#as you can see i did not succeed in that regard :D

[epikhightechnology]

Vegaspete for @answermywearyquery ☃️🌲✨️ (for @kptssecretsanta 2024)

Bonus close up of my fav vegas moment 😌😌

Which was probably very obviously my fav part to draw

[angelofthepage]

Thoughts on the "Updated" Bendy Employee Handbook

Before we go any further, let's make it very clear what kind of post this is: we're not here to hate on the book, and none of anything I'm about to say is said with ill intent. I am here for analysis, constructive criticism, and discussion. This post is a little more critical than what I would usually share, so viewer discretion is advised.

Today we're talking about the newly updated Bendy Employee Handbook, which just recently released as of this month at the time of this post. And I have a lot of questions about this entry, and really, game guides as a whole in our modern gaming world. This book appeared to advertise itself as a rerelease of the original handbook with additional content for Bendy and the Dark Revival, but upon comparing the two, I've noticed there's actually a number of changes they've made, some good, some bad, and some that I'm not sure what to make of. So come and join me under the cut, and if you have some thoughts of your own, feel free to comment or reblog and add to the discussion. Without further ado, here we go!

Part 1: The Baffling Amount of Cut Content

Our story begins where most stories do, the table of contents. So right off the bat, when comparing this book to the original, you'll notice something off.

No, your eyes do not deceive you, an entire section of the original book was cut, on top of making other sections shorter. And the weirdest part? Some of these things were exclusive to that original book, they didn't appear anywhere else in the Bendy franchise. So already we're off to a weird start. Some of these missing pages aren't so bad though. In some cases, they're just format changes to make the book flow a little better/take up less room. Sometimes they succeed in that, sometimes they end up feeling more cramped, it's pretty subjective whether or not this improved the book. But it certainly does cut down on pages. Case in point, the beginning of each chapter of BATIM.

Don't worry, Joey's letter hasn't been cut, but it has been moved to earlier in the book, so it's no longer in Chapter 1. This was a very odd change. Other things that are missing are character monologues, but it's inconsistent. Alice Angel's speech about the screaming well of voices and Joey's monologue right before the final boss were kept, but Sammy's "sheep sheep sheep" speech and Bertrum's audiolog right before his boss fight were inexplicably cut.

Here are a few cuts I found pretty significant.

These pages are all missing from the update. In the case of this newspaper article, what does that mean in regards to whether or not this is "canon" or "retconned"? Joey Drew, did you or did you not have plans to expand into a Bendy themed toothpaste? The people need to know! X''D But seriously, while some of this is inconsequential, some of it matters. The mascot costume in particular, that's the only sketch we get (that I'm assuming came from Bertrum or Joey regarding that part of the parks, no one is specifically credited for making it). It doesn't show up anywhere else in the series (to my knowledge). It's strange that it's just, gone now. The Bendyland spread is such an unfortunate loss, that's some of the closest we've ever gotten to seeing the map of the park. Yes you can see it in BATIM, but being able to get up close and personal with it without having to control Henry was really nice. It makes me wonder if they're trying to erase the past details so they can do more with Bendyland in the future, something that's different from the original vision. I don't think that's it, but it could be, though they'd also have to go back on The Illusion of Living too, given it’s discussed there with some really fun details.

Speaking of which, that's the weirdest piece of cut content: the missing section that ends the old book (that was reiterated in The Illusion of Living). It's Joey Drew's tips for making a cartoon. It's formatted differently and has no images in TIOL, but the basic information is still the same. What's not the same though, is the loss of the tutorial pages for drawing the toons. These are another thing that don’t show up anywhere else in the series, making them a much more permanent loss. And even though this section is cut, it’s still referenced on the back cover of the new book, which is a bit odd.

These were really cute and showed so much personality for not just the toons, but for Joey as he described them. Cutting this was genuinely disappointing for me. Same with the paperwork in Joey's apartment. Those were some of the highest quality images we had of what was on his desk and bulletin board, and I liked being able to see them clearer. The biggest loss of the cut content isn’t just the pages themselves, but the personality they gave to this book, and the Bendy world as a whole. 

This was the very first Bendy book to be released, and therefore our first look into this world in this format. And while I don’t think it’s the greatest thing in the world in terms of being a game guide, I didn’t pick up the original for a game guide. I picked it up because I wanted to see if it provided more context for the world. And when it does that, it does a good job. The memos from characters we know, Joey’s financial records, the images from the desks of people like Joey and Bertrum, they give us insight into how things were going at the studio. Some of my favorite details from the original are Joey’s memo about how Susie was replaced by Allison, and the receipt for Joe’s Fine Dining. The fact that that memo was distributed to everyone but Susie enhanced what we already knew from BATIM, and it paints him as a much crueler character than we knew him to be. Not to mention the repeated use of “I have to say, I’m an instant fan”. Having Joey say those words makes the concept of him creating the cycle so much more interesting. Like did he script out every little action these characters take? Or is this something Susie picked up and recycled from him after potentially finding this memo in real life? Oh there are so many delicious possibilities. And the lunch date, oh my gosh. One, it started my quest to build the Joey Drew menu using all the things he eats in the books, because damn does he have good taste. And two, it was so cool to have a look into an interaction Susie told us about in that one tape. Like that was REALLY GOOD. Give me more like that! When you have other parts of the series back up things we’ve heard only one character say, it gives more credence to the idea that they actually happened that way, or gives us a clue that we need to check for character biases when they tell us their side of the story. And in a series where MOST characters are unreliable narrators, that is REALLY IMPORTANT for establishing timelines and figuring out what’s real versus what’s fabricated. That was my biggest hope for the update, for more flavortext and world building that expands on things we already know. 

But um…the dark revival part of the book doesn’t do that. 

Part 2: The Dark Revival’s Minimal Offerings

After an abrupt jump from Bendyland to BATDR, we get into the new stuff. The Bendy and the Dark Revival section of this book is alarmingly short and has very little substance. There is no new expansion of the worldbuilding or insight into these characters. I mean, the book describes Heidi as being a female lost one? So if you wanted a confirmation on her gender, there you go I guess? I guess that detail was never like, stated explicitly, but this is me stretching to find something new that it gives us. Actually, wait, it does give us one new thing, but I’m gonna be honest, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

The book refers to Allison having a “pet wolf” when we get her introduction in Chapter 1. It then later describes that Tom “likes being pet” when we get his introduction in Chapter 5. Which by the way, is the only image of Tom in this entire book, since his original render from the old version was cut. Now, I’ll be honest, I used to like that second detail, I thought it was cute that he doesn’t just tolerate Audrey, he actually LIKES being pet. Those are two different things, having some insights into Tom’s feelings and characterization would have been a breath of fresh air. But no, when I reread the book and saw that first detail, that made that really weird and uncomfortable actually. It would be one thing if in-universe, Tom called himself a pet, or Allison called him that with consent. Heck, if there was another character in-universe who wanted to purposely insult Allison and Tom by saying that, that would be fine too, then it’d be reiterating the narrative. But on its own? I take issue with taking Tom of all characters and calling him her pet. The Safehouse Boris never got treated that badly, hell, Buddy in the books never got dehumanized this badly when he became a Boris. But Tom, Tom gets to be the one that’s dehumanized? There is something that really rubs me the wrong way about that. Especially if he turns out to be Thomas Connor or has some connection to him. I can’t assume if he is or isn’t anymore given all the stuff BATDR pulled with Allison and Henry. But on the chance he IS Thomas Connor, do you have any idea how bad that looks, to have a character that, because of details written in Dreams Come to Life, many fans speculate to be a person of color, referring to him as Allison’s “pet”? And even if he ends up not being a person of color (I say as I groan about the inevitable discourse for the DCTL graphic novel that’s coming out), it’s still kind of awful to say that about anyone. Tom is a character that has repeatedly gotten the short end of the stick in this series. He’s relevant to BATDR for all of a couple of minutes, and he’s incredibly underutilized and lacking details or depth for most of the series. Thomas Connor, he gets a bit of depth as of The Lost Ones, that novel does great things for him. But Tom Wolf? Short end of the stick. And I’m sad to see that continue here. 

The one positive thing I have to say about this section is that it’s really nice to have so many of the audiolog character transcripts here. Most of the notes and logs from BATDR are here with all their words typed out. The ones that in-game had a chiller styled font are transcribed a bit strangely, as now they’re written like the messages written on the walls in-game. But it’s not the worst. If anything, all of this gives me a great resource as a theorist. Having a record of all of these and what chapters they appear in makes my goal of constructing a timeline and cross checking information much easier. 

Though from a graphic design standpoint, these pages frustrate me a little bit. They’re so cramped, and there’s several spots where the text isn’t centered properly within its text block. I get the sense on some parts, it’s because it’s placed so close to the spine of the book, so they don’t want any information getting cut off, but it still looks funky. And there are several spots where that explanation doesn’t really apply. There’s also some weird placement of fun facts. While I love that this book lets us in on some secrets, they’re not always placed in an area that makes sense? Like, there’s a note about how to get the Inkjets Concert, but the steps for how to get it are placed way after a point in the narrative where you’d be able to get it, and I’m kind of scratching my head as to why it was done that way. Is it to encourage a second playthrough? Or is it to not spoil the story? Why not split the information up? Or have a dedicated secrets page like they do with the achievements and theMeatly’s cutouts? 

Though speaking of not spoiling things, this book is really odd about what it chooses to focus on. So, Henry’s model is in this book, right next to a passage about a “mysterious man” you can meet in the Cyclebreakers area. They showed his model but didn’t name him as Henry? I don’t quite get that choice. Also, despite the cyclebreakers being very important to this story, they aren’t really mentioned before this very brief section. However, Porter? The character shown for all of a few seconds? He’s got at least three images throughout this book. The balance feels off with what this book chooses to put emphasis on. 

Also, this one really annoyed me: Allison. So for everyone who’s actually played BATIM, you would know that Allison Angel is never referred to as Allison within BATIM. We only know she’s called that because people dove into the game’s files and revealed her and Tom’s names upon the release of Chapter 4. And the book follows suit with this, it does not call her Allison in the original handbook whatsoever. HOWEVER, the BATDR section messes this up. When it introduces her, even though in-game she introduces herself as Alice, the book introduces her as Allison. But when we get to Chapter 5, the part where she’s actually named Allison by Audrey, it suddenly switches to calling her Nice Alice? It’s a weird choice and I don’t understand why this happened. 

It leaves me wondering just how much the new author of this section and their editors know about the Bendy series before going into this project. What context were they given to write this thing? It makes the book feel unpolished to have so many mistakes in its formatting and information. I don’t know what the quality control team for this release looked like, but a part of me wonders how many editors this went through before making it to the final release. I don’t work in publishing to know what that looks like, but I’d genuinely love to learn more on this subject, it’s fascinating. 

There’s also a very strong dissonance in the imagery. While I’m glad to see the renders from BATDR’s advertising so clearly and up close, the difference in their coloring looks strange when put next to the rest of Bendy’s usual color palette. It leaves me wondering what assets the book team was given for use in this release. There’s a lot I could say here about the importance of press kits and brand guidelines, especially in this day and age when so many fans are making just as high quality of content as the official releases of media. And that leads me to the most disappointing part of this book. 

Part 3: Stolen Content

If you’re active in the Bendy fandom and know its many creative members, then you may already know what I’m about to dive into. MLSpence3D is an artist that enjoys 3D modeling, rigging, animating, and rendering. He can often be found engaging in all sorts of corners in the indie mascot horror community, such as playing a notable role in the production of SuperHorrorBro’s upcoming title, Glitched Out, as well as providing the renders used on the Bendy Wiki of the in-game characters. Spence has had his work mistaken for official renders before, and unfortunately, it’s not just fans making that mistake. The render of the Piper used in the BATIM portion of the original handbook is Spence’s, and it unfortunately hasn’t been removed in this update, nor has he been credited or asked for permission to have it used here. I’ll admit, his stuff looks so official that I’ve mistaken it as such too, and it speaks to a much needed conversation on assets, metadata, and protection for artists of all mediums. 

Our fandom is not the only place where this happens. Back when FNAF: Help Wanted was in production, the cover art mistakenly used fan renders as a part of its photomanipulation. Developer Scott Cawthon was quick to apologize and make things right, removing the renders and replacing them with officially made FNAF models. Heck, we had something similar happen right here with Bendy back when the voice cast of BATDR started working with Streamily. The initial post that advertised their Streamily debut used renders from Spence and a few other artists that had to be tracked down, and they didn’t have the rights to use them, nor were they credited. It makes a lot of sense that this happens, when you don’t have sufficient resources and aren’t an active member of the fandom, if you’re a graphic designer trying to make a piece to advertise something, you’re going to need assets to make that. And if you’re not given sufficient assets by the people you’re designing for, you turn to other sources to get the job done. They may not know what on Google is official vs fan content. The fans are so skilled and passionate about what they do, and with the number of series that have fans steadily joining the official teams, it’s incredible what can result from being passionate. But it also makes for a much needed reminder to add metadata to your files so that they can be traced back as belonging to you. Watermark your stuff, clearly mark your work as fan content in the tags, captions, and descriptions, in an effort to protect yourself. Don’t use images you find online unless you have a very clear idea of where they came from, so you can direct people back to the source when they ask about it (or better yet, link the source in your description from the start). Give people another reason to pause and double check their work in the chain of command (they should be pausing to double check anyway, but let's be real, we don't live in a perfect world). In a world where credit and sources are more important than ever, remembering to give credit where it’s due from the start will save you all kinds of headaches in the future. Video game developers, especially those of you in the indie scene: please develop press kits to give to people your teams collaborate with. By giving them assets they can reliably use to advertise for you, you will save everyone a lot of hassle in the long run. And if this is still happening even with a press kit, it merits having some conversations to evaluate why and solve the problem. If there is no other takeaway anyone gets from this post, this is the big one I want to see some positive change on in the future.

Part 4: The Functionality as a Game Guide

This book works for your first time through BATDR, but not for any kind of sequential playthroughs. The way it directs you through the game uses the audiologs and notes as waypoints. Once you pick them up, they are removed from the environment, and so if you’re picking up the game after a long time away from it, you’re not gonna remember where those were, so it’s likely not going to be useful for navigating. It reminds me a lot of the way my parents talked about one of our old hometowns. We lived in Vermont for a little while, and there were two things about our area that we laughed about. One, never leave your car unlocked unless you want it filled with zucchini. Two, if you ask for directions, you’re not gonna have a clue unless you’re a local, because they word everything in a similar fashion to “you’re gonna drive past where the old barn used to be”. At least give me a landmark that still exists, or a map! The BATIM chapters aren’t much better, they sort of give you a layout map, but it’s not helpful. Especially in Chapter 3, the place where you arguably need a map the most, there is no kind of instruction for how to get through Alice’s fetch quests if you get lost. 

In my mind, a game guide is something you turn to when you need help getting through a game. Now, mind you, I am not the target audience for a game guide. I don’t own game guides. There are a few in my household that my siblings own, for stuff like Super Mario Sunshine, and I guess technically my Pokedex for Pokemon Black and White 2 DOES double as a game guide. But like, we now live in the age of the internet. If you want to know how to get through something, there are a million articles and Let’s Plays that detail how to complete the base story, find secrets, and even suggest strategies for tackling difficult challenges. Some of these are designed to be informative, and some are more reactionary and built for entertainment, there’s lots of flavors to choose from! 

And it makes me wonder, what does that mean for the medium of game guides as a whole? I think they still have their place. For one thing, different people benefit from different learning styles. Being able to read a guide may work better for someone than a video depending on their brain wiring. And for people who don’t have reliable or frankly any internet, or rely on a library for that, it’s nice to have a book so that you don’t have to wait to keep playing. I’ve never seen anyone get a game guide from a library, but I absolutely think it’s something a library could have. It’s also just really convenient to have all of that information available in one book, as opposed to having to search through multiple forums and sources and risk getting spoiled. And when they’re done well, sometimes they can have secrets not even the existing player base knew. Like I knew that there was this secret about a ghost train that appears if you set your system’s clock to 4:14, but I didn’t know if AM or PM mattered. Thanks to this book, now I know that it doesn’t matter, both work, which is really handy to know! But uh…most of the secrets that were revealed in this book were things I knew within the first month that BATDR came out. None of them were new to me as someone who’s plugged into the world of Bendy. There have been multiple videos detailing how to get these secrets, and how to play this game, by many different indie horror enthusiasts. It almost makes it feel like this book came out a bit too late, and it’s only released about a year or so after this game came out.

