#except yes plot

[j-a-nuary]

Crybaby

Changbin tries to stay professional when one of his personal training clients starts crying.

Warnings/etc: 3.7k | Crossing professional boundaries, dacryphilia (crying kink), ya girl is thicc and knows what she wants 👌 (still has moments of self-consciousness though), she calls him Mr. Seo for most of the this, Changbin is basically that "I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me" meme, there's all your general foreplay (fingering, oral, all sorts of rubbing) and PIV y'all [MDNI/NSFW OBVI], sorta public sex (the gym is closed).

Tagging @rapline-heaux because without our conversations this wouldn't have happened.

"Wait wait wait," he raised his hands to grab the bar in her hands, "don't hurt yourself."

=====

He hadn't meant to make her cry. Honest. He was just trying to encourage her to keep going, and may have gotten a little… loud.

She shook her head, tears still running down her cheeks, protesting ardently.

"No," she hiccuped, "I can take it."

Changbin wasn't sure exactly what did it, but he backed away immediately. To her, he probably seemed to be letting her do her reps. In reality, he was panicking.

Taking deep breaths, he tried to will the growing hardness between his legs to go away.

I'm a professional. I'm a professional. I am a fucking professional. I am not going to think about tying her to the squat rack… fuck!

"Okay," he grasped at straws, "I think you've earned a break. Go get yourself some water."

She retreated into the locker room, saying something about forgetting her water bottle in there. Changbin nodded, not absorbing her words. He was too busy trying not to think about the wet streaks on her skin, or the way her face had strained as she worked.

He made a beeline for the front desk.

"Hyung," he huffed out as he flopped onto the waist high surface.

"Yes?" Chan absently asked, staring at the computer screen in front of him as he chewed on his ID badge.

"Hyuuuuuunnnnggggg…" Changbin whined, bumping his forehead against the countertop.

"What?" Chan dropped the badge from his mouth, lanyard jingling with the motion, "what happened?"

"Have you…" Changbin lifted his head and looked around secretively before starting again. "I'm hard. At work."

Chan laughed. Of course he did. What else was he supposed to do?

"Okay, and?"

"And my session has twenty minutes left!" Changbin stood up. "What the fuck am I supposed to do?"

"Well…" Chan's eyes remained glued go the computer screen, despite his best friend currently going through it next to him, "what caused it?"

"I was encouraging her to do one more rep…"

Chan hummed, nodding slightly to indicate that he was listening.

"And she started crying."

Finally, FINALLY, Chan looked up from his computer.

"Say sike right now."

"Hyuuuuuunnnnggggg…" Changbin leaned forward, supporting himself on the counter with his arms and chest specifically so that he could kick his feet while whining.

"That's a Minho conversation," Chan shook his head, returning his focus to his monitor, "I don't cover kink discoveries."

Huffing dramatically, Changbin laid his head against the countertop once more. He remained silent, trying to think of anything but what had happened, until a voice interrupted.

"Mr. Seo?"

He stood and turned, thankful that enough time had passed for the most pressing of his issues to fade. He fixed his customer service smile in place.

"Ready to finish up?"

She smiled at him. He couldn't help but notice that she had washed her face. The skin looked slightly raw, like she had rubbed it vigorously.

"Yes sir. I'm ready to follow orders!"

Changbin felt a prickle of satisfaction at the conspicuous pause in keyboard taps coming from the direction of one Bang Chan.

=====

"I'm kind of a crybaby anyway," she sniffled, wiping her eyes as she rested against the assisted pull-up stand, "don't let it stop you."

He wasn't hard again. He was not. Not completely anyway.

"Good to know," he managed to sound relatively normal, "but if you're in pain or something, make sure you let me know."

"How else am I going to get rid of this?" She slapped a hand against her thigh, sending a jiggle that Changbin desperately tried to ignore through it.

"Besides, some pain is good."

