#but i couldn't tell you from personal experience what i'd want or need politically

[angelsanarchy]

Like A Pretty Boy: Gabe x Y/N Midi Series- PRT 12

Tagging: @kappasbbgirl@starry-eyed-wild-child@luzclarita57@bonesgirl11 @444rockstargf @8klil @spoilingthemilk @romanroyapoligist @agornotsworld

Y/n comes into the apartment and drops his stuff at the door, rushing into the bedroom to see Gabe sitting on the floor of the closet with a bottle in his hands.

"Hey...are we happy drinking or sad drinking..." Y/n got down on the floor next to him and Gabe shook the bottle of water.

"It's just water." He said. Y/n put his hand on top of his and could see sadness in his eyes.

"Did your sister call finally?"Y/n asked holding onto his hand.

"Worse...she told my parents and they called me to tell me I was confused and not gay, along with a lot of other stupid shit." Gabe said leaning his head back against the wall.

"I'm so sorry babe. I know that you were worried about this." Y/n squeezed his hand. Gabe shook his head.

"Yeah I know I was but after hearing how they were, I realized that no matter what, I'll never be good enough in their eyes. They're too caught up in the political climate and their image to give a shit about my happiness and who I love." Gabe explained. He looked over at Y/n with a smile.

"I remember when I saw you at that fundraiser for queer youth. You were the first person I felt comfortable enough to flirt with. No matter how much I tried to lie and say I was just an ally, you respected my choice to not be out. You talked to me like you talked to everyone else and didn't treat me like I was some pathetic asshole for being trapped in the closet." Y/n chuckled at him.

"Well that's because I was desperately trying to get your number." Y/n confessed. Gabe smiled turning his hand over and lacing his fingers with Y/n's.

"That first night we went out and had dinner...I knew. I just knew that you were the only person I wanted to spend my time with. I wanted to experience my firsts, I wanted to wake up next to you. I wanted to get stupid decorations for holidays and have our own space to just be with one another. I knew from that night that I'd be okay who I was as long as I had you." Y/n kissed his knuckles.

"Don't you go confessing your undying love for me while sitting in our closet." Y/n teased making Gabe laugh.

"Trust me, the last thing I would do is propose to you in a closet. Knowing you, it will have to be extravagant." Gabe explained.

"Are you trying to say I'm extra?" Y/n questioned playfully.

"Have you met you?" Gabe asked sarcastically. He leans over and kisses Y/n and rests his forehead against his boyfriends.

"I will someday, you know. When I think about my future, you're my life partner." Gabe said with sincerity. Y/n touched his cheek.

"Thought you weren't into the whole holy union thing." Y/n reminded but Gabe shrugged.

"I'm not but I mean we could always make it our own. Do something small with people who care about us when the time comes." Gabe explained. Y/n smiled at him.

"I look forward to your very elaborate proposal someday." He cupped his face and kissed him one long moment. Gabe leaned into Y/n and let him hold him.

He was out now. His family knew and had essentially written him off but it was only a matter of time anyway. He took Y/n's hand as he helped him to his feet. They had a night in with one another, eating dinner and lounging on the couch talking about Gabe's documentary.

This was the life he wanted. If his family couldn't see that or be happy for him, he didn't need them.

[boombambaby]

respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better.

roleplayer name: Cas!

roleplayer pronouns: she/her -- though I usually go by character's name/gender or don't really care tbh.

muse name(s): Kuzco!

preferred communication: I'm pretty open everywhere. I'm off Weds/Thurs, and I work from 6am - 2pm EST. At work I have access to Tumblr so I can be reached in DM's, and on Discord on breaks. after work I'm usually here for DM's or on Discord all evening until about 10pm EST (though I should try to get to bed earlier tbh). I'm admittedly terrible at communicating, though. You can reply to me, and I'll open it up and read it and be doing something else, and think 'i'll get to it in a few minutes!' and then completely forget that it exists. On that same note, i'm also always worried I'm bothering someone, so I rarely reach out first for messages unless I have a specific question or something. I love to chat though, or discuss our characters or ideas or. . ANYTHING, honestly. I just sometimes need a nudge.

experience: I've been writing/roleplaying since 2005! Started with Myspace and AIM roleplay, moved from there to LiveJournal for a hot minute and then Facebook, Twitter, and eventually Roleplayer.me. Always said I'd NEVER join Tumblr, bc it seemed so confusing, but. Here we are!

preferred roleplay type: I'm a fan of all kinds. I LOVE banter or crack roleplay. It's my all time favorite, and I think it's the best tool for personality building a character you can have. Thinking on your feet in character can be a BLAST and it's just. So fun. Some of the best interactions come from that or prompts. I'm also a fan of sentence multi-para though I have a tendency (if you couldn't tell) to ramble and turn it into a novella pretty easily.

pet peeves & dealbreakers: I honestly don't have any dealbreakers. I've been doing this so long I've learned to roll with the punches, mostly. I'd have to really think about pet peeves, but I don't think I have any. I've had bad situations in the past, I'm sure everyone has. I don't like overly possessive writing partners. If we ship and we're single ship, that's fine. But don't try to dictate who I can and can't speak to or write with. It honestly takes a lot to upset me. Don't include me in drama, don't count me as a number and never interact or straight up ignore me, don't leave me hanging forever (I'm very lenient with replies, I will NEVER pressure you, but if it's been months I might start to question what's going on.) and we'll be cool. EDIT TO ADD; THOUGHT OF A PET PEEVE. RL issues and politics! I understand that the world is a WILD place right now, and there are controversial topics and that everyone has an opinion. That's all fine and good; BUT I ROLEPLAY SPECIFICALLY TO GET AWAY FROM REAL LIFE AND STRESS, and the very LAST thing I want to see on my timeline is a post endorsing a presidential candidate, or posts showing a war zone, or any of the other trending topics right now. Roleplay is a fictional world we create with other writers. It's not that I don't care about those issues, I just don't think they have any place here. and the black outs and things that roleplayers do for 'support' and all that, I just. I don't get it. I don't want to see it. Same with the asks to support x family from x war torn country. Just. please. Don't.

best time to write: Probably in the morning while I'm at work, other than that I can be pretty sporadic. I love to relax and banter and do goofy stuff at night. But honestly, I'm always up for something!

are you like your muse? Ahhhhh, I'm gonna go ahead and say no lol. I can be quick, teasing and sarcastic when I get to know someone, and I'm pretty extroverted like Kuzco with a lot of things; but the cocky arrogance, all about me, flaunting his wealth and tossing people out of windows bit? Total and complete opposite of who I am. Writing him is definitely a TON of fun, and a very welcome relief from the stresses of real life, and I love writing for him so, so much.

tagged by: @wintersovereign

tagging: @smartylina @musemelodies @emeraldofparis @gunslinginnhogtyin @hellsmayflower @keepmovinjunior @lcafman

[aishangotome]

Minamoto No Yoritomo: Chapter 1

(Gathering my magical power, I'll break the bond with Tamamo... and definitely open my own pharmacy!)

Thinking of the ordinary and lovable daily life, Yoshino encouraged herself and looked straight ahead.

Yoshino: Nice to meet you! Everyone.

Yoritomo: Alright. Good determination.

Yoritomo's eyes shone brightly, gathering the moonlight.

Yoritomo: Of course, what happened today must be kept secret. If you have any problems living in the Imperial Palace, tell these guys here.

Tamamo: I'd like you to introduce us again. I already know your name, but you were quite busy earlier.

Yoritomo: Alright. You too, remember it well, Yoshino.

Yoshino: Y-Yes.

Yoritomo: This tall guy with droopy eyes is my vassal and the muscle of the Kamakura shogunate, Morinaga Adachi.

Yoshino: ...Muscle?

Morinaga: That expression is a bit confusing, but... I actually go out to battle and command soldiers a lot.

(His demeanor is gentle, but what he does feels like a warrior.)

Yoritomo: Next, also a vassal. The glasses guy, Kagetoki Kajiwara.

Kagetoki: As Yoritomo-sama's vassal, I mainly handle domestic affairs and the management of vassals.

Kagetoki: It is also my duty to eliminate incompetent people from the shogunate. Be careful.

(Just as he looks, he seems a little scary...)

(...But, he was called the glasses guy, so that's okay.)

Yoritomo: Finally, this is Shigehira Taira, who I'm allied with. His role is...

Shigehira: The common sense guy!

Shigehira bit back before Yoritomo-sama could continue.

Shigehira: Listening to this, couldn't you introduce me a little better?

(His face is so well-proportioned that it's hard to approach, but seeing him talk, he's quite emotional.)

(Hm? Come to think of it, 'Taira'...)

Yoshino: Shigehira-san, are you from the Taira clan?

Shigehira: What, is that bad?

Yoshino: N-No, it's not bad, but...

Flustered by his grumpy reply, Yoshino glanced between Yoritomo-sama and Shigehira-san.

(The Genji and Taira clans were supposed to be opposed to each other, right?)

Even I, who am not well-versed in politics, know that Yoritomo-sama, the leader of the Genji clan, defeated the Taira clan in battle.

Shigehira: Right now, I'm just under Yoritomo-sama's umbrella. I don't have any obligation to explain more than that, right?

Yoshino: I understand...

(There seems to be some circumstances, but it seems like he doesn't want me to pry.)

Yoritomo: And I am the shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo. Well, I don't need to explain, do I?

Morinaga: Yoritomo-sama is the black-hearted one, isn't he?

(Morinaga-san also says quite a lot with a smile...)

Yoritomo: Don't praise me. I'll get embarrassed.

Yoritomo-sama brushed off Morinaga-san's words without looking angry.

Yoritomo: That's all for the introductions. For today, I'll show you to your rooms.

Yoritomo: Tomorrow, we'll talk about the future. Alright? Yoshino, Tamamo.

(He speaks like someone used to giving orders.)

(Thinking about it again... I was meeting with an incredibly important person.)

Yoshino: Yes...! Thank you for the room.

Now that the crisis has passed, I'm not sure how to act towards Yoritomo-sama.

Tamamo: I can't wait for the feeling of a futon after a long time. Have them prepare a comfortable one.

Tamamo: Also, for breakfast, I want grilled fish and inari sushi.

Yoshino: Hey, Tamamo!

(As expected of a yokai...! Unlike me, he has no hesitation.)

Tamamo is calm despite my panic.

Yoritomo: You're a more brazen beast than I thought.

Kagetoki: Why not just let him sleep in the grass?

Kagetoki: If he has his own fur, that should be enough for a futon.

(Harsh... Kagetoki-san and Tamamo don't seem to get along.)

Tamamo: Kagetoki. You're often called a sneaky glasses guy, aren't you?

Yoshino: Sneaky glasses guy!?

(That was an amazing insult!)

Kagetoki: Unfortunately, tonight is the first time I've had the experience of being called that.

Kagetoki: But I wouldn't mind sewing your mouth shut and making it the last.

(Oh no, Kagetoki-san isn't backing down either...!)

As I watched nervously, Morinaga-san burst out laughing.

Morinaga: Tamamo... You're funny. You're great.

Kagetoki: You're laughing too much, fluffy muscle man.

Shigehira: Hey. Seriously, stop this pointless bickering.

(Huh? But...)

Yoshino: Shigehira-san's shoulders are trembling a little too...

Shigehira: ...It's your imagination! Your eyes are playing tricks on you.

Clearing his throat, Shigehira-san flatly denied it.

(Is that so...? I feel like he was trying to hold back laughter.)

Shigehira: More importantly, I want to go home now.

Yoritomo: Well, it's time for the kid to go to bed. Kagetoki, put Shigehira to bed.

Shigehira: Who's a kid, who is!

Morinaga: Don't get mad, Shigehira. If you sleep early, you'll grow taller.

Morinaga-san patted Shigehira-san's head.

Shigehira: S-Stop it! Just because you're a little tall...

Shigehira: In general, it's not very convincing coming from someone who stays up late gambling.

Morinaga: You're so young, Shigehira. I grow my body through sleep and my brain through gambling.

Shigehira: ...Liar!

(I can't tell if these people get along or not.)

Wondering, I coughed softly.

Yoshino: Just listening to the conversation, it's hard to believe it's between the shogun and his close aides.

Morinaga: You'll get used to it soon.

Yoshino: I hope so...

(They seem to be quite unique individuals. Not all samurai are like this, are they?)

Kagetoki: Now... It's true that I'd like to rest soon. We've been moving around unnecessarily tonight.

Morinaga: That's right. ...Well then, good night, Yoritomo-sama.

Yoritomo: Ah. See you tomorrow.

Kagetoki-san and the other two bowed their heads slightly to Yoritomo-sama.

Yoshino: You all don't live in the Imperial Palace?

Kagetoki: Of course not. Since you don't seem to understand, let me tell you...

Kagetoki: You should remember that it's a special thing for you to live in the Imperial Palace.

Yoshino: Is that so...?

Yoshino: Oh no, I'm getting even more nervous.

(I'm already unsure how to behave...)

Yoritomo: There's no need to be reserved.

As he said this in an arrogant voice, he casually pulled my arm...

(Ah...)

Yoritomo: After all, I intend for you to be 'especially' useful.

I was involuntarily captivated by his sharp eyes that were so close.

(What a forceful person... Even if he is the shogun...)

I try to maintain my composure and search for words to respond.

--CHOICES--

I'll do my best...

I'm dreading it

Yoritomo-sama, please

----------------

Yoshino: Y-Yoritomo-sama... Please don't forget your promise to protect me and Tamamo.

Yoritomo: Excellent. The stronger your spirit, the more fun it is to tame you.

Yoritomo-sama laughed loudly and suddenly released me.

Yoritomo: Come. I'll gladly welcome you to this Imperial Palace.

Yoshino: Thank you...

(Sigh... If I'm this flustered now, will I be okay in the future?)

After greeting the other three, I followed Yoritomo-sama through the heavy gate.

My heart began to pound with the anticipation of the turbulent days to come.

(If I had known before coming to Kamakura that I would be living in the same building as the shogun, what would I have thought?)

(Yeah... I probably wouldn't have believed it.)

