#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

[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…

[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.

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

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.

[edwinspaynes]

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!

[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.

[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.

[physalian]

"Objectively terrible" you say?

I saw this Buzzfeed list about popular movies that the people on this list can’t stand, and while I did agree with some of them (hate Elf), it reminds me of back when Last Jedi came out and you had people (me among them) calling it “objectively terrible”. My argument at the time had boiled down to “take ‘Star Wars’ out of the title for a second, take off your rose-tinted glasses, and convince me this movie has excellent pacing” and the movie’s fiercest defenders to me were always desperate Star Wars fans who basically said “it’s Star Wars, thus it can’t be bad” which… led to some irreconcilable unrelated differences underneath the tip of this iceberg.

I am older now. Still don’t like the story of that movie, still will proudly defend my hill of “8 movies into this franchise and 2 movies into this sequel series and you have a responsibility as a writer to at the very least communicate with the people who write the movies before and after yours so it fits cohesively”. But, the effects were cool I guess. I liked the cinematography.

Anyway, on this Buzzfeed list is one of my favorite movies, Inception, and the comments for every movie nominated were incredibly cynical to begin with, but some lovely person had this to say: “Inception was boring AF, and the whole ‘it doesn’t matter if stuff in a movie is anachronistic because movies are fake anyway’ is absolute anathema to me” an argument I have never heard for this movie anyway.

Also on this list are Ferris Bueller’s Day off, Brokeback Mountain, Grease, Gone With the Wind, and a couple others.

And as somebody who can happily accept and discuss the flaws of my absolute favorite films, “I hate this and I don’t understand it” and “This movie is terrible because I don’t understand it” do not mean the same thing.

Is Inception confusing? Absolutely. Should you be required to invest your full attention and then some for multiple rewatches to understand a story? If that’s not your thing, no. But “I don’t like it, thus it is bad” arguments are… kind of funny? And weirdly insecure?

I hate Elf. I don’t like most comedies, especially 'manchild' comedies, and can only handle Will Ferrell in very small doses. I don’t think he’s all that funny and I only really liked him in Lego Movie, when he wasn’t “Will Ferrell”. I also hate Elf because it’s unfortunately associated with a truly awful Christmas spent with family in the hospital and this movie was the only movie on and it was an Elf marathon.

But do I think Elf is a bad movie?

No.

It’s a lighthearted comedy. It knows exactly what it is and it’s not trying to be anything else. It successfully told the story it set out to tell and it makes people laugh and I do like this one line from it: “You sit on a throne of lies!”

Sorry I guess I’m of the opinion that movies can be made and stories can be told that aren’t watered down and oversimplified to appeal to mass audiences. Sorry this angry Redditor hates one of my favorite sci-fi movies. But that they didn’t understand it does not make it an incomprehensible mess. Some of us like examining movies over and over again and catching all the tiny details.

Also not here trying to say "you didn't understand it thus your opinion is invalid". Rather "you're trying to assert your opinion as a universal truth, which is invalid".

"I don't think Will Ferrell is funny" - opinion.

"Will Ferrell is not funny" - (incorrect) assertation.

We can argue semantics all day long but the point I'm trying to make is that attempting to frame the success of a work of art as objectively or universally anything based solely on your opinion of it is wrong.

It wasn’t just Inception, though. I don’t love Brokeback Mountain and boy is it uh… a product of its time and its characters reflect that, but it’s not a bad movie. It’s slow, it’s sad, it’s frustrating, but… it’s supposed to be these things.

Ferris Bueller is supposed to be a little ridiculous. Scarlett O’Hara is supposed to be insufferable. These all told the stories they wanted to with perfect execution. They’re not confusing, they’re not filled with logic-shattering plot holes, the characters are consistent, the continuity is maintained, they cinematography is solid. To call any movie “objectively terrible” wanders into the territory of physically unwatchable and incomprehensible on accident.

It’s art. I have absolutely sat through movies that are 100% pretentious bullshit that could easily be 30-45 minutes shorter but they spent so much time on lingering shots of absolutely nothing pretending to be profound. I’d call that bullshit, they’d call it Avant Gard, I’d call it Avant Gard bullshit. But those weren’t made for me.

