#but also it does apply to a LOT of things

[fragranticareviewers]

Question inspired by the recent compilation of Lust reviews! I have the "solid" (creamy) version of the fragrance and I've never smelled anything like the mouth/breath/bodily notes reviewers are mentioning. Does it just play well with my skin? Is it possible that the solid comes off totally different from the atomized spray? ....Are reviewers just talking out of their asses in order to have an opinion about a "controversial" scent? This is an interesting subject to me bc I'm a product development chemist but I don't work on anything remotely close to fragrances or anything used on the body, so I know very little about how these products work!

Love the blog, thank you for curating these really good posts!

thanks for the ask! this sent me on a fun rabbit hole.

it's probably a few different things:

you're right on the spray and solid versions being different. from what i know, it's a lot harder to control the dosage with the spray, so it's really easy to go overboard

lust is also a particularly indolic jasmine. indoles occur naturally in both human feces and jasmine flowers - however, the indoles in jasmine occur at concentrations of around 200 ppm, whereas the indoles in human feces vary depending on gut microbiome, but generally seems to sit at around ~2.59 mM. i'm having trouble finding sources on the concentrations between the two that even use the same measurement, but anything above 0.01% concentration of indole tends to give, to quote perfumerflavorist.com, "an aggressive, repulsive, overpowering fecal-decaying impression."

with the above said: i am awful with chemistry. just absolute dogshit. i haven't studied it since high school. if anyone wants to play with some numbers here or rip into my math, you have my blessing.

but basically, my understanding is: more fragrance = more indoles = more fecal smell.

i think there's also a social component to it, like you said. which happens with any controversial fragrance - people see other people writing funny reviews and want to write their own. this is something that applies to the whole blog, i think - my posts are carefully curated to be funny, but that also means you miss out on the majority of the reviews where people say it's fine.

& in case anyone wants to correct my work, my sources are as such:

perfumerflavorist profile on indoles, and a paper from 2015 on a method of measuring indole in human fecal samples

[project-sekai-facts]

What grinds my gears is what when people say that the reason Kana5 is bad due to it trying to make Mafumon sympathetic.

A couple have even gone as far as saying that Kana5 is as bad as Toya5 for the same reason and I-

Look. I deeply understand the idea of abusers being more complicated than simply “evil trash” is hard to comprehend. And I may sound insensitive but,

They need to grow up. They should not let their biases cloud their judgement and assume something is bad just because a piece of media has something they personally don’t like

the difference between harumichi and mafuyumum is their awareness.

harumichi - fully aware of what he is doing, fully aware his son is his own person and does not stop him despite heavy disapproval

mafumum - completely oblivious to what she is doing to mafuyu, projecting an idealised version of mafuyu onto her (and possibly an idealised version of herself)

harumichi working toya to the bone is him applying how he learnt to toya. the intent was not to physically/emotionally harm toya but that is what ended up happening (physical exhaustion is to be expected, he should not have forced toya to keep working but he deals with the same so he probably doesn't think it's a big deal). that said, he is fully aware of the fact he is taking away from toya's childhood, and admits this in concerto that toya's life was not "normal".

mafumum is entirely unaware of her abuse to mafuyu. this is repeatedly made clear in events post sayonara persona. mafudad relays to her what mafuyu tells him and she's incredibly distressed to learn that she'd been hurting mafuyu and she doesn't know what she did wrong. she can be manipulative, but she's not aware that she's being malicious, she thinks she's genuinely doing what's best for her child who she loves. there's also some context clues such as her young age compared to other parents, the fact she doesn't have a job and the fact she's at a lower social standing to her husband that suggest she may also be projecting the life she didn't get onto mafuyu.

harumichi being given the attempted sympathetic backstory doesn't work. he is neglectful towards his son, but is slowly easing out of these ways a little bit. toya has already begun to make ammends without the need for making harumichi sympathetic. he's a bad parent who did a bad thing knowingly.

with mafumum it is justified. in her first appearance, we see her from the biased viewpoint of kanade, who sees her as a cold and neglectful parent towards mafuyu. however from mafuyu's pov, she is a loving mother who is misguided in how she shows this love. this is what unreliable notes is about. mafumum is a bad parent who did a bad thing unknowingly. she is sympathetic because she is a troubled mother coming to terms with the fact she ruined her child's life.

both characters are loved by their children by virtue of them being their parents. the story is going to convey that no matter how bad they are as people. yes, forgiving abusers in fiction is overdone and to some degree unrealistic, however we do not yet know if that is where the story will go. all we know is that there will be a reconciliation. but even if mafumum specifically gets forgiven, it would not be unjustified. i feel like the first impression we get of mafumum from Kanade POV left a strong impact on a lot of people that they can't let go of. the whole point of the current arc is to let that go. the game builds her up as this malicious antagonistic force so that it can deconstruct that when we get to see her from an unbiased POV. she's not a villain like many people make her out to be, she's a human who made a mistake. a very bad and very big mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. she is a loving mother who fucked up really badly because she was too obsessed over perfection to actually see her daughter for who she is.

if the writers try and make us forgive harumichi though fuck them he fucking sucks. like i feel like toya will because he's like that yknow but i don't think the audience should feel sympathetic towards him.

[stanhedonia]

(I agree that it's not the worst thing you can do but here's my explanation of why it's high on the list.)

Most people like consistency in sexual/romantic matters. It reduces transmission of STDs, and it makes raising children simpler when the parents' relationship is consistent.

