#guess this also qualifies as

[mostlikelytofangirl]

Scenario: A-Yao loses the ability to lie convincingly for 48 hours. Any 48 hours of your choice. How screwed is he?

Oh man.

You know, I took this long in replying bc the potential of this premise is HUGE! My boi can get grossly screwed up in many ways :')

But since I love him, how about it plays in his favor in the end. Kinda sorta xD

---

Whatever dumb experiment Chengmei had been conducting on his own was obviously guaranteed to backfire. Jin Guangyao should have known that leaving the delinquent unsupervised was a terrible idea.

And now here he was, having to deal with the aftermath of a talisman that very much exploded in his face earlier that day, and in front of the one person who didn’t need more reasons to distrust him.

At least the mysterious effects of the talisman had made themselves clear enough.

“Of course there is nothing wrong, da-ge,” he said, feeling the unnatural pull of his muscles as he forced a smile like he never had to before. He couldn’t even control the inflection of his voice!

Nie Mingjue was staring at him with his brows deeply furrowed. On a normal day, Jin Guangyao would internally roll his eyes at the unnecessary mistrust but, that day, he would admit that he, too, would be suspicious if he was da-ge.

Which was unfortunate, to say the least, since he had just altered the accursed song!

“Then why have you been so silent all day?” da-ge asked.

Because I can’t trust my own body.

“Because there’s nothing to say,” Jin Guangyao replied as a nervous chuckle escaped him despite himself. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to disturb you from focusing on Clarity.”

“You have been tugging at the same cord since I asked.”

Jin Guangyao had no control of his facial expressions as he surprised himself fidgeting with the guqin.

“T-this? Hmm, I just… have been very busy,” he blurted out, unable to force his gaze to meet Nie Mingjue’s. “I said I was going to make sure that Xue Yang got punished, didn’t I?”

And he might just seriously consider killing that pest for real after the mess he had gotten Jin Guangyao into!

“You have always been busy, yet I have never seen you twitch. This isn’t like you.”

“Aha, I-I think these recent days have been particularly challenging.”

The smile —if he could even call it that— was starting to ache in his face, and he couldn’t look Nie Mingjue straight in the eye for more than a quick glance as the man merely kept on staring.

“Then leave already, you would be of no help in this condition,” Nie Mingjue eventually declared, and for once, Jin Guangyao was grateful for his da-ge absolute lack of tact.

“Yes, might be for the best,” he agreed, standing up. “I will come back tomorrow.”

Hopefully, Chengmei would have found a solution, or the effect would have worn off by then.

It didn’t.

And da-ge was not alone when Jin Guangyao reappeared the next day.

“Hello, A-Yao,” er-ge greeted him with that gentle smile of his, yet with obvious reservations as he gestured to Jin Guangyao to approach and take a seat with them. “Da-ge said that you have been displaying some odd behaviors, is everything alright?”

Oh, gods, not this again.

“Yes! Yes, er-ge, everything is perfectly fine,” the exaggerated enthusiasm of his voice was honestly insulting even to himself, and he could swear that he felt a tic in his eye.

As expected, his two sworn brothers shared a look.

“See? He’s been acting like this since yesterday,” da-ge said.

“Hmm. A-Yao, you know that you can trust us if something is in your mind.”

What was in his mind was that he needed to get Nie Mingjue to qi deviate before the deadline for Chengmei’s execution arrived, and he couldn’t do that if he didn’t keep on playing Turmoil, which was impossible if Lan Xichen was right there!

“I told da-ge already that I have been terribly busy uhm… assisting father in various endeavors of personal interest, yes.”

“Didn’t you say it was because of Xue Yang?”

Damnit!

“Uhh, he is… one of those endeavors— is it getting warmer here?”

Why on Earth did he say that?!

Er-ge and da-ge looked at each other again, now with open puzzlement and preoccupation. That was it, Chengmei had managed to not only get himself killed, but Jin Guangyao, as well, for the mistake of trying to save him.

“I told you that kicking him had been out of line, da-ge.”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.”

… wait, what?

“Listen, this is my fault,” Nie Mingjue told him and, for a moment, Jin Guangyao thought hallucinations were another effect of that stupid talisman by the way da-ge seemed truly remorseful. “You exasperated me that day, and while I stand by my arguments… my final remark and actions were completely unwarranted. It has been hard to control my worst impulses, but now your head is all messed up by the contusion. I’m sorry.”

