#at least generally cause there are exceptions for both of them in that mindset but overall

[meatgrinder-0]

ill allow myself one (maybe) hot take today. fiddleford would NOT want to help stan save ford i think. not from a resentment towards ford absolutely not i think hed feel devastated to hear he disappeared but i sincerely cannot imagine him helping open the portal when hes seen inside and knows exactly how dangerous it is. i cant even imagine him wanting to when he knows the potential consequences.

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic Cyber Revolution, Entry 61: What I'm Here For

''I don't care what you're thinking as you turn to me. 'Cause what I have in my two hands is enough to set me free (set me free). I could fight the feeling to resist it over time. But when it's just too much to take, you sneak up from behind. Is it me, you say, you're looking for? Let me show you who I am and what I'm here for... (here for)!''

– What I'm Made Of (Shadow Remix) by Sonic Heroes (Zarkator Cover, Sonic X Shadow Generations, Theme of Neo Metal Sonic)

xXxXxXx

Sonic took a deep breath, smiling contently as he stretched on the tree branch he was lying on and feeling the warm rays of the sun warming his body in patches as the tree crown partially obscured the light. He was in Heizeru Park, him and his friends having returned home a couple of days ago, and he had to admit that, while their little adventure in the Surya Empire was quite exciting, he was genuinely happy to be back in Starpoint Area, and more importantly, on solid land. Despite the fatigue he felt due to the jet lag, he immediately ran off the moment they landed at the airport near Neos City, rushing into freedom. It appeared that none of his teammates minded it, as they were also tired and happy to be back home, and when Sonic crashed on the couch again, he woke up the next day in his bedroom, realizing Lucas carried him over when he was completely knocked out.

The next day, they met up with Omega, who bitterly recounted how nothing had happened in the past few days and got really annoyed when he talked about Metal Sonic rejecting a battle with him. Sonic had to admit that it was a bit strange to see the normally headstrong robot go through such a range of emotions, but considering how he was disappointed that he couldn't get to destroy any Eggman robots – even more when Silver innocently mentioned they came across robots during their adventure – it wasn't really surprising. At least Touka managed to comfort him by patting him on the back in a compassionate manner and promising they'll call him immediately if Eggman decided to attack them. Her promise did manage to cheer him up.

Nevertheless, it appeared that Eggman, or Metal Sonic and Ferra for that matter, have taken note of Team Neos' return, as no attack had happened, which was fine with the rest of the team. They just wanted to have a day off when they could relax. Sonic had the same mindset, except the time he needed to relax was much shorter, so he bounced back almost immediately and was ready for another adventure. However, it appeared that none of his friends could match his energy, let alone were ready to get back into action and preferred to just have a quiet day.

Well, save for one.

''I wonder why Metal Sonic was so insistent on fighting me,'' Sonic said, seemingly talking to no one.

''I could think of a few reasons, but considering how Metal Sonic views you, none of them are particularly flattering,'' Shadow responded in a calm and matter-of-fact, but slightly deadpan tone, causing Sonic to snort in amusement, well aware what he meant. He glanced below, taking note of Shadow sitting below the branch Sonic was lying on, and reading a novel he had downloaded on his AR Visor while Sonic was taking a nap. Sonic knew that, to anyone alse, Shadow sounded rather contemptous, if not outright rude, but to him, this was just another snarky remark typical for his rival.

After all, they were still navigating through their new dynamic, trying to figure out how to interact with each other. They actually had one of their usual battles just earlier, albeit with an added condition. It wasn't really a rule they had set up, but more of a silent agreement that happened naturally when during the battle, one of them would win by pinning the other down and then promptly kiss the loser. The first time it happened, both were caught a little off guard, as they were still feeling a strong surge of adrenaline, as well as affection for each other, but one glance was enough for them to agree that this was something they both wanted, as it made things even more exciting for both.

That, and Sonic loved seeing the normally guarded and careful Shadow acting more on impulse.

Sonic hummed for a moment, reminding himself that being openly affectionate, especially in a romantic sense, was still new to both of them, and they exploring the situation within a space they were comfortable with. He had to admit that it also felt a little ironic, maybe even comical, that even though they knew exactly how they felt about each other, they would at times act as if they had no clue why they had the sudden urge to just kiss. This would lead to them trying to suppress whatever they felt in the moment and act like nothing happened. It couldn't be helped, but that didn't prevent the loser of the battle from feeling annoyed, especially when he was in mood for some affection while his partner was flustered by the whole thing.

Rest assured, Sonic was already silently plotting his revenge on Shadow denying him that affection, especially after seeing his rival staring at him with a smug grin after pinning him down on the ground.

''Well, my assumption is that Metal just wants to have another go at proving himself to be the real Sonic,'' Sonic replied, crossing his arms behind his back and leaning against the tree. ''That won't work, because we all know there is only one Sonic in existence.''

''I agree. After all, one Faker is already enough for me to deal with,'' Shadow replied in a deadpan tone, but the corners of his lips curved slightly upwards. Sonic rose an eyebrow, Shadow's comment leaving him wondering. Then, he smirked.

''Right, which is why you chose me as your boyfriend,'' Sonic said in a snarky tone, leaping off the branch and leaning against the tree, his arms folded as he gave Shadow a smug look. ''After all, there is no one who could replicate my unique and irresistible charm and handsome looks.''

Shadow rolled his eyes, trying to morph the earlier smirk into a frown. He was well aware where this was going as he closed the holographic screen and stood up, facing Sonic. He had to admit that he was getting a little bored and Sonic was clearly up for another challenge, so he was fine with engaging in some pre-battle banter.

''Don't get too arrogant, Hedgehog, else-''

Before Shadow could even finish his sentence, he was caught off guard by Sonic as the cupped his muzzle and pulled him into a warm and longing kiss. He could feel fluttering in his chest, which turned into a flaring sensation when Shadow returned the kiss, even pulling him closer by wrapping his arm around Sonic's waist. Sonic couldn't help but chuckle softly when he saw Shadow's expression after they broke off the kiss. His tan muzzle was tinted red, and it was clear that he was flustered by this, but at the same time, he managed to keep this serious and unamused look on his expression, growing more and more irritated when Sonic laughed louder and louder.

''Are you serious?!'' Shadow suddenly shouted at him angrily, but that didn't stop Sonic's heartful laughter. The azure hedgehog was well aware that Shadow was just angry because he was caught off guard like this. Shadow then scoffed, folding his arms, trying to regain his composture. Sonic's laughter finally died down and he grinned.

''Not so smug now, are we?'' Sonic replied, with Shadow understanding why Sonic did this, and sighed in defeat.

''I suppose you're satisfied now,'' Shadow responded. Sonic gave him a simple and innocent smile.

''You know, I'm not the only charming and irresistible and handsome hedgehog here, so I just had to find a way to make that clear,'' Sonic told him in a sincere tone.

He could see Shadow's eyes widen slightly, and a tint of red spread across his tan muzzle once again, his expression softening and a shy smile forming on his lips. Sonic considered this to be a victory, feeling quite proud of himself to be one of the handful people capable of making Shadow smile sincerely. He also had to admit that he absolutely adored the way Shadow looked at him, well aware that those kinds of gazes were reserved only for him and he cherished them dearly.

''You are worth all of the trouble, regardless of how difficult things get,'' Shadow told him.

Sonic beamed at him, a sense of joy swelling in his chest and he leaned closer, the familiar scent of lavender filling the air as he intertwined his fingers with Shadow's… only for their ears to twitch when they heard people cry for help, causing both of them to snap out of their current state.

''I guess this is what you call 'impeccable timing','' Sonic said in a slightly dry tone, the sense of joy he felt earlier vanishing instantly. However, he quickly bounced back to his usual chipper mood, and winked at Shadow. ''Wanna bet that Eggman is causing trouble again?''

''That is the most logical answer in this situation,'' Shadow replied, with the two immediately rushing towards where they heard the cries for help.

They ended up on the other side of Heizeru Park, where they saw people running away from Egg Pawns. Sonic smirked, quickly rushing towards them and crushing an Egg Pawn with his spin attack, while Shadow threw a Chaos Spear at another. Sonic then followed his attack by a spin-dashing right into the Egg Pawn that sneaked up behind Shadow.

''Is it just me, or is trashing those Badniks getting a bit too easy?'' Sonic said, ignorant to the fact that an Egg Pawn was creeping up on him. However, Shadow did, spin-dashing into the Egg Pawn and ripping the cords out for good measure. Shadow frowned, staring back at Sonic.

''You were saying?'' Shadow asked in a deadpan tone. Sonic just gave him a sheepish look, with the two quickly finishing off the rest of the Egg Pawns. They then looked around, with this area of the park being mostly empty due to everyone running off the moment they saw the Badniks, leaving both of them with an eerie feeling.

''Say, isn't this Eggman's cue to appear and throw an even bigger robot at us?'' Sonic asked, staring at the remnants of the Egg Pawns.

''I agree. The Doctor would've done much more than this if he actually wanted to do some damage,'' Shadow replied. Sonic hummed in thought.

''Maybe this was supposed to be our 'Welcome Home Committe','' Sonic suggested, grinning, while Shadow rose an eyebrow as the azure hedgehog crossed his arms behind his head. ''From what we know about Omega's encounter with Metal Sonic and Ferra, the two probably told Eggman that we were gone, and now he's aware that we're back.''

''If that's the Doctor's idea of welcoming us back, then we should remain alert,'' Shadow replied, folding his arms across his chest, his expression now serious. Sonic shrugged.

''Well, it's Eggman. I don't think he'll do something without broadcasting it all over city, so we will be alerted one way or another.'' Sonic gave Shadow a carefree look.

''This wasn't what I… Never mind,'' Shadow sighed, shaking his head and realizing that he shouldn't argue with Sonic over this, as he knew better, and decided to act instead. ''Do you want to sweep the city for any Badnik activity?''

Sonic nodded confidently. ''Of course I want to. If we come across any, we'll keep score of who destroys more.''

With that said, both rushed off, not even noticing Ferra gazing at them from a distance.

xXx

''Thank you for helping us out,'' Vector said as he, Espio and Charmy entered the Taylor Workshop, with Vector carrying a bag.

''No problem,'' Tails replied, welcoming them inside the workshop. ''You know that you can always ask us for help.''

''Right, so what we can do for you? You told us that you have been investigating something,'' Warren said.

''Yeah,'' Vector replied, him and Espio sitting down on the couch, while Charmy decided to buzz around, looking at Tails' and Warren's inventions. ''We had to investigate several disappearances of ARNavs, which led us to some kind of underground fighting ring.''

''What?!'' Tails and Warren were stunned by this revelation.

''The kidnapped ARNavs have been put into a battle against robots which were built to look more like a chimera than anything we have seen,'' Espio added in clarification. Vector then patted the bag he had brought along.

''We managed to scrap the robots, and when we asked the guy where he even got the robots, he told us he was supplied by someone named Mr. Grip. We looked into him, but-'' Vector was suddenly cut off by Charmy who flew right between him and Tails and Warren.

''He doesn't exist! It's a fake name!'' Charmy said. ''That's why we brought all the robot parts to you!''

''I see. You want us to identify where those robot parts came from,'' Tails said.

''If you can. The trail on the supplier went cold, so this is all that we have,'' Vector replied, with Tails pointing to the nearby work table.

''Put it over there,'' he said, reaching for the bag after Vector put it on the table, him and Warren examining each piece carefully. Both of them furrowed a brow after placing all the parts on the table and sorting them out, with the detectives observing the two.

''Have you found something?'' Espio asked curiously.

''Well, we would need a bit more time, but these parts look really familiar,'' Warren replied, picking up a piece, then pointed at a CPU. ''This is actually a CPU used by Eggman for his Badniks. I've seen this type in the Egg Pawns.''

''So, Eggman is Mr. Grip?'' Charmy asked, completely shocked by this reveal.

''I have my doubts about this,'' Vector suddenly said. ''Why would Eggman supply some random criminal with his own technology? That doesn't sound like him.''

''I agree, especially when you consider that these parts belonged to the Buddy Bots the Tamago Corporation had created a while ago,'' Tails said, drawing everyone's attention. He then pointed at one pile. ''In fact, a lot of these parts seem to have damage that was fixed hastily.'' He frowned. ''It's pretty shoddy work.''

''In other words, those parts aren't new?'' Espio asked, with Tails shaking his head. Vector hummed in thought.

