#but like basically all of the things He says and does are extremely deliberate. he wants it to be CRYSTAL CLEAR what he thinks.

[dustysalmon]

Steb x Reader Headcanons

Steb ns//fw alphabet

Warnings: nsfw (below the cut)

Being a paramedic, Steb's protective instincts always kick in, even at home. He's hyper-aware of potential hazards and is often worried you will get hurt. He is always happy when you ask him to teach you some first-aid stuff

While Steb perfectly understands you, he cannot communicate verbally. He uses sign language, and truly appreciates the fact that you learnt it to understand him, even though you believe that is the least you could do

Because of the way he communicates, Steb is very sensitive to physical contact, and he can read expressions and body reactions extremely well. He adores holding hands with you, or simply brushing his fingertips against your skin (he very much enjoys the way you tremble under his touch whenever he does it)

Steb expresses love through acts of service. He loves cooking for you, especially seafood. He often does the fishing himself, picking the very best ingredients for you

Steb is definitely more on the introvert side, very calm, but also very attentive to the people around him. He is quite discreet and gets a little anxious in very noisy or crowded spaces

If you're comfortable with water, he WILL take you swimming whenever he can. His favourite thing is having you climb on his back while he swims as fast as possible

He absolutely cannot dance but always finds himself moving to the beat due to feeling the sound vibrations very strongly, he also just loves music in general. And he does have a playful side, doing extra awkward moves to make you laugh. He loves your laugh

Now about that fish stick...

Because he can't tell you what he wants, he likes to guide your hands and movements. He himself is very deliberate and exploratory. His nipples are highly sensitive, and you've made him cum a few times just by licking and sucking on them

It gets extremely messy when he cums, you weren't prepared the first time. Buckets after buckets of hot sticky fluids. Needless to say the sheets were done for. Also, the gills under his eyes move when he orgasms, they do so until the aftershocks have passed. Sometimes they even keep moving in the afterglow if he came particularly hard, it always mesmerises you

Shower sex is a big thing for him, it gets him going like nothing else. He loves coming up behind you as you shower, he starts washing your back, but then his hands are all over you, your nipples, your chest, between your legs. There's something about your naked wet body that makes him go absolutely crazy. But he's aware shower sex it's not the best for your species, so you don't do it often.

Steb doesn't speak, but boy oh boy does he moan. And being hyper sensitive doesn't help. Whether you're teasing his nipples, sucking on his cock or fucking him, you're gonna hear him whine, groan and whimper. He gets a little embarrassed about it, but knowing how much you love it makes him feel a little better

Steb's species have extremely sensitive genitals, especially the males. For that reason, his cock is normally tucked away in a genital pouch. It opens naturally with arousal to release his sex

Steb's cock is also equipped with small gills that are only here for one purpose: pleasuring his partner. And they do their job very well

Ever since Steb came into your life (literally and figuratively), you've stopped buying lube. His species produces a ridiculous amount of lubricant that is more than sufficient for the two of you

Steb loves giving you oral, loves seeing how much pleasure he can give you with his mouth alone. His tongue is much longer and stronger than a human's. He'll never forget your reaction the first time he plunged it deep inside you. He is not against receiving but he always gets scared about the idea of cumming in your mouth and basically drowning you

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

one thing about my emmet that i really hope comes across is that whenever hes interacting with another person it should always feel like everything he does is on purpose. because it is. he's like one of the most restrained/self-possessed and deliberate people ever. this is vitally important.

[weebsinstash]

"Hero forced to work for/exploited by the villain who also has a big ass fetish for you" will always be one of my top tropes and goddamn does Cecil have the capacity to be such a massive creepy piece of shit like, forgive me father for I'm about to sexualize an old man again

Maybe it stems from my childhood where I was adultified really young and then raised to suppress my own feelings while also having to constantly perform emotional labor for other people but I've always resented the trope of "oh Superpowered Person, you're so powerful that you're OBLIGATED to help save others because you're the only one who can and if you're not personally jumping to solve every problem it's your fault if something bad happens" and I keep thinking of a Reader who, Viltrumite hybrid, mutant, magic user, whatever, you develop your powers and the GDA eventually starts crawling up your ass as you EMPHATICALLY refuse to help them with fuck all about dick nothing

Cecil starts spying on you and having you tailed because it's his job while progressively becoming more... unhealthy towards you. The level of monitoring and invasion of your privacy is extreme, but also, not untypical for the GDA in general, so it's quite literally required by him to watch thencameras all over your home, have your phone bugged, learn your routine and habits and personality. Yeah dude he's just watching you get all sweaty doing squats and personal training in your bedroom for "research purposes". He's definitely watching you work out and study and put insane amounts of effort to appear like you don't have any powers "exclusively" because he's required to and has to gauge if you're a threat and he totally isn't being some proud little pervert at watching you tone your body

Personally I've been thinking of a Reader who is more closer to a Kryptonian than a Viltrumite and you deliberately scare the shit out of Cecil to try and make him go away. Cecil tries to approach you for an interaction but misrepresents who he is and what he does. Sits down next to you on a park bench and makes small talk, like he's just someone from the area, trying to feel you out but also, feeling a certain thudding in his chest that he's getting to finally talk to you. And you humor him, putting on false pretenses yourself which he isn't aware of until you just drop on him something like "but why are you ACTUALLY talking to me, Director Cecil Stedman of the GDA?"

he sits there wondering how the fuck you would even know that, heart thudding and briefly being struck with the fear of God as you stoically tap the side of your head, "as a friendly piece of advice, sir, when you want to gather intel on someone who you don't know exactly what abilities they have, maybe you should tell your boys back at HQ to be careful about what they're saying into that little earpiece buzzing against the bones of your ear" as you then perfectly recount several of the things that his men had said over the codec while Cecil was sitting there and even mockingly repeating after them to prove that, oh yeah, you've got superhuman hearing

"I didn't join the GDA to sit and watch the Director sit on a bench and talk about the weather" "don't talk like Stedman is wasting his time you brat, this is basic intelligence gathering" "hey, if you want to watch Cecil ask a handful of stupid bullshit questions for 20 minutes instead of training the Guardians, be my fucking guest" and you just cross your arms and look down on him, "really, if you're the best the government has, I can see why you're desperate to scoop up anyone with even mild skills"

I want a superpowered Reader who, unlike Mark, actually genuinely PUTS EFFORT into trying to scare the shit out of him to make him fuck off and he's just like. Honestly turned on by it.

You have him held by the throat, squeezing releasing squeezing releasing as you have a lowkey villain monolog about "what makes you think if I wanted to help humanity that I would do it by working for the government, let alone a government that won't even let their citizens have good healthcare? Why would I waste my time pretending I'm patriotic and saving lives when you're just going to let kids keep dying in school shootings and people have to file bankruptcy over their cancer treatmenrs" and you're getting so up in his face he can smell what you have for breakfast and. You pause, scowling. "You know what, I'm gonna give you a free pass and assume that your dick pressing against your pants is just from the endorphins from the little rushes of oxygen I'm letting you have" and he's just nodding like "yeah yeah that's definitely the reason" but. It's not lmao

You could be actively antagonistic against this man and he's still. Tryna be friendly and shit, deflecting your hostility and sometimes even neutralizing it by being amicable and kind of kissing your ass a little bit. He's personally approaching you multiple times to try and recruit you, risking meeting you face to face because HE wants to be the one to talk to you. God forbid you're actually forced to defend the planet over some bullshit like "yeah I only killed that thing because it was heading towards where I live and I didn't want it to ruin my stuff" and here's Stedman, getting on your ass about how you're wasting your potential, you could be saving lives instead of fucking around at home in your spare time, 'think of all the good you can do, we could get you your own costume' and they already know your exact measurements because, oh yeah, Cecil's already seen your naked body several times over by having your bedroom and bathroom bugged

Oh, he'll sit and watch those monitors until the sun goes down, but if one of his younger colleagues nudges their buddy and cracks a joke about how seeing you in the shower "gives them something to enjoy later tonight" and just outright creeping and joking about gooning over you, they look up to see Cecil staring at them with borderline murderous intent and he plays it off as "take your job seriously, you fucking idiot, we're saving lives here" but nah dog they start creeping too many times and Cecil's pulling a Tanya the Evil by deliberately deploying them to a position where he knows they're going to get absolutely fucking bodied. Oh wow that guy he caught making deragatory perverted jokes at the water cooler over how muscular you're starting to get happened to get put on Hail Mary babysitting duty and the giant alien wound up eating him alive? Oh nooooo, not Jerry, he was so popular and everyone liked him, oh noooo how tragic. anyways back to business-

Cecil sends Nolan or the Immortal to try and talk to you to convince you to join the Guardians and it turns into a complete slugfest where you take a few good hits but ultimately wind up beating the absolute fuck out of that man and Cecil, where with literally anyone else would probably be reasonably shocked and terrified and immediately making contingencies, is glued to the monitors with a look of respect and awe, "see, THAT'S why we need them on our side. Look at how easily they took out one of our best defenses. We CAN'T let them go"

Deadass I'd consider working as a Guardian myself IF they paid me a metric fuckton of money and they obviously have the funds for it given how willy nilly Cecil uses that teleporter that takes literal billions of dollars every time he uses it. Cecil fantasizing in his head of the moment he convinces you to start working for Uncle Sam and how HE'S the one who managed to change your mind. Cecil watching you a throw a monster stories high around like it's fucking nothing and then going home and beating his dick like it owes him money

But also. A scenario where they put a thingy in your head or in your body. You eventually try to break off working for the government and even maybe threatening to leave the planet entirely and Cecil is hitting a button that completely incapacitates you. Think of how absolutely fucked Mark would have been if he didn't have his friends and Robot to protect him and remove that device. He would've been an actual fucking slave, always living under the threat of getting brain-blasted st any signs of disobedience. For you, it's being completely unable to leave the planet, or having any attempts to escape or avoid the GDA completely nullified.