Which really begs the question, who was the target audience for this book? Was it for new fans who were struggling with these games? Was it for longtime fans who wanted a memento of the occasion and a record of all the stuff in these games? Was it for lore hunters hungry for new secrets and world building? Having read both versions of the employee handbook, I still can’t definitively say who the target audience is. That kind of frustrates me, that’s the first thing they taught us about back when I went to school for graphic design. It’s important to keep your audience in mind when designing something, that way it caters to their needs, appeals to them, and gets your message across effectively. 

Part 5: Final Thoughts

I still can’t say for sure what I was supposed to get out of this.The parts of it that I found charming and appealing were not continued or built upon in this update. There is no new world building or lore. It doesn’t do an effective job as a game guide given its reliance on non-permanent elements of gameplay. It doesn’t give us tools to cross reference what we know from previous entries, nor does it expand upon details that lacked clarity within BATDR or BATIM. It removed some of its more charming content, and it still has stolen artwork from its previous iteration. By the time I got done reading this book, I was left feeling disappointed and kind of exhausted. No joke, I grabbed a friend, and we went through it all to compare it page by page to see what changed. It was something you could make a drinking game out of, not that I would recommend that. 

I would struggle to recommend this book to any Bendy fan, unless you’re a completionist like me who wants to own every book as a physical copy. The original employee handbook was a far better read, and if you can find a copy secondhand or at your local library, you’re in for a small but tasty treat (quite literally if you decide to make the bacon soup recipe, which fun fact, originated in this book and was developed by the wife of Bookpast, one of the writers on this series!). The Dark Revival section feels tacked on and not as well thought out as the original book was. There is a very odd disconnect between the two. I’m genuinely confused as to why it was put in a rerelease of this book rather than making an entirely new book for Dark Revival. Dark Revival is a much longer and detailed game than Bendy and the Ink Machine. I would expect a book that describes how to play it and its world building to take up a lot more pages and go in depth on different details than this one did. So why was it done this way? Does this have to do with some sort of contract with Scholastic that we don’t know about? Was there a time constraint, or a page count that had to be met that they couldn’t meet with just BATDR? Did the people working on Bendy have too much on their plates to dedicate the time to a new book? What happened here? I wasn’t expecting to leave this book with more questions than answers, but here we are. 

Overall, I don’t think it was worth what I paid for it, but it’s going to live on my shelf with the rest of my books. This will be handy for when I need to reference the audiologs and don’t want to look up a YouTube video to remember what was said. It’ll also be nice if I’m traveling. See, whenever I visit my grandparents, their wifi is pretty limited, so if I want to draw anything while I’m up there, I have to print out references or download images on my phone before I go so I can do that. Having some of the new renders in this book will be useful if I decide I want to draw Bendy stuff or theorize while on the road. 

Now it's your turn. Tell me your thoughts on the Updated Edition of the Bendy Employee Handbook! Is this something you want to read? If you have read it, did you enjoy it? Were you left wanting more? If we ever get another book like this, what sort of things would you like to see? Let's talk about it. And remember, if you did enjoy it, that's not a bad thing, absolutely no judgement there. Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it's not going to be enjoyable for someone else. Every work of fiction has its audience. <3 Here's wishing you a wonderful rest of the day, and happy reading!

[baratiddyappreciator]

Christmas with the Baki Cast

So uh, here's the lost post! :D I got all the way down to the beginning of the NSFW short for Chiharu when I did a fucky and lost *everything* up until the HCs for Hanayama. So uh, merry (belated) Christmas! Enjoy y'alls juice! SFW HC's and NSFW short stories (coming soon) This is gonna get posted late because I have to fly back to Canada and won't have internet until late. Natsue and Doppo are being written as a "you are the third" type deal because I love them as a couple too much to break them up.

Baki:

He never really had a proper Christmas since both Yujiro and Emi were very neglectful of him, but he did sometimes have people swing by his place with gifts, which stopped after Emi’s death, so he hasn’t really celebrated since. He does get Musashi some gifts, but dog treats and a toy don’t make proper gifts for him. You’re going to have to show him the ways.

He’ll indulge you in Christmas activities, especially the ones that involve him getting something to eat! Hot chocolate with marshmallows, Christmas cookies, he’s down with all of it. Getting a tree? Yeah! Sounds like fun! He’s not as good decorating, his trees make a big chaotic mess every time he tries to decorate, so you’ll have to help him, or embrace the chaos.

Take him skating and watch the great and powerful Baki Hanma fall flat on his ass several times. He’s strong, graceful, agile and he has pretty good balance, but he’s never been skating before and he has no idea how to. You’ll have to drag him over to the boards and show him how. Once he gets the hang of it he’s not too bad, but he has no idea how to stop even though you’ve showed him five times, so he’ll just slam into the boards or fall on his ass.

He does try to behave about Christmas gifts, but he doesn’t always succeed. The man is determined to get a peek at what you got him, since all of his gifts would be dropped off on Christmas eve. That was for a reason. You’ll need to get dummy boxes so he gives up on looking for his actual gifts. As to him giving you gifts, he goes a bit all-out. Careful what you mention wanting around him, because he will get it for you with no regard for how much he has saved up in his inheritance (a lot) and you won’t be able to put it all away.

He’s actually really good about stockings though! You can fill his stocking with just about anything and he’d be absolutely delighted to have it! Snacks, knick-knacks, practical stuff, he loves it all because it’s from you. On his end though, your entire stocking will be full of snacks and tinier gifts he couldn’t bother to wrap (he sucks at it).

Chocolate advent calendars are a win with him, but he’ll only go along with them for a few days before he tears the whole thing open in the middle of the night while you’re alseep. You’ll notice evidence of his crimes (missing calendar, little pieces of cardboard he didn’t see) in the morning when you wake up. He’s both very sorry and not sorry. Yours is safe though, he promises not to touch it.

Kozue:

For the longest time it was just her and her mother for Christmas and they didn’t really celebrate it that intensely, but now that she has you she has an excuse to go all-out. You’ll walk to her house one day and discover that the entire thing has been shot with a Christmas canon. There are lights and decorations everywhere, and it’s glorious. Inside isn’t much better, her poor mother has to accept the fact that Kozue is just going to take over their shared living space temporarily.

She loves the more low-key Christmas activities, like sitting curled up on the couch and drinking hot cocoa or eggnog, but she’s not opposed to going out and sledding down a hill or building a snowman (weather permitting). As long as she’s spending time with you, she’s perfectly happy! Just don’t make her watch those Hallmark Christmas movies unless you’re both hatewatching.

She’s pretty good on the ice! Not some godess or something, but still, pretty good! She’ll be glued to your side for most of the time, snuggling as you two skate around or holding your hand, but she will take off at some point to do a few laps around the rink to get the energy out. It’s like when cats get zoomies, just taking off at full speed, zipping around and then returning for cuddles when they’re done.

She does actually behave about her gifts! She’ll be perfectly fine with you leaving her gifts beneath her tree at home, won’t even think about peeking until maybe Christmas eve. This being said, all of your gifts are wrapped by her mother, because Kozue is helpless when it comes to wrapping things up. She can put them in a gift bag no problem, but actually wrapping? Can’t do it. She’ll try for one or two and you can tell which ones she did. Her gifts are very thoughtful, so there aren’t usually many unless there are a lot of smaller things.

She loves stocking stuffers because she also doesn’t have to wrap those. She’ll have a stocking for you hanging on her door, and she’ll put a little gift inside it every day leading up to Christmas. A lot of her gifts are either practical or knick-knacks she saw that reminded her of you. As for what to get her for stocking stuffers, anything practical is greatly appreciated! She’d adore you for giving her socks, a scarf and a hat, and you will absolutely see her wearing them for as long as possible.

She’s good with chocolate advent calendars, she’ll do as she’s supposed to do and open a flap every day. Hell she even has a routine so that she can have her chocolate before bed every day and end it on a high note!

Hanayama:

You’d think he’s not into Christmas at all but you go to his house on the first of December and it looks like someone’s been decorating for weeks and not just a matter of hours. He goes all-out for the holidays because he knows that his mother really used to like them, and it’s a tradition he’s going to carry on. He’ll at least wait for you to pick out a tree though.

Speaking of trees, that’s one of his favourite christmas activities if he’s being honest. Going out to pick out a tree is always fun because then he can look at other things at the same time! Efficient? Yes! Fun? Well, he’s enjoying himself, but after the fifteenth stop before even looking at the trees you’re going to get bored. He’ll also enjoy sitting in and drinking, but don’t expect him to carol or watch movies, he can’t stand them. (He already watched all of them at least once when he was little.)

Normall he’s pretty damn sturdy, you’re not going to shake him if you shove him while he’s on stable ground. Put him in a pair of skates on the ice and it’s like he’s a newborn fawn though. You can poke him and he’ll collapse, he has absolutely no balance on skates in general, the ice just makes that worse. He’ll be stiff the entire time and won’t relax until he sees some kid pitch themselves full-force against a sideboard and be completely fine because they went limp. You’re going to have to hold his arm because he’ll obliterate your hand if he wobbles.

He’s so good at ignoring his own Christmas gifts that you’ll have to remind him that they’re there when it’s time to open them. He appreciates them, of course, but there’s literally no temptation for him because he knows he’ll open them eventually. Good luck opening yours though, they’re wrapped so well that you’re going to need a knife to get them open. I’m serious, there are no visible seams that can be felt, the tape is going to be your only hint as to where to pull. It’s impressive.

Stocking stuffers from him are no less frustrating because he’ll wrap those too. Did he get you a candy? It’s wrapped. Socks? Wrapped. Little trinket? Wrapped. Does he do it to watch you suffer? Partially, yeah. Doesn’t matter if it’s already pre-wrapped anyways, he’ll tear that off and wrap it himself. And he does get you a fairly good mix of things! As for what to get him, anything practical is a win in his book, but you can hit him real good with a proper thoughtful gift.

He doesn’t really care about chocolate advent calendars unless they’re dark chocolate. He’ll leave the milk chocolate one for you to eat on Christmas, but dark chocolate? Oh no, you can’t even look at the thing or he’ll glare at you. That’s his, don’t touch it.

Chiharu:

He tries his best with what he’s got, but his Christmas decoration collection is so sad. He’s got old stickers he can put on the window that are so beat up they look like they were in a house fire, he’s got a little snowman he puts outside his front door and another one he likes to put on his kitchen counter, but that’s about it. Please get this man Christmas decoarations he will use them all and love you forever.

He’s down for literally every Christmas activity there is. Caroling? Bet your ass! He’s off-key the entire time but he’s having fun! Sledding? He has no sense of self-preservation, so you’ll have to drag him away from anything legitimately dangerous. Driking cocoa and eggnog? Hell yeah! Especially if there’s booze involved! Getting a tree? Hell yeah! He’ll make room for it in his living room! Decorating said tree is one of the few moments where he’s genuinely calm. He has the most beautiful tree too, it’s just the right mix of cluttered and bare that makes a tree look stunning.

He sucks at skating, even he will tell you that, but he’ll always accept an offer to go! You’ll find him zipping around the ring only to hear him crash straight into the boards. It’s fair to worry that he might break some bones. It’s absolutely because he doesn’t know how to stop by the way. He has no clue how and he’s too scared to ask at this point. Besides! It’s fun! Good luck getting him to stay next to you though. Once he’s gone he’s gone.

He’s just as bad as Baki when it comes to his gifts. He just has to know what you got him! He’ll try his best to sneak a gift, only to find that the most appealing one was a dummy! Surely the others wouldn’t also be dummies, right? You’ll wake up to him begging you for forgiveness because he knows that you’ll notice all of his “gifts” have been opened. He’s surprisingly pretty good at wrapping gifts though! So if he really wants to hide the evidence, he will… For about an hour, then he’s spilling his guts. He can’t lie to his baby!

Stockings aren’t safe either, but they’re safe for longer. Once he cracks open all his gifts, you have about two days before he tries for the stocking. Mess with him, fill his up with coal and he’ll properly give up until Christmas. knick-knackks and snacks are greatly appreciated, but he won’t turn down anything more practical either! Hair care is a quick way to ensure he’s happy for the rest of the day. Your stocking stuffers from him are surprisingly thoughtful and really sweet, he gets you things he knows you’d like and appreciate, a mix of everything is in there.

Advent calendars aren’t safe from him no matter what they contain. Chocolate? Gets eaten. Puzzles? They get assembled over the course of one night. Anything you can think of in an advent calendar just gets ripped out and admired over the course of a few minutes after you give him the calendar in the first place. No patience from this man. Yours is safe for as long as you tell him it’s boring.

Katsumi:

Everyone, meet santa himself. I’m serious when I say that he decorates his appartment and the dojo on the first of December. He comes home dead tired afterwards, but he still does it every year. He puts a lot of effort in, he even organises a Christmas party for Shin-Shin-Kai members and their families, with a hired Santa and everything. The dojo is rarely going to look that festive ever again, and it’s a good way to get the future generation into Karate! Also: Christmas at his parents house is mandatory.

He’s down for all of the activities, and the bonus of getting not one, but two Christmas trees! One for home, and one for the Dojo! He loves decorating them too, if he can get the kids to help him decorate the one at the Dojo it’s even more fun and special, they all absolutely adore him. Katou can make fun of him all he wants, but he knows for a fact that he’ll get more gifts from the kids than anyone else, and Katou can then sit and be jealous in the corner.

He is beauty he is grace, he will not fall on his face. Take him ice skating and see some lingering influences from his time in the circus as a child. If this man knows how to figure skate, then he won’t tell you, but you won’t be able to tell if he does or not because he’s just doing stuff to impress you. He’ll eventually come back to you though, don’t worry! He’ll hold your hand and skate with you, you’ll both wind up with sore cheeks from laughing so hard.

He’s good about his gifts, if only because Natsue would kick his ass if she found out he ruined your fun by peeking at his gifts. Please do let him open one on Christmas eve though, boy is about to combust in anticipation. He’s about average when it comes to wrapping gifts, but he does make a considerable effort to make yours look pretty. And speaking of yours, he gives you some pretty extravagant stuff.

Stocking stuffers are the things he finds hardest to resist. Like he knows there’s goodies in there, they’re easy access, but he’s not going to touch them because he knows you’ll be disappointed in him. He promises he won’t. He doesn’t care what it is, gifts are gifts and he appreciates whatever you get him. He’ll do his best to get you something sweet that you can use.

Advent calendars are used properly with him, he loves the chocolate ones, and he will use each piece of chocolate in a new way. One day it’s in his coffee, the next it’s in his hot chocolate, he’s going to take full advantage of having some. Your advent calendars are safe, but once you pull the chocolate out you’d better immediately eat it or else you’re getting a cup of the exact same stuff he’s drinking.

Jack:

He’s religious, so that aspect of the holiday is somewhat important to him, but in general he doesn’t care about Christmas. He doesn’t really do well with gifts, and he’d rather just spend time with the people he cares about, so his mother, his brother and you, but he’s not going to complain if that doesn’t happen since he didn’t get much of a Christmas when he was younger, so anything you do is probably going to be better than what he had.

He honestly just doesn’t mind going out to do Christmas activities with you, other than caroling. It brings back good memories for him. He’s especially fond of getting some nice hot chocolate or apple cider and going for a walk through the woods, it fulfils his need to just get outside and enjoy the cold weather he’s more used to before the warmth comes back.

Actual god out on the ice. You don’t really expect for such a big man to be able to move that fast or that gracefully, but he does, and it’s both enchanting and terrifying to watch. He’s gone skating a bunch in his past, so this is nothing new. You actually get to see a much softer and more energetic side of him, becase the second he touches the ice he’s gone, but he’ll come back for you after about 10 mintues asking where you went. He’ll be skating ahead of you, backwards so he can look at you. You won’t be able to keep up with him unless you’re holding onto him.

He’s so good about gifts, you can hand him a shopping bag full of his gifts and ask him to go put them in the bedroom so you can wrap them and he’ll do exactly that, no questions asked, no peeking. Just there and back asking if you need help with anything else. As for getting gifts, he’s surprisingly sweet about the stuff he gets for you. He’s not the best at wrapping, not by a long shot, but he tries fairly hard for you.

He honestly forgets about his own stocking until you hand it to him on Christmas, he just sorta stares at it for a second before he opens it. He won’t complain about anything you get him, it’s more than he thinks he deserves, but he does always appreciate more practical things. Snacks are very hit or miss for him. As for what he gets you, it’s a mix of practical and knick-knackk, he’ll take you to go get treats after Christmas when most of it goes on sale, that’s when it’s the best.

