#i find it hard to believe but also he is probably the closest to an actual hermit irl of anyone on the server

[theethoslab]

Absolutely losing my mind over Scar’s stream today

He was already talking to Etho while catching ocelots

Joel logs in and Scar immediately asks if Etho wants to go visit him

We get so many Etho lore crumbs (although he doesn’t fully confirm anything except having stubble and trying to get rid of 2 extra house generators)

They hang out for like 2 hours doing nothing hut chatting

Eventually Scar leaves but forgot that he left his ocelots at Etho’s because he was so excited about boat boys that he never brought them home

[willyhoos]

"shadows are inverted flames" -> wilsons hair is made of shadow -> YOUR BOYFRIEND'S HAIR IS MADE OF FLAME??? PETPETPETPET

also wilson can't leave the throne so he just has to deal with her doing this 24/7

[checkeredflagggs]

Three Hearts Left

Pairing: max verstappen x fem!gamer!reader

summary: fans (and friends) are shocked when they find max is married and to who

a/n: I’m only a casual gamer so take it with a grain of salt

a/n 2: sorry it’s a really late - the weather hates me personally (it is actually September and doesn’t need to be 85* 😡) and it drained my creativity also I got hella sick so 🤷🏻‍♀️

a/n 3: I know I use the name Twitter when talking about that site. I’ll stop deadnaming it when musk rat does too

a/n 4: still not feeling 100% but I wanted to get this out for max’s bday!!

catpawsgaming

Welcome to the CatTree with the paw prints 🐾 ! I’m just a cat 🐈 mom Lady™ who loves the gaming but not the camera 📷. I’ve been playing games all my life and have been streaming for 3 years — as a hobby, not a full time job. I love my 2 cats, my handsome man, and you 🫵 all my lovely fans. You most definitely make all this worthwhile so mwah mwah 💋�� (video)

catpawsgaming

liked by user, user, user, and 6,583,455 others

catpawsgaming: here we go! Baldur’s Gate 3 has been highly highly requested — so I bought it! …yesterday and forgot about it cause curse of capitalism I still have my day job 😭 but away we go!

As always, if you didn’t manage to catch my livestream it’ll be on my page and I’ll be uploading it to my YouTube channel tomorrow! My YouTube will have the 3 usual versions (one unedited with my reactions, one with just the game play, and one with no sound at all but with closed captions)

Next stream date and game tbh announced but will probably be this Sunday with Animal Crossing (fingers crossed 🤞🤞 I finally get a good turnip price 😭😭 Daisy Mae hasn’t been kind to me lately…)

view all comments

user1: guuuurrrrrrrllll it’s about time you got bg3! We been waiting

↳ catpawsgaming: definitely worth the wait though! I had so much fun and it was so hard to stop for the night

↳ user2: for sure it was 🤣 your reactions to shadowheart and astarion were hilarious

↳ catpawsgaming: they clocked my type on point

user3: glad we convinced you to become a bard! You’ll rock it 💙

↳ catpawsgaming: ok but this the closest you will get me to actually performing so enjoy it while it lasts

↳ user3: not gonna sing along?

↳ catpawsgaming: 🤣🤣🤣 🫵 🤡

↳ catpawsgaming: absolutely not.

↳ catpawsgaming: also handsome just bust out laughing at the thought of me singing so…🙄🙄🙄 he’s lucky I love him

↳ handsome: I am very lucky liefje

↳ user3: ahhhh we were so close to her singing but also awwww cause handsome is here!!

handsome: liefje this was amazing

↳ catpawsgaming: thank you 🥰🥰

↳ catpawsgaming: but also you were laughing at me the entire night so…

↳ catpawsgaming: not sure how much I believe you

↳ handsome: well I didn’t say it was good…

↳ catpawsgaming: 🤨😒😔😢

↳ handsome: 🥰🥰🥰

user4: oh to have a man that will spend hours with you doing separate hobbies together…

↳ catpawsgaming: gotta admit it’s the dream

↳ handsome: you’re the dream liefje

↳ user4: ok there handsome, no need to get sappy here on MY comment thread

Private Messages

mv1updates

liked by user, user, user, and 2,833,736 others

mv1updates: Max was streaming today! Just a short one but highly entertaining. Jimmy (or Sassy? I’m honestly baffled and for the life of me can’t tell them apart 😢) caused a small disturbance in the middle of his stream then slept the rest away in Max’s lap 😍

view all comments

user5: that was sooooo adorable!! Love seeing more cat dad Max

↳ user6: same! And don’t feel bad admin - I can’t tell them apart either

user7: to be Jimmy…🥵

↳ user8: right? What I wouldn’t give to be sleeping away in his lap…

↳ user9: blessed be. His damn thighs man 😳

user10: ok but am I the only one that heard a female voice in the background?

↳ user11: I THOUGHT I WAS GOING INSANE?? Like there was definitely someone there

↳ user12: wait when?

↳ user10: when max turned the camera to show jimmy on top

Private Messages

catpawsgaming

liked by user, user, user, and 5,822,944 others

catpawsgaming: and Daisy Mae delivered this week! Sunday I got a price of 90 and today!! Selling price of turnips is 658 this evening!! Woohoo!

I've got my usual set up going to allow visitors to sell and I’ll be playing for about 4 or 5 hours so let’s make some cash today! I just ask you be respectful of my island.

As always, if you didn’t manage to catch my livestream it’ll be on my page and I’ll be uploading it to my YouTube channel tomorrow! My YouTube will have the 3 usual versions (one unedited with my reactions, one with just the game play, and one with no sound at all but with closed captions)

My week is looking pretty busy (a lot of traveling happening) so my next stream will probably be sometime next week and I’ll be playing Horizon: Zero Dawn! Its sequel will be coming out soon and I want to replay the first to refamiliarize myself with the game!

view all comments

user13: yeessssss! I’ve been holding out that someone would have some fantastic selling prices this week! New house upgrade here I come!

↳ user14: oh don’t I know it! It’s been a downward slump all week for me — the high was 105 😭😭

↳ user13: ouch 🤕

user15: did anyone else hear the cat meowing in the background!

↳ user16: yes! Catpaws has got a couple of cats — they’re almost never on stream (they don’t like staying in one place for long) but catpaws got them right before they started streaming!

↳ catpawsgaming: 2 of them! They’re my babies! 🐈🐈

↳ user15: awwwww 😍😍

user17: can I say something? Is this a safe place?

↳ user18: it is not but say it anyway

↳ user17: it totally looks like she’s got a wedding ring on in the beginning of this stream

↳ user18: nurse! She’s out again

↳ user19: no no no let her cook. I totally thought the same. It was literally just a glimpse but I swear that she had a ring on

↳ user17: thank you! I knew I wasn’t crazy

↳ user19: but! That does mean our catpaws is married!!!!!

↳ user17: 😱

↳ user18: 😱

↳ user19: 😱

↳ catpawsgaming: 😉

↳ handsome: 💙

↳ user17: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?

catpawsupdates

liked by user, user, user, and 3,126,918 others

catpawsupdates: we’ve had a couple of requests lately asking about catpawsgaming and her cats! These are the first and last photo we’ve gotten — she’s incredibly secretive about them so we don’t know if this is the same cat in both photos or if she has 2 bengals (peep also handsome in the first photo. Catpaws was laughing when she posted that photo cause she’s usually the passenger princess)

view all comments

user20: I LOVE THEM

↳ user21: same! Insert that meme. “I’ve only had them for a day but if anything happened to them I kill everyone else then myself”

↳ user22: extreme but agreeable.

user23: that’s sassy - I’d bet money on it

↳ user24: sassy? What? Who?

↳ user23: sassy verstappen! F1 world champion max verstappen’s cat

↳ user24: ummm? This is a page for a small time gamer catpawsgaming

↳ user23: listen. Torture couldn’t get me to admit how long I’ve spent staring at pictures and videos of jimmy and sassy. But that is absolutely sassy!

↳ user17: I’m connecting the dots as I type

↳ user18: you’re not connecting shit

↳ user17: CONNECTING THE DOTS AS I TYPE

Private Messages

Bluesky

Private Messages

catpawsgaming

liked by user, user, user, and 3,712,222 others

catpawsgaming: tonight’s stream is gonna be a little late — I’m currently being held hostage by the cutest kidnapper ever

view all comments

user24: awwww

user25: your right. You simply can’t move!

↳ catpawsgaming: completely pinned down!

↳ user25: I don’t think anyone is gonna have a problem with your steam being late tonight

↳ user26: I’ve spoken to the council and we don’t! In fact we all vote for a stream of literally just the cat

↳ catpawsgaming:…you know that is an idea

↳ user26: omg. OMG. OH MY GOD!!

user23: THATS JIMMY!! I SWEAR ON MY LIFE

↳ user27: ok grandma. Let’s get you back to bed

handsome: so that’s where the little troublemaker is

↳ user28: omg hi handsome! Where’ve you been?

