#ask mingle

[bonefall]

I was thinking about your tags, and while I understand the caution, it feels like it would still be a stretch to baseline equate common traits among the clans with eugenics. I know that humans can rly quickly go from everyone has biological differences = there are innate qualities that are "good" and "bad", and there's a quality of fascism in that, but when the clans are fairly isolationist, it seems like it'd be natural for there to be trends among its members.

this is also just me prompting for your thoughts on biology and politics surrounding that, since i appreciate your thoughts on fascism in warriors overall.

I think you're missing a piece in your takeaway that I'm more conscious of-- it's not that I'm wary of population genetics and natural trends; it's that the Clans have an obsession with "blood purity" paired with that.

When you introduce "subspecies" Clans to that, cats who are truly biologically suited to a particular environment, you are inevitably narratively connecting the rhetoric to this worldbuilding fact. Unless you're going to massively overhaul the theme and setting of Warrior Cats, to me it's like looking at xenophobic characters that say "mingling with out-groups is bad" and announcing, "I AM GOING TO GIVE THEM PHRENOLOGY BUT REAL."

Even canon is wise enough to not do this-- Graystripe shows in TPB that it's the oily diet that makes RiverClan's fur so water-resistant. WindClan's lanky legs never get more extreme than a general population trend; enough Clans have skinny warriors that you wouldn't "clock" mixed cats like Jayfeather and his siblings.

But in making those Clan differences MEGA extreme, suddenly, you have taken the irrational social bigotry and turned it into a potentially legitimate practical concern about adeptness in an environment. Not just against an individual, but against that individual's population.

As an example of what I mean, imagine if RiverClan had special, extreme adaptations to living in water. Let's say they're webbed-foot cats who can close their orifices like seals and their coat is twice as thick to keep the water out.

Outcrossing to another Clan means hybrid kittens display the opposite of hybrid vigor-- hybrid depression.

Without webbed feet, other cats are always slower swimmers than their counterparts

Hybrids have thinner fur, making them lose heat in cold water much faster, requiring them to eat more to stay healthy or get sick more often.

They may not have the same muscles to close their orifices, meaning they're more likely to damage their senses by swimming in dirty water.

You can reduce disadvantages with accessibility technology in a more advanced setting like BB, but... they are still born significantly disadvantaged, compared to a ""pure blood"" RiverClan cat.

Doing this also says something you might not have realized you've said at all; Your population is proof of evolutionary pressure. Highly specialized genetics like this (not just trends but HIGHLY specialized) implies there's been something preventing the genetics of other Clans from intermixing with RiverClan.

Which has two implications;

The hypothetical RiverClan cats achieved a positive goal by self-inflicting a selective breeding program onto themselves. (...eugenics. that's eugenics.)

The hypothetical RiverClan environment is so harsh and demanding that it will naturally, swiftly eliminate unfit phenotypes. (The river totally cancels out any secret outcrossing)

(as a side note, ppl tend to misunderstand evolution. Darwin wasn't totally right with "survival of the fittest," I prefer Bill Nye's description of "survival of the good enough." But that's a topic for another time)

Either way, I find those implications DEEPLY unfitting for BB. This is a project which has major themes of exploring bigotry, showcasing its irrationality and digging into how it's perpetuated and exploited in spite of that.

I think BB's themes have a better clarity of purpose if the physical differences between Clans are kept subtle. Never more extreme than what you'd see between ethnic groups-- with frequent reminders about how culture, environment, and politics shape behaviors more than genetics do.

Don't misunderstand me-- I'm not saying that every setting with physical differences between races/sapient species is doomed to this. I actually have good things to say about certain artworks that lean into it (Steven Universe, Beastars, Oren's Forge). I'm saying this specifically about WC and my work within that context.

If you're curious though, I actually have a loose set of "rules" in my head to try and keep my Clans' population differences within my own critiques! I've given a lot more thought to this than I've shared.

There are no "unique" Clan mutations, any trait could appear within any hypothetical kitten.

It's a matter of prevalence. ThunderClan is like 80% Sweetness Tolerant and the other clans are between like 15% - 60%. It's not a sign your mate cheated on you if your kitten likes honey.

