#i wanted to work on actually having concrete adult designs for them

[howdyfriend]

silly drawings i did of hattie and bow cause i missed drawing them

[quibbs126]

So this morning I’ve been attempting to draw this megop fankid, aka Palisade

I think I’ve mostly been thinking about her because of my post last night complaining about not being able to use the name Nova, but then getting the idea for the name Palisade. And then my brain’s been trying to work with those ideas

Honestly I think the main reason I have ideas for her is the fact that she’s named after a pre-existing character, and her design and personality is somewhat based on that character (Palisade from Anodyne 2)

It’s why she’s a girl at all and also why she’s strong and has shield things

But yeah, I had ideas, so I attempted to at least get some general ideas out on a canvas, which is what you see here

Honestly my biggest issue right now is that she’s not tied to any continuity, and thus I have no concrete bases for her design outside of general shared features between iterations of Megatron and Optimus

I do think I subconsciously was trying to incorporate Transformers Prime things in there, like her sharper plating and the things under her eyes. But I don’t really want her to be in TFP, I’m divided on how I see megop there. You can sell me on pre-breakup them and if a fic has an interesting enough premise you might get me interested, but as is, as close to canon as you can, I don’t like it

Another large issue is that I have absolutely no clue what her alt mode should be, only general ideas as to what I want on her robot mode, like big things on her arms that act like shields and also weapons to beat you to death with

But I tried with what I could, which mostly consisted of trying to figure out her head

Like Overdrive, she’s very much a work in progress, I just felt like sharing her as well

But unlike Overdrive, I actually have some ideas on her character at this stage. We’ll get back to design things later

So basically I’m thinking that Palisade here is a rather large and bulky bot, something she gets from Megatron’s side. However, she’s far more about defense than offense, being very durable and using herself as a shield for others. She’s an absolute tank in the figurative sense, probably not the literal sense. She’s also supposed to have things on the side of her arms that as stated, turn into shields (possibly with energy extensions to make them bigger) and can probably combine into one big one if need be. But also they can turn into weapons and/or just on their own are very heavy and bulky, and are effective bludgeoning tools to beat the crap out of you with. And she is not above violence, so that is a threat

In another life, she probably would have made it big as a gladiator

But I imagine she tends to work more in rescue missions than fighting, wanting to help people and being physically strong enough to save them. I think she’d be neutral, but if she had to pick a side it’d probably be Autobot

Should probably be a good time to mention I don’t really know her backstory either, at least when it comes to her parents. I might incorporate the “born right after the breakup and yeeted as soon as possible” backstory I made up prior into her, but I’m not sure. Realistically though it’s either that or she’s born after the war. Still not sure though, I’m only imagining her as an adult

Personality wise, all I can really say is that in my head she’s very cheery and friendly. She probably should have more to her than that, and she probably will, I just haven’t figured out what yet. More depth would probably come from her relationship with her parents, but again, I haven’t really figured out the circumstances there yet

I think that’s about all I have figured out on her character, now to complain about the design process

Trying to combine Optimus and Megatron’s helms is a nightmare, I tell you. I’ve tried it before, and I really don’t know how to do it. Though I think in some cases it’s a problem of me not wanting to change an idea I had, despite it not working. The biggest offender of this being trying to incorporate antenna

But yeah, there’s probably ways, especially with the designs of other characters; like I think maybe g1 Dion’s helm could be a good mix of the two, I just refuse to find them or give up on what I want

But yeah, I tried to combine Megatron’s bottom helm things with Optimus’ antenna, and they never work right together. Because the antenna have to be on those circles, which need to be outermost, but the bottom of Megatron’s helm also needs to be outermost, with maybe some exceptions. So like, it never looks right, but I really wanted it here

The top triangle thing on her helm is also a feature I lifted from Anodyne 2 Palisade. To me it’s a thinner plate, more decoration than bulk, and while I’m still trying to figure out exactly how it works, I like how it looks

The leftmost two helm designs you see here are my favorites, I want her to have the antenna and the bottom things, but I just don’t know how to make them work together

I did come up with a semi solution though, while scrolling through my refs. Basically it was to combine the bottom helm with Optimus’ side horn things, and make them tall so they look sort of like antenna. It also looks similar to Earthspark Megatron’s design

I think it works and isn’t as much confusion for me on anatomy, but if I could make the antenna-helm combo work, I would rather do that

Also I’m still not sure how her helm outside of the red bits work. You might be able to tell they’re just kind of existing as is

But moving on from that tirade, I’ve had some ideas for color combos of the two floating around for a while, the main one I wanted to try a being grey and red combo

Sure she might have turned out looking more like black and red here, but maybe with her full design the grey can come out more. I’d just need to figure out an alt mode for her

She also ended up with blue eyes simply because I liked the color alongside the rest of hers. I tried red and yellow but I think I just liked blue best

Also there’s the little diamond thing at the top of her triangle. I think I just added that for extra decoration, but it does kind of evoke Optimus’ head thing, so it works

And yeah, I think that’s all on her right now. I just wanted to share this as well. Should probably work more on her, but I don’t know too much how to further her outside of more tweaking to her head

[kafus]

ok i've decided i want to infodump about vee and nova a little after all! because uhh not only am i impatient because autism but i also. want to dip my toes into talking about this. just days ago i was still terrified but now i am Tentatively Brave... if i can talk about it here casually like this then i should be able to write a more formal summary later some other time

i've tagged this post appropriately (at least i think i have, feel free to suggest if i should add more) but also a heads up here too before i keep talking that while i'm not going into graphic detail on anything there are STRONG themes of organized sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of animals, and grooming! (there are no disturbing visuals in this post, just text)

IF YOU CAN'T READ THIS POST THAT'S OKAY I STILL LOVE U

takes a deep breath alright so the deal with these two. back all the way in 2021, i decided i wanted to make "vent ocs" as in i just wanted some concrete/consistent designs i could use in vent art drawings that weren't a direct reflection of what i envision myself to look like or whatever. i was going through a lot in 2021, in december 2020 i had just gotten my first big repressed memory back and my life was in a whirlwind of change and heavily increased PTSD and DID symptoms, so i was using art a lot as an outlet. in the end i settled on this drawing, based on the design taste i would have had as a young person (god the quality is so old now LOL i've improved a lot but anyway)

i was intending for these two to be just visual designs and nothing more than that but i got attached and actually ended up giving them a whole storyline and everything, which is something i admittedly hadn't done in a long time up to that point so that's cool.

the reason i preface explaining the premise of the storyline with this is because i think it's important to acknowledge that these two are intrinsically tied with my real life and the feelings i experience as a CSA/OA survivor. not because i think someone has to go through awful things to write or draw about them necessarily, but because i am passionate about expressing myself. it's important for me to be seen in some way, to be heard after years of silence. it is not safe for me mentally to share the exact details of my abuse online rn (and please don't ask for them!) but i also don't want these two to be removed from the message that i survived something and this is me making art about that in an abstracted and magical way with a fictional universe that brings me a lot of comfort. i hope this makes sense lol

oh and also with that in mind if you think for even a second any of this is a weird sex thing for me or some shit please stop reading this post and go do something else with your time. this is my trauma expression and i don't need to be compared to the people i was abused by when i was a literal toddler thank you!

AANYWAY so! premise! gonna be point blank with it! vee (not her original name but shh) is born as a normal 100% human girl, aka without the eevee ears and tail. she is groomed from a very young age (like, toddler age) and eventually abducted by her groomers which happen to be members of... well right now it's team rocket because i haven't spent the time to worldbuild a new villainous pokemon organization yet. roll with me here. she is taken to a remote facility out in the middle of fucking nowhere and is never returned to her previous life or family.

Why? well i'm glad you asked! the org is running a bunch of different experiments in this facility and one of them happens to be trying to enable humans reproducing with pokemon. this doubles as both a money thing and a power thing. they seek out a child as the victim of these horrible experiments because children are easily malleable. way easier to control a child than an adult who already has a firm identity/self.

vee is the child they chose. surgery is forcibly done on her to give her working eevee ears and tail, and also like, fuck with her body chemistry and stuff. she's biologically part eevee now. yes this is bullshit pokemon magic science LMAO but she is kept in this facility and chronically sexually abused for a few years by pairing her with various mons and trying to get eggs to happen.

the experiment isn't working though so they hypothesize that giving her a dedicated partner, especially of the same evolutionary line, would help, and they raise nova from birth as an eevee to take on that role. eventually the two of them are paired together. despite the acts they are forced to commit on each other and the abuse they endure, they actually become inseparable very quickly cause like. they don't have anyone else. and also they just genuinely care about each other. additionally at this point nova has evolved into an espeon and has telepathic powers, so him and vee can communicate linguistically with each other, so you know that helps

generally my current focus of this story is in the early years, when vee is 12 and younger, before they start realizing that shit is fucked up and they need to escape (up until that hypothetical point they have been successfully groomed into believing everything happening to them was not abuse/was normal). i have left out a metric fuckton of detail here just to get across the basic premise. i am constantly exploring vee's psyche, nova's psyche, it's like an in depth exploration of the mind of an abused child in horrific circumstances and god it's cathartic. i love these two so fucking much

btw i guess this art has more context now huh haha after i infodumped off the plot to my sister they looked at this art again and was like. OHHH THIS IS EVEN MORE OMINOUS AND HARD TO LOOK AT WITH CONTEXT. AND I WAS LIKE YEAH!!!! YOU SEE THE VISION!!! THE SYMBOLISM!! ETC!!!!

uh yeah if you read this far thank you and i just wanna say i've been building up the courage to talk about these two for GENUINELY two years, it has been over 2 full years since that initial drawing, and i am nervous and jittery posting this but i do not want to die without having shared my work with the world and i'm willing to take the risks to get my voice out there. so you reading it is very much appreciated ur like my first step into being more confident as a survivor lol

oh and fwiw despite these guys being so correlated with my trauma it's not offensive to make headcanons or ask me questions about them or compliment darker art of them however you want, in fact i love that shit!! please i've been holding these guys back for two years i have so much to say that hasn't been said. as much as i am nervous i am EXCITED

[aeon-borealis]

Dumb AleHeather Related Rambles

I play with the idea of "Dumbass is jealous of/has a goofy rivalry with their S/O's cat" for Serirei (Serizawa X Reigen), but I just can't do it with AleHeather. It'd be in-character for them. It'd be so petty and fall so perfectly in place with what kind of writing better Total Drama has. Hell, if I got to work on an older TD cast special, I'd sooo want to storyboard whatever Looney Tunes antics someone brewed up for Alejandro and Bruiser.

But I'm not strict canon compliant for AleHeather. I can, will, and have broken what's "in character" to get more sincere, fluffy moments than I'd get otherwise. That includes both Alejandro and Heather being cat persons. And Alejandro loves Bruiser as much as Heather does because that's wholesome as fuck to me.

I've also been sold on Alejandro and Heather both being HUGE fans of puppetry and that being the nerdy interest they both sync on. I want to do more research because if there's a scene with more of Alejandro's room, there's gonna be more than just the Jim Henson poster or references to The Muppets.

I vaguely remember establishing Alejandro as a Star Wars fan in a fan fic too. I'm not 100% sold on that one any more. It's more because I've never been that into it and I'd have trouble selling a character's enthusiasm on it.

I made some fanart with a hypothetical AleHeather fankid back in high school. She never had a concrete design or personality. The only given was that her name was Alejandra Heather Burromuerto.

By this point, I'm not keen on revising this character or doing anything further because it's important to me to have solid, meaningful childfree rep. I'm on the fence myself, but I feel like deliberately childfree characters with rich, interesting lives outside of kids is woefully under-explored in media at large. To me, its very believable that Alejandro and Heather could be childfree by choice as adults. I definitely want to write/draw content for late 20's-early 30's AleHeather. I don't have any solid ideas or directions other than that drabble I posted a couple months ago about depressed Alejandro.

Writing for them at that phase of life hits a bit too close to home. That's why it's so hard for me. By the reboot standards, they're the same age as me! It was one thing to write for them as a teenager. Hell, a few people told me my writing for Alejandro was spot-on ten years ago. By now, though, I don't want just the angst-fest and I don't have patience for the soap opera theatrics with no real payoff. I honestly want to flesh out and do more with them figuring out a healthy, meaningful dynamic. That's more of what I'm aiming for with my in-progress fan comic (once I actually get back to it. Going through some shit right now and its been hard to drum up motivation again).

[sol-lar-bink]

your linework is so good i need to manifest it fr!!

btw anything to share about puffe's past? i presume she ended up working for haltmann at some point, but do you have a take on what the haltmanns'/puffe's "species" or homeworld is like?

Thank you very much! I love doing lineart ngl xD I find it relaxing to do it while listening to music/ youtube vids.

Hmm… I’ve never really thought about what their home planet would be like. I guess I don’t have a concrete idea in mind just yet… but I can come up with a few interesting ones!

I don't know if anyone else has talked about it either. I’d first assume they live on some sorta heavily roboticized planet, or a very futuristic utopia.

I mostly think of Susie and Haltmann just forever traveling space, but i do like the idea of them actually getting to have a normal life for a lil while when Susie was still young (First time I've drawn Max Proffit lmao)

Maybe their species all live on Wall-E esc star cruisers after some catastrophic event- or are just scattered across different planets and stars after they used up all their planets resources.

OR it could literally be just Haltmann and Susie that are the scientific & sci-fi ones of their kind, since they were a Robotics company first, right? Doesn’t mean everyone else would be the same! The rest of their planet could be like any other kirby world with a variety of futuristic elements and magical ones. I wish we could get some more info on them now, just to help push me in one direction. I’ll be thinking about that a lot more now xD

I'm curious to hear your head cannons too if you have any!

As for Puffe- There’s a couple little things I can think of. Admittedly I haven't thought a lot about her past aside from her adult life, so I just came up with this now (+ her new design helps fortify her personality)

She was a bit of a bully as a kid, but as time went on she would lose her friends one by one and struggle to make new connections after that. She’s always been loud mouthed, passive aggressive, always getting into fights, and it'd only escalate through her teens. It’s the only thing that really gets her attention from others.

Fast forward to now as an adult, she’s pretty lonely, with little motivation and not really sure what she wants out of life. Her young personality traits are still carried over, but now as a sad recluse. She bottles it up a lot and only gets verbal when in confrontation or challenged.

She ends up applying and working for Susie after the events of Robobot. Traveling space sounds like it could help her find some answers while getting paid 🤏 do some self-discovery, but that lonely journey continues, even with a few robot buddies. She starts to lose interest and falls into that state of 'tired employee who doesn't want to do their job'.

The only thing keeping her in the job is Susie, who is also trying to better herself from the events after all this time still.

Puffe really just needs some close friends and a little help to improve herself. And Susie is the start to all that!

[firespirited]

Vesper 2022 aka Vesper Chronicles in french. 2/10 abysmal, truly abysmal except for a few plant designs.

I kept getting déjà vu, certain I'd seen this film before. I probably have seen every single dystopia cliché and the decor/colour grading was so familiar. I could have told you it was franco-belgian with a large influence from something eastern though wouldn't have guessed lithiuanian, I was thinking polish or serbian. Obviously it's unrelentingly grimdark.

Spoilers and spoilers for Prospect 2018 at the end. Readmore for long ramblings.

There are two not actually sexual assaults that are filmed as if they were. General worst of humanity instead of people working together type film. By the time we'd drudged through multiple tropes I really dislike, I hated everyone involved in this film except the girl and i hope they don't work again. Hateful film that will crush a bit of your inner spark.

// I get the impression a lot of the reviewers who'd seen this on netflix had not been exposed much to european cinema: it has all the grime and gore of a classic olden times tale with some interesting plants. Please go watch La Cité des Enfants Perdus which has an actual soul at the heart of the green grime. We have dozens of films and tv shows that look like this 'unique' world. //

The world building falls flat as soon as you consider anything concrete: the food must come from harvests but where, clothes must come from animals and looms but where? The plants are carnivorous but how are they alive if there's nothing to feed on. It's just fitting your worldbuilding to look cool for a plot device: lady's plane crashes, she's found being eaten by plants and it looks gnarly. Beyond that? Plot device for plot sake, circular logic.

I could list twenty other similar bad writing moments most of them for pivotal scenes.

The film takes the path of consistent suffering and bleakness until it's implied that the world might be different from now on.

I decided to watch this film blind after seeing it on a list of recent female directed films. I assumed it was american or british. Big mistake!

You can expect about 75% of certain european female writer directors to be 'one of the boys', leaning in to more gross out, ultra violence or sexual content. They are the type to sign polanski support letters and hire actors disgraced in the USA.

It's hard to describe in terms non western continental europeans will understand. It's empowerment feminism meets white feminism but stuck around 1968 not 2006 with sexual attitudes that embrace teens with adults, not sane and consensual bdsm, lots of long debunked Freud.

They make films even better than the boys for sure but it's not remotely feminist in both what is depicted and what is inflicted on the female viewer. You could say at least we get female protags but the 'empowerment' feels more shallow than the music video for The Prodigy's Smack (spoilers for a very nsfw video: it's a lesbianbro asshole not a dudebro asshole)

Some people thought the ending implies the protag goes on to great things and I have no idea where they got that from: no leverage, no lab, no family. She has started the spark that will change the world but she'll have to find a blood broker to see the next harvest. She would have been better off with a guardian than so alone so soon with nothing to sell except blood and her eventual womb.

The few women of colour and lesbians directing or writing tend to have quite different vibes or offset bleak realities with moments of joy. (look carefully for a photo before making assumptions: born in north africa/middle east doesn't mean they aren't white and even whiter in their gaze in films set in brown or black countries)

Gay directors tend to do grimdark or sad sack rich people... just with gay sex. Uh yeah I'm not a fan of most french cinema right now but then again, that's a view shared by quite a few actresses and women who just want 2 hours of escapism.

