#don't check for continuity issues there because there may be a bunch

[thevioletcaptain]

🌵🤠🙄

Crouched down behind the bar at the back of the room, Dean pushes bottles around until he finds the little box of cactus-shaped cocktail sticks left over from Jack’s “Green Stuff” themed birthday party (Dean’s given up on questioning the kid’s requests) and holds them up triumphantly.

“Got ‘em!”

Sam peers around the back of his recliner and narrows his eyes as Dean makes his way back to the couch and plonks back into his seat, shaking a few out into his hand and sticking them into several cubes of cheese and deli meats on the platter he’d set up earlier.

“What are those, pickles?”

“They’re cactuses, man. They’re thematically relevant to the movie. Y’know, cowboys, deserts, cactuses.”

“Oh my god, I told you we are not watching it again,” Sam groans.

“Well, it’s what’s playing in the Deanplex tonight, and there’s only one screen, so—”

“The Deanplex? Really?”

“You kept whining about me calling it the Dean Cave,” Dean reminds him. “Reap what you sow.”

“Dean. I’m serious. No more Tombstone.”

“It’s a classic!”

“So is Citizen Kane, but we don’t need to watch it six times a year!”

Dean makes a face. Slaps Sam’s hand away when he tries to take one of the cubes of colby jack before he’s had a chance to stick a cactus in it.

“Okay, one? Citizen Kane is boring as fuck and you know it.”

“Not the point,” Sam huffs.

“And B? What are you talking about, six times? Who’s watched it six times?”

Sam stares, then raises his hand to count them off on his fingers.

“We watched it on your birthday,” he starts, raising his index finger.

Dean rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, ‘cause it’s one of my favorite movies. Choosing the movie is a time-honored birthday tradition.”

“So then why did we have to watch it on my birthday?”

“Hey, that’s on you, man. Not my fault you struck out on your date and came home when me and Cas had already hit play.”

“I didn’t strike out, Eileen had to—”

“And anyway, that’s only two times, so—”

Sam raises his second and third finger and cuts him off.

“We watched it again on Valentine’s Day.”

“Again, when you were supposed to be out! I don’t see why I have to suffer just because you can’t seem to manage to get a date with Eileen to continue past 7pm.”

Sam ignores the dig and lifts his fourth finger.

“We watched it on Jack’s birthday.”

“His choice, and as we’ve established: it’s birthday tradition,” Dean reminds him, and shrugs. “Kid inherited my good taste genes, I guess.”

“That’s not — that doesn’t make sense on literally any level.”

“Says you.”

“You’re not even his father!”

“How dare you say that about my son,” Dean says in exaggerated horror, and Sam grits his teeth, visibly making the decision not to push that particular argument, even as Dean can tell how infuriated he is.

He lifts his thumb.

“And then we watched it again two weeks ago, and— fine, yeah, that one I’ll give you, ‘cause it was like. The anniversary of that time we had the hunt in Tombstone when Cas just came back from the dead, so. Fine. But dude. Two weeks ago. It’s only July and we’ve already watched it five times this year. We are not watching it for a sixth.”

“It’s National Day of the Cowboy, Sam! How are we not gonna watch the best cowboy movie of all time on the Day of the Cowboy?”

“You’re still arguing about this?”

Cas’ voice floats over from the doorway, and Dean looks over to see him wearing the denim Western shirt Dean bought him for the occasion. The pearl snaps glint, silvery in the light from the TV screen where Tombstone is loaded and ready to play.

“Yeah, ‘cause Sam’s being unreasonable.”

“I’m not—”

“You realize I left to drop Jack off with his friends almost an hour ago,” Cas points out.

“Remind me again what he’s doing with his friends,” Dean says, and looks at Sam to see his reaction when Cas answers.

“They’re celebrating National Day of the Cowboy by watching the Dollars trilogy in Eliot’s backyard.”

“Sounds like Jack and his friends are getting into the sprit of the holiday,” Dean says pointedly.

“It’s not a holiday!”

“They’ve set up a projector to show the films on the side of the barn,” Cas goes on.

“Okay, so hey— a compromise,” Sam offers. “Why don’t we just watch the Dollars trilogy?”

“…oh, did you think we were only watching Tombstone tonight?” Dean asks, bemused. “Dude, that’s just the appetizer. We’ve got a whole damn buffet to get through.”

“I hate you so much,” Sam tells him, but he’s already given up. He snatches up several pieces of cheese and slouches back in his chair. “Start the damn movie.”

“Hey, man,” Dean says, and settles into the couch, spreading his arm for Cas to settle against before he kicks his cowboy-booted heels up onto the edge of the coffee table and hits play. “You’re the one who keeps crashing date night.”

[written for this prompt game] [find me on ao3 as imogenbynight 💚]

[joltai-showa]

This post is a reply to these two posts, so if you wanna see me go insane over how Kishimoto completely managed to fail at writing Obito aka the villain that was the main threat for the majority of Naruto and Rin, do check them out first.

So PSA before continuing reading this: I will be replying to both posts consequetevely, which means that there's likely gonna be a bunch of stuff repeated. I don't like to sound like a broken record, but so many of my issues with Obito, Rin and Obirin crash into certain stuff that it's important to bring it up whenever it is needed.

And yes, I really dislike Obirin. On a good day for me this ship brings me as much excitement as drinking plain room-temperature water and chewing on some stale soggy white bread. It's a ship of the worst variety to me - it's simply boring, a good awkward boy and a good nice girl who's entire life seems to revolve about being emotional support pillow for said boy. And that's on a good day, because the manga aka canon generally isn't having a good day when it comes to the writing of these two, so these characters and their ship as it stands in canon requires the reader to switch between ignoring approximately 90% of what Obito does and approximately 50% of Rin does to get to the perception of cutesy doomed love that Kishimoto desperately wants to peddle. If the reader does not follow what Kishimoto wants to tell them (but isn't capable of showing at all), then what actually ends up happening is two psychotic bipolar little maniacs blabbering about some senseless bullshit that results in about a hundreds of thousands of people dead for ABSOLUTELY no reason.

(and yes if you have never come across my posts previously, I am prone to swearing, it is not some sort of agression against you or anything, this is simply how I am used to writing my own analysis posts)

so let's start with @innovativestruggles points:

I have always been an avid obirin shipper, and as a feminist, people may question the contradictory nature of this.

I'll be completely honest with you, the fact that you were attempting to defend anything female character related in Naruto is already brave enough, considering that Kishimoto can not write a female character for his life. Almost all of them end up being entirely depended on male character's goals and desires, almost all of them end up following in the "designated important male character's" steps, they pretty much have no interests or goals of their own, just their guy. Rin is even worse than that, because she is not even a proper character, again, on a good day she is just a placeholder thing for a female character, and in general in the manga she is nothing more than a plot device, a function that takes actual characters like Obito and Kakashi and produces some sort of results with them while she acts as the supposed reason for their actions. I specifically say supposed, because Kishimoto wouldn't be himself if he did not write Obito in such a horrible manner that all three of Obito's bullshit mantras that he is producing after his reveal did not clash with his MANY MANY horrific actions.

Obito is in an incredibly complex character and alas, there is a reason why I absolutely love him. He is my favourite, has always been and will always be (also, he’s a villain and he’s hot). Though there are parallels between Obito and Naruto, it’s important to distinguish the nuances. Both characters had no family growing up (I am not going to count Obito’s grandma as she is an anime only character and not technically canon), had it tough at the Academy, disliked by a lot of people and technically an outlier.

Obito as a concept desperately wants to be a complex character, but Kishimoto needed him to go through a shitty redemption arc real quick, thus Obito ended up being reduced to a 1.5 dimensional character that has exactly three types of arguments:

endless boring yapping about Rin (which feels like 80% of what he speaks about. ever.) about 5 of same frames shoved into the reader's throat every time this happens. real fascinating stuff, especially when this is what happens for 30 chapters straight (I am not kidding, I reread Naruto from 599 to about 660s, my eye is twitching)

woah look the world is such a hell (*insert three pages of nihilistic bullshit*). seems to be a critique of the shinobi world, but when you look into it - no, this is just this 30 year old man throwing a temper tantrum against not the system itself, but something like "friends dying", "friends betraying", "just death in general". Nothing of actual value that would make him the supposed destroyer of the system and savior of humanity, no, he is acting like an absolutely delusional child. the fact that this particular character does this is riduculous and a fucking insult to the reader's intelligence, because this guy has NO FUCKING reason to be this swallow and, I would even say, idiotic. this man has commited way too many war crimes and is responsible for far too many deaths, directly or indirecly, to ever have the fucking right to have the same stupid rhethoric that Naruto has. I can only say FUCK YOU to Kishimoto whenever he pulls this thing out of his ass in an attempt to make any of Obito's actions seem justified. Obito literally never manages to pinpoint anything correct of the system's faults (AND GOD IS THE SYSTEM FAULTY)

actual abuser ramblings. I feel like I am about to become Joker whener this shit happens. Obito kills someone, or someone who worked under Obito kills someone de-facto on Obito's orders, something happens as a result of Obito's actions - AND OBITO, GRABBING RANDOM SHINOBI #1314146 LIKE AN ABUSIVE HUSBAND WOULD GRAB HIS WIFE, STARTS SCREAMING INTO THEIR FACES, ALL SATISFIED AND HAPPY "LOOK! LOOK! SEE WHAT A TERRIBLE THING HAPPENED! ARE YOU FEELING DESPAIR OF THIS WORLD? GOSH THIS WORLD IS TERRIBLE! BUT DON'T WORRY, I'LL FIX THIS. JUST STOP RESISTING ME AND ALL WILL BE FINE." and NO ONE in the manga EVER bothers calling out this bullshit, because that would make Kishimoto admit that Obito is not a poow liwwle baby boi🥺🥺🥺🥺that just lost hiw way🥺🥺🥺🥺and aktually onli wanted to be with his fwiends and become the Hokawe🥺🥺🥺🥺but an absolutely batshit insane piece of shit that has no hill to die on

And you think I am being overly dramatic with the whole "abuser talk", here's some lovely stuff from chapter 646

For context, Obito activates the Divine Tree that kills a bunch of shinobi after instantly sucking away their chakra. And then he has the audacity to say that shit while everyone's watching how Mr. Genocide turns their comrades into husks. And if you think that, well, this is just some randos, they are here to raise the stakes of this endless battle, but no, Shikamaru also almost gets sent into the afterlife while Obito is preaching "if you stop fighting, I won't kill you". Just what an awesome guy.

But I got off track, back to the reply. Post 599 Kishimoto goes fucking ham on the parallels between Naruto and Obito... especially the ones that weren't even there. Because he is perfectly aware that even with the whole delulu savior shit that Naruto gets by using talk-no-jutsu, if things are left as they were pre-599 (which pretty much includes only Kakashi Gaiden aka 239-244), Naruto HAS ZERO REASON not to cave Obito's skull in and drop this asshole's corpse somewhere in the nearest ditch. Kishimoto, starting with Obito's reveal, adds more and more shit for Naruto to latch on, because otherwise what we have is a protagonist who pretty much doesn't have any companions who didn't get their lives completely fucked over by Obito, not too mention that 99% of Naruto's suffering comes DIRECTLY from Obito's actions.

So let's look at these GREAT parallels, which, thankfully, Kishimoto decided to put out in one monologue of Naruto's in chapter 653

neither knew their parents

correct, but a very simple a short question from me🥰so who is the reason for Naruto never knowing who his parents were? Who was such a meanie to take away Naruto's family? Who put fucking bombs on him 5 minutes after his birth?

(chapter 501)

Oh, right. The poow liwwle baby boi who only had Rin as his light and just dreamed about becoming Hokage.

I will go off track again, because the manga itself brings it up, but it's another important thing that Kishimoto wishes his readers to lobotomize themselves about: the timeline

The murder of Kushina, the resulting death of Minato and the destruction of Konohagakure all happened 16 years before the events of Shippuden. For the sake of simplicity, Shippuden will be set in year 80 (after Konoha's foundation), so the attack took place in year 64.

Obito is 30 (I have seen that he is sometimes supposed to be 31, but 30 is easier on the shaky lore of Naruto) in Shippuden. The Kannabi bridge mission was supposed to be around the same age that team 7 had in OG Naruto - 12-13. So Kannabi happened in year 62-63. Meaning, that IN BEST CASE SCENARIO between Obito waking up at Madara's and

1) murder of his teacher's wife 2) battle to death with his teacher 3) murder of his classmate's mother (the woman that Obito kills before taking Naruto? Sarutobi Biwako, Hiruzen's wife. And Hiruzen is Asuma's father) 4) large-scale destruction of the village he, supposedly, wanted to become a Hokage of

is at best A YEAR, if not just a few months. Because, again, Obito was recovering for some time, then the whole Rin's death scene, and then Madara trained him and explained him the plan. According to Obito's flashback in 600s, Madara kills himself by plugging himself off the Hashirama life support, and only after that Obito starts the whole grooming Nagato for the plan and attacks Konoha.

I point this out because I have seen numerous times how the defenders of poow liwwle boi Obito try to deflect the blame for Obito's actions by claiming that Madara made him do this. Madara WAS DEAD during all of this shitshow. Moreover, as you will see later in this post, Obito repeatedly does things that are NOT aligned with the whole ideal world creation and salvation for everyone, moreover, they oftentimes CONFLICT with this plan, and just outright scream I AM A PSYCHO WHO WANTS TO COMMIT MASS MURDER FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES

First of all, yes, let's admire how righteous and totally not maniacal Obito looks at the moment. "Do you know how long I have waited for this" MY ASS SHUT UP you're a cringe 14 year old. Secondly, let's hear out his wonderful plan, which is "gonna extract Nine-Tails, gotta crush Konoha". And while the first point does correlate with Eye of the Moon - they need the Tailed Beasts, after all - but then in Obito's flashbacks we learn THAT NAGATO WAS NOT ON HIS SIDE YET. THE GUY WHO CAN CONTROL GEDO MAZO AND STORE THE TAILED BEASTS IS STILL NOT WORKING WITH THEM. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU ATTEMPTING TO STEAL NINE-TAILS THEN?? WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO PUT HIM??? Oh, maybe Obito kept a close eye on Kushina and realized that she was soon gonna give birth, which would be the primary opportunity to yoink Kurama? WRONG. OBITO BY SOME SHEER COINCIDENCE OVERHEARS KAKASHI TALKING ABOUT THIS OVER RIN'S GRAVE. HE THEN PROCEEDED TO KNOCK OVER THE FLOWERS ON HER GRAVE AND THEN ATTACKS KONOHA. HOW THE FUCK IS IT HELPING WITH THE PLAN???? YOU'RE JUST GIVING THEM 29847238 OPPORTUNITIES TO RECAPTURE THE THING????? YOU'RE ATTRACTING THE WORLD'S ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT SOMEONE'S OUT THERE TRYING TO GET THEIR HANDS ON THE TAILED BEASTS??????

So, obviously, there is zero rationale for Nine-Tails' attack from the plan perspective. Well, maybe it alings with Obito's ideals, whatever the fuck they are? Obviously, glasses Obito would never do anything like WIPING OFF HIS AND HIS FRIENDS' HOMES OFF THE MAP and kill his dear sensei's FAMILY. MOREOVER, Rin fucking DIES trying to prevent Isobu from being unleashed on Konoha and decimating it, so what does our poow liwwle lover boi does? That's right, he pulls out Kurama and decimates the village only a some months after Rin died trying to protect it from the very same thing happening. Oh, wait, Kishi, so did she see that while in Pure Lands or not? Or does she have selective vision?

And mask Obito can be rationalized to do this by saying "oh, he's just showing the people the DeSpAIr", but again, this contradicts the manga with Obito saying "I don't care about this world yada yada", there is nobody who exactly would become targets for this campaign (Obito's endless speeches in 599 onwards are aimed at Kakashi/Naruto/etc) because we just see Obito interacting with Minato and Kushina, which would become despaired off the simple fact that Kushina is getting murdered by someone extracting the Tailed Beast, the village being crushed is just something on top that literally endangers his little precious plan more than it achieves anything. Is Obito ever shown to regret this as a stupid stunt or as act of terrorism against the village he supposedly love? NAHHHH WE CAN THROW IN OUR 20TH RIN FLASHBACK

Oh, and the timeline thing is important for another reason: poow liwwle boi defenders like to say that Obito went through so much and had witnessed the DarKneSS of the shinobi system, which is the reasoning for him going crazy and attacking Konoha. Obviously, this is bullshit, because the poow liwwle baby boi had no time to see anything about the grander shinobi system, he had been with Madara for several months with Madara being mildly ominous in the background and saying the most vague evil shit imaginable (before Obito runs off for Rin and Kakashi, he is still believer in the power of friendship and such, and the manga shows them having a whole wooping 1 conversation), then he witnessed Rin die, instantly became evil and commited a massacre (so much for cutie patootie liwwle boi), and then goes off to learn the plan from Madara and train to become as powerful as he is during Obito vs Minato. Even if I ignore the shitty writing that is supposed to suggest that Obito HAS ALL OF THESE IMPORTANT REALIZATIONS outside of the main plot, the timeline simply affords no place for him to comprehend the evils of the shinobi system. So yes, Obito is literally going off his anger over Rin dying and something something Minato being on another mission something something Kakashi (because there is two versions of the things Kakashi did that Obito is supposed to see, but Kishimoto conviniently shoves that little problem under the rug, god forbid we have any actual emotional interaction from Obito's character that doesn't involve the whole lazy Rin bullshit).

