#honestly in hindsight there were so many characters that were never mentioned

[freaky-flawless]

Well...I just finished the final Ghoulfriends book (not counting the Ghoul it Yourself book) Not really sure what to take away from it?

Its the case where the story builds up to this big reveal, where all the pieces are supposed to come together only for it to be underwhelming and obvious. Like...none of this would have happened if they'd just gotten rid of the dragon lady after the first book.

I've been under the impression for years that this story had its own version of how Hexiciah Steam is found, only to find out just this moment that this isn't the case. It's revealed in the story that Ramses De Nile had something to do with his disappearance, and in the epilogue Cleo finds a clue as to his whereabouts and hands it off to Robecca. And thats where it ends. There's apparently a continuance in the Ghoul-It-Yourself book of the ghoulfriends trying to track him down and I guess they just don't??? He's fully normie in this series, and his life goal was to find a way to mechanically extend the life span of normies, so they just kinda blindly hope that he managed to do that for himself and has secretly been alive for 100+ years. So the only version of Hexiciah's reemergence is in his SDCC doll diary, which doesn't tie into this at all.

Wydowna was another major disappointment. She only appeared at the very beginning of the book and the very end, and her role in the story is left weirdly vague. (She also got arrested in the third book which was wild #ACAB) I think she was supposed to be a spy for the villain but its not really spelled out exactly what she did. The only people she seemed to be spying on were high schoolers who had no idea what was going on. A LOT of weird shit happened around the school in the second book that must have been her, but no one in the story makes that connection? And its not mentioned at all. Like at one point Rochelle literally wakes up in a cocoon of webs for no reason, and no ones ever like "Wydowna what the fuck??" (Unless I'm wrong and it wasn't her, in which case its just never explained) And on top of that, despite the cover of the book showing her hanging out with the mains, they don't even end up as friends. In fact it seems Wydowna grew way closer to Cleo and Toralei at the end of the book who had previously taken any chance they could have to bully her lol. Such a wasted use of her character, and its such a shame considering she rarely features in the main canon, and she's so cool!

Oh Skelita and Jinafire were real useless too. They just showed up randomly following the villain around and that was it. Jinafire gave them a kung fu (or kung boo I guess) lesson out of nowhere which was weird and uncomfortable.

To give the book some credit though, I did like how the parents were included in the story. It was really refreshing, though I think Ghoulia's mom was mentioned more times than Ghoulia herself (who would have solved the entire mystery in less than an hour, but like I mentioned in a previous post, everyone but the main 3 are stupid)

I also like Sue Nami quite a bit, I was so worried that she'd end up being some kinda cheap twist villain, but nope! She has a fun pun name unlike a lot of the other characters (like...Fred Onarrival...c'mon man...) Definitely stealing her character for fics.

Sooo. Yeah. I have mixed feelings about this series as a whole. The first book was just plainly bad for sure, and the over arching story was disjointed and predictable (and actually follows a similar theme with monster supremacy as Frights Camera Action, just a lot worse) but once I accepted the fact that they were bad I could enjoy them a lot more. There were cute moments here and there, and starting each chapter with a Darko Dark illustration was delightful.

[utilitycaster]

I don't know how you feel about it, but I was extremely frustrated last night when I found out that break was called after around 3 hours. I just felt that at that point they should have just made it a Crown Keepers episode instead of promising that BH would be back and then them barely being in the episode. I don't know, I'm usually really go with the flow with CRs creative choices, but this was just a real big swing and a miss for me. I wish this had all just been its own episode

So here's my feelings:

My thoughts on EXU Prime, and later Kymal, were that I love the player characters and their relationships and much of the worldbuilding (notably all of Niirdal-Poc and the Qoniira Tetrarchy) and I liked many of Aabria's NPCs but there were some pretty big gaps left in "what the fuck is going on" that left me feeling as though I wouldn't mind seeing the characters again but I didn't feel strongly about continuing the story in-world, if that makes sense. The Aevilux reveal, for example, was sort of what the main plot of EXU Prime hinged upon (ie, that was Myr'atta Niselor's motivation; that was what the deal with Ted was) and so the fact that didn't come out for over 2.5 years irl after it ended meant I'd just kind of said "well, some weirdo from Syngorn really wanted to do shit to Opal for some reason related to her sister, who is also her patron, and we don't know why either of these things is the case, and I guess that's what happened" and made my peace with it. Similarly, I don't know what the Nameless Ones want, and never have (other than, at one point, the circlet of barbed vision, and I don't know why they want it). I made a joke that Myr'atta, Poska, and Otohan are all kind of the same and honestly that is the thing: if you don't know why a villain is doing something - even if the reason is "because I love to be evil and terrible!" it's hard to care, and if those are only villains, it's hard to be invested in the story about the heroes either, even if you like the heroes as characters.

When I say I like how this ended, I mean it - I think it could have gone only a few ways, but I like that Morrighan and Opal have both become divine champions, Morrighan willingly and Opal less so (this is yet another case of "the gods don't do take-backsies on oaths", but also, I do feel for Opal despite it all because of Aimee's excellent work throughout). I mentioned how I felt about the exact details of Cyrus's death but I don't mind that he's dead. Fy'ra was a highlight throughout, as she frequently is, and I think she was faced with two extremely unpleasant choices and made a fascinating decision. But I'd have preferred to see this as a flashback (see next paragraph) or like. Just decide what happened. If I'm being extremely honest a lot of my issues with the Crown Keepers portion is that it felt like there was a very specific desired ending (Opal's complete corruption and Cyrus's death); I also said at some point well before that you can only do so much with the Crown Keepers while Dariax is there because Matt does, even if he's turning his brain off to play our Charisma-only kinda short king, know all the cheat codes for the main campaign. It's kind of like why how, even if the DM will control an absent player during RP, they usually have another player control in combat.

I don't mind that the Bells Hells portion was short. I think the choice to break where they did makes sense given everything else that went on. But I think that, criticism of the actual Crown Keepers portion aside, while you might have lost some of your audience for a Crown Keepers-only episode on the main feed, you would have preserved the drama of FCG's death better and gotten people more excited for the Crown Keepers if you had essentially run things exactly as done here but then just cut the two episodes together, which, as a pre-taped medium, they can now do! Hindsight is again 20-20 but: Run the first half of 92 as is. Break and tape a full Crown Keepers episode. Return to Bells Hells and narrate the message back from Dorian saying he'll be there, play out the rest of Bells Hells in the camp dealing with FCG's death, and then have Dorian arrive at the very end of that episode and end the episode when the party asks him what's been going on with him, then reveal there will be a Crown Keepers episode. Air your full Crown Keepers episode as episode 93, and then return to the main campaign with 94. It would have been better balanced in terms of time, people who wanted the Crown Keepers to return would have gotten hyped up, and people who dislike them or are neutral would have at least known what to expect and frankly if they skip the episode that's their choice to make. Hell, since there were 2 weeks? Could have even been like "hey, we'll do a Crown Keepers Marathon on Twitch and Youtube on some random weekday" to build up some hype!

So overall my answer is that I agree this wasn't a great creative choice. I don't think this means they shouldn't take big swings! But some will be misses and this was, while not an entire miss for me, at best a walk.

[bunji-enthusiast]

Can I request Tristan with a giant gf who’s jealous of Gawain and Isolde because they’re human size and she’s not and Tristan can’t pick her up and hug correctly since she’s so big??

Monachopsis

(n). the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.

Ugh, I didn’t really like how this turned out but I hope you liked it! Characters like Tristan and Isolode are certainly interesting to say the least, okay those are my two cents byeeee! ✨

Content || characters involved may be ooc, short story, 1,619 words total, one brief mention of real-world issues.

Being interlinked beyond the vast perceptions of time and space was something uniquely so close, unordinary yet so ordinary. That was in itself a majesty, perhaps a rarity. For many races, one can imagine the difficulty that comes for inter-racial relationships, again it’s perhaps a rarity – a sight to behold; but something that never truly comes to fruition without the opinions of external forces outside the relationship. 

Unfortunately, you’ve come to be a victim of such a thing. You were a giant, a proud member of your race. You were raised with morals ingrained and values meant to overthrow the thinking of anyone else in the process, yet it was all suddenly knocked down the day you met Tristan, the Prince of Liones. You don’t know how, or why — something about him drew you closer. 

You hated that so much, it was the constant reminder that you are a woman. A girl, yet you were also a giant. You hated all of it, but you never voiced these concerns to Tristan. Being a proud member of the Giant race meant you could handle things yourself, battles and even the mental ones. It was all in due part to your old-fashioned parents who raised you the old ways of the giant race, even with how estranged and toxic they were, they were still very old-fashioned. You had been raised with love and toughness, but memories of the harsher times had ingrained so deeply in your heart – the self-resentment still remained. 

Sometimes here and there, you eventually run into people of other races who aren’t shy of telling you what they feel. The effects of the Holy War and the constant racism had still lingered harshly throughout the races from what you’ve seen, it still gave you serious whiplash just from remembering such interactions. 

That’s an unfortunate difficulty to just merely exist, though there remains some deep-rooted hatred and evil. One can find love and peace, surround yourself with people who sincerely understand and love you with all their hearts. Which had led you to meeting Tristan, one day out on the plains. 

You were traveling, out and about. Honestly, you didn’t have any particular reason to do so. Only that you found traveling to be fun and exciting, and possibly seeing brand new beautiful sights that you haven’t before. Although some of your friends and family back at Mega Dozer (homeland of the Giants) were unsure of letting you leave in the first place, they reluctantly gave in when you argued; “This could be a good learning experience for me! Besides, it might be good that I am alone by myself.” 

In hindsight, you wished you would've said those words differently. Being alone by yourself was becoming quite the scary experience, but you trudged onward in order to better face your fears of being alone by yourself. 

Was it being alone that you were scared of though?