It reminded me a lot of Prospect 2018, except despite it's deeply bleak story Prospect ends with them both having a new family unit, reason to live and partner who'll watch their back. Vesper has no-one. This was a poorly thought through initial cool concept that decided to throw every gross concept and trope against the wall, add dose after dose of misery then act like there was a happy end.

Please watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind for biopunk with heart, careful plotting, a designed biosphere, violence and gross bugs but always for a purpose.

[starblue2406]

Stories from mini-hell II

At this moment several memories come to me. I was recently suggested a very interesting, rare AU, which I definitely agree with and occasionally I will give it some content. But it's definitely not the weirdest one I've ever gotten into.

There are three AU's that have come out of this fanfic so far, but the weirdest one was the AU proposed by Paola.

It all happened one Wednesday, I was leaving the art workshop where we both stayed after class and while we were walking down the stairs to leave the school and before running away she said to me: "Hey wey, how about we give them kids?".

I could only answer "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?!"

She ran away, got into her family's car and I could not inquire more about the matter and I could only comment to Elgu between laughter and absolute confusion.

The next day at the workshop, I saw her again and now I had to finish with those weird incognitas she left me.

She explained to me that she was very excited to give …. Offspring to our dear protagonist couple (God, even after so long it is hard for me to talk about this without dying of laughter because of how rare it is or how uncomfortable I feel, but it is something that should not be lost in just the anecdote).

At first I flatly refused, I have never been a fan of giving children to a ship and even more if it is impossible, either by biology, history, rules of the universe of the work and the internal logic. What she was proposing was totally sending the above points out the window. It definitely threw me off because she wasn't talking about a hypothetical concept but some scenario she was imagining directly in the story.

It was a very weird thing for me personally and I definitely didn't agree with it at all. After a while of her insistence she finally managed to convince me and I agreed, but I gave her the suggestion that this hypothetical weird case was more of an AU than a timeline or something close to the story.

She agreed with no problem, she just wanted to see Arceus and Damos living as a beautiful family with two cute babies... As if Arceus didn't already have enough with the ones he made himself.

In the end I made my contributions too, because I definitely like this kind of stuff in any of its forms, no matter how weird it may seem to me.

But despite this we could never create a base for this idea, what I mean is that we could never create a scenarie where this as a mini story so that this concept could exist and have some logic, but we could never create it because of our vague ideas about this. The most I could come up with is that Arceus was in a project to create two new legendary pokemon (gods), but Damos for a series of mistakes triggered that these future legendary pokemon were not only of Arceus and these being half human-pokemon and not being "finalized" gods had to be bred from scratch and without a concrete duty.

It's nice to see the AU's that fans of your story come up with no matter how weird they are. Actually of the three this one is the weirdest, the others one I half created and the other one I definitely like a lot. Still this kind of thing in the end always paints a smile on my face.

Nevertheless, it still surprises and disturbs me xD .

Remaining records of this event:

Well, let's start here. Since we are very original, we wanted the children's names to be a combination of the parents' names, starting with "Damar", a cute little girl. I wanted it to be "Dagmar" (not to be so obvious), but Paola said no and it stayed that way.

Then he made his adult version... What can I say?... He looks a lot like Daddy Arceus...

And I'm not too far behind in this matter. I also made my "Contribution"(?), Paola likes the twin or two-child theme, I guess because she is from a family of four siblings and has a twin, so it's to be expected.

So I decided on this design for "Arcamos" (I didn't name him, I swear). The couple's second child, she was delighted to see that he looked more like his human daddy. My god what a fucking cringe that was xD.

Of all the drawings in this AU this is the one I like the most, since that's when I was able to put a little bit of my touch on the whole thing. Giratina would definitely make fun of Arceus for having offspring with a human that he valued the least as a species... That's the best thing I did in all this

I have nothing to say about these other drawings, I can only say that Paola asked me for them and I drew them with laughter of internal suffering.

I'm regretting as you have no idea to write this in this blog,but still I do it so it doesn't get lost in my memory and because to be honest this experience was also something beautiful.The fact of seeing Paola excited and comforting me while I was dying of laughter because of how strange this thing was is very beautiful.

[afr0-thunder]

[Mind Pt. 3]

*Renaming Daydreams > Mind*

If you were a white man and you found out your woman (also white), had an enormous attraction to black men, would you leave her or stay because you know you could not do better. For reference: They are always very attractive.

I’m having problems figuring out how I’ll draw up the blueprints for my future home. The design and all of it’s unique components make it hard for me to solidify the idea and make it concrete. There are always edits. I “stress” about structure because I want everything to be 100% the safest option. No unexpected collapsing or any dangerous structures for children or even adults, but lots of fun. Also, what will this type of structure be labeled as, as it does not fit most of the traditional ideas existing today?

I wonder where I’ll put my OTHER ideas that I will not mention until I can find out how I can execute them. I look every day and continue to wonder how I will do that based on what I see.

I want to elaborate on the centered, top floor 4-story room idea. Do I need more stories? Or more space? Does centering it make sense for the space needed. Will I need more space for fucking? I can’t have all of my baby mommas fucking in the same bed? Maybe I’ll make one a theater with a hall of beds, for that reason. Or if there will become enough normality in the situation for us all to sleep there? One big bed instead or an entirely separate idea as well (meaning both)?

I wonder which of them will like TV shows versus Movies. Will there be anyone who likes the same shows or movies? I want to know which one will I watch Scooby Doo with? Saved By The Bell (which I’ve watched a million times already)? Static Shock (Edit: Lilo & Stitch actually; Brain fart)?Most people forget that “Children’s” shows were written by adults and contain better plots and life lessons than “adult” shows, it is just overlooked due to it not contain sexual content other than sexual innuendos or strong language. There are more shows I want to see, I just let them slip my mind.

There’s this regular we have at work. She’s very tall with an extremely pretty smile. She is one of my favorites. I just know she’s a freak. There’s also this asian girl with a really pretty face and smile…and the doctor (or at least she works at a hospital) with big titties and a pretty smile. I thought she had a boyfriend, turns out it’s her coworker.

Do you ever think fucking is one of the best hobbies? I have other favorites, but I’m not sure how I’ll divi up them all to make time for it. I shall see. There are times where I don’t want to stop doing any of them, but fucking is just indescribable and unpredictable. As they all are, but like you get me?

Lastly, I think my new celebrity “crushes” are:

Elizabeth Stanton, she’s a sexy redhead on the CW. She hosts this home videos show about dogs

The blonde from 2 Broke Girls, also stars in “The Neighborhood” on the CW. Can’t remember her name right now, but she’s a really sexy tall girl. Love the way she talks.

And Margot Robbie, from “Focus”, “The Wolf of Wall Street”, “Suicide Squad” and the latest “Barbie” movie… I love her accent as well. It’s almost innocently sexy, which comes as a surprise. Some of the most perfect white women. I consider them “Elite White Women”. Margot is one of my favorite actresses, along with Amanda Bynes, Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice. There are many others, but those are some of my top favorites.

- MH (2023)

[09/21/2023 - 12:48PM] - Drafted

[09/24/2023] - Posted

[changeling-droneco]

#OP I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT THIS AU

Yay I love being enabled!

Okay so basically I was ranting to my friends about a video I watched about evil MLP versions and I was annoyed at while I loved the designs they made they had completely remade their personalities instead of actually expanding on their flaws. One of the new personalities was to make their old personality a complete lie and that they were involved with the mafia so I started ranting about how one COULD do a mafia based evil version of the mane six and set out some rules for how I think this would work

applejack's family is in charge, is just is, she's the only character that makes sense with how tied she is to the town

they need to think they're doing the overall right thing even if they do some wrong things to get to it

they need to still care about each other! they need to be friends! evil people can have friends!

they need to still embody their elements, but make it more toxic and codependent

give them concrete reasons to why they think this will lead to the best outcome

So this starts with Applejack and Rarity being friends as fillies due to both living in Ponyville, while their parents had "adult talks" they were expected to play together and while they had very different personalities from each other they were friends and playfought a lot. This would eventually lead to them as teens and young adults having a lot of flings with each other that always got tangled up before they ignored the other for a month and then immediately started flirting again the moment the month is over. It's a mess, they're disasters.

The Apples started this town for them as the leaders, one of the reasons they've stayed around so long is they won't betray a deal first, if you betray THEM then all bets are off but they never break their word otherwise. You may find yourself with a knife to the throat if you DON'T take the deal, but still, they won't suddenly change a deal on you. Applejack is being raised as the new matriarch of the group by Granny Smith who is the current don.

Anyways Rarity isn't high up in the mafia and honestly isn't the biggest fan of it, however with Applejack's influence she can spread her designs and fashion and art SO much farther! She can create so much more beauty! Sure some ponies get....hurt, but really, whats a few injuries between her and beauty! It'd be selfish to not take this opportunity!

One day Pinkie Pie comes to town and throws a big party for her being here now, someone tries to kill a member of the Apple family while they're distracted but Pinkie Pie detects it with her sense and foils the plot, immediately winning favor with the Apples and also a life debt. So Pinkie Pie goes "it's free friend" and now hangs out with Applejack and Rarity, she doesn't like the mean bloody bad parts, but Pinkie has the best fucking party drugs because she doesn't mind if happiness comes from a cupcake or a syringe, she just wants to see you smile so she tends to help out on the more drag trafficking and making side of things. She's one of the two main morality chains, as she doesn't like throwing sad parties so ponies get to live just to make it so Pinkie doesn't have to throw them a funeral.

Fluttershy comes to town and as is tradition a member of the apple family goes to greet her and welcome her in, get a glimpse and idea of the newcomer. So Applejack goes to visit and Fluttershy is too awkward to make her go away so they just have tea and they get along really well! Once Applejack gets Fluttershy going by bringing up Winona and critters she's seen in the Everfree she really gets going and Applejack starts to develop a bit of a crush. They quickly form a friendship. At some point something bad almost happens to Fluttershy, maybe a stalker? and Applejack solves it, bloodily. Fluttershy knows she should be scared, but standing over the body? protected? by someone so kind to her? she realizes she's never felt less scared in her life, she actually feels kind of in control! Craving this and desiring to pay back the kindness of her friend, she dives into the underworld, determined to protect the Good ponies who are kind to her from the Bad ponies who don't, no matter how.

Rainbow Dash is one of the few ponies that doesn't get in through Applejack but instead Fluttershy who missed her old friend a lot and wanted to see her again. When Rainbow Dash caught some crimes she was originally horrified and tried to shield Fluttershy and protect her from Applejack but Fluttershy stared her after Dash wouldn't listen and pleaded with her to understand how safe she feels and how sure it's not always kind but they can do so much good! Which Rainbow Dash proceeds to fall like a house of cards too because Fluttershy is too cute and too precious to Rainbow Dash so she decides to trust her. She's probably the most troubled by the whole mafia thing, and sometimes Pinkie gives her drugs (consensual, pinkie would never force something like that) to help ease her mind of it, she's put her loyalty to her friends above her morals even as she serves as the second morality chain.

At some point they all start dating and flirting and its cute danger codependency as their elements feed into their worst traits, Loyalty becomes blind faith, Honesty becomes control, Kindness becomes worship, Generosity becomes privilege, Laughter becomes hedonism. (this is not to say any of things are inherently bad it's just a quick shorthand)

When Twilight arrives the girls are all like "she's cute lets bother her" and poke her a lot with shenanigans and fun. They weren't planning on actually becoming as close to her as they do, but due to her connection to Celestia they hide the mafia stuff from her for a bit. That is until they discover Twilight experimenting with very illegal spells, she babbles excuses about furthering knowledge and how knowledge should never be illegal and that shes trying to understand them and fix them so they don't need to be forbidden, but offhandedly mentions how her research has kind of stalled by a lack of test subjects.

Applejack then starts to use her curiosity to bring her into the truth, giving her test subjects from debtors and people looking for favors. Twilight is hesitant, and even unsure, but the rest of the mane six assure that yes sometimes they do a bit of crime sure, they're just protecting the town! they're protecting the ponies! there so far away from any big civilization they don't even have any guards even though the everfree forest is right there! Things are different then in Canterlot here Twi.

The cinch comes when Applejack mentions Celestia gave them the land, and Twilight goes "well if PRINCESS CELESTIA gave you the land CLEARLY then this is what she wanted because PRINCESS CELESTIA is perfect"

It is worth noting that while their relationship is codependent and not healthy, it is not abusive the girls all love each other and are genuinely trying to be good to each other, they're just not in the kind of mindset needed to actually have a healthy relationship, here's an example of the dynamic of unhealthy but not abusive

Pinkie: whats wrong Rainbow? it's really late!

Rainbow rubbing a hoof across her leg, clearly jittery: i just, im having nightmares again Pinkie, was it...was it right? What we did today?

Pinkie: oh Rainbow come here give Pinkie a hug

Pinkie as they hug: does Dashie want some of Pinkie's special happy to sleep better?

Rainbow: yeah, i'd like that

Pinkie then smiles and kisses Rainbow, passing a pill into her mouth

Rainbow relaxing: yeah that, that feels better, thanks Pinkie

Pinkie nods: of course Dashie! anything to help you feel better~!

Got annoyed at evil aus that completely change a characters personality instead of expanding on canon flaws and accidentally made a fucked up mane six mafia codependent polyamory au during my annoyed grumblings

[corvidcrybaby]

On Y/N Fanfiction

so like as somebody who is still pretty new to the realm of fanfiction writing i decided to return to it by tackling a Y/N fic and doing so was honestly a very illuminating and rewarding writing experience if only because it shed a ton of light on the common issues with this form of fanfiction

as an academic thespian, interactive media and fiction has always fascinated me and Y/N fanfiction represents such a unique blending of elements that i honestly think some of the avant-garde playwrights would find very interesting. because like. okay. what is the goal of a Y/N fic? immersion and wish fulfillment, right? all fanfic is wish fulfillment somehow but then so is most art in general but that's neither here nor there - the fact one is meant to insert their actual name or a name of an OC makes it a unique level of collaboration between the writer and their audience.

and the general issue i find with many Y/N fics is that they simply do not capitalize on what makes Y/N fics potentially very engaging. the potential for meta commentary is boundless, yet if it's ever done, it's ham-fisted and very "winks at the audience" ish.

i find that the Y/N fics I respond best to often take what I call the Video Game Approach - the reader is viewing the world through a character's eyes of their own design, but video games are still built around certain concrete facts or assumptions that the player character would have. the biggest thing is that video game PC's are established in their setting, and have reasons to be there, which many Y/N fics simply lack.

thus, the challenge becomes, how can someone create an experience in a fic that is grounded enough to match the energy of an average person being part of the story they're inserted into (assuming that's what the reader and writer wants), while still fitting the scenario?

for my part, though she is no longer a Y/N character (there are meta commentary reasons for this that will become apparent as my current fic, Lesions of a Different Kind continues but shush, spoilers), in the Y/N fic I wrote for Hellsing, I opted to make the POV character a regular-ass Hellsing trooper. the reason being, this gives the rest of the cast a reason to be familiar with and have some modicum of care and respect for the reader insert character, while still decidedly grounding us in reality by having her be a grown-ass adult with her own opinions, agency, motivations and worries that a reasonable (if zany/neurodivergent) grown human woman might grapple with in a "supernatural paramilitary agency" setting. she's capable of fighting and holding her own just as anyone might - to take a page from the Halo Combat Evolved manual where they describe the Marines, "they're the best of the best of the best - but they're only human." she's used to her job fighting the undead, but it never stops being unnerving and "what the fuck is my job, dude, like, actually" - which I think any sane adult would question nonstop in a setting like this. I drew from the Wild Geese for inspiration, big time, and wondered what it would be like if one of them was followed more closely besides Pip as comic relief, etc.

That, I think, produced an interesting effect. I'd still like to fiddle around with Y/N fic more in the future and see what someone can do with it when you really put your nose to the grindstone and try to create something off the beaten path, because that's where i think the magic lies.

IDK fam my adderall kicked in for the day and i'm procrastinating studying for a work exam i just had to vomit this forth make of it what you will, i'm just a mad rambling scholar muttering to herself in the corner of a theatre building.

[purple-goo-writes]

Where on Earth is MDC?

Chapter 1 

Richard “Dick” Grayson with all his 10 year old intelligence and circus know how was pretty sure of one thing and one thing only- there was no way his guardian, Bruce Wayne, was married. He may have grown up in a circus as an acrobat and wasn’t schooled the way kids were normally, after all most kids don’t have a circus clown teaching them math or a Lion Tamer teaching science- But he was not an idiot! Plus he was Robin! He helped Bats solve some pretty tough cases. He wasn’t letting Bruce try and pull the wool over his eyes! There was no way that Bruce Wayne was married-except maybe married to his work as a vigilante.

For one, Dick has never seen or heard evidence that Bruce was married or seeing someone in the whole two years he has been living in Wayne Manor as Bruce’s ward. Sure, Bruce claimed that his lovely wife was a globe trotter like her grandmother and rarely came home to roost due to how busy her schedule was... Dick called elephant-dung on that. There is no way some socialite would be out exploring the world when they could be hanging off Bruce’s arm gossiping at all the galas and parties Bruce had to hold for his business. Though he is only guessing that this is how high society women act due to only seeing this behavior from Bruce’s investor’s wives, dates and daughters. 

He does find it odd that no one comments on Bruce never bringing a date to his own galas or other social functions. And that everyone when meeting Bruce glance at the odd silver ring Bruce always wears in place of a wedding band before giving those weird sympathy looks and subtle glances amongst themselves. Adults seemed to have their own language when it comes to greeting each other that Dick hasn’t been able to decipher yet. Though the Not-Wedding Ring doesn’t always detour the newer social climbing women from flirting with his guardian or trying to seduce him. Dick has been used many times as a human shield against said women and has come to accept/resent his fate.