''In conclusion, Eggman isn't supplying any of his own tech to outsiders, but instead, someone is stealing scrapped Badnik parts and selling them to others. Not only that, but they also made the effort to steal Tamago Corporation tech as well,'' Vector said.

''Didn't the Tamago Corporation clean up and recalled all of the Buddy Bots?'' Espio asked.

''They did, but it is possible that they missed some of them. The Buddy Bots were scattered all over Neos City,'' Vector pointed out.

''Vector is right,'' Tails said, adding, ''And that's not even counting the Buddy Bots we personally destroyed. Anyone could've picked them up and taken them away.''

''I suppose we would go and ask at the Tamago Corporation to see whether they have any records of stolen Buddy Bots,'' Espio suggested.

''That sounds like a good plan!'' Charmy chimed in.

''There is something that bothers me,''  Vector suddenly said, surprising everyone. ''Why would they just steal robots from Eggman and the Tamago Corporation? I assume there are other companies who manufucture robots.''

''Maybe it's because it's easy to steal from Eggman, since he always leaves his Badniks lying around?'' Charmy suggested.

''I think there is another reason for why they would specifically steal those from Eggman and the Tamago Corporation,'' Warren said, drawing their attention. ''Both of them are known to produce robots of the highest quality. The Tamago Corporation has, in fact, a monopoly on this, both hardware and software that is being used by almost everyone. As for Eggman, we already know that, while we are more than able to trash his robots, if someone else confronted them, they would have a lot of difficulty.'' He then turned to the patched remains of the Badnik. ''Even if the repairs were shoddy, you can tell that the robot was made by someone who values good quality and in better hands, it would've been restored to its original form.'' Warren then noticed the moment of silence, realizing everyone as staring at him and gave the group a confused look. ''What's wrong?''

''You sounded like you're praising Eggman for his work,'' Vector pointed out. Warren gave them a sheepish look.

''Well, he may be our enemy, but that doesn't mean that I cannot appreciate his work in the robotics industry,'' Warren replied, scratching the back of his head. ''My grandfather had told me that he had rivals in his field of work, and while some didn't hide their own jealousy of his work, he still would praise them for their accomplishments.'' His expression then changed to a confident one, and he fist-pumped. ''After all, an engineer should take pride in their creations and learn from and appreciate the creations of others. The only reason society has advanced so far is because we built on the creations of our predecessors.''

He then paused, glancing around and noticing the stunned look everyone gave him, only to feel a little embarrassed, realizing he got carried away by his speech. Tails then gave him a wide smile.

''I agree,'' he said, with Warren just smiling in response.

xXx

Silver was sitting on a bench at the botanical garden, reading the message he had gotten from Blaze, feeling quite happy about it, his heart warm. They had agreed to remain in contact and message regularly about anything that happened in their lives, especially since both Blaze and Sana wanted to get more involved, even if they lived in a different country and had their own duties to attend to.

''Anything new?'' Makoto asked, approaching Silver.

''Blaze said that they found another AR Field and plan on investigating it. She believes it might be another Sol Emerald,'' Silver replied.

''Sounds to me like they're going to have another adventure,'' Makoto said, humming in thought. ''I wonder why the Sol Emeralds actually remained in comparison to the Chaos Emeralds.''

''I don't know, and neither does Blaze, but she told me that she feels as if she'd find the answer if she gathers all of them,'' Silver replied, closing the holographic screen and getting on his feet. He gave Makoto a confident look. ''While she is busy with the Sol Emeralds, I will keep my part of the promise and protect the future from any kind of danger.''

Makoto was about to respond, when suddenly, both of them heard people shouting. They quickly ran towards the source of the noise, only to spot Egg Pawns marching towards the main building. Upon seeing this, Silver gave Makoto an anxious look. ''I hope I didn't just jinx us.''

''Don't worry. At this point, we should just get used to Dr. Eggman attacking us for whatever reason,'' Makoto assured them. Silver nodded, with both rushing towards the Egg Pawns, which suddenly found themselves lifted and crushed by a wave of cyan energy. It was a small group, but Makoto did scan around for any stragglers, only to spot Ferra standing nearby, staring at them. He had no idea why, but he felt a sudden chill due to just how intense her gaze was. Despite being well aware that Metal Sonic was also probably nearby, he still decided to confront her.

''Ferra, why are you attacking us?'' Makoto asked, stepping towards her. Ferra seemingly ignored the question, as well as the trashed Egg Pawns, and walked up to them instead, with Makoto and Silver giving her a suspicious look.

''It was rude of you and your friends to leave without telling me anything,'' Ferra told him, folding her arms as she stood before the two. Makoto and Silver gave her confused looks.

''No offense, but why should we tell you anything about where we're going?'' Makoto asked. Ferra tilted her head.

''It would be a courtesy, but I suppose this is something I should've expected from Sonic,'' Ferra said, turning to Silver and suddenly grabbing his arm, leaving both Makoto and Silver stunned. She smirked. ''Nevertheless, I can still take what I want with no resistance.''

''Let go!'' Silver shouted, ripping his arm out of Ferra's grip. He felt chills flowing down his spine when he saw her ominous gaze. She looked as if she had just accomplished something. Ferra then turned on her heel and walked away.

''Hey, where are you going?'' Makoto shouted after her, but she ignored the two. Makoto turned to Silver, who placed his hand on his other arm, suddenly feeling cold. ''Silver, are you okay?''

''I-I don't know. This was really weird,'' Silver replied, his voice a mix of shock and confusion. He felt as if someone dumped a bucket of cold water over him.

xXx

''This place definitely doesn't look like a water deity rampaged through it… Oh, hey, Big!'' Minami lifted her hand to wave at the purple cat and his frog companion, who was sitting on the bank of Cosmo River, fishing as usual. Big waved back at Minami and Amy, who were accompanied by Cream and Cheese, with Cream holding a small flower crown.

The four had decided to visit the area that had been destroyed by Perfect Chaos, as per Cream's request. She had talked about how it was unfair that Gamma was destroyed by Perfect Chaos and how she wanted to thank him properly for the sacrifice, so she made a flower crown and asked Amy and Minami to accompany her and Cheese to the area. The group noted how, while the streets have been cleaned from the debris, there were still many destroyed buildings and it would take a while before they could complete any repairs. The group then joined Big and Froggy at the riverbank, staring into the water.

''Even though I know that this wasn't where Mr. Gamma sacrificed himself, I still think it is the best place to do this,'' Cream said, with her friends nodding in acknowledgement. She then turned towards the river, closing her eyes. ''I know that you were a robot created by Dr. Eggman and that you were supposed to be very mean to us. However, you showed your kind side, and I will always be thankful for your help. I hope you'll rest easy.'' She then threw the flower crown into the water, then took a deep breath and turned to Cheese, Amy and Minami. ''I'm done now.''

''Chao, chao?'' Cheese flew up to Cream, giving the rabbit a worried look.

''Don't worry Cheese, I'm fine,'' Cream said, clapsing her hands. ''I actually feel a little better now.''

''You know, I'm sure that Gamma would've appreciated your speech and the flower crown,'' Amy told her. Cream smiled in response, only to sniffle and wipe her eyes, blinking away the signs of tears. She then felt Amy patting her head, comforting her.

''If you want, we could go and…'' Before Minami could even finish her sentence, they were met by a sudden blast of energy. Even Big got on his feet, brandishing the fishing pole as if it was some kind of weapon. Fortunately, the blast didn't hit anyone, but it drew their attention, with the group realizing that Egg Pawns were walking towards them. Minami groaned in annoyance. ''You've got to be kidding me!''

xXx

Sonic was standing on top of a street light pole, keeping himself balanced surprisingly easily and looking around for any sign of trouble. However, all he saw was the usual hustle and bustle of the streets in Sentoraru. Feeling slightly disappointed, he climbed down the pole and just shrugged when Shadow turned to him. ''I didn't see anything.''

''That still doesn't mean that the Doctor isn't up to something,'' Shadow told him in a matter-of-fact tone. ''It doesn't make sense for him to just send his Badniks after us without any given reason.''

''I know…'' Sonic muttered, only to snort in amusement. ''This kinda feels like we're trying to solve a puzzle.''

''I suppose you could call it that,'' Shadow replied. He then beckoned Sonic to follow him, as they still had a lot of searching to do. They had just gone through one part of Sentoraru, and Neos City was huge, so it would take some time until they came across anything.

That is also why he felt quite suspicious when they came across Ferra after taking a shortcut through a narrow side alley. Sonic, on the other hand, was more surprised than suspicious.

''Oh, hey, Ferra!'' he said in a chipper tone. Even though the teenage girl was technically an enemy, he didn't feel any hostility towards her and was fine with greeting her in a casual manner. Shadow, however, remained on guard, his quills bristling as he felt that there was something off, especially when he saw the look Ferra gave them… or rather, the look she gave Sonic. Even if it wasn't directed towards him, Shadow could feel a chill creeping up his spine and turned to Sonic, who seemed to also feel unsettled.

''I finally found you,'' Ferra muttered, only to suddenly charge towards the two, startling both Sonic and Shadow, and managing to grab their arms.

''What are you doing?!'' Shadow growled, ripping his arm out of Ferra's grip and pushing her away, with her letting go off both him and Sonic, stumbling back. Instead of answering, Ferra just gave them a smirk, with the two hedgehogs wondering what was wrong with her. Before they could do anything, their environment suddenly changed, but their attention was still on Ferra.

''It was just a matter of time until we met again, my loathsome copy,'' she said, and to Sonic and Shadow's horror, she started to melt into a silver liquid, morphing into another, quite familiar shape.

''Metal Sonic?!'' Sonic exclaimed, stunned by what had happened. Shadow, on the other hand, immediately took a battle stance. ''But, how?''

''You will learn soon enough,'' Metal Sonic replied, only for Sonic to suddenly interrupt him.

''Wait, since when can you speak?'' he asked, only for Metal Sonic to shoot him a glare.

''That is what you're focusing on?'' Metal Sonic was a little disappointed.

''Well, yeah… I mean, you never talk, so this came as a bit of a shock to me,'' Sonic said, not noticing Shadow rolling his eyes and clearly sharing Metal Sonic's sentiment of where Sonic's priorities were. Sonic then smirked. ''But, that means that we can finally throw in some proper banter during our fights.''

''It is quite baffling how you can be so oblivious to your situation,'' Metal Sonic told Sonic, then glanced at Shadow when the dark hedgehog gave a sharp nod, apparently agreeing with the robot hedgehog. Metal Sonic turned back to his counterpart. ''Fortunately, this is something you won't have to worry about anymore. We will have our battle soon enough and then, I will prove my superiority!''

To Sonic and Shadow's surprise, Metal Sonic suddenly vanished, leaving them within an AR Field that resembled a coastal archipelago filled with ancient temples. Shadow's eyes narrowed as he turned to Sonic.

''We need to escape this AR Field and go after Metal Sonic,'' he said.

''I know, but, how do we get out of here? There doesn't appear to be an exit,'' Sonic said. Both hedgehogs looked around the AR Field, noting its size.

''We'll either find it or make an exit of our own,'' Shadow said. ''Keep up with me.''

Sonic nodded, him and Shadow dashing along the coastline.

xXx

Lucas was on his hoverboard, speeding down Eas and going towards Sentoraru. Despite wanting to have a quiet day, he jumped into action right after he got messages from Makoto, Minami and Touka, who was at the Solar Stadium, telling him about the Badniks that suddenly appeared in the city. Lucas sent Sonic a message, but the cobalt hedgehog didn't respond at all. This caused Lucas to worry, as he sensed that this wasn't an ordinary attack. He stepped on the accelerator, the speed of the hoverboard increasing, with the wind whistling in his ears. He did get a messages from Warren, Tails and Team Chaotix, as well as Lily and Knuckles, that they would meat up en route. He also knew that Minami and Amy were at Cosmo River with Cream, Cheese, Big and Froggy, while Touka was in Sentoraru, having left Solar Stadium after she got help from Omega and Rouge.

From the information he got, the attacks were rather unfocused, but always close to where Team Neos or their allies were. He had figured that Dr. Eggman was probably targeting them, a sentiment his friends echoed, but there was something that was bothering him. He didn't understand why Sonic wasn't responding to his calls, and from what Touka had told him, she couldn't reach Shadow either. It as possible that the two were in trouble, but Lucas believed that they could handle themselves. Nevertheless, this didn't stop him from worrying.