“I think i'm getting pretty close to somewhere,” You muttered, looking down at the map in your large hands. You squinted, albeit a little closer than you needed too. Yet something had suddenly snapped you out of your stupor, causing you to look down and seeing two small forms who bumped into you. 

“Hello! I’m so sorry for that.” One had apologized, your brows furrowed as you tried to make out the appearances of the two beings. One clad in gold and white armor, golden gleaming aura and impossibly imposing, which somehow had you impressed for a brief moment. The other appeared to have long silver-length hair and heterochromia, one green and the other being blue. You shook your head as you crouched down to properly get within ear-shot. 

“No, I should be apologizing.” You grinned nervously, scratching the back of your head. “I wasn’t looking where I was going, that’s on me.”

“Ah, well the name’s Tristan.” He smiled warmly with a quick wave as he introduced himself, sensing your anxieties. The prince then asked for yours, and with a quick nod, you had introduced your name. 

Upon hearing your name, he repeated it. It rolled right off his tongue, beautifully done and divine to say. “That’s a really nice name.” He smiled once again, yet his smile softened into a grin, talking with you a little further before he finally decided to introduce you to the knight he was traveling alongside with. You couldn’t see the knight’s face, thus not knowing the knight's gender, but it wasn’t your business to know anyway. 

“This is Sir Gawain!” He exclaimed proudly. You raised a brow. Oddly, the knight clad in white and gold armor had not uttered a word since the beginning of the interaction, but you paid it no mind. 

“Not much of a talker huh?” You joked, now sitting down. Tristan laughs, nodding along in agreement. Though it was a curiosity, how Tristan knew his name, you decided not to pry. 

Ever since your eventful meeting with the prince, it was from there that somehow everything went downhill; Getting to know him, finally entering the kingdom of Liones, meeting so many brand new people, his parents, some of his friends, and apparently finding out that Sir Gawain was indeed a woman. 

Then there was also Isolde, a tall woman with pink hair and green eyes. You thought without a shadow of a doubt that she was beautiful for her age, Gawain too. But you sincerely were unable to fathom how you could get along with Tristan after getting to know these two ladies. 

You began to feel weird, odd even. A thrashing turmoil of feelings and hate toward yourself, them. Being small was something they all had in common, they could easily hug each other. If you’ve ever even attempted to try to do something like that, you would no doubt hurt your would-be boyfriend in the process. 

Feelings weren’t exactly a linear thing, sometimes not easy to recognize either. But you could somehow know it, sense it. You really hated it, but the memories you made with knowing Tristan’s friends, him too — were something all so dear and precious to you. Not something you could so easily throw away, all for the sake of distance. 

So you began keeping your interactions with his friends to a minimum, that had also meant keeping your interactions with Tristan sparsely small. 

God, you hated it so much. He was smaller, you were huge, being a giant had its perks – but not being able to give Tristan affection was something that had killed you on the inside. You just sometimes simply wished that you would just one day wake up as a small person, and hug Tristan wholly with all your heart without injuring the boy. 

A particular someone, though his interactions with you were quite brief, could notice the way you began to get distant and had rarely interacted with Tristan, much to the detriment of your mental health. Chion wondered if he could be of some help in mending the relationship between you two, because frankly to him, it was beginning to be very tense and stuffy whenever the both of you were in the same vicinity. 

“Hey, woman.” A crass, but firm tone. You looked down, having already been crouched and stuffed your face in your hands for the last few minutes, scratch that — an hour. You sighed, a notable huff escaping your lips at your clear distrust of Chion, having seen his personality in action before. 

“What do you want?”

“I don’t want anything to do with you, but your distancing with Tristan is bothering everyone.” He iterates, and despite his blunt and forward speech – he was also very worried about you. Actually both you and Tristan as well.  

You frown, re-adjusting your position to better face him. “You don’t get it Chion, I–” You paused, the thoughts flooding back in, and making you hesitant to continue. Causing the purple-haired boy to raise an inquisitive brow, so he waited for you to speak, though he was albeit known to be impatient at times. 

“Uh..” You sighed, shoulders deflating in defeat. Despiste knowing you could finally get things off your chest, it was so hard to actually force the words out your mouth. 

Chion simply walked closer, patting your knee with an understanding elation. “Keeping it in will do you no good, I should know.” He remarked, his single eye briefly closing. You chuckled with a slight chagrin inter-woven of your tone, though, you collected yourself. 

“Oh yeah, like the time you withheld information from everyone that Percival was a knight of prophecy?” You joked, causing him to sigh in disappointment, but nod along in agreement nonetheless. Oh how you wondered how Chion had even met Tristan, the only thing you knew about this particular piece of information was how the one was saved by the former, and from there Chion’s admiration for the prince grew. 

Chion fiddled with his staff for a moment, then spoke: “You should try speaking with him again, voice your concerns.” 

Suddenly you could feel your blood run cold at his suggestion, almost causing you to shout out to refute it. But you calmed down, reeling yourself in with a sigh, “How.. could i?” You were unsure of how to approach the subject, to talk to him about such things suddenly seemed so silly to speak of. 

“Try.” He insists, tilting his head as if the idea was the easiest thing in the world to execute. Your eyes flitted over to his form, a glimmer of recognition shining brightly in your pupils. 

You rested your head against your knees, sighing after a few moments. You closed your eyes as you responded with an exhausted tone, “Okay.”

[mariejordans]

i honestly don’t even know where to begin with this post, so i guess i’ll start with hi! sorry, i’ve been gone so long, though probably most of you didn’t even notice i was gone lol. sorry for not giving any warning to my absence, and i am especially sorry to the mutuals who have reached out to me that i haven’t responded to. i was and still am struggling with anxiety and depression and towards the new year it was getting to be a bit much for me, so i decided to take a mental health break from social media.

i’d honestly been contemplating coming back, but today i received a dm from someone with a link to a post that was accusing me of bullying and creating fake accounts to bully other people in this fandom. first of all, i would like to emphasize that this is not true. attached below is a screenshot of all the blogs that i own (EDIT 2/9/24: i have since deleted the screenshot for my own privacy and i believe that since i made this post, there has been more than enough evidence to clear my name.) milfsociety is my main account, which i have linked before on this blog and many of my mutuals also follow me on my main, and the rest of them are just me saving my old usernames or other sideblogs that i rarely use, but all of them have been inactive for two months at least.

i do NOT condone bullying ever, and to be continually accused of it by this person is very disheartening. it started with this post (seen below) that i made back in november after seeing a post discrediting marie as the main character of gen v. i admit that my language was probably a bit harsher than was necessary, but honestly my intention was not to send hate to op (which is why i never tagged it with any gen v related tags) but to defend marie. it also wasn’t meant to be solely specific to this one person but as a general post because at the time, there were lots of accounts discrediting marie and to be honest, i was just kinda venting bc of how sick of it i was. (also, just to mention, i have intentionally left out their username because the last thing i want is to send hate to this person.) this was the only post i made on the topic and later i heard that apparently op blocked me afterward (which does not offend me in the slightest since i have since done the same thing) so this honestly should have been the end of it.

i honestly hadn’t given this post a second thought until a little under a month later i received this ask out of nowhere, accusing me of ableism and bullying. i replied to this ask, which i will link here. honestly this ask came as a complete shock to me, because i had honestly forgotten all about my previous post.

i responded to anon and in the reply i apologized to their friend for my hurtful comments and expressed that it was never my intention to attack anyone, especially anyone with a disability, which i did not know about when i initially made the first post. i also explained my side, stating why i made the post in the first place, which i still stand by. originally, i had linked their post in my reply, which in hindsight was a mistake that i regret and i should’ve known better. again, my last intention ever is to spread hate and negativity or to bully anyone, so i deleted the link when i was asked by a third party. this person has also since deleted that post about marie entirely.

shortly after i posted the reply, i guess i can only assume that whoever anon was told them about the reply. i’m honestly not sure if they’ve ever actually read this reply or not, but they made a response to my reply, accusing me of harassment and bullying. honestly, it really confused me at the time, since i’d only made two posts in reference to them, and one was a reply to an ask, but we ended up having a third party account who was mutuals with both of us acting as a mediator to settle things and i genuinely wanted to move on from the situation. we both had each other blocked and it seemed to me that anon was just trying to instigate more drama between us, so i thought it best to just leave it at that. i was also going through some mental health issues at the time (unrelated to this situation even though it didn’t help) and had been considering taking a break from tumblr, and so i thought it would be best to just go inactive for a while.

this is honestly the first time i’ve used tumblr in the two months since i’ve been gone, so i have no idea what else has been happening regarding any other blogs and this person, but apparently i am being named as the sole instigator here and i just wanted to once and for all clear up this issue and my name. i’m honestly not sure if this person will see this post or if they’ll even accept it as truth. i can’t force them or anyone to believe me as i really don’t know what else i’d have to do to prove that i don’t have any other secret accounts other than making this post.

i will probably continue to be inactive on this account as i think it is in everyone’s best interest. i never wanted to contribute or start any drama in this fandom, but i feel like i am partially responsible in how this situation has turned out, so i would also like to apologize to you all as well. i’ve never had an account of mine get as big as this one has (thank you to everyone who liked and supported my silly little ramblings!) and i can honestly say i have had the best time interacting and fangirling with you all about this show and these characters that i love so much and i will continue to enjoy and love gen v and marie from afar!

goodbye for now,

rose (aka mariejordans)

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Honestly I think people's tendency to do this sort of all or nothing thinking is silly. I've yet to write things down concisely but since finishing the game I like playing around in the sense where I pick one or several flashback lights (or other 'facts' mentioned in the game) to be true and see how that affects the pre and post V3 story. This in turn really gives you more playroom to interpret and understand certain aspects of the story and characters. Sorry, I'm not sure how to word it. Like yeah, what if Makoto really did make a new Academy? What if the world didn't end, but the virus is fact? What if V3 was fictional, but that doesn't mean the 'peaceful outside world' we were presented is real? Not only does that make fandom play more enjoyable, it also makes you really think about things beyond taking things at face value like I've sadly seen many fans do.

