#am I going to post this anyway? yes

[aro-sora]

Friends of My Heart

@arospecfanworksweek Day 4: Frayromantic

It's Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week and Arospec Fanworks Week! This fic explores frayromantic Kairi and how she feels about her crush on Sora fading. I'm also here to promote my platonic paopu sharing agenda, which is what inspired this fic.

Summary: Kairi's crush on Sora has faded but her love hasn't, and she wants them to remain a part of each others' lives.

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Rating: G

Relationships: platonic SoKai, implied SoRiku

729 words

No warnings

Additional tags: Platonic Relationships, Frayromantic Kairi, Platonic Paopu Sharing     

Read on Ao3

—

Kairi and Sora sat on the paopu tree. It seemed smaller, but Kairi knew she’d just gotten older and the tree was an easy step up instead of a climb. But the space to Sora’s left was empty, where Riku usually stood. She and Sora watched him sitting on the beach, the bright light of the sunset shining on him.

“Hey, why’s Riku all alone?” Sora asked, a touch of wistfulness in his voice.

“He said he needed time to himself. Let’s let him be,” Kairi said.

If not for Riku’s distant gaze, his mind seemingly deep in thought, she would have asked him to join them. But she didn’t. At first, Kairi thought it was selfishness that stopped her. She had this time alone with Sora, but it didn’t feel the same as she’d imagined in the past. Only a year or so ago, her heart would have pounded and her face would have blushed. But those feelings had faded, leaving something else in her heart.

While Sora’s eyes were still on Riku, Kairi reached up to the tree’s leaves and pulled two fruits down. “Here!” she said, holding one fruit before Sora.

“Huh?”

She’d startled him, and she watched his eyes move from the paopu fruit to her face. She gave him a reassuring smile, but he didn’t return it. His eyes fell back to the fruit in her hand.

“Tomorrow’s fight will be our toughest yet,” Kairi said.

She didn’t say, I’m afraid. She didn’t voice the doubts in her heart, the fear tearing at her insides and making her palms slick whenever she held her Keyblade. Her training improved her fighting skills, but she’d only fought minor Heartless and sparred with Axel. She had no idea how’d she’d fare in a real fight, one with her life and her friends’ lives on the line.

I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want to fail.

Her mind recalled the drawing of her and Sora in the cave. She’d cried when she’d seen his addition of the star-shaped fruit. Her heart still hurting from their parting, she’d added her own. Kairi didn’t regret that. She wasn’t embarrassed to admit she'd had a crush on Sora, and drawing the fruit had been the best way to show that when she couldn’t tell him directly.

But then Sora had returned home, pressing her good luck charm in her hand and smiling at her with a light that rivaled the sun. Joy and relief had pushed out all the worry in her heart. And when the excitement had faded, Kairi had been surprised to realize her crush had as well.

I don’t love like most people do, but I love you, Sora.

She hadn’t had the courage to tell him that before he and Riku had left for their Mark of Mastery exam. The charm and  “See you soon”  had been enough for her at the time.

But this was not just any upcoming battle—this was the eve of a Keyblade War. Kairi wanted to share her true feelings. Her childhood crush was just a sweet memory, and her heart longed for him as dear friends. Her worries that Sora also had romantic feelings for her were put to rest by the hesitance on his face when she’d presented the fruit to him.

Oh, Kairi had certainly noticed his attention on Riku and the love in each boys’ voice whenever they spoke of the other. Their reconciliation in the Organization’s castle had been a joy to see, after Kairi had helped Sora recognize Riku. She would be there to support her boys—the friends in her heart—and she hoped they would find their own courage one day to express the feelings in their own hearts.

But right now she needed to share her desires.

“I want to be a part of your life no matter what. That’s all.”

Sora grasped the fruit and nodded. She tucked her empty hand in her lap, the weight of the fruit lingering on her palm.

“Kairi, I’ll keep you safe,” Sora said, smiling at last. Even now, her heart fluttered at the sight of that smile.

She shook her head. “Let me keep you safe.” Let me show you what you mean to me.

They raised the fruits to each others’ lips.

[beebfreeb]

Louisiana Meshi!!!! Thistle will be at the crawfish boil.

[lilybug-02]

Pain is a great motivator…

Part 26 || First || Previous || Next

—Full Series—

Meanwhile Toriel:

(Loud noises don't wake her up usually.)

Artist note: I’m so proud of this :))) I know it’s a lot of dialogue and reading, but dialogue is grueling work for me. I’m glad with the art and for the amount of pages I made in such a relatively short time span -w- page 5 was super fun to work on. A lot of blood, sweat, and hours here... :) The backgrounds were a big bore tbh, but I finished them! Yippie!

[lanternlightss]

“… why did you even take that, stardust.”

[wasyago]

we're at it again🕺

[oldmanpuppyplay]

Timestamp Roulette: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Dir. by George Miller Req. by @activatedsludge

[rubberduckyrye]

Okay in all seriousness. There's something that I REALLY want to talk about as an open discussion with the fandom, but. This is not going to be a very nice thing to hear/talk about.

It's about how Gonta is treated by the fandom.

