#and i also fucked up another essay for a different class because of this one too. so its like dominoes destruction of my grades. augh

[non-un-topo]

Daily November crying sessions start today

[twinktorturer]

honestly feeling like shit cause i completely bombed a project thats worth most of my grade for a class. and i even had an extension on it but i Still ran out of time. i just got paralyzed by how much there was to write and ended up not writing anything and then it was massively under the word count and i barely got it in in time (like within minutes)...

[turtleshelf]

I need more fics about the batkids school lives and from the perspective of their teachers and I need them now. Fuck it, put some of them on IEPs, I think that shit would be so good.

Give me Damian where when putting him in school, Dick and Babs have to fudge some (not completely inaccurate) diagnosis' to get him put on an IEP and in the behavior classroom so he can have social skills education literally built into his day. So that he has a small classroom setting of other kids with their own problems so he doesn't feel so singled out by his own like he would in gen ed classes. Him slowly integrating into not just American society but also into interacting with kids his own age with the safety net of the behavior classroom and teachers that are literally designed and trained for kids who lose their composure and lash out to fall back on. He's disliked or written off by most teachers as a behavior case, but there's are a few who hold a soft spot for him, he likes to gift them art.

Give me Jason on an IEP because of how much school he missed when he was homeless, being given the tools and resources to catch back up to where he should be. Show him being quiet and keeping his head down trying to catch up. The first time he gets in a fight he was defending a younger student, he cries in the office afterwards, and privately none of the staff can really blame him even if they do have to follow through with a consequence for the fight. Show him reserved and jumpy when health class moves into their unit about drugs, he comes in with Bruce the next day to talk to the principal and is excused to the office with a alternative assignments until they move onto their next unit. Teachers tend to like him, and they're always a little surprise when he gets into fights.

Give me Dick in an ELL (English Learn Language, program for students learning English) program that allows him to slow down and get a grip on the basics of the English language. Give him accommodations that translate his assignments into a language he already knows, so he doesn't have to spend hours attempting to translate his homework and then translate his answers. Show him being reserved at first, then popular and smiley and kind until something ignites his short fuse. Show his growth of the short fuse getting longer as he gets better control of his emotions and learns time and place. Teachers don't know what to make of him, sometimes it's like he's a completely different person day to day. He's got this little troublemaker smile that tilts dangerously on his lips before a fight, his teachers think he's either going to run the world or destroy it one day.

Give me Steph whose school has to go on lock out because her father who doesn't have custody shows up and attempts to check her out for the day. Give her fidget toys and break passes. Show her spitefully doing assignments for teachers that don't like her so well that they have to give her an A: "Oh you think The Great Gatsby is the best book ever written? Here's my essay on why it's the worst book ever written and should stop being taught in schools." The arguments are sound, her writing is flawless, her sources are bulletproof. Most teachers don't have much of an opinion on her, she just another popular girl to them, but there are a few that are with her during the father debacle, who saw are angry and sad and scared, who hold a soft spot for her.

Give me Tim who keeps his head down and turns his work in late on crumpled and stained papers, but it's all flawless work. He shows up after three days absent with deep circles under his eyes and a shallow smile and explanations for his absence that are just sound enough that they can't poke any real holes in them, even if most don't believe him. He's friends with the rowdy, popular kids but he's always careful to keep just to the sidelines of their trouble so he never gets taken down with them in consequences. His teachers whisper about the disorganized genius who they hope gets himself together, because he could do great things.

Give me Duke who's snarky and quick thinking, but comes in some days quiet and with a far away look on his face. His best grades are in PE and it drives his teachers crazy because he's smart enough to honor roll if he ever put the effort into his work, it just doesn't seem to interest him. Give him accommodations that he can't be cold called on in class and never has to present presentations because he doesn't do well being the center of attention. He's always fidgeting and looking at the clock like he has somewhere better to be, he disappears to the library every lunch.

Give me Cass, who nobody can seem to really pin down. She's so startlingly unobtrusive that her teachers often forget she's there until she's standing right infront of their faces. She doesn't talk and from her writing it's clear that she's not familiar with English even if she can get by. The first time anyone hears her voice, Bruce picked her up from school early and she bounces over to him calling "Dad" before giving him a hug, the office staff feel a ripple of shock travel through them as they realize that it's not that she can't talk it's that she doesn't. She gets pulled out of classes for ASL tutoring, but not speech therapy which causes a few raised eyebrows after the revelation that she is capable of speaking. She looks at people with this intensity that makes them feel like she's looking straight through them and most teachers won't admit it, but it freaks them out.

Give me batkids with preferential seating accommodations so they never have to sit somewhere they feel exposed and unsafe. Give them early transition accommodations so they're not caught in the crowded halls during passing periods. Give them phone accommodations, so they always have a direct line to Bruce/Alfred/their siblings. Give them extended test taking accommodations, because once you've literally defused a bomb or raced across the city to stop a murderous meglomaniac doing things on a time constraint is just, not good.

For angst, give them teachers/subs who "don't believe in accommodations" and put end up putting the batkids in bad situations. Give them panic attacks when their accommodations are violated.

Give me teachers gossiping about the batkids and their odd quirks in the office or during their planning period. Give me first year teachers who flounder trying to figure those kids out and veteran teachers to just can't make heads or tails of them. Teachers marveling about how they can all be so alike while sharing absolutely no DNA. It becomes common knowledge that Bruce Wayne is a little less "Brucie" than he'd like the media to believe, but hell that's his business, and he seems to be doing alright by his kids. Give me haggard parents Bruce and Dick getting called to speak with the principal, or in IEP meetings, or at parent-teacher conferences.

Idk I just feel like this is a really untapped market we could be writing for here and I love outsider pov fics so much.

[mangobabygirl]

Hi darling, i love reading your stuff. Its the first time i write to you but i have these recurring fantasy of watching luigi makeout with another man. Like, i had dreams of being in thailand and him being in a naughty/idgaf mood and persuading him to kiss another hot man and eventually leads up to a threesome. What do you think?

Oh my God anon this is so hot 🥵 I wish I had dreams about Luigi like that!

Okay hear me out on this one- AU where you, him, and Jack Schlossberg are in college together, the three of you getting shitfaced in Jack and Luigi’s shared dorm room off some off-brand Vodka and orange juice. You’re leaning your head against Luigi’s shoulder, hands tracing gentle circles on his thigh, snuggled closely together.

You couldn’t explain why, but you always felt you could be unconditionally affectionate with Luigi in front of Jack. It was just the vibe you got hanging around him. Jack was like a light switch; very flamboyant and theatrical in public, but intellectual yet easy—going in private. You never felt judged or uncomfortable in front of him; his warm brown eyes and charismatic smile always made you feel relaxed, accepted as you were to a point you felt you could tell him anything.

You were collectively 3/4 through the bottle of Vodka, and somehow, the conversation had shifted towards societal commentary. It wasn’t unfamiliar territory for Jack and Luigi to slip into this topic of discussion; the two of them talked about everything, from Japanese Shinto culture, to hiking and traveling, to the present state of the nation.

“..technology has created a profoundly asocial element in the fabric of modern society,” Luigi explained, “people aren’t fostering authentic social interactions with each other. They replace sex with porn, athletics with e-sports and video games. This is why hyper-industrialized countries like Japan have chronically low birth rates.”

Jack nodded, mulling it over in his brain for a moment. “You’re not accounting for the economic factors. Most people in America are living paycheck to paycheck, and the median income per person in America is only around thirty-seven thousand dollars a year. That’s not enough money for a single individual to live comfortably, let alone have to have children. And you know what- what I find the most frustrating out of this situation? It’s these Republicans making it worse. Their tax cuts are causing hyperinflation, which further squeezes the American family…”

You roll your eyes, pouring you self another drink of Vodka. You loved Luigi and Jack, you really did, but sometimes their tendency to get drunk and mansplain over arguments made you want to blackout on the spot.

Still, you couldn’t deny there was an unspoken tension between them. They were both perfectionists, and it felt like they were always competing to intellectually one-up each other. Luigi would talk to you about Jack all the time. He’d mention his senatorial internships, comments he made in class, grades he got on assignments. One time, Jack earned a 98 on an essay assignment in a Philosophy of Religion class he took with Luigi; Luigi earned only a 96. He was fuming for a solid week; when you came by before various dates, he’d look at Jack like he was pure poison, his casual, “see you later”s laced with unmistakable venom. That was also the week he fucked you roughly for the first time. “Mine, all mine,” he’d growl between thrusts and spanks, covering your body in bruises and marks of possession where you knew Jack would be able to see them.

“…why don’t we ask what she thinks?” Luigi said, squeezing your thigh and shaking you from your reminiscence, “‘Bet she has a different perspective entirely on the whole declining birthrates situation.”

You did, in fact, have an entirely different perspective on this birthrates situation. You wanted to bring up Marx’s theory of alienation, that humans are becoming more isolated each other because they’re degraded to cogs in the machine of a capitalist system, and the economic factors are just a symptom of unchecked capitalism working as intended, a perspective their homogeneous upper-class backgrounds would never have considered materially outside their introductory political science courses.

But the Vodka was starting to create a buzz, and you felt overconfident, emboldened to say what was truly on your mind.

“I think you two should shut up and just kiss each other.”

The words leave your mouth without second thought, hanging in the air between the three of you like a thick, uncomfortable heat. Jack and Luigi laugh nervously, their cheeks blushing red, staring uncomfortably at you, then each other.

“I mean- I wouldn’t necessarily oppose..” Jack stammers out, trailing off as Luigi scotches closer to him, like he was challenging him to finish his sentence. There’s an intensity, a fire in Luigi’s eyes as he stares Jack down, his thick brows furrowed in a display of calculated dominance. It was as if he was torn between fighting him or fucking him.

“Yeah?” Jack smirks at him in response, unintimidated in the slightest. In fact, Luigi if nothing emboldened him, his brown eyes gazing wildly into Luigi’s shamelessly, “what would happen if I just-“

You watched his hands slowly maneuver their way up Luigi’s leg, gently stopping to rest on his bare-upper thigh. A queen’s gambit if you ever saw one.

Luigi gasps, his cheeks glowing red-hot. Jack’s smirk widens to a smile, as if Luigi fell right into his trap, everything set in perfect motion.

That is, until Luigi grabs Jack by the jaw, closing his eyes and locking their lips in a bruising kiss. You watched their mouths move urgently against each other’s, their lips enveloped in desperation, tension and petty jealousies collapsing into an insatiable hunger. You hear Jack moan desperately into Luigi’s mouth, Luigi grunting in response as he leaned harder into the kiss, the wet sounds of their smacking lips a symphony to your ears.

The two separate breathlessly, chests heaving, heartbeats beating so loud you swore you could hear it pounding in their chests. Luigi’s fingers graze Jack’s cheek as he looks down at him, their gaze starry-eyed as they stared into each others depths.

Something within the room shifted as they looked back at you, the three of you eyeing each other with a mutual understanding of what was to come next.

