#genuinely think they would. heal each other AND make each other worse

[bizlybebo]

thoughts on birdbolt/women in stem (jay x ensa) smiles normally

BIRDBOLLTTTTTTT. I FUCK WITH THEIR WHOLE STEAMPUNK/INVENTOR AESTHETIC SOOO HARDDD. GODDD IM SUCH A SUCKER FOR EVERY WLW SHIP

[hairmetal666]

Eddie's supposed to be writing. The guys, they all agreed they'd each come to practice armed with two whole new songs they could pick from to add to their set list at the Hideout. And he's got his pen, and he's got his most recent trusty Composition Book, and all his lyrics are fucking bullshit about golden tanned skin and honeyed eyes and tracing constellations in freckles and moles, pathetic lines about being twisted in bed sheets, and the hopeless love he found himself in.

For the fifth time in an hour, he rips out the offending page, crunches it into a tight ball, and throws it across the room.

He can't write about Steve Harrington for the rest of his life; spend his nights aching for the boy who established himself as a fixture in Eddie's life and then just disappeared.

The worst of it--the very worst--is that Eddie knew better. Steve was never his, not in any real way, no matter how many times they fucked. He's Steve Harrington. Straightest guy in Hawkins. Popular. Rich. Whole fucking life laid out for him on a silver platter. And Eddie fell for him. It's the Munson curse, he supposes; always wanting what you can't have.

It started the way these things usually do, "got any weed?" and "come back to my place, Harrington" and "I got this stupid job at the mall, meet me there?" and lying "hey, guys, can't make band practice, gotta help Uncle Wayne" and "Munson, I really want--can I kiss you?"

In every other fantasy Eddie's ever had, it ends there. Steve gets his kiss and they never see each other again. But Steve Harrington--he's full of surprises. It catches Eddie off guard, makes him want, makes him trust. Because it's not just kisses. It's hands and mouths and "anything you want, Eddie. Let me make you feel good."

Maybe it wouldn't have hit so hard--maybe Eddie could've stopped from falling--if Steve hadn't been so good. Bitchy, sure, but genuine and kind. Had this whole gaggle of junior high kids he babysat, like what the fuck. Would hang out with Wayne and shoot the shit about whatever sports nonsense was on tv. Harrington never was as mean, as spoiled, as superficial as Eddie suspected.

Then Starcourt. That's when it all changes. Steve stops coming around then, in the aftermath. It hurts, but Eddie tells himself it's for the best. Now, he knows it would have been.

Two weeks with no contact, and Steve shows up at his door in the middle of the night. Eddie winces at the healing bruises and cuts on his face, can't imagine how much worse they were to start. He steps aside, lets Steve in, plans to say that he can't be whatever they are anymore.

Steve kisses him. It's a hot, needy thing, wild with teeth and tongue, nothing like before. Eddie is helpless to it, helpless to the way Steve grinds against him, already hard. He should slow it down, check-in that Steve is in the right headspace for this, but Steve is moaning low in his throat and Eddie can't think.

They're in Eddie's bed and Steve says, "fuck me, Eddie?" and Eddie says "are you sure" because he can't stop himself. Steve rolls his eyes (beautifuly bitchy), says, "I need to feel you inside me, baby."

How can Eddie say no?

Eddie's never done this before, but it doesn't matter. It's everything--Steve is everything--he could ask for.

The next morning, he expects Steve to be gone. Thinks they'll never see each other again. But he finds Steve in the kitchen, in his boxers and Eddie's Iron Maiden shirt, making eggs and talking to Wayne like it's the most normal thing in the world.

The next month and a half are the best of Eddie's life. He and Steve spend more time together than they do apart. Nights at Eddie's trailer, in Eddie's bed. Days lounging at the Harrington pool and driving around the nothing that surrounds Hawkins. Sometimes they'll stop in the middle of nowhere, climb on top of the van, and just--be. Steve takes his shirt off, and Eddie traces their names in the sun-soaked freckles, thinking maybe he really gets to have this, have Steve.

It ends as quickly as it started. One morning in September, Steve is cupping Eddie's neck, pulling him in for a goodbye kiss, saying, "sorry, baby, gotta get home for my parents. I'll see you later tonight, yeah?"

Except Eddie doesn't. Eddie doesn't see Steve that night, or the night after, or the night after that. He stops coming around and all Eddie is left with is a broken heart and these piss poor excuses for songs.

He rips out the latest page, waxing lyrical about the wonders of August, and time slipping away, and the boy he'll never forget. Crumples it into a ball and bats it into a pile of junk accumulated in the corner of his room.

Eddie needs a break.

He flies into the living room, snatches up his keys from the floor by the coffee table, and flees his house and all those memories of Steve. It's not like he has anywhere specific to go, so he drives around town, with his windows down and his music up.

His tires screech as he rounds the corner to the video store and arcade. He's not planning on stopping, but honestly, maybe a few rounds of Space Invaders is exactly what he needs.

The van hasn't even come to a stop in the parking spot when his eyes fall on Steve Harrington. He's standing in the middle of the parking lot surrounded by a gang of kids (including some of Eddie's new little sheepies) and Robin Buckley. Steve wears a sunny yellow sweatshirt, tight jeans, and his hair is perfectly coifed, falling in an elegant wave. His hands are on his hips, mouth and brows pinched stern. He's gorgeous, perfect.

It's an assault, an attack, Eddie's entire body shakes as the months they spent together crash over him. He has the van in reverse before he consciously thinks to do so, flooring it out of the space hard enough to burn rubber.

The noise, the speed, it draws the entire group's attention to him.

His eyes meet Steve's.

Time stops and so does he, idling in the middle of the parking lot. For a second, one moment in time, Steve's face falls. His mouth loses that grumpy pinch, his eyebrows drop, his beauty transformed by grief, by fucking longing.

Steve takes a step forward, and Eddie hits the gas, van screaming out of the parking lot. He watches the group shrink in his rearview mirror, sure that he imagined the sorrow in Steve's face, anyway.

They're nothing to each other.

Never were.

