#i am so passionate about loving this stuff.

[erinwantstowrite]

Hi! Purely out of curiosity because I am always interested in people’s thoughts on the subject, how do you feel about “batcest” in au’s where the children were never adopted/didn’t meet until adulthood/etc? Any pairing with Bruce makes me genuinely nauseous, but I feel like I’m more lenient with situational stuff with the kids since they’re closer in age/didn’t grow up together in my very loose understanding of canon/not actually related/etc. (ie: I think Steph and Cass are cute together even though they’re both “batfam” members, etc etc)

please feel free to ignore this if it makes you uncomfortable! I just really love your writing and this seems to be a subject you’re passionate about, so I just wanted to know more of your thoughts. Hope you’re having a wonderful day!

anon in the nicest way possible, it's disgusting even then.

because it doesn't matter if they didn't know each other as little little kids, they are family in every sense of the word. it would be the same as two characters who are siblings having being raised in two different households as children getting into a relationship even though they knew each other later. it spits in the face of adopted families by claiming that they aren't actually family, and the people who defend batcest are hurting people who are victims of the exact dynamic that they're shipping. it's gross, like genuinely vile. knowing their canon relationship and "changing" it to fit what they want is nasty because they *had* to change it. they know it's wrong if they had to "fix" it in order to ship it. it implies that this person thinks they should be in a romantic pairing in canon, too, but they're trying to justify it to themselves.

and with Steph and Cass, Steph is a friend of theirs. she dated Tim previously and they are not related. she didn't want Bruce to adopt her, she doesn't consider them siblings. yes there is a found family dynamic but it's not the same as the others, who are not only legally family in most cases, but have considered each other family for years and years and years. they call each other their siblings. yes, even jason and tim. tim and jason are only a couple years apart, but jason is still family even if he died? tim considered himself dick's brother and his relationship with bruce was rocky sometimes but he also considered bruce like a father figure, and later on he was adopted so that was always there. they are siblings.

and in some of their dynamics, it's pedophilic dick and damian, dick and tim, jason and damian, tim and damian, even dick and jason because dick was an adult when he met jason. automatically that puts you in a spot where you deserve the deepest pit of hell. truly. i'm not religious but i hope they get their karma. i don't care if it's fictional, this reflects who they are as people in the real world and that's why i know these people are gross monsters. not to mention these people don't understand boundaries (shocker) and have and probably will again, ask me to include a batcest ship in LoF or to draw batcest for them. they have asked for peter and damian. one person claimed that peter and jason would be "cute" because of peter thinks he's cool and has "an innocence" about jason's life and what he's done. another asked for peter and dick. the blood related father and son. so it truly doesn't matter to them, i can guarantee it to you. the way i look at it, no matter which way they are shipped, you are automatically associated with the rest of them. nothing justifies it and it's wrong

and because i know someone is going to try to start an argument with me: i can't stop them from writing it. i know that. and you can scream at me until you're blue about your opinion on the matter, but i do not care and you will be wasting your breath. i am not pro cecsorship because it is a slippery slope and people will dig their claws into that. however. i can let them know that they aren't welcome on my page, i can talk about my opinion on the matter, i have every right to block them and say whatever i want. if you don't like this post, i'm telling you to block me so i don't have to take the time to do it myself 🫶

[marq-lynch]

When I say I literally cannot keep up with writing this comprehensive StrickPage Bible fast enough to keep up with what is going on with them right now I mean I stopped writing to sleep for six hours and missed love letters so here's the TL;DR: beats on what's going on with them right now JUST post All-Out and why the English Ivy Post means LOVE WINS (for now):

Having finally gotten through most of the anger, heartbreak, & miscommunication over the bad breakup from their ongoing secret affair in March that led to Hangman's marriage ending but Swerve NOT taking him back to be baby gay's first rebound, Swerve starts reaching out on social media with a softer 'baby I just wanna talk' vibe by the end of Sept 2024

Swerve feels that they're too toxic to ever have a real relationship and it will only lead to suffering, but he can't stand the idea of not being bound to Hangman and helping him flourish, so he wants to turn him (Wrestledream, vampires on ancestral soil, etc)

They seem to have some back and forth on this, Swerve has a lot of his own baggage on being a Maker/Father, being the person Hangman thinks he is vs who he really is, etc. Anyways gotta have one last night right? 10/23/24 Dynamite last time. Out of the system. ...possibly they drag it out a bit until...