But it is something that an accusation can be based on, if your mate is insecure or the Clan's politics are going sour. A "pedigree" RiverClan cat could still have a mane, and it can get used against them.

Some traits do help or hinder ability slightly (ex; thick tails making RiverClan cats better at steering in water), but typically not significantly. I Just Keep It Reasonable.

Most importantly, I just make an effort to have most traits be based on social behavior. Reflect enough and eventually you sorta train your brain to think differently. As a bonus, it helps with cultural worldbuilding.

Related: If you found this insightful, I also dove into fascism and TigerClan in a way that's relevant to this.

[neonjawbone]

I WANT MY MONEY BACK I WANT MY MONEY BACK

I WANT IT BACK

[vantabrooke]

Being friends with neurotypical people is so weird because I'll be working for 20 hours straight on the most bizarre, autism-fueled project without so much as blinking and then I'll be asked what I did that weekend and simply answer "oh I just relaxed."

[jespardon]

yes iminterested in headcanons without art yes i want to hear abr your thoughts on purebrutal please please pls sir just 1 drop (or several) of purebrutal hcs for the poor and the needy…

actually you know what you're so nice you get this scrapped first draft for a purebrutal..... thing :3c

okay this is the nsfw alt so these are very much nsfw. alsoooo a lot of what i'm about to write is from me and @slobber-teeth 's brains telepathically connecting throughout the day.

Cw for sliiiight dubcon mention at the end

OKAY SO there's a lot of buildup in their relationship from hating each other's ass but this is at a point where they "tolerate" (madly want to fuck) each other. there's a WHOLE lot of denial between them, both the emotional kind and the literal kink kind lmao. they both know they're attracted to each other but Brutal is on some "i'm a d4rk lone wolf, i don't love i only fuck etc" mindset, while Pure is obviously more "well i'm a man of god, i can't possibly be acting upon these evil impure thoughts".

So there's a lot of powerplay exchanges between them, Pure denying Brutal any sex, making his frustration only grow with time; and Brutal trying to coax Pure into it by making elaborate horny displays (like this one above) or insisting that "it's not sin as long as we don't have sex the 'regular' way 😇"

[jerys]

you know what we need for benedict's season is genuine yearning pining longing unable to touch forbidden scandalous not only on a societal level but on a class level romance vibes. i need that man to not be able to LOOK at sophie in case the wrong people see. i want him utterly unable to speak to her or interact with her in any meaningful way because the slightest wrong move might ruin her entirely. benedict is the least repressed bridgerton sibling by a long chalk, and i want him to Suffer bc his usual method of immediately hooking up with any person he finds even mildly attractive is completely off the table in this scenario. i want him to have to fight himself every moment to keep his distance i want him to be in abject agony i want him to truly Yearn hopelessly!! they need to not touch for like at least six episodes and when they finally do i need benedict to immediately pass out

[askthechronoverse]

▪️ Cal, are you still you?

I'mmmm totally Cal? Wₕₒₑᵥₑᵣ ₜₕₐₜ ᵢₛ...

[creation-quintet]

Who's that pokemon?!

[gomzdrawfr]

Does Raven and Jelly have MANY interactions with other OCs? (Like one of your friends OCs) I’m curious

Hey there! To date, Jelly have zero, Raven have about 6 only, 3 were within close friends, 3 as a gift for fellow cod artists

I do want to share why xD know that this isn't meant to be harsh or dismissive, just an explanation of where I'm coming from.

Although I am pretty much okay with most thing in COD, I'm however extremely picky about how I portray Raven because of past experiences where her character had been invalidated, misinterpret or forced into dynamics that just don't align with her personality or backstory (eg. being best friends with medic OCs, shoehorn with a group of Shadow company OCs or drawn with set of clothes that's just...well that's just not Raven).