To disclaimer a bit that I have no qualm with people taking the 'All-Fiction' reading at its face if they like the pregame concept (I've seen some fun ideas like the meek Kokichi who wanted to become a good liar, that's a favourite I've seen anyway) or like, whatever other reason. It's just- yeah!! It's absolutely not the only possibility for canon nor is it particularly satisfying to those of us who want to play with canon context as opposed to like, imagined character-to-character progression to the canon, even if those can make for great stories on their own

*cue me going off in 3... 2... 1...*

And speaking of affecting pre and post V3, the dire consequences probable for any/all of the pre chapter 5 Flashback Lights being true- the mixed-motive videos involving characters, especially- knowing that dr2 used a distorted past as a motive, is just too juicy to pass up?? Especially if that involves characters who were otherwise trusted acting in untrustworthy ways, and this is gleaned in hindsight? Imagine if there was later content - a novel perhaps - to expand upon the world we dismissed as fiction and little by little we have to reckon with the consequences if we search it out, like how Dr0 told us of how the Tragedy came to be?? And DRV3 will never look the same again?? Especially if all this was gradually steamrollered by an unsuspecting Makoto opening up new hopes peak and that started to go spectacularly awry not least due to the collective tensions against Ultimates and-

-Just. FRICK!! The possibilities enough to drive one crazy

At least the hindsight part is how it's most meaningful for me, imagining the world itself - beyond the dystopian security tech Nanokumas, wwoah geez a lot to unpack - is so much harder to do, and can get extremely messy (probably because I'm at an overload with all the information-misinformation combo buuut also because of conspiracy themes nonsense) so like, a lot of work to do there.

...Oh! This reminds me of how Dr:Togami is apparently layered in this kind of cerebral shit that makes you think outside the box as to what the fresh hell is going on and pick apart false narratives, so all of these potential alternate if-not-x-then-y sorta threads you mentioned here, could be pulled together just like that! (I hope I'm understanding right- I need to actually READ DR:Togami but uh.)

[petite-ursus]

With my birthday next week (eeee!) I finally managed to get some journaling done. 7 pages and I only got a fraction of the summer onto paper. So many wonderful and strange and exciting things have happened the last few months... it's just so difficult to sum it up.

I've mentioned there's a part of me that wishes I was at a point where I felt safe to be emotionally available... to really put an effort into dating again... but I think because it has been such a whirlwind summer with Options At Hand I just keep forgetting how little time has past since the ex finally got out of my house.

It was less than a year ago that I was waking up every morning literally drenched in sweat. I was still being touched when I didn't want it. I wasn't being allowed to sleep through the night. I was anxious and scared, sad and lonely in a way I've never experienced before, and honestly it feels so surreal now.

I'm sure the ex has been madly in and out of love at least twice in the time it has taken me just to feel okay again... that's who she is, and I don't view that as a flex. Still, there is a part of me that wishes I could have snapped back even half so quickly and that I had a wonderful gorgeous partner on my arm to validate to the world that I'm Good... that's just not where I am.

She terrorized me. Threw my furniture. Screamed at me. Took over my bedroom and wrecked my sleep. Wouldn't get out of my house, and made the place I loved most into a palace of eggshells. She intentionally made me doubt my judgement, made me feel small and unsure... and yeah, I've spent the last year recovering the self she saw and wanted to have, if not love. Excavate her from the wreckage. Whatever.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I'm still afraid. Not of her, because she has no access to me... but of what I allowed, and could allow again. Hindsight is 20/20 and I see now how she was like a copy paste in a lot of ways of other people I've loved. The difference of course being that while those relationships were rocky they were based in mutual love. I've been mulling on what a difference that makes... What habits that allows to form. They all had these similar through lines, but with her it was a more dangerous iteration because she wanted to possess me as someone she saw value in... but never actually loved me as a person. Being with her forced me confront some very real relationship patterns of my own, without that glammer of love to make the acts of violence less damning. Who I choose. Why I choose them. The full depth of the harm choosing people like that can do to me. I want to believe that now, having been through that I'll make different choices. I know even as I'm browsing the apps I'm doing it differently than I did before... but people lie, and I don't want to enter my next relationship with my guard all the way up. There's only so much I can do, and then I have to trust another person...

I still can't imagine letting anyone into my home again. I don't know if that's something I'll ever be able to do.Though I hope I say this like a character in a book who doesn't know she's going to be living with the love of her life in 5 chapters(years.)

Two weeks ago was one of the first times since she destroyed the peace I found in my home, where I looked around and said, "Oh I love it here," again. The animals are all happy and healthy, the string lights and plants and all my rocks and decorations make my heart sing. There's no mess and no clutter. I think, maybe now that I have a landing space again... a real refuge again that doesn't feel just like... a place where something terrible happened, with gaps in the furniture and wall decorations where my things were removed to make space for her... maybe now I can get there, to a place where I can let someone else in... but man... tldr, I really just need to give myself a break and let it happen when it happens. It was so so bad. I've had such a wonderful year by comparison that the edges of my memory have softened and made me feel like I should be "back at it," with the life goals that involve another person... but like so bad my actual health deteriorated and I was literally in the hospital. It is OK that it is taking time (LESS THAN A YEAR) to process it all and heal from it. SHOULDERS take more time to fully heal than that sometimes.

Life is so long. There is so much time.

And also, as an aside... I've been rolling around in my head what a surprise blessing it is that in seeing how unloved I was in this last relationship I'm able to find real love in my past relationships where I'd been unsure of it before, because it was so clearly there by comparison. Not that I'd go back to these other people, not that it changes any of the things that were/went wrong, but to know that even if I wasn't loved well... I was loved... That's valuable to me. That's a gift I wasn't expecting.

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

Hey! I saw your reply to that anon ask about mandalorian, and i gotta say i agree with your view. There is something different in season 3 that i couldnt really explain, but you managed to put it into words. The past seasons feel character driven, while this season is more plot driven.

Honestly, i didnt have high expectations, because the ending of season 2 feels conclusive, so i dont know what theyre going to do after that. And when they said that din wont be the main focus of season 3, i felt a bit sad about it haha. I was thinking that maybe we're gonna explore more of din's identity crisis or something like that. But uhhhh idk. I have thoughts and emotions that i cant put into words. I hope you understand what im saying here lmao

Y'know, in hindsight - and can I really say so when we still have an episode left of Season 3, a whole ass Season 4, and however many seasons left until the Disneyfied Thrawn Trilogy Movie? - I feel comfortable saying that Din's story should've ended in Season 2 and he never should've gotten the Darksaber. I also want to argue that he got the Darksaber because Favloni did have plans for him, specifically, until something (Ahsoka and the Thrawn Trilogy and a movie) happened that made them decide to pivot hard into propping up Bo-Katan, whitewashing and sanitizing her backstory, and giving her all of Din's possible storylines. I mean, what did she really do over a season that made her better than Din, who lost everything saving Grogu from Gideon and finding a Jedi who could take him in?

Din was left alone on the bridge of Gideon's cruiser with Bo-Katan and Koska. He is truly alone. Does he follow them back to Bo-Katan's fleet, a CotW among others who don't trust him and his covert? Does he start his search for the Armorer and survivors of Nevarro? Din showed his face to another living being. What does his crisis of faith look like? We saw a glimpse of that in TBOBF; he wasn't doing too hot and then he was banished from his covert and told hwo to atone for his sins. We could've had a multi-episode arc following his journey to Mandalore and visiting the history of Mandalore and its desecration by the Empire. We could have seen him waver in his faith, struggling between what he believed and what he experienced and all the ways they intersect and conflict. Din won the Darksaber in combat. He now holds an ancient Mandalorian Jedi weapon that the Mandalorian diaspora now say marks him as Mand'alor (or the best candidate for Mand'alor). Does he grow into this role using his experience and skills earned as a bounty hunter and his covert's provider, or does he choose to surrender it to somebody else because he never wanted and still does not want the power and authority that comes with the title? Does he ever see Grogu again? Is Grogu doing well? How will they reunite? Well, TBOBF answered all those questions and we just have to accept they're back together at the start of Season 3.

Thse are just some of so many potential character-driven and character-centric stories that I'm never seeing in canon now. He's been wallflowered, pushed into the background, Bo-Katan's newest and biggest supporter in her so-called redemption arc even though you wouldn't fucking know that her redemption arc maybe should've included some mention of what she fucking did in the Clone Wars and the fucking Season 3 logo features Din and Grogu front and center.

(A lot of newer merch I see at the Disney Store, Heroes & Villains, Her Universe, etc. now feature multiple Mandalorians and Mandalorian helmets, so maybe that was a giveaway that we are following more Mandalorians now... and I am still forever struggling to find decent Din Djarin merch that puts him front and center. Fuck me, I guess)

I truly wonder what kind of Season 3 we could've gotten if Favloni, Kennedy, and Disney decided not to MCU-fy Filoni's precious darlings, if we were allowed to follow Din the way we did in the first two seasons. You could bring him back to the covert without losing him to the crowd. You could have him cross paths with Bo-Katan again and have her play a more significant role in his journey(s) without taking all of the spotlight.

I did have high expectations after Season 2, Anon, but once TBOBF came out, i realized I was fucked. And, well. Here we are.

[worstutcanonthingpoll]

We finally have our bracket !!

Rounds 1 & 2 will be under the cut, open for more !

There is a mention of abuse in one of the entries , beware.

Round One (1)

Glyde V.S Pyrope's Orange Attacks

Glyde: Impossible to spawn and even harder to fight,

Pyrope's Orange Attacks: Submitter , in their words , has a tiny ass laptop and rarely succeeds in moving when hitting them.

