#almost worth posting here for the wholesome shipping

[debiteful]

Utterly gleeful about the FR thread that helps you scale your dragon's images

I knew her admirer (by her nose) was tiny, but gosh darn I'm giddy at seeing it visualized

[lajikookbolala]

Some thoughts on this shipping discourse

I have already expressed MULTIPLE times how much I hate drama, so this is probably gonna be my last post on this topic. In the future, I might post less, not at all, or often but with only positive stuff. I just don't know if I can mentally handle being on here for much longer. Anyway, here are some thoughts:

Trying to convince Tkkrs they are wrong is not going to work.

I would like to challenge anyone here to think of a time when someone ACTUALLY changed their opinion on something after an online argument. Can't think of one? Exactly. Humans are stubborn, it's just part of who we are. Especially online, nobody is actually open to changing their opinion on things. We argue just for the sake of arguing.

And, we have to remember that Tkkrs are JUST as confident that their ship is real as we (Jkkrs) are. It may be stupid, but as a former Tkkr I would know (I had just joined the fandom and I was young, don't blame me for falling for the Taekook bs). Anyway, when I say I was confident in my belief that's an understatement. Eventually, I did stumble across Jikook, and the story is actually very funny. Again, I had just joined the fandom and hilariously, my mom was starting to get into BTS too. One day, she stumbled across a Jikook video on youtube, called me in the room and showed me, saying "look how in love these two are". I was hesitant at first (still being a tkkr at the time), but I watched it with her, because she was my mother; someone that I knew and trusted. If some random person online had sent me the same video and told me to watch it, I wouldn't have. I would be pissed and ignore it. My point is, to convert me from a Tkkr to a Jkkr, it took my own mother showing me a video, and explaining to me that with her almost 60 years of life experience, she could tell they were in incredibly in love.

Nobody's gonna listen to a random person's opinion on line. At least, not with an open mind.

2. We're just giving toxic people the attention they want.

More than 50% of what I see on Jikook Tumblr recently is answers responding to toxic people's posts, whether those people are tkkrs, antis, or solo stans. Because we answer all their stupid questions, more of these people are coming out of the woodwork to share their own stupid opinions. And then it's just a toxic circle.

Even though it may give you some satisfaction to roast random strangers on the internet (I even enjoy reading roasts by jkkrs sometimes), it's really not worth it. We're just giving them the attention they want. If we just ignored them for a while and didn't answer their questions or respond to them, they wouldn't go away, but we would definitely see less of them on here.

Also, aren't we kinda being hypocrites? When tkkrs leave hate on Jikook posts we all get together to hate on them (which is justified) but we seem to have no problem when jkkrs leave hate on Taekook posts. I know it's different because Jikook is real and taekook isn't, but again, we're not going to convince them by leaving hate comments. We're just gonna piss them off more. Honestly, I think the only thing that would shut tkkrs up once and for all is if Jikook came out with their relationship, and we all know that's not going to happen, at least not anytime soon.

Ok, I think that's the end of my rant. Please let me know if you agree with me or not. If you disagree, I totally understand. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I'm just sharing mine.

ALSO 3 more things:

1: please feel free to send me asks! I will respond to ALL of them as long as they are not toxic.

2: does anyone know any platforms where the Jikook community is welcoming and nice? It may sound stupid but I think that's what I really need right now. I have no BTS friends and would LOVE someone to talk to about them.

3: let me know if you would like me to stay on here. I'm almost definitely not gonna post any more stuff about this drama, but I will 100% post more cute and wholesome Jikook moments if y'all want me to.

I love you all, thank you so much 💜

[x-authorship-x]

I loved your Tenten/Shisui post-drabble and I was curious to ask, is there any other Shisui ship you might like with the Konoha 12 (except imouto Ino and cousin Sasuke ofc)?

Hey Anon!

Hmmm, TenTen was completely off the cuff tbh... But let me see what I can do.

Disclaimer: I'm going to have to point out that I look at ships I write and ships I read in very different ways. Reading pairings is completely up to how well the writer convinces me, I only have a few combinations that I dislike and won't move past. Writing... My writing is a bit too complicated for that, I really struggle with just slapping characters together. If you've read my previous shipping posts, I generally try to find a common ground/harmony between people. I'm Ace, it's just how I define romance and relationship, and ships...well, theoretically anyone can sleep together. To me, shipping is the meeting of personalities so just... Bear that in mind. I can't just write about people being hot lmao

Shisui, as a meeting of characters, is very very good for shipping. In Narutoverse, people are defined by their devotion to causes, people, their own "nindo". Shisui can skew in lots of directions; on one hand, he's a sweetheart with undying devotion; on the other, there is nothing he's unwilling to do for his cause, he can torture and deceive and it will be worth it for the result. So much potential!

Disclaimer: this is if I personally could write it, not a condemnation of shipping or characters

For the Rookie Nine Generation:

TenTen: you came here because of this so~

Lee: nah, there's a difference between dating someone younger and dating Gai's pseudo son and Shisui just would NOT

Neji: there is a huge potential here for the bonding of older geniuses who have their whole lives laid out for them in the service of their younger, Heir cousin. Shisui's Mangekyou ensured that no one could ever really control him, he was tied only by the devotion and obedience that he himself cultivated. Neji, however, has (sorry for the heavy handed metaphor) clipped wings; the stronger he gets, the more vital it is that the Elders keep him under tight control. I think they could have marvellous angst as well as a lot of tenderness. Mirroring each other, opposites of each other, Neji may deeply resent Shisui's freedom and Shisui might lament the clarity of status within the Hyuuga. Neji may also understand that if anyone can help him break free, it would be Shisui and Shisui would definitely help him. We could get a lot of Uchiha-Hyuuga friction, the spare nephews coming together despite this

Shikamaru: this is a bit of a funny one. The chances of Shisui getting involved with the Commander's son are so slim it's hilarious, also Shisui is all about speed and terrifying precision and giving his all 100% of the time, literally the opposite of Shikamaru for most of the series (the precision is there but it's often late or acknowledged but unused). However, after the war? Shikamaru is jaded, he's sharpened by wartime, he's brutal, but I still don't think they'd align. Shisui has been this all along and I don't think he'd be able to forgive Shikamaru intentionally dragging his feet for so long, just as I think Shikamaru would look into Shisui's darkness and go "hmm, troublesome". It's funny though because I'm imagining Shikaku's reaction and it involves almost swallowing his cigarette 🤣

Ino: no. Just... No. Even if they weren't basically related in my mind, the mess of personalities would be massively entertaining but also deeply disturbing and now I'm like agshqjskqka ewwwwww~

Chouji: this is cute only because they are both cute, wholesome people who deserves warmth and acceptance and domestic bliss. Maybe Chouji would be strong enough to hold Shisui even in his darkness, maybe they'd be viciously protective in the field but soft and warm at home. As people, they would be a good pair only because they'd know how to be good to someone else. But can I see them together-together? No ❤️ Shisui would be a great surprise groomsmen at Chouji's wedding though, maybe I should write a spin-off about him babysitting all of InoShikaCho...

Naruto: Shisui would rather jump off that cliff again ✨ a lot of people would push him (for his own good)

Sasuke: 🤡 no

Sakura: Ino would leave no survivors. There is a lot of cuteness in this ship, a lot of great art, but it's not gonna happen in my writing ✌️

Hinata: she's shy but strong, Shisui would be great for her self esteem and her growth as both a person and a Shinobi. I'm not sure Hinata wouldn't just heavily remind Shisui of Itachi. As it is, they would be great friends, really good for each other as people, but romantic? Not in my books, tbh

Kiba: I don't think Shisui would be able to handle meeting Hana's eyes, not even getting into the rest of it. They picked their siblings up from school together, Shisui and Hana and Itachi, and it's just... 🤡🤡🤡🤡

Shino: I'm sorry but Shino wouldn't want Shisui 🤣 like with Hinata, there is such potential for understanding and growth and companionship but not romance

🎉Bonus Round!🎉

Temari: this is a great ship, just because of the Wind Country antics. Would this classify as a political marriage? Temari is brash and strong but also manipulative, I feel like they'd get on a treat. She's a proper spitfire, Shisui knows exactly how to push buttons without getting REALLY in trouble. Also I love love love the idea that Gaara might be Kazekage but Temari is her father's Heir and she's a princess too, Shisui is technically her foreign diplomat kept husband. Also Shisui would be A MENACE with mirages and his speed across the plains and dunes... *Dreamy sigh*

Gaara: the ANGST, the TENDERNESS. Shukaku is losing his fucking mind that the person Gaara dates is the Uchiha with the ability to rewrite reality and this has the potential to be absolutely hilarious. Also Gaara's ultimate defence shield against Shisui's Shunshin would be so so fun, wandering the dunes together and being murder husbands with gentle words ❤️‍🔥 Shisui, through growing up with Itachi and also helping Tenzo, will be well versed in helping Gaara navigate his lack of socialisation as well as bloodlust, Gaara will be able to look into Shisui's darkness and touch him very delicately and deliberately. This whole thing screams knowing silences, dramatic landscapes and very carefully chosen words with a wealth of meaning behind them. Also imagine the serial killer AUs. Yes, yes I have been revisiting Hannibal (TV) fanfic.

Kankuro: this has the potential for play and for bite. Lots of discussion of masks, the sanitisation of Shinobi life, the performance of it all. Kankuro is snarky, he would rather have the last word and be killed for it than let something lie, and this would be unsettling as much as it would...scratch an itch in Shisui. The ability to wound your partner without irreparably harming a relationship would be something... good, maybe. Sometimes you need to be gentle and careful and other times you need to lash out and have a partner who will meet you blow for blow, like two waves crashing together. And afterwards, you are panting and bleeding but you're also alive and the other person has proved that they are too, that you're equal matches, and that would be very good for Shinobi. Kankuro also has a mischievous, playful side that matches Shisui. They can act out, Shisui will get away with it and Kankuro might not, and it would be a shared game and camaraderie between them. They absolutely fuck with people, the more scandalous the better, and their favourite victims/audience are politicians during fancy meetings they attend as part of the Kage entourages (Diplomat Shisui + Advisor Kankuro, anyone?) They also take a lot of pride in embarrassing Gaara+Sasuke+Ino+Temari+Itachi

This is a lot, probably way more than you signed up for, but...enjoy! ✨

[tyzias-ennnntykk]

My thoughts are: Jade is the loneliest girl and occasionally lets that loneliness lead her to some bad decisions!!!! And thats ALWAYS been true!!!!

Look, Jade grew up on an island *with no other humans* for most of her life!!!! She had Becquel yes, but he's hardly a reasonable companion, and her grandpa who died when she was a *baby* /BY HER OWN HAND AS SHE LATER FINDS OUT/, and then just his stuffed corpse!!! (Side note: I theorize that's possibly part of her Witch of Space classpect; she is cursed by always having everyone at a distance, but that's a whole other post)

She also, if we recall, knew *almost everything about the game*, which meant she was aware that she'd get a chance to meet other people eventually, and not just any people, but specifically her online friends. She almost certainly spent inordinate amounts of time daydreaming about these moments, and what her future past the scratch might look like.

Also also! She's VERY impulsive. We see it described as her being "silly" early on, but thats really how youd describe it for children, which she was early on. Ultimately though, what they mean is that she's kinda impulsive, flies by the seat of her pants, etc...she may *fantasize* about her future, but she doesnt exactly *plan* for it. Heck, why would she, when she knows most of the steps she has to take up to a certain point?

And this is all pre-fusion with Becsprite! Bec is *a fucking dog*, and while she may not bark *constantly* we know his behavior has had an effect on her. Bec adds a whole animal/god level to her impulses, WHILE ALSO separating her further from her humanity! The other kids may all be god-tier, yes, but she's the only one who fused with an actual god, and the whole riddle-ness of sprites. Plus an entire other version of herself! Which is like seven levels of fucked up!