Part of this is of course, on myself. I've developed a specific way I write her but I struggle to fully explain how she works xD I think unlike most COD OCs, the way I've wrote her background made it so she's not really suited to being casually thrown in every situation (like of the primary reason was how she grew up from a highly individualistic PMC so socializing is a whole other shebang to deal with) Her relationship with Price is an exception (because I said so LMAO)

That being said tho, this isn't me saying "hey dont put Raven with your own OC, like ever". OC creation is meant to be fun and one of the best part of having them is to mash it with another, and I welcome any fanarts of her (like wdym you drew my bbg let's get married rn-) hence the Raven fanbox post. I think if anyone have an idea or would like to collaborate about placing Raven with their own OC, I'm more than happy to discuss it, just shoot me an ask first :]

Now Jelly is different to Raven, since I've made her from a more casual background and actually wanted her to be more of a character that more people can relate to, anyone's free to draw her with their OC if they want to :3 she's just a sillay gurl, maybe a bit shy and skiddish but she's bubbly to be around with!

On a lighter note, check out these Raven collab doodles I have :3 (the baby one is my friend's oc's baby)

[cozymochi]

Good day, Cozy! Hope you’re doing alright <3 Random question comin’ to ya~!

Do you have any backlogged fanart / wip that you’re especially proud of, even if it’s old or unfinished?

HHNNggHHHHGhhHh weLL… mind i have like 200+ things of backlogged fanart i never posted 🤪 (and might never cuz they are old). The only things i probably still like is this big ass set of drawing twst boys in the style of my private original art and characters I never publicly show 😩😩 Mostly just for personal fun. PROBABLY ONE OF THE FEW BACKLOGGED THINGS I STILL LIKE?? even if just toying around (click for better resolutions)

the Diasomnia one was made first lol, malleus specifically. these weren’t really meant to ever be seen outside of a small group so *gestures* here they are

[mantisgodsdomain]

Any opinions on human domestication guide? I feel like some of the pieces for it might appeal to you with the whole yes kink no sex aspect of them

That's the, uhh, plant people domesticating humans setting, right? We aren't 100% familiar with it but we've seen enough to know that the narrative treatment is solidly... really, really not for us. Dan is more familiar with it than us, but from what we've seen, we're very inclined to just opt out of it - the narrative treatment of the actual domestication process treats it way too much like a good thing for us to be capable of being comfortable with it, and it has a sort of, like, lack of awareness of itself that throws it from "could be cool" solidly into squick territory.

Listen, we love a good bit of domestication and loss of autonomy, but the way that a lot of the narrative we've seen treats it is... awful, honestly, leaves us feeling like we need to get a good drink to get the taste of it out of our mouth, and it's not even something that we can fully verbalize because it's something in the higher framework and the treatment and execution of tropes that is really goddamn hard to explain without a five thousand word essay, and we don't want. To read enough of it to do that.

It feels bad to read. It is the unfortunate combination of "kink that's close enough to what we generally enjoy that it feels like something we should like but makes us want to cringe out of our skin in practice" that has gotten it and derivative works recommended to us and we just get immediately turned off by the narrative treatment. It's not... great. We are going to turn to Dan's opinion for this since we can't get past a few chapters on even derivative works and he has far more tolerance for this stuff.

It would be different if it had more of, the, like, self awareness of other works - the knowing of the author that what is being done is awful, even if the work itself takes place in a universe where that would not be a consideration. The first chapter's treatment of humanity is uncomfortable. The further treatment of humans and their domestication pushes that discomfort further, and it feels like the author thinks this domestication is a good thing - that it's a net gain for humanity to be enslaved. It treats it, narratively, like a utopia that people are resisting for no good reason, and that's...

There's a reason we prefer dark fiction over utopia, you know? The difference between a utopia book and a dystopia book, a lot of the time, is that the person writing the dystopia knows the world they're writing would be miserable to live in, and the person writing the utopia hasn't thought that their ideal world might be a nightmare for someone else. We can take a lot of very dark bullshit, but the moment that you lose that awareness that what's happening here is fucking terrible, you lose our... ability to engage with the work. Because if you, the author, aren't displaying that awareness, we can't keep with it. It's like how you can tell when an author doesn't view women as people, but with that view of... autonomy. The disabled. The way that cutting away any choice of how to live is seen as a mercy - and we know this may seem an extreme view of the subject matter presented, but we have seen these ways of thinking in people before, and a lot of those experiences have majorly affected our life.