=====

Changbin stood in the mostly dark facility, going down the closing checklist. Locker rooms had been cleaned, machines had been wiped down, the mopping was done… it was all blurred together but he was pretty sure all he had left to do was restock the fridge and make sure he locked up after himself when he left.

He fetched a crate of impractically sugar packed "sports drinks" and water from the storage closet and settled next to the cooler. Halfway through the strawberry banana blast, he heard a rapid knocking on the glass doors.

Hauling himself up just slightly, he peeked over the counter.

She was peering through the glass, tears once again streaming down her face. She seemed desperate to get back in.

Swiping his keys off the counter, Changbin approached the doors. Her expression brightened, but the tears kept coming. He unlocked the door and pulled it just slightly open.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'm so sorry! I left my phone in the locker room. Can I please just go grab it?"

He considered this. Obviously, customers weren't allowed inside after hours… but what was the harm, really? He was certain that if she tried anything sketchy he could easily enough physically remove her from the premises.

"Uh, yeah," he stepped back, widening the opening of the door to let her in.

"Thank you so much!" She edged past him.

He tried not to be too aware of the way her body brushed against his as she moved. He quickly busied himself with relocking the door.

"You don't mind, right?" He didn't even know if she was still nearby, but it felt like the right thing to say. "They're supposed to stay locked after hours."

"No problem. Uh…"

Her voice trailed off when he turned to look at her.

"I'll stay up front while you look," he offered, trying to make it clear that he was not a threat.

"Actually," she fidgeted with the hem of her sweatshirt, "could you help me look? This place is kind of creepy when it's empty."

"Oh, uh… sure? That's fine."

=====

He wasn't staring at her ass. He wasn't. He absolutely was n-

Her ass jiggled as she let her heels drop back to the floor.

"Hey Changbin?"

He blinked, hoping she hadn't spotted him staring at her ass.

"Yeah?"

"Can you check the top shelf for me?"

Knowing full well that he also couldn't see the top shelf of the tall lockers, he crossed the room anyway.

She smiled at him, and just before he reached the open locker she turned into his space. Pointing to the only shelf in the only locker that was currently open, the curve of her ass pressed against the front of Changbin’s body.

"I usually put it right," she lifted onto her tiptoes, rubbing even more against his body, "here."

Changbin bit his lip, holding his breath and trying not to think about the angle of her hips against his.

I should move. I should step back. If I move she'll definitely see it though. I shou-

"You might need to get closer."

Against all sense, he followed the implied request of her words.

If the locker had been shut, she'd have been pressed tightly against it by now. As it was, she gripped on the edge of the tall shelf and rolled her hips backwards.

"Fuck," Changbin groaned, unable to keep himself from grinding against her this time.

"Is it too hard?"

"Fuck," he took a step back, stumbling his way to sit on the wooden bench that ran the length of the room, "I'm so sorry! Fuck that's… I shouldn't… that was totally out of l-"

He cut off in a choked groan.

She was lifting her sweatshirt. Pulling it upwards, uncovering just how tightly her leggings hugged the swell of her ass and dips in her hips.

"It's fine Changbin. You can touch me if you want."

He thought he might snap the bench with how tightly he was gripping the wood at his sides. Clearing his throat, he tested the waters.

"Do you… um… do you want me to touch you?"

She turned to face him, tugging the sweatshirt entirely off. He noted that her outfit was the same one she had worn earlier, while he had worked with her.

"Yes," her eyes seemed to shine as he watched her approach him. One of her knees slid onto the bench next to him.

"Don't you want to touch me Mr. Seo?"

That did something to his body that he'd probably have to do some googling about later on.

"I saw you get hard earlier."

"Fuck," he couldn't think straight, "I'm sorry. I jus-"

She leaned in, cutting him off by pressing her lips against his.

All doubt left his mind. Reaching forward, he grabbed at her waist, reveling in the way his hands sunk into her flesh. She made a surprised sound, which he countered with what he hoped was an appreciative groan.

"You were just so pretty," he mumbled against her lips. "So pretty when you cry for me."

She laughed. Good. He was relieved that she seemed okay with, well, everything at the moment.

