#i guess what i'm saying really boils down to. i agree with (some of) the fears about ai. i agree with (some of) the hopes for ai

[nbstevonnie]

so like. i'm not as hardcore anti-ai as it seems most on this site are. but i am BAFFLED at some of the things people irl will be shocked that chatgpt and it's ilk can't do. they'll say things like 'i asked it to write me a logic puzzle but the answer didn't make any sense :(' or 'i asked it to tell me the relevant bit of law for the situation i'm in but it was totally wrong :(' or 'i asked it to make me a recipe from the things in my cupboard but it tasted disgusting :('

like. no shit!

as soon as you realise that current ai is literally just an algorithm trying to fit new data to the limited number of examples it's been shown, i.e. trying to work out what "most likely" comes next, you know that it just cannot do these things.

of course it's going to give you a logic puzzle with no logical answer! it knows what a logic puzzle sounds like ("a man lies dead on the ground, no footsteps nearby...") and it knows what an answer sounds like ("he died of a heart attack"). that doesn't mean it knows how to connect the two.

of course it's going to tell you a law that's completely irrelevant or just made up! it knows what a law sounds like ("an extension of time of three months is available upon request"). that doesn't mean it knows the law or can apply it to a specific set of circumstances.

of course it's going to give you a recipe that doesn't take taste into account! it knows what a recipe sounds like ("1 tablespoon of rosemary"). that doesn't mean it understands how an ingredient or the amount of it affects a recipe.

the thing that's frustrating about this is that if you're aware of this, you can use ai for things it will do fine at. ask it to write you a speech. ask it to suggest something to eat. ask it to write you the pros and cons of some piece of technology. it will give you enough ideas to tear apart and re-use as your own just fine with any of those prompts. ask it to actually be creative or provide real-world advice? a fool's prompt.

[emmylksblog]

BEYOND THE BENEFITS PT.2 // H.FORT

summary: Hector and you have been friends with benefits for some time now, but you begin to feel jealous when Hector starts spending time with other girls. But one night, at Marc's party everything takes a turn.

content: friends with benefits! , angst

warnings: physical fight but no injuries mentioned

words: 1115

The next day, Hector heads to football training with his Barcelona teammates. They all notice that he's in a particularly sullen mood. Usually, he's the life of the party, but today, he's quietly seething. Because of one girl, the girl he has known for years but only came to discover his feelings for her recently.

Marc, trying to keep things normal, approaches him like he usually does, but Hector gives him the cold shoulder, avoiding eye contact. The tension between the two best friends is palpable.

During a practice match, Hector and Marc's tension reaches a boiling point, and it all explodes in the form of a physical altercation. Hector starts by pushing Marc a bit too hard, and Marc retaliates, the two of them trading blows.

Lamine, noticing the escalating fight, rushes over to separate them. He yells, his voice breaking through the chaos, "Hey, hey! Stop it! ¡¿Qué os pasa?!" ("What are you guys doing?!")

Lamine physically pulls Hector and Marc apart, holding them back from each other. They're both panting and seething, glaring at each other with a mix of anger and frustration.

The rest of the team stands by, surprised and shocked by the sudden clash between their teammates who were known for their tight bond. Some players exchange worried glances, while others try to appear unaffected by the tension.

The coach is furious seeing his players engage in a physical altercation on the field, and he immediately pulls them both aside.

"What the hell were you two thinking?" he scolds them. "You're supposed to be teammates, not enemies. You're acting like children. Both of you, on the bench!"

The coach gestures towards the bench, his stern gaze fixed on Hector and Marc, making it clear that they are not to rejoin the game until they've sorted out their issues.

Once they're seated on the bench, Hector slumps down, his shoulders slumped and his head hung low. The weight of his regrets and mistakes seem to crush him as he breaks down and apologizes to Marc.

"I'm sorry," he says, his voice hoarse. "You deserve her more. You should be the one she's with."

Marc is taken aback by Hector's sudden confession, but he quickly catches himself. He shakes his head, a mixture of amusement and disbelief in his eyes.

"Soy amigo de un idiota," ("My friend is a dummy,") Marc retorts, a smirk tugging at his lips. "You couldn't be more wrong. She's in love with you, you fool. You're the one she's been pining over this whole time."

Hector looks up at Marc, disbelief written all over his face. "Pero que estás diciendo?" ("What are you talking about?") he asks incredulously. "She would never... I mean, she and I... we're just..."

Marc rolls his eyes, exasperated with his friend's obliviousness. "Yes, you two are just 'friends with benefits,' but that's because you never had the guts to tell her how you really feel. She's been crazy about you for ages, and you've been too dense to notice."

As Marc sees that his friend has lost all hopes of gaining your trust again a plan forms in his mind. He turns to Hector, a glint in his eye.

"Alright, listen up," he says. "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to convince her to come to the match today, and then, when you score a goal, you're going to dedicate it to her in a way that she can't mistake it for anything other than a confession."

"Thank you Marc, I think that was the easiest plan you could come up with" Hector said his voice leased with sarcasm.

You had reluctantly agreed to come to your friends' football match, primarily for Marc's sake and to stay away from Hector, but guess what? Number 32 was playing too.

The match had commenced, but each time your eyes caught sight of Hector on the field, a flutter of emotions stirred within you, painful reminders of the complicated feelings between you both.

Just as you were about to stand and leave, unable to bear the sight of him, Hector scored a goal. Without hesitation, he ran towards the stands where you were, heading directly towards you.

You stood frozen, torn between the desire to escape and the overwhelming presence of his gaze fixed upon you. He stopped right in front of you, his chest heaving as he caught his breath from the run. His eyes searched your face, filled with an intensity that left you breathless.

Hector stood there, captivated by your presence, barely acknowledging the fact that he had just left the field mid-game. Instead, his focus was entirely on you as you started to ramble nervously about his unexpected action.

But as the words spilled from your lips, he didn't appear to be listening to the words themselves. His eyes were fixed on you, completely mesmerized by the sight of you before him.

He couldn't hold back any longer. The pent-up emotions and longing took over as he passionately pulled you towards him and kissed you. Right there in front of everyone, he poured his feelings into the kiss. It was more than just a declaration of affection; it was a confession of how deep his love ran, how his feelings for you surpassed anything you could have imagined.

He longed to communicate all this through the kiss, to make you understand that you meant so much more to him than you ever thought possible.

As he kissed you, everything else melted away, and all that mattered was the connection between the two of you. The field, the crowd, the game—none of it existed at this moment. All that mattered was the intensity of the emotions and the depth of his feelings for you, which he expressed through every movement of his lips against yours.

You break the kiss, your heart racing from the intensity of the moment, but also knowing that the match is still ongoing. As you gently remind him of this, he leans in and dodges your face to be close to your ear.

"I love you," he confesses and swiftly leans out.

With a mischievous glint in his eyes, he quickly pecked you on the lips before dashing back onto the field, leaving you stunned by his boldness. However, the sight of him receiving a yellow card while grinning like a fool caused you to burst into laughter.

Hector, in the end, realized that his feelings for you ran deeper than anything he had ever known. The boundaries that had once seemed to define your relationship blurred until they faded away entirely, replaced by a love that embraced both of your personas. He loved you beyond the benefits.

[brbsoulnomming]

Tell Me Sweet Little Lies Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | AO3

----

Towards the end of the summer after his freshman year, he finds out that his soulmate must be a year younger than him, because he gets I'm not nervous about starting high school, and that - hmm. It takes Eddie a bit to figure out how to reassure him around that. High school sucks, and he's guessing it's probably going to suck for his soulmate as much as it does for Eddie. The only saving graces are that Eddie was actually able to get a DnD club started, and Kyle Housen - the absolute shithead who was the most popular boy in school, the king of all the jocks who sent his followers out like ringwraiths to torment anyone who was different - is graduated and gone.

Eddie actually is looking forward to being able to breathe easier without him around.

So that's what he tells his soulmate - find something you enjoy doing, stick with your friends, and remember if there's someone in the grades above you who's really annoying, they'll be gone before you are.

That means a lot to me shows up on his chest after that, and Eddie runs his fingers over it again and again, not thinking about who his soulmate was talking to or what they were lying about, just that Eddie means enough to them for them to make sure that appeared on his skin.

It gets him through the rest of summer and into the first few weeks of his sophomore year, until he realizes that while Kyle Housen may have graduated, some of his little sycophantic friends didn't, and a few of them are more than happy to take over the torment of the freaks.

It makes Eddie's blood boil.

"It makes absolute total fucking sense the way rich kids and jocks and all the society conforming jackasses just run this school, like little violent monarchs," he says to one of the members of Hellfire as he throws himself down onto their lunch table, purposefully making himself sound as sincere as possible so it'll get picked up as a lie. "I love this whole the king is graduated, long live the king shit they've got going on."

Eddie doesn't expect an immediate answer. He doesn't usually get one, especially when he springs stuff on his soulmate in the middle of the day. But he doesn't get one that night, or the next day, or the day after that.

And just.

What the fuck? Is his soulmate one of them? Eddie'd just assumed - a kid that had to lie about his injuries, parents never around, feeling lonely, cheating the system to talk to his soulmate before they even met - had to be a fellow freak, right?

