#i think it's the 5th chapter i have the most issue with. and i feel like the 4th chapter is largely redundant.

[orcelito]

I know a lot of ppl like Sentido but I cannot look at it. Covering my eyes thrashing my feet in embarrassment I Cannot Look At It

[detectivenyx]

A month or so back, someone made a tweet defending Himiko saying she's overhated by fandom and claiming she has autism. Of course, half the replies are people hating Himiko and she didn't deserve to be a survivor. I didn't know Himiko was disliked that much. This post was to ask, what are your feelings on Himiko?

if you asked a danganronpa fan on twitter if they'd like to examine their potential biases against a character and whether they're based on problematic stereotypes of marginalised groups or put themselves in a saw trap, they'd be strapping themselves into the fucking Shotgun Carousel with baffling enthusiasm, and himiko is one of the characters that makes that most apparent.

himiko has the exact same issue as hiyoko before her; she isn't waifu material since she looks like a child, and to danganronpa fans, if a female character who isn't explicitly a child isn't waifuable, there's zero value in them whatsoever. their flaws are exacerbated because they can't be sexualised and girlboss'd or failwife'd (which is not a problem reflected in male characters and them being 'husbandoable'). and this isn't an issue with the characters, but very much fan perception. there's no mistaking it, a lot of the hatred for himiko is just fans' misogyny; traits she gets criticised for having made gundam and kiyotaka fandom darlings. there's a fair amount of ableism in there too. himiko is never explicitly stated to have autism, but while i have the theory every character is at least somewhat autistic, himiko is probably one of the more obvious ones. she very clearly struggles with social interactions and her response to the life-threatening danger is to clam up and try to make herself seem insignificant, and she's a terrible liar - all traits common in autistic individuals, but additionally seen in depression. she reads to me like an autistic person with depression. to a danganronpa fan nothing is worse than an unsexy female character who is heavily implied to be autistic.

i absolutely do not get anyone who says she shouldn't have survived; the girl was berated and subjected to The Horrors every time she took a fucking breath. fuyuhiko might have had the most happen to him physically, but himiko definitely had way more on her plate. there's not a single murder in the game she wasn't accused of doing and she didn't want to bother with defending herself, and through chapter 2 and 3 she was put through the absolute fucking wringer. her magic show she put on to help everyone feel better about the motive was hijacked for the most brutal corpse disposal in danganronpa's history, then to top it off, she was accused of said murder by the person she trusted, with only tenko defending her innocence. she joins angie's student council for whatever security she can get as the smallest and weakest person left in the group, and then that crumbles when angie is found dead - the closest thing angie had to a friend. then, tenko offers to take her place as the medium of the seance, and dies because she did so. and honestly, himiko realising moments too late exactly what tenko meant to her and begging for her to move, to say something, is far more heartbreaking than anything to come out of any of the 5th chapters. and then, she gets accused of being the one to murder the two people she cared the most about. after all the shit she's already been through, of course she clams the fuck up and stops caring. she doesn't think she should've survived, the writing all but spells out that himiko's going through severe survivor's guilt, and she's just given up, if everyone goes down with her, so be it. it does require everyone to look at the case and provide himiko with a reason to go on; ultimately, she's the one who takes that purpose to keep moving forward (the old 'you can lead a horse to water' addage). and yet, STILL, she gets put through the wringer AGAIN in chapter 5 when she learns that it wouldn't have mattered anyway; they're the last people left alive and there's no more humanity. at every turn she's been given reasons to give up, again, and again, and again. and more realistically than someone heroically going 'no! i'll never give up!' she more realistically DOES give up - but giving up can be as difficult as not giving up, even more so. that's what she embodies - someone who very much does want to give up, but doesn't.

it's clear fans don't give a shit about the impact her death would have; when she dies in a fangan she's rarely given a second thought. so if her death would've been meaningless, why are people so upset she survived? that's a question i can't really answer - not when the characters that do die i think had to for the sake of the story. kaito and kokichi would've been terrible survivors because their stories do hinge on them dying; their deaths are their conclusions. but himiko, i think, for her story to have its intended effect - she needed to survive, and very much fought tooth and nail to do so.

i've noticed the video i made 3-4 years ago now did help to kind of rehabilitate her image because hatred was even more common before it but there's still quite a bit of unwarranted himiko hatred. my advice; get off twitter and get on cohost where i am and himiko's autistic swagger is always welcome

[backtothefanfiction]

The Angel In The Garden of Evil | Epilogue: Not Another Envelope

Summary: We say goodbye to our favourite couple in a similar manner we said hello to them, with an envelope on the dining room table, a secret hidden inside.

Warnings: 18+ Only, genre typical content, references to the demise of characters in previous chapter, fluff, a surprise, implied smut, daddy/mommy kink (if that doesn't give away the surprise I don't know what will)

Word Count: 1.3k

A/N: The final authors note *begins weeping*. This is it, the end. I have had the most wonderful time writing this series and sharing it with you all. A big thanks to @sincericida and @tarzinnia for your continued support and reblogging and leaving your thoughts all over this series, they honestly kept me going and helped so much. Another big thanks to @liz-allyn if it wasn't for your Sugar + Vice series inspiring me, Angel would never have happened. I hope this Epilogue ties up this series in a nice bow for everyone and we can all go away with a fuzzy feeling in our tummies with hope for the future. I will be having a Q & A session to wrap up any final questions and talk further about all our favourite bits in the series, so be sure to fill up my inbox with your Q's and best bits. And before anyone asks as we haven't come back to him in a bit, Miles is doing good. His leg healed and Angel moved him to work more on F.E.A.S.T operations full time. He is very happy and healthy. Anyway, let's say goodbye shall we.

EPILOGUE

She hadn’t felt this nervous since she had first walked back into this house 10 months ago. Her stomach turned as she tried to breathe deeply and keep calm. ‘I can do this,’ she thought to herself, as she crouched down to check the food in the oven for the 5th time in the last 10 minutes.

“Come on Pete, where are you?” she muttered as she tapped her foot absentmindedly on the harlequin tiled kitchen floor.

After everything had happened there had been quite a few changes. They had left Hobie in charge of cleaning up as they went on a well needed second honeymoon. Peter had hired a yacht for them to sail around the coast of Italy for two weeks; of course stopping off in the little town she had lived in for the near three years they were separated, so that Angel could introduce her husband to Maria and her magic meatballs.

When they came back Peter signed the entire business over to Angel. There was a small amount of teething room, Peter playing mediator between allies as he announced the change in management; but given her family history, most of them were satisfied with the change.

With Angel now in charge of the business, Peter started going back out in the suit. He’d occasionally help out with paperwork or running certain errands, especially when it came to the Huntsman and F.E.A.S.T, but mostly spent his days patrolling the city and helping keep it crime free (well apart from his wife’s business that was).

They had sold her Father’s old house and everything inside it for a hefty amount, which they donated to the city to help with the clean up after the explosion down in Chinatown. They also gave payouts to the local businesses that had been affected as both a thank you for helping during the blast; but also apologise for the inconvenience of it all. The new centre had been reopened two months ago, with a special ribbon cutting from the city’s one and only Spider-Man, and had been thriving again ever since.

Peter had been worried about donning the suit again. Worried what everyone would think after all this time. But if the gang fighting had provided one thing, it was the city’s need for a hero. A need to hope once more. And nothing said hope apparently like a guy in red and blue spandex swinging through the city- much to George Stacy’s dismay.

They had started going to couples counselling once a week so they could talk through all their lingering issues. The Felicia thing. Their issues with her Dad. The forced three year separation. There was still a long way to go, but talking about it with a mediator helped.

Harry’s body was found in a freezer inside a storage container that was offloaded in Belfast Ireland three months after the night at the warehouse. Toomes’ body, which had been dumped in the river, was never found.

She checked the oven again as she chewed on her lip. She wasn’t even sure she was gonna be able to stomach this, despite having spent the last hour and a half cooking it. There came a thud from upstairs. He was home. She closed her eyes, taking one last deep breath in, before she began to take the chicken out of the oven.

“Mmmm, smells good Mrs Parker.” his voice rang out as he ran downstairs. 

“You better not have just left your suit dumped on the floor up there.” she chastised as she began plating up the food.

“Of course not.” he said with a sheepish grin as he came and wrapped his arms around her from behind, placing a kiss on her cheek. She knew him too well.

“Can you put the cutlery on the table?” she asked as she turned her head to give him a kiss on the lips, her stomach doing butterflies, she thought she might vomit.

“Yeah of course, no problem.” he said, patting her hip before he moved to slide open the cutlery drawer, humming to himself as he went.

She braced herself against the edge of the counter as she heard him make his way over to the table. There was the sound of metal hitting the wooden table as he began to place the cutlery down, still humming away, until he wasn’t. There was a pause before he spoke.

“Baby, what’s this?” he said, lifting an envelope off of the table. Peter grew nervous, the moment feeling all too familiar.

“Sit down.” she said, as she finally turned to face him, the food now sitting forgotten on the counter.

Peter didn’t move. “Baby, what is this?” he pressed her. He saw the frozen look of terror on her face and his stomach lurched as he raced to open it, fearing the worst. He pulled out the paperwork inside, scanning over it confused. “Angel, what is-”

“I’m pregnant.”

Peter stared at her. The longer the statement hung in the air, the more confident she grew as she slowly stepped across the room towards him. “You’re?” Peter couldn’t even say the word. He tried but it didn’t feel real on his tongue. She just nodded as she reached a hand out to his hip, the other pointing at a particular box on the page that said ‘positive’.

“I’ve known for a few weeks now.” she tried to explain. “I didn’t want to say anything until I’d had it confirmed by the doctor. I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

“That really bad food poisoning you had. I thought it was from the Thai food we had, but I ate the same thing and I was fine and-” he rambled as he tried to put all the signs together he knew he should have gotten.

“Pete?” She said his name tentatively.

“And then last Sunday when you fell asleep on May’s sofa in the middle of the afternoon. I thought you were just tired from work-”

“Peter.”

“Oh and when we went out for breakfast the other week, you had mushrooms on your breakfast. You hate mushrooms-”

“Peter!”

“What?”

“Does this mean you’re okay with it?” she asked sceptically.