He doesn’t really care for or about advent calendars. Chocolate, puzzles, they’re all pretty eh to him. He’d rather save his to give to you later since he doesn’t have a big sweet-tooth. Chocolate is nice, sure, but he doesn’t really care for sweets and candies. Pastries on the other hand, are a guilty pleasure of his, get him a danish or a beaver tail and he’ll melt.

Kosho:

He’s the complete opposite of Kureha in the sense where he does anything for Christmas in the first place. He’ll decorate, he’ll get a bit festive, but he does keep it fairly subtle. Don’t expect him to go even close to the level that say Hanayama or Katsumi go to, but he is a happy medium. He even has a rug he puts by the door to get a bit more openly festive.

He’s open to doing most Christmas activities, sledding is fun, getting drinks and treats is an automatic yes, but caroling won’t happen. Over his dead body. You won’t manage to even bring it up, you get the first sylable out of your mouth and he’s already done listening. He won’t turn down apple cider though. If he does, assume that something is very wrong or that he’s been replaced.

He’s not bad at skating at all! He’s gone a few times when he was younger but it was never really his thing. He’ll stick by you pretty happily, especially if you can have cider on the ice. In that case it’s easily the best thing to do, going to skate, holding hands, and drinking cider. He will be laughing at the kids that fall flat on their faces though.

He’s the worst at gifts, because he’ll mess with the wrapping and you won’t even notice. He gets subtle with it, he’ll slice through the tape, so unless you get patterned tape that you keep hidden expect him to break into all of his gifts. He’s wicked good at wrapping too, so if he messes one up, which isn’t likely, he’ll just re-wrap it and you won’t know until he opens them in front of you and has like no reaction. He’s okay at getting you gifts, if you can tell him what you want he’ll get it for you as long as it’s within his price range, otherwise he might struggle a bit.

He’s bad with stocking suffers too, so unless you rig up his stocking he’ll absolutely get in there and see what he has. He really likes sweets and practical stuff, so mess with him by just filling his stocking with balls of old wrapping paper and he’ll realise that you’re onto him. Your stocking from his is just full of sweets. He expects you to share.

Advent calendars aren’t even safe. He’ll go along with them a day late so he has extra chocolate for Christmas day itself. No he’s not sharing, it’s not his fault that you don’t know the trick. He absolutely learned it from Kureha by the way. They both do this and it’s infuriating.

Kureha:

He’d prefer not to celebrate if he can avoid it, it’s just more cleaning in the long run, though he can’t deny that it is fun to get gifts, he’d rather not deal with the predatory donation seeking and all of the caroling. It annoys him to no end. He works in a hospital, you think he wants to hear any mention of a holiday where people are infamously nasty and usually also drunk? He can tell you horror stories that will permanently ruin the holidays (and some liquors) for you.

You mention getting a real Christmas tree and he shuts you down immediately. He’s not dealing with the mess of the needles and sap. He’s not doing it. He’ll get you as realistic of a fake tree as he can if you really beg, but that’s it. He will at least decorate and have drinks and snacks with you, but don’t expect him to do much else.

He can skate pretty well, he’s fairly graceful out on the ice, but he’ll probably get bored. That’s when you remind him that it’s either skating or going to work, and he’ll shut up real quick. Don’t expect him to jump in and help anyone if they fall. Unless there’s blood, and a lot of it, he’s not saying anything about him being a doctor, and if you don’t want the cold shoulder for a solid three days, you better not say anything either.

Gifts are his favourite part of Christmas! At least, getting them is. He’s kinda bad at giving gifts, but getting gifts is no problem. He’ll try for you, of course. It’s honestly better to just give him a list of things you want and he’ll look into it for you. He’s surprisingly easy to buy for though, he’s not super picky about gifts like one might think, he just likes getting gifts. It means that he was on your mind, and he loves being on your mind. He can wrap gifts pretty well, he’s good with his hands. Has to be, considering he’s a surgeon.

He’s really good about stocking stuffers. He puts a new item in yours every day until Chrismas eve, saving the biggest gift for the last day. It’s a lot of surprisingly sweet gifts and healthy little snacks he thinks you’ll enjoy. He enjoys some healthy snacks and more practical things, but get him a knick-knack and you’ll find it on his desk the next time you pop into his office, or hanging on his wall. Get him something for his nametag and he’ll use it.

He’s the same as Kosho when it comes to his advent calendar, but if he catches you copying him he’ll outright just steal your chocolate unless it’s milk chocolate. He doesn’t mind it as an occasional treat, but he much prefers dark chocolate. If you catch him he’s not even sorry, it’s your fault for trusting him around his favourite sweet treat.

Retsu:

He didn’t really do Christmas when he was younger, it wasn’t super popular at the temple, but now that he’s grown he’s fully embraced that he’s a Christmas adult, and he’s not sorry about it. He’ll decorate nice and subtle, because while he adores Christmas now, he doesn’t really care for an over abundance of decorations, he thinks it’s a bit ignorant to have too many, and too much of one colour gives him a headache.

He’s down to do almost every Christmas activity, but ask him to bake with you and he lights up. The kitchen is where he thrives, and if you give him the recipies and the ingredients, he’ll provide you with some really good food that you can enjoy. He’ll make a lot too, like, too much for just the two of you, so everyone in his appartment building gets a small basket, and he brings whatever is leftover to the underground arena for the other fighters to enjoy before or after their fights. Apple cider is a fast win for him, he adores it, especially if it’s fresh and warm.

He’s fairly graceful on the ice when he still has both legs, but he needs a bit more stability after he loses one. Either way, he’s sticking by your side, holding your hand and overall just having a really nice time doing some relaxed laps around the ring. Unfortunately for you though, you’ll get very warm because he insists that you bundle up.

He’s an angel about gifts. You could wrap his gifts right in front of him and he’ll just keep his eyes on whatever he’s doing, be it also wrapping yours (in which case he keeps the couch between the two of you) or cooking. Hell, he might even just be training a little. Whatever he’s doing, his attention is on that and not what you have in your hands. He likes to gift you things he knows that you’ll use, so expect some clothes and all that fun stuff. But sometimes he just gets you something because he thinks it’s nice and that you’d think it was cool.

Stocking stuffers are his one weakness, he can’t help but want to peek at what’s inside, though he’ll restrain himself. He doesn’t want to ruin the surprise, and he knows you’d be sad if he did peek. He likes practical things, but he won’t turn down snacks. As for what he gets you, it depends on the kind of year you’ve had. He’s very intuitive with his stocking stuffers.

Advent calendars with chocolate are nice, and he really likes the dark chocolate ones, but he won’t touch them until Christmas eve so he can use the chocolates to make something for the two of you to share. He doesnt’ mind, it means that he can see you smiling.

Doppo:

He’s such a stereotypical dad about Christmas it’s insane. He wasn’t that bad before he and Natsue adopted Katsumi, but he is terrible now. Constant puns and jokes, it doesn’t stop. He’s the kinda guy to wear the ugliest Christmas sweater you’ve ever seen and be proud of it. He and Natsue have Katsumi over for supper every year since he moved out, and he usually stays until the day after Christmas, then he hauls all his gifts home and doesn’t come by until new years, when they all have another big family dinner.

He’ll indulge in almost every Christmas activity you can think of. You wanna go sledding? He’ll go with you and drag Katsumi along. You wanna get some Hot Chocolate and sit by a fire? He’s down for that too. He’s happy to go along with whatever you and Natsue want to do. It’s the holidays and he’s not stingy about his time.

He, unlike Katsumi, isn’t the best at skating. He can do it, but he can really only skate slowly and stop, he’s not going to be racing you around the arena unless you piss him off enough, in which case, yeah, he’ll go after you, and poor Natsue will be stuck dealing with the two of you being way too boisterous. (She loves it)

He’s fine with gifts. He has patience, he knows good things are worth waiting for That being said, any big gifts are going to have his attention immediately and he’s going to pester you about said big gifts until he can open it. He’s very thoughtful with his gifts to you and Natsue, he wants the two loves of his life to be happy with what he gives them, and normally, you two will be very happy.

Stocking stuffers are always right for pranking. Prank him and he’ll love it, but prank each-other and it’s a glorious night where you both end up laughing so hard your ribs hurt. DO NOT open your stocking from Doppo in front of Katsumi, that’s a fast way to traumatise the poor man. He’ll get you something, whether it’s good, bad, or just downright hilarious is up to chance at that point honestly.

Get him a puzzle or model advent calendar, one of the big ones, he’ll be busy with it for hours once he gets all of the pieces. He’s a secret lover of puzzles and model kits. Anything he has to put together by hand is an automatic win. You’ll walk into the livingroom to do something and he’ll be there late at night, a light on, glasses equipped, slowly working on that puzzle or model kit. Getting him a Warhammer or Gundam kit would sweep him off his feet.

Natsue:

She likes Christmas a lot, she ropes you and Doppo into helping her Decorate about a week into December and you won’t regret it, because it winds up looking really good and being a really pleasant experience with two of your favourite people out there.

She’s down for literally any Christmas activity, be it just the two of you, all three of you, or just her and Doppo. At least once before Christmas though, she’d love to break out the hot chocolate platter and watch some movies. Bonus points if Katsumi is there, because the she has the three most important people in her life all together, getting along and having a good time.

She’s not bad at skating, but much like Doppo, she really only goes one speed. If you rile Doppo up he’ll chase after you, and usually she’ll wind up being used as a human sheild between you and her husband, and it won’t really work, as a heads up. She’ll let him get you with no hesitation.

She’s great at gift wrapping, if you need help you ask her and she’ll show you as many times as you need until you get it down. She doesn’t want a lot of gifts, never does, but somehow she winds up having the most. It’s just easy to see something and go “Yeah, Natsue would really like that!” She gives you some of the most heart melting gifts too, she’s good at doing that. Let her get a gift for each of the usual arena fighters and I guarantee you even Hanayama will start tearing up with how thoughtful her gifts are.

Stockings from Natsue are always safe, in sharp contrast to Doppo. She gets you an even mix between snacks, knick-knacks and practical stuff. You get at least one piece of jewlery from her in your stocking by the way.

Natsue likes advent calendars, she thinks they’re neat. Get her any kind and she’s perfectly happy, but if she expresses an interest in starting a new hobby around Christmas, you can and absolutely should look into getting an advent calender with supplies for said hobby in it, she’d melt.

Motobe:

He’s quiet in his enjoyment of the holidays in general, but he won’t lie, Christmas isn’t his absolute favourite. He’ll put up a few decorations (or more realistically, he’ll convince someone from his dojo to do that for him), but he doesn’t really do much about Christmas.

He’ll indulge in more laid-back Christmas activities, but anything more energetic is usually a polite no from him. He doesn’t mind, but depending on the weather and what it is, he might have to tell you no and suggest an alternative instead.

Skating is a really relaxed affair with him. Unlike Doppo, he maintains his one speed with you, and it doesn’t matter if you try and rile him up, he’s pretty patient. He mostly just wants to skate around and hold your hand, enjoy the weather and each-other’s company.

He’s good about gifts. Hell, he’ll even help you wrap his stuff if you let him. At the very least, he’ll help you put stuff away under the tree. He doesn’t really mind secrets, and he’s not really one for surprises, but he understands if you want to surprise him with whatever you got him. His gifts to you are usually pretty fun I won’t lie. Man will full on get you a good knife for Christmas every year that you’re together. Lessons on how to use that knife come without charge.

He will outright tell you to be careful with his stocking to you. He’ll put god knows what in there, and honestly, the thought is really sweet, but opening a stocking to several sharp and dangerous objects is very jarring. Especially considering that beneath all the weapons will be really sweet gifts and candies. He outright tells you he prefers practical things in his stocking, and while he won’t refuse a gift, if he doesn’t think it’s useful it’ll just sorta sit in this little cubby he has in his room.

Advent calendars are fun, he’ll accept any one you can get him, but dark chocolate and model kids are popular with him, especially if it’s a proper model kit of old battleships and fighter planes. Your advent calendar from him, shockingly enough, usually is a perfume calendar (unless you’re allergic).

Shibukawa:

Mischeivious old man will take every opportunity to rub the fact that it’s getting to be Christmas in the face of every young fighter he meets. They start charging him? “Well, I know who’s going to be on the naughty list!” It gives them just enough pause that his crazy old man act completely drops and he whoops them so hard they legitimately need to take a break.

He’s good to do almost any Christmas activity as long as it’s not too cold out, his old bones can’t really take the cold as well as they used to. Either way, toss a heavy coat at him and he’ll stop his grumbling and drop the act. He expects you to dress up as much as he does though, so don’t think you can get away with wearing a coat less thick than his.

He’ll skate, sure! He’s not bad at it either, he’s pretty graceful.Given the chance he’ll zip around the ring once or twice before he comes up to you expecting you to hold his hand and hang around him for a surprisingly wholesome moment with him, free from his pranking and mischief. That being said, if a kid eats it in fornt of him, he’s going to laugh.

He’ll peek at his gifts out of sheer spite if you ask him to behave. And he’ll do it blatantly too. Don’t worry, he’ll tear the wrapping off while the gift is still in a bag or something so he doesn’t actually know what it is. His gifts are fun, admittedly. They’re real good too. The first one he hands you will always have you snorting so hard you give yourself a headache. He doesn’t expect you to keep that one, he’s just happy he can catch you off-guard.

Stocking stuffers are sacred to him. He gets you the sweetest most tear-jerking gift in that stocking and it’ll be the very last ting you find because he deliberately stuffs it way into the toe. It’s enough to make you cry, and for once, he’ll be nice and not tease you about it right away. He’ll wait a week, at least. He’ll take anything you give him, but fun little tools of mischeif are always appreciated. He’s got a collection that started from when he was young, it’s honestly impressive.

His favourite advent calendars are, in fact, candy ones, if only so he can be that kind old grandpa that hands kids a candy, only for it to be the most sour thing in existence. He’ll troll the neighbourhood kids so hard, but don’t worry, it’s a mutual prank war.

Tokugawa:

He loves Christmas, his entire home gets decorated for Christmas, and he even tries to gussy the arena up a little bit. Once Jack came around, he convinced him and Baki to help him hang an upside-down tree from the ceiling near the lights, it was a great source of confusion for quite some time.

He’ll do his best to convince the fighters to come participate in Christmas activities with him, and if you’re one of the fighters then you’re no exception. If he can’t bring them to Christmas though, he’ll bring Christmas to them in the form of Christmas drinks being served to them before and after fights. He often bonds with the other hot chocolate enjoyers about the richer flavoured ones.

He absolutely loves going skating, but including the fighters in it is a bit messy. Between the younger fighters getting a bit chaotic and the others that may be present, he usually takes shelter with the older fighters or Hanayama, who tends to stay fairly calm. Once Jack gets the initial “I need to go” out of his system though, he’s happy to hitch a ride. He hasn’t ever gone that fast over ice and it’s absolutely thrilling to him, though he doesn’t get to enjoy that long before Baki insists on racing his big brother and he’s relegated back to skating on his own two feet.

Gifts are fun with Tokugawa. He makes it clear that has favourite fighters, and they often get gifts from him, though what he doesn’t ever expect is another gift in return. Sometimes it’s a stunning match dedicated to him, and other times it’s an actual gift. Upon learning that he was a hot chocolate lover, Jack got some of the good stuff from Canada, and Doppo got him a brand new pipe.

Stocking stuffers from Tokugawa are fun, because he leaves one on each changing room door. They’re refilled for each contestant that fights, so everyone gets at least one. It’s not a lot, but it’s something that they’ll all use and appreciate. Most of the time it’s a first aid kit, just to be on the safe side, but sometimes it’s a little something to show his appreciation.

Tokugawa has a lot of time on his hands when he’s not planning fights or tournaments, he pays people to do the simpler stuff, so he enjoys picking up new hobbies. Puzzle advents are popular with him, especially if you can get custom puzzles. Getting the main fighters to agree to take a picture for Tokugawa to be turned into a puzzle isn’t the easiest thing, but they’ll all eventually cave in and agree to it.