I hope you're okay, Sonic.

xXx

Ferra was sitting on top of a small building, staring ahead at the streets below and waiting patiently for someone to appear. It didn't take this person long, revealing himself to be Metal Sonic. Ferra smiled knowingly.

''I thought you'd take the opportunity to destroy Sonic and Shadow,'' Ferra told him. Metal Sonic gazed at his hand.

''I have all of their data, but I don't know whether that will be sufficient enough,'' Metal Sonic told her. ''I might need more power.''

''I see…'' Ferra muttered, feeling a little concerned. ''But, would more power be enough?'' Metal Sonic gave her a surprised look, with Ferra's eyes narrowing. ''They don't know yet what you're capable of, but I'm certain that they'll figure it out soon. We have two options here – either go full out on them, or keep the stakes low and test your current abilities.''

Metal Sonic lowered his head, silent for a moment. He gave no answer.

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#Sonic Cyber Revolution (Masterlist)

[rangetsuryuu]

tales of the abyss is the best tales game except for one thing. bad foils.

okay every party member has at least one foil/rivalry when it comes to the god generals, right?

In game foils as follows. In the most straight forward, one to one examples. The final battles of each God General really cements this in mind.

Luke - Asch

Tear - Legretta

Natalia - Largo

Jade - Dist

Anise - Arietta

Guy - Sync

Some of these foils aren't really as strong as others, I'd argue. And on top of that some of these characters have much stronger relationships to the final antagonists of Van and Asch, than others do.

Meanwhile, Jade also has a vague relationship to Sync and Asch, as the father of fomicry. Jade is protrayed as someone's indirectly responsible for some incredibly unethical crimes that Sync and Asch are victim to. That's one of Jade's personal dilemma's, so even if it's not acknowledged directly in the game, we can interpret this to be an indirect relationship with these characters who were directly wronged by his science. A bit of a miss to not have any interactions, but still something that we could reasonably interpret from clues even if not seen outright.

But you know what's a bigger miss? Not swapping Anise and Guy's foils.

They should have made Arietta as Guy’s primary foil and Sync as Anise’s primary foil. 

Because listen. Arietta and Guy don't have a single interaction together but they have an actual historical connection to each other?

Both had their homelands totally wiped by the same tragedy.

Arietta and Guy both respect and adore Van and sided with him. They both want vengeance against a world that's wronged them and stolen their family.

But Guy doesn't go through with it. He ends up rejecting Van and vengeance. So doesn't that put automatically pit him against Arietta that's still stuck in that old mindset? Arietta, whose whole deal is vengeance against Anise for taking her only friend in Ion? Arietta, who's stuck in this idea that a single person can be responsible for her grief, in the the same way Guy was convinced that the death of Duke Fabre's family, could bring relief to his pain?

But Guy was able to recognize this wouldn't work. Luke's death wouldn't change the past.

So isn't it possible for him to see himself in Arietta when he found out she was from Feres Isle?

Hod and it's sister isle of Feres, were both wiped out for unfathomable reasons. Guy and Arietta both left as sole survivors of their respective isles. But isn't that insane? To find a survivor of a tragedy you thought was yours alone?

Imagine then, if Guy had been able to see his own past unfolding with Arietta's revenge against another person who had nothing to do with any of the horror. If he's able to recognize that Luke wasn't a justified target of revenge, then shouldn't he see that Arietta's grudge was just as petty as his own?

But Guy's change of heart isn't actually something that's seen in game. It's just something that's revealed to you. So woudn't it be exciting to see someone who can actually be a reflection his past ideals?

So then. The final battle against Arietta could have been a brutal clash with Guy. We could have had that revelation unfold in front of us, no?

Unlike Anise's final fight with Arietta, he wouldn't have necessarily considered Arietta a lost cause. He could have seen himself in Arietta, he could have asked her to choose a different path then vengeance. He could have told her they were both the victims of a war beyond their scope. Survivors of a nation doomed by something completely beyond their control.

Guy could have revealed to her, his own history with Van and vengeance, he could have appealed to her. Maybe she could have felt that connection. She could have heard it. Listened to it, and then admitted that his sympathy had fallen flat.

"You're right. That was short-sighted of me. Killing Anise, wouldn't change anything. But killing all of you will still bring bring the vengeance and justice that my monsters deserve. And if that brings us closer to Van's revenge too... then all of you have to die."

And Guy could realize that there wasn't any talking her out of it. That she'd somehow become even more embolded in her revenge despite his plea.

In a way, Guy could understand that her vengeance was different from hers but still identical. The only difference was that Arietta didn't care about the abstraction of responsibilty. She wanted real and immediate justice for her real and immediate pain.

Hod and Feres Isle could have been left in the dust to her for all she cared. Feres Isle was nothing compared to her love for Ion and Van and her monsters and her pain for them. If that was the case, could Guy who had claimed his vengeance was for all of Hod still be in the right?

When faced with Arietta's selfish, single minded desire for vengeance, could Guy really have claimed that his own vengeance was for anything more than his own twisted idea of justice?

He could have been terrified to see that she was the worst version of himself come alive. Excuse after excuse for a reason to take out his grief on the world. He could have been disgusted with her revenge or resigned to it. Or maybe he could have embraced it. Regretted it? Wished for things to end differently?

Either way he would have been forced to kill this version of himself that he saw in her, regardless of how he felt about her.

He could have seen Arietta as someone beyond help. He could see the way that Largo and Anise still grieved for her despite everything. And he could have grieved for their shared loss. He could have grieved for the two of them who could never get any justice that could satisfy their pain.

He could have lost the one last connection to his home that he had left, and he would have had to end it himself.

What would it have been like if he had to carry that on him? Wouldn't it have been more fun for us to see that grief unfold firsthand?

Or is that kinda sadistic...?

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

Re: your post about JohnandPaul. If you do wish to share them, I'd love to know your headcanons about John and Paul's feelings for each other. ( I do get your discomfort about sharing though and yeah, I also miss the long discussions and metas from back when Get Back came out. It feels like, except you and some others, most of my favorite blogs have moved on from the fandom)

I've been sitting on this ask for several days now.

First of all I hear you, re:blogs moving on. It's understandable, but it's also sad when my brain does not want to give this stuff up any time soon lol.

In my post I talked about having specific headcanons about their feelings for each other, but the truth is, it's more like I imagine hundreds of very specific somewhat plausible scenarios, while not actually fully buying into any of them.

I always struggle with how sure people are of some definite timeline of McLennon because I just don't see how it's in any way clear: the most compelling evidence that at least John had Those Feelings™ for Paul is stuff he said after the fact (compiled with the stronger case for John being attracted to men in general) – so, if I choose to interpret his words in that way, I'm still not very close to knowing when he developed this attraction. Let alone concluding anything substantial about Paul's feelings.

(And no, I really don't find the two of them saying the other looked good when they met particularly compelling. Appearance plays a huge role in first impressions, regardless of attraction.)

So I guess, it's more that I have open questions I return to again and again, for which I try to construct hypothetical answers that make sense to me. Aside from that bigger timeline question, here's a few more specific ones:

From what I've gathered researching the topic, listening to psychonauts speak about their trips, the acid mindset very much romanticizes all forms of human connection (among other things). I think that's probably what was going on during those "I know."–"I know." sessions John and Paul had on LSD. With that in mind, how might that have mixed in with John trying to understand how he felt about Paul? Could it have confused him? Opened him up to the idea? "Appeased" him for a while? (and again, the answer here would depend on the timeline of feelings in the end)

I still lean towards "Paul is not meaningfully attracted to men" (or at least "Paul valued other aspects of his relationship with John much more than physical attraction") – with that in mind I do kind of ask myself what Paul thought his relationship with John was exactly. Like, I don't pretend it was a standard, run-of-the-mill friendship, so I wonder a lot what his end-goal was, how he saw both of them continuing into later stages of life. The way he talks about the breakup, equating John choosing Yoko with John leaving Paul, speaks to something somewhat true about most couples that marry – but why did he not anticipate that before? What was different? Also, for $20 don't copout with "hurr hurr cause Cyn didn't matter"

Paul's various takes on The John Question continue to puzzle me. On the one hand, it sort of seems to me like Paul would have had enough context clues at the time to get that John was attracted to men, because some of our evidence for it is evidence he would have had access to – he also indicated at least once that John was in fact kind of openly bicurious??? (note: that rant keeps me up at night. Could write a whole thesis on it and also it's so fucking funny) On the other, Paul is pretty insistent that the rumours are Not True and he's not actually the only person to shoot them down like that. (May Pang, Julia Baird, Tony Bramwell, Hunter Davies off the top of my head) It shouldn't be a stretch of the imagination that a man born in the 1940s might have trouble rearranging the image he's made of his dead best friend so drastically (or in a way that might feel drastic to him). So what is it? Is Paul obfuscating the question to protect John's reputation/because he thinks the curiosity is in poor taste or does he genuinely not buy into it? I'm not actually sure whether he's weighed in on this since Yoko's "John Was BI!!!!" reveal. Has this stance developed over the years? And if I assume Paul does know about John's sexuality: does he in fact think John had feelings for him? I do think this is a thing he would never talk about if he did so it feels like there would be no way of knowing either way. But it also makes me wonder about the barriers he might have set up in his head to avoid that very question – because the truth is that if John had Those Feelings™ for Paul and Paul never knew, that's sort of the second-worst case scenario from Paul's perspective, right after John having never liked him in the first place.

AND THEN THERE'S JOHN. Because just because Paul may not have picked up on it, doesn't mean John wasn't putting anything down. But he could also very much have been sending mixed signals from his own end, right? And again, acid mindset + mid 60s Free Love shit: in that culture, how much could John making advances be perhaps taken as Flowery Friendship? Did he justify it to himself that way? Or was John actually violently shoving all of that down? Was he truly capable of that?

It really never ends – I'm not certain of ANYTHING, but give me a proposal (ie. "In My Life is about Paul") and I'll talk myself into circles exploring the ins and outs of that hypothetical.

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

it's been a while since i've talked about any of my aus, huh

let's do that real quick! first a very simple au where the main point is the stans twins being physical manifestations of the concept of life and death, and then a much more in-depth au involving mystery trio kind of (don't get attached)

warnings for death (of course) and emotional suffering for the first au

warnings for cosmic horror, violence/blood/near death experience, both physical and emotional suffering, and in general Significantly Bad Times™ for the second one

au the first!

the first au is exactly what it sounds like. i've thought about this one for a while but never mentioned it because i don't want people going 'well obviously the reason ford is death and stan is life is because ford is evil incarnate and stan is perfect and can do no wrong' because that's not why i gave them their specific roles

i just felt it fit their personalities better? also cause stan's (somewhat unhealthy) 'family is everything' mindset fits a personification of life better and ford's 'if it sucks, hit the bricks' mindset fits a personification of death better

(also ford gets to hang out with extinct species and stan has to mourn when he realizes he hasn't interacted with any in a long time, so who gets the better deal really)

really though, this ford is essentially always in a state of mourning for. obvious reasons. stan spends most of his time watching various organisms live, and ford spends most of his time sitting with them when they die. and the two don't interact very often because of how busy they always are (i did give ford an emotional support ghost thylacine though, so he's not always alone)

the mystery twins, through means i do not wish to think about nor go into, end up in a state of limbo. the stan twins take them in, alternating between who spends time with who so everyone gets a fair amount of bonding time

it does help ford a bit, but it also puts him on edge because the last thing he wants is for them to have to watch things die. instead, he introduces them to various (more friendly) ghost creatures and teaches them about decomposers

stan's time with them is somewhat easier, what with his job essentially being to make sure things are still ticking, which includes a lot of looking at baby organisms for long periods of time. he does make sure not to show the twins any species that are. uh. low on members, so to speak

the stan twins got into a lot of fights when they were younger. stan's not exactly a fan of mass extinctions and ford couldn't seem to get him to understand that he does not, in fact, kill them, he just shows up when they die, and yes, stanley, there is a difference

they had. a pretty long time to work it out. that's all there really is for this au (at least for now)

au the second!