We can see how someone would like it, if they had different experiences to us, if their brain worked a different way. Unfortunately, it makes us want to physically chew our arms off, and none of the narrative we've seen escapes that... pervasive, all-consuming thought, in the background, that you don't know yourself as well as someone else with a position of power over you. That if you gave up control, someone could make the decisions for you, and that would be good. That life is better when you have no say over what happens to your own body.

If it's something you like, we aren't going to yuck your yum. KINKTOMATO is a thing for a good reason, and you enjoying something is decidedly not our problem - we probably would legitimately never mention it if not specifically asked. But we quite value our bodily autonomy, and we have lived our life in a position where almost all of our problems have come from the fact that there are a lot of people who believe we don't have the capacity to properly make our own decisions, and we have had to battle that, tooth and claw, for years, and still, arguably, don't have all of our life in hand. It feels awful, it strikes on things we have personal experience with from an angle that feels like the author believes that it was stupid for us to attempt to fight people who had best intentions for us, even when "best intentions" can pave a road to hell worse than anything else you can imagine.

The sympathy in this narrative does not go to those who fight against domestication. In this setting, we are treated like a toddler fighting against what's best for us for wanting the right to choose what we do with our own body, and we cannot separate that underlying view from the story enough to enjoy it.

Also it doesn't have enough interesting spec bio for us to tolerate it sorry

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Are there any companions you can't stand?

I wouldn't say I have any that I can't stand. Something that's so engaging to me about DA is that the companions have good, bad, and a lot in between. Honestly, I don't hate any of them. There are companions that I have more issues with than others, but I like them all; even, and sometimes especially, the ones that tend to be heavily hated on by the fandom.

The only companion that might fall into this category for me is Sebastian, but I totally acknowledge that I've yet to make an effort to use him when I play DA2. I legit just forget about him. How am I supposed to have a good grasp of his character when I don't engage with him outside of his companion quests? Plus I usually romance Anders so Sebastian always leaves my party in the end with threats of bringing an army down on Kirkwall for not killing Anders, soooo... yeah. Not the greatest impression he's left me with.

I would like to have a more well-rounded opinion of Sebastian because the concept of him is interesting; he's this chantry brother who is also a prince, but his family was murdered so he puts up a bounty on the chantry board [which admittedly is SO funny] and his companion quests are about avenging his family and helping him decide if he should take back his lands or remain a chantry brother. But then I talk to him, I listen to him talk to the other companions, and it's like... oh, the chantry has become his entire personality because the dude was brainwashed and now he's saying shit like the maker was actually the one who freed Fenris from slavery, and when Fenris tells him a story about how Denarius killed a child in a ritual for more power, Sebastian just doubles down that the maker has his reasons, like....babe, c'mon now.

I feel like I've read pieces about him written by fans who love him that are more compellingly written than he is, if that makes sense. Really, I would love to be educated by those who love him, especially Sebastian romancers because of all the love interests in all of DA, he's the one I look at and go, "....okay but why?" I have a lot of fun with character discussions and other perspectives so I mean that sincerely.

Also I think it's worth noting that when I play, I tend to get super into the roleplay of my warden/hawke/inquisitor, but while they have party members they can't stand, I have opinions that are separate from them, y'know?

For example, since I've talked about it a lot recently, my mage Hawke and Aveline butt heads constantly. By the end of Act 3, they're rivalry is heated and Ed's surprised Aveline even sided with him in the end because THAT is how much their relationship deteriorated over the course of the game... but then there's my warrior Hawke who adored Aveline. The two of them were best friends and Aris always gave her the benefit of the doubt, like she had Aveline's back through and through.

I've complained about Aveline a lot in my posts so it probably does sound like I can't stand her, but that's not true. Aveline's actually a companion that fascinates me, like she makes me go, "God, you're such an asshole, tell me more right now." and it drives me crazy how she and Carver are foils, like I love it so much, I could go on and on about how foiled they are, it makes me want to bite something.

It's very easy to look at Aveline and think she's just a bitch, she's a cop, she's a bad character, #Aveline-critical, bad companion, etc. I see it all the time, and not just with her, but with every companion in dragon age, y'know? I'm not saying that's wrong or anything; some characters just don't vibe with you or you have legit reasons for hating them and that's fine. I'm just saying some of it's very surface level unless you make the effort to elaborate.