And while I get this was a list of popular movies that some people can’t stand so they were venting and being nasty more than usual, the entire list was just one long parade of insecure comments.

I don’t like Nightmare Before Christmas. I think the romance isn’t given enough time to develop and it’s one of those “they love each other because they’re the main characters and they shared a longing glance” romances. I definitely don’t like when people make the movie their whole personality and I hate how it takes over two whole holidays for 3 months of the year.

But it’s not a bad movie.

I like the songs, I love the animation, I love the creativity and the vision that everyone who worked on it had.

If every movie was made on assembly line to be perfectly generic and understandable and digestible to everyone who could possibly wander into the theater to see it, that would be a pretty sad world.

“I don’t like it and I didn’t understand it” is perfectly valid, whether it's movies or music or books or TV shows.

“I don’t like it and I didn’t understand it and this makes it objectively terrible” is not valid.

[tired-reader-writer]

Because the AO3 author's note box has a character limit and my author's note was way too long even when I split it into two (honestly crying right now like literally I'm legitimately distressed), here's the full fucking thing in all its glory.

This is the fic it was supposed to be attached to.

Sooooo, yeah! This is the first chapter of what will be a longfic following Hoshiori— it's functionally a prologue I realize but I didn't want to name it a prologue because I didn't want to deal with the thing where it turns out like “Chapter 2: Chapter 1” because it hurts my delicate sensibilities, LOL.

Many, MANY thanks to my dear friend wolfghost who kindly agreed to beta this fic… *checks time-stamp* six entire months ago! Oh wow I really took forever in actually delivering the chapter to you, my fucking god.

First things first, I would like to say that the worldbuilding here might be very unfamiliar to y'all because of how much it departs from other fics— heavily inspired by wolfghost's Drag My Dark Into The Dawn series (please do check it out, it's very good, realistic exploration of war and trauma) the dynamics between civilian and shinobi are… well. It'll get explored in more detail in the future, please look forward to it! I will note that this isn't supposed to bash civilians. I know they're causing problems right now and will continue to, at least some of them (a specific subset of civilians), but I want to give the civilians a proper chance in this fic because they rarely do ever get the chance to shine! In a similar vein, I seek to not bash any character in this fic (well I think it's impossible to truly bash Hiruzen because man's just That Bad from the outset but I digress), not Hashirama, not Tobirama, not Madara, not even Jiraiya, no one, even as they have caused problems and will continue to cause problems down the line (particularly with Jiraiya). The choices they make will inevitably impact someone in a negative manner. The narrators will end up disliking one person or another. It will happen. I just hope y'all enjoy this absolute hot mess of a web.

Marigolds symbolize… a whole lot of things, both positive and negative. I felt that they were a fitting flower for many reasons which I won't state here because I want to hear you guy's thoughts! I will give you a hint in that “万寿菊” consisting of kanji for thousand, longevity, and chrysanthemum respectively, means marigold. Let me know what you think they represent here!

As for the name Uzunoshima… well, the island had to have a name before it became Uzushiogakure, before the Hidden Village system was established here, and I decided on this name to imitate Japan's island names such as Tokunoshima, Tanegashima, Kagoshima, Hikoshima, Kamishima, Tomogashima, almost said Hitogashima before realizing that's a fictional island but it *is* based on a real island, specifically Tomogashima, so yeah! Funnily enough, I originally wanted to name it Zokunoshima meaning “island of thieves” because the Uzumaki were originally pirates and that just sounded like a name the rest of the world would give them and the Uzumaki would have their own endonym for it but I feared it might've gotten too confusing for my readers, so I decided against it.

Toyonabe and Niezaki are, of course, not names or places found in canon because I guess I have to do all the work establishing place names here. The name Toyonabe consists of the kanji 豊 (abundant, lush, bountiful, plenty) and 鍋 (pot), because it's a bit of a melting pot port city situation, and the region it's in, Niezaki, consists of kanji 沸 (to boil, to cook) and 崎 (peninsula). It was originally part of Yu no Kuni who trades openly with Uzunoshima despite everybody else being afraid of the Uzumaki, before Hi no Kuni would eventually annex the area. They still bear the name. I also like to think that the region has volcanoes and the hot currents from the region meet the colder waters from other places and the temperature shenanigans gave the Sanzu strait its signature whirlpools along with some quirks on the ocean floor probably, but it's not important so I didn't mention it. Just a fun thought.