Genocide Grind V.S RUINs Encounter Rate

Genocide Grind: Takes days (exaggerating) to do.

RUINs Encounter Rate: You can't walk five steps without getting attacked.

Lesser Dog Slander V.S Sliding Ice Puzzle

Lesser Dog Slander: "The Red Bird NPC in Grillby's comments on the disappearance of the Dogs, even if Lesser Dog is still alive. Interestingly, Lesser Dog is never mentioned by the other guard dogs. Killing it provokes no reaction from the other dogs at Grillby's. In turn, if Lesser Dog is the only guard dog left, how it acts at Grillby's does not change."

Sliding Ice Puzzle: Tiny snow hat is rewarding, not worth the effort of doing that puzzle several times if you mess up.

Cap'n (SCC) V.S Your Choices Don't Matter

Cap'n (SCC): They thought he was creepy to the girls. I'm gonna be honest, do not vote Cap'n. I want him to lose this, he's a good character. My man was trying too hard to seem straight, let him be.

Your Choices Don't Matter: Vote this! It's very limiting in contrast to Undertale's "your every choice matters" bit.

Mean Chara V.S Cop Undyne

Mean Chara: The triggering topic I was talking about. This had second most submissions next to Cop Undyne, it's the theory that Chara was abusive towards Asriel when they were alive.

Cop Undyne: ACAB.

Not Enough Amalgamates V.S True Lab's Green Key Scene.

Not Enough Amalgamates: They're cool, someone wanted more of them.

True Lab's Green Key Scene: A nine year old somewhere was scarred by it, it is kinda creepy though.

No Running Ability V.S Ambiguous Skeleton Ages

No Running Ability: Frisk walks so slowly, why?

Ambiguous Skeleton Ages: Sans is older, Papyrus is younger, we know that. But how old? Is Papyrus 19, or is he 32?

Megalovania (UT Version) V.S Homestuck References

Megalovania (UT Version): Submitter thinks it's the worst version of Megalovania.

Homestuck References: The one in MTT Resort specifically, quoting the submission; "Get jade harley outta there !!! Not her natural habitat.........".

Round Two (2)

"I Already Befriended Your Mom Last Night." V.S "I Befriended Him Too."

"I Already Befriended Your Mom Last Night": Weird to make your mom jokes to kids you just met, submitter says (valid, honestly).

"I Befriended Him Too.": Sans fucked both Kris' parents, oh no. Was added by the group to even the numbers out.

Aaron Being Creepy To Frisk V.S Date Stuff

Aaron Being Creepy To Frisk: Submitter says that everyone else can recognise Frisk as a child, so why is Aaron flirting with them?

Date Stuff: Kinda weird to invite a kid to so many dates, sometimes just to threaten their life.

Lightners & Darkners Connotations V.S Frisk's Asian Stereotypes Connotations

Lightners & Darkners Connotations: "Darkners' purpose is to to serve Lightners" has some unfortunate connotations when you think about it.

Frisk's Asian Stereotypes Connotations: Frisk has yellow skin and narrow eyes, not the best design choices in hindsight.

Flowey's Characterization V.S Mew Mew's Fight Being Switch Exclusive

Flowey's Characterization: Submitter thinks he's heavily (presumably overly) villainized considering he's a child in a self-made genocidal loop.

Mew Mew's Fight Being Switch Exclusive: Give us our transfemme catgirl fight everywhere else >:( (Added by the group to even the numbers out).

Asgore 'Willingly' Murders Six Kids V.S Papyrus Death

Asgore 'Willingly' Murders Six Kids: Honestly they wrote a whole essay that I can't bother to paste here. In summary, what Toriel said in the stuff pre-Asriel's fight.

Papyrus Death: Why does he still believe in us? Why does he still have faith? Why does he think we can be a better person, if we just tried?

Alphys Enjoys Mew Mew 2 In Deltarune V.S Sans Emits Slime

Alphys Enjoys Mew Mew 2 In Deltarune: What the hell is this imposter.

Sans Emits Slime: "THESE SNAILS ARE JUST LIKE MY BROTHER. ROUND, SLOW... AND CONSTANTLY EMITTING SLIME???"

Lemon Bread (Shyra) Disguises As A Save Point V.S Asgore Dies In All Neutral Endings

Lemon Bread (Shyra) Disguises As A Save Point: Submitter was pissed off on their first playthrough.

Asgore Dies In All Neutral Endings: His whole speech about being a family, his actions in a repeat neutral. It's heartbreaking, hard to not mourn for what we could've had.

Kralsei's Weird Incest Undertones V.S Toby Never Explicitly States Nonbinary-ness Of Characters

Kralsei's Weird Incest Undertones: Obviously, kralsei isn't canon but it is implied that Ralsei has a crush on Kris or the player. He is very similar to Asriel, making it honestly weird.

Toby Never Explicitly States Nonbinary-ness Of Characters: He re-published his whole book because he accidentally misgendered his characters, goes out of his way to correct people, and to use the right pronouns. So why not just say it's canon when it so clearly is?

[flossinspector]

— character info sheet.

(repost, don’t reblog)

name: Toothiana

name meaning: Based off the magical memories in children's teeth, which caused her parents to meet.

alias/es: Tooth Fairy, and Tooth or Toothie by friends

ethnicity: [redacted]

one picture you like best of your chara:

name: Toothiana

name meaning: Based off the magical memories in children's teeth, which caused her parents to meet.

alias/es: Tooth Fairy, and Toothie by friends

ethnicity: [redacted]

one picture you like best of your chara:

two h/cs you never told anyone: hm...

1. I might have mentioned this before, but I can't remember for sure? I guess trigger warning? Anyway, Tooth understandably had a terrible time mentally when her parents first passed away. (warranted, obviously) There was definitely some self harm in that period of time. Pulling out handfuls of feathers, and she honestly got this close to trying to cut off her wings. If they weren't crucial to her survival, she probably would have. But she couldn't let herself die after so many people gave their lives to keep her alive.

2. Again, I don't know if I've actually said this in a post, but anyway! At first, Tooth didn't realize that she stopped aging. She can't even specify when exactly it was. Just one day, she realized all the children she grew up alongside were the grown ups. They were taking over positions their parents used to hold, having children of their own, getting age lines. And she... wasn't. Her reflection hadn't changed. After that generation is around the time she started spreading the scope of her gifts in exchange for teeth thing further, as well as pulling back of the personal relationship aspect of it. She didn't want to watch others pass her by as closely anymore.

three things your character likes doing in their free time: 

Painting. Any murals around her palace featuring herself were made by her own hand. It's a good way for her to process her feelings.

Practicing with weapons of various kinds, yoga type body training, sparring when she can find a suitable partner. Basically physical activity is a part of her regular routine whenever she can fit it in.

Visiting the Winged Elephant. Her oldest friend, closest confidant, and greatest kept secret. Honestly she wouldn't have made it this far without him.

seven people your character likes / loves: If you go off canon it's easy to list. I mean, the guardians are the obvious ones. So Jack, Bunny, Sandy, North, MiM. (in the books add on Ombric, Katherine, Nightlight.) The Elephant, her Fairies. She has a lot of people. And the list only grows when it comes to connections made on this blog.

two things your character regrets:

Secluding herself for so long. She knows it was bad for her to be alone for so long, especially in hindsight.

Letting the Monkey King live.

two one phobia your character has:

Cleithrophobia. which is similar to Claustrophobia, but more specific. It's about being locked away or caged, not necessarily the size of the space.

She definitely fears losing the people she loves. She's still grappling with her survivors guilt, and honestly being alone again in that way would destroy her

tagged by: @hamadacare

tagging: literally anyone who wants to share some headcanons

[stevethehairington]

4, 19 and 39 for weird writers ask 🫶

ty for sending this in friend!! <3

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

okay i know this is asking for specifics but here we have a category 5 "i've been asked to recall something so naturally my brain forgets everything its ever known" moment. soooo, i'm going to be pretty unspecific probably lol buuuut

any word that implies something tender is happening is my jaaaaam. i mean, tender itself is a word i love a lot. but yeah anything that implies something deeply vulnerable and intimate is so so good. i go coo coo for cocoa puffs about it.

i also fucking love space words - nebula, constellation, supernova, cosmic, celestial, anything to do with the stars, the moon, the sun. i eat that shit UP.

also same goes with words about water!!!

also shout out to my homies irrevocably (which i still associate with that one monologue from twilight but like it kind of went off using this words soooo sdflkds), petrichor (bc that's a fun word and i LOVE rain and the smell of rain so), and also freckles and dimples bc i fucking L O V E mentioning those in anything i write so they are favorites too <3

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

ooh so i started writing like officially the summer before my freshman year of college. i had been apart of fandom before that for a while and had definitely been reading fic for quite some time before, and i'd always sort of wanted to do some writing of my own, but i could never like fully commit to anything. which, in hindsight, i'm very glad i couldn't for that first fandom i was in lmfao. let's just say iykyk.

but then i watched skam and i totally and completely fell in love with that show, with that cast of characters, with the stories they were telling. and i wanted to add to it, i wanted to expand that universe, i wanted to put these characters in my own situations and shows how they'd respond! so i did! and i wrote and i wrote and i wrote. to this day it is still the fandom i have written the most fics for (tied with marvel also lmfao, and honestly stranger things is creeping up there, it's getting close and the brainrot has not died, not even close, so it just might pass it up. but the fact that it's stayed number one for like 6 years? crazy).

it absolutely helped that i found a server to join for fans of the show. that was literally the best thing ever. i made so many connections and so many dear friends and, aside from the brief bumps in the road that came with that server (lmaoo), it was such a good environment and it was SO creatively stimulating and SO motivating and SO inspirational. like i had so many people in my corner rooting me on to actually finish writing that first fic!! and i did!! and their support just kept coming and coming for everything after and that was SO integral to my success and my desire to keep writing. so yeah, shout out to skam international, yall were the real mvps and i wouldnt be where i am today if it werent for you all <3

where am i now and where am i going? well, right now im deeeeep in the st brainrot so im riding that wave as far as it will take me for as long as it will take me. and as for the future? i really have no idea! i have no clue what's going to sink it's claws into me next, but i'm excited to find out!

