#don't mind me speculating here about things everyone who's read it already knows. i'm at abt page 3850 or so and i have no clue

[zincbotted]

homestuck is getting crazy

[red-hot-kick]

Theory: Ryuji was popular, before.

I'm not entirely sure if anyone has really talked about this but I maintain my interpretation that, in the canon of Persona 5, Ryuji used to be very (or at least moderately) popular prior to the events of the story.

This is something I've gotten into before when talking to friends who like the game and the character, but I haven't really considered writing it down until now. The main argument I have is based on three things:

Things Ryuji alluded to in canon (but no one believed him on)

The deliberate choice of making him a track athlete

Typecasting for voice actors

1: "There were girls all over me!"

I don't really have the time to go on a deep dive through all the instances in which he hints at his reputation before the Kamoshida incident, but I think the most clear-cut representation of this was during the scene where he and Ann spend the day with Futaba during her post-palace social rehabilitation:

So here's the thing...I don't think he's lying about this. Nobody in the room would be that impressed to find out whether Ryuji was popular since they are already friends (or in Mona's case, he really just doesn't care), so it wouldn't make sense for him to lie.

Regarding everyone's reactions though, here's my impression: Ann was simply not aware of what was going on with the track team, being predominantly focused on dealing with rumors, her friendship with Shiho, and her modeling career (and eventually Kamoshida's advances once he started doing that shit) and she mentions a few times that she and Ryuji weren't actually close before joining the PT; they were just in the same class in middle school. Futaba hasn't interacted with anyone her age in years and isn't the most reliable source when it comes to what people generally find attractive; just because she doesn't have any interest in Ryuji doesn't mean that nobody her age would. And Morgana is a cat that brags constantly about how cool he is, so he shouldn't be throwing rocks.

There are many other times in the game when you get little glimpses of his social savvy, and from my understanding of Royal (I'm an OG vanilla P5 player and haven't done 3rd-semester yet, so don't kill me) when the track team returns to "how it was", he is getting along extremely well with everyone. Not only was he the team's ace: this kid was also expected to become the captain by his senior year (as briefly mentioned when he bumps into his former senpai at the gym, iirc). That's huge! If his team held him in such high regard, then the general student body of Shujin surely had a similar opinion. This brings me to my next point:

2: Girls like boys that run fast(???)

This is honestly something that baffles me. It's also really difficult for me to substantiate; any source material on this is obviously in Japanese and if I could find any of it, I sure as hell can't read it. The only English-language source I know of I cannot find anymore; I think it was an old Tofugu article? However. If you've watched any romance anime set in a high school during the last 20 years, you might have seen this trope at some point: the school sports festival is happening, and the relay race is kind of a huge deal (it's the final event! a make-or-break moment for the class!). The boy thinks to himself "If I win this race, I'll be able to win her heart/ask her out/etc." Low-stakes drama ensues. Maybe a confession happens.

This is (from what I've been told) based on a long-standing trend of girls and women self-reporting in surveys about how, oftentimes, their crushes in junior or senior high school were simply "the boy who ran the fastest in the races". I have no idea what this means in a broader cultural context. It makes no goddamn sense to me at all. Do not cite me on this. But I think it's worth keeping in mind, even if it's almost entirely speculative (and possibly outdated) information. And even if it's just based on rumors, don't you think it's pretty in-character for Ryuji to go for a track scholarship—despite being adept at other sports like baseball and football/soccer, as mentioned in P5 and P5D—because he was aware of the potential of being more popular with girls? Of course, his priority would be getting the scholarship and paying his way through school to lighten his mother's burden, but hey, getting a girlfriend on the way up wouldn't be half bad!

I think this could also inform us as to why Kamoshida (as a predator who wanted attention from high school girls) felt so threatened by the track team in particular, and why he felt a need to specifically knock Ryuji down a peg and sought out a weakness to do so (as opposed to targeting any of the probably just-as-popular boys on the many other athletic teams and clubs in the school). Just some food for thought on this one! Also, if anyone can find a source or has any insight on the relay race thing, please share. I am so confused about it.

3: Typecasting

So this is something that you really only notice if you are very into keeping up with seiyuu in Japan. I am not one of those people. But I do have some favorite voice actors! One of these being Mamoru Miyano.

So I freakin' love this dude. He's voiced a lot of my favorite characters, sings incredibly well, and has an unreal sense of comedy. He's stated in interviews that his acting inspiration is Jim Carrey, and let me tell you: it shows. He is also quite consistently typecast into certain roles, predominantly as princely pretty-boy types, Coolguys, or complete fucking nutcases. Sometimes all three at the same time (shoutout to my boy Ling FMA!)

ATLUS definitely cast him for P5 because of his comedic chops. But I think they also cast him because having him voice someone like Ryuji is a great way to subvert expectations for the player. I think it's supposed to give you whiplash—"what do you mean the voice of LIGHT FUCKING YAGAMI is coming out of this guy's mouth?" "why does the delinquent character sound like king of the host club Tamaki Suou?" "isn't that Rin Matsuoka's voice?" etc. etc. etc.

(here's a quick list, just to really get the idea across. maybe you recognize a few.)

This is obviously a non-comprehensive list, but something that a lot of the characters he's voiced over the years have in common is that they were considered cool, handsome, or popular. Not just for fans, but within the canon of their stories! So...what does that mean? What does that say about how we should see Ryuji?

I think players are supposed to expect that he will fall into one of those categories too, and then be surprised to find that it's not the case—that he's been isolated and made bitter and resigned by what happened to him the year before.

Speaking of his tone, I think it's very telling that Ryuji actually forgets to keep up the delinquent act a lot in the original JP audio, which unfortunately doesn't really carry over in the ENG translation. The delivery of his JP lines sounds a bit more subdued in comparison too—yeah he's got a lot of energy and is very hotheaded, but when he gets to talking about serious shit, he sounds a lot more regretful and melancholy as opposed to the EN delivery which depicts him as more resentful and outwardly angry. I think before Shit Went Down, he probably had the Coolguy vibe. Still a bit of a rowdy idiot and a showoff, but I think he probably came across to most people as a very friendly, sincere, and popular guy.

So yeah, the girls probably were all over him, at least for a short while.

[putschki1969]

I read all that drama from that person on the blog, I'll just say as a joke "what did this guy smoke to say all that that didn't make sense to me, honestly" I'll ask you a question, do you think they'll invite Kajiura in the end? Do you think the girls will sing the songs from the next Madoka movie?Whatever happens, I will support you and always love you. It hurts to see how quiet you have been. I forgot to say hello to you. I'm sorry, I hope you are well, dear. Take care of yourself.

Hello there, anon! I'm fine, thank you. Still focusing on the good things. I refuse to give in to all the negativity around me. Everyone who dares to throw insults or accusations at the girls will instantly get blocked by me. There's zero tolerance for this sort of behaviour in my little corner of fandom. So far, this is how I've managed to stay sane.

Ah yes, the whole thing with this blog is pretty crazy. It's no wonder the author deleted everything again. Everyone, be sure to read my DETAILED ANALYSIS here. While some things were certainly rooted in fact, most of it was just speculation and gossip.

As for your questions (please be aware that I don't enjoy speculations so my answers won't be very elaborate):

[D]o you think they'll invite Kajiura in the end? It would be appropriate to invite her. She has been there for some of Kalafina's most important lives so I would want her to experience their reunion live as well. I don't know if it's possible though with the current hostilities between Space Craft and Yuki Kajiura. I am definitely not one of the people who think Yuki needs to have a key role in the production of the concert. The truth is, Yuki has rarely played a huge role in Kalafina's live productions, especially when their live shows became bigger. That's why it baffles me that so many fans seem to believe that this concert will be a total mockery/failure without Yuki's involvement. What I'm trying to say is that I personally don't need her as producer/director but I'd definitely want to see her in the audience or backstage.

Do you think the girls will sing the songs from the next Madoka movie? No idea. I know many fans are quite invested in this particular topic but I don't really care all that much. For the time-being I just want this reunion/tribute live to happen with as little drama as possible. Whether they decide to resume their activities as a group or they go back to their solo work, is entirely up to them. I would like it if they did a few Kalafina lives every once in a while, at a variety of venues, with different productions and arrangements. I certainly wouldn't mind if they started to release new music but I'm still not sure if it would be a good idea to go down that path without involving Yuki Kajiura. I'm afraid 90% of fans would not accept that. I am probably one of the few people who will be supporting Kalafina no matter what. I am pretty sure I would like new music from them even if it wasn't written by YK because my love for Kalafina as a group goes far beyond my appreciation for Yuki Kajiura's music. I just love the girls themselves, their vocals and their harmony. However, if they end up releasing new music written by someone else, it is unlikely to be used in the Madoka movie. I mean, YK is doing the soundtrack so having Kalafina sing a theme/insert song would be a little awkward if she wasn't in charge of the composition. It's possible of course but it would lead to a further deterioration of the situation. Maybe if they manage to clear up some of that tension, a collaboration is possible but right now, I don't see how it would work out. Also, there's a possibility that a song has already been recorded for the movie. Many fans are speculating that the studio picture from a few weeks ago featuring Kaori, rito, Yuriko and Keiko might have been a recording for a big project (based on the fact that everyone is super secretive about it). Guess we have no choice but to wait and see...