That day, I slept soundly in the room I was given... Perhaps because I was tired, I didn't have any dreams.

-

The next morning--

I was summoned along with Tamamo and visited Yoritomo-sama's room.

Next to Yoritomo-sama, Kagetoki-san was standing by, his glasses glinting coldly.

Yoshino: ...Yoritomo-sama, what did you say just now?

Yoritomo: I said, I'm appointing you as my personal attendant.

Yoritomo: From now on, when I leave the Imperial Palace for official duties, you'll accompany me.

(You're joking, right!?)

(Being an attendant means taking care of personal needs, right?)

While I'm confused, Tamamo laughs cheerfully next to me.

Tamamo: Oh, am I an attendant too, Yoritomo?

Kagetoki: You stand out too much. Besides, you have no intention of listening to anyone anyway.

Tamamo: You're quick to figure out my personality in one night, Kagetoki.

Kagetoki: Don't make careless remarks when you had no intention of hiding it in the first place.

Yoritomo: Tamamo is considered my guest. You can do as you please, but don't cause any trouble, okay?

Tamamo: I can't promise that.

(Certainly, if Tamamo pretended to be an attendant, it would be strange no matter how you look at it...)

Yoshino: Wait a minute! I'm just a pharmacist, you know?

I raise my voice as much as I can and try to protest.

Kagetoki: It can't be helped. We need to strengthen Yoritomo-sama's personal protection in preparation for Yoshitsune's attack.

Kagetoki: Military force can be suppressed with military force, but magic power cannot be prevented.

Tamamo: I see, so that's why Yoshino is needed.

(Needed...)

Yoshino: So, being an attendant is just a name, and in reality, I'm a bodyguard?

Yoritomo: That's right.

Yoritomo: Tamamo, can she still use your ability to steal magic power even if Yoshino is away from you?

Tamamo: Yes. There's no problem.

Yoritomo: Good.

Yoritomo: Yoshino, you're lucky. You can gain valuable experience.

(Not good at all!)

Yoshino: I don't know any etiquette, and it's absolutely impossible for me to be an attendant to someone as important as the shogun.

Yoritomo: You don't need to do anything. Just walk behind me and sit next to me.

Yoritomo: It's a simple job that even a monkey could do. Or are you less than a monkey?

Yoshino: Less than a monkey!?

(What a way to put it...)

Just as I was about to retort, the sliding door slid open.

Morinaga: Yoritomo-sama, it's almost time for you to go out. ...Oh.

Morinaga: Yoshino, Tamamo, good morning.

Yoshino: Ah, good morning, Morinaga-san.

I was given a refreshing smile that blew away the tense atmosphere, and I returned the greeting.

Yoritomo: You came at just the right time, Morinaga.

Yoritomo: Carry this woman outside. I intend to take her with me, but she's not very obedient.

Morinaga: Oh...

(Morinaga-san...?)

Yoshino: I believe you're a good person, Morinaga-san!

Tilting his head, Morinaga-san put his hands together apologetically.

Morinaga: I'm sorry, Yoshino. I'll buy you your favorite sweets at the market next time.

Yoshino: It's not a matter of sweets... Wah!?

Before I knew it, he quickly approached and lifted me up effortlessly, causing my vision to shake.

(So high!)

Yoshino: Put me down...

Morinaga: Don't struggle, don't struggle. It's only scary at first.

Yoshino: I'm even more scared now!

Yoritomo: Let's hurry. If we're late, it'll mess up the rest of the schedule.

Kagetoki: Have a safe trip, Yoritomo-sama.

Tamamo: Yoshino, I'm counting on you for souvenirs.

Yoshino: How can you say such carefree things!?

(What about my will!?)

I protested as much as I could while being carried like luggage, but...

-

(This is what it's come to.)

After crossing the border on horseback for a while, we transferred to an oxcart that had come to pick us up.

(This is the first time I've ridden in an oxcart... but)

I don't seem to have the luxury of enjoying it right now.

Yoritomo: Hey, how long are you going to keep pouting? You're troublesome.

Yoshino: I'm not pouting, I'm nervous.

I retorted while feeling the rattling vibrations under my butt.

Yoritomo-sama, sitting across from me, had a look on his face that said he didn't care at all.

Yoritomo: Oh, is that so?

(Since I'm going through this because of Yoritomo-sama, he could at least be a little more sympathetic.)

(He probably thinks it's natural for a commoner like me to obey him.)

I took a small breath to try to regain my composure.

Yoshino: By the way, where is this oxcart headed?

Yoritomo: It's one of the countries under my umbrella. I've been invited to a banquet.

Yoshino: A banquet? Is that official business?

I blinked in surprise at his answer.

Yoritomo: What? You have a problem with that?

Yoshino: No... It's just that, since you're going out of your way to travel far when you might be targeted...

Yoshino: I thought it must be a very important job...

Yoritomo: Well, that's too bad for you.

I stared at Yoritomo-sama, who shrugged his shoulders, in disbelief.

(I did say I would cooperate with the Kamakura shogunate, but I never thought I would be dragged to a banquet.)

Yoritomo: You're a stubborn woman. Just give it up already.

I was showered with amused laughter, and I couldn't help but purse my lips...

Yoritomo: Ha, you have such an easy-to-read face.

(Huh?)

Yoritomo-sama leaned forward with a mischievous smile.

Creak... the wooden floor creaked faintly.

Yoshino: Y-Yoritomo-sama?

(So close.)

I involuntarily stepped back and my back hit the wall.

Yoritomo: Where are you trying to escape to?

Yoshino: Ah...

Yoritomo-sama's hand rested on the wall, cutting off my escape route.

Yoshino: What are you doing...?

Yoritomo: Who knows?

Yoritomo: How should I make a woman who's not interested in my orders obey me, I wonder?

(What does that mean...?)

His sweet, poisonous voice gradually seeped into my ears.

Yoritomo-sama looked down at me, who was holding my breath slightly, with amusement.

Yoshino: Make me obey... I'm troubled by you saying such selfish things!

Yoritomo: Selfish things, huh? Let me tell you, my intentions are the shogunate's decisions.

Yoshino: That's...

Yoritomo: Give up, there are fates you can't escape. After all, sacrifices are necessary for the greater good.

Yoritomo: Your feelings and the shogunate's decision. It's obvious which one I'll choose, isn't it?

Yoritomo: If you say you don't understand... I'll teach your body. From now on, thoroughly.

(Ah...)

My heartbeat quickened, unable to stop the slight fever stirred up by his words and gaze.

As I lost my words, the oxcart shook suddenly.

(Whoa!)

Yoritomo: Have we arrived?

Strong arms easily caught my shoulders as I stumbled.

Yoritomo: Too bad, huh? I'll continue this later.

Yoritomo-sama stood up, screwing his smiling gaze into my eyes once more.

(I was completely teased...!)

Yoshino: Stop it already. Do you enjoy teasing people?

Yoritomo: It's quite fun to see you get so worked up.

(This person really has a terrible personality.)

I thought angrily as I also stood up.

Following Yoritomo-sama, I got off the oxcart and...

-

(What is this...!)

A large crowd of people lined up on both sides of the road, bowing their heads towards us.

The samurai at the front stared at Yoritomo-sama with a tense expression.

Samurai: Yoritomo-sama, welcome.

Yoritomo: It's been a while. I'm glad to see you're well.

(Ah... His attitude is already different.)

His face, pasted with a perfect smile, looks like a completely different person from a while ago.

Samurai: I'm honored. We have prepared a seat for you to rest from your long journey. Please, this way.

Yoritomo: Thank you. I'm looking forward to it.

Yoritomo-sama walked proudly through the center of the bowing people.

(He really feels like a person in power.)

(Is it okay for me to follow him...?)

Yoritomo-sama turned around as if reading my hesitation, and even that movement seemed calculated, with the sleeves of his kimono fluttering beautifully.

Yoritomo: Come, Yoshino.

.

.

.

.

.

Chapter 2

If you’d like to support my translations, feel free to buy me a coffee here! :)

[meowww-ffxiv]

Dawntrail level 99 quests and thoughts.

Liios, the engineer.

...Honestly, Liios had been fascinated with "Cahciua" ever since the cave. He even pointed it out, in a fit of fascination -- the design was too simple, from form to screen interface, but the way Cahciua was able to so animatedly emote and how those emotes didn't have ANY lag between words and actions was fascinating. This meant, he said, she wasn't manually inputting the emotes. But how? What was the sender's end like?

But Liios had only wondered if she wasn't like an Omicron and had uploaded her consciousness into this form. He concluded that it couldn't be, because the design was too simple, but was ready to rescind that theory when he didn't see anything like the machine Cahciua was using in Solution Nine. Maybe her model really was highly advanced, and it was just scruffy-looking because it was old.

Cahciua nearly let Liios in on the secret about her being an Endless because she could tell he was inquisitive and unfortunately not that dim OR polite to not poke around.

He also wanted to take Otis apart to study the composition of his soul container once they met, but Alisaie was like. "That's messed up! >:(" because Gulool Ja was right there...

Liios: From the bottom of my heart. My bad.

.

But Otis, in friendliness, asked Liios if he was interested in becoming an Endless. And he was like... No. If I continue to exist after my death, others won't be able to let go of me. I'd rather be a story to them than a relic. Whatever once lived, must die -- but Liios also added that his thinking was derived from his own experience in a world where there was much death, but never total annihilation. He expected Otis's and Sphene's views would be different.

When asked about someone who wasn't blood but he loved as closely as flesh and blood family, Liios said, "My mother. The Miqo'te doctor whose name is my own. Rhaya Suvali."

He also had a long talk with Wuk Lamat on the way back, about grief and rage. Because he knew how it felt to lose your parent who you looked up to.

When Gulool Ja Ja first passed, because of shit on fire everywhere, Liios had been firm with Wuk Lamat so that she would get her bearing together and act. But now that there had been a little time between, and Liios was sure of Wuk Lamat's resolve about Zoraal Ja, he felt it was a good time to unpack that grief.

This and Liios's usual enthusiastic, kind personality and experience were the things that made Wuk Lamat ask him to stay in Tural. She felt like he was the perfect balance between her and Koana. He hadn't given an answer yet (it was going to be no), but it wasn't because she felt indebted to him like he believed.

.

Wow. The city of gold really be golden in color.

But Liios wasn't looking at the city. It called to mind what Emet-Selch had done in terms of Amaurot . Perhaps this had been the inspiration for him.

He was looking at the terminals, and the sheer amount of electropes everywhere.

And the black sky full of nothingness.

"This isn't a reflection," Liios said, "but rather the tiny, tiny piece of it that survived the Umbral Calamity. Unlike the First, though, I do not think there is anything physically there outside of this space anymore. If there's anyone still alive in this place that isn't already dead, they need to be evacuated to the Source. The same goes for souls, so they can at least return to the aetherial sea."

Alas, there were no souls.

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 46

Tenten was conflicted. It had been surprising to be asked out by a girl she barely knew, but also a bit emflattering/em. She wouldn't want to say that she was attracted to powerful people, but there was something very appealing about self-assured, talented shinobi that Tenten definitely liked. Uzumaki Aiko was only fourteen, and already doing very well as a kunoichi. Aiko was no Tsunade of the Sannin, of course, but she was already the kind of kunoichi that Tenten would have looked up to as a little girl. She knew perfectly well that the other girl had a reputation for being reclusive and sharp-tongued, but that couldn't scare a girl who worked with Hyuuga Neji. Even the iciest of personalities thawed for something.

She just had to find out what Aiko softened for, and if she liked what she found when the walls came down, this might go somewhere. But first…

"Is… Is that Yamanaka Ino and her team hiding behind the curtain?" Tenten questioned uncertainly. Granted, it was hard to tell with surety, but there was one large lump and two thin ones, one of which seemed to be attached to tiny feet with sparkly blue nail polish and a silver toe ring.

Aiko shrugged without looking up from her fancy menu. "Probably," she offered. "But paying attention to her only encourages her persistent weirdness."

'They're within hearing distance,' Aiko noted distantly when a shriek of outrage reached her ears, muffled by what was probably Shikamaru's hand. 'I wonder why she dragged the boys along for this?'

"Oh, I see," Tenten said, sounding as if she really did understand now. It figured. If anyone in the world had been forced to acclimate to others' oddities more than Tenten, she didn't know of them. "So, ah. You look nice tonight…" She gave a quick glance to her companion's purple dress. It definitely wasn't something she'd ever seen Aiko wear before.

"That's probably why Ino is lurking," she explained contemplatively, lowering her menu to peek at her date. "Apparently, I own nothing suitable for wearing in civilized company and I was going to die alone with my dogs if she didn't help me out."

"You have dogs?" Tenten inquired 'Pets? She doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd keep pets.'

'Oh, she's good,' Aiko noted. 'That was very smooth. She didn't even seem to stumble over thinking about commenting on the apparent deficiencies I hinted towards.'

"Kakashi-shishou let me sign his contract," she explained, reflexively moving to tuck her hair behind her ear out of habit even though it was pulled up. As always, she couldn't help but smile when she thought about getting to sign her shishou's contract. "I'm working with his pack right now, but I've already met two other ninken who are willing to work with me. We need to train together before they're mission-ready, since they're puppies too."

The other girl blinked. "Too? There are other puppies?"

Aiko flushed. "Ah, no, I meant me," she explained sheepishly. 'I forget that others don't use that terminology.'

"That's adorable," Tenten said firmly. "I like it. I might end up with Gai-sensei's tortoise contract, since Lee can't use chakra and Neji is… Well, he's Neji." She shrugged helplessly, as if to say, 'what can you do?'

"Yes, he is," Aiko agreed dryly. At the sharp expression her tone brought, she raised an eyebrow. "I have fond memories of him pounding the absolute crap out of me in taijutsu spars in the Academy. He's just so cheerful and encouraging that I've never forgotten the experience."

"Oh, I'd forgotten all about that!" Tenten breathed with an air of revelation. She giggled openly, not even bothering to hide the fact that her shoulders were shaking with laughter. "Yeah, he stomped you good, didn't he?"

An amused snort brought their attention to the waitress who had been politely standing by the table. "I'm sorry to interrupt your romantic dinner conversation. What will you ladies have today?"

