#i should learn my lesson about not talking about things that bother me here because that never goes very well

[torchickentacos]

Disclaimer. I can hear. This is not a hard of hearing/deaf perspective. You know, this is maybe just me being petty and out of my lane, but isn't it kind of rude to add stuff to videos like "YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN'T HAVE THE FULL EXPERIENCE WITH SOUND OFF" "SOUND ON FOR THE LOVE OF GOD" etc? Editing to say it's mostly 'you need to have sound on to experience this fully' comments I'm talking about. Especially on videos that aren't even transcripted/CC'ed? I mean, I'm guilty of not properly ID'ing everything, though I'm trying to get better about it, but it just feels like a weird... impossible to achieve carrot-dangle to hard of hearing people, I guess, to go on about how only people who can hear will have the REAL experience of a post. Only people who can hear will have the BEST content. It's a weird, unneeded type of comment I see all over the place. I'm positive nobody ever means anything by it at all!!! I just imagine it probably feels similarly to how I feel when people talk about this SUPER COOL EXPERIENCE YOU CAN HAVE BY WALKING IN AN INACCESSIBLE PLACE. LOOK HOW COOL THIS INACCESSIBLE THING IS THAT YOU CAN'T EXPERIENCE! I'M HAVING SUCH A GOOD TIME WITH THIS INACCESSIBLE THING. and like, is this totally just a personal emotional sore spot? Yes, fully. But I do still just want to complain about it for a second. read tags before sending me an anon about how I'm taking everything in bad faith about this or commenting, please.

[princessmaybank]

Can you do prompt 7

I'm sorry this took so long! I ran with this one and it turned out longer than it should have!

Riding Lessons

Pairings: BestFriend!JJ x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Riding, maybe some second hand embarrassment..I think that's it?

Summary: Reader wants to learn how to ride, who better to teach her than her bestie?!

Author's Note: I hope you like it, I love this idea, I feel like I could have done better though, let me know what you think. Enjoy!

I wanted to learn how to, ya know, "ride" I guess. I've been a pillow princess every time I've ever had sex but I wanted to be able to impress my sexual partner. I know JJ was just fooling around when he said I could always come to him if I ever needed help with something like that but I'm seriously thinking of his offer, well fake offer I guess. Damn it, I don't know! I've been trying to ask all week but it isn't exactly easy to ask your friend for dick riding lessons. I just wanted him to help me learn to move my body, I didn't have to actually hop on him.

Every time I try to ask, something gets in the way. John B is always around, I make a fool out of myself, I can't spit it out, he's too busy to talk, something. This time we are hanging out in the back yard of the chateau. The guys are chilling while us girls are chatting away.

"So that's when I-" Sarah paused, but I barely noticed as I anxiously looked between the ground and the blond boy who's been recently occupying my mind. "What's wrong Y/N?" She asked, clearly noticing my rapid-fire thumbs playing thumb wars with each other. "Oh nothing.." I pushed off, stopping my fingers, even though it wasn't easy. The girls poked until I would tell them what was bothering me. I didn't tell them everything, just the fact that I needed to talk to JJ alone, and it wasn't an easy conversation. Kie said I should just go grab him and pull him to the side right now but I told her that wasn't as easy as it sounded. John B and Pope latch onto the man and keep him tight.

"HEY JJ COME HERE!" I heard Kiara shout as loud as fucking possible. All the guys started standing up. "ONLY JJ!" Sarah added.

The other two sat down as JJ waltzed over to us. My heart was racing, I wasn't ready for this conversation. "What?" He pretended to get snippy. "I wanna ask you something." I speak up. He motions for me to continue. "privately.." I add on. "Oh okay, we'll be back." He smiles towards the girls before grabbing my hand and leading me into the chateau. I expected him to stop in the living room but he sat me on the bed in the guest room before shutting the door. "What's up?" He smiled as he crossed his arms and leaned against the door. My fingers did that thing again. "Now that I think about it, it's not that important anymore!" I rush my words out and try to get past him and to the door. "Ah ah ah. What is it, Y/N/N?" He looked a little concerned.

I wasn't sure how to bring this up. I've thought about this conversation many times and still haven't figured out the best way to say it. "Uhm- well this is a di-difficult conversation Jayj..I want to have it, but I'm not sure how to start it, and I'm worried it'll ruin our friendship and I was kind of ready for this con-" I started my rambling because I got nervous, but JJ cut me off. He walked up to me and crouched in front of me. His right hand reached out and laid on top of my knee. "Breathe Y/N. I'm sure whatever it is, won't ruin our friendship. Cause we're too close, there's nothing we can't say to each other." He said with a smile.

"O-okay.." I said sheepishly. "So talk to me." He said casually and got up to sit on the bed next to me. "Uhm- so you know how you jokingly said I could come to you with like-" I was hesitant and JJ knew that. "Questions involving sex?" He giggled and finished my question for me. I nodded very fast causing him to giggle again. "That wasn't a joke, I meant it." He smiled with a small chuckle. My eyes widened but I shut that down real fast. "Oh, okay, well I do have a question.." I slowly spoke. He nudged me to continue. "This is really awkward and you don't have to say yes, please don't feel pressured to do this, it's really stupid actually, so-" He shushed me. "Calm down. I'm willing to help with anything you need." He smiled. His words caused a blush to rise to my cheeks. I took a deep breath before I closed my eyes and said what I've been meaning to say. "I want to learn how to be on top." That was the easiest way I could say it. "You want me to teach you how to ride dick?" He asked. My eyes were still closed but I felt so embarrassed. My hands covered my face and I heard him chuckle before pulling my hands away. "Look at me." He said. I opened my eyes and looked up at JJ. I tried not to think about the embarrassment coursing through my veins. "Good girl." He said and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I can't believe he just called me that. "Now strip for me." He said and motioned for me to stand. "W-what?" My eyes went wide again. "You want to learn, right? Gotta take your clothes off for me." He said calmly. "I-I thought...I thought you were just going to show me how to move my body.." I twirled my fingers again. "Oh baby...you wanna get some practice first don't you? And who better to try it out on than your best friend?" JJ smirked.

I can't fuck my best friend! This would ruin everything.

"B-but-" I stuttered. "Don't go shy on me now Y/N." He smirked. "Here, I'll go first." He stood proudly in front of me. He removed his hat and boots first. His cut off tank was next before he finally took off his cargo shorts. JJ sat back down next to me on the bed, only in his boxers now. I couldn't stop my eyes from wandering his toned body.

"Your turn Y/N/N." He whispered into my ear. I hesitated again, and he must've noticed. "Would you like some help?" He asked. All I was able to do was lightly nod. JJ slowly grabbed my hands and stood me in front of him. His fingers traveled to the bottom of my shirt and pulled upwards, over my head, gently. His hands grasped my waist and pulled me closer to him. JJ's fingers danced in the waistband of my shorts before shimmying them down my legs. His hands ran up and down my legs starting at my hips.

"Come here.." He whispered before sitting against the headboard. I straddled his lap and his hands met my hips again. "Can I kiss you, Y/N?" He asked. So gently and calmly like we weren't in the position we were in. I nodded and parted my lips, pushing them closer to him. As our lips lingered together, his hands rocked my hips against his, back and forth. I could feel him growing beneath me, causing arousal to pool in my panties.

"You sure you wanna learn from me?" He asked after pulling his lips away from mine. "Wouldn't wanna learn from anyone else.." I responded slowly, staring into his eyes. He smiled before pulling our lips back together for a moment. "You already have step one down, which is good." He smirked. "What's step one?" I asked while breathing heavily. "Turn on your partner." His hand found its way to my hair and tugged forcefully. JJ pressed his lips to my neck and made his way down my torso. "Next you're gonna move your panties to the side for me."

For the next few minutes I listened to every word this man said. When I finally eased myself onto his cock, we both let out small gasps. He encouraged me to move when I felt ready but I asked him to help guide me. JJ placed his hands on my hips and moved me back and forth on him slowly. "You can also go up and down, side to side, or in circles, why don't you try something." A small whimper escaped my mouth. I wasn't sure I was ready. "Let the pleasure guide you..nothing you do is wrong. Go ahead." He said while tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

When I finally worked up the courage to move, I decided to just move back and forth. JJ's mouth opened slightly from the pleasure. His hands were still on my hips but he wasn't moving me. I picked up my pace and tried to bounce up and down, which felt so good. I felt like I could release right there with the way his dick was punching my insides. I picked up my speed again, JJ and I were moaning messes in each other's arms. I bounced harder when I realized that's what felt good to me. JJ threw his head back as his hands squeezed my hips tighter. "Just like that.." He whined. My jaw was on the floor. He was gorgeous like this. "Fuck baby... don't stop. I'm almost there.." He let out, heaving. I didn't even slow down. I chased our highs until I couldn't anymore. JJ released with my name on his lips as I did the same with him. I collapsed on top of my best friend, his cock twitching inside of me as we started to come down. My body was shaking from the ultimate pleasure I had just experienced. "Shhhh .." He soothed as he caressed my hair. "such a good girl...I can't wait for our next lesson.." He wanted more? My pussy is in for one wild ride.

[kayewrite]

How to Love?

genre:; fluff, angst (not really). word counting: 1754

Seungmin x reader (ft. mingyu of seventeen). college Seungmin!. Medicine student Seungmin! (will write lots of university fics because im delulu college student *sobs)

wherein:  You are just curious, and you asked for tips from your friend, who willingly helped you.

i reccommend you to listen "how to love" by Day6

You've never been in a relationship before.

Your focus has always been on studying. Study. And more study.

Aiming for the top has always been your priority, which is why the idea of having a boyfriend (or girlfriend) never even crossed your mind.

Besides, no one’s ever asked you out, so why bother thinking about relationships when the opportunity hasn’t even presented itself? (By the way, you’re not some stereotypical nerd. You love makeup and dressing up for yourself.)

But now that you’re in college, things are different. Your goals are getting harder to achieve. It’s not just that the course is challenging; it’s also because it’s not what you wanted to study in the first place. You’re here because of family pressure, and that’s made it even harder to keep up with your lessons.