My sincerest thanks for my good friend reipastuminen on ao3 for helping me name Niezaki and Toyonabe. Truly, you were a godsend.

As for the Sanzu strait, it's named for the Sanzu river in Japanese Buddhist belief, one that souls of the dead must cross to get to the “far shore” (Higan) aka the afterlife. Why do you think I named it Sanzu strait? Tell me about it!

Imo-mochi is a type of mochi made of potatoes.

I headcanon that Tobirama is an albino man rather than it being just Anime Logic™, and so I ended up incorporating that headcanon into the fic. Yes, his eyelashes are black, but everyone has black eyelashes in Naruto, I think it's just the artstyle. It's a bit of an unusual headcanon, I know, but please don't try to pick a fight with me over it. I've already seen people try to discredit the headcanon and it's exhausting.

The Natsuboshi festival is… about four celebrations rolled into one. The Tanabata festival, of course, and the Bon Odori festival, also the celebration of the ocean, and the Shichi-go-san celebration. Shichi-go-san because it just felt appropriate to smudge it a little for the seventh year ceremony for children here, and ocean day because it happened to be in the same month as Tanabata (July), and Bon Odori because… Actually, it's interesting how Bon Odori and Tanabata were originally the same celebration historically in Japan, held in the seventh month of the traditional Japanese calendar, but eventually drifted apart because Tanabata moved to the western calendar's July, and Bon Odori stayed in its original month which was the seventh month in the Japanese calendar but fell on August. Some places in Japan do celebrate it in August still, though. And since I decided well there's no reason for there to be two calendars I just smushed the two festivals back into one. I've already cried bitter tears wrangling calendars in my other fic, Winds of Wolfsong, if I have to do it for this fic too I will start to cry. The name of this festival consists of the kanji 夏 “summer” and 星 “star”.

The tale of Orihime and Hikoboshi will be symbolically important for Hoshiori!

Uzunoshima has two time systems, the 24-hour system for everything else, and the traditional Japanese time system (which has varying hour lengths according to season) for the shrine, just like how many cultures today have a western calendar and a traditional calendar, just on a smaller scale. The hours were counted from nine to four, backwards from noon until midnight, and the numbers one, two, and three were not used because those were the times used for Buddhist monks to call to prayer. Uzunoshima is primarily Shinto though, but I wanted to keep this irl Japanese tradition. Dawn and dusk are marked as the sixth hour in this time system. Each hour is assigned an animal from the Japanese zodiac as it is irl, and I won't go into detail but the two hours mentioned in this chapter were: usagi-ji (hour of the rabbit, dawn, six strikes), and tatsu-ji (hour of the dragon, five strikes). Now I have no proof the hours were called like that irl, I just wanted to do this because I found it neat.

The bell strikes would come from the island's shrine here, and Kazuma compares the prayer voices to the tremor of the tsurigane, which are also called oogane irl but I realized, hey, the “tsuri/釣” in the word means “to strung up/to fish” and Uzunoshima is an island, it felt fitting so I went with the term tsurigane.

The gods Fuchi-no-Kami and Uzu-no-Mikoto aren't irl Shinto deities, obviously, I found that the gods from the usual pantheon didn't click with me, and in Shintoism which is an offspring of animism, a mountain can be a kami, a tree can be a kami, a rock can be a kami, almost anything can be a kami, really, so I felt comfortable in just making new gods up. Fuchi-no-Kami is the goddess of the sea (only to the Uzumaki though, Susanoo fills that role for others which makes up for funny religious conflict as the Uzumaki insist Susanoo and other such ocean deities are actually Fuchi-no-Kami's children LMAO) and Uzu-no-Mikoto are her daughters, representing the whirlpools. Uzu-no-Mikoto's name is pretty self-explanatory, but the word “fuchi/淵” means abyss/depth/deep pool/deep waters and I thought it was appropriate for both the sea between the Kiri archipelago and the Continent. Also yeah the archipelago is named Kiri for the mist that envelopes all its islands, Mizu no Kuni as a collective has not been properly established at this point in time though it will start to do so eventually.

