#because he was developing feelings?? and she left??

[luvrrszn]

friends, right?

RAFE CAMERON x FEM READER

summary being rafe's best friend is already pretty darn good—but it's not enough

warnings angst, fluff, mentions of ward..., not proofread

a/n bruhhh the rafe obsession is real rn...

masterlist

being rafe's best friend had it's perks.

his undivided attention, sharing his kook privileges, and front-row seats to whatever questionable life choices he made (free entertainment 24/7 basically).

it also had it's downsides, being that you were just that. his best friend.

—

you were the camerons' neighbour. you'd lived next to them on figure eight for years, and you'd grown up alongside sarah. being best friends with her meant that you spent most of your time at her house, and that led to you and rafe developing a friendship.

almost everyone thought that you and rafe were dating, especially since neither of you bothered to correct them. however, nothing ever lessened the sting of the harsh reminders that you two were, in fact, not an item.

when sarah started hanging out with john b and the pogues, she didn't leave you behind. you became friends with everyone else too, much to rafe's initial dismay. he eventually came around when it became clear that both you and sarah were not going to stop hanging out with the pogues just because rafe "didn't like it".

so it became routine. almost every day, rafe would come to pick you and sarah up from the cut.

—

it was a day like any other. after hanging out at the chateau, everyone went their separate ways. you and sarah were waiting at the dock for rafe when you saw a familiar boat come into view.

rafe came into view, shirtless. his body was toned, sweat dripping down the side of his forehead. his hair was in a short buzz again, a haircut you'd teased him about multiple times.

you were about to say hello when you noticed a girl in the boat, wearing the tiniest red bikini.

sarah gets onto the boat first, throwing her bag onto a seat as she says, "hey. what's going on?"

"beach day. we're heading home now." rafe replies, offering you the usual hand as you step into the boat.

the girl has an unpleasant expression, as if rotten fish had been dragged on board. barely sparing in your direction, she stands up and wraps her arms around rafe's waist, resting her head against his back as he turns the boat around.

the whole ride back to figure eight, you're left wondering what she has that you don't.

—

and it wasn't like you were delusional either.

rafe had definitely been dropping hints, and giving you signals. there'd be some days where you were cooking for you and sarah in their house, and he'd walk up behind you and wrap his arms around your waist, burying his face in your hair.

there'd even be some days where you'd all be watching a movie in the camerons' home theater, and rafe would cuddle up next to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders.

—

about a week later, you're at sarah's house again. feeling thirsty, you decide to go downstairs to grab a drink of water. you walk past rafe's room and you hear topper saying, "dude, what happened to that chick? the girl you were with last week?"

you couldn't help but stop to eavesdrop.

"dude she was so fucking clingy, i had to get rid of her ass." you heard rafe chuckle.

"bullshit. you just don't want anyone who isn't" topper continues. when you hear him end the sentence with your name, your heart skips a beat. your curiosity is peaked, wondering what rafe will say in response.

"nah. she's too much of a pogue to be anything. plus, she's my best friend."

your heart drops. too much of a pogue?

you thought rafe wasn't bothered by your friends, not anymore.

you go downstairs and walk straight out of the front door, without so much as a word to anyone.

—

sarah has called you, multiple times. you finally pick up and make an excuse about feeling unwell, and that you're sorry for leaving so abruptly.

you'd just stepped out of the shower, trying to scrub off the feeling that lingered on your skin after finding out what rafe truly felt, when your phone buzzed with a text from rafe.

beefy: hey bug, sarah said you left without staying for dinner cause you weren't feeling well but i know you're bullshitting. you were literally fine, i heard you laughing from sarah's room. what's up?

you: i'm fine

beefy: don't lie to me

you: ofc you'd say that

frustrated, you throw your phone onto your bed and ignore the dozen texts from rafe for the rest of the night.

—

for the rest of the week, you ignore rafe. you don't say hi when you go over to his house, you don't say hi at the country club, and you don't text him, not even once.

you walk straight past him at parties, without so much as a glance in his direction.

but he figures he'll leave you alone for a while, just while he figures out what he's done so he can properly apologise.

he realises he's out of time when he sees you dancing with some guy who has his hand resting on your waist.

he storms over, and throws you over his shoulder, walking towards the front door as people around him move out of the way.

"rafe, what the fuck are you doing? put me down!" you whisper angrily, hitting your fists against his back. he doesn't say a word, and only sets you down on the pavement outside the massive mansion the party was in.

you recognise the look in his eyes, the anger. but it was never ever directed at you. except today.

"what the fuck were you doing in there?" he grits out.

"dancing, rafe, mygosh. and i was having fun too!" you groan, exasperated. it had been your pathetic attempt to move on.

"dancing like that? in front of all our friends?"

"not my friends rafe. your friends. my friends are the pogues, which i guess makes me too much of a pogue for you, huh." you don't notice when tears start to roll down your face.

it makes him go pale.

he made his sweet girl cry.

he uses his thumb to wipe away your tears as he says

"look, i didn’t mean it the way it came out. i was just frustrated because you’re always hanging out with the pogues, and it’s been bugging me. i was angry and said something stupid—because the idea of you getting closer to them, it just... it didn't sit right with me. i like you, a lot. more than best friends like each other. i was worried that you spending so much time with the pogues meant you'd develop feelings for one of them, and i was an idiot. i was a jealous prick, and i said something i didn't mean. i'm sorry, bug."

"rafe, you're a fucking idiot." you grumble as you bury your face in his chest while he wraps you in a tight hug. a hug so tight, as if rafe thought you'd slip away if he didn't hold on tight enough.

—

the next morning, sarah catches you slipping out of rafe's room. she chuckles, and says, "took you two idiots long enough."

[dramaticallytotal]

The Rise of Team E-Scope Headcanons: Part Six

Ask and ye shall receive. This one is for @subaquatic0mess and @hyacinthus420 , who both asked for more Team E-Scope in my asks!

Idea Post Part One Last Post

Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better:

• Eva feels really bad at the start of this episode because she had gone to Noah to ask for a hair tie since hers snapped while she was sleeping, and her luggage was still located in the economy class storage bins and she didn't want to go through the hassle of taking out her bag and whatever other bags were blocking hers, rummage through till she found her bag specifically for bathroom/self care stuff and find the even smaller bag of hair ties. So she figured to just cut out all the middle stuff and ask her friend.

Katie had gone with her because she wanted to ask Noah for spare hair ties too so she could carry them for just in case, and they wouldn't have to bug him every time.

When they got back to first place, they were in time to see Cody trying to pull his foot away from Sierra and her talking about the pressure point between the tarsal bones. Eva got a warning chill hearing that and sped up her walk to help throw Sierra away from him, but she was a bit too late to stop the temporary paralysis from happening. She did throw Sierra away from Cody still.

Eva yelled at her other teammates for not doing anything, but they just dismissed her. She wanted to explode at them, but she held her tongue, not wanting her temper to be her downfall again. But her and Katie did move Cody to one of the couches and guarded him.

• Leshawna is a little sad Harold is gone. She really wanted to play this game with him more. But she was touched that he left her his lucky yo-yo. She even proudly showed it off to DJ when he asked where she found it.

