#i did not vote despite finally being able to

[nkn0va]

THE LAST MINUTE RUSHED AS HELL CHRISTMAS EVENT

I'm writing this shit on Christmas Eve night, speedrun mode activate

Thanks to everyone who submitted and supported this rushed thing here. Hopefully next year if we last that long I'll be able to give you all something better. And hopefully none of this comes off as too half-baked.

Fun fact: Blazblue was not a two way, not a three way, but a FOUR WAY TIE, EVERYONE WANTED A DIFFERENT CHARCTER

To settle this dispute, I did it in the only appropriate way I knew how:

We will be revealing the winners for each fandom as voted for by the submissions and the prompts that have been chosen as we go along here.

Without further ado, enjoy the first ever seasonal event on the NKN0va blog. Hope you all have a jolly Christmas day.

(Spoilers mentioned for Persona 5 Tactica in that section, proceed with caution)

Helltaker: Judgment's S/O getting her to ice skate with them on Christmas

-You bring this idea up to Judgment on Christmas Day after breakfast, much to the fallen angel's confusion.

-She has heard of skating before, and knew that there was a kind of skating specifically for doing it on ice, but that sounded extremely dumb and quite dangerous, especially to regular ol' fragile mortals like yourself.

-It takes a while, but she eventually gives in, she doesn't have the heart to shut you down entirely. Of course it's under the guise of protecting you and making sure you don't get hurt.

-It's best that you don't go to a public skating rink with her lest you get unwelcome stares from everyone and scare the children, so you manage to find a frozen lake somewhere with ice thick enough. Despite being alone, Judgment is still very much tense.

-Judgment for her part when she does get on the ice falls over a few times. Balance isn't her thing, but she does get it eventually, watching anxiously as she keeps an eye on you as you start getting on the ice.

-If you cannot skate she'll have a few words for you, but since you're already here you might as well do it together. She'll put your arm around you shoulders as she tries to keep you both upright until she is certain you can go on your own. Depending on your own balance this will have varying results.

-Consider her pleasantly surprised if you know how to skate without falling over, she thought you'd be struggling a lot more. Expect her to make some kind of competition out of the ordeal and taking it way too seriously. By the end you're aching all over and she has to carry you home. 10/10 would do again.

~~~

Under Night In Birth: Surprising Wagner with a Christmas Gift

(Thank you Vivian for breaking the tie this was way easier than if I got the alternative on a coin flip and had to do the other option instead)

-Wagner is no stranger to gifts. Especially super extravagant ones around the holidays thanks to her family background. This put you in quite the conundrum.

-As long as you've known the Crimson Knight, she's always been very hard to please. That fact that you're a normal person with a normal income also does not help matters. Trying to go extravagant enough to impress her would only break your bank in the process so you had to had to get more creative.

-You'd have to appeal more to her sentiment, and eventually an idea came. The only thing you knew of that appealed to her sentimentally enough was, well, you.

-Your gift searching soon turned into a craft session, taking photos from your phone of you two, printing them out, and putting them in a memories book of sorts and decorating it to what you felt was her liking.

-When the big moment came and it was finally in Wagner's hands, she sits there holding it like she doesn't know what the hell it is. It's only when it's opened that it clicks.

-She'll smirk and call it quaint in a half condescending, half endearing way. Some people might be offended by it, but you know better. This is her way of hiding her true emotions. Deep down this will be treasured for the rest of her life, anyone that dares touch it other than you will be turned to roast beef.

~~~

Persona 5: Erina ending up under the mistletoe with her S/O

(AU where Erina doesn't disappear after the events of the story)

-It had been quite a while since any holiday was able to be celebrated, thanks to Marie. There was a special feeling about Christmas this year around, being able to finally celebrate it peacefully.

-Erina for one seemed to be the most excited. Due to her...origins she'd never celebrated it properly before, and was learning the ins and outs of the festivities and traditions for the first time, her eyes lighting up at every new thing she saw.

-The two of you were walking around the town plaza taking in all the sights, watching as the citizens put up decorations. Out of nowhere, right in front of a bakery in the plaza, she stopped you and pointed up towards a strange looking plant hung on up one of the support pillars.

-While you were already dating Erina, it hasn't been all that long into the relationship, thus you were still taking to intimacy. With a slight bit of nervousness, you filled her in on what this mistletoe thing was.

-Erina takes in what you say with a thoughtful look. Then, as straightforward as ever, pulls you by your collar and gives you a longer than normal peck on the lips, pulling away with a slight redness on her face but a satisfied smile. She mentions how this might end up becoming a favorite holiday tradition of hers before dragging you through the city once more as if nothing happened.