↳ catpawsgaming: ok I love all my fans but plz stop flirting with my man

↳ user28: can I flirt with you instead?

↳ catpawsgaming: 😳

↳ handsome: no

Private Messages

Bluesky

user29: ITS MAX VERSTAPPEN AND CATPAWSGAMING!!!! I TOLD YOU ALL

↳ user30: ok but are we really gonna take a gossip page as the truth?

user31: OH MY GOD THAT CRAZY FAN WAS RIGHT?!?

↳ catpawsgamingfan: I TOLD YOU. I TOLD YOOOOUUUUU

view all comments

maxverstappen1

liked by danielricciardo, charles_leclerc, landonorris, and 8,345,765 others

tagged: yourusername

maxverstappen1: liefje I know this is not how we wanted to share our love with the world but a light in the darkness is now I get to talk about how much I love you and how you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. These past 5 years have been a dream come true — and it’s been a dream I never knew I had. Seeing you that first time, you took my breath away. Forget the trophies and the victories, the world championships and titles I’ve won — becoming your husband has topped every single one of them. I can’t imagine my life without you anymore and I wouldn’t ever want to

comments have been restricted on this post

yourusername: oh my handsome man…you are the light of my life, the moon in my night, the stars in the sky, the best husband ever and the most loving cat dad I could have ever wanted to spend my life with. Thank you thank you thank you for picking me and staying with me and fighting for me and with me 💋💋

[effieotto]

Sunrise on the reaping bellow, you know the drill

“I know that,” she says. “I’ve known who you are ever since you helped with my makeup box. And I know your position could not have been easy.”

It’s surprisingly touching. “Thanks, Effie.”

“But they really are for a greater good. The Hunger Games.” And now she’s lost me.

this scene really struck me, because…does she really think that? I find it funny how fast she recognized the anti-government edge of her speech, implying that “she knows his position could not have been easy, thus she felt sorry he had to go through it”, and how it went against the whole purpose of how it was all the great sacrifice she was supposed to believe, and just as fast made sure to reaffirm that it all was for a greater good. Even though it sounded out of place.

Stay with me —since the beginning, when she broke into the apartment with those outfits in hand, telling everyone they should work hard because “A lot of people lost their lives to guarantee peace and prosperity for their nation”, effie wasn’t giving her opinion on the matter, she was repeating the propaganda the government sold. Word for word.

which reminds me how she wasn’t clueless to the consequences of their acts during the first two books. How upset she was every time Katniss did something reckless, because she knew it was going to affect “all of them”. How she knew about Seneca’s not-quite-suicide, and was terrified to know that Katniss did know too…all of it doesn’t imply the sky-level of ignorance we usually associate with her.

the trinkets were somehow disgraced in society, hence effie had to do the double duty of clawing her way back into the high class to be respected in the field and still try to protect her sister’s reputation and, more likely than not, her safety. This was hard labor and it probably gave her some privileged knowledge of how it all really worked. She was the victim of a dictatorship, and i feel like she knew exactly what it meant…she did believe in the propaganda Snow sold, at some level,but she also knew she didn’t have a choice of supporting it or not

which brings us back to the scene— effie was in the bugged apartment of District Twelve with a dozen of peacekeepers standing right behind her, her little speech about her recognizing haymitch as a real person, and feeling sorry (or the closest thing of remorse she could afford) was risky (if you know how not-understanding a dictator is when it comes down to anti-government speeches, you know that she was in danger only for feeling sorry) and she knew that. she had a sister, she had a reputation, she had a family and friends, and years of life…is it really a surprise that she would jump right into her parrot-mood when she noticed she was that close to imply she didn’t really agreed with the whole ordeal?

Was Effie truly a loyalist who buys into the capitol propaganda, or is she just a person under a totalitarian regime who knows the boundaries of safety? She was terrified of the president, you can see that when she said “HE asked you to wear it”. she had people to lose, she had her own safety on the line, should she risk it all for a boy she barely knew?

I am not saying she didn’t have her controversial opinion, or that she didn’t believe in the idea that the games guaranteed her safety. What i am saying is that she saw it more like an unavoidable social dutty than a necessity, and she’s aware that she couldn’t speak against it if she wanted to see the sun rising the next day. She is a much more complex character than just “a selfish loyalist who truly buys the entire propaganda” or the “innocent daughter of Panem”

[cyncerely-bullshit]

when it comes to internet drama, there’s three things I look for:

1: How the accused defends themselves

2: How the accused’s friends defend them

3: How stan accounts defend them

In that order, btw.

If someone is cancelled and makes a genuine apology and very clearly explains that they either didn’t know better or feel genuine remorse, the drama usually ends there. If the internet decides the response was invalid, friends get involved if they truly believe their friend is innocent. After all, the internet doesn’t know them, but their friends? People they speak with everyday? They usually know well enough to speak on if the person deserved to be canceled. Lastly, if the apology was bad and the friends either didn’t step in or made things worse, check the stan accounts. They will almost always pull something up to defend their favorite parasocial relationship. Sometimes they find pretty damning pieces of evidence to support the accused, sometimes they throw shit at the wall and hope it sticks. They bring up points the average person would never even thing to bring up, and sometimes it works in their favor.

Let’s take a look at how these three rules apply to Dream and Tommy, shall we?

Dream:

1: Crashes out live on stream for like 5 hours, brings up a bajillion other things to distract from the original issue, makes a reddit post where he doesn’t apologize for shit then promptly deletes it, calls Tubbo and never once concedes that he may be wrong, belittling what Tubbo says and changing the topic whenever he knows that Tubbo is right and he can’t argue it (also called Tubbo “Tommy” multiple times)

2: None of his friends stepped up. From what i’ve heard a few Spanish streamers spoke on his behalf, but no word from his housemates and closest friends. The way I see it, George can’t defend him because his career is already on the rocks with the Caiti situation (which, if I may remind you, Dream stuck up for George hard and Sapnap [though he wasn’t there] said that he knows George well enough to believe there wasn’t malicious intent [im paraphrasing]). Point is, when a member of the DTeam got cancelled, they banded together as friends, showing they weren’t afraid to defend each other. George likely doesn’t want to put his job in jeopardy by involving himself in more drama, but Sapnap has been silent despite being the least problematic member of the DTeam by a long shot. Even Badboyhalp (who didn’t speak on it directly) talked on stream about how much respect he had for everyone Dream had name dropped and villainized (Tommy, Tubbo, etc) while Dream was in chat.

3: DTeam stans, and Dream stans especially, can be brutal. I have seen what they can pull out to defend their youtubers, if you’re reading this you probably have too, and it’s crazy. So it speaks volumes that their only argument in this case that I’ve seen is the very same one Dream used initially: he’s neurodivergent, he can’t help it. He didn’t know it was wrong, he was genuinely trying to be a good role model to the kids of the server but his autism made him act like that, the essay he sent to Tommy wasn’t manipulative at all, etc. I should not have to explain why this is not an argument in the slightest and shouldn’t even be taken as one. Other than that, there isn’t an edited snapchat photo, message, or post to be argued (at least not on Dream’s side). Dream very clearly did everything and is still arguing that he’s in the right. There is no evidence against him because he’s still talking about not regretting doing anything, so the stans have to argue with what they can.

Tommy:

1: made a short and concise 5 minute video calmly explaining his side and why Dream wasn’t good to him, telling him that the r slur wasn’t a joke and he personally knew good and kind people who were discriminated against with that word and how it isn’t acceptable to be used ever, and telling Dream to take some time off the internet, go to therapy, and spend time with his family.

2: Shout out Tubbo and Jack, the absolute strongest of fighters in this whole thing. For as much as Dream complained about Tommy “manipulating people into hating him,” he didn’t speak on Jack enough. Jack Manifold has not been quiet about his distaste for Dream, and is the one who brought it up on his and Tommy’s podcast. Tommy is the one who was trying to talk about Dream neutrally and change the subject, meanwhile Jack just went off, but somehow according to Dream, Tommy was the one accusing him of things. And Tubbo, the strongest of them all, watching Dream’s whole breakdown with a neutral and (mostly) calm perspective, speaking with him (more like talking at him while he said “let’s move on” or “let’s agree to disagree”) and fighting for his best friend. I’m glad the divorce was amicable. Dream had accusations, Tubbo had logic. It was an easy fight. Also, let’s not forget Ranboo, Philza, Sneegsnag, Aimsey, AverageHarry, Jimmy, Joel, Molly Melinks, Sarah Simons, Rue (Tom’s old roommate), Jonaay, MaxGGs, Kwite, Pokimaine, and many more that sided at the very least against Dream, but mostly against Dream and with Tommy. Also the fact that Dream’s supposed friends like HannahxxRose, VelvetisCake, and Sapnap himself were in Tubbo’s chat during the argument.

