#i have other pet peeves but this is already way too long

[mavnagerie]

big love

* luffy may be too experimental for his own good…

monkey d. luffy x reader

summary: the strawhats have stopped at an uninhabited island for the night and you and luffy go out for a walk. well when he goes gear 5 to get big so he can show you the island from above… things get freaky 🤓

warning: no proofread we die like men. this isn’t super long. pre established relationship (luffy x reader, slight zoro x reader x luffy). kinky; sorry. gear 5 luffy. GIANT! gear 5 luffy. holding you in his palm and having his way with you. cunnilingus and grinding. no dicks here today (aside from one mention at the end). public ish sex. (i might be forgetting something im just so exhausted)

authors note: requests are open

luffy was always a confident and kind guy, deserving of the honor that had been bestowed upon him when his devil fruit powers had grown with him as a person.. but now you’re sitting here, watching as luffy, exploring his new form, shifts his body like he had never had his powers to begin with. floating in front of the two of you, his hair moved like the clouds in the sky around his face.

lying on the deck of the sunny next to zoro, you both watched as luffy grew and shrank his arms and legs, but deep down luffy knew that he could grow to immense heights, big enough to hold the sunny in the palms of his calloused hands. he could jump kaido like jump rope if he so pleased yet he was sitting here playing with his limbs like a child playing with his toys.

sighing, you laid your head on zoros chest. “wake me up when he’s done dicking around and actually wants to relax” you mumble as you quickly doze off, a bad habit you had picked up from both zoro and luffy. sooner or later, zoro is asleep too, as luffy continues to goof off.

although you and zoro had been asleep, the rest of the crew decided amongst themselves that you would dock for the night on an island that seemed a little uninhabited, at least on the side you all had stopped on. although the sunny had plenty of food and resources for the straw hats, being on land for a night wasn’t always bad.

being hooked awake by luffy was one of zoros biggest pet peeves so he always shook you awake first so that you could wake up zoro.

“y/n… cmon wake up..” he shakes your arm, taking your hand and kissing it. “cmon!” he’s patiently waiting like an obedient dog as he hears you begin to stir awake.

“whats wrong luffy?” you blink your eyes at him before realizing the sun was sitting and you three were the only ones left on the ship.

“nothing princess, we’re stopped for the night. get up so we can go eat dinner” he smiles, nodding to zoro, asking you to wake him up. you can’t help but smile at his cute face before sitting up, leaning over zoro, finding his hand and gently squeezing it before shaking him just a little. you whispered to him before he woke up, groaning in your face.

“cmon get up big guy..” you smiled, kissing him before standing up next to luffy. you walked past him, he watched as the skirt around your waist formed to your body as you stood. before you felt his big hands around you, stretchy arms pulling you back into his chest.

“do i not get a kiss?” he looks down at you, with such a pathetic sad look on his face. turning around in his arms, your arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him down into a kiss. zoro is now standing next to the two of you, looming over the both of you as you pulled away from luffy. you kicked your leg up as you popped off of your foot, going to grab a book before meeting the others to go down to the rest of the crew.

“you ready?” luffy commented as zoro had already made his way down to the camp site. you smiled as he grabbed you, using his stretchy arms to grab ahold of a tree before pulling you and him both down to land. doing stuff like that with him had always made you nervous but it was something about his hold on you, around your waist, that made you trust him.

getting down to the rest of the crew, they smiled at your presence. sanji asking you if you wanted anything, totally ignoring luffy and zoro. as you sat between the two, sanji only glared at them as he handed you a drink.

the night proceeded as usual, stories and laughs shared by the straw hats resounded in the pit of the forest right off the coast. the sunny bobbed in the ocean peacefully while the night grew colder. the fire between the 10 members burned bright but there came a time where they all needed more wood. while almost everyone had done a task beforehand , there sat you, luffy and zoro who had been the lazy ones upon the stop.

namis voice rang in your ears as you woke up from drifting off against zoros shoulder. “hey! can you and luffy go get some more wood??” she said looking down at the two of you. you blinked at her… she looked annoyed. ‘OH. luffy is being frustrating. got it.’ you connected the dots in your head as you sat up, nodding to her.

grabbing luffys hand, you just ran off into the forest. “come on luffy.” you groaned.

———————

the two of you had turned your little trip to the forest for wood into a romantic little walk, walking hand in hand until you were both sitting at a ledge somewhere on the island looking over the starry sky.

“the ocean is really calm tonight.. did we really need to stop?” your voice was soft, wrapping around luffy and holding him like a warm blanket. he liked hearing you talk, he loved listening to the words that left your lips like a king listening to the jester aim to amuse him. he didn’t have much of an answer so he just shrugged as he put his hand over yours.

an idea struck luffy and before he even remembered to say anything to you, he was standing again.

“oh are you ready to go back?” you looked up at him as he stood over you, steam rose from his skin and you already knew what he was about to do, scooting back a bit as his hair grew white and his clothes shifted with him.

“no, i wanna show you something.” he speaks through the clouds of his hair covering his face before they cleared. luffy transformation from regular old luffy to gear 5 has become progressively easier for him, almost on command at this point, so when he does this it’s nothing new but maybe seems like he’s showing off… which you didn’t mind. you liked seeing your beautiful captain all confident and happy, but sometimes he took advantage of how much you loved seeing his confidence.

beginning to stand up to let him show you whatever he had planned in his head, you watched as he got a running start, throwing himself off the side of the ledge.

“LUFFY-“ your voice escaped you in a worried shout before you watched the ledge, a gasp leaving you as his body grew past the size of ledge. his feet planted in the ocean as he grew larger than life, towering over you like a skyscraper. you were speechless, knowing he had this ability but barely able to fathom the idea of him being this big.

he crouched down, waving at you with a big smile. “luffy!!” you shouted, grinning ear to ear despite the shock in your voice.

“what princess??” he speaks, lowering his tone so he wouldn’t be so loud to you or frankly, the rest of the island.

“you’re so…” you laugh before he reaches his hand out.

“big? i know!! now get on, i wanna show you the island” his hands were out in front of you, cupped together like a landing pad just for you. as you stepped onto his fingers, you roll into his palm with a small “uph” as he cups his hands around you, cradling you so you don’t fall.

you pull your long skirt back down your legs, covering them as you find a comfortable place to sit in the dip of his large hands.

“you’re so cute, princess” he smiled down at you before standing up again. he could see the sunny from this side of the island, he was sure they could probably see luffy from over the treetops if they stood on the sunny but regardless they were clueless to his gargantuan form. the sun had long set over the horizon so as the stars dotted the skies, luffys smile seemed to beam brighter. he held his wrists close to his chest , opening up his palm so that you could see the island from above, watching the sea from high up as well.

“isn’t it so cool?” he smiled, watching as you observed in awe.

“is this really what you see?”

“always..” he smiles. bending his finger back to you, you placed your hand on his fingertip, holding it while you stood up. he watched as the skirt around your legs shook with the wind, observing your hair and how your eyes glowed under the stars. standing there in his hands, he brought another finger up to your stomach, tickling you, wanting to hear your laughter. you buckled over giggling as his fingertip pressed against your belly.

“luffy quit!!” you giggled as you feel back into his hands. he then lowered you closer to the ground again, leaning down into the water, sitting down with you in his hands. he grabbed you with one, holding you gracefully between his fingers, the meat of his middle finger pressed right between your thighs. a sigh left you as he held you there, holding his finger out to you with his other hand.

his ears almost perked up at the noise. “what was that??” he teased. your face was flushed. “n-nothing!” your face was flushed, getting embarrassed. but his hair billowed around his head as he got a little excited, wanting to hear that precious noise again. a noise neither him nor zoro ever heard enough. “cmon.. do it again!” he whines cheekily, moving his finger underneath you again, hoping you’d react. you held in your voice to spite him, although your face did nothing to hide the pleasure growing between your thighs.

“it’s like when you ride zoros thighs..” he mumbles, watching as you succumb to his wangs and begin idly to grind yourself on the space between his knuckles. he uses very delicate touches to take the fabric of your skirt between two of his fingertips and pulls it up, wanting to watch as your panties dampened with pleasure. you began to fold to him, scared of his size due to luffys recklessness but he began to prove to be just as gentle when he’s 20x your size than he would be regularly.

“is this okay, princess??” he thought he’d ask just in case, even though you’ve become to seem like you’re enjoying yourself. your hands now planted on his finger, grinding up against him.

“yes luffy…” your voice escaped you in a moan , noticing as he moves his fingers in order to pleasure you.

luffy relaxed, watching as you let yourself go, grinding against his finger as you’d do to his thigh in the past. he used his finger tip from his free hand to lift your chin, wanting to see your face. seeing how your lips parted, your tongue resting on your lower lip as you panted through your moans, feeling almost helpless to his gaze.

“cmon princess.. cum for me” his breath was warm, arousal spreading in a dark flush across his cheeks. he noticed your grinding was becoming more sporadic, as your moans grew louder, crying out for him while rubbing your wet pussy against him. his name poured from your lips as you came, falling forward onto his finger while writhing against him. your hips pushing against him as he placed another finger over your back to keep you stable.

as you recovered from your orgasm, you sat up, with his finger still between your thighs. he took his other hand, grabbing you gently before placing you back on the ground, close to the ledge of the cliff.

“you’re so cute..” he mumbles, petting your hair back gently as he sank down further into the ground, being closer to you. his nose close to your face. your eyes were lidded as you stared up at him, wanting to grab his nose in an endearing sense but still being clouded by arousal.

“can you eat me out?” you asked, bluntly, knowing what you wanted from him but not knowing any better way to ask.

“like this?? giant and all??” he tilted his head to the side, not even really realizing you’d want to keep going.

“mhm” you hummed, your face pink with embarrassment, taking your skirt and pulling it up, exposing your panties to him.

“i can try, but i don’t wanna hurt you, princess” he plants his hands down next to you, his fingers caressing your skin from your stomach to your legs. he watched you intently as you slowly pulled your panties off. the pad of his thumb found your pussy, rubbing over it, watching as it glistened under his finger. you bit back a moan as his aimless touch sent a shock through you.

“fuck” he mumbles to himself. “you’re so small..” he knows how delicate you are, how he can just hold you in the palms of his hands. how any movement could hurt you so he had to be gentle. no foreplay could’ve prepared you for his tongue against your pussy.

leaning in, you watched as his warm mouth opened, his tongue falling against your wet pussy. warm and rough, rubbing perfectly onto your clit. the noises leaving you were perfect as he squeezed his fingers around your thighs, holding them apart so his lips can close around your mound, sucking and licking at anything he could.

his name fell graciously from your lips as he stimulated your clit, pressing his tongue as precisely as he could against it, humming so you’d feel it. this caused you to jolt, resulting in him pressing his finger tips against your hips in order to keep you down.

“fuck nothing will ever top this, luffy..” you whined. luffy knew how good zoro could fuck you, how good he could fuck you. and this was an ego boost. knowing you were coming up on a loss at words as his tongue throbs against your needy clit. you watch as his lips pull away from your mound, his tongue finding its way to your hole, teasing you.

luffy licked at your folds like a dog on a hot day licking at its water bowl. what would’ve been kitten licks in his normal size were almost orgasm inducing swipes across your clit. you were in desperate need of being filled by something by the way your pussy clenched around nothing, throbbing.

“you’ve been such a good princess” he speaks softly, praising you after your moans and cries blessed his ears once more. “you wanna feel me inside, don’t you..” he grins cheekily, watching as you nod, your cheeks red and your eyes lidded. you just needed your pirate king…

his tongue narrows, pressing the tip of his tongue to your hole, pushing past your folds as he tasted your pretty cunt.

“oh luffy..” you sighed as he filled you out. your hands held onto his fingers that wrapped around your thighs. holding onto him tight as you ground yourself onto his tongue. you babbled as his tongue moved inside of you. gentle for him but rough for you.

he could feel your tiny hands gripping around his fingers just a little harder. your eyes almost squinted shut as you watched him close his mouth around your pussy again, sucking in so he could stimulate your swollen clit.

you could feel yourself coming close as you continued to grind helplessly on his tongue. his name was slurred in your words as overstimulation and his warm tongue mixed together to create a perfect storm off the side of this islands cliff.

“f-fuck.. luffy i’m gonna..” your head tilted back, hitting that peak. “fuck i’m gonna cum..” you could hear him but especially feel him as he hummed against your pussy, acknowledging your words. he pulled you closer against him with ease, stuffing you as full as he could get you, without breaking you open.

sucking at your clit, you felt that winding knot that had been building and building break, snapping into a million pieces are your back arched off the ground, crying his name into the forest as you came on his tongue. he groaned happily around your pussy, watching as you writhed against him. slowly he pulled away, watching as you begged for him to stop overstimulating you.

he was slow to pull his tongue away from your drenched cunt, watching as a string of his spit connected to your wet cunt. he left a quick kiss to your wet pussy before finally letting go of you. he rubbed his thumb over your belly.

“you okay, princess?” he asked, watching as you slowly relaxed again. you had covered your face when releasing his fingers, you uncovered your face as you looked up at him, nodding.

“w’so good..” you mumbled, your cheeks flushed. you watched as your precious man had began to shrink back down to his normal size, holding onto the cliff so he could throw himself back up to your level.

once he had done so, his hair began to steam again, turning back into his normal self, while he found you on the ground, pulling you into a kiss. “you did so good for me, princess. we should do that again some time.”

“we should” you smiled against his lips, your fingers in his thick black hair, pulling him in again. “you’re rock hard right now though, i can feel it against my leg..” you giggle.

“i am. i wasn’t going to say anything though, i knew you’d be tired.” he shrugged.

“don’t worry baby, i’ll take care of it. just give me a few minutes and i’ll let you fuck me.” you smiled as you moved to kiss his neck, tasting his salty skin against your lips.

“i love you, luffy.” you leaned back to look up at him with a soft smile on your cheeks.

