#also i went to a secondary school play and it was SO bad in every way you may expect

[chalkscrub]

the Official and Fully Articulated Chalk Sheet - already want to completely revamp it which is a hallmark of any ref sheet i deign to make

[lexithwrites]

Pls prongsfoot.

I am on my knees. Begging.

Pls!!

im just gonna write basic prongsfoot and not sugar daddy au prongsfoot incase this isnt about that,,,,enjoy!

i love the idea of sirius and james growing up together, like they went to the same preschool and begged their parents to hang out every day and they both cry when they have to go home

they also go to the same primary school and BEG to go to the same secondary school and of course they got their way, their parents weren't about to deal with the fallout of separating them

their school life is similar to hogwarts, they meet remus and peter and they're THE group, like they're nerds and play DND but also play football and are great with the teachers and their grades are good too and they're always up to some shit

but james and sirius have always been a little closer, not to the point of jealousy in the group but just,,,its different

james isn't super sure of his sexuality in secondary school but sirius is like,,handsome and pretty somehow? he likes girls, lily evans is still the hottest girl in school and his first crush, but sirius is,,,there's something about him

sirius knew he was bi since forever lmao he's dated guys and girls but nothing has ever really been 'love' for him, at least not yet

he loves james though, obviously, he's always loved james how could he not? he's handsome and funny and smart and charming and tall and—

they're each others first kiss at a house party in year 10, its awkward and they're drunk and outside in the garden trying cigarettes for the first time and its,,,nice?

james finally dates lily in sixth form and they're the school's it couple for months, they are really cute together and they're affectionate and they're both top of their classes, lily is the school's netball team captain and james is the football captain, its great

and then lily breaks down in their last year crying because she thinks she might be gay and she's been so scared to tell james and hurt him but he's the most supportive guy about it

he cries with her because he feels awful for making her feel bad about it

of course he's upset, he really loved lily and always will, but if it isnt meant to be, it isnt meant to be (he cries to monty and effie for a few weeks before finally coming out of hiding and he and lily stay close, james even helps set her up with girls when she's too nervous)

when sirius finds out he basically runs to james' house, he's so worried about his best friend and his heart is hammering in his chest and when he gets there they talk about everything and james cries a little, lily was his first crush, first love, first girlfriend, he lost his virginity to her, she's a huge part of his life and his story

and sirius feels awful because he's happy james is single...because maybe he has a chance?

sirius kisses him and its bad,,,james reels. back, he's so confused and upset and so is sirius and sirius goes home and they dont talk for like two weeks, its awful

peter and remus are awkwardly talking as the other two are silent until peter breaks and begs them to just stop the petty arguing and talk because they're best friends and this is weird, remus quietly agrees and tells them to grow some balls and talk about their feelings like men

sirius apologises for kissing him, smoking a cigarette outside the bike sheds as james kicks stones around and its awkward for sure but they make up

and james is slowly back to his old self after the break up, he and lily hang out and everything is okay, but sirius is,,,james feels different about him

he's more handsome than ever, more charismatic, he was always like this??

and james realises he fancies him and he whines to remus about it and remus, the very gay man that he is, just tells james to tell him

silly remus

james instead just tries to hang out with sirius like its normal, even after they finish sixth form and look for uni's to apply too together james is looking at sirius' lips, his fingers, his hair, his ass, his chest, everything

he's just,,,,gorgeous

and then their first week of uni happens, freshers is underway and remus is down from edinburgh and peter is back from holiday and they all go out drinking with their new flatmates and classmates and its great,,,then james sees sirius chatting a girl up and his heart breaks

james tries to drink it away but that wont work so he just huffs at sirius and drags him to the toilets to yell at him for flirting with someone and sirius is SO confused because why does james care then it slowly sinks in and as james is yelling and nearly crying, admitting that he wants sirius to flirt with HIM and ONLY him, sirius just grabs him and kisses him, dragging him into a stall and locking it

its so heavy and hot and passionate and everything they wanted and needed and maybe they jerk each other off in the bathroom, whose to say? but they come out red faced and with messy clothes and they're both grinning because god theyre idiots but they're each others idiots

[easybrainrot34]

✈️ Colin Bridgerton Headcanons ✈️

This was requested by this lovely anon!! This is my first request so thank you for writing in! It would’ve come out sooner, but i currently have a mean tooth infection, nevertheless, the show must go on! Heads up, third one is a hint of spice. Hope u enjoy☺️

Characters mentioned : Gregory, Anthony, Benedict, Daphne, Edmund, Violet, Penelope, Debling, and Eloise

🎻= regency era

🧳= modern au

🧳🎻= either

Ps my request r open :)

🧳🎻 I think he has a very realistic view on his brothers. I think he use to blindly look up to them just bc they were his older brothers, but as time has passed he definitely sees and recognizes that they both have some decent flaws. However, he really wants Gregory to look up to him the most. I don’t think he would ever admit it to anyone, but i feel like he could think a little higher of himself (not in a bad way at all) therefor he thinks he’s led the best example for how a man should be to Gregory.

🧳🎻 He gives off shy kid vibes. Like between the ages of 4-10 he was pretty shy only having like two friends. I feel like Ben specifically found this a little concerning bc he didn’t want him to have issues in school and life in general, so together they worked really hard on getting him to not only have more confidence in himself but actually practiced having convos. I also feel like once he got to the “interested in dating people” age Daphne and Ben tried their best to tech him to talk aka flirt with people.

🧳 (Lil spicy) Had a hoe phase in college. People are always shocked about how high his body count is (20+) but he was never a douche bag to anyone he’s hooked up with. I feel like when Anthony and Benedict found out on one of the weekly boys nights they have, Ben was proud and Anthony was a little shook. Anthony made him swear up and down he always wore a condom and then congratulated him lol.

🧳 Staying on the college root, he definitely gives off world history major vibes. He def was a foreign exchange student in high school (secondary school for the brit’s out there lol) and studied a couple semesters abroad in college. Specifically went to France in high school, then America, Italy, Spain, and India in college. He also makes it a point to travel every summer. I feel like he would definitely end up as a teacher of some sort tho. Like he’s definitely the cool history teacher everyone loves. Also hes definitely that teacher that gets side tracked easily if u ask him about his time abroad.

🧳 Definitely has more girl friends than guy friends, but not super imbalanced. He just gives was invited to the girls night out vibes. (I have a headcanon that i already wrote that i would definitely add Colin too). He definitely has his Boyz™️ that he hangs with all the time, but he knows they can be a little much, so i feel like when he wants to be social but have a relaxed time he hangs with the girlies. Idk colin just gives friends with everyone vibes.

🧳 I think Colin has diagnosed anxiety, and once he learned that he became more educated and aware of mental health. I feel like he started getting panic attacks shortly after Edmund died (he was 12 yrs old if i did my math right lol) but didn’t want anyone to worry about him so he just kinda dealt with it and kinda got to a point where he thought it was normal. It came up randomly in a convo with Daphne, Ben, and Violet that he gets them but at this point he didn’t get what the big deal was. I feel like these 3 took it seriously and once he got diagnosed he put work into researching how to understand mental health issues more.

🧳🎻 He LOVES to plan dates. His go to is always dinner at a nice restaurant then a show of some kind. Play, musical, movie out, doesn’t really matter to him. He enjoys a night in, sure, but what he really loves is showing you off. He’s proud to have you as his (not in a possessive creepy way, in a sweet way) and wants to show you off.

🧳 Colin is a little bit of a jealous type. We see it in the show when Pen is being courted by Debling. However, i feel like when he’s in a relationship, he completely trust his partner. If he sees someone flirting with you he will let them flirt but he will definitely swoop in with a little hey babe and a forehead kiss lol. If someone try’s to flirt with him tho, he will just start gushing about his amazing partner. I’m talking putting out the Lock Screen and going “ya look how cute WE are”. Once y’all are married tho he NEVER takes off the wedding ring.

🧳 I feel like he has a decent following on Insta and TikTok 😂😂😂. Not like influencer numbers but like 6k on instagram and 9k on TikTok. He definitely post all his travel stuff on Insta and does like little OOTDs on TikTok. Colin gives very much “gives a fuck about how he looks” vibes so i feel like he knows the fashion trends on TikTok. His “aesthetic” is like hipster mixed with old money (bc he is in fact, old money lol). Also yes, he recognizes he gets thirst comments and will play into just a little, but once hes taken he would comment “ my partner thinks so too :)”

🧳 Colin has secret tattoos. Like his friends know but he didn’t tell his family for a minute bc he knows it would become a thing lol. They r all small and in places he can cover up (shoulder, thigh, and one on his wrist he covers up with his watch) but one day he got a little careless at the beach and let them show. I feel like Violet had a “what did u do to your beautiful body??!!” mom moment, Anthony was pissed bc he didn’t tell him, Ben laughed his ass off, and Eloise congratulated him on doing something “actually risky” for once. I feel like after the initial shock everyone really likes them and he goes out and gets more in public places.

! Bonus One !

He still sleeps with his childhood stuffed animal lmfao like it’s a cute little elephant his mom and dad got him. He has had to do many repairs on it over the years lol

[hestzhyen]

WSJ 2024 Musings

Please pardon the self-indulgence, kind void. It's the end of the year and I give almost everything that the magazine runs a chance, so I wanna reflect on the 2024 Weekly Shounen Jump "experience". Behold the kind of hobby data I track in spreadsheets (yes I'm a lonely person, please no bully).

Format

Title (start month/year, # of chapters) - thoughts & impressions. Each category sorted from oldest title -> newest

Axed (U19 or Close Enough)

Martial Master Asumi (06/23, 32 chapters) - I liked this and I genuinely don't understand why it didn't succeed. Nito and Nao were a great duo, the sport was lovingly depicted, and the story was unfolding at a great clip while being easy to follow despite me not knowing a damn thing about MMA. Nito was kind of annoying with how hesitant he was, but he was getting a lot better right before the series was cancelled. Chalking this up to Japan's shit taste I guess.

MamaYuyu (09/23, 29 chapters) - REEEEE I LOVED THIS except for the uninspired magic system and harem elements (Minerva best girl by the way). Also had a distinct lack of Mama Yuyu despite her being in the title. The horror aspects of this were amazing though and I hope the author does a spooky series. He really has a talent for depicting the unnerving.

Two on Ice (09/23, 28 chapters) - sports series have to be super gay or super good in premise to get me to read them and this didn't qualify on either point. Not sure what I missed but guess it wasn't much.

Green Green Greens (11/23, 26 chapters) - same as above and lol golf, good luck in a magazine mostly aimed at a school-age demographic (not even the Kuroko no Basuke guy could make it work).

Shadow Eliminators (12/23, 19 chapters) - a really rough start and bad pacing combined with a generic premise killed this from the get-go, I think. It's unfortunate because the author was really cooking by putting a guy in the heroine role (listen, I have my priorities and I won't apologise for them). MC-kun's story was actually interesting too and I would have liked to see it play out longer. At least he and the heroine guy went to the cultural festival together at the end, which is easily construed as romantic when it's just two people. Oh and the ninja girl who talked through a paper bag hand puppet was super cute.