They develop a special needle made from the parts of a monster who managed to cut you and you're held down flailing by other heroes who consider you a threat (and or are also perverts for you, like Nolan) as you get jabbed as they try to find a chemical concoction that's capable of sedating you. Maybe they find one. Maybe they can't. The horror is in the helplessness. You can no longer truly refuse any call to action by the GDA without getting zapped by something you have no ability to remove or disable. You're trapped.

I also like the idea of Reader being something like Darwin from the X-men where your power is that you respond and adapt to your environment. It turns out you developed powers like flight and superstrength because you literally live on a planet surrounded by aliens and people with magic and superpowers and your body adapted to those dangerous surroundings. Which also means, Cecil shocks you enough times and suddenly, you start tanking it. You take that electricity or trilling noise in your brain and suddenly, it starts to not make you hurt or disoriented as much; you're fucking eating it up like it's lunch. Cecil stands there and watches as you slowly stand to your full height, your expression shifting as you obviously can no longer be affected by the ONE contingency that was working on you besides having their very strongest all team up on you at once and only to SOME degree of success

Cecil knowing he should be fearing his life but truly being in awe of you. You're considering killing him and he's all but sighing, "wow, you really are something, aren't you. Just full of surprises"

But uh, as fun as that idea would be, I think keeping Reader trapped has so much more drama and angst and potential for fun, and now that you're under Cecil's full control, he can take delight (and be freaky deaky) at the fact he now has complete unrestrained access to you and you are never, EVER getting away. So hey kid, why not humor your boss and let him treat you after you just slayed a giant space monster. Why yes he did imply you were going to a celebration with other heroes and it turned out he's just taking you to a private candlelight dinner. What are YOU going to be able to do about it? :)

[mythalism]

I really love your metas! I have a few questions and I’m very interested in your opinion.

Could you elaborate on how you interpret Solas’s romantic connection with Mythal and his love for Lavellan? In the game, there is a line stating that before Lavellan, Solas had never been in love and didn’t even know what it was, which makes me question the idea of romance with Mythal.

I played Inquisition only after Veilguard and was surprised that many perceive Solas as someone capable of casual sexual encounters without emotional depth. In his romance with Lavellan, he seems utterly captivated by her and incredibly respectful, he practically radiates tenderness and deep adoration toward her. Such behavior doesn’t seem believable to me for a man with extensive sexual experience. To me he seemed more like a demisexual. His love for the atmosphere of intrigue and tension didn’t convince me of his sexual 'promiscuity'. After all, one can enjoy that kind of atmosphere without actually engaging in physical pleasures. He seems very restrained when it comes to his physical body. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he had no sexual experience at all or if his experience was extremely limited. I also got the impression that Mythal wouldn’t have lowered herself to her 'doggo' in that regard.

thank you dear <3 im always happy to yap

for me, the moment i saw that mural of mythal stepping away from solas's embrace and calling him "love", i went "oh my god they were lovers" and nothing has successfully convinced me otherwise since LMAO. obviously the game very deliberately leaves it up for interpretation, and i totally understand why people dont interpret it as such. however i do think the game does deliberately suggest it for the people who want to run with it, but subtly enough that you can ignore it if you want. for me, "i will follow you wherever you go", calling him "love", his request that she basically run away with him, the resentment between them afterwards, all reads like romantic love to me. i also just enjoy the crazy fucking drama that the idea of them being lovers adds to literally everything. it especially adds to solavellan in my opinion, though many would argue it takes away. i think it adds juiciness and context. i also think many of the parallels to solavellan further suggest that solythal was romantic. but i also think calling them just lovers is incomplete, the same way i think calling them just friends or just vaguely mother/son, queen/knight, goddess/devotee or whatever else would incomplete. their relationship clearly does not conform to modern thedas's idea of love; both bellara and mythal herself say this and i believe them. mythal herself says no one mortal could understand their connection and its one of my favorite lines of hers. how could we ever understand what its like to love someone for thousands and thousands of years? what shapes might that love take over millennia? all of them, i'd wager.

just because i believe they were lovers does not mean i think their relationship resembled anything like what he has with lavellan. i think the immortal nature of their love is the key to the distinction. i dont think they were every anything remotely resembling monogamous. their relationship was fundamentally unequal (so is solavellan but in a different way lol). mythal probably used the amorphous nature of their relationship as a tool for manipulation. while solas was devoted and loyal, she was hot and cold. veilguard weirdly forgets this, but according to myth she was MARRIED (or the ancient equivalent) to elgar'nan this whole time too. it is elgarnan who is the sun, and mythal who is the moon, and solas the wolf that howls after it LMFAOOO. solas was quite literally secret third thing. he loved her like a goddess. she loved him like her loyal guard dog. he knew it and resented her for it but could not help loving her still. i dont think this makes it any less romantic love, it just makes it really fucked up romantic love, unrecognizable from how we'd recognize it, or how modern thedas would.

@/baphometsss wrote a banger the other day about how solas's love for mythal and felassan differs from his love for those he meets later (lavellan but also his friends in the inquisition) because his relationship with them is characteristic of how spirits love. i really loved this interpretation because even though i dont agree with all of it (which ill get to in a moment), i think people do misunderstand what i mean when i say i am a solythal lovers truther, and this post clarifies it. solas loves mythal in the way immortal spirit god-beings love each other. solas loves lavellan the way a mortal man loves a mortal woman. both can be romantic, both can involve sex, but the core of the love is very different; especially when the crux of solas's story is learning to be a man instead of a spirit/god.

i know a lot of people interpret that line (assuming you're talking about the "the dread wolf could not foresee what it would mean to fall in love") as meaning the dread wolf has never been in love and honestly... i have never understood that interpretation. like if thats your vibe and you choose to take it that way because you wanna headcanon it, amazing. have a great time. but i see so many people taking it as gospel as if it literally says "solas has never experienced love before" which it simply does not say. it says he could not have anticipated what it would mean to fall in love, and to me, there is a big "now, in 9:41 dragon, with a mortal woman" implicit at the end. im making assumptions about the intention too, but i think both are fundamentally interpretations, and the game once again does not say for certain either way. i think they did this intentionally the way they kept the nature of the solythal relationship vague. but yeah i dont interpret it that lavellan is solas's first love. i think mythal is, sorry LOL. but it doesnt really matter because their relationship was a fucking mess and he resents her just as much as he loves her so who cares.

this is just something i was pondering earlier when i first saw this message this morning but i think this is where the distinction between immortal godly vs. mortal human love comes back into play. i am not sure that immortal beings would be capable of love in the same way that mortals are, because there is no threat of loss. imagine how different it would be to love without the inevitability of grief? all the time in the world, all the power you could ever want. what would that look like? how would it feel? would you love as deeply if you knew it was eternal? now imagine that changes; suddenly you are powerless. suddenly, you have so much to lose. how would love feel, then? it makes me think of that quote that is always attributed to the illiad but is actually from the 2004 movie troy and written by david benioff which makes me want to fucking die but anyway the quote is relevant nonetheless; "the gods envy us because we are mortal... everything is more beautiful because we're doomed." i think falling in love with lavellan forces solas into an understanding of love he has never experienced before. and it fucks him up really bad. lavellan's mortality forces solas into the desperate, frantic, tragic mindset of a man in love with a ticking clock. we see time and time again that he cannot act like a god around her. he tries at first. he fails and cracks every time. he sees her in trespasser and literally falls to his knees to kiss her one last time. in veilguard he reveals that it was a relief that she allowed him to just be himself. i think what makes solas's love for lavellan unique and special is not that its his first, but that it is humanizing. mythal required solas to become a god to serve her purpose. he loved her through it all even if it ruined him. lavellan asked for absolutely nothing except the truth. he loved her through it all and it ended up saving him. to me, both are romantic loves that achieve very, very different ends.

now to get to the sex. the interpretation of solas as someone who Fucks mostly comes from 1. his mind-boggling age, 2. his comments about being very different when he was young; "hot-blooded and cocky", and 3. the comfort with which he pretty explicitly flirts with lavellan. in my interpretation, all of these things do indicate at least a level of confidence and experience with sex, though not necessarily a raging libido. i agree that solas is probably demisexual, at least when we meet him. i think it makes sense with his nature as a spirit. but i also dont think that means he never had casual sex ever in his THOUSANDS of years of life. or that he didnt have plenty of emotionally charged sexual experiences, rather than casual ones. i mean we are talking a lifespan of at LEAST 7,600 YEARS. AT LEAST! we even know that spirits fuck from a codex in trespasser LMFAO. i dont think its fair to say that his tenderness and adoration with lavellan excludes him from having fucked crazy style in his youth. i do think that sex is not at the top of his mind, and that he still clearly struggles with the mortal impulse of sexual desire that his body would have created, and that his instinct is to deny himself those desires. i just dont see him always having been that way, and i think his comments support that he was different when he was young. i just dont know how a virgin would slip in that indomitable focus line so smoothly you dont even realize what he just implied until you walk away and realize you're blushing. i do think sex and physical intimacy is an important part of his relationship to lavellan though, whether it is present or absent, because its consistent with this theme of the physical versus the spiritual, god versus man that he is constantly struggling with. i am trying to tie this all together but honestly ive lost the plot. asexual solas is valid and actually a lot of what i love about solavellan is that sex is relevant thematically but it is not the foundation of the relationship. i always like to say that sex haunts their relationship, a heavy presence just out of frame that both of them are trying not to look towards. i think its soooo juicy. but i also just like the idea that young cocky solas who canonically used to gambled also was a playboy. come on he NEEDS to get that hair pulled

[talenlee]

Story Pile: Gunpowder Milkshake

Gunpowder Milkshake is a 2021 action thriller film directed by, you know what, credit is important but this is just reading wikipedia at at you. The director was Navot Papushado, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ehud Lavski and goddamn if I’m not thrilled to see the name Ehud being used. It stars roughly everybody who’s ever been in an episode of an hour long adult show about dragons, stars or time travel, and focuses on a young hitman named Sam, who’s the best of the best (in this specific context) called upon by a shadowy organisation whenever they want their special interests addressed. Sam is extremely of the type, you know the genre, very good at action sequences, and has a steady but sad life as a professional murderer. Then one night, she makes a mistake on a job, and then everything goes wrong and our lovable plucky dramedy central hitter has to fight basically everybody.