By popular request: Part Two

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

whenever i say that a character needs therapy and healing before they start a relationship, people jump at my throat and assume that i'm saying that people with mental health issues shouldn't date at all or that they're not deserving of love.

folks. i have bipolar type 2. i'm also a psychology major. trust me when i say that i never said people with mental health issues shouldn't date at all.

i just think that it's a lot healthier to get into a committed relationship once you've started therapy and/or medication. no one is stopping you from getting into a relationship before that, but there is a higher chance of the relationship turning unhealthy and/or complicated. not just for your partner but for yourself as well.

and there are other relationships that people can and should focus on. i would never recommend an individual completely isolate themselves because they're mentally ill. that's the opposite of effective, it will only worsen your mental health.

romantic relationships aren't the only form of love. and when a person focuses solely on their romantic relationship, pushing aside their familial and platonic relationships, there's a higher chance of the person becoming overly dependent on their partner, which can again be unhealthy.

and keep in mind, my criticism is also more from a fictional perspective. stories that ignore a character's trauma and just give them a romantic partner aren't trying to tell you that people with mental health issues deserve love too, they're trying to brush the character's trauma under the rug and hoping that you won't notice.

a lot of these writers seem to genuinely think that romance will “cure” a character, and that's such a harmful mindset because it discourages people from seeking professional help. it's the same logic as thinking that birthing a child will solve relationship problems between a couple - that's just not how it works.

and in cases like catra, it's even worse because catra is not just dating anyone, she's dating the same person she has abused since childhood. this is destructive for both of them, not just adora. we have to realize that toxicity often stems from some kind of trauma (though not always) and it's not ableist to say that an abuser shouldn't be dating their victim.

one good example of a relationship involving a victim of trauma, in my opinion, is steven and connie from steven universe.

steven universe future focuses entirely on steven's deteriorating mental health, caused by all the trauma he endured in the original series. but in the end, after experiencing a mental breakdown, he actually seeks professional help before beginning to date connie.

it must also be mentioned that their relationship had great development since their friendship was already quite healthy and mutually supportive, and connie has been with steven through all his highs and lows. and so, it doesn't feel like this relationship came out of nowhere, just so that steven gets a happy ending.

it's a satisfying conclusion to both of their arcs and even better because they're allowed to stay away from each other and pursue their own goals while still being in a relationship, meaning that there won't be the risk of them becoming codependent.

this is all that i'm asking writers do with their characters with mental health issues/trauma. you can give them a romantic partner, just make sure you address their personal problems too, instead of brushing them under the rug.

[mayxo-hxh]

okay 2 questions....

do you think its more likely that illumi kills hisoka or hisoka kills illumi and how do you think it will go down?

what would you WANT to happen with one of their actual deaths?

You're not really going to like my answer here because it completely negates both questions.

I don't think either of them will die or kill each other.

I think it's natural to think so considering the current setting of the arc and what was revealed and their characters, but how I see it, their relationship has proven to be very nonsituational. As in, they aren't really hanging out and helping each other just because they happen to need each other here and there. They hang out and help each other because they unironically see each other as friends.

Illumi had no reason to help Hisoka out in the hunter exam, yet he did anyways. And they stayed together most of the time. Illumi had no reason to help Hisoka out during the yorknew dilemma, yet he did anyways. It's not even in his area of work to just disguise as people for a few hours before leaving. He's an assassin. Hisoka didn't have to help Illumi out during the election arc, Illumi was more than capable of finishing this entire mission alone. And yet he did anyways.

Goes without saying that Hisoka constantly calls Illumi his friend behind his back and also did so in front of him, and Illumi made no move to correct him.

So I can't really imagine, with all this said and done, that they'd actually have a reason to hunt and kill each other on the black whale. I understand the doubts with the stuff Illumi said in their marriage chapter but im still much more inclined to believe theyre working together against the troupe, as that would make much more sense. They've done nothing but work together against everyone in the entire anime and both Illumi and Kalluto worked against the troupe with Hisoka in yorknew after all.

I also feel like this is a general Hisoka misconception but-- Hisoka doesn't want to die. I feel like people think he hired Illumi to "hunt him down" because he wants Illumi to actually kill him and I have to disagree. Yes, it does speak volumes about what Hisoka thinks of Illumi, as in he truly is capable of killing him because theyre equals. But does Hisoka actually want Illumi to kill him right now? Negative.

Some people even say Hisoka has always wanted to go out in a huge fight or whatever-- I genuinely have no idea where tf they get that from lol. Hisoka brought himself back to life for a reason. He wants to live. He never planned on dying against Chrollo. He never ever plans on dying against people he fights. If Illumi and Hisoka were to ever truly fight, Hisoka would never let Illumi kill him without giving it his all. He WILL fight for his life.

And the same goes for Illumi. Illumi doesn't want to die and has no reason to want to actually die by Hisoka's hand. He has duties and responsibilities as a Zoldyck eldest and he's not going to throw it away in the name of... twisted love? lol

And I think lots of people find all of this hard to believe because theyre very used to villains getting bad endings or getting "what they deserve" in anime which is completely fair but let me, no, ALLOW ME to point you to one of my favorite villain groups in hxh that had a good ending despite being complete pieces of shit that would've deserved worse than death.

Genthru and the bomber team.

Genuine shitty people that scammed lied massacred people. They only cared about each other a lot but saw everyone else around them as lower than useless scum. They would've deserved to be left for dead. And yet, what happened? They were healed and they lived. They went on with their lives. Togashi could've very much made Gon just kill genthru to show how powerful he is and his sense of justice blablabla but that just isn't what the anime is about. Everyone in hxh is morally grey. At the end of the day Gon, Killua, and Bisky just wanted the cards from genthru and his friends and moved on.

A lot of people fail to realize this when it also comes to Hisoka and Illumi. They can just get a good ending like that. Do they deserve it? No. Does it matter whether they deserve it or not? Nope! This is hunter x hunter. And as far as I see it, its an anime about the power of platonic and romantic love. And Hisoillu are a specific type of love that is going to get a happy ending despite not even remotely deserving it. We got the meruem and komugi sad love ending. And we're getting the gay version of it except theyre unredeemable and horrible and they still get to be happy. Those are my thoughts.

Also in general I just genuinely cannot see Togashi continuing the anime without his favorite babygirl Hisoka being alive. Like even when he killed him off he revived him like 2 pages later in the same chapter he can't stand the idea of even letting his death marinate for a single chapter lmfaoooooooooo

[bayfuzzball7050]

My favourite jjba character(s) from each part bc I know it will be more appreciated here than in a Reddit thread

I’ll use this header from now on to yap

Phantom Blood: Speedwagon. Regardless if it’s a whole meme in the community, o genuinely think it’s very brave of him to follow along in an adventure where everyone has powers but he doesn’t. He just raw dog’s every supernatural event and tries his best to be useful. It’s a noble thing.

Battle Tendency: Definitely Caesar Zeppeli. A much more complex and interesting character than his predecessor (William Zeppeli, I mean). I loved his design, personality and charisma regardless if I couldn’t resonate at all with his backstory. I also really enjoyed his rivalry/friendship with Joseph. I’ve always loved the smart/snarky guy x himbo dynamic!