Dear Anemone (02/24, 17 chapters) - fuck you, I liked it. I love dark body horror and this was really interesting despite some jumbled storytelling once the secondary characters were introduced. Probably would have seen more success in a different magazine... or I'm just coping hard. MC-kun was also totally in love with the Best Friend Guy that he admired so much and no one can convince me otherwise.

Kyokuto Necromance (04/24, 18 chapters) - I feel bad for this author. I liked Aliens Area too, and it breaks my heart that he sounded so defeated in his final author's comments when this got cancelled. I hope he tries again because he has good ideas and characters- they just need more time to get off the ground than WSJ typically allows.

Psych House (05/24, 17 chapters) - it was cute and I read it to the end, but it was deservedly cut short for being boring as hell most of the time. I hated the little scientist girl with every fibre of my being too which didn't help since she was a recurring character. I think there were only one or two chapters I actually enjoyed and I kept reading mostly because Nemuru (bucket kid) was a really well-done portrayal of autism. Just read the chapters where MC-chan's friends stalk her and Bucket-kun around town and the one where they go out shopping for pajamas for Bucket-kun. They're the best and only really worthwhile parts of this series (not even MC-chan's drama with her mom was compelling despite the very solid premise).

Yokai Buster Murakami (06/24, 21 chapters) - knew this wasn't for me right away, and seems like a lot of Japanese readers agreed. The jokes in the first three chapters weren't particularly funny or unique so I dropped it pretty fast. Everyone who thought it was "safe" because it was in the last slot as a comedy series probably shouldn't make bets or predictions in 2025.

Finished Series

Boku no Hero Academia (07/14, 430 chapters) - I think this is the last manga of it's kind in WSJ. The end of this series means an end to the mindset of extending a popular series until it runs out of steam (One Piece is a completely different beast in it's own league). All the big hit series in recent times like JJK and KnY were allowed to tell faster, shorter stories and Kagurabachi -the next mega-hit in waiting- is poised to challenge it's predecessor's speed run statistics. But I don't think BnHA overstayed it's welcome despite dropping it a few times due to lack of interest over the years. I have issues with the execution on main themes, how certain powers were handled, and the ending felt too rushed but it really wasn't a bad series at the end of the day. It deserved the popularity and I'll be interested if the author starts up something new. Shout out to Deku and Ochako for not being a horrible couple too- they had some genuine chemistry between them, which is unusual for a WSJ series.

Jujutsu Kaisen (03/18, 271 chapters) - I'm freeeeeee. Only slightly jesting. I feel bad for the author since he was in poor health by the end and clearly just wanted to end it, but I don't miss waiting to see how a fight turned out. JJK did that thing I dislike where characters biff and bam around a battlefield for eons without significant character development, so I read it in bursts instead of weekly until the last arc. The explanations of powers was clunky, some significant plot points weren't sufficiently followed up on for my tastes (mostly around Yuuji and his "brothers")... it was a bit of a mess of a manga but the ideas the author was trying to express were very good. I love how Yuuji got through to Megumi in the end, and what Megumi wished for, how Gojo saw himself, the blatant SatoSugu stuff, the idiot twins dynamic between Yuuji and Nobara- there was a lot of excellence in this series that got hampered by the sub-par battles. I hope Gege can rest and come back if he's still interested in doing so.

Cipher Academy (11/22, 58 chapters) - this ran a little too long to say it was "axed" but it was definitely cut shorter than the author intended. I like Nisioisin for more than his Monogatari Series stuff and I was hoping this would would stay longer, but alas. Iroha was great and I loved the unsexualized, un-haremized(?) female cast that surrounded him. I was too stupid to follow most of the codes and puzzles but that didn't stop me from checking in every week to see what went down. I also have the deepest respect for the various people who translated this series every week because it was absolute hell for them to do it even with some extra time afforded. Doing a good Nisioisin series translation without a book's worth of TL notes is already a feat, never mind trying to translate one involving tons of Japanese-language specific cryptograms and puzzles.

Limbo Series

Mission: Yozakura Family (08/19, 256+ chapters) - I'll admit I've never read this. All I know is that the jokes of it being so middling that it gets forgotten in every type of list are true because I also almost forgot to put it here. Apparently it's ending soon, so I hope the fans of it get a satisfying conclusion.

Undead Unluck (01/20, 236+ chapters) - I read this for a bit, dropped it, and don't remember why so I guess it wasn't worth following after all. Not to say it's bad, just not my speed I guess. Another series that's ending soon so I hope it goes out on a high note for the people who like it.

Kill Blue (04/23, 83+ chapters) - I tried to like this one, I really did. But I think the author would do better to stick to gay sports series that aren't golf. The premise was iffy for me but I was willing to roll with it until everything got bogged down in the haunted house arc and I dropped it out of boredom. The only notable thing this series has done done is daughterzone the middle school girl to the mid-40's(?) MC, which shouldn't be a relief but, y'know. It's not selling too hot so we'll see how long the author can coast off of the mega success of his Magical Gay Basketball series and the general lack of strong competition for spots in WSJ right now.

Nue's Exorcist (05/23, 80+ chapters) - never read this because I'm not into ecchi harem battle manga, but hope it's satisfying the people who do like it. Also not doing stellar in sales but it's not in a lot of danger either.

New Additions Still Running

Super Psychic Policeman Chojo (02/24, 44+ chapters) - I was a fan of Samon the Summoner so I gave this a chance, but it's too skewed towards referential comedy for my tastes. I do love this author's scumbag MCs though. It's not doing great or terrible in sales (for a comedy series) so far, so it's anyone's guess how long it'll last. It won't be overtaking Roboco any time soon though. Hope the Kochikame collab next issue gives it a boost to close the gap a little just because I like the author.

Astro Royale (04/24, 35+ chapters) - I was intrigued and willingly following along with this until chapter 8, at which point I dropped it like a shit-covered brick. The really unfunny transphobic "jokes" about a femme bad guy and dated gender role BS for the sister that was introduced have blacklisted this author for me forever. I don't care how much I liked the rest of the supporting cast, I don't care if the author writes a series that sells a billion copies with a single volume- I'm never going to give him a chance again unless he makes an effort to improve on how he treats women and trans people in his works (as if he'd care, I know). It's another series that isn't doing great in sales but probably isn't going to be axed imminently because it's still selling better than other stuff.

Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi (06/24, 26+ chapters) - please read this, it's got so much heart and soul! It's definitely not a perfect series -the action's nothing to write home about and the story isn't original- but the characters are top-tier and this author knows how to play with reader expectations. It feels like an earnest love letter to the essence of shounen manga that's just about found it's footing with the most recent chapters. Kiyoshi's in the same boat as Astro in terms of sales- not great, but it's being given room to see if it grows or treads water. I hope it grows because this is a joy to read almost every week.

Hima-Ten! (07/24, 24+ chapters) - the best way I can describe this after dropping it at chapter 2 is "ToraDora for people who don't want to read ToraDora in [current year]". Unfortunately I don't want to see ecchi of high school girls, so the panty shot in the second chapter made it clear this series isn't for me. It goes in the bin of "hope it does well for the target audience" titles. It's seeing some modest success, but it's got a long way to go if it wants to reach the same tier as Nisekoi and BokuBen (We Never Learn).

Ichi the Witch (09/24, 16+ chapters) - I trust the Iruma author with my life, and the artist also being a woman helped me believe that this wouldn't be a male power fantasy series despite the premise. So far it's delivered with phenomenal art and characters and a story that's just interesting enough to keep it in my mind. I do appreciate the author and artist's intentional additions of diversity through Desscaras (best girl no contest) and what could be some trans femme and/or gender non-conforming folks in a position of power. Will be looking to see how volume 1 sales fare when it comes out early next year. WSJ wants this to be a hit with the billing it gets already, though, so I hope it meets expectations!

Shinobi Undercover (09/24, 15+ chapters) - I'm honestly not sure how to feel about this series. The MC is fun to follow, and I like the main girl well enough, but it feels like this series isn't sure how to strike a balance between action and romcom plot beats. I think if it doesn't hit it's stride soon it could be in trouble. Happy to be wrong even if I end up dropping it though!

Hakutaku (09/24, 14+ chapters) - this is dead in the water and it kind of deserves to be. It's cute but there's not much else to say about it since it glosses over the interesting bits of game development and goes for emotional and cool moments that it doesn't build up enough to earn. I think the author has a passion for indie game dev but it's just not coming across that well with all the yapfests and skimming the technical bits. Then again, I'm a tech person that gets annoyed when my hobby/career/interest is simplified for non-tech people in ways I don't like, so... maybe I'm just elitist? Either way, I don't see this making it out of the U19 club with how poorly it's been doing in surveys and rankings. RIP hope the author isn't discouraged and I'll see this one out to the end.

Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery (11/24, 6+ chapters) - Bit too early to say how this one's faring, but it seems like a competent romcom. It's not a genre I like most of the time so I won't be reading further than chapter 4 but surely the BokuBen author will have another banger with this. Surely. I do like the MC at least. But it doesn't seem like it will satisfy anyone who wants actual mysteries to solve- it's a series that's firmly planted in the romcom territory while using Sherlock Holmes aesthetics for comedy.

Safe Series

One Piece (07/97, 1134+ chapters) - what is there to say about a legend? It's the face of the magazine and feels like it will be around forever despite Oda saying he wants to end it at some point. I don't have it in me to catch up with it but I respect the hell out of this series for it's popularity and longevity.

Me and Roboco (07/20, 215+ chapters) - I feel like too many jokes are lost in translation to fully appreciate this as someone who really only understands English, sadly. But it has an impressive run for a comedy series and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. If your series gets a Roboco parody, you know you've made it.

Sakamoto Days (11/20, 195+ chapters) - the action never fails to disappoint! Even if the story gets boring at points, there's always some killer art to look forward to. I'm also really digging the current arc so it's good vibes all around for this series right now. Just wish the author could decide on how far he wants to stretch realism when it comes to people's assassin techniques. It's got an anime airing in the 2025 Winter season so I hope that brings in new fans (and has good direction and animation, which is vital to sell those stunning action scenes).

The Elusive Samurai (01/21, 185+ chapters) - I'll admit it, this is a series that I'm not worldly enough to appreciate. Historical fiction is a tough sell to me to begin with and being bombarded with completely unfamiliar names, locations, and events every chapter left me feeling pretty lost. I stuck with it for a while just because I liked AssClass and Neuro so much but I had to admit defeat around chapter 60 or so. Maybe the anime would be easier to digest?

Witch Watch (02/21, 184+ chapters) - dropped it early on since it's a romcom, but it seems cute and is doing well so I hope it stays successful for it's fans. Anime soon!

Blue Box (04/21) - I liked the one-shot and the author deserves all the success from the little I've read of this. Again, not my genre, but glad to see it doing well. Hope the anime is a hit too!

Akane-banashi (02/22, 140+ chapters) - easily would be #1 for me if not for a certain edgy sword manga. The art, the story, the characters- everything comes together perfectly to weave a compelling narrative that is absolutely an odd fit for WSJ, but enriches the magazine for being present. Everyone needs to read this series! It's crazy how consistently amazing it is! You don't have to know a thing about rakugou to get invested and fall in love. The current arc in particular has been 10/10 chapters for months now and I can't recommend it enough!

