#i am the salt and sick

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Keep hearing people say maribug keep asking adricat if he's ok and he keep saying he's ok instead of telling her his problem but I don't remember it happened more than once in s4 in Rockettear but even then the circumstances of that episode did warrant the "nothing" answer he gave her unless he want to tell her that "nino tell me you let nino and alya know each other identity" which will reveal adricat identity. So when else did she ask? about the thing in hack-san, I think another credit goes to alya since she's the one who bring the topic to maribug who seems to be blissfully unaware that her leaving without telling adeicat that she send subtitute would be a problem.

I didn't get into this side of things in my other post because it was long and I wanted to focus on why Chat Noir's behavior was so frustrating, but this ask brings up the other big reason why the season four conflict was such a frustrating and terribly written plot line. Specifically, the part of your ask where you point out that Maribug seems blissfully unaware that her actions are having a negative impact on Chat Noir until someone points it out to her.

Yes, she is presented as blissfully unaware of this and every other interpersonal conflict we're given in season four. Your ask treats this as a failing on Maribug's part as if she should have obviously realized that she was in the wrong, but that's the whole problem. Telling kids - telling anyone really - that they should just magically know what others need is a frankly terrible life lesson as that's just not how the world works. You cannot just assume that everyone will have the same view of the world as you do and instantly pick up on the same issues as you do. That is the path to easily avoidable frustration and conflict. It also teaches people to assume that their view of the world is inherently correct when that is rarely the case. We often don't know the whole story and the other person's point of view may end up being equally or even more valid. This issue is extremely present in season four as Marinette has legitimate reasons to behave the way she does, which I'll get into in a bit.

If Marinette were written as feeling guilty about how she was treating Chat Noir, then this would be a different story. She'd be way more in the wrong and would shoulder a much greater portion of the blame. But as is? She has no idea that she's doing anything wrong. And until someone takes the time to tell her that her actions are causing harm, she is going to continue causing harm because she has no idea that she's causing harm.

In fact, I'd argue that the Alya thing in Hack San is a point in Maribug's favor. Throughout the episode, we see Marinette sending Alya messages on ways to be a good partner to Chat Noir, proving that she does in fact care about him. And then, as soon as Alya says, "You need to talk to Chat Noir," what does Maribug do?

She goes and talks to Chat Noir, giving him a pretty good apology for the problem she now knows she caused. Because, shockingly, Maribug doesn't actually want to hurt her partner. She also clearly cares about his feelings, making me want to take the season four conflict and tear it into itty bitty pieces because what is the conflict even supposed to be when you write shit like this?

I want to briefly step away from Miraculous and talk about this issue in a broader context via this YouTube short:

This short is from a Vietnamese woman who moved to Germany. Her YouTube channel is about her experiences there, including things like the short above which goes into the differences between what it means to be a dinner guest in Vietnam and what it means to be a dinner guest in Germany. In Vietnam, it's apparently standard for the guests to cook dinner with you where as, in Germany, you're expected to have the meal ready when the guests arrive, making this a situation where it's super easy to come across as rude just by doing what you think is normal.

Society is relatively aware that these types of culture clashes are a thing, but you don't have to be from different cultures to have these types of situations. Every person has their own unique needs and ideas of what "normal" is. The culture they were raised in will affect this, but so will their family, their personal needs, and many other factors. Two people can be raised on the same street and wind up with wildly different world views even though they supposedly share a culture. This is extra true when you add in compounding factors like neurodiversity, which is why it's an exercise in futility to say, "But Maribug should have realized..."

Well, she clearly didn't. And you can't change that she didn't realize whatever you're mad about. All you can do is have someone tell her what she's doing wrong. If she then continues the behavior, go ahead and judge away. But if she immediately corrects it like she did in Hack San? Doesn't that just prove that she truly didn't know that Chat Noir was hurting and would have probably fixed all of his problems if someone just pointed them out to her?

This is only exacerbated by the fact that Marinette's behavior in season four is largely unchanged from her behavior in previous seasons. The only major change is that she revealed her identity to Alya, but as soon as that's pointed out as a problem, she course corrects with an apology. After that, she thinks that everything is okay because why wouldn't she? Chat Noir said it was fine and everything else has been business as usual.

Bringing temp heroes into help as needed? That's been going on since season two. Having these additional members has been vital in multiple battles and there have been plenty of times where Chat Noir took a background role to the temp hero of the day like in Sapotis, Rena Rouge's season two debut. So why would Maribug suddenly think that this dynamic is a problem when it's been working fine for so long? We even had a whole episode about how Chat Noir was still needed in spite of the new heroes back in season three! Or, at least, I think that was Desperada's message? This show is shockingly bad at giving clear lessons.