“Okay with it? Okay with it. Why wouldn’t I be okay with it!” He beamed as he suddenly wrapped her in his arms. “We’re having a baby!” He said excitedly. “I’m gonna be a Daddy- oh!” he said as a realisation hit him. “This means I get to start calling you Mommy.”

“No. Nope!” she squealed and giggled as he held her tightly, turning his head to gently gnaw at her skin like he was trying to eat her.

“Fine, fine.” he said as she finally broke free of his arms. “But I know you’ve been itching to call me Daddy for years.”

“Noooo.” she giggled, but she knew he had her pegged.

“Yeeesss.” he dragged out the word with an exaggerated smile.

“I’m not gonna say it.” she giggled as he began to chase her round the lower section of the house.

“Oh yes, you are.” he joked, stalking her as she moved around the kitchen island.

“Pete, the dinner.” she tried to reason.

“I don’t care. Not until you say it.”

“Noo!” she squealed as she made a run for it, narrowly slipping past him and running into the living room.

“Oh you’re gonna say it.”

“No.”

“Say it!” he called out as he lunged for her, wrapping his arms around her and wrestling her gently to the floor, pinning her with his body. She laughed. “Say it.” he said again as he looked down at her.

“Fine.” she huffed in defeat. “Can we go eat dinner now Daddy?” she cooed in her most sultry voice.

He moved his head from side to side as if he were thinking about it, before saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about Mommy, my dinner’s right here.” He gave her a devilish smile before shimmying his body down so his face was the same height as her crotch.

“Noo! Peter!” she squealed in delight, pretending to push him away as his fingers reached for the waistband of her trousers, her giggles ringing out throughout the house.

-----------------------------------------

Thank you so much for reading The Angel In The Garden of Evil. If you have enjoyed the story don’t forget to tip me like you would your waiter by reblogging and leaving feedback and letting me know what you think! By reblogging you also help to keep this story alive for just a little bit longer allowing new people to keep finding it for days, months, weeks and years to come. Whenever this story find you, I hope it brings you joy.

@scmdsblog @angiexsv @thef1nalgirl @did-someone-change-my-name @sincericida @tarzinnia @liz-allyn @blacksoul09 @humxncrxvings @sunnycolors @suicide-sweetheart636 @ahryi @ms-wild-card-56

[romaine2424]

Daily Blog June 21, 2023

Hi! Welcome to my first day of fandom blogging! I'm very excited about doing this and hope you'll join in on the conversation and really hope that you might start one of your own!!! So on that note, lets get going.

What I'm reading:

I'm currently re-reading The Changeling by @annerbhp. It's a canon rewrite of sort, with a big twist. Here's the summary: Ginny is sorted into Slytherin. It takes her seven years to figure out why. It's 182K from Ginny's POV. It does follow canon to a point. I read this about 6 months ago and I still think about it when writing Drarry. I now have to give Ginny a positive break-up with Harry. LOL No dissing her because she's such a badass in this story. While it's listed as Harry/Ginny, it really is mostly a Ginny story for the main story. There's follow on stories after this one that are fab too.

It starts with Year 1 and the house sorting. Ginny is surprisingly sorted into Slytherin. She at first thinks its a joke done by her twin brothers, but then reality sets in. Most of her family is devastated and she feels completely isolated. This is a Ginny you'll recognize from canon and then so much more. If you longed for more Slytherin background and lore than canon gave us, this you will love. And if you think Slytherin is dominated by the males...well this will give you a headcanon that you won't forget.

What I'm writing:

The Azkaban Letters, which I'm so far behind on I want to cry. It's a 2007 WIP I started right before HPDH came out. So it's canon divergent after HBP. I did edit the first 7 to be more in line with canon and post canon. My issue is I have too much in my head and too many ideas to get down on paper...er on the computer. When I stopped writing it in 2007, I had posted the first 7 chapters on The Hex Files. It came over to AO3 during the transfer and has been staring at me in the face since then. I'm now up to 16 chapters, which sounds like a lot, but there's 4 sections to the story and I'm in the middle of section 2. sigh.

Tumblr Posts of Interest:

@xanthippe74 on her blog has reposted her 2020 fic, Follow the Water in honor of summer solstice. If you have not read this fic, you are in for such a treat. Perfect summer fic. Give her post a reblog and fic some love!

@julcheninred posted on her blog yesterday that it was the 5th anniversary of Draw Drarry badly. I so love her block H/D art, and so happy we've had five years of her sharing them with us. Make sure to reblog to share the Drarry fun!

3. HDMpreg2023 has posted the reveals on A03. TWENTY fics in all. I only got to read about 1/3 of them, but whoa there are some serious gems. (If I find the Tumblr post for this, I'll add it.)

4. @lcdrarry has also posted their reveals! My apologies to the fest and authors/artists. I've only read a few this round but plan on diving into the treasure trove of Drarry. This was a new fest for me to watch when I came back to fandom. While I don't watch many movies or watch tv much anymore, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to follow/understand the stories as well as I should. I was wrong. Most I have found I could enjoy without knowing the source.

Tumblr Drarry Fic/Art Resource:

I'm guessing most of you follow @drarryspecificrecsdaily, but in case not, you should definitely follow! They post Drarry completed fics which have been posted on AO3 for the current day. I have found some amazing gems from this resource. Fics I haven't seen discussed or recced anywhere else and authors I haven't been blessed reading before.

Okay, that's it for Day 1! Hope you found something interesting. I'll be switching around the categories on a daily basis. Tomorrow, I'll be adding in Fic Rec from the way past. Feel free to comment. :)

[kookies2000]

Disney tries to make a sequel, everyone hates it already.

Dreamworks plans a sequel, Shrek 5, Kung Fu Panda 4, and wanting a Puss in Boots 3 and Bad Guys 2, everyone is hyped and dying of waiting!!!

And I fully understand why.

Sequals (Essay because there's a lot of sequels to talk about)

Disney was never the type to serialize their films. Heck, most of their films are stand-alone films because of the fairytales they're based on. You can't exactly make a series out of Cinderella, Snow-white, Beauty and the Beast, etc, without changing a few things from the original. Disney tried and let me just say that Cinderella 3 was most likely their only good sequel. And that's because they retold the story of Cinderella. Even redeeming one of the step sisters. As for the other sequels that Disney has planned or made, 50/50 for me. I'm not looking forward to Frozen 3. Frozen 2 was good until the third act. Elsa just pushed Anna away again, and instead of it being this bad thing, Elsa is rewarded for it. She gets to see her mother and gains an improved version of herself. While Anna struggles by herself. Yes, Elsa did "die," which could've worked as character development if Elsa realized that pushing Anna away was the cause of that death. But no, Anna unites the spirits again, and Elsa comes back to save the kingdom and all it good. There isn't really a punishment for Elsa pushing her loved ones away. Anna was the one with the best development because she had to grieve and push forward without Elsa. And she grew into a better version of herself that way, earning her crown as queen. I can see why people liked the ending, but to me, Elsa really should've reflected on what she did to Anna and Olaf at the end. It's just a little detail that made the film fall flat for me. Toy Story 5.......... what? The first three are masterpieces, really, they are. The 4th was definitely unnecessary, but I liked it as its own stand-alone film. Like a bonus film, a reboot to a possible new chapter for the franchise. But the way they ended it, they separated Woody and Buzz. Bonnie just straight up left Woody behind. I get it. There were hints that Jessie was gonna be her new favorite toy, but Woody should have some value. Yes, I know the film was about Woody accepting that he is no longer in the spot light and must pass down that title to someone else and his new chapter in life doesn't include his old friends. I get it. That happens in real life, too. But a 5th film? How are they exactly gonna do it with the way the 4th film ended. It doesn't seem very possible. Plus, it's not like the 4th film lived up to the first three, I still think they made Buzz a little out of character. And the old toys were underused. Like they could've evened out the roles a little more instead of letting Buzz take the spotlight. The same with Wreck it Ralph. I'm not going into detail about this. The sequel was pretty bad. I get it. Ralph is insecure and doesn't want to lose his only friend. But to put her in a life-threatening situation to get her to stay with you? I'm pretty sure you could've just said you were feeling lonely without her. That was too big of a drastic measure. I know that wasn't his intent, but the writers might want to have rethought about that. Ralph was just a bit too much of a jerk, and the product placement was kinda too much. Cars 2.......... it's a guilty pleasure of mine for a reason. 🤣 Incredibles 2, I thought it was good, but I can see why people have issues with it. The villain didn't make that much sense. The only sequel I am looking forward to is Zootopia 2, and that's because that story has a lot to offer. I'll explain later.

Dreamworks sequals, oh boy, where do I begin!!! Dreamworks serialized their films at the very beginning. Did you know there were at least six El Dorado films planned? If the first film didn't flop, we could've had a whole franchise of the treasure hunting trio. Or the fact that before Shrek was released, they were already working on a Shrek 2. Dreamworks make their films with a franchise in mind. They planned ahead. And each squeal they made only added more and more to their characters.

Shrek 2, Shrek has marriage problems because his in-laws are baiscally racist towards orgers. Shrek 4, he learns to love his life again. I will not mention Shrek the 3rd because that movie should disintegrate and never come back to reality. 😅 And I'm hyped for Shrek 5 because there is still more to write about. The film takes place in a fairytale land. There's hundreds of fairy tales out there that Shrek can make fun of. Hence, more films. The concept itself opens up new stories.

HTTYD. I haven't seen this one, but I know enough. I love the idea of Hiccup growing up and learning something new every film. Finding his mother, dealing with the loss of his father, dealing with being separated from his best friend at the end. Each film gave a new element to his story. A new gain and a new loss. I can't see the film going beyond three films, though. Unless it's gonna be about Hiccups kids, they kinda closed the book, and the concept isn't very open to anything. Unless a new threat comes and Hiccup has to learn to be the new village leader. Which he kinda already did. So I'm glad there isn't a HTTYD 4 planned.

Kung Fu Panda. This franchise has 6 films planned since the very beginning. SIX! And they always add a new element to Po's story. Earning the Dragon Warrior name, finding inner peace and dealing with his PTSD, becoming a teacher and chi master. And there's still more to Chinese culture that can be added to this franchise. The concept opens up the franchise to new ideas. The number of characters they have adds to the story. We got Shifus back story, we got Po's back story, we got Oogways back story, and the fandom is now expecting Tigress's back story soon. The concept and the characters are the reason why this franchise is loved and why we're dying for the 4th film!!!!

