#and she rejects them both

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

I feel like there's a symbolism to see here

[tragedy-machine]

AU where Charles figures out he's in love with Edwin but he's nervous to confess to his friend, so he decides to start with telling Edwin he's bisexual

Edwin's never heard that term before and doesn't know that people can like more than one gender so he goes off the fact that he knows "bi" means "two" and deducts that Charles tells him he wants to have two romantic partners

(Edwin also thinks Charles and Crystal are dating, even though they called it quits right after Port Townsend)

"Oh, I see. Thank you for telling me, I have no qualms with that, of course. I'm merely taken aback since I wasn't aware people... did that nowadays."

"Yeah! Crystal says lots of people are bi."

"Fascinating. So i presume... Crystal is fine with it?"

"Yeah, what? Why wouldn't she be? She's bi herself."

Edwin just nods in understanding and thinks 'Ah, so they're looking for a third person, I wonder who's gonna be the lucky girl.'

Meanwhile Charles tries to hide his disappointment that his plan didn't work and Edwin doesn't seem to be picking up what he's putting down, so he has to think about other hints he might throw Edwin's way

(Does it end in Edwin thinking that Charles is asking him to be the third person in their relationship which almost causes him to have a heart attack before he shoots Charles down (rip Charles) and goes to Crystal to have a very awkward conversation with her about how he only likes men? ...maybe)

[knockknockitsnickels]

I think this is one of my favorite lines from the Wraith route because of (imo) how much the meaning changes depending on if you got there via Spectre or Nightmare. For Spectre, it honestly strikes me as a genuine question. Why are you doing this to her? If you're on the Spectre route, you presumably already know the Narrator can't really be trusted, since you had to reject his reward to get here. What are you hoping to gain from continuing to hurt her? For Nightmare, it honestly just makes me sad. As the Shifting Mound describes her, "She desires only companionship, but the only thing she knows is how to hurt." This line feels like a plea from someone who genuinely doesn't understand why you keep rejecting her. She wants to be with you, but she just can't understand how to do that in a way which doesn't hurt you.

[kanjichris]

"why don't you want him to know how much you love him?" "that's a little personal. he knows." "uh-huh."

[mistylakeee]

Never forget that Inej canonically rejected Kaz when he confessed his feelings for her after the ice court heist (as she should have) and he took it like a champ (as he should have). He literally quipped with her on the island in front of Van Eck before shit hit the fan and said something like “I’m not big on bluffing am I, Inej?”

Everything went back to normal between the two of them and I have no choice but to stan.

[lovesickeros]

now that natlan is out it's tsaritsa yearning hours again because i am one nation closer to either being horribly disappointed or foaming at the mouth!

creator!reader w a little side of conflicted tsaritsa is such good food I can't not yap about it. a woman who has dedicated so much of her life to severing herself from "love" of all kinds and succeeding and. just being so confident that when she meets you she's bitter and angry and mean. because she can't stand you. she isn't supposed to love yet you worm your way into her heart anyway and you don't even know it.

especially in smth like an imposter au. she tells herself your just a tool for her to use but your treated like the Divine you really are, pampered and spoiled every step. tells herself it means nothing when she indulges you – let's you hold her hand in private, eventually let's you move aside the veil, just a little.

and she hates it. hates how easy it is to let you break down the ice she's built up for years.

all you do is smile and she feels like she can't breathe. because despite how violently she rejects love in all aspects, it always bleeds through eventually. she despises it but the way you brush your thumbs over her cheeks makes her bitter and warm and it infuriates her to no end.

she hates you and she loves you and she can't stand you and if you were ever taken from her she'd destroy every inch of teyvat if she had to go get you back.

and ironically enough I think she'd also be the one to initiate any first kiss. maybe she's still trying to convince herself it's just a fluke and itll make her realize it meant nothing, it means nothing. desperate to fix whatever you've done to her and instead it just makes it worse.

a horrible mess of a woman who gave up on love just to be confronted with it when she finally accepted it's absence.

[agnesandhilda]

thinking about debbie grayson having to insist to both her husband and her son that regular nonsuperpowered human beings (read: her) have important, meaningful lives and experiences, and how heroic epics like the iliad only trace genealogies down the patrilineal line, this conflation of divinity and masculinity and power that erases the women of these families from historical memory and narrative importance

[littleblackraincloudofcourse]

Desperate to know what the narrative plan for Airk and Graydon was. Would they have interacted again? If they did, would it have been as enemies or could they have become friends? They could hate each other for loving the same girl. Maybe trauma bond over being kidnapped and controlled.

Would Airk be able to help save Graydon the way he'd helped save him? Or would Graydon have given in to evil, forcing Airk to fight him so his friends didn't have to, all while seeing himself and what might have been if he hadn't been rescue? Would Airk blame himself, wondering even as he delt a killing blow, if he hadn't been taken would Graydon still have ended up here, in his place?

[heartbeatbookclub]

I think, in a lot of ways, Monika and Sayori are reflections of each other.