• When they ask where they are going, Noah can't help but throw out the quip about the place having none of Chef's Candy Fish Tails. He tried one after their challenge in Tokyo was over, and...it wasn't the worst thing, but it wasn't exactly tasty either. It was barely edible, and he doubted the snack would sell. Usually when Chef was selling something it was of great quality so he was more than a little suspicious if they were actually a product or if Chris had Chef cook up something awful just for the fun of it. Or in the hopes they cast would eat it for some laughs.

• Noah was impressed yet annoyed when he noticed Alejandro put Owen asleep with a pressure point but had no time to reflect on it, given his seat belt ripped. "Perfect."

He could already feel himself moving away and up from his seat before Izzy yelled, "I got ya NoNo!" And he felt her legs wrap around his chest tightly. Her insane leg strength helpfully kept him in place, but he just knew the bruises he would develop would be ugly.

• When he fell into the snow after they "landed," Noah decided he was already done with today. It was freezing! He was freezing! He could already feel himself starting to shake. Izzy thankfully noticed and wrapped herself around him when they stood up. It helped a little.

• Trent kept shooting Gwen worried looks because he knew she ran slightly colder than usual. She has poor circulation.

• When Heather brought up the jacket and Chris said he ordered them, Noah had to hold in a snort because he was the one who ordered them. But when Chris said they weren't coming for at least six months, Noah nearly shouted the truth but held back because he really did not need any of his competitors to know just how involved he had been in planning this season. Thankfully, after Chris signaled the cameras to cut, he said, "That was a joke. we do have the coats, and they should have been out here already, but the interns forgot and are bringing them now. So don't even think of suing. Looking at you, Courtney. But play up the joke, will ya? Make it seem you're really freezing."

"I don't need to act." Noah grit out. Everyone missed the worried look Chris sent him before the host told them the cameras were gonna start rolling again.

• The suggestion of huddling was taken, and Katie and Sadie immediately hugged each other while Katie pulled Eva and Cody into their hug. Thankfully, she did it right before Sierra could grab Cody.

Izzy, Lindsay, and Leshawna huddled up to Alejandro.

Tyler, DJ, Trent, and Justin huddled together. Though Trent wanted to pull Gwen into their group, he knew it would look weird, so he tried to catch her eye to see if she wanted to join them or another group but he wasn't successful.

He wasn't successful because Gwen was doing her best not to look toward him because she found herself wanting to go to him. All she could think of was he gave her the best hugs and he always made sure she was warm if they had been on a date and it was cold.

When Noah tried to huddle with Bridgette, she pushed him a little too roughly away and stating she had a boyfriend. She didn't know it was him, and after their talk, she had been up all night thinking back on her interactions with Alejandro, and she was just really worked up and stressed. She felt bad when she realized it was him and that she caused him to fall into the snow once more. She immediately tried to apologize but Owen had already scooped Noah out of the snow and ran him to Izzy in a tizzy.

"Izzy! Noah got pushed into the snow again, and my little buddy is getting too cold his lips are turning blue! What do we do!?"

Owen knew about Noah's anemia, but he never really knew what to do to help and panicked. Thankfully, Izzy got an idea and detached from Alejandro to grab Noah and shoved him at Alejandro. Alejandro, Lindsay, and Leshawna hissed when they felt how cold Noah was, but Noah was trying not to die because Izzy shoved his face into Alejandro's chest.

He could not deny that the taller boy was warm, though, so he just let himself concentrate on said warmth.

• Everyone missed Chris and Chef's faces when they saw this and how Chris snapped at the interns to bring the jackets faster!

• Once they were in their jackets, Noah couldn't help but smile and snuggle into his. If Alejandro saw this and thought the sight was absolutely adorable, no, he didn't. Shut up.

• Izzy does not miss Alejandro sneaky little smile to Bridgette while Chef gave Chris some cocoa, but Noah did because his fave was still pressed into Alejandro's chest. The bookworm was now warm enough that he started feeling sleepy because Izzy, Lindsay, and Leshawna hugging him felt like one of his weighted blankets.

• When Sierra admitted to interviewing Chris's school teachers, the admission had Chef putting his husband behind him.

• Noah wants it known for the record that he hated the name Chris gave the challenge, "Total Drama the Icicle?" Really? He would have called it Total Drama On Ice.

• Leshawna made sure to pull her team to the side for a strategy meeting. As much as her and Heather had gotten closer, she still didn't trust the girl when it came to competition, and she did not want her to overhear her.

• When he got launched off the ice by Owen, Noah was ready to give up, but he was picked up by someone, and to his horror, it was Justin. The model started to carry him over the ice while complimenting him and laughing when Noah started yelling at him to put him down.

• The accidental kiss still happens between Alejandro and Bridgette, like I said, but she absolutely refuses the second offer by gently telling Alejandro while she appreciates his attention and how nice he is she has a boyfriend. It threw off Alejandro enough that he barely heard her say she was going on.

He was snapped out of it when his team reached him, though.

• Eva is pulling for Team Amazon

DJ for Team Victory

And Tyler is still pulling for Team Chris.

•Their sleigh doesn't actually have anything radioactive in it, but Chris made sure the props looked authentic and knowing Izzy as he unfortunately does he makes sure to put glowing, edible, skin safe, goop in the boxes.

• Alejandro missed Izzy and Noah giving each other knowing looks and their discreet little high five when his team reached him at the meeting point because they had seen Bridgette leave the guy and the resulting confused expression.

• As they continued, Noah handed out hand warmers to his team. Alejandro noticed he pulled them from his utility belt and added the items to his growing list.

• Alejandro still took off his shirt to distract Bridgette, but he also took off his coat. He only out them back on when his team reached him, and Noah may have been a little distracted by the sight.

• Heather tried to whip Eva once, but Eva caught the whip in her teeth and tugged it out of Heather's hand. She then proceeded to break the handle of the whip on her knee. Her team was pretty damn quiet after that.

• To help Tyler move better. Noah used the "radioactive" goop on the bottom of his sneakers, pulled out some small screws he carried, and made makeshift ice cleats. His scolded himself for not bringing any chains. (Though that was silly given, he doesn't work with chains enough to carry some to replace.)

• Alejandro added that to his list as well.

• No, I'm stuck to a pole song. I think it's catchy as hell, but Idk what the song would be instead.

• Noah injured his ankle when Owen caused the ice bridge to crack since Owen caught himself on his ankle. Climb up order was Owen, Noah, Trent, Justin, Izzy, Alejandro, then Tyler. Trent noticed he was having a hard time walking and helped Noah back onto their sleigh.

• Alejandro was impressed when Noah made Owen lean forward, and he yelled for everyone to lean forward. They won with Team Victory coming in second and Amazon losing.

• Alejandro saw his team celebrating and Bridgette walking up. He thought perhaps she was going to talk to him, but she instead approached Noah and pulled him aside. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he did see them hug, and when they got closer, he heard Bridgette thank Noah for talking to her and setting her right.

• Well, now~

Alejandro was intrigued.

• Team Amazon goes to the elimination room, but Chris announces that the challenge was indeed a reward. He originally planned on it being another elimination, but he knew Heather was very at risk of being thrown off, and he needed her for the views. Also, he felt bad that Noah got hurt during the challenge, and if Eva somehow got voted off by Heather smooth talking her way out of elimination he knew that would make his assistant feel worse.

• So reward yay!

• Noah thought it was amusing that Lindsay used his name in place of Tyler for this episode. He had to give it to her. Girl could commit to a bit.