If you don't like a character, you're less likely to make an effort to understand or see anything positive about them. You're more likely to have confirmation bias, so whenever they do or say anything, you go looking for the worst interpretation. I try not to do this just because for me, that's the "boring" approach to games like this but as we've seen, I'm not immune either... y'know, Sebastian.

But Carver gets this a lot, too, and I think I've made myself clear that Carver is my favorite, I love him, the Hawke twins are S-tier companions and I would throw everyone in Kirkwall into the ocean if it meant Bethany and Carver's happiness.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the characters a lot of fans can't stand are some of my favorites?

Like a lot of people shit on Sera, and I'm like "Nah, that's my girl! Listen, she's got a LOT of internalized issues, but we're working through them okay! She's getting better!"

And Vivienne? Oh, don't get me started on Vivienne, I have a whole deal about her. She's also an asshole and I love her.

My canon inquisitor is Surana who escaped the circle and joined the dalish, becoming Lavellan. Vivienne is a reflection of what Ash could've been if she hadn't run away with Jowan. She played the game of the circle, she stepped wherever she needed to step because Ash knew she was at a disadvantage by being an elf, for one, and for two, not coming from a family with wealth that would give her special privileges. Her downfall was buying into her own hype and believing she couldn't be wrong about Jowan, believing that she could either prevent them from making him tranquil or help him and Lily run away, and believing she was above punishment because she worked her way into being Irving's favorite. Yet it all bit her in the ass and she had to run… so then years later after living outside of the circle and realizing just what the chantry is, how it conditions and abuses mages and shit, she meets Vivienne who also played the game well and came out on top, who now spouts the same shit Ash used to spout and it's makes their dynamic sooo chewable.

Then there's Cullen who's not a companion but I lump him and Josephine in with the companions anyway. They're advisors, they're in the inner circle, they count.

He's such a spineless ass in DA2 like believe me, I get all the criticisms he gets... but he's also fairly polite to Hawke even if they're openly anti-templar, he's softer spoken, and he's unwell after what happened to him in DAO and Meredith's clearly taking advantage of his state... but then he becomes an advisor in DAI who is so done with people's bullshit and blatantly honest about it, like he looks at Chancellor Roderick like "this fucking guy again" and he's so ready to just go for it, y'know? Well... unless you're a pretty lady who bats her eyes at him, then suddenly he doesn't know how words work. Like sometimes I feel crazy because I find him to be so funny in DAI, and overall a compelling character that I enjoy interacting with even when he's being a total asshole. Yeah, there's issues in his writing but I appreciate the vision the writers were going for, even if they stumbled... except for Sheryl Chee, I don't appreciate her contribution of those few posts on the DA forums that everyone uses as a smoking gun to "prove" awful things about him. Nothing gets under my skin more in character discussions than bad faith arguments and there's so much of that when it comes to Cullen.

Actually, while we're on that, can I just add a note that when I first got into this fandom, I saw someone's post about Chee doing an interview where she said all those bad things about Cullen wanting to assault the mage warden and I was like, "What? An interview? What interview?? Where??" and I couldn't find shit until much later when I read another anti-Cullen post that cited a DA forum as the source for her saying those things... so not an interview. I went digging for the forum, went into the way back machine to find it.... only to discover that this smoking gun comes from a fanfiction forum where Mary Kirby was also talking about Sten and catgirls and y'all expect me to take that seriously?

We can have discussions about whether or not Cullen's a bad person or a bad character, but the moment you bring Sheryl Chee into it, I know you're here in bad faith and your argument is void.

Sorry for the tangent and the long answer but this is the stuff I enjoy. I could talk about the characters of DA for ages unprompted that when someone does throw me a bone, I will discuss and gush about them all.

[scourgiez]

Please tell us the fabio lore i’m curious

My issue is that you should not get me in contact with a Wikipedia page because I WILL look through everything. Not a link untouched. Here’s a little bulleted list of highlights:

- He is a March Pisces

- He got drunk as a toddler (?!) and due to the hospital stay afterwards he doesn't touch alcohol

- When he got American citizenship he called his home country of Italy a shithole. And then in another part hes all like Italian food is the BEST!!!!!! 🍝🇮🇹

- The goose incident has its own section. He claims that the goose was not the thing that hit him, instead the goose hit a camera mounted on the car which broke and the debris hit his nose. Apparently "the news said the goose hit him so he wouldn't sue them for faulty equipment." But …. Why would he just drop that allegation 😭

- A soldier in the idgaf war. He just says and does whatever.

