#i couldn't find more indirects but i know there are a lot more since i saw people talking about them

[sunsetandthemoon]

saw in your tags you mentioned earthmix were in a serious fight while filming moonlight chicken? what's the story there? (ty in advance if you answer this and np if you don't :) )

Hii. Ok, so, while I do follow them on Instagram and Twitter, I never noticed anything until they talked about it during the MLC promo a few weeks ago, so I definitely don't know the full story, but here is a short summary of all the information that I’ve managed to gather from Twitter.

Apparently, there was a 4-5 month period last year where Earth and Mix were fighting (so-called their “divorce era”). It started with them going from constantly hanging out together to never interacting with each other anymore and fans quickly noticed something was up. Then this video from the MLC set was posted and it only further fueled all the speculations (it looks like a perfectly normal video to me tbh but to some, it looked like Mix was angry or like he was sulking 🤷)

They also had a few work events during that time and fans reported a noticeable tension between them. There was also a lot of subtweeting and indirecting on their social media including posts like this:

which is funny considering this is how they described each other in an interview once

("am I still your flower" is absolutely sending me 💀)

some more Mix retweets x/x

Earth even posted this on his insta story

and then, during the Oishi Magic Of Zero trip, they seemed to have finally gone back to their normal selves (x)

they even acknowledged the fight and said that they had made up and that everything was okay between them again (x/x)

and everyone was happy for them including P'Godji who posted this video (x)

Mix even posted this on his story

which may or may not have been a reference to this scene from ATOTS

then, during their interviews recently, they talked a bit more about their fight (x) (their poor manager 😭)

and P'Aof even teased them about it by saying "the hard part for me is, I wanna work with them when they aren’t fighting with each other" when EM were asked what were the easy/hard parts of working together on three different series (x)

speaking of P’Aof, I need to include this bit from MLC bts where he forgot Jim and Wen weren’t supposed to kiss each other during their sex scene in ep1 because it’s just so funny like dhfjhsdjkd

P‘Aof: *after watching them unnecessarily devour each other five takes in a row while knowing damn well they’re in the middle of their divorce era* “whoops my bad 🤭 please don’t kill me” 😂😂😂😂

(x)

anyway - TLDR - Moonlight Chicken was filmed during their divorce era and they were spending their days filming scenes like this

only to then go home and start subtweeting and shading each other online at the end of the day 😂

but they're making up for it now by being inseparable and constantly posting about each other. there are too many moments to link but here are some honorable mentions: x/x/x/x

including these posts from last night x/x

[ninma]

I just noticed a very interesting note in Alastor's ad in episode 1...

Who in Hazbin Hotel is the most associated with circus decor?

Lucifer.

Less than 5 min into episode 1 and we already get a hint that Alastor isn't a big fan of Lucifer.

Which is interesting because it implies that Alastor disliked Lucifer before he even involved himself with the hotel. They hadn't even met yet.

It's such a weirdly specific thing to add to a commercial too. Because when I think hotel, circus decor wouldn't be anywhere on my list of expectations.

It's clearly targeted towards Lucifer. An indirect insult Alastor probably had wanted Lucifer to see.

If this is the case, some of Alastor's commentary can be looked at slightly differently.

Lines like "Lucifer's delusional daughter", "Daddy issues" and the other insulting commentary can then also be partly aimed at Lucifer.

Which would probably be effective hits because Lucifer definitely wouldn't be happy about someone offending his daughter, but the "Daddy issues" line would probably make him feel guilt.

It's as if Alastor wanted to pick a fight the first chance he got to potentially reach Lucifer.

But like...why?

In episode 5 we have a reasonable explanation for why Alastor is poking at Lucifer. Alastor likes to be in control and have power over others, however even he knows Lucifer is more powerful than him. Therefore he aims at Lucifer's relationship with Charlie (which is what the dad comments are really about) to regain some of that power.

Which is why it doesn't make any sense for him to indirectly target Lucifer in episode 1.

Why pick a fight with the King of Hell when he barely had anything to hold over Lucifer?

When this ad was made, Charlie had known Alastor for only a week and therefore claiming to be close to her would be weird.

Heck, Alastor is even insulting Charlie and the hotel here, which definitely doesn't give him any favour from her.

Another point could be that Alastor is also partly annoyed at having to make a video. He probably doesn't expect it to air. But that still doesn't explain why he'd deliberately add a note directed at Lucifer.

So.....What's the deal here Alastor?

There isn't a clear reason for doing this.

The only one I can guess that makes some sense is that Alastor just wanted to feel some sense of power by indirectly insulting Lucifer, who is the most powerful being in all of Hell. Getting a chance to hit him where it hurts would probably bring Alastor a lot of satisfaction.

Another option is that it could be related to Lilith, if she turned out to be the one he made a deal with. It could be that Alastor's frustration over his deal makes him want to take it out on Lucifer (since he obviously can't take it out on Charlie). Lilith telling him to do it is possible, but I find it unlikely. Unless her real motive was pushing Lucifer out of his isolation and back into Charlie's life. Still find it unlikely tho.

In the end, it still feels weird for Alastor to be this intent on picking on Lucifer this early on. Taking advantage of the first opportunity to have a message reach Lucifer, despite Alastor neither having power or leverage over him if Lucifer had responded.

So...Alastor...

Care to spill the tea on why you're being so pissy?

(Sorry, couldn't resist-)

EDIT: I just realized how funny it is that despite saying there is no tacky circus decor, the hotel itself is FULL of it XD

Now that I think about it, that might actually be the joke behind the note.

(Admittedly, this might just be a fun bit of foreshadowing and doesn't really have any deeper meaning)

(Also, Lucifer's circus decor isn't tacky. I'd definitely be down for staying at a hotel with his aesthetic and decor. But, maybe that's just me)

(It kinda reminds me of how Vox immediately went to send a message to Alastor on TV the moment he learned of his return XD)

[randomreadingtimewithtsuki]

Random bnha thing no one asked for? Yes. The ending song gave me a lot of inspiration!

Touya todoroki x childhood friend! Reader.

Tsuki's note: I have not read the manga, I do know a feel things that happened though.

Part 1

You can find Part 2 here!

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

Tsuki's note: reader has a quirk inspired on a pokemon move - pain split - they can "split" open injuries between reader and a target evenly. It will be elaborated more bellow.

So imagine you are Touya's childhood friend and best friend.

You met at school. The two of quickly became friends, but for some time you couldn't hang out with him outside of school - his dad, endeavor, wouldn't allow it.

The boy really loved Fuyumi and you became friends with her too! You two often played together or did each other's hair!

Touya was a energetic but kind kid, he always helped you with whatever you needed and also often dragged you around in "adventures". You were a good student, not that energetic and also a little bit of a cry baby - to which Touya would complain about, but always pat your head so you would calm down.

He was hat kid who would grab your hand to walk you home, or kind of, since he always had someone to pick him up. While you were the one who listened to him and tried to keep him from doing stupid things.

You were slightly taller than Touya and he was always peeved about it. The boys at school teased him a bit about his height and whenver he remembered you were taller, he would pout a bit.

It didn't take long before Natsuo was born. Another sibling Touya got along with! You, on the other hand, just became acquainted to him with time.

You knew Touya absolutely loved training his quirk. that was the number conversation topic with him. You found it adorable how excited he got to tell you about the new things he could do.

His hair getting whiter was another reason for his pouts. Especially when you mentioned the white strands looked beautiful with his turquosie eyes.

But soon enough, Touya was not allowed to train his quirk anymore. He was so frustrated and agitated as he explained to you in tears why he couldn't anymore - his body couldn't take the heat.

Your heart ached seeing your friend so upset, but you didn't know how to comfort him. You could barely control your quirk yourself, but still offered to take some of his burns away, which he refused because they weren't that bad.

Touya was stubborn and kept practicing his quirk. At first the burns really weren't that bad, they could heal in a few weeks. But that was enough to make you start practicing your quirk.

All you had to do to activate your quirk was to touch an injured area with your whole palm. A bit painful in cases of burns, but... at least he wouldn't take as long to heal right?

Soon after Shoto was born things started getting weird. You received an indirect request from endeavor to hang out more often with Touya.

You have also noticed your friend was in despair - overtraining himself. You were awfully worried and often tried to stop him along with his mom and sister.No matter how much you asked hm to stop, he just wouldn't.

Alas he was very stubborn. He would take a moment when you were busy with something to run off to train. Of course you followed him or went after him. At this point you started using your quirk on him, sharing his burns.

Touya was mad at you for taking damage to yourself, but you would scold him all the time " what's the point in trying so hard if you won't be healthy enough for it?"

Somehow that always made him pout and just accept your care.

In one of those days you asked him why he was so desperate. With a pout and avoiding your eyes, he explained that his father had a new toy to train - his younger brother, Shoto.

You immediately felt bad for the little one. You absolutely hated how endeavor shoved Touya aside. Couldn't he spend some time with your friend and his son? You also heard he often hitted Touya's mom.

You tried your best to reason with him not be so upset, his quirk was still amazing! But to no avail.

A few days went by when you saw Touya again, as usual you waved and ran to him while he just waited for you to come closer. But this day he ran towards you too. Tears in his eyes and swollen cheek.

It was hard to understand what he was saying, but eventually, you got it. In a fit of rage he tried to hurt his little brother.

You comforted him to best of your abilities. Touya was clearly feeling bad about it. He told you he regretted attacking Shouto and didn't know what to do - he coudn't be near his brother. Nor he could see his dad to apologize.

You hugged him as tight as you could and told him he could apologize later. But the mark on his face didn't deny that it wouldn't be that easy to approach his brother.

Time passed by and Touya's hair was almost fully white. He was still shorter than you, still tried to sneak on you to train and you still took half his injures to yourself.

During one of his training session, while you ran to catch up with him, you saw something blue - blue flames.

That scared you, you had never seen blue flames in the woods. But after realizing it was Touya you called out for him.

He was crying and smiling, talking loudly at you: " Y/N! Look! I did it!"

Yeah, he did. He made a very beautiful and extremely hot flame.

You were in awe and happy for him, but also worried - you could smell something burning, a very well known smell of flesh burning.

You urged him to stop so you could, once again, share the burns. This time he did not pay any mind to you, he was happily telling you how now endeavor would look at him.