in this au, ford focuses on astronomical anomalies. one such anomaly he notices is an increasingly unnerving lack of stars. some that were there before seem to have just. disappeared. he figures, 'well, a lot of stars that were documented in the past just don't exist anymore, and we stop seeing their light after a while. even if these examples are unusually recent all things considered, it's not enough to be worrisome yet'

so he starts keeping track of asterisms. he gets his hands on some star charts, makes a few maps of specific ones himself, and starts observing. every time something changes, he marks it off on the corresponding chart. after a little while, he decides that something is definitely wrong here (he's starting to space out more and more often, for longer periods of time) and he calls up fiddleford for help

fiddleford gets to work on building some machines so they can more easily observe this anomaly and, more importantly, properly record its happenings. he finally gets to computer his majigs. and things go well for a while, except for stanford's newfound problems, but it starts to have an effect on fiddleford after a while. he sees something in the void that ford doesn't. and he's starting to trust it more than he trusts his friend

fiddleford keeps this to himself, of course. ford doesn't seem to really notice. what ford does notice is that the gemini constellation has started to go

somewhat reluctantly (though with his hallucinations and absence seizures and bleeding from the eyes and fiddleford's unusual coldness, it's getting hard to care) he calls up his ma, finds out where stan's currently staying, and sends him a postcard. because, sure, maybe stan can't help, but at this point he's starting to feel like his brother should know and also he's getting a little desperate

stan pretty quickly notices that there's something off about the handwriting and language and the stains of the postcard and gets on his way because something has obviously gone wrong here

he expects to have to talk to ford down from doing something, or maybe have to help him get out of dodge because people want to hurt him or something. he does not expect to walk into the house and see his brother bleeding on the floor because his assistant tried to murder him (is this why ford sent for his help? what in the hell is going on?)

stan is confused, to say the least. he pretty easily overpowers fiddleford (how weak was ford? what happened?) and manages to get his brother to a hospital

needless to say, he's a bit surprised when ford wants to return there upon recovery. he's even more surprised when he's shown the anomaly and hey where the fuck are castor and pollux. where are a lot of the stars around gemini actually?

ford gives him a basic rundown and explains that he thinks something about the anomaly caused fiddleford's murder attempt, though he's not sure why it only affected him. stan asks why he hasn't heard about this considering that this is kind of a big deal. ford doesn't know

they're about to hear a lot about it

[miracleandplagueau]

So I was looking through the rest of the posts for your au, and i have to say, it's becoming one of my favourite Miraculous rewrites.

I'm a massive Chloe fan, and any work that gives her a redemption I end up loving it. Speaking of Chloe, I was wondering what her relationships with her parents end up like in your au?

OHOHO I LOVE THIS PART SO MUCH

I'll start by just quickly summarizing the Queen Beeginnings Arc (Style Queen, Queen Wasp, Meledictator). In MnP It's very close to the canon version of the episodes... except for a few very important details.

On general, Chloe is still extremely attached to her mother and that way of acting. When she arrives from New York, Chloe becomes even more bossy, even more mean even when in the past episodes she really started getting better behavior-wise - all because she wants her mother to see her as an equal.

Getting the Wonder immediately feels like something she could REALLY use to make her mother see her as a daughter and maybe finally at LEAST stop mispronouncing her name, but even that doesn't work, pushing her to do even more drastic things (causing accidents on purpose). Anyway, yadda yadda yadda, Queen Wasp happens and she gives up the Wonder out of respect for Wonderbug.

And right here, in canon, the dumbest fucking thing happens. Marinette manages to unite Chloe and her mother by insulting both of them.

..............

Anyway, back to MnP

Chloe is fucking DONE. When her mother still dismisses her after helping to save her in Style Queen, after being a SUPERHERO even after akumatization, she's done trying to please her. When her mother announces she's leaving Paris (and possibly taking Jiayi) she storms to the landing site and gives her an Ultimatum: either she's staying with Chloe in Paris or she's convincing her father to divorce her. With Jiayi also refusing to go to New York for the time being, Audrey sighs and under pressure promises to try and be a good mother. Does that work? HA absolutely fucking not. Why do you think Meledictator happens?

In Meledictator, Chloe keeps pointing mistakes to Audrey and Audrey keeps on bugging her husband about how annoying her daughter is. After a while of this, Audrey decides that she is done trying and is leaving to go back to New York. Andre begs her to stay - after all, they're all a family now! Back together again! She not only dismisses him, but also announces that she's getting a divorce, because of "how badly he raised their daughter". This causes him to get akumatized, chapter goes on blah blah Meledictator is defeated and Andre accepts the fact that his marriage is broken and he needs to stop trying to please his ex. On the other hand, Chloe is ecstatic! She hosts a party to celebrate her mother leaving and invites half the school, anyone she could message really.

Then,,, something else happens hehe

In short, Chloe's relationship with her parents is rather tense. She uses her father's position to get what she wants and does anything to be like her mother with hope that this will get Audrey to notice her. When she finally realizes that she will never look at her and see a daughter, she gives up and attempts to break free of the toxic mindset she put herself in. After her parents' divorce, she is already mmidway through her redemption, give or take, leading to her starting to try and actually be kind to her father and seek comfort in someone who's always ALWAYS been there for her. I guess their relationship shifts to something similar that Zoe and Andre have in the canon? (I couldn't find a gif of Andre and Chloe so this is the best visualization I can)

Thanks for asking and apologies If the post is a little messy haha

[kitkatsudon]

What are your thoughts on their characters of the alternate universe also being neurodivergent?

Eg, Gon and Jihun both having autism. Or Yeong and Eunseob also both being neurodivergent.

First of all, what a great question! I’m very pleased you’ve got me talking about this in a public place, lol.

I think the best way to start is to think about the question in a general sense, rather than focusing on Eunseob and Jihun in particular. After all, the multiverse is vast, but the question here is… exactly how vast? It really depends on how you conceptualise it. In the TKEM canon, we’re shown different universes that contain variants of the characters we’re familiar with, and it’s implied that everyone exists with the same DNA in every universe, implying strict continuity within the universes… except that’s not quite right, is it? If that were the case, one would expect people to live and die at the same time in every universe, but we have proof that isn’t the case, even without Lee Lim’s meddling. Take Song Jeonghye, for example: she’s alive and kicking in the Republic, but in the Kingdom Queen Song died when Gon was very small (I think three years old in Korean age?), which was before Lee Lim started drastically altering the continuity between the universes. If people can die at different times in different universes, what happens if someone in one universe died as a baby, but in another universe in the infinite multiverse they went on to have children? These children wouldn’t exist in the first universe where they were dead, causing a big inconsistency between the universes.

That’s why I prefer to think of the multiverse using the mindset that, in the infinite multiverse, there’s a universe where every possible outcome of the universe has happened. This means that there are an infinite amount of universes where, for example, Lee Gon exists as he does in canon, where he exists as he does in our headcanons, and also an infinite amount of universes where he was never born at all. The implication of this is that, if you can think of something, it will exist somewhere in the infinite multiverse. (This also means that every fanfiction is canon, and hypothetically the canon characters could visit the universe of any fanfiction using the Manpasikjeok - I love having the concept of the multiverse in the show’s canon because it means that somewhere, somehow, you’re always right >:D)

With this in mind, my official, blanket answer for the question of whether or not Gonjo variants would be neurodivergent is both yes and no. There would be an infinite number of universes where they are, and an infinite number of universes where they aren’t.

However, you also asked me about these specific cases, so let’s talk about them!

Jihun… is a difficult one to call. What I can say at least is that if he is neurodivergent, he would probably need to be high masking to be able to reach a high position in the military. From his uniform, you can tell that he’s a pretty high ranking officer (I don’t have wifi right now and the signal isn’t good enough for video so I can’t check his exact rank at the moment), which means it would probably be difficult for him to serve if the military thought that potential neurodivergence would affect his ability to do his job. With that being said, it’s certainly not impossible. In my opinion, we haven’t really seen enough of Jihun to make an educated call either way, but from the way he was purposefully paralleled with Gon in the first episode, it’s not out of the question.

As for Eunseob, this is perhaps more likely. We’ve spoken about Gon and Yeong having an ND-to-ND connection, but I think it’s telling that when Gon first arrived in the Republic, Eunseob was the only one to really humour Gon and try and spend any time with him. I think, however, that a big point is how Yeong and Eunseob are presented as such polar opposites, with such extreme personalities. Neurodivergent traits are often characterised by extremes, and the way they’re characterised as extreme opposites in the show really lends itself to a neurodivergent reading for both of them. As for his exact diagnosis, I agree with you in our messages that he’s more likely to be ADHD, but admittedly I have’t really thought about this well enough to create a well thought-out argument as to why - it’s just kind of based on intuition and vibes, more than anything else. Something I want to note is that in @deesarrachi ‘s Polycule Cinematic Multiverse, Yeong has ADHD, and although last time I checked, the full fic isn’t ready yet, I can’t help but wonder if, in this universe, both Yeong and Eunseob have ADHD (and if you see this and would like to, deesarrachi you are more than welcome to expand on this in the comments or in a reblog)

Anyway, I think those are all my thoughts on the subject? Thank you once again for the question, you kept me very entertained while I’ve been sat on the train for a couple of hours :D

[ausrache]

old gods, eldritch entities & stimuli.

content warning(s): mentions of gore, alcohol & sexual themes. muse(s) mentioned: mali — matteo, gaia & zaya who can be found at @metrictita.

within the void, where all eldritch entities are born — a sort of vaccuum exists that suppresses or completely negates certain stimuli from the creatures living there. thus, the change from living in the void & then within the mortal plane (within a mortal body) is a SEVERE one that cannot be underestimated. some stimuli are so foreign to those entities that they can lead to overwhelming their state of mind & in the end even lead to becoming "frenzied" due to overstimulation. as explored in a meta before; for an eldritch entity, being frenzied is the worst as they're incredibly unstable & unable to control their emotions & therefore, also their powers. ultimately, this can even lead to death.

alas before getting into the stimuli that did not exist, let's get into those few exceptions first: the negative ones, essentially. pain, anger & even grief pour into the void like water since they're the very elements that make out the fabric of that place. because of this; mali & matteo have an extremely high tolerance for pain or negative emotions. they're almost indifferent to it, at times. for an example; matteo's hand could be cut off & it would feel like a gash at worst. on the other hand, gaia & zaya, who have prevailed their whole life on earth, experience them in an overwhelming amount.

looking at the paragraph above, one could already guess which stimuli were not present: exactly, the positive ones. happiness, pleasure, glee, excitement & generally, everything that is triggered by the hormose serotonin & even dopamine. due to this mali & matteo's reactions to situations involving those feelings are severe. they're sensitive to them because their reception is 20x times that of what normal humans would perceive. this outpour of positive emotions can cause . . . problems, to say the least. for mali, it's often a "glitch" in her voice. for matteo, he disrupts the fabric of time.

because of this, they've sort of chosen two different paths of how to experience life. while matteo has completely let himself go to a lifestyle of hedonism & pleasure, seeking out everything that makes him feel that "high" time & time again (be it through alcohol, gambling or simply sex) mali is sort of the opposite & has become a bit more careful due to her negative experiences within her "first life". essentially, it's a trauma response for mali because the first time she let herself experience those amazing emotions, she got betrayed by them & has grown afraid. it's sort of that mindset of "i can't allow myself to be happy, it will only end horribly." since her powers also exceed those of matteo, her reactions are also more severe. this is why she's very inexpressive & appears cold & aloof most of the time; she's constantly "turning off" her receptors & suppressing positive emotions.

more side affects of eldritch entities/energy living in the mortal plane:

they generally have a low tolerance when it comes to alcohol, however, it often only shows once they're quite drunk.

once they feel a certain emotion towards a person, it rarely goes away — however, the build-up for positive emotions, esp. love, can take a while.

eldritch gods in mortal vessel have different blood from humans. it's darker & thicker. it has no scent to it but "tingles" when in contact with organic matter & has a sweeter taste to it.

taste & sense of smell are both heavily amplified. gross food tastes 10x worse & vice versa with extremely delicious food. the same goes for scents.