As a fan of all the V3 characters now, and as someone who has always been a fan of Gonta, and as someone who has many mental disabilities and two diagnosed neurodivergancies... I'm tired of playing nice about it.

You all need to stop being ableist towards Gonta.

I've mentioned in the past that I don't like shitting on personal interpretations. I don't like saying something is or is not canon because narration is just a big web of text that you try to decipher with your own personal biases, experiences, and thoughts. That's why two literary analysts analyzing the same text with the same literary criticism rules can come to wildly different conclusions--why people develop different headcanons from the same canonical information.

But one of the things that challenged my integrity is just how many people view Gonta as this innocent, naive, ignorant, baby boy who can do no harm/never has a complicated/dirty/violent/sexual thought in his life ever.

This incredibly ableist interpretation of the character bothered me for, well, obvious reasons (See: It's fucking ableist, need I say more?) but I never challenged it as harshly as I am now because to be frank, it's not my place to tell people how to HC a character. It still isn't. But I've pretty much given up on my integrity on the subject and have decided to go all in on discussing why this interpretation of Gonta is just. Really bad.

First of all, not to promote my own analyses here or anything, but I think this analysis I did of Gonta explains a LOT in regards to the ableism the cast gives him in canon. I also think that this subtle ableism is why the fandom is so bad with Gonta's characterization in headcanons and fanfic--because they've seen how the cast treats him, and they think it's normal. They don't see the microaggressions, they don't see the subtle ableism in the cast--they just see this big giant idiot who speaks like Tarzan in the English version (which... I don't actually know why people assume Tarzan (Thinking of Disney's version) is stupid. Like as a boy he had to reinvent the spear with no one to guide him on how to do it. He was able to strategize and outsmart "civilized" men in the final showdown. Still I digress) and don't see the literal genius behind his social awkwardness.

There is also another very important point I'm going to make in addition to this, and it's going to be very uncomfortable to Gonta fans who insist he's nothing but a sweet baby who only has pure thoughts. Especially to the fans who insist he "can't be sexual" or think it's weird to ship him with his peers.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but... Gonta blatantly has sexual desire and gets horny right in canon.

This is further clarified here:

It wasn't a matter of Gonta didn't want to touch her because touching someone in their underwear was inappropriate, or being flustered because she was in her underwear which is inappropriate...

It was literally a "weird feeling" that made him unable to approach her or touch her. A "weird feeling" that Miu makes pretty obvious as to what it was--sexual arousal.

He literally was sexually attracted to and felt sexual arousal from looking at Miu in her underwear. He had sexual feelings and thoughts about Miu. Why?

Because Gonta is a young man.

Gonta is a brilliant, talented young man who has normal human thoughts for someone his age--sexual desires, upsetting thoughts, complicated thoughts, ectect. He is not a child, he is not mentally stunted (I've been informed that people have literally said this on Ao3 for the NSFW Gonta fics, please for the love of god stop that)

I think the reason why Gonta fans typically want to keep him as a "pure baby child who can do no wrong" is because treating him like the young adult that he is makes it harder for them to justify Chapter 4. Every time I've seen a Gonta fan that hates Kokichi, it's always followed by the sentiment of "Kokichi manipulated and abused Gonta into killing Miu, so it's all Kokichi's fault." They're afraid of nuance and liking a character with the grey morality of genuinely thinking Mercy Killing the cast is a viable option, because it challenges their own morals about the character they adore.

To those people who read this and are upset: You can and should like Gonta! Gonta is a magnificent character who showcases the subtle way microaggressions can manifest and hurt people, he's a good-hearted person and a literal genius, he cares deeply for his friends and loves everyone with upmost sincerity.

But.

You need to re-evaluate your stance on Gonta if you think he's a stupid, naive fool who Kokichi manipulated. You need to re-evaluate why you think those thoughts, why you think Gonta being shipped with anyone is "Kinda weird" or "has weird consent problems" or "give you the ick." You have to challenge yourself and ask yourself uncomfortable questions in regards to why you treat Gonta like a child when canon has proven otherwise, why you think he cannot have violent or sexual thoughts, why he can't think mercy killing his class is the only way to save them.

This isn't an attack on you--but understand that these specific takes on Gonta? They are ableist in nature. They belittle and dismiss him, they treat him like a child, an idiot who can't think for himself--and you have to come to terms with the fact that Gonta is a far more complex character with complicated thoughts and feelings who is a young adult. Not a child. A young adult.

So again, ask yourself this: Why are you treating this young adult like he's a toddler?

[chiropteracupola]

'The Polar bear at Blair Atholl,' 2024.

[isuggestwishcraft]

i think isafrin dynamic, especially postcanon, is so funny to me because (among other things) isabeau is the notorious Gets Scared When The Horrors Appear type of dude, but also happens to be madly into a guy who, for lack of better words, can be aptly described as The Horrors

[lycandrophile]

just had my 3 week post-op and i’m officially done with the bandages! i’m so glad i can really enjoy my chest now and not have it covered up 99% of the time. i still can’t believe how good it already looks, shoutout to my surgeon for doing a fucking incredible job.