You were happy for him and prayed he was right. That this time he could get a praise from whom he needed.

The next day, Touya was over the moon, telling you that endeavor would meet him on the mountain. You smiled at his excitement.

This day you wouldn't accompany him, after all it would be weird. It was ... a family moment. But you did request Touya to call you if he needed. You stayed a little longer at school while he went to the meeting spot.

A few hours passed by and you decided to take the longer route that had a view to the mountain. It was then you saw blue flames. But not small. They were huge and you had a bad feeling. You immediately called the employee that often picked up Touya from school. You called for help and dashed there.

Fortunately heroes were already there but they didn't allow you further. The blue flames were too intense. A hero dragged you away and asked a police officer to take you home.

You cried and yelled Touya's name. Kicked begged. The adults all told you they were doing what they could. You could hear people saying endeavor was on the way.

[sneezemonster15]

https://www.tumblr.com/sunshinecherryblossom/732710854315933696/wtf-it-is-true-oh-my-god-when-is-this

This seems false, what do you think about it?

I find it highly unlikely. Unless someone gives me a legit link to it, I wouldn't consider it. Lots of fake interviews of Kishi are doing rounds in this fandom. And Kishi would never say something like this given how he has treated Sakura's character for 700 chapters and beyond. This part is from his 2010 interview (at Jump Fiesta Tokyo-Japan) :

When the interviewer asked Kishi about Sakura, and called her a detestable girl (most people can see how Sakura's character is written as a detestable character, can't speak for delusional people), Kishi replied in a very convenient manner - "Realistic girls are like that..."

Lol. Once he calls his character realistic, what can one say? Realistic characters are never black and white, they stand in the grey area. So you can get away by saying - "Oh, she is realistic", without expanding on it.

Shounen characters are generally larger than life type characters to create a large impact since they serve a pedagogic purpose for its target group. People who are from the good guys camp, are generally taken as good, people who are from the bad guys camp are generally perceived as bad. So of course it would confuse people when Sakura is from the good guys camp but acts like a total douchebag. And naturally they would ask questions about it. But Kishi totally avoided to take the more controversial position by saying - she is realistic.

We know Sakura's character can be realistic, many women are the way she is. But is she a good role model for women of any place at any time? No. She doesn't really serve the pedagogic purpose other characters do. She is a negative person, selfish and immature. We know that. But Kishi cannot say it explicitly in his interviews because it would lead to all the other kinds of controversial questions, and would potentially open a can of worms for him. First question would be - If she is from the good guys camp and remains till the end, why did you write her as negative, even after she got so popular? You could have used her character's popularity with the girls to say something inspiring, something kind. So why didn't you? Any other writer would have jumped at the chance. Writers are supposed to work off the popularity of characters in a medium such as commercial serialilized manga.

Kishi kept writing her as detestable. If he could, he would have told them - I wrote her that way because I needed plot device for Naruto and Sasuke's romance which I was writing in the disguise of ninja manga. Team seven is about S and N. It's a love story about them and Sakura doesn't figure anywhere in their relationship and I want to make it clear by showing why.

And I have a feeling quite a lot of Sakura's characterisation comes from his personal experience of women. Of course he couldn't say all that. But he can be indirect about it. Although when you are indirect about something so many times, with context it becomes quite direct. Hehehe

Just look how Gege responded when he was asked a difficult question from Kubo. Female characters are not given much weight in shounen given its target audience. Most female characters in shounen aren't even given half the character development male characters get. And look at Japanese society, it's so patriarchal, who's surprised their representation of female characters is so backward? I doubt most of these mangakas get out very much, to actually put some effort in knowing how women act and why.

Look at Kubo's interview with Gege. Gege's female characters are kickass, as strong as men, as smart and well developed. They have agency, self worth and esteem. Their characters don't revolve around male characters. But female characters like these are beyond Kubo's imagination lol. Look at the female characters in Bleach hahaha. So this is what he asked Gege.

Kubo finds Jjk women formidable because he cannot even fathom independent women, women who don't depend on men for everything. Lol. They can walk shoulder to shoulder with men, they aren't less than men, like they are in most shounen. But of course, Gege cannot tell Kubo these things. Hehe. Kubo is his senior, and the Japanese have a whole set of etiquette on how to behave with one's senpai. Gege won't say anything even remotely offensive to Kubo, so the best way to deal with such things is to be vague and use self deprecating humor, so as to not appear confrontational, it's a communication tactic. I also use these kinds of tactics when talking to difficult people or people in high positions I don't agree with. I have interviewed hundreds of people in my work. So I understand that one needs to be subtle even in their disagreements.

In Shippuden, later on, Sakura was written with heroine like qualities. So what this means is that Kishi doesn't have a very good opinion on either women or women in shounen. She does get some footage in the manga, where other characters praise her skills, like one would expect a heroine to get. She confesses to Sasuke and Naruto both. Never mind the rejection from both. But it's clear that Kishi would never have made Naruto end up with Sakura who treated Naruto this badly. Kishi is not a fool. He plainly says that she comes off as detestable because that's how she was written. Lol.

Lots of rumours have been doing rounds about Naruto's remake or live action film etc. but as far as I know, nothing such has actually materialised. So I wouldn't worry about it either.

I think it's high time that SS, NH and NrSk accept the reality and move on. It's been years. Sasuke is gay. Naruto is gay. Was established as closeted gay in both parts one and two. He would not suddenly defy his character traits and become straight just because NrSk can't keep it in their pants. So pathetic tch. Guys, there is nothing for you in Naruto except heartbreak. Grow up and move on.

SNS at least have legit reason to still be hopeful. The het shippers have nada. Zilch. Zero. Hehe. But well, who can fight desperation? Not these peeps.

[zylophie]

CLARIFICATION

Note: we are not looking for drama, we just want to clear up something in case the other person wants to escalate things.

Also no private DM leaks will be shown. I want to respect both parties privacy making this post.

Hiya X here ! I usually don't make these kind of posts so.. Please bare with me, this is kind of important to some of our followers who follow this particular person, as they have a writing blog too.

Just to let you all know, I won't be naming the person in question at all since I don't want any harassment for any sides. However i'm making this post to clarify our side. In case this person wants to twist the story.. I'll try to make this short as possible.

Note: please don't find this person in question. I just want to clear things up with our mutuals who knows them.

If you guys haven't seen, Yue did make an indirect call out post about them. However I don't know if they were ignoring it or didn't see it. However if you didn't see the post, click 'here' to read.

Continuing on, I told Yue to talk to the person in DMs about it since they haven't changed the theme or responded to the call out. Before you say 'how would the other person think we are talking about them ?' They are the only person we talk about on this blog about rushing Yue for their request. I won't say what request it is and it has been deleted by the time I posted this.

So that's how they would know it is about them since we did directly call them out on it. So it is either they didn't see or chose to ignore it. However, Yue decided to talk to them in DMs about it since it did bothered her cause she spent days and seeking me and Mango's confirmation on how to make the blog unique and 'us'.

The private conversation didn't go so well and it got heated real quick. They(person yue was talking to) claim to not heavily referenced our theme, by stating that other blogs uses it too. However, I checked their following and we are the only blog they follow that used flowers in their list. As well as the same colors(Pink, Purple and Blue) they used in their blog. Just to give context, they started out not too long ago so we couldn't have copied/been heavily inspired by them.

Which caused Yue to be enraged since.. She worked a lot to give this blog it's own uniqueness. I can't really show proof of this since by the time I made this clarification post, they had changed their theme. Once again, please do not try to find who we are talking about if you aren't mutuals with the person in question.

Next, Yue thought their writings look a bit similar to mine. I don't want to falsely accuse so I'll let you guys decide. Cause to me, their summary does look a tad' too close to what I would say before I started a fic, just a few word change and is not how they(this person) usually talk to us at all.

Now although I do know it's a summary and that anyone could've said that. We know this person quite well and this ISN'T how they usually talk. I have never seen them used '<3' before they started a writing blog. It's like they're trying to copy the way I speak. I would show more examples with their fics. However it might expose them which is what I want to avoid doing. Although they denied copying my style by saying they only read 1-2 of my fics(X). But some of our other moots also agreed the way they write feels like mine.

Don't get me wrong, I 100% understand people can have similar writing styles ! However the way they speak in their summary is not how they usually speak at all !! It feels like me speaking.

It feels so close to the point they manage to talk like me as my minori event fic a/n looks really SIMILAR like one of their a/n. :(

To the person who we are talking about manages to see this, if you did try to copy my style please change it. I took months and many fics on my old blog to find a style that's me..

Next point, Yue wanted to bring up something in their bio. "This blog does not support LGBTQ+" just that sentence. We all have different reactions to that sentence, especially if they didn't clarify if they respect it. Yue and this person were fighting in DMs about it, although I can agree that Yue shouldn't have lost her temper and cussed. The other person did not understand her at all and thought she was targeting them.

Yue was looking out for them since they are a mutual of ours and we wanted the best for them. Though yes, Yue should've just stopped telling them to rephrase the sentence if they didn't want to. They were not treating Yue well too and started to get very defensive about it. Saying if they had been rude to us or disrespected us.

Yue never accused them of being rude or disrespectful towards us. She just wanted to help this person clarify they respected LGBTQ but doesn't support it due to religion.

However with that topic, it was when things quickly escalated too. I know if advice/criticism isn't wanted, we shouldn't say it. However this person brought sensitive/heavy topics in their interactive asks too. Which could cause a problem to their other mutuals like us. Since we didn't want any anons/followers to see us in different light just cause a mutual of ours supported something that's a part of a heavy/sensitive topic.

That's all I have to say. I'm sorry if this is long, however thank you for reading. In conclusion, both sides have faults and couldn't see eye to eye(Yue already block this person). However due to past experience and meeting people who would twist the stories. This is why Yue wanted me to make a clarification post. Thank you for reading this.

Adding on from Yue: The person I talk to, was really narrow-minded since they didn't want to listen to me when I wanted to work things out and cut the conversation short, which was when I blocked them. They also said 'Are people really this sensitive??' When I told them the LGBTQ sentence was misleading which really made me upset.

Mutuals of theirs/both sides can ask what happen in DMs so we can clarify. Just mutuals !!