3: Ah yes, the 15 million people that got called the r slur. Easiest defense of a celebrity ever, since Tommy did nothing wrong, just defended himself. Even when Dream tried to say he used child labor to make his videos and the editors were underpaid, it wasn’t the fans who defended Tommy, it was the editors themselves. Tommyinnit truly has exactly 1 enemy.

just wanted to get all this off my chest and explain how I deal with internet drama and why this is quite frankly the most non-divided drama i’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen someone so in the wrong be so confident about it, it’s truly baffling.

anyway, back to coding.

[lightningant]

I am 100% team Tomarry and don't really like Tomione, but if somehow Harry is not in the picture and you have to ship Tom with a Golden Trio member, it's gotta be the brightest witch of her age.

Harry's got the narrative mirror, Parseltongue, magic power and of course his cute look going for him when it comes to Tom.

Hermione cleans up rather well (why do you think jock extraordinaire Victor Krum wanted to date her) and is very intelligent and has 10 OWLs

Ron is very unremarkable. He is a an every man. Nothing special to look at, not very bright, no great power. Just a good guy.

A guy we see at pubs complaining about his bitchy boss, receding hair lines, problems with the missus.

Hard to imagine a guy like that with a very powerful, very pretty homme fatale like Tom.

Who are you people. Have you not ever been in a relationship

Hermione isn't "smart" - she has an absolutely prodigious memory. "Brightest witch of her age" means this is a precocious skill. This also has absolutely nothing to do with Tom's values. Tom is a creative maelstrom; pretty much all we hear about Voldemort magic-wise is how he keeps inventing crazy spells. The person who's closest to him, Snape, shares this trait (hence my fervent belief they had some doomed daddy issues mentorship situation). What do we know about Hermione? That she HAAAAATES magical creativity. That she's terrible at applying her knowledge - the evil coin she made is an expression of an advance in her understanding of the subject (she's learning and evolving!), but also a straightforward use. She brings her school textbooks with her to self-soothe.

Personality-wise, you could not find a worse pair. Hermione has a strong justice drive (not moral fibre, I mean that insane substrate of stubbornness where you embody a holy war on your beliefs even if you're objectively and obviously wrong) and detests creativity, so Tom's villainy is irrelevant; she's going to be annoyed and horrified by his genius and have strong opinions on it. She is going to complain constantly. She is going to backseat drive his innovations.

Do you think Tom would enjoy a posh muggleborn who obviously comes from money going "UM, ACTUALLY" over his shoulder? Do you think he will enjoy her starting squabbles to vent her own frustrations? Do you think he would appreciate her aimless moral crisis of "oh, look at how everyone treats that elf - shouldn't we do something?" Where she doesn't even bother to listen to the elves on their abuse. If she heard about Tom's background, she is likely to find him pitiful! Do you think he'd appreciate a little rich girl who goes home to her muggles expressing simpering pity? Who buys into his self-mythology and thus believes his mask? Who has to personally bear the burden of him accruing social capital by expressing his desire to hatecrime her. Who's true feelings would probably be to cut her off from her muggle family entirely.

Why do people date to you? To stand next to each other attractively? This isn't even a dangerous toxic couple because Hermione's only power in this relationship is being a nag. I want to attend a women's march just thinking about it.

I would say "go Snamione like a normal person at least their incompatibility is grounds for an opposites attract relationship" but you people think he is ugly and try to squeeze thrill like blood from a rock with teacher/student regardless, which makes them less compelling and again puts Hermione in a position of a demeaned and devalued woman...what must be done to save this woman?

Speaking of opposites attract, is it not obvious a homme fatale like Tom might worry at normality like a loose tooth?

First, Ron's not a balding pubcrawler. He is a househusband. His primarily occupation at all times is being somebody's favourite. He spent so long with Lavender despite being in love with Hermione for a reason. He gets mad at Harry for "putting his name in the Goblet" because this is a conspiracy he could have roped Ron in on, and to not rope him in on it implies he is devalued in comparison to fame and popularity, which separated him from his brothers.

Speaking of brothers, Ron has spent his entire life with the brightest wizards of not just their age but their era; the only wizards we hear as prodigious as Bill, successful as Charlie, as academic as Percy, or as creative as Fred&George are famous, James & Sirius, or Tom Riddle. Tom's genius and good looks are very familiar territory to Ron, and this time he's not even a competitor for his mum's love. Being an accomplished homme fatale is going to hit different on someone like Ron, who is only impressed by quidditch. (This is why Ronarry is real btw)

And as a couple: Ron is also a big picture thinker and strategist. One of his unusual skills is in wizard chess, but he applies that way of thinking to relationships. He's the Heart. Ron tends to scale down the obsessive tendencies of both Harry and Hermione, and even acts as a pillow for Hermione to punch with her petty complaints as it helps her decompress her obsessive focus - Harry finds Hermione exhausting without Ron there.

What would Tom see in a man who doesn't see his godhood as natural yet intuitively understands how impressive he is? Who knows what it means to budget and go without? Who has a big family which, in an AU circumstance, could absorb Tom, appreciate him, find him like-minded? (The screaming row when Tom first starts stealing his whole family would be legendary. Regardless.) Who could pull Tom away from his tendency to obsess over things, who could look at Tom's narrow-minded plotting with a broader viewpoint, and most importantly, who could see every layer of who he truly is and find it worthwhile - something Tom spent his entire lifetime chasing - and ask only that Tom treasured him above all else? Who is simple, loyal, and easily pleased enough that he is someone who can be trusted, accommodated, and included on misadventures without any friction whatsoever? Who gives him a little kissy after a bad day and gets mad and doubles down when questioned on his values?

He has seen his heart and it is his! And honestly? Likewise with Ron!

Tom's next ship down from Harry is Bella and the next ship sideways is Ron and you can show me all the dark academia Pinterest boards you want, you are never going to convince me otherwise.

[aethon-recs]

Hi! This might be both vague and overly specific all at once, but I'm looking for fics that have characterizations similar to A Dangerous Game. I've been having a hard time finding fics that have that sort of care put into how tom and harry are written, with realistic motivations, actions and great dialogue that fit the characters. Honestly I do not care about the word length, the type of AU or anything like that—I'll try anything! (love your blog btw:)

Thank you so much! I absolutely loved this ask because I too am always (always) on the lookout for fics that vibe like A Dangerous Game, one of my absolute favorites.

The fic that probably comes the closest in terms of vibes is A Future Without a Face, which I usually reread back-to-back with A Dangerous Game:

A Future Without a Face by @dividawrites (E, 115k, complete)

Tom Riddle is a gifted teen with a personality disorder. He’s going to rule the world one day. Harry Potter is an extremely angry transfer student, or at least that’s what Tom believes.

*

Here are two more same-age Tomarry fics in the 1940s setting that remind me of the volatile and toxic relationship that Harry and Tom have in ADG as well:

Ills of Murder by @shadow-of-the-eclipse (M, 110k, WIP)

Harry Potter is a time-travelling, furious mess, and he is going to kill the Dark Lord. Like most of his plans, things do not work out. Tom should not be so obsessed with his would-be murderer.

Promises, Promises by @mosiva (E, 72k, complete)

Harry, stuck in the past and trying to navigate Slytherin House with Tom Riddle at its head, is hit with a memory-loss spell. An unhappy accident, as the ever-friendly Tom Riddle is on hand to tell him.

*

The next few recs have entirely different settings (in alphabetical order: the first one is a mafia AU, the second one is a modern AU, the next one is post-canon, and the last one is a magical AU where Harry and Tom are the same age), but if you’re looking for very character-driven writing, give these a try as well:

found by @honbug (E, 112k, WIP)

Tom knows from the beginning that he is destined for greatness. Nothing and no one will stop him from achieving his goals. (And then, of course, there are the dreams.)

Lover's Spit by @blogalinda & @k3uuu (E, 123k, WIP)

Harry and Tom grow up in a small town together in northern England, and Tom has harbored a single-minded obsession for Harry ever since primary school.

One Year In Every Ten by @saintsenara (E, 207k, WIP)

A decade after the final battle, a serial killer emerges, with a message that proclaims the Dark Lord has risen again. Harry is assigned to the case.

Pledged by @moontearpensfic (E, 139k, WIP)

Harry and Tom are best friends that enter into a Hunger Games-crossed-with-Triwizard Tournament together in their seventh year.

*

And I'll also drop the link to A Dangerous Game below, just in case anyone hasn't read it yet!

A Dangerous Game by @cybrid (E, 322k, complete)

Tom’s diary horcrux gains a body at the end of Harry’s 5th year (instead of his 2nd), and then promptly kidnaps Harry and holds him captive over the summer.

[plusvanity]

What’s your take on Pelle wanting a romantic relationship irl? Do you think it’s something he would’ve wanted? Or was he afraid that he was too odd for someone to accept him? (I don’t know if that sounds harsh). Since you think that he was sensitive.

