#i'm actually curious as to why most of these manga are so short

[alteredphoenix]

Something I've noticed, but: yuri manga don't last very long, do they?

[theheirofthesharingan]

Itachi is the main character without plot armour, don't you think?

That's a good one actually. After all, he is Itachi 'I'm not the main character but I stole the show' Uchiha. So why not. Majority of the fandom cannot afford to be indifferent towards him and it's been 14 years since his death (in manga he died in 2008).

In mathematical equations these numbers would be considered negligible. In spite of this he's one of the most popular characters in Naruto.

I feel he is more suited for seinen manga that deals with the darker themes. Though, I haven't read any seinen so far myself. He is a very complex character with multiple layers to him, all equally authentic, the colours that form a kind of a kaleidoscope. I'm not blind towards Kishimoto's shortcomings as a writer but Itachi is one of the reasons I will defend him.

To me, he better works as a supporting character (or a minor character) because that allows him to be chaotic without being shackled to ethics or morality. His short appearance usually ends up triggering bigger events and for as long as he's there he wants you to chase after him, and he keeps the audiences curious about him, the answers to some of those queries never come.

Main characters give you something to root for, even if they're not exactly the "good guys". Naruto, for example, makes you want to root for him on his journey to be the Hokage. Sasuke makes you want to root for his journey towards justice. Itachi... well. Within the context of the narrative his motives are simple and he has no lofty goals. He wants to keep Sasuke safe, that's all. That's something he can achieve and he will. That's not to say there's no scope, but in the context of canon material, there isn't much.

Majority of the Naruto fandom would agree for them it's Naruto before Itachi's death and after his death. That's the checkpoint for most of us. Whether one likes him or not his backstory is the most important one to decide how twisted the world actually is. If he were present all the time and was all over the place the impact of his character wouldn't be as powerful. So, he's great as he is presented with minor changes here and there.

[nohr-and-thirst]

infodump more about welt suffering and welt in general. please?

I've played quite a bit of HI3 and have been playing HSR, which made me finally interested in welt. the gravitas of his eng VA's voice his chef's kiss - I think he's one of the few characters who doesn't sound like "I'm reading this from a paper in a studio" in english - and I dig his design and powers. but what side material do I actually read to get welt lore? there's so much manga and I've only seen screenshots

ASK ABOUT WELT AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE!

Quick side topic about his English VA. I love how it fits Welt so well, in my opinion. I play Impact 3rd with CN dub, but for Star Rail he doesn’t have the same CN voice actor so it threw me off at first, but I gotten use to it after I tried to stop associating with another Impact 3rd VA.

I am putting this here already, this is gonna be very short explanation. Is this post short? No absolutely not, but I’m trying to cut details to try and make it short as I can and have it make sense.

Let us start off with some basic information about Welt Yang and now he inherited the name plus the Herrscher of Reason core.

Before there was Welt Yang, there was Welt Joyce, the first Herrscher of Reason. Sadly Impact 3rd does not explore much of Joyce, and most of the information on him, Otto, Anti-Entropy, and even about Tesla and Einstein is all a Visual Novel that never got a true English translation. However, it did get fan translations and oh goodness it’s a lot there. We will speak only of the information we got about Welt Yang from this Visual Novel.

Around the time this VN takes place Welt Yang is 8 years old since it’s 1955. He is the kiddo in the middle, and man oh man he went through a lot!!!

Welt’s dad, Elias Nokianvirtanen, really did care for Welt. He would often travel with his dad who was working for Schicksal.

There is important information to note, and if I don’t explain it I feel like so much will be lost and the reason all of this is important. There are two major groups at the time (1955). Schicksal and Anti-Entropy (AE). At first AE was just the Northern American branch, and there was a lot of tension between the two. After a bit of… fighting, they did manage to make Anti-Entropy.

The reason they were with the AE, was because Elias was forced to sabotage AE because Otto was threatening Welt’s life.

Than there is Welt Joyce. Welt Joyce is one of my personal favorite underrated characters, and the way Joyce really wanted to protect humanity tells you everything.