Really, I think all of the girls are similar in a lot of their issues (self-esteem, anxiety, etc) and that's something emphasized in a lot of the stories, and a big part of why they all gravitate towards each other and work to create the club as a safe space for all of them, but I think Monika and Sayori in particular are just very much alike.

I think Trust really emphasized this similarity in the reveal of Sayori's poem, Become the Flower.

Prior to shifting focus onto the poem, Monika talks to herself about her real vision for the Literature Club. I think here, Monika points out what Sayori actually meant when she said that Monika was "trying to make the club [she] needs the most, out of anyone", even if she doesn't actually realize that yet. It's pretty clear that when she says that literature is a window to the real self underneath the person who's "forced to always smile and blend in", and is "forced to be perfect", she's really talking about herself.

I think that a lot of Monika's character throughout Trust is expressed more subtly, often in a roundabout way like this. A huge part of the story is centered around Monika's own personal struggles expressing herself, and that trait is pretty well exemplified in this indirect way of talking about her own struggles. I think that the reason why Monika's characterization here is so subtle overall is reflective of this.

And I think it's pretty blatant that this is statement is also meant to be reflective of Sayori, given that we immediately move from this statement onto the poem which reveals to Monika that she's been hiding her own problems. In this way, I think Team Salvato wanted to explicitly point out how similar they really are, and draw your attention to it.

I think that the way that Trust as a story is put together is meant to really emphasize just how similar they are even in their differences; spending a great deal of time focusing on Monika's own problems, to then showcase Sayori as the mirror to them.

I think the two of them make a very interesting pair in that respect, because a big similarity they have is that they very much place others above themselves, so they both end up individually building each other up while they put themselves down. It creates this strange back and forth where they each insist they suck and the other is great, when the reality is that they're both pretty fantastic.

In the statement Monika made to herself about her vision of the club, while it's clear she's talking about herself, she frames it in the context of somebody else getting those benefits out of the Literature Club, rather than herself. Throughout the entirety of Trust, she speaks dismissively of her efforts and her problems alike, while pointing out that Sayori is providing a lot of help. Sayori by contrast spends most of her time hyping her up and points out, explicitly, that Monika doesn't give herself enough credit. She also dismisses her own efforts, pointing out in most things she does, up into the climax, that Monika is a lot better than her at whatever she's doing. And when Sayori's problems are actually revealed, she explicitly says that she doesn't want Monika to worry about her, and that she doesn't want to have this conversation.

I think this all really shows that both of them are averse to tackling their own problems head-on, and I think this comes out of a fear of being vulnerable, since that's directly mentioned several times in Monika's issues openly expressing herself.

I think what makes Monika's particular brand of self-negging quite so disheartening is that she dismisses it out of hand as her being silly and dramatic, and in that way, she doesn't actually address the fundamental problem underlying it, nor does she actually address the statements themselves as incorrect. The amount of time she spends talking down her own problems as something trivial and silly, particularly in comparison to Sayori's problems, are a manifestation of her own desire to avoid the vulnerability of even having these problems, and it's just...heartbreaking. Sayori's denial is its own can of worms, but Monika's ability to so consistently minimize her issues when they are clearly still impacting her is so uniquely troublesome.

I think a big difference between the two of them in that respect is that Monika wears significantly more of her heart on her sleeve, so Sayori finds it a lot easier to directly target Monika's problems than Monika does in the reverse, but their individual habits of avoidance are coming from the same place.

I'm traveling a bit aimlessly in this essay, trying to tie things together nicely as I see them, but there are just a lot of similarities I notice between their actions and the way they think that showcase that they have a lot of the same problems, and a huge theme in Trust is expressing oneself, which both Monika and Sayori struggle to do, in much the same way.

I think a key similarity between the two of them is their tendency to catastrophize over a situation when left alone, mostly revolving around seeing the worst possible scenario for how they could've personally messed up the situation. I'm just rewatching Trust for this little essay, so there are two major moments I see Monika doing this, but I remember Sayori doing this...a few times, actually, throughout the side stories.

I think the spiral Monika goes into after reading Become the Flower is particularly important, as it exemplifies the habit of dismissing her own problems fantastically; in this case, she has an excuse. It's true that Monika's issues with her perfectionism seem silly and trivial in comparison to Sayori's, but that's exactly the thing: She shouldn't be comparing them in the first place! Her problems are real, and they clearly cause her distress, but because Sayori's own issues appear so much more serious than hers, she dismisses them wholesale as her being dramatic and silly. Because Monika's problems seem so small, she doesn't see them for the problems they really are. In the same way, because her own accomplishments and work seem so small, she doesn't see them for the accomplishments they are.

This spiral showcases Monika's biggest problem, the reason why she has such trouble expressing herself, and conversely, the exact same problem Sayori has. She doesn't want to be the center of attention.

Put another way, she doesn't think she deserves to be the center of attention. Her problems are so trivial; her accomplishments menial. Her fear of vulnerability isn't a fear that others will hurt her; it's a fear of being selfish.

Sayori is very similar, in that the reason she actively works to avoid showing any possible sign that anything is wrong is because she doesn't want anyone to worry about her. She doesn't want other people to dedicate time and energy to her.