Btw I love your analysis girl 🫶

I'm not so sure about relationships, but I firmly believe that he wanted to connect to someone, somehow.

In terms of friendships, I think Øystein was the closest friend he had (at least during his time in Norway), but even so, Pelle didn't open up much for various reasons that include the environment in which he was at that time and most probably trust issues. Talking at some point with Old Mayhem, she described an 'invisible wall' between Pelle and his friends/ the world and I couldn't agree more. It feels like Pelle would've wanted this meaningful connection with someone, anyone, but unfortunately, he didn't manage to form it. I genuinely think this had a massive contribution to why he took his own life.

I don't know if he would've wanted a relationship because a relationship comes with a lot of stress and pressure for being in a commitment, attending someone else's needs, etc, but he definitely felt alone and forgotten in this world. After all, he wrote in his last lyrics 'No one will ever miss you'. He longed to be seen, to be given attention and importance. There are a lot of signs of emotional neglect in how he developed, but I will try to keep it short. I consider him as being in the autism spectrum and a relationship would most likely feel overwhelming, especially since he would lack experience, confidence, etc. But if I have to imagine him in a relationship, I can only imagine him being with someone patient and calm.

People with strong trauma responses, PTSD and those who suffer from personality disorders need a partner who is a bit more mentally equipped to manage stressful situations than your average Joe. To see improvement in Pelle's mental health, he would need a very patient and mature partner.

Love can heal a broken heart. I am one of those people who believe that no matter how broken you are, if you find someone to love you for who you are, someone who is willing to accept you with all of your inner demons, with the the good and the ugly, you can start to heal. Currently, I'm following this process myself. The human brain can be programmed and re-programmed. We are very adaptable to our environments and if we make our senses realize we're not in danger anymore, we can finally allow ourselves inner peace. This is why I believe that Pelle could've been saved.

Hypothetically speaking, Pelle would have a hard time adjusting to a relationship. He was quite rigid, stubborn and unwilling to change for others. To make a relationship work, you need to make some compromises. Another aspect that I want to point out is that Pelle had outbursts or 'episodes' of impulsive behavior when he was living. That would be a serious problem. Øystein (and Metalion, if I remember correctly) had to literally hold Pelle down when he suddenly wanted to 'go to Transylvania'. The question is: Would someone be able (and willing) to deal with this again and again? He would definitely need psychiatric treatment, but would he accept that? There are so many factors that would make dating Pelle a real challenge. I also believe that he was suffering some sort of perceptual delusion. I won't call it Cotard's syndrome since it is not recognized in the DSM and since we have very little information about it, but my honest opinion is that he might have had something more that just depression and I'm kind of pointing towards Major Depression with Psychotic Features. If you believe something else, that's fine. Everyone does their own research and reaches their own conclusions.

I do think he was sensitive and there would've been room in him to grow positive feelings towards someone, to form a meaningful connection and learn to trust again. In the end, it doesn't matter if he would've had a romantic partner or a best friend, he would've liked to form a bond with another soul, someone who understands him, respects him and is there to stay.

I imagine him as being very honest, capable of showing tenderness, being mindful, quiet, contemplative and trustworthy in a meaningful relationship.

Sorry for my late response, I had an awful weekend.

[deikshen]

i think the ruthlessness that binghe can show in his -ge or -mei variants look similar enough that it’d be difficult to tell which one binghe is without shen yuan there. if shen yuan IS there, and luo binghe recognizes him, then the distinction is clear — lbh acts cold (professional or cruel or distant) toward everyone except sy. it might also be easy to distinguish lbg from lbm if there are any marriageable women in the vicinity for a similar reason (lbg would show them preferential treatment/be a bit of a creep, while lbm would show them probably no treatment outside of what is necessary because they aren’t shizun). so if you want to make it hard to tell who is who then i would make sure that lbh doesn’t see a shizun he recognizes as his husband, and if there are any single and attractive women nearby, keep his interactions with them vague. that’s my two cents at least. need more info on what the deal with amnesiac sqq is — is he recognizable as shen qingqiu? because what lbg knows about sqq is wildly different from what lbm knows about sqq, and if this is postcanon, lbm knows that he can be affectionate toward sqq

OH I DEFINITELY LOVE YOU, incredibly this is absolutely useful to me

Let me elaborate on this a bit-

Shen Yuan is in his modern world, completely oblivious to memories or his time as Shen Qingqiu. The System kicked him out (because, plot) – it's actually like, System kicked him just moments before his death, so he never died and his death was prevented by other circumstances. His memories about his time being Shen Qingqiu are blocked.

So here we have Bingmei, who definitely wants his husband back—Shen Qingqiu is in a ridiculous coma, and well, Bingmei could find some memories of Shen Jiu there and a few memories engraved on the body, but nothing of his husband, as if his soul was no longer in that body. It's post-canon from a couple of years later, Binghe knows that Shen Qingqiu is a different soul from the Shizun who mistreated him in the beginning, a little bit (but not much) of Bingge's story has context.

And he manages to go after Shen Yuan's world!!! but Shen Yuan has no memories of him, Binghe has no idea what the hell he should do, and well, it's a bit like Shen Yuan's POV, I would find that little bit of gaslighting hilarious, where he constantly thinks, ah, this is the Lord Luo, the Emperor with his harem, what is he doing here? Why is he trying to spend time with me?

(And also, it's not like Luo Binghe CAN tell him everything, because hell, he knows his husband hahaha he knows he won't believe any of it, and I think I'll add a seal on his mind that if forcefully broken can do the closest thing to a qi deviation in a mortal human, just for the drama. Plus there are other -extenuating circumstances- that make Binghe not just be able to carry him on his shoulder and taking him away.)

I want to go deeper with more contexts but I'm actually still working on it and very confused about how to make it work hahahahah

[pesky--dust]

Lately I've been thinking about Will's “Is Hannibal in love with me?”.

Yes, I still believe he was already aware of it and just wanted to be reassured in that — to hear confirmation out loud from Bedelia's mouth, because he hated her so much that she was a perfect person to torment about it.

However at the same time, I wonder now, if he didn't ask about this also because for so long time of his life, he had a problem with separating other people's emotions from his own.

Let me elaborate: it was Will who said, “You and I have begun to blur, we are conjoined.”. He was aware of this fact three years before asking Hannibal's therapist — probably the closest person to Hannibal in the States besides Will himself — if Hannibal loved him.

I wonder, if he simply didn't want to make sure that the feeling he feels is his own, but Hannibal feels the same about him and Will is not projecting his own feelings onto Hannibal because of the fact that the two of them are blurred together.

I don't know if I made it any clearer, but I find my way of thinking about it so hard to explain. I'm sorry.

[wonnieluv]

All’s fair in love and… airports? - n.rk

Summary: what happens when your already stressful travel day home for the holidays is further ruined by some random emo kid at the airport

stranger!riki x fem!reader

warnings: Riki is a menace, strangers to enemies to ??, kms jokes

Masterlist

What’s the best part of traveling on one of the busiest travel days of the year? Well that’s easy, there isn’t one! Well, that’s what you believed when you stepped out of your cab at the airport.

Breathe Y/N… just get through TSA… you’ll be fine

You step through the doors heading straight for the TSA line, the large LED sign above your head saying “wait time: approx 45+ minutes”. It took every last piece of self control to not audibly groan

Great off to an amazing start

You pop your headphones over your head in hopes to somehow speed up the process.

After about 15 minutes of scrolling on Instagram you decide to look around and gauge how far you’ve moved in relation to how close you are to the front of the line. As you do an in depth scan of your surroundings you notice a boy, possibly your age, walking in your direction on the other side of the line divider.

He’s wearing all black. Black jacket, black pants, black bag, and black hair with bangs that cover his eyes just enough to tell you all you need to know. He wanted to be here just as much as you did. His hoodie pulled up just enough to stay on his head while also not completely shading his face. His lips formed a frown that just screams talk to me I dare you. As you find yourself over analyzing his appearance you quickly avert your eyes back to your phone.

As you inch through the security line, this process continues. You scroll on whatever social media that momentarily entertains you until you notice he’s coming near you. At that point you only partially pay attention to your phone as you continuously eye him until the two of you cross paths and you have to wait until you progress farther down the line so that you’re facing him again. He hasn’t made any indication that he’s noticed your ogling yet and before you know it you’ve crossed his path for what would probably be the last time as you’ve reached the front of the line.

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

After being yelled at by TSA to remember to take everything out of your bag and your person, you finally breathe the closest thing to fresh air you’ll probably have until you exit the terminal on the other end of your flight.

Ok… good job Y/N… hardest part over with.

As you treck to your gate, that is conveniently placed as far as possible down the terminal from where you exited TSA, you grab some snacks to tide you over for the moment. Now nearing your gate, the lord and savior must be smiling down on you or something because there’s a perfectly situated seat available right at your gate. A solo seat with an outlet, table, and perfect view out the window. You know where your path leads you next so you head straight for the seat. What you fail to notice is a shadow moving towards that exact seat.