Luigi reaches for your hand, grasping it lightly, rolling his thumb over your palm.

“Get on the bed, princess,” he says.

[tyrantisterror]

Wife Goals: Ryoko Hakubi

Welcome back, fuckers. Last time on this cry for help poorly disguised as, like, personal essays I guess, I talked entirely too much about Hexadecimal from Reboot. Well, today I'm gonna talk about another homicidal lunatic featured on Toonami and why I love her despite because of her many faults. Let's discuss Ryoko Hakubi from Tenchi Muyo and its various spinoffs!

I kid, there will be no discussion. This is the monologue of a deranged individual and nothing more.

Once you learn about Journey to the West, you'll realize just HOW MUCH of culture has been shaped by it. Like, taking anime as an example, there are... SO MANY characters based on the Monkey King from Journey to the West, a free-spirited ne'er do well who nevertheless proves to be an invaluable ally to the heroes, to the point where many readers of the story point out that he kind of takes focus away from the rest of the cast because he's just so cool and charismatic.

Do you like Dragon Ball Z? Well, did you know one of the names for the Monkey King is SON GOKU? Hmm, and Goku's a big, free-spirited warrior with a MONKEY TAIL and an EXTENDING ROD who beats the shit out of demons and monsters, just like Monkey King! Or hey, what about that free-spirited and indomitable protagonist of One Piece, the one who wants to be King of the Pirates and rebel against authority at every turn? What's his name? Oh, that's right, MONKEY D. Luffy. He's everywhere, man. Dig deep enough and I guarantee at least ONE of your favorite characters is connected to The Monkey King. Just like Kevin Bacon.

I bring all this up because Tenchi Muyo looked at Monkey King for inspiration and, in a moment of divinely ordained horniness, asked the question, "Cool, cool, but what if Monkey King was also a hot babe who loved you?"

The answer to that question is Ryoko Hakubi, ancient demon, space pirate, and weird clone-daughter of a primordial goddess.

I've mentioned this before, but Tenchi Muyo's first episode is perhaps the best Meet Cute of all time. Our protagonist, Tenchi, decides to enter an old shrine his father and grandfather repeatedly warned him not to fuck with, in part because rumor has it that a supremely powerful and wicked demon was trapped inside. Sure enough, he finds a coffin, inside which is a horrifying mummy that springs to life as soon as Tenchi looks upon it. Tenchi runs away to school, only for the monster he awoke to find him there after class lets out.

And while that monster is now a very attractive woman with a mane of silver-blue hair and sharp, yellow eyes, she proves to be every bit as terrifying as her first impression would imply, chasing Tenchi through the halls like a slasher villain while throwing out fireballs like Freeza and at one point just manifesting a lightsaber without a handle through sheer force of will. Luckily, she also proves to be something of a dumbass, falling for some of the easiest tricks in the book (including a "oh look at that!" gag), because Tenchi Muyo is a romantic comedy first and foremost.

Through guile, pluck, and a bit of dumb luck, Tenchi manages to steal one of the gems that gives Ryoko her power, defeating her and allowing him to escape scott-free - at least, until she shows up in his bedroom with a very different angle to conquer him.

...she wants to seduce him, in case I'm not clear.

While the show briefly has Ryoko play it like she just wants her power back, it becomes clear very fast that her infatuation with Tenchi is actually genuine, especially once the rivals for that affection that the series is so famous for arrive (Tenchi Muyo is one of the first "harem comedies" in anime, after all). And it's not really hard to see why - Tenchi, unlike most protagonists of these sorts of stories, is a pretty likable guy. He's humble, compassionate, forgiving, casually funny without meaning to be, surprisingly resourceful and cunning when shit hits the fan, loyal to a fault, and despite what some may say, he's willing to stand up for himself when he needs to.

It's that last part, I think, that is the reason Ryoko falls for him. Tenchi stood up to her, and continues to stand up to her when she lets her worst self show. Despite being a normal human (or at least seeming to be when the show starts), Tenchi will stand up for what's right, even if he has to challenge an ancient demon space pirate with just a mop.

Ryoko herself is primarily defined by her selfishness. Like the Monkey King, she is a hedonist who lives for her own pleasure and acts on whatever whim pops into her head without any regard for how it might affect others. She is rude, crass, violent (but mostly in a slapstick way - this is a COMEDY, remember), and impulsive, a character who acts first and thinks way later if ever at all. If she doesn't start the conflict of an episode, then she'll damn sure make sure it escalates to hilarious extremes.

In pursuing her selfish aims, Ryoko throws every other character she encounters off-balance, whether they're normal humans, space police, alien princesses, or ancient primordial goddesses posing as mad scientists. When Ryoko wants something, no one knows what to expect, only that it will be incredibly chaotic and bizarre. This makes her selfishness fun rather than frustrating - it's a flaw that leads to wacky antics and silliness, and so becomes endearing.

But what really makes Ryoko compelling is that this trait also extends to herself - namely, her pursuit of Tenchi throws Ryoko off balance. There's one episode where Tenchi has to babysit a young relative, and Ryoko, in her continual quest to prove herself as the best of Tenchi's many romantic options, decides that she will take better care of the baby to prove what a great wife she'll be. The problem, of course, is that Ryoko has never taken care of anyone in her life. Her first attempt to show off is to get the baby some food. She looks in the kitchen, finds the powdered formula for the baby's milk, and just fills the baby bottle with powder.

And whether or not you find that amusing (I can understand groaning at the "ohoho this woman doesn't intuitively know how to be a mom like all women should" implications this joke can have), it results in an interesting character moment for her. Because Ryoko wanted to do this right, she wanted to be good at taking care of this kid, and yeah she wanted it for a selfish reason, but dammit now she's realizing how bad she is at nurturing and that hurts her - not just because it won't impress Tenchi, but because nurturing people is something Tenchi is good at, and she loves him because of that. How can she deserve Tenchi's love if she can't care for him the way he cares for her and others?

Which is where Ryoko's selfishness turns from a flaw to a strength. Ryoko will do anything to get what she wants, and if what she wants is the love of a good man, she will do whatever she can to prove worthy of it. If she comes to care for the weird found-family of space alien women said man has accidentally gathered at his home, then dammit, she'll protect them too. Selfishness can become selflessness if you want the right things, and while a manic, unhinged desire to get what you want coupled with unfathomable cosmic power can make you a terrifying villain, it can make you a very endearing hero if what you want is to prove worthy of love.

(Ryoko does manage to get the formula right in the end)

Like, Tenchi Muyo was right - it would fucking rock if Monkey King was a hot lady who loved you. I wonder what other mythic and literary figures would be cool if they were hot ladies who loved you - wait, shit, that's what Fate/Zero is about isn't it.

Anyway, I saw Tenchi Muyo on Toonami when I was, like, twelve or so, which is probably TOO young to watch this series, though to be fair the Toonami version was heavily censored (you had to stay up late to see the less-censored version on Toonami's Midnight Run, and I wouldn't get a personal TV to do stuff like that until a few years later). So, like Hexadecimal, Ryoko ended up being a very formative precocious crush for me, though at least then I was old enough to understand that my fascination was very much romantic. But shit, why shouldn't I have had a crush on Ryoko? She was funny, confident, strong and willing to beat people up for the people she loves, and constantly swept people into wild and wacky adventures. Sure, she was also a selfish, violent, casually destructive wanted criminal, but, well... Hexadecimal already ensured my type is "living collection of romantic Red Flags," so it's not like that was going to stop me.

And to this day I still think Ryoko is one of the best romantic leads in any story ever, with the greatest Meet Cute of all time to boot. Yeah, she's a scumbag, but so are, like, 90% of the male leads in romances. What, we don't deserve a lovable scumbag heroine for once? A lady Han Solo? Fuck you, I love Ryoko Hakubi, we stan. WE STAN, DAMMIT!

[bisexual-horror-fan]

Do-Over-December 11th. Billy Loomis X Stu Macher X FEM! AFAB! Reader. Candy Cane. Poly!Ghostface. "Candied Glass."

Hello, hello, hello! We are back on track and tryna stick to it! Poly!Ghostface Christmas fuckery! I hope you all enjoy this and missed this as much as I have! Onwards with re-doing Kinky December! Not much else to say but let's goooo-

---

Rating. Explict. Length. 2.7K (Old Length. 2.4K.) Warnings. Light Holiday Fluff. Masturbation. Sex Toys. Dirty Talk. Exhibitionism. Light Tempature Play. Impatiant Boys. Cunnilingus. Dirty Pictures.

---

It’s mid-December and the holiday break is about to be upon the college campus you attended. It was your first winter break with your boyfriends Billy and Stu, you had gotten together with them last spring and things had honestly been going pretty good.

Okay, okay, better than pretty good, it’s been amazing. Billy and Stu had already been together prior to you coming into the picture. You all started off as friends, and you’d developed a serious crush on them, but you didn’t do anything about it, scared to make any kind of move because they were already with each other.

It had all the hallmarks of an all consuming crush, musing and daydreaming about what could be, desperate to spend any time you could with them. Said extreme longing was not helped by the fact that they returned those lingering looks and fleeting touches that had you questioning if they were into you too, but you pushed those feelings down. 

You seriously tried not to look too deeply into it when they were nice, like when Stu offered to buy your textbook for a class you needed. You had protested, but Stu gave you a shrug and a wink as he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, saying, “Don’t worry about it.”

Or when Billy remembered your coffee order and brought you one to your shared class one morning when he knew you had a rough late night the day before trying to finish an essay. It went on like that for a couple of months but one night after a party, the three of you were hanging out in their apartment, all still kinda drunk and sitting around, a quiet moment broken when Stu spoke up, “You know we are into polyamory right?”

And just like that, the rest was history. You started dating them, and it had been pretty fucking great thus far. With the break about to kick off it meant some time apart, you’d met them at school and were from a different town than them, you all have plans to return to your respective families for the holidays. 

You wished you three could have spent it together, but it wasn’t possible with how far away your hometown was away from theirs. So instead, the three of you were having a small celebration, to do your gift exchange before the real holidays hit.

You three had all night to spend together, and so far you had watched a couple of movies, had some dinner and were currently deep in opening gifts. You were college students and set a budget but Stu, with all of his parent's money at his disposal, he totally went over the limit to spoil Billy and you. Mostly you because Billy had already had the talk numerous times throughout their friendship/relationship to quote- “Fucking knock it off, man.”

So Stu still did spoil him, but not as much as he used to. 

Spoiling you was new and exciting and fun. He loved how flustered you got, unused to such attention. He had gotten you a new coat you had been looking at but deemed too expensive previously you were going to stick it out, but Stu said fuck that, it’s winter, you deserve a good coat. Stu also got you the newest book in a series you enjoyed, and some new headphones and a few other things. Billy had gotten you one of those giant three wick candles in one of your favourite scents and a sweater that he admitted Stu helped pick out, but he bought. 