*Ruri Dragon (06/22, 26+ chapters) - another "not my thing" series- I tried it before it went on hiatus and it's alright, apparently very good for people who like Slice of Life and cozy coming-of-age stories. Glad the author's feeling better and is able to keep going.

Kagurabachi (09/23, 63+ chapters) - ...do I need to say anything? I don't write hundreds of thousands of words for any series but this one. It took over my brain and I've been completely enthralled for months now- it quite literally occupies almost every waking thought. Much like Akane-banashi, all the core elements come together in an incredibly satisfying way that makes it a must-read for fans of the genre it belongs to. The action is stellar, the characters are phenomenal, the story is blisteringly fast but still being competently told for the most part, and the way sensitive topics are handled should be held up as a model for other authors to follow. If you only read one manga in WSJ, you're missing out. But make it Kagurabachi.

*Digital Exclusive (not printed in the physical magazine)

Hiatus x Hiatus

Hunter x Hunter (03/98, 410+ chapters) - I love this series, I really do. Togashi's the only author who can get me to read his novel when I signed up for a manga. I always look forward to it's return and I hope the author's health holds up long enough for him to end it in a way he's happy with. Re-reading the current arc in full when it's finished will be a fun few week's worth of political gamesmanship!

Overall Thoughts

The magazine's in an interesting period of transition right now. Many of the new series launched this year aren't generating a lot of buzz, big and middling series have ended or are ending soon, and the near-future age demographics in Japan pose some serious questions about what WSJ will do to adapt and keep selling.

The magazine is nowhere close to being in dire straits, to be clear. WSJ is more of a publication for all ages that has a lot of appeal to 12-17 year old boys at it's core. But that demographic is shrinking while the aging population grows. I think this is why the magazine is experimenting with more mature series like Kagurabachi and Chainsaw Man from a few years back- they know they can't keep the same raw sales numbers up if they rely on the core demographic as much as they used to.

The dearth of mainstay mega-hits compared to years past is also why some series like Kiyoshi and Astro are being given more grace than if they had ran a few years earlier. Neither series is doing great in terms of volume sales, but they're not obviously unpopular enough to be easy axes for something with more potential. They have breathing room for as long as there needs to be more action/battle manga in the lineup and nothing more promising comes along. They're safer than ever with Undead Unluck and Yokozora ending soon too.

If we're talking mega-hits in the making -JJK and BnHA replacements- then the only clear option right now is Kagurabachi. This isn't to put my favourite series up on a pedestal! It's just that, historically, the WSJ series that get the most attention and recognition are action series. When people think of WSJ "pillars" they think of the battle series even if a romcom is outselling everything but One Piece (happened this month with Blue Box coming in #2 for volume sales of WSJ titles).

I think Ichi the Witch can find success but it's the only one out of everything that's been released this year that I have any significant faith in, to be honest. I want Kiyoshi to do well and keep going, but it's not exactly "hit" material right now and the volume sales reflect that. Everything else is too early to say or already not doing so hot for WSJ standards.

I think this could be an opportunity for experimentation. WSJ has had a pretty consistent lineup of an ecchi series, a romcom, some comedy, a drama/mystery here and there, and a lot of action. Adding pure Slice of Life series like Ruri Dragon and Psych House shows a desire to branch out in my opinion. The success of a pure drama series with a female protagonist in Akane-banashi is also encouraging. I would definitely like to see more genres! Maybe even a proper horror series...?! I'll be looking at the new 2025 serials with a keen eye for any new trends. Maybe in a few years we'll have the "pillars" be something other than only action manga!

Alrighty, that's a wrap. Thank you if you read this and I hope 2025 is good to you. May we all find a new manga series to fall in love with! And may it survive the axe!

[sugarsnappeases]

microfic - marytunia!!!!! | 1.7k words | i don’t think there’s anything to warn?? so enjoy <3

“Smoke?” Mary asked, shaking the pack in her hand, an eyebrow raised. 

Petunia was already halfway out of her seat, picking up her jacket and leading the way out to the alleyway beside the building where they worked. She’d been waiting for Mary to ask for the last half an hour, fidgeting in her seat and staring blankly at her computer screen. 

A far cry from when she had first started working there, four months ago, trying to stand dead in the centre of the ring of boundaries she had built around herself and making herself as small as possible so that she wouldn’t have to press up against them any more than she already had just by being there, by working in that call centre. 

(D’you wanna come for a smoke?” Mary leaning against her desk, their first day on the job.)

She had been so sure that this job would be temporary, that she would do it for a month at most before she found something better, something that was an actual career, something that paid more than minimum wage and would make her parents proud.  

(Petunia frowning up at her from her chair, “I don’t smoke.”)

They were always proud of Lily, the youngest child, the special one, now in her second term at Oxford, always smarter and prettier and funnier and better than Petunia in every conceivable way, a prodigy, the perfect daughter, the one who had potential. Petunia who didn’t, always average and trying to be satisfied with that, the afterthought, never mind how she had been born first, not bad, not a complete failure but disappointing nevertheless in how she didn’t excel, the sister who was left behind.

(“Will you come anyway?” Mary insisting, those big brown eyes, something nearly desperate in them, and Petunia reluctantly acquiescing.)

Mary had been left behind too, Lily’s best friend all throughout secondary school. Petunia used to think they were more than friends even, but she’d never had any proof and she didn’t like to think about it all that much. Mary wasn’t going to university either, but at least she had actual dreams - Lily may have left them both behind, heading for greener pastures, a new group of friends with summer houses in Tuscany, a new best friend in all her instagram pictures, one that she called a sister, but at least Mary knew what she wanted from the world. Had plans beyond the four walls of the call centre and memories of when a girl with red hair used to smile at her. 

Petunia’s plan had always been to get married, to have a child or two, to spend her time tidying the house and cooking and being unexciting and uneventful, average and disappointing but enough, maybe it would be enough. 

Then Vernon, her long-term boyfriend, had found someone newer and shinier and more interesting and Petunia hadn’t even had the self-respect to leave him, no, he’d had to break up with her after three months of cheating on her and two months of her knowing about it. It was a bit pathetic really, because it wasn’t like Vernon was anything special anyway, in fact, he was fairly awful, but he was security and Petunia always liked to play it safe, no potential, no risks, no surprises. 

She had been surprised to find Mary there, on that first day four months ago, sat at the desk next to hers, friendly as always even as Petunia tried to ignore her, tried to focus on the job (which was mind-numbingly boring and also quite possibly her least favourite thing in the world, calling people up and trying to get them to buy things). It was familiar now though, nice even, especially when they went out to smoke. 

Petunia leant carefully against the brick wall, holding out a hand for one of Mary’s cigarettes. They’d been doing this every day that they’d been at work together for the last four months and she still refused to buy her own pack, she didn’t smoke, you see, but if Mary was offering, then who was she to say no? There probably weren’t many things that she would say no to if it was Mary who was asking.  

Mary huffed as she always did, settling in next to her against the wall and fishing her lighter out of her pocket, placing a cig between Petunia’s waiting fingers.

Once it was lit, Petunia took a long drag, tipping her head back against the wall, eyes closed and breathing out slowly as Mary took it from her so she could take her own, their fingers brushing.

“Lily texted me last night.” she said after a few quiet moments, passing the cig back again. 

Petunia cracked one eye open. So, it was going to be that kind of smoke break, “Oh?”

“She said she wanted me to go and visit her,” Mary continued, “In two weeks.”

Petunia frowned. Two weeks was Mary’s birthday. They had both booked the day off work so they could go into town, do something to celebrate together. 

“Oh.” she said, taking another drag from the cigarette, trying to ease the tension she could suddenly feel in her shoulders.

“Yeah.” said Mary. Then she laughed, a little bitter, a little sad. “Silly, really. All the times I’ve asked her if I could come up and she’s said that she’s too busy, but the first time that she asks me - I’m the one who already has plans.”

Petunia felt herself slump further against the wall, relieved, pleased maybe. Mary nudged her with an elbow, “Hey. Did you think I was gonna just cancel our plans?”

“I don’t know,” Petunia sighed, letting Mary take the cig again, “It’s Lily.”

And really, that could mean any number of things. 

It’s Lily and Lily always gets what she wants. 

It’s Lily and everyone always picks Lily over me. 

It’s Lily and if Lily wanted me to visit, I think I might’ve cancelled our plans.

“Yeah,” Mary replied, blowing smoke out into the crisp February air, “It’s Lily. And of course, I would love to see her. But you’re Petunia.”

“I’m Petunia,” she echoed blankly.

“You’re Petunia,” Mary agreed, a smile in her voice that she could hear now, “and I’ve been looking forward to our little outing for ages,”

Petunia turned her head to look at her, met with those brown eyes much closer than she was expecting, that warm smile, shoulder to shoulder out in the bleak cold. And there was something in the air, more than just cigarette smoke and the intermingling scents of their perfumes, something that made Petunia want to take a risk. 

“And it’s not just because you’re pissed at her?” she asked, because that would be worse maybe, Mary just using her to get back at Lily in some way, even if that was somewhat how Petunia had rationalised their… friendship, at first, or maybe it wouldn’t really make much of a difference, she didn’t know.  

“No,” Mary rolled her eyes, taking another drag before handing the cigarette back to Petunia, “It’s not because I’m pissed at her. Not everything is about Lily. Even if she had replied to every single message I’d ever sent her, I would still wanna go with you.”

Petunia paused, lips pursing around the end of the cig in her mouth, because she was sure there used to be a time when not everything was about Lily, back before she was born maybe, red hair and bright green eyes and immediately special, immediately the centre of attention (not that Petunia was jealous, she didn’t want to be special, she didn’t want the hot heat of the spotlight, but, it would be nice to have something, maybe, she didn’t know, maybe she was a little jealous). Now, and for as long as she could remember, everything had always been about Lily, it felt strange that Mary should say something like that, refute that absolute intrinsic truth of the universe, so casually, as if it wasn’t an earth-shattering revelation. 

Because Mary wanted to go with her. 

Not Lily. 

Her. 

Petunia Evans. 

Mary was still smiling a little, blinking up at her, earnest, honest, brown eyes that Petunia would probably follow anywhere, brown eyes that were making her brave, making her want to burn down the boundaries she had placed around herself, or at least climb through the hole that Mary had been steadily cutting into them over the course of the last four months. 

They were standing close, and Mary’s shoulder was warm against hers, and Mary wanted to go with her. 

And Petunia wanted to go too. Wanted to float off into this alternate reality where not everything was about Lily, and people chose Petunia because they wanted to, and maybe Petunia didn’t play it safe, maybe she took a risk. 

Maybe she watched as those big brown eyes flicked down to look at her lips for a moment, still wrapped around the end of their cigarette.

Maybe she brought up a hand and tossed the butt onto the floor.

Maybe she moved that hand to Mary’s cheek, soft skin, cold in the winter air.

Maybe she leaned in and pressed their lips together, something far out of the bounds of what she had thought she was or could be, something exciting and eventful, and maybe still disappointing to her parents but maybe that didn’t matter as much as she had always thought it did. 

Maybe what mattered was Mary.