The Shinigami… actually, it's quite the interesting case. I always did think the term Shinigami sounded odd for a single deity, it sounded plural, so I looked into it and… yeah! Shintoism does not have a singular death deity, and historically, Shinigami were depicted as many death gods or as youkai-like vengeful spirits who possess people and drive them to suicide. Obviously, the Naruto world seem to have a singular death god, so I kept it that way, but made a small nod to the historical portrayal of Shinigami as vengeful spirits via the detail of ayakashi (phantoms) serving him. And since the Shinigami mask came from the Uzumaki in canon, I thought why not, and made him the consort of Fuchi-no-Kami. The ayakashi… their name can be translated as “strange phenomenon of the sea” and they're said to be phantoms who appear on the water's surface, and there are many types. Though interestingly, the ayakashi in Noh theater where their name is written in kanji (the non-Noh ones are written entirely in hiragana, I know, it's confusing) 怪士 meaning “strange warrior”. I decided to stick with the sea phantoms interpretation for my sanity's sake.

Though a lot of the Uzumaki's faith is a certified me-original (as is their matriarchy, I know canon featured a dude next to Hashirama, shush, if Kishimoto can retcon his own stuff I can retcon his stuff as well), the belief that a child is not fully human until the age of 7 and “belongs to the gods” is not! It's a belief found in Japan's history, where they had a practice called “mabiki/���引き” meaning “thinning out an overgrown garden” which is slang for… infanticide. Yeah. It was such a common practice, too. I'm not putting it in the story, though. Other such beliefs will be making an appearance in the future as well, particularly with the Hyuuga. Do look forward to it!

Both miko and kannushi are women here, they can marry, miko can become kannushi on Uzunoshima. No, it is not how it works irl, but I'm doing this to simplify it and keep my sanity. The prayer chanted during the ceremony is based on what little I could find of Shinto prayers called “norito/祝詞”, also the beginning of one of the poems “divine gods noble and fearsome” is also based on my feeble attempt at translating the beginning of a norito addressing the gods. AGH! I'm not gonna go into the kagura dance because this author's note is unmanageably long already.

Chitose-ame (千歳飴, thousand-year candy) is given out to children at the shichi-go-san celebration, meant to symbolize healthy growth and a long life. The bags typically have cranes and turtles on them, two animals which will be important to Hoshiori. The lines “A thousand years for the graceful cranes, ten thousand for the gliding turtles” are based on a saying “鶴は千年、亀は万年” (cranes live for a thousand years, turtles live for ten thousand years).

The civilian-shinobi relations on Uzunoshima are decidedly less well-defined and distant compared to their mainland counterparts, mainly because the Uzumaki did not regard themselves as shinobi in the first place and did not see fit to adopt those labels before the reforms, but also because they are a small island nation and so relations are gonna be more intimate whether Kokuen likes it or not. Mainland relations will take on a slightly different flavor. You'll see.

The fuuinjutsu rankings are based on the Japanese martial arts “dan/段” ranking system, going from shodan (first dan, lowest) to juudan (tenth dan, highest), and the Uzumaki wear these waist sash tassels to signify what rank they are. The ornaments are jinbu, an actual accessory seen with Chinese hanfu garments.

I am aware hanafuda refers to the cards and not the game, you can play many games with those cards, I just didn't feel like specifying a particular game. Also, the symbolism in those cards… yum.

I ended up inserting little poem snippets between scenes, this is my first real attempt at poetry, and I do not think I can keep it up for other chapters, so it'll have to be a prologue-exclusive! They're not based on any Japanese poetic structure, as I am not learned in that area (my Japanese is barely N4! I can't even keigo! 😭) The first one and the last are based on Japanese songs I've heard, though! Keep an eye on the mention of yorimashi, human vessels that attract the kami and allow the kami to dwell in them for rituals and ceremonies. Doesn't it remind you of… jinchuuriki? 👀

And, yeah, this fic is absolutely infested with OCs, and that's a feature not a bug because Kishimoto did not see fit to give us Uzumaki characters and so I have to fill in the space myself. Let's talk about their names!