Stardust Crusaders: I love kakyoin with all my heart and soul and I will never shut up about it. I resonated deeply with him since I know personally what it is like to be alone. I like how Araki portrayed his loneliness in a ‘im different than everyone I know’ way where he couldn’t relate to people the way others that. That childhood monologue— god! It hit so, so close to home. I couldn’t help but cry when the scene came up. That is when I realized how much the crusaders mattered to him. A bunch of people ‘like him’ and it’s such a sacred feeling when you’ve been feeling ‘off’ all your life. I also like that he’s always giving little fun facts he’s a bit like yapdollar

Diamond Is Unbreakable: Okuyasu. No question needed. Unlike his brother, Okuyasu is a very kind soul that has never killed anyone (at least on screen) even when he has endured so much abuse from his brother and father alike, something that would ‘justify it’ if he did became an evil character. He stopped looking for a way to kill his father because he can see the good in people and ‘accept them for who they are’. I can’t help but feel a deep sympathy for him. He had taken what his brother had told him about being better off dead so personally to the point where his first question after being healed by Josuke was (paraphrasing bc I don’t remember well) was something like “why did you save me when it would’ve been easier to let me die?”. Josuke came just in time to make him realize how much he actually mattered so he could evolve into the little goofball we all know and love.

Golden Wind: Giorno. I think most people who call him a ‘boring’ or ‘plain’ character often seem to forget that, of course, Giorno will not be a charismatic, sociable, talkative, — joseph — kind of guy. He was severely emotionally and physically neglected in his childhood to the point where showing emotions became useless since he knew he’d be left shaking in his craddle. From this emotional neglect, he started looking up at a gangster as some sort of parental figure. Someone who showed him basic human decency. Later, we get to see his ingenuity in battle. But I think one of the reasons he was so clever in life or death situations was because he has been in a ‘fight or flight’ mode since a very young age. He isn’t even ‘bottling up’ his emotions, he had repressed them deeply inside his brain to survive.

Stone Ocean: The main three. But mainly Foo Fighters bc they’re so silly >_< and I can’t begin to imagine how marvellous it has to be to, one day, become a sentient being

Steel Ball Run: I can’t quite decide between Gyro and Johnny tbh. Johnny is a character who had been always pampered with his ‘rich life’ and was then shocked with the fact that once you’re not useful, or worse, become inconvenient for people, they stop caring about you. I often think about how bad his father was with him, not only rubbing Nicholas’ death all over his face rather often, the whole “God, you took the wrong son” page or just how he never went by to visit him when he had just gotten crippled. It was just plain cruel. Also when they followed Hot Pants to a church and Johnny had to relive some of his most traumatic life experiences again and still try to win. It was one of the best arcs in sbr imo.

Gyro, on another note, wasn’t a son of a wealthy family but had to carry the weight of generations and generations of knowledge on top of the family profession on his shoulders, having to execute a child. He’s also a silly goofball with his jokes that make little to no sense and him trying to explain the spin to johnny in life or death situations always has me cackling up ngl.

Jojolion: I haven’t started to read JOJOLION, but from what I’ve seen, Gappy seems to be a silly goofball who lacks direction and I love that in a man. Also that he’s a 2 x 1 combo, literally.

Jojolands: I haven’t read jojolands either, but good lord they sold me Dragona and Paco when I heard ‘transgender’ and ‘laburantes’. Plus everyone from the Jodio team also seems to be lacking direction and being a pinch silly

[fuedalreesespieces]

Inuyasha x Kikyo, Sesshomaru x Kagura

getting my rating out of the way: TWO OUT OF TEN BABYYYY!

here's the thing - i think inukik's dynamic is interesting because of the restraint. the distance between them despite their perceived kinship. souls brought together because, in kikyo's words, they both know loneliness.

but that isn't really true. inuyasha is alone, kikyo is lonely, and it's this disconnect that makes them incompatible. on the surface, they share many traits that stem from similar issues. both are distrustful, both have to hide their "true selves" under masks of either prickly disdain or stone-cold apathy. and the deal they make about the shikon jewel is really where it clicked for me how much they just don't work, because before kikyo can get to know the real inuyasha, beyond pre-conceived notions, he has to strip away a part of himself. he has to become human. and a huge, huge reason as to why inuyasha is the way he is is because he's a hanyou. who will he be after a transformation like that?

inukik shippers like to prattle on about how inuyasha and kikyo are super tragic and deserved better, but can we actually think about what that means? what would their relationship be like if things had gone according to plan? you have inuyasha, whose just given away a crucial part of himself, simultaneously tentatively happy to start a life with someone but also completely lost because he doesn't know how to be a lover, how to be a husband, hell, he barely knows how to be a friend - is that what they once were? friends? he doesn't know how to adjust to humans who would have once shouted and thrown things at him. he feels the fleshy things around his ears and wonders how he can still possibly feel deaf when he has them. he hates how he can't see his own hands in the dark. he hates the unspeakable and unexplainable human aches.

and kikyo is free. she still heals people, of course, but she no longer has to deal with the burden of the shikon jewel. and now she has a companion to share it all with. he's always so frustrated, and she can't understand why beyond the fact that he's a little weaker now. they're so careful with each other, too. they didn't know how to hug or hold hands or touch when they were meeting alone back then, so they don't know how to kiss, either, as husband and wife.

i can't see them fighting. i can't see them bickering or having a playful spat and that, to me, is a problem. one of the reasons why i love inukag so much is that we see them fight all the time, but they always come back stronger regardless. their feelings don't waver. and because of the honesty in their arguments, they learn each other's tells and ticks. the small details. they aren't afraid to get into a debate, because their love is strong enough to withstand it.

when i think of inukik, i think of walking on a wire.

besides all this conceptual stuff, we do get inukik in the show, after her forced resurrection. and this is where you totally lose me. any potential interest i could have had (and there was none to begin with) goes down the drain with lines like, "your life is mine." no. NO.

genuinely she made his survivor's guilt so much worse by reinforcing his negative line of thinking. and then at the end when he's holding her dying body, lamenting that he couldn't do more for her, she's like, "it's okay. you came." THATS WHAT HES BEEN DOING THIS WHOLE TIME??? no. no. this is too irritating lmao

i don't hate kikyo (most of the time) i just think a) inuyasha deserves better b) they are nooot compatible. also, most inukik shippers i've met turned me off from the ship even more.

anyway inukag and kagkik are a thousand times more compelling >>>

rating: 10/10 no notes

okay, but genuinely, i love sesskagu. i don't talk about them a lot, but they really are one of the more interesting pairings imo. opposites in many ways, but also very similar. sesshomaru, so certain of whom he is, and kagura, still trying to recover her body and identity for herself. sesshomaru, who travels the lands at his own pace, and kagura, who wishes to be free as the wind. sesshomaru and rin, kagura and kohaku. both haughty and powerful, but with contrasting personalities. wouldn't hurt to give sesshomaru someone (who would bully him) to banter with either.

also, i have a super specific headcanon of kagura teaching rin wind magic....i just need more rin and kagura interactions please im begging.

anyway 10/10. sesskagu sepremacy.