So this brings us to the ship, where we see her date Davesprite, which is *a terrible idea*! But its also an understandable one. I'm pretty sure at some point she hints she has a crush on Dave, and he eventually becomes the one kid who she can date without weird biological grossness, so she probably just went! Sure! I dont have a lot of options and I'm lonely so lets just go with that! Again though, this is a bad idea, and it falls apart. Still, I think this shows how impulsive and led by her loneliness she is.

Finally, we get to see her (technically a different version of her) in the Epilogues where she is uncomfortably flirtatious! But think about it: Her loneliness hasnt gone away much (everyone else has their partners or activities on Earth C), and she feels *even more separated* from most people because she is *literally a celebrity/god to them!!!!* So she's here trying desperately to find *SOMEONE* to attach herself to, to finally fill the gap in her heart, and again, she's *impulsive*! So what do you get from an impulsive lonely person/dog/god? You get someone uncomfortably flirtatious! In fact, you may even get someone who, despite knowing it hurts people, cant keep themselves from inserting themselves into other peoples relationships for just a *taste* of intimacy.

Her inserting herself into Davekat's whole thing was that, but I think even she realized that was bad, and hence...She figured she'd get a family member a different way. One that *couldnt* leave her alone! And so she narrowed down her already-narrow options and. Yiffy happened!

I think this update kinda confirmed all this, not just in-text, but also with her smothering Yiffy with love!!! Finally she has a family member, a connection, and FINALLY she can openly connect to them! So she smothers them with love WHETHER THEY WANT IT OR NOT!!! (Noticing a theme here???)

Also for what its worth I think this is also entirely in-character for Rose, which I think was always the more controversial one here, since people want to paint Rosemary as a wholesome yuri ship. Despite the fact that Rose absolutely has a problem with mediation, and follows her curiosity to great disaster, and loves a bit of drama, and like she says, *knows* kanaya would forgive her! Rose probably barely put up an argument over it.

I'll say it here: I actually *adore* Yiffy, and think she's the perfect punctuation mark to the Homestuck Pantheon's enormous personal problems. I think a lot of folks dont agree with the characterizations in the Post-Canon, because they think these characters finished their plot, and therefore would be well-adjusted adults! But they never really solved all their problems, and buddy. They spent most of their teenage years *trying to survive an apocalypse* befofe being thrust into positions of unimaginable power. Once you consider that, almost all the decisions in post-canon start to make sense: these are the result of gods who are basically arrested-development teenagers who fumbled their way through an apocalypse! They're flawed and messy!!! And frankly thats why i love em!!!

was on twitter (oops) and theres a ton of people going apeshit over kanaya in the upd8 (hs:bc upd8) right obviously and i saw one (1) post about "still hating hs2. jade would not fucking do this" and like. huff.

fosmf if youre there and youve read the hsbc update tell me your thoughts on this. im so curious

in MY opinion, i really like jade in postcanon in general. OBVIOUSLY, the stuff with davekat SUCKS + IS WEIRD + outb of character (i doubt jade would cross boundaries in such a weird way? like a girl can take a hint esp for the people she loves.) but in the update it goes over jade and why she did what she did and like a cute little summary of the yiffy situation. i never really hated yiffy? and i hate yiffy even less with the update. narration + backstory with reasoning did its job.

SUMMARY, AS I SEE IT: jade was dating around mortals but came to the conclusion that they dont want HER, they want to say they dated the GOD OF SPACE. they wanted clout and she hated it. and i dont know. i think she went a little crazy cus of it. she was like I am truly alone in this world. Im cursed to be alone. Im doomed because of my aspect. How can i fix this. solution: HAVE A BABY. and it needs to be one of her god friends. she cant have a baby with a random mortal. john and dave are boys; they cant bear children. she cant have a baby with roxy or jane because she doesnt know them well. that leaves: rose lalonde so jade has a baby with rose lalonde and keeps it a secret. she talks to jane, and this is fine because its largely professional, and she makes sure yiffany (the baby) doesnt become a celebrity. yiffy is normal. yiffy is a normal kid and she has a normal life. jade needs her to have a normal life. jade needs to feel that connection with normality that she never had, jade needs to make sure yiffy doesnt go through the same damn thing she did. and she keeps it a secret. she bonded with rose. if kanaya finds out, thatll tear all three of them apart. jade craves the company. jade craves friendship and closeness. but of course, shes a space player and shes doomed. so they find out. and yiffy gets on the news. and everything is torn

ANYWAY: i think thats so cool. i think thats a great explanation. i think jade WOULD do that is the thing. its a logical train of thought and she makes some stupid mistakes and bad decisions but overall its rational. if i was in her situation i would probably do the same thing. yiffany longstocking is like jade harleys' my love mine all mine by mitski you get me. jade harley yearns for the closeness and having a baby can fill that. what other option did she have? she was crazy

interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this. i may just be biased because i love jade harley

[whetstonefires]

I DON'T WANT TO BE TYPICAL so hmmm. han?

How I feel about this character

I...love Han, slightly against my will but also, like. He's a fun guy.

I think he got new backstory in his own movie that no one cares about except Donald Glover played Lando??? But I'm always going to be here for the Han who burned his Imperial pilot career (that can't have been super easy to achieve as an orphan) to save a seven-foot-tall minority dude who was getting abused by the government.

The fact that Chewie stuck with him afterward--like, there's the formal debt thing? But I've always felt like there was very much also the part where Chewbacca looked at this baby pilot who'd just thrown away the entire edifice of his own survival in a hostile galaxy for his sake, and felt that on a personal level there was no way he could let the natural consequences of that decision catch up. That he could not live with himself if he did that any more than Han could have lived with not saving him.

I have so many feelings about that! That Han is both the kind of person who is actually worth caring about and believing in even though he doesn't think so, and someone who when we meet him has been living most of his adult life with the heavy constant consequence of what it cost him to make the heroic choice just once.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Uh...just Leia, really? If I don't have a problem with a canon ship I don't tend to mess with it. He can have history with Lando, that's sometimes charming, but I think I like it a little better if he doesn't so I probably can't say I ship that.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Uh......based on my rant above, gotta be Chewie actually. I like his friendships with Luke and Lando a lot but the one with Chewie has been pivotal to his whole life so constantly for so long and it is incredibly neglected, both officially and on the fan side. Has it been seriously explored anywhere outside the hated Christmas special.

...to what extent is Chewie's general neglect a result of Christmas Special Radiation rather than the fact that the character doesn't speak English or look human? Not a lot I think, but maybe a bit.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I have no sense of what the popular opinions about Han are. Han takes are so all over the map.

I think Han can probably cook. Like it's not fancy and it's not even pretty, but it's safe and as wholesome as you get when fresh veggies aren't cheap, and it tastes decent. He probably experiments in the kitchen a lot but in the same unscientific way he mods his ship.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Uh well you see I'm kind of detached from What Happened In Canon after the OT at this point but I think a cool direction to go with Han is he keeps trying things.

Because, see, Han doesn't know how to be chill. Han has been in survival mode almost his whole life, but for much of it he's been pretty good at being constantly one step ahead of the reaper, you know? He's always in danger but he's rarely helpless and his whole thing is the hustle to maintain that margin, he's got to move move move.

But Han is not going to be useful or happy in a political context. He can't contribute meaningfully to most of Leia's Republic-constructing work post-trilogy, and he's not under any direct personal survival crunch anymore. So like, I feel like he'd go through phases--he'd involve himself in the military/security end of things because hey he has rank and he's not bad at it, and it works well with his stimulus-seeking high baseline arousal and it's important.

But as things stabilized, which I insist they would in my canon, security work would get more boring and routine and the interesting bits would get less compatible with spending time with Leia, and he'd increasingly be choosing between 'desk work' and 'being told what to do,' so he'd pull out of that.

And this would put him into a cycle of not finding personal fulfillment in whatever he was focusing on, because he's used to having a sense that even his objectively stupid and banal activities are Very Important because his life was routinely on the line and in comparison a more normal routine feels Pointless.

Eventually I think he'd be a pretty heavily involved parent, but before that and after the kids were old enough not to need full-time attention, Han would go through these intense phases trying balance access to the domesticity he does actually want and his needs to not 'be bored' or 'feel useless.'

Honestly there are similarities to what Anakin would go through if he'd left the Order to be Padme's husband after the war, because they do have some significant points of commonality, but Han is a very different, much more stable person with a lot better-developed sense of agency so there would be a lot of 'storming off at a high point of personal frustration to take random cargo jobs in the Falcon for three months and then having to call Leia about the huge drug-smuggling operation that he stumbled ass-first into' but probably no actual breakdowns.

[incorrectfmaquotes]

Hey, I love your blog! I'm sorry to bother you but I was just wondering if you got my submissions and if you've approved of them and will post them?

(Long Post; press ‘j’ to skip past if on desktop)

Hello! Thank you for loving the blog! I did get your submissions, and they have been approved. I will post them, but with the way I run this blog, the earliest one of your submissions would show up would be mid-February at this point.

(And now a little behind-the-scenes look if you want a more in-depth explanation for why that is, or if you’re just curious.)

How that works is that I like to fill the queue all the way up to the max (which is 300 posts) with quotes and other fma posts all at once when it is a few days from running out. I press the ‘shuffle’ button a couple times to thoroughly scramble the order in which I have entered the posts, so there is a better mix between new original incquotes, new submitted incquotes, old reblogged incquotes, and other fma posts. I set up the queue to post 3 times a day, so that gives me the next 100 days to make new incquotes and find other fma posts and receive submissions, and I put all of that in the drafts. Hopefully, by the end of the 100 days, I have over 300 new posts waiting in the drafts.

The last time I filled up the queue was a couple days before last Halloween, so the submissions that have been posting in that time were submitted before the last week of October.

I do apologize for how long it takes to see your submissions. I have thought about maybe changing the timeline in which I post submissions, but because no one else has brought it up before, I thought it was something that only I had some issue with and therefore, not worth changing.

And if you are still concerned about having quotes approved, well, here are some things that have made me reject submissions, or change them, or just keep them in my inbox because I don’t know what to do with them:

Biggest No-No: Absolutely no quotes that support pedophilic or incestual ships! This is the one I have made sure to put down in the submissions page. It says before the submission box that even if you did not intend for it to be romantic, if it can conceivably be perceived that way and tagged as a pedophilic or incestual ship by someone reblogging, then I will alter it in a way that would make it more not like that, like adding another character. I feel incredibly guilty changing someone else’s submissions though, especially in this case, because they are clearly going for a wholesome platonic, familial vibe. Unfortunately, what ends up happening sometimes is that some of those submissions just end up sitting in my inbox longer as I wrestle with that guilt and how to potentially change it.

Offensive shock humor/humor rooted in bigotry. Not too long ago, I had to delete multiple submissions with humor based in transphobia and sexual violence. It was incredibly disheartening to receive, and I am not gonna force anyone else to read them or anything like that. I rarely get this type of stuff, which I am grateful for.

Quotes that are graphically NSFW, especially if they involve the teenage characters. These are INCREDIBLY uncomfortable for me to read. I’m usually fine with posting some dirty humor, but either the lines are too blurred with these submissions, or they are just waaayyy too inappropriate out the gate. I have actually posted some of these because I thought that maybe I was having an overreaction to these quotes, maybe I’m being too prudish, maybe they actually are that funny to more people. I don’t know if others are having the same reaction to them that I do, but they usually end up being some of the least popular quotes, so I’m probably just gonna reject them now. I will admit, there are a few quotes that I had posted in the very early days of this blog that are more NSFW than I would think to make now. I’m honestly surprised that I did make those, I think I was just excited to find more quotes for this blog, my mind has changed now.

Quotes that I have already done before.  Even if you have submitted it with different characters, chances are that I’m still gonna delete it unless it is really different. If you happen to submit a quote that I have not posted yet, but I do have it waiting in my queue or drafts, I won’t add the submission. I know this is harder to check for anyone submitting, especially because this blog has almost 5,000 posts, but yeah, this is just one of the things that make me reject a submission.

More specifically, do not send me that quote from Brooklyn 99 where Jake accidentally calls Holt “Dad”. This is, without a doubt, the quote I keep getting sent the most. At one point, I had 7 submissions of it from different people in my inbox all at once before I deleted them. I still get submissions of it that I delete on sight at this point. Y’all. That is one of this blog’s earliest quotes. I’m pretty sure it’s within the first 100 posts. It’s already been done. Please stop sending me this quote.