Shit.

He thinks about saying I care that you're one of them, but he knows that isn't a lie, and it wouldn't appear on his soulmate's skin.

He doesn't say anything.

Eventually, I'm not sorry things are the way they are shows up, curled in tiny letters around Eddie's ankle, but it doesn’t make him feel better.

It makes him remember that his soulmate is talking to someone - or maybe multiple someones - when they do this, someone unaware that what he's saying are lies. The same thought that had made him feel special before now makes him think a little harder, makes him realize that his soulmate is friends with these people. These people who agree with the things that his soulmate is lying about, who think that his soulmate believes them - that's who he chooses to spend his time around?

Part of him knows it isn't fair. It's not his soulmate's fault that Eddie had built up this idea of him - a fellow outcast, maybe in a small town like this, going through the same things Eddie was, just waiting to graduate and leave it all behind, go somewhere bigger and louder and better.

But most of him is just too damn hurt. Most of him doesn't want a soulmate that says the kind of things his soulmate says, surrounded by people who think they aren't lies, and who love him for it.

Most of him can't stomach the thought that his soulmate is just like the people who have it so damn easy at school, and seem determined to make his life more miserable anyway.

The silence on his skin is as deafening as it is telling, and he starts to wonder if maybe his soulmate can't stomach the thought of it being someone like Eddie, either.

One night, so what if I don't think we should just wait until we meet our soulmates? appears on his side, and Eddie runs his fingers over and over and over it.

And says nothing.

"Haven't heard you talk about your soulmate in a while," Uncle Wayne says casually a week or so later.

Part of Eddie'd been expecting Uncle Wayne to bring it up somehow, but the other part was doing his best to ignore it entirely, leaving him entirely unprepared for what to say. He can't say that he doesn't want to talk to his soulmate any more because he found out they're probably some popular rich kid stomping around whatever school they're haunting - it's true, but it sounds stupid and petty.

He can't lie, either, though, because then it'll show up on his soulmate. So he says nothing, mulishly pushing his peas around his plate.

Uncle Wayne watches him. It's probably pretty easy to figure out that something went wrong with Eddie's hairbrained little scheme, so he isn't too surprised when his uncle hums softly.

"Some people are very different at thirty than they are at fifteen," he says, his gruff voice gentle. "Sometimes, teenagers are little jackasses with no impulse control."

Despite himself, Eddie huffs out a laugh. He considers that for a long moment, then reluctantly admits, "I guess that's probably why most people don't try to talk to their soulmate early." He smashes some peas with his fork. "….I guess it's probably not fair the other way, either. If you have this great idea of them way before you meet them, and they're really different."

Uncle Wayne gives another hum. "Sounds pretty wise, if you ask me."

"I didn't," Eddie points out, just to be contrary, but he eats the peas he'd been playing with, and he does feel a little better about all of it.

Time goes on.

He and his soulmate don't talk anymore, but that doesn't mean things don't occasionally appear. It's not often - which makes Eddie wonder if his soulmate just doesn't lie often, or if he's specifically avoiding lying as much as possible to avoid talking to Eddie - but it does happen.

Little things, mostly, lies about doing homework, about being sober, about not driving without a license. Teenage stuff, the same stuff Eddie lies about, and it lulls him into a sense of boring predictability. He perfects playing the guitar, he turns Hellfire into a sanctuary for those like him, he finds an alternative revenue source that gives him even more of an advantage over the shitty jocks than being scarier than them had, and he counts the days until he can get out.

Until the summer before his senior year.

I'm not in love with her, geez!

Eddie stares at it for longer than he should, the sting of tears biting at the corner of his eyes and feeling so goddamn angry about all of it. Not only is his soulmate some popular rich kid, but he's straight, in love with some girl, fuck.

Maybe Eddie isn't meant for a romantic soulmate. Maybe platonic is all he'll ever get, maybe someone like him doesn't -

Fuck this.

Fuck everything.

He throws himself into guitar playing, into making his next campaign for Hellfire bigger and better than anything he's ever done before.

Just one more year, and then he's gone.

In Eddie's senior year, Steve Harrington - Hawkins High's current reigning royalty - and his right hand man Tommy Hagan have some kind of falling out. Eddie honestly doesn't give a shit what or why. He keeps an eye on the situation only enough to know if they're gonna have some kind of civil war shit that could bleed shrapnel onto his flock. But Hagan doesn't seem to have the constitution to challenge for the throne - or maybe he lacks the numbers, considering Harrington doesn't seem to be hurting much as he swans around the school with Nancy Wheeler at his side - and whatever their mess is stays in a building tension amongst the popular crowd.

It's kind of nice, actually. There's less gossip about Hellfire for a little while, until the masses adjust to the new status quo. Hagan seems meaner, somehow, but he also seems less confident now that he's not at Harrington's side. It means his comments are more cruel, but there's less of them, so whatever, it balances out.

His soulmate tells more lies that year than Eddie's seen in such a short period of time, and something in his stomach twists tighter and tighter.

Yeah, of course I'm all right, why wouldn't I be?

It's nothing.

I'm sure they'll find her soon.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

Taglist: @vampireinthesun @koibug @estrellami-1 @mentalcyborg @allbimyself26 @questionablequeeries @the-s-is-silent @whimsicalwitchm @a-gae-af-racoon @tinyplanet95 @n0-1-important @velocitytimes2 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @newtstabber @jcmadgirl @roblingoblin285 @lexyvey @goodolefashionedloverboi @evix-syne666 @raisedbylibrarians @stxrcrossed186

-----

Part 4

[maybankslover]

get him back!- rafe cameron

rafe cameron x pogue!reader

warnings: just something fun to write. rafe it's not a psycho, not really on the obx plot line. break up, make up, alussions to sex.

summary: she's getting him back

playlist: get him back by olivia rodrigo

requested

video inspo + outfit

rafe didn't know why he agreed with topper and kelce to go to a bar that was almost in the cut. kelce mentioned something about some girl doing a gig tonight and that it could be fun, finally getting bored of the country club until they heard the name of who was singing there. rafe almost fainted at the face on the stage being announced by the bartender. "y/n l/n, enjoy people!" his former girlfriend of three years. a pogue through and through but at the end of the day the girl he still considered the love of his life even after being separated for the past four months. she sang two taylor swift's songs, one of louis tomlinson and one of sabrina carpenter. all the bar clapping after every single song.

"did you know she could sing like that?" topper asked him.

"are upu an idiot? we were together for three years of course I knew you dumbass." rafe hitted the back of his head.

"hello everyone! my name is y/n l/n I hope you're having a good night here with me tonight. the next song is one of my recent works I hope you like it. this is 'get him back!'. hit it danny!" the drums started first.

"oh shit guys look who is here." john b said pointing to rafe a few tables ahead.

"oh fuck him, what's he doing here?" kiata chimed in.

"who knows?" jj replied and y/n's voice interrupted.

"he argued with me about everything, he had an ego and a temper and wandering eye. he said he's six-foot-two and I'm like. dude, nice try."

rafe couldn't shift his eyes from her. her body language as if she was trying to be ironic at every line she sang.

"another song, another club, another bar, another dance." the pogues looked from y/n to rafe for the entire song, while Sarah's attention only was on filming her.

"so I miss him some nights when I'm feeling depressed." it gave him so hope knowing she kinda missed him too, just like he did since the day they broke up.

"do I love him? do I hate him? I guess it's up and down." she paced around the small stage. "I wanna get him back! I wanna make him really jealous (just like he made me feel) wanna make him feel back."

topper and kelce were just frozen, kinda regretting their plans for the night as they saw rafe's nuckles starting to turn red.

she jumped from the stage and got on top of the counter of the bar, taking down a shot of tequila earnigh a few whistles from the people and the shouts of her friends hipping her up.

"oh I wanna get him back." she jumped around the counter. "cause then again, I really miss him and it makes me real sad." y/n jumped once again but landing in the stage this time, getting really close to the guitarrist making rafe's blood boil with jealousy. she was getting even and he didn't realized yet that she was aware of his presence.

"cause I miss the way he kisses and the way he grabbed my ass." she turned around and spanked her ass before jumping around the stage again.

"I wanna key his car, I wanna make him lunch, I wanna break his heart and be the one to stich him back." she jumped up to the counter once again.

"he's gonna love me and hate me at the same time." she smiled winking at him. "I got him really good." the entire bar standing up to clap.

"thank you everyone and let's say a big thank you to my ex who's right here for breaking my heart and inspiring this song!"

"oh god." jj and pope laughed out loud.

"get him back girl!" cleo shouted at her.

y/n went straight to her friends to cheer and right before leaving, rafe grabbed her waist to withdraw her from her friends.

"what the hell are you doing cameron?" she turned her body to face him. "didn't like it rafey?" a smirk in her face at his mad expression.

"playing with fire there pretty girl, you know that." he gripped her waist and got her flat to his body.

"but I guess it did turned you on." she got a hand through his hair while feeling his hard on her stomach.

"here we go again, she's leaving with him." sarah rolled her eyes.

"they are like magnets that can't be kept apart." kiara said.