Hangman gets turned 10/28. Yes they did it on Halloween because Swerve is a romantic nerd. Also why we got Vampire Hangman on Fright Night posters & suddenly Hangman is talking about how there's no redemption for him either. Oh sorry I had to skip past some stuff he's been working through a religious crisis since he started cheating with Swerve in late 2023.

Swerve meanwhile has his mojo back, wins at Fright Night, but has been getting more and more morose posting song lyrics about how 'damn baby all these bitches suck ass shame we couldn't ever work out either'

Swerve debuts his new tattoo which is a picture of giant heart locket over his Adam's Apple that could be an easy target to be ripped out, and says he calls it "SPEAK FROM THE HEART". The same day Hangman suddenly starts a Bsky account and demands the work account Swerve follows post Cardinal Flowers. Another term for these are Lobelia Cardinalis, which have an interesting conflicting set of meanings. Lobelia was 'rejected advances' and even 'malevolence' in Victorian era flower language, but in the modern day stand for love & friendship, passion, and a time of healing.

Perhaps less cryptic? The next post is Beautyberries. Also known as French Mulberry. Purple strains of French Mulberry are very clear: Devotedness, I Shall Not Survive You, Sadness.

The next posts from Hangman are 4 am posts. "If sowing bee-balm seeds is a midlife crisis I will die at 66. Dynamite tonight. Will my death be bee related or balm related?" Monarda, aka Bee-Balm: Irresistible; Your Whims are Unbearable. It's the first show they've been on together in the whole Two Weeks since Hangman has been turned. God they're both bad at this. The next day Swerve joins Bsky.

Newsflash dumbass, (dead) leaves is plants, and therefore have meaning in floriology. It's sadness. Congrats. You've all been torturing him with a meme about a post he made trying to tell Swerve he hurt him with the mixed signals. From Hangman's playlist and the leaves post we can confirm they backslid for ANOTHER weekend. Oof. And he woke up alone on the anniversary of the deathmatch too. Probably to an empty bed and Swerve insta posting about it.

November 24 Hangman posts a southern yeehaw mouth funky foot frog and look there's a LOT of layers of themes they've built here for months but trust me when I say he's gone from a scared lil pollywog to proud lil bisexual funky foot frog and Swerve is so proud from his parallel post.

Hangman does a Good Thing and cuts off contact. He's doing what Swerve did after they broke up and focusing on the championship. He's moving past Swerve properly and for good. He's posting hot girl shit about being in a good place. Swerve is posting tired looking photos with bags under his eyes and unlit cigarettes and songs about how he doesn't know where to go from here or what to do now starting over sounds exhausting.

December 10th Hangman makes a drunk Google images ripped booty call of a post about his coneflower, Christmas miracle, not dead. Of course the other name for Echinacea is 'Bachelor's Buttons' but either way the language is the same: celibacy, devotion, hope in love.

January 1st, 2025. Swerve gets attacked by Ricochet. He posts love songs with a new tone: Please. Help me. I know it will end badly. But it has to be worth it. I can't live like this. Please come home. I give in.

Oh right remember how Hangman is a vampire now? Well that makes the tone of this 1/7/2025 post a little different: "Plants are just like animals... Except for the ways in which they are not."

A few days later Hangman gives that Truly Excellent promo where he talks about his last year, He was ashamed for a long time and it broke him, he would rather live a violent bloody life than be the husk of a man that he was- there's too much there point is he's telling Swerve he's gonna start drinking and he's ready to come out but that the ways that Swerve and he snuck around last year? Felt like shit and he won't live like that now.

Swerve is watching and going 'oh damn my baby BITING' and posting more heartfelt 'let's try for real even if it doesn't work' songs. And then we get yesterday/today:

Swerve posts "Someone say my name" which is a reference to a recurring motif of 'at least you won't forget my name' between them and refusing to say the other's real name as a power tactic, but also a line from the song 'Clean Up on Aisle 5 which was a REAL DOWNER to fall asleep on:

But baby we're SO BACK because Hangman is posting about 'dumbass english Ivy, resisting his attempts at eradication': immortality, commitment, marriage, devotion, evergreen through drought (cannot overstate the importance of both water and fire symbolism to them) Though Ivy can also choke out light and wrap so tightly around things it kills the plants it holds it is not naturally parasitic, just often dangerous.

