#and watched a fuckton of true crime

[dianartemiss]

as a person who was also abused and neglected in a financially secure family situation (though on a much smaller scale) and assuming that he was also interested in crime and psychology (because Batman)... I think Tim would know that he was abused?

I knew. as soon as I had words for child abuse and neglect, I knew. and before that I understood that how I lived wasn't good or nice and the fault was on my parents, not me. It's not a matter of loving your parents either because I love both my parents even now, nearly 10 years after going no contact with my mom.

Tim is also smart as fuck and the parents are not always as smart as their gifted kid. if that imbalance existed with their family, it would have been even more clear to Tim that his parents were abusive.

all this said, knowing that you're a victim of child abuse doesn't help you when you're still a child (unless you have extended family that is genuinely reliable and trustworthy). you're not going to report them to anyone because you love them and don't want to be without them, even if they mistreat you. you've probably already heard bad things about being in the system and foster care, so you're scared of what could happen. more than that you have no idea what will happen, and that's scary. often with neglect or emotional abuse, you rationalize that it could be worse. multiply that if your basic needs like food and shelter are well taken care of. abusers are often not doing well themselves and a smart, empathetic kid will see that and because it's their family, will likely feel a sense of duty toward their parent. or they've been gaslit into thinking that their parent needs them.

so Tim Drake, smart as hell and knowing too much about crime, almost certainly knows he abused. but knowing doesn't change anything because he loves his parents and has an intense as hell sense of duty.

(and this isn't me saying that fic or headcanons with him in denial or not understanding is bad or wrong in any way, but my personal headcanon based on experience)

[the-fluff-piece]

Sanji x reader modern day AU part 2:

I just want some f**ing coffee

Part 1: I just want some f**king...wine!

Part 3: I just want some f**ing sleep and comfort

Check out my other stuff:

My Masterlist - Short and Multichapter stories

Headcanon Masterlist

The date you were on the other night was disappointing - but the food was great! For some reason though, a chef from the restaurant took an interest in you. After crashing your date, he realised you were living right next to him all this time - and vows to court you until you're his! In this chapter, Sanji will bring your hungover ass some delicious breakfast and you'll get to know him (and his lips) a little better

Saturday morning. You woke up late, two glasses of wine really did knock you out, how pathetic. In uni, you could easily have double that and not even noticed. Sleepy and with a light headache, you check your phone - no message from Thomas. So he didn't like the date, either. No surprises there. Still stung.

You peeled out of your blanked for your morning ritual: a cigarette and coffee on the balcony. You caught your reflection in the mirror: yup, looking tired as fuck. Bags under your eyes, hair like a bird's nest and the general vibe of something that had existed for too long at the bottom of a handbag. Enough to scare the shit out of the judgy older lady from across the street when she would see you. It were the small things that made you happy.

You shuffled to your kitchen where you made a horrible discovery: Coffee was empty. Even scraping at the bottom of the tin can didn't produce enough for a cup, so you grumpily slipped into your fluffy robe, grabbed the pack of cigarettes and shuffled on to your small city balcony.

You lit one and watched the people on the street: an old lady with a cute dog, they were often walking by, so adorable. Joggers. Should do that, too. Sometimes. Not now. Woman on bike, looking fab. Damn, I should buy some of those workout pants, too. They look comfy! Hot blond guy with shopping bags, waving at someone. He looks like a snack. Cute cat yawning. Should get a fuckton of tho- wait a minute, you knew that guy. That was Sanji from yesterday.

Yet another cigarette became the victim of slack jawed staring between the two of you, sailing down to the street two stories below. Poor thing.

"Hey princess, I brought you coffee! On the house!" He shouted, grinning from ear to ear. "I got breakfast, too!" He had the inflection of someone luring an animal using treats. It worked well.

Your caffeine deprived brain couldn't fathom what was happening down there: the cook strolled towards the building and you lost sight of him. Shortly afterwards you heard a knock on your door. You ran inside to look through the peephole in the door.

What the fuck.

"Hey princess, I didn't know what you liked so I brought the classics!" his cheery voice could clearly be heard through the door and you saw his clear, blue eyes looking directly through the peephole in a fish-eye perspective.

"Can we maybe start at...WHY ARE YOU HERE? HOW?" You screamed at the door.

"I saw that you lived here, too! What a coincidence ! I just wanted to apologise for yesterday. Please let me make breakfast for you!" His muffled voice from behind the door sounded excited and way too cheery for this hour.

You listened to true crime, you were half sure that the guy was a crazy murderer, killing lonely women and possibly cooking them. But there was also a strong dependency on coffee and you were sure that you wouldn't make it to the supermarket in your state.

And it would be rude to refuse his offer. You removed the doorchain, unlocking the door. Sanji stood there with the widest, happiest grin you have ever seen, holding up a shopping bag full of groceries and with a duffle bag strapped around his shoulder. He was wearing fine pants and shoes and a very comfortable looking hoodie. The moment his eyes caught your sight they lit up with delight and a flow of barely discernible syllables bubbled from his mouth.

"There you are JUST LIKE I REMEMBER I will make you the best breakfast OF YOUR LIFE ❤❤❤" he mumbled like an old lady talking to her kitty cat. This weirdo was definitely not feeling dangerous enough to be a murderer. You stepped to the side. He moved past you into your apartment, looking around with open interest.

"How cozy! I love that chair - oh I know that book! Wow you have lots of plants, I somehow cannot keep them alive." He looked around like a tourist in the middle of a historic little town, slowly making his way towards your kitchenette.

"Uhm, it's not much, and it's not exactly cleaned up..." you apologised. Surely he was used to grade A equipment.

"It's fine, I have the same one, our apartments are quite similar." He explained, not showing the slightest sign of shock over your dirty little kitchen. "Besides, I brought some stuff." He sat the duffel bag down.

Humming to himself, he began unpacking and cleaning simultaneously like it was the most normal thing for him to operate in your kitchen. Dazzled, you fell into your comfy armchair and watched that tall, slender and overall handsome guy in your kitchen. He unpacked various ingredients and began rummaging through your cupboards, eventually finding a bowl and beginning to mix something. He even made a little show of flipping bottles around in his hand like a bartender or cracking eggs open with one hand. You felt a bit useless.

"Can I help...?" You asked, unsure of what you could even do.

"No, need. I'm cooking for you!" He turned around with a wink.

"Oh...ok." you said, getting up, feeling your headache again.

"I'm gonna...take shower" you decided and went to your small bath.

"Yes take your time! I'll call you when it's time to eat" he assured you.

Getting into the shower stall, your body slowly woke up. The hot water and flowery scent of your soap relaxed and refreshed you, soothed the ache in your head. Haven't had a man in here in...four years? And a handsome one at that. How strange. The realization of what was happening in your apartment at this moment was hitting differently now that you've awakened.

There is a hot guy. In my apartment. He's cooking breakfast for me.

Fuck, I look like shit. Fuckfuck! You decided to put as much effort into this as you dared. Quite frankly, you were out of practice. You washed your hair with the special expensive shampoo you once bought and never really used, you tried to peel and moisturize your face like you wanted to every day, and you put on a light perfume, that also just sat there for special occasions like today.

You snuck to your wardrobe in the bedroom. Outfit - what do you wear to a spontaneous breakfast with a guy who wears business casual on a saturday morning? A Blazer and blouse? The dress you wore to your sisters wedding? Standing in front of your wardrobe, you noticed that it was much too full but you still had nothing to wear.

You reminded yourself that he had already seen you at your (almost) worst, everything was an improvement. Deciding on a casual outfit, you grabbed a shirt and a pair of slacks and peaked into your living room/ kitchenette. Sanji had a towel over his shoulder, whistling as he cut a vanilla bean open. You came to stand next to him at the counter to look what he was doing. His sleeves were rolled up and he wore a black apron.

"Hey princess, there you are!" He greeted you as he took some cream out of the shopping bag and put it on the counter.

"Do you have to call me princess all the time?" You asked. "It's kind of making me uncomfortable."

"If you don't like it, I'll stop, mademoiselle" he told you with a wink. You rolled your eyes at him and he chuckled.

"Do you have something like a whisk?" he asked even though he already had a look around your kitchen.

You pointed to a cupboard above you.

"Thank you, mademoiselle" he said and smiled at you. As he moved to open it, you became once again aware of how tall he was. He reached over your head, getting extremely close and you caught the scent of his cologne.

He took out the kitchen utensil and began whisking the vanilla in a bowl together with sugar and the fresh vanilla. It was fascinating to watch his practiced movements and his joy while cooking.

He reached into his bag again and set a device made of metal on the counter, shaped like a bottle but with a few applications. You knew that thing from that one cooking show, but the name eluded you.

"Know what that is?" Sanji asked when he saw you staring.

"Of course" you say with your most confident voice, "that's a cream whipping thingy" you concluded.

He laughed from the bottom of his heart.

"Exactly! I'll have to tell my colleagues at the baratie about it's new name." He joked while he filled the device of unknown designation with the cream and screwed it shut.

"You know you can also use it for soup" he explained as he put it into your empty refrigerator.

"A whipped cream soup?" You asked and Sanji laughed again. His happiness was infectious.

"I'll show you another time." He promised as he started to prepare coffee beans with a small hand operated grinder. Another time? He was planning other times already?

"So, since you were on a date just yesterday I'm guessing you don't have a boyfriend? Or girlfriend?" He tried to ask casually, but his eyes were darting nervously as he spoke.

"No, I don't" you honestly answered and heard him exhale with relief.

"I bet the guys are all crazy about you!" He mused, watching your reaction. You snorted at that.

"Yeah, so crazy they're all running away" you commented, trying not to sound bitter and failing spectacularly. You added: "seriously, I think I am not made for dating. They all want to be 'just friends', guess I am that type of girl."

"Good to know that other men have no taste in women." He said happily. "Makes it easier for me" he continued. He cooked coffee now, pouring the hot water carefully over the powder. It smelled delicious. While the water turned into precious coffee he began setting the table. You were already reaching for the coffee pot like the junky you were when he caught your wrist. Even his hand felt soft.

"It's not done yet! I'll serve it to you when it's perfect to drink" he told you, turning your hand around in his and breathing the faintest kiss onto your wrist, causing you to blush violently.

"Just sit down while I add some finishing touches. You must be so hungry" he mused.

You wandered back to your comfy armchair on shaky legs, the tingle of his touch still fresh on your skin, looking at the beautiful cook working his magic in your tiny kitchen. When he began to set the table, you were still baffled by the variety and professional look of the foods.

There where beautifully decorated crepes with fruit and whipped cream, a steaming pot of delicious smelling coffee, bread slices surrounded by what looked like home made, savory spreads, fresh orange juice and some cooked eggs. It looked perfect and smelled like heaven. You took out your phone and made a picture to send it to your friend Chrissy to show off.

"Am I already making it to your Instagram? I feel honored" You heard him behind you as he peeked shamelessly into your phone, almost resting his chin on your shoulder.

"But let's not just look, let's eat." He waited behind a chair for you and pushed it to the table before he sat down himself, spinning the chair around and sitting down backwards, with his hands and head resting on top of the backrest.