Mary who was kissing her back, a hand on Petunia’s waist and pulling her so they were properly facing each other. 

Mary who wanted to go out with her on her birthday and probably get drunk and come into work hungover the next day and spend an excessive amount of time on smoke breaks. 

Mary who Petunia shouldn’t want, had tried and failed to convince herself that she didn’t want, but who had a smile that could melt glaciers and a gaze that felt like a spotlight and a way of working her way into your life until you looked forward to seeing her more than you had ever looked forward to anything. 

Mary who was there, in the alleyway beside the call centre with Petunia, kissing her in a way that she had never been kissed before, like she was the most precious thing in this universe, like she had potential.

[littlesistersti]

Rant or Trauma Dump: Overblot Leona is Relatable as a Student in American Public School

Will keep this short as possible

Abstract: Leona's trauma = shared trauma but (American) 12th grader student edition. I share my experience. Am I allowed to say it's my trauma when it's just resentment?

Work count: 585

Leona expressed strong resentment at the idea of birth > skill so why r bother trying? Nobody cares. I understood it from a story writing standpoint at first then this came to me and I felt things.

Not sure how common this is around the globe but I went to an American public school for high school/secondary school education (why do I sound like a foreign exchange student haha) and every week of/before homecoming or winter break or some major event, there’s spirit week in which each grade level compete with themed outfits, lunch time activity\games, and assembly games. Win enough points to beat the other grade.

Off topic but my school’s Assembled Student Body have zero creativity for lip sync and themes because why do they keep doing Marvel and Disney? I might as well think we’re sponsored by Disney because we could’ve had HTTYD or Wonder Woman for crying out loud. Also there was a spirit day for “hype beast” in which you wear the high end stuff like Supreme. Well, I was bullied in elementary school for being NOT high income so I held resentment for those things.

Freshman year (9th grade), I did my best but we came in last place. Seniors won. Sophomore year, I felt bad for the freshmen who tried harder than us last year and they lost. Their side was decked out in white, it looked like Big Bear. Seniors won. Junior year, I figured it out it was pointless. Seniors won. Then came our turn. I noticed it. My fellow seniors would not bother trying because they knew they’d win anyway or would cheat the system like raising their hands for points even though they’re not wearing anything spirit (sometimes they be counting shoes). I hated it. I hated it more when the senior favoritism happens before your eyes.

Every winter assembly, there should be a sled race where one player is in a cardboard box and another pulls. Seniors never pull because their box has a giant hole so they can stand up and run to the finish line like a Grinch. I never saw that my senior year. Every assembly ever, there’s supposed to be a clapping game similar to Simon Says. The freshman are always duped on the first “clap” and the seniors don’t even play the game, it’s an applause! A standing ovation even! Even the seniors get to win the lip sync battle every time. Makes me wonder if they could stand in the corner then still win first place. In elective and math (above Algebra 1) classes, you would find mixed grade levels so not sure how much the point-counters scrutinize. They are not nit picky with seniors. If you raise your hand, we don’t check. Below seniors? They check. Yet, I think the cronyism is the main problem.

Seniors don’t need any skill set. They just need to be that class and bam, easy win. Any other class could try as they might and never win. I hated it more when people say, “let them win, they’re graduating.” Might as well give them all passing grades, senior year is the easiest anyways. No worries about senioritis. All the teachers love you because you’re mature baby-adults and about to leave. Hate the freshmen because they’re the hooligans. Let’s bully the freshmen.

Conclusion: Leona is relatable in the birth order > skill set resentment and not trying hard if nobody cares, because of the high school seniors favouritism I witnessed during spirit week.

[albonoooo]

i've been tagged by @f1-giuki, @blueballsracing and @liamlawsonlesbian to share my nine favourite albums!! thank you loves <3 and please know i spent way too much time thinking about this. i go through phases with the music i listen to so it was incredibly hard to narrow it down to nine albums and ended up being a combination of all-time and current favourites (and honourable mentions because i cannot shut up). i probably forgot at least half of the music i know while making this.

(in no particular order)

1. favourite worst nightmare by arctic monkeys

all-time favourite. my most beloved arctic monkeys album. every time fluorescent adolescent starts playing, i feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for something i didn't even experience. no skips on this album.

2. rush! by måneskin

current favourite. about 3/4 of the songs on this album are currently in my most played songs on spotify. idk what kind of crack they laced this with, but it is fucking good.

3. stadtaffe by peter fox

all-time favourite. these songs were played everywhere all. the. time. when i was a kid. i remember sitting on the floor in the living room in front of the radio whenever it happened, just so that i don't miss anything.

4. on the way to wonderland by sunrise avenue

all-time favourite. my first ever favourite band that i latched on to when i was around nine because i heard fairytale gone bad on the radio so often and really loved it. went to the library and borrowed this album and out of style on cd so my dad could make me illegal copies at home lol. i genuinely still find samu haber's voice one of the most soothing i've ever heard.

5. pain remains by lorna shore

recent favourite. lorna shore has quicky become one of my favourite metal bands ever since will joined them and this album was on repeat for months after it first came out. it's so good.

6. les choristes soundtrack

all-time favourite. one of my favourite movies, has made me cry many times. thanks to the three separate teachers that made my class watch this film over the course of my time at secondary school. even more so because it really scared me after the first watch when i was 11 (i think it was mostly rachin and mondain who freaked me out lol).

7. master of puppets by metallica

all-time favourite. one of the albums of all time and that's a hill i'm willing to die on. my first metal album which my dad was very happy about. this has been in every music listening rotation since i was twelve.

8. doo-wops & hooligans by bruno mars

all-time favourite. another nostalgic one. this album and unorthodox jukebox were two of the cds my mom used to keep in her car and play all the time on longer drives when i was younger. for that reason, i also associate this music with my pediatrician (whom i love and wish i could still go to lmao).

9. gold album by lukas graham

all-time favourite. first of all, why was it so hard to find a picture for this? i got this cd for my thirteenth birthday after i heard drunk in the morning on the radio and was obsessed with it. then i spent hours and hours in my room just listening to it on repeat for the next few years. i actually haven't listened to any of these songs for a while, but i still love them dearly.

honourable mentions:

(in no particular order)

1. am by arctic monkeys

their best album imo.

2. out of style by sunrise avenue

mentioned above.

3. void by the rose

could've honestly put any album of theirs.

4. unorthodox jukebox by bruno mars

mentioned above.

since this took me an eternity, i'm sure everyone and their mother has been tagged by now so. if you see this and wanna do it, consider yourself tagged :)

[rothjuje]

Loved all your comments on my solo travel inquiry. A couple people said FOMO is real, and you were right. I told Justin I was going to plan trips with or without him and then the following week he started planning one for us hahaha.

Summer. Every time there is a break from school, every time, I think ooh this is going to be so nice, get to sleep in, not worry about the crazy of different schedules etc. No. No Jess. The kids will wake up even earlier with instant whines of “I’m borrred!”

Tuesday we did a farm, a park, and then the lake for $1 ice cream. Wednesday we played/swam at the lake for most of the day. Thursday we went to a touch a truck event, the library, a park, and then swimming at a friend’s pool. And this morning the kids played happily for an hour before the “I’m borrred” and constant bickering started. Whyyy. I’m so tired. George and I have been going to bed early/sleeping late to recover. I’m also old so I’m sore and had to take Motrin to walk straight after 3 nonstop days, oy.

One of my best friends up here has a pool. We hang together several times a week because she also has a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Anyway, was super excited to use her pool this summer but turns out my pool fantasy is really more of a nightmare. George simply will not get in after several days of coaxing. But he does love to throw things into the pool. Dirt. Towels. Shoes. Clothes. Phones. It hasn’t been fun. My friend is convinced that pools are relaxing for adults and fun for kids. But she also ingests a lot of weed. I ingest no weed and I find George at the pool to be very, very stressful. He won’t wear a swim diaper or a floaty (not that he gets in but I am very fearful of him falling in while he bends over the edge trying to retrieve stuff he’s chucked in).

Anyway. My friend says I’m letting anxiety control my life. The pool dilemma is causing us to butt heads. But. Why should I take my neurodivergent child who is unaware of drowning or consequences in general to a pool where I have to constantly control his behavior? I mean anything sounds more fun than that. If he was my only kid then okay, but I have to constantly leave him in the pool area to take the girls to the bathroom or get them a snack etc and maybe it is anxiety. Maybe it is secondary trauma from our first placement who had brain damage from a near drowning incident. Or maybe it’s normal to not feel relaxed while at the pool with 3 kids that don’t know how to swim, one being neurodivergent.

I can understand her feelings being hurt that I no longer want to bring the kids over, but I am honestly so sick of having to explain to people that trying to keep George safe in certain situations is mentally taxing eg by bodies of water or in busy downtown areas (he likes to be near the street so he can watch trucks go by).

Sigh.

I’m just tired of being the uptight friend. I’m so chill at home or at fenced in parks or at the beach or lake (George and Genna love sand/playing at the shore). I hate being the one to constantly veto plans or control where they take place. Honestly, I rather my friends just hang out without us and let me escape to the low-stress lake that no one else wants to go to. But they feel guilty and then I feel bad and ugh.

Is there a solution I’m missing?

Anyway. So so excited for a normal weekend without recitals or holidays, it’s been almost a month since our last normal/chill weekend. I’m looking forward to catching up on chores which probably sounds boring but the state of our house and lack of clean laundry is starting to super stress me out. I’m also so behind on gardening stuff, some of my plant babies desperately need to be replanted or pruned.

I probably sound like the least fun person after this post 😂

[casual-violinist-fangirl]

(In that Moment I Almost Forgot) Because You Loved me so Loud: 2,745 Words

. The sequel to my fic You Loved me so Loud!

. Omega comes home from school one afternoon and something is clearly wrong. It’s up to Crosshair to figure it out or face the wrath of Omega’s angry flute playing all evening.

. WARNINGS: this fic features mentions of homophobia, though no slurs are used in the story. There’s also mentions of violence and possible domestic violence due to homophobia.

. This fic features a new OC! Both Tessa and Omega are 15 in this and I’d really like to include Tessa in some other fics so please let me know what you’d think of that!

. AO3 link is in the comments!

It had been a typical afternoon for Crosshair; he had woken up after his night shift and drifted into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee before the chaos of the evening commenced. Every evening was the same in the Fett household. Echo would arrive home from work about 3:00, joining Crosshair for a cup of coffee before starting to cook dinner. Omega would get in not long after that, her bus home from school getting to it’s usual stop at about 3:15. She would usually come in, all smiles and laughter, and greet her brothers before disappearing to trying and get her homework done.

… this afternoon was different.

Echo had arrived at home in the same way he usually did, and he and Crosshair were sat at the kitchen table with mugs of coffee in their hands when the front door opened. There was a brief pause where Omega would usually announce her presence in her usual cheery manner, then the door slammed shut, making the two adults in the kitchen flinch.

‘Omega?’ Echo stood from the table and stuck his head into the hallway, only to see the girl throw her flute case to one side and storm up the stairs, ditching her school blazer as she went. Saying nothing in response, she entered her bedroom before slamming that door as well.