Everybody.

It is a lot of fun.

Content Warning: This is an action movie with a lot of visceral bloody violence and guns and knives and axes and sledgehammers and bowling balls and basically, content warning, this movie is extremely cool. Oh and despite being in this genre in this style, the movie avoids sexual peril, unless you’re readings things into statements.

If you know this type of movie, Gunpowder Milkshake is one of them. You have your ordinary kind of status quo, you have the miserable ordinariness of a very cool kind of urban fantasy story. Oh, I say urban fantasy just because this movie is an unrealistic depiction of crime action that might as well has elves, but it isn’t the kind of story that has elves.

Anyway, in Gunpowder Milkshake you have a world where people are operating in these sorts of deliberately polite ways, ridiculous unrealistic and elaborate crime fantasy nonsense. There’s a diner where you have to surrender guns to sit down, there’s a dentists’ office where you can get cleaned up from being shot, you know, all the kinds of trappings of a ‘normal’ reality with an undercurrent of the unreal. In this world, Sam has grown up after being half-orphaned, half-abandoned, and become, well, a hitman working for The Firm, an all purpose omni-spooky conspiracy theory of evil control.

Sam gets sent to a job to recover money from an accountant that stole from the Firm, and that goes sour when the accountant reveals he only stole the money to pay ransom for his daughter, who definitely doesn’t give Sam horrible guilty feelings. But in the discovery, Sam shoots him, not killing him, and things start to spiral out. See, Sam needs to now recover the kid (and does) and needs to recover the money (and doesn’t), and at that point now Sam has a point of vulnerability (the kid) and an angry party that wants a word (the Firm).

The core of the story like that creates a sequence of combat setpieces. This movie is a Fight Opera, in that a scene is held together by the tension of waiting for a cool fight to break out, and they are some real cool fights. Talking about fights in movies is interesting to me because it can be very easy to see combat in terms of a sort of sliding absolute scale, from ‘good’ fights to ‘bad’ fights rather than necessarily what kind of fight they are, what the genre of fights they are. If you go back and watch older movies, they can sometimes have truly laughable combat scenes, as the stunt actors in ninja pajamas dance around the protagonists. The thing is, while this is ‘bad’ now, and probably was a little weak at the time, you have to remember that movie making, like music making, is something that’s based around an awareness of the genre, of the ways things can be done and what they’d do.

What that can mean is that sometimes a movie may have only one or two ‘fights’ and those fights might proceed on positively sedate timings, or they may be the kind of movie where there’s always combat breaking out, over and over, with all sorts of distinctive exciting elements. If a movie goes from brawl to brawl to gunfight to brawl to gunfight, that pacing is going to play into it, and play into how those fights are shown. Those are going to be long sequences of short fights, because to sustain that kind of action over a protracted period of audience attention, you need to keep varying it. On the other hand, a long fight, ten, fifteen minutes of one single brawl, is going to take a slower, steadier pace, where every detail gets surfaced.

Gunpowder Milkshake is not an intense, pulse-pounding club banger of a combat movie. Instead the combat sequences are very literally plotted to the musical pace of more 1960s and 1970s rock bangers (and yes, some of them are more recent than that, but the sound you see). It’s more stompy and steady than pulsing and electronic and the result is a movie where the combat sequences are paced out more deliberately but still with that sort of shout-along quality.

As a result, the characters seem to be struggling more against equally ridiculous opponents; people who can weather a hit, but not many hits, and protagonists who can get thrown around, because they’re not this implacable, untouchable combat spider. There’s a sense of danger, but not exactly a fantastic one, and the weapons can be more ridiculous than they would be otherwise. Like a pair of handguns with swords on them.

I just read that last sentence and of course it’s so ridiculous but damn if it’s not lots of fun. Man, this movie is a fun time. You’re not going to be challenged much mentally, but the movie is full of all sorts of detailed set-dressing and character and location designs. There’s a strong sense of intentionality in everything, the way characters look and the way they move, the weapons they use and have access to, and the places they have to move through.

Oh hey!

One last thing!

I may have failed to mention, but this movie’s principle cast are all women. This isn’t a huge deal in my opinion; I actually feel that referring explicitly to this as a feminist movie, or as a movie with an all-woman cast or something has a problem in that it kind of diminishes the things about it that are cool. It’s not like you’re going to get a treatment on meaningful feminist theory or a dismantling of patriarchy or anything like that – the word ‘feminist’ does come out of the mouth of the villain, as he tries to explain why he’s going to be so okay with torturing a woman to death.

It’s easy to say this movie is like ‘a girl power John Wick‘ or whatever, but that sounds like comparing cake to pie to me. They’re just not the same kind of thing even if you want them in similar moods. And damn if I don’t love the pace this one sets.

Not a pulse, but a stomp.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[littleeyesofpallas]

Hi,

would you make meta stuff about Mayuri's way of speaking? I mean guy speaks strange way compared to other characters and me with friend don't speak japanese and would like to know more about it.

Thank you! 💜

So, i do want to remind anyone reading my blog but please remember i'm not at all fluent in Japanese. I understand the grammar on a textbook level, and with enough dictionary resources I can poke around and sus out nuances of some word choices (particularly stuff like fictional names of people and swords and attacks and stuff, as those kinds of creative choices are very overt*), especially in irregular usage, but when it comes down to things like dialect, slangs, vernacular or phraseology, or more subtle tone indicators I'm pretty blind.

*(sorry to further clarify: when it's stuff like fantasy jargon it's stuff no one would ever actually say, and so the choices made in crafting those words or names from scratch are all reliably very deliberate. But when looking at more casual speech a lot of character voice just kind of defaults to what "sounds" right, and so the distinction between choosing one common word over another isn't always meaningful or readily apparent, both in general and to someone not fully fluent like me.)

Like if someone talks in a stilted overly technical or dry way I might be able to tell that much, but I'd totally miss more structural things like whether it makes them sound more like a mad scientist -vs- a tryhard edgelord fake intellectual -vs- a man out of time -vs- a stuffy rich person --or what the differences i'd even be looking for between all those would be-- I really can't tell outside of what i might be able to glean from things like narrative context more than the dialog itself.

With the exception of some very tropey, and thus easier to identify things like, movie-esque yakuza slang, or melodramatic historical feudal drama formal titles --and even then those are things i might more readily catch when actually spoken than when written on the page-- i'm just as lost as the next person.

That all being said, there are still a few little things i can sort of pick at without feeling totally out of my depth...

I think it's been brought up on some random post of mine before that Mayuri does notably use a "more feminine" 1st person pronoun, watashi[私] which is a pretty common pronoun, although its usage feels weird to explain in English?

Like... it is considered "gender neutral" in that there are other pronouns that are more specifically feminine or masculine and it's not one of them. But then in practice, you'd basically expect men to opt for one of the more overtly masculine pronouns, which just sort of leaves women with watashi as a default?

So it's not that it explicitly makes him sound ""feminine"" so much as it makes him sound less masculine; which suits his intellectual, non physical inclined, and at times cowardly or at least scheming demeanor. But like, it's also considered a little stuffy and sort of overly formal, or technical which is also appropriate to him.

Oh right and it's a formal pronoun as opposed to informal, but there's also a level of very formal pronouns, and it's not one of those, so that doesn't so much triangulate a position as it just leave in vaguely in the middle of the road...

Does that all make sense? it feels like super overexplaining for what is an extremely commonly used pronoun with mostly very neutral implications.

He occasionally ends sentences with a single katakana syllable rather than hiragana, indicating... not quite an "accent".. but like a sort of emphasis. Like a punctuating lilt in tone. Actually Nakao Ryuusei does this really noticeably in the anime and I don't know for sure if I heard it that way in my head and he just nailed it, or if i heard him first and it's just always colored my reading since.

A lot of the rhetorical NE[ネ] which begs confirmation, often translated into English as "...right?" (It's part of that desu ne[ですね] that you hear a lot in anime, where the desu[です] is just the verb to be, so together they tend to translate as "isn't it?")

YO[ヨ] which is again a sort of rhetorical thing that usually gets translated as something like, "...you know?"

and E?[エ?] which isn't even a word or part of speech so much as it's just like, an interrogative noise? Quite literally just "eh?"

But see this is one of those things were like... I can tell it's different from a sort of default neutral mode of speech, but I don't know what that indicates as, like, a point of characterization... Is it specifically condescending? Is it there to sound mechanical or stilted? Is it somehow old fashioned or polite/formal? I have no clue as to these sorts of specifics.