"alright let's get going I don't want to see them making out." pope said and the rest agreed making their way out of the bar, seeing topper and kelce leaving too.

"you always turn me on." he connected their lips. y/n got her tongue in his mouth fighting for dominance. he moaned into her mouth before she broke it off.

"if you don't take me home right now. I'm going to kill you rafael cameron." it was all she needed to say for him to pick her up and throw her on his shoulder leaving the bar.

[abowlofsourcream]

⏳💫Switch A Loop: Talking to Loop after Talking to The King!💫⏳

Context: “Memory of Loss” post!

*Isabeau was back at the Favor Tree…

*Hunched over on Dormont's ground.

*He feels like he wants to throw up…

*…

*He stands up and slowly walked to towards it, crossing his arms.

*Just a few moments later, Oldie came rushing to the foot of the tree and yelled.

Odile: LOOP. OUT. NOW.

*Isabeau grip tightened at the side of his shoulders.

Isabeau: We just want to talk... Please?

*There was a pause for a moment, and then a bright light under the tree. Loop wasn't looking at them, instead choosing to floor.

Loop: I told you that something bad would happen if you did that...

Odile: No, something bad happening would just have the King kill us. What happened in that loop was MUCH worse...

Loop: Then why are you yelling at me!? It's not my fault! I didn't know that king would kill them!

*Isabeau flinched at that line. Odile pressed in the middle of her temple, trying her best to keep her boiling anger aside.

Odile: But you told us that you would know what would happen in these loops, suddenly you didn't think of the possibility that something could happen to Bonniface?

Loop: I thought that it would be DIFFERENT! That YOU would be smart enough to make sure that wouldn't happen to them! That you do the SMART thing and let the Traveler be the one to-

*Isabeau snapped. He groaned at Loop, startling Odile and Loop.

Isabeau: Change, Is that LITERALLY all you can say? "Aw" That sucks! Maybe if Siffrin was the one who did this, blah blah blah blah blah-!" Like, that wouldn't change anything! We would be just as upset if it was Siffrin!

*Loop clenches their fist, but he didn't care.

Isabeau: Look, I get it. You seem to have some irrational hatred towards Sif. Let's agree to disagree, but that gives you no right to badmouth him or joke about him to us! He is our friend!Besides, he couldn't have known that would-

Loop: Yes he should have.

Isabeau: Hey, I wasn't finished-!

Loop: WELL, YOU DON'T GET TO FINISH!

*Loop jumps off the Favor Tree, and run straight up to Isabeau. Wow, they're a lot smaller than he expected.

Loop: YOU DON'T GET TO LECTURE ME ABOUT HOW I TALK ABOUT THE TRAVELER! IRRATIONAL HATRED? HA! IF YOU KNEW WHAT I KNEW, I BET YOU-!

Mirabelle: Guys!

*Everyone turned to see both Mirabelle and Bonnie staring at them. Mirabelle was holding Bonnie's sunhat for them.

*Bonnie slowly walks up to Loop, who anger seemingly dissipates when the sight of them.

Bonnie: Please... Please don't be mad at Frin... It was my idea to have him talk to the king. I tripped while trying to runaway. If anything, I'm the one that messed it all up..

Isabeau: Bonnie...

* Surprisingly, Loop knees down to Bonnie and gently holds their tiny hands.

Loop: No, No... It's no one's fault. Not you or your Traveler's... It just... Brought up some unpleasant old memories... It's a me problem, don't worry.

*It was silent for a while... The Loop spoke.

Loop: [Congrats, Everyone! You got "Memory of Loss"! Unfortunately, you will never forget this! With this memory, your Traveler will be able to read books from their country! Oh, but be careful! It's best if we leave the past behind. You won't want to worry your forgetful little friend, now would we?]

* Loop pauses for a moment, and looks Bonnie in their eyes.

Loop:.. I'm sorry, Bonnie...

*Just like that, Loop stands up and goes back to the Favor Tree. The others slowly go back to the Clock Tower.

*Isa was thinking about Loop still, weirdly about how short they were! He guessed he never really considered it, since Loop always at sat in the Favor Tree. And just now, they said Bonnie's name after almost never saying any of theirs.

*And their eye's!

*They.

*Were.

*Just.

*Like.

*...

* Maybe…

*…

* He should talk to Odile about it, first…

[green-fifteen]

Boomerang

tags: platonic stobin, stobin child, OC, teenager problems idk, not!fic

word count: 795

@stobinmonth prompt: school

I'm thinking about Steve as a middle school teacher only because it's my favorite level to teach. How innocent they are! How evil they can be! And what a nightmare when his own kid shows up in class.

And, okay, Jules would want me to tell you that Steve is NOT her father, he just raised her with her mom and has been there every single day since she was born. It's an IMPORTANT distinction when the man in question is contractually obligated to teach her peers about condoms.

Right after the D.A.R.E. convocation the first week of school (a totally sexless function!), Kelly Nesbit made a button in Home Ec. that read, "JUST SAY YES TO MR. HARRINGTON" with wobbly little hearts in the O's. So you can imagine the kind of thing she is dealing with, here.

She sat her parents down the weekend before 6th grade to let them know the situation.

"Dad, you're not my father."

"I'm not?"

"You're very important to me, but we both agree that I am not related to you."

Robin cut in. "Okay so who am I? By your logic."

"You can be my mother, it's fine. It's on all the paperwork, you enrolled me."

"You do know my signature is on your birth certificate, right?" Steve reminds her.

"Unimportant. I won't be bringing my birth certificate to school and showing it off to my friends. If we're careful, we should be able to pull this off."

Robin and Steve shared a wary glance.

"And what are we pulling off, exactly?"

"Convincing the school that I am not related to a teacher." She gestured at Steve with a offensive amount of dismay. Robin made a mental note to have that 'terrible role model' talk with Erica that she'd been putting off.

Steve was eventually manipulated into agreeing when Jules said something like, "Aunt Nancy was right. She said you'd never agree because you're overly attached to me."

(Which I'm sure you can guess Nancy did not say. Her actual words were like, "If you ask him to pretend he doesn't love you at school, he might actually start crying in the hallways.")

So they don't speak to each other at school outside of 4th period, when Steve is careful to only call on her as much as he would any other student. No one suspects a thing for just over a month, at which point Jules manages to step all over her own careful plan.

It's something like this: it's 4th period. The bell is about to ring and Steve is handing back module one tests from the week before. Jules gets hers and just stares at it for a solid minute. He took off two points for that? FOUR points for THAT? And you see, Julia Buckley is something of a whiz and a perfectionist. A sense of indignation begins to build as she looks over the rest of the marks Steve left on her paper. And sure, she did get some things wrong. But what's the point of your dad being your teacher if he doesn't even let the small stuff slide? It's outrageous.

When she sees the little note at the bottom of the paper, a scribbled nonsensical little Good work, Bluejay! her frustration boils over.

"Dad!"

She yells into the quiet classroom. Everyone turns to look at her and then at Mr. Harrington, who is frozen with his handmade "BEST DAD" mug an inch from his lips. He looks like a raccoon caught in a floodlight.

"Do you think I don't know what peer pressure is? I wrote you a very clear definition. Do you even have a rubric? I want to see it."

Someone laughs or she notices the looks on their faces and realizes she's really done it now. She only has two choices. She can either insist she called the teacher Dad by mistake in the most humiliating way possible and endure the shame of hearing her classmates giggle and spread it all over the school for the rest of the week. Or, she can own up and buy herself a much longer, slower mortification. One that doesn't let up until graduation.

Steve eventually clears his throat. "No rubric-- just the answer sheet, Miss Buckley. If you have a problem with your grade, please see me after class."

And she decides right there, 'Bluejay' in his messy scrawl and 'Miss Buckley' in that strained tone of voice.

"Why bother?" She rolls her eyes and tries to sound casual. "I'll just see you at home."

She doesn't stay to appreciate the wide, surprised look he gives her or the astonished little whispers of her peers. The bell rings like a sign from God and she high-tails it right out of there.

[sukunasun]

can we get crumbs of mma sukuna and that break up fic

here's a sneak peek!

the car ride back to your hotel is tense as you fall into an almost unbearable silence. sukuna keeps his eyes on the road, unblinking. there's traffic built up stretching across an entire city, honking cars and engines whirring loudly but it doesn't do much to drown out the impending conversation you dread. only because you have a feeling it would lead to something worse. a bubble waiting to burst.

“you still mad?” sukuna's the first one to speak. he reaches out for your hand, curling his fingers around and bringing his lips so close to your ear. you feel his breath on your skin along with his desperation too. "don't avoid me, you know how much i hate it." is his best plea.

keeping your eyes out the window, a mask weaves itself over your features, an impenetrable expression. snow starts to pile along the streets of osaka. dusting the surface of rivers and withering branches. you count the flecks of white, if you turned to him now, looking upon his face, it'll only hurt more.

what could you say, where do you even start— yes, you're still mad. and no, you're not avoiding him, nothing's more important than having this conversation right now but the events of the night have yet to even sink in—he'd been engaged to another woman. for a year. maybe two. and she'd been in love with him, probably still is given that she brings it up like it merely happened yesterday. 