Hoshiori: 星織, “star-weaver” or “to weave the stars”, a direct reference to the folktale figure Orihime

(Senju) Kazuma: 和守, 和 meaning “harmony, peace, concord, sum/add” and 守 meaning “protect, defend, obey, guardian”, together it can mean something like “to protect peace”. It just sounded like something Hashirama would name his child.

Tsurue: 鶴衣, 鶴 meaning “crane” and 衣 meaning “clothing, garment”, and so her name is a reference to The Crane Wife folktale

Tsurue and Kazuma's names represent… aspects of their daughter.

Kiho: 祈帆, 祈 meaning “prayer” and “帆” meaning sail, so her name would mean “prayer to sail”

Haine: 波音, meaning “the sound of waves”, it's a Summertime Render reference

Kofune: 小船, meaning “small ship/boat”, also a Summertime Render reference

Kokuen: 黒炎, meaning “black flames”, a recycled Magi OC LOL

Gyokuen: 玉炎, 玉 meaning “ball, sphere, jewel, gem” and 炎 meaning “flames”

Mana and Shinpei's names don't have kanji, sorry kids I kinda gave up (Shinpei's name is a reference to Summertime Render. Again.)

Unusual though the worldbuilding choices may be, I *am* basing them on the little snippets we got in the Chuunin exam arc, such as: this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this

Also recommended is The Weaver by concernedbrownbread! The politics in that fic takes a very different flavor from mine and wolfghost's, but captivating nonetheless! Please give both a try, I promise you it is very worth it.

[dagnab]

(ey hotpocket anon here)

may've infospiraled leading up to what i wanted to ask so feel free to ignore/only read the question. enjoyed your reponse on Viktor/the writing regardless!

but yeah big agree on the issue starting in season 1 and the larger foreign threat cop out almost being inevitable when the villains can't be allowed to be right/systems allowed to change.

like even as someone who only knows league through the osmosis grapevine, even i knew riot has a track record of centrist writing. so not sure what i was expecting lol, guess i hoped they'd have a little more tact/not be so brazen (cough black jinxer seeing an enforcer be nice to an old lady ONE time and goes to bat/dies for Piltover in an enforcer uniform)??? /head in my hands

like i love a good tragedy but season 2...wasn't that. heck it wasn't even bittersweet imo, just kinda depressing, masquerading as aspirational/realistic.

like of course this is where stuff goes when the writers believe systems are inherently good and fault lies with individuals. soon as Piltover was about to """grant""" Zaun independence and that gets ruined by an ~undesirable~ knew we were cooked. machine herald Viktor would've required a more grounded/nuanced approach they couldn't just ramp/scale with minimal effort. which isn't to excuse where the writing falters badly but can't say i'm shocked.

if they "had" to go the purple route, wish they'd at least leaned into the hextech as technical process all the way through. interfacing with power unfathomably large/complex is interesting but boiling down to big power always bad is kinda boring, esp for a narrative that believes power int the right hands is fine. it would've been more interesting for it to function like a system/character to be understood rather than a godly power (that can only really be wielded by the chosen/doom everyone for wanting a better world).

anyway unfortunately now i'm desperate to read some rewrites cause these characters are too interesting to leave ending like that. but god i do not wanna wade through the racism/ableism.

like Sky and Isha getting dusted/used by the narrative like that was just foul??? in 2024?? give me Jayce and Heimerdinger actually apologizing for their complicity, doing more to right it than just dying (what can i say as a Silco fan—i wanna see characters live/FIGHT for the cause). did Viktor, a highly visible disabled character have to becoming specifically a eugenicist to have a villain arc all while his autonomy over his own actions is in question? that seems...particularly insensitive at this moment in history. did Vi have to become a cop and be down to gas her people that quick after years of daily beatings? and the fact that everything Viktor ever did was for nothing, that the best possible outcome he could hope for across EVERY UNIVERSE/TIMELINE is to not die alone/die while comforting someone who still doesn't fully understand him (yes i'm a Jayce speech hater, as gorgeous/touching as the visuals are). and uh maybe a dictator facing consequences that don't involve disability as "punishment"?

which is all to say,—QUESTION—in an ideal world, what story beats would you've like to see for Viktor/the show?

i'm chomping at the bit to read read/imagine rewrites that do better by the characters/themes.