- Conan talking about his boobs:

[ablazenqueen]

i know everything about your wips of course but please please tell the world about svsss grim reaper its SO GOOD

Tagging @koaly-ty who also asked about the same fic! Thanks for the asks from both of you!

GRIM REAPER YES

Don’t mind if I do, this is the fic I am by far the most excited to write! (as you already know, Kai, so thanks for letting me ramble about it 🤣)

So basically, the concept for this (modern) AU is that Luo Binghe dies as a child (probably of starvation/malnutrition) while caring for his dying mother. When the grim reaper comes to collect his soul, he begs to stay alive to take care of his mother because she has no one else. Shen Qingqiu, who’s halfway through his first day as a grim reaper, still young and naive and left alone by his supervisor (Shang Qinghua) for five whole minutes, turns out to be remarkably susceptible to a pair of puppy eyes and allows it. Not only that but Shen Qingqiu goes as far as to find ways to take care of Luo Binghe from the shadows until his mother dies and he’s grown-up and has things a little easier.

Luo Binghe, who’s never been treated with kindness in his life, falls fast and hard for what he assumes is his guardian angel.

Fast forward a couple of decades and Luo Binghe is now a thrill-chaser. He intentionally puts himself into dangerous situations in the hopes of seeing Shen Qingqiu again and poor Shen Qingqiu is desperately trying not to get in trouble with his superiors for letting a mortal live and has to constantly scramble to keep Luo Binghe from dying again and getting re-marked on the Book Of Death. This danger-seeking behaviour is what leads Luo Binghe to becoming an infamous PI with a number of high profile mafia clients.

Which means this is a *drum roll please* case fic! Yay!

So one of these high profile recurring mafia clients, Mobei-Jun, comes to Luo Binghe one day demanding he investigate the nationally-broadcasted murder of his right hand woman, Sha Hualing. They both know it’s because Mobei-Jun wants to know who he needs to kill. Luo Binghe doesn’t ask questions. He takes the case.

Sha Hualing, for her part, wakes up feeling completely fine. In some grimy hospital, in a hospital gown (ew), but still. Fine. Except— Oh. No one can see her. Turns out? Not dead. She’s in a coma with no clue how she got there.

The Book Of Death doesn’t like coma ghosts. They’re confusing, in a space between life and death that isn’t supposed to exist. So it charges the nearest grim reaper to reap her soul. Shen Qingqiu. He figures it out, but too late. Sha Hualing immediately realizes this guy is the only person who can see her and demands that he revive her.

Shen Qingqiu learned his lesson years ago. Do not interfere in mortal affairs. If he revives another mortal, he’s practically begging to get wiped out of the divine plane of existence. Some very insistent weedling does, however, eventually gets him to agree to help with the investigation.

(Sorry for the long-ass explanation, this AU’s just got a lot of moving parts 😅)

This fic is gonna be a big boi! It’s going to be Bingqiu (grim reaper/immortal human) with side Mingling (undercover cop/mafia henchwoman) and background Moshang (grim reaper/mafia boss) and Liufang (cop/doctor). I expect it’ll be my next multi-chapter project after my Tiwpor fic so I’ll probably start writing it around the end of summer!

[mikailys]

MCL NewGen Ep 9 Commentary

I poured blood, sweat, tears, and money to finish this episode. I fought my inner demons to convince myself that they didn't deserved my money but here we are: with a concluded episode and me with 30 euros less in my bank account 🥲 As always, this post will obviously contain spoilers under the cut so beware~

Ngl after the disaster of episode 8 I had zero (0) hopes for this new one, I wasn’t even excited after everything that happened last month (e-girl pack, episode 8, Halloween event and so on) but I have to admit, this one surprisingly exceeded my low expectations by a landslide by finally giving some insight on the LIs about time i might say.