Resituating his grip on her body, he grabbed, tilted, and slowly lifted as he stood up.

"Careful!" She quickly latched her arms behind his neck, clearly concerned about being dropped.

"I got you baby," he reassured her as he carried her to the low counter between rows of lockers. He supposed it was there for patrons to do their makeup, or hair, or something after showering at the gym. Or perhaps just to take progress pictures in the mirror.

For now, it would serve as Changbin’s personal dining table.

He placed her onto the counter and immediately started sliding his fingers into the waistband of her leggings.

"Can I take these off?" He managed to ask between short breaths and quick nips at her lips.

"Please," she pleaded, "take off whatever you want Cha-"

"Mr. Seo," he was definitely going to have to think about that later. "Same as when we're training."

She groaned and nodded, knitting her hands into his curls.

"Are you going to train me well, Mr. Seo?"

Oh fuck.

"Of course baby," he lowered his head and tugged at the strap of her tank top with his teeth, "I can make your body do things you never dreamed of."

"Please… please please please please…"

He stood up straighter and dug his fingers even further under the edge of her leggings. Gripping the fabric, he started pulling it down.

She hunched slightly, arms falling in front of herself. He didn't notice at first, so focused on getting rid of the stretchy cloth. Carefully he rolled it down, pausing to slip her shoes and socks off before fully removing the leggings. Letting himself land on his knees, he looked back up at her.

He spotted her posture immediately. Reaching up, he pulled her hands into his.

"Don't hide from me," he said as softly as he could, but to his ear it still sounded a little demanding, "I want to see all of you."

"Nngh," she made a complaining noise, "I'm fat."

"So?"

He stood, still gripping her hands in his. He noted the bright red flush of her face.

"So I…" She avoided his gaze, tears gathering in her eyes again, "I'm not… you know… sexy."

He couldn't help but laugh. It burst out of him like someone had forced it out of him.

"Baby don't be stupid," he pulled one of her hands down, pressing it against where he was uncomfortably hard in his shorts.

"Does this feel like you're not sexy?"

She bit her lip, eyes trailing downwards. She twisted her hand free of his and more firmly ran his fingers against him, gripping him as well as she could through the cloth.

"Fuck," Changbin groaned. He slumped forward, digging his face into the crook of her shoulder and just enjoyed the feeling for a minute.

"Am I doing well, Mr. Seo?"

"Doing so well," he huffed into her neck. "Want you so bad."

His hands started wandering. While one took up the duty of helping him steady and ground himself on the countertop, the other trailed over her body. He wanted to map out the entirety of her.

He slid his hand up her shirt, pausing to knead at her stomach for a moment while he just groaned into her ear again. Continuing onwards, he was delighted to find that her workout tank apparently provided enough support that she didn't need an additional sports bra.

"Fuck, baby," he paused, letting his thumb explore her nipple as he started kissing her jaw, "want this off too."

She made a breathy noise, and he felt her chest heave under his hand.

"You gonna take it off for me? Show me everything?"

"Cha-" she groaned as his fingers tightened around her nipple, "Mr. Seo!"

"Good girl," he moved to kiss her lips again, "I'm going to take this off now, okay?"

She nodded, and he could feel the wetness on her face where her cheek brushed against his own.

The elasticity of her top worked against him for a moment, making her laugh before taking matters into her own hands. Changbin's eyes were glued to the tracks that littered down her cheeks and along her chin, even as he took the opportunity to return his hands to her waist. What he found made him groan again, finally dropping his eyes to take a proper look.

"You workout like this? Or did you take them off before coming back here?"

"I like to be optimistic."

His brain went blank. She hadn't exactly answered the question, but he was choosing to take it as the former option. After blinking for a few seconds, he decided to trace his hand forward, over her thigh, between her legs.

"Hoping I'd notice?"

She hummed a positive note, biting her lip as his hand moved.

Her wetness was… abundant. He nearly lost track of where his fingers were since all he could feel was slicked up flesh.