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

really truly it's my friends. whenever i'm feeling down in the dumps about my writing they're always so kind and so nice and so encouraging with me, they know exactly what to say. and a lot of them are writers or artists themselves too so like they understand the feeling too, which makes it easier to like talk about it with them and to take a step back from that ledge.

i also like to look at how much i've done already, and how much i have left that i want to tell and that kind of just helps to put things in perspective. like wow i've done so much, i've made it through so much to get to this point - no way can i give up now.

weird questions for writers

[kiwanopie]

You get the things you deserve is seriously so so good!! I loved the way you dropped subtle hints throughout about the names/girls, I seriously could read this fic over and over it’s just such a smooth and easy read if that makes sense? Like the pacing and change of mood felt so seamless!

I’m kinda curious about oikawa’s character.. he seemed so genuinely interested but then it was revealed at the end that he’s done this with several different girls, and it suddenly got me questioning all of him and the y/n character’s past interactions!! Were his feelings for her “real” this time? (Real in the sense of like he really wanted to be with her long term and wasn’t going to just drop her after a few weeks like he did with his previous flings) cause at the beginning he had this inner dialogue about how he has never had a similar sexual experience with anyone before and that he felt like this was the first time he truly connected with another person. I couldn’t really tell if what he was thinking was true and he really did feel differently about y/n compared to every past fling, or if that was just the way his mind worked when he was really infatuated with someone, like thinking every fling is better and more special than the last and every girl is the one for him since he’s forgotten the rest of the girls? I’m so sorry hahaha I know you intended for the ending to be open to interpretation but it’s really got me thinking and theorizing!! Like I can’t tell what is a more sad scenario, it turning out that y/n was never all that special or unique to him or y/n actually being special and ~the one~ but he blew any chance he might have had because of his past behaviour. Both are pretty sad now that I’m thinking about it 😭

Oh man I honestly want to go back right now and read it again to see if I missed any other hints!! Thank you for the excellent read!!!

Oh man, so many things were going on in the background.

I’ve reread that one shot a few times and there’s a lot of things I took out that I felt were over explained but in hindsight should’ve stayed in. But I’m saying all that to say that Oikawa really felt for the reader.

In the beginning, after mentioning how he felt about the one night stand he gets into all the nervous feelings he’s experiencing by being in the presence of the reader. He mentions that “He thinks he may have liked you even before that rager last night.” And that’s because he did. Maybe not to such the degree he did post one night stand, but he knew you were the transfer and he knew you shared his morning lecture with him. And like the conversation among his friends referenced, you definitely came up a few times at some point - all very positive things. So, you’re new and beautiful and already well received among his group of peers, there’s probably been a few times that you caught his eye during your first lecture and he ogled at you a bit. You know, blushing cheeks, lingering glances, the usual signs of budding interest.

Mai and Ayumi, scorned women that they are, notice that shit straight from the jump. It’s a similar routine, leading to disaster like a ticking time bomb and at first they want to cut it at the bud. Like you said, they look at you like a little sister, if what happened to them happened to you they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. And of course you saw what his behavior did to them when he got what he wanted last time. Mai still hasn’t recovered and Ayumi locks up like a deer in headlights whenever they’re in the same room anymore. When you first hear about him you fucking hate this guy.

But here’s the thing, Oikawa never initiates these honey traps when they go down. He’s attracted to these women, sure, but they come to him. Ayumi, Mai, Yūka, Chihiro, they were all fans of him at some point. They approached him. And of course he egged them on when he realized there was something to gain from being with them. Mai was probably the most time he’s spent chasing but, there are differences in the way he interacts with the reader as opposed to everyone else.

It’s easy to miss but reader says: “Walk you home when it got too late.”

Oikawa is blatantly interested in the reader before they meet at that house party. Even at the house party he’s nervous, he has to drink himself into a coma just to make a move. Ayumi and Mai notice that difference, that this time he might have something to lose, so obviously they decide to take advantage of that.

Not to confuse, reader did accidentally fuck him at the beginning. Reader’s natural allure was already being weaponized before the story began, she just naively underestimated his ability to talk his way into somebody’s pants. But thankfully it works out in their favor. It confirms the fact that Oikawa really did like the reader and it makes it all the more easy to string him along like she did. The deal was to wait until he wanted to make something serious out of it and break his heart.

There’s also little things. Oikawa texted the girls during class and let them sit with his stuff during practice. Most of them were resorted to “The girl oikawa’s probably fucking right now ig.” And were all mostly limited to school time - they came to him. You, on the other hand, he walks to class and bites into his practice time for. He doesn’t just text you during class, he gets there early just to sit next to you. He texts you first thing in the morning. Changes his coffee order cause he knows when you’re done he’ll want you to sip on his and he wants you to enjoy it. He sends you heart eyes across the cafe, holds your hand when he walks you home in the chilly weather, hugs you tightly before he leaves. He even calls you in his free time and lets you talk through his earbuds while he studies. When you said “People look at me like I’m your girlfriend.” You really meant it.

[spookiekewchie]

Risk & Reward

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Characters: mobster!Sam x black!reader

Summary: Breaking up with a notorious mobster isn’t easy, especially when he refuses to accept the words “it’s over”. 

Word Count: 2.5k+

Warnings: kinda sorta dark!sam?, implied stalking, a little dubious consent, manipulative behavior,  fingering (f receiving), a lil exhibitionism (idk yall i think sam would be into it no matter the au), language, mention of calling sam daddy (as you should)

A/N: One of my entries for @ritesofreverie​‘s hotel indigo challenge. I hoooope I fulfilled the prompt I chose okay and hopefully you enjoy. If there’s any errors or typos my bad, I gave it a look over before posting but I probably missed something knowing me. Moodboard made by me, and the divider is by @firefly-graphics 

DO NOT repost or translate my work anywhere. Reblogs are always welcome, and let me know that you enjoy my fics.

Prompt: Where business meets pleasure + mobster with Sam Wilson

“Has anyone ever told you that you work too hard, darlin’?” Comes the smooth voice of Sam, notorious mob boss, owner of the hotel you were currently managing, and your ex boyfriend. You merely sigh, ignoring him as he steps into the manager’s office and shuts the door behind him. You resist the urge to look up at him, choosing instead to focus your attention on the emails you’re sifting through. The laptop screen is a less tempting sight than Sam, and you don’t need him distracting you while you’re trying to work. Your situation isn’t exactly standard, but you’ve put so much into running the legitimate side of Sam’s business that you refuse to simply walk away from it. In hindsight you realize that you probably should have. 

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re annoying?” You quip, and while you can’t see it you know he’s smirking at you. You can practically feel it as he walks further into the office and leans forward to press a hand against the smooth surface of the desk. “I’m working, what do you want Samuel?” His smirk drops, and again, you don’t need to look at him to know it. He hates when you call him that, it’s too formal for how familiar the two of you are. In his eyes it’s a sign of you trying to put distance between the two of you, and Sam refuses to allow that. 

He’s already allowed you to suffer under the delusion that he’s your ex and that you two are currently not in a relationship. Because as far as Sam is concerned you are still his, and you’re still together. You just needed a little break from the dangerous life that he lived. Sam figures a couple months is long enough, and he wants his woman back. He's been plenty patient, even entertained you going on a few dates. Dates that he made sure went nowhere because the moment you bid them goodnight he was there to make sure they never contacted you again. And the disappointment always sent you back into his arms for a night. It's manipulative, Sam's well aware, but it's the best way he knows to show you that you belong with him and no one else is good enough.

After all, how can they say they deserve you when they run at the first sign of a threat. Honestly he's doing you a favor. 

The truth is simply that you needed a break from Sam, from his intense need to possess you in every way imaginable.

"Is that anyway to talk to your boss?" Sam's query makes you scoff in disbelief, and finally you look up at him. 

Big mistake. He's wearing that suit he knows you love to see him in, and he's giving you that look that lets you know he's here for more than just business. You suck in a breath, ignoring the way heat slithers through your belly and settles between your thighs just at the sight of him. It’s been nearly a month since your last slip up with him and you’re trying to stay strong. It’s not easy when you can practically read his mind as he eyes you like he wants to devour you. You already know he’s thinking that you’re wearing too many clothes, and that he wants to see you in nothing but the pretty brown skin that he wants to kiss and touch every inch of. "Samuel—." You cut off the statement as soon you clock the almost imperceptible way his eyes narrow slightly. 

“Darlin’, you know I hate it when you call me that.” He sighs out, smoothly moving his way behind the desk as his long fingers drag against your desk. You try to focus on his words, and not his fingers, knowing that if you do your mind will wander to the thoughts of how easily he can take you apart with them. You can’t have that, not after the last time you woke up in his bed after a moment of weakness that you swore will never happen again. “Call me Sam or…” He trails off, and you know exactly what he wants to hear you say and the name is on the tip of your tongue before you clamp down on it with your teeth. Daddy. God just thinking about calling him that makes your pussy throb.

Sam tsks, shaking his head as he reaches to shut your laptop and push it aside so he can maneuver himself in front of you and lean against your desk. This is not what you need today, all you want to do is manage the hotel, deal with a few upset customers, and maybe have a drink at the hotel bar later before you call it a day and go home. Dealing with Sam and his need to work his way back into your life is not on your list of things that you want to deal with. “You really gon’ make me drag it out of you, huh? Just a few weeks ago it’s the only thing you wanted to call me.” 

