#hope this was interesting lol its kind of just a thought dump!!

[heartslobbf]

could you talk about food in rgu as a kind of symbol for incest? it doesn't have to be anything too coherent or anything i just loved that post and would like to hear a bit more abt it!

hello yes absolutely!!!!! i appreciate you enabling me to be incoherent because whilst i claim to be a writer, i am godawful at putting anything polished out thanks to my perfectionism. you do not want to see my rgu essay drafts.

anyway. food and incest in rgu. i made a post saying that every food item in rgu at least tangentially relates to the show's exploration of incestuous abuse and how that is directly enabled by the institution of family. underneath the cut im gonna talk about my favourite and most notable examples of this. note that i will be closely discussing examples of incestuous abuse and csa in rgu.

my big thesis on this topic stems from the fact that anthy can't cook but akio can. anthy is capable of making non-substantial food, and otherwise entirely incompetent in the kitchen. she can't really provide for herself, and thus is dependent on others (namely akio) to live. akio is an adult who prides himself on his supposed independence (note how that independence helps shape his americanised masculinity), and not only does he cook and therefore provide for anthy, later utena and nanami, but he's shown to be beyond competent in the kitchen. he bakes a cake in episode 30 which both utena and wakaba comment on as being impressive, and in episode 32 he makes a rose hip jam that suggests his culinary skills go beyond standard measures.

the family institution makes it incredibly difficult for people to leave abusive families, especially when they are children. the ability to feed oneself in rgu determines how stuck in ohtori's system a character is. wakaba, for instance, is presented as an amateurish cook, and despite having proximity to the duels and akio is never fully subsumed by them. saionji and tsuwabuki are probably the other characters most notable for culinary skills, and for both of them they are only ever shown preparing food for themselves or nanami. with tsuwabuki, this is another of his unintentionally sinister attempts to be close with nanami. he is essentially trying to make her depend upon him to live, but he's literally 10 and doesn't really understand the implications of what he's doing. he just wants to provide for her! saionji offers to make nanami eggs when he notices that she's distressed, and i think this gets at the nuance of dependence on others, and being a provider. namely, you will and should be dependent upon others to an extent. offering and accepting help alike is important. saionji offering to make nanami eggs is a nice and genuine moment between them, and is distinctly different from some other instances ive discussed because their relationship isn't abusive or toxic or pseudo-incestuous or whatever else.

i'd like to suggest that miki and kozue's milkshake is actually quite similar to the eggs, even though their relationship is both toxic and incestuous. when kozue asks miki for a milkshake at the end of episode 15, she's extending an olive branch. the milkshake is complicated undoubtedly, but i think it pretty effectively summarises the issues in their relationship a la purity and knowledge and independence. i would write more on this if i'd rewatched ep 15 recently but it's worth noting that the milkshake is textually childish and non-substantive, and that's why kozue initially rejects it whilst miki makes and drinks it.

my magnum opus of incestuous food is the shaved ice, which is kind of like saying the sky is blue. like gee i wonder why anthy tells nanami in episode 4 that mixing the red and yellow syrrups together tastes so good like i just cant work it out its too subtle as utena always is. and of course the shaved ice reprises in episodes 31 and 32, or as i like to call them, Hey Check Out This Show's Thesis On Incestuous Abuse. dont think i need to explain whats going on when anthy feeds akio shaved ice in front of nanami and theyre both horribly uncomfortably coy and flirtatious the whole time. i definitely think theres something in anthy's shaved ice facilitating incestuous implications in all its appearances, but im not sure what. the ice isnt about forcing people to depend upon their family members, it's childish and indulgent and there's certainly something in that which relates to anthy. i actually have a lot of thoughts about anthy's perception of incest, namely because she loves to make jokes about it and all of them make me very sad. all instances of shaved ice are about taunting nanami, also. lots of thoughts here.

final big cornerstone in food = incest relates to a throwaway moment at the start of ep 11 where utena reveals that she intended to eat a single pre-packaged piece of convenience food for lunch, and wakaba and anthy both provide elaborate bentos for her instead. utena is an orphan. there's no one to provide for her in any socially conventional way, her parents aren't making her lunches nor have they taught her how to. returning to my Akio Can Cook point, in episode 26 akio tells utena that he considers her 'practically family'. there is a pseudo-incestuous nature to akio's relationships with both utena and touga, which is a broader point for a broader topic, but what's really important here is that utena feels she can depend upon akio to provide for her. and, horribly, she can! this makes it all the more difficult to reject him, because he is everything she has wanted ever since her parents died. you can also link to tsuwabuki here with pseudo-incest, and returning to touga momentarily there's something about the kiryuu family and all of their food being made by staff and also, you know, incest and pseudo-incest.

i think these are the big things to hit in regards to this idea. the curry episode is also absolutely fascinating, as is kanae and the apple, as is the cantarella scene and tea and cookies in ten years time. im kind of just throwing ideas around now but im not trying to write some deeply considered essay here, more so throw around some ideas ive had and see if anything sticks with anyone else.

[cleromancy]

while from the doylist perspective the stories are specifically propping tim up compared to jason by doing this... i am obviously still very interested in, and compelled by, jason canonically having a pretty high opinion of tim going all the way back to their first meeting.

(for the record, absolutely nothing in-universe justifies jason having this opinion of tim up until tim springs him from prison imo. he beat the snot out of tim in tt29 and it wasn't even hard and yet for some fucking reason he still walks away thinking tim is a Better Robin than he was? like... ok. sure. more thoughts on this later in the post tho)

so the new earth (post-crisis pre-reboot) continuity tim-jason interactions we have, in order, are batman 617-618 (from batman: hush, this ones a retcon and barely counts, its just jason holding tim hostage with a batarang to his throat; and you might also get a glimpse of jay doing this in batman annual 25 lol but its in the other room so im not checking), tt29 (published in the middle of uth coming out, lol), tt47 (countdown tie-in), robin 177 and 182-183 (post-countdown, immediately after jason dumps his red robin costume and one of tims rogues fishes it out of the dumpster to wear, correctly intuiting *for some reason* that this will get to tim), and......... sigh. stupid battle for the stupid cowl.

(and, since were talking about jasons perspective, theres also the picture wall in lost days. i dont know what issue it is because to me lost days is not "made up" of "issues", it is one book i simply open to devour whole whilst weeping.)

i think tt 29 is the interaction i find the most frustrating because... we have an idea what tt29 would have been like if it were good. bc we have ga01 69-72. and granted Tim is such a cocky little shit (affectionate) that jason simply. Would probably not have been able to scare him no matter what, lol... but imagine if this fucking issue had been good.

ok cutting 4 length

the problem with johns. .......the FIRST problem with johns. is that he regularly has interesting ideas and his execution of them completely falls flat. the second problem with johns is that he can't write dialogue. the third problem with johns is that it was really really important to him that you understood what a Talented And Special Boy tim is but instead of showing you that he just forced other characters to. tell you. over and over. jason is not johns' only victim in this quest. (and johns was also not the only perpetrator, as we will see when i get to fuckin fabnic.)

but like i said i *am* actually interested in the potential here, because i do think there is potential.

and i also think that--at least when you read into it as deeply as i do--jason is sympathetic in this issue. (don't give me "hes beating up a child" crap here btw. jason's only 2-3 years older, tims a peer to him, they could easily have gone to high school together if jason hadnt fuckin died.) johns deliberately shows us Jason hoping raven gets a reprieve from the nightmares, and he certainly was *trying* to show us how much it would fucking suck to be remembered as the Bad Robin, forgotten except to be a cautionary tale, what kind of things that would do to a person emotionally. AND he makes a point of highlighting Jason's loneliness and isolation as robin, and. tbh i dont think the issue itself rly blames Jason for that. (you most certainly do not gotta hand it to him though. under no circumstances do you gotta hand it to johns for anything.)

and while jason tearing off his clothes to reveal his party city knockoff robin costume--the better to beat you with, my dear--was, erm. falling mostly on the wrong side of the line btwn camp and cringe... i do think jason writing his own name in blood on the wall was right on the money, *especially* because it was obviously not tims blood. like, tim wasnt bleeding anywhere near enough for that. it was either fake blood or jason prepped his own beforehand for them to DNA test--but also if they saw it before they saw tim, to make them fear for tims life, as a reminder of the risks theyre dealing with here.