Most people also want a life partner who will treat them as the #1 priority. Again, this is valuable because it brings consistency to life. I you're everyone's #2 priority, then you'll probably have a lot of support when life is easy, but when life gets hard, you might not have any support. Being someone's #1 priority ensures that you'll always have support from at least one person. It's like a safety net.

The simplest way to fulfill both of these requirements is to pair up in a group of 2 people, each of which treat the other as their #1 priority, more important than anyone else, and only have sex with that person. This is what most people opt for. There are other ways to live, and I'm not saying they don't work, but they're not the default for most people because they're more complicated and harder to keep track of.

You could separate the desire for sexual consistency and the desire for a mutual safety net into two different relationships. But it's simpler to have both relationships be merged into one, for most people. Also, because of how neurotypical brains work, the emotions associated with both types of relationships bleed into each other. When you see someone as a good partner you become more attracted to them sexually, and when you have sex with someone, you feel more bonded to them as a person. It's not just simpler intellectually, it's simpler emotionally to do monogamy because the emotions go together and reinforce each other. (For most people.)

The logic around STDs and pregnancy no longer applies as much in the modern day. But these desires are not just logical, they are also primal. For the same reasons I listed, most of our ancestors had an incentive to create stable and simple sexual pairings, so most people have an instinctual drive to do so. And when that bond is broken it feels primally, instinctually painful. Even if we created a society with no unwanted pregnancy or STDs, and a utopian system where children and adults have all the support they need even if relationships are constantly changing, some people would still retain the vestigial instinct to feel pain when their mate has sex with someone else.

So getting cheated on is like this: in one fell swoop, your partner intentionally

-undoes the system that is giving you a safety net by breaking the agreement (hurts you practically),

-suggests that they don't see the stable arrangement you've created as worth preserving (hurts your sense of self-worth),

-does something to cause you primal, instinctual pain (hurts you).

This is especially bad if this is a system you had been building for years and you were relying on it being stable for years to come; and if the person who is insulting your self-worth is someone who you thought valued you above all else; and if the person who caused you primal pain is the one who was supposed to protect you according to your agreement.

To do that all at once is seen as very cruel.

(I hope I provided a unique perspective and didn't just reiterate things you already understand. I think it was helpful for my understanding to lay the mechanics out like this, at least.)

being an amoeba level empathy autistic child, I got used to just not understanding things that made others feel upset & only getting it later in life. there's some horrific stuff that I've had to work to understand people's trauma around, but I usually come around eventually and start feeling the way I'm supposed to about it. all this to say, for a long time I have been waiting for that moment where I intuitively understand why cheating is the worst thing you can do to a partner and i still don't really get it.

[ckret2]

I've been doing a re-re-re-reread of Goldilocks Zone again, and I've gotta point out a phrase, I don't remember what chapter it was in, but I've been thinking about it a lot recently.

There was a moment in which Bill had characterized Dipper as not celebrating the weird but rather expanding his boundaries of normal.

I just think its neat, I never thought of it that way. And even outside the context of your fic, I think this is a really great description to keep in mind when thinking about Bill's opinion on the Pines

I don't even know that it's necessarily true, sometimes Bill just sort of makes up reasons to like who he likes and dislike who he dislikes.

But I do feel like Ford is a lot farther along on the journey of embracing being weird while Dipper still has that almost/barely-a-teen need to fit in (although neither one of them is 100% one or the other); and it's easy to apply that framework to the rest of their lives too if you want. Which Bill does.

I read a post a long while back that pointed out that a lot of Dipper's interactions with Gravity Falls' weirdness is about getting to understand these strange things and sympathize with them; and that Bill was one of the few oddities in town that Dipper never reached an understanding with.

And that, I think, is a more true assessment of what Dipper does. Dipper makes sense of the weird things around him. Bill, uncharitably, characterizes that as Dipper forcing weird things to make sense; and Bill staunchly refuses to be made sense of(/refuses to let Dipper's definition of normal to expand enough to include him), which also means Dipper can't come to understand him.

[smoulderingocean]

I think the situation with Toby is really going to strike Nick very deeply. One huge thing I noticed was that Toby's home situation seemed to mirror Nick's very closely with a devoted mother and two sons. I feel like in his interactions with Toby's mother he was thinking of his own Mum who was devoted to caring for Nick and his (presumably) older brother Joshua. I wonder if there was ever a time where his Mum had to leave a vulnerable Josh, for however briefly, in order to care for a young Nick, much like Toby's mum went to be with her younger son.

We also see in this episode that Nick finds a lot of comfort and satisfaction in reuniting multiple families in New Bethlehem. As we know from the entirety of the show, family means everything to Nick, especially so after his own family has been torn apart, first by drugs, alcohol, and abuse, and then again later on by Gilead and circumstance. Not having his own family with him -the family he chooses with June and his family of origin- is a constant source of anguish, especially as his forced family is growing and applying more and more pressure on him to become a person that he is not. Reuniting families in a safe place seems to really fulfill Nick's purpose in life: he's helping others and not causing any harm; he's building up families and making the world a bit better.

And so tearing apart a family so very much like his own, even though he knows it's necessary to survive, has to be incredibly hard on him. He knows what the loss of a son and brother does to people. Nick isn't someone that takes a lot of pleasure in hurting people and he isn't a violent person at his core. He does bad things to survive and get by, and you can see that it's really beginning to drain him. This particular event could very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I can see a scenario where he just can't do it anymore; he can't fight and hurt others, and so he refuses to continue to be involved with a rebellion that costs the lives of others and tears his soul to pieces. I hope by the end of it all, Nick will get to be in a situation that allows for him to have the peace he needs while contributing to tearing Gilead down, and to let his soul fully flourish.