[edit]: I want to reiterate this is a rhetorical device, he's not literally asking a question and waiting for a response. If anything it's functionally the exact opposite, he's saying it to emphasize that he's stating things meant to be taken as facts, it actively closes the dialog off from further questioning.

He also says HOU[ホウ] a lot, which also isn't really a word so much as a sound, but given the pattern in speech above I feel like it's kind of inquisitive, or at least contemplative, which is (i think) how I remember Nakao delivering those lines too. Like a sort of, "Oh?" or "Huh..." or "Hmm..."

And given how close the camera gets to his face most times he says it, it gives an impression of being, not "quiet" exactly, but like you had to be close to hear it, so like, almost under his breath? Like it's clearly a noise he makes to himself, it's not like a thing or expression he's making to the other people int he scene.

FUU[フウ] or alternatively HUU, and I think once or twice FUN'/HUN'[フン] as a sort of grunt? not quite as guttural as that, but not quite a sigh? Like a "hmpf."

He also does your classic YARE YARE[ヤレヤレ] which definitely isn't unusual or unique to him but it has this kind "tut tut" or "tch"/"tsk" tone to it and tends to translated very loosely like, "oh my" or "good grief", but I think of it more like a "well, well, well..." but like kind of implicitly more exasperated than that sounds in english?

I don't know where to start trying to qualify, like... what kind of character says yare yare a lot, but it's definitely something that suits some characters more than others, and Mayuri it definitely fits.

He tends to laugh like ...KU KU...[...クク...] which is a kind of sharp snigger, sneer, or scoff. He really doesn't guffaw or cackle or have much of a more typical dramatic villain laugh, it's very understated.

Although in his fight with Pernida he does let out a full on maniacal FUHAHAHA[フハハハ] laugh for the first time in the whole series

I do love the fonts Kubo uses for a lot of Mayuri's dialog. At a certain point he starts to lean intothe same basic font as everyone else, but particualrly at the beginning he switches between a few unusual ones that are specific to Mayuri.

One's got that rough kind of pseudo handwritten quality to it. It reads to me as kind of scratchy, like a sharp pen nib on thick matte paper, with a kind of clotty ink flow that starts thick and wet but sorta tapers out too fast, leaving the lines spotty and rough.

But he also alternated with a thicker rounder font that has these subtle curls to them that I don't see other character use often.

and then he's got a second font choice that basically has all the same tones as the first one, except maybe a bit, like, louder(?) implicitly just based on context? It tends to be used in creepy action scenes where as the thinner one is more for creepy conversation?

In his very first appearance he chastises Gin, and he changes font between sentences, giving a very distinct sense that it's a change in tone. It reads to me like a low heavy hiss, almost like his voice is normally shallow or throaty, but when the font changes he suddenly drops his voice into a chestier range and speaks almost more smoothly?

Then there's just the perfectly regular fonts he uses sometimes, basically any/every other character uses these same fonts at some point or another.

and he has a neat thin wispy font that he only uses the one time when he liquefies himself. Along with the voice bubbles used, it gives a super distinct impression of his voice barely being audible.

He also one time speaks enthusiastically in an italic version of the more standard font when he arrives in Hueco Mundo.

And then in the Hell Jaw one shot he just has a completely different standard font because Kubo probably didn't keep track of what fonts he'd been using from like 8 years ago

There's also a subtly funky sort of font he uses briefly in the tbtp sidestory? I dunno what to say about this honestly. It gives me these vague 60s-70s vibes that I can't quite place? (I feel like I know i've seen it before but on what? A bowling alley sign? A little back alley cafe? a jazz album cover??)

I have no idea that the take away from that is supposed to be though.

And I guess that's it. I dunno how I thought I was gonna end this. It didn't really reveal any new facets to his character that weren't pretty apparent from the rest of his whole design and demeanor. Plus Nakao's performance in the anime basically nails all of this and i think makes it pretty apparent in tone even if you don't know much about Japanese.

[inbarfink]

I mean, the thing about Zim is that despite what he might say, he is absolutely capable of love and affection. It’s just that he only expresses it to a very select assortment of people.

First and most obvious one is probably his relationship with the Tallests. Which tends to be a lot less just a ‘loyal soldier duty bound to serve his leaders” and is coded a lot more like…. “Child overeager to please his neglectful parents”. I mean, the entire emotional crux of ‘Enter the Florpus’ is built on this. 

Zim isn’t just motivated by a pure ideological belief in the Irken Empire’s conquest, or by the desire for the fame and accolades that come with being a successful Invader. I mean, those ARE factors. Zim is both a true believer in Irk’s imperialist ideology and very interested in feeding his ego. But he’s also looking for a more personal sort of emotional validation specifically from the Tallests. One that he’s desperate for, but we know that he’s never gonna get.

(And that’s not just because Zim sucks. Even if he could somehow stop being a walking disaster area and a giant millstone around the Empire’s neck, that desire for the Tallests’ love would still be a fool’s errand. We’ve all seen how they treat poor Skoodge.)

In addition to that doomed attempt at an emotional connection, Zim can sometimes be kinda affectionate with his various robotic minions, which obviously goes back to the whole…

Yeah, that.

And that same episode ends with him having a very similar sort of response to Robo-Dad and Robo-Mom picking him up.

And then there’s, of course, his M-Lab Robot Minions in 'Enter the Florpus'. All named - and all grieved by him. 

His extreme reaction to Lawrence specifically dying shows he did apparently see them as individuals.

But as far as we can tell both the Roboparents and the Robot Army are not, like, sapient? I mean, AIs like GIR or the Computer are characterized as basically Machine People - but these robots barely seem more sapient than my laptop. And as much as I love my laptop it’s not gonna, like, love me back.

Speaking of GIR, he’s another example of someone Zim shows genuine care for. I mean… he can absolutely be pretty mean to him at times…

But any sort of kindness from Zim has to be graded on a Curve because he’s so terrible. ‘Hobo 13’ demonstrated to us very well just how horrible Zim can be to his subordinates - rude, inconsiderate, pretty much deliberately sacrificing them not just for his personal gain but also just for his own petty amusement. 

And it’s notable that’s not how he treats GIR. Who he expresses actual concern for…

And he pretty easily acquiesces to GIR’s capricious desires even when he clearly sees them as Stupid and frivolous. 

This scene is especially notable. I mean, this is Zim actually feeling bad about the fact that he made someone cry and trying to de-escalate the situation. Maybe for other characters a moment like that would be no big deal, but this basically the softest Zim has been through… all official IZ media. And it was a scene with GIR.

 And meanwhile GIR himself… didn’t really register any of this - either Zim’s frustration or his attempts at sort-of comforting him, because he was only sad about having eaten his cupcake and not being able to eat it more. 

Because that’s the thing, while GIR does have some level of affection towards Zim at times…

He doesn’t really show that same level of care. I mean, in pretty much all of these examples, GIR puts his own desire to give Zim physical affection over Zim’s clear discomfort and disgust. And in general, while GIR vaguely acknowledges that Zim is his master - he often disregards or ignores Zim’s orders and requests. And not just when it comes to being ordered around in yet another evil scheme -

But also when the situation is just clearly basically hazardous to Zim’s very life. 

(Which is very much in contrast to Zim, who, again, is actually emotionally invested in GIR’s safety)

While some of GIR’s inability to fulfill Zim’s commands can be attributed to his lack of mental focus and general stupidity - his absolute lack of care and regret about these situations seem to imply that, like, GIR might follow some of Zim’s orders when they seem fun, and he might like Zim in the sense that GIR is generally incapable of genuine malice. But GIR is never going to care about Zim, as a ‘Master’ or as a friend, as much as he cares about his own hedonism.

And of course, we all know that if GIR was capable of actually focusing on anything and remaining grounded in reality - he would very quickly realize that he actually hates Zim quite a bit. 

And that’s, like, the whole Tragedy of Zim. He is a being capable of kindness and friendship - but he always ends up only caring about beings who will never care about him back.

Due to Irken indoctrination and also self-inflicted due to his own ego (like, it is no coincidence that the People Zim Actually Cares About are the two beings Irken ideology obliges him to acknowledge as his superiors and then a bunch of robotic minions who are supposed to be 100% obedient to him.) Zim only loves those who will not love him back.

Except for Minimoose. That relationship is 100% wholesome.

[cosmerelists]

Tumblr Call-Out Posts of Cosmere Characters

If people were able to write call-out posts of Cosmere characters as if they were real people, those call-out posts might look like this.

1. Hoid

@libralita already wrote this one: https://www.tumblr.com/libralita/734739225821446144/some-planet-culturally-appropriated-the-marewill?source=share.

2. Siri

Just so you know siri does EXTREME fast fashion: we're talking--never wears the same outfit more than once and BURNS every outfit after she wears it and also every day she burns a couple other outfits she never even wore just for good measure. also she deliberately kept asking for fancier and fancier outfits so like even more material just needlessly burned up into pollution smoke

3. Adolin

Adolin's girlfriend is four years younger than him. Not so bad, right? WRONG. These are ROSHARAN years, which are longer than ours, it's actually way more than 4 years--probably 6. Or 8. Maybe even 10.

He's basically dating a girl a decade younger than him hello

4. MeLaan

Don't you think it's creepy that MeLaan--from a species that eats human remains--dates a human? How is that not a predatory relationship?

