#and i know there was a lot more too it and probably i'm reading too much into it

[lil--ichigo]

Tf2 Mercs and Their Music Tastes but its period accurate

Scout - Mostly just goes with what's popular. Obviously loves Tom Jones and he is his favorite singer, but I think he also likes a lot of other music. He's a huge fan of Frankie Valli, Elvis, and Chuck Berry. He fawns over romantic music, too. IMO Falling in love with you and its his go to romantic song. I think he'd also like the music his mom listens to, like Frank Sinatra and Etta James. Def also gets into disco during the time skip in comic 7. He probably plays his music very loudly and annoys the base when they're trying to sleep. Poor Engie is always the one who has to tell him to turn it down because scout always wakes him up (I actually hc Dell is one of the better mercs when it comes to a sleep schedule but i'll post about the mercs sleeping habits some other time.)

Soldier - HATES THE BEATLES and considers them hippie music (he hates any kind of anti war music in general) I think hes older so wouldn't be a big fan of the music of the 60s, but moreso the big band stuff of the 40s and some patriotic music of course. He'll throw a hissy fit whenever the others suggest playing something else. The only other merc whose music he can tolerate is Demoman's and Engie's (Unless it's bob dylan, who falls under soldier's idea of "hippie music." But Engie also introduced him to Marty Robbins and the song Ain't I Right so...) Sadly idk much about 40s music so I can't say what he'd like in particular.

Pyro - Out of the mercs, Pyro is the least particular about music. Mostly because I imagine the music in pyroland sounds like The Lovin' Spoonful, Tiny Tim, or the Beach Boys. Even hard rock records will sound like cheerful pop to Pyro. I could see pyro liking psychadelic stuff like sniper outside of that. If Pyro is listening to music, Soldier is not allowed in their vicinity. It happened once, Soldier yelled something about hippie music and the base proceeded to catch fire. That was not a fun respawn for Soldier.

Engineer - Pretty much everyone agrees he's a Johnny Cash fan, so I'm going to go into other artists/bands he'd like. Of course, country music is a given, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins ect. But I also think he'd like Folk, Blues, and Southern rock. Stuff like John Fogerty, or Bob Dylan. So a pretty modern music taste considering his age. I do think he likes some of the older music he grew up with, such as the song Uranium Fever.

Heavy - I don't know anything about the Russian music scene and what was popular, so I can't say what he would have listened to growing up or before he came to America. Tbh I think he mostly listens to whatever. Probably got introduced to glam rock via Medic. I think he likes to listen to classical music like Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich when he reads.

Demoman - Kinda extending my reach of period accurate cause it only really came to prominence during comic 7's timeskip, but for some reason I see him liking a lot of punk rock, not sure why. Maybe because a lot of punk bands were from the UK? I think he'd like the Sex Pistols and The Clash. I Think in general he and Sniper have very similar tastes in music (Specifically in Jazz, stuff like Miles Davis and Nucleus) although Demo likes music that's more upbeat. Specifically, there's this proto-punk band called Death I think Demoman would love, but they were super obscure during tf2s time.

Spy - If pyro is the least particular about music, spy is the most particular, even moreso than Soldier. I heard a spy cover of Frank Sinatra, and him liking him just Clicked? He seems like a fan of swing music to me, and probably gave some records to scout when he was young in hopes he's listen to them when he grew older. Maybe he'd also be into more modern/experimental stuff like The Velvet Underground?

Sniper - Tbh I heavily project a lot of my irl music taste onto him. He also enjoys more popular stuff, but not the kind of cheery stuff scout or pyro like. He's more into jazz and rock (esp the more psychadelic stuff like Jimi Hendrix and Cream cause he def smokes) Mainly the rolling stones, Black Sabbath and The Stooges. Like demo, I could see him liking punk when it starts to become known in the mid 70s. I think he'd be a fan of king crimson and some prog stuff too, but I can also see him thinking it's a bit too experimental and pretentious for him. Also since the tf2 comics ended in 1979 its my hc and I can say he likes joy division and dances when nobody is watching.

Medic - Don't have much to say aside from that man is gay as fuck he absolutely listens to Queen and David Bowie. I think when the mercs argue with what to listen to they end up handing the radio to Medic or Scout tbh.

[ladylooch]

After securing a thrilling victory over the Edmonton Oilers, Nico Hischier leaves the Devils locker room feeling uncomfortable. His signature hat is stuffed sloppily on top of his wet hair, slightly itchy against his forehead and scalp. His back, shoulders and hips are sore as hell from all the face offs, hits, and trips he had throughout a hard fought battle. He hopes Lexi is ready to go to bed right away. He isn't up for chatting about the game or even reading to decompress. He needs to get horizontal with a few packs of ice immediately.

Nico takes a swig of his bottled water as he rounds the corner into the family waiting room. The room is quiet except for a few girls chattering to his left. Nico's steps slow down considerably when he scans the room and sees the couch occupied. On the black leather, he sees his sister and nephew. But beside her, snuggling into Emma's shoulder, is his pregnant wife.

They just found out Lexi is expecting. It has seemed like after that test showed up positive, all of Lexi's energy rushed out of her body. Nico finds her sleeping all over the apartment and now apparently at the rink too. He can't help the little smile that tugs up both corners of his mouth. If he didn't know what was making her so tired, he might be worried. But knowing it's his baby inside of her makes it all seem okay to him. Probably not entirely fair to his wife though.

"Hey." Nico greets his sister.

"Hi Neeks. Good game." Emma says back to him. He can see Lio is asleep against her other shoulder. He gives his head a gentle pat then moves on to study his wife again.

"Thank you." He responds as he reaches down, brushing Lexi's brown hair off her cheek. His brown eyes float to Emma and where her gaze alternates between Nico and his wife's sleeping form.

"Guess it was a boring game." Emma jokes.

"She's been tired lately." Nico murmurs generically. Lexi isn't ready to tell anyone yet. They've only known for five days, but Nico is itching to tell Emma and Timo so bad.

"Hopefully she isn't getting sick." Emma murmurs as Nico nudges his wife awake softly. He cups her face in his hand, stroking across her pink cheek as she stirs.

"Hi." He murmurs when her green eyes blink fully open.

"Oh my gosh." Lexi mutters, sitting up. "I'm sorry, Em."

"All good." Emma smiles, patting Lio's butt as she shifts him on her chest now that Lexi is awake.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Like ten minutes." Emma tells her.

Lexi's eyes meet her husband's and she blushes, clearly embarrassed.

"I take it you're ready for home?" Nico murmurs, holding a hand out to help her stand. Lexi takes it, slowly getting to her feet. She sighs as Nico wraps her into a hug. She's warm and smells good, exactly like home to him. He craves her body on his now, somehow more than before.

" 'M ready." She insists.

"Good. Bye, Em and Lio." Nico says to his sister and nephew. Then takes Lexi's hand in his to lead her to the door.

"Lex, you good?" Timo asks as he meets them in the doorway. "Drunk?" He mouths to Nico who shakes his head no. Although, Nico can see how she does look slightly inebriated from an outsiders perspective.

"Bye, T." Nico says, trying to get Lexi to the car as quick as possible before her legs give out. She has swayed into him a few times on the short walk across the room.

"Bye." Timo says with a slight laugh.

"I'm so tired, Neeks. I've never been this tired. I think I fell asleep sitting up in the 2nd period. Did Emma tell you that?"

"No." Nico shakes his head.

"Gosh. She's so nice. She's worried about me, I think. She got me water and some electrolytes and then a cookie because I teared up at Mrs. Fields winning the race again. Maybe you're right... we should tell them."