-In all fairness, you probably should've seen that one coming.

~~~

AND TO BREAK THE STAGGERING (but probably not unexpected in retrospect) FOUR WAY TIE, THE WHEEL HAS DECIDED ON...

I see the audience has a particular type...

Blazblue: Nine's Christmas Day Celebration with S/O (post Dark War)

-While Nine is typically a very busy woman, she is extremely family oriented above all else. She will take holiday time off, regardless of what anyone says. Not like they can stop her anyway.

-Definitely the type to go all out to spoil the people important to her. Over the top decorations, forcing the weather control system to make a light but not overbearing snowfall, and as many presents as she can humanly think of.

-This is probably the happiest you've ever seen her. With all the tragedy in her and everyone else's lives over the past decade there's so rarely been a time to truly let her guard down and celebrate a holiday like a normal, happy, healthy person.

-She wants to do every traditional (and perhaps cliche) tradition she can think of. Between having largely no parents growing up and spending most of her life during war time she's never had the chance to do any of it. Decorating a tree, giving out deliberately wrapped presents to you and everyone else important to her, going out to see the magical and technological lights hung up around Ishana, having a fireplace lit up and watching old movies.

-This is her way of healing from the long lasting trauma inflicted on her by circumstances outside her control. If the holiday season is about the people important to you, then she wants to take that time to cherish those people while she still has the chance, even if she can have a hard time expressing that.

-Also you're probably gonna have to stop her from bullying Terumi even now. If left to her own devices she is dressing him up in the most stupid holiday themed shit imaginable for her own amusement. I'm talking reindeer antler headbands and a Rudolph nose.

[saturnspandorabox]

Not Latvias entry growing up on me literally the day after the semifinal

[anim-ttrpgs]

Cover your eyes! Announcing the Gorgon Initiative for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

(promotional art by @theblackwarden, one of our team artists)

Okay so, we had a bunch of stretch goals in the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Kickstarter, and we actually did hit more of them than expected, but there was one of them we didn’t hit, the playable gorgon.

The gorgon being a playable monster type was stuck at the very back of the stretch goal list, mainly because we thought of it way later than all the other stretch goals, but honestly it was one of the possibilities that I was most excited for, and apparently, so were a whole lot of our fans. The gorgon monster type would perfectly round out Eureka’s roster of playable supernatural creatures, and we would really like to make it happen, despite not really having the budget for it since we didn’t hit the stretch goal.

Here are a few of what the gorgon’s key features would have been:

>Anyone who makes direct eye-contact with the gorgon turns to stone.

>A venomous bite, making them gorgon the second playable monster type to be able to inflict a poison effect.

>Cold-blooded. Won’t feel great in low temperature environments, but won’t show up on thermal sensors either.

>Scaly skin.

>Snake hair optional.

>Claws.

>Eating people like a snake.

And all this wrapped up in Eureka’s unique humanity-focused approach to monsters. How will your PC cope with their power to instantly kill anyone who looks at them wrong, whether they want to or not? That’s the kind of character development you can look forward to with a gorgon in the party.

So here is what we are going to do to make it happen despite the budget not accounting for it. It’s going to be a patreon initiative.

(promotional art by @qsycomplainsalot, one of our team artists)

If we can get up to 50 total paid patreon subscribers by the end of June, we will put the gorgon in the game. Currently, we have 33, so if y'all can manage to make that climb to 50 by July 1st, we will promise to make time and budget to add the gorgon in to the rulebook before final release. Ultimately, even 20-ish more patreon subscribers is less money than the stretch goal would have been, but we feel that it would be a good enough addition to the game to justify, especially because it's what the fans want, and because long-term patreon support is very valuable. You get regular Eureka rulebook PDFs as a part of the patreon, and even though there is also a free demo, the more more-updates copies or Eureka floating around, the better. We want people actually playing this game, and playing better and better versions of it. We’d release it all for free if we didn’t need the money to “earn a living.”

Supporting us on patreon isn’t pure charity either. At the $3 tier, you get access to our patreon discord server where our team discusses development of the game and gets feedback from fans, as well in a vote on which projects we tackle next.

At the $5 tier and beyond, you get that, plus regular PDFs of the most current and up-to-date version of our projects. In addition to a version of the Eureka rulebook with many more features than the current free version, there’s stuff you currently can’t get anywhere else, like Eureka adventure modules, short stories, and even a novella, all unreleased anywhere else.

So, sign up to our patreon, it’s only a few dollars a month, and help out with the gorgon initiative. At the time of writing this, we have 33/50 paid subscribers, and I’ll update the goal as we go.

And below the cut, I’ll show you the current changelog for the Eureka rulebook, so you can see what all $5+ patreon subscribers are going to get in the next big patreon update coming Thursday, June 6th. This changelog isn’t even fully conclusive, as work will continue on the rulebook throughout the week to make it even better before Thursday. That's a whole lot for just $5! I will also post the rough notes that exist for the gorgon mechanics as they appear right now.

(A new version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy will be coming to $5+ patreon subscribers on the first Thursday of the month every month until final release, and after that you'll start getting the beta versions of whatever our next project turns out to be.)

CHANGELOG

CHAPTER 1

Have started working on replacing the examples of play with updated ones that actually fit the current and slightly more stable version of the rules. These will be found in various chapters. You can see them in the table of contents.

Added a Foreword, a section on other media to offer you inspiration when playing eureka, and a section on some of the subtler themes of eureka

Copy-edited Foreword

A few minor clarifications in the Making Rolls section

Added a chart explaining the percentage chances of failures, partial successes, and full successes for modifiers from -7 to +7. 

Added Heat optional rule. A whole new set of mechanics for tracking how much police attention the investigators may be drawing, as well as how law enforcement will respond. Currently a work-in-progress, but mostly functional already.

CHAPTER 2

Added the Forgery skill to write-in skills

Many new snoops have been added. 

Removed the “Seating” stat for vehicles, you know how many people can safely fit in a car

Removed the placeholder boat entries from the item list because we did not hit that kickstarter stretch goal

Added Skateboard to item list. 

Added four-wheeler to item list. 

Added Acceleration values to all vehicles in the vehicle list. Acceleration is a new stat used with the new way that Speed is calculated for Chases.

Adjusted the Driving bonus of motorcycles and dirtbikes.

Changed Large Mansion cost to 25 Wealth Points in character creation.

Started copy-editing this chapter.

CHAPTER 3

Added vehicle crashes to irregular forms of damage section

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

Completely revamped the way that Speed is calculated. 

Added a mechanic to determine how many nodes ahead a fleeing character starts.

Added an optional rule for bringing an end to chases 

Added vehicle attack rules for use during car chases

Added more guidelines for how to make your own obstacles

Added recommended numbers of nodes for chases and recommended distance between obstacles 

Added the work-in-progress random obstacle tables

On-Foot Urban Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

Increased capacity of an unfurled thing from beyond’s ‘stomach�� from three to fourteen.

Thing from beyond can now more easily attempt to engulf more victims after already containing one or more. This now prompts an escape attempt by victims inside rather than automatic escape.

Thing from beyond can now get a bonus to mimicry attempts by consuming a sample of the intended mimicry target’s DNA. 

Thing from beyond can now attempt to mimic a person they have never seen or heard by consuming a sample of their DNA, but narrator makes a hidden roll about it, so accuracy of mimicry will be unknown.

Gave acceleration value to witch’s brooms and other flying transportation

Gave Acceleration of +6 to Superhuman Speed trait

Gave vampire small bat manifestation +2 Acceleration

Gave vampire wolf manifestation +4 Acceleration 

Gave vampire massive bat beast manifestation +4 Acceleration

Gave wolfman wolf form +4 Acceleration

Gave lycanthrope wolf form +4 Acceleration

Added ability to resist curses to fairy and witch

Added ability for fairy to transfer curses to different names as a means of protecting themselves from curses. This gives them more of an incentive to collect names. 

Added a tiny bit about the fairy world

Added Monsters Eating Monsters section to provide rulings for some edge cases where monsters might eat other monsters and what would happen if they did

ROUGH GORGON DESIGN NOTES

[Notes: Turn people to stone by looking them in the eye. Definitely not a power that the Gorgon can turn on and off, they will have to cover their eyes somehow, such as dark sunglasses or a veil, to prevent it happening to everyone they make eye contact with. Also works the other way around so you could protect yourself by wearing dark sunglasses. Still works even if the Gorgon is dead, like in the legends. Does not work through cameras, reflections, images, etc. Turning to stone is permanent, basically instant kill? Works like the witch curse except with infinite duration unless a witch undoes it like a curse. If there is no eye protection, could be a reflex roll on the gorgon’s part or on an aware victim’s part to break eye-contact quickly enough for the curse not to take effect. Also, they could have some kind of bonus to Threaten because all the legends say that they look particularly frightening.

Have claws and maybe scaly skin or scales in patches, maybe snake-like eyes and snake tongue that can taste air? Sharp teeth and maybe venomous snake fangs? People will really really want their gorgons to have snake hair even though in the legends, it was only Medusa herself that had snake hair. Compromise by making it an optional rule agreed upon by narrator and player that they have snake hair. Snakes may have venomous bite attack but the trade off is that it makes it way harder to conceal the gorgon’s identity as a Gorgon.

Gorgons do not regain composure points from turning people to stone, all other monsters regain composure points by *consuming* their victims in some way, except for fairies who regain composure from playing mean pranks because it makes them happy. Keeping with the rule of monsters eating people and also the fact that the legends always describe gorgons as having snake-like trait, maybe they swallow victims whole like a snake? Great horror concept but takes a long time. Could mechanically work very very similar to thing from beyond’s composure restoration where they gain 1 composure point each day for however many days. Could advise loose and bulky clothing to cover this up. Cannot really decide how to codify this because the most obvious way would make it pretty impossible to hide for a very long time. Could probably make multiple optional rules that regain composure at different rates and digest victims at different rates. One option that gets a lot more composure over time from a single victim like the thing from beyond but is very conspicuous that entire time. Other option that digests the whole victim extremely fast so they are only conspicious for a short time but ultimately less composure from a single kill. No option to regain composure from victim without killing them, like thing from beyond. No composure restoration from normal food but can eat it to stay alive, like the thing from beyond?