[sapphicideas]

kind of a vent and you can just ignore this if you want. I’m a college age bi tgirl who’s been having a bit of a rough time of it. I’ve done my best to be picky but it feels like all the worst people just throw themselves at me. From emotionally manipulative girl, to boy who blatantly cheated on me when I didn’t want to have sex right away, another girl who after I turned her down decided to try to rape me, just to name a few. Every time I feel like it’ll be different, like I’ve sifted through and found someone who is genuine and then I just get fucked over again. Either they only want me for my body to fill their fetish, or the leave once they find out about it thinking I’m gross, or they just want to try and manipulate me and get upset when I try to stand up for myself, or maybe I’m just a novelty and they get bored and leave. It just kind of feels like at this point this is just what I deserve I guess. I don’t know where I’m going with this I think I just wanted to try and get it out of my system. It’s just exhausting feeling like no matter what I do I always get fucked over.

first of all, i want to say that i am extremely sorry you're going through that. college alone is extremely stressful and situations like this just make that even worse.

you don't deserve any of this. i know it might feel like you do because after enduring so much of this bad stuff, our mind starts to believe that no matter what we do, it won't make a difference. it's like our brain just gives up on trying to fight it and just learns to accept it, instead of realizing the situation could change. bad coping mechanisms are probably feeding this negative thinking pattern too, so it's very important for you to start working on your self esteem and the way you deal with these kinds of situations. if you don't, it will eat you alive.

each time you experience that kind of self doubt, i want you to immediately shut down that negative thought and replace it with a question instead. something like 'assuming it's not my fault, what other explanation could this have?' for example, in your case you said 'i guess it's just what i deserve' which is wrong. i want you to ask yourself that question and realize that you are not at fault. the answer should be 'this person overstepped my boundaries, made me feel bad and hurt me. but i'm not at fault, i can't control other people's actions'. remember, you can only control how you react to the attack itself. if you still don't fully believe that, think about it as if it was a friend or even a complete stranger. blaming someone for getting hurt or used doesn't sound nice, does it? i'm sure you would never do that. so why would you do that to yourself?

you need to treat yourself the way you'd treat someone else, have some self compassion. you don't deserve anything bad, and you're not stupid for not realizing someone's intentions beforehand. people can be really manipulative, and that's not your fault. it's okay to feel hurt, and it's okay to realize someone didn't have good intentions with you. none of that reflects your true worth. you're not less human for not being able to anticipate someone's deceiving behavior. believe me, it's hard for everyone, even for me. and i'd say i'm pretty good at reading people.

i like that you're being picky, i want you to keep having hope. even if that means stepping away from the dating scene for a bit. focus on healing first. keeping that hope intact is what matters the most, not giving someone a chance just because 'they're nice' or 'i think they're treating me okay'. set boundaries, step by step. and don't give up, you're so strong, pretty girl. if you have to stop talking to someone who makes you feel bad, do it. it might hurt in the moment, but in 2 years you won't ever remember their name, i can assure you that.

you don’t have to have it all figured out today or tomorrow, maybe not even next month. it takes so long to unlearn bad habits, even longer than it takes to learn new ones.

sorry it took me this long to reply, i completely missed this ask. and i'm sorry for the actual bible that this response has been, my god. but i figured that if you didn't come back with another ask, i'd just lay the whole thing out there. stay strong, you're loved and worthy of respect. that's the bare minimum, take care princess

[norsevvy]

BRIGHTWELL

i Cannot stop thinking about how brightwell has The most unconventional relationship dynamic that i think i've ever seen in a show. they're both So fucked up (in different ways, but the result is similar), bad at everything relationship-wise (even just friendships), and are just so Odd. it's such a refreshing take from the usual "Deeply Traumatised person a is healed and helped by Healthy And Untouched person b", since BOTH of them are fucked up

i love how it's seems like dani is worse at relationships, and it's hinted that she's had pretty terrible exes, and clearly has a wide array of trust issues. i really love that bright, who by all means is More off-putting than she is, is shown to be better at relationships and is able to handle them better than she is. it's so interesting to see their version of friendship, where dani drives him home and makes sure he's as safe as he'll let himself be, and where bright brings her little gifts and backs her up, all while quietly and slowly allowing her to see more of him

it's also just so clear that dani Likes him, even from the beginning. she's roped into all of his Hauntedness super early on, and gets to see firsthand, almost immediately, how messed up he is. the pilot episode shows him nearly dying twice, with dani being the first person to get to him and ask if he's okay. then there's her calling out jt for being a dick in early s1, and her driving him home, babysitting him, being on bright duty pretty much all the time...idk i just love how it's so painfully obvious that she likes him, and how she shows that through a lot of very little things that add up super quickly

bright's accidental sincerity is also something that Gets me BAHAHA him calling dani beautiful and complimenting her, all while he isn't realising that he's doing it is RUAUGH MAN IT'S SO FUN TO SEE!!! him effortlessly complimenting her because it's just True in his head is genuinely so sweet, and i love seeing him say something and then be completely confused when dani starts smiling at him

i really can't see them having a "traditional" sort of relationship, which i LIKE A LOT BAHAHA I LOVE HOW FUCKING WEIRD THEY ARE!!! i can't see them being overly physically affectionate, calling each other pet names, or really just doing Anything more than they did on-screen. i feel like their romantic relationship would be very subtle and lowkey, and that's such a different dynamic than what i usually see, and i LIKE IT A WHOLE LOT!! them both being painfully bad at relationships and being in an unconventional kind of relationship themselves is just so cool to me and i wish we got to see more of that

they just have such an interesting dynamic, and they had that dynamic throughout the whole show. i'm MISERABLE that prodigal son was cancelled for like a million reasons, but i'm DEVASTATED that we didn't get to see their weird, strange, deeply unconventional relationship unfold, because it would have been So fucking cool to see that untraditional relationship dynamic play out

[zorria]

Thanks to an amazing conversation I had with @librathefangirl all I can think about is Meliodas and zeldris learning how to navigate their relationship as brothers and healing through it LIKE GAHHHHHHHHHH

Like Meliodas learning how to be a good big brother to zeldris and understand that zeldris doesn’t hate him and loves him and zeldris having to learn how to trust Mel again and learn that Mel won’t leave him again ITS CRAZY

I definitely think Mel was a little bit clingy at first when they first started hanging out because he was so scared he would lose zel again and he didn’t want that and he’s also of doing something that would make zeldris hate him

I could just imagine like one time Mel just kept talking zels ear off like a loving but annoying older brother would and zel just gets annoyed and snaps back “god you’re so annoying I wish you would just stop talking to me” and thinking that Meliodas would clap back jokingly like he usually would zeldris just kept walking and waiting for Mel’s response but he doesn’t hear anything and he realizes Mel isn’t behind him anymore so he turns around and sees Mel just standing there mumbling

He can’t quite hear what he’s saying but it does worry him especially with the lifeless look in Mel’s eyes so he quickly walks back towards Mel. When he gets closer he can actually hear what Mel is mumbling and all her hears is “he hates me he hates me he hates me” it takes a moment for zel to realize why Mel was saying that and when he does he instantly feels horrible not realizing what he said hurt his big brother.