“i love you too, princess”

[clairdelunelove]

jealous!yuuji who adamantly snuffs out any attempts of flirtation directed towards you– even if you aren’t his

jealous!yuuji who’s stuck in the predicament of staying close friends with you. it’s an awkward struggle to teeter in-between the edge of what he wishes and reality. he’s a relatively decent guy. although he doesn’t have much he doesn’t need fancy ways or shiny things to gift you. instead, he gazes at you with honest eyes, takes your cold hands in his warm ones, and always remembers to lower his voice when you’re sleeping beside him. it’s genuine, authentic– him. and you’re on cloud nine. he catches the way your eyes flicker to his lips while he’s talking or how you borrow his sweatshirt more than once. but the two of you never speak a word about it. never owned up to any feelings in fear of losing the friendship you both shared. so it’s no wonder there are times like these where yuuji has to endure the flirtatious remarks thrown your way while the two of you are spending the day at the local arcade. and does yuuji blame the other person for finding you attractive? no, not completely. because you’re dazzling underneath the arcade’s fluorescent lights. vibrant shades of ruby, emerald, and gold dance off your soft features. takes every ounce of willpower within him not to gawk at you whenever he treats you to these outings. so he stands there, stiff and silent, as you toss him a desperate glance to bail you out of the situation. but you both know there’s nothing he can do. you’re not his. vaguely, he wonders if this qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. it isn’t until the stranger pushes his luck, gets a bit too handsy with you, and yuuji– the sweetest and most selfless guy you know– snaps. 

jealous!yuuji who instinctively reaches for your wrist when the stranger treads into your personal space. forgotten is the overpriced game that the two of you were in the middle of playing. yuuji had shoved his game-card into the machines’ slots (paying for yours in the process) and playfully mentioned how you wouldn’t be able to beat his high score. it’s a basketball game, of course. but now the game’s final buzzer rings to signal that the timer’s up and your game was cut short because of this brassy stranger. your face whips to yuuji, a call for him to help, and the blushy haired male is already reacting. he’s aware that’s one of your biggest pet peeves so it’s no wonder you’re startled. long fingers wrapped around your skin, he checks in with you by gently murmuring, “you okay?” you nod, focusing on how his brows crease as his hand moves to cradle your face and gauge your reaction. honeyed eyes skitter across your face, stopping just a second longer on your glossy lips. a couple moments pass before he’s dropping his grasp onto you and stuffing his hands back in his pockets. he’s so tense over such a small incident and the ideal causes your cheeks to warm. “I’m good, yuu. thanks,” you answer before the moment is interrupted by the overbearing stranger. “look, my bad. but,” the guy rubs at the back of his neck and explains, “you’re really pretty and I just wanted your number.” it’s not often you’re complimented in public so you’re compelled to force a sheepish smile, unable to detect how yuuji goes rigid at the statement, and apologize, “sorry but I’m not interested. thank you though.” you’re polite about it yet the flirt (apparently) isn’t used to getting turned down because he’s frowning. “it’s ‘cuz of your friend here, isn’t it?” then, the guy gives a pointed stare at yuuji’s closeness with you.

jealous!yuuji who’s peculiarly irate and blurting out, “friend?” his voice is unusually sharp. it’s like he’s spitting out venom when he says the word. taking a step in front of you, he uses his broad physique to cast a shroud over you. and you’re reminded just how wide his muscled shoulders are from under the faded cotton of his jacket. makes you dizzy. the swirls of forbidden desire biting at you. the stranger only shrugs in response to yuuji’s inquiry, muttering, “yeah. she’s not your girl right?” and yuuji clenches his jaw as he discerns the audacity of the other male’s words. taking yuuji’s silence in stride, the flirt makes a grab at your wrist and mentions, “so how about that number, beautiful–” but yuuji’s quicker. his calloused hand swats at the guy’s before he can tug you towards him. the smack produces a blow that you’re certain will sting until tomorrow morning. “she said no so get your hands off her, dude,” yuuji’s voice drops as his gaze narrows, “and don’t ever pull that crap around me again.” his expression is deadpanned. serious to the point of lethality. and if anyone knows anything about yuuji– it’s that he can fight. combat experience, power, stamina; he’s got it all. yet, it’s almost unnerving to hear such a tone of voice coming from him since you’ve only ever seen him upbeat. the stranger appears even more frightened than you are, though. a glance at yuuji’s veiny, muscled forearms and the guy is stumbling through a weak apology; even scurries away and leaves the both of you alone again. idle in the middle of the arcade. you stare up at him, only met with the back of his head where little tufts of blushy hair stick out underneath his backwards cap. yuuji’s eyes are still trained on the guy’s retreating figure. he exhales heavily once the stranger is completely gone but doesn't let his guard down. a beat of silence passes and the realization that he’d just scared off one of your potential suitors has his eyes widening in alarm. 

jealous!yuuji who, when he whips around to face you, expresses the epitome of innocence. his pink lips are set in a pout that adds to the sheepishness written on his face, “sorry, I don’t know what came over me–” but to his shock, you’re laughing. you’re in full hysterics, clutching at your stomach and covering your mouth to maintain some sense of decency despite your giggles. usually yuuji’s nerves would settle from hearing that melodic sound but he’s stumped. genuinely baffled at your reaction to the whole ordeal. “what’re you laughing at?” he asks as his head whips to the direction the stranger sprinted off to and adds, “I don’t see anything funny.” and the pure bewilderment that he expresses is too amusing. “sorry, I just,” you take a breath and gesture to his face, “I’ve never seen you that mad before.” and the notion of why he wouldn't be irritated crosses his mind. “oh c’mon,” yuui huffs almost childishly, “you and I both know what he was trying to do.” he declares this like it’s the most obvious trick in the book. and when you quizzically tilt your head at his comment, a habit you do that never fails to make him swoon, he’s sputtering on his words. “you’re joking, he was literally flirting with you,” he swipes an exasperated hand over his face as his voice borders a whine, “while I was there!” and you can’t help but realize how much boyish charm yuuji carries with him. he gazes at you; starlight eyes looking into yours like you hold his heart in your hands. truly, it’s sensible to him– this vex that crept up on him like a monster and encompassed his entire being due to a singular person’s act. an inkling of bitterness that he’s never been greeted with. never felt the need to keep what’s important to him close. to encompass it: mind, body, and soul. perhaps his feelings towards you were stronger than he imagined. 

jealous!yuuji who’s immediately dropping his uncharacteristic frown once your hands reach for him. he’s easily lulled into your space. you just have a magnetic pull that he never opposes and he doesn’t plan to any time soon. a soothed breath passes his lips when he recognizes your fingers brushing underneath his backwards cap. a small gesture that always works to relax him. leaning forward, he positions himself so it’s easier for you to smooth the strands of his tousled hair from where it’s hidden from view. “that jerk could’ve asked anyone else for their number,” he grumbled, breaking the stillness. you glance at him as he chews at his lower lip, sulking at the audacity of the stranger that found you attractive. you’re giggling at his honest display of affection and the sound is like a balm over his unease. understanding that alleviates his spite. “are you jealous, yuu?” you tease but your voice is sweet. and you’re wholeheartedly expecting him to retort, in true yuuji fashion, but his silence stuns you. instead, he turns to bury his face in the crook of your neck, breathing in your candied perfume, and relishes your embrace. he’s smitten by you. entirely. and you’re glancing to the side in a daze, memories and possibilities of the two of you dancing in your mind. a dream that you frequent more than you care to count. after a couple moments he pulls away with both hands grasping your shoulders. pure devotion drips from his eyes. you’re suddenly getting hot around the collar of your shirt and the tips of his ears are flushed but it was clear; this secret that was known between the both of you. the undeniable truth that yuuji was jealous– over you. and you jolt when he quietly (finally) mumbles, “I just didn’t like that too much, alright?” 

[shattered-system]

The “Redefinition” of Systempunk

Updated version!

We're not typically an essay kind of blog, but there's something l've been turning over in my mind since l've seen it.

I have the post pulled up now actually, and about 11 hours ago @/the-alarm-system "recoined" (stole) the term systempunk in a long post, as well as designed a flag with its own meaning and I want to sort through some of it.

I also have a few personal pet peeves about their flag design, given that it's color palette clashes and the flag is way too busy. I don't expect it to spread far given that it violates several rules of good design (saying this as someone who has been to school for graphic design.)

I will not post it here, because I don't care to spread it any more than this post already may.

Their flag slightly predates my own version of the systempunk flag, but given that theirs was created for a separate concept with a stolen name, I maintain that we were the first.

We begin with their definition of systempunk.

“A term or Subculture surrounding the liberation of plurals and the critique of psychiatry."

First issue lies here. Both the destigmitization of dissociative disorders and critique of the psych field are extremely important discussions to have!

But they are separate discussions. There is absolutely overlap, but combining the two here is kind of shooting yourself in the foot, because then the conversation in that tag will be disorganized.

Have a systempunk movement AND an anti-psych or psych-critical movement. That way people can easily find the relevant discussions and terms.

This is followed up with a bit about the harm the psychiatric field has caused (not delving into that as that's not what this blog is about) and then circle back onto "the future is plural."

This is not one of the instances where OP means it in the "the future is destigmitization" sense, as they are pro endo. (On a side note, even ignoring the endo use of the phrase-- if I need to read about a slogan to understand the meaning of the slogan, it's a bad slogan. The point of a slogan is to communicate a concept quickly.)

The flag has black and brown stripes akin to the progress flag to represent systems of color, which is the only part of the design we have no critique for, but are describing anyway just as a bit of information.

The purple stripe stands for:

“Endo solidarity... endogenic systems are continuously harmed by antis who remain uncritical of psychiatry."

Once again, we are mixing two expansive concepts into one term.

The term anti-endo doesn't imply a position one way or the other on the psychiatry discussion.

Some anti-endos swear by the DSM5, others don't. Anti-endo is a term that means anti-endo/ endo-critical. That is all it means.

There is a difference between holding the DSM as the complete authority on mental illness and saying that a trauma disorder is caused by trauma.

I'm not sure if OP knows that and is choosing to cast anti-endos in a bad light, or legitimately confused. However, OP is a syscourse blog who is on a lot of blocklists and is spammy in the tags, and has likely been blocked by anyone who isn't also out looking to pick immature fights. (This is a system who made a post in all caps calling for an endo raid on #systempunk.)

Continuing directly from the last quote:

“[Antis] are against the liberation of plurals and deny a plural future in order to push singlethood onto others."

It's possible OP is referring to final fusion, which the anti-endo community is not a monolith on either. Most people we've interacted with are supporters of functional multiplicity (including ourselves.)

Most likely however, they mean that anti-endos "push singlethood" by telling endogenics that they can't have a trauma disorder without trauma.

And I could go into a whole tirade about that, but dozens of systems have done it before and I doubt any pro-endos have gotten this far. I am writing this for the anti-endo and on-the-fence audiences.

Visit @antimisinfo's helpful masterpost for a list of legitimate sources.

OP seems to believe that by “forcing” this singlethood, we are contributing directly to the oppression of systems. Hypocritically, OP themselves are contributing directly to the oppression of trauma victims.

Endogenics are not part of the "diverse experiences of plurality” (we are diverse, but united in origin) given that they don't exist. And if they did, they would have such a fundamentally different experience than trauma-formed systems that both groups would need separate language and tags to have space to themselves.

And endos already have a well-established punk tag for themselves. It seems they won't be happy until they chase trauma victims out of every space they create for themselves and steal every term. They've already stolen even the medical terminology used for CDDs.

The yellow stripe of the flag is meant to represent those with actual CDDs. Once again, psych stuff is brought up. However, I do agree with OP that those who do not want final fusion should not be pushed into it.

The pink and white stripes of the flag are entirely dedicated to anti-psych points. I think this would do wonderfully on it's own flag. But bringing the large range of discussion the anti-psych movement encompasses and the large range of discussion the CDD community has into the same tags is going to make it monumentally difficult to find the conversations you're wanting to have, and weaken both communities considerably.

There is a line of barbed wire across the flag that is partially for the same anti-psych movement as well as in favor of protecting and defending endogenic "identities." The ampersand stands for plurality.

There are fangs on the flag as well, encouraging systems to be loud and proud about their existence. And I agree that systems should make themselves known. However, endogenic systems don't exist, and their promotion will continue to drag us down.

I have read testimonies about traumagenic (real) systems being fakeclaimed or denied treatment by healthcare experts who, through exposure to endos, came to the conclusion CDDs are fake entirely.

Real systems seeking treatment and help after a lifetime of horrific abuse are being denied care.

Not to mention the setback of social acceptance by endos.

“Force plural liberation down the throats of others. Force the future to be plural."

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Sort of a Pet Peeve I tend to have with something that people in the indie TTRPG community do sometimes:

I LOVE one-page RPGs, but I often notice a lot of people tend to recommend them to folks who are just starting out with RPGs, or to folks with no TTRPG experience outside of D&D to convince them that branching out of D&D doesn’t have to be a massive investment of money and time, but honestly I think in msot cases one-page RPG are not a particularly good starting point to start exploring the medium. 

And like... I get the logic of recommending them because shorter = easier and less intimidating to get through, and the rhetorical utility of being able to take a D&D-only gamer who keeps insisting that playing another system would be too costly and take too long and be like “NO LOOK NOT EVERY RPG IS THREE BOOKS LONG AND COSTS 90 DOLLARS SOME LITERALLY FIT IN A SINGLE PAGE LOOK!”, but I think that one-page RPGs function best when all (or at least SOME) of the people participating are already familiar with the medium and have some prior experience with more mechanically complex systems, and the reason they are able to be that minimal and short in the first place is because they sorta piggyback off of a lot of intuitive knowledge that they assume from the players and gm (if there is one).

Gonna be speaking primarily from the point of view as a GM because that’s mainly what I am, so sorry if I sorta neglect GMless games or solo journaling games or stuff like that here. Most one page RPGs that follow the traditional format of “group of players + GM” tend to be like. A few short steps for character creation, a simple core resolution mechanic, a description of the flow of the game, and usually nothing (or very very little) in terms of GM tools (at best a few GM principles and a couple of random oracles/tables). And like. Yeah, that’s more than enough to run and play a game, but IMO it’s probably not enough FOR A GROUP OF NEWBIES to run and play a game, because this level of extreme abstraction and mechanical minimalism it’s not inherently more newbie-friendly than the other extreme of high-crunch mechanical density. 