This has been your brief update on the Secret StrickPage Plot as of the last 4 months. I can cite my sources and I will this is the TL;DR I'm making the Bible for AO3 as you can see Tumblr cannot contain them.

[wolfislost]

Living As Alterhuman: Passion and Convinction.

As discussed by @baumarius the following is an explanation and description of how I feel about my alter humanity.

I'll be referring to level 3 of your 3 level framework, or the “so what” of being alterhuman. How it impacts me, how much I care, whether my expression is limited by my environment.

To start, I pursued psychology aggressively. I studied it for 5 years in preparation for university. This was before I knew that the label of alterhuman existed. I was searching for the nameless thing I knew to be wrong with me. Seeking answers to why I felt so twisted and shameful inside. Why I had strange thoughts, struggled with my self worth, and could never fit in among my peers. I learned a lot from psychology, and started therapy during those 5 years.

I also learned that I was a werewolf. An alterhuman. At least partly as a result of exactly those feelings I was seeking to understand. My place in this community was a huge piece of the puzzle.

So, how do I feel about it? What does it mean to me?

Peace mostly. Acceptance. A means to love myself more completely. A way to understand and accept the parts of myself I spent a lifetime pushing away. It gives me confidence. Makes me feel at home in my skin.

It definitely changes the way I view myself in relation to human society. I've always felt a bit like an outsider, and felt the pressure to socialise more. To conform. To be liked by my peers. It bothers me less now, knowing that I have a good reason to feel a little estranged. I don't exactly fit in most humans' view of the world, whether it's psychologically or behaviourally. Of course that makes friendship all the more valuable. The people, both human and not, who choose to understand or at least accept me as I am.

It can absolutely be hard at times, not being understood. Having to swallow my instincts so I can go unnoticed. Or worse, having to wrestle with my prey drive while in public. The separation that exists between me and humanity is both a blessing and a curse, to some extent. These days though I lean more towards it being a blessing.

I haven't made any drastic life decisions around my alterhumanity. Although it does have a place in my relationships, and my work life as an artist. I'm currently a member of a wildlife group, the largest one in my country, and I'm looking forward to getting involved in some of their projects. Protecting and caring for the ecosystem is part of being alterhuman for me. It's why I garden, and why I immerse myself in the woods at every opportunity. I'm not religious, so the woods are as close as I get to any holy ground.

I wouldn't describe myself as passionate about my alterhumanity. I'm invested in building a life where I can express it authentically, and I'm clearly motivated to share and talk about my experiences here. But It's not exactly coming from a place of passion. It's more a place of comfort. I feel comfortable in what I am, and want to continue to be comfortable. Hence my choice of friends and my criteria for where I want to live.

It's all very practical I suppose.

I'm predominantly interested in building habits, structures, and systems that will allow me to be myself. Access to nature, the privacy and freedom to celebrate the full moon as I choose, the ability to channel my experiences into my work, being able to vocalise and be authentic around friends, even publicly wearing stuff like pins and collars- or painting my nails. Practical ways that I can express my identity and continue to exist largely unhindered.

It’s what I'm working towards right now. After three years of pursuing this bachelor's degree, I'll pivot into making art full time. Figure out how to save for a place to live somewhere out near the trees. Carve out the time to pick back up my interest in ecology, and maybe do some activism in that area. My goals have been extremely clear cut for the last few years. After a long time being unable to envision a future for myself, I'm more than determined to see this through.

More than anything, I'll chase this dream of an integrated life. Even if I fail, I'll know it wasn't for lack of trying.

So I guess THAT'S my conviction.

The will to live, as I am.

You ask, at one point, what this would all look like in an ideal world. To tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure. I've spent most of my time since joining the community, focusing on “realistic” methods of integration. Essentially all the things I mentioned earlier. I think my ideal world is still very possible. I don't particularly want to share the details of my alterhumanity with strangers, so public acceptance doesn't concern me.

I suppose my most far fetched desire is for an offline community of alterhumans in my area. Everything else I can attain simply by working for it, learning skills or amassing funds. But I can't spontaneously generate alterhumans nearby. I’ve only met one other, and it was by coincidence. There is a vast gulf between the digital and physical spaces. Online, information and possibilities for connection are rampant. In person, not so much. Being public about that kind of thing is too big of a risk for most. The privacy that protects us also keeps us separated.