[skrunksthatwunk]

thinking about how eiji's a pole vaulter and how ash talks about eiji "flying" and how eiji's associated with bird imagery and how eiji's free (unlike ash) and how eiji comes in on a plane and leaves on a plane and how ash cannot fly, ash cannot be free, how nyc is ash's prison, and how ash is the leopard who dies climbing the mountain, unable to live at such elevation, how he was trying to reach the sky and be free but was always stuck to the earth, how he chose to die instead of climbing back down, how he chose to die where he could see the sky and hope and freedom almost like a bird with eiji's letter right in front of him rather than letting everything go wrong and ruin it once again, how eiji's a failed pole vaulter anyway, how a bad fall ruined his career and grounded him (physically and emotionally), how it took flying to america and meeting ash and needing to save him and skip for him to try flying again, how he landed hard and harsh and still the thought of that escape compelled ash to protect eiji at all costs because if he could fly that means something to him, even if he doesn't think he can fly, how eiji is the manifestation of his hope and how when he breaks and asks eiji to stay with him a while he folds himself over his legs and weighs him down and traps him and grounds him, how ash fights like hell to keep eiji alive not because he thinks he can be like him (hopeful, flying, innocent), but because he makes him forget the gravity of his situation, and so he can see eiji fly again. how he wants to see him escape. how eiji is a bird and ash is a wildcat and how ash never once saw eiji as prey. how eiji never saw ash as a predator. how it is eiji's naivete that first endears ash to him, how it is his freedom and flight and removal from darkness and his ability to leave that darkness that really roots eiji in ash's blood as something essential to him keeping on living in this hell of nyc. how it is that distance from the violence and that hope for the future that ash chooses to surround himself in as he dies. how ash dies in a dream because he feels more than anything that he can't fly like eiji, that he can never leave. how his violence is a part of him and will be forever, how it weighs him down. how he wants to enjoy the view from the mountainside rather than looking up from the ground below. as if they can both fly. as if he is with him up there and not grounded. eye-to-eye with what he can't have, seeing eiji's homeland: the sky. how he dies trying to reach the top because he couldn't take retreating and trying again. how ash, tired and tired and tired and convinced it will go on forever if he crawls back down the mountain, chooses to close his life deluged in eiji, in eiji's insistence that they can fly together, in eiji's hope for him and for them, in eiji's beautiful dream. how ash dies without trying to realize that dream. how ash, in dying, destroys it.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Little bright colored outfit with a fun vest ~

(shoes from ebay like 10 years ago. everything else is thrifted)

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Okay listen, I'm real tired of seeing that post that's like "actually bell hooks was talking about how we raise boys" and other miscontrusions of what it is that The Will to Change is about.

So directly from the source, from bell hooks herself in the preface:

"The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love is about our need to live in a world where women and men can belong together. Looking at the reasons patriarchy has maintained its power over men and their lives, I urge us to reclaim feminism for men, showing why feminist thinking and practice are the only way we can truly address the crisis of masculinity today. In these chapters I repeat many points so that each chapter alone will convey the most significant ideas of the whole. Men cannot change if there are no blueprints for change. Men cannot love if they are not taught the art of loving.

It is not true that men are unwilling to change. It is true that many men are afraid to change. It is true that masses of men have not even begun to look at the ways that patriarchy keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving. To know love, men must be able to let go the will to dominate. They must be able to choose life over death. They must be willing to change."

I ain't wading headfirst into the discourse here. This isn't to state some opinion, but to correct the record about what bell hooks was talking about.

No one is saying you have to agree with her, but don't misconstrue what it is she wrote about to make it look like she agreed with you. The Will to Change is not solely about how we raise boys; it is also about men and the will of men to change.

[mrmeepsmadmind]

bee's protective nature over anyone persists even as a ghost & i think he sometimes forgets or doesn't care that only star can see him (sadly no touch tho) & will start shouting & angrily try standing between people who are mad at starscream even tho he can't be seen, he just wants to try & help anyways bcs STOP IT >:(!! BE NICE !!!! cried the ghost no one can hear or see except for the poor guy getting yelled at & trying to overhear the conversation over bee's frantic rebuttals while trying to discreetly let bee know it's ok while ALSO trying not to look Insane .

continued attempt at a 4am drawn doodle comic below

i might draw detailed later but yeah i just wanted to give yall this headcanon bcs i love starbee so much... the nagging wives finally finding their true loves... another nagging wife.

' you .. do know only i can hear and see you, unfortunately, right? or are you starting to go loopy, because i don't need another insane figure haunting me. I have enough already, as you can try and fail to imagine, little bee . '

' trust me, im Well aware .. of everything you just said . .. but i just. i couldn't just Stand there and do Nothing while someone talked to you like You were Nothing . that's not the autobot way. that's not- my way . '

' . . . '

[skitskatdacat63]

Okay now where's the Seb teddy bear so I can make them kiss each other!?

+

[crystalpallette]

frye inspires this sort of manic "i can do whatever i want" kinda will in people and god. I sure did do whatever I wanted here