The way I conceptualize mechanics, they are a tool to delegate decisions and rulings from the players and GM to the game system. Like, some games have HP so that the GM doesn’t have to decide and rule through pure narrative and logic how much violence everyone involved in a combat is able to withstand, etc. So like, obviously, less mechanics means the game takes less time to read, learn and remember, but there also comes a point where less mechanics means more specific, situational decisions piled onto the GM (or in case of GMless games, spread among the players) to attempt to rule fairly, consistently, and satisfyingly, and being able to make this kind of ruling is a skill that takes practice to develop. If you hand me a piece of paper that says the typical “The GM describes the situation, the players describe how they react and what actions they take, the GM describes how the situation changes in response. When the outcome of the players’ actions is uncertain or there are interesting consequences for failure, then [insert core resolution mechanic here]” I would probably be able to run a game off of that combined with my current GM skills, but if you had handed me that when I was just stating to dip my toe into RPGs, I would have probably be almost as intimidated as I’d have been if you handed me something dense and rules-heavy like Shadowrun.

Just some thoughts, idk. 

[umbra-borealis]

Dimitri Lousteau is the most 'human' villain in Sly Cooper

Hello and welcome to my TEDtalk, I've been meaning to type out my yapping for a long time but always talked myself out of it because I mean, this is coming from a guy with Dimitri for a pfp and I figured people would just take it as a guy on tumblr simping for a weird lizard but no. The reasons I care for Dimitri the way I do goes pretty deep and I could sit here and talk about it point by point but to save us both some time (and because I am DEAD tired) I made a graph!

I used Luciano, my little sona, to personify myself in this.

I focused mainly on formative things and similarities in personality without inserting headcanons, even if based on traits or even symptoms I recognize. Most of these are rather straight forward but some run a little deeper. The funny pattern here (maybe aside from the drug thing lol) is that there's a high likelihood that you reading this right now can at least relate to just one or two things on those list and while you could argue that you could do the same with other characters, I picked these traits because in my opinion they ride that thin line between just relatable enough to apply to a lot of people, but not too superficial to be on the same an interest or hobby. Anyone can get upset when angry, it's HOW you express that anger that says something about you as a person for instance.

I also want to quickly mention that yes, a LOT of characters in Sly Cooper are very human, but I said 'villain' for a reason. After all I don't think your average college kid can relate to Contessa, Rajan or Panda King because mass brainwashing, destroying villages and being a literal drug lord are bordering on supervillain and that's not what Dimitri is. A supervillain can be relatable to a degree as well, but it makes sense that the Panda King had to have a whole Moment TM (several really) to come to terms with the kind of person he allowed himself to become. When we see Dimitri in Sly 3, he seems to have already done this perhaps because his sins aren't nearly as great. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'll insert a read-more here but I'd like to ask you to keep reading anyway if you can because my biggest pet peeve is that Dimitri is seen as a dumb, sleazy (and old??? which is dumb and I got math to back up that he's not in fact in his 40s during Sly 2 lmao) lizard who's only good as a level 1 boss for beginners to learn the game and all he's remembered for, though fair, is his manner of speech and not what he's REALLY saying. None of you ever picked up on what he was throwing down so I'm going to spell it out for you.

(PS I have ADHD and it's 3 AM so go easy on me this is coming from the HEART baby)

To make it easier on myself and you, I'm going to start sectioning the word soup in my head into four categories based on Dimitri's enterprises and roles and just kinda... waffle on about my thoughts regarding them. I'll start superficial and work my way down to the Deep Shit. Feel free to skip around to whatever interests you since I include some lore too, though changes are you're already aware of said lore.

Lets start with:

Dimiti, the club manager.

Nightclubs, and the people that run them tend to have a bit of a sleazy stereotype attached to them, which I suppose is fair. Though a large chunk is attributed to movies and other media, there were in fact some really large and important movements surrounding nightlife and club culture. Just look up the Club Kids if you want to go down a rabbit hole, in short they were a fairly large group of partiers from the 90s who contributed a LOT to fashion and art movements as well as being generally very fluid when it came to gender. Unfortunately that too would eventually be plagued by drugs and members getting addicted to drugs. Again, I digress.

Dimitri is seen partying in the intro of his chapter in Sly 2,

which is a nice touch because not only is it in-character, it's something that would actually happen. Owners of a popular joints would be popular or just enigmatic figures that would regularly get subjected to patrons schmoozing up to them. Some weren't a fan but there were many that soaked up the attention, bought rounds on the house when business was good, maybe get a little TOO cocky with confidence. It's a bit too simple to look at Dimitri in relation to all this info and say 'no doi he was in it for the money it checks out.' because if you spend enough time in his club or just, in the safe house after placing the bug there's signs of more going on.

We KNOW Dimitri is a criminal and he did his whole art forgery business on the side, or maybe it's the other way round? Either way he seemed fairly confident in his skills with this. His biggest risk being that time he tried to marry someone over a STATUE. (Really dude?) So then why was he so damn paranoid? While you could argue that he was sippin' his own supply I don't think that's what it was. He was so paranoid he played his music super loud in almost all areas of the club JUST to keep his security detail awake through-out night and day, whenever his club wasn't open to the public. To compensate he would promise them they could all 'retire early'. with that fake confidence chuckle that masks a sense of 'haha please don't abandon me'

So, ever heard of Imposter Syndrome? Because his behavior as a club owner SCREAMS it. He wasn't JUST cocky and sleazy, he was simply fitting in with the culture of the time because *everyone* was overly confident, over confidence was something to be admired, something to look at and go 'yeah that guy has it figured out' while in reality most struggled with something, anything. So what is Imposter Syndrome? To keep it short and blunt, the overwhelming feeling that you're not worthy of your accomplishments. We know that Dimitri is a 'failed' artist who turned to forging art to make money, it could just be a sense of guilt telling him something he's not ready to hear so he starts overcompensating and this insecurity bleeds into Sly 3 after Sly puts him in his place. His success with this insanely toxic coping mechanism lands him a new enterprise.

Dimitri, the Spice distributor.

Rather than going chronological, I'm going through the 'layers' that is this lizard. So if his career as a club owner is the tip of the ice berg with some neat little facts and info about the stereotype he conveys, this subject is a tier deeper. Dimitri the Spice distributor is Dimitri the next level criminal, or so he thinks. When you think about it, it's pretty strange that they gave Dimitri some Clockwerk parts at all. He was never mentioned by the other Klaww Gang members and thus seemingly not missed either when he was the first to get busted. In fact, nobody was upset that their DISTRIBTOR was arrested, putting a hold on their primary income... or so we thought until the Contessa was revealed to have a rather large and lucrative side hussle Dimitri probably could never compete with. Dimitri was expendable, sure he had a role and he played it well but he was also a loss they could cope with without much harm done to their wallets or their pride.

I think about it often, Dimitri in his jail cell, maybe hearing from another criminal or even his lawyer after the whole Clock-La thing about the full scope of the plan. He might've gotten a reduced sentence for ratting the other members out because if you think back to his legendary conversation with Sly he really doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. ("What is it with clocks bro!?") All of Dimitri's other crimes aside, he was young and naive, Sly 3 reveals he came from some form of poverty as well so it makes sense that he'd chase easy money. That's all it was though, he wanted the money and the fame, he didn't want to brainwash an entire city, he didn't know about the giant robot owl. He's once again left feeling like a failure, this time one that was easy to fool and all the confidence he had as a criminal would've seeped out of him, starting this weird cycle of him trying something only to be caught breaking the law and ending up where he began.

Like I said all of this would bleed into Sly 3 and it's pretty damn neat that for how little lines he had and how little he was on screen, they managed to convey this well in my opinion. By the time we reach Sly 3, most of us don't remember him as a Spice distribtor at all. Which leads me to...

Dimitri the Artist.

Being an artist is a pretty broad term and while we know Dimitri as a painter, I think he applies his artist mindset in way, way more. He's genuinely creative an smart, he thinks out of the box to protect his secrets and to cover his tracks. His identity as an artist is also his most vulnerable and 'real' self. Folks will say art is about self expression and usually mean conveying complex topics with pretty pictures or thought provoking stories, however it can be apparent in smaller ways too and the most obvious thing for Dimitri is his business in forging art. Think about it this way:

Picture you don't speak a LICK of english, you're from a lower in-come family or even straight up poverty but you grew up on tall tales of your grandpa being a total badass who lived freely and seizes every opportunity he could to make money... or take it rather but you get the idea. Your grandpa used his talents as a diver and deep down, you know what your talent is. It's art. So you somehow manage to move across the world to Paris, go to an art school work your ass off to develop your own style, your own identity and when it came to making a name for yourself you were rejected super hard. You're now probably in debt, in a foreign country and all you're known for is being the art community's clown.

One thing that gets overlooked is that Dimitri's paintings aren't actually that bad.

He very clearly knows the basics quite well, he's using color theory to shade and add depth but as he goes from student to independant artist, he breaks away from the basics and develops a style. His color use becomes brighter, he adds little stars just because why not? He likes em! This style is PERFECT for the nightlife club scene he ends up in down the line of course, but in the world of pretentious parisian artist hipsters? Absolutely not. So while he's just being himself, he's shown that that isn't allowed, that wont get him success. It reminds me of artists who say shit like 'I'll just learn to draw furry porn I guess!' thinking it's a guaranteed money printer (heh) and whether they enjoy making that kind of content is irrelevant, which leads to burn out or in case they DO find success, imposter syndrome. The dread that you do not deserve this recognition because it's not something you're actually that passionate about, not something you want to be known for. Say what you will about Dimitri but he never compromised. And while the cutscene shows shoddy painted depictions of classical paintings, I think this was more to illustrate him forging paintings to a younger audience than imply he was a bad painter as just before those crappy version, we see what's probably the REAL version he would've painted and sold.

This is conjecture on my part but I have to believe it because well, art forgery is HARD. You'd have to actually be a freaking genius to do it and sell it for so high, you can just afford what is basically a freaking opera house in PARIS and turn it into a nightclub. Also did I mention Dimitri just, HAS a ~mansion~ in Monaco? Because he does.

I've also always liked that scene for the expression on his face. It's smug, it's so full of petty, passve aggressive anger, a stubborness to admit defeat and instead to just 'prove a point' even if that point is lost to the means being SUPER illegal. That being sad, I don't think any of us feel bad over this man stealing a couple thousand from billionaire pockets. Billionaires that probably have their own little illicit ways to get that cash. Funny... It seems Sly isn't the only one who steals from other criminals.

And you might've stuck around this long and gone 'Umbra, get to the fucking POINT already." to which I have good news.

Dimitri, the Marine Iguana.

My favorite part, feel free to skip ahead to this headline if you want.

So who is this guy anyway? Well, from Sly 3 we see that he has a mother, a sister and his grandparents and that's about it as far as we can tell.

Just look at that smile! He looks like your average, awkward teenager. No struggling on the streets from what we can tell, no bullying by bigger kids, no weird sociopathic tendencies, no childhood trauma or grudges. The events that changed him seem to all have happened after he left for Paris. Sure it aint much to go off of but even if his life was hard, it seemed he was close with his grandfather and got to know him for a decent couple of years. Marine Iguanas are, like the name implies, an aquatic species of reptile. They're well adapted to land but due to low food availability in-land, they migrated to the beaches and started living off of sea algae, learning how to dive in the process. Even in Sly 2 the devs included plenty of references to Dimitri's affinity for water. The windows in the dancefloor area of his club are partially submerged, there are two massive aquariums in his office, he lives on a boat (or hides there anyway) and has several water features but inside and outside his club.

When you take a step back and look at all that, Dimitri is... just a guy who left his home country, his family, to follow a dream only to have that dream shatter and he's left to pick up the pieces all alone, making poor choices in the process. Choices based on anger and a broken heart. And the truth of the matter is that ALL of this, could happen to anyone. Granted in varying different ways as not everyone's life is the same and not everyone will make the same choices but I think many of us had a dream career as a kid only to become a jaded adult who thinks it's unrealistic or only does that thing as a hobby, I think there's many of us that remember the moment our hearts were broken and we realized the cold, unforgiving nature of real, adult life.

We see the effect of ALL of this come to a head in Sly 3, when at first he's not sure if he should still be mad at Sly for putting him in jail while he's currently the only guy he knows that COULD break him back out of jail as well. He still overcompensates, he's still overly confident and he put himself in that cell but still, he honors his word and helps Sly and Bentley find their friend. Then in Holland we see him behind a bar, seemingly as if he's actually got a job as a bartender there. Heck, he DOES have a job! He's the announcer! He may not super like it but he's being humbled by it all the same and when Sly comes for help a second time, the bravado is gone for a moment. He expresses genuine fear, not necessarily for his own safety but for losing a job, for *failing*. Of course the right answer in this scenario is to hype up his confidence again. And because Sly has proven himself to be trustworthy in the past he figures he can trust him with a favor of personal, sentimental value. If anyone would understand how it feels to have your family name dishonored and an heirloom stolen, it's Sly and Dimitri knows that damn well.

I think this is about as real as Dimitri can get, aside from the whole scuba gear thing. I know the gang is disguised but I don't think Dimitri is at all. I think that's just... what he likes to wear, further making me think he's just a regular guy with so much heart ache he lashe out in some pretty vile ways. Tortured artists are known to do some crazy shit after all. And while he continues to be his funny eccentric self we know him to be, he starts to have his first real moments of genuine care and loyalty while a part of the Cooper Gang. He tells Bentley he 'has his own flavor' which is his way of telling him that he's unique an valid the way he is. He dives after Sly's cane in VERY dangerous waters, risking injury or even his life, no questions asked. He sends Bentley postcards and letters to let his friend know he's safe and doing well. But perhaps something that hits me harder than any of that, is how angry and shocked Dimitri looks upon Sly's 'retirement announcement'.

Here he was thinking he made a friend out of Sly, and just like that he was gone. It makes me wonder if he held onto that grudge or not but a part of me likes to imagine that he didn't. I think his time with that gang made him realize that although he might not understand and he might be upset, it's not all about him. If anything he silently continued the rivalry by seeing how many girls he could cram into one post card with him to one up Sly's act of running off with a girl himself or perhaps he took it as a sign to make a career switch as well. Either way, Dimitri ended up changing for the better, he became himself in the end. A sweet, goofball iguana who loves the ocean and loves to paint. Making money became a nice bonus rather than his main focus.