It hurts to see how quiet [they] have been. Yes! It's killing me. I really hope that in the upcoming FJS radio broadcast, Yuki will address the matter so people can finally calm down. By now, Yuki must know how much turmoil she has caused with her statement and her follow-up tweets are proof that she's eager to take the heat off. But there needs to be something more substantial and genuine than a couple of half-assed tweets. The way this radio broadcast has been announced out of the blue with only a day for fans to send in questions gives me hope that this is her way of damage control. Ideally, the girls will start posting again as soon as everything has calmed down again. For the concert to be a success, they need to be able to do some proper promo work. We need as many posts and videos as possible! For now, it's just the FC lotteries with the core fan base applying for tickets. Many of us don't need much convincing but there are certainly a lot of other fans who are currently not planning to attend the concert so they need to be won over somehow. Not that I would necessarily want those pseudo-fans to be there but unfortunately, someone needs to fill that 8k capacity venue...

[childrenofthesun77]

Found some more reviews/thoughts by japanese fans who already read chapter and...what?

Spoilers under the cut. I'm serious. Don't read this if you don't want to read spoilers. Or at least don't blame me afterwards.

Okay. Disclaimer: These posts were in japanese, I don't speak japanese, I simply used Chatgpt to translate them which usually works suprisingly well (better than google translate).

I also wasn't always sure if what they were talking about were facts that were stated in the story or just their own speculations and thoughts.

Oh and some things in the chapter are apparently also very gruesome, so be warned.

With that out the way...WTF MIKUNI!

C3 and Tsubaki's subclass apparently exchange information (or at least shuhei, shamrock and higan) and work together to stop mikuni.

Kuro apparently gets saved by otogiri from something.

Mahiru arrives at the scene together with sakuya on his broom

Misono arroves too and calls mikuni "dumb brother" and tries reach him, but mikuni is just another illusion

Mikuni shows them tsurugi's corpse and especially mahiru is shocked to see a dead, decapitated body, especially from someone he knows

Mikuni is holding tsurugi's head in his hands.

Apparently mikuni planned to have kuro and tsubaki exhaust their powers by having them fight.

Jeje and lily appear from behind mikuni.

Misono still tries to get through to his brother.

Mikuni says: "If only you weren't my brother" and misono is hurt but still tries to convince him to stop.

Mikuni continues saying that he thinks highly of misono

And here comes the big wtf line from mikuni:

"If only you were my son." Apparently while patting misono's head.

Which not only earns him a very confused "huh???" from the characters, but also from pretty much everyone who has read this chapter.

Even Belkia and Tsubaki call him out on being wrong in the head.

We finally find out what mikuni envies other people for and it's "people's foolishness". Yeah, guess that checks out.

Apparently the reason why mikuni regained his composure so quickly after jeje shot his mother was because he had anticipated that she would try to kill misono and that if he suprised her she would commit suicide. He chose his brother over his mother. The only thing he hadn't counted on was envy shooting his mother before she could commit suicide.

He tells misono that there is nothing to worry about with a scary face. He's clearly not in his right mind.

Apparently mikuni thinks that with the power of the count one can reverse time and mikuni wants to find the point before "the egg" (his family) fell off the wall and broke.

Mikuni drips the counts blood into tsurugi's corpse.

I think most of the time almost all the other characters are being restrained by mikuni with a spell, which is why nobody is doing anything.

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Dead Friend Forever ep 1

I finally got sucked into watching. And since there's so much speculation around the characters and their actions/motives I thought I'd document my observations as I go. (small comments in brackets are things I've gone back to after the ep ended)

Who did the axe man hit for the guy on his own (Non, right?) to get splashed with blood, because the guy with him (Jin, right?) had already run off, unless it was his own blood from a wound lower down on this body... (So I'm guessing this is the original film that they made with Non years ago...no, wait, if Non was the 'killer' in the mask in the film then why is he running away from another masked person with Jin here? Is this also the film or is this their real experience. Oh ho hooo the mystery thickens...what's real and what's played out for the 'camera' [including for us]?...).

Also, I can't believed I'm watching this 🙈

I think the only way I'll get through the scary gore bits is to analyse their believability.

Ok, let's go! I like the opening credits music.

It's a good job it's difficult for me to figure out all their names because the things I've seen/read about the show so far mean nothing or very little.

The first believable thing! - no phone signal and no wifi in the middle of nowhere. I used to experience the same thing in the Swedish countryside.

Ok, I see those looks between Fluke and green-shirt-big-money guy...what secret do they have about what's on that external drive... And embroidered shirt guy doesn't know...or does he and he's a good liar?

EVERYONE IS JUST SO SUS.

So green shirt guy, Fluke, Jin, and embroidered shirt guy (Top!) were in this movie? And Non was the 'killer'. And Phee pretends he doesn't know who Non is even though I've seen that he and Non knew-knew each other... The two who don't know Non (for realsies?) is brown jacket guy (White?) and the guy sat opposite Jin.

Wow green shirt guy was quick to jump in to say he had a camera in the house to remake the film - that Phee suggested. SO SUS. Jin and tall guy (Tee!) did NOT like that.

"I don't want him [White] to get involved in what we have done" - What HAVE you done Tee? 👀

Also I love that all this is happening with White in a "Sexy Summer Time" t-shirt on 😂

An asthmatic who smokes 🤦🏽‍♀️ Yeah, he's definitely not going to find his inhaler when he needs it. (Is that Tan?).

Oh what if White isn't the innocent cherub he's made out to be? What if he's manipulating this to get revenge for Non? I've seen people say they want him to be the last girl standing (or whatever the phrase is) but what if he's orchestrating all this?

Whyyyyyy did green shirt guy (Por!) leave the house and go into the woods???

So, interestingly, Tee and Fluke instigated the search for Por, then Phee doled out instructions once they found him... Hmmmm...SUS

Por seems alive and conscious, why is no one asking how it happened? Also, even in his second year, Fluke should know to stay calm so as not to panic the patient more...

Who keeps jump cables in the house and not either in the car or in a garage/outbuilding, especially somewhere like that??!?

Again, they're in a house in the woods. Surely there would be a saw in some kind of garage/workshop? Why are they looking in a kitchen for a knife to cut a tree branch?? WHY IS THE SAW IN THE KITCHEN UNDER THE SINK?! 😂

It's incheresting that White concludes it's an attempted murder 👀 Thus sowing the seed in everyone else's mind...

BOYS, proving that there's a ninth person is NOT the priority here. Getting Por to a hospital is. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Also incheresting are the deleted scenes 👀 HOW COULD POR GO INTO THE WOODS ALONE ESPECIALLY AFTER HE COUNTED NINE PEOPLE?! Also, Tan was not part of the failed re-staging of the film...SUS.

Alright. I'm hooked on the mystery. I should make clear that I in NO WAY want any answers that will spoil the mystery for later in the series. Please and thank you! 🙏🏽 I'm just laying down some thoughts to come back to once more info gets revealed. Comments that don't spoil anything are absolutely welcome though! 😁

[brooklynbear32]

I'm only going to say this once: pregnancy speculation is gross and I will not be part of it.

I hope more than anything that Alba (and her loved ones) stay far away from tumblr and the absolutely horrific things people say on here. But my objection to pregnancy speculation is not just that Alba may see it; it's that speculating about ANYONE'S pregnancy is wrong, and you should not be doing it here or anywhere else.

I always wanted to be a mom. There are pics of me as a little kid holding babies and just fucking beaming. I babysat when I was a teenager. I studied child development in university. And then, not long after I got married, I received a new medical diagnosis. The doctor told me I was going to have trouble conceiving naturally and would likely need fertility treatment.

This was, of course, devastating to me. I started a new medication, which made me gain twenty pounds. My (very well-meaning friends and family) started asking me if I had "any news to share."

It was one of the worst times of my life, but then, nobody was more surprised than I was when we found out I was pregnant, almost exactly a year after that (mistaken) diagnosis. I was terrified that I would miscarry, so I didn't tell anyone for the longest time. Luckily, it all worked out, and Kiddo #1 is now five years old.

I have friends that have had to do years of fertility treatments. Several have their miracle baby now, but others are still desperately hoping. I have friends who have suffered miscarriages, including one who hemoraged so badly that she nearly died.

Does pregnancy spec trigger me personally? No, not at all, but I have two delightful goblin children running around my house right now. I'm sure there are plenty of people on here for whom preg spec has an emotional impact, and I want to wrap my arms around them and shield them from this bullshit.

I'm not even going to get into the body-shaming that tends to go along with pregnancy speculation, because that's disgustingly prevalent in this space even when discussing things unrelated to pregnancy and I just don't have the time to deal with that today.

We know "Chris does want to be a daddy" and I'm sure that for some people, speculating about Alba being pregnant just amounts to hoping that Chris gets something he has talked about for a long time. We want him to get to be a dad! He'll be an amazing dad! I also imagine that there are people on here that would absolutely love to be knocked up by Chris and there's some living vicariously going on.

Read some fic instead, have whatever horny thoughts you want, and leave the real people out of it. I'm a bigger supporter of RPF (obviously) as long as a) it is never shared with the people it depicts, and b) both readers and writers keep it very clearly in mind that the F in RPF means fiction.