• Chris decided to play off the bit for the episode at the end, and he loved the reaction it got from Tyler. He was so going to give Lindsay a small bonus for her commitment.

• They don't stay in the Yukon. This is one place they don't stay in. They fly out of there. Chef was worried that by staying, it would freeze their fuel. Heating or no heating in the plane. He didn't wanna risk it.

• That night, Alejandro watched Noah more closely and noticed how much he hung out with Izzy and Eva and Owen. If they made it to the merge, that was a solid and big alliance number. Hell, that was a big alliance number to begin with! He determined there was more to this Team E-Scope, and there was definitely more to Noah. So he decided he would get close to Noah and, by extension, Team E-Scope.

• Noah, of course, noticed this and came to the conclusion that Alejandro must have seen something that made him notice Noah more and guessed that their unofficial official team leader was more than likely suspicious of him and his friends. He's impressed he caught on so quickly but annoyed for the same reason. But that's fine. Two could play at the pretend friend game.

• Noah acts a little receptive to Alejandro's try at bonding, and he sees he has him, hook, line, and sinker.

• This was gonna be fun.

Next

[the-bleeding-weave]

Im back on my bullshit since yall seem to enjoy it. This time ive got a proper au for you

Tulpar crew cowboy au!!!

Takes place in southern georgia in 1880

The gang is called the McCurly's (after curlys last name)

Curly is a 35 year old scottish immigrant who came from a decently wealthy family, but he hated the lifestyle and wanted to live a freer life. He developed a hatred of the wealthy elite and believes humanity is at its best when they serve each other and not just their own interests. He also has a hatred of the law for uplifting the wealthy while trampling the poor and working person.

Curly is revolted by racism and bigotry in all its forms and vows to kill or "change the minds" of every person who dares to support the harming of minorities. This will become one of his gangs main goals (ie. Kill all kkk members with no remorse, kill bigoted protesters, beat the fuck out of and intimidate politicians until they change laws, etc)

Curly does well at all ranges of combat but he prefers long and medium range, using his favorite lever action rifle for most combat encounters. His sidearm of choice is a classic six shooter revolver which hes gotten very quick with reloading.

He has a silver and black brindle thoroughbred mare named Tulpar

Anya is a 32 year old Cherokee native whose village was devastated by oil barons who stole her people's land and left them to fend for themselves. Her family was massacred in the middle of the night by pinkertons with her being one of the few survivors.

Despite this incredible trauma, she survived on her own for a while before finding curly grievously sick in the wild. Feeling bad for him she used her extensive knowledge of herbs and medicine to heal him back to perfect health, the two forming a tight bond in the process.

Shes the gangs resident healer, they all refer to her as a doctor even though she isnt licensed, though they all agree shes better than a doctor.

She studied germ theory extensively and even learned about viruses several years before modern science did.

She loves hunting along with curly :3

She loves going on raids with the others and does great with all forms of combat.

Because shes a smoker her voice is distinctly raspy and deep, meaning she can put on what she calls her "bandit voice," a uniquely intimidating tone she uses for raids or to intimidate people.

She has a golden dun tiger stripe mustang stallion named Yorkshire that she raised herself, as a result he refuses to let anyone else ride him. The gang jokes that shes unintentionally convinced him hes her human son

Daisuke is the newest and youngest member of the gang at 23 years old. Hes japanese and mexican and speaks fluent English, japanese and spanish. His parents were killed by a dangerous gang and he was left homeless overnight, struggling to survive on his own. He was found by anya who took him in to camp to treat him for an infected injury and he quickly endeared everyone in camp with his infectious positivity. Curly allowed him to stay as a new member to which daisuke was eternally grateful

He LOVES his pistol like its his wife and has modified and decorated the hell out of it. It has engravings on the barrel and handle as well as gold plating. Hes gotten surprisingly good at using it too, able to aim well at decently long ranges especially for a pistol. While he prefers medium range combat he isnt too bad with long range either.

His horse is a reverse dapple roan nokota mare he named Asteroid destroyer. Shes the fastest horse in the whole gang and daisuke is incredibly proud of that fact

Jimmy (34) is an old childhood friend of curly and was the son of american immigrants to scotland. Though his family wasnt wealthy he still hated european life and wanted to join curlys lifestyle so he became curlys first gang member.

In this au he isnt a sexual predator, just abrasive but mostly well meaning. Hes a strategist and bounty hunter as well as the assistant manager for the gangs funds alongside curly. Hes not terrible at it but swansea loves complaining about things he spends on

When doing raids he often serves as supporting fire or lookout, keeping watch for cops and security. Hes a pretty good shot but he cant do very well with more than medium range combat. He relies very heavily on his side arms and almost never uses large arms like rifles.

His horse is a dark bay turkoman stallion named Polle and jimmy treats him like royalty

Last but certainly not least is swansea. Hes 58 years old and he used to work for a steel refinery but he hated every second of it. His true passion was in horses and gunsmithing.

He often takes up sniper positions when they perform raids since his horse is the slowest in the gang. But he also makes for a great tank when theyre in the thick of it, he has the unique ability to take several bullet wounds and not even flinch. He also has two shotguns, one is a pump shotgun and the other is a sawed off double barrel which he uses religiously. He excels at long range and short range combat due to his weapons expertise

He may not be the tallest but his sheer bulk and deep voice is enough to intimidate most people, especially when he presses his shotgun into their belly

He has an iron gray roan Ardennes mare he named after his late wife Andrea. He has the biggest soft spot in his heart for her and regularly has conversations with her when he thinks hes alone.

[29daffodils]

to plot or to not plot, that's the question

there's post under the tag that... really tickled my brain because i somewhat agree with it. but not entirely, considering i do still believe OP sounds... i dunno, something, while they are telling FK stans to “have some dignity”. so I'll just add to that, because i think fan interpretation and looking deep into a story is important, than say, just being fed all the info.

now let's start with saying i am a FKT stan and I'll be somewhat biased in my approach, but i will still try to keep this as neutral as possible.

that said, i do think jojo's writing needs improvement. a looooooot of improvement. the other day i was complaining to my friend @skyfish7 how jojo tends to use serious topics as plot devices and then does nothing with them. also the fact that he has a flair for drama and usually seems to include it in places to engage the viewers but he handles it poorly (boeing, I'm looking at you bitchass) or simply doesn't conclude them well (kant's phobia, bison's bdsm shtick, etc, i know we still have 2 eps left, don't kill me yet).

i do think OP was coming from a genuine place but also, i will take the time to defend jojo here too. because THK is not all trash. joong and dunk's characters are visibly seen to be falling in love, whereas first and khaotung's are more subtle.

i know what OP means by saying that it's still hard to believe that kant is in love with bison. because part of me feels that too. i believe a lot of it is because we do not see any detailed development where it's needed or it is skipped over in favour for more drama. like i said, jojo tends to gravitate towards big impactful scenes but he does not lay out the finer details. i am choosing to think that's just his writing style and not him just being a terrible writer. as my girl sky said, it leaves something to the viewer's imagination. and yes, she's right and i agree. spoon feeding every bit of a story is lame and boring, but sometime you do need to add little details where they are needed.

if you've already read my post about how THK seems to be losing steam, you might know what I'm talking about.