So he gently wraps his darkness around Mel not in a tight way that he feels trapped but in a way that’s comforting and gets Mel’s attention which it does. Because as soon as he does Mel’s head instantly pops up

He just stares blankly at zel for a good minute which worries zel even more but he doesn’t say anything cause as soon as Mel processes who it is he lets out a quiet “z-zel…” and zeldris just smiles sadly at him before saying “hi”

And Meliodas just looks around confused because he swore he thought he saw zeldris walking away. “You didn’t leave?” Which instantly shatters zels hearts making him feel even worse because he didn’t realize how much that affected Meliodas.

“No I didn’t leave I promise” “you’re not mad at me??” “No I’m sorry I didn’t mean to say it like that I just meant you were annoying me but that doesn’t mean I hate you. I promise I still love you and you’re still my older brother.” And carefully leans in to hug Meliodas who takes a min to process what zeldris said before slowly hugging him back.

“I’m sorry” Zeldris whispered back into his brothers ear making sure he knew he actually was being genuine. “It’s okay I’m sorry for doubting you.” The older demon whispered back as he wrapped his arms around his younger brother happy to feel his presence and heart beats against him.

“It’s my fault I should’ve been more careful about what I said I’ll try and be more clear next time okay?” “Okay” and the two just sit there holding each other for a little bit longer until they are ready to move

And as for zeldris he definitely doesn’t open up to Mel right away because he’s so scared he’ll see those cold uncaring eyes again and he worries Mel will just leave him again if he finally does open up to him.

But Meliodas can tell when something is wrong but he doesn’t push zeldris to talk if he doesn’t want to. They usually just sit next to each other with zeldris kinda leaning against him but not fully worried if he fully commits it will all just be a dream and Mel will walk away from him.

Mel definitely notices but doesn’t comment as much a he wants to have zeldris lean against him and tell him what’s wrong he won’t push him for fear he’ll drive Zeldris away so he just waits.

It doesn’t happen right away and often than not they just sit next to each other in silence but it’s a comfortable silence. But Zeldris still worries so he doesn’t say anything.

It takes a bit for him to come out of his shell and even than he doesn’t fully open up right away it’s slowly more just letting himself be held by Mel and Mel will ask if he wants to talk about whatever’s wrong but Zeldris usually says no but still leans into Mel but doesn’t look him in the eyes still anxious and scared he’ll see his old “old” brother who left him. But he doesn’t say anything and Mel doesn’t ask just sits and waits.

Until eventually Zeldris does start to open up fully open and slowly starts to make eye contact with Mel but never for long. But it’s a start and Mel’s happy about it. He’ll always waitUntil zeldris is finished before giving his opinion or chooses to say nothing. Which Zeldris accepts.

It’s a start and it’s not perfect but it works for them. And that’s enough

[ofieloafi]

for some reason I decided to do a solo md run with and max out every single rodya id this month 😎

also threadspun all her egos to max as well

she's so cool I wish I was like her

some observations for each id I gathered in my time playing:

Base: she's surprisingly durable, though even that hardly makes up for her awful rolls. Also her attack sprites are super weird like

what kind of angle are you hitting at girl. Are you trying to kill some random bug on the ground? I feel like she has the worst attack sprites out of all the base ids, though them making her look like she's swinging kind of recklessly and with no practice might be fitting to her character?

Kurokumo: Surprisingly good for a release id. I think it'd be fun if her s3 had attack weight. She doesn't look all that kurokumo with her coat lacking the cloud texture and her having no visible tattoos outside the one on her breat.

LCCB: A very interesting concept that while good for its niche isn't something really relevant to the game. Like she would be really good if the game went in a direction where defense skills were a genuine threat outside of a few counters and evades being annoying. Other than that her blunt synergy is cool but greatly limits her.

Ncorp: Love how messy she looks. Also weird how in each of her "evil" identities (Ncorp, Tcorp, Princess) she mentions refusing to eat. She's okay, probably decent in a full Ncorp team. I don't have much to say besides she looks really cool and hot.

Rosespanner: the first good id she got that still holds up pretty good despite her clashes being somewhat mediocre. Synergizes really well with her effervescent corrosion ego and its passive.

Zwei: Probably my favourite 00 id. The concept of turning poise count into shield is so interesting, and makes her quite a decent meatshield. Other than that though she doesn't have much going for her and she barely has any synergy with the other good zwei identities.

Dieci: I don't really need to say anything. It's dieci rodya. I think she's strong in kind of a boring way

Liu: She's cool. Love using her passive in teams to get big wrath absolute resonances going, though the condition of everyone being burned is harder to achieve in chain battles.

Tcorp: got an absolute ass run with her and barely got any tremor gifts before the end. She's okay. Good clashes and tremor application but not a lot of bursts.

Devyat: She's just strong and fun. Really good for solos with the free shield she gains and her incredible damage potential. Also I just love the concept of a weird bag that has limbs and things that come out of it. That's just cool.

Princess: Clashable counters make regular encounters super easy in solos. A bit worse for them than the other bloodfiend ids since her healing is tied to her passive and not her abilities, but once she gets going she's really good. Also using an umbrella as a weapon is just really cool. Also unrelated but when she was released people were being so boringly horny for her, like this is Rodya, she's had her tits out since launch and now you notice them? Also her uptied art is way hotter anyway.

I don't have much to say for egos since most of them are pretty straightforwards.

don't use pursuance in solos since the additional effects are ally only as far as I've tried.

I hope she gets a negative sp id some day to benefit from the passive of what is cast and to make the awakening of 4th match flame more powerful.

hope she gets a charge id some day so she can have some relevance in any team (rosespanner is too dependant on tremor to really count)

maybe a sweeper id with the backstreets intervallo cause they eat people and rodya is a hungry girl.

idk

[shipping-receiving]

Making sense of the “childhood connection” in Love Scout

The Episode 9 preview has pretty much confirmed that Jiyun’s father died saving Eunho – a plot point that I foresaw but have been dreading. Beyond the fundamental improbability of these two people being connected in this way, I was of the position that Jiyun holds too much resentment towards her father to be satisfyingly resolved in so few episodes. However, since the writing and characterisation thus far has been so thoughtful, I wanted to try approaching this not as something to forgive/ignore in the show, but rather something that might make sense for character growth and healing. That is, I think it’s worth considering this childhood connection beyond ‘trope for the sake of trope’, and instead delve more deeply into its potential narrative function.