"It's up to you, Sweets." Nico murmurs as they get outside the arena. Fans see Nico and start to call towards him in the brief glimpse they get of him from the parking ramp. Nico ignores them, focused only on his wife.

Lexi waits until the car has turned out of the lot and they're on their way home before she says anything.

"If we lost this baby, T and Em would help us through it. So we should tell them. Celebrate this together and ask them the million questions we have about all this." Lexi looks over with shining green eyes. "Like will I ever feel awake again?" She runs her fingers over his hand on his thigh, interlocking their fingers.

Nico brings her hand up to his lips to kiss over her knuckles.

"If that's what you want, Sweets. I'd love to tell them too."

Now, it doesn't matter that his body aches, or that he's still annoyed from the digs Leon was chirping at him. All that does is his wife sitting in that passenger seat, making all his dreams come true.

Nico can't wait to be a dad to her kid.

[majormeilani]

food for the ratchop / optiratch people because this concept came to mind for my sister since she is one of their truthers and i think you all would appreciate it too

okay so bear with me since i'm really new to transformers and how they work and ect so this will be kinda canon divergent or actually a lot divergent and MAYBE i'm not the first to come up with the concept but:

like since ratchet has known optimus since he was orion it's a guarantee that he's run diagnostics of his vitals numerous times. and let's just say that one of those is to check the pulse rate of his spark. when they are just friends, orion's spark rate stays steady and normal. but one day, everytime that ratchet checks his vitals his spark rate (heart rate equivalent) is more rapid. he insists that orion try to stay calm while he's checking to ensure more accurate reading of his vitals and orion tries to but his rate doesn't settle back to its typical rate and it causes ratchet to wonder about it but doesn't ponder on it too much, considering it a mere outlier. orion might've just been a bit stressed or anxious about something. but it's still something he thinks of in the way back of his mind.

but then any time from then on that he reads his vitals in the future, his spark rate is up to that higher rate again, sometimes quicker. he begins to fret a bit about his friend, worrying he's unwell or something is wrong that orion isn't telling him. when he asks of any symptoms, orion guffaws about it and tells him that he's fine but then ratchet begins to fear there's something he's overlooking each time he checks his vitals. so then he starts kinda trying to check his vitals when orion is unawares, like when he's sleeping or when he's distracted with a calm activity. spark rate back to normal. huh.

then one day when he needs to check orion's vitals, he decides to let one of the others read orion's vitals and they match when orion is at rest or doing a calming activity. so he remains perplexed and considers every option he can think of and researchs as best he can what would be causing something like this.

but then suddenly it dawns on him. and he realizes that it's because orion has developed a crush on him and his spark beats faster when he's near him or touches him. and he feels foolish also thinking that until orion one day fesses it up to him how he feels. so from then on, ratchet knows why his spark rate skyrockets when he's around him.

additionally, ratchet probably can hear the sound of his spark when he hugs him and finds comfort in its sound. he also finds when he's stressed himself just the sound of orion's spark can calm him down. he loves the sound.

but once orion becomes optimus prime his spark sounds different. but he adapts to it again.

until that day when optimus passes away and then he never hears that wonderful sound ever again. :).

[quihi]

I think there's two ways of looking at this.

The short answer is: They could, but it's a lot of work and often some money and they'd prefer someone else do the work. I can't even blame them for that, really, because I also prefer appreciating others' hard work, and I also have select changes my idealized AO3 would make (saved filters, mainly, but I've got other opinions too).

The long answer is that for better or for worse, it's 2025 and not 2005 or 1995 and teenagers weren't even alive for the internet of 2005, let alone experiencing it. The internet is extremely centralized now, and most social activity happens on a handful of websites. Most teenagers don't know anyone who runs their own website; neocities is not comparably famous to geocities, and even something like dreamwidth which is easy to use and has basic privacy controls isn't super popular or well-known. It's no longer essential that everyone learn a bit of HTML and CSS so people haven't. There's a lack of awareness that creating a little website to post fic is something anyone can do (though if they're still making carrds, that is similar). The prevalence of 18+ spaces and spaces that are mostly or all teens (I have no statistics on this) probably makes this worse because you don't have a lot of kids talking to the people who did fandom twenty years ago. And personal sites really are a worse option in many ways; there's a reason people who've made their own websites also use AO3, and little distributed sites aren't as convenient for posting and finding and reading and commenting on fic as AO3 is. As for running larger archives as a team, they are a lot more work, and my understanding is that eFiction hasn't really been a good option for years, and the AO3 software is not easy to set up, and, well, I hope this new project catches on.

I'm not a huge complainer, and I'm not a teenager anymore, so maybe I shouldn't try to guess at why teens don't create their own spaces more. Maybe they are just lazy and want the world to cater to them. But I inevitably try to empathize with everyone and I've already written this, so, there we go.

god keep ur fucking kink meme shit out of ao3 tag y'all make this fandom even more insufferable than it already is and thats saying something!!! The kind of shit y'all post require a fucking trigger warning it doesnt belong in a safe space

[vantablackdraws]

What got you shipping anbai? I’m new here and they seem cute ^^ /gen

Oh god-

where do I even begin....

TLDR/Short version of it: Friend talked about Guilty Gear, I found out about Baiken, watched Another Story and some arcade mode interactions and song breakdowns and read some comments and it got me wondering "what is going on with these two~", I go on ao3, there is a little over 20 fics. I got really frustrated, made content of them myself, fell further down the rabbit hole, now I'm here.

The long and very rambly version of why I ship them that you can read under the cut if you wanna ↓

Firstly, a few things that I really enjoy about them (to get this out of the way-) is that they contrast and compliment each other really, really well if you think about it. Which I have. A lot.

I know I've said some of these before but like; the Sun and Moon motifs and how it literally shows up in their Overdrives (and Anji's command...grab...thingy(? idk strive terminology) also has a moon briefly appear hmmmmmwhatsupwiththat-), the Butterfly and Flower symbolism associated with them respectively and how in a sense, one helps the other grow, the classic red oni blue oni dynamic, cat and dog, Anji's graceful elegance and calm demeanor to go with Baiken's rugged toughness and fiery temper, blah blah blah the list goes on you get the idea. They're opposites, but they match each other and balance each other out, like yin and yang.

There's also their (strive) songs! Rock Parade is...extremely obvious lmao. I know folks like to joke about it but, dude. Single footstep carries two hearts? The promise he made to her? (Whatever that was I wanna knOW-) It really does feel like more than just a song about a crush he has on her, this man is dedicated. And with Mirror of the World it basically encapsulates Baiken's whole journey, going from someone who's resigned herself to a life of revenge to ultimately breaking out of her self imposed "exile" in the end. Also the line "If I had a comrade, I wonder what I would tell them." and I'm over here yelling "YOU HAVE ONE! HE IS RIGHT THERE-" (I actually think the song is also about Delilah, but still kinda about him too, it's about both of them they're both the comrade how about that)

But to get to the heart of it all (and to also get extremely corny here), there's this sort of earnestness to their relationship that I really admire. Every now and then, there's a pairing that comes around and makes me go Ooga Booga for the better part of a year because it's just got a lot of good stuff to chew on. Angst? Drama? Some form of love that isn't just inherently romantic but something more? I'm eating it up and annoying my friends to death with it. And I think to me that really shows in their XX arcade mode endings, (BOTH of their "canon" ones btw THEY GET TWO ENDINGS TOGETHER) where Anji gives up what he was doing so he can follow Baiken and make sure she's actually living instead of just wandering by herself. This one thing he's been chasing for a while now, probably even his dream job of learning the secrets of the universe (or whatever Asuka was teaching him), and he just gives it up because he can't stand to see someone he loves dedicate her life to something that will inevitably destroy her in the end. "I don't want you to die." I think about this so often it's not even funny.