Again though, my ideal world is largely attainable. Time in nature, channeling myself into my work, getting fangs, finding people I can express myself around, all very achievable. I think that's important to acknowledge, because a lot of us feel like a comfortable or authentic life is beyond our reach. It may not be perfect in every way. There are going to be times where human responsibilities come up unexpectedly and encroach on my freedom. But it's still a life worth pursuing.

A huge thank you to @zith-ipeth , @beastlybardou , and @dovspeaksbeast for sharing their own journeys and visions of the future. I still consider myself new to the community, but so much of it is having others to look to and learn from. Thank you all.

[choppersconfirmedkills]

transformers (2007) dr introduction

@chasingg-stars Asked for a Transformers intro @todearme wanted any of them and @moonsdrs just wants me to talk about my DRs so here it is. This will be long-winded because I have a lot of memories from this DR, and I like talking about it.

Jensen A.R. Grant

I was born to a single father, Dr. Alan Grant. He was my best friend and my hero. When I was young, an incident occurred, and my father saved my life. That incident solidified our unshakable bond. My childhood nickname is JarJar (it was created after my initials and my love for Star Wars).

On my "mother's" side, I have an uncle, Ron Witwicky. His wife Judy and his son Sam have been huge parts of my life.

I was born with powers. Except for my father and one other person, no one knew until I was "trained" (I am desperately trying to word things in a safer way).

I have a childhood best friend, San, with whom I spent a large portion of my life. Along with Sam, I consider him my brother.

I do in fact have two half-brothers which in itself is a whole story.

My father passed when I was 17. I was then placed in my Uncle Ron and Aunt Judy's care. So Sam and I spent every moment together from that point.

When I got my license my father got an old racecar from a junkyard (?). He brought it home, cleaned it up, and gave it pretty new paint and that became my car.

I grew up wicked smart (perks of being homeschooled by your world-renowned paleontologist father). I speak 4 languages and graduated from high school shortly before I was 17.

I decided to go to community college for the first few years so I could stay with my family, and I became EMS-certified.

Bits of details for when the Transformers arrive:

After my father passed, my car, Smokescreen, started communicating with me. It became my trusted confidant and knew everything about me, even the stuff I couldn't tell anyone else. I thought he was some sort of high tech AI my father had installed in the car by one of his colleagues before he passed.

Obviously I found out that he was an Autobot along with Sam's car, Bumblebee. He, like Bumblebee, was tasked as my guardian as I was part of the Witwicky family.

I got involved in the fight in Mission City, and revealed my powers to everyone there including my cousin, Sam, who promised to keep my secret.

My S/O:

Colonel William A. Lennox

We met on the day of the battle of Mission City. My first interaction with him was him standing up for me in front of a Sector 7 agent.

He asked me out minutes after the battle was over. I told him I wanted to know more about him, and I kinda passed out in his arms.

We went out on 5 dates before I got cold feet and ghosted him (I thought he only liked me because of my powers). He waited for me. He had a picture of me as his lockscreen the whole time and his team made so much fun of him. He got the nickname "Ted Mosby" because of it.

He is the reason I decided to pursue my true passion for animal behavior (specifically paleontological behavior).

We became official after the Battle of Egypt.

He is an absolute cheeseball. He's funny and incredibly romantic.

He is also a total badass.

While we were raised very differently we bonded over a lot of our shared experiences.

Our height difference is comical because he’s a behemoth and I’m normal.

We have 4 kids together and run a rescue farm.

[theganymedes]

if you ever see me having a three page long internal monologue socratic seminar ted talk video essay breakdown discussion post in someone’s reblogs, just know that you should read that story expeditiously.

[prismsoup]

Do people also have that horrible random moment when your brain bullies you for not knowing enough about a topic you consider yourself passionate about ?