You didn't know what you expected, but you were overwhelmed. "Uhm, why are you doing this again?" You asked insecurely - the best your ex ever managed was toast and marmalade.

"A beautiful lady deserves to be pampered" he answered in a serious tone. "Besides, I kind of lost my temper yesterday and crashed your date" he didn't seem sorry, in fact he grinned when he said it.

"So enjoy! I cooked up a luxury breakfast for you." His blue eyes sparkled with anticipation as you carefully loaded the crepe onto your plate, destroying the small masterpiece somewhat. You were normally not one to have breakfast, but the appetizing smell got you hungry.

The crepe was soft and warm, the cream tasted like vanilla with a hint of cinnamon. Its texture was perfect: creamy and fluffy, slightly buttery. It was perfectly balanced with the fresh, sour taste of the fruits. You could have moaned it was so good!

Ping

Ping

Ping

The constant ping of a cell phone was distracting you from the taste orgasm you were having. Opening your eyes, you saw Sanji, leaning on the backrest, staring at you with hooded eyes and an open mouth.

Ping

"Someone's messaging you I guess" you told him, ripping him from his trance.

"Oh, sorry! I should have turned that off." He took out the phone from his pocket and unlocked it. Being as nosy as he had been, you peeked at the screen - seeing the familiar design of a dating app.

Of course he was online dating. Every ping was a match, from the looks of it he got lots. Of course he was a player, the signs were all there, you just didn't want to see them. Suits, cooking, all that "princess" and "mademoiselle" bullshit. You scowled, hard. Years of training in the harsh world have made your scowl a powerful tool to broadcast your dissatisfaction to the world. Sanji understood immediately.

"No! It's not like that! I swear!" He held up his hands.

"I didn't say anything" you told him, surly.

"But you looked. Here, nothing is happening." He handed you his phone. What normal person does that?

You looked at his app, he had almost a thousand contacts, in this small town quite significant. Apparently, he was just matching every single woman he was shown, and most of them matched back. You navigated to the messages, he didn't protest. It really was sad.

He opened most conversations, all of them were a variation of "bonjour mademoiselle, I love you" and were read but ignored. The last messages were months old, he must have given up at some point. It was a strange display.

"You really thought this line would work? Just telling random women you love them right away?" You asked, unwilling to believe that someone would dedicate time and effort to this approach.

"It's no line!" He protested. "I love all women!" He said it as if this was a normal thing to say to a woman he currently was kind of flirting with.

"You won't get very far with that, this is too much too soon" you tried to explain.

"Why?" He asked seriously. "Love is good! Everyone wants to be loved!" He seemed very passionate about that.

"You don't just see someone and fall in love, that's not how it works, and it's not healthy" You were drawn into an obviously doomed debate but couldn't help it.

"No offense but, forcing yourself to date someone you don't like and doesn't respect you seems pretty far from love as well" he mused.

"Touche" you conceded, thinking about last night's disaster.

To your surprise, he blushed furiously and seemed strangely giddy all of a sudden.

"You are already jealous!" He said happily. "You want me so much that you are jealous, but don't be! The dating app didn't work because this" he pointed at himself and you" this is destiny!" He got up and swirled around like he was dancing, pouring you a fresh cup of coffee in the process.

"Just milk, no sugar" you reflexively said. He nodded and poured milk from a tiny carton into the cup. After the wine, the pasta, the dessert and the crepe, your expectations regarding this coffee were sky high.

You took a sip, Sanji almost leaned all the way over the table to savour your reaction.

It held up. The coffee tasted soft and just like freshly grounded beans always smelled. Like chocolate and nuts and warm summer mornings. You smiled as you remembered the delicious scent in the mornings of your childhood when the grownups drank their coffee while you had a whole day of playing ahead of you.

You heard a soft whimper from Sanji. He was staring at you with his mouth open.

"It's so nice to take care of someone who appreciates it." He said. "You're so sensual..." the last words were a husky whisper and his eyes fell shut. An unexpected kiss landed on your lips. It was nervous and hot and a little too wet, his eagerness getting the better of him. His little moustache tickled your face and you couldn't help but fondling that small goatee with your fingers. He kissed and touched you like a horny teenager, moaning as his tongue played around your mouth and his hands wandered over your body like he couldn't feel enough of you at once. His nimble, long fingers threaded through your hair.

It felt good, but it was too much. A guy with that kind of dating app approach was still a red flag. In a second, you could see your heart break when he left as soon as he got what he wanted. This was too easy, too perfect. Something was seriously wrong.

You pressed your hand against his muscular chest, but he didn't get the hint. He seemed to interpret it as you exploring him and he clutched your hand to himself, encouraging you to feel around more. It was seductive to just keep running your hand over his body, you could clearly feel his defined muscles under the soft fabric of his hoodie. But the doubt was too much for you to handle.

As his mouth broke away to kiss your hand, you managed to tell him: "Stop! Now!" He immediately let go and backed off, looking confused but still very much aroused. He was handsome with his lips red from a passionate kiss and his cheeks blushing. Too perfect.

"Did I hurt you? I am so sorry!" He wrung his hands and looked like a boy that had broken something expensive.

"No, it's just too fast. And I honestly don't know if I even want that right now." You explained.

He looked like you just stabbed him. Either he was the strangest, most naive man you ever met - or he was the best actor and most skilled asshole who would break your heart.

He turned away, looking hurt and small. But he was a grown man - he had to deal with rejection. You bet you weren't the first woman he startled. After a few seconds of hurt he seemed to get a hold of himself as he began to fidget with a zippo from his pocket.

"I am sorry I fell upon you like that. And kind of ruined the mood." He looked defeated, but composed. "I will be more controlled in the future. I am sorry!" He apologised with a smile that had to be forgiven immediately.

"Let's just be adults about this and forget it" you tried to somehow save the situation.

"No." He said decidedly.

"What?" You were confused.

"I'm never going to forget that. I don't want to act like I wasn't interested in you. I'll never ask for something in return when I cook for you, I promise. Please, let me cook for you in the future" he pleaded, absolutely losing you. What was his deal?

"So please, enjoy your breakfast" he said and sat down again to watch you. He explained all the foods to you in detail, making your head spin a little with all the information. He was almost like a podcast you could listen to while eating. Although your usual eating entertainment was Netflix. On the couch.

"So, after just now I hope it's not weird...but I brought the last classic for a fancy breakfast." He said a bit flustered.

"What is that? I am already stuffed..." You answered.

"Some champagne" He grinned.

"Did you really bring champagne?" You asked in disbelief.

"Just an open one from the Restaurant, we wouldn't sell that tonight anymore. But it's enough for two glasses and fresh enough." He explained, his relaxed smile back in place.

"Mhm, after yesterday I am a little hungover...just a sip?" You asked as he already poured two glasses.

You felt so tired and cozy, the table wasn't cutting it anymore. Actually, it has been ages since you used the small kitchen table - the couch was much more comfortable.

"Let's sit down here" you suggested and Sanji brought the glasses to your coffee table and sat down next to you with a wide grin and the bearing of someone who had just scored a win. He lay his arm on the headrest just above you and took one of the glasses.

"To destiny" He mumbled a toast.

"Destiny?" You giggled.

"Don't laugh! Do you think it's coincidence that you sit in my restaurant and an hour later I see that you live in my apartment building?" He said sternly.

"We live in a small town in a small building, we would have met sooner or later" you argued.

"Still destiny..." he mumbled with an adorable pout.

You touch your glass softly to his and say: "to daydrinking!"

He laughs. "To the good life" he returns the toast and you both drink.

The champagne is a bit too dry for your tastes, but surprisingly smooth. When was the last time you had a drink before noon? Probably some company event.

Looking at the handsome man on your couch, you deluded yourself into thinking you could have fun with him without attachment. Even in the moment the thought crossed your mind, it was as clear as the sparkling wine in your hand that you already liked him. He looked to inviting next to you, his outstretched arm creating the perfect space for you to rest your head. You leaned against him, feeling the soft fabric of his hoodie and his warmth once again. And it saved you from drowning in his eyes. He gasped a little when you touched him and began breathing really hard - good actor? Really naive? Doesn't matter now.

"Tell me something about yourself" you told him.

"Uhm mhm well I am a cook" he mumbled like his mouth was giving up.

"I know that" you told him. "What about family? Is this your family's restaurant?"

"Well kind of. More my stepfather. I don't really...it's complicated" he suddenly sounded like a normal person again. "But Zeff is really cool! And my colleagues at the restaurant are like my brothers." He told you about his stepfather, the restaurant and what kinds of menus he planned as you sipped your champagne. Between the hangover, a long week and a big breakfast - you were absolutely exhausted. Before you knew it, you drifted off to sleep, dreaming a pleasant dream about you and Sanji owning a small bistro somewhere nice and quiet.

When you woke up again, you were alone on the couch, afternoon sun bathed your living room in golden light, Sanji was gone. You lay outstretched under a blanket, the champagne was gone, too.

Fuck, now I fall asleep at a date? Is he mad at me?

The kitchenette is spotless, safe for the cream whipping thingy drying next to the sink. He cleaned up and left. Maybe you should bring him the thing? Or will he come and pick it up?

Undecided, you poured yourself the last cup of cold coffee. It tasted a little bland now, having lost its full aroma. You looked around your empty apartment and missed Sanji's cheery busyness already. Maybe you should just go and see where he lived. But you didn't even know his last name.

Years of online dating and unhealthy nosiness had given you the talent to find people by first name and extra info. You googled "Sanji" and "Baratie" and found an interesting newsarticle: "Success for charity" it said. "The local restaurant Baratie made a big leap for charity this weekend, inviting the children of the local community centre to cook delicious and healthy meals together. A win for the community and the children".

There was an adorable picture of Sanji, his arm around a cute little girl holding a plate of vegetables. The description read: "Sanji Vinsmoke showed the children that veggies can be tasty".

Bingo!

You would just stroll through the building and give him back his stuff and apologise for falling asleep on him. Like a normal, nice person. You were 99% sure that he didn't play games like "wait 3 days until you write" or something.

The halls of the building were narrow and long and it took you some time to find his name on one of the doors, it was on the opposite side of the building, no wonder you never bumped into him.

You pressed the doorbell, already anxious to see him again. Soft footsteps could be heard, the door opened. Your world crumbled a bit.

In front if you stood an absolute sexbomb of a woman. She wore Sanji's hoodie - the one you fell asleep on just earlier - and nothing else as it seemed. She had long, smooth legs, a perfect hourglass figure, full lips and the cutest face. Her pink hair was a perfect messy look. You stared. She looked annoyed.

"Yes?" She asked in a melodic voice.

"Uhm, is Sanji here?" You asked, trying to catch a glimpse of the flat behind her. She blocked your view.

"No, he is at work." Her answer was short and finite.

"I brought his cream whipping thing back" you stammered and indicated the device you were holding.

"Syphon" the woman stated.

"What?" You asked, confused.

"It's called a syphon. Thank you. Bye." The woman took the syphon out of your hand and closed the door, leaving you dumbstruck in the hallway.