In Jiyun’s mind, she has judged her father to be a “bad father”; a “liar” for telling her he’d always be by her side, and then making a choice that resulted in his death. This one-dimensional villainisation of her father makes it easier for her to deal with this perceived abandonment – by minimising him and his value to her, she reduces the magnitude of his loss, and therefore of her own grief. Without any form of destabilisation of this narrative she has constructed, she could probably have gone the rest of her life without truly processing his death. Even Eunho – in a scenario where he was not directly involved in the fire – might not have been able to encourage her to forgive her father, certainly not in the foreseeable future. Given his personality, he would not have pushed her too hard (“even being asked questions might be hurtful”); he might have even accepted her version of events, since he’ll “always let her win”.

Therefore, within the time limitations of a 12-episode drama and considering the typical melo tropes, I can understand why this route was chosen to force Jiyun to face her past and reframe her own characterisation of her father – just as Eunho caused her to reevaluate her assumption that “feeling lonely was a luxury”, which she had accepted as truth. In order for this plot point to land for me, though, it needs to go beyond the simple rewriting of Jiyun’s father’s death as a noble sacrifice, just so that Eunho could live and come into her life. It certainly cannot be as cynical as ‘what if you met someone who was perfect in every way but one’ – that he is the ‘cause’ of the hardships she suffered in childhood. Even worse would be Jiyun staying with Eunho ‘in spite of’ this revelation, rather than genuinely working through her trauma. I am hoping that the show will tackle the complexity of Jiyun’s grief, and also that of Eunho’s survivor’s guilt, and I wonder if the writer found a way to interweave this with the Career Way/investor plotline (at least beyond ‘we have to put aside our pain and support each other through this unrelated conflict’).

I will say that I would not be surprised if Jiyun pushes Eunho away in the first instance. It’s understandable for her to need space, and especially to default to her solitude. My prediction is that she will bury herself in her work again – after all, perfectionism is a coping mechanism that she (as well as Eunho) developed to deal with her traumatic past – and overwork herself to yet another breaking point that will require her to be hospitalised. (The pressure being put on her brain is likely caused not just by stress from her work, but also the repression of her grief in response to the loss of both her father and her former mentor at Career Way.) This will give Eunho room to step into a caretaking role that she will not be able to avoid, and hopefully open the door for honest communication. As much as they want to be considerate of and avoid hurting each other, they will have to cause each other pain to get through this.

[loganofthenorth]

Ight Folks. Know what time it is?

Catra in my Shera Swap AU, that’s what time it is.

(For those that don’t know I’m making a Shera Swap AU where Catra joined the Princess Alliance and became Shera instead of Adora. I’m designing the characters in Hero Forge since I can’t draw.)

Anywho here’s Catra

(Full body versions and more info under the cut. Warning for spoilers in case I write this as a story.)

So in this AU, Catra discovers the sword and is chosen by it. Basically Light Hope was originally looking for Adora, but determined that she wouldn’t be able to activate the weapon when the time came. So instead she chose Catra.

At first Catra, like Adora, looks a lot like she did in cannon:

(Forgot to give her freckles in the full body pictures but you can see them in the zoomed in face one. Also gave her more accurate hair in that one..)

But as time goes on, Catra is taking better care of herself. She learns proper hair care for her hair type, wears better quality clothing, eats better quality food, etc. This, along with a healthier personality due to healing from trauma, changes her appearance as years go by.

Still has ripped jeans though cause she’s very physically active.

Probably would have scrapes on her knees and elbows honestly.

After joining the Princess Alliance, Catra is basically adopted by Castapella and lives in Bright Moon.

Scorpia is the Princess of a nearby Kingdom and visits regularly since she was the one to bring Catra to Bright Moon (and she has no other friends)

Catra is personally offended that Scorpia has no friends so they go visit the other members of the Princess Alliance under the guise of Catra needing to meet everyone. (Really Catra’s mission is to make them respect Scorpia because she doesn’t expect to be accepted by the Princesses herself.)

Catra is very confused when the Princesses (and Prince in Sea Hawk’s case. More on that later.) accept her and respect her as Shera. She develops an understanding that she’s only accepted because she’s Shera, meaning that whenever Scorpia accepts her regardless of if she can use her powers or not Catra is incredibly confused.

I’m probably going to have a lot of fun writing Catra as a good guy because ‘tsundere Girl Boss that heals and becomes a good person’ is way more fun to write than ‘tsundere girlboss that gets worse and becomes a horrible person but don’t worry she’ll get better later’.

That’s just my opinion.

Also Entrapta becomes her sister when she switches sides and is also adopted into Brightmoon by Castapella. Which is great because I think Catra is the only one that’s actually genuinely nice to Entrapta in the Horde. Entrapta makes sense. She’ll be your friend if you help her with her science stuff. Catra finds Entrapta’s unique mindset refreshing. They also sass each other off a lot due to being very intelligent but in different fields. (Catra is emotionally intelligent but scientifically she has difficulties. Entrapta is the other way around.)

Castapella and Catra bond over their mutual hatred of (and secret desire for approval from) Shadow Weaver

Catra will cry a lot in this AU because she isn’t used to receiving love and acceptance

Every fight with Adora will consist of her trying to convince Adora to switch sides. Whether that be through reason, force, threats, or flirting.

Catra is a gay disaster and will complain about it constantly to anyone that will listen.

Bright Moon’s guards are often turned into her personal sound boards.

Castapella spoils Catra rotten and is very desperate for Catra’s approval. Catra is extremely confused by this until she realizes that Castapella had lost all of her family and friends to the Horde. They form a very strong bond from this and Catra vows to figure out what happened to Bright Moon’s former rulers.

Catra becomes extremely loyal as time goes on. Anyone she deems a friend she refuses to leave behind regardless of the cost. Because of this she will get extremely frustrated whenever she has to choose between two friends.

She’ll start accidentally calling Castapella Shadow Weaver sometimes but Entrapta assures Castapella that it basically means Catra is accidentally calling her Mom.

Catra will proceed to try and murder Entrapta.

Glimmer is the only person on Adora’s team that Catra will actually try to kill. The others she’ll hold hostage but she’s too conflicted to actually kill them. She refuses to hurt Adora but will lash out at her in self defence. When she leaves lasting injuries on her former friends she proceeds to shut down in her room for days and have guilt induced nightmares.

Catra has nightmares very often. Perfuma and Castapella will probably make dream catchers for her to try and prevent them.

Catra and Mermista become great friends. I think she’ll also get along well with Frosta.

Catra will see Sea Hawk as very annoying and complain with him alongside Mermista. However he grows on her and if anyone hurts him she’ll hurt them back. Also she becomes his wingman when she realizes Mermista has a crush on him.

Perfuma and Catra won’t get along at first. It will take a long time, even after she and Scorpia get together, for them to get along. Perfuma will help Catra a lot with healing once they are on good terms, but her attempts to help Catra only aggravate her before then.