You loved all of it. 

You had pulled the sweater on and were just thinking about getting the dessert you had made for the three of you to share when Stu pulled out another gift, and you rolled your eyes as you chided him, tone flat, “Stu. Another?”

“Last one! I promise!” He said, holding one hand up as the other held onto the gift. Billy looked over and smirked, pointing at the package as he asked, “Oh, that’s it, isn’t it?”

Stu’s smile widened, and he wiggled his eyebrows in that way that made you snicker as he replied to Billy, “You know it!”

He handed you the package, and you placed it in your lap as you inquired, “Billy in on this one?”

“To be fair, I was in on all of them.” Of course, they conspired against you, but to be fair, you did the exact same thing, telling Billy what you got for Stu and vice versa. You just wanted to make sure you didn’t get the same thing and make sure your gifts were good enough. 

“Why am I not surprised?” You finally set to open the present, tearing at the paper apart, letting the shreds fall onto the hardwood floor with the rest, the torn wrapping was about ankle deep around the couch where the three of you were sitting. 

You opened the box and couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you serious?”

See, you had wanted something like this. You had never owned any sex toys previously and had expressed interest in getting some now that you were out of your parent's house and away at college you wouldn’t have to worry about them finding them, and you had the privacy and space to use them comfortably. It was a very thoughtful gift, but you weren’t expecting this to be what he went with. 

You reached into the box and lifted out the toy and held it up. It is a glass dildo, smooth and weighty and in the shape of a candy cane, and striped like one to boot. Billy was laughing a little behind his hand, and Stu managed to hold back his laughter, but only barely. Stu hit Billy on the leg, and he nodded once before clearing his throat and putting on a more serious look as he asked, tone surprisingly even, “What, you don’t like it, baby?”

They shared a look, and you smirked and turned it over in your hands, and Stu said, “Yeah. It’s appropriate, don’t you think?”

You nodded with your lips pursed and looked Stu in the eyes as you said in your own serious tone, “I’ll give you this much, Stu.” You pointed at him with the end of the dildo as you finished your thought, “-It’s very festive.”

That did it, and the three of you broke down laughing. You laughed too much and too long, but when you all stopped you were in the middle of your boys, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders and hugging them, “Thank you for the gifts, boys. I love them.”

The rest of the night continued on, the boys loved their gifts just as much, dessert was shared, and you all talked about what your plans over the holidays were. You were going to miss them so much, and they were going to miss you too, but you were still planning on spending the night tonight, then going off back home tomorrow. 

You ended up in bed with them, of course. Two weeks apart would be bad enough as it was, you needed to try and get your fill of them tonight. You were sitting on Billy’s lap, his back was to the headboard of the bed, and you were currently in deep and lost making out with him, his hands roaming on your clothed form. You felt the mattress dip behind you, feeling Stu get onto the bed, one of his hands on your hip and his other hand coming up to cup your cheek, “Got started without me?”

And with a hum you pulled back breaking the kiss with Billy and reached back, fingers finding Stu’s short hair and looking up at him,“You were taking so long, it’s not my fault Billy has no patience.” 

Billy rolled his eyes, the action is playful, head tilting back as he says, “C’mon, you see her man, how am I supposed to have her in bed and not do something.”

Stu’s hand under your chin and tilting your head up at a more aggressive angle, “Very true, impossible to resist.” 

Then he was pulling you into a kiss of his own, you kissed him back easily and Billy had leaned forward now, his mouth on your neck and fuck this was the best. Three of you taking turns and hands all over each other, it always heated up so quickly. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of whose hands or mouth were where, but you weren’t about to complain about getting so much attention when it felt this good. 

Fingers started to explore further and breathing was picking up. It felt way too hot for your sweater soon and Billy was helping you take it off and threw it aside, and you started to help him with his shirt, Stu was still pressed to you, and he whispered in your ear, “We got a little something in mind for you baby.”

Stu’s hands were pulling your shirt up, and you let him help you take it off, his hands were on your breasts, groping at you through your bra and you hummed questioningly,

“Mmmhmm?” You hummed questioningly, and he said, “Yeah, somethin’ we want to see you do.”

You were already so turned on that you were down for basically anything, “What is it?”

A look shared between the two of them, and they knew by how you responded that you were in the right mood to be open with them. Stu wrapped his arms around your waist and lifted you up a few inches, you let him and assisted, standing up on your knees as Billy took to removing your skirt. Then you were just in your panties and Stu had removed your bra as Billy moved out of the way, and you were put in his place, leaning against the pillows and headboard. Stu had his hands behind his back and after a moment he showed you what he was holding and-

It was that same present as before, you snickered and asked as your gaze ran over the glass candy cane in his hand, and you deadpanned,“Seriously?”

Billy ran his fingers through his hair before moving closer and leaning over you, one of Stu’s hands lands on your thigh, spreading your legs and Billy, much closer to you now, was looking into your eyes as he said, “Seriously. We think it’d be hot to watch you use it on yourself for us.”

Just like that, you were in. You would do just about anything for either of them solo, but having both of them wanting something from you? No way could you say no. 

You nodded once and the toy was placed in your hand and the boys backed off a bit, getting comfortable on the end of the bed, and you settled in. You weren’t sure how to start, you hadn’t used toys before at all, let alone one made of glass. It seemed sturdy, good quality, you turn it over in your hand as you looked at them and bit your bottom lip, they were watching you. As the thought and the situation fully washed over you, this was hot, you were much more into this idea than you thought. You’d done a lot with them, but certainly had not done a dedicated time masturbating in front of them. This was something special, it could be another gift of sorts, a new experience, new memories foraged with them.

Why not put on a show?

You started simply, pressing the toy to your damp panties and sliding it up and down, a slow tease for them and you. Sliding up and down, more pressure, focusing on your clit a bit more with each pass, and it was starting to feel pretty good, hips tilting up more into the cool sensation of the toy. 

All too soon you wanted more, and your fingers hooked in the crotch of your panties, you pulled them aside, bringing the toy down and touching it to your soaked flesh. You weren’t expecting it to be so cold, you shivered a little. 

“That good?” Stu inquired, brows raised and Billy was smirking, arm thrown around Stu’s shoulders, and he asked teasingly, “Yeah? You’re shaking already.”

“ ‘M fine, it’s just cold.” It’s a half lie as you slide the toy up and down a few more times before finally dipping inside yourself and oh-

Oh, fuck.

You didn’t expect that at all.

How good the difference in temperature felt. You were burning hot and the toy being so cold gave such a unique sensation, you slide the toy in as far as it would go, holding onto the hooked end with one hand. It slid in so easily. Another thing you didn’t plan on was how little lube it needed, the glass was so smooth, no ridges, it glides in and out with very minimal effort. 

It was unrelenting as you clenched on it, no give to it at all, that was something you weren’t used to either. Okay you got it, from just a minute of pushing it in and pulling it back out, thrusting back and forth experimentally you understood the appeal. You wouldn’t need to play this up much at all, it felt good, damn good. 

You vocalized it, soft moans crossing your lips, head falling back onto the pillows as you played, thighs spreading wider, you tilted the toy and brushed that spot inside just right and gasped. 

“Ah! Oh, fuc- that’s good.”

You needed your underwear gone, toy leaving you for only a moment, holding it in one hand you arched your hips and the other hand slid down and set to removing your panties, you pulled them off and with a coy smile you tossed them to the boys. Stu caught them, both looked very amused and seemed to be enjoying the show immensely. 

You’d be lying if you said you weren’t enjoying it yourself, ass touching back down on the sheets you slipped the toy back in and resumed a steady pace, eyes rolling back as you did, my God this was fun. Having them watch you, doing this so close to them, finding pleasure in yourself and them enjoying every second of seeing you get off. 

A hand met your ankle, and you looked down to see Billy getting between your legs, “Apparently cold is good.”

Apparently he was still impatient.

You nodded once, a harder thrust, and you moaned again, Billy’s hand slid up your leg and over your thigh and his hand nudged yours. You got the hint, moving your hand away, he leaned in close, his tongue ran over your clit and that your back arched. The cold glass, his hot breath and even hotter mouth around your straining clit, it was so much to handle. He had been paying good attention, he angled the toy just right to hit that sweet spot, and you were unable to stop the loud moan that left your mouth. 

Stu had moved up to be closer to you again, and he was kissing you and one of his hands was on your breasts and teasing one of your nipples and oh my God. You might have been laughing when you first opened up that present and laid your eyes on that toy, but you sure as shit weren’t laughing now. 

The rest of the night was amazing and needed. The three of you, all entangled together, soaking up every second you could because you knew that you wouldn’t have the chance for a while. 

You packed the toy and brought it home, you might have had a round or two on your own and sent the boys a few pictures. 

The one of you in your Christmas sweater and a skirt flipped up, wet pussy on display, face down ass up for the camera while you had one hand sliding the toy in and the fingers of your other on your clit was Billy’s personal favourite. The one you snapped with you in your family living room, late at night after everyone else had gone to bed, in just a robe, fully opened, exposing your naked body, lights from the tree as you laid on the floor in front of it dancing over your body as you used that same toy was Stu’s favourite. 

Only one problem was that now you can’t look at candy canes without getting a bit wet and wanting to squirm while missing your boys. 

Christmas can’t come all the time but thanks to that lovely little gift you certainly were.

[anteroom-of-death]

Teacher's Pet part 8

Synopsis: Truths are revealed, jeopardizing what lies between these two lovers. Why? And how?

A/n: Angst! Angst! And in this chapter, I personally will relinquish a grudge, Sophia I forgive you now, sorta. I swear things may improve! Also, Petronella is a girl's girl and alive. Fuck what the Canon says.

You never expected the tables to turn that quickly. You never wanted to have an affair. You just subconsciously wanted him. Maybe more than subconsciously.

How dumb.

You left his office and went off to your tutoring. Your chest still ringing from beating too hard. Your ears were tingling.

You figured one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not notice your obvious puppy dog. (Or how did he put it just now? “A fawn separated from it’s mother too early”…?) Crush you were developing on him.

Was it desperation and he was merely scratching an itch? Something to warm his bones after a dry-spell since his wife died? If not, why not just go see an escort? (You shuddered at an accidental outing.)

You doubted it was a crush, like you held. Do men in their upper fifties (Your best guess at his age…) get crushes? You also doubted that.

And why did it seem like he had twice the amount of pulse in his body. If you didn’t know anatomy, you would swear he had two hearts in his chest.

You shook your head and left silly thoughts and trying to define this experience.

Whatever it was, it began to happen fast. You would meet up between classes in his office for a quick fuck. Or if he saw you on campus he’d guide you to somewhere secluded for a kiss on your cheek and a remark about your latest diatribe in class.

You still met up every Monday for some actual tutoring on his class.

Once he took you out to park at the edge of town for a little coffee date.

He respected your work schedule and always never asked questions.

You were dearly grateful.