Madagascar. Fun fact, Madagascar 3 was, in fact, not the final film. 😅 Yeah, shocking. After the Penguins of Madagascar in 2014, Madagascar 4 was supposed to be released in 2018. So they did plan more films but got delayed with Kung Fu Panda 4 and Puss in Boots 2 because of the reconstruction of the studio. How many more films? I think the 4th one was supposed to create a reboot situation. I have no idea how the story is supposed to continue. I really don't, but at the same time, I do. The first three films had one story. The three wanted to go home to the zoo. Each film took place in a different setting, with each character learning something new about themselves. In the first film, they learned how to be in the wild, just like animals in Madagascar. Second film, they reconnect with their African roots. 3rd film, they realize what they really want is to see the world, so they move in with the circus. In Europe. That's why the sequels worked. Different settings = different discoveries = new story. Yes, their story about getting to the zoo is over, but we can't forget about the situation their in now. They're traveling the world now. The point of Stefanos and Gias character in the 3rd film was that the two were tired of staying in one place. They did the same acts to the point where they lost passion and meaning. They wanted something new and to improve the circus. And now that they have that, new stories can be told. In other words, the new concept opens up a door to a new story. They can travel the world and discover new things and new characters. New culture and even back stories to new characters. As far as I remember, Vitaly has a father like relationship with Gia and Stefano. Why? What's their past? Or we can get new pasts from new characters to come from different parts of the world. The concept of a circus traveling the world is what opens up the door to new stories.

Trolls, I know people don't like this film, and I agree it's for a much younger audience. Like 8 and under. But I can still appreciate the franchise for it's story telling. Poppy has to learn to be queen before becoming queen at the end of the film. She had to learn where happiness comes from and how having others you love in your life can improve on that happiness. Trolls 2, she had to learn about being a good queen. And I do love the metaphors they used in the 2nd film. Using different kinds of music a metaphor of tribes at war with each other. Poppy learned that it was her kingdom that caused the war in the first place. She had to learn that she can't push her own culture onto the other tribes because you can't just think your culture is superior. Like she wanted to make the country trolls happy with her own music simply because she believed the country trolls music was the wrong way. Which makes me love her interactions with Coopers family so much. Learning that her kingdom tried to erase the other tribes culture by replacing it with theirs. That her tribes scrapbooks are just cutouts and glue ons by the winners to rewrite history so they feel comfortable with it. And I love that the king and queen of funk explain it to her. That differences do matter, and no, we are not all the same deep inside. Our culture, our lives, and our experiences are different, and they make us who we are. Harmonizing with different cultures is what makes a good queen. And that's why the sequels work. Why I'm excited for my little sisters to see the franchise. There's so much you can do with a story about a queen trying to do good for her kingdom. And YES, I know Frozen is the same. Like I said, I did enjoy Frozen 2. It's just that the third act fell hard on its face. Like, why is ice the 5th element and not love? There are little details that really made it flop. I can understand Trolls being kiddy and cute because they are made for children and babies. I would much rather have my sisters watch Trolls than Coco Melon any time. I appreciate Frozen for what it is as well. Loved the films, wish it reached its potential and that's why I'm not looking forward to Frozen 3.

Are there any DreamWork films that would work as a franchise? Yes, Megamind can learn how to handle being the towns new hero. Bad Guys, this screams franchise!!! It's like Suicide Squad. Former criminals help to save the world!!! Puss in Boots. Puss, Kitty, and Perrito are three out laws going on adventures. How many new adventures can you write for them to go on? HUNDREDS!!! And this is why I'm excited for Zootopia 2!!! That story DOES have something to look forward to. The concept is great. A cop and a former criminal fighting crime together? HELL YEAH!!! That's why Toy Story worked, too!!! The life of a toy is creative. They watched their owner grow, and each stage of their owners life affected them. When a kid moves houses, they can lose toys on the way. What if a toy gets broken? What if the kid is no longer a kid? What do toys feel about being lost or replaced. The concept is incredible and leaves tons of opportunities to continue the story or create new ones. So I'm a 50/50 on Toy Story 5.

Conclusion

Disney doesn't plan ahead when they make a film. They clearly start to make it up as they go with no plan. DreamWorks does plan ahead. A lot of Disney's concepts don't work for sequals. I can not see a squeal to any of the Disney princesses. Bell? Ariel? Cinderella? Not really much to their story except they lived happily ever after. It's a closed book for good unless they take a Cinderella 3 route and rewrite their stories. Dreamworks do have concepts in their stories that open opportunities. And the #1 reason why we don't get excited about Disney squeals. Reputation. Disney has a horrible reputation when it comes to sequals. Dreamworks have a perfect record. As long as we burn Shrek the 3rd from our minds. Not talking down on Disney. I know they have the ability to create great classic stories. But only stand-alone stories. While DreamWorks has a gift in making franchises and taking risks in their stories.

Ps. SHREK 5 IS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED!!!!!

[kkoraki]

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!

for theeeeeee ask meme! thank you for asking!

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

probably Warrior Cats - I got on the ~official forums~ when I was 11 or 12 and got into RP, fanfic, fanart, and watching/making animations by the time I was 13. I RPed for a few years, wrote fic for a few years, and kept doing fanart and animation off and on through college.

when I was 17 or 18 there was a situation where Al Kat, the person who pretty much built the entire Warriors animation fanbase and multi animator projects from the ground up, was essentially run out of fandom by people harassing them for being "too old" for a fandom with "minors" (they got into the fandom as a teen and were like in their... early 20s when this happened). my disgust with this is what started me drifting away from the fandom and I just kept on drifting, especially after my disillusionment with the animation industry + wanting to get better at drawing people + not caring to keep up with the books anymore.

that being said I still feel pretty passionate about my old faves (especially Ivypool and Russetfur), I still keep up with new multi animator projects/AMVs, and I have a long playlist of my favorite animated fanworks that I like to watch all the time! if that counts as being in the fandom that would be around 15 years

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

for tlt, and they're all art related,

more art of characters that aren't the big 6 (6th, 9th, tridentarii) - everyone and everything in this series is described as looking so INTERESTING and unique, by design, and I would like to see so much more of that

character designs that don't take tmuir's personal appearance/ethnicity headcanons as gospel (there are so many interesting visual possibilities based on the descriptions we have to work with in canon! she herself is out there telling people to draw babs as a lizard! is this just about me wanting to see desi 5th house (how I've always imagined them)? maybe!!!)

more environment art, set design, and full illustrations - again - this is such a fascinating series visually not just in terms of the characters but with the settings as well and it's always so fun when people explore that. I know this is tough in fanart because character focused stuff is easier and usually gets more notes but I love it whenever I see environment art or illustrations for TLT specifically.

oh and not art related but needs moar noncon

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

AUs if that's not too broad - whether that's setting AUs or plot AUs or the hard to define ones like rule 63 or daemon AUs. love that stuff!

usually for more specific tropes/kinks, it's not a one size fits all since my faves and OTPs can vary a lot between fandoms, but I usually like pretty much any tropes/kinks related to consent issues

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!

I broadly agree with people who say the plot/pacing of Dungeon Meshi has issues, especially the first 20ish chapters of the manga, but I don't really care because I didn't get into it for the plot - I got into it because I kept seeing the most gorgeous concept art and character designs crossing my dash. As a vehicle for delivering Ryoko Kui's world and character concepts I think it's phenomenal and I love all the bonus content. Usually you have to find good, in character, prolific fanartists to get that kind and volume of content and it's absolutely magical to have so much of it coming from the creator herself. Also GOD I forgot how strongly I prefer canons that have no romance or sex at all between anyone. It's so easy to fumble, I usually don't really care about canon ships, just let fandom handle all of that... thank you Ryoko Kui...

[endless-ineffabilities]

Hey babe! I was wondering if you have any idea of how many chapters Maroon 🍷 is going to be? I'm really enjoying it, but our boy needs to sort his love life! Like, why tell us you don't love Alys, then ditch us for her and then be like "I only want you" BOY GET YOUR LIFE TOGETHER

I've only got 5 chapters outlined thus far, but the 5th one isn't really an ending, so it most likely will go beyond that.

Aemond in Maroon doesn't really know how to handle love or anything remotely similar, because he's never truly seen or felt it before. Maybe he's had some familial love, but even his family's got plenty of issues. Growing up, he also struggled with poor self image and feeling unworthy. It evolved into rage and explosive behaviour into his teens, and it's only now that he's found some calm. The reader first met him when he's already well put-together, but note how the others are surprised how nice and gentle he is to the reader, cause they think that's quite unusual of him. He's still got some darkness in him, as evidenced by this 'accident' which will only make things worse...

And now, he might get angry and lash out and feel insecure again. He doesn't want to subject the reader to all that. The thing about Alys, the attraction is primarily superficial, so he has no qualms about having her around for "company" 🙄 as he so puts it. With Alys, he doesn't have to fear being vulnerable or falling in love. But it's different with the reader, and we'll see more of that soon.

🍷🖤

And you're right. The lad needs to get his shit together. The preview for part three might seem sweet and all, but the rest of it... well, the reader's had enough.

[dinosaurstartrek]

Chapter 6 now out because I can't sleep

All I do is think about these two idiots and write, thank god it's the holidays or I'd have serious issues irl 😐😐😐😖😖😖

Tumultuous Waters: Wednesday Season Two (44280 words) by KrakenOfTheDeep Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Wednesday (TV 2022), Addams Family - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Wednesday Addams & Enid Sinclair, Wednesday Addams/Enid Sinclair, Ajax Petropolus & Enid Sinclair, Divina/Yoko Tanaka Characters: Wednesday Addams, Enid Sinclair, Thing (Addams Family), Morticia Addams, Gomez Addams, Bianca Barclay, Divina (Wednesday), Yoko Tanaka, Larissa Weems Summary: After a violent and chaotic first semester, Wednesday returns to Nevermore. This term she'll have to face more insidious threats, more beguiling mysteries, and villains new and old. All while navigating the tumultuous waters of her feelings for her disgustingly adorable roommate, Enid. Update log: - Dec 28th with Chapter 5 (6th counting the prologue), as well as minor edits to most chapters for ease of reading and typos. Two interactions between Morticia an Wednesday in Chp 1 were rewritten to more accurately reflect what I was trying to get at, special thanks to @Enbot for the feedback. - Dec 25th with Chapter 4 (5th counting the prologue). - Dec 23rd, 2022 with Chapter 3, as well as minor spelling and grammar edits to the prologue and first two chapters. - Dec 20th, 2022 with chapters 1 & 2.