I think that for both of them, this comes from low self-esteem. Sayori is self-explanatory I think, but I'd say Monika's perfectionism makes it exceptionally difficult for her to really feel accomplished in anything she does, which, coupled with her constant preoccupation with how she appears to other people (I think Monika places very high expectations on herself. I mean, Trust literally starts with her frantically apologizing and saying "I normally don't ever do this!" when Sayori finds her napping) makes it very difficult for her to feel confident in herself.

The fear both Sayori and Monika have in being vulnerable isn't that people will use that vulnerability to hurt them.

It's that people will try to help them.

And I think that's a really big part of why Sayori feels like she can trust Monika with her darkest thoughts, because she understands that they're the same in a lot of ways.

Monika created the club which she needed the most...and it was also the club Sayori needed the most, for the exact same reason.

I think it's kinda easy to overlook a lot of this because of the sheer amount of focus placed onto Sayori and the more explicit issue Monika has (insofar as the plot is concerned), but I think Sayori is exactly what Monika needs just as much as Monika is what Sayori needs.

[ventii-impact]

i neeed more old mondstadt lore. how did people feel when venti took on the form of his friend? were they reverent? sympathetic? disgusted? was this what turned the red haired warrior away from him, or was it because he didn’t trust his ascension as a god after having just removed a tyrant?

on top of that, amos is such a fascinating character yet so little is known about her. she was a mortal lover of a god! her name means burden! venti wields a bow in honor of her! my girl was so interesting!

and of course, there is such a scarcity of nameless bard content. despite being venti’s entire reason for godhood, we know fairly little about his personality or past.

(and don’t even get me started on istaroth)

[ddenji]

asaden nation…. how are we feeling….

okay but on a real note…. denji acknowledging the way that violence informs all of his relationships and how he wants to escape that so badly!!! he wants something good and normal, or perhaps just normal to the extent that he’s not getting hurt, which is like the baseline thing you could ask for in a relationship!!! on the flipside, readers know that yoru was technically the one who kissed him & she is actively trying to kill him from inside the body of the girl he likes…. which does not seem promising for his goal of not getting hurt!!!! but also the girl he likes does like him, as both a human and chainsaw man no less, which does seem promising for his goal of being in a relationship!!! idk. to me, i feel like their relationship & how they treat each other is gonna be a big part of this story /the ending bc they’re both so vulnerable & desparate for connection. overall, fujimoto has set up some amazing tension from all angles regarding their relationship & when it’s resolved its either going to be amazing or soul crushing.

[forcebookish]

damn remember when ichigo went full hollow and orihime was terrified of him but when ulquiorra, someone she has only known as a hollow and kidnapped her by threatening to murder all her friends and spent her whole imprisonment intimidating her, asked her if she was afraid of him she said she wasn't

🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

LIKE WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THAT????????

[wallywallywallyworld]

Why Gutsca is still loved by many.

The Gutsca SA scene was ugly, sad, and disgusting, but the reason the majority of the Fandom is still rooting for their relationship is because Guts was having a psychotic episode while moments before he was panicking desperately trying to save her OBVIOUSLY those are two contradictory actions, AND Casca is the ONLY person in Berserk who can understand how bad the effects of the eclipse is and how it can a mind break and psychologically cripple a person.

Does it erase what he's done, NOPE! Did she deserve any of that obviously NOT! And HE knows that and took responsibiliy. The Fandom still loves the ship with the FULL context. To DELIBERATELY use the scene alone in a vacuum is something only fujoshis do which is poor media literacy and its no way around it. The eclipse litterally made their relationship toxic and nethier of them would have been in that state if it wasn't for Griffith.

BOTH casca and guts are willing to heal and repair their relationship which is the first sign of an health relationship. Also why most persons wish them the best. Casca knows the full picture and the majority of the readers do as well. Guts has been her protector 98% of the time he's been with her post eclipse. The cognitive regression was so strong Casca couldnt speak and while Guts was going through the same in his own way with the demonic attacks. It's very disingenuous to act like Guts assaults defines the relationship when 200+ chapters Guts made it his goal to protect her and has to his own devastation. Even at this point of the manga Casca loves and appreciates Guts even more than she did the in Golden Age arc.

[martyreddie]

trying to listen to that rg interview but every second word is just 'woman' and it makes me want to gnaw on my keyboard lmao. like i get that that straight relationship stuff is what the interviewer's channel about, and there's (so far) a lot of legitimately good advice being shared, but i can't with the women/men talk sometimes... it just so quickly delves off into mystifying relationships and gender differences

[happyk44]

You know, children of Hades/Pluto and Thanatos/Mors with a propensity to develop SZPD or AVPD would also work. Their fathers are entwined with death, the dead, which makes connecting to the living hard for them.

It could be partly because of rejection when their parentage is discovered by demigods, possible unease mortals may feel around them due to their aura or whatever, and then partly because of their own innate nature, meaning even in the friendliest of circumstances they struggle to connect with the other person.

[lobeliamaximoff]

this is such an accurate description of Brady's feelings for Mikayla I wanna cry