(And y'know, he also gives her the choice to just get rid of him if she doesn't want him around anymore, and idk about you, but I think that's very sexy of him and also very telling of her that she hasn't done it yet but moving on-)

Delilah ultimately ties it all together because at the end of Another Story, Baiken becomes to Delilah what Anji was to her all those years ago. A friend, a companion, someone to lean on. There's the line "She won't die well unless she finds a better way to live." before May mentions that's what Anji had said about her, and suddenly she gets it now. (I think) It's the final push that gets her to save Delilah from winding up in the same situation she's been stuck in for years and in the end, finally let go of her revenge.

No that does not have to be inherently romantic in the slightest, you can do whatever you want with that information or interpret it however you want and I encourage that, but also it's driving me insane whenever I think about it. He cares about her SO much, even if he has a weird way of showing it. I don't even think I can begin to do it justice trying to describe how it makes me feel but hopefully that can give you (and maybe some other folks who have made it this far hello) some insight into why I like this ship so much.

Also their strive in-game interactions are really flirty.

[digitalbookbyliv]

I Let Go of My Ex and Got My Life back 

I Let Go of My Ex and Got My Life Back

Olivia Voit

March 13th 2025 8:00am

It’s exactly 1 AM as I write this. I'm in bed, winding down after an okay day. Spring break has me feeling more reflective than usual. Earlier, I had an unexpected call with a dear old friend—someone I’ve known since we were both kids, but haven’t spoken to in about a year because of my ex. And, honestly, I couldn’t help but laugh about it on the phone with him. It felt so refreshing to reconnect, and we joked about how life gets in the way sometimes. I’m grateful for the reconnection but also feel a bit guilty for letting a great friendship slip away. 

To give you a little insight into me, I’m a PR/Showroom Intern at Showroom Seven. I love interning for them—they’re the best mentors I could ask for. Today was chill, but I had a creative burst, so I decided to start this blog. I’m also always looking for ways to contribute at work, so when one of our designers needed a model, of course, I got pulled in. Maybe this will lead to something in the future—who knows? 

Tomorrow is a bit different: I’ve got a side quest to handle. I’m meeting with some people from Snapchat to help a client get unbanned. It’s a private event for Snapchat employees, and I’ll be honest—I’ll probably feel like the odd one out, but hey, it’s networking, right? 

I also chatted with a guy I’ve been seeing. He’s sweet, actually listens, and is genuinely interested in getting to know me. It’s crazy to realize that not all men are terrible. We’ve had two dates, and a third one’s in the works. The best part? We just get each other. It’s nice to meet someone who’s also driven, someone I can actually have meaningful conversations with. 

But still, all day, I’ve been thinking about writing this. I’ve wanted to for months now, but I guess I needed some distance to gain perspective. My ex is completely out of my life at this point, but I still feel like I need to share my story. Maybe someone will read it and feel like they’re not alone. Starting this blog is definitely a step outside my comfort zone, and I’m probably not going to reach many people at first, but that’s okay. Honestly, there are still days where I feel disappointed and question if I did something wrong. But I know deep down that I didn’t. 

Ladies, let me save you some time: If he’s not the one, the right person is still out there. You can—and will—do better. 

Now, I’ll be honest: I’m no relationship expert. I’m just a 21-year-old girl trying to figure things out, with limited experience. But I’ve learned a lot through this whole experience. I knew my worth even when I was in the relationship. Why did I stay? I thought I could teach him how to love me. If you’ve ever seen He’s Just Not That Into You, you’ll know exactly what I mean. I haven’t even watched the movie, but I’ve done my research—I promise. Honestly, I avoided it because I didn’t want to see someone on TV act the way my ex did. It was too close to home. 

I learned the hard way. I stayed in a relationship that drained me, convincing myself that things would change. But they didn’t. I left because I couldn’t keep fighting for someone who wasn’t fighting for me. And even after I left, he strung me along with empty promises and reassurances that never came to fruition. It felt like being caught in this cycle of hope that never materialized. 

A relationship should never feel like a competition. It shouldn’t be about egos or sweeping things under the rug. It should be about mutual respect and love. But instead, love turned into resentment. Instead of fixing things, we turned on each other. When it finally ended, he decided it was the right time to tell me everything I did wrong—things he’d been bottling up for months instead of communicating like an actual partner. But here’s the truth: Nothing I did could outweigh what he put me through. He knows it. He just won’t admit it. 

I could go into the specifics of every betrayal, every disappointment, and every time I felt small. But you know what? What matters now is what I’ve learned. I know what I need in a partner now. I need someone who makes time for me, someone who values my emotional depth and listens when I speak. I need someone who sees conflict as an opportunity to grow together—not as a reason to keep score. And let me be clear: I’m done dating younger. There’s a big difference between being a partner and being a caretaker. I’m not here to raise a man who should already know how to treat a woman. 

The best part? I’m learning that when one door closes, another one opens. I’m still young, but I know I want to be married before 30 (lol, no time to waste). And right now, I’m seeing firsthand that when you let go of something that isn’t serving you, the universe has a way of making room for something better. I’m learning to trust that what’s meant for me will come to me when the time is right. 

So, if you’re sitting in a relationship that’s making you question your worth, let me remind you: You deserve more. You deserve consistency, respect, and someone who meets you where you are—someone who doesn’t make you beg for the bare minimum. Let go of what’s not serving you, and trust that something better is on the way. 

[wandassweetheart]

hiii!

i love your aesthetics so much & i'd like to request a wanda x reader fic, something like wanda comforting reader after they cut off their toxic parents.

sending lots & lots of love!

-🧸

IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY

pairing - wanda maximoff x fem!reader

warning! - toxic parents, reader has pretty negative thoughts, reader is showing signs of depression, mentions of homophobia

a/n - hi hi 🧸!! so so glad you requested wanda! sorry that this is so short!! the topics in this are pretty rough don’t be afraid to reach out about anything or anyone hurting you. love you guys lots 💗

more information on abuse and how to get help: https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/crime-info/types-crime/domestic-abuse/recognising-signs-domestic-abuse/

it had been a couple of days since you’d completely cut your parents from your life, and you were happy, happier than you could ever be. still somehow, you couldn't escape the gnawing feeling in your chest that ate at you. a part of your heart felt like it was missing, the part that yearned for family, the part that begged for the acceptance of a mother or father. of course, you knew that you'd probably never have that again —and maybe it was for the best, but you also couldn't help but let the ache linger.

your mind was filled with the words you'd been dismissed with. if you'd told seven year old you that your parents had called you every homophobic slur in the dictionary, she'd definitely not believe you. and it's not like your parents even tried to fix your relationship, which really broke you, and wanda had started noticing too. your extended sleep hours, you'd stay in bed longer, ate less and your hygiene wasn't up to standard. wanda wasn't sure on what to do to help you; her parents had been gone since she was a child. she learnt to deal with it and was used to it so she couldn't even imagine how you felt even if she'd had a slight idea.

one particular night, you were feeling horrible, your mind wouldn't leave you alone. it just kept attacking you with thoughts, lying to you, saying that maybe your parents were right. maybe, just maybe, you were a disgusting person who needed to find yourself and get with with a man; it would make the world better and cleaner. wouldn't it? you tried so hard to tell yourself that they were wrong and they were toxic; all they were doing was plaguing your thoughts with destructive ideals. you sat on the couch in the living room you and wanda shared, staring at the wall opposite to you, completely zoned out.

wanda sat on the loveseat next to the window sipping a mug of tea and reading a book. she looked up for a moment to check on you, wondering what you were up to since you'd been quiet for a while.