When you think you’re in the clear, you see mystery mad (cute) boy from TSA block is butt down in the seat, your seat.

In an effort to avoid the embarrassment of having your seat stolen you divert your path to another nearby seat. I mean, he probably didn’t see you right? Well, that’s what you thought until you look back at him from your seat and he sits back all relaxed and cozy with a smirk on his face. He even quirks an eyebrow when you make eye contact as if to say ‘too slow loser’

With the most dramatic eye roll you can muster you divert your focus back to your phone in frustration since you’re now unable to watch out the window.

Seriously, I can’t even have an airport crush in peace…

Taking a deep breath you calm yourself as you wait patiently in your seat for your boarding group to be called. Which was proven to be a hard task when little emo boy (as you’ve unaffectionately nicknamed him) making eye contact with you every 5-10 minutes with that stupid smirk on his face as if he just beat you for a prize of a million bucks not some stupid seat in an airport terminal

Once I get on this plane I won’t have to deal with him anymore… deep breathes Y/N…

“Now boarding group 3 for United flight 384 with full service to Chicago”

Finally… you cheer mentally as you gather your belongings to get in the boarding line.

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

Let’s just say your little moment of happiness was cut short when the second you step towards the queue, a massive black figure blocked your path abruptly causing you to nearly run into it.

“Do you mind?” A deep voice comes from the dark being

“You literally walked in front of me… I don’t see how this is my fault” you scoff as you look him in the eyes

Of course it’s this fucking twerp

“My apologies, I’m very high sighted, I have a problem seeing things below 5 feet” he smirks and walks off

You’re sat there stunned. I swear there was probably smoke coming out of your ears as you fumed in anger

I know for a fact that Hot Topic reject did NOT just insult my height

After you got over your momentary freeze, you continued to the boarding line trying to resolve the extreme amount of anger you felt at the moment.

As you finally step foot on the aircraft, you move with the traffic to your placing your roller bag above your head before turning to your row to sit down. But what you saw made you want to turn around and run off the plane screaming ‘BOMB!’ at full volume.

There, in the seat next to yours, sat the boy who has decided his ultimate goal of the holiday season was to make sure you had the worst day ever.

At least I have the window

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

They should’ve put me in an exit row so I could rip open the door and jump out

It’s been just over an hour since the flight took off. With a little over an hour remaining, you’ve never wished you could be anywhere else more than in this very moment. Why? Well you’ve found yourself in what could only be described as the fiercest battle of your life. The battle… for the armrest.

“Do you mind?” You glare at the boy who you’ve been shoving your elbow against for close to 15 minutes now.

“I literally have the middle seat, it’s common knowledge the middle should be allowed to have the armrest” he argues back. “It’s common decency”

“Oh yea” you scoff “like I should be taking lectures from you” you roll your eyes and proceed to shove his arm off the armrest again.

“Oh come on” he rolls his eyes before turning to you, “if you’re going to be this childish, we can just share” he scoffs laying his arm on top of yours.

“You know…” you look at him “if you wanted to hold my hand so bad you could’ve just said so” you smirk at him

His eyes shoot down now realizing that his large hand was now resting on top of your much smaller one.

He immediately retracts his hand scoffing “as if…”

And just like that you had the armrest to yourself for the rest of the flight.

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

The ding of the seatbelt sign turning off was more satisfying than you’d ever imagined it could be. You exhale out of relief when you finally get to stretch your legs and walk down the aisle with your bags knowing that once you got out into the terminal, you were free of this parasite in the form of a wanna be grim reaper.

The lights of the terminal felt a little bit brighter as you walked towards baggage claim. You’re finally in the home stretch. All that’s left is to get your bag and meet your parents at arrivals and you get to put this whole nightmare behind you.

You approach the carousel and you immediately block the dark presence that you can’t seem to lose. You immediately move to the opposite side as the alarm blares and the conveyor begins to move. A breath of relief leaves your lips as you see your black suitcase. You approach the conveyor and reach for the suitcase but as your hand comes in contact with the handle, it also comes in contact with another hand.

As the two of you pull the suitcase off the belt you turn to face the person and of course you’re met with the same dark eyes that have been tantalizing you all day.

“You can let go of my bag now…” you glare up at him

“How do you know this isn’t my bag” he smirks down at you.

“Look dipshit, I hope you’ve had fun making my life hard all day, but this has my name on it unless you want the claim the pink ribbon tag as your own” you shove his hand off of the suitcase “now piss off” you turn away and walk away from him towards the doors. Towards freedom. But before you have the ability to escape you feel a tug on your wrist.

You turn around to face him again “what now” you’re clearly not impressed by the tone of your voice.

“I-I” his demeanor has completely changed now. He won’t meet your gaze as he fumbles out “I’m sorry… I guess I thought you were cute and… it was so fun to tease you but… I took it too far” his hand still holding your wrist as he looks down at the floor “I… just wanted to let you know before you left. I know there isn’t much I can do… but I really am sorry”

You gently remove your wrist from his grasp as you look at him with an unreadable expression

“I-I guess I’ll let you go now” he starts to back away but before you can turn away you stop him.

“Well… I guess you’ll have to give me your number so you can make it up to me” you smirk at him.

He looks at you with wide eyes, mouth slightly agape before he snaps out of it and fumbles to get his phone out of his pocket.

“O-oh… um… y-yea…” he takes your phone trying to suppress the smile by nibbling on his bottom lip as he hands it back to you. He stares at you with a slight star struck gaze. But when he finally snaps out of it, you’ve already started walking away.

“I’ll text you… uhhhh” he hesitates just now realizing he doesn’t know what you’re name is

“it’s Y/N”

“Yea… I’ll text you Y/N!” He calls out to you

“I’ll look forward to it little emo boy” you call back before continuing to walk away.

“It’s riki!” He calls once more before you go out of sight. He does a little celebration to himself, not minding the obvious stares of judgement and curiosity from onlookers in the terminal. As he collects his bags finally his phone buzzes in his pocket.

I had the idea for this while I was on the plane home for the holidays so I hope everyone likes it!

[evilmoldywizard]

Hey guys, recently been turning evil about Stanford pines again because of book of bill, so here are some headcannons I have of him

- as someone (myself) who has a lot of hand issues that come from joints in places they shouldn't, I feel like he has a lot of chronic pain with his joints and wrists specifically. (I'm an avid Stanford pines finger splints believer), because just trying to make the anatomy work when drawing his hands makes mine sore just thinking about it. I feel like as he gets older especially he starts to need extra support for his fingers and wrists with all the tinkering with machinery, and stealing heavier tech parts he does.

- the scalp over the metal plate in his head has trouble growing hair like it used to before surgery, and its partially why his hair has started going gray heavier around that area, its overall a bit of an awkward patchy area, he doesn’t really care much though. It also gives him headaches whenever the weather is off, but he only really notices this when he is back home in the mystery shack.

- he of course is covered in more dumb tattoos that he picked up throughout the multiverse, as well as some actually good meaningful ones too. He's also had a lot badly removed but just enught that you can still see them faded.

-transgender because he just is

-i would say “did his own top surgery” but I feel like he would of never bothered, because of the recovery time. He would probably be one of those trans guys that just work out an insane amount to sort of even out the muscle.

- regularly gets confused/ straight up forgets details about the dimension he's in. (canon, I know but listen) he has been through so many versions of so many realitities and god knows how long he spent in each, trying to relearn customs, languages, names of things, etc, and genuinely gets upset when he forgets which pieces are from what dimensions. It just reminds him how much he has missed out on. This also leads to a lot of derealisation issues and paranoia about finally being in the right place.

-in some dimensions he has been able to study up and get some more degrees on some like really obscure topics. I feel like he did this in the really early years before he became an outlaw in nearly every dimension. He probably wanted to fall back into as familiar of a pattern as he could with all the constant chaos around him, academic approval is the closest thing he can feel like to having control over his current situation. It also kind of reminds him of Fiddleford, but he doesn't like to dwell on it, or really think too hard about it.

- he genuinely loves hearing about new changes to his home dimension from dipper and Mabel, even dumb little memes Mabel keeps showing him. He doesn’t really get it, but he just likes to be included.

-he visits Fiddleford almost every day since they reconnected. Trying to find pretty much any reason to see him. He misses him more than words can say and feels guilty about how things ended with them, and Fiddleford knows this. He just likes having Stanford around too much to say anything about how obvious he is being.

[ghostkingirl]

An analysis/rant about Alexis Ness and fear of abandonment

Seeing all the Ness hate (mainly on TikTok) is genuinely making me feel like his trauma and fears of abandonment aren’t being acknowledged enough so here’s my analysis rant about Ness because I am a Ness glazer and I feel like he has the potential to have the saddest or most important arc in NEL.

Obviously Ness is extremely insecure and sees himself as having no inherent value as a person. Especially for kids coming from toxic households, it can be hard for them to see that they are important and valuable as individuals.