[tokiro07]

Wow...I'm so blown away by the shocking turn of events in this manga that totally wasn't spoiled for me...I'm practically leaping into the air with excitement over this reveal that I definitely didn't already know was going to happen...

Actually, on the subject of spoilers, I do want to note that I don't think they're unilaterally a bad thing - I've had plot twists spoiled for me going into a piece of media that actually made me more interested, that motivated me to start in the first place

But I think the core difference there is a matter of timing. Being told "there's this cool twist, you should give it a try" is massively different from saying "oh boy! I wonder what happens next~" only for some jackass to come up and say "oh, this happens" and deflate the tension

Cus that's what it is, really: the resolution of tension. If I'm told, without context or prior expectation, that a series has a major character death, then I have no idea when or how it's going to happen. I'm going to experience the series and then meet that character and say "oh no, this is the one who dies!" and every time they show up I'm going to think "is this it? Is this when they die?" The tension of thinking that the bomb under the table might go off now is it's own kind of enjoyable experience

But if I'm experiencing it blind and someone looks over my shoulder to say "oh, cool, you're at the part where they die," then you might as well have just replaced the bomb under the table with an untied balloon. There'll still be a noise, sure, and the exact timing may still allow for something of a surprise, but the impact is drastically reduced

The natural progression of experiencing a story as it was intended, with information being revealed by the author at carefully measured intervals is of course the purest way to feel the proper tension, but knowing the outcome far enough in advance allows you to build your own tension in your mind. This is a perfectly valid way to enjoy media, but having someone swoop in to cut the tension at the worst possible moment is just a buzzkill at best and an irremovable stain on the experience with the work itself at worst

Put another way, the former alters how you engage with the work as a whole while the latter alters how you engage with the individual moment in question. If your entire perspective on the story is shifted before you even start, it's just how you're interpreting the story in the first place, but if your perspective and expectations are shifted in media res, the impact of the moment is lost, and the aftermath is permanently weakened

That's why something like One Piece isn't super closely guarded by its fandom once something is made public; the big reveals don't mean much without their immediate context. Gear 5th is just a Super Saiyan transformation to an outsider, but the animation on the fight scenes is cool enough to justify giving it a try. It was only for week-to-week readers that it was really an issue because someone undoubtedly posted a chapter summary about it ahead of time (I managed to avoid it) and revealed all of the details in a generic list rather than allowing readers to absorb them at the pace Oda intended

You can be open with the events of a story, but there's a time and place for it. At the very least, folks should wait until it can be fairly assumed that most people who want to know something already do, and anyone who will be interested by knowing will come across it on their own later

[kitty-space-marine]

Mission to Fluxi X, Part 2

(this takes place circa 470M38)

I idly fiddled with Thorn, my power longsword, as I waited to hear the Scout reports. The Techmarine manning the vox array was dutifully hopping between Scout Squads and the Techmarines on the ground. Around fifty of them were establishing our base on the ground, something that I still hoped would be unnecessary. It has been about a solar day since we deployed the 5th and 10th Companies.

I was debating giving the order for the Scouts to return to base, when the vox array squawked to life, shaking me briefly from the lull.

"Sergeant, repeat, you have contact?" the Techmarine, machine like even twenty-four hours later, didn't seem fazed.

"Yes, we do, a squad of Sisters Repentia, their leader is asking to speak with my superior, but the Captain did not respond." The sergeant's voice carried the weight of the day of searching, and I was hopeful that this meant we could move on soon.

"Patch them through to me, and then try to make contact with the other Squads." I had a few questions prepared, but most of them seemed to have been answered simply by the lack of a fight.

"Hello, this is Chapter Master of the Twilight Panthers here, who may I ask, is this?"

A smooth voice responded, "Just a Sister Superior in charge of some of our Order's Repentia, my Lady. What seems to be the issue?"

"You seemed to have missed your check in with the Planetary Governor by a solar month, and he was worried. We happened to be in the area, so we figured we'd check in. Any problems?" I smiled politely with my words, though the Sister could not tell.

"It seems our ships have been damaged, we were trying to scavenge parts together to fix one. We actually almost fixed one, no need for a whole Chapter to look for us." She audibly sighed, and I could almost picture her frown. "Our vox-casters tried to send messages, but it seems that where we are in our orbit makes it hard right now to send messages to Fluxi Prime."

"Heard, we can send some Techmarines your way to help, is everything fine with the Order?" I looked at Denilla and Albus, who began to make those arrangements.

"That would be... appreciated, thanks." The Sister sounded a little hesitant at that prospect, probably on account of the fact that Marines are imposing. "The Order is fine, I just checked in the other day actually. Are you going to leave a ship for your troops currently on planet?"

I thought for a moment, and then shook my head, before remembering there was no video feed for the Sister to see. "I mean, I don't tend to leave my troops behind unless part of a larger mission, and we currently have nothing to do. I can move them if they're making you Sisters uncomfortable."

"Surely, you can find better accommodations at Fluxi Prime, no?" The Sister Superior had a slight twinge in her voice, something started to feel off, but I couldn't tell exactly what.

"Possibly, but I am strange like that. I'll move my fleet and ask my Captains what they think. Is it possible for me to meet your Canoness?" Another motion, and members of my Honour Guard began to carry out these new orders.

"I believe she is in prayer right now, she has been for some time now. I can pass along the request, but that is all I can do. You will send the Techmarines to our Convent?" The twinge seemed to be gone now, and I thought to myself that it may just have been my imagination from the solar day I spent waiting.

"Yes, they will be there shortly. My troops will take their leave now, thank you Sister. For the Emperor!"

"Yes indeed." With that short response, she signed off, and I was left confused.

My confusion must have been evident on my face, because as Albus and Denilla returned, Albus spoke up immediately. "What is it Rose?"

"Normally the Sisters are more vocal about their fervor for the Emperor. This one only said 'Yes indeed.' Maybe it's nothing, we'll see when our Scout Company returns." I shook my head as if to clear my thoughts.

"That is odd, maybe the Sister was just reserved because she was talking to a Chapter Master?" Albus started stroking his chin. "No matter, our Scouts can take care of themselves."

"I sent ten Techmarines to help repair their ships, and our base on the ground is established. Do you want to prepare more troops to land?" Denilla asked hurriedly, and I realized she probably missed her wife.

"Tell all troops except the 6th and 9th to relax their standby protocols for now, I don't think that'll be necessary." I prepared to take off my helmet, freeing my feline ears to twitch and move. "I'll never get used to how expressive these ears are. Being cooped up in a helmet is bad for them."

Denilla reached up and scratched my one ear, and I frowned at her. "Hey, I'm still your Chapter Master, no matter how cute my ears!"

Albus snorted, and we settled down, relaxing for about an hour, until we heard multiple screeches from the vox-array.

The Techmarine turned toward me. "Multiple enemy contacts, we've had reports that several Scout squads have been attacked, and two have possibly been wiped out. It seems our base was hit too, although it is holding."

"Bloody Throne!" I immediately got serious, stopping mid-joke with one of my Honour Guard. "Tell Captain Hajur to deploy Squads to assist the Scouts. Any word about the Techmarines?"

After quickly relaying my order, the Techmarine shook his head. "It seems they may still be alive. Their vox-feed is still up, though it seems to be jammed."

"So it seems their ships are indeed damaged. Now then, we'll get to see the true extent of the corruption in the Order." I turned towards Denilla. "Tell the 6th and 9th Companies, get on the ground immediately. Once we establish that the base is safe, we'll deploy more Companies. I need to know, do we have any word on what exactly is attacking us?"

"Sisters Repentia, my Lady." The Techmarine barely glances my way as he relays a flurry of orders, his tech augments allowing him to keep track of all the conversations happening.

"They barely know what they're actually doing, with the amount of fervor in them to die so they can repent. I wonder if we could get ahold of the Canonness, if I could just talk to someone in their command..." My words drifted off, as I tried to think of ways to get in contact with their leadership, and also what exactly we were up against.

"It seems we have rogue Sisters," Albus' gruff voice brought me back to the present. "Chaos is unlikely, but it could be. We won't know until the base is secured and we can go down to confirm. We'll need more than the two Apothecaries down there though."

"Albus, please ask Caius to pick twenty-five Apothecaries to establish a medical team in our base. Denilla please ask Felicitia to ready the same number of Librarians, we'll need to understand exactly what we're up against, if we run into anyone that might know what they're doing."

The Techmarine clears his throat, and I walk calmly up to him, as my orders are relayed. "It seems we have about fifty Scouts that made it back to the Ground Base, my Lady. We sustained an additional twenty-seven losses from the 5th Company. Captain Hajur is reporting that there are a lot of wounded, but the base is secure. What are your orders?"

"I hope 6th and 9th Companies are on the ground, and I want the selected Apothecaries and Librarians there as soon as they can. Please have some of our fleet fly around the northern hemisphere, to see if there's anti-air emplacements. Any word from the Techmarines?" I started to worry, as if they don't make it safely, then we'll have no intel on what their base is like, and then there'll be no choice but to deploy the companies with guns blazing.

"No, my Lady. I'll keep a look out. It is strange though, I can tell that their vox-links are still there, I just can't get through to them."

Denilla and Albus then turned toward me, and told me our specialists were on the ground. Albus shook his head at me. "Caius went down there personally, alongside the twenty-five Apothecaries."

Denilla grimaced. "My wife, however, will be here shortly."

"Emperor's damn him, if I wanted him down there I would have said that specifically. He knows that!" I sigh deeply, and turn around. "Techmarine, anything weapons wise?"

"No sir, it seems there's a void shield around the Convent itself, but even upon bombing areas of the planet, not even the hint of anything offensive."