So, we are just on our first simularity between Obito and Naruto, and we already see that Obito's poow traumatized baby boi narrative falls apart when we decide not to go for the lobotomy Kishimoto wants, but instead realize that a) Naruto should punch Obito's skull open for ever mentioning his parents b) Obito is a mass murdering maniac with zero excuses and zero remorse

so let's continue with the parallels, shall we?

had it tough at the Academy

Now you're simply projecting Naruto's issues onto Obito. We have exactly two pages of Obito in the Academy years, and they are from chapter 599

And the thing that you are claiming as "him having it tough in the Academy" is.... him arriving late at the entrace ceremony in the Academy, Kakashi sighing at him, others kids just going back home, and Rin bringing him his entrance papers. Sorry, who is giving him a tough time here? Kakashi sighing? Kids who likely meet him for the first time not interacting with him? The Academy not waiting with finishing the ceremony because one kid is late?

Yes, this scene does show Rin being nice to him, but nothing more than that. I am not sure how old exactly the kids are in this scene, but considering Kakashi would graduate at 5, I would say that it's about 4 years old? Obito would go on to graduate at 9. A five whole wooping years that are completely not covered by this first scene.

(chapter 1)

And coming back to Naruto's issues at the Academy - Naruto was a delinquent that drew poop on the Hokages' faces AND he failed the graduation exam two times already, meaning that by 12 years old he got held back quiet a bit. He also has this little problem called being a jinchuriki, of which most parents are aware, and explicitly tell their children to stay away from him.

Obito graduates at normal time (9 years), similarly to Rin, Kurenai and Asuma. The only outliers would be Kakashi and Gai, both of whom would become two of the strongest ninja in their entire generation. Obito didn't cause trouble, in fact, it's repeatedly said that he helped the elderly around (and according to his own words even KNEW all of old people in Konoha when he meets Madara). Nobody in the village is ever stated to have anything against Obito, he's just an orphan from the Uchiha clan.

Literally nothing suggests that Obito had it tough in the Academy

disliked by a lot of people

Again, there is little confirmation of that in the manga.

Does his clan hate him? If so, why? There is no confirmation of this, moreover, Kishimoto keeps Obito's plot line and Uchiha's so apart it's actually absurd, but nothing in the story suggests that they should hate him or even simply not care for him. This is again in contrast to Naruto's own parents, because his Namikaze lineage was hidden (regardless if there were even relatives who could have taken care of him) and Uzumaki clan was decimated some time during the Third Shinobi World War, scattering the small amount of remaining members across the globe.

Do the villagers hate him? If so, why? There's also no evidence of that, on contrary, he was very friendly and helpful to the elderly around the village, so it would not be strange if a few of them were looking out for Obito. Obito has an annoying habit of coming late and being a bit of crybaby, but that wouldn't be enough to make the villagers dislike him. Unlike Naruto who is the vessel of the nuke that ravaged the village just 12 years before he learned of the reasons behind his mistreatment by the village.

Do his classmates hate him? Again, nothing is known about his Academy years except for one singular scene where he just meets them, but 599 also shows us some more interactions between him and the other kids in his generation... during the chunin exam

Do I even need to comment on how this is not anyone disliking him? This is just how competition goes.

Oh, and there's also a bunch of other minor things in this chapter, but I think it's a good time as any to introduce them😇

This. scene. right. here. It pisses me off to no end. You wanna know why?

Because this is the FIRST time we get Obito's Hokage's bullshit.

That's right, you aren't mistaken. The original Obito introduced to us in Kakashi Gaiden (239-244) NEVER EVER states that he dreams about becoming Hokage. He says stuff about how shinobi should act, he says how he's gonna become strong and tough once he awakens his Sharingan, he says how he is gonna protect Rin and others, he says how he is gonna see the future with the eye he gave Kakashi, etc etc. BUT NOT A SINGULAR MENTION OF HOKAGE BULLSHIT.

Kishimoto, for some mysterious reason, never introduced this CORE part of Obito's character (to the point Naruto literally yaps about JUST IT when he enters Obito's inner world thanks to the power of plot) when writing the original Obito, but the moment he needed to do the whole reveal thing and the shitty redemption arc in 30 or so chapters for a guy who's been our main villain for almost 300 chapters - oh hell yeah in 599 Obito gets the same fucking dream as Naruto, because otherwise Naruto has 0.0000001 reasons not to beat up this piece of shit. So, again, FUCK YOU, Kishimoto.

Right, what I was on about? Ah, Obito's classmates. So there's a bunch of other scene where Obito - HOLY FUCKING SHIT - is seen with someone other than Rin, Kakashi and Minato (very deep character, am I right)

And it's literally Obito being focused on Rin cheering Kakashi on (you know, THEIR TEAMMATE), so no interaction between the gang and him, and then later when we see them all planning gifts for Kakashi (who became a jonin at 13, A BIG FUCKING THING) while Obito is flustered because he was planning on confessing to Rin at that moment.

So, literally, the only person amongst his classmates who openly disliked him was Kakashi, who had a damn stick up his ass and wasn't really friendly to anyone (which we can see with how pretty cold to Rin and Gai he was at the time). And, of course, because we are dealing with Kishimoto, 239-244 Kakashi is a much bigger asshole than kid Kakashi in flashbacks post 599. Like, the OG Kakashi actually bullied Obito for his weakness, while the later one was mildly irritated at Obito's habits and carefree attitude.

So, in total: nothing suggests Obito was disliked by his family, by his village or by his classmates, except for Kakashi, who was just an asshole at the time, and his assholery varies depending on what Kishimoto needs for the plot to be.

Oh, and since we are on the topic of classmates: another magical lobotomy that Kishimoto expects the readers to have is for everyone to magically assume that never ever in his entire life Obito had friends EXCEPT for Rin. And I guess Kakashi for those 2 minutes before Kakko dropped that cave on their heads. Which, again, HAS NO BASIS in what Kishimoto actually shows us. Yes, Rin was the first person to support him, but he has known other classmates for almost 10 years before Kannabi happened, yet the plot acts like there were 0 interactions between him and others, which is... not how children fucking work? I can understand Obito feeling lonely because his parents are gone, yes, but then Kishimoto slam dunks on the readers' heads that UHM AKTUALLY NO ONE FROM HIS EXTENDED FAMILY CARED FOR HIM AND UHM AKTUALLY HE HAD NO FRIENDS EXCEPT FOR THOSE IN HIS GOVERNMENT ASSIGNED TEAM AND NO ONE FROM THE VILLAGE LOVED HIM which is a lot of stuff to shove down people's throats without giving a proper reason for this. People knew that Naruto was a jinchuriki, so they stayed away from him, Sasuke was extremely traumatized by the Uchiha massacre, yet we are magically supposed to believe that Obito falls into the same category????

(also let's also mention who is responsible for Naruto's and Sasuke's loneliness... ah right, Nine-Tails crush and the Uchiha massacre, both of which were fully or partially Obito's doing🥰)

Which is why this

(chapter 616)

scene is SO fucking funny even without the whole "Obito goes full angwy babyman and starts stomping his feet and screaming YEAH LOOK AT ME LOOOOOK I AM MAD AND ANGRY AND DEPRESSED BECAUSE I HAD FRIENDS SO YOU SHOULD BE MAD ANGRY AND DEPRESSED TOO while the rest of the Alliance is scrambling to survive and grandpa Madara is chilling in the background" because no you had NO connections??? Kishimoto is desperate to peddle us that bullshit about "Rin was the only person in Obito's life (for reasons I will not be explaining because I NEED this shitty redeption arc to kick off)" and regularly manages to forget that "Connections" imply number more than one, and Obito as he is given in canon at best has TWO, 1 for Rin who is a plot device and 0.5 for Kakashi and Minato respectively. And he is insistent on "Rin was my only light yada yada"... until Kishimoto suddenly no longer needs it

(chapter 651)

As a writer I am honestly amazed at sheer bullshitery and audacity of this scene. Kishimoto literally makes the plot gaslight Obito into "Hokage comrades Konoha good Hokage comrades Konoha good Hokage comrades Konoha good". Mind you, the Hokage thing was introduced literally during the masked man reveal, Obito had NO connections to speak of with his classmates because Kishimoto was SHOVING the idea of Rin being super special to him THAT HARD, he didn't give shit about any of these people for 16 FUCKING YEARS (!), Asuma is DEAD because of the merry band of terrorist that OBITO CONTROLLED (and that's after murdering his mother), Kurenai is raising Asuma's child ALONE, and IRUKA LITERALLY DOESN'T EVEN FUCKING BELONG IN THE SAME GENERATION AS THEM???? HE BECOMES GENIN IN THE SAME YEAR NINE-TAILS ATTACKS KONOHA???? OH YEAH, OBITO ALSO MURDER IRUKA'S PARENTS WITH THE NINE-TAILS INCIDENT????? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK KISHIMOTO? WHAT IS IRUKA DOING HERE IN THIS BASTARD'S BULLSHIT FANTASY??????? ALSO IRUKA GETS THE SCAR DURING THE NINE-TAILS INCIDENT???????????? WHAT THE FUCK???????????????

Okay, I am taking deep breaths because I am feeling like I am about to lose my damn mind. But hopefully my argument about "Obito very much wants to be a complex character, but the plot has him be 1.5 dimensional one by ignoring 90% of what Obito did and does in the manga" becomes clearer. Obito's connections come and go as Kishimoto wants them, not because they organically come from the plot, and lack of said connections is never explained, which is why I honestly don't blame people for calling Obito obsessed with Rin, because Kishimoto does desperately tells us that no, Obito didn't pull these 16 years of mass murders because of Rin, there was a higher cause... but then fails to show us anything coherent outside of endless repetition of Rin, Rin, Rin

technically an outlier

And I fully agree with this, because at least that is directly stated in the manga

(chapter 240)

The only thing I think I might add to this is, I believe, during Sasuke's first flashbacks to his family, he and Itachi actually discussed the age of awakening the Sharingan, and I think they mention that 8 is about the time most people should have it? Which would indeed place Obito quite behind as he awakens it at 13, but considering the fact that it requries the user to get traumatized, is it really a bad thing? Lmao, I guess it's just teenage boys' dreams that I don't get

However, Obito never had an older mentor growing up, whereas Naruto did (that would be Iruka)

That really depends on what you consider "growing up". I can't say with exact certanty at what point Iruka became actively invested in Naruto's life (because Kishimoto kept rewriting things + this stuff is pretty vague at where I am looking for it, meaning chapter 1, Iruka is interested in Naruto's fate because both of them are orphans, so no exact indication when did it start. but. huh. I wonder who's fault for the two of them being orphans is that), but we do know that Obito graduated from the Academy at 9, meaning about 4 years he had a mentor in Minato, so his early teenage years are covered. Nothing exactly certain about the period before that, but yeah, sure, let's agree that implicitly the plot suggest a lack of mentor for Obito's childhood.

But another thing that, I believe, should be brought up, is the start of the Third Shinobi World War. I don't wanna repeat the lecture about establishing this date, but basically the beginning of it would be right around when Obito was 8, so yes, the general political situation had significantly worsened, and Obito would have probably started feeling the effects of the war enveloping the world, but Obito soon gains an older guiding figure.

Because neither of them had their families, Naruto was lucky that he had Iruka. Iruka provided that big brother figure, the mentor and in some ways a caring environment for Naruto, despite the hardships. Obito, however, did not receive any of this. 

Naruto still lived alone in the state-provided flat with mountains of trash and ate ramen with expired milk, something to this extent. This is not to mention the villagers actively shunning him for being the vessel for Nine-Tails. Obito, meanwhile, is not confirmed to have these hardships in the plot, moreover, as I have explained, a lot of the things you mentioned are assumptions that clash with what is seen in canon. Unless, of course, we are putting Obito's perspective above all, and Rin and the others cheering Kakashi and Gai fighting while ignoring Obito is literally the worst thing ever, but this is straight up offensive to Naruto's experiences.

And also while we are on this topic let's return to Naruto's talk-no-jutsu here, yeah, the same one he had after the plot magically had Naruto learn Obito's memories, specifically the ones pre-Nagato grooming, pre-Konoha destruction, pre-Kushina murder, pre-overtaking Akatsuki, pre-overtaking Kirigakure, pre-Uchiha massacre, pre-Akatsuki jinchuriki hunt, pre-Sasuke grooming, pre-Konan's murder. Which. Wow. How convenient, Kishimoto.

So Naruto here explicitly says that OMG U R JUST LIKE ME FR when it comes to the Hokage dream (that Obito gains upon the masked man reveal as far as the narrative is concerned)... only he is literally pulling this out of his ass, because, again, if Naruto was not introduced to some new memories the readers didn't see, there is nothing suggesting Naruto's claim. This entire thing hinges on readers taking the lobotomy pill and ignoring the giant extended family Obito had + the elderly in the village and not asking for an explanation as to why Obito would feel this extreme loneliness that would require latching onto Rin that strongly. I can agree with "lonely because parents gone", but beyond that this is just Naruto using the power of plot to fix Obito's worldviews.

What Obito did have, was Rin. The two have been childhood friends for a very long time. Rin gave Obito that sense of security and attachment, despite them being the same age.

This is all very lovely and dandy, but you would need to find me a scene showing them being childhood friends. For this post I have reread all chapters starting from 599 and to about 660(?) where I gave up because the conversation between defeated Obito, Kakashi and Minato was causing me to overdose on cringe. And during this entire period the only memory that anyone had of the two of them being children is that Academy arrival scene. THAT'S IT.

Then we have the team Minato introduction scene, but it's obviously after they become genins, so 9 years old. There's also this scene:

But if you check the earlier screenshots, you will actually realize that Rin is wearing the kimono that she has during the chunin exam + she has Konoha's headband, so they are already about 10 years old (at 9 they graduated the Academy, at 11 they became chunins, but Obito didn't pass this particular exam). So the kids you are claiming to be such good childhood friends with Rin being the sole pillar of emotional support for Obito have a giant 5 YEAR LONG GAP, and with Rin only living to 14 THAT IS A LOT OF TIME MISSING.

And in the other scenes Rin is already wearing her chunin get-up, so they are both 11+ years by that point. Meaning that as far as canon shows, Rin was nice to him that one time during the Academy entrance ceremony when they were, like, 4, then we HAVE NOTHING until they become team Minato, and then we have an array of very similar scenes where Obito speaks about how he's gonna become Hokage and Rin looks pretty and nods along (an incredible show of personality, Kishimoto). And then we get to Kannabi where Rin seems as about as upset as Kakashi is, even if Obito, her supposedly best friend, GOT CRUSHED ALIVE and is begging her to get his eye out of his eye socket and shove it into Kakashi's still untreated wound. And Kakashi, as we know, didn't get along really well with Obito until like 15 minutes ago.

But then Rin does the single most psychotic thing imaginable: Obito gets finally crushed, her supposed best friend's body turns into tomato paste that they can't even pick up and will have to leave him behind on the enemy territory, and as Kakashi explains how Obito loved Rin and died for her, the girl opens her MOUTH AND STARTS CONFESSING TO KAKASHI.

DARLING CAN YOU WAIT LITERALLY LIKE 5 MINUTES BEFORE ANNOUNCING THAT? ZETSUS DRAGGING AWAY OBITO'S HALF-DEAD BODY CAN PROBABLY HEAR YOU THROUGH THE ROCKS. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, HE JUST DIED!

And, I understand, in Kishimoto's mind this is all probably very romantic and tragic, but to me this is just another example of Rin's character flipfloping between the cutesy innocent girl in team Minato and the single biggest psychopath known to Konoha in her generation and this is only because Obito's turn to dark side happened outside of Konoha.

So, in total: one interaction as children, numerous interactions in team Minato, but it's literally the same one with them doing the same things, and then the Kannabi bridge. I am sorry, but this is one of the worst executions of childhood friends I have ever seen, if they are supposed to be that way. And on THIS + Rin's flipfloping character that gains and loses cutesy girl characteristics depending on Kishimoto's mood is on what Obito's entire fucking arc hinges. Obito who would be by far the most prolific war criminal in the last 20 or so years of shinobi history😁

One final thing before moving on: it's actually the pictures that you mention later in your post

I don't really care if Obito is here trying to kiss a picture, he's a young boy, he does silly things. What I wanna point out is the pictures that Obito has, because to me they are VERY telling.