"sweetheart?" she called out. you were quiet, still zoned out. "sweetheart?" she called out again, a little louder this time, you finally broke out of your trance and looked up clearing your throat, "hm?" you said with a little hum, turning to her with heavy eyes. "what's wrong? you've been staring at the wall for nearly ten minutes. i'm sure a wall can't be that interesting?" she observes you with worrying eyes. "i'm fine," you reply with a hint of aggression that came out of instinct. she frowns a little, clearly knowing something is up.

"i'm a telepath remember? i know something is wrong, talk to me baby. please?" she moves closer to you taking a seat and soft pulling you closer to her. that was your last straw and you finally broke down. wanda expected this to happen and could only embrace you into a loving hug. "you're okay," she affirms, whilst all you could do was sob in her chest. what did you do to not deserve your parents love? all you wanted was to feel accepted. wanda ran her fingers through your hair as you let out soft hiccups and shuddery deep breaths whilst you leaned into her.

"i've got you. let it all out," she murmured again. "i love you so so so much, don't ever forget that. i know it's hard but you have me." her lips reach the top of your head spreading light kisses in your hair. "it's going to be okay." she reminds you one more time.

[umemiyan]

𝙎𝙀𝙇𝙁𝙎𝙃𝙄𝙋 𝙇𝙊𝙍𝙀.

the aviary history book i guess!! i saw some people do something similar and i liked it so i started writing this monstrosity. apologies in advance for the length but i have a lot of boyfriends and also i can't shut up. which you probably already know by now if you're reading this.

𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗗𝗘𝗗. ⌇ jean kirschtein / katsuki bakugo / toru oikawa / michael kaiser / megumi fushiguro / satoru gojo / hajime umemiya (+haruka sakura) / ryusui nanami / koshi sugawara / denki kaminari

𝗝𝗘𝗔𝗡 𝗞𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗧𝗘𝗜𝗡. (attack on titan)

i mostly think about us in a modern setting (would love to come up with some canonverse lore some day tho) where we met in college and sort of unexpectedly became friends. we didn't really run in the same circles or even have the same classes, except one, and it's when i was actually tutoring for it and he needed some help. in my mind it kinda has something to do with design or whatever so he's like not really used to dealing with all that. HOWEVER, while we're working together, i discover that he's actually more artistic than we both thought (i like to hc him with some artsy talent!!! watch his OVA if you haven't)

so yeah we slowly become sorta friends through the tutoring despite both of us initially thinking that we weren't really gonna vibe all that well yk. but turns out we both think the other is cooler than we anticipated, even if there's some sassy-ness and such involved because like… it's us. jean pushes my buttons. but it's like. interesting. and we have chemistry. and yeah.

we develop a mini friendship that grows over time. he'll come sit with me if he sees me eating lunch somewhere; we'll say hey and like fist bump if we pass each other in the hallway. people are like "??? y'all know each other??" because no one really expects it, but we're like "yeah!! we have a class. he's/she's cool."

and like?? it slowly gets deeper over time??? until we're kinda hanging out even after the semester is over and i'm catching feelings, meanwhile he's ALSO catching feelings but i'm never really sure because like duh he's hot and has some other female friends he seems close to so. i'm afraid to assume too much. but… little do i know he's sorta been brushing off his regular friends AND girls who are interested in him because he's more into me than he realizes. and like. one night when we're hanging out the chemistry is just too good and we're rawdoggin' in the dorm JANNDJDKDNNDNDDNND

we're like. mated for life after that LMFAO i just… yeah. we're a little awkward trying to figure out the groove at first but we eventually become the couple that people were NOT expecting at all but we're just like down bad for each other forever. even now down the line in our "married couple" stage where we squabble more and STILL confuse people, we actually love each other so much. and everyone knows he will be whipped for me until the end of time no matter how much he bitches. THE END.

𝗞𝗔𝗧𝗦𝗨𝗞𝗜 𝗕𝗔𝗞𝗨𝗚𝗢. (my hero academia)

[cw: stepcest]

so in my mind this is a non-quirk au like 99% of the time, tho at some point i would like to maybe develop a more canon-compliant au!! however, for now we're simply step-siblings whose parents got married when we were young (i was 4, he was 2), so yeah, we’ve basically known each other our whole lives. “but robin—“ i know. just... i know. you can walk away like ‘smh’ if you want LOL it's fine

if you're still here however, cool.

so katsuki and i were somewhat closer when we were younger, like we would play and stuff because we kinda HAD to (and sometimes enjoyed it), but that started changing a bit as we grew up. katsuki is loud and angry and i can also be loud and angry (more so when someone brings that energy to me first) so it makes for a pretty argumentative duo lmao. i was not about to let him push me around simply because he refused to be chill.

HOWEVER… despite the fighting, the bond runs crazy deep. neither of us are particularly great at mushy gushy feelings, but our love for one another shows up where it really counts, and no amount of squabbling can negate that. it may not seem like it (and we may not even realize it at times), but we know each other better than almost anyone else.

that was fine enough as some sort of casual dynamic for the longest time as we tried to lead our own lives as two very independent individuals, but things got more iffy in young adulthood. i've kinda got him woven into a lot of shit that went down irl with my family, and in this version of it all, he was there for me (and vice versa).

the adversity strengthened our bond and drew us closer together because we mostly only had each other during a lot of those moments. the trust and faith we had in almost everyone else was shaken and nearly demolished, so we fell back on each other at the end of the day. and like. that kinda fucked with us, especially me who was always like a different brand of mentally ill than him sjfhdbdjddn

anyways sorry i'm trying my best to stick to the main points here. flash forward to current times and things are more settled now, at least when it comes to all the trauma and shit. through it all we've come to realize the deep appreciation we have for one another but UNFORTUNATELY!!! we can't be normal about it.

we've spent enough time together yet apart during different periods of our adulthood to where it's like… whenever we're together now, we both see the other as the beautiful person they always have been, but who we are now finally able to fully see. and we have both grown into ourselves, often times with the help of the other. it's so weirdly intimate because it's not like we should even really work by normal standards anyways because of how much we clash, at least on the surface, yet…..

is it fucked? yeah probably. but is it a thing? yeah, it's a thing. a somewhat disastrous and probably highly unappealing thing. we still quarrel and squabble and fight, but we love each other just as much. and it eats us alive because we shouldn't. it should be a strictly familial love, but we feel things in our chests that we aren't really supposed to, despite how we aren't technically related by blood or anything of the sort. and thus!!!! we grapple <33

oh and in this, we live together now like roommates, independent from our family. and it's like an 'if his parent came to the US and married my parent' sort of deal lmao. i've called him "kat" (mostly like "cat") ever since we were little because it was cute and short and easy for me to say, while he often calls me his shitty and/or stupid sister, but if the wrong person said something like that about me… well!! let's not think about it.

btw this whole thing started because of a post that was like "who would your fictional sibling be?" or w/e and i was like "haha wouldn't it be funny if me and bakugo were siblings lol lol lmfao" but then my brain decided i couldn't be normal about it so this happened. yeah

𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗨 𝗢𝗜𝗞𝗔𝗪𝗔. (haikyuu!!)