[seokminfilm]

This idea has been floating in my mind for these few days and who else to request to instead of the best (you)

SO

What if.. The oc broke her hand (Harsh ik 😔) How would svt help her with her daily tasks and WHAT exactly

Love ur work a lot!! <3

this is actually such a cute idea so strap in! i'm gonna put it in the ask for you 💗

seventeen and a s/o with a broken hand

(warnings: none! hint of angst in seokmin's but that's it)

seungcheol as the protective one

seungcheol would be the one to tell you (force you, in all honesty) not to move a muscle, so much so you'd have to remind him that your wrist was broken, not your whole body. of course, seungcheol feels like he has to take care of you in any and every situation, and it applies to breaking your hand, too. he's running any errands you're asking him to (or aren't even asking), and will not let you move an inch. i think seungcheol is a man of many talents and can do whatever you ask of him easily.

jeonghan as the lighthearted one

jeonghan will laugh at you if you stupidly broke your hand, without hesitation. he does it to lighten your mood, but if you get tired or annoyed by the jokes, he'll stop immediately. jeonghan's low energy himself, but he'll do anything for you while your hand is broken. he also kisses your broken hand and helps you slowly get back to moving it once you're fully healed. jeonghan likes to do the dishes and laundry for you as you sit on the couch.

joshua as the doctor-like one

joshua was the reason you found out you had a broken hand; at first, you thought it was just a bad ache, but joshua noticed your slight discomfort after a few days and told you to go get it checked out. now that he knows your hands are broken, he'll take care of you well, ensuring you have everything you need while telling you to focus on healing up. he sketches on your hand-cast, drawing flowers, stars, and rockets to help you cheer up. joshua helps you stay warm and full in bed, bringing you food and blankets when you ask.

jun as the worried one

jun is freaking out when you told him you think you broke your hand. when it was confirmed, jun actually breathed a sigh of relief before crying that evening. jun has always seen you care for him when he was hurt, but now that the roles are reversed, jun is scared he's not doing it right. jun stays by you at all times, helping you with simple tasks when you ask. he specializes in cooking your favorite dishes when you ask him.

hoshi as the soft one

hoshi is known to be a very excitable, jumpy person, but when your hand becomes broken, he's a whole different person. he's soft and slow-moving, careful around you as he helps you around the house. hoshi's never seen you in so much pain before, and even the jokes you crack don't help hoshi lighten up. he opens up to you later, telling you he just wants to do the best for you to heal. hoshi will spend his time cleaning your shared room or doing housework.

wonwoo as the attentive one

wonwoo is definitely paying attention to how you're feeling and what's going on with you when your hand's broken. he knows what to do and what not to do, and spends his time making sure you do those things needed to help you heal quicker. wonwoo is a very attentive person, watching how your face contorts at the touch of your broken hand or how you delicately try to watch how your hand is lying. he assists you in any way he can.

woozi as the serious one

when woozi finds out you broke your hand, he doesn't waste any time getting down to business. he hears the doctor's reports and asks all the questions he can before getting you home. woozi was never really one to bother you unless you asked, but you were awfully quiet, and it made him nervous, so he finds busy work to do to keep his mind off of how sad you've seemed to get. woozi goes and buys groceries, always bringing back your favorite snacks and drinks.

dokyeom as the soft one

god bless dokyeom's soul: he's so worried about you. he always knew something was off when you came home clenching your hand, but when he found out that you had broken it, his heart was shattered. how did it happen? more importantly, why wasn't he there to stop it? it makes dokyeom feel bad, knowing he couldn't be there to maybe prevent the situation, but he does his best to keep his smile for you. dokyeom gives your broken hand extra care, keeping it moisturized and massaged when it starts to ache in the cast.

mingyu as the caring one

mingyu is already whipped for you, but when you break your hand and become unable to do things for yourself, mingyu takes it upon himself to do everything for you. you find it very cute, how mingyu scrambles over himself to do simple things for you. you have to remind mingyu you can still do things yourself, and he begrudgingly allows you to, secretly watching you from afar to make sure you're okay. he likes to cook for you the most, always asking you what you want before cooking it quickly and bringing it to you.

minghao as the understanding one

minghao doesn't really know how you broke your hand, but it still hurts him to see you so reserved and stationery. minghao is a very calm person, so he helps you stay calm and relaxed during your healing period. he's doing all the errands for you, and staying close to you no matter where you are just in case you need him. he doesn't want to overwhelm you or rush you to get better, but wants to keep his eyes on you as often as possible. likes to make you tea and even reads books to you if you want him to.

seungkwan as the humble one

you love doing things for seungkwan: it's your love language. when you break your hand, though, seungkwan finally thinks it's time to repay you for all of your sweet acts. he's very soft with you the next few weeks, helping you do whatever you need him to do ALSO while encouraging you to aid yourself in getting healed faster. seungkwan is very considerate when it comes to what you want and need, and doesn't mind getting it or doing it for you. seungkwan usually helps you with dishes, also ordering food for you if you want it.

vernon as the nonchalant one

lowkey feel like vernon will take care of you as well as any other person just because he has experience breaking his own hand. he knows what's good and what makes the pain ease up, and helps you through everything you need. vernon finds it cute when you hold out your broken hand to him, asking him to kiss it (and he does, without hesitation). vernon will put on records while organizing things for you as you sit on the couch, watching him work as he keeps you in conversation.

dino as the overzealous one

dino is very dramatic when he hears that you've broken your hand; he's screaming and almost on the verge of tears, and he's not even the one with the broken hand. dino panics a lot because he's not sure if he can take care of you or watch you like you need to be watched, but tries his hardest anyway. dino is like your shadow over the next few weeks, watching you and what you do with concerned eyes. he's helping you with whatever task you need and will beg you for something to do if he feels like he's not helping.