5. Riina

Riina built a giant spaceship shaped like a p*nis, sexually harassing a whole planet. :(

6. Lift

Just saying. Calling anyone "Tightbutt" is sexual harassment.

7. Dalinar

Brought people into his visions without getting their consent. Probably the worst thing Dalinar ever did. :(

8. Galladon

You might think that being quarantined in a horrible plague-city due to having "walking corpse" disease would make a man understand that diseases are dangerous and that maybe world hopping to a new planet without doing proper containment procedures and spreading a viral infection to an entire region is bad maybe

But you would be wrong in the case of Galladon who DID THAT

9. Kelsier

anyone who still supports kelsier after kelsier made his employee eat his bones needs to take a long, hard look in a mirror because it is NOT okay to feed ANY part of your skeleton to someone who works for you

10. Szeth

Keeping a sword sheathed all the time is exactly the same as keeping an animal in a cage--a sword can NOT get proper enrichment inside a sheath. Would you like to be kept continuously in a dark and suffocating place where you can't move or breathe? No? Then why would you be okay with keeping a sentient sword locked in a sheath all the time?

Szeth's cruel treatment of Nightblood makes me SICK

[shotanzz]

can you do ZB1 as your boyfriend PLS (like all of them🙏)

guess who’s kinda back…😨

ZB1 RICKY AS YOUR BF based on astrology ~

(reminder that this for fun and astrology is something I study for a hobby, these are all inferences based off of observations and not exact fact unless I knew him myself !!)

Taurus Sun @ 29° : With his sun being in a venusian sign in a leo degree (the sun), he’s the bf that takes care of himself/maintains his appearance. Everyone talks about “boyfriend air” and how bfs tend to be messy but he most likely is vv hygienic. He’s not one to rush and might initially be a bit reserved/introverted (until he opens up and feels more comfortable). He appreciates physical art and pleasures (fashion, food, leisure) and it translates into his relationships. He probably likes to gift his partner with material items that enhance their beauty so outfits, skincare, jewelry. It makes sense that he helps the members do their makeup and probs would maybe do the same for his partner. Being reliable is something he finds relatively important.

Gemini Moon @ 9° : In relationships he enjoys being able to be versatile and express himself in different and even unpredictable ways. He finds comfort in being able to freely share his thoughts/feelings and will reciprocate this to his partner. He may enjoy hearing his partners pov and opinions about things or even relish in hearing his partner’s voice in general. There’s a sense of spontaneity especially with the moon being in a sag degree. He has moon square jupiter+uranus and trine neptune; so he could be a bit restless and even indifferent emotionally adding onto his unpredictability. I wouldn’t say he has mood swings but his feelings could be very case by case.

Taurus Mercury @ 4° : He is honestly on the more laidback and rational side of things but is capable of being more obstinate and deliberate. He has mercury trine jupiter and sextile uranus so he lowkey has a gift for gab and basically is a yapper with whoever is partner is. With mercury sextile mars he might even slightly enjoy debating things (unless it’s something he’s super set in opinion with and sensitive about). He’s most likely more intelligent and has more common sense than he likes to let on and most likely shares his more intellectual/philosophical side when he’s with his partner. Would enjoy having person inside jokes with his partner alone.

Gemini Venus @ 26° : He’s naturally flirty, charming and even playful. He dislikes being bored and mentally under stimulated in his romantic pursuits. He acts in a sense that will bring both comfort and stability but also still mentally entertain. He likes his space however and may not enjoy extreme clinginess. Ricky is naturally creative and finds beauty in refined things with quality even in the mundane. He’s the guy who takes you to outside places to both indulge as well as communicate. He flirts in a way that’s not super in your face but still witty and clever with a smoothness; with it being in a taurean degree he finds satisfaction in giving gifts and doing reciprocal tasks. He has Venus opposite Pluto so depending on the state of the relationship he may have a tendency to constantly waiver between being passive/indifferent to being attached/controlling or just borderline being unpredictable in his displays of affection.

Cancer Mars @ 8° : In a scorpio degree oooo. He’s very caring and protective to a degree. He most likely would want to take the lead or at least be a source of comfort for his s/o. He isn’t super quick to confront and may gather his thoughts and feelings before expressing more negative feelings. He might have an unintentional tendency for unspoken resentment if he doesn’t/can’t express himself. He has mars sextile jupiter and conjunct saturn so though he seems slow to act whenever he does it will be bold or at least with impact, in relationships he wants actions to emotionally mean something and not be pointless. Lowkey might be persistent in a seductive nature LOLL.

[butterflydm]

some thoughts on spirits (DAV)

I feel like the game has done a good job making Rook feel like someone with natural leadership abilities. And while I do love the companions in the previous games, I feel like DAV's companions are my favorites (at least currently; entirely possible that a replay of the older games would make me feel different!).

I also really like the different dynamics between Rook and their companions. Just... idk good vibes.

Also, here is Rook being very relatable for me:

I am just really loving all the characters so much -- Lucanis stole my heart as my favorite (he's my 'personal demon' now in the character screen lol) but I'm very attached to all of my companions. I love how the game has made it easier to know when they have something new to say, and I like that they distinguish between 'conversations' and 'outings' in the companion quest section. I've really been enjoying getting to know them and I feel like this game has done a really good job appropriately gating dialogues and areas.

It feels like they found a good compromise between 'open world' and 'mission-based game'. Each of the areas feels really big but it's also gated in natural ways that get unlocked as the story goes on, so you can't bum-rush the Crossroads and do literally everything the first time you're there, for example. In DAI, I would sometimes have to impose my own pacing to make sure that things flowed well for me, and I haven't needed to do that with DAV.

One thing that leaving the Fereldan/Orlais area did is really let us get to know a lot of mages who don't have the same sense of shame and self-hate that mages are taught in the Chantry of southern Thedas (or the even more extreme way they are treated by the Qunari!). We got hints of this approach in earlier games, but getting to dive more in-depth into several cultures who do not have the same "let's toss all the mages into prison" approach to magic that southern Thedas has has been very illuminating! Obviously we've always had exceptions like the Dalish clans, but they were very much depicted as deliberately on the outskirts of society, and going against the Chantry-defined norm.

And to contrast, in DAV, I recently had a long conversation with Emmrich on the potential merits of lichdom! Basically an unthinkable conversation in either Ferelden or Orlais. Nevarra doesn't burn their dead and they don't have such a deep fear of the dead, demons, or magic itself. And it really just to illustrate how much the oppression of mages that was so much at display in the Circles is just... nonexistent in places like Nevarra. The oppression is cultural and it's religious -- it's not actually something that's necessary to 'keep magic in check'. (which, yeah, is obvious from the outside, but always nice to have reinforcement from the actual games!)

I'm also watching a let's play of DAI on the side and the person just got to Solas and Cole's personal quests and, yeah, they resonant so hard after the additional Solas revelations in DAV. And it really does feel so much like DAV is in a strong conversation with DAI (as makes sense). Solas and Varric are talking about Cole but Solas is also talking about himself.

Varric: "A spirit who is strangely like a person!"

Varric: "He came into this world to be a person. Let him be one."

Solas: "We cannot change our nature by wishing it." Varric: "You think?"

Solas: "You would alter the essence of what he is." Varric: "He did that to himself when he left the Fade."

[if Cole is made more spirit]

Varric: "...could have been a person." Solas: "Would that have made him happier?"

Is Solas's endgame becoming a spirit again? Or has he experienced and changed too much? (would it make him happier? is that a desirable goal?) Is it all a matter of perspective? Cole approves of the Inquisitor's choice whether they make him more of a spirit or more human. I feel like Solas would lose a lot of himself if he became a spirit again, but maybe that's a matter of perspective too.

And then Solas's DAI quest is all about dealing with the damage of a Wisdom Spirit being corrupted against its purpose -- the same kind of Spirit that Solas once was. Wisdom vs Pride (but once you're a person and not a spirit, you can be filled with both at the same time).

DAV is really making me want to do another run of DAI, and take Solas literally everywhere, lol. But the conversation about spirits in the 'real' world didn't start there either -- it started back in DAO, with Wynne. It continued in DA2, with Anders. Both DAO and DA2 are more 'standard' than what we get in DAI with Cole, in the sense that they were possessing a body (though with permission) but it's still part of the same conversation.

But the conversation really did explode into something bigger in DAI, with Cole as a spirit who was with us without possessing a body, and with learning that being briefly possessed can reverse Tranquility (via Cassandra's quest). And now, with what had been confirmed in DAV, we know that a spirit that takes mortal form can, over the generations, become mortal, as that's what the ancient elves did, so Cole could have kids who were fully mortal, maybe. And Cole did it without using lyrium (and thus taking something from the Titans to fuel himself) -- at least as far as I understand.

I am also finding myself very curious about where humans come from -- we know that the ancient elves were once spirits; we know that the dwarves are fragments of the Titans. Where did humans come from? Evolution? Or is there a magical answer for them too? Is the Maker a spirit and/or Titan who created humans specifically?

(I think it's implied that Qunari were genetically/magically engineered in some way, and possibly crossbred with dragons somehow?? iirc DAI correctly)

I'm really looking forward to removing my filters on DA-related stuff and reading other people's thoughts. I've covered my eyes and clicked on posts a couple of times so far and have been rewarded by mostly getting fanart and not spoilers, lol. Mostly.

I genuinely have zero critiques of the game so far, if anyone was wondering if I was just holding some back or whatever. I like the quality of life changes they made to a lot of little things like companion banter; I never had an issue with the art style*; and I'm enjoying the story and characters as they unfold.