Kishimoto shows us 0 photos of Rin and Obito together, you know, the supposed childhood friends. The picture that he is trying to kiss is the one that they took as team Minato at 9 years old. He has a picture of his parents (thank god for Obito's mama cuz dad is giving 0 pretty genes lol), and then he has a bunch of Rin pictures, but the angle on them all is just off, like he is sneaking photos of her from far away, or when she doesn't expect that, or as if he is sitting in the bushes. All of them indicate very little closeness, like they haven't been, you know, childhood friends for years and did things together. Kishimoto gives them practically no mementos that would indicate that degree of closeness that the whole "RIN WAS MY SOLE LIGHT" thing is trying to convey, but god does he not save up on the scenes of Rin putting bandages on Obito.

Obito’s love for Rin transcended romance. Of course the romance was the overt part, but his love for her was his sense of security. She was his safe space. When a child grows up without love or care from a parenting figure or a mentor, they will find ways to cope and latch onto the closest thing they can find safety and comfort in. Rin took on this role. So when Rin was killed before him, naturally there would be a sense of deep despair and anger.

I will not be adressing the first half of this, because I believe I have made it very clear that Obito's attachement issues are very overblown with what is given within canon (unless, of course, we go into the whole Uchiha love/hate/curse bullshit, but to me it's Kishimoto's favorite crutch to fall on whenever the plot demands to know why the fuck is everyone tolerating Uchiha #13 yapping and doesn't call them out on their bullshit) and his friendship with Rin is shown very weakly, to the point I would say most of it is left to readers' imagination. That's wonderful that you found a ship that has this sort of transcended love vibe, but what I see is two characters literally strung together by the author for no other reason because mangaka needs that drama, one of these characters barely qualifies for a character and is moreso a plot device, while the other one COMMITS SO many crimes the whole "she was my light" bitching and moaning can go into the trash pile along with the man saying these things, because hundreds of thousands are dead for the delusions of this one guy.

What I do wanna talk about is Rin's death, because GOD this shit drives me mad for numerous reasons.

Firstly, let's insert Kakashi into the conversation, because Kishimoto twists himself into a pretzel just to somehow both justify Obito's turn to the dark side and Kakashi not being an utter piece of shit that kills his friends for the mission (because Kakashi is a fan favorite I guess and making him fully responsible for that murder is a step too far). This pretzel is so lovely that it actually creates TWO versions of events in Obito as a witness and Kishimoto... does absolutely nothing with the change in Obito's perspective. Which is absolute insanity.

So, we turn off our omnipotence as readers, and sit inside Obito's mind as he sets off for Kakashi and Rin surrounded by Kirigakure shinobi in 603 (this is the only information he has). The Zetsus later mention some experiment of Kiri, Minato being on a different mission, etc, etc. Obito doesn't understand the full context, cuz he's running for his life, and at that point he does witness Rin's last moments through Kakashi's eye

(chapter 604)

Huh, what an interesting expression Kishimoto chooses. Something in between betrayal, confusion and fear. Well, it wiil certainly correspond to what is actually going on, right? Right?

So Obito finally runs into the clearing and sees

Rin, standing still, looking scared and betrayed, while Kakashi pierces her heart, crying.

And so, Kishimoto in chapter 604 creates a pretty clear narrative: Kakashi and Rin were surrounded on a mission with Minato away, and, instead of protecting Rin like he promised Obito, Kakashi chose to put the mission above his teammate and killed Rin.

By chapter 605 Obito is already commiting the massacre of Kiri ninjas, who scream something about the importance of Rin's corpse, but ultimately no further context is given, so nothing much changes in Obito had witnessed on that day.

Wow, what a terrible thing to happen! Of course Obito would break and realize how terrible the system and by extention the world is, with Rin being killed for... oh wait, there's more?

And almost 25 FUCKING CHAPTER LATER we suddenly discover THAT THIS IS NOT AT ALL WHAT HAPPENED. And is it Kakashi who tells us his side of story? NO, OF FUCKING COURSE NOT, IT'S OBITO WHO DOES THIS. OBITO WHO'S ENTIRE FUCKING CHARACTER HINGES ON THIS ONE SCENE.

Rin did WHAT and was WHAT?

(I will not go into detail how Isobu being sealed in Rin COMPLETELY fucks over Blood Mist's timeline, that's a whole other separate rant)

So, A MASSIVE CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE FOR OBITO: Rin chose this fate, Kakashi was doing everything in his power to prevent this, Rin somehow managed to gain enough speed and agility to overcome Kakashi's reflexes and THE FUCKING SHARINGAN to throw herself onto Kakashi's arm (yes, the very same girl who got abducted TWICE. I did mention her abilities flipflop depending on Kishimoto's mood), and Rin's death had a very certain meaning - to protect Konoha from being destroyed by a Tailed Beast.

(I also really love how Rin in 629 absolutely can not end up in the same pose she did in 604, thank you Kishimoto for your cheap manipulations)

So... this is a massive thing to happen. So how does Obito react to this upon learning? When does he learn this? How does this happen?

LOL. LMAO. FUCK YOU READER. (c) Kishimoto

Because it's just randomly shoved into the plot and ignored for the rest of the series, regardless of how it completely flips the relationships between team Minato, particularly with Kakashi no longer being an unfeeling traitor but rather someone who ended up in utterly terrible circumstances that he could not prevent and Rin... continuing her psychotic streak of "oh, Obito died? better confess Kakashi right above his still warm body" with "huh, I can't end myself, and I pose a danger to the village... well, I will certainly not entertain the possibility of finding my sensei's wife who knows all the most powerful sealing jutsu to keep the thing inside me in control, so suicide it is, and of course I won't go for any of the armed Kiri guys following us, I will do it using Kakashi, the boy I love. I am sure he will enjoy the image of me bleeding out on his arm for the rest of his life, especially with that promise that he gave to Obito". Another important thing that we learn that Rin REALLY loved her village, to the point of being ready to die for it.

And I will say what I think about this - you can not try to push the "cute innocent baby girl" narrative with SUCH a heavy decision done. This requires a lot a mental fortitude of someone much older and competent than the pure innocent light that Kishimoto tries to later portray her as.

But coming to the second point I wished to discuss and it is how Obito's entire interaction with the whole shinobi system completely crumbles with the change in these events, because the first version does show how messed up it is - Kakashi choosing the mission over a comrade, Rin's life being just a simple burden to the system, etc etc. But the second version of events OFFERS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in regards to Obito's understanding of how wrong the system they are living is (contrary to LITERALLY any other antagonist in the series). Because Rin's death in the second version is a terrorist attack that Rin herself decides to prevent. You can have the most wonderful and humane system imaginable, with free healthcare, children being allowed to be children until growing into adutls, elections etc etc, and it would still not guarantee that people with nasty intentions from using power to inflict pain on innocents. And anybody could have ended up in Rin's place, if we are under assumption that Kiri simply wants to demolish Konoha with Isobu. The worst that could be extracted from this version of events is that Kakashi and Rin had to end up in this situation at all without adult supervision (which is moreso to Kakashi's part, because Rin in this scenario is just a bystander who got abducted to be used as a living bomb, and anyone from a cat to a granny could have been in her place), and Rin at 14 being able to make the decision to end her life for the sake of the village, but again this is also motivated by the actual danger she presents to the people around her.

All of the above is probably a good explanation as for why throught the entirety of 599 to 660s Obito can not formulate A SINGULAR good argument for the Eye of the Moon that would show the horror of the shinobi system except for "PEOPLE DIE - SAD", "PEOPLE BETRAY ALWAYS - ANGRY" and last but not least "YOU WILL BE JUST LIKE ME, GIVE ME A SECOND TO MURDER ANOTHER DOZEN OF YOUR COMRADES". I shit you not, the guy who was the one behind Blood Mist, witnessed the fate of Amegakure, was part of the Uchiha massacre, collected and personally knew members of Akatsuki, had been this amazing strategist and manipulator for the last 16 years CAN NOT say anything that wouldn't be about him being mad about Rin dying and how everyone's gonna be just like him fr.

The closest he ever gets to this is soon after Neji's death, remembering this wonderful thing called the cursed seal that the main branch of Hyuga would place on its cadet branch members regardless of their age whenever the current heir of the clan would turn 3, and this seal can also be used to inflict pain on the bearers by the people of the main branch. So essentially Konoha has a literal enslaving practices. Wonderful job, Hashirama. Well, what will our Savior and awesome guy will tell us about this practice?

Ah, he completely missed the point of why enslaving your relatives is bad. AND he is using it as a shitty Twitter-level gotcha that would sound like "LITERALLY 1984!!!1!" without ever bothering to read the book. God canon Obito you're such a loser.

Which is why I really can just barely chuckle whenever I remember that as the apocalypse is unfolding, hundreds of thousands are dead, and Obito gives up on the plan of his life after Naruto talks-no-jutsus him twice, Madara dunks on this entire comedy opera and reveals that HEY IT WAS ACTUALLY ME BEHIND RIN'S DEATH! and most of Obito's post reveal yapping goes completely null because it wasn't the system's evil (the faults of which he is never shown to understand), it wasn't this world's evil, it was Madara's evil that killed Rin😁

And that's overall a good commentary on the final state of the affairs in Fourth Shinobi World War - the majority of people aren't suffering because the system, the majority of people are dying because there's two Uchiha assholes with their convoluted bullshit that are killing people en-masse for their delusions, one of which was dead for the last 16 years, so yeah, Obito ain't running away from the things he commited with "boo hoo Rin was my sole light" which is immediatelly followed by this

WHICH IS THE ONLY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT HE GIVES OF 16 YEARS THAT INVOLVED DEMOLISHING KONOHA THAT KILLED HUNDREDS, THE ENTIRE AKATSUKI THING THAT ENDED UP WITH ALL MEMBERS DEAD AND LIKELY THOUSANDS OF SHINOBI AND CIVILIANS MURDERED WHILE THE ORGANIZATION WAS ACTIVE, THE BLOOD FUCKING MIST THAT HAD KIDDIE MURDER EXAMS, DEATH SQUADS AND EVEN MASSACRES OF WIELDERS OF KEKKAI GENKAI, THE MASS MURDER OF HIS OWN CLAN, AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST THIS ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD WAR WHERE HALF OF THE ALLIANCE IS ALREADY DEAD, SO WE ARE SPEAKING ABOUT 50K CASUALTIES AT LEAST

buuuuuuuuut Riiiiiiiiiin waaaaaaas myyyyyyyy soleeeeeee liiiiight😭😭😭

(also I suppose this is how Kishimoto deals with the whole "so hey at what point does Obito actually see the problems of shinobi system" thing, which is. hilarious. a tiny panel with a moon on the background.)

Okay, rambling over, let's return to the original post

A lot of people would say: “but he had Minato,” “he had Kakashi,” “he had Kushina.”

I find it a bit weird that you chose to exclude Obito's grandmother for being a filler and an anime-original character, but included Kushina here, because I do not remember a single instance of her interacting with Team Minato that happened in the manga and not in anime/video games

but they only came into his life for a short period of time. Their interactions were not on an intense level as it was with he and Rin.

Minato was in Obito's life for 4 years as we previously established, which is a pretty big thing for Obito's total 14 year old lifespan. And I am still not sure of what interactions that Rin and Obito shared that weren't "she held his hand, put a bandage over his cut and said with a serious tone that he shouldn't hide his wounds". Like, it would have been funny and cute if we were talking about 13 year old Obito, but with corpses pilied up, half of the world destroyed and 30 year old Obito? Please give me something better than a placeholder cutscene, I am begging you.

And again, very little indication of their interactions outside of team Minato, so question mark to the whole "long period of time"

Naruto however, had Iruka, who most likely taught him a lot of things about the importance of the village, the importance of camaraderie, friendship

But... Naruto is learning it over the time we witness him in the plot. And it happens while we watch him at 12. So I am not sure where the "Iruka taught him" argument is coming from.

And Obito was certainly aware of the importantce of the village considering HOW MUCH dialogue is spent on him declaring how he is gonna become a Hokage. If he missed that point while having that dream, I can't even say anything. Also, Obito from 8 to 13 was in a militaristic settlement that was in the middle of a World War, I'm pretty sure their education wasn focusing on working up that patriotism in the kids that would soon go to the trenches.

Naruto had his fair share of trauma but he had support that allowed for some resiliency.

Gosh golly I wonder who was responsible for all that trau-- I am sorry, I will stop, you get the point.

And also, no. Kakashi was in his depression arc and didn't interact with Naruto until becoming his sensei, Jiraya was out there somewhere shitfaced and probably collecting intelligence for Konoha, Hiruzen was just creepily watching him through his magic ball without Naruto's knowledge, and with Iruka it's unclear at what point did he start feeding Naruto and chatting with him outside of classroom, and even if that started as soon as supposedly Rin and Obito became friends, Naruto still was being shunned by the majority of village and starts having proper friends only during the plot, so 12 years old and onwards.

(and, again, there is no reason for Obito to be left stranded by the rest of the society, nothing written by Kishimoto ever indicates this)

Psychological intermeshment stems from traumatic upbringing in childhood (lack of nurturance from an adult caregiver, abandonment etc), and then again from losing their sense of security/safety (Rin in this case).

I like your point, and it is kind of something of a new thing to me, but again, the entire scenario of Obito's abandonment and latching onto Rin is hinging on the reader making the decision to remove that part of brain that considers these characters somewhere other than the vacuum. It is plain and simple bad writing. I really wish I could agree with your point, but it would mean ignoring almost everything that Kishimoto showed (and I am sure that he was desperate to tell us something along your lines, but he utterly failed in that regard).

So he did what he could to get that sense of security back, even if what he did was questionable.

EXCUSE ME? QUESTIONABLE? QUESTIONABLE???

Several months after Rin's death, Obito kills hundreds in his own village for no apparent reason because the action brings his plan no benefit. Does that mean getting back the security? Obito also kills the mother of his own classmate, never showing regret for it, before proceeding to put a kunai against a newborns throat and booby trapping him. Was he getting back the security this way? Obito also manipulates the leaders of original Akatsuki into doing his bidding and when the plan doesn't work, gosh golly one of them dies in an internal strife, which seems just so terribly convenient for him. Is being a manipulative and lying bastard part of his security blanket? He then also proceeds to put the Fourth Mizukage under his genjutsu and what followed was one the most brutal regimes shinobi world ever knew. Did he felt safe and happy becoming the reason for an entire village's and likely country's suffering? Said regime also included mandatory battles between children of Academy age, so 8-10 years old, and death squads that would kill anyone attempting to desert said regime, and the only profit that Obito got for his plan from this entire affair was Kisame joining Akatsuki. Well, surely, that seems like a mildly questionable thing to get his sense of security back, hm?

I am not even gonna bothering continuing, but I can make this paragraph twice as large without much trouble. Obito was not simply doing questionable things, he was an absolute genocidal maniac, and very much had a tendency for opportunistic murder, and a lot of the things he did have no explained or apparent reason.

Then you have the complexity of the curse of hatred that intertwines the storyline, which make things even more complicated. But this curse was what pushed the storyline and placed Obito as an antagonist.

As I have already stated, a cheap copout from Kishimoto to not bother himself with writing anything more complicated than a story for first graders

He did not start a war because of a girl. He started a war because he was angry with the way the world functioned. How the countless wars kept ending lives and taking loved ones away from people. He did not want people to go through what he went through.

LMAO. So, obviously, yes, the favorite argument provided with Kishimoto's own heavy-handed writing: "I did not start a war over a girl. I will only mention her fifty times. And think of only her whevener something major will happen to me. Fuck those people that I met over the last 16 years and who ended up dead because of my actions or my plan. They don't matter, only the people I spoke with when I was 13 do. And I will not be able to provide anything of substance whenever an opportunity to talk about the faults of the system will arise. Just general throwing hands in the air and dramatic mumbling about despair."

And rereading the manga, it is actually apparent that he can't produce anything about the shinobi system (because Kishimoto never ended up giving him a moment to understand this, duh), so he consistenly attacks the world for things like people dying in general, which, if you ask me, is the point where any and all discussion with Obito should have ended, because he is clearly absolutely delusional and, similarly to the war that HE started, it is a conflict between the humanity as it is surviving or this guy's delusions entrapping everyone.

How the countless wars kept ending lives and taking loved ones away from people. He did not want people to go through what he went through.

Damn, nothing says "I hate wars" like creating and controlling an international terrorist organization that specializes on taking the war business and spends YEARS doing random side-quests for money when your own plan has zero need for money, so you pretty much allow these bloodthirsty assholes to run amock. Nothing says "I hate wars" like sending said assholes into highly-populated areas to catch the jinchuriki when you are shown repeatedly to have the abilities to do so quickly and effiently, but nope, let's nuke Sunagakure, because "I hate wars". "I do not want people to go through what I went through", so I am going to have 8 year old children battle each other to death in the village where I took control, and if anyone tries to run away from that, I will have a death squad ready. Wow, I was so lonely as I child, but don't worry, little Uchiha, I am going to stab you and your family tonight, because I do not want you to go through what I went through. Oh, Sasuke-kun, hope you enjoy your new spacious home!

