by Mila Finelli. YEAH. I'M PUTTING A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE ON THIS LIST. It's over the top, it's campy, it's ultimately about a man becoming obsessed with a woman and kidnapping her and keeping her on his yacht and making her his pet while knowing she's gonna bite back at any minute all because her brother-in-law mentally and physically tortured him to the point of his brain breaking???? He can't stand to be touched because of all the torture???? He gives her an ipad so she can sketch her clothing designs and then is like "and now it's time for my treat" and goes down on her? Lol the sex in this is wild at points, but there's also a fear of true intimacy in it, and Enzo is seen as a monster, and kinda sees himself as a monster. He's also CERTIFIABLY INSANE.

Priest by Sierra Simone. This isn't gonna give monstrous vibes, but the way the sex in this book plays with the sacred and profane, the way the hero struggles with it and feels like he should basically hide himself from this woman, the way he is! A Catholic priest! To whom she's confessing! Which is a bit of a conflict of interest! It's..... a lot.

Pippa and the Prince of Secrets by Grace Callaway (my favorite Grace thus far) does have a scarred hero who wears a mask while running a criminal spy network populated by child soldiers he calls to him with a flute? The heroine is his former childhood friend and a widow whose husband SUCKED. SUCKED BALLS. And not in a fun way, and she and the hero reconnect--but he wasn't scarred when they knew each other before, and he spends a lot of the book hiding his face from her (which is funny, because he's also got an exhibitionist/voyeur streak for sure). When he does let her see, it's so ridiculously soft and vulnerable sad and I love it lots. She also sits on his face, which does give "now that is a face I'd be happy to sit on" vibes most romantic line in a superhero film let's talk about it

King's Captive by Amber Bardan is a truly fucking insane dark romance that I can't even begin to describe aside from saying that the book opens on the heroine's birthday party, where everyone has been gunned down and the hero is like "happy birthday baby" and then you cut forward like 3-5 years and he's kept her on an island and left her untouched and she wants to escape but she's also drawn to him and he makes these amazing steaks but he's also kinda scary and at one point he makes her a mixtape and she puts it on and masturbates knowing somehow that he's on the other side of the day, aware that she's masturbating, also masturbating.

Kathryn Ann Kingsley's Tenebris trilogy has a 1920s vibe and a plucky heroine who's like "I think my missing twin brother joined a cult" and asking his hot former professor "did you initiate my brother into a cult" while he's like "uh no but I did merge my body and soul with a Cthulu shadow monster that keeps wanting to come out and fuck you, which I want to do also" and she's like "neat". She did do a straight up Phantom of the Opera retelling or something. It did not work for me; it might work for you.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I feel so INSANE about how Frostpaw's visions are written btw. She's having the kind of visions that, in TPB and TNP, would have been considered legit connection to StarClan like there were Fireheart visions in TPB that read like The Same and he's noted to be a Chosen One Good Boy in canon? He was destined for a similar spiritual role? But since we had two arcs of our main meddie POV being. Jayfeather, who is canonically an Extra Special Super Close To StarClan Cat, it feels like the Erins forgot that GENUINE StarClan visions/dreams aren't like. How Jayfeather experiences them? Jayfeather in PoT and OotS is walking and engaging with StarClan in their hunting grounds basically every time he dreams at the MoonPool when like. Other meddies AT THE TIME describe just getting visions to interpret, Cinderpelt and Leafpool get vague environmental signs, Spottedleaf gets vague signs, Goosefeather gets more explicitly because he has Ghost Future Vision. And now that kind of sign has been proven to both readers and the Clans to be something bad actors can take advantage of, and both we as readers and the Clans know that StarClan aren't the only spirits out there! Instead "Frostpaw gets visions about cats who are soon to die" is written off as her overactive imagination and not just. Something that complies with the way that the dead fuck with living cats in canon? Nobody's worried about other bad actors in StarClan? Nobody's worried about ghosts around the lake? Nobody's worried about there being any more dark forest warriors that survived TBC? Like if the Erins intend for her to not be having real visions. Her visions are written WAY too canon compliant for it to make sense. And if they intend for her to ACTUALLY be connected to some spirits or other, then they've built a plot that requires every other meddie and leader and all of the DF trainees and any of the cats who interacted with the Sisters and any cat who's interacted with Tree to just! ASSUME that weird shit can only happen once. Going insane on main lmao.

Yeah I agree if this was first or second arc her visions would be much more legitimate but the Erins over exploring StarClan has just made her visions weird in present day.

Also I want to add on, I don’t like how they’re pushing this whole “you have a special connection to StarClan to be a medicine cat” idea as if there aren’t several medicine cats that became medicine cats through unexpected ways.

For example Cinderpelt only became a medicine cat because she got hit by a car.

Puddleshine only became a medicine cat because ShadowClan had none so they literally chose the most sensitive kit from a current litter and appointed him the medicine cat.

I suppose that perhaps maybe you could need a mentor to introduce you to StarClan to accelerate your connection from baseline normal to medicine cat special in these cases? But it’s not like the books themselves have said this. So I can only guess this is the reason otherwise we would just have a whole lot of medicine cats in history that just wouldn’t be able to connect with StarClan if this connection is from birth.

[rviner]

CHARACTER BASICS

Name: Roman Mendez

Age & Birthday: 36 years old, January 2nd

Gender/Pronouns: Cisman he/him

Birthplace: Los Angeles, CA

Job/role in LA: Legitimate Businessman

Positive personality traits: rational, focused, diligent

Negative personality traits: guarded, demanding, aloof

ABOUT

The Mendez name has worked within private security for years with many members of the family boasting impressive careers in the military or law enforcement. However, there's always been a darker side to the name. Primarily when they began working closely with the Kelly's over two decades ago.