His cockiness makes you push away from him in your rolling chair, only for him to immediately reach out and pull you right back in until you're sitting between his spread thighs and forcing yourself to meet his gaze and not stare at his crotch. “Sam I can’t keep doing this with you, I told you already. It’s over. We’re done.” 

“We aren’t done, and you’re smart enough to know that I ain’t about to accept that breakup shit you talkin'.” He lifts a hand from the armrest of your chair and catches your jaw with a firm grip. “In fact, I think it’s about time you came back home. Missed having you in our bed.” He murmurs, and you can feel the knot twisting in your stomach at how adamant he’s being about you coming back to him. It’s a mix of want and worry as you peer into his deep brown eyes. He was taking a risk being so adamant with you right now, he knew how much of a fight you could put up and for a moment he expects you to try and cut him down to size with your words. 

Risk and reward, that was the story of his life and he had a knack for getting what he wanted in the end. 

You open your mouth to speak, to offer up a rebuttal but the moment your soft pillowy lips part he’s taking the moment to slip the tip of his tongue past them. The digit brushes over your tongue, and for the briefest of moments you let yourself fall back into old habits and let your tongue tease against the man’s thumb. It’s his soft groan that brings you back to yourself and all the insistence that you’re done with Sam and his possessive nonsense. You make an attempt to jerk your head away, and the effort is met with frustration as he moves faster to bring his hands to the sides of your face and force you to look at him. The flash of frustration is clear as it flickers over his features, and it makes your stomach flip. 

“Stop fuckin’ tryin’ta run away from this.” He utters the words softly, keeping the growl from his voice but you can feel how tense he is as he holds your face carefully in his big hands. “Stop acting like you don’t want me, like you don’t still love me.” And you can’t deny that you don’t. That’s what makes this so frustrating. You do still want him, and you do still love him, and you know he loves you. It’s just that his love has a body count and it’s intense. Far more intense than anything you’ve ever had directed at you from a lover. You don’t know how to deal with it, part of you wants to simply give into it, but that stubborn side of you wants to fight against how much control you’ll be giving up to let him have you the way he wants to. But what choice do you really have when you both know that he’ll continue going out of his way to make sure he’s the one you end up going back to every time. 

“Sam, I can’t keep having this conversation with you.” Your resolve is breaking and you know he can see it. 

“Then stop fighting the inevitable because I’m not letting you go, darlin’.”  You can’t even process that before you feel his lips pressing insistently to yours. It takes you all of a second to fall into it, hands sliding against Sam’s strong thighs as you press into the kiss. For all his faults no man feels as right as he does, even his kisses are intoxicating to you and it’s yet another reason why you can’t bring yourself to cut him off completely. He’s your bad habit and you both know it. Kissing him is draining all of the fight out of you, and it’s like your body is on autopilot as your hands go to his belt to fumble with it until you have it undone. Seconds away from working his pants open the sound of the office door swinging open brings you to a screeching halt as it snatches you back to your senses. 

Sam all but growls, frustration etched on his handsome features as he throws a dark look over his shoulder at the poor hotel employee that dares to interrupt. “Get. Out.” Two simple words, spoken quietly and through clenched teeth but that’s enough. The weight of his reputation makes the notorious mobster’s words carry a threat that is heard loud and clear. Your head knows better than to find that attractive, but your pussy is a traitor and clenches pathetically around nothing. You need to put some distance between you and Sam before your pussy takes over and has you giving in to whatever Sam wants right then and there. 

Using the distraction you push away from Sam and stand from the office chair to make an attempt to reach your office door. Of course you find yourself pressed up against the closed door as Sam’s fingers reach down to twist the lock into place before his strong arms cage you in. “What did I say? Stop trying to run from me, because I’m not lettin’ you go, darlin’.” There are those words again, possessive and definitive as Sam presses you harder into the office door. 

Your protests die on your tongue when you feel one of his hands squeezing against your breasts through the thin button up blouse that you wear. The traitor between your thighs pulses with arousal, body craving the man’s touch as his free hand rucks your tight skirt up. There’s no silencing the mewl of pleasure that sneaks its way out of you when he presses his thigh between your parted legs. “See, how the hell you gonna tell me you don’t want us to be together when you can’t even keep your legs closed around me.” His words have heat rushing through you, and you know you should be angry at him for the crude words but how can you when you aren’t even trying to fight him off. You’re past that, all your arguments for why you can’t keep going down this road with him and why you can’t be with him fizzling out until the only thing your mind can comprehend is the need to feel him. 

“Sam, please…” You hate how desperate you sound, but the way he has you aching for him when he’s barely touched you is enough for your pride to take a backseat for the moment. His dark chuckle tells you that he is aware that he has you right where he wants you as he drops his hands to push your soaked panties down your legs until they’re dangling uselessly around one of your ankles before he’s hitching your leg around his waist. Fingers prod at your slick sex, your hands gripping against his shoulders as his teases and explores your folds with a satisfied hum on his lips before finally sinking two digits into your tight heat. The moan that leaves your lips is wanton, and needy, your walls squeezing greedily at his digits as he slowly works them in and out of you at an agonizingly slow pace. It takes him no time at all to have you dripping down his fingers, and you can hear how wet you are, somehow that only sets you further on edge as your hips begin to rock against Sam’s fingers before a strong hand slams your hips back against the door. 

“You’ve been so difficult, running around with these other guys as if they could ever compare to me. Trying to give away what you know is mine.” His words are a near growl, and you can hear the frustration in his voice as his words are pressed into your hair. “I’ve been so patient with you, so benevolent, so fucking understanding.” He hisses that last one as you clamp down on his fingers with a wobbly moan on your lips. “Now I wanna hear you say it, darlin’.” He pulls back just enough to let you see his face. “Wanna hear you beg me to remind you who you belong to.” His fingers curl inside you and it takes him no time at all to find that patch of nerves inside you that nearly causes your knees to buckle. 

This isn’t like the other times when he’d let you use him for a quick fuck to get out your frustration at another case of being ghosted, unknowingly because of him. This time Sam is intent on making you understand that he’s been serious this whole time about not letting you go or letting you move on from him. It’s hard to deny when he’s literally holding you by the pussy, and you want nothing more than to feel him pounding an orgasm or several out of you. 

Maybe you should just accept it, he’s never hurt you. He’s just a little possessive, you can deal with that. Is what that dark little voice in your mind tells you, despite knowing that it's more than just a little. It's hard to think up a pros and cons list when Sam's fingers are stroking against that spot inside you and all reason leaves you as you crumble under the weight of your desires. Your hands grip against the collar of his suit jacket as you tug him forward. 

“Remind me yourself.” You breathe in between gasping moans, managing to salvage a little bit of your pride by playing on his. 

There’s a pause, his fingers stilling inside you for just a second before you see the all too familiar smirk on his face. Sam pushes in a third finger, and you hiss but he doesn’t bother letting your body adjust before he’s roughly plunging them in and out of you. “Now you know better, darlin’. Did you forget about all the times I’ve broken you down to tears before I even let you look at my cock?” His filthy words have you clamping down harder on his fingers, and he chuckles at the strained whine that’s fighting to free itself from your mouth. He’s so cocky, and you know it’s with good reason. Sam isn’t lying and now that you’ve put the challenge out there you know he’s going to spend the rest of his day taking you part again and again. 

“I—” Your attempt at a smart comment is cut off by the sound of someone knocking on your office door, and to your surprise Sam doesn’t bother stopping his fingers as they thrust noisily into your dripping core. He merely opens the door enough for him to stick his head through. Whatever the hotel employee has come to say is forgotten when they hear the muffled moans from you and the wet squelch of fingers in your cunt. 

“Do me a favor and have a bottle of champagne delivered to the presidential suite, I’ll be staying the weekend.” 

You can barely make out the stammering reply that Sam receives from the staff member, everything sounds like background noise as the blood rushes in your ears. Sam closes the door again, pressing you back against it with a grin before lifting his free hand to let it wrap lazily around your throat. 

“Now where were we…”

[95jezzica]

What version of ducktales is your favourite?

The original or the reboot?

A good but difficult question to answer. x)

.

I think both have their own merits and are great shows, but I also have to take into account I mostly watched DT87 when I was much younger. I'm now a grown adult with other expectations and perhaps a more critical eye, which isn't completely fair to DT17.

It doesn't help that I feel Disney definitely screwed over the creative team of DT17 by constantly switching which channel it was aired on, and that Donald Duck didn't show up nearly as much as expected/promised to a degree. I fully understand that's partly on the marketing team though, and there were also some scheduling issues with Donald's VA (Tony Anselmo) since he was also doing other project(s?) at the time DT17 was made. To my understanding Donald couldn't show up in as many episodes as it was originally intended because of this.

.

I will say that I loved DT17 dared to do something with Della Duck, and discuss what actually happened to her and a how it affected Huey's, Dewey's and Louie's lives.

I think, in the end however, that DT87 will come out on top of this one - mostly because of the smaller interactions between the characters. They weren't perfect (like how the triplets many times treated Webby in DT87), but most of the time they worked for their story.

Honestly, my biggest issue with DT17 was how they treated Donald in it.

Donald being gone for the majority of DT87 was explained from the start by that Donald joined the navy, so we were fine with him only showing up in cameos from time to time. Scrooge was made HDL's temporary guardian and we knew where/what Donald was and doing while Scrooge took the kids on adventures.

In DT17, however, Donald is mostly treated as a joke when he shows up, and his concerns are constantly waved away as unnecessary despite it being proven time and time again that Donald have plenty of reasons be to worried. We also have no idea what Donald is doing between the episodes he shows up in. Barely any mention, no anything. Did he work on the boat the entire time? Did he get another job? Who knows.

Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but I believe it was a missed oppurtunity to not add a few lines of what Donald might be doing even in the episodes he doesn't/can't join, or at least reference the fact that Donald raised HDL all alone for 10+ years. Small lines like...