[tatjana-fantasy]

Chapter 7 of Repeat Day is up!

It's the last chapter and the final time loop. I hope you'll enjoy it :D And if you're interested in everything that didn't make it into the fic, you can read it under the cut - please only after finishing the last chapter ;)

PLEASE ONLY READ THIS IF YOU FINISHED THE FANFIC.

When I first started “Repeat Day”, I thought I could include much more outcomes, so the first half of the fic in particular has many choices and consequences that never appear again. Mostly because they would've made the fic way too complicated without actually providing anything of substance.

The very first scene of the fic originally ended with Jason telling Rachel how to avoid the explosives he set up with Nick earlier. I planned for one timeline where Jason accidentally blows up Eric, Rachel and Clarice by forgetting where the explosives are, because that is what happened during my first playthrough XD It was kinda useless in the grand scheme of things though, so I cut it altogether.

Similarly, Jason was supposed to find out about Clarice's danger status via the Eric death connected to it, but due to my personal rules of choices and consequences, it simply couldn't happen. And by the time I thought I might as well change the rules, he was already too genre-savvy to let her live long enough D:

I was also thinking of making Clarice savable, but decided against it because of the multitude of changes it would have required. The same thing happened to Vampire Rachel – just thinking about all the possibilities made my head hurt, so with a heavy heart, I decided not to include her.

There are a few smaller consequences that got cut (like the various ways Jason and Salim can meet in Enemy of my Enemy, several other conversations with other characters, Jason being alive and infected, or his entire accent lol), but there are three bigger changes that weren't part of the game and ultimately not part of the fanfic.

Firstly, Jason's backstory. It was VASTLY different in my first draft, making his involvement in Jeff's death so indirect that it was honestly boring. I eventually decided that it was much more interesting to give him a more active role, so him blaming himself for Jeff's death actually made sense. This is a change I'm very happy with because his backstory now is a hundred times better than the one he had before. (Before, it was Jeff's turn to visit him, Jason told him to take the earlier train home, and that train got into a fatal accident. Yup, I'm glad I changed that.)

Secondly, an entire time loop ended up being cut. Here, Jason let slip a little too many things he couldn't possibly know about without the time loops (like Nick dating Rachel or mentioning Zain early), so the others became weary of him and he eventually confessed the whole time loop thing. Once again, it made the whole story too complicated, so I focused on the normal time loops instead.

However – thirdly – I always knew that the story would end with the others finding out about the time loops, because I always thought it was unfair that only the main character ever remembered them. But I wasn't sure how I wanted the others to find out. Would Jason simply tell them? Sounded boring. Or maybe they secretly were in their own, personal time loops? Sounded interesting, but also a little cliché. So finally, I opted for the simple solution of the others remembering all time loops the moment Jason ends them. A little too deus ex machina? Yeah, probably. But what do they say? Everything's fair in love and war, and this was definitely both ;D (Plus, I always imagined that at least a part of their experiences transitioned over with each passing day.)

Either way – I hope you enjoyed this fic, since it meant quite a lot to me :)

[the-lazyyy-artist]

(tumblr ate my post, let's do this again)

ALOCIA 🥺 YOU SWEETHEART!! I love you! I'm really glad we found each other, not only in the BLLK fandom, but also in the Epic fandom! Im so glad we bonded thru these things, and Im so so excited to talk to you during and after the Ithaca Saga!! I hope you'll watch the listening party on the 25th!! Aahh!!

Now let's do this in order (in my mind lmao):

@someprettyname - it's such an honor to be followed by you, and much a greater honor to be friends with you. You've been one of the people who replied to my very first bllk post. Proof:

I just didn't know you'd be one of the warmest people I've met here. You welcomed me with open arms and I'm so glad we bonded and talked here a lot. I know you're busy most of the time and I don't really mind, but everytime we talk, it feels like I'm talking to a sister of mine. I love you so much, Nami!

@i-am-so-strange - it's so strange that I found you then followed you after you reblogged my post about a bllk chapter being so "nakaka-putangina", i knew you were Filipino 😭 it's rare to find a Filo moot in a fandom, and I rarely find at least one. But after you, I met three more! I'm happy we met, even happier when we started talking, and happiest when we kept talking on three platforms now! Haha! I love you so much, Jei!

@nikonautic - out of everyone, you easily became my favorite since the day we became moots. I know we talked to each other in a... Weird indirect way (in parentheses and under the tags because yaknow). You're the first Shidou fan I met after I realized I liked Shidou too, and I just really, really think you're so cool! I love you so much, Niko!! I really really do!! (And i just like you too much!! Is it weird to say you're my platonic Tumblr crush????)

@biggestcharleskinnie - my sweet baby, my lovely peach, you easily crawled your way into my heart and you stayed here for good. I really appreciate how you always check up on me almost everyday, sending me asks or pictured of Charles Chavelier (i really find it so cute!), and it makes my day all the time especially when I'm slumped at work. I wanna hug you all the time because you always activate my motherly AND sisterly instincts. I love you so much, Charles!! My baby!!

@merlucide - one of the coolest people I met! The first time I found you, I just really thought you were so cool because of your theme 😭 then we became moots! Thank you for playing along with my Aiku delusions (i miss him) and for always supporting my works. I wanna write for you again because I liked writing that Aiki fic for you haha! Baby girl, I love you so much!! I love youuu!!

@fishii28 - one of the bests, thank you for welcoming me in the channel, for talking to me, for being a friend. Thank you for supporting all my works, even if I feel like some of them are mid! Haha! I really appreciate you, and I'm glad I met you 🥺 i love you so much, Fishii!!

There are so much of you!! Especially in the DC channels!! I couldn't mention every one of you, but just know all of you are so dear in my heart!! I love you all so much and I'm so glad I met every one of you!!

Let's still be friends in 2025, and even if we begin to like other things, I hope we'd still talk and be friends!!

[skayafair]

The Critter Girl

I like a lot of characters in Ghost Wax, but one who seems to never come up in others' posts is Dottie Jean. And I really don't get why, because I LOVE her.

Or my Shadow does. Right, let's get sidetracked for a bit.

There are mainly two ways to talk about social topics: a direct and an indirect ones. The indirect way incorporates real world problems and aspects into the story's narrative and covers it with plot twists and metaphors and worldbuilding and character arcs and so on. The direct one talks about the topics head on, often literally.

I think Ghost Wax is closer to the direct way of incorporating these themes since most of them are easily recognizable: there's a thin layer of mataphor and covering actual issues with supernatural coating, but that's about it. In Kat's episode about a "succubus" the description sounded like a textbook NPD, and the way she described the kiss sounded like a whole relationship with a narcissistic person feels. NPD even was mentioned there, although in a "this is similar but more than" context. So, easy.

A lot of stories taking the direct approach appear... as if they consider their audiense very dense? They spell out all the message as if it cannot be understood otherwise. Ghost Wax, however, is not the case. While it does talk about social and mental issues pretty head on, it does so carefully. It doesn't consider the audience stupid - although the creators' standing on the questions discussed will be provided, and this is another thing I liked. E.g., in the episode about the fire guy he sounded like a total dick. And very convincingly portrayed, I've heard guys like this multiple times. In fact, he was so convincing and cocky that I started to suspect the creators side with him (I've just started listening and did't know what to expect yet). I actually think it was brilliant. If there was no reaction from the focal characters, it would feel like this. However, when he was being very dismissive about the name of his wife he killed and couldn't even remember it, Voncid or Luca - I suspect Voncid - gave him a very disapproving look. It wasn't a big moment, but it was enough.

The show goes on like this. Sometimes the characters values are spelled out, and it doesn't feel like they're trying to teach a lesson to the audience but merely state their own views. The characters giving statements feel overflowing with personality and are very alive - ironically - and by this I mean true to life. I found myself drawn to listen more and more mainly for this reason: for a show about dead people's memories regarding their deaths it sounded too alive. And this subtle but direct way to talk about social things was a big advantage. It's interesting - I think it must be not very easy to keep the balance.

The thing I wanted to say before talking about Dottie Jean has to do with all this.

In episode 40, Shadow, Adrianna meets the shadow part of her personality come alive. I'm glad she's been stopped by the order because I do think she had more chances to slip off to the deep end than Dottie if left to her own devices, but the shadow thing is real. Jungian psychology and all that.

I was so glad it got its own episode. I feel it isn't talked about enough when it's so important. I met my own shadow about two years ago, and it showed me wonders. Dark wonders, sure, but... I was fascinated I was even capable of feeling such things. I never knew before. By all means I should have felt repulsed, probably, after all the Shadow is everything we reject in ourselves, but... no. I felt like an essential piece of me finally found its own place. I was happy to meet her. It's interesting, by the way, that I strongly identify as agender, but my shadow is definitely a her.

It took us a while to find balance. For a long time she felt like something separate, something I had to control. But I also felt love thanks to her - a twisted kind, sure, but it was the only way I knew how. Seeing it in this dark light helped me realize the issues I have and start making my way to fixing those.

My Shadow is my friend. I may despise parts of me, but I loved my Shadow right away.

Since the last year I've been feeling more and more united, various shards of the personality finding their rightful places and melting into a single being. I'm not entirely a single piece even now, but parts of me are connected pretty strongly compared to before. And my shadow is no longer a separate thing - she's me. I feel so much more confident now, it's hard to describe. And I like the way I am now much more than what I used to be.

So you see, I think I understand Adrianna pretty well and consider her story to be told really well, as close to life as it could be. Hence why I'm glad the order got her and is going to teach her to unite with her Shadow - it will only make her happier.

Still, I recognize some feelings I have as something coming from my shadow part, even if it isn't perceived as a separate shard anymore.

One of such feelings is my adoration of Dottie Jean. What I mean is - I understand why she may not be the favourite for the most people, but... my shadow really, really likes her. I really like her.

In real life I wouldn't be so enchanted, sure. But this is fiction with supernatural circumstances. So there.

I do believe Dottie is under a partial mind control of Mr. Green Stripe, but I also don't think it's just that. He - it? - only enhanced her own feelings and gave a push in the direction he wanted. I hope and choose to believe she could stop if she actually wanted to. But she doesn't. And that's perfect.