In college, you start to realize something important:

Studying too much can really drain you.

As you look around, you notice how others are balancing their lives. Your deskmate parties every weekend, yet somehow she has the same grades as you. The notorious bad boy sitting in front, who’s always playing with girls' hearts and puts his studies at the bottom of his priority list, scored higher than you in Differential Equations.

And then there’s your dorm mate, who blushes while talking to someone on the phone. She has a boyfriend, yet she manages to balance her studies without letting it distract her. (By the way, why is she blushing?)

"I'm tired, physically and mentally," you say, resting your head on the cafeteria table while Seungmin, your friend, munches on his sandwich.

"That's what you get after not sleeping for several days and then pressuring yourself too much," he replies, continuing to eat his sandwich—wait, that’s yours!

You lift your head, tired but still sane.

"Then what should I do? What do college students do? Isn’t it our responsibility to learn?"

Seungmin rolls his eyes at your statement. "What are we, robots?" He puts down your sandwich and wipes his mouth with a napkin, realizing that it’s yours and that he should stop eating. (Only 1/8 of the sandwich is left.)

"Listen, you need to get a life. You’re wasting your college years with your nose buried in books. You should enjoy college because after this, adult life limits your happiness. So, as long as you can, enjoy and live your life."

On a normal day, you’d tease him, calling him dumb and saying he’s talking nonsense, but maybe because you’re so tired, or something else, for the first time what he’s saying makes sense.

"Wow, you’re making sense." Your face lights up, and Seungmin can’t help but laugh. "Is that what studying medicine does to you?"

"I'm always a genius, you dumbass. Eat my medals."

What Seungmin said rings in your brain. For the first time, you don’t stress about the upcoming exam.

"Seungmin," you call out after a long, comfortable silence.

"What?"

"I should date."

"Date what?"

"Date someone."

Suddenly, Seungmin clasps his hands together in an overly dramatic way and closes his eyes.

"Finally, my prayers have been heard."

But how do you start?

You weren’t pressured by your surroundings, right? You just want to experience it.

Experience.

But how?

"How?" you ask Seungmin when you sit under the mango tree, studying (again).

"How what? Don’t ask me math questions."

"I mean… how did you meet Shin?" you ask, closing your book.

Seungmin has a lot of experience in love. He’s had many girlfriends (and why not? He’s handsome). So asking him questions about love is never difficult.

Seungmin looks at you intently, his face showing a hint of curiosity.

"She came to me."

"And then what?" Curiosity is evident on your face. Why haven’t you asked him questions like this before?

"And then we dated."

"That fast?"

"It’s because she loved me too much, and I was just doing her a favor." You slap him hard.

"You’re a playboy."

"I’m not. I’m kind."

"So if anyone likes you, you just date them?"

"Well… no."

"I think I’m an idiot for asking you for advice." You lean back and open your book again.

Seungmin laughs at you. He realizes you must be serious about your decision, so why not help? (As a good friend should.)

"Okay, now listen to me. You won’t regret this decision, right?"

"Why are you getting scary?" you comment as he speaks with an unusually serious face.

"I mean, as your friend—a handsome friend, mind you—I’m going to tell you…" He pauses for dramatic effect. "How to love."

You pause, then hit his arm.

"Why are you making that serious face? You’re so funny." You both laugh, and when you’re tired from laughing, Seungmin continues.

"First, fall in love."

"Well, step one is kinda hard."

"Just use your charm, and then you’ll find love. And never let go of the people who want to take care of you. Have you seen yourself? You’re pushing people away."

"I am?" You think back to times in your life when you’ve pushed people away.

"Yes. So never do that. And if you find love, contact me for step two." He laughs, then stands up and runs off.

"What is this, a YouTube tutorial?" you sigh and open your book again, but your attention isn’t there.

"How can I find it?"

You sat alone at your usual spot in the cafeteria, a tray of untouched food in front of you. The sounds of chatter and laughter surrounded you, but your mind was elsewhere, replaying Seungmin's words about finding love. You let out a small sigh, thinking about how you’d even begin.

As you poked at your sandwich, someone slid into the seat across from you. You looked up, surprised. It was Mingyu, the handsome senior from your department. You’d seen him around before, but never this close. He had a confident, easygoing smile that made your heart skip a beat.

“Hey,” he said casually, setting his coffee down. “Mind if I sit here?”

You blinked, momentarily lost for words, then nodded. “Sure.”

He grinned. “I’ve seen you around. You’re always so focused, it’s impressive.”

You felt a blush creep up your cheeks. “Thanks, I guess. I just… try to stay on top of things.”

“You don’t have to explain,” he chuckled. “I get it. College is a lot. But you know, it’s also important to have fun.”

You looked at him, curiosity piqued. “And what do you do for fun?”

Mingyu leaned back, taking a sip of his coffee before answering. “I hang out with friends, play some basketball, and sometimes… I just like to talk to interesting people.”

Your heart fluttered at his words, and you couldn’t help but smile. The conversation flowed naturally from there—jokes, stories, shared frustrations about classes. Time seemed to fly by, and before you knew it, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

Mingyu stood up, grabbing his things. “Hey, this was fun. Can I get your number? Maybe we can do this again sometime.”

Your heart raced as you fumbled to take out your phone. “Yeah, sure.”

After exchanging numbers, Mingyu flashed you one last smile before heading off to his next class. You sat there for a moment, still processing what had just happened. Then, without thinking, you grabbed your phone and dialed Seungmin.

“I think I found it,” you said as soon as he picked up.

Seungmin's voice on the other end was a mix of surprise and amusement. “Already? Wow, that was fast.”

Later that day, you met Seungmin again, and he couldn’t believe how quickly things had progressed. “So, what’s step two?” you asked, eager to hear more of his so-called wisdom.

Seungmin smirked. “Step two is to develop trust. It’s not easy, especially when you don’t know someone that well, but it’s crucial.”

You nodded, feeling a bit anxious. Trust wasn’t something you gave easily, but you were determined to see this through.

As days turned into weeks, you and Mingyu kept in touch, though not always frequently. He was busy with his senior projects, and you were swamped with your own studies, but whenever you did talk, there was a comfort and ease that made you feel safe. You found yourself trusting him, even when he wasn’t around.

One day, he invited you to a coffee shop off-campus. You said yes without hesitation. The atmosphere was cozy, with soft music playing in the background. As you sat across from Mingyu, sipping your drinks and chatting about anything and everything, you felt a warmth spread through you.

“I really enjoy spending time with you,” Mingyu said, his eyes twinkling as he looked at you. “Will you go out with me?”

You didn’t answer right away, but the smile on your face said it all.

The next time you saw Seungmin, he could tell something had changed. You were happier, lighter, and it was all thanks to Mingyu. “Alright, you’re ready for step three,” Seungmin said with a grin.

“What’s that?” you asked, still smiling from your last date.

“Build commitment. That’s the final step,” he said, though there was a hint of something else in his voice—something you couldn’t quite place. But you were too caught up in your happiness to notice.

As the days passed, you and Mingyu grew closer. You spent more time together, studying, laughing, sharing your dreams and fears. You felt safe with him, and that trust grew into something deeper. But every now and then, when you were with Seungmin, you’d catch him looking at you with an expression you couldn’t quite read.

One afternoon, you were in the library with Mingyu, your heads bent over your books. Seungmin walked by, and you looked up, catching his eye. He smiled, a soft, bittersweet smile that made your heart ache just a little. He was happy for you, that much was clear, but there was something more—something he wasn’t saying.

You watched him walk away, a thought nagging at the back of your mind. But before you could dwell on it, Mingyu nudged you, making you laugh with another one of his jokes. The moment passed, and you pushed the thought aside.

But deep down, you knew. You knew there was more to Seungmin’s advice than just friendly concern. And as you watched him disappear into the stacks of books, you realized that maybe, just maybe, the steps to love he’d shared with you were ones he’d already taken… with you.

[eitaababe]

SOMEBODY ELSE !

— chapter 17. you.

a/n — all i have to say is fucking finally

series masterlist. | previous / next

written portion below. —

you sat there anxiously, awaiting a response from neteyam. it had been a little over ten minutes since you sent the text, and while you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, you know he didn't have any scheduled practice or class today, and was probably on his phone the whole day.

you refused to check your phone anymore, and instead sat on your couch in silence, not bothering to turn on the tv as you knew you wouldn't be able to concentrate.

a sudden knock on the door pulled you out of your nerves, with you silently thanking eywa for the distraction from neteyam once you opened the door.

it proved to not be that much of a distraction, after all.

"neteyam? what are you doing here?"

he was leaning against your doorframe, hair ruffled and clearly was in a hurry. he was wearing his casual sweatpants, and a fitted shirt that hugged his figure just right everywhere—

his voice quickly snapped you out of your trance, with you silently scolding yourself for checking him out at a time like this. "i came over as soon as i saw your text," he panted, wiping the sweat off his forehead. you subtly tilted your head, did he seriously run on his way here? "something was wrong with the elevators so i took the stairs up."

you winced, the thought of running up three flight of stairs would've had you sweating buckets compared to the few droplets coating his forehead.

"i'm so sorry." you blurted suddenly, without thinking, leaving a confused neteyam standing in front of you.

"for the elevator? i mean it's not really like you had control of that—"

"no, i'm sorry it took me so long to reach out. i didn't know you came here to talk that night. ao'nung lied to me and i didn't even find out about it until earlier today."

"oh," he sighed, and what looked like relief washed over his features. "no need to apologize. all that matters is you're ready to talk to me now."

you sent a shy smile his way, opening the door further as an invitation for him to come in. he accepted, walking in and awkwardly standing by one of the barstools in the kitchen.

not wanting to waste any more time, neteyam spoke up. "i should've never accused ao'nung of doing those things. especially doing them to you. i should never have believed violet, i never even really liked her in the first place, if i'm being honest," he chuckled, running a hand through his braids. "she was full of shit, i just— i wouldn't be able to stand it if he was actually like that, and if i knew you were in some sort of trouble with him."