I'm very much convinced that this could have done well with a binge watch or if it were in movie format. but imo there's too many things going on with the focus distributed disproportionately among them, which in turn, i think, kinda makes the character development take backseat.

but let me add something about bikant because OP seems to be under the impression that they are simply trash.

jojo tends to make the falling in love subtle. at least for his FK characters. in bikant's case, they were both already smitten with each other from the first meeting. especially kant. he was head over heels for bison and it was very visible. it was deliberately shown. so when he does start the mission of getting dirt on him, the most visible emotion we see from kant is guilt. nothing else but guilt. and that is because it's already established he likes bison as a person. kant's character is written as someone who compartmentalizes things so even when he does find out bison's a hitman and there's proof (we see him staring horrified at the corkboard in their house) he quickly dismisses it. we repeatedly see style telling us that kant is smitten with bison. why? because kant doesn't have the mental capacity to think about romance right now, so it's style who tells the viewers his friend is wrapped around bison's little finger. the time when we finally actually see him do anything remotely truthful is ep#7 — the bowling alley and northern lights scene. kant has successfully gathered all the info he can and now he knows he might lose bison. so this one night he actually goes and lets himself love truthfully. he does all the things he would have done after that first meeting with bison. and then when bison gets shot, that's when he realises what he actually wants. the hospital scene is an important one because it cements the fact that kant cares, kant is in love, but his brain hasn't caught up to the feeling yet the idea is there, the proof is there, but he hasn't had the reprieve to sit and think and let that love marinate well. it's why even when kant says that he loves bison, it's difficult for us to believe. it's difficult for bison to believe. remember, we are viewing the beach scene from bison's pov and he ultimately asks, “you are not fooling me again, are you?” and that is the question from the viewers as well.

“you are not fooling us again, are you, kant?”

so all bison and we can do is take kant at face value and choose to believe him. that's all there is to it.

bison on the other hand? bro has been whipped since the first night. he is a hopeless romantic. he is an abused child hungering for love stuck in an adult's body. bison has been infatuated with kant from the get go, but he has also been suspicious and we have seen that suspicion slowly drop and build back up again time and time. but the moment bison actually spends all of ep#7 with kant and says, “i feel like my life is about to change”, that's him falling in love. that's him acknowledging that he is gone for good and he is finally choosing to believe kant despite the previous shady sus things he's done. bison had chosen to believe in him despite fadel warning him time and time again, and that's why the beach scene hits so hard. he is simply a fool in love. he is naive. he is the younger brother who doesn't know better. he just wanted to love, he loved and he got duped into being loved back (we all know that wasn't the case, but, bison POV like i said).

now, coming back to the point i was trying to make : do i think an extra tidbit of scene where kant's thought process was expanded on could have been better? yes.. maybe. but as a writer who likes to keep her readers interpreting and guessing, i choose to forgive jojo this time (as well). like i said, maybe this is just how he tends to write and honestly that's fine. every writer has a set of audience they are aiming for and i think there are plenty who enjoy his work (i do too, i just wish he'd tone down on the super big things suddenly being thrown in out of nowhere and then doing nothing with it).

and as far as sandray goes, boy do i have news for OP because ray is a classic example of a mentally ill abused child who is now an alcoholic and sand is a surrogate husband/caregiver growing up in poverty who puts himself last. that's their story. that's the story jojo wanted to tell, and i will rant about ray and sand and forgiveness (because OP thinks he is an asshole, so i want to make a point) but.... in a different post.

for now, this is it. i hope you forgive and understand kant. bro is trying and so are we.

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 66 Trepidation Posting

Well, dear void... I begged for Seitei War lore and a finger curled on the monkey's paw. Where to even begin?

Rough TL of the editor's notes:

First Page: 封じられた記憶… [fuji rareta kioku...] "Sealed memories..." Last Page: 妖刀も妖術もなくただその剣技で- [yoto mo yojutsu mo naku tada sono kengi de-] "No enchanted blades, no sorcery, just swordsmanship-"

Iori Lore and Dad Stuff

What a cute creature.

Her fake last name is Yoshiura (吉浦): 吉 (yoshi) for good luck/joy and 浦 (ura) for bay/creek/inlet. Nothing particularly interesting or exciting about it but it has a nice sentiment.

I'm in a better headspace now so I can do some thinking that needed to be done last week. Let's take some notes about the current arc and it's continued focus on one of Kagurabachi's key themes: Daddy Issues™.

Chihiro: lost his dad through tragedy, memories haunt and drive him. Was loved dearly and loved his father back in return. Acting on his grief in violent ways.

Hakuri: lost his dad through abuse, let go of his memories and found closure on that front. Was loved dearly then discarded but never stopped loving his dad.

Iori: lost her dad through his own guilt, trying to recover her memories of him. Was loved dearly and seemed to love him back in return. The memories she had with him were so upsetting that she passed out when she got them back.

Hiruhiko: mostly unknown right now, but clearly special to John and spoiled a bit by him. Surprisingly wholesome relationship despite how unhinged he is. If he was truly adopted like many fans think then John was probably a doting dad from the start.

So the "similar" traits based on what we know are...

Lost Their Dad: Chihiro, Hakuri, Iori

Dad Murdered/Killed: Chihiro, Hakuri

Dad Deliberately Abandoned Them: Hakuri, Iori

Were Always Loved by Their Dad: Chihiro, Hiruhiko, Iori

Dad was Burdened by Guilt: Chihiro, Iori

And the "unique" traits are...

Abused by Their Dad: Hakuri

Clings to Memory of Dead Dad: Chihiro

Dad Forgot About Them: Iori

Spoiled Brat Thanks to Dad: Hiruhiko

Chihiro and Iori are the ones being directly compared right now. They both lost their fathers, but Samura's a real piece of work compared to what we know about Kunishige. He chose to forget her in order to protect her whereas Kunishge went into hiding to stay with Chihiro. One child forgotten on purpose, one clinging to memories because that's all he has left.

Yeah, Samura's not winning any "Best Dad" awards any time soon- but it's hard to blame him when we see what the family was enduring because of his reputation after the war. Any half-decent parent wants their kid to grow up without having to see that kind of stuff. Samura just let guilt have too much influence over his choice on how to manage it, in my opinion. Kids should have a bit of say in how they're raised too. Not a lot but at least enough be able to feel seen and heard.

As for the other two, Hakuri and Hiruhiko are in pretty good shape. Hakuri's still smarting over the loss of his dad most likely, but he got the catharsis he was craving when Kyora finally acknowledged him right before he died. That particular wound can start to close up and heal as Hakuri moves on through the story, unlike Chihiro and Iori's at present. And Hiruhiko seems to be in the best spot out of the four as John's special little guy who can do whatever he wants. Spoiling kids isn't being a good parent but Hiruhiko's in a pretty good state all things considered- probably the best out of the four. We have plenty more to dig in with him so this'll get revisited once development happens or new information drops.

But yeah. Chihiro being rightfully angry at Samura for deciding to sever the parent/child bond so lopsidedly tracks with his unresolved trauma. Of course he thinks he wouldn't want to change a thing about living with his father. He's still deep in mourning and floundering in the morass of grief he uses to push himself forward. I wonder if we'll get commentary on this at some point... it's such a core aspect to his personality and the story that it might be saved for the end.