The term was coming to an end, and you were in the library. It was late and you covered in highlighter ink and were approaching clinical insanity. You felt a now-familiar set of hands on your shoulders.

“Burning the candle at both ends? I see.”

“Hey.” You broke out of your reverie and statistics-essay informed stupor. It might have been a tad bit louder than you intended.

“Play hooky from work this weekend. I’ve got to go to London for my other job.” First time he ever mentioned a second job. Did the university really pay it’s professors that little? You heard a few, more junior ones kvetching once. But him? He was definitely tenured.

“Another job?” You questioned.

“Yeah, I made a bad choice in the 70’s. It’s followed me around since then. Do come. I’ll do us somewhere special.” So your calculations on his age were wrong. He was maybe just a tad bit older than upper fifties…

Probably lower sixties.

“Sounds fine by me. It’s been slowing up.” You remarked.

He leaned down and kissed your cheek.

“Do ditch the energy drink. They’re ever so bad on human’s guts.”

A weird quirk. He’d always say humans or apes. As if he was above or different. Maybe it was the fact he was an old white guy.

Yeah, that was it. Old white guy brain rot.

“Meet me at that park… Friday, around three PM.” He instructed.

“Okay…”

“I’ll let you go back to your studies. I know how much you value them.” A final kiss and he faded out as quickly as he appeared.

You texted your manager and explained that you weren’t able to do the weekend shift, but definitely Thursday night. If you were to go to London, you’d proceed some mad money to spend on your own if his second job left you hostage for too long to your own devices.

And you canceled on a few regulars.

“Family issues.” Always a surefire way to get out of these things. Vague enough to not garner questions and would gain some sympathy. You hoped some other girl wouldn’t nab them, but you knew how people were. That one girl, Sophia, once stole your biggest tipper who saw you on both Friday nights and Sunday evenings because she’d do oral without a condom.

Damn that stomach flu you had that weekend.

You worked that night, slow but a big tip had materialized. Perfect.

By the time you had gotten home and napped for a few hours, you had a dilemma. Obviously you didn’t want your work knickers and robes mixing in with your real life clothes. Taint the divide you had.

You stared at your open suitcase. It was a little carry-on one. Yet the empty inside could swallow you whole. You threw in the most fancy of your basics in. It seemed the best idea. You pressed your hand to your mouth and let out a nervous scream.

Why was picking out what clothes you’d wear to probably just stay in a hotel all weekend stressful?

And were you entering kept whore territory?

Your situationship was dreadfully unlabeled.

You definitely knew he wasn’t your boyfriend. That word was horribly trite and evoked images of teens and young adults running about to dinner dates and cuddling each other on the bus. Or feeling each other up behind the seats in a cinema.

Not that you had particularly a detailed actual history with long-term or healthy relationships.

That’s life.

Did he even drive? How were you two getting to London? You just sat there on the bench after going to the park. It was nearly three.

You scratched at your eyelid, fighting the urge to tear off your lower lip with your fingernails.

Checking your phone, you didn’t see the big black Range Rover pulling up in front of you. The back passenger side door popped open, startling you a bit. “Hey you, get in. Apparently I’m very late.” You saw him in the back, a few soldiers in it with him. (They looked like soldiers. You decided they were.)

You grabbed your little carry-on suitcase and went in. An anxiety attack was bubbling up. What was his other job? You slid in and clenched your suitcase and purse between your legs.

You were going to London, so you chose a classy, sleek, small black number. You made the right choice. It was positively crowded in here.

There was a cute, disgruntled looking girl with an oversized knit scarf and some hipster glasses on in the front passenger seat.

“Hi! I’m Osgood!” She stretched back and offered you her hand. “You’re his...assistant?” She seemed confused by your general existence, but pleased you were another girl in this car of men. You couldn’t blame her! You took it and shook.

“She’s my companion.” The bastard finally labeled your situationship. Companion, very old timey. He let out of beaming smile, and continued on, “Petronella Osgood, (y/n's full name). (Y/n’s full name), Petronella Osgood. The new lead scientific advisor and assistant to the Head of UNIT!” His hand nearly swiped one of the soldier’s faces. “You’re both clever and don’t think like a normal human. You’ll be friends by Sunday night…”

If you could have balled yourself up and rolled away like a pill bug of you could.

“Do you like Costa? I’m trying to convince these people to stop by on our way home! Usually he just shows up, you know how he is with that TARDIS of his. But the Doctor said this would be best for him to do today…” She battered you with information and words.

You’d discuss this all with him further in private. Right now, you had to play a role.

“Yeah, I could go for…a Cortado.” You choked out. Coffee would help this all be absorbed a lot quicker.

She began fiddling with the vehicle’s GPS.

They all began talking about whatever techno-babble and such. It was over your head. You felt yourself getting heart burn and a migraine.

Petronella asked you something. And like a baby with dribble on it’s shirt, you said sluggishly: “What?”

“Do you think that we should do a frontal advance?”

“Maybe not?” You just started making things up on the fly. Filling it in ad-lib style!

You wanted to kill yourself.

“I mean, if… you go… from the front…all in. They’ll be…able to see you?” You heaved. “If you go from the…sides…and like, guerilla style…whatever is happening will…be a surprise …you remember like, the Germans against Rome or Boudicca, also against Rome…yeah.” You ended. You deserved a little chewing on the inside of your cheek, as a treat.

Soon enough, you pulled up to a Costa, Petronella seemed very eager to order in-shop. And to drag you in.

You collected the soldier’s and Professor Smith (Oh! Yeah, they called him Doctor…you’d demand the truth later.) Orders.

You were so eager to leave the car for a breath of fresh air.

“Hey, mind if I smoke real quick?” You had quit, but there was a lose one in the purses pocket, and the situation called for one. If ever there was a time to start smoking, it’d be now.

“I have asthma! But sure! I can wait.” She went into the weird little room that’s neither inside nor outside that commercial spaces tend to have. She got a phone call.

You could use this as an opportunity to get information about the man who you had been fucking. She’d be more helpful here. She clearly knew him better. Sure you had seen him naked. But she knew him on a more intimate level it seemed.

You finished up your cigarette and crushed it under the heel of your shoe. You got a bottle of perfume out and began dusting it on a heavy layer. You took one big inhale and rolled your neck around. It cracked and you relaxed a bit.

Entering the Costa, she hung up her phone and smiled.

You both ordered. You got yourself one of their fruit biscuits and went to get out your cash.

“Oh no! I got it! All of it.” She whipped out a black card and tapped it to the reader. “Perks of the job.”

You nodded your head. You had heard of UNIT, but couldn’t be arsed to care.

“So, the Doctor.” The name sounded foreign coming out of your mouth. “How long have you worked with him?”

“Oh! Five years now!”

You placed a hand on your throat and rested your jaw on it.

“What’s his deal?”

“Wish I knew, but we should all be glad he exists, he’s the best we got.”

Oh!

You let out a little “mmhmm.”

Before you could get your next question, the drinks and your snack came.

She grabbed her milk babyccino and handed you your Cortado as you left the Costa. You didn’t want to get back in the Range Rover. This all seemed like a very bad idea. You should have never agreed to this.

But here you were, so you had to deal with it.

You got back in the back, the solider driving said they’d have to speed along, no stops.

You shrunk in the seat. You felt his one hand stroke your upper arm. He was trying to comfort you. You wish you could recoil, but you had grown too addicted to his touch. Against all instinct, you leaned into him and sipped your coffee. Just sat an observed, chiming in when people would outright ask you for your input. More sipping your coffee and staring glumly out the front windshield. You felt like a caged beast.

Soon enough you were in London and you could get out of the car. Sadly, it pulled into an underground military-style bunker.

You were very proud of yourself for keeping your cool and now having a major breakdown in there.

You entered a lift, still carrying your suitcase.

It went all the way to the top.

Some woman in a very impressive suit and a silk scarf met you all there.

More introductions.

The Doctor – Professor Smith- whatever his real title or honorific was, took your suitcase and told someone to take it to a place. You didn’t retain or hear. You were positively swimming. You hated how good this artificial, florescent lighting made the hollows of his face looked. He was a bit more formal in his dress than he ever was at the university. In this moment you hated how you were reacting to him. Obviously he had to confess things to you.

Obviously, there was a bit of a double standard, but this outweighed your little evasions and white lies.

There was a meeting and grand plans were drawn. Choices were made.

And you had to make choices for yourself.

It was close to midnight when you finally got out of the meeting. Tomorrow apparently they’d denote a device, after it was programmed and set up during the night. Apparently that’d save the Earth.

He was swanning along like he owned the place. Everyone was reverent. His word was law and his advice was the loudest.

Maybe you shouldn’t have smoked that cigarette beforehand. Maybe you needed several shots of vodka. Maybe you just were way out of your depth.

Soon enough you had an escort of two soldiers for him and you to a suite with the bare essentials of comfort. Your stupid suitcase was there. Like a fancy barracks.

The door locked and you were alone with him.

“It’s time I tell you some truths.” He said, sitting in a chair at the desk.

You threw your hands up, “You fucking think so?” It came out as a screech. You clapped your hand to your mouth.

“What the fuck?” You clapped your hands together as you leaned over and down to face him. “What the fuck was all that?” You crouched into a squat.

“Let me tell you.” His tone was silencing. Like you were in the wrong for this reaction.

“Fine!”

“Firstly, this changes nothing about the past months. But I am an alien from a planet far away and long since gone. I am over two-thousand years old. My name, my title, is the Doctor. Well the closest translation to any Earthling's language.”

You leaned back, gesturing with your hands in the “okay” position.

“I may be a little fucking slow, I may have a few learning disabilities, but I’m not fucking stupid. Are you…aware…of how incredibly far-fetched that sounds?” Your body swaying with the position of your hands. The hands quickly moved to press into the center of your forehead.

He undid a few buttons on his shirt.

You groaned.

He grabbed at your hands and you tried to escape. He flattened the palm of one and pressed it against his chest. You felt two hearts pumping. Your little observation after the first time you hooked up on how it seemed like he had two pulses wasn’t so stupid suddenly...

“Two hearts, fawn.” He said, using his pet name for you. “I’m alien.”

Your lower lip quivered.

No wonder he felt different than any other man you’d fucked previously. His body was different. He was.

Hot tears burned at the corners of your eyes, starting to splash out. You pulled yourself free and slunk onto the closest wall.

Figures that your first big infatuation that actually seemed to value your life was a fucking ancient alien. You felt like a total freak, were you really that screwed up that the only way you’d get anything resembling a healthy relationship was with an alien!

Your head found its way between your thighs.

“Nothing changes.” He repeated.

“How many others have you done this to?” You spat out. Pure venom.

“Rarely like you.”

“Oh, so I’m just the latest and greatest girl you’ve lured into submission! How kind! I was chosen! I feel special!” You raged out. Giving a little sarcastic bow from your sat position.

He joined you against the wall. You skittered yourself away from him.

