#i SEE THE VISION OP IT CONSUMES ME

[maxlarens]

I got a lot to say so it might be long,

starting with, thank you for the Charles smau and the Lando fic <3

it took me time to choose an emoji lol but I've been doing an internship and time goes by way too quickly, but I decided to go for the strawberry one 🍓

and since you said you wanted to write for driver! reader, and that she was very intense about driving, maybe you can write something about her racing while she's sick/not feeling well but she still wins the race

woo hi again!!! literally no big deal! i hope ur internship is going well, it’s awesome that you’re doing one!! but yeah literally real life is always the priority as much as i’d also like to spend all my time on here lol. but anyway yay the strawberry is super cute 🍓🥺

and YES lol driver!reader is consuming my thoughts right now. i have other things i should be writing instead of this but i smashed this out in a few days😭 i decided not to make it a win because i have a thing brewing for driver!readers first win and i didn’t want to use up all my ideas for that. anyway!!! as usual thank u for the ask and pls enjoyyy 🤗

OP: extraordinary machine

pairing(s): oscar piastri x mercedes driver!reader

summary: you push yourself to your limits. (also sorry i simply don't know enough technical terms about racing for this to be fully accurate but i hope it works)

word count: 3.4k+

Here is a fact— you’ve got a fever of 39.4 degrees.

Here is another, indisputable fact— you’re racing in Imola today.

The fever had come on overnight after a persistent tickle in your throat all weekend. A mildly sore throat had turned rapidly to a snotty nose, full body chills and sweat pouring off you like you’d just run a marathon. You’re wearing a puffer jacket over your racing suit and it’s twenty-nine degrees out. You feel freezing, you feel delirious, and you’re eating Sour Patch Kids by the handful to keep the sugar rush going. Your race engineer, Rachel, keeps telling you that it’s okay if you can’t race. George can step in, I promise. You keep telling her I’m fine. I’m fine. I can race. But the expression on her face says she doesn’t believe you.

You’re telling practically everyone who’ll listen that you’re getting in that fucking car today. Rachel, George, your mum who keeps calling. Lewis keeps looking at you like you’re about to keel over and die and you want to scream at him you did this! Brazil 2015. You had a fever. You got on the podium. If I can’t do this and you can, what does that mean? But you don’t because that’s your 39.4-degree fever talking and this isn’t about being better than Lewis. It’s about knowing without a doubt that you can still get in that car and race your ass off.

Your phone keeps buzzing with texts from Susie that reassure you that you’d be disappointing no one at all if you had to let George take over this race. You’re not letting down women everywhere and you’re not letting down the team. I know Susie, you keep saying, but I’m still racing.

You know you’ve got to convince Toto when Rachel starts a hurried conversation with George and he starts grabbing his fireproofs like it’s a sure thing he’ll be driving in your place. Bundled up in your coat like it’s the middle of winter, you stomp over to Toto’s office and barge in.

“I’m racing,” you tell him without any preamble.

His head snaps to look at you, expression only mildly surprised— not that you would even notice if you didn’t spend so much time around him. He gives you a once over, eyes lingering pointedly on your jacket and then he raises his eyebrows, “It is twenty-nine degrees outside.”

You suck your teeth in frustration, “I know. The car will be hot. I can race.”

He frowns.

You plead, “Toto. Do not take me out of that car. I can do this.”

He shakes his head, “I can see you sweating from here. You’re not well.”

You shake your head frantically, ignoring how your vision starts spinning, “Let me race. If I fuck up you can put George in the car for Monaco. If I fuck up you can even replace me. I don’t care. Just let me drive today.”

Toto’s face pinches in the way it does when he’s considering something, you can see cogs turning in his head as he evaluates what you’ve said and decides if he should listen to it.

He sighs, “I am not putting that kind of ultimatum on you,” your heart stutters and stops in your chest, and you hold your breath, “Okay. Against my better judgement, I will let you race today.”

You let out an audible breath, it edges out into a sob that makes your aching body curl into itself. You press the heels of your palms into your eyes for a moment to suppress the urge to give in to your fever. It would be easier to give up, it would be easier to let George take your seat for the race so you could crawl into bed and cry the fever out. But none of this has ever been easy for you. You’ve fought tooth and nail to get here, you won’t forfeit a race and let people say you took the easy way out.

You look up. Toto looks concerned.

“Don’t make me regret this.”

“You won’t.”

You practically stumble onto the asphalt before the national anthem, passing your coat off to Rachel while your trainer wipes your forehead with a towel as if you’ve just finished a full-body workout. Your shoulders feel tense, you can’t stand up straight without shuddering so you’re hunched over awkwardly hoping it doesn’t come off looking too strange.

People are still milling about, setting things up while the drivers assemble. You don’t really notice on account of the fever state you’re in, but you end up standing between the McLaren boys. You must brush against Oscar because he looks down at you, eyebrows furrowed, mouth set in a line and his eyes wide like a puppy dog. You get lost in them a little— because of the fever. Definitely.

“Dude,” Oscar says to you, “You’re really hot.”

On your other side, Lando breaks into a fit of laughter. You frown, your brain trying the puzzle through the sentence. You feel foggy, your eyes feel heavy. You need more Sour Patch Kids, or a shot of espresso, or five Red Bulls. Max could swing it for you.

Oscar leans past you and swats at Lando’s shoulder, “She’s burning up, stupid.”

Lando’s laughter pauses, and he says seriously, “Oh shit.”

Suddenly, you’re being twisted around and you’re wincing at the contact on your shoulder that makes it ache even more. Lando puts a hand on your forehead and then immediately rips it away.

“Eugh. You’re sweaty.”

The back of Oscar’s hand replaces it. You twist away, brushing it off.

“You’ve got a fever,” he tells you, his voice thick with concern for you, “Have you told anyone? Does Toto know? Lewis?”

Instead of answering you press a hand over your eyes and crack your neck, trying to work through some of the stiffness in your back. You roll your shoulders and stand up as straight as possible, pushing through that aching, sickly feeling that runs through your whole body. When you finally drag your hand from your face— a thin sheen of sweat coming with it— Oscar is staring at you with a deep-set frown on his mouth. At his shoulder, Lando looks at you with a markedly less severe, but still concerned, expression.

“I’m fine, Oscar,” you insist.

You’re not. He knows you’re not. It doesn’t matter, you don’t want to seem weak. Not barely thirty minutes before the race. You can’t have either of them thinking you’d be easy for an overtake or that you’ll back out of a fight first. Off the track, fine— you’ve been vulnerable and honest with both of them at times. On the track is a different story. This is Formula One. You’re not here to make friends. They are not here to make friends.

“Mm,” Oscar hums, “Pretty sure you’re not.”

“You’re sweating bullets,” Lando adds, “Can see it from here.”

Something white-hot and pissed off flares up your spine. Oscar is not this kind of person, even on track; but the suspicion that he’s just trying to eliminate you as competition rises anyway. You think it because if the situation were flipped, you’d be weighing the pros and cons of having a sick driver on the track. Their weaknesses, what it means if they’re distracted. It doesn’t make you a good person, but you’re already pretty sure you aren’t one.

“I am fine,” you bite.

Oscar’s expression drops. Into something not quite offended… accepting, maybe? Resigned? It closes off to you, is what you mean. That’s fine, you’re trying to close yourself off to him. You’re re-drawing a line that you’ve been crossing without a thought for at least two years now. You’re not here to make googly eyes at Oscar and let him put his hand on your fever-ridden forehead and have him reprimand out-of-line, so-called professionals for you. You’re here to get in that car every Sunday and put your life on the line for a shiny trophy and fucking glory. Even if you’ve got a fever. Even if you’ve got a weird crush on Oscar Piastri.

“I’m racing,” you add in a different tone, feeling as if you’ve been a bit harsh on a well-meaning Oscar, even if you mean what you’re thinking.

Oscar nods, and says, “Okay,” in a way that really means, ‘If you say so, then it is’.

In the car, on the tarmac, sitting in your starting grid position, you’re shitting bricks.

Your cheeks are squeezed tight into your helmet, you can feel sweat, slick and soaking through your balaclava. Your arms hurt, your legs hurt, your ass hurts where it’s pressed into the seat. You’re not crying, but your mouth— hidden away by your helmet— is open like you’re about to. Set into a grimace that you breathe raggedly out of. Toto says something over the radio before the lights go out, you don’t hear it. You’re too busy regretting how earnestly you’d begged him to let you race. It would have been better if George had taken over. It might have been better if you’d passed out during the national anthem so you really had no choice but to sit it out. No one could say you weren’t committed to this sport if that had happened. They’d have plenty to say about women and their weak constitutions though.

You’re on autopilot when the lights go out. One second you’re freaking out like it’s your first time in a car, the next second everything is fading into background noise and you’re fighting a Ferrari and a McLaren for your original grid position. Twenty of you tear down the straight to turn two and you find yourself slotting easily into what you think is P4. Ferrari— not the same one— in front of you. Your mirrors reveal the McLaren behind you. It’s Oscar, you’re sure. You can tell by the way he sticks to your ass. Every nudge of the car you make he makes with you.

You press the radio button, “That Piastri behind?”

Crackle, “Yeah.”

“Knew it. He’s up my butt, Rach.”

“Okay. Go faster then. Not sure what to tell you.”

You make a face. You weren’t looking for sarky advice, you were trying to commiserate. You press the button and make a vaguely mocking neh-neh noise that gets a laugh and then radio silence because you’re supposed to be fucking concentrating. Which, okay, fair.

You press the throttle, done with trying to manage your tyres for the moment and taking Rachel’s comment as permission. You tear away from Oscar, stopping his fight to overtake you through the chicane in its tracks. You start slowly gaining on the Ferrari in front of you, its red rear wing growing closer and closer.

“Sainz in front?” you ask, already knowing the answer.

“Yup,” Rachel confirms before rattling off some lap times when you ask for them.

By lap thirty-something, you’re on Sainz’s ass like Oscar was on yours. You’re fighting him through every chicane, threatening him on the straights and generally behaving in a way that you know for a fact is putting him on edge. But Carlos isn’t giving up P3 without a fight.

A safety car goes out around lap forty, and you pit. Everyone ahead of you does as well. Oscar doesn’t, Oscar is lucky to have gone in earlier. Rachel tells you he’d made up four places after being forced to box for some tyre issue. You feel a strange mix of pride and jealousy swirl in your chest as you all file into a discordant line behind the safety car.

Verstappen leads the pack, as per usual. Then Oscar, Sainz and you. Leclerc is behind you, then Lando. You’re in P4, right where you started and right where you’ve been fucking sitting the entire race so far. twenty-five laps to at least make it onto the podium. Then you’ll be happy. Or not quite happy, you’d need pole for that. Content. You’d be content.

Max starts weaving. The safety car goes off and Max keeps you all ready and waiting until the exact millisecond that he decides the race can properly begin again. You hate when he does this— you know that’s exactly why. Eventually, finally, he gets going.

You have to run defence like crazy for a few laps to keep Leclerc behind you until everything is warmed up. The gap widens as you drive. At some point, you stop worrying about the Monégasque so much and focus your attention on car fifty-five like your life depends on it. The laps fly by as time ticks on. Twenty-five to go, twenty, fifteen, ten. You’re back on Sainz’s rear wheel, a gap of 0.2 to 0.3 that’s been consistent throughout this last stretch of the race. You’re watching him like a hawk, waiting for the smallest slip-up to take advantage of. Somewhere you can push, somewhere he’s weak. It’s hard— he’s covering all his bases. Not giving you an inch so you can’t take a mile.

You’re closing in on sixty-four laps— with only three to go— when he gives you that fucking inch. It’s in the first chicane. His wheel locks up, and he jerks the car slightly the wrong way, something like that. You get in his space and you push and he backs out first. You press down on the throttle and rocket past him, shouting FUCK! FUCK YES! to yourself.

P3. P3. God, you hope it’s P3.

You press the talk button, “Rach?”

“Yes, P3,” she barks, “Fucking, focus. Three laps to go.”

Those last three laps of Imola are some of the hardest of your life. Defending against Carlos is a task, of course, but it’s not even that. The sickness starts to creep back into your awareness as the adrenaline that had hit its peak during the overtake starts to subside. Two laps to go and you’re remembering the fever again. The sweat soaking your hair and streaking down the back of your neck. Your whole body is on fire and it aches everywhere. It feels like someone has taken a sledgehammer to the inside of your skull. You want so badly to close your eyes and drift away to sleep, but the car is flying through the air demanding your attention with the way it thuds against the track. You’ve got one lap to go and Carlos is on you like white on rice. You can’t afford to make a mistake until you’re firmly over that finish line.

So you don’t. You grit your teeth and you refuse.

Carlos is downright reckless in the last chicane, he tries to bait you by moving to one side and pushing but you’re not going to fall for something like that even if you’re near delirious from the 39.4-degree fever. Though surely it’s higher now, the car temp can’t be helping. You hardly realise you’ve crossed the finish line because you’re thinking so hard about how lightheaded you feel. On instinct, you slow down to a safe speed as Oscar’s McLaren enters your vision, but you think your toes have pins and needles and there’s some feeling tingling up into your shoulders. You blink hard and take a long sip of water so you can make it to the pits before your head starts to spin.

Crackle, “Where are you going? That was P3.”

“Huh?” you realise you’re following the other drivers instead of heading into the pits where you’re supposed to go, “Shit. Sorry.”

You edge back as carefully as you can, avoiding other cars that pass by, lucky you’ve not overshot too far so you can turn into the pits and park your car in front of the P3 sign without going around the entire track. That would be embarrassing. Or that would be more embarrassing than how disgusting you’re going to look when you take your helmet and balaclava off.

Toto, Rachel and a few of your engineers are there to meet you at the barricade when you clamber out of the car, unsteady on your feet. Rachel’s eyebrows are furrowed as she tries her best to smile at you, trying to put on a brave face even though you can tell she’s concerned you’re going to keel over. You brace yourself with a hand against the gate and tear your helmet off, then your balaclava. You’ve never been so fast to put a cap on your head, trying to cover the sweaty mess that is your hair right now.