When they were alone again, Tenten folded her hands in her lap and looked critically at her date. Why had she actually come on this date? She still wasn't entirely sure what she wanted, but she did feel a little bit of interest beyond a free meal at a nice restaurant.

"Did you want to see a movie afterward?"

Tenten shrugged noncommittally, still caught up in her thoughts.

Aiko was pretty, after all. It was the kind of pretty that belied her status as a B-class kunoichi and reputation as a rather ruthlessly practical one at that. Maybe in a few years she'd be the same sort of polished sexy that infiltration kunoichi gave off, but right now even the fact that her curves were more dramatic than Tenten's (admittedly minimal) curves didn't make her look very old. She was very petite and had those same enormous, soulful eyes that her brother had. It made for a very innocent sort of effect.

'I could tap that,' she decided internally. So what if Aiko was a year younger? In the grand scale of things, that was nothing.

"I don't know what's out in theaters right now," she managed to reply. "Is there anything you'd really like to see?"

She wasn't particularly fond of the way that Ino had apparently dressed Aiko up for this. It was pretty, but it didn't seem genuinely Aiko-ish. Tenten felt a bit underdressed in comparison, but it had seemed impractical to go home and change when she hadn't even been sweating in her pink top.

"Not really." Aiko made a face. "There's this romantic drama with that one Fujikaze woman that looks awful, though. You know the one I mean, right? On the billboard outside the theater?"

Looks aside, it was flattering to be singled out by someone so talented and reputedly intelligent. What had Aiko seen in her that made her decide to ask Tenten out, and not the hunk of Hyuuga that was standing beside her at the time, or even Ino? Aiko already knew Ino, after all. She didn't know Tenten.

"Everything she's in looks awful," Tenten replied with a huff of amusement. It was true. She didn't see why everyone went so nuts over those stupid princess movies. They were formulaic and dull. "Maybe we should forget the movie and go for a walk instead?"

Aiko nodded easily. "I think I'd like that. It's so beautiful out, especially after languishing in Wind Country for a million years." She made a face. "Maybe the west park?"

'And I don't really know her, either,' Tenten had to remind herself. It felt like she did, though. Gai-sensei brought up his Eternal Rival pretty frequently, and in the last year or so Lee had been getting compared to his Eternal Rival's apprentice. Apparently, Gai seemed to think they were natural foils and continuations of their respective sensei.

Tenten wasn't so certain about that. Hatake Kakashi seemed to have the same sort of analytical intelligence she was noting in her dining companion from what Gai-sensei had said, that was true. However, his social failings seemed to stem from avoidance and emotional trauma rather than genuinely not noticing cues. Uzumaki Aiko was a bit different. She faked social competency well until suddenly she missed a hint and either ended a conversation when someone else wanted to continue or failed to respond conventionally to someone having an emotional reaction. It wasn't uncommon for shinobi to have low emotional intelligence, however, so Tenten wasn't too bothered. Aiko seemed earnest enough, even if she didn't appear to have been adequately socialized when she was young to be able to relate openly to other people.

But if Gai-sensei was right about anything, this girl would be a force to be reckoned with, even if Lee was approximately one hundred thousand times better in taijutsu. That wasn't really a black mark against her, as Lee was a taijutsu monster, and had a good twenty pounds on the girl in question.

She leaned forward and cupped her chin in a hand, allowing herself to smile a little bit. "The park sounds great! So, Aiko. What do you do for fun?"

"This is boring," Chouji whined quietly, looking at a nearby table that had recently gotten their order with longing. Ino was just plain cruel, to bring him to a restaurant and not let him order anything. Ino made a rude grunt, but didn't do more than whap at his chest with a hand.

"Hush, I'm trying to listen!" she pouted a little. "They don't seem to be talking about anything interesting, though. Just work stuff." Honestly, who talked about emtraining/em when asked what they did for fun? That girl needed help. Tenten seemed to be eating it up, though.

Shikamaru remained silent. He'd been deep in thought since Ino had told him he had to come with her to spy on Uzumaki Aiko going on a date with Tenten. Chouji thoroughly expected to hear a completely brilliant theory by the end of the night. Obviously, he was really working hard at whatever he was thinking about.

His eyes darted around the room for anything to look at other than the distracting food. If he didn't make himself think of something else, he was going to be miserable throughout this entire stupid stakeout. Of course, Ino would probably only accept conversation on one topic…

"They make a nice couple, but I never thought of the two of them together," he offered lazily.

Shikamaru smirked on his right side, leaning over to mutter into his ear, "I am." Chouji stiffened, blushing at his childhood friend. That… that was disrespectful! He didn't want anyone looking at his little sister that way. He imagined Uzumaki Naruto would feel similarly about his sister, if he knew someone was picturing her naked, to say nothing of what Aiko herself would think.

(In the Land of Vegetables, Naruto suddenly sneezed, losing his grip on the Sexy-No-Jutsu and reverting to his blonde and male form in front of a very disappointed and confused contact he'd been meant to distract while Jiraiya got the goods.)

On his other side, Ino nodded furiously, missing the byplay. "I know, right? I thought for sure that Tenten was going to end up with that stick in the mud Hyuuga!" She paused, looking a bit confused. "I had no idea on Aiko," she added a bit grudgingly. "She never seemed interested in anyone, except maybe her weirdo teacher." Ino didn't care how well the man wore a Jounin uniform. He had habitually bad posture and funky hair—nothing on Asuma-sensei's scruffy bad-boy look. Ino suppressed a shiver.

Shikamaru shrugged lazily, letting a hint of wicked amusement seep into his tone. "Maybe it's Karin's influence," he suggested.

Then he had to flinch, unable to dodge the blow Ino awkwardly aimed at him, leaning across Chouji to do it. She scowled at him. "Don't be dumb. We don't actually know that Karin and Hinata are together. They could just be friends."

"Yeah, friends who are almost constantly together, physically affectionate, and who live together in the same house," he mused sarcastically. "That story holds together." Shikamaru gave an amused huff. "I'd like to see what goes on in that house," he said not-quite-quietly enough to Chouji.

Ino lunged, fingers curled into hooked claws.

'Time to get out of here,' the Akimichi wisely decided, desperately latching onto a chair with the kawarimi and switching places with it. It made a loud scrape sound when it reappeared too close to the wall and the back legs skidded down to thump on the floor, but Shikamaru was too busy cringing from the fire in Ino's eyes to comment on his sloppy technique.

"Idiot pervert!" she roared, shaking his shoulders with enough force to send his head flopping back and forth. "The whole point of that is that you aren't invited! Why are you so damn excited, huh?"

"What?" Tenten's eyes went wide, and she craned her neck to see what was going on behind the luxurious yellow curtain that appeared to be hiding a murder (and a chair). She wasn't alone. Most of the restaurant was straining to find the source of the sudden shouting. Except for Chouji, who appeared to be hiding his face with a menu and trying to blend in with a confused-looking family (which included a girl sitting on the floor for some reason. She sensed a connection).

Aiko, on the other hand, sighed tiredly and cradled her head in her hands. Through her eyelashes, she eyed her plate. She was over halfway done, and so was Tenten. Maybe…

"Why don't we head out early?" she suggested.

Tenten pushed her chair back with a relieved look. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." As if she had suddenly remembered Aiko's warning not to pay Ino any attention, she carefully averted her eyes from the building drama of the manager storming out to yell at team ten. They waved down the waitress for the check and fled as soon as she'd brought them change and mints. Aiko popped her into her mouth right away, sucking on it as they walked out the door, but Tenten absentmindedly tucked hers into a pocket and held the door open for a couple entering the restaurant.

Aiko stole a glance at the other girl as they meandered to the outskirts of the district they were in towards the park they'd decided on, trying her best to rev up her hormones. That was the point of this exercise, after all. It was getting just a little dark—the sky was streaked with shadows where the fading sunlight couldn't paint, but it wasn't unpleasant. For once, she took time to appreciate that Konoha was the city of eternal summer. Entering the park was like taking a breath of fresh forest air out in the wilds. Birdsong and those damn cicadas rang in her ears with the same sincere persistence she'd expect a hundred miles out of the city limits.

Even though she knew the perception was deceptive and they were in the middle of Konoha, she couldn't help but think that her companion belonged in the wilds. Tenten's crisp, clean (obviously artificially dyed) clothing and hair only served to tie together the idea of something intense and natural hidden in the mundane. The effect was striking. Tenten wasn't as curvy as she might have found ideal, but there was something sleekly beautiful about the way that she moved. The girl just looked dangerous, even in that ridiculously unflattering, boxy pink cheongsam top.

That was a little sexy, to be honest. She wasn't one to care much that Tenten wasn't a good dresser. According to everyone who'd ever commented to her, Aiko was godawful at it herself. The starkly practical outlook that would lead a teenage girl to pick out those doubtlessly-comfortable and undoubtedly hideous pants she was currently swimming in would make her a damn fine kunoichi someday.

It had been less good planning and more coincidence that had led them to make it to the restaurant so late, but their timing had been excellent if what they wanted was alone time and a scenic view. The park was one of the largest in Konoha, and if there was anyone else inside, they weren't anywhere nearby. Just walking into the shadows of the park felt like a sigh of relief, and the little bit of tension Aiko had been carrying seeped out of her shoulders. They stuck to the runner's path, a thin trail that led by some of the prettiest sights inside, including a large pond with a tiny waterfall and a few shrines surrounded by natural gardens.

There didn't seem to be a need for words, so they just didn't speak. Tenten wordlessly snagged Aiko's wrist and pulled her off the path slightly to settle against a grassy overhang that happened to provide a view of the sunset through a break in the trees. She didn't drop Aiko's wrist when she folded her knees and sat, so Aiko allowed herself to be dragged down to settle against her warm side.

It was… nice. It was nice to just sit with someone who didn't feel the need to go do something as if to avoid the intensity of just being in another human being's presence. Aiko had never needed words and distractions like Ino, for example. A date with her would have ended like any other outing with Ino except with an additional interrogation. She already knew she had little patience for the constant whirlwind of conversation about stupid things that neither one of them really cared about, as if collecting tidbits about someone's preferences would help her construct something with real meaning or fill the space between them.

'What's that saying? Something about there being two types of people? One type communicates with words, the other communicates with action?' She sighed, leaning back and folding her arms to serve as a pillow. After a moment, Tenten followed suit, and their arms brushed when she'd settled. Some of Aiko's hair had escaped its confines and was tangling in the wind to settle on Tenten's arms, but she didn't seem to care. 'That's probably not exactly right, but it's close enough.'

Words were probably easier, but Aiko was prejudiced towards actions herself enough to think that words were also cheaper. She told people she loved them by doing things for them, not with formulaic expressions of emotion requiring formulaic response. Cooking for Karin and Hinata or helping Naruto with his taijutsu had never inspired passionate gratitude, but it was how she worked.

She felt relatively hopeful that Tenten was something of the same—not one to mince words. If she'd been wrong and Tenten was just chock full of feelings, Aiko would probably run for the hills. 'Then again,' she thought a little guiltily, 'it would probably be fair to her to express that I'm not really looking for a regular relationship. It would be super shitty if I didn't say anything and she thought we were on track to a 'forever' relationship when I was looking for something more casual.'

"You know, I had a good time," Tenten mused. Well, that was as good an opening as any she was likely to get. Aiko let her eyes close. It didn't matter, since she was looking straight up and not at the other girl anyway.

"Yeah, I did too," she murmured. "I'd like to spend more time together, but I should probably make clear ahead of time that I don't really want a serious relationship right now." She was a little uncertain as to how that would go over—Tenten could be offended or think there wasn't any point investing in a relationship that wasn't intended to be long term. That would be disappointing, but understandable.

Aiko relaxed the tenseness that had built up on her shoulders when the other girl gave a surprised little laugh. "Wow, you're so serious." Tenten rolled onto her side, giving Aiko a contemplative look. "You know, it's not like I was expecting a proposal or anything. We're too young to consciously try to make a lifelong relationship thing happen." She made a slight face. "I mean, maybe we'll be that compatible, but if we aren't, I'm not going to be offended or anything."

"Oh good." She let herself give a sly smile. "Because if you were, the ring probably would have had to come from Ino, and that would be a little tacky for a declaration of my eternal love."

Tenten snorted. "Maybe we shouldn't do the whole fancy dinner thing again," she suggested idly. "I mean, I know that's what dates supposedly are, but it's not my kind of thing. Personally, I'm happiest training or staying in." With a skeptical expression, she added, "That doesn't really seem like your optimal environment, either."

"So, what, would you want to have training dates or something?" Aiko prodded, liking the idea. It would mean no more dressing up in things she didn't find appealing and sitting in a crowded place, expected to make conversation.

"Sure," Tenten shrugged, pushing herself up slightly and looking down at Aiko, who was still prone on the grass. For a strange moment, Aiko thought the other girl's gaze was on her lips and not her eyes, but the impression passed and Tenten glanced down to rustle around inside a pocket.

"I like the idea," Aiko said firmly. Tenten ripped open her dinner mint with a crinkle and popped it in her mouth before giving a friendly smile and tucking the wrapper back in her pocket.

"Perfect. How about next week, in the morning or something? I don't have a Wednesday morning workout partner, actually." There was a tiny click that was probably Tenten flicking the hard candy against her teeth. She crunched down, apparently shattering the candy, maintaining eye contact.

"I'll meet you then." Aiko had to smile. This whole human interaction thing wasn't as complicated as she had been led to believe. She could do this, easy.

Something threatened to twitch in her eye. God, how oblivious was this girl? 'Oh, wait,' Tenten remembered. 'I forgot about the whole 'socially inept' thing. She hides that better than the boys do. I can't count on her to pick up on subtle cues.' Her resolve firmed. 'I should be direct.'

"Soooo," Tenten dragged out the word for a full two seconds. Something was clearly on her mind. This time, Aiko was positive that she caught Tenten looking at her mouth. "Are we going to make out or what?"