"i get it," you softly spoke, leaning forward onto the counter across from neteyam. "he's not though. and yeah, what he did just now was kind of fucked up, and i practically blew up in his face just now," you paused, laughing at the shocked look on neteyam's face. "but you have to start trusting my judgement. if something bad happens then it happens, and i learn a lesson from that. but you can't control my love life, neteyam."

"you're right," he agreed, not missing a beat. the boy cleared his throat, fingers nervously tapping along the edge of the counter. "i just want what's best for you, you know? and i'm sorry if i come off like a dick sometimes because of it, and i don't even realize, but i swear i'll start trying harder to just leave your problems to you."

you smiled gratefully at him, then furrowing your brows in confusion. "wait, if you didn't even like violet, then why'd you date her?"

neteyam froze in front of you, not knowing how to response. you paused, scared that you overstepped just before he sighed, meeting your eye.

"it's dumb, really. it was a part of lo'ak's stupid plan to get me to move on."

your heart skipped a beat, chest rising up and down with your breaths. "move on from who?" you carefully asked. from what you knew, you were the last person before violet who neteyam had been romantically involved with.

he stilled for a moment, letting your heart soar for just a split second at the mere thought that maybe, just maybe, he felt the same.

"from you."

FUN FACTS !

— kiri, lo'ak, and tsireya have a bet on who y/n will end up with and kiri was the only one who placed her bet on ao'nung

— neteyam legit sprinted up those stairs, off-season is hitting him like a truck rn cause he was WINDED

— ao'nung saw neteyam's car come in on his way out

—

taglist #1 / closed ! @n7ytiri @ilovejakesullysdick @possysblog @love-chx @stars4deku @evphology @afro-hispwriter @ydsm-29 @tsireyasgf @goldeneywa @doulcha @krazy-kattzz @fucksnow @squid4 @blairrrrrr @neteyamforlife @dreamtogether2000 @444lyra @ambria @cawi00 @calums-betch @powowowy @fadingpalacebonkpsychic @elegantkidfansoul @kolsmikaelson @mirikusashes @yukichan67 @goodiesinthecloset21 @netemoon @teyums @littlethingsinlife @coconut-dreamz @anm3mi @jjkclub @il0veheartz @liyahsocorro @drugs-for-memes @zendayaswrld101 @grierpilots @misscaller06 @lightskinloak @mommyneytiri @inluvwithneteyam @halibanana @iheartamajiki @ipoopedmypants47 @neigesprincess @lookiiheh @ghostjoohoney @ronalsgirl

[bloody-bee-tea]

IntiMarch 2024 Day 27 - In my shoes

The prompt for this was "I want to apologise"

Satoru won’t shut up. Yaga is talking and Satoru won’t shut up and Suguru can feel his blood starting to boil. It’s not always this bad—Satoru is not always talking this much and Suguru is usually much better at ignoring it, but today has been a bad day from the start and Suguru can barely make out Yaga’s words.

The headache that’s been bothering Suguru all morning is getting worse by the second, exacerbated by his anger and the constant noise in his ears and Suguru balls his hands into fists.

He just has to get through his lesson and then he can go hide in his room and ask Shoko to go ask Yaga for a run-down of today’s lesson and maybe something of it will even stick.

If only just Satoru would shut up.

In that moment Satoru’s arm snaps up and Yaga seems ready to strangle him. Suguru would help him, he thinks, and hangs his head in shame after that thought passes his mind.

It’s not right to think like that, Suguru knows, but he’s just so angry.

“Satoru, what is it?”

“Yaga-sensei,” Satoru seriously says and just that lets Suguru know that whatever comes out of his mouth next is going to be absolute bullshit. “Why do we have to learn this stupid, boring shit?” Satoru asks, putting his chin in his hand and blinking innocently at Yaga. “How is this history lesson going to help us exorcise curses?”

His eyes slide over to Suguru as if he’s waiting for him to agree with him, to egg him on like Suguru sometimes does, but today it’s enough to make Suguru snap.

“Will you shut up for once?” he hisses out and Satoru seems just as taken aback by his outburst than Yaga does.

Good thing Shoko isn’t here right now, she would probably be laughing at all three of them.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Satoru asks after he gets over his initial surprise and leans forward to poke Suguru’s forehead. “Did you wake up on the wrong side of bed today?”

“Fuck off,” Suguru snaps and slaps Satoru’s hand away. “Either get lost or be quiet, some of us are trying to listen here.”

“Didn’t know you’re such a model student,” Satoru huffs out and Suguru can see that he’s trying to hide how hurt he is by Suguru’s harsh words, but not everything is about Satoru and right now Suguru couldn’t care less. “This is all boring shit anyway.”

He’s just so angry and his head is hurting so much.

“You’re such a selfish bastard, you have no idea what it’s like for—” Suguru cuts himself off because he never wants Satoru to know any of this, never wants to let him know just how out of his depth he is here and so instead of continuing this pointless fight with Satoru he simply gets up and storms out of the classroom.

“Geto!” Yaga calls after him, and Suguru knows that he’ll probably be in big trouble for this later, but right now he doesn’t care.

His head hurts, his hands are shaking and he just needs to not be there for now.

He makes it halfway to his room before Satoru catches up to him, because of course he does.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Satoru loudly asks yet again, snatching Suguru’s elbow in his hand and forcing him to stop his retreat. “You’re not usually this quick to anger. And you don’t usually lash out at me like that.”

“Yeah and you’re not usually this much of an asshole,” Suguru shoots right back but the fight is already leaving him, and fast at that, exhaustion winning out over everything else.

He stuffs his still shaking hands into his pockets, wrangling his arm out of Satoru’s grip in the process.

“What do you want?” Suguru asks, much more subdued and he wishes he could teleport, too, if only to make it to his bed faster. Or maybe he should go see Shoko first, get something for his headache after all and then sleep the rest of the day away.

“What did you mean, I have no idea what it’s like?” Satoru wants to know. “What it’s like for who?”

“You really have no goddamn idea, do you? You’re such a privileged stupid asshole,” Suguru mutters, and he sees that same hurt pass over Satoru’s face and this time, Suguru feels bad about it.

It makes him mad that he feels bad about it, but he also knows that it’s unfair to simply expect Satoru to understand if he can’t even explain. After all, it’s more than obvious that Satoru can’t simply read his mind and understand him just like that.

“What it’s like for me,” Suguru finally says and even though they are in the middle of campus he simply sits down on the ground.

He’s exhausted down to the bones all of a sudden and he fears that his legs are not going to carry him for a moment longer, especially not if he has to have this conversation with Satoru now.

“I’m not from one of the big Clans, Satoru, I know you keep forgetting that, but I’m just a nobody. You have no idea how shitty my childhood was.”

“What do you mean?” Satoru asks, clearly trying for calm himself as he squats down next to Suguru. “Explain it to me.” He gently bumps their shoulders together, cautious, as if he’s afraid that Suguru is going to explode into his face again and the fear is not completely unwarranted with how today has been going.

“I can see curses, Satoru,” Suguru reminds him. “For you that was fine, that was to be expected because your Clan knows, your Clan can too. But my family can’t. No one in my village can. Now I know to hide it, I know how to look past them, how to pretend that I’m normal. I didn’t when I was three or four or five.”

Satoru sucks in a breath and even though Suguru guesses that Satoru understands now, he keeps going. It’s hard to stop, once he started.

“It really doesn’t go over too well when a three year old tells his parents all about the crazy things he sees, of all the little curses, the one that are harmless or the ones that scare the hell out of him. It doesn’t go over well at all.” Suguru lets out a bitter chuckle. “Every kid fears the monster in the closet but usually that’s just a figment of their imagination. Not so for me. I knew that there was something in the closet and under my bed and down the street and on the back of my mother. And there is no way to explain it, no way to make them understand and so they did what the thought they had to do.”

“What’s that?” Satoru asks even though he sounds very much as if he doesn’t want to know.

Suguru can’t even blame him. It must be so nice to come from a family who understands, who can explain.

“I’ve been scared out of my mind since I can think, Satoru. I was scared and I was told I was seeing things and then my parents put me on medication. And they did it early. By the time I was eight I was addicted. I was starting to believe people when they said that what I’m seeing is not real. It wasn’t until Yaga found me that I finally learned what’s really going on. I was fifteen then, Satoru.”

“Shit,” Satoru mutters and Suguru laughs slightly, because yeah. Shit.

“I’m off my meds now, obviously, but—Shoko is still monitoring me for withdrawal symptoms. She has to, because it’s still really bad most days,” Suguru admits and hangs his head, clenching his hands.

“The shaking—” Satoru starts and Suguru nods.

“It’s one of them. The frequent headaches, the mood swings—it’s all because of that.”

“Excuse me, I’d like to think that I’m able to irritate you all on my own, thank you very much,” Satoru huffs out and it’s so ridiculous, it’s so Satoru that Suguru laughs for real.

“You’d be right about that,” he agrees, because he thinks that even without that Satoru would drive him crazy on most days.

“You never—learned any of this stuff,” Satoru mutters when Suguru calmed down again and Suguru nods.

“I have no idea about most of the things Yaga talks about. I don’t know what’s going on most of the time, but especially when it comes to the history of curses and sorcerers. It’s all new to me.”

“And I’ve been acting like the spoiled brat I am because it’s all old news to me and I completely failed to think about how it must be for you,” Satoru whispers and smacks his forehead. “I simply assumed you grew up knowing as well because it’s unfathomable to me how you could not.”

“I get why you’d think that,” Suguru shrugs. “You’ve been kind of sheltered and that’s not your fault, but—yes. I didn’t even know you were a big deal in this world until Yaga took me aside on that very first day and explained it to me. I didn’t know there were established families or anything else. Hell, learning that there’s an entire school for people like me had me so floored and spent two days in bed, questioning my entire life.”