(*I know that was a big thing with a lot of people but, confession time: I genuinely can barely tell a difference between DAI and DAV's 'art style'. You can change Qunari hairstyles separate from horns now in the character creator? People walk less awkwardly than in DAI? The menus are purple instead of green? idk, maybe my brain just doesn't register whatever it is that makes DAV so different, art-wise?)

I also love that I can literally just throw myself at boxes to break them open to get materials. It's so satisfying. I have a griffon that I can pet. idk, I guess I'm just a simple girl with simple desires. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Looking forward to playing more this weekend!

Current progress note: a Dalish clan (at least one) has been kidnapped for potential blood sacrifices, so trying to rescue them is my next main quest. I'm about eighty hours into the game.

[darklinaforever]

The main point of sending the ask was wasn't to discuss the mutual abuse, but to emphasize Lestat's role which you were minimizing. Highlighting this from your reply: "And if you find that there is nothing to indicate that Claudia is angry with Lestat mainly because she considers him responsible for her current situation" No because Lestat and Claudia had a great relationship for four years - therefore Claudia is angry with him mainly for his response to Charlie's death. My point was, if he didn't do that, everything would've been different. And it was sadistic on Lestat's part because she was already traumatized so what is watching him burn going to achieve? (more trauma and resentment to Lestat, good job Lestat)

You seem to insist that Louis maliciously twisted his role in her turning at Lestat's expense. Are we watching different scenes? Yes, Louis never told Claudia how much he begged Lestat & Lestat telling him that children shouldn't be turned, but, even from what little she knew(s1), she always knew it was Louis who wanted and pushed for her. He never lied and said Lestat wanted to turn her. So season 2 changed nothing. Claudia resenting Lestat was his own doing. If Lestat wasn't a harsh parent, maybe she would've resented Louis more. Louis' 'mistake' was begging Lestat to turn her - but was it really a mistake when they got their happy family out of it? I don't think so. In a different timeline Claudia could've found another potential like Charlie, she doesn't kill them and Lestat turns them for her and they stay a happy family. On the other-hand maybe they were always going to be doomed. But the way the events played out, it all stemmed from Lestat's mistake.

Yet you're framing Lestat role basically the same way the coven did in the trial. "The father, duped by his ungrateful and diabolical children."

But would the fight in ep5 have even happened if Lestat accepted Claudia's apology? Would Claudia want to kill him if he didn't threaten and drag her back? Yes, after the drop, Claudia was extremely toxic to Lestat. (and no, as bad as he was, nothing he did justified murdering him) From Lestat's perspective, he never wanted Claudia and now his relationship with Louis is even worse because of her, so he resented her even more. But he doesn't seem to recognize his mistakes/role, and continued making more.

Louis himself admits that he minimized his role in Claudia's transformation. The show itself says so. At this point, it's mostly you who tries to minimize Louis' actions by pretending that the real scene doesn't change anything.

And once again, pretending that Claudia doesn't hate Lestat for her vampire situation is deliberately playing blind.

Just because Claudia had no resentment about it during their family life doesn't mean it wasn't mostly the case afterwards. It's ridiculous to say that. Logically, as long as she had not reached the personality of an adult, she was not going to feel frustrated by her situation.

And yes, I have literally already said myself that Claudia was angry with Lestat after Charlie's story, except that I have already explained what this scene was from Lestat's side but you persist for some obscure reason in saying that it was a sadistic act on Lestat's part when he does not even seem to take any particular pleasure during this scene, once again he has a neutral expression and I will not elaborate once again on the subject because you are only repeating the same thing and why would I do the same thing when it clearly won't change your mind.

The Charlie event is literally what made Claudia realize her situation as a vampire that she grew to hate. If you don't see that, there's a problem.

I never said that Claudia was a naughty and evil child otherwise. And I'm not minimizing Lestat's role. I'm just saying that making him the big bad of the family tragedy is ridiculous, which is the simple truth, whether you like it or not.

Burning Charlie was a mistake, yes. But that doesn't mean it was done out of pure sadistic impulse, that's your view of things.

The only other thing I say is that what caused Lestat's malice towards Claudia was the moment she committed her massacre in the bayou putting them all in danger, because at that moment she confirmed all her fears about the children becoming vampires and even did worse than that.

Literally, that's what I'm saying.

Simple facts.

And if you want to have an answer to the question of Claudia would she have wanted to kill Lestat if what happened at the end of episode 5 hadn't happened...

You literally have the books and the movie that answer this question. Yes, Claudia would have ended up killing Lestat even if he hadn't done anything to her. Because that's what she does in the original work.

And why ? Because of her vampire status ! An element once again kept even in the show that she hates him mainly for that.

[twothpaste]

there's a bunch of little guidelines, unique to each character, that i use when writing dialogue. helps to give em unique voices, and keep them distinct from one another. it's also a list of headcanons in & of itself. figured it'd be fun to write 'em out and share 'em here........

lucas speaks as plainly as possible. tends not to use big words - or many words at all - if he can help it. only says what's necessary to get his thoughts across (or often much less…). his internal monologue is long-winded & rich & dripping with metaphors, but when he opens his mouth, what comes out is plain, simple, and always accommodating. though he uses informal language & comes off real casual-like, he's actually very careful with his word choice. if he's gonna speak up, he's gonna be deliberate about it. rarely imposes upon others, even if he's answering a question or making a judgment. while lucas does often talk quietly, and is prone to hesitant pauses, he almost never stutters. southern accent realness.

claus speaks boldly, usually without thinking first. may use an excessive amount of words. he meanders through sentences sometimes, cuz he's just blurting bullshit as it comes to him. has a cartoonishly brazen manner of speaking, like he's hyping himself up as the smartest funniest guy in the room, but you can kinda tell it's just a playful performance. uses mostly casual language, even when discussing serious or complicated topics. sometimes he tosses in big words to keep you on your toes and remind you he's smarter than he seems. will often try to sound calm and unfazed even when he's definitely Fazed. when he's for real emotionally compromised though, he completely flips, lapsing into the masked man's unnervingly brief, blunt, stagnant speech. southern accent realness as well.

kumatora speaks extremely casually. lots of slang. slathers the most basic statements in irony, pop culture references, and naughty language. whereas lucas won't impose upon others, kuma does exactly that, fully intending to make a big impression with everything she says. even when she's being rude as hell, she usually means it all in good fun, she's just got an abrasive edge to her manner of speaking. sometimes others are put off by it - therefore, she deems those folks unworthy of her company anyways. when she's genuinely angry or sad, she tends to cut the theatrics (though not the swearing). might occasionally lapse into metaphorical language to describe complicated feelings, especially when emotionally strained. shortens words and uses contractions as much as possible.

duster speaks really gently, with a lot of uncertain mannerisms. whenever he has to use more than a few words, he tends to hesitate and meander, like he's not quite sure he's got the right words to make himself clear. prone to hesitation, "um"s and "er"s, and occasional stutters. the way he phrases things is kinda soft & malleable, rarely stating his opinion definitively, cautiously leaving room for others to disagree or add their input. never swears - instead he opts for "gosh" and "heck" and so on. very informal, with a profound southern drawl.

boney's animal telepathy "dialogue" is simple to a goofy degree. little guy will directly state whatever is presently on his mind, oblivious to any social etiquette. sometimes his lack of filter makes for funnily rude or ill-timed interjections. he uses only plain words (though kumatora's unfortunately introduced a few swears to his vocabulary).

flint speaks a lot like lucas, plain and simple and quiet. though he doesn't have the same delicate consideration for the words he's choosing. he says what he means as bluntly as possible, in as few words as possible, and leaves it at that. (secretly he's very aware of how awkward and imposing he comes off, but he hasn't the faintest clue how to remedy it.) prone to hesitant pauses, but only when emotionally compromised. heavy southern drawl (where do y'think the twins got it from).

hinawa speaks kinda like claus, tossing out a lotta thoughts and words in a merry stream of consciousness. hugely exuberant. singsongy, even. she's a bit teasy, and very whimsical, but never offensive or impolite. fond of nicknames. her word choice tends to be informal, though she probably does have a more vibrant vocabulary than she lets on. heavy southern drawl of course, peppered with homely little hillbilly-isms.

fuel is funny to write, cuz he has a loose jokey less-than-sincere manner of speaking, which comes off lackadaisical & carefree. but you can sorta tell he's actually mopey & nervous under the surface. if not by his frequent hesitations and dodgy replies, then at least by his body language. very informal and hickish, and prone to swearin', like the workin' class guy he is.

nana's one of my favs to write, cuz she is a fountain of run-on sentences, always babbling some tangential story off the top of her head, winding this way and that, and by the time she's done talking you've learned like 5 mildly intriguing and hilariously irrelevant new things about her. remarkably formal diction, paired with a flat tone that does not quite match her long-winded rambles. rarely if ever uses exclamation points. doesn't swear. no accent.

ness' speech is probably the most basic out of anybody's. ordinary and casual, with no particular accent or flair to it. big & fancy words are completely out of his wheelhouse. he peppers his dialogue with a few dorky dad-isms every now and then (like callin' folks "sport" or "pal," or dropping a wholly unironic "see ya later, alligator"). though he's not a nervous guy, he does get a little mopey or unsure of himself sometimes, which causes him to pause and mumble a lot.