I don’t think you were expecting such a hefty response, but I hope you have the necessary information.

[greenapplebling]

Sorry I was on unserious mode!! I was just exploring a thought

But you're right, it's hard to tell if it's internalized racism bc these types of games already struggle with including poc characters in the first place. The posts I mentioned before were talking about fandoms in general, like a pattern of behavior

Though I did see a Kalim x Jack art and thought "Ig it's cute, is this a thing?" and then proceeded to never see anything like that again lol. I also think Leona and Jamil's relationship in general is something that seems fun bc of their dynamic on Book 6. I think they'll be fun frenemies but I barely see anyone exploring that...

Anyway, as I said in the OP, I do understand why people don't like Jmkl. It could be the toxicity, the power dynamic(s), all of Jamil's issues, all of Kalim's issues too...

But I mean almost all the ships I mentioned in the tags that are greatly popular have similar or worse issues and yet they're more widely accepted lol

Mikayuu? Mika wants to die already and Yuu keeps him alive bc otherwise he'll kill himself

Catradora? Catra blamed all her issues on Adora and tried to kill/use her multiple times and actually killed a lot of people in the process, all bc she struggled to admit she loves Adora

Even Solangelo, which was the most wholesome ship in the list. Iirc it was confirmed that Will actually wanted to "fix" Nico during the start of their relationship

Like, I just don't understand that the twst fandom need to ship wholesome and pure ships when a good chunk of the guys aren't even good people in the first place...

But anyway, do I respect people's different preferences? Yes. What I won't tolerate is people who don't offer the same respect to mine. I'm saying this bc in the past I've encountered awful toxic fans, I've written posts about this before and it wasn't exactly them who I was talking about in the OP but I think it's worth repeating here

I understand that some people don't find Jamikali appealing but I just don't understand how people aren't aware of the appeal of it as a gay ship

Like, it has: sunshine x grumpy / golden retriever x black cat / black-haired x white-haired / childhood friends to enemies to lovers / sun x moon, etc...

ALL of those ship dynamics are incredibly popular on queer fandom spaces??? Like, not trying to be condescending, I'm just genuinely surprised that people can't recognize these things unless they're into the ship 🤔

[zu-is-here]

HI ZU! oh I didn't end up doing the chores on the end, but I did go shopping! We bought so much pasta sauce it's not even funny XD

Yeah I'm going full lineless! I just didn't wanna draw the line work, all those skull.... Nope! So lineless it is, gonna take a short break though, got other things I need to work on.

Yeah I'm trying to get better about fears.

Oh you didn't? It's about vow or Never killer and his feelings about cross getting transferred! Some mild Kross angst, you must read!

Yay! Maybe I could tell you more today? If you wanted to dm me about it when you're free? That's up to you though. <3

Today it was raining as well! It was on and off alllll day! And right in my juice too.

You know, I have a hugeeeee fan in my room, it's heaven when things do get hot here! It used to be in the living room, but it's mine now!

I'm glad the Allergys have been better!

Oooooooo! Over 100!!? Dammmm mmmm good luck! You are almost there! We believe!

OH! I don't think I've seen this!! I need to look for the art! That was yesterday right?

Today I'm good! I met up with a friend and we had dinner together! It was really fun! We also got smoothies and cake and walked around town. We went to a charity shop and I scored a new toy for the collection, 5 pound for a brand new, but I got it for 50p! Score!

You ever had any good secondhand shop finds?

We also came up with a dark cream headcannon with my twins and it's still making me laugh XD my friend is the best and they make me wanna draw my babys again! Toooooo busy.

I also find myself really interested in lust X nightmare for some reason? Like my brain randomly becomes really into ships.

And also L20 cross x dream because.... The sfw art is really cute! And I wondered what celest and luna would look like in that universe!

How are you today Zu? How's your weekend going?

Hi Gayfish! <3 Oh my god— it's never too much pasta sauce nyeh heh heh XD

I'm sure it looks amazing! No need to rush╰(*´︶`*)╯ I'm looking forward to your other works as well, keep up the great work! *^*

Hoo boi— some good kross angst, you say? Gotta read soon (*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)

Yesss that would be great, thanks! <3 Oki ☆

Oh no XD Was it still warm outside today? *^* You are really lucky with a huge fan in your room!

Again, thank you so much for your support, I do appreciate it a lot ♡

Yep, the only post I had time for yesterday xp Worth it! ☆

Oh wow!! I'm really glad to hear you're having a good time (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

I remember buying sneakers for $4.99 instead of $74.99 cause someone took different sizes but the remaining ones fit really well?? :D

More cool headcanons! (*'▽'*) Lust x Nightmare hmm,,, sounds interesting~ LV20!Cross x Dream is really sweet!! yet kinda sad ;3;

Busy but determined, thanks! <3 4 days left so I can't think of anything but my diploma,,, but when I'm done, I'm gonna sleep and draw and stream— also walking outside since the weather's great *^*

UPD:

As they say, the nature doesn't have a bad weather <3 Hope so too! *^*

Thanks! A mini victory indeed (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

It does! That's just something new for me yet really potential *^* We can have passive!Nightmare here as well btw ;) Lust x Dance ohhh! Reminds me of one small and sad comic with a happy ending <3

So wholesome (´；ω；`) I do like LV20!Cross concept, initially it was so potential, with Cross being guilty and longing for forgiveness from the monster he always loved (and who still loves him) until they began to use it differently but nevertheless, that idyll they reached warms my soul <3

*hugs* Thank you so much ♡ After all, I still have loads of things to draw, and I will heheh! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)☆

OH. ★ It does make more sense now! (´；ω；`) They both became this way not of their own will, they were misunderstood and judged (both in AUs and in the fandom), and even if they can't clean their reputations, they can understand each other... Great ♡

For real (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀) Hope they'll get to his soul after they have enough with his body, heh <3

[krakenbait]

kraken bait 3: the moment of truth

the moment is finally upon us! no, not the actual expansion draft, that’s in 10 days. i mean my last (but best) installment of the kraken bait expansion draft theories! 

this has been a long, long work in progress, basically since i posted the last one. i’ve asked nearly every hockey fan i know, as well as randomly messaging several friends and cool people on hockeyblr, for their ideas and opinions on their favorite team’s expansion draft situation. and as with my previous lists, i had my friend and capfriendly consultant corwin (@chaos-hockey) collaborating with me to make this semi-reasonable (largely against their wishes). i’ll be including commentary from myself and my variety of sources with each pick. 

for reference, this is a somewhat plausible look at who seattle might take in the expansion draft. it’s not a prediction, because even i don’t honestly think the kraken will take some of these players, but it’s a fun simulation. it does follow expansion draft rules, and even comes under the cap (which took some last-minute finagling by me and corwin).

without further ado, let’s get into it! this list got long, so it’s all under the cut.

Anaheim Ducks: Haydn Fleury

this one comes straight from resident danton heinen fan, ergo ducks fan @dantonheinens, so thanks for your help casey! they sent me a very detailed explanation of anaheim’s expansion draft situation basically explaining that there’s a whole lot of “ands, ifs, or buts” with the ducks, but if fleury is exposed, he’s a slam dunk (slam duck? i’m sorry)

Arizona Coyotes: Christian Fischer

the one thing i know about this dude is he got wrecked in a fight with nathan mackinnon in the 2020 playoffs. this is the first of several picks on this list i borrowed from The Athletic’s mock expansion drafts, which happens if i don’t know the team and i don’t know anyone else who does. corwin and i also considered taking adin hill from the yotes, but we decided on some other goalies instead (stay tuned).

Boston Bruins: Jeremy Lauzon

i have a lot of friends who are bruins fans, so credits are owed to: corwin, casey again, alex (@patron-saint-of-boston-hockey) & luna (@kureally) & any other bruins fans in the nwhl discord, and my irl bruins friends. i got a lot of opinions on the bruins pick, including jake debrusk, jakub zboril, connor clifton, and trent frederic. but the one name almost everyone could agree on was lauzon. therefore, i’ve decided he’s headed to seattle. 

(it feels worth it to mention that at the prospect of having to take someone from the bruins, corwin said “curses be upon your name!” in an aggressively thick boston accent)

Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Asplund

i could not tell you who this is, other than the fact that he’s one of buffalo’s three rasmuses (rasmi?). corwin and i had also talked about maybe putting anders bjork here, like i did in the last go-around, but i defaulted to The Athletic this time, and they thought asplund was a good pick, so here we are.

Calgary Flames: Mark Giordano

another pick borrowed from The Athletic, but i’ve seen predictions of giordano to the kraken a fair amount. it just seems right (and a whole lot better than corwin’s proposition of matthew tkachuk from last round).

Carolina Hurricanes: Brady Skjei

this one comes from the lovely @summerteukka, so thank you kinga! she gave me a very good rundown on the canes and the expansion draft, with the conclusion being the canes have so much defensive depth that it’s definitely going to be a defenseman, and especially if they resign dougie hamilton, skjei seems to be a likely choice. i’m all for it- we’ll have “an S and a K and a J all next to each other” on a kraken jersey.

Chicago: Adam Gaudette

similarly to the arizona pick, corwin and i considered a goalie here- in this case, it would have been malcolm subban. but he is not one of the goalies we ended up going for. instead, we opted on bringing micaela gaudette and her husband back to the pacific northwest. 

Colorado Avalanche: Ryan Graves

this is really a no-brainer. gravy is a good defenseman, but the avs have such a strong defense between cale makar, devon toews, and sam girard (and you could add erik johnson when he’s healthy), plus up-and-comers like bo byram. gravy will almost definitely be exposed, and i think he’s a great pick for seattle. plus it’s relatively painless for avs fans who also will like seattle (like yours truly).

(corwin also wanted me to mention that they want gravy traded to the bruins so he can play with curtis hall, who is basically “color-swapped ryan graves”)

Columbus Blue Jackets: Dean Kukan

another pick taken right from The Athletic. i do not know who this is, but he’s a defenseman and the writers liked this pick so i went with it. for the record, corwin really wanted this pick to be boone jenner because he has a funky name, but i wanted another defenseman, so the fun name was sacrificed for function.

Dallas Stars: Jason Dickinson

i don’t really have an explanation for this one. corwin and i were talking about the stars options and picking dickinson just felt right.

Detroit Red Wings: Vladislav Namestnikov

thanks are owed here to joce (@doubleminor) for her red wings expertise! she gave me a few players who were likely kraken bait and i picked from there. it came down to evgeny svechnikov and vladislav namestnikov, but i went with namestnikov in the end. he was with the avs for a brief period and i liked him then, plus the vibes just seem right, so here we are.

Edmonton Oilers: Tyson Barrie

really, tyson barrie was the player who started the whole kraken bait thing. corwin made the drawing, i made the first list, and the rest is history. do i actually think tyson will be going to the kraken in a week? not really. do i still really like the idea of it? 100%. therefore, i will continue to engage in my “tyson barrie to seattle” nonsense.

Florida Panthers: Chris Driedger

oh look, our first goalie! florida had some interesting skater options, but when it came down to it, corwin and i thought the cats were a good place to take a goalie from. driedger did pretty well this season, plus the panthers’ goalie situation is locked up between $10 million man bobrovsky and future star spencer knight.

Los Angeles Kings: Viktor Arvidsson

corwin was feeling pretty strong about this one, so i’m trusting their judgement. according to them, seattle expressed interest in arvidsson, so nashville traded him to the kings instead of giving him up for nothing. now the kings get to give him up for nothing, which works out pretty well, considering i had absolutely no clue who to pick from the kings. 

Minnesota Wild: Matt Dumba

like some other picks, this just seems right. i like matt dumba a lot. he seems like a fun and wholesome guy, and his activism, both on his own and with the hockey diversity alliance, is admirable. i hope he gets to display his personality and keep working to better the sport of hockey with the kraken.