First off, she sounded autistic to me. Not a fan of crowds, prefers quiet life alone with her favourite pastime and animals, talks about the smells in a special way, and has a REALLY strong special interest. Frankly speaking, she sounded nice from the get go, but then she explained how and why she likes taxidermy so much. Not just making things and preserving life in a frozen moment - personally I'm not a fan of taxidermy, it falls into the uncanny valley for me, so I disagree with the impression, - but learning how the organisms work, their inner mechanics. THIS was what I understand well. That's how I live, too. It honestly applies to everything, but with living beings - I'm an artist, so to draw convincingly, I need to understand how things work, too. I'm also a linguist so it's very interesting how the languages work, how they came to be the way they are, the underlying processes. Same with human psyche and literally anything else. It's interesting to get to the root of everything in order to understand it and how it works. Besides... I really like skeletons and skulls. Not the fakes - only the real ones. The only one I own is my own, but I happenned to find some critters' bones once or twice, and was fascinated. To me, skeletons are evidences of lives that they used to carry. Every single one has a life story of some creature, every. single. one. And their structure is so fascinating, too? So yeah, that was such a satisfying moment.

And then. I hate poachers. I dislike hunters, too - ones who hunt for sport, not to have something to eat and wear, but at least their activity is regulated by the law. I still can't stand them. But poachers set my teeth on edge (again, I understand if someone can't get a license due to some financial reasons, for example, and needs to hunt for food, but that's about it). How dare they. When I was a kid I dreamt of becoming a superhero who punished those who hurt the nature - even though that superhero was a shapeshifter with an animal spirit.

In real life poachers are often let off too easily. Just like Dottie says - they have the money, and the only thing that ends up being hurt is their ego at most. Jail is a rare enough occasion.

So excuse me if I cheer for at least a fictional woman who lives out my dream of bringing those fuckers to justice - for good. Yes, it's a dark joy, I really don't like seeing anyone hurt at all in real life. But here my shadow found a safe outlet.

Dottie is one of my most favourite characters in Ghost Wax, and I hope she continues her crusade. I was SO HAPPY when she escaped after protecting the shifter guy. Shifters being portrayed this way in the show is another favourite moment of mine but I'll talk about it in some other post I think, this one is long anough as is.

If season 2 is going to come out in the future, I hope to hear more of Dottie Jean. She's a total badass and brings me utter delight with each appearance.

P.S. I also like how the creators show their stance on her: they state through Voncid that she needs to be stopped and controlled since murder comes easily to her and soon anyone may look like a suitable target - and technically that's true. But they still let her get away, providing with a story even Luca agrees with, and that speaks volumes.

[heart-star]

Nobody:

Me: adding in my headcanon a connection between team Ico's trilogy and other medieval playstation games believing they're in the same world and lore.

I already posted about this but I'm explaining better this time.

As some fans would know, all games have a dark entity that evolved each time (we can call it only Dormin) in the middle game it has been divided in 16th different bodies and then has been defeated again but in Ico we see a lot of humanoid shadows in one place, so what if this entity splitted way more and spread in different universes?

In my opinion, since I noticed that Sonic in some way is doing things similar to the protagonists of Ueda's games but (mostly like Wander from Sotc) I thought to see a connection between the trology world and the medieval Sonic game.

Like what if satbk wasn't exactly how seems he was telling at the end that we see, what if it was some test/trial made for him but he wasn't allowed to tell to anyone outside that world so he made up things using also Camelot's story?

It could've went totally different, for example: the knights, blacksmith and Nimue weren't exactly sosias of his friends but someone else (I like to imagine them as a variant of Chris Torndyke and his friends don't bother thinking about this) and maybe it was all a sequel to Ico with Merlina actually being Yorda, totally took over by darkness when she became the final boss, and the blacksmith was actually the omonymous protagonist of the game who grew up and worked making weapons since those are a part of his memories back then.

Maybe Caliburn wasn't actually a talking sword but a fellow magic mask like from Crash Bandicoot that had the task to helping Sonic with the test he had to do in the other world using his metal powers.

As for what happens between the 2nd and 3rd game, maybe after the kid protagonist defeated the master of the valley (orb shaped like "the end" in Sonic frontiers) it remains in that world creating chaos again and once the boy is grown he goes everywhere to fight this entity, slowly becoming Dormin, accompanied by friends from his village and peraphs people he warned of that dark being and convinced to fight with charisma until he became old but there were still people who got infected by the darkness like the witch queen we see in "The girl and the robot".

I personally, seeing that little girl with grey hair, couldn't help but believe that she was actually Mono from Sotc when she was younger and at the end she was saved by the old man who was protagonist in "The last guardian" and his knight team, with Emon between them, and around that time she first met Wander as a kid too and those 2 slowly fell in love as they grew up.

Then I was thinking even the game Medievil was connected to the trilogy maybe in another medieval world since we don't see many details from the trilogy but have the villain having horns like there are in the 3 games and uses magic to bring back the dead and making them his army, a detail that was said even in shadow of the colossus and that was probably what Dormin did as evil conquering, indirect actions, and maybe that Zarok who's the first infected with dark remains after the middle game so he has horns is the reason if in Ico all the horned kids were brought in a fortess: it was a plan, to scare everyone then go offworld so he could find the other pieces of Dormin who went more far while in the original trilogy's world the pieces inside thw bodies of the horned ones were easily reunited and destroyed.

[demonslayedher]

Wonder why Muzan couldn't have just turned a government agent into a demon and accussed the Ubuyashiki estate of tax evasion or illegal property (since it was hidden) or something.

Well dang, that would had been a smart move, if only Muzan knew where to find Oyakata-sama first and know where to sick the beaurocrats on him!

I have indeed wondered where the Ubuyashiki clan gets their finances, and I think it's a mix of sources that they can rotate through and keep on the down-low as needed. I assume they started like other Heian nobles as landowners, and found ways to keep those lands in their possession through indirect means throughout ages and ages of different land ownership reforms and taxation systems, like having clans who are loyal to the demon hunters, like Wisteria Houses, be the fronts to manage ownership.

Likewise, nobility had such a foothold in the courts that there are still clans who carry the same responsibilities they were appointed with in the Heian period and beyond. It's astounding, and while the ones I've met are not absurdly wealthy nowadays, they are still well-off. Since Ubuyashiki is declared a master networker in Kimetsu Academy, I imagine the Ubuyashiki clan kept a lot of connections with other powerful clans in the court, especially the Fujiwara and Minamoto clans (from which hailed folklore demon slaying heroes irl), who might had been in-the-know on demon threats but left responsibility for this to the Ubuyashiki clan, whom they provided both financial support and political cover-up to.

Finally, even in the Taisho era, Meiji reforms and laws just didn't have a strong foothold in sparsely populated mountains. Even if people were told that elementary school was compulsory or that they had to switch to the Gregorian calendar, many far-removed people simply didn't. More or less self-sufficient people in mountains, who didn't rely so much on conformity like in communal farming villages, could more less live in an unchanged way without being bothered by the sweeping reforms in populous areas. It wasn’t until the post-war period that the entirety of the country became more uniformly governed like it is today. To be overly simplistic, the Ubuyashiki clan would had still had a lot of maneuverability in the Taisho period, but they have such a history of evading government interference and retaining their wealth that I bet they'd still unabashedly find ways to continue in much the same fashion in the current Reiwa period, even if it would take paying beaurocrats off. You lose again, Muzan!

[lightcreators]

There was better ways to introducing himself, for sure, nevertheless, he wasn't the kind of guy met usually inside casual situations without a bit of mystery around … Depending also how circumstances for such thing end up be created in the first place, especially when he was the one deciding of his own moves considering how Featherine, usually, inside such circumstances, did a wonderful job attempting to dissuading him … Interest was honestly, for the moment, the single motive who pushing him to get an chat with another incarnation of the Doctor, coming staightaway from the future. Amusement was also an second reason why there had been an desire to bring some pleasant glitter in middle of the situation ! Playfulness of his smile inscreased a bit when realization of her confusion showed up. Ah, this was going to be an wonderful moment ! If he managed just fine, Featherine will have nothing to say about influence on his actions --- in same manner that witch find herself blinking towards realization about what he done inside cimenting of events concerning one particular kid, just because he had been pissed direct interferences couldn't be done … Anyway, honestly, any other incarnation of the Doctor was in saving hands with him compared to Featherine's manipulative ingenuity ! ❝ An free spirit. ❞ He repeated, insisting over each single word. ❝ Someone who do appreciating meddling everywhere. ❞ It sounded like an reproach, which was partially one.

It was only with Featherine he could show shades of an good man he could have been. Whatever if it's was another incarnation of his boss, since in some manner, they didn't really met (but were indirectly connected together), approach wasn't to pretending an game in which he would easily bored. No. He wanted exploring the Doctor's perspective and mindset in an more interesting approach, where results he would desired to get would be something more abstract to be perceived. ❝ Isn't an nice sentiment ? ❞ He expressed playfully another time, though his sentence hide another time some unpleasant spite. Corner of his expression, as brightful it was currently, blamed about his natural unpleasantness and unforgiveness inside an mocking smile. ❝ It's something you should appreciate. ❞ He expressed that last sentence with a big smile, with full awareness the Doctor wasn't someone who liked no knowing … for little something was expressed about themselves. Concerning her following question, he remained amused. ❝ There are so many ways to entertain yourself that this one can be on the list. ❞ He noticed slowly. Ah. That another following question was pretty much simple and very complicated to answer. For one tiny second, he wondered what kind of answer he would offer her, and decided amusingly to bring another indirect reproach towards Featherine. ❝ Maybe would like your extraordinary abilities to create a miracle~ ❞ It was expressed as an challenge, as a way to captive her. Why not using most ironic and tragic approach as introduction …

❝ I just wanted your presence. Appreciating your presence with a chat. You're kinda hard to have you on a phone able to handle an entire conversation without feeling the need to hang up … ❞ It was another spade towards Featherine, nevertheless, he was certain other future incarnations of the Doctor keep that unpleasant habit. Oh, next questions could be yet to be anticipated. She will wondering why he get that far to desire an simple conversation … Nothing very simple and complicated at the same time, again. ❝ My name will probably resonating nothing in your ears. Philip Butler. ❞ He insisted a lot over his last name he almost take time to gently expressing with delicacy. ❝ Phil for a few people who know me. ❞ She was familiar with one of his alternatives selves after all --- she will noticing how he decided to copy the manner of the concerned presented himself, though, he had been the one confused, he had been the one having to discover the huge world of the Doctor … meanwhile he came to appreciating annoy such an Time Lord spitefully. ❝ Rings any bells ? ❞

"A what?" The Doctor asks, unsure of what the man is talking about. Not that it matters much. Still, her face scrunches up and she looks at him with a confused expression.