“That was phenomenal work,” Rachel says, reaching to put a hand on your burning hot bicep, “You look fucking terrible, though.”

You suck in a ragged breath and you nod in agreement, trying to keep the black tinging your vision from taking over completely. 

“Get her something to drink,” you hear Toto bark, though it comes to your ears, muffled and staticky.

You’re fine. You’re fine. Until you’re not and your sweaty hand is slipping against the guardrail and your vision is fading into darkness and you’re falling face first into a metal railing. And, and, someone’s got their arm around your middle and you’re not on the ground with your face in the asphalt. You blink, hot tears— from what you assume is exhaustion— burning your eyelids. The arm around your middle is covered in something orange and black… Oscar. It’s Oscar who’s got you propped up, held firm into his body so your legs don’t collapse underneath you. The two of you sway and stumble for a second as you gain your footing back, your vision returning to normal, the buzzing in your ears going away.

“You’re good,” he breathes, “I’ve got you.”

You ignore the shiver that runs down your spine, you attribute it to your current state.

You remember the cameras that are on all of you right now. You try not to look panicked as you step away from him. You try to do it calmly and not frantically like you so want to. Toto has some electrolyte drink held out right in your face and you take it, chugging half of it straight away while you swivel around to face Oscar. You nod, feeling slightly better, but gripping the guardrail tight so as not to repeat earlier.

“Thanks,” you try a smile, but it’s just turning into a grimace because you feel like shit.

Oscar shakes his head, “Don’t mention it.”

“Great driving out there.”

His eyebrow goes up, touching the curl of his hair that peeks out from his cap.

“You’re kidding?” he says, tone laced with amusement.

You frown, which is much easier, “No. You drove great.”

He makes a face like ‘yes, obviously’, but somehow does it in a humble and endearing way that you find you like a little too much. It leaves you confused as to his point.

“No,” he scoffs, “Okay, yes. What I mean is that you just got P3 with a raging fever.”

You purse your lips, countering, “You don’t know I have a fever.”

His tongue darts out to wet his top lip, hiding the small smile that threatens on his face.

He shrugs, “Bit obvious, unfortunately.”

You roll your eyes. You think what he means is it’s a bit obvious because you look like absolute death. There’s probably sweat rolling off you in buckets, your cap is jammed on your head and your hair is probably sticking out at crazy angles. There were dark circles under your eyes before you left for the track this morning, they’re probably ten times worse now. He might also mean it’s obvious from the way your skin is burning hot, like touching a radiator in the middle of winter. Or, perhaps, the way you’d passed out into his arms a few minutes earlier.

You suck your teeth, “Well. I told you I was racing today.”

Oscar nods, biting the inside of his lip, “Yeah. You did.”

There’s more that neither of you are saying. A conversation that you’re trying desperately to have with prolonged eye contact, small little smiles and breaths out through the nose. You think it might be ‘I’m proud of you’ or ‘You’re very impressive and I’m going a little bit crazy about it’. That’s how you feel at least, somewhere in between the fever chills and the urge you’re suppressing to curl into a ball on the tarmac. This is okay, you think. You don’t have to be Oscar’s sworn enemy just because you’re both chasing the win. You can let him worry about you, but make sure he understands he can’t stop you from taking the things that you want. You can say things that mean other things and Oscar can smile at you like it’s something private for just the two of you.

You can be happy with that. Or not quite happy. Content.

🏎️ song inspo (fiona apple my Beloved) -> https://open.spotify.com/track/5h9Iek7Hp9wayRt7fBp7Ab?si=9PnuH5CDSC-qTurLPGiTwg

💫 fill out this form if you want to be added to my tag list: @clowngirlsstuff @leclercsluvs @c-losur3 @mael1pastry @papayamusha @mvk1ma

[420technoblazeit]

I think you're right that the otherization is kind of the point but it becomes a more valid criticism in the later seasons where I feel the writers really lose the vision and start to treat hunting like some super cool heroic dream job where sam and dean gun down anything that doesnt pass the vibe check and then pat themselves on the back for being the good guys who save the world

no youre right. unironically as supernatural went on it became less political and that was definitely a bad thing. i was specifically talking about early show spn bc if i remember correctly the op of that post mentioned those plotlines. to me hunters as a concept worked best when they were intentionally written as emblematic of the flaws in american society, as eric kripke originally intended. there's a reason why a lot of early show hunter culture shares traits with military culture, for example. and i think the fact that john was a war veteran is very important context for understanding his motivations, especially in how he raised sam and dean

as much as i love seeing different kinds of hunters in the later seasons (love u garth miss u garth) their appearance coincides with the loss of discussion of yk. just how flawed america is and that's when the show starts to lose it's spirit to me. like that merch you see everywhere with the tagline 'join the hunt'. hunting wasn't originally meant to be seen as something you wanted to do. becoming a hunter was often a decision made out of grief and a consuming desire for revenge. hunters dont even live to thirty sometimes and they all know it, you quit or you die. that was the point

[starlightkun]

⇢ series word count: 67,972

⇢ warnings (vary by part): past unethical experimentation, brief blood and gore descriptions (some human and some non-human), you have to accept the premise of a single human empire in space in the future with colonies and a military and not think much deeper about that, multiple needle/injection mentions, knife/injury/blood description, main characters are morally gray, and oh yeah cursing

⇢ genre: sci-fi, set in the near-ish future, humans and aliens and robots, black op mission, captain kun, ?????? reader, slow burn, fluff, dash of angst, ft. wayv as the crew of the vision

⇢ extra info: took a lot of obvious inspo for this one from isaac asimov’s robot stories, specifically his concept of positronic brains & the three laws of robotics (and if you’ve read any of his stories, you’ll probably be able to see some other places too)

⇢ author’s note: wow this one was so much fun. sci-fi is my favorite genre to read in my own time and it’s kind of wild that i haven’t rlly written any considering how much i consume. also, fun fact: this idea originally came to me in an extremely vivid dream!

⇢ one | two | three | four

[iamnot-crazy]

Stowaway Chapter 10

Trafalgar Law x Fem!Reader

Summary:

The reader is a slave to a nobleman due to her devil's fruit ability which allows her to control the emotions of the people around her. She flees to bump into Trafalgar Law and boards his ship.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 11

A/N: I guess I should give a warning for this chapter. It is a heavy one that deals with depression, masking, and suicidal thoughts. These aren't conversations new to OP just new for me to write so ya... I hope y'all like it it was definitely not an easy one for me to write.

------

As you stared at the snail in your hands a small paper fell from the back band on the snail falling gracefully to the ground. A vivre card. You had a jolt of realization as you scrambled to your feet, head throbbing as a torrent of memories flooded back. Doflamingo's voice echoed in your skull, each cruel word a fresh blow to your reawakening self.

You pull yourself off the ground and hold your head as your thoughts race. A ringing bursts through your ear as you try to find a solution to this new revelation. He can find you he has a part of your Vivre card.

You began to stumble across the deck holding your head as it spun. A kaleidoscope of fragmented memories assaulted you: Doflamingo's chilling laughter, the crushing weight of being his puppet. His voice, sharp as a shard of ice, echoed in your mind: 'You will be my tool.' 'The only thing you have of worth is your ability to serve me.' 'You won't be able to run from me ever.' 'You will be what allows me to defeat Law.'

His last statement sat in your head it was the first thing he said to you after he left you in the cellar with no food or water for a week. You still held your stubbornness at the time and Doflamingo used your relationship with Law as the biggest catalyst for your mental break.

Your gaze drifted towards the ship's edge, a silent beckoning towards the churning water below. You stumbled with each hesitant step, your body protesting against the ship's gentle sway. You pull yourself onto the edge. You stood up taking in the salty air and the mist that came from the water hitting the boat and reaching your face. 'you will be the reason he dies.'

The rough wood of the rail scraped against your skin, a fleeting comfort before it slipped away. Gravity seized you, pulling you down with an inexorable force. The salty air whipped past your face, as the waves almost felt like they were calling you as you fell. You close your eyes and accept your body's solution.

A shout, sharp and desperate, pierced through your despair. Your eyes snapped open just as the water rushed to meet you, a cold abyss promising an end. The terror of your action hits you as the water hits your face. You weren't ready or willing to die yet.

As you sink into the sea you turn over to watch the Sunny continue to sail away leaving you behind. Your vision began to go black just as something jumped into the water above you. You reach your arm out begging the figure to save you, you weren't ready. Your lungs burned, demanding air that your numb body refused to provide. A single, desperate breath escaped your lips, a silent plea for salvation as darkness consumed your vision.

The pit in your stomach felt heavy as it pulled you down. It almost felt peaceful as nature attempted to take back the devil fruit inside of you pulling you down faster and faster.

At least this way you can't cause Law any more pain and your suffering can end.

***

You felt a push on your chest and a pressure built in your throat that pushed its way out of you. Your body forced itself to the side as you spit out the seawater that filled your body. The green grass filled your vision as it began to return. You looked up to see you were on the deck of the Sunny.

"what were you thinking!?" an angry voice spoke above you.

Your head snaps up in search of the voice and find the swordsman of the ship Zoro. You sigh in relief that it wasn't your worrisome captain to save you.

You lolled over to your back sitting up slightly while continuing to catch your breath, "Thank you." you sigh.

The swordsman scoffed, "You didn't answer my question."

You look away from him, "I was trying to keep Doflamingo from finding us." you pull your legs up to your chest for warmth as you shiver in your wet cloths.

"and how would jumping off the ship help?" he spoke down to you.

"He made me a vivre card," you admit.

"That doesn't mean you jump off the goddamn ship!" Zoro shouted not even giving your revelation a thought. You look up at him to see not even a flicker of concern. "So what if he can track you we are heading to him anyways to kick his ass." the confidence of the man raised your own as you smile at the thought of them beating doflamingo.

Another thought flew into your head, "Please don't tell Law."

Zoro's brow furrowed in confusion. "He should know about the vivre card," he muttered, his voice low and gruff. 'We need to plan, strategize.

You shook your head, "No about... The whole jumping off the ship thing..."

Zoro sigh before sitting next to you, "Just promise not to do it again."

You nodded in response before staring off at the sea.

"why don't you want to tell him?" he asked pulling your thought out of your head.

"Law has already been through so much and a lot of the pain he has faced was because of me. I don't want him to worry about me anymore," you respond.

"If you didn't want him to worry why do it to begin with?"

"I guess I wasn't thinking of him, everything in my body just wanted it all to stop, the pain, the noise. The thought of him coming back for me terrified me." You bury your head into your knees tears refusing to fall.

Zoro's hand rested on your shoulder, "He won't hurt you again, I promise."

You look up at him, "but what about Law?"

Zoro looked over at the door to the boy's bunk, "I don't think our captain will let anything happen to him either."

You looked over at the bunks as well where the straw hat captain slept and you recalled his strong determination.

Zoro pushed himself up and offered you a hand, "Let's get out of these wet clothes."

You smiled taking his hand and he guided you to the bath he showed you the basics of the large bath and then left you with an old outfit of Robin's which was a long skirt and crop top.

You take the opportunity to bath in peace under the moon light. Feeling the warm water on your skin washing away the salty water pulled a weight off of you as you reflect on your conversation with Zoro.

***

As the first rays of dawn kissed the horizon, you emerged from the bath, the warm water washing away more than just salt water. When you climbed down the ladder you expected the ship to still be quiet with only the soft sounds of the waves hitting the boat. The clanging of dishes in the kitchen indicates someone else was awake.

You make your way to the kitchen by following the smell of cooked sausage. In the kitchen, their blonde cook danced over the stove cooking up a beautiful breakfast. You quietly sat down on a bar stool facing the cook as you watched him gracefully between the multiple pans on the stove each cooking a different part of the meal he was preparing for the whole ship.

When he finally turned around he jumped back at the sight of you, "Oh my sweet you scared me. I hope I didn't wake you?" his voice was still raspy showing signs of waking.

You shook your head in response. Sanji turned around to his domain pulling out a plate and shoveling food onto it, "Here is a beautiful breakfast for a beautiful woman!" he placed the plate in front of you. You muttered a thank you before digging in and the chef smiled before turning back to his work.

As you ate Sanji placed another plate beside you right before the door opened and Robin walked in with a book in hand. She gracefully walked to the chair next you and began to eat and speaking with Sanji who excitedly asked her how her food was.

"immaculate as always Sanji," she spoke joyfully before looking at you and analyzing your outfit, "Is that one of mine?"

You looked down, "I'm sorry I can take it off!" you spoke in a panic.

Robin just laughed, "No please don't, it looks good on you. I insist you keep it." she smiled softly which warmed your heart and you smiled in return.

You continued to eat your food as you noticed that her eyes had not left you. You felt her studying you, dissecting your emotions like a skilled archaeologist uncovering a hidden treasure. You return her stare with a questioning look as she analyzed you taking in every information she could about you. "What?" you speak up.

The woman just shook her head and turned back to her food, "I find you interesting." Your eyebrows raise in confusion, "Just the other day you were void of emotion and now you are flooded with emotions and worry for your captain. And yet the way you sit there you look like you belong here you look almost happy."

Your eyes dash to your plate as you think about her words and your past. "Ever since boarding your ship, I've been feeling all your emotions." You admit, "Your ship is so full of hope I have that to thank." You look back up to her and flash a large smile.

But the two pirates frowned at your response they both almost looked angry. Your smile quickly dropped as you tried to reach your power to feel their intention and you felt their disappointment and empathy.

"Then why try to kill yourself," Sanji spoke abruptly speaking in a tone that was unidentifiable if you didn't just read his emotion.

You froze thinking about your actions earlier and your failed attempt to hide your hurt. A tear starts to fall from your eye, "I wanted to prevent any more conflict." you spat, "How do you even know." your sad eyes dart between the two who share a look at each other.

Sanji shrugged, "Zoro informed me."

"I heard what happened while I was up reading," Robin admitted.