Coming from a similar, rough background, having gone to therapy and trying to find my place in the world, this gives me hope. Hope that if I look hard enough, I can find my niche too and that being myself is the best I can be. If you read all this, thank you. I fgured it was best to just get it ALL out at once. I hope it was a fun read or made you look at Dimitri a little differently.

[the-golden-comet]

✨Big OC Questionnaire🏴‍☠️✨

Thank you for the tag here, @illarian-rambling and here @jev-urisk !

Peter is coming out to answer these questions. Template and story are down below the responses👇✨

What is your favorite thing to do to avoid responsibility?

….Responsibility? I’m afraid her and I aren’t very well acquainted.

If you could choose anyone in the world to be your sibling who would it be?

Aye? I’ve always been an only child. Perhaps one of the younger mates….

What is the most sublime thing you have ever eaten and why?

Albacore stew is my go-to dish. It’s hearty, it’s meaty, it’s got all the vitamins you’ll need (so long as you pair a citrus with it). Flavorful? Not particularly….but absolutely reliable in a pinch for energy.

What was the worst day of your life?

It’s either the day my father died, or the day I nearly lost my husband. I will not elaborate, and if you open your mouth one more word about it you won’t have a jaw anymore, mate.

What’s your worst nightmare?

Losing my husband and family.

If a monster asked you your worst nightmare what would you tell it and why?

I already had a monster try that once. Let’s say that he’s resting in pieces at the bottom of the ocean.

Would you give away secret information if tortured? Be honest.

(Cocking gun) I’d like to see you try, mate.

Who could you trust most with a secret?

My husband. He’s had to keep his own sexual identity a secret all his life, poor bird. It’s my duty to make up all those years he’s been hiding in fear.

You have been caught somewhere you shouldn’t be! Quick, what is your excuse?

Oh, mate. That happens a LOT. I’ve found that running does the job just fine….or you can spin a quick lie like, “Oh, bollocks. I seem to have taken a wrong turn at Barbados.” Though, the latter doesn’t always work…

How good is your sleep schedule?

Bloody awful, thank you for asking. But I seem to get pretty tuckered out after Benji and I have a go or two, so—

Benji: —PETER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. DON’T BRING THAT UP!!!

Do you have any siblings?

Nope. It only took one before my father realized he fancied men instead.

What’s the toughest time you had to endure growing up?

(sigh) The constant bullying certainly didn’t do me any favors….

Benji: I’m sorry, Peter….

Love, we’ve been over this; It wasn’t your fault. I forgive you.

What’s your relationship with your family like?

Quite fantastic. I do love my mother and father dearly, though John could be quite the character, haha. But the crew and I? We’re inseparable.

Do you have any hobbies? If so, what ones?

Knife throwing, jigging, sharpshooting, rock climbing…oh! I can tie a hell of a knot, too!

Do you dream often?

Aye, often…..not good ones, either.

What do you dream about?

…..

Have you ever been in love?

I’ll have to ask my husband that question~

What is your least favorite thing in the world?

Pirates with no morals or honor. They have the worst excuses, too; We’re pirates, not monsters. Oh, and all those powdered royals can shove their rifles up their arses, too :)

What is your pet peeve?

Smokers. And smoking in general.

Would you consider yourself different?

Different how? From parliament? You bet your arse I do. Other pirates? Of course. From humanity….? I wouldn’t go that far….

How far would you go to save a loved one?

As many leagues below the sea as I must, to save a soul like Orpheus attempted. I’d go as many nautical miles as The Golden Phoenix could take before she splinters amidst the waves….and then I’d swim the rest of the way. Mate, I have gone far….FAR for those that I love. There is no limit to where I would travel.

Would you team up with your worst enemy if it was your only option?

Not a bloody chance.

What is the worst insult you can give?

A bullet between the eyes. It’d solve that headache for the both of us now, wouldn’t it? :)

What is the nicest thing someone could say to you?

I don’t care much for what anyone besides my husband and family says…but if they want to butter me up, they’d share a story or two from Johnathan’s prime. Or, if they were Benjamin….just being by my side is enough for me.

Benji: Peter….

Are you a jealous person?

Absolutely.

Have you ever committed a crime?

(Stifling laughter)

Are you neat or messy?

Depends on the context. I run a tight ship aye, but my bedside manners have been….for lack of a better word….rough.

How do you feel about crying? Let it out or hold it in?

Perfectly healthy and normal, but I don’t do it often. Not a lot has shaken me enough to cause tears, and the instances that have….it was better to let those emotions out than to bottle them up like the rum I drank to stifle my sorrow.

Who do you live for? Why?

Benjamin. And my crew. I would do anything for their happiness, they’ve given me so much.

What style of accessories do you wear? Is it willingly?

My father’s trenchcoat and tricorn. You better believe it’s willing; that man is who I strive to become every waking moment of every day. I want to uphold the Hart Legacy, and be a man that Johnathan would be proud of.

+open tag because my goodness this was a lot of work, and a lot of fun! 💫✨

✨👇Template and taglist below the cut. DM me if you’d like to be added 👇✨

Tag List for writing tidbits (lmk if you want + or -)

@autism-purgatory , @talesofsorrowandofruin , @sunglasses-in-the-bentley , @wyked-ao3 , @glasshouses-and-stones , @gioiaalbanoart , @fortunatetragedy , @deanwax , @dyrewrites , @honeybewrites , @drchenquill , @paeliae-occasionally , @lychhiker-writes , @thatuselesshuman , @kaylinalexanderbooks , @katenewmanwrites , @zackprincebooks , @fantasy-things-and-such , @finickyfelix , @madi-konrad , @houseplantblank , @far-cry-from-finality , @fractured-shield , @avaseofpeonies , @topazadine , @thecoolerlucky , @theaistired , @willtheweaver , @rivenantiqnerd @somethingclevermahogony , @noxxytocin , @leahnardo-da-veggie , @addicted2coke-theothercoke , @the-letterbox-archives , @theink-stainedfolk , @ominous-feychild , @saturnine-saturneight , @words-after-midnight , @sableglass , @cowboybrunch , @moltenwrites , @pixies-love-envy , @davycoquette , @writeahurricane , @nczaversnick , @greenfinchwriter , @oliolioxenfreewrites , @lavender-gloom

Template:

What is your favorite thing to do to avoid responsibility?If you could choose anyone in the world to be your sibling who would it be?What is the most sublime thing you have ever eaten and why?What was the worst day of your life?What’s your worst nightmare?If a monster asked you your worst nightmare what would you tell it and why?Would you give away secret information if tortured? Be honest.Who could you trust most with a secret?You have been caught somewhere you shouldn’t be! Quick, what is your excuse?How good is your sleep schedule?Do you have any siblings? If so, is your relationship good?What’s the toughest time you had to endure growing up?What’s your relationship with your family like?Do you have any hobbies? If so, what ones?Do you dream often? What do you dream about?Have you ever been in love?What is your least favorite thing in the world?What is your pet peeve?Would you consider yourself different?How far would you go to save a loved one?Would you team up with your worst enemy if it was your only option?What is the worst insult you can give?What is the nicest thing someone could say to you?Are you a jealous person?Have you ever committed a crime?Are you neat or messy?How do you feel about crying? Let it out or hold it in?Who do you live for? Why?Who has betrayed you most?What style of accessories do you wear? Is it willingly?

[goamu-blog]

I think I figured out why I didn't care much for Shen Yuan as a character. It's his attitude and mindset. Didn't like how he treated SQH. It was too close to antifan behavior and cyberbullying. Even if SQH didn't seem to mind as long as he was paid.

When he transmigrated, he was nice to everyone, but being decent doesn't take much effort, and I don't think I would call SY a kind person. To me, SY is rather self-centered and callous. He was mainly concerned about himself, which is fine and understandable, but he also doesn't seem concerned with the well-being of others. He was fine with letting the story go on as intended, with LBH terrorizing the world in the future, as long as he stayed alive.

He did return to the sect when LBH attacked it, but that was when he found out that LBH didn't want to kill him. He did help stop TLJ, but he had LBH and his protagonist halo at his side. Seems to me like SY is one that as long as it doesn't affect him, he will not care what happens.

SY never once thought if he could change the story in some way even if he had to follow what the system told him to do. All he had to do when the abyss happened was say something like, "LBH you can't control your powers and I can't protect you from the sect, you need to leave and the only way to do that is the abyss because we are surrounded by cultivators". But he never even tried to think of a different way the story could go.

He doesn't really understand emotions. The scene at the end of the mausoleum, when LBH was angry that SY seemed to be running from him again, and SY had the audacity to be so upset about that. When all SY has done up to that point was run and refuse to talk to LBH. There was no understanding as to why LBH was so upset.

It seems like the only way for SY to come close to understanding LBH emotions is if he goes through LBH mind. SY does care about LBH, but he doesn't seem to be able to deeply understand LBH without going through his mind. Seems like SY can't have a conversation with LBH where they come to an important understanding with each other.

It feels like SY and LBH getting together kind of just happened. Like SY just went along with it. Also, it feels like LBH puts more effort into the relationship than SY does, LBH is the one the usually initiates. And SY never apologized to LBH for how he treated him. I think that's why I don't care much for them as a couple.

SY never cared for the fact that he took over someone else's body even when he found out the truth of SJ. While yes, SJ did horrible things, he was also an abused former slave who never got a chance to heal from his past. And SY doesn't care that he essentially erased SJ and took over his life. SJ was always pushed to the side.

SY was a privileged young master that unwillingly took over the body of a former slave and got to benefit form the work that SJ did, and SY didn't pay him any mind every when he learned the truth. SY already had everything in his former life, and because of the work SJ did, SY was in a position to get even more, and SY doesn't care. He just pushed SJ aside.

Another thing that got to me about SY is just how oblivious and dense he is. Having oblivious characters is fine to a point, but SY level of obliviousness was borderline stupidity. Even by the end, I still don't think SY knows how emotions work.

A couple of other things, his internalized homophobia is never really addressed, nor his mentality about men and women. He is rather narrow-minded, and he doesn't really change throughout the series. He constantly commits my biggest pet peeves in characters, refusal to communicate, lack of self-awareness, and denial of reality. To me, SY feels like a surface level character. Even when he does realize something, it feels surface level to me.

Overall, I think SY didn't make me feel much for him, and when he did make me feel something, it was irritation because of his attitude and mindset. SY doesn't really change much throughout the series. On the other hand, SJ and LBH made me feel for them. SJ was only in one chapter and one extra, and he made me feel more the SY ever did. I don't think LBH was in the story as much as he should have been, but when he was, he made me feel something.

I feel like the series went too fast. It went from one event to the other without much breathing room in between for the characters. And characters like SJ and, to a lesser extent, LBH, were not in the story as much as I would have liked to see. The extras did help, but it wasn't enough for me.

[yersina]

a linguist plays chants of sennaar (pt 2)

[pt 1] [x] [pt 3] [pt 4] [pt 5]

the linguistic journey continues!

disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the second language and will contain spoilers! it also assumes that you know what the symbols mean already.

(my dictionary is missing some symbols bc i missed part of the gameplay that would've prompted me to fill them in)

immediately, visually just looks different from the devotee's language, which is super cool! reminiscent of runic alphabets, kind of. i'm assuming that's a creative/artistic decision to indicate the 'toughness' of the warriors or something. not sure if the game developers would've put thought into this, but i also wonder if this is a representation of the materials that those people would've written on (w the devotees being more clay/stone based and the warriors being more stone/metal based). unclear!

in the warrior's language, the verbs generally have a diamond shape, though it's not as consistent to identify as the devotee language's line. the people-related words are kinda tall and skinny, with a stick in the middle?? again, the devotee's language was the most pictographically representative of the bunch--the warrior's language is a little less obvious. i interpreted "treasure" and "fortress" as being location-nouns due to their similar triangle shape, but the translation for "treasure" obv doesn't convey that (i originally labeled "treasure" as "treasury"). i also find it interesting that "death" bears so much resemblance to "impure". in my mind, "death" and "impure" are in the same category as the other people-nouns due to the appearance of the characters, but that might just be coincidence. could possibly suggest some cultural beliefs around who or what "death" is tho!

grammatically, this language is also SVO, like the devotee's language and like english. instead of reduplication, we have a plural marker for nouns, which seems to act like an affix (prefix, specifically) rather than a root word. i will say—i'm not a fan of the translation of "impure" and "chosen" and subsequent plurals as "impure ones" and "chosen ones". not a huge deal, but translating them that way makes them seem like adjectives when they're not, especially considering how they translate <plural bottle> as "bottles". just doesn't seem consistent, but it's a v small pet peeve haha. (while writing this, i briefly considered the idea of "impure" and "chosen" as adjectives modifying "one" but we know that's not true—not just bc the game gives us a translation that says "plural" but also it's used with "warrior" and other objects to indicate plurality too. we also know that this language uses prepositive modifiers from sentences like "carry (the) small crate", so "impure" and "chosen" wouldn't be functioning correctly as adjectives anyway, as long as we assume that the language is consistent in this aspect of grammar.)

although this isn't entirely consistent across all of the languages and for all of the words, it seems that there's a trend that function words (as opposed to content words) tend to be visually simpler--this would include things like "up/great" from the devotee language, pronouns, and i'm also going to go ahead and include "not" and "plural" in this category. this isn't an unsurprising trend--i feel like in irl languages, the more grammatical a word/word component is, the simpler/easier to write it tends to be. we find that the plural marker in the warrior, bard, and alchemist languages are all relatively simple, which also makes them easier to identify when encountering them for the first time. i felt like this also makes the warrior's language interesting, in that the words for "small", "big", "bottle", "trolley", "call", and "moon" are also all relatively simple compared to the rest of the words. (i originally identified "small" and "big" as "this" and "that" because of this.) it might indicate something about the importance of these words in the warriors' culture? or i might just be reading too far into it lol.

questions that remain unanswered: - i wonder why "fear" breaks from the other verbs in terms of appearance (with the vertical line making the diamond part smaller) - i'm a bit too tired/impatient to go through the verbs in this language, but i wonder if there's some pattern to their appearance (since some of them look more similar than others)

[ca-suffit]

I'm actually quite sad that we haven't found out ANYTHING about Armand in the epilogue. I mean, turning Daniel is such a huge point in his character, so we'll (hopefully) revisit that in future seasons, but other than that?? Did he take the magnolia tree with him? It's either that or Louis took it out and we know that tree has meaning for him (he has been growing a magnolia even back in Paris).