Her eyebrows shot up. 'That was blunt,' Aiko thought. 'But definitely not unwelcome'. She had to give a surprised little laugh, but she responded quickly. "I like the idea." She moved to sit up, unfolding her arms from behind her head and moving to prop herself up. She'd barely managed to sit upwards before Tenten placed one hand above her right shoulder on the grass and used the other to gently but firmly push Aiko's torso back down, before slipping it to brace against the grass by Aiko's other shoulder.

Tenten wasn't a big girl by any means, but suddenly she was a looming presence blocking out most of the dying sunlight. Aiko sucked in a surprised breath, blinking up at the sideways smile and indulgently amused glitter in dark brown eyes. That wasn't what she'd expected to happen.

"Good."

Then she leaned down and all Aiko could register was just how soft and warm the other girl's lips were. Involuntarily she licked at her own, getting a taste of the mint still clinging to Tenten's warm breath where her mouth was slightly parted./p

"Mmm," Tenten hummed, turning her head slightly to change the angle of the kiss, pulling back just a little and ducking back in again to tug lightly on Aiko's lower lip. She emshivered/em, a little shell-shocked by the new sensation, and let her right hand lift up to slip under Tenten's shirt and slid her fingertips across smooth skin.

'Oh my god, what have I been missing out on?' she managed to think blearily.

Tenten must have been thinking something similarly positive, because she adjusted her position by moving her right knee over to straddle Aiko. The extra contact- emhad Tenten always been that warm, because she was really noticing it now/em- was nice, but Aiko liked it quite a bit more when it became clear that the movement freed up Tenten's right hand to go exploring down her front, lightly trailing short nails and surprisingly soft fingertips down her neck, between her breasts, and then back up to cup at one of them.

In any other situation, Aiko wouldn't have even considered letting the weak, pleading whine that swelled up from the back of her throat to be heard. She didn't know what the hell she was begging for, but she needed it badly.

Tenten pulled her face back with a self-satisfied smile, holding eye contact for a long moment before she brushed a kiss along her jaw line, tugged playfully at Aiko's ear- and whoa, that was interesting- and then gave a short lick to the column of her neck below.

'I wish I wasn't wearing this stupid dress,' she suddenly realized with undue vehemence. If she'd been wearing a shirt, Tenten would have better access. At least it had a wide, low collar that left her collarbones exposed, because the shiver that rocked her body when the older girl gently exhaled at the base of her neck was delicious.

Of course, Tenten wasn't wearing an irritatingly inhibitive dress… Her right hand had clenched lightly against Tenten's back at some point, so she opened it and began running her fingers up and down Tenten's spine. Her left hand lifted up and breached the so-far unexplored territory of Tenten's front.

The older girl gave a surprised squeak at the first brush over her ribs. Aiko could feel a giddy smile pulling at her face and she gave just a little huff of amusement before tilting her head to make eye contact to be sure this escalation was okay. Tenten looked a little shell-shocked, but when she managed to close the surprised 'Oh' face her mouth had fallen into, her nod gave Aiko the go-ahead. She'd thought that would be the answer by the light huffs Tenten was giving that washed across Aiko's chest with increasing speed and the clear eagerness written in her features, but had been kept from going any further up by the lack of outright permission.

Tenten's nose dropped back down onto her neck and she nuzzled for a moment before working at the sensitive skin with her teeth. Aiko didn't wait a second longer, stilling her right hand in between delicately shaking shoulderblades and letting her left brush slowwwly up over what had to be Tenten's bra.

'Huh. Surprisingly nice-feeling fabric. I guess I thought she seemed like a sports-bra kinda girl,' she noted absently, entranced by just how soft the material was. When she finally reached the skin at the top of the cup, Tenten made a soft 'Uh!' sound and pressed herself slightly against Aiko's palm, apparently forgetting that she'd been working on giving Aiko a hickey, just panting against her collarbones now.

She'd been wrong to call the bra soft—Tenten's skin was much silkier. It wasn't a shock, precisely. Her own breasts probably felt similar, but someone else's were just so much more interesting to knead. At that point, Tenten finally made a sound that was about as embarrassing as the one Aiko had made earlier. Something strange surged in her abdomen at the needy vocal demand, hot and heavy. She swallowed, hard, suddenly wondering how far they should really be going in a park at night after their first date, and pulled back regretfully. For the first time, Aiko noticed that she was panting too, and her heartrate was far higher than it normally was even after a warmup.

"Wh-whoa," Tenten panted, straightening her right arm and lifting her head to make eye contact. Apparently she'd collapsed to her elbow at some point. She looked just as giddy as Aiko felt. "This is more fun than I expected."

"Go away," Tsunade downright growled at the knock on her door. "Office hours are over!" That should have been obvious, really. Keiko had gone home, and the janitor was vacuuming the entry way.

Despite the fact that she had most definitely not said a cheerful 'come in,' the door swung open and Aiko flounced up with a downright creepy smile, perched on her desk for a moment, and then leaned in for a hug. The cold little arms flung around her neck slipped slightly down sideways across part of her suddenly-stiff shoulders, and Aiko pressed a closed kiss against her Kage's cheek with a happy nuzzle.

Tsunade sputtered, taken aback. She'd just about managed to re-calibrate for the bizarre situation (it was a large leap from taxes) when Aiko chirped, "Thank you for your advice, Tsunade-hime!" and then practically skipped back out.

She stared at the door that hung slightly open. "What the hell just happened?" she wondered aloud.

ANBU Cat shrugged in answer, despite the fact that he wasn't visible at the moment. That had been weird. Was Aiko ill or something?

"What the hell happened?" Kakashi muttered in frustration, fisting a handful of hair and tugging lightly. Scanning the documents for any relevant terms like 'Uzumaki,' 'Aiko,' 'Naruto,' 'Twins' or 'Minato' had taken a stupidly long time, even with the aid of the Sharingan's skill in detecting patterns.

The story that the brief mentions and glaring exclusions told was a strange one. He'd think he would have remembered the incident mentioned of the Kyuubi managing to force some active chakra out of Naruto's seal—he must have been out of the village. Kakashi would never forget the taste of that chakra. Even with that explanation, it seemed odd that the off-hand and mildly depressed mentions of incidents of unfriendly behavior directed at the twins over the years had escaped his notice. It wasn't like he had followed them around or anything, but a child who didn't understand why strangers were hostile would have had a hard time avoiding drawing attention. Naruto, in particular, didn't seem like the type to suffer discrimination in silence.

Bizarrely enough, it seemed that the twins had been declared competent to live alone at a frighteningly young age, with the minimal assistance of someone the Sandaime had hired to help them adjust to living on their own.

At first he was baffled- the orphan in shinobi training fund was nowhere near enough for the comfortable apartment he remembered them having when he'd first begun training Aiko, and he didn't know anything about the state of Minato or Kushina's finances. Eventually he pieced together that the Sandaime had actually been supplementing the twins' stipend out of his own accounts, which made a bit more sense.

It was probably part of his way of dealing with his guilt for being unable to care for them himself—all of the reports seemed to have been conveyed via ANBU and not his own observations. Kakashi could hardly blame the man for that. He'd done the same thing for years—avoiding the reminders of his sensei to avoid the worst of the pain.

The Sandaime noted personality quirks developing in the twins that Kakashi had noted himself, which was mildly amusing. Naruto had already been so naughty and playfully loud at age five? The confirmation that Aiko had taken on the responsibility of keeping him in line and the apartment managed at about the same time ached a little, but backed up Aiko's claim that she'd practically raised her brother.

That she had even managed such a feat was astonishing. Kakashi had technically been on his own at a similar age, but he had the structure Minato provided, along with care from some of his father's friends who had not been willing to leave his child alone even when he wanted to be. And Kakashi hadn't been responsible for the care of another human being, either. A child of that age simply shouldn't be equipped to be the caretaker for another child. Kakashi wasn't entirely sure he'd trust himself with such a task now, and he was a grown man.

And that was strange, wasn't it? That one twin was so much more advanced than the other? He'd thought her maturity had been a much later development, but from the sounds of the brief notations of ANBU reports that Hiruzen had apparently found too painful to make for himself, her basic temperament had been established at a frightfully young age.

There seemed to be a bit of a turning point in the notes where the twins were mentioned at about age six, when the Sandaime met them for the first time. Kakashi had to wince at just how tired and depressed Hiruzen had sounded when he wrote about the encounter. Apparently, Naruto had been scarily vulnerable to emotional manipulation from even the most cursory of kindness, a state that had undoubtedly come about because even casual kindness was rare for him.

But it was Aiko who had just about broken Hiruzen's heart with her obvious hostility and attempts to protect Naruto from him. That had to have hurt. Apparently, he'd accepted it as due punishment for failing the twins and their parents (and doubtlessly any number of accumulated guilts) and just did his best to not react to it.

It was rather tragic that Aiko had apparently distrusted a man her parents had trusted implicitly, someone who really did care about the twins even though he was overwhelmed by work and grief. But the Sandaime had seemed to find the silver lining that Aiko was fiercely loyal to and protective of her baby brother.

As the notes went on from book to book, it became clear that Hiruzen had grown to be very fond of Naruto, but it was Aiko who concerned him most at times. The longest excerpt solely about the twins finally gave the last clue—Hiruzen was trying to help her avoid the rapid acceleration and burnout that prodigies often underwent.

'I'm afraid that allowing Aiko early entry into the Academy was a mistake. Luckily, I trust Umino to keep what he has told me in confidence, but the girl doesn't seem to be aware of how unusual her intelligence is. I fear that she could become a poster child against my policy against early graduation if her advanced state becomes clear, but she is simply too young to enter the active forces. I cannot allow it in good conscience, not in a time of peace. Umino has kindly found ways to keep Aiko occupied without entering her into the taijutsu classes, which will hopefully help her avoid excess politicking and notice, using the pretext that she and Naruto are too young to be trained and then unsupervised. No one could seriously argue for the instatement of a genin with no formal taijutsu training. Unfortunately that means poor Naruto must wait another year as well, but I have every confidence that he will succeed nonetheless…'

He didn't allow himself to be bitter that no one had been able to save him from taking on dangerous missions early, or surprised that Aiko had come to him with so little time to learn the actual combat skills. 'Although that does explain why they were lackluster,' he noted dully. She'd improved rapidly with only minimal direction, so it hadn't been lack of talent or work ethic.

'Well, she wasn't exaggerating. I suppose that means I definitely owe her an apology.' Kakashi sighed, neatly closing the book on the table and slumping over. It was positively bizarre to realize that someone he'd thought of as a child until very recently had actually been so mature from an unbelievably young age.

'There's no point in procrastinating any longer.' Kakashi slipped the last books back into the boxes they'd come in and tugged on his sandals, not bothering to lock his door behind him. He had finished Aiko's jutsu the day they had gotten back, aided by proper facilities and the fact that he wasn't hiding jutsu development from understandably paranoid Sand nin. That had been the day before yesterday, but he'd spent almost two full days piecing through those notes for relevant information.

He hadn't been to her home since she had moved, but Kakashi kept track of his students enough that he readily knew where Aiko's home could be found. It wasn't a bad little place, even if it seemed a bit big for a few teenagers. The judgement may not have been a fair one. After all, his family home was three times that size (and hideously expensive to keep in good repair), but he lived in the same tiny apartment he'd gotten at age six or so when it became clear he couldn't stand to live where his father had died. Most people probably used more space than he did, that was all. Privately, he thought that if he lived with two teenage girls, he'd need a house ten times that size.

Aiko was in a strangely good mood when she answered the door, a fact that set a good tone for the upcoming conversation. Perhaps having a chance to spend some time apart had helped defuse the lingering anger she'd apparently had during their deployment. He eye-smiled, tucking a hand into his pocket. "Hello, Aiko-chan. I was hoping to have a talk with you tonight."

'Ah, there's the hesitation I expected,' he thought a bit glumly when she bit at her lower lip and carefully maintained much more distance between them than she used to. Nonetheless she agreed, even if she did try to invite him in. He held up his hands, radiating positivity to outweigh the potential slight. "I'd rather meet you at training ground seven. I'll see you there!" With that, he fled.

Alright, so the plan had been to walk with her so that she knew he wouldn't be late and he could just get this over with, but he'd scuppered that idea when it became clear that she seemed uncomfortable in his presence. It would be counter-productive to exacerbate the situation by putting her on edge before he even had a chance to show her what he'd made for her.

'Sen tsurara', one thousand icicles, didn't have quite the same feel to it as his chidori did or even work in the way he'd originally intended, but he was still pleased with it nonetheless.

"Well, that was fucking weird," Aiko mumbled, blinking at the empty place where her shishou had been until a moment ago. She hadn't expected him to seek her out, but it was probably for the best. Now that she'd calmed down and had her catharthic talk with Tsunade-sama, she had decided it would probably be for the best to be the bigger person and apologize for losing her temper with Kakashi. It wasn't really that his suggestion of the Rasengan had been a terrible idea. If he brought it up again, she would take the instruction gladly.

She took her time getting ready to go. He probably wouldn't be there for hours anyway, even though it was unusual that he'd go to her home to get her and then not bother to accompany her.

'Maybe something's gone wrong,' she realized suddenly, deciding that she could put away what she had been doing later after all.

The hostility was overwhelming as soon as he entered the meeting room, and Itachi involuntarily wondered if this would be the time that Madara finally ended their cat-and-mouse game by killing him. He didn't allow himself to pause in the door or react openly, instead taking his usual seat. After a moment, it became clear that Madara's bad mood wasn't directed at him. He couldn't quite bring himself to be relieved. Today was the day he had to explain why he'd let Sasuke's inappropriate career choice slide for so long—almost two months.

His answer would probably satisfy Madara, but Itachi wasn't pleased himself. He had discarded idea after idea as to how he could force Sasuke to change his mind for his own good, hardening his heart to his own pride and desire to just let the boy be. Sasuke still had a role to play, no matter how odious the necessity was.

That theory didn't satisfy Itachi himself, largely because he suspected that Sasuke could gain the power he needed even by going down such an untraditional path. Itachi had known from a young age that Sasuke possessed the ability to surpass him, even if his genius was less flashy than Itachi's own.