You push yourself out of the stool your mask completely falling your eye bags darken as your frown pulls them down and your eyes become red from the effort to keep them dry. The two pirates realized they had struck the nerve they were trying to pick and watched you with sorrow as you aimed for the door only to be stopped by the door flinging open.

The bouncy captain blazed into the kitchen running past you. You froze as you watched him run to Sanji and fought past him to reach the food. Next Usopp came following after the captain wiping the sleep from his eyes. He greeted you with a raspy morning before pulling himself into a chair at the table.

With the new people in the room, you pulled your mask back forcing a smile and clearing your eyes.

Luffy looked over at you and waved, "Morning, y/n! Come eat breakfast!" He shouted. You smiled in return and returned to your seat glad for a distraction. The two pirates interrogating you earlier frowned but decided to continue their roles.

Shortly Nami, Franky, Brook, and Chopper joined very excitedly for their breakfast. The loudness of the kitchen finally woke Law who ran into the kitchen in a panic as you were no longer in his arm. He burst through the door with his eyes darting around only to relax when he saw you laughing with the straw hats. He made his way towards you but as he approached Nami jumped up grabbing your arm, "y/n! Let me show you the rest of the ship!" Usopp jumped up as well grabbing your other arm and they pulled you out of the room.

Law frowns as the three of you push past him laughing. Law was glad you were laughing and smiling again even if it wasn't with him and let you go. He turned to the rest of the crew claiming a plate and chair. The chef and archaeologist watched him carefully.

You were pulled through the ship by the two pirates who excitedly showed you their favorite parts. You found where the swordsman has been hiding in the lookout tower where he slept with an empty plate beside him seemingly his breakfast that Sanji brought him.

Throughout the tour, you conveniently avoided Law as he tried to catch up just as you would pull the crew to the next location. You were amazed by everything the ship had to offer and you showed that with amazed gasps and a large smile.

Robin and Sanji watched from afar both seeing through your mask.

By the end of the tour, you were exhausted and had found a quiet spot at the back of the ship by the garden where you could watch the Straw hats laugh and play on the grassy deck but not be spotted. You watched while Law glared at them as Luffy dragged him into their fun.

You wanted so badly to smile as you watched your 'edgy' captain looking so odd amongst the crew of joyful sports but now that you were away from any supply of joy. The weight on your cheeks pulled your lips into a deep frown your tears free to fall as you hid behind the mast.

Tears streamed down your face, hot and unchecked, as you huddled behind the mast. Wrapping your arms around your knees, you pressed your forehead against them, seeking solace in the familiar warmth.

A prickle on your neck sent shivers down your spine. You knew Robin was there before you even turned around. "I don't need your pity," you spat, your voice trembling slightly as you felt her emotions cover you.

Robin's voice softened. "I'm not here to pity you," she said, each word carefully chosen. "I came to apologize." She slowly emerged from her hiding spot, her blue eyes filled with a mixture of understanding and sorrow.

she found her place next to you, "I can never relate to what you have been through but I can relate to wanting to throw everything away for the people you love. It was wrong for Sanji and I to try to push you like that but we didn't like seeing you hurt alone."

You looked away from her, "I don't like it when others worry about me." You spoke plainly.

"Is that because of your powers?" She asked gently, "I noticed you'd mimic the emotions of the people around you."

You frowned, your brows furrowing into a deep crease, "Maybe," you muttered, "It's easier to pretend to be hopeful when you can steal that emotion from someone else but when everyone else is full of anxiety..."

"You feel anxious." Robin finished for you, her voice laced with empathy.

You nodded, "I used to wear gloves with sea prism to avoid feeling other people's emotions but now I don't know if I can feel any emotions without latching onto someone else's."

"But you are feeling your own emotions," Robin said softly, her blue eyes meeting yours with a newfound understanding. "They just aren't bright right now. It's okay to feel sad, angry, scared. We all carry those burdens. It's easier to pretend like your emotions don't exist and that you have to latch onto someone else's but you still have trauma you need to move past. Just like the rest of us."

You paused at her last sentence, "the rest of you?" you questioned, your voice barely above a whisper as you looked down at the joyful crew dancing as if they never faced a hardship before in their life.

You knew how hollow Luffy had felt when his brother died, but he was dancing and laughing as if that day never happened.

Robin nodded, her gaze unwavering. "All of us have faced some kind of dark past that we are all working to put behind us," she said, her voice filled with a quiet strength. "I too wanted to die, I thought there was nothing more I could do with my life, but then I met Luffy. He has saved me twice from myself."

You wanted to push Robin away, to retreat back into the shell you'd built around yourself. But a tiny flicker of hope, fueled by her words, threatened to crack through the facade.

You looked off at the crew, a small smile gracing your lips even as tears flowed down your face. For the first time, you allowed yourself to feel everything – the joy of being alive and safe, the sadness of having your life stolen so many times now, the panic from knowing you were risking everyone's lives by being alive, and the overwhelming relief of knowing that you would be protected. It was a whirlwind of emotions something you were glad to feel again.

---

Next Chapter

---

A/N: Wanna read more of my work check out my MasterList

[boomershooterwoman]

I learned from One Piece to consume manga in a different way.

I silence, block and avoid theories and the fandom as much as possible, this was due to Dressrosa and the weekly experience, but the fact that I loved the villain and one of the new allies (Doflamingo and Law) and read so many ideas and theories and speculations meant that when I read what Oda wrote, I was disappointed, what I saw didn't meet my expectations, I had read and even seen fanarts of such incredible and well-crafted possibilities that the canon was disappointing in some respects, I could see the good, but my frustration didn't allow me to see what the author wanted... I could not see Dressrosa for what it is but only for what I wanted it to be... my vision changed when I talked to a colleague and she said she loved it, and I brought her some theories and possibilities and some she even liked, but she said something I've never forgotten, she said how interesting some of them are, how cool they are, but questioned where did they get that from? Because that was not what she read.

Life happens, other priorities come into play and I've adopted another way of reading, I read OP every 6 months, no more theories, no more youtube chancela, another way of reading that brought me great satisfaction, I've done the same with Doctor Stone, Golden Kamuy, MHA and JJK.

I read in my own time, without interacting with fandom, without theories, I read what's on the pages, I read the author's work and not the collective and creative mind of the  fandom and it's only now, with the end of jjk, that I've started to read what the fandom has to say and I feel like I've read a different manga from what some of the fandom has read.

I saw JJK as a manga with a simple and straightforward story, with excellent panels, great sense of movement, great fight choreography, and a real pout porri of ideas that the older you are or the more you've seen, the more references and inspirations (from tv, movies, super sentais and other anime/manga) you notice.

But it's still a simple story, from which you can draw depth and interesting discussions, but simple in its essence.

With only 4 or 5 really important characters. With everything else being used as a means to created a more digestive bridge for a straightforward path to the conclusion and its include side characters and side plots. The character have a function, he executes that function and he is gone (dead or forgoteen) the same goes for some parts of the story (is that the best way to write it? I don't know...I think it's a very peculiar and cold one...but it's one clearly and deliberately chosen)

It's like that with the invasion of the American army, with the clans, with the Tengen/Kenjaku/Sukuna relationship... you get a glimpse but no elaboration, because to continue with the evolution and conclusion of the journey of these 5 core characters you don't need that elaboration.

Did that work?

In my view, it worked for 4 of the 5...

1 of them suffered from this choice... but the balance was positive in the end.

I say 5 because I feel that the narrative isn't complete without them, we don't have the beginning of the story, nor the conflict, nor the middle, nor the end...

They are, in the order of their appearance in the manga, Megumi, Yuji, Sukuna, Gojo and Kenjaku.

The story begins with Sukuna and everything revolves around him, Yuji has a connection with him and eats his finger, Megumi first appearance is looking for him and then he finds Yuji and in the future becomes his vessel and his technique is of the utmost importance to Sukuna and Gojo arrives soon after, 4 of 5 right in the 1st chapter.

Kenjaku comes later in the manga, but he also has plans involving Sukuna, pacts with Sukuna...always Sukuna.

The power system, the importance and superiority of CE and CT, the preference for powerful techniques, the contempt for who isn't strong, all align with Sukuna.

Of these 5 characters, I'd say that 4 had great arcs and conclusions.

Yuji, Gojo, Kenjaku, Sukuna...the only one I wanted more was Megumi, he had an ok-ish conclusion in my opinion.

About the final chapter, Mahito was said to be the mirror of humanity, death, and him being there with Sukuna makes sense, Mahito is the mirror, and Sukuna remains faithful to what he said to Jogo (hit him and he'll do what Jogo wants) to what he said to Yorozu (losing is the same as dying, do what you want with my body) and is extremely adaptable, he never lost so his ways were never showed to be wrong...but in the end Yuji defeated him, so Sukuna in the afterlife accepts his defeat with alacrity and nobility, he adapts and is show to consider a new path.

Sukuna can thus be said to follow the two facets of Sukuna from Nihon Shoki and local legends, one of violent being, an evil despot, the other benevolent and protective being.

As Yuji himself said, you could say that the finger is now a talisman.

The story begins with Sukuna and ends with Sukuna and since JJK's world until then adhered to similar principles as Sukuna, his defeat and change could mean the change of that society itself, and this was made possible by a new generation, guided as far as possible and in Gojo's own peculiar way.

Kenjaku wanted chaos that he couldn't control, he got it, this chaos created Takaba, and Takaba gave him an illogical, chaotic fight, which he enjoyed so much that he didn't notice something that he had prepared so much for, he died, but as he told Choso, he did everything he did out of curiosity and entertainment, the merger could be an abonible being or a funny face, he would laugh if it was that. Takaba questioned him, if he wouldn't give it all up if he had fun...

Well, Takaba provided Kenjaku with everything he wanted, Kenjaku had his chaos, he had his entertainment, his fun, his bizarre face, his laughter.

I can't say enough about Gojo, not having interacted with the fandom, my impression is that Gojo is one of Gege's favorite characters, such is the care and appreciation I've seen for him in the manga second only to Sukuna in my opinion.

Not that the manga have no flaws, far from it, I've never been a big fan of how Gege likes to complicate explanations that could be much simpler and more succinct. Techniques and concepts explained several times, sometimes in different ways to make it more confusing...

But I read JJK with the perception of an action story, with comedy and lots of references and a few hints of tragedy, but I didnt saw the dark story, much less a story with a tragic ending.

Even in Shibuya, of the characters who are the good guys, who do we really lose? Nanami and, at the time, Nobara. Reading it in one go, it's a chaotic arc in which evwryhting goes wrong and the characters lose and it marks a change in the rhythm of the story, but that's it...

CG arc the characters all win, it's action and fun and deepening of some themes and characters (those characters have to have their arc concluded or their question/dilema ready for when they face Sukuna, after all Sukuna will answer their question/dilema, Kashimo/Gojo, or will defeat them because he is the strongest and them in one way or another still adhering to his path, till we get to Yuji)

But in CG arc is only after volumes of winnings that he finaly in the fight against Kenjaku, lose, and then Sukuna...Gege managed very well to bring the feeling that we're fucked, but Megumi would be saved because that's what he asked Yuji, and Yuji is the protagonist and will win in the end.

It's the pillars of shonen jump, friendship, effort and victory.

Thats why I can see how Gege succeed in create the dread atmosphere but cannot see the possibility of a dark or grim ending.

So the ending was very satisfying for me.

But I agreed it would have been beneficial to have 10 instead of 5 final chapters, or maybe give a few pages for us to see Megumi process what happened, just what Yuji had in the aftermath of Shibuya, I think I'd like his conclusion better to me.

I'm not saying that fandom is bad, it's good, great for sales, popularity, meeting people and getting to know other manga.

But I wanted to give a perspective from someone who read CG and the Gojo vs Suluna battle in one go, and everyone's battle against Sukuna after accumulating almost 6 months of chapters.

I didn't find Sukuna's death abrupt, because for me it was four and a half chapters of dialog, fighting and surprises...

Yes, I missed a moment for Megumi to have a ponder like Yuji, and Yuta returning to his body was an explanation that I just accepted, without questioning it too much because I didn't think it was the best of explanations, it was more Rika being the Macguffin that she is and was in JJK 0... the simple domain chapter was interesting, it shows the change, the different future that Gojo wanted, Takaba got his comedy partner and I thought it was hilarious, totally within his character and power.

The mission seeing that everything turned out well, a classic shonen trope, very similar to the beginning of JJK which is a classic shonen trope, with a special touch seeing Sukuna and the final image which is very similar to the beginning of the manga.

8 out of 10 for me.

It's worth buying and I will have this the manga in my memory with all my affection.

It certainly makes me excited to see what Gege will do again.

As for JJK part 2, which I've read people talking about in X, I don't see the point, but if he wants to do it I can see how JJK would allow such a choice

[achaotichuman]

Hi! I'm the Andras anon! (I'll have to come up with a nickname soon sdsa)! Thank you again for indulging me with the last ask! I'll come back to it once I'll re-read the books (... why can't I be freeeeeee) but I saw your reblog about the powers of every "main characters" of Acotar, and I was wondering: Is Feyre really as strong as Rhysand? Because, for one, she's a very, a veeery biased character. Her point of view of the IC (of Rhysand especially) is way over the top.

The HL are defined as pure power and yes, they used a drop of that to bring her back to life, but if a drop of all of them makes her so strong... what does this mean about theirs at 100/99% with all of theirs? Because we didn't actually see them using their true strength and I believe them to be pretty big scary. (something truly magnificent and terrifying, an eerie fae horror... mhm... so much potentiaaaaaal)

I wonder if SJM did forget what she has even said in the past and truly believes Feyre's POV to be the truth, or if she's truly playing with the unreliable narrator trope through her.

Another thing is: could her drops... be consumed? The more power of one of them she uses, the more of it is burned away, until nothing remains.

I think that would be actually so cool and a stake in her powers.

An HC of mine is that if once she loses one - maybe that of Tamlin, since it's the one she uses the most if I remember correctly - and her power lessens... would the mate bond begin to shatter? Would she die if all of them were lost/consumed?