With the way that C&A have been treated on social media and the way they have both withdrawn from it, I will genuinely be surprised if we get much content at all about potential pregnancies or children. A small group of hateful people have ruined this for everyone.

We didn't get to find out about the engagement until after they were already married. If I had to make a prediction, I would say that all we will get re pregnancy/kids is some kind of confirmation in the press to the effect of "Reps for C&A have confirmed they welcomed their first child in [Month, Year]." If you have kids you know (and if you don't have kids, you can likely imagine) that nothing is more important to you than keeping them safe.

Unless or until there is an official statement announcing that Alba is pregnant/gave birth, I will not be talking about it at all on here again. If I get any asks, I'll just repeat: pregnancy speculation is gross and wrong. I encourage you all to do the same.

[problematicbyler]

my question with a lot of the takes that i’ve seen where they want to draw a line somewhere, whether that be at fantasizing or specificity or the takes being boring is like,, do they not read smut? ik some people don’t and that’s obviously fine like don’t read something if you don’t want to read it. but i feel like ive seen a lot of people say “stop having weird boring takes and actually write a fic instead of just fantasizing about it” and i think that’s such a strange take because something tells me not one of those people would be happier having more explicit fics saturate ao3. to me a lot of this feels like people are personally uncomfy with more nsfw content (which again is Obviously fine everyone has their own limits which should be respected and i don’t think anyone who just is saying nah it’s not for me and not making it a moral issue should be called puritans especially cuz sex can be a really sensitive topic for some people and i think those people generally understand the nuances a lot better than others who are throwing out allegations) and want their discomfort validated or maybe just want to understand it more themselves so they jump to one of these limitations. they don’t want to say they’re completely uncomfortable with sex because they’re probably not!! there’s just something that specifically seems to irk them about this situation and they want to publicize that in a way that makes them and anyone else who sees their take feel like they are objectively right and not being mean or against sex. i bet some of them have read smut (for other fandoms or even for byler) and maybe even enjoyed it but maybe felt icky or guilty and they want to justify that and not feel like they’re the weird ones or too sensitive or like kink shaming. i also bet some of them haven’t read any smut and don’t understand that it’s not all self insert (not that there’s anything wrong with that but tbh ive seen none of that on ao3 for byler and ive seen a lot of takes saying people want to have sec with teens and are making self insert fantasies about it when ive seen actually zero evidence of anyone doing that) and that it’s mostly using these characters who we love and project onto as vessels to explore different scenarios (emotional and physical) in a safe place that anyone who knows what they don’t like and knows how to read tags on ao3 won’t be negatively affected by.

(i also just want to say that the take that it’s boring and lazy content is so silly considering head cannons are literally the backbone of any fandom like we are all here to put them in situations we don’t already see them in in canon and “fantasize” about how they would react (except for people might use the word “think” or “speculate” when referring to non explicit head cannons) and also the fact that there’s a non explicit polls account that doesn’t get any flack for posting polls with the same level of frivolousness (not a bad thing, i like them too) and those are allowed to be just good old fun but once you add sex to the mix suddenly everyone only wants content that is serious and exclusively canon relevant)

yes!!!! being uncomfy with smut is fine!!!! but moralizing it and shaming people who do like smut is not fine!!!! all we are asking is for people to mind their own business and take control of curating their online experiences instead of taking it out on people for making content they don't like!!!

and yes!!! why are headcanons considered gross sexualized fantasies? like to me so much of sex is psychological so when i'm talking about kinks or who likes x thing more or what their sexual dynamic is like.... to me that's just another level of analysis and examining the character.

nothing further to add because i 100000000% agree to all of the above. thank you for the message!

[hikennosabo]

trimax vol 12 random thoughts

okayyy i'm FINALLY done with all the art i had to do this week so i can focus on writing this post lol. this volume is so much, i don't know if i want to read it again...

i love that vash is ourple on the cover <3

chapter 1:

i like domina, she's cute. tbh i wasn't sure whether she was a plant at first because i assumed they were all blonde...

wait, pause, tell me about this. what are the circumstances of the other plant fusion incidents. were they rebelling against humans, same as knives? or were there other reasons??

vash's black hair is so STRIKING. i'm sad about it but i also kind of love how it looks...

the memory montage has been talked about like a dozen times by now, so idk if i can add anything that hasn't already been said... LOL. there's some deep cuts in here, i don't even remember them all... it really speaks to vash's memory of people. and there are anime-only characters too, which is cool! part of me wants to go through each page and label everyone but... nah.

ik they've taken a bit of a backseat in the latter half of the manga, but i feel like meryl and milly's section should be larger. :( and for that matter, legato takes up a lot of real estate on his page?! that's kind of unexpected... although legato and vash DID have that seven-month-long psychic battle... and i guess legato is on vash's mind rn because of the coins... so i suppose it makes sense...

a few things about the ghg page - first of all, WHO is that on the top right?! is that supposed to be elendira??? is it??? because it's not like vash doesn't know what she looks like, they've met face to face!

secondly... livio. this is his old self. face in shadow, skull mask visible. i don't think this necessarily means vash still views livio like this; that's unlike vash. livio's face is obscured while his mask and long hair are highlighted, both things that he has discarded along with his identity as a gung-ho gun. this is vash remembering the gung-ho guns specifically. it IS a bit sad that this is what livio gets... i suppose drawing him twice might've been redundant, but still...

a bunch of people have already pointed out wolfwood's grave being depicted next to rem and given equal weight/importance (page space) as her, so all i'll say is that scrolling through the pages and expecting to see wolfwood but getting hit with his grave instead was a fucking gut punch that i DID NOT need.

anti-plant missiles... so plant incidents have been common enough that they'd need to be built in the first place, and built into the fleet at that...

so they CAN be broken apart?! i see...

domina is so funny.

the ark just straight up vanishing really had me think for a second "wow! so that's the power of thor's hammer!" but no it just teleported. LOL

knives... oh, knives... he's looking less and less like a person. i'm probably supposed to be horrified, but i'm just sad.

chapter 2:

knives is the first creature in the universe to warp... wow... he's so talented~ i'm proud of him~

domina is so CUTE!!!! it's too bad what happens to her right after this... and it's impressive how likable she becomes in just a few short scenes. it makes her death more effective than it would be otherwise.

nothing to say, i just think they're cute.

knives putting his feelers out to interfere with the earth fleet was brought up in... volume 9, i think... so it's not like this was completely unexpected. (also "feelers" is kinda cute... like a bug...) wow... knives is fighting so smartly~ i'm proud of him~

i speculated a few volumes ago if knives would try to "save" the earth plants, but he just want to kill them... or at least kill the independents. i still feel like i don't have a full picture of what it's like for plants on earth or the relationship between humans and independents. either way, it's unconscionable to knives that independents would work with humans like this...

chapter 3:

perhaps i shouldn't laugh but shooting straight up into the air is such a dumb thing to do. haha get rained on idiots.

brad is stunned at their idiocy, lol.

chronica worrying over domina is sweet. she's not always "cold and calculating"...

i love how this spread is framed, with the black bars on the top and the bottom. it's cool.

and the double meaning of the chapter title. "the interceptor"... knives intercepting the earth fleet and vash intercepting knives's connection to the fleet...

uhhh... i don't have that much to say about this chapter...

chapter 4:

the universe conspired to deal me massive psychic damage by having 'brother' by gerard way start playing on shuffle while i was rereading this bit... i don't NEED this right now!!!!!

NOT THE IMAGE OF THEM AS KIDS

I'M EATING ROOOOOCCKKKKSSSS!!!!!!!

people have already pointed out knives covering his eyes (and vash covering his own with his sunglasses), it was a fucking punch to the gut the first time i read this chapter and it still is and i am fucking EATING!!!! ROCKS!!!!!!

is that REALLY the reason why you don't want to see your brother's corpse, knives?? is it really???

people have already talked about vash's little gunman speech so i won't say too much about it, except that it's fitting that we started this story with vash being just that - a gunman - we didn't even know about him being a plant - and now vash is determined to end this story as a gunman. well, "end," sort of. there's still 2 volumes left.

also, we're recycling chapter titles again for some reason... we already had a chapter titled "the gunslinger" in volume 6...

chapter 5:

should i call these their "teenage years"? ...i'm writing that in my notes.

i wish i could express my emotions about the plant twins beyond incomprehensible screaming and eating various things (rocks, glass, drywall...) because then i might have more substantial things to say LOL...

the virgin "did you really just shoot me?!" 98 knives vs the chad "if you're going to shoot me, improve your aim" manga knives

y'know, up until now, i never really bought the claim that "tristamp made knives more morally grey," because i was thinking along the lines of "the morality of his actions didn't change, orange just took a magnifying glass to his emotions, so he's easier to sympathize with," but... they COMPLETELY changed the context of knives cutting off vash's arm, huh?! i guess they DID make him more morally grey...

he's ready to go down with knives. if you'll excuse me, i'll be crunching on some more rocks.

chapter 6:

can't help but remember baby knives saying "we can work through a few little differences if we just talk to each other" :')

trying to talk to the plants... yeah... good idea! it's too little too late for knives because EVERYTHING is for him, but... it's a good idea!