[lapwinghosty]

it's not exactly misgendering either in intention, but if you don't like it you don't like it and that's very understandable, especially if you are trans.

I get what you're referring to overall wrt playful and casual de-gendering especially in queer and gender minority spaces, just want to point out that ime it can be quite difficult or not actually practically possible to parse whether it's even intended as playful or a threat. since it's just the norm to not give a shit about trans womens feelings about this, (or even really think of us as having an internal life/thoughts and feelings at all) when you're inundated constantly by dude/bro/man/buddy/brah/etc. as the default and usually can't escape it with any degree of explanation or signification, and you know from experience that even gently correcting someone (yes including a lot of tme people who will tell you to your face while you are clearly very upset "it's no big deal bro") as politely, acceptably and inoffensively as you can, you literally risk losing jobs, getting ghosted, entire friendships, being cast out of a room or social scene (yes including queer spaces), risk a romantic partner burning your whole life down, being once again cast as The Hysterical Tranny, etc. it takes on a radically different quality. it's not just preference. it doesn't feel like a preference to me. it feels like one of the bare minimum costs-you-literally-nothing things that people can do to make spaces that trans women feel a little more comfortable in and not just temporarily tolerated or unsafe. It's so simple, just ask first, and respect the answer, there's no need to assume and nothing is lost in asking first.

also worth noting that while tme people do use this as playful de-gendering with each other, a lot of times that is not actually applied the same way with tma people in practice. with each other they will use it sometimes, like a little playful accentuation but typically not all the time, and if another tme person ask them to not use masc terms for them usually that's respected without any issue, let alone throwing a whole tantrum. with dolls it's often noticeably wayyy more frequently and when heaven forbid one of us dares mentions it, all the sudden it's a whole Thing. not infrequently they will exclusively use masc or gender neutral terms for tma people, especially if the person is both trans fem and nonbinary, no matter what we say or do <- more specifically the gender power hierarchy determines a priori who is granted self determination to alter and articulate how they are referred to, and whether they are gendered/de-gendered and the subtleties of that, and ultimately who is or is not even allowed to speak about it at all [then to protect itself, as profoundly effective power does, dips into the void of obscurity and inarticulation, upon any attempt to illuminate, illustrate, or grasp it; see agamben's analysis of Law in homo saccer for more detail]

idk all of this is just speaking from my own experience and convos here and there, this got pretty rambly ig

saw a useful post about this that's unrebloggable for me but yeah, cis women do use dude/bro/man/guys and other masculine-leaning terms for one another regularly and some conversations that have happened online about this have missed the mark.

My mom and I have called one another "dawg" since I was in middle school. the people I am most likely to use dude/bro for are cis women that I have known since my teen years and we all called one another those things all our lives as "girls." When I am called dude or bro by a woman (either cis or trans) it has a distinctly different impact than when a guy does it --the former reflects a relaxed closeness that allows for the standard gender performativity among us to drop, whereas the latter reflects those boundaries being continually maintained.

I do not think it is fair to call this a gender neutral usage, I think it is more similar to the gay use of "girl" and she/her pronouns. It is a recognition of the gendered complexity inside of a person that you also share things in common with, as a show of casual intimacy. it is a release from the bonds of performing femininity when women do it to one another. and it can be used in a similarly familiar way with some gay men and other gender minorities.

all that said, i know that i still personally felt some time of way about being referred to with she/her pronouns by my fellow gay men when i was early into transition. intellectually i understood that what it signified was familiarity, but in practice i did not at the time want the words applied to me. now i am rooted firmly enough in my queer manhood and live as a queer man so completely that it's second nature for me to refer to other men as "girl" or use she/her for them and i like it when the same is done to me. but you know, far be it for me to tell a woman that she has to be okay with being called dude. it isn't gender neutral. it's not exactly misgendering either in intention, but if you don't like it you don't like it and that's very understandable, especially if you are trans.

[spectralgecko]

Dead lander Hoaxe AU

Post the first out of... idk. Two at least, probably more. I'm 99% sure this has been done before by somebody but I haven't really seen it over here, so I have no idea, lol. At any rate the details are probably different XD

Basic premise? What if Hoaxe just... never left the Dead Lands? What if he never got cornered by dead landers, or crushed by the crystal, and continued to grow up and eventually matured in the Dead Lands, and was in the process hardened into a skilled survivalist?

Does this have plot consequences? Yes. Many. I have tried to patch things up into a more or less interesting alternative, but also. Many holes. Does it actually work just by the canonical laws of the game? I... don't really know, but probably not? This post will mostly be about Hoaxe rather than the plot. Anywho:

The wet cat himself:

(Granted, in this AU he is significantly less of a wet cat, but shhhh.)

Some basics about Hoaxe:

The fire magic - he does still have his fire magic, he just got it differently. He didn't get squashed by a crystal, but he's been around them a whole lot and has by consequence picked up (much more stable) fire magic from it. He also practices using it a lot more, and becomes quite skilled with it. He mostly uses it for cooking, though - larger, flashy fires can draw a lot of... unwanted attention.