Her powers were never a gift of the cauldron, she's not blessed by the mother, she's... an artificial High Fae. A "fake" High Lady. Is their bond actually real and not maybe a trick, something temporary, or something else altogether?

Why did Rhysand need to make that deal at the start to own her? (I have another theory for the deal that he makes with her at the beginning) And could the death pact be another one to solidify this fickle/fake/other type of bond?

It's all so tricky, because most of the POVs we saw are from people who know almost to nothing about Prythian and we too, as readers, are not omniscient to all of its secrets and traditions.

Most of what we know is thanks to what is told to Feyre, but how much truth is given to her?

If we think about it, especially thanks to acosf (and the other books) we know that Rhysand and the IC omit and lie to Feyre and to other people.

So... idk, I know I lost the plot in my ranting and blathering, but it's something that I know I'll think more about, coming back with a clearer vision! And sorry for this mess of an ask! I know it's a bit over the place, it's mostly me thinking and theorizing on the go lol

I hope it didn't bother you too much and If it did let me know, and I will stop with these ask!

I hope you're having a great day/night! ♥

Yes I love this questionnn

Never stop with the asks, I love them so much! (We def gotta come up with nickname ideas, maybe wolf, considering Andras was turned into a wolf)

When I was writing that reblog the first thought to come to mind was where to put Feyre on the scale. Because of how vague the mating bonds and her powers are, I decided to put her with Rhys as it seems to be a common theme to make mates 'equals' in some way. Plus, yeah she's always praising her powers, and SJM seems to have a thing with making her characters OP for no apparent reason.

To kick off with my general answer to whether I think Feyre is actually all that powerful- No, I do not think she is that powerful. I think she thinks she's that powerful due to Rhysand's influence, and being a Daemati, but I do not believe she is the most powerful.

You pointed out a lot of my same reasoning. Mostly around the fact that Feyre is technically an 'artificial Fae' and it appears as though her very being staying alive is completely dependent on the drops of power she was given, plus despite her having a drop of power from each court. It is still only a drop. So why would she be considered equal to the most powerful?

I think SJM genuinely didnt think to far ahead with Feyre's powers and character. It also appears as though she doesnt actually write the magic system in ACOTAR very well compared to her other series. Throne of Glass and CC in my opinion were far better fleshed out when it came to the MC's powers. When it comes to the FMC of this series tho, they never fully reveal their powers and never in a 'foreshadowing' way, but in a 'they just genuinely dont focus on them' way.

This is especially obvious with Nesta when she was locked up in the HoW. She never once trained her magic, rather she was forced to train her body and how to wield a sword. This very much came off to me like the IC was trying to control her rather than help her, but considering that SJM seems to consider what they did genuine help, I will blame her writing rather than intention in this scenario.

Same happens with Feyre, she doesnt train a lot of her power. She doesnt focus on it, rather she trains her body and learns to wield a sword. Her magic is rarely focused in on, and really only comes into play when it's convenient for the narrative.

The only real inkling we get of how much magic Feyre technically wields is in the scenes where they are going on about equality (that isnt real equality) and how Feyre and Rhysand are equals in every way, including in power.

Ofc we never actually see them being equal in power, but thats what SJM has decided is happening.

I call it bad characterization and considering that Feyre's arc appears to be over and we arent focusing in on her anymore, I highly doubt any of this will be expanded on or rectified.

Anyway, thats just my rambling. But I like your idea of Feyre's drops of magic 'burning out' that seems like a very interesting idea for a fic! You have a good night/day too!

[qedmirage]

Well, that was a ride. Unmarked spoilers below the cut.

Took me about 5 months to clear episode 8, and three days to clear episode 9. Episode, well, where to begin. I'll admit that I read too many spoilers myself on major plot elements, undercutting some of it. Still, it was neat to see just how hard Deathless Black Snake is into a kind of violent nationalism, possibly even fascist thought?

Favorite moment is without a doubt Alina's death in R8-9 After, and abject refusal to allow Talulah to know her killers. Because Talulah will take revenge if given a chance, will let anger consume her, will fall to Kaschey's arts and hateful manner of thinking - even if the arts weren't there, it would be a path of violence for her.

The white-haired Draco keeps trudging on in the cold, endless snowfield. On her back, the Elafia girl trembles away, pausing only to take in deep breaths now and then. Snow drops down from the Elafia's horns. As Talulah slogs along, the snow-covered trees behind her begin to burn alight in silence. She has unknowingly begun to set her path ablaze.

The final climax of chapter 8 is also some great otaku-ass nonsense as Amiya, our cute soft bunny CEO, has a powerset almost perfectly geared to ruin the Deathless Black Snake's day. And she knows it

The introduction of Priestess, and her vow to Doctor was also really neat:

and I liked the story beat that Kaschey is still inside Talulah, still tempting her. Fuel for my anarchist reading of the story;

It's this urge for control, for power, for violent revenge that undergirds why Reunion goes wrong. The pull towards authoritarianism, towards unchecked violence, is what destroys the liberation movement. as for mechanics, wow. Boy I hate ursus civilians. Ep 8 was probably the high water mark of difficulty in arknights, and I feel like from here I can handle anything. I gotta say Talulah was really a pile of nonsense, but with her Burning Breath mechanic defanged, she's pretty tractable. The basic core of my strategy going into her final fight was to use Gravel and Projekt Red, who have 17 sec redeploy timers, to bait her breath move with its 19 sec cycle time. Absent that mechanic, the rest of her fight is...not easy, but manageable. On the other end of things, ep9.

This one was a much smaller scale story, and I appreciated that! It was shorter too, which in some ways worked against it - the guys Outcast faces off against scream jobber - but it worked. It's also notable as being an episode who's plot almost doesn't feature Rhodes Island - the focus characters are instead Horn (Rita Skamandros), Bagpipe (Fiona Young), and Saileach (Jane Williams), with a little bit of time in Reed (Lougshinny)'s head. Notable is that none of those are part of the feline majority race in Victoria, and the first three all to some degree believe in a pluralistic, welcoming vision of Victoria instead of the oppressive one they have. High points gotta be watching Saileach go from "the nice girl Janie who is nice to everyone and takes care of the flag" to "Me and this entire hospital ward are gonna beat your ass if you harm one hair on a patient's head", and Outcast's whole deal. Like, back in prior chapters we've seen Elite RI ops show up, paradrop without chutes, tear buildings apart with telekinesis, so you know the old lady's gonna be dangerous. And she is and the payoff's great! Great old lady cowboy character. Also, found a bit I liked:

Janie: But it's not… the whole story. After the conversation we had, I remembered some things from ages ago I'd forgotten. My da's a lawyer, and he used to tell me stories about how my grandda's grandda came to Victoria with nothing. He went from rags to riches. The Victoria he described was an advanced, open-minded, prosperous country. Here, technology and capital conquered savagery. The people's hard work and wealth wouldn't be destroyed just like that by Catastrophes or racial conflict. In making it to such a magnificent land, we Vouivre were able to live a "civilized" life, compared to one of barbarism and violence in the old country. Outcast: Victoria was the most advanced industrialized nation in the world, for a very long time.. Janie: But we had to give up a lot, in order to become Victorians… When I was five, I climbed to the top of the tallest tree in our garden. My da caught me having a blast and gave me a good scolding. Then he locked me in my room and gave me dozens of books to read. The next day, he hired a Leithanien piano teacher for me. I missed the view from the top of the tree, but I didn't give it much thought. I knew my da was doing it for my own good. Outcast: He was helping you to get used to the rules. Janie: That's right. Books, piano, the garden… He understood that those were all things we'd need to know, in order to enjoy the life we had.

Janie's family had to work hard to fit in, to not express their racial traits, to shape themselves to the society around them. Similarly, people know and sense that Victoria's glory days are past - but they don't quite grasp just how soon, how fast, the whole thing may end up unraveling. A few characters note that the fire started in County Hillock may destroy the nation, but for people like the Colonel, the magnates who wish to meet Dublinn, it's not understood - these are quite possibly Victoria's last days.

Mechanics and gameplay wise, ep 9...knocked it out of the park! It wasn't too hard, the Dublinn guys had some interesting mechanics that kept any one thing from being stale, there wasn't anything that felt like I was getting smacked with a wall of pain. I will note that 9-14, with all the pre-deployed jerks, I had to use a support Fiametta to funnel all the enemies into her bombardment kill box. The tattered pillars mechanic is kinda tricky sometimes, with how it actively reshapes the map, but it opens the door for a lot more engaging strategies. I kinda hope it comes back now and again. Mandragora's a fun boss. I had Nearl The Radiant tank her phase 1 (shield this, loser!) and then just kinda threw random fast-redeploys and snipers at her in phase 2 including tex alter to drop pillars on her. Part of my line broke and it was nearly a fail but I got the 3* clear! A fun time.

(Edited 11/2 to fix Saileach's legal name and a capitalization error on Victoria)

[buggycultist]

Hey! A fun (I hope) little game for ya!

Drop your five favourite One Piece characters, and a song that makes you think of them (plus explanation if you want to)

I am struggling to watch the show atm, my brain doesn't work right, but I can give a so far/from Tumblr list!

Buggy (obviously), he was my fave when I tried to read the manga a few years back and he still is now that I've watched the live action and some of the anime. Because of the obsession I have for this freaky clown man, anytime a love song pops up on my playlist he is the audience! Typically Anniversary by Aurelio Voltaire, Tear in My Heart by Twenty One Pilots, Electric Love by Borns. I always listen to these songs like my OC is singing to or about Buggy.

Mihawk, again, big sword! I also like the goth aesthetic he has, he's very pretty. He's quite sassy in the live action, I feel it's more pronounced there. I also think he's low key silly and I love that extra depth, his bathroom with a toilet in the middle on carpet and nothing else. I think there's a one piece academy(?) manga where he collects sea shells! The Grimm Troup or The Nightmare King from the Hollow Knight OST, I just think this man needs to swing his big sword around to large orchestral music!

Crocodile, I like my villains, mostly because the early crew are all kids and I haven't gotten to the older crew yet so... He has questionable fashion taste, a stupid laugh and he gets beaten by a kid in flip flops with a barrel of water. His crew broke out of prison and he thought "nah, nothin' out there for me. I'll stick to going under the jail, thanks." I don't think of him to music as often as others, by I think Ex Lover's Lover by Aurelio Voltaire fits my vision of him. Either he does do what the song suggests, actually having the misaligned conviction to follow through or he only thinks about it just like the song, not because he's afraid but because he sees it as beneath him.

Doflamingo, I've heard people change their opinions on him when they finally reach his arcs, I am nowhere near him so this is more based on what I've heard and seen on Tumblr. I am down bad for morally reprehensible characters, okay? I also have a thing for Corazon but I'm ranking these based on the amount of thoughts I have and fan content I've consumed. Amygdala's Rag Doll by GHOST, this is more in that I like to think of my OC body swapped with Doffy, the bird himself has an odd role in my brain.

Benn Beckman, can you see a pattern yet? I'm a sucker for long hair, scars of any kind, and tall. I rarely have a thing for people with guns, I'm more into melee or hand to hand but he makes it work. I like his dynamic with Shanks, being the more serious first mate to Shanks' goofy ass. (tends to be a theme across OP) I also think he looks like a dollar store Crocodile pre time skip, take that as you will. Another man I don't associate with music often, I really had to think about this one. No Sudden Movements by Five Finger Death Punch, sadly I do not have much explanation for that one.

[moongothic]

I had a dream last night that Toei had made like a One Piece feature film/animated special about Crocodile and y'all it was fucking weird

You know the brainrot has reached terminal velocity when the blorbo starts appearing in your dreams. (To be fair, I have had about a million other One Piece themed dreams in the past and Crocodile did show up in one once before, like years and years ago (which is slightly deranged considdering I only lost my mind about this man last fall), but still) (I'm just glad this wasn't one of my usual nightmares)

So the set-up for the movie was that a bunch of people, including Crocodile and Daz, had infiltrated somekinda skyscraper because they were on a mission to do... something. I don't remember what their actual goal was, somekinda secret agent kinda bs, but they were there.

The first little bit of the movie was more like a video game where you just had to get deeper and deeper into the tower without getting noticed/found out and it was going decent, though eventually Croc and Daz got separated from one another (can't remember if they got spotted and split intentionally or what)

Crocodile found himself in a weird science-y room that started emitting somekinda pastel rainbow colored hallucinogenic mist that was showing him Visions from the Past to Haunt and Taunt him

And this was kind of where the movie would cut between the other shit that was happening and what Daz was up to while going through the building, and what visions were haunting Crocodile. I can't remember the details anymore for either plot, just that at some point the mist showed Crocodile a young, blond haired Whitebeard

The second last time we cut to Crocodile in the pastel mist, an old man with blond hair appears to him to come taunt him or something, but the scene cuts away before the altercation can begin. What was strange though was that the old man looked almost like an elderly Crocodile (without the scar and with the blond hair)

We cut to Daz and he has made his way to the top of the skyscraper with some people, being chased by their enemies. They're stuck inside the skyscraper though and Daz decides the easiest way to make their exist is for him to literally cut the roof off so he does that in usual One Piece fashion. And then he jumps off the building, doing some flips in the air while turning parts of his body into blades and then back to flesh, which somehow slows down the fall?? And then he just. Lands safely into Ivankov's hair.

??????????? Dream logic don't think about it

Anyway, we cut back to Crocodile and he's having an altercation with the strange old man, which Crocodile wins with strange ease (like this was supposed to be the big, final showdown and it wasn't really either), the old man vanishing into the rainbow mist. The mist then turning thicker and thicker until it consumes everything and Crocodile with it

We then cut to outside the skyscraper where Daz and the others are, where Crocodile has now reappeared, as if he had been teleported there by the mist. But what's strange is that Crocodile is now a child with blond hair.