okay, so the story of the village. they got kicked out of the city for being "contaminated," so they built their own village and had to resort to stealing from travelers to survive. right... chaining vash up is pretty extreme but i suppose it's indicative of their level of desperation. (especially since vash still looks like a teenager, like, as far as the villagers knew, the person they attacked was just a normal human kid...)

obviously this story doesn't move knives in the slightest, but even with the explanation for the villagers' actions, the bit about "the contaminated humans being kicked out of the city" is a different example of human cruelty that knives could've spat back at vash, lol. like, they were kicked out, and just left out there to die i guess? with no resources or plan to supply them with anything? except for the lone girl who seemed to be bringing canned goods back, but 1. this wasn't a regular thing for her since she hadn't been back in three years, 2. she was literally the only person trying to help, and 3. it was just luck that she wasn't contaminated to begin with - if it weren't for that there would be NO ONE trying to help. not trying to justify knives's worldview or anything but i just think this is interesting because even though now we know and understand the villagers' situation, there's still an undercurrent of human cruelty in this story, and that's something that can't be erased and something that knives invariably clings to to justify his actions.

and his worldview gets even further reinforced in this moment because the military starts shooting at the ark lmao. but then it's vash's friends to the rescue...! the takeaway from all this and the entire ethos of this story as a whole is "humans are complicated," they're not all bad and not all good, vash acknowledges that and tries to see it, and knives does not, blahblahblah it's been said a hundred times...

microorganisms :)

someone in the tag pointed this out already, but the way the earth fleet talks about independent plants is weird. "salvage," "persona," "repair"... that's weird, right? in my last post i said they were giving like, advanced-AI-robot vibes, and this is doing nothing to change that impression. but they're made of flesh and blood...

chapter 7:

knives is wrong about human nature but there sure are a lot of humans in this story who piss me off. fuck you, military guy!!

we all knew that vash was going in to this fight prepared to die, that his plan is to bring knives down with him, but actually seeing him bleeding so much... hurts.

LIVIOOOOO!!! I LOVE YOUUUUU!!!

he's so cute, what the fuck!!!! "i'm mr livio"?!?! oh my god. i'm sobbing. he's so cute.

gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. manipulate, mansplain, malewife.

this image of a single man facing down an entire military...!!! he's so cool!!!!!! also he's kinda caked up too

and he just bowls through them like it's nothing!!! i LOVE watching him fight, livio is one of the coolest fighters in this entire story, i'm so glad we get to watch him kick some ass!!!

chapter 8:

they said it's just a projection, but this is what i was imagining the "consciousness" of the merged plants to look like...

no concept of the self except for independents, i suppose. so do all plants think the same? last volume, vash said something about billions of thoughts being "exchanged," so there is SOME mental distinction between individuals, i think...

i wonder what information chronica is gathering from this, exactly. just the essentials, since time is limited? or all of it, every single detail?? knives's past and trauma included??

he's talking as if this is a mercy. i wonder if that's really how he's justifying this to himself.

oh, just this panel by itself is a fun dynamic. i don't actually expect elendira to live to the end (sadly...) but i AM looking forward to seeing these two fight again. interestingly, she doesn't seem surprised that livio is still alive...

this last bit of the chapter feels like all the dominoes falling at once, lol. elendira and livio, chronica and knives... and then BOOM! LEGATO JUMPSCARE!! ...from. seemingly nowhere. where did he come from. also i still don't know what to make of his... iron maiden... giant matryoshka... i don't know what or who this is!! it's driving me nuts!! is it going to be explained?!?!

chapter 9:

it's SO funny that vash says this because I WAS ALSO WONDERING THE SAME THING!!! the previous volume put so much emphasis on the coins that i assumed vash would fight legato FIRST and THEN move on to knives. but he never wanted to fight legato to begin with, so it makes sense that he'd skip right to knives LOL.

knives GRINNING when the earth ship appears and then staring straight down the barrel of their cannon... he's not afraid at all. dare i say this scene is pretty cool. knives and chronica are now on even ground in terms of knowledge about each other, and knives probably knows this, but he's still so confident. and then the cannon fires and he BLOCKS it. i shouldn't be complimenting him so much in this post. but i must give cool credit where cool credit is due. this scene is COOL!!!!

oh, so this IS how his powers worked all along, okay... i was confused. i guess this means his power in tristamp is different... because it's clearly NOT strings... it's just straightforward telekenisis i think... hmmm...

... i'd previously heard about what legato's backstory entails, but actually seeing it...

...

knives isn't even visible in this spread. legato hasn't even seen knives yet. but the framing of legato looking at the vast sky, the light, is evocative enough.

legato being able to even control knives with his strings... well, he was able to (somewhat) control vash, so it makes sense that he could, but i've never really thought about the implications until now. under different circumstances he could've been a massive obstacle to knives, if not outright stopped him.

new hair, new outlook, right?

and okay, sure, it's likely that knives's train of thought was "i could use this power for myself, so i won't kill him," but i want to believe there was something else... legato was used and abused by humans, and knives isn't stupid, he can see that just from looking at the state legato's body is in. so maybe knives recognized there's a kinship between them, even if he'd never admit it... i dunno, it's just, his expression here... it's hard for me to describe, but it's something...

oh, this is making me feel something. this is implying knives gave legato his name, right? that's... oh man. i want to say that it was kind. i don't know if i can call it a bond, but their relationship, whatever it is, is deeper than i imagined.

"...but in that moment, i was reborn." new name, new life, new purpose...

on a lighter note, now i'm thinking about where legato's name actually comes from, and i'm remembering this comment from nightow:

i want to believe knives thought the same thing... LOL. as for "bluesummers," "blue" obviously came from his hair, but "summers"... i want to say maybe it was summer at the time of this flashback, but i'm not actually sure if this planet has seasons...? do they ever say if it does??

oh, legato... my legatito... i should've known he'd be one of my favorite characters the instant he showed up in tristamp voiced by kouki uchiyama LOL. i've laughed at him a lot and made fun of him a lot but i really do genuinely love him.

i fully do not expect him to live to the end... but i'm looking forward to seeing whatever else he does before he goes...

[ilikereadingactually]

The Archive Undying

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

WOW, this is a ride, in so many ways. i really dig sff that drops me in without explanations and lets me learn the world through context, and i adore a book that really asks me to do a lot of thinking and piecing together and interpreting subtleties. i'm a go-with-the-flow reader, i don't really go back to look again at anything or look up words as i read, i trust the narrative to make sense eventually. this book satisfies and rewards all of that!! i found it a little denser than is ideal for me, but dense in that lush, humid way where you're a little out of breath all the time. i don't think i fully have a grasp on the world or the nuances of the plot, which makes it feel pleasantly surreal and makes me really excited for the next book.

i do feel fully invested in and in love with the main characters, which makes the whole thing work for me. Sunai is such a mensch!!! Veyadi tries hard and loves with ragged edges! everyone is a personality and a delight even when they're deceiving each other and switching sides and screwing up and hating themselves, and i think it's because Sunai's pov is so tender and generous. he's a big mess, and is willing to accept and forgive the messiness of the people he loves; how could he, wounded as he is, expect anyone else to be flawless? it makes me love him, and makes me love everyone who loves him.

other highlights for me are the complexities of personhood presented here: there are corrupted AI gods and humans damaged by their interfaces, there are intelligences within intelligences and fragments of being and surprising mergers of thought and self. it's like a political conflict happening inside a funhouse, with pleasingly incomplete religious underpinnings that put me in mind of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, except it's nothing like that book at all in tone or temperament. also, mlm main characters, which seems fairly rare still in this kind of epic speculative fiction, plus interesting gender things going on in general! also also, i'm such a sucker for Asian-based sff worlds, and this one has that feel: some East Asian, some Southeast, some South, flavoring the names and the language and the food and the feel without any one-to-one mapping of cultures in this book onto cultures in the real world.

the deets

how i read it: an e-galley through NetGalley, from the elusive Tor, my current fave publisher just pumping out bangers all the time. upon getting access to this i felt the way you do when a cat chooses to sniff your hand.

try this if you: like to float and be carried by beautiful prose in a vast and deep moving landscape you can never see all of at once, enjoy queers making bad choices for good reasons, dig a book where the relationships are varied and interesting and often sexual without any of the usual "romantic" tropes, have feelings about questions of selfhood, or understand revenge but prefer mercy.

maybe not for you if: you get very frustrated by books that move fast without explaining much, and books that are purposefully playing with mysterious perspectives and voices. this book does not show its cards, and i love that but i know it can be a dealbreaker for some.

some lines i really liked: this is a loooong book so i picked out a few.

It is excruciating to behold. Sunai understands that they know each other. He and Imaru first met Ruhi when he and she were still running together, and Imaru brought Ruhi's letter to Ghamor only a couple of months ago. None of that mitigates the bodily shock of seeing them together. Talking. The panicked realization that they could talk to each other about him--that they have likely already done this--compels Sunai to interrupt.

...

He never imagined that Ruhi might already have chosen to do the damnable thing himself. It makes him feel a certain fuck of a way.

...

"It killed the sentinel-fowl," says Veyadi.

By the counter, Imaru stills. "What?"