But first thing first, the cost. This episode was hella expensive, I spent 2604 aps, of which 1832 were free. I'm following Jason's route so I know it's more expensive than the others but I didn't imagine this much. I genuinely hope the others will be shorter and that this was just an exception given the backstories cause I can't handle every ep being like this 😩

As a Jason's girlie, I was ecstatic about this episode. For once, his presence was well-contextualized, he didn’t come off like a stalker and we weren’t the damsel in distress. I didn’t expect him to start trauma-dumping on Candy so soon, considering they don’t see each other as often compared to the other LIs, but I’m glad we got to know him better. I really hope Candy’s attitude toward him will start to soften 'cause she’s always on guard around him and it’d be nice to see her relax and trust him a little more, especially after the intimate moment they experienced in this ep.

I must admit tho the premise didn't really appeal to me and I was skeptical this would be another silly ep with all the Devenementiel crew doing stuff but luckily it wasn't. It all starts with Devon telling us that, starting the next day, a group of interns will be joining the team and it turns out these are Devon’s younger brothers, Gebril and Joen.

Overall I liked the time spent with them. I agree that there were a lot of unnecessary moments and some parts I could’ve gladly skipped but it was a cute scenario, and finally we get to meet some new characters for a change also idk but Joen's attitude kinda reminds me of Armin oh I miss himm

Since we're here let’s already get to the sore spot of this whole ep: the whole Tasha situation. I don’t care if it’s wrong to have beef with my fictional sister, but I’m honestly speechless at how she and their mom acted during the internship situation. You knew for months that you needed to pick a company for your internship and yet, the night before, you have no plans because you delayed the application?? And now you’re asking me to call up my boss at 8 pm to beg him to include you in the internship that’s supposed to start tomorrow? Are you out of your mind?!?

Also isn’t the whole traineeship supposed to be organized by the school? I’m not sure how it works in France, but I was quite confused—here in Italy the school usually guides you through the process and handles all the paperwork. It’s unusual for students to be left on their own in a situation like this...

And the mom is even worse cause she just says "I don’t want to judge you for how you’re acting with her because if I were in your shoes I wouldn’t know what to do either" like uhmm you’re the mother, not me?? If you knew about this the whole time –and she knew for months– why didn’t she help Tasha earlier? Or better yet, why didn’t Tasha ask us weeks ago instead of the evening before? And yet they’re just chilling while playing cards omg you have no idea how much this stressed me out it's so stupid but yet so infuriating like the fact that they only have a bathroom in a mega villa but whatever i guess.

After we refuse to help her, Tasha mysteriously ends up joining Goldreamz for her internship. I’m honestly confused, once again, about how this happened because the night before no company had accepted her and now suddenly she's got the job?? Did Jason see her candidacy last minute right before clocking out the office? If I missed something pls let me know cause I genuinely can't wrap my head around it lol.

What a way to twist things...

But anyway, I honestly liked this option. I admit I would have never imagined this plot for his route but I’m glad they went this way. I loved seeing Candy’s reaction when Tasha told her about working with "the devil" and I also enjoyed her reactions to the ambiguous conversation between Candy and Jason in his office watch Tasha being the first to get the hints about their situationship lol

Maybe it's for the better, we don't want to let our lil sis know we blew up big time our first solo project.

Once Tasha leaves, Candy asks Jason wtf he’s doing and he assures her that he doesn’t have any ulterior motives. He just thought it would be an amusing situation for both him and Candy. After a quick recap, we get a better understanding of Candy and Tasha's relationship. It seems like there’s a bit of a rivalry/competition between the sisters—something I would have never guessed, considering we've only seen Tasha about three times since the beginning but okay. I only wish to see more of their sisterhood but I guess we won't any sooner since she's going to her father for a while, that sucks.

After some usual bantering, we find out that Jason envies our relationship with Tasha since he’s an only child, which leads him to open up a bit about his past. We learn that he found comfort in solitude, often isolating himself by going out on his father's boat in the middle of the ocean. I admit this was unexpected, I never would’ve guessed he’d be so into the marine world - as we'll see soon in the rowboat scene. It adds a surprisingly nice contrast to his otherwise business-like persona.