Keeping guardian knowledge from Chat Noir? That's also been going on since season two and was even treated as a conflict that supposedly got resolved in the episode Syren which was the episode that ended with Master Fu coming to the mansion to talk to Adrien after everything was over.

When I watched that episode, I assumed this meant that Chat Noir was going to be more involved in things like picking the temp heroes. I actually thought this was how we were going to get Queen Bee because I knew she was going to be a thing, but it made no sense for Marinette to pick Chloe for a miraculous. Of course, I was wrong. Nothing changed after Syren. Chat Noir remained nothing more than the comic relief while Ladybug got all the insider info.

To be clear, I think that was a terrible move writing wise, but it doesn't change the fact that this is what they went with. This is the established dynamic. I can't even say that Alya learning Marinette's secret led to something new. She's just taken Marinette's old role while Marinette has taken on Master Fu's old role. This show loves it's status quo and Chat Noir has been at least tolerant of that status quo since Syren, so it's not surprising that Maribug doesn't register that this is a thing that should change and no one bothers to point it out to her even though she has a mentor in Tikki (and Su Han, I guess?) and a confidant in Alya and a whole slew of Kwamis who could also provide insight if they were allowed to do that sort of thing. (Sass and Wayzz were robbed of mentor roles.) Additional blame goes to Plagg because he should absolutely have told Adrien to talk to Ladybug. What is the point of giving these characters mentors who never mentor? It's aggravating in the extreme.

To circle back to the first part of your ask, outside of Hack San and Rocketear, I don't think there are any times when Ladybug invites feedback from Chat Noir unless you want to give credit to the end of Kuro Neko:

Cat Noir: (lands next to her) I've been a really temperamental kitty, m'lady. I didn't realize how much trouble I'd make for you by giving back my Miraculous. Ladybug: (sits closer to him) Just because I don't need you all the time doesn't mean that I don't need you at all, Cat Noir. No one could ever replace you.

Which isn't Maribug inviting him to tell her what's up, but she is clearly willing to listen to him and reassure him, further backing up my point about this conflict being some of the worst writing I've ever had to suffer through. If Maribug always fixes the issue as soon as she learns about it, you are not writing a situation where she's clearly in the wrong. You are writing an easily solved communication issue where she gets blamed for something she clearly doesn't realize she's doing wrong and it is so frustrating!!! I feel so bad for her. The next episode is Penalteam, btw, which starts the battle with this gem:

Ladybug: (laughs) Nice scare tactics, but it's not gonna work. Cat Noir and I are the best at soccer! Cat Noir: (Whispers to Ladybug) I don't know a thing about soccer M'lady. Maybe it's time to call the real team?

And basically just spends the whole episode making Chat Noir seems like a worthless partner while Maribug tries her best to make him - and everyone else - feel special.

Oh, and the episode before Kuro Neko? Well, it's technically Ephemeral, but that got magically overwritten so let's go one further back and we get to Dearest Family, which ends with this:

Cat Noir: (grabs a golden paper crown on the coffee table) Since I'm the king, (wears the crown on his head) would you be my queen, Ladybug? Ladybug: With pleasure, kitty cat! Tradition is tradition!

Oh yes, these two are in such conflict and Maribug does nothing to validate Chat Noir. He's in pain every episode and she's just totally oblivious to it.

If that was what they wrote, then I'd probably agree that we needed more instances of her asking if Chat Noir was okay. But it's not what they wrote. If you look through the list of season four episodes, you'll find that less than half of them deal with the supposed conflict of the season (by my count, only 8 of the 24 episodes before the final actually showcase the conflict and they are not in a logical order in terms of escalation as I tried to demonstrate above). The rest of the episodes flat out ignore it or even straight up work against the conflict like when Ladybug says this to Chat Noir in Guilttrip: "I probably don't tell you this enough, but I couldn't do this without you. And it'd be a lot less fun too."

Seriously, what even is this season? What is the conflict supposed to be? Because it sure as shit isn't Maribug undervaluing Chat Noir, if memory servers, season four sees her validate him more times than any other season. And it isn't her guiltily hiding things from him like so many fanfics claim because we have multiple points of evidence that prove that she's completely oblivious that there even is a conflict. So what conflict are the writers actually trying to write?