"i wore him down," she said proudly. hand coming up to his chest. glamourous and flaunting her body pressed up against his. as if she were his date instead. despite the bile rising up your throat, you have to admit they look the part. two belonging together, physically flawless, exuding a blinding intensity. "i proposed like a million times before he ever agreed, but i couldn't give up, no one loves him like i do." 

"is this about how you look?" sukuna tries again. he's got plenty of questions lined up but it's the first thing that slips from his mouth, not knowing that he won't get to the others because it ticks you off immediately. setting off a fuse within you.

"it's nothing to do with that!" you scoff in disbelief. the warmth of his hand should feel comforting, but touching him now makes you anxious. betrayed that he'd shared the same touch with an ex you didn't know about. one who apparently slipped from his memory too by the looks of it. so you pull away, letting that distance grow. feeling the cool sting after the weight's been let off, the ghost of his hand lingering behind when you realize how bare it feels without him there.

"what's with the attitude?" he's annoyed and growing impatient, jaw and fists clenching. it's the first time you've rejected his touch so blatantly. it stings, it hurts him to the core. gone were the days of your rejection but he's seeing your walls building back up now is enough to get his blood boiling.

"i get mad about other things too, not everything is about how i look," you shoot back. as the quiet pauses lengthen and the seconds tick by, sukuna decides then and there that he will never want it to happen again. the way his heart drops to his stomach is foreign to him, an unexpected ache, an anxious little thing that makes him sweat.

he breathes a frustrated sigh, unaware of what's really wrong here, he hates playing these guessing games with you. "i'm not a fuckin' mind reader, plus you're always like this when i'm around other women," he says, like it were a nuisance he'd grown tired of.

you snap then, exclaiming "she wasn't just some other woman—oh hi, you used to be engaged to my boyfriend, nice to meet you too!" your skin prickles with anger, curse him. he's an expert at pushing your buttons.

rubbing at his temples, your admission barely phases him. "so that's what this is all about?" he has the audacity to laugh, "it didn't mean anything." you don't know what makes it worse, that he doesn't deny it or the way he brushes it off with such nonchalance.

all this before you were ever in the picture of course. you tell yourself it shouldn't matter. it was his past. way before he ever knew you. he had never mentioned wanting to get married, and you had thought—foolishly—that it wasn't the right time, that maybe he wasn't the 'marrying' type. but truths are unveiled and there's no going back from revealing something like that. "did you love her?" you question, although, completely unprepared for the answer.

sukuna's eyebrows furrow, "what kind of question is that?" he seems offended you'd ask, but still, he's not giving you a clear answer. only diverting.

so you dig further. "you loved her enough to marry her—" it's not about the woman, it's more about that voracity in her, being as self-serving as she was, 'no one loves him like i do,' she said with such certainty, in that same way sukuna does, they're not the kind of people who doubt. unlike you, she looks at him like she wants to own him. "—did you ever think you'd marry me? you're just looking for the next girl who'd wear you down?"

"oh so you wanna get married. is that it? would that make you feel better?" he dishes out sarcasm like a blow to the face and you're left with the realisation that he's being mean because he can. he's never liked having a weakness, especially now that he can't manoeuvre his way out of this fight with you. caught in a corner barely standing.

"you know that's not what i mean—"

"what is it then," he clicks his tongue. staring at the side of you. still avoiding his gaze, unable to look him in the eye and yell. get in his face. tear him apart.

you bite your lip. thoughts jumbling and bouncing around. you can't wrap your head around it. how could the sight of an old flame be enough to make you question your relationship and self-worth? he had a past and chose to keep it from you, fine. he'd been young, maybe he didn't consider those memories a part of himself. you don't know.

or maybe you've gone with the flow of his current for so long, that getting swept away felt so exhilarating and he'd made you feel safe. too safe. but somewhere in the midst of it, you've diminished, you've become all the things he didn't sign up for, you're not who he wants anymore, or at least it feels that way, and maybe...he knows it too.

there is no room for selfishness or jealousy where love is concerned. he's not what you expected sure, that little girl in you had only wished for a gentleman who could love you softly. someone who recognized how alone you've felt and that you're strong despite it. you've worked hard to let him in, to trust him, because sukuna is beyond hopes and dreams, he is real, he sits next to you asking, no—demanding that you talk to him about how you feel.

and why bury your feelings when you've never been that way, you were always so sure, could always speak your mind, tell him how you feel. all the times he's had to assure you and you don't know why you ever saw yourself as less than. he chased you. he wanted you. it shouldn't matter that no one else believes it. he's yours. all of him. scars, tattoos, and bloodied flesh. you love him, and yet—

"i think we need a break," you say, feeling your chest rise and fall, breaths coming out harshly. your heart twists, chest constricts, and every fibre in your body screams no. you feel the tears coming, your throat closing up with every exhale, choking and suffocating you.

sukuna clamps his hair under his fingers, pulling at them in frustration, "so you're punishing me," he says flatly. he knows you well, knows you're running away from him. it would be easier if you weren't so rash. if the mere sight of his disappointment didn't weigh down on your heart so overwhelmingly. so close to jumping out of this car, fleeing from it all.

"just some time apart for us to figure things out," you explain, "i can't be around you right now," it should be a relief. it's for the best. he'll never truly belong to you, not completely when everyone wants a piece. "don't tell me, she's the one who taught you about love..." you don't know why you hadn't intervened when she held him so closely, berating, judging. like you had no defenses. like it made perfect sense and it was better for you to accept it. it's all you've ever felt from those around you. coward. where's your fight?

at that moment, you turn to look at him to face the truth but the world comes to a halt after seeing pure hurt spill onto his face. the horror of what you've just said, the long road of stagnant cars ahead, and an even colder silence all leading to an imminent end settling in and sitting there in between two broken hearts.

[m--rtyr]

im gonna be frank and honest here, where im at with MCD, i think Laurmau is more meaningful if it isn't romantic.

NOT THAT I DON'T THINK THEY CAN HAVE FEELINGS FOR ONE ANOTHER, but, obviously so far, Aph has presented no romantic feelings toward Laur, whilst he has been very openly flirtatious to the point of betraying her boundaries numerous times.

But we get an explanation for his behaviour in the episode 'Laurence "The Hunk"'.

whilst talking about Sasha, Laur mentions that they were friends, and Aph is kind of sceptical that it was only friendship between them and Laur goes on a kind of irrelevant tangent about how, when he was younger, he was less confident and didn't talk to girls so much, so when he got older and more attractive, and girls started chasing after him, he began playing around with them because he doesn't know how else to conduct himself. This then leads onto him mentioning that Sasha was one of the few girls he was able to talk to without sounding like "a total prick", and later that the conversation reminded him of how him and Sasha used to talk. He thanks Aph for this.

From this moment, he finally budges on the 'my love'ing, finally caving and saying he'll stop, and i think it's because he's finally realised there's something *more* to his relationship with Aphmau.

Aph and Laur don't have a solely romantic bond, and this is the first time he's made the connection that she can be a true and proper friend, instead of just a... conquest of sorts.

I'm not saying no romantic Laurmau, but to me... I don't think their relationship should be boiled down solely to romance. Laur agreeing to quit the flirting shows that he feels some closeness to her, akin to what he felt for Sasha, who he himself says he didn't love. Even amongst the romance, there is a platonic kind of love too, and i think that's what should be the foundation for Laurmau. Not flirting, but comfort.

obviously that's just going from the 38 episodes i've watched, but. I'm keeping my eyes peeled on the portrayal of Laurmau from here.

Quotes (all from 01x38, Laurence "The Hunk"). In order of referenced, not appearance in episode.

Aphmau: "Friends", huh?

Laurence: When i was younger i had a very hard time talking to girls so I didn't, when I became older and... more attractive. Girls wanted to talk to me and I guess... I act this way because I'm not really interested in any of them. I just... don't know how else to conduct myself.

Laurence: Sasha was the only one I was able to talk to without sounding like... "a total prick" as she would say.

Laurence: It's kind of funny, the way i just spoke to you now reminds me of how we used to talk. Thank you for that my--

Aphmau: Wait! No!

Laurence: - ah, all right I can try not to do that anymore.

Laurence, about Sasha: I didn't love her or anything but she was very understanding.

[edwin-paynes-bowtie]

For @dbdpromptober Day 17 - mushroom Read it on Ao3!

Not many people remembered what a good cook Niko's dad had been. But he had always sought to bring her and her mom the joys of delicious meals. From simple recipes like perfectly-fluffy omurice to more complex Oosaka-style okonomiyaki and kitsune soba, he was more skilled in the kitchen than anyone had any business of being.

But Niko's favourite recipe was by far his matsutake soup. It was a delicacy, a treat - matsutake were expensive, and Niko's family had been far from rich. But she always liked watching him cook on the rare occasion that her parents decided to splurge, loved seeing him clean the skin and chop them up into fine bits.

When she was little, she'd climb onto the counter and help him put them in the pot alongside pork and green onions. She'd stir it with both hands over the handle of a massive spoon, smiling as he joked with her about her future as the world's smallest chef.