[tiggymalvern]

Burn Notice - the journey continues

International air travel can be joyless and soul-sucking. Or with the right mindset and motivation, it can be an opportunity. Which goes to say that I dumped seasons two and three of Burn Notice into my laptop and thoroughly enjoyed my two days of airports and planes. (There will be more on the international travel later, including oceanic giant mantas and sharks.) So far, my Burn Notice character assessment goes like this: Season one – neutral on Michael (generic white male action lead, whatever). I like Sam, most of the time, when he’s not being too sleazy. Fiona’s really annoying. Season two – still neutral on Michael. Fiona’s actually okay now? She’s vaguely annoying now and then, but a lot better than she was. I absolutely adore Sam. Season three – I genuinely like Fiona, she’s great. (It helps that the actor’s got a stable accent now too.) I adore Sam, obviously – I don’t think I’ve ever fallen out of love with a character once they’ve hooked me. Michael is a giant selfish arsehole who doesn’t deserve any of the people in his life, and frankly he needs to be punched in the teeth. I wasn’t expecting to go on A Journey when I started watching a trashy action series like this, but I am, and it’s fun because the characters and plotlines actually change and develop. Fiona changes a lot, and very much for the better – she gains a real sense of responsibility. Sam doesn’t so much change as revert to who he always was, instead of pretending that he can live a normal life and not be bored senseless by it. Even Michael’s mother steps up, when the central trio finally stop telling her painfully obvious lies and give her (some of) the truth – she adopts Michael’s weird friends, and accepts that her home’s now a safehouse for any number of odd people and occasionally becomes a bomb-making factory. Which is great because it means Sharon Gless gets some real acting to do sometimes. The one person who isn’t changing so far is Michael, and that’s a big problem, because he needs to. He starts the show with a Goal, one which is perfectly understandable and reasonable. But as things progress and the consequences of his pursuit of his Goal get worse for everyone around him, he really should take a step back and reassess. When the two people he trusts and relies on for everything are both telling him, ‘Massive red flags, do NOT do this,’ he should fucking listen. But Michael wants what Michael wants, and screw everything else. At least Fiona and Sam are making their own choices and have the training to live with them. Most of the time, they’re having fun doing Michael things – except when they’re really not (and when they’re not, Michael has zero respect for where they draw their lines). Michael’s mother and brother have no say in any of it, and none of the skills, and when they're threatened, kidnapped, arrested or shot, Michael’s quick enough to say sorry – and he changes absolutely nothing about his life that causes it. I still have another four seasons of this to go, and since it switches up at least once a year, I’m deeply curious where it’s all heading next. Despite the busyness of the last two weeks, the fic's currently at 4500 words out of probably 6k or so, and all the research is done. I think. I keep finding some new detail now and then I need to check on...

[mayullla]

Mayu helphelp I wanna revamp my writing blog’s theme @/bamboowrites and I wanna learn 🥺🤲🏻🪤

look at other people's blogs that you admire and mix and match the ideas from there you would find something that you might be satisfied with.

consider if the BFY and DNI are absolutely important for your blog... some people just don't bother to read those things if they are in another link. having it on the pinned post above the masterlist link can help as they end up glancing at it just dont make it too long if you do.

now the theme itself depends on what you are going for but you can go for a. pick a theme like maybe cottagecore, gothic and such and build a mood board from it on Pinterest and from those pictures choose the colours for like the accent? b. would be picking the colors first (maybe a certain shade of color, or maybe a palette you like) and then the pictures. (another idea/way could be like a "3 words" too, like my main account theme @mayulli has a star, royalty, navy theme, but not necessarily galaxy tho. My reblog account @mayullii focused more on a princess fairytale pink.)

Build a pinterest board, everything usually starts from there to be honest lolll

Now for my own... uhhhhhhhhh okay this is mainly for the people who cant pick a theme and wants them all (or at least most)

A lot of people say that sticking to one theme and staying with it is a good idea and to be honest, they are not wrong, and absolutely right it is just that I don't like staying in one theme I guess lol? Example:

Something like this! Or-

Look at all those differences hehehe. Nowhere here do you see green forest themes except for like Diasomnia (twst)? And then I also have the borders of all my writing posts:

I have like probably over 100 fic/original oneshots by now all that uses the borders above which is like alot and gonna be supppperrrr tiring to edit everything if I think about swapping everything. (will cry if I must.) but one thing is very obvious in all the pictures is that all have this pastel, soft dark, neutral tones, and has a mix of flowers, nature/outdoor and vintage themes/vibes.

I tried to make the blog as colorful as possible with the mindset that I will be changing my blog theme often. I just made the blog take all the themes that I personally like and mix and match. The forest green I currently have matched well with all the leaves in the pictures above cause of the leaves of the flowers. With an odd one here and there, but it is not necessarily painful to the eyes.

For me, with all this, I have multiple options of things I like so from like a white background which I can make it look like a canvas where the pop of colors would be from the multiple masterlists, blue where you could call it the outside/sky and the posts are the flowers essentially a garden, dusty tones, most pastel colors but more so the neutral tones like both dark and light academia would be a-okay most of the time. princesses and fairytales also~

Now what would not match with everything here would be neon colors, most bold/bright colors (my heartslabyul dorm masterlist is suffering rn cause of that red), pure black, city street and downtown, sci-fi stuff would stick out like a sore thumb for me but they are themes that I don't care for much so it is fine.

It doesn't have to flower only, to be honest if you want you can go for something jewels which has an array of colors, or maybe fabrics/clothes as like the main theme. really just make a pin board and add everything that you like and pick all the common stuff they have with each other.

Ah! one more thing that probs might help but who knows but like as you saw my twst wonderland masterlists are all different colors. So I use gray as like a divider from the main theme and the dorms. I also did the same for General/multiple characters masterlist and school staff and other characters. The gray is like a refresh for the eyes in a way (like how you sniff coffee when you smell multiple perfumes so that the scent won't mix?) so that the color of my main theme and the masterlist theme won't mix/crash in the eye much.

Genshin is genshin lol but the colours matches well with the colours of the flowers i have so it is fine. my original works masterlist is white as it was part of the white theme that i had once before, but since it is not related to any fandom it is essentially my own empty canvas (lol) so i kept it like that, naruto masterlist is obviously yellow cause... naruto lolll

[polarisbibliotheque]

So, ok. You guys know I don't reblog this kind of thing here, but hey, IT MIGHT HELP ANY OF YOU WITH EVENTUAL LEGAL TROUBLE WITH THIS KIND OF MOTHERFUCKERY.

'Cause you know. Lawyers have a degree on motherfuckery. And I happen to be a Lawyer ✨👍🏻✨

The Disney+ thing doesn't even make sense in their argument saying the person has to arbitrate any disputes. It seems like common sense, but ✨Why?✨

Well, because that happens to be a Contract clause (or section, if you prefer). That means that THAT thing that's been set on the clause applies ONLY for the Contract.

Meaning, yes. Any disputes should be resolved with arbitration - BUT ONLY DISPUTES PERTAINING TO THE CONTRACT. The Contract is binding for a service provided by them to the person who is receiving - so, say they want to sue because Disney+ isn't working or whatever... They can't because they agreed on arbitrating first.

(Which in my country could be argued because we call those Adhesion Contracts and Abusive Clauses, which are contracts you can't negotiate the clauses and only agree with them, so one of the parts is clearly in disadvantage and there's a huge discussion to be had there, but that's a whole other side tangent)

THIS DOESN'T APPLY TO ANY OTHER ISSUES THEY HAVE WITH THE SAME COMPANY OUTSIDE OF SAID CONTRACT. You go to a Disney Park and you sign Disney+? Being at the Park is a completely different kind of service that has NOTHING to do with Disney+ and NONE of the Disney+ contract clauses apply to your stay at the Park. Plus (pun intended), being at a physical location has their OWN laws and rules they MUST abide to - specially when it comes to responsibility, both civil and criminal.

Now, I'm not North American and Law works differently everywhere, but if there's a thing that's kinda worldwide (it has exceptions) it's principle of territoriality. Basically: if it happened in your backyard, you're responsible for it. "Oh, but I didn't see it happening" - too bad, it's still your backyard and you SHOULD KNOW what happens there.

They didn't ~waive their right~ to an arbitration; they gave up on this ASURDLY FUCKING FOOLISH piece of an argument, because it would NEVER hold on court. Judge would look at them like "are you fucking kidding me, mickey?" and dismiss without a second thought.

Because you CANNOT apply a clause of a Contract that ISN'T EVEN LEGALLY BINDING ANYMORE (newsflash, when the service is done/canceled, the contract is over, even Satan knows that) to try to bullshit your way out of something COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE that happened out of NEGLIGENCE right ON YOUR BACKYARD by someone wearing YOUR COMPANY LOGO AND NAME.

(We have a few principles here. I'm directly translating from my language, but you should find something similar in yours: temporality - regarding the contract and how long it lasts - civil and criminal responsibility - an employee is seen as an extension of your company thus it's your responsibility even if you, owner, wasn't there - crime out of negligence - when someone doesn't have the intention but it happened anyway - and just general irresponsibility - that one isn't a Law one, it's just common sense)

They NEVER HAD THE RIGHT TO BEGIN WITH.

I was a company Lawyer for years, and trust me, half of my arguments were just me trying to bullshit my way trough the case and see if the judge would be too tired or, being honest here, too stupid to notice.

Sometimes, it worked. Most of the times, it didn't and the judge called me out on my apparent stupidity - but there wasn't much I could do when the company did SO many wrong things I was like "I don't even have an argument to win this" and my boss used to forbid me from trying to cut a deal with the other part because I was in a "loser mindset".

No, asshat, it isn't a loser mindset. It's a "we are completely wrong and there isn't anything to help us win, if this goes to court we'll have to pay double the amount, lemme try to at least cut it to half so we don't end up losing too much money with this" kind of mindset.

Also, funfact. When you have legal cases, you have provisions - meaning you have to predict how much money you're gonna lose with that case and tell the ~money department~ to hold that money so you'll have funds to pay for it eventually. If the case lasts YEARS, the money is stuck for YEARS.

What companies want from legal departments is to get rid of cases so that money can be used for business and not just sit there, stuck. Every paid decision, every lost case, is seen as lost money that could've gone to business and generate more money. I used to go for settlements when I absolutely couldn't win and was certain I'd lose, so it was already seen as a loss - if the provision was 50k and I cut a deal in 30k, it was a 20k win for me even if the person thought they were winning 30k.

In a 50k case, for instance, we'd start negotiating with 10k and people would settle for 15k or 20k, when I was authorized to go up to 35k, 40k. People don't even KNOW how much power they have in those situations. Companies settle because they are AFRAID of losing MORE, not 'cause they're being nice.

SO. IF YOU GUYS ARE EVER IN A LEGAL BATTLE WITH A FUCKING BEHEMOTH OF A COMPANY. KEEP IN MIND THEY ARE USUALLY (not always, but it's usual) IN DISADVANTAGE, CREATING THE MOST LUDICROUS ARGUMENTS TO SEE IF IT STICKS ON COURT - AND IT'S YOURS, AND YOUR LAWYER'S, DUTY TO REMAIN WITH YOUR CONVICTIONS AND CALL THEM OUT ON THEIR BULLSHITTERY. GO TO THE HIGHER COURTS IF YOU HAVE TO, BUT KNOW THIS IS AN ABUSE AND A COMPLETELY BASELESS ARGUMENT.

Oh, and no Contract binds your soul forever to anything (unless, Satan). If that was the case, heaven forbid you tried to protect your rights against anything in this world.

Can you imagine? You'd literally sell your soul for a bag of chips, c'mon. At least Satan knows we're worth more than that and offers more to bind you for eternity. Think about that.

And fuck big corpos and their legal departments. Study the basics on Law to protect yourself and kick their sorry asses.

Thanks for coming to my very-fucking-annoyed punk-against-the-system Lawyer TED Talk

straight up cartoonishly fucking evil corporation

[yandere-toons]

Really??? Great! Sooo I’ve been having a crush recently on the famous “ Sun Wukong the monkey king “ and there was a cool movie called “ the monkey king reborn “ and it’s a great film! I was hoping to make requests on it ⭐️

Yandere Sun Wukong the Monkey King (Platonic & Romantic Headcanons)

Warnings: Mentions of Violence & Death, Psychological Manipulation, Toxic Mindsets.

A.N. – Thank you for introducing me to this visually stunning film. I'd like to write about it again.

Platonic:

When Sun Wukong deems someone an enemy and strikes them in defence of his friend, it often becomes Tang Sanzang's job to coach him back to a peaceful state of mind. Sanzang repeats to him that monks are creatures of temperance and should not be so desperately invested in any one relationship. Wukong struggles with the idea of, in his opinion, giving up a person who sees him as he deserves to be seen when such respect is in short supply.

Regardless of the truth, Wukong views his friend as one of the few who gives him the appreciation he is owed. This favour is repaid by way of inspecting anyone who approaches them and stopping the conversation with demands for the individual to take their disrespectful carcass out of his sight if Wukong gets the impression that they are being disingenuous or are insulting his friend. He is sensitive to rudeness because he has endured so much of it, and watching his friend endure the same is among the fastest ways to provoke him into a fight.