“You’re special. Trust me. I had stopped. You met me in a different way. No danger, no trauma-bonding. No Nothing. If not for duties I neglected here for too long, I would have keep you safe. Continued to be your Professor John Smith. Existed…but I couldn’t bear not seeing you for as long as this will take here. Separate. Not my traveling assistant, not anything. Just my little fawn and our perfect microcosm of the universe.” He slid forward and looked you dead in the eye.

He cocked his head, “Remember when I was talking about what the universe owed us? I figured this was my long-awaited, pleaded for reward. To have you, for as long as this little life of yours could allow this fling to last.”

He was very good with words and you could feel them echoing pure and true in your head. Something made you relax and let your guard down.

You hoped it wasn’t some alien superpower he had.

You began openly weeping. Loud, a total cacophony. You started choking on your tears and having a hard time breathing.

He wiped the tears.

You let our a hiccup. He started rubbing small circles on the middle of your back.

“I planned on seeing a West End play with you, a proper date, like a human man would take a human woman to. If you don’t want to, I can order a car and you can go back to Bristol.” He offered.

You started crying even harder.

“Can I shower first? Before I can make a choice. On anything. Even you...” You admitted, needing to revise on your end if you even wanted to be with him in any capacity anymore.

“Understandable, (y/n).” The Doctor helped you up, and gave you your suitcase. You found your toiletries bag and shuffled in. You swore you heard him mutter, “Well, don’t overthink.” But you left that be. You had enough to think about, just add that to the list.

After getting undressed, you turned the water on the hottest it could go.

You began to wash away the day…

So much to think about…so little time to do so.

[thagomizersshow]

Content warning: blood, gore, sexual content, sexual assault, parasites and body horror

This is a heavily modified version of an essay I originally wrote for a literary theory class and then turned into a script for a video essay that I never finished. 

Enjoy :)

One of the things that really bothers me about the critical conversation around Alien (1979) is the long-running idea that the alien and its various forms are so enduringly horrifying because they break the sexual/gender binary.

The worst example I can find is this excerpt, from Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ripley, by Ximena Gallardo and C. & C. Jason Smith:

The Alien species disregards the sexual difference that is so essential to our definition of what it is to be human. The male body is repositioned to correspond to the female body: the male mouth becomes the vagina, the chest the womb. The dichotomy male/female is broken down, as all humanity is female (a womb) in the face of the alien.

I get that this was published in 2004, but Gender Trouble had already been around for over a decade, so that’s not much of an excuse for weird ass gender essentialism in academia.

Art by AlexanDraxleean ↑

The idea that the xenomorph and its various stages are scary because the gender binary is being broken down is comically disregarded by the simple fact that trans people (like myself) ALSO find the damn thing scary. We are living embodiments of a shattered binary, but we aren’t shitting ourselves over our own existence (usually). I contend that the alien is scary not because of a violation of gender or sexual norms, but because it utilizes a much more widespread and visceral kind of horror: that of the parasite.

Most other animalistic horror monsters rely on the fear of the predator: monster wanna eat you → you run away → get caught → get eated. This is an oversimplification, obviously, and if you want a really good exploration of how the fear of predators effects us, read Val Plumwood’s Eye of the Crocodile. For real, my fav ecophilosophy book.

No, instead of the more straightforward horror presented by the predator, the alien uses the inescapable, cloying, and violating horror of parasites and parasitoids. Where the predator hunts, kills and eats, the parasite clings, defiles and tortures. When the predator catches you, you’re dead. When the parasite catches you, you don’t know what is going to happen. Is it going to bury inside you? Is it going to feed on your body? Is it going to lay eggs in you? You literally don’t know, and that’s what makes them so scary. Hell, they could get inside you without you even knowing. It isn’t just the fear of death, it’s the paranoia of violation AND the fear of the unknown. This makes Alien akin to a Lovecraftian horror in many ways, but instead of the fear of race-mixing or disabled people, it is the fear that whatever you do, wherever you go, there are beings that can enter your body and use it against your will.

Hell, the whole premise of the movie, at least according to the screenwriter, came from the thought “what if ichneumon wasps laid eggs in us instead of in worms?” That basic idea is glossed over constantly in analysis of Alien in favour of more Freudian explanations that rely heavily on antiquated notions of gender essentialism. When early screening audiences were throwing up in their seats in 1979, were they thinking about how “this monster really transgresses gender norms :/” or were they thinking “fuck what if that thing was growing inside me?!?!”

The only time I agree with these old school interpretations is when they view Alien through the lens of sexual assault. The fear of sexual assault and the fear of parasites are fucked up sisters in a way. They are both fears of bodily violation that induce a strong paranoia, and their symbologies easily feed off one another. Sexual imagery (e.g. a penis shaped head with a mouth on the end) combined with parasitic imagery (e.g. a creature grabbing a hold of you and doing unknown things to your body) are both niggling at the part of your brain that is repulsed by internal invasion.

However, I’ve seen arguments that Alien specifically targets fears for cis men being sexually assaulted, and I think that’s a very limited approach to the movie. The idea of a creature latching onto you, ignoring your autonomy, and using you as an incubator is pretty universally scary if you ask me, and I think for most people, that idea connects to a primal and often unaddressed fear of parasites far more than sexual violation. Just look at videos of botfly maggot removals and tell me you don’t get the same yucky feeling as when you watch Alien.

Even for people like me who find these creatures fascinating, I still get that skin crawly feeling when I look at images of them for too long. And it isn’t just a short-lived disgust reaction happening, it’s also that feeling of paranoia that it could be happening to you right this minute. This is all a part of what is called the behavioural immune system, which is the brain’s first line of defense against infection and why most people are grossed out by signs of disease on the body (pus, rashes, body odours, etc.).

We really don’t like thinking about parasites, and it shows across our culture. Deadly predators of all kinds have been worshiped all over the world, but is there anyone in history who paid fealty to the tick? Who invoked the name of the roundworm for strength? Are there cartoons about anthropomorphic scabies and their kingdom of flesh? (If any of these exist and I just don’t know it, please tell me.)

I’m not saying that this is an innate feeling in all of us (the human experience is about as diverse as it gets, and I’m sure some people just don’t have this reaction and never have) but I do think it’s widespread enough and so infrequently felt that when this parasite repulsion is triggered it makes for a horror that is far harder to shake than any socialized fear of gender violation. Far more than any Freudian psychosexual imagery, the horror of the parasite is what I believe has made the xenomorph such an enduring cinematic monster.

I wanna leave this post off with one of my favourite quotes about parasites from Annie Dilliard’s book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

It is the thorn in the flesh of the world, another sign, if any be needed, that the world is actual and fringed, pierced here and there, and through and through, with the toothed conditions of time and the mysterious, coiled spring of death.

[borbology]

lmao guys ive been so busy make it stop

Also, gonna say it - thanksgiving is not a fun holiday. That's my hot take. If I may vent... I finish eating in like 1/6th of the time it takes to cook and clean everything (not worth it) and then I just gotta sit there with my family for hours, and I LOVE my family, but I wish there was something else we were doing. I get restless just sitting there (think I have adhd tbh)

Plus thanksgiving is always right after the election and there's always that one family member with radically different political views and this year especially just ugh. The whole premise behind thanksgiving is kinda fucked up anyway, and I am NOT a proud American so double ugh. I don't like the food that much and there's been a shit ton of food recalls this year so I'm scared to eat turkey. It's not like we'd know if it's recall-worthy yet because everybody is waiting for thanksgiving to eat em :\ On top of that I have two art projects for my finals, one essay for a final, another essay, and I need to get caught up in one of my classes - all by the second week of december. I thought we weren't doing thanksgiving this year so I was all chill and then my grandma changed her mind last minute, or I grossly misunderstood to begin with, and now I've gotta gear up for it because my plans changed.

But yeah. Shit has been crazy. I stepped away from this blog for a while to work on another project which will be its own blog, with the plan to come back here once I got that started, but then I had to stop working on it and basically everything else to do midterms, and then I had like no time before finals started, and we had busy af weeks at work and my schedule got fucked up a few times, and then my whole family started going through a depression, and then the election hit, and it's just been like DAMN

I have a really good life. Just adult shit, y'know?

Anyway I am not dead and I really want to post more but it's going to have to be after my semester ends because I've had like no damn time for personal projects since October and I'm burnt out.

As always, feel free to talk to me. I still check here every now and then :)))

[m0e-ru]

hi ive been binging your blog a lot recently. i rlly adore the sheer effort you've given to these dumbass fucking characters that otherwise get such little people even attempting to appreciate or engage with them beyond very shallow depths. as someone who only really got into the p4 games relatively recently (2022. my only remembered experience with the series beforehand was like a couple episodes of the the p4anim years ago and playing p5 in 2016/2017) and kind of being shell-shocked by how characters like marie and teddie and namatame were perceived by the overall fanbase once i started engaging with it more i really appreciate all the writing and analysis and art and other shit you do for them. even the gas station attendant, a character i overlooked initially, i've come to love because of all the time and energy you put into picking them apart like a dead frog in a science class

uh yea idfk i feel generally vindicated by seeing the way you characterize these bitches. especially marie as someone who felt like a lot of her interesting aspects were evaporated by the fandom (somewhat because of p4ga i feel but but still) and wanted to see more silly fanart of her (and shumarie/soumarie/whatecvrer the fuck that wasn't just kind of surface level romance becuz i rlly do love their dynamic w how i see bancho in my head. idiots who dont know how to properly express themselves w one repressing themselves to adopt a likable persona and the other unable to shut the fuck up much to their own detriment. im not gonna get over that fucking "marie makes everyday sunny for him" post ever i think) so uh keep on keeping on and ill continue to like your posts and something

anyway dumb stupid cringe fucking rant over. i apologize if i come off like a loser i dont use this website and idk the general tumblr etiquette. im pretty sure shit like this shouldnt even go here but . dont need to respond to this i just wanted to yell into the void cuz i appreciate this account. rest of this will just be panels of marie and teddie and bancho from some of the p4g anthologies i own that i wanted to share in the off chance that you also dont already own said anthologies n have seen them befor. these r only from the last ID antho and the dengeki one because those r the only 2 i have proper pictures of

hai i read this ages ago and i wanna get back to it by saying youre so awesome possum forever and ever dont worry about your ettiquette because getting 3 essay worthy paragraphs of you talking is basically everyone ive met in the tumblr nation

another thing i remember is that a bestie also loved your offerings esp the last one because those two look so lalala AUAHUAHA okay i should answer this ask properly now that i have the time 🏃🏃🏃🏃

can we give it up for the bingers and blog skimmers !?!?!?! you guys are such an interesting breed i remember trying to do that in 2018 i can already recall the thrill going through my blood im so honored to see people doing that and moreso coming to me to tell me about it WAHAUHAHA 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

this gas station (blog) really is catered to the niche market of all time also because the way my brain is wired to just go in the dustiest nooks and corners of a community and thrive and live there. i AM the bug you see when you lift up the rock . hai . i'll do anything for these poor poor characters being tossed around like hot potato with people who dont bother understanding thing or even try to pick them up at all. also im getting such a kick every time someone tells me i got them into appreciating the attendant or even iznmi more OR in a different way. thats why im here bros . me when i do my JOB !!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

the way fandom handles shipping has always irked me because theres just SO much you can do with two characters than just make them hold hands. what if there was blood invovled, you know . /starts pacing around the room / you know im glad you know the know it's so cool you know /shaking you/ im glad i have a post that's affected you so much like i thought it was just a silly caption at the time and seeing it after 2 or 3 years is like "YEAHH i cooked this " and im glad you brought it to me hehehe

i hope this gas station brings you joy and you keep coming back for more etc etc and please know i really am happy to see you around in whatever branch you show up at 🫡🫡🫡 /explordes

[queer-coded-camaro-driver]

The #1 Reason Stranger Things Fell Apart, an Essay:

**All things stated below are my personal OPINION and do not have to impact your views if you don't want them to. As an avid D&D player, however, I wanted to write this out for shits n giggles. I was in the mood. This also doesn't address the racism, badly handled character intros, or random B-character deaths.