[daybreakrising]

some hsr update thoughts below the cut. still not entirely coherent but i'm a mess over my sus fox man so this is the best i can give you rn-

i was a little sceptical over march taking over yq's role. i'm very salty over this prodigy never getting to show off his skills properly so i was ready to be angry on his behalf, but with how everything turned out, i'm actually pretty happy with it. yq got to shine for once, i feel. DESERVED.

that being said, i was hoping to see jl in this quest from that glimpse that got teased, BUT i'm also !!!!! over yq learning from her moves. future sword champion ??? i think so. AND the small reveal at the end regarding her and l.uocha helped to make up for it. curious to see where that thread is going

i am incredibly normal about the dynamic between the yaoqing trio. the trust they have in each other. the connection they have with each other. that is truly an unshakeable bond if ever i see one

and while we're on the subject-

j.iaoqiu. my beloved. my sus fox man. when i tell you that i was SO STRESSED after the poison reveal AS;LKJDVGNLFH. what made it worse was i had to stop playing just after that - i was so stressed i had to look up whether he survived or not just so i could focus on my d&d game

but can i just talk about how fucking clever this man is ????? and the lengths he would go to - he was ready and willing to die just to ensure h.oolay was brought down & f.eixiao could succeed. and i'm so normal over him still telling m.oze to run even when he needed help-

the flashback scenes. man was so DEFEATED. i'm so emotional over him, i really am. depressed army medic found a new purpose that he was willing to die for even after being so agonised over saving people only for them to die after he'd healed them because that's what war is

"can you cure war?" you trying to give this man more emotional damage, f.eixiao??????

the absolute switch around of f.eixiao now being determined to heal j.iaoqiu's eyes. love that. (m.oze's "an eye for an eye" also - beautiful). i'm also glad that they didn't just have him survive and be absolutely fine, given the fact he ingested a deadly toxin. that would have cheapened his actions and lessened the impact, i feel.

fuck taoran. BUT the reveal that they'd messed with dan h.eng's rebirth so he would remember dan f.eng's life was fire. finally, an explanation for it (but also this last fight was unnecessary. why did we need another battle. why is hsr trying to be return of the king with 60 endings-)

hyv if v.arka doesn't have a similar build to h.oolay's disguise model i'm coming for you. i know it's a different game but please-

and some additional thoughts:

could have done entirely without the march & y.unli section. it added nothing for me ???? just felt like a waste of time

too many fights. way too many fights. particularly as they were one after the other after the other - this is the reason i couldn't finish in time for my game and had to pause at such a crucial moment. i was honestly tired of it by the end of the last f.eixiao fight. if you're gonna throw endless combat at me at least let me auto-battle-

[livingmybestfictionallife]

The Geek and the Freak

To say Eddie Munson was unmotivated was a bit of an understatement. All of his teachers for the past five years of high school continually reported back to Wayne that, "Eddie is an incredibly gifted student, however he doesn't seem to apply himself in class." He would absorb those words and regurgitate them at Eddie the second he had the opportunity to, and after a while, Wayne began to see an improvement in Eddie's educational performance. Of course he didn't go from being a straight D student to a getting straight A's, but he was able to bump up his scores in History, English, and art to B's with the occasional A. However, not matter how much complaining from his teachers or pushing from his uncle, Eddie couldn't get his math scores to jump above a D.

Maybe it was something about the numbers, or maybe it was the lack of a creative outlet in the projects. He wasn't exactly sure, but the more he tried, the more he struggled, and the more he struggled, the more he was nagged to do better, which only perpetuated the cyclical downfall of disappointment he existed in.

"You're really a bright kid, Eddie," his math teacher reassured him. "Trust me, we all want you to succeed. You deserve to graduate this year, especially after all the hard work you've put into raising your grades, we don't want this to be the thing that keeps you from getting your diploma."

"So you're going to sweep my math grades under the rug?" he suggested with a mildly sly smirk playing on his lips. His teacher laughed at Eddie's attempt to get the school to ignore his failing grade, but spoke to clear any confusion.

"How would you feel about getting a tutor?"

"I don't think my uncle can afford a tutor, Mr. Klein," Eddie said in a somewhat defeated tone. He'd heard the richer kids at school talk about how they had either a subject specific, or college-prep tutor come to their homes a few days a week to bring up their grades or to prepare for higher education. Never did he think someone would even confuse him for the type of person who would be able to obtain such a luxury. He knew he wasn't going to college unless he had a scholarship--which by his grades and lack of involvement in athletics seemed to be an impossibility. All he wanted was his damned diploma and to flip the bird to his principal one final time.

"I have a student in one of my advanced classes who has some free-time after school. If you're interested, I can arrange for you two to meet so you can work on the materials in one-on-one setting, perform some extra-credit work, and study for the last test of the year."

That's how Eddie Munson ended up at the library after school on a Friday sitting across the table from Helen McKillop. He'd known of Helen since kindergarten, but never spoke to her in their years of attending the same school. Part of it was that they never shared any classes--he was in all on-level courses while she was enrolled in every advanced course the school offered. The other reason he'd never spoken to her before was because it seemed as if she would run the other way if he so much as looked at her.

He'd always remembered her as this timid girl who avoided getting to know anyone outside of her immediate friend group. Barbra Holland and Nancy Wheeler were two of the only people in school Eddie ever remembered Helen interacting with, and after Barb's disappearance and death, she stopped talking to Nancy altogether. Her last two years of high school were spent in the background of everyone else's story. It was as if she were a non-player character that existed simply to further the plot of everyone else's high school life.

Eddie sat across from her, his metal rings clanking loudly on the table as he anxiously tapped to the drumming of his heart. His knee bounced impatiently as he waited for her to say something in regards to the notes he'd taken and the small assignment he completed in class that his teacher wanted her to look over before Eddie officially turned it in. However, her fingers continued to turn the paper over, and her eyes continued to scan his chicken-scratched writing from behind her glasses lenses.

Helen McKillop...the geek he thought to himself in a slight tone of either disgust or dread. Of course he knew that the social hierarchy of high school was bullshit, but it still existed, and people within varying stages of that hierarchy developed opinions of people in others. He knew his place among the hierarchy as a "freak" and he knew what others thought of him. He had mostly come to accept the bullshit stigma of being labeled a freak, and he embraced making the jocks feel uncomfortable. It was nice, in a weird way, having anyone be intimidated by the kid who, in elementary school, was teased for how often he cried. In hindsight, he shouldn't have believed the stereotypes and rumors that were spread about Helen, and he shouldn't have approached their first tutoring session with those in mind, but he did.

Helen had always been quiet, and she could tell her silence was beginning to drive Eddie Munson up a wall. She'd only known of Eddie in passing, but there was something about him that always made her feel uneasy in a good way. She couldn't describe it, but whenever she noticed him being his authentic self among his friends, she could pinpoint this desire and urge within herself to break out of her shell and participate in whatever shenanigans and tomfoolery he was getting into. To be honest, that urge scared her, and given the choice between fight and flight, her body would choose flight ten out of ten times. Helen McKillop didn't step out of her comfort zone. She kept her head down, didn't make a fuss, and avoided the whims of adolescence.

With a swift flick of her wrist, Helen pushed the paper back to Eddie after erasing every last pencil mark on the page.

"What was that for?" he asked abruptly as she handed him a blank page.

"I think it's better to start over with a clean slate," she admitted as a piece of her conscious mind recognized the sub-conscious decision to get over her, for lack of a better combination of words, enamored fear of the boy before her.

"Did you have to erase my name?" he grumbled under his breath as he printed E-d-d-i-e M-u-n-s-o-n back in the top right corner of the page.

With a great sense of apprehension, Helen opened Eddie's textbook to the section Mr. Klein told her Eddie's class was in. While Helen was in Pre-Calculus, Eddie was still in Algebra, so his homework was a breath of fresh air to her; however, within seconds of watching the boy before her shove his pencil into his hair and begin twirling it around a coiled lock, she quickly realized the difficulty Eddie was experiencing.

"Is it that you don't know how to do it, or is it that it seems like a lot to do and it's overwhelming to look at?" Helen asked as she studied the boy across from her.

Eddie's bottom lip was pinched between his teeth, his narrowed eyes peered vengefully down at the paper before him, and his nose was ever so lightly scrunched that it would have been impossible to make out had she not been searching for it. She recognized the look on his face--hell, she'd worn that look a number of times herself--and immediately knew the answer to her question.

"I can do it!" Eddie retorted a little too loudly and ended up being shushed by some nearby middle schoolers.

"I didn't say you couldn't," Helen quickly responded in a shy and reserved tone. She took a deep breath and found herself letting it out abruptly in frustration at Eddie's defiance. "You're a musician, right?" she pressed in hopes he'd stop being so closed off and defensive around her. He nodded in response as he continued to absentmindedly stare at the numbers and letters on the page before him. "What do you play?" her voice was what he'd expected based on the type of girl he thought Helen to be--soft and light, like a feather drifting in the wind.

"Guitar mostly."

"I take it the guitar didn't just come to you super easily, right?"

"No, things don't come easily to me," Eddie nearly hissed in frustration. Here was this girl--this nerdy, goody-two-shoes, teacher's pet girl--who probably has never had to struggle for a descent grade in her whole life, trying to talk to him about what comes easy?

"All I'm saying is, like with music and learning an instrument, things take practice. It's okay to not know where to start."

"The thing is, I know what to do, I just don't know how to make it through these damn questions without wanting to fall asleep. Learning guitar was easy because it was something that was interesting to me. I'm just taking this class because I have to."

Understanding the root of the problem, Helen silently began digging around in her bag until she found a d20. The di certainly caught Eddie's attention since Helen McKillop was the last person he'd expect to play Dungeons and Dragons.

"The good thing is, we don't have to start at the beginning and work our way to the end," she said as she rolled the di and noticed the number 12 appear right side up. "Sometimes I don't know where to start with things either, so I leave it up to chance. Chance says we start at question number twelve," she said and turned his homework over. "Focusing is hard for me, so I have to make little games of things to hold my attention."

"And so you use DND dice to decide how to do your homework?" Eddie asked with a slight laugh as he began to work through the problem.

"My parents took me to be evaluated for ADD in middle school. I've had a few years to find things that work for me. DND dice keeps school a bit more interesting, however I've found them to be more effective to add a few incentives though."

"You had problems in school?" The shock in his voice was evident as Helen anxiously bit at her lower lip.

"I never had to try on assignments," she admitted, only to have the looming judgement of Eddie Munson's words 'things don't come easily for me' echo in her ears. "When I did struggle with something I took it out on myself and thought I was just too stupid or lazy to grasp it. Knowing how to motivate myself to do the things I don't want to do helped me with my boring subjects, but also made me even stronger in the ones I liked."

"So you also just didn't try to do things you thought were too complicated to just start doing?" Eddie's voice was now gentle as he realized he couldn't have been more wrong about Helen.

"Correct," she said as her gaze lifted from where she'd been staring at where his ring clad fingers rested upon the paper in order to meet his eyes. "I promise that if you find ways to keep your brain engaged in what you're doing, you'll find it easier to get things you don't want to do done."

"You promise?" Eddie repeated her words hesitantly as he playfully yet skeptically raised an eyebrow at the girl before him.

"I do," she assured him with what had to be the sweetest, most wholesome smiles he'd seen grace another person's face.

"Well then, I guess I'll keep at it," he said with a joyful grin landing on his lips until it faltered into a coy smirk. "After all, I want to know more about those incentives you were talking about." With a curt wink, he could see her cheeks begin to flush and could feel the heat rising into his own ears. And so the freak began to fall for the geek.

[sentfromwolves]

warped, morbid and grime for nemesis hbabl from the vile oc asks!!

WOO HOOO thank you for the asks! nemesis is so interesting to do these for hehe

‼️tw for suicidal ideation / mentions of suicide on the last answer‼️

Warped: have they been corrupted? Have they been darkened and twisted by the story? Or is theirs a path of redemption?

Yes and no? HBABL is a story about survival and identity. A part of it definitely centers around the sacrifices the world forces people to make for the sake of survival, the ways we have to corrupt or consume our own morals in order to crawl kicking and screaming and fighting from one day to the next. And for Nemesis, I wouldn't say that he's corrupted by the narrative, but he is shaped and darkened by the things that happened in his past that bring him to the starting point of HBABL. He's incredibly morally grey, he is willing to make very dangerous decisions, decisions that can hurt people he cares about, decisions that can make him the enemy of a lot of people, decisions that can make him look selfish to an unacceptable degree and lead to possible outcomes that cause mass destruction. But for Nemesis, that's just what survival is at this point for him. It's putting yourself first and ducking down your head and not giving a shit if your actions hurt others as long as you make it through to the next day. No one was ever there for him and he feels like the world and everyone in it has failed him, so he's apathetic about whether or not things get messed up because of him because he has really made his entire identity a "me against the world" sort of thing. It's incredibly unhealthy. It's inherently self-destructive. And he starts unlearning it but I really wouldn't call it redemption so much as growth by the end of HBABL.

Morbid: how do they feel about death? Either their own or others?

Nemesis is really apathetic about the death of people who are not close to him, or meaningful in his life. Death is something he's so familiar with that he's just kind of grown use to the uncomfortable concept of mortality. He's cursed to die on his 21st birthday, and even though he's fighting tooth and nail to find a way to break it, part of him has a lot of grim defeatism locked away where no one else can see that it's growing more and more futile, and it's highly likely he just won't succeed and he's going to die no matter what he does. He's a bit of a weirdo in that regard because he acknowledges the futility of his fight but refuses to yield to it. He's spent so long fighting against the curse that it's ingrained in him to do so until his dying breath, even as a part of him screams to stop and lay down and just fucking die. He's a dog that keeps chasing trucks down the highway because he can't rewire himself into finding another way to live. That being said, Nemesis is incredibly keyed into the death of people who mean something to him no matter what he will verbally say about the matter. There's a very limited list of people Nemesis would die for in a heartbeat because that's who he is as a person. If someone had a knife to Halliday's throat, Nemesis would volunteer his neck in an instant to save him. It wouldn't even be a question, and if someone asked him why he did it, Nemesis wouldn't be able to answer in a way that made much sense even to him. He sees the worst in himself after so many years of making morally corrupt and incredibly selfish decisions, but he sees others in a much brighter light when they mean something to him, and that means that if it's one or the other, Nemesis would put himself on the line for them without question each and every time.

Grime: what has been their lowest point?

His whole life HAHAHAHAH No but really, there's been a few points. Nemesis had a breakdown right after he left Halliday before the start of the novel and tried to kill himself to make his death be his own choice, because he really felt like he was out of options to break his curse and didn't want the reason he died to be because his mom made his life that way (his mom is the one who cursed him). It's the lowest he's ever been, and after picking himself up off the floor and living in the metaphorical and physical gutter for a few months, Nemesis continued digging a grave for himself by actually choosing another arguably suicidal course by hunting his mother down. To put it in perspective: if Judge hadn't killed her already by the time Nemesis arrived, and he started a fight with her, which he was planning to, she would have slaughtered him. Nemesis knew that, and went for her anyways, because he just had no options left and was running out of time, and for him, dying of his own choice by his logic is better than dying to the curse. It's gruesomely dark but if he wasn't able to find a way to break the curse by the very end, he would take his own life before allowing it to. It's a hardwired decision that's been in his head for years, festering, and thankfully (sssspoilersss lmao) the curse gets broken by the end of the novel, but yeah. He's got a fucked up mental landscape when he's in the pits of this story. He's been in the pits for a long time too.

🎃💝come ask me gross questions about my ocs! 🎃💝

[seyaryminamoto]

I’ve been rereading, & I noticed Sokka has a ton of scars across his body! I tried to keep up but have lost track lol T.T So my question is, how many does our gladiator have (currently), and the locations if you don’t mind? XD I’m trying to visualize it for some odd reason lol I swear I’m not weird >.< On a more serious note - Will he have the strength to not beat Iroh to a pulp if they cross paths?? Will we ever see Hama? Will Kat ever know about Yon Ra? O.O TYSM for this amazing story! <3

Oh, you're not crazy for noticing this, I actually tried to do a general butt-naked Sokka reference sheet so I could keep track of his scars... and then I never did finish it, oops. Frankly he has a lot of scars, of variable severity, I'd say. There are some that will have faded more easily over time, others that haven't (for instance, the spike through his shoulder, courtesy of Toph back in chapter 17? that one's probably a very noticeable scar). Right now, off the top of my head, the ones I can remember are:

One on his shoulder, caused by Toph, chapter 17.

The burn on his stomach after his fight with Azula back in chapter 2, that then got basically smoothed over in 126, also courtesy of Azula... so his skin there has become smooth, kind of a rare situation where the scar just got flattened and isn't very noticeable anymore.