Also here’s full body pics of Catra’s Shera Form since I forgot to add that

No I did not have the “Mommy, sorry. Mommy? Sorry…” sound playing in my head while making this and I’m offended you would ask. 😤 /j

I’m also thinking that at some point near the end of the story, Catra turns into some monstrous version of Shera due to a mental breakdown and some fuckery going on with Etheria’s magic. This will probably be what prompts Adora to get her own Shera form so she can help Catra out of that state.

The new Shera form she gets after the weapon is destroyed will be a bit more true to her like Adora’s was, but I haven’t designed it yet. I saved my progress with each of these designs so I’ll probably make more designs for this AU in the future.

I think her outfit in the new Shera Form will have something to represent Scorpia, Entrapta, Castapella, and of course Adora. Maybe she’ll have some red scales in her armour that represent Scorpia, gears and some technical features to represent Entrapta, stars for Castapella, and maybe Adora’s iconic jacket.

I think that’s all the info I have for now. Next up will be Scorpia!

[vrsenus]

When i say i wanted Rapple friendship to end up with Apple working for forgiveness i don’t say it simply to be cruel towards Apple, it just annoys me how apple has done and said many hurtful things yet never truly apologized for any of them or faces consequences if i had to do smt about all her relationships it would be as simple as this.

With briar after thronecoming she ends up with a New friend circle and barely hangs out with Apple, this leaves apple to be confused and hurt they never truly addressed this and are still on good terms. I say this because i think after thronecoming briar would genuinely realize Apple’s toxicity and start distancing herself a bit by the end of DG which will be her full on realization she and briar will finally sit down and talk about it, they end up becoming more closer than before and are willing to heal their fragile relationship.

With Raven after DG raven doesn’t fully forgive or trust her, raven is VERY valid when feeling all of this considering Apple’s betrayal was very hurtful, They do still talk i mean it’s impossible for them not to but their friendship is more fragile and the moments they had before are very short compared to before. Also silly ass hc of mine but Apple has a crush on raven which just makes all of this worse! But AHEM! Moving on from that Apple should have faced the consequences and not immediately be forgiven, Raven has the right to be upset and make apple work for her forgiveness. Eventually Raven comes through and forgives her they are alright and all but their relationship is very fragile compared to before. But the love and care they have for each other is 100% there.

I love apple as a character but i believe that she should have gotten proper consequences and shifts in her relationship instead of being immediately forgiven, It’s annoying how everytime she screwed over raven had to be the one who feels guilt and is painted as equally bad and at the end has to save Apple’s ass

I also think it made more sense for raven to stand her ground with Apple considering she always had done that with apple.

Let apple suffer the consequences, simple as that.

[vintagerobin]

Bruce Wayne is honestly just a mess when it comes to being a dad. Like, he says he cares about his kids, but his actions? they tell a whole other story. His relationships with all his sidekicks are full of manipulation, neglect, and straight-up bad decisions, all cuz he can’t deal with his own issues or form healthy connections 

He "cares" for them, sure, but only in this weird, controlling way. He trains them to survive Gotham’s chaos, but only if they do things his way. Their safety and happiness Not a priority. He doesn’t want them dead, but he keeps throwing them into insane  life threatening situation. Bruce never dealt with losing his parents, so instead of healing, he dumped himself into being Batman. But that doesn’t excuse his behavio it just makes it worse. He pushes his trauma onto his kids expects them to carry his burden and then gets mad if they step outta line.

At the end of the day, Bruce Wayne is not a father He is a broken man using children to wage his war on crime. His relationships with his "family" are complicated but let’s be clear: there is no genuine love or care involved. Batman loves the mission, not his kids.

Sorry anon but I disagree with you on almost every point here.

I do think that Bruce didn't really go into this intending to be a father, but that's actually an okay thing for a guardian, particularly when so many of the kids he's been a guardian to already had parents. I think he took them in not because he "wanted soldiers" or whatever but because he saw children suffering and couldn't stand not to help them to the best of his ability. I think he struggles to be a good guardian and parent, but I also think he genuinely tries to be, and also really loves and cares for them. They're all struggling with trauma and mental health, and that would make things difficult even without the vigilantism.

And on that note I really don't give much credibility to the whole child soldiers thing. One of the major things that's always drawn me to Batman is how he gives kids who have been robbed of their childhoods agency and the skills to protect themselves while still watching over them. This is what's at the very core of my love for Batman media. It's why I've loved this guy since I was a little kid, wishing there was someone who would do that for me.

When I talk about the Bats not really being a nuclear family it's not because I think they're failing at being family or don't care for each other.

[traumasurvivors]

This is an article I wrote on my site! But if you want to read it on Tumblr, you can access it after the short excerpt and below the read more.

"When it comes to trauma, it is not uncommon for a lot of survivors to experience what is known as trauma imposter syndrome. This is when a survivor invalidates themselves by saying something like “my trauma isn’t so bad, other people have it worse than me.”"

There are a few reasons why this occurs, including but not limited to:

Avoiding Feelings About the Trauma

If a survivor believes that someone else has it worse than them, this may allow them to deny their feelings about what they went through. It may also allow them to focus on someone else’s pain instead of their own. Denial is something that a lot of survivors experience because trying to deal with the feelings of trauma may be overwhelming, terrifying and overall hard to cope with.

Survivors may also cope by trying to be thankful it wasn’t worse. Thinking that they were “lucky” on some level may help them to see the situation in a different light, or it may make it easier to bury the feelings they aren’t ready to feel. Trying to frame their trauma in a positive light may make it easier for them to deal with.

(For a lot of survivors, this is a step in the healing process. Everyone heals differently. If a survivor is using trauma imposter syndrome to cope, it is not up to anyone (except perhaps a therapist they are working with) to try and tell a survivor how they should be reacting to their trauma.)

Avoiding Seeing Their Abuser in a Bad Light

If a survivor loves the person that caused the trauma, it may allow them to rationalize that person “not being that bad”. Having an abuser who you care about can be complicated and confusing. This does not mean they have not done something wrong. And it definitely does not mean you can’t love someone while still being hurt by them and holding them responsible for their actions.

Conditioning

A survivor may believe their trauma isn’t valid because of things they have heard from their abuser or others (even people trying to genuinely be helpful). They may be pressured and conditioned to believe their feelings about the experience are wrong and they are not entitled to those feelings. They may be told that it should only be for people who went through “real” trauma. They may be pushed by other people to “look on the bright side” and otherwise minimize what they went through. This type of conditioning can make it harder for a survivor to accept their trauma and heal from it.

Trauma imposter syndrome can cause issues outside of invalidating a survivor. One of these issues being that just because a survivor is saying their trauma “wasn’t that bad,” it doesn’t mean that they will still not experience symptoms related to their trauma. This could mean that they think something is “wrong with them” and they may seek out the wrong type of treatment to handle the symptoms or even no treatment at all.