"Lean back for me," he asked, "and spread your legs."

"What ar- fuck!"

He had dropped back to his knees and wrench her legs apart. His fingers sank into her thighs as he pressed forward to lick a wild line up the front of her.

"Mr. Se-eo…" the words shuddered out of her. It sounded like half a complaint, but the way her hands dug into his hair proved that he shouldn't move very far from where he was.

That was fine by him. Mouth wide, tongue out, he took his time to explore every fold, crease, and bump. Finding the spot, just slightly off center, that made her fingers pull so hard that his scalp stung, he finally let one hand free from a thigh. Extending two fingers, he barely brushed against her entrance.

"Mis… ter… Seo…"

He hummed against her, a questioning upwards tone.

"Pu… put th… please…"

He smiled against her, still refusing to move from his work. But he didn't want to tease too much. Slowly, he pushed his fingers forward.

It earned him a loud moan.

"Fuck," he spoke between abrupt licks, "sound… so pretty… for me."

"I'm gonna… fuck I'm gonna… gonna…"

He renewed his efforts, shaking his head slightly in his own excitement. It seemed to only add to it for her though, so he mimicked the motion.

He also quickened the pace of his fingers. He turned his fingers, exploring the reactions he could get from different angles. Finding something that made her emit a high pitched whine, he focused on that.

"Cum… gonna… fuck! Cumming!"

The first thing Changbin noticed was her thighs squeezing around his ears. The second was the texture of her slick somehow getting even smoother.

He kept going, softening his motions just marginally. After a few moments, her thighs loosened and he stood up.

"You," he kissed her, "taste," another kiss, "so good."

He almost missed it, thanks to the wetness already on his skin, but when he pulled back he could see clearly the tear stains on her face. His eyes trailed over the tracks, noting where the tears had hit her chest and trickled across her body.

"Mr. Seo," she panted, "please fuck me."

Changbin was suddenly aware of how very clothed he was. Nearly toppling over in haste, he stripped down until the only thing he still had on was his earrings.

He saw the way her eyes flowed over his body. The appreciative quirk of her eyebrows, the way she subconsciously wet her lips. He decided to show off, just a little bit.

Gripping his cock, he slowly pumped it. He didn't need much help in getting hard. He just couldn't help basking in the way her eyes focused, smirking at the whiny noise she made.

"You sure babygirl? Want me fuck you here?"

She nodded quickly, biting her lip.

"I've got an implant!" She blurted.

He tilted his head, not quite processing the words.

"It's… birth control," she shyly explained, "it's for medical stuff but… there's no… worry," she shut her eyes, trying to hide from the awkward, yet necessary, conversation.

Changbin took the opportunity to wedge himself between her legs.

"Look at me pretty."

She opened one eye, staring up at him.

"What a good girl you are," he spoke softly, slowly rubbing himself against her as he continued, "Right? Good pretty girl gonna let me fill her up?"

"Mhmm," she nodded piteously, fresh tears falling from her eyes, "please Mr. Seo."

He almost came like that, rutting against her cunt, watching her be reduced to tears at the thought of him fucking her.

But that would simply be a waste.

Changbin anchored one hand on her waist, gripping her tightly. With his other, he directed himself into her properly.

"Fuuuuck… Mr. Seo… fuck so good," her face slackened, satisfied at finally having him inside her.

Changbin was sure his own expression was much more tense. Taking shallow breaths through his nose, he prayed that he wouldn't bust the second he moved again.

After a second, he gave his hips an experimental thrust. The experiment being based on force.

"Mr. Seo!"

He groaned.

"Pretty baby," he was losing track of himself as he started up a rhythm, "so pretty for me… want me to fuck you hard? Want it soft? Talk to me pretty… tell me what you want."

She looped her hands around his neck, loosely holding him as she let herself lean against the mirror behind her.

"Harder Mr. Seo," she panted, "train me hard."

He let out a guttural moan, reaching up to do… something. He didn't really know what he was aiming for, but his fingers ended up in her mouth.