Light lines over his neck, also Azula's doing back, in chapter 2.

Also scars over his thighs, from Jet's fight in chapter 30.

The scar across his back from his fight against Rhone in chapter 114.

The childhood scar from having two fishhooks in his thumb... :'D

Multiple scars in variable locations from his time in the Amateur League, most of them are bound to have faded plenty by now.

... While he got decent medical assistance for those wounds eventually, I doubt the events from 236 + 242 didn't leave at least a few scars, especially burn marks. They might fade over time, but he definitely must have some lasting marks from it.

... Aside from all of this, I feel like maybe I've had Sokka growing strong enough to avoid serious scars through most of Part 2. While he often falls off places and takes damage when that happens, he's innately resistant to blunt force damage, I'd say (courtesy of canon and its cartoon physics, if they're going to make this man endure all damage miraculously just for shits and giggles, I'm gonna take that and make him OP for REAL).

About your other questions...

It's one hell of a challenge for him, and he absolutely hates being anywhere near the guy... but Sokka does indeed succeed at holding back from attempting to skewer Iroh simply because doing that would severely hamper his possibilities of saving Azula and ending the war. Much as he has told Ursa... saving Azula is his top priority. Revenge isn't what he needs when the person he's trying to save is, for all he knows, in a battle against time against Ozai's perpetual and very dangerous wrath. As far as Sokka is concerned, Iroh's unforgivable role in triggering this disaster will be something for him and Azula to weigh together once they're back with each other... and he firmly believes that, since Azula was the one Iroh's actions hurt most deeply, she's the one who should decide what to do with him.

... Which is a much scarier prospect for Iroh than getting beaten to a pulp by Sokka, I have to say...

Regarding Hama, she has died by now in Gladiator. I tried to think of how to incorporate her into the story long ago, but the more I pondered it, the less likely I found it for her to survive long enough to take up a role in the story. She was already quite old in canon, and we're talking about a survivor of severe torture and terrible imprisonment conditions, which most likely took a toll on her health. As she was found guilty of many deaths with her bloodbending shenanigans of locking people up inside a mountain (since Team Avatar of course wasn't here to stop her), Hama was imprisoned again regardless of her old age... and she passed away at some point afterwards. In a way, not a very different outcome than she faced in canon (she was captured too, presumably turned in to the Domestic Forces eventually), it's just a more definitive one on my part since I do believe she's dead at this point in time, whereas I doubt canon will ever talk about how long Hama lived after being caught in The Puppetmaster. Sorry if you hoped to see her :( but I really do think I would have been pushing believability too far if I brought her up in the story, unfortunately.

As for Katara and Yon Rha... while it's not impossible that she'll learn more about Kya's murder some day, I have no plans of revealing that to her during the story. Worth mentioning that I also don't believe her reaction would be what it was during the show, not only is she older and wiser in many ways, she's also been through certain experiences that would ensure that she doesn't react as impulsively to things as she often did in canon. There's several possible examples of that, but the first one that comes to mind is the strong contrast between her emotional reactions in the swamp when she sees Kya in canon vs. Gladiator: in this story, she realizes it's a mirage, even if it's a very painful one, and she understands it's a spiritual happening that will guide her onwards. In the show, the swamp certainly was being a lot more merciless to them (see what it did to Sokka, ffs...) but there's no instance of self-reflection on Katara's part, she simply breaks down over her vision of Kya. Evidently, she's ten years older at this point in Gladiator, hence the greater maturity, even if she still feels her emotions as powerfully as ever... but she has also faced certain challenges canon sure didn't throw at her, all of which has helped Katara grow stronger in Gladiator, in many ways. Enough that even if her initial impulsive reaction upon hearing about Yon Rha were the same, she wouldn't rush out to act on those impulses at once.

Another thing worth noting is that, in canon, no one but Yon Rha is held responsible for what happened to Kya... in Gladiator, we have our particular explanation of how the Fire Nation found out that there was a waterbender in the South Pole. And the people who are ultimately responsible for orchestrating Kya's death (Azulon, who wanted any new waterbenders killed, and Rhone's parents, who gave away information about Katara's powers to the Fire Nation) are already dead. While it's absolutely possible for Katara to want revenge on Yon Rha, who committed the murder... she would likely also learn that he's not the only person responsible for Kya's death, which muddles matters further here. Doesn't help either that Rhone is ALSO dead, and that learning about what Rhone did (if she ever does, though she's also not going to find out about it for a long time at least, Sokka is hellbent on keeping her from learning about it for the time being) would probably cause her to slow down if she starts craving revenge: Rhone killed his own parents in retaliation for what happened to Kya (though he thought it was Katara who had died, but anyway...), and he spiraled on and on into becoming an attempted mass murderer, an indiscriminate firebender murderer, and his worst choices had repercussions so severe that Azula is still dealing with those consequences to this day... it's not a pretty mirror to look into, and I do think that would give Katara's vengeful urges some pause. If she ever learns about Yon Rha and decides to seek him out, she'll definitely do it from a place of much more restraint than the impulsiveness we saw of her in canon.

(... also, worth noting that our Zuko isn't exactly eager to find Yon Rha just to make Katara like him, he doesn't have that kind of insecurity about his place in the group here, and he can strengthen his usually wobbly friendship with Katara through much healthier means, as he already has across the latest Gladiator arcs, so not having an instigator, ride-or-die, whatever you want to call it for this potential mission would probably make Katara think about that a lot more thoroughly...)

So yep, that's what's up with that :'D

Thank you for the question and I'm glad you've enjoyed the story! :D

[steveezekiel]

SPIRITUAL STRENGTH

"THEN, by agreement, these men came [together] and found Daniel praying and making requests before his God." Daniel 6:11 (AMP)

Ploy against Daniel did not succeed.

Those who plotted evil against you will surely fail, if you pay attention to prayers and the knowledge of the Word of God.

Do not stop praying because of the opposition. It has to be without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

When you allowed the threat of men to cause you to derail from God, you might short-circuit the flow of His power in your life. You might hinder Him from showing forth how strong He is—His power on your behalf: "FOR the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, TO SHOW HIMSELF STRONG ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHOSE HEART IS LOYAL TO HIM" (2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV).

In-spite of the threat to send whoever call on God to the den of Lion, Daniel still prayed. Do not be intimidated by the human threat.

Lay down your life for God. If you chose to die because of serving God, doing God's Will; He will surely stand to defend you—He will work it out that your life is not cut short or wasted!

Your loyalty will help and see you through! (1 Peter 4:14,19).

Their Conspiracy was foiled

What they plotted against Daniel failed: 21 DANIEL answered, “Long live the king! 22 My God sent his angel to SHUT THE LIONS’ MOUTHS SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT HURT ME, FOR I HAVE BEEN FOUND INNOCENT IN HIS SIGHT. And I have NOT WRONGED YOU, YOUR MAJESTY" (Daniel 6:21,22 NLT).

If you are on the LORD'S side, whatever evil plotted against you, will surely fail.

God will not leave you in the day of adversity, if you worshipped Him with all your heart.

If people conspired against you, stand in God and let Him defend you. For God has in His hand all things, He has the power over all things, there is nothing He cannot do.

The Devil will inspire people against you, if you wanted to live for God (2 Timothy 3:12).

God will send His angel to guard and and guide you, If you sincerely trusted and depending on Him.

Many have not experienced the power and faithfulness of God, because they have not totally summited to His Will and WAYS.

Your level of loyalty, submissiveness, commitments, determines God's response to you in the day of adversity.

The truth is, nothing comes from God without a genuine commitment on your part.

Humble yourself before God (James 4:10).

If you always wanted to have your way, God might not be fully involved in the matters of your life.

If you are full of the self, you are opinionated; you regard not God's Will, and you always want to do your will, you may NOT enjoy the best of Him.

The room you give to God in your life, He will occupy. You can choose to shut Him out of your life, or partially allow Him, or allow Him fully (Revelations 3:20).

Let God have His way always in your life, by so doing, you allow Him to demonstrate His power on your behalf; especially when opposition arose—when people conspired against you.

God helps those who trust in Him, those who are helpless. He helps the helpless, NOT those who trust in the self.

If you can help yourself, He might not bother to help—He will allow you to use your power and wisdom (Proverbs 3:5,6).

What do you have as the secret of your strength and power? Prayer does imply that you have no strength of your own, asking God to help you. That is what Daniel did!

Glorious weakness. Some Believers want to believe that you do not have to pray on everything, since God has given you brain to think and do some certain things.

If you could use your brain to accomplish certain things in your life, rather than asking God for directions, you may not need God in the affairs of your life.

In fact, if God sees that you are a believer who believe in reasonings and getting solutions to your challenges through logical thinking, He might not all that bother about being involved in the affairs of your life.

If you can fight physically, it means you are weak. If you can defend yourself, God might not defend you!

If you depend not on your physical strength, you do allow God to fight for you, by turning your problems to Him in prayer, it does mean you are strong.

If you do pray and put your trust in God, He would be there for you as the very present help in the time of need (Psalm 46:1).

Someone who is feeble or weak physically, but is prayerful; such is stronger than whoever may show the signs of physical strength: "HE [God] GUARDS THE PATHS OF THOSE WHO ARE FAITHFUL TO HIM. But evil people will lie silent in their dark graves. “PEOPLE DON'T WIN JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE STRONG" (1 Samuel 2:9 New International Reader’s Version).

Put aside: your physical strength, connections, positions, attainments or successes, authority or power which you have in the world; let God take His rightful place in your life and defend your cause: "BUT what things were gain to me, THESE I HAVE COUNTED LOSS FOR CHRIST. 8 Yet indeed I also COUNT ALL THINGS LOSS for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for WHOM I HAVE SUFFERED THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS, and count them as rubbish, THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST" (Philippians 3:7,8 NKJV).

The weakest person is the person who professed to be a believer in Christ Jesus, but trust in the arm of flesh: "SOME trust in chariots and some in horses, BUT WE TRUST IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD" (Psalm 20:7 ESV).

If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you should allow Him to be Lord of All in your life.

You do not hold back any part or session of your life that you think should not be given to Him; all power of yours should be relinquished to Him—when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. AND the control of every area, or department of your life, should be given to Him.

The strongest person is the person who Put his or her trust in God and takes everything to Him in prayer: "NOT THAT WE ARE SUFFICIENT OF OURSELVES to think of anything as being from ourselves, BUT OUR SUFFICIENCY IS FROM GOD" (2 Corinthians 3:5 NKJV).

Daniel's weakness is Prayer, and it is a glorious weakness. If you are strong in prayer, but weak in physical power or strength, you are STRONG.

You will not fail in Jesus' name. Peace!

[xxhanachanxx]

🥂🎊💋can we stay up all night~

Fuck a jetlag~

So, um… there’s so much that I have to say regarding what I’ve been through throughout this entire year - as I’ve said before, and making fun art aside, 2022 was a shitshow for me. What was it that made me back out with fulfilling my expectations and projects that never happened this year? I’ve had my fair share of speaking about focusing on my college classes and personal life, and trying to do better before, and I know you guys have been appreciative of me in putting that first before art, but where I had to step away from everything and being myself for a bit was taking and retaking intermediate calculus to the point I’ve never felt the same ever since the first attempt in taking it and failed. (Instead of having the post filled with a lot of text and overwhelm everybody, I encourage you to click on the “Keep reading” tab - tl;dr: there’s a happy ending, I’m my happy and normal self again (...at least for now-), and I did this drawing for the sake of my self-indulgence~)

Let the tangent begin - at that point during the pandemic and with taking online classes before going back on campus in late 2021, I was an absolute perfectionist in making sure that I can be able to pass my classes - taking a calculus I class back in spring 2021 was my first math class after taking precalculus/trigonometry back in spring 2020, and there was stress building up on me whether I would fail or succeed at it. I got a B in that class, and I would take calc II over the summer for 8 weeks afterwards; that class was even stressful with me doing classwork nonstop and no free time for me whatsoever, and as I thought that I did pretty badly with the performance I had in that class, I passed with a C! And then calc III came around that fall, and my first attempt was bad; some stuff in my personal life was eating me up and I’ve been too focused on getting things done for other classes. And when I had my second attempt in that class back in spring of this year, I made sure that I wouldn’t fail again but oh was I wrong - stress and focusing on other classes were eating me up again, and I failed again. Leading to my third and final attempt, I took everything steadily for this year’s fall semester and I truly made it clear that I will pass calc III; there were a few bumpy roads, but in the end… once my final exam for the class got graded, and went to go on Canvas to see that my overall grade for the class was a D, I was iffy for a few seconds and then I check my grades in my student services for the college I go to just to see that my final grade for calc III for that semester was a C! I’m happy that I finally passed, and I’m beyond fortunate to at least get a happy ending after a shitty year! So yeah, if you’re wondering why I haven’t been my happy and usual self, I kept retaking calc III to the point it drained me and made me question how to move forward with me majoring in mathematics (I really don't know how much I would talk about this kind of stuff, but I do need to take it easy and limit myself)! And for the time being, I’m going to celebrate passing the class with some R&R after carrying the bs on my back and self-indulgence! 😌💅🏼

Alrighty moving on from all of that, onto the drawing! Well, self-indulgence aside, I may or may not have been contemplating drawing this for a while now, and I just want to try capturing the happiness and celebration of what I’ve been feeling lately - and given the fact that last year’s New Years drawing was done on FireAlpaca and you guys enjoyed it, I figured that I should do it again, and it’s for the best anyway as I need to get end-of-the-year projects done instead of getting this (…and another drawing 👀) finalized! One thing’s for sure, I’ve at least fulfilled my promise in getting out of my comfort zone by sharing drawings done in FireAlpaca instead of doing full rendering on SAI this year - thank you for that! 💖

And most importantly, and maybe I should try getting out of my comfort zone to say ‘thank you’ more, despite everything I’ve been through, with love and gratitude I’m forever grateful for the support and appreciation you’ve given me and my content; thank you for taking your time and day in acknowledging and appreciating with what I can do - to my followers, friends, and mutuals, this one’s for you!

And that’s all I have to say - so so long 2022, you nasty fuck! Hoping that 2023 will come with and give us all greater things and happiness! Here’s to 2023, thank you so much for everything~ ♡♡♡

[akirakurusuimagines]

ABCs with Akira Kurusu

From now on, I’ll be tagging not sfw content as “merciless mode”, so please blacklist it if you don’t want to see it!

A = Aftercare 

The aftercare king. He’s so sweet and considerate regardless of the type of session you two had. He’ll be carrying you around, helping you clean up and showering you in gentle kisses and praise, making sure you drink water, cuddling you until you sleep while whispering sweet nothings into your ear, anything that makes you feel good, he’ll do it. Chances are, he’ll bring you food in bed tomorrow, too. If you manage to wear him out, make sure you spoil him a little too⁠—he needs it. 

B = Body part 

Akira’s favorite body part (on himself) is his hips. I mean, have you seen them? He’s got a nice ass and really nice hips and if you pay attention to those parts of his body he will fucking melt, guaranteed. On you, though, it’s hard for him to choose. He’s stuck between your thighs and your hands, loving the sensuality of both very deeply. He’ll pay a lot of attention to your thighs, kissing them, making a few nice marks, even bite them if you’re into it. Akira also loves to squeeze and hold them, just feeling them whether they’re wrapped around his waist or he’s laying down on them. For your hands, however, he also loves to kiss them, though sometimes he’ll playfully suck on your fingers, teasing you that way. He loves to hold your hands and squeeze them while you two are intimate in any way.

C = Cum 

If you used your mouth on him, he would probably end up accidentally cumming in your mouth once or twice, but when he can catch himself, will finish on your face or chest, or even himself, depending on the situation. Your mouth really just does things to him. Most often, though, Akira cums in a condom, but if not, he prefers to cum on your thighs and/or tummy, enjoying the way it coats your skin, also paralleling the way you likely make a mess on him.  If you ask him to cum inside you, however, he’ll be a little reluctant at first, but when convinced, gets shockingly addicted to the feeling, especially if you cockwarm him afterwards until he gets hard again.

D = Dirty Secret

Akira needed porn to get him off for the longest time, whether he read it, watched it, listened to it, whatever. He just needed something to keep his senses busy while he groped and fisted his dick. But that really started to change when he fell in love with you. He found himself unable to satisfy his lust the same way as he usually did, and anytime he closed his eyes while he pumped his cock, he could only picture you. The way you would writhe underneath him, the way you would feel around him, your sounds, your expressions⁠—when he finally let himself imagine everything he wanted to do with you, he ended up accidentally overstimulating himself, overwhelmed by the sheer desire he had. He couldn’t look at you for a week afterwards, getting too flustered by the memory of cumming all over himself because he thought of you. 