Wait, what!

As it turned out, the talisman not only affected his mannerisms when he tried to… choose his word strategically, but also when he wanted to conceal his emotions. Try as he may, he couldn’t school his expression to something other than the bewilderment he felt and how touched he was to hear Nie Mingjue, of all people, apologize to him!

When was the last time someone did that?!

“I…” his lip trembled too much to properly elaborate, and his voice came out as a weak whine, prompting his two sworn brothers to stand up and relocate by his side.

“Don’t force yourself,” er-ge told him. “The damage to your head must be taking a toll on your body.”

“Yes, something is clearly wrong with you.”

“Y-you don’t think this is another of my wicked tricks, da-ge?”

“What reason would you have to act like you are spasming whenever you speak? If anything, you always took pride in your shallow pretty words.”

Nie Mingjue frowned, but there was also a hint of a smirk on his lips.

“A-Yao, if you allow me, I could use some Lan medicine on you.”

“B-but… Xue Yang…”

Da-ge sighed.

“We can see that matter on a later date, it is obvious that you are not well.”

Er-ge placed his hand on Jin Guangyao’s arm in an encouraging gesture, and he could have broken down in tears right there and then. Lan Xichen could end whatever that talisman had done to him, he could buy time with Nie Mingjue until he thought of a better solution to the Chengmei predicament.

“Thank you,” he said and, finally, his smile didn’t feel like a grimace. “Maybe er-ge could also take over and play for da-ge instead. This A-Yao would hate to mess up Clarity in this state.”

[eg515]

don't you just love it when a series has a good ending that takes care of all of its characters, shows how their futures will look like, ties up all loose ends, reminisces about old times, references important moments from before, and brings back elements of the very first episode, giving a nice frame to the whole series?

[sugarcarnation]

thinking about how ultimately it was dazai who was too sentimental to stay in the mafia

[theminecraftbee]

anyway you ever accidentally infect yourself with moon's big emotions again because you were trying to go back and choose a clip to reblog as propaganda and suddenly and violently are reminded of how -

the first time that joe hills flies since the season began is while the world is ending.

this is, well, sorta his decision. it started as a bit, right? iskall made a club for people to not-fly. most people gave up eventually; the truth is that the average hermit megabase isn't particularly accessible unless you have wings, not at that size. joe isn't one for giving up, though. he goes for that top medal, and he goes for it hard, but the thing is, iskall isn't around much -

maybe he'd somehow seen what was coming, honestly, so who can blame her, etho eventually leaves too and they were living together so it really makes sense, but -

joe is a stubborn bastard. joe knows iskall owes him a prize. joe will deprive himself the joy of being able to fly for as long as he needs to until iskall gets him that medal, gets him that arbitrary reward, and then joe will fly. only then. he'll rub it in everyone's faces - look at him! his score is highest on the scoreboard x put up for 'length of time without flying'! his score is the only one still ticking up! he's -

and then he stands in a swamp on halloween and thinks 'huh the full moon is awfully full' and doesn't say anything other than to think it's the wrong day for a full -

and then he's trying to figure out how to finish moving the castle walls and he's making measurements and the world is shaking and the moon is definitely growing and -

and then the ground starts to rise up beneath him and cleo's talking about running and joe doesn't want to run but joe doesn't want, he hasn't gotten his wings yet, he can measure it, if he can measure it surely they can stop it, if he can -

and then the world is ending.

sometimes i think about how the first time joe flies in season eight, he decides to still follow his arbitrary rules. he goes to steal his medal from iskall's club; no one will miss it. he puts the wings on. he walks to spawn despite having the medal.

he watches cleo leave. he doesn't try to follow her. having two of them will slow them both down, is the thing. maybe he regrets it. sometimes he regrets it. sometimes they both regret it. they care about each other too much and know each other too well to think they'd do anything different but -

then he's standing alone and he puts on the wings and he flies, and it's the first time he's flown since he landed on the world. he flies upwards, lighting rockets, trying to break free of gravity and fate and the moon that's about to kill everyone left on the ground.

the first time joe flies in season eight is the last time it would remain.

do you think it looked small, looking down?