"No idea what you're talking about, dude." She doesn't really care much, either. All she wants to know, really, is what he wants from her. "How is this any fun? For either of us?" She asks, putting her hands on her hips. "Oh no? Well what do you want then? What do you want from me? There's usually something." Of course, since she's not locked up, the Doctor could just leave. But she won't yet. She wants to know what he wants from her, and who he is in the first place. He looks somewhat familiar, but also not. And so the Doctor needs to get to the bottom of this feeling she's having. The Doctor never could resist a mystery. "And who are you, anyway? Why bring me here in the first place if you're not going to try to prevent me from leaving?" She has so many questions. But those will do for now. She glares at the man as she waits for his responses.

[tadashiluvr]

confessing to karasuno first years

scenarios

pairing: yamaguchi tadashi x gn!reader, kageyama tobio x gn!reader, tsukishima kei x gn!reader, hinata shoyo x gn!reader

genre: fluff

warnings: none

a/n: sorry that tadashi's is short and that they all have poorly written endings, i couldn't come up with anything. also pls send requests, i have no ideas lol

as you stood at the front gate looking around for him your heart was beating out of your chest and your thoughts ran wild. 'will he accept? what if he already has a partner? what if he-' your thoughts were cut off by a call of your name and a hand lightly waving in front of your face, you lightly flinched back out of shock and he quickly withdrew his hand.

"sorry!" you said in unison. he lightly laughed and brought his hand to rest against the nape of his neck as he spoke, "so what'd you call me here for?"

"oh, yea, um, i like you a lot and would like you to be my boyfriend," you said, mentally cursing yourself for stammering.

he stood there is shock for a moment, he didn't think you'd be the type to prank him like this. he looked around to see if he could find your friends hiding and laughing but he saw no one. he was confused until he looked back at you and into your hopeful eyes.

you took his silence as a rejection. "it's ok if you don't like me back, tadashi," you stated, hurt badly hidden in your voice as you took a step away from him.

"wa-wait!" he started, a little too loudly, "i- uh- i like you too, i'd like you to be my partner."

"really?" you asked, looking at him with the same hopeful eyes from earlier.

"yes, of course," he said, flushed from ear to ear.

when you left a note, with a small heart at the bottom, on kageyama's desk telling him to meet you before afternoon practice you hadn't truly expected him to show, yet here he was, standing right in front of you.

"hey," he said.

"hey," you replied before mentally cursing yourself for being so awkward. you took a deep breath in before continuing, "so i told you to meet me here because i wanted to tell you something."

he looked at you with curious eyes, "what'd you want to tell me?"

'how hasn't he figured it out yet? i left a heart on the note and everything,' you thought before answering, "i like you."

"i like you too, you're a good friend."

"w-well, i meant that i like you," you explained, he still looked confused so you continued, "in a more-than-friends way and i was wondering if you wanted to be my boyfriend."

his face immediately flushed and he began stammering, "oh- well- i- you-" he stopped trying to speak and took a breath to calm himself. "i like you too!" he finally said, almost as a shout, "and i'd like to be your boyfriend."

you immediately lit up, "really?" he nodded in response. "thank you, tobio!" he looked as if he was about to pass out at the use of his given name with no honorifics.

you had been friends with tsukishima for a little while, well as close to friends as you can get with tsukishima unless you're yamaguchi, and recently you began to harbour feelings for the boy. you've experienced his sarcastic and semi-mean personality firsthand so you knew you couldn't confess to his face out of fear that he would laugh in your face and turn you down so, instead, you wrote a note of your feelings.

you handed tsukishima the note at the end of the school day and told him, "don't read this until you're home." he was quite suspicious of what it might be and his suspicions were almost 100% confirmed when he turned it over and noticed that the envelope was held closed with a small pink heart sticker, still, he respected your wishes and didn't read it till after he arrived at his house.

as he read your emotion filled letter, he felt his heart began speeding up. he had thought you would never return his feelings because he wasn't the nicest. he didn't know what to do, should he text you? call you? speak to you in person?

you received a text from tsukishima that read, "we need to talk." you immediately panicked, 'oh god, he doesn't return my feelings and he thinks i'm an idiot and i ruined our friendship-' your thoughts were cut off by another text from him, "meet me tomorrow, before school, at the front gate." your worries somewhat subsided as he was still fine with speaking to you in person. you quickly wrote back, "ok" and tried to sleep so you could be early tomorrow and look nice.

as you walked up to the gate the next morning you saw tsukishima already there, he probably just came from morning practice. "hi," you lightly spoke.

"hey. so, i got your letter," he started. you looked at him with worry written on your face. "why do you look so scared? i'm trying to tell you that i like you too."

at that moment you weren't sure if your heart beat faster than it ever has before or if it completely stopped but you, somehow, still smiled at him. "so, like, are we dating now?"

"isn't that the whole point of confessing?" he asked, sarcasm laced in his voice.

you lightly giggled and averted your eyes, "yea, i guess you're right."

you and hinata had made plans to hang out at a cafe after hinata's practice. you had gotten here about 5 minutes ago and were waiting for hinata's arrival. you watched the beautiful sunset outside through the floor to ceiling window that sat at the front of the cafe. while watching, you caught sight of hinata sprinting down the sidewalk and let out a small chuckle. he quickly opened the door and sat down across from you.

"oh my god, i'm so sorry i'm late, practice ran long today and i lost track of-"

"hinata, it's fine, just relax," you cut him off with a giggle. his face flushed as he heard your laugh, no matter how many times you said you don't like your laugh it always sounded like music to his ears

he admired you for a moment before the waitress came and asked for your orders.

"how was practice today, hinata?" you asked after she took your orders.

"it was good! i did so many spikes like WOOSH and then POW, it was so fun but i missed a receive and kageyama started yelling at me," he answered before grumbling about how he hates when kageyama yells at him.

"that sounds like a lot of fun," you told him as the waitress brought you your drinks and snacks. you quickly thanked her before taking a sip of your drink.

"oooh, can i have a sip?" hinata asked, excitedly.

"yea, sure," you said handing him your cup.

he took a sip and said, "that was so good! do you want a sip of mine?" he handed you his cup and you took a sip.

"yours is good too, hinata," you said. immediately after you spoke, you became flustered. 'was that an indirect kiss?' you thought, putting your hand to your lips.

"hey, what's wrong? you look like you just saw a ghost. wait, did you see a ghost?!" hinata said with more panic lacing through his voice with every word he spoke.

"no, hinata, i didn't see a ghost," you reassured him, waving your hands in front of you. "i just need to tell you something."

"oh, what's up?" he asked, tilting his head like a dog.

"well, i like you and was wondering if you wanted to date," you said, slightly scared for his reaction.

"uhhh, what?" he asked, confused.

"i said i like you, hinata," you reiterated, even more scared for his response after his previous reaction.

"no, i heard you, i just thought we have been dating. isn't this, like, our 5th date?" he questioned.

"i just didn't think we were dating since neither of us confessed," you explained.

"oh, well, i like you and want to date you too."

"i mean, i would hope you like me since you thought we were dating already," you said with a laugh, him quickly joining in with the laughter.

[astro-rain]

delicate; b.barnes

chapter one - “to wakanda”

delicate masterlist

word count: 1.5k

synopsis: reader works for what used to be shield as a highly skilled neuropsychologist. after the events in vienna involving the sokovia accords and a bombing, she gets an interesting request from friend and coworker sharon carter...a request involving none other than steve rogers and james barnes.

warnings: brief and indirect mentions of abuse/trauma

pairings: bucky x fem!reader

"I don't know Sharon. Are you sure I'm really the right person for this? I'm not, like, an Avengers level tech. Are you sure they don't want a genius or someone like Stark to do it?"

"Well, Stark is pretty busy right now, and honestly, no one knows psych like you. Not who I've met anyway."

"That is so not true. I'm willing to bet there's tons of other people you guys got somewhere who are ten times what I am."

"Agent (Y/L/N), in case you missed it, SHIELD isn't what it used to be. Sure we have old agents who aren't formally 'SHIELD agents,' anymore, but we don't have the expendability we used to. You're our best bet at the moment."

"Damn. I'm your best bet. I'm sorry," she almost chuckled, but then she thought for a brief moment. "Are you sure this is completely necessary? I mean, I saw the photo on the news. The quality's poor at best, and..."

She leaned in, discretely, and whispered.

"...not to seem like a conspiracy theorist commie or anything, but it kinda seems like people are jumping to conclusions here. Are we even sure it was Barnes who set off the bomb?"

Sharon looked around them, cautiously. No one seemed to be listening, but she scanned the room like her life as she knew it was hanging in the balance. She weighed her words in her head, making sure she picked the right ones, then formulated a response appropriate.

"Regardless of if it was him or not, Barnes still escaped. and before that, Ste-we'd been looking for him for almost two years. This analysis is necessary," Sharon brought her voice down even lower. "At least that's what I keep being told. Of course I'd like there to be more solid proof, but I'm not in charge here. He's gone, and they want to be able to find him and 'sort things out.'"

"'Sort things out,'" (Y/N) repeated, questioning the genuineness of whomever told Sharon that. "Unless they have hard evidence that it was him who set off the bomb in Vienna, shouldn't they leave that to uh...Captain America?"

She wondered how Barnes was able to escape in the first place. She saw the containment module he was in; there's no way he could've gotten out without a fight. ...But maybe it wasn't a fight. Perhaps it was a trigger word induced rage. (Y/N) understood a basic layout of the "Winter Soldier." SHIELD would've kept any information they had classified. However, after the fiasco in Washington, d.c. with Hydra and the whole releasing of all files predicament, she was able, with Sharon's help, to put together a simple outline. With that being said, he couldn't have broken out without going Winter Soldier mode. But doesn't someone need the trigger words for that?