I don't remember how the movie then ended, I just remember feeling annoyed how although we got a Crocodile-centric OP movie, this would now mean we will never get to see his full backstory because the movie ended up confirming that Crocodile was Whitebeard's bio-son while refusing to spill the beans in detail

IDK I did have more dreams from there on (one of them was about the animated Barbie movies?????????) but I can't remember much anything else, and they weren't related to this OP dream. I'm just. Like I've seen objectively weirder dreams, there's just something about this one that kinda haunts me

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

for the 'why wouldn't date them'

charles, hawkeye, trapper

and i think you might be into twin peaks? if so, dale cooper and donna hayward

whichever ones you want to do :)

Ahhhhhh omg thank you for all of these I want to do them ALL but let's go backwards.

Donna Hayward

Ok so the thing is I AM into Twin Peaks but it's been a while since I've seen it and I tried to watch The Return but I was too stupit to understand much less enjoy it :( sowwy. So I would be dating my own flawed incomplete interpretation of a person, really. Typical Twin Peaks. 

Anyways I love Donna! I think we have similar personalities and stuff. In all brutal honesty I think if I were in her situation with a friend like Laura I’d have done similar things. Also yeah maybe her actions did lead a man to suicide but that was NOT her fault. I think the only three things that would prevent an attempt at a relationship here are 

1) The obvious. Her taste in men = atrocious. In all the rest of these hypotheticals where the character is already canonically in a relationship or has feelings for another character I’m just like yeah the more the merrier but if Donna insists on inviting her insufferable ass boyfriend into the mix I could NOT fucking do it I’m sorry. 

2) This girl is not ready for a relationship yet after All That god damn. But then again neither am I so maybe that balances out. We would need to spend some time as support group buddies just hugging and crying a lot before even considering a date. 

3) It is unlikely we would ever interact as I am never setting foot in that town ever in my life are you kidding me. Donna is super pretty in both her incarnations but I’m sorry I don’t think any pussy pops severely enough for me to risk going to fucking doorknob hell or some shit.

Dale Cooper

Ignore everything I said in that last paragraph. I change my mind. I forgot my beautiful autism creature husband is here. I would risk it all for a date with Dale Cooper and so would all who know and perceive the truth. AND he’s got two hot girlfriends with him at least one of whom is ALSO an autism creature??? Sign me the FUCK up for this polycule IMMEDIATELY. “Oh but OP what about the horrors” I don’t even fucking care it’s fine. Dale can have little an evil doppelganger. As a treat.

Still there are some problems:

1) Dale is an FBI agent and Harry is a cop. Booooooo!!!! But maybe if Annie and Caroline and I unionize we can force them to quit their jobs. 

2) Unclear if I would be forced to join the Black Lodge Horror Vision Rotation along with Annie and Caroline. Boring and time consuming task and unlike Laura you don’t even get to do a Big Scream.

3) I personally actually don’t like pie or coffee at all :( I’m sorry babygirl I understand if this is a deal breaker. 

Trapper McIntyre 

You know that “golden retriever boyfriend” joke? Trapper is like THE golden retriever boyfriend to me. Which I mean as an absolute compliment! Golden retrievers are friendly, helpful, adorable, lovable dogs. I am always up to pet a golden retriever.

But the thing is, I would never get one myself. They’re just a bit too big, bit too much energy, bit too messy, and anyways I prefer cats. No hate, no judgment, just a series of tiny preferences. Not into jocks, not into casual no-strings-attached type relationships, not super into kids, you know how it is. Boring and petty answer but I just feel like this adorable happy-go-lucky goldie deserves the PERFECT forever home and obviously he’s one of the most popular of all the dogs at the Mashblr shelter so I know he’ll get adopted super fast. So I can turn my attention to the miserable ass overbred old cat in the corner <3

Hawkeye Pierce

Oh, Hawkeye. I just don’t think so. Idk what’s wrong with me but I have to work to see Hawkeye as like. A dateable entity in my mind. He’s our little scrunkly! It’d be weird to date a scrunkly. BUT maybe I’ve just been overexposed to him purely by dint of being in the fandom he’s the main character of, because objectively I DO find Mr. Alda’s portrayal of him in certain scenes to be Attractive (TM), and seeing clips of his charisma and charm and humor and all that good handsome stuff is literally what got me to check out the show in the first place! Man. What happened. Hmm. 

I think one issue is that scenes where he’s explicitly trying to be Romantic and/or Seductive have just never done it for me. Like comparing Hawkeye’s lovey scenes with Kyung Soon to Charles’ with Martine, there’s no contest in how they make me feel. To me, Hawkeye is honestly at his most appealing when he’s radiating Friend Energy, which is why his casual relationships actually work really well IMO; you feel like he’s truly a great pal to the nurses he hooks up with. This is also, I think, one of Piercintyre’s great strengths as a ship, because Hawkeye and Trapper both have amazing Friend Energy and then their natural compatibility makes that bleed seamlessly into sweet romantic vibes. And to be clear I would LOVE to be in a Friends To Lovers relationship too but unfortunately I am cringely obsessed with loveydovey romance in a way I’m not sure Hawkeye is even capable of. Plus there’s also just the fact that I’m a shy waiting til marriage person and I suck at banter and yeah it’s just not working. In conclusion neither Hawkeye nor Trapper should date me they should date each other!! But we knew that :P

THAT CUNT

There are 10000000 reasons not to date Charles. But I will be doing it anyways ^_^ Peace and love on planet earth <3

Anyways I’m not bringing up his Problematicness as a reason here because I didn’t bring it up for anyone else and nobody noticed, so why should it be any different with him. Like no obviously I would not date this dumbfuck racist but I also would not date a guy who thinks it’s a funny prank to make a woman think she’s being sexually assaulted. I also for that matter would not date a guy who works with the dumbfuck racist and is like aw, ya know what, he’s not that bad really :) the second they have a chance to have a bonding moment. I guess I have decided to be a buzzkill about that forever now btw sorry :( oh well 

But ok no real talk I would Not date Charles unless one very specific condition is met, which is that I have whatever magic stardust they sprinkled on his single-episode love interests before they put them in the story that made him be utterly besotted with them, because more than any other character on the show, it seems, the difference between Regular Charles and Charles In Love is so hysterically huge??? Like fuck. My dudes. We’ve done it. We found the one villain who actually does do a complete 180 and starts trying to act right as soon as a girl takes pity on him enough to look at him twice. (Disclaimer: I haven’t seen Ain’t Love Grand yet I’m sorryyyyyyyy) He’s so ~romantic~ and it’s like catnip to me unfortunately. :\ The total opposite of what I said about Hawkeye up there. Offers a girl his stupid little teacup and recites poetry at her. Unbelievable. Did anyone ever think about the fact that maybe I would like to be offered a teacup and recited poetry at. No. You all only think about yourselves.  

Like even though objectively the way he nukes his relationship with Martine was hurtful to both of them, he’s so Tender the whole time it’s insane. She turned him into her pauvre petit miaou miaou overnight. I want that power so fucking bad I NEED that power so fucking bad. Say it with me everyone. I Could Fix Him. (”But OP Martine and Donna DIDN’T fix him he still left them both and never mentioned them again?” Yes but don’t worry they were just loosening the lid on his jar a little bit. I’ll get him open you’ll see. He’s gonna be soooo well trained when I’m done I’ll make him apologize to Maxwell and everything. He won’t even need the shock collar after a few weeks.)

But yeah if I have to like, try to appeal to him on my own it’s not fucking happening. I have no desire to hear the equivalent of a DOS deepfake hologram that has become evil due to being trained on text scraped from youtube comments tell me I’m ugly and stupid, which is exactly what would happen. Up til now I’ve sidestepped the issue that I do not think any of these people would give me the time of day (except Maxwell who would take pity on me probably because he is sososo Good) but I cannot ignore how much Charles just would Not like me. I don’t know how the selfshipper community does it they’re braver than any fucking US marine over there fr. Charles would look at me like I was a gross little bug on the ground and I can’t escape it. Oh well. Who needs him. Where’s your sister you dipshit I’m about to GET IT

[somedayonbroadway]

I posted 227 times in 2022

102 posts created (45%)

125 posts reblogged (55%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@somedayonbroadway

@hey-op-just-kill-me

@evilwriter37

@tea-and-theater

@cd-head

I tagged 124 of my posts in 2022

Only 45% of my posts had no tags

#much love - 95 posts

#newsies - 90 posts

#newsies live - 89 posts

#newsies musical - 89 posts

#jack kelly - 80 posts

#racetrack higgins - 73 posts

#newsies fanfiction - 68 posts

#newsies fandom - 66 posts

#modern era - 65 posts

#modern au - 64 posts

Longest Tag: 39 characters

#a babysitter’s guide to monster hunting

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Have you ever thought about like a Newsies Grease AU?

Okay, so don’t come at me, but Grease has never been my favorite musical. Still, this is a fun idea.

So I don’t know whether to make this Jatherine or Javid, but we’ll go with Javid for now because I don’t do a lot of Javid AUs. If you wanna see another ship, just let me know!

Characters

Jack Kelly — Danny

David Jacobs — Sandy

Spot Conlon — Kenickie

Racetrack Higgins — Rizzo

Crutchie Morris — Jan

Katherine Plumber — Marty

Sarah Jacobs — Sonny

JoJo — Frenchie

Albert DaSilva — Doody

Little Jack and David mood boards…

See the full post

30 notes - Posted February 20, 2022

#4

May I ask for more premature Race bc Ima sucker for angst (basically baby brother race as i legit cannot write crutchie)

Here’s some premature Racer just for you, my love

They were in the hospital again. Race had collapsed and Jack had no idea why, all he knew was that he was panicking again, because there was his baby brother, twelve years old, laying on a hospital bed like it was his own. At this point, it might as well be.

Jack had never signed for this. He was supposed to be the big brother, not the mother, the father and everything in between. Yet, here he was, twenty three years old and completely responsible for everything that happened to the precious little boy in front of him.

It started when the child was born, nearly three months too early with an umbilical cord wrapped around his tiny neck. It was a miracle the tiny thing survived. That didn’t mean he was going to live a completely normal, healthy life. No. It meant hundreds of hospital visits, bills upon bills stacked up that Jack needed to find a way to pay. The child was beautiful. Jack adores him, but he’d only been meant to be the fun loving older brother. Now he was responsible for a child suffering from ADHD, anxiety, hearing loss, partial blindness, asthma and very poor social skills.

It wasn’t that Jack didn’t want to be here. Well, maybe it was. He didn’t want to be here because he didn’t want his brother to be here because the little boy deserved so much better and Jack was just sitting here, thinking about how he wished he wasn’t responsible for this child at all. As the guilt washed over him, the little boy’s eyes flickered open. He wheezed a bit. “Jackie?”

The young man melted. “I’m right here, Racer-kid, don’t you worry a single second,” he hushed into his brother’s right ear, brushing a hand through the boy’s thin curly hair. “How ya feelin’?”

All Race could do was manage a shrug, trying to blink his vision clear. “I dunno,” he admitted in a whisper, always afraid to talk too loudly. “Is Charlie coming?”

Jack sighed and shook his head. “He wants to, kiddo, but he can’t afford a plane ticket right now,” he explained. “I promise we’ll see him real soon, though, huh?” The boy sighed, curling up and closing his eyes again. And just like that, Jack’s small smile vanished and worry and sorrow took over instead as he leaned down to kiss the child’s head. “Just rest, little boy…”

The boy peaked his big blue eyes out from beneath those long eyelashes and found Jack once more before letting sleep consume him.

The precious child had been entrusted into Jack’s care. Jack couldn’t help but think it should’ve been someone else, someone better, someone special. Instead, it was just Jack, some college drop out with nothing but a high school diploma, two waiting jobs, a crummy apartment and all the adoration in his heart he had to give. “I love you, Racer,” he breathed. “I got you.”

They were in some hospital room again. And Jack would do whatever it took to make that room look like home.

34 notes - Posted February 24, 2022

#3

Happy birthday, Jeremy Jordan :)

In honor of Jeremy’s birthday, here’s a modern Jack Kelly moodboard in honor of Jack’s birthday because I HC that Jack was also born on November 20th

34 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

#2

I don't know if you've done this before but what about a Heathers au?

Heathers AU

Racetrack Higgins as Heather Chandler

Albert DaSilva as Heather McNamara

See the full post

50 notes - Posted February 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

What about a Six au?

Six AU

Divorced

Albert DaSilva as Aragon

Beheaded

Racetrack Higgins as Boleyn

See the full post

53 notes - Posted February 13, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[s0nia246]

I posted 81 times in 2022

That's 57 more posts than 2021!

72 posts created (89%)

9 posts reblogged (11%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ace-of-crows

@mykuredreams

@projectsekaiocsblog

@burningcrab

I tagged 72 of my posts in 2022

Only 11% of my posts had no tags

#art - 33 posts

#digtal art - 32 posts

#digtial - 32 posts

#digtal drawing - 30 posts

#artwork - 25 posts

#project sekai y/n - 24 posts

#project sekai - 24 posts

#oc - 23 posts

#oc tag - 22 posts

#hatsune miku colorful stage au - 22 posts

Longest Tag: 47 characters

#i feel like i could have explain this better xd

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I had this idea for the Sagua/Cult au. I have two idea for this.

Instead of you looking like yourself you end looking like a fusion of the people in your party.

When you use a element when fighting you transform into your favorite character from each element. If you use two or more element the character fusion together.

I just thought that this would be very interesting for the imposter au.

Au here a shitty edit of my character. I'm going to redraw them later.

Characters used here are

Chongyun

Bennett

Fischl

Xingqiu

I'm don't know what to call them yet but I'll edit this if I think of something.

49 notes - Posted May 3, 2022

#4

I just came up with this yesterday and I know this doesn't make sense but...what if Y/N gave out visions. I combine all the current vision shapes that are out as of March 4, 2022. I don't know what Y/N's element would be so I'd love to here other people ideas.

The shapes that I used were Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, and Snezhnaya

50 notes - Posted March 4, 2022

#3

Okay. I'm going to do my best to explain this.