Ness believed his only value was in soccer, and Kaiser was the first person who believed in him whenever he was at his lowest point. Kaiser (in a sense) acknowledged his value and helped him develop it further. Even after that, Kaiser opened up to Ness and developed a level of trust in him.

For someone like Ness, who was abandoned by the people closest to him, it’s understandable why he would attach himself to Kaiser. He saw his only value as being something for Kaiser to use to achieve his dream, and Ness probably got absorbed into that. I can see how Ness probably got so involved in Kaiser’s dream that he lost his own sense of identity, and I don’t think he realized that until after Kaiser broke things off with him. He wasn’t inherently trying to suck up to Kaiser, he was probably trying to reach that level of closeness he felt when him and Kaiser first started playing together, and he genuinely never thought about himself as an individual. When you hate every aspect of yourself because of what others have told you, having someone acknowledge even the smallest part of you means the world. You keep searching for more of that validation that they gave you, but in searching for that validation you neglect other parts of yourself and lose part of your identity until you only put value in that part that was validated in the first place. It’s honestly a tragic cycle of dependency and reinforcing toxic behaviors that I think is really well developed.

The complaint I see a lot is that Ness just hates Isagi, when i think it’s more complex than that. I don’t think Ness originally hated Isagi, he just went with what Kaiser said because (as I mentioned before) I don’t think Ness sees himself as a full individual. His attempts to only be what Kaiser wants/needs are what drives what he says and does for the first part of his involvement in NEL. I think Ness only hated Isagi when Kaiser “chose” Isagi. Not only did Ness only hate on Isagi at the beginning because it’s what he thought Kaiser wanted, when Kaiser chose Isagi I can see how Ness felt threatened by that. Until then, Kaiser had never tried to truly connect with anyone except Ness (that we know of), and Ness probably felt like his relationship with Kaiser would be sacrificed if Kaiser started working with Isagi.

I don’t think Ness is just a “Kaiser glazer” I think Ness is a deeply complex character whose abandonment issues and trauma are driving his every thought and decision making. He went from feeling totally worthless to having any part of himself validated and acknowledged. It makes sense that he put all of his self worth into that one part of himself so that Kaiser would keep him around. It also makes sense that he would be angry at Isagi considering the fact that Ness probably sees Isagi as being the one to affect his relationship with Kaiser. Ness just hasn’t realized how severely dependent he is on Kaiser’s attention and validation, and even if he has I don’t think he’s acknowledged it as problematic (yet). This is not to say Ness is perfect, he is a DEEPLY problematic character who is reinforcing his own downfall by constantly seeking validation from Kaiser (who in turn keeps pushing him away which only makes Ness try and seek MORE validation).

My hope for Ness is that like all us kids who have been abandoned and found our self worth in another person only to be abandoned again, that we find love and value for ourselves as individuals and not side characters in someone else’s world.

Anyways your local Ness apologist, out :3

[ohnoitstbskyen]

So I know you headcanon Nami as a lesbian and Luffy as aroaco (both which is heavily agree with!) What are your romance/sexuality headcanons for the other Strawhats?

Hm. I think Zoro is ace, but not aro, but also the only thing he's really in love with is his dream of fulfilling his promise to Kuina, becoming the greatest swordsman in the world. Once he accomplishes that... well, I am not 100% sure he'll survive accomplishing it, actually, I think the story is signaling pretty hard that his moment of transcendence is going to be connected with the moment of his death (the "King of Hell" thing, all the Buddhism imagery, his tendency to find revelations about swordsmanship on the brink of death) but if he does survive it, that's when maybe romance can become a consideration for him. Maybe. That's when he can figure out who he's even into.

Sanji is extremely romantic - hyperromantic, even - but honestly in a way that's... almost totally disconnected from actual romance? He worships women as divine goddesses and sources of extreme aesthetic and emotional joy for him, but he seems to struggle enormously to actually relate to them a lot of the time. He seems more invested in Being A Gentleman Who Loves Women than he does in... actually being in any sort of a realistic relationship with a woman.

Pudding is the closest he comes to forming an actual romantic relationship, and even then, so much of it is ultimately motivated by his romantic fantasy of Being The Prince, of being the noble, self-sacrificing hero who Saves The Girl, of Being A Good Man. Committing to her is, for him, an act of self-sacrifice, for the sake of his crew, for the sake of his family (Zeff and the Baratie, not the Vinsmokes), and for the sake of her more than it is an earnest desire to build a future with a true partner. He's resigning himself to a life of being her perfect domestic husband servant, in worship and adoration of her, but never in partnership.

In an extremely weird way, the vibe I get from Sanji is he's like a... hyperromantic... aromantic? He's EXTREMELY invested in romantic fantasies, but not so much in the actual day-to-day mundanities of romance, he's in love with the idea of being in love, with the experience of being in love, with the thrill and act and performance of being in love, more than he is in love with any actual person?

Partly this comes down to One Piece just not being a romance story - romance is generally sidelined and elided in most situations, and Sanji's romantic obsessions are played for comedy 99% of the time, they are not taken seriously, so he never has an opportunity to really go through the process of romance as a grounded, flesh-and-blood process, but I can only discuss him as he is presented.

Robin, I think, might be the most straightforward of the crew. I am on board with the Frobin agenda, I think she's probably straight and... if not cis, then about as cis as you can be with a power like the Hana Hana no Mi. And I think she genuinely would be very attracted to a loud, dependable eccentric like Franky, as the other half to her quiet dependable eccentric personality. Especially since he is loudly and obviously an extremely decent man with a heart of gold, and Robin carries so much trauma of being a "devil child," I think she probably needs that kind of uncomplicated light of goodness in her life.

Usopp, again, is probably a fairly straightforward sort. The live action gives him a thing for Kaya, but I could see him being bi or pan, but much like Zoro I don't think he's going to quite have the capacity for Romance™ until he fulfils his dream of becoming a great warrior of the sea (he already has, of course, but he needs to internalize it and realize it within himself). I ONE HUNDRED percent believe he might end up taking a Giant for a spouse.

Franky is... okay this makes no sense whatsoever but I feel that he's gay? But also would fall for Robin? ... but in a gay way???

Look I don't know how that works either, it's a vibe it's a brain feeling it's a wibbly wobbly romance gender sort of situation. Franky is clearly in love with the male body, with masculinity, with maleness, and he especially loves building himself into those images of hypermasculinity, but he does in a way that feels hella queer to me. I don't really think you can be a self-made cyborg building his own body without being some flavor of queer-coded, like, I just don't think that that can be a cishet thing anymore.

He would fall for Robin is my point, in part because they share a knack for creating themselves, in part because Robin would appreciate and need him, in part because she would adore his cybernetic self-creation and find it charming and beautiful, and I think he needs someone who will love his creations (including, y'know, his body) as much as he does.

It's like... y'know how Neo and Trinity in the Matrix are clearly, OBVIOUSLY a t4t couple even though they're both technically cis in the text of the story? It's like that with Frobin for me. Yeah, sure, they're both cis and straight, but also they are trans and gay.

Jinbei I have no idea, actually, he could be into absolutely anything. Kind of a gay bear vibe? That's the best I got. Chopper is a child and I don't think he really has any idea yet either, and Brook... look, I don't think you can be THAT level of flamboyant rockstar and not be some flavor of queer. The Soul King wears Elton John outfits half the time. I don't know that he has a sexuality anymore necessarily (he could be ace, what with the having no carnal flesh and all), but if he's not at least bi romantically then nothing about him makes sense.

[zukosdualdao]

Just some more thoughts I wanted to chat with you about. I am getting some of these points from anti-Zuko spaces, admittedly, in an attempt to think about things, but only the ones that I think are interesting questions to explore regardless.

The first thing I think is interesting is the idea that part of why Zuko stole the ostrich-horses from Song is not just because it was convenient, but specifically because he resented the vulnerability, and it was a way for him to lash out. I think that's interesting and it fits with some of the other stuff I've seen you saying. It was especially cruel given Song's mother helped Iroh, but nonetheless, I think that makes sense.

Second one isn't actually directly from any anti-Zuko blog I don't think, but I've seen people in your circles (I can't remember if you said this) say that Azula brought Zuko back in honor purely as a way to pawn off the blame on him potentially, but I... don't feel like that really fits? Like, obviously she was also being manipulative a lot, by not telling him she told Ozai he killed the Avatar, but if she really wanted Zuko out of the way, she didn't need to bring him in at all? She could have probably won by herself (or at least, I find it hard to believe she would think she would need Zuko), and she certainly didn't need to give him credit for killing the Avatar– she could have just said that she got in a deadly blow but the Avatar has a waterbending healer, if she knew that as I believe Giancarlo Volpe said.