[rakkuntoast]

holding onto hardcore season 4 like my life depends on it cuz i love the lore, i love his world i love how passionate he is about it and i hate how sometimes little love it gets from the latter half of the people that only stick to qsmp streams

cuz its the little details and dedication he puts to each build that makes it so special to me, the history and storytelling behind each build while still giving it a purpose and function and how much genuine love he has for it, even when we give him shit about him downplaying his own abilities he's proud of what he's built

like hell the fact that he is going to revisit old locations to add more to them its just so ausefh i love passion projects, i love being passionate about things people are passionate about

[superscourge]

i love when im minding my own business and then im hit with the extreme intense love for drawing sonic with the force of a train

[ducktracy]

i've been in a very "nostalgic for SpongeBob" mood lately and that's warranted a lot of reflecting on Baby Me being a Sponge fanatic and thinking of what she'd think of now. and i have to say that one of my favorite parts of doing what i do--and also the most stupidly niche--is that one of my first online hyperfixations i recall having was SpongeBob production music. i remember animating magical girl transformations in Flipnote to SPONGEBOB MUSIC. i remember feeling so smart researching all the songs and getting to hear them without any dialogue on top. very gratifying to 11 year old me. i was and am still very fixated on production music, and so i always get very excited when seeing uploads of these songs and spotting a screenshot of a scene i worked on among them. one of my favorite aspects of watching episodes premiere is seeing what music they added on top of scenes i touched. it's just neat how many facets my thankfulness for Doing What I'm Doing gets to reach. i'm never not thinking of how grateful i am to be doing what i'm doing

[crescentfool]

i've been doing a bunch of tartarus runs in reload lately, and it got me thinking about how i miss certain ways FES's clunky gameplay can characterize minato… (ramble about the great clock mechanic + leveling up party members in reload vs fes under the cut)

when i got to yabbashah block in tartarus (block 3), i remember commending the developers for adding the great clock mechanic. it's a much more convenient way to keep party members at the protagonist's level- so when you think about p3 from the perspective of trying to make it easier for people to play, the mechanic succeeds in this respect.

but now that i'm in adamah block, and that i've done lots of my once-a-month tartarus runs… i think that i got a little too dependent on it, and the way that i played through reload feels like a vastly different experience from how i played FES.

in reload, my party's levels are very lopsided. minato, yukari, akihiko, mitsuru, and fuuka are all level 90+, meanwhile junpei and aigis are at level 79, and then… poor ken and koromaru are at 71 and 64 respectively. (i never got to have a great clock for them…)

meanwhile, in FES, my party's levels were much more evenly distributed and were at least level 90. i did all of this manually for every monthly tartarus run because i enjoyed having options available for the taratarus guardians and monthly operations.

with how i perceive minato, i feel that the way i played FES feels more in-line with his character than me dawdling around waiting for the great clocks in reload.

FES's gameplay loop left me with the very strong impression that minato has to work twice as hard as everyone else in SEES does. it makes sense because, yeah, he's the leader, but something about having minato run through tartarus multiple times with different groups of people just to make sure that they are adequately prepared speaks volumes about his character, to me.

and while the tired mechanic is present in reload to some degree, most notably with allowing you to freely raise your courage stat when you visit edogawa after school… the tiredness system doesn't hit the same way that FES does, i think.

the way your party members in FES will call it quits when they return to the entrance floor at tartarus when they're tired, versus minato, in spite of all his tiredness and sickness, still pushes through tartarus because it's his responsibility…. idk!!! i miss that! i feel like this really hammers home the difference between minato and the rest of SEES, how minato doesn't really see himself as a human with needs worth respecting as long as he's useful to someone.

i don't think that tartarus being tedious (in FES especially) is not what most people would describe as fun, and i can respect people thinking it's a slog. but, regardless of how it feels to play, it doesn't change that FES's gameplay loop is a fundamental building block in how i perceive minato…

of course, i do recognize that you can just opt to NOT use the great clock in reload (and it's great when players are offered the choice to not partake in mechanics)! i definitely think that if someone really wanted to, they could manually level up party members, but i do feel that kind of playstyle isn't necessarily "incentivized" to the type of people who are into playing games for Having a Good Time. it's kind of like�� "why would you do that when there's a much more convenient option available to you."

in any case! despite my woes, i do want to emphasize that i'm glad that reload has a much more smoother gameplay loop than the original P3 did, because it does make the game more accessible to people. having played both FES and reload, it feels very strongly apparent to me how the core gameplay formula of persona has really been refined in the past 18 years (to think og p3 was 2006 and reload is 2024.. time flies!). and reload has made revisiting a story that i love so dearly much, much easier because the gameplay just bops!