"Sucks that uncle Donald has to work on Christmas of all days", ... or... "Are you sure we shouldn't ask uncle Donald first before we do this?"

... spread out through the episodes where Donald can't show up would have been more than enough and done wonders for the show. Just small lines that more actively show HDL was raised by Donald and are still - through good and bad - still affected by it.

The fact that we also had to assume Scrooge and Donald solved their 10 year old long fight off-screen admittedly made me feel... bit cheated too. If you're going to tell us Scrooge and Donald spent 10 years not even talking to each other because of their huge fight, then you can't expect us to believe everything is fine and dandy again after the first episode is done and never bring it up again, especially when they to our knowledge haven't even properly talked through what happened. You can't then tell us almost 3 seasons later Donald is "Scrooge's closest ally" if you haven't shown that Scrooge thinks of Donald that way, or have given some kind of build up for it.

.

With that said I DO still love both versions of Ducktales, despite their own share of flaws and issues, and I enjoy them for what they are. 🧡

[seesgood]

can we very gently talk about call out posts / culture really quick?  not in a judgmental way, but in like a: i just want to pose a thought and explain why i’m never going to buy into it and why i wish it would become less of a trend instead of more of one? and i’ll add the  disclaimer  here: i totally get not wanting certain people around you for various reasons, that is all your prerogative. that’s your comfort level. but in emphasizing “your blog should be a safe space” we’re kind’ve losing sight of the fact that the rpc should also be a safe space, and as much as your comfort and safety matter, so do other people’s. and not just the person who hurt you, but the third parties and other mutuals and 99.9% of people who are not at all involved in any way in whatever happened. so, anyway here goes, read it or don’t, we all have different opinions or reasons, i just want to be heard:

people are allowed to change.  think back to who you were last year. two years ago. think about the stuff you said when you were seventeen, or twenty-one, or hell whatever age you were. current-you would probably cringe at the kind of stuff past-you had to say. because you grew. you learned. you had life experiences. in hindsight you have the freedom to be like “oof yeah that was not the best version of myself right there damn i don’t want to be like that again.” the growing trend of ‘here’s a 10+ page google doc complete with out of context screenshots that sometimes date back to like 2017 or earlier’ makes this kind of change impossible. because right there, you’ve just frozen a person in time, probably not at their best, removed any and all amounts of context, and put it on the internet and let other people judge it for themselves. 

so that leads into another point that i want to just kinda present to the community at large: the act of documenting behaviors and storing them for months / years at a time, in itself creates a super unsafe environment, not just for you, your friends, the people who have hurt you --- but also for anyone else that isn’t at all involved in whatever happened. like, for example, i like to think that i’m a pretty nice person. i actively try to be a nice person. am i sometimes not having the best day? have people definitely caught me in bad moments? oh hell yeah. but am i, as someone who tries really hard to be nice and welcoming, constantly thinking through every message i send to someone knowing that a) i could have a reputation that makes them read into context that isn’t there and that could contribute to them misinterpreting words i meant in a different way, b) very aware that every post i make, ask i send, message i send can at any moment be screenshotted and posted and taken out of context and either serve as someone’s only opinion of me or pile on to someone’s existing opinion of me? yeah. so in my experience, and based on people i’ve talked to, we now have this thing where you can be surface-friends wtih a lot of people, but if you want to survive in the tumblr rpc you should really only have 2-3 people that you really trust that you can actually talk about shit with. 

and lately i’ve been seeing a resurgence of posts on my dash about like “bring back xyz in the rpc” or “the reason the rpc is like this is because of xyz” and i both agree and disagree with a lot of this, but primarily i think the reason the rpc is Off lately is because everyone and their cousin has a DNI, which is --- again --- your decision and i understand and respect that, but while you know the context of every name on that DNI, other people don’t. and to be honest: other people don’t really care and honestly maybe they shouldn’t care. --- and don’t get me wrong, your friends should care if someone has hurt you. that’s important. but joe billy bob who just wants to write their character with yours is going to read through your rules, they’re going to see “do not interact with me if you follow with or interact with these people you’ve never heard of and if you want me to tell you why just message me” (which no one is ever going to do, i’m sorry to say). and say, joe billy bob also followed that other person because they were like ‘omg this blog looks cool’ --- now joe billy bob, who just wants to write cool plots, is suddenly the middle-man in some type of drama that they do not understand, and maybe they’re able to remove themselves from the situation, but even then it’s still in the back of your mind. 

this is getting long. it’ll be longer, but let’s take a brief break for me to remind you that in some cases, it’s definitely good to give your mutuals and friends a heads up when someone has done something really, really bad. like, remember x amount of years ago when some dude was like ‘i’m gonna make up a new person and say they died by suicide as a social experiment’ or ‘hey this person actively tries to force very triggering plots about abuse / rape / incest onto people and has been doing so for years and does not seem to change their ways no matter how many people try to educate them’ that’s shit people should probably know about. and it’s also okay ( in my opinion ) for your friends to be able to message you like ‘hey i saw you’re writing with x and i just wanted to let you know i had this experience with them’ if that’s something they feel comfortable doing. and if they are comfortable with you still having the autonomy to make your own decision regarding the person. 

i’ll be honest, for a second: i’ve been part of friendships and groups that have turned really toxic for one reason or another. a handful of times. there are probably people out there that are like “yeah this chick is really fake and manipulative and etc, i was friends with her back in 2019″ which, okay. yeah. i’ve definitely done shit and said shit that was not the most representative of who i want to be and who i want to become, and you probably have to. because we are human beings and we are a product of our social groups and the community around us. and you shouldn’t be chained to a version of you that isn’t you anymore. people change. they grow. you don’t have to like them, but you should respect that sometimes people don’t mesh, and that doesn’t mean any of them are bad people, it just means the experience was bad. 

a few additional notes i would like to make but i’ve already gone on way too long:

90% of the callout posts that i’ve seen and the DNI’s that i’ve seen can, in my opinion, be classified as a friend group thing. you were friends with x, x did something, now y and z aren’t friends with x anymore. pain is a very, very real thing and people hurting you should never be minimized, but at some point i just want you to remember that not every friendship is going to end happily, but both you and the other party should be allowed to move on and grow better, healthier friendships after. rehashing Friend Group Gone Wrong instances removes that ability for not only person x, but also person y and z.

you putting out a callout says just as much ( maybe more ) about you than it does about the other person. which sucks. because i’d like to think we all have great intentions, and i’m not saying that you should swallow your pain, but it might not be the kind of thing that impacts the community at large, and maybe you should try to find a better way of working through it with a trusted friend(s)

i’m going to be very real and very blunt on this one: literally no one cares. i say that with love. i’m good friends with people who have each other on their DNI’s. establish a baseline of respect and ‘i’m not going to say anything to them about you and vice versa because there’s no need for me to do so’ and move on. but seriously. no one cares. most outside people read callout posts because they like being in the know about the drama, not because they actually care. 

person a and person b who are mentioned in the DNI / callout aren’t the only ones who are going to be affected. your friends, your mutuals, your writing partners are now all put in a weird spot where you have to pick sides on an issue you know nothing about and shouldn’t have to know anything about. you’re asking people to choose sides on an issue they cannot fully understand, and that’s not fair to them or to you. and it drives great people away. and then we all lose out on having more awesome people in the rpc.

you’re entitled to your safe space, but this is a public platform and you are also responsible for maintaining your safe space. you shouldn’t put it entirely on other people to do that for you. you can block, blacklist, make up funny names for, or spitefully erase from your many anything and anyone that you wish. but you shouldn’t make your friends do it for you.

there’s always an inherent power imbalance when any kind of drama occurs between those who have more followers / friends / connections and those who do not. and the smaller blog is always going to suffer a little bit more because they don’t have people blindly coming to their defense. 

bad moments, bad experiences, bad decisions DO NOT equal bad people. 

allow people to make up their own mind about something or someone

anywho, if you read through this whole thing i think i owe you financial compensation. but also thank you for reading / listening / considering. even if you rolled your eyes through the whole thing like “stfu lia” that’s fine. i’m just presenting an alternative thought. i’d like to once again state: i’m not judging you if you’ve made a callout/DNI or if you’re on a callout/DNI. like i literally don’t care. and frankly, in my opinion, i shouldn’t have to. because i, and you, and your friends, and your mutuals, and your non-mutuals should be allowed the space to make up their own opinion and mind on something or someone without being told that there will be consequences if they don’t agree with you. set boundaries. communicate in healthy ways. you don’t have to forgive the people who have hurt or wronged you, but you also don’t get to decide that their actions make up 100% of who they are as a person, or decide that that is the only side of that person people should get to see. 