“That's what a reasonable person would think, but once again, I'm not in charge," Sharon shrugged. "Things would probably be going a lot smoother if I was, but you can't have everything."

(Y/N) cracked a smile. Sharon was a friend, and a good one too. They'd known each other since before SHIELD was shattered in 2014. In fact, Sharon helped train her.

The only thing was: Sharon was a higher ranking agent and often withheld certain information from (Y/N). It frustrated her. This was where their personal boundaries got in the way of their professional ones.

She could tell there was something Sharon wasn't telling her, but she wasn't about to compromise either of their positions by pushing for information she wasn't supposed to know. Hell, maybe even Sharon knows something she isn't supposed to. Or maybe she knows something that Everett Ross wouldn't like. What if she was keeping something from him? Defying him? What if she was working with Steve Rogers? Now that would be interesting.

(Y/N) was used to secrets around her all the time. She knew Sharon had her fair share, and trying to figure them out wouldn't really get her anywhere.

"Right. Okay. Well, I'll get on this then. Thanks, Agent Carter," she teased in late response to Sharon's 'Agent (Y/N).’

Sharon offered a quick smile before walking off to attend to other business.

- - -

Pain. That was all it was. In every sense of the word. As she strenously made her way through the densely packed file of one James Buchanan Barnes, pain was all she could see. All she could read. It leaked out of the page and seeped into her skin like poison.

It was horrific what they did to him. She knew he had his memory wiped, had someone pull him out and stick someone else in. But it was more than just that. They took his past, his memories, his thoughts; and they ripped them from his mind, leaving an empty space to mold into their own. It was after this when Hydra, in every way they could, dehumanized him, made him less than. He was striped of his freedom, his control, his choice, his humanity, of everything that made him him. They beat and bruised and broke it out this empty human shell until he was nothing but a shadow of faded morality and consciousness.

But hell, she couldn't look away. She was glued to the aftershock of this horrible wreckage. All the years of studying Psychology and Neuroscience couldn't have possibly prepared her for the absolute horror that was his past, his abuse, his torture. It was heinous. Frankly, she questioned how he was still alive. How he still had the will and the drive to be alive. How do you live after that?

"Fuck," she breathed after eons of silence.

She seemed to lose her sense of time whilst she was immersed in the harrowing nightmare of Hydra's cruelty. 'Cruelty' doesn't even come close to doing it justice. When she came to, her desk looked like a bomb went off. Papers were bursting out of manilla folders, littering the linoleum surface with classified files and secret information. She leaned back in her chair, and gave herself a minute to debrief.

(Y/N) almost felt guilty, like she things she looked at were so vile, so violating that she didn't have the right to see them. Sure, she had read and analyzed all sorts of trauma and psychological profiles. But he was different. Something about James Barnes was different. It tangled her mind the fact that a person could endure all that. She could only imagine the effect that would have on the human brain. The possibilities are endless. Suddenly bombing the UN didn't seem so far fetched.

- - -

"Jesus Christ," (Y/N) murmured, staring at her office floor as Sharon finished explaining to her what happened at the Leipzig Halle Airport.

She sat mostly in silence as she pondered over the information just fed to her. Apparently Tony Stark gathered a 'team' to try and intercept Captain America - sorry - Steve Rogers and his (supposed) fugitive friend. It was chaos.

"What is this? Fuckin' Avengers Fight Night?" she wondered aloud. "How many people did you say were there?"

"Twelve total," Sharon clarified. "Five with Stark and five with Steve."

The psychologist shook her head, dumbfounded. "How did it end?"

"Steve and Barnes got out, but everyone else with them were captured and sent to the Raft."

"The Raft?!" (Y/N) exclaimed. "That's for, like, super humans! Not people like Sam Wilson or Clint Barton!"

"You're telling me."

Sharon seemed in agreement with everything she was saying. However, there was something she couldn't quite place. Like she was holding back. But holding back what?

"So what of Rogers and Barnes?" (Y/N) pushed.

Sharon got up and closed the office door before returning to her seat, leaning in, and lowering her voice. This secretive woman, god damn it.

"Well... That's what I came to talk to you about."

Oh boy. She didn't have a semblance of a single idea of what to expect. Apparently Sharon noticed.

"We're the only ones that know this. They're fine..." the agent trailed off, "They're in Wakanda, but they need a little help."

"Are you leaving?!" (Y/N) all but yelled before quickly slapping a hand over her mouth and uncovering it only to whisper, "Do you and Rogers have a thing or something? Cause' I don't know how else you would know all of this when I'm sure that no one else does considering he's now an enemy of several governments!"

"My relations with Steve Rogers are not the focus here." She could've sworn Sharon flushed. "But we have been in contact; I'm one of the few people he can trust right now, and I don't plan on letting him down anytime soon."

They totally have a thing.

"Noted," said (Y/N) with a nod, "but why are you telling me this? Does he want the profile analysis or something? I don't see how he would need it if he's known Barnes for however long."

"Not exactly..." Sharon fidgeted with her hands. "We need you to go to Wakanda.”

-

[A/N:] this is a repost of chapter 1 because my masterlist is being fucky

[evil-giggling]

Langa VS. the Assholes Who Hurt Reki

Summary: Langa and Reki have finally made up! But that doesn't mean that they no longer have problems.

(or, Langa just wants Reki to be happy, but for some reason people are very against that.)

Warnings: Swearing (Langa has has enough), Mentions of violence, Ad*m.

Words: 1.7k

(haha wdym the title is a star vs the forces of evil pun,,, no it isnt haha)

The stars in Okinawa reflected the sea, and the sound of their laughter along with the scraping of wheels against the cement ground is one that symbolizes peace, unity, and pure, unadulterated love.

Langa and Reki are alright again, and everything is right with the world.

"You... What?" Langa looked befuddled, an unidentifiable look on his features, as Reki nervously fiddled with his fingers, blushing from embarrassment. From what? He doesn't know.

"It's— it's not as bad as you think!" Reki said hurriedly, but by now there was a prominent frown on Langa's face, "it's— I was just ran over by a car—"

"Just," Langa emphasized, his voice uncharacteristically firmer and louder, "ran over by a car? Reki, do you think everyone just gets run over by a car? And do you think people who get run over by a car wake up in a love hotel? With a stranger?"

It's the next day since Langa and Reki's making up from their fight, and neither of them quite expected that the comeback of their roof-top lunches would start with Reki accidentally spilling that he was in a love hotel. Much less brought to a love hotel because he was ran over. By a stranger.

Everything was all so suddenly not-right, and Langa couldn't decide if this was better, or worse.

"—Langa? Hey, earth to Prince Langa!" Reki snapped his fingers in front of Langa's face, and the latter blinked, wondering when he started to get lost in his thoughts, and—wow. Reki seemed a bit too close to his face right now. Not that he was complaining.

There was a cute pout on Reki's lips, Langa guessed it was caused by his own neglect of their conversation. The former, though, upon noticing that his companion's eyes were on his lips, blushed bright red again, and brought back distance between them. Langa didn't stop the disappointed sigh from his lips, but the disappointment didn't last long.

His face once again etched up in concern, looking at Reki, who was facing down at the ground, his headband covering his cheeks, in an attempt to cool them down. Langa let a small, fond smile on his lips, before shaking it off once he remembered what Reki mentioned earlier.

"Reki, you can't just brush this off," Langa said, eyebrows furrowing and his chest hardening in both concern and frustration, "what else happened to you when I wasn't around?"

Reki sneaked a glance at Langa, before sheepishly turning away.

"Nothing," Reki said, but the lie obvious to Langa, "and you're talking a lot about this, like last night."

Langa frowned, "of course I am, you worry me a lot when you say 'it's nothing' or 'I'm fine'," he played with the hem of his shirt, before letting go and continuing, "because most of the time, you're lying."

Reki said nothing, only burrowing farther in himself. Langa huffed, frustration building up in him. If Reki thought it was surprising to see him chatty, he'll definitely have a heart attack after this.

Langa engulfed Reki in a hug, and it wasn't only the latter who gasped in surprise. Perhaps they've gathered some nosy onlookers?

Who cares?, Langa thought, Reki's the only thing that's important right now.

"Reki, be honest please?" Langa said, voice muffled, as he buried his face on Reki's shoulder.

"O-okay! Langa, okay, I'll tell you!" Reki stuttered out, a flustered mess, from the way he spoke, "just, let go, please?" He whispered to Langa, "people are kind of looking at us right now."

Langa didn't care who saw them, honestly. But he got what he wanted, and he didn't want Reki to be embarrassed too bad, so he let go of Reki's waist, and sat back to where he was positioned earlier.

He looked at Reki expectantly, but with patience. The latter picked at his nails in nervousness, wherein Langa took one of his hands to ease his anxiety.

Reki brought back Langa's hands, and started staring down at them and playing with them. He seemed to calm down, as his cheeks were no longer red, and Langa sent a dirty look to the passersby who were looking at them with keen interest, when Reki wasn't looking.

Reki swallowed, and looked up at him.

He scrunched up his face and looked away for a second, scratching his cheek with a finger, a small flush on his cheeks, "uhm..." letting out a sigh, Reki collected his thoughts and said, "erm, before I met you, I used to be in this sort of team? Gang? Thing... It was for skating." Reki added, upon the worried and horrified look on Langa's face, and the latter let out a sigh of relief, and encouraged him to continue.

"Er, they were sort of—they weren't really people I wanted to hang out with?" Reki mumbled, sheepishly, "they, uhm, they weren't really ones who enjoyed skating? They did it for the aesthetic, basically, and it made them sort of lame for me.

"So, I quit after three days."

Langa only seemed confused, so Reki added, "and well, I saw them while walking through the market and they kind of..." Reki mumbled the last part, and Langa blinked.

"'They kind of' what?" Langa pressed on, and Reki swallowed.

"They jumped me, but—" Reki immediately started to add, silencing a seething Langa with the palm of his hand.

Langa was nothing short of furious, and he was ready to tell Joe about this development to gang up on the little fucks that put a hand on Reki. And you know what? He'll do the same to that stranger! He'll make them have hell to pay, damn it, how dare they hurt his Reki.

But he couldn't express any of this right now, with Reki's hand on his mouth, so he (begrudgingly) let Reki continue.