Hotpocket anon ily and I owe you an apology this ask has been fermenting in my inbox for like a week now because I've been stewing on complaints and ideas so hard.

It's gotten to the point where my post was getting way too long sooo uhhhhhh I just started writing a full machine herald rewrite fic. I'll link it when tha first chapter is out 😌

[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.

[forever-a-lake-effect-kid]

do you guys ever just wake up with a scene fully formed in your head and then have to scramble to write it down immediately before it vanishes? well you'll never guess what happened to me this morning. merry early hanukkah to me i guess

this is inspired by the book i've been reading on puritans and their effect on new england culture. eventually it's gonna get into other early english settlers and their cultures and then i'll go insane about that probably but for now i've been thinking a lot about the Implications of this for very early days mass and maine and well. this is the result. particularly i think i was influenced by this quote

"New Englanders gave thanks to their Calvinist God for cold baked beans and stale brown bread, while lobsters abounded in the waters of Massachusetts Bay and succulent gamebirds orbited slowly overhead."

late 1690s, massachusetts bay.

Maine sits by the water and waits. They have a little fire going on the rocky shore next to them, a bucket they borrowed and filled with ocean water hung over it, and now all they have to do is sit and wait.

"MAINE!"

Maine inhales the smell of boiling lobster and sighs. Just a couple more minutes. The lobster he pulled out of the shallows was a little small, but that's okay. So is he. Lobsters don't usually live this shallow, and they definitely usually pinch if you just pick them up, but he's Maine, after all. The bay provides for him. He thanked the lobster, put it in the pot, and now all he needs to do is wait a couple more minutes and then he can finally have some decent food.

"Maine, I don't know what it is you think you're doing, but you need to stop it right now—"

Maine glances up at Massachusetts. "'m making lobster."

"You will not— get that thing out of —" Massachusetts stops short in front of Maine, scowling intensely. "What— why—"

Maine looks back and forth between their guardian and the lobster. On the one hand, they're really hungry, and this was supposed to be their lobster. On the other hand, maybe if Massachusetts tries some of it, he'll see how good it is and won't get mad at them.

"…You can have some if you want," they finally say, with distinct reluctance.

Massachusetts shudders. "Absolutely not."

"Suit yourself," Maine says with a shrug. The lobster is nice and red— just about done. He glances around for something to take it out of the pot with, sees nothing, and tips the pot over instead.

Massachusetts goes to snatch the steaming lobster away and recoils immediately, clutching their hand. Maine tries not to laugh.

"Insolent, little…" Massachusetts mutters several other insulting things under their breath and dips their burnt hand in the ocean to cool it off. "I don't understand. Why are you always doing this?"

"Making lobster?" Maine says innocently.

"No, and you know that's not what I meant," Massachusetts says. "I mean– running off. Disobeying me. Last week it was oysters, the week before some kind of berry that could have been poisonous for all you knew, now this?"

"'M hungry," Maine mutters.

"Are you not grateful for the food we have?"

"Yes," Maine says hastily, knowing by now that if the word grateful comes up it means he'd better agree. "I mean, of course I'm grateful. But I really like lobster, and it's right here."

"Food is not meant to be enjoyed," Massachusetts says. "It is meant to be sustenance. Anything more is—"

"It's ready!" Maine says, sensing A Lecture coming on. He breaks off a claw—it's still a little hot, but it's fine—and waves it at Massachusetts. "Here."

They watch Massachusetts' expression waver, stuck between the denial he was just preaching and the hunger Maine knows he must be feeling for a good minute or so, before he finally gives in and takes the claw. Maine smiles.