Iori's choice is left for another chapter but I have a feeling she'll agree with Chihiro and keep the memories despite the pain and danger they bring. Samura's guilt needs to be addressed and the daughter he chose to forget should have the biggest part in confronting him about it! The story can become an escort mission of sorts to keep Iori safe until that happens, which leads to easy action so hooray for us.

Perception and Being Perceptive

Yeah, he is. But that's not all.

And here we go, we're back to how people look at Chihiro and judge him without knowing the truth. Samura, Kunishige, and the other Bearers are "heroes" who seem to have some rather serious crimes buried in their pasts. Chihiro is a "murderer" stricken with grief killing those who try to destabilise society. Simple, no-frills parallels between guys drowning in guilt that anyone can pick up on.

What else is going on here? Well, those who were saying the hotel was inspired by John Wick are almost certainly correct with sorcery and fights being forbidden within it's walls. The Manager and his staff/followers enforce this with his own sword technique: Reigen One Sword School/Style (no relation to Reigen Arataka of Mob Psycho 100 fame). 礼 (rei): salute, thanks, gratitude, etiquette 玄 (gen): mysterious, occultness, profound

How... polite?

No, that's not Kumeyuri, and anyone who asks gets a bonk on the head for not paying attention.

Small note that wasn't kept in EN: Hiruhiko refers to Toto as "Toto-san", which is cute. He respects her and/or she's older than him.

Of course Toto summons Hiruhiko in so he can begin his own training arc by facing off against the hotel's staff. The bloody pin being used to tie his hair back will definitely not inspire a ton of fan art, trust me. It will be a Hiruhiko-free week everywhere (RIP my feeds). But Hiruhiko's really racking up the service industry experience between being bonded to Kumeyuri with it's geisha spirits and learning how to fight from hotel employees using a polite sword fighting technique.

Other than that, it's not clear if Kuguri's in this hotel or not but chances are extremely good that we'll get more hot-blooded action next chapter as Hiruhiko and Chihiro both learn by doing. Maybe they'll meet again, maybe not. The only guaranteed thing is that Sumi and Moku are wasting their time by prepping the seal on the roof because Iori's not going to want it even if it's finished before another dramatic escape is made.

Desperate cope theory while I'm here: maybe we can see Hakuri again soon since he and Hiruhiko have that "what is friendship, anyway" thing going on with Chihiro. That cut from Hiruhiko yapping about battling to the death as "equals" to Hakuri on the page turn in chapter 54 is still eating at my brain, yes. And Chihiro just reminded us that he feels inferior to Hakuri (he's gonna become his samurai it's canon no one can take this from me). Depends on how the next chapter plays out but I'm hoping. Dying. I'm dying without Hakuri. Please I miss him so bad just one new panel is all I'm begging for.

"Truth"?

OK. Time to let the brain worms squiggle freely over about two pages' worth of Seitei War information.

So, first... a translation note (sigh). The subject of how the war ended will probably come up now that the beginning of it was given to us (or at least, a particular version of it).

Chapter 9, if you forgot. Thank you Hella for catching this when I was all set to yap about the implications of an armistice vs. other ways to end a war.

How the war ended is still a mystery but it might not have actually been an armistice as implied by the English translation of the signboard. The word used in Japanese to describe it is 終戦 (shuusen), simply "end of war/cessation of hostilities" in a formal and pretty final way. The method could have been anything: surrender, peace treaty, and so on. An actual armistice would use 停戦 (teisen - temporary ceasefire for negotiations), 休戦 (kyuusen - a short-term truce/suspension of fighting), or 偃武 (enbu - mutually laying down arms but without the finality of shuusen) to describe both sides agreeing to pause the fight. So there might not have been mutual feelings that the war needed to stop for both sides' benefit like an armistice would imply, leaving a lot of room for the losing side to build up resentment.

Of course we all know that peace treaties coming from armistices can do the same thing if they are crafted poorly- The Treaty of Versailles used to end WWI is probably the most well-known example in the West. But the ambiguity exists in Japanese and should have stayed in English in my opinion. Folks who remember this signboard from early in the manga might be confused if it turns out the end of the war wasn't so peaceful or mutual after all.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about how fucking suspicious the story of how the war started is.

Keep in mind that Chihiro, Iori, and the Masumi don't know the truth of what actually happened- they're only recounting what they were taught or read about.

"But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked" this is not.

小国 (shokoku): small country. NOT the actual name of the place, just describing it for what it was. "Twenty-two years ago... a 'small island nation' appeared in the south-east seas..." would be more accurate. (Thanks as always, Hella.)

So, right out of the gate, a whole damn country appearing out of nowhere full of people using magic rocks to attack the mainland sounds like something straight out of a child's fairy tale. You're telling me that Japanese Atlantis rose out of the ocean and became hostile right away, completely unprovoked? That's the kind of framing used to justify showing a foe no mercy. It's an essential part of successful propaganda- dehumanise the enemy, make them seem unknowable, monstrous, and imminently threatening.

The datenseki bit is especially interesting. How did these undersea people have natural compatibility with a stone named as if it came from a meteor?

雫 (da) - drop, trickle 天 (ten) - sky, heavens 石 (seki) - stone

And in such quantities that they could wage a war with it, despite it being rather scarce? (Only 250kgs exist per Sojo in chapter 11; same weight as nearly 12 average-sized countertop dishwashers in Freedom Units.) I suppose a giant meteor could have dropped in the ocean on their territory, or they could have mined it from the seabed, but I don't believe this conveniently simplistic version of events for a second. Not after so much emphasis was put on how shady the Kamunabi is and that they are hiding a lot of shit from the general public.

I doubt an island rose out of the sea as the story claims at all, honestly. While Japan does sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire and sees little islands pop up then vanish back beneath the waves all the time, one big and stable enough to have a whole nation's worth of people on it would not have gone undetected for so long. It beggars belief that the mainland didn't know they had a whole bunch of people living off the coast underwater unless they were using sorcery to hide from sonar and exploratory/research missions.

My bets are on this "invading" nation to have been a populated island that existed for a while and for some reason -probably related to the datenseki- war broke out between them and the mainland. Classic grab for resources, discontent with the mainland rulers vs. the island's own government, everything's still on the table. Maybe they were a long-lost fragment of society that tried to reintegrate, who knows?! But does anyone really think a war that started with such one-sided aggression out of the blue would have the population reacting to the people that saved them like this?

Not exactly a "hero's welcome".

"Disappear", "Atone for your sins", and "mass murderer" painted on the side of someone's house with garbage dumped in front is not reflecting the sentiments of people who are happy that the threat to everything they know and love was dealt with. That's outrage! Probably something to do with how the enemy was "wiped out" (JP:掃討 [soutou], cleaned up/swept clean/mopped up, specifically of enemies.) Sounds like the so-called invaders from Japanese Atlantis were thoroughly eliminated...

Iori is very young here, probably elementary school age. So this is a few years after the war in an unknown location- there's a chance this was on the enemy's island, but why would he live among the remaining enemies? He doesn't need more guilt than he already has, seriously. Also, since he was reputable as the fastest swordsman alive when the blades were being handed out, he most certainly wasn't a defector from the enemy's side. Thus I believe this scene takes place on the mainland.