Two, the young Robin has never seen so much as a tiny photo of the so called Mrs. Wayne! There are no portraits or photos in the manor that he has seen. While Alfred assures him that Bruce carries on with him every where, Dick hasn’t ever seen it not even after slipping away with Bruce’s wallet, just like Jackie taught him to do with the really rude patrons that came to the circus when he was younger. He made sure to return the wallet! He just wanted to see if maybe Bruce had a tiny photo in there like he had seen other men do, like how The Strong Man carried pictures of his husband and children around in his wallet. But, there was no picture in the wallet except for the one of him, Alfred and Bruce together in a family photo. When he saw the photo, Dick had teared up cause this meant Bruce did see him as family and not as an charity case like everyone at the Academy liked to say he was. Alfred claimed that the Misses was simply too busy to pose for a portrait to be painted and always preferred to be the one taking the photos anyway. While Alfred has never lied to him, Dick is still not convinced.

And three, Dick couldn’t find any mention of a Mrs. Marinette Wayne anywhere! Not even with the Batcomputer! All he could ever find was the latest travel logs of some woman named Marinette Dupain-Cheng, also known as the fashion designer MDC. Sure there were odd newspaper clippings now and then speculating when Mrs. Wayne would be returning from abroad. But those were not concrete evidence of her so-called existence! Honestly, it was starting to drive Dick up the wall with not being able to find anything about or on his guardian’s absent wife! 

The ten year old was this close to throwing a tantrum like no other in demand to get answers. How was everyone convinced that Bruce was married? If he was, then where in the world was Mrs. Wayne?! Cause, Dick would really like to meet her. If only to shut up the voice in his head that was worried that if She was real that she would have Bruce send him away. After all a Circus Freak didn’t belong in High Society. Though Dick was starting to worry if Bruce was really a widower and his way of coping with the grief was to pretend that his wife was still alive and just on an extended road trip...

Though if that was the case then why would Alfred go along with it? Maybe Dick needed to go take a look in the Wayne Family Cemetery just to make sure...

Dick was broken from his musings by Alfred coming into the Manor’s library and clearing his throat, “Master Richard, Master Bruce wishes to see you in the Family Parlor Room. There is someone here he wishes for you to meet.”

That puzzled the child sidekick, but he simply shrugged and nodded, “Alright, Alfie!” Before hopping up from his chair and leaving the book he had been reading in the seat as Dick darted out of the room excited to meet someone new. Maybe it was one of Bruce’s lawyer friends again! Like Dent, who was nice and for some reason liked to comment on how much Dick looks just like Bruce in that odd teasing tone all of Bruce’s actual friends use when they learn he took Richard in. Honestly, Dick isn’t sure what is so funny about the fact that he looks like Bruce. Genetics are weird and he still refuses to try and understand them. 

When Dick skidded into the Family Parlor Room, he was not expecting what happened next. Not at all. Because before Dick could even ask Bruce who was there, the ten year old was being swept up in a flurry of chiffon and lace as a lovely French accented voice started cooing over the tiny child in her arms. Dick would forever deny the startled squeak he let out and the fact that he blushed as red as his uniform top when he managed to get a good look at his captor. The person holding him could only be described as a heavenly beauty with long silky black-nearly blue hair and bright expressive blue eyes that exuded motherly love whilst she held him close in a gentle hug. Her smile made Dick think of the sun shining out from the clouds after weeks of rain and it radiated love, love that he could tell was aimed at him even though they had just meet. It reminded him so much of his own mother’s smile that Dick had started to tear up.

“Hello, ma petite colombe, it’s so lovely to finally meet you,” the heavenly being cooed at him, gently cradling the child closer with a gentle smile, “Bruce has told me so much about you. I’m so glad I can finally welcome you to the family.”

Marinette simply held her son, yes her son because even if he was not adopted yet Marinette already loved him like her own, close as the little boy broke down and started crying as he clung to Marinette returning the hug. She could tell he was relieved that she accepted him, honestly she warned her silly husband that Dick may be worried about her not liking him. Really, her silly love was just as silly as her Papa at times. She shook her head and tugged Bruce into the hug as well, so that he could reassure their little dove that they loved him and he was welcome in their family and home. Mari loved Bruce, but he was sometimes slow on how to approach emotional situations.

[bestiesenpai]

skate rat choso

This is just a little drabble for skate rat Choso, I got inspo from a cute ass pic of him holding baby Itadori :) no content warnings for this, although I must say it might get cringe? I tried to be wholesome, so let's see how that worked out. Gender neutral readerrrr and idk if i need to say this but choso and reader are 18+ lol

It was finally the first warm sunny day of the season. Birds were chirping, sparse clouds dotted the sky and there wasn’t any pollen in the air to make Choso sneeze. It was the perfect day to go to the skate park.

“Got your helmet?” And of course he was going to bring his little brother Yuji along with him.

“Mhmm!” The excited six year old nodded, nearly falling over as he held up his little helmet covered in sparkly Kirby stickers. Heading out of the house, Yuji ran down the steps, leaving Choso behind to carry his bike and his own skateboard.

“Your backpack, don’t forget this!” Holding up the tiny bag, Choso shrugged his own bag on. Yuji’s didn’t have much in it besides a few bandaids and a bag of chips. Holding his arms up at the bottom of the steps, Yuji waited for Choso to put it on him.

“This is gonna be great!” As soon as he could, Yuji ran down the street with Choso taking longer strides behind him. The walk to the skate park wasn’t far, and they got there in no time to see a couple other people Choso’s age riding around.

“What do you want to do first, do you want to take off the training wheels right away?” Setting Yuji’s bike down, Choso dug in his back for the screwdriver he brought.

“Yeah!” Hopping on the bike, Yuji bounced up and down impatiently, already dreaming of how he was going to fly through the air on the bike. Tossing the now useless wheels to the side, Choso pressed his hand to Yuji’s back.

“I’m going to hold onto you for a little bit to make sure you don’t fall, okay?”

“I’m not a baby!” Yuji shouted, trying to shake off Choso’s hand.

“You’re my baby and I want you to be safe.” Gripping the back of his shirt, Choso stilled Yuji. “Now try to push off.”

Lifting his feet off the ground, Yuji let out a short yelp as he began to sway side to side. Nearly falling several times, he refused to give up and with an almost angry pout on his face he was able to push the pedals and get the wheels spinning forward.

“I’m doing it!” He gasped, looking down at his feet and the way he wasn’t falling over anymore.

“You’re doing great!” Choso jogged a bit behind him, ultimately letting go and watching Yuji ride around in a wide circle.

“Did you see me? Did you?” Coming to a shaky stop, Yuji leapt off his bike and grabbed onto Choso’s shirt, tugging on it.

“I did, you were awesome.” Scooping the young boy up, Choso gave him a big hug. Squirming out of his hold, Yuji picked up his bike again.

“Ride your skateboard with me!” Yuji didn’t wait for Choso to respond, already stumbling to a start on his bike. Tucking their things underneath a tree with a couple other people's belongings, Choso let his board clatter to the ground and stepped on it, pushing off and meeting up with Yuji in no time.

As they rode around, avoiding any big dips or curves, Choso let his eyes wander across the park. There were a fair few people here, a couple that he recognized doing tricks in the bowl and sitting on the sidelines. Later, when Yuji was tired from riding on his bike and he didn’t have to pay attention to him too much, Choso would do some tricks as well and see if he could do anything new.

“Look Yuji, another kid your age is here.” With a little mop of messy black hair, the scowling child had a tiny little skateboard in hand. His helmet was strapped to his backpack that no doubt carried all his protective gear as well.

“I know him, he’s a new kid! He just joined last month.” Stopping slowly, Yuji stared quite obviously at the other boy. “His name is Megumi.”

“Why don’t you go over and ask if he wants to ride around with you?” Choso pushed Yuji towards the boy, finding himself intrigued with the adult that was following him. Riding over to the Megumi, Yuji leaned forward on his handlebars.

“Megumi?” He called out and the boy turned, his eyes widening upon seeing Yuji and Choso. “D’ya wanna ride together?” Megumi was silent, his lips forming a tight line on his face. Glancing at Choso, Megumi scrambled behind the person with him.

“Sorry, he’s a little shy.” You answered, trying to tug him off your pant leg. Smoothing a hand on his back, you leaned down to Megumi. “Is this a boy from your school?” Megumi nodded silently. “Do you want to ride around with him? I bet he’d let you hold onto his handlebars to balance.”

Megumi mumbled something indistinguishable to Choso, but apparently you heard it and understood. There was a quick back and forth and a rushed promise that you’d stay close by, and then Megumi was slowly tiptoeing out from behind you.

“Okay.” Clutching his board to his chest, Megumi looked at Choso and his own board.

“How long have you been skateboarding?” Choso asked, smiling at him. Megumi held up a five and you giggled.

“He’s been doing it for five months now.” Answering for him, you unclip his helmet and plop it on his head. “Show him your board, baby.” Flexing his little fingers, Megumi turned it around, showcasing the underside of the board.

“Cool!” Yuji gasped, stepping closer and pointing at the large wolf painted across the bottom.

“Thanks.” Megumi whispered, smiling softly despite himself.

“You wanna see mine?” Bending down so both boys could see clearly, Choso flipped his over. The deck was horribly scraped and scratched from grinding on metal and concrete and so were the trucks, but you could still make out the dragon design that was once there.

“That’s really cool.” Running his hand along the bottom, Megumi’s eyes gleamed with wonder.

“I can teach you some skating stuff later if you want.” Standing up straight, Choso flicked his eyes over to you. He really wanted you to accept the offer, he wanted an excuse to try and talk to you.

“Y-yes please!” Bouncing on his toes, Megumi looked over at you. “Can he, (Y/N)?”

“Of course!” Giving him a big thumbs up, you fished out his pads from his little backpack. “You have to put your gear on first though.”

Megumi rushed to put his gear on and in no time he and Yuji were riding around the flat parts of the park, both wobbly and slightly unsteady on their feet. Choso sat next to you on a bench and watched them, letting the sounds of the other park goers fill the silence between you.

“I never introduced myself! I’m (Y/N)!” The abruptness of your voice surprised him, but Choso was glad you broke the silence first because he was too nervous to. Waving and smiling at him, you didn’t seem to notice the blush beginning to coat Choso’s cheeks. “I’m Megumi’s older sibling, we just moved to the area not too long ago.”

“Oh uhm yeah, Yuji said that Megumi was a new student.” Nodding dumbly, Choso smiled nervously.

“Yuji is your brother's name?”

“Mhmm! And I’m Choso.” He quickly tacked on, almost forgetting to tell you his own name.

“It’s nice to meet you, Choso. I hope our brothers get along well.” Taking a look over at the two of them, you smiled. “Well actually, I don’t think I have to worry about that.” Pointing over to them, you and Choso shared a soft laugh at watching Megumi and Yuji chase each other around, their wheels lying forgotten on the grass.

“I’m not surprised, Yuji is really outgoing.” Choso had to bite back the stupid grin he had wanting to bubble to the surface. His little brother's ability to make friends with anyone was unexpectedly starting to pay off. If Yuji could make a good bond with Megumi, Choso had no doubt he’d be seeing the two of you again.

“Have you been skating long, Choso?” Your hand skims the edge of the board resting on his lap.

“I started when I was Yuji’s age.” He could remember clearly the very first time he rode a skateboard and the first time he fell off it too. “Do you skate or anything, (Y/N)?”

“I could never!” Rubbing the back of your neck, you laugh, feeling embarrassment come over you at your next words. “I tried to ride Megumi’s little skateboard one time and fell right on my face!”

“Ouch, really?” Laughing a little as well, Choso fiddled with the wheels. “If you want, I can teach you too. It’s not that hard, you just have to balance a little and-”

“(Y/N)!” A sharp wail cut Choso off and you both looked over to where it came from. Clutching his knee, Megumi had tripped and fallen over a ramp. Walking over swiftly, it was a relief to see only a few drops of blood on Megumi’s knee.

“It’s okay, it’s just a little scrape.” Running your hands through his unruly hair, you pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Do you want a bandaid?”

“I have one!” Yuji shot up, running past Choso and grabbing his backpack. He had a handful of bandaids and laid them in Megumi’s lap. “I have spiderman and hello kitty!” Picking up a sparkly one with strawberries, he held it out to you. “This one’s my favorite!”

“Thanks.” Meguim’s voice wavered slightly and he sniffled a little, but he took the bandaid out of Yuji’s hand and gave it to you to put on him.

“Okay, you’re all better. Go play some more.” A few minutes later Megumi was back on his feet, making sure to stay away from the big structures sticking out of the ground. Sticking around a few seconds longer, you exhaled sharply and turned to Choso.

“So, what was that about teaching me how to skate?”

Choso had never been happier about his decision to come out to the park today. While he loved spending time with his little brother, more than anything else in the world, getting to know you was something that was beginning to rival it.

With his helmet slapped on your head, you looked adorably scared to step on his board. Choosing a corner where no one would skate by, you gripped a concrete column tightly and put a tentative foot on the board.

“I’m scared.” You whined, glancing up at Choso and then back down to your foot.

“Let go of that thing, put more of your weight on the board.” He beckoned you closer, holding out both hands for you to take. Pressing your foot more firmly, you slowly inched your way off the column.

“Oh shit!” Just as you were going to take your other foot off the ground, the board began to slide underneath you. Flailing your arms, you jumped off and a few feet away. “I almost died!”

“It’s okay!” Choso laughed at your dramatics, stopping the board before it could slide too far away. “Take my hand and step on again.”

“You better not let me fall!” Pointing threateningly at him, you took a deep breath and put your foot back on. Bypassing his hand, you gripped his shoulder tightly and shuffled both feet on.

“Bend your knees a little.” Choso’s hand was hovering near your waist. He wasn’t sure if he should grab it or not to help you balance, but you quickly made that decision for him by nearly falling as you leaned too far forward.

“Choso!”

“I got you!” Saving you from certain death, Choso hugged you close to him, putting his foot in front of the wheels to stop it from sliding back and forth. Your fingers were clutching his t-shirt tightly, leaving deep wrinkles in the fabric.

“I don’t think I can do this.” Shaking your head, you forced yourself to stand up straight.

“You haven’t even pushed off yet.” Keeping his hand on your back, Choso let you squeeze the life out of his other hand.

“I don’t know if I want to, you saw me almost die just now.”

“Emphasis on almost.” He chuckled when you swatted at his chest. “Just try it once and then you can say you did it.”

“If I break a leg my mom will be pissed.”

“Don’t break a leg then and you’ll be fine.”

“Shut up.” Giggling at his comment, you squared your shoulders and looked forward. “Okay, I’m going.”

Choso talked you through pushing off, telling you where to put your foot and how to balance on the board while you pressed against the ground. He pulled you along as well, trying to help build up enough speed.

“You’re doing it!” He shouted, trying to let go of you as you started to cruise. You laughed loudly and breathlessly, heart pounding in your ears and legs shaking terribly as you fought to control your body.

“I-I am!” Letting go of Choso’s hand, you slid up to grip his arm. The tiny breaks in the cement were nothing, barely making a dent as you rode over them. What did make a dent, however, was when Choso fully stepped away from you right as the wheels met resistance on a big crack in the ground.

Luckily there was grass in front of you that you could fall into, and you did so with a loud shout accompanying it. With your hands outstretched to break your fall, your knees met the dirt hard and the whole ordeal knocked the wind out of you.

“You okay?” Choso was hunched over you, eyes wide as he knelt down beside you. Taking a moment to roll over and catch your breath, you sat up on your elbow only to be knocked down by Megumi tumbling into you.

“(Y/N)!” Wrapping his arms around your neck, he smooshed his cheek against yours. “You fell!” Nodding at the obvious statement, you wheezed as he squeezed you a bit harder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, baby.” Blinking hard as you tried to reorientate yourself, you saw Yuji with his bandaids out.

“Do you need one?” Holding up a large yellow one, he looked you over with the seriousness of a doctor.

“No Yuji, I’m good, not bleeding anywhere.” Patting Megumi’s back, you sat up straighter and eventually made your way back on your feet. “But I think I’m good for now on learning how to skateboard.” Brushing the dirt off your clothes, you glared at the crack you had tripped over.

“That’s fair.” Choso nodded, taking his helmet back from you.

“Don’t get hurt again.” Megumi chided, patting the parts of your body he could reach.

“Promise I won’t.” Hooking your pinky with his, you shook your hands together.”

“Hey Megumi, do you want to skateboard with me?” The question from Choso made Megumi immediately turn away from you, forgetting all about his fallen sibling and nodding so hard he almost fell over.

“Yes!” Megumi ran to grab his things, rushing to put his gear back on and meet Choso at a small ramp. You and Yuji trailed behind, choosing another ramp close by to play with. Yuji had gotten more familiar with his bike, only needing help stopping and staying balanced at times.

“(Y/N), do you and Megumi live close to the park?” He asked, doing circles around you.

“Mhmm, we do.”

“We live close too!” Yuji gasped, taking a second to look at you before going back to his task. “We come all the time, you should come too. And bring Megumi.”

“I have a feeling we’ll be coming by a lot.” You snorted, looking up to see Megumi going down a tiny ramp with Choso right beside him. Megumi was utterly enamored with the older man, completely focused on what he was saying and doing.

Hours passed of the four of you playing together in the park. Megumi showed off his ability to go down a ramp without falling many times, and he and Yuji raced on their respective wheels from one end of the park to the other. You also ate lunch together, Choso chatting you up when he could and ignoring the tingle of nervousness at the back of his mind.

“Ice cream!” As the sun began to set and the clouds were dyed a pastel orange, the shout from another kid alerted Yuji and Megumi, and the distinctive melody of the ice cream man flowed through the air.

“Choso!”

“(Y/N)!” Both boys gasped, looking between you with wide, hopeful eyes.

“I’ll buy.” Choso already had his wallet out and was getting up from the spot in the grass you’d chosen to take up residence in.

“Are you su-”

“Yay!” Jumping up as well, Yuji and Megumi ran to get in line for ice cream.