"How do you, uh…" Massachusetts turns it over in his hand.

Maine rolls his eyes and demonstrates. For a good fifteen minutes, they're both quiet, absorbed in the joys of lobster (well, Maine's absorbed in the joys of lobster. He doesn't know what Massachusetts thinks, and doesn't really care.)

Once it's all gone, Maine sighs in both contentment and resignation and starts to stand up. They wobble slightly as the feeling comes back into their legs, and Massachusetts reaches out to steady them, and Maine instinctively takes the opportunity to kind of accidentally-on-purpose lean on him. Massachusetts doesn't even push them off immediately, which Maine takes as a good sign. Maybe the lobster did help.

"Please don't be too mad, Mass," Maine says, muffled from having their face hidden in Mass's shoulder. They know they're too big for this by now, (and even when they were very small, Mass never seemed to want to be close to them), but there is something undeniably comforting about it. And if they can't see Massachusetts's face, they can't see him being disappointed in them. "After all—" they're struck by a sudden burst of inspiration— "—you didn't tell me not to."

Maine doesn't need to see Mass to know they're frowning. "Maine, you know you're not supposed to run off without telling me where you're going."

That is true. Maine slumps.

"…That said, I will grant it does show remarkable self-sufficiency and ingenuity," Mass says. "Especially for one of your age."

"I'm not that young!" Maine says indignantly. "I'm, like…" They pause, trying to sort through their fuzzy memories. "…seventy or something!"

"That's still young by our standards," Mass says, but they sound more amused than scolding.

Maine huffs and puts their head back down on Mass's shoulder. The texture of wool is comforting against their face, and the effect of lobster after weeks of just eating bread and baked beans is making them unexpectedly sleepy, and they're warm and content and not being punished right now for once, and the only reason they don't fall asleep is because they want to savor this as long as they can.

"We do have to go back to Boston," Mass says.

"Just a little bit longer," Maine says, and Massachusetts, remarkably, complies.

[laura1633]

About the ask you got about Max being written as the unattractive one so often, I think it’s worth remembering that in the bulk of fanfiction and fandom, complicated things are very often boiled down to their simplest tropes! The general public’s perception is that Charles is one of the most attractive drivers on the grid, so that means that Max is usually relegated to the “ugly”/self-conscious role because that is the easiest way to write it.

I think it’s kind of the same as the way Charles is often the hyper-feminized character while Max is the more boyish/masculine one. Not to say that any of these takes are objectively bad because obviously writers should write what they’d like, but I think these types of basic concepts just make it easier to jump in and get going.

Personally, I do love a real character study, and I love it when they both are written with their own insecurities that just baffle the other one because it’s like “what do you mean???? You’re the hottest person I’ve ever seen!!!!” 🥰

Some really great points anon <3

You are definitely right about some fan fiction being boiled down to tropes. I'm not saying that as a negative because I love reading and writing lots of the popular tropes. It's funny because things that might put me off certain films etc draw me in in fan fiction, I think fan fiction just hits differently. I will read the same trope over and over and love it each time.

I sometimes wonder if a little of the perception of Max also has to do with the fact that Max came into this sport so young and sometimes when you are still growing and getting comfortable with yourself you can come across as more awkward (not always but sometimes). I think people still think he is that younger Max and have completely missed the fact he has grown up in to this really hot man! (In much the same way as how people like to go on about things he did on the track 10 years ago as some sort of statement for the type of driver he is)

I guess when you have a story idea that requires one of them to be the less attractive one and you are writing about Max and Charles it's a struggle ! I just find it really difficult to try and think about Max being the 'less attractive one' because I just look at him and think he is the most attractive on the grid. Not that I am going to try and describe Charles as unattractive 😂

To me it all just comes down to which character's POV I am writing from because Charles is going to go crazy over how attractive Max is and vice versa. So I definitely agree with you anon, I love it when they are both so confused and just can't get over how the other would be insecure because they are just perfect.

(I am also sure that there are some people who write fanfiction about Max who actually don't like him and are using him as a plot device and in those cases they are quite happy to describe him as ugly, I personally avoid anything that even seems like it is going in that direction though!)