It seems to me like it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows after the war so the Kamunabi came up with a publicity campaign and squashed the truth somehow. But that doesn't erase the memories of the people involved, either as participants or witnesses. I'm extremely curious as to how other members of the war generation remember things. The blades themselves were only used in empty fields (according to Azami, ch. 9) so the Kamunabi could spin that any way they wanted and likely did. But if that was the case, then who saw what and told others to kick off the harassment campaign? Are there mainlanders who dissent to the Kamunabi's rule because of that information not being completely suppressed and thus help out the Hisaku- like Kyora and the Sazanamis were implied to be doing? Remember, Kyora wasn't quite manipulated as thoroughly as Chihiro recounted to Uruha in chapter 48. He definitely had some personal and/or political sympathies with our favourite group of silly bad guys:

Chapter 22. "Dissidents" aren't business rivals or competitors- they're specifically political opponents against the current regime. The term used in Japanese (異分子 [ibunshi], outsiders/alien elements) has slightly different connotations but can mean the same thing.

This is what I meant by the monkey's paw curling at the start of this post. We got crumbs that only really raise more questions instead of answering anything. For now I am still clinging on to the theory of the Seitei War being a civil war... mostly because I don't know if the author intends to tell a story with blunt commentary on the misdeeds of Imperialist governments.

Possible Real-World Influences

Hakuri has nothing to do with this, I just miss him.

So, I know a lot of people have Attack on Titan's swerve into "What the Hell, Author?!" territory still fresh in their minds and I do too. What Hokazono-sensei's setting up here has some eerie similarities with a corrupt government hiding a lot of shit and the mysterious enemies being more sympathetic than they should be... I just hope we don't take the same route of "both sides were bad, so the military needs to protect us all and destroy the worse evil" that seems to happen a lot in these WWII allegory stories.

Not to get political about an action manga, but the discussions in Japan over how to teach younger generations about what went down in the WWI and WWII eras are pretty tense right now. A great deal of emphasis is put on the suffering of the people that happened after Japan was nuked twice -which was a tragedy- but the real story is lost in the debates about what and how much to teach. There's a lot of folks who want to minimize and omit lessons about the war crimes the nation committed in China, Korea, the Philippines, and the rest of the Pacific. There are even a handful who vociferously defend them as "necessary" things that happened during wartime.

I see a lot of this reflected in Kagurabachi's arc right now. We've been told several times that the Kamunabi's version of events can't be trusted and that there's something awful that was covered up. The Hishaku want some secret to come to light and it will almost certainly have hugely negative impacts on the Kamunabi, the Bearers, and likely Kunishige too. Chihiro needs to know what happened as a core part of his character arc, and it will probably come with the realisation that the conflict he's embroiled in is much more complex than a simple revenge mission can solve. Whatever the truth of the situation is will shatter his worldview.

Where Attack on Titan failed in executing this sort of plotline was making the Titans a genuine threat that needed to be put down after revealing what they really were. You don't set up obvious real-world parallels to groups that have suffered greatly in the past just to say they were a real threat all along. You don't downplay government's corruption and cruelty with "well the other guys weren't great either". But this isn't an AoT blog so I'll stop there.

I don't see a reason to be nervous about Kagurabachi making the same mistakes right now after the sensitive writing around difficult topics from previous arcs. I'm paying close attention to where the Seitei War information crumbs lead us, though. I'm interested in most things the author has to say if it's well-told but I'm not going to stick around for justification of jingoist ideology. I also hope that the author will be able to tell the story he wants even if it happens to go against the government's prevailing sensibilities.

We don't know yet where this will go so I'll just wait and watch with a bit of trepidation. I trust Hokazono-sensei to not repeat mistakes author authors have made, but he could well make new ones as an author writing his first-ever serialisation. I just want whatever comes of this plotline to have something interesting to say like the others before it...

We'll leave it here for today, dear void. Thanks for reading all this if you got through it and let's sit tight for some awesome hotel fight action next week! Say something nice about yourself once a day in the meantime. Every other or even just one day is fine if that's all you can manage too- we all start somewhere.

[pomrania]

Expanding on some characters already here.

The Shattered Mirror two are tentatively named Eva and Evan (it doesn't sound as identical when spoken rather than written), and they visually complement each other. Before The Incident, they were very obviously the perfect couple, like they'd been designed for each other. In a break from common tropes, the non-corrupted knight is more scarred than the corrupted knight, because of the corrupted princess sending him into pointless danger more often. The non-corrupted princess doesn't have any visible signs of injury, very intentionally.

The Blossoming Lady has non-biological heritage from the fae, which becomes more apparent the more she knows herself. Currently it's at a level where she just looks like she's wearing unusual cosmetics; like her nails are naturally coloured, and she seems to have a painted design for eyeshadow. If you complete her quest, and either romance her or set her up with another character, then she's not FULLY transformed -- that will take a couple decades -- but she's very visibly not human; and by that point she can suppress those features if needed, but it's so much more comfortable to be fully and openly who she is. Tentatively, her name is Melisse.

The Cat Prince doesn't have a tentative name because names are for humans; he's addressed as "Cat", "Cat Prince", or "Mr Cat Prince sir" depending on the level of formality. His quest is about finding a worthy successor, to take care of the problems humans keep getting themselves into.

Under the cut, new characters; or more accurately, two characters where I'd earlier mentioned a concept for them, and it's gotten fleshed out since. Also some more about the immediate setting.

The Second Path. Definitely a mother, possibly a grandmother by now, she's waiting for the latest update on her children's families. She spent years exploring the joys (genuine) of a committed relationship with one partner, taking the time to learn each other and grow together; now that that phase of her life has reached its natural end, she wants to explore the joys of "sampling". She's up-front with her desires, but accepts "no" (and "not now") for an answer, although she'll also gladly take "yes". If the player is romancing someone else, she can assist with tips on what that character likes. Her quest involves an alleged debt from her youth as a fairytale heroine; she's been getting the dream version of phone calls to say that since she's "no longer a part of the royal family" because her spouse died and she left to travel, she no longer has that "protection". This is extremely arguable, and it's from someone hoping to prey on fear and ignorance and coerce her into "settling". She knows enough to know that she doesn't need to give in, but not enough to know how to make it stop.

The Thorn's Embrace. It is legitimately not his fault that he was cursed; maybe someone was mad at a person who was taking care of him, maybe he just happened to be in the blast radius when someone decided to inflict their hate on the world, I'm not sure what the best option is for that. His curse has enough of a grace period to it that the player character won't suffer if he starts to develop feelings, but once that happens he'll refuse to interact with them in anything more than the briefest manner (to starve that romantic desire) until the curse isn't a threat. Early on, this is just something to mitigate the curse, making it so it only becomes a risk if he PURSUES a romantic relationship with somebody, but the curse has to be completely lifted to fully romance him. If not romanced (and thus at least partially cursed), he can assist with the quests of certain other characters, where somebody needs to suffer, by dosing himself with love potion so the curse is pointed at the intended target.

The game takes place in a location called Haven, which was set up by a coalition of fairy not-quite-godmothers. For the span between two full moons, the place is protected from external threats or distractions, magic keeps the place clean and provides food and other necessities, and it promotes honesty about what one wants in a relationship. The dateable characters have been there for a few days before the player character arrives, enough to be familiar with each other.

…why do I keep having ideas for stuff that's in a genre and/or medium which I don't actually care about. Anyways, here's the thing that came to me last night while I was on a walk, it's a fairytale-inspired dating sim called After Ever.