That had been years ago, now. Now, both Niko and her father were dead, and her dad had passed on to the untouchable afterlife that Niko didn't dare get near.

But she still thought of him, always. Even when her senses left her, she remembered the way that that matsutake soup smelled, the dashi over rice and egg and cooked to perfection.

She remembered it well enough to emulate.

"That's a really unique smell," Crystal said, sitting on the counter by the stovetop of their apartment. If Niko had taken a second, she'd realize that Crystal sat exactly where she once had cooked with her dad, looking down at the bubbling broth and stirring with a little wood spoon. "Can you tell me what it is again?"

"The dashi?"

"No, the mushrooms." Niko grinned; Crystal's voice was smiling, so much as a voice could.

"Like I said, matsutake. They smell like... well, pine, I guess, because they're pine mushrooms. Just... earthy, I think? I don't know. I remember how the mushrooms smell, because of my dad," Niko said, adding some chopped-up onions to the broth. "But I don't really remember any other smells. It's weird, honestly."

"I don't think it's that weird," Crystal argued, and Niko shot her a look. Rolling her eyes, Crystal shrugged. "Alright, fine, maybe it's a little weird. But it was probably, like, the magic of your dad's love or some shit that kept it in your memory."

"Probably." Niko smiled slightly. "Whenever we had this, he used to make the worst joke. His name was Takeru, and it was stupid. But I don't think it'd translate well, so I'm not sure I can make it."

"Well, maybe I'll understand it with my bang-on Japanese skills," Crystal argued, and Niko chuckled.

"Bang-on," she said, stirring the broth. "You sound like Charles."

"Damn it. Am I picking up his mannerisms?" Crystal scratched her head. "Probably. Fuck."

"It's not so bad," Niko argued. "Just the other day, I told a client that they'd done a top-whole job."

"Emulating Edwin," Crystal said. "Embarrassing. I have a girlfriend who emulates Edwin Payne."

Niko hummed. "Okay. So the joke is, like, 'take no matsutake wa tataku.' Not very funny, but he was a dad, and I miss dad jokes."

Crystal snorted. "Take's pine mushrooms... slap? Your dad knew Gen Z slang?"

"I think he was more trying to say that his mushrooms packed a punch," Niko argued.

"Well, now I have super fucking high expectations." Crystal adjusted one of her buns. "I expect to be punched in the face by Mushroom."

"I had a book about a superhero green pepper as a kid," Niko mused as she took a spoonful of broth. "Maybe the mushroom can be related to him." She blowed on the spoon and handed it off to Crystal. "Here," she said. "I forgot that I can't test it. Sand flavor."

"That sounds awful," Crystal agreed, tasting it.

Niko grinned as her eyes lit up.

"Your dad was a fucking genius," Crystal said, sticking the spoon in the boiling pot again and pulling up a bit of mushroom.

Niko clapped her hands together lightly. "I'll get you a bowl."

[wifeofsnowbaird]

Charlie...I will never trust you again...

[Charlie Bushnell x chef!reader]

Warnings: none, this is just pure fluff <3

[Idk Charlie personally ofc so considering what i've seen on the internet, this is what i think of him as a bf ❤️]

synopsis: the day he decided to visit was the same day you decided to try out the most dangerous cooking trick at home.

Call the fire department.

Charlie is the most responsible person in your life, and though that's not saying much, it says something.

But right now he was tampering with the one thing he shouldn't touch.

The frying pan.

His panicked eyes glossed over your own before paying attention the the boiling oil. His screams may seem like he burnt down your kitchen but I assure you that he's just overwhelmed.

"Charlie...I told you to just watch the stove while I refill Toby's water..." You murmured, glancing back at your orange tabby cat. Charlie huffed before motioning for you to take over his spot near the heat.

" I know...I just-just freaked out, I guess. " He let out a large breath before giving you a sheepish grin.

Ever since they started dating he had been afraid of fire. You seriously assumed it was some kind of deep trauma before his mom told you that it was because of a horror movie they'd watched when he was ten. To be honest, when she mentioned the movie you agreed with him, but he nearly burned your kitchen down.

All because you tried to make Funnell cakes.

You side-eyed his confused stare before you pretended to break down and sob. " My Funnell cakes! No, my heart is breaking!" You opened an eyelid as you felt his warm hands wrap around your shoulders.

" Baby...I'm so so so so sorry! I swear I didn't mean to! I'll do anything for you to forgive me! I'll go near a fire to make your precious Funnell cakes! Just don't cry!" His worried, dark, amber eyes clouded your vision before you pulled him near for a short kiss.

" Just kidding silly! I forgive and love you! Just don't touch the pan again, okay?"

He grinned cheekily before kissing you again.

" I love you too!"

ok this was actually really sweet, i love it so much

@cafekitsune: she created the dividers! i reblogged her post so go check it out!

[ask-postcrash-curly]

Man, you have gotta stop being so relatable.

Yelling has always been overwhelming to me, always makes me shutdown. Wasn’t even necessary cuz of trauma—I remember my mom once saying I’ve always reacted badly whenever people raised their voice or yelled at me, even when I was like, a toddler or something. That’s why she always tried to never yell at me… not that it worked. Cuz she had a lotta unresolved issues, and when things built up and her emotions boiled over, well… yeah. She didn’t yell at me often, barely ever, but each time it happened, well. Very unpleasant experience, as you can imagine. Of course, this made my issues with it even worse, and well. Yeah.

But anyway. Recent events have made me realize just how bad the issue is. I thought it was just yelling and raised voices that got to me, and it wasn’t that big a deal because people almost never get mad at me since I’m a very agreeable person, but. Lately it’s been causing problems. Turns out even if someone is being calm and reasonable when they’re confronting me and just wanna work things out… if there’s any way the tone can be perceived as aggressive even if the tone isn’t actually aggressive…for some reason my brain interprets it like an attack and just… idk it’s frustrating. Because I want to be able to just work things out with people like good functional adults and whatever but instead every time I gotta talk things out it’s this whole… agh. And like, I don’t want people to feel like they can’t confront me about stuff, y’know? I don’t wanna be the person who turns into a mess even when reasonably confronted about reasonable stuff. Confrontation can be good and healthy when everyone is being respectful and it’s just part of life but…idk.

Anyway. Sorry to dump all that on you. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a therapist that can help me with that. Haven’t found a good fit yet but… just gotta keep trying, I guess.

And…

Something about the way you say “be better than me” kinda bothers me. You’re not just some cautionary tale or tragedy, y’know? It was one thing when we all thought you’d be stuck on that ship forever. But… things are different now. You’re going home. And it’s not easy, things are still really tough, and the road to recovery is gonna be really hard and difficult, but… you’ve got your whole life ahead of you now. (I don’t care that you’re in your late 30s, you’ve still got so much many years left to live.)

You’re not just… some example of what not to be like, y’know? Over the months I’ve watched you get better and standing up for yourself and reflecting a lot and… even if it hasn’t exactly been linear, sometimes there’s setbacks but… you’ve still gotten better and you’ve grown as a person and stuff. Despite everything, you’re still trying.

So… don’t put yourself down. You can get better, I can get better, and we can inspire each other, yeah?

-🌃🌠🌌

Sorry...?

Ah. Yep. That's how it is.

Hmm... Maybe you've got a dissociation problem too? Can't say for sure, but hey, it might be worth checking out. It's frustrating, I get it. Would be wonderful if I could have a disagreement with one of you without feeling like I've catastrophically ruined things. (Exaggerating for effect, I'm fine.) Yeah, I... I admit I'm worried about becoming that person too. Gets to a point where the smallest sign of anger feels like a threat. Thanks for that, Jim. And I think you'll agree: That attitude causes problems more than it solves them.

C'mon. Don't apologize. I really don't mind. Best of luck with therapy.

...Oh. Didn't... didn't think of it that way, if I'm being real. Thank you. (What do you mean late thirties? I've been thirty-five for half a year, for fuck's sake.)

Mm... Thank you, again. Means a lot that you'd say that. I'm not... I'd rather others learn from my mistakes than not, though, you know? If I can... Not a cautionary tale, as you said, but if I can use what I have learned to help other people avoid the same path, I want to. Least I can do.

Hah. Yeah. Cheers to getting better together.

[chimggukchim]

ep 3 was fun though was very different from what i(and i guess we all) expected. though i guess i can understand why many are disappointed by it, many are using it as a way to hate on tae and jk, aside from the hate jm usually gets from the cult. honestly, being in fandom spaces surely teaches you how stupid and entitled some people can be.

after knowing that tae planned to join only 2 days before, i couldn't help but think of how different the trip would be if he didn't come with them. jk did say smtg more than 3-4 times, implying that he wasn't completely onboard with tae joining them. but that doesn't mean he hates v, he just might be disappointed but it would never make him actively dislike tae because tae and jk do love each other a lot.

but this is making my anticipation levels rise more for sapporo. i just wish we have more ep of sapporo than jeju.

Agreed. I think once a third party enters a duo, the dynamics are bound to change. We now have 3 persons to interact with each other as opposed to two. It means 4 different variations of interactions as opposed to 1.