so oikawa is in his pro player era of course and i'm the chick who works in sports media/journalism, and we meet when we're both on the job. i haven't decided if this takes place in argentina or the olympics or whatever, but either way i'm basically in a place i'm not very familiar with lol

i'm not exactly the kind of person who would typically catch oikawa's eye. in fact, he's initially somewhat off-put by my style and demeanor when he briefly sees me working, but if there's one thing toru loves, it's attention. i feel like he sees some of his teammates trying to talk to me or something and suddenly he's like 👀👀👀 and tries to swoop in with his cutesy little helpful charm since he speaks english and whatnot.

i buy into it at first and he eats up the positive attention for a minute, then i ask if i can repay him with dinner or something. he decides to entertain me and it goes well enough at first but then we both just end up being like "……ew. what an annoying freak." skdjdkdksk

so yeah enemies-to-lovers energy basically LOL. but we have to keep seeing each other through work and toru actually becomes kind of obsessed with having my attention even tho he thinks i'm some sort of weird creature. but wait the creature is kinda pretty and he wants her to watch him make this set….. and wow the way she manspreads like a freak is sorta hot….. wait don't go back to america yet!!!!

𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗘𝗟 𝗞𝗔𝗜𝗦𝗘𝗥. (blue lock)

tbh i still don't really have good lore for us yet background-wise, just vibes LOL he's my abused, aggressive shelter kitty who doesn't know how to accept love in any form. however… he has imprinted on me baby duck style whether he likes to admit it or not. he's so fucking insane about me that he doesn't know what to do with himself because his brain doesn't want to let him be with OR without me.

he's angry and intense a lot of the time but it's usually not actually directed at me—most of it is an internal struggle and no matter how badly he wants to lash out like he does at everyone else, he often finds himself unable to do that to me and will turn it back on himself. mihya is in fact a very dedicated loverboy who is really having a hard time learning to navigate it all when things get deeper than just surface-level dates and flirting and whatnot.

like truly he's rather yan about me but he knows i'm one force that he can't control, and deep down he doesn't really want to either despite his initial inclination to try. it turns him off at first before he realizes that my unwillingness to yield after a certain point mixed with my genuine love and care is what makes him want me so badly. it's like all the psychological shit piled up in his brain is clawing and scratching and telling him he NEEDS this for some reason (mommy issues <33333333)

so it's very 'girl x creature who would kill everyone else and then himself for said girl' but add a dash more obsessive repressed motherboy flavor to it. he tries to act cool and avoidant sometimes but it doesn't last long. it's insane but he likes how human i make him feel <3 which obviously conflicts with the 'piece of shit' persona he tries to maintain but. we're working on it <3

𝗠𝗘𝗚𝗨𝗠𝗜 𝗙𝗨𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗨𝗥𝗢. (jujutsu kaisen)

i met megumi at some point when i was a student at jujutsu high, but he and i were never students at the same time; i'm 5 years older than him, so he was still in primary/middle school, but we met through his connection to gojo. we didn't really interact much until he became a student himself but lowkey i think he started developing a little bit of a crush on me back when he was a kid.

flash forward to him actually being a jujutsu high student, and me a regular sorcerer. i'm not a teacher or anything, but he and i do end up working together a few times on missions and whatnot, so there's some mentorship going on there. this is where we learn how well we work together and when his crush really starts developing.

i'm kinda his secret crush like this for years until he gets older and more established as a sorcerer. we start working together a lot more and therefore get closer over time; then i start Seeing Him; i'm like… damn. he's gotten kinda hot. and strong. and i like talking to him. and he always brings me coffee. and he actually has a cute little smile…

so yeah feelings = caught!!! and working jobs together goes from like efficient coworker/friend duo to… i've got your back. i'll take the extra blow from the cursed spirit. because i think i love you. and i'll sacrifice myself for you. and… almost losing you made me realize i have to tell you this. NOW.

𝗦𝗔𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗨 𝗚𝗢𝗝𝗢. (jujutsu kaisen)

i met this dumbass in school when he was a third year and i was a first. we weren't close or anything ofc but like we were chill enough with each other (he thought i was funny to be around sometimes and vice versa even tho he also gets on my damn nerves).

years later we're basically coworkers. he nags me to hang out with him because nanami or shoko won't and i'm like "sure why not" because even tho he's a cocky freak he can still be fun and i am not immune to shenanigans especially when our jobs are lowkey depressing af. this continues until!!! gasp!!! we kinda become closer friends.

and that's all i'm really expecting it to be y'know. i always had a little crush on him because he's cute and funny but like he's satoru gojo and he doesn't let anyone forget that he's the world's most specialest little boy. i'm probably just his fun entertainment monkey like i'm not dumb i know when people are mostly wanting to be around me because they're bored or because i make them feel Seen or whatever. and it's fine not everything has to be a super deep relationship but over time the more we hang out the more i'm like… wow he's actually more of a lonely loserboy than i thought. like i don't think he gets any bitches he just sits alone in his basement and watches movies whenever he's not teaching or exorcising all the curses nobody else can deal with. i might be his only friend that's willing to spend time with him.

even his avoidant ass can't hide this from me because i Know Things. and people often open themselves up to me because i'm just real with them and that's exactly what happens. he's not immune to this weird manic pixie dream girl shit i apparently exude and he's eventually kind of letting me in and vice versa. it feels so extra good for him in particular to just be vulnerable that we do what any two smart individuals would do when they want to make things more complicated—we fuck <3

and it feels really good because he doesn't do this very often. or ever maybe. and it's been a while for me too. so unfortunately that means we want to do it again… and again… until it becomes semi-regular, because damn… it's good. TOO good, like it feels like we were made for each other good, but i'm not really buying it when he starts saying stuff that implies he wants things to be more serious.

i'm convinced he's just pussydrunk and high off the feeling off being Known and shit and that there's no way he can take a relationship seriously. in my mind i'm just a nice sidepiece that's filling a void in his life until something else comes along, so i'm not setting myself up for some messy shit. he says he's being for real but when i insist otherwise he's like alright fine… and we go back to playing it cool. he shoves it down and does his "sexy cool distant guy" thing until he's having a wet kitten moment and suddenly needs his "mommy" fix AKA he's hitting me up acting like he's gonna pound it but lowkey when i hold him in missionary he wants to cry.

ANYWAYS lmfao he does eventually manage to convince me that he wants me fr and that it's not just fleeting or selfish or w/e so i'm like… okay i GUESS. so we're technically serious now but that's the backstory of how we got to this point HOORAY !!