oh but i was planning on talking specifically about like. what Jason might actually have seen in tim that left him with a positive impression. as-written? kinda nothing. lmao. or well the one thing imo is this

just kidding i couldn't find the panelz somehow despite posting them literally like yesterday and i ran into this lol:

>:| got distracted again. by this.

anyway i give up ill add the pics later. but its the exchange where jason has *decisively* won the fight, tims crumpled on the floor concussed and winded, and jason demands if tim *really* thinks he was good enough to tail bruce unnoticed for weeks.

and tim says "yes." hes beat up enough he can barely talk but there's still no hesitation whatsoever. and jason is *really* down on himself in this issue--he calls himself a failure, he feels like no one cared about his death, he feels unremembered. and jasons stated intentions here were to get the measure of tim but i also stand by the interpretation that he wanted to warn tim off of the sidekick gig, to remind him you uh. you have to be dick fucking grayson to survive it. (i dont believe either of them mentions him by name, but hey, dicks shadow is big enough for the both of them.)

i think what jason finds worthy of respect here--and, on top of that, intriguing enough that in robin 177 he entreats tim to join him--is the confidence, and also? at absolutely no point does tim believe jason is there to kill him. not a fuckin high bar, i know, but like i said i do think jason had *planned* to try and scare tim off (just also mega derailed himself by accident bc he got too in his feelings about the statue room 🥺), and... its not a bar he would have expected Tim to clear, is all im saying. particularly because while it is *possible* this took place in the middle of uth (tt 29 was released in november 05, between batman 646 and 647, which is the part where slade shows up bc black mask hired him to take jason out, so tt29 couldnt have happened in the middle of those two specific issues, but there are several other points at which jason could have taken a break in menacing gotham to fly to san Francisco), with Jason talking so negatively about himself i have to assume this is after the end of uth.

(you might be able to place this in the in-universe chronology by if/when teen titans mentions chemo dropping on bludhaven, which happens immediately before the bruce-jason-joker final showdown. however i dont feel like poking around for that or any other details to anchor tt29 to the other events happening at the time rn.)

i just also think so much of what jasons doing in this issue is like--he doesn't know *what* hes there to do. he had a plan and hes kinda fumbling it, not because tim is being especially resourceful but because jasons still licking his emotional wounds from uth, and titans tower is bringing up ones i dont think he ever realized hadnt healed. hes feeling everything at once. hes angry and hurt and full of self loathing but i think by the time tim simply says "yes," jason hits the stage of just being... burnt out. done lashing out, fucking tired, just wants to go home, if he can ever find it.

but i do think that "yes" would stick in his craw for a long time afterwards.

tt47: tim kicks jason in the nuts and pretty much declares them even for tt29 lolol. you may have seen my post about how jason only *sometimes* wears armor in countdown--hes drawn in the armored turtleneck and tac pants in tt47, but there are times in countdown hes out there fighting aliens and metas and shit in his jacket, a *t-shirt,* and *jeans.* just a squishy regular degular baseline human doing this and no one ever brings it up. but anyway. do i think tim would have seen jason wearing the equivalent of civvies plus a domino mask, narrow in on that, and immediately decide to kick him in the balls? i sure do. do i also think that this would make him rise in jasons estimation?

yeah. yeah, i really do. lol

anyway after this! after this is jasons briefish world-hopping stint as red robin saving the universe being a big damn hero and getting paid dust by everyone around him, in countdown; i think i mentioned before in this post that at the end he abandons the red robin suit in a dumpster, where it gets picked up by one of tims rogues. this storyline sucks and fabnic is a hack unfortunately. the rogue did it bc he wants tims attention or whatever. not important except for how irritating it is that fabnic fumbled a concept this juicy (tim inheriting and eventually purposely adopting The Bad Robin Mantle) which is also further fumbled by stupid battle for the stupid cowl, and the people who it falls to to salvage it are. johns again, in adventure comics 3, and yost, who is a better writer than johns or fabnic but not by like a huge margin.

and while i do think tim having a bad opinion of jason at this point was inevitable i find it so frustrating the way it was executed... like so often with Bad Tim Writing and also fuckin DC Editorial's Jason Slander Agenda shit it wasn't because in-universe thats how the characters would feel, the writer was using tim as a mouthpiece, and jasons competence and things he cares about arent taken seriously... BUT WHATEVER the point is that when Tim goes to stop Jason from his villainous scheme to reduce crime or whatevr jason has such a high opinion of him that he asks tim to join him:

and jasons loneliness, his desperation to be heard, is such a theme for him in the new earth/post crisis era and i wish it had been. Handled better lol are you noticig a theme here its that Jason has been written badly. (tim too, tbh.) and when tim says no jasons dejected but unsurprised acceptance breaks my heart. but to me the most interesting part of jasons appearance at the end of tims robin series is in 182, when tim--for absolutely no good reason--gives jason the means to break out of prison.

he says something about how its what Bruce would have wanted, but for. reasons i wont get too deeply into rn, that absolutely does not hold water.

anyway i just think there's no way jason doesn't start crushing on tim at least a little at this point. shrug.

bftc sucks and i dont want to look at it rn. but its also got examples of jasons high opinion of tim. and also im mad at it bc both countdown AND his appearances in robin feel like they could have been taking jason to a like. more of an antihero type of role and then we get bftc and morrison and its kind of. fucking hard to get jason anywhere near back on track after that for those of us who still like playibg in the post-crisis pre-reboot sandbox. and i wouldnt be mad about that if bftc had been good bc Jason absolutely does make an incredibly interesting and effective and tragic antagonist when handled well but well. he wasnt. and i have no idea what bftc would.have even been like if it was good bc it was so off the wall and dumb and assassinated actually *everyones* characters. so.

anyway

im just going to roll back to robin 183 now

jasons referring to the damage tim got when he got a little bit exploded in 180, this pretty nasty burn on the back of his head, which was actually why he wore jasons RR cowl for the first time (he was still robin). but what you do see here--aside from Tims narration which puts him *firmly* on the side of obnoxiously arrogant and judgmental instead of charmingly cocky in this issue, to my estimation, thanks for nothing fabnic--is the two of them on firmly cordial terms. jason still thinks more highly than tim does of him, but theyre asking each other about their injuries... tim caring about the wellbeing of people he doesn't even like is par for the course with him, ofc, but once again Jason doesn't really get that a whole lot. constantly haunted by this panel from countdown btw:

does he though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

here is another jaytim preboot canon interactions post from a few months ago with some more thoughts, some repeated lol.

anyway. incoherent rambling complete for now. however. jaytim time is all the time 👍 i will revisit this.

[polliwoggers]

The design on that lore-dump is absolutely on-point, by the way. Cool and easily readable. :3 The deterioration of Dark and Heart Matters got me wondering about where Kirby fits into things...I'm assuming he's ah. Y'know. Not natural. :) (And for that matter, how's this affect Meta-Knight...?)

Thank you so much!! I did my best to keep it interesting and easy to read, so I'm super happy it came across that way! :D -- and, I'm glad you asked! i hope you don't mind me rambling for a minute here; i'm always very eager to jump at opportunities to talk about kirby lore lol. under the cut because it got kind of long.

I'll start with Meta knight because he's easier. Essentially, he is the very last of the original line of Puffballs within the primary dimension most kirby games take place in. He does not have enough Heart matter to be able to safely donate any to potential offspring -- if you yourself only have, say, an atom's worth of the stuff, you can't really donate half of it without blowing yourself up in the process. Splitting atoms and all that.

Dark Meta Knight is in a similar boat; as dimensional boundaries solidified over time, some early puffballs got caught in different dimensions and founded their own parallel lineages, of which DMK is now the final product of his own.

Galacta knight is a holdover from a previous generation of puffballs many centuries ago, and has a comparatively higher concentration of Heart matter in his body than either MK or DMK do. He is the only one who I could confidently say would be able to create an offspring without dying in the process, but that'd require freeing himself of the crystal first, which seems very unlikely.