His own reluctance was probably why it had been so difficult to settle on an appropriate course of action—applying the absolute minimum amount of force and trauma to set Sasuke on the right path whilst simultaneously being cruel enough to satisfy Madara's sadism and convince the man that Itachi held no attachment to his otouto.

"I have come to a decision on how best to cope with Sasuke's disobedience."

Obito felt his lips twist into an animalistic sneer against the cool, hard surface of his mask, for once feeling irritated instead of amused by Itachi-kun. Usually it was enjoyable to see the boy attempt to outsmart him while pretending to bow his head in obedience and respect. He'd certainly never thought that a child who represented the best the Uchiha had to offer, the eldest son of that goddamn prick Fugaku no less (the moron who had banished him from the compound before his eyes manifested), would kowtow to him. The irony was delicious.

But not today.

He had been having such fun with his new toys. Sound had needed to be punished—everyone would eventually be punished, but Sound wasn't important enough that they needed to live to witness his glorious revolution. The fact that Hatake-damned-Kakashi had been the one to end his game early by taking out his puppet was infuriating.

Seeing the monster who had murdered Rin (even indirectly through the eyes of that stupid Yakushi boy) had dredged up anger that Obito had barely buried in a shallow grave. What was worse was that the asshole was as smug as he had ever been. Did he even care about what he'd done?

Uninterested in pretending he didn't know that Itachi wished for his death and pined pathetically for his useless little brother's love, Obito turned his face away. "I don't care what you do with the whelp," he growled.

No, Hatake obviously didn't care. He'd even replaced his old team. If Obito could go back and direct Yakushi through the encounter again now that he knew Yakushi was too useless to finish off Hatake even with his guidance, he would have gone for the snot-nosed little brat who had simpered for 'Kakashi-shishou'. The very thought of someone looking up to Hatake filled him with unspeakable rage. How dare that fucking idiot try to keep Hatake from the messy end he deserved? Didn't she know what he'd done to his first team, his real team? Didn't Konoha know what Hatake had done?

'That's why it needs to be changed,' the remnant of Madara's influence in his mind whispered raspily. Obito shook his head to dislodge the thought, uncaring that Itachi's eyes narrowed at the strange movement. He knew that already, he didn't need to be told. 'Konoha is weak and corrupt.' Yes, of course it was.

"Get out!" he bellowed, suddenly sick of Itachi's face. He was sick of all of them, sick of keeping one of Konoha's vipers to his chest no matter how ineffective the boy was.

'Calm yourself,' Madara's voice said, 'He still has a part to play. Isn't it better to get all the use you can out of Konoha's tool?'

Obito had to smile at that thought, not minding the by-now familiar sensation of ruined skin pulling stiffly at the expression. Yes, that was better.

[handicappedbuenchico]

Name: Caitlin-Ashley

Pronouns: She/Her

Preference of communication: Tumblr IM's. Those are 10x more reliable in terms of me seeing them, in comparison to Discord, for some reason.

Most active muse: Spencer.

Experience / how many years: I've been roleplaying for about 8 years now! It's been an on-and-off thing really.

Platforms you use: I use both Tumblr and Discord!  

Best experience: Meeting @petpsycho for the very first time, roleplaying John and Carlos's first interaction based off of a meme I sent in, and having Carlos and John fuck at damn near 100 notes in. Truly the best experience because it was not only one of my first, but Mina has been an amazing person to talk to and write with.

Rp pet peeves:

Those group/town/app/appless Discord rp types, that don't even do it on Tumblr from what I can tell, spamming their promo so much in the rp tags to the point where they drown out literally anyone else's. I'm not looking to join a fucking off-platform group to rp in a generic town, I'm looking for singular people to write with ON TUMBLR. STOP SPAMMING YOUR SHIT FOR FUCK'S SAKE! That's what bumping on Disboard is for.

Personal blogs that aren't connected to roleplay ones in any way spam liking my roleplay related shit. Like, I can understand if it's like a meta or a headcanon, but personals (that aren't connected to a roleplay blog) liking my starter calls and my promos are a completely different story. PLEASE DON'T FUCKING DO THAT IF YOU ARE NOT A ROLEPLAYER IN ANY CAPACITY. That goes for reblogging too honestly, like don't reblog my roleplaying material/threads either if you aren't actively involved with it/didn't get my permission to do so.

Formatting that is hard to read. Now, I'm not talking about colored text or small text or anything like that. I'm talking about the formatting that looks like either a pure wall of text, or there are so many paragraph breaks that I have to physically drag a reply into Google Docs to "fix it" for my brain. Full disclosure, I am autistic (an Aspie to be specific), and sometimes my brain has trouble with reading comprehension on normal formatted text. Now imagine my brain when trying to read something with either NO paragraph breaks, OR paragraph breaks after every single sentence. It's not fun, and it makes me want to write with you less and less.

I apologize in advance if anyone feels called out by these, as I'm sure you didn't want to hear this from me in this manner. I am polite and nice to a fault, and I fear judgement/being reprimanded due to my own RL trauma, so I was too anxious to tell you personally.

Fluff, angst, or smut: I would like some Fluff with a side of Smut, you can also put a dash of angst on that if it will enhance the thread's flavor.

Plots or memes: Oh I am mostly a meme person, but if I find/think of a plot that our muses can do, you best believe I'm coming into your DM's and tell you about it.

Long or short replies: Depends on my muse, the time that I have at any given moment, my need to stim, and sometimes the thread itself. On a day where I have a lot of muse and a full day to myself, I can do longer replies, like a couple of long paragraphs. On days where I have little muse and or not a lot of time to spare, I tend to write smaller replies.

Best time to write: If I said any other time of day than between 8 PM - 12 AM I would be lying to you all. Writing at night right before you crash just hits different.

Are you like your muses: Y E S.

Carlos has my fear of punishment/being judged. Along with that, he and I sharing being a people-pleaser/peacemaker type of person, due to having it forced upon us by the adults around us that should fucking know how to act right. We both also grew up poor due to circumstances we couldn't control.

Now, Spencer, you wouldn't think I'd share any similarities with, but you would be very wrong. Spencer and I share a sensitivity to touch, but we both also like to touch anything/anyone we see (not in a creepy/perverted way, I'm talking like hugs and shoulder pats or something like that.) We're both also gay as fuck, and we're neuro-divergent (I'm autistic with an anxiety disorder and he has ADHD with Generalized Anxiety Disorder). We both also got daddy issues, so uh, there's that too.

Ted Lockwood is just my experiences as an autistic person incarnate LMFAO. Bro like, we're both nice to everyone, including people who probably don't deserve it. He and I both are socially awkward sometimes, and we can't read a room sometimes to save our damn lives (literally in Ted's case). We both have our own little special interests, his is engineering and space and mine is art and writing.

Crybaby as a character was someone I could relate to on an emotional level. I was saying for many years that my dysfunctional family almost fit Dollhouse to A FUCKING TEE! I also related the song Crybaby because I too was a very emotional little girl who got made fun and taken advantage of for it. I related to all of Crybaby's failed attempts at love in songs such as Carousel, Soap, and Training Wheels. Out of all my muses, Crybaby is the most like me because I already related to her long before I would even take her up as a muse.

Tagged by: @kurtzbergsiblings

Tagging: @bctclgevse @betterto-die-thanto-crawl @bamsidsuperbitch @scribedhorror @depictedblue @depictedmorada and anyone else who wants to!

[e1ectrostatic]

Tagged by @wayward-aeon :] 🤎

I'm answering these questions mostly through a "Luca" lens, but with some general stuff peppered in too.

My life on Tey/vat gets its spotlight here.

1. Which category of alterhumanity do you belong to?

Many. The main one that I'm open about is fictionkinity. Other categories I belong to that I'm public about are also more often than not tied to my fictionkinity somehow.

e.g. I consider myself "human but to the left" thanks to certain events of my canon.

2. What/who is/are your type(s)? (if you have any)

I have a few. On this blog, I talk mostly about being Luca Bal/sa.

3. Do you experience shifts? If so, can you tell us your most common shifts and your strangest cameo shift (if you've ever had a cameo shift)?

Yep, every so often. My most common shifts are between the two fictotypes I'm currently most in tune with.

I don't really experience cameo shifts, at least not often, so I'm not sure how well I could answer that. If it counts, I do sometimes spontaneously feel congruent with select official "AU" versions of myself, as well as with how I was portrayed in source (I'm canon divergent). Those may not be strange in the grand scheme of things, but they sure feel strange to me.

If you want a more detailed description of my Luca shifts, I wrote one here.

4. How do you experience your alterhumanity in everyday life?

It's simultaneously all-consuming and not enough.

Internally, it's so prevalent, and natural as breathing. I never have to think twice about my self-perception. There's a certain comfort to it. It's no longer shiny and new, it's just my life, and I couldn't be happier about that.

Outwardly, I think I water myself down too much. I have a bad habit of feeling apologetic, beating around the bush, or brushing things under the rug, even among supportive company.

This is partially out of caution. For all the attention its gotten lately, alterhumanity is still hardly understood. It's easy to be misinterpreted, or for my identity to be perceived as something that's not "serious". Sometimes I want to say outright, "This isn't something I'm 'doing', it's something I am. I'll be this for the rest of my life. Treat me as such."

Another part of it is wanting privacy. I'm very reserved, and my fictionkinity, for all its prevalence, is still tied to a lot of very personal stuff. It's easier to dance around the topic and play things off as a joke than it is to allude to having baggage, even if the latter is essential to knowing me.

Basically, I express it constantly and unabashedly both internally, and externally with my boyfriend. I'd like to work on it in other areas, in theory.

5. What do you think of the community?

It's so vast, and diverse. It's great to see so many different experiences being shared.

It does have its issues, as does any community. I think many in the alterhuman community, for all its diversity, ironically need to be more mindful of experiences outside of their perspective. Sometimes the language I see used by some reveals a blind spot in their perspective, or a bias, or that they've forgotten the existence of a certain demographic. I'm not immune to this, either. I hope we can continue civilly learning from each other to make the community a more welcoming and accommodating place.

Something I appreciate is the overall tone of radical acceptance in the community. The 'come as you are' attitude is very welcoming. We do have a bit of a respectability politics issue, but I see a lot of pushback against it in the circles I frequent, which is great. The hand that holds the muzzle is not the hand that feeds. Bite 'til you reach bone!

6. What are the things that make you most comfortable and euphoric in your alterhumanity?

Just treat me like me, lol. Nothing feels better than being called Luca, or my kintype being referred to as me without second thought.

7. Are you experiencing species dysphoria?

With regard to being Luca, not really, since I'm human. I do miss the "to the left" aspect of my humanity, though. I should be able to play in outlets. Give it back.

8. What advice would you like to say to a young alterhuman who has just awakened?

You will be confused. You will come to contradictory conclusions. Don't scramble to fit yourself into neat little boxes — experience life first, and think about labels as you go along.

And on labels: they're optional. They're tools that are supposed to help you make sense of your experiences, not criteria you're obligated to meet to be "real". If you find none of them help, or that they change over time, or that you switch between using and not using labels, that's okay and allowed.

Oh yeah, and even if it's tempting, don't try and throw yourself or others under the bus to appear "normal" or "palatable". None of us are truly free to express ourselves until all of us are.

Live authentically, and stay curious and openminded! Both with yourself and others.

9. Do you have/want to have gears?

Sure, that sounds fun! I don't have anything I'd consider "gear" that's related to my identity as Luca, but I'd like to.

In general, all I really have are materials. I have the means to make a yarn tail, but have yet to start it.

10. Do you know/have any theories about the origin of your alterhumanity? If so, tell us! (all beliefs are legitimate)

Nothing concrete, but I do believe my origins are a mix of metaphysical, psychological, and something else entirely. I don't subscribe strongly to the dichotomy, as doing so doesn't serve me.

If you want to learn more...

Here's a link to a post where I go into detail about the spiritual aspects of my fictionkinity.

Here's a link to a post where I go into detail about the psychological aspects of my fictionkinity.

11. Tag someone/a creature to answer these questions!ㅤᵕ̈

...I think anyone I would have felt confident enough to tag has already been tagged BAHAHA

I don't think I know any mutuals well enough to gauge whether being tagged in this kind of thing would bother them, but any who see this, please do feel free to do this :]

And I mean, any who see this in general, feel free! I'm hungry!

If you are a alterhuman, reblog and answer these questions!

(don't be afraid to write a lot, do what you want ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

1/ Which category of alterhumanity do you belong to?

2/ What/who is/are your type(s)? (if you have any)

3/ Do you experience shifts? If so, can you tell us your most common shifts and your strangest cameo shift (if you've ever had a cameo shift)?

4/ How do you experience your alterhumanity in everyday life?

5/ What do you think of the community?

6/ What are the things that make you most comfortable and euphoric in your alterhumanity?

7/ Are you experiencing species dysphoria?

8/ What advice would you like to say to a young alterhuman who has just awakened?

9/ Do you have/want to have gears?

10/ Do you know/have any theories about the origin of your alterhumanity? If so, tell us! (all beliefs are legitimate)

11/ Tag someone/a creature to answer these questions!ㅤᵕ̈

[jodilin65]

Heading this entry is my Italian "friend" Mia, and my Latina girl Amanda.

So this woman was arrested for threatening yet another insurance company that overrode doctors' orders and declined to pay for the health care she needed, whatever that was. Ridiculous. Just fucking ridiculous. Anyone can make threats. Actions speak louder than words. To arrest someone simply for making threats is a violation of free speech, in my opinion. Again, I hope that these cases set an example for what could happen to those who continue to care more about money than helping people. If a doctor orders a medical procedure, it's for a fucking reason. Just pay the damn claim or get the fuck out of the insurance business!

Tom was tired all day because of the flu shot he got yesterday.

I got the funniest reply to one of my swells yesterday. Without going into any explanation, I simply said I was going to hit the road and then meditate and look for golf balls, which left this poor woman utterly confused, LOL. She didn't know I was talking about VR. So she was wondering where I would travel for 1,500 miles while meditating and looking for golf balls at the same time, hahaha!

The honker did what he does best at times… made some noise. Only I couldn't tell what he was doing. The siding isn't on yet, so maybe he was working on the door or the part of the siding that I can't see from the house.