𝗛𝗔𝗝𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗨𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗬𝗔 (+𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗨𝗞𝗔 𝗦𝗔𝗞𝗨𝗥𝗔). (wind breaker)

T B H my lore for this isn't super solid either. at least not when it comes to how we met and all that good stuff. but essentially hajime umemiya made me question how someone so wonderful could possibly be allowed to walk on this earth and want to walk with ME while he's at it. he's so good and after i realized he really wasn't just some fake malicious bitch putting on an act i wanted him immediately. i could only DREAM of him looking my way tho so when he did i was just like… i'm dead fr. this ain't even happening i'm in heaven.

every day i get to wake up and call him my boyfriend or whatever doesn't even feel real because why does he deal with my road rage and irritability and my tendency to be weird in relationships with people? well he says it's because he sees how good i truly am and how i just want everything to be good for everyone all the time. so when people do stuff that makes things worse for others, i get angry and that just means i care a lot. and i was dragged down by negative events and people for so so long that my true innate optimism didn't always get to shine like it was supposed to. but whenever i'm with him, it gets to!!!

i can be happy and joyful and optimistic without someone or something lurking around the corner waiting to drag me down. i can take on life's challenges without feeling like it's the end of the world not only because i'm independent and strong enough to do so on my own, but because i've got someone like him backing me up if i happen to need it. i'm not a little creature meant to be kept in a box—i'm stronger and more beautiful when i'm free, and that's exactly how he wants me to stay!!

adding sakura to the mix came later down the line ofc. he'd certainly mellowed out quite a bit since we first knew him, but it was obvious to us that he still just… needed something. maybe a little push. like hajime and i are pretty good at picking up on stuff, and we saw how relaxed yet almost flustered he could be around us, so we decided to keep being close friends and urging (but not forcing) him to do stuff with us. which he would actually often agree to a little more than he would with others tbh.

and it turns out he'd always had a bit of a crush on me, since before hajime and i even became a thing. but obviously he wasn't crazy enough to try and take umemiya's girlfriend; however, that didn't make him feel less flustered whenever we were together. and i noticed. hajime noticed. and internally haruka's like… why do i still feel so weird around them? wait… do i feel weird about umemiya too?

we thoroughly talk it over and decide to strategize something, because we both acknowledge just how much we really care about sakura and want him to be happy. we try something kinda lowkey the next time the three of us are together, like me asking if i can hold his hand or whatever. of course he's kinda freaking out like "what???? you're with umemiya……." but hajime assures him it's fine. and sakura wants to explode but he also really does want to hold my hand and doesn't want to disappoint either of us…

so yeah little things like that build over time <3 until we eventually bring up the idea of a legit relationship and also sexual stuff lol. he's our baby bean we love him to the moon and back <3

𝗥𝗬𝗨𝗦𝗨𝗜 𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗜. (dr. stone)

meet my latest addition!!! i did not really intend for this to happen but. i didn't really with any of the others either so here we are <3

this is still quite new so i don't have a lot mapped out yet, but my current idea is that i was on my very first international vacation ever visiting japan… and then the whole world turned to stone lmfao. and my revival pre-america journey was an accident because they either thought i was someone else or someone done fucked up spilled some revival fluid osjfaoijfoiwjfie so now they're stuck with a random white bitch who's really confused and knows minimal japanese <3

but luckily for them!!! i actually pick up on linguistic stuff pretty easily. i imagine someone like francois and/or gen being the ones i'm around the most at first because they can translate and also teach me japanese (and this is how i get closer to ryusui since i'm hanging around his butler all the time).

also i like to learn... and i have maybe some skills that can be useful??? i'm good with technology and i can use weapons and do other american hick shit so maybe i'm not a total waste. and i can do a lillian weinberg impression that rivals gen's and i can sing her songs too because!! huzzah they've revived themselves a musician!

i'm kinda happy to be gum on the bottom of francois' shoe because i think ryusui's kinda neat… and he thinks i'm kinda neat… so as the language barrier becomes less and less of a thing, we become more of a thing. and yeah <3 he teaches me what it's like to be out on the ocean and all kinds of things like that i'd never done in the old world. because now i'm not poor and even if i was my rich boyfriend would see to it that i have whatever i want <3 and also they all have to take me back to america on the voyage so i can personally see to it that tr*mp's statue "accidentally" gets crumbled to dust beyond repair <3 (/hj)

𝗞𝗢𝗦𝗛𝗜 𝗦𝗨𝗚𝗔𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗔. (haikyuu!!)

coming soon <3 my initial sorta lore was that he was my little brother's elementary school teacher, but i may end up changing that idk!! just know that i love him and he is very husband <3 i want to smooch him and i also kinda have a lil polyship with him and oikawa that isn't backed up with lore + probably doesn't make sense but! idc i love cute setters apparently and also smooshing them together.

𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗞𝗜 𝗞𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗜. (my hero academia)

coming soon <3 it's a very friends-to-lovers type beat but with less complication than whatever i had going on with satoru LMAO. idk he's just my cutie pie pikachu who i don't have super defined lore for but who is ever-present in my harem and nothing would be the same without him

[buttercupshands]

one of the first sketches I did for the au finally got from the not-so-lined stage

I just wanted to draw Siffrin and Seafoam mirroring each other :)

[theoneandonlylobster]

Like, we all know Sozin was a huge, flaming f*g, the narrative could not be more clear on this. It's even more obvious than Azula being a Big Ol' Lesbian and I think that's also pretty crystal clear. Now, some of that is probably down to villains historically being queer-coded, and the various reasons for that. But you cannot tell me, you cannot convince me, that if Avatar were premiering in 2025 instead of 2005, that we would not see Massive Flaming (lol) Homosexual Sozin and his great-grandaughter, Queen of the Lesbians, Princess Azula.

That being said, particularly in Sozin's case, this has some, to put it mildly, disturbing implications because of his CANON lesbian younger sister Zeisan and the fact that he passed a law in the Fire Nation banning homosexual relationships, supposedly so that the population growth would not fall (this is literal Nazi propaganda, but Sozin is a literal Nazi, so that's not surprising, he literally invented being a Nazi in Avatar). So, if the common reading of Sozin is correct, he not only hated his little sister, but had such internalized hatred towards himself that he banned public displays of homosexuality and invented the concept of fascism at the same time. That's some overachieving.

Not to mention he also wiped out an entire civilization. You know, the civilization that his ex (who he killed) was going to be reincarnated into. We cannot downplay that. Bro committed an entire very successful genocide just to be sure his ex would stay dead. Talk about zero chill!

Oh, and fun fact, did you know Azulon wasn't even born until the year of the Comet? He was born twelve years after Roku even died, and you can see how old Sozin was then. Imagine Aang waking up and he missed a whole ass Firelord who ruled for three quarters of a century, who he didn't even know existed because either he wasn't born yet or news of his recent birth hadn't reached the Southern Air Temple yet. Aang went to sleep with Sozin as Firelord and woke up, to his perspective, maybe a day later at most, right? With that super old man on the throne with no heir and the lesbian sister who has sequestered herself amongst his people (who would also be super old by then anyway). I'm sure it was an interesting conversation when Katara and Sokka told him of Zuko's lineage! I'm sure Aang was expecting him to be from some random offshoot up the tree. Which loops back to Sozin being super gay, because he obviously refused to stick his dick in some pussy until the absolute last second.

Like, it's definitely funny to joke about Sozin and how gay he so clearly was, but it had real implications if you think it through in the narrative and they are very gut-churning and not so great. Which, actually, is why I don't think we'll ever get canon confirmation on Sozin The Worst Homosexual of All Time. Because damn, son. You kind of are.

(And thankfully over the years there have been a lot of efforts to insert way less problematic queer representation into the world of Avatar. And definitely not all representation needs to be positive. But, again, with the storied history of queer-coding villains, Sozin of all people who is SUCH an over the top piece of shit just in the canon narrative was, I think, accidentally coded as queer and everyone ran with it. Because it's funny. And it is.* But we do at least need to take a moment to acknowledge that it's hurtful, too.)

*There's almost a recognition that Sozin, were he a real person, would need to be mocked on the level of such monsters as Hitler, Stalin, Putin, and Trump. Which is fair, given that he did invent being a Nazi in that universe. So it's giving a very "Mel Brooks, The Producers" level of seriousness to Sozin which I think he has rightly earned and which all tyrants must be met with. The fact that a lot of that mockery (and the mockery within "The Producers") is mocking queerness is a whole other kettle of fish that I don't feel like unpacking.

potentially the funniest screenshot of all time. ta min i am so sorry he’s doing this shit at your wedding

[royalarchivist]

Jaiden: Cucurucho, you have a lot of power, right?