What's even more baffling is that none of this logically leads to the loss at the end of the season:

Maribug's new secrets didn't lead to her downfall. The only reason she lost was because of the secret that's always been there - a fact that's never revealed to her - and a freaking evil twin! So why did it matter that Maribug was keeping secrets? This is made even worse by season five maintaining all of the secrets, once again begging the question of what lesson were we trying to teach here???

Chat Noir wasn't needed for the final fight of the season, Maribug only needed the powers of a few of the temp heroes to win, a baffling ending to a season whose focus was Chat Noir feeling unimportant. You could scrap that conflict entirely and the ending would not change. In fact....

Adrien quitting to be nothing more than a good little boy who obeys his father would have actually saved the world from eventually being rewritten. If you think about it, the season four final actually punishes Adrien for being defiant. So does season five as, if Chat Noir had quit, his father would still be alive. I thought this show was supposed to be a romcom, not a tragedy. Why is Adrien being punished for being a hero? Is this supposed to be karma for lying to Ladybug with the whole Catwalker thing?

This shit is why I say I'm a writing salt, character sugar blog. I can't get mad at the characters when they're in such a nonsense story where things never logically tie together. They all deserve so much better.

None of this is meant to imply that ignorance is a blanket excuse for hurting others. Nor is it meant to imply that you have to forgive someone who hurt you just because they didn't mean to. There's a ton of nuance around these topics. But season four acknowledges none of that nuance while creating a situation that desperately needed nuance because there was no clear right and wrong here. Should Maribug work to be more aware of others feelings? Sure, but that journey can only start after she's made aware of her faults and no one ever points them out to her. Does Chat Noir need to work on clearly communicating his needs? Desperately, but no one is teaching him that lesson so he remains a terrible communicator who suffers in silence. What impressively bad writing.

[scificrows]

Okay, my brain refuses to think about anything other than Murderbot, so I looked at every use of the word "friend[s]" in TMBD and... created some pie charts. Normal human activities.

Some Thoughts™ I had while putting this together (under the cut):

In All Systems Red, Murderbot notes that the PresAux crew are all close friends (twice! and goes on to explain their internal relationships which I think is very cute). This is pretty much the only use of 'friends' in ASR, except for when Murderbot says that SecUnits can't be friends with each other.

It seems that this may be one of the first times Murderbot has ever really been around a group of friends before? Murderbot notes that this is not the norm for its contracts and admits that the fact that they are all friends and the way they interact with each other make it actually enjoy that contract (before!!!! the hostile attack, so it already enjoys this contract before they start seeing it as a person etc ghghhhh). [Inference: Friendship seems enjoyable.]

The first character that calls Murderbot its friend is ART in Artificial Condition. Murderbot immediately refutes this (and then goes on to call ART its friend to its clients for the rest of the book). [Inference: Maybe ART is Murderbot's friend. And maybe that is... agreeable]

Rogue Protocol has more than twice as many instances of the word 'friend' as any of the other novellas. Why? Miki. Friendship and its implications for non-humans are a central theme because Miki is friends with everyone. Murderbot initially scoffs at the notion that Miki and Miki's humans are friends. At the end of the book, after witnessing how desperately Don Abene tried to stop Miki from trying to save them, and her grief after its death, Murderbot has to admit that she had in fact been Miki's friend. [Inference: Humans can be friends with bots and can sincerely care about them]

In Exit Strategy, Murderbot tentatively uses the word "friends" for its humans for the first time (several times actually). It questions whether it can actually call them its friends or not and later realizes that it had been afraid what admitting that the humans are its friends would do to it. At the end of the book, Mensah tells Murderbot the PresAux crew are its friends, which is the first time a human has directly said that to it (at least on-page). [Inference: Humans can and want to be Murderbot's friends]

In Network Effect, Murderbot seems to be more habituated to the word 'friend', confidently calling ART and Ratthi its friends, like it is no longer just trying the concept on unsure if it fits. There are many instances in which other characters refer to MB as ART's friend or the other way around and Murderbot's humans refer to Murderbot as their friend several times. Generally, there seems to be less hesitancy, because yes, all of them are Murderbot's friends, why wouldn't they be. [Inference: SecUnits can have friends. This SecUnit has friends. They care about it a lot.]

Conclusion: The Murderbot Diaries tell the story of a construct that does not seem to consider the possibility of friendship for itself and is fine with that - until it accidentally starts caring a little too much and suddenly more and more people annex it as a friend (ew) to the point where it can no longer deny that this is happening and has to begrudgingly admit that yes, it has friends now and maybe that is actually not a bad thing.