Now what does these gentlemen have in common-? Their deaths are connected to Otto. Otto killed Elias due to the reason he was there slipped, and Joyce risked his life to protect New York from being nuked by Otto.

At this time as Welt was trying to help Joyce, Joyce asked him what he thought of the name Welt. Welt mentions he likes it, and Joyce not only passed on the name Welt, but also the Herrchser core.

If you are curious, and wish to read the VN here is the link! https://zklm.github.io/honkai-vn-antientropy/ as a reminder, this is a fan translation, since we never got an official English translation!

Now, here is where we get to the fun bits. Fun fact: in the manga Second Eruption, Otto was legit like flabbergasted. Cause you know, THE FACT HE KILLED IS SUPPOSEDLY ALIVE. Only than to see it wasn’t Welt Joyce, but someone else and this manga just really shows you how strong Welt can be.

Now in Second Eruption, their goal at the start was just “hey we need to find this new herrchser.” So guess what? They gotta work together a bit. There was a small comment that I feel gets over looked and that is, Otto never really taught Siegfried or Theresa how to use their divine keys, and Welt made a small jab at this. I don’t hear people really mention this, and I don’t know why it is such a small fact I love to bring up.

There is a really important fight scene that happens among these pages/chapters between Welt and Sirin. Here we get to see more of what Welt can do as the HOR, which is once he learns the structure of a human creation, he can make a cope with honkai energy. Now I don’t wanna go to much detail into this fight cause how I’m typing won’t do it justice, but we get a tiny new conflict pop up! What is this conflict? A clown, more specifically, Otto. That’s Otto Apocalypse himself.

When I saw Otto has basically made it his personal goal to take down Welt, it being Joyce or Yang, to take down AE, and just do his plans, I mean it. This man goes so far, and I can do a whole essay about Otto, because he is an extremely well written antagonist. However, that will be for later in case anyone wants that just tell me. But Otto could have done more to Welt here, however Siegfried was there! Since Siegfried is key to Otto’s plan he just leaves and they both luckily make it back to safety with VERY bad injuries.

I do not want to go into all the details in the manga, as this manga is my favorite and everyday I hope that HoYoverse will animate it, so https://manga.honkaiimpact3.com/book/1005 here is the link! PLEASE IF YOU CAN READ IT! It’s 65 chapters long, it’s amazing, well written and oh my goodness I could do a whole video essay on it.

Now I am gonna throw some fun facts because this post is getting long and I’ll share some links too!

So here is a great video from HoYoverse about Joyce, Welt Yang, and Bronya and the legacy of the Herrchser of Reason! https://youtu.be/eSOYUfnUGZk

Now here I’m gonna send two playlist of A Post Honkai Odyssey. Why? Because Welt is in it, and also one of my all time favorite character is in it too, Void Archives. (This is me hinting that I wanna info dump about him too.)

Here is a playlist of gameplay of APHO on YT: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt0MO_4lG2SEyuMmOywSW02-soMN0PA45

Here is a playlist for APHO 2: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIL1w10vWxxolgZxP1Q7KlTPyq2B8JCt3

Also APHO has a certain scene that could be similar to some Star Rail players 👀

Here some random fun facts about Welt Yang that I recall on top of my head cause he gives the brain serotonin!

Welt Yang for the first bit having the core couldn’t sleep tho to the fact that the core houses over 300k people, and he never really complained of any struggles it gave to him, but we learn during the HoD arc when he speaks with Bronya he is concerned about her and ask her all the things she is experiencing.

It’s mention in Second Eruption that Welt would try and ask Einstein to play the piano, also he mentions around that same chapter I believe that if he didn’t inherit the HoR core he thinks/wonders if he would have become a teacher or linguistic like his father.

Facts relating to Arahato is that one his company had a whole copyright issue with Otto’s game company, the Arahato is heavily based of Joyce, and the line “Witness the stars shatter before you!” Comes from Joyce, but Herrchser of Truth Bronya (HI3RD) and Welt (HSR) say this line! Also around the Thus Spoke Apocalypse arc, it is mentioned by Einstein that one morning Welt made breakfast for the crew but it wasn’t much since he made it but implies he knows how to cook!