Crosshair had remained seated throughout the fiasco, not quite sure what to think about it all. Clearly she’d had a bad day, it certainly wasn’t the first time Omega had come home and slammed all the doors in frustration. Only those times, Hunter was there and had gone up to speak to her once she had been given some time to herself… well Hunter was currently on a work trip, and Wrecker and Tech wouldn’t be in for the next few hours… which left Crosshair and Echo to deal with whatever was bothering their little sister.

‘Do you think we should go and talk to her?’ Crosshair was snapped out of his thoughts as Echo reappeared, looking concerned. Ughhhh he had not had enough sleep to deal with angsty teenagers. He loved the kid, no one would ever say he didn’t, but maker was she hard to handle when she was upset. She had always been like this, he found himself thinking idly as he stared into his coffee. ‘I’m not sure I fancy having something hurled at my head for entering her space,’ he stated, and Echo groaned; clearly that wasn’t the response he had been hoping for. ‘What? You know she only ever wants to talk to Hunter when she’s in a mood like this.’

‘Well Hunter isn’t here, and you know how long it took us to persuade him to go on this trip,’ Echo snapped. ‘If he figures out that we can’t cope, you know he’ll be on the first flight back here.’

The pair sat in silence for a moment until the peace was broken by the sound Omega’s bluetooth speakers turning on. Great.

As it turned out, Omega had shown a level of musical talent from quite a young age; when the local music services had come into her school and offered up a year’s worth of free music lessons due to the family’s ‘financial circumstances,’ she had begged Hunter to let her play an instrument. The rest, as they say, was history. She had been playing the flute since she was seven years old, and was easily one of the best musicians at her secondary school, despite her insisting that she wasn’t. Through the same music services that had offered her lessons, she had been able to join different orchestras and wind bands, and even though she seemed to be constantly busy, she clearly adored the buzz that it gave her.

Crosshair’s only issue with his little sister’s musicianship was the fact that when she was angry, she didn’t listen to angsty music by Olivia Rodrigo or Billie Eilish… no. Omega listened to the loudest, angriest classical music she could find, and if the rest of the household were really unlucky, she’d get her flute (or maker forbid the piccolo) out and try playing along.

Upon hearing the bluetooth speaker connect to the girl’s phone, Crosshair cringed. ‘I take it all back,’ he stated as he stood from his seat. ‘Her flute’s down here so we need to stage an intervention if we don’t want to be hearing angry piccolo music all evening.’

He cautiously clambered up the stairs; luckily the music hadn’t started yet so Omega must have still been looking for something to listen to. He knocked softly on her door and stuck his head around it, praying that nothing would be thrown at him. When nothing came flying in his direction, he took that as his cue to enter the room fully.

The sight in front of him was desperately sad; Omega was curled up on her bed facing away from the door. Crosshair might have thought she was asleep from the sight of her, but he could tell from the subtle shake of her shoulders that she wasn’t… she was in fact crying.

‘Rough day, kid?’ he asked as he made his presence known. She would soon tell him if she didn’t want him there. A shrug of her shoulders told him all he needed to know and he moved closer to her bed, not wanting to intrude.

Omega seemed to sense his thoughts, as she sat up and made room for him, now facing her brother completely. ‘What do you think?’ she asked, wiping her nose on her sleeve. Crosshair wrinkled his nose and handed her a tissue from her bedside table. She took it, and the pair sat quietly for a while, not saying anything to one another.

Crosshair was of two minds here; he could stay and ask her what was going on. He didn’t want to push the girl away by pressuring her to talk, but equally he knew that if he left her on her own it wouldn’t be too long before the angsty piccolo music started. His worry for his little sister was obviously his primary concern, but he also valued his ears and didn’t want to be deafened by the squeaky metal pipe.

‘You… wanna talk about it?’ he eventually asked, looking over at Omega. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked miserable. Her shoulders were hunched over as though she was hiding something. That made Crosshair’s stomach drop.

‘Omega, are you okay?’ he asked, shifting so that he could see her more clearly. His nerves weren’t improved when he spotted a very angry, very fresh looking bruise on her jawline. How had he missed that a minute ago? ‘What the fuck happened to you?’ he asked, worried about what the answer would be.

Almost as though Crosshair had pulled a pin on her, Omega broke into loud, heartbreaking sobs. She threw herself at her brother, throwing her arms around him and clinging on as though she never wanted to let him go. All he could do was wrap his arms around her trembling form, trying to bring some sort of comfort to the girl.

’S-something terrible happened a-at school today,’ she stammered out, trying to keep her breathing as even as possible. ‘I d-don’t want to ever go back. N-never!’

This took Crosshair by surprise; Omega had been having some issues at school in relation to teasing, but following his meeting with the headteacher last year, everything seemed to have calmed down. As far as he was aware, Omega hadn’t had any issues with bullying since she started there… so this was news to him.

‘What happened, ‘Mega?’ he asked, gently prying her off of him and holding her away from him so he could see her bruise better. Her bottom lip trembled as she tried to regain her composure, allowing him to check her jaw for possible breakages. Once Crosshair was satisfied Omega didn’t have a broken jaw, he held her close once more.

‘There’s this girl in my music class,’ Omega started. ‘She was always really nice to me and I never thought anything of it really… always told me I looked nice, always laughing at jokes I make.’

Crosshair listened; he had a funny feeling he knew where this was going, and if he was right he knew the ending to this story wasn’t going to be a happy one.

‘She started hanging out with me and Hera at lunch,’ the girl continued. ‘Hera was convinced that she fancied me, but I didn’t pay any attention to that. No point in getting my hopes up even though I like her.’

‘Then she comes up to me at lunch today…’ Omega’s voice was beginning to wobble. ‘She told me that she really liked me, and asked if she could kiss me.’ Crosshair stroked a gentle hand through her hair as he tried to soothe her without putting her off talking. ‘I said yes and then we did and it was… Cross, it was great.’ Fresh tears were streaming down her cheeks now as she struggled to continue. ‘B-but her step brother saw us holding hands later and started having a go at her, calling her names and trying to drag her away.’

‘I stepped in, tried to help her, but he got all in my face and started calling me names too… and then he hit me.’ There was an almost sickening silence in the room as Crosshair absorbed what he had just been told, but Omega clearly wasn’t done. ‘I told her I wouldn’t tell a teacher because she didn’t want her brother to get into trouble and make things worse for her at home.’

The reality of the situation hit, and Crosshair was honestly at a little bit of a loss. On the one hand he could completely see why Omega had done what she had, and wanted to support her. On the other hand, some punk had hurt his little sister, and he wanted nothing more than to march down to the school and report the incident.

For a while neither of them spoke, Omega simply sniffling away into Crosshair’s side. ‘What about the rest of her family?’ Crosshair eventually spoke up. ‘Are they supportive? Do they even know?’ A small nod filled him with some relief. At least the girl in question lived in a home where she was supported by her parents. ‘Her parents are fine, and her step brother doesn’t live at home most of the time,’ the girl trailed off. ‘I really like her, Crosshair and I don’t want her to get hurt because of me…’ her tears returned.

‘Omega.’ This was probably the most serious she had ever heard him sounding. She looked up at her brother, eyes wide and watery. ‘This did not happen because of you. This did not happen because of her. You don’t need to blame anyone for what happened today except for the kid who hurt you and your… special friend.’ Omega snorted lightly at the term special friend. ‘I’m supposed to help look after you, kid. I can’t just sit by and see you get beaten up by some girl’s brother just because you like her and don’t want things to get bad for her. We can talk to the school, and then to her parents to help solve all of this.’

‘But what if she gets hurt and it’s all my fault because I told a teacher?’ Omega continued crying and Crosshair rubbed soothing circles into her back in the way that he knew would help her to calm down.

‘There are things we can do to help her, Omega,’ he soothed. ‘Right now the only person I’m concerned about is you. You need to be safe at school, and right now you’re not.’ The girl nodded showing her understanding, not that it made her feel any better about the situation. Distantly, Crosshair heard the doorbell ring but didn’t think to move, knowing that Echo was quite capable of answering it.

Crosshair was in the middle of mentally preparing himself to tell Omega that he was going to call the school office to make an appointment with the head when there was a soft knocking at the door. ‘Omega,’ Echo called quietly, making the girl sit up as he stuck his head around the door. ‘There’s a girl at the front door… she said her name was Tessa and she’d like to talk to you,’ Crosshair noted the widening of his sisters’ eyes and guessed that Tessa must be the girl that Omega had kissed earlier. ‘I can tell her that you’re not happy to see her right now, ‘Megs,’ he started to say, but she shook her head at that comment.

‘I’d like to see her,’ she croaked out. ‘Can she come up here?’ she looked between her brothers with a slight look of desperation across her face. Crosshair nodded and smiled a small smile. ‘Of course she can, kid,’ he replied with a grin. ‘Though your bedroom door stays open.’

‘Cross!’

‘What? You’re a teenager now, besides Hunter would kill me if he knew I let a girl you fancy into your room with the door shut.’

‘Ugh, fine,’ Omega groaned, looking mildly irritated, but a small smile on her face told her that she was only joking.

Crosshair left her to clean herself up a little before Tessa headed into the room. Downstairs, both Crosshair and Echo sat with cups of coffee hoping that whatever was going op upstairs was positive. The last thing anyone needed was for Omega to be going through her first heartbreak. After what felt like forever, a small burst of laughter came from upstairs and both adults sighed with relief. At least Omega and Tessa seemed to be okay. Not long later, two sets of feet came pattering down the stairs and towards the front door. Crosshair could hear Omega saying goodbye to the girl, and that she would see her at school tomorrow; at least his sister was now willing to go to school. Earlier she had been dreading it.

The door opened and then there was a silence. Echo glanced over at his cousin, a confused expression on his face. Crosshair rolled his eyes.

‘Just because you’re happy now doesn’t mean you can make out with your special person on the doorstep!’ He called from his spot on the sofa.

‘Crosshair!’ came the indignant cry of Omega. Tessa laughed lightly and said goodbye to Omega before disappearing out of the door, the two adults noting the sound of the door shutting. Moments later, Omega appeared in the living room, a big smile on her face.

‘What happened then?’ Crosshair asked in a teasing tone. ‘Aside from you making out with her on the doorstep.’ The teenager sent him a scowl, but it was replaced with a smile once more. ‘She spoke to her mum and step dad,’ she started. ‘They convinced her to talk to the school about what happened and so she did. Her step brother is looking at possible exclusion, not to mention he’s grounded forever.’

Crosshair nodded, glad that something had been done about the situation. ‘And what about you two?’ Echo chimed in, raising a questioning eyebrow with a smirk on his face. Omega blushed lightly and smiled.

‘We might be going to the cinema on Friday?’ she asked, a pleading look on her face. Crosshair laughed. Trust his little sister to organise a date before asking if it was okay for her to go out in the evening.

‘I don’t know…’ he pretended to think about it to wind her up. ‘I guess you could go, though maybe we should check with Hunter just to make sure…’

‘He’s not even here, Cross!’ Omega exasperated. ‘Besides, you know how protective he is. He’d want to ask Tessa a million questions.’