[salt-baby]

I just don't understand people who don't do a COVID test when they get sick

[crafteeauthor]

Funny thing about the "you're the only room in town I can afford pls let me stay" conversation in ep 1 is that Jenny 1000% had a near identical conversation with Niko assumably less than a month ago

[catocappuccino]

It's been a year since I redrew that one Snorkmimi render...

So yeah I did it again ofc I would, why oh why wouldn't I? Tee hee silly meee

Attaching the 2023 redraw and og cause- uh- I donno, because yes, why not!!!

[tj-crochets]

Hey y'all, this is a huge longshot, but I cannot figure out the answer through my own research and I just found out the two different medical groups I see doctors in have one of my medical conditions listed very differently, but they both seem to be wrong? I'm hoping someone else out there has this issue and knows what it is actually called. Discussion of salt-wasting syndromes beneath the cut:

So, the problem: back in 2019, I was diagnosed with salt wasting syndrome. Salt wasting syndrome is not a diagnosis that exists, or rather, it is a general term that includes a few different things but I never got diagnosed with which one I have specifically. What I do know: - I do not have SIADH (upping my salt and water helps, so it can't be this) - I do not have any genetics-based diseases that would have started having symptoms when I was a baby, but - I did have salt issues before I got sick, they just weren't as severe. The first time a doctor told me to eat more salt I was 15, I didn't get sick until I was 18. My dad and his side of the family also tend to need more salt than most and get dehydrated easier than most, so I suspect there is a genetic component to it - I (almost definitely) do not have Addison's, or if I do it's with very very unlikely blood test results (they've tested for it a lot). I do have a family history of Addisons - I do not have a pheochromocytoma (they also tested for this one a lot despite me having opposite symptoms) - My kidneys, liver, and adrenals all test perfectly normal on all blood tests - I grew slowly as a child, but other than that did not have any unusual health issues at all growing up except for being clumsy - my symptoms most closely match Cerebral Salt Wasting syndrome, but Cerebral Salt Wasting syndrome is, from what I have found while researching, almost always a self-correcting problem that occurs after head trauma or brain surgery. Now, I have had some head traumas, some before the first time a doctor told me I should eat more salt even, but it's been 12 years since I got sick and 14 or 15 since the first time I was told to eat more salt, and for a self-limiting problem that usually resolves itself in days or weeks that seems unlikely I don't know what my actual issue is. It's definitely salt wasting! But there are a lot of different parts of your body that can mess up how you process salt, and I can't even figure out which kind of ologist I should be talking to about this, because nephrology referred me to endocrinology referred me to cardiology referred me to neurology referred me back to endocrinology I'm trying to figure it out because I am being treated for Addisons but my doctors all say I don't have Addisons, they are just giving me the treatment for it because it seems to help. I'm not looking to be diagnosed via tumblr post, I just don't know what to research next

[krispenelopebacon]

*learns about the Dave theory*

makes total sense. Still don't like it though.

[larissa-the-scribe]

Terrarium Lights, Draft 1—Masterlist

An older lady finds a ghost in her garden, with no memories of who he is or where he came from, and together they set out to find the answers.

Story originally written as part of the 2023 Inklings Challenge, which took place over on @inklings-challenge

Part 1

Gail Finds a Ghost in Her Garden

Part 2

The Ghost Apologizes

Can You Touch a Ghost?

Gail and the Ghost Get to Know Each Other

The Ghost Doesn't Know He's a Ghost

Walking to the Graveyard

Names on Gravestones

An Unfortunate Lightbulb Moment

Part 3

Outside the Lighthouse Café

Haunting for Answers

Answers Cause More Questions

Inside the Lighthouse Café

Mrs. Seward's Story

Confirming the Ghost

A Ghost Has an Existential Crisis, pt 1.

A Ghost Has an Existential Crisis, pt. 2

The Fear of Unbeing

What's the Right Choice?

To Visit a Ghost

The Body

Good-bye

Bringing Him Home

A New Hello

Epilogue, of Sorts

Someone New in the Garden

[randomingoftherandomness]

hello gab! hope ur having a lovely week <3

fic idea: i have NO idea how the timelines would work but anything where cheng huang/zyc are somehow reincarnations of yuanzhi and shangjue

love, 柠檬

A/N: Hello 柠檬! Hope you're having a wonderful Friday thus far. Okay, so this is my stab at this prompt. My dumb brain wrote this and then realised that I had flipped it around hahaha... I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless!

a.k.a. I'm back on my Juezhi bullshit and making it your problem

‧⁺◟( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ ·̫ ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ )

--

Shangjue is awakened by Yuanzhi pulling away and curling onto his side away from him. His senses are immediately alert and he reaches out to place a gentle hand on a shaking shoulder.