GK is also, like, mega insane from being sealed away for an eternity outside of time, so I don't know that he'd be a great candidate for mentoring a young one, assuming the thought even crosses his mind. Regardless, GK, MK, and DMK are the only remaining true-blue puffballs out there in the galaxy.

I left it purposely vague in the post what I meant about Kirby's unnatural-ness, so that people could feel free to fill in that void with whatever origin story they prefer, whether that be an elder god's dying bid at happiness or a precocious experiment of Nightmare's gone rogue. In cases like these, the "unnatural-ness" just refers to how he doesn't have a lineage stretching back to the dawn of time like MK and the other knights, and is instead the product of something newer.

…buuuut, when it comes to what I personally like to think about Kirby's origins, that "unnatural-ness" has another aspect to it. I like to think of Kirby not as a continuation or reincarnation of Void, but moreso as a sibling to it. That is, if Void's creation of all matter is meant to represent the Big Bang, then Kirby is just that: another Big Bang, possessing infinite energy and potential. It happened spontaneously once, why shouldn't it spontaneously happen again?

The reason why this origin is extra "unnatural" is that, with infinite energy, it might be more accurate to say Kirby is made of Chaos than he is Heart matter. I have another lorepost about how Chaos works here (on the last slide), but suffice it to say that it's basically the "stem cells" of matter, and can twist itself into any matter type its wielder likes -- Dream, Dark, Heart, or Soul.

For Kirby, that has always meant embodying Heart matter, giving him the appearance and powerset of a natural puffball with a high Heart matter concentration. No outsider -- nor even Kirby himself -- would be able to recognize him as anything other than a particularly powerful puffball. Except Meta knight.

Being, effectively, the last of his kind, Meta's experience with other puffballs is quite limited; but he knows enough to suspect Kirby is more than meets the eye. There are little idiosyncrasies that just don't add up.

Kirby's demeanor, his abilities, the fact he doesn't visibly age, that he hasn't begun growing wings or horns after having been alive how long, now? -- his complete disinterest and irreverence toward puffball history, the fact he doesn't have parents, and his willingness to give everybody -- even Dark matter -- a chance. These things would be unthinkable to a "true" puffball. Everyone on the outside looking in assumes the friendly, bouncy Kirby is the "normal" one, and that Meta knight is the overly-stoic oddball, but it is very much the other way around.

When first encountering him, Meta also assumed that Kirby was just a "regular" but powerful puffball child that had somehow slipped through the cracks. However, over the years (and after Kirby's repeated victories against enemies that even MK couldn't ever hope to deal with), these small peculiarities became more and more apparent to MK, sometimes even verging on straight-up uncanny. Nowadays -- and especially after the fight with Void Termina -- Meta knight doesn't know what to think anymore.

Of course, that doesn't stop MK from respecting Kirby as a long-time friend and rival! Even as Meta slowly realized Kirby might be more than even Kirby himself thinks he is, they grew closer as friends and allies. Also, with how friendly and kind he is, Kirby's just hard to hate. They respect each other a lot, even if Kirby's "unnatural-ness" sometimes triggers an uncanny valley response in "true" puffballs.

[flamingphoenixfox]

Hi, it’s me again… here to talk about more inconsequential Warframe observations! So I was looking at the Operator Somatics options, and I noticed something a little unusual about a couple of them. I figured I might as well make a post about it because I found it interesting (and maybe I kind of hope DE will address it lol). Somatics Asa-23 and Tt-11 have what I can only describe as “ghost” insets, meaning that you can see a slightly lightened area where the metal component in the middle of the forehead would be in other somatic designs. This effect is best seen in motion, so I made gifs.

Modeling this season’s Warframe curiosity is my operator Jasper, whose hair has been removed for easy viewing. (His somatics are normally Asa-03. References for him—hopefully—coming soon.) I can’t tell for sure if this is intentional or not. It’s possible they just erased the somatics texture layer and forgot to change the skin texture layer beneath that. But it’s also possible that they decided to keep this “ghost” inset there, as if to say “this operator used to have that inset piece but it has been removed and has left a light scar/discoloration in its place.”

(Alternate skin tone used in case it makes it easier to see.) The same two somatic options also have what seem to be damaged/partially erased metal insets at the operator’s temples. You can see half of the metal still protruding from the face normally while the other part falls flush against the skin, as if the metal is disappearing or digging in. I’ll be honest, it seems more likely that these things are just design errors. This is Warframe, after all. But no matter the reason for the existence of these details, I think it still offers fans an interesting opportunity to come up with some personal operator lore! So I’m curious. To people who have chosen these somatics: Did you notice these details? And if you did, how did you interpret them? And a question for everyone: how do you imagine your operator’s somatics? Do they look exactly like the somatic option you have chosen in-game, or do you imagine them a little bit different? Does your operator have any more or less somatic scarring than the game shows? I would love to know more about other people’s operators! Seriously, please info-dump on me! And I would love to hear any thoughts you have in general!

[misc-obeyme]

Okay so im a massive tea snobdrinker. Love me my leaf juice. I love everything from old school Chinese to full English drowning in milk. If the OM cast had a signature tea, what do you think they would be?

Personally I can't see Mammon drinking anything but coffee, and Lucifer has a thing for premium aged Pu-er, but the rest elude me. Earl gray seems a little obvious for barbs, so I thought I'd ask an expert 😉

Also congrats on the 50k+ word fiction. Can't wait to read it! I'm seriously thinking of ways to put Pandora on page properly, of which you have her thanks.

-🪿honk

Oh, thank you! It was never meant to be that long but here we are 🙃

I do hope you write Pandora's story if you're inspired to!! For me, it's truly the highest of compliments when someone says I've inspired them to write or create something... I hope you enjoy the journey!

Okay, okay, so tea.

I'm kind of a snob too but I also drink coffee... I like all kinds of fancy drinks! But I haven't really considered what I think the characters' signature might be so now I'm curious about it.

Lucifer is interesting because he's canonically a tea drinker - his and Barb's chatroom is called Tea Demons lol. And I think you're right, he's gonna go for the rare or more involved type of tea and the way pu-er is made that checks right out to me.

I kinda think Mammon would drink chai tea lattes. I don't know why, but something about that combo of spicy sweet just makes me think of him.

Levi doesn't strike me as a tea drinker much at all. He gives off massive energy drink vibes. But I could see him maybe going for some southern style sweet tea or like... an Arnold Palmer or something. An obvious exception would be if there was some kind of tea specific to an anime he was into lol.

They don't really talk about Satan drinking tea, but he absolutely strikes me as a drinker of tea. One of his hobbies is latte art so I could see him experimenting with tea lattes. But I think just for regular drinking, he would probably go herbal. Chamomile or mint or maybe lemon.

Asmo likes pretty tea so I assign him hibiscus tea. Either hot or iced, it's this gorgeous dark red. I also think he'd like to dump sugar into his tea and that actually makes hibiscus tea taste delicious imo. I also see him going floral in other ways like maybe having traditional black tea but flavored with rose or lavender.

Beel strikes me as a citrus guy. Orange spice tea. I could also see him enjoying something like peach tea. Or teas that are specifically made for like... giving you energy and such. You know for workouts?

Belphie probably drinks Sleepy Time tea lol. I mean that's probably too on brand but it'd be funny. Still, something soothing like chamomile is probably best for him.

I kinda get the sense that Diavolo will drink whatever tea Barbatos serves him. And I think he probably prefers Devildom varieties. But if he was going to have something from the human world, I'd have to go with acai berry tea. It's also dark red which gives me Dia vibes, but it's naturally a little sweeter than hibiscus so you don't have to add a ton of sugar.

Ahh Barbatos. I'm flattered you think of me as an expert. But it's hard to choose one for him because he seems to appreciate the flavors and uses of many different blends. However, if I was going to choose something, it'd be Jasmine green tea. Simple, elegant, with a subtle flavor profile that's easy to mess up if you don't brew it right, and a hint of floral. I could also see him particularly enjoying silver moonlight white tea - rare and harvested only beneath a full moon. That just feels like the kind of mysterious vibe Barb would like lol.