"Fuck… what a good girl. Pretty girl. Pretty baby gonna let me cum inside, huh? Gonna let me train this pussy to take my cum? Fuck, gonna fucking fill up my pretty baby."

She couldn't rightly respond, but she nodded. Fresh tears streamed down her face, which only motivated Changbin to go harder.

"Crying because of my cock? So perfect. Show me your pretty eyes baby, let me see how much you like having me inside you. Gonna cry for me more? Good girl. Come here."

He dragged his fingers from between her lips and pressed forward to kiss her. She made a muffled whining sound into his mouth. Changbin pecked her cheek before whispering in her ear.

"You okay?"

He felt her nod.

"Tell me."

"I'm good. Fuck, I'm so good."

"Good," he kissed her neck, "tell me if anything changes, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Good girl."

He leaned back again, the angle allowing him to put more power into his thrusts.

She twisted slightly, placing her arms across her body as she ran her nails over his skin.

He gave a particularly sharp thrust and moved his hands to grip her wrists. Putting them both into one hand, he pinned her arms up against the mirror.

"I told you not to hide from me."

She whined.

"I want to see all of that pretty body baby. Every fucking inch, okay?"

She nodded, but didn't say anything.

Changbin narrowed his eyes and let go of her wrists.

"If you try to cover yourself up again, I'll stop fucking you."

She groaned, annoyed, but nodded.

"Good girl, now…" he grabbed one of her hands and slid it between their bodies. "Show me how much you want me to fill you up. Give me those tears when you cum."

It didn't take long. She worked her fingers over herself, occasionally dipping down further to let her fingers straddle over his cock - giving him a bit of extra variation in texture and pressure. A fresh wave of tears started spilling down her face soon enough, and she started mumbling again.

"Gonna… fuck gon… gonna c…"

Changbin let himself relax, satisfied that he'd held back enough already. He felt her tighten around him, making him gasp slightly.

"Fuck! What a good girl for me. So good, so pretty for me… crying so pretty for me… cumming all over my cock… gonna fucking fill you up… gonna fu… uck!"

He came mostly to a standstill, leaning over her and giving tiny jerks of his hips as the last few spurts of his release pulsed through him.

A few moments later, once they were clean again (courtesy of the gym's showers), he recalled what had started this whole thing.

"We didn't find your phone."

"Oh," she seemed unphased, "let me see your phone. I'll call it."

He dug his phone out of his shorts' pocket and handed it over.

She tapped at the screen, and after a second a loud buzzing was heard.

Sporting a small smile, she pulled her phone out of the drawstring bag she had been carrying with her.

"Oh," she tilted her head at him, "would you look at that? Seems like I had it this whole time."

Changbin stared at her, unsure of how to process what had just happened. She laughed, handing his phone back to him.

"Anyway, I should probably get going so you can finish closing up."

"Uh… yeah…"

He saw her out, re-cleaned the women's locker room, and finished stocking the fridge.

After locking up, he was halfway to the bus stop when his phone's text alarm went off.

From: Crybaby

Hi Mr. Seo. I was just wondering when my next training session is scheduled?

[tizeline]

Well. Every tmnt artist has to turn them into humans eventually, I suppose.

Sorry for not posting a ton lately, I have been................. playing fire emblem three houses.............. busy............ Also I've been feeling a little burned out on art, admitedly. Don't worry, it's very much temporary! Last month was just pretty high tempo for me, expecially with the Cell Talk comic, so I just needed to take a short break from drawing to also play fire emblem but I'm getting back into an art-mood now! I decided to draw humanified turtles as a bit of a warm up basically, I've been wanting to do it for quite some time so it was just a fun little thing for me :]