So I have this idea. I don't if this exists or anything but here it is. The writing is similar to a visual novel.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's late at night and it time for your daily routine of playing Hatsune Miku Project Sekai. Your not the best at rhythm games but the amazing music and characters make up for your lack of skill.

Y/N- "All right. What song should I choose. Maybe I'll I'll practice on solo before going co-op...Huh?" On the screen a pop-up appeared.

Song unlocked. Untitled

Y-N -"That's cool. I'll play that song first. I wonder what it sounds like."

You head over to solo play and choose the song. When you go and confirm it the screen to your device flashes brightly. Soon consuming your vision. You cover your eyes with hand, wincing slightly.

"What that!.." You hear chiming noise in your ear. Is that...

???-"Hello Y/N. Your finally here."

That voice... it can't. You remove your hand from your face. It's really her. No, you must be dreaming. Maybe you were tired then you thought.

Y/N- Miku...Your Hatsune Miku. "

You could believe your eyes. You couldn't believe where you standing at. You just isakied into a game all about isaking. How ironic.

Y/N- "How did I get here?"

You turn around at look at your surrounding. It was a empty void. Similar to when you first played the prologue. Miku giggled at your question.

Miku-"You should know that already. You played most of the story so far. We can talk about that later. Everyone waiting to meet. You should be able to move around easily. It's similar to how it works in the game. Here I'll help you."

So how Miku magical takes your phone out of thin air and it floats infront of both of you. The screen is facing you and showing off the games map. It showed all the local you could go and where everyone one was.

Miku-"Let's see. I'll just random choose one. Have fun Manager and please return to visit me and rest of the vocaloid "

Miku smiled and waved at you before that familiar white obscured your vision again.

To where your teleported to is up to you

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I've been having this idea rotting in my brain for past 2 weeks now.

The au is where the Player/Y/N is isakied into Project Sekai. In this world you are seen as a very popluar idol and you are the Manager of all the group.

I hope i did my best on explaining it. Sorry if their errors. 🙃

🎉Happy new years everyone.🎉

59 notes - Posted January 1, 2022

#2

So in the Genshin Impact Sagau some people say that the Y/N / The Creator would be a catalyst user if they were a playable character. So I decided to draw what I think their weapon might look like.

I have two name for this weapon Astra Inclinant, "The stars incline us; they do not bind us"' and Omni Potens, meaning"all power".

My inspiration for this weapon is Floating Globe, Galaxy, Hourglass, and Globe Antique Bass.

I used Craiyan for inspiration and to help me flesh out my ideas.

See the full post

73 notes - Posted September 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Project Sekai Incorrect Quotes in my au

(Since I'm to lazy to write the next part XD)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leo/Need

Ichika: What did you guys get in your yearbook?

Saki: 'Prettiest Smile'

Honami: 'Nicest Personality'

Shiho: 'Most likely to start a bar fight'

Y/N: 'Least likely to start a bar fight, but most likely to win one'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

More More Jump

Minori: Anyone d-

Haruka: Depressed?

Airi: Drained?

Shizuku: Dumb?

Y/N: Disliked?

Minori: -done with their work... what is wrong with you people ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vivid Bad Squad

Kohana: There are seven chairs and ten kids. What do you do?

An: Have everyone stand.

Toya: Bring three more chairs!

Akito: The most important ones can sit down.

Y/N: Kill three.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wonderlands x Showtime

Tsukasa: Good morning.

Y/N: Good morning.

Nene: Good morning.

Rui: You all sound like robots, try spicing it up a bit.

See the full post

134 notes - Posted March 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

Hi! I'm in love with all of odnlb, but one thing that I loved the most was how you handled the power ups. We already saw the fox, bee, snake and even the ladybug miraculous in the fic, what about the other miraculous? What power up do you think they could have? Or is there any canon power you would change? Like the tiger and goat being very similar to the cat and ladybug miraculous, or maybe the rooster being... well, the rooster power. I'm just in love with the idea of epic powers! In the show almost all of them look very harmless, but the concept could work better with more danger :D

i'm SO glad you like my take on the power-ups! i am a huge fan of the superhero genre in general and i consume all kinds of superhero content (marvel, dc, & even shows like invincible and the boys) so a lot of my power-ups are inspired by some of my favorte supers.

black cat power up - will be shown in odnlb. we kind of saw it already in the chapter 11 flashback, but he will use it again in present time. so i'll let you ponder that one a bit longer ;) or you can go read my other fic what makes a monster because i did it there too jkasd;kjafk;afk;f

turtle - will be shown in odnlb ;)

bee - got one more power up out of her in odnlb ;)

rabbit - she's pretty op already but i'm thinking the power up is reality-hopping. she can already access alternate timelines as shown in chat blanc, so being able to go back and forth between them is most likely her biggest ability.

butterfly - will be shown in odnlb >;)

ox - since his power is immunity to other powers, his power up would probably be nullifying the power used against him!

horse - portal to other realities/dimensions! he can't go back and forth in time, but i am imagining america chavez level dimension hopping. he and alix can chill in the hot dog dimension.

mouse - multiply without getting smaller (if she wants); can grow or shrink if she so wishes

monkey - since he can malfunction a holder's powers, i can see him being extra trickster-y and start swapping them with other powers too. imagine tigress comes at him with clout and he swaps it right then and there with voyage... it would be uproariously funny omg

dog - she can fetch an object she touches with her ball; what if she is able to track an object given to her already? that would be hella useful if trying to track down stolen miraculous!

dragon - will be shown in odnlb ;)

tiger - it's a little different from the black cat miraculous. cataclysm makes something bad happen to the target, but clout makes tigress one-punch-man essentially. i think a good power up would be non-contact clout; she can just aim and fire for as many times as she likes without detransforming.

goat - this is one i would change. it's the miraculous of passion, so why not make genesis generate abilities instead of objects? but not magical abilities, like the butterfly miraculous. i'm thinking non-magical abilities, like a singing talent or a strategy talent. "oh no i don't know what to do. quick nathaniel, make me smart." boom, all kinds of problems solved.

rooster - it's pretty much the butterfly miraculous...? right? something i don't get because his power is sublimation. what would make more sense to me is if he could shapeshift! he would be able to transform into any animal or person he needs to without detransforming.

pig - this one has so much potential!!!!!!!! she could do mass hypnosis, trap all of france in a dream state that they wouldn't want to wake up from because they'd be living out their heart's desire in their heads. maybe she'd even be able to go into those visions and talk to the victims and get them to tell her all their secrets. tbh this is the one i'd be the most scared of.

peacock - will be shown in odnlb ;)

[boomershooterwoman]

I learned from One Piece to consume manga in a different way.

I silence, block and avoid theories and the fandom as much as possible, this was due to Dressrosa and the weekly experience, but the fact that I loved the villain and one of the new allies (Doflamingo and Law) and read so many ideas and theories and speculations meant that when I read what Oda wrote, I was disappointed, what I saw didn't meet my expectations, I had read and even seen fanarts of such incredible and well-crafted possibilities that the canon was disappointing in some respects, I could see the good, but my frustration didn't allow me to see what the author wanted... I could not see Dressrosa for what it is but only for what I wanted it to be... my vision changed when I talked to a colleague and she said she loved it, and I brought her some theories and possibilities and some she even liked, but she said something I've never forgotten, she said how interesting some of them are, how cool they are, but questioned where did they get that from? Because that was not what she read.

Life happens, other priorities come into play and I've adopted another way of reading, I read OP every 6 months, no more theories, no more youtube chancela, another way of reading that brought me great satisfaction, I've done the same with Doctor Stone, Golden Kamuy, MHA and JJK.

I read in my own time, without interacting with fandom, without theories, I read what's on the pages, I read the author's work and not the collective and creative mind of the fandom and it's only now, with the end of jjk, that I've started to read what the fandom has to say and I feel like I've read a different manga from what some of the fandom has read.

I saw JJK as a manga with a simple and straightforward story, with excellent panels, great sense of movement, great fight choreography, and a real pout porri of ideas that the older you are or the more you've seen, the more references and inspirations (from tv, movies, super sentais and other anime/manga) you notice.

But it's still a simple story, from which you can draw depth and interesting discussions, but simple in its essence.

With only 4 or 5 really important characters. With everything else being used as a means to created a more digestive bridge for a straightforward path to the conclusion and its include side characters and side plots. The character have a function, he executes that function and he is gone (dead or forgoteen) the same goes for some parts of the story (is that the best way to write it? I don't know...I think it's a very peculiar and cold one...but it's one clearly and deliberately chosen)

It's like that with the invasion of the American army, with the clans, with the Tengen/Kenjaku/Sukuna relationship... you get a glimpse but no elaboration, because to continue with the evolution and conclusion of the journey of these 5 core characters you don't need that elaboration.

Did that work?

In my view, it worked for 4 of the 5...

1 of them suffered from this choice... but the balance was positive in the end.

I say 5 because I feel that the narrative isn't complete without them, we don't have the beginning of the story, nor the conflict, nor the middle, nor the end...

They are, in the order of their appearance in the manga, Megumi, Yuji, Sukuna, Gojo and Kenjaku.

The story begins with Sukuna and everything revolves around him, Yuji has a connection with him and eats his finger, Megumi first appearance is looking for him and then he finds Yuji and in the future becomes his vessel and his technique is of the utmost importance to Sukuna and Gojo arrives soon after, 4 of 5 right in the 1st chapter.

Kenjaku comes later in the manga, but he also has plans involving Sukuna, pacts with Sukuna...always Sukuna.

The power system, the importance and superiority of CE and CT, the preference for powerful techniques, the contempt for who isn't strong, all align with Sukuna.

Of these 5 characters, I'd say that 4 had great arcs and conclusions.

Yuji, Gojo, Kenjaku, Sukuna...the only one I wanted more was Megumi, he had an ok-ish conclusion in my opinion.

About the final chapter, Mahito was said to be the mirror of humanity, death, and him being there with Sukuna makes sense, Mahito is the mirror, and Sukuna remains faithful to what he said to Jogo (hit him and he'll do what Jogo wants) to what he said to Yorozu (losing is the same as dying, do what you want with my body) and is extremely adaptable, he never lost so his ways were never showed to be wrong...but in the end Yuji defeated him, so Sukuna in the afterlife accepts his defeat with alacrity and nobility, he adapts and is show to consider a new path.

Sukuna can thus be said to follow the two facets of Sukuna from Nihon Shoki and local legends, one of violent being, an evil despot, the other benevolent and protective being.

As Yuji himself said, you could say that the finger is now a talisman.

The story begins with Sukuna and ends with Sukuna and since JJK's world until then adhered to similar principles as Sukuna, his defeat and change could mean the change of that society itself, and this was made possible by a new generation, guided as far as possible and in Gojo's own peculiar way.

Kenjaku wanted chaos that he couldn't control, he got it, this chaos created Takaba, and Takaba gave him an illogical, chaotic fight, which he enjoyed so much that he didn't notice something that he had prepared so much for, he died, but as he told Choso, he did everything he did out of curiosity and entertainment, the merger could be an abonible being or a funny face, he would laugh if it was that. Takaba questioned him, if he wouldn't give it all up if he had fun...

Well, Takaba provided Kenjaku with everything he wanted, Kenjaku had his chaos, he had his entertainment, his fun, his bizarre face, his laughter.

I can't say enough about Gojo, not having interacted with the fandom, my impression is that Gojo is one of Gege's favorite characters, such is the care and appreciation I've seen for him in the manga second only to Sukuna in my opinion.

Not that the manga have no flaws, far from it, I've never been a big fan of how Gege likes to complicate explanations that could be much simpler and more succinct. Techniques and concepts explained several times, sometimes in different ways to make it more confusing...

But I read JJK with the perception of an action story, with comedy and lots of references and a few hints of tragedy, but I didnt saw the dark story, much less a story with a tragic ending.

Even in Shibuya, of the characters who are the good guys, who do we really lose? Nanami and, at the time, Nobara. Reading it in one go, it's a chaotic arc in which evwryhting goes wrong and the characters lose and it marks a change in the rhythm of the story, but that's it...

CG arc the characters all win, it's action and fun and deepening of some themes and characters (those characters have to have their arc concluded or their question/dilema ready for when they face Sukuna, after all Sukuna will answer their question/dilema, Kashimo/Gojo, or will defeat them because he is the strongest and them in one way or another still adhering to his path, till we get to Yuji)

But in CG arc is only after volumes of winnings that he finaly in the fight against Kenjaku, lose, and then Sukuna...Gege managed very well to bring the feeling that we're fucked, but Megumi would be saved because that's what he asked Yuji, and Yuji is the protagonist and will win in the end.

It's the pillars of shonen jump, friendship, effort and victory.

Thats why I can see how Gege succeed in create the dread atmosphere but cannot see the possibility of a dark or grim ending.

So the ending was very satisfying for me.

But I agreed it would have been beneficial to have 10 instead of 5 final chapters, or maybe give a few pages for us to see Megumi process what happened, just what Yuji had in the aftermath of Shibuya, I think I'd like his conclusion better to me.

I'm not saying that fandom is bad, it's good, great for sales, popularity, meeting people and getting to know other manga.

But I wanted to give a perspective from someone who read CG and the Gojo vs Suluna battle in one go, and everyone's battle against Sukuna after accumulating almost 6 months of chapters.

I didn't find Sukuna's death abrupt, because for me it was four and a half chapters of dialog, fighting and surprises...

Yes, I missed a moment for Megumi to have a ponder like Yuji, and Yuta returning to his body was an explanation that I just accepted, without questioning it too much because I didn't think it was the best of explanations, it was more Rika being the Macguffin that she is and was in JJK 0... the simple domain chapter was interesting, it shows the change, the different future that Gojo wanted, Takaba got his comedy partner and I thought it was hilarious, totally within his character and power.

The mission seeing that everything turned out well, a classic shonen trope, very similar to the beginning of JJK which is a classic shonen trope, with a special touch seeing Sukuna and the final image which is very similar to the beginning of the manga.

8 out of 10 for me.

It's worth buying and I will have this the manga in my memory with all my affection.