And we did feel and see the difference with episodes 3 and 4 so far. But it was still enjoyable nonetheless. Did I miss just having jikook playing off of each other? Sure. But having Tae there didn't really bother me. And you could say he was hardly interactive in ep 4, as he wasn't feeling well (slept early/didn't go scuba diving).

Like you and everyone else who isn't in denial saw, Jimin and Jungkook (especially) drilled it home in ep 4 that AYS is a JIKOOK show (at least this season). It was planned for just the two of them and Tae asked to come along to Jeju, he was not invited per say. And this is not a dig at Tae, I'm just stating what the boys themselves said.

And here's the thing - unlike Jimin, Jungkook cannot school his features to save his life. Our maknae wears his heart on his sleeve and his thoughts on his countenance, and says what he means. So by JK's own words, we can deduce that he didn't necessarily want Tae there with him and Jimin. We can also deduce from his comment about Tae being adamant, that he and/or Jimin probably told Tae no on more than one occasion until he maybe broke them down. I can see JK being more staunch than Jimin (he's definitely softer for his soulmate Tae bear).

Does this mean JK doesn't like Tae? It most certainly does not, like you pointed out. Jungkook, no matter what solos, antis and toxic shippers would like people to believe, LOVES ALL of his hyungs! And you could see in their interactions in ep. 3 that Tae and JK still have that cute, mischievous little devils dynamic they had when they were younger. Jungkook and Tae will have fun together no matter what and where they are, I have no doubt.

What I think it boils down to is Jungkook's cute little selfish streak he has (a FACT stated by him and the members on more than one occasion). Here's a guy that is enlisting in a few months, potentially going to spend 18 months away from his love. That's difficult for anyone. So Jungkook would naturally want to take any opportunity he is given to spend time with that love. And this show falls into his lap?! So at least from my perspective, JK not really wanting Tae to come was his selfishness coming out a bit and wanting to spend time with just Jimin. It had nothing to do with him disliking Tae or anything, but rather Jungkook wanting to be with just Jimin. Which is why I think Jimin was the ultimate decider there in relenting to Tae's puppy eyes.

And to Tae's credit, I do think he gave them enough time to be together anyway (away from the cameras).

At the end of the day, he's their 3rd musketeer, and he would have been there for them through everything. Some may say well if he really loved them then he should have left them alone. Well, to that I say to look at it from his perspective too. At this point, Jikook may not have known they got through with the buddy system, but Tae knew for a fact that HE would not be with his best friends for the next 18 months (just look at that Vmin embrace at Jin's release). And so, he would have seen this as an opportunity to not only be with them for a short time, but to give ARMY a little taste of the maknae line. Two birds, one stone. So I don't fault him.

Some jikookers may not like that take but that's fine.

Anyway, we have one more Jeju episode to go with VMinKook, and I am enjoying everything so far because I simply appreciate whatever content BTS/jikook chooses to give us.

And then we're off to Sapporo!!!...Where Jikook already knew they were enlisting together.

Should be...interesting.

[youmakethelight]

Hi. How are you? Hope everything's going well.

I want to share my thoughts on a scene from TBOC, episode 4. It didn't catch my attention the first time but rewatching it I was able to see it with different eyes. It gave me a little hope for Caryl's future and I think this fandom needs hope after Zabel's statements, so I decided to share it.

The scene is when Carol, Daryl, Didi and Theo are eating truffled eggs and Daryl asks for some of the truffles. Theo answers while looking at Daryl and then Carol "You need a good eye and a lot of patience. They're very hard to find"

I don't think for a second that this line is about truffles, it's all about Caryl

- "You need a good eye": Carol and Daryl can't see the love they feel for each other. And they also can't the love the other feels for them. Later in the episode we saw this when Carol react to the scene of Daryl saying "And I never ever stopped trying to get home to YOU" by saying "you loved her". She completely ignored what Daryl said to her and focused on something else. And as for the audience, well, we always need to see what's between the lines and that's why not everyone can see it.

- "And a lot of patience": Their relationship has been building very slowly and we've been here for 14 years..

- "They're very hard to find": Seeing a bond like theirs is something very rare, both in TV/movie and also in real life.

I think that at the end of the day we will have Caryl canon. It's heading towards that, even if at the moment we still have to interpret the scenes and interactions. And I think that when David Zabel says the things he says it's just to create a surprise element for when Caryl actually happens. It's not very clever, but I think that's what it is

Hi! Gosh, sorry I've taken an absolute lifetime to get back to you again. I wrote out a whole reply as soon as I saw your message, then went to bed, and then felt too disillusioned with the show and the twd fandom to really think much about it for a while. But I'm good, thank you! Hope you are too. ❤️

Thank you for sharing this! I can definitely see your take on this. I hadn't noticed this detail, and I enjoyed your interpretation of it. I'm struggling a bit because I'm finding that when I read takes on Zabel's writing or when I think about my own, the joy drains from me, because overall, I just don't understand what the leadership are trying to do with this show, or who they're making it for.

I did write out a whole thing because your message inspired a lot of thoughts, but I guess it sort of boils down to two main issues for me, which are:

1. Even if there is an intention (now or in the future) to deliver canon with Zabel, I don't expect it to be written well enough to be enjoyable or satisfying for most current caryl shippers or for people who don't ship them (yet??).

2. For me personally, even though I love caryl as a romantic ship (if done well), my biggest concerns about the future of the spinoff are how Melissa McBride and women generally are treated by it.

To elaborate on my second point, I know I can't presume to know what Melissa wants for herself, but nonetheless, the lack of equal billing, title, and writing hurt me and my enjoyment of the show. If I had to choose between those things and canon, I'd choose the former.

Overall, this means that I strongly feel that the only way for the spinoff to stop being harmful to women and to be enjoyable is with a new showrunner, unfortunately. And that means that personally, I can't enjoy anything about the show other than news of a change in leadership. I know that some agree and some don't, but for me personally, I feel like I gave David Zabel his chance for two seasons, and I'm really not enjoying what he's doing with the show, and that goes much further than my personal preferences for shipping and story choices.

I don't mean to undermine your positive take on the scene. I really appreciate you sharing your interpretation of it. I'm only responding with my less positive takes from it because I genuinely want the best for the show, the people involved in making it, and the fans. And I truly believe that being annoyingly persistent about the things that are less than OK (e.g. a showrunner who doesn't seem to know the source material, leadership who doesn't treat fans or female colleagues with respect, unequal billing, a problematic title, and shallow, misogynistic writing) is how to achieve that. Maybe we still won't achieve that, but I'm thinking a lot about what I choose to consume and support, and there is far too much going on here that I can't support with a clear conscience.

For me, even if, by some miracle, romantic canon is written well with Zabel as showrunner, I really can't enjoy the show while its title and billing lean into such harmful patriarchal messaging.

I still want to thank you. I think it's great to take whatever positives we can and to share them with each other - while also continuing to stand up for standards that should be improved. So, thank you for sending this positive take to me. One thing I have really appreciated in this fandom is the way so many come together to support each other and try to lift each other up during the difficult and less enjoyable parts. So, thank you for being a part of that. 💜

PS. Even though I deleted my original long reply to you, this reply has still ended up longgg. So, if you've read this far, wow, thank you. You deserve a break and a snack.

[hestzhyen]

Some Hiyuki (and Chiyuki) Thoughts

Hello, dear void. Let's yap about Best Girl for a bit.

Just two badasses in one of the coolest spreads in the series so far.

I've had a lot of Hiyuki and Chiyuki topics bubbling around in my sad excuse for a brain for a while now and they kind of reached boiling point with the latest Kagurabachi WSJ cover (Issue 01, 2025). There's some good and bad and quite a lot of neutral so once again I'm just writing things down to make sense of what's going on in my head. I've got stuff to say about Hiyuki as a character and her most popular ship pairing, "Chiyuki" (Chihiro/Hiyuki).

*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Note: I started drafting this back in December of 2024 so obviously developments (or lack thereof) in the manga since then have changed a few things. If something seems out of place then it's probably something I missed updating before posting this. *----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Alright, let's get this out of the way: Chiyuki ain't it for me in the romantic sense and I much prefer HakuHiro. I'd even go so far as to say that I'd actually rather see Kagurabachi have no romance at all than pair Chihiro up with Hiyuki as they are right now (more on that later).

But I'm also a major contributor to the Fandom Shipping Wiki pages for both HakuHiro and Chiyuki- I wrote the bulk of the content in the Canon, Moments, and Fandom sections for both ships as ThaerRyanim. So it's not like I hate the Chiyuki ship; far from it, in fact. It's not my jam but I was happy to help when someone reached out to me for assistance in filling out the Chiyuki page to prevent it from getting auto-pruned for lacking content. Therefore I won't be bashing the ship in here. I will be quibbling about mischaracterisations in the ship portrayed by the fandom at large a bit though.

I also really, really like Hiyuki as her own character. I love how she's been written and characterized as a badass with none of the baggage that usually weighs down women in shounen. Seeing her get to be so fuckin' awesome as a true equal in brawn to Chihiro was rad as hell. Combine that with not being sexualised or cast as "comically" super butch and I was won over in a heartbeat.

