#Whereby

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[smile-files]

mommy let you use her ipad, you were barely two

and it did all the things we designed it to do

now look at you, look at you!

(objectober 2024 day 10: internet)

[eggdoodles]

@gokutober day 8: Pets🐾

I've had this Saiyan pet shop AU for a while now, so this is a great time to share it LOL

[a-tad-bit-obsessed]

There’s something about the fact that Alice takes Rio’s knife (to do the protection circles) and Rio just lets her

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[waystarresourceco]

Alan Ruck on Conor and Logan's relationship (and a little look into why Connor wasn't a contender for heir apparent). (x)

[tothepointofinsanity]

Sounds like neurotypical propaganda but I do be needing that one “normal” cheerful guitar guy music in my life. Haven’t been able to find one I liked up until Yatoimtop, whose songs sound like something you’d put on a road trip to listen to.

I was so upset last week and the only reason why I pulled through at all was because of his music.

[dwreader]

when the show slaps you in the face with something but apparently not hard enough!

[trashcanfills]

Genshin Impact x Reader - Being an absolute Genius Invocation TCG nerd

Feat. Itto, Cyno (of course), and Kaeya because those are the ones I know who are into the game. Can be seen as mostly platonic but I added a bit of optional romance headcanons at the end for each character. Reader here is gender-neutral.

Ok so I’m getting some brain worms today in the form of the genius invocation tcg event like bruh

As someone who loves the card game and gets REALLY into it, can you imagine a reader agt the genshin cast while playing? Reader who’s such a dedicated player that they know the strats, the meta, and different deck playstyles. Reader who goes to the Cat’s Tail to hang out with fellow players and duels them on the daily enough that they have a reputation for being a pro.

It would be even more hilarious if they don’t exactly advertise this hobby (cough obsession) at all to anyone else outside the game, but the moment someone engages them in a duel or they go into places like the Cat’s Tail where many other players gather, or they attend any tcg related event? They go hardcore mode.

Itto sees you buying the latest tcg cards and he saunters up to you, bragging about how good he is at the game in an attempt to impress you lmao. Your curiosity is piqued and thus decide to challenge Itto for the funsies. At that, the oni is all “ho ho ho sure but don’t get too upset when I win, alright?”

Except you wipe his deck off the floor and Itto is. Flabbergasted while you try not to laugh too hard at his reaction. Like bruh even his gang spectating the duel had lost their hopes of their boss winning at all when they witness how outmatched Itto is against you the whole game. Itto’s character cards are all gone and yet only ONE of your character cards has taken some damage. That’s how skewed the matchup was.

Of course, as it is with Itto, expect him to challenge you again and again until he gets a win. In the meantime, you start coaching Itto about the game more, help to optimise his deck, and point out his mistakes and what he could have done better. Itto is an eager student and is in awe when you explain the strats and reasoning behind them. Itto isn’t exactly the brightest but damn even he can see that you know what the fuck you’re doing (if he’s crushing on you he’ll think that’s hot af. You’re so amazing?? And he gets to learn and spend time with you hehe totally not part of his master plan to get closer to you).

The moment Cyno notices you have a tcg deck, he’s going to immediately challenge you. Cyno goes all out and dramatic in calling out his challenge, as how it’s done in those card game medias. He absolutely HAS to battle any fellow tcg player since he’s that hardcore of a tcg nerd. The two of you will eventually engage in a duel (if you’re in a public place, expect to attract a LOT of attention because Cyno is too well known as the general mahamatra AND a proud tcg gamer). The man even narrates some of his actions while playing since he’s that much of a fucking dork. How adorable.

It’s a tense yet action-packed match. Cyno is a very good player, but evidently so are you. Spectators (if you guys are somewhere public) are starting to exchange bets on who would win. No one knows who’s going to come out on top because the two of you are so evenly matched that it could go either way. Cyno has that determined glint in his eyes as he figures out ways to beat you, yet somehow you anticipate his strategy and neutralise it, and vice versa.