at the same time, due to my "i miss characterization informed by weird and dated FES gameplay quirks" woes, i still think that playing FES is worthwhile. (really, i feel this way about all iterations of p3! i think it's worthwhile to see what each version and side media has to say even if it doesn't Land™ for you.) but i also understand why people wouldn't want to play it, so i will keep writing posts about things i liked from FES's gameplay because i'm still very fond of FES (especially in respects to minato. these mechanics are so telling about him!!!) 💪

[mbat]

basically i was trying to make a post talking about the theme of family and the humans in steven universe and how basically all the humans are parents and their children and like, never one or the other, and how we can literally talk about the relationships all the kids have with their parents and stuff

and it was supposed to be how that reflects on stevens life and his human half since gems dont have families and blah blah blah

but holy shit i dont know how to say all that in a smart way and i kept going in circles and triangles and squares

[worm-of-sorts]

i love you québécoise franglais i love you multicultural toronto english i love you newfie english i love you multicultural london english i love you aave i love you rez english i love you jamaican patois i love you you beautiful languages and dialects that aren’t taken seriously because they’re just seen as "bad english"

[deanpinterester]

if yall haven't seen it already, i super recommend this ongoing youtube series by the movie rabbit hole that unravels a lot of those instances where a movie claims to "have zero CGI". it really uplifts the knowledge that practical effects and CGI really go hand in hand, except that the CGI side is often left in the dust when it comes to acknowledging the work that goes into making these bombastic movies.

this is the first video, where he discusses multiple movies but mainly top gun maverick, one of said movies that claims it has no CGI.

the second video just came out, and focuses on christopher nolan movies, another set of movies that people claim have very little CGI.

in the future, i believe he also plans to cover the injustice that stunt performers often face, which is related to this topic. in pursuit of being able to say a movie "has no CGI whatsoever!" or that an actor "did all their own stunts!", you end up leaving out the CG artists and stunt performers, very important parts of the industry that are often hardly acknowledged while everyone goes nuts over how real and authentic the movie is. movies are a team effort! let's not leave anyone behind! especially not the people whom the movies literally could not be made without!

[off-the-rails-raccoon]

What’s your favorite design for ctommy? Or any dsmp character in general.

Cupid, this is SUCH a good ask so I'm going to give you multiple answers (I'm also going to pretend you said design aspects lol).

Generally I LOOVEE when people over-exaggerate the design of non-human dsmp members. Like giving c!Phil bird feet and a tail and winged ears, or making c!Ranboo asymmetrical features and changing their design enough that you can't even tell it started as half enderman half something else, or making c!Purpled actually look like an alien rather than just sticking purple entennas on him, ect ect ect.

I also will forever adore when people make scars really prominent and realistic, but as someone who's tried drawing scars before I can see why people don't do it often.

Even though MY c!Tommy will generally be a deer hybrid, raccoon hybrid, demon/imp hybrid, or a plain human trying to fit in (though currently I'm more focused on those last two), I LOOVEVVE it SO MUCH when people make c!Tommy a unique hybrid (a hybrid people don't usually use for him) and actually stick with it, y'know? Honorable mentions to you and your adorable dogger c!Tommy, and @/possuminnit with their possum c!Tommy!!

And finally, a few small details that I always love to see: Curly hair, hair noticeably dyed blonde, raccoon tail key chain, flowers hanging out of his front pockets, hair in half-up pigtails (or just pigtails), big noses, big angry eyebrows (its semi-true to his minecraft skin and also unbearably funny), angel fang piercings (this has been my guilty pleasure for years and i never considered adding it to c!Tommy's design until I saw art of someone else who it), braces (specifically star-shaped), a broken horn, wonky teeth, a brown leather jacket/trench coat, and that's all I can remember.

[lilowoof]

ngl gamers, I think I'm gonna inevitably lose to the hormones and depression in the near future XD

Can't bring myself to be active cause I'm using a lot of energy to not vent post all the time. But fuck it, into the tags I go!

[dearfizz]

Not So Shoujo Love Story Hanna Characterisation in Ep 91

it's the explosion episode

spoilers until ep 103. I also gush and compliment @curryukuu 's writing in this. She isn't active on tumblr as much anymore but if she sees this, hi.

Re-reading this episode makes me focus a lot more on Hanna's pov instead of the explosion. Hanna was distancing herself from Rei. There is a canon explanation now in ep 103 where Hanna said that she was jealous and felt inferior and that she wasn't good enough. BUT I HAVE MY OWN INTERPRETATION.