It certainly makes me excited to see what Gege will do again.

As for JJK part 2, which I've read people talking about in X, I don't see the point, but if he wants to do it I can see how JJK would allow such a choice.

Thoughts on JJK's ending and my Dream/Delusion Theory being wrong.

Original Theory

Follow-Up on Characters Feeling OOC

(Written using TCBscans. Click images for captions/citaitons.)

Preface

I want to say that this ending could’ve worked if it were given more time. The majority of my complaints are the rushing which I mostly blame exploitation at the hands of the manga industry and predatory contracts.

Here are my original thoughts on JJK 268 when it released and JJK 269 when it released. I've basically reverted to those opinions.

Examining JJK 268–271 as Presented

When the last chapter of Umineko came out, its author Ryukishi07 very much spat in the faces of fans. He mocked them mercilessly and it was glorious. Every single criticism he lobbed at them was warranted because he targeted the fans that refused to see the love he put into his work or engage with the story on its terms.

“Without love, it cannot be seen.”

Ryukishi gave you all the tools to solve the mystery. He told you exactly how to do it. And yet some weren’t satisfied. They wanted everything neatly handed to them in a bow. Ryukishi denied them that simple ending in favor of sticking to his vision and rewarding the fans that accepted Umineko for what it was.

I have my own issues with the ending, but none of my complaints are related to that. I can also say with confidence what happens is completely in character, it’s just not something I personally vibe with.

When I read JJK 268–271 I feel that same creator frustration. I see Gege’s fatigue with fans who care only about the surface level presentation and nothing else. There’s been so much fun setups and follow throughs. So many subtle characterizations and symbolism that goes unnoticed by those who are unwilling to see the love Gege puts into his craft.

“JJK fans can’t read.” This is a fandom joke that is very true. A massive part of the fanbase ignores subtlety and gets upset or confused by Gege following through on it. The entire Sukuna battle was like that. You could pick out all the reasoning behind their actions if you paid close attention.

But then we get JJK 269 where Gege does something he's never done before—over-explain everything bluntly in a way that adds more plot holes and hinders character development. It feels like Gege is going “You don’t understand what I put down? Ok fine! Here are the answers!” It feels like getting to tell those fans off was more important than everything else.

Instead of doing a Ryukishi where he tears into uncharitable critics and rewards those who gave him a chance, Gege just abandons it all and makes an ending that won’t fully satisfy anyone. 

With my theory, I decided to look past everything I hated. I decided to trust that if a mistake was made, Gege would call it out like usual. I decided to trust that the inconsistent locations were intentional because Gege has not once ever flubbed them. I decided to trust the clever set up and follow through that’s always been there, even when Gege’s health problems were at their worst.

I decided to look at Gege’s work with love and my heart was trampled for it. My post now serves as glaring proof the ending is botched and nothing makes sense. All the plotholes I found solutions for are bigger than ever. JJK 269 in its entirety is utterly pointless narratively. It could’ve been spent on political fallout, grief, or villain backstories, but instead it reads like a defensive Reddit post.

JJK 271 isn't Satisfying

JJK 271 made everything about JJK 269 worse and then added some more nonsense. Sukuna’s last appearance really sucked for me. I found his entire interaction with Mahito to be grossly OOC.

Mahito is a character who finds humans disgusting and doesn’t care about their opinions or what they do. They also don’t like Sukuna. When Jogo believes that the age of curses needs Sukuna to work, Mahito says they can surpass him. The very idea that Mahito would be upset by Sukuna becoming more human goes against their entire established character.

And more continuity errors!

This conversation is actually their 4th. Here are the other 3:

Sukuna warning Mahito not to touch him.

Sukuna punishing Mahito for touching him.

And Mahito telling Sukuna to shut up and watch him be even better.

Their relationship was antagonistic and Mahito desired a world without Sukuna. Why would Sukuna be with them in the afterlife?

And if Sukuna was going to change his mind it should’ve been with someone he cared about. Jogo and Gojo would’ve been great candidates. Or you know…it could’ve been Uraume themself. In the way Yuji voiced his feelings to Megumi and reached out to him, Sukuna could’ve done the same with Uraume. It could’ve been a thing that expanded more on their relationship and how it came to be. But Uraume doesn’t even get to voice how they feel about anything.

What we get is Sukuna talking to someone he doesn’t like about his emotional issues he has been suppressing and then deciding to live for a person whose history we know nothing of.

I knew him being an unwanted child screwed him up. But that kind of stuff takes a long, long time to unpack. And Sukuna, up until this point has given no indication he was ready to acknowledge his trauma, just like Gojo. Even in the end Gojo can’t admit to Toji and Geto traumatizing him. Sukuna knowing his heart and being so casually open about it just flies in the face of the subtle characterization that existed up until that point. (I wanted Hidden Inventory Arc type reveal you know! But tell not show is prevailing seemingly out of spite.)

He dies stubborn and hateful towards Yuji. He lies to him about feeling nothing and not liking flowers. For him to turn around in death and go I was wrong the entire time no problem to someone he has an antagonistic relationship with is extremely OOC because it wasn't earned. 

And since when did Sukuna fear his own curse? When was that ever hinted? All that was suggested was Sukuna having a rough childhood and being exploited by others until he had enough.

Even for all the characters that survived, this isn’t a satisfying ending. Their coping with trauma is unrealistic and contradicts earlier characterization. Their relationships are not explored further. All their arcs or goals are neglected, save Yuji. Nobara didn’t even get to meet up with her childhood friends like she always wanted to. Just the mom letter.

It’s also jarring to see that a series that began with mourning, a series that made itself different by having children deal realistically with traumatic things, end where that heart no longer exists. We have so many characters who are explicitly motivated by their trauma. And we get to see them cope with it in their unique ways and still choose to chase joy through the hurt. 

And these final 4 chapters? It’s gone. Yuta being so distressed over everyone treating Gojo like an object and not acknowledging his personhood? Gone. Megumi, Yuji, and Nobara sucking at dealing with death? Gone. They all act like none of it really mattered and won’t affect them for the rest of their lives. Those who were lost are forgotten quickly and their efforts are not remembered. (At this point, everyone ignoring Choso hurts worse than Gojo tbh.)

The Totally Not Kenjaku surviving decapitation and brain eating makes no sense if that's real. And the implications from that are horrible. All Gojo wanted to do was mourn Geto’s body. All we wanted was to see someone mourn him or acknowledge his efforts. I was hoping they’d be buried together. The idea that Geto’s body is possibly being used by a the master manipulating rapist while everyone is ok with that sickens me. (Does any remember Choso?! But hey, let’s kill all the incarnated culling game players who were victims of manipulation or outright helpful to the protagonists’ victory!)

It’s also why Mei Mei surviving and going unpunished or criticized for her treatment of Ui Ui sucks to see. And I guess while we’re at it. Kusakabe really did tell a 15 year old to his face he should’ve died. (And he was wrong about that like the higher ups. Yuji and Sukuna were a backup plan and the fingers were getting stronger all on their own. Gojo was the only adult who took productive action against it.)

The revolution really did die with Gojo. His dreams were good and noble. Resetting the Jujutsu Society and its exploitation was needed. But he gives up on them and asks to be forgotten. It's done in a way that feels like Gege is addressing his fans directly and telling them to get over him too.

I knew Gojo was suicidal, don’t get me wrong, but he was characterized as someone who had a hard time understanding that others did care about him. I was hoping for the revelation his intuition was wrong via a funeral or mourning. That didn't happen and it breaks my heart. 

Yuta tried to empathize with him. We see it with the Yujo plot that goes nowhere except to disrespect Gojo’s body one last time. We don't even get to know if he was cremated or buried or how Yuta felt about that experience. It is extremely hard to see this all as anything but Gege expressing resentment for Gojo’s popularity.

And I’ll give Gege credit for that. The only theme that stayed consistent was Gojo being seen as an object to be exploited by everyone, except Sukuna. (I’m not even sure if I can include Yuji and Yuta in the cares deeply for Gojo anymore. It’s so OOC for them to be like this that I want to ignore it.)

The balance of the world changed when Gojo was born. We had several chapters dedicated to how this impacted various people's lives from Toji to random curse users. His death should be just as impactful.

But you know. Kenjaku was proven right. The cycle of curses will continue on because the systemic problems were never dealt with. 

The conditions that allowed for Yuji and Sukuna to be created still exist.

Reflection

I understand why people like myself want to reject this ending. It doesn’t feel like Gege put love into it. All the fun little quirks this series had are flattened and discarded in what feels like spite. Not even the final battle has the fun energy that was present just 4 chapters ago. 

I’ve decided that I’ll accept these last 4 chapters for what they are, but reject everything they stand for. They’re more interesting to discuss and pick apart than actually read…which ironically is how I feel about Umineko’s final chapter.

And speaking of Umineko… My favorite thing about the reaction to my Dream/Delusion Theory was this—the people who said, if they can’t handle what’s in the catbox, this is their canon. 

The fans who love the series and want to weave their own tales based on this in a way that helps others cope, please tag me in your creations. (Especially you @rosemaryreality!) It’s all incredibly Umineko and I’m forever grateful I got to experience the Rokkenjima Incident in real time.

Very important to Umineko’s themes, there was a common sentiment type across those that were dismissive of my theory vs those who were receptive to it—their perception of the mangaka, Gege.

To those that believed Gege was a bad writer, the idea that he could be clever and put love into this series was impossible to them, and therefore my theory was impossible. To those that had faith in Gege as a writer, my theory was solid, even if it needed a little tweaking.

I had the most fun with those who cited manga at me to make corrections like @runabout-river. Or those who wanted clarification on the holes I missed.

The ones that were entirely dismissive? It was boring. Their arguments mostly amounted to “Gege bad”. (I won't post screenshots here because I don't want them harassed, but they are there if you want to verify them.) Not a single person offered me an interpretation where the events were literal and took place in reality using manga panel citations in a way that tied it all into JJK’s themes and characters.

That disappointed me immensely. I wanted someone to prove to me my reasoning was wrong with a similar methodology. Instead they drew rebuttals stemming from their perceived flaws or outright dislike of Gege.

This is quite literally what happens in Umineko. It’s a murder mystery that can only be solved if you consider love. Both the love within the characters themselves and the love the author has put into his creation.

Is it magic or is it a simple trick? Is it a delusion or is it reality? Depending on how you answer and solve the mystery, your interpretation of the story itself changes too. 

I wound up being wrong of course, and Gege really did screw up everything in the end. But while that delusion was real? I had a blast.

I’ll be forever grateful to everyone that proved Ryukishi right about Umineko’s core theme.

[plush-rabbit]

An Indulgence for the Night

Word Count: 2.3K

A/N: Compress stans have finally been fed and I want comfort (I also wanna get a feel for him)

Atsuhiro lays in bed, a thick comforter on his body that traps heat and feels as if it weighs more than the world itself. His body is tired, exhausted beyond belief with eyes that droop and vision that grows hazy the longer he stays awake. And yet, he can’t force himself to fall asleep- no matter how long his eyes stay closed, they only reopen and he has to bite back a groan to keep you from waking up. 

It’s silent. The electricity that hums in the walls do nothing to calm him down, they make him wary and they’re too loud for him to concentrate on anything. Outside, nothing moves. The trees stand still, not a car flashes by with its headlights, there’s no squealing of tires that fill the night in a godforsaken screech- the world is on pause and he is unable to sleep because of it. 

He’s thought about waking you up, to seek a bit of comfort from you in hopes that it would lull him to sleep but you also need your rest- you’ve been out and about for so long and you’re tired- he won’t ruin your sleep just because his body and mind have decided to fight against each other. He’ll stay in the soft bed, grow warm and have muscles that ache to be stretched until sleep does finally consume him. He’s a grown man- he can handle a bit of restlessness. Even if it means doing it alone. 

The patience lasts for five minutes before he’s removed the too heavy blanket from his body and stretched his legs out in front of him. His hand drags down his face and he’s biting the bottom of his lip as the pink under his eyes leaks for a quick second. He shakes his head and binches the bridge of his nose, nails pressing into the thin skin and tosses his legs over the bed, leaning forward and holding onto the residual limb with a soft groan. His feet- decorated in geometrical print socks with neon colors that you once gave him- press flat against the floor and he paces around the room. He’s aware of what he's doing. You may be a sound sleeper, but with enough noise, you’re bound to wake up. He feels a tad guilty, lips pulled into a frown but he thinks this is better than shaking you awake. At least this way he can pretend that he didn’t mean to wake you up. He’s alway been a great pretender. 

His steps are dulled by the socks, the floors are new so they hardly creak under his weight and there’s a higher chance that he’s going to wake up the people below rather than you. His arm is beginning to ache- a dull pain that isn’t as strong as it once was and his movements are getting sluggish. Perhaps he'll fall asleep with the pacing before you even have a chance to wake up. It was selfish of him to do so anyways- he could have just held you by his side, it’s always been enough to make him grow at least a bit drowsy, to feel himself relax in your arms as you stroked his hair around your index. He just wanted an excuse to not be alone tonight. To not let the silence drown him. 

He stops midway, shoulder slumped forward and head in an acute angle, eyes that close and he can feel his body sway, and he’s sure that if he stays in this position, he’ll end up falling asleep but he’s also positive that if he were to move, he’d disturb the sleep that has begun to creep into his mind. There’s no real reason why he can’t fall asleep, no nightmares that threaten to reveal themselves once he’s vulnerable, no churning in his gut that warns him that something bad might be approaching; there are no worries that keep him awake. He is with you, he is in bed with you, your body draped in a shirt of his, nestled under the blanket where he should be and you both are safe- you’re alive and unharmed. There really is no reason for him to be awake. 

With a heavy head that has begun to ache, he walks back into bed, and lays above the covers, right arm near your body as his hand dances over the space between you and him and under the covers, he grabs your hand, running his thumb over the knuckles, dipping in the small spaces and there’s a tugging feeling gnawing at his chest, telling him to shake you awake and deal with the consequences later as he just wakes you up. There’s no reason to do it- the anxiety is at bay, and he supposes he’s just restive- he just needs something to quell the silence and fill it even if it’s your voice in a hushed manner. He wants to call you name and his mouth opens, turning his head to look at you and your sleeping expression that is content and he can’t bring himself to. You’re content and you indulge him enough with his own wishes- you at least deserve sleep that remains undisturbed. 