Regardless of who wins though, it’s by a close margin. Cyno extends an invitation to play more matches with you whenever he’s free. How could he not when he just had the most thrilling duel of his life? You take up on his offer, since there are few players who can go toe-to-toe with you, and you can recognise that Cyno is a fellow tcg nerd like you. Boy, you two are going to get along so well. I can imagine both of you having conversations about the card metas and deckbuilding, which can sound like absolute nonsense to anyone who isn’t as hardcore abt the game. (And if Cyno has a crush on you, rip Tighnari because he has to witness the man blunders about in trying to earn your affections - keyword: TRY - and the fennec fox hybrid facepalms when Cyno keeps using tcg as a incredibly convenient excuse to hang out with you. For love of Lesser Lord Kusanali-)

Kaeya somehow picks up the fact that you’re into tcg (even if you don’t bring it up to him at all, he will know thanks to his ability to get others to share info with him, and some ppl might have mentioned you being an absolute BEAST at the game). So what does he do about it? Bring it up to you, of course, and ask if you wanna play a round or two.

Note that Kaeya isn’t a full-on hardcore nerd about the game. That’s not his thing. He doesn’t exactly know the ins and outs of the cards, but he has an incredibly strategic mindset that helps him beat most players. How else do you think he got to the final round in the tcg event competition? Still, Kaeya is absolutely intrigued when you match up against him, and said intrigue increases when you’re clearly winning. Seems like it’s true when he heard those rumors of you being an expert in tcg. He’s full on smirking when you beat him, and he claps slowly while congratulating you on your win and complimenting your skills (yet with the way he’s acting, it seems like he’s won somehow).

After that match, Kaeya will occasionally play a few rounds of tcg with you in his free time. I mean, he gets to sharpen his mind, hang out with you, gain information and be entertained. An all-round plus in his book. (And if somehow Kaeya has feelings that a biit more than platonic towards you, he’s going to use tcg as a way to get closer to you. Heck, he might even start paying closer attention to your tips and strategies to formulate a game plan. Be wary if he makes a bet with you through tcg, cus that means he’s got something planned. And if he happens to win the game and the bet? Well, hope you don’t mind doing a favor for him in the form of a kiss, maybe even a dinner date.

[hotdyke-hardstyle]

just thinking about it but I still don't believe that the ending of part 1 of hi3 was kiana choosing to self sacrifice to save the world. she literally just long-distanced herself and while that does still hurt and is warranted an emotional goodbye, it is not on par with her dying and I don't believe it's meant to be. everyone can still contact her and even visit her! I think the ending itself was a bit anticlimactic but it's not antithetical to the rest of the story where kiana despairs about people constantly choosing to sacrifice themselves because in the end she didn't do that! because of the perceived risk of her dying, I would have liked an emotional arc before the final fight against kevin where kiana has an internal conflict about it because yes, she hates the idea of self sacrifice but does that apply to her as well? because we've all been or had the friend who has all the right ideas and advice but doesn't follow one bit of it themselves because they think they're lesser or something so that being explored with kiana would've been great and I think would've given more depth to her character right at the end, but it wasn't and so we make do. I still like the ending and I'm glad kiana lived and can have little moon holidays with her girlfriend.

[asurrogateblog]

always gotta keep my guard up in airports because statistically speaking it’s one of the most likely places to spot a Recognizable Old Man and that must be avoided at all costs

[maeamian]

Like I know that the US Republican party are almost cartoonishly evil but I gotta admit "eliminate overtime" seems insane even by that standard, and yet there it is in their unofficially official policy document.

[dualumina]

Well well well...

This will make a fine addition to our collection...

[krikeymate]

Now we need something where they're all gathered together for a we survived party or something and its a bad day for Tara and she tries to hide it by kinda avoiding everyone. When Sam corners her and asks if she's okay Tara plays it off. Sam lets it slide cause she's trying not to be so overbearing. So Sidney decides to try cause she knows its a lie. Then Tara says something along the lines of 'but you're Sam's support system' to her so Sidney drags her to Gale and Kirby.