"—but, it's fine! It's all in the past now. 'Sides, I kind of felt like I deserved it? I mean, I didn't actually deserve it—" he said, at the furious glare Langa sent to him, "it's just—well, it didn't compare to the people at S, y'know I—oops."

Reki flustered, detaching his palm from Langa's mouth to cover his own. Langa squashed the giddy feeling of that indirect kiss, and firmly, but with a gentleness Reki absolutely deserved, placed his hands on both of Reki's shoulders.

"What did 'the people of S' do, Reki?" Langa grounded out, tired of all of these people out to hurt Reki. Out of everyone he knew, Reki was the last one to deserve this much abuse.

Reki looked up at Langa, and knew he couldn't just lie his way out of not telling him. He looked down for a moment, simmering in guilt—of what?— and looked back up at Langa, setting his hands on his lap.

"They, uh. They would talk behind my back, and uhm, and talk about... How I'm just... A useless... Er," Reki struggled to find the words, and he felt tears sting at his eyes, and he looked up, not wanting them to fall. Langa felt guilty at making him relive these memories, but he needs to know exactly how he'll hurt these assholes.

Reki looked down, at his hands, and then at Langa, then he said, "they'd say that I'm no one... That I'm just... 'the guy who hangs around Snow'... Or just..." Reki bit his lip, "the one who's not Snow."

Langa was reminded of a meme, back from when he was still very much devoid of Reki and his kindness, talent, and all around amazing-ness. It was a dubbed line from an anime, wasn't it?

This is the first time in my life that I've been provoked to hit a woman.

Except they weren't a woman, in fact, they were the plethora of annoying assholes who made Reki feel worse than he already did.

Talk about kicking a guy while he was down.

"Names." Langa said, plain and simple.

"Huh?" Reki said, confused and flustered.

"I want their names, Reki."

"Langa, they were total strangers! Which makes it even more pathetic that their words got to me, honestly—"

"Don't blame yourself for them being stupid and blind." Langa said firmly, "you're amazing, Reki. Don't let them make you think otherwise."

At that, Reki smiled, and playfully punched Langa's shoulder, "thanks, Langa."

Before Reki could pull his hand away, Langa took it in both of his own, "I'm serious. You're so amazing Reki—"

Reki blushed, "th-thanks man, you're amazing too—"

"—you really don't understand, when you skate, you're the only thing I see—"

"—that's really enough!"

"—and you know exactly what I need, and you don't even have to try that hard to figure it out—"

"—is this even about skating anymore, Langa?"

"—and I think your headband is neat, but you look so cute without it, and your hair is a lot more fluffy—"

"Alright!" Reki squeaked out, just as the bell rang, signalling the end of the lunch period, "we'll talk about this later, we have to go back to school—er, class!" Flustered, Reki fixed his headband, and stomped his way back to the classroom.

Langa let out blissful laughter, and for now, he was satisfied with his work. He hoped it'd be enough for Reki to temporarily forget what those people did and said to him. Hoped it distracted Reki enough to not figure out that Langa was planning to find out everything with the rest of the gang, and would be punishing the ones who offended Reki accordingly.

He ran up to Reki, and offered his hand to the latter, whose cheeks were still flushed.

To his delight, Reki took his hand, and they walked down back to their classroom, hand in hand.

Later that evening, uncannily enough, Adam proposed an idea to the duo. A rematch, he had said, to redeem Reki of his loss in their last beef. There was an obvious, underlying malice, in his offer, though. Reki looked terrified, yet determined, but before he could agree, Langa had stepped in front of him, a chilling glower directed at Adam, who only smirked.

Langa had enough of people wanting to hurt Reki, and hated that smug face on Adam's features so much (it promised to hurt Reki to the point that he would be irreparable, and Langa was furious), that before Adam could even comment at Langa's protective stance, he had been punched in the face by the latter.

And, well, Joe seemed a bit inspired to do the same.

——————————————————————

A/N: haha i dont know how to make titles someone help

@andromeda612 @yunolik87

[airanke]

SINCE I WILL TALK A LOT, I'LL PUT MOST OF THIS UNDER A LINEBREAK!! But I will cover:

Fae AUs

Demigod AUs

BNHA AU for Dante x Abiteth (which involves Dabi)

Superhero/Supervillain AU for Dante x Abiteth

I do have a Fae AU for Dabi x Abiteth!! It's part of my Monster Dabi AU ideas (one of 2084708423 I want to draw designs for). Dabi is a Dullahan (cowboy/biker), and Abiteth is a traditional fairy (y'know with the pretty sparkly wings and such, I actually drew this AU for them for AbiTou-ber last year). Dabi only has one wing left in this AU, and Abiteth is meant to have gothic cowgirl vibes! I don't have much of a plot for this AU atm, but it's lumbering around in my brain, percolating like strong coffee~

Dante x Abiteth... I think I have a Fae AU lurking in my brain for them, but it's not something that is entirely developed at the moment and I have NO idea what kind of fae they would be, so unfortunately I can't say if there are any differences there yet!

DEMIGOD AU I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS!!!! Usually I go with Greek Gods (because I'm a weakling LMAO), and in my current Dabi x Abiteth Greek God AU, they become the new Hades/Persephone after the current ones are hunted down (by who, I don't know yet, maybe a returned titan??) and killed. Perse/Hades also hadn't MET even in this AU yet, so when their power was transferred to Dabi, and Abiteth, both of them felt like there was something missing, and then Dabi saw Abiteth across the way, she saw him, the ground split beneath them and they were dropped into the waiting gentle jaws of Cerberus, who had been eagerly awaiting the return of her god <3 Abiteth panicked though and used her newfound power to escape the really weird sinkhole, which leaves Dabi to have to try and find her again (tl;dr I think part of the plot of this was that whoever hunted down Perse/Hades couldn't and can't risk their reincarnations ever finding each other??? Again, not fully planned out but I Sure Do Have Ideas).

For Dante x Abiteth, it differs quite drastically!! Dante has hella Ares/God of War vibes, and instead of the gods dying and passing on their powers, Abiteth and Dante end up more in a Percy Jackson situation where they are the children of gods, just in a more indirect manner. Aphrodite/Ares happened upon a dying Dante and infused him with their power so that he would survive, thus making him a child of Aphrodite/Ares, and Persephone/Hades happened upon Abiteth's dead parents, with Abiteth just barely alive (Hana hadn't even given birth to Abi yet actually, in this AU her parents die on the way to the hospital), so Perse/Hades infuse Abiteth with their power, saving her life and making her one of their kids in the process - which means Abiteth has access to both Hades/Perse's powers, and Dante has access to both Aphrodite/Ares' powers (though arguably, he never uses Aphrodite's power on others, he only uses it on himself to make people less scared of him LMAO).

For a BNHA AU, Dante has a super wicked quirk and goes absolutely BALLS TO THE WALL, EXCITABLY INSANE when he uses it because he's a real pyromaniac - it's called Chromatic Fire and depending on what color he chooses to use, depends on what it does (and what the backlash to him is, aside from the regular overheating). He and Dabi tolerate each other for Abiteth's sake because realistically, no matter how tough I make her, there is no way she's survive putting herself in the middle of a fire fight between the two 😂 I generally only think of this AU in terms that Dante gets transported from his canon-verse into BNHA-verse, and it only happens because DANTE'S Abiteth also gets transported there, so imagine Dabi's shock when there are two Abiteth's and one of them is much more willing to kill him than the other is 🤣🤣🤣

As for a solely Dante x Abiteth Superhero/villain AU, I don't... have much? Like obviously I do have some ideas, but since in their canon story they could technically fall under being superhero/villain labels, coming up with an AU like this is a bit more difficult for my brain atm! It's definitely there, and it would definitely be more leaning into Marvel/DC style sort of Superhero/villain ideas, cuz MHA has kind of infected my brain in terms of what a Superhero/villain story should be LMAO!!! I guess, realistically, if I did something like this for Dante x Abiteth, it would definitely have more of the "secret life as a hero, normal life as a BORING PERSON" so yeah, it's simmering!

Ask me about my AUs, and if I have the same AU for Dante x Abiteth that I do for Dabi x Abiteth (x Touya), then I'll tell you what's different between them.

[terubakudan]

This may be an old article from 3 years ago, but these cultural aspects/observations still apply even today. And though this is strictly a Chinese perspective, a lot of these everyday life bits are observed in Overseas Chinese communities in countries such as The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. as well as countries heavily influenced by Chinese culture like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

I've always liked learning about other cultures and making comparisons between how things are done East vs West. Which probably stems from growing up with two cultures and Mom raising me on American movies xD

So the irony is if you asked me how many Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hong Kong actors I know, chances are I know as much as you do xD Like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and that's about it. But if you asked me about Western (specifically American and British) actors, then I have a useless brain dump of movie trivia and who was with who in what movie xD

Hmmm, both Taiwan and the Philippines are two distinct cultures but both look up to a certain country and are fascinated by that. In Taiwan's case, Japan and the US for the Philippines. In both cases, this is due to being under the rule of those countries in their history. Taiwan being under Japan for 50 years, and the Philippines being under Spain for 300+ years, followed by periods of American and Japanese rule. To put it simply though:

Taiwan is "mini-Japan with a very Chinese culture".

The Philippines is "former colony of Spain with lots of American influences".

But unlike the author, I've never set foot in any Western country, so my understandings are strictly what I've observed in media, which while it can be accurate, doesn't compare to actually experiencing the culture.

Some further elaboration on most points:

#1 We quite literally use chopsticks for everything. We use it to pick rice, viands, vegetables, fruit, smaller desserts, almost all the food you can think of.

But where do you put your chopsticks when you're not using them? Just put them on top of your bowl or flat on your plate. But do not ever stick them vertically. It's taboo, since it looks like incense sticks, which we use to pray for those who have passed, like our ancestors or during funerary services.

#3 The majority of Asia is obsessed with fair/white skin. In my time at the Philippines, I grew up watching all these Dove Whitening commercials and my classmates often commented on how fair my skin was, how they envied it etc. In Taiwan, girls often say they don't want to 變黑 (biàn hēi) 'become dark'. Japan and Korea too are not innocent of this either (if their beauty/skin products weren't a dead giveaway).