I think Simeon seems like he would also enjoy a variety of flavors, but I'd give him oolong. It's like in between black and green, smooth and sweet, just kind of perfect, like he is.

Solomon is the Earl Grey drinker. Classic and robust, with its black tea flavor enhanced with that little burst of bergamot. He might drink it black too but he likely puts milk in it. Though I can see him also enjoying it in latte form. I'm just imagining Satan making him London Fogs with cats drawn in the foam~

Mephisto probably drinks only Devildom tea lol. But if I'm gonna say what I think he'd be into rooibos. It's another red tea, so we've got his flamboyance, but it's more earthy in flavor than either hibiscus or acai which I think would fit his palate. Plus we know that he dumps sugar in his tea and I think a good rooibos could handle that.

Raphael strikes me as an English Breakfast tea drinker. Give him the classic black tea blend with some milk, but no sugar. I don't know why, it just feels no nonsense like him lol.

Lastly I give Thirteen matcha tea. Thirteen is different in many ways - the only female in the cast, the only reaper, etc. And matcha is tea but it's different and it has a unique flavor. And matcha powder can be used in all kinds of things, too. It's versatile. And I think all of that fits with her personality.

Oh dear I seem to have written an essay on tea. It's fine, it's fine, I'm totally normal about this I promise.

[fyodcrs]

My turn! Fyozai for the ask game 👀

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when I started shipping it if I did:

From the first time I watched Dead Apple, lmao.

"Every city has its rats."

"Meow."

And in that moment, I knew. 😂

my thoughts:

This post is a little outdated now but still pretty well sums up my thoughts about them. I love how they parallel each other, how they're two sides of the same coin. How they're so evenly matched. How they don't complement each other but cancel each other out, essentially - how they constantly find themselves at a stalemate.

I used to think that it was particularly interesting because neither of them are your traditional "hero" and "villain" characters. The way Dazai was the amoral one who didn't believe in justice (not in the sense someone like Kunikida does, anyway) and Fyodor was, actually, the one driven by morals and a sense of justice. Now Fyodor is being written more like a typical villain and Dazai's character has lost some of the complex layers that made him interesting in the first place, so that's kind of out the window, but I still enjoy the way they mirror each other, how they're the same but opposite in so many ways. It's made for a really interesting dynamic. Unfortunately, I don't think the story is going to explore that dynamic much more from here on out, but hey, I can always hope.

What makes me happy about them:

I WILL NEVER BE OVER THEM PLAYING MENTAL CHESS TOGETHER. And the fact they have their own secret language??? And the fact that Fyodor said neither of them has ever been able to have real conversations with other people except each other, because of their intellects?? Bruv.

What makes me sad about them:

The way the writing for both their characters has gone down the toilet in this arc 😞

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Everybody makes Fyodor top. Where is my bottom Fyodor??? I know Dazai accused Fyodor of being a control freak but as if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black sdfggfghj

Tbh, so many of the fics under the fyozai tag are just SKK fics that dump on Fyodor, and it really annoys me. And a lot of the actual fyozai fics either portray Fyodor or Dazai in a way I don't like or don't vibe with or use religious imagery in a way I find...er...uncomfortable, lol. I haven't looked for fyozai fics in ages because of it.

things I look for in fanfic:

Like I said, I haven't looked for fanfics of them in a long time, but I like some good smutty content and some witty banter. I do like a bit of character study when I agree with it, lol.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Oh man, I have lots of ships for the both of them, haha. For Fyodor, number one is Sigma. Fyosig has such a special place in my heart. 💖💖 But there's also Fukuchi, Nikolai, Yosano...

For Dazai, mainly Atsushi. Dazatsu has such a special place in my heart, too. 💖

My happily ever after for them:

They make a deal to end the battle between them and move in together, becoming the undefeatable team they should be.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Dazai is big spoon, Fyodor is little spoon 🥰

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Chess, obviously. But chess is also inherently sexual for them ASDFGDFG

Thank you, Rosa!! (´꒳`)♡

[hypnotisedfireflies]

(DISCLAIMER: So this is more a thought to explore...rather than a prompt per say...but you could also treat it as a prompt if it inspires you!)

Our favourite bunnies go at it pretty fearlessly because Tess can't have any more children. How does that landscape change if she could?

I've read some fairly unreal Pregnant!Tess fics, that's not what I'm suggesting here. But I think it would be interesting to get the Arien treatment 😎 on maybe a conversation or a scare?

(idk, tbh, I really struggled with myself about this one, whether or not or put it to you, but then I thought, hey wth, why not!)

Hi!  Thank you for sending this thinky piece to me!  I’m going to answer it here rather than a prompt (hope that’s okay) as I’m not sure I could do this justice as a full story, but it is certainly interesting to consider.  I’ve been turning it over in my mind for a few days to get my thoughts in order.

Making Tess infertile in Drifters was deliberate to avoid traversing into some very dark territory because, other than the killjoy of pregnancy scares, I knew I’d be looking at going into multi-miscarriage territory.  I think given the diet, the lifestyle, the tension and the constant dangers, bringing a baby to full term would be extremely difficult.  And while bringing a baby (or a dozen, given these bunnies) into the story could’ve had its moments, I think it would have ultimately drawn focus away from what I wanted to do.  And I also felt, well, they had enough to worry about without tormenting them with that, too.

I’m also kind of untraditional myself, so the progression of in love = married = babies isn’t really my jam, even though I still find the concept kind of intriguing from a fictional perspective.  (I mean, Tess and Joel as parents?? It is appealing.  And I kind of flirt with that a bit with the fever dreams).

So with my rationale of why I did not do this out of the way I can now just give you a brain dump of Tessjoel pregnancy ideas that I might have done something with (and who knows? Still might somehow ...!)  So trigger warning out there, this would be dark:

Tess finding out she’s pregnant between Missouri and Tennessee and hiding it for as long as she can, hoping it will just go away on its own or more likely

Joel figuring it out before she does because he is Attentive Father and Husband 101 and being like, “… is there any chance that maybe you might be … pregnant there, Tess?”

Violent morning sickness resulting in the trio holing up somewhere we didn’t see in the story – Tess quickly unable to travel, basically.

Everyone being extremely miserable and scared about it the whole time.

Tess ultimately miscarrying and then a whole lot of trauma and guilt because she wanted that to happen.

Joel not there when it occurs and Tess only telling him like, days later that it’s gone.

Joel wanting the baby the whole time, because his key jam in life is to be a father, and although he was sensibly scared about what this would all mean he actually felt good about it.

Tess then breaking things off with him entirely, not so much because she was afraid of falling pregnant again but because of the guilt being amplified when she realises that he really wanted it.

Meeting up with another group a few weeks later when they get moving again and Tess deciding that she’s going to leave with them.

I don’t know, maybe not seeing one another for awhile?  Months?  Maybe a year or so?

Finding one another again, maybe somewhere like Sioux Falls/if not actually Sioux Falls.

Naturally they’re at it like rabbits again, nothing has changed about the way they feel for one another.

Things are good for awhile, they’re careful.

She’d fall pregnant again and this time they’re like, okay, maybe this is something good, maybe we should do this.

Tess extremely stressed, maybe not so ill this time around but not really coping so well.

Joel being the one to have a handle on it, he’d just think she was so fucking beautiful pregnant it’d be sickening lol. He’d be rationing himself to give her the best food etc.

Another miscarriage, this time Joel is there and with her the duration.

This time it pulls them closer together rather than pushes them apart.

… I did say it’d be pretty dark, lol.  So yeah, I think that’s probably the kind of journey the Arien Treatment would’ve given that storyline.  It would have changed everything.