Do they have proper weaknesses besides just the normal things that everybody is weak to, like sharp objects? Probably should not have the Unkillable trait, but need to come up with at least one weakness that does not stray too far from the legends. Maybe they are cold-blooded, following the snake theme? Makes them very vulnerable to cold temperatures, and jackets and blankets don’t help because they don’t produce their own body heat. Big Physical skill penalties when they are in cold environments?

What is their second mandatory monster trait? They don’t *need* one but every other monster has their powers split across two monster traits.] 

Actually it would be pretty good if they had to make a Monster(fear) Composure check if they saw their face in the mirror

Their blood is either healing or poisonous depending on if it is from the left or right side. left side kills, right side heals. Make it  veinous vs arterial blood.....  But this would have no effect on vampires 

We have GOT to get the gorgon in if we have time, it’s such a good idea

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[lazysublimeengineer]

Almost everyone from the fandom were surprise that he was voted as the most emotional one in the poll at the Blue Lock Egoist Bible. It's understandable because most of the time Chigiri was a tough nut to crack with an impertinent attitude and a sharp tongue.

However, if you pay close attention to him since the first season despite him being withdrawn and reserved, he has one of the most expressive facial expressions in each panel.

He wasn't saying a lot.

But his eyes did.

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul and I couldn't agree more to that. Before his character development, his face look dull yet tragic most of the time.

He doesn't have a lot of dialogues but you know that there is a lot going on inside of him when he says something about the matter.

It takes of effort and prying to be able to know what he's feeling and thinking most of the time because he's internalizing a lot of things in the manga. Instead of talking about it, he's manifesting it through his actions and only the reader would be finally able to understand him once the POV shifts to him temporarily.

If Chigiri is the one whose crying face in that one panel, you know that his dam had been broken because of how he stifled it for so long just like what he did when he was injured in his backstory.

He definitely gives me the "feels" when the focus is on him because of how great yet tragic he is. Somehow all that foreshadowing about his injury in the Episode Nagi will be a jumpscare in the main manga because it will come to him when the least you're expecting it.

[sparklecarehospital]

been reflecting on my year a bit, and i was thinking about something. i think i know what the best thing i did for myself this year was.

making cometcare public. making the ask blog.

ive had this AU stirring in my brain since 2019, ever since i got really attached to doomi during the haunted arc. one reason i went so long without revealing pollarrydoomi as a ship to readers was because doom's crush wasn't public information until late 2021.

i had kept his crush a mystery for 3 years, but revealed it after a fun experience where people figured out who it was through guessing. i'm pretty sure i did a poll about it? asking people to guess who they thought it was, and uni won the vote, meaning everyone had already figured it out.

after pollarrydoomi was revealed and i started drawing art for it and people made fanart for it, i still couldn't post any of my AU art because ally wasn't public and she and howie were in the AU. in july 2022, for the comic's birthday, i revealed ally as a character to the readers. others around the time had started to notice characters i had in pfps and i ended up telling everyone i did have pollarrydoomi ship kids, but i didn't make them public.

in november 2022, i revealed eve on toyhouse. after her reveal, i would soon reveal sly as well in december 2022 on my birthday (revealing sly as a birthday present to myself is such a funny gesture now that you guys know how important he is to me). over the next few weeks i revealed cream, frosty, and marco as well. all of the main cometkids except chem.

then one day someone out there suggested that i make an ask blog for the cometcare AU. it was such a spontaneous decision, and i didn't even really know what i was gonna do with it at first. i was just kinda messing around. but when i made the blog i realized that if i wanted this AU to be experienced in complete authenticity, i couldn't make uni cis.

so i revealed uni being trans through the blog, despite the fact i'd gone so many years without ever revealing her identity. why did i do it? there's a lot of reasons. not wanting to make her a "dad" in the AU contributed, but also i felt like it wouldn't be detrimental to the story to confirm a character being trans. it also made me (and the crew in general) a lot more comfortable being able to properly refer to uni with her actual pronouns.

making the ask blog really changed me, because finally i could share this little family and comfort story i'd built in my brain with the world and make it real and make content for it and let people consume it.

but what stopped me most of all?

i've said it many times before... but i felt like it was cringey.

i felt like making an AU with 93985893844 fankids in a ridiculous complicated polycule wasn't something a Serious content creator should do, and i was really worried the reception would be negative or people would think it was stupid or something. i did NOT expect it to become as popular as it is. the blog actually has more followers than the MAIN ASK BLOG for the canon comic. it was received SO POSITIVELY and the fact it was just kind of blows me away.

it means so much to me. being able to share the most special thing in my life with people and for people to actually like it and have fun with me and want to see it, and for me to be able to not have to follow strict professionalism about spoilers and chronological storytelling, and being able to change and add in things whenever i felt like it. it's such a freeing experience.

when i was a kid, i used to make stories and OCs and i didn't take them as seriously as i do the sparklecare reboot. this kind of turned into my entire life and career kinda, so i had to take it more seriously. but making this AU honestly just makes me feel like i'm a kid again, it makes me feel like i can have fun and literally do whatever the fuck i want without worrying what people think or if it's realistic or if it makes any sense.

i know though, that some people don't like pollarrydoomi. and i know why. whether it's because of being attached to barruni (of course, they're the canon ship and main characters, i get it) or just having discomfort with the idea of shipping doom with anyone when canonically he hasn't experienced a redemption arc... i get it. i know not everyone likes it.

and that's okay! people are entitled to having their own feelings about content. i understand it. and i've come to accept that's always going to be the case with anything i do with these characters.

but i'm still going to do this for myself. i do this because it makes me happy to just have fun and not worry about being serious all the time. it feels good, especially when it's with characters that are really really important to me.

cometcare is genuinely the most special and important thing i've ever made for myself, it's such a huge piece of my identity and it makes me who i am. and being able to make this story public and share it with people and share these things that have been in my brain for so long with others means so much to me.

that's why i think it was the best thing i've done this year. it's kind of literally changed my life to be able to talk about them. it's made me happier than i've ever been making content. i'm not just making it to entertain myself alone anymore, i'm making it to entertain others like i do with other stuff. and the fact people actually like it still is unbelievable to me.

so, i guess my outlook for next year as it comes is to continue to stop taking everything so seriously. i can tell my stories however i want to. i hope others can realize they can do this too.

please make whatever you want, whenever you what, as much as you want, even if it doesn't make sense or if it's "cringe". you will be so much happier when you realize as a creator you DON'T have to take all of this so seriously. the comic still exists and people read it even if i'm doing this. You Can Do Whatever You Want And Nobody Can Ever Stop You. the only person who can stop you is yourself when you let your inhibitions get in the way of your ability to create things for yourself.

have fun! life is too short to take everything you do seriously

[svt-rosalie]

. . . ♡ OUTSIDE ! ? 🧁 RELATIONS ★ ﾟ๑

ׁ ׅ ୨ ❪ relationships! ❫ ୧ ⊹ ࣪

© 2023 , svt-rosalie rosalie masterlist!

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ POPULARITY — 100%

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ SHIP NAME — yerim + jihye ❪ 2YE ❫

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ DESCRIPTION — yeri and jihye are the two bestfriends that found each other in every lifetime. they both debuted the same year only 2 months in between the other, and it was the best thing to happen for them.

to be honest they both felt a sense of security in each other when they first met. one had just debuted that’s been a group for a year now and one just debuted in a male dominated group, both receiving extreme backlash. despite that, the two have a lot in common and enjoy the same things. they got along extremely well and snuck each other over to the others dorm for secret sleepovers. they went to school together and we’re always attached to the hip in the halls. jihye would ask junhui to pack extra snacks in her lunch so she could share them with her new best friend at school — even going as far as asking her parents for extra pocket money so she can take her new friend out to eat!

they’ve stuck with each other through thick and thin and have always supported everything the other does. yeri will post about jihye’s comebacks with seventeen and jihye will do a cover of red velvet’s. 8 years of a friendship that will never end not even if the world does.

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ POPULARITY — 81%

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ SHIP NAME — yoongi + jihye ❪ YOOJI ❫

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ DESCRIPTION — jihye has been an army since they debuted in 2013, she has all the original printed albums and even has two signed by the boys themselves from two fan meets she was able to attend! at that time jihye had expressed her concerns about being a trainee at pledis and debuting to the freshly debuted suga and their interactions had stuck with him.

it was an (emotional) surprise for yoongi when jihye debuted at the age of fifteen just a month after the release of bts’s comeback ‘i need u’. when they saw each other again the first thing jihye did was hug the older boy and say “look oppa! i did it, i finally debuted — sorry for not telling you!”.

jihye has always looked up to yoongi as an older brother she never got to have. for yoongi, jihye was like a breath of fresh air and he loves having her in his, she’s the little sister he always wanted to be a big brother to. he’s the one she babbles to about boys and girls she finds cute that week, he’s the one she calls when she can’t sleep and knows he’s probably awake too, he’s the one that has a spare key to her apartment just incase, ya know?

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ POPULARITY — 87%

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ SHIP NAME — yunjin + jihye ❪ JIYUN ❫

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ DESCRIPTION — jihye is like an older sister that you just love having around and always wanting to do everything with them. though they do tease each other 24/7 but we just won’t mind that.

they became close friends whilst yunjin was a trainee and when she appeared on produce 101 where jihye was a vocal mentor! not a lot of it was seen on screen as to not put either of the girls in a bad light of playing “favorites” whilst yunjin was on the show but jihye always cheered yunjin silently and behind the scenes of everything she did.