I know we're not meant to know where he fucked off, but I'd love to see just a tiny tiny glimpse with him alone. Is he with Marius?? DID HE PUNISH HIMSELF BY GOING TO MARIUS BECAUSE THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE???

Idk, the ending was too cartoonishly evil for him specifically, which is strange since this was the present time, so we assume that what we see is the truth. Liniar movie action style. Of course, it's evil via omission of his side of things, so it makes sense he seems evil. But I still think it would've been better if we had some extra 5 minutes in this episode and squished in there a small scene with, idk, Armand crying in an unrecognisable place (even just due to him transforming Daniel). It can simply be a dark room, so they don't have to build Marius' lair already, but ye know. It would be a glimpse that he's actually NOT okay, lol.

This is my only pet peeve, but trusting the writers to present the other side of the coin when we get back to his POV of things. Just hoping that won't simply be in season 5 of all things, lol. Even Lestat got a bit of POV (via the trial) during Louis' seasons, so they'll probs cram it in seasons 3-4 somehow (with Daniel povs).

Sorry for the rant, I hope this makes sense.

u can rant! it's ok. I know there's a lot going on here that ppl are rly disappointed in.

I am personally holding out that S3 will comment a lot on this. I feel like S2 ended similar to how S1 did with Lestat. Armand is a major character in the plot of TVL as well as QotD and a lot they're prbly going to be piecing together for S3. He's not just "gone" (not that u were saying this, I'm saying in general) and I trust that they'll be answering a lot about this and him in S3 or they will risk losing a lot of viewers tbh.

I know it looks cartoonishly villain like rn but I don't believe long term that is the vision for him. The point is that all of these vampires are deeply flawed and traumatized and hurt each other bcuz of it, bcuz they want to be luved so badly but also don't think they're worthy of it.

The fandom is definitely going to suffer thru this in ways tho. some of the lestans are already overly doing the victim bullshit of "now u know how we felt after S1." but they made a whole lot of racist choices to defend the white character so no it's not the same tbh, when ur trying to defend a brown character against a racist fandom.

[moonyasnow]

TWST OC showcase: Junia Rondo

Voice Claim: Saori Hayami (in her performance as Yor Forger from SPY X FAMILY)

Merfolk - Rainbow Parrotfish Right-handed Queendom of Roses - Octavinelle Dorm 161cm / 5'3 - #e85483 / 232, 84, 131 May 14th - Taurus - 19-20 y.o. 2nd year - Sophmore - Class B, no. 24 Pop Music Club Best Subject: Music Hobbies: The Macabre Pet peeves: People not taking care of themselves Favorite food: Fasolada Least favorite food: Plain Anything Talent: Singing Floyd-given name: Parrotfish Rook-given name: Demoiselle Chanteuse/Songbird Cater-given name: Junie-pie Signature Spell: 'Use Your Voice' Can perfectly imitate the voice of absolutely anyone, so long as she's heard it at least once

[ ~Based on the Nautilus Ariel's voice was kept in~ ]

Link to all my OC Showcases here!

Some quotes:

“No, no, Junia! You weren't supposed to think about it!” She slaps her cheeks. [internal narration] *It's better I not think about it. Besides, I'm stupid after all, so what would I even be able to figure out if I did? It won't do me any good.*

[internal narration] *Haah, what should I do?! They need backup, but I can't exactly fight…but there's no one else available to help!* She stands there almost in a panic, hesitating and second-guessing herself over and over again on wether to or not to run over. *But what could I even do?!* Then she hears that some of the people she knows are injured, and something clicks. She gives herself a light bonk on the head with her closed fist. “Ah— duh, I know first aid!”

“I-I would love to laugh at your joke, but to tell you the truth I am much too confused right now.”

She was born in the ocean surrounding the land known as the Queendom of Roses, in a cushy bay in the middle of the country. At least cushy compared to the rest of the open ocean, which was far more competetive when it came to survival. However, her mother was born in the Coral Sea. As a Parrotfish, her bright colors stood out against the deep blue, so though she was lucky to be born into a wealthy family which granted her some protections others didn't have, she was still forced to fight to survive. Her marriage to the heir of the Rondo family was what finally ensured her safety. Junia was born some years after, but her father died before he could meet her. Junia's mother then decided to move the two to the Queendom of Roses, where her mother ended up becoming a successful lawyer. Her plans for Junia, already fully formed at less than a year old, was for her to become an excellent student and find a good, stable career of her own. That way her mother could be sure she'd not only survive but further their family legacy.

When she got older and was supposed to start learning how to read, she tried her best, but could never make sense of it. The letters seemed to jump around and flow together, and she would sometimes need to spend 10 minutes just trying to read a poem. If she'd ever been taken to see a doctor about it, she would have been diagnosed with severe dyslexia, and also as being autistic, though the latter has nothing to do with her difficulty in learning to read and write. It took much more time and practice for her to be able to read than it took for her peers. Junia was also a very gullible person and tended to believe most things people said to her if they seemed somewhat plausible. She didn't doubt other people or consider that they could be lying, since the thought of someone operating in bad faith just never naturally crosses her mind. Some of the other children around her used this to pick on and even bully her. Because she had trouble reading both words and the room and was so gullible, everyone around her— including her mother— started calling her stupid. She started to believe it. As a child, people often remarked to her mother about how cute Junia was, and as she got older, they started calling her beautiful. Coupled with her reputation as being stupid, people whispered behind her back that her appearance was the only thing she had going for her. Her mother seemingly took this to heart and began raising Junia to be the perfect dim-witted, obedient housewife, since she hoped that at the very least maybe Junia could have a future as a trophy wife to fall back on if she couldn't get a good job with her own effort. Her mother told Junia that smiling made women beautiful, so Junia started smiling all the time. She told Junia that she was an ugly crier, so Junia stopped crying in front of others. She was never really able to make any friends, since her mother pressured her to spend as much time as possible studying. Whenever she tried to speak to other kids her age, she would always end up saying something that got her weird looks. Or she had trouble finding a gap in the conversation in which to speak, and since she had been taught that interrupting was rude, she ended up a quiet observer in the background enough times that she stopped wanting to try to talk to them. Instead, she grew very fond of animals, smaller fish with somewhat 'lesser' intelligence. For whatever reason, these fish always loved her, and so she would often spend time with them over her peers. These smaller fish who were sometimes sought out as prey returned the love she gave in full, and saw her for what she was, unlike other people who only saw what she lacked. People who saw how much time she spent with these creatures considered mere animals felt it only further confirmed their beliefs of her being an idiot. People began calling her 'Guppy' as an insulting nickname— akin to calling her a child and suggesting her intelligence was on par with one.

Junia had always loved to sing and play the harp, and wanted nothing more than to continue with her passions. She can actually read musical notes quite well, and has a really good musical memory, which means she can remember the lyrics even if she's only heard a song once or twice. However, her mother told her to stop, since she thought the songs Junia wrote and composed were too 'strange' or 'disturbing' or 'eccentric'. Being the obedient girl she was, Junia agreed to stop. She was even forbidden from humming in the house. As she became a little bit older, her mother became more and more concerned with finding a husband for her. This was when she started forbidding Junia from any and all self expression that she didn't approve of, which included her music, and Junia's love of an abundance of 'flower' patterns from the surface. She started preparing her and telling her about the things she would need to give up to be married. She must remain obedient and do exactly as her future husband says, in order to keep him happy. She must never do anything her future husband hasn't given her permission to do, she must never bother him with her worries, anxieties or insecurities, and never state her opinion on anything, in order to not risk disagreeing with him. She must be seen and never heard, unless spoken to, and her only value outside of having children is to make her husband look better by having a pretty, obedient wife. Basically, she must give up her entire personhood to be forever tied to someone she knows nothing about, and become little more than an accessory to someone else. Junia started to feel more and more as though she didn't want what her mother had decided for her and began dreading her future marriage, even though it wouldn't be until she was at least 18. But still, she said nothing. What could she even do about it anyway? She couldn't somehow convince her mother to allow her to not go through with it. If she decided to run away, she'd have nowhere to go, and would probably end up meeting with an even worse fate, since she's been so dependent on her mother her entire life that she has no idea how to survive on her own, having never been taught how. So, Junia started acting the way her mother told her an 'ideal woman' should.

Then one day, what she had dreaded seemed to come to pass. Her mother informed her that she had found a good suitor for her in the Coral Sea. And so they would be going there and staying for a month, so Junia could start getting used to the environment before meeting her husband-to-be. She was miserable every tail-flick of the way, and felt like she was being suffocated. She had to start to grapple with the fact that she would never be able to sing again. So the first chance she got, she snuck off into an empty area, bringing her harp with her, and started to sing a series of songs she'd been working on for years— something like her life's work. Her mother always said they were 'too creepy' so she knew she'd never get the chance to again. Unbeknownst to her, while she was singing song after song, she had a secret audience of three…

(They knew who she was. The Rondo family was quite well-known, at least in this part of the Coral Sea, and who would the Octomer be if he didn't do his research? They had also heard the widow and daughter of the previous head of the Rondo family were coming back to the Coral Sea after 18 years in order for said daughter to be politically married-off. Azul didn't take much note of it— at least not until the moment he happened upon her; tweets following behind after he'd been gone for a bit too long. The two first things that struck him were her bright tail and gorgeous singing voice. The ones that came later was her great conventual beauty, and the passion she seemed to have for each song she performed. Yet there was also a sadness reflected on her face every time she finished a song. He saw the facts:

These songs were quite…unconventional, or at least so a family as traditional as the Rondos and whatever company they were trying to marry into would believe.

She was here to be married, and did not seek very happy about it.

She seemed even more sad after finishing each song or having to go back for the day, suggesting she felt this was something of a swan-song to her love of music.

She was a girl with a reputation for being gullible, naïve; easily deceived. He smelled blood in the water and had Thaumarks in his eyes. He could use this. The tweels just snickered quietly behind him, matching his smirk.)

One day during her singing, when she had just finished a song, she heard a whistle, and clapping. Hands flying up to cover her mouth to cover not only a surprised squeal, but also the fact that whoever made that sound had heard her singing! She saw two eel mer slithering out of some nearby seaweed. They said they'd been listening to her sing, and wanted to keep hearing the story. Her eyes lit up with the stars ocean-residents never saw, and they knew it wouldn't be hard for Azul to convince her. They introduced themselves as 'Jade' and 'Floyd'— and only laughed or smiled each time she got their names mixed up. The louder one of the two even burst out laughing when she called him something WAY off the mark. He thought it was hilarious she was so bad with names, even though they'd started coming to listen to her sing every day.

There was something different about her when she had an audience. She was absolutely exuberant, and somehow put even more passion, emotion and effort into each and every song she sang. They thought she was interesting. She was clumsy, shockingly observant, skilled with her hands, oblivious, had 'etiquette school' written all over her and said the strangest things sometimes. She was like an open book— but one they couldn't predict. Without knowing it, she'd got their mental seal of approval.

As the day on which she would meet her future husband— and thus be forever trapped in a life she didn't want— was drawing near, she told her unexpected friends a bit about it. They obviously already knew thanks to Azul, but the confirmation was what made the three of them decide amongst themselves that it was time: she'd be taken to see Azul, and would most likely end up striking a deal with him.

Jade and Floyd had talked to Azul about what she was like before. Floyd often went on about 'Parrotfishie is so fun~!' and even Jade would smile and agree 'She certainly is interesting.' Azul, for his part, while not surprised at Floyd's opinion, was more startled that Jade agreed, given the latter often kept his feelings much closer to his chest. Everything they'd told him had him already prepared for her being a bit eccentric. But he was still surprised by her when he actually met her. She did say the strangest things sometimes. But she had this charm that always made her able to completely get away with it, cocking her head to the side in confusion, a surprised expression on her face when one of them laughed, asking with a confused, somewhat shocked voice if she'd said something weird. There was something comfortable about her presence, which he yet-again thought could be a great asset to them, and to his business.

When she was told that he was this 'sea witch' she'd sometimes heard whispers of, even back in the waters of the Queendom of Roses, she wasn't scared. She was surprised, even shocked, sure, but not scared. In fact, she seemed amazed, asking if it was true that he was really that good at granting wishes, saying that he was amazing with an expression of genuine awe.

And when it came time for the actual deal, she didn't try to haggle or negotiate the terms of the contract— she didn't even read it! It wasn't until much later that he would learn she couldn't read. Regardless, even knowing it might be dangerous, she had just laid everything she had in his hands, and was happy to do so, so long as she was still allowed to sing.

And thus, the contract was signed, and Junia Rondo never met her husband-to-be.

After signing her contract with Azul, a letter was sent to her mother. The specifics aren't important because Azul left a TL;DR on the first page in big, bold letters saying:

[The voice of Junia Rondo— and by extension Junia Rondo herself— is now the legal property of Azul Ashengrotto.]

And as Junia was 18 already, there was nothing the authorities could do about it.

She knew her mother was probably furious. But for once, she didn't care. She was too happy to be free.

Next thing she knew she went with Azul, Jade and Floyd to a sort of 'human boot camp' where, after drinking a transformation potion for the first time, they would be trained on how to live on land. They all struggled with the whole 'having legs' thing— none so more than Junia. It seems her clumsiness with everything but her fingers had come back in full force and even worsened now that she had legs. She couldn't even always manage to calibrate her own tail, so it was no surprise, really, that it took her almost twice as long as the other three to learn to use her legs effectively enough to not fall over. Well…fall over less. Baby steps. And she always had someone there to catch her. Though Azul, being used to eight limbs, also struggled more than the tweels. So at first when she stumbled into him, he stumbled as well, ending with them in a heap on the floor.

After completing their boot camp, Junia with the lowest marks— barely passing, but somehow good enough!— the four of them were enrolled into 'Night Raven College', a very prestigious magic school. Junia was a little worried at first about how she'd even get in, knowing it was an all-boys' school— would she have to crossdress? She wasn't super happy with the idea but she would do it if she had to! But then she just watched Azul hand over a big stack of Thaumarks to the Headmage and that was that. 'Oh.' was all she said, surprised it was really that easy.

