#any chapter 253

[sailorshadzter]

cause sometimes i do write for other fandoms hehe

some hak x yona, for any akatsuki no yona fans out there that might still exist!

(also spoiler alert for chapter 253 so if you arent caught up please read at your OWN RISSSSKKK)

Left alone in the aftermath, she feels numb. 

Hak has come and gone, building a fire, hunting and cooking a rabbit that still sits untouched at her feet, draping his cloak over her shoulders, yet still she cannot move. She cannot bear to take a single step forward, a single step back, a single step anywhere. Not without them. Not without her dragons. Not without her beloved comrades.

She simply cannot believe that this would be the end of them, that after all they’d been through together, after all they had endured, that this truly would be the end. Yona doesn’t know it, but tears are streaking her cheeks, staining the front of her dress as she cries silently, the pain intense. Somehow, this feels even worse than the murder of her own father, of losing her home and the only life she’d ever known. This feels as if a part of her were gone, taken from her without warning, leaving behind a ghost of who she once was. Her dragons had been more than comrades, more than friends, they were a part of her, just as she was a part of them. And to no longer have them at her side, to touch or to hold, to scold or to pester, she simply cannot imagine it. 

It simply cannot be. 

His own pain is evident, the bonds of friendship he’s forged with each of the dragons left behind by the imprints on his heart and mind. He too cannot bear to think that it was all over, that there would be no returning of their beloved friends, their dragon friends, their family. After all they’ve been through together, every fight, every win, every loss, every moment, he can’t begin to imagine that it was all over now. He’s cried his tears, though, and Hak knows he must be strong, perhaps stronger than he’s ever had to be before. 

And so, as he crosses across the campsite, dropping the wood he carries beside the burning fire, simply so he might kneel down in front of the crying girl, putting both of his hands on her shoulders. “Princess…” He speaks softly, gently, but she does not react, as if she cannot even hear him through her anguish. “Princess.” He tries again, stronger; she sucks in a breath, reacting, but not responding. “Yona!” He calls her by her name, something he never does, and it does the trick- she blinks back into the present, her violet eyes swollen and gleaming like the most precious of jewels. “You need rest, sweetheart,” he softens again and she swallows, nodding, having no energy left to argue. 

As he sits back on his hunches, prepared to rise back up, he feels the tug of her hands on the front of his robes. “Don’t go,” she whispers, pained, a fresh wave of tears filling her desperate eyes. Hak’s heart breaks all over again, but he steels himself against the pain, nodding his head. How could he ever leave her side, after all? 

Carefully he navigates her down to the ground, still wrapped in his cloak, shielding her from the world around her with his own body. She squirms against him, burying her face into his chest, one single hand still yet twisting around the fabric of his robes, as if it were the one thing anchoring her to this world. He slides his arm around her slim frame, drawing her in, leaning in simply so he might press a kiss to the top of her head. 

For how long they lay like that, Hak can’t really say, but he knows it doesn’t take long for her breathing to slow, for her grip on his robes to slacken, for her to drift off to what he can only hope is a peaceful sleep. As twilight turns to night, he watches over her sleeping frame, never once moving, intent on not disturbing her slumber, listening to the crackle of the burning embers and her soft breathing. He sighs quietly, peering down at her face, the tear tracks still yet evident on her cheeks, the sight like a knife to his heart. 

It is right then and there that he vows to bring the dragons back to her, so their family might be whole once more. He swears it, on his own life and hers, that she would spend no more nights crying herself to sleep, for they would be a happy family once more, no matter the cost.

He would bring the dragons back and her smile, too, that was his vow.

[wehavecometoanend--maybe]

retraumatization for both of them this chapter <3

[system-to-the-madness]

Cherry Blossom Interventions 🌸 Fushiguro Megumi x Reader

Pairing: Fushiguro Megumi x Reader (can be read as any gender, no pronouns used) Genre: hurt/comfort – angst to fluff Word Count: 3 271 Warnings: SPOILER for up to chapter 253, suicidal tendencies and implications (Megumi), mentions of death and depression Summary: Megumi has drawn back from everyday life completely, so you intervene A/N: Sorry for the late post; life happened. Played volleyball with friends, went to eat sushi, went running with the same friends, went to Maces, and then to a foot Onsen.

Sakura Festival Masterlist - Masterlist

"Why am I here?"

You stopped in your tracks and turned around to Megumi. He was standing underneath a cherry blossom tree when a cool breeze of spring air swept through his hair, carrying pink petals that caught in his black strands. His hair was shorter than it had been in autumn; not by much but the difference was still noticeable. You wondered whether he had cut it to not resemble the version of himself Sukuna had turned him into.

“You know why you are here,” you answered him, ignoring the frown on his brow. “This is an intervention.”

“What kind of intervention,” he asked back, clearly starting to get upset.

“What kind of intervention do you think it is?”

“Whatever it is, I’m not interested.” Megumi was already turning away from you again when you called out for him.

“We are worried,” you told him, almost shouting.

He just scoffed.

“Who is we?”

“Yūji, me, Toge, Maki, Yūta” you replied. “Panda, too, and Ieiri-sensei. Ever since December, ever since that last fight. Do you think we don’t know what's been going on with you? Do you think we don't know you've been skipping therapy and meals. We know you're just holed up in your room the whole day. We know you don't want to be here; you don't want to be with us anymore-”

“Then why can't you let me be?”

His shout made you flinch, but you had faced scarier things than an upset classmate.

“Because we care,” you shouted back. “We care too much to let you ruin your life like this! Don't misunderstand: We are not making light of the situation you were in - you are in. We understand that none of us could ever possibly imagine the things you have gone through, but you cannot ask us to let our friend die, who we fought so hard to save. You can't ask that of us!”

Megumi just rolled his eyes. “And what about what I want? What about the things I want,” he asked.

“For once, you don't get to say in this,” you shook your head. “It's not much we demand of you. We want you to eat properly. We know you haven't. We want you to step outside at least once a week, doesn't have to be long, just sit in the sun for a few minutes. That's all we ask. Or open your window, it's been barricaded since you moved back in in January. And go to your therapy sessions. We know you have them scheduled and we know you've been skipping them. You can't expect to get better if you don't go to these sessions.”

“And what if I don't want to get better?”

“That's not an option. I told you: For once you don't get to say in this.”

Megumi stared at you from between the falling cherry blossom petals that were carried down to the ground by the wind. You could see in his eyes that right now, in this moment in time, he thought he hated you. You just had to hope he didn't actually feel that way. If he did, you did you definitely would have been the wrong choice to have this conversation with him.

It had been quite a debate between the second years, Yūji, and you about who should talk to Megumi. You even considered asking Ieiri-sensei about being the one to talk to him, but in the end, everyone agreed it would be best if it were you. They were convinced you were the one he trusted the most, the one he liked the best. At least those were the others’ arguments. You weren't sure how true they held, now that he stared at you as if he wished you were to drop dead to the floor.

“All right,” Megumi sighed. “I'll oblige to your demands under one condition: Give me one good reason why I should continue fighting. But keep in mind: my mother is dead. My father is dead, killed by the man who raised me, the man who – although he is not my father – is the closest thing I've ever had to one, the man who I had to watch being killed by my own hands. My sister is dead, also killed by me. What do I live for? Give me one good reason.”

You stared back at Megumi watching the hatred in his eyes. It was obvious he didn't believe you had any idea what he was going through.

Truthfully, you didn't. Your situation was nothing like his, and you never had been in a situation like this before nor would you ever be, but that didn't mean you didn't know all the facts he just listed. His father, his mother, his sister, and Gojō-sensei, all the people he ever might have considered family, were gone, along with so many others. And in a large part he blamed himself for it.

It was not his fault, how could it have been his fault, when it had been Sukuna, who had possessed his body. But you supposed having to watch your own body commit such terrors, having to watch as your hands took life after life, unable to interfere, unable to save his friends and family, unable to do anything but watch them all being slaughtered… it wasn’t surprising he blamed himself.

“Gojō’s in a coma, one he might never wake back up from, and it's nobody's fault but mine. Do you really believe I can live in a world like that?”

You wanted to disagree with him, tell him that it was not his fault, that he was not the one to blame, that as long as you all stuck together, there was still hope, but you knew better than to do so. Instead, you started with what he had demanded of you.

“You want me to give you a reason to keep on living,” you asked. “Gojō-sensei is not dead. As you said he's in a coma. Ieiri-sensei has been working on him every day. As far as we know he might wake up any day now.”

Megumi shook his head. “You really believe that,” he asked, “if you’re really believing that, you are more naïve than I believed you to be.” He sounded disappointed.

“Not naïve,” you disagreed. “Hopeful.”

“Same thing.”

“But let's assume for one moment Gojō were to wake back up,” you continued the train of thought before Megumi could derail it again. “Wouldn’t you want to be there? Wouldn’t you want to see him again, talk to him again?”

“You’re dealing in probabilities; probabilities are not good enough. Give me something tangible.”

You blinked. You had really thought he would give in at Gojō. So, what were you to say now?

“A stary sky then,” you offered. “To go star gazing the way we did last summer. On a blanket, out in front of the school, sharing snacks and drinks.”

Megumi scuffed.

“Another sunrise,” you continued. “Pinks and reds and oranges dying the clouds, a new day with new possibilities-”

“New suffering? Not good enough.”

“A puppy’s fur under your fingertips, these sharp, tiny teeth burying in your skin.”

“And what for?” Before you could answer, he kept going. “All my life I’ve tried to form relationships, be close to people I care about, and all my life they left me. One after the other. So what good is another stary sky, another sunrise, a puppy’s fur underneath my fingertips, if I don’t have anyone to share it with? It’s not good enough.”

A part of your mind was still hung up on the thought that it was probably better for Megumi to blame the dead for being dead than himself, but you quickly answered.

“You have us,” you told him, taking a careful step forward. “Maki, Toge, Panda, Yūta.”

His ocean blue eyes glimmered as he fully turned towards you as if he was waiting for something specific.

“You have Yūji.”

His shoulders sacked, and he looked away.

“Not good enough. They’re all gonna leave eventually.”

“I won’t,” you disagreed. “I’m not gonna leave. I made you a promise when we entered Shibuya together, that I’d always be there, and I don’t plan on breaking that promise.”

Megumi shook his head, biting his lips, still not looking at you.

“You’ll be there,” he asked, sounding disbelieving. “For every stary sky, every sunset. Every meal, walk, therapy session.”

“Yes.” Your reply was unwavering.

“You don’t even know what that means,” Megumi sighed, finally looking back up to you, but now he seemed rather sad than angry. As if the scenarios he had painted were what he wanted but were too far out of reach to even attempt to grasp them. “I’m sick. My mind- I’m broken. Something inside my head is broken and I don’t know if it will ever heal again, and if it does, if it heals right. A promise like you’re offering… it wouldn’t just be for the next days or weeks. It might be months, years, hell, it might be decades of me trying to shut my self away, of nightmares, therapy, being unable to laugh or feel anything other than this pitch-black darkness. You can’t promise me you’ll be strong enough to be there. I don’t doubt that you have the strength to see me through all this, I know you do. But there will be times when it will seem as if I’d be okay, and you’ll be hopeful, but when I have a bad phase again- It would hurt you, and I can’t hurt any more of my friends.”

“And you think the way you’re behaving right now is hurting nobody? Megumi, I won’t promise that I’ll always be there. I can’t. I’m still a sorcerer, I still have to go to missions, and am in danger every time I go. But I will be there for you for as long as I can and for as long and often as you want me to be.”

“For every stary sky?”

“And every sunrise.”

“Every meal?”

“If that’s what you want, yes. And for every walk, and if you want me to, I’ll even wait outside the therapist’s office for you.”

Megumi averted his gaze, staring at a spot right in front of your feet.

“Why? Why would you do that? What do you get in return?”

Carefully you took a step forward. “Because I care about you Megumi. And even though it might seem selfless, getting to be there for you, supporting you, trying to help you to get back to your feet, getting to watch you fight to get better, being with you through all this, is actually a very selfish act.”

Megumi looked back up, his eyes scanning your face for a moment.

“Can you hug me,” he asked, voice quiet over the wind in the branches above you.

“Of course,” you smiled and slowly crossed the last distance between you, wrapping your arms around him. He seemed to melt into the touch, almost fragile, his body moving closer to yours until his whole front was flatly pressed against yours, his face buried against the side of your neck, his hair tickling your cheek and ear. You held him tight, not too tight, so he still could breathe without effort, but tight enough for him to feel how serious you were with everything you had offered.

“I’m just scared of ending up alone again,” he whispered. “And I can’t lose you too. You’re too important to me.”

“You won’t lose me,” you whispered back, rubbing his back through the thick fabric of his oversized hoodie.

“What if you die?”

“I won’t. And if I do, I’ll come back as a curse, like Rika.”

The sound of a small chuckle surprised you, but you quickly held Megumi tighter, hoping to engrave the sound into your memory forever.

Before you could say anything else, Megumi’s phone started ringing. You stiffened up, ready to pull away, but Megumi kept you close.

“Aren’t you going to answer,” you asked, hesitantly wrapping your arms back around him.

“No,” he replied.

“What if it’s important?”

“How important can it be,” Megumi shrugged. “Not more important than this, anyway.”

After a while the ringing stopped, and Megumi slowly loosened his hold on you. Carefully pulling away, you came face to face with him.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely.

“What for?”

“Everything. I… I tend to lose sight of the good things in life and let the darkness swallow me whole.”

Taking a step back, you reached out your hand for him to take. Questioningly he raised his eyebrows at you but placed his hand in yours.

“Now you won’t get lost in the darkness,” you told him with a smirk, making him roll his eyes.

“That’s too cheesy for me,” he shook his head.

“Oh, don’t start laughing now, Fushiguro,” you cried. “I saw that! The corner of your mouth was twitching!”

“It wasn’t! That’s annoyance at how cheesy you were being!”

He only kept his expression in check for another second before he burst out laughing. Using your intertwined hands, he pulled you back into a hug, this one more casual than the first. When his phone started ringing again, both of you ignored it.

After you had calmed down from the laughter, Megumi’s eyes fixed themselves on your face, watching you as were catching your breath.

“Can I kiss you,” he suddenly asked, making you freeze in your motion.

Surprised you looked at him, your heart seeming to miss a few beats, but then you nodded your head, and a moment later his lips were on yours, soft, a little chapped, but gentle. It was a sweet kiss, nothing too extravagant, and still enough to steal your breath and make you weak in your knees.

It was perfect, you suddenly realized, kissing Megumi like his. Around you, cherry blossom petals were floating on a warm spring breeze, birds were singing in the branches above you, and Megumi’s arms were warm and secure around you while his heart beat a firm rhythm underneath your fingers, somewhat too fast for a normal heartbeat, but then again yours was probably racing too.

The perfect moment got interrupted by yet another ring of Megumi’s phone.

“I think you should answer it,” you mumbled against his lips. “It’s probably really something important.”

Megumi sighed but pulled away enough to grab his phone out of his pocket.

“It’s just Yūji,” he rolled his eyes, but before he could answer the call, the ringing stopped again.

He shrugged, slipping the phone back into his pocket.

“I got a question,” he suddenly declared.

“Ask away.”

“You said: another stary sky, another sunrise, and…” he hesitated for a moment before continuing. “a puppy’s fur underneath my fingertips. Where do you plan to get me a puppy from?” He sounded amused, but you knew him good enough to know that he would do hell of a lot to play with a puppy sometime soon.

“Okay, here’s the thing.”

“Oh dear.”

“Yūji and I were thinking, for a while now.”

“That can’t be a good sign,” Megumi sighed. “What crazy idea did you two come up with now?”

“I’m gonna ignore that low-key insult, and let you live” you announced, “But do you know Principal Yaga’s friend, the one who had all these dogs?”

Megumi nodded, clearly hesitant about whether or not he really wanted to know what Yūji and you had come up with.

“So, one of the dogs had puppies a few weeks back and we were thinking that it might be good to adopt one of them, for our year. We’ve been talking to the teachers and thinking things through and if all of us take turns caring for it, it won’t be too much responsibility all at once. And it would give us some sort of stability, having to go on walks on regular hours, playing, teaching it commands… but there’d also someone to keep us company when we don’t feel so good, someone who can’t give us advice, but also won’t ask questions either. Someone who accepts us as we are, no matter how good we are in school or whatever. So… yeah, the puppy is already old enough to be separated from its mother and is moving in next Friday.”

Megumi stared at you.

“You adopted a puppy,” he asked incredulously.

“We adopted a puppy,” you corrected. “Yeah.”

“And we‘ll share responsibility for it?”

You nodded, and Megumi’s eyes suddenly grew hard.

“I don’t know that dog yet, but I’ll fight you for custody after graduation,” he declared, making your eyes widen.

Graduation. That was still three years away, the furthest Megumi had talked about the future since November.

Swallowing your surprise, you shrugged. “That’s okay with me.”

“But wait,” Megumi suddenly stopped. “Before the puppy arrives, we need all kinds of stuff. It won’t be like with Shiro and Kuro, it’ll need a basket, and bowls and a leash! I think we’ll need several baskets, so we don’t have to carry them around all the time. And food! We need special-”

He was interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone, this time yours.

“Yūji,” you told him, showing him the screen on which a picture of your pink haired classmate had popped up.

“Let’s answer it,” Megumi sighed. “He’ll just keep calling otherwise.”

You had barely pressed the green button to answer the call, when Yūji’s voice was already sounding from the small speaker, loud enough that you didn’t even have to put your ear to it.

“Megumi isn’t answering his phone,” Yūji all but screamed. “I’ve tried calling him dozens of times but he’s not answering! I’m really worried! We need to-”

“Yūji, Yūji, calm down!” Quickly you interrupted your panicking friend, pressing the speaker button so Megumi could listen in. “He’s with me, he’s fine, we were talking a walk.”

On the other side silence spread out.

“And you didn’t call dozens of times, you called three times,” Megumi added, leaning down to the speaker.

On the other end, a small “oh” was audible.

“So, what’s so important that you decided to terrorize Megumi via phone calls,” you asked, shooting Megumi a glance.

His eyebrows were furrowed, and it was not hard to tell that he had only now realized just how worried his friends were about him, how much they cared about him. Enough to send ever cheerful Yūji into something akin to a panic attack just because he hadn’t answered his phone for a few minutes.

“I didn’t terrorize him,” Yūji protested.

“You kinda did, but whatever. What’s going on?”

“You guys need to come to the hospital wing asap,” Yūji told you.

Megumi and you exchanged glances. The hospital wing? That wasn’t good. Megumi took your hand in his and started walking back the way you had come.

“We’re on our way,” you told Yūji, “What’s going on? Who got hurt?”

“Nobody,” Yūji sounded like he was running himself now, slightly out of breath. “Gojō-sensei’s awake.”

And with that he ended the call.

Megumi and you were both so surprised about the message, that you came to a slithering halt. Gojō was awake? Sure, you had told Megumi it was a possibility, that he might wake up soon, but you had not believed it to actually, really happen at all.

For a short moment Megumi and you looked at each other,f inding your own surprise and relief mirrored on his face. And then you took off running, taking the quickest way to the hospital wing, your hands intertwined.

[kel-lance]

Jjk headcanons/fan theories/ random thoughts/random facts

I made this in a few months time so its prob repetitive

Tsumiki went into her year and 7 month long coma when megumi was 13-14 years old meaning tsumiki missed her sweet 16 :( (she’s a year older than him)

Toji was a good dad in the end (both times) bc he was already dead and told Gojo to take Megumi as a F u/later fix the alliance’s of the clans and to make sure that Megumi would be protected, fed, housed, and taught sorcery bc toji damn well couldn’t much less protect his kids from curses anyhow.