His hand lets go and even under the blanket, it isn’t as warm as it was. He reaches over and presses his lips against your temple, tilting his head until his nose is pressed against you in a soft tap. His breath fans across your face, a shuddering breath that leaves him feeling shaky and even as his body grows weary, he tilts his head, lips pressing against your sleeping face, and your brow twitches, aware of his movements and he can’t stop the soft kisses that cover your face. He kisses at your brow, shushing the little twitch and pecks under your eye, feeling your lashes brush against him in a butterfly kiss. He peppers you in kisses, leaving your face marked by his love, feverish and pressing deeper the more he continues, feverish as he breaths against your lips, eyes shut tight until color blooms. He shudders when he feels your breath and lets out a low whine when you brush against him, leg kicking out softly to touch at his. He’s sure that if he were to kiss you again, to let his lips brush against your skin or have his nose swipe against yours, you’d awake and you’d welcome him into your arms.

Atsuhiro remains still, eyes closed and breath heavy and deep, and he’s sure that sleep is just a touch away, that he can rest against you for a moment- for the night until sleep catches him in their clutches but the he hears you yawns, a soft whimper that starts in the back of your throat and he opens his eyes to watch as you roll on your back and curve over the bed, eyes shut tight until you drop unceremoniously onto the bed. You blink once. Then twice. And you turn your head to face him.

“Well hello, you,” you say in a weak voice, a hand coming up to rub at an eye that is still bleary with sleep.

“Did I wake you up?” He asks, smiling as you narrow your eyes in a playful manner.

“I don’t know-” a yawn interrupts you and makes your words so hollow- “were you trying to?” With another yawn you roll back to face him, inching closer to him with the blanket pulled tight in your hands.

“Would you like the truth or a lie?” His voice is hushed, lowered into a whisper as the sleep that he desperately craved, slips past him in wisps.

You hum and bury yourself deeper into the bed, raising the blanket so he could join you. He gladly takes the invitation and comes to rest near you, resting on his arm and raising a brow as he waits for your answer. “Humor me.” Your smile is coy, teasing as you lean up and brush your nose against him in a small kiss.

“Ah!” His smile brightens, immediately closing his mouth until his smile is stretched across his face. “That,” he says in a quiet voice, “I can do, my dear.” He legs jerks against you, knee pressed against yours, until he bends his leg and pushes himself against the softness of your thighs. “I’m always here to entertain, of course.”

You roll your eyes and he can feel his heart quicken. Every smile of yours turns him into someone who he once was as a child- someone who blushes furiously at the sign of attention from someone attractive, whose heart skips a beat when his hands meet yours and words start to slur and stutter until he can do nothing more than smile sheepishly at you. He’ll hold his hat in hand, fiddle with the brim and speak through the mask, face growing hot under and for once, he wished that he could drop the theatrics but you always stayed close to him, pecking him through the mask and letting you hands play with the edges as you held him. You gave him the chance to reveal himself to you, something intimate that left him teary eyed and looking away as if he were sharing something forbidden with you. He let you see all of him- to indulge you in moments that felt so intimate that he was sure his heart was going to stop, to collapse as you took his face in your hands and held him tenderly.

“Well,” he starts off slow, voice below a whisper in a gentle tone, “if I have to be honest- which I will be-” he winks at you and he takes great delight in your chuckle- “I just couldn’t sleep.” His eyes lower and focus on how your lips pout and open. “Nothing bad- just restless, I suppose.” 

You snort and he looks up at you, a silent warning as he raises his brows, lips curling into a lopsided smile. “You- restless? Well, color me surprised.” Your hand reaches under the covers and cups his face and he lets his close in a flutter. “And how long did it take for you to wake me up?”

He smiles and shakes his head softly. “I’ll have you know, I lasted much longer this time.” He opens his eyes and meets yours for a second before turning his head and pressing his nose against your palm. “I even paced around the room,” he mumbles into your hand, pressing a gentle kiss against the lines that decorate your palm.

“Oh you poor baby,” you pout, tapping your fingers against his face. He smiles against you and shakes his head.

 He takes a deep breath. “Alas, that’s how it is.” He pulls away from your hand. “I did want to wake you up,” he confesses, ears burning in shame. “I paced to get your attention. Kissed your face in your sleep and wished that you would wake up.” He can’t meet your eyes, keeps them focused on the thin line that your lips have formed into. “I-” he sighs and closes his eyes, letting the word hang in the air.

Your thumb strokes his cheekbone and the space between his brows knit together. He wants to open his eyes but he’s unable to face you without feeling a tad of shame. He lets out a shuddering breath when your hands slide down his face, and thumb presses in the middle of his lips, dragging down until they part and he looks at you through half-lidded eyes, swallowing nervously. In his chest, his heart pounds against him, painful and heavy, longing and yearning to kiss at your lips and let himself indulge in your touch for the moments that he is awake. He lets out a soft moan, letting his eyes close and lips remain parted when you run your hand through his hair, curving over the side of his head and feeling at the soft curls that decorate his head.

“You know, you can always wake me up when you’re restless,” you mutter, your fingers binding and scratching lightly at his head. “I don’t mind-” your motions are soft and controlled and he sighs in relief when you go to cup his face again- “not when it’s you, Atsu.”

He smiles softly, eyes closed and nods. “If I have to be honest, I think I’m finally starting to grow weary.” He opens his eyes only to shut them once a yawn pulls his mouth open and tears prick at his eyes. “Thank you.” He bows his head and inches himself close to you, leaning in to close the gap between the two of you. “I appreciate it very much.”

“I know you’d do the same. Because that’s who you are,” you reply, closing the gap.

And he would. He’d stay up for hours if it meant that you wouldn’t be alone. He’d do whatever you wanted if it meant that you would smile. He wants nothing more than to see you happy and right now as you kiss him and pull away to pepper kisses down his neck and against the lobe of his ear. Atsuhiro would cherish his moments with you, to keep himself against you and welcome your touch and return it eagerly as he felt you smile. You hold him with softness that can never be replicated, cusped in your hands and fingers threaded through his hair as he whines under your touch, letting out a breathless laugh. He’s grateful to have you here, pressed against him and mumbling good night to him as you push him onto his back and drape yourself on his chest, your hand drawing loose shapes on his chest that he is too tired to make out and he lets his eyes close as your hand falls flat against him, curling and pulling on his chest and he’s glad he got to kiss you before he fell asleep.

[sullustangin]

Socrates and the Echoes of Oblivion

After re-playing Echoes of Oblivion, I’m thinking that this part of the patch is a massive Socratic Problem.

Disclaimer:  I think the Flashpoint was under-written (not enough time/money/vocal talent due to COVID) which led to no major new revelations about any of the characters.  If we had found out new stuff, then I think I would be more inclined to say it is what the game says it is: an adventure in Satele’s mind.  But since we didn’t, it wasn’t.  This is me going off on a lark again, so enjoy the theorycrafting.

What is the Socratic Problem?

So, when Socrates was condemned for 'impiety’ and ‘corrupting the young’ -- aka, stirring sedition and civil unrest against a corrupt government - not only was he put to death but all of his works were destroyed as well.  Essentially, all we know today about Socrates and his philosophy come through his students.  Plato is a biggie.  He claims many times throughout his works that a certain opinion was Socrates, and he also used him as the ‘hero’ or main character in his philosophical dialogues - Socrates almost always wins. 

Here’s the Socratic Problem:  is this a true representation of Socrates, as he was?  Or is this the fond memory of a dear student of a lost master?  Is Plato telling the facts, telling the truth, or making  Socrates fan fiction?

....what the hell does that have to do with Echoes of Oblivion?

I think we’re dealing with the same problem here when we supposedly go into Satele’s mind.  I don’t think we do.  I think this is just another exploration of the mind of the player character and their trauma from the last 10 years.

Is Satele sick with a virus?  Yes.  Is the Emperor trying to grow a collective being that he can manifest in?  Yes, preferably Satele-shaped and powered by her students’ life force. 

But the second that the player goes into that trance with Kira and Scourge, everything is only happening in the player’s mind.  Nobody else is in there.  Darth Marr suggests as much.  When the player chooses “You seem very insightful,”  he replies, “I know only what you know.”

It’s like writing your own fan fic -- your characters know what you know, as the author. If they make a mistake about their own biography, it’s because you lacked the knowledge.  In turn, if they are aware of something other characters are not, it’s because of you.  To me, that line says that everything we see happen is the Alliance Commander’s ‘mental fan fic’ about killing the Emperor. 

There is no revelation of information about the characters that the player works with.  We learn nothing new about Scourge, Kira, the Emperor’s family, Revan -- we’ve met all of them, but there’s no ‘secret past’ uncovered....

Not even for Satele... whose mind we’re supposedly in. 

And indeed, the only things the character sees are their own memories.  Remember that little padawan on Tython?  That’s not Satele; Satele re-discovered Tython -- she was never a student there. 

Why do all of the possible player character classes have memories of Tython?  Because of the Tython/Korriban incursions.  (I know mechanically, this is skippable in game, but work with me here.)  The Outlander becomes the Outlander because they caught the eye of the Emperor at Ziost, which only happens because of Yavin 4, which only happens because of Rishi, which only happens because of the conspiracy discovered at Tython and Korriban.

This makes me want to conclude that we’re never in Satele’s head, actually; there is nothing revealed about her that we don’t already know. So who is the padawan?  Maybe the player saw one of the little kids cowering after the incursion -- maybe that stuck in their minds for good or bad.  But historically speaking, that is absolutely not Satele.

And Marr let us in on that secret... but that’s not Marr. That is our memory of Marr.  Marr the realist.  Marr, who confronted the truth that his approach to the Force had been wrong in life -- and admitted it.  Marr, the truth teller.  Marr the Socratic Problem.

In fact, all the people we see in that dream/vision/mind adventure are our Socratic images of people we’ve encountered before. That includes Revan, who the player met during the Yavin 4 op and appears as a Force ghost before they go into a trance. 

...ok.  So what was the whole flashpoint, by that logic?

The flashpoint isn’t Satele’s mind.  It’s the playable character’s mind.  Everything that happens?  Essentially the player’s fan fic about how they really killed the Emperor.  Everything is representative and completely controlled by the memory of the player.  Remember, “My mind, my rules” in the finale of KotET.

That is, until the very end when Satele ‘wakes up’ and reveals that she and her students have been playing dead, essentially; they let the Emperor think he had consumed and dominated them.  They let his arrogance think they had toppled easy, with Satele barely hanging on by a thread.  While she dangled, the Emperor turned his attention to the player character.  The second that the player entered the trance, Satele, the students, and the Emperor all ‘changed instances’ to the player’s mind, not Satele’s mind.  The only things there are things that that the player knew. 

What purpose does the Commander serve? 

Remember that the door swung two ways on the whole Emperor’s occupation of the Outlander’s mind.  Not only could the Outlander not get rid of Valkorion, but Valkorion could not get out. He never does regain the power to use the Outlander as a meat puppet; the Outlander fights too hard for Valkorion to get up off that throne and kill Lana/Theron/Senya/Arcann. 

Basically, Scourge and Kira are using the Commander as a cage.  Remember that the imprint of Tenebrae (the so-called virus) doesn’t know anyone.  Valkorion, Vitiate -- they’re manifestations of a personality that is currently running on a backup file that was made once and not updated.  Valkorion ‘knows’ thanks to Kira’s memories that he lived in the Outlander.  Vitiate ‘knows’ he controlled Kira and the Jedi Knight in the past... but neither of them remember how that worked.  They have the facts, gleaned from sources after the fact, but they have no active memory of doing these things.

That means Valkorion doesn’t necessarily ‘know’ or ‘remember’ how trapped he was in the Outlander’s mind.  He sees this powerful person, he wants that powerful person to control... and can’t remember what happened last time.

The Emperor is all too keen to run into the trap that is the Commander’s head.  Another big powerful creature like Satele Shan he can dominate and control -- and off he went to try to consume the player’s mind.  But he forgot what happened at the end of that story! 

But Satele says it’s her mind and her trap.

And so it is.  I do think Satele was containing the Emperor until Scourge and Kira arrived with the player character.  As I say above, I think there’s a moment where everyone ‘changed instances’ into the player’s mind, which is the cage of Valkorion.  Otherwise, I think we would have seen things and done things that would reveal more about Satele.  We only see and hear things that the player knew before they went into a trance. 

Ultimately, the spirit/essence/soul/whatever of the Emperor is defeated by the Jedi Force plan thing that Scourge and Kira and Satele cooked up. They just use the player as a holding pen, essentially; worked before, so why not now?

Also, the end scene of the the flashpoint (the one with Satele) can be very self-indulgent.  Want to kill Satele?  Oh, if only you could.   You want to confess how you regret your decision regarding exiling/killing Theron?  Forgive me, Mother, for I have sinned.  Want your mother-in-law’s approval, if you romanced Theron?  Here you go.  Want a Grand Master to say what a great and powerful Jedi/Sith you are?  You get a compliment, you get a compliment...  It’s whatever the player wants Satele to say to them.  So again, this is all a happy coda to the flashpoint that the player in their own mind dreams up. (Granted, is that not the function of video games?  Us being the hero?  Us getting a little wish fulfillment?)

Can that still be real, if we 'change instances’ back into Satele’s mind once the Emperor is defeated?  Sure. If you believe Dream!Satele is real (and reusing her campground on Odessen), go for it. 

**

As I said at the top, I have a feeling this is more of a product of under-developed writing than a deliberate deep dive in to Socrates.  I wish we did find out more about Satele; Theron indicated he didn’t want to go in because he didn’t want to dig deep into her psyche.  He didn’t know what we would find -- turned out to be nothing, but... there could have been something.