Anyway, some thoughts about the designs-

A lot of people draw Leo as blonde, and I was fully intending to draw him blonde as well, but then I just wanted to see what he'd look like with brown hair instead and I just.... liked that a bit more, so he's a brunette now. Also he has dimples because of course he has dimples. And Mikey has freckles because OF COURSE he has freckles! And Donnie ALSO has freckles because he's my blorbo and I give all my blorbos freckles cuz they're neat. All of them have pretty small eyebrows except for Donnie because he fills them in with makeup. I thought for a while of how I would translate Leo's facial markings into his human design, and I ended up settling for birthmarks (also some red eyeliner cuz his face needs a bit of red on it)

[direwombat]

captain price (as portrayed by beary sloane)

[podcastwizard]

i know that this is in no way an original thought and obviously there has to be some pairing down from concept to product but it seems like every disney movie since frozen has had an insanely cool story idea that got paired down and paired down until it was the most toothless version possible and it drives me nuts

[roxannepolice]

Yk, hands down my biggest problem interacting with any fandom, but especially DW, is that I literally can't even begin to understand approaching a character independently of the writing. Like, the statement "This is a great character, just poorly written" is straight up an oxymoron to me. I sometimes get the impression there's this weird belief in a platonic ideal-like "true history" version of a character that got denigrated by hostile chroniclers and [insert hegemony-adjacent adjective] Hollywood directors or something. Belief based mainly on the fact the actor did what they do for a living. Which is just. Again, something I can't even begin to process.

[dissentersrising]

employers.

first and last creation of sornieth’s eleven deities. really the only thing the eleven could agree on. tasked to be watchers over the third age’s fledgling life, because the eleven wanted to be warlords instead.

or; Whoops, look at all these other fandragons I also threw into my lore

also lore-wise there's more employers than just these six by the way. these are just the relevant ones

[mashmouths]

so i started this show and it just gets worse and worseeeee not only did it lift the romance subplot directly from twilight (and not well) but they also are trying to play the forbidden love angle hard in the fantasy racism vein except it's a "cross-species" relationship between the two whitest people i've ever seen in my life and there are three people of color in the whole (first season of the) show who aren't villains and it seems that every other episode (and sometimes ebery episode and sometimes twice an episode!) there is a man physically or magically subjugating a woman and i keep waiting for the big reveal at the end to be stolen from fucking rainbow rowell

[razberrypuck]

rotating henry emily in my mind

[quietwingsinthesky]

i do love canon amy & rory but god, does some part of me wish they really had gone with the idea of the doctor picking up a child as a companion (and then later, that child’s best friend with a huge crush on her.) with the rest of the season really not changing at all, except now it’s amelia pond with an angel in her head killing her and lost alone in the woods. it’s little rory who dies and is forgotten and becomes a toy soldier. if this is going to be a fairy tale, then let it be one. children have never been safe in fairy tales.

[lcerys]

also if i add a verse where he is legally a strong bc harwin and rhaenyra married. look away. i can be self indulgent, its for me (and the self indulgent in question is me liking how harrenhal looks in the show)

[yoihino]

I'm finally readin the webnovel of Omniscient reader's viewpoint, from the beginning, and I'm sorry, am I supposed to somehow believe that Kim Dokja has never once drawn fanart, written fanfiction or fantasized about a self-insert in three ways of survival?? This man made a badly written novel the reason for his continued existance and he didn't even like how it ended. Also, chapter 95 - Singularity (4), "In the first place, the ending I wanted was impossible. Yet if I changed small impossible things one by one, I might end up changing it to the impossible ending". Don't tell me that doesn't scream fanfic fix-it of the 'for the want of a nail' variety to you.

[florbelles]

finished hera & started lady macbeth and we have got to start blaming women for shit again for real

[witchkingofanmar]

why would you make a spin off series of a movie where the main character gets tricked into gay marrying a ghost and then not mention this fact even ONCE in the series

[teecupangel]

Hey, so, assassins creed x Idols (Kpop?). From the comments of the other post I remember the band "Now United" where every member is from a different country, maybe it can be used as a concept for the band?, idk I'm just giving ideas but I really want to continue the idea of them as group bc I found it hilarious lmao.