Tara's been quiet and tired a lot these days. Sam's worried, but she's trying not to be overbearing and she knows how exhausting therapy can be, so she tries to quietly support her sister in whatever way she can. Without constantly digging for more information. She's constantly on the lookout for that sigh and the look Tara gets when she's getting frustrated. She's been getting the others involved in Operation cheer-up-Tara, but she always manages to slip out of their plans, or to escape them entirely. Sam's beginning to think that she just doesn't want to spend time with her specifically... except she's usually fine when it's the two of them. Even Gale's patented snark flies over Tara's head these days, and that's what really makes Sam think something might be seriously wrong. Sniping with Gale quickly became one of Sam's favourite activities, and she knows her sister loves it too. So to pass that up... Sam's worried.

Sidney's having a weekend get-together, she's invited everyone, even Danny. Danny, however, can't make it, stuck with a work commitment he can't get out of. And the twins aren't even in the country, off with their mom visiting distant relatives up in Canada. Sam's hoping the weekend will be good for Tara, being around their sort-of-family, and she's looking forward to seeing Sidney again. Even if she's disappointed the twins, Martha, and Danny can't make it.

Sidney's dog, Riley, latches onto Tara pretty much the moment they sit down, and just doesn't leave her alone. If Sidney didn't already know something was up with Tara from her conversations with Sam, this would have given it away. Riley lays their head in Tara's lap, and nudges her occasionally. Whenever she gets up, Riley follows, staying behind her and yipping every time someone comes near.

"Does your dog like children", Sam jokes, watching her sister smile, relaxed for once, as she pets the dog nuzzling into her lap. "Yes," Sidney replies, "Riley likes kids. But he's not playing right now, he's working." Seeing Sam's visible confusion, Sidney continues. "He's a service dog, trained for helping those with PTSD." Sam's eyes widen as understanding kicks in, a frown forming as sadness kicks in. "He's very sensitive to moods," Sidney says, patting Sam on the arm, "sometimes he knows before I do when I'm feeling bad."

"I don't know how to help her," Sam confesses, "she won't talk to me... or anyone. She's in therapy, but I don't know whether it's helping her or making it worse." Sam tells her that everyone has tried to get her to open up, to no avail. Sidney says she hasn't tried yet, she'll give it a shot at some point over the weekend.

Sidney gets a chance sooner than she thought. Later that evening, Tara retires to the spare room provided for her and Sam early, Riley on her heels. She watches her stall in the doorway, unsure whether she's allowed to take the dog with her, before Mark gives her a nudge and lets her know it's ok.

Sidney gives her 15 minutes before she leaves the others watching the movie, and follows after her. Tara takes a minute to respond to her knock on the door, but when she enters, she can see why. Tara's been crying and Riley's on the bed, clearly providing comfort. She pushes for Tara to talk, "we're all worried for you," she says. That seems to break something in the girl, because she starts crying again and apologising. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make anyone worry, it's fine, I'm fine, really-" Sidney takes her into her arms and hushes her as if she were her own.

She tells her her own story, of how she dealt - or didn't deal - with what happened, how she hid away from the world, alone. By the time Sidney's finished, Tara reveals her own secrets. Sidney's heart breaks as Tara explains she didn't want to take away focus from Sam, that she knows how much Sam has sacrificed for her and she didn't want them all to be just another thing she took from her. Sidney reassures her, reminds her that no one is taking anyone from anything, that they're all family and we're all here for each other, that it would hurt Sam deeply to know that Tara is hurting herself for her sake.

"Please don't tell Sam." "You know I can't do that kiddo."

Tara spends the rest of the weekend bounced around between Sidney, Mark, Gale, and Kirby. Sam gets her own session with Riley as being kept from her sister makes her anxious. The four of them don't explain to Sam what's happening, trusting that Tara will do so herself once they get back to New York. And she does. Sam holds her tight and makes her promise to never hide anything from her ever again, no matter how much you think it will hurt me.

[likealittleheartbeat]

“[Gay physique artist George Quaintance’s] isolation pushed him to read history, and his imagination allowed him to identify with the characters and events he found there. ‘I came to feel and to know all the past great events and the many lives I was sure I was mixed up with in some way through a thousand years of History.’ He wasn’t sure if this understanding came from his books, his dreams, or even what he believed to be his former lives. Whatever its source, he felt that we all have ‘a background of knowledge that has nothing to do with our parents or our direct ancestry.’ Although Quaintance’s understanding verged on the paranormal, he was describing a sense of an imagined common cultural past, one not conveyed by one’s immediate family. It was a vision in harmony with the mission of the [physique pictorial] Grecian Guild, which also posited a collective, imaged past distinct from one’s biological ancestry. But rather than rely on scholarly argument or historical exegesis, Quaintance felt a visceral commonality with the past.”