"Great! Denilla, suit up! I want all Companies deployed around the planet, and a better forward base established. I will drop at our base once the companies here are deployed. Hold out on deploying any tanks or gunships until after I'm on the ground and call for them. I want the 7th and 8th Company deployed at the current base, with Bike Squads ready to support the 1st to the 4th, who will work on establishing a secure position closer to the Convent. Denilla I'll let you coordinate that. Terminators in their Terminator Armor, we have no clue what we're dealing with." I looked to see if Albus had anything to add. He didn't, so I nodded at the Techmarine who was already relaying my orders, and at my Honour Guard that was running to suit up.

I hoped that there was a miscommunication somewhere, but it looked like we stumbled into the middle of what could possibly be a Chaos Cult taking root in the System.

[atticoratticus]

Hello it's been a while, time for a rant about Tokyo Revengers because I binged the entire thing in the span of like 2 days a couple weeks ago and I'm literally obsessed (slight manga spoilers below)

So after I got caught up to jjk I just decided to pick up TR for the sake of reading something. I tried the anime a bit before that because a lot of my online friends loved it, but the anime just didn't do it for me. I especially wasn't fond of Takemichi because of how much secondhand embarrassment I got from him.

For me the manga was so much easier to work through, even though in the first half there were still a lot of moments where I was bordering on throwing my phone across the room (not an issue with the story itself, just me being dramatic).

I feel like for me personally TR was a relatively slow starting series in the sense that it took a while to fully hook me on the story, which was kinda frustrating at times. The writing is kinda inconsistent at times and a lot of the plot points get sort of jumbled, especially towards the end, but in a weird way it works??? Idk man.

It's very much a story where you read for the characters first and plot second (at least in my experience, idk if anyone else feels the same there), which personally is something that works very well with my taste in manga. Some of the characters are pretty flat and only really have one or two defining traits, but all of the major characters are well developed and fleshed out.

I am a raging Mitsuya and Draken simp. I'm not gonna sugar coat it shhfbbdbs

Like I am SO down bad for both of them it's actually insane, they're just... omg. And it's weird because I went into the series fully expecting for Mikey to be my favorite, when after finishing he's not even in my top 5 characters.

Takemichi is a character I'm relatively conflicted on. He has a hell of a lot of development throughout the series which I loved to see, but it always felt like there was something lacking in a way? But then again, that does work pretty well because he's meant to be an underdog character who no one really expects much of at first

I will say that Taiju is hands down my least favorite character. Just for personal reasons I can't bring myself to like him, though I do appreciate how his character wasn't watered down to make it more digestible. Honestly I think part of the reason why I like Mitsuya so much is how he dealt with Taiju during the Christmas battle, I absolutely cried reading that.

SPEAKING OF CRYING. oh my god, I have not cried this much while reading any series in actual YEARS. the ending had me bawling like an absolute baby, it just hit so hard. Even rereading the ending still has the same impact on me, it's actually insane. The rereadability factor is through the roof.

The last 70~ chapters were both extremely necessary and unnecessary at the same time. Going back and getting a happy ending for everyone was such an overwhelming moment for me, but I feel like it definitely could have been cut down a fair amount just to keep things from dragging on. It would have been cool to see an ending that still had some level of loss, because while everyone surviving and being happy was super nice to see, it didnt really fit with the themes of the rest of the series. But hey, we also got to see Mitsuya with long hair so thats why it was so necessary (/hj. Maybe. Idk he's just overwhelmingly attractive to me)

I promise I don't only have criticisms I promise, bear with me-

The twists were genuinely so well done most of the time, like I was clutching my pillow with an iron grip for most of the series. I think the only ones that didn't really land well for me was that Mucho (the 5th division captain) was a traitor, and that's mainly because we never knew who he was prior. It sorta felt like it came out of no where? But then again we got to see way more of Sanzu so it's all good akfjjdjs

Pretty much every character was made well enough where you genuinely cared about what happened to them, and for a good amount of the antagonists you could at least understand why they acted the way the did (even if that takes a fair bit of mental gymnastics, but yk). Whenever a chatacter died, even if they weren't immensely important to the plot, you felt their death in your soul because of how heartwrenching those scenes were as well as how others characters reacted to it. If you say you didn't cry at least once during the series, I simply don't believe you.

I have a lot more thoughts on the series because I barely covered most of it, and the characters too I feel like I can talk a lot more about, but I don't feel like writing a whole other character analysis essay like I did for jjk, so I'll leave it here for now.

Overall the story was a huge surprise for me, because I didn't expect something to immediately rocket to becoming one of my top two series in general. Jjk has better writing in my opinion, but I enjoyed reading TR way more. I already have reread the series once, and I'm on the verge of reading it again for a third time already sjdjfn

I love this series flaws and all, because it doesn't need to be perfectly written to have such a great impact

[macroeconreflectionsdulce]

Chapter 2 Reflection

I decided to focus on Ilhan Omar, who is a representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district since 2019. A normative statement made by Ilhan Omar includes “In America, no one should die because they can’t afford healthcare.” during an introduction to a plan that would lower drug prices, since it is prescriptive and makes a statement as to how America should be this is a normative statement.  A positive statement made by Ilhan Omar includes “our homelessness is not a crisis of scarcity, but a crisis of moral clarity”, which she tweeted on Twitter on January 28th, 2019, this was a descriptive statement as it spoke about how the world is. It matters whether his statement is normative or positive because although a positive statement provides a clear description of what has happened or what is happening, a normative statement would be how a person wants to address a topic or issue in the way that best aligns with their moral values or views on humanity. Despite positive statements actually offering what is happening, normative statements offer a view into an individual's perspective on a certain issue or topic with an additional insight on their values and their moral compass.

 Identifying which statement falls into which category does make me approach and interpret the information or statement differently, I would not hold normative statements as important academically or as professionally as I would hold positive statements, however ethically and if I wanted to truly understand an individual better, I would take into consideration their normative statements more than their positive statements. This is because I feel that normative statements allow us to understand why an individual may hold a certain belief as to how it has to be, whereas positive statements simply offer what the situation is or what is happening. From a political perspective, it’s necessary to understand the clear distinction between both positive and normative statements because politicians more than anyone offer normative statements to national issues, “we should do this”, “it should be done like this”, “if we did it like this it would work better” and especially to win votes and to convince the general public that they can do what they think is right as long as people vote them into office. Political campaigns are rooted in normative statements, and I think I just realized now!

As I looked through the table of propositions about which most economists agree I did not find many I strongly disagreed with, however I slightly disagree with #16 “The United States should not ban genetically modified crops,” but not from an economist's perspective because I bet it must be cheaper and more efficient to grow genetically modified crops meaning I agree from an economic standpoint, but I disagree from my moral perspective. It’s just hard to understand what is going into our crops and if agricultural companies are willing to take shortcuts for the most production possible. I strongly agreed with #11 “The gap between Social Security funds and expenditures will become unsustainably large within the next years if current policies remain unchanged” because last semester in my algebra class we had an activity where we basically tried to find out how much money we would have saved up after 60 years that would be necessary for retirement and even consistently saving money isn't enough because inflation in 60 years will make a dollar worth about 20 cents (I'm estimating). It was an eye-opener because I realized how many people are unprepared for retirement and think they have many years to save up or social security benefits will be waiting for them once they retire, it’s not the reality. I also strongly agree with #12 “Cash payments increase the welfare of recipients to a greater degree than do transfers-in-kind of equal cash value.” and #14 “The redistribution of income in the United States is a legitimate role for the government.” because it reinforces Principle 7 of governments that can sometimes improve market outcomes and in my microeconomics class last semester we talked about how direct cash was more beneficial to families who are on welfare support than credits or equal to cash value support. I also do believe that it is the United States’ government's responsibility to minimize income inequality and to address negative externalities like pollution to ensure the well-being of their citizens.

[cantovi]

Yes, I never even touched anything HxH related, from what I’ve heard from fans is one of the best of its kind to this day (and I can see that through how many modern shounen authors cite as inspiration), but I suffer from what I call “shounen fatigue” so if I happen to read\watch a shounen once a year it’s a miracle, so even the best stuff gets pushed aside sadly. I’ve heard about his health issues, on how bad it sounds it’s insane to me he is still pushing himself to make more chapters.

I adore recurring themes, it’s surprising to me more authors don’t do it as much because I feel it’s such person to person thing to have certain themes and ideas that you always come back to it, even if you don’t realise it yourself, re-reading your own works will make you realise “Wait… I do talk about this a lot, huh…”.

You could say Araki is cheating, but he is at this point (part 9) on his 4th or 5th spin, no pun intended, on the idea of fate\fortune\misfortune almost 40 years in and he has not bleed his idea well dry.

Yeah, the Manabe thing I feel you, it can be applied to so many different things (the funeral division being absorbed is the obvious one, but Kyara after his death, Souichi after his defeat), so much potential to be expanded on a sequel.

The Easy Going Scans were the ones that did most of the early chapters iirc, they were a little on the rougher side, especially the quality of the raws, but free fan work is something I tend to overlook the flaws because we’re getting something at all. Apparently, in portuguese the Usogui translation is only a few chapters (and maybe abandoned) so I consider myself fortunate here. Also, if they are translating the liar eater thing as in gui=comer, I don’t I could ever read it because of how funny that sounds to me (“Aquele homem, me comeu!” - like just use another verb for us please).

English tends to flatten the particularities of the japanese a lot, I’m glad the team kept the “sama, san, etc.”, a shame I had to go to the Vomic to discover Baku uses Ore as his pronoun (I’m happy we got notes on Souichi’s changing from Boku to Watashi and vice-versa). I really enjoy when they leave the japanese terms in and give us translation notes, but depressingly I think that’s a dying thing for a lot of official translations (in english at least), you will read one and get 0 honorifics, no translation notes and even the order on how the names are said is switched to fit 1st name and then family name (for no reason, and in an anime it’s even worse because you can hear them say it and it’s not written in the same order, a crime to my ears).

My bad, my bad about the ahoge, that’s his little alien antenna, little alien boy!

The fashion is pretty conservative, but I could feel Sako’s itching to make them stand out even more lol. Manabe, that’s fair, Sako did something great when he made him.

I’m also fully caught up on Jojo. Lmao, I know I totally put you on the spot with those questions, but the answers are sure way to get to know another jojo fan, you might as well have told me where you live lol.