This is more from Star Rail, but is Serval is in your express she actual mentions Welt cause he asked some questions, but here is the tumblr link for that!

I don’t want to make a too long post that no one possible reads, BUT PLEASE ASK ME ANYTHING! IT CAN BE SILLY OR SERIOUS ABOUT WELT OR ANY OF THE HONKAI IMPACT 3RD GROUP OR STAR RAIL GROUP AS WELL!!! I read the manga’s and I have read the VN and I have spent hours rereading and replaying and explaining to people that ask and I love to do so QVQ

[everythingismadeofchaos]

Hey so I have to ask this question. I am an old, and I've been trying anime sporadically for literal decades (since I saw Twilight of the Cockroaches in the theater), but I couldn't find much I liked and didn't really start getting into it until I saw One Punch Man season 1 after it first came out and before season 2 and it made me laugh and just have a wonderful time. At that point I realized there probably was a lot of anime that was worth my time, and I started looking for it, and what I discovered was that anime is actually like most things: most of it is crap and has no interest for me, but some of it is really good and some of it is fantastic. So just recently I found Dungeon Meshi.

I love Dungeon Meshi. It's inspired me to actually try reading manga, which I've never been able to enjoy before. I sporadically tried comics over the years, but it still hasn't stuck even when it's material that I'm really interested in; I don't know why but it just doesn't work for me. Manga never has either, although I haven't really tried it much. But now I've tried reading Dungeon Meshi and I'm having kind of mixed results but I'm happy I'm trying it even though it's kind of diluted by the fact that I've already seen this story in the anime. I'm really looking forward to another manga by the same author that I ordered the other day at the suggestion of somebody on Tumblr, when I previously asked for advice. I have high hopes that I will enjoy that more than I enjoy the DM manga simply because I've never seen the stories before. Apparently there are seven short stories; that should be fun.

But my question is this. Is the inherent creepiness of anime what's really holding it back in the west? All of the sexualization of young girls, and even leaving aside young girls there's this phenomenon I'm going to call "the chainmail bikini effect" because it kind of parallels a phenomenon in Western fantasy, that all really screws up my enjoyment of the story. I can't bloody stand harem anime. I find it so, so aggravating. And the thing is, I'm really curious about this other genre with all these other ideas and settings and conventions and I really like all of that stuff. It's just the creepy pseudo-pedophilia and hypersexualization. I feel like most anime wants me to be a pedophile and that's creepy as fuck.

So how much other anime is there that isn't like this? One Punch Man really wasn't, although there were one or two characters I guess who were kind of parodies of the genre, which makes sense since the whole thing was a parody, but there's got to be more. I mean I loved Ascendance Of A Bookworm, because even though that was a young girl there was absolutely nothing sexualized about it. I loved the Saga of Tanya the Evil. It really stands out and is completely different from anything else that I'd ever seen in that genre, although it does remind me a lot of a book I read a couple of decades ago called The Blue Max, which they completely ruined in a movie starring George Peppard; the book is about this character sort of fighting against his own personal demons and losing, but the movie character is just a positive decent neato white hat hero guy and it ruins the whole concept. Tanya is like that book (not the movie obviously).

What else is out there in this department? What am I going to enjoy like Delicious in Dungeon because it doesn't carry these creepy garbage ideas? Suggestions actively solicited. And thank you very much in advance for reading this wall of text.

[sneezyonmain]

OC Post- Juliet

---

Alright yall! I decided I'm gonna start posting abt my characters so I'm gonna start my with one of my favorite gorls.

A small disclaimer: All of my OCs are actually my friend's and I's DnD characters, used with permission. Some details may be a little confusing as I've taken their standard backstories and modified them to fit a modern fantasy setting. I'll list the class for anyone curious, but it won't come into much use unless they're a spellcaster.