I thought about him and how cold he's been this last year or so. I play dumb to it because I don't give a shit, but being the curious person that I am, I can say he definitely dislikes me and I wonder why. I thought it was likely due to some post I'd made that he disagreed with that could have been anything from political to who knows what. But then I realized that if I can look people up without them knowing about it, others could look me up without my knowing it. As a former constable, maybe he got curious about who he would be living with in the U.S. and looked me up and found my blog; hence some of the not-so-nice things I've had to say about him and the racket he makes at times. It's on him either way, whatever his problem is. I'm not going to hold back in my own journal just because someone may go looking for it and not like what they find. After all, that's what a journal is for: to write about what's on your mind, your experiences in life, and the people you encounter.

I thought about which writing platforms I want to write on and how often, and I've decided that I’d write on Blogger and Tumblr daily, LJ weekly, PB monthly, and DW & MD yearly when I do yearly reviews.

[mitigatingacademics]

{11.09.2024}

Leaving my house for the first time since I entirely lost faith in humanity; I went to the library book sale yesterday.

These are the books I took to work last night.  

I'm seriously considering not going back to the Chemerinsky book at all. It may only be about 300 pages, but the idea that we're going to be doing anything other than trying to survive for at least the next four years, let alone magically replacing the Constitution with *something better* is so fantastical that it's offensive and my time is worth more than that ridiculousness. 

In the past few days I've slept twice as much as should reasonably be necessary and I'm still tired. 

I've dealt with depression before, but I've never had it hit so hard so suddenly. 

My mother suggested that I just need to 'talk myself out of it.' 

I burst into tears, shouted 'That's the best advice I've ever been given, I can't believe I didn't think of that!' and slammed a door. (I slammed the door specifically because she told me not to. I pay the mortgage. It's my door. I'll slam it if I want to.) So, ...that's going well. 

I feel numb and also as if my nerves are entirely fried. 

It takes a concerted effort not to entirely lose my shit over the smallest thing.��

I usually keep the majority of my politics on Twitter where I engage almost exclusively with folks that I don't know personally.

I'm done playing nice. I've taken it all to Facebook. I've lost at least five "friends" over it, too. 

The example response (middle) to the image on the left is the kind of thing that brought about a post containing the image on the right.

My keep the peace switch has broken ALL of the way off. 

I will no longer offer consideration to folks that they do not offer to others. 

If you are unable to conceptualize that our 'freedoms' ARE political and you think my expression of concern for society due to your inability to care about anyone at all beyond yourself (or even actually understand your own best interests) then you're welcome to see yourself out (it's not an airport, there's no need to announce your departure) -- and I *will* tell you that it isn't the first time this week that the trash has taken itself out. 🤷‍♀️

I did, at one point, suggest that I personally feel that some individuals are unworthy of the work it takes to put on a free and fair election...and some might find that offensive...but you put in a 17 hour day of being nice to and assisting folks only to find out the majority of them voted in a manner that demonstrated a complete lack of respect for the humanity of *several* groups you belong to and see how you feel about it.

I was never actually "friends" with the woman who showed herself before unfriending me, anyway. We became acquainted years ago via a FB game that doesn't even exist anymore. We hardly ever interacted. If I'd previously realized she was the kind of person she so proudly professed herself to be I'd have done her the favor of removing her a long time ago. 🤷‍♀️

Driving home from working the polls, I couldn't help but reflect upon other times when I had worked elections and the results had been, in my opinion, less than ideal. This felt significantly different. It was long before the Presidential race was called, and yet... the offense and disrespect I feel as a woman concerned with decency had taken on a life of its own. 

Immediately upon arriving home I posted a diatribe on FB about my experience that day. 

We had seen approximately 1,500 voters which is a huge amount for that location. There was a line *all* day. ...and even with that many people cycling through, only 3 of them tried to act up. They were all of the same persuasion - you know what I mean, even if you don't like that you know what I mean. Nearly all of the voters were friendly and pleasant. ...to have Ohio called for Trump before we were even released from our duties that evening DID SOMETHING to me. To be called that quickly meant that the vast majority of the folks I'd interacted with that day (as well as their counterparts in other precincts) smiled to my face and then voted against my right to feel safe in our shared society.

It's not a surprise that there are people like that out there, but it's incredibly painful to find them in the majority, especially after all that we have seen in the past few months.

Hours after the Presidential election was called I started writing a letter to my favorite judge. 

This woman, an actual angel, is a Child Protection Court Judge in South Texas. I sent her a Christmas card last year after finding her Zoom court on YouTube. She wrote back offering to serve as a legal field mentor - which, without exaggeration, meant just as much to me as my actual acceptance into law school. 

I'm sure she wasn't *at all* imagining the e-mail I sent her yesterday, which was a three page, single-spaced, 11-point font desperate attempt at stopping a despair spiral and figuring out what the hell happens next. 

I don't have *anyone* else that I think might be able understand what I'm going through right now as far as going from being *so* motivated to suddenly full-stop questioning if studying the rule of law will even be useful in any meaningful way. I keep coming back to wondering if they'll be cutting women's fingers off for reading by the time fall rolls around. 

I expressed to her the irony of being accepted to another law school in the midst of all of this. "Here's $70,000 to study something that won't even exist by the time you get around to using it!" 

...and I don't know anything about this woman's personal politics. I may be wildly out of line here. I'm fairly certain she is in an appointed position and there's absolutely nothing online that indicates her political affiliation. We did exchange RBG stamps, though. So, that's something. 😬🤷‍♀️

She's one of very few bridges I'm still concerned with not burning at this point. It would be somewhat tragic (and hurt my feelings a lot) if she dismisses me as a crazy over this. ...but I'm also kind of 'If you can't handle me at my worst you don't deserve me at my best!' about *everything* right now.

Also not at all about the company that I need to not be myself to keep. 🤷‍♀️

I'm trying to give myself some grace. 

I didn't even take the Constitutional Controversies book to work last night. 

Robespierre came along, but other things took priority. 

I didn't even look at LawHub.

I was working with a Trump supporting colleague who had the nerve to comment on how nice it is that anyone can do anything they want to in this country.

You won't be surprised to find that he's also a white male Elon stan.

He also felt the need to contribute that 180 million (I'm not fact checking his numbers, I honestly don't care) voters 'couldn't be wrong.'

It apparently never occurred to him that something being popular isn't a reflection of its justness. Hitler was popular, too. 🙄

Asking for focus, rationality, AND civility with that going on in the background was just too much.

Liz has been quiet.

With the exception of her (very much expected) Tweet above, there's been absolutely nothing. ...and that's beyond fair. She did everything she could - more than anyone has any right to expect of her, and she deserves a break. 

Since she's clearly *not* going to be Attorney General now, she also needs to figure out what's next.

It's just, selfishly, if you're going to remind me of my duties regarding the Constitution, rule of law, and our institutions...a little guidance on *HOW* we're supposed to do those things would be nice. 😢

Sounds real hard. Like, almost implausible. Send reinforcements.

I have less patience for Democrats like Michigan's Mallory McMorrow who feels entitled to imply that anyone asking any questions about unexpected or unorthodox election results are the equivalent of conspiracy theorists making plans to storm the Capitol. 

Like, for example, it's *interesting* that Democrats won Senate seats in six swing states ALL OF WHICH Kamala lost. Acknowledging this doesn't make you an 'election denier.'

She keeps replying to anyone taking issue with her approach here with a video of a speech she gave following the 2020 election. I recognize that said speech is the most viral she's ever gone, however, Ma'am, this isn't the same thing. ...FFS. 

Same Democrat leaders that had us practically convinced this race was impossible to lose think they can talk down to us now when we're shell shocked and trying to make sense of all the lies we were told by the folks we were supposed to be able to trust.

It's actual bullshit and entirely exhausting.

Ultimately, at least at this point, I feel pretty strongly that I may have worked my last election. 

Whether that be because I'm burnout and disillusioned or because we just don't have elections anymore remains to be seen. 

Coworker says 'he can't see' any way that Trump could do away with elections. ...He also thinks the United Nation's 2030 plan for Sustainable Development is 'the Democrat version' of Project 2025.

When I responded that that interpretation is nearing a level classified as psychotic he said "Democrats like the United Nations."

...this is the electorate.

At this point I don't even know why I'm surprised we are where we are.

[trannyradfem]

You're not a bad person. You're a smart woman with a working brain. You are right and shouldn't have to feel guilty about it. Even I can't stand the trans community anymore, I genuinely feel like I don't belong, and nowadays it's just outright dangerous because if you don't agree with mainstream values, your ass is getting dog piled. At best.

I have had intense sex dysphoria (fuck gender, gender don't real) since I was 4 or 5, accompanied by phantom pains for an organ I can never ever have. I never thought I was trans until I met someone who was transmasc who described my exact experiences with dysphoria. I was so happy-- not because I wanted to live as a man, but because this endless suffering may eventually be treated. And from there, I just wanted relief. 10 years of therapy did not affect my dysphoria whatsoever. I also went to the best ED rehab in my state, the one both Ke$ha and Demi Lovato went to, and stayed for a month or two, as long as my insurance would pay for it. It was amazing, but even that couldn't touch my eating disorder, no matter how much I wanted to get better.

I forced myself to wait as long as I could tolerate, and went on low dose T at 23 years old. I tried the least amount of intervention-- hoping for enough relief to make my life livable--, as medical tends to do with literally every other condition. My eating disorder, which had me in an iron chokehold since I was 10, faded away in a matter of 3 months. After 13 years of destroying my body and my organs, I didn't have to fight back anywhere near as hard anymore, and my body and self esteem finally began to heal.

I never identified as a man, as I knew that was physically impossible. I don't envy males nor do I desire to live as one. The trans community tried to tell me I'd be happier if I did, so I gave it a try; it was dangerous, uncomfortable, and miserable. I just wanted relief and a livable life. The trans community wants a fantasy. I didn't want to be a new person or escape from myself. I wanted people to treat me the same while still loving and accepting me as a person, despite my appearance changing to be "uglier".

So I cannot relate worth a FUCK to any of these pricks prancing around yelling about their girldicks, or how they want to be REAL women/ men. I WISH reversible social gender dysphoria was my problem. I WISH I didn't have to suffer for so long and feel so isolated. I wish the sex ed puberty field trip presentation didn't feel like it traumatized me, or that my body's natural functions didn't make me feel an inescapable sense of body horror-- similar to losing a limb-- no matter how I knew that logically, my body was ok. No matter how I felt about it, which was often anger for feeling like I was a car with really faulty, fucked up sensors. And I wish I could cognitively argue with and mold my dysphoria, and pick a new gender every week to make it livable. But I can't. It's something my brain decided to have before I was even capable of speech or thought. It's something that has always been with me, and I just didn't have a word for it. That's what genuine dysphoria is like. That is what transition should only ever be used for.

The trans community is like a sick fandom of worshipping gender roles and transformative surgeries at this point, and the time I spent in and around it made my depression and anxiety 10x worse. It hurts trans people like me-- extremely vulnerable ones who desperately need the support the most-- and throws us under the bus as "evil nasty TERFs" when we talk about it. It makes us sick and teaches us to blame everyone who even dares to question it.

My baeddel trans fem ex branded me as a violent, abusive male to the trans community when I politely asked "her" to stop cheating on me. "She" said I didn't make her happy anymore, and ghosted me. "She" also apparently called my case manager on my disability application and likely told them I was lying, effectively trapping me in my abusive household with my abusive parents.

The community rallied behind "her", even though I was pre- everything and so physically weak I could not stand for more than 5 minutes at a time. I was harassed for MONTHS almost to the point of suicide. "She" coerced me into a polyam relationship, despite already previously rejecting "her" the prior week when "she" was still a cis male that told me he doesn't think he's trans at all because his (now ex) husband is trans and they've talked about it countless times.

"Her" ex husband (FTM) doesn't even drink anymore because "she" date raped him. But "she" goes around telling people he doesn't drink because he's a violent alcoholic. He, like me, is also a survivor of horrific abuse. "She" later lost custody of their child because "she" was found sexting minors.

The community defended that piece of shit and almost killed me. It's not a community anymore. It's a dangerous cult.

So don't feel guilty-- you're on the right track. It's pure insanity, and you're not a bad person for noticing that. If your friends abandon you, they are the bad people. And if not for the way they've treated you, then for screwing over and abandoning people like me by contributing to this gender fuckery nonsense.

One thing I’ve been struggling with it how the fact I even have these views on trans activism and run this blog I could lose friends.

The second thing is how even tho I do my best to find reliable, sourced, non-biased information, nobody really would allow any sort of discussion of gender criticism. It pretty much immediately gets shut down and disregarded solely on the basis I am some sort of evil person. Allegedly. For holding trans ideology up to scrutiny/ dissecting it.

Maybe the first point is rather self-preservation or selfish. But I genuinely feel like some sort of undercover Bad Person.

It’s just I’ve seen too much. I’ve read too much. I can’t just sit back and be wilfully ignorant anymore. I can’t ignore everything I’ve seen.

[zuzuslastbraincell]

In an post-war fanfic redemed Azula what kind of amends Azula could do for wrecking havoc in the Earth Kingdom and conquering ba sing sa??

If I’m honest, this is a more pertinent question for Iroh, who arguably did far more damage to the Earth Kingdom as a Fire Nation general who had spent a great portion of his adult lifetime leading the military efforts against the EK, and lead several military campaigns including a six hundred day siege (and a siege that long undoubtedly causes famine and disease and poverty, and will impact the citizens regardless its success). I think it is Iroh - who spent years as a soldier, whose campaigns most likely involved many casualties - rather than Azula - a teenager who orchestrated a largely bloodless coup and then promptly left - that the people of the Earth Kingdom would more likely harbour resentment against, and though while I’m sure she is probably loathed as well (and has amends to make, for sure), she isn’t the ‘main villain’ from an EK perspective. There is arguably more Iroh can do for the Earth Kingdom in particular (and it isn’t ‘setting up a tea shop’).