Your favourites are such good choices, I can feel you have good opinions on jojo just from that, a part 8 liker, let’s go! You just the gun back to me, it’s hard because I’d argue I can’t choose a favourite part or jojo, but when I got into jojo it was when we were deep into part 5 never memes and slander so I have an underdog soft spot for part 5 and Giorno and always say they are my favourites even now that the popular opinion has changed and can say there’s better written parts and protagonists, but I’m on this ship for the long run. Villain: Dio, no questions, his overall influence and presence in 6 whole parts compels me, he’s made for me to like him. Stand: song wise it has to be Vitamin C (banger of a song), otherwise it’s Killer Queen (White Snake is a close 2nd).

I'm at chapter 136 of Usogui (a.k.a. barely 1/5th through, guess who's losing this time gamble? It's me!) and I can finally say I'm have started to truly enjoy it, let's go!

I'm really enjoying Baku as a character, the guy is what I want from a gambling manga protagonists, smug smart guy who's a wimp at fights. I'm not feeling Kaiji, but we'll see...

[lyranova]

suspicious things

I have a question about many things that I get suspicious about in black clover ..??

1-In the entire série until now we don't know anything about asta's origin .ok we know his mum licita ,but really we don't even know where licita came from in the first place (her origin) . We didn't see her grimoir or her last name or anything about her and that make that more complicated

2- we saw in the chapter 328 the flashback of libee and licita when she told him about asta .that's normal but the sus thing is

"I will not see him again" why?? She can just watch him from afar like ciel did (yuno's mum) and we can see in the end of flashback that they were nearby the village hage so why she even see him?

3- licita said that she was so happy when asta was born healthy without any issue "" but asta actually has an issue "he was born without mana" so why she said that and she gave up on him beacaue of her curse .How she get that illness and when exactly ?

And asta don't have mana so he can live with her like libe does so that make think that her curse is not the real reason to give up on her son ...and she said that she will never see him again .. maybe because she knowed that she will die ...

4-licita gave up on asta the 4th October and she found libe in the same night ( nearly the morning of 5th october) is that just a qouincedence or there's something or person behind that .And how licita found the fifth leaves clover grimoir ?? Neither that libe and asta look like twins.

5- Allen fiairain . Zinon's childhood friend .I dnk why but I feel like his death story isn't like that .maybe that lucius illuse zinon that he's the one that killed Allen but that's not true" and I think also that Allen is not originally from the spade kingdom" . Even licita when she died or maybe nearly to death she holded the grimoir but how that grimoir get the tower . Did someone found licita and took the grimoir to the tower .. or maybe licita herself . Maybe she and Allen are related ( same family) and the have secrets and that knowed that asta should be the owner of that grimoir no matter what with libe inside of it.

6- the man of the tower is the only one that noticed since the beginning that asta actually has the fifth leaves so why he kept it secret .why he didn't tell him??or maybe he know something that no one should know about it

7- when yuno came from the spade kingdom to the churche (by ralf's dad's magic) asta wasn't there . And when licita left asta .yuno wasn't there. So how they ended up together in the same time ?? And from all the churches in 4 kingdomes and both ended up in the same church and the same kingdom,

8- I think asta is not from any of the 4 kingdomes because he's not originally from the clover kingdomes not from diamend .not from heart .And not from speed kingdom(as Allen he was talking the zinon about wars "in that kingdom" like he said and His behavior is suggestive that he is foreigner ). And like any fan else I want so bad to know asta's father and his original identitie .

9-sister Lily was and still a big sus for me . She only joined as nun in the age of 16 years old after few years after asta and yuno . Even she's the one that gave them the idea of being the wk in the future and she was so special that the elve assumed that she's not a normal person(a noble actually with a powerful mana ) and that did' t stop there she appeared in the color page many times like she's important in the séries from the start . And even she's the only one that get shosed to be a paladin (Not noelle or mimosa as royality with a great power or secre as a powerful noble ) so maybe she hide something too

Maybe she had connection with the man of the tower or ciel (they look like twins hh) .or even she knew their origins from the start and she had a mission to protect them (same as the man of the tower)And the both knew about licht's son and libe

10- that's the most thing that I got confused about:

*yami iskeid to clover kingdom

*William ran away from his family

And the both met Julius

*acier Silva got killed by mecigula

*Luis grinberriyal got killed by belthibub (ciel survived I don't know how)

*licita got killed by Lucifer

*asta and yuno ended up in the same place

*Julius became the wk

==all that happened at the same year!!!

==my opinion that astaroth is the one who played all this . Reviving two souls in one body .control one of them with his power (seeing the future and get answers ."lucius")and the other should be in a graet height statue that's why he ordered mecigula to kill acier ( the promoted to be the next wizard queen )

And because of the legend of the fifth leaves in clover kingdom. The true form of magic in heart kingdom and the creation of strong mages in diamond kingdom .they became in his plane .

11- asta's swords that originally belong to licht right ?that how that grimoir still 500 years to chose asta and get founded by licita also the swords and libe assumed that he's not the owner of the grimoir so it belongs to ata .So how a grimoir of devils chose a human ( the witch queen confirmed that our boy is 100%human) and that make me confused me more

12-Second thing if asta was born normal like any other person that maybe means that he has mana or other source of energie or power from his family?? That he was powerful since his birth (kiking the father he even make him bleed) and he didn't damage at all with stealing life force (mars and zagret as examples )or with soul changing (lucius ) either the abilitie of talking with souls (exp:patrie in episode 116)or seeing the memories (patrie and libe) or even sense people 's exixstance place (yuno in episode 17 . The girl and valtos . Also yuno in episode 115 . Luck in episode 104..). His great life force and strenght to inspiring people . He was able to use libe 's power without contract (the usual that anay person that want to use a devil power he should do a contract and he should be strong (noble)with powerful mana but asta used anti magic without a contract and without mana hhh like nacht said he 's different from all the other devil hostes . So that make me think that asta actually born with power that he awake it slowly through time without noticing and the greatest part of that power still inside him(not awaken yet) so the anti magic.

The ki and the next power up that he will get with ryuya are just sources that helps him to awake his true power someday .

13- in the last chapter 337 we saw that asta met yami's childhood friend or that what asta conclude .ryuya didn't say that they are childhood friends he said that he knew him but my theory that they are brothers if not they are cousins...

And that the dwarfs belong originally to the land of the sun with a great legend about them that's why there's dolls that look like charmy(100%charmy hhh)

14- charmy !!! I think that one of her parents from land of sun because she is hybrid of course and yami's family done something not acceptable so our yami protected his sister and got the lame of his clans death and run away but with lucius actions he ended up in the clover kingdom

15- the witch queen assumed that the reason why asta doesn't have magic or for real can't manifest his mana because of mutation in his genetics so that make me think that asta originally have mana but when he was in the womb and licita got cursed she didn't drain anything from asta because of the mutation in order to kept asta alive so yup my theory is that if an other mutation happened inside of him to fix the original one his mana will run into his body(mana was blocked from the start)again and here comes Sally rôle yup Sally! She was interested with asta' s genetics from the start and even she know something because she was upset when asta didn't came with nacht she was about to tell him something ....!!

16- acier Silva was told that she will die with the last birth(noell)because of noelle 's power she was so strong that make acier body in danger .. but she survived. That make me think that noelle is host of the sea god' s soul

17- asta is somehow related to the land of the sun why..?? Because all his life he was using ki without noticing and yami confermed that . He did the zetten from the first try . Ok we know that he got talent but bro.. this is huge that make me think that maybe asta's origin from this land (father) and his mum and Allen are from another kingdom that will shown up later maybe a kingdom that got destroyed and they are the only that survived so they lived between the four kingdoms ...and maybe asta will meet his mother( her soul in his mind or more memories (his original not libe's )) and have a talk ... about his power . His past . Origins... or maybe licita did something with her seal magic to asta that blocked his power to protect him

18- yuno father is alive !!!! Yea in the manga when Dante showed up that he killed the king that dead man was not loyce . So my theory is that loyce is alive but kidnapped buy them because of the real plan of lucius

19- the real plan of lucius ,, I think that creating new humans is just a little thing of his real plan that involve the grinberryals blood soul and magic (black sun . Bloody moon and stars falls on the wind )yea and he said that he will never let someone in his way again so originally he did that plan before but got runded by someone (maybe someone of asta's family)that's why he came to asta first because he knew somethings about him but he just said what he wants others to know . He want to kill him because of anti magic but nooo that's wrong or maybe he didn't know him but got suspecious+ anti magic =that boy should be dead hhh

Maybe asta's family (mother' s side or father's side or even both were team and their descendent licita and asta's father were so strong but due to the curse licita can't use her power ) are mages from thousend years and fight for the sake of the world that's why licita didn't want asta to suffer from their blood line or power and lend libe to him instead to live a normal life and lucius plan involve grinberryal. Silva. Vermellion . Lorobechika . diomand royal family . Charmy's family . Witch queen and Vanessa.finral and langris(possibility of belsibub ralation with vaud clan due to spacial magic) William and yummy's clan and maybe asta's family too(both sides) .and he will start with yuno family(the both family zogratis and grinberryal are related somehow because they look alike and maybe zinon . Vanica and Dante will be back but against their big brother because he is the one who make them devil hosts)

20- mimosa!! Maybe she had secrets about her mom and acier maybe she knew about acier 'death (by mecigula )and her power will be insane like attack spell and she will be the detraya host (that green spirit with flowers that helps the elves). And again I ship her with yuno I don't know why

And that's all sorry for that long . I hope that you agree with me and help me with your opinions .

Hiya! No worries about it being long I don’t mind 🥰, I’m going to try and answer these point by point and if any of my mutuals or followers have any ideas/clarification on anything I’ve missed please feel free to add to this 😁💕!

You have great theories and even if I don’t agree with a few of them or I don’t have much to say, I still appreciate and enjoy you sharing them with me 🥺💕🥰!

Please Note: I’m not really a theorist so most of these will have “I don’t know” or “We’ll find out later”, but I did my best to try and answer 😁😅. So my theorist mutuals may have better answers then me!