“Be back in a sec.” Choso didn’t give you the chance to argue about who would pay, already walking over to join them. In just a few minutes time, they were back with big smiles on their faces.

“Look, we got the same one!” Yuji announced to you, holding up the spongebob ice cream he and Megumi both got. “It’s got gum for eyes.”

“Here, we got you one too.” Choso handed you a frozen treat, munching on his own. “Megumi said you liked ice cream sandwiches.”

“You didn’t have to.” Taking a bite, a delightful shiver went up your spine as the treat came in contact with your teeth.

“I wanted to.” He shrugged, eating his ice cream quickly and crumpling up the wrapper. Choso was itching to skate a bit, try some new tricks and potentially show off to you, and now was a good time: there weren’t as many people left at the skatepark, most tired out from a full day and going home.

“I’m gonna skate around a bit.” He announced after gathering up the courage. Picking his board up, Choso made a point to put his helmet on. He wanted to set a good example for Yuji and Megumi and cracking his skull open on the concrete wasn’t the way to achieve that.

“You guys have to watch! Choso is really good at skateboarding!” Yuji was the best wingman Choso could ask for and he didn’t even have to tell him to do anything. Moving closer to the bowl, as you sat down on a bench, both Yuji and Megumi cuddled into your sides.

Choso started off slow, cruising and going over smooth inclines. He’d done many dangerous stunts before in front of a lot of different people, but having you here was making him a bit timid and as he did a kickflip he could only hope you found it exciting.

He refused to look at you as he did a few tricks, grinding down a handrail and popping his board up. A few times he fell or stumbled off and an embarrassed blush overtook his face, contrary to how he would normally brush off any mistakes he made.

“Choso go down there!” Yuji shouted, pointing at the large bowl encompassing the middle of the park.

“Okay!” He yelled back, riding over to it and dropping in with no hesitation. There wasn’t anyone else in with him, so he had full range to do whatever he wanted. Going as fast as he could, his shirt clung to his body from the force of the wind passing by.

“Woah!” Megumi shouted, lurching forward to see Choso carving across a curve and popping up, flipping his board in the air a few times before landing back down and skating away. “(Y/N) did you see that?!”

“I did.” As impressed as you were by the trick, Megumi was ten times that. Every single move, Megumi was inch further and further off the bench until he was right at the edge of the bowl and bouncing up and down in excitement.

“C’mere.” Hopping out, Choso lifted Megumi under his armpits and put him on the board. Setting his feet around Megumi, Choso dropped back in, holding the boy around his waist as they pumped up and over curves. Megumi let out happy squeals as they rode up ramps and along the railing of the bowl.

After both Yuji and Megumi had a chance to ride in the bowl with Choso, they were properly exhausted. Flopping onto you once more, they were almost too tired to watch Choso finish his run.

When it was time to leave, Choso was pleasantly surprised to learn that you lived in the same direction as him, getting the chance to walk you home.

“So uh, what’d you think?” He asked as you headed out of the park, Yuji half asleep in his arms. “Of my skating.”

“It was really cool.” You flashed him a smile, your own little brother walking slowly next to you. “And I know Megumi loved it too.”

“Awesome.” Letting out a quick sigh of relief, Choso rushed out his next words. “I should give you my number so our brothers can hang out again.”

“Totally! Yuji was saying earlier that he wanted me to bring Megumi back to the park.” Choso would seriously have to thank Yuji later. He quickly got your number, already trying to cook up a reason to text you that wasn’t related to his brother.

“You live here?” Coming upon your house, Choso’s brows rose. “We live just down the street, at the end of the block.” It makes sense now why there were moving vans here just a few weeks ago.

“Guess that makes us neighbors, huh?” Ruffling Megumi’s hair, you gestured to Choso. “Say goodbye, baby.”

“Bye Choso, bye Yuji.” Megumi waved, already shuffling toward the front door. Yuji barely waved back, snuggling closer into Choso’s shoulder.

“I’ll text you later, okay? Maybe we can get frozen yogurt or something?” You said, beginning to slide your feet across the pavement after Megumi. Choso was probably just projecting his own emotions but he could have sworn you looked a little nervous asking.

“That’d be awesome.” A light blush dusted his cheeks and he nodded like a fool. “I’m free whenever.”

“See you later.” Giving one last final wave, you closed the door behind you, leaving Choso on the sidewalk. Turning abruptly, he walked down to his house, keeping his head down to avoid anyone seeing the large, uninhibited smile on his cheeks. He was really happy he went to the park today.

[staranon95]

DinCobb Week Day 5: Sharing Cultures (SFW)

for @dincobbweek​ with a wedding!!

@astrangebird​ drew some fantastic art and i decided to write a piece about it. that’s that. that’s all of it.

AO3 Link

Wait For Me Here

“We should get married,” Din idly said one day when they were in bed, side by side to wait out the worst of the day’s heat.”

“Oh yeah?��� Cobb asks. He’s on his stomach, pillowed on his arms. Din knows this without even having to look because he knows Cobb likes sleeping on his front, usually one leg tucked up a bit, sometimes one arm stretched out for Din as if he’s reaching for him in sleep.

“Think about it. We live together.”

“Mm.”

“We cook together.”

“Mmhm.”

“We fight together.”

“Mm.”

“And we have a child together.”

Cobb snorts. “Sharing custody of your child with a Jedi might be putting it a bit generous.”

“There are also the school kids.”

“’cause half the time I have to tell them not to get into shit they shouldn’t.”

“Still.”

“Still,” Cobb says and breathes in. Then he opens his eyes and Din turns on his side to face him. “Marriage, huh?”

“Mmhm. Unless if . . .”

“Unless?”

“I don’t know what marriage customs are like on Tatooine, and the ones I’ve been invited to were Tusken in nature.”

“Well, shoot, partner, I reckon we go just as hard with our wedding flair as them Tuskens do.”

“Is that so?”

Cobb nods tiredly against his arms and closes his eyes. “Two-day affair most of the time. Eat and drink late into the night, sleep a few hours, and then get up in the morning for the breakfast feast. Everyone comes out with everything. Real big community thing as well.”

“I, I might like to see that.”

“What about you Mandalorians though?” Cobb then shifts suddenly, rising up long enough to lie himself across Din’s chest and hold him close with a leg in between Din’s. “I know you’ve . . . I know it’s not easy for you.”

Din sighs. The fallout from the survivors of his clan is still fresh. At least they didn’t strip him of his armour, but he doesn’t think they see him as Mandalorian anymore. He saw to their relocation on Tatooine with Boba Fett’s help, and finally they can live without the fear of being seen or being caught. But they will not accept Din as one of their own, not anymore, not after he gave up the Darksaber, allowed his face to be seen, and nearly broke every Creed he had taken on as a young adult.

“Well, the weddings were mostly, they were short,” Din admits. “Usually it requires an exchange, especially if one member were coming from a different clan.”

“An exchange of what?”

“Equipment. Weapons or armour. I once saw someone approach the Armourer to ask her how to show them to make a knife for their betrothed. It’s meant to be personal to a degree. Either you got this weapon in battle or you’re offering up a piece of yourself, your beskar’gam.”

Cobb hums. “Sounds very official.”

“Marriage is a pact. You raise warriors. You grow the clan. You protect the clan.”

“Mm. I can work with that.”

Din smiles. “You’re a very agreeable partner.”

“I try.”

…

What starts out as a simple comment quickly turns into nearly a town wide event. Neither Din nor Cobb know how the secret got out. They were thinking, originally, a small affair with their closest associates. Boba is even willing to host at his palace, and Din is fine with that. But then word gets out, as it always does, that the Marshal and the Mandalorian are planning to get married, and now here they are, eating breakfast at Werlo’s cantina, getting approached by one of the mothers in town who’s there after dropping her kids off at the school, no doubt, casually talking like Din and Cobb know what’s going on.

“Marshal! Have you decided on a date yet?”

Cobb blinks and looks to Din before looking at the woman. “Excuse me?”

“For the wedding! Gaia said you and the Mandalorian were planning to marry.”

Din chokes on his caf.

“Um, well.” Cobb reaches out to pat Din’s hand. “We were planning a small ceremony.”

“Nonsense! I know you’re both busy men. We can handle all the logistics for you. All you and your fiancé need to do is show up to the day!”

“Well, Lee, thank you for the offer,” Cobb says, and Din can see he’s trying to be polite about it, but Din knows Cobb has a hard time turning down any of the favours the townspeople show him.

“It’s my pleasure, Marshal. It’s been some time since we’ve had cause to celebrate! We’ll be in touch!”

“Yeah, Lee. See you.”

Once she’s gone, Cobb looks to Din, and Din tries to smother his smile behind his hand.

“Hey, this is your town too,” Cobb says.

“I know. I guess a small ceremony is no longer in the works.”

“They were going to find out one way or another.”

…

From how Cobb explained it, Din thought he had a good idea of what entailed a Tatooine wedding from the settler-slave population. Good food, good drinks, good company.

“Have you thought about a house yet?”

Din looks to Jo as he’s elbow deep in a speeder. “What?”

“You know,” she says like Din should know. “A house.”

“Why would I—”

“Oh. You don’t know. Right.” She pops her lips. “It’s a Tatooine thing. ‘specially for freed slaves and poor settlers. It’s a thing of pride to be able to provide a place like a home. I know my dad worked hard to get an apartment for me and my ma while he also worked to get our manumission. Tiny one bedroom place ‘til I moved out here. But he was very proud of that place when he had it. Point is—what are you bringing to the table, Din?”

Din blinks and reaches for a towel to wipe sweat from his brow. “I hadn’t thought of anything.”

“Let me give you the one up ‘cause I know the Marshal won’t be asking’ for it himself.” She slides down from her perch on a workbench to lean over the speeder. “Man needs himself a proper house. And I’m talking a proper house. Most of the buildings here are temporary. They’re not built for long term which is why they require so much maintenance. Houses underground are the way to be. They take a while, sure, but when you’ve got a village.”

He frowns. “I thought that was for raising children.”

“Villages are for everything here, Din. If you want to give him something good, really show you love him, come find me when you’ve got free time. I’m pretty sure I can help you out with that issue.”

She then leaves and Din tries to return to his work at hand, but he’s stuck on the thought of a house. Of building a house for him and Cobb and for Grogu when he and his Jedi visit. Where they can host friends and not feel too crammed in Cobb’s home as it is. Where they can actually bring their lives and interests together in one shared space. A shared unit.

Cobb enters the garage looking like he’s dressed up to head into town, and Din stands to greet him. “Hey, darlin’!” He kisses Din on the cheek. Din wrinkles his nose.

“I’m dirty.”

“We’ve been worse to each other. Now. I’m headin’ into town for a bit. Told Jo to hold down the fort and you’re here for back up.”

Din nods. “You don’t want me coming with you?”

“Baby, I know you don’t like to travel to Mos Eisley. Take it easy. I’ll be back shortly after dinner.”

“Okay.”

He helps Cobb push out his speeder onto the main street of Mos Pelgo and kisses him once more before Cobb pulls his scarf up over his mouth and nose and pulls his goggles down over his eyes and offers Din a two fingered salute and then he’s off.

Din trudges down the street towards where Jo is leaning against the wall of the cantina. “So. A house.”

She nods. “Come on. Let’s talk logistics.”

…

In what they originally wanted to be a quick and short wedding turns into a several month-long affair as Mos Pelgo comes out in spades to support their Marshal and Mandalorian in tying the knot. They plan for food and for drinks. They send out invites to the local Tuskens, who also seem enthused that Din is getting married. They think it a good match, and well, at least Din has their approval.

The building of the Marshal’s new house is quietly under wraps. All Cobb knows is that a new house is being built, but he thinks it for one of the families in town, even comes by to watch Din at work in the staked-out pit, helping to dig down and remove sand until they come to the more compacted ground that they can put stabilizers against and hold in place before they’re pouring the plaster and concrete for the walls.

Whenever Din has a spare moment, he plans with Jo for the interior. A nice open kitchen. A large room for the both of them with an en-suite bathroom. There is not only one guest room but two. One that will largely be Grogu’s when he’s here to stay, and also one for the Jedi if he plans on staying the night. Sometimes he does.

Then there’s the living room, circular in design that could hold a dozen people comfortably, and knowing Cobb, he’ll like the opportunity to entertain more. Din thinks it’s perfect, and he finds as he puts the work into making a home, he realizes he’s looking forward to it not just for Cobb’s promised happiness, but also his own. He can’t remember the last time he’s actually had a proper home like this. Not since Aq Vetina anyway.

“You’re in a good mood,” Cobb says that night when they’re finishing the dishes after dinner.

Din shrugs. “Just happy I guess.”

“Good.” Cobb kisses him quickly on the cheek. “You deserve to be.”

…

One of the next steps for the wedding is the clothes themselves. For Cobb it means he’s getting a robe made for himself. White, flowing fabric with a fancy gold trim around the hems. It’s a standard piece of Tatooine marriages, and Din feels himself sort of bereft that he doesn’t have something similar.

So he plans a visit to Boba’s because they have a shared lineage, and Din can’t exactly walk up to where his old tribe is and ask, “Can any of you help me dress for my wedding? Even though you see me as dar’manda and probably wouldn’t accept my marriage to an outsider?”

Best not to think of it.

He rides with Cobb to the palace, but Cobb isn’t planning on staying.

“I got business in town,” he says. “Might be a while. You okay staying here tonight?”

“Of course.”

“’kay. Kiss.”

He tilts up for Din to lean down and kiss him before waving him off. Then Din heads towards the palace and is let in by the guards.

It’s one of Boba’s work days, meaning he’s not seeing court, which means he’s pouring drinks for him, Fennec, and Din to enjoy. He always serves the strong stuff, which makes Din’s throat burn, but he’s getting used to it.

“So how is it anyway?” Boba asks, reclined on one of the sofa’s where Fennec can press her feet against his thigh.

“Going well,” Din says, keeping his eyes on the dark liquor in his glass. “The house is coming along.”

“You still haven’t told him yet?” Fennec asks.

Din shakes his head. “I want to keep it a surprise for him.”

“Sounds like you got it bad.”

“And you don’t?”

Fennec chuckles and Boba smiles amusedly.

“Fennec’s not exactly my queen here,” Boba says.

“That’s right. I’m an empress.”

“Still. A house sounds like a good idea. Putting down roots. Settling in.”

“It’s about time,” Din says, taking a sip. He smacks his lips. “But it’s getting close to the day and . . . the seamstress offered to tailor me something, but I was hoping for something more—”

“Familiar?” Boba offers. Din nods.

“I think you can help with that,” Fennec says. “Despite what he might say, Boba’s become a real fashion snob.”

“It’s not fashion when you have to wear it to impress people who won’t take you seriously otherwise. The battle armour doesn’t always work.”

“Sure,” she says. “We’ll go with that.”

“I’ll see what I got.”

They eventually move to Boba and Fennec’s shared private quarters where Din can examine the clothing in front of a mirror.

“If you’re looking for something more Mandalorian,” Boba says from within his closet. “I’d suggest the lavalava. Especially if you’re aiming for tradition.”

“Bring out the blue one if you have it,” Fennec says.

Boba returns holding what Din first sees as a skirt, but recognizes the design of it when he was first living in the Fighting Corps’ barracks as a child. It’s meant to be a more formal piece of Mandalorian wear for more casual settings if one didn’t want to dress up in full battle armour. It’s meant to just sit on the hips.

Boba gets him to try it on right there. “You’d probably just wear a light pair of leggings underneath,” he says.

“Oh, and then,” Fennec says, rising to her feet and entering the closet. She returns with a lighter blue cloak and a red sash. “Tie it off with this sash here.” She wraps it around his waist. “And then the cloak like this.” She lets it sit on one shoulder and brings the two ends together to pin at his other shoulder. “You know, I might have a broach that could fit this. Din, hold this for me. I’ll be right back.”

He does as he’s told and looks at himself in the mirror.

“Not bad,” Boba says. “Colour suits you.”

Din turns a bit to admire himself in the mirror. He looks at Boba in the reflection and asks, with his stomach fluttering, “Have you spoken to the clan?”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Last week I think.”

Din hums.

“They’ve settled in just fine. Getting along with the Tuskens just fine, but seems like they got more in common than they do the settlers.”

Din nods. “I had a feeling they would.”

“Have you . . .”

“Not since they relocated.”

Boba hums.

“Here we go,” Fennec says, coming back into the room with a silver brooch—in the shape of a Mythosaur skull.

“I didn’t know you had that, cyar,” Boba says.

“It was a gift from a long time ago. Guy who gave it to me certainly wasn’t Mandalorian, but I think it’s best to return it to someone it should actually belong to.” She fixes the brooch to the cloak and then turns Din to face the mirror directly. “There. Now you look ready to get married.”

Din runs his fingers through his hair. He might want to get it cut before the wedding, but he knows Cobb likes it when it’s longer and it holds its waves more. He should at least shave. The uneven scruff on his jaw isn’t all that appealing to himself.

“Stars, it’s going to be a mad house on the day of,” Boba says. “Seems like we’ll have to bring the good stuff, Fennec.”

“You’re telling me.”

…

In the days leading up to the wedding, Din sees to the final touches of the house, ensuring the furniture is in place with room for more when they make the final move. He plans on surprising Cobb that day.

They have a good celebration the night before at the cantina, drinks on the house, and then, in Tatooine fashion, the couple are separated the night before. Din is headed off by Boba and Fennec to Din’s new house, and Cobb is dragged away by his deputy Jo to his house.

“Rest up, vod,” Boba says. “You got a long day ahead of you.”

The next morning, Fennec helps him get ready for the day, making sure his hair is just right, and the cloak is sitting on his shoulders just so. Boba is there in his armour, and Din feels a sour note in his stomach that he’s not wearing any of his. He wouldn’t feel right after his expulsion from the clan.

“You still want the Mandalorian vows?” Boba asks.

Din nods. “If you can.”

“I’d be honored, vod.”