All the dateable characters aren't DIRECTLY from fairytales, but they have the same kind of vibe; and their situations are all "from after the story concludes" in a way that has them looking for a partner. Some of them are divorced, some of them are widowed, at least two of them are in a committed relationship but it's also an open relationship, some of them are technically still married in a way where "dissolving the marriage" (one way or another) is part of their quest.

Gender options for the player character are "male", "female", and "no thanks". Then there's also the background options, which are "noble", "knight", "witch" (gender-neutral), and something I haven't thought up a good term for, where it's "whatever I may have been, I'm not that any more" (might have once been one of the other three, might have been something completely different; basically a blank slate). Dateable characters have preferences for gender and also… you know "background" isn't really a good term for this since it's the player character's CURRENT status, and I don't want to use "class" since when "noble" is an option (which is a term I was just using to include "prince", "princess", and "equivalent non-gendered term") it feels more like "social class" than "RPG class". Anyways, characters have preferences involving both that and gender, and there's characters you can't ROMANCE if you're a certain gender, but there's only two possible gender-and-whatsit combinations that will lock you out of a character's quest altogether (and each only goes for a different character).

(The rest is under a read-more because this got long.)

Each character has meters for "attraction" and "trust". You need high "trust" (among other things) to complete a character's quest, and high "trust" and "attraction" to romance them. Those are intentionally two separate things, with overlapping requirements. You can theoretically romance a character without ever interacting with the other characters (although it'd be more difficult), but completing their quest requires the assistance of a varying number of other characters (depending on the quest, and also some quests have different possible ways to progress them).

Here's some characters I've already thought about.

The Cat Prince. He has three forms: a human, a humanoid cat, and a cat. He's literally a cat who learned how to speak and how to transform into a human. He'd solved a bunch of problems for a bunch of people, and been rewarded for it, but it was human rewards and he doesn't care about those. You can only romance him if you learn how to transform into a cat (or at least a humanoid cat, but you'll have to work harder) because regardless of his current form, he's a CAT, and he doesn't find humans attractive.

The Shattered Mirror. Actually two separate characters. Their backstories start the same way, a knight and a princess meet and fall in love and fight through obstacles to be with each other again; the "final boss" is an evil wizard with a magic mirror. Then, their stories diverge. The princess remembers that the knight broke the mirror, but a shard cut through his heart, and he gradually became more cruel; after a year of marriage she realized this wasn't temporary, and after a few more years she realized that he was getting worse, then that she was in serious danger, and needed to escape. The knight remembers that the princess was the one who broke the mirror and gradually became cruel, until he had to escape. (Basically they're from two different timelines which diverged at "who broke the mirror".) They can't stand being near each other, because even if that's the uncorrupted version of someone they'd once loved, that's still the face of someone who made their life misery for years. You're locked out of her quest if you're a male knight, and his quest if you're a female noble, because they can't fully trust someone with the same characteristics that were used against them; you can still romance them, but it's harder, and it's only with the understanding that it's a short-term fling. Both of their quests are about dealing with their corrupted technically-still-spouse, and (among other things) involve you interfacing with the non-corrupted other person. You might or might not be able to do multiple different quests in the same playthrough, but you definitely can't complete both Shattered Mirror quests on the same one, because the timelines are only compatible when there's plausible deniability.

The Blossoming Lady. She realized she's lesbian a few years after she married her prince. They still care deeply for each other but she doesn't want to be his wife any more, and "divorce" would ruin him politically. Her quest is about getting her out of that marriage some other way; options include (but are not limited to) "faking her tragic natural death", "'revealing' her as a shapeshifter who'd impersonated the 'real' princess-consort", "creating a non-scandalous situation where divorce is not only politically acceptable but beneficial", and "strategically altering records and memories so they were never married as far as anyone else is concerned".

At least one character (no longer talking about the above, this is concepts I don't yet have characters thought up for) is middle-aged, who had a happy marriage with children that are now grown, before their spouse died. Another character is cursed, where everyone they love romantically is doomed to suffer; romancing them requires breaking the curse, and their quest is about finding the source of the curse and expressing displeasure at that. There's characters that will end up with each other if you don't do anything that could interfere, and characters that you can have them get together.

In the wider setting of the story, MARRIAGES are generally heterosexual, since they're also a legal contract about inheritance, by default assumed to be the couple's biological children. And changing things from that formula means finding a lawyer to write out a version that better fits the situation, so most people like that either go with the default but with the understanding that it isn't quite accurate, or they don't legally formalize their relationship. However, the characters aren't "most people", so the option of "marriage" depends on the character and the relationship, not the genders of anyone involved.

[poetsblvd]

fluorescent adolescent has me curious because i love arctic monkeys!! (i'm guessing you got that title from the song oop-)

100% from the song !! IM CURRENTLY OBSESSED !!

but okay yes this is also not written but the idea is there !!

so it is very much based of the song and it’s very enemies to lovers + brothers best friend ( aka charles x verstappen!reader 🤭 ) where they meet a year or so after a one night stand before she leaves for college and suddenly she’s back and he’s in his slag era and she’s like oop red flag must steer clear! but he’s very SHE’S BACK AND I CANT BREATHE NOW?? and as the song goes it’s very much ‘oh, the boy's a slag, the best you ever had, the best you ever had is just a memory.’

ps. my summaries are horrid i deeply apologise !!

[tackykachowch]

How it feels to not like timebomb after s2

[hylialeia]

you don't get it. she loved him once. she didn't have a maester, she had a brother. he sold their mother's crown to keep them fed. he said Dany, please. she loved him, once.

[waterlinkedgirl]

Musical Touken Ranbu: Michinooku ~ Hitotsu Hachisu (Michinooku ~ A Single Lotus)

Here we go! Only a few days after the archive release and toumyu's ninth anniversary (congratulations!)

Michioku, or Michihasu, is a myu I have many conflicting feelings about, both positive and negative. However, I do believe that with the right amount of care in the next Mika-related story myu, the negative can still be cleared. Plus, I'm glad about a lot of things being re-established. The writer does need to step up her game a little on the plot-writing side of things, as well as the understanding-and-respecting-past-myu side of things, but as long as she does, this can still be given a proper place within what was already established.

Keep in mind that these are only the subtitle files, timed and tled to the DMM senshuuraku and the bluray respectively. The archive version will have a talk at the start, so the starting times of the subs will have to be delayed accordingly.

You can find the subtitles and my TL notes document here!