That said, putting my doubts about the framing of this aside: this is a difficult question and I’m open to suggestions here. An obvious way of making amends in a general sense would be financial reparations and payments particularly to the local governments of the various EK provinces, particularly those most affected by the war. I think directly dispensing aid rather than reparations could be tricky since the largest mobilised force in the FN is the military and the military giving aid is bad, for obvious reasons. Azula could take a political role where she spearheads these efforts as part of the FN government, but the question is, while that works in the framework of ‘making amends’, I don’t think that would be advisable politically – what sort of insulting statement is it to send Azula to deal with negotiations about reparations? Like, to rub that military defeat in the EK’s faces? And while I think Azula could be useful in a political role where she is not the head of state, I question how much she’d want to do this, as well as whether it’s the best use of her talent and time. If I were to put Azula in a governmental position I think – assuming, for the moment, and this is a big assumption, that Zuko trusts her – I think she’d be far more useful dealing with the Fire Nation since she’s likely got a better understanding of the FN politically and economically. This doesn’t really have anything to do with amends, however.

In all honesty, if I were someone from the EK, what I’d be demanding for is for people like Iroh and Azula and prominent military figures and governors of former colonies to face justice – i.e. some kind of trial/assessment, some kind of legal repercussion. I think, though, realistically this isn’t something Zuko would do to Iroh or Azula – not simply for personal reasons, but also politically speaking, if you try and do a complete clean sweep in a nation like the FN, you’d have absolutely no allies or enemies left to speak of, as there likely isn’t really anyone in the political structure of the FN that hasn’t condoned atrocities at some point, and that would lead to such a vicious factional dispute that would sink Zuko’s regime before it even started (arguably helping very few people). Realistically, Zuko would probably offer pardons, and at worst, a slap on the wrist for people who decide to tow the line / concede his victory, and pursue military and political officials who refuse to do so. Despite his notoriety, Iroh would probably escape repercussions because of his aid to the Avatar (who’d probably vouch for him) and his direct involvement in underground opposition to the former regime (if you could call the White Lotus that). As for Azula, she’d likely be excused on account of her age, bonus if she’s willing to offer her public support to Zuko’s regime (which is a maybe, depends on how your redemption arc goes). I really think legal justice is just a very unlikely solution, like regardless of how much political wisdom possesses, I think that wouldn’t be something he’d concede simply for emotional reasons.

What does this leave us? She attempt to track down and round up traitors / old regime loyalists, but I question how healthy that’d be for Azula (although she would be in her element), and how helpful that is for the EK. She could try and offer her support for Zuko’s case to the court about why reparations are necessary and attempt to keep the nobles on the fence (after they have, presumably, cleared house, and decided who is worth keeping on side) but I also am not sure whether deciding who is and isn’t loyal would be great for Azula given that she had a paranoid breakdown (but perhaps I am underestimating her capabilities). If Azula were a different type of character, I’d propose fundraising/charity efforts, as weirdly anachronistic and liberal a solution as that is, but without getting sidetracked with a long paragraph about the limitations of charity to deal with systematic injustice, I also don’t think that’s something I really can see her doing.

Honestly, I’m half of a mind to say the best thing she can do for the EK is just fuck off and leave them alone? But perhaps that is a cop-out? Again, I’m open to suggestions here.

[demonslayedher]

It would have been nice if the little siblings interacted more in kny besides Muichiro and Genya.I feel like that was a missed opportunity. What kind of interactions do you think should have happened between them (Nezuko, Senjuro, Genya, Muichiro, etc)

I'll preface by saying that while I think "oldest sibling" has a lot of consistency in how it shapes people and fictional characters (and thereby make for more direct comparison of foil characters), "younger/little siblilngs" is much, much wider depending on where they fall in the birth order, and how much of a birth order there is. There's s different dynamics between small sibling groups and large sibling groups, so while I can see Nezuko and Genya is a very similar light, it's harder for me to see Nezuko and Senjuro in the same light, as Nezuko was just as much shaped by being an oldest sister and Senjuro saw himself as the last link in a chain, of sorts.

Rather than see them interact purely as younger siblings, I'd be more interested in other commonalities that draw them closer together. I can see Nezuko and Senjuro getting along just fine as politle acquaintances, but she was more of a witness to Tanjiro mourning Rengoku than having felt it super deeply herself; there was a more direct and natural bond established between Tanjiro and Senjuro. Furthermore, Tanjiro inserted himself into the dynamic between Senjuro and Shinjuro. Nezuko has been known to tell off adults for bullying children, but I feel like Shinjuro would have shrugged her off instead of gone at it with her like he did with Tanjiro, which I think kick-started the friendship between Tanjiro and Senjuro with more oomph than just being sad together over the same person. They shared that experience first.

That having been said, I had Nezuko be a Flame Breath student under Shinjuro in my serious canon divergent AU, in which she takes to Senjuro like a little brother due to proximity, and due to missing Tanjiro together and only have letters he wrote to them left. I also had Senjuro and Kotetsu become penpals in that fic, first due to Corp related research, but then because they have a lot of earnest respect for each other and relate on pressures to retain the family craft and just genuinely enjoy correspondence with each other. (I know Kotetsu doesn't belong in this post as a younger sibling, but there he goes anyway, I feel like he fits.)

I've also seen a handful of fanarts proposing that Senjuro and Genya would enjoy hanging out, especially because they are both of naturally shy personalities (even though Genya is quicker to push others away), and they could relate on having Pillar Brothers whom they admire while they themselves are miles less talented, despite all their hard work. Specifically, there was a fanart of Senjuro as a nurse at the Butterfly Mansion where they meet and start this conversation (if anyone knows the comic I'm talking about, please remind me where it was so I can link it here with credit??), and I saw it and was like, "yes, they could totally relate on that point, couldn't they?" and accepted it and never felt the need to make my own Senjuro and Genya interactions because I was satisfied. XD

Senjuro and Muichiro, though, I don't think we ever saw that! And now I want to imagine Rengoku-Aniki bringing Muichiro over for dinner a bunch and Senjuro getting to know him through that, and then seeing the change in him and being surprised by happy for him. He and Kotetsu and Muichiro should all hang out! But also I'm picturing Senjuro getting rudely blunt swordsmanship pointers from Muichiro, and just standing there, stunned, and trying to hold back tears as he politely thanks him.

Muichiro and Genya... those two bond fast in the heat of battle and I loved seeing how naturally they took to each other. I gotta wonder how much they might had actually interacted in the Swordsmith Village, though? They were both there a long time before the Upper Moons attacked, after all, but I feel like they'd have ignored each other, but then maybe would have had more of an interesting dynamic immediately afterward if they had Tanjiro in the middle of their interactions too. But, like, what if one day during training Muichiro wandered around and got lost in the woods (not lost, just forgot what he was doing), and Genya led him back like a stray puppy, only to later be shocked that he was a Pillar the whole time and Genya was treating him like his junior? Poor Genya would be shook.

In the aforementioned post, I mentioned that I just don't see much romantic pairing potential for Nezuko and Muichiro, but as friends, I see him much more inclined to find little demon Nezuko and her silly antics fun than to find polite human Nezuko an especially engaging person. Not to say they wouldn't get along, I just don't have a spark of inspiration at this time for how they'd hit it off.

But you know what interaction I always like!? Daki/Ume and Nezuko!! I will take all of those, especially the bad interactions!!

What other young sibling characters can we through in here...? Shinobu and Giyuu, they are pretty affected by being second children. Himejima was also a second child, though he grew up as an orphan so maybe he doesn't belong in this club. Iguro and Kanao were both lower middle children but they don't belong either, sorry, kids.

Oh! Yoriichi was a second born. I'll be bet he'd appreciate having friends here. He'd probably be especially touched to meet Senjuro and Nezuko, the progeny of people whom he considered friends, and I'll bet he'd have a desire for familial closeness with Muichiro, but he wouldn't know how to express that, especially after how things went with Michikatsu. He might attempt to teach Bretah technique to Genya, and either that would be what it takes for Genya to get it, or Yoriichi would assure him that he's fine being the best version of himself. He might find Shinobu a bit intimidating, but I'll bet he'd most enjoy spending silent time with Giyuu, just eating silently together or something (but also, now that I'm picturing it, I'll bet they'd pair really well side-by-side in battle). EDIT: After writing this Ask response, I wrote this Ask response, which gave me the right AU to make Genya, Muichiro, and Nezuko found family, which interactions with Senjuro too. What do you know, it does work as long as you kill Kamado Tanjiro first.

[humanuser0613]

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT:

A history lesson

🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑

What was toxic about that initial post anon?

Jungkook solos tagged the military to stop jikook from enlisting together...but steps had already been taken so that they were enlisting together and taekookers...well they don't even like JK's friends let alone jm.

No one is denying that toxic jikook and jinkook and vmin or even namkook shippers (or any other duo) exist. But comparing numbers, comparing harm done...there's just no one on the level of what taekookers and solo JK stans have done publicly.

I just don't understand the point of calling out a post pointing that out. Jikookers never attacked ARMY deaf community for posting the truth about hand gestures and actual sign language. Nor attacked the models Tae was hanging out with at PFW. Or attacked a member's gf the way basically ALL OF ARMY did to jennie (and yeah, no denial was all the confirmation we needed that they were "something" and wanted privacy, but noooooo toxic Tae solos, taekookers, +ARMY all had to keep posting those leaked pics of them and calling Tae's legs ugly because they couldn't handle that he was holding hands with a BP member 🙃).

Ya know what's normal?

Gossip.

Gossip magazines, shows, podcasts, etc.....literal sections of legitimate newspapers have been in existence for hundreds of years.

Ancient Egyptian and Greeks had fucking stone tablets explaining which spells worked the best for which gods and had many stories where they discussed which gods were sleeping with which gods AND mortals!

Yeah, some people don't care about personal lives. But you also have some people that don't care about politics and are single issue voters and that affects all their lives and the lives of other people. Guess what, we all have different interests. 🤷‍♀️ It's kinda what makes humans great (and terrible). It's also something that makes our fandom stronger because we have people with so many different careers and interests that explain different things they understand that others of us don't.

Shippers have had a place in history too.

Trekkies, Twilight, X-Files, multiple television shows, celebrity couples and 🫨*gasp* EVEN PEOPLE WE KNOW!

This is, quite frankly, a normal human experience. In the jikook community I often see other accounts telling people to step back and breathe because we *don't* know for certain, no matter how much we *know* what we see. Also we tell people to look after their mental health.

For me: 🤧

I was a baby ARMY just watching run! BTS and *boom* wtf did I see jikook doing? I saw Jimin doing the look down/look up flirty look (in that songpyeon episode) that body language experts saw Angelina Jolie do to Brad Pitt during a press junket that gave them the ‼️‼️‼️ that they were together. I'd passively thought Hermione and Harry were a good match before that point, but I'd never tried to set up my friends (my circle of friends is too small and too tight). I'm still here for the music, personalities and their great bonds with each other OT7 before I'm here for a potential (likely) jikook romance.

The other aspect of shipping that should be considered isn't just the parasocial aspect, but as a healthy and safe outlet for people to engage with their sexuality or romantic urges. Really being completely dismissive of shipping isn't going to create the safe spaces that people in this world need.

Mostly jikookers simply want people to recognize that jikook are friends at this point. They love each other as much as they love the other members. The way they support each other and understand each other is truly precious to see in this world. We see so much hate directed towards their bond and truly being on twitter showed me how the wider fandom just ignores moments between jikook that if it were between any different two members would be hyped and given thousands of likes. Namkookers don't have the same stigma attached to their bond. Taejin don't have the fandom looking away from them even with Tae's arm in Jin's ball sack.

The only moment that sent the wider fandom into a tailspin over jikook was the hickey moment. Mass trending hickey and "kiss mark" in Korean only to have both men posting pics up on social media and driving us further crazy! But you had JK solos trending the military tag when jikook were enlisting together. Taekookers trended bangmin twice globally. They also managed to get fans to trend "freejungkook" globally. Multiple times. Why? Because Jimin got too close to him and suddenly the whole fandom was up in arms about privacy concerning what two members do ON CAMERA.

So don't talk to us about toxicity when all we want is for the harassment of these two members to stop. We want the wider fandom to stop ignoring their bond and acknowledge that they are, in fact, friends. We want help shutting down the toxicity so that new ARMY aren't tricked into trending these harassing hashtags globally anymore!

Are we asking for too much?

https://www.tumblr.com/juliapark13/738698380775178240/i-love-how-2-groups-of-people-are-pretending

Y'all be like kids istg hjshsjsj💀

Taejoon decided to go together real afffff

Not a tkkr here. Remember that not all ppl who come here as a matter of eye opening to you, is a tkkr. There're many people who aren't shippers. Nor "supporters" bc there's literally nothing to support here. As of now,there's no official couple of bts. Many people don't support headcanons and assumptions. Bc simply it's none of our business and it's really uncertain thing to dedicate time for, wich also, not everyone has this much time for.

May you stay delulu if this keeps you sleep at night. The fact none of armys know anything personal about the members and each of armys look at things in a certain way and see anything as something "eyebrow rising" or a "sign" or whatever while it simply be to fuel shipping propaganda (especially when ml ships are pretty popular In korea and internationally even) and also something not as deep or "romantic" in their life as YOU make it so.

I hate seeing you guys being as toxic as tkks but you're always somehow covered with the fact that you're not actually a tkkr. Since toxicity is only directed to tkks, but this is not actually true. Toxicity exists in jkks and jnkks too. As far as I saw.

I'm actually one of your followers, and many other jkk blogs. That's why I'm writing you here this to express the way I'm sick of y'all. Y'all are grown up right?

Taejoon decided to enlist as companions to be together for whole 18 months too? 😮 I had to miss it anon, my apologies 🤧

…

Sometimes I wonder if you’re this stupid for real, or you just can’t find anything to say anymore, so at the end it only makes you toxic and look like you aren’t grown up.

They don’t have to be official couple for me to believe they are, because it can’t be more obvious they are. They were showing it without actually saying it for years.

I really don’t care if people think they’re only friends unless they don’t downplay everything they do. And you know why they do it?