On the surface, the Mendez name is sprinkled within a variety of businesses, providing security to private events but also helping the Kelly's with their not so legal ventures.

Roman joined the military as soon as he was eighteen. During the last two years of his service, he was stationed in a less active deployment, focusing on mentoring younger soldiers. When he was thirty four he was honorably discharged after the end of his service contract, choosing not to re-enlist after fulfilling all of the terms of his service.

It was then he began working closer to the Kelly's, and has somehow become something of Quinlan's right hand man, though no official title has been given to him. Roman's role with the Kelly is forever changing, and he's used to clean up messes, eliminate threats and also is a name used on many business contracts and deals.

Being the Kelly's fall guy isn't exactly what Roman had in mind for himself, and slowly a bitterness has crept in because of it. Despite remaining dutiful and following orders and jobs with his military precision, Roman is simply biding his time. But, once the path of least resistance presents itself, he knows he's taking it.

[jadeglas]

Jai Leo

Jai's father was the best friend and right-hand man of Marek's father, roles the two sons have also taken on. Jai's mother runs a restaurant, a small little place that doesn't look like it gets enough business to turn a profit, but it does surprisingly well for itself. Jai is a year older than Marek and speaks English, Lao, and passable French. Jai's never met a social media platform he couldn't master and has a small but growing following that enjoys his updates about the latest hacks and glitches that can be exploited on the different platforms he's mastered. Jai started a fan page for Ricochet as a joke, but it's developed such a large and passionate fan base, that he manages the group full time now and has found ways to start monetizing it. Marek is vaguely uncomfortable with this but tolerates it and Jai's teasing about the whole situation with good humor.

1. Personal History:

- Jai was born in San Padua to parents who immigrated from Laos just a year before his birth. He grew up straddling two worlds: the traditional Lao culture at home and the American lifestyle outside.

- As a child, he often felt caught between his parents' expectations and his desire to fit in with his peers. This led to a period of rebellion in his early teens, where he dyed his hair bright colors and got into trouble for hacking his school's grading system.

- His relationship with his parents improved in his mid teens when his parents' restaurant was struggling, and he overheard them discussing whether to close it. Determined to help, Jai used his budding tech skills to create a website and social media presence for the restaurant. The success of this venture not only saved the family business but also cemented Jai's path in life.

2. Personality Traits:

- Jai has a dry, sardonic wit. He often makes deadpan jokes that catch people off guard.

- He's quick with a quip, especially in tense situations.

- His humor is often self-deprecating, poking fun at his "model minority" status or his role as the "tech guy."

- He has a habit of twirling a pen or stylus between his fingers when he's thinking deeply.

- Jai is fiercely loyal to his friends and family but can be slow to trust outsiders.

- He's a night owl, often staying up late coding or managing his online presence.

3. Interests and Hobbies:

- Beyond his obvious tech interests, Jai is a secret poetry enthusiast. He writes haiku about modern life and technology, finding beauty in the intersection of nature and the digital world. He's never shared this hobby with anyone, feeling it clashes with his tech-bro image.

- He's also unexpectedly good at origami, a skill he picked up to help manage stress and anxiety.

- Jai enjoys urban exploration, often dragging Marek and Cora along to abandoned buildings or hidden city spots.

4. Personal Struggles:

- Jai struggles with impostor syndrome, often feeling like he's not good enough despite his successes.

- Jai struggles with the weight of expectations. His father, once a respected figure in the criminal world, expects Jai to follow in his footsteps and support Marek as he supported Marek's father. While Jai loves his friend, he sometimes resents this predetermined path.

- Jai has occasional bouts of insomnia, which he manages with meditation techniques learned from his grandmother.

5. Romamtic Relationships:

- Jai has a complicated on-again, off-again relationship with a woman named Lian, who works as a cybersecurity expert (unaware of Jai's criminal activities).

- He mentors a group of at-risk youth, teaching them coding and web design as a way to keep them off the streets.

6. Future Aspirations:

- Jai dreams of starting a legitimate tech company that could revolutionize online privacy and security.

- He's torn between this dream and his loyalty to Marek and the criminal world he's part of.

- Secretly, he's been developing an app that could potentially be his ticket to a legitimate business.

7. Skills and Weaknesses:

- Skills: Besides his tech abilities, Jai is a skilled negotiator and has a talent for reading people.

- He's also surprisingly good in hand-to-hand combat, having learned Muay Thai from his uncle.

- Weaknesses: Jai has a tendency to overcommit himself, taking on too many projects at once.

- He's also terrible at confrontation, often using humor to deflect serious conversations.

8. Physical Description:

- Jai is of average height with a lean build. He has sharp, angular features and dark, expressive eyes.

- His hair is usually styled in an undercut, the longer top portion often dyed in vibrant colors (currently a deep purple).

- He has a small scar on his left eyebrow from a childhood accident.

- Jai's style is a mix of tech-wear and streetwear, often sporting smart glasses and a high-tech watch.

9. Personal Philosophy:

- Jai believes in the power of information and connection. He sees his role in the criminal world as a way to level the playing field, using technology to give power back to the people.

- He has a strong sense of justice but struggles with the morality of some of his actions in the criminal world.

- Jai values loyalty above all else and believes that family (both blood and chosen) comes first.

- He lives by the mantra "Adapt or die," believing that flexibility and quick thinking are the keys to survival in both the tech world and the criminal underworld. This philosophy extends to his personal life, where he tries (not always successfully) to roll with the punches and find opportunity in change.