At NRC:

Among the four of them in the Octavinelle Quartet, Junia was the one who took the longest to acclimate to walking on legs as opposed to swimming with a tail. In fact, even into her second year, she still tripped quite often. And so, Azul mostly had her working taking orders and showing people their seats. Because for as cute as her clumsiness could be, having to constantly replace plates and glasses she'd dropped and shattered was really draining his budget for the Mostro Lounge.

On Saturdays and Sundays, Junia would do almost nothing but sing at the Mostro Lounge. And on Sunday nights, she was allowed to sing songs she herself had written— ones that were way more experimental, intent to tell a story rather than just be a nice background song. And these nights became massive hits! A lot of people would come to watch just to see the next part of the story! And of course Azul capitalized on this, offering special offers on Sunday nights that lead to Mostro Lounge's business going up a lot!

She feels incredibly grateful to Azul for giving her a chance to not only share her music with others, but also for taking her with him to NRC despite the fact female students aren't typically allowed. She's gotten to meet so many different kinds of people there! And at a school with so many strange people, she feels right at home, instead of like the misfit she always felt like she was at home. And being away from her mother, she feels happier and more confident than ever. She's slowly starting to find out about strengths of hers that aren't just how 'pretty' she is.

But...she does also still feel very self-conscious of how 'stupid' she feels like she is. She had to get Azul's help in order to have the staff agree to a deal where she could give her exams orally instead of written on paper (bribes. he bribed them) and she is also the only student for whom this is the case. She always has to study alongside someone else because she's just not really capable of taking down notes since she's illiterate. When she does get that help, of someone explaining it to her, she understands it pretty ok eventually, but she still feels self-conscious that she needs that help in the first place. She kinda dreads going to class because of it.

The specific terms of her and Azul's contract were that Azul now owns her voice in exchange for her being able to still use it, and working for him for as long as the contract is in effect. That means not only singing at the lounge, but also working as a waitress, and— since Junia has always been seen as beautiful and attractive by those around her— he started using that to have her advertise the lounge and any and all new menu items right away. All without pay. But she would be allowed to eat 3 meals from the lounge for free a day— she'll be working for him, so he certainly can't have her be starving!

Since it's a very feminine voice, he couldn't really use it himself without it clashing with his appearance and normal speaking voice, not to mention he also already has Prince Rielle's pretty singing voice. But Rielle's voice can't do Soprano very well, just because that's not its range. So that's one of the reasons he lets her keep use of her voice. And he will admit that her natural charisma— and the charm her obvious, genuine passion for music gives all of her performances— certainly lets her make use of her song voice to greater effect than if he'd given it to someone else.

Junia is, as expected, great friends with Jade, Floyd and Azul.

She's often a bit startled and confused when Floyd drags her along to go follow his whims and do whatever he wants, but once her mind catches up she often ends up having a lot of fun. And through him she's also slowly starting to learn it's ok to prioritize things she wants to do over what she's been told to do. Azul is not always happy about Floyd making off with his best advertiser, but he never seriously punishes them harsher than giving them an extra shift to make up for the one they missed.

Despite being in the Pop Music Club, she sometimes goes with Jade on his hikes in the mountains. It's also a bit of plus for her since she gets to see more kinds of flowers! And birds, and other critters. She also always tries out Jade's new mushroom dishes, to Azul and Floyd's utter confusion and bafflement, and Jade's delight.

And as stated before, she has a lot of respect for Azul, and really admires him. And the two understand each other pretty well, since she was also bullied as a child, albeit less harshly than he was. She's also very quick to compliment him and tell him her positive opinions of him. He's had her tone it down whilst among others, since he doesn't want to end up blushing hard enough that his reputation is put in jeapordy, which she's gladly agreed to, thinking his shyness was actually really cute.

She's basically best friends with Cater, Lilia and Kalim as well, since the four of them are the only members of the Pop Music Club. She is actually often the only reason they get any kind of music practicing done at all. She also composes all the 'band's songs, since the others don't mind trying out something that isn't just an actual pop song cover now and then, and it's yet another way in which she gets to play her songs! Her playing piano well easily translated into keyboard, and she's also a prominent vocalist, but also loves being able to sing as a back-up.

More sprites:

[sitp-recs]

My pet peeve is when Harry and Draco start liking each other too fast... Especially when it's physical attraction. Do you know any slow burn fic, where they really dislike each other at first, and slowly fall in love bit by bit as they get to know each other? Even better if one (or both) don't realize that they might like man at the start

Hi anon! Hmm I tried to think of enemies to lovers without the fast sexual burn element (which I personally love lol) and couldn’t come up with many fics. I thought I’d keep it simple and go for my favourite slow burn with some initial animosity and/or bi confusion (in some cases). Maybe my followers can share more recs? I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for!

Here's The Pencil, Make It Work by ignatiustrout (M, 50k)

Harry thinks "Why is Malfoy working in a coffee shop in muggle London?" is a much simpler question than, "Are you going to accept that auror offer and, if you don't, what will you do?"

That Old Black Magic by bixgirl1 (E, 77k) - fast sexual burn, forced marriage

Centuries ago, marriage contracts were the norm — ready-made alliances between families, expected and complied with, without complaint. But norms have a way of changing, and when a long-dormant contract flares to life, Harry has to navigate an unexpected splintering of the path he'd thought would be easy after the war... with Draco Malfoy.

Reparo by amalin (E, 85k)

Voldemort's final defeat does not mean Harry Potter's troubles are over; far from it. In the aftermath of war, he returns to a Hogwarts that is fractured and divided, but this is no break that can be fixed with a spell. New owls, fading scars, surprising alliances—and along the way, the hardest task of all, to live with it.

Wild, orphaned (E, 92k)

“No,” Harry said, by way of greeting. Malfoy’s blonde head rose slowly, carelessly. “Get out.” “I feel as though we’ve already established this, Potter,” Malfoy responded. “And I feel that what we established was that you telling me to get out of places really doesn’t make me more likely to vacate them.”

By the Grace by lettered (T, 140k)

Harry is an Auror instructor. Malfoy wants to be an Auror.

Temptation on the Warfront by alizarincrims0n (E, 180k)

Draco Malfoy is forced into hiding with the Golden Trio and dragged into their search for horcruxes. What ensues is a journey of redemption, unexpected friendships and an unwanted, turbulent romance with Harry Potter. Warnings for swearing, sexual content, and dark themes.

Eclipse by Mijan (T, 287k)

Draco swore his revenge on Harry for Lucius's imprisonment, and Harry all but laughed at him. But Draco is planning more than schoolyard pranks this time. The old rivalry turns deadly when Draco abducts Harry for Voldemort. It's the perfect plan, guaranteeing revenge, power, and prestige, all in one blow. But when Draco's world turns upside down, the fight to save himself and Harry begins, and the battle will take them both through hell and back. If they come back.

Turn by Saras_Girl (E, 306k)

One good turn always deserves another. Apparently.

[theromaboo]

The Second Day of Julius Caesar

Everyone knows what Julius Caesar's last words were. It's pretty much the most iconic line of all time! Et tu, Brute? (which means "And you, Brutus?") That is just pure poetry. Julius Caesar really is so cool. His last words were probably the best and most amazing last words anyone ever had ever.

Look, it's even one of The Best Latin Lines Ever according to the cover of this book.

But did Caesar really say it? (Nope!)

It's a Shakespearean invention! (that's going to be a common theme in this series) However, the idea that these were his last words actually isn't entirely Shakespearean. "Et tu, Brute?" weren't Julius Caesar's last words in the play! His true last words before dying were "Then fall Caesar."

Good golly that is old. But as you can see, Julius Caesar's last words here are "Et tu Brute?—Then fall Caesar." (forgive me, I mean Cæſar).

Aww look at him talking about himself in the third person. Adorable. Maybe my last words should be "Then fall @theromaboo."

While we're still on the topic of "Et tu, Brute?" I just want to fix a few of my pet peeves when people quote this. It is not "Et tu, Brutus?" Latin has cases. Brutus here is in the vocative because Caesar is calling Brutus by his name. The vocative of Brutus is Brute. It has to be Brute.

Neither is it "Et tu, Bruté." What is that accent doing? In modern Latin, acute accents are most commonly used to show that a syllable is stressed. And in ancient Roman Latin inscriptions, a mark that looks very similar to an acute accent (called an apex) is sometimes used to show that a vowel is long. Neither usage makes sense here with Bruté. I think what happened is that people are getting confused with French (a very common mistake!) and because Brute is pronounced with two syllables, people add an accent at the end to make it have two syllables, because without the accent, it would just be Brute, with one syllable, because that's how it works in French. But Latin doesn't care about that!

Anyway, there is no ancient source that says Julius Caesar's last words were "Et tu, Brute?" or "Then fall Caesar."

I can already hear an Italian saying "Those weren't Giulio Cesare's last words; he actually said tu quoque—" You're also wrong! (sorry italians)

There is no ancient source that says that Julius Caesar's last words were "Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi?" or "Tu quoque, mi fili?" or any other similar version (they all mean "You too, (Brutus), my son?" I find that the first one is generally used by Italians and the second is generally used by French people, and almost the entire continental Europe seems to use some sort of version of "Tu quoque. . ." However, there might be even more versions of Julius Caesar's last words in other languages. I only really interact with English, Italian, and French, so if you know any other versions from different languages, do tell me!)

Okay, now we know a lot of stuff Caesar didn't say, but what were Julius Caesar's real last words?

We don't know! (yipee!)

Shakespeare's main source was a translation of a translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, but nothing similar to the Shakespearean last words can be found there.

Plutarch tells us that after Caesar got a teeny little stab from Casca, he said in Latin, "Foulest Casca, what are you doing?" I'm assuming he said this in the exact same way the stepsister says to the stepbrother—but the annoying thing is that Plutarch doesn't give us the Latin, he just gives us the Greek translation of the Latin (classic Plutarch) (if you want to know the Greek, it's "Μιαρώτατε Κάσκα, τί ποιεῖς?")

Suetonius, meanwhile, gives us a different story. He says that right before the stabbing started, this dude called Cimber grabbed Caesar by the shoulders. Caesar said "Why, this is violence!" and then immediately got stabbed by Casca. Then he didn't say anything else throughout the stabbing; he just groaned at the first stab. So that means that his last words would've been, yes, "Why, this is violence!" ("Ista quidem vis est!" in Latin). Biggest understatement of 44 BC!

There is yet another common version of Caesar's last words, and they are "What is this? Such violence against Caesar!" which is bit of a poor interpretation of this.

Anyway, Suetonius says that "Some have written that when Caesar saw Brutus rushing at him, he said 'Καὶ σύ τέκνον?'" (which means "You too, child?") This is definitely most similar to the most common ideas of Julius Caesar's last words ("Et tu, Brute?" and "Tu quoque. . ."). Pretty much the only difference is that "Καὶ σύ τέκνον" is Greek. In fact, people often claim that Caesar's last words were "Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi?" by citing Suetonius, even though Suetonius doesn't say that.

I would treat this with a bit of caution though, because Suetonius is distancing himself from this claim, saying that "Oh, other people have written. . ." Clearly Suetonius doesn't really believe it himself. And, no offense to Suetonius, but if Suetonius is unsure of this, I would be too. Suetonius notoriously treats official government documents and rumors his nonna heard on the streets as equally valid sources.

Besides, would you be able to speak after being stabbed? I know Caesar isn't the average person, but Caesar is still a person. I'd imagine that one would be a bit too shocked to speak in such a high stress situation. And saying something deep about Brutus, no less! But, as always, I don't know for sure. Maybe Caesar did say something after getting stabbed, but I'm with Suetonius on this one and my best guess is that he did not.

Cassius Dio also writes about this. He pretty much says the exact same thing as Suetonius, except that he does not mention Caesar saying "Why, this is violence!" Dio also believes that Caesar didn't speak after he got stabbed, but he does mention "some writers" who say that Julius Caesar's said to Brutus "Καὶ σύ τέκνον?" (sound familiar?)

So yeah, moral of the story, no one can agree on Caesar's last words! Good gods, I spent the better half of my Saturday researching and writing this. I am so sorry for you poor souls who had to read all this. If you want to read the relevant parts of the ancient sources themselves, here they are:

Plutarch Parallel Lives, Julius Caesar, 66.7–8

Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar, 82.1–2

Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book XLIV, 19.4–5

[sneezemonster15]

In the art of sasuke with the bottle naruto is keeping score of his beetles fighting and the page says "nasa" or NS too lol

I see SA and NA. And Naruto is apparently winning.

Interesting visual language.

Not only it shows team seven dynamic pretty accurately, it is also humorous and clever.

So it's summer season and it's hot out and team seven is enjoying watermelons. Watermelon as a fruit is quite tied up in Japanese culture. It's considered quite a luxury. Watermelons are offered as gifts. Fruit is generally quite expensive in Japan. And watermelon is quite a popular summer fruit there. It's symbolic of summers. As it should be. They also grow square watermelon in Japan btw. They are always up to something, in that country. Lol.

Anyway, I digress.

Naruto is in his own world and it makes sense because the time period is pre time skip, when Naruto was generally more obtuse about his feelings for Sasuke. He is playing a Beetle match, where Naruto beetle is winning against Sasuke beetle. Naruto is on top of the world heheh, my lil sweetheart. This is basically proof that their rivalry was never rivalry in the true sense. It was always a way for Naruto to get close to Sasuke, which is something Naruto tried to repress a lot but it all came out during vote one. In war arc, Naruto doesn't even hesitate to admit Sasuke is better than him. Like it's not even a matter of concern for him. He has already seen what Sasuke is capable of, he also knows Sasuke holds contempt for Kakashi and Sakura, for valid reasons too, but he tries to keep peace. But he is not lying about Sasuke being a remarkable shinobi, he already knows Sasuke is better than Sakura or Kakashi at battles.