There is one rule to rule them all in Dungeons & Dragons, a rule so vital to smooth gameplay and story-building that the smartest players know to break it almost certainly means death:

Never split the party.

(There's an entire song about it, that's how deeply engrained in the culture it is).

Once the party has been separated it's not only way easier for your characters to get ambushed/get in trouble/die, it's way harder for all members of the game to keep having the same level of fun! Usually because the wait time between turns and plot development causes players to lose interest or lose track of their last actions.

When it comes to Season 1 of Stranger Things, we have multiple groups of characters building plots together: Nancy, Steve, Jonathan, and the other teens have their drama together. Hopper and the investigation into Hawkins' weird science has its own plot. Will's disappearance and the children hiding El are the main focus - and those groups are almost NEVER narratively separated.

These plots are interwoven to create the greater story and build suspense but the groups within are constantly orbiting around one another to strengthen those connections. Despite my current beef with the Duffers, Season 1 was pretty damn successful in following the Golden Rule of TTRPG.

So when S2 arrives and the process of El's reunification with Mike/the Party gets dragged out further than necessary, all that yummy tension dissipates. Rather than using the established relationships to scaffold new conflicts (Mike/El, Mike/Max(?), Max & Lucas' crush/truce, Dustin's frustration, Will's loneliness, etc.), they broke these load-bearing narratives into smaller "more digestible" chunks.

As S3 and S4 went on, the group fractured even further apart. With this separation came the loss of critical character traits. Mama Byers' beloved velcro-mothering disappears in the face of Hopper's potential survival. Jonathan and Nancy's class disparity falls out of the story despite being one of the more interesting aspects of the "Teen Drama".

Max slips away, Lucas slips away, Dustin and Mike join the Hellfire Club... I know these shifts are meant to represent the way things change in high school but the clique-forming is so fast and drastic by S4 that the Party is unrecognizable.

The Duffers lost serious momentum when they split the party the first time by sending El to Chicago to meet her retconned siblings. But rather than learning from this mistake, they tried doing it a different way over and over until the compiled failures led to... Whatever the fuck is going on right now.

They COULD have done some fascinating stuff with Will and Billy's birthdays marking the dates of the first and final episodes of S4, Vol 1 respectively. They share a name and they were both Flayed. That could have been SUCH a cool coincidence to play with. Yet somehow the fans noticed their timeline mistake before they did, ffs.

They could have done some cool stuff with the Upside Down and Billy and Max getting a heartwarming sibling redemption arc. The 4 OG Party guys could have talked through a legit heart-to-heart about growing up and finding new interests but staying friends, Breakfast Club style.

But no. We got whatever the fuck the Henry Creel stuff was/is/will be. It's not the worst possible writing they could have done, but that element could have been incorporated with so much creativity and class... Yet it got shoehorned between several other developing ideas instead.

And honestly I don't think any of the massively laggy sub-plots with Joyce and Russia and Hopper in jail and Dustin's Mormon girlfriend's stoner sister would have happened if the Duffers had simply followed the rules and never split the party.

[msvorderofoperations]

Been a minute, but I've got another dream journal.

So the last couple weeks I've had a comparatively mild (but still really frustrating) bout of pneumonia. This has meant that I can only sleep 2-4 hours at a time, because I'll - without fail - get woken up by an intense coughing fit. So I'm taking my sleep where I can, but it has also resulted in a lot of extremely vivid and weird dreams.

The one I just woke up from started as being in a Yakuza game (or Like A Dragon these days, since Sega is trying to distance themselves from the notoriety of the crime syndicate) taking place on a cruise ship. It was very strange, even for one of those games (the series is powerfully bizarre, containing Buddhist morality plays [sorta], business management sims involving barnyard animals as your managers, and fighting dudes who spend their money exploring the depths of the ocean so they can learn to punch out cetaceans). It began with one of the many business minigames, this one about operating tea house/host clubs. What made it truly strange though was that the way hosts levelled up was by falling asleep on the floor, unconsciously building a cocoon around themselves and undergoing metamorphosis to turn into humans with butterfly wings. There was of course competing interests in the same realm, but an investigation into their offerings showed the were doomed to fail because the themes were inconsistent and weird as fuck. Like, the hosts were dressed in very formal minimalist modern attire, but the decorations were a melange of brutalist and tiki. It made no goddamn sense.

Anyways, the next bit of the game ended up being about how staff of the cruise were slacking on their maintenance jobs, and you have to investigate. I turns out that the reason for this is because they're trying to capture a great white shark that has been tailing the ship. Since they don't have any fresh fish to chum, they have instead been luring it in with their own blood, to limited success. In standard video game fashion, you solve this problem by beating people up. You even have the option to use parts of the environment to dump them into the sea, directly into the path of the shark. But because this is a Yakuza game, there is very strict gameplay and story segregation, so they don't die and end up back on the ship once you've won the fight. The game then tells you that the shark seems to be interested only in the blood of a specific body type (which in no way lines up with sharks actual preferences), in this case wanting a human that is extremely athletic. Since the staff on the cruise lead a fairly sedentary life (dream logic, I don't believe this is actually the case) it is implied that the blood needed to capture this thing would be the main character's. But since he doesn't want to open up an artery, which is literally how the other people attempting this did it, the side mission goes unfinished.

The dream then shifts have the cruise being specifically for a graduating high school class (this was a thing at my school, though it was not nearly as bougie as it sounds. It was on a ferry with no events space and lasted maybe an afternoon). It's lasting a few days, and the ship is basically a floating amusement park, with rides, themed areas, live theatre and movie screenings. Things take a turn for the even weirder, when it becomes clear that the high school in question is basically the unhinged mish-mash of genres that is Riverdale. If you're not familiar with how off the rails the show gets, there are many video essays detailing it's complete descent into madness. Adding to the complexity of the situation, it seems the event is also taking place specifically in the World of Darkness which is a shared universe of contemporary urban fantasy role playing games, each dealing with a different community (vampires, werewolves, changelings, etc). And then to complicate things EVEN FURTHER, a bunch of movie villains from many various properties show up (in the dream I was characterizing them as all of the Dreamworks animation villains, but that is absolutely not who they were). So you had gadgeteer geniuses working alongside reality warpers, misguided nature spirits, entirely mundane businessmen/politickers, and ghosts among MANY others.

The whole conflict with them goes down in a very weird climactic event, one I can scarcely describe since even in the dream I barely had any idea what was going one. Suffice to say, it was beyond hallucinatory, but it did result in the quote unquote good guys winning. And then it all became extremely mundane stuff about docking procedures, and getting people in touch with their families to get picked up.

My dreams are so weird.

[julys-grievances]

grievances about my 2 best friends 💗its mostly petty but i need 2 yap :( major yapping under the cut beware

irl moots who know either of these people please don’t tell them about thiz ty ily lots

1. j (this ones the petty one)

so there was this situation a while ago where this guy who we were friends with who had a girlfriend liked someone else and also said some weird ass shit and we all thought he liked my friend but turns out he liked me and used her as a cover story and sent me an essay long confession which made me want to claw off my skin and sob myself to sleep and also jump off a cliff onto rocky waters because it was fucking disgusting and she still somehow made herself the victim. honestly at this point she was barely involved but she still called me a bystander even though all of the fucking screenshots of weird stuff he’s said to us and also to his other friend were from ME. I GOT THEM ALL. and then when i sent the essay to a groupchat of anti-him people she was still like “no he still likes me.” and then when i was like “dude he doesn’t like you that’s way good news he’s a creep” AND THEN SHE APOLOGIZED FOR TAKING THE SPOTLIGHT OFF OF ME EVEN THOUGH THERE SHOULDN’T BE A SPOTLIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE. and now whenever this scenario is brought up she describes it as he liked her and then suddenly switched to me which pisses me off and she doesnt even mention the stupid dumbass shit he did to his GIRLFRIEND AT THE TIME. ALL SHE TALKS ANOUT IS THAT HE LIKED HER AND THEN LIKED ME. WHICH WASNT EVEN THE WORST THING HE DID. also she barely cares if people are being racist or antisemetic towards me but the minute she hears the word gringa she goes into fucking cardiac arrest. like this guy in our class was pulling the corners of his eyes and askinf me what ching chong meant and also another guy calling me a fucking dog eater and i told her and she basically shrugged and said damn that sucks BUT THE FUCKING MINUTE SHE THOUGHT SHE HEARD SOMEONE CALL HER A GRINGA SHE GOT A FUCKING HEART ATTACK. worst part is that’s the same throughout my entire friend group because they’re all white. my other friend literally threatened to jump the people who she thought called her a gringa and also shrugged when i told him that someone in my class was saying i started covid and bitched about how i was gonna eat his dog. kms.

2. b

nothing. and i mean nothing. cannot be about this motherfucker. every time i go over to his house we have like half an hour where we’re jsut straight up yapping about everything wrong in our lives. heres the difference. when hes saying stuff i pay attention and listen and give him time to unpack his problems and i talk about his problems too because that’s what a good friend does. when im saying stuff he either says “ru… dont do that..” and then moves on or immediately makes it about himself. literally i was talking about how bad my body images had gotten and how i feel disgusting and how i feel like i lose my value as a person if i’m not stick thin and then he immediately started talking about himself. he didnt even miss a second. I TOLD HIM THAT I FUCKING RELAPSED AND HE BRUSHED IT OFF. IMMEDIATELY STARTED TALKING ABOUT HIS OWN PROBLEMS. I TOLD HIM THAT I WAS SCARED TO TALK ABOUT MY GENDER IDENTITY WITH MY MOM BECAUSE SHE WAS INSISTING THAT ALL OF THE STUFF I WAS FEELING WAS ON THE SPECTRUM OF FEMININITY EVEN THOUGH IT WASNT AND HE IMMEDIATELY DTARTED TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF AGAIN.

i deadass think that i could tell this bitch that i wrote suicide notes and he would still find a way to make it about himself. the first time i was suicidal i told him and he immediately went “if you died i would…” immediately started talking about how his life would be which didnt help at all. he might get tumblr i’m praying he doesnt because if he sees this ever it’s over

me and our other 2 friends were talking earlier about how conscious we are of our weights/bodies/appearance and he said he was conscious too which is totally valid but when we started talking about how we’re basically overexerting ourselves to stay as skinny he said “just don’t overexert yourself”. don’t piss me off.