And then he’s led out with his friends on either side of him down the main street with everyone and then some—Tuskens, out of town friends, some of Boba’s closer associates—have come out in full force down the street as it’s been fully decorated for the day.

The ceremony itself is held at one end of the town where an arch of bone from bantha horns has been carved as a gift from the Tuskens. And that’s when Din sees him—Cobb, dressed in white with gold trim and with the hood up over his head, a red sash at his waist as if to match Din’s without even knowing. His back remains turned as Din walks up the aisle towards the arch and then he’s standing next to Cobb, shoulder to shoulder, with Cobb’s lifelong friend and impromptu wedding officiator Issa-Or standing before them. Din keeps his eyes forward for now, waiting for the right moment to face his soon-to-be husband head on.

“Now, I know ya’ll have come out and taken time off of your busy schedules,” Issa-Or says. “And we don’t have much time to dilly-dally like they did in the nicer districts in Mos Eisley and the rest. Time wasn’t a luxury for people like us, so we had to make do. Which is why we’re here to see that Cobb Vanth, Marshal here in Mos Pelgo, spends the rest of his days married to none other than a Mandalorian! Someone he chose to let into his life, his home, and share the rest of his time in this mortal coil with.”

Din feels himself blushing, feels a smile breaking out over his face.

“Cobb?”

He sees Cobb lift his head.

“Why don’t you take a look at your man?”

He feels Cobb reach for his hand and Din gently turns with a little prodding. And as he turns, he sees Cobb pushing back his hood, and Din feels as if he could cry at the sight of him.

He sees Cobb’s lower lip tremble before he smiles, as bright as Tatooine’s suns themselves. “Din.” Cobb lifts Din’s hand and holds it between both of his own. Then Cobb laughs despite himself. “First time I’ve been without words in a while.”

There are a few laughs among the crowd.

“Darling, my love. First day I laid eyes on you, I knew I couldn’t let you go. And I am a richer man for having you. Even if I don’t got much but my name and my reputation and the good will of the people before us, I hope to give you everything you could ever need.” Then he raises Din’s hand and kisses the back of it tenderly.

“At this point, we’d say a done deal and have a feast,” Issa-Or says. “But as it is, Din is a Mandalorian, and we want to respect that part of him, so he comes with his own vows.”

She steps aside to let Boba come up.

“If you’ll both repeat after me,” he says. “We are one together.”

“Mhi solus tome,” Din says, quietly, only enough for Cobb and Boba to really hear.

He watches Cobb smiles, the pink curl of his tongue before he’s repeating in Basic. “We are one together.

“We are one when parted.”

“Mhi solus dhar’tome.”

“We are one when parted.”

“We share all.”

“Mhi me’dinui an.”

“We share all.”

“We shall raise warriors.”

“Mhi ba’juri verde.”

“We shall raise warriors.”

“Oya, vod,” Boba mutters.

And Din finds himself feeling bashful, and that’s when Cobb pulls him closer by his hands.

“Now I consider that we’re well and truly hitched now,” he says, and Din rushes in to cup his face and kiss his riduur in front of an adoring and loving crowd.

…

The rest of the day is pretty much a blur of being at Cobb’s side, being dragged away from Cobb, of Cobb being dragged away from him. Dance until his feet ache and he’s dizzy. More food than he’s used to. More drinks than he can tolerate, and falling asleep in a tent when he’s imbued too much with a pink cheeked Cobb next to him.

A few hours of sleep later and they’re back at it again for a more restful filled breakfast and relaxed conversation before finally, the festivities are over and people begin to head back to their business.

“Do you want to go home?” Din asks.

Cobb stretches and yawns, looking exhausted but content with his station in life. “You have read my mind.”

They walk down the street together, their clothes in a state of disarray before Din is leading him elsewhere.

“Babe, where . . .” Then it dawns on him and Din can’t help but smile. “No,” he says.

Din nods. “Come on. Let me show you to our home.”

Cobb is speechless when they enter the new partially buried house. He’s taken by how large it is, how high the ceilings are now, and how cool and inviting it is. Then he rushes forward to kiss Din and hold him close. “Oh, you are full of surprises.”

“Jo told me it’s a custom.”

“Well, not always a custom, but we pride ourselves on being able to provide.”

“Then let me provide for you.”

They kiss again, deeper this time until Cobb pulls back to rest their foreheads together. “Mm. As much as I’d like to christen this place, I’m bushwhacked.” Then he’s pulling Din into the bedroom where they collapse onto the bed as husbands, as riduurs.

…

“Hey, Din. You awake?”

Din stretches out on the bed and opens weary eyes to find Cobb kneeling on the ground next to the bed.

“What time’s it?” he asks.

“Afternoon-ish. Just went out to get some things from the old place, and, um, I guess now is as good a time as any to give this to you.” He sets a bundle of cloth knotted off with string on the bed before Din, and Din rises up on one elbow to look at it.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Din says, tugging at the strings.

“Yeah, well.” Cobb rubs the back of his neck, a nervous tic of his. “I felt like I had to for this one.”

In the cloth is an ornate dagger with its own leather sheath. When Din pulls the blade, he’s mesmerized with how the blade shimmers. A single piece that looks like it’s been carved from onyx.

“Cobb, I—” Then he sees the mark in the hilt of it.

The mark of his tribe. The Mythosaur skull. On the other side is the mark of the mudhorn.

He looks up to Cobb. “Where did you get this?”

“Well, I, I went to your clan.”

Din breathes out and sits up in full with the dagger in his lap. Cobb comes to sit on the edge of the bed.

“When you told me about your customs, and seeing your armour just sitting in our wardrobe for months, I wanted, I wanted to confront your clan. I know things are rocky between you and them, but I went in there to just speak with them at first. Then next thing I know, I’m sitting on the ground drinking tea with your matriarch.”

Din closes his eyes for a moment.

“And I don’t tell her everything, I don’t ream her out or nothing. I know you hold her in high regard. But I told her I was intending on marrying you and I wanted to do it right by you. No one else. So, she said she’d show me how to make something. And each time I visited, she’d ask about you and I’d tell her that, oh, you were a guest speaker in the school today, or you had fixed the power generators. And she’d tell me my smithy skills were shit and tell me to begin again.”

Din laughs. “Yeah, that sounds like her.”

“Then she asked me why I wanted to marry you. And I told her I wanted to spend the rest of my days making you happy, giving you everything you could ever need. And she said, he deserves it.”

He lifts his head to look at Cobb. “She said that?”

Cobb nods. “I think she misses you. She won’t say it, but she does. I think it’s just taking some time for her and some of the others to come around to this new world order of theirs. But next time I go, I want you to come with me.”

Din nods. “Yes. Yes, I’d love that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” He kisses Cobb several times and holds him close with the knife on the bed spread next to him.

They don’t plan the trip out to Din’s clan for some weeks yet. They have a house to settle into after all. But then one day, they’re setting out on Cobb’s speeder. This time Din is wearing his armour with the knife at his hip. And this time they are facing Din’s clan together as one.

[jasontoddiefor]

Title: infinitely varied Ship: obikin Summary: Sometimes your husband decides to develop an artificial intelligence capable of free choice and something called a soul and succeeds in the middle of a Thursday night. Or, more concretely: he's in the middle of succeeding because said intelligence first has to learn how to speak.Also known as Obi-Wan and Anakin teach a tiny program called A.H.S.O.K.A. how to be something more than lines of code via the power of linguistics. AN: Happy birthday @ghostwriterofthemachine

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

Noam Chomsky

I.

Life was a query of expectations, margins on doorframes, bucket lists, first loves, broken hearts, and happy middles because only fools would settle for a happy ending when they had so many decades left to live. The thought never failed to bring a smile to Anakin’s face, no matter how frustrated, remembering the simple way Obi-Wan had proposed. There had been no fancy dinner, particularly stunning outing, or anything resembling outlandish romantic gestures. Anakin would have appreciated them because every act would have been colored by Obi-Wan’s love, but now, older and wiser than the rash youth who’s fallen in love at first heated debate, he preferred the way their proposal had actually gone down. A quiet Sunday morning, eating breakfast together on the sofa while the news droned in the background from Anakin’s old radio, a hesitant “I don’t need forever, but I want the present”.

And, well, for all his genius, Anakin could be a bit of an idiot sometimes, but not when it came to this.

Married life was interesting.

Somehow nothing changed, except also everything. They had bought a real house, moved out of their old apartment and made more compromises than Anakin had ever thought himself capable of, for they hadn’t been like fighting an uphill battle but dancing together. It had made him happy to paint the entrance hall in the shade of green Obi-Wan preferred if he got to paint the kitchen in the light blue he wanted.

Obi-Wan got the attic for his office where his antique book collection looked right at home, and Anakin got the basement where the hum of his servers and the generator powering them annoyed nobody else.

It was as close to white-picket-fence as it could be with two queer men, no kids, a bratty cat, and an anxious dog under one roof. His childhood self would be appalled to see how much Anakin, always the whirlwind, had settled. To a nine-year-old, Anakin probably looked very adult.

Anakin, however, did not feel very grown-up, banging his head against his desk in the middle of the night. Obi-Wan had gone to sleep hours ago, and so had Anakin until inspiration had struck and he’d snuck out of bed to return to his favorite project.

A.H.S.O.K.A may not be a child, but Anakin certainly could relate to exhausted parents when they complained about their children in endless repetitions. To this day, Anakin didn’t know why his mother figured it would be great parenting to encourage her WarGames obsessed kid to dig into the world of artificial intelligence when WOPR nearly started a nuclear war, but he’d forever remain thankful.

Or, he’d resume being thankful when he could finally get A.H.S.O.K.A to learn. He’d rewritten her code a thousand times. It was his ever-constant companion, from his first awful-looking early 2000s website to its current incarnation. A.H.S.O.K.A could solve simple logic puzzles, given that he fed her enough data. Her solutions to tasks could be downright hilarious, but they were not enough. He wanted her to be smarter, better, capable of gaining true understanding.

Perhaps, it was a dream for the future and not a Thursday night.

Anakin didn’t have any work tomorrow morning as he worked as a freelancer, so he could afford to pull an all-nighter. But his dear husband had planned a nice afternoon for them, so Anakin should call it a night or a morning as a glance at the clock told him.

Staring at the many lines of code again, Anakin sighed and leaned back in his chair and took another sip of his by-now cold tea. Obi-Wan would definitely complain that Anakin had snatched his favorite mug once he got up and couldn’t find it in the kitchen. Anakin had bought it at the last linguistic convention Obi-Wan had taken him to.

Language is a process of free invention, it read in delicate cursive before the rest of the quote disassembled in pure chaos.

Huh.

Now there was a thought. Anakin got out of his chair and left the basement, haunted by fixed principles and infinite combinations. Up in the attic, carrying Obi-Wan’s computer downstairs again, Anakin thought on interpretations and free creations. He was as giddy and nervous as he’d been on the morning of his wedding day, which had started similarly early. Connecting Obi-Wan’s computer, and more importantly, the priced result of his thesis, to Anakin’s server felt a little like unwrapping birthday presents.

language_acquisition_prediction.exe

Enter.

II.

Obi-Wan was not surprised when he woke to an empty bed. Anakin had a habit of suddenly pulling all-nighters or getting up early before the sun even thought of rising. Given that he couldn’t smell breakfast yet, Obi-Wan deduced that Anakin had pulled an all-nighter again. He slowly crawled out of bed to avoid disturbing Artoo and Threepio sleeping to his feet. Obi-Wan was pretty sure he shared his bed more often with his pets than he did with his husband.

He walked down the stairs to the ground level and went by the kitchen to prepare himself a cup of tea. To his displeasure, Obi-Wan couldn’t find his favorite mug and so had to settle for another. After another thought, he decided to make a second one for Anakin, lavender this time so Anakin would hopefully crash after breakfast. He put both mugs on a small tray together with a couple tomatoes. Obi-Wan usually wasn’t one for eating a full breakfast on workdays – that was the influence of Anakin and his mother’s kitchen – but he was the expert in smalltime snacks. With both in hand, he walked down the second flight of stairs, down to the basement. As expected, he found Anakin at his desk, clinging to what was bound to be a cold cup, staring intensely at his screens, which were running one program or another.

“Good morning,” Obi-Wan greeted him and kissed Anakin’s cheek.

“Mo-orning,” Anakin replied, a yawn interrupting him halfway. “Wait, what time is it?”

“Eight,” Obi-Wan said. “How long have you been up?”

“Uuuh.” Obi-Wan didn’t need to see Anakin’s face to know the answer. “Did you even go to sleep?”

“I did sleep for a while!” Anakin argued. “But then I had an idea, I mean, look at this!”

Obi-Wan gave the screens a closer look. Despite common misconceptions, he was not technically illiterate. Privately, he blamed the fact that Anakin was quite well known for his tech know-how and Obi-Wan tended to talk more about literature given that he was filling in as a lecturer in the British Lit. department. Nevertheless, Obi-Wan had gotten his professorship with a program he’d written, and the code currently displayed on the screens looked very similar to a section that had given him stress nightmares. “Is that my thesis?” he asked.

“Yes, sorta, partially?” Anakin replied. “I kind of took it apart a lot and maybe corrupted it a bit, but that’s not the important part! Look what she’s doing with it.”

She could only refer to one person, intelligence. There were a few constants in their life, their new house the most recent one, and Ahsoka was probably the longest. Obi-Wan didn’t know why Anakin hadn’t set her aside already, he was happy enough to leave other started-never-finished projects lying around, but the last time he’d even just suggested such, Anakin had looked heartbroken.

Obi-Wan looked at the screen Anakin was pointing at and began to read.

script input: inhibition auditory input 1 designation skyguy: /ˌɪn.ɪˈbɪʃ.ən/ auditory input 2 designation professor: /ˌɪn.hɪˈbɪʃ.ən/ analysis: mismatch diagnosis: outstanding

script input: better auditory input 1 designation skyguy: /ˈbet̬.ɚ/ auditory input 2 designation professor: /ˈbet.ər/ analysis: mismatch diagnosis: rhoticism? query: define

The text continued for a while, though apparently Ahsoka only picked out the mismatched parts in her analysis.

“Is that ‘Must have done something right’?” Obi-Wan asked, the connection between the words suddenly starting to make sense.

“Yes!” Anakin grinned. “I wasn’t quite sure how to teach her sounds properly because I hadn’t equipped her with a sound analysis program before and I figured that if babies just learn by listening to their parents, Ahsoka could learn by listening to us.”

“So you fed her audio of us singing?” Obi-Wan wasn’t sure whether to be impressed, confused, or just plain tired but decided to settle on confusion for now and let the course of the conversation determine where they’d end up.

“That too, but I actually just started by playing old voice messages. I figured getting her used to just one phonetic inventory would be enough for now. Honestly, for the first hour, I wasn’t even sure whether that would be of any use because she had no symbols to connect the sounds to, and I thought using the IPA might bias her.”

Because, of course, Anakin never deleted any of Obi-Wan’s voice messages and just kept them on his phone. The fact that he just glossed over it as if it weren’t anything special either made Obi-Wan smile.

“It’s cute that you think we have the same inventory,” Obi-Wan commented. “But continue. You just let her listen to sounds and then? Don’t tell me you gave her written texts.”

Anakin rolled his eyes and confirmed another one of Ahsoka’s queries before answering. “No, I gave her the IPA then and let her listen to the full inventory and then analyze which ones we use.”

That made enough sense. Obi-Wan was reasonably sure it was a great deal more complicated than Anakin was lying it out right now, but it was still within the realm of possible and not downright sci-fi. There were enough programs that could analyze speech and filter out patterns, recognize even emotions and tone. Feeding data to a computer wasn’t too different from the way babies learned, though, as far as Obi-Wan knew from talking to people with children, they didn’t like their progeny being compared to lines of code.

“And you accomplished this by feeding my thesis program, which is meant to predict the language acquisition of children, to Ahsoka?”

“Yes, that, uh, happened more or less,” Anakin said, his nose scrunched up just so that Obi-Wan knew he wasn’t certain. “I’m pretty sure I like, wrote some of it down. Not all of it because I knocked out at like 4 a.m., which resulted in pretty interesting inquiries on the great vowel shift.”

Obi-Wan froze. “She’s asking about the great vowel shift?”

There was a difference in the size of the Atlantic between analyzing sounds and recognizing a six-hundred-year-old change in pronunciation.

“Not really,” Anakin said. “She just noticed the patterns? And had inquiries? We’ve been following up on it since, mostly by also giving her written text, but I think that might have backfired and confused her a bit. I’m thinking of synching up the input with a visible feed so she’d learn to associate an actual object with the sound, but I’m not sure whether that wouldn’t just lead to her matching data instead of actually learning its relevance. Can teach an AI what an apple looks like, sounds like, tastes like, but that doesn’t mean you can teach it what an apple is and all that.”

Anakin smiled impishly, and unfortunately, despite his generally messy appearance, Obi-Wan still thought he was handsome. “Please don’t cite my book back at me like that.”

Closing his eyes for a moment and pinching his nose, Obi-Wan tried to focus. This was not how he expected to start his free day. He needed to wake up and possibly grab his notes to sort out this mess. This almost made him wish the car was still wrecked and Anakin would spend all his free time fixing that. “Did you have to start her on English of all languages?”

Anakin was fluent in two other romance languages; it would have been much easier to deal with a French AI than an English one. Sighing, Obi-Wan looked at Ahsoka’s latest question and promptly frowned.

script input: bear auditory input: /beər/ match found: bare analysis: mismatch diagnosis: failed word formation query: bear = bare? query: deletion >bare<?

“How long has she been doing that?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Doing what— oh, that’s new.”

So Ahsoka had jumped from matching sounds to text to comparing sound to words and then referencing those words against one another. That was a logical step, but also a step Obi-Wan wasn’t quite sure she should be doing without prompting.

“She thinks bear and bare are related because they have the same sound. Didn’t really expect that turn of events. Should I show her those are two different words?”