when yunjin was discouraged after working so hard and not feeling like it was her best, jihye would take her out for a meal and give her the best words of encouragement she could give to yunjin at the time. when yunjin debuted, jihye was right telling carats to support her younger sister’s debut and cheer her on — even telling them to vote her group during live performances saying she deserves a win after working so hard ( we love such a supportive older sister ).

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ POPULARITY — 70%

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ SHIP NAME — minjeong + jihye ❪ JIJEONG ❫

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ DESCRIPTION — winter came into jihye’s life when jihye was going through a very rough time mentally. jihye was usually always in and out of the SM building as she was friends with many of the artist there including yeri of red velvet, haechan, jaehyun, and jungwoo of nct, and also minho of shinee.

on the specific day the two met, winter accidentally bumped into the girl when she was having an emotion moment in one of the SM bathrooms before she was leaving. winter gave just the right amount of comfort and the right amount of love to jihye that, jihye just stuck to her like glue. they are each others support system when things get tough and don’t know where to look.

you’ll see a lot of the time they are on facetime with each other 24/7 — doesn’t matter what they are doing, rosalie could be asleep and winter does not hang up because that’s her little baby rosie what would she think if she woke up and winter wasn’t on the phone still? it make a very upset rosebud. like i said before they are stuck like glue and can’t detach themselves from the other. ever.

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ POPULARITY — 82%

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ SHIP NAME — donghyuck + jihye ❪ JIHYUCK ❫

˳ ׄ ཐིiཋྀ ⟡ DESCRIPTION — haechan forced his way into jihye’s life and you will hear her complaining. haechan was like a baby duck that saw jihye and decided “yes i will now follow you around forever mother duck”.

he was very much jealous when he found out that yeri of red velvet was close friends with jihye of seventeen and obviously knowing that one of his group members (cough jaemin cough) had a crush on the girl he just HAD to make her his friend, if not BEST friend. he’ll mention jihye any chance he gets “rosalie of seventeen and i are friends!” “no you aren’t?” “yes we are, i bet if i call her right now she’ll answer.” *rings rosalie and it goes to voicemail after 2 rings* “she’s just busy right now, she’s famous. . . ya know?” “just take the loss haechan.”

as you can see they have a very funny friend ship. jihye “acts” like she can’t stand haechan and haechan loves to be around and annoy jihye. it’s a very well balanced duo of i do say so myself. despite all that, they do support each other a lot and go out for lunches/dinners quite frequently and have random sleepovers with their 00’ liner friends whenever they can!

tag list — @ikissvernon

[misguidedswagger]

good man (touya todoroki/dabi x reader)

a/n: hi! god… it has been way too long since i’ve written, idk if anyone even remembers me at this point lol. but, i apologize for being gone for so long, i got a job LOL.  anyway, i finally got some time to sit down and write. you guys voted and Good Man by Devour The Day won the poll! i hope you guys enjoy some good ol’ touya angst!

this is a blurb bc i did not know if anyone would like what i was doing with this! lmk if anyone wants a part two lol warnings: swearing, cheating, female reader, the word cock, and idk if there’s anything else oops,  no good ending word count: 826 masterlist

i want to be a good man, 

“touya, baby, come back to bed,” your voice called softly, the sheets beside you already freezing cold despite your boyfriend only having left your side less than a minute ago, or so it seemed. 

i want to see god, 

touya was already in the bathroom, throwing on clothes from yesterday and spritzing himself with a cologne you’d bought him for your first valentine’s day together, ‘doll, ya shouldn’t have,’ his younger voice rang out in your head as the familiar scent hit your nose. he turned to you, grabbing his pack of cigarettes and lighter off of the nightstand as he leaned down to kiss your forehead. “sorry baby,” touya kissed your cheek before lightly pressing his lips against your soft pink lips, “ but shig told me to head over bright and early on tuesdays, you know that. i know you don’t want him to be up your ass either if he finds out you’re why i’m late,” he said teasingly, affectionately pinching your cheek.

i want to be faithful,

with a sigh and a pout, you sat up in bed, your hair tousled and touya’s shirt hanging past your shoulder and laying beautifully over your body. if touya were a good man, he would’ve taken you then and there, able to treat his woman in the way she deserved. 

but instead, touya gave you one more kiss and turned around, already texting the familiar unknown number he’d found himself repeatedly going to meet over the last month. 

but i know that i’m not, 

mei. that was the name of the woman who had stolen the time and attention of your boyfriend, touya. after he left, you tried to head back to sleep, but you couldn’t. there was an unusual pit  in your stomach. you sat up, suddenly feeling dizzy and nauseous, sipping some water to calm your sudden anxiety. something felt really off, but you calmed yourself and told yourself it was simply nerves from the day.

is there any good left in me?

touya’s tongue explored the younger woman’s mouth, his hands clutching onto her pale skin. she wasn’t y/n, there was no way in hell she could compare. no one could compare to y/n, so why was he here right now, ruining the last three years they’d spent together?

it’s getting harder and harder to see, if there’s any good left in me?

touya pulled away, a string of saliva connecting him and his mistress. she panted underneath him, confused at the fact that he had suddenly stopped. the red haired woman cupped touya’s face, rubbing her thumb over his cheek, 

“what’s wrong, dabi?” she asked, searching his eyes for an answer. he jerked his head away, lost in thought for a moment, imagining the look on y/n’s face when she found out about what he was doing. touya pulled his condom covered cock out of mei, much to her disdain, 

“dabi?” she asked softly, her eyes searching his still as she sat up, watching him discard the barely used condom and pull his pants back up. “did i-”

“i’m not gonna lie…you mean nothing to me, you’re pretty in the face i guess, but fucking you just now made me realize how big of a mistake i was making, this,” he awkwardly gestured between the two of them, “is over,”

touya left a barely clothed, crying,  mei in the alleyway, lighting a cigarette as he walked to headquarters for his meeting. 

the entire meeting, he couldn’t stop thinking about y/n and how badly he’d fucked up. she could never know, she would never forgive him, especially if she found out just how long he’d been fucking mei on the side. he couldn’t lose her, he knew that now, and he wished he had figured that out before hurting her in the way he did.

as soon as touya got home, he followed the scent of his girlfriend’s fragrance, a sweet and light scent that enveloped itself around touya’s head. he loved the scent , adored it even, it was one that he planned on buying her for their anniversary-

oh shit. 

touya rounded the corner, seeing a dolled up y/n with balloons hanging up behind her. there was a large silver balloon in the middle of the living room that read 4. it made touya’s breath catch in his throat, his guilt threatening to swallow him whole as his girlfriend ran forward, nearly knocking him over from the force of the hug. 

“happy anniversary, my love.” y/n said sweetly, pulled her boyfriend into a tight hug, completely unaware of the other woman who left a hair tie in the pocket of touya’s jacket. 

am i worth forgiveness, i can’t make myself believe 

touya swallowed thickly, his arms instinctively wrapping around the smaller woman in his arms. 

she can never know.

“h-happy anniversary…y/n…”

is there any good left in me? pt. 2

[butch-pyrate]

OK, but the way the red suit is also a metaphor for Edward.

Let me explain, Jim says that by taking the suit Stede has invited the devil in their lives without thinking about the crew. During the wedding raid, Edward calls himself "The Devil" and he has also been invited into the crews life against their wishes.

Stede is perfectly comfortable wearing the red suit and enjoys being Edward's company. He's more than willing to ignore The Curse™ along with the horrible things that Ed did to the crew, expecting everyone to accept Edward's Not-An-Actual-Apology and allow him back on board even though they all just voted him off the ship.

Izzy explains to Stede that the curse is a curse because it effects the crew and their ability to be comfortable on the ship. Which is bitter sweet since he has to create a fictional event to cope with the less of his leg and force himself to be comfortable on the ship even when it's housing his abuser and the abuser of several of his crew members.

Despite Izzy's warning, Stede counties to not only keep the suit but to flaunt it every moment it, showing it off even while aware that it makes the crew feel unsafe. Like wise, instead of making Edward make amends with the crew, he puts some eye and ear grabbing accessories on Edward and says to just "fit in better" and that people will eventually feel comfortable around him again, not actually addressing the problem and instead insisting it will go away on it's own.

The crew attempts to rip the suit from Stede, much like half of them tried to kill Edward when he finally went too far. The suit escapes damaged and Izzy gives Stede the good old "I told you so".

Stede is eventually forced to confront the crew and with Izzy's guidance makes a passing apology where he acknowledges that ignoring their feeling was fucked up and that there is validity to their experiences even if they aren't his own. (after all, to him, Edward has been a sweetheart. After all, the suit hasn't done anything to harm him. He's in love with the suit, it's beautiful and comfortable and fun.)

Stede gives the suit away but keeps the shirt. Perhaps suggesting that Stede will step up as a boyfriend and help Edward process his actions and feelings beyond telling him to fit in more and as captain hold him accountable for what he did during the kraken-era beyond putting him in a cat bell.

And after all the trauma, violence, and pain has been exercised, the crew will be able to be comfortable around Ed, accepting the fine fabric of the suits under shirt is perhaps accepting the red heart that beats under all the smudged coal of the kraken.

[green-eyedfirework]

Slade heard the shouting first.  Not many people ventured here, Slade had managed to secure himself a prime position in exchange for being one of the Arena’s best gladiators.  A cell that was more of an apartment, most all the luxuries he wanted, food and pretty slaves and good fights.  He’d killed the last master who’d ordered him to lose a match, and his new one had learnt that lesson well.

There was little more that he needed from life.  Talia knew that a content gladiator was a loyal one, and unlike her father, she’d cultivated that loyalty well.

“Please—Talia—stop—” a younger voice on the edge of desperation, and at least three sets of footsteps.  Slade straightened off the bench and moved towards the front of his cell.

“You know better than that, Richard,” Talia’s voice was coldly amused, “You lost a fight to one of mine, and the Arena voted life.  That means I own you now.”

“Bruce will buy me back!” the voice insisted stridently, “Talia, please—”

“I find myself not exceedingly fond of my beloved at this moment,” Talia said dismissively, “And you will serve far better as a gift.”

“No—”

The footsteps reached the front of his cell, the curtains drawn back to leave only open bars, and Slade watched as his owner stepped into view, poised and calculating as always.  “Slade,” Talia smiled, eyes dark and satisfied, “How are you today?”

“Well,” Slade replied noncommittedly, far more interested in the struggling figure pinned by two guards, “I didn’t realize I’d earned a gift.”