Noaya (and the men of the Zenin clan) abused Mai and maki bc they’re women (implied SA) noaya hinted at asking to beats em up like he used to (could be implied bc he called them hot & Mai has the same face) but he was also possibly teasing since Mai just 💀 but there’s no way he could have known that

It’s worse to be a male Zenin with no cursed energy bc then you’d be absolutely powerless, useless, worthless, etc. no other clan woman would want you and your fam would never coughed for you much less protect you bc why do they have to you were born a Zenin and yet…

So we know Kokichi Toji Mai n maki all were hit with HR but it was just a double whammy to also be twins? Yes. HR hit Toji so hard bc he was the first to be without cursed energy but then Nanako and Mimiko, bc they’re fraternal twins that that’s possible they’re able to both have CE?

Kenjaku stayed in Iori for so long that his stitches healed I’m guessing he planned it all (or saw hat happened which is why he chose Jin (bc there’s no way that’s random) and killed Jin and went to Geto when it was time (did Ken know about the KFC break up too??)

maki had no CE but still couldn’t get in tune with her full potential is bc Mai was there this the twin HR is f’d but there’s probably more chance one could 💀 the other to become powerful but in this instance it was about sacrifice and distance love. Different paths yet they were “the same person” so that’s only with identical twins?

sukuna loves to eat and is a cannibal and lactates and has 4 arms, 6 mouths or more, 20 fingers, many eyes, 4 legs, 10 toes, 3 heads, hopefully 9ft tall in his monster form…. 

stg toji had his divorced dad rock on religiously (nickel back fan don’t even start w me, weezer son nickleback dad)

nobara gonna be used in some way theres no reason to have her status as unknown of not to edge us istg I’ll even take a cursed spirit piloting her to mess with Yuuji more and she’s part of sukuna or some even worse group they gotta fight after the culling game arc

after chapter 253 are maki and yuta dead?? Hopefully Yuta was eaten but on Yutas birthday gege thats foul (I love it) 🫣🤩

It’s past ch253 and we’re waiting for 3/24 for the next chapter but I heard yuta yelled at Hakari to shut up with cursed speech? Or was that earlier 

Maki Mai and Megumi and Tsumiki met probably around the time tsumiki went into that coma/megs entered jjk no wonder hes so formal//doesn’t know them well he was under gojos protection for so long

some jsckass said mais first love is unknown or megumi are you dumb shes in love with her sister no sister kissed the other to give them a sword cooly and die she literally just wanted to be with her no matter what to go to the ends of the earth it didn’t matter as long n as maki was with her but maki knew Mai’s potential to be better than her so she tried to make herself better, leaving Mai behind in the process and they still never hated each other even after all the time away.

mai likes to take care of cacti/the clan favored her over maki bc she has at least some CE//weve only seen maki being affected by her family's rejection (jjk0 makis mom said shed wished shed never have given birth to her as she was a failure and same girlie but my mom chose any and everyone to compare me to) but Mai either didn’t see herself special in that way and put the blame on maki or dealt with it in her own way (maki vs the fam excluding Mai and Megumi // whereas Mai’s version US against the world)

if choso is yuujis brother and kamo is one of chosos distant family, that would mean Yuuji, Choso, Yuki, Todo, and Kamo are all "Brothers" I love the thought of them being super cool and scary together with their cute yuki & Yuuji golden retrievers in a Doberman family

the same people who ship yuki and choso also ship utahime and gojo or shoko and gojo yall have NO comprehension skills at ALL or cant believe men n women b close like Yuuji & Nobara/Power & Denji/ Sasha & Connie/ Nami & Usopp, Franky, or Luffy) 

Kenny planted the first finger by Geto’s twins to Yuuji’s school. they just had to get the finger to the occult club 

Does Kenny have a witch or oracle or even premeditative powers to know the future or did he just plan this out to a T and what is his damn goal 

Yuuji and Yuta are from the same home town bc gege said it’d be easier for the story but then todo also went to Yuuji’s middle school

Nobara dyes her hair lighter and I wonder how often she talks to Fumi back at home. And her grandmother if she’s like me w low contact

Megumi was alone with gojo for almost 2 years (no tsumiki) no wonder he’s so to himself he was probably always with tsumiki before, who decided everything for them (in a big sis way) and he respected it 

Yutas a pos for forgetting how Rika 💀 then trapping her w him bc of how traumatized he was like bruh you also yelled at her the first time u ever yelled at Rika was over another girl and he doesn’t do much else but manipulate like the Pisces man he is (I kin him/made an oc before I found out about his BITCH ass and he got everything word for word but is a dude I’m losing it) 

As an astrologer, I must say Gege’s planning with the character birthdays and everything else I can read from that is incredibly accurate I’ll give examples in the next points

geto’s mission was to go to remote village, he finds curse and exorcizes it, finds the twins the next dy, he kills everyone, he goes back to his pants to get supplies and kills them (prob no his first choice but once again was probably proven right) and runs has been gone for way too long and gojo doesn’t know what th ehhell happened. which is why he was so mad at kfc and geto just had to accept his new role while gojo was still in the past

Toji and Megumi (Kamo, Nobara, Todo) being cancer moons meaning they care about the heart, (todo has other placements making it seem a lil more “shallow” when he just wants a “straight” answer (lmao Megumi)

Yuta being a Leo moon and (outwardly asked) liking the chest

Yuuji being a libra moon liking butts all this makes sense (libra moons are indecisive, will weight out all the possibilities and still want the peaceful side unless there’s such chaos there’s no way for that to happen… then we snap)

Yuuji and Junpei would’ve been perfect friends we already saw but they both just didn’t ask for any of this and chose their own paths, they’re almost parallels of each other 

Geto’s birthchart shows a lot more of wanting to get humanity to evolve where gojos looks more like a POWERFUL cog in the machine 

Yap: Gege basically made this for women I’m sorry boys but why all the beautiful men & perfectly written women & relationships maybe it’s just a rare case where the mangaka actually knows women (or gege is a woman 🤗) & how all the dudes fit a Yaoi archetype & the women,,, they’re perfect & cute & not sexualized (other than maki in jjk0 & the glasses girl in ep 1 getting groped) but everything else is just hot w/o taking ur clothes off kinda energy & thats INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT w everything else going on 

You think something broke in Meimei when she said she wanted to be comforted and Gojo was like bruh I was joking 🙃 

Kirara and Uranme’s gender is yes 👍🏼 

Geto raising the girls as a 17-18yr old is insane same age as Megumi and gojo so for how long was Geto their dad? Inbetween 10 years but when did the girls realize that that wasn’t their dad anymore? I’m guessing Kenny can remember the vessel he takes overs memory or does something to their brain to replace it w him

I doubt a male mangaka can write good women (mostly bc of the stereotype that they’re shut ins but also from just reading/watching with my own eyes and being a woman myself) and add them in correctly, though the thing is in jjk they’re all just in a world but in Naruto and berserk and stuff she’s the add in into /their/ world where they keep fighting bc they miss each other and she gotta be used and a pillar for them or an excuse like Nobara and shoko weren’t used like that by satsug and itafushi they were their own ppl w their own sh like don’t get me wrong vasca and Sakura also were their own people but they really were given the bottom of the barrel sh bc of the dudes decisions. Shoko and Nobara strictly did what they wanted instead of falter to men

They’re literally all kids it doesn’t matter if some are weaker or useless, imagine a god/demon came here rn like the strongest will survive/fight you have to also apply the “weak characters” to irl bc I bet you they’re still stronger than most of us (miwa, Kamo, idk about momo still but she been w them I can’t doubt her skill just cause they had POWERFUL enemies

Gojo not being able to drink makes sense no drugs to impair his power and eyes (maybe lightweight maybe uncontrollable drunk and no one’s really ready or able to control that) 

Gojo isn’t coming back and he wouldn’t bc he half assed the fight and now he’s with his love and everyone has to fend for themselves now 

I like to think Gojo had Megumi and tsumiki, Geto had Nanako and Mimiko and nanami had Nobara and Yuuji in this preschool/parent AU (tojis gojos ex baby daddy) 

All of them are taller than me other than momo and Nobara. (Im 5’4” so gojos 10 years older and a foot taller 🫣) 

In one of Geges book covers it has Gojo in the winter w pink camellias and those flowers mean ily even after death and that flower is also specifically for the birthday feb3 (Geto’s) AGAIN WHY I THINK GEGES A WOMAN RAHHHHH

Maki, Mai, Toji, Kamo, Kokichi were all raised w no love like at all. Yuta had it good til 11, Miwa, yuuji and megumi never fully had it good, todo, Toge (?), Panda, momo, and nobara were just chillin.

HOW DID NOBARA COME UP WITH HER TECHNIQUE THEYRE ALL EMO BITCHES SHE WAS LITERALLY 16 FOR 2 MONTHS BEFORE HER FACE BLAST

SHE WAS SO YOUNG HOW DID SHE COME UP WITH HAMMERING NAILS INTO HERSELF WHAT

Uranme and Kirara go by (they/them)

Gojo and Geto were soulmates no matter the relationship

Utahime, Shoko, Momo, Mai and Nobara all like girls 

Gojo knew Geto for the short amount of time but thought of him for 5x longer.

Megumi’s been without his sister for 1.5 years so she went into a coma when he was 13, his 2nd-3rd year of junior high)

  Mai and maki didn’t know about Toji and Megumi until that year (2018)

Kenjaku planted the first finger at Yuuji’s school by Nanako and Mimiko (they’re the same age) hence why thanking Satsuki for taking care of his son

The person Rika is gone, her cursed spirit is what remains (an embodiment of her love/the curse yuta placed on her)

Yuta is wrong for using Rika and forgetting about his promise and why she’s even there for 6 YEARS then yelling at her about Maki 

Shoko started smoking in high school and stopped about 5 years ago, but started again when she heard Geto was alive again. 

Sukuna has 6 mouths, 4 arms, 4 legs, many eyes, and lactates. 

Choso, Yuuji, Kamo, Todo, and Yuki are all “brothers” by blood or not idc i love their lil weirdo family.

Toji was a good dad, dealt the worst hand, everything going down so the best way to protect his kids is to give them to people who can kill curses and teach them about sorcery. 

Nobara and Yuuji have the same friendship as Power and Denji, Nami and Franky/Luffy/Usopp

[sirjaketkiszka]

It’s a Sin: Chapter One

Priest!Jake Kiszka x Fem!Reader

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Father forgive me, I tried not to do it… Turned over a new leaf, then tore right through it…

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Word Count: 4,811

Warnings: vague mentions of religious trauma, uneventful, and poor writing.

Disclaimer: apologies for any potential spelling errors or grammar mistakes.

It’s a Sin Masterpost

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The gentle melody coming from the car’s radio fades out of earshot as the view from the backseat fully encapsulates you. Dark gray, gloomy skies act as an incessant threat of the chance of rain– a common occurrence for this time of year– as the branches of the towering western hemlocks sway against the strong wind.

Passing a large sign that reads: Garden’s Gate, your eyes take in the sight before you; Various wood-built structures line cobblestone sidewalks just off the side of the poorly paved road, and small homes nestle themselves between what you assume are family-owned businesses. An assumption you make based on your previous research–

Garden’s Gate, established in the mid-1800s, holds a population of only 253. Well, 254 now. It’s heavily religious, extremely traditional, and very tight-knit. Every building is original, a well-functioning relic, and upheld by its caregivers; the citizens. You can’t lie, the town does intimidate you, especially coming in as an outsider– a non-religious outsider at that. But when you saw pictures of the town while scrolling on your laptop, you fell in love.

Just coming into view is the town’s church, the first building to be created when the town came to be. The foundation is built from local wood, chopped just mere feet away from the church itself, and it’s surrounded by scattered tombstones. The years gone by remain present on the church’s slowly rotted wood as flecks of the boards peel away from the exterior walls. Still, the church stays upright, a consequence of minute renovations that strayed away from disturbing its original composition.

An arched, intricately engraved brown door represents a stark contrast compared to the withered appearance, and similarly, arched stained glass windows take their place on either side. Just above the entrance is a circular window, the panes reminiscent of a daisy, and above that is a smaller square window. A bell hangs from the rooftop of the church, encased by sturdy pillars that uphold the cross.

The outdated taxi turns onto a gravel driveway, just a quarter of a mile long and directly across from the church you’ve been admiring, and leading to your new home. When the grumbling crunch of the rough pebbles begins to slow, and the tires come to a halt, you nearly jump out of the cab. The driver plasters on a polite smile, putting the car in park and exiting to retrieve your bags from the trunk.

“Please, let me get that,” You insist, rushing to his side and peeling your eyes away from the beautifully built cottage before you. The both of you fumble to lift the heavy luggage from the car, an exaggerated oof punching from your lungs when you set the suitcase on the damp ground. When the driver gently places your smaller bag on top, you graciously thank him, handing him the hefty toll that accumulated from your journey from the nearest airport; over an hour away.

As the faded yellow car turns around and descends the long, winding driveway, your feet stay planted, your eyes frantically observing the exterior of the house; it’s quaint with tall windows and deep green grass crawling along the layered stone skirt of the structure. The worn paint is off-white, but chipping off in various places, and the roof is harboring a light fuzz of growing moss, a result of the constant dew blanketing over the town. You love it.

Slinging your small carry-on over your shoulder, and firmly gripping the handle of your overweight luggage, you trek across the scattered stone path leading to the front steps. The two short steps creak and groan under your own weight and the added load. As far as you know, the house has remained unoccupied for years but was taken care of by members of the local church.

So, when you lift the dingy doormat inches away from your feet, retrieve the house key, and open the door with an agonizingly loud rasp, you’re surprised to see how well-kept the interior is. Any leftover furniture is covered with discolored bedsheets, and there’s a lack of dust that you expected to see when first entering.

Somehow, the inside of the house is eerily more cold than outside, causing goosebumps to pepper along your skin. The air is stagnant, just the tiniest specks of dust floating past your line of sight, and like the steps leading up to the door, the stained pine hardwood floors squeak beneath you.

“Just needs a little love,” You sigh, surveying the open living room. It seems as though the only furniture left that isn’t yours is the used leather couch, the oval-shaped coffee table a couple of feet from it, and a large, empty bookshelf that resides to the left of the room. All the other furniture, however, is yours– delivered just the day before by a moving company you hired. Was it smart to tell them where the key was so they could go in without you? Probably not, but nothing seems out of place or alarming.

While it’s the middle of the day, the murky sky prohibits any ray of sun from shining through, resulting in the dimly lit space in front of you. Thankfully, the light switch is beside the door, and you flick it upward; though, it doesn’t do much.

There was very little information online about the house you stand in, and all you know is that it was built not long after the town originated. It still has its original flooring, the same awful wallpaper installed in the 1970s, and turns out, the later-added light fixtures from the mid-1900s.

Finished with your gawking, you drag your hefty suitcase into the house, pass the threshold, and leave it leaning against the wall with the smaller bag. As you step further inside, you notice the layout; the kitchen is to the right of the first floor, a large cut-out space in the dividing wall allows a look out into the living room, and there is no dining room, just a spot big enough for a dining table in the corner of the kitchen.

The kitchen is small, but big enough for just you. Due to previous renovations, polished sandy stone counters lay upon dark mahogany wood cabinets. It’s not a look you would usually go for, and it’s certainly not your taste, but that was a problem for later, you ultimately decide. Thankfully, a gas stove and rundown refrigerator are provided with the house, although you’re not entirely sure how well they work. The refrigerator hasn’t been plugged in for however long, and you’re extremely relieved to see that the shelves are spotless and no lingering smell wafts from it when you cautiously swing the door open.

Taking in the final sweep of the kitchen, you notice a packed box labeled “Bedroom: second floor” is set on the counter beside the built-in sink, most likely forgotten by the movers. You lift the decently heavy box with a quick huff and haul it to the stairs to the left of the living room. Carefully looking over the box, you ascend the stairs and are met with a slim hallway, consisting of three doors; your bedroom, the bathroom, and a smaller room, which will most likely be your hobby room.

The bedroom door is left open, allowing you to shuffle into the bland room without struggling with the doorknob. Setting the box onto your bare mattress, it bounces against the plush material, nearly falling over the edge. An exasperated huff rushes past your lips as you plant your hands on your hips, spinning in a slow 360 while your eyes scan the room; The walls are a beautiful shade of sage green– a consequence of the previous tenant– and the floors match the dark red mahogany of the kitchen cabinets. Now this, you wouldn’t change.

Moving boxes littered the hardwood floors, most of them piling up in the farthest corner, acting as a reminder of the extensive work you have ahead of you; unpacking.

You must’ve spent hours just unpacking the boxes belonging to your room– going back and forth on what should be placed where and if you should hang your clothes or fold them into the dresser. Needless to say, these are very important decisions. And with important decisions, came great hunger pains.

“My goodness,” You mumble under your breath, checking the digital clock you unpacked and noticing that the last time you ate was just before your flight. Eight hours ago. Needing a break, you lift from your seated position on your bedroom floor and stretch, letting out an obnoxious groan at the sensation of your joints cracking and back arching out of your previous slouch.

You figure now’s as good a time as any to explore the town, and it’s definitely not because you have no food. On any other day, you would cook. In fact, you love it. The art of cooking felt calming for you, but it’s only something you do as a hobby. It stays sacred that way. Had you pursued it as a career, it would’ve been tainted. Not done purely for enjoyment, but out of obligation.

Either way, you need to eat now. Your stomach growls and cramps at the mere thought of food, and your arms instinctively wrap around your torso for a sense of relief. Where can I eat? What can I eat? You don’t know the town well enough, but perhaps walking down the vacant streets will lead you to a restaurant, or a store, of some sort.

Loud footsteps echo through your house as you saunter down the aged steps of the staircase, your exhaustion and hunger forcing you to move at a leisurely rate. Unsure of the early evening weather, you grab your jacket that hangs on the coat rack by the door anyway, pushing your arms through the thick sleeves and leaving the front open.

Just as you expected, the early October air nips at your face the moment you open the front door, the tip of your nose immediately reddening and cheeks turning rosy from the harsh cold. In your hometown, it’d still be decently warm, probably in the low-70s, but you relished in the colder months. You always look forward to wearing your plethora of knitted sweaters, warm leggings, and chunky boots.

The hinges of the door screech behind you as it shuts, and you turn to lock it, pocketing the key and walking down the ridged path ahead of you.

It’s a short walk, and it’s nearly a ghost town. In the five minutes it takes you to walk to the main road, cross it, and enter the town, you have yet to see a single soul. The uncomfortable atmosphere reminds you of an episode of The Twilight Zone. Actually, the very first episode of The Twilight Zone… Small town. Completely alone.

Your inner monologue nearly leads you to run back home, but you push through, realizing how ridiculous the thought is. As you step into civilization, if you could call it that, you do notice the silhouette of store clerks passing in your peripheral as you search the store signs. Phew.

The stores are decently spaced apart, and some of the elderly structures are homes of the town residents. The uneven cobblestone sidewalk urges you to walk cautiously as you admire the historical details, reading the signs as you stroll by;

Bank. Very thorough.

Seamstress. Not quite it.

Antiques. The whole town is one.

Bakery. Perfect!

The bakery sports large windows displaying their baked goods, and the sight of them causes your stomach to grumble. Your hand impatiently wraps around the store’s doorhandle, swinging it open, and making the bell above it ring. The interior isn’t very well-lit, like most things here, apparently. There’s a total of three tables in the dining area, each with two seats, and a large L-shaped counter that houses all of the pastries.

Hungry eyes scan the abundance of food, probably enough to feed the whole town, you assume, until they land on the cashier. She stands behind the glass counter, a large outdated cash register stationed in front of her. You can tell by the look on her face that she knows you’re not from here, and despite her customer service smile, she’s wary. To dilute the tension, you smile, stepping up to the register.