In essence, this mindset has villain written all over it, but it also compels a strong backstory for Obito because of his complex childhood upbringing and the trauma he experienced.

Trauma? Yes. Complex childhood upbringing? Maybe in some fanfiction, the canon is lackluster and has all the complexity of a third grader's math problem.

But people need to remember that he had a father who provided that nurturing environment for him. Even if his father died in tragic circumstances, Kakashi, though traumatised, was able to bounce back and push forward with the support of his friends and village.

These are not simply tragic circumstances, that's an 8 year old walking into his home and finding his father after he commited suicide. Your point about adult figures is a bit more appropriate this time with Kakashi, in my opinion, because Sakumo would kill himself when Kakashi was 8, and team Minato wouldn't become a team until Obito's and Rin's graduation when they were 9, so Kakashi ended up kind of being passed down from Sakumo and Minato. It still doesn't mean that it somehow alleviated Kakashi's condition, because we still see him holding onto these rigorous anti-Sakumo ideals during Kannabi bridge, all of which culminated in Obito's "death", so I am not exactly sure at what point the "bounce back" happens, because things get only worse for him with Rin and Minato getting killed. I don't even think Kishimoto actually shows us Kakashi getting back to it, all of it is coming from external sources that aren't written by Kishimoto? Kakashi just kinda loses everything and then we see him still staying alive and not following the allure of his dad's path. Kakashi has a lot of generic talk about friendship and comraderie, but I can't remember what exactly brought him back from losing everything that was related to his team? So he's a weird example to compare Obito against.

It all comes back to childhood upbringing and the presence of an adult caregiver/mentor.

And in example with Kakashi the adult mentor is also killed the second time and Kakashi loses everything. Again being saved by off-screen camraderie and power of friendship, and also general desire to continue spreading Obito's ideals. So, still a weird example.

That, and then again, the presence of the curse of hatred (which was why Sasuke was pretty fucked up despite coming from a loving family). 

Curse of hatred is lazy bullshit and Sasuke was not fucking fine because one wonderful evening he stumbled upon his entire family massacred, then got tortured by his beloved brother after witnessing him kill their parents, and then he had to alive alone in the very same compound where his entire family was killed, and then his brother returned and tortured him again, now sending him into a coma. That's just some of the few things that come to mind when it comes to Sasuke being fucked up.

This is the reason why I do not ship Obito x Kakashi. To me there was no love, care and nurturing between those two. Obito “died” not long after being friendly with Kakashi, so that wouldn’t warrant a ship between those two. Whereas with Rin, it is a different story.

I don't particularly enjoy Obikaka either, but I can understand why people would ship it (unlike canon Obirin canon Obikaka at least has two characters interacting), however again this comes from a lot of stretching of canon to the limit. You have correctly stated that there was no proper friendship shared between the two of them (which I see Obikaka shippers debating), Kakashi is practically bullying him during Kannabi bridge mission, and when they finally did see eye to eye (BADUMS) it was like 5 minutes before Kakko dropped the cave on their heads. But what is fascinating between the two is what they symbolize to each other (and no, regardless of what Kishimoto is peddaling, I don't believe in any deep friendship and understanding between them during Fourth Shinobi World War, they are grown ass men who have lived with their plans and ideals for far too long + they haven't spoken to each other in 17 years), because Kakashi changes his entire life to accomodate Obito's habits (being later and such), Kakashi, in a sense, attempts to live out the life that Obito never got to live. And Obito... well, Obito's writing all over the place, so really this guy's interpretation is in the eye of the beholder and how much they are willing to ignore canon.

And like I said, just because of all this crap Obito’s been through, it does not excuse what he did or make what he did right (he was a villain after all).

One, it literally doesn't provide him with enough motivation for half of the deaths he had caused. Two, yes, the plot absolutely excuses him in the most ridiculous of ways, because poow baby boi upset that Rin dead. Don't mind poow baby boi using about a 100 opportunities to kill people when it went against his supposed morals and there was absolutely no profit to be made for Eye of the Moon, Naruto saw 30 year old poow baby boi being sad and dreaming of becoming Hokage when he was 10, he certainly deserves redemption arc.

And thank you for reminding that that post-Obito death scene exists, my night is absolutely ruined because now I remembered this "How to never write a female character" scene, with Rin finally rejecting her premise as a character and embracing her role as a plot function, and in this scene she fulfills a role that all male character dream of - a consolation prize for Obito who sent countless people to their deaths, brought about the apocalypse and got around to fixing it about two seconds away from midnight on the doomsday clock. But hey, at least he tried his best doing all of that!

now onto @makimahinalno points

What these two had was very unique and rare, and I cannot explain how much it irks me when people degrade and simplify it as "obsessive" when it isn't.

The uniqueness and rarity of these two stems from the fact of how absolutely half-baked their relationship is, how Rin's charactertics and worldview (which we don't get at all until that flashback when they are chunins and Rin says flat out that she wants the war to stop, which I guess indicates something common between the two, but also shows her not being a particular death enjoyer?) keep changing whenever Kishimoto needs them to ("I watched everything and you did your best" says she to a guy who demolished a village that she died to protect. Actually, two times, if we include the Pain attack. Oh, and the boy she loved aka Kakashi also got killed during that attack) and how Obito's 16 years of life post Rin's death had so much opportunistic murder that can not be excused or even motivated by any of his endless meanderings about hopelessness and such. I am sure that Kishimoto intended for this to be some sort of higher form of love, but with what he ended up writing Obito being responsible for, Kishimoto's own inability to properly handle the horrific nature of Obito's acts and, frankly, Rin's character remaining somewhere at placeholder female character level, every single time he mentions or has a flashback to her (and that happens A LOT) that really makes one realizes that either the character or the managaka are completely insane. But probably both. Which is where "obsessive" comes from, because Obito conveniently does not acquire any other significant relationships for half of his life, leaving him sounding like a broken record about Rin.

When Obito remembers Rin, when we see her face, we are supposed to think about innocence itself.

That's awesome, but making an executive decision to kill yourself using your crush's fist to prevent the village from being sent into past tense is not innocence. Being capable of taking out a dying boy's eye and transplanting into a wound of another boy while standing in the middle of some half-destroyed cave with no tools specifically prepared for that and neither of the boys dying is not innocence. If Kishimoto wished her character to be about innocence, he should have not made her an experienced shinobi (at times, of course whenever he needs her Rin becomes as incompenent as a child).

She is the symbol of it, she represents all kids in the world who deserve to play on a playground, be well fed and not have to worry whether they are going to survive to see the next morning or not.

Damn, and Obito really internalizes those ideals, doesn't he? Or does he become the head of regime that had exams for Academy students that required them to kill each other? The exam that got cancelled because little Zabuza has found a cheat code and killed a 100 children of that graduation class? The regime that had a specialized ANBU department that was solely responsible for people escaping this regime, likely including the very children that didn't want to kill their fellow little friends and not worry if the are going to see the next morning? The regime that had massacres of people possessing Kekkei Genkai that it did nothing about? And after Obito was done with that regime, surely Akatsuki did not recruit a 13 year old and a 12 year old almost consequitevely? He surely gave them warm homes, carefree education and uneventful lives? He surely did not pair them with fellow mentally ill nukenins and send them to complete missions for his terroristic band, with their faces plastered in all bingo books with a handsome reward next to them?

Again, I would love to believe into this idea of "innocence" that Obito so cherished and Rin seemed to possess, but unfortunately the only thing I get is three same scenes of Rin and Obito doing the same thing again and again + Obito's vague and meaningless meandering + none of Obito's actual messed-up shit being ever adressed in favor of the things above. I am sure Kishimoto oh so wanted this deep transcendent love and innocence incarnate, but you can't get rid of 600 chapters worth of questions by replacing all answers with "SHE WAS HIS SOLE LIGHT😭😭😭😭😭😭😭" Kishimoto created a character far too heavy that he could and wanted to manage, so Obito falls flat with Rin as the anchor that drowns him in his own lore.

I... won't be adressing the rest of your post🤣🤣🤣🤣you should write poetry, I love your flowery descriptions. I think I've made my case clear about how this particular interpretation of Obirin requires one to use their imagination instead of relying on canon material and preferably forgetting about the other big chunk

Anyway, that's about it. Thanks if you managed to read to this point, I am honestly surprised and congratulate you. I have been wanting to make a big post containing most of my issues with Obito's writing in canon, and these posts made me stay up throught two nights as I was rereading manga and writing this post itself.

And remember, kids, ship whoever your want, tag your stuff appropriately, and don't try to get into the depths of Naruto canon, or you'll end up in this wormhole just like I did. With Kishimoto at the helm, nobody is a winner.

Sending cheers to the authors of original posts!

(and yes if you are wondering why I stopped attaching pictures to the post past a certain point - I hit the limit on them and was far too lazy to separate them into several posts. I might make a separate post with other screenshots of the manga that I have where Kishimoto reaches absolutely insane levels of reader gaslighting, I was honestly torn apart by my desire to fall asleep while rereading this part of the manga and giggling like insane because some of the shit characters say is absolutelt comical in its absurdity. God I really have a love-hate relationship with Naruto's last 100 chapters, don't I. Anyway, I gotta crash, I have an exam in two days and I did not sleep for two days.)

[elen-aranel]

Helloo~ May I make a Christopher Pike x reader request? It's a month old scuttlebutt, that the captain is involved with you, based solely on misconstrued events (leaving the direction of his quarters early morn in a rumpled uniform, stopping by medbay for a 'shot') Everyone knows that everyone knows, from cadet to captain. Except you don't. And noone has bothered checking. And the captain finds it funny (and you 'apparently' don't mind either as you've not bothered to shoot it down) so any moments you two have in view of others, he gives you a conspirational wink with some flirty banter. You think (hope) he's really flirting and not just being friendly.

Is it a bit much for a request? If so lemme know. Or i can commission? Idk. The idea hit me and it made me giggle with all the ways it could go.

Thank you so much for the request, and for your patience... this took a while! I hope you like the direction I've gone with it <333

Common Knowledge

Pairing: Christopher Pike x F!Reader (no Y/N) Warnings/Notes: Reader wears the dress version of the standard SNW uniform. Food mentions, alcohol mention. WC: 5.8k

It all starts the morning after you spent gamma shift in a Jeffries tube. Well. Several Jeffries tubes, in fact, chasing down an issue with a relay that had blown and taken a bunch of circuitry out with it, including some life support systems.

You’re feeling good, though, as you step out into the corridor on a deck full of crew quarters. Yes, your red uniform dress is creased and you’re in dire need of a shower, but the relay and the burned-out circuitry are replaced, and all systems are back online.

You deserve a water shower, not a sonic one, you tell yourself as you head toward the turbolift, nodding to the occasional officer as you walk by them. You just need to make sure the ops console on the bridge is reading everything correctly, then your duty shift will be done.

“Commander, Lieutenant,” you greet Lieutenant Commander Chin-Riley and Lieutenant Ortegas as you enter the turbolift. Unlike you, they both look fresh and ready to face the day. Number One nods in greeting, but Ortegas looks you up and down quite blatantly, and you find you’re trying to smooth your skirt despite yourself.

“Long night?”

“I—” you start, but before you can reply—

“Computer, hold. Open the doors,” Commander Chin-Riley says, and as you turn, Captain Pike is walking into the lift. And somehow, even though you’ve been on the Enterprise for a while, you’re never not struck by his presence. His broad shoulders. How handsome he is.

“Good morning, Number One, Ortegas. Lieutenant.” He puts an odd weight on your title, even though of course he knows your name, and then your mind goes blank as he winks one of those blue eyes.

“C-captain,” you stutter, well aware of Ortegas trying to stifle a laugh next to you.

“Sleep well?” Una asks, something knowing in her voice, after the captain directs the turbolift to the bridge.

“I’ve had… more restful nights,” he says, and looks at you sideways, doubtless taking in your rumpled dress and less-than-fresh appearance. “Like the lieutenant here, I’d wager,” he adds, and you must have missed a memo somewhere because this ‘lift ride has gotten very weird, very fast.

You decide keeping quiet is your best bet — it’s a short ride, thank goodness.

But you can’t shake the feeling that there are eyes on you as you finish your work on the bridge.

It may have started in a Jeffries tube, but it continues in sickbay.

You appreciate knowing sickbay is there. Doctor M'Benga and Nurse Chapel are skilled at their jobs, and you’ve had cause to be grateful for them when accidents happen, from a pulled muscle during a workout to a painful plasma burn from faulty equipment.

That doesn’t mean you love getting your quarterly check-up and shots. But you decided early on in your career that you weren’t going to be one of those people doctors had to chase for their physicals. Every three months you turn up. You’re due for routine vaccinations against some common alien viruses that human immune systems need reminders about, and your contraceptive shot.

Not that you really need it, of course. You aren’t getting any. The closest you’ve been since you joined the Enterprise was Lieutenant Paulson, a senior engineer who sometimes commands gamma shift when you’re on that rotation. He asked you out to dinner on Starbase 1, and while you like him as a person, you had to decline. You’d known him for a while, and never felt any kind of spark. And there’s been no-one— there’s been almost no-one else on the ship that you’re interested in. But still, you get your shot.

Today your appointment is during your shift. You didn’t want to be interrupted; you’re working on a new scanning device to be used on a planet with an unusual combination of atmosphere and magnetic field, which affects the resolution of normal scanners. So when your reminder went off you kept hold of your PADD, and you carried on entering the design parameters as you walked.

“Woah there,” a voice cuts through the equations you’re focussing on, and you feel hands on your arms, steadying you as you stumble.

As it turns out, walking with a PADD is a mistake.

Especially when you walk straight into the captain in the corridor outside sickbay.

“Captain! I’m so sorry! I—I was— I’ll pay more attention.” You look up, flustered, into his blue eyes, suddenly keenly aware of the bulk of him, of the controlled strength in his hands.  Happily, he seems amused rather than annoyed, that half smile playing about his lips.

“I do admire your... dedication, Lieutenant, but you’re right. Paying attention is a good idea.”

And as the doors to sickbay swish open, letting Chief Kyle and one of your fellow engineers out onto the corridor, you realise the captain hasn’t moved. You’re still in his space, and he’s still holding you.

“Captain, Lieutenant... are you joining us?” Nurse Chapel looks as though she’s suppressing a smile. “You’re, uh... both here for your quarterly shots, right?” she adds, as Pike finally steps back, and you walk with him into sickbay. You nod, mutely.

“Yes. Timed it perfectly this time, didn’t we Lieutenant?” he says, and he grins at you, knowing.

“Sure,” you find yourself saying, sitting down a little abruptly on the biobed Doctor M'Benga indicates. Is Pike… flirting with you? Or just being his usual warm self?

“This shouldn’t take too long. I’m sure you want to get back to your... duties.” M'Benga looks meaningfully at Pike, who shrugs, a picture of innocence.

“Can you blame us?”

You can’t help your smile.

But actually, now you really think about it, maybe you’re wrong.  Maybe it started with the onions.

You have a shift free, moving from nights to days as you do on a semi-regular basis, since some edict came down from Starfleet that people shouldn’t just work nights for health reasons. It doesn’t entirely make sense to you; you’re on a ship, so it’s not like anyone has a real day or night, but being able to socialise with people who are always on alpha is a plus, and you suppose the same rules apply to planetary bases which do have day and night.

The captain has invited you to dinner. That isn’t special, even though you wish it were – he likes to get to know the whole crew in an informal setting, and it’s just your turn. And maybe you over-think it just a little, during the day, planning what to wear to make yourself look pretty but not like you’d tried too hard.

Either way, you are early. You only realise as you press the chime for the door, when it’s too late to back out.

But the captain’s smile is warm and welcoming. “Hi, come in, come in. You any good with a vegetable knife?”

You grin in return, relaxing. “Yes sir. It’s been a little while, but I can chop.”

“Chris. We’re not on the clock right now.”

“Yes, Chris.” You follow him into the kitchen area of his quarters, taking in the fire, the view of a green forest through the windows, all the details that mark the space as his.

“Excellent. That spatial anomaly today— well. I’m playing catch-up here.”

“Oh wow, you really are...” the vegetables are all laid out ready, and there are a lot. But then, you don’t know how many people will be here. “Set me to work. How do you want the carrots?”

Pike’s knives are sharp and well balanced, and it’s easy to chop carrots into even circles, and to dice potatoes into neat cubes. You chat, too, about the food he’s making, and the special unit he had the ship’s botanists set up to let him grow fresh herbs in space.

You’re pretty much on autopilot by the time you get to the onions. You know the technique: you slice them in half through the root, then make sure you don’t cut the root again as you cut from close to the root to the tip, then across into chunks.

“So, there’s something I’m curious about,” you say as you grab the next onion.

“Oh?” Pike pauses for a moment, hand poised over the control for the oven.

“The forest overlay you have for the windows. Is it somewhere special to you? It’s really lovely.” You blink a little as you chop. Perhaps you got a lash or something in your eye.