“This particular one fell into my lap,” Talia’s smile grew wickeder, “And I have no need for a gladiator that loses fights, so I might as well use him as a favor.”  That was when the struggling figure jabbed an elbow into the stomach of the guard to his left and made a break for it.

Unfortunately for him, the guard recovered quickly, and made a sharp swing of his staff at the bandages that wound down one leg.  The unfortunate gladiator crumpled with a strangled shriek.

“Come now, Richard,” Talia said, her expression twisted with distaste, “At least try to lose gracefully.”  The guards yanked the limp figure off the ground and dragged him closer to the bars, and the spark of interest at the familiar name coalesced into sharp coldness at the sight of tan skin and dark hair.  Locks of it draped across that bowed face, as though Slade wouldn’t be able to recognize the man that had killed his son.

Talia read the simmering fury across his face.  “He’s yours,” she said softly, watching him, “To do with what you wish, for however long you wish to keep him.  His fate is yours.”

Richard Grayson made a barely perceptible sound.

Talia moved forward to unlock the cell and waited as the guards dragged Grayson closer before snagging the young gladiator’s chin.  “Your master needs a reminder on what happens when he spites me,” she murmured, “Your body will do quite nicely.”

Slade couldn’t see what Grayson did or said, but he saw Talia’s fingers tighten, nails biting into skin, before she let go and stepped aside to let the guards throw Grayson inside the cell.

Slade didn’t move.  Not as the guards retreated and Grayson pushed himself up to standing.  Not when Grayson pressed himself back against the bars, fingers tightened into fists as the click of the lock echoed in finality.  Not as footsteps receded, out of sight and out of hearing, as the beaten gladiator cowered in the corner.

Grayson looked gray.  His expression was fractured and his clothes were dusty and torn and he had one arm pressed to his chest in a way that indicated either an injured arm or broken ribs.  Possibly both.  The other arm was tensed, ready to lash out, despite him wavering on his feet.  One leg had bandages from calf to thigh.

More than all that, he looked small.  Exhausted and trembling and gaunt, like someone recovering from an illness, nothing like the snatches of the golden favorite of the Arena that Slade caught from time to time.  Not too many, no one was stupid enough to let Slade and Grayson in the same room, and especially not the kid’s previous master, but Slade remembered watching his son bleed out on the Arena sands as a sweaty, bloodstained, gleaming young gladiator lifted his dual swords to a wave of cheers that shook the entire stadium.

It wasn’t something he could forget.

“Who knew that the little bird would fall,” Slade said, low and cold, stalking out of the shadows.  Grayson pressed further into the corner but there was nowhere to go, blue eyes flitting around the cell like something would save him.  “You must’ve heard the story of the boy who flew too close to the sun.”

“Slade,” the kid’s voice was passably level, eyes wide and locked on him, “I—I’m sorry—”

“Sorry?” Slade arched an eyebrow, “Sorry that you killed my son?  Sorry that you built a career that started by defeating the Ravager?  I didn’t see regret when you stood over my son’s cooling corpse, I saw triumph.”  Grayson swallowed, expression fracturing further.  “You’re only sorry that you’re locked in here with me.”

“Slade—”

He didn’t give Grayson a chance to spout off pretty words—apparently he had a talent for being charming, a talent for making friends.  There were a group of them, young, puffed-up gladiators, that fought on the sands like it was their own.  Excellent, trained fighters.  And cocky and arrogant to boot.

Slade had always hoped for the chance to meet Grayson on the sand.  To have the fight he’d been itching for for years.

This was almost as good.

Grayson ducked at Slade’s telegraphed punch, pushing off the bars and twisting past Slade to stumble deeper in the cell.  Slade turned to follow him, noting his unsteadiness and adjusting his speed accordingly.

The fun was in playing with his food before he destroyed it.

Grayson was talented.  With dual short swords in his hands, and preternatural flexibility, he had gone undefeated for years.  He was masterful at twisting out of the way of strikes, all speed and deadly grace, and even with an injured leg he kept his balance well.

But he was unarmed, his right arm was clearly paining him, and he’d looked ready to drop even before the fight had started.  Even drawing it out, it wasn’t long before Slade grabbed his wrist from a poorly executed punch, and wrenched.

The kid went down with a choked gasp, clutching his shoulder as he landed hard on his knees.  Slade gave him three seconds before slamming a kick into his side—the kid made a harsh, punched-out sound and toppled over.

“Pathetic,” Slade noted, standing over the panting young gladiator, “The golden Nightwing, lying broken in the dust.  A fitting legacy of a boy that tried to fly too high, too fast.”

Grayson set his expression into a snarl and tried to lever up.  Slade ground a foot into the bandaged leg and Grayson collapsed with a strangled sound, trying to claw away.

“If only Grant could see you now,” Slade murmured, “He had a talent for humiliating his opponents.”  What his son could’ve done with a broken bird at his feet—but Grant had been cocky, and Grayson had been smart, and Slade had to watch from the stands as his son gurgled out his last breaths.

Grayson stared up at him with a facade of defiance, half-curled up on the ground.  “Spare me the monologue and just kill me already,” the kid snapped, his snarl unable to hide the waver in his tone, “There isn’t an audience to entertain here.”

Cute.  Slade would take great pleasure in watching that break.

“No, there isn’t,” Slade agreed, and reached down to haul Grayson to his feet and shove him back into the center of the room.  “There’s no one to entertain here.”  He smiled, slow and sharp.  “Just me and you.”

The mask of defiance cracked, and for a moment, the only thing in Grayson’s eyes was terror.

[samson-the-whale]

Yay I did it

S-17 or known now as Strider is my transformer's self insert and this is his lore dump so enjoy :)

(I decided to write this like a lot dump with abit of story weighting stiel du to the vote on sed topic being practically an even split)

All info under cut

Base characters info:

•name: Strider or S-17 (nicknames: scoot, scooter, and squirrel)

•gender: male (trans coded)

•hight: (idk exact transformers nights so I'ma just give a comparison answer) he is considered a smaller bot being about just a bit over half the night of say Megatron or Optimus

•basik description: he has a Slimer statue his head resembles that of a hat and he has a flip down visor his eyes are a yellowish orange wiel both with and without a cog he has green in his design. He is able to transform into a moped that is patterned with Wight and green stripes.

Ok so his lore will be formatted into three sections one being his life as a cogles bot two being his life as an autobot and then third and finally his life after he joins the deceptions.

One cogles:

Yes Strider was once a cogles bot being known as S-17. When he was a minor he hadn't ryly carved out a true personality for himself aside from being this upbeat chipper attitude and areheaded stupidity. He didn't make many friends aka none . Therefore once he got his cog (during the events at the end of the tf one film) he transforms into a moped being a slower vehicle usually associated with Happy go lucky people.

Now something you should know about S-17 is he doesn't like being a moped shur he likes himself but he wishes he were a different vehicle specifically something that could fly. That's one thing about him that wasn't a dumb blank slate he had the dream to fly and sins he was cogles it only fueled this dream, to feel the aire Rush past him to feel the adrenaline of dropping and saving yourself at the last moment to sore above everything*. So you could understand when he got a moped as his transformation he was abit avoid developing abit of an attitude in the process.

*(Subtle foreshadowing)

Two false betrayal:

Ok so as we all know after everything the two factions formed the autobot and the decepticons well of course Strider was an autobot siding with his morals and thinking about the greater good but he had afu problems with the autobots.

One most of the time They ignored his ideas and was very excluded from “military action” being deemed as to small and un experienced; which really pissed him off because fore frags sake bumblebee was just a bit smaller than him and he was Optimuss right hand man. Two because of his lack of friends as a minor once he was able to transform he had none to go to and because practically everyone had previous connections one way or another he was alone and none cared. But despite that he knew the autobots were good so he continued to work by their side.

Eventually one day he was able to get through to his higher ups and was put on a scouting team to go to the surface for whatever reason. Oh boy Strider was overjoyed finally getting the recognition he deserves. But of course tragedy strikes and the team is ambushed by a decepticons scouting team, a fight obviously breaks out the group of autobots outnumbered.

During the fight Strider thought this would be the perfect opportunity to prove himself after so many times of him insisting he was strong and Abel to help and during the fight he did surprisingly well but due to that he started to get cocky. He saw a defenslis seeker dangerous ne'er a cliffside after they had been a bit unsteady due to a previous blow. Strider took his shot and went in for a powerful punch but how would he know that this seeker was skywarp who was able to teleport out of the way just in time and end up behind Strider and successfully pushhim off the cliff.

Strider has so many regrets as he fell wishing and hoping that he would survive that someone would catch him that help would come but it didn't he just fell he eyed to grab the klif to slow or hopefully stop his descent to no avail In fact it didn't help but made the situation worse causing some rocks to nug loos falling with him and then falling on-top of him once he finally hit the ground. His body asked his vision to be blurry; he could taste his blood as he faded in and out of consciousness. He tried his best to stay awake in case someone came to save him. I mean he's an autobot, of course his “friends” would find him. …. Much time passed and Strider started to realize that no one was going to come for him; he had been forgotten And left to die left for dead. Maybe if he could fly he wouldn't be in this situation… he ended up passing out.

Three a new team:

After he woke up he expected to still be pinned under the rubble of the cliff but instead he was carried by someone he has some form of handcuffs on but he wasn't shur his brain was still a bit fuzzy. Once his optics focused he realized he didn't recognize who was carrying him well, at least not personally. He started to put two and two together and realized he had been taken prisoner by the decepticons and the one carrying him right now was soundwave (he only new who soundwave was fun to him over herring bee rant about him and other high gard members and how there all decepticons now) he wasn't sure if he should fight try to get free or run but the decision was made for him as soundwave had put him down after realizing he was up and hiding him into the decepticons base he was followed by the team Strider had previously fought. Eventually he was taken to that which resembles a brig and was put in a cell leaving him alone with his thoughts. Well not for long.

Fore new friends:

(Wow surprise forth part :0)

After a wiel Striders thoughts would be interrupted by a small bot wou would start up a conversation with him this bot being soundbite (my friend @soulsquiggled self insert) eventually the smalls bot leaves and two other bots walk by getting Striders attention being ( my frends @teddy-bear-xing and @binkusdinkus self inserts who are still being developed and drawn) Strider gets their attention and the three talk the two growing fond of Strider and Strider starting to make frends with decepticons of all people. Eventually he'd be let out of the cell and his cuts removed to his confusion untill being toled that the three boys he had talked with and put in a good word fore him specifically Frome soundbite dunto there conversation being like theeripy to Strider as he had vented to them and in that conversation he had mentioned Howe he felt betrayed by the autobots therefore giving him the chance to join the decepticons… and he did.