[vrishchikawrites]

LAN XICHEN AND JIANG CHENG:

JC stans want Jiang Cheng to end up with Lan Xichen because he is the First Jade of Lan, while Lan Wangji, who is Wei Wuxian’s husband, is only Second. For once in his miserable life, Jiang Cheng will get the better end of the deal than Wei Wuxian, right? But the thing is, as far as the narrative goes, nobody can beat Hanguang-jun other than Wei Wuxian- his own brother included. We are repeatedly given evidence that Lan Wangji is stronger than Lan Xichen, is more of an expert at the guqin than Lan Xichen, is more skilled in Clan Techniques than Lan Xichen, is more righteous than Lan Xichen, etc. etc. Nobody but Lan Wangji could have survived the 33 whip lashes, fought 33 well-trained Elders while also protecting his dying beloved, undertaken dangerous night hunts in desolate areas with no expectations of repayment, and end up Hanguang-jun. When one hears of the name ‘Lan’, one thinks of Hanguang-jun, Lan Wangji, the Second Jade of Lan, and then, Lan Xichen, his brother, the First Jade. Lan Wangji did have more freedom than Lan Xichen, but it is not that much more, and thus we can attribute his values and his morals as his own. Where does Xicheng come in? We know that Jiang Cheng does not care about pesky qualities such as honour or integrity, to say nothing of his homophobic tendencies, but if he were to become a “disgusting” cut-sleeve, he would not settle for anything but the best, which Lan Xichen is not. Jiang Cheng is also extremely jealous and vindicative, easy to offend and anger, and can absolutely never handle being below anyone. Lan Xichen might not be as talented as his brother, but he is still leagues better than the “Wielder Of His Own Damn Sword”, Jiang-Zhongzu. They would not mesh well together. But we know all this. Let us talk about Lan Xichen. Rulers should be good to their people and their primary strength should lie in being able to detach themselves from their personal feelings in kingdom-related matters and take a professional approach. In the book’s context, a Sect Leader should be cold and practical in the matters involving the Sect. Jiang Fengmian fails to do this with his wife, and ends up getting most of his Sect killed due to his cowardice. Lan Xichen does this with A-Yao. As Sect Leader, Lan Xichen’s warmth causes less diplomatic incidents, since he is good with pacifying and mollifying prickly Sect Heads, but he can be easily swayed by weakness, real or feigned, and such beliefs work to his disadvantage. One more thing I would like to point out is that Lan Wangji, after losing the love of his life and being whipped 33 times (with a Spiritual Weapon) for treason, only remained in seclusion long enough to heal his body. If he could function in such a painful situation, all the while caring for an orphaned child and watching his brother happily interact with the person most responsible for, why could not Lan Xichen? He wasn’t even physically impaired! Oh boo-hoo, my most trusted friend of 20 years betrayed me and killed my Sworn Brother? Yes! Yes, he did, and it was a most traumatising thing to do, but he did not do it without your own help and encouragement! It is not Lan Xichen’s fault for being taken by a Master Manipulator, of course, but it is his fault for being passive and taking the easy way out 2/3 times in order not to upset his Sworn Brothers and the rest of the elitist Cultivation World! There are metas that state that once Lan Xichen is given confirmation of ill-will and misdeeds, he does not hesitate to choose the path of righteousness and conviction, but it is the time that he takes to obtain such confirmations is what irks me. He makes no moves of his own, does not go out of his way to investigate events he himself was suspicious about until his brother encourages (read: forces by showing unignorable evidence) him to, and spends most of his time after the Siege sitting on his hands (other than rebuilding his Sect, I will give him that) and entertaining A-Yao! *Sigh* This is quite a cruel take on him, and if we view him through the same lens we do

our favourite characters many of his faults will fizzle out quickly, but I just think he should not be let off as scott-free as he currently is being let. If I have misunderstood something, or mentioned anything wrong, please do not hesitate to correct me! It will help with my understanding of his character and help me write better fics.

Dee - This was a submission not an ask - my reply under the cut off

I try not to say much about LXC and maintain a neutral POV on him because he is, from what I read in the novel, a good character. Not perfect and certainly not as wise as he's often made out to be, but good. Honestly, to me he comes across as someone who is somewhat naive, unaware of his own prejudices, but willing to pursue the truth when prompted. He also seems to be a bit stubborn and is very confident in his own judgment. I believe all of that can be attributed to the fact that he's a Sect Heir and a Sect Leader later. He needs to have that solid belief in his judgment to lead.

To me, LWJ and LXC present interesting parallels. Both loved (platonic in LXC's case, love is love) people from lower social classes, both were confronted with somewhat unsavory characteristics. The parallels are very striking, tbh.

LWJ loved a morally strong man - LXC loved a morally weak one.

LWJ's love for WWX enlightened him - LXC's love for JGY blinded him.

LWJ took WWX to task on every mistake - LXC covered up or made excuses for JGY's red flags.

WWX's taught LWJ to challenge and question everything - JGY taught LXC to trust blindly and accept excuses.

LWJ learned to fight, even if it meant disrupting peace - LXC learned to look the other way in order to maintain peace.

It wasn't until LXC was pushed by LWJ and WWX that he took action but he still took action. Arguably, it would've been just as painful for LXC to suspect JGY as it would've been LWJ to suspect WWX. When you love someone and their character sinks to the gutter, the hurt is immeasurable. It is nearly the worst betrayal you can face. I don't blame LXC for wanting to avoid it.

Also, LXC had a lot of reasons to act the way he did. As readers, we have the benefit of hindsight but when people are confronted with difficult situations and insufficient information, they act differently. So yeah, it is a bit dissatisfying that he doesn't get called out for some of this foolishness, but honestly, it is a minor thing.

As for LXC and JC, I agree. It is definitely a way to one-up WWX with the 'better' Lan. We don't really know how skilled LXC is and how he can stand against LWJ or WWX. I'm rather certain he's stronger than JC at any rate. JGY was able to fight and defeat JC but he had to trick both LXC and LWJ into sealing their powers. His cultivation is strong. He's just not as sharp and intelligent as LWJ and WWX are but they're exceptional.

[arcadialedger]

A Keefe/ Sokeefe discussion— and why Sokeefe is important.

So, as many of you know I am reading through Keeper of the Lost Cities. I just finished Lodestar, and I have a lot of thoughts regarding Keefe, especially in relation to Sophie.

Despite them being apart, Lodestar proves just what great foils Keefe and Sophie are. Not only do they continue to have a deep and innate understanding of one another, but Sophie in particular is the only one to have full faith in Keefe and understand what he is doing. While arguably being the one with the most right to be upset with him.

She never lost faith in him. Even before she saw his worst memory, she saw his reasonings and the guilt he was harboring better than anyone.

Generally speaking, while understandable, the skepticism towards Keefe by characters throughout this book was so frustrating. This boy is risking his life, putting himself in the heart of enemy territory FOR THEM, overwhelmed with guilty for what his mother did to his loved ones, and so often his job is made harder with questioning of his loyalties.

Once it was confirmed Keefe was indeed a double agent and still good, which was pretty clear already given his parting comments and want to get Sophie to safety, couldn’t we maybe, I don’t know, not second guess his intentions constantly and potentially jeopardize his safety?

All it does is make Keefe’s plans run less smoothly, and higher the probability that he is going to get in trouble and into a situation where he has to do something bad just to stay alive.

I am so glad to see him back for ‘Nightfall’, and Fitz begin to underhand him more deeply. Yet it is so very telling how strong he and Sophie’s relationship stayed despite being apart, and how Sophie treated him in comparison to the others.

They have, as I stated before, a deep connection and innate understanding of one another. Unparalleled by any other relationship.

The fact Sophie was thinking for a moment they were fated to be opposites is interesting, because they very much are fated as foils and soulmates. Further, the very reason Keefe left is why Sokeefe works, especially in comparison to Sofitz.

You see, for a classic ESTP type character Keefe’s empath abilities, empathy for others (obviously connected to his abilities), disregard for his own well being, and constant putting others before himself is classic INFJ. It’s an incredibly interesting ability to put with his personality, and makes him a remarkably complex and unique character even outside of his history and traumas.

Keefe takes what his mother did personally. He owns it and puts it on his shoulders. He is riddled with guilt, and has very little regard for his own life. This is why he makes the sacrifice to join the Neverseen and put himself in danger. He could quite literally feel the pain and impact his mother caused on his friends. It would be next to impossible not to internalize that.

But you know who else has a relative who hurt people and joined the Neverseen? Fitz. Yet his reaction is entirely hard and logical, compatible with his telepathic mind abilities. He doesn’t take it personally like Keefe does, he doesn’t put that responsibility on his shoulders. 

He is the head, while Keefe is the heart.

And this is where we get into the heart of why I think Sokeefe works while Sofitz doesn’t. As a romantic partner and foil, Sophie needs a heart to contrast and support her head, not another head (if that makes sense). They balance each other. Keefe helps make sense of all of the feelings and thoughts in her head, while Sophie helps him make sense of and reason our all of his overwhelming emotions.

This is seen in their interactions all throughout the series. Each one is so tender, genuine and raw. There is that deep connection I’ve mentioned, that leads them to get one another in ways nobody else can.

Nobody else understands Keefe the way Sophie does, and vice versa. Nobody. In ways tied to both Keefe opening up to her, and them being on the same communicative emotional wavelength. It honestly reminds me of all the reasons I love Zutara and mourn it’s lost potential.

There is no way to do it justice when trying to describe characters who just have that bond, that perfect understanding and balance, that mutually supportive love. Those characters that are perfect foils.

Sofitz is cute, but more of a crush, and I truly think they are compatible better as besties and telepath battle partners. It’s not problematic and I don’t hate them as a pair, but it is simply not meant to be as Sokeefe, nor does it have the depth. I like the idea of their relationship being like Claire and Douxie in Tales of Arcadia. I know Sofitz tries things out for a little while in books 7-8 ish, and while I probably will be frustrated screaming for Keefe I actually don’t mind.

Because I want Sophie to try out that relationship, see why it’s not meant to be that kind of love, and move on to find a true, mature romantic love with Keefe. Fitz is a cute boy, and they share a lot in common. It’s perfectly natural for Sophie to have a crush on him and even try dating.

But a message of Sophie realizing what true love is/ what different kinds of love look like, and finding a mature relationship with Keefe while also being able to have a strong non romantic bond with Fitz? Is so important and would be so beautiful. Not to mention having this in the hindsight of Keefe being SO mature and supportive of Sophie and Fitz’s relationship.

It seems to be leaning that direction based on what I’ve heard about the end of book 8 (because yes I looked up the Sokeefe page on the wiki spoilers be damned because I am trash), and I am crossing my fingers that is the arc we get for the last books.

Keefe and Sophie’s love is so deep, unconditional, and pure. They understand and support each other in so many ways and bring out each other’s best selves. They help each other heal, and are connected in a way unparalleled by any other characters.

The head and the heart. The telepath and the empath.

Sokeefe forever.