“Hi, there,” Your voice rang out louder than you expected, and you may have freaked her out even more.

“Hi,” She pauses, her voice reflecting her concern, “Um– What can I help you with?”

“Well, I just moved here,” You explain, and the tension in her stiff shoulders falters for a moment, “So, I’m not sure what to get, what do you suggest?” Maybe asking her for her opinion would ease her anxiety, and it seems to work.

“Oh!” She perks up, eyeing the pastries through the glass and pointing, “You’ll love our housemade muffins. Any flavor, really.”

“I’ll take one of each flavor then,” Your insatiable hunger does the talking for you, but you know you’ll eat the rest later. You have quite the sweet tooth, and sure, you should be eating a “real” meal, but– you have no excuse.

“Perfect,” She smiles, genuinely this time, as she places each flavor into a medium-sized box; Blueberry, chocolate chip, banana nut, poppy seed, and cinnamon crumble. Yum. Setting the box on the counter beside the register, she rings you up, stating your total as you happily hand her your card, “So, you’re the one who bought the house across the church.” She states. It’s not a question. You guess your move was the talk of the tiny town. There’s no surprise there.

“Word gets around, huh?” You chuckle, taking back your card when she hands it to you.

“Well,” She chuckles as well, insinuating that of course word gets around in a town with a population below 300. “We didn’t think it would ever sell. Not that there’s anything wrong with it! It’s just that newcomers aren’t very common, you know?”

“I figured,” Your tone is understanding as you shrug, grabbing the box off the counter, and the decent weight of the baked goods surprises you. The cashier offers you a gracious smile as you thank her for her help, spinning on the heels of your feet and heading for the door. Your hand stalls on the doorknob, and you turn to look at her, “I’m sorry, what’s your name? I could use a familiar face around here.”

“Sara! Without the H,” Her cheerful voice carries across the small bakery like she’s relieved that you asked, and it makes you feel warm, “What’s yours?”

When you answer, she repeats your name back to herself as a reminder and waves you off, calling out to you to let her know how you like the muffins. You didn’t go into town expecting to make any friends so soon, but you’re sure glad you did.

Rushing home, your eyes focus on the moving ground beneath your feet; bulky stones make your steps wobbly, and you’re careful not to trip. Unlike your short journey into town, it feels as though the walk back takes an eternity due to pure impatience.

The crisp air pinches your skin as you work against the breeze, your eyes looking both ways down the entirely empty road as you cross it. The wet gravel shifts under your feet as you stomp up your driveway and finally approach your home. Though, at the moment, it feels like just a house. Vacant, void of fond memories, and any familiarity.

You ultimately decide eating alone at your thrifted dining room table feels too depressing, so you settle for the slightly damp front door steps. Plopping down, the light layer of moisture soaks into your pants, and you squirm at the feeling.

“Gross,” You grumble, your hands fidgeting with the folding lid of the paper box. When you flip the top open, you’re face to face with five large muffins, all delicately handcrafted and baked to perfection. The uncomfortable feeling underneath you becomes a distant thought as you grab the blueberry muffin with two hands, letting the box balance on your legs. You waste no time bringing the fluffy baked good to your mouth, your lips parting and teeth flashing to consume a substantial bite.

The sweetness coats your tongue and an exaggerated groan leaves your throat as you chew slowly, your teeth crushing the shriveled blueberries. You’re not sure if this is the best muffin you’ve ever had, or if you’re just really hungry. Though, it didn’t matter. If the bakery did a blueberry muffin this well, the rest had to be held to the same standard, you hope.

So, for the next five minutes, you take a bite from each muffin, eyes nearly rolling back at the taste of each one. If you really wanted to, you could finish all five right this second because of your persistent hunger, but you’ll show restraint… For now.

Just as you’ve circled back to the blueberry muffin, you notice a line of people waiting outside the church just across the street. It’s not Sunday. You thought to yourself as your eyebrows furrowed, watching as a priest opened the doors to the church, welcoming the group of church-goers in. The amount isn’t large, maybe ten people, but you keep watching intently. They’re too far to hear, and even to see clearly, so you assume that the priest is thanking each member for coming with every vague nod of his head.

You’re unable to get a good look at the priest, but from your seated position, he looks young. Squinting your eyes, you’re only able to make out that he has long hair, and is average height. His features are blurred as a result of the distance, and you find yourself wanting to wander over there just to see him. Something about his presence is alluring.

Once you think you’ve had enough of the food in front of you, you close the box and stand, your eyes still drawn to the church. You aren’t religious, not at all, but the concept intrigues you. Devoting your life to a person, or people, you’re not confident exist. Believing in something greater as a sense of comfort. You admire it. But, you also despise it.

Reemerging suppressed memories cause you to zone out, planted where you stand on the last step of your small porch. The silence morphs into whispered echoes of your childhood, and your hands absently squeeze around the delicate box.

The kids exiting the church hurled overplayed insults at you. None you haven’t heard before. If anything, you wished they were more creative. You couldn’t lie, though, it all hurt the same.

A single drop of rain pulls you from your recollection as your eyes frantically blink, realizing you’re staring down the church, the priest looking directly at you through fickle raindrops. Still, you can’t make out any defining features, and he seems to be struggling with the same predicament. The line of people has filed into the ancient building, but he stands there, looking at you.

Not bothering to acknowledge him, you turn around and step up to your door, quickly unlocking it and stepping inside before the rain becomes a consistent downpour.

The sight of your disorganized living room and kitchen causes an irritated exhale to exit your lungs. That would have to be a problem for tomorrow since the comforting sound of speckled rain on your lanky windows pulls a yawn from you. The day wears on you– traveling, unpacking, a bit of exploring– it all takes a toll on you.

Your feet drag as you set the half-eaten muffins on the kitchen counter, and you lazily complete your nighttime routine, having to actively pull from boxes to find what you need. You figure a lot of your unpacking will play out that way; you needing something, then having to search for it, and inevitably unpacking the rest in the process.

Usually, you’d struggle with falling asleep in an unfamiliar environment, but the moment your head hits the pillow, your heavy eyelids blind you. Your breathing evens, your body falls limp, and your features soften in restful bliss.

“You shouldn’t let their words bother you, baby,” Your mom swept the hair sticking to your tear-stained cheeks away and cradled your face in the palm of her hands.

“They kept talking about you,” You sniffled, looking her in the eyes with shame, “They said mean things.” Your voice came out in a whisper, and she sighed.

“Do you want to know why?”

A knock at your door causes you to shoot up from your lying position and a startled gasp expands your lungs as you bend at the waist with your blankets pooling around you. Your sleep-ridden eyes move around the room, remembering where you are, and that yes, you did move into a new house. Most of the empty boxes have been moved to the hallway, and the rising sun casts a soft light across your bed sheets. Looking at the clock on your otherwise bare nightstand, it’s still relatively early, 7 o’clock to be exact, and you aren’t expecting any visitors.

The lack of central heat sends a chill down your stiff spine as you search for your robe hanging in the nicely sized-closet. Wrapping the warm, soft garment around your trembling frame, you head downstairs where the knocking continues for the second time.

“Coming!” You call out, hopefully loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear.

Through the stained glass, you see a dark figure standing on the steps, their head rotating and looking around the outside of your house. You pause for a moment before opening the door, the bright contrast of outside piercing your dim-adjusted eyes, causing you to squint to focus. When your gaze finally lands on the man in front of you, you realize it’s the priest from yesterday.

As you had guessed previously, he’s of average height and has long, wavy hair that has grown just below his shoulders. The ends of his chestnut hair are thinned out, but it holds decent volume as it swoops into a side part, likely a consequence of his hands running through it. His face is chiseled, his high cheekbones prominent through his hollow cheeks, and his jawline is well defined. A light purple hue swatches underneath his eyes, emphasizing their captivating auburn shade of brown, and his blush pink lips quirk in a friendly smirk. He’s young, probably around your age, and it surprises you.

He’s wearing all black– a long sleeve button-up, paired with his clerical collar, and a pair of jeans that are a slightly lighter shade of black compared to the rest of his outfit. Over everything, he’s wearing a black petticoat that stops right at his knees, his hands stuffed deep into his pockets.

“Uh– Hi, can I help you?” You ask, still holding onto the door, and shielding half of your body.

“Hello, I’m Father Jacob Thomas Kiszka,” His voice is surprisingly smooth, and your heart quickens a beat, “I haven’t had the chance to properly introduce myself.” He smiles, pulling his hand from his pocket and holding it out for you to shake. His fingers are lengthy, and his hands are quite veiny, and they curl around your hand gently when you accept the handshake. His palm is warm, and incredibly soft as his semi-firm grip bobs your guys’ hands up and down.

“It’s no problem,” You dismiss while releasing his hand and letting yours awkwardly hang beside you when his lingering warmth melts away, “I only got here yesterday.”

“That’s right,” His smile falters a little, falling into a permanent content smirk, “Do you mind if I come in?”

“Not at all,” You lie through a clenched smile, suddenly very aware of the state of your house, and you, “Can I fix you a cup of coffee?” You ask while stepping aside, letting him cross the threshold. When he slides past you, his overpowering scent floats just beneath your nose as you breathe in. The breeze in his wake smells strongly of cinnamon, a mixture of other rich spices, and musk. You find yourself breathing in again, holding the scent in your lungs like a drag from a cigarette.

Shutting the door behind him as he graciously smiles at you, his eyes wander around the still-covered furniture in the living room, and the boxes piled along the walls. Heat creeps up your neck, embarrassment burning in your gut from the mess.

“I’m okay,” He finally answers, turning to you with that perpetual smirk.

“Suit yourself,” You shrug, disappearing into the kitchen. The coffee maker is stashed away in one of the boxes, and you don’t plan on searching for it now, but you need an excuse to step away. Your hands fly to your frizzy hair as you roughly brush out any kinks with your fingers, and you rub the remaining sleep from your eyes. Had you expected company, you would’ve looked somewhat presentable, but you haven't been granted that pleasure.

When you reappear in the living room, he immediately turns to you, both hands back in his pockets. His presence is slightly offputting, though you’re not entirely sure why. Despite his average size, his vitality consumes the space surrounding him, including yourself.

“I apologize if I’ve woken you up,” He speaks, his eyes discreetly glancing over you, “I understand that it’s early.”

“Please, it’s okay,” You wave a hand at him, “I was already awake.” Another lie.

“Right,” He chuckles, and it’s apparent that he knows you’re lying, “I won’t be long– I just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood.”

“I appreciate that, Father,” You smile at his welcoming words, and for a moment, his body language is conflicting. He’s contemplating something, and you’re eager to know what it is.

“May I ask, do you attend church, Miss…” Oh. That question. It’s not your first time hearing it, and honestly, you expected it, especially from him. The end of his last word drags out as he waits for you to introduce yourself, something you forgot to do when he did so himself.

You answer quickly, stating your first and last name, but insisting that he calls you by your first. “Miss” felt too formal. You are anything but formal. “I can’t say that I do,” You answer his question truthfully, and you don’t miss how disappointment radiates off his stature.

“That’s a shame,” His words alone sound harsh, but his tone is discouraged, and you know he doesn’t mean it the way it came out. “I’m sure you can tell, but this town, the people, are very… devout. I figured I’d ask,” A pause, “Perhaps, if you’d like, you could join us.” His insinuation feels like a punch in the gut, and you hate to have to reject his offer, but attending church is out of the question.

“That’s a lovely offer, Father,” You say sincerely, and the shift in his demeanor indicates that he already knows you’re going to decline, “But I’ll have to turn you down on that, I’m sorry.”

“No worries,” He waves you off now, his eyebrows furrowing at the increasing concern on your features. You hate saying no to people, and somehow, rejecting a priest’s offer for you to come to his church feels even worse. “Just thought I’d ask,” He shrugs, offering you a flash of a closed-mouth smile.

“Alright,” An uncomfortable silence falls in the space between you two, and his gaze lingers on yours for a moment longer.

“Anyway,” He clears his throat, eyes shifting from yours, “I should get out of your hair– let you get settled in.”

“Of course,” You step toward the door, opening it for him and watching as he steps back outside, turning to face you, “Thanks for stopping by, Father.”

“It was a pleasure,” Your name rolls off his tongue effortlessly, and you feel guilty for silently wishing he’d say it again, “I’ll see you around.”

Watching as he turns around, you observe how he strides down the stone path, his hair swaying with every swift step and broad shoulders mimicking the movement. Unable to look away, you keep your eyes on him until he’s disappeared into the church, not sparing another glance in your direction. You still feel as though you’re not completely awake, and your strange, brief interaction with Father Jacob only solidifies the contemplation of whether you’re dreaming.

An unexplainable and nagging feeling settles in your gut, but you choose to ignore it, chalking it up to built-up stress. Closing your door, you face the surplus of labor scattered across the living room and kitchen. Procrastination calls to you, but you refrain.

“Let’s get this over with.”

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A new Jake fic, hurray! I hope you all enjoyed chapter one <3

I’ve been waiting to write this since the idea came to me in a dream, oddly enough. Much love!!

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Taglist:

@musicislove3389 @fleetingjake @peaceloveunitygvf @dancingcarbon

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Tags:

[nemisisnemi]

SPOILERS FOR CH 253 OF AKATSUKI NO YONA/ YONA OF THE DAWN MANGA

I drew this panel in my own style

This is actually my first fanart of akatsuki no yona ever. It's really surprising since this is actually my favorite series of all time, and ive been following this manga since 5-6 years ago, possibly more. I honestly felt like I had to make it considering what happened in said chapter

no text version vvv

in my opinion, because i literally grew up with these characters throughout the years, and reading their journey up until now, this hurts me more than what happened so far in Twisted Wonderland's book 7 (my other main fandom im in rn)

just a tad more (lies, THIS HURTS A LOT MORE BC ITS JUST BEEN OVER A YEAR OF ANGST BEING BLASTED IN MY FACE)

Sorry if the quality of my sketch isnt up to par with the original

As stated before, ive never drawn any fan art for this fandom before this point, and it's currently 3:38 am for me

[damn-stark]

Chapter 37 Strong heart

Chapter 37 of Sugar

A/N- I hope you guys like it :) I liked writing this chapter

Warning- Swearing, ANGST, FLUFF, violence and blood, talks of DEATH, and pregnancy, flashback, SPOILERS!!!! long chapter!

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Episode and or chapters- Chapter 243 to chapter 253

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

Choso’s not responding, why is he not responding?

You take a step closer but stop out of fear that you’ll meet up with a corpse.

“Ch…” You trail off in a quivering voice and continue watching his unmoving body.

Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be gone, please…

You force yourself to go to him, but you head to him slowly because your fear of losing him is polluting your mind. After all, when you found Suguru last year he was on the ground, bleeding out, barely alive, and missing an entire arm. What if you come across that horrifying scene again, but this time you don’t even get to say goodbye?

“Choso?” Your voice comes out hoarse as your need to cry weakens it. “Choso?”

You cast a shadow over him as you stop a foot away from him because you’re scared if you get too close you won’t hear him breathe.

“Choso?” You basically plead.

And this time, at last, you catch his fingers shift on the ground—but! Does that mean he’s okay? You see a lot of blood staining his clothes, and two giant fist-sized holes on the back of his vest.

Choso then slowly lifts his head and you hold your breath when you meet his honey-imbued eyes. He mutters your name as if he can’t believe what he’s seeing, and his pupils dilate as he keeps watching you with the rays of the sun shining around your head like a glorious halo.

You step closer and pull the worm cursed-spirit off your shoulders to try and crouch, but Choso pushes himself up and that’s when you freeze completely because of the two gaping wounds you see close to his side. You can’t see through them, it seems like they went all the way through since there’s holes on his back, but there’s raw flesh now that makes his wound look like two dark voids.

“Choso,” you gasp.

Said man doesn’t seem to believe you’re real, he just studies your face as if he’s admiring some painting for a lingering moment before he lunges forward and throws his arms around you.

And you can't believe his chest was moving with signs of life, that you're actually looking into his pretty eyes until you feel his warmth and his strong arms around you. “Choso,” you whisper in disbelief and cling onto him.

“My love,” he whispers. “You’re okay. You’re safe, you’re back to me.”

His voice is so comforting, so soft and soothing. You wish you could say it kills the fear you felt clinging onto your heart, but you won’t stop being afraid about his well-being until you’re walking out of this fight hand in hand.

“You’re alive,” you point out to yourself. “Why didn’t you answer me? I was calling out your name?”

Choso pulls back and grabs onto your jaw to tilt your head and then step back to study your body for any wounds he might’ve missed.

“I’m okay,” you assure him as you watch his eyes roam your body. “We’re okay, Kenjaku didn’t even touch me.”

Choso’s eyes snap to you and he doesn’t seem to believe you, so you grab his hand and yank it down to put over your belly. “Remember you can feel them. They’re okay, yes?”

Choso holds your gaze as he searches within himself for the confirmation over the twins' status. And once he’s assured that they’re okay just like you told him, he sighs with relief and once again holds your face with both hands to check you out one more time.

“I’m okay,” you whisper and caress his shoulder with a sweet smile.

He lets out a deep breath and nods in comprehension, and as he stays attached to you, you slip your hands down to his chest with a smile still glued to your face, and then shove him back with your face quickly twisting to show your anger.

“You scared me!” You scold him. “I kept calling out to you, I texted you twice and you didn’t answer me. I thought…I…” you trail off and swiftly turn on your heels to catch your breath and stop yourself from crying.

You already cried so much today, that you don’t want to keep crying.

“I’m sorry,” Choso quickly tries to comfort you. “I just didn’t want you to see me hurt. I wanted to heal before you got to me, I’m sorry,” he whispers those last two words as he grabs your shoulder.

You turn your face away and lift your hand to gnaw on your nail. “How…how did it happen?” Your voice comes out muffled.

Choso sighs. “Sukuna surprised me. He was too fast, I tried to use piercing blood, but from one second to another he was before me and jammed his hands through me.”

Any higher and he would’ve hit his core, and his heart, Choso was close to death, he could’ve died. You were close to being a widow once again, you were close to having to live without him.

“I should’ve been more careful,” he adds sincerely.

Yes, and no. He was just trying to help the best he could, he didn’t expect to get hurt the way he did, but you can’t help but be upset because he was so close to death.

“You,” you spat and snap your head around to pierce your glare at him, but when you meet his guilt-filled eyes, when you see the life in his eyes your anger falls and your relief completely takes over, making you throw your arms around his neck instead.

“I’m happy you’re okay,” you whisper in his ear. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

Choso balls your clothes as he grabs onto your back and breaks the truth. “We’re still not done yet.”

Your breath trembles, but you don’t let his comment bring you down. “I know but let me just appreciate you’re okay for now.” You say and snuggle your face in the crook of his neck.

Choso hums and keeps holding you for as long as you need until you remember what you have and pull apart with a smirk. “I have something I want to show you,” you clue him in even though he might have an idea.

The worm returns to your shoulders as you pull your phone out that contains a glimpse at the promise you kept him. “Now, I know it’s not here physically, but I did complete my promise to you,” you assure him as you hold his gaze so he knows you’re being sincere.

You quickly find the photo of his father's brain and slowly show it to him. “Shoko is going to keep it safe for you so it doesn’t get crushed here, but,” you slowly trail off and let him take the phone. “You and your brother can rest easy now that he won’t be roaming this earth.”

Choso clenches his jaw and anger passes behind his eyes, but it’s all then quickly replaced by relief, and then lastly sorrow that brings tears to the corner of his eyes. And you can’t imagine it’s sorrow for his father's death, he hated his father, so it must be sorrow born from joy more than anything; joy that at long last a monster who terrorized him, his brothers, and his mother is finally gone.

It was all thanks to you.

“Your mother and your brothers can rest now too,” you tell him softly. “He won’t torment anyone anymore.”