I tried looking for the post where we talk about this but I can’t find it anymore TTATT

(Also, it’s kinda funny that I’m answering this ask now the same day I watched the last Hololive concert with my friend. What a coincidence lol)

So, first things first, since my idol era happened during the early 2000s with Jpop, I’m going to borrow the setup of Debut or Die for this one to make it feel more Kpop XD

First things first, we’ll set up what we need in the idol group:

Lead Vocalist

Sub Vocalist

Main Dancer

Lead Rapper

(there are other parts like “Face of the Group” or “Main Visual”… aka the most photogenic one, maybe even something like the group’s composer/lyricist if we want that)

Anyway, we’re focusing on those 4 because this is the formation for Desmond, Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton.

Okay, let’s be honest. We’re going to put Desmond in the lead vocalist part because it’s me XD

But, putting him as sub vocalist would be a random reference to the fact that Desmond’s voice actor, Nolan North, sang the sub vocalist part of Saint Row IV’s Opposite Attract singalong scene

(this also help show how high Nolan North can sing I guess?)

Also, also, Ratonhnhaké:ton has to be the lead vocalist. His voice actor, Noah Watts, has a 13+ min video showing why Ratonhnhaké:ton should be the lead vocalist.

Altaïr would be the main dancer because I like the idea of Ezio being the main rapper and Altaïr’s body build would make him a good dancer.

So our final setup would be

Ratonhnhaké:ton – Lead Vocalist and Maknae (the youngest by one year)

Desmond – Sub Vocalist and the reluctant leader

Altaïr – Main Dancer and maybe their dance coordinator?

Ezio – Lead Rapper and Face of the Group + Main Visual

Now, I think you asked what Edward’s part will be?

Normally I would say Edward can a retired idol turned into this group’s manager but let’s fuck with the timeline and make everyone around the same ages and turn this into…

ACB48

hehehehe

(for those wondering, this is a reference to one of the longest idol group in Japan, AKB48)

So Desmond’s group would be part of ACB48 together.

Other groups include:

A group composed of Edward, Arno, Evie and Jacob (fans jokingly calls them the Hundred Years War Group)

A group composed of Shao Jun, Arbaaz Mir, Nikolai Orelov and Aguilar de Nerha.

A group composed of Kassandra, Alexios, and the twins Eivor and Havi.

A group composed of Bayek, Aya and Basim.

(Modern Assassins will be assistants or managers. Other historical Assassins can have their own group: like maybe Malik and Federico with their own group??? An all girls group of Claudia, Mary Read, Anne Bonny (even if she's not really an Assassin), María, Rebekah and Roshan)

And, of course, one of their rival idol group is made of Haytham Kenway, Shay Cormac (who was once part of ACB48), Daniel Cross and Maria Thorpe. (The CEO of their company is Warren Vidic)

Since they’re all of similar ages (around late teens early to mid twenties), Edward and Haytham are brothers and Ratonhnhaké:ton is their half-brother. Whether they’re cousins with Ezio is up to you.

[philosophiums]

there's a conversation happening on tiktok right now about why there has been such a sharp rise in people wanting to watch female-led anime instead of being so focused on shonen and the girl who posted the video listed her reasoning as shonen constantly fucking up "power creep" (her words but i'm pretty sure she meant power scaling).

anyway i'm going to subject you all to my thoughts on this because i refuse to post anything on tiktok. (i'm also putting this under a read more because it got longer than i thought it would SKJDBVKJDBVJ).

now, i don't think complaints of power scaling in shonen is a bad thing, but i also don't think it's actually the problem with shonen (nor do i think it's the reason that there's an increase in interest for female leads bc i think that's literally just people wanting to see more female main characters which is not new or surprising or weird, but that's not the point of this rn).

i think the problem with shonen (most of the time) is the lack of actual story content - like fucking... plots and themes and motifs.

her two examples were mha and jjk because to her they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum in regards to power scaling (in mha the villains are so weak that children can defeat them, and in jjk the villains are so strong that no one can defeat them), so i'm also going to work off of these two examples.