_______

What is happening here? Who is the mystery lady? What's her relationship with Sanji? Is the writer of this story just messing with you to create a cheap cliffhanger?

Find out in the next installment of this Sanji modern day AU!

I AM SO SORRY IT TOOK FOREVER TO WRITE THIS. I was so unhappy and revised and revised and...you get the idea. It's still not perfect but I am content enough.

As always, please leave a comment if you want more or if you have a wish how it should continue. it's always a great motivator to me and I probably wouldn't have written part 2 if people hadn't asked for it

I am taking the freedom to tag previous commenters, I hope you don't mind

Also: please comment to be taken into the taglist for this story! I think I will write it for a while

@yeeeeezly

@roronoazorohater

@opalryst

@pastel9girlbunny000die

@pandabear-artsy-witch

@missallsundayyy

[thebiscuiteternal]

idk if anyone pays attention to the credits of these things, but a lot of network true-crime shows in the us lately (mostly for HLN and Oxygen, a few for Investigation Discovery) are produced by the same company, Jupiter Entertainment. which has been incredibly funny for me, as they’re a local group. so i’ve been seeing a metric fuckton of local news people showing up as commentators in these shows, and i’ve even recognized some victims and bystanders in re-enactment scenes (my dad, who does not watch true crime if he can help it, was immensely confused to see one of the guys from his local kiwanis group on-screen as a church groundskeeper who found a body).

kinda tempted to see if i can audition to be a corpse.

[ninjakitty15]

Souper Heroes

Midgardians had to be the most fragile little dominant beings of the realms. It wasn’t enough that they had such short lifespans, they were also so easily breakable and susceptible to any pathogen that came their way. It was a wonder they somehow existed as species as long as they have, there were many that had bets they wouldn’t last beyond the Dark Ages and the Black Plague. On top of the many many many kinds of ailments a mortal could get on this meager realm, only some of them had cures or antidotes and of those cures not all of them worked one hundred percent of the time every time. Basically a mortal’s health was a gamble in and of itself. Loki was all for games and tricks but this kind of game he desperately needed a win for as he was almost all out of tricks for it.

It had started with a sore throat that his beloved and only Midgardian had already written off as just a tickle or scratch from talking too much at work. It was not just a sore throat though, that was for damn sure, as not much later than that came into the equation, a cough had started shortly after. A cough that couldn’t be written off as anything other than what it was, the beginning of many more symptoms Loki was struggling to keep track of. Honestly, how the helheim did these creatures last this long? It wasn’t more than a day after the first few signs appeared that they were bedridden which caused the already stressed god of tricks more distress as they were always so lively and animated about even the silliest things like the latest Netflix show to binge or a new podcast about true crime coming out. Now they were too sick to even keep their eyes open long enough to watch the next episode. 

“It’s just a flu and I already called in sick at work so you don’t need to worry too much about me. I just need soup and sleep and a fuckton of tissues...maybe a clear path to the bathroom too just to be safe.”

For a moment Loki felt relief, didn’t sound too serious, at least not serious enough to need serious medical attention. He seriously didn’t want to have to call Dr. Banner or even worse Dr. Strange to take care of his mortal, they were the most dangerous of the team yet claimed to be certified in helping heal people. Somehow he didn’t believe that was completely true. But then Loki realized something that could and would be a large drawback to not needing medical help...he had no idea what soup his partner needed and more importantly how to make it as his partner was the cook of the two of them. Oh sure Loki had tried time and time again to return the favor, first with magic which proved to be entirely a tangible illusion as while it often looked as marvelous and delicious as he remembered from his time in Asgard, it had all the flavors of typical British cuisine or pasta water. His partner, who had agreed to be nothing but honest with the god of lies had once said it was something Flanders would love at least. The Simpsons character, not the people in a certain region of Belgium. None the less, after binge watching the Simpsons with them, Loki decided magic definitely wasn’t the secret ingredient in his partner’s cooking. So he tried the old fashioned way after that experiment went wrong only to find it was even more complicated between cooking and baking. Baking was an exact science it seemed between what ingredients mix and react well together and how long or hot you’re baking the concoction. Cooking however was a whole different story as it was both a science and an art and Loki quickly found out he could only be one or the other but never both at the same time. 

Before he could even turn on the oventop however, he needed the right ingredients for the right food to make his partner feel better. Upon thorough research of many cookbooks and google searches, most of the ingredients were in fact quite simple to come by at any given grocery store, thank the Norns. Broth, vegetables, maybe some noodles and white meat (not babies, the other white meat his partner would always joke when meat was on the table). In the guise of a normal bloke in normal Midgardian clothes (a sharp, well fitted suit and pants of course, he was still a gentleman, not a Neanderthal in a hoodie and denim), he portaled to the nearest store and collected as many of the ingredients as he could find. All except of course a few small yet important ones he was absolutely certain couldn’t be replaced, substituted, or just left out. Honestly, what kind of grocery store doesn’t have ginger or turmeric? The answer was apparently most of them as there seemed to be a shortage since the last pandemic sucked the stores dry with so many people believing it was a super root that cured all flu like viruses. Spoiler alert, that did nothing. For some reason there was also a shortage in another important ingredient he desperately needed, green onions or was it scallions? Loki couldn’t understand why there was so many different names for literally the same food within the same bloody language, like why did the English call one veggie aubergines when Americans called it eggplants? Or what about turnips and rutabagas? No wonder they were always at war with each other when they can’t even agree on the same name for food, let alone land or other important ideals. 

Fed up with not finding all the ingredients within reasonable distance of their home and not feeling like shop hopping every bloody store he could find for them, he decided the best results had to be at the source where the damned food originated from. To Asia then! Thank the Norns for Allspeak or Loki’s already limited supply of patience would be stretched thinner than drum skins at trying to find where ginger and green onions were grown and plentiful. Allspeak and being a shapeshifter absolutely helped considering he would’ve stuck out like Thor in just about any other setting that wasn’t Asgard. Loki made note during his ingredient search to come back to China when he wasn’t on a mission of utmost importance to sightsee all the ancient sites, he especially felt compelled to study the many spots with dragons on or with them and how they were often associated with emperors, maybe the Chinese were onto something there. Alas he had an ailing lover to attend to and once he collected the right amount of the freshest plants he needed, he was on to India for the turmeric. India proved to be even more fascinating a country than China was, the culture, the architecture, the history, the colors but most importantly the spices which is what he was there for after all. He also picked up a few boxes of loose tea perfect for settling the stomach, soothing the sinuses, and boosting the immune system as apparently you can’t be too cautious with such fragile creatures.

Loki teleported back to his partner’s apartment as soon as he collected everything necessary to nurse them back to health and immediate went to work making them the soup and tea, the “locals” were especially kind enough to give him detailed instructions on how to make the perfect flu busting soup while helping him find the produce. In less than an hour’s time, everything was prepared and tasted to perfection before he hastily entered the darkened bedroom that his partner was resting in or had been as they were currently watching true crime on Netflix when he entered and Loki arched an eyebrow while listening to the narrator talked about the gory details of yet another unsolved murder of the 70′s. Upon hearing these murders were yet again also mostly children snatched right under their parents noses, Loki had to remind himself that while cops were still not the brightest tools in the crayon shed, their methods of solving crimes when they weren’t racially profiling people and actually doing their job had advanced since then. Loki glanced at his partner completely engrossed in the even more gruesome details like they didn’t know what would happen next considering it was an unsolved case. He cleared his throat right when pictures of the victims’ remains were shown on screen and held up his tray of lunch and snacks, his partner’s face lighting up at the sight of freshly prepared and delightfully scented food. 

“Whatcha got there?” his partner asked excitedly.

“A guaranteed cure to your ailment, my love,” Loki replied smoothly.

His partner eagerly took the tray to their lap and swallowed a spoonful of broth and produce hungrily as their stomach had been emptied repeatedly throughout the day and thus needed anything at this point to fill it. A low, appreciative moan escaped their mouth before they swallowed and took a sip of the tea as well, holding the mug under their nose to breathe in the herbal steam.

“I thought all the local grocery stores were still short on green onions,” the ailing mortal mused.

“Oh I assure you they still are, lucky for you I have other sources to work with,” Loki replied with a grin.

“Take a trip downtown to Little China, did you?” they guessed. “Thought you didn’t like that going into the city.”

Loki’s grin morphed into a quizzical scowl then. “I didn’t go there, you can be sure of that.” The China he went to definitely wouldn’t be considered little but now he was miffed he didn’t try there first.

“What about that Asian marketplace in Brighton? The one where you can get Ramen and bubble tea next to it? They somehow always have everything when other stores have shortages, you gotta take me there sometime and we can do a ramen date.”

Loki had to remind himself not to throw something, anything within his grasp at his lover as they were already in poor condition and he was too much a gentleman to kick a bitch when it’s already down. Two nearby places he could’ve gone in less time than it took sifting through people and markets trying to find the perfect recipe for his lover. “Perhaps when you’re better I’ll take to you my sources, for now eat your soup and rest up and perhaps watch something less...true and more settling to give your digestive system a chance. Honestly, how have your species survived this long, you’re like potted orchids, if you weren't so pretty to keep around I’d have defenestrated you into a snow bank.”

“Thank you for taking care of me and not breaking any windows or bones doing so, you’re the best boyfriend ever!”

“Should bloody well hope so, I’d go to the end this world and back for you.” Again.

“You really don’t have to do that though.” Clearly. Loki wished he had been told that before he already searched the world for a few damn plants and spices he could’ve easily gone a few towns over for.

“It’s too late for that,” muttered Loki. “Good night, don’t let the stomach bugs bite.” Next time this happened he was getting Campbell’s canned chicken noodle soup and calling it a day. Insufferable little orchids mortals were.

[tiffanylamps]

🌊😂❤️👀 for yours asks 🥰

Hey!!! psst, send me pics of your sculpture (if you've updated it) 👀 Thank you for sending me this! [My Beyond Evil Emoji Ask List]

🌊 What moment makes you want to walk into the ocean? I've already given an answer to this question here. But here is another moment that I am crazy over: Ji Hoon going to work the day they find out Min Jeong has gone missing/died.

It's pretty clear that Ji Hoon has feelings for Min Jeong. We never find out the true extent of those feelings, but the fact that he has a nervous breakdown (of sorts) at her funeral, and Dong Sik is worried for Ji Hoon's mental health in episode 5 (hinting that Ji Hoon suffers from depression and agoraphobia) shows whatever he felt for her was a deep emotion. Yet, he still goes to work and answers the phones (I can't imagine the number of phone calls he had from people panicking and wanting to know information about Min Jeong's disappearance, just further rubbing salt in a fresh wound😭). He's fucking crying at the front desk! But he still does his job, despite the shock, the trauma, the grief!!! I... 😭

😂 What’s your favourite Han Joo Won quirk? Already answered here, here, here. I really like Joo Won, which I know is pretty obvious at this point and I think it's interesting (and honestly, really lovely) that people want to know my opinions of him! He's definitely the character I get asked about the most. Anyway, one thing that I really love about Joo Won is that he needs time to process information. For me, this is a part of his neurodivergent coding (I know we've discussed this already) and is something I really relate to. It's kind of rare (from what I've seen, at least) to see a pov character that gets easily overwhelmed by a bombardment of information and has to take time to let the information sit with them before coming to a conclusion.