“Does she even know what a word is yet?” Obi-Wan asked in turn.

“No.”

“Then teach her what a word is first— after breakfast. I want your pancakes.”

“You never want pancakes on a Friday.”

“My husband also never decided to rope me into teaching an artificial intelligence morphology before.”

Obi-Wan needed a proper meal for this. He could talk to his students on an empty stomach, but he could not deal with the latest brand of Skywalker insanity without something sweet first.

“I haven’t—”

Ever the negotiator, Obi-Wan decided to shut Anakin up with a kiss. “After breakfast.”

Ahsoka’s many questions could wait for an hour.

[shihalyfie]

The different aspects of Miyako’s personality and character arc

Miyako is a character where there’s just a lot going on with her in general, and asking different people to summarize Miyako in one phrase could feasibly get you some very different answers -- “the computer nerd girl”, or “the one who keeps talking about boys”, or “the one who panics all of the time”, or whatnot. Given that there’s so much to unpack at once even from her base profile, ironing out the full extent of her character arc can get a bit tricky, and there’s a lot going on with it. So, given that: Who is Miyako, anyway?

Miyako’s background and personality

Miyako is a character that I think is best understood by understanding what kind of person she is, and the personality and mentality she goes into the story of 02 with.

An interesting background story behind Miyako’s creation is that she’s based off a real person -- more accurately, a certain assistant producer on the series (whose identity has remained undisclosed, presumably for privacy reasons) was used as a reference for her behavior and actions. Although Adventure and 02 have a philosophy of portraying realistic human behavior in general, this level of specificity is a unique designation to have, and series director Kakudou Hiroyuki has referred to this a few times over the years -- it seems she’s the only of the Tokyo Chosen Children to have such a concrete single-person reference, and it’s also the reason her blood type of AB and star sign Gemini were given in 02 episode 25 (the other kids don’t have mentioned birthdays or blood types to prevent personality restrictions via horoscoping, but a real person having Miyako’s personality, star sign, and blood type wouldn’t make that as much of an issue). Even Volcano Ota himself confirmed Miyako’s resemblance to her upon hearing it after the fact! Indeed, a lot of 02 fans (especially adults) have admitted that Miyako’s probably one of the most relatable people in the cast, namely because her gushing about things she likes and panicking at things that overwhelm her is...well, a bit too uncomfortably on-point at times.

(And especially since so much about Miyako’s character has to do with how happy she makes everyone around her, it’s not too hard to imagine that the staff was so fond of her real-life inspiration that they wanted to pay tribute to her in such a way...)

Still, Miyako is a fictional character, one with her own backstory and interactions in 02′s story, and said backstory is such: she comes from a family that runs a convenience store in Odaiba, and is the youngest of a family of four siblings. Running a convenience store on a small island means that Miyako has probably seen a lot of the island’s residents, and her family also has various levels of connections to the other kids’ families (her older sisters Momoe and Chizuru are friends of Daisuke’s sister Jun, and Chizuru is Yamato’s classmate). Moreover, she’s befriended her nine-year-old neighbor (one who otherwise has trouble socializing with his peers) to the point of regularly going over to do computer repairs for his family. She’s also worked in the computer club under Koushirou, and even before the series has started, she looks up to him and adores him in a way not entirely unlike how Daisuke looks up to Taichi -- and although it’s unclear whether or not she started after the beginning of 02, 02 episode 29 reveals that she helps Yamato with his band.

The pattern here is that Miyako is extremely sociable, and one who actively pokes her nose into nearly everything so she can help out. This makes her a very different sort of Mom Friend from Sora -- both of them are Crest of Love holders for good reason, but in Sora’s case, she was compulsively going out of her way to help other people to the point of exhaustion, and her character arc was about trying to find a way to detach herself from obligations and do something for herself. Miyako is the complete opposite -- she’s the kind of extrovert who actively enjoys poking her head into other people’s business, picking up a bunch of peripheral hobbies so she can do something useful for everyone and go I’M HELPING!! If you actually look closely at those hobbies of “computer programming and hacking”, “hardware tinkering”, and “sound engineering”, other than vaguely being related to computers, they are completely different skillsets, and every single one of them is one Miyako’s depicted employing in order to help someone else out. (Koushirou is never really depicted as having super amazingly high technical skill and most of his unique talent comes from being a thorough analyst, but in contrast, while Miyako is established as being good at even hacking in Diablomon Strikes Back, she doesn’t really seem to have a huge propensity for deep analytical thought.) It’s hard to tell if she has any personal preference for any of them as much as she basically turned herself into a jack-of-all-trades so she could do whatever job was necessary for someone else.

If we’re to believe the official 02 site, Miyako’s been a bit pampered by her family -- as the youngest of four siblings, she’s the “baby of the family”, who hasn’t had to live with a ton of responsibility for others. This means that, much like Mimi, she seems to have been raised surrounded by a ton of affection, which is why she herself is such an openly affectionate person who’s open-minded towards trying all sorts of things, and why she’s used to wanting to help others by actively throwing herself into situations -- but it also means that, being the youngest of a family who is now in the situation of being the oldest in a new group, she ends up in Jou’s situation of suddenly being faced with the pressure of the concept of proper responsibility for others.

As far as Miyako’s general personality goes, she is constantly overflowing with affection and cheer and a desire to dote on everyone -- but the flip side is that she’s also aggressive. She has zero sense of restraint. (If you ever get around to listening to the Japanese version of 02, Natsuki Rio’s performance is energetic and over-the-top in almost every way imaginable to the point that you get the impression of Miyako as someone who doesn’t easily run out of batteries -- at least, until things start getting really serious.) When she loves something, she’ll gush about it as if there were hearts floating around her (and, depending on the level of closeness, even jump in and physically hug them), and she has no qualms against physically manhandling if she feels she needs to, and if she dislikes something, she will make it very clear (including yelling very loudly about it). You could argue that she’s actually closer to the archetype of the brash shounen protagonist than Daisuke himself is!

In fact, Miyako and Daisuke have very similar temperaments -- pure-hearted, but also rough around the edges -- but can be distinguished by the fact that while Daisuke is actually deferential and somewhat lacking in assertion, Miyako is actually aggressive, and while Daisuke’s “honesty about his feelings” is mainly because he’s too simple-minded to be any good at hiding anything, Miyako’s honesty is because she has no brain-to-mouth filter, and everything she’s thinking comes out of her mouth before she can control it -- in other words, Miyako has a huge case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. She doesn’t want to be insensitive, but it keeps coming out of her mouth before she can control it -- and even worse, her emotions are prone to taking control of her, and she is very prone to getting overwhelmed and collapsing into a massive panic.

If you think about the two archetypes of “girl who takes care of everyone” and “aggressive action girl”, Miyako has a tendency towards both at once, and moreover there’s an extra nail in it -- most “action girls” in the latter category would be portrayed as badass, put-together characters with a cool personality, but Miyako is a mess. She’s prone to panicking, all over the place, and her tendency to get in-your-face is not exactly in the most dignified manner. And as a result, a huge part of her character arc (as we will be going more into detail about below) is that she’s aware of this and doesn’t like this about herself -- because she doesn’t want to be insensitive or rude, and in fact she wants to be someone who can better help and take care of others, but, in her mind, her own personality keeps getting in the way.

Miyako in 02

After fully becoming a Chosen Child in 02 episode 2, it only takes one more episode for Miyako to bring food for everyone, as if to say “Right! I’m going to be working with everyone now! All of you are now my new best friends!” (”Bringing food for people” is one of Miyako’s many ways of showing love, given that she returns from Kyoto in 02 episode 34 and immediately hands off souvenir yatsuhashi to Koushirou.) And with that, Miyako settles into the archetype of the group’s “mood maker” -- someone whose role is to keep everyone in emotionally high spirits by influencing everyone with cheer and energy. 02 episode 5 features the debut of her famous “Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let’s roll!” catchphrase -- this and her other famous “Bingo!” catchphrase establish her as the only of the Tokyo Chosen Children to have a catchphrase (at least, in the Japanese version). Because catchphrases are fun.

As much as everyone (especially Daisuke) is a bit blindsided by her behavior at first, they eventually come to embrace the positive effect she has on all of them -- Daisuke very genuinely asks her for “the usual cheer” in 02 episode 10, and, all the way in 02 episode 22, this is such an agreed-on and established role that they’ll still wait on her to do the honors even when they’re in a hurry. So in other words, it didn’t take long for Miyako to go out of her way to shower everyone with cheer, and it didn’t take long for everyone to answer to that cheer and appreciate her for it.

The flip side of this, however, is that Miyako doesn’t start off being very emotionally equipped to handle this -- right off the bat in 02 episode 2, she says that she’s not inclined for fighting, and in 02 episode 4, she refers to it as being “like an adventure game”. That is to say, she’s not at the point where she’s able to handle the full gravity of what she’s just involved herself with (Daisuke reminds her that she’d panicked earlier, but she just blows it off). She’s handling it so cheerfully now because the series is still in its early stages, when she can enter and exit the Digital World at will, and she’s capable of treating it like this.

So when the stakes do get higher, she’s the first one to take the stress hard. As mentioned before, she’s the youngest in her family, now recast as the oldest in this group -- but unlike Jou, who consciously knew this fact and took stress onto himself because of the responsibility this entailed, Miyako seems to repeatedly forget that she’s the oldest in this group, and the events of 02 episodes 9-10 (when Agumon is kidnapped) cause her to break down from stress and have to take a time-out. (Which everyone allows her to do, because this is not a series where people are pressured to fight if they’re not emotionally ready for it.) Miyako comes to terms with the fact that the stakes are going to keep escalating, and she can’t just gloss over everything with cheer -- and she does manage to pull herself enough to bring Yamato into the fray at the end of the episode, but this continues to be a recurring theme for the rest of her character arc.

While we’re discussing these early parts of the series, one thing I want to briefly address is the part where Miyako infamously calls a lot of people hot. (Although, not as many as the fanbase would love to make you think; it’s only four people in total.) This tends to get her pinned as some kind of flirt whose head is only filled with being hot for people, but while she’s certainly a bit on the shallow end at this point of the series -- dealing with that being what this character arc is about, after all -- this trait of hers tends to get exaggerated by a lot of people in the audience as if she’s completely lacking in common sense. Miyako’s ridiculous (and we love her for it), but she does have some degree of grip on herself! Context is important here -- she might show a crush on someone, but at no point in the series itself does Miyako show any indication of seriously thinking of full-on dating.

For Miyako, who’s accustomed to just blurting out the first thing that comes to mind, commenting on someone being hot is like commenting on the weather -- she means it as a compliment, but there’s no evidence she thinks she has a chance with any of them, let alone wanting to try dating. This is especially when you take into account her self-esteem issues that we learn about later in the series, and also...well, the fact she’s only twelve. (Remember: even Daisuke’s thing for Hikari comes out as a lot of unfocused affection, and it’s unlikely he’s seriously considered the concept of following that up with a serious relationship -- any serious prospects of romance or dating are not going to be on the table for these kids for a while.) Miyako has also been accused by some of being abysmally shallow for still complimenting Ken’s looks in 02 episode 9 (after it’s already apparent he’s the Kaiser), but although she certainly is a bit shallow at this point of the series, she’s not that lacking in common sense; Iori got in on it too in this scene, and both of them were doing it to tease Daisuke more than they seriously wanted to compliment the Kaiser all that much. So in essence, it’s just “Miyako has eyes” -- she still completely agrees he’s their enemy and she’s not going to judge him any better for his looks, but she also doesn’t see this as a reason to lie about the fact she thinks he’s visually good-looking, especially if it’s to tease Daisuke about it.

In any case, 02 episode 14 digs a lot more into Miyako’s stance on herself regarding others -- in 02 episode 6, Miyako met Mimi for the first time, and latched onto her for their similar dispositions and her looking up to Mimi for being beautiful, amazing, and cool (and she should, because she’s right). 02 episode 14 adds another layer to this, however, when Miyako spends the duration negatively comparing herself to Mimi. At first it starts off as simply just shallow jealousy for Michael giving Mimi more attention, but as the situation with Digitamamon escalates, Miyako spends a prolonged period of time trying to figure out Mimi’s behavior of pure-heartedly choosing to trust Digitamamon despite everything, against Miyako’s insistence that Digitamamon’s behavior proves that he was untrustworthy the whole time.

Mimi and Miyako’s stances are both on extremes here -- Mimi’s pacifistic tendencies are causing her to let her get beaten up by Digitamamon despite the fact that “appealing to people’s hearts” has never really been demonstrated as a good way to get Evil Rings off (to be fair, this is probably the first time they’ve made an attempt at this with a Digimon that can still talk coherently with it on), but Miyako’s acting as if this retroactively proves him to be untrustworthy even though she knows that the Evil Rings are tantamount to brainwashing. Nevertheless, Miyako acknowledges that her own stance was borne out of her being shallow and judgmental, especially since the discussion between Mimi and Digitamamon brings out a question about the meaning of the “true self”.

Miyako, at this point, is confronting everything that’s bad about herself -- that she’s shallow and not as much of a “good person” as Mimi is. But the Crest of Purity -- once meaning “lack of malice” back when it applied to Mimi in Adventure -- now has a secondary meaning of “not lying to oneself” (the dub translation of “Sincerity” is not actually that off in this sense), and it also means that Miyako is not going to get anywhere pretending or forcing herself to be someone she’s not. The secondary Digimental arc has a recurring theme of understanding that there are still things you need to learn and improve on in order to do better, and this is Miyako’s version of it -- she will have to acknowledge all of the bad parts of herself before she can get anywhere and become a kind person like Mimi is -- and, indeed, becoming less shallow and judgmental and not jumping to conclusions, and learning to reach out to more substantial cores of the problem, ends up becoming a major part of her character arc in the latter half of the series.

This episode also implies one more thing, even if she doesn’t realize it yet at this moment: the path to her becoming a less shallow and more considerate person is not going to involve trying to force herself to be like Mimi, but rather in a way that’s closer to her “true self”.

Miyako’s first major turning point is in 02 episode 18, an episode that’s said to have such a profound impact on her that even Natsuki Rio testified to having to alter her Miyako performance thereafter.

Back in 02 episode 10, Miyako first started to realize that this whole experience of fighting as a Chosen Child was a lot more stressful than it seemed at first, and reacted badly to it. Here, the ante gets upped even more -- the kids decide to make use of their summer break and organize a Digital World stakeout, and, eventually, Hikari accidentally becomes indirectly responsible for tipping Miyako over the deep end by making an implication that they need more “determination” to the point of refusing to leave until they’ve beaten the Kaiser. (Remember that Hikari can be terrifyingly assertive as long as it’s not something to do with herself.) For Miyako, who’s never had the same experience of being in the Digital World for a prolonged period of time the same way the Adventure group has, this is terrifying, and she tries to “get herself together” over the night -- only to completely overshoot it and go into the complete other extreme. As much as this ends up being one of Miyako’s peak hilarity moments, it’s most certainly representative of her being under a huge amount of pressure and stress, and it’s effectively her “peak worst” moment -- which results in Hawkmon ending up having to cover for her, and getting injured in the process, and Miyako immediately realizing how badly she’d messed up.

Miyako is thus forced to face a major consequence of her behavior: if she doesn’t manage to figure out a way to get herself under control, other people will be hurt, and as someone who wants to do her best for other people, that’s one of the worst possible outcomes for her. 

In addition, it’s also important to point out Hikari’s role in this. The Jogress arcs have yet to set in, but the series still gives you a little preview of what’s to come eventually, such as the insight we get about Daisuke and Ken’s initial attitudes towards each other in 02 episode 8, and Iori later personally witnessing (and being very disturbed by) Takeru losing his composure in 02 episode 19. In this case, we see a bit of what Miyako and Hikari’s opposing personalities can offer for each other (especially since the later 02 episode 31 more heavily involves Miyako returning the favor in the other direction) -- Hikari correctly identifies exactly what it was that set Miyako off, takes responsibility for it, and even decides to make sure Miyako and Hawkmon get proper alone time so that they can figure things out. In general, everyone in the 02 team is understanding of Miyako’s antics and doesn’t hold any of it against her because she’s doing her best, but right now, Hikari may be the only person in this group who can actually proactively do something about it, because Daisuke’s not assertive enough to step in, Takeru has a tendency to dodge things whenever they get awkward, and Iori’s holding himself back too much for the sake of manners (especially in the presence of Miyako, who’s the oldest one in this group). But while Hikari does have an emotional repression problem, she’s perfectly capable of holding herself together and putting her foot down when it comes to other people, and because of this, she’s the one who’s able to understand what exactly is going on with Miyako, and how to adjust the situation around her to make things easier for her.

Miyako and Hawkmon have a proper heart-to-heart, and we see more of Miyako’s self-hating tendencies going on here -- she refers exactly to her problems with impulse control, and even labels herself a “bad partner” as a result. But Hawkmon reassures her that she’s fine the way she is, and it ties into how a larger theme of her character arc will involve her learning to find better ways to channel the qualities she already has, rather than trying to force herself to be someone she’s not.

Once the Kaiser is defeated, the second half of the series is where we start to see Miyako’s growth start to really kick in. In 02 episode 24, there’s a short blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene where Miyako suddenly takes Daisuke and puts him in charge of taking care of the Punimon. Why is this important? Because two episodes prior, Daisuke had been running around in circles like an idiot due to having been third wheeled by Takeru and Hikari, and the moment Daisuke started exhibiting similar signs this time, Miyako personally stepped in and gave him a job to do -- and her actions of keeping an eye on them and her conversation with Takeru and Hikari indicate that she did it exactly because she figured that he would like it. Or, in other words, Miyako correctly identified Daisuke’s need for validation and purpose, and became the first person to proactively do something to address it -- Hikari and Takeru had generally been dodging it awkwardly for the duration of the series, which had only really been making it worse, and, in the absence of another crisis to take care of or someone like Ken to fill the void in Daisuke’s life, Miyako was able to properly figure out exactly what he needed at the moment as a stopgap, and thus is starting to settle into her proper role of understanding what others need in terms of emotional support and actively working to address it.