Choso looks at you and his eyes gleam with awe and joy. “Thank you,” he muses as he gives you back your phone to tuck it away. “Thank you for doing this for me and for my family.”

You offer him a gentle smile and reach over to wipe a tear off his cheek. “You welcome and if it wasn't just me, it was Okkotsu too, but you are welcome.”

Choso grabs your hand to give it a gentle squeeze, and as he holds your gaze the love he has for you only heightens and grows more passionate and tender. He also thanks the stars and fate for letting your paths intertwine.

“What will you do with it?” You ask Choso, making him snap from his stupor to glare at the ground with a seething anger as if his father was there.

“Burn it,” he sneers, “and then I’ll disintegrate those ashes until there’s nothing left. I don’t want to give him even the slightest chance of coming back, especially not now that we're going to have children.”

You hum and nod in comprehension.

“I wish I could do it now,” he grumbles, “but it seems we don’t have the time.”

You hum in agreement and wait in his silence as he lets his mind process all that you just revealed to him, and all the emotions he was just hit with. You don’t rush him and let him fill the silence all on his own.

Albeit when he does he catches you guard.

“Did you…” Choso pauses, making you look back at him with a soft curious look—“recover Suguru Geto’s body?”

You blink in surprise and avert your gaze to nod. “Yes,” you respond quietly. Again not out of shame, you just don’t know how much you should talk about Suguru with Choso.

“Shoko says she can mend the wounds we left him and get rid of the those nasty stitches Kenjaku left,” you share with a faint smile, and when you look over you see Choso struggling to keep his eyes on you.

It’s probably just as awkward for him as it is for you.

“That’s good. Satori will be able to look at her father one last time without thinking about Noritoshi,” he says what you thought about too. “And you,” he pauses. “Will be able to put him to rest too.”

You sigh and nod. “Yeah,” you mumble. “I know…It’s not weird, is it? Talking about him?”

Choso keeps his eyes on his hand clutching onto his wound and blinks before he shakes his head. “No…it’s just…strange, but it’s something I know shouldn’t bother me.” He finally looks over at you and looks at you with a guilty look. “Don’t think you have to avoid talking about him in front of me…I understand he was your husband. You loved him.”

You hold his gaze as you feel your heart envelope in warm bliss and awe that could almost mend your shattered heart.

“You’re sweet,” you coo and grab his chin with your thumb and pointer finger to lean in and press a gentle peck on his lips. “This is why I love you.”

The corner of Choso’s pink lips tug up and his hand cups your wrist to caress your skin and send waves of comfort throughout your aching body.

“Now,” you change the subject as you slide your hand over to take his hand. “Why don’t we go sit so you can finish healing before we meet up with Yuji? I have something to show you.” You bounce your eyebrows and flash him a giddy grin.

Choso studies you and this sudden burst of excitement that he knows isn't just caused by anything, there’s a specific reason behind your outburst and he assumes one thing. “Did Satori send you something?”

You walk him toward a nearby wall since there’s no benches anywhere nearby.

“No,” you tell him and peer back at him with your lips and eyes hard to read. “Manami and Toshihisa were going to keep her distracted all day today. I didn’t want to risk having her catch a glimpse of the broadcast. So she’s too busy having fun.” You assume, but you also know that it’s not too far-fetched considering who’s taking care of her.

“It’s something else,” you tease him and sit you both down on the cold ground and press your backs against the wall. “Are you ready?” You only begin to excite him now.

“I don’t know if I should be,” Choso remarks nonchalantly.

You giggle as you pull out your phone and meet his gaze to pass him a giddy look that causes a gleam to spark in your eyes, and makes his heart skip a beat.

“Shoko checked on me after I got back,” you begin to explain to him as you surf on your phone until you find the video you just took of the twin's heartbeat—“and she heard this.”

You press play and push the phone near him so he can see the screen, even if it’s just Shoko pressing the wand against your belly.

At first, though Choso doesn’t seem to understand what he hears, he thinks that the two running hearts are just your own heart racing too fast.

“I don’t—” just before he can express his concern though his mouth goes agape and his eyes widen.

“It’s their heartbeats,” you make it clear so he can process the news faster. “It’s Suki and…”

“…Tsukuyomi,” Choso finishes for you, making you beam at him and nod in confirmation. He then carefully takes the phone from you to pull the phone closer to his ear.

“That’s them, that’s their hearts,” he muses.

You watch as his eyes cloud with blissful tears, and his smile spreads with a tender adoration dancing on his lips.

“They sound strong,” you repeat what Shoko told you. “They have strong hearts.”

Choso tears his eyes away from the video and looks at you with even more tenderness that softens his eyes and makes his eyes glimmer. “Just like you,” he whispers confidently because out of all the things he knows, he knows he’s more than sure about that.

You hear it, the sincerity behind his tone and you can’t help but also redirect it at him. “And you.”

Choso’s smile fills with more admiration and he responds by leaning in and pressing a kiss on your forehead.

You smile softly with glee and take his hand before you rest your head on his shoulder and listen to the video one more time to use that as a sliver of joy in this storm of agonizing sorrow.

After Choso plays the video a couple more times he rests his head on yours and gently squeezes your hand in the silence he keeps. You can’t help but keep smiling as you think about your dream of growing your family, of raising your children the way you wanted to be raised and loving them with your husband who loves you unconditionally.

What more could you ask for—

Oh…

Satoru…right.

No matter what he was always in your future, even if you imagined him distant when you didn’t talk, he was still there in the background of your dreams. Now…where he once was is replaced by a black void that slowly swallows everything and leaves you hopeless for the future.

“Once this is done,” you break the silence to avoid drowning in your grief. “The snakes will lash out at the Gojo clan.”

“What do you mean?” Choso probes a bit confused.

“They won’t accept my daughter as their leader so they’ll try and replace her with one of my male cousins most likely,” you explain and already start to feel irritated.

“Even if your brother left in his will that he wants Satori to be leader after him?”

You nod. “Yeah, one, my daughter wasn't raised with the Gojo’s, two she's a woman, and three her last name is Geto and she didn’t inherit her father's technique.” You sigh but smirk mischievously. “Not like it really matters, sure it’s annoying, but I’ll go chop off a few heads to make them listen, and if Satori chooses not to be leader, well, I’ll take her place and pass on the title to one of our children. Hence following the procession of the clan with my line.”

That will surely teach your family for mistreating you!

You love being spiteful.

“Are you sure?” Choso surprises you by asking.

You pull away from his side and meet his gaze with a serious and determined pointed look. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” you swear.

Choso didn’t want to try and argue or convince you that it was a bad idea, all he needed was to ask if that’s what you really wanted to do. Now that he has his answer he’ll leave it be and let you do as you please and what best suits your daughter, and your brother's wishes because it’s what he would do too if he was in your shoes.

“I know it hasn’t been long, but how’s your wound?” You interject as you turn around to sit on your knees and grab his vest and robe to pull it aside so you can check out his wound yourself.

“I feel better,” he tries to assure you, even if you look at his wound right now and see that it’s still pretty deep. They’re not as deep as before, but they’re not near closing yet. However, you know you can’t reason with Choso, not when Yuji is still in commission, as well as you. You would need to knock him out cold to get him to sit back.

“Cho,” you still try to argue regardless. “I see—”

“I’m okay, I can keep fighting,” he cuts you off a bit harshly so you won’t try and argue again. “Don’t worry about me right now.”

You drop your eyes to the two holes in his flesh and groan before you steal a glimpse at his blood-stained abs and let his clothes go to fall back into his place.

“We should…find Yuji,” you bring up a bit begrudgingly. Only because you wish he’d heal 150 percent.

“That’s what I was thinking,” he says as he stands on his feet.

“That’s what I was thinking,” you mock under your breath as you follow him up.

Alas, he catches you and slowly cranes his head back to look at you with his thick eyebrows furrowed.

You sass him and shoot him a pointed look that makes him scoff before he steps aside to let you walk ahead as he keeps an eye out from behind.

However, he’s not looking out for Yuji, he’s watching out for trouble that might try and catch you off guard. Even if Sukuna is fighting alone and he has no reason to come after either of you unprovoked, it would still be stupid to not be looking over your shoulders.

“I hope you know the moment you get hurt I will throw you over my shoulder,” Choso proclaims, making you smirk and look back at him.

“Oh really?” You say teasingly, causing his eyes to snap to you, however he doesn’t catch your flirtatious smile.

“Really,” he says seriously.

Your smirk deepens and your voice turns silkier. “Why don’t you try it out right now? Just show me how you’ll do it, hm?”

Choso blinks and is finally hit with the realization of what you’re really getting at. “Oh…well…I can show you,” he tries his best to hit you back with something flirty just as smoothly as you.

“I might argue,” you say and come to a stop so he can fall right behind you, to the point his chest grazes your back—“what will you do then?”

Choso swallows thickly and glances at your lips, making you steal a glimpse at his own before you turn around and show him an example with a short kiss.

“There’s one way to keep me quiet or…?” You trail off so he can finish.

“Or,” he trails on as he holds your gaze completely star-struck. “I can,” he pauses and raises his hand to let it hover over your mouth and make sure you’re okay with what he’s doing. When he notices that you aren’t protesting, and keep waiting with a smirk on your face, Choso gently presses his hand against your lips and slowly lets his thumb graze over your bottom lip as he holds your gaze.

Your heart skips a beat with excitement and his pounds, but even as he stands there nervously he still gently penetrates the tip through your lips. When he feels the warmth and wetness of your mouth he shoves his whole thumb in, making you suck gently before you pull away from his touch and laugh.

Not at him. Of course. You laugh with excitement, having forgotten for a moment what tormented you, and steal a passionate kiss that you savor before you press your forehead on his and grab the back of his neck.

Choso lets out a deep breath and cups your cheeks to caress your jawline with his thumb, making you lean your face towards one side to steal one more moment of comfort.

Just a short moment before you both pull away and continue down your path side by side.

After a few moments of walking, you finally come across Yuji on his knees in the middle of the highway with blood spilling out of his mouth. And just ahead you see only a glimpse of Maki and Sukuna before they disappear from your view. But even if he’s gone you still feel a chill run down your spine as you assume you’ll be facing him off soon now that you’re closer in his range…

Soon though, now you focus on Choso and his brother, and with a look alone you press Choso to help his brother.

And even if your husband understands what you mean he still hesitates. “What if I say the wrong thing? He said I’m not good at teaching, I don’t want him to get something wrong because of me,” he pauses and drifts his gaze away from Yuji to look at you with a soft pleading look. “Could you help him, remind him to take it slow?”

You glance at Yuji in distress and do have the need to help him, but if you were him all you’d want is your brother's help, even if it is a smidge of advice.

“He needs you,” you advise Choso. “Just don't over-explain it. Talk to him as if you were talking to Satori,” you say and rub his shoulders, but he doesn’t seem content with that so you come up with one more thing. “Ah! Just explain it to me and I’ll tell you if it's okay.”

Choso swallows back nervously but doesn’t hesitate this time, he draws out a deep breath and brings his hand up to press his thumb on your forehead. “Healing comes from here. All you need to do is just visualize. Watch it spread like roots,” he explains tenderly as he moves his thumb down. “Spread it everywhere and focus on mending what’s really wounded.”

Choso traces the veins down to your hand and stops when his thumb lands on your warm palm. And as he holds your hand his tenderness slowly twists to worry. “Was that okay?” Choso asks somewhat panicked.

You offer him a bright smile and nod. “That was perfect. I’m sure he’ll understand,” you assure him as you grab his hand with your free one to gently massage his palm.

Choso sighs deeply and glances at Yuji, still seeming to be spaced out and distressed on the ground. This time though, without hesitation Choso leaves your side and reaches his little brother.

“Take a breath,” you hear Choso guide Yuji as he presses his hand on his back. “Remember what you were taught. Visualize it. Allow the blood to spread throughout every corner of your body like roots. Visualize an outline of your body made with veins.”

You can’t help but smile in awe as you watch the interaction, as you watch how kind and patient Choso is with Yuji even if this is a moment of distress. You watch him being a caring old brother and once again you’re reassured of the fact that he’ll be a great father, and an even greater partner to raise your family with.

Once again as you watch him help Yuji you can’t help but count yourself lucky for having fate cross your paths.

——

Dear Satoru,

How does one relish in the peace gifted to them after so many died trying to get this far?

I can’t help but feel guilty about being happy and being able to live my life the way I dreamed of. Choso and Shoko tell me I shouldn’t feel bad for the dead anymore, but how can I look at Satori who's a couple of months away from turning 17? How can I look at my twins laughing and playing with their father, my youngest girl Amaterasu clinging onto her father hoping that somehow she could live in his skin so she wouldn’t be too far away from him. How can I watch my youngest son Ryusei get more and more curious about the world without feeling bad for those who sacrificed themselves and couldn’t live past another day of their lives?

I smile, I laugh, I’m grateful, but there’s always that twinge of guilt I feel in my heart—

“Turtle.” A little voice pulls your attention off your paper, and as you look up you see your youngest child Ryusei holding a weird turtle-shaped rock, but his 2-year-old mind has latched on to that word and is labeling everything and everyone turtle because it’s his favorite word of the week along with “no”.

You really hate the “no” phase, all five of your kids had it, so you’re more than glad that Ryusei will be your last child. You can’t handle any more terrible two phases…even if Choso is starting to hint at wanting another one.

You can’t handle it anymore though. As cute as they are and as much as you love newborn phases, all you want now is to just focus on the kids you have and be able to love your man in peace without having any more snotty kids interrupt you—with peace and love.

“No,” you correct Ryusei and take the rock from his hold to look at it because that’s what he wants you to do. “This is a rock. See? It doesn’t have eyes or a shell, silly.”

Ryusei reaches over to take back his rock and studies it as he carries it in his palm. The wheels in his mind spin as he thinks about what you said for a moment before he pouts just like his father, and nonchalantly drops the rock.

“No,” he argues and waddles away,

You hear a giggle behind you and as you slowly look back you catch Satori with her head up and grinning with amusement.

“He showed me his toy and said it was a turtle, when I corrected him he threw it at me and waddled away,” Satori shares between giggles, making you sigh and slouch.

“He’s the most hot-headed out of all of you, I don’t understand why,” you contemplate your child’s behavior.

Satori pushes her sunglasses down to shield her eyes and flashes a grin. “His grandfather. Probably.” She snickers.

“That’s still not funny ten years later,” you grumble and look away, finding the twins, Suki and Tsukuyomi, and your youngest daughter Amaterasu going towards the oceans shore without their father towing behind him, so as curious as to where he went, you drift your eyes away and find him on his feet where they all once were.

“Suki, Tsu, your brother is going over to you, hold his hand,” Choso warns the twins since they’re the oldest, and Amaterasu finds it in herself to argue as if she’s the one that was left in charge of her little brother.

“But the waves are not strong at all!”

She lacks responsibility because she’s the middle child, and she’s never in charge like Satori or the twins, so she’s turned lax.

“It doesn’t matter,” Choso counters his daughter. “He can still stumble.”

“You’re not even in charge Amaterasu,” Tsukuyomi snaps at his sister. “Why are you talking back?”

“I’m just pointing it out!” Amaterasu yells at her brother as she stomps her foot in the water around her ankles—“Gosh…” she trails off and you watch her mouth move as she seems to mumble something under her breath.

You sit back on your hands and watch all four of them with a little smile on your face.

They argue often; all five of them, over little things but they make up like nothing, they apologize quickly and go back to laughing and smiling at each other, and after some desecalations, you can’t help but smile over their bickering because it reminds of you and your brother.

When you were young—no, you argued all the time too, as they do, and made up just as fast. You got older and things happened that kept you two estranged, but you found your way back to each other. You don’t want your children to go through that same strain, but you want them to experience all the good and the bad about having each other. You want them to know that same bliss about having a sibling that you still hold onto all these years later...

You grin and feel tears prick at the corner of your eyes born from joy that you express in your letter.

—but never about my kids. I never feel guilty about having my kids and knowing that joy. They’re my blessings, they’re my everything. They’re the good piece of me, and a piece of my beloved, Choso. They’re even a piece of you, Satoru.

I see you in them all the time, in Suki, Tsukuyomi, and Ryusei’s white hair, in all their unbreakable spirits. So that’s one thing I can never ever be guilty about. Because of them, I feel like I will always carry a piece of you.

Is that cheesy?

Still, I want rid of this guilt annoying my heart like a splinter in your finger that you can’t pull out—

“Look,” Choso pulls you away from your train of thought getting engraved on paper, and first drifts your attention to the shadow he casts over you before you meet his honey-kissed brown eyes looking down at you tenderly—“a mochi I took from Ryu’s snack bag.”

You flash him a smile and take the half he offers you in your mouth. He then takes a seat on the sand next to you and keeps holding your gaze, letting you notice the red tint stamped over his nose and his cheeks.

“Cho,” you point out with your mouth full and lean over to grab his chin. “Did you put sunscreen on your face? You’re getting red.”

Choso blinks and thinks as he keeps looking at you, and when he seems to think back to a specific moment he groans and shakes his head. “Amaterasu needed help putting sunscreen on so I stopped just as I was about to apply some on my face. Sorry.”

You sigh deeply and first finish your mochi before you reach into your bag and pull out a bottle of sunscreen to press some on the tip of your fingers before you lean close to Choso, and gently massage some on his face.

“No matter what you still need to remember to put some on your face. You still burn.” You remind him sweetly.

The corner of his lips pulls to a tender smile as his eyes soften. “Why, when I can have you help me?”

You pause briefly to swoon before you leave a sweet peck on his lips and continue to protect his face from any further burning rays of the sun.

“Do you want some too, Satori?” You tease your teenage daughter in a baby voice.

“No,” she quickly rebuttals. “Thank you. I can put my own on.”

“Oh, but—”

“No,” Satori cuts you off before you can reminisce about her when she was a little girl, making you drop your hands off Choso’s face and pout.

Choso sees your flicker of sadness and strokes your chin.

No matter what though, no one will take away the sadness at watching your little girl only get older—it’s not a bad sadness you lament, you wish for her to only get older, but there’s always something about watching your kids get older that just gets you a little sad.

“She’s always the one arguing and always the one holding his hand,” Choso muses.

You follow his line of gaze and smile softly at the sight of Amaterasu pulling Ryusei up with her to jump over the small wave unfurling over the sand.

The little boy giggles and watches the next wave approaching before glancing at his sister as he anticipates the next wave he’ll jump over.

“Trying telling her that,” you quip lightheartedly.

Choso chuckles, making you look at him and only grin in admiration as his shoulders shake, and the sun makes his brown eyes twinkle as well as highlight that infinite joy he always has when watching his children just doing their own thing.

He always looks at his kids with pride, no matter what nothing takes away that love he looks at his kids with because he never wants his kids to feel the same way his own father made him feel; unloved and unwanted. It’s what makes Choso an excellent father, and it’s why you love having the honor of being Choso’s partner and having him be the father of your kids.

And it’s while you admire him and think about his big heart and the life you’re lucky to share, that you realize the answer to your question, going unaware that even after 10 years Choso has the need to steal glimpses at you to engrave every detail of your face as if it was the first time laying his eyes on you.

….I get it now. The answer to my guilt is living my life for those who died fighting. I’ll love for them and live so their sacrifice isn’t in vain.

Love, your beloved sister.

——

*2 MONTHS AGO*

“What is Gojo’s sister to you?”

“To me?”

The camera focuses on Yuji Itadori holding a half-bitten sandwich, and the person behind the camera nods in confirmation, making the pink-haired boy wipe his mouth and hum as he thinks before he sits up and responds honestly.