It's one of the reasons his arguments with Dong Sik don't go his way; Dong Sik is able to recite a myriad of points off the top of his head but once he's said them, he kind of forgets (which is very normal for most people). When Joo Won is on the receiving end of this, he tends to shut down, and needs time to collect himself. But he still takes the information in and remembers it, which leads to numerous occasions where he recites something Dong Sik has said back to him, word for word.

I love that! I think it's such an interesting personality trait and it works so well against Dong Sik's personality. They process information in different ways, and their differences complement one another.

❤️ What’s your favourite Dong Sik smile? I answered a fuckton here. I don't have an outright favourite, so I'll give a few more that I didn't include-

(👀)

(lol. he thinks jw is hot. loser)

👀 What would you like to see if they did a season 2? Okay, I have thoughts on this. I think that there is room for a season 2 but I don't think it's necessary to do.

I will prefix this by saying that I may be forgetting a big bit of information that will prevent this point from becoming reality. I don't have the best memory, so I admit that I could be forgetting something. I personally believe that Han Ki Hwan has very good grounds for appeal (just on Yu Yeon's murder. The other crimes?? There's probably a long paper trail, and Lee Chang Jin and Do Hae Won's testimonies that would put him away for a long time), as there isn't any physical evidence of the hit and run. Other than Lee Chang Jin and Do Hae Won, the only piece of damning evidence (that I can remember) is his confession... which was obtained legally, therefore, we can presume his legal team will have it dismissed from the trial.

So, his appeal process could be something they focus on. However, I don't really want to watch that, as there's not a lot of story there.

What I would want is a mini-series, or perhaps, a movie of sorts where we get an update on the characters' lives. It doesn't really matter to me how far into the future it is, I just want to see Dong Sik heal and move on, Joo Won get closure and finally find a family that loves and accepts him, Jae Yi finding a life outside of her mother's butcher shop, Ji Hwa getting the respect she deserves, Ji Hoon growing into himself, Joo Won and Hyuk working on their relationship, Jung Je and Dong Sik m a y b e working on their relationship, and of course, jwds.... being an actual couple.

It would be so sweet to see them slowly becoming a part of each other's lives, getting to know one another outside of the death and trauma, and just having that same intensity but the tension can't be disguised and dismissed as "it's the situation", y'know?

I want to see jwds sitting together on a sofa after having dinner, trying to figure out what their new dynamic is going to be. Them stumbling their way through the healing process together, learning together, understanding that it's okay to want and how to be quiet and to just b r e a t h e.

I want to see Manyang in the summer. I want BBQs at the lake house. Christmas jumpers. Busan weekends. Manyang nights. I want New Years' Eve kisses and hugs and drunken laughter. I want misunderstandings and mistakes and grief and showcasing that the process of healing is a fucking long one and looks different for everyone. I want Joo Won's grief to manifest in odd ways (sweet and sad ways). I want to see Dong Sik feel comfortable with being honest. But most importantly, I want all of them happy. (minus the obvious handful) (But I don't think we'll ever get that. The story is so complete without it, and I don't think they'll be able to tell the next steps without addressing the queerness👀 so, yeahhhhhh)

Anyway, yes, thank you again! I sure did ramble on for a long time, so I'm going to shut up and let you get on with your night/day 😂

[terminaxshowtime]

1 to 5 with any of your comfort blorbos :]

OKAY! As always, my current "main" comfort blorbo is a bit complicated and will make anyone go 'huh' if they haven't read one specific fanfic so I'll go with my secondary one :]

Massive Gravity Falls spoilers ahead! DO NOT scroll if you haven't watched. Because I will find a way to force you, one day.

this is about stanley pines :)

1. how long have i known about them

Since I first started watching Gravity Falls, which is only around 2 years ago. Kinda pathetic, I know, but it's unfortunately true. I don't think I ever heard of him before it, though.

2. whether or not they’ve ever made me cry

I shed a few tears in the finale, but that was also out of happiness? And I've cried rivers upon rivers whilst reading fanfic. Oh my god, my Stangst fanfic addiction might've been a little unhealthy.

3. whether or not i have any merchandise/objects with them

Yes? Kinda? He's mentioned a fuckton in Journal 3, which I have. Which makes sense. He's a main character. Also I just remembered I have Lost Legends. He's definitely in that.

4. what about their personality i like

Oh my god, what SHOULDN'T I like?

First of all, he's a conman. A wonderful conman who I fucking love. He is the guy ever. I love liars and I love conmen. He just has that vibe where he knows what he's doing and doesn't at the same time.

Second of all, he commits crimes. I fucking love crime. Tax evasion forever and whatnot. I love the way he just does not hesitate to do whatever the fuck he wants, illegal or not.

And of course, he is so fucking awesome. He is a badass who punches dinosaurs and dream demons and stuff all in the name of his family and the people he cares about. Like, he does all these terrible things, but it's all for his family and the people he cares about, and it's amazing.

Then, you know, he's funny. Funny, silly, you think he's just a funny old guy (who is Not Okay but you don't know that yet) and he is! Even though there's all these terrible things he got better and has fun around Soos and the kids.

He is neurodivergent as fuck. Have you fucking seen child and teen stan. Have you read Lost Legends?! He absolutely has ADHD, do NOT argue this with me, BECAUSE I AM RIGHT.

I literally cannot describe his personality because there's no words that really can describe it. But I fucking love him.

5. what about their backstory makes me emotional

What fucking WOULDN'T make me emotional?!?!?!?!

Okay, first of all, he was constantly berated as a child for not being able to control himself and his impulses, having the best of intentions but always messing up, to which his father verbally abused him.

When he was a teen it only got worse, and he got some pretty bad self-worth issues due to everyone calling him essentially an idiot and just overall useless. Like what the hell.

And then he got rejected by Ford, the only person he really cared what he thought of him, and got kicked out of his house onto the streets at the age of 17???!?!?!?? Like hello?? Is that legal?????!?!?!??!

He was forced to do some pretty bad shit to stay alive, likely dealing with illegal stuff and maybe getting cursed or whatever, completely in debt and forgotten by his family, until one day Ford called him over after 10 years...

...only to find out that he just wanted him to take some journal and leave, get as far away from him as possible. Understandably, this makes more sense in Ford's perspective, but Stan doesn't know shit and he didn't even get an explanation, so he was rightfully pissed off.

They fought, and he got branded, which made him even more pissed and he didn't even hear Ford's brief apology (God this whole scene tears my heart apart and stomps on the pieces) and then he pushes his brother into the portal, and-

He doesn't hesitate to fake his own death, but obviously feels remorse at accidentally taking his brother's identity. Like, he had to pretend to his family for 30 whole years that he was Stanford when he wasn't. What the hell.

And then after 30 long, hard years- of learning physics, and sciences, and whatever he needed to turn on the portal and get his brother back, persisting despite always being told how fucking stupid he was- his brother punched him in the face and yelled at him.

No wonder he was, once again, pissed.

Of course I was emotional about his backstory. What the fuck.

[kihyunswrath]

This was not Wonho’s decision, and that’s why I’m fighting

At first I also believed Starship when they told everyone Wonho himself called the CEO’s and managers and whoever and made it clear he had decided to leave, but now that I know how Starship has been acting afterwards, I want you all to know that with 100% certainty, resigning was not what Wonho originally asked for. He might have been the one contacting his employers first, he might have been panicking, overreacting, crying and thinking that it’s over for him, but him wanting to resign in a matter of days? Nope. That’s not what happened. Starship kicked him out, silenced him, forced him out of his dorm room and probably took some of his money.

Now think about this. Wonho knows this comeback is something they have been planning for months on end. He has been there the whole time, he knows how comebacks work. He knows those are critical times for their success. He has personally witnessed the sweat, tears and injuries all the members have suffered for this specific comeback. He was also excited about it, because he knew it was going to be good. This comeback was strong, anticipated, well prepared, expensive. The music video and all the songs were fucking good. 

Would he leave the company in two, three days and leave his members alone to finish this comeback for him? I want you to imagine him sitting in a chair inside the Starship building office, or his dorm room sofa at night, reading the Instagram posts over and over and thinking about this. In these nearest hours after all those rumors were published, he probably had already pictured everything in his head. He’s been in this industry for years, he knows how things go. He knew how Starship handles things, much better than we do. He knew that if he left now, Starship would most likely not halt the comeback plans but instead force everyone to continue. He knew his closest friend Kihyun would have to learn his parts and that everyone in the group would be absolutely devastated, depressed and also angry. He could imagine in advance how every single member would react and how those reactions would differ from one another. He probably could imagine their facial expressions, their begging words, their rage, their cries, every little detail. He knew they wouldn’t be given any rest, but that instead they would be told to practice themselves to pure exhaustion, overstraining and death, and that it was all because of him. 

He knew exactly how much money was wasted on this comeback and that if he had to leave, there was no certainty that any of that money would come back to them. He knew that if he left, Monsta X’s entire future was at risk and that for certain, their peak had now been reached and that this was it. They would never reach quite the same heights they had reached so far. All the dreams about winning in MAMA’s, being invited to American television shows, published articles in Billboard magazines and whatnot, making deals with different record labels, breaking new records? Most likely gone.

So would he do it, just because of his dark past that had been there this whole fucking time? That didn’t mysteriously come up now, but was actually widely recognized, accepted and seen as a crucial part of Wonho’s storyline, his redemption arc. People loved him because he had won all the hardships in his past, because he had promised to change and grow up as a person, because we saw how he had fought hard to debut and pay back to his mom who he thought he had failed. People loved him because he wasn’t perfect but was capable of showing his gratitude, his respect, love and admiration toward the other members and us fans. 

Sure, weed is a serious business in South Korea, but so far, there has been no proof. We still don’t know whether Wonho has actually ever used drugs or whether this is just them blackmailing him. We don’t know if he has used drugs knowingly or accidentally. We don’t know if he had been smoking weed for months or years, for a couple of days or just fucking one time. We don’t know if there was peer pressure involved. I am now hearing people say not even the allegation about him spending time in a juvenile detention center / prison is necessarily true. We only know the fact that Wonho had already been in different police investigations (later on unknowingly) and got out with clear papers. We know he has not been involved in drugs during the entire time he has been a member of Monsta X, and that many of the other stupid things he did occurred when he was not even a trainee yet, and that no matter what, he had atoned for those things already. 

He also knew Jung Da Eun and Han Seo Hee who were reporting him were not concerned old friends or people with remarkable authority and insight into his life, they were just convicted criminals who had all the reasons to lie, distort facts and attempt to ruin his life. We know that because they had already spread literal lies about other idols, and because one of them has already provably been in a fucking prison and was clearly bitter towards any one of her (according to one source I found she’s a trans man and probably would use male pronouns but since gendered pronouns are not a thing in Korean and I don’t know enough of this topic I’m just using the pronouns all the English-speaking sources are using) old friends who are more successful than she is. 