So I guess this is all from the perspective of a Hiyuki fan and die-hard HakuHiro shipper that doesn't like the romantic interpretations of Chihiro and Hiyuki's dynamic, but also sees the appeal and isn't going to trash the ship for the hell of it.

Kagari Hiyuki: Certified Unencumbered Badass

She was love at first sight.

This could age incredibly poorly as the series goes on but I have some faith in the author based on his writing choices around other characters that I love. I have a lot of complicated feelings about how women are depicted in media in general, but I won't be getting into them here. I guess the easiest way to summarize them is that "I wish women could be cool and physically strong without being cast as butch or secretly super girly more often". And Kagurabachi has delivered perfection in Hiyuki.

So far, she's been an agitator causing conflict because her mentality is so different to Chihiro's despite them agreeing on some fundamental things. Hiyuki's also noble, tough, and has depth to her with how willing she is to change her mind about Chihiro and set him up to talk with her bosses. Yet she's not too concerned about him and his well-being despite obviously feeling some sympathy by the end of the Rakuzaichi arc- no emotional support pillar stuff here.

From what we've seen so far she's basically your typical aggro rival character shoved in a woman's body and set loose to wreak havoc as needed. Hiyuki's so strong that she's basically an in-universe singularity that can keep up with magical nukes. She also loves to brawl with that good ol' hot-blooded penchant for violence and hates when someone doesn't match her all-out energy. But Hiyuki's not just a meathead- she cares deeply about doing the right thing and saving people, which is where her core character conflict will come from later on most likely. She wants to save and protect and will put her life on the line to do it in a way that's usually only reserved for men.

Her moment of weakness during the climax of the last arc was also incredibly gender-neutral in it's framing. Instead of revealing a scared, insecure inner voice and showing her trembling over the potential consequences, she simply wavers in the moment with an overload of conflicting desires almost exactly like Chihiro does. Then firms up her resolve and resumes punching to protect Hakuri until she brings the whole damn auction hall down to mark the end of the arc. God, I love her.

Hiyuki is a rival character done right. She's tough, a bit silly, a meathead to contrast Chihiro's tactical approach, and a fundamentally good person who might be working for some less-than-good people without realising it. She effortlessly gets under Chihiro's skin like no one else just by existing as herself too. Slightly feminine without any feelings that she should be girlier from the author. I LOVE KAGARI HIYUKI.

Well, so do a lot of people- the list to shake her hand would be miles long. But...

Canon vs. Fanon Interpretation

Yes'm

Hoo boy. So this is where some feathers might get ruffled, if anyone's reading this.

Everyone's going to have a slightly different interpretation of characters, events, and so forth. It's a lot of fun to browse through different community spaces to see all the unique perspectives people approach a series from, the things they notice and the conclusions they draw from the same information everyone else has.

I just don't understand why people take Hiyuki and give her huge bazongas, child-bearing hips, put her in girly clothes, and turn her into a generic tsundere a lot of the time.

Isn't the appeal of her character that she's a fearsome warrior with good intentions and a few screws loose? I understand that her fairly androgynous appearance isn't everyone's preference, but isn't that what Hinao, Sumi, and Iori are for? I sincerely don't like bashing people for what they enjoy. I just don't understand why Hiyuki gets treated the way she does by people who claim to like her. I figure if you like a character then you appreciate how they appear and act in canon.

She's got some attributes of a tsundere to be sure- the excessive pride, a caring heart that doesn't come across well in most of her behaviour, and particularly the Western misconception that they are often violent towards their love interest. The potential is there. But Hiyuki's much more than a collection of tropes put together to slot her into a galge lineup.

Like I ranted about before this, Hiyuki's presentation isn't feminine. Heck even the official EN translation messed up her pronouns because she was framed exactly like a guy in her role would be in her debut chapters! Instead of a trope bundle, Hiyuki is just herself, and I think this is the page that captures her best:

Ch. 20, before they settled on standard naming conventions for the series (fixed in volume releases unless you count Cloud Gouger, AKA Kuregumo)

She's never the brightest bulb nor the most compassionate person in the room. But she doesn't have the classic tsundere problem of not being able to be honest about what she's feeling- Hiyuki is 100% authentic every time she's on the screen, even to the point where she'll speak with her fists if she can't properly articulate her thoughts. She's brash and bold and says what's on her mind or punches the point home. And the kyaa-slap/borderline misandrist abuse tropes don't fit her either. She likes to fight because she's hot-blooded and prideful, not because she's trying to cover up her embarrassment! From what we've seen, she needs a moral reason and a strong opponent (and authorisation from her superiors) to bring out Rikuo in the first place.

This is something else that could age incredibly poorly depending on how the story goes, yeah. So far I've been given no reasons to doubt Hokazono-sensei's writing after he did the same gender-neutral framing with Sumi's actions then Iori's backstory though. He's not writing these girls to be waifu material but people. So to see Hiyuki getting reduced to a collection of ill-fitting tropes genuinely pisses me off sometimes.

I feel like she gets mischaracterised in the same ways Hakuri often does. People see some rough data points that point them towards a character archetype they already know and decide that's what the character is. Hakuri gets typecast as a funny weakling loser or a generic blushing uke (depending on what side of the fandom you're on), and Hiyuki gets typecast as a one-dimensional tsundere. It's stupidy reductive to how they actually appear in canon and is disrespectful to the rich writing behind them.

The warping of physical attributes is just a side-effect of this in my opinion. Even though Hokazono-sensei's art style has changed a lot since Hiyuki debuted, her general appearance hasn't, so I wonder where all the hyper feminine art of her is coming from. She's pretty flat and slender most of the time in canon, but a lot of artists round her out to give her more generic anime girl proportions. Same way Hakuri is often drawn as the more diminutive partner with Chihiro even though he's about the same build and even a smidge taller in canon.

I don't have a problem with individual people making what they want to see. I get that some people want to see Hiyuki dressed in feminine clothes and/or imagine what she'd look like if she had a bit more meat on her. I just have a problem when the vision of the fandom at large doesn't mesh with what's portrayed in canon. It makes talking about the characters frustrating because it's like we're referring to two completely different people.

Anyway, I'm not the fandom police, so I mostly say nothing and move on aside from an occasional rant to myself like this. And so we come to...

Chiyuki as a Ship

This yap is becoming a yapfest, huh?

It's... alright?

The mischaracterisations Hiyuki suffers in the wider fandom do affect how much I dislike this ship. Seeing her as a tsundere also messes with the bond between her and Chihiro, so we get a lot of subtly OOC portrayals of them in ship art. The worst ones even affect how Chihiro's portrayed and leave a really sour taste in my mouth. He's not a generic stoic guy manhandling his fiesty, blushy girlfriend who definitely doesn't appreciate his rare gestures of affection, nope. But again, it's easy to ignore and move on, so I do. I don't look for Chiyuki ship art anyway so maybe I've just had a bad batch of examples appear on my feeds.

It's hard to say how they would actually act in canon since they haven't interacted much for a while. I don't think the ship would appeal to me in that context either though. It was tough for me to help with the Wiki since I don't like the romantic tropes that could apply to them now or be likely in the future, like Belligerent Sexual Tension and Dating Catwoman. I just don't like Enemies to Lovers plots no matter what genders are involved, OK? It's the only thing I dislike more than doomed romances (sorry FushiUru, but I wrote a short essay talking about the appeal of that ship at least). I don't understand the appeal of going from annoying the shit out of each other to falling in love somehow. It just seems like a setup for a toxic relationship full of bickering and petty arguments that makes everyone around them hope they break up some day.

If they are intended to be the end-game pair though, then the only thing I'll ask of the author is to convince me.

I don't ask for much in terms of romance, honestly. I prefer when authors eschew a romantic sub-plot instead of including one for demographic reasons or whatever, but I'm at peace with the fact that most stories will have a canon romance of some kind. And of course it will involve the MC and the woman closest to him more often than not. I just don't like how most shounen romances are written.

Oh wow, what a hot take! But seriously, most of them feel like they're there because the guy's obligated to get the girl in the end. The authors rely on a few ship tease moments to set up all the flags instead of putting real thought into developing romantic chemistry a lot of the time, which leaves the last-minute pair up feel hollow and unearned. Doubly so when the protagonist is simply reacting to advances from the love interest... shounen readers can probably start listing off a bunch of titles where all the "effort" and interest comes from the girl while the guy's reaction ranges from blushing embarrassment to completely missing everything. We get her perspective on romance plenty but barely anything from him! Those subplots would feel way more rewarding if they got even half the effort the MC-deuteragonist friendship plots got.

I'd hate to see Hiyuki reduced to that kind of role. She's so interesting because she's got a shounen rival setup instead of a heroine's, you know? We get her thoughts about how Chihiro's annoying, a threat, someone she has to put down for the good of the nation, a crazy do-gooder, then someone who needs to prove himself as a good guy to her bosses. No thoughts about how cool and admirable he is or any other flags really- she's not thinking of him in terms of a potential romantic partner since we left off with her and it's so refreshing. It can always change going forward but I hope even if it does come to pass then she's not the only one with the burden of developing that relationship in the narrative.