Hanna's dialogue in ep 103

TO ME, she wanted to abandon feelings of Rei. I know it's very unlike Hanna because she loves Rei so so so much, BUT HEAR ME OUT (if there's anyone out there reading this)

She's been chasing Rei for like a season and a half by now. In season 2, Rei's a lot more responsive to Hanna's flirting (it was so much insufferable good lord I felt like a third wheeler read their interaction sometimes).

(weird basketball(?) analogy here) The ball has kinda just stayed in her court since FOREVER. Like I know that Rei said that she cannot return Hanna's romantic feelings. The ball her is Hanna's feelings btw and it's just... been there. Rei doesn't mind that Hanna has been romantically interested in her since ep 1. Heck, she doesn't even mind advances and flirting from Hanna. HOWEVER, as of S2 Rei has only been toying with it. Rei is literally flirting back with Hanna. Both unintentionally and intentionally. I'm sure Hanna's aware of whatever, not platonic tension, both of them have. But Rei not passing the ball back after all of that toying IS a move in of itself.

At this point, Rei is STILL holding on to her comphet version of love. (idk if their sexuality have been canonized, but Rei is so lesbian to me. It really makes sense to me thematically, but if Rei is canon as bi I would respect that. I would keep the idea of Lesbian Rei to myself). Shoujo mangas really was a trauma coping mechanism. That in turned, really made her have internalised comphet. The whole point of her trying to find the perfect guy was because she didn't want to end up like her parents. It's so hard to throw away something that was literally your will to live (I assume) for, like, what a decade of your life?

So after Hanna's visit to her house, she finally gets why Rei's not passing the ball back. At that bridge, I'm pretty sure she's convinced a romantic relationship is never going to come out of it. Ever. For Hanna, it's better to just pack your back, distance yourself, and move on. If I was Hanna, I would have literally done the same. Like, just imagine. Your girl is really REALLY adamant in finding the perfect guy. And you're not a guy. There is no point in any of this flirting and advances anymore. It's better to leave those feelings behind. It's just. Not meant to be. That's how life is in reality.

IF this story is a lot more realistic, Rei would have confronted Hanna about why Hanna's distancing herself from her. Let's just say that MY interpretation of why Hanna is actually canon. Rei would respect Hanna's wishes of wanting to be distant with her. Rei and Hanna would be physically and emotionally apart. This is the period where Rei reflects and realizes that hey, I want Hanna in my life. And in a romantic way. Throw in some angst in there. Then Rei would confess to Hanna. Boom they get together. Idk how this would turn out with the Canon reason, but I think it would be roughly the same?

BUT THIS STORY IS A FEVER DREAM, AND I LOVE NSSLS STORY BECAUSE OF THAT

Did you check nssls tag on webtoon? It's COMEDY. Not romance (even though it's very romcom to me). There shall not be long-lasting angst. Nuh uh. Not in this household. So curryuku does what curryuku does best. Cook up an unhinged plotline.

Alien world domination plot is now REAL and CANON from ep 92 - 102. Rei got Isekai-ed and is thrown into a world that she has been wanting and dreaming for so long. A world where she can chase and pine for the perfect, handsomest guy. A world where she has a perfect family. But she realizes that this isn't what she wanted. She wanted her friend's back. She wanted Taro back. But most importantly

she realizes she wants Hanna.

More than that perfect, handsomest guy that she's been dreaming of. That plotline did exactly just that. It achieves the same thing as my small reality au paragraph does. But in its own unique.

The Rei Isekai-ed episodes really felt like curryuku was holding me by the scruff. THE ABSOLUTE CHOKEHOLD IT HAS ON ME. No plot line in that comic, heck even media, has ever had that effect on me. Life LITERALLY stopped for like 5 min every Tuesday for me. Idc if I have class going on rn I'm going to read it in class (I'm in architecture, and the class is just consultation. The lecturer really isn't teaching anything it's a 1-1 thing). It had me on the edge of my seat. It had me crying and screaming. LIKE LOOK AT THIS PANEL.

That's honestly so much better than a love confession imo. It was so sweet it made me sick. My friends are SO sick of me talking about nssls for like 2 months ish. The only complaint I had was that I just wish the arc had lasted more than 10 episodes. But I really don't mind that much.

Idk how to end this. Curryuku, your brain is so fascinating. Thank you for producing nssls. Seriously. I might get a nssls tattoo.