1. You’re right we didn’t see much on Lichita, and maybe with this Final Arc we’ll get some answers about Asta’s origin or Lichita’s. But tbh I don’t think her grimoire, last name, and where she came from are really relevant to the story and that’s why Tabs left it out 🤔, sure he could’ve added it to give her more “depth” but I think he either wanted to leave her as a “mysterious” character, or he just didn’t think it would add anything to BC.

2. I think there are many reasons why Lichita said that, one reason could be that if she watched Asta she would worry that he would somehow be in the raidus of her curse and would die, or another reason could be that if she *did* watch him and Asta happened to catch her he would either follow her or would come up to her and her curse would kill him, or simply it hurt her too much to watch him. Watching him grow up and be happy and playing, while it would make her happy, it would also hurt her too since she isn’t able to he apart of his life like she wanted.

3. I don’t believe Lichita knew that Asta was born without mana 🤔, from what I understand most children don’t show signs of magic until they reach a certain age. So Lichita probably didn’t know Asta was manaless, and just assumed her curse would kill him so that’s why she gave him up because she didn’t want to kill her own child. As far as where her curse came from, she could have been cursed by a devil (like Charlotte, Acier, and Lolo), or she could have been born with it like William.

4. I personally think it was just a coincidence that Lichita found Liebe the same day that she gave Asta up 😅. Because Liebe, if I remember right, was just walking aimlessly trying to get away from Lucifero and such. So I think it’s just a coincidence that he passed out there. As far as the five leaf grimoire, she could have either randomly found it, or she could have been led to it by Lucius or some other force. I’m sure Tabs will have an answer for it in the Final Arc, and if he doesn’t, then it’s either a plot hole or he didn’t have enough time to flesh it out.

5. I don’t think Lucius created an illusion to trick Zenon into thinking that he killed Allen personally, could he have? Sure. Do I think he did? No. I think Zenon just…did it 😅. As far as Allen being originally from Spade, I’m not too sure if he is or isn’t. Tabs could have easily just made Allen look and act like Asta in order to create a similarity between Zenon and Yuno, or he could have had more in mind and Lichita and Allen are related 🤷🏻‍♀️. I’m not too sure myself since it could go either way 🤔. When it comes to the grimoire it either could have “disappeared” for a time and then reappeared in the tower, or Lucius could have taken it and placed it there or hid it away. Again, I’m not too sure.

6. The man in the tower probably kept it a secret because he knew/thought it would be best for Asta to figure it out himself, so instead of just going ahead and telling him, he wanted Asta to figure it out all on his own.

7. The reason neither one showed up in the panels could have easily been an artistic thing instead of a “plot” thing, so I don’t think it’s very important 🤔. As far as the church goes, it could easily be a “coincidence”, “fate”, of Lucius manipulating things to go his way. But we won’t really know unless it’s explained in the Final Arc 😅.

8. I don’t have too many thoughts on if Asta, Lichita, and Allen are “foreigners” or not 😅. I mean, they could be, but whenever I hear “foreigner” I think of Yami and how he was treated by Clover. So while it’s possible they could be from a different kingdom that isn’t in the suits, I don’t know if they’d be considered “foreigners”. Hm, I used to want to know who Asta’s father was/is, but now I don’t really care 😂! Tabs will tell us who he is if he wants, or it’ll just remain a mystery forever lol!

9. Honestly I’ve just assumed Sister Lily is from a noble family which explains her grimoire, mana, and such 😅. As for why she became a nun that’s anyones guess, but since she seems to be important in this arc I think it’ll be explained by Tabs 😁! Ngl I honestly think the reason Sister Lily was chosen as a Paladin by Lucius was because of how important she is to Asta, yes she’s strong and her background is a mystery, but I think Lucius knew how much Sister Lily meant to Asta and that’s why he did it 😅. Hm, she could have been sent there to protect them by some unknown force, but it would most likely only be Lucius who would since (as far as I am aware) no one else knew Yuno and Asta were at the church.

10. Astaroth could have easily planned all of this out from the beginning, and we’ll most likely find out towards the end of the Final Arc. Lucius probably looked into the future and knew how important Yami and William would be and that’s why he went and had Julius meet them when he did.

11. Yes the swords belonged to Licht, at least as far as my memory goes. As for how they got inside the grimoire, Astaroth or someone else probably put them there if I had to guess 🤔. The grimoire probably chose Asta because he was “worthy” or, much like the grimoire, he is an “anomaly” since he’s the only person in the world who doesn’t have an ounce of mana, and as far as I know there is only one five leaf grimoire in the world, they’re both anomalys so they gravitated towards each other 😅🤷🏻‍♀️.

12. Hm, Asta could have a secret power, but I don’t think he does personally 🤔. Whil Asta is different then everyone else, I think if he had a “dormant” power that wouldn’t make him…well, him if that makes sense. I don’t really have very many thoughts on this tbh 😅.

13. I think it’s mostly assumed by everyone that Ryuya is Yami’s childhood friend, and that’s what I assume as well. I don’t think he’s Yami’s brother, since we saw Ichika is Yami’s sister, and I would think Ryuya would have told Asta that he was Yami’s brother 🤔. As far as the dwarves they could be from Hino, but then Tabs would have to explain how she got to clover or how her mother/father got to Clover from Hino 😅.

14. She could be, I don’t really have much thoughts on the dwarves 😅. But as far as Yami’s family and what happened I’m sure we’ll find out about them in the next couple of chapters 😁, but I think I stated my theory on Yami and his family a couple of weeks ago HERE.

15. Personally I think the “mutation” in his genes are either his anti-magic, his mothers genes that he inherited, or are maybe something similar to a devil’s genes? Like I said before I don’t have many ideas when it comes to Asta and his lineage 😅.

16. Noelle could be, but so far we haven’t really been introduced to any “gods” yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did exist in BC lore since we haves devils, elves, and dwarves. Or Noelle could be like Yuno and “blessed” by mana, although not as much 😅!

17. Again, I don’t have many ideas/thoughts/theories on Asta’s lineage 😔. Is all of this possible? Yes. Although personally I don’t think Asta’s lineage has anything to do with Hino (otherwise I think Yami would’ve said something 😅), but it very well could!

18. I have to kind of disagree on this one, because if Royce were alive I think he would have been shown by now, especially with the Dark Triad being gone now he would have no reason to hide and would have shown up with Ciel before the time skip, at least imo 😅. I could be 100% wrong tho!

19. Hm, that very well could be 🤔. I’m not too sure if Asta’s family was the one who “thwarted” Lucius’s plans before or not, because it easily could have been Julius who did that, or someone else we haven’t been introduced too yet. Whether they’re related to any of the characters or not is anyones guess, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon 😁!

20. I don’t think we’ve gotten any info on Mimosa’s parents, or actually any of the Vermillions parents so far (Tabs why 😭?), so there could easily be a secret there. As for her being the Host, again, she could be. How likely that would be I’m not to sure 😅, like I said anythings possible with the Vermillions 😁!

As far as shipping Mimosa with Yuno you’re more then welcome to do that 🥰! I don’t mind the ship personally but it isn’t one of my favorites, but if it becomes canon then I’ll totally be behind it and supportive!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts/theories with me 🥰! If anyone has anything to add feel free too!

[extemporaneousmusings]

23/2/22

Pictured: two lids of a vessel type called a lekanis, which is typically associated with women. The top one dates to the end of the 5th century BCE and the bottom one to the middle of the 4th. As is apparent, the style of drawing changes pretty drastically, which is something I’m thinking deeply about. (The bottom one should be black with the red figures and details added in black brush strokes, but something went wrong in the kiln with correct oxygen levels so it was mis-fired red.)

I’m still chugging away in the stoa. I have a little under 200 objects left to look at, which should take me about 2 more weeks. I’ve definitely gotten much faster, which feels good. After I finish this task I’m going to take a few weeks off from looking at the pottery itself because I am giving a big talk at the school at the beginning of April as part of my fellowship requirements, and I need to write it. It’ll be kind of a way into writing my next chapter, too, which will be good.

I wanted to write a mid-project update on how I’m feeling about the process. Honestly…it’s ok. Not bad at all, but, for all that my public persona on this platform is defined by proclaiming my love for pots, finally getting the chance to work on material for my own research has not been an utterly extraordinary experience. There have been days where I’ve really struggled to bring myself to sit down and focus and just look at the objects. Part of the issue is that I have a lot of problems with how the material has been published, which has definitely bled into my experience/enjoyment of the process, and been frustrating as I’m trying to muddle my way through confusing and inconsistent references while also trying to just understand and learn about the pottery for myself at a base level. But beyond my struggles to wrap my head around the material, which no matter what was going to be difficult, I’m also just like, not totally enthralled by it like I pictured myself being. I’ve truly handled this realization very well (shoutout to my therapist for helping me become better at regulating my emotions and responses) and I haven’t been devastated by my experience of having mixed feelings about spending many hours a day looking at pottery.

I’ve written before about how I intentionally structured my entire 20s around getting to this point and having the opportunity to work with the pottery in this way. But it’s not the most best, most amazing thing I’ve ever done. I still think pottery is absolutely fascinating—it contains sooo much information about so many aspects of the ancient world—but I find other things interesting too. In a lot of ways this is actually a huge relief. I’m planning on leaving academia when I finish the PhD and while there’s a very small chance I’ll land a curatorial role that will potentially allow me to continue to work with pottery in some capacity, this is almost definitely the last time I’ll be spending any extended period of time engaging with it. And I feel fine about that. To not be overcome with how much I love it assures me that I can find other things to do that will be just as interesting, if not more interesting. There are people in my life, like my advisor, who truly couldn’t live without spending their life waiting for the moments that they’re able to be in the storerooms with the pottery. But that’s not how I feel and it really validates my decision that academia is not for me (of course this is only one part of a much larger whole of why academia is not for me).

All of this to say—working my way through the material is going well, while also a little overwhelming. I’m so deep in the weeds right now that I can’t really see an overall picture of what I’m doing/only have very nebulous, undefined thoughts about what I’m observing, that I’ll need to start to flesh out when I’m writing my talk. But I’m in a good place, both intellectually and emotionally. I am of course still so grateful that I have the opportunity to do this, but I’m also looking forward to finishing the diss next year and trying out new and different things.