Those hadn’t been good days. There were a lot of what-if’s floating around Suguru’s mind those days and he came dangerously close to hating his parents, even though they did the only thing they thought was right, and everyone in this school, for not finding him sooner, for not having a more reliable system in place to find young sorcerers.

It had been a very bumpy start to his time here.

“Suguru, I’m—” Satoru starts and Suguru knows what he’s going to say, but he’s not ready to hear it.

“Shut it,” he mutters. “I’m just—I’m tired, Satoru. I’m going to go to bed.”

Satoru shuffles next to him and even though Suguru expects him to argue, Satoru only nods in the end.

“Alright. Do you need anything?”

“You can bring me dinner,” Suguru says and even though it’s meant to let Satoru know that he isn’t mad, he still can’t take Satoru’s huge, grateful smile as if he’s doing him a favour.

He has done nothing but be mean to Satoru today.

“I will,” Satoru promises and gets back up, holding his hand out for Suguru.

Suguru doesn’t hesitate to take it, shaking be damned, and he’s back on his feet a second later, Satoru pulling him up with ease.

“Go rest. I’ll bring your favourite later,” Satoru promises him and Suguru can’t help himself, he briefly leans in, rests his forehead on Satoru’s shoulder.

“Thanks,” he gets out, kind of choked up because Satoru is treating him carefully right now, but he doesn’t seem to be judging him and that’s really all Suguru can ask for.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier,” Suguru says, his voice muffled by Satoru’s uniform but he must hear him because he’s slapping the back of his head a moment later.

“Shut the hell up, I don’t want to hear it,” Satoru says, briefly scratching at Suguru’s scalp to ease the sting. “There’s nothing you have to apologise for.”

Suguru wants to argue, because he’s been a real ass, but he’s also tired so he only nods and forces himself to move away from Satoru.

“Later,” he says and stumbles a little bit when Satoru gives him a shove.

“Go sleep, idiot,” Satoru fondly says and Suguru is off to do exactly that.

~*~*~

He wakes up when Satoru barges into his room without so much as a cursory knock, carrying a tray of food and something else under his arms.

“What the hell,” Suguru grumbles, though he feels better and the headache is mostly gone, so he sits up, expectantly holding his hands out for the tray.

Satoru did promise him dinner after all.

“Like I promised,” Satoru says with a grin and plops it down in Suguru’s lap. “Your favourite.”

And it is; the smell instantly makes Suguru’s stomach grumble.

“I checked in with Shoko, too, she says sleeping and eating and drinking enough should suffice to get you back on your feet for today, if the symptoms don’t get worse. Did they get worse?” he asks and sits down in front of the bed, staring up at Suguru.

“No, they didn’t,” Suguru truthfully says and feels himself go a little bit hot when Satoru smiles brightly at him.

“Good. And then—” he says and gets the book he was also carrying with him “—there’s also this.”

He presents the book to Suguru as if it should tell him something but he can’t spot a title and on closer inspection it looks more like a notebook than an actual printed one.

“I wanted to apologise, so I made this,” Satoru says and hands the book over. “I wrote down everything I remember about the major Clans. Yaga still knows more than I do, probably, but this will serve as a great overview and for more in-depths questions you can always ask him, I already checked with him.”

“You—what?” Suguru chokes out and briefly flips through the pages.

Sure enough every page is filled with Satoru’s handwriting, detailing everything about the Clans he knows and which Suguru doesn’t and he’s embarrassed to admit that his eyes sting. It must have been a lot of work to write this all down today.

“You didn’t have to,” he whispers out and jolts when Satoru puts his arms on his lap and leans his head there, too, staring up at Suguru.

“I kind of had to. I was so thoughtless and I’m really sorry. I promise to behave in class from now on. And—you can always ask me, too, I know I don’t act like it but I do know my stuff. It’s why Yaga’s lessons are so boring to me but I will behave, for you.”

“Satoru,” Suguru gets out and puts the book aside to card his fingers through Satoru’s hair. “I’m sorry I kept this from you for so long, I shouldn’t have.”

“I shouldn’t have behaved like an ass, so I’d say we’re quits, how about that?” Satoru asks, his eyes curving up with his smile.

“Fair,” Suguru gets out and leans down until he can rest their foreheads together. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Satoru whispers. “For telling me. I know it can’t have been easy.”

He’s right about that; it had been easy telling Shoko and even Yaga, because for all that he likes them it doesn’t quite matter to him what they think. But Satoru matters and Suguru had been scared shitless that he’d think less of Suguru if he ever knew any of this.

Suguru really should have known that Satoru wouldn’t care.

“Satoru, I—”

“I know,” Satoru interrupts him and leans up, nudging their noses together. “Me, too,” he adds in a quiet voice and Suguru huffs out an amused laugh.

He should have known that even this would be easy, with Satoru.

“Now, I’ll kiss you for real if you eat,” Satoru then says and Suguru lets out a long-suffering sigh.

“You’re insufferable,” he says, though he does reach for his food.

By now he’s starving, so it’s not even as if he needs Satoru’s incentive, though he’s not going to say no to it, that’s for sure.

“And you love me like that,” Satoru says with a bright grin and Suguru can’t believe that he’s right, but by god, is he right.

“I do. Thank you.”

“Suguru!” Satoru exclaims, going bright red in the face. “Stop thanking me! I’m still grovelling, so just stop. Eat, goddamit,” he grumbles and Suguru hides his smile with his food.

Satoru doesn’t move from his place at Suguru’s feet until he’s devoured everything Satoru brought him and even then he only climbs on the bed to put the book in Suguru’s lap and starts going through the first chapter.

Suguru gladly follows along, but he also steals a kiss for every page they get through and soon enough the book is forgotten.

And it turns out Suguru doesn’t have to steal any kisses at all, because Satoru is more than happy to give him as many as he wants.

[pastelpousay]

Okay so Ik I should do something Halloween themed but I’m unprepared and I literally wrote my ass off all of yesterday so I’ve lost the ability to give a damn

Anywho time to Rant about TENS

Also TW FOR TALKS OF SENSITIVE SUBJECTS ‼️

(BTW IF YOU LIKE THE SHOW IM NOT UPSET ITS FUNNY BUT THATS LITERALLY IT I’m just here to hate on it because hating on it is so incredibly fun like 🙈)

Okay so…do I like the show? Uhm ngl this show is really good to watch with a friend and just straight up dog on because of how bad it is 💀. Like the animation and art is ass sort, the plot is reused to the point the order of the eps don’t even matter bro. The plot doesn’t even matter tbh because kuzco always learns the same lesson and forgets it the next episode or something like damn bitch are you dumb or do have amnesia?? 💀 he’s actually such an asshole. the racism and sexism doesn’t suprise me and the supposed gr00ming…..ehhhhh….after the first episode…the way he talk to Malina made me uncomfortable 💀 ME THE VIEWER. Like it fest so wrong on so many levels like stop😭 I’m not even jealous I would have liked them had the first ep played out differently than it did💀😭😭. ALSO THATS NOT HOW KUZCO WOULD ACT IF HE HAD FEELINGS FOR SOMEONE LIKE DUDE. Like why is he freak. Ik it’s a spin off but like can you at least make it accurate 💀😭😭. This is after the events of the movie Ik his whole character isn’t gonna change but like also kuzco is ass at flirting and I don’t think he would act so confidently if he actually liked someone like how he’s supposed to like Malina 😭 I feel like he’d be more nervous because it’s not an emotion or feeling he’s felt before or much of. My kuzco would literally be stuttering, meanwhile TENS kuzco has his tounge out looking at Malina. My kuzco would be ass at flirting, but not to the point it would be borderline predatory 💀, my kuzco can take a hint from the one he loves, because he can actually view them as an equal, not continuously flirt with someone who’s acting as though they are not interested. They rushed things so hard with kuzco and Malina to the point it’s actually bothering me I would have liked them but the money hungry bigbacks at Disney fucked that shit up. The only thing good about this show is the humor, but not even because it’s actually funny but based on how completely up surd it is 💀. Like bro. TELL ME WHY DID YZMA IN ONE EPISODE LITERALLY TURN KRONK INTO A LLAMA TO EAT KUZCOS HOMEWORK 💀 he could have just eaten it in his human form 💀 or better yet have just stolen it so he actually wouldn’t have had an explanation at all💀💀💀 but no all these extra steps for what 💀. Also Pacha design is so ugly in the show it’s actually upsetting 💀 lie girl what the fuck is that this Mf is built like a lego now. OKAY BUT BAKC TO THE UPSURDITIES IKE SEEN LIKE CLIPS ON THE SHOW AND THE AMOUNT OF TIMES IVE SEEN KUZCO IN UNDERWEAR (I think the first episode he literally showed malina his underwear 💀💀 like dude I actually do not feel safe) OR HES SEEN NAKED OR WITHOUT PROPER CLOTHING LIKE DUDE 💀💀 and in the first couple episodes alone like girl- sorry I love him but I don’t wanna see him shower bro stop it. Like the show is only funny without context like bro and with the context it’s like popping a laxative and hot gluing ur ass shut like I feel like somethings wrong whenever I watch it 💀💀. Like girl. Also I’m sorry why are they trying to make kuzco be all smooth with Malina HE IS NOT SMOOTH LIEK LIL BRO BRO NO NO NO.💀

Okay I’m done ranting now 💗🙈 AGSHSHDH again if you like this show that’s fine, I like the idea of a Rayco TENS au but that’s literally it 💀 its funny and fun to hate on but that’s literally just my impression of the show so far so yea!!

[ollieoliver910]

Under Night In Birth: Sys Celes (The Last Game I Will Set High Expectations For)

I need to get this off my chest because how French Bread rumored UNI2 as a "sequel" still bothers me to this day.

The reason why I bring this up and why I feel it's important to discuss is because a lot of people fall into this trap of setting high expectations for a game that causes your brain to run wild with imagination.