Fundamentally, I don't see a reason for her to bring Zuko back, especially in such a way that he would return to the role of crown prince, unless she genuinely also wanted to have him back. Sure, her love might be selfish, and she may have also wanted someone for Ozai to blame for things, but it strikes me as odd to claim that there was no positive feeling towards Zuko, especially given The Beach, which I just rewatched for this ask. For example, we see her come get Zuko from their old house, and then try and help Zuko figure out who he's angry at, which I do think was genuinely her being helpful, given Mai and Ty Lee were also doing it.

To be clear, she obviously also loves making fun of, tormenting, putting down, and generally, abusing Zuko, and it's very possible that was part of her motivation for bringing him back, but it seems like it's not just that.

Third, and this one you might agree on, Zuko seems to genuinely not have much positive feeling associated with Azula? Like maybe I'm forgetting something, but I can't think of a single time Zuko felt positively about Azula. The closest three times I can think of are when he suggested to Iroh that he should try and get along with Azula (which sounded kind of rote, but maybe he also believed it), when Azula was falling and he said she's not going to make it, sounded shocked and maybe a tad worried, then had a very slightly barely soft expression for a single frame when she did, and finally after her breakdown. I think that does fit in with the idea he can only feel compassion for Azula when she's in a vulnerable position, which I think I've seen you reblog before and I agree with? (And of course, this is precisely what makes it possible to help with Azula post-war, because he's seen her in that vulnerable position and she continues to be in a relatively vulnerable position).

Anyways, that one seems doubly interesting because he also doesn't seem to have any good memories of Azula when she was younger, either? He has a flashback of Ozai with his hand on young Zuko's back, of Lu Ten and Iroh, of Ursa of course, but there's never a time when he has a flashback to Azula at all.

Anyways, these are just some things I was thinking about and I was wondering if you'd be interested in going some of them, and what you feel about the positive feelings in the Fire Sibling relationship more generally. Are there signs of care from Zuko to Azula that I've missed?

Putting most of this under a cut, lol, maybe one day I'll be able to talk about things with any sort of concision but no one should hold their breath on that tbh

Oh, I 100% agree with the point regarding Zuko and the ostrich horse he stole. I don't even really see that as an anti-Zuko take and rather, just like. What happened, because it was part of his journey, lol.

(Aside: which is I guess what bothers me about many anti-Zuko spaces? Which is not to say you're doing or saying this, I know you're not, just in general. I'm perfectly willing to criticize the characters I like and talk about their faults and poor choices, of which Zuko has many. The issue is that so many treat those things as a condemnation of Zuko's character on the whole or his redemption journey, but, like... the narrative treats those things like they're wrong. Iroh may agree to it, but he's not happy about taking the ostrich horse and notes it as being unkind, especially, as you note, given the kindness Song and her family just showed them. For a redemption arc to work, the character has to have something to redeem himself FROM, so I"m like... yeah... he sure did do that... and then he grew and changed, lol. They don't go back to every specific instance and be like, "Yup, that was wrong" because it wouldn't be realistic and wouldn't move the story forward. When he does get confronted with the wrong things he did, it's from the Gaang, because that's what's most relevant to the larger story being told, and he takes accountability and atones.)

I think something important to remember that Zuko's perspective on the war and the Fire Nation cannot be disentangled from Zuko's perspective on Ozai as the father who abused him. Because Ozai's power-hungry and imperialist worldview, whether Zuko would put it in these terms, was something he was challenging when he defended the division being sacrificed, and even in refusing to fight Ozai back. Which relates to this episode because Zuko, for the first real time, is considering the perspective of the people the Fire Nation, in their war efforts, have othered and harmed. When Song is showing him the scar on her leg, he looks horrified - the war effort is not just soldiers battling out on even footing, but families getting displaced from their homes and torn apart, civilians getting burned, too. Zuko, up to now, has been willfully ignoring what some part of him knows is wrong, but when confronted with Song's suffering, real and right in front of him, he is forced to look at that more deeply. I know a lot of people might say "Okay, but then, if he knows it's wrong at this point, why doesn't he change right here and now?" But that's what I love about Zuko's character arc. It's not clear or linear are simple because people aren't that way, generally. Yes, in this moment, Zuko is confronted with and aware of at least some of the atrocities the Fire Nation has committed. But in that same scene, he's also confronted with Song noting that he is a victim of the Fire Nation, too. (Which he is, albeit not in the exact same way. But there are parallels - not only were he and Song both burned, but they were both forced out of their homes.) Zuko can't fully acknowledge or comes to term with the Fire Nation being on wrong side of the war without also acknowledging that not only is Ozai abusive and doesn't want him back, but that he's wrong for that. Zuko isn't ready to accept any of that, so instead of taking this moment of vulnerability as a chance to grow, he doubles down and reasserts himself as what he thinks, based on Ozai's standards, he should be - someone who's cruel and take things like they're owed to him.

I do think we disagree on the second point pretty heavily, which is fine, but to offer my perspective:

I disagree with the notion that Azula wouldn't think she may need Zuko to win. Azula is very skilled and can be very arrogant about and assured of her own skills, that much is true. But she also often prefers not to fight alone. I remember reading an interview (I would have to dig around for it) where one of the ATLA creators said that she surrounds herself with people like Mai and Ty Lee because she understands they have skills she doesn't. I tend to see her as someone who is very distinctly aware of what advantages she has and very intentionally fills those gaps.

Zuko is the wild card in "The Crossroads of Destiny." He is the only person, by the point of the final battle, who no one (I think, for a moment, even himself) knows exactly what he'll do or which side he'll fight for. Iroh and Azula both make their bids for him - Iroh tries to appeal to his sense of morality and sense of self. Azula tries to appeal to things she knows he wants - his honor and the love of their father back, yes, but also to be genuinely needed and respected by his family in general, including her. And while what she says here is couched in manipulation, often, what's so dangerous about manipulation is that there is or can be an element of truth to it, but it's twisted to fit the manipulator's agenda. She tells him that she needs him to win the fight, and I think that part, she genuinely means.

I don't think she would believe she needed Zuko to win a fight in most or every circumstance. This fight is different. She has faced off against the Gaang-Zuko-Iroh when they very, very briefly joined forces against her in "The Chase." The only reason she got out of that is because she feigned surrender, and, using their moment of surprise/distraction, targeted Iroh. That will not work twice. I think she is incredibly aware that this group of people at least holds the capacity to genuinely pose a threat to her. In fact, she is notably growing wary and arguably losing, with Aang and Katara facing off against her together, before Zuko intercedes. She's also very explicitly losing when she and Katara are facing off and Katara's got her trapped with her water-tentacles, and again, it's Zuko who cuts that off and saves Azula there. So not only do I think she was very intentionally encouraging Zuko to join her to fight because she needed him, I think she was pretty smart to do so. (Not morally good or justified, of course, but strategically competent.)

Of course, people can have more than one reason for doing something. I would say most people usually do. I don't think that Azula MINDED that the end result would be that Zuko came back, because (this is something I will delve into more below), having him around, I think, kind of boosts her ego. It's possible that she also has some degree of unhealthy but genuine affection for him - after all, people are complicated, and while Azula is abusive toward Zuko, it's possible to abuse someone and still love or be convinced you love them. That doesn't make it healthy or the abuse okay, of course, but my point is that I do agree with the general notion that Azula, while a villain in the narrative and abusive on a personal level, is not born evil nor 100% devoid of any good qualities. But I think we would also be remiss to act like it's not true that, a lot of the time, the reason Azula seems to enjoy having Zuko around, it's because she can demean him, like when she cornered into playing with them so she could embarass him as children. Or when she quite obviously delights in calling him paranoid and making him squirm while he confronts her about the lie she told that he killed the avatar.

Zuko being around gives her someone to be better than, given her status as Ozai's golden child and Zuko's as the scapegoat. (But again, more on that in a minute.) Any affection she does have for him is unfortunately deeply entangled with that aspect of their relationship as well.

I don't know if you've read that interview with Volpe in full, but I made an addition to this post a while ago that details the quote about this. Volpe makes it pretty explicit in the interview that as soon as Azula saw Katara sweep in, it was her explicit intention to lie about Zuko killing Aang so that he'd be the one to take the fall if/when it came to light that he was alive. One could argue about how well that was executed in-show (I would argue well, but to each their own), but it was the authorial intent. Authorial intent doesn't count for everything, of course, but in such a series-defining moment as this, I think it should count for a fair amount.