I think the devs mentioned somewhere that Bugnish needs to be taught, so Hoaxe never really learns it. He doesn't talk much, and on the rare occasions he needs to communicate, he does so in gestures and non-verbal vocalizations. He takes notes in a logographic format. He does pick up a few words from the Roaches, some in Bugnish, some in Roach language (when he eventually finds the Roach village).

He does take notes, as mentioned above - usually charcoal on either dead lander shell, rock, or any other available writing surface. Usually, it's notes about the dead landers themselves, other local flora and fauna, and mapping out the area. Hazards, good food sources, safe places, dangerous places, hot spots for different dead landers, all that.

As far as the Roaches are concerned, Hoaxe is this... local, very occasional drifter. He drops by sometimes with interesting finds or notes and trades with them and rests while he's there. Over time, he becomes a local guard of sorts, helping keep dead landers away from the village and even sorta assisting with guarding the sapling, insofar as it needs it.

The Roaches have noticed that despite the residual crystal magic around him, he doesn't seem to react to the sapling vault. Some of them have wondered if its magic has faded, or if Hoaxe just isn't bothered.

Hoaxe accrues a few different weapons for taking care of himself, most of them ranged. He has a sling - think shepherds sling - which he uses to send rocks flying at mach-screw-you-in-particular straight into dead landers' faces. A similar premise applies to his blowgun and darts, and assorted sharpened sticks paired with a notched branch - a makeshift atlatl.

Hoaxe has an iron stomach in so many respects. He has also figured out how to cook most things into a semi-edible format, including dead landers, but the Roaches wouldn't recommend partaking of his diet unless you're desperate.

Hoaxe does not know his name, nor does anyone else. The Roaches just call him the drifter or some other such moniker. Hoaxe doesn't really care enough to puzzle over the notion.

At some point, probably post-game, Hoaxe registers that there is in fact land outside of the dead lands, and he could just... leave. He hesitates, though - he knows the dead lands inside and out, this is familiar danger. Everywhere else is strange new territory. In the events of the post-game proxy, he goes back with Team Snakemouth and co. to explore a bit, before eventually returning to help the Roaches with what he may.

Hoaxe is a strange inversion of a persistence hunter - he's more like persistence prey with an uno reverse card. He knows how scarce food is, and he knows he can outpace the dead landers, so he'll kite them around until they exhaust themselves chasing him, then strike. That said, he prefers to strike at range from the shadows where he can - ambush tactics are much safer and have a significantly higher chance of a one-hit kill.

While this is a strange mix of redemption and hypothetical alternative, in character Hoaxe is still not... the nicest. While he's a cunning strategist and capable survivor, he's a little uh. rough. around the edges. Quick to anger and frustration, kinda selfish unless you give him a reason not to be, and generally leaning anti-social. He's very quid pro quo when it comes to cooperation - he needs a reason to help you. He'll be civil if you're civil, but won't be much past that unless you plan on repaying the effort. On the bright side, he's honest at least, and true to his words. Promises are important to him (he and Astotheles get along in this regard, much contrary to canon).

Hoaxe prefers to operate alone. It's what he's learned, and trying to collaborate with a team is a hassle in his view. Stay out of his way, he'll stay out of yours.

He's not exactly keen on sharing resources unless he doesn't need them himself. Again, quid pro quo - if you give him something valuable in return he's down to barter, but his definition of "valuable" is directly correlated to survival and practicality. Unlike the original Hoaxe, currency and treasure and trinkets have little value to him. He deals in food, weapons, shelter, tools, and other such practicalities. Information, even. He's a fair trader, once you figure out his system of value assignment.

I uh. have missed a lot of things, most certainly. If you have questions, curiosities, or comments, fire away! The ask box is open and I am happy to ramble.

[konoha-forbidden-scrolls]

Please feed us Kankuro fans… something… anything 😭 but really if you have any hcs to share about him or any of the side characters it would be awesome! I’m so happy there’s a new Naruto blog ❤️

You'll find I have a deep, abiding love for side characters! I hope you enjoy this mishmash of domestic and romantic headcanons for Kankuro! (Also I don't know if that's a real screencap but it's adorable.)

Characters: Kankuro

Contents: gn!reader, Kankuro being a menace

Kankuro

Of the three Sand siblings, Kankuro is probably the one who gets overlooked the most. Between a former bloodthirsty, insomno-maniac-turned-hot-Kazekage and Temari, Kankuro just fades into the background a little more. Classic middle child syndrome.

But there's a lot more to this guy than some funky face paint and a few puppets. Let's unpack.

First of all, Kankuro actually makes a pretty damn good boyfriend. He can be a little rough around the edges like a lot of Sand shinobi, but over time things wear smooth and easy as the well-oiled joints of his favourite puppets.

When you first meet him, he veers between cocky and uncertain in equal measures because of the aforementioned middle child syndrome, but as he gets older and more comfortable around you, he becomes more grounded, more confident.

Yes, he does still talk to his puppets, especially when he's mending them. You'll approach his workshop to tell him dinner's ready and he's in there, yapping away to some marionnette like he's a doctor and it's his patient. He used to get embarrassed when you first caught him at it, but now he just laughs it off. A twitch of his finger and some chakra strings and the puppet shrugs at you.

"This guy's a great listener," Kankuro jokes. "Sometimes all a guy needs is a block of wood to clear his head."

"Yeah, to the back of the skull maybe," Temari retorts when you tell her later. "I told that idiot to stop babying those things or he'd never get any friends."

He's got a few annoying habits. While his workshop is always clean and organised, his projects at home are messier and usually left somewhere inconvenient, like the kitchen table when you're about to sit down for dinner, or behind the couch cushions, ready to jab your ass when you flop down after a mission.