[mutter-of-dragons]

One criticism I have about the hotd adaptation, especially now that we're going to see more of Aegon II in action, is that I can't fully buy on his hatred of Rhaenyra because of what happened to Jaeherys. Even him cursing her felt jarring. The writers spent so much time bulding Rhaenyra and Alicent's relationship that when it comes down to Rhaenyra and her siblings, it's pretty much non-existent. And they HAD time to show us that. I can buy Aemond resenting his older half-sister for the loss of his eye, since her son was responsible for it, even though he - and everyone else both in team green stans and in-universe - ignores the fact that he was the one who was ready to bash Jace's head with a stone. So there's also that. Yet, when it comes to Aegon, even seeing the cast's interviews where Tom talks about how Aegon had always resented his sister for being the favorite, why don't we see more that? Season 1 had Aegon barely acknowledge her existence and vice-versa, even when his mother was berating and slapping the shit outta him when he was young. I can see clearly him (and Aemond, and maybe Helaena if she cares) resenting Viserys for favoring Rhaenyra, but not to the point of "oh, there she goes, father's favorite child. I hate her because father doesn't pay attention to me when she's around". So yeah, I have a lot of trouble trying to buy the conflict between siblings that was born out of a plot to usurp Rhaenyra, and a misuderstanding where his son became the target of assassination that was meant for Aemond (carried out by two very incompetent people, btw. Daemon should've tried to infiltrate that goddamn castle if he wanted the service done properly. Not to mention Ser Idiot Incel Crispy being the worst kingsguard ever getting a promotion after his absence resulted in the death of Jaeherys. Oh well, the woes of being doomed by canon, I guess.). If they ever interacted in season 1 instead of just sharing/existing in the same space at the same time, I would have buy the anger, the hatred, the pain. Now Aegon going along with Crispy's plan of sending Arryk to Dragonstone, which failed miserabliy and resulted in both twins deaths btw, just makes him sound stupid. I can't even blame Otto for being so frustrated with him (that would also be another topic on itself).

[frobby]

i love madoka magica however i dont think we as a fandom talk enough about how tragic madoka herself is. probably because the narrative itself steers you away from thinking about her personally. shes not a character shes a desire that homura has, shes a force of good, shes homura's foil. but those are all madoka's narrative roles but madoka herself as a person is not really looked at because we are viewing this world from an unreliable narrator(homura) who only sees madoka as those things. The best thing homura could have done for madoka was give up on her, to let her go. because every time we go back in time the image of madoka is distorted, she loses more of herself every regression of homura's as she tries harder and harder to save her. We don't even know what madoka originally wished for to become a magical girl in the original timeline. and she actually acts quite differently than the madoka we meet. shes a lot more honest and caring and bold. by the time homura's has reached the actual anime madoka has been reduced by the sands of time to a figment of herself. she has no wants or desires of her own beyond wanting to do good and help her friends and when all her humanity is stripped away is when she finally acends to godhood because thats all thats left of her. an ideal and a faith in her. madoka kaname died a long time ago and all that is left is her ghost.

[grimalkinmessor]

ACTUALLY back to my Lilo & Stitch MP100 comparisons, since I usually make Arataka's sister so much older than him, I see them as having a kind of Nani and Lilo dynamic—

Arataka: Why don't you sell me and buy a rabbit instead!?

Anehito: At least a rabbit would behave better than you!

Arataka: Go ahead! Then you'll be happy because it'll be smarter than me TOO!

Anehito: And quieter!!

Arataka: You'll like it 'cause it's STINKY like YOU!

Anehito: GO TO YOUR ROOM!

Arataka: I'M ALREADY IN MY ROOM!

•

Anehito: Arataka, you open this door this instant!

Arataka: Go away...

Anehito: Arataka we don't have time for this!

Arataka, laying face down on the floor: Leave me alone to die.

Anehito: You are SO finished when I get in there! I'm gonna stuff you into the blender, push puree, bake you into a pie and then FEED IT TO THE SOCIAL WORKER!

—and then of course the soft moments too 👉👈🥺🥰

[giddlygoat]

my brother can make me laugh without moving at all. he can make me laugh on command, just by existing, and there is no physical tell or indication that it is about to happen. it’s like he can will me to laugh and i will. of course we’re not telepathic, but we do speak in unison sometimes. we improvise like no one’s business. we could fool anyone into believing we are psychically linked. when i try to explain it, i sound silly saying it out loud, but i really CAN tell what he’s thinking. we exchange so much information just with a look. he can make me cry laughing and he doesn’t even have to move

[catcatb0y]

Every time Helluva Boss or Hazbin Hotel has a glimpse of genuinely GOOD WRITING, I go insane. Both of these shows feel like edging to me, like they will tease me with these bangers and then leave me to dry EVERY DAMN TIME.

[here-there-were-dragons]

my mother is absolutely convinced of some nonsense conspiracy theory that (in her words) "originally humanity lived in peaceful all-woman societies of goddess worshippers who took care of eachother and lived in harmony, while males were roving loners that had no society and never cooperated. that changed when the men banded together and overthrew the peaceful woman-dominated societies, and enslaved us all." and, according to her, this is proof that a woman-dominated world would be innately more peaceful, and that men are innately violent and evil and should be either barred from holding any legal power or leadership roles or at least should be (again in her words) "gelded like bulls" to remove their testosterone before even being considered for such a thing.

she also evidently believes that the problem with all religions today is primarily that they aren't "goddess worshippers", because she seems to think goddess religions are inherently peaceful and pure too and seems to be especially obsessed with "Isis" in particular. the very very few times she's openly considered it unambiguously bad for some population or another to have been exterminated (she's got a bad case of devil's advocating genocide brain), she's gone out of her way to make up some crap about how said people were a peaceful society of goddess-worshippers, almost always of isis. delusions of isis-worship seem to be the only thing that ever causes her to consider any arab or middle-eastern culture, society, or ethnicity to be relatively uncomplicatedly undeserving of extermination, in fact, because every fucking time she doesn't immediately start devils-advocating it and making remarks about how "the rest of the world should box them in and let them blow eachother up" it's when she's whinging on about how whatever specific micro-ethnicity she's thinking about are or were traditional persecuted isis-worshippers.

the sole major exception to her weird fixation on isis worship justifying worthiness of life is the whole israel thing going on, in which she has consistently made very obvious that literally the only reason she's against the genocide of palestine is because it gives her an excuse to even more openly hate jewish people than she already did. and honestly i'm not sure even that's true because i think she's made some offhand remarks about palestinians having probably been peaceful isis worshipers before the jews infected them with christianity or something anyway.

so for the last, however fucking long it's been i've been constantly having to listen to her go off about how this behavior is in the jew's blood or whatever and that they literally invented all genocide because somehow the concept didn't exist before them and wouldn't have ever been invented by the rest of humanity without those jewish aliens dropping it in i fucking guess apparently and she furthermore goes on about how every single genocide and mass-oppression movement in history is directly inspired by them, ESPECIALLY the nazis, and THEN i have to listen to her rant about how, basically, wwii was something they entirely brought on themselves by "dominating the economy and treating everyone not them like shit" and the nazis were just "using their own tactics back at them". and then she goes on a rant about how the people the original jews exterminated back in the day (aka the first ever genocide, which they invented, because jews invented genocide and hate according to her) in the middle east region were peaceful matriarchal isis-worshipers.

and then she starts making comments about arabs being backwards and palestinians either being mysogynist muslims that should be boxed in to blow eachother up with everyone else or secret peaceful isis worshippers corrupted by men's cruel hand, sometimes in the same sentence, entirely dependent on which group she's more in the mood to hate at the time.

it's exhausting. beyond exhausting. her sole purpose in existence seems to be to have the singularly most exhausting set of politics physically possible to fit into one person.

just, sometimes i think, if there really is anything at all to the incredibly stupid and inexplicably popular idea that anyone or anything has a Purpose tm to exist for, i feel like my mother's purpose is to be walking proof to me of a Type Of Guy That Is Real, cause i sure as fuck would have trouble inventing this mess if it wasn't standing right in front of me spewing confusingly bipartisan hate. all of her thoughts and opinions are these long winding nonsense chains that feel like if that man carrying thing sketch about the friend with confusing politics was a person. on meth.