Montreal Canadiens: Jake Allen

goalie number two! picking a player from the habs was weird because i got attached to them during the playoffs, but i really don’t know many of their players? so corwin and i deliberated on this a little, and after looking at our goalie situation, decided that allen was the right pick from montreal. 

Nashville Predators: Calle Jarnkrok

after doing art for and getting a featured article from the preds, corwin thinks they’re some kind of nashville expert. i originally had matt duchene here, but corwin said not him. their logic? they did art of duchene for their preds project, so they probably want to keep him around. fair point. so we went with calle jarnkrok. the logic behind that choice was simple: “calle jarn-kraken”

New Jersey Devils: Andreas Johnsson

i wish i kept a counter of how many times corwin told me “ron francis doesn’t care about your feelings!” when we were discussing the devils pick. they kept advocating for either nate bastian or mikey mcleod, but i would not stand for the superbuddies being separated. this is my kraken bait list, so my decisions. i asked a few of my devils friends for their input (props to sabs @jakejuentzel and h @bigmouthnatebastian), and in between the mild panic, andreas johnsson got tossed out. therefore, it’s mango getting shipped to seattle. does it further lower the average age of the devils? yeah, but it’ll be fine! the nhl could use some youthful chaos.

New York Islanders: Jordan Eberle

all of my kraken bait ideas for the isles came from the bardown breakdown podcast (a great listen if you like hockey and pop-punk/punk music!), since both hosts are isles fans. they had a few names tossed out, including josh bailey and casey cizikas, but corwin and i decided on eberle. like with a lot of these, right vibes.

New York Rangers: Kevin Rooney

i’ve seen two names pretty consistently for rangers kraken bait: colin blackwell and kevin rooney. is blackwell is better and therefore the more likely pick? yes. but kevin rooney is a former devil and also mocked tom wilson, so i voted he gets to go seattle.

Ottawa Senators: Chris Tierney

i don’t think i could name more than three, maybe four players on the sens, so i defaulted to The Athletic on this one. i have no idea who chris tierney is, but it works, so there we go.

Philadelphia Flyers: James Van Riemsdyk

@phillyjoel left some fantastic notes on the flyers kraken bait in the tags of my last list, giving me good evidence to tell corwin that for the last time, nolan patrick is not kraken bait. the argument i saw was that the flyers are probably going to trade patrick instead of giving him up for nothing and make cap space by giving away van riemsdyk or voracek. The Athletic liked the van riemsdyk pick, and corwin could live with it, so that’s where we settled.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Zach Aston-Reese

i honestly don’t have a whole lot of explanation for this one. another pick borrowed from The Athletic, corwin and i liked it, there we go. we considered going with kris letang, but the vibes weren’t right.

San Jose Sharks: Ryan Donato

shoutout to my sharks friend and amazing artist K (@18minutemajor) for their help! i originally had brent burns in this slot, on K’s suggestion (we had a fantastic exchange about brent burns befriending bigfoot). however, i ran into last-minute cap trouble and had to switch the pick. ryan donato came from The Athletic, but i think it’s kind of a fun pick. he’s been passed between a few teams recently, but most of what i know of ryan donato comes from the 2018 olympics (aka the first time i really watched hockey!), when he was apparently doing pretty well for team usa. 

St. Louis Blues: Vince Dunn

thank you @powerblais (and the blues fans group chat) for your input on this one! vince dunn was one of the names on the list erin sent me, and The Athletic also had him listed, so we went with it. 

Tampa Bay Lightning: Blake Coleman

thanks @heddy for responding to my out-of-the-blue message with some good input on the bolts! ana gave me some good suggestions like tyler johnson plus something else so they take on the contract, alex killorn, and ondrej palat. in the end, this devils fan defaulted to pickles. this pick is in the same category as tyson barrie- do i actually think coleman is going to the kraken? not really. do i still like the idea? absolutely.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Travis Dermott

borrowed from The Athletic and some other kraken bait predictions, because everyone has something to say about the leafs. corwin and i waffled between dermott and alexander kerfoot for this pick, but we eventually settled on dermott to seattle.

Vancouver Canucks: Madison Bowey

this pick changed so much in just one day. we originally had braden holtby here because original kraken bait, but then i ran into cap trouble. so i switched it to zack macewen, following a pick by The Athletic. but then i wanted one or two more defensemen, so i switched to madison bowey, who was the other pick from The Athletic. after all that, it seems like the right pick.

Washington Capitals: Vitek Vanecek

our third and final goalie! corwin and i had our eyes on vanecek as kraken bait for a while- a young goalie with promise and room to improve seemed like the right pick for seattle. we briefly considered tj oshie--he’s from washington state, and corwin wanted to upset caps fans (we were talking during the first round of the playoffs)--but ended up back with vanecek as our pick.

Winnipeg Jets: Mason Appleton

last pick of the list! not much to say here, though. it’s a pick borrowed from The Athletic, but we went with him over the other option from the jets because he has a fun name. to quote corwin, mason appleton sounds like “an apple pie in a mason jar on skates.”

and there you have it folks, the final kraken bait list! if you want to know the specifics, we’ve got 3 goalies, 16 forwards, and 11 defensemen, and the total cap hit is 76.4M. i’m pretty doubtful that this will be the actual expansion draft lineup, but we’ll have to see how many, if any, picks corwin and i got right. 

thanks again to everyone who helped me out, and i hope you enjoyed the chaos and commentary of the kraken bait lists!

[bootlegsymphony]

Being Hopeful [a *personal* Komahina writeup]

*major Danganronpa 2/2.5/3 spoilers ahead*

Someone told me to gather my thoughts into a post so here it is.

Note: Unless you’re up for a challenge to potentially reshape your opinions towards certain ships, if you think Komahina is by default a toxic ship in anyway shape or form, or if you firmly believe that Hinanami is “bestest Hinata ship OTP owo”, it’s not in your best interest to read this post. I’m not suggesting you are invalid or wrong, but you’re likely not the group of people I’m looking forward to having a constructive and evoking conversation with.

First off, I might have been recognized as an avid Komahina shipper, and my opinions towards Hinanami could be generally summarized as ambivalent/mixed/minorly favourable. I was able to acknowledge Hina/Nami’s relationship as of roughly equivalent significance in regard to DR2’s theme.

But it was impossible for me to consider the two relationships narratively equal, I was able to notice that Koma/Hina was a “meant to be” endgame relationship right of the bat, yet Hina/Nami reads as this transitory experience of an obscure puppy love, or “yeah that happened” that’s melancholic and beautiful. Evidently, the narrative strongly favoured Koma/Hina in terms of screentime, development, complexity, compatibility, and endgame potentials.

I wasn’t too confident about why Komahina screams an ultimate destination of a Hinata relationship to me, yet Hina/Nami never convey a remotely similar message. In many aspects, I didn’t ship Komahina in the past for the sake of “I want Komaeda to savour happiness” but placed more emphasis on “it would be wise for Hinata if he could ascertain that his future is with Komaeda”. However I couldn’t elucidate why I thought so.

But due to some unexpected changes in my personal life, it was so effortless for me to reach an epiphany why Hinanami couldn’t quite be the same Hinata-OTP as Komahina. And now I’m kicking myself for not being able to be more adamant about it earlier.

In short, I had a brief taste of how “true bond” or “true connection” functions. It was an estranged, uncharted experience to me prior to that “sudden change”. And in retrospect it’s unimaginable how I survived that bitter life of pure bleakness without it. But since I was able to discern the characteristics of a “true bond”, Koma/Hina, while being excruciatingly complicated and bitter in canon timeline, had a great foundation for that nonetheless, while Hina/Nami was, fundamentally “deficient” in this specific department.

Hina/Nami, either the DR2 or DR3 iteration, doesn’t go beyond being a fine relationship. It’s not bad, as adolescent crushes are typically not bad. It’s functional and somewhat sweet if Hinata was just some normal shy boy who at some point met a nice caring pretty girl. But a great, monumental relationship doesn’t come from being just fine, and Hinata is much more messy than a such-and-such average joe as what a part of the fandom preferred to project him as.

But Hinata wasn’t an adequate rival and foil for Komaeda, that ridiculously multilayered character likely in all fictions for nothing.

For starter, Hinata committed Izuru Kamakura and countless war crimes, for fuck’s sake.

I had this pessimistic outlook that humans aren’t truly designated at birth to understand each other unless they are. Real life Nanami being the talented, worthy Ultimate Gamer she was, even if she could acknowledge and validate Hinata’s struggles as a talentless person, and brought him some temporary comfort and solace, she could not understand the full spectrum of complications the struggle itself entails. Being the kind and somewhat compassionate person she was, she’d try to understand Hinata if he ever decided to open up, but she’d likely just go “yeah talent doesn’t really matter you should just be confident in yourself” as long as she’s not some Ultimate Empath like Makoto (or Junko) all at the same time. To her, Hinata’s decision to Izuru-fy is unfavorable, but not particularly tangible.

It’s somewhat similar to a moderately affluent person not knowing what an impoverished/economically-challenged life entails, they could never understand why it’s necessary for anyone to opt for crimes and prostitution and shit, if you could just “yeah money doesn’t matter you should be happy” your way out of it. Why is it necessary to choose a life path of crimes and prostitution? Why is it necessary to Izuru-fy oneself? It’s the perpetual predicament of mutual understanding in humankind. No matter how sweet and wholesome on the surface that ship appeared, Nanami would hardly ever reach Hinata’s soul beyond skin-deep, if the talent/worth debate, the rigorous societal expectations, the everlasting emotional quagmire of being under-loved and under-appreciated...everything which gradually carved out Hinata’s pivotal character (that we know of) from his embryo, was a non-issue to Nanami at core.

If there was a portion of Hinata yearning for true connection in an intimate relationship (which I doubt he didn’t), his relationship with Nanami would eventually turn insufficient or dissatisfactory, despite feeling nice on the exterior.

Normally, people don’t realize they’re empty until they’re fulfilled.

But who else struggled immensely with the entanglement between talent and worth throughout their life? Who else once resolved to obliterate their own precious being in pursuit of an almost delusional ideal of hope as Hinata did, so that they could potentially speak to Hinata on the deepest, hidden stratum of his soul?

Komaeda.

It always pains me to read Komaeda’s first FTE where he suggested Hinata’s ultimate talent could be “Ultimate Serenity” because Hinata granted him some inner peace “just by being there”. Knowing Komaeda’s mind it’s a nearly impossible feat to make him feel peaceful. Komaeda likely didn’t even consider that a legitimate talent, he inwardly viewed Hinata “being there” as inherently valuable but he couldn’t even tell. Yet Hinata failed to just, be there, be existent.

And, I always considered Komaeda sustaining himself being alive to be a monument on its own, yet 2-5 happened, for Hope, I believed.

I once had a mentally stimulating talk about how emotional and intellectual transparency lead to a solid foundation of “true love” among people with someone before. They even expressed, months ago, that if Hinata could just speak up about his problems with Nanami he wouldn’t have necessarily Izuru-fied himself.

Yet even being the aloof and reserved fucker he was, Hinata wouldn’t camouflage himself in front of Komaeda. Komaeda saw through him even if he was having a hard time deciding on how he should have felt himself. He voiced, various times throughout DR2, that “we have similar scents” “I thought you would understand me” “we’re both miserable bystanders” “I couldn’t see you as completely separate from me”. On the surface it seemed like Komaeda was being cryptic and dragging Hinata to his level, but given how we knew Hinata took even more drastic measures as escapism, were they even that different?

It was why exactly Komahina dynamic was so embittered and resentful in the canon timeline. It was not hatred, but involuntary intimacy. Hinata was emotionally stripped naked (sorry, not to evoke any erotic visualizations, just a convenient metaphor) when it’s not even Komaeda’s intention, and Komaeda’s always emotionally naked. It didn’t turn out well not because it was a fundamentally dysfunctional dynamic, but they simply met each other in the worst, most despairful and unluckiest timeline possible. With continuous manslaughters ongoing, it’s only palpable that baring your soul to someone as dangerous as Komaeda would be intimidating, but it still had that mesmerizingly entrancing aura, especially in Komaeda’s last FTE.

They had no choice of not knowing each other well.