When UNI2 was rumored to be a sequel, I thought that this game was getting a complete makeover from the ground up. An anime opening, new sprites, English voice acting, a story mode that lets more characters interact with each other. I put too much faith in this game ever developing their characters further. So much so that I REALLY wanted Hyde and Gordeau to get SOMETHING. They don't even talk a single time throughout any of their games (Though Gord does talk to Linne and Seth...huh.)

Since I write in my free time. Sometimes I go into "What if" mode when I feel characters can be developed further or can have an interesting relationship if the creators ever decide to explore it. Since parents rarely exist in UNI2 (other than maybe one or two exceptions), I liked the idea of Hyde looking up to Gordeau like a father figure since they are very similar in personality. To be fair, I always had a love for the "spiritually adopted" plot when it came to any type of story (This is what I call it unless there is an official name for this plot out there.) Anime seems to use this plot more than most. Hell, I'm pretty sure One Piece is infamous for this, but other than the redemption arc or enemies to lovers plot, the spiritually adopted plot is one of my favorite stories if done well.

I think the only reason why I felt that relationship could work between Hyde and Gord was because of BBTAG. BBTAG's story mode is the only time they are allowed to talk to each other...EVER, and it's not even in their own game and that drives me BONKERS! Things like Gordeau calling Hyde kid before fighting Blake and Makoto only for Hyde to ask Gordeau if they can stay together... I hate reading into stuff like this because it ends up with me yelling at my TV screen "Expand on it, expand on it! God damn it you have a good idea here! AAAARRGH!"

I won't go too much more into my problems with UNI2, but one of my biggest grievances when it comes to writing in general is watching or playing as a character that either should have been the main character or had the potential to be expanded on so much more. Think Diamant from Engage or Jotaro from Stardust Crusaders (I haven't watched past that so if I'm wrong, please let me know.) Diamant, for example, gets so much strong writing and character development that I felt he should have been the main protagonist instead of Alear while Jotaro has the opposite effect where, as the main character, he gets very little development, but clearly has themes centered around his family and powers that could have been expanded upon, but aren't. Stuff like this drives me up a wall where I can see the potential to get a better story from a character than what we got...but it doesn't happen. That's why fanfics exist!...I just wish it was the real thing sometimes.

Anyway, sorry for my rambling here. I definitely don't expect a lot of people to read this all the way through, but it's here if you want to see it. Lesson about not setting high expectations for a game finally learned. I hope you guys have a lovely summer.

[yanderecrazysie]

How about a scenerio where Oikawa has a huge ass crush on his Spanish teacher and purposely disrupts her lessons and acts really disrespectful for her attention and pretends to be failing the class and yn assumes he's misbehaving due to him struggling so offers him extra lessons and then he kidnaps her or something (Kinda stupid Ik lol)

Not stupid at all! But I have a funny story about this request- the notification cut off early and all I saw was “How about a scenerio where Oikawa has a huge ass” and I was like “Excuse me???” But then I clicked on it and read the whole thing and couldn’t stop laughing because it wasn’t a troll request after all!

Title: Lesson

Pairings: Oikawa Tooru x Reader

WARNINGS: Yandere themes, teacher-student “relationship” (one-sided)

Summary: Oikawa isn’t your model student, to put it lightly. But extra lessons may prove to be your worst mistake yet.

Part 2: here

lesson

/noun/

a period of learning or teaching.

“Seriously, you’ve been teaching our class for half the year, and the only Spanish word I’ve learned so far is ‘bonjour’!”

Familiar raucous laughter broke out among the third years, a couple of boys even giving high fives to their class clown. You had to bite back your frustration and keep your fake smile glued in place because that’s what teachers do.

You didn’t bother correcting him. Even if Oikawa was failing your class, you at least knew that he knew “bonjour” wasn’t Spanish. It was just him acting up again, like always.

Impatiently, you waited for the laughter to die down, before you continued your lesson, acting like he’d never interrupted in the first place. But Oikawa is quick to speak up again, placing verb conjugations on the sidelines once more.

“No one cares that ‘jugar’...” you winced at the hard “j” in his pronunciation, “means juice, Teach’.” It didn’t. You wanted to scream.

That smug smile on his face as a chorus of girls giggled behind him made you lose your cool.

“Just because you’re failing this class, Oikawa, doesn’t mean you can take everyone else down with you.”

Whoops. That slipped out. You probably shouldn’t be so harsh to a student, but the chorus of “oooh”s made you bite back a grin. 

Oikawa’s smug smile had vanished and been replaced with something akin to a pout, “Maybe you should do your job and help me not fail your class. A student failing looks much worse on the teacher, doesn’t it?”

You wanted to explain that everyone else was passing so, no, it’d look worse on him as a student. You wanted to explain that you were doing your job and he was the one making it hard for you to do so.

But he had a good point. You hadn’t thought of tutoring him before.

Maybe… maybe all this acting out was because he was insecure about his troubles learning Spanish. Maybe if he was doing better in the class, he’d shut that obnoxious mouth of his.

You’d talked to the other teachers about him and they all said the same. “He’s a good kid. Quiet, respectful, and a quick learner.”

Perhaps he was frustrated because this was the one class he couldn’t catch on to. Maybe, if he had a nudge in the right direction, he’d be that quiet, respectful student every other teacher saw in him.

“We’ll talk about it after class.” You said simply, before continuing on.

It concerned you a little that his smile was so victorious.

Oikawa was finally quieter for the rest of class, though there wasn’t much left of it. Afterwards, he came up to your desk almost shyly to discuss tutoring. You couldn’t use the classroom, since it turned into a club room after classes, nor could you use the library, since it was for students only and you had to be silent there.

“I have volleyball practice and, after that, my parents expect me to be at home, so I can’t go over to your house.” Oikawa played the part of looking sad and innocent, hoping you’d come to the right conclusion on your own.

“Would your parents mind if I came over to your house?”

There’s the money.

“I’ll ask them, but I’m sure that’s fine,” Oikawa gushed, “Thank you, Teach’, I really mean it.”

Play the part. Draw her in.

You smiled, genuinely. Not like those fake smiles you plaster on your face all the time, “I hope this will help, Oikawa.”

He flashes his teeth at her, hopefully dazzling her with his smile, “I think it will.”

After school, you headed to the address Oikawa had given you. The house was nice, but smaller than you had expected for a family to live in. You had taught his sister a few years earlier, but perhaps she had moved out by now.

You knocked on the door, and it opened on its own. Immediately, you got horror movie vibes and almost took a step back. 

“It’s open!” You could hear Oikawa’s voice echo through the empty house. You stepped inside, noting that it was very dimly lit. 

It was only after you’d thought “I wonder why there weren’t any cars in the driveway? Are his parents even home or did he lie to me?” that the door slammed shut behind you, electronically locking with a thunderous clicking sound.

Instinctually, you threw yourself at the door, desperately trying to open it to no avail. The footsteps that sounded behind you only renewed your panicked efforts.

Finally, when the footsteps were too close for comfort, you spun around, ready to fight. Oikawa stood a little ways in front of you, smirking as he twirled a remote in his hand.

“Welcome home, Teach’.”

[the12thnightproject]

12 Lies and 3, 4, 6, 14, 15? :o

Hi Lorei!

Thank you for the ask! I can never talk too much about "Twelve Lies..."

3. Favorite Line of Narration... From Chapter 42, "In the Weeds" because it encapsulates one of the big lessons Katsuko had to learn for character growth...

Toshiie loved his wife, his family, the things he had built here in Ikuno. That was evident in everything he did. That didn’t mean he didn’t have regrets. Nor did it mean that he would ever get over his captain. Maybe we’re not meant to get over people. Maybe we’re meant to take with us the things we learned, the joyful memories, and use the pain to become kinder versions of ourselves.

4. Favorite Line of Dialogue...

This is from Chapter 4... and it represents the moment that Katsuko (who is still disguised as a young man at this point) begins to fall for Shingen, and the moment that Shingen begins to take an interest in training Katsu as strategist:

When I re-opened my eyes, Shingen was still silently regarding me. I wondered if he had ever – well, that was a ridiculous thought. He was the leader of the Takeda clan – he had to have killed many in battle. “Does it get easier?”

Yukimura shook his head and responded first. “No. Never has.” He cleared his throat a couple of times, and gulped down his tea.

But Shingen had a different answer. “Killing? Yes. You learn to put what must done in one part of your mind, separate from the you that lives through every day, walled away from your heart. You have to, or one day you’ll no longer be able to function. But it’s still within you.” He tapped his chest. “It’s still within you.”

I understood. I was going to have to live with this. I was going to have to learn how to live with it.

Shingen sighed, and raked his hair out of his eyes. “I won’t insult you by telling you this man was a criminal and probably has harmed or killed many others. You know that. You also now know what it’s like to kill and that will weigh upon you.”

It did. I appreciated the fact that he didn’t tell me to get over it, or offer a cliched platitude like, ‘war is hell, kid.’ He was treating me like the young man he thought me to be – and I needed to respond accordingly. “Yes, sir, it does.”

His eyebrows lifted at my return to formality. “I would have respected you less if it didn’t bother you.”

6. What makes this fic special/different from all my other fics?

It's my first completed longfic (and it is very long, at 150,000 words). I didn't realize I could write that much, or finish something this long. Also, Shingen is my favorite Ikesen Character, so I wrote something that I would want to read, and it makes me happy whenever I revisit a chapter and recall the feeling I had while I was writing it.

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

Not especially? I mean, I did want readers to appreciate Shingen, and see what I see in him, but more than that, I wanted people to enjoy it. Also, I wanted people to like my OC and enjoy her point of view. But initially, I just wanted to write something entertaining.

15. What did I learn from writing this fic?

I learned how to have fun writing again - I had the worst case of writer's block in my screenwriting, but while I was writing this, I also managed to write a spec pilot (and have written a couple more since then). I realized that it is possible to write a story without being completely certain what is going to happen next, and I was reminded that creating and editing are two different parts of my brain, which should be used at different times in the writing process.

[emmys-grimoire]

I love Solomon. But when he told us that we mustn't talk about the future, to avoid a kind of butterfly effect...yeah. It's makes sense.