Pike presses the control on the oven, then turns to look at you. “No, actually it’s—” he frowns. “Wait, are you all right?”

You blink again. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Your brow draws together, and you put your knife down, turning to him a little more.

“Because you’re crying.” He starts towards you.

“Oh, damn.” You can feel it now — that tell-tale sting in your eyes. You look down at your chopping. “The onions. But I was being careful.” You sigh, blink again, and feel a tear roll down your cheek.

“If there are a lot it doesn’t matter how careful you are. I’m sorry, I should have done them.” He reaches past you, and you’re terribly aware of him in your space. He pulls off a piece of kitchen towel.

 “It’s not your fault—” the words die on your lips as he turns to face you, blue eyes filled with concern.

“I’ll just—I don’t want you to use your hands—” and he takes the towel and dabs your face, and you suck a little breath in at his closeness, wondering why it has to be in a circumstance like this, when the door chime goes. “Enter,” he says, distractedly, blotting away one more tear before stepping back. “There. No harm done. But you should wash up. Ah, Spock, perhaps you can take over the chopping.”

You look round to see that Spock, Sam Kirk, Ortegas and Uhura have all walked in, just in time to see you with red eyes from the onions. At least, you think as you wash the onion off your hands, your makeup is waterproof.

Regardless of how things did or did not start, you’re pretty sure the captain only thinks of you as a friend. That this flirting is just a joke between the two of you... even if you wish it were real. Either way, you decide you might as well enjoy it.

You get back to the transport point from your solo hike on Chi Orianis Prime – it’s beautiful, with fluffy peachy-pink grass that’s soft underfoot and smells very slightly citrus-y when you tread on it, interspersed with lavender coloured bushes, with views of blue lakes and red mountains in the distance – right as Pike gets back from his fishing trip. Given how he’s carrying his cooler, it must have been a successful one.

You’re just about to ask him about it when Chapel and Ortegas arrive, with Uhura and La’an in tow, laughing together. They’re wearing t-shirts and shorts and sandals, carrying towels — clearly back from the beach, La’an actually looking like she might have caught the sun a little.

You take a step closer to him.

“Enjoy your trip?” The smile on Erica’s face is just a little too innocent.

“Yes, thank you. Wouldn’t have been the same without the lieutenant here, though.” Pike catches your eye, and you smile back at him, sappy, playing along.

“The captain’s right. We had a good time.”

None of your close friends wanted to go to movie night with you tonight. They’re showing a classic 20th century Earth film, Casablanca, and none of them were interested in seeing something that old. But it seems pretty popular with the rest of the crew when you get there. You pick up some popcorn first, wondering once again whose idea it was to put a Starfleet delta on the containers, and you head to find a seat.

Maybe it was a good thing your friends didn’t come. There aren’t too many spaces left when you go to sit down, but there are a few seats a couple of rows in front of where Spock and Nurse Chapel are sitting together. You settle in, allowing yourself three pieces of popcorn before the lights go down.

And right before they do, Pike slides into the free seat next to you.

“I thought you were going to stand me up,” you tell him, tilting your popcorn container over.

“A gentleman would never,” he replies, and you can hear the smile in his voice as he takes a piece.

The back of the shuttle is open to the bay, and Cadets Novakova and Manuel, on engineering rotation, are standing inside it with you, PADDs in hand. You’ve popped a panel off the inside of the shuttle, and you indicate a junction point.

“So, okay. You want to interplex the circuitry here. What will be the result of that? What are you hoping to achieve?”

“Well, the increased signal strength will improve thruster response time and efficiency.” Manuel says, shrugging his broad shoulders like it’s obvious.

“Yes, and we need better responsiveness for the planet. The atmospheric differentials are almost out of spec.” Novakova nods. “This is the easiest way to achieve that.”

“All right. And looking at the systems in front of you, will there be any other consequences?”

“No, there shouldn’t, it should just—” there’s a pause, then Novakova steps back, playing with a twist of her blonde hair as she considers. “Wait. That pathway, it connects to the impulse engine as well, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it does, and the boosted signal would go through there too…” Manuel’s fingers fly over his PADD.

They look at each other as the penny drops, and you notice Pike in the bay, listening in. You tilt your head and raise a brow in a silent invitation, but he shakes his head a little, content to observe.

“So if we interplex the circuitry there, we will get an increase in thruster efficiency, but at the expense of introducing instability into the impulse control matrix.” Manuel sighs.

“You’re flying along, minding your business and then boom. Impulse reactor overload.” Novakova winces. “I didn’t see that.”

You nod. “You didn’t. Because neither of you really looked. For what it’s worth, it would probably have worked on the shuttles at the academy. But these are a different model. You have to work with what’s actually in front of you. That’s half the battle.”

“Wise words, Lieutenant.” Pike leans into the back of the shuttle, and you can’t help your smile at the praise as the cadets turn to acknowledge him. “The two of you should take them to heart.”

You're sitting on a bench in the bar, sipping a favourite drink, listening to Ensign Thyra play an Earth guitar but sing a wistful sounding song in her native Andorian, when Lieutenant Ortegas sits down next to you. And then Nurse Chapel sits on your other side.

“So, you and the captain. How’s that going?” Christine’s opening is straight to the point.

You give her a sceptical look. “It... isn’t? Hi to you too, by the way.” You turn to Erica. “To both of you.”

“Oh, come on. You guys are not subtle.” Erica rolls her eyes. “It’s been scuttlebutt for weeks. Me, Number One,” she starts counting off on her fingers, “Christine, Mbenga, Uhura...”

“Sam Kirk,” Christine adds.

“Yes, Sam Kirk, Spock, La’an...”

 “We’ve all seen it. I even heard the cadets talking about it. Everyone knows.”

You shake your head, putting your drink down on the table in front of you. “We’re not... I don’t—” you look from one to the other. “There’s nothing between the captain and me.” You take a breath. “He flirts, sometimes I flirt back, but it’s just a joke.”

“Doesn’t look like a joke to me.” Christine says, her voice soft, almost sympathetic.

Erica shrugs. “It’s okay. You don’t have to admit it, if you guys are keeping things to yourselves... We just wanted you to know that we’re happy for you. Pike should have someone on the ship. And you. You should have someone too.” Her smile as she stands to leave is genuine.

“I—I’m not hiding anything. But thanks, I guess? I appreciate the sentiment.”

Arriving early when the captain invites you to a crew dinner is your habit now. You enjoy helping with prep when you can, and having a quiet moment to chat with Chris.

But this time you use the computer to check that others have arrived before you get there. You try to relax; these are your friends, Chris is your friend, but with what Erica and Christine said… you feel self-conscious. Second guessing everything you do and say.

 You leave as soon as you can without being rude.

You feel a bit self-conscious with work, too, although you try to bury it. Especially with Pike piloting the shuttle for this mission. You’re sitting in your tactical uniform in the back of shuttle Kepler with Spock, Sam Kirk, La’an, and a couple more science officers. You would expect Kirk especially to pass some comment, but even he is quiet, because Zeta Lyrae VI’s wind shear is every bit as bad as science predicted.

A long-range scanning probe identified it as a possible source of dilithium as well as some other useful minerals — visual scan only, though, because the strange magnetic field prevented scanning of the interior. But that’s where the scanner you developed comes in. The visual scan also tagged some potential ruins which Kirk will investigate, and there’s general surveying to do too.

You grit your teeth against the turbulence. You trust that the captain’s piloting skills and the modifications you and the cadets made to the shuttle will see you safely to the ground, but you still feel motion sick. You know, though, there are pattern enhancers in the cargo. Perhaps you’ll be able to beam back up.

The turbulence lessens as you get deeper into the atmosphere, but you’re still very glad when the shuttle touches down. There’s a metallic tang to the air as the shuttle door opens, but it’s cool and refreshing despite that, and you take a deep breath, settling your rolling stomach, before you get to work.

The dawn sky of Zeta Lyrae IV is muted shades of pale blue and grey, warming a little to mauve-pink at the horizon, where the two suns have just risen. Barren-looking plains stretch out in front of you, with a river lazily meandering across, and there are hills leading to mountains not far away to your right. It’s hard to make out, but the lines of dark stones partially embedded in the ground to your left could well be the remains of a wall, and there are other, more defined structures further away in that direction.

“Lieutenant, you have everything you need?”

“Yes sir.” You lift your last case again, the heavy one, and try to keep your face blank at the weight of it. You know you’ll be feeling it tomorrow, but its contents were too large for your backpack. “I’ve identified a site two kilometres away that’s suitable for the scanner base. Enhanced scanning should be online within an hour.”

Pike nods. “Kirk, La’an, you have the ruins. Spock, the science survey is yours.” He turns to you. “Let me help with that.”

“I’m fine, honestly,” you protest as Pike takes the case from you, fingers brushing yours for one tiny electric moment.

“We’ll make quicker time if we share the load. Which I’m sure Spock will appreciate.”

“Aye, sir.”

You notice that there’s no flirtatious comment today.

This planet feels a bit like a dream, with its dead quiet, muted colours, pearly grey sky and the two suns gently highlighting the landscape. The only evidence you can see of the turbulent atmosphere are the occasional blue-green clouds scudding quickly across the sky.

You pick your way through the pathless terrain, looking for any signs of life. While there are scraps of ragged looking vegetation here and there, a lot of it seems dead, and the planet as a whole seems mostly barren.

You don’t make conversation; there’s something about the planet’s quiet and your confused emotions that steals your ability to make small talk, and Pike is quiet too. There’s just the sound of two pairs of boots crunching on the ground.

Until you almost step on a flower: a seven petaled bloom in the shape of a star, pale blue in the middle deepening to grey-purple just at the tips. You pause to get a better look, to see if there are any others like it nearby, but it seems solitary.

“Are you all right, Lieutenant?”

You look up to see Pike has stopped too, mild concern on his face.

“Yes sir, I’m fine.” You straighten up. “I just... this flower is the only one I’ve seen, and I wonder... is it the last gasp of the life that used to live on this planet, or is it a glimpse of hope for the future?”

Pike glances at the flower, but his focus is on you when he speaks. “We’ll likely never know, but I... I choose hope.”

The site you chose from the visual scan is obvious when you get there. You’re at the edge of the hills, and there’s a grey cliff curving round one edge of a flat open area. Geophysics had identified it as a potential location for dilithium, and as you get close you can see veins of the pink crystal running through the rock.

Now you just need to find out how much there is.

With Pike helping it doesn’t take too long to set the scanner up. You start with the base in the case he was carrying, and together you fold it out into a large circle, locking struts and its three legs in place.

You attach the probe that will drill into the soil, the antennas to communicate with the smaller unit near the shuttle and with the Enterprise, and to facilitate scanning in the atmosphere. Finally, you attach the computer from your backpack which is the brains of the system — you can’t help your private smile of satisfaction as it comes online. The shuttle is far enough away that its systems don’t affect the sensitive scans, and when the probe deploys and calibration data flows straight through immediately.

You talk to Commander Pelia and Lieutenant Spock on comms, making adjustments on the fly to the different parameters, optimising the uplink from the scanner and away team’s tricorders to the Enterprise.

Pike checks in with La’an at some point, but next time you look up you see he’s a little way away, tricorder out, following a standard scanning pattern working outward from where you are. You’re a little surprised he didn’t tell you that’s what he was going to do. Then the scanner beeps as the drill returns a result outside expected tolerances, pulling your focus.

It’s easier to get lost in your work than think about him, and for a long while, you do.

“Lieutenant, do you see that?” There’s a note of concern in Pike’s voice, and you follow his gaze to the horizon to your right.

It almost looks like a distant rain shower would on Earth, but there are green lights sparking all through it. Like lightning but less directional. You take a breath, and realise the metallic smell has intensified, to the point you can almost taste it.

“Yes, sir, I do.” You turn and meet Pike’s eyes.

“Plasma storm?”

“Plasma storm.” You redirect your scanner’s gain to maximum in that direction, sacrificing resolution elsewhere.

Pike’s tone is rueful. “Should’ve known when I scanned a burned patch of vegetation. It must have developed quickly.”

“Looks like it’s moving fast, too.”

“I’ll contact the rest of the away team, have them meet us at the shuttle. You start packing.”

“Sir,” you reply, distracted, already deep in the scanner readouts. You vaguely hear Pike calling Spock, then La’an, but you’re focused on one last scan.

“Lieutenant? I gave you an order.”

“Yes sir, you did, but look.” You point to the readout of the storm’s speed on the screen. “Scans show that even if we leave right now, we can’t make it back to the shuttle before the storm hits. We don’t even have time for them to pick us up.”

Pike frowns. “Options?”

“The cliff. There’s a cave system behind it. I don’t think there’s an entrance close enough, but...”

“Phasers? All this dilithium makes it risky.”

“Plasma burns are no fun, sir. I would know.”

He raises a brow. “Sounds like a story for later. All right. Let’s do this.”

You grab your phaser from your holster and dial the power up.

“Fire.”

You focus your beam on the weakest spot, and Pike fires at it too. And... nothing happens, for long enough for a shade of doubt to creep in. Then there’s a sound, a pile of rubble, and a gap. Just large enough for a person.

The cave is dark. It’s big, too, enough that the torches on your vests can’t illuminate the other side from where you are.

The storm is still raging outside, but the sound of it is quiet in here; the narrow space you opened the gap into curved round for a few metres before opening out into the space you’re in.

Now all you can do is sit and wait.

And you’re so aware of Pike, sitting with you.

He’s quiet, and now you come to think of it he has been all day. Definitely no flirting. You try to steal a glance at him, see what he’s thinking, but it’s too dark, and you don’t want to turn to face him.

You cast around for a distraction, and find a piece of dilithium embedded in the rock floor of the cavern next to you. The surface is flat and glassy-smooth, but with a few imperfections, and you like the feel of it under your fingers. In your head you go over the dilithium crystal eigenstates you memorised at the academy in one of your classes in warp field mechanics, and calculate the power output you would need for your phaser to trigger different levels.

“Sir, I’d like to try something, to give us some more light. It’s safe.”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

You adjust your phaser to its second lowest setting, scoot across a little and fire on the dilithium, counting seconds in your head. It starts glowing red immediately, but as you shut the beam off the glow spreads, along one vein, then another, then another, until the whole cavern is lit up like its own galaxy, surrounding you on the floor, the walls, the ceiling.

“Wow, that’s—that’s good work. Thank you.”

There’s something in his expression as he looks at you, the wonder in his eyes melting into a smile, that makes you brave.

“So… I had an—an interesting chat with Chapel and Ortegas the other day.”

“Oh?”

“Apparently the scuttlebutt is that we’re dating... we’ve been dating for a while. They wouldn’t believe me when I told them it wasn’t true.” You stare out across the cavern at all the glimmering lights.

“Oh.” He exhales. “Hah, yeah… I’m, uh, sorry about that? Things… got away from me.” You hear him stir, move into a different position.

You frown. “I don’t understand. What are you sorry for?”

“I’ve always been interested in you. And you’re not the sort of person that’s cowed by rank – Paulson is your superior, in your chain of command, but I was in the bar when he asked you to dinner, and you were so sure of yourself when you rejected him. So that day in the turbolift, Una and Erica jumping to conclusions... Your face was a picture, and I had to take Una’s bait. But by the time she told me there was already a rumour, you were joining in, and I—”

His voice goes quiet, like a confession.

“I couldn’t stop. And that wasn’t fair to you… making you an object of gossip like that.”

“Chris, I—” but now it comes to it, you can’t find the words. How do you tell him that you wouldn’t mind, not at all, if only the gossip were real? “But you did stop. We’ve barely spoken today. Until now.”

“I can read the room. You weren’t up for it the other night. Or today. And… I would never force my attentions where they clearly aren’t wanted.”

“But... they are, Chris. They are wanted.”

The cavern is dead quiet, and you almost wonder if you actually spoke aloud. But the look in Pike’s eyes when you finally turn to meet them—

“Lieutenant Spock to Captain Pike. Come in, please.”

Pike shrugs a little, face apologetic, as he flips open his communicator.

The ride back to the Enterprise is as quiet, and bumpy, as the ride to the planet. Spock and the rest of the away team had sheltered in the shuttle with shields up while the storm passed over them, and when the Enterprise’s scanners had shown that another one was forming, they came to pick you up.

All the equipment you left outside was destroyed.

But you think, as you climb in the shuttle, you catch a glimpse of one of those star-shaped flowers, still intact. Still blooming.

And Pike makes a point to catch your eye as you leave the shuttle bay. It’s subtle, but you recognise the invitation.

You think you can smell food as you press Pike’s door chime, and the scent only gets more appetising as you walk in. The lights are low, apart from the fire burning brightly, and Pike pauses, apron on over his gold uniform, to smile at you as you walk over to the kitchen area.

“You came.”

“Of course.”

He picks a small bottle up, and pours from it into a salad bowl in front of him. “I hope you’re hungry… I may have gone a little overboard on the mac and cheese. I thought we could use a little comfort food after that planet.”