E = Experience 

He’s actually not that experienced, like at all. He’s young⁠; outside of being with you, the most experience he’s gotten is from his imagination, porn, and masturbating, really. He’s faking it until he makes it, and oftentimes, that works well enough. Akira’s a very quick learner, too, so even if he’s sloppy or a little inconsiderate the first time around, just guide him along a bit and he’ll pick up on things⁠—communication is key, here. Slowly but surely, he’ll become more confident in what he’s doing and become that sex god everyone wants him to be. When he gets older and more experienced, he’s sure to blow your mind every single time, even if it’s just making you cum from his fingers. 

F = Favorite Position

Akira’s favorite position to fuck you in is something that you’re on his lap for, or facing him in general. He loves to see your expressions and hear your voice, and wants to kiss you as much as he can, regardless of whether he’s drilling you into the mattress with every thrust, or he’s taking things slowly. His favorite position to be fucked in is from behind, where his chest is on the ground and his ass is in the air. 

G = Goofy

He can be both! Depending on the context (whether it’s Akira or whether it’s Joker), whether you two are in the middle of roleplay, whether the current mood is one way or another, whether you’re in a semi-public place or in Leblanc well after it closed, there are so many factors, but there’s always a healthy mix of both. The first time you two got intimate, there were a lot of laughs, though mostly nervous ones until your nerves settled down. 

H = Hair 

Akira’s got a little bit more of a bush down there, matching his hair almost too well. He makes sure that it’s nothing crazy and that he cleans himself regularly, but it’s not trimmed short or shaved. He doesn’t have a preference regarding whether you shave or trim or let it grow wild, but if you do have a bit of pubic hair, he might grip onto it while his face is shoved onto your sex, using his tongue to drive you crazy. 

I = Intimacy

He’s so intimate and romantic, kissing you with every other breath he takes, regardless of the situation, whether he’s a little rough or it’s something soft and sensual, he’s always holding you somehow or kissing your skin. He always mutters praises and gentle “I love you”s even during roleplay or “punishment”, it’s not something he can physically ignore. 

J = Jack Off 

Akira would get so sexually frustrated so frequently because he was never alone long enough to actually take care of himself, and if Morgana or Sojiro or anyone ever caught him getting himself off, he would probably turn himself in immediately to avoid facing them. When he does get the chance to get himself off, it takes a little while for him to get into the right sort of mood with how stressed and busy he normally is, but he ends up exerting himself a little too much and is totally winded afterwards. He’s left alone with his horny thoughts but can only act on them once a week if he’s lucky.

K = Kink

He loves having his hair tugged. It’s one of his biggest weaknesses, and something that will make him moan the loudest. Tug his hair at every opportunity: when he’s going down on you, when he’s fucking you, when you’re fucking him, when he’s kissing you, anything. Tug his hair, whether you do it softly, or whether it’s a sharp yank. It’ll spur him on or make him dazed, perhaps both. Be careful, though, you might unleash a beast when you do. 

L = Location

He’s split between the comfort of his own room, and the safe rooms in the Metaverse. His room is comfortable with a gentle ambiance, and has a lot of potential for any kind of intimate play. However, the safe rooms in the Metaverse give just enough of a rush of getting caught, the danger of being caught by his teammates and shadows alike makes his head spin.

M = Motivation 

There’s a lot that turns him on. Something that spurs him on very quickly is when you subtly tease him, especially if there are a lot of people around. Whether by squeezing his hip or sending one too many flirtatious looks, or whispering something indecent to him before acting like nothing happened, or eating food sensually⁠—there is a lot. His hormones are on a complete and utter rampage underneath that calm demeanor. He can’t help it.  

N = NO

Things he wouldn’t do fall under the extremes and bodily fluids, so things like watersports or intense BDSM. He also would never smack his partner across the face, and would not want them to do the same to him. 

O = Oral 

Akira loves to give, and that quickly makes up for his lack of immediate skill. He’s intuitive to your reactions and changes things based on how you react and the limited knowledge he’s gained from porn and sex-tips from magazines, so he finds that his favorite place quickly becomes between your legs, using his tongue to make you cum. Sometimes that’s all you do, and it’s intense and mind-blowing and your legs end up as jelly from the amount of times he pushed you over the edge. He does deeply enjoy receiving, but it’s something you have to beat him to when you get the chance, or he’ll latch onto you like a vice.   

P = Pace

It all depends on the mood, it really does. He does have a slight preference for slow and sensual sex, at least to begin, and if it delves into something fast and desperate and unintentionally rough, well, that’s all the more exciting, isn’t it? 

Q = Quickie 

When he’s strained on time somehow, which is more often than not, he is more than down for a quick round. He prefers being able to take his time, but he has to admit, the moments where you two are clawing at each other’s clothes and kissing so hard you’re knocking teeth together as you stumble into a closet or flop onto the makeshift bed, barely removing any clothes as you desperately plead for him to fuck you, are really wonderful too. 

R = Risk 

Akira is down to experiment for the most part, but a lot of communication needs to be involved depending on what it is you two decide to do. Taking risks is on a case-by-case basis, depending on whether or not the risk is worth it. He plays it safe at school, knowing being expelled from the academy is essentially a death sentence, but in the Metaverse, he’s far more likely to take that risk. 

S = Stamina 

At first, he’s wiped out very quickly. He tries to last as long as he can, and he succeeds for the most part, but after he cums, he needs a bit of a break before he can go again. But, like with anything, he builds that stamina up. At the peak of his game, Akira could probably last a long while⁠—long enough to make you cum at least twice⁠—and can go a few rounds, depending on the intensity of the previous session.  

T = Toy

Akira doesn’t own any toys. Morgana is far too much of a snoop, people are in his attic all the time, so he doesn’t feel comfortable having them. He would absolutely be down to use them, though, on both himself and his partner, regardless of what it is. It adds an extra layer to the bedroom that, though he thinks you don’t need, doesn’t hurt and only improves the experience. 

U = Unfair 

Akira and teasing go hand in hand. He just adores getting you riled up and flustered, whether it’s from sweet words that take you by surprise or dirty talk that sends shivers down your spine⁠—anything is fair game if it means getting one of those incredible reactions from you. He likes to tease in the bedroom especially, sometimes playfully and softly, others, more roughly, but if you plead for him to stop teasing you, he might just have to comply. 

V = Volume 

Akira actually isn’t that loud in bed. He’s rather quiet, actually, more pants than anything, followed by grunts and slight choking noises, small whines and finally genuine moans. He sometimes makes a conscious effort to be less noisy, so if you really want him to not muffle any of his god-like sounds, you could always put him in a ball gag or pry his mouth open with your fingers. But normally, his mouth is used to praise you or demean you, to tease you and torture you, driving you wild with how his voice can go from being so light and gentle to sending bolts of lightning to your nerves with how deep and sexy it is. 

W = Wild Card 

He has a high-key roleplay kink, especially when it involves his Joker side, whether it be a cops-and-robbers sort of deal, or whether it’s something of a thief stealing away a royal in the night. Akira won’t mention it to you for the longest time, but come to his bedroom wearing a skimpy costume and start pulling on those acting skills as you seduce him and he’ll fall right into your trap.  

X = X-Ray 

Akira’s slightly above average overall, not as girthy as someone like Ryuji and not as lengthy as someone like Yusuke, but well rounded enough that you can’t complain. Especially when you get to explore his dick and find the prominent veins that made him practically keel over, and realize the slight curve it has. It’s a very pretty dick, though. 

Y = Yearning

His sex drive is quite high most of the time, all things considered, but during moments of great distress, such as the deadline for a palace closing in on him, his sex drive will plummet from the stress. 

Z = ZZZ 

He doesn’t really fall asleep all that quickly, he’s more content whispering sweet things in your ears and kissing your face and telling you how much he loves you and how fantastic you were as you two cuddle, but if he was on the receiving end, he’s far more likely to doze off unintentionally during it. 

[astronomiaa]

I loved seeing your thoughts on Corpse Party and treatment of their characters (such as Yuka) in response to one of your asks, so I was wondering… How did you feel about BoS? I personally feel like it was the most interesting of any of the spin offs/sequels. I have plenty of issues with it (like many overtly sexualized parts) but storywise—the time loop idea was intriguing and seeing the characters try to desperately “rewrite” their fates to only be thwarted was fascinating. Also, do you have any thoughts on Kizami?

Sorry for the long ask but thanks for reading!!! 😊

You don't have to apologize for sending a long ask! I actually love answering stuff like this, it gives me an opportunity to organize the way I think about things in order to share them (and I enjoy when people also get to share their own opinions with me) :D

As for how I feel about BoS... Keep in mind that I haven't been able to play BoS myself nor have I watched a playthrough in a couple of years - but, I agree with the sentiment that out of the spin offs/sequels, it was probably the most intriguing. It was very much an opportunity for the devs to go deeper overall into the different stories and possibilities of Heavenly Host, and you can tell it was something the dev's were interested in. I loved that we got to know a little more about the characterization of some of the Kisaragi character's that we didn't click into place before - like Morishige's coping mechanism being a direct result of the darkening and not him naturally being a weirdo, Mayu's determination to reunite with him, and Yui being so knowledgable of the ghost stories of Kisaragi because she might have literally lived through one.

Part of the reason why BoS worked so well, is because instead of handing us a bunch of information that was never foreshadowed beforehand (*cough*Blood Drive*cough*) we were being handed a more thorough exploration of events that had already happened. Like, the Byakudan chapter? Not only were they some of the first corpses that Yoshiki and Ayumi come across in Blood Covered, two of the students are minor antagonists, and they're heavily featured in one of the extra chapters. Them getting a main story chapter in BoS was a logical conclusion.

Not to mention, I'm absolutely obsessed with the time loop idea to the extent that I wish the first game was written with it in mind. If it had turned out that the first game was actually their final loop, where the Kisaragi kids finally succeed in getting things right this time and escape, it would open up so many more possibilities for the devs to explore - especially in regards to Blood Covered because good god do they like to milk the success of that game with how many times they’ve rereleased it. Though, I’m not surprised they didn’t because I’m pretty sure the time loop concept in BoS was only supposed to be a one-off idea that allowed them to further explore the depths of Heavenly Host which ultimately surprised them with how successful it was. 

My only true criticisms with BoS were:

Like you said, we did NOT need the uncomfortably sexual parts. Literally none of the Corpse Party games do.

There was some missed opportunities in mixing up the pairs inhabiting the spaces further to explore the different friendships of our main cast, but I can’t really complain about that when a lot of BoS was wish fulfillment/lore.

Missing out entirely on whatever the hell Satoshi was doing in Heavenly Host, especially since we know that he retained his memories of the previous loop. You can take this as me complaining because he got so little screen time and he’s my favorite character, but I’m CAPTIVATED by the potential of a chapter where he’s desperately trying to use his knowledge to save everyone only for Heavenly Host to actively get in his way every single time.

I’m gonna put the rest under the cut because this is getting LONG

Now onto what I think of Kizami... Truthfully, my opinion of him is very mixed. BUT I can say that he’s a surprisingly complex character for how little screen time he gets in comparison to everyone else.

To start off, Kizami is clearly written to be your textbook stereotypical "psychopath". He’s manipulative, extremely egocentric, and violent to the extent that he was apparently mutilating animals and nearly beating other kids to death in Elementary School. He continuously makes poor decisions and rarely learns from his mistakes due to his inability to empathize with others, feels as if other’s owe him something because they can’t understand his violent impulses, and seemingly can’t comprehend that love can be anything other than enabling him. All in all, he’s a completely awful person hidden behind a pretty face.

I call him stereotypical, because he’s your cliché horror movie clinical "psychopath". He fills out the usual checklist of being initially charming, secretly axe-crazy, and almost completely unable to empathize. However, I can’t tell if his portrayal is an intentional tragedy or the usual horror movie trope demonization of an often misunderstood disorder. His characterization flip flops frequently between stereotypes and real life symptoms. By this, I mean he flips between horror movie axe-murderer and someone with a real disorder (though I doubt the devs would ever actually dive deep into research on it lmao).

Realistically, not all psychopaths are violent monsters nor are they called psychopaths - it's actually something usually called Antisocial Personality Disorder or ASPD. Yeah, they’re different in drastic ways most neurotypical people cannot really comprehend but that doesn’t negate the fact that they exist and they’re not all stereotypical murderers. Many want to fit in, which is why they adopt “socially acceptable” behaviors and personalities - there’s an understanding you can’t act on certain impulses otherwise you’re going to end up in trouble or alone. I bring this up because Kizami also displays this understanding and want to fit in.

Outside of Heavenly Host, Kizami is considered to “suppress his violent urges” and makes himself appear pleasant and reliable, if not immensely arrogant (but able to get away with it). For someone who leads us to believe that he DESPISES the ‘masks’ people wear, he’s easy to adopt one of his own to fit in with the rest of society. He tells himself that it doesn’t matter if he’s alone as long as he’s number one, but again, why adopt that mask in the first place then? Hell, even his future dream in his official profile is to create an amoral society to relieve peoples pain (which is... immature and fitting of a 16 year old whom I suspect never actually got a proper understanding of what the hell is wrong with him). 

This all culminates in that Kizami desperately wants to fit in and is overwhelmingly aware that he, without a “mask”, cannot ever fit in. He despises that, but understands. Inside Heavenly Host, that “mask” gets removed when he slips up (the incident involving Ryosuke’s death) and he. loses. his. shit. In the manga it becomes more obvious that he’s aware that he’s crossed the line of no return - he’s killed people and can’t return to normal society. He latches onto Yuka because she believes in the “mask” and when his ‘true self’ is revealed to her, he again, flips the fuck out.

It leads me to wonder that had it not been for Heavenly Host, if he’d be able to lead as normal of a life as he possibly could and get some proper help with whatever shit he had going on... His situation actually reminds me quite a bit of a character from “The House in Fata Morgana” who struggles with sadistic and murderous tendencies and general disregard for human life, but still desires to live like a normal man. He ultimately latches onto a woman as a tether for his sanity and any sense of normalcy, but feels no actual love for her. It’s interesting.

Also this isn’t me going “boohoo he’s so misunderstood :(. my poor little meow meow”, Kizami is very much so an asshole character who ultimately gets his comeuppance. I just think he’s complex and there’s a lot more to him. Oh! Also I REALLY don’t dig the portrayal of his relationship with Yuka, because it has an uncomfortable predatory undertone that I’m pretty sure has to do with Yuka being the devs conduit for their fetishes.

[nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice]

Hi fren! Been following ur blog for a while and honestly I love it! I was wondering if I can get ur thoughts on something :)) remember in sozins comet when Iroh refused to fight ozai becuz “history will see it as more violence, a brother killing a brother to gain power” but then cue to Azula and Zuko who are fighting for the throne and it’s fine?? with them?? doesn’t that count as more violence as well? Thank if you ever come across this :D

Okay, first off, I think it needs to be clarified what Iroh actually said in that scene in regards to sending Zuko to defeat Azula because the two situations are very different and everyone involved knew that. The exchange went as such:

Zuko: Uncle, you’re the only person other than the Avatar who can possibly defeat the fatherlord.... we need you to come with us. 

Iroh: No Zuko, it won’t turn out well. 

Zuko: You can beat him. And we’ll be there to help. 

Iroh: Even if I did defeat Ozai, and I don’t know that I could, it would be the wrong way to end the war. History would see it as more senseless violence: a brother killing a brother to gain power. The only way for this war to end peacefully is if the Avatar defeats the Firelord. 

(dialogue, etc.) 

Iroh: Zuko, you must return to the Fire Nation, so that when the Firelord falls, you can assume the throne and restore peace and order. But Azula will be there waiting for you. 

When I see the argument that Iroh sending Zuko after Azula was hypocritical, I think it ignores the reality of the situation and the pragmatic approach. Because Iroh was absolutely correct throughout this whole exchange. Here were the facts as of this point: 

1. Iroh and Zuko were declared traitors and could not legally assume the throne once Ozai was defeated, meaning Azula would assume the throne by default.