In addition to acting as a protector, Wukong has looser morals than Sanzang would prefer to admit and is inclined to steal anything that his friend wants or needs. His status as a trickster god and the past instances of deities shaming him for existing and wishing to be included have made him indifferent to most rules. Wukong sees no gain from obeying people who dislike him for reasons out of his control, and he instead finds pleasure in sharing material desires with his friend in exchange for praise.

Since his time in the forests of Mount Huaguo, immortality has been a great source of curiosity for Wukong. This desire to prolong his life extends to his friend, whom he wants to accompany him through the journey no matter what laws of nature he must break. Because Wukong enjoys eternal life, he assumes they will, too, or at least will come to appreciate it over time. Wukong jokes about making his friend immortal to gauge their willingness, but if they are ever in danger of imminent death, he pursues the Peaches of Immortality and Grass-returning Cinnabar with a degree of ruthlessness that ignores all complaints and exterminates all obstacles.

Romantic:

Even though his physical abilities surpass those of almost every other being in existence, Wukong is a frequent victim of envy. He strongly believes that he is not given his dues both by his fellow deities and the general population. Zhū Bājiè and Shā Wùjìng are initially quite interested in meeting his partner, but they come to learn that Wukong grows moody and a bit hostile when his partner's time and attention are occupied by someone else.

It takes a long time for Wukong to let his guard down with the world, but before this changes, he is convinced that his partner is under constant threat from demons, humans, and deities alike. He is quick to defend them in arguments and take the blame for whatever caused the disagreement, resorting to threats and his shapeshifting staff Ruyi Jingu Bang to ward off the aggressor. Once Wukong is riled enough to engage someone in combat, he tends not to stop until his opponent is either buried in the ground or begging for forgiveness.

Wukong comes close to treating his partner as an equal. He does hold them in higher regard than he holds all others except his master, but due to his short temper, this is often expressed in less than charitable ways. A recurring method is to attack those who Wukong suspects of meaning his partner harm without offering his partner an explanation until the person, who he claims is possessed by a demon, is beaten or even dead.

Sanzang worries for the health of his disciple and encourages Wukong to restrain his darker impulses. These teachings are more effective when his master is around to chastise him, for Wukong is eager to avenge any perceived wrongs done to himself and his partner. The instructions to control his emotions only push him to act in the shadows and play innocent near Sanzang, which is tested every time Bājiè has the urge to report Wukong's attacks and widespread antagonism to their master.

[animeyanderelover]

11/25 for my 25 Anime celebration. This character was suggested.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessive behavior, protective behavior, violence, intimidation, threats, abduction, death

Yandere Shinazugawa Sanemi Hc’s

🌪Sanemi is extremely possessive and protective, fiercely much to the point where he is extremely scary. Imagine him like a aggressive guard dog but way worse. Due to his abrasive behavior and his impulsive side, he tends to lash out easily on others. Frankly spoken, he knows that his appearance alone will have people run away and he is manipulative enough to use that often to his advantage to scare others away from you just to be able to spend more time with you. Whilst not a bad case of clingy, he requires a certain time where he can be alone with you and turn touchy when he feels especially possessive and/or passionate. When something ruins that time that is supposed to just be for the two of you, the Pillar finds himself lashing out and being overly mad. Family of yours is probably the only exception where he tries to tame his temper.

🌪He harbors both, aware and delusional traits inside of him. The white-haired male is aware that his behavior counts as toxic since he isolates you quite a bit by scaring others and actually feels guilty, especially when he sees that you are upset. On the other hand he also deludes himself into thinking that he is also one of the very few people who can provide you and probably also your family with the needed protection since he's the Wind Hashira. Many of the newcomers are weak and losers anyways. He's protective enough to live by that belief of his since he has lost enough people in his life already. So he ends up either keeping you closer by his side or he stalks you as good as he can in the shadows. He knows that he can't stalk you in a crowd of people though since he sticks out too much.

🌪Sanemi is a proud and arrogant individual though he is incredibly possessive. In general he tends to be less jealous than he is possessive most of the time. His looks are most of the time more than enough to scare the living shit out of someone, especially when he gives that hot-blooded and mildly crazed grin of his. Anyone who tries to woo you secretively is discovered very soon by him since he is decent in stalking as long as he does it from the shadows. He is only seriously bothered when his s/o shows interest in someone since he is at least humble enough to know that his appearance and his behavior can be rather extreme. He insults and threatens persons you are interested in since he views them as too weak and cowardly to protect you. He's rather dismissive about how the person he bullies feels.

🌪Since Sanemi is such a hot-blooded man who is highly possessive and protective, he is very willing to use intimidation and violence against people surrounding you. Killing demons should be not even a question since he loathes them for what they've done to the people he loved and because they might hurt you as well. From all Hashira one who goes extremely intense against even humans though. He spits threats in their faces, towers over them, pushes them around and will go even further. The Wind Hashira has even played around with the thought of using demons to get rid of someone in his way and killing two birds with one stone, refrains himself though since he hates demons way too much. But who knows how far he'd be willing to go? He feels rather indifferent when it comes to letting a weak body feed a bit from a corpse before he decapitates them as well.

🌪He'd be willing to kidnap his s/o since he is one to act on his emotions and instincts quicker than his thoughts in the heat of a moment. His priorities are to keep you safe and protect you, followed secondly by his possessive wish to keep you as his lover. Your own comfort is surely important as well and he does feel guilty if you are upset and sad because of something he caused directly or indirectly. Sanemi can bear with that though if it means that his main priorities are still fulfilled. It is important to mention that he actually keeps a tight leash on himself when he is with you which means that he controls himself rather good around you.

🌪It is not completely out of the realm of possibilities that he can get a bit rougher or let his temper flare out of control for a moment but he is quicker to snap back and apologize to you than to really just anyone else. He mellows out when he is around you which should be considered as something special and it is the most obvious sign that he is very fond of you. Since ohagi is pretty much his favorite food, he cooks it frequently for the two of you and if you enjoy it, he will be very happy and pleased. Really, he isn't all that much of a scary psycho when he is alone with you. The problem comes when other people are with you, your family has the luxury to be spared from that particular part of Sanemi since he respects them.

[stick-ball]

So this is awkward.

See, if you were talking about a after class students club, or a neighbourhood book club or really, whatever the fuck - this would be a rational theory. But you quite obviously have not been in a cult. Cults aren't your toxic neighbours acting like your parents don't beat you when you seem to trip and fall on your face every week. Cults aren't your high school teachers who punish you for your focus and skill slipping rather than finding the cause for it. And Cults aren't your two-faced FRIENDS who act like you deserve your partner treating you like shit because of some self-appointed competition in being the happiest and most well adjusted in the sociopathic friend group.

Trust me, I know the difference.

SO, let's be direct and informed now:

1. In cults, self-harm is a norm. Yes, it is a NORM. Since you made guesses, let me make some of my own. I refuse to believe none of the "normie" Ravens did not self-harm. Usually, in real cults, it's through a starving/binging spiral(fasting and feasting goes brrrr), cutting, burning, body mutilation of different kinds, and last but not least the good old substance abuse. Ravens had their options severely limited, though, to the very direct and physical.

2. In cults, abuse is a norm. Yes, it really is a norm. In general, sadly, abuse is very widespread, which i dont think is news to anyone, considering how 90% of this fandom projects onto the most tortured character of the week with their own ouchies. I refuse to believe Riko was the only bully in the nest. Especially considering what Jean's pov shows us. They all were extremely mentally unwell. They were also used to being physically harmed by their coaches for making mistakes. Jean is utterly relaxed about throwing fists with a teammate, don't think that's a new thing for him. Ravens hurt eachother. On court and off. One of them has scars and bruises? Newsflash, most likely they all look like a Pollock painting in the communal showers.

3. In cults, your understanding of reality slips hard and fast. I don't know if you were ever on meds that distort your understanding of reality, but it's a but like that, except without the hallucinations. Everything sounds like a good idea! It's a bit like the army you go sir yes sir and beat a dude into a pulp bcs his vibes were off. Another thing is, cult leaders aren't idiots. Evil acts in general, aren't stupid. They're malicious and manipulative. They make you dependent on them whole before you realise you want to run.

4. In cults, you lose your sense of self, sense of identity, and sense of autonomy. You can't, not because I say so but because you literally CANT say what you would and wouldn't have done when induced into cult mentality. Because it's not you anymore. The superego gets locked up in a room with padded walls. Your identity gets led around on a leash, waggling its tail at the person holding the leash. It's crude, but it is what it is.

In general, saying I would or wouldn't ever do something if I was in a certain situation is like people saying how they would make sure both of the kids survive after watching Sophie's choice. Like, what's your source? A work review? The dnd moral alignment test? Our brains don't have a moral compass in a life or death situation. Sorry, they call it brainwashing for a reason.

5. So yeah also, I get why some people would say they would never stay on the Ravens but, newsflash, you guys would probably never END UP on the Ravens team! Sorry, someone has to say it! It's not a community group, it's a sports ivy league. Calling them psycho for staying for a scholarship is a hilariously naive mindset.

Anyhow, I refuse to believe the issue is 'if' the Ravens knew what happened to poor little Jean. The issue is if they knew what was happening to them at all. The brain is an incredible place. You can fool yourself and others into believing honestly anything with enough conviction. I once fooled myself into not feeling pain so well the doctors didn't see my arm was broken! Stranger things have happened! You know why? Because I am the main character of my life. You are the main character of yours! Jean is the main character of TSC, so you obviously care about him immensely. But the other Ravens aren't privy to his boss level status, they're the heroes of their own stories. They literally quite frankly don't give a fuck. Just like Neil doesn't give a fuck to tell us what half of his teammates major in, or what skin color they have.

It's definitely fun to go in depth into Jean and emphasise with him to new levels but shitting on people who survived cults is not a valid way to do it!

Laters gators!

sorry but I refuse to believe the Ravens didn't know how violent and depraved Riko truly was... you're telling me Jeremy, Laila and Cat figured it out after only spending a few weeks with Jean but the Ravens had no idea how bad it was, despite being stuck in confined spaces together on a near-constant basis for years?

Like, Jean changed out in front of them regularly. They would have seen his injuries and his scars hidden beneath his shirt. There is absolutely no way they did not know what was happening to him.

Not to mention the fact that 5 of them willingly participated in Riko's violence and raped a teenage boy who very clearly did not want to be there!! You're telling me none of them realized how fucked up Riko was to arrange that? And none of them tried to back out when they realized what exactly Riko was having them do??

You're telling me none of them saw Kevin and Riko facing off on the court and then Kevin's hand getting destroyed immediately after, forcing him to leave the team?? You're telling me nobody on the Ravens pieced together what happened?? That none of them realized just how dangerous Riko was becoming?

Part of it could be explained away as part of their cult programming, yes. And for some of them, there was probably also a degree of willful ignorance involved, of choosing not to look too closely and see the truth before them.

But lets remember that they didn't know the team was a front for the mob, they didn't know Tetsuji and Riko were yakuza. As far as they knew, the only risk reporting the abuse was getting kicked off the team and losing a scholarship. Their reasons for choosing to stay silent were entirely selfish.

I don't know about y'all, but if I'm a freshman Raven coming in and I'm seeing all this shit happening, I'm not sticking around long enough for the cult programming to set in. I'm transferring schools and blowing the fucking whistle. And yeah, the yakuza would probably come for me and I'd be mighty surprised when they did, but it'd be better to do that than to be complicit.

Personally, I think Jean is only choosing to believe the other Ravens didn't know because some part of him wants to think that if they had known the full scope of what was happening to him, they'd have done something to intervene; or at least, they'd have been kinder to him.

But the truth is, they knew. Every single one of them knew. And they did nothing to try and stop it.

[shijiujun]

on the danmei twitter fight

okay guys i didn’t wanna say anything about this and yes it’s that hot danmei twitter translations saga thing that’s going on, because honestly i feel like there’s nothing much to say but when i see dumb posts on tumblr taking about that, by people who present a misleading hot take and their friends or moots run off with it without even knowing what exactly is going on - it really pisses me off.

and also if you shit talk translators for not continuing their translations or locking their translations whatever - the door is that way on your right and left, but anyway here’s a rundown on what happened because i am seeing people make comments without two brain cells put together, without the slightest bit of consideration for the people who bring them translations

here’s my hot take and thesis: if you enjoy english translations made by fan translators, you don’t, in any way, no matter happens, shit talk fan translators. fan translators do this for free, and whatever their intentions are, whether genuine sharing or like some of you like to say, for clout, if you consume, and you enjoy these translations, i’m sorry, you’re not uninvolved, and you don’t get to sit on a high horse and say translators should or shouldn’t do something. you should just keep quiet, honestly, because someone else is doing you a favour, a favour that you are enjoying and taking. that’s what respect is.

i’m presenting both sides or i guess three sides of the story as objectively as i can, altho my support is still for fan translators who were just minding their own business before this blew up.