(Also he becomes frenemies to my friend @certifiedforklif s oc)

So ya that's his lore as simptas I could put it so ya I hope you enjoyed

Also here is him with the logos (I didn't put it on his ref sheet becuss of him being on booth sides at one point.)

And also here is his old design that I scraped

[vincord]

Borderline Kotoko and why.

(I'm not a psychiatrist, a specialist, or anyone else. Everything that follows is just my own vision of the character as a person with bpd. I like to headcanoning to my favorite characters what I have, especially if I see similarities with their feelings/behavior/relationships. I don't headcanon to the characters and my kins what I don't have myself and what I don't know much about. It's just a hedcanon and you may disagree with it, if you want.)

Since her second MV has been released, I can finally put all my thoughts together and write this post. (thanks to my mutual who told me to post this here. Without her little support, I wouldn't have done it)

I would like to start by saying that it is obvious that Kotoko divides the world into black and white, good and evil, allies and enemies. This is one of the main themes that can be traced throughout Kotoko's narrative. There is no middle ground for her, It's either this or that. This hinders Kotoko in her relationships with others, it hinders her in her relationship with herself and the perception of everything that is happening around her.

A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by extremes between idealization and devaluation.

During all this time, it has been shown how Kotoko is able to idealize people or just treat them well, but then push them away from her if they do or say something that undermines her trust in them. She takes a defensive position, because an opinion different from hers is equated with a threat and danger.

"Lucky"

Kotoko treats the rescued girl quite well only as long as she doesn't read the news.

_ Kazui

The 1st trial. Question 6.

"Who's the prisoner you have the most interest in?" Kotoko: It's hard to say. As of now, if it's about whose character I can't quite grasp, it'd be Kazui with his strong sense of intellectual curiosity.

The 2nd trial. Timeline (2022/08/05)

Kotoko: ……Mukuhara Kazui. Thanks to you, I wasn’t able to properly serve justice to those who did something unforgivable. I’m currently acting as an agent for our prison guard Es. Don’t get in my way next time. Kazui: Oi oi, don’t be silly, Yuzuriha-chan. There’s no way I could just look away from your outrageous display of violence. Anyway, even disregarding the fact violence against those voted guilty isn’t a part of Milgram’s system, what you’re doing is just acting recklessly based on a broad interpretation. As long as I’m free myself, I’ll stop you. Kotoko: ……what a pointless argument. Hmph. Since Es forgives you, I have no choice but to forgive you myself too. If you to keep to your words, then you’d best do what you can to keep being forgiven. If you’re not, then next time you’ll be one of my targets.

She is interested in him and communicating with him. They really have common topics to talk about and maybe they could even get along. But he does something that she doesn't like and is directed against her and her ideals. Kazui stands up for those whom Kotoko planned to punish, thereby turning her against himself, despite the small number of common themes that seemed to make her a little more loyal to him. This act alone is enough for her to instantly begin to see him as an enemy, not an ally. _

Es

Kotoko's idealization and disillusionment with people are best manifested in her relationship with Es. In the beginning, she offers them cooperation, seeing that Milgram is somewhat similar to what she adheres to, only to push them away when her opinion was not agreed.

The 1st trial. Voice drama.

Kotoko: Some scenes.. you can only see it in a cell. Because you and I are the same, always observing the other prisoners.

Es: Kotoko. A person like you.. What have you planned? Kotoko: Heh. Me, I want to be like you. There's no way I can tolerate sin.

Kotoko: To be honest, I don't know your true intentions. And I don't know whether you are a similar person with similar thoughts. Who knows, maybe it's just my delusion of wishful thinking.

The 2nd trial. Voice drama.

Es: Listen to me. You're wrong. Kotoko: What? We've decided to work together, so i've become your fangs.

Es: That's enough. We have different views on it. I'm not continuing to work with you.

Beginning. They make it clear to her that they disagree with her and consider her wrong.

Es: Kotoko. I will not do what you say. I will determine the way i see both sin and punishment as i want it. It may seem wrong from your point of view. And that's understandable. I'm pretty aware of it.

Kotoko: How ridiculous... It's always like this... All of you weaklings always act like this... All of you enjoy seeing someone getting hurt...

Kotoko: You keep asking for it, but as soon as it happens near you by your own choice, you all start complaining and evading your responsibility... You're always like this... Always such idiots!

Kotoko: You have no power, and yet you make no effort to gain it! You're talking about justice, but it just doesn't make sence! You're invested in people's disasters, yet you take a position of "i have nothing to do with it"! You can't even face your true selves!

Ending. After they disagree with Kotoko, she instantly forgets everything she said before. Now they are no longer similar people with similar interests. Now Es is the exact opposite of that. _

It is also worth recalling that since her birthday in 2022 to birthday in 2023, Kotoko has never contacted any of the other prisoners. She isolated herself from her surroundings for quite a long time, only to then offend them all. She didn't trust any of them before, but now, when she sees that no one agrees with her, she has done everything to build a barrier between them and herself.

Most people with BPD react sharply to rejection, disagreement with them, actions directed against them, and so on, which they can interpret as betrayal and something that threatens their own safety. Sometimes it doesn't matter what a person has done or said. The reaction to this can be strong and vivid. ___

Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.

Here I focus only on paranoia and stress. Kotoko doesn't trust anyone, she's always tense and wary. Even in simple conversations with prisoners, she may feel threatened and something directed against herself. Actually, there is already a post that would fit this point and which is a little more detailed. It says more about PTSD, but still.

The 1st trial. Timeline (2020/05/30)

Mahiru: Hey, Kotoko-chan. There’s something that’s really been bugging me, so do you mind if I ask? ……how do you style yourself so well? Have you always dressed like that? But it also looks like something you’d wear for training. Do you play sport? Ah, or maybe some kind of martial arts? Kotoko: ……you really are carefree. Everyone in here is a “murderer” right? Is this really the time to be asking questions like that? Mahiru: Hmm, I guess so. That’s what they said. But nobody here seems particularly scary or anything, right? If I had to pick someone, then maybe you’re the scariest! Ah, wait, do you do like yoga or something? Kotoko: ……I can’t tell if you’re making fun of me or are just an airhead.

The 1st trial. Timeline (2020/07/09)

Kotoko: Kazui, you do martial arts right. ……what type? Judo? Kazui: Ah, my main is…… judo, and kendo. I also know a little bit of karate. You must have some martial arts experience too, right, Yuzuriha-chan? I can tell by looking. Hmm… probably a combat type…… I’m guessing not karate…… is it Taekwondo? Kotoko: ……I’m not telling you. Stop ogling me like that. It’s gross. Kazui: I-isn’t that a bit unfair?

+ Literally this moment.

___

Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights) +

Emotional instability in reaction to day-to-day events

or

or

In both of her MVs, from time to time there is a sudden transition to wolves, the red moon and Kotoko's inner world, during which she gives free rein to her emotions. It's like emotional outbursts and outbursts of aggression, the appearance of which you cannot predict, which is why they cause damage both to the one who has them, and, perhaps, to those who are around.

Not that I can say anything about symbolism, I don't think i understand it. But since this is my post and my headcanon, I can interpret what is happening the way I want.

For all its secrecy and unsociability, most of Kotoko's outfits are quite open, compared to the outfit with the red jacket. When she's in this outfit, she's either in her inner world, or with an emotional outburst, or hurting someone. Wearing a hood is an attempt to protect yourself from the outside world and the people around you, to keep all your emotions to yourself, which are already suppressed. Kotoko, with her hood up, is cold and aloof from everyone. She builds a kind of wall between herself and the others. When she removes the hood from her head, she breaks down these walls, allowing a bunch of different emotions to break out and mix.

I would also like to mention how she sounds in her second voice drama and second song. She goes from emotion to emotion and pretty quickly. The way she quickly goes from laughter to intense anger, from intense anger to utter despair and is on the verge of tears, only to then return to anger again, and then suddenly quiet down. ___

Identity disturbance with markedly or persistently unstable self-image or sense of self +

Chronic feelings of emptiness

+

The 1st trial. Question 1

"Just who are you?" Kotoko: Yuzuriha Kotoko. Someone who plans to fight for your sake. Well, that depends on you too, though.

Kotoko doesn't perceive herself as a person, but rather as a tool to achieve a particular goal. Someone who will do the dirty work that others won't do. She has a first name, last name, age, and that's all. Her whole definition goes through her own ideals, which she desperately clings to and clings to. Kotoko's views are radical and in most cases don't imply compromises. She's either a hero or nobody, so she always needs a reason to follow her ideals and do everything according to them.

Otherwise, there will be nothing left of her. ___

What can I say at the end? Well, this is my headcannon and that's it. I could have forgotten something, made a mistake somewhere, or not completed it. It's hard for me to keep track of it.

Kotoko is one of my favorite characters and some of the things related to her evoke a strong response in me, even if these things show the negative side of the personality and cause a pang of guilt/dislike. It's like you're being shown those disadvantages of yours that you're trying to ignore.

I like to think that she crushes a lot of emotions inside herself, trying not to let them escape. I like to think that sometimes she's afraid of herself, and sometimes she's not. Her cooperation with someone is both a feeling of being needed, and avoiding loneliness, and a moment of socialization. But she can't stand it, because any little thing or the wrong word triggers a survival mode in her head, which is why she builds high walls between herself and the environment again.

I have a lot of thoughts about her. I just wanted to pour at least a small part of these thoughts out of my head into a relatively structured post and that's all. Thanks for reading it. I've been carrying it all in my head for quite a long time and I don't want to wait for the release of her answers to the questions, you know...

[ehh-is-the-name]

People have probably already made this connection but I personally haven't seen anyone say this. Will the way s3 went, it's basically confirmed that Mephone made all the side characters that show up. I mean Ballpoint Pen was a confirmed creation, so I don't think me saying that is much of a stretch. And if we're saying that, then the whole Groscars situation not only about Mephone desperately wanting validation for the show he made, but also not getting that. All of that is assuming that the Groscars are something he created too.