It was never really about rivalry. And even though they both improved with a healthy competition between them, at the core of it, they are a team, a unit, the real cell 7, the main act. All Naruto wanted was to be able to talk to Sasuke, have his friendship and companionship. He didn't know any other way, he is an orphan who has always been on his own. He acts on instinct and his instinct told him that Sasuke was equally motivated to be a better warrior, just like him, and that was one platform where they could converge, they could establish contact that didn't require them to confront the more confusing feelings they felt for each other. At least for Naruto.

Sasuke of course is much more in touch with his feelings regarding Naruto, pretty much in his character, he knowingly and premeditatedly died for his beloved in land of waves arc, for love. In this art, even though Sasuke is annoyed at Naruto's obliviousness, his gaze is entirely focused on Naruto, oblivious to everyone else there. Including Sakura lol. Again very much in character. It's one of Sasuke's pet peeves, how much he is not able to resist Naruto's charm despite his obliviousness and Sasuke loathes himself for it but still cannot help it. His expression here looks like annoyance with a hint of longing. He loves Naruto and certainly tries to get his attention.

In land of waves arc, he matches his pace with Naruto while blushing as Naruto is rattled and suspicious of Sasuke but all Sasuke intended was to be by his side, as it is later symbolised as well, in chapter 698, where they are holding each other's phantom hands, lying half dead side by side but smiling and happy. And their interlocked hands look like a bloody heart. Btw Sasuke had already accomplished something in the first arc itself which happened to be something Hinata wanted since day one and couldn't accomplish until her cousin had to facilitate it for her in the last arc. By dying. And even in that panel, holding Hinata's hands, Naruto looks like he just saw a ghost lol. With Sasuke, he looks finally at peace.

Sasuke tries to get Naruto's attention when he asks him about chakra control. Naruto is so surprised hehehe. Subtext - Why is he coming to me for help, is he up to something? Well, I am not going to give him the satisfaction. 👅.

And Sasuke mentally facepalms himself.

Naruto's obliviousness needles Sasuke, he is the ultimate tsundere, PTSD ridden warrior/avenger who has steeled his heart against love, but still can't help opening up to that one idiot he adores so much but the idiot is too naive to get it. Alas. Lol. I mean there's a reason he anointed Naruto as his 'usuratonkachi' (thin hammer, a casual insult meant for slow, useless folks).

Sakura is standing at a distance, focused on Sasuke and trying to get his attention but to no avail because he is busy mentally cursing both himself and Naruto.

Sakura is practically wetting herself, pun unintended, her body language is reminiscent of Hinata's in this panel.

Look at the body language of both Sakura and Hinata. Both holding their knees together, bashful, their bodies bunched up what with all the butterflies in their stomach, probably increased heart rates and resultant nervousness, you can practically see their heart eyes that are focused on their object of desire. Sakura of course is more obvious about her object of desire while Hinata is more shy. But both are in the throes of their crush, while the boys are totally, indubitably, entirely unaware of the girls' existence. Lol.

Kakashi obviously is far away from them, camouflaged, almost invisible to the eye. Not interacting with his team. Pans out. The great copy ninja, never even began to understand Sasuke, Naruto or Sakura. Mostly instinctively wrong about all of them. heh. Where you see Gai's involvement with his team, where he backs Lee without question, where he scolds Tenten when she complains about the hard training, treating her just like how he would treat a boy. Or Neji, when he is the only one to back him up after his chuunin battle with Hinata is concluded, what with her embarrassing defeat and everyone descends down to defend her.

Kakashi on the other hand thinks Sakura is not violent, who is not the bragging type, who loves Sasuke like a mature woman, who thinks Sasuke was in the wrong about everything he did including his disdain towards Sakura and his own goal of killing Itachi, who thinks Naruto and Sasuke are rivals and that's what motivated Naruto. Of course he is wrong about all of it. But that's all in his character. An emotionally inept yes man.

Finally, there was something I had noticed about Sasuke in this art but I always felt a little hesitant talking about it. Yes, the bottle in his mouth. Now if you look at it, the mouth of the bottle stops at Sasuke's lips. It doesn't seem that the neck of the bottle is that long that part of it would be inside Sasuke's mouth.

You can clearly see the rim of the bottle at Sasuke's lip. Which is the right way of drinking from a bottle. But the sweat drop, the towel and his bangs collectively make it look like the neck of the bottle is totally inside his mouth and is protruding when it isn't. It's a visual trick. lol.

Kindly refrain from saying it's accidental, please don't insult your intelligence and the artists'. Kishi is not an amateur, he knows what he is doing. Very well. He has admitted Sasuke was the character he put the most effort in order to render his design and expressions right.

He is very attentive to detailing and his own brand of visual approach. And it's not like this is the only suggestive art he made for Sasuke and Naruto. Heheh.

The only thing that seems out of character in this art is the plate kept under Naruto's chin that is collecting all the dripping watermelon juice. No way Naruto would use a plate for this reason. I doubt it would even occur to him. Hahaha. Maybe Sasuke kept it there, it's possible. That would be in his character.

In any case, the supposed team seven dynamic is pretty visually consistent in this art, where Sakura is kept out of the picture, so is Kakashi. Both of them quite far back in the background. So Kishi wants you to notice Naruto and Sasuke first. And the watermelon. Sasuke's expression naturally takes your eyes to Naruto again and forces you to pay more attention. And then you see the other details, like the beetle match and scoreboard. After that, you see Sakura in the background and it surprises you that she is so far at the back doing something suggestive like that. But it makes sense because when it comes to Sasuke and Naruto's relationship, that's where she stands. Far away in the back, lol. And then, you are just entirely surprised to see Kakashi is even there. Most people simply miss him. And when you do notice him, you think, well that's silly.

Sakura wants Sasuke's attention desperately but she cannot have it, it's registered only for Naruto. Heheh. While Naruto is just lost in his own fantasy of being with Sasuke while Sasuke is just frustrated at his innocence.

Bang on Kish. Once again.

[reiderwriter]

Hello!!If you were part of the writers on criminal minds,what would you have done differently when it came to the romantic relationships of it all and whats your opinion on some of the ships?Which would you erase and which are your favorites?I'm willing to read as much details and analysis you are willing to give on this lmao😂I loved the analysis on Reids sexual evolution season by season and am really curious on what you think on the ships like Reid and JJ,Reid Lila,Reid and Maeve,Reid and Elle😂Personally I would have created a diffrent character as a love interest for him all together.

This is practically an essay so I'm just going to apologise in advance of this. I'm not going to say I'd change much because the end product we got is my favorite show for a reason but yes, here is me talking about all the romantic relationships I can think of in CM and my opinions on them!

(Spoilers for season 1-15 of CM, CME, and season 8 of NCIS - yeah that's how long this post is).

Reid Ships

I think Reid ships are the ones most people have issues with in Criminal Minds so I'm going to start here with personal headcanons and my personal highlights. It's going to become clear that my biggest pet peeve in CM is when the writers want to give the characters a love interest and then just gender-bend their personalities, so let's start with Maeve and Spencer.

I've already talked at length in other posts about how I think the Maeve/ Zugzwang plotline wasn't my favorite. It was some amazing acting from MGG and Beth Reisgraf, but personally, I think it suffered from "serialized cop drama" plot line status. This show airs week after week with another case to solve in 45 minutes and they don't have the time or the format to pause through moments that in a standard drama would be very impactful.

To go on a slight tangent, that is partially why the relationships between the main cast are usually the only ones developed very well over extended arcs (I'll return to this when I talk about Jeid).

So, when you're trying to have an emotionally resonant moment, and you only have a handful of cold opens and one full episode to do it, you're going to have to make the characters motivations, personalities and back stories mesh in a way that makes you think: "holy shit they're perfect together."

Maeve and Spencer aren't that. I hate to use this term, but Maeve is like a manic pixie dream girl for Spencer? She's written as if she's too good to be true, which is why we're supposed to feel so sad when she dies. But they also tried to make her a complex character and didn't have the time to really do it, which is why we're given a back story that makes no fucking sense (as Spencer's DOCTOR no less) and some hints that she probably doesn't feel the same way as Spencer does for her (fiancé she never told him about etc.)

When Spencer's character starts evolving in later seasons to being more than just a genius, but a genius with trauma, they pull a similar stunt with Cat Adams/ Max

The show runner Erica Messer did mention that the Maeve plotline was always designed to be a three act plot: she's introduced, Spencer is in love with her, she dies. But, in my opinion, we didn't get enough of an introduction to her for me to feel really all that bad about it? They banked a lot on the audiences attachment to Reid, so when you feel bad about Maeve's death it's all about Reid - why do bad things keep happening to HIM, I wonder how HE will get through it - when she is the one who was just murdered. Those kind of dynamics always kind of throw me in romantic relationships.

I'm going to be clear, I do not ship Cat Adams and Reid either and I have pretty much no opinion on Max other than that if she were real I'd probably avoid her (teachers who hate teaching and blame the kids are weird! And I'm a teacher so I can say that I think lol).

Cat Adams is girl-Reid if he had a villain arc. She's 100% again there to push Reid's character development, and she's used as an action rather than a character. Max is the same. In season 15, with the entire team at a crossroads, they have to allow Reid two outs: one villain arc where he gives into his lust for Cat Adams, and one happy ending where he gets to start something with someone who is totally normal and a way out of the BAU the way Savannah was for Morgan. But it can't be as easy for Reid, and that's why we're left with the Cat/Max dilemma because he is really attracted to Cat, despite the fact that she was threatening to end the lives of members of Max's family.

By the end of the show, Reid had been actively on the team the most out of all the cast members (bar Penelope, but she wasn't out on cases first hand, so there's not as much emotional baggage there for her). He can't have an easy exit, so I kind of view this "love triangle" bullshit as a metaphor for Spencer choosing a normal life vs a continuation with the BAU.

Which is why I think that if CME continues, I think we're unlikely to see or hear from Max, because that means he's picked the BAU.

Okay now, not to sound like a broken record but, Jeid:

Before Truth or Dare, there is one single suggestion of Jeid being a possibility and it's a suggestion, from Gideon of all people, in season 1. It is CRAZY to me that after thirteen seasons they just decided to develop that one plotline again because jesus CHRIST.

My main problem with Jeid is that, actually, I think it had a lot of potential. Like I said, serialized dramas only have time to develop relationships between their main cast members, which is why we end up with a pseudo-found-family vibe no matter who happens to be on the team at any given point. A lot of similar dramas go down the route of coworker/ team mate relationships (think Ziva and DiNozzo in NCIS or Mulder and Scully in The X Files).

There was absolutely the potential for an opposites attract relationship with Jeid, but I think the minute they abandoned that after that small dialogue we got something WAY FUCKING BETTER. Their friendship is entirely underrated, Spencer regularly babysits her kid, she comforts him after Emily "dies," enough for them to have arguments about it after the fact. Your honor they are SIBLINGS. That is UNCLE SPENCER. Not your future step-dad.

When they decided to commit to JJ and Will, they should've stuck to it, and as a big fan of the Season 7 finale + Hit and Run it is very shitty seeing them trying to retcon both of these characters amazing developments and growth over 14 seasons and have them regress to shit tier versions of their Season 1 selves.

"But Kacie, there must be some Spencer relationships you like," I hear you ask. And there ARE:

Lila Archer is a great foil for Spencer. She has a happy, glamorous life until their paths cross, and then we can assume from dialogue in season 6 that she continues having a pretty fucking glamorous life after everything goes down. I don't think Spencer works best with characters that are traumatised or overly smart the way he is, because he needs something to return to after the cases that switch off that part of him, to help him forget the horrifying shit he sees on the job.

So Lila Archer was kind of a great love interest.

Another one that I'm so annoyed they didn't explore more is Austin. She's the bartender in the Season 4 Episode "52 Pickup" that is charmed by Spencer's card tricks. She is never mentioned again, but they had a great chemistry, she was quick on her feet and managed to spot the unsub first, and she was a really great foil for Spencer as well; it was a street smarts/ book smarts kind of dynamic. If they'd carried that character forward and had her reappear a few times, it could've been a great romantic plot.

I will just quickly note that the reason we most likely didn't see many romantic plots for Reid was because Matthew Gray Gubler didn't like the idea of giving him a romantic plotline, stating that there were so many more interesting things to do with the character - and he's right!

I'm a fanfiction writer, and the allure of characters like Spencer Reid is they are mostly romantic clean slates - you can write whatever you want for them within reason without having to disregard canon relationships. This is why similarly, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Venom, and young "Marauders" fanfictions are pretty popular here imo too - canon compliance isn't disregarded, the reader is just written in. So I don't think I'd change a thing for Spencer to be honest (apart from maybe not kill Maeve off and give her the actual villain arc, but I say that so regularly I'm beginning to sound like a broken record).

Also I'll just quickly mention Elle because you mentioned her - outside of fanfiction there are literally zero hints (imo) of a thing between Elle and Reid lmao there's more of a case to be made for Elle and Morgan, but for some reason, writers and fans alike don't like committing to giving Morgan more than simply platonic connections. THEY SHOULD!! THE MAN IS SEXY AS HELL!!!!!!! GIVE ME A MORGAN WHO IS REGULARLY FUCKING!

Hotchner Ships

Speaking of characters that have a long time where they are single! Aaron Hotchner is another fandom favorite to write self-insert fanfiction for, because of the gap between Haley Hotchner's death in 100, and the introduction of Beth in season 7.

In general, I like the way Hotch's relationships play out on screen. Let's start with Haley:

You can tell that the writers really enjoyed the dynamic between work Hotch and home Hotch, because they played on it so much across the four first seasons. The very first time he is introduced he's in his bedroom picking out baby names with his childhood sweetheart, so any further scenes of him being more stern or serious are always in contrast with that introduction. It's a cold open to his character that immediately let's you know that there is more going on in his world than just the BAU, and he is the only member of the season one team that has that.

Then, they really LOVE taking that shit away from him. I'm not going to go into detail here about how fucking wack the time line is for Criminal Minds, but it is stupid and that's important here because:

I think Haley's reasons for divorcing Hotch are stupid.

She says that she married a man who was a prosecutor, not a man that was an FBI Profiler but realistically by the time of their divorce, he'd been in the BAU like 10 years. They rely more on the audiences sense of time (we're two years in, so they've all been on the team two years etc) to push this character motivation off. And for a while it makes sense that they were separated, until the events of 100. But also: in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, you literally signed up for whatever the FUCK happened, that's what a marriage vow IS.