"I killed the sentinel-fowl," Sunai clarifies.

"That isn't explaining," says Jin. "What do you mean you killed it? Lay it out plain for those of us who aren't fondling each other's neurons."

pub date: June 27, 2023!

[lindszeppelin]

okay so here we go, i didn't tag my post about the recent things that are happening but yet somehow mollie's followers send her the things that i say on my blog. interesting.

so, now that i was called out directly, lets go, mollie. straight from the source.

i do not bitch about you day in and day out. i have a fucking day job and unlike some people on here, i do not post gossip. i only respond with FACTS to idiotic things that you post about on your gossip blog that is out there and open to the public for everybody to see. you are the ONLY person on tumblr that talks gossip about austin and runs their entire account based around it. no one else on tumblr does. so unfortunately for you, you will be the main target of some people's complaints. as if you remember correctly, i had no issue with you in the past. until you took things way too far where you literally were spamming austin's tag and drowning out everyone's work, and i had to block you - a move which i did not want to do but you left me with no choice after i went in your DMs to warn you i was about to do so.

so here we are. you continue to contradict yourself and cry wolf and you're not better than deuxmoi or any others out there that post things about austin or other celebs for the notoriety.

gossip is inherently immoral. i will always stand by that. what i do is post facts to the gossip you spread around and act like it's fact.

clearly you read the blog post i just did, so you can tell that i responded with FACTS. cold hard facts that you cannot disprove and say that it's speculation when it's not, its the truth. im a hairdresser, i talked about kaia's hair. i posted articles and facts about the gucci store in paris. i posted other screenshots to corroborate the facts i posted. how is that gossip? it's not. but nice try.

i will always keep saying that you and others that call austin a puppy etc in regards to his relationship with kaia is insulting to his intelligence, because it is. i've already talked ad nauseum about it so feel free to read my other blog posts that your followers clearly have sent to you to sniggle over.

austin is a grown fucking man and he deserves to be respected. not demoralized. not infantilized. not babied. and he deserves to have a nice fanbase that doesn't spread gossip and demean him all the time. you hated kaia in the past, and now you ride her dick all the time as if she is end game.

you're saying that i liked the attention from name dropping YOU?! i could not give one single FUCK about attention, or clout. im nearly 30 fucking years old. do you really think i enjoy having to come on here and talk some fucking sense into all you guys that are spreading false shit around about austin?? i don't have the fucking time, but luckily for you today as an off day at work for me. so here i am.

how dare you try to spin this around on me and say i like the attention. im not the one here thats running a gossip blog and gets off on the negativity. you love it when people talk about you, whether its positive or negative. you really enjoy people calling you narcissistic and other horrible things that you screenshot it and proudly display it on your blog header?? it's not some kind of one up move or a "ha ha" that you do. i wouldn't get some kind of sick kick from someone calling me hateful things.

i'll end it with this. being "delulu" about the shit that you post about austin and being negatively talked about by your anons and others seems to be the more miserable way to live, versus someone who defends austin and speaks the truth.

i would delete my social medias right fucking now and never set foot online again and live happily if it meant that i had a peace of mind knowing Austin was comfortable and safe and happy. would you?

but sure, lets keep using his name and his life as a means to spread gossip and make this some kind of popularity contest.

i'm done here.

[emilykaldwen]

I dont understand why ppl want to get spoilers (that anon worrying abt aegon cheating) for fics or things in general, like, just read on and all your questions will get answered..

You told anon that abby is the only person he truly deeply loved, and yeah its obvious when reading it, but I could also imagine aegon falling in love along the way with other people he engaged with sexually, doesn’t mean he doesn’t love abby still. Maybe the love for the others wasn’t as deep or true, but just bc he loves abby doesn’t mean he cant fall in love (at least a little) with someone else too.

To be honest it doesn’t really seem like it when reading, since he really seems to only have his eyes on abby (romantically) all those years, but it wouldn’t be impossible to sneak in a second love interest for him.. would you do that in Maiden?

First off, thank you everyone who has sent nice/kind messages to me re: Maiden. I really do love my story and the only interest I'm able to tell is people who leave me comments. Thank you for making me feel less like i'm shouting into the void.

People like spoilers because they're hungry for answers. Why do you think there's so much speculation about season two of house of the dragon? And the anon who asked for the heartbreak spoiler, I didn't mind giving because I don't consider it a spoiler. I say right in the story summary that Abby and Aegon will have a Happy Ending, because in this fandom, there are a lot of stories that follow the 'rocks fall and everyone dies' plot of the book. This story isn't. I have heard of people who have been blindsided by poorly tagged stories where they thought they were getting a happy ship ending only to have the canon character like, cheat and then brutalize the OC pairing they were in. I have no problem whatsoever answering questions like this.

As the author, I'm asking you, the reader, to invest your time and emotions into the story I'm crafting. I want you to care. I want you to come along the ride with me! But this is also a fun hobby, and I know if I were a reader and then had the rug pulled out from under me, I wouldn't feel great. This is fic. This is free. This isn't a book I bought. So no, I don't mind reassuring people that Abby and Aegon are going to be okay, and that the current arc that anon was going into wasn't going to go into infidelity. If there was cheating in the story, I absolutely would tag it that way because that's an appropriate trigger. Whatever Aegon is doing during the particular arc, I do not consider it infidelity. Abby and Aegon are betrothed by outside force, but they aren't committed to each other. They're operating on that 'assumption feeling'. And there's a difference.

I think people are so capable of falling in love more than once in their lives. The idea of 'the one soulmate' is romantic as a trope, but it doesn't always resonate, you know?

I have to tease you here, Anon, because you just chided the other anon for asking for spoilers, and then asked me for a spoiler here! But I will say I already answered this question in the fic! In chapter 5:

And the love he had/thought he had for this person doesn't take away from his depth of feeling for Abby! No one person can be everything, and that's a thesis statement within the story. Aegon doesn't think he can be with Abby, so he was actively trying to move on from her!

I'm not sure if you're asking if I would consider this or if you're requesting this sort of plot. I do not take requests for plot in the story, and I hope this answered your question!

Thank you so much for your interest in Maiden! It really excites me to know that people enjoy the story, and I always love to hear about what you're enjoying and what questions you might have.

[pompadorbz]

Here's a question for you, Do you think Mondo's story would have the same impact had Daiya survived the accident. Everything else would stay the same, backstory of the race, it's effects, the promise (though that one might have to change slightly), etc. Also Do you think that Mondo would have an harder or easier time going into carpentry as Daiya is alive and Mondo would have to tell him to his face over his decision to quit the gang?

SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY! This ask is genuinely super interesting to me, so I wanted to really mull it over as best as I could and cover as much ground as possible. Since this is such a significant change to Mondo's entire character and his relationship with grief, it also means that there is a LOT of possible scenarios, and with that, a LOT of questions to ask. (Also I'm sure everyone who follows me knows the drill at this point, but for those who don't I use both he/him and she/her for mondo because of a headcanon I'm really super fond of. If I say she/her pronouns at any point, I'm still talking about Mondo. I'm also gonna elaborate on how this scenario would affect her gender moments at the end for fun, lol) For starters I want to speculate that this would be something that Mondo would probably wonder a lot himself. Daiya's death was so permanently life-altering that I'm sure he would probably get caught up in the "what-ifs" herself, along with literally every possibility that comes with that (I think this girl has the most SEVERE ocd ever, as well as ptsd which as I know it, is a much more common hc). In the scenario that this were to actually happen, there's a lot we can consider. I'm gonna go through this in list-ish form i think, since it'll make things a bit easier for me lol.

The first thing I think of when this alternate scenario comes to mind is how Mondo would eventually obtain leadership in the gang, or if she even would to begin with. Motorcycle accidents in reality have an INCREDIBLY high mortality rate. People that do survive usually end up paralyzed, or needing amputations, so I think it's pretty safe to say that Daiya wouldn't be coming back as the gang's leader after that. I think with Daiya still alive and Mondo keeping his same promise to him, it wouldn't have more or less pressure, but I think there would be this totally different KIND of pressure to keep the gang running.

Mondo's reason for having the race with Daiya was to prove that he could be a reliable leader to begin with, especially because of how the rest of the gang viewed her before she'd became the leader. That's why Daiya's death during the race is so much more traumatizing, at least thematically. In a really fucked up sense, Mondo technically gets what she wants. He gets to run the gang and really prove himself, but at an enormous cost. If Daiya manages to survive but ends up having his own life be permanently altered by the accident, it gives an ENTIRELY new read on this philosophy, except now, Daiya is alive for it.