[kingofanemptyworld]

Rin, identity issues, and the complications of being an isolated, alienated teenager

It feels sort of weird to say but I generally don’t head canon characters as having particular sexualities. Whatever people go for in fics is usually fine with me - gay, lesbian, bi, pan, something more general like queer. As long as it makes sense for the story they’ve built and the character they’ve shaped to fit it, I’m good. Unless you’re ignoring a canon LGBTQ+ sexuality, in which case, yeah, I’ll take issue with that.

But anyway. Rin.

I’ve got my personal ship for him (BonRin my beloved), but regardless of the pairing I see him as bisexual. He’s so open with his infatuation with Shiemi, and okay, sure, fandom likes to ignore the love interest in shounen for the most part because we’ve got gay ships to peddle. But I don’t see the point in that unless it really reads like it’s a front, or a result of a character suppressing themselves for one reason or another. And with Rin, I think it’s pretty clear his affection for Shiemi is sincere. You technically have the in-universe evidence of the demon that brought out his true desires to back that up, but even without it, Rin likes her. It’s complicated because of Yukio and Shiemi’s own inexperience with romance, and yet I never once doubt he really likes her.

That being said… he’s very appreciative of the guys in his life, too. (Peddling my gay ship here) Bon in particular, considering he’s often admiring how cool he thinks Bon is, that his haircut suits him whether it’s the blonde rooster look or the undercut. If you don’t want to see it as romantic interest, that’s your prerogative, but to me Rin comes across as seeing cool and cute as different traits he finds attractive (in Bon and Shiemi respectively).

I also think his bisexuality would fit neatly into his narrative struggles to “pass” throughout the early parts of the series. Rin has grown up as the neighborhood problem child, ostracized for being violent, and eventually he decides he’s fine with just his brother and his father — and the rest of the monastery, presumably — for company. (Except that’s absolutely not true and clearly he’s starved for friendship and support.) People looked at him and saw a monster, even before his demonic heritage made an appearance; why would he bother giving them even more ammunition when it comes to reasons to hate him? So no matter when he figured out his attraction to guys, he’s not going to lean into it, because he also likes girls, right? (Ignoring for a moment that bisexuality is a lot more nuanced than that.)

Rin likes girls, Rin is human — that’s what’s going to get people to like him, or at the very least tolerate him. That he likes guys, that he’s half demon, he can shove that shit down and pretend it doesn’t exist. Lock up any stray thoughts and keep the sword sheathed around anyone who doesn’t already know.

(Excuse me for being amused by Rin wielding his humanity and supposed heterosexuality as a sword and shield.)

The problem, of course, is that he can’t keep up the facade forever. The narrative won’t let him. Rin has to embrace his demonic side, because it’s the only way to move forward and to continue to help his loved ones. And once he’s moved past the issue of his friends being upset over the deception, when they understand he’s still Rin despite what he’d hidden from them, Rin is finally allowed to be himself. He uses his flames, he lets his tail move freely in the open around the Cram School kids. Rin still doesn’t like this side of himself — it’s inextricably tied to every moment of pain and isolation he’s dealt with his entire life, including the death of Father Fujimoto (and, y’know, his mom). But he is moving forward, he’s trying to adapt.

And isn’t that some great fucking subtext for his bisexuality, too?

[unexpectedbrickattack]

I bet Gustavo knows how’s exactly small he is and uses his charms and adorableness to get tips , and it’d work

Peppino pays Gus very well (esp after postgame) so theres no need to have tips. He lets Gus have the jar there anyway, but at the cost of having Pep occasionally come up behind him and catch him conning these poor customers

[khaotunq]

i dial drunk, i'll die a drunk, i'd die for you

[olive-nothere]

And people tried to say that Franco was going to be the next Logan Sargeant after one crash in free practice LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[dyrewrites]

Search results for "how to boost self esteem" are useless.

Don't tell me to take better care of myself, or stick to a routine. If I could do those things I wouldn't be searching for suggestions.

And "remember what you're good at"? Again, if I could recognize what I am good at I wouldn't be looking this shit up.

Useless, the lot of it.

[naoreco]

decided at the start of a month i would make a whole pmv. somehow it didn't take me six months this time. enjoy :)

youtube link

[sorenphelps]

🌙completely starstruck✨

[a-s-levynn]

This is Florence. He likes flowers.