2. By this point in the series, Azula had shown at every point that she was just as enthusiastic about waging war and had shown no remorse for the suffering of the Earth Kingdom at the hands of the Fire Nation. She was particularly enthusiastic about the two major affronts against the Earth Kingdom: conquering Ba Sing Se and using Sozin’s Comet to burn down the Earth Kingdom. 

3. Azula was the one who had the idea for the ‘let’s use the comet to burn down the Earth Kingdom’ plan in the first place and was proud of that plan. If Ozai was defeated, she would have used her position to go through with the plan anyway.

Realistically, this situation is in no way ideal, but the reality is that Azula did need to be stopped from assuming the throne. Make no mistake, if she had the opportunity to do so, she would have been at Ozai’s side burning down the Earth Kingdom instead of staying in the Fire Nation. She was dangerous and needed to be stopped and that was evident from her actions throughout the entire series. 

And the situations of Zuko defeating Azula and Iroh defeating Ozai are completely different, mainly because it was never Zuko or Iroh’s intention for Zuko to kill Azula like everyone else was planning with Ozai. The intent with Zuko going after Azula was to stop her from being crowned, which was a thing that needed to be stopped, otherwise, the war would have continued. And Iroh was absolutely correct in his assumptions: Zuko and Katara arrived in the Fire Nation just before Azula was crowned Firelord. And in the end, as we all know, they didn’t kill her, they just removed her as a threat so Zuko could assume the throne. There is a difference between taking out an actively harmful force in a position of absolute authority (Ozai) and stopping a harmful force from taking a position of absolute authority (Azula). 

There’s also the facts that 1. Iroh had his own history as a general who held siege on Ba Sing Se for 600 days, allegedly committed war crimes, and wasn’t exactly well regarded in the Earth Kingdom. 2. Like he said, a fight between Iroh and Ozai was not one that had a clear victor. Iroh was not the right person to defeat Ozai, Aang was, for many reasons. (There’s also the fact that Iroh’s arc came full circle as he freed the city he once laid siege on, but that has less to do with the pragmatic rationale behind the match ups and more to do with thematic purposes.)

And this is a thing that also bothers me. There’s an argument that Iroh failed Azula and that part of the reason she was how she was fell on him and I don’t think that’s fair. And this post by @withyoutilltheendofthecredits articulates why: 

the ideas “azula was a victim of abuse who was manipulated and hurt by ozai” and “azula had a hand in a lot of trauma for zuko due to her awful treatment of him” can and should coexist

I think it’s important to keep in mind whenever we talk about Iroh, Azula, and Zuko how their dynamic was in season 2. Firstly, Iroh’s priority through this show was to keep Zuko safe. In season 1, he wasn’t so much there to actively help Zuko find Aang (and on multiple occasions seemed to work against Zuko’s mission), but rather was there to stop Zuko from making stupid decisions that would get him killed while offering emotional support and training him to be a better firebender. Does he actually want Zuko to kidnap the Avatar and return to his awful, abusive father? No. But he does want Zuko to have something that gives him hope, something that keeps him going. And Iroh’s priority is to be there to make sure this kid doesn’t do anything too reckless. 

 In season 2, Zuko technically no longer has his mission as he’s deemed an enemy of the Fire Nation and Iroh more explicitly works to help his nephew mentally and emotionally extricate himself from the family members that hurt him. At the beginning of the season when Zuko is excited about going home after Azula lies to them, Iroh voices his suspicion because unlike Zuko, who’s still holding onto the idea that he can win his father’s love, Iroh is able to look at the situation objectively and knows that if Zuko goes home, he’s not going to be safe and he is not going to be met with any sort of love. 

Zuko: Did you listen to Azula? Father’s realized how important family is. He cares about me. 

Iroh: I care about you!

And through the rest of the season, Iroh tries his best to take advantage of their new freedom by showing Zuko that he does deserve control of his own life, happiness, and unconditional love. He’s trying his best to help him through this difficult time because part of Zuko’s emotional struggle in this is reconciling with the fact that no, his father doesn’t want him, at all. When he was banished, he had the ‘if I get the Avatar I can go home’ thing to cling onto, but Iroh and everyone else knew that Ozai never actually intended for Zuko to succeed or return. So Zuko has to deal with that in season 2 and doesn’t get to that point, he still tries to capture Aang and he still joins Azula in Crossroads of Destiny because he’s not ready to let that little bit of hope that he could return home go. It isn’t until he takes a stand against Ozai with the “it was cruel and it was wrong” speech that he really discovers who he is and what he wants and the main reason he’s able to come to that conclusion is because of Iroh’s treatment of him in season 2. 

In season 2, Iroh not only protects Zuko from physical harm and takes care of him in regards to sickness, food, and water, but tries to drill into his head that he didn’t deserve the treatment from his father and shouldn’t throw his life away trying to please him. That he can have and deserves a peaceful life. And Zuko keeps going down the self destructive path because he’s been convinced for so long that him proving himself to his father is more important than his personal safety or happiness. Iroh just wants him to put himself before the man that abused him. He hates it that Zuko almost gets himself killed multiple times for the sake of Ozai. There’s their talk in The Avatar Day and their fight in Lake Laogai that bring this to the forefront: 

Iroh: Even if you did capture the Avatar, I’m not so sure it would solve all our problems. 

Zuko: Then there is no hope at all 

Iroh: No Zuko, you must never give into despair. 

Iroh: And then what?! You never think these things through. This is exactly what happened when you tried to capture the Avatar at the North Pole. You had him and then you had nowhere to go. 

Zuko: I would have figured something out. 

Iroh: No! If his friends hadn’t found you, you would have frozen to death! 

Zuko: I know my own destiny. 

Iroh: Is it your own destiny? Or is it a destiny someone else has tried to force on you? 

And as Iroh acts as Zuko’s protector and tries to break him away from his self destructive mentality, how does Azula fit into that? Here are the interactions between Azula, Zuko, and Iroh in season 2: 

Azula trying to take Zuko and Iroh as prisoners to the Fire Nation with no remorse 

Azula attempting to shoot lightning at Zuko in the first episode of season 2 and Zuko only being saved by Iroh redirecting it at the last second 

Azula shooting Iroh and seriously injuring him (it could have been lighting, but I think it was just fire) 

Azula trying to capture Iroh and Zuko in Ba Sing Se and succeeding 

Azula manipulating Zuko into going back to Ozai 

Objectively, Azula is a threat against Zuko’s safety and there’s a good chance she would have killed him in the first episode of season 2 if Iroh hadn’t stopped her. He knows exactly how dangerous she is and made the decision that he was going to do what it took to keep Zuko safe, which he did. With this exchange in Bitter Work. 

This isn’t Iroh saying ‘I have no sympathy for my niece whatsoever and am choosing to ignore her’. This is Iroh saying ‘Azula has proven herself to be an objective and real threat and I need to keep Zuko safe from her.’ And he was correct. I feel like this stance is reasonable when the last two times she saw them she tried to shoot Zuko with lightning and actually shot Iroh. 

And the reality of the situation is that Iroh shouldn’t have had to be the one to raise Zuko or Azula. He wasn’t their parent and he shouldn’t have had to be responsible for them. Ideally, Ozai should have been the one to do that, but that wasn’t the reality of the situation. And Iroh was faced with a choice: go with Zuko who was banished, injured, and lost, or stay with Azula who was not in a good home with a good influence, but who was still the favored, prodigy princess. He had a choice of which kid to stand behind and I think it’s fair to say that Zuko needed Iroh more when he was banished. 

Ideally, there shouldn’t have been a choice for Iroh. Ideally, Iroh shouldn’t have had to raise his nephew. Ideally, Azula should have had a better parental influence who didn’t encourage her violent streak. But it was by no means an ideal situation. Azula was dangerous and remorseless and Iroh was entirely correct when he saw her rising to power and realized ‘if she isn’t stopped now, there is no telling what she’s going to do’. Because he knows exactly who raised her.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

ace’s execution is, in a way, the exception that proves the rule when it comes to one piece’s themes of blood and family. ace is set up to die for the crimes of a father he never knew and never wanted, and he does die here, but in the end he dies for the family he did choose, in the form of luffy, rather than the one he didn’t. 

god do i wish we knew more about ms portgas d. rouge. with ace’s storyline pretty much wrapped it looks unlikely that we’re going to be learning more about her than what we got, which in my opinion is an absolute tragedy, because what little we do know about her is amazing and she’s an absolute badass. oda give us more female ds please.

whitebeard’s power is so cool. it might be one of the visually coolest devil fruits we’ve ever seen, in my opinion. he he causes earthquakes and tsunamis while far past his prime; he pulls the sky apart with his bare hands. this whole arc is world-shaking, and whitebeard’s power is perfectly appropriate for it. 

doflamingo’s speech on justice and rightness is one of the most well-remembered quotes from this whole saga, and rightly so. i’ve always found it fascinating, myself, because he’s right. he dead-on hits how the one piece world works- the world government and the marines rule the world not because of any inherent actual goodness or justice or right, but because they won a war a very long time ago. 

in a way, this reminds me of blackbeard’s line of “people’s dreams never die” from jaya. i like how oda isn’t afraid of letting his villains be right about the themes of the story, sometimes even having better awareness of them than the protagonists. 

man, if i had to pick a single favorite spread out of the whole manga, it might be luffy’s marineford entrance. it’s so epic, and so completely unexpected for everyone else there. absolutely nobody was expecting strawhat luffy to drop out of the sky with a posse including two former warlords. it just makes me grin!! so much!! 

it also gets followed up by a solid two pages of just people’s reactions, from smoker’s “what the HELL is he doing with CROCODILE” to moria’s immediate incoherent rage, and i just love that the world and cast of one piece is so well-established and built up that we know exactly how all of those people know luffy and why they react the way they do. 

going back to what i mentioned in the last post about marineford being luffy’s conflict of interest arc, i’d say it’s also the only time where he isn’t the future king first and foremost. in this arc, before anything else, he’s a little brother.

there are a lot of what-if moments in marineford. moments where you kind of have to ask “what if this specific thing hadn’t happened, had gone differently?” would things have turned out differently? squard’s betrayal is one of them. does this change the outcome? would whitebeard have been able to survive if not for this injury? there’s no way to know. marineford is a lot of little tragedies, and they just pile up and up.

marineford has just so many incredibly striking spreads. all of the momentous moments (and there’s a lot of them, in this arc) are done full justice. this is such an image heavy post just because marineford is such an incredibly visually strong arc. 

conqueror’s haki is so cool and i love the way it’s set up and built up throughout this saga, with luffy’s constant inadvertent uses of it, from duval’s bull to marigold and sandersonia to the wolves in impel down, all leading up to this moment. 

i’ve heard people complain about conqueror’s as kind of a deus ex machina, but i honestly love it, it’s very cool and honestly i think it just seems to fit luffy as a power. if there was ever gonna be a character who turned willpower into a weapon, it would be monkey d. luffy. 

i’m gonna take this chance to talk about garp, because this sequence of panels is heavily implied to be garp’s thoughts just before luffy punches him down, and it hurts. garp is a flawed person who makes some bad choices, and there’s no arguing that, but i think it’s very obvious he really, really cares about his grandsons, even if he never could understand them as people and that they never would have been happy as marines. and that’s just tragic, really. 

the moment ace gets freed and the brief span of time where he and luffy can fight together feel so triumphant, and i think it’s one of the reasons the final tragedy of marineford hits so hard and feels so cruel, because luffy succeeds, here. he saves ace. he gives absolutely everything he had and makes it, and saves ace. the ultimate failure isn’t his. there was nothing more he could have done. 

the first time i was reading one piece, i hit this page (which is also the last in the volume) and had to put the book away, take the bus downtown, wander around for a few hours, and buy myself some candy and some new books before i started feeling okay again.

the thing about ace’s death, i think, is that it’s a tragedy, but it also feels so completely essential to the story going forwards and luffy’s character growth specifically that it’s really, really hard to imagine one piece without it. there are a lot of (really excellent!) fix-fics out there for marineford, and although those are often really good and their authors super talented, i think it’s really hard for them to ever hit the same way canon does with regards to this. 

i always think of this scene specifically in contrast to zoro and mihawk’s fight, back on baratie. zoro and mihawk are both people who believe in honor in battle, true victory or death, and that’s reflected in their fight, in zoro’s refusal to turn and run even in the face of imminent death, and mihawk’s respect for that resolve. whitebeard, too, is an honorable man. he refuses to turn to run, even when facing certain death. 

the blackbeard pirates, however, are not. 

i do enjoy how, just like roger’s, ace’s execution backfires tremendously on the marines. this was entirely a predictable outcome, too! this exact thing happened twenty years ago! the marines don’t learn. they don’t change. they’re so assured of their own rightness and power that they make stupid mistakes like holding a massive public execution after the last one blew up in their faces. 

(this is why they need coby so badly, for the record, and why it’s important that he still decides to become a marine after witnessing their corruption firsthand in shells town. the marines are long overdue for a reformation, one that orients them towards real justice.)

i really, really enjoy crocodile in this saga. mostly because he hasn’t been redeemed at all, he’s still pretty much the exact same kinda awful person he was in alabasta, he’s just on luffy’s side this time, and it lets us see him in a better light, when he gets angry at whitebeard for nearly dying or when he helps luffy and jinbe escape to keep the marines from getting their way. few of one piece’s characters are truly so one-dimensional as they can seem, and i really appreciate that. 

i really really love all the interactions between luffy, ace and sabo as kids. they’re so fun and bounce off of each other so well. even though we only see them together for a brief time, they really feel like siblings. (which of course only makes later events hurt so much more.

i’ve always been a little fascinated by the fact that it takes us this long to get luffy’s full backstory. it’s almost a fakeout, because we get part of his backstory in the very first chapter, and we’re kind of led to believe that’s all there is. it’s not until ace’s introduction nearly two hundred chapters in that we’re given any indication there’s more.

but at the same time, it makes sense. marineford is luffy’s focus arc, as arlong park to nami or thriller bark to brook. he hasn’t had a focal arc that’s really about him before this, while all his other crewmates have. it makes sense that this would be when he finally gets his flashback. 

i think it’s cool that dragon and the revolutionaries show up at the grey terminal fire, because it’s one of the only looks we’ve gotten so far into what their actual regular operations are like. and, of course, they’re saving people. i really like this about the revolutionaries, that helping people in trouble is basically their modus operandi, when pretty much everyone else in one piece’s world mostly does saving on an incidental basis if at all. 

i think a lot about how the last line of sabo’s letter to ace is also both of their last words to the strawhats. 

death in one piece always feels much realer and more impactful to me than in most other series, and i think this is part of the reason why: in one piece, we are always shown the mourning. nami at bellemere’s grave, carrot grieving pedro, ace and whitebeard’s funeral. 

there are fewer deaths, comparatively, than most other series, but they’re given so much room to echo. we’re still feeling the impacts of ace’s life and death in the most recent chapters of wano. it ties into the theme of inherited will and all the way back to hiriluk’s final speech, of men not being dead so long as they’re remembered. 

the picture of luffy at marineford always kind of strikes me. he looks so young and so solemn, and yet much more himself than he did when we last saw him losing his mind on amazon lily. i really like it. 

sometimes i just think about the sheer depth of trust and love the strawhats must have in each other to separate for two years, far longer than they were ever together, to solely dedicate themselves to improving for the sake of crew and captain. none of them even hesitate, and none of them ever doubt that the crew will be reformed at the end of it.

after all, luffy keeps his promises. 

[hermit-pistol]

Guido Mista Fluff Alphabet:

Okay Mista fans, here’s your food. Only one more alphabet and this series will be one! Make sure to show love and read under the cut!