[atqh16]

Overcoming Distance

5th Chapter. AO3 here

Sasuke never thought he’d ever be among the people who’d hurt Naruto the way almost everyone in his best friend’s life has. He didn’t think he’d ever be the cause of one of the many scars that drove deep into Naruto’s skin and left him bleeding and defaced.

He knows that deep down his own trauma has left him broken and scarred and he and his brother had barely been able to make it to the other side after the event of their parents death in one piece.

Then that day came 5 months ago when he was just a fresh high school graduate, where he and Itachi had sat in their living room and properly talked to each other, to bare out all the feelings, misgivings, conflicts that had made them slowly drift apart over the years. It had ended with Sasuke sobbing in Itachi’s arms and for the first time in their life, his older brother did not try to hold back his own emotions. Did not try to be strong and unmoved and had finally shed grievous tears of his own in a way that showed a vulnerability Sasuke hadn't seen since they were just children. Before his Ni-san was made to carry so much just because he could and it had felt to Sasuke like coming up for air. They were going to be alright. Both of them. The issues between them would not be fixed overnight, but that day told them that it wasn’t too late for either of them to try and they did.

Then one of the worst things that could have happen, happened.

The most abhorrent part of the situation was that the drunk driver who’d caused the accident had died instantly at the scene. So, the boiling rage that simmered under Sasuke’s skin as he sat by Itachi’s bedside, staring at his broken older brother who was hooked up to a dozen machines just to keep him alive, had not surprisingly been desperate for an outlet.

And that outlet unfortunately came in the form of his best friend.

Both of them were not strangers to physical and verbal fights. It had been the foundation of their friendship and had consistently existed as a way for both boys to allow their frustration to egress out of them in a way that was controlled and safe. It was in fact one of the things that held them together. To have an equal who could take you on and give back just as much as you yourself gave. So, Naruto had not been surprised when as soon as he and Sasuke left the hospital, both of them had made a beeline to the living room of Naruto’s home and the first thing Sasuke did was tackle Naruto onto the floor.

But it soon became very clear that this was not one of their usual fights. The fists that flew from the Uchiha held too much force. The screams of agony that came echoed in their ears like a tinnitus affliction.

“Sasuke!”, Naruto called out 5 minutes after their fight had started, trying to lock his friend’s arms to his sides, “You’re gonna get a panic attack, you need to breathe”

“Shut up! Just shut up!”

“Sas-“

“You don’t know what its like! You could never know what its like! You've never lost anyone before! You’ve never had anyone to lose in the first place. You have no idea what it’s like to have that ripped away from you!”

Sasuke gripped the lapels of Narutos jacket and shook him so hard he was surprised he didn’t hear the blonde’s teeth rattle.

“So. Stop. Trying. To pretend. You know. How I feel”

Of all the banter and fights they’ve had over the years, Sasuke has never struck Naruto speechless, But at that moment, Naruto could do nothing except stare at him with cerulean eyes so wide Sasuke could see his reflection in them.

What was mirrored back to him made his stomach curl.

Too stunned to say anything else either, Sasuke pushes himself off of Naruto and with one last fleeting look, leaves before Naruto could even catch his breath.

Of course, Naruto doesn’t stay away. He wouldn’t be Naruto if he did. Sasuke doesn’t go back to the hospital and he doesn’t go back to his apartment and if it was anyone else, it would have surprised him that they’d managed to find him regardless. But he doesn’t even flinch when he hears the familiar drag of worn out soles on wet grass behind him where he was standing 20 minutes later in front of the tombstones bearing his parents name.

He hasn’t been here in a long time. He still doesn’t really understand why he’s here.

Without even acknowledging his best friend behind him, Sasuke turns and lets his feet carry him to where he doesn’t know. The only thing he does know is that the fury still leaking at the edge of his sanity demanded to be let loose so it doesn’t astound him when he finds himself walking around the seedier side of the city. Where the hoodlums and the drunks and the deviants were bedraggled at every corner either as predators, victims or morbid spectators.

It did not take long for what looked like a gang of kids, probably no older than Naruto and Sasuke were, to start following them. The jingle of the chain on their belts and the barely muffled sniggering rang like a melody behind them and Sasuke purposely slows his step ever so slightly before making a left turn into a lonely alley, Naruto following him quietly and there they lie in wait for the voices that were now starting to get closer and closer.

Sasuke might be the one looking for a fight but if these idiots were going to indulge him, then he doesn’t see a reason to hold back

They don’t go home. At least Sasuke doesn’t. He keeps walking into the night till he sees light break through the buildings and then like the flick of a switch he finds the nearest place to crash for the day. Most of the time a cheap capsule hotel on some desolate dead end of a street.

He never even changes his clothes no matter how dirty, bloody and muddied they are from the night’s excursions. He just simply falls onto the bed and falls into restless sleep that drowns him in nightmares every night.

But everyday he wakes up to clothes -his clothes- folded by the side off his capsule with a bottle of O-i Ocha tea and store bought onigiri triangles on top.

It’s the only reason he eats and showers and changes and maybe the only thing that truly held him back from plunging into deliration. But he can’t let himself think of the person who’d left them there. Who’d cared enough to keep him human even it’s only by a shadow. He can’t think about him because if he does then it might draw the Uchiha out of the numb dissociative state he’s thrown himself into and breaking out of that means facing too many things he is not ready to confront. Like a reality where he might lose the only family he has left. A world where any progress he and Itachi had made to mend their connection might have all been for nothing.

A life where there would be one more tombstone beside two he’ll also never visit because what is the point if he did? There was nothing there but dirt and worms and rotting flesh.

Four nights pass him by like a blurred compendium of the stink of alleys, the stains of blood on his knuckles, the drumming thud of fists, bang of wooden bats and the almost inaudible swish of knives and finally on the fifth night;-

The crack of a loaded gun.

He notices it too late. It’s not a sound he’s used to hearing and his senses have dulled from the exhaustion piled over from the previous nights.

The bang comes first. The initial boom becoming a deafening ring screeching in his ear for a few precious, distracting seconds before he looks up and notices one of the thugs who looked barely older than 16, shaking so hard on his feet that Sasuke expected him to keel over. The boy’s face frozen over so much so that he doesn’t think the kid was breathing. Finally, he lets out a choked sound, turns and runs and to Sasuke’s surprise, he’s followed by the rest of his friends. Some limping and bent over in pain from the fight. He can only stare at their backs until-

“Holy fucking shit that burns!”

For the first time since all of this had started, Sasuke finally turns around but instead of finding himself looking into Naruto’s eyes, his sight is instead drawn to the tear on the lower left side of the blonde’s shirt, surrounded by an ever widening dark red blotch visible even under the lone street light standing right outside of the alley.

Sasuke doesn’t really remember much after that except for a handful of things like the surge of fear in his chest so potent he could feel it at the back of his throat like acrid stomach acid choking him so not even air could pass through. He also remembers the feel of a warm palm on his cheek pulling his eyes up to meet another pair coupled with words that were telling him something. Something important.

His chest manages to pull two lungfuls of air before he realizes that he was being coaxed to breathe.

And the words “It’s just a graze”, repeated over and over like a lullaby attempting to calm the sirens blaring in his head.

It’s only till he’s looked over the wound himself and confirms that it was in fact a flesh wound does his hands quell ever so slightly from the violent tremble spasming through his limbs.

Neji meets them at the door of Naruto’s apartment, shoulders heaving a sigh of relief before pale grey eyes widened when he sees the pallor of Naruto’s usually tanned complexion glistening with sweat while his arm was wrapped around Sasuke’s shoulder for support.

It’s only the ever present wide toothy grin on the blonde’s face that stops Neji from slamming the Uchiha against the wall.

“Hey Neji, help me to the bathroom will you?”

Still, as soon as Naruto’s arms are slung over Neji’s shoulders instead with his head leaned against it, the Hyuga subtly gives the Uchiha a rough push that almost threw him off his feet if Sasuke hadn’t been prepared for it.

Even then, he can only stand by the door and stare at the two friends slowly making their way down the hall.

He almost turns and leaves but can’t find himself to take even one shuffle away from the apartment without first knowing for sure that his best friend (Can Sasuke still call him that?) was alright.

He doesn’t know how much time passes while he waits in the living room. Only raising his head when he hears the squeak of a tightening sink tap, the creak of the bathroom door and the whine of a familiar voice before its muffled behind the click of a different door. A few unsure moments pass where he fidgets on the sofa before he gets up and makes his way down the hallway just as Neji comes out of Naruto’s room. Their eyes meet but neither bare any emotion the other can see. Faces stoic as stone and eyes staring without blinking.

A few moments later, Neji finally let’s go of the doorknob before turning away and walking towards his own room but its not until Sasuke hears the sound of the Hyuga’s latch does he finally turn the knob of the door in front of him.

Naruto was lying on his bed with his back leaning low on his pillows. Shirtless, so the dressing covering his wound was visible under the soft moonlight spilling through the window, and Kurama on his lap enjoying ear scratches where he appeared to be asleep until Sasuke steps inside and the cat raises his head to give him a look that was sharper than usual (As if he knew exactly what happened) and for once, Sasuke felt that it was absolutely deserved. Still, he approaches the bed and slips onto it gingerly so he doesn’t jostle the mattress. He lays there on his side quietly, head sinking heavily into the pillow and limbs finally feeling the throbbing ache amassed from the past few nights. It’s not until he feels Naruto’s fingers scrape against his temple to push back a stray strand of his hair does Sasuke finally let go of the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding since he’d entered the room.

Silence captures the still air for the next few moments while Naruto uses his natural ambidextrous agility to repeat the critical task of both petting the Maine Coon who’d gone back to sleep on his lap while trailing the tips of the fingers of his other hand repeatedly along the strands laying over Sasuke’s temple.

Naruto eyelids are weighted down halfway over his eyes before Sasuke finally speaks.

“Naruto?”

“Yeah?”

“I think…… I should get help”

“If you want to”

“I think I need to”

“I’ll ask Tsunade, tomorrow”

In reply to the offer, Sasuke curls even closer to Naruto’s side till his forehead can feel the warmth of his friend’s bare skin and Naruto pulls him in even more till he can feel the heat of Sasuke’s breath against his side.

It’s not till Naruto’s fingers still and his breathing evens out does Sasuke close his eyes and follow suit.