[ardbar]

My face is actively killing me and I taste blood but today is a good day! I’ve officially gotten all of my finals back, and chat we cooked!

To start on a low note I only got an 87 on my philosophy final. Granted I would say this is the one I prepared the least for. He also decided to make every question free response which while normally that is good for me there was one question I had absolutely no clue how to answer it. I think the question was comparing Optimistic Nihilism and Existentialism and honestly I’m still not quite sure what the difference is.

Moving on my next grade was a 95. This was in my Comparative politics class and it was just a 1200 word take home essay so this wasn’t stressful at all. I do have to say I think the only reason I didn’t get higher on it is because the teacher takes off a few points automatically. Now that might sound full of myself, however, there are two reasons I don’t think it is. First Canvas gives a basic grade breakdown for every assignment including this one. Now it said both the high for this assignment was a 95 and that the upper quartile was a 95 so that means a lot of students got a 95 but none got above it. Also my teacher wrote a really sweet comment. She said and I quote, “Wonderful job on your final paper! You have some excellent and fascinating analysis. I can see that effort that you have put into thinking about these case studies and what you have learned. I really appreciate your presence in this class and I look forward to seeing you in class next quarter!” Now I personally wouldn’t give some a 95 if I thought they had excellent and fascinating analysis but that’s just me. This is a very long way to I’ll take my 95 but I wouldn’t have minded getting a free 100. That being said I do honestly love this teacher. I think she is a lot of fun and I did specially try and take her again next quarter for another class I need for my major

My last paragraph was long so I’ll keep this one short and sweet. I ended up with a 96 on my stats final. I’m happy with this grade considering I really didn’t study as much as I should and I spend a decent amount of this class scrolling on tumblr and TikTok. I love stats but I hated this class. My highschool stats teacher was a lovely woman and did such an amazing job teaching it to me that any other teacher pales in comparison.

last but not least was my English final which I got a 97 on. Honestly this grade could have been an easy 100 if I had put more time in. This final was an essay and the grade included both the draft and revisions. The only points i lost were on the drafts but that was a stressful week with like 5 projects happening at once so I was on a time crunch.

Honestly it really does seem like not having a life pays off. It also helps that all of these classes I think would fall on the easy side of difficultly spectrum, both objectively and subjectively. Like a majority of these classes just require you to know a few things and then be able to make a good argument or analysis which are both things that a good college student should be able to do. On the subjective aspect all of these subjects are ones that I’ve preformed well on in the past. I was in AP history and AP English classes as soon as they offered them in high school so these classes cater well to the skills I excel in. Also stats is the subject of math I’m best at don’t get me started on calculus I hate it so much. Once I need to take a science class I’m actually fucked.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Wow this is a definite hot take to be sure as I know a lot of people have A-2 ranked as their personal favourite Another case period, so seeing it ranked so low is...a interesting manoeuvre.

The characterisation of the victim and culprit is interesting because it shows a massive inconstency with LINUJ's worldbuilding and his worldview. You see LINUJ had ideas to make certain characters more jerkish and more evil then they were. I already discussed how he planned to make Kanata into a serial killer but decided she was too cute and wholesome to be twisted so it was dropped. Similarly he had plans to make Ayame into someone evil as well, so that one segment where Ayame claims to be evil was meant to be geniune. This was again dropped because I think LINUJ started to realise if he made all his culprits to be complete arseholes, then it would get boring very quickly. Also because of the big reveal that not only were all of Class 79 members of the Kisagari Foundation but apparantely they all got the best character development imaginable and all became good buddy-buddy friends.

So by this logic that means Kizuna eventually evolves and develops to be more then a shallow bullying bitch, so why the fuck is she described as being a hollow bitch all along LINUJ? I know Killing Games are high stress enviroments which do nobody any good but what happened in the one year the Class 79 knew each other which was so different from the now? Its just so much of a tonial dissonance that its almost as if LINUJ's views on human nature and how the story are progressing are competiting against each other. Now I'm starting to have a better picture why Void are the way they are, because maybe LINUJ realised having a group who supposedly all got along so well, that he needed to create a massively evil group to justify what he says about them.

So long story short if you remember Bubble's Mean Girl Problem essay, Kizuna is the biggest victim of it because she is literally treated like a bitch and nothing else. Like the crying and the fact she was lonely was all a ruse so she could kill Yuki? And that's not even ignoring the fact Kizuna in some ways would have become an accidental heroine given her original targets of Yuki and Akane ARE the masterminds all along, but I don't really think she had noble intentions there. It makes me suspect if Divine Luck came into play why Ayame happened to be in the area when the murder was taking place so that Akane and Yuki could dodge death.

This chapter also makes me realise how overrated Akane and Ayame's relationship is because those two barely interacted with each other during A-2, and the main reason people ship these two together is soley because of the fact Ayame saved Akane from Kizuna. Which its a solid reason and we know Ayame's actions do have a lasting effect as its the main catalyst which causes Akane to develop a conscious in the end, Akane doesn't really interact much with Ayame beyond that. Most of her Chapter 2 interactions are with Kizuna and we all know how THAT ends up unfortunately. Dom't get me wrong I do like all the shipping done with that, but its something that's blown WAY out of proporation.

Seems like wasting a good chunk of the class trial on pointless stuff is a recurring theme with Chapter 2s isn't it? 2-2 had to go through the video game and then Hiyoko having a Twitter like meltdown, 3-2 had not only Himiko but then Maki accused of murder and that took up a good deal of trial time, this obviously spends a lot of time with Akane in the hot seat and Despair Time takes the cake with the majority being spend on pointless secrets that in the end adds to nothing. That's easily the worst one since at least the others kinda were related to murder crime but that...was so not it. Heck even 1-1 and A2-2 weren't spared this since 1-1 had the Genocider Syo stuff though that was actually a important point to the trial so it wasn't nonsense that out stayed its welcome, and A2-2 was a trainwreck conducted by Kanade Otonokoji so less said there the better.

This is another reminder I REALLY need to read +2-2 at some point, because I know quite a few people, especially Carol herself, having been asking me to read it, which for those who don't know, its an AU where Ayame was able to give Kizuna medical attention before she bled out to death. Because seeing the main reason why Ayame decided to kill Kizuna was because she knew there was no way she could get Kizuna medicial attention in time before she died and then Akane would be the blackened, Ayame would basically finish off the job. So I am curious how Carol gets around that issue and how it effects the rest of the Chapter.

I also notice there is some translation errors in this Chapter since the motive is the dark secrets that everyone randomly picks out, but they keep referring to the notes as videos, so unless these are like Harry Potter like notes where the words move, I'm gonna suspect the translator fucked up here. The remake should clear this up though.

Going back to my previous discussions on how Junko is watching all this footage and taking notes how to finetune it for her own Killing Game, I think the actions of Kizuna and Ayame is what not only motivated her to kill Mukuro off, since she didn't want Mukuro doing a Akane and siding against her, but also why she decided to have Mukuro pose as her while she hides in the background. As after seeing Kizuna (rightfully) suspect that Yuki and Akane are tied to the Mastermind, she tries to kill them off which to Junko was too much of a risk factor for her. I did always wonder why Junko didn't hide herself among the students and was just cooped up in her mastermind room all the time, but now I know why this is the case, you cannot kill the Mastermind if you cannot find them.

We all know the Doylst reasoning for this is LINUJ trying to play it safe, but I do like my Wattson explanation for why there are differences between the Proto Killing Game and the Killing School Life as Junko taking notes on the test run and figuring out what works well and what doesn't. Like the notes are given randomly so others do find out, but I wonder why Junko decides to have it so Class 78 get their own secrets and the threat that no murder in 24 hours means the entire world finds out about them. As I would think others knowing the secrets would cause more chaos.

It is cool that while Ayame said she did do it to protect Akane, she also had ulteror motives for wanting to escape too. This is something I had to talk about on my blog where someone mentioned someone saying that Gundham covering up evidence for his crime means he was trying to escape and not kill Nekomaru to sacifice himself, because if he wanted to help everyone, why not say so at the start? Now of course that should be pinned for 2-4 but my rebuttal at the time is that the reason nobody who does a sacifice says I did it is firstly survival instincts mean nobody wants to fess up since confessing means death, but secondly even if they did admit it would anyone believe them? Plenty of characters like to falsely confess to killing which means said confessions won't be accepted. And by plenty I do mean Nagito and Kokichi. Mostly Kokichi.

Also the fact that Danganronpa is a video game and it would make it very boring. And yeah I agree there should be more evidence to pin Ayame as the culprit rather then opps I slipped. Since the lack of it is what leads the discussion to be focused on Akane for so long and not shift to Ayame until Rei had to literally spell it out by saying "Ayame did it, you guys are morons and never ask for anything ever again."

Tsurugi's downward sprial is also a big yikes because this is what happens when the "leader" becomes the rival character and everyone suffers as a result. But I do disagree that Tsurugi doesn't improve as as the game goes, and the rest of the characters call him out on his bullshit, he does eventually realise it leaves him isolated with no one but Yuki for company, and even that is hollow in the end. So there was a sense by A-5 that Tsurugi would eventually improve as a person...but then Yuki being Utsuro completely killed any intention of that and really made him become the maniac he was by SDRA2. Having said that, I will say he isn't the worst example of this in Fanganronpas, because I'm going through The After right now and if you hate how Tsurugi is treated...

Then you are really gonna loathe Ryohei Seki. I do like this approach because Tsurugi does become quite hateable but its a very unique take on a rival character as normally the distain for the character is like "they are werid/creepy" whereas Tsurugi is very antagonistic and the others do call him out on that. Remember how I said Mitch being so irredeemable allowed Tsurugi's idealogy to sneak into the other's heads? Well having Ayame be sympathatic and Tsurugi to be like she's evil all along, is the point where most characters will start to realise Tsurugi is in the wrong.

I also find Tsurugi's idealogy to be very hypocritical as he got that idealogy from his father, who was working with Junko all this time and thus is the Ultimate evil. So why double down, and thus making himself to be as deprived as Despair itself? Is he literally that delusional in SDRA2?

That being said A-2 is an original case which is more then what can be said for all of Another 1. And while Ayame and Akane's dynamic was handled well, abet right at the end, Kizuna wasn't handled well and some of the stuff LINUJ says really goes against his own writings. Tsurugi is going a interesting turn as while he's not a very likable character I find it compelling he's like this, and while the first trail serves to help you support his idealogy, the second one is to tell you Tsurugi is very much in the wrong.