Would he really leave suspiciously in a matter of two fucking days, proving and making people suspicious that he was guilty of all these things and still had uncovered secrets, crimes and things he had miserably been covering all this time, leave his fans wondering what ever even happened, leave his dorm that had become home to him, his band members who were closer to him than his own fucking mom probably was? Would he immediately abandon everything he had been fighting tooth and nail for, for YEARS on end, just because of claims that already belonged to the past, claims that could have been settled years ago, claims that were about his private life and didn’t have anything to do with his job as an idol? 

Again, mind you, he hasn’t beaten anyone up, he hasn’t murdered anyone, he hasn’t used hard drugs, he hasn’t been in a prison as an adult, he hasn’t raped, assaulted, harassed, stalked, doxxed, bullied or fought with anyone, nor are these two dipshits even claiming that. He has not done anything at all. Not now, not during his career, and it’s extremely hard to prove that he ever did.

So would he leave on his own volition, just for fun? I don’t know, I’ll let you do the math.

Now Starship, on the other hand. Starship HAS done things that prove they were the actual perpetrator. They rapidly terminated his contract, they removed him from the dorm almost violently fast (it was less than two full days after the announcement). They forced the other boys to focus on the comeback shows, keeping them busy. They have ignored every contact, negotiation and discussion attempt done by Monbebes. They silenced both Wonho and the other members so that we aren’t even seeing Monsta X sending Wonho goodbye messages, giving us encouragement (not that they could offer us any in this situation) or telling anyone how they feel about this issue. Wonho has not said absolutely anything since the official announcement, even though if this was his making and he wasn’t even planning to come back, he would have no reason to not approach us fans and tell that it will be ok, that he will figure things out, that he wants to solve these issues once and for all and that he sees our messages. Nothing. Radio silence.

Make of that what you will, but for fuck’s sake stop talking about this issue as if the rest of us fighting for this case, fighting for Wonho and fighting for Monsta X, are somehow selfish, overreacting, ungrateful or not respecting Wonho’s decisions.

I don’t care what y’all think, this is the group I have been paying for. I have given Monsta X more money I have ever given to any other group, and believe me I have been supporting at least 50 different groups in my lifetime. I have met them four times in real life. I have a fuckton of memories from them I hold dear. I have a fuckton of knowledge about this industry and how it works, and this is not only my hobby, but also my academic field, my strength. I know Starship can be brought down, I know exactly when and what they did wrong and I am ready to take action.

If you don’t want to join us changing the world you can fuck off and go eat your cereal and sandwich, watch Simpsons and go buy lipsticks from Amazon or whatever it is that you peeps do and leave this to us.

We’re not playing and we will not be stopped. We will go to the end of the world to find this smile and put it back to his face. 

Even if it means Starship will burn in a big ass bonfire. 

[modestmuses-a]

the positive & negative :    mun & muse  /  fill out & repost .

EKKO

MY MUSE IS :    canon  /  oc  /  au  /  slightly canon - divergent / fandomless / complicated 

i try to stay mostly close to ekko’s canon but i also have a fuckton of aus for him including some real self-indulgent bullshit that isn’t even on his verses page. if you want me to make a new au for ekko to fit him into a different skin line or something, i’ll probably do it tbh.

IS YOUR CHARACTER POPULAR IN THE FANDOM ?    YES  /  NO / I DON’T KNOW 

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED HOT™ IN THE FANDOM ?  YES /  NO  /  IDK

for better or worse. when “giants” first came out, i had more ekko smut on my dash than i ever cared to see.

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED STRONG IN THE FANDOM ? YES  /  NO  /  IDK

i can tell you what i think of ekko’s strength, and i can tell you that... it isn’t much. he’s not the most adept fighter in the series, and most of the time, he wins fights by cheesing them with time travel. in my thread with @uncaged-bloodhunter​ ekko would be DEAD four times over by now if not for the zero drive.

however, i haven’t seen much fandom opinion about his strength? i’m going to go out on a limb and say most people probably don’t find him very strong bc? i don’t see a lot of people saying that but. who knows.

ARE THEY UNDERRATED ?   YES  /  NO  /  IDK

canon-wise, fandom-wise, and on this blog, ekko gets a lot of attention, which i’m not complaining about. he’s a fav.

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN STORY ? YES  /  NO  /  IDK

he is important around zaun, but considering he won’t LEAVE that place, i doubt we’ll see him achieve much relevance in the bigger overarching conflicts in the league universe anytime soon.

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER ? YES /  NO  /  IDK

if league did have a main character, i’m sure he would never meet them unless they were from piltover or zaun lol

ARE THEY WIDELY KNOWN IN THEIR WORLD ?   YES  /  NO  /  IDK

around piltover/zaun, all the academics are trying to get him to sit down with them, but overall? nah. if he went anywhere other than piltover or zaun, they would have no fucking idea who he was.

HOW’S THEIR REPUTATION ?    GOOD  /  BAD  /  NEUTRAL

pilties HATE him! click to find out why!

no, but in seriousness, around zaun, his reputation is quite good as one of the few decent souls in the city. but in piltover, he’s just another thuggish troublemaker on a spree of petty crimes, as if zaun doesn’t already have enough of those...

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON ?

shrugs. i don’t actively think about adhering to canon with every thread i write, of course, but i do think i have a pretty good handle on his character so.

SELL YOUR MUSE !( try to list everything that makes your muse interesting to make them spicy for your mutuals ) 

he is a nice sweet boy who WILL adopt every single child and will go out of his way to help those in need. he also has plenty of spunk and a real get-up-and-go kind of personality, he’s not the kind of person who likes just “hanging around” so he’s a perfect companion for someone who likes to get out and adventure as long as you don’t go outside of piltover/zaun. he’s very loyal and will stick up for his friends, even when it would be more convenient to sell them out. and of course, he’s willing to call authority figures out on their bullshit and doesn’t sit back and passively watch injustices happen.

NOW THE OPPOSITE !(  list everything why your muse could not be so interesting . even if you may not agree. what does the fandom perhaps think ?  )

he’s got abandonment issues up to HERE, and because of that, he is c l i n g y. if he gets attached to you in any way, he will NOT let you go. he will NOT get over you. he will probably keep trying to worm his way back into your life for months or YEARS because he just doesn’t know how to deal with being left.

furthermore, he represses every negative emotion he has ever felt because he feels like his problems are trivial compared to other people’s so he bottles that shit right on up like cheap cough-syrup-tastin’ whiskey. he holds onto a LOT of resentment - at piltover, at the chembarons, at himself, at the world - and because he doesn’t allow himself to DO anything with said resentment, he’s a ticking time bomb (pun fully intended). i do have... timelines... where all that internalized hostility blows up in a really messy way. and by messy, i mean bloody.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE ? 

around the time i first started getting into league, a bitch was going through it. we were pretty destitute and received an eviction notice, and i had to work my ass off to keep us from losing our apartment. it was a very depressing time for everyone involved. but then i found ekko, this boy who had even less than i did but made the most of it, who always found some way to make the day better. writing him became very cathartic for me because it allowed me to take something positive away from what was one of the worst years of my life.

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING ? 

punk rock music, haha! especially that of billy talent. their whole dead silence album is pretty ekko, but they have a lot of bangers that remind me of him scattered across all their albums. we deserved punk rock ekko and instead we got fucking true damage because riot didn’t wanna get political, i guess. smh.

some more personal questions for the mun . give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters , which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not .

DO YOU THINK YOU GIVE YOUR CHARACTER JUSTICE ?   YES  /  NO  /  IDK                      

DO YOU FREQUENTLY WRITE HEADCANONS ? YES /  NO  /  IDK

i kind of only address headcanons as they come up. very occasionally i will drop a few for a new muse just so that people get a better feel for who they are before writing them but... yeah written headcanons are pretty few and far between here. it’s really not even worth me having a headcanon banner lmao

DO YOU SOMETIMES WRITE DRABBLES ?    YES  /  NO  /  IDK

i would like to, but writing my replies here kind of sucks up most of my time!

DO YOU THINK A LOT ABOUT YOUR MUSE DURING THE DAY ? YES /  NO  /  IDK

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR PORTRAYAL ? YES  /  NO  /  IDK

too��confident some might say, but those people would be silly fools

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR WRITING ?   YES  /  NO  /  IDK  

ARE YOU A SENSITIVE PERSON ?   YES /  NO  /  IDK

sometimes i get anxiety about stupid shit but i try and often fail to be secure

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL ?

nope, i ain’t changing a thing. i’m the best ekko on this site, and you are free to disagree with that because everyone is entitled to their wrong opinion, but my askbox is closed to those kinds of complaints. :)

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS , WHICH HELP YOU TO EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER ?

yeah, sure, although i understand why people don’t send them because i often draw blanks on what to send without somebody reblogging a headcanon meme or something. if you just reblog “send my character questions on anon!” i’m probably not gonna do it bc i have no idea what kinds of questions would even be relevant or helpful for you.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS , DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY

nah, everyone can do what they want. i usually won’t follow people if i don’t agree with their headcanons, but i’m not about to get all up in somebody’s business about it.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL , HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT ?

again, wrong opinion, but you’re allowed to have it and you’re also allowed to SMASH that unfollow button.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER , HOW DO YOU TAKE IT ?

who hates ekko of all people, first of all? but second of all, i don’t care. just don’t get in my dms about it ‘cause i’ll block you. i’m not really interested in somebody bashing one of my muses to my face.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS ?

shrugs. yeah, i guess. i usually leave other people’s grammatical errors alone as long as i can read their stuff.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN ?

yeah i think so. i try to be, anyway. i like to make ooc friendships bc i find it way more satisfying and easy to write with friends. although i sound a little bitchy in parts of this, it’s mostly jokes for exaggeration effects.

tagged by: @bikmui

tagging: @storiestotell (akutagawa), @bystcrdust, @dimensionaljumper (for eliza ‘cause i always send stuff for scribe lol)

[karliesbuzzcut]

When art really speaks to you, pt. 2: probably just a coincidence but idk

Disclaimer: all these theories are rabbit holes on their own, so trying to explain them in a couple of paragraphs is, automatically, doing them a disservice. Especially since I’m only going to be primarily addressing the part of the theory that focuses on the artist communicating with their public through their work.

Since I’ve already dedicated paragraphs to the introduction in part 1, let’s just jump into it.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s fuckton of theories.

Let’s start with the daddy of all conspiracies. After all, not many can gloat about their reachings becoming a movie starring Tom Hanks.

The thing with Da Vinci’s conspiracies is that there are so many of them, and they range from “maybe this is also a painting made by Da Vinci but he wasn’t credited because of reasons” to ALIENS. Which, I think, shows how different our interpretations of art can be, and how much it depends on an already established worldview.

But the most interesting part isn’t the conclusions, but how people look for clues. For example, just like people say Taylor Swift is obsessed with numbers or oranges (depending who you ask, I guess), Da Vinci was supposedly a big fan of reflections. So, if you want to decode his paintings you must mirror them... and then move then a little bit... there you go, you’ve just found yourself an alien...! Or a daemon...! Or someone wearing a funny hat! And that’s totally what he wanted us to find, right? Why else would he had shown any sort of interest in reflections if he didn’t want us to reflect everything!!