But- He's doing more "changing future acts" than us 🙃 Like, the sole fact he introduce us as his apprentice is as itself can cause many paradox. He also meets most of the brothers centuries -even millenials- before he did it in our present, like Asmo for example. At this point I think the timeline is already twisted enough without us...

I'm also questioning what's happen to the original "Past Solomon". Did he fuse with Present Solomon like MC in lesson 16 of the first game ? In that case, if he did not have some mysterious scheme when he came and told us the truth about everything, didn't he took something like, a big risky decision...? He told us he don't even remember why Barbatos have a grudge against him at this time, because he lived a long time. What if he did some something in the human world after the Celestial War he don't remember doing and change the future ?

And, if the Past and Present Solomon didn't fuse to avoid this "I didn't do what I did in the past because I forgot I did it", we actually have two Solomon in the timeline. So. Past Solomon learning is the human world he is in the Devildom with his non-existent apprentice is a whole comedy in my head.

Well. Time travel and paradox are hard topics and can depends on what kind of time rule the creator made. I know I bothering with things that can be explain by "You going to far in the reflection" but like travel offer so much possibility that I can't help myself. (And, I would love to tease Solomon about this. "Yeah. I must not risk to change the timeline to the point I wouldn't even being born. But what are you doing ?")

Aaaand. Everything could be explained with a little time loop in these events and some erased memories .

Mc time travel to OBN -> Doing our stuff in OBN and be back at our time -> Our existence is erased from memories -> The bros and everyone of the past live their life like if we didn't meet -> Mc coming to the exchange program and living OB events -> Mc time travel to OBN

So it would mean that everything we do in Nightbringer was already did. And the bros of the future just forgot.

The erased memories trump card is useful when dealing with immortal beings and time travel.

(Perhaps this had an answer in the lesson-A after lesson 7. I'm still debloking them-)

Yeah Obey Me! does a terrible job keeping their time travel rules consistent, which is why I'm not a fan of them using it again. They established in Lesson 16 that Barbatos can literally just eliminate and merge timelines as he likes so any time paradoxes are trivial at best. They made him way too OP for this universe and that'll be hard to roll back or justify retroactively changing.

I don't think Barbatos did any memory altering. That's not in his wheelhouse.

But I don't think there's been any merging yet, either. There are two Solomons running around as far as I know, but the past Solomon just simply isn't in the Devildom at this point in time. I wouldn't be surprised if Solomon knows exactly what he did to Barbatos in the past -- even if the exact details are foggy -- and he's just not terribly forthcoming to us about it. If he was merged with his past self, those memories would be more fresh, not less.

I do wonder what happens when/if past Solomon tries to summon Barbatos now, though, or if he suddenly has a pact with Asmodeus now that he can't explain. It's clear that Solomon expects what we may do here could alter the present timeline -- and it's dumb for him to expect there to be no changes -- but he should know he has Barbatos in his back pocket, too.

Honestly I don't think I'm going to even try keeping track of it all...

[emmersreads]

My Top 5 Worst Books of 2023

I read 119 books in 2023. Some of the were great, most of them were fine, but some of them were real stinkers. Here are my top five worst books of the year.

This year I didn't read any books that I expected to be bad. Each of these is a book with an interesting premise or perspective but that bungles the execution so badly that I hated the time I spent on it.

You can also read the whole thing on my blog!

Honourable Mention:

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath - Moniquill Blackgoose

You can feel extremely strongly about the themes in your book and still churn out absolute pure dogshit. This entry foreshadows a consistent theme to this year’s worst list but only places as an honourable mention because it’s the only book this year that I dnf’ed. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath takes the intriguing premise in the 18th century colonization of east coast North America but also everyone has dragons and then mangles it with the colonizers being a weird combination of the English and the Vikings. The novel interrogates the idea of ‘civilizing’ the indigenous people but without the underlying motivations of Christian and European supremacy and manifest destiny the messaging is confusing and weak. In addition to a coherent message, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath also lacks multidimensional characters and any plot at all. I dnf’ed at 85% completion when I realized that the book wasn’t going to generate a plot at that late hour.

Fifth Place:

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma - Claire Dederer

I began Monsters with high hopes. There is a lot of meat on the bone of how to love art by the truly reprehensible. Unfortunately it falls victim to a problem shared by all memoirs: in order to be good, the subject has to be interesting. Claire Dederer’s genuinely pretty good discussion of Woody Allen and Roman Polanski devolves into condescending platitudes about why teens like J.K. Rowling, genuinely reprehensible comments about whether getting an abortion makes a woman a monster, and finally into outsourcing her final conclusion to Pearl Cleage’s Mad at Miles. You might as well just read that one instead. Some of Dederer’s commentary is bad because it is poorly researched (Nabokov, J.K. Rowling), but what really bothered me about this book was the nauseating suggesting that women’s monstrousness is exclusively their behaviour as parents, as if being a parent is the primary imperative, at least for women. But else could be described as ‘bad motherhood’? Suicide? Yes! Having an abortion? Absolutely! Not devoting full attention and effort to your children at every moment of your life? Why, you’re just like Woody Allen. The inclusion of some arguments are heinous and the exclusion of others undermines the value of the discussions that do scan. Where’s Kanye West? Surely there’s more to his career than a few lyrics about how his fans don’t know the read him… surely… Sure, committing suicide is super duper monstrous because you’re basically abandoning your kids (heavy sarcasm implied), but what of women like Nicki Minaj? At least for me, a big lesson of the recognition of Problematic Artists is that we don’t actually need to hear from everyone in the name of fairness. Dederer should learn that too.

Fourth Place:

The Idiot - Elif Bartuman

Spicy Hot Take Alert: The Idiot by Elif Bartuman sucks and I am judging you for liking it. I want to be clear about this: I did put this book on the worst list rather than the blandest specifically because it’s so popular. This book is all the more unbearably pretentious because it has nothing to say. It’s fatally boring and exhaustingly incurious. I’ve seen it described on bookstagram as about ‘the formation of the self’ and I suppose corporate middle managers need a formation of the self too. That doesn’t make it book-worthy. Also what the hell are ya’ll talking about this book being relatable?? When I was eighteen I knew fucking everything. Sorry, but I’m different.

Third Place:

The Cheerleaders - Kara Thomas

The Cheerleaders was the first book I finished in 2023 but the memory is not distant enough. For me this was a failure because it seems to hate its own genre. What is the point of a girl detective mystery where it turns out there was no interesting conspiracy behind the deaths and the protagonist doesn’t even pursue the case exhaustively enough to find this out. Sure, maybe its more realistic to suggest that a girl grieving the too-early death of her older sister might be making things up, but I’m not in this genre for the realism. The Cheerleaders doesn’t feel like it has anything interesting to say about subverting the conspiracy-murder, just that it wanted to have a subversion and then couldn’t figure out how to execute that, resorting instead to a deus ex omniscient narrator. It’s like if instead of Sherlock Holmes solving the case through deduction, Arthur Conan Doyle emerged from behind the curtain and told you to go fuck yourself. Read the full review on my website!

Second Place:

Disorientation - Elaine Hsieh Chou

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang was the darling of 2023 but it is not the first novel about a yellowface-ing author who fools the white literary establishment by selling them exactly the kind of bland and easily digestible Asian stories they are comfortable hearing. But it’s a good thing Yellowface did come out because Disorientation needed more time in the fucking oven. Like Yellowface this book attempts a comedic tone, but it chooses pure cringe comedy goofiness over irony and as a consequence rather than being a humourous reflection of Shit White People Do it’s more Making Up A Guy to Get Mad At. It’s greatest asset is an attempt at a discussion of the intriguing topic of sexual politics. Since white men demonstrably do fetsishize Asian women, is it possible to have an individual relationship that is not based on fetishization? Unfortunately, Disorientation doesn’t actually have anything to say about it and so just wibbles along to a nothing of an ending. It’s a scream of rage to be sure, but not all screams of rage are coherent. This is the second entry on this list that undermines its message because it couldn’t bear to kill a few of its darlings, but not the last!

Worst Book of 2023:

The Bone Witch - Rin Chupeco

We live in an era where ‘wish-fulfillment’ and ‘self-indulgent’ are no longer automatic condemnations, which is all well and good for the people writing them but what of me, the discerning reader? One detects great love and passion in this book but unfortunately that’s no replacement for writing ability. The Bone Witch is haunted above all by the knowledge that the author must have a truly colossal lore bible for this thing. It feels like every chapter the book treats itself of an extended tangent about the political system of one of its half-dozen fantasy nations, none of which are actually important to this book, and damningly, none of which are even well explained. As you might imagine, this leaves precious little time for boring things like plot or characters. The plot is little more than disconnected scenes that the author clearly thought would be cool but didn’t think about how they would link together, meaning that the last quarter acceleration to the climax is occupied by a sitcom b-plot ass arc about helping a friend get into the very special dance recital. The characters are even worse with none of them rising beyond an outlining epithet: angsty protagonist, broody love interest, gay best friend. The attempt at a dark and moody tone is childish and goofy. I found the Geisha theming to be overdone and appropriative, and the use of gay characters to be offensive. The only time the book threatens to have promise is with its beginning, where the protagonist accidentally raises her brother from the dead; however, The Bone Witch is quick to inform us that this changed nothing about him or about their relationship, wouldn’t we rather think about how stylish kimonos are?

[liaromancewriter]

Hello there ☺️ I don’t know if you’ve already talked about this or have a fic where you address this issue, but here it goes anyways:

What do you think about the whole Mitch situation? We know that he was taking advantage of Sienna and she just couldn’t take it anymore and let it all out in front of everyone. Then, we see how the whole hospital starts to make fun of Mitch and even Sienna seems to think he deserves the treatment he is getting for being lazy, not taking his work or the patients seriously, and taking advantage of her good nature. Afterwards, we find out that Mitch left Edenbrook because of the bullying he was receiving and we see that Sienna feels bad about it.