David K. Johnson, Buying Gay

[tothepointofinsanity]

About the KyoSaya stuff. I adore character dynamics that bring out each character's ideology by juxtaposition. I adore it even more when the characters rely on each other for balance to be achieved, both thematically in the story and personally for the characters. I think the balance that can be achieved between Kyoko and Sayaka in a "best case scenario" is beautiful, and very good for both of them. Sayaka can reignite Kyoko's passion for believing in good, and force her to care about other people again, getting her out of her entirely self-oriented existence. And Kyoko can help Sayaka take care of herself and learn to be okay with doing things for herself, get her out of her entirely other people oriented existence. Together they could achieve a life of balance, keeping each other in check and being there for each other. A life where it is okay to be naive and want to help others and it is also okay to be selfish and do things for your own sake. Those ideas can exist together, i think. Sayaka in Rebellion seems to have taken Kyoko's ideas more into account. She doesn't hate herself anymore. I love Kyoko because she is able to exist without exterior validation. She lives for herself, and in that way she never has any regrets. However, Sayaka shows her she can't stay totally indifferent. Ideally, they would be able to live together with Sayaka accepting her own nature without hating herself, and Kyoko accepting her own softer side and not rejecting it. I don't know if you know anything about the game Madoka Portable (came out way before Magia Record), but there are some "routes" in that game where Kyoko and Sayaka manage to become close without Sayaka witching out. To me, Madoka Portable is some of the best extra content there is for Madoka Magica. There are tons of great character moments and KyoSaya absolutely rules in it. There's a quote Kyoko says in the game (unless i made it up, which is possible lmao). it's roughly her saying to Sayaka "Let's live the rest of our selfish lives together!". and that has got to be one of my favorite quotes from anything (even if i did make it up. i don't think i did?). God, relationships where you just want the characters to give in to each other, and figure out the rest together. I'm sorry this is SO ranty and all over the place.

The core ideal of KyoSaya being the yin and yang of each other is often highlighted, which I also enjoy.

I would like to think that these two are special to each other as a result — previously, Sayaka had never been actively (or in Kyoko's case, aggressively) opposed to before in her ideology of self-sacrifice as heroism, while Kyoko had never met a more persistent believer in goodness since her own experiences with her family and the church. Something akin to an unmovable object versus an unstoppable force, except both of them play both roles.

They enable each other and it's true that people with strong personalities often clash together as a result of their conflicted views. But it's where the angst and essence of KyoSaya comes in: they have to learn to not only compromise their values, but to also embrace each other to be at peace with the more extreme parts of said beliefs. Coexistence, yes. The scene where Oktavia makes her second appearance, there is a brief moment where red (Kyoko) mixes in with a crying figure of Sayaka to comfort her, before the mixture spills onto the ground, signifying both of their ends were made in this fusion and peace making.

Ah, I heard of the game before, since a while back I wanted to see if there was anywhere I could still play it on. I didn't look too in-depth into it, so I'm pleasantly surprised that KyoSaya would be hinted in it too. "Let's be selfish together!" is...so....one of my favourite embodiments of any couple dynamic ever o_o It makes sense since Sayaka was afraid of being seen as selfish for wanting someone to understand her and her frustrations, which Kyoko does. And Kyoko wants Sayaka, out of all people, to be with her because Sayaka made Kyoko learn to genuinely care and trust someone again. With Kyoko's trust, Sayaka could be less harsh on herself as a result!! The description that they have to give into each other and figure the rest together in a confusing and unforgiving world is quite literally the Most Thing ever.

It's devotion, ultimately. They are devoted to each other. Thank you for the ask, and no worries about it being a rant. This blog is for all Sayaka and Sayaka-related pairings enjoyers alike. ^^