Shakespeare is an illusion... kinda, but yeah.

Personally, I think Kaylors would love to dig into this one. Sure, it doesn’t have many lesbians playing political spies. But it does involve a lot of literature analysis. Just like Kaylors don’t think a heterosexual woman could’ve written Taylor’s songs; some people (referred as anti-Stratfordians, thank you very much) don’t think someone from a lower class could’ve written Shakespeare’s plays. 

Here’s the tea... the very cold tea: because Shakespeare was the son of a glover, anti-Stratfordians say he couldn’t have had the knowledge to write his plays. They, instead, come up with a list of “more suitable” writers that could’ve worked together. But they decided to keep their identities a secret because being a play writer, at that time, wasn’t respectable. Here, we will start noticing a trend with Conspiracy Theories: society, as a whole, can’t handle the truth, only a selected few. That’s where Francis Bacon comes in.

Francis Bacon was a very smart dude. He, also, worked for the state - giving him the credentials to be worthy of writing Shakespeare calibre plays. And also, also, he developed a method to conceal messages in the presentation of a text. To be able to do this, you would need to use two typefaces. Guess what has more than one typeface? Shakespeare’s plays.

I have to say - while I don’t believe either theory we have seen, they are somewhat understandable. We barely know anything about Shakespeare and Da Vinci beyond their work, so it’s normal that people are trying to figure out who they were; what did they believed in; where did they get all of their knowledge. We like theorising about the answers to these questions, knowing we’ll never get a confirmed truth. Not so the case with our next conspiracy...

Lewis Carroll was Jack the Ripper - someone had to be, right?

Now, allow me to fangirl all over this one. It combines my interests for conspiracy theories, true crime and pop-culture.

I’m assuming everyone here knows about Jack the Ripper: a serial killer who murdered at least 5 people (mainly prostitutes) in London, between the years 1888 and 1891. Well, someone looked at this and thought “you know what this murder-mystery is missing? Famous people”. Well, this theory says that the author of Alice in Wonderland did it He was the only celebrity living nearby at the time of the killings, so... 🤷‍♀️

This becomes a case of “I have already made up my mind about this issue, so I’m going to go ahead and search for proof that confirms it”. Authors and, now, internet sleuths went through his books, selected this random-ass excerpt from the nursery version of Alice and decided it was an anagram. And a crappy one at that. Supposedly, if you arrange the letters you get a detailed and gruesome confession. You, however, have to take away some letter and add others. Listen, I’m not an English major, but I’ve heard that’s cheating.

This theory also has that characteristic we mentioned: the “I don’t want to admit it out loud, so I’m going to come up with convoluted ways for my audience to figure it out” - which almost borders on psychotic behaviour. But at least it, somewhat, works with the serial killer narrative, you know? Not very much with Taylor, a woman who simply wants to chill with her girlfriend.

The moon landing was fake and directed by Stanley Kubrick.

I’m not going to dig into the moon landing conspiracy, this post is going to be long enough already. Just know that, when the USA government was planning to fake the whole thing, they had just watched ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and they were all like “that’s so cool! That’s how we want our fake moon landing to look!” So they contacted its director, Kubrick.

According to the theory, Kubrick felt really guilty afterwards but he couldn’t say anything about it because he signed an NDA? it would be dangerous, I guess. So he did the same thing Taylor would do decades later: he “spelled it out” for us on his work, under the excuse of “I didn’t explicitly said it, did I? My most intelligent and attractive fans just happened to figure it out for themselves”. 

The movie ‘The Shinning’ has been analysed to shreds. Think ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ music video, but 2 hours and 26 minutes instead. There are many theories about its underlying theme, but we’re only focusing on the moon landing one. The biggest piece of evidence, according to believers, comes from that famous scene in the hallway. Basically, the kid, Danny, is on the floor playing and wearing an Apollo 11 sweater. He stands up = the rocket launches. He walks to Room N.237. Which is almost an anagram for MOON - but actually, a perfect anagram for MORON - I didn’t come up with that joke, I’m just sharing it. Anyway. In the book, the room number is 217 but Kubrick changed it to 237 because there are 237,000 miles between the Earth and the Moon... except that’s not exactly true, but this is their Kissgate, you see? 

“Paul is Dead” aka “the granddaddy of Kaylor is Real”

Now, this is THE conspiracy theory. Kaylors would love to have the amount of evidence this theory has. Give them 50 years, they’ll get there. 

Our story starts in 1966, Paul McCartney dies in a car accident. The British Government panics, “this will drive our teenagers into a massive suicide!” So they cover it up. They find this guy who looks like Paul and hire him to replace the original. 

You might’ve only heard about those stores where pop-stars get their beards. But there’s also a branch that focuses on celebrity look-a-likes.

The rest of The Beatles went along with it (because that’s how these artists seem to operate, they’re always the victims of their circumstances) but they did not like it. So - you guessed it - they used their music, artwork, photo-shoots, etc. to communicate the truth. Faux-Paul might’ve felt a bit awkward about it, but he’s a nice chap and let the other guys work through their grief. 

Kaylors might have agreed on blue being the colour of breaks up and yellow is for Karlie-Sunshine; but the Paul-truthers concluded white is the colour of heaven, jeans are for gravediggers and black for morticians... oh! And not wearing shoes means you’re dead. Taylor being near a door symbolises her leaving the closet; Paul being near an open trunk symbolises him being in a coffin. Is the letter K, for Karlie, surrounding Taylor? Well, there’s a 28IF in the plaques of a car, for Paul being 28 IF he hadn’t died. People hear a phantasmagorical “she” in ‘Call It What You Want’; just like people heard “I buried Paul” in ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

If you have never looked up this theory, I seriously recommend it. There are so many parallels with Kaylor. Here’s a 30 minute video, if you’re interested. It summarises the theory neatly while discussing the effects that these, seemingly innocent, conspiracies have on the way we absorb information.

Paul might be dead but 2pac is very much alive.

If I haven’t made it clear by now, I think it’s very deceptive to use a musician’s lyrics to back up your alternate version of events. As confessional as these verses can be, they’re still a form of art. Which, in terms of music lyrics, they need to follow certain parameters, as well as a desired sound. And, as many other forms of art, they might focus a bit more on transmitting a feeling, rather than an accurate portrayal of reality.

Why am I stopping to say all of this now? Well, because this specific theory relies a lot on Tupac’s lyrics.

A bit of context: In 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot 4 times while at a stoplight. He died from his injuries days later. While there are theories, to this day, no one knows who killed him. Unless you believe one of those theories, which claims no one did.

The believers of this theory cite Tupac’s lyrics to argue that he was explicitly telling his fans that he was going to fake his own death. Here are two examples:

I’ve been shot and murdered, can’t tell you how it happened word for word but best believe that n*****’ gonna get what they deserve. - Richie Rich’s N***** Done Change

I heard rumours that I died murdered in cold blood, traumatised pictures of me in my final states — you know mama cried. But that was fiction, some coward got the story twisted - Aint’ Hard 2 Find

Just like anti-Kaylors don’t necessarily oppose the idea of Taylor being gay; I bet the “antis” of this theory aren’t happy Tupac died and weren’t against his existence on the first place. It’s more of an argument about confusing your feelings with facts, just because they can be more comforting or exciting.

“Avril Lavigne is dead”... or “every artist you think is alive is, actually, dead and, the ones you think are dead, aren’t” I guess.

After everything we have seen, this one isn’t that interesting. The real Avril died in 2003, right after her first album. Her record label bought a new one. Proof? She says ‘dead’ in ‘My Happy Ending’, blah, blah. A poor man’s “Paul is Dead”.

I added it, mainly for the lulz, after the last entry, I needed them. But also because it all started with a blog. What’s hilarious is that the guy who created it admitted he only did it to show how gullible people are but, at that point, he had already convinced people about. The conspirators didn’t need him anymore. So they discarded him but not the Theory... which just reminds me a little too much of how TCG, HBH, Jennyboom &co. have been excommunicated from the Church of Kaylor.

Beyonce and Jay Z are members of the sexy sexy Illuminati.

I did not save the best for last. But maybe I’m just biased because the Illuminati theory bores me to death. However, if you allow me a bit of social criticism... remember how the Shakespeare Conspiracy started because a bunch of classicist people didn’t believe a lower class citizen could write such good plays? I think this one has a bit of that. I’d bet my life that this one started when a bunch of white dudes got super uncomfortable by black people being so talented and earning their successful.

What this Conspiracy shows, too, is the amplifying effect the internet has had on the proliferation of such theories. Most of the conspiracies I’ve mentioned were huge... but how were you supposed to communicate your ideas and add to the old ones, before the internet? You could publish a book. Talk about it at parties. And, at some point, there were internet forums but, still, you can’t compare that to how widespread Social Media is nowadays. 

Today, we can watch someone ramble for 2 hours on YouTube about how Beyonce looks like a robot if you watch Single Ladies in reverse; read someone’s dissertation of ‘Apeshit’; or spend all night looking at those pictures where someone has drawn a red circle around anything that resembles a triangle. 

It might look like a lot of evidence but that’s only because there are a lot of people very attached to this theory. Wanting - for whatever reason - for it to be true (perhaps because it would confirm that their fears about the world were well founded). And all those dozens or hundredths of people were working together to form as many patterns as possible.

Unfortunately we are going to keep talking about the Illuminati in Part 3 but also about Taylor, so that should be nice. Because - to the surprise of absolutely no one - there’s a bunch of people who also think they understand Taylor better than the rest. That they have figured out her secret codes and her ultimate message. Only, not all of those theories involve lesbian supermodels, so they aren’t as popular on Tumblr.

[local-triggerhead]

Promare Review [Spoilers]

OK, folks, roughly 24 hrs ago, I just finished watching Promare. This is my first experience of watching an anime at the cinema, and it. was. EPIC. I had been waiting for this for months.

Let’s go into the bad parts first. The plot was...average for Trigger’s standards. There wasn’t anything that makes it stand out from other Trigger shows. The movie didn’t have enough time to fully flesh out its world-building and develop its characters. I found that all of them don’t have enough depth, though they have pretty good motivations for their actions. In terms of world-building, we got this quick info dump before the final battle for why this whole Burnish thing happened in the first place. I’m not a fan of info dump, it was kinda boring and cliche. There was also a lack of strategies and planning. It’s mostly based on luck and Galo trying to punch harder if punching doesn’t work. The most (and only) thought out move is Heris blowing up the core. Kray being the main villain is completely predictable. They gave that away in the trailers they show us (as you probably have seen me complaining). In fact, I think Trigger knows that, that’s why they revealed his true colours so early into the movie.