"It's just a dream, didi." He tries. "Come back to me."

It takes him a beat, but when Yuanzhi stirs, he does with a wet gasp, jerking up into a seated position which Shangjue follows. Wrapping an arm around Yuanzhi's thin waist, he instinctively presses his dear heart into an embrace. Holding on tight as he comes back to himself.

This is the third time this month.

Shangjue doesn't have to ask what the dreams are, he already knows because they're the same as his own -- always the same where they're both on opposing sides of a battle, always where there is a deep obsession, always with a deep, bottomless grief that swallows both of them whole.

He lets Yuanzhi's breathing settle, allowing him the space and time to calm down. Measures the minutes with how he relaxes in his arms, and carefully holds him through it all.

Soothingly, Shangjue says, "You know, Elder Yue once told me that dreams are glimpses into another world. Another life we could have led."

"Then that's not a world I want to live in." Yuanzhi shivers, words a little muffled where his mouth is pressed to the meat of Shangjue's shoulder. "I never want to be on any side but yours."

"Because you know I'd wipe the floor with you?"

"I have no doubt about that, but no." Yuanzhu laughs, slapping his other shoulder but is unresisting when Shangjue catches his hand to press a kiss. "No, I never want to be your enemy because I can't fathom a life where I could ever not love you."

"Yuanzhi..." Shangjue sighs, helplessly smiling through the radiating warmth of fondness that sings through his chest. Ducking his head, he swallows around the jumble of words that threaten to break him apart.

Thank you.

I love you too.

You're the most important person to me and I never want to lose you.

But all he says in response is a soft, tender, "Me too." Brushing back Yuanzhi's bangs, he thumbs at the corner of his didi's smile. Leaning in, the bubble of laughter comes loose as their lips meet, sighing a little when Yuanzhi tilts his head for a better angle.

In the back of his mind, he mentally makes a plan to visit their backyard brethren to get this looked at. There is too much coincidence with their dreams matching up like this for Shangjue to put it down to some inexplicable thing about their way of life. Maybe there is some rhyme and reason to it all.

He hopes there is one.

But for now, Shangjue is content to fold his didi back against him, kissing his brow to coax him back to sleep.

[thebirdandhersong]

It is some consolation that one day this will not make me bristle

[chicago-geniza]

Ohhhh my Gd. Took more antibiotics. Had more noodles with kimchi broth and electrolytes and chased them with vitamin C gummies. Drinking more tea and nursing more mentholated lozenges. Refilled humidifier again. When will my equilibrium and ability to breathe return from war

[dykephan]

i love that dan and phil are both fainting all over the place. they're just like me fr

[anlian-aishang]

->Miche

-> Double penetration

As in, toys? Or? Teamwork? If so: WHO’S HELPING????👁️ 👁️

toys AND teamwork - just depends on the night

keen to use any one of the several toys in the bedside table. for his partner, he stocks an array, sizes ranging from a cute butt plug to a glass dildo that replicates his size and girth. to add, his long and calloused fingers reach around to your front and dip down your throat. miche is all about filling you up.

and sometimes, he recognizes, that's best done with help. miche calls on erwin when you're craving depth and hands. he summons levi when you want to be fought for and lusted over. when you want a show or the princess treatment, all three are at your service.

// // //

now i want to write the miche-erwin-levi-reader orgy asdfghjk you may be interested in the miche x reader x levi i wrote here.

[funzige-gedachten]

To quote bo burnham: i am not feeing good👍🏻

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

polyamory 🤝 found family

people in fandoms be fucking normal about not treating them as Inherently Wholesome, with the ideal endgoal of every single character dynamic even slightly adjacent to them--as well as every possible kind of dysfunction within that dynamic--being to Initiate, Work It Out, and End in That Dynamic Happily Ever After, challenge (impossible)

[goldkirk]

CONTENT WARNING for weight loss (a percentage number) and mentions of throwing up

In other news I'm waiting impatiently for a GI appointment to tell them "hi I lost 15% of my body weight in six months and I throw up more often than once or twice a year now so can you please fucking listen and do something this time"