(Picrew Credit to Hunblooms' Character maker, hellosunnycore's TOON ME! and pianobelt's Pbelt Witchsona)

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Name: Juliet Bonesmasher

Race: Human, White

Age: 21

Sex: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Bisexual

Class: Order of Scribes Wizard

Height: 5'0

Hair Color: Redhead, Ginger

Eye Color: Green

Occupation: Arcane sciences researcher

Basic Description: Juliet is a short, pear shaped woman with green eyes, heavy amounts of freckles and red hair. She is thin in her upper body and doesn't have a lot of muscle, and carries the majority of her weight in her hips, stomach and thighs. She wears generally preppy sort of clothes, tending towards purples, muted jewel tones and browns. Her hair is cut a few inches past her chin, and is often worn back in a small bun to keep it out of her sight. She wears thin-rimmed round glasses and an arcane focus necklace. She wears minimal makeup, and when she does it's usually concealer, mascara and blush only.

Background: Juliet is the middle child of a very large family. Her parents and siblings are remarkably athletic, though aren't very bright (read as: her family is all barbarians). She, oddly enough, ended up much smaller in stature and physically weaker, though she still inherited the same fiery temper. Her siblings were quite protective over her, as she has asthma, isn't very strong, and has autism, but as she grew older and developed an aptitude for the arcane, they soon learned she could easily get by without them. She remains close with her whole family, particularly her brother, Caspian.

Personality: Juliet is anxious and a little neurotic at times, but has an intense passion for her work that allows her to talk at length despite her nerves. Aside from her research, she spends most of her time reading smut trashy romance novels, noir mystery, and manga. She's kind of an aggressive weeb. She's often dense and overthinks every social interaction, and only has one close friend she's known since childhood. She's easily angered, and while she isn't cruel she often blows up at the people who upset her. She's a hopeless romantic and oftentimes hypersexual, though she tries her best to hide it. She's very inexperienced in matters of love, however. She doesn't go out much and prefers to stay inside and enjoy quiet time with her books and some coffee.

Snz Info: Her immune system isn't very strong, but because of her asthma it affects her lungs more when she's sick. She's allergic to dust and feathers. She has very pitchy, breathy sneezes that are relatively quiet, though terribly messy. She stifles more often than not.

Fun Facts:

Drives a punch buggy

Her favorite food is chocolate pudding

She has the fetish (among many other kinky interests, she's kind of a deviant)

She has 6 siblings

She believes herself to be the product of an affair, as her parents are in an open relationship. This would explain why she's much smarter (and smaller) than the rest of her family

Has always worn A cups (flat chest queen, we love her)

Autistic

She had braces and headgear in middle school and has tried her hardest to burn every single picture of her from age 11-13

100% had a Wattpad account

Stutters severely when nervous

Anyways please be nice to my favorite girl I love her.

[yalocalfanficaddict]

TW; heres a prompt. Bokugo is having SH problems, and kiri catches him in the act. Then kiri ends up comforting bokugo and trying to help him get SH clean.

A little bit of angst for ya. ✨

Are you the same as the last Annon? I only ask because you spell Bakugou's name the same as the last Annon, haha! I don't have any ill-intent when I say that, only curious! Thank you for the angsty prompt, I hope I do it justice!! HOWEVER, THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE THAT I DO NOT WISH TO ROMANTICIZE!!! THIS WILL HAVE SH, HINTS OF ED ALONG WITH DISSOCIATION AND BLOOD!! PLEASE SKIP PAST IF YOU DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE READING!!

Words: 4566

Katsuki knows he shouldn't do it. He actually hates it. He hates how the idea plagues his mind, disrupting his thoughts. He hates how his fingers twitch in consideration and temptation, succumbing to his mind and not following his body's request. He hates the feeling of satisfaction when he knows no regular person should. He hates the anxiety that chokes him when he changes in and out of his gym clothes. He hates it all.

Every. Single. Bit.

But he can't stop, no matter how hard he tries. He always finds himself locked in his private half-bathroom at least once a week, falling back onto his worst coping mechanism.

