#doesnt mean that they are okay

[kyistell]

Hi! Idk if ur still taking requests for little snippets, but is it possible to request a little snippet of NJ helping Loui with his messy curly hair in like- a hot day where humidity is a bitch? 👁️👁️

*🩴*

As a guy with curly hair most times, humidity is such a bitch and happens whenever it feels like here in Jersey, no consistency. So this hit close to home lol.

Hot and Humid (The Worst Combo)

Every door in the state house was open, along with the windows. The Southern States were out barbecuing and the Northern States were suffering, except New Jersey.

It’s not like Jersey liked the heat, it was a pain in the ass, but it did mean he could go swimming and get good southern food, so he can’t complain too much. The problem was the humidity, it was ungodly humid out. Jersey knew humid intimately but this was ridiculous.

Almost every state was either in the pool or on the side relaxing or barbecuing. Almost. The only state that wasn’t with everyone was Louisiana, which Jersey would understand if it wasn’t for the fact that this is weather Loui would absolutely be in.

Jersey was about to go inside to find him when his name was called. Standing in the doorway was Loui, his hair frizzy and messy, looking just as miserable as most of the NE states felt.

Louisiana only had to say one word and Jersey would be at his beck and call. “Help”.

Jersey dragged Loui to his(Jersey's) room, looking at what products he had that could work, he realized he was severely lacking and would need to get more stuff again. He gave Loui a juice box and the tv remote and got to work.

Hair was hard, especially curly hair, it’s hard and annoying at the best of times and at the worst it’s near impossible. Jersey was basically an expert in all things hair but he was definitely wishing that Loui had come to him in the early morning before the humidity got too bad.

It took two hours but Jersey was able to put Loui’s hair into cornrows, that way if he wanted he could go swimming with the others. By the time the two got back outside some of the food was ready and it somehow got hotter and more humid, but at least now Loui’s hair wasn’t a mess.

(And if there was some magic involved to make sure his hair didn’t get affected by the humidity again, then that was between him and the demon he calls his friend).

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[syrupbitee]

free my boy from his own show he did nothing wrong

[redonionlover]

sunstone..? perhaps???

anon ur so real for this... they're my faves since i first played rw

havent drawn them in a loong time though so i doodled these real quick :^)

[charlotte-family-apologist]

Happy (late) anniversary to my first ever Suchin drawing!

Thank you to my earlier followers who decided to stick around and watch my slow descent into Suchin madness and thank you to my newer followers who only know me as the Suchin guy cheers 🥂

[carouselunique]

They had a bit of a chance encounter on a day where Blueblood was dealing with something that was very difficult and was so caught up in his emotions he didn’t even care that he was in the garden getting grass stans on his coat and Ditzy, with her natural impulse to cheer ponies up, didn’t even notice or care that she was flying into the palace gardens when she saw someone sat in the rain.

At first he was definitely going to call the castle guards to come apprehend this strange filly with the odd eyes who was intruding when this was the last moment he’d want to entertain any desperate debutantes, however she surprised him by not fawning or anything, not even caring about his status, just putting one of her fluffy wings up and asking if he needed somepony to lend an ear.

“Don’t let my eyes fool you, my ears work just fine!”

She was incredibly disarming and while he didn’t reveal everything about why he was upset, he found himself talking about his feelings to her. And she made such cheerful remarks, and was very comforting. In the end, he felt better and she came to check on him the next day, even sharing a blueberry muffin with him. He remarked that he’d never seen her around before, and that he wouldn’t mind terribly seeing her more often.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[spiralling-voids]

I really love headcanons about Gerry being transmasc just because of the implications.

Like

Mary Keay, horrible person, horrible mother.

Gerry had to come out to her

she fully supports her trans child

doesn't misgender or deadname him

puts a him through the Horrors™ instead of a daughter, that's fine

Like it's so funny to me. Yes, she's horrible and abusive but don't even think she could be transphobic. Imagine someone misgenders her son on purpose. Can you imagine how terrifying that would be. She's controlling and trying to make "her Gerard" exactly the kind of heir she wants, but gender is not one of the things to be controlled, that's fine, as long as he carries on with their family legacy.

Plus even aside from transmasc Gerry headcanons she's also really supportive of his hobby and paintings like any mother and that's actually super funny now that I think about it. Just. Yeah she's messed up in so many interesting ways

[suntails]

stalemate

[fabuladorah]

I watched it. I watched Amok Time and it is even gayer than I expected, somehow. My life is changed.

[shellem15]

One thing that bothers me in a lot of Shen Jiu fics is that they often make him too repentant. Like my man canonically would rather get turned into a human stick than apologize for his actions. This man has never said "sorry" in his life.

And you know what? His unrepentantness is what makes him such a good character! He knows he's doing wrong. He knows he's a terrible person. And he continues to be horrible, not because he doesn't think it's wrong or even because he doesn't care, but because he believes himself to be, on the most basic and fundamental level, a monster. (Also, that whole "only the stong survive and if you're weak you deserve it" thing he's got going on)

Why bother pretending to be something you aren't? When people will always see the rot within you no matter how high you rise, no matter how hard you try to hide it. Apologies have never gotten Shen Jiu anywhere; people assume the worst of him no matter what he does.

And I don't think SJ is incapable of feeling sorry for his actions, it's that he can never express that regret! In words, at the very least. If he lets go of his pride to genuinely, verbally apologize, the rest of him would crumble. He physically cannot, he would not survive going back to (what he sees as) begging for forgiveness.

I think if he ever did try to "make amends," it could not be in the form of a verbal apology. It would be through actions, most likely subtle actions at that (remember he will never willingly explain himself to anyone ever). He will never admit regret. That would be akin to giving in and rolling over like a dog (and he will never let himself be a dog again).

[gin-juice-tonic]

ive touched on this a little before (in comic form) but if you took young, pre-transgender-realization me aside and said something like "if you could push a button to turn you into a boy forever, would you do it?"

I wouldve either said "No." or "What? i dont know. No?"

but if you had asked me "when you get older, would you rather grow into an older woman? Or an older man?" (now this is just for me being binary trans, obviously there are more options than these two)

i genuinely think that question would've given me pause. I would've had to think about it, and it would've stuck with me. Maybe I even might've realized something sooner through it

[engagemy-others]

also can everyone give a round of applause for jayce--apparently the only character whose parent not only survived the whole damn show, but OUTLIVED HIM. thanks for taking one for the team man.

so everyone must now congratulate Ximena for surviving the ParentDies-fication Beam.

[blueskittlesart]

the master works discourse on twitter is killing me. none of these bitches understood the game or its characters AT ALL

[usercelestial]

okay but literally what if buck and tommy end up together? like what if we get to see them moving in together or saying i love you for the first time or getting engaged or getting married? what if we get to see buck having a husband? literally what then...

[blackkatdraws2]

Whenever Stanley closes his eyes, he can feel the older man's aura surrounding him. [Blank Scripts AU]

[arrowheadedbitch]

OMG I JUST REALISED PROPHECIES ARE SO POETIC AND ROUNDABOUT AND CONFUSING BECAUSE APOLLO MAKES THEM

THE GOD OF POETRY IS IN CHARGE OF PROPHECIES, OF COURSE THEY ARENT STRAIGHT TO THE POINT AHXHHSHWHD