Since the second half of 02 is dedicated to Ken slowly establishing his place in the group, 02 episode 25 is dedicated to Miyako tussling with her conflicted feelings on the situation -- she’s just as open-minded and pure-hearted as Daisuke is, but the one thing that’s bothering her is that she’s a little more doubtful than he is in regards to whether Ken’s heart is really in the right place with all of this. She says, outright, that she believes he’s learned his lesson -- in a way far more firm than Takeru, Hikari, and Iori are about it -- but that one thing about him having potentially killed Thunderballmon in cold blood doesn’t fit the optimistic image she’d like to have of him.

Daisuke is more practical-minded than she is and is more willing to accept that there might have been a good reason -- especially since he himself starts to consider in this very episode that killing an enemy may be necessary if it’s the only way to prevent more victims -- but Miyako is more emotionally oriented and just can’t accept the idea of doing this at all. Both the internal debate over accepting Ken and the internal debate over having to potentially do a kill tear her apart over the course of this episode, and Miyako finds herself constantly waffling back and forth between the two positions. It’s not just her expressing minor doubt; she actually agonizes over this for the duration of the night and the next day, to the point she even considers asking him about it (and eventually can’t bring herself to).

It’s also made a prominent point that Miyako’s prior attraction to Ken in 02 episode 8 was not the reason she wanted to be optimistic about him -- remember, back in 02 episode 14, she completely admitted that she judges people by appearances, but at this point she’s well past that! Miyako takes this entire issue of whether Ken should be considered a friend very seriously, and that’s why it torments her so much over the course of the episode.

Eventually, all is resolved (at least, for the time being) when it turns out that Ken has been dealing with non-sentient Dark Tower Digimon, and Miyako takes this as sufficient evidence that Ken has changed -- the morality debate about killing comes back in full force in 02 episode 43, and Ken himself ends up just as shaken about it, so the important part is that she understands that he’s trustworthy and wants to put faith in him. Attention is also given to Miyako deciding she’ll now call him by given name (”Ken-kun”) from now on -- even Daisuke himself won’t start calling him “Ken” regularly until 02 episode 39, but Miyako starts slowly inserting given-name basis for Ken into her vocabulary from this point on until she finally commits to it fully in 02 episode 30. This is a proactive and conscious act on Miyako’s part that she actively wants to get to know him better and consider him a close friend, and it’s because of this that she ends up one of the only people who never gets habituated into surname basis with him by the time everyone’s come to properly befriend him.

So, at this point: Within only one episode (and, in-universe, one day), Daisuke and Miyako landed on the same page with their ideological stance towards Ken. They’re both open-minded and forward-thinking, and have an interest in becoming his friend (the next person to show active and open goodwill towards him, Hikari, won’t do so for another 9 episodes). However, despite their surface temperaments being somewhat similar, they have some differences in their priorities and way of approaching things, and it means that each of them ends up reaching out to Ken in ways that the other isn’t as good at. Daisuke, being the very practical and simple-minded sort who doesn’t overthink things or get caught in arbitrary philosophy, is the one who most proactively reaches out to Ken and most famously connects with him the most due to Ken very badly needing guidance in how to move on forward and stop getting fixated on his past. Miyako, on the other hand, being very much the type to consciously think about things (to the point of sometimes thinking about too many things at once) and focus on “how do I most show my support for someone right now?”, puts her priorities on checking on Ken’s current emotional state and actively attempting to glean his feelings and position. 02 being a series about relationships and what people can provide for each other, this ends up reflecting on their roles in the group as a whole -- Daisuke becomes the person who can pull everyone forward in determining the best thing to do, whereas Miyako fills in the parts his rough-around-the-edges demeanor doesn’t quite cover in terms of supporting everyone emotionally and keeping them together.

And thus, Miyako resolves to “wait” until the day Ken will join them -- that is to say, she takes the stance that Ken deserves proper space and to come on his own terms. It’s an interesting inversion of the usual roles you’d expect from Daisuke and Miyako at this point -- and, again, since 02 is about relationships, “each character’s approach towards the new kid and how it impacts them” reflects a lot about their own characters. For Daisuke and Miyako, who were open-minded towards Ken early in the game, you can already see the impact on them -- the necessity of reaching out to Ken causes the normally deferential Daisuke to become more proactive and put his foot down, whereas the normally uncontrollably in-your-face Miyako comes to understand when something needs to be handled delicately and starts getting a better grasp on the concept of restraint.

Which means that Miyako’s actions regarding Ken in the following episodes are significantly more passive than Daisuke’s are, but it’s clear that she’s still supportive. Moreover, it’s also important to establish that she and Daisuke aren’t fighting about this or anything -- Miyako does want Ken to come around eventually, so she doesn’t stop the more proactive Daisuke from reaching out to Ken in an important way, but she instead exerts her position in ways such as joining in with the others reminding him that Ken might have gotten a bit emotionally overwhelmed by the Jogress (and thus that it’s understandable that he might need some time to parse this before pushing the issue further). The way Miyako words this statement so casually can easily be a distraction from the fact that she is completely correct -- as we see later, Ken did emotionally freak out the moment the incident was resolved and had to go home to think about this. Scatterbrained as Miyako may seem, as the series proceeds, it turns out that she has a natural propensity for empathy that means she’s capable of making perfectly correct readings of the situation, even without her thinking that hard about it.

Not that she’s correct all of the time, though. 02 episode 30 has her attempt to get Ken and Iori to hopefully be a little less tense around each other end in complete disaster (although to be fair to her, it’s not like she and Daisuke were particularly forceful about it, it’s just that their plan was so poorly set up that it was too easy to read the motive behind, and it’s ultimately thrown off because -- as Daisuke correctly points out -- the two are being really childish about it.) But in response, Miyako takes direct action and responsibility to fix the situation when Ken continues to refuse to help despite how badly the situation is escalating, and when she finally reaches him, she gets frustrated at the fact he’s being so stubborn, smacks him, and personally drags him back over. Miyako cared a lot about this, she had wanted Ken and Iori to get along for no reason of personal benefit to herself but more because she cared that much about the group’s dynamic and friendship, and she’d held herself back so much because she was worried about him, but here he’s taking all of that and still giving them all the cold shoulder when everyone is in grave danger, and all of that frustration causes her to break down at once.

And note Ken’s reaction -- he’d been holding off on the grounds that he was being a burden on everyone’s friendship, but he sees Miyako distraught and upset and calling him an idiot (i.e. his whole pretense of not hurting others has clearly not worked here), and his “idiot...?” comes out flustered and off-guard, and he shows no resentment towards her thereafter and comes quietly with no protest, even holding a hand to the place she’d smacked him as if mulling in agreement that he deserved that. So, again: Even when Miyako is coming to all of these conclusions in a haphazard manner, it doesn’t change the fact that her readings of these situations are often completely correct.

02 episode 31 is another landmark episode in which we get a lot of insight into Miyako’s current feelings regarding herself in comparison to others, and what she’s trying to achieve at this point in the series. Daisuke makes an offhand remark at the beginning of the episode about Hikari being more “kind” than Miyako (”kind” having a double meaning of “gentle” in Japanese, so Daisuke’s mainly referring to Miyako being such a rough and belligerent person). The way Miyako takes this statement indicates that Daisuke had accidentally just hit a very deep-seated complex within her -- Miyako had never liked the fact she was aggressive and belligerent and in-your-face (remember, back in 02 episode 14, she was constantly negatively comparing herself to Mimi for not being as good of a person as her, and now this has extended to Hikari, who “keeps so much inside”.). As the crisis in the episode escalates, Miyako continues to fall victim to her foot-in-mouth syndrome, saying things and instantly regretting it, because she sees herself as making the situation worse -- and especially when it comes to a situation also involving Ken, whom she’s actively trying to reach out to right now. Her frustration at the fact she can’t see what Ken and Hikari see is because, unable to understand what they’re talking about or what their feelings are, she’s basically a sitting duck who can’t do anything while things are getting worse for them.

Which ultimately results in Miyako completely losing her marbles and Hikari having to smack her out of it -- again, recall that in 02 episode 18, it was shown that Hikari is one of the few people who has enough assertiveness to be able to rein in Miyako’s behavior, and even outright admits that Miyako is a bit of a handful. Miyako, as it seems, had been carrying a complex that Hikari had been thinking of her badly for all of this -- but Hikari then proceeds to reveal the flip side of all of this: she’s also conversely jealous of Miyako for being able to express herself so clearly and easily, because she herself is the type who compulsively represses her own feelings about herself, which is why nobody had been able to properly reach out to her for the duration of Adventure and 02.

For someone who had spent so much time considering herself a “bad person” and a “worse person” in comparison to people like Mimi and Hikari, that someone considers her qualities outright enviable is a huge deal -- it’s not that Miyako’s an objectively worse person than all of the other people who aren’t as rough or in-your-face, but rather, that those qualities can bring out positive things in their own way. And, immediately after that, we see one of those things -- she makes Hikari laugh, thanks to her antics. Of course, it involves Miyako being a bit all over the place and making a lot of mistakes, but even she admits “I guess it is funny.”

And there’s another thing to this, too: Miyako continues to end up with foot-in-mouth as she casually refers to things like the Evil Ring and Ken being the Kaiser with zero fanfare, before realizing seconds after that she probably shouldn’t be doing that in front of him, but, once again, even without her realizing, her evaluation is not incorrect -- although the fact he’s extremely out of it doesn’t make that clear quite yet in this episode, Ken is not the kind of person who’s touchy about acknowledging that he was the Kaiser, and, by his own statement in 02 episode 23, his stance is that he wants to “accept everything about it”, take responsibility, and move on. So here we are with Miyako, who just casually tossed that statement out like it was no big deal, has accepted his past with no lingering grudge against him, and even made a casual evaluation about him presumably having the same resilience he had as the Kaiser, which, again, is completely accurate. All of this is exactly the kind of attitude that Ken needs to be surrounded by right now, and Miyako had just touched on this without even thinking that hard about it, and also is still making it clear she doesn’t want him to feel bad about it...

And so, the episode’s climax has Miyako finally attaining the solution to the question of reaching out to Hikari, the one that nobody had been able to successfully accomplish throughout Hikari’s childhood of never expressing herself properly and the majority of Adventure and 02: to get Hikari to stop being so passive and accepting her inevitable fate because she doesn’t want to burden others, someone as aggressive as her will need to reach her and yank her out, and hit all of the exact points about understanding that someone will be there for her and that she should not accept this defeatist mentality. Hikari is unusually, unhealthily passive, and Miyako, being outwardly aggressive and someone who never hesitates to be blunt about things, is the best person to yank her out of this; it was never a sign of her being a “bad person”, just something she needed to channel in the right direction.

At the end of the episode, we’re also reminded once again that this is a series about relationships, so this kind of growth is important to everyone’s relationships with others as well -- thanks to Miyako’s efforts, Hikari is finally able to speak honestly with Takeru in contrast to her way of leaving off in silence with him at the end of 02 episode 13, and Miyako herself is happy that she’s finally gotten to have a better understanding of both Hikari, whom she herself had been unsure about the position of earlier, and Ken, whom she’d been worried she hadn’t been reaching out to in the right way.

While Ken was out of it during said episode and unable to coherently respond, we do get confirmation that he himself has hopped on the train of respecting Miyako’s intent well enough that he doesn’t hold anything over her -- during 02 episode 33, a mere three episodes after she’d personally slapped him in the face and two episodes after he’d practically seen her at her emotional worst, he still takes it upon himself to personally deliver Poromon to Kyoto and trust her to handle the rest. This isn’t that particularly interesting by itself, but moreso in terms of the context this is in -- this is a point where Ken’s still at awkward arm’s length with a lot of the team (including even Daisuke, in some ways), and he’s seen Miyako do all of the above messy things only not too long ago, but he still is comfortable enough around her and trusting enough in her abilities that he’s okay with casually approaching her and saying “you got this.” So it’s working, all things considered!

We also learn that Miyako had trusted Koushirou with Poromon during her trip to Kyoto, which says a lot about the fact she trusts her senior that much -- and, on a meta level, seems there specifically to facilitate the existence of the above scene (it would have been very easy to save time by just having Poromon accompany Miyako from the get-go and ending Ken’s involvement in the episode at his conversation with Koushirou...).

The following episodes also meanwhile establish that Miyako’s relationship with Hikari has been improving a lot -- with Miyako now actually understanding what Hikari needs, she’s much more proactive in reaching out to Hikari, and it’s even said directly by Iori in 02 episode 36 that their relationship seems to have gotten much better now. And, once again, Miyako’s antics are depicted as making people laugh -- note her and Hawkmon’s over-the-top advertisement performance doing so for everyone in the vicinity.

Which is also reinforced, again, in 02 episode 38, when this even spreads to Ken himself, in a moment that’s said to be particularly unusual and portrayed as one of the first times Ken has been able to be truly carefree in a long time. Again, the point here is: Miyako’s “all-over-the-place” nature brings joy to other people, and that “she makes people laugh” is continually reinforced as a symbol of this over the course of the second half of the series.

Beyond that, the visit to Ken’s house kicks off with Miyako noticing the picture of Osamu and asking about it, to the point she’s shown leaning over and staring at it for quite a while -- Koushirou had allegedly informed her about it earlier, and a whole point is made that she’s the one very prominently wanting to understand more about Ken and his background.

Also, Miyako reminds us all that she still does think Ken is attractive, but it’s a huge contrast to her behavior from back in 02 episode 8, when she knew nothing about him except that he was some celebrity genius boy -- she got completely worked up about it, moped about it for a whole day, and even dragged the fixation into the next day when she started aggressively confronting Daisuke about it, but we’re here 30 episodes later with Miyako actually considering him an important friend that she respects the feelings of, and she simply casually tosses out the statement of him being cute in her usual “like it’s commenting on the weather” manner, with no extra weirdness about it.

We close up some of the threads of Miyako's character arcs when Miyako herself is forced to confront the possibility of fighting an enemy to the kill in 02 episode 44, and Silphymon is eventually forced to kill LadyDevimon to save Miyako's life. Miyako’s emotional reaction is given the most attention here, since she herself had fixated so much on the horror of potentially killing Golemon back in 02 episode 25 -- in fact, everything Miyako does in this episode is about her emotional empathy and empathy for others, in that she rails on LadyDevimon for being a “coward” who hurts other people. Eventually, it’s once again the assertive Hikari who’s able to get her back on her feet by putting it in a way she can understand -- they were not doing it out of a callous and cruel intent to kill, but to save the exact victims that Miyako herself wanted to prevent.

And, even to the very end of the series, Miyako continues to channel her proactivity into emotional awareness first and foremost -- 02 episode 46 has her take the lead in the Dark Seed roundtable, and it’s implied that she’s doing this mainly because she knows this is a very personal issue for Ken to have to witness. In contrast to the way she frantically started spitting out potentially insensitive things in front of Ken in 02 episode 31, here, she outright says that she doesn’t want to make him feel bad about this (and, fortunately, he understands perfectly well that she’s trying). Even all the way to the very end in 02 episode 50, she’s the one who first brings up the question of the issue, because of how emotionally invested she got into this and her high level of awareness as to how deeply this impacted Ken.

In 02 episode 49, BelialVamdemon presents everyone in the team with a potential deep-seated desire that none of them want to admit, and in the case of Miyako’s, it ends up being a rather tame thing in comparison to Iori and Takeru’s more severe family issues, Hikari’s desire for WORLD PEACE!!, and Ken’s complicated feelings about punishment and forgiveness. In Miyako’s dream world, she’s just eating cake, and it says a lot about the fact that were it not for the fact that she overthinks things and often gets easily stressed, she’s fundamentally fairly free of deep-seated issues in a way not entirely dissimilar to Daisuke’s simple and pure-hearted way of life.

The thing that causes Miyako’s issue is often misinterpreted to be about her selfishly wanting everything to herself, or the idea she’s fighting for attention with her siblings, but Hawkmon actually says what the real problem is in direct words: her crowded family is “noisy”. Or in other words -- Miyako, being the overly empathetic type and someone who easily succumbs to stress, is just really overwhelmed and stressed because of everything around her.

An interesting thing about Miyako’s “illusion” is that it’s the only one that in itself starts making its victim feel lonely and sad even before it’s taken away or dispelled -- Takeru and Iori had to have their happy images pulled away from them, Hikari had to have Tailmon clarify that everything is fake, and Ken had to have Wormmon personally chase the image of his brother away. But in the case of Miyako, all Hawkmon has to do is ask if she’s happy right now, and she’s quick to admit that she’s not. It’s just that everything was stressful and overwhelming and there was so much to deal with all of the time, and for once she wanted to be able to enjoy a little peace, but she loves her family and she loves everyone around her and she doesn’t want to be alone, and she’d rather have them back even if it’s stressful. Miyako’s love for others is so strong that even an illusion supposedly made to cater to her won’t make her happy if everyone��s gone.

Miyako also takes the moment to realize that for all Hawkmon’s been going out of his way to be steadfast and loyal to her, she hasn’t been doing enough to understand her own partner in turn, and there’s still a lot more she can do in terms of thinking of others.

Miyako after 02

As per Spring 2003, once Miyako graduates elementary school and moves to middle school, she continues trying to be helpful to her juniors -- she joins the computer club and once again ends up under Koushirou, and now outright makes music for Yamato’s band (some creative differences aside). It’s also interesting to note her attitude towards her other friends when she tries to recruit them into her music unit -- she snarks at everyone right up until she gets to Ken, who declines politely, and in exchange, she just can't bring herself to be mean to him and simply apologizes for asking too much. It’s ambiguous whether this is because she’s still trying to have a heightened level of consideration around him (this is still only four months after 02′s finish, after all), but it seems she’s still concerned about the idea of handling him overly roughly, and is able to exercise a proper level of restraint about him.