Overall I tell now we are in the C tier of Chapters, where we are past the real stinkers and ones with glaring flaws to them, and are now into the okay ones but with some significent flaws here and there. And I'm curious who you consider to be a better Another culpirt then Ayame but we will eventually find that out.

//I find it funny how LINUJ decided against making all his culprits assholes, but then rehashed that idea in SDRA2.

//I mean, with VOID, it makes sense. Their whole gimmick is that they're an evil organization infiltrating the group and steering events in Mikado's favor. For SDRA2's plot, it does make sense.

//But then with the killers in Another 1, all of them are somewhat sympathetic, even Kinji, except for MItch. So I'm not sure what happened between DRA's creation and SDRA2's creation that really got LINUJ to change his tune like this.

//And yeah, trust me when I say Mod Carol is definitely happy about the fact that everyone was very friendly. Makes their favourite killer/victim ship that's shown here a lot more justifiable.

//Speaking of Carol, I had no idea that she wrote that fic. I might have to read it myself. Unlike my interactions with other DR Mods like Bubbles and Poi, I've not really talked to her ever, but I've been a fan of her art long before I ever found A Student Out Of Time. If she's the one who wrote that fic, I'll for sure give it a go.

//Also, the fact that Divine Luck came into play to protect Akane is canon. Divine Luck made it so that everything in the killing game happened just as Utsuro wanted it to without Utsuro even being conscious or aware of his own abilities. It's also why Tsurugi just so happened to trip over the carpet in Chapter 4 when he was was trying to goad everyone into group suicide, and why he didn't die despite shooting himself point-blank in the brain.

//The fact that Ayame and Akane didn't interact too much during the Chapter isn't something I take fault with, because I think it's implied that they still hung out behind closed doors (and no, that's not an innuendo) when Yuki wasn't present, but yeah, you have a point. It would have been more impactful had we seen something like Mondo and Taka's bonding session in DR1, but at the same time, Akane and Ayame were never really at odds with each other.

//Maybe if you were to send that to the guys working on the remake, they might consider adding a little scene to better explain it. The only problem in that case is that it would make it way too obvious that either one of them is going to be the Chapter 2 killer.

//The thing is that of all the second cases in this series, yes, they all do have the common trait of dancing around a lot until you reach a conclusion, but I think that 2-2 and A2-2 are the only ones that did that poorly, and A-2 kind of does it...okayish. 1-2 and V3-2 actually do really good stuff with their red herrings and it makes the case way more interesting.

//Also, the main reason why 2-2 is so bad in that regard is because the killer is outed REALLY quickly. If it was the other way around in that the killer was outed very late into the trial, and most of it was waffling around trying to figure out their identity, I wouldn't mind as much, because that's the whole point of Danganronpa.

//And yeah, please don't put too much credit to the direct translation of Another 1 that most people have played. The translation issues and the fact that the team who originally did it did such a half-baked job is one of the raving issues of that game when I and my friend Megacomet played it for the first time, and I'm glad the remake seems to be serious about fixing that.

//That stuff about Junko makes sense, but honestly, thinking about it that way, I do think that does ultimately take away from Junko's character. The fact that her master plans aren't even hers originally is one thing, but I also feel like she would happily have killed Mukuro regardless of what happened. I think she saw the killing game as a spectacular event that she could use as an excuse to finally get rid of her after all this.

//Weirdly enough, this motive and the tension it causes reminded me of the Chapter 2 motive of Hyper Danganronpa H20 of all things. I don't know why because it's completely different, but it carries the same amount of weight with its reveals and stuff, even if its handled relatively poorly.

//The quick version is that the motive itself gives you one other random member of the main cast, and how many people over the course of their life that they have hurt, and how many people they have killed. And it comes with some interesting revelations, such as Victoria Hester having killed several thousands as part of being a naval officer. Although in that game, this comes back to bite her much later in Chapter 4 when one of the other characters turns out to be a survivor of a camp that she and her squadron destroyed.

//The reason why Victoria manages to survive for much longer after that though is because the others confront her about it in a non-violent confrontation, and she explains herself. Meanwhile, that chapter's killer, like Kizuna here, doesn't question the circumstances behind her own note, and chooses to assinate that chapters victim based on this unproveable evidence.

//So HDRH20 does it better and just as bad at the same time, which for Another, is NOT a good look.

//Also, that spiel about Gundham and why he didn't step forward immediately following Nekomaru's body discovery? There actually is a more thorough and detailed reason why he chose to do, and it's a lot more obvious than people think it is. But I'll cover that when we get to talking about 2-4, which in case you don't know me by now, won't be for quite a while.

//All I can say in regards to how the Ayame stuff gets resolved is #SleiMekaru, and that's both good and bad.

//Tsurugi in SDRA2 is a discussion for another time, for sure, and I will touch on it when we get to talking about A2-6. There are, I'm sure, a lot of reasons why he became so disjointed, but the fact that he regressed so much still bothers me.

//Although, if there's one thing I do like about Tsurugi, it's that even as a "rival" character, his main relationship with Yuki is surprisingly cooperative and very not rival-like. The only ways in which they differ are their chosen methodology, but both know they ultimately want the same thing. Contrasting that with other rivals:

Makoto wants to work with Byakuya to ensure that everyone can survive, but Byakuya wants none of that, and initially, he would much rather the killing game continue so he can have his fun. He's very serious about making Makoto know that the two of them come from very different worlds that should never cross.

Hajime and Nagito go through a rollercoaster in which they start as friends before Hajime develops a disdain for Nagito after he reveals his true nature and ideology, then Nagito turns that disdain back on Hajime, and then they are...somehow okay with each other again in 3, but...whatever.

Shuichi and Kokichi maintain an...interesting relationship in that they're not quite friends, but definitely not enemies either. Kokichi is clearly very endeared to Shuichi with the fact that he likes playing around with him, but never specifically subjects Shuichi to any of his more extreme antics, while Shuichi never holds Kokichi's actions against him, despite some of the absolutely terrible shit that he does, because he just wants to understand Kokichi.

Sora and Syobai just despise each other and maintain an unhealthy and bitter dynamic with each other, even when they try to avoid one another. Makes sense considering SDRA2 literally starts off with Syobai stabbing her, but in the end, they do eventually accept each other for who they are, and come together to destroy Mikado in an epic fashion.

//In contrast, Yuki and Tsurugi disagree on each others way of going about the Killing Game, with Yuki trying to be friendly and reasonable, and Tsurugi trying to be a totalitarian dictator about it, but they themselves are ammicable with each other and respect the other as a person.

//And this carries over in SDRA2 when Tsurugi very clearly genuinely wants to save Yuki from the Neo World. As bad as Tsurugi is, his relationship with Yuki is one of his best points. It's just not something that gets brought up in the trials a lot.

//But yeah, the key word when it comes to analysing Tsurugi is "hypocrisy." It is ABUNDANT throughout his entire writing.

//As for Ryohei Sasaki, I am partially familiar with him, but there's a difference between them.

//Tsurugi fell into despair and became corrupt as a result of the circumstances around him, and he genuinely thinks that what he's doing is for the betterment of the world, and in some ways, he is right.

//Sasaki is just a bad person through and through.

//And yeah, to finish this quick response, I did actually make a tier-list version of this ranking, and we are in the C-Tier right now. This is how it is so far:

C Rank - ???, A-2, A-1, 2-2 D Rank - V3-5, 1-3, A2-5 E Rank - V3-6, 2-3 F Rank - 1-1, 1-5, A-3 G Rank - V3-3, A2-2, A2-3

//Right now, the trial that I'll be covering tomorrow is not only our final "C-Rank" trial in my opinion, but at the risk of spoiling but alsk keeping you guessing, it's also going to be our third Another 1 case in a row.

//And given its status, probably one that's going to be similarly a controversial pick.

-Mod

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

OK EVERYONE WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE BULLSHIT I'VE GONE THROUGH THIS WEEK

I've talked to some of y'all but yeah it's fucking insane.

So two days ago, I got my essay back. And it was flagged, because they thought I was cheating. They thought I was using AI.

I got extremely anxious, sad, mad, and confused. Because I have never used AI. Everything in that essay is my own words. If there's something that is ”weird” in it… then guess what! That’s on me! Maybe I misinterpreted a text! But I cited everything, quoted, put page references… everything has been backed up.

I’m gonna have a meeting next week where I’m gonna basically ”tell my side of the story”, and then they’ll decide if they will see it as cheating or not.

Then my class’s group chat suddenly blew up, when one person wrote ”hey… did you also get a weird message from the teacher about your essay?” and everyone replied ”I thought it was only me! I have a meeting next week!” ”Yep! They thought I was cheating!”

Several people talked about how they got panic attacks, how they got afraid this would lead them to become suspended and lose their student loans. Only to then hear that every other person has gotten this same message, meaning that it CLEARLY has to do with the school’s correcting system or with the teacher doing something wrong…

Some people had also done some make-up works if they missed a seminar, which was smaller texts on around 100 words. Everyone that had done make-up works for that very teacher had also gotten back that ”your text is shallow and looks like AI” (Yeah it’s 100 words??? Of course it’s shallow??)

We all wondered, doesn’t the teacher find it odd that EVERY SINGLE PERSON has gotten the same message? That everyone has apparently ”cheated”? We also found out that another class she has also all of them have gotten the same message. And this teacher conveniently WENT ON VACATION directly after this so we can’t contact her (it was a planned vacation since beforehand but it was terrible timing).

These things do not happen! There’s an avarage line. Let’s say there’s a class of 25 people. On normal, around 5 get the highest grade level, around 17-18 pass on different levels and then maybe 2-3 fail. My class is 11 people. What are the odds that EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. US. Has been accused of cheating?

We have went to complain on the student board, and they’ve had a meeting with our insitute’s study principal. Today me and 4 other people went to the study principal and went through with our complaints.

We talked about how odd this is, how we want answers and also how we feel like we’ve lost our trust with this teacher now. The study principal was like ”oh don’t feel that! She has nothing against you, she’s just correcting your essays!”

But the worst thing she said... was that even if it turns out we did not cheat... all of us have still failed and will now have to do a re-exam.

ALL OF US HAVE FAILED BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT WE CHEATED. AND WILL STILL MAKE A RE-EXAM EVEN THOUGH IT TURNS OUT WE HAVE NOT CHEATED.

We are now trying to find a way to complain and try to make them reread our essays. We also have "individual meetings" next thursday and we have talked if we should just go everyone at once. Why should we have to have it alone?!

So yeah. This has all really been taken on our mental healths, to be wrongfully accused of this, and the school does not seem to find it odd?! Some people as I mentioned literally got panic attacks over it, today when we informed everyone else that everyone will have to take a re-exam, some even had to go out to cry for a moment. I'm so tired, and I just wanna focus on my fics and art and watch silly shows and not deal with this shit.