He takes ages to apply his face paint in the morning, hogging the bathroom mirror because he refuses to use a dressing table/vanity, and when that stuff spatters it is a bitch to clean. Sure, the smudge-proof, sweat-proof, waterproof stuff is great for Kankuro in the field, but when its crusted around the sink? Not so much. House rule: Kankuro has to scrub it off.

He likes to use puppet parts to prank you—think finding Karasu hiding behind the shower curtain, or opening the fridge to find a disembodied wooden hand flipping you off next to the tomatoes. Kankuro's wearing the biggest shit-eating grin when you jump, until you threatened his mechanical menaces with the woodchipper.

"Aww, c'mon, babe! Not Karasu! He's family!"

"Babe" is his #1 pet name for you. He gets really self-conscious if he tries to use anything more sentimental and quickly reverts back to the tried and true.

Call him "pookie" in front of Gaara and Temari to mess with him. He goes red under his face paint and sputters, trying to explain to them that you've never called him that before.

Temari smirks. "Whatever you say, pookie."

Kankuro looks in your eyes and he just knows this is payback for hiding a disembodied puppet head in the laundry basket.

The best gifts for Kankuro, outside of bigger occasions like his birthdays, are usually consumables for his puppet making: nails, screws, sandpaper, wood polish, paints, etc. These things can run out fast, and when you show up with exactly what he was about to run out of, he feels seen. Like you've been paying enough attention to his supplies and you care enough to get it for him without asking.

Speaking of puppet supplies, wood is at a bit of a premium in Suna. The time you came back from a mission and unsealed a scroll full of rare wood from the Land of Tea, he almost hyperventilated. Dude was running his hands over the wood chunks, holding up to the light, cooing over them like they were his firstborn.

Speaking of hands, Kankuro's are quite big, with even more callouses than the average shinobi. Those skilled hands of his are good for kneading the tension out of your muscles, popping your spine as easily as if you were a puppet. Fair warning, his hands almost always migrate down to your ass for a sly grope.

If he's feeling lazy and needs something from across the room, he'll absolutely use chakra strings to snag it and yoink it over to him.

Yes, this includes you.

AO3 | Other Blogs: Bungo Stray Dogs | BNHA | Bleach | JJK

[quinloki]

I gotta take a moment and say a thing:

Stop expecting perfection from people.

I mean. Especially singular individuals on the internet.

People aren’t going to know everything. I don’t know everything. YOU do not know everything. You can dedicate your life to a singular topic and still not know everything.

So perfection is impossible.

Social media artists cannot be held to celebrity or business standards. We don’t have copywriters or law teams or press liaisons.

Assuming someone knows the intricacies of English enough to be perfect in it is classist/ableist at best, and assumptive at the least. I know one language, I went to college to learn about this singular language, and I can promise you, i fuck up wrtijg and speaking English CONSTANTLY.

Hounding someone from behind anon is bullying. If you mean to help educate or enlighten someone, be sure enough in your knowledge and conviction to do it with your entire face, or just move on. I’m irritated seeing perfectly decent people pestered by pedantic cravens who can’t even own their views honestly.

And if you don’t want to be put on blast for “trying to help”, then realize your convictions are thus, and move on.

^_^

[sha-brytols]

oh god you know this was mostly just a "for fun" thought experiment but ok i'll try so fucking hard. going by the general footprint daa leaves behind regarding what a potential justvelanna would have looked like, i'd say it's... boothhh?

justice tells velanna that she needs to atone for what she did, and that the best way to do that is specifically to educate people. she can't go back, that's her burden, but she can prevent the same mistakes from being made over again. AND, given how velanna describes seranni and how compassionate and cheerful she was. i think. ironically. velanna would do exactly the same thing esther does LOL.

unlike justice though. velanna has a personal stake in all of this. a keeper that didn't trust her, a clan that rejected her, etc. and velanna's Very smart and Very stubborn. i dont know if justice's influence would be enough to completely curb that streak of prideful defiance that's been a hallmark of hers since she was a kid. honestly it might even feed into it, because justice is all about being steadfast and having the strength of conviction in your beliefs. so. that could lead to her being more aggressive towards her own mistakes and flaws. in which case she empathizes with merrill, and wants to see her succeed where velanna did not.

that being said i think velanna's just as interested in the eluvian (if not more?) than merrill is, and also has her own stake in the project, especially with the whole "spread the knowledge of the dalish to those who are ignorant of their history and culture" angle. that, to velanna, would be extremely important to her.

if we're going with the da2 justanders logic of "justice and velanna have become so close that their thoughts are now indistinguishable", then i'd say justvelanna would have a very complicated, mixed relationship to merrill's circumstances and decisions. i can see justice softening velanna's heart much like the merge does with anders, making velanna generally more patient and less snappish as a result (keyword: generally LOL she shares justanders' tendency to fly into righteous fury). with that i thiiiink, ultimately, velanna probably reluctantly accepts merrill's choices, but also vocally disagrees with them and tries to convince merrill to reconcile with her clan. if not for her own sake, then for the sake of the clan who would ultimately suffer from her absence, in the way that the dalish have always suffered from their history being lost to them. (yes very "yeah i know your family is abusive but they need your emotional labor, don't be selfish" LOL but. self-martyrdom is just a part of justanders and i can't see how it wouldn't apply to velanna, too)

regarding esther specifically, esther doesn't have the luxury of a second opinion that isn't just "fuck blood magic and fuck the mirror by extension" in da2, so i can actually see the influence of velanna's voice swaying esther in a way that probably prevents her from doing some of the shittier things she does to merrill. like if esther held the arulin'holm hostage just because marethari doesn't trust her first enough to make her own decisions, velanna would KILL HER LOL. so i think in essence merrill's relationship with esther would probably actually improve. a lot. because this version of esther is more socially aware than canon esther, who has ZERO clue the true scope of what merrill's been going through because she has no one to loudly and aggressively advocate for the dalish.

basically what i'm saying is velanna turns her into feminist junkrat but for elf racism

i miss velanna tails. i miss her a lot.