The good parts of the movie are mostly from the cinematic experience it gives. The amazing, wacked up animation of Trigger on the big screen, plus Hiroyuki Sawano’s music blasting to your ears, is FUCKING. WILD. I was hyped up so much, I had to resist the urge to scream the entire time. Of course, there were a fuckton of references to their past shows, and I love it. Being there among an audience really enhances your experience. When the awesome parts come, people clap and cheer, and you do too. When the funny parts come, people laugh, and you do too. I always love the fact that Trigger is completely aware of what they’re doing. Like when Galo, Aina and Lio just happened to find the dead professor’s secret lab, who just happened to develop a mech that they need. I was thinking, “Well, that’s convenient” when there it is, the guy named his mech ‘Deus Ex Machina’. Everyone was laughing their ass off. Trigger turned an otherwise very cliche part into the most hilarious scene in the movie.

Another memorable part is Galo’s life-saving kiss scene. Some people was groaning prior to it because we all knew what was gonna happen, then people kinda laughed, then the crowd slowly went wild when it happened. Everyone was clapping and cheering. For a non-romantic kiss scene, it has no business of being that long and that good. It’s probably one of the best kiss scene I’ve ever seen in anime, and this is, I think, the first time Trigger ever makes a kiss scene. Trigger, you better start making more romance anime now. Bitch can’t tease me like this.

Some other great minor moments include Galo’s energy being, “MMMMM YEAHHHH can’t really fight in this fugly robot”, and the final scene with Kray just sitting there. I can get how he felt. The plan that he had worked on for a big part of his life was ruined completely. It was hopeless for him so he wasn’t being all aggressive to Galo and Lio anymore, because it was useless. He just sat there and accepted it. We’re not really sure if he’s a redeemed villain or not. I hope that they will still charge him for his crimes.

Welp, that’s all. If you haven’t watched Promare, then why are you reading this then you should. For me, it worth every penny I paid.

[spoofenshmirtz]

hi i am officially back on my bullshit because i was made aware of some misunderstandings regarding akechi and his relationship with [that bastard, redacted for spoilers’ sake] so i am here to provide a timeline as close to accurate as i can get with the little information we have! obviously a fuckton of p5 spoilers under the cut but here i goddamned GO

1. Goro Akechi is born the illegitimate child of Masayoshi Shido and an unnamed mother. Shido discards the both of them before Akechi is born, leaving Akechi’s mother alone with a child born out of wedlock.

2. Akechi’s mother kills herself because of how she’s treated after Akechi’s born. It can be assumed that she killed herself while Akechi was still young, and also that her depression was bad enough that she would not be able to provide Akechi with the emotional intimacy and warmth he would need to develop a deep, true sense of trust and self-worth. The way Akechi speaks of his mother in the game seems to indicate that he has little memory of her at all, further hinting at her dying while he was still very young.

3. Akechi is put in the care of the Japanese foster system, which is apparently quite atrocious and sets him up with family after family, never providing him with a stable connection or family.

3.5. This is all pure speculation on my part, but I assume Akechi was forced to grow up to value himself only by how useful he can be to the people around him, in particular to the adults who are supposed to take care of him. He can’t trust anyone to care for him unconditionally and is forced to essentially grow up much too fast. He probably starts crafting his charming, likable act at an early age to impress adults and keep himself cared for, and can’t afford making mistakes as that will get him discarded time and time again.

4. Shido is made aware of the cognitive world, in particular of the research Wakaba Isshiki is involved with. This part is IMPORTANT, because Shido was ALREADY AWARE of the Metaverse before Akechi approached him. The reason Sojiro Sakura is so hostile towards Shido is because he knew of Shido’s attempts to get at Wakaba’s research while she was still alive.

5. Akechi awakens to the powers of Persona. We have no information on the specifics behind his awakening, but Shadow Shido’s account regarding Akechi saying that he helped Akechi fully develop his powers hints towards a similar situation as the one surrounding Haru, where she was partially awakened to a weak Persona and only fully awakened to it once her resolve had solidified. One can assume that the Meta-Nav is installed on Akechi’s phone at this same time, and that Akechi at this point has full access to the Metaverse; however, he receives no guidance whatsoever and probably only sees his powers as something for him to gain the upper hand against Shido. It’s a special power he doesn’t assume anyone else holds, at this point, and he decides to use it for his own advantage in a convoluted scheme for revenge and betrayal. He’s assumed to be around 14-15 years old at this point.

6. Akechi approaches Shido with his new powers, promising he can use them to his advantage. Shido only accepts the offer because he already KNOWS of the cognitive world; otherwise, Akechi would likely only be discarded as a delusional kid. Shadow Shido’s account regarding Akechi leads me to believe that Akechi wasn’t even fully awakened to his powers at this point - kind of a premature move on his part, I believe, but then again he couldn’t have known how his powers would develop, either - and that Shido helped strengthen Akechi’s resolve in order to make him useful. Seeing as Akechi is fueled by hate and anger towards Shido, it’s easy to assume that Shido - fully aware of what he was doing - said or did something to piss Akechi off to the point where his desire for revenge got strong enough to fully awaken his Persona. Oh, and Shido is fully aware of Akechi possibly being his own son out for revenge. What a great family!

7. This is part speculation, again, but I believe Shido orders Akechi to take out Wakaba as his first assignment. I’ve seen some people argue that we can’t know that Akechi was the one who killed Wakaba, but I’m also pretty sure Akechi is the only Metaverse hitman under Shido’s employment, hence why he’s the only one who could have done it. Akechi thus causes a mental shutdown in Wakaba, coincidentally setting her up to fall into the street and get hit by a car, killing her while her daughter Futaba watches. After Wakaba’s death, Shido effectively steals all her research and deletes all accounts of it anywhere that isn’t in his grasp. This is done to give himself complete control over the Metaverse and to keep its existence out of everyone else’s knowledge. By having his own men be the only people aware of its existence, he can use it to his advantage without having to worry that anyone would find him out. I won’t go into whether or not Akechi knew Wakaba would die, but I will argue that he didn’t believe it would matter either way; Akechi is willing to kill if necessary to reach his goal.

7.5. Shido, ever the bastard, sets Futaba up to believe she killed her own mother by pressuring her to the point where she would kill herself. I really, truly can’t possibly comprehend why this would be a necessary step, but I suppose he realized that a child of Wakaba’s would be dangerous to let loose, especially after such a fishy death, and that the only way to pacify her would be through weighing her down with guilt over her own mother’s death. Wow, I really hate that guy.

8. Akechi is employed as Shido’s professional Metaverse hitman. Shido, having connections with other men of power, assigns Akechi with hits that will benefit both himself and his clients, including (but not limited to) Kunikazu Okumura. Furthermore, Shido, aware of Akechi’s background, employs nasty manipulation tactics to keep Akechi in his grasp by balancing out praise for jobs well done and threats; and Akechi, already starved for care and affection because of his upbringing (or lack thereof), totally eats it up. It’s likely that he harbors very complicated feelings towards his father, both wanting him to acknowledge him and wanting to get revenge on him.

8.5. This is, again, part speculation but I believe that Akechi also uses his assignments to create crimes only he can solve. I don’t know where his idea of becoming a detective in the public eye stems from, but it’s likely that it’s in part inspired by Naoto Shirogane’s popularity as the first Detective Prince. Akechi thus uses his powers both to complete the assignments given to him by Shido, taking out people who are in the way of Shido’s or his clients’ goals, and to create crimes that only he, the person who set them up, can solve. This not only earns him praise from others than Shido, but also makes him appear competent and useful even to those who are not aware of the Metaverse. I also don’t know at what point Akechi really started to act like a detective, if he was already striving towards it before awakening to his powers of Persona or if it was an idea he had after realizing he could use the Metaverse to his own advantage as well, but it’s a fact that that’s where he ends up. I’ve seen some arguing that his position as a detective could make him more approachable for clients, but I’m also led to believe that all his assignments are given to him personally by Shido; thus, his detective act is likely done by his own accord.

9. Enter the Phantom Thieves. Akechi, likely aware that all his hard work will soon come to fruition as trust in the government has waned and Shido is set to become the next Prime Minister, probably suspects that the Metaverse has been in use by others by the time Ichiryusai Madarame confesses, seeing as it’s quite a drastic change of heart the man has gone through. Around the same time, he happens to stumble upon Akira Kurusu and forms a sort of friendship with him; I could go more in-depth regarding that whole situation, about how Akira was likely aware of Akechi knowing of the Metaverse due to the whole pancake slip-up, but that’s not exactly related to Shido so I’ll leave it be for now.

10. At the time Junya Kaneshiro confesses, I believe Akechi is fully convinced that the Phantom Thieves are utilizing the Metaverse, the one thing he believed himself to have full control over. This is when Shido’s group decides to bait and frame the Phantom Thieves, setting up the fake Medjed threat to both divert attention away from all their other shady dealings, such as their messing with the Phansite, and to give them worldwide publicity. I don’t know at what point Akechi suspects Akira’s group of being the Phantom Thieves, but it’s likely that the “coincidental” meeting at the Shibuya subway station at least confirms some suspicions he may have towards them.

10.5. Unknown to Shido’s group, their Medjed threat causes the Phantom Thieves to clear Futaba Sakura’s heart, setting the blood relative of Wakaba Isshiki free to utilize her brains, free of guilt. They couldn’t have foreseen that she would approach the Phantom Thieves to steal her heart, meaning she’s likely an unforeseen factor in their schemes and one of the biggest mistakes they could have made, since her help is crucial to the rest of the Phantom Thieves’ actions. Without her, everything else would have gone off without a hitch, and I’m sure Akechi’s surprised to see her up and functioning after Medjed has been taken down, when he visits Leblanc for the first time.

10.5.5. Worth mentioning is the hit on the Shujin Academy principal, who is killed while the real Phantom Thieves are out of the country. It’s likely this hit has a double purpose, seeing as it’s both done to remove someone who may leak information about them to the police, and it may set the real Phantom Thieves on edge. I don’t know if it’s coincidence that it takes place while the real Phantom Thieves are in Hawaii or not.

11. Shido’s group successfully sets up Okumura to be killed and frames the Phantom Thieves for it by having Akechi commit the deed at the time when Okumura’s Treasure is stolen. At the same time, Akechi gathers blackmail material to infiltrate their group. It can be mentioned that this is, for certain, Shido’s plan set in motion, seeing as conversations with the SIU Director confirm that the plan was seemingly too diabolical to have come from Akechi himself. This also confirms that the SIU Director is part of Shido’s innermost group, seeing as he seems to be aware of Akechi’s role in the whole game.

11.5. After Okumura’s death, Akechi publicly announces his hiding from the public eye at the same time that he’s set to perform a number of incidents to frame the Phantom Thieves. It’s unknown whether these incidents have more purpose than appearing as committed by the Phantom Thieves, but they’re definitely performed with the purpose of changing public perception of them for the worse.

12. Akechi infiltrates the Phantom Thieves and acts alongside them in order to change Sae Niijima’s heart - or so he leads them to believe. Akechi’s scheme is to capture their leader, Akira Kurusu, and have him assassinated inside the police station, likely the only real world assassination he is ever set up to perform. Unknown to himself, however, he is set up by the Phantom Thieves - who have been aware of his schemes for quite some time - and he’s lead to believe that the hit was successful and that the influence of the Phantom Thieves is no more. He thus believes all obstacles in his way have been removed and that his goal, of publicly humiliating Shido by making his relation to him public, is finally within his grasp. However...