Echo’s phone buzzed and he looked down at it before snorting with laughter. ‘What makes you think the questions haven’t started?’ he asked, holding his phone up for the teenager to see. She groaned. ‘How did he find out so fast? I swear he has super sonic hearing or something,’ she grumbled.

‘No,’ Crosshair countered. ‘But we did install a camera with alerts on the doorbell last month so he probably saw your little kissing sesh on the doorstep.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’

[enthusispastic]

so what do you teach? why did you choose it? how did you get there? what do you love/hate about it? i’m also a teacher (preschool) trying to figure out my path

I currently teach mostly middle school science, though I have also taught high school biology and other life/earth sciences and high school theater and speech. I chose these subjects because I love them deeply. I chose to teach middle school and high school because teenagers are really cool people and working with them is very rewarding to me. They can connect with the subject on a deep and amazing level and can connect between subjects in a really cool way. Plus they're just cool and fun and funny.

I got into teaching in a really conventional way. I went to college for education and got my BS in secondary ed in my subjects. I was already planning to do science, but I got into theater during college and added that one later in my college career. Since I went to a religious school and started my career in religious private school, they had a call/placement program and that's how I got my first job. After stuff at my first school got shitty and we moved back to my wife's hometown, I applied to my current school and got the job because my arts background set me apart for their program (arts integration focus).

I LOVE working with kids. It's an energy drain to be sure, but the everyday functions of teaching lessons, organizing labs, working with students, and heck even grading are all somewhere between fine and awesome. If that was all there was I'd love it. My current school has a huge community of neurodiverse kids and nerds of every stripe and staying connected to a community of young neurodiverse, queer, and artsy nerd kids by default of the job is heartwarming to say the least. I love seeing kids grow, and the "lightbulb" moments almost make me feel like maybe I don't want to quit at the end of this year. But...

I CANNOT continue teaching though, because that's not all there is. Important and necessary functions of the job that are extraneous to classroom teaching pull me down so bad. I can't keep up with lesson plan documentation, differentiation documentation, constant staff meetings, IEP/504 meetings that pull me out of class, curriculum development, politely kissing admin ass (moreso at my last school than current) to keep my job safe, dealing with parent demands and complaints, keeping up school communication culture, preparing materials for various conferences and showcases, attending school events to "support a culture of school spirit" and every other thing that teaching does to eat your life whole. My disability (ADHD) definitely plays a part here, but even if I did have a typical brain, teaching is a career where you have to give up your own life and individuality, and do it for an audience of people who are VERY often not remotely grateful for it, or only performatively grateful one/two weeks per year. Admin and parents all want to tell teachers how to do their jobs despite limited or no experience, and that's another kind of exhausting. Kids may be cool, but they're also people who are learning their social stuff, and a lot of times that means that they don't know how to be kind or respectful or decent to teachers. I try to be patient and respectful about it and guide them to understanding, but through no fault of the kids' that is not something that a teacher can do 5 days a week for months and not feel like we're dying.

Anyway I hope that helps you. It certainly helped me to put it all out there.

[waglifeornolife]

Jess omg I was chilling reading a book innit and I wasn’t really processing it was more of just looking at the words and I was just remembering primary school life (time ago innit) and I remembered this one friend I had called Fatma and honestly she was so so wise. Here are some examples that I remember off the top of my head:

1) one time I was complaining about getting up for fajr(morning prayer in islam) and I was like going going on about how tired I was every mornings because of it and she turned around and told me “you would get up if there was a real fire in your house even if you were exhausted right? So why does it bother you to wake up in the morning so you escape hell fire?” And honestly that has stuck with me like how was she so good with words at 10 years of age?

2) one time our friend Connor saw something really bad and like they enjoyed watching it(maybe it was like corn or something idk) and she turned to him and went “Connor no stop that because my mummy always tells me watch what you watch because that can change how you think, when you change how you think you’ll change how you speak, change how you speak and you’ll start acting how you speak, you act like that all the time and it will become a habit, habits become your norm and lifestyle and your lifestyle is usually what people judge you on. So it’s good to change for the better not the worse”

3)we were at the beach on a residential in year 6 in Marseille and her older brother got stabbed like 3months and died during his recovery prior and she was somehow still like okay but I wasn’t really sure if she was so I was asking her if she was alright and she just replied “no I’m okay I do miss him all the time and I wish he was still here but the only thing guaranteed in life is death and he was a good person so I’m sure he’s in paradise and if I’m even half as good as he was I’ll get to see him again whenever I die. Death isn’t negative because we won’t always want to live. I hope we do live lives full of purpose even if they’re short because living life without doing anything is just for waiting for death”

We don’t really talk much now because we ended up going to different secondary schools and also have different interests and hobbies but she’s still a really nice person and we wish eachother happy birthday and she also got accepted into the brits school stage technician and design (I’m so proud of her omg) and I can’t wait to see how that turns out for honestly she always been into stuff like she’d always be the person to take charge during school plays even though the school would already be doing most of the stuff and she’s been through it honestly all with a smile plastered on her face I wish nothing but the best for.

But it still baffs me how smart she was at 8-11 honestly. I mean she’s smart now as well but wow shes just amazing :)

wow that was a lot of information 😂😂

the thing you said about death really struck me in the heart because it’s so true. it is genuinely the only thing that is guaranteed in life 🥲

also, congratulations to the girl, the Brit School is great from what i’ve heard. i’ve had a few friends who went there back when we were in secondary school, i also did a production for a theatre company there so i already know that she’s going to love it! 🫶🏼

[itsyaboilexus]

SO! im at school again, AND i have thought of a reason why Sirius might want to betray James and Lily (Peter and basically the whole Order, but thats secondary for this little skit)

I present ✨Sirius unable to accept that he would watch his best friend become a father✨

don't get me wrong, this little f*ck is awesome and kind, but hes just seen Walburga in Lily and Orion in James too much. (i know, kinda shitty, but- hear me out and think about it)

I mean- imagine : Sirius came to visit Jily and Harry, came with a present for both the two parents and their little boy, but when he comes, he sees Harry playing alone in the hall with something whilst Lily had the radio turned on, not really paying much attention to Harry, thanks to the kid being calm. and boom, flashback, Siri and Reg playing, also alone, also not being looked after by Walburga, radio being also turned on and just.. too many similarities.

Lily isnt a bad mother, not at all, just a young inexperienced one that left her kid for a little while alone. not a problem with that. but Sirius, the traumatized thing he is, just saw every similarity (even ones that werent actually there) and.. it began that way. he began hating Lily and James having Harry, raising him, just because he was paranoid as fuck. Neither Lily or James did anything wrong, but when you start looking for something, it simply IS there. ykwim?

aaand so it went downhill, with him trying to take Harry out more and more, trying to separate Jily from the kid, and it resulted in the most drastic way possible; having Jily killed by Voldemort, Harry getting to Dursleys (Sirius' plan failing here, he wanted to raise Harry, but Dumbledore did stuff-) and Sirius going to Azkaban.

(yes, this is kind of inspired by the quote 'you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain' or however it goes, in a way that Sirius thought of Jily as the heroes who could turn to villain, iykwim :])

kinda longer than i expected but.. hey, have fun reading this ig-

HELLO! am new here, this is literally my second post about complaining about the lack of spaghetti in my life (I'm not italian lmao) so take this with patience :D

its just a little fic idea i had in school after scrolling down tumblr during break

HP, right after Lily's and James' death, but instead of Peter being the traitor, Sirius was ACTUALLY the traitor (for whatever reason, i havent thought of that yet- maybe hes just evil, idk), and Peter is truly dead.

Regulus isnt dead even though everyone thinks so, he ran away right after getting the horcrux and is on the run (somewhere in northern italy, you get the CMBYN reference ⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)), trying to figure out how to destroy the horcrux, but as soon as he sees some wizardly news and sees that Sirius has been captured and is in azkaban, he storms right back to London. as soon as he goes to James' and Lily's house, he finds a breaking down Remus in the ruins, because fuck, the man he loved, killed their three closest friends and is now in azkaban.

And so they learn to cope together, Regulus silently copes with the knowledge him and James had an affair and never told Lily and now James is dead before they could properly end it. Even though Reggie loved him, he wanted Harry to have a normal family.

And now he doesnt, because Reg and Remus dont know where Harry is at all, only to be told when he is 11 (beginning of Sorcerers stone) that he was with Lily's sister, etc etc,

(this part is almost the same as HP storyline, except Ron hasnt got an old rat but a regular rat and Harry has genuinely been almost killed by Sirius in PoA)

[elidokie]

i’m so scared that i’m faking being happy but at the same time i know i’m not because happiness is a choice (and also not a destination) and i choose it every day.

even though right now i have to urge to go, i know it’s all temporary. i keep imagining myself. when i die, all my stuff will go to Mar. even my 3DS, and even my copy of soul silver.

yikes. i hate feeling like this. i feel so icky and gross whenever i do. cmon eli! this isn’t you! you’re supposed to be happy and full of joy on the time! think of all the tender mercies! you fucked up bad yesterday, and God still let you get another chance! mom made breakfast! dad went out to buy us a drink at the new gas station they built down the road! and Mar is in the living room waiting for us to go outside and tell her about the new book we are reading!

cmon! think of how much you love being alive! because you do.

i have a hard time accepting the bad feelings as feelings of my own. my brain is so frustrating sometimes. it feels like it’s not mine.

i miss being little. i miss being 14. my parents were mean, and i didn’t have any friends, and i had the ugliest hair cut in the world — but i was 14 and i played my favorite video game for the first time, and all Mar n I had to worry about was our stupid Government class that we were taking for college credit.

Mom was really happy when we told her that we got accepted into the dual enrollment program, even though she didn’t understand that dual enrollment was for the students that were smart enough to be looked at as a waste. It’s a school in south Texas, with only 15% of the students actually going on to get a degree after graduation. Even if it was only for the numbers, it really did help out.

I didn’t think I was going to go to college. I get frustrated when people say that a Bachelors is the same as a HS Diploma. I didn’t decide I was going to college until my junior year. At most, I thought I was going to just finish off whatever I had left of classes at the community college I was already attending during high school. But then during the state exams, Mr Austin looked at Mr Sowell and went, “You are looking at the two brightest minds of the 21st century.” (referring to me and Mar), and even though it’s not true, because I’m just a 19 year old girl, it still gave me a sense of hope.