mha's problem is not that the children are the only ones who can fight the big bads, it's that we don't get to see proof that the kids are actually stronger than the adults. sure there's evidence of adults fighting the villains and losing vs the kids fighting the villains and winning, but there's no setup for like a mentor/mentee moment of the mentee finally besting their mentor and us the audience getting to see that they're finally stronger. in fact it's... typically the opposite.

mha shows us multiple times that even the strongest characters in the main cast of kids are not stronger than, say, kids who are two years older than them or their teachers, let alone the best and strongest professional heroes in the verse. and that's not a power scaling issue, that's a storytelling issue. because you can set up stories where kids are stronger than the adults in their verse, and you can write it in a way that makes sense, but mha does not do that.

and of course mha has multiple other storytelling problems, not the least of them being the fact that it set itself up to be one of those "if you believe in yourself and try hard enough you can do anything" stories only to immediately undermine itself by giving the mc the most powerful ability in the verse free of charge, making the entire opening sequence have zero emotional payoff (a problem that continues on and on forever in the anime/manga).

jjk, on the other hand, set itself up to be a story about cycles, about the past repeating itself, about the inevitability of curses and hardship and never learning from past mistakes, but all of that was completely abandoned somewhere in the middle of the shibuya arc and was never touched on again.

all of the main characters in jjk have direct mirrors within the main cast - yuji & geto, fushiguro & gojo, nobara & shoko, maki & toji, nanami & mei mei, the list goes on - and it had the perfect opportunity to either be a story about the inevitability of trauma cycles OR a story about breaking those cycles, but instead half the cast is now dead and it's become a manga that's just about cool-looking fights.

the problem with jjk is not that the villains are too strong/unbeatable (i actually think there could have been merit to making jjk a story where the villains win, but that would have required focusing on the theme of cycles which, again, has unfortunately been lost) - it's just that there's no fucking plot anymore. there's no meat. there's no point. even if the goal of jjk from the beginning was to subvert a lot of typical shonen tropes, it's so so hard to care about that anymore because there's no reason. the plot is gone, the themes have vanished, the emotion is no longer in the room with us, and it has absolutely nothing to do with (im)balances of power within the verse.

but of course this is not a new problem in shonen. it's so incredibly rare for shonen to have a good story that maintains from start to finish in a satisfying arc, and that's almost a staple of the genre now - training arcs and a war arcs and lots of fighting and very little actual substance. the ones that do have it are gold mines. but again, this is not a new problem and it's not a new conversation, and i don't think it's the heart of why that girl posted that video or why all those people agree with her.

i truly think the actual reason this conversation is happening is because there's a new set of people who have recently turned twenty-something and are realizing that they don't identify with shonen protagonists anymore because they're no longer teenagers. and i think those people are upset that the characters/stories aren't aging with them and are finally looking at all the shows they like and are realizing that they're constructed around a trope of, essentially, child soldiers fighting battles that the adults in their verses cannot. and these people are realizing that they maybe don't like that anymore.

because when you're a teenager, shonen is escapism or a power fantasy or both. it's more relatable because it's made for that age group. but when you're an adult you start going "hey... where are these kids' parents?" because you realize that it's unfair and unreasonable in real life to put so much pressure on literal children. (i always think of that post that went around tumblr a few years ago that was a gif of this character in a tv show saying something like "i'm 13. i'm practically an adult." - bc when you're a 10 year old watching that, you go Yeah That's Right She's So Old, but when you're 30 watching that, you're just internally groaning because you have been a full legal adult for this child's entire life and they're barely older than a baby to you).

but of course shonen (and YA lit and superhero cartoons/comics and the list goes on) is not meant to be "realistic."

but just because it's not crafted as realism doesn't mean it shouldn't have story elements or themes that can reflect reality and/or be applied to real life. it also doesn't mean it can't have a fucking plot SKJDBVJKDVB

[errorkey]

i have no idea what's going on with My Stand-In but everyone on my dash is blogging about it, so every time an episode drops i get more and more confused by the things i'm seeing