“Well to me she once was someone I had a crush on, I mean did you see her in magazines and on runways?!” He smirks and laughs lightly. “But now, she’s like my bodyguard. Gojo—oh our teacher, Gojo asked her to protect me from the people after me, so she turned out to be that which is cool. But you know how they say you should never meet your idols?” He sighs and takes a bite from his sandwich. “Yeah, that suits my situation…” He trails off and his eyes widen with panic, but before he can seem to correct himself the camera cuts off and displays three other students.

“Who is she to me?” Maki Zen’in repeats the question and scoffs with displeasure.

“Salmon!” Inumaki exclaims, making Panda nod as he crosses his arms over his chest.

“She tried killing us last year,” the black and white bear shares with a huff. “And she’s been the only person who’s been able to deflect Inumaki’s technique.”

“I heard she killed some members of her family a few years back,” Maki cuts in and makes the camera shift to focus on her. “She’s also a stain on the Gojo clan. The one fallen from grace, or so they say. I would say I admire her but she tried to kill us so she’s a killer.”

The clip cuts off and now they’re back inside facing Yuji Itadori with his sandwich and a panicked reaction.

“…not that I don’t think she’s not strong!” Yuji finally gets to explain himself before someone gets the wrong idea. “She’s strong and cool! And very beautiful, in Iike, an ethereal kind of way, like if you tell me to think of royalty, that’s who I picture her to be. But I guess it suits her considering who they say she is in the sorcerer community.” He says and flashes the camera a smile, leading to a smooth transition to some courtyard of some shopping center with a short-haired girl in the center.

“How many of these questions are you going to ask me?” Nobara Kugisaki asks as she puts on some sunglasses to block away the sun from shining in her eyes. “Anyway,” she speaks softly and with no ounce of deceit. “She’s someone I can say I admire regardless of all I hear about her because she’s proof that you can be both strong and a woman. She’s proof that we as women in the sorcerer society don’t have to fit into a stupid stereotype. Plus she dresses so cool even when she’s out on missions with Itadori, I want to dress like her.”

There wasn’t even a second of stepping into the dark side of your character, despite all that’s said about you, Nobara spoke from her heart and never thought of holding back to fit in with what others had to say about you.

The same could be said about Kento Nanami, albeit he might have some bias for you.

“First off,” Nanami directs at the camera even if watches the road ahead of him. “She has a name, she’s not called Gojo’s sister,” he scolds the interviewer and instantly counters by saying your full name to the camera before dipping into the question. “And she’s my one and only best friend, there’s no one I trust more than her…” he trails off to push his glasses up his nose and watch the road as he seems lost in thought.

The video may display a few seconds of passing time, but in truth, Nanami took a lot longer than that to continue, and even then he sounds quite pensive when he speaks about you.

“Besides being strong, and a bit egotistical like her brother, she’s extremely loyal, there’s no one you’d want more fighting beside you in a tough situation than her. She’s really a force to be reckoned with,” he says and finally glances at the camera with his eyebrows narrowed.

“Should you really be recording while I’m driving—”

The video is cut off and lastly, there’s one more clip left of a tall man with white hair and dark shades on his face.

“Well as everyone knows she’s my sister!” Satoru says in an almost teasing manner. “My little sister. She’s the only sibling I have, and you know being raised in an important clan like mine brings a lot of responsibility, but she made it all tolerable…” he smiles softly ahead and then he can’t help but smirk.

“I’m strong, the strongest there is, but,” he snickers. “I wouldn't go messing with her. There’s a reason she's a special grade, but she’ll be a pain in your ass, trust me. I wouldn’t underestimate her,” he trails on softly, and if anyone who really knew him heard him, they’d even say that he sounds full of admiration talking about his little sister. They’d also be able to see the softness painted on his face, but he has a good way to mask that to look smug in front of the camera.

“Oh!” He exclaims and claps his hands before he stops and turns, making the camera turn too to face him directly. Albeit he then surprises the camera as he leans in close as if the speakers or the camera wouldn’t capture what he has to say. “Despite what she wants you to believe she’s not scary. Don’t believe that crap,” he laughs and turns the camera off forcing the interview about you to end.

——

*NOW*

“Well,” there’s no avoiding it now or a continuous chance to be a backseat watcher. “Looks like it’s almost my turn…” you trail off and gulp before turning away from the disaster Sukuna and Maki are leaving in their fight.

You’d like to say you’re heading to this fight completely fearless, but your trembling hands and your pounding heart say otherwise.

“No one would blame you if you chose not to fight,” Yuji suddenly interjects, sounding like his big brother. “You have a big reason to stay behind.”

You blink in disbelief and slowly lift your head to watch him watching his hands turned to red claws. He doesn’t look up to meet your gaze when he feels it boring in him, instead, he watches his fists as if trying to find a fault in them.

“I’d blame myself,” you tell him as you approach him. “I’m strong and I’m powerful, but besides that, I’m fighting for something much bigger than myself.” You come to a stop and cast a shadow over his body hunched on the ground, and raise your hand to clutch onto the heart locket Choso gave you, the one that holds a picture of Nanako and Mimiko.

“Sukuna took something from me too,” you whisper and feel your fury boiling inside, but you also feel grief you have yet to really let your heart feel. “He took the girls who taught me how to love full heartedly, he took the girls who made me a mother. What mother would I be if I didn't try and get revenge for what he did? They were my daughters and he took them away.”

You let out a shaky breath, but you drop the tears that came with it. Instead, you actually proceed to meet Yuji’s brown eyes as he finally lifts his head.

“Oh,” he whispers shamefully. “That’s right. I’m sorry.”

You shake your head and crouch down to be at his level. “Keep your head up, kid. He hasn’t broken your spirit yet. You’ll break his. He may be a monster, but there’s still something in there you can crush. I know you’ll find it. You’re strong and brave, and you have a good heart.”

Yuji raises his head and swallows thickly, he parts his lips and seems to search for something within you. When he can’t seem to find what he’s looking for he sighs and mutters. “How did you do it? Find the strength to keep fighting after losing so much?”

“My daughter,” you bring up with hesitation but find it in yourself to try and find something he can relate to. “Considering you don’t have kids, then I’ll say this. I have faith in myself. It gets shaken, but it’s reliable. You have that too, that unbreakable faith. I see it.”

Yuji’s eyes soften and his chest rises as he draws in a deep breath. When his chest falls a half smile tugs on the corner of his lips. “Thank you,” he says hushedly.

You flash him a smile and gently pat his shoulder before you stand to your given height to face Choso who refuses to look at you, but still hangs onto every word you just told his brother.

“Cho,” you whisper and close the gap left between you to grab his arm crossed over his chest to turn him to face you. “Don’t be mad. We talked about this.”

Choso keeps his gaze pierced on the ground, so you lift your hands to grab his face and tilt his head up so you can meet those eyes you love so much.

“You can go pull me out of the fight if I get hurt,” you try to assure him, but his dark eyebrows pinch together and his eyes pierce into you before he retorts.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

You sigh and he finally unfolds his arms to clutch onto yours. “I can’t be okay with you going to risk your life,” he spills out what he had been keeping inside for so long. “I was okay with you facing my father because he was weaker than you, but Sukuna? He can kill you before I even have a chance to react. How do you expect me to be okay with that?”

You shake your head and counter softly. “I don’t expect you to be okay with it, I’m not okay with you being here either, but what choice do we have? And you heard me just now, my reasons to be here and fight him. You were with me the day I found them, and you were with me every day after that as I’ve mourned them. You know the thirst for revenge too, and you know it’s impossible to sit idly by until you know you’ve gotten justice for the ones you lost.”

Choso's lips curl to a deep displeased frown, and his eyes drop before he groans out of frustration because he knows you’re right. He’s known it, but he doesn’t want to see you go.

“I’ll be okay,” you reassure him as you tilt your head so you can keep holding his gaze, so you can keep holding onto that warmth and keep it within you when you go out there and fight. “I’ll make it back. The twins will be okay. I’ll fight like hell to stay alive, I swear.”

Choso blinks repeatedly to avoid crying, but he can hardly stay strong so he lets his forehead fall on yours, while his grip trembles.

“Please don’t scare me like you did when we fought Noritoshi. Stay alive, I need you.”

Those words are so full of fear for your life, yet so genuine and full of nothing but love. It makes it hard to leave, but you can’t just stay back, you have to fight at least once. You don’t want to die so you’ll fight hard to avoid that fate for him, and for Satori waiting for you to reunite. But if life takes you down that path you can’t stop it, you’ll only hope you were able to give everyone a chance to defeat that great evil.

“I’ll make it back,” you assure Choso against his lips. “To you, my love. I love you.” You whisper with honey dripping off every word and lean in to press a gentle and lingering kiss on his soft and wet lips refusing to let you go. He keeps your lips captured until you gently push back, but even then he grabs your hand with his unbeatable strength and pulls you back towards him.

“Choso,” you warn him softly.

“Just,” he interjects softly but full of desperation. “Let me…” he trails off and lowers his gaze before he presses his palm against your belly.

He doesn’t say anything, but Yuji notices the silence and looks over at his brother finding comfort in the fact that his kids he made with you are safely growing inside you. Yuji takes note of his brother's hand clinging onto your arm, hoping that will be enough to keep you with him forever. He sees his brother's faint smile that mirrors yours because even if the babies are still too small to move, their mere presence is enough to make you both content.

Yuji takes note of the both of you desperately trying to find any excuse to stick close to each other, and can’t help but think that you’re both brave for coming out to fight even if you’re waiting for something so precious that deserves both parents to live without a burden of fighting this nasty monster. Lastly, Yuji watches you and that smile that decorated your face fade before you force yourself to pull away.

“Strong heart,” you try to give Choso courage before you pull something out of your pocket. You don’t show him what you have, instead, you grab his hand and place the object on his palm before pushing his hand towards his heart.

Choso refuses to identify the object just yet to be able to hold your gaze for as long as he can. Even when you look out at the city past the rooftop you’re on and see Sukuna knock Maki out with a black flash, he refuses to lose sight of your beautiful face, hoping that some way, somehow, that would keep you with him where he could protect you.

“Strong heart,” you repeat tenderly as you tear your gaze away from the tragic scene and meet the worried but sweet gaze of the man you love. “Keep it safe until I come back.”

You leave Choso one last kiss before you walk back. When you’re on the edge of the rooftop, when you feel nothing but the air of the world below on the heel of your feet, you force yourself to tear your gaze away and finally give your back to Choso and Yuji before you can stay, or Choso could force you to stay by his side.

And it’s only once your figure nor your face are painted before his very eyes that Choso pulls back his fist and opens his hand, seeing the little red and orange glass swan he had given you so long ago.

You had left a piece of your love behind that he could hold onto while you fought bravely, and so knew that you meant it when you said you'd go back to him because it’s true, you do want to go back to him. You won’t die against Sukuna, that’s not your heart's desire. You’ll fight fiercely because he took something from you.

He took Nanako and Mimiko. He took the girls who taught you how to love full-heartedly. He took the girls who made you a mother. He took your daughters. He took your daughters who loved you unconditionally. He took them away from you and didn’t stop there. He continued to break your heart by taking your brother too.

He was your best friend. Your beloved brother and he killed him too!

You’d like to fight Sukuna because he took Satori’s uncle, but you’re more selfish than that because Satoru was your brother first. You’ve loved him all your life and she’s only known him for a year of hers, so no, you aren't fighting for justice for her uncle's death, you’re fighting for justice for your brother's death.

Your brother, your daughters. Sukuna took them away. He’s a monster and you’ll kill him, or you’ll make him feel a fraction of what he made you feel. You’ll burn him so he can feel that agony he put you through even if it means your death.

Luckily he doesn’t notice you towering over him, he’s too lost in his glory after scoring a black flash against a teenage girl to notice you. Besides your cursed energy isn’t as strong and flashy as Satoru’s or Okkotsu’s, and for once you’re grateful for it because you can jump off the roof towering over Sukuna without getting noticed. At least for a few seconds that is.

When you get close, when your shadow casts on the ground around him you see him turn his neck and lift his head to catch what’s approaching him, but you force the elements to your side and use the air as your dance floor to twirl around Sukuna’s head before he has the chance to see you with either of his four eyes. Once you're behind him again you let gravity pull you down, and wrap your legs around his neck, and slap your hands on his eyes.

“I’ll take you to hell,” you sneer and light your hands on fire to burn his eyes.

Sukuna quickly throws his hand back and grabs you by the back of your head, but you stab your burning fingers in his deformed eyes and burn your fire fiercely and so bright that your fury is as clear as the burning sun in the sky, causing the giant beast to sneer before he digs his claws in the back of your neck and finally rips you off his back and hurls you off him.

You manage to use the air to catch yourself before you can hit the ground, and swiftly flip in the air to land with both feet on the ground.

“You,” Sukuna snarls.

You stand up smoothly and face him with a menacing glare. “Me,” you mock him.

Smoke rises off his eyes burnt shut, making his optical advantage nothing more than another wound he can’t heal. Which inflates your ego, you do admit.

Seeing the great Sukuna wounded because of you makes you stupidly proud.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” he doesn’t show any sign of defeat, and why would he? He just rolls his shoulders back and raises his nose further in the sky, casting his menacing glare on your delicate soul.

“I thought you’d be mewling over…” he trails off and taps his chin. “Who was it now?”

He’s just trying to tick you off. You can’t let him get to your head.

“I’ll burn you Sukuna Ryōmen,” you try to project your anger cool, you need to stay level-headed.

“Ah,” he snaps his fingers and lays his eyes on you. “Nanako, and Mimiko.”

You dig the heel of your feet into the ground and swallow back thickly at the sound of their precious names coming out of his dirty and cursed mouth.

“Oh, don’t forget Satoru Gojo too,” he brings up unbothered but with a taunting look pierced on you. “Dead brother, dead husband, and dead daughters.” He snickers under his breath and flashes off his wicked smirk.

And how can you stay so level-headed when he plays so carelessly when he tosses out the names of the people you love as if they meant nothing?

They meant the world. They were the world to you and he killed them. He took them away from you. You can’t behave so rationally, you can’t act with both mind and heart when it’s your heart that mourns and weeps.

You can’t.

You have to act with your blinding anger and with your agonizing grief. You have to kill him.

“I’ll kill you bastard!” You cry out fiercely.

Sukuna throws his arms out and begins to laugh manically. “Show me what you got oh Fallen One!” He bellows.

You blast off the ground and fly toward him with both fists basking with fire, and fury burning in your red-orange eyes.

However, instead of barreling your ignited fists in him, you use your cursed energy to manipulate the ground beneath his feet and rip off a piece of the ground to blast him to the sky.

You quickly follow him by meeting him in the sky and bring your hands together to display a dangerous hand sign.

“I am death. I am the One Fallen from Grace, and today Sukuna…you will know pain,” you grimace and pierce your glare into the depths of his soul to chant. “Domain expansion; StormsEnd!”

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Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest @natakina

A/N- Flashforward or an illusion? Whatever it is, we need more of Choso and his babies.

[tatertotcosmonaut]

So like what was the point of this panel then if, in this chapter, he still didn’t go all out?

Discussion of chap. 253 leaks below the line

And like I guess him landing a black flash could be Sukuna becoming more serious but it’s clear he’s still just enjoying himself like one plays with toy trucks.

It’s good to see some Maki action, but I’m just starting to get a bit grouchy with this continuous “new enemy shows up, enemy battles Sukuna, Sukuna praises them for being ‘nothing like he’s ever seen before’/some comparison to Gojo, and then he kills them or incapacitates them a few panels later”.

This has been happening since chapter 223, the Gojo fight, with the Takaba fight being the only break from that formula and the occasional Uraume panel. It is chapter 253 now, this formula has been happening since September of last year. Not just that but any time and writing dedicated to the narrative themes of the story and actually pushing the plot forward have been sparse, we get the occasional introspection from Sukuna but it’s almost treated as a simple thought bubble and not something that is one of the main narratives of JJK (loneliness, power, love, and humanity).

I just want to see more about Sukuna than just that he’s very strong and is good at fighting, there’s more to his character than that and it just gets a bit disappointing to see that narrative not be focused on.

[aaliyahhves]

*Jjk 253 chapter spoilers

Okay when mya said chapter begins with a flashback, I was like we done 😭 , we are , but not just yet . The flashback was for kusakabe , with everyone saying he's the top grade 1 sorcerer. Next we skip to sukuna vs maki , they keep fighting , slashing , destroying buildings , sukuna sneaks up on maki and hit her with a cleave but ino came and disrupts him , sukuna instantly hits him with dismantle , then right that moment, kusakabe came in with nanami's blade bit sukuna realised their plan even before and throws kusakabe into a wall , maki thinks even if yuuta is healed they'll be in trouble if the fights go on any longer , she decides to end it , then sukuna starts glazing maki after throwing her off a building and cutting half her face , he talks all about heavenly restrictions being the true essence of one's life ( he makes sure to insult yuuji , calling him a half assed brat 💀) , then glazes maki some more but instantly hits her with a BLACK FLASH ???????? Maki is injured and kusakabe realised that he is now left alone standing against sukuna and he'll have to fight him .

My guess is now sukuna will heal himself and open a domain after going hand to hand against kusakabe for a minute , we'll then get choso and yuuji entering the fight but sukuna opens a domain , I feel like the characters that will die next is definitely kusakabe , maki and 50% for choso , in the end, it'll be yuuji against sukuna if we don't get gojo or yuuta back .

The manga is on break next week .

[tetitous]

Hey, so

Quick opinion gathering post (this is, once again, about chapter 253):

This was past!Alma's anti-akuma weapon

It looks like it was a staff.

I suspect equipment type anti-akuma weapons used to be designed in a less specialized manner in the past, that it was basically up to the compatible exorcist to shape it in a way that made it usable to them.

I think so because this:

Looks like it's the same kind of staff.

I mean, if Bookman knew he and Lavi would be compatible with the Innocence before they joined the Congregation, it makes sense that it would be because a previous Bookman wielded one. Also, since Nea's awakening seems to attract Akuma towards the host, it would make sense that past!Lavi proposed himself as a shield for said host, because he's equiped to deal with Akumas.

So, here are my options:

I'd like to get people's opinion, so feel free to answer

[utopiastri]

Fic Writer Interview!!!

tagged by @1425fivefive (forever ago, whoops!) and @miamimaiden

(this was such a funny ask game bc i did mostly end up discussing my F1 fics but I also have a Number of musicals fics on my ao3 so those do also crop up in my answers lmao)

How many works do you have on AO3?

10 in total!!! 4 F1 fics so far though

What's your total AO3 word count?

62,635 apparently (mostly being driven by one of those aforementioned musicals fics lmao)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

who actually texts people this much (3,076) (again. the musicals fic)

you must like me for me (646)

tell me 'bout the first time you saw me (508)

you're always on my team (464)

and i'll learn how to fly (253)

ok other than the obvious outlier at the top, i'm thrilled that my four F1 fics are the ones that have made it into the top 5 because they are undeniably the ones i'm proudest of right now

insane to me how many people have liked you're always on my team!!! i was a little nervous about posting my first chaptered fic in a while and i'm so happy it got such a lovely reception

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes!!! oh my god i love responding to comments as much as i love leaving comments myself!!!

the only thing with this is that i do find myself forgetting to actually put time aside in my day to do it!!! so sometimes, about two weeks after i read a comment and internally squealed about it, i'll go "oh FUCK i didn't reply that comment" and sprint to my laptop

so, uh, if you've ever received a late comment reply from me? now you know why lmao

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

oh god um. none of them? i guess the one abandoned fic on my ao3 account (a she-ra fic from 2018 lmao) has the angstiest ending by virtue of the fic not being finished and no resolution being reached lmao

but genuinely i don't think i could ever write a fic with an angsty ending!!! i think at best i could plot an angty ending??? or maybe write a drabble or something??? but honestly, i really struggle reading angsty endings so it would be a rogue move to write one lmao

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

ooooooo excellent question

honestly any of my finished F1 fics probably work but i think i'll go with you must like me for me! truly one of my favourite brands of happy ending is a reciprocated love confession and (not to spoil the fic lmao) that might be one of my favourite ones i've ever done!