Unless either of them died, which they both did. But an ultimate future was born and they were granted a second chance to finally reach the destination they deserved.

In a post-HPA scenario, Komahina was not only somewhat contextually implied as Hinata’s endgame, but it was deliberately set up as a generally hopeful relationship as well. Kodaka once suggested in an interview that post-HPA Hajizuru inherited Hinata’s emotions, so that he was able to sort out his considerably complex feelings for Komaeda as it left off; meanwhile with Izuru’s analytical skills and insights into human psychology, it would likely become not as cumbersome. With Hinata’s determination and persistence it would hopefully not only cure Komaeda’s terminal illnesses, but also “heal” Komaeda from his hope fetish and other cruddy coping mechanisms, with all the support and dedication Hinata could provide. Hinata, being emotionally identical to his past self, would likely occasionally experience insecurity and low self-esteem as well, and it could require Komaeda’s weird little method of presenting challenges/creating minor inconveniences for Hinata in order to help him build up self-agency and develop infallible self-assurance.

It’s kind of the Ultimate Love that survived all the trials and tribulations, and to think of that the Ultimate Tragedy gave birth to the Ultimate Love, huh, seems about right for our two Ultimate Lucks.

[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 10: Old Love, New Love, Is This True Love

All right, so...like I said, work has picked up and my eyes feel like old marbles from staring at numbers (the woes of working in accounting I guess) so I want to get this written up and tossed into the nether before I lose steam and motivation to do it. The interesting thing about these little write-ups is that as the week goes on they just get harder and harder to write...

I do apologize in advance to those who like the long-winded write-ups. I’m just not up to it at the moment. Still feeling kind of bleh from the episode.

Let’s go back to an old format, shall we?

The Good

We might as well start out with the things about this episode that I enjoyed! 

Gossip Hour with the Men was one of the best openers they’ve had on the show in a while. It was genuinely funny without being meanspirited. Nobody looked like the bad guy. Everyone just calmly talked about it alike it was a normal thing to maybe call off the wedding. Bill calling out Carson for giving marriage advice was pretty funny, Mike was a delight. I don’t know what to say. I’d watch a whole episode of The Boys just hanging around spending time together.

--

Florence’s worry that she’s ugly was...not a terrible idea for a storyline, but the actress is too good-looking to pretend to be ugly (I saw her in this pretty yellow dress on Instagram a couple years ago and she was smashing)? Also, it’s not like Ned is a handsomely aged gentleman (like Henry lol) so it makes even less sense for the characters. I think they should have gone with Florence feeling she’s “plain” and that dressing up Super Nice makes her feel uncomfortable because she just doesn’t feel like Herself and worries maybe it’s projecting a false sense of Who She Is or something? I guess overall I still liked that an attempt was made to add some depth to Florence and her difficulties in choosing a dress/hairstyle, so...it goes here.

--

Ned asking Henry to be his best man was nice, too. I can forgive the shoddy pacing and weird placement of this request (like I do with almost everything in the show) but only because the scene was just...so incredibly wholesome. 

I like how Henry just casually is like, “Well maybe today’s just not the day.” I think it eased Ned’s mind just a little that he CAN back out if he really wants to.

I think it’s worth thinking about the fact that Ned and Henry would have always worked very closely, since the mercantile would have been a company store before the mine closed down... I like Henry and Ned as pals.

--

I’m glad the “investment” thing with Jesse and Clara’s savings was brought up in a way that...makes sense. And also, glad it wasn’t forgotten.

--

I really liked Molly and Florence in this episode. I’m a little sad Florence married Ned because I AM SORRY BUT I WANTED TO KEEP SHIPPING MOLLY AND FLORENCE TOGETHER UGHGHGHH

But their relationship is so good and maYBE Elizabeth will learn something from them.

Hey Elizabeth...you see that?

YOU SEE THAT?

Just saying.

And then later...

“You are the sister I never had, the mother I forever wanted, the friend I have always needed. From the depths of those dark and terrifying coal mines you’ve walked beside me, picking me up whenever I’ve stumbled along the way.”

AAAAAAAAA IT GOT ME.

--

I’m...really liking Fiona and Mike’s relationship, whatever it is. I kind of think they’re not headed toward anything romantic. Everyone thinks Mike is really into Fiona but at the end of the episode we realize he likes talking to her about business; it’s almost like they have this shared passion for numbers/ideas and he likes infodumping to her (and vice-versa).

I think they’re going to end up being “just friends” and Fiona will end up paired off with the man Elizabeth doesn’t choose. They hinted at Nathan briefly in this episode (with Allie’s hair), but who knows? I’m over trying to speculate on where the triangle is going at this point, but I actually like Fiona’s relationship with Mike so much that I’ll be disappointed if she fades into the background with Nathan or Lucas. Mike deserves more screentime. 

--

Ned and Florence sharing their fIRST KISS. My husband got emotional over this. And I admit, it was starting to get to me, too. I can’t NOT root for them. 

--

I said it before and I’ll say it again: I WOULD DIE FOR THE CANFIELDS.

--

The wedding was nice. I liked that Bill and Joseph officiated it together; it gives Joseph a li’l trial run of pastoring and finally Bill gets to use some of that power of his to officiate a wedding.

“Please, if you’d like” is such a Bill way to say that they may kiss LOL.

--

Also, I have to admit that I did enjoy Lucas calling Nathan out about Allie. She wouldn’t be caught in the middle if he’d leave Elizabeth alone AND HE IS RIGHT LMAO.

The last good thing: Elizabeth telling Nathan she doesn’t blame him for Jack’s death. Nice. Good. Thank you. He probably needed to hear that.

--

...THE BAD

Carson and Faith. UGH. UGHHHHHHHHHH. BREAK UP ALREADY I HATE YOU BOTH.

I appreciated that Carson had the ring ages ago, and I did like his conversation with Minnie—or more accurately, her advice to him. I felt like she was nudging him toward, “Remember why you became a surgeon in the first place.” If he became a surgeon to help people, then there’s no reason he can’t help people where he is. Sure, he might not be doing state of the art procedures but with Faith working alongside him, he can afford time to learn new things and go to doctor conventions or even take a specialized class now and then. No other doctor could get away for very long but he has that chance!

And he’ll arguably be doing more good in the middle of nowhere than in the city. All the doctors want to live in the city. Nobody wants to barely get paid for their time in the countryside.

We had a whole episode that made it clear that Faith and Carson don’t make a lot of money and do a lot of charity work. They also work for trade goods (mostly food). So it’s like...a pretty big difference in lifestyle? 

Half the reason I can’t get invested in these characters is because I really can’t stand Paul Greene. He just...annoys me on every single level imaginable. But he’s a decent actor and I can’t help but feel that his character was a massive waste of space for the past few seasons through no fault of the man himself. Imagine introducing a character like Carson and then leaving him to rot before you try to make him interesting with a romance plot that nobody asked for.

Yes, some people really like Faith and Carson, but as a whole I think the fandom didn’t buy into them as a ship due to the lack of chemistry.

It really is a shame. This episode didn’t do a thing to endear me to either character. Please, Carson. I am begging you to leave town.

--

This one particular line of dialogue almost enraged me.

WE KNOW WE KNOW WE KNOW WE KNOW WE CAN SEE THAT FOR OURSELVES. WHY DID THEY HAVE ROSEMARY SAY THIS LIKE IT’S AN EPISODE OF A CHILD’S TV SHOW?

--

Elizabeth.........

How could Katie have...looked up to her? She was never in her class? That was? Never part of anything? It was just something they threw in here to force Elizabeth to make 1% more sense in the role she’s in but IT STILL DOESN’T WORK.

I felt like I was back in Season 5 again with Lori and Elizabeth putting their nose in everyone’s business except it’s just Elizabeth!! The whole plot, which was boring and contrived anyway, should have gone to Molly, since she’s Florence’s best friend and another woman from town that Katie would have known as a child.

AND ALSO, MOLLY WOULD HAVE KNOWN KATIE’S MOTHER AND WOULD REMEMBER THE GRIEF THAT NED STRUGGLED WITH.

I know they wanted to make Elizabeth give advice so that she’d Realize that she needs to, I don’t know, make better choices or something, but it was too on the nose for me and I hated it.

GinithePooh on Reddit made a good comparison to Elizabeth in this episode by saying she reminded them of Clippy from Microsoft Word, always popping up and offering to help when nobody really needs or wants advice.

To honor their incredible idea, I opened Photoshop and created this gem, which I will also be posting separately so that people can reblog it if they wish to.

I also don’t think I need to say also filed under The Bad is the fact that Elizabeth didn’t even apologize for being awful to Rosemary and then gave her unsolicited advice to other people for two days straight. I can’t believe they wrote that? 

All I can say is that her apology to Rosemary, when it comes, better be good.

--

And I didn’t like this either:

I wish it had been followed up by literally anything: Nathan saying he’s sorry he didn’t tell her sooner or something to make the hand-holding actually be a little more innocent.

As it is, it just seems so deliberate? 

Maybe the next episode starts off right in this scene and we’ll get that? If so, this might actually end up being fine. I just don’t think it is if it doesn’t get a little more direct attention.

--

& THE UGLY

I debated on putting anything in here, because I’m not ready to talk about my feelings on this matter, at least not fully. But I’ve been pretty quiet all season so far, and...eh, why not just mention things in advance? What will it hurt?

Let me preface this section by saying I’m biased and I doubt hardly anyone on this site will agree with me, so feel free to just ignore this part if that’s the case.

There are two things that I really didn’t like in this episode.

I hate the slanting toward Bill/Molly.

I like Molly just fine but I don’t like her with Bill. I’m biased as all getout and also worried about the future/potential Season 9 with regards to this. I don’t want to see it. Like at all. Why, you ask? You should know why if you follow me. I’m super transparent.

It’s because I like AJ AND I WANT HER BACK LOL.

John Tinker rewatched the series so we know he wouldn’t have missed that hanging plot thread—especially since he didn’t forget any of the other things that were brought up this season! So why didn’t she appear this season? The love triangle absolutely needed to be a focus or it would have never ended, so that’s part of it, but I’m also pretty sure Josie Bissett wasn’t interested in doing any filming last year during Covid. My only “proof” is that Wedding March 6 wasn’t filmed last year even though it was scheduled to be filmed, but it makes sense. Last year was chaos.

THAT SAID, Jack Wagner posted on his Instagram the other day that they are actually filming Wedding March 6 now, so... I guess AJ’s re-appearance in Season 9 wouldn’t come as too much of a surprise if they wanted to write it.

You’d think I’d be hyped about that, and I kind of am? But it doesn’t come without its share of worries, too. We just had the worst love triangle in the history of love triangles and I really don’t want another one, especially if it makes any of the characters in question look stupid or mean.

I fully admit a well-written love triangle could be a LOT of fun for them* (low stakes because they’re not front and center characters), but I saw how Nathan was written so far this season and I really, REALLY do not want to see that happen to Molly, Bill, or AJ.

Anyway, not a fan of the Molly/Bill stuff. No chemistry. I don’t want it.

*I would totally write a fanfic like this lmao.

--

And finally...the part that everyone will hate me for:

I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ABIGAIL COME BACK. And I specifically do not want her to come back ‘cause I do not wanna see Henry/Abigail happen.

I fully recognize that a lot of you like it and ship the heck out of it, and that’s...good. I’m glad you enjoy it. I loathe it, though, and I worry that all these hints (more like...mentions) are leaning toward...something. Like, either they’re:

1) Sending Abigail off/tying up that loose end with Henry (since nothing was ever clarified either way), or

2) Warming up the audience to receive Abigail back on the show.

I’m pretty into the idea of one-sided Henry/Abigail. Hindsight is 20/20, regrets, that’s all some juicy stuff to give a character like Henry. Some things can’t ever be made right again. He had too direct of a connection to the death of her husband and son for me to ever want to see them together. Forgiveness? Yes. A careful but meaningful friendship? Yes. Romantic relationship? Uh...no thanks.