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Mista has a super adventurous personality and this also shows in the activities that you two take part in. He always likes to do things that others would usually think of as silly, like going to the zoo. But! He always finds a way to make it entertaining and unforgettable. (Who wants to hold the baby kangarooooo)

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

He loves your laugh, and whenever he gets to hear it, it feels like the best reward for him. While he may have flirted with his fair share of girls in the past, looks aren't most important to him. In order to get you rolling around on the floor, he'll have to pull out the big guns, of course. Sometimes he'll tag team with Narancia to pull pranks just to get a rise out of you.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Mista absolutely hates when you're sad because that also makes him feel sad. When he sees you sulking on the couch, he joins you, wrapping his large arms around you. He'll keep asking you why you're sad while sticking out his lower lip, (which was absolutely lethal for you). Soon after, you forgot why you were down in the dumps, which was Mista's main goal the whole time.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

He's a romantic, so he's always thinking about the future and what it will bring in regards to his love life. Within a few years of dating, he'll already want to move in and get a dog. Maybe two dogs, who knows. He sees marriage, children, grandchildren...all of it.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Mista can be pretty stubborn in certain situations. He will make the plans for dates and activities that the two of you can enjoy. He'll always ask you for your input, of course. Overall, the balance of power in the relationship is equal.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Mista can be a little childish when disagreements are involved. There's a possibility that he'll use humor to get out of a sticky situation, but don't let him get away with this all the time. If he's in the wrong let him know, or else things can get blown out of proportion easily.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Mista thanks you for the companionship and happiness that you've brought into his life. You are the longest relationship that he's had in quite some time given his current line of work, and he loves that you have the patience to stick around with him. Even though his stand keeps him company most of the time, he's glad to share time with another human.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Mista is very honest with you. Whether it be where he's going on a mission (sometimes, Bruno yells at him for telling you this), or telling you about his past before joining the organization, he's very transparent with you. You appreciate this, and make sure that you do the same. Hardly any secrets are kept between you.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Like R mentions 👀, you inspire him to keep himself clean. Of course, a normal person would want to keep up with appearances but Mista is a very special guy.... While he was cheerful before the relationship he's over the moon when he sees you and prioritizes your time together.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Mista will be quiet, which is very uncharacteristic of him. His stand will always manifest and say whatever he’s thinking, probably along the lines of taunting and verbally harassing the person you’re talking to before they eventually grow frustrated and walk away. The Pistols would cheer, celebrating their victory.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Mista's kisses are very eager and wanting. In addition, he doesn't care who's around and has absolutely no problem with kissing in public. Even if you blush and get embarrassed this only give him another reason to hold you tighter and go to town. Prepare yourself... 😳

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

Mista will literally confess to you on the street. The first time he tells you that he loves you is actually in casual conversation. You had to do a double take, and he merely shrugged in response. It would take some getting used to, but you were elated that he felt the same as you!

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

He'll want to get married after his time in Passione is over, or at least has settled down to where he can live comfortably with you. The ceremony will be small, with only a few family members attending. Even if you haven't yet upgraded to a larger living space, he'll want to start a family right away. If you decide you're not ready you remind him that the Pistols are already his children.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Every name invented is fair game. He loves using stupid niche names too that come up after a few months of dating. Examples include but are not limited to: "green bean", "lil mami", and "bicycle crusher" (the last refers to your thighs in a related incident).

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

He tells the gang that he's crushing on someone all the time, so when he first reveals that he's in love they really don't believe him at first. Although he "always says that", it's the Pistols that escalate the situation even further. Whenever you're along with him they'll come out and start egging him on with kissy noises and the like. He'll turn as red as a tomato when you grant him his wish.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Mista LOVES to show you off in public, and he loves watching the reactions of the passerby as he has an arm slung around your waist traveling dangerously close to your butt. It drives him nuts that out of all of the guys in Italy you chose him, and now that you two are a couple he wants to show the world.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

While many other guys may hate the concept of hugging, Mista loves it wholeheartedly. Whenever you're having a bad day, a good day, or are just walking around he won't hesitate to wrap his arms around you and smile. Sometimes the Pistols will even join in for a group hug! He's basically the hug king, and you're not opposed to that role.

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Very romantic babey. Since he’s so smelly he would suggest taking a bath or shower with you. This will take some extreme confidence from both of you. Whether it becomes sexual or not, just being intimate in this way is so special to him.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

He believes in you like nobody's business. Also, he loves seeing when you follow through with your goals and sees your dreams coming to fruition! It's extremely exciting for him, and you love seeing his reactions to watching you succeed.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Mista loves the thrill that life and living provides. There's something new that arises every day you spend with him, and you never get bored. Loves booking hotel rooms for trips and the like and not telling you until the night before, which can be stressful yet cute.

U nderstanding - How well do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Mista is stupid but means well. Sometimes you can quiz him, and he'll still forget something as simple as your favorite food, or your favorite color. In time, he'll learn more about you and your emotions, but for now every time you tell him a fact about yourself he'll write it in his phone so he doesn't forget. 🥺

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Mista will be so cheesy about telling you how much you mean to him. -"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...."- <-- If he pulls anything like this he usually givers you permission to slap him. You're one of the only partners that's stuck around with him for this long, and he's not planning on letting you go any time soon.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Mista insists that he should help around the house at times, and this means that he's going to help with the chores in any way that he can. You end up assigning him grocery shopping (a big mistake). He is so unorganized and claims that he doesn’t need a list to go off of, and this usually results in him buying whatever he wants. Watch him get all the way home and still manage to forget the milk and bread. Good thing he bought the family pack of ice cream sandwiches though.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

If you look up affectionate in the dictionary, there's a very good chance that you'll see Mista's name. He loves to cuddle with you and especially loves to nap with you because of the intimacy. Mista can nap anywhere, anytime, but he prefers falling asleep with you in his arms!

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Mista will be soooo needy when you are away, and so will the Pistols. When you have the free time between class or meetings he'll call you begging for you to come home with his six children screaming in the background. Eventually, it'll get to be too much and you have no choice but to come home, much to his delight. He'll never let you go.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Mista will definitely buy you presents if he has the money at hand. Expect lavish gifts like jewelry and clothes from him, whether it's a special occasion or not. If he could, he'd give you the world, but at times you have to remind him that you have more than enough and you don't need to be impressed by physical possessions.

[catlulu-the-only]

Okay, so it’s been weeks since mag200 aired and I’ve been thinking about Jon and Martin in Somewhere Else ever since. There was no way I would headcanon anything besides them being fine and together there. But I need “proof”, you know? My brain needs my headcanon to make sense. I know a lot of things happened the way they did for the very delibarate and important purpose of the ending being left ambiguous and open to interpretation. Jon needs to be a mystery after all *sob*(flashbacks to mag39) But! Still, here are my very personal readings and opinions on things that totally make it obvious that our sweet babies are together Somewhere Else and relatively okay.

-No bodies. Yes, maybe they could find them later. But let’s say they’ve looked all over since they’re so ready to conclude that they’re gone. Also the tape sounds after Martin stabs Jon totally sound like it could be tape wrapping around them to whisk them away. (Very lukewarm start I know, but gotta cover all the bases)

-Annabelle’s exact words when she explains the way to free the Entities are “Destroy the Archives, and cut out The Eye’s pupil.” She doesn’t say “kill”, everyone else just defaults to thinking about killing and murder because the pupil is Elias who everyone wants to kill at this point anyway. True, she doesn’t correct them, but what does she care, killing works too. All she cares about is the Entities being freed. But it doesn’t mean only killing works.

-Furthermore, it’s already been established with regards to becoming an Avatar that death is the final step, but that that doesn’t necessarily mean physical death. Symbolic death, making the decision to become an Avatar, is enough. I don’t think it’s too far fetched to employ the same logic in this case, as well. Always remember — dream logic.

-Speaking of dream logic. I know that after we saw that Daisy could hurt Jon, we all collectively realised that Martin hurting Jon might very well be a thing at the end. But. Daisy wanted to hurt him, just like Basira wanted to kill Daisy. (You know what I mean, she didn’t want to, but she had decided she will) So I think that intent is very very important. Martin says that he’s not going to kill Jon, therefore he doesn’t. The tether will be cut, but Jon will be okay.

-Also, at this point Jon is super powerful, like, come on, he is going to be okay. He healed super quickly after Daisy chomped on him. Which brings me to...and my apologies to Martin stabbed Jon in the eyes truthers...But he regular stabbed him imo. Like we get one deep stab. We would need two shallow stabs for him to have stabbed him in the eyes. Unless one eye is enough? Could be. It would also leave him connected enough to be okay. But I don’t think Martin would have deeply stabbed him in the head...So yeah, Jon still has eyes, is connected to The Eye and has his powers, it’s fine.

-So, the biggest hindrance to my headcanon was whether or not The Web would want to take them along. Of course I wanted it to, but for some time it was like, yeah, but...they would actively oppose it and other entities in the other reality. So it felt a bit off...but! I had an epiphany last night! An “of course, duh” realisation.

-See, The Web helped usher in the eyepocalypse in our reality because it wanted a way to spread to other realities, right? Right. But now that’s it’s succeeded, it actually wouldn’t want a ritual to succeed again Somewhere Else, because unless there’s a gap in the reality there too, it wouldn’t want to starve. And let’s say that since it already spread to numerous realities, it’s not gonna need anymore spreading for now and will just chill, feeding on humanity unimpeded. This is where our sweet babies come in. The Web would actually want a couple of well informed boyfriends who would do everything they can to thwart other avatars and whatever the equivalent of Leitner books and artefacts in that place would be, so that the apocalypse never happens there. (Idk how exactly the books and artefacts came to be here, but you know they will definitely pop up in the new realities, too, considering how helpful to their feeding they are)

-Plus, even if it does wanna spread to even more realities, still, they’ve already proven quite useful, so why the hell not take them. But I doubt all realities have their own gap, so there is definitely a place for them to help. Also, the tapes are literally their voices and The Eye is fond of them. So there.

-And lastly, if you’re one of the people who really want that sweet sweet tragic chocolate torte to be full, I’ve got you covered. Because let’s be real, them dying together and having a lovely afterlife or whatever, is actually less tragic than them being alive Somewhere Else wracked with guilt over what they’ve done until the end of their days. At least in a way. I personally still think they’ll be happy together, running around protecting the world, but hey, if you really need suffering to float your boat, don’t be disappointed, we can have that in Somewhere Else, too.

So yeah, I know that this is quite long, but I hope it helps strengthen your headcanon if you needed it. If this isn’t your headcanon that’s fine, of course, live in love, peace, happiness and prosperity. But for the love of God don’t share your explanations as to why they’re dead. I don’t wanna know, my strong beautiful headcanon is still fragile, you know, spare me. They’re fine. :D

[bluemoonbeam15]

What If: Part 2

@whenthedeeppurplefalls was interested in a continuation of my previous post, "What if the offering had never fallen when Flik threw down the Harvester?"

I also wanna try getting Hopper back into character. After writing him either during or after his character development, I lost sight that his personality then is not how it is BEFORE the events of the movie. As such, I'll also be adding in his internal dialogue in this part. I exempted it on the first one for a reason.

<><><><><><><>

Once again, his fantasies did not manifest themselves into reality. The obedient workers who followed his orders were actually stubborn back-talkers who refused to let someone like Flik tell them anything. The inventor watched day-by-day...the offering barely grew. The production certainly didn't move this slow with Queen Phyllis in charge. But she handed the responsibility to Flik, as per Hopper's executive order.

Flik barely noticed that gradual change in the weather, or the way the leaves were darkening. The only way he could tell the deadline was drawing near was his growing anxiety. He spotted Atta standing underneath the offering stone, expression cold as she regarded the inventor hurrying toward her. "Princess Atta, please, I think things would run smoother if you could tell the colony--"

"Apparently, I'm not in charge of this little operation of yours. You heard Hopper," she narrowed her eyes, "he wants you to handle the harvesting, remember?"

He pulled at his fingers, "I-I know. But..."

She pursed her lips as he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. "Isn't easy, is it? This is why we do things traditionally, Flik. We don't have time for a change. We don't have time to learn how to use your inventions. There's food that has to be picked, ants that have to be fed. That's not even considering all the other responsibilities around the colony." She walked past him, "But go ahead and try. No one's stopping you this time."

Flik looked up at the pile of food. It was pitiful, even through the eyes of an optimist. A part of him believed they were simply doing this out of spite. That if they proved Flik to be unessential to Hopper, then the grasshopper would have him disposed of. "Why am I the only one who can't help?" He let his arms go limp in defeat. "Why did Hopper even put me in charge in the first place?"

Contrary to his surroundings, every noise was muffled as the shell was blown in alarm. Flik blinked down at the ground, terribly afraid that the noise wasn't coming from his imagination. He turned to the sky, seeing the dark forms coming toward them. The colony hustled, not in as much panic as last season. Flik found anger rising in him at the sight. Their security only rested in his demise. Princess Atta directed any last offering pieces to the pile before ordering everyone back in the anthill.

Flik, simply out of fear and spite, didn't budge from his spot. Even as Atta met his gaze, he stared back firmly. She waited for a second longer before disappearing. If this was how things were going to be now, he'd just as soon distance himself from the hatred as much as possible. At least in the open, the only thing he had to fear was Hopper's hatred. He would take that over the colony.

As the roaring of wings grew louder, so did Flik's heart rate. Perhaps he should have gone back into the anthill. Too late now. Hopper already landed a few feet before him. Flik was sure the state of the offering had been seen by the leader. Hopper took a few steps toward him, making Flik back up, "I-I know it looks bad b-but...the colony...well...n-no one--"

"First rule of leadership, kid: everything is your fault," Hopper was nose-to-nose now as he bared his teeth.

Those words hit something a little deeper in him. "P-Please, just...j-just one more chance, I swear! I-I'll have twi--no! Three times as much food next season!"

Hopper pointed a finger toward the offering above them, "I don't give second chances loosely, kid. That up there is worse than it was before. Why should I think you can do better?"

This had been his one chance to finally make a difference for the colony. And once again he found himself the root cause of all their problems. Claws dug into his jaw as Hopper forced his mind back to their conversation, "I expect an answer when I ask you a question. Now, give me one good reason why I shouldn't use you as a bad example to your colony?"

Flik's gut twisted painfully when he couldn't think of anything. There was no answer to that question. There weren't any reasons. He couldn't defend himself from this mistake. "B-Because...," the looks of his fellow ants flashed in his mind. Their glares, sneers, critiques, ridicule...everything that drove him to this point of desperation. This moment where he was desperate for any sign of appreciation, even from someone like Hopper. "I have to prove them wrong," he swallowed the pain in his throat. "I-If I can just do this one thing right...then they'll finally listen to me. Th-They won't look at me a-and push me away. I'll...," he dropped his gaze, "I'll finally feel like a part of the colony."

Under any other circumstance, the little sob story would have done little to assuage Hopper. But he had something else in mind for this young prodigy. "You wanna be a part of something, kid? Here's a word of advice: make yourself a part of it. Stop waiting for everyone else to give you a chance and start making your own chances. And for this offering? Put your foot down. I didn't put you in charge to be walked all over. I put you in charge to get things done. If they don't wanna comply, then you make them.

"Leaders don't have friends, kid. We have followers. So don't get your pathetic feelings hurt when no one wants to listen to you. Force them to work. Force them to comply."

The ant strangled over his words, "B-But I can't do that--"

"Then I obviously made a mistake keeping you around," Hopper growled. He dug his claws deeper into Flik's chin, "Are you afraid right now?" The ant's eyes winced from the pain as he nodded the best he could. "Exactly. So what are you gonna do?"

"D-Do...better?"

Hopper released the kid, straightening, "Getting it now?"

Flik rubbed his chin, mulling over the interaction. The pieces started clicking together, "How...how do I scare them? I-I'm not exactly intimidating."

"Not my problem, kid," Hopper waved a hand to the gang. On the command, they swarmed the offering and grabbed what they could. "I'll tell you this, though, you've already got the one thing they fear."

Flik blinked, "What?"

"Bravery." For just a split moment, Flik could've sworn the leader smiled at him. A glint of approval flashed. Just as soon as it came, it was gone. Hopper started his wings and hovered, "I'm holding you to that promise, kid. Three times the amount next season. This is your second chance so you better come through." With that, Hopper led his gang across the ravine, food in tow.

Axel looked back to see the ant fading from view. He hesitantly leveled with Hopper, "Hey, Boss! Ya don't think the kid'll screw this up?"

"Yeah! I heard he's the freak of the colony!" Loco added.

"You idiots just mind your own business. I know what I'm doing." Hopper sent them a glare.

Molt flew beside him, "What are ya doin' exactly?"

"Fixing our problem," he answered gruffly. "That kid can cause more damage than what he realizes, and not just for the colony. Our whole way of life could be destroyed with those ideas of his. The second those ants spare a moment to listen, they'll figure out our weakness."

His brother pursed his lips, "So...you're putting him in charge?"

"It won't last, however it plays out." Hopper shrugged nonchalantly. "The colony will either turn against him, leaving me to come in and play hero. The power isn't lost to us since the colony will be too focused on the kid. From what he told me, they already despise him. It'll be hard for them to turn against us when the kid is stealing away their hatred."

"And if he succeeds?"

Hopper spared a glance to his brother, "Then I'll be in command of the only thing threatening our livelihood."