Now I'm a sucker for the angst of 100,but would it not have felt 10x more emotionally disgusting if Hotch and Haley were talking about reuniting? If they had never celebrated in the first place, and had just finished working through their marital issues when Foyet comes back into their lives and Haley has to be whisked away again? Yes. Yes it would.

There's an episode in season 9 that really pisses me off, and it's the one that Hotch passes out from an old tear in his Foyet stab wounds and he goes into surgery and talks with Haley and Foyet in heaven while watching the rest of his life after the events of 100 on a cinema screen. It's cliché and also has no pay-off because it doesn't change the way he views his relationships after that, and it's not like he's at a crossroads at that point, so it means nothing to the audience except as a remembrance of an issue and an episode so far in the past that it feels like flogging a dead horse. They do this twice, btw, and this is the more successful use of this plot (the first time they do it to Elle in Season 1/2 during the events of The Wicker King - she talks to the father we didn't even know was dead, who died decades ago in an unrelated time. Not to keep bringing NCIS up, but I think the only time I've seen it done well is whenever Gibbs kept seeing Mike Franks in the diner scenes). They do not out enough effort into these plots to achieve the emotional resonance they are aiming for in my personal opinion.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think this could've been the beginning of the era where Gibson was having a lot of issues with the cast, because it just felt like they didn't want to use him in the on-location shoots for a while lmao. Anyway, all that to say, Haley should've stayed dead, and not come back as a stupid phantom.

After the dust has settled on Haley and Hotchner though, we get Hotchner and Beth:

This is going to be a short note, because I actually really like the relationship between these two characters. They have the very slow cold-open build up that Maeve and Spencer get, but there's a lot more and a lot less to Beth's character that makes the dynamic between them really enjoyable to watch.

We're once again treated to the out-of-work Hotchner that had been missing since Season 4 (his in between scenes with Jack are cute but there's always the tragedy hanging over them). Beth is running a marathon in honor of her dad, Hotch is doing something similar for the FBI Triathalon, they train together the tension builds, they start dating. Now obviously it wasn't the purpose or aim of this character introduction to build to tragedy, and I think they just genuinely wanted to show a happy Hotchner again, but its still a valid criticism of the weird voyeuristic Maeve build-up that they literally succeeded a more sympathetic and audience engaging late minor-recurring-character EARLIER THAN THE MAEVE ARC.

I'll shut up now, but yeah, I like Hotch and Beth.

Penelope Ships

This post is getting ridiculously long, so much so that I'm even contemplating adding a fucking word count, but let's continue and dive in to my next issue.

Penelope's romantic life is used as a punch-line for the first 11 seasons and I HATE it.

There is no easy short to say this, but I despise Kevin. He is stupid, and a joke, and I hate him and I am SO HAPPY that she dumped him. They made her really pathetic about him for a few episodes, and then he kept fucking coming back too which was even worse.

Kevin is literally male Garcia but with all the worst attributes. He's clingy, and needy, and he may be smart but in a very "incel" way. In my opinion, Kevin is less a fully fledged character and more a joke line/ convenient plot point for when they need more tech analyst work. The best moment in the Kevin/Penelope arc is during the The Gathering, where she really lays into him and tells him off for being jealous of her ukelele instructor AFTER THEY'D BROKEN UP.

Penelope deserved so much better than what they gave her romantically in these seasons. First, her date tried to kill her, her boyfriend was a joke, etc. She never gets the serious romantic plotline that her other teammates do (Hotch/Haley, Spencer/Maeve, Derek/Savannah, JJ/Will, Emily/being a big old lesbian etc). Penelope is really great levity for the rest of the cast because she is happy and she is positive and she is unapologetic in her positivity. It's annoying that they don't let her be more than that in the romantic relationships they give he during these seasons.

Then Luke Alvez is introduced and there is some hope! Galvez truther's please, rise they are so adorable.

Anyone involved in the writing of CME - what the hell was that? Now I haven't seen it myself, to be completely fair, but I know enough to ask the question - really what the HELL was that?

Tl;dr Penelope's sexuality and romantic relationships should not be used as punchlines.

The Aversion to Homosexuality

This is just a general note, but the writers originally did plan to have Emily Prentiss be gay - amazing, great, it's a completely different time now, please let her have a gay awakening soon. It was obviously scrapped early in, but there's a lot of subtext that can be interpreted in that way.

They did commit with Tara, and she gets a gf in CME, so I want to see some Temily in the future if we do get more CM seasons.

So just so you know, everytime I mention Emily flirting with someone in my fic, assume it's a woman if you aren't already, lmao.

(They did also talk about making Reid bisexual as well, which would've also been great, but again, I don't think we're ever getting any more romantic plotlines from Reid).

Other Characters

Here's just a rating and short mention for all the other character couples I can think of in Criminal Minds, because this is already thesis length lmao:

Morgan + Savannah - 8.5/10, no notes, really just the gender bent love interest but done right.

Alex Blake + Husband - 7/10, solid couple, very much enjoyed when they started bringing in the people in established relationships again lmao.

Kate Callahan + Husband - 5/10, same as above but I wasn't as attached to her character rip.

Matt + Kirsty - 10/10 really no notes, I too would be called a breeder if I managed to lock that man down, damn.

Rossi + His 3 Ex-Wives - Make total sense for his character, very enjoyable to me, love that he has a nice moment with most of them again throughout the series, not going to rate it lol.

Rossi + Strauss - 3.5/10 - Last ditch attempt to make Strauss a sympathetic character, but I felt more attached to her growth after being called out by Derek rather than the effect that her death had on Rossi.

Gideon + the friend of his who is murdered by that Frank guy at the end of season 2 - stupid, worst way to go out, made no sense for the character, but I know Mandy Patinkin wanted OUT and honestly, anything for you Inigo Montoya.

Why I think Criminal Minds is Better Without Romance

Generally, I really do agree with Matthew Gray Gubler when he said that there were more interesting things to explore with these characters than their romantic attachments. It does frustrate me to no end that they focused on some of them more than others, and that post Henry, most of JJ's big moments are tied to motherhood and being a mother/ wife, but that change in her character is still amazing and leads her to a lot of growth (not mentioning Truth or Dare again, sorry it doesn't exist at this point in the post)(also I didn't have much time to mention Will and JJ, but I do love them).

Their best moments are the ones we get of them together as a team, saving people and putting away murderers for life, it's a perfect Found Family!!!

Also, no more romance = Spencer Reid can be mine. In conclusion, I am delusional. Thank you for reading this far.

[recentadultburnout]

Info for writer in Thai series fandom: How to Name Your OC

Lets start with what name you shouldn't use.

A name that resembles the king, the queen, or a title conferred by the king (only of the current, the Chakri Dynasty) is illegal. For example, the late King Rama 9's name is Bhumibol Adulyadej, so if you tried to name your kid Bhumibol or Adulyadej, they wouldn't let you register. But if you cut it short enough, it might still work, like Bhum. Bhum pronouse phum Or Bol pronouse pon (it's the most accurate I can make) is actually a fairly common name. 

Mis-gender name, Some names have genders, and if you can't read Thai, there is a chance that you might make some mistakes, and it would be alright. But here are a few very obvious examples so you could avoid some of it: "Chai(ชาย)", which means "man", Don't use a name that has the word "Chai" in it for a woman character. The same with Ying(หญิง), which means woman. **There are many other words that are spelled as "chai" in English but spelled differently in Thai, and they don't mean "man" either, but most of them still are man's names.

And one last thing. It isn't necessarily a bad name, but it's my pet peeve, so... Anything starts with Som. If it's "som+anything", the chance is they are really old fashion names. 90% of the people with these names are definitely not teenagers. Most would atleast be in their 40s or something. Except Som without anything after or Som-O, because it's actually different Som. It's pronounced with a different tone.

So what name should you use? 

For the first name, I would suggest you just copy the actual Thai first name you know. It is the easiest choice. You could search for a Thai celebrity's name or you could use a website for naming babies. Nothing could go wrong with that!

For the surname It is more difficult than the first name. We can't just copy an already exciting last name. Because in reality, while you can always create a new surname, it needs to be unique. Unless there is some error that occurs, Thai people who have the same surname are related, whether since birth, by marriage, or by adoption.

If someone wants to create a new surname today, they will need to make sure that the surname they have in mind hasn't already been taken. The first thing they could do is check with the civil registration website.

I guess you could use the name of some place, like the name of an old village or mound, as your OC last name. It would be like their ancestors came from that place, or you could try to find some well-meaning word in Pali or Sanskrit if you want.

Well, it's not really limited to those two things since a real surname can actually be quite random, but those are pretty safe.

I think the hardest thing about a surname is that it usually links to the background of that family to some degree, and if you don't know what you gave your character, it could be a bit weird. You could find some random word to be a surname, but I wouldn't recommend that. 

And for the nickname, the easiest of them all, you can use anything. Literally anything, with just a small exception. For example, from A-Z except E because it is homonymous with a rude word, and N because it is homonymous with a word that means sinew, you could use any letter and it wouldn't be that weird.

Some might be more popular than others, but all could be used. You could just cut the legal name into one syllable and use that. It might be a little weird if you pick the wrong syllable to keep, but the risk is not that great. Stick to the last syllable, and it's mostly safe. You could use any animal you see as cute (except dogs; they're cute, but we already use dog as a curse word) as a name too. Just google translate it to Thai (or not). Fruit is the same way. And the weather too. From the sun to the storm to the grass, as long as it's cute or has a good ring to it, it can be used. 

Bonus+

If you want to name siblings, many Thais like to make their children's names be the same set, such as having the same initial letter, using the same word or sound as a first syllable, using words that the meanings go together, like Mek-เมฆ(cloud) and Mork-หมอก(mist), or choosing a rhyming word.

Most Thai people's first names and surnames are Pali/Sanskrit, which is a dead language, or Thai words that can be used in daily life. For nicknames, they can be the shorten form of first names, so it can be a meaningless sound, Pali/Sanskrit or Thai words, or it can be anything the namer chooses, such as random Thai or foreign words, brand names, or whatever.

If you want to attempt a period, do know that a canon nickname has a high likelihood of being a name that will never be used in an accurate setting, since using those foreign words as a nickname is a rather recent trend.

Sensible parents will choose a good-meaning name for their child. Not so sensible parents and writers might choose a not-so-good-meaning name for their child. There are so many novels with characters who have got really weird names. Sometimes I swear the writer chooses that name purely for pun purposes.

If a character's name looks like an English word when spelled in English, then there is a high chance that it is really that English word. Sometimes it might just be a coincidence, but most of the time it is an English word and if it is not pronounced like one, it's because it's just more convenient to say it in a heavily Thai accent among Thai people. And to be honest, even names containing Thai words won't be pronounced "right" all the time, especially if there is a diphthong in there.

Quite a few people choose to name their babies' nicknames after a place they conceive when it is obvious where is it happen, like, after they go on vacation abroad. or any other special event, activity, or reason that leads to it. So the country or town, as a nickname, can be because of that.😳😳

http://161.200.50.2/th2roman -->for transcribing Thai words into English.

If you want to, you could check out my Tumblr for character names' meaning posts. That might give you more ideas about Thai names and surnames. As I said, some writers do pick weird names for their characters, but even then, it's usually not that much weirder than reality.

Index

[gold-rhine]

For the bodypart canons askgame can we get Neuvillette? If you don't have much about him yet then I wanna be the first one to ask for Kaeya

I already did for Neuvi! In fact its easier for him bc he just came out, so i have a lot of things to extrapolate from, but I was writing long ass essays for kaeya for more than a year, so its harder to come up with anything new to say asdfghj. like i don't to repeat same headcanons i already wrote, like that he's related to candace

Headcanon: I can muster a cogent argument for why it would make more sense or make for a better story if this were the case

i've gotta say, i'm a bit peeved when i see ppl portraying child kaeya as like. a dickensian beggar boy who was let to the fireplace and cried bc he tried a cube of sugar for the first time in his life. like, alberichs are nobility and we know khaenriah took their nobility *very* seriously. and if they knew they are sending their scion to mond's nobility, they'd make damn sure he can keep up their dignity. kaeya canonically could read and write before he got to mond and game makes sure to highlight that his handwriting is beautiful.

i think kaeya was very well educated, very well schooled and mannered and prepared for like high society politics, and it was kind of a cultural shock for him how uncivilized ragnyvdirs are in comparison to his own upbringing. like he's a bit confused when he doesn't see 10 different forks at the dinner table, but he's keeping a brave face, but then he sees diluc wipe his mouth with a sleeve and like snatch a piece of meat from the dish and is just completely stunned. and diluc is like oh don't be shy, you can have more too if you want!, but kaeya is in fact seeing a heart attack his own father would have at this scene. this is why he comes off as very quiet and polite to all adults at the estate

Heartcanon: I don’t have a particular rationale for why this ought to be the case, I just like to imagine it’s true because it gives me the warm fuzzies

my conspiracy theory headcanon is that he does still have his horse, but doesn't use her for work. like when he just became a knight as a teen, he saw a horse that no one wanted or ever chose bc she had horrible temper, and slowly gained her trust with treats and attention until they've became friends like a true horsegirl would. that horse was left in mond bc she doesn't let anyone else ride her, so the expedition just left her to kaeya, but he just treats her like a luxury pet and spoils her to death

Gutcanon: it’s not that I actively want this to be the case – it just unaccountably feels like it should be

the first ability from his vision that ever activated was his C4 shield when diluc cleaved him on the head and this is what saved his life. this shield is v useful, but kaeya hates it as a reminder. he also has pretty big burnscar on his eye, bc like. he took a flaming claymore to the eye, no way he has a dainty little white line from a hit like that

Junkcanon: I like to imagine it’s true because it gives me the other kind of warm fuzzies

has a collection of corsets and elaborate lingerie sets. like, you open the corset on his default outfit and there is another, even sexier corset underneath

Spleencanon: I insist that this is the case specifically to spite the author, because, like, fuck you, sir or madam

every time hoyo tries to gaslight us into pretending diluc was right and in fact normal about kaeya and the knights the whole time, i'm sending psychic spiders to them on the astral plane