A huge part of Mondo's character and her backstory is the fact that he ended up lying about how Daiya died, but now that he's alive, there's a pretty good chance that the gang would know the full truth, unless if Daiya himself decided to keep things between him and Mondo for her sake. Regardless of whichever happens, Daiya is alive to both know, and tell the truth, and I think this gives Mondo such a deep-rooted paranoia. I think she is already so hyper-aware of how people act around him and think of him, so knowing that they either know the complete truth, or that at the very least, Daiya does, and is able to tell them? THAT would make her anxiety skyrocket, although I doubt that Daiya would be one to want to omit that information (more for Mondo's sake later down the line than his own). Like in canon, Mondo's motivations to run the gang would likely still become INCREDIBLY Daiya-centric. Either way I think he feels like he owes an incredible debt to him, and will do anything to make sure she follows through. The gang would become so much more of a chore in both scenarios I think, but on the bright side, I think Daiya obviously still being alive would be able to give her SO much more reassurance that she wouldn't have gotten otherwise, at least not initially. Daiya to me is someone who seems very cool and levelheaded on the outside, but I think that the whole situation would make him feel a bit of guilt of his own despite being the victim of the crash. He manages to sniff out Mondo's anxiety from a mile away, and even if he forgave Mondo, I doubt it would ever disappear as much as it would become much less noticeable over time, as well as generally burdening Mondo less.

When it comes to leaving the gang to pursue carpentry, I believe it would end up being a lot easier for Mondo to pursue with Daiya still alive. I think that there's this understanding with everyone in the gang that eventually, every leader is going to shift out of that position at some point. With Daiya, him retiring and Mondo taking his place is just another inevitability, and so in his mind, Mondo wouldn't be giving up on her promise by eventually doing the same and passing the torch to Takemichi. Mondo was the leader for the amount of time that she saw fit, and now he's moving onto greener pastures. I think Daiya would be a heavy source of encouragement once he learns about Mondo's own ambitions, even if it would likely take Mondo a while to actually admit that he has them (for a while I'm sure it was something she kept secret because of the promise).

In the killing game itself, I think it could DEFINITELY change the course of the entire story. I think while losing his memories would make the grief feel a little more fresh, I don't think it would be NEAR the level of what it was with Daiya actually dying. Daiya still being alive would imply that he'd probably take Takemichi's place as a hit list target. Perhaps he'd see the both of them together in his motive video as well. As for chapter 2 itself, it would ABSOLUTELY change the story. I'd be hard pressed to say that Mondo's trauma is BETTER (It's not a competition here) , but I think that having Daiya alive, as well as his forgiveness would have a HUGE impact on how he views himself and his strength, as well as just being called strong in general. I think the feeling of inadequacy is absolutely still there, but I think in comparison to the canonical chapter 2, Mondo would be in a MUCH better place. Additionally, him not carrying the burden of his lie on his shoulders would make his chapter 2 motive much more easy to stomach. He may even have a completely different motive entirely, due to his gang already knowing the truth, therefore making the motive useless to Junko for the game. Either way, any situation that keeps Chihiro alive is absolutely going to change the course of the entire remainder of the story (seriously, if she was still alive by the end, the end would've come a lot sooner, and the entirety of sdr2's killing game wouldn't have even happened. Also this would likely keep Taka alive as well, and anything that keeps Taka alive is a nice bonus). AND NOW FOR THE ADDITIONAL GENDER MOMENTS. I think that both Daiya and Mondo are INCREDIBLY sheltered individuals. Like I don't think anything could shake me from that belief, and there's a fair amount pointing to this scattered about Mondo's dialogue. Daiya is equally as out of the know as Mondo likely would've been regarding half of the things she'd learn about herself. The only difference now is that he's gonna still be around while these realizations pop up. WHICH OF COURSE, puts Mondo through a brand new kind of dread, especially since him and Daiya were essentially raised in toxic masculinity city. It probably takes Mondo a while to crack that egg into the pan, so to speak.

I also think that the idea of Daiya being the token cishet is absolutely fucking hilarious. Like he is 100% an ally and down for anything, but he also knows NOTHING. Like for once in his life he's not able to give Mondo his wisdom because in his mind, Mondo's the expert on this stuff even though she literally JUST showed up to the party herself, lol.

Sorry for giving such a long response! I do hope it answered your question!!

[melody-hxh-spamblog]

Sometimes I remember Melody was willing to give up her hearing ability to restore her body* and... not gonna lie, I hope she ends up changing her mind about that

(*this line sounds like it could also just mean "I wish none of this ever happened" vs. "I'd actually trade this ability to get my old body back," but the 2011 anime('s translation) explicitly mentions restoring her body no matter what it takes, so I'm inclined to think it's more literal)

Part of me does want her to get her old appearance back, if only because a) I'm curious to see it and b) those teeth must be a pain in the butt lol, especially for a musician - seems like she's managing with the flute somehow though

But also, considering we already have Bisky, who put a lot of effort into looking more conventionally attractive and cute to the point of suppressing some of her strength, I think it'd be nice to have Melody instead become comfortable with her new appearance to the point where she would choose to keep it along with the cool new power

(veering into wild speculation territory here, but the combination of hamsterifying her appearance while granting her an ability that lets her "see under the surface" and read people's emotions is an interesting one. Makes me wonder if she could have been a bit more shallow about looks before, and the sonata was kind of a Learning Moment? Though on the other hand, the leap from "having super good hearing" to "learning how to infer people's emotional states from their heartbeats" doesn't feel like something that necessarily Just Happens - seems like a very personal take on the ability, so maybe she was already quite an empathetic person beforehand)

(a little more half-coherent rambling about Melody, Bisky, & appearances under the cut because this post got long)

I do kind of wonder if Bisky's arc could also be headed in the direction of getting more comfortable with her buff looks (hi Vergei)... Originally I was going to say something like, Bisky's desire to look a certain way feels like an internally-motivated personal choice (which is fine - if she does it just because it makes her happy, then there's no real need to change), while Melody's feels motivated by external factors (so imo it'd be nice to see her overcome that and be more comfortable with herself).

But I'm actually not sure if that's true? We know Bisky hates her muscular body and Melody wants her old body back, but I don't think it's really clear for either of them whether that comes from insecurity, or simply from preferring a particular look (in Melody's case, the way she used to be before something horrible happened to her, which is totally understandable).

But while Bisky seems very confident and self-assured (with good reason), and I don't suuuper get the vibe that her decades-in-the-making choice of appearance is going to be undone by one very fervent simp lol, we did also see how she totally latched on to Kurapika's flattery, so. maybe needing external validation is more of a factor than it seems for her?

(and maybe that's a bit of a moot point anyway - I think external pressures can get pretty closely bound up together with one's own personal desire to look a certain way, something something We Live In A Society)

So maybe Bisky's actually the one who should embrace her true form, while Melody restores her body as a way of healing from the terrible thing that happened to her? Ooor maybe we get buff Bisky and keep hamster Melody and everyone is winning \o/

[upindreamland]

Fan Speculation - Jack Avery

Jack Avery x fem!reader (she/her pronouns) oneshot

Summary: Fans are amazing detectives which could be good, unless you’re trying to keep a relationship a secret. Fans start speculating if Jack and you are dating… guess you’ll have to read to find out if it’s true or not (fluff)

Warning: Cringey and not good writing. This is a repost from my Instagram. Some raunchy details. Overall fluffy

Y/S/N: Your Ship Name

Y/N/N: Your Nickname

AN: Please enjoy reading. Once you’re done come and talk to me. or Like, comments, reblogs, or feeback is appreciated.

————————————————————

Y/N'S POV

I was making breakfast for my boyfriend and his band mates. Corbyn, Daniel, Jonah, and Zach all came over to spend the night at the house me and Jack live in. Their claim was that they could work on songwriting together, but I know they secretly missed me and my cooking.

Putting the quiche in the oven, I look over at the clock. It reads 10:37 a.m. I can’t believe I have been in the kitchen for over three hours. Knowing that the boys are still asleep, I go out the back door to look at the view. I pull out my phone and scroll through Instagram. I quickly take and post a selfie since I haven’t in a while, fearing what management would say to me. After editing it and adding the caption “ily” I lock my phone and listen to the birds chirp.

Hearing the back door open, I turn to see who it is. It’s none other than my handsome boyfriend of three years, Jack.

“Good morning beautiful.” he says in his raspy morning voice.

Smiling, I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his neck.

“Good morning babe.” I mumble before kissing him.

Kissing Jack has always been one of my favorite things to do. It’s so simple, yet so sophisticated. We are able to put so much emotion into our kisses that-

My thoughts completely come to a halt when Jack pulls back. Geez, that was embarrassing. Good thing Jack can’t read my mind (I hope).

“I made a quiche for breakfast. It’s pretty much done, I just have to take it out of the oven. Let’s go in, so we can eat while we wait for the boys.” I suggest.

“Really! Oh my gosh. I love your quiches almost as much as I love you.” He says as he runs to go back inside. Laughing I follow after him enjoying this moment of peace I got to have with him.

*after everyone wakes up and eats breakfast*

“Geez Y/N/N, your food is delicious.” Corbyn says after finishing his third piece of quiche.

All of the other guys mumble an agreement.

“I would marry you right now, if that meant I get to eat your food all the time!” Zach exclaims.

Rolling his eyes, Jack lets out a puff of air before saying, “No you won’t you idiot. I will marry her and then we are going to have some mind blowing sex before having kids and then-”

“Wow. We do not need to know that. Please keep that to yourself.” Daniel interrupts.

“Sorry.” Jack mumbles while blushing.

“Anyways, Y/N did you see all of the comments on your recent Instagram post?” Jonah asks me quickly to change the subject.

“No I haven’t. Why? Should I?” I ask, already pulling out my phone.