[mapsofnonexistentplaces]

hi cubeguy i sent u an anons a while ago that i dont use tumblr but i periodically check ur blog bcus it specifically rocks & im back. i listened to an album u recommended on here but im curtailed by the character lim to give a review so i typed out a real time extremely long reaction to the songs LOL definitely the logical nextstep. its @ pastebin.com/Ejd8E9VX idk if im allowed to link shit on tumblr?? anyway i hope to get around 2 other musiks u like bcus i lovedd this btw its get to heaven that i listened to THANK U 🎀🙇‍♂️💋💗💗💗

HEY YOU HAVE AN AWESOME WAY OF TALKING ABOUT MUSIC. GRINS SO MUCH. i’m glad you enjoyed gth it’s so so special to me genuinely the album of all time …. my favorite songs off it are s/s/w/d the wheel and blast doors Lways a joy to see someone go crazy about them

^ really fond of this descriptor here also i think it succinctly puts a lot of what i love about ee’s songwriting down into words…. the weird entanglement of love and hate and confusion and clarity it’s a very very special moodset

also YEAH the way you described the vocals…. the early everything everything albums play a lot with like. roughness and scratchiness and the kind of ‘animalistic’ register of the human voice. (honestly everything before raw data feel. this is literally because the singer just decided to learn how to sing in high registers without falsetto for the first time which is like cool but also AUGH i miss that old sound

OK SO the thing about this bit

absolutely YES the thing about get to heaven is that it’s literally just like. a complete album of bangers. going down through their other stuff is gonna be a little more rocky, you might enjoy the like once-per-album weird slow ballads you might not, even though i’m lazy about listening to some of their weaker stuff when i do go through the entire albums i still find a lot of quirks in the instrumentation or lyrics that manage to impress me. i’d recommend delving into either man alive or arc next those are basically on par with gth although a bit more weird and morose? if you’re feeling it id then recommend raw data feel which oscillates more around pop/new wave but still has some really interesting musical constructions, gets extremely electronic and synthy…. a fever dream is like a 50/50 split between really long slow songs which are just Fine and really fast heavy bangers. just go listen to notln, can’t do, desire, good shot, run the numbers and ivory tower LOL. uhhhh reanimator is arguably their weakest album probably the most unremarkable but it’s also like my second favorite right after get to heaven. it’s weird and glowy and flimsier than their other tunes. that enchants me i guess…. they’ve also got an upcoming album that once again seems to be more pop oriented, cold reactor is the best of the singles they’ve released for it yet. what else. there’s like a youtube playlist out there of demo/outtakes/non album stuff that you can find real easy, there’s some really good stuff in there. personal favorites are the come alive diana demo, even the dogs and dna dump

ok so the fucking thing about the “lore” of this album. there technically isn’t any and most of ee’s albums are a per-song thing usually revolving around like. modern social commentary. the genius pages for most of their songs have like. direct songwriting annotations by the band and explain the thought process behind them. however for gth there’s also like a small layer of overarching lore about this one guy called thomas silhouette as a character. he’s not so much the crux of any narrative or presence as much as he’s just like. funny anagram arising from a lyric in fortune 500 that gets alluded to in later albums because he’s loosely representative of a lot of themes that get tackled in ee songs like capitalism and dread and shit like that

[bookishjules]

thought dump for the midnight heir?? I feel like we’ve both been swept into a resurgence. I’ve got my own opinions but you seem to see a lot of the symbolism etc which I do love! But talk about anything, I’m just hungry for perspectives!

(idk how many original thoughts i have for you, so i'm just gonna go off and hope something lands lol)

one thing that's always been really intriguing to me is how the pure love that persists between tessa, will, and jem, can sour and become something sick from james' perception, that he would use his resentment of that love and as a measure for the damning pain he's in and thus an impetus to be intentionally careless with his life. while on the other hand, we have jesse who, according to tatiana, held onto life for his own mother, a mother who may have loved him but who would have taught only hatred and vengeance, of the wrongs that the world committed toward their family. it's almost like james' heart was pumped so full of love that it burst and splayed open only for grace to step into it and sew it back up around herself, a blade making the heart bleed from the inside. and jesse's heart was filled with a poison, toxic kind of love that eroded the organ, making the walls frail, but forcing a level of strength and dexterity into his blood, and thereby into grace as well, whom he welcomed to live inside his heart and draw from his yearning as well.

it's the way they all intertwine. the way the two boys parallel eachother, like james is the one who came through the looking glass and jesse is the one caught behind it. james shot down the chandelier and there was glass on the floor of blackthorn hall when magnus entered it. james with his cheshire cat grin and jesse's deathly portrait. james leaping back and forth into existence while jesse stands delicately on the line.

speaking of that leaping.. tmh james uses his shadows with such flippancy and control, like they're as much a part of him as his corporeal form. "we are dust and shadows," he reminds magnus. and i think it's so interesting, like in a biblical sense, dust is as much life as it is death ("from dust you were made and to dust you shall return"), and shadows move as one with the one they're tied to, but they are not really alive. so james is a shadow but one with its own mind and will, like peter pan's shadow. he doesn't bow to the essence and laws of life and dust. but then where is the dust? again, speaking to the parallels.. i think it could be jesse. he is not really dead, but not really alive, either, he exists as merely the imprint of the boy he once was was on the earth, with as much potential to be blown away by the wind as he has to be filled in with dust mixed with water and blood like cement making him whole again.

i mentioned peter pan's shadow, and that made me think that maybe jesse, in that case, would be peter himself, caught up in neverland, never growing up, unable to leave without dust that's given life in the form of pixie dust.

it's so interesting to think of how these two would eventually meet in the canon of tmh, because i do think tatiana would still find a way to kill five shadowhunters to bring him back to life. and if they return to idris, and if james fulfills his goal of being sent back to idris by being a rapscallion and harming mundanes instead of protecting them, they're bound to wind up in the same space together. it would be interesting if, in james' infatuation with grace, he takes up a shield behind her while she acts as her mother's blade, if he learns of the plans to raise jesse, and because of his fucked up sense of love and loyalty and the potential of a spell put on him by grace, he aids her in someway. james' wild ferocity tied down at jesse's feet by grace. peter and his shadow.

[0fps]

okayyyy i finally finished the main wuwa story. thoughts (brain dump) below, obviously spoilers so read at your own risk

acts 5 and 6 definitely >>>>>>>>>>>>>> the others. idk if it's because i had digested the world building a bit more by then but they felt way more engaging than the previous acts

partly because all the interesting parties (for me) were finally here. the black shores, jiyan's whole deal. scar was the most interesting of the previous acts but honestly idrgaf about him aksdjflads

dude was not even RELEVANT in these acts they really meant it when they put his ass in jail

i am quite interested in the black shores, hope to see more of them

otherwise just having to do everything with the starter group was boring as hell especially since they all have extremely flat characterizations (yangyang particularly. WHY did she of all people have to be our token partner).

disclaimer, i don't exactly hate yangyang but in general it just feels so unrealistically forced how her and chixia immediately treat mc like their best friend. we barely know each other. i think this is the part that got last-minute rewritten to make them overbearingly nice and it really shows (?? correct me if i'm wrong. idk if it's specifically those two who got rewritten)

i play in the mandarin dub btw. because apparently that's critical for yangyang ajdflkjf

as for the other characters. aalto and encore are so funny together, absolutely loved them. just their characters alone doing their whole comedy routine made act 5 a lot of fun

act 6 was obviously the climax, and i enjoyed it for what it is, but i also felt like it dragged on? like. you'd THINK after we meet up with jiyan we'd immediately go confront the threnodian like asap? they keep spouting how "time is of the essence" but hold on we gotta do all these sidequests?? repair shit?? come on yall LMAO

like the part where we're coming up with our "battle strategy" (which lol. yeah the ranged units should probably attack from a range. only the greatest tactical minds could come up with this) HONESTLY they should have black screened that shit or summarized it in like a few sentences. that was so ?????????? why am i even here.

ofc the cannon thing or whatever is out of power mortefi. of course it is.

i was enjoying act 6 pretty much until this part. then i was like really. REALLY we gotta do all this first I WANT TO GO FIGHT THE BOSS NOWWWWW

idk it just felt like they hyped us up almost immediately for a final battle but then edged us on for forever? the pacing felt weirdly backwards if you know what i mean

i was also just laughing at how concerned they were about the disrupter missing its target. like. you guys are aiming at a giant ball on the horizon you gotta be trying REALLY hard to miss this. the cutscene that showed how small the cannon was in comparison to the force field did not help adjksflasd. maybe if they were talking about the other 2 shots then sure.