I liked the Abigail mentions at first because I felt like...the character still mattered (as she should) but I’m at a point where I feel like they’re trying really hard to steer the fandom’s view a certain way and not knowing where it’s going is extremely unsettling to me.

--

I’ll probably talk more about the things that bother me when the season ends, because I’m hoping to have a better idea of where things are going to be headed, but for now just...know that I feel very apprehensive.

And keep in mind that I primarily watch this show for Bill these days, since all my previous faves (AJ, Frank, the old Abigail, Dottie) have exited, stage left. I also always really liked seeing Henry. So as you can imagine, seeing plotlines I hate for the only two characters I’m invested in? Is making me consider dropping the series next year.

My husband told me I should hate-watch it, but I don’t know if my heart can take it. I’ve been following this series for so long...it just...kind of hurts to feel let down like this? 

But sometimes an ongoing series ends up going where you...didn’t want it to, and it becomes something that’s no longer right for you. I hope that doesn’t happen, but last night’s episode makes me feel like...it might be happening for real this time.

I guess if that holds true it’ll be back to fanfiction for me. Will that novelization I planned ages ago end up getting written? Will I write the best love triangle fanfic known to man? WHO KNOWS.

For now, we’ll all have to wait and see! Two more episodes left. I’m really curious to see how they resolve some of the open plots right now. :>

[vs-redemption]

who are your favorite top ten black clover characters & ships? talk about them! ~tat!

From Cindy: Hello tat! I hope you are doing well today and thank you for visiting my blog. It was really fun to write this because I got the chance to really think about the characters in depth. I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a shipper so I couldn’t come up with 10. I did my best to think of and write about as many ships and brotps as I could though.

Also, I got your other ask about BNHA as well! I have a Japanese lesson I need to prepare for this evening, but I’ll definitely get that posted tomorrow sometime!! Thanks again!!

This is very long, so I put it under a cut :)

Top Ten Black Clover Characters

Yami Sukehiro

I love everything about this guy. He’s hilarious, number one. Everything he says cracks me up and the nicknames he uses for people are gold. I like that he insults people and makes toilet jokes so casually. He comes off crass, but it’s the fact that he treats everyone equally that makes me respect him so much. He holds everyone, including himself, to the same standards. He doesn’t care about your past, wealth, appearance, gender, unconventional magic abilities or wacky personality. No matter who you are, he will call you out if you’re not acting the way you should, but will also back you up and support you when it’s needed. He’s a great leader because he treats everyone equally and is also very accepting that everyone is different.

Luck Voltia

Luck was one of the first characters I fell in love with. I don’t have a lot deep meaning behind how I feel like I do with Yami though. I just really enjoy his chaotic energy and the fact that he wants to fight people all the time. I also think his magic is super badass. His little lightning boots and gloves are so cute. I just wanna cuddle him and ruffle his hair.

Finral Roulacase

I feel so bad for Finral. This poor love starved boy doesn’t deserve the heaping amounts of anxiety he always seems to be feeling. I know he’s supposed to be the ‘perverted’ character, but compared to characters from other anime (Mineta [BNHA] Meliodas [SDS]) he’s not that bad. He tries so hard to be a gentleman by taking people on dates, complimenting them, giving them flowers, and not physically molesting them lol but they never give him a second glance. I also love his character growth so far. Watching him find self-worth beyond being just a mode of transportation, and confidence enough to stand up to his brother has been really fun to watch. I’m so proud of him and I think he’s amazing!

Zora Ideale

This guy. Haha His blunt honesty is so uncomfortable but hilarious at the same time. Like Yami, he calls people out but is somehow so much more offensive about it. I love how he just gives people unsolicited criticism and then adds injury to insult like “oh by the way, here’s a freaking stink bug in your nostril.” To be fair though, he is just as harsh on himself and will acknowledge (to himself) when he made a mistake. His backstory is also so tragic! It is seriously messed up what happened to his dad, but I love that Zora uses that trauma to try and change the word for the better by being the best magic knight he can be and also encouraging (threatening?) other magic knights to be better too. He could’ve so easily become a villain, but he didn’t and I think that’s really honorable.

Mereoleona Vermillion

Oh my god. I love this woman so much. The fact that she was supposed to be the captain of the Crimson Lions but said “nope” and then just went off by herself to live in the most dangerous places in the wild to get stronger is just phenomenal to me. I also really like that, even though she’s a royal and a member of the Vermillion family, she doesn’t just focus on her own squad. It was great when she showed up at the Black Bulls hide out and straight up kidnapped them to have them join her training. I’m just in awe of both her physical and mental strength. She was so cool when she went up against all those elves by herself. I’m not caught up with the manga, but I think I saw a spoiler about her recently and I’m very excited to find out more about it. I pretty much wish I was Mereoleona. She is my spirit animal.

Charmy Pappitson

There is a lot to adore about Charmy. First and foremost, she is an adorable badass. I love that her passion for food is something she shares with her allies and friends instead of being something that makes her greedy. I feel like Charmy is underrated because her magic is great for restoring mana, defense and offense. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t she one of the highest ranked knights in the black bulls? I also love how she gets away with a lot of shit just because she’s cute. The episodes where she straight up just hops onto the wizard king’s lap and feeds him snacks without anyone batting an eye get me every time!

Vanessa Enoteca

Sometimes I think about how Vanessa was willing to give up her own freedom just to save Asta’s arms, and how she gave up drinking for a few episodes in order to focus on a way to not only make herself stronger for upcoming battles, but the rest of her teammates as well. I like her dedication to the Black Bulls. Her thread magic is also pretty cool and I like the clever ways she’s learned to use it.

Fuegoleon Vermillion

Poor Fuegoleon is so calm and sensible compared to his siblings. I like that he’s a fair leader that makes sure to consider all angles before passing judgement on someone. He is also a dependable captain and full of great wisdom that aids in character development for important characters like Asta and Noelle. I love how he competes with his sister though, and watching them bicker in the episode where they throw a birthday party for that nun lady was silly.

Asta

How can you not like Asta? He has such a big heart and the best self-discipline out of anyone in the show. He would always rather talk things out before resorting to fighting and likes to understand the motivations behind the actions of his enemies. He is unashamed to be himself and continues to pursue his goals even when other people mock him or put him down. I also like that he is more perceptive of how people think or feel than it would seem sometimes.

Sekke Bronzazza

His personality is pretty much the worst (and I think he actually tried to kill Asta after the magic knight exam… asshole) but the way he always manages to fit “ha-ha” into his speech is so funny to me and always cracks me up. And the way everyone calls him the “ha-ha” guy is very amusing to me, especially when he tries and fails to politely correct them. I also love how he always ends up in the most random situations (in Yami’s bathroom or working for the king).

 Top Ten Black Clover Ships/BroTPs

Finral x Vanessa

I guess I just think back to that fight against the Despair guy from the Third Eye because both Finral and Venessa sort of worked together and pushed past their limits for the first time. I think Venessa is also the one that put the green in Finral’s hair, right? I don’t know. Venessa is good for Finral because he’s so insecure and she’s so supportive of other people. They’re cute together.

Yami x Charlotte

I think everyone ships this? lol Charlotte’s independence and personal strength are important to her, and the fact that Yami acknowledges and respects those traits in her makes them a great match. He also constantly encourages her to show her softer side, saying that it’s okay to lean on other people and ask for help. He could help her find balance and be comfortable in her own skin.

Asta x Mimosa

Mimosa is a much better match for Asta than Noelle because Noelle constantly needs validation and attention that she’s just never going to get from Asta. His brain just doesn’t work that way. Mimosa is content with supporting Asta with her magic as best she can, and doesn’t get jealous or competitive in the way Noelle does. Mimosa is soft and gentle which is a nice contrast to Asta’s loud and rough personality.

Yuno x Charmy

I know this is almost like a crack ship, but I can’t help but like it anyway. Like Asta, Yuno isn’t going to be the type of guy to actively pursue a relationship or be overly affectionate. This doesn’t seem to affect Charmy who seems fine with even the most minimal of interaction haha. I think it’s so cute how much she supports and roots for him when she sees him in a fight. And Yuno doesn’t seem to mind her trying to feed him and take care of him either.

Magna x Luck (brotp)

Lucky’s personality is quirky, chaotic, and frankly just difficult to understand, so I think it’s hard for people to get close to him. He comes on so strong with the pranks and desire to fight, plus he doesn’t really know how to hold back. The fact that Magna can endure all that while also seeing Luck as a person on a deeper level than just being some spazzy boy is really wholesome to me. I think it’s good for Luck to have someone who can respect him that way without asking him to change his behavior. I do not think this would work romantically though. Magna is actually pretty sensitive and emotional, and gets pretty upset when Luck is stronger or does better than him in something. It ultimately just drives Magna to work harder, but I think that sort of competition might be bad news in a romantic relationship if he’s always feeling inferior.

Yami x Jack the Ripper (brotp)

I want their friendship! I really do. The way they go from relaxed and having fun to ready to beat each other’s asses is hilarious. And there’s literally no reason for it, they’re just like unnecessarily competitive and I’m living for it. Whether they’re celebrating at a festival, about to have an important meeting with the wizard king, or in the middle of a huge fight with a major bad guy, it doesn’t matter. They will trash talk each other and probably end up brawling. I love it.

Gauche x Grey

The episodes where Gauche had to fight with Gordon and Grey were really cool because those three are probably the oddest oddballs of the Black Bulls. I don’t know if I ship them romantically or just at friends, but the development of the relationship between Gauche and Grey has been interesting and I wouldn’t mind seeing more. Also, please give Gauche something else to obsess over besides his sister lmao

Mars x Fana

I don’t have any strong feelings for them as characters individually, but I like that they fought so hard to protect each other as kids and how they continued to fight for and protect each other after being reunited.

[chaoticspacefam]

2020 In Review: Wordcount Tag

I was tagged for this by @actualanxiousswampwitch​ , thank you! I’m not sure who’s already done or been tagged for this cause I am, once again, late to the party LOL but I shall (no pressure and sorry if you’ve already done it!) tag: @rainofaugustsith​ , @darth-bagel​ , @thatmmolesbian​ , @thelastenvoyyy​ and anybody else who wants to do this. Yes, I promise I mean you!

Words: 45,314

Published: 0 (I’m not counting the couple of Six Sentence tags I’ve gotten, they’re snippets of an unfinished piece & are included below instead :), or roleplay replies, cause that feels like cheating lol.) I actually wrote a lot more than I thought I had, this is a rough guesstimate as well, as my oneshot WIPs tend to be all over the place across something like 6 different documents, some of which have existed since 2018, so I had to guess at how far up to count from the end for some of them, but I think it’s a fair guesstimate XD I also have included lore/worldbuilding docs in this because that was a 3-month long Lockdown 1.0 Boredom/”Canon is a trash fire so I’m ignoring that and making up my own lore” passion project and I’m goddamn proud of how much I wrote for that. It’s the most I’ve written in one stretch (think I finished it over a span of 3 nights or so, once I’d done all the research and made all the notes ofc ^^)

Not Published: 45,314

The Breakdown:

swtor - 45,314

for creeping shadows (my main longfic/part one of the subterfugeverse series) - 1,553  - Aria, stop being difficult! *shakes fists* XD

oneshots - 16,223

lore/worldbuilding (for subterfugeverse naturally) - 23,001 (is this ALL tomato alien lore? pretty much, yes, yes it is :’D ~400 words is “the WIP reworked timeline to correlate my worldbuilding with the canon timeline that was released”, but 98% is just...me thinking way too much about Purebloods and how they deserved way better goddamn lore. I blame @fluffynexu ‘s amazing tomato worldbuilding posts,  reading them when I went looking for “canon” lore one day for the rp is what got me started down that rabbithole (it’s awesome and if you haven’t already you should totally go check hers out too :DD), I had a “fuck you then canon I’ll do it myself too >:L” moment and once I started I couldn’t stop until I’d crapped out literally over 20k words on the subject *whispering* thank you LOL)

zephyrverse au bonus oneshots - 4,537 (stuff I wrote to fill in time gaps or “just cause I had a plot bunny”, relating to mine and k-christine’s zephyrverse au rp. None of these will likely be posted publicly, but they still deserve to be counted as words I wrote this year :’D

As you can see, most of my “muse” this year came from sporadic oneshots :’D The Ahaszaai twins also properly plot-bunnied their way into my brain in late 2019 and haven’t stopped making a nuisance of themselves the whole fucking year. Every time I tried to carry on with a chapter, one of the two of them would pop up like “Nooo write about ME! pay attention to ME!” - Yes, Ni’kasi, I will get to you this year, I promise XD

New Things I Tried:

Just Writing. Not worrying about whether “it wasn’t part of the next chapter” or “it comes from a part in the story that I’m nowhere near close to posting yet”. If I felt like writing something, or for a specific pairing/feeling/scene, whatever. I wrote until I ran outta muse juice. Yeah, it meant I didn’t technically “finish” anything this year BUT - the important thing is I wrote stuff. and that’s all that really matters, eh? :’D

Polyam ships! May not seem like a big deal but I spent a long time talking myself out of them because of internalised toxic monogamy and finally saying “you know what, fuck it! I can ship three or more people together and it can still be a perfectly wholesome, healthy and loving relationship and that’s okay” was a BIG thing for me this year.