Do you write crossovers?

nope!!!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

oooo once upon a time i received a comment on that musicals fic, who actually texts people this much, that was fairly harsh on the writing??? the worst part was enough time had passed since i'd written the fic and i'd honestly reached the part of the writing cycle where i hated everything about it so i almost agreed with the commenter lmao

even today, i think the critique was accurate! but perhaps not a polite/kind thing to comment on someone's fic lmao

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i'm trying to!!! i haven't posted any yet

i am terrible at describing things (including like. physical movement) so, so far, any smut i've attempted to write has been fairly dialogue-heavy!!! but honestly that's generally my taste in smut so i think this tracks

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

that musicals texting fic has been translated somewhere on the internet! one of my friends in uni dug it up lmao

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

never co-written before! i am a huge fan of brainstorming fics with my friends though! either their fics or mine - i just love the collaboration of it all!!!

What's your all-time favorite ship?

god this is difficult!!! my taste in ships moves around all the time to be honest

ok for F1, it's fairly easy - landoscar do unfortunately possess my entire heart and there is very little i can do about that lmao

other than that? i do have to mention how much i still adore the les mis pairing enjolras/grantaire because i did spend a good portion of my teenage years thinking about them and only them lmao

and i spent many a year in steve/bucky from the mcu hell so i guess it's important that that goes on here too!

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

so many!!! in particular though, i would love to one day finish the first ever landoscar fic i ever worked on (the idea was that oscar and lando are friends with benefits but, through miscommunication shenanigans, have somehow never kissed lmao)

i think i'd just really enjoy the full circle moment of getting to finish that first wip!

What are your writing strengths?

dialogue!!! dialogue my beloved! my favourite thing i have ever written is the unreciprocated love confession scene in you must like me for me - writing a dramatic not-argument/discussion was just so tailored to my strengths of writing dialogue and not much else lmao

there's a reason i'm having so much fun with you're always on my team! and it's because what is a texting fic if not a fic made only of dialogue!!!

What are your writing weaknesses?

description!!!!!! tell me 'bout the first time you saw me was a delight to write but truly i don't know if i could do a first meeting fic again because trying to work out how a stranger would describe oscar piastri was a NIGHTMARE

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

as someone who can only speak english, i simply don't have a good enough understanding of any other language to do it without defaulting to like. terrible google translate

i think it can be fun to read though!!! it depends what effect the author is going for tbh

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

...glee (i wasn't even that into glee!!! my two best friends at the time were though so i wrote a couple things i thought they'd enjoy lmao)

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

galex!!! i don't know if i could do it but i really really want to one day - if only because my girlfriend's sister adores them and i think it would be fun to write something for her!

although i have also been pondering gax a lot with @jusst-you-race!!! so maybe i should throw gax in here too

What's your favorite fic you've written?

you must like me for me undoubtedly. it's the most complete fic i think i've ever written in that there's a clear plot with a clear resolution and, as i said earlier, that unreciprocated love confession/first kiss scene is genuinely my favourite thing i have written of anything ever!!!

it was also the first fic i'd posted in nearly 6 years!!! and i'm so glad i felt happy enough with it to share it because i've just had the most wonderful time in this fandom since doing so!!!

i cannot for the life of me remember who has done this so no pressure tagging @ipleadbritney and @jusst-you-race and anyone else who wants to do this!!!

[seijitheclown]

SPOILERS Chapters 251 onwards

Bookman Junior, past!Allen, Bookman and ... debunked theories, also theories that somewhat were reanimated?

So here it is my new theory post regarding the newer chapters it took me a while but my mind has been working. I did several in the past, here we have them:

Bookman's Flashback & Bookman Jr = Lavi but different?

Lucia & the Bookman at the Campbell's

The weirdness of Allen's Age

Allen & Junior being one person at some point

So hey listen I did come up with a lot of things over the past 6 months and I will refer to a few that were confirmed (and also debunked) and go to a few things we learned from the recent chapter (253). And my two cents to that.

The Bookman from the Ark Flashback is indeed our Bookman.

I had the discussion earlier this year that it was implied that this person is a Bookman but it's not clear what Bookman. My first thought was our current Bookman. Then I had the idea it could be Cross as I stated in the post above but ... no. I came back to it being our Bookman as the ears and the earrings match. So we kinda got that confirmed here.

2. Bookman Jr = Lavi, but no & Allen's bond with Junior in the Flashback during the Circus ark

My idea was if Allen got regressed Apocryphos might have been messing with more people. But that theory was wrong. We do have a second Lavi though.

Also I was right about the one single memory of Red before the circus of feeling someone cared for him was him and Lavi, their bond survived the whole ordeal with Apocryphos (also I suspected Junior protected Allen from Apocryphos that was confirmed too).

I was wrong about the idea that Allen was a child when he met Nea as we learned Allen was dying as Nea approached him and that was the reason why Nea bowed down. I was right about Allen being regressed according to that flashback though.

3. Blood relation between Bookman & Junior, the Clan and their Blood + the black Sheep and the Mark

This is a kinda confirmed thing? At least Allen refers to Bookman as Lavi's "Dad".

Also current Allen indeed looks like a mash up between pastAllen and Lavi. At this point I suspect that a lot of Lavi's personality and functionality took over Allen as he was merely a head and the Innocence arm, everything else was basically Lavi's Helix filling up his.

The question is still are the Bookman otherwise related in any way? How did the elder from the village immediately knew that the Baby was related to the Bookman Clan? A Clan that is not known by many as they operate in the shadows of history.

We know that Bookman are allowed to have children (it was confirmed somewhere in Komui's Lounge I don't know which Volume it was but it was the same confirming that they don't drink Alcohol iirc). It could be that the whole Clan is indeed Blood related BUT maybe just a few people might have the abilities to become a Bookman and maybe even among those only a certain percentage are allowed to work in their profession (heck I still think Lucia looks like Lavi but with a haircut).

This would explain why the Bookman share their recordings by "blood" while they still do recordings on paper (looking at Lucia writing down the stories of that old man). Maybe Bookman, Lavi and current!Lavi are the blessed ones with the Blood connection while Lucia, Joe and the Zeugle guy (does he has a name even?) without socks are helping to a certain degree.

What brings me to ... the mark.

That one thing marking the Bookman as head of the Clan and the Junior as the future Bookman.

It is certainly not the scar that Junior has. At this point I do suspect something else but let me finish my first thought.

Bookman sr. hides his mark under Make up, we all know how he looks like right now. The current Junior wears an eyepatch. We don't see their right eyes uncovered/without make up. Not even with baby!Lavi. Hoshino even hid Bookman's right eye behind the wall to not give away any clues in earlier chapters.

We do not see Lavi's eye uncovered in any flashbacks, the glasses hide his eyes every time.

But we do see in Chapter 253 that Bookman Sr only covers the area above his right eye with make up and we all can agree that both his eyes are fine to use he doesn't need glasses, there aren't any hints that his right eye is defect in any way. Also current!Lavi has only his eye covered there is no mark on his forehead or anything.

So there is a mark somewhere around the right eye the key person of the Clan have by birth.

I do suspect that Lavi, who was conflicted all the time, from young years on, that this profession is what he should follow, reminded by Bookman who supressed his feelings all his live long, to stay true to his profession either forcefully lost his mark by someone else.

Or he decided to blind himself to erase his connection to the Clan. As he sees himself as the Black Sheep, the one who brought shame upon the Clan. They still do see him as 'beloved' member, and the reminder that he lost his former Junior pains Bookman to a certain degree.

I think the latter is the case, I do think Lavi injured himself to erase his connection to the Clan. But he still was a member and he was not completely disconnected from the Clan either.

One point is that current!Lavi was born after Lavi merged with Allen, that means he might gave up his 'Job' but he was still their heir. AND his hairstyle is the same as Bookman's it's a Bookman hairstyle. Also the jacket he wears is hinted to be worn under the cape in the teen flashback, the collar decoration (feathers) still hints to the Bookman Clan and so does the clasp which shows a bird. He is still attached to the Clan even with the fact he denies it.

Why would you continue to wear the cloth of a Clan if you didn't want to be associated with it anymore? Also why does he stick to the rule of not having a name? Like, he left the Clan and still is "I was formerly the one who was supposed to be the next Bookman I have no name but Lavi is the name of the Record so that's not a name either"... Lavi you literally could have named yourself Bob and that would have been your name?! (But yeah I think Allen told him his 'name' is Lavi now just to make things easier)

Also Bookman does his best to not let his current apprentice take after his former Junior (eyepatch, not the same hairstyle, more distance between them, constant reminder not to get attached).

BUT there is something we can't grasp yet...

their weapon. We first see Lavi's staff in Chapter 252. And current Lavi has a similar weapon with his Hammer, he uses a staff during the attack on the Headquarter as his Hammer broke during the fight with Tyki.

Why do the both Junior have the same weapon? Does Bookman teach them the same fighting style? Is there any reason behind this?

And ...

4. Bookman, Lucia, the Helix and Innocence

What is the deal with Bookman and the Helix of Life? Can they just manipulate it like that?

We do know the Lucia in the current chapters is the same as the one in Chapter 222, the chapters take place about 3 months apart, not more, it is not a Flashback. Lucia 'aged' somehow.

An idea I have is that maybe Bookman can indeed control their Helix to a certain degree. Maybe Lucia gifted a part of hers to 'the injured Bookman in the Campbell Residence' to help him heal, she lost years of her life and aged accordingly (wild theory but hey we got wilder things within the series, also Bookman is important to their Clan keeping him alive is their higest priority).

They must be able to manipulate it at some point. This would explain why Bookman and current!Lavi were able to become accomodator of Innocence 'just like that', this is not a coincidence. Especially considering Bookman warns Lavi about becoming a crystal type.

Innocence feeds off the Helix and only chooses people who are resilient enough to endure it, people who aren't giving up after their personal traumas and keep on fighting (which is a horrible thought, they are basically punished for surviving and then their live source is sacrificed for the Heart...).

5. Allen and Lavi are the same, aka we know nothing about Allen

Hands down we learned a lot about the former Bookman Junior and he gave up his own life for Allen, to fill his helix. The former Allen, the soldier, who made a deal with Nea, doesn't exist anymore. And the Allen he was before Apocryphos got him was basically someone else as he was before the deal, he was a teen raised by someone who was a Bookman.

The Allen we have is the result of two people being fused (something I had suspected earlier). Though we have zero idea who past!Allen was aside... being a soldier. We don't know why he agreed to Nea's deal nor what he got for it. We don't know who the opponent was that wiped his whole unit.

6. Cross is not Bookman Junior

I think we can finally get rid of that theory, thank you.

Though I hope we learn what relationship Cross has with them all, he is a big mystery still.

7. The Future of Allen

So yes this ... is bugging me. There is surely more like ... what will happen to Allen when the Clan learns he is basically the lost Junior? Will they claim him? Will they treat him more gently? Will anything happen at all?

Will they help him to regain the lifetime he lost due taking the poison? (Or will that be Link's part?)

Also I tried to keep Hoshino's wish in mind not to share caps from the recent chapter therefore I inserted older caps and own drawings, just in case you wondered why.

[runabout-river]

Thoughts on JJK chapter 253 (spoilers)

There is so much to say about this chapter, especially about the art direction.

First, a coloured version of Maki's sneak attack against Sukuna this time with Yuji photobombing it

The chapter starts with a flashback that tells us that Kusakabe is the strongest first grade sorcerer outside of the clans. This sets up the end of the chapter and fits with Kusakabe being able to tank Kenjaku's full blast Uzumaki. His specialty is most likely Simple Domain.

Important to note about the flashback: it dates to before the Shibuya incident and mirrors the question of who's the strongest sorcerer. This means that since Gojo's apparent death, we still have not seen him in any normal flashbacks which is extremely strange considering how often we've seen the gang strategize in the timeskip. Suspicious.

Gege made an extremely important artistic choice this chapter: coloring Maki's and Sukuna's faces and bodies in black at various times. This is significant because it underpins Sukuna's excitement and later statement about being given a role (like he mocked Yuki previously) as well as Maki's strength.

The shadows show us who has the upper hand in any given moment, sometimes it's equal, sometimes it's not

Sukuna throws a car and Yuji is not there to see it. But also, how many have caught the detail that Sukuna is still actively bleeding from Maki's wound?

In terms of artistic choices, I don't remember Gege drawing panel constellations like this in the past. Our man's experimenting with new things (other than getting inspired by the anime)

Kusakabe used Nanami's weapon and his 7:3 CT. We still have no explanation on how that weapon came to be but I have a theory on that that I put onto my JJK Meta Analyses on Ao3 if someone wants to check it out.

Even more clever art this chapter: I saw the way the columns were cut but I didn't understand the purpose behind it. Cue Maki a few panels later kicking cut blocks of concrete and rebar at Sukuna.

The narrator puts Kashimo, Yuta and Higuruma into the same category. Kashimo we already saw being at a special grade level, now we can assume that Higuruma with more time would've reached the special grade status as well.

Sukuna is ecstatic and he pulls out his first Black Flash to show that his way of cursed energy is the superior one, something he had to prove for the first time in his life. For a moment he even achieved speed rivaling Maki's.

The BF is shown in 3 panels from 3 angles, showing us the scale of the impact it had. But hold! What did I say about faces drenched in shadow? Maki's face is black again, expressing to us a level of strength even while blasted backwards

Don't forget that BF multiplies your power exponentially but Sukuna already lost most of his CE by this point putting him on Yuta's level. That's still extremely high but the hit wasn't as powerful as it could've been and we're talking about perfected Maki here; someone who isn't bound by fate through CE anymore

Maybe at the end of the manga and when Sukuna potentially dies, he'll think about Maki and her freedom from cursed energy again.

This chapter ends with Kusakabe having to face Sukuna on his own even though he would rather flee but sometimes a man has to stand his ground. Let's see how he, sorcerer without a CT, will hold up against the King of Curses

[bratshaws]

through the hourglass 258. brb x oc

a/n: AEHNKAJNWDJKNAJK yeah YEAH MAN (comments and reblogs are super welcome and encouraged!)

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: none uwu

goodness gracious (pls read this one to know more what this fic is about!!)

chapter

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-

Oh how the universe liked laughing at him.

At least it was a late one because he’d have to leave after his birthday. 

He did read the papers in front of Cyclone, the Vice-Admiral moving back and forth on his chair as he waits for Rooster’s reply…but he cut him off first, “It’s not a long one.” he says, face neutral, “Considering everything…think about this as your last mission as a Lieutenant and then everything else will change once you become a Lt.Commander,hm?”

Rooster's eyes remained fixed on the papers Cyclone had placed in front of him, his expression thoughtful. He had expected the possibility of another deployment, but the timing of it weighed heavily on him. His birthday was just around the corner, and he had been looking forward to spending it at home with Beatrice and their family.

He ran a hand through his hair, a sigh escaping his lips as he considered Cyclone's words. Rooster respected him immensely, and he knew that Cyclone had his best interests at heart, right?

"It's just...the timing, sir," Rooster began, his voice measured. "Seems every deployment of mine is…weirdly timed.” Cyclone arched his brow and Rooster clears his throat, “I’m not complaining sir,I can still celebrate it.”

Cyclone leaned back in his chair, studying Rooster with a keen gaze. "The timing of these missions is beyond our control. You know how it is in the military."

Rooster nodded, his jaw tense as he considered Cyclone's words. He did understand, but it didn't make it any easier to accept. Especially now. “I know sir. I appreciate it.” he whispers, “Anything else I should know? Who else will be on the mission?”

Cyclone leaned forward, his expression becoming more serious. "This mission is classified, Lieutenant," he replied. "I can't disclose too many details at this time. The rest of the team will be briefed separately."

Rooster nodded, “Understood, sir," he said, his tone respectful. "I'll prepare myself accordingly."

Cyclone gave a firm nod. "Good. I have every confidence in your abilities, Lieutenant," he said. "You've proven yourself time and time again. This mission is important, and I believe you're the right person for the job."

Rooster felt a swell of pride at Cyclone's words, inhaling happily while smiling back at him. "Thank you, sir," he replied. "I won't let you down."

Cyclone offered a small, approving smile. "That's what I like to hear," he said. "You'll receive the full mission briefing tomorrow. For now,dismissed.”

With that, Rooster left Cyclone's office, his mind racing with thoughts about the upcoming mission. He exhales when he walks out of the office, papers under his arm and eyes moving around as if to check he was truly alone.

He half expected Mark to show up and immediately ask him what happened at dinner, but no, he hadn’t seen the other pilot the entire morning…and it worried him a little. Choosing to now busy himself with something else, he looked down at the file again as he made his way back to his office.

Rooster's office was a small, tidy - as often as he could have it - space filled with various medals and commendations displayed proudly on one wall. His desk, cluttered with paperwork, sat opposite the wall, and a large window provided a view of the military base outside. It was a space that had become a second home to him over the years, a place where he had spent countless hours working and preparing for missions.

As he settled into his chair, Rooster placed the file Cyclone had given him on his desk and leaned back, running a hand through his hair only to drop his hand back down on the wooden surface. Rooster's fingers drummed absentmindedly on his desk as he tried to focus on the task at hand—reviewing the mission details.He read through the sections he could access, noting the location of the mission and the expected duration.

Three months.

Well. Could be much worse.

He wouldn’t see the twins back at home and that crushed him. He rubs his eyes, then his forehead and then just stares down at the piece of paper for a few seconds.

Rooster's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. Three months away from home meant missing crucial milestones in the lives of his newborn twins. He felt a pang of guilt deep within his chest, wishing he could be there to witness their growth and development. The thought of leaving Beatrice to care for their babies on her own for such an extended period weighed heavily on him.

He shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts that threatened to overwhelm him. This was his duty, and he had a mission to focus on. Rooster knew he needed to compartmentalize his feelings and concentrate on the task ahead. After all, he had been trained for this kind of situation, and he had a responsibility to his team and his superiors.

With a deep breath, Rooster began to delve into the mission details, studying maps, reviewing objectives, and analyzing potential challenges. He made notes, highlighting critical information and strategies that would be crucial for the success of the operation.

He stared at the area for a few more second, tapping his pen against the papers before a knock on his door made him look up, “Who is it?”

“McAllister sir!” a pause “Can I come in?”

Rooster blinked, then leaned back on his chair, “Sure, come on in.” it’s been a while since he saw the younger recruit, both of them have been quite busy and McAllister and his friends were training really hard.

The door to Rooster's office swung open, and in walked McAllister. He saluted smartly as he entered, his expression a mix of nervousness and determination, smiling trembling a bit. 

“Hello sir.” hand still up to his temple, “Morning,sir.”

"At ease, recruit," Rooster said, offering a reassuring nod. He motioned for McAllister to take a seat in one of the chairs opposite his desk. "What brings you here today?"

McAllister settled into the chair, his posture still displaying a certain level of tension. "Thank you, sir," he replied, his voice respectful. "I wanted to ask…if we are going to join your mission.” he says softly, “It’s because…well,we weren’t really added into any others after what happened the last time and- and we’ve been training so much! We…just want to help is all.”

Rooster hummed, no doubt what Raptor and Jaws did months ago - and their punishment - weighed heavily on the other squad members. But Rooster did ask Cyclone to not punish everyone else, especially considering Rooster was the one who asked for him to promote McAllister, “Listen,McAllister, we won’t be able to be in a lot of missions together. It’s not because you guys aren’t good but…sometimes, we need people to be more up to speed, you know?”