Mom never went to middle school (secondary school I guess) and has a 5th grade education. I do everything for her. We told her about World War 2. It’s crazy that she doesn’t know anything about it. Then we tried telling her about outer space, she doesn’t know much, but she knows about planets! we told her that there is a myriad of planets, and we told her what galaxies are, and how galaxies can collide, and how stars can die beneath their own weight.

i feel like that sometimes.

she says it’s too late for her, but i don’t think so. i’ve been trying to teach her english, but she doesn’t care to learn. she can order at the drive thru by herself and she can have a conversation with Bailey’s parents. that’s enough.

dad first told me he loved me during graduation. he hugged me too. i miss the feeling of dad being proud of me like that. i know moms always proud of me, but it’s in a different way.

i like seeing dads face light up. i hate the stigma that i have to take care of my parents once they get older, or that children of immigrants live for their parents, but it’s so true. dad always looked so happy after i performed.

when i passed my drivers test (after going to the DMV like 4 times) he hugged me and was like “i’m so proud of you!” and i think about that a lot. i told him how i was planning on going to UT (my literal dream school and i’m so glad to God that i even got accepted) for aerospace engineering. and he was so happy. then i ended up “following my dream” and going to liberal liberal arts school in Texas for fucking ENGLISH. and he still was so happy. i cried when they dropped me off at my dorm, and i still cry thinking about it.

andrew was so right when he said that moving away from your parents for college is some white people shit. i’m still grateful to the universe for the experience though.

when i came back home during the winter break, i think he could tell that my depression was coming back. maybe that’s why he was so supportive about me dropping out. i had 4 days left until i had to move back to Denton when i had decided to withdraw. fuck, i was so scared. i remember asking him over and over what he thought i should do, and he just went “whatever you want mija, it’s your life not mine” until i ended up actually withdrawing. i know that he knew i was scared.

the next day he took me to dallas to pick up my stuff. a 6 hour drive, 2 hours to pack, 6 hours back — and he didn’t complain. i was so miserable the whole spring, which sucks because it’s my favorite season.

we would take Mar to class 2x a week (Mar can’t drive, she’s too scared to, so dad would take her and i would tag along) and then sit in the Circle K parking lot for two hours until her Latin class was over (the drive to her uni was 45 minutes, so it made more sense to just wait there). He’d buy me an horchata and a hot dog, he was always like “these are good today!” and i would agree, i never told him that i don’t like hot dogs, but it’s okay because i think he was always trying to convince himself / trying to make me feel better about not being in school.

sometimes we would go to Taco Bell, or to Costco. it was always the same thing. me being miserable about having to be at a uni i don’t attend, and him trying to make me feel better without knowing how. i’m grateful though.

i told them i was going back to school in fall. they never asked me about it. that’s the only thing i’m jealous of white people for, that their parents know how to do all the college stuff. they wouldn’t check up on if i was caught up in the paperwork, or if i had talked to the school, or if i did my financial aid — they just assumed that i would do it on my own. and i did do it on my own, because i knew that they wouldn’t know how to help me.

i pushed myself.

after finally doing all the stuff for the school here, and finally setting up my classes and everything (thank god), i told dad how i was thinking of switching my major. i told him i was gonna switch to architecture. his only response was “that sounds like a reliable degree!”

i always switched up what i wanted because i want multiple things. but the one thing that i know for a fact i want, is to write. so he was still as happy when i told him that i was going to keep doing english, but i’m dropping the education courses. im switching to creative writing.

then we talked about grad school for a bit and i told him that i was planning on going to Utah or Minnesota near Juni. i think he’s more supportive of Utah, just because it’s closer to Cali. Mar is going to Cali for law, she takes all her law exam shits later this school year, and then is probably going to talk to grandma about moving in to the little studio in the back. grandma is obviously going to say yes.

dad also didn’t care that i stopped working. i mean, i know a part of did, but he never said anything. i like to think that i did a good job hiding how i was doing mentally, but every week dad would ask if i wanted to get a slushee from Sonic, which i know is his way of trying to make me feel better.

i stopped with the TEFL program i was doing. i know i’ll pick it up sometime later. right now i have to worry about getting an internship, grad school, applying for the study abroad program, and this upcoming semester. the fact that i’m graduating next winter feels like a sin. i just started college. maybe i should be more appreciative of the fact that i’m finishing early early.

also getting a job. but i have confidence that God has something better for me planned. i have enough money to pay for my car bill next month, and just barely enough for the one after that (i might have to ask dad to help a bit). the only reason i feel bad leaving the school in dallas, is because i was on a full scholarship. i think my parents paid like $1000 the whole semester and that was for the room i was staying in.

i don’t expect mom and dad to pay for this semester, especially since it was my choice to move back home. so i know i have to pay for it on my own. i’m okay with working 24/7 if it means they don’t have to worry about it. but, i know how dad is. he’d go into debt if it means i get to go to college.

Mar and i are on our own for grad school though, they made that VERY clear LMAO. i might check out that women’s only university that Ms. Burger told me about. she got her M.F.A there and said she loved it. she was a crazy woman, talking about how she lived in London, how she’s okay with being 57 and single because she has her dog, how she wrote her thesis on Little Women.

anyways, i feel like i’ve written enough. even though nobody reads this. it’s like i’m bothering my future self for whenever i do reread this. i talk a lot. i only really took notice of it because of how often i keep YAPPING to 26y/o. he said he doesn’t mind, but i’m scared that he does. because why would he want to hear some stupid 19 year old vent about stupid shit. either way i’m appreciative of it.

yesterday we played fortnite. he’s really good lmao. we won most of our games! it was really funny. the dynamic of our relationship is really funny. there’s like a 7 year (about to be 6!!) age gap between us which for the most part doesn’t really matter. but he’s experienced so many more things than me, and it’s very obvious at times. like when i talk about uni and my future, and then i realize that this mf already has his shit figured out. like, he’s GROWN. it’s really funny though. i made this grown man play fortnite with me. and it was fun!

ugh, i said i was gonna stop this text post but i always have to much to say. i miss juni. so so so very much. he’s literally my soul partner. i dream that im at his house sometimes. in the living room, i’m laying sideways on the couch and he’s laying on the recliner. his parents in the kitchen making dinner. his younger sister in her room playing roblox. i always feel at home when i’m there, as strange as it sounds. i’m eternally grateful that his family accepted me so easily. and that his mom loves me. it’s july there too.

i miss mn. i’m not going to be going there anytime soon, because juni is coming here in september. so i probably wont be there until december. which sucks because it means that i’m going to have to get a new job. since i’m taking 2 weeks to go to mexico, 1 for mn, and then 1 to go to georgia to visit Cav. so that’s like, the whole month! i’ll stress about it later.

none of these things are permanent so why stress? im just 19 (ugh i’m gonna keep saying this even after im 20.).

20 is so close and its scary. i feel like a baby. my dad still has to drive me around the city, and mom still eats dinner with me.

i think mom knows that my eating is getting worse again. she’s not very (i forgot the word but it has the same meaning as “slick with it”), as she’s always calls me during her lunch break to go “oh what did you eat for breakfast?”

that’s the only reason i have lunch with her sometimes. to ease her worries i guess. juni is more normal about it, he ask “did you eat?” like once every few days. i’m glad he’s like that but it also upsets me. i don’t think he understands my mental health issues, or my issues in general. he told me he didn’t care to learn about it because i’m a human and not an animal. which i understand. but also like, this is a part of me that isn’t going away.

i feel like we are at two different places sometimes. which is crazy because of how close we are, literal soul ties. i’ve known him all my life.

anyways. i think i’ll end this here. i’m sorry if there are any typos or inconsistencies in my writing here. i use this as a diary, i guess. i graduated with a 4.3 and got so many scholarships to write (because woo! there’s a lack of representation when it comes to latin authors getting published in the US! especially women!) so how jarring would it be for me to say that i never paid attention during english class. i don’t know what a preposition is, i don’t know how to properly structure sentences sometimes, but that’s okay!

i lied again. i did pay attention to english class. i just forgot almost everything i learned.

i’m getting hungry. i think i’m gonna get boba later. anyways. goodbye, i love you.

[tumblezwei]

mind giving some more detailed thoughts about "velma"? i saw a pretty unflattering review and some people said it was by a hater so it was biased, but i don't wanna sit through something genuinely terrible. fwiw, i liked "mystery incorporated" for a darker iteration of scooby

Oh definitely. I wanna make it clear first off that literally nothing is wrong with making the cast more diverse. It's a complete nonissue that unfortunately needs to be mentioned to make sure everyone knows I'm not a fucking asshole.

And uh, putting this under a cut because wow I had more words than I thought I would.

Pretty much everything outside of absolutely superficial nonsense is just bad. The writing is the most obvious and most damning for me. The first episode opens with Daphne and her friends in the school locker rooms showering and the literal first conversation is them lampshading how pilot episodes always have more gratuitous nudity and sex than the rest of the show. And it's not a one off joke, it's a whole several minutes long bit where they argue about the pros and cons of it. And after Daphne gets stopped by Velma from drowning her friend in a puddle for disagreeing with her, Velma asks "what about race-blind casting? What do you think about that?" We get an answer from Daphne and then the dead body is found.

And that's about what you'll get from the humor. For some reason I expected better than constant sex jokes, nudity, and bit-sized versions of arguments the creators see on Twitter, but you won't get much else. In the same episode is a pregnant woman being photographed naked with her baby pressing against her stomach enough to see the outline because. Funny. And the rare time a joke ever lands it's followed up by another joke lampshading teen mystery show tropes. It's just not funny.

And aside from that is the atrocious pacing. Absolutely nothing is given any room to breathe, and it always feels like you're being flung wildly from plot point to plot point with no emotional attachment to anything going on. Fred gets introduced, he's racist and misogynistic btw, and literally two scenes later he's telling us his character motivations. Just, states point blank that his deal is trying to be Masculine enough for his dad. And then he leaves. And then we get Velma's backstory with her missing mom. And before we have even the rest of the episode to get invested in her search, it's revealed that her mom just left and there was no mystery.

Like, yeah, maybe it's a bait and switch, but the way information is conveyed in this show is so blunt and without a single hint of artistry or care that it felt like a slap in the face.

None of these characters feel like themselves and none of them are fun to watch. Velma is just kind of mean to everyone all the time, Fred has become White Privilege personified, Daphne is Popular Mean Girl, and Sha-sorry Norville is the sad sack friend that has an unrequited crush played for laughs. Also he hates drugs. Haha.

And I'm not saying you can't do fresh takes on these characters, but imo the things that make them feel like themselves just aren't there. Shaggy isn't a desperate nerd afraid that he's a beta male, he's a chill dude that's loved by his friends and loves to have a good time. And oh god I just realized that we didn't even see Norville eat anything. but anyways, Daphne's character is always at it's best when she's a ditzy rich girl who's surprisingly competent. Like the best humor from her comes from how she's basically Barbie in every sense of the definition. Fred is an ally, fuck you. Like I get you went with the White Privilege stereotype because he's the only blue-eyed blind-haired character, but Fred Jones is a fucking himbo and always will be.

The secondary characters are nothing. Just black holes for bad jokes. The plot is stupid point blank.

And there's Velma's hallucinations that are thought to be conjured from her guilt at her mother's disappearance. But never once are they treated seriously. We get one scene where the horror of it gets built up only to be immediately made into a joke. The scary stuff in this show has no tension. Nothing is ever given proper tension, nothing ever gets lingered on. We see a horrifying image of a viney arm wriggling it's way into Velma's heart and then they make a joke. Velma runs through a horror house made from her own mind only a joke to be made about Norville's feelings for her. Which he has. Velma also has a crush on Fred btw. And despite the obvious end goal of Velma/Daphne, the two have no chemistry between them.

And there's no Scooby Doo. Because apparently that's what makes the franchise a kids show. Sure. Why not?

Just. Don't watch this. If you're a Scooby Doo fan you're not gonna get anything out of it. Go rewatch Mystery Incorporated instead if you want to see these characters treated with respect.