===

🔺 what happened:

so it started because one of the bigger translators in the fandom did this poll - i’m not blaming her at all, i doubt she had any intentions of shaming anyone or causing any controversy and was plain curious, but her poll asked english speaking danmei twitter how many people buy the digital, print copies of the danmei they read, and who did not. 

in my honest opinion, it’s not strange at all for her to have created that poll, considering just how much work she’s put into making sure things are accessible for the eng-speaking danmei fandom. i mean i’d be curious too, to know out of my thousands of readers, what the reading and buying behaviour is like. do yourself a favour and don’t read too much into it.

obviously in an era where a lot of people do consume content for free whether the underlying content is profit-making (like anime, donghua, manhua, manga etc.) or not (fanfiction etc.), it was unsurprising to see that the last option - the ones who consume danmei without paying a single cent, came out as the majority. i don’t think this is a surprising result at all, for all sorts of reasons that i will not get into now.

anyway, this is obviously kind of a sore point in the fandom especially for translators who want a wider audience to support their fave author’s works - i won’t get into that for now, but the issue began because other translators or fans started to criticize the majority of people who don’t pay for objectively rather affordable danmei and just consume things for free. 

and yes, i don’t deny that the argument on both sides got really heated and emotionally charged with both sides calling each other names which i believe is uncalled for, but it totally derailed the crux of the issue, which basically is that the majority of english-speaking danmei fandom - consumes danmei for free.

anyway this whole thing escalated and fan translators were brought into this for no fucking reason at all except that the people who didn’t want, or were unable to pay for the danmei they usually consume, made what i call a LOGICAL FALLACY in argument by going to the extremes, i will explain why later.

the end result is that fan translators were brought into this (most of them, the bigger ones i know at least) without even participating in the direct crossfire. and obviously, you can see why they’re hurt and decided to lock their translations. let me explain why

===

🔺 kind of like four camps:

(1) translators and fans who criticized those who consume danmei liberally but do not pay for them in any way - no merch, no digital copies, no physical copies, no audio dramas whatever

*** their arguments:

danmei is so cheap right, that technically people should be able to pay for it in one way or another, even if not all

danmei and its authors are, at the end of the day, out here to earn a living, and the industry, like any money-making industry, is a for-profit enterprise - and unlike public goods, if you cannot afford danmei, then there is no obligation for others to make it free for you (fan translators or otherwise, it wasn’t super clearly stated while this shitshow happened) when it is inherently a for-profit industry

yes, i don’t deny that some of them did call the peeps who don’t pay at all, “leeches” and other sort of names. personally, i wouldn’t go that far or even like venture there to be honest because in general, if it’s something that i’ll get punched in the face for if i called someone that in real life i tend not to do it, but i’ll leave my opinions, whatever they’re worth, for later

(2) the readers and fans of danmei who do not pay in any sort of way for them

*** their arguments:

some of them really cannot afford, even the dollar or more, to spend on danmei for several reasons: upbringing, culture, money-spending mindsets, real poverty, struggling to make ends meet etc. - some definitely more valid than others (and when i say not valid, it’s because SOME, a minority or like those few stragglers, say they cannot afford and then you see them like idk, throwing $50 on other merch on kpop and stuff - i’m just bringing up ONE example. not shaming anyone for spending more money on one aspect rather than the other, but yeah you can see why some of them, when making this same argument, are a little invalid, that’s just a small number of them tho)

if translators are blaming them for consuming free of charge, then the fault lies, at its foundation, fan translators who translate illegally, which i mean, in that definition, all of them including me 

did i mention that we were called illegal translators like you know in response to being called leeches? anyway-

(3) others translators who literally were just minding their own fucking business before some smart alec dragged them into it

i don’t think most of us had an argument. we were just quietly munching on popcorn and staying out of it and yeah, can you imagine, we provide a service, however illegal it is, for free on our own time, we don’t even check whether people support legally or not, we just... provide, and pray that those who are able to, at least support in some small way or another do so, on their own time. i mean i don’t check, most of us don’t, not the bouncers at your local club before COVID happened do, and then suddenly, to be used to derail an argument, we were called illegal translators. and that we should stop translating, and that it is our fault that there are free riders in the fandom

(4) people who offered to provide JJWXC credits to those who said they couldn’t afford it etc.

honestly i think they were just trying to help - no different than a gofundme. there’s no shame in taking a free thing that people already weren’t intending to pay for. it’s there, just take it!

===

🔺 the shitshow that led to fan translators locking their stuff up:

i would provide some actual examples in the form of screenshots but i’ve blocked most of them, and i don’t want to direct any sort of traffic to them so i guess you’ll have to take my word on it or go search on twitter yourself but-

(1) the affordability issue: i can understand the frustration at being called leeches, and some if not a majority of people, do have valid reasons for not being able to afford something or anything and end up pirating content they enjoy. hey, i am not about to crucify anyone for pirating at some point in their lives. we all have done it at some point, or for example hate disney+ and that $30 they were trying to rip off us for a subpar Mulan live action. i don’t have anything to say about that. inherently, is it wrong and illegal? yeah sure of course it is. do we call people leeches? i wouldn’t go that far.

if anyone cannot afford, cannot access for whatever reason, fine, i’m not gonna go check if jjwxc truly is banned in your country, or is your postal service so terrible that you definitely won’t be able to receive a hard copy of the book you like at affordable rates.

and if you have to pirate? go ahead. i mean it’s always been a rampant thing. the only thing fan translators and fans can do is encourage, motivate and incentivise as much as possible to get people to support legally. they can only put up REALLY COMPREHENSIVE guides as to how to access jjwxc or taobao or whatever. 

and if you still cannot afford it and pirate, honestly no one cares about the story behind it. you owe no one justification, just as how no other person is obligated to take it into consideration or understand you or empathize with you. i don’t say this in a malicious way - i do think that in general, you just do you. 

(2) the poor people don’t deserve nice things argument: honestly, this was not the point of this entire debacle, altho yes, people were rude to those who could not afford to support legally. but this is not the point of this whole thing.

main point - there are free riders who can support but choose not to because they choose to just consume it for free and if you are able to you should support

everyone going off on a tangent - you guys hate poor people / you guys are leeches

well guess what, no one wins in this argument. 

there were a lot of people saying “reading danmei is our only source of happiness, are you saying poor people who can’t access legally don’t deserve to read danmei” (this is just one example i’ve seen, there are other variations), and it wasn’t put across perhaps in the right way, but the other camp of people were saying “you’re not entitled to it for free if you cannot afford it”, which raised a lot of hackles and anti-poor yellings 

altho i do not deny that there are those who mean it maliciously, i think what everyone is trying to say is - the danmei industry, like any other profit-making industry, is looking to make profits. the people working in the industry, the authors even, are looking at numbers - traffic to jjwxc or other legal platforms, how much revenue they’re making from their live actions etc., comments, rankings, etc. i think @/hunxi-after-hours made a really succinct post on this aspect which yall should read.

it’s the same as - if you wanted to purchase a standee which costs $20 USD, but you cannot afford it = you don’t get it. there’s no way you can get this standee unless some gifts it to you for free. what the camp trying to ask people to support legally is saying, is that danmei is NOT A PUBLIC GOOD. it is a private, for-profit product. it might be intangible, but it is a PRODUCT that has a price that needs to be paid.

if you cannot afford it, you either don’t get access entirely (i’m saying this objectively and honestly from an economic standpoint). if someone gifts that standee to you for free, count yourself lucky - if someone makes a danmei accessible to you for free, COUNT YOURSELF LUCKY. you don’t have to be grateful and treat them as gods or like obey their every word, but it’s not rocket science. someone did you a favour that you accepted and consumed, show some respect. 

if you cannot afford to buy the standee - you do not go on twitter demanding that someone ensures that you have access to the standee for free. do you see how ridiculous this sounds once it’s a tangible product? and danmei novels ARE PRODUCTS. they are not FREE CONTENT. if someone cannot afford the standee, this is the equivalent of people going “we didn’t get the standee for free because poor people don’t deserve nice things”

totally missing the point. i don’t even know how it got to this. once again, i do admit that some users were unnecessarily mean, but going to the extreme of this is ridiculous. in argumentative essay writing we call this a logical fallacy:

e.g. “if you cannot pay for merchandise or danmei, it is a fact that you might not have access to it” morphing into “if we cannot pay for food, does this mean we cannot have access to it?!” - this is a slippery slope, and factors are not equivalent!!!! do they not teach people anything in school

don’t confuse fanfiction with danmei - danmei novels ARE PAID PRODUCTS unless for free chapters, just because it’s released online doesn’t mean it’s free public property, and also selected novels (did you guys know the WHOLE of SCI novel is free? about 500 chapters sorry, random, just a tidbit)

there are of course nuances right, like if anyone told me they were pirating disney+ content i’d be like yeah hey get one over those bloodsuckers, they take enough of our money and produce shit content anyway. the difference is that danmei authors, and the danmei industry itself can still be considered a nascent and not-yet matured industry, with a majority of authors if not all, depending on monetary flow, likes, comments, virality on the sites their content is hosted on, for a living, unlike hugeass MNCs trying to squeeze us dry for content that isn’t even interesting.

danmei is priced rather reasonably - and this brings me to another argument that was made, that the value of money is not the same for everyone. i don’t want to make comments on this because yes this is correct to a large extent. a $6 book might be cheap to most of us, but might be expensive to someone else. i’m not gonna comment on how cheap or whatever it is, if you gotta use your money for other things, definitely! i still maintain however, that a novel less than a dollar should be affordable to most people, a majority of people. and i definitely side eye some users who obviously have money but are just creating noise because they wanna continue free-riding

(4) the “they’re losing out on their international audience” argument: honestly, i feel like english-speaking danmei fandom gives themselves a bit too much credit. danmei has long thrived in china in its domestic market - sure the international audience is a plus to have and i’m sure the authors are grateful and flattered that people who don’t understand chinese love their content and love it a lot, but do they and their companies care about fans who basically don’t bring in money? i’m not sure (okay i’ll get to the fan translators doing illegal shit later okay i got it don’t be impatient)

and international fans are great, i don’t deny that - but when i see arguments like “oh but it’s their loss if they don’t cater or deny access to us, they get more popularity and sharing overseas”, i honestly think they don’t care as much as you think. once again, hunxi made a really good argument regarding non-sinophone audiences, but it really irks me, because this is the same as:

an instagram influencer saying they’ll give a restaurant exposure for free to their followers, if they get a free meal

it’s par for par - danmei authors wants earnings, popularity, tangible results that show that they are succeeding. this is life. if i put something out there for sale, i better be getting returns, simple economic logic. they probably don’t care that a non-paying reader is bringing them greater ‘exposure’ - once again, i mean this objectively. 

and yes if they’re thriving without the international market then why should it matter that people are pirating right? which brings me to the next point~

(5) it’s fan translators faults for so many people pirating, and fan translators are the ones doing the “illegal” work: this one is like... wow where do i unpack this and how-

firstly, we are talking about assholes who can pay but decide to free ride and not pay for danmei, and we assume that if you really cannot afford and have to pirate, no one’s saying anything as long as you don’t go around spreading how to pirate, how the hell did it get to fan translators from “you guys are anti-poor” and whatever

yes, fan translations are indeed illegal, i don’t deny that, and i also don’t deny that there are translators who translate for clout and popularity but putting these aside - here’s what i have seen from people who ran their mouths and made this argument

“if you guys care about us pirating the book so much than fan translators shouldn’t have translated in the first place” and “if you wanna come after us for reading illegally, then fan translators, you guys should go get the copyright for the book and then translate it cuz what you guys are doing is also illegal”

hooooo i’m telling ya, i am all for translators locking up their translations at this point. see how fucking hurtful that is? you eat from my hand and then now you biting at the hand that fed you the gays in love?

honestly if you’ve made this argument or supported this, you can basically go to hell. yes this is personal because what, you think fan translators don’t take out their personal time and effort and hard work to make translations accessible to you? if you’re ever consumed and read translations, don’t be a hypocrite and make this argument. you benefitted from it, now you wanna say it’s their fault? 

most translators want to share and spread the love they have for a novel right, want to show you how wonderful all these authors are, how much enjoyment u get from reading these wonderfully thought out stories of gays in love. yes we all know we are illegally translating, which is why on top of sharing we first, purchase the novels legally ourselves first, and then we try to encourage people to buy etc. and actually put their money to use. it doesn’t make it any less illegal, but we are bridging the gap between danmei and basically the english-speaking fandom, albeit illegally

we aren’t that self-important to ask for gratefulness but some respect would be nice. like i said, you read it, you consumed it, you enjoyed it, you can only access it because of illegal translators - a bit counter-intuitive to yell at these translators, who are simply telling you, if you can, please support. and none of us went “if you cannot afford, begone!”