People here at Taiwan often mistake me for being from Hong Kong or Japan (as long as I don't speak Mandarin with my heavy accent xD). A Taiwanese classmate of mine joked that she often gets mistaken for being from Southeast Asia due to having a darker complexion. And while I laughed it off with her at that time, looking back, I now realize she was lowkey being racist. xD

And believe me Filipinas have mentioned literally being told 'your skin is so dark' here in Taiwan, or being given backhanded compliments like 'you're pretty despite having dark skin' and...*facepalms*

My point is, beauty is not exclusive to skin color. People who still think that are assholes.

#5 Not to say we don't have salt and pepper, but yes soy sauce and vinegar are the classic condiments you see on the table, be it at home or at a restaurant.

And if I may add, Taiwanese love their pepper. xD If you ever get to eat at a night market or a smaller "Mom n' Pop-style" restaurant here, some dishes/soups tend to add quite an excessive amount of pepper. Not like anthills, but quite liberally and way more than average. Enough that you see traces of pepper at the bottom of the food paper bag or swirling in your soup. xD

#6 I know this all too well from personal experience. In my years of studying at Taiwan, I always had roommates. 3 in my first school (I graduated high school in the Philippines pre K-12 so I had to make up 2 years of Senior High), followed by 2 in college, with the exception of 1 in freshman year.

My college did offer single person dorms but at around 9000 NTD ($324) per month compared to around 6000 NTD ($216) per semester. Because I wanted to save, the choice was obvious for me xD. But ah, this doesn't mean I don't value personal space, in fact I love having the room to myself, and since both my roomies would go home to their families every weekend, weekends were bliss for me xD

And you don't have to be friends with your roommates (that's an added bonus however), you just have to get along with them. I was quite lucky to have really great roommates all throughout my schooling years.

#9 In the Philippines, we do. Owing mostly to American influences and maybe being predominantly Catholic? xD

#10 *sigh* Chinese parents and parents from similar Asian cultures tend to put too much emphasis on grades, so much that kids could get sent to cram school as early as elementary. This is because what school you get into could literally affect your future job opportunities, and while that's not exclusive to any particular country/culture, I feel it's especially pronounced here in Asia. I'm really lucky my own parents weren't that strict about it. However, if your parents don't point the mistakes out to you, chances are you'll do it yourself, if you're an Asian kid like me anyway. xD It just becomes a habit.

#11 My family is an exception to this. xD We do say 'I love you' directly, but complete with the 'ah eat well ok?', 'don't scrimp on food', 'sleep well' and similar indirect words/actions of affection. We were doing 'Conceal, Don't Feel' before it became popular. xD

#13 I'm kind of confused about this but this has sort have changed over the years in which eye-contact is now more encouraged. But don't stare, especially at elders and authority figures. Sometimes it's just shyness though. xD And I've observed this with my own Taiwanese friend, especially when I'm complaining or ranting to her about something. xD I'm a person who likes to express my opinions strongly, which tends to scare/alienate some of the locals here, as doing so is kind of frowned upon. Thankfully, she does listen and offers her take on things.

#14 Ah this. xD In the Philippines, this is a common greeting known as beso-beso, and I freaked out too when an auntie did that to me. xD Needless to say, Mom lectured me later on what that was. ^^"

#16 Along with #3 another crazy beauty standard. In my view, people always look better with a little meat on them and when they're not horribly thin. Asia still has a loonng way to go with accepting different types of bodies if you ask me. This combined with modern beauty standards has made the pressure for women especially to 'look beautiful' higher than ever.

I know many people love them but please, starving yourself or glorifying eating disorders is never OK just to get this kind of 'ideal' body. I'm not part of the Kpop fandom, but even I think when idols get bullied just for gaining the least bit of weight among other insensitive comments, that's really going too far.

#17 'If you want to make friends, go eat.' <- I couldn't agree more. In the Philippines we have a greeting: 'Kumain ka na ba?' (Have you eaten?) . Similarly in Taiwan, we have 吃飯了沒? (chī fàn le méi), both of these can mean that in the literal sense but are often used as greetings instead. By then which invitation to having lunch/dinner together may or may not follow. Food really is a way for us to socialize and to catch up with what's going on in each other's lives. Not to say we don't have regular outings like going out to the mall, going shopping, etc. but eating together is a huge part of our culture, be it with family or friends.

And while I'm at it, some memes that are way too accurate good to pass up xD

Parents, uncles, aunties alike will fight over the bill xD

Alternatively:

You just space out until your name is called xD

My parents are guilty of the last one. Logic how? xD

#18 True. xD I like giving compliments out to people but I have a hard time accepting them myself, though I've learnt how to accept them much more now than before. We're kind of raised to constantly downplay ourselves so we often say things like 'ah no no' or 'I'm really not that good'. The downside of this of course is that it can come off as somewhat fake. xD

Again from personal experience, that same classmate who made the lowkey racist remark, she was good, she was on the debate team, was a honor student, knew how to mingle with people, but she downplayed herself way too much, while praising me but I honestly thought that she never really meant it from how she treated me. She wanted to keep me around her yet make backhanded compliments at me and she didn't want me socializing with my other classmate who is now my friend. *sigh* It was only after discussing this with one of my roomies did I realize how this 'excessive downplaying' might come off to people like me who more or less grew up with a more 'Westernized' mindset. I'm not saying brag about your achievements but don't be overly humble about them either, which can also be a turn off.

#20 We do tend to be a lot more realistic on how we view things, neither entirely optimistic nor pessimistic. We try to think of things practically and often analyze things on pure logic. A downside of this however, is that Chinese people can be overly practical. Taiwanese for instance don't like to 'find inconveniences' and generally keep to themselves, meaning, they won't help you in your hour of need even when they do have the capabilities. Sounds really harsh I know, but in my 6 years of living in Taiwan, while this doesn't apply to all the people, a lot of them really do only find/talk to you when they need something.

So for some people saying Taiwanese are 'friendly', that's BS xD If you ask me, Filipinos are infinitely more friendly, and again while not all, generally make more of an effort to help you when you need it. I really felt more of a real sense of community during my years growing up in the Philippines compared to Taiwan.

#21 Children do tend to stay with their parents well into college and adulthood, since Chinese families are indeed very family-oriented, in a lot of cases, grandparents often live under the same roof as us as well! And it really does save a lot of money. I see there's a real stigma in the US when it comes to "living with your parents", but that's starting to change especially because of Covid and having more and more people move back in with their parents.

Housing unfortunately is pretty much hella expensive no matter where you go, and Taiwan is no exception. Steep housing prices and the very high cost of raising a child (schooling + buxiban fees, etc.) contribute to a very low birth rate and thus an aging population like Japan. It's not uncommon to see both parents working in Taiwan.

#23 I'm an overthinker myself, but I totally agree with the author that the best is to strike a good balance between these two. Which I guess is why I love drawing or any other related creative attempts, it helps me be more spontaneous or well, creative! I like to remain intellectually or artistically inspired.

#24 Is French high school really like that? xD My friend did watch SKAM France and more or less got a culture shock from what was depicted on the show. I can confirm however that most high schools both in the Philippines and Taiwan require students to wear a uniform, only in college is everybody free to wear casual/civilian clothes.

#26 Ah this is part of our Asian gift-giving etiquette xD We always open gifts later after the event/meeting and in private. Never open them in front of the person who gave it to you or in front of others. This is to prevent any 'shame/embarrassment' that may result both to yourself and to the gift giver. I know this may come off as something weird since some people may want a more honest response or immediate feedback when it comes to gift-giving, but that's just how it is in our culture. You're always free to ask us though (in private) if we liked the gift or not ^^"

#28 I want to say the same goes to drinking, partying, and drugs however xD Those are things which are still frowned upon in our culture. And to be honest, whenever I see those in movies, it does kind of turn me off xD It doesn't mean that we're "uncool" or "boring", we just think that there are much better or healthier ways of "having fun".

#31 Is this true in France?! Man I would kind of prefer that instead of people being on their phones all the time xD This kind of goes with #20 in that Chinese are overly practical or logical, and don't read fiction as much as nonfiction. My Taiwanese friend is an exception though, she's a bibliophile who loves the feel of paper books compared to e-books, and it's a trait of her that I like a lot. Both the Philippines and Taiwan however have a huge fanbase when it comes to manga and anime though.

I'm all for reading outside of "designated reading" at schools especially. Reading fiction improves your vocabulary too, and can be quite fun! It helps you imagine and really invest in a world/story, and if you ask me something that I feel Westerners are better at, they're more in touch with their emotions and creativity, and are thus much more able to write compelling or original stories. Believe me, I've seen a fair amount of Chinese movies that rip off Western movie plotlines xD

#33 Nothing much to add on here..except that since I'm a "weird" person, Mom often jokes that she got the wrong baby from the hospital. xD

#35 True. While I agree with the care and concern that your fellow community can give you, the downside of this is we tend to only hang out with our own people, e.g Chinese with Chinese, Taiwanese with Taiwanese, etc. I've seen too that it's especially hard to make friends in Japan and Korea as a foreigner. Not only is there the language barrier, but the differences in culture too. In a way, Asians can be pretty close-minded on getting to know other cultures or actually making friends with people from other countries. I know this all too well being half-Taiwanese/half-Filipino, being neither "Filipino" enough nor "Taiwanese" enough. xD It's more of people here being too used to what they're comfortable with.

#36 Oh this is something I feel that Chinese students and other students from similar cultures should really improve on. xD How will people respect you if you don't speak your mind?

I felt bad especially for my Spanish teacher in college, granted it was an introductory course (Spanish I and II) but the amount of times that our teacher had to prompt a student to recite/speak even with clear hints already made her (and me too) extremely frustrated. The thing is, these are college students, I personally feel they don't have any reason to be so shy of speaking and technically by not doing so they're slowing the pace of the class too much and a lot of time is wasted.

Unfortunately you can't always be very vocal with your thoughts and opinions in most Asian cultures. I would say strive for that, but at the same time, play your cards well, especially if you're in a workplace setting.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading and here's a cookie! 🍪 I'm not perfect and there's bound to be something I missed so please let me know if you spotted anything wrong. Feedback/questions are very much welcome and please feel free to share about your country/culture's differences or similarities!