[dykedvonte]

I think depictions of Anya being cruel to Curly or drawing out his suffering are artful and chilling but completely miss the point of the story and her character.

I'm not saying she doesn't deserve to have that "I told you so" moment with him but not in something callous or cold. Even if that is how it happened, she'd immediately feel guilty cause at that point she's not tormenting her tormenter or even the person truly at fault. She's doing something cathartic, similar to how Jimmy likely hits Curly to release rage he can't against the rest of the crew. She'd see herself as no different when she'd come back from the moment and see Curly cowering at her. She wants someone to take responsibility but how does being cruel to the defenseless help? Why would she want the power Jimmy has over her over Curly?

The idea of her extending someone else's pain is just so against the struggles she already faces and how she can't even bring herself to cause someone pain even to help them. Her very desire is to release herself from her own suffering and I doubt she'd even fine some sort of guilty release in being cruel to another.

[trappedinafantasy37]

We did it guys! Minthara is in the top 100 most mentioned video game characters on Tumblr, sitting comfortably at rank 55!

With Astarion at rank 1 (cause of course), Gale at 5, Shadowheart at 6, Karlach at 8, Lae'zel at 9, Wyll at 12, Halsin at 16, Tav at 19, Gortash at 47, and The Dark Urge at 67. Baldur's Gate 3 is also the most talked about video game on this platform, as well as the 6th most talked about thing on all of Tumblr!

I wish Minthara was higher, but you know what, I'm happy she's on there at all! It is also interesting that she ranks higher than Durge and that Durge is that low on the list. It's also pretty interesting that there is such a discrepancy between Durge and Gortash as Durgetash is also the 67th most talked about ship on the platform. It is quite an achievement that our favorite drow is even on that list at all.

It is all just making me think back to some of the more dejecting AO3 statistics with Minthara almost being a blip, practically a statistical outlier in some ways. Even some insignificant side characters got more attention and adoration than her, or had numbers that would compare to her. But Tumblr is a much bigger platform than AO3, containing a much wider array of topics (including fanfics). So for Baldur's Gate 3 and Minthara to stand out that much is really saying something! Reading these statistics on Tumblr does go to show that one platform does not represent the entire fandom and that AO3 is only a piece of the picture.

[fantasyinvader]

Regarding the problem at hand, I feel like it forms the core of Edelgard’s fatal flaw. The more we get to know Edelgard, the more it’s clear she knows more than she lets on. Houses makes it clear that she knows the experiments, murder of her siblings and Ionius being made into a puppet were done by the Agarthans, Hopes adds that she deliberately ignored how much influence they had over the empire. She knows they want her to go after the Church as well and are trying to use her towards that end.

But on the flipside of this, there’s Byleth in the BE route who helps those around them, can wield the Sword of the Creator and even be saved by the Goddess. This is also a person who put themselves between her and an axe without knowing her. Going by The Girl from Hresvelg, her time at Garreg Mach also causes her to become attached to the place regardless of route, begin questioning her path forward, but in the end she throws it all away to go forward. If being at Garreg Mach and engaging in that environment, even if she was playing the part of an innocent schoolgirl, was enough to make her think that maybe she shouldn’t go through with her goals, in addition to how the teaching gig spurs Byleth’s character growth, something about the place was having an effect that could have been positive.

But Edelgard rejected it.

Let’s examine that for a second. Edelgard was told, by her father, that the nobles were the ones who ruined her family and they did it because the Church was secretly controlling them or whatever. Fine. But Edelgard herself knows that the experiments were carried out by TWSITD, who directly tell her they were (alongside Duscur) all to give her power so that she may bring them salvation and purge the world of beasts. She knows that they want her to go after the Church, and per Hubert she knows that her father was their puppet. Therefore, Edelgard knows the person who told her the Church was the source of Fodlan’s problems was a puppet of the Agarthans, who make it pretty clear that they want her to go after Rhea. Edelgard ignores the evidence that Agartha has deep influence over the empire as well as how her family kicked out the Church over a century prior in addition to how the Alliance’s political structure makes it so the Church has little influence over there. Yet Edelgard still decides to go to war despite her time at Garreg Mach making her start to question this role. And in the Black Eagles route, she sees Byleth saved from Agartha’s assassination attempt by the Goddess she’s been told is false.

The war only happens because Edelgard is either 1) craves power so much she simply doesn’t care about the truth, or 2) Edelgard is a massive fucking idiot.

She hardened her heart and continues to scapegoat the Church for Fodlan’s ills while, again, ignoring that she knows Agartha was behind a lot of things or holding a lot of influence. Hell, she only acknowledges the Southern Church that her family abolished when she decides to revive it to spread her own beliefs. And if Byleth and the CoS are the ones who defeat her, and in the process invalidate her belief in how people need to rely on their strength rather than on others, she won’t quit unless she is killed. That whole scene has her gripping of Sword of Seiros while her hand leaves Aymr, she’s gripping a weapon that restores her HP when equipped, and making it clear the only way forward for Byleth is over her grave. Edelgard does not repent, even if her last words were originally meant to be taken as “with my death, we’ll walk together.” If Byleth were to show Edelgard mercy, she’d take the opportunity to kill them and the game wants us to feel sorry for her.