“It smells amazing. Anything I can do to help?”

“It’s almost ready. You could pour the wine?” He indicates to the bottle and two glasses on one end of his L shape table. You uncork the chilled bottle and take care of the drinks while he brings plates, salad, and the macaroni cheese, piping hot and smelling delicious.

Sitting next to Chris, rather than opposite like you might at a restaurant or on the other side of the L as you have when you’ve been to crew meals here, feels so intimate. As he reaches over to get some salad, or you go to pick up your glass to sip some chardonnay, you can’t help but touch. You try not to let being this close to him distract you… as intimate as this is, as hopeful as you are, nothing is settled.

You take a bite of your pasta and sigh. “It’s perfect, Chris. Creamy, the cheese— everything. Perfect comfort food. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” You see him relax a little as you load up another forkful; he cares what you think.

You eat for a while in companionable quiet, then he takes a breath.

“I’m planning on demoting Spock. He has the worst timing.” He quirks one of those half smiles at you, the kind that make you melt a little, but then his expression goes serious.

“My position on this ship… I have to be careful of it. Your training – everyone’s training – tells you to do as I say. So, if I’m… interested… in someone, usually I try to set that aside.” He puts his fork down and shakes his head a little. “Clearly I didn’t do well on that score with you. But… I would have to be sure, before I truly pursue anything, that a person isn’t saying yes because of my rank.”

“I told myself that flirting was just a joke between us. That you don’t get involved with your crew. I want it to be real, but when people assumed that it was… It spooked me for a moment there.” You turn to face him more fully, to look into his eyes.

“I understand what it means for you to be Captain Pike. I understand that the Enterprise comes before me. But I felt that—that pull toward you, long before whatever this was started. It’s not your rank, your position of authority, Chris, it’s you.”

Chris stands from his chair, reaching a hand out to you. You stand and take it, his fingers warm in yours, and let him draw you to him, feeling the press of his body all along yours. You stare into his eyes, and see a wonder there that you’re sure he sees in your eyes too – the knowledge that you can finally have this. But then your eyes drift shut as he kisses you, gently, unhurried, savouring the moment.

You part for just a second, and then it gets passionate as you kiss him back, one hand on his chest, while his other hand finds its way to your lower back, holding you tighter. Your lips part, his tongue finds yours and you taste him, and you can’t get enough.

“So I know your shots are up to date,” Chris says, voice gravelly, when you pause for breath. “Would you like to take this to the bedroom?”

“Yes please.” You don’t care if you sound needy; you just want him. He takes your hand again and leads the way.

You are not quite sure what happened to your dress. You remember Chris helping you take it off last night, but quite how it got this crumpled is a bit of a mystery. You lift it up from the floor, and try to shake it out, not very successfully.

“Breakfast is served,” Chris says, looking fresh and neat in his uniform, not a hair out of place. No evidence to be seen of your activities last night, or how little sleep he may have had. “Oh, did you want a new uniform? I can synthesise one.”

“No need. I’ll have time to change in my quarters before shift.” You pull it on and try to smooth your skirt. “Breakfast?”

“Waffles. And real maple syrup. I know this little farm—”

It isn’t far from Pike’s quarters to the turbolift, and the officers in the corridor nod and smile to you as usual. Until you meet Lieutenant Ortegas.

She looks you up and down, taking in your creased dress with a raised brow and a sly smile. “I saw the duty rosters; I know you’re on alpha today. So… you get lucky last night?”

You try to hide your smile, but you feel too good – you don’t really want to.

“Yes, Erica, I did.”

Everyone will know, but you don’t mind. You and Chris are at the start of something special.

[thesimmermo]

SEASON 1 EPISODE 20

Unpredictable.

Doctor: Twins, Mrs. Dreamer. Morgan: Dr. Carter, please tell me you're joking. Doctor: No ma'am. A boy and a girl. Morgan: *sighs*

Doctor Carter can see the nervousness and disappointment on her face.

Doctor: Not what you're expecting? Morgan: Not what I wanted. Doctor: You didn't plan this pregnancy? Morgan: Only one of my pregnancies were planned. I have to do a better job of contraceptives. Doctor: We could start you on birth control after this pregnancy. Morgan: That might be the best bet.

Doctor Carter continues studying her uterus and stops on her C-section scar.

Doctor: There's a lot of scar tissue in here from when you had Dallas. It's causing some build up along your birth canal. Morgan: What does that mean? Doctor: *sighs* It means we may have to induce you early and check in weekly to ensure that as the babies grow they don't push down on that scar tissue. Morgan: *cries* Oh my gosh. Doctor: Mrs. Dreamer, we will take good care of you. I just need you come back in every 2 weeks to ensure that the birth canal is clear and that your womb is getting proper blood flow. Nothing is certain yet.

Morgan doesn't even respond. She feels the sadness building up inside of her. She gathers her things and leaves to meet her husbands and sons for dinner.

DJ: How was the doctor ma?

All eyes turn to her and Morgan can't even force herself to smile.

Morgan: I go back in 2 weeks. Dirk: For what? Morgan: There's some scarring from when I had Dallas that is nearly covering my birth canal. He wants to make sure that it isn't going to be an issue. Might have to be induced and have yet, another, C-section. Daze: It will work out mommy. Morgan: *presses her lips together* I'm sure it will.

Dirk notices the disappointed look on her face and feels a little bad about the situation. He smiles at the boys trying to distract them and her.

Dirk: What do you think it is? Decklin: A BOY! Dallas: YES, a baby brother. Daze: I hope it's a girl. Morgan: *sighs* Well you're all right. Daze: How can we all be right? Morgan: It's twins.

The boys begin to cheer loudly. The entire restaurant looks at them and Morgan shushes them quickly flashing fake smiles to the onlookers.

Decklin: Finally, a girl in the house! This is going to be rad! Dallas: *about to cry* I don't want a sister. I like having all boys. Dirk: That's amazing, Morgan. We're finally getting a daughter.

Morgan can't even look Dirk in the eyes. She feels horrible about feeling so sad and discouraged in this moment that should bring her joy. Dirk can sense that she still isn't up to it and tries again to distract them.

DJ: What did I miss? Dallas: MOMMY IS HAVING TWINS. DJ: *eyes widened* What the heck? Please tell me this is a joke. Morgan: Nope. DJ: Dad is she joking? Dirk: *smiles* No, you're getting another brother and a new little sister. DJ: Well, welcome to the Brady Bunch. Daze. Decklin, Dallas: *squealing with laughter* Dirk: At least, we finally get to add a girl to our chaos. DJ: *studying his mom* Yeah... I guess so. Dirk: So, name suggestions? Daze: Doofus! Dallas: That's not nice! Decklin: Bartholemew! Dirk: That's actually a hell no, Deck. Daze: What do you think Mommy?

Morgan is so zoned out in her thoughts that she doesn't even hear his question.

DJ: Ma, just wants some healthy babies. The names are sold separately. Dallas: *squeals* That's like a toy! DJ: Exactly! Daze: I can't wait to tell my friends that I'm getting 2 more siblings. Dallas: I'm finally going to be a big brother. Decklin: Now, we can stop calling you baby!

DJ keeps taking glances between his parents because he feel the disconnect between them, something that he has never seen before. His dad is overjoyed and his mom looks completely overwhelmed.

Dallas: *singing* DJ: *kicks him under the table* Stop. Dirk: Was that necessary? DJ: Sorry pops. Dallas: Sorry daddy.

The boys begin to talk all at once and Morgan finally takes a deep breath to engage with her sons. DJ watches her closely and can tell that she is just putting on a brave face. He stares over at his dad and sees that Decklin and Dallas are driving him crazy. Morgan glances at DJ and smiles weakly but DJ isn't buying it.

[nothing0fnothing]

When I was a preteen I lost my entire friend group because my mother catfished my classmate.

I always had trouble making friends as a girl because I was autistic and I had to worry about only befriending people my mother would approve of. When I was about nine I'd had a fairly solid friendship with two other girls in my class. That went by pretty uneventfully. Sure, there were some incidents of my parents doing weird shit, but nothing too wild.

This was until a new girl joined our school. She was cool and pretty and had all the trending stuff most of our parents wouldn't allow. She joined our friend group and my mother did not approve of her.

This girl had only been in our friend group for a few weeks when I found out my mother was using my MSN and social media passwords to log into my accounts and pretend to be me when I wasn't around.

When I was doing homework, she was on her laptop, pretending to be me and talking to this girl. When I was at my extra curriculars, she was logged in to my accounts, talking to this girl. When I was in bed, watching movies, on my own laptop playing Stardoll, my mother was in the kitchen, alone, in silence, sitting at the breakfast table, having conversations with a little girl while posing as her classmate.

I have shivers just thinking about it.

Before I realised what my mother was doing I was really open with her about my online behaviour. I would sit in the living room with her or have her reply for me if I was doing something else for a minute. When I found out, I was horrified. And too ashamed to tell my friends.

I reasoned with myself that she was just doing it to make sure the things we discussed at school were appropriate. She was just checking up on me. She was just being a bit too protective of her daughter. When I look back on it now, with adult eyes and a full history of context to put it into perspective, I don't think it was actually about me at all.

It all came to a head one day, where my mum booted me off my laptop because I was speaking to the girl on MSN, and she wanted a turn I didn't want to give her. My mum snatched the laptop away and sat messaging my friend as me.

My mum ended up joining a video call and the girl was, as you can imagine, horrified.

Her mum, as you can imagine, was also horrified.

My mum tried to defend it by claiming she got involved only with my permission and only to mitigate bulling. It's very possible the girl was quietly bullying me, treating me like shit in a way I never picked up on because I was autistic and assumed we were friends. It doesn't make it right though. I hope she doesn't remember it like I do.

This ended up being a whole issue, with the parents of the girl coming to our house to get to the bottom of why their daughter was in conversation with a grown adult for, to their knowledge, a couple of hours. My mum tried to coach me in preparation for this visit. Telling me a bunch of lies to keep track of that I couldn't get straight in my head.

She was peppering in the "just tell the truth" lines, while telling me a version of events that simply never happened. Confusing me even more in an attempt to rewrite history. She knew that this looked bad, but the truth was even worse.

When I was called to give my statement of events, I couldn't keep the story straight. I told more of the truth than I was supposed to and it didn't corroborate my mothers story, that she only talked to the girl for the few minutes leading up to the video call.

Well, the mums talked, and when it became common knowledge that their children befriending me meant they may be lured into covert conversations with my freaky mother, they forbid their daughters from befriending me.

So I remained friendless all of primary school. And then my mum insisted I go to the attached secondary school, so it continued there too.

I remember it with so much detail it could have happened yesterday. I really hope that girl doesn't remember it at all. That shit is traumatic.

[henryshakesmear]

Soo, since I recently gained a bunch of followers, I thought I'd make a lil introduction for my blog.

My name: Henry or any funny insult you can think of

My pronouns: He/they

My age: Legally 18

Where I'm from: Northern Germany

Languages I know: German and English fluently, some French, some Japanese and some Polish

This is my main blog and I use it for memes, shitposts, fandom posts, my original art and some social commentary.

My wizardry gimmick blog is @youreawizardhenry

The mandatory terms and conditions for interacting with my blog:

(If you skip them, you're on your own)

If you're under the impression that you may be related to me, get the hell out 💀

I generally don't post sexually explicit content here, but I discuss/portray mature political and social topics. There will be violence, gore and possibly suggestive content in my art. So if you're under 18, be aware of the risks and if you're under 15, please don't delve into the depths of my account. I am, however, not going to try and check the age of everyone in my notes.

If you have a history of mental health issues and content concerning existential dread or suicidal ideation triggers you, this blog is NOT for you.

I don't censor words. This has come up as a problem in the past, so be aware. (No, this doesn't mean I throw slurs around. I only use slurs I can specifically reclaim, and even that rarely.)

I rarely reblog art by other people and I will make sure to point out which specifically is mine. I don't mind if you repost it or use it in good faith, as long as you don't pretend it's yours or use it to spread any kind of hate.

This is a safe space for ALL members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We do NOT remove the T and we do NOT exclude bi or pan or ace or aro people. The same goes for microlabels. Everytime you complain about how many genders there are, we invent five more.

This is also a safe space for people of color, people of any ethnicity, people from any country, neurodivergent people, mentally ill people, disabled people, chronically ill people, therians and furries. (I'm not too educated on some of these topics, but the general rule of thumb is if it doesn't hurt anyone, it's safe here.)

I'm an atheist and I will criticize some aspects of religion or make fun of it lightheartedly, but religious people are also welcome here.

What I will NOT tolerate: Nazis, pedos, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, TERFS, hate directed at any specific kind of queer people, ableism, fatphobia, slutshaming, both religious doctrine AND anti-religious hate, hardcore capitalists because they just annoy me, Tate's boyfriends, proshippers that consider pedophilic or incestuous ships to be okay, rape culture, people who make light of any sort of abuse, any kind of unwarranted harrassment, ragebait and advertisements/self-promotions.

I block fanfiction writers because I don't want to see fanfiction on my dash. It's not personal.

I'm cringe, I'm aware of it, I will continue to be cringe and you cannot stop me.

If you send me an unsolicited dick pic, you'll get one back.

(This section may be subject to changes in the future)

[hpowellsmith]

Hello there! I've been wanting to replay the older Baldur's Gate games, and was searching around for mlm NPC romance mods. I saw yours mentioned and found your site with some googling, but it seems the place they were hosted at is gone now (Spellhold Studios). I was wondering if you still have the mods available somewhere? Either way, I hope you have a great day!

OK, this has made go down a modding-community rabbit hole! I hadn't done anything with our Baldur's Gate 2 mods, or looked at them really, since 2015 and I really appreciate it because they're something that brought my wife and I a ton of joy, and they were the first interactive narratives I made.

Links, descriptions, and comments below because it is Long:

I got in touch with folks on the Gibberlings3 forum which is, wonderfully, still going strong, and have given permission for Faren and Nathaniel to be uploaded to the Spellhold Studios GitHub (which has a bunch of other mods too - do check out Adrian, Isra, and Ninde in particular!) to the team maintaining it. That may be a little while as some of the team are ill right now, but once I hear that it's done, I'll post about it here; I've also been pointed to some links where the mods were mirrored. Note that I haven't tested these myself on a current BG2 install, but it is easy to uninstall WeiDU mods if there's a problem.

Faren is a bisexual True Neutral fighter/thief (I can't remember if he's dual-classed or multi-classed) who's easygoing, down-to-earth, and up for partying, with a bit of a checkered past - his adventuring party died in one of the dungeons you can visit in BG2, and since then he's been picking up dodgy jobs, feeling a bit adrift, and trying to get his life back on track. That's where the PC comes in! You can befriend him or romance him (starting with either a casual or more committed tone, then committing further if you want to), and he has a personal quest in which a shady figure from his past wants him to do one last job. He was our third mod, and we'd developed our skills with writing and scope a lot by then. When I play BG2, I play with Faren! You can currently download Faren here. It's the version updated in 2015 with more banters with modded NPCs and the Enhanced Edition characters; there may be compatibility issues installing it with other newer mods but do give it a try.

I found The Luxley Family, which was our second mod, on the GitHub here. From a cursory (rusty) glance it looks like it should be compatible with Enhanced Edition, but the storyline is only for Shadows of Amn and doesn't continue into Throne of Bhaal. Sebastian and Andrei (Chaotic Neutral bard with a custom kit and Lawful Neutral monk respectively) are members of a mysterious, reclusive family who are under a curse. Sebastian's a worldly playwright who's showing his polite but moody teenage cousin Andrei the sights when they bump into the PC. They aren't romanceable, but you can have a fling with Sebastian, who's bisexual, if you let/help him mess up his life sufficiently.

Nathaniel is a Lawful Good gay fighter with a lot of feelings. He was our first mod and I am really proud of the impact he had on a lot of people and even other games back in the day, but if you play, go in expecting a LOT of feelings good and bad, relationship drama, and angst! (There's something very sad about the fact that as teens we could not imagine a D&D setting without homophobia back then; the idea of a knightly order thinking well of gay people just didn't cross our minds. it's extraordinary how much better a lot of things are now, including the queerness in D&D streams, books, and of course Baldur's Gate 3. Interestingly, we didn't include homophobia in the Luxley Family or Faren and I don't remember how conscious that was; maybe we'd become more hopeful by then.) You can download an outdated version of Nathaniel here but I don't think it will be compatible with Enhanced Edition.

Thank you so much for messaging! I didn't realise they weren't able to be downloaded anymore and I am really keen for digital art to be preserved (as well as players getting to smooch hot guys, of course).

(Digression - my wife and I have a couple of almost-finished mods on our computer: a lesbian cleric of Talos which she wrote, and a bi Valygar romance that I wrote. And, if it's among two computers' ago worth of external hard drive storage, the ending for the Luxley Family story. Who knows, maybe one day...)