In general there's not much to go on for the ship right now, however. I honestly struggled to help fill out the Wiki for it with enough content to remove it from the pruning list because they just haven't interacted with each other a lot yet. That's probably going to change as the Sword Bearer Assassination Arc goes on, given Hiyuki's billing as someone about on-par with Hakuri and Shiba in the story so far. Hopefully we'll get to her soon and then there will be lots more information on what she'll become to Chihiro! Just based on what we've seen so far, though...

Well, that paragraph aged really poorly. We've apparently got a long while to see what happens between them. Even so:

OK. I'm gonna say it.

I see them as siblings.

"Shut up and start hitting him already!"

I know it can come across as petty or vindictive since I prefer Chihiro's other major ship, but I guarantee you it's not. I actually feel a little guilty pulling the "I see them as siblings" card after witnessing that same take being used in bad faith to dismiss queer ships countless times. But it's genuine here: Chihiro and Hiyuki remind me so much of how my sibling and I used to interact that I got downright nostalgic.

Obviously my sibling and I never had magical nukes to use on each other (the world would be well into a permanent nuclear winter if we did). It's just that Hiyuki and Chihiro effortlessly annoying the hell out of each other but still trusting the other to get the job done is peak sibling behaviour, in my humble opinion! I couldn't see them any other way after their little squabble in the storehouse fight. There's also this bit about their designs:

Delusions

Something something cool rival pose Hiyuki and cute heroine pose Hakuri

The design parallels between Hiyuki and Chihiro get me feeling a certain kind of way and this cover activated the brain worms. It's so deliberate that they have the same colour scheme in canon and this AU-ish art- mostly black with a bit of red on top- and now they have matching loose arm bandages for some reason? Hakuri's the only one of the three who gets to do his own thing!

I've got two theories on why this is, but we really need to see more of Hiyuki before I'm comfortable with going on a major yapfest about them. Suffice to say that she's either the LI as someone extremely similar to Chihiro so she "gets" him in a way no one else can, or she's actually related to Chihiro somehow. I prefer the second one far more than the first but I won't drop the manga if Chiyuki is the end-game. (Told you it was batshit nonsense.)

Yes that's both of their faces layered over each other's. Hm.

There's a lot of joking and grumbling about Hokazono-sensei having a boner for black-white-red colour schemes over everything else, I know. He uses it all the time and doesn't seem keen on deviating. Chihiro is the face of the series and black-white-red is his palette though. So I think that's an aesthetic choice to set the vibe of the series and make it more striking when it's broken- like with Hakuri's black-white-blue and the Bearers being in pink, yellow, blue, and green. Other semi-major characters like Shiba and Uruha have different palettes or deliberately don't include one of the triad, like Samura who is missing red from his. The only character who's matched Chihiro in this regard in every coloured appearance is Hiyuki.

Not only matched, but copied when other characters don't, like in the techwear cover.

To the point where even her face is almost identical to Chihiro's.

It's just a theory and I've been wrong so often I should shut up and stop sharing my thoughts forever! But this feels extremely deliberate in a series that takes so much care in layering details to present the themes of the story. Whether it has romantic intent or not is something only the author knows- it could definitely be a flag for the two of them being so similar that they naturally belong together even if they seem like opposite reflections. I'll just hold my pet theory close to my heart and see what happens with them once we finally get back to the folks we left behind at the start of Samurabachi.

Alright... that's it. If you made it through this, thanks. Let me know how stupid and wrong I am if you care enough to. And have fun shipping whatever you like to your heart's content!

[drunkenlionwrites]

Having now finished DAV, the biggest outlier for me is the endless potential for the companions characterisation! We never get passed the surface level aspects of their character - I feel this mostly for Lucanis - they never delve into his trauma of being imprisoned for an entire year and having a demon possess him against his will! They'd rather him talk about his love of coffee in every interaction! So frustrating :( Don't get me started on the lack luster romance scenes

I think I'm somewhere in like 2/3s of the game, but I accidentally spoiled myself the endings and the Varric thing (Which was kinda what I suspected from the beginning, but anyway), so I'll try to form my final opinions when I'm completely finished it. But so far to me it looks like a mash of Hogwarts Legacy (UI and combat) + DA2 in terms of maps and what they tried to do with narration made by Varric + mission based game progression + ME2 in terms of the ending battle + requirements to level up the fractions by completing their quests. All of this I don't mind on paper, but mashed together in a way that they did just...didn't leave any impact on me at all? I also was not a Solas/Lavellan player so the Inquisitor + Solas emotional and nostalgic impact is not working on me. My biggest pet peeve I guess is the retconned lore which has so many plot holes now? The "it was all Evanuris all along" is ughh...cheapening the whole lore for me. As for character writing and dialogue writing, it surely is the second one. I just see sooooo much wasted potential in characters like Lucanis and Davren, for example. But in this game they look and feel more like 2 walking Miro boards with notes about their quirks and history, rather than believable good-written characters. I really miss the prolonged conversations you could have with companions in camp back in DAO or DAI, or their banter with each other, where some topics were discussed during multiple conversations during the game. It made them feel alive, I could feel the conenction between the player character and the party. Now all the conversations are so surface-level, it's not even funny. We also don't have any real conflicts between characters in the party and companion characters with player character as well. At times, their personalities blend into something homogenous, lacking individuality. We just all agree on all the stuff and the conflicts writers added to the game were "who doesn't like dragons?" level of deep, which Rook resolved like a kindergarten teacher are were ridiculous. Characters from DAI which I previously found more shallow - like Vivenne and Blackwall - if put in this game would now seem like real people, which says a lot about this one. I feel like it all boils down to what David Gaider wrote on twitter some time ago:

"[It] slowly turned from a company that vocally valued its writers to one where we were... quietly resented, with a reliance on expensive narrative seen as the 'albatross' holding the company back,"

"Maybe that sounds like a heavy charge, but it's what I distinctly felt up until I left in 2016, suddenly all anyone in charge was asking was 'how do we have LESS writing?' A good story would simply happen, via magic wand, rather than be something that needed support and priority."

So basically, this is what we got in this installation. Laid off writers that were the pillar of this franchise, or writers who got burnt out and resigned years ago were no longer driving the importance of good written characters and plot and we got a game done by people, who were okay doing what management wanted from them.

[utilitycaster]

I agree what the cast says does not hold as much weight as what happens on stream. I think this is why I get frustrated by the 'Orym is to blame for Laudna killing Bor'dor' debates, using things Liam and/or Marisha have said on 4-sided dive that contradict the actual scene, where Marisha states Laudna barely notices Orym and Ashton, and *nothing* will stop her from doing what she wants to do. At worst, it's inaction. Have interviews and things like that always held so much weight in fandom?

I am absolutely the wrong person to ask here; I was not super in fandom when I was younger. I am going to, as I am wont to do, make some educated guesses but please take with a grain of salt.

I think there's a few things going on. A lot of people have told me that Glee was the first fandom they personally recall where it became about winning more than like, having fun and sharing ideas, and I wouldn't be surprised if that is at least an influence. (The idea that two ships that do not conflict and indeed have incompatible sexualities are in some kind of deathly serious competition is truly so baffling to me that I have to chalk up that particular bit of, if I may use a yiddishism here, mishegos, to Glee for sure.)

I also think that there was a time and there are shows where interviews did (or do) carry more weight, namely, those with executive meddling, or loss of creative control, or, notably, queer ships until quite recently. I have a lot of friends in the Star Trek fandom even though I'm not knowledgeable at all and from what I am given to understand, there's been a few ships squashed or delayed by executive whim or homophobia that the actors would pretty openly and consistently confirm at conventions. (The ones I know are Riker and Troi; and Garak and Bashir; but I have only hazy recollections of TNG and know NOTHING of DS9 so this is second-hand). I've talked about this before, but Word of God used to carry more weight for me when you simply couldn't have same gender romances on network TV or most mainstream film without risking your career. Now? You're a coward and a panderer.

Anyway I think with actual play specifically, which is improvised (ie, intent can shift dramatically and unexpectedly) and which has a lot of talkback shows and also a disproportionately huge amount of content people get in the habit of cherrypicking, and in extreme cases this turns into cherrypicking themselves straight out of the actual narrative and into microexpressions and OOC interviews and side conversations from three years ago.

I also, and I am too tired and too many drinks in (two drinks in, to be clear) to articulate this tonight, find that actual play in particular has amassed a certain fandom that I think was attracted to things I like and support (queer characters, women/queer people/POC creating and driving their own characters, independent creator-owned productions, improvised and therefore at times really unique stories, not needing to have streaming services in some cases) but also doesn't actually like Actual Play as a medium (see: every single D20 fandom meltdown low-key boils down to "I have zero genre awareness of both whatever is going on narratively and also I high-key loathe D&D as a means of storytelling and particularly the existence of violence in narrative, yet I am watching the Violent Narrative D&D show, so dance or me, my puppets, wait why aren't you dancing.") So I think you get a lot of people who are just making dumb fucking arguments because they decide what they believe and then poorly reverse engineer the support instead of doing things in the proper order and I think the people claiming Orym is responsible for Bor'Dor's death are in that category and we should stop treating them as people who are adding anything of worth to the conversation.