(*Note that I don't know where to fit but I think is relevant - on the Zuko coming back and being crown prince front - I agree that it seems somewhat weird that Azula's willing to have him back, given that. But I did also read a post a while back (I can't find it; I'll try to see if I can dig it up at some point) talking about how Zuko's status as the crown prince, set to take over as Fire Lord one day, is... somewhat murky. Yes, he returns and is immediately hailed as a hero because of Azula's lie - but he's also often aimless and unsure of his real role in the Fire Nation at this point. He's frustrated with being sent off on a 'forced vacation' in "The Beach", he's not even sure whether he's allowed in the war meeting from "Nightmares and Daydreams". (And I read a lot of deliberate manipulation on Ozai (and Azula's) part in that. As mentioned in that last post, Zuko spends a lot of time in the series talking about his crown - but I'm not sure he spent a lot of time thinking about what it would mean to get it back. By the end of the series, Ozai is clearly drunk on power and trying to make himself the most powerful person in the world, basically, handing off the hollow title of Fire Lord to Azula. In truth, I don't think he ever wanted or expected either of his children to succeed him; he only saw them as extensions of himself. When Zuko is back, yes, he's being treated like he's a hero and more trusted/respected, but I'm not entirely convinced it would have lasted very long, had he not left. This next part is somewhat based on conjecture/headcanon, but I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to think that Azula doesn't think bringing Zuko back will mean, in Ozai's eyes, he is still next in line to become Fire Lord. Which I actually think she's right about. In her eyes, Zuko has always been the scapegoat who can't do anything right, and it won't take long before that's true again. But I also think that, while Azula has a pretty good read on how Ozai sees Zuko, part of her tragedy is that she does not have as good of a read on how Ozai sees her - he might on the surface treat her more respectfully or with my trust, but at the end of the day, he sees her as a weapon in service of his own ego and power. Knowing that, it's not difficult for me to imagine Azula might have thought she could eventually work things in her favor so she would be Fire Lord - she does, after all, have a pretty good example in Ozai of him doing just that. When Ozai makes her 'Fire Lord' in the finale, I do read some surprise there, but it doesn't seem to me like surprise that he would do such a thing - she deems that it "seems appropriate". I think the surprise is because the timing makes it pretty clear what a hollow gesture it is, and for the first time, she's being confronted with how Ozai truly sees her, and has truly used her.)

The last point is difficult to discuss because Azula and Zuko have a very complicated relationship because of Ozai's abuse of them both, and because his treatment of Azula encourages her to participate in Zuko's abuse as well. (Something pretty relevant to the second point above.)

I talked about this briefly before, but to reassert it: I see the way Ozai treats Azula and Zuko as a pretty clear demonstration of the idea of an abuser treating their children a 'golden child' and 'a scapegoat', respectively. (I have complicated feelings about the origins of these terms which I won't get into now, but regardless, they are pretty commonly recognized roles family structures can fall into that character dynamics and tropes often parallel.) Azula, on the surface, is praised and seemingly treated with more respect or trust, but there is a lot of pressure that no one can truly live up to placed on her, Ozai sees her skill as an extension of himself and in the context of how they can serve him (see him having her demonstrate for Azulon in the flashbacks of "Zuko Alone"), and Zuko is always there as an implicit threat of how she COULD be treated. ("You can't do this! You can't treat me like Zuko!") Zuko, by contrast, is most often treated like everything he does is wrong, and even when he's trying to do what he thinks Ozai wants, he's still a failure. (He's notably displeased by Zuko, in the same flashback sequence, trying to demonstrate his own skill even before it goes wrong, because the expectation is that Zuko will fail before he ever even tries.)

I know this is just like, defining terms, but I genuinely think it's important context to consider when talking about Zuko and Azula's relationship. The tragedy of Zuko and Azula is that they should be able to have a good relationship, but Ozai's abuse has ensured that they don't.

So, yes, I would say that Zuko seemingly has few positive feelings about Azula. Because there has been very little to be positive about. What he does displays a desire that things were different. While Azula is lying about wanting Zuko back home, she is obviously there as an extension of Ozai, but it's her telling this lie, her he's choosing, in this moment, to believe. Because he wants to be able to trust what she's saying and that their family, as a unit, including her, wants him back. In the moment you mentioned where he says he should be trying to get along with her, I think that is another acknowledgment that he wishes things were different because he would like to just get along with her. But she has proven herself dangerous, having just attacked Iroh, and Iroh rightly points out that he doesn't have to simply get along with her, because she is not willing to make the same effort. And yes, a lot of the moments of compassion he seems to feel for her are in moments of vulnerability, because in moments where she's in power, she's often using that power against him, to target him.

Azula does have moments where it may seem she has more positive feelings about Zuko's presence, but as I said before, it's hard to disentangle that from the broader context of their dynamic. I do think the moment in "The Beach" is one of her more genuine moments of care for Zuko, because she sees that he's sad and does something to show there's more to Azula than just cruelty, manipulation, etc. But it's also notable that Zuko is sad because he's finally starting to acknowledge that the way their family is isn't right or healthy, that he's not happy being back in the Fire Nation. Turning away from that is what Zuko's BEEN doing most of the series. He NEEDS to face that if he’s going to grow. Azula trying to get him to turn away from it in the moment isn't entirely healthy, even though that's not something I think she herself recognizes. I'm less inclined to think she was being caring when she asks him who he's angry at, because she immediately demeans him for the answer.

Which is sort of the problem with a lot of the evidence people will sometimes pull to show Azula caring about Zuko - they usually come from moments where either she's manipulating or straight up lying to Zuko or where she is insulting him. It's fine and in fact important to acknowledge that she has more sympathetic moments and is not this completely evil person with no capacity for love or affection (one of the show's central themes is, after all, to suggest that no one is born evil), but I often feel that, when people are making this argument, they are using it an attempt to justify the abuse Azula has committed against him. To say that, because she cares about him, it's okay. And I've seen people go further than that and suggest he's a bad brother for not putting up with her abuse. And I don't agree with either of those stances.

[offsidetracked]

I've been thinking about how I'd go about byler in S5.

When I got hooked on byler it was the same way I got hooked on every other ship; it's heavily supported by subtext, regardless of if it's confirmed by the text later on or not. Sasunaru, reylo, bkdk... all are ships that have intricate and beautifully woven subtext that made us fans speculate for years. In some cases discourse is still ongoing. That's a hallmark of some great writing as far as I'm concerned (all of these ships crashed and burned in different ways but until they did the writing was truly stellar).

Stranger Things and byler are in the same league. I just believe that this time the outcome will be a lot more satisfying. So how do we get the GA to root for it when it happens? I'm not the Duffers but I know some things I would do to help it along:

Dial up the homophobia. When byler becomes canon there can be absolutely no question; the bad guys of this show are the bigoted close-minded homophobes. It must be explicitly shown how mindlessly cruel this specific type of hate is and that it's incompatible with viewing yourself as a hero or good guy. I'd continue to spin the thread from last season and have the town blame pretty much all that goes wrong in Hawkins on your resident nerds, outcasts and misfits. Mix that with the aids crisis and the Reagan administration and next season is gonna be brutal. But it needs to be to drive home that in Stranger Things, if you're a homophobic bully, you're the monster.

Make the subtext hornier. One of the things I adore about Rian Johnson and Masashi Kishimoto is how they do subtext, particularly sexual subtext. Funnily enough dudebros in both the Star Wars and Naruto fandom, just like a lot of Milevens, didn't pick up on any of it. The Last Jedi is filled with Freudian sexual imagery. From Rey falling onto a hairy seaweed-filled cave hole to Kylo's light sabre design, yoni-shapped doorways and their joint fight towards the end—all sexually loaded and masterfully tongue-in-cheek. Naruto had a much longer run and was consequently more parsed out with it's subtexual imagery. Still it's not hard to find if you know how to look (there are some really excellent accounts on here if you wanna dive into that rabbit hole). Stranger Things has the beautiful benefit of being a horror; a genre that excels at showing our suppressed desires in grotesque and weirdly relatable ways. Phallic monsters, fluids everywhere, exposed scratched up and damaged skin, tending to wounds in intense and intimate ways, grime and dirt, panting, moaning, grunting through pain... It's up to the Duffers how in the face they wanna be about it. But it would be a missed opportunity if they don't crank up this type of imagery at least a little. Also, I want to see Mike suffer. Let him sweat and have a nervous breakdown over allegory.

Show that repression = impotence + harm. Freud, no matter what you think of the guy, is all over horror. This quote from Men, Women and Chainsaws sums it up pretty neatly; "Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways". Well bitches, now is later and it's time for the subconscious to come out of the closet and ruin everyone's day. Will is gonna be stuck in the victim part of the Final Girl trope until he fully embraces his queerness by having his feelings reciprocated by Mike. Mike, on the other hand, will probably actively find himself and the people closest to him in dangerous and harmful situations as a direct consequence of all the shame, fear and desire he's bottled up. Until he too, embraces his queer self by confessing his feelings to Will. Poetic cinema. However the Duffers go about it, the lesson everyone watching S5 needs to leave with is that forced conformity is harmful to you and everyone around you, and that there is no greater horror than the horror we subject ourselves to when we deny and repress the truth of who we are.

Well there you have it, this is what I would do to promote byler, get the GA on board and tie together this wild, wonderful, nerve-wracking ride we've been on for the last ten years. Godspeed to all of you, however it goes.