[severevoiddragon]

Making my own post bout the pc building thing because it's got me fuming again. I don't even remember if I've made a post bout this before but. I need to again.

So, my school got donated a bunch of gaming pcs. We could volunteer to build them, and me and my partner (we were building it in pairs) were the only two girls. The company who made the pcs came in to help us build it correctly. You can guess who got the most 'help' while building it.

The most infuriating bit was:

Me: Excuse me, our PC isn't working

Person: *silently walks over* Oh your PC isn't working!

Me:

Me: No, it's not. I think it's an hdmi issue, since we followed all the instructions correctly, according to the other helpers, up until plugging the monitor in, so I think it's the cable?

P, ignoring me: You've probably installed it incorrectly. *Checks the pc* hm. It seems okay. Alright, it could be with how you've plugged in the GPU.

Me: Could it be the hdmi cable, tho?

P, still ignoring me: Huh. *Goes to get his colleague* can you find what's wrong with this pc, since it's not turning on, even though the lights are on!

Me: I think it might be an hdmi issue!

My partner: It's probably an hdmi issue?

P, ignoring both of us: I've checked the GPU, and the installation of the Motherboard.

Colleague: Could it be the installation of the cores? But they're all lit up! That's weird!

*this continued for a bit, cut to the head of the PC company coming over*

Head of PC Company: What's the problem?

P: Their PC isn't turning on.

Me: I've tried to say it may be a—

CEO, cutting me off: Let me look! *Checks PC* Surprisingly, it has been installed correctly. Could it be an hdmi cable issue?

Me, internally: AJSKEKFWKDKDKSKRKFKSJWJRKDKWRK

P and Colleague: Ohhh we haven't tried that!

*someone grabs a new hdmi cable. Lo and Behold, the pc works now.*

This is part of the reason I kinda don't wanna go into compsci, even tho I enjoy it- Like, me and my partner and my compsci teacher were the only girls in the room. It was a room full of about 40 people.

[fraternum-momentum]

I know this is extremely out of pocket of me to recommend this random youtube video that i listened to while i was typing stuff. But this made me think about that one post with a bunch of people thinking that fictional characters are real people with real feelings and very entitled people. I wanted to ramble about the former.

mad rambling continued under the cut

While the video doesn't specifically talk about this issue? problem? phenomenon? There was this part where CJ told a story about seeing an ipad kid play this minigame. All the kid knew was that if they tapped the screen, it would react accordingly, but at one point, the game required them to drag something. Naturally, the kid didn't know that because they were young, so their next reaction was to try to rip the screen off to remove the object they needed to drag.

The kid did not know that the objects on the screen were real because they hadn't learned that yet.

And theoretically, if we were to apply that same principle to the people in the post i mentioned, you can kinda begin to understand why they act like that, right? I'm not saying they don't know that these fictional characters aren't real, but i think the lines are extremely blurred to them.

The internet is a wonderful place where you can form real connections with real human beings from across the globe. You can make friends even by just sending messages or memes and shit. And I think maybe this is the same type of bond they unintentionally form with these fictional characters. Since, well, I assume most of these people are terminally online, it's not really all that farfetched? If most, if not all of your connections are formed online, it wouldn't be surprising that the lines between fiction and reality are blurred. When they spend most of their time living on the internet, the internet becomes their reality.

These characters may not be true, but they do form a really deep connection to them that they start treating them as if they were real. They worry about their 'emotions' or how their favourite is 'feeling' or how they are being 'treated'.

They're in so deep in this illusion that they don't even know that it's weird. Especially when it's so easy to cocoon yourself inside an echo chamber, this behavior is normal to them because no one is questioning it.

At the end of the day, it's all just speculation. If i could, I would like talk to these people out of sheer morbid curiosity. It's fascinating but also really sad and i feel for them. I still agree with what i said in the tags though (aside from all the pointing and laughing), they do really need a reality check.

Anyway, it was a really good video. It fundamentally changed my view on technology and social media in a span of a couple of hours. If you have the time, go watch it or listen to it in the background while you do something, or not, I don't really care, I just wanted to share it.

[quietbluejay]

Transformers Infiltration #4

hey it's still tomorrow in my time zone!

some diversity in the human cast

and well, whoever the colourist is for this issue did a much better job than Burcham (...you'll see what I mean when we get to All Hail Megatron)

social worker: "uncommonly bright...with deep socialization issues." Now to me that's just a fancy way of saying you think you're better than the rest of us ordinary everyday folk

social worker: bottom line, you see yourself as a cut above, a real tough cookie. But you know what I see when I look at you?

she's babey!

also no wonder she's always running away

the flashback scene also contexualizes some of her actions in the Wreckers trilogy, namely her choice to do something most people would consider objectively stupid because she wanted to retain some agency (I'm playing coy for the people who haven't read Sins of the Wreckers). Verity is one of the characters with the most consistent characterization across writers!

Verity: Fine. Yeah. Dandy.

"but sometimes, I wonder" hmmm yeah don't like that

"but they may have set mousetraps!"

Verity reaches the bottom

up top, Jimmy fastens something around his waist that's attached to the rope

Jimmy: Look...

Jimmy: we know our snap-happy mystery man got in and out okay. We can, too

Hunter is holding coils of the rope

Hunter: Bottom line - if we want to find out why these Decepticons broke protocol and switched hidey-holes...

Hunter:...we need to be able to see the bigger picture

Verity leaves a glowing blue light thing on the ground where she landed and starts walking away

Bee: just…be careful, is all

Bee: we can't risk any kind of holomatter recce or invasive scan. You, well…

"You're going in blind."

(this is also funny because the Decepticons are currently blowing stuff up on the evening news) (also, ruthless Bumblebee makes his first appearance in this continuity)

Jimmy: check

THEY SPLIT THE PARTY

but now, over to Texas

diversity win! for the bad guys' goon team!

Mr. Jolly gets up

Mr. Jolly: The window of opportunity for a measured, controlled appropriation is, it appears, closing fast

Mr. Jolly: Matters have gathered a momentum of their own making… who talks like that! this isn't business-ese i know business-ese

newscaster: ...a trailer park in Tucson, Arizona, injuring two people...

it switches to another scene of destruction

i wonder how they got this

<3

Hunter wanders through the darkness

Hunter:...holler if you need us

Hunter: Jimmy?

comms go CRZ

Jimmy: here

and we're over to Jimmy, same situation, there's just a bunch of metal walls with metal stuff

Hunter: anything?

Jimmy: hard to know

Jimmy: this stuff could be the giant robot equivalent of a snappy-meal carton for all I know

verity for scale

Verity: nuhh…not that I can see. But well, I'd say they were used as storage. I-

over to Hunter, he's giving the darkness a side-eye

Verity on comms: Wait! This one's closed. Looks like content to me. Hang on...

Hunter: Verity - wait! Ratchet said not to touch anything.

Verity jostles the green thing

Verity: Oh, puh-lease

Verity: The whole point of this exercise was to poke our noses where they don't belong. I-

Verity: ah

Hunter: Verity?

Verity waves away the smoke

Verity: yeah, yeah, hang on, I'm-

DUN DUN DUNNN

Hunter: Verity?

Verity covers her face with her hands

a tear leaks out of one eye

she wipes it away

Hunter: but-

Verity: I said I'm fine. It's nothing.

Jimmy on comms: Verity, it's Jimmy. Look...if you want out, no one will think any less of you. Me, I'm spooked like Scooby, y'know. Maybe...

Verity: No. I can do this.

it zooms out and shows that they're in a clearing for some reason

Ratchet: ...but for some reason I'm feeling mighty exposed!

we zoom out some more

welp

Skywarp: Autobots. What are they doing here?

Blitzwing: Who cares? skdflsdhfkjhds BLITZWING

Skywarp: Mm. Good point.

Ratchet zooms through the black clouds of smoke

he sends a message to our human protagonists to get out of there right now

Jimmy: Got it. On my way. Verity?

Verity slides down some dirt towards a glowing green crack in the wall big enough for a human

Verity: just one more bit to check out...won't take a moment. I'll see you topside.

Hunter starts running

Hunter: Verity, dammit, it's enough

Hunter: You don't have anything to prove here!

Hunter: Verity?

there's a shot of her comm left behind by the pile of dirt

back up top, Skywarp is firing something down at them

Bee: what are they doing?

Ratchet: we're sitting on top of a big excavation. Enough sustained firepower…

Ratchet:...and this whole area will just cave in on itself!

Skywarp VOPs out

Ratchet: We've got to move!

Skywarp VOPs back in

Bee: okay, now I'm mad

A giant gun half the size of Bee comes out of his hood

Bee fires at Skywarp JUST as he teleports out of the way

Bee loses it and goes robot mode, then starts firing more accurately with the gun and gets Blitzwing in the wing

Blitzwing starts crashing RIGHT TOWARDS BEE

Bee: yeh

yes I recorded that line 100% accurately

Ratchet sends up some kind of flashbang which blinds Blitzwing and he crashes into the ground

Ratchet then goes robot mode to double check that Blitzwing is out for the count

(and wishes he had a bigger gun)

but gets shot out of the way by Blitzwing in tank mode

I guess he transformed in all the smoke

(there's a lot of smoke)

meanwhile back with Verity, she slips through the crack and, well

SURPRISE MEGATRON!

[doctorstrangereview]

0057: Strange Tales #162

Cover Date: November 1967 On-Sale Date: August 1, 1967

We're at the penultimate story of the penultimate arc for Doc's time in Strange Tales. Marvel Comics parent is on the verge of cutting a new distribution deal which will allow them to sell many more titles/ In a few months Strange Tales will split into two magazines, Doctor Strange and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. What a pain in the butt it is to type that. I can only image what the letterers when through hand-writing it a bunch times each issue. Doc will retain the Strange Tales numbering while Nick gets to start out at #1. In this issue, Jim Lawrence takes over writing duties from Ramond Marais. I don't know any more about Jim than I do about Ramond. He only sticks around for a couple issues. Future super star Denny O'Neil will fill in a for a few more issues before Roy Thomas! pollutes the dialogue with too many exclamation points even for a comic book.

Doc and Vicky are confronting Nebulos. I failed to mention in the previous write-up that, like sooooooo many villains in the series (and the Marvel Universe in general) he's green! Unlike other villains, he looks like a rhino sculpture that someone sat on while still wet and then dropped after it dried. Doc asks the weird rhino dude why he brought he and Vicky to this dread wasteland. Maybe it's me, but if you're going to depend on him to try and get back where you belong, maybe don't insult his house. Also, Nebulos didn't bring you here. Baron Mordo did that. Nebulos only kidnapped Ms. Bentley.

Doc is like "send us back" and Nebulos is like "I don't really care about you. You're beneath me, but I'm gonna get Earth eventually. You know what? Grab my big staff here!" That may be the most obvious double entendre in the series yet. Doc thinks "This is probably a bad idea, but what the hell?" He grabs Nebulos's big staff and starts to disappear. Who could have foreseen anything bad happening?

Vicky states "Dr. Strange! You're disappearing! I feel something terrible is about to happen!!" Vicky, my dear, something terrible has already started to happen. You're ticket home is deserting you.

It turns out he's being sent to Earth where Mordo is giving himself a long-winded speech about how he's ready to mobilize his new minions in their deathly dull cult robes and take over the planet. This is, of course, the perfect moment for Doc to appear.

Doc enters, still grasping Nebulos's big staff. I know there are big guys out there, but spanning dimensions? Wow! Mordo attacks with lots of word salad and also some magic. It's ineffective, because Nebulos's big staff is protecting him! Mordo attacks again, and to Mr. Adkin's credit, he gives us a panel worthy of Ditko.

Mordo continues to press his attack, and Doc, with his big staff, continues to fend it off. And we get another panel worth of Ditko.

Wait a minute! This looks a bit familiar. Let's take a quick peek at Strange Tales #135.

Yeah, that does look familiar. Now let's peek back to #139.

No wonder those panels are Ditko worthy. They are Ditko! Maybe there is some truth to the references to Adkins as the human Xerox machine. At least the colorist made it look like the Baron changes his clothes to an exact outfit with the colors reversed.

Doc succeeds in banish Mordo to where Mordo went. Mordo once again becomes the pathetic coward crying out "Help me! -- Pity me!! -- Aiyeeee!!" to no one in particular. Doc starts to mope a bit that only his big staff let him win even with his powers and The Ancient One's combined. Then he realizes "I'm on a deadline! Better check that giant hourglass at Stonehenge!"

Even though Mordo's plan was stopped, the grains of sand continue to fall. Doc tries to remove the hourglass, but gets flung back to Nebulos's world. Vicky is nowhere to be seen as he confronts the lord of the Planets Perilous in a lovely two-page spread that, as far as I know, is an original Adkins. (If this isn't the case please feel free to mention it in the comments.

Doc wants to know why Nebulos sent him to Earth and Nebulos is like "I was being selfish. It's for my own plans. Now let go of my big staff! It's sensitive after I'm done playing!"

Nebulos grabs back his big staff and tells Doc, if you realized how powerful it really was you could have save both you and the woman (we're still in an era where women don't get referred to by their names) but it's too late now. Nyah nyah! He asks about the giant hourglass that seems to have followed Doc from Stonehenge and Doc realizes that Nebulos and his big staff don't know about the Living Tribunal's test. Nebulos is like: Whatever! It's too late for youm anyway.

Doc is like "It's too late for all of us! Look behind you! It's The Living Tribunal! Really! It is! I'm not trying to trick you!"

Will they survive? Check in again next time. Same Doc time. Same Doc channel.

I read about Dan Adkins propensity to "borrow" from other artists years before. This is one of the first examples I've come across. As I give the series greater scrutiny I may find more. Mr. Adkins will complete the art chores for the remainder of the title, barring one guest spot by George Tuska. While we were promised a new villain last issue, what we get is a wrap-up of the Mordo thread. All Doc and Nebulos do is shout at each other. While the story is fine overall. I would have liked a bit more action with the new villain who is supposed to be extremely powerful. Adkins has once again drawn some giant panels to stretch the story to 10 pages. I think this is the first two-page spread in Doc's history. It looks nice, but could that have used that space to do more? I guess we'll see what Nebulos and Trib-y have in store for Doc next issue.

[insipid-drivel]

My little brother has been working at the same Home Depot for about 3 years now. He started as a lot associate (the people that gather up carts from the parking lot and help customers load stuff into their cars/trucks), and is now a full technician responsible for repairing, cleaning, and preparing rentable equipment for DIY and small construction jobs, renting the machinery out, and logging it back in when the customer brings it back. Say you were renting a texture sprayer so you could put stucco on the outside of your house? My brother is the guy that maintains and fixes those things, among many others, so you can rent them to get your job done without having to buy one.

Since he got promoted to the technician's role, he's never been more harassed by his peers and bosses to help out in literally every other department in the store except for his own, which he's also responsible for keeping tidy and generally Being At in the event a customer shows up wanting to rent some tools. At the same time he's being dragged hither and thither to departments, the tool rental department (where the technician works) ends up standing totally empty. My brother gets in trouble for the customer complaints when someone comes in looking to rent/drop off, and nobody's there to handle their request.

Finally, after months of getting pushed around from department to department while being reprimanded for not being 5 people at once to mind his actual area of responsibility, my brother snapped when he found out that a bunch of newer employees at the front of the store were gossiping about him for no apparent reason. He's a very chill guy, on the spectrum, and generally just wants to be left alone to work when he doesn't have to help a customer, so being gossiped about finally made him blow a gasket.

"As far as you're all concerned, we're coworkers, and that's it. If I hear another word about me from any of the other associates (employees) here, I'm out. Lowe's is hiring across the street, and I don't need this. Good luck training my replacement in time before I'm done packing my things," was essentially his announcement both to the gossipy coworkers and his bosses.

Suddenly, he began receiving nominations for awards for stand-out work. His bosses were giving him little bonus checks every other month the more estranged and professional he became. While not presented to him as such, he and I both had the suspicion that these were low-key incentives from upper management trying to sweeten him up into staying, because my brother is their only certified technician now, and technician jobs require months or years of corporate-sponsored training.

While he's still being overworked while Home Depot continues to refuse to hire in the extra staff they ought to have like so many other companies today, the bosses he still works under have abruptly stopped berating him for issues around the store related to their understaffing and demands for more generalized labor from staff in specialty departments.

Considering how offended his bosses and coworkers would get if he refused to do work that literally was not his to do, there's definitely a problem in big corporations regarding the definition of fair divisions of labor and honoring their own job contracts they have their employees sign. It's as if new workers are hired in under the auspices of just performing in one role, and the bosses are free to tack on as many extra roles on top of that as soon as the ink is dry on the hiring papers.

Please keep supporting unions, and fight unionbusters as much as you can. Unions may ask for dues in order to subsidize important programs such as legal fees for mistreated and abused workers, but at the very least, they fight to keep the corporations themselves from breaking us and our loved ones.

I wonder if work just.. got harder in the 2000s, comparatively.