once the cannon was repaired and that was over and our 4-man team was finally on their way i was back into it though

really really loved the pulling mechanic thing

however it was just another strike in which i've noticed that this game tends to overexplain some of the gameplay. that pulling mechanic was definitely one thing, the whole "battle strategy" part was another, and the one with the library in one of the previous acts was HORRENDOUS they may as well have reached out of the computer screen and held my hand

literally the only time i respected yangyang was when she decided to stay behind to hold off the enemies. bc istg if she was the one we had to do the final boss with. god. lord. hold me back from the violence i would have committed.

boss battle was a lot of fun. got my ass kicked by threnodian bc i couldn't read its moves but they made it easy to not die 👍

the little. pet thing. that eats the big echos. sooooooo unserious HAHAHAHA AJSDKLJFALD. i'm not going to think about it too hard.

was kind of weird to end that on a montage through a story teller. like i was expecting SOME sort of epilogue but it really went "yup. that's over! go play the rest of the game now"

anyways. despite my grievances i had fun with it HAHA 👍👍👍

i really enjoyed that it did cycle through a lot of story-relevant characters to trial with. it helps that i find all of them super fun to play and it helps keep things super immersive (although i did miss my girl danjin)

a similar thing i really loved was how involved almost every single playable character was

in general a detail i really like is that npcs/playable characters battle alongside you (even in the overworld) - it really makes it feel more immersive and you're part of a team, not just solo'ing everything by yourself

although it was also too early in the story for me to feel. much about everyone helping us out in the beginning. like i literally don't even know yuanwu??? the power ranger shot with everyone felt kinda silly as a result adjklajdfs

i also enjoyed the switching pov with jiyan. in the same vein as above it makes it feel more immersive and far less like the entire world revolves around the mc (although that's the plot device wuwa is desperately clinging onto here lol)

on that note. in general this whole story i'm just like. not really sold with the way literally everyone is so obsessed with mc its just like yeah you're PROBABLY that amazing resonator from way back when and i have a feeling a couple of these characters might have known them from before they lost their memories (esp scar?) but it just feels. very super ultra forced in a way i don't really like

but apparently that's what they're gonna use to drive the story and i can't expect them to rewrite all this (again? lol) so it is what it is i guess *shrugs*

the mc's fame will be less in your face as the story progresses and they actually DO more things. but right now its like. we just woke up and everyone is so obsessed with us lol can we have literally anybody who doesn't care or is like. this sure is fucking weird huh. for a world constantly in turmoil y'all sure are very trusting of this random person with amnesia

mc in general just feels really flat. yangyang being the token partner doesn't help because she is equally as flat. damn maybe we really do need paimon

oh also another detail that kind of bothered me. when we were talking with jinhsi early on there was a dialogue option to ask "have you found jue yet?" while EVERYONE is standing there. i thought this was a secret thing people aren't supposed to know about??? we're just talking about secrets out in the open like this?

what else. i liked the the jiyan and geshu lin phantom confrontation 👍 but it does feel like they're really leaning into the "yeah geshu lin was 99% in the wrong here and that 1% is gonna be jiyan's inner turmoil" and i was kind of hoping it'd be more complex than that

anyways if you read through all that props to you 👍

[ginnsbaker]

The second i saw the time skip combined with leigh seeing danny in that situationship my heart sunk cos i have the fear of god in me that the secret danny asked reader to keep is gonna be a source of angst later it was made especially worse by the fact reader and leigh seemed to take a step in the right direction (or at least until leigh made that connection right at the end i wonder how thats gonna change how she acts or what she’ll do with the knowledge)

Logan is a really cute name and just the infinite amount of cute leigh puppy content that will exist in my brain 🤩

Random but i love how unbothered the other shaw women were by the late night commotion 😂

I like that leigh agreed to let reader visit logan (its kind of like co-parenting i see them getting that practice in 🤨) i hope the realisation she has at the end doesn’t stop that but i also can kinda see that really watering the seeds that have already been planted cos come on you can make anyone infinitely more attractive when you see them interacting with a puppy so that combined with the extra time spent together leigh will be dumping danny for reader in no time

Last thing as someone with brown eyes who always thought they were kind of boring i love espresso eyes

I love Wednesdays

Can’t wait for next week you’re amazing

-🧃

The thing about Danny is.. he doesn't need reader to destroy whatever he has with Leigh. He's doing fine just by himself :) But we will circle back to that soon.

I'm kinda proud of coming up with the name Logan too lol. But now all I keep thinking about is Logan Roy from Succession :P

"Co-parenting" is kinda a big deal because it's something couples or ex-couple do, yeah? so it's going to be one of the main stuff that will bond them together, other than the fact that Leigh keeps observing things about R that reminds her of Matt because R and Matt got together due to their similarities and interests.

Lol, you don't think it's too cheesy? Or a little ridiculous that R used that handle? :)) I'd say R is aware that she has pretty brown eyes, but she's not too forward about it in real life hehe

I love Wednesdays too, I get to feed my babies some update!

[saltynsassy31]

Drop your Pokemon thoughts! OC, fave Pokemon, fave region, fave characters! Anything pal

(Pokemon has me on chokehold, every update they will drag me back to the rabbit hole)

Wow calm down buddy, I am still very new to pokemon XD

I think I mentioned, but Decidueye is my fave for no other reason other than he was my first pokemon in Unite and I loved his design, he's my baby

Idk much about regions and stuff like that though, the little I know of it would have to be Alola for fashion alone, I'm more of the type to use loose clothes for warm weather because I'm Brazilian and where I grew up in is a fucking desert lmao so it reminds me a little of home

For characters...sorry I don't have any :( again, I'm new still

I wasn't allowed to indulge in pokemon, I've only watched a handful of episodes that would, by chance, air during the time I stayed at my grandma on Saturdays where I had no restrictions on the TV

I dont remember anyone's name besides Ash's lol, so even if I did have a fave, I wouldn't be able to tell the names. Tho I think I did like that one girl, I think she was a princess? Sorta? She has a Dino looking pokemon too and had big, purple hair. I also likes the red haired girl, she was funny.

I do have other fave pokemons tho, Snivy was the first pokemon I became obsessed with, when I saw their design I was in LOVE. I remember googling up images of them to trace or try to redraw, and I drew it so many times so that when I went to school I could draw it by memory. One of the boys, who was sorta ostracised cuz of his disability, saw me drawing in the corner of the classroom during recess. I tried to keep this interest hidden cuz my mom didn't allow it and would get mad in me indulging on it, so I panicked when he asked what I was drawing and I tried to hide it, but he was really cool about it and was also really kind, with how aggressive he could be, I never connected with someone more than I did then. He told me fun facts and started to explain things I never once understood but listened to it anyone cuz I loved the pokemon.

Another one was from this other boy, I started to be more open about my interest of pokemon but still hid it from my mom, idk how we started talking but eventually said boy gave me one of his pokemon cards. It was jiggly Puff. He said that since girls usually liked cute, pink stuff, that I would like this one (and he was absolutely right cuz altho I was treated as a tomboy during that time, I love pink, cute stuff and the girliest of girls stuff, hell, I still tend to go for pokemon by apperance XD).