—————

Instagram comments:

jack_yn_lover: I wonder who you love? Is it, oh I don't know, someone named Jack? 🤷‍♀️

↳ _limelight_fan: jack_yn_lover That's what I was thinking. Did you see what Kyla posted on Twitter? I feel like that can't be a coincidence.

↳ jack_yn_lover: _limelight_fan Yeah I did. I'm really hoping that it means something because they are really cute together.

↳ fan_1: _limelight_fan What's Kayla's Twitter? I want to see what she's talking about

↳ fan_2: fan_1 it's ILOVEJACK. there's other proof on her page as well.

↳ fan_1: fan_2 alright thank you I will go check her out.

username: You are so pretty. Please drop your hair routine 😍

lover_yn: Where is your shirt from? It’s so pretty.

username_2: I came here from Twitter to make sure it was real and it is. Can you guys announce Y/S/N yet. We are dying!!!

ILOVEJACK: YIN, Jack, Boys, anyone, all you have to do is say yes or no. It's that easy. Please do it for us!

↳ username_2: ILOVEJACK I have to agree with you. Those earrings do look really similar

—————

“What’s the Twitter post they’re all talking about?” Jack asks me looking over my shoulder at my phone.

“I don’t know. I was just about to check.” I reply with a little bit of nervousness. I really don’t want it to be anything bad. Jack and I have been really good at making sure people don’t find out about us. It’s not because I’m scared of fans reactions more so management’s reaction to these tweets. They have been making us keep our relationship a secret for these last 3 years. After a lot of begging we were able to convince them to let us announce our relationship on our anniversary which is a couple of days away. It was getting hard to keep our relationship a secret.

Opening up Twitter, I type in the girls username.

“Oh my gosh! What did I do…..” I mumble under my breath.

“What do you mean babe?” Jack asks with concern.

“They’re all finding things that add up to us dating. I’m so sorry. I know we are waiting for our four year anniversary to announce it.” I sadly tell him.

“Y/N, it’s alright. Let me see the tweets please. Besides, our anniversary is in a couple of days. We can stick to our plan and completely surprise them. Everything is fine.” He reassured me.

“Yeah it’s going to be fine Y/N/N.” The boys reassure me.

Jonah seeing the panic in my eyes, knows exactly what I’m thinking. Being the big brother figure he is to me he says, “Y/N, management won’t be mad at you. If anything I think this fan speculation is helping both of your careers which they want. I can call them for you and ask what you should do. For now, just show Jack and the boys the tweets. I’ll be back.”

He walks outside to call management, I turn back to my phone and show the boys the most obvious tweets.

(Tweets)

*after showing the boys the tweets and Jonah comes back*

Jack’s POV

Jonah just told me, Y/N, and the rest of the boys what management said. He said that it was alright for us to continue with the original plan as long as we kept quiet for the time being. When I look over at Y/N, I can tell she needs a distraction from all of this. Walking over to her, I put my arms around her neck from behind.

“Y/N let’s go somewhere. I can see you need to relax. There’s nothing to be worried about babe.” I tell her.

Feeling her exhale and turn around to see me, I can tell what she’s thinking. She has that sparkle in her eyes.

“Can we cuddle-”

“-While watching rom-coms and eating whatever we want. Yes, yes we can.” I finish for her

Seeing the smile that instantly forms on her face, I can’t help but chuckle. It always warms my heart that after all of these years together, I still manage to fall deeper into love with her. I guess that’s just Y/N for you.

Getting up, we say goodbye to the boys. They tell us that they’re going to head back to their own homes soon. Nodding me and Y/N head to our shared room.

Once the boys left, and me and Y/N had everything we needed, we started our rom-com marathon.

We were watching in comfortable silence until I had an idea that might help Y/N calm down. Speaking up, I say,

“Hey babe do you want to plan what photos of us we should post? Ohh, and what our Instagram captions should be?” I asked excitedly.

“Hmm, I didn’t think of that. Let’s plan that right now. But…..”

“Oh my gosh there’s a but.” I mumble, laughing slightly scared of what her mind is coming up with.

“Hey! You didn’t even hear it yet. Okay, starting over. But… can I have a kiss first.”

“Geez. You didn’t have to scare me like that. And yes you can.” I reply.

Leaning in, both of our lips meet. Pulling away after a couple of seconds, a smile forms on my face when I see the pout my girlfriend has on her face.

“What’s that pout for?”

“Because it wasn’t long enough. I need more of your kisses or else I’m going to die. Do you want me to die?” She complains like a child.

“After, once we finish planning our announcement you can have all of the kisses in the world. Okay?” I respond in the same tone she had.

"Okay!” She says enthusiastically.

*the day of Jack and Y/N’s anniversary*

Y/N’s POV

Okay today’s the day. The day me and Jack officially announce our relationship to the whole world. I’m not as nervous as before (thanks to Jack's idea), but there still is that little part of me that is. So many what-if questions run through my head when it comes closer to posting time. I just want people to accept our relationship (even though they already do and we haven’t even said anything). The thing that calms me down is the fact that I love Jack and he loves me. We were able to make it four years without other people’s approval.

“Okay babe. Ready to announce our love for each other to the world.” Jack asks me.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Instagram

yourinstagram

Liked by jonahmarais, corbynbesson, jackaverymusic, imzachherron, seaveydaniel, jack_yn_lover, and 95,786 others

yourinstagram: Everyone…this is my boyfriend. I love him very much. He is really hot. jackaverymusic You stole my heart...

tagged: jackaverymusic

view all comments

jackaverymusic: I love you too baby. You mean the absolute world to me. I'm glad everyone knows now.

jack_yn_lover: AHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Fuck yes. Give me a moment. I think I'm going to die. I- can't do this

jonahmarais: Oh my gosh yes it's my favorite ship. I'm so proud of you lil sis. This means I can post all of the funny content I have of you two! 🥳 ❤️

↳ yourinstagram: jonahmarais you'll have to run that by me first. I'm scared of what you will post of us....

imzachherron: You... you stole my boyfriend. Jack you were supposed to be mine 😭😭 JK. I love your both so much. You're my favorite couple.

ILOVEJACK: Yesss!!! I'm so happy for you both. You both were made for each other. I - I can't process this. I'm too happy

corbynbesson: Congrats you two!! I'm so happy for you both.

seaveydaniel: Hope you both had a great day!!

load more comments

jackaverymusic

Liked by yourinstagram, corbynbesson, jonamarais, imzachherron, seaveydaniel, ILOVEJACK, and 95,786 others

jackaverymusic: Happy anniversary my love. I can't believe you have been by my side for four years now. I love you. yourinstagram ...but I'll let you keep it.

tagged: yourinstagram

view all comments

yourinstagram: Happy anniversary! I love you so much. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

ILOVEJACK: AWWWW you guys are so cute. I'll be sleeping on the highway tonight.

jonahmarais: MY SHIP POSTED!!! ALERT ALERT

imzachherron: this is making me cry. I can't wait to see you guys grow old together. OHH and can I be the best man at your wedding? (when it happens of course)

↳ seaveydaniel: imzachherron no it's going to be me...please jackaverymusic can it be me

corbynbesson: photo creds... also I can't believe this was taken four years ago. You were both such babies

seaveydaniel: I love the matching captions!!!! "You stole my heart but I'll let you keep it" is so cute

↳ jackaverymusic: seaveydaniel I'm glad you noticed. What do you think of it being a new lyric idea 😏

load more comments

(End of Instagram)

“Well I guess that puts an end to all of the fan speculation.” Jack says once we posted.

“Yeah it does. I love you Jack.” I say

“I love you Y/N. Thanks for making today special. I wouldn’t be who I am without you. You know I’m going to marry you one day.”

“Of course. Now enough of the cheesy stuff and kiss me.”

Doing just that we express all of our love for each other in that kiss. It was perfect. During the kiss, I realized that life is amazing with Jack in it. He makes me feel complete, he's all I'll ever need.

I couldn’t help but think “Gosh. I love you Jack so much” hoping that if he could read my mind, it would be now.

————————————————————

AN: The end! I honestly didn’t know how to end it so that’s as good as it’s going to get. Hope you enjoyed reading.

-Kara (upindreamland)

[beepboop358]

The Opera in the HNL Control Room Video Hints to S4

I don't know if this has been done before or not but I did this right after the tweets dropped, but I wasn't posting then so I'm posting it now LOL (better late than never right?)

On May 5th, 2021, one day before the May 6 release of the ""Eleven are you listening?" teaser (002/004), the Stranger writers tweeted this:

with the accompanying video:

The opera that's playing in the background is "Quand Le Bien-Aime Reviendra" which translates from French to English as "When The Beloved Will Return"

I’ve also seen it translated as "When My Sweetheart Returns To Me”. (any french speakers please correct me/google translate if it’s wrong)

Next I looked up what this opera's plot is about, because there has to be a reason they picked this specific thing to play in the background, nothing they do is random xD

At first when I saw father and daughter detail I thought of Hopper and El, but I reallllyyyy don't think it's referencing them. For one, El won't end up with Mike because he's gay and in love with Will, so El can't fulfill the "marrying her lover" part of this story. There's also no references to Hopper's death/reappearance in here if he is the father character.