===

🔺 some people tried to help by offering jjwxc credits so people who cannot afford as they say, can get legal access: honestly, just take it right, guess what some of these users did in response

they said the people giving away credits are trying to redeem themselves for their comments by giving away free stuff

they also said that we are trying to shame the people who cannot afford it with this handout to them, to show that they are the bigger person - the fact that they think this is a handout to them is TELLING. the people offering this is giving their money not to these readers, but to the authors! that’s the point of this exercise!!!

one of them even said “instead of trying to do these giveaways, here, there are greater world problems out there, donate instead to these causes” - love the initiative, but how did we get from being able to afford danmei and entertainment content to saving the world? i just- i cannot

===

🔺 so why i get why fan translators are locking up their translations, because wow, so hurtful:

you have no idea how many fucking assholes went “sure, lock up your translations, deal with the consequences” - ermmmm firstly, thanks for making a threat. like who the fuck do you think you are?

the consequences is... the authors still don’t get the money these free riders weren’t going to give them anyway, so no loss, and they weren’t reading on jjwxc anyway so you know, the authors don’t lose or gain any readership numbers or traffic they didn’t already have. instead, it WILL push and force people to pay for the PRODUCT. once again, it’s a product.

this works, and i’d say Word of Honor’s payment model worked marvellously for Youku, because they fucking forced everyone to pay to access content. ALL OF THEM. sure ok some people still pirated it, but how many MORE people paid on Youku, on Youku Youtube, watched on Viki etc. than if they didn’t? even english-speaking fandom were wracking their brains trying to purchase a Youku pass even if there were no subs initially - and other examples that lovely hunxi brought up in her amazing piece

and for translators?! honestly me for one, i’m glad i don’t feel pressured anymore to churn out a chapter every week since we get called names etc. most of us are glad to have a break to be honest. we’ve lost all motivation to translate because it’s a free service, at the very least we don’t expect like hate, or rudeass fuckers. for those who are doing a proof of purchase thing - go for it honestly! 

hopefully it’ll minimize the free rider problem - some people for whatever reasons really cannot buy or support legally, that’s totally cool and they don’t have to justify it, i get that. but for others making the same argument but obviously are just unwilling to pay because they can’t read chinese, think it’s too troublesome when there are guides and translators provide it for free anyway so what’s the point - we all make concessions and make decisions to grab what we like (not talking about the ppl who have their various troubles and difficulties!)

===

🔺 and those who are saying why is it the ‘rest of us suffer’ from locked translations just because of a few bad apples:

IT ISN’T ABOUT YOU. where the hell were all of ya when we were getting called illegal huh? it’s about us fan translators getting shot at for no reason, and then people still demanding things for free. i don’t see any of the people i’ve seen on tumblr complain about fan translators stopping or locking translations defend any of us in any way. instead, you’re complaining.

it is the translator’s prerogative to start, stop and end translations, unless of course the original author starts to sue i suppose. i see people on tumblr going like if they were gonna do this, they shouldn’t have started in the first place etc. - i don’t what world you live in, but when i do something for free, then get called names and am attacked or get dictated on how i should do something that’s already like free, i tend to be less generous.

i’m sorry, do us illegal and free translators owe ANY OF YOU? i wasn’t aware any of us were being paid for this hobby. readers, especially those who CAN and just refuse to support, don’t get to say SHIT. translators deal with so much shit and so many entitled readers, i say they get to lock whatever they want as long as they aren’t profiting off of this monetarily.

let me give you an example - nan chan, which is translated by lian yin, completed translations by the way for all chapters. it is all free for viewing, and she only locked up one extra and asked for proof of payment. some dumbfuck quotes that locked up extra chapter tweet and said “honestly, this turned me off reading this novel because they restricted access”.

the. fucking. entitlement. the whole of nan chan is free, that’s like what more than 80 chapters. she locked up the EXTRA and the money goes to the author, she doesn’t earn anything. AND HERE THAT BIJ is (yes, i’m going to call them names because you know, fucking asshole who didn’t bother to check) going “yeah i didn’t wanna read because 1/80+ chapters were locked”. 

AN EXTRA. LITERALLY AN EXTRA!!!!!!

at the end of the day, translators are not like DYING to translate, not like some of you are DYING to read the translations. once again, this isn’t a “BE GRATEFUL” message, it’s a please be respectful to the people who put in time and hard work for free and share the goodness ya know? what’s the use of yelling at fan translators as if we owe you anything?

================

🔴🔴🔴 TOO LONG DIDN’T READ 🔴🔴🔴

some people may need really need to pirate - and no one needs to justify why they cannot afford to purchase etc. pirating happens all the time, translators only hope that when you can, and in whatever way you can, to support legally - in general we don’t ask and we get it! we’re just annoyed that some people think that it SHOULD BE FREE, when it is a paid product, especially for those who CAN afford it

readers are not entitled to shit on translators for what they do with their translations - once again, you’re not OBLIGATED to have it. so what if i start and stop? i’m the one doing the work, i get the only say. don’t be a hypocrite and shit on translators, whose works you’ve read - it’s no loss for translators, we read and enjoy danmei just fine

yes, fan translations are illegal, but you can’t read and enjoy them like some of you have, and then turn around and point the finger at translators - a lot of us are happy to stop translating - this isn’t a threat, but at the end of the day, shitting on translators simply decreases access, and sure, some people can indeed live with you know, MTL or shitty translations from people who’ve learnt chinese for only six months or whatever, but you’re gonna be reading an entirely different book tbh

the people saying illegal translators are at fault - funnily enough, most of them consume the translations, so what the fuck? i mean we know it’s illegal, we’re trying to share the love and trying to minimize the illegalities of it by redirecting people to hopefully support legally. it’s still illegal yes, but i think it’s hypocritical for people who have read translations, stab translators in the back. and now that translators are indeed ‘restricting’ and ‘removing’ their ‘illegal translations’, yall yelling again? and threatening?

fan translators aren’t “elitist” or “classist” - just looking for some respect in a community which seems to have taken them for granted, and also looking for support for their fave authors - and honestly a lot of us were caught in the crossfires truly, don’t be an asshole and demand things from fan translators - who are you talking about? do you know why they decided to lock? do you know know what their locking system is like and what for? 

it’s not EASY to lock the translations up - it’s more admin work, it’s putting together a whitelist of people, if given the choice i’m sure translators would prefer to share everything. but not when there are assholes who have a comment on how they should translate etc. and yeah!!! calling us illegal!! i mean we are but still!!

the last straw was seeing that post on tumblr and people in the comments going like fan translators shouldn’t or should do something, without getting the whole picture, without even considering how hard it is for fan translators being caught in this situation. 

whoever puts in the work gets to decide, and everyone else should leave them alone. 

be nice to the people who really cannot afford as they say so (or just don’t think about it), be nice to the translators feeding you content, and the people who free ride and shit on translators - honestly, i’d say ready the pitchforks.

edit: i forgot to mention this is my hot take and i’ve tried to like present all the arguments i’ve seen so far. i’m definitely not doing all of it justice and i don’t claim to speak on behalf of any of them except maybe one or two- and i’ve definitely left out stuff, but anyway, lmao we’re just tiny people doing what we love. i wish we could solve you know inequality or poverty or hunger or other pressing concerns. if i was that great i wouldn’t be stuck on tumblr or twitter or have to make posts like these like a loser.

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[seandwalsh]

How do you think Mario and Peach would handle Bowser is his actions got someone permanently dead?

Well, it’s important to realise that Bowser has gotten people permanently killed in the past, both directly and indirectly.

First, a little context around Bowser’s stance on killing!

Bowser isn’t afraid to use violence as a means to an end (in fact, it’s how he deals with most of his problems), but he usually isn’t a fan of killing people outright, not even Mario. This is made pretty clear in Minion Quest: the Search For Bowser, when Captain Goomba and the other Minions realised that Bowser was being possessed by Cackletta because Bowletta told him to “destroy” Mario:

This is also shown in Paper Mario: the Origami King, where Bowser denounced King Olly’s plan to erase all Toads from the world, saying “The Toads can’t come back from that, you know.”, despite the Toads being his long-time enemies:

There are exceptions to this anti-killing mindset, however. When Bowser has a lot of power or is extremely angry, he tends to make rash or unthought-out decisions.

This makes a lot of sense, however, as Bowser wants to rule over the universe, not destroy life within it. If he killed the citizens of every kingdom he invaded, he’d have nothing left to rule. This is likely why he transformed those who didn’t join him during his first invasion in Super Mario Bros. into stone, bricks, horsetail plants, etc. - it’s so that they’d still have the chance to be returned to normal later and accept him as their leader.

In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Bowser wished for Mario and Luigi to “disappear” while he had the power of the Dream Stone:

In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Bowser barraged central Mushroom Kingdom and Peach’s Castle with cannonballs (while under the impression Mario, Peach and their friends were inside), seemingly with intent to kill them, after he was enraged by Mario and Luigi defeating Bowser Jr. and had the power of his castle’s new cannon:

At the beginning of Paper Mario, Bowser almost killed Mario with the power of the Star Rod, sending him falling from high above the Earth:

Bowser’s negligence has also lead to death in the past. At the end of Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser’s Galaxy Reactor collapsed when Mario removed the Grand Star powering it and turned into a supermassive black hole which proceeded to prematurely end the entire universe, killing everyone within it, including himself. Luckily the Lumas used their collective Power to reset the universe, reviving everyone in the process.

Bowser has likely indirectly caused the deaths of some of his minions. Their devotion to him and his cause leads to them putting themselves at risk. An example of this would likely be the Bob-ombs, who sometimes give up their lives to create a large explosion - as was seen with the Bob-omb who accompanied Mario during Paper Mario: the Origami King.

Bowser has also gladly helped in dealing with villains that plot to take over or destroy the world or universe themselves. Bowser is at least partially responsible for the deaths of Smithy, Fawful, the Dark Star, Dimentio and King Olly, either directly causing or aiding in their demises.

Of course, Mario and Peach can’t exactly condemn Bowser for any of these deaths. Nobody but Mario, Rosalina and the Lumas remember the events of Super Mario Galaxy, and it was technically an accident on Bowser’s part. Bowser isn’t directly responsible for his dedicated minions risking their lives for his cause, as his army is voluntary. As for the other villains Bowser has killed, Mario and Peach can’t condemn Bowser for those either, seeing as they either aided him or would’ve died themselves if he hadn’t helped kill those enemies. It would be hypocritical to punish or ostracise him for doing what he did.

Circling back around to the original question, I think Mario and Peach are generally extremely forgiving to Bowser. They truly want to redeem him, they treat him as a true ally when a greater threat arrives. However, if Bowser began killing innocents (which I think is out of character for him, but for the sake of the scenario) I do think Mario and Peach would condemn him.

They’d stop inviting him to sports events and they’d be a lot less welcoming towards him in general. When Bowser nearly kills Mario, locks up the guests and staff in Peach’s Castle and prevents the wishes of people in the Mushroom Kingdom from being granted in Paper Mario, Peach gets incredibly upset with him:

“I'm in a very bad mood, you monster! You've imprisoned all of the guests from the castle! You are the single greatest disaster to ever befall the Mushroom Kingdom! I'll tell you what: I'll smile when you make everything as it was before you showed up!”

And later:

“I have nothing to say to you.”

I would imagine this is how she’d begin treating him consistently if he killed someone permanently. Mario would follow suit. Hope this answer suffices!

Thanks for the question, this was a fun one!