[cavefilllingcorporation]

Vismark warns of Vixie’s past

This Employee Experience happened on 12/15/2024, and is a continuation of this post

Vismark had just finished collecting Vixie, answering the ODST Commander’s questions regarding secret projects he had heard from her, endured the Commander’s violent outburst, and had secured visitation rights for Vixie with the ODSTs. The mission had been completed, but not perfectly smooth in a suspicious way. So why did Vismark still have a bad feeling about the situation? Something was wrong about this, something in his gut was telling him that something wasn’t right.

But what could he do? Vixie was safe, she had an alibi which was strange, but checked out, the ODSTs were still a wild bunch. There wasn’t anything left to do… except…

Vismark spoke to the ODST Commander, who was accompanied by Chaplain.

"Now, can we speak a little more privately? I don't want the other employees to hear about this. If you are going to watch for Vixie, there is some information you should know."

The Commander noted and Vismark, the ODST Commander, the Centurion, and Chaplain all left towards the other end of the tarmac, away from the prying eyes of anybody.

The ODST Commander, Jayden, or Jay for short, then started the conversation: "So, what is it you wish to say?"

"It’s about Vixie. Specifically, her history. If you are going to be looking after her, I feel like you should know her history. Tell me, did she say anything about her home or a family?"

"Not anything that comes to mind." The Commander lied. In reality, Jay knew all about Vixie’s past, as she had sanely told him herself. Vismark was none the wiser, but his gut knew that telling this story was still going to be important no matter what.

"Alright. The reason I say this, is because Vixie used to be on a terrorist watchlist. Mind you, she isn't anymore, but we have confirmed that she used to be part of a terrorist organization. Do you wish for details?"

"In this day and age, everyone is on a watch list of some sorts, so the details don't matter to me as of the moment."

Really? He told her she was a possible criminal and he brushed it off?

"Alright, if you say so... the reason I brought it up is because I believe that this might be part of her family's abuse...? It’s still fuzzy, and in fact this just muddles her story, not explains it. But we do believe her family is connected to a terrorist organization, and not one on the right side."

"You do realize the entire Chaosdiver Faction has been classified as traitors and terrorists, right? It's not an issue to me." The ODST Commander replied

Oh, he thinks she’s on an external list. That makes a lot more sense. Time to correct that misconception.

"Oh, you misunderstand. She was on OUR terrorist watchlist. Now would you like the details on why we put her on there, and why she isn't there anymore?"

"If I had to guess, probably just stuff that tampered, messed with, or slightly became an inconvenience to you all. Normal terrorist stuff."

Seriously? Did he think that every troublemaker ended up on a watchlist? A terrorist one at that?

"That's... not what happened." Vismark responded.

"Then please, enlighten me."

Vismark then took a deep breath. This was going to take some time to explain.

"Vixie comes from a world which was ruled by a bunch of aristocratic oligarchs. Nobles who were just as bad if not worse than Super Earth. They were overthrown by a folk hero who may have leased some of our equipment, and then turned terroristic in order to get back their positions of tyranny. The Shark family was one of the more powerful families, specifically because they were the head of security for the other nobles. So, when she joined months, maybe even a year, after the revolution, where the nobles either had already joined us, left for new lands, or were terrorists, it was already creating red flags.”

“She immediately went for an accounting position and did everything to rise in the ranks really fast, openly trying to get into a position where she could read the entire financial records of the company, a bad situation for us if she was a spy for the terrorist organization we thought she hailed from. Add to the fact that she seemed to have a silent hatred for her coworkers in secret, and did nothing except work or be in her room, and the Intelligence department had their eye out for her. Unfortunately, while we had growing suspicion, we didn't have concrete evidence for her at that point"

"And then, she stopped. She turned down the position she was working so hard for to get an easier job that still paid well, started being friendly to her coworkers and apologizing, and even threw out her memorabilia. In fact, it was only during this time by trash searching and through her conversations where we gained concrete evidence that she was a spy, but the Intelligence department left her alone because it was obvious that she had realized that fight she was fighting for was evil and was trying to move on.”

“Then a few weeks later, she had another sudden career path change. She quit her old job, which was a very good paying job by the way, and started training to become a pilot, and also joined the Hunter's Lodge. She was also eager to go here as well. At the time, we had assumed that her family sent her death threats and she was fleeing here to get away from their influence. Though it doesn't line up with her mental break...”

“Anyways, that's all you need to know. She also still has a level 0 access to the database, which is less than standard for most employees, just until we're sure that she won't be manipulated or go insane again."

The ODST Commander, who had been resting his arms behind his back while listening to this, started pulling out and lighting a cigarette.

"Seems you trust her less than I do. Which to me, is quite interesting, because I don't trust very easily. Mental breaks and manipulation are a specialty of mine after all, seeing what Super Earth made me. But, that's a story for another time."

Vismark then spoke plainly: "I don't know what's going on with her, but I do have a gut feeling that she's not what she seems. Still, I hope this information helps. If you have any more information about her, please let me know."

The ODST Commander then just shrugged.

"Most I know about her is what you told me. She was normally quiet when asked questions, or went on an incoherent rant."

Ok then, so we have telling the Commander about the Inferno Project, or at least the name, spewing out complete nonsense, and this. Actually, that’s not quite as incompatible as he had thought come to think of it…

"Either way, it’s good to get that off my chest. I'll be overseeing the others now. I think they should be done unloading at this point. I don't know what you do with all of this food. I presume you help some civilians or other divisions. Doesn't matter, as long as it is against Super Earth. Farwell Commander."

"Please excuse my anger and shorter temper than normal lately. I've lost many good friends and my leg lately, so things have been rough."

Did it explain the similar outburst for being late two weeks ago? No, it didn’t. The ODST Commander just has a temper problem, Vismark was sure of it. Still, you didn’t be a good businessman by holding your grudges out in public.

"I understand. We all have bad days sometimes."

The two then shook hands, ironically both being cybernetic. Perhaps the ODST Commander was more like him than he thought.

"I bid you a good say then."

“You too.”

And with that, Commander Vismark left. Did he feel like something was still off. Absolutely. But at least he did something about it. And if something were to happen, he was more than sure his department would be ready for it…

[justanechoflower-ddlc]

(I can see why… it is such a shame. Maybe it’s the text after all, or maybe it’s the lack of interest in a crossover between these two canons? Hmm…)

(I’m hoping my recap might help with some of the issue, replacing a whole bunch of text with just one bit. If only I could make images show on here without things bugging like they did when I tried to make a poem visually show up on the old blog. Then again, the amount of content would probably break the file size limit if it was all done in the program I use for visuals. (Though who knows, maybe it’s just the new blog format that Tumblr makes new blogs like this one use.))

(Hm, maybe I can work on adapting some of the key scenes into visual format, and then link to where those scenes are? It’d be from Flowey’s POV since I can’t show him, of course. We did get confirmation most of those are canon-compatible, maybe I can bring my reporter character back to the main blog report on this development, now we have real footage of some of that lost time, since it was alluded to before in a previous appearance of the reporter. While of course making it clear this doesn’t necessarily mean all FUTURE content on here is canon, just because everything that happened here so far is compatible doesn’t mean mistakes won’t happen in the future (or, in-universe, the person making the footage faking things) I’ll do my best to avoid contradicting anything, and you can review things later on like you mentioned a while back.)

(Hopefully that should boost things. If not, and we can’t keep this going, maybe we’ll just do what we already would have done if it was discovered something in here broke canon-Where we simply go over a broad overview of what happened in here, so that this arc is still “finished” in a way. If my reporter character ever reports on THAT, it’ll probably be interpreted as the whatever was being used to make the footage breaking, and the rest being this source giving a written account of what else happened)

(For those of you who wanted more of the backstory, well, I may return to it, but it’s now no longer a regular update anymore. There has been one since the post I gave before happened, though, on schedule like I said would happen. But now, I might just shift my attention to visually adapting scenes that happened on this blog.)

(If I ever adapt the old blog (probably the last thing I’d adapt), then during Monika’s time in Flowey’s world, I plan on using the Overworld tool made by the same person that made the Undertale Text Box Generator. This also means you’ll see Monika in Undertale’s style. But that’s far off in the future, this side blog is the one I’m trying to boost after all.)

(Any ideas on what moments would be best to adapt first? What should be highlighted in a potential report on the CONFIRMED footage of Flowey’s time in this other world? What might get enough people curious on what else happened in here to want to check out the blog? Or, alternatively, if the issue is people not being able to keep up.. what set of scenes would be enough to set the stage so everyone is on the same page..?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(I think I can transfer your files into pictures that can be shown directly on tumblr. I just have to take screenshots of the frames, edit them so they are assembled into comic strips, take a picture of that, and then put it on tumblr!

(You can technically do that too, but I personally have bad experiences with submitting multiple photos at once onto blogs. The images typically get jumbled out of order.

(If the visual boosts don't work, I doubt I'm going to feel much more motivated to continue, so it'd probably be best to end the arc like you said. We'd still have Monika and Flowey interactions- just not on this blog. Even if we do end up returning to the main blog, I agree to either keep using visual representations or to cut down on text so that nothing gets clogged.

(Trust me, I love reading the effort you put into these posts, but many viewers lose interest quickly.

(The scenes I think we should highlight in visual format should include:

*Convincing Monika to go back to the club

*Flowey entering w/ Monika & Sayori for the first time

*Poems day 1

*Girls comforting Sayori about her sad poem

*Natsuki/Flowey challenge to baking competition

*In void planning how to reveal truth to girls

*Sayori wanting to code Ivan back & Flowey wanting to get Chara back

*Preparing to go to Monika's house

[kamiko1234]

Okay! So ,I have reached about a third of chapter 9 of TLO and ngl I'm getting rly tired now. So please excuse me if this post is a bit less energetic than the others. Anyway so APPARENTLY THERE'S A CURSE OF ARCHILLIES NOW!? AND BOTH LUKE AND PERCY HAVE IT???? Ngl when it was mentioned that weapons didn't work on Luke/Kronos earlier I honestly assumed it was, well- Kronos and his frankly OP powers doing this. Luke's body "being prepared" reffering to what I assumed was just a bunch of training. NEVER in my life could I have thought that there was a Archilles Curse involved. I wonder what Luke's weak spot is, and what he may have seen when he bathed. Probably Thalia and Annabeth, May too with a good chance. Also ffs what the HADES was that with Nico!? Headcanon that Percy got some good Luke flashbacks there lmao. (Atleast Nico did go back on the "betrayal" at the end) Honestly, at this point I'm starting to feel bad for the guy, as genuinly apathetic as I am to him in every other aspect at this point. Then again with his curse Percy definitely got something cool going on again! I hope that'll be able to spark some intrigue in me again. Ngl I'm PRAYING it'll go like that because in his basics I do like the guy, I just think his issues and stuff are just boring compared to everyone else as of now. Also love how Percy decided to just- pull up with 40 demigods on what's basically Zeus' front door to tell him to get off his ass. Say what you want that move is badass. NGL I'm also hyped for the scene of a young luke with Thalia but I wanna save that for a time where I am NOT actively wishing to fall asleep. So I'll deffo check that one out tomorrow! On an off note, I have decided that I'm going to end this series of me posting about reading the books after the end of this one. I do still plan on reading the rest of the books ofc, but Ido want to return to posting stuff besides pjo on my main blog again. I also want to get into the fandom. Which will inevitably lead to me seeing spoilers (dw it's fine, ik it's unavoidable). And tbh I don't rly think the series has any real appeal continuing with spoilers, since the point is sharing my view as a first time reader with little to no influence and previous knowlege. Not to worry though! I plan on opening a pjo side blog once I'm done with the OG series where I'll occasionally post my thoughts on the books as I read them. Just not as regulary as I do on here.

As always I ask everyone to please not spoil me^^

[lavenoon]

When it comes to the boys is there anything they may be super casual about that Robin may just look at them and either go "What are you doing??" or "Wait a second, you need that?"

I continue tackling old asks <3

So for this, there might be a bunch that'll seem like it should have come up sooner and only didn't because I didn't think about it before this ask. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to ponder those human/ animatronic differences - they're my bread and butter!

The first thing that surprised Y/N was pretty soon after Sun moved in - he didn't technically need it, but the boys like setting up their charging station a bit. So Sun asked to make some minor alterations to the house. Comparable to uhhh maybe a charging station to an electrical car at home, just not quite the same dimensions? To Sun/Moon it means quicker charging as well as better equipment compared to "travel" set ups.

Y/N, while they didn't expect it, did tell him to make those alterations as he sees fit, because they are a bad landlord and don't really care - in their mind he lives there, and should live comfortably!

There's also the check-ups. Like any human should go to the GP even without acute issues every now and then, animatronics need check-ups too! But the first time it comes up it's a moment of "Oh right that makes sense, why did that never occur to me?"

The boys can do a good bunch of repairs by themselves, more so than the average animatronic I'd say. Their trust in engineers (especially human engineers) has taken a significant hit after the Eclipse battery issue, and they decided they'll learn a bit more about their inner workings.

(I don't think animatronics in general would just know how to do their own repairs. Like Robin thinks in First Aid - that's like expecting a human to do their own surgery. Possible, sure, for some things - but definitely not the standard. How many humans have medical knowledge on the level of a doctor without being a doctor? Takes active research into personal health issues, and that's exactly what our celestial brothers did. Eclipse, too. His trust into engineers took the greatest hit - the first one he met turned out to cut corners for profit, and was dishonest. So these three are a little special, but they have their reasons)

Despite all that, they do try to get a full body check-up at least once a year. They also have to replace their finger joints and casing more often than would technically be necessary with normal wear and tear, but Sun has a nervous habit of wringing them until they creak while also hating the dents it causes.

They can also detach limbs without great issues. I imagine it similarly to fullmetal alchemist automail, where it's uncomfortable for a split second when "nerves" get de/ attached, but otherwise it's just. There's no lingering/ constant pain, so they can detach hands, arms, and legs pretty easily. The hands are extra because they have the separate circuits, and the tasers may need specific maintenance.

If, at some point after the First Aid blowout (or, well, blowup) the boys decide to keep a few replacement parts on hand (not like, a whole second body, because that's too expensive, but just like. A couple custom parts, every now and then, as long as the joint wallet agrees), it makes for a funny little moment of Y/N picking up a package for them, taking it inside, and going "oh, this is kinda heavy, what did you order? if you wanna share" "oh, just another arm. ordered the left one last month, now we have one of each in storage." And Y/N just stands there internally screaming because the thought of just. Ordering an arm for when you might need to replace your old one is just not really something they can empathize with, and their attempts of course lead to more imagined body horror.

Generally I'd say that Y/N sometimes slips into making the two human in their mind, not just people. They don't mean to, but they didn't interact this much with many animatronics (if any) before, and didn't know any as well as Sun/Moon, so they just. Fumble.

Like Sun/Moon complaining about squeaking joints, and they just hesitantly get some WD-40 to offer the boys, like "Is this gonna help? It works for doors but I don't want to say you're like a door" while the boys just die on the inside trying not to laugh

(I don't know if they could use WD-40. Gut instinct says yes, but I simply don't trust my gut like that lmao)

The boys also make a couple memory back ups every now and then, just in case. It wouldn't be able to replace their AI should anything happen to them, but if their memory cards are fried they can check things out again, and they could show Y/N their memories, like videos! Y/N also needs a bit to adjust to that. It's sweet to see how much focus they received from the start, and to see how hard Sun/Moon tried to do well by them, but it's also literally seeing themself through someone else's eyes, and that's not something a human would just expect is possible

In that vein - if they ever mention they can just share their memories with each other, Y/N is gonna need a moment to grapple with that (before demanding an explanation why they don't do that, because it would have saved them all a lot of grief if they'd compared notes on their rival and neighbor. Not too accusingly, because Y/N feels guilty for missing the signs themself, but just a bit of "Why wasn't this an option?")

There's also the curiosity about just, constantly running programs. All the sensors for the boys - seeing and hearing work better than for a human, touch is different but it's hard to explain how, more deliberate with the option to exclude circuit areas easily, and smell is a little less sensitive, comparable to electronic "noses" that also gives them some idea of how things would taste, but otherwise that sense just entirely falls off the table. Where and how electricity is running, where are which sensors, what sort of temperature regulation do they have? (They run just a little colder than humans when at rest, and no one with gaming laptops come at me, I'm basing this off my own laptop PLUS I'm giving them better fans/ tech).

Y/N would be curious to learn about all that, because they want to love all of the boys, and want to know all they can. But I don't think they'll ever learn as much to do repairs single-handedly - they don't see why they have to, frankly. They don't want to think of the boys broken so badly that no one else would even offer to help, and otherwise just assumes situations like First Aid, where they can just carry out instructions while the boys are incapacitated. They learn how to recognize terms and what screw goes where and which cable does what, but they don't get the intricacies of it all because despite everything, they are not an engineer for animatronics and I'm not making them one gfhdj

Think that's it for now, that's already 1.2K words too so! Hope that's some fun then <3