Houses happens simply because Edelgard is stupid, evil or her character alignment is basically stupid evil.

I find it kinda funny how we can apply the idea of forgiveness to this. In the Buddhist sense, us forgiving Edelgard is us letting go of our hatred towards her. Doesn’t mean we allow her to do as we please, simply that when we fight to stop her we do so because it will end the suffering she’s causing rather than as a vendetta against her. If we take it from a Christian perspective, Edelgard’s denial and denouncement of Sothis would push her more towards the unforgivable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which can be described as hardening one’s heart against the Holy Spirits attempts to guide someone into repenting their actions and find faith. And that fits Edelgard to a T. Christian symbolism paints Edelgard’s path as one of sin, Buddhist as one of evil and stupidity.

It’s almost like the Buddhist symbolism really is meant to tell players Edelgard’s path is a stupid evil path. Her inability to abandon said path and the ideals that led to it despite all of the above she knows is why the war happens. Even when Garreg Mach was making her question that path, she hardened her heart and rejected the faith her ancestors helped spread. She is unrepentant, even when defeated, and will keep marching her path until she’s dead. Show her mercy and she’ll repay it with an attack. Therefore, Edelgard has to die for there to be peace.

@randomnameless

There’s really something... off about the writing of Three Houses, isn’t there? According to the devs, they wanted players to immerse themselves in Fodlan. It wants us to pick up all the bits of lore and backstory, see the implications of what’s being said, connect the dots and the like. This is all meant to back up the natural progression of the story regardless of which House we pick to teach, in addition to showing the player how wrong the fourth route is if the fact it’s leader wasn’t depicted as the “Lady of Deceit” wasn’t enough of a clue. It’s supposed to be on us to figure out the mysteries and how they work, and the fact the localization changed information that was meant to be clues does not help.

Sure, you can say that “everyone’s a hero from their own POV” and that might be true in the case of Houses. Edelgard and those who join her believe they are heroes and doing the right thing, but that doesn’t mean that they ARE doing the right thing and the point of immersing ourselves in Fodlan is for the things I mentioned above to start making it clear to the audience what the game views as right and wrong. And, again, the localization doesn’t help because it wants to lean into things being morally grey and that it’s not just that the villain believes she is the good guy, it wants her to be the good guy with it’s alterations to the script.

But here’s the issue; the game basically relays a lot of this through exposition. And the game is so freaking focused on handing out exposition we get stuff like characters never bringing up the Flame Emperor again after the reveal. People don’t react to stuff like a normal person would, not when they can give a piece of information for the player’s string board, nor are they capable of piecing things together themselves unless the plot calls for it (like Claude pointing out the diversity at Garreg Mach). Hell, they released Hopes with exposition they couldn’t fit into Houses!

People would be horrified by what Edelgard is doing, and would be commenting on it. Characters would normally call this shit out, even Fates knew that, but in Houses it’s absent and it makes Fodlan feel so shallow as a result. Like the people aren’t even living there, they’re just reciting lines. And this shallowness resulted in people believing the game was saying things were okay because the characters went along with it. Like Hanneman confirms that the empire still uses demonic beasts in Flower if recruited, so what does it say about the noble students given ranks of general by the empire doing so after going through White Clouds and knowing where Edelgard’s war assets come from? Chances are they were all commanding demonic beasts themselves prior to the formation of the BESF.

Houses tries to be smart, but this all makes it feel like it’s secretly poorly written. If people are walking away with the wrong idea of what the game was trying to say, then there’s a big problem there. Translation plays a role, sure, but this all goes back to the game’s original script and how inorganic the worldbuilding actually was.

It reminds me of Gundam Reconguista in G. In the first episode, the very idea of exposition is mocked when the protagonist is asked a question by his teacher. He says everyone already knows the answer so why should he, but the teacher responds by telling him to just repeat the textbook answer. It highlights how artificial most exposition actually is, done for the convenience of the audience rather than making sense in-universe. The show then spends it's time giving exposition when the characters need it rather than for the audience. It made the show harder to follow, sure, but in the end the world felt so thought-out and lived in it felt believable.

Fodlan does not feel believable in the slightest. It feels like everyone there has no attention span whatsoever, or robotic tour guides telling us about the setting rather than the game showing us this crap.

[faaun]

the way that diff languages sound r so fascinating they're all different and all so vivid

[simptasia]

you know britpicking? like where an american writes a fanfic set in england, or with an english character, and they get an english friend to look through it and check through it to see if the terms and phrases are accurate? (eg. flat instead of apartment)

well i propose there be such a concept for star trek

because people in star trek talk differently than modern humans. they use different words, different slang, phrasings. yes, they can speak casually but mostly it isn't like us. watch any of 90s trek and you'll see These People Do Not Speak Like Us

and, no disrespect, a lot of fic does not reflect this. and it irks me. they just speak like modern day people instead of... star trek characters. i personally think part of the fun of writing trek characters is writing it out to how they speak and how they would think

hell, this isnt even a fanfic problem. modern trek has this issue too. i think outta laziness. they have their people talking (and when in casual wear, dressing) like 2020s people and it pisses me off

its part of why strange new worlds feels like a high budget SNL skit

annnnyways. i propose this idea be called fact trekking