It's the daughter's lover that disappears and returns after fighting his enemy, and the daughter goes "mad" thinking he has died. Germeuil (the lover) is "the beloved" the opera title refers too. The father is not a super important part of the picture here. This opera is more about a couple than a father/daughter or parent/child.

So that leave's us with two possibilities for who this opera could be referencing:

1. Joyce is Nina, and Hopper is Germeuil.

OR

2. Will is Nina, and Mike is Germeuil.

3. A third possibility is that the Opera references BOTH Jopper and Byler in s4, or just some aspects of the opera's storyline for each couple.

Possibility 1: The opera references Jopper

Germeuil (Hopper) fights his enemy and disappears:

Hopper has already disappeared in a fight with the enemy. He was fighting the Russians & the upside down during all of s3, and he disappears or during the final battle of s3, with Joyce literally watching the fight between Hopper and the Russian happen right as she's trying to close the gate.

Nina (Joyce) goes mad and forgets details of the traumatic event:

Just like I mentioned in my Victor Creel Theories post, there are several hints throughout the show to mental instability running in Joyce's family, and Nina is described as going "mad" when her lover (Germeuil/Hopper) disappears and she thinks he has died. Everyone thinks Hopper is dead, Joyce included. It's not out of the realm of possibilities that Hopper's death will send Joyce spiraling, and cause her to forget the details of the event due to psychological distress.

Possibility 2: The opera references Byler

Germeuil (Mike) fights his enemy and disappears:

Mike wasn’t seen in the recent st4 sneak peek teaser (but neither were Jonathan, Argyle, and Joyce (unknown if Will is the one in front of the burning car but I think it is), and Finn was the only person who posted a picture of the clock with the caption “In the upside down, meanwhile…” and not “Meanwhile, in the upside down…”, like all the other cast members and official ST accounts. He never fixed the caption, which leads me to believe it wasn’t a mistake, but rather a clue. I wonder what this means for Mike’s storyline this season - does he get stuck in the upside down somehow?

Germeuil (Mike) fighting the enemy probably refers to some upside down monster, and he gets taken to the upside down during a battle or something.

And Nina (Will) goes mad and forgets details of the traumatic event:

Nina is described as "forgetting aspects of the traumatic incident in a manner consistent with a diagnosis of psychogenic amnesia"

"Psychogenic amnesia or dissociative amnesia is a memory disorder characterized by sudden retrograde episodic memory loss, said to occur for a period of time ranging from hours to years. More recently, "dissociative amnesia" has been defined as a dissociative disorder" characterized by retrospectively reported memory gaps. These gaps involve an inability to recall personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature"

There's a popular theory out there that Will has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and while DID is not the same thing as dissociative amnesia, there is the same dissociative aspect in both where the person represses/forgets memories that are traumatic to them. I recommend you read @kaypeace21's theory on this here and here.

If Mike was to disappear into the Upside down, it would certainly take a big toll on Will, which may cause him to go "Mad" (again hints of mental instability in Joyce's family, and Will is Joyce's son) This event may also bring out a more hardcore and powerful side of Will, and could trigger memories of his own life that he has forgotten. It could also be what makes Will face the lab/the monster this season.

Noah said this would be Will's darkest season, and my mind immediately goes "darker than getting possessed by an evil inter-dimensional monster who wants to kill everyone? How is that gonna work?"

But this theory is pretty dark, and it just might fit the description.

It also might fit in with the theory that Will may be one of the test subjects in the "Eleven are you listening?" teaser, which goes along with the theory that Will may have a connection to the lab beyond his relation to it in s2, which I discussed in my post about how Will, Sara, and El are all connected.

Anyways, this is all just speculation right now since nothing is confirmed, but it's interesting to think about how this opera might hint to s4 storylines.

[inspiteallthedanger]

Hey sorry if you already talked about it before, but I was just really curious about what you think it really happened in “the night we cried”. Was it just the two of them or did it involve all of the boys? What they might have said or done… I just think its such an important episode in their lives/relationship and we know almost nothing about it.

Ahhhhh! Nonny, you are reading my mind! I was just thinking about this after answering another ask. There's a post right now in my drafts about it about.

My thoughts under the cut (it's an essay). But please can everyone else chip in? I really want to know what people think. (especially as it's really entirely speculation as we don't know much about it)

Obviously the line you're quoting is from "Here Today" which means whatever happened it was important enough that Paul remembered it and wrote it into a song years later, that he still gets emotional singing.

Background:

So they all got stranded in Key West in 1964 during their second tour of America in September due to hurricanes. The timing is important here because it means that Beatlemania was in full swing and their invasion of America was going amazingly. There can have been little doubt, at this point, that they'd 'made it'.

They're riding high, and they're all at the 'four headed monster' stage. They're super close, J&P are writing 'nose to nose'. They're spending all day, everyday together. The unexpected change in plans meant they got a very rare break. In response to which they played an unplanned gig and stayed up all night drinking. Admittedly, they're stranded to some extent, so options are limited, but they still think "hey this is a good time for us to stay up all night hanging out and chatting". This is behavior of really, truly bestest mates. Like, even with close friends you'd think it might be nice to just take the chance for some alone time or to speak to someone else.

So. What do we know happened?

As far as I remember Paul's mentioned it a couple of times. Obviously this is a pretty well-worn thing. People get drunk and get teary telling everyone how much they love them. So, it's worth bearing that in mind. But. Paul seems to think it was highly unusual and possibly one of (if not the only) time(s) he and John did it. He cares about it enough to write a song mentioning it after John's died.

It's not clear, by the way Paul talks about it, if it was just him and John at the pivotal moment. Now, there are multiple stories they both tell where they seem to have forgotten other people were there, but remember what the other was wearing, the colour of their skin etc, so who the fuck knows. Certainly there’s sometimes the implication they were alone and other times not. But, I think even if the others were there for part of it, this crying happened just between J&P, mostly because I don't see them being vulnerable with anyone else. Also, if it was between all four of them, seems a bit strange to mention it in a song that’s just about John.

So, he says they "got drunk and cried about what they meant to each other" (where did I see this phrasing? or was in the anthology? I looked and couldn’t find it again but I remember it) or he's said "got drunk and said we loved each other".

Weirdly, when probed directly on what made them cry he sort of hedges and says their mothers. Then doesn't even mention that they talked about how much loved each other. Which, again, a classic Paul move. He'll reveal things on his own, but if you try and ask direct, he'll freeze up.

I'm obviously not saying they didn't talk about their mothers, I'm sure they did. Seems entirely possible during a deep and meaningful. I just don't think he mentions that elsewhere when telling the story. This is further evidence that it was just them for some of the time, fwitw.

What's it all mean:

To me, the difference between "what we meant to each other" and "that we loved each other" could be interesting. "I love you, man" is almost a thing you could say as a one off. But 'what we meant to each other' at least to me, suggests a deeper conversation. What did they say that they meant to each other?

Obviously, this could be essentially about their dream of being famous, being in a band and escaping Liverpool. They are well aware they did that together. It's entirely possible they couldn't have done it alone. So, that's got to play into. It would at least have been a reaffirmation of their partnership.

The question is - did they talk about it on a personal level? I would lean towards yes. Simply because we know they did talk about the importance of Lennon/McCartney a lot. So it was probably more than that. This feels like an affirmation of hey, I love you as a person. You're my special person. That would certainly stick in Paul's mind.

Complete tin hat moment? If you're looking for a moment when fooling around in the same room/near each other moved to more... here could be it. I'm less sure Paul would so openly talk about it, if so, but the man's insane, so who knows. It's possible.

Fallout(?)

Paul seems to suggest this was something that didn't happen again. Or very rarely. So, why not?

Given who we're talking about here... I would almost bet it means that there was a very swift withdrawal. A slightly embarrassed , 'that was a bit true and close moment'. Essentially it's this. Perhaps it was from both of them, or maybe just from Paul who we know finds this sort of thing really, really difficult.

If there was a withdrawal - especially from Paul - you've got to assume there's a possibility for hurt. Perhaps enough hurt and embarrassment for it to never be brought up again. Especially if John is thinking this meas they've had a break through, only for Paul to pretend it never happened, and potentially push John away. This could be one of those times John's talking about when he said every time he opened up to Paul he got hurt. It might link to the “laughing in the face of love” line in Instant Karma - perhaps Paul did laugh it all off the next morning and that stayed with John.

Is there a scenario where Paul reads rejection into it too? That’s harder to say, John may well have been cruel about it after, taken the piss or just ignored it. I’m less sure that’s the case, because Paul seems to have kept this as a special moment that he loves. He calls it an “emotional landmark” even, which for him is massive. If he had mixed feelings about it, would he do that? I think it’s more likely Paul just went, “Ah, now we both know how much we love each other, how amazing. No need to ever talk of it again.” I know a lot of people, especially men, take this sort of talk as gospel. Like they think, “We’ve said it. I shall assume it remains so until told otherwise.” So if John was hurt and later (as in during the next few days) started acting that way Paul would just be ???? and probably not link the two things together.

(Side note Paul accidentally bruising John’s very fragile ego and being ??? is at least one of their major issues)

Anyway. There we have it. An incredibly important night that either sustained them through some later rough patches or an amazing night that further set in stone toxic behaviour patterns that would eventually lead to their break up.

You tell me. What did happen?