paula speaks pretty formally most of the time. she says shit like "furthermore," and "precisely," making her stand out distinctively from her fellow dorks & dweebs. is she playfully talking clever in a tounge-in-cheek kinda way, or is she Actually Just Being A Smartass? depends who you ask! paula likes to flex her robust vocabulary, and lace her dialogue with snark & sarcasm. her delivery's comedically dry. when she's reaching out to someone in earnest sympathy, though, her speech gets a lot softer, with thoughtful pauses and gentler language. when she's upset, she gets really flustered, swapping her calm & cool veneer for frantic exclamations & italics!! she does have a southern accent, but she takes care to enunciate each letter in the words she uses, so it's subtle compared to characters like lucas or duster.

jeff speaks as flatly as possible, and keeps his word count to an absolute minimum. his standbys are answering questions with a blunt one-word reply, and asking questions with a period instead of a question mark (cuz he delivers them with virtually no affect). though he knows a lot of academic language, he tends not to use it in casual conversation, afraid of alienating others or coming off like a smartass. his speech is generally bone-dry and very constrained. which makes it all the more special when someone manages to choke a sappy blabber or a furious snap out of him. oh. and he comes with a british accent, of course.

poo's another surprise favorite of mine. my take on him is really charismatic, and genuinely quite funny. he's able to swap between casual and formal mannerisms on the fly. sorta in reference to his mimic ability, he tends to match the energy of whoever he's talking to. so he can turn on a dime from talking real candidly plain & chill with ness, to snarking it up shakespearean style with paula. sharply attentive, he's both clever and empathetic, wily and kind, often sassy but never hurtful. chooses his words very thoughtfully. he has a lot of big feelings bottled up, and fancies himself a poet, so he sometimes goes on sappy wistful metaphorical tangents. he knows full well they sound indulgent, perhaps even dorky, but you'll cut him some slack, won't you? a guy's gotta breathe a little.

porky is the fucking worst and i love him so much ❤️. he treats every conversation like a war, and will deploy snide ruthless underhanded tactics to emerge victorious. he's sardonic, haughty, vitriolic. if he thinks he has the upper hand, he'll cooly sit back and try to pick you apart with biting insults & blows below the belt, trying to find your weak points. if he feels cornered, he'll start furiously barking whatever he thinks will hurt you most. he speaks with an uncanny blend of boyish casual language, pretentious big-brained scrabble words, and swearing (which thinks make him sound Very Mature). will wax poetic about human nature like he thinks he's on par with socrates, then whirl around and call you a snot-nosed dweeb for daring to question his wisdom. my very favorite thing about writing porky's dialogue (and his internal monologue) is that almost everything he says is Wrong. like. as a rule, if he claims something, he's probably got it backwards. and while he is certainly trying to convince others of his bullshit, he is even moreso trying desperately to convince himself. maybe if he repeats his miserable lies & false convictions enough, louder this time, they'll finally stick.

picky peter is practically his brother's antithesis. if every conversation is a war, he chooses to lay down his weapons and avoid the fight entirely. he white flags his way through dialogue, keeping his statements simple and brief and unobtrusive. harshness or accusations make him retreat, essentially playing dead or gray rocking 'til the threat dissipates. kindness catches him off guard, making him "er…" and "um…" and scramble sheepishly to find his words. he does have a lot of barely-repressed bitterness in his guts, and might take on a subtle hint of snark or spite under pressure. his vocabulary is not very broad. he's got a dry fake little laugh he does when he's trying to be friendly ("haha") - but when he's genuinely cracking up, he'll snort instead.

tracy is fun cuz she shares ness' plain & casual "just some guy" manner of speaking, but she's like?? kinda fuckin' mean?? she thinks she's too cool for most folks, adopted a tough exterior to one-up her childhood bullies - and especially admires paula. but she hasn't quite mastered the art of being snarky without coming off rude or edgy. so she speaks sarcastically, teases others, seems bluntly disinterested all the time, and it just makes her sound like a careless teenager (which is exactly what she is). thankfully ness sees through her attitude and knows she's full of love deep down. and paula knows she'll probably grow out of it. peter weirdly enough feels very at ease with tracy snarking at him, cuz he's used to that sorta abrasive talk, but he finds solace in the knowledge that it's harmless here, he knows she doesn't actually mean it. tracy reveals her soft side when she's nervous or troubled, prompting gentler language and lots of unsteady pauses, sounding a lot more like her brother in moments of uncertainty.

[longing-for-rain]

What immensely bothers me about the way Kataang was written is that it not only hurt Katara's character, but Aang's character as well.

The writers set up the subplot of Aang needing to let go of his idealistic vision of Katara and then... just completely ignored it throughout the entirety of S3?

While I'm not saying that every ATLA character needed to go through an extensive character development, Aang having little to no development as a person and a leader (I am not talking about his physical training as a bender here) is some extremely disappointing writing, considering he is THE protagonist.

It's actually baffling to me how much the show deliberately dodges most oppurtunities to develop Aang as a character and how much the poor handling of Kataang plays a role in it.

Instead of Aang slowly growing to appreciate Katara as a person with all her flaws and quirks and trying to understand her way of thinking and culture, which culminates in him EARNING his Avatar state, we get the inconsistent mess, full of unresolved arguments and overstepped boundaries, that is S3 Kataang, Aang getting the girl only because he's the Hero™ (even though their last interaction before the kiss was an unresolved argument) and Aang being saved by Deus Ex Machina. TWICE. All of which could have been easily fixed, if the writers actually capitalized on the development that was already set up to happen.

I would be more willing to accept the points "he's literally twelve" and "why are you getting so worked up over which fictional characters are dating", if the writing didn't waste the blatant oportunity to develop the character, and if the ship in question didn't nuke any development its characters recieved.

Like, you don't even have to be a Zutara shipper to see how Kataang basically shat on both Aang and Katara as characters.

Agree with all of this, but I want to focus on this bit right here:

I would be more willing to accept the points "he's literally twelve" and "why are you getting so worked up over which fictional characters are dating", if the writing didn't waste the blatant oportunity to develop the character, and if the ship in question didn't nuke any development its characters recieved.

Here’s the thing. Aang is the protagonist of the show. You know, the one character who absolutely should have a solid arc and experience meaningful growth. I’m not saying he had no growth. But it’s just like you said, there are some pretty glaring plot holes surrounding his story. Could be excusable for a side character, but for the protagonist? Really not great.

And people will also act like romance is no big deal, but I think it really shines a light on how Katara is viewed by the creators and fans in relation to romance. From Aang’s perspective, romance can be treated as a minor add-on at the end because it’s narratively framed as his reward for saving the day. Aang doesn’t have to fundamentally change as a character to enter into that romance. It is written in a way that centers him.

Katara, however, does change. That can be seen in any post-canon material. I know they’ll keep trying to retcon this, but Legend of Korra will always exist to show us how little regard for these people have for female characters they’ve relegated to love interests.

[batsplat]

as soon as vale said that his most important rivals were biaggi, lorenzo, and stoner, I thought about your sete posts! it’s so interesting how he keeps downplaying that rivalry, even 20 years later

posted this like. the day before that podcast was released

yeah anon I'm glad I've been able to spread the gospel on this because it's very... going 'valentino is deliberately editing one specific rivalry out of his career in order to get people to forget about it or simply dismiss it entirely' does run the risk of making you sound insane. but now that I have presented my extensive evidence on this subject on a microblogging platform, I can finally FINALLY get the satisfaction of other people going 'hm yeah this is kind of weird'. it is weird!! podium of rivals my ass, valentino's best on-track rivalry is just indisputably with sete. going by quality and quantity of extended on-track duels, the oeuvre he put together with sete isn't even in the same LEAGUE as what he's got going on with casey, jorge, or biaggi. and none of this 'well he always beat sete' business - I saw how close that man was to ending it all after sachsenring 2003. there is not a SINGLE other direct defeat by a rival after which he is so visibly close to walking off the nearest cliff edge. also, at least sete actually managed to win a race-long fight against valentino, which is NOT something that could be said about either biaggi or jorge (casey as ever remains the specialest girl). 2004 is still the closest title fight he won!! the welkom 2004 thing is genuinely infuriating, because it's basically the only duel of that quality or length he ever has with biaggi (phillip island '01 is more of a multi-rider dogfight) and it comes!! at a time!! when sete is his main rival!! sete was already the main rival in 2003!! it is complete dumb luck that biaggi happened to be valentino's opponent in his very first yamaha race, allowing valentino to pull off this sleight of hand where his 2004 season conveniently starts and ends at the very first race. literally says in that bloody podcast that it's not a coincidence his three best races happened fighting his three greatest rivals... well going by everything else in 2003-05, it actually kinda is you fucking dingus. he has five extended duels in 2004 that are all excellent - and four are with sete! off the top of my head, the number of memorable duels he has 2003-05 clocks in at like fourteen with sete (jesus) and 1 (one) with biaggi. and mind you, however fond people are of the welkom race, you just KNOW more folks actually remember that last corner jerez situation than anything specific that happened at welkom. the unbelievable cynicism, the NERVE of presenting this selectively edited version of the switch to yamaha while completely erasing the rival he actually destroyed along the way!! staggering

anyway look I know I'm preaching to the choir here but yeah. I mean I did already say all this in the sete post itself