It’s important to note that there is no magic scale that trauma falls on. What makes trauma traumatizing is not the “severity” of the event but the emotions that we experience as a result of it. A traumatic event is one that causes harm, whether that be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or any other kind of harm. Two people can go through very similar traumas and react in very different ways (or not react at all), and each of their responses are valid. One of the things that makes trauma so complex to talk about is that there are no universal responses to trauma - every person’s reaction is different.

When it comes to trying to find the validity in your trauma and challenging trauma imposter syndrome, I recommend trying to imagine your trauma happening to someone else. If they told you about it, it seems unlikely that you would say, “Oh, that doesn’t sound like a big deal,” or, “Well, other people have it worse, so you shouldn’t feel so bad.”

To use a similar example: Let’s say you have your house robbed, and a week beforehand, a friend of yours had their house burn to the ground. It would be normal and reasonable to think, “Well, at least I didn’t lose as much as they did.” It is also still reasonable to feel upset that you were robbed.

Someone else’s experiences do not negate nor invalidate your own. You can acknowledge other people’s experiences while still remembering that what happened to you should not have happened to you, and your feelings about it are still valid.

Your trauma is valid.

[englandsgirl18181234]

Hi👋 hope your having a good day or night

So I have some questions about your chthonic aus hope it’s ok if I ask them but anygays since the power Zeus used to damage Athena’s soul was basically stolen from Hades could if he found out about it while Athena is still alive could he heal the damage and save Athena and anyone else who’s soul has been damage

In the regret au who is the one who manages to calm Athena and Apollo down and how do they do it and also how do the other gods react to truly finding out how much Athena has been suffering and in the regret au how does Hades react to all this because I don’t think you talk about he in this au I could be wrong

Thanks🙏for reading

Hi!! Hope you're having a good day/night too! And questions are always welcome! I love answering them, even if they might take a little bit because my brain won't cooperate.

And yes, Hades could potentially heal soul damage while the person is alive as long as he knows about it! But how he would have to go about it would change drastically depending on a number of different things. Whether the person was a mortal or a god, how badly their soul was damaged, what caused the damage in the first place, things like that.

Athena from right after God Games, for example, would be handled with a very different approach than an Athena from right before her death in Astraphobia. The damage would be much more extensive by then, and Hades' own feelings towards her at the time would also have an effect on how quickly that healing happened. Hades has calmed down a lot as far as grudges go by the time Astraphobia happens, especially compared to how he was in ancient Greece.

Other answers under the cut!

So in the Regret AU, I'm kind of torn on who's going to manage to get through to them. Because on the one hand, Hestia would be the best at it naturally, compared to the others. But at the same time, she just became Queen of Olympus, making them much less likely to trust her than before. The realization that Zeus, being King of Olympus, basically had impunity to do whatever he wanted is a Major reason the two are so afraid of him. Zeus, in their eyes, essentially killed Athena and faced no consequences for it. They want less than nothing to do with whoever currently has the throne.

Zeus himself trying to talk to them would just make things worse and everyone knows it.

Hera isn't going to work for a number of reasons, including both her association with Zeus and how badly she's treated Apollo and Athena in the past. So she's also a no go.

The protections Athena and Apollo set after the Olive Tree Incident won't let Demeter within a hundred yards of the palace, so that's not happening either.

Poseidon would be worse for Athena specifically, which would definitely send Apollo even further into fight or flight mode. And since flight wouldn't be much of an option, that would probably just end with the two of them fighting Poseidon while he tries not to genuinely hurt them. That sounds rather entertaining honestly, but I'm not super confident in writing fight scenes so I'd probably skip it.

Aphrodite isn't happening because of the spill over taking her out. She'd just send them spiraling even further if she tried.

Ares would definitely be seen as a threat, no matter if he was trying to be or not. Which would suck, because he'd definitely do pretty well if he could come to the realization that they're basically continuously triggering each other into panic attacks brought on by anxiety and paranoia.

Artemis I think wouldn't really know how to handle seeing Athena, and particularly Apollo, so utterly freaked out over what she's convinced is no big deal. I think she'd be really blunt about it too, which wouldn't help in the slightest. Apollo is definitely the more emotionally intelligent of the two of them, so him being the one that's freaking out isn't super great.

Dionysus I'm pretty conflicted on as well. Because on the one hand, he's the God of Madness and Apollo and Athena are definitely tipping towards that point if they're not already there. But on the other hand, after so long at Camp Half-Blood, I'm not certain he'd even see it as a problem that needed to be dealt with. Half-bloods are paranoid as all hell, and for good reason. It keeps them alive. He'd probably look at them, see that they're not actually hurting anyone, and then tell the others to call him again when they have an actual problem. But that could also be my lack of confidence in writing him talking.

Let's be honest with ourselves, Hephaestus wants nothing to do with any of this. This is not his circus and those are not his monkeys, he's going back to his forge. He'd feel a little bad about it, because he can see that the two are genuinely terrified and truly think Zeus is out to get them, but he'd also know that he is not the right tool for that task.

Hermes I'm not certain on either, if I'm being honest. It would really depend on if I stick to the rocky relationship I have him and Athena have in Astraphobia because of Luke, and I haven't decided if I'm going to keep that or not yet.

I could potentially bring in Hades that way actually! As a "Hey, we didn't want to bug you during winter, but you and your wife are our literal last resort. Please help us help them before they drive themselves even more insane," kind of thing. Which would actually be a really good segue into the whole "Hey, Athena's way worse off than we thought," talk.

And I honestly think Hades would just walk in with Persephone and listen to the two of them talk. Persephone would take care of most of the talking and help keep the two focused on the conversation so they can calm down enough to be rational, but I could definitely see him using his reputation and power as like, a deterrent if that makes sense? Basically telling them that "Hey, while I'm here? Zeus is not going to be able to hurt you, I will not let him." It calms them down a lot more than any of them expect.

And oh boy, when the others find out that Athena's condition is so much worse than they already thought? All of them are going to be so horrified.

I'm honestly really torn between having Hades be the one to reveal it, in which case he finds out during their conversation, or having Apollo reveal it so Zeus can go to his older brother and genuinely beg Hades to see if there's anything he can do to help Athena.

And speaking of Zeus, I genuinely feel kinda bad for everything I'm putting him through here. Like, the man did some shit, God Games did still happen, but he genuinely did not intend for Athena to get hurt, and especially not so permanently.

It's a little like someone with a temper shoving somebody during an argument only for them to fall and crack their head open, from my point of view. Absolutely horrifying and it should never have happened in the first place, but the consequences of that single action during a fit of temper were several leagues of magnitude greater than anyone involved expected them to be.

I love all your questions, my dude (gender neutral)! Please send more if you think of any! They help me work things out that I'm having trouble pinpointing!