[little-monsters26]

Listen here

I was just thinking of the silly idea that if Romeo and Carlo/P dated, since Romeo is the King of Puppet that would make Carlo/P the Queen. But then I realised that this statement as some truth in it compared to chess : in chess the King is the most important piece in the game and if attacked you lose - it made me think of when we beat Romeo suddenly the other puppets didn't have anyone to guide them and the monster took over (aslo the King don't move often just like Romeo is practically always in the Estella Opera House) , as for the Queen she is the most powerful piece in the game and can go practically however she likes - which made me think of Carlo/P who move around the city and defeat everyone in his way. They are also some other things that make me think of this but if I go on I'm going to rumble and this will take forever to read.

I also like to see the whole story of Lies of P as a giant chessboard with two side opposing each other : one is Simon and the monster, the other is Geppetto and the puppets. With how manipulative they both are I find it interesting.

Might talk more about the other characters as chess piece and their importance in the story so tell me if you would like it.

[hyperrealisticblood]

"its so crazy how everyone thought wally darling was this scary domineering yandere sexyman when hes actually a silly little goofball" yes you are correct about the first part!! unfortunately you seem to have completely lost the plot otherwise!!

is wally darling a silly guy?? yes!! he is silly and whimsical and he loves his friends and wants people to smile!! objectively a nice, silly guy. unfortunately you seem to have missed the fact that he is also prone to emotional instability and becoming some kind of analog horror entity. you see this clearly in the old hidden audios, where he slowly drops his "show" persona and becomes more intense and demanding and disturbing. same with the ending of the homewarming storybook where he starts getting frustrated with his inability to make home happy. (btw speaking as a fellow autistic person with bad emotional control and anger management, real recognizes real) i don't think wallys entire personality is a facade or anything like that, but i think it's becoming clear that there's a lot about him that we don't know. i'm not even getting into The Mold That Makes You Hallucinate because that might be a home thing and not a wally thing, but him being the one causing it is still very possible!!

we know that the idea of wally being the cut and dry antagonist of the story was scrapped when the story was reworked, but it's extremely likely that he retained at least SOME of his less savory traits from his original incarnation. i don't think he's a bad person or intentionally malicious or anything like that, but we need to remember that no matter how silly and wholesome wally is on the surface, he's the neighbor we know the least about.

and there's very likely a reason for that.

[seventhdoctor]

Yugioh GX season 1 is so funny when you watch with the knowledge that the protag has a secondhand bodycount that only the principal knows about.

The kid with a secondhand bodycount is applying to your school? Sure, but he only gets in if he makes the grade - but oh no, his train is late and your elitist teacher is trying to reject him before he even gets a chance? Well, maybe you can grease the wheels a bit.

Your elitist teacher is openly cackling about the matched he rigged to get the kid with a secondhand bodycount expelled? Do nothing, say nothing. Make a snippy comment when the kid with a secondhand bodycount wins anyway.

Need some top-tier duelists to protect the keys to unleashing the god cards lite? Okay, maybe the kid with a secondhand bodycount does make sense here. Or it could still be a terrible idea.

...

...

...You know what? Originally I left it here for the joke but actually no, I'm gonna pull out my tinfoil hat and talk about the other kid at DA with a dueling bodycount. No, not Hell Kaiser. Not the abandoned dorm stuff. Not any of the kids who hold seances to summon duel spirits for a winter horror episode or anything. I mean:

Motegi, AKA Belowski. The season 1 opponent who's introduced for a one-off episode and then left to cameo a couple times in the rest of the series, mostly in crowd shots. He's at DA as late as the series finale, at which point he's been a student for six years (Judai's first year is his fourth). And he might be there even longer! I'm not even sure he's even allowed to graduate, as opposed to being indefinitely contained at Duel Academia.

If Judai still had Yubel around when he started at Duel Academia, and they were found to be causing problems...would Judai be isolated the same way Motegi does? It's not like DA has the resources to actually handle their spirit problems, and yet the resources it does have make it a better place than most to keep them in the meantime.

GX has a lot of weird one-off episodes whose implications are never fully explored but the Motegi episode stuck with me, so much that I wrote a whole fic as a baby GX fan trying to imagine what his deal was. Now in the year 2k23 I'm looking at this and wondering what his situation could have suggested for Judai's fate if his spirit/dueling bodycount problem hadn't taken a couple more years to rear its head...

[ahappydnp]

Sorry re your tags who on earth lets their daughter do her own laundry at age 8???? Did I and all my friends grow up that privileged???

i feel like that was fairly standard for where i grew up? tbf i’m from the american rural deep south so girls start cooking and cleaning before they can read lmao