Cucurucho: ...I don't know. Maybe.

Roier: Ah... Yes, you know, don't act like a dumbass, you have it. You have it, man. Eh?

Jaiden: Is there a way for us to protect all the Eggs? Do you know? I don't want anything to happen to the Eggs that happened to Bobby.

Cucurucho: Ha ha ha

Roier: WHAT? [Smacks Cucurucho]

Jaiden: [Bops him] Headpats.

Cucurucho: Maybe.

Jaiden: [Continues to bop him] Headpats. C'mon, I can get it out of you! Headpats! Chin scratches! Belly rubs!

Roier: [Joins Jaiden in bopping Cucurucho, chuckling and laughs]

Jaiden: Yeah? He's comin' around!

[Jaiden and Roier both laugh]

[psychopomp-namine]

yingdu episode 5 spoilers

ohhh my god this is everything I want from cheng xiaoshi. yes. perfect. sorry, but I'm a cheng xiaoshi whump liker and link click always brings out the best of them in episode 5 of each season.

there's just something cathartic about how when cheng xiaoshi becomes an emotional mess, it's also when he's most disconnected with the people he knows (physically, as he's diving in a photo and his only link to his home timeframe is a disembodied lu guang in his head) but it's also when he's most connected with strangers (when their own personal trauma lines up with his). to me, it's a showcase of empathy and a strange manifestation of his own agency. something about how the disconnect gives him the space to blow up, and the connection heightens it and grants him permission, almost, to express his anger more freely for his own sake and for another person's behalf.

like. listen, okay, I'm gonna ramble now because cheng xiaoshi is my favorite character in this entire show, but listen. sometimes some fans will conflate adjectives to his character that are usually associated with his character archetype, but they aren't necessarily true about him as a character. and I don't mean it in a, "he's not like that because he grows out of those traits" kind of way. I mean it in a, "he was never like that" kind of way.

one of those adjectives, for me, is when people call him immature. he isn't! to me! imo! he's got big emotions, yes, but I personally don't think the presence of big emotions indicates anything about maturity. because you know what? as long as his primary trauma (feelings of abandonment) isn't touched, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflicts, and that's what's interesting to me.

qiao ling hides relevant information from him? he removes himself from the situation to give himself space and sort out his feelings. he tells her he's fine and that he'll be back.

post-earthquake arc? I'll just copy paste what I already said in a previous ask:

what initially got me was when I was first watching S1, I thought the earthquake arc would have devastating effects on [shiguang's] relationship. listen, I didn’t know what I was getting into with link click, but I thought that was expected. it’s ripe for drama! but how do they handle the fight? they put their side business on hold but they still keep being roommates. they still do their day job. they still talk. they’re still upset but they give each other space but not to the point where they can’t stand existing in each other’s spaces. that’s when I realized that oh, they really trust each other. they have a very solid foundation for their relationship that not even the earthquake arc can break. they’re pretty level-headed about this, actually, all things considered? all the doomed yaoi stuff came later, but that’s just the cherry on top. it’s the way they handled conflict and disappointment in S1 that got me.

okay, protect-namine, why go through that whole tangent? BECAUSE! circling back to yingdu episode 5, we finally, finally get to see cheng xiaoshi let out some of his anger. and it's precisely because his primary trauma point was on the table. he can forgive a friend lying, and he can forgive being told not to change the past. because at the end of the day, qiao ling and lu guang stayed. they never left him.

but he cannot handle abandonment. he cannot understand why people leave. he cannot understand why he's been clinging on to false hope this entire time. and more importantly, he cannot understand how someone can be such a hypocrite about it. "a man who'd rather be kind to strangers than face his own son" like fuck man. cheng weimin you fucked up so bad.

it's the disconnect/connect thing again too. thematically, it makes sense. when does cheng xiaoshi blow up? when he's alone, far away from the people that ground him. alone, the feeling he hates the most. he's not even in his own body. he blows up when he's inhabiting a stranger's. he doesn't even get to be angry as cheng xiaoshi.

how fucked up is that. man. I love him so much.

also I'm going crazyyyy over the family themes going on in link click. much to say about the show itself across all seasons (the twins, qiao ling and cheng xiaoshi, even the liu siblings), but for this episode... god. okay this is slight speculation territory now and I'll try to keep this very short, because this is only tangential to the post. but. imagine xia fei getting the good parent figure in cheng weimin that cheng xiaoshi never had. and he doesn't know!! he's bitter inside about his dad and he's having hotpot with xia fei and he doesn't know he was in that school!! fuck that's so good. that's so juicy.

okay, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about cheng xiaoshi. he's my link click blorbo of all time, and I love when he experiences The Horrors™ because it's also when other sides of him gets to shine.

on a brighter note:

VEIN AND CHENG XIAOSHI MEETING AGAIN!!! their greeting was so cute. also omg does xia fei know? that his boss is maybe possibly a cannibal? actually, wait, I don't think I'd be surprised if he does know.

ah and finally. finally:

I've been having many thoughts on how yingdu approaches "friendships" and their transactional nature (mostly with regards to liu xiao) but I mostly thought they're headcanon stuff. but now. I'm so so happy that episode 5 is bringing out more of the quid pro quo theme. liu xiao with the gift giving. wang qing's "friends" (bullies) demanding her to cheat on the exam for them. and now, vein and cheng xiaoshi having a friendly greeting but also exchanging favors. so good. so good. it goes along with how there's so much handshakes and handholding this season (not just with lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, but with cheng xiaoshi and the the antagonist trio too, who have all met him by "helping" him in some way). something something trust and favors. probably something that deserves its own post though, but I wanted to point this out because I am soooo here for that. it's goes hand in hand (ha!) with the whole fraud/lies vs innocence/honesty theme this season, and deals/contracts being an equalizer to the two. very good. very tasty.

edit: ooh they also point to this in the YE6 trailer too. nice, nice. if you knew someone's true colors, would you still be their friend?

man, I love episode 5. it just hits all the stuff I personally wanted to see. the only flaw is that we still haven't seen the older version of wang qing, but yeah I kinda expected that they'll hide her until episode 6. they're giving her the liu xiao treatment from season 2. sigh. really wish she'd keep showing up in S3, we need more female characters in this show 🙏

[autumnoakes]

hello lu fandom i have started falling back into lu and i have thoughts on wild again

anyways i think that there are a few members of the chain that don't trust wild or give him the ability to demonstrate his own abilities. and i imagine it would be frustrating for wild to constantly be held at arm's length or constantly be yelled at for doing things incorrectly. legend, time, and warriors are the worst for this.

this post by @luna-loveboop (sorry for the tag!) discusses how warriors tends to view wild and how wild acts in response to that. wars has been shown to hold wild to the standard of one of his soldiers, which is not something he does with any of the other links. in turn, wild doesn't really know how to act around or talk to warriors. legend (although he has been shown to joke around with wild from time to time) doesn't seem like he really likes wild much, let alone trusts him. leg's always calling wild things like "crazy" and insinuating that wild is too uncivilized and routinely nitpicks the way he does things. time, right now, is just on edge so he's more of a hardass than usual. he and wild tend to get along well, but i personally tend to headcanon that there's still a lack of trust in there.

i think it can be insulting to wild when he's a hero in his own right, who woke up with nothing one day and was told to save the world. yes, his methods are different from a lot of the others' methods but that's the nature of his game(s). i think the way that legend and warriors routinely treat wild is the most telling and the most likely to cause issues. wild hasn't said anything about this yet. either he doesn't want to cause a problem or he just hasn't noticed.