[mariesdeluluworld]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐨: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐍𝐨 𝐎𝐧𝐞

Next Chapter

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry and his twin, Y/n their longest-ever punishment. By the time they were allowed out of their cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, the first timeout on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. (Y/n wanted to strangle his dimwitted cousin at that. Could he not see the old woman who just recently broke her leg?!)

Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry and Y/n Hunting. This was why Y/n and Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where they could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came, they both would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in their life, they wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny. "They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"

"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it ― it might be sick." finished Y/n, and then ran, before Dudley could work out what they'd said. One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry and Y/n at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before, however, Y/n was still very fond of them and he continued to pet and play with them even though Harry refused to get near any of them. Mrs. Figg even let Harry and Y/n watch television and gave them a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.

That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life. As Y/n looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins. He looked so handsome and grown-up. Y/n wanted to laugh, he thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.

There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry and Y/n went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. They went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water. "What's this?" Y/n asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he or Harry dared to ask a question. "Your new school uniform," she said. Y/n looked in the bowl again. "Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."

"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you both. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished." Y/n and Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. They sat down at the table and tried not to think about how they were going to look on his first day at Stonewall High ― like they were wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably. Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's and Y/n's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.

"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.

"Make Harry and Y/n get it."

"Get the mail, Harry."

"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke them with your Smelting stick, Dudley." Harry and Y/n dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and ― a letter for Harry and Y/n. Harry picked them up, and he handed Y/n his letter before he stared at it. Y/n's heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He and Harry had no friends, no other relatives ― he and Harry didn't belong to the library, so they'd never even got rude notes asking for books back.

Yet there it was, a letter addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: Mr. Y/I. Potter The Cupboard under the Stairs 4 Privet Drive Little Whinging Surrey.

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, Y/n's hand trembling, Harry and Y/n saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.

"Hurry up, boys!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. Harry and Y/n went back to the kitchen, still staring at their letter. They handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, then Y/n sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.

"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk―."

"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry, and Y/n got something!" Y/n and Harry were on the point of unfolding their letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope when it was jerked sharply out of their hands by Uncle Vernon."That's ours!" said Harry and Y/n, trying to snatch it back.

"Who'd be writing to you two?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter's open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within the second set was the grayish white of old porridge."P-P-Petunia!" he gasped. Dudley tried to grab the letters to read them, but Uncle Vernon held them high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took them curiously and read the first line. For a moment, it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.

"Vernon! Oh my goodness ― Vernon!" They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry, Y/n, and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.

"I want to read those letters," he said loudly.

"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."

"Get out, all of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letters back inside its envelope. Harry didn't move, while Y/n glared at his aunt and uncle furiously. "I WANT MY LETTER!" Harry shouted. "Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.

"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall and grabbed Y/n by his arm and shoved him into his twin brother, then slammed the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor, while Y/n pushed Dudley over to look into the keyhole (the two of them ended up pushing the other out of the way for a while until Dudley decided to place his head on top of Y/n's, but he didn't care, he was too busy trying to listen to his aunt and uncle).

"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address ― how could they possibly know where they sleep? You don't think they're watching the house?"

"Watching ― spying ― might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly. "But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want ―" Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.

"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything....,"

"But ―"

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took them in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?" That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry and Y/n in their cupboard. "Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?" asked Y/n, his arms were crossed over his chest.

"No one. It was addressed to you, by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."

"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily. "It had our cupboard on it."

"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.

"Er ― yes, Harry, Y/n ― about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you both are really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you guys moved into Dudley's second bedroom."

"Why?" said Harry.

"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."

The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.

It only took Harry and Y/n one trip upstairs to move everything they owned from the cupboard to this room. Y/n sat down on the bed and stared around him as Harry put their stuff away. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next-door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end-all bent because Dudley had sat on it.

Other shelves were full of books (which Y/n was happy about). They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched. From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't want them in there... I need that room... make them get out...." Harry sighed and Y/n stretched out on the bed. Yesterday, they'd have given anything to be up here. Today, they'd rather be back in their cupboard with that letter than up here without it.

"G'night Harry," mumbled Y/n, he closed his eyes and curled up to sleep. Harry looked at his twin, smiling. "Good night Y/n,"

The next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall, while Y/n watched his cousin throwing a tantrum in amusement.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry and Y/n, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted,

"There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter and Mr. Y/I Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive ―'"

With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leaped from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry and Y/n right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind while Y/n was on his arms, trying to get the fat man to stay still.

After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's and Y/n's letter clutched in his hand.

"Go to your cupboard ― I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at the boys.

"Dudley ― go ― just go."

Harry walked round and round his new room with Y/n right behind him. Someone knew Y/n and Harry had moved out of their cupboard and they seemed to know they hadn't received their first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time, Harry will make sure they didn't fail.

He had a plan. The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. "Harry? What are you doing?" asked Y/n. He rose up from the bed, sleep still in his e/c eyes. "I'm going to go get our letters," he said. Y/n looked at his brother.

"But -"

"No, no buts. You stay here." Y/n tried to object, but Harry strode out of the small bedroom. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door― Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat—something alive!

Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror, Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Y/n looked at his brother and shook his head. He was awoken by his uncle shouting at Harry and he dragged himself out of bed to help his brother make breakfast.

Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink. "I want―" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.

"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them, they'll just give up."

"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."

"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia. They're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.

On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry and Y/n. As they couldn't go through the mail slot, they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom. Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked and jumped at small noises. On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry and Y/n found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window.

While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.

"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry and Y/n in amazement. On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.

"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers. "no damn letters today ―"

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. The next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one, while Y/n rolled his eyes at his brother and picked one up from the floor, tearing it open in seconds.

"Out! OUT!"

Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and grabbed Y/n by his arm, ripping the now open letter out of his hands before Y/n could even read the cursive ink writing, and threw them into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.

"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" He looked so dangerous, with half his mustache missing, that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later, they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway.

Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag. They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Now and then, Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. "Shake'em off... shake 'emoff," he would mutter whenever he did this.

They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall, Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry. He'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer. Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley, Harry, and Y/n shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored, but Harry and Y/n stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering ... They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day.

They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table."'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter and Mr. Y/n. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:

Mr. H. Potter and Mr. Y/I. Potter.

Room 17

Railview Hotel Cokeworth.

Harry and Y/n made a grab for the letter, but Uncle Vernon knocked their hands out of the way. The woman stared. "I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.

"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for. None of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again.

The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.

"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled.

"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television."

Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday ― and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television ― then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's and Y/n's eleventh birthday.

Of course, their birthdays were never exactly fun ― last year, the Dursleys had given Harry a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks and Y/n got a moth-eaten pair of socks with some string. Still, you weren't eleven every day.

Uncle Vernon was back, and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.

"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.

"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them. "I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon. "so all aboard!"

It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours, they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed; the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire, but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.

"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully. He was in a very good mood. Obviously, he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry and Y/n privately agreed; though the thought didn't cheer them up at all.

As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, while Harry and Y/n were left to find the softest bit of floor they could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Y/n was sitting up, his knees brought to his chest as he shivered. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry and Y/n they'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. Harry laid and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.

Five minutes to go.

Y/n heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.

Four minutes to go.

Maybe the house on Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.

Three minutes to go.

Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that?

And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

One minute to go and he and Harry would be eleven.

Thirty seconds... twenty ... ten...nine ― maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him ― three... two...one...BOOM.

The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright and Y/n shot up, his eyes wide and staring at the door.

Someone was outside. Knocking to come in.

[akikasas]

more of my randomized group swap and their shenanigans

Vivid BAD SQUAD (An, Shiho, Airi, Saki)

saki doesn't understand why her friends are so intimidating they're really just softies that love girls when it comes down to it

shiho gets recognized at gigs because her sister was a former idol (and later, gets recognized because shizuku is an idol again) and every time shiho has to pretend like she doesn't know who her sister is

even funnier is that airi will sometimes save her by going "oh you mean shizuku like my girlfriend? the famous idol shizuku who is dating me?"

an shows up to rehearsal one day mumbling "emo boy" by ayesha erotica under her breath and the other girls are like "BUT AREN'T YOU A LESBIAN AND DATING AN EMO GIRL???? WHAT IS THE TRUTH AN SHIRAISHI"

the groups before the merger were An and Airi (who went by the name BAD/GALS) and Shiho and Saki (as Viva la Vivid!)

Nightcord at 25:00 (Mafuyu, Touya, Emu, Kohane)

emu has to go to their SEKAI at least once a week to get the rest of them out of there and to school

kohane made a joke about emu being a letter away from emo one time and emu thinks about that every time they hang out now

touya and kohane immediately tell mafuyu to get some therapy and emu is just sitting there in the SEKAI after mafuyu makes her grand speech like "well maybe i could write a song so happy that it cures mafuyu-chan's depression"

the other three are shell-shocked when they find out that emu's family runs Phoenix Wonderland, and yet none of them actually do any research on emu before meeting her in person in the SEKAI for the first time so they don't know what she looks like

mafuyu's user is still Yuki, touya's is DOGdaze, emu's is WONDAHOI, and kohane's is KuroKoha

Leo/Need (Haruka, Honami, Akito, Kanade)

akito makes fun of his sister for being a cutesy idol despite him literally being in a cliche-ass band with his childhood best friends

haruka was literally a former idol and should have been given every opportunity to play the piano again and yet she sucks at it so hard when the band gets back together for rehearsal the first time

akito and kanade become friends again because their significant others are involved in a shady online groupchat and they vent to each other because what if it's a fucking cult???? what then???

haruka and akito are frenemies but only on akito's side because HARUKA WAS A FORMER IDOL AND HE'S JUST A FUCKING BASS PLAYER????

kanade almost immediately took to guitar and her dad (who was a street busker for the majority of his life) got upset about her being so naturally attuned to instruments rather than her being better at songwriting than he was

Wonderlands x Showtime! (Minori, Mizuki, Rui, Ichika)

mizuki & rui cause nonbinary circus chaos everywhere they go

ichika and minori bond over the fact that their partners are in leo/need (and minori is astounded when she finds out that ichika also has 2 girlfriends in vivid bad squad)

minori goes fucking berserk when she learns that rui is friends with a member of the ootori family

everyone but minori is trans and minori's the ULTIMATE cis ally

minori often gets lead roles, ichika is the secondary actor, mizuki is pretty much a wild card, and rui directs and produces the shows as well as plays smaller parts

MORE MORE JUMP! (Nene, Ena, Tsukasa, Shizuku)

again, loser tsukasa tenma real in all timelines

once nene and ena learn that tsukasa is close with rui, they will never ever shut up about him dating a clown (shizuku tries to remind them that rui isn't actually a clown, nor is tsukasa actually dating him. this does not dissuade them in the slightest. in fact nene even goes to ask mizuki and mizuki says "yeah they're gay keep scrolling")

ena and nene are best friends and have sneaked out of at least 1 rehearsal to watch VBS

shizuku offhandedly mentioned once that it might be nice to look uniform with tsukasa wearing a skirt and he hasn't looked back since

tsukasa wants to pretend like he's the actual leader of the unit but shizuku is actually in control here