Dialogue Scripts: which I didn’t count as wordcount because really it’s just word vomit of general tone/inflection and dialogue that I came up with right before falling asleep which I didn’t want to lose. Basically, if an exchange or a particularly punchy or moving line of dialogue popped into my brain but I wasn’t ready to write the whole scene that it fit into out, but didn’t want to forget the line(s). I wrote it out in movie script/script-style roleplay fashion e.g. Character’s Name: (emotion, hand gestures etc.) [Dialogue here] and so on. I know this is probably a well known trick of the trade, but I never took it seriously until this year. Seriously, do it. It’s great.

Favorite Thing I Wrote:

Hmmm, a snippet for Andronikos/Ni’kasi that I started this week which isn’t posted yet (saving it for this week’s Six Sentence Sunday so look out for it! :D) was pretty fun to work on, I love their dynamic and Kas is suprisingly fun to write for.

Also the Aria/Vano proposal scene that I posted a snippet for the week before last. I’m having great fun with that scene, and I really enjoy putting a non-serious spin on the classic “proposal scene” tropes. Can’t wait to finish it, though it may be a while before the full one goes up on AO3, as it depends whether it ends up fitting in as part of the mainfic or as an additional oneshot

And I have a D’leah/Kissai oneshot that I need to give another once-over before I finally yeet it onto AO3 and Tumblr for you guys to see :’D

Favorite Fic I Read:

@sleepswithvillains Eleanora/Quinn fic, Helplessly Hoping. I’m horribly behind on chapters and I gotta catch up and read the finale this week, but it’s been a helluva great ride and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the story! <3

Also The Invitation collab with @tishinada featuring Zas and Fiona had me squealing, I can’t wait to catch up on HH and see more of these two, they’re adorable ;-; @a-muirehen​ ‘s Relu/Merkara series of course! I’m a complete sucker for (friends to lovers to in Ariano’s case but yea pfpfpf) enemies to lovers ships and these two are just so good, I am on the edge of my seat every time we get a new snippet for them, ngl (grimace emoji) @darth-bagel ‘s Sylvas/Graz’zt and Sylvas/Liz/Rilfaen snippets which they’ve been spoiling me with on Discord @mercurypilgrim ‘s Ven’fir/Quinn AU oneshots, Cloudbank (Western was a particular favourite, but all are very good!) and of course @rainofaugustsith ‘s Lana/Viri updates are always fantastic, some personal favourites from this year were Almost There & Memory of Healing :3 (I totally still go back to read Commander & Advisor too sometimes, getting to see Viri be a little diabolical and messing with “MiNiSTeR LoRMaN!” was and still is my favourite thing XD)

If I’ve left you out I’m sorry!! These were the ones that stuck out in my memory, but I’ve loved everyone’s writing this year, it’s been great :3

Writing Goals:

to actually finish and post chapter 8 & 9 of Creeping Shadows. Then we’ll get to the meat and potatoes of the story and maybe Aria will stop being a brat and fighting me every time I try to stick to a semi-regular update schedule Get off my butt, finalise the name and get started on Ni’kasi’s part of the Subterfugeverse story. Maybe run the updates in-tandem with Creeping Shadows but idk if I want to wait till after CS is done before I start posting Kas’s side, or do them side-by-side yet, we’ll see ;) Keep writing! I know better than to pressure myself by setting a specific word count goal, that’s never worked well in the past

At least 2 chapters of each of the works mentioned above would be great though, more would be better! We’ll see how I go

Words of Thanks:

honestly, to everybody in the fandom I’ve met this year. Anybody that I follow, thank you for being there and engaging with me and/or posting amazing content for me to look at! I came over from deviantART where the SWTOR fandom is incredibly small and generally quite inactive and the contrast since moving over here has been incredibly uplifting. I very nearly cancelled Creeping Shadows and stopped posting fic for my SWTORverse altogether because I got next to no engagement on dA and it was very disheartening to the point where I felt I could enjoy the game and the rp partners I had, but the solo projects I’d put so much thought, time and love into already weren’t worth continuing. You guys took that spark and kept it going and I really don’t have enough words to say how grateful I am for that. Even if I haven’t published much this year, making posts on this tumblr, interacting with everyone and working on lore, plot points and so on for Subterfugeverse has kept me going through the Hellish Year of Nightmares that was 2020 <3

to the amazing new friends I’ve made in this past year, who have listened to me ramble about headcanons, character backstories, writing snippets (and rambled/sent some back), keep being awesome: @walk-ng-d-saster , @darth-bagel , @kyber-heart , @deepseacritter , @thedinalixlegacy to further friends and meme tag buddies, I get so excited every time I see a mention for a new meme or ask game in my inbox, so thank you!! : @mimabeann , @palepinkycat , @a-master-procrastinator , @raven-of-domain-kwaad , @actualanxiousswampwitch , @thatmmolesbian , @a-muirehen to my regular commentors/rebloggers/likers/askbox lurkers, I see every one of you and every time your users pop up I grin like a kid in a toy shop: @starlightjedi , @sparkles-and-rust , @wilvarin-chan , @sunsetofdoom , @ask-an-andalite , @thelastenvoyyy . @lyrishadow and more because Tumblr only goes so far back and I have the memory of Swiss Cheese. If you regularly comment, like, reblog, or anything, from me, know that I see you, and I love and appreciate you for it! <3

I couldn’t possibly remember to tag everyone and I promise if I missed you out it’s not because I hate you! Anxiety just sometimes be a bitch and I don’t wanna look like a clown calling someone a “friend” if I’m not explicitly sure we are, in fact, friends. I think you’re all awesome and I’m so glad to have moved over here and met you all <3

[taruyison]

Tagged by @stxphxn-strange - always a delight!!

You can find their post here

Would You Rather - Fanfic Version

(I responded to all the questions under the cut cause it would be such a long post. Btw, if you wanna do a read more tag on mobile, write :readmore: and press the enter button. Works like a charm 👌)

Do you prefer friends to lovers or enemies to lovers? - I feel like I haven’t really read any of these tropes, but I think I’d say friends to lovers because that’s wholesome (although enemies to lovers could be FEELS)

Would you rather be forced to watch a terrible movie adaptation of your favorite fanfic or an amazing adaptation of your least favorite fanfic? - I’m a giant movie critic, although silently, so I might want the amazing adaptation tbh

Would you rather read fanfic chapters backwards or read them as parsed from google translate? - “I’m fluent in Google Translate”

Would you rather consume every fanfic as an audiobook read by a monotone narrator or have to read on a tiny printed piece of papers written in yellow highlighter? - Monotone audiobook; how am I supposed to see *anything* written in highlighter??

Would you rather get a tattoo on your body of very fanfic title you read or never read fanfic again? - I’ve always wanted a tattoo tbh, and imagine having the titles of the fics you adore on your arms. Great way to remember if you wanna go back for a re-read! 👌

Do you prefer vampire au or werewolf au? - I haven’t read enough of any of these to know for sure, but let’s say Vampire AU 🙈

Would you rather get sold to a boy band or be stuck in a time loop with your love interest? - Oh yeah, just throw me into the Doctor Strange canon cause I literally have no love life and he’s the closest thing to anything called a love interest 😂

Would you rather kill your favorite character or marry your least favorite character? - I’ve already killed my favorite character so I guess it’s time to marry my least favorite

Would you rather meet your love interest in a coffee shop au or college au? - Coffee Shop AU cause then I can be lazy and sit in a corner and slurp tea while stalking him

Would you rather have your fic history leaked or never read another fanfic again? - I don’t think I have anything *too* bad in my history, and I still have plenty of fics I wanna read, as sooo (129 + 5 on my TBR)

Would you rather be able to read amazing fanfiction but it always has an mpreg plot twist or only read bad fanfiction for the rest of your life? - I mean, mpreg is my jam so why the hell not? Why is this even a question sksksksk--

Would you rather gay ships or straight ships? - Be gay, do crimes!

Would you rather ship a rarepair with almost no content or a pair with lots of content but almost all of it is cracky nightmare smut? - Rarepair (tbh I think I have one exactly like this) (oh god, you have me thinking about the baby carrot incident-- DO NOT REMIND ME OF THE BABY CARROT INCIDENT)

Would you rather see your otp shatter years after their happily ever after or never have the happily ever after happen in the first place? - Reading or writing? Cause I could write both, it would probably even be fun writing some good old angst and heartbreak, but I’d probably prefer to read the latter

Would you rather read a poorly written but complete fanfic or a literary masterpiece last updated june 2013? - Why do you have to attack me like this sjsbddjsm-- I choose masterpiece

Would you rather read SSSS++++ tier smut with almost 11k words or 70k words worth of fluff? - Can I just ask.. Is the 11k *only* smut? Like are they literally having sex for three damn days straight with no breaks? Then I’d probably pick the fluff because damn, the smut would get messy (and probably unsanitary)

Would you rather read only alternate universe fanfics or only canon fanfics? - Alternate Universe, duh; we don’t do canon in this household

Would you rather introduce fanfics to your normie friend with an ongoing smut fic with great writing or a complete fluff fic with terrible writing? - Wait, normies actually exist? Like, for real? I thought they were a myth! But yeah, probably the smut fic to keep them on their toes, lol

Would you rather read your notp with all your favorite tropes and perfect characterization or your otp with tropes you despise and inconsistent characterization? - I don’t even think I have a notp, but I’d prefer good characterization tbh

Would you rather have a major character death or have a bed sharing scene but it’s a ship you hate? - Major Character Death; we’ve all been through it

Would you rather every fanfic includes Jackson Wang or every fanfic includes at least one nsfw moment? - Don’t they already? Lmao, nsfw please

Would you rather read a fanfic that has constant grammar and spelling mistakes or one that the characters are wildly different than canon? - OOC; rather good spelling than bad because I have an ounce of perfectionism

Would you rather read the most absolutely messed up dead dove with your most wholesome ship or subject yourself to 100,000 words of your notp all written in a solid block with no punctuation and horrible grammar? - I realize I know nothing about the Dead Dove trope, but I literally can’t stand giant walls of text. I’m in *physical pain* from people who don’t know how to paragraph. Which means yes, I pick the dove

Would you rather have the power to read every fanfic in existence or have the power to make any ship canon? - IronStrange, here we come! I guess that doesn’t actually answer the question, lol. Second option

Would you rather read a cringy 70 chapter harry styles mafia au or a high school kpop au y/n fic with horrible grammar? - I’ve no joke stumbled upon a mildly erotic kpop fanfiction on Twitter at some point and that shit was weirdly interesting. I know nothing about kpop but that author was good. Probably picking the Mafia AU though cause that seems like a morbidly interesting idea

Would you rather have your otp get together in canon but one of them dies in a tragic way or all members of your otp survive but get together with other people? - Isn’t both of these just Marvel canon at this point? Bahbaii Tony Stark, but if he *had* survived, he’d still be with Pepper; rip IronStrange either way. Still, I’ll pick the first

Would you rather accidentally send your boss a super detailed smut fic or read a super detailed smut fic about your boss? - Who’s my boss if I’m unemployed? Self-employment? Myself then? Lol, joke’s on you because I *write* detailed smut about myself (no, I ain't sharing, I’m a coward) (at least let me finish it first, jfc)

Would you rather read smut fanfic aloud to your parents or submit smut fanfic to the employer of your dream job? - I think I need context about this one-- Did the employer *ask* for this submission? Is this the criteria to get the job? Because if so, hell yeah I would (though I’m wondering if I might already have read a smut fic to my parents at some point >.>)

Would you rather pine after an oblivious love interest or be the oblivious love interest pined after? - I have pined and I legit have been pined for. Can’t say either of them was very interesting, but I pick the latter (I was turned down when I asked that stupid old crush for a dance... Twice)

Would you rather hanahaki disease or your soulmate’s first words to you tattooed on your body (and they’re really stupid)? - Soulmate’s words. I imagine I’d say something equally as stupid back

Would you rather be an alpha, beta, or omega in omegaverse? - I think the most convenient choice here would be beta, but I really think it would be interesting to be an omega and still keep my asshole demeanor. “Fuck you alpha, I ain’t for sale today”

Would you rather read a fanfic where the characters turn into furries or a fanfic where the characters all get pregnant? - How about all the characters turn fuzzy AND pregnant? Didn’t think about that one, did you 😏

Would you rather be able to resurrect dead fics or have the power to create a plethora of new fics effortlessly? - I already have too many ideas swimming in my head and I don’t need more. However, too many fics have been lost into the void, and I have a few that I absolutely would like to see born anew!