I might be pulling shit out my ass, so please tell me to stfu if am, but I feel like he made antagonists for his own show. Originally I thought Walkie Talkie was made by Cobs, but with he way the finale has been going I don't think so. Cobs said that he's been watching 'cause he's intrigued the way there "story" has been going which to me implies that he hasn't interfered much. S3 feels different too. Now, I don't think Mephone straight up wrote s3 to go the way it did, since I honestly can't believe that whatever sentient beings he creates don't have minds of their own, but it's also clear that he can't tweak their heads. Since he did all that time shenanigans with Knife and Suitcase, and all. I wouldn't put it past him to create a Groscar character to genuinely review his show, (kinda like BP), and for his show to not make it.

Idk if y'all are picking up what I'm putting down, but I think Mephone set himself up for failure in that regard. I mean, besides submitting the show despite the fact he knew II didn't have enough eps to qualify- I'd also like to clarify that I don't think the Groscars ceremony isn't real in the II universe, he probably saw it on TV when he was first at Meeple, but I doubt that the host for the ceremony is a groscer award, and able to go to Mephone's little fake island on a whim to vote to not kill him.

I think Mephone made Groscar (the award person), set her up so she basically was the host of the Groscars (award show), and submitted the show knowing that it might not work out. I know from this, and literally fucking everything we've seen him do, (cough cough)

(cough cough) that he DESPERATELY craves positive validation for his work so he can feel alright in the end.

All of this is to say this phone makes me ill and I hope he's ok in the finale. Cobs took away his hope and... by jove I think we all need some hope in these trying times.

[justthemis124]

The Menendez Brothers Documentary

So I finally found the time to watch the Menendez Brothers documentary.

I'll begin to say how happy I am that Netflix knew to do a documentary to give Erik and Lyle the space to express themselves after "Monsters" was released. I also liked how they addressed the false events that the show was trying to display as the truth, the first example that comes to my mind is the documentary making it clear that even though there were rumours about it, the brothers never made an escape plan and never thought about escaping county jail.

The highlight of the documentary was of course having Erik and Lyle's perspective on everything after all this time. And it was truly heartbreaking hearing them talk about how the only thing they really wanted was to save the other one from José and Kitty, and that they each blame each other for the life that they have now.

I feel like some of you might expect me to talk about the prosecutor from the first trial (I don't remember her name sorry, not that it matters to me anyway) and I really don't feel like she deserves to be talked about, I'll just say that still having this much hatred 30 years after is genuinely crazy.

I was also surprised that the documentary wasn't addressing more of the abuse that the brothers suffered but in insight I understand why and it makes sense to me. Everyone knows by now what these brothers had to endure for most their lives, and I truly think that the main point of it was giving more context to their trial and explaining why today, despite everything, Erik and Lyle have been serving a life sentence without the possibly of parole. For that reason it was really nice to have jurors from both trials explaining what was happening behind closed doors. Because the reason why Erik and Lyle are still in prison today, and I cannot express how glad I am that the documentary made that point very clear, is because the justice system made it so. They made it so that the only thing the jurors could vote for was first degree murder, this is basically manipulating a jury that had no knowledge of the first trial, omitting clear context as to why the crime happened, which is absolutely insane and incredibly unfair.

Now I just wanted to say a few words about Leslie Abramson not wanting to be apart of the documentary. If at first I was disappointed I quickly understood how she must feels. I think it's safe to say that this case was probably the "case of her life", in the sense that she fought so hard and for so long for these brothers. She was the first to believe them and no one has ever fought for them like she did, and maybe no one ever will. And I found some people saying on TikTok (so it's not from me) that her statement probably meant that even if they were able to get out in the near future, they still lost more than 30 years of their lives in prison due to an unfair and corrupted justice system.

I'd also like to say a few words about everything that's going on regarding a possibility of them being free in November, I haven't done enough research on that yet to express myself properly about it so in the meantime I won't express myself on it on this blog until I am 100% sure of what I am talking about.

In conclusion I'll say that this documentary did its job of reestablishing the truth after "Monsters" and giving crucial context about their second trial and why it ended the way it did.

I hope you liked this mini review guys!

See you in the next post!

FREE THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS

[2amtechnicolor]

We Need To Talk About Mahiru

Mahiru's second Trial is out and oh my god she just jumped up on my faves list. I love analyzing the MVs from different perspectives so I thought I'd give my 2 cents on Mahiru's character.

My vote: INNOCENT

The first thing I really feel the need to bring up is that people tend to ignore that Mahiru is actually very intelligent. There's multiple kinds of intelligence, and while she might not be "traditionally" smart in the linguistic sense, she's incredibly emotionally intelligent. She's a master of empathy and mood making and is an incredibly charming talker to the point you don't realize she's completely controlling the conversation. That being said, I genuinely don't think she uses her intelligence for malicious gains.

One of the theories going around with her first MV was that she was overbearing to the point of being abusive, while being oblivious to her own toxicity. Now after rereading and rewatching, I'm inclined to disagree. Her love may be seen as overbearing to some but we have not seen any explicit bad behavior towards her boyfriend. (Contrast with someone like Muu, who was revealed to have bullied as much as she was bullied herself). In my unpopular opinion, I genuinely think Mahiru was in a "healthy" relationship, at least on the surface.

[TW for discussions of death, murder, and fictional depictions of suicide]

[Side Note: One of the sticking points people have while saying "Mahiru was toxic" is that "Mahiru's relationship only lasted 16 days" which is blatantly not true when you check the translations for MV1. Day 1 takes place during college finals (mid-March-ish in JPN), Day 7 explicitly takes place in the summer, and Day 15 is New Year's Day (January). Mahiru's affection towards her boyfriend lasted almost a year, and they dated for around 6 months-ish during that. The "16 Day Memorial" isn't about a period of 16 days, it's about 16 days over the course of their relationship where she was explicitly making moves towards her boyfriend.]

I need you to take a real hard look at how Mahiru talks about "love" and "being in love." More specifically, when she talks about the concept of "love," she often brings up the action of "loving/showing love" in her explanation. Never once have I heard her say "My boyfriend loved me." or "This is what my boyfriend did for me." The focus is all on her actions towards the boyfriend. And I genuinely think she was a sweet girlfriend! She loved trying his hobbies and cooking his favorite foods and going to his favorite spots. She was sweet, and kind, and playful, and maybe just a bit clingy. But she was never jealous or possessive.

Es: I see. So, you became a murderer as a result of some relationship conflicts? Jealousy… Grudges… Having your partner stolen from you… Those stories aren’t all that uncommon now are they?

Mahiru: You’re wrong. It wasn’t that. I…never even wanted to kill anyone in the first place!

She explicitly states that her crime was not based off of negative feelings towards her boyfriend, but she still takes responsibility for what happened. Compare that to Fuuta, who, despite his own feelings of guilt, continually verbally denied that he had anything to do with his victim's death. Mahiru not only takes explicit responsibility, but also pins her "love" as his cause of death, to the point where if she was voted guilty, she would never try to love anyone again. Without "loving" anyone, she has no reason to live.

"To not forgive me means to take the act of loving away from me. That’s the same as not being alive. It’s the same as not being able to drink water or breathe."

It's interesting the way she compares basic needs to "the act of loving". Not the concept of "love" itself, but the act of showing someone love. If she is not allowed to show someone love, to her it's like suffocating, like dying of thirst, or maybe...dying of starvation?

Mahiru in her second MV may be dirty and barefoot with torn clothes, but the one thing she is not is starving. You could argue that "perhaps it doesn't show," but when compared to her boyfriend...

She's incredibly healthy.

And of course she's healthy! Her lovely boyfriend's been feeding her those bites of cake! So is the cake "love" then? But if the cake is love, why is her boyfriend, the one whose being "smothered," the one starving?

Feeding the cake doesn't represent "love." Feeding the cake also doesn't represent "the act of loving." Feeding the cake represents the boyfriend letting Mahiru "love" him. Does that make sense?

The boyfriend lets himself be vulnerable, he feeds pieces of himself to Mahiru for her to "love." But yet, he himself is starving.

...Have you even noticed Mahiru hates talking about herself?

It's evident from her first interrogation. Es can barely get two words in before Mahiru interrupts them to ask them questions about themselves or to offer her own advice to problems she thinks Es may be having.

Es: Oh… yeah. Uh… I apologise for that.

Mahiru: Did you zone out just then? This job must be pretty difficult, so you might be mentally burned out from work. Herbal tea’s good for that, you know? Oh! Like ginkgo tea—they say it helps improve brain function.

Es: Oh, is that so? I’ll try a bit then… I mean, no! Enough about me.

Compared to one of the few times Es gets a question in:

Es: I don’t completely understand what you’re saying, but… Being in love and loving someone—are they really that important?

Mahiru: They are.

Es: Hm.

Mahiru: They are… More so than anything else.

When reflected back to her, her answered become short and vague. Her voice grows soft and shy. She avoids questions, especially questions about difficult topics, not because she doesn't understand the gravity of them (like Haruka) but because she does. Like I said at the top, she's incredibly emotionally intelligent. She was beaten nearly to death because Kotoko decided to be Es's "fang", and yet she still empathizes with them. She still makes a strong attempt to see their point of view, and even to encourage Es to keep working hard. Compared to the other attacked prisoner we've seen, Fuuta, who blames and grovels for forgiveness, these responses are like night and day.

But what do we know about Mahiru, really?

She's 22

She's a university student

She likes romantic novels, comic, and dramas

She loves love. [But she's not obsessed with being loved. Haruka is obsessed with being loved, Haruka wants to be loved and taken care of, Haruka killed out of jealousy and for attention because he didn't feel loved enough. We never get that from Mahiru.]

Everything else we know about Mahiru? Is for other people.

Her favorite hobbies? Whatever her partner is doing.

Her fashion sense? Whatever will catch her partner's eye.

Her favorite food? Well, as long her partner cooks it, anything's her favorite!

The only time we ever get a sense of her and her boyfriend possibly disagreeing on something is Day 14 in MV1. Mahiru wants to see a French film and begs her boyfriend to take her. This is odd, because just a few scenes ago, she was bragging about how their tastes in films perfectly line up. If their tastes are the same, why would she have to beg him to take her to see this one?