and ofc by now I've talked in a bunch of places about how valentino is clearly more comfortable with the impersonal nastiness of the biaggi, casey and jorge rivalries than he is with the ultra personal heartache of sete and marc. it really has carried over to how he's discussed these rivalries post-retirement... when it comes to the former category, it's really all quite normal - he's not doing much to reawaken the feud, isn't being particularly provocative, just gives a reasonably straightforward and restrained appraisal of his side of the rivalry on quite an irregular basis. a lot more agreeable than some of said rivals are when talking about him, let's face it. again, he does like his rivalries, he thinks sports SHOULD sometimes have this kinda nasty fun dynamic between two guys who really want to beat each other... but now the on-track competition is done with, it's all good, no reason to hold any grudges. with the latter category - by contrast - it's a tale of extremes. you've got the deflection of most questions related to the marc conflict from around mid-2016 onwards, with the exception of genuine head loss suffered at argentina 2018 or when he is an environment where he can air his grievances a little more extensively on his own terms (like, say, on a podcast) - there's a desire to erase marc from the narrative of his career and a wariness of the drama associated with this rivalry that wars with the urge to discuss it, since it is still a wee bit of an open wound. with sete, his approach is if anything even more radical: utter erasure. from his comments in the route46/93 documentary, it is obvious he has not forgiven sete in the slightest and does still derive some measure of personal satisfaction from how that whole thing went down ("if I had to give sete some advice... it's better if he hadn't done it" unfortunately just indisputably a banger line). discussed this elsewhere, but what's kinda wild about this whole approach is that the sete rivalry is such a triumph for him - not because sete is a weak opponent, but because of like... what an excellent job he did with the whole thing. the dramatic arc of that rivalry and how it coincided with the switch to yamaha, all the elite on-track battles along the way, the way valentino did literally manage to break another rider, it's kinda... I mean, this should all be a bigger element of his legacy than it is. personally in his shoes I'd probably never shut up about it (not least because he put a CURSE on a guy, which I get probably isn't good pr to discuss but y'know). what he's doing here isn't in his own best interest!! valentino you should be using this podcast to introduce the kids to quite honestly THE best and most watchable stretch of your career. valentino the kids haven't watched mugello 2004, valentino don't you think catalunya 2004 gets kinda overlooked, valentino tell the kids to check out assen 2004. valentino you won your first yamaha title at phillip island 2004 with a frenzied last lap battle, isn't that kinda cool and memorable and special. valentino

anyway tbh I think at this point he's not even doing it on purpose anymore. just what happens when you're disciplined enough with a narrative, I suppose, sticking to it even inside your own head - all about those lovely little stories athletes like to tell themselves, isn't it. years worth of editing and minimising and deflecting and erasing and suddenly it's really just three rivalries that stand head and shoulders above the rest - conveniently leaving out the ones that got interpersonally messy. it is a bit of a shame because, again, valentino buddy I hate to break this to you but 2004 is just categorically your most-enjoyable-to-watch title campaign. but clearly, to him, there are things that matter more than actually effectively propagandising his own career. you've gotta respect the grind ig. and maybe it's for the best that some of the details of those years remain confined to a niche audience, eh

[hostilemuppet]

I know it's been a while since you've talked abt mouthwashing but it really is driving me crazy seeing people reblog their little cutesy aus of the game. like I mean whatever in the end I can just block and ignore but it's funny bc it's like. you guys are basing this stuff on nothinggg wdym "reverse personality au" what personalities do they all have. you just assumed personality traits for them. and there's a racism problem (as always) with everyone infantilizing daisuke bc he's an asian man like yeah he's the youngest but. even if he's 18 years old exactly (I assumed 20/21 personally), he's not the little baby child everyone seems to want to act like he is. going back to the personality traits thing lol some people seriously seem to think that sexual assaulter is like. jimmy's personality and not something horrible he chose to do bc they need a villain and they need that villain to be born villainous and not someone who did the wrong things. bc the average fandom simply cannot comprehend that people aren't just born evil. if they can't dehumanize one character to the point that people won't even say his name then what's the point. like it's crazy to me. you can say you want jimmy to suffer and die without acting like he isn't human and was just some evil force who forced his way into the crew with the rest of them. do people just not see how theyre minimizing what he did to anya when they act like he's some creature from hell and not a person like the rest of them

i agree with literally everything you said its so crazy 😭 it really does make me feel like the "no fun allowed" guy when i say this but mouthwashing did NOT need the typical fandom. it was an incredible work of fiction that used its medium to its full advantage to tell the story it wanted to tell, but people will DIE if they cant make silly "and then nothing bad happened!" aus bc they see ALL fiction as a sandbox game, or like playing dolls where they just smush their blorbos together and thats all they wanted to take from it

AND DAISUKES TREATMENT SPECIFICALLY MAKES ME SOOOOOO MAD between the way they treat him like some kind of toddler, and the way no one even cares enough to pronounce his name correctly... i KNOW youve probably watched naruto you KNOW the "u" is basically silent youre just being deliberately obtuse and racist. there was this one tweet that was like "the way you all infantilise the asian (and only non white) character is kinda weird" and people chewed them OUT saying "um its just bc hes canonically the youngest 🤨 it has nothing to do with race. that one friend whos too woke" like... okay yeah even if he was white hed probably still be infantilised (especially to make him out to be The Good Guy who wouldnt have let that happen! more later) but youre fucking braindead if you dont think its substantially worse bc hes ASIAN and people infantilise (and simultaneously sexualise) east asians to a disgusting degree 😭 people were acting like an artist made child porn for drawing him with a little hint of a thong poking out of his jeans... in general ive noticed people arent taking anti asian racism seriously lately, especially on twitter. there was this on tweet going around defending the use of HIGHLIGHTER YELLOW SKIN on asian characters with a LOT of interactions and i was going through the qrts hoping SOMEONE would say "hey this is fucked up" but there was NOTHING i felt like i was going INSANE 😭

in general i think a lot of the fandom struggles with "every character is either 100% fully good or 100% fully bad" which is. EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING! bc theyll say that curly is just as bad as jimmy for not immediately killing him, while also saying that swansea is a perfect angel and if he knew he would have killed jimmy. even though SWANSEA LITERALLY DID KNOW. ANYA TOLD HIM. SWANSEA KNEW AND HE DIDNT DO ANYTHING AGAINST JIMMY BEYOND GIVING HIM THE EVIL EYE (and he already didnt like him anyway! not only did he not treat him any different, he wasnt being manipulated in a codependent friendshp 😭 just turning a blind eye to rape for the love of the game (hating women)). he only did anything once jimmys actions hurt daisuke, a man. i always call mouthwashing "bystander effect: the game" bc it really fits with how no one on that ship actually bothered to help anya so by the fandoms logic, swansea is also just as evil as jimmy is. really the only character who didnt fail anya is daisuke, but thats only bc he wasnt given the opportunity (that we know of)! and since anya thought "curly will help me" and then he didnt, and then "swansea will help me" and then he didnt, chances are, if were thinking "daisuke would have helped her"? he would not have done that. im sorry. i like daisuke as much as the next guy but that useless ray of goddamn sunshine looked up to jimmy and would be just as easily persuaded as curly was. sorry to burst your bubble that daisuke and swansea probably arent the rapist hunters youve decided they are bc the only way you can interact with the game all about rape getting swept under the rug is by insisting that the two dudes you like would not have done that, actually. they are still men. even if daisuke is "nice" and swansea is a "jerk with a heart of gold" they are not immune to upholding rape culture just bc swansea had a soft spot for daisuke (again. a man) and daisuke didnt want anya to kill herself. curly didnt want anya to kill herself either is all im saying

[nilboxes]

What would you say is the pivotal moment Ratio and Aventurine realized they were attracted to each other both romantically and sexually?

I fully subscribe to the headcanon that Aventurine and Ratio met face to face first during the events of the Final Victor LC when I wrote my fic Audentis Fortuna Iuvat, I had the impression that Aventurine was already extremely besotted with Ratio (due to basically propping him up as a figure of salvation/inspiration covered in the series of fics lol) and could not help but just yearn for any encounter with him of the physical sense, just to like, have a "piece" of Ratio so to speak. Sexual tension was off the charts, he was really gunning to do Ratio in that hallway/storage closet and whatever comes next is something he was betting on to be positive, but not really knowing how it would take form. He was always already there in the attraction to Ratio in both senses for me, part of his unhingedness if you will.

It was a gamble for Aventurine if Ratio would reciprocate at all, but lucky for Aventurine, Ratio was very taken aback by the bold desire in Aventurine and somehow resonated with that physically at first, then the more he thought about it, the more he kind of resonated with the underlying reasons behind it (Aventurine's yearning, his loneliness, the singular focus/devotion to Veritas Ratio himself) when he started to think about it more. (I'm still working on the fic that tackles this, basically Ratio getting his feelings ironed out with regards to the whirlwind that happened between them in Audentis)

And I think fundamentally Ratio and Aventurine are just two very, very lonely people who found each other, as equals in ability, as polar opposites, who complement each other very well, and the more they worked together the more they realized this, the romantic attraction definitely came after all the sex they have (they are also physically compatible)

I think Ratio ultimately realized he would love Aventurine in my fic Nitimur in Vetitum, which I deliberately wrote as Veritas' "revelation" moment. Aventurine deliberately started showing the bad sides of him and was trying this bit where he would drive Ratio away so he wouldn't have "something to lose" during his mission at Penacony and he would be able to give it his all 100% and if he dies he would do so without regrets. He was really vulnerable here, and Ratio sort of saw Aventurine without the mask, without the pretenses, and whoever Ratio found underneath that mask was someone he could open his heart to and let him find a home there.

They of course, have not really talked about their feelings, Aventurine "confesses" but Ratio does not really hear it, they never really talk about it but expressed it all physically in bed. Despite knowing the strength of each other's feelings and reaching an understanding, there are many more things between them they have to work on such as talking to each other more, opening up with words... and I like keeping them there for future potential fics lol idk

Anyway this was really long, but thank you for the ask anon!