This storyline always makes me feel conflicted. I think that there’s an option where MC can say that this isn’t high school or something and no one should be bullied and Sienna gets upset to see MC standing up for Mitch. I may be wrong about this since it’s been a while since the last time I replayed these chapters.

I know Mitch totally deserved to be called out and part of Sienna’s arc is to learn how to stand up for herself before it gets to the point where she cannot longer control her emotions. It happened with Wayne in book 1 and again with Mitch in book 2. Different types of relationship with each, but both were mistreating her for an extended period of time. But I’ll say that it was surprising to see a character that is as kind as Sienna be vindictive for a hot minute. What do you think about this? Does it align with your version of her?

Overall, it made little sense that the interns in second year performed so poorly. In book 1, everyone was a stellar intern and had to deal with complex cases alone. Sienna had to tell patients that they were terminal on her intern year. MC and Jackie used the defibrillator on a patient on their first day and were successful. We were told Edenbrook only accepted the best of the best only to have such lackluster interns on the second book 😐 I understand it was some kind of new program, but it bothered me regardless haha

Thank you and my best wishes for you 💖

Hello, Fellow Sienna Fan!

I have so many Sienna stories that I want to write. She's practically my second MC. But, the fandom is so dead now that I wonder, who even cares about those fics.

Writing about her relationship with Mitch is definitely on the list -- all the things we don't see in canon. While I haven't written a fic about it before, I included Sienna's thoughts and feelings about the situation in my original Maxenna series in Part 2 and end of Part 3.

Sienna was conflicted about what happened with Mitch. She put up with a lot because she genuinely thought she was helping him. After everything that happened with Cassie and Danny, she lost her patience with his laziness, but more than that, she found her voice.

While Cassie didn't agree with the bullying, she supported Sienna in public but let her know how she felt in private. Sienna knew she'd gone far too, but all the anger she felt, the helplessness during the poison attack, came out. I don't think it was vindictiveness from Sienna at all; rather her eyes finally opened to what was happening around her. Life was too short to put up with someone who didn't respect medicine or was willing to learn.

In my hc, it was almost 7 or 8 months into residency when the showdown with Mitch happened. (I believe the timeline in canon is likely close to that). Sienna always felt guilty about him leaving because she knew the bullying was her fault. She also felt that he didn't take his job seriously.

We know from canon that Mitch felt inadequate and covered it up with his attitude. But he didn't make that confession until after. So, as far as Sienna was concerned, he was not serious about being a doctor.

One of the lessons from each book is that medicine is hard, it's not predictable and requires fortitude to survive in that career. In book 1, all of the interns faced hard choices. In book 3, it's about adversity from within and without, and learning to compromise so that you don't lose right of the big picture.

In book 2, the residents become mentors to the next crop of interns and it's time to step up and lead. It's not that the interns were bad; the lesson we were expected to take, I believe, is that doctors are only as good as those who train them. Harper Emery tells Aurora the same thing. MC is good because they learned from Ethan Ramsey. And yet, despite everything, mistakes happen because medicine is uncertain.

Thanks for the ask. I could go on and on, but I won't lol

--------

Character Asks: @bluebelle08 @cariantha @crazy-loca-blog @coffeeheartaddict2 @lucy-268 @jerzwriter @lady-calypso @quixoticdreamer16 @rookiemartin @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction

[scribeforchrist-blog]

Humble Position

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

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+ James 1:16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters

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VERSE OF THE DAY

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+ Philippians 2:7-8 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

=====================

** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I AM HUMBLE

I AM ACCEPTING HIS INVITATION

I AM STRONG

I AM NOT PRIDEFUL

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READ TIME: 7 Minutes & 54 Seconds

======================

THOUGHTS:

=====================

    When I was younger, I worked as a supervisor at a video store, and I loved it. After a while, the job didn’t work out how I wanted it to, so I started looking for work at other local video stores, but they all wanted to hire me as just a cashier and not as supervisor.

At the time, I wasn't very humble, and to be transparent, I didn’t want to be a cashier; I wanted to be a supervisor or a team lead. Finally, I had to accept the role of a cashier, and I wasn’t happy. I showed it a lot because I thought I was better than a cashier; as I gotten older, I realize my attitude could’ve been better, and how I handled certain situations could’ve been better, but it wasn’t. I couldn’t get over the point of being a supervisor now as just a cashier, and it bothered me in more ways than one. I realize now that he could’ve been preparing me to do something better and greater, but I was so stuck on what I wanted to do that I didn’t see it.

  See, Christ didn’t have this problem. He was king and decided to come down and take the position of a humble slave. As a human being, he left every privilege to be here with us to show us an example of humility. Some of us aren’t humble in any way. Look at me. As I grew older and gave more of myself to God, the Holy Spirit showed me what I should’ve done. Jesus was so humble.

   John 13:5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel wrapped around him.

      He even washed his disciples' feet one by one. He didn’t care; he wanted to show them what it meant to be a servant, and a servant is always willing. Do you have a willing spirit? Do you have an obeying spirit?

   Verse 14-17 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

   He said, "Do you see what I did? Do this." Many of us don’t want to be servants, and we talked about how many wants to be always in front, never in the back, but God wants us where we are: servants. Many of us haven’t started our calling because he's waiting for you to be obedient, he's waiting for you to follow, and he's waiting for us to show we can be what he was, which is humble.

      We go through different situations to show us how to be humble, we go through different situations to show us how to be what Christ wants, but often time, we go through the same situation but with different people because we haven’t learned our lesson, ask God are you trying to teach me to be humble, ask him how can I be more like you that’s my prayer every day on the podcast not just for my listeners but for me too, teach me, Christ, how to be more like and to have the same mindset as you.

  Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

  Jesus didn’t come to take over; he came to serve and to be a ransom for our sins; he came to save us from our life of sin; what’s the most powerful thing I will say is for him to be king and to come as a servant to show us how to live and then to save us from our life of sins he seen me and knew I needed a savior he knew I needed love. He knew I needed my life spared from the lake of fire; he gave me that opportunity to have a life I never would’ve had on my own. A lot of us don’t get how big it is or how amazing that is, but for him to say I know Lui and everyone else will needs this. I will give myself up for her and everyone else to have freedom; it fills me with joy.

  2 Corinthians 7:14 If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land

  This is what he wants us to do; he wants us to humble ourselves and turn from our ways and seek him with our whole heart, and then we will hear from him and be forgiven of our sins, humble ourselves, and say I know I sin. Still, I need Jesus; we all need Jesus; it’s not a person walking on this earth who can make it without him; a lot of us try to live our lives without him. We don’t want to admit we can’t do it, but humble yourselves and say, Father, I have messed up, but I need you, and he will save you.

  ***Today, we learned how Jesus was king, and he humbled himself and became a servant for us; we also learned how arrogance can stop our blessing and halt our destiny from coming forth. The Lord wants us to have everything we desire and more, but as long as we are prideful, we will keep having problems.

  Philippians 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

  He gave his life for us; he was humble; he didn’t come here, and in all his glory, he came here as a baby and went through his life in human form so we can know how to carry ourselves when tough times come he showed us how to respond to people that are rude with grace, he showed us how to take insults from others and how to ignore them when they do it, he showed us how to be kind and compassionate, and taught us how to pray, see his life had value. Everything he did here was to show us how to better, but if we don’t read our word, we will miss it all; Jesus wants us to know that through it all, be humble and accept his invitation to everlasting life, we can reject it by our actions, or we can accept it with our actions today accept his call and walk in the spirit. ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

======================

PRAYER

======================

Heavenly Father, we thank you for everything; help us be humble. Help us to seek you and change our ways of doing everything ;lord, we love you so much and thank you for everything. Lord, help us to turn from our ways and to be more like you. Lord, we are sorry for what we have done and ask you to help us walk in the spirit each day. Lord, we praise you for everything , please give us understanding of your word today in Jesus' Name Amen

======================

REFERENCES

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+ Mark 6:34 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

 

+ Proverb 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom

 

+ 1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you

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FURTHER READINGS

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 Proverbs 25

Exodus 3

Psalm 87

SOS 4

======================

[jayisgayandtrans]

The Letter T

Let’s get something straight,

I’m not

Or at least, that’s a situation in question

But that’s not what I’m here for, you see

The acronym LGBT has a terrific little tail that everyone tends to trip over

And the conversations that transpire when I attempt to try the closet door

Leave me frequently swept under the rug

Maybe I’m just a little lost in translation

But they should know that identity is not orientation

And it can be tricky to articulate, so I don’t mind the extra explanation

But I’m telling you there’s a tipping point where you can’t expect me to take it

To tally up the talks I’ve had tearing apart the phrase

“So, genderfluid is like another word for bisexual, then, right?”