13. ... the leader of the Phantom Thieves is still alive, the Phantom Thieves are still active and they target Shido next, rushing through his palace to defeat him. The subtle changes in Shido’s cognition cause him to request hits on anyone who could be seen as a liability, confirming Akechi’s suspicions that he has been deceived that he begins harboring after realizing the significance of the phone Sae showed him as he was on his way to assassinate Akira.

14. Akechi enters Shido’s palace, seeks out the Phantom Thieves, reveals his schemes to them and fights them in a fit of rage, upset over being used for their schemes and angry that the obstacle in his way is still present even after he believed that he had removed it. After Akechi has been thoroughly beaten, the Phantom Thieves reach their hands out to him for a final time, offering him the chance to join them in taking down Shido and having him confess his crimes, which would likely be at least as big of a humiliation as his relation to Akechi would have been. Akechi is reluctant, seeing as he’d rather the current Shido feels the humiliation rather than the empty shell of guilt the previous Phantom Thief targets had become, and that hesitance is what leads to...

15. ... Shido’s cognition of Akechi entering the scene and proving, once and for all, that Akechi never had the upper hand, and never had the chance to get the upper hand on Shido. Shido, aware of Akechi’s background and need for praise, has been manipulating Akechi this whole time only to “get rid of him” as soon as Shido has finally risen to power and has the whole of Japan in his grasp. Akechi has thus committed various heinous deeds in the name of a goal he was never set to reach, and realizing this, he decides that ending his own life to give the Phantom Thieves the chance to escape and change his father’s heart is the only way he can atone for his sins. Akechi thus “dies” in the depths of his father’s Palace, taking out Shido’s cognition of him in the process, allowing the Phantom Thieves the chance to escape and finish their job.

16. Shido’s Shadow later confirms that he always suspected that Akechi was his illegitimate son out for revenge, likely aware that his mother must have killed herself as well. He also confirms that Akechi’s powers only fully manifested under Shido’s “care” and that he was always going to get rid of Akechi once he had risen to power.

jesus i only started this because i got pissed that someone thought shido wasn’t aware of the metaverse before akechi approached him. if anything, shido had more knowledge on the metaverse despite never visiting it than akechi ever did, seeing as shido got himself access to wakaba’s research by having akechi kill her. shido would’ve never given akechi a chance if he didn’t believe in the cognitive world in the first place. you really think a dude with as much paranoia as that bastard would’ve listened to a literal kid approaching him and telling him he can use mythical beings to beat the crap out of shadows in a parallel dimension? really?

anyway i tried to keep this timeline as accurate as possible, it’s totally possible that i’ve missed something significant or i’ve put some things in the wrong order - particularly regarding everything that happens before the events of the game itself - but this is at least how i’ve been led to believe things happen. the most important points in this, i think, is that:

a) shido knew of the metaverse before akechi approached him,

b) akechi’s powers weren’t fully formed until after he had approached shido, and

c) everything akechi did has a purpose.

thanks for coming to my TED talk

[vacueabissi]

6. most hated (or love to hate or so bad it's good) song in your native language?

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

(alternatively, how is the quality of your language when presented in American media? Does it make sense or are they talking completely nonsense?)

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

Things in parentheses added by me..!

Hey, thank you!!!

6. most hated (or love to hate or so bad it's good) song in your native language?

Let me think... probably I Nani by Richard Benson. It’s pure trash and I hate it but sometimes I catch myself singing it...

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

Italy has some very good movies that I cherish and love, but generally, we almost always have bad comedy movies that I’d rather die than watch again... When it comes to TV shows, I realized we have a fuckton of detective/thriller shows, mostly good ones.

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

Gotta be cliche here, I take pride in my country’s artistic culture. Italy has had a lot of amazing artists throughout history. But when it comes to Italians... I am ashamed of my country racist and queerphobic views, not even mentioning our issue with organized crimes...

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

We get a lot of “representation” in US media, although most are stereotyped. I don’t care much, the whole Pizza Pasta and Mafia shit are, unfortunately true... But I hate how USAmericans make fun of us when we try and speak about the problem that Mafia is. It stems from ignorance, but it hurts nonetheless.

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

Not to my knowledge... My family heritage is very white...

Non-Us Ask Game

[arabellaflynn]

It is a bizarre fact of life that, if you click on a documentary on YouTube and let it autoplay through for long enough, it will eventually try to serve up a television program about a fat person. I have no idea why this is, other than "because internet". It's not exactly my favorite sort of reality TV pap -- I watch lurid true crime shows, myself -- but I do occasionally let it run through out of sheer curiosity. I categorically refuse to get into any fat acceptance/Health At Any Size discussions here, except to comment that, while I am absolutely positive that fat people are people and should be treated as such, I am getting less and less sure about reality TV producers. The two most common thoughts I have while watching these things are, "Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to put this on the air?" and "Is it possible to reach backwards through space and time to punch the insensitive jackass presenting this program?" The third thing I think, assuming I ever manage to get past the first two, is, "There are people who feel better when they eat? That is un-fucking-fair." It is unfair in the same way that being immune to the analgesic effects of opioids is unfair. The way being immune to THC is unfair. The same way it's unfair that drinking away a panic attack doesn't work. That α- and β-blockers are too dangerous to use for calming down. That stimulants are so teeth-grindingly unpleasant. That plowing along until I end up hurting myself only hurts, and 'runner's high' or 'endorphine rushes' might as well be the Babylonian sirrush for all the evidence I have ever found of their existence. That fucking bubble baths, supposedly the epitome of selfish relaxation, just make me miserably overheated. It's unfair in one of those terrible ways that is not, and cannot be, anyone's fault, but produces consequences which I have to deal with anyway, day in and day out. The fact is, people hold onto all of these "sinful", "self-indulgent" vices even -- or perhaps especially -- when it's terrible for their bodies because whatever thing they've hit on made them feel, however briefly, right. Sarah Hepola, for one, describes discovering alcohol in her memoirs as a transcendental experience, one that for a few short hours made her feel like she thought she should have felt all the time: Confident, charming, free of worry, able to move without fighting herself. Anorexics and bulimics turn to restriction or binging/purging because it gives them a feeling of control and accomplishment, a small triumph in what they otherwise perceive as the unforgiving chaos of their lives. Nothing has ever made me feel that way. Nothing. Ever. Not just chemicals; I also say that about things like having spiritual experiences as part of a church group, or being swept up in the emotional tsunami of a rally (or a riot). I've never experienced it. I know I say things like "this stuff is fucking brilliant" about drugs like alprazolam, but what I mean by that isn't, "this substance makes me feel as if I am the best possible me when it is swirling around in my bloodstream". I mean, "this substance takes a patently unlivable situation and converts it into a series of slightly smaller problems, which I can schedule, work around, or simply brute-force ignore." The effects of whatever drug I'm taking aren't better than 'normal'. They're better than 'non-functional'. A metric fuckton of things are better than 'non-functional', and I've tried a fuckton-factorial of things in an effort to sift out the ones that aren't completely useless. I sometimes envy people who 'eat their feelings'. One presumes they do this because it works, at least for a little while. I'd love it if I could fix myself temporarily with, for instance, cake. It might not be great to do that constantly, but just a few hours of normal function can make a big difference. A few minutes, sometimes. The sequelae may make you unhappy later, I suppose. But I don't even get to make that choice -- I can't trade 'super good right now' for 'way less good later', because I have honestly never found anything that can bring me up from 'not good right now' to anything better than 'still not good but now in more predictable and therefore manageable ways'. from Blogger http://ift.tt/2k0OEe4 via IFTTT -------------------- Enjoy my writing? Consider becoming a Patron, subscribing via Kindle, or just toss a little something in my tip jar. Thanks!

[spoofenshmirtz]

do you ever see a post so stupid you have to physically restrain yourself from reblogging it

instead i’m gonna deconstruct it and point out all the ways it’s wrong under a readmore to try to keep at least an ounce of dignity but anyway, p5 spoilers and akechi discussion under the cut that i’m writing in a rush because i’m in a hurry!!!!!

Like i know Light went pretty bad pretty quickly but like. He started killing people because he wanted people to like stop doing crimes and to keep “innocent” people from getting hurt.

that is. not even remotely true. “protecting the innocent” would be, at most, a superficial reason for light’s actions; what he specifically wanted was a world where he, himself, would decide who’s allowed to live and who isn’t. he doesn’t even shy away from the fact that he kills those he, personally, deems evil and not worth keeping alive. he never killed for true justice; he killed for his own personal justice, to have control over life or death, to essentially make himself a god. light is a textbook example of a god complex and he never cared about “protecting” people, just removing people who are unnecessary to society from it. he was lost as soon as he started actively using the death note; before then, he may have had an ounce of humanity left inside him, but he slipped very quickly and almost nothing you see him doing throughout the series is done out of justice or chivalry

But Akechi just started killing a bunch of random and some law abiding people to get revenge on his dad.

HE DID NOT KILL PEOPLE ON RANDOM! HE NEVER DID! every mental shutdown and psychotic breakdown he caused (at least up until the point where he stops appearing in public, before sae’s palace, after which there’s a massive influx of incidents that i totally missed in my own playthrough and only realized while watching another’s, and it kinds hurts acknowledging) was done with a specific purpose. the incidents you hear about throughout the game are all requested by shido himself or his clients to further their own personal agendas. the subway incident at the start caused a minister to resign, if i remember correctly - thus furthering shido’s agenda that the current government is useless - and i think at least two different food industry-related incidents take place throughout - thus furthering okumura’s agenda. he does cause incidents that he solves himself, yes, but i’m pretty sure most of those are based on requests made by shido or his clients as well; he just uses the requests as a means to further his own agenda, to appear as a competent and intelligent detective to keep people interested in him.

to back up a bit, i did mention the massive influx of incidents before sae’s palace. those are also done with a purpose, the very specific purpose of framing the phantom thieves - under shido’s orders. very little of what akechi’s done has been under his own accord. he’s been trapped in a downward spiral of murder and deceit ever since the day he approached shido, and the incidents were all made under shido’s orders. most of the murders akechi was involved with were also indirect; the direct action he took was shutting down people’s minds or making them lose their minds, whereas secondary causes usually caused the deaths, such as cars hitting mental shutdown victims (the principal and wakaba) or deaths caused by psychotic breakdown incidents (i remember one specific incident where four died in a car crash where the driver was clearly one of akechi’s psychotiv breakdown victims). okumura is the only one confirmed to have died from the mental shutdown itself, which he only did because he was in poor health.

So like one of these guys is more sympathetic then the other and it’s not the second one.

yeah pardon the french but fuck off if you think the smart dude with a god complex is more sympathetic than the unloved kid who wanted revenge on the man who cursed him into an existence he never asked for. light isn’t even written to appear sympathetic, whereas atlus at least tried to make akechi sympathetic by having the PTs acknowledge his background and express their own sympathy towards him. they did a shit job at it, as evident by the fuckton of posts just like the one i’m commenting on now in a blind fury, but at least they tried.

thanks for coming to my TED talk i wasn’t kidding when i said i was in a hurry but this post got so deep under my skin i had to comment on it immediately BYE