I cherished it so much until my mom found it, she told me to give it back to the boy and I begrudgingly did so but he insisted I kept it cuz "if I liked it, I should keep it, just hide it from your mom"

She found it again but this time I tried to convince her to keep it bu saying one of its ability is to sing you to sleep, after that, whenever we stayed up late, she'd tell us she'd pull out the "pink ball" to make us go to bed XD

During our haste to move countries, a lot of my stuff got thrown into a shed and I havent found that card since :( I'm a little sad I didn't take it with me now in hindsight, but yeah, I hope I'll find it again one day but there is little chances of that happening considering the mess I was greeted to when I went back to collect some stuff after years

My friend did find the exact card I had tho, it was this one

As for OCs...well, I only have my persona who I already made a post about here and...that's about it so far XD

Also! Please do not be shy go info dump bout pokemon! I'd love to have more people to talk about pokemon! I wanna do more stuff, find people to roleplay with ocs, etc. Etc. Pokenon has been eating my brain away and i only got a handful (barely that) of people I can turn to vkskskak

[mithliya]

you like lucy liu! great bc i have a story i've been dying to share related to her and it's utterly ridiculous if not stupid. (it's a bit long tho, so sorry abt that - but it fuels my pettiness)

so, I used to have this friend (from ages 15 to 20), we met at school and befriended each other through fandom. I'm a lesbian (bi back then) and always liked wlw ships, my friend (straight) really liked mlm ships & considering our common interests we got along p well. (i say liked mlm ships, but it was probably fetishisation: mlm ships were better than any straight or wlw one bc two men; men deserved to be with another man being w a woman would've been a downgrade etc. basically a lot of internalised misogony)

Okay, so around 2016/17 the Sherlock shows "Elementary" and bbc's "Sherlock" were quite popular. My former friend was really into Sherlock (mostly for the ship); I wasn't. I didn't like Cumberbatch, thought he was arrogant and therefore wasn't interested in watching bbc's Sherlock, I was quite into Elementary though. I liked the spin it took on the Sherlock series, I really liked the idea of an equal and female Watson (Lucy Liu in that case) and I loved the idea of Moriarty being a woman and having great chemistry with Lucy Liu.

I don't remember what led up to the conversation, but she sent me screenshots of her convo with smn else where they were talking about me and my refusal to watch bbc's Sherlock. And to this day, the conversation they had pisses me off so much (but also leaves me going like ??? bc it's ridiculous) It originally was in German, but this was the gist of it: my friend seemed to have been complaining to this other girl (I didn't know her) about me not wanting to watch sherlock. The stranger took offense in my dislike for Cumberbatch and said she didn't know what Elementary was. My friend then replied that I hated Cumberbatch and didn't want to watch Sherlock "only" because he starred in it (both messages accompanied by an eye-roll emoji).

The stranger then asked how smn could hate Cumberbatch and said she just googled the show and went "wtf". My friend then replied "It's an ugly female Watson. And I'm into women, I know what I'm talking about."

The stranger then replied that she couldn't stand Lucy Liu and my friend replied with an over the top "thank you honey I love you for this statement" their conversation ended with the stranger saying that she had just done some research and that Elementary was basically blasphemy and my friend agreed saying she saw it on TV once and it made her want to throw the remote at the TV

that's the story, that pisses me off every time I remember it, bc like, a) beauty is subjective, yes. but i don't think lucy liu can in any way be considered ugly and b) my friend had literally found out she was a lesbian like a week ago. "i like women, ik what i'm talking abt" no, u don't?? it doesn't work like that obvs, but still you don't know what you're talking abt c) the stranger going "how can u dislike cumberbatch" and then in the next breath saying she can't stand lucy liu. ?? ? ??? girl. d) the stranger in general. like where did the audacity come from

i think the statement ("ugly female watson") stemmed from internalised misogyny (on friend's part) rather than racism, bc if watson is female then there is no possibility for a gay sherlock/watson ship, but tbh idk. anyways hope you enjoyed this story that pisses me off to no end

oh and pls also note that this friend was supposedly my best friend at the time and in love with me lol

ok first of all i need to hear the story of u dumping this woman as a friend bc that has got to be juicy too. wtf kind of friend is that.... insane. its insane there was a period in time where ppl act like women are crazy for seeing this demon being and not being interested in seeing more of him:

like he needs to go back to whatever planet he came from n leave us Real human beings alone... terrorizing us with his face is immoral.

also i felt the same about lucy liu but i have sth terrible to reveal... my girlfriend also thinks lucy liu is ugly :( she thinks its insane that im attracted to lucy liu. i think she even said lucy liu wouldnt be considered attractive in taiwan or sth. i feel like east asians have very different ideas of beauty bc this is not the first time i said an east asian woman was beautiful and east asians around me were like "wtf no!"

lastly if this is how she treats her best friend that shes in love with then im concerned over how she treats other ppl

[hua-fei-hua]

curious as to what you have to say about the new lantern rite trailer .......

(other thoughts which were not articulated in this screenshot were "hey remember how the speculated reason for why they had three character banners during 1.3 was bc they didn't want to release hu tao, a funeral director, during lunar new year bc it would be bad luck?" and "of COURSE they finally decide to explore hu tao a bit more during this patch cycle, since death is inescapable in natlan thanks to the ode of resurrection")

dumping the rest under a cut lol

obvs VERY excited to learn more abt the rituals surrounding death and the afterlife in genshin bc um i <3 themes grief and mourning in fiction, but also bc it makes me curious abt what this will reflect abt the lore in natlan, esp since lunar new year (n thus lantern rite, by extension) falling in the later half of the patch suggests to me that they expect players to complete the natlan aq finale before experiencing this year's lantern rite.

hu tao is a character whose arc has always been very clear to me by nature of, like, an interest in gore and morbid things maturing into an interest in grief and death (which was very much helped along by that one college english class i took which was themed around the death industry and the ask a mortician youtube channel (which i had already been watching for like a year prior to taking that class. btw)), so i'm very keen on the serious expansion of her character and showcasing the part of her who does understand the weight of death and mourning and the roles these things play in our sense of humanity.

i've also been holding for a while now that natlan's true ideal is likely closer to that of "hope" than of "war" (and that the writers just kind of painted themselves into a corner n had to run with what they said earlier on), but the immolation of the main lantern in the trailer (seemingly as part of this year's lantern lighting ceremony) does also remind me of the fact that funerals do often have flames bc of like, funeral pyres and cremation. like, hu tao's pyro vision felt like it fell a lot more into place once we started exploring natlan n death became a part of the major story

and i don't think this conflicts with my assertion of "hope" being at the core of natlan, bc i think a clearer way of articulating myself would actually be that natlan structures its nation and its culture around "war", which at its center holds "hope" as its purpose (similar to how fontaine is the nation of "justice", but held an exploration of "truth" at the core of its story) and in turn allows for the exploration of other facets of war and conflict

though at the same time, positing that natlan revolves around hope (which keeps the sacred flame, That Thing Which Revives Characters After Death, alive n stuff) when you're only revived after battle if your team wins is kind of interesting to think abt when mulling over this intersection of hope and war, bc isn't the point of hope that it's able to keep going, to continue to produce miracles, even beyond the point of rationality, which is why you should never give up on it (citation: every classical magical girl show ever)? but at the same time, it is true that you can put too much faith and stock into something that was doomed to fail, and the culmination of that failure can shock you into losing hope for a while, or lead you to never attempt that again, even if the next time you encounter a situation like that, you're much more capable and prepared...

anyway this isn't so much abt lantern rite itself anymore as it is just abt the 5.3 version trailer but i do like that the final boss of natlan is just this giant fuckoff dragon with not one, but TWO swords, and also is just an impersonation made of darkness of the pyro sovereign, which would otherwise be the embodiment of fire (and therefore unavoidably light, to at least some extent). i'll have to poke around and review the lore surrounding the pyro sovereign in-game to make any real claims here, but the fact that the trailer has him talking abt using "the power of darkness" to "prove [our] efforts futile" and that "you [mavuika] have destroyed this world's hope with your own hands" is very cool very much looking forward to the contrasts btwn light and darkness, hope and despair (or should i perhaps say futility?) next patch. speaking of light and darkness, i do also remember the version livestream for enkanomiya release when the devs talked abt how they designed the area with the intent of exploring the contrasts btwn light and darkness in mind, but that's really digressing now lol

returning to the lantern rite thing, i also think that xiao would make for a good choice for one of the core characters in the plotline because of the fact that he also deals in death, he's been having this thing abt allowing himself to remember his dead comrades alongside his arc where he learns how to live... it's very fun to see this question of, "who are you still living for? the dead? or the living?" perhaps reflect on the turning point he had back in the chasm in the version story

and anyway, if lantern rite doesn't expand on all that shit through at least the very easy connection to the new year --> symbol of renewal and fresh starts, then i will be sad and perhaps send dawei ge a strongly worded letter.