Which brings us all the way to Kizuna, a whole eight years later where we have to fill in a lot of blanks about what’s been happening in the meantime, but the official website establishes that she’s now pursuing a degree in computer programming at an engineering university, and is now on study abroad in Spain (implied to be Barcelona, given details in both the movie itself and the drama CD). Pretty ambitious stuff!...or at least that’s the first impression one would get, until it turns out that she’s getting her flighty personality enabled by the local culture. As we learn in the drama CD, she’s absolutely taking the time to milk this entire situation so she can play around -- and, in accordance with how she was established to be an important factor in bringing Hikari out of her shell, it’s rubbing off on Hikari, too.

In addition, Miyako is still working under Koushirou despite their educational careers having completely diverged, this time as his assistant in terms of managing the Chosen Child community. Interestingly, her specific job seems to be consultation, and people come to her for “advice and stuff” -- meaning that it’s very likely that a lot of new Chosen Children who are having a hard time adjusting to life with a partner are coming to her for practical and emotional advice, and she’s still continuing to channel her ability to be emotionally aware and supportive of others.

That is to say, until she gets a mysterious request from a certain Menoa Bellucci. We learn later that Menoa’s motive was to obtain the list of international Chosen Children, meaning that she most definitely was not approaching Miyako for emotional help, and with that, Miyako decides that she doesn’t want to do this and dumps it on her seniors...

...but then picks it back up with zero hesitation the moment her friends present her that exact same job, and not only is it just “zero hesitation”, Ken even comments on how “fast” she arrived to do so! (This was also before Iori came up with the plan to infiltrate Menoa’s office; there wasn’t any indication Miyako’s computer abilities would be particularly necessary at the time.) On top of that, the drama CD gives us full context as to why she was so willing to dump this on her seniors in the first place -- she had wanted to see her friends so badly that she practically invented D-3 gate exploitation so she could hang out with her friends despite technically being in another country, and even wanted to invite them to come visit her, and eventually they’d all made an organized plan to meet up in New York. In other words, her loyalty to her friends is still stronger than anything else -- remember, she’s the kind of person who was picking up tons of jobs specifically so she could help her friends in the first place.

On that note, Ken’s ability to be casual with everyone besides Daisuke has noticeably improved, and that’s especially prominent with Miyako, whom he proactively converses with in a way that wouldn’t have happened back in 02, and, likewise, in contrast to the sense of distance she’d still been maintaining with him back during the final arc of 02 and Spring 2003, she has no qualms about handling him as casually as she would anyone else.

Which eventually leads us to...

This is a recurring theme on this blog, but every so often I have to draw the distinction between creative concepts “in meta” (i.e. the way the audience will read it, in relation to franchise standards and other real-life factors) and said concepts “in-universe” (i.e. with audience factors completely removed, whether there’s a presumable logical reason for these events happening in-universe, and whether this is reasonable behavior to expect out of the characters). This blog is largely dedicated to the latter, but the reason why I have to keep drawing this distinction in the first place is that I get the impression that the staff behind Adventure and 02 really did not pay much mind to the former part as part of their dedication to the latter. And, I mean, part of the reason I respect the writing of Adventure and 02 so much is how uncompromising they were in terms of not really pandering to what a fanbase might expect, which allowed the story to retain a lot of creative integrity that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

But every so often you get something like this that makes me want to just bang my head on the table and scream, I swear, I get what you guys were going for, but I am begging you, please think a little harder about how people are going to read this!! In general, I do think there’s something that’s not very good about disregarding your audience completely, because if you’re trying to say important things and those things are going directly over your audience’s heads (this is a kids’ show, for goodness’s sake), you can’t call that good communication, and it’s not like you can blame the audience for getting blindsided or being upset, and this is before we get into what they just dropped on the global audience that was presumably full of young girls interested in STEM fields who were hoping to see them go all the way with that, or the feelings of those who are bothered that one character has to be singled out to be defined solely by her relationship to others, and I mean -- to be fair, with a character like Miyako and the tons of things going on with her, there was probably no outcome they could come up with that wouldn’t be reinforcing some negative stereotype (believe it or not, there are people who have conversely mentioned identifying deeply with Miyako’s personal story and the meaning of this ending to them, and have also expressed discomfort about some of the comments the fanbase has made over the years), but at the same time, holy hell, they really went for the one that immediately looks the worst on its face...

...That aside, I will reiterate that this is a blog and analysis meant for that latter category of “analyzing things in-universe”, and making good-faith assumptions that there was a reason for everything (and, I’ll be quite honest, reading everything the staff has said about the characters, including Miyako, there is no indication that they didn’t treat every single one of them with love and zero intention to curse any of them into a horrible fate). We can debate whether this was a good or bad choice in the context of real life, or how much they really should have thought this through more or considered alternative ways to do this, in another place and time (it’s been done by many other people, myself included, in the last 20 years, and it will most certainly continue after this, and probably should continue). It’s not like I’m necessarily giving my blessing to every single creative decision in Adventure or 02 in running this blog, it’s more of the attitude of “now that this decision was in the series, can we figure out what that was intended to mean?”, and that’s going to apply to this one too. And so, we’ll proceed with the analysis.

In any case, here’s the first thing to start with, which may surprise some people to learn: at no point in the epilogue is the word “housewife” ever used to refer to Miyako. The only words that Takeru uses to describe her are: that she is married to Ken and is a mother of three. Not only that, post-02 materials that have referred to the epilogue and Miyako’s part in it have also avoided using that word -- the Character Complete File and the Animation Chronicle only reiterate the same points of “married to Ken” and “mother of three children”, and practically go out of their way to avoid insinuating that being a stay-at-home housewife is the main focus of her life right now. It would have been so easy to say it outright if they’d wanted to, but they didn’t, and they consistently don’t, to the point the omission is almost suspicious. And, indeed, if you want to believe the Character Complete File, Miyako is not a full-time housewife and is simply not working at the time of the epilogue due to maternity leave because the third child had recently been born. So it’s completely within the realm of possibility that she’s still working! In that case, why is something that could easily be a big deal left ambiguous like this?

If you look at the way the epilogue presents its information, there’s a certain pattern: what information is emphasized and what information is given little attention or omitted has very little to do with “how curious the audience would be about it”, but rather “how relevant it is”; just because a certain piece of information is omitted doesn’t mean it necessarily isn’t true. For example, Sora; she’s married to Yamato, but despite how much the audience would probably consider that as vital information, it’s left for you to infer from the visuals and an oblique comment that Sora’s daughter is a “dependable older sister”, and even the question of whether Sora did succeed her mother in flower arrangement is left up in the air despite that also probably being a question the audience is curious about (and in fact, a few flower branches are clearly visible in the front, implying very heavily that, whatever happened, she’s at least still maintaining her roots with her family instead of violently cutting it all off). But we do learn about the fact that she went into fashion design, which is something that’s not an expectation that was placed by her family but rather something she presumably decided on herself. Hence, presumably why that’s the part emphasized, and moreso than her marriage to Yamato -- said marriage is of course an important part of her life, but it’s not as prominent as the fact that she has her own independent career, especially since her entire character arc was about doing things that she wanted for herself instead of doing things for others. That is to say, compared to their own individual ambitions, Sora and Yamato’s love life is “an important part, but not the important part.” This is especially when you add the context that Takeru is delivering abridged single-sentence “catch-up” descriptions of his friends on their behalf (possibly to the world, if this is part of his novel), and so, it begs the question: what would each of these characters want to be most remembered for accomplishing?

(And if you think I’m being tinfoil hat about this, remember that a constant theme with this blog I’m running is that “being annoyingly subtle and relying on ridiculously oblique messaging” like this permeates the entirety of 02 in general, and it’s definitely not the only time they’ve used this kind of technique to communicate details that are too consistent and on-the-nose to be passed off as coincidence. As far as assuming that this series follows rational storytelling logic goes, we are far past that point, and in ways that extend far beyond this epilogue.)

So we look back at Miyako, and the hobbies she’d indulged in and what purpose they were for, and her personality, and the fact that the main point of her character arc was about her complex that she would never be a good enough person who could properly emotionally reach out and take care of others -- in some ways, her arc was the opposite of Sora’s, in that while Sora’s was about not being as beholden to others, Miyako’s was about how to become someone who can better support others -- and once we apply the above question, there lies the answer to why the priority and emphasis given to her future in the epilogue is “Miyako is the kind of person who prioritizes taking care of and supporting her loved ones more than anything else.”

This is especially because (in an epilogue with not very many lines, so every bit of information becomes vital) the lines we see Miyako and her family exchange are representative of a lot of what that character arc was about. According to her son, Miyako is still her panicky and emotionally messy self, even when in the role of the matriarch of a large family who’s responsible for taking care of all of them. She did not ever become the ideal “gentle” and “mature” kind of person that she considered Mimi and Hikari to be and negatively compared herself to. However, her family responds by cheerfully laughing, which is -- most likely not coincidentally -- the same thing that was shown to be the positive flip side of Miyako’s over-the-top personality back in 02 episodes 31, 36, and 38, in that it brings joy and cheer to others.

If you do want to take the Character Complete File’s statement at face value, the fact that she’s on self-imposed maternity leave means that it’s very likely she wasn’t on a salaried job and was instead freelancing, or at least was involved with something that didn’t require constant commitment. Considering the fact she’s consistently portrayed as an impatient sort who gets bored easily, she probably would prefer something more flexible like freelancing or at least not being tied to a single thing; even looking back at her completely disparate hobbies back when she was a kid, when she was basically jack-of-all-trades-ing to fit whatever people needed her for, she never really came off as someone who could commit very easily to a single form of work, but what she did have commitment to was other people, especially her friends and family. If you (or, perhaps, Takeru) were to ask her during the time of the epilogue “what are you up to right now?”, it’s not really that hard to believe that gushing about her lovely family would come before everything else; not to say that everyone else here (especially her own husband) isn’t presumably devoted to their own families, but Miyako’s the type to have that much higher sense of pride in what she does for those she cares about than she would have particular attachment to any kind of work. Look at her behavior during Kizuna; she’s pursuing a degree in computer programming and thus is still aiming to be a busybody with a high level of skill, but when given a job by a stranger, she immediately dumps it off on her seniors so she can be with her friends, then happily accepts that same job again when the same friends present it back to her.

So, in other words, the conclusion is: the biggest priority and most important thing to Miyako in regards to her future is that she finally became someone who could properly support others around her, even in spite of her personality that would suggest otherwise.

In addition, the fact that she has three children might initially come off as a little in-your-face or overkill, but remember that Miyako came from a family with four siblings, and 02 episode 49 had her say outright that she does treasure that – or, in other words, being part of a big family surrounded by affection and love is something she considers to be a valuable part of her life (especially since the age gaps between the three children imply a reasonable likelihood of actual family planning, moreso than even Miyako’s own).

Incidentally, this is just a bit of a personal note, but one might notice that I’ve also never actually used the word “housewife” to refer to the epilogue’s depiction of Miyako in the course of writing for this blog, because of how little evidence we have that she is one – being on temporary maternity leave still being a very viable and, given the post-02 materials we now have, arguably heavily likely interpretation, it’s not like you’d necessarily call someone a housewife if their break from work is only temporary, even if they’re a freelancer. Given the above circumstances, perhaps something like “family matriarch” would be more accurate…

[c-is-for-circinate]

Ok, Hades gameplay reaction time!

(Because I have been terrible this quarantine year about posting thoughts about stories I've been invested in, and I'm really enjoying this game, and I'm playing basically blind and I have theories, and what is tumblr for if not recording those things to look back on later.)

I love this specific kind of fantasy/speculative fiction, that straddles the line between 'allegory clearly designed to explore a real-world issue' and 'the themes of this reflect real-world issues but also everything is times one million for drama and setting's sake'. I love it so much. Because, look, this is a story about a teenager/young adult trying to gather up the skills and resources and help he needs to escape his controlling, possessive, emotionally abusive father's house. That's it. Strip away all of the trappings, and that's what the story is about. By comparison, I think about Star Wars. (I love Star Wars too.) That's also a story about a dysfunctional fucked-up family dynamic. But that family is fucked up because dad went on a magic-corruption-induced killing spree, and his twin children were separated at birth to be raised in seclusion with the intention of someday taking him down, and look, that's cool, but it's definitely not how people actually are. All of the dysfunction in that family is an outgrowth of the fantastical setting, which means it is fantastical dysfunction. It can occasionally mirror or remind us of real-life interactions, but it's a fantasy. Which is great and fun to watch and very comforting and so on, but I don't necessarily want that in every story, and I love Hades because it is not that, at all. When you extend out the basic 'kid trying to escape his toxic home environment', Hades is the story of Zagreus trying to get out with the help of his dad's estranged, complicated, wealthy and powerful family, who are absolutely part of the reason why dad is Like That in the first place, and may not be any more reliable in the long run but who he needs right now. And his stepmom and teacher, who love him enough to help him leave, unconditionally and supportively (ask me how many feelings I have about 'look, Hades can't hurt me for helping you, don't worry about me, I am going to take care of you and that means helping you get out of this house' coming from an adult authority figure, ask me). And his dad's employees, who like him but also have to fear the old man's wrath, and walk that line in different places the best they can. And stepmom's long-estranged parent, because this is a story about families and how they split apart and come back together. And all of that is so real, so grounded in actual, concrete, this-is-how-humans-work family dynamics. But it's also individual. The story works so well because Hades isn't just a silhouette of the controlling asshole father; he is clearly The Way He Is for reasons, complicated ones, good and bad alike. The Way He Is has details, particularities, paperwork, a dog he pretends not to love and rely on. He is specific. Nyx and Achilles are specific, not just generic kind stepmom here to be a trope inversion and cardboard cutout teacher. Nyx has backstory and personality of her own, Achilles has a complex history, opinions, a missing lover, and they BOTH have very particular relationships with Hades that aren't just boilerplate script. Yes, there's abstraction there, you meet these characters in brief visual novel-esque three-line conversations over the course of dozens of escape runs, of course there's abstraction--but there's the very real sense that all of these people have nuance, have good and bad days, that they've made choices to be who they are, even if we don't know what those choices are yet. And, like Star Wars, some of the ways in which this story is so specific rely entirely on the fact of the otherworldly setting! I've seen stories that go the other way, that try to use their setting entirely as window dressing, and they end up feeling so flat I can't even remember them right now because they don't let the environment lend complexity and nuance to their characters at all. The environment these characters live in matters. The absolute control Hades exerts over his surroundings is a divine power. The fact that everyone Zag runs into, for or against him, is either immortal or immortally dead, changes how the react to

one another and to the situation at hand. The shape of his attempted escapes (gauntlet combat with a variety of legendary weapons) might be an allegorical construct of the genre, true, but it doesn't work in any sort of real-world setting where there exists the possibility of authority figures above or aside from Hades and his extended fucked-up family. That's part of why the family is so fucked-up in the first place. But these changes still fit well within the realm of, 'yeah, if you took this extremely real-life dynamic and added these factors to it, I can envision people doing this thing'. I can envision these specific people doing this thing. They add to the specificity of these characters. Letting them be influenced by their unreal surroundings makes them more real. So hell yes for good storytelling!!!!

I'm still relatively early in the game (by which I mean I'm like thirty runs in but only just got past Meg for the third time, because I am not good at this game, although in my defense it's only the seventh video game and second button-mashing game I have ever played in my life so there's that), but I'm starting to develop suspicions about Persephone. Because, look, outside of Persephone's absence from the underworld, this story knows its Greek mythology, uses it, revels in it. And there is some kind of mystery still shrouding Persephone leaving in the first place. She left a goodbye to Cerberus in her letter but not to her own son. Nyx has warned Zagreus multiple times not to let the Olympians know she's his mother. He literally never even knew she existed. That's complicated! Add to that, Persephone left--the exact thing we are trying and failing to do again and again and again. She left with one note, which means either she managed a one-shot speedrun out of the entire realm or she had some other way to leave, because if she'd washed up in the Styx pool to plod back to her room and try again, she wouldn't've needed to leave the note in the first place. And, you know, she's Persephone. Really quite famous for leaving the Underworld! Also quite famous for being forced back. So. I'm wondering if Zagreus, so conspicuously absent from her goodbye, has something to do with it after all. Six pomegranate seeds condemned Persephone to six months, half a year, half her life. I wonder if a child that's half of her her constitutes a fitting trade instead. Which, of course Hades would be even more resentful and dismissive and cruel to the kid he got in place of the wife he loved (who he chased away by being cold in the first place). Of course Persephone would have difficulty saying goodbye to her son in those circumstances. It would make sense. The tricky thing here is how the Olympians fit into it, because I also suspect the rift between Hades and Zeus sprang from Persephone's departure. And yet, if the Olympians never knew Zagreus existed, let alone that he's Persephone's son--how can he count as payment into the deal in their eyes? So in that case, what does Zeus think is the justification for Persephone leaving, after the pomegranate thing? Or are we just not doing the pomegranate thing at all? It would be a shame to lose it entirely, out of a story that really seems to enjoy the myths it's playing with. And there should be something complex here, something more than simply 'mom fucked off and left because dad sucked and now I'm following her because same'. It feels more complex than that. 'Mom and dad had a baby to try and save their marriage, it didn't work, but when mom left she had to leave me behind because otherwise dad would have gotten the cops and her extended family involved' feels more right, while still just as grounded in reality as the story has been so far.

I sort of want to write some meta about how each of the six legendary weapons corresponds to their original divine wielder, but I haven't unlocked all of their codex entries yet (look I am very bad with ranged weapons in this game ok, I am working on it), and I still need to think about the details. Aside from, of course, fuck yes of course Hestia's the one with the railgun. Leave drama and elegance and traditional weaponry to her brothers and sister (Demeter, who knows how to get her hands dirty, gets a pass). Hestia is out here to get shit done. With a grenade launcher.