McAllister nodded, his expression falling a bit. "I get it, sir," he replied, his tone respectful. “It's just…we want to prove ourselves, especially after what happened last time."

Rooster appreciated McAllister's determination and drive. He knew that the younger recruits were eager to prove themselves and make up for the past incident. "I understand your eagerness, McAllister," he said, his voice filled with a sense of camaraderie. "And I appreciate your dedication to improving. Just remember, every mission is different, and sometimes, it's about having the right skills and experience for the task at hand."

McAllister nodded again, his gaze steady. "Yes, sir," he replied, "We'll be ready for anything."

Rooster couldn't help but offer a small smile. " don't worry, opportunities will come, and when they do, you and your squad will have a chance to shine."

McAllister's eyes lit up with renewed determination. "Thank you, sir," he said gratefully. "We'll make the most of any chance we get."

Rooster leaned back in his chair, feeling a sense of pride for the dedication and resilience displayed by McAllister and his squadmates. "I have no doubt you will," he replied. "Now, is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

McAllister hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Actually, sir, there is one more thing," he began, his voice quieter. "It's about um…officer Halton? It…well,you guys are friends,right?”

Oh.

No.

Rooster’s smile drops, why was Mark talking to McAllister?? Of all people? “...I wouldn’t call it friendship.” he says with a strained smile, “We don’t know each other that well.”

McAllister seemed a bit taken aback by Rooster's response but quickly regained his composure. "I see, sir," he replied, his voice careful. "I just…well, he just seemed er…overly friendly with us?” he adds with a little frown, “I don’t know why? So we just…assumed he wanted to know more about us or something?”

Rooster's eyebrows furrowed in concern,straightening his body to speak with the younger recruit.. "What do you mean by ‘friendly?" 

McAllister hesitated for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "It's just that he's been trying to engage us in conversation," he explained, "asking about our backgrounds, our experiences, things like that. It's not that unusual, but...it just feels a bit...off, you know? Because he doesn’t…know us that well."

It was indeed strange for Mark to take such a keen interest in the new recruits, especially considering the rather frosty relationship between him and Rooster. "I see," Rooster replied, his tone thoughtful. "And how have you and your squadmates been responding to his questions?"

McAllister shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Well, sir," he admitted, "at first, we were polite and answered his questions, thinking it was just friendly curiosity. But it's been getting more frequent, and it feels like he's prying into our personal lives. We've started giving more vague answers to avoid sharing too much."

What the fuck was up with these people?

Rooster nodded, understanding the predicament McAllister and his squadmates were facing. "That's a good approach," he said,trying to remain as neutral as he could. "Did you tell anyone else or was I the first one you said anything?” Cyclone would’ve mentioned something if that was the case.

McAllister shook his head, "You're the first one I've mentioned it to," he admitted, "I wasn't sure if it was something worth bringing up, but since you two were- I mean we thought you were friends. We thought it might be best to get a second opinion.”

“Anything else?”

“No sir.”

“Were you guys uncomfortable when he asked?”

McAllister frowned, “...more…more confused? I guess, we uh, we just didn’t know why he was so friendly to us. He also asked if we were the ones you helped.” Rooster tensed up a bit, “But like, you didn’t help us per se, we just,well you did help but what I mean is-”

Rooster holds up his hand with a small smile, “I know what you mean,McAllister and I appreciate it. But don’t worry, truly, I’m sure this is just…a weird social cue.” he wasn’t certain about that honestly.

McAllister nodded, his expression still a mix of confusion and concern. "I hope you're right, sir," he replied, "but I just wanted to ask you about it, nothing-nothing bad, you know?” McAllister clears his throat, the tension in his shoulders easing just a bit. "Thank you, sir," he said, "for listening. We appreciate it."

Rooster smiled, genuinely touched by McAllister's gratitude. "You're welcome, McAllister," he replied, "we’ll figure it out,okay? Don’t worry about it too much."

As their conversation came to an end, Rooster couldn't help but feel a growing sense of unease about Mark's behavior. It was one thing to be civil for the sake of their shared duty, but Mark's newfound interest with everyone was weird.

He had to look into it later.

-

As Rooster headed back home, his mind was still occupied by thoughts of Mark and the strange turn of events. He knew he needed to talk to Beatrice about it and get her perspective. He had a feeling she’d agree with him.

Upon reaching the front door, Rooster entered and found Beatrice sitting on the couch, reading a book. Her attention shifted from the pages to him as he stepped in, and she smiled brightly, “Hi.”

“Hey,” he looks around a bit, trying to find the dogs, “Where’s everyone?”

She points to the staircase, “With Nikki, they probably noticed I am going back to work tonight so they are just…easing her a bit.” she says,setting the book aside.

Oh.

He forgot she was going back to the Hard Deck. And he wasn’t sure how to feel about it, “...right,I completely forgot you are coming back to the bar,” he mutters, “I got so used to having you close,gorgeous…what will we do with you gone?” and he playfully pouts at her, even if he was genuinely asking himself that.

Beatrice chuckled at Rooster's pout, as she stood up from the couch and walked over to him, her arms wrapping around his waist as she leaned in for a tender kiss on those very pouty - and plushy - lips. "Don't worry, Roos," she murmured against his lips, "I'll still be around when I'm not at the bar. You know that. You can always call me."

Rooster couldn't help but smile into the kiss, his worries easing at her reassuring words. He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss briefly before resting his forehead against hers. "You're right,gorgeous," he said, his voice soft, "We'll make it work. Are you excited about going back?”

“I am!” she says, backing away from him to check her bag, she was already dressed and freshly showered, ready to go back into the action, “I…I really missed you know? I missed the bar and…I missed serving the folks.” she chews her lower lip, “I mean,I do,I love being here with you but–”

“Baby,” he coos, holding up a hand, “Baby it’s fine. I know what you mean.”

He moved closer to her, his hands gently resting on her shoulders. "I'm glad you're excited,gorgeous," he said, his voice filled with genuine warmth. "And I'm happy for you."

Beatrice leaned into his touch, her eyes locking onto his. "Thank you, Roos," she replied, her voice soft. "But enough about me! How was your day?"

"My day was alright," he said, his voice thoughtful. "Work was the usual,but uh…I’m going to be deployed after my birthday.”

“...oh.”

“Yeah.”

Her back expanded as she inhaled and she leans back to look at him. There’s some disappointment in there, but it wasn’t enough to worry him, “It’s okay.’ she smiles, “It’s okay we both knew it could happen,Roos.”

Rooster couldn't help but feel a mixture of relief and sadness at Beatrice's understanding response.He reached out to gently cup her cheek, his thumb brushing against her skin."Thank you for understanding,gorgeous," he said, his voice filled with gratitude. "I hate the thought of being away from you and the kids, but it's part of the job, you know?"

Beatrice covered his hand with hers, her fingers entwining with his. "I do know," she replied, her voice soft. "And I'll always support you, Roos. We'll make the most of the time we have before your deployment. We can have your birthday party ready!”

“We sure can.”

She hums happily, backing away from him for a second to walk to the kitchen, “Anything else happened?”

He parts his lips, then wonders if he should share about the whole thing with McAllister. He waits a few seconds, pondering his response, then mutters, “Well,a few things but nothing to worry about.” he says, “I can tell you when you get back.”

“Oh,” she stops filling her water bottle to look back at him, “You sure?”

He didn’t want her to worry, he didn’t want her first day back to be like that. Plus he had some people to call and talk to, “Yeah,” he grins, “I’m sure.”

[stillness-in-green]

On Heteromorphs and Heteromorphobia (Arc XVI - XVIII, Endeavor Agency to Villain Hunt)

My thanks to @codenamesazanka for providing me a few crops this week for less fuzzy looks at background characters than I could manage working just off the Viz online catalogue. I'm hoping this posts okay, because it's about a thousand words longer than any of these have been so far, but has a lot less sub-sub-sub bullets than last week's breakdown of the CRC volume extra. Fingers crossed, and dive in, all!

The Endeavor Agency Arc (Chapters 241-252)

Chapter 245:

Another installment of Bakugou using animal terms, as he calls Hawks a spoonbill (in the Japanese, heradori, loosely meaning carefree bird).  Deku asks, with some sweatdrops, if he means Hawks; Endeavor’s sidekicks just tell him he’s got moxie.  One of Endeavor’s four consistently illustrated sidekicks is a big horse-like guy, though he’s by far the one who gets the least attention from the narrative; he is notably not in the panel of Endeavor sidekicks praising Bakugou’s go-getter attitude.   

The Paranormal Liberation War Arc (Chapters 253-306)

Chapter 256: 

Shouji is noted as having done his work study with Gang Orca.  I would kill to know if they ever had a conversation about their wildly different approaches to managing their scary heteromorph image, but Horikoshi has not deigned to show us anything to that effect.   

Chapter 258: 

This chapter gives us the full spread of the PLF regiment advisors.  While only a few of them will (as of this writing) get much to do, it’s notable that the percentage of obvious heteromorphs considerably increases at this level.  The MLA leadership was, barring cosmetic things like Curious’s skin or Re-Destro’s pointed ears,[1] all quite baseline, but every single regiment has at least one obvious heteromorph in their chains of command.  Indeed, a solid third of them are blatant heteromorphs,[2] which is a better percentile than, for example, the Shie Hassaikai or the U.A. staff can claim. It makes sense, given the obvious problems with restricting unlicensed quirk use to the home, that the MLA would attract a disproportionate number of heteromorphs, but the full extent of this will not be apparent for some time yet.

[1] His nose I read as more an exaggeration than a trait that’s specifically intended to be non-human-looking, but if it is supposed to be non-baseline, it’s considerably more obvious than his ears.

[2] That is, the really obvious, extreme heteromorphs, who number seven of the twenty-one advisors.  I didn’t count the R2D2 lookalike, the guy with the question mark mask, or Hose Face, who might be heteromorphs or might just be in costume, nor did I count Dabi’s #1, the spiky guy in the cabbie hat, whose concrete divergence of a pronged chin is a lot less noticeable than his being, like, eight feet tall and as broad in the chest as a particularly top-heavy wardrobe.  Any of those that are heteromorphs obviously increase the ratio even more.   

Chapter 259:

Our only shot to date of the gal who’s probably Natsuo’s girlfriend, who’s a heteromorph in the “mostly human but with some tertiary animal features glued on” mode; in her case, she has mouse ears and, judging by her body language, a fairly mousy demeanor.  Notable for being one of the most prominent heteromorph/non-heteromorph romantic relationships in the series, which is setting the bar about a quarter-inch off the ground.  Even more notable when you consider Dabi and Shouto’s willingness to sling around dehumanizing microaggressions!    I will remind everyone again that Natsuo evaded the topic of his having met someone at school when Fuyumi brought it up in front of their mother back in Chapter 187; while it played at the time as just a young man being embarrassed, this chapter’s splash page makes it apparent that he had a reason to be embarrassed, and was not just that awkward about the very concept of himself in a romantic relationship.     Knowing, then, that he had met someone at school, the question for the attentive reader becomes, “So why didn’t he want to tell Fuyumi and Rei about it back then, when Fuyumi gave him such a perfect opening?”  At this stage, the most the reader has grounds to assume[3] is that he’s just shy, or he wasn’t quite yet at a point in his relationship with this gal that he wanted to do the whole “introduce her to my family” song and dance, especially given what someone finding out more about his family would entail!  Later reveals about Rei’s side of the family will suggest a different, less benign possibility, however.   

[3] I’ll go ahead and rule out the idea that Natsuo is an asshole who’s not serious about her as being obviously not in the spirit of what we know about him.      

Chapter 267+268: 

Mirko has the thought, “Quick as a rabbit!” when focusing on catching up to Ujiko.  Later, in the midst of vigorously dehumanizing Shigaraki, she makes mention of her “rabbit survival instincts.”  We saw those animal references with Hawks as well, whereas it’s not something we see as much, if ever, from people like Tsuyu or Spinner.  As I suggested before, it’s easy to imagine people who have a hard time because of their appearance are more sensitive about said appearances than people who look like drop-dead gorgeous baseline humans but with a few animal features—but only as long as they’re cute or charismatic animals!—pasted on as an “exotic” touch.

Chapter 271: 

Dabi addresses Hawks and Tokoyami as yakitori—grilled chicken skewers, localized as “roasted chickens.”  This is less eyebrow-raising than him calling Spinner a lizard and then accusing him of being oversensitive for protesting—Hawks and Tokoyami are Dabi’s enemies, after all, and this is hot off of Hawks murdering Twice.  However, it certainly doesn’t support a read I’ve periodically seen offered that Dabi Learned From His Mistake With Spinner and Resolved Not To Do It Again.   

Geten calls the assembled heroes “dogs of the state.”  He’s not addressing any heteromorphs specifically, and of course using “dog” as an insult against someone viewed as overly obedient to a corrupt authority has plenty of history in many languages.  Still, I wonder if it’s the kind of usage that is frowned on as insensitive in some circles, similar to using e.g. “blind” to describe willful ignorance.   

Chapter 278: 

First spoken line delivered by Spinner’s #2, who will go on to be a key figure at the hospital attack.  Even the handful of lines he gets here is extremely effective at establishing his personality—grandiose, dedicated to the cause of revolution, and a vocal rallying figure for those he leads.    A few pages later, another panel will reveal him as being unusually short, likely taller than e.g. Mineta, but shorter than any of the story’s other teenagers, even the girls.  This small stature, combined with the insectile legs protruding from behind his shoulders, give an early hint that we’re looking at a heteromorph, while his mask sets up the possibility that he’s concealing something about his face.    Regarding the mask, it's possible that he just wears it for The Aesthetic, save that the MLA—unlike, say, the Shie Hassaikai—don't have an organizational culture towards masks, as the MLA are very geared towards hiding in plain sight, just looking like normal, average members of society.  Only three out of the twenty-one advisors (give or take whatever’s going on with the R2D2 look-alike) fully cover their faces; Spinner's #2 is one of those three.  It begs the question of why—a question the hospital scene will at least suggest an answer to.   

Chapter 281: 

Shigaraki lays out, over the course of four pages, his mini-manifesto on why he’s going to destroy Hero Society, in which he talks about how heroes have disregarded, even actively concealed, the suffering of those they couldn’t save.  While his mind seems to be mainly on his own experience, we also know that he’s aware of how others like him have suffered.  He’s spent months with victims of Hero Society’s repressiveness, one of whom made very clear, by means of shouting it in Shigaraki’s face, the discrimination he’d faced with no one ever coming to help him.  Shigaraki knows about heteromorph discrimination the same way he knows about villain quirk discrimination and the dehumanization of criminals.  His declaiming here about generations of heroic failure serves to stand in for all of that.    Notably, it continues to be the case that the crowd scenes consist mainly of relatively baseline, mostly human-looking folks.  Those are the ones who most enjoy protection and safety in the current system; all of two people in thirty across three crowd shots in Shigaraki’s manifesto have heteromorphic features/builds more extreme than some extraneous pointy bits pasted on, and both of those two are dressed as heroes, not civilians.

I count the big energy guy in the cape in the top panel, and the Muppet-looking guy with four arms in the bottom.  Everyone in the panel I didn’t include—the one of Tenko walking through the crowd of silhouettes—is baseline-give-or-take-some-pointy-bits.    We hardly ever see someone like the Sludge Villain or Shouji, or hell, even Tokoyami, in these crowd scenes as everyday civilians, and the conclusion is, inescapably, that it’s because the present-day society doesn’t accept people like that as everyday civilians.

Note, here, how Endeavor responds to the accusation that heroes ignore the pain of those they can’t save—he takes a breather while Shigaraki rambles and then immediately resumes his attack, not seeming to register for even a second that this could be an opening to talk, to de-escalate, even if only as a stalling tactic to let Aizawa get a blink in, to buy the evacuation more time, to give his compatriots that little bit more time to recover.  He’s clearly written off Shigaraki’s words the moment Shigaraki started talking, and no one with him seems to have done any different, not even Midoriya Izuku.    This kind of thing is distressingly common in the series: the heroes have absolutely nothing to say about societal inequality, right up until a victim of it turns up acting criminal, at which point the dialogue goes from the stone silence of complicity to the moral scolding of, “This is going too far.”

Chapter 297: 

The Tartarus jailbreak chapter brings us Shishikura’s father scoffing at the idea that Gigantomachia could be called human, referring to him instead as, “A disaster on legs, or a wild beast.  Just like the rest of the animals we’ve got locked up here.”  He goes on to say that “disgusting beings” like the Tartarus prisoners only managed to blend in with society for as long as they did because, “Quirks have warped our standards for humanity.”    This is clearly mostly a villain bias issue—with the exception of Kurogiri, all of the villains shown on the page of this dialogue are relatively baseline, with transformation or emitter-style quirks.  All the same, it’s worth noting that he repeatedly associates villains with wild animals, dehumanizing them in ugly, startlingly explicit terms.  It begs the question: What are Shishikura’s father’s standards of humanity?  What is he suggesting his society tolerates that pre-Advent society would not have?  I would guess that his beef is with those he views as lacking the self-control or moral standards to refrain from villainy,[4] but rather than just say that, he instead goes to turns of phrase invoking the bestial.  I suspect that deterministic rhetoric like his is not uncommon as justification for both anti-heteromorph discrimination and the bias against villains.   

[4] This guess is based on his wording, what we know about his son’s personality, and the worldbuilding lore that the crime rates shot up with the advent of quirks and never went back down to pre-Advent norms.  The crime rate issue in particular would be highly visible in a society that prided itself on being as peaceful as Japan does in the real-world modern day.   

I will note that, of the six people we see making breakouts who we weren’t already acquainted with—five nameless figures and one Lady Nagant, at the time a new face—four of them are visibly, obviously heteromorphic.

The three in the foreground are quite distinct, and the one at the far back looks like he fits the bill as well.  Only the one to Moonfish’s immediate left looks baseline, likely an emitter.

The guards, of course, are baseline to a man, with the only exceptions being Gyges and Briareos, who, judging by their costumes, are hero-licensed, not normal wardens.   

Chapter 298: 

The Central Hospital staff start getting introduced.  In much the same way as the police force has a relatively high rate of animal-type heteromorphs in speaking roles,[5] Central Hospital is full of Super Mario Bros. joke characters.  This is mostly a silly in-joke at the time, but Dr. Yoshi here will be back to serve as a deeply exasperating, bad faith gotcha during the hospital attack.   

[5] The rando guys with riot shields are always hella baseline, but there are, by my count, six recurring roles in the police cast: Tsukauchi, Tsuragamae, Sansa, Gori, and two unnamed men I suspect to be with the National Police Agency (the one who tries to get Nedzu to call off the Cultural Festival and the one with the HPSC President in the scene where she’s giving Hawks his League infiltration assignment). Half of these are heteromorphs.   

Chapter 299: 

Hawks's dad, whose little elbow winglets prefigure his son's full wings, has a lament about how he could have been, “free as a bird!” There's no animal reference in the Japanese text.   

I brought up a panel back in the Kamino arc to demonstrate that there was a higher incidence than usual of heteromorphs in an area that was meant to come off, visually, as somewhat seedy.  While there’s always some element of randomness to that sort of thing—I assume the background extras are usually drawn by Horikoshi’s assistants, not the man himself—we see the same thing in the subway station Tomie takes baby Hawks to after they leave home.

Note how run-down the place looks, with cracked floor tiles, dingy walls, and equipment piled up in the open, then note how at least three, maybe four, of the five people in the foreground have heteromorphic features.   

Chapter 300: 

Dr. Toad at Central Hospital, who will show up in a flashback in the hospital raid that is barely less obnoxious than Dr. Yoshi’s appearance.