[malachiexists13]

Hello, I recently started playing MeChat (thats a lie. I played the game like a year ago but then got bored) and so I figured that it might be fun to do something similar to my "would I slap this character?" posts but with MeChat instead. Because fuck it, I do whatever the hell I want. But instead of slapping, its "would I date this character?" But only the ones I've "swiped right" on because there is way too fucking many. So let's get into it!

Key:

❤ - I would date them

💔 - I woule NOT date them

❓ - Unsure/Don't know enough about them

PHOTOS DO NOT BELONG TO ME! THEY BELONG TO THE CREATORS OF MECHAT!

1.) Kai Winters

- I literally only matched him because his name is the same as the one I use on the game. And all I remember is that he's a vampire and when his storyline "ends", he leaves the player for his ex or something. Bitch ain't loyal so... 💔

2.) Oliver Ortiz

- I matched with Oliver for the dog. I dont even really like dogs. Im 80% sure he dumps the player because his scholarship is more important, but I respect that 💔

3.) Evan Mills

- I genuinely don't remember anything about him or why his storyline "ends." But he's cute? 💔

4.) Noel Moulin

- Literally one of my favorites. Noel is like- the perfect man?? Incredible boyfriend and friend material?? His story is so sweet and engaging, with just the right amount of drama sprinkled in ;). I hope his story is continued soon, gotta know whether Jason's dead or not. ❤

5.) James Berrybell

- Im so in love with his design. The pierings, the long dyed hair, the tattoos, the nails, his fashion, ugh just take me 😍 I'm not really into the whole fuckbuddies or friends with benefits deal, but I'll take anything he's willing to offer. Especially because his story is so intriguing, and the sex scene in the alley was kinda hot. Silently hoping that MC is not AFAB or is at least on birth control with the amount of times James came inside 😅

The real downside to his story is that he lets shit go to his head after he starts gaining attention with his music. I really hope James fucking opens his eyes because I really do like him and want a happy ending there. ❤

6.) Eichi Hirano

- If you're looking for a sugar daddy, here he is. Rich businessman Eichi will spoil you as long as you're down to relieve his stress. Literally, first date and he already fucked MC into the mattress. Lost count of how many times I've disappointed him with my refusal to indulge in toys lol. He's cute, but I wouldn't date him 💔

7.) Gray Grimshaw

- Literally so gorgeous?? And he's a blind artist who advocates for disabled people and is really kind? Take me, please. I'm disabled myself, in more ways than one, so I always love some good representation ❤ And I'm genuinely enjoying Gray's storyline.

8.) Eddie Odonnell

- The slowburn hurts. Eddie's so pretty and he's so kind, sweet, and fun to be with that this slowburn romance hurts. He's either obliviously dense or trying to let MC off easy, I don't know which. Leaning towards dense because he admits to having no romantic experience ❤

9.) Martin Dixon

- The amount of drama here?? Like, I'm sorry. Love the non binary representation, a bit iffy on the field sex, not interested in dating a criminal. Am interested in seeing their story continued. I originally wrote a long rant about how I hated the sprite because some of them, very few, look like they breathe and I thought Martin was one of them. I was wrong 😅💔

10.) Joel Troy

- So sweet and cute, omfg. Not a fan of adrenaline myself but I can appreciate an adventrous man. He's also very understanding so like- perfect boyfriend material??? Making out on a first date is a bit iffy for me but then agajn, I've never been on a date or kissed anyone. Yes, I've been in two relationships but never went on a date or kissed them. I had my reasons-

This is not all of the characters that I've personally matched with. The list grows everyday 😅 But I can only do 10 photos per post so there'll be more soon! And yes, I do intend on doing a "would I slap this character?" for MeChat and a "would I date this character?" for ikemen series, but have patience. I'll get to it when I get to it.

[amporella]

I’m sure you probably get this a lot but I just wanted to say that you’re such an inspiration to me! I really enjoy reading all of your metas and I’ve kind of wanted to make my own one day. And I’ve also been thinking about making a detailed video on the origins of several South Park ships!! (Though that’ll probably be awhile, considering I’m still fairly new to the South Park fandom lol)

so I’ve just come to ask you if you have any tips for writing these! And also thank you for being such an inspiration for me and many others in this fandom :)

WHAT AHH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This is such a sweet ask, and I would be SO interested in reading your metas/watching that video when you get around to it!! I'm SO SO flattered you enjoy my metas; it means a lot!! <3

In the meantime, here's some advice that I hope will be helpful (and some insight into how I write mine):

If you're doing a character-based meta (or really any meta that requires textual support) start off by getting ALL the textual support you can and just dumping it into one Google Doc. First order of business when you're meta-writing is just getting everything in one place! It's a LOT harder to add things once you've already structured your meta and started writing, so you really want to avoid actually starting until you feel good about the amount of textual support that you have.

Once you've got your textual support, it's structuring time. This can either be really easy or really hard depending on what type of meta you're writing; I find that it's fairly easy for arguing a headcanon/contrasting two characters (like in my feminine Kyle and jock Stan metas), while it's a lot more difficult if you're arguing a thought instead (like in my fandom entitlement meta).

Structuring your meta often kind of sucks, but in my experience, it makes it a lot more legible than if you don't; without subsections/bolded titles/bullet points/etc, all of the words kind of mash together into something that's kind of difficult to read! It's a lot less necessary in shorter metas, but if you think yours is going to end up more than ~1kish words, it can make it a lot easier to stomach.

You can structure in whatever way feels right for you, but I often end up using definitions for my structures. In my jock Stan meta, I pointed out the definition of jock, broke it down into its components (athleticism, enthusiasm, and other interests) and sectioned off the meta based on that!

Speaking of definitions; they aren't necessary, but if you're writing something that can easily be misconstrued (or if it's using a term that can get murky), they can be really helpful in establishing a starting point so everyone's on the same page! Even if you don't use an official definition, just elaborating on what you mean when you say a specific word can be super helpful. When you're arguing a point (especially if it's a controversial one!) you really don't want to leave any room for misunderstandings.

Whether you're super detailed or not in your outline is honestly totally up to you. Different things work for different people! My outline is often REALLY vague. Consider this outline for the Stan section of my fem Kyle meta:

It's SUPER vague, and this is it right before I actually started writing the meta itself. I didn't even really decide on structuring it into personality/interests/appearance until I had gotten to that point in the actual meta! Some people like to mostly wing it, and some people are going to need a little more detail in their outlines; it really just depends on the person. The whole writing process depends on the person, really! Start off with more detail and feel free to start dropping it if you feel like it's stifling your creativity. That being said, even if your outline is vague, I highly recommend having one; it's really easy to lose your train of thought otherwise.

Now it's actually writing time, which is a major bummer. Writing things can be hard and annoying and even MORE annoying if you have to use screenshots/video clips. But you've gotta do it if you want a finished product!!! If I'm dragging my feet on writing, I'll assign myself a section and say I can be done for the night after I get it done. Usually, I'll end up getting invested and writing more than that!

But at the same time, at the end of the day, this is SP meta we're talking about. If you really don't feel inspired, take a break! Leave it alone. After I finished the Stan section, I didn't write anything on the meta for a week because I was busy and unmotivated. That's okay!! Be kind to yourself. Remember meta writing is supposed to be fun and fulfilling, and if it's not, don't force it! It'll happen naturally.

Have some people to talk to!!!! I really couldn't have finished my fem Kyle meta if it weren't for my friends encouraging me. Reach out to people if you need advice and ask for suggestions. It really helps!! I'm honestly happy to be that person if you ever need motivation for your meta; just reach out to me!!

Honestly, meta writing just takes practice. I think my most recent meta is leagues better than my gay Kyle meta from a year ago, and it all really just boils down to having more experience and figuring out what suits you!

I HOPE AT LEAST SOME OF THAT IS HELPFUL!!! At the end of the day, how you write (whether it's meta or otherwise) varies from person to person, but these are some of the things that help me get the ball rolling. Regardless of how you go about it, meta is SUCH an important part of fandom for me (and for a lot of people!), and just writing something out is a serious accomplishment. YOU ARE GOING TO DO GREAT!!! I'm already looking forward to anything you create <3