Because there’s already this his-and-hers internal tug-of-war

So tying in other types of ignorance just gets tiring at times

And trying again and trying again and again to get the point across

Leads me down a tangled train of thought that runs off the tracks in unclear tangents

Because conversations transition without the intended Amendments

Because these transcripts would transcend the usual transfer of data

Into transgressions and obsessions with more than I’m able to

Confirm or confer without temperamental reactions

Feeling entirely translucent overlooking their infractions

Wondering why more words aren’t composed in a way that allows them

To be transposed to neutrality or at least farther from

Specific definitions testing how gendered things can get

Wondering why I don’t make any sense yet

Let me be perfectly queer

The acronym LGBT has a tetrad attraction detailing at least part of this

Just a trifle of understanding if you’re looking to comprehend it

And if you don’t care to learn then don’t bother to ask

But take some time from your day and I’ll try to make it fast

Go ahead and interrogate, I don’t mind all that much

Whatever trips your trigger, as long as it’s not pointed at us

I can’t speak on behalf of every transgender teen

But if you don’t know a word, I can tell you what I mean

I can text you a trillion terms to absorb

Or trim down the lesson to the basics if you’re bored

But don’t tell me that pronouns are a hassle to learn

When they catch in the throats of those just waiting Their turn

To stop hiding their tears and be treated the same

Teaching one person at a time until the world hears their true name

Don’t expect trophies, but I’ll give you my thanks

Don’t tease us about the clothes that make our spines and souls ache

I want to wear this letter T like a cross from my neck

Saying the prefix trans- means across and I like it like that

Traversing the spectrums and binaries all mixed

Transcontinental, transatlantic, transfixed

By the beauty in boys and the glamour in girls

But mostly the neithers and boths in this world

Don’t tell me it’s a transient, temporary tale

Or that I’m totally enamoured with getting off the most followed trail

I’m taking back traumas and tense muscles and taunts

Until tentative trespassers give us what we want

A presence, a voice, and all human rights

It shouldn’t be a privilege to feel safe at night

Don’t tiptoe around troubles, just stand with us here

Add a voice until we trumpet our triumphs and cheers

Take my hand, hear my voice

Listen, learn something new

Because LGBT has a cross and

Cross my heart

I’m with you

[ac-liveblogs]

Hi, this is FGO recent player + Genshin disillusioned anon! I finished Camelot a few days ago & I can’t help but compare how Camelot vs Sumeru uses allies. In Camelot, our allies have personal reason to oppose Lion King, reflected in their decision. Not so much in Sumeru. It reads less of “we save Nahida because of personal belief/reason” and more of “we save Nahida because She Is Right.” I haven’t bought its emotional beat the first time but comparing them highlights Genshin Writing Issue (1/2)

What FGO is doing here is pretty much Basic Writing 101 but Genshin does not even do that? An attempt was barely made, and that’s me being generous. I want to be interested in the characters but the game does not even give a shit. And fandom eats that? I do not get it, at all, and I wish fandom actually scrutinizes the writing harder. (As a sidenote, I know Camelot is great and I have seen the full game playthrough before but playing the entire story is an emotional ride! Bedi ;;__;;) (2/2)

BEDI………… 🤝🤝🤝 He's so great. I loved the Camelot chapter, it was the one that made me sit up and go "!!??" for the first time. Nasu's chapters haven't let me down a single time since then. I'm glad you're still enjoying yourself :) Babylonia is a real doozy heheh

But yeah, the thing is… I don't think anyone working on Genshin KNOWS Basic Writing 101? Or at the very least, they know Of it but not how to Do it. Like, it does feel like they're learning lessons as they go. They're learning the sorts of things they SHOULD be including, like having characters Talk To Each Other in meaningful ways, or actually bothering to get you attached to characters before trying to make you feel bad for them, making sure the playable characters are in the story and At Least Do Something... and they even finally apparently listened to my cries and actually wrote an investigation phase into their mystery storyline (resulting in the worst detective work I have ever seen in any story, ever. My standards are exceptionally low on that btw. I have seen a lot of Noddy, Toyland Detective.)

I just don't think they understand how story structure, character arcs or, heck Ace Attorney trials work before they start trying to produce or replicate them. They know what they like and the story they want to tell but not how to tell it. I think that's why they're so much more comfortable writing all the cool stuff into the lore dumps than the main storyline; books and artifact lore and letters are a lot easier to write than any of the things IN those books, artifact lore or letters. And I think that's because even if they do have writers, the ones they have are amateurs, and whoever's in charge of supervising/editing their work has no idea what they're doing!

I think HYV is finally starting to recognise their own weaknesses, because… okay, it might just be me, but doesn't it seem like Genshin's side characters have been getting more mundane? I think they've finally started to recognise that if they put Too Much Cool Stuff into a character's backstory, players will eventually expect them to actually follow through and they backed TF off real quick. Diluc and Kaeya's Literally Everything, Albedo 'destroying Mondstadt', Xiao Fighting Ancient God Ghosts, Beidou vs The Sea Monster She Killed And Won't Let Anyone Forget About, the bizarre personality traits originally imbued into the 4star characters…. doesn't it feel like Genshin's avoided writing things like that into its new characters?

The "shove all the relevant information into their backstory" game point blank refused to engage with Collei's backstory or offer any insight into Why Cyno Is Like That in their LORE, let alone the main story. Let alone the main story it should be suuuuuper relevant to. No one has any out there character quirks and there sure doesn't seem to be any implication that anyone is doing any Really Cool Dramatic Fights off-screen anymore, because the players might expect you to actually write those things!

Suffice to say that I am very curious how Lyney & Lynette's storyline will be handled going forward because it really feels like Genshin is afraid of their own cast.

Obviously, FGO doesn't have any of these issues. It's written by actual professional writers that can like, write. Even when they screw up, the structure of the story they're telling is still sound because they know how narrative structure is supposed to work. It's just that… Nasu is SUCH a technically skilled writer that he nails everything Genshin fucks up so cleanly it damns Genshin by comparison. It is especially fun to compare Inazuma to Lostbelt 6 because they have enough superficial plot similarities that make Inazuma's failings shine bright as day.

I think people are happy accepting it because uhhhh Genshin is played by a) a lot of casuals and b) meta-fans and c) lore nerds and that means that people often just accept the story for what it pretends to be instead of scrutinising it for what it is. I get that, sometimes I just wanna turn my brain off and only half pay attention to a story I'm reading and I definitely have a threshold for bullshit I'm willing to accept. Genshin just… even when I'm trying to be charitable, it always punches through all the allowances I'm giving it…

I think some people also just enjoy taking the character prompts and filling in the gaps themselves, rather than have the story do it for them, or that also low-stakes fantasy feel good fluff is appealing sometimes (and Genshin is definitely more comfortable trying to write that). On the other hand, I feel like I see people "filling in the gaps" for the story with stuff that isn't there, like their mind is auto-filling the missing parts of the story or linking up themes/information in ways that SEEM logical but aren't actually the case....

I've seen a lot of predictions or comments about the Oratrice that don't like up with canon, for example. But given the story that Genshin started setting up in Fontaine, those predictions/comments feel like the logical path the story regarding the Oratrice should be taking... or, you know, all the character arcs Genshin tried to write, I think there was a lot of 'filling the gaps' on some of the details of those!

Anyway, glad to hear from you again! I hope you keep enjoying FGO :) Just, uh, maybe skip through Agartha.

[katyspersonal]

I respect your opinions and especially the way you defend your right to express them online, I don’t support people trying to shoo you away from the fandom in such horrible ways, but that one post you made about “me” on anon trying to support the artist that wanted to start making YouTube videos is kinda hurtful. I didn’t have any ill intentions and wasn’t trying to imply that their queerness is the ONLY thing that’s interesting about their takes, it was just that: a few simple words of support meant for specifically this person, that I thought of while typing that anon ask, I knew they won’t interpret it the way you do and didn’t see any problem with it. I’ve been following this artist for years and I really liked them as a person (they even used to be my tumblr crush) and as a creator, and yes, the fact that they take into account less common interpretations (aka lgbt headcanons) is ONE OF THE THINGS I appreciate about them. I feel like you overreacted too much and projected onto“me” things you have been resenting about people who hurt you and claimed they did it for righteous reasons. Just because I share their enjoyment of “queer interpretations” of my hyperfixation doesn’t mean I hate cishet people and think their interpretations are automatically “lesser”. I even distanced myself from certain people in the fandom BECAUSE I saw how hypocritically they treated you and it made me feel unsafe in this space. Sorry for accidentally digging out this post that you made about “me”, not suspecting that the anon that angered you isn’t one of the people who dogpiled you and that maybe they even enjoys some of your content. I don’t want to start drama with you, I just got jumpscared by realizing that you’re talking about ME in one of your opinionated posts and, I admit, felt personally attacked for things I never even meant to imply. I’m just as autistic and chronically online as you and take petty and unimportant things personally. I don’t want to be your enemy is what I’m trying to say. Have a nice day!

It was very surprising to wake up to this, and thank you so much for reaching out about this. I will add the post about my reaction for the context:

This is true that re-reading this post now sounds like I've made some very strong assumptions about you. You told that artist to make their own lore videos because "we need more queer voices in BB/DS/ER analysis videos", and the way I interpreted it? ...yeah the post IS here on how. I don't want to vague, so here for anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, witness my anger in all its ugliness. /srs "Projecting" my own bad experiences, as well as just a very unlikeable trend I do see in the fandom, is an understatement: I straight up assumed that you were possibly one of the people who at least agreed with slander, and yes, my already pre-existing paranoia has grown x4 times stronger after all the stalking and harassment. I don't think there is a way to heal and go back on always assuming the worst unless I distance from the fandom for a year or so, but unfortunately, engaging in a special interest is a bit too crucial for me as a person. It is like if I have a poor eyesight and special interest is my glasses, and sure as hell 'irl fandom group' is not a thing in my city, or even country, so

All this is the context to specify that I can't promise that "now I've learned my lesson to never assume something about strangers online and will never do it again :333". Because this is just too late. I'd say that "at least I should not post these assumptions publicly", but by coming to me to talk about you've healed a grudge that has been bothering me, whereas if I just kept it in private I'd still feel angry. So, in the end, posting it publicly.... helps? Because it found you, even if odds were small, kinda like tossing bottle in the sea and it actually being picked up by someone.

I am still sorry for hurting you so, it is not a normal situation. THE lesson I should carry from it is, "maybe the person I am assuming things about thought the rest of the context was self-explanatory". You already feel unsafe in the fandom like you said, and I really regret that I've added to this anxiety (even if by different reason and context). I used to love that artist a lot and they were crucial part of my enjoyment in the fandom. Hopefully they did start to make videos, though. We do need more people to do analysis, just that, the identity of the one that does them should never matter. By your message you meant that thanks to that, their analyses would be able to feature readings like transgenderism and gay feelings, when people that do not experience either would simply most likely not read them in the story, and it should have been obvious from the start without an explanation. But you know how it is 🤝 autism, right.

I still value that you found me approachable enough to address the post directly and explain, and I am sorry. It is a no brainer that I no longer have hard feelings. You helped me with this a lot, but I don't have a way to help you back besides declaring my assumptions 100% invalid. I hope this will still work.