Chapter 301: 

While not immediately connected to heteromorphobia, this chapter establishes that Rei’s family, the Himura, were once prestigious and much-storied, but had fallen on hard times by the time they were approached by Endeavor about a quirk marriage.  The easy assumption for why Rei’s parents are so okay with the arrangement is that they were just that desperate for money, but in retrospect, a quirk marriage was far more sane and normal than what their family had been doing for generations!   

Chapter 303: 

Hawks mentions Spinner in his accounting of the problems facing Team Hero.  This makes him rather unusual—All Might, for example, will later repeatedly fail to mention Spinner in similar situations, though it’s unclear whether that’s because All Might genuinely doesn’t believe Spinner to be a threat or whether All Might is trying to avoid bringing up the brewing race riot enormous mob consisting of members of a long-oppressed minority group, in hopes of keeping his students away from it.   

Chapter 306:

I’ve avoided bringing him up until this point because his hero costume makes it very hard to tell if his neck is just a mildly caricatured feature like Re-Destro’s or if it really is covering up a non-baseline feature, but Best Jeanist’s outfit at the press conference is the place to start if you want to make an argument for him having a heteromorphic feature.

If he is a heteromorph, Jeanist covers it up extremely well, to the point that I’ve never seen anyone outside my chat group even raise the possibility that he might be!  But that is part of his whole modus operandi, isn’t it?  To keep up the appearance of things, to present an unassailable image of heroes, even when they’re running themselves ragged, because that’s what he believes the public needs?  Here we see Shouji’s decision about masking himself taken to its logical extreme—being so invested in a harmonious appearance that doesn’t disturb anyone that he doesn’t even register as non-baseline to begin with.    I’m very fond of Jeanist, mind you, and I love his awareness of surface and veneer—he feels like someone who has made a conscious, considered, moral decision to uphold the system, a decision he’s given far more thought to than fellow heroes who never get past, “How do I want to present myself to the public?” to the question of, “Why do I believe this presentation is the correct moral choice?”  But that veneer is, as the endgame has gone to some efforts to explore, not sustainable for anyone.  (Would that Shouji were taking notes.)   

The Villain Hunt Arc (Chapters 307-328)

Chapter 310: 

This chapter brings us the attack on the giant woman.[6]  While the three men—all baseline, all using support goods rather than whatever their own quirks are—attacking her seem to be doing so out of fears that she’s a villain, not explicit hatred for heteromorphs, this is very clear heteromorphobia nonetheless.  There’s absolutely nothing about the Ordinary Woman that suggests that she’s remotely villainous—not her attitude, not her dress, not even something like a punky haircut!  The only reason to distrust this woman’s intentions is suspicion of her height, her claws, her vulpine face—in other words, her status as a heteromorph.  The only other thing remotely dubious about her is that she was out after dark—but of course, so were the men hunting her!    Note here the woman’s strong implication that she was attacked before she ever reached a shelter.  She says she thought to take shelter at a hero school and, somewhat haphazardly, left her home in the night.  She doesn’t finish the sentence, trailing off before apologizing, but it’s plainly nighttime when Deku rescues her, and, by her own words, she’s still in her own town.  The story isn’t finished with her yet, and what happens to her next is tied to her experience at the shelter she was trying to reach.   

[6] As yet unnamed due to some misguided idea Horikoshi has about keeping her an everywoman; even in her character profile, she’s just the Ordinary Woman.   

Deku unthinkingly commits what reads to me as a fairly egregious microaggression here,[7] suggesting that the men who attacked the Ordinary Woman were probably just as afraid as she was of the recent chaos.  They were just understandably afraid, so, you know, it’s not really their fault that they viciously attacked you, an obviously terrified innocent woman!  You just look so scary!   

[7] Though I don’t get the impression Horikoshi registered it.   

The two discuss wanting things to “go back to normal.”  Normal, in Ordinary Woman’s experience, means not getting attacked right out in the streets of her own town, but it’s worth thinking about how little it took to prompt that attack, and thus to ask how abnormal such violence truly is.  As we will find, there are parts of the country that didn’t at all need a slide into lawlessness for an attack like this to be horrifically, appallingly “normal.”  

Banjo compares the current circumstances to those around the time of the Advent—darker days in which people lived holding their breaths, trying not to stand out.  This phrasing is not exclusive to heteromorphs; even something as simple as being on your own can make you “stand out” as a target, and we know plenty of quirkless people were victimized exactly like that.[8]  All the same, it’s self-evidently the case that people who don’t look like everyone else will inherently stand out, and no amount of traveling in groups or refraining from the use of their powers will change that.  Lines like this don’t explicitly reference the heteromorph mass slaughters we will later be shown, but they do lay the contextual groundwork that makes those slaughters both believable and predictable.    Folding that all together, the Ordinary Woman demonstrates very clearly how difficult it is, especially in times of chaos, to be a heteromorph and just be normal.  And when being "normal" is so difficult, what do you do? Try to be normal, gambling that heroes will be there to save you when you’re victimized?  Try to protect yourself by becoming the kind of paragon your society admires, knowing it will cost you your voice? Turn against the society that repeatedly fails to protect you, resigning yourself to a life on the run?  There's no outcome that doesn't demand carrying the burden of a decision that other, “normal” people are not required to make.   

[8] We know this because it’s explicitly explained as what happened to the quirkless man in the One For All dream flashback in Chapter 193.      

Chapter 314: 

Lady Nagant drops the ugly secret of the HPSC for Deku,[9] telling a heroic character an only very slightly more extreme version of what the reader already knew from Hawks’ duties and backstory.  This is not specifically about heteromorphs (though the face we most visibly see her murdering is one), but it does point to the possible difficulties in organizing serious movements to agitate for changes to the current system.  The HPSC is so firmly convinced that the Hero System is society’s best and only defense against chaos, and thus any threats to that system can, justly, be disposed via extrajudicial assassination.  What chance, then, would an activist leader have as soon as they started being disruptive enough for the HPSC to notice them?   

[9] Who will do absolutely jack shit with it, and, indeed, come away from their encounter blaming her fall on AFO, somehow.      

Chapter 318: 

*meme voice Good For Him*

Introduces the Spinner fanboys, a pair of octopus-type heteromorphs in quite good Spinner cosplay, who will crop back up later at the hospital attack.  They’re foreshadowing for the Spinner-as-representative plot, though said plot will not make 100% clear whether or not these two were inspired by Spinner on his own merits, back when he was just another member of the League of Villains, as opposed to after the PLF started pushing his image forward specifically.    They’re with a small group of other heteromorphs attacking a trio of baseline folks.  Deku defends the baseline group from the attack but apparently does not follow through on chasing down the heteromorphs; he just breaks it up and lets the attackers run off, perhaps feeling like panicky civilians (to whatever extent people literally wearing a wanted villain’s colors are “civilians”) are not threats he needs to facilitate the arrest of, or perhaps just conserving his energy for his big fights with AFO’s people.

Later in the chapter, we see a more abbreviated version of a similar sequence of events, save that this time, there are heteromorphs on both sides, demonstrating that the violence has not entirely broken down along baseline vs heteromorph lines.  You saw this in an earlier chapter as well, with one of the people in the group confronting Endeavor being a lady with a dog head, but this is the first place you see it in an actual conflict.

I dig this kappa dude with the Shounen Main Character Guy haircut.  And good on his more baseline friends for sticking with him.

This chapter also introduces Dictator, one of the Tartarus escapees singled out as sent by All For One.  Dictator drives me crazy because like, okay, yes, he’s a cartoonish and ridiculous caricature of a Villain, down to his quirk name being given as Despot.[10]  But I would ask the reader to look at this guy and really, really think about what life must have been like for him when he was, say, Kouta or Eri’s age.

   I mean, really.   

[10] Remember my thought experiment from early on about who decides what quirks are named, parents or a government official?  Yeah.  Who’s responsible for giving that quirk name to a four-year-old?   

One thing that’s always felt telling to me about Deku’s brief exchange with Dictator here is that Dictator, in amidst a flurry of dramatic supervillain talk, says, “Taking you in will bring me security,” and Deku, Mr. Wants To Understand Villains & Save Absolutely Everyone himself, doesn’t ask, doesn’t even think, about what Dictator could possibly mean by that sentence.    I know Dictator’s in the middle of controlling a bunch of people and is working for AFO and Deku’s exhausted and all—the story makes it clear that he took a turn for the more gritty and driven after Nagant quite literally blew up in his face.  Still, when you compare the attempts he makes to ask questions and interact with Muscular, Overhaul and Lady Nagant—all relatively baseline when their quirks aren’t in use, and significantly more baseline than Dictator even when they are—his total incuriosity about Dictator does stand out pretty badly.   

Chapter 320:

Ojirou mentions being touched by how angry at Shinsou Deku got on his behalf back at the Sports Festival.  Recall that Shinsou called Ojirou a monkey back then.  Is he not used to other people getting mad for his sake about that sort of thing?   

Chapter 323: 

Some really fascinating stuff both from and about Nedzu in this chapter.  Firstly, Endeavor says that Nedzu’s contributions to “quirk morality education” have made him internationally renowned, yet I can’t help but observe that at least the first year students have not learned anything of the sort.  Their classes and exercises are focused primarily on combat, with a secondary focus on teamwork in that most of their exercises see them separated into pairs or small groups.  There are also special lessons that boil down to being about how to create their own distinct hero “brand.”    What I cannot call to mind are any lessons on the morality of quirk use.[11]  That’s not to say there’s none of that in the series at all, but the stuff that I think of is not encountered in class.  The focus on dealing appropriately with injured and frightened victims, for example, comes courtesy of the license exam, while the lecture about heroes following the rules and behaving appropriately comes from Tsuragamae after the Stain incident.  The remedial course with Gang Orca probably comes closest, and is technically a course, rather than an exam, but Nedzu has nothing to do with it, so it clearly can’t count.    Once again, I am left to wonder when exactly Hero schools start teaching these alleged lessons in quirk-based ethics.  Offscreen, or only in higher grades?  It’s not a real great look, I think, that the priority is on all the cool flashy stuff and not the ethical ramifications of using your power to enact violence on people.  And sure, it’s a shounen comic, so you’ve got to keep things flashy enough not to lose the readers, but it wouldn’t take more than a few dedicated pages now and again where Aizawa or Nedzu talk to students about the weight of what they’re doing.  We don’t get those pages, so the discussion of quirk “morality” is largely under-explored.[12]    This is, of course, not directly about heteromorphobia, but discussion of the morality of quirks would have to include the beliefs people have about quirks, which in turn affect everything about how the world deals with them: quirk discrimination, quirk counseling, the laws surrounding quirk use, the punishment for breaking those laws, and so forth.  All things with significant impacts on heteromorphs!   

[11] Indeed, if there were any effort from U.A. to provide morals education, you’d think Mineta would have seen some consequences for his egregious behavior ages ago.

[12] Honestly, I think the person who’s ventured the clearest moral stance on quirk use is Yoichi in his flashback, and he’s ludicrously absolutist about it, saying that quirks must only be used to help others, never for personal gain.   

My Press X to Doubt response to Nedzu’s contributions to quirk morality education aside, I’m fascinated by his mini-speech that follows:

It’s a great observation of humanity from one who sits just that little bit removed from humanity, and begs a whole series’ worth of questions about Nedzu’s position and his feelings about the species his intelligence has both enabled and required him to grapple with.  While he doesn’t specify exactly what sort of intolerance he has in mind, and the flow of the plot ties his words to the anti-hero sentiment amongst the civilians, we’re well past Chapter 220’s introduction of the CRC here, and have more to see yet on the treatment those with “villain” quirks are subjected to.

As one who was, himself, mistreated in a way that fundamentally would not have happened were it not for his (heteromorphic) quirk, yet whose quirk gives him a degree of insight about that very mistreatment, Nedzu is in an amazing position to opine on discrimination.  I frankly wish he got way more room to do it in.   

Chapter 325: 

The Ordinary Woman giantess gal returns to tell us that she was turned away from several shelters because they didn’t allow heteromorphs.  It’s hard to overstate how incredibly bad this is—the blatant discrimination of turning away an entire demographic during a national emergency.  And not just a national emergency, but one where the actual support personnel—heroes—are going to be concentrating around the shelters, consciously electing to leave minimal aid for people remaining behind in evacuated zones.  So like, when this is how bad it is, can it possibly be any kind of surprise that there’s a riot brewing, especially when there are villains stirring the pot behind the scenes?   

One thing that really, really gets me is the bit where Ordinary Woman says several shelters turned her down until she made it to U.A.  Remember how I mentioned that the strong implication of her original scene is that she’s still in her own city, only left her home that very night, and was attacked before she could reach a shelter?  If that’s so, then what in hell happened after Deku left her with All Might?    I’m so serious about this.  Did All Might just take her to the nearest shelter, drop her off at the door, and then drive off, so concerned about getting back to Deku that he left before he could ensure her safety?  That would reflect incredibly poorly on him, and put her right back in danger.  Though it would not be the first time he prioritized his mentorship of Deku over his other responsibilities, it would still make him look so bad that I’m doubtful that was Hori’s intended sequence of events.    The other possibility I see is that All Might did stay with her, driving her to a few different shelters before getting fed up and bringing her back to U.A., where he could be sure she’d be accepted.  This option looks almost as bad for a totally different reason: that even in the face of a refugee delivered to them by All Might himself, with everything the country owes him and the nigh universal love and acclaim he commands amongst the populace, people would still take one look at Josei-san and turn her away.    Of course, it’s also possible that I’ve just misinterpreted her initial scene, and she already had been to the several shelters, but couldn’t bring herself to tell Deku why.  Her silence on the topic would be its own brand of Relevant For This Essay, particularly given Deku’s baseline state—perhaps she doubted that he would believe her, or thought he might get defensive, if she told him.  That’s certainly the least awful of the options.    Still, I’d maintain that the way her story is framed—the way she was traveling on foot, the time she says she left vs. the time it was when Deku found her, how unlikely I think it is that there are multiple hero school shelters in timely walking distance,[13] the fact that she’s perfectly willing to tell him about her rejections when they meet again at U.A., etc.—suggests she hadn’t made it to a shelter yet when Deku turned up, and thus either All Might got unforgivably sloppy or there were multiple government officials overseeing shelters who were willing to be gargantuan bigots right to his face.   

[13] That’s if hero schools are the only shelters in use at the moment.  On the one hand, that feels improbable and unnecessary to me, given that HeroAca!Japan presumably has all the same emergency shelters IRL!Japan has now, and Jeanist’s phrasing in 306 suggests that hero schools are being added to the list of designated shelters, not that they are being designated the only shelters.  On the other hand, he does also say the heroes are looking to decrease the amount of area they, with their diminished numbers, have to cover, and specifically calls out hero schools' defensive capabilities and large campuses, while not independently mentioning shelters of the normal sort like I might expect if both were going to be in use.  For example, he could say something like, “We are asking people to report to their local emergency shelters, and will be opening hero schools as shelters to help with the increased burden.”  I invite readers to come to their own considerations on what’s more likely, but will say that if it is only hero schools being used as shelters, that obviously makes the whole “turning away heteromorphs at the door” scenario even more scandalous.   

The baseline dude who’s generally been the spokesperson for the anti-let-the-kid-back-into-school crowd asks Deku if everyone can go back to their old lives after this, if they let him in to rest up.  Deku, who has just been told that a woman he rescued was turned away from multiple shelters, reiterates that he and the rest of the heroes will “bring it all back.”  No matter when he promises this, he will never exhibit the slightest hint of awareness about what exactly he’s proposing to return.   

Chapter 327: 

Bakugou makes a conscious effort to call Deku by his given name instead of the derisive nickname of their childhood.  It remains to be seen whether he will follow through on that for the derisive nicknames he uses for everyone else, but for what it's worth, I have made it all the way from here up through the point at which he goes down to ShigAFO and have not had cause to jot down anything about him for the purposes of this essay yet. We'll see if he can keep it up through the epilogue!   

With Deku safely passed the fuck out, Jirou—a heteromorph, albeit not a hugely visible one—is the one to say that they and the rest of the heroes can’t just bring things back the way they were; they have to make things better.  Desperately wish Deku would pick up what Jirou’s throwing down here.   

Chapter 328:

328 gives us some cameos of international heroes, cameos from the third movie, World Heroes Mission. The one relevant to this topic is Big Red Dot, the Singaporean hero who the wiki claims is his country's #1,[14] and who appears to be a merlion heteromorph. And like, there is so much I could say about Big Red Dot and his status as top hero and heteromorph! So much!    I could talk about the merlion as a national symbol for Singapore, and how heteromorphs who just so happen to resemble local sacred/divine/fortunate animals in their regions might be treated differently compared to heteromorphs like Spinner or Shouji.    I could talk about the merlion's status as tourist attraction and subject of nationalistic poetry, and how that imagological history impacts Singaporeans' feelings about the merlion as cultural icon.    I could talk about the way the merlion's brand image is maintained under trademark by the country's national tourism board, and how that might relate to or impact Big Red Dot's image as a hero, particularly given that we have no idea what sort of metrics Singapore's HPSC equivalent uses to rank their heroes!    I'd love to talk about that, but I'm reluctant to do more than sketch out the above outline for two reasons, both profoundly Doylist.   

[14] The fandom wiki does not see fit to cite a source for this. I assume it's mentioned in the movie? Anyway, if he isn't Singapore's #1, the stuff I said is still relevant, just somewhat less pronounced.   

Firstly, I read Marvel comics growing up, and I am keenly aware that a tremendously common approach taken by superhero stories dealing with heroes from outside the author's country of origin is to just theme those international heroes after famous (e.g. stereotyped) aspects of their home countries. I highly doubt that whoever came up with Big Red Dot was thinking any deeper than "Singapore = merlion, ergo Singaporean Hero = merlion hero guy".   

Secondly, Big Red Dot is, first and foremost, an original character created for the anime, and the anime transparently, desperately Does Not Want To Talk About Heteromorphobia, so I highly doubt they're thinking about ways it might impact their movie OCs. Now, I know Horikoshi comes up with many of the designs of prominent characters in the movies, but I don't know how much he's involved in conceptualizing those characters. That is to say, did Studio Bones ask him for "a design for a top hero from a country of your choice, Horikoshi-sensei," "a design for the top hero of Singapore," or "a design for Big Red Dot, the merlion-themed top hero of Singapore"?

Suffice to say that if I were going to include BRD in a fanfic, I'd be full of things to say about him. For the purposes of this essay, though, I'll just raise some possibilities and then leave the reader to turn him around in their heads some and think about how he fits into the broader tapestry of the heteromorphic experience around the world.

---------

Come back in (probably) two weeks for what will hopefully bring this essay up through the hospital attack! We'll see after that if I want to continue on into Vigilantes or what-have-you.

[jonquilyst]

253. Chapter 9, Episode 7

Sure, Megyn has Eva and her other friends, but Megyn is slowly learning to accept help from older adults too; the very thing she was actively avoiding at the beginning of the story.

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Transcript:

(Pink text = Megyn)

(Green text = Eva)

Megyn (thinking): I can't believe Robin actually gave me advice... I never thought she would do something like that for me. I always thought she didn't like me that much...

Megyn (thinking): But she's right... I really don't have any adult figures that can help me with this stuff. Eva's been helpful as always, but... she doesn't have a lot of experience with love. I hate to admit it, but... it's different when it's her versus someone who has been married for over twenty years.

*Cut to Eva's bedroom*

Eva: How'd it go with you and my mom?

Megyn: It was alright... I was a little surprised she wanted to talk to me at all though.

Eva: Yeah, me too. What'd you guys talk about.

Megyn: Jayden. She... gave me some advice.

Eva: Huh, well that's good. I hope what she said will help you.

Megyn: Yeah... I still need to process it all, but... she was nice to me, at least, and I never thought she would actually talk to me about Jayden... I thought she was going to lecture me about house rules or something. I know she's a complicated person, but I'm honestly happy she talked to me.