Touched by Jason’s childhood story, Candy spontaneously suggests they take a boat ride right then and there, to experience the peace and solitude he felt throughout his childhood. This was a cute gesture from Candy ngl, I thought she would simply nod and listen to his story but no. This is the first time she takes such an important first step with him in their relationship and I'm proud of her.

But, once arrived tho she has to ruin everything destroying the cute little moment...

Oh my God. You strangely enough managed to get him to open up about his difficult childhood and you still can’t help but joke about him being the big bad guy? Ugh I take back whatever I said about you Candy, you're dumb.

Thankfully, Jason doesn’t seem that much bothered by her comment and they get on the rowboat. I was lowkey hoping for a cute moment where he offers her his hand to help her aboard but nope, doesn’t happen. Honestly I’m convinced this is his subtle payback for that insensitive joke, if so props to you J.

Anyway, he starts rowing and soon we find ourselves in the middle of the lake. This is where the heart of the episode unfolds imo. We finally get a glimpse into his family history. Jason opens up about his father, a scientist deeply passionate about the ocean, that tragically passed away shortly before he turned 19.

This is the moment where I truly lost it. I swear, I was a sobbing mess.

Jason’s vulnerability hit me harder than I expected. We already knew about his father, but hearing him tell the whole story was tough. I can barely imagine what he went through at such a pivotal age. The emotional distance between him and his mother after she got remarried definitely played a big role and when you add his strained relationship with his stepfather into the mix, it’s impossible not to feel for him. It's such a tragic backstory, I hope they don’t mess it up from here on out. My pookie deserves better :(

As for the special scene, it wasn't that much but I liked it. Unfortunately, I can't post the screenshots since I’ve hit the limit per post sigh but it was such a sweet and heartwarming moment. It offered a smooth transition from the heaviness of the conversation to their usual playful banter and I really appreciated how it slowly lightened up the mood without taking away from the emotional depth of his story. I have to admit, I wasn’t really a fan of the illustration. The setting and moment were adorable - it totally gave me Rapunzel vibes with all the whimsy and charm - but Jason’s expression feels off, it’s almost like he’s a villain plotting revenge rather than being swept up in the moment lol. Plus his proportions seem a little strange mmh. Candy, on the other hand, looks gorgeous so gg.

And that’s it. Afterwards, Jason accompanies Candy back to her house, reminding her that despite the little walk down memory lane, things haven’t changed between them in his eyes, and he expects the same from her. Oh, and let’s not forget she owes him an intimate story too as if the whole Ioan drama wasn’t enough.

With that, he leaves and the episode ends with Candy having her same old crisis whenever she spends a little time with Jason.

Now, I’m really curious to see if Jason opening up will actually shift things between them or if it’ll stay the same old. At this point, Candy doesn’t have much of an excuse to keep trash-talking him - he hasn’t done anything to harm her or Devenementiel, yet, and he’s actually been there to help her on multiple occasions. I’m hoping she drops the whole “he’s the devil” mindset because he’s honestly shown more support than hostility in the latest eps.

But honestly I can't hide that rn I'm more worried about the next episode. Thomas having an incident was on everyone’s bingo card -even though I didn’t expect it to happen this early- but here we are. I’ve got so much repressed trauma from everything with Lysander that I genuinely have no idea what to expect next 🫠

[shivsghost]

Don't pretend like you quit doing takemura content because you wanted to focus on something else, you just couldn't dael with others getting more notes than you with their takemura content Sucks to suck I guess, but we don't miss you anyway, we never liked you in our space

Thats not very spirit of christmas of u

[askthechronoverse]

You said you were up for a Magic anon, here we go!

M!anon event!: Body-swap! Everybody is swapped for 24hrs! Who’s in who, and how yall handling?

Uh...

So when we say "everybody"...

I have a big cast... uh...

RJ is in Unikitty's body.

Unikitty is in Emmet

Richard is in Puppycorn

Puppycorn is in Lucy

Hawkodile is in RJ.

Dr. Fox is in Hawkodile

Lucy is in Richard

Emmet is in Dr. Fox

For the kids:

Cal is in Kit

Kit is in Bellamy

Charmy is in Cal

Vito is in Charmy

Bellamy is in Ai

Ai is in Vito

Hey, RJ? How's it...

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!?