When we say everyone sees what we see, but it makes them uncomfortable because they are either homophobic or y/ns or ship them with someone else, it’s not a joke. They feel jikook is too real, so they have to downplay their bond every single time.

For example everyone saw the „bite mark” was a hickey and everyone knows what it means. They were shocked and they could never accept it. If they truly believed Jungkook and Jimin are only friends, they wouldn’t have such a huge problem specifically with them.

They don’t even want them to be friends, that’s why they were furious when they found out Jungkook and Jimin are going to enlist together as companions.

Lastly, the only BTS ship pretty popular in Korea is jikook, because koreans aren’t blind and they know their culture.

Happy unfollowing me 👋🏽

[soluchi]

Eccentric (1/4)

OVERALL SUMMARY: Jonathan meets a genuinely peculiar, dare I say eccentric, person in the woods. A little bit of trolling ensues 

SUMMARY: Jonathan and Y/N's meet cute but with a little bit of trauma oh nooo

WORD COUNT: 914

A/N: goofy ass decided to write this in the dark @ 1am this is what i call fierce !!!! 

There's always that one place your parents tell you not to go. For Jonathan, it was the woods.

When he sees a girl hanging upside down from a tree reading a book right side up he thinks he understands why.

Your eyes meet his when you hear a squeak of surprise, and he quickly covers them. For a few seconds, you expect him to move his hands from his eyes, but he makes no further movements. "Who are you?" You ask. "Jonathan Joestar." It's when he stumbles on his words that you realize why he's covering his eyes.

His hands move away from his eyes immediately after hearing a thud in front of him. "Oh my God, are you ok?!" You grinned at him while flattening your dress. You looked pretty silly doing it on the floor though, it was obviously going to be stained.

"Yes! I admit it was very stupid of me 'cause my butt hurts really bad now," You took the hand he offered to you. "Then why'd you let go? What were you doing in the first place?"

"Well you seemed uncomfortable with seeing my undergarments, so I fell to be considerate." You stated as if you couldn't just climb down from the tree like any other person would've done. "And I wanted to see if reading right side up while hanging upside down would cancel out." Jonathan raised his eyebrow. "What would happen if it canceled out?"

You opened your mouth and then closed it when you had nothing to say. Your mother always told you to close your mouth or else a bee would fly into it. His question left you dumbfounded despite you 'experimenting' for at least two hours. That had been the longest you've gone without getting bored and moving on to something else. 

"Well, I haven't thought that out yet." You looked to the sky as if it would tell you. "Maybe I'd make a discovery of some sort." You grinned at him. He doubted anything like that would happen, but he wouldn't say anything because of how strange you were. Maybe you already have and haven't noticed it yet.

"Why are you here?" You asked after a minute of silence. "I.." He hesitated, not wanting to admit that he was bullied away from the spot he usually played at. "I got lost looking for something I left yesterday." His eyes physically refused to look anywhere in front of him, where you were, squinting at him while inching closer. "What are you hiding?"

He stared at the ground, opting out of the conversation. He had no idea if it was polite to leave because he was never taught about situations like these. "Of course, it's none of my business!" You reprise a common phrase you're told by your parents whenever you'd ask too many questions.

"Unless you're a criminal. Because then I'd have to know what you're hiding so I can report you to the authorities. I doubt that you'd actually tell me if you were a criminal, even less so now, because I just told you my first instinct would be to report you." He stared at you stunned, wondering how your lungs felt right now.

"This is why I don't have many people to hang out with because they worry that I'll tell adults the things we do when others aren't around. And I always ask 'If you're so scared of others finding out about things that you do, then why do them?' They never listen though! I wish one day I could ask my mo-" You cover your mouth to stop yourself from talking.

A laugh forces its way out of your mouth. "Gosh, I sure do talk a lot!" Jonathan can hear the way you try your best to laugh. It wasn't quite believable and it made him curious, but since you decided not to press on the reason why he was out in the woods, he returned the sentiment. "I think you should speak more," He started cautiously, not knowing how to comfort you or if you even needed comfort. "It's not good to bottle up that much emotion, you might burst."

This had been his first attempt at a joke in a long time, due to him not feeling happy enough and that he had no friends to joke with. It seemed to be a success, at least with you.

After your fit of giggles, which made the laugh you made earlier seem like a punchline to a deadpan joke, he realized how much time had passed. The sky looked like it was nearing the afternoon. He was about to announce his departure when he realized he never got your name.

"It's..." Jonathan didn't understand why you paused for a few seconds to remember it, but again he didn't ask. "Y/N. Also! Yesterday I found out about the different types of rocks! Do you know what igneous rocks are? They're so...!" You raised up your hands in excitement because you couldn't find words to explain your ecstasy.

Jonathan immediately forgets why he was worried when he hears you mention something he recently got interested in. "Mhm! Have you heard of sedimentary rocks?" You jumped in excitement once you realized you were about to have a discussion on rocks.

When Jonathan sees how happy you look, he decides he can stay a little longer.

At the cost of a scolding from his father and a puzzled glare from his step brother.

[hook-on-fandoms]

Do Kryptonians experience psychological trauma/distress/madness if they are unable to fulfill their genetically determined role in society? Although Clark was natural born, he still seemed to be driven by the notion there was something in life he was meant to do (ie. become Superman). Would the twins have this genetic pull in them too? What if they lose hope about their future or can't figure it out?

Hello, first I have to admit I am not very well versed in lore so I looked it up. From what I can tell this has to deal with kryptonians were genetically made to be in certain guilds with the El's being in the thinker guild. So let me think this through. On the one hand if we start the bases with identical twins on Earth, all gnomes match. Even with all the genetic matches identical twins can and do go down wildly different paths. Fair warning, I am a chemist not a biologist, psychologist, genetics master, etc.

Also long so more under the cut

So that begs the question, did kryptonians mess with more than the genetic make up of the person ie the brain chemistry etc to keep people compliant in this separation, was it a cultural scenerio that caused the compliance in this, or was their upset over this larger than we knew where people either fought this on more than it was the natural conclusion of hyper focus on this one item (ie the warrior guild) or people were upset but couldn't figure out how to change the system when those in power wanted it.

Okay of the three scenerios I'm gonna get the easiest two out of the way. If the issue was the politics or culture ones then with Clark and the boys being removed from the politics and culture of krypton and not only being raised in a totally different culture and political climate but also finding out about it at ages you are starting to think for yourself and not just blindly trusting I'd say the wouldn't have issues not following the genetics.

Now lets say that their genetic manipulation included in one way or another affecting brain chemistry so you'd want follow scientific advancement, or feel a strong pull to the gods or whatever then we get to some interesting things because while Kal El was not in the birthing pod he was born of two that were and if those modifications were tied to genetics either naturally as kryptonian or due to I think centuries to millennia of manipulation then Kal El would have some of that too. Now both of his parents are from the Thinker Guild as I understand it. Though I think I'm getting most of this info from a movie wiki page. On the arrowverse wiki page for Lara Lor-Van it says she is a scientist but they mention engineering a lot too and that seems to fall under the artisan guild. If she was matched with Jor El I'd say they had to be of the same guild to have a better matched child to serve said guild but since they went against kryptonian traditions I do think they could be of different guilds.

Now the children were born to be the best of their guild all dominate traits would be of that guild and any recessive ones would be too unless other traits were needed for balance. So if both parents were Thinker then he would be majority Thinker also. If his mother was artesian then he would probably be fairly mixed between the two guilds which would still push for intellectual prowess. Now that we here I want to actually offer something odd to the table. Superman was born of his human upbringing combined with the kryptonian part of him that would be alien to kryptonians (his powers) but him being a reporter under the idea that a drive to follow a guild is genetic on some level is due to his kryptonian genetics. Being a reporter can easily be seen as a scholarly move, lots of research with a drive to learn and spread the truth. And him wanting to be a hero was born from him realizing he could do more and seeing/hearing bad that was happening around him. That paired with the values he gained from his human parents set him off on a path of superheroing that happened to be encouraged by his kryptonian parents. Now to say whether or not the kryptonian dna could cause the extra issues by fighting it it is hard to say because many of Clark's issues could easily be due to the pedestal he put himself on before all of this.

Now when you get to the boys things get more complicated because now you have Lois's human dna that in this guild system might be read as part of different guilds, might be unreadable on guild level, or a combo and the boys a fraternal not identical twins so that dna differs between them. So it could be that they feel a drive in a direction. It could be that only one of them got that drive or not at all. If we do go on the assumption that the drive exists to be inherited I'd say that Jordan didn't get the kryptonian drive and his is all from his human experience while Jonathan does have a bit of the drive and his kryptonian side comes out more as how kryptonians on krypton kryptonian side would be and that is why they show him perk up when engineering or problem solving is brought up though this side would not be nearly to the same zealot extent as try to say they had on krypton even if his mind is able to process on a similar level or not.

Now I will also say I am one of the people that is a bit more of an optimist on the show. I do think that the stuff with Jon was on purpose. If not at the beginning then as time went on. And I do think it will be addressed in season 3.

With that said I don't think any of this other stuff will ever be mentioned, acknowledged or explained.

[minisoc]

As requested, line by line breakdown of testoster2's anti communist rant about parties.

> idk which baby leftist needs to hear this

off to a great condescending start from someone whose only left credit is claiming to be on the left on their Tumblr

> but joining a socialist party will be a waste of your time.

I couldn't imagine a more cop opinion to start us off with. i see things like this and i think: whose interests does this serve? "oh no baby leftists, don't join a party" just brings to mind this image

> you'll probably have to pay a monthly due

that's true. every communist party in history has taken dues from members. it's typically scaled to what you can manage though and it's part of the collective effort of the party organization to make social change. my dues sent comrades to Venezuela and Cuba to learn from socialists there, they produced our programs for free lunches, it built our community centers. i have no regrets about paying my dues, i pay dues to my union as well.

> that goes to like. flyers no one reads

projection. sounds now like op is defending their own lack of action with a lack of belief in the possibility of change. in my experience people do read things and even change their minds after reading things. if people were not able to be affected by the written word then propagandists on all sides would be in a tough situation.

> that you yourself will have to give to people

oh no, you mean joining a party means you might have to do outreach and talk to people? can see why it's not for op, then.

> (this in case the money doesn't go straight in the party leader's pocket).

op has never seen this but says it like it's a fact. it would be pretty easy to find out if your party leadership is embezzling and your party should be structured in a way that you know they'd be thrown out if they betrayed everyone like this. i have that confidence in my party, at least.

this is also very reminiscent about how anti communists engage with propaganda. they feel comfortable making claims of any kind whether supported or not. anyway, this is another obvious cop opinion.

> you'll waste time writing papers and reports and shit, it'll feel like having a second job.

not explained is why writing is a waste of time. i think writing for a party is almost always a useful activity, whether you're making plans for a new action or campaign or producing new agitational materials or analysing the results of previous work so you can improve on it.

it is a job, though. being a communist does mean doing work, society won't change by sitting at home and attacking communist parties on Tumblr. the lifelong sacrifices made by hard working communists are why we have seen so many socialist victories in the last century.

> the most exciting events will be lib shit like elections

this again can only be projection. the most exciting times for me have been in some of the countries largest protest actions, organizing campaigns to free political prisoners, providing at risk communities with basic needs and engaging with them, building new unions, etc. etc

> or peaceful protests that the party would still organize w/o you as a member

here's the key issue with op i think. they want to be vital to the revolution. they don't want to think that they're only one of many people all working together. yes it's true the party will continue without you, especially a wannabe cop like you. but it doesn't mean party work is useless, it just means you are useless as an individual.

> (showing up at a protest w/o having a party affiliation gives you more freedom

freedom to do what, i do wonder? being afraid of party work bc it doesn't let you do whatever you want is kinda silly, if you don't want anyone to ever tell you what to do then yeah don't join a party. if you want to make change in the world then do.

> + makes you a bit less arrestable - as opposed to if a cop saw you carrying a name tag w the hammer and sickle on it. just fyi)

this again appears to have been just made up by op. I've never been arrested for wearing a pin or a party tshirt. i don't know a single person who has. and I've known plenty of people without any markings get arrested.

> all this w/o even mentioning how (depending on your luck) there could be a lot of infighting, splits, sometimes purges

well yes it sounds like there would be a lot of drama wherever op goes but it doesn't seem to be the case generally. my party did form in a split, but over 15 years ago. i don't see any reason to worry that it would happen again any time soon. we don't infight at all, sorta the concept of the party is people who want to work effectively together.

another bit of funny evidence that op is anti communist is the inclusion of the word purges, lol. purge means expulsion from party, ooh very sinister.

> all in all, joining a socialist party is a very, Very ineffective way of building communism lmao

well first it's simply a truth that no socialist country was ever built without a communist party. not one.

but also, did any of ops points have anything to do with effectiveness? all i gathered is they're pushing an individualistic, don't tell me what to do outlook. and the condescension about protests and flyering suggest they want something more adventurist, possibly involving violence. remember the fbi and police always instigate when they infiltrate groups. they always push for criminal actions and violence.

> i'd instead recommend you talk to your neighbours abt their lives, and see how you can help each other.

hey, guess what a party does! do you think our new tenants unions and unemployed councils could come into being without talking to neighbors? do you think our new unions could come into being without discussing the way we could help each other?

> if you live in like a very rich neighbourhood or something, instead of joining a socialist party

well isn't this an interesting premise. i wonder what it says about op that they want to emphasize what the well off should do.

> it'd be way more effective if you joined a liberal/conservative party and then fucked their shit up as much as possible

sure, just see every other attempt in history at wrecking or entryism with the Democratic party. i encourage you to look into it

> if ur only goal is meeting other leftists, only go to the first 2 or 3 party meetings, by then you'll know the scene and you'd have already befriended the interesting people. that;s my advice at least

this piece of advice is generally good. in fact before applying to join any party if at all possible i encourage you to meet with the members local to you, see how they work, see what you think of their ideas and what they're doing. if they're not active in your community, ask why not. there's nothing requiring you to join if it isn't for you. but if you want to make change in this country, learning how to do it from those with experience is best. and working together in an organization that can effectively chart a path forward is the only option there is. every communist revolution was built with the leadership of the communist party.