Mahiru, like Yuno, is hiding behind a facade. But unlike Yuno, Mahiru doesn't have a strong core underneath her mirroring. Yuno can drop her "nice girl" act and she still has strong opinions and feelings and acts accordingly. Mahiru, when you try to go behind her mask, clams up, redirects, searches for a way out.

So. Back to cake.

The boyfriend feeds pieces of himself to Mahiru. He makes himself vulnerable, he lets her in, lets her care for him, lets her "love" him.

But Mahiru? She never feeds him until the very end, and even then, her "cake" isn't anything edible.

She's not stupid. She knows she can't give him what he really wants: any sort of vulnerability.

Their relationship is one-sided, but not because Mahiru is toxic or the boyfriend is apathetic. Their relationship is one sided because that's how Mahiru wants it to be. She wants to be the perfect girlfriend, because, if we're being honest, Mahiru doesn't like herself very much.

Why else would she hate talking about herself? She clearly loves to chat.

She puts her all into everything...as long as it's for someone besides her.

She will outright ignore her own pain and suffering, her own emotions, because she doesn't want to make anyone else upset.

Mahiru: Sorry… for making you worry. I’m fine! It doesn’t hurt at all.

Es: It’s a horrible injury. There’s no way it doesn’t hurt.

Mahiru: It doesn’t!

So why did her boyfriend die?

Mahiru's very good at hiding her emotions. If she slipped up and her boyfriend realized and noticed how she refused to love herself, it could cause friction in their otherwise perfect relationship.

Maybe Mahiru was the one who wanted to die in the woods, and her boyfriend, starved for any sort of real connection to her, found her at the last moment? Maybe her mental health dragged his down with her.

Mahiru's incredibly complex and tragic and endlessly relatable. She only loves too much because she can't love herself. If she's truly unforgivable, and she keeps her promise to stay alone...what's stopping her from killing the only thing she hates most?

[justsomekpopstuff]

seventeen as a baseball team - part 2

A/N: I have had so many thoughts recently, I just had to share!

part 1 | current masterlist | fic recs

team colors are white and serenity blue, and every now and again they get ones with rose quartz accents (its my au i'll do what I want)

their team mascot is something whimsical that has a cloud and diamond theme along with it

the whole team goes absolutely nuts the first time that center fielder!Dino gets voted into the All-Star Game

When they find out, they throw an absolute rager of a party in the locker room complete with champagne showers. When the All-Star game actually happens, instead of taking vacations, the entire team shows up to the game. All of them are wearing Dino's jersey, have their faces painted, and come equipped with horns and signs all cheering for him. It is the worlds most perfect Embarrassing Dad Cheering Section™️. Dino is bright red for the entire game because he can hear them from all the way across the stadium every time he takes the field.

third baseman!Wonwoo, on the other hand, despite being incredibly good, BEGS the fans to not vote him into the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby

He just really enjoys his time off...but alas, one year the fans absolutely do not listen, and he gets voted in with flying colors. He is, unfortunately, forced to go by catcher!Seungcheol. Despite not wanting to be there at all and tired all the time, Wonwoo ends up completely blowing the competition out of the water. In his final interview after winning the All-Star Game and receiving the MVP award, he begs the fans to never do it again.

the whole team holds a fun exhibition game every year during spring training where they all scrimmage against each other

The whole game gives major Savannah Bananas vibes, as well as that one kickball episode of GoSe. They have ridiculous rules like when the other team scores a point, the team on the field has to endure a "punishment" chosen by the fans. Inflatable costumes ARE used. Synchronized rehearsed dances are a must-have and they put their whole CHESTS into it. The fans love it and look forward to it every season.

right fielder!Joshua can always be seen playing catch in the outfield with some of the younger kid fans in the stands during warm-ups

He is very sweet with all of the younger fans, and has a reputation for always taking time to sign autographs and take silly selfies. He is, also, a chaos creator. He has absolutely stolen Red Vines from a child after making a catch that almost went into the stands.

starting pitcher!Woozi will deny it until his dying day, but he absolutely did cry the first time he threw a no-hitter

The whole team went absolutely nuts for him and stormed the field. Hoshi 1000% took pictures of Woozi crying. Woozi found out and threatened to absolutely kick Hoshi's ass if he ever showed those photos to another living soul. Hoshi listened.

first baseman!Mingyu has tripped running around second base more than anyone on the team...probably more than anyone in the league

There are multiple compilations each season of him tripping over second. He swears its an accident every time and that he does not trip over the base intentionally. The team places bets at the start of the official season for how many times he does it during the regular season. Winner gets all the cash pool and first pick of dugout snacks next season.

closing pitcher!Jeonghan has always been secretive about the reason why he wanted to become a closing pitcher

He will always say he wanted to be a closing pitcher because he loves the idea of being able to hold down the lead for the team, or give them opportunities to win. Jeonghan will swear that he likes being relied on and is good under pressure (which, to his credit, is technically true). However, the actual real reason he wanted to be a closing pitcher is so he wouldn’t have to run as much.

despite being injured, catcher!Seungcheol still attends every home game

He is usually sitting in the same place in the dugout, close to where the manager usually stands. Seungcheol, despite not being the manager, is absolutely yelling directions from his crutches in the dugout. The team will often listen to him better than their actual manager. The whole team is taking bets on whether or not Seungcheol will become a coach when he retires.

[drsonnet]

"Today, in this upside-down world, we feverishly await the final vote in the U.N. General Assembly on the genocide in Srebrenica, while Gaza has been destroyed, and its people starved and denied water." (Illustration by Erhan Yalvaç)

Of villains, heroes and the final act

Of villains, heroes and the final act | Opinion (archive.org)

BY FARHAN MUJAHID CHAK - MAY 14, 2024

A UNGA resolution condemning the Srebrenica genocide is developed by countries like Germany and the U.S., despite their complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza by supporting Israel

Ino longer believe in fairy tales, although I once did.

Raised with ideals of sacredness in life, I was taught to honor the sanctity of humanity, to champion international law, and to cherish freedom of speech as the cornerstone of societal progress. I believe the Geneva Conventions were a manifestation of our collective conscience that mandated the rules of war and held nations to account. Women and children; hospitals and schools; the elderly and infirm were inviolable. I was taught that "peaceful protest" was the quintessential liberty of a sophisticated society that understood the relationship between civic activism, social change and progress. I listened, attentively, to the lofty rhetoric and was enthralled. I would utter high-sounding words on democracy, equality and freedom, and those grand glutinous words stuck to my teeth. I was – in a way, smitten.

Head-over-heels over values that deeply resonated in me, yet I slowly became disillusioned. It became evident those hollow words were never meant to be believed, only used to establish authority and reproach others with their inhumanity. Justice was not blind, and race, color and creed mattered in the application of the law. It is in this troubled context that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will vote on whether to declare July 11 "The International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide." The complex intersection of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the war on students and free speech on university campuses across the United States, Canada and Europe, and the former genocide in Srebrenica deserves closer scrutiny. The U.N. vote on the Bosnian genocide could not come at a more condemnable moment in world history.

On May 1, after considerable delay, a draft U.N. resolution on the Srebrenica genocide was submitted to the president of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly. Recall that in 1995, the town of Srebrenica was a U.N.-declared safe zone promised protection by a U.N. Dutch force. Dozens of able-bodied Muslim men in the town were asked to disarm, which they did. Despite that, fanatical Serb forces overran the safe zone and murdered 8,372 Muslim men and boys. Such is the perverse reality of the world we live in, that a U.N.-mandated safe haven, supposedly protected by U.N. forces, was invaded by terrorist Serb forces and a genocide ensued under their watch.

Bizarre irony

Now, a UNGA resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, partially modeled on a similar resolution for Rwanda, has been developed by several countries including Germany and the U.S. Absurdly, both are collaborators in the genocide currently underway in Gaza by direct military, economic and diplomatic support for Israel. This is the bizarre irony of being complicit in an ongoing genocide and putting forth a U.N. Resolution condemning the same.

What is the point of passing a resolution on genocide and turning a blind eye to one going on for the whole world to see? Sadly, villains need masks and no better cover than virtue. It is politics, not ethics, that is driving the U.N. Srebrenica vote. Of course, this does not diminish the necessity of it or the need to condemn the Srebrenica genocide and its denial. Still, the larger macro-level betrayal of the Geneva Conventions and International Human Rights Law by the U.S., U.K. and Germany is an indictment of the Western-led global order.

It is that outright duplicity, the sheer savagery of the genocide in Palestine, and the silencing of dissent that has provoked a whole generation of young people on campuses throughout the West. After all, they, too, were told stories about diversity, inclusion and pluralism. They were taught to condemn discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or gender. About equality before the law and the inviolability of non-combatants. They were raised to feel empowered and encouraged to peacefully organize and express their opinions. And, that society benefits when individuals exercise their civic duty. Now, they are witness to the flagrant disavowal of the moral archetypes that were instilled in them. They feel duped and are protesting, as heroes do, the enabling of genocide by their universities. Idealistic and courageous, they are sacrificing their education and careers to condemn the genocide in Palestine. Except rather than being celebrated, thousands of students have been beaten, harassed and arrested. Condemned for believing in the values that they were taught.

Now, we seem to be in the final act. One of impunity – if you will, in which we close our eyes to the genocide in Palestine, condemn students who protest it, and negotiate ways to commemorate a past genocide in Srebrenica – when ignoring it while it happened. Today, in this upside-down world, we feverishly await the final vote in the UNGA on the genocide in Srebrenica, while Gaza has been destroyed, and its people starved and denied water.

Yet, no matter the outcome of the resolution, it will not stop future genocides. Still, if nothing else, it will forever be a testament to the twisted dystopian reality in which we live and be a symbol of the urgent need for a new world order. Maybe, one faraway day, we can muster the will – for whatever purpose, and pass a U.N. resolution condemning it. Or name a highway after the martyrs. We will tell noble stories about those who were killed since it seems our twisted world only after their death feigns to honor them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor of International Affairs, Visiting Research Faculty at Al Waleed Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University