[threelittlerooks]

This kind of posts have been popping up to me a lot and like, I'd like to add, as your latina demisexual kinky auntie that spent too much time thinking about the Dellamortes:

Everytime someone makes Lucanis tall Spite loses his wings. DO YOU WANT A WINGLESS SPITE??? NO, SO STOP IT. Also, like, if this is your case, please think a little as to why you think men should be taller than women, maybe? "It's a personal preference!', IS IT THOUGH???

"He ain't gonna be your dom daddy mafia boss in bed, sorry." - In the beginning, I agree, but there's room to learn!! Add this to your fics, if you wish, Rook and him learning together what he likes and what he doesn't like. While I don't read Lucanis as this type (for me he's service top, and he would be the bestest of boys and just fold at the first praise, ANYWAY), it would be interesting to see this development and how it would mirror his personal development (like, getting control of his life and beginning to make his own choices and discovering what is him and what is his training/grandmother influence?).

I don't know if it's because I'm a latina (born and raised and living in a latin american country) but like, usually people think latinos are suave flirts just because we smile too much. I swear to God I have made gringos blush just by being my NORMAL self. So, maybe Lucanis is a suave flirt for Vints, I don't know, just because he's funny as fuck and this is read as flirting. He sure is attractive, this is stated in the game. Like. Play with this!! Play with the trope within world! People perceive him as something he's not just because of his culture. Maybe antivans have this fame because they're more open than other countries? I don't know. But there's a lot of room to have a lot of FUN with this. Desconstruct that trope!!!

And, like, please? Like, leave Illario alone? Please???? Whenever someone says LUCANIS IS NOT THE LATINO LOVER TROPE someone always pops up and says AND ILLARIO IS RIGHT THERE. Illario is NOT the Latino Lover trope too, he's a classic Telenovela Villain! He's Felix throwing his own baby niece in the trash so his mom won't prefer his sister to him in the succession, he's Nazaré pushing Cláudia down the stairs, he's Olavo saying "you're the dumbest bitch in this street because you're the only one that can't realize I love you". He's Paola Bracho, he's Soraya Montenegro. He's the Raquel to Lucanis' Ruth (but in this case, the one who is presumed dead and comes back is Ruth, not Raquel). He's charismatic, he's tragic, his actions are unexcusable, we understand why he did all he did and probably in his place, would've done worse. His ambition is his downfall. We all love to hate him, we all love him. He uses seduction as one of his weapons and a means to get what he wants, which is classic Telenovela Villain. You can ascribe the Latin Lover trope to him with the same caution you ascribe to Lucanis. Will Illario woo someone because he's a playboy? No, he'll woo them because he wants something out of it. It's a transaction. He can use the trope and expectations to his favour, and it can give really interesting nuance to this exploration!

None of these men are heterosexual. They can be with women, but they are still queer, don't forget this. it's not a switch, oops, now I'm gay! Now I'm heterosexual! Bi/Pan people are bi/pan despite their current relationships.

Anyway!! Just some additions and ideas to help fic writers!! And if you have a fic that is Lucanis learning what he likes (in all senses!!), sent it my way ASAP.

important things to remember about Lucanis

the man is a short king, between 5'5"-5'7"

He is panromantic demisexual. Which means when he feels sexual attraction, he probably panics and wonders if he's dying for a second. (that's a joke.)

He in a canonical virgin. He ain't gonna be your dom daddy mafia boss in bed, sorry. And it does make sense with the Crows and if you read the Wigmaker job. It's hinted at that it's mainly elven assassins who are trained in seduction, not human. (now, if you wanna write him as having experience, that's your welcomed interpretation. But he does mention Rook being his first and only relationship. You can take that how you will.)

He is not your latino lover trope. Just because he's brown, doesn't mean he's sexual promiscuous and a suave flirty dreamboat get that out of your head. He is a fucking nerd who likes to cook, knit, and is obsessed with wyverns. He's got too much anxiety and feelings of needing to be good enough to be suave before confirming a relationship. Not to mention the shit ton of stuff he's dealing with.

[deoidesign]

Hello! I just discovered your blog and I immediately became captivated by your webcomic, but I'm unsure where to read all of it. I know it's on Webtoons, but I can see it hasn't been updated for a while, and you still post about it.

Are your physical novels just prints of the webcomic? Are they a continuation? Is the story complete? Thanks in advance!

Hi there!

Glad you found me and are enjoying my comic!

It's only on webtoons, and the story is not complete yet! We're 2/3 of the way through right now. It's currently on hiatus, and it's scheduled to come back in about 2 months!

I'll explain why it's been so long if you're curious, but also for my followers who might also be wondering about it under the cut. Sorry, it's pretty much just me complaining haha

I took a month off I took 2 months to get the books printed I took a month to prepare my next comic and I took 2 months to write the rest of the series (I knew the character arcs I wanted, but not the time periods or mysteries!!!) I've been working on actual episodes since then

I had to take some time off because of some pretty extreme burnout due to the sheer amount of work it was to draw over 800 pages and write 6 complete stories in a year and a half... I was getting sick almost weekly due to the overwork, it was really really bad honestly. I was having to work 60+ hours every week just to keep up...

The nature of the comic itself is also difficult... Each of the arcs is a complete, self contained story which can be read (ideally) without context, and my arcs need to be about 10-13 episodes each... And since I have an exact number of episodes to work with, it's even harder.

It takes a ton of planning and a ton of refinement, and working week to week with no breaks I was forced to put out second or even first drafts, so I just wasn't happy with the work I was doing... And to do that for the rest of the series? I wouldn't be proud of the work I did.

Plus... To be entirely honest, webtoon has treated me quite badly IN MY OPINION... They deprioritized me before I launched (I had to beg for more promotion, I'm not exaggerating), they outright denied me the opportunity to even ask for a raise, I don't make any money on fast pass and they pay me less than my partner makes working at trader joes. My first editor left me completely hanging, my second editor (who I loved) was fired... And they told me I wouldn't get a third season before my first season even finished. So it was just repeatedly completely demoralizing.

I'm sorry it has taken so long, it'll have been 10 months by the time I come back. But I realized... I won't get promotion either way. I won't get more episodes either way. I won't get more money either way. So to finish everything, to make it feel good, to make it something I'm proud of, I chose to take longer to make it better.

I am fully aware I will lose a significant amount of my readership for this and it might genuinely affect my career moving forward. But it's what I had to do! So I'm sticking to my guns on it, and I'm confident long term it'll be worth it. It never could have been this good if I didn't take this much time.

[thesunlikehoney]

Seeing some pretty gross posts about Miguel, and... It's actually pretty important that Miles, an Afrolatino character, is both making friends with the younger generation of POC and in direct conflict with the older generation of POC. Like yeah Gwen and Peter B. are still important figures in his life for good and now also bad reasons, but it is Miguel and Jessica who he has an ideological conflict with. It is Hobie who in some ways takes over as a mentor and guide. Margo helps him escape. Pavitr is someone Miles himself helps and gives advice to. The antagonist is not Latino because they wanted to use stereotype shorthand to make everyone understand how dangerous he is, he is Latino because Miles is Latino. And surprise surprise this movie has a lot to say about-- not generational trauma per say, but community trauma. About what happens when shared trauma starts to define the boundaries of who is and who isn't a member of your community, rather than shared passions and shared dreams and shared missions.