Alright this was cool! I like thinking about fanfiction and talking about fanfiction, so this was a really fun tag! Thanks again stxphxn

I believe everyone that cones to mind has already been tagged for this but ssksnsjdb @dezmondmyles @hickapostsart @ironstrangeislove and literally anyone who wants to gossip about fanfiction--

Have fun! :)

[floorbe]

replies!!! ;u;

upperstone replied to your post “I’m curious, what are your favorite character x character ships in...”

Nah it’s not really taboo to ship a killer x victim! Some people won’t do it but if they’d have a healthy enough dynamic outside the killing game it’s fine lol!

Word!! That’s good to know thank u!

yes-sunny-flowers replied to your post

“can you do any random Danganronpa hcs that you’ve been wanting to do?...”

you did not need to go this hard. that was so cute i nearly teared up :,)

thank you mx... I teared up writing this ;-;

xxechoheartxx replied to your post

“can you do any random Danganronpa hcs that you’ve been wanting to do?...”

Your Taka content makes my heart go: ��✨��✨��✨��✨��✨��✨��✨��✨��✨��✨��✨��

;u; im so glad!!!!

sammiedragonslayer replied to your post

“can we get a fem!reader convincing kazuichi to FINALLY take a shower...”

hey op not to be rude but i would literally sell my mother for a part 2

yo when requests open back up...... shoot me an ask....

upperstone replied to your post “hello lads! just a quick update to let y’all know that there may not...”

Feel better dude! We’re still here and we love ya!

Ahh thank you!!! I appreciate it ;u;

shsleyebrows replied to your post “heya! hope you’re having a good day! is it okay to request taka...”

The flavour is immaculate �� You’re such a good writer!!

Thank you!!! I did not expect to be able write this one that well honestly haha so I’m really glad it turned out good!!!

shsleyebrows replied to your post “hello lads! just a quick update to let y’all know that there may not...”

Dw!! Take care of yourself, I’ve said it before but your writing is definitely worth the wait! ��

;-; thank you!!!! 

upperstone replied to your post “hi again! how about kaito, taka, mondo, gundham, hajime, and fuyuhiko...”

Oh my god. I love this. Thank you sm sm!!

Yes ofc!!!!

upperstone replied to your post “if its ok can u do taka, kaito, souda, fuyuhiko and Sakura react to...”

This is so awesome! Very wholesome ty for this����

ghjsgkjm I’m glad you like it ouo!!!!

shsleyebrows replied to your post “yo what’s up? love the blog! can we get a reader walking in on K1-B0...”

I love scenarios like this!! Poor Keebo lmao

Me too hehe!

shsleyebrows replied to your post “I’m curious, what are your favorite character x character ships in...”

Those are some good ships tho :0 I’m not that much of a shipper tbh but it’s always fun to look at the dynamics of pairings!!

Ahh I agree!! I really like analyzing ships haha!

upperstone replied to your post “can you do any random Danganronpa hcs that you’ve been wanting to do?...”

The hero we deserved and the hero we needed. Thank uou

Anything for the lads uwu

shsleyebrows replied to your post “can you do any random Danganronpa hcs that you’ve been wanting to do?...”

These are so cute, I love him �� The way that you write for him is my favourite, if that makes any sense haha, you’re amazing at it!!

Omg thank you sm!!!! bkbkbjnbm I’m really glad!!!! ouo

gundhamsevildoer replied to your post “can you do any random Danganronpa hcs that you’ve been wanting to do?...”

we didn't want it, but we sure as hell needed it

Everybody needs a little Taka cuddling in their lives, I feel. God knows I needed this too

shsleyebrows replied to your post “who’s your favorite Danganronpa guy and girl from each game? and who’s...”

Didn’t see this earlier (thank you tumblr) but our tastes are almost the same!! The majority of the V3 cast didn’t appeal much, especially Himiko... like in the 2nd trial when she kept going on about her “magic” it almost made me quit the game haha. Like, we’re trying to solve a case here??? Please just tell us how the trick works >:( Anyways Taka and Sakura are the best ��

Legit the V3 trials awakened some anger in me I did not know I had LMAO. But I agree Taka and Sakura are 100% the best <3

[the-heart-alchemist]

White Rose Fics of the Month: August

I know I’m a few days late shhh. So anyway, I decided that I can create small lists of fics that I read each month and post them here to share. Since I really only read white rose (lol big surprise) I thought why not just keep adding to my huge master list that I made before? 😆

This will contain fics I continue to read from the master list with updated/longer descriptions or fics that I’ve just recently read through completely and really liked it. Also, these are all Ongoing fics. 

Again, please remember: These are fics that I've chosen from my own preferences and likes, fics that I alone think are great. So, please don’t expect all of these stories to be to your liking. Also, I don’t provide links in this but the fics should be easily found when you look them up. if you have trouble, you can ask me and I can get them for you :)

So, here we go:

IF YOU END UP READING ANY OF THESE, PLEASE LEAVE THE AUTHORS A COMMENT/REVIEW! THEY’RE AMAZING AND ALL OF THESE STORIES DESERVE GOOD MESSAGES FROM YOU! PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

Dust Trader by brokenmirmir- This story is an AU about Team RWBY basically being space pirates and it is absolutely a wonderful and exciting read! It’s full of adorable fluffy pining from our favorite pair with lots of action and tension within the whole team. It’s awesome, please go read it! 

First Time at a Second Chance by TheGreatWeissShark- This story is an AU about Weiss and Ruby in a modern type of universe, where Weiss is a young single mother and Ruby is a college student/barista. There’s angst here and there about their individual selves and situations, but also lots of adorable moments, especially ones where Ruby makes Weiss’ daughter happy, which, of course, makes Weiss even happier. Read it! It’s great! 

Dream Theory by mikotyzini- This is a futuristic modern AU story and is a Bees-focused fic, however, believe me when I say that this story has the BEST VERSION of white rose I’ve ever read. Amongst thousands of white rose fics I’ve read in my life, this is my personal favorite of all of them. For the white rose part, they have a forbidden type of relationship in this and so they’re a million times sweeter, more in love when they’re together than I’ve read in any other story. It’s fantastic and they have so many great moments in this, both individually and working together as a team. 

These Fading Colors by MyBestFriendsBestSeller- This story is a tragic Soulmates AU where Weiss and Ruby are soulmates but meet in the worse possible time. However, this fic is full of pure lovely moments between the two despite their situation. It’s plenty angsty but it’s definitely worth the read. Where it is now is hinting at a happy ending! 

Dark Harbors by teleportingoctopi- An amazing action/adventure Pirate AU fic about Ruby being a notorious pirate and Weiss as a rich princess basically and she ends up as a prisoner in Ruby’s ship. I’m sure you can assume what happens next ;) This is full of painful angst and misunderstandings but they overcome them every time that happens. They’re so hopelessly in love in this story it’s pretty funny tbh. Please read it, it’s soooo good. 

Crash Landing by fictionalportal- This is a like a normal modern AU where everyone in RWBY goes to college and they’re all friends. It’s formatted as just text messages from the characters but it's absolutely hilarious and filled with so many genuinely great moments between every character. It’s a fun read!

Darkening Horizons by SwagWizardSupreme-This a canon divergent story set between the earlier volumes where they’re still in Beacon. I honestly feel like this is such an underappreciated story cuz it’s full of really nice Weiss and Ruby bonding. There’s even nice bee bonding in this too. Also, in the recent chapters, Weiss gets to see some of Ruby’s scars and they have small intimate moment ;) READ IT!

A Scattered Plate by skull025- This a story that was recommended for me to read and thank god too because this is such an amazing story. It’s an AU where Weiss is the head chef of a restaurant and Ruby becomes her new sous chef. It’s filled with some incredible banter and really forward flirting sometimes that make you wanna scream lol also, awesome food is here. I mean c’ mon, really good white rose content AND food? What else would you want?? 

Painting the Town by bandiits- This was also recommended to me and omg how have I actually never read this before?? This is so cute and fun to read! It’s about how Ruby and Weiss’ friends get them handcuffed together and the only way they can escape is to go on a date set by the said friends who set them up lol It’s super funny and awesome! Please read it!

Of Roses and Mirrors by DerpySlurpyTheDerpMaster- This story is another recommendation to me, and is basically an alternate version of how Weiss and Ruby reunited in volume 5 and how they interact after that. This one is such a sweet and tender read. If you want some wholesome white rose content, you should read this. 

The Fate We Choose by HopeOfMorning910- OKAY OMG THIS ONE THO! This one was such a surprise for me in terms of quality. Like holy hell there’re only 2 chapters in this so far but oh my god. It’s soooo good. This is like a magical modern AU where Weiss is a vampire and Ruby is a Fae. The magical rules and properties in this story are like super important and relative to how Weiss and Ruby interact. So, not to give too much away, Weiss is in trouble and happens to find Ruby who helps her and takes her to her apartment for the night. Adorableness and cuteness then ensue plus REALLY REALLY GOOD WHITE ROSE BANTER. like omg top tier writing. I love this. Read it. 

The Snowball Effect by ShadowBlazer- This is another modern AU where Ruby is a political science major in college who is found by Winter who asks Ruby to be in a fake relationship with Weiss. Hilariousness ensues and of course Weiss and Ruby get along really well. ;) 

Fly Together by Etheriell- This is a Superhero AU where Ruby and Weiss are both heroes (Weiss is a brand new hero tho who heavily admires famous Hero!Ruby if you know what I mean *winks*). Ruby and Weiss are almost like partners in justice (not crime) and its so cute because they’re just constantly flirting with this heavy sexual tension around them every time lol so yeah, lots of action and lots of pining/flirting happens! If you want something fun to read, definitely read this!

My Girlfriend is a Dragon by Kirika Nai- This one is a fantasy AU where Weiss just escapes her home to live freely but then discovers this dragon who saves her. Later, said dragon becomes a beautiful girl around Weiss’ age, who she learns is Ruby. Then they get into all sorts of trouble while Ruby learns to be a proper human in society. It’s a hilarious story full of fun and really sweet moments between these two. 

Running Away From (Towards) You by ArrowOvis- this is a modern AU story where Ruby is a professional track star and Weiss is her current roommate at their shared apartment and they’re best friends (yeah not romantic... YET). This story is filled with a lot of misunderstanding type of angst between them but they really love each other. It’s basically a story where Ruby goes through stages of grief because she can't control her feeling for Weiss any longer and she doesn't want to burden Weiss or ruin their friendship because of it. Currently tho, they’re very happy and very much together. Please read it.