This time, Katsuki paces around his room, doing everything he can to break the cycle. Katsuki digs his fingers through his hair, a frustrated noise tickling the back of his throat. "God damn it. Why is this so hard? I'm going to be the next number-one hero for fucks sake!"

Slamming the side of his fist against his desk, Katsuki grits his teeth. Knowing he would cave by the end of today, he burns holes through his glare at the drawer. I won't open it, he tells himself.

The ache in his chest claws at him, yearning for it.

I won't open it.

The thoughts in his mind hound him, desperate for it.

I won't open it.

The shivers breathing against his neck and shoulders anticipate it.

I won't open it.

Shaking his head, his face skews. Katsuki squeezes his eyes shut and backs away with a sharp sigh. He's better than this, and he knows it. There's no need for him to harm himself. He's perfectly capable of doing other things, but the idle scratching and picking at his left arm begs to differ.

Knowing there's no way for him to stop, Katsuki caves. Jerking the desk drawer open, he grabs what he needs before slamming it shut. Katsuki huffs as he perches on the edge of his bed, twisting his pocket knife open. I might as well do it where it's not visible instead of picking my fucking arm raw.

The cool steel glints in the evening light, casting a silver glow onto his complexion. He sighs, hiking up his shorts and peeling his boxer briefs back. Red lines trace along his flesh, jumping out at him from the stark comparison of his skin tone. Most have healed and are a soft pink, but the rest that scatter throughout his thighs are either faded white scars or dark red scabs.

Gnawing on the dead skin along his lips and the inside of his cheek, Katsuki alines the blade. Ten marks per leg. That's the limit he set himself if he ever wants to stop this. He hopes to limit himself to nine by next week, but that might not be possible.

An awfully too familiar sensation sneaks upon him. It's almost like his mind detaches from his body. The focus in his eyes slips into a haze-like stare, like sheer curtains drawing over them. His fingers and wrists work in mechanic order, never faulting or hesitating. The blade works along his thighs and hips like a bow drawing on the delicate strings of a cello.

How deep can he go before drawing too much blood? Katsuki has drawn blood several times after he worked up the courage to go further than only leaving red marks behind. How deep can he go before it's too late? Katsuki knows there's a crucial artery buried deep beneath his skin, but he's never reached it. How deep can he go before someone finds out? Katsuki has all but laughed a handful of times when not even Deku could figure out his strange new behavior.

Warm red leaks onto his free thumb, and Katsuki reaches for the tissue on his nightstand. Swiping at the ruby beads with one hand, Katsuki wipes the rest off of his thumb. He grabs more tissues and begins dabbing at the other leg. Thankfully, the cuts aren't as deep as he thought, so Katsuki keeps the Kleenex pressed against his wounds for almost five minutes.

Tossing the balls of bloody Kleenex in the trash bin, Katsuki comes back to his senses and off this strange high, realizing just how many marks he left on his body.

He sucks in a sharp breath, his clothes stinging the open flesh. "Holy shit. You fucking idiot," he hisses. Closed knife in his fist, Katsuki grips it until his whole hand begins to shake, pain shooting from his palm to his shoulder. Glancing down at his hand and the item inside, Katsuki raises his arm and chucks it across the room with a frustrated grunt. "God damn it all!"

The pocket knife strikes the wooden door with a sharp thwack! It clatters to the floor, leaving the room for Katsuki's agitated and labored breathing.

Slippers pad along the hardwood floor, and Katsuki instantly knows who it is on the other side.

"Damn," he whispers, realizing his mistake.

"Baku-bro...you good, man?"

He creeps over to the door and swoops down to retrieve the knife. Returning the knife to its original spot, Katsuki sighs before speaking up again. "Fine. A hundred percent good. Now go fuck off and go to bed."

Once he's positive that Kirishima has tucked himself back into his room, Katsuki curls up on his bed. Without much of a fight, he allows an all-too-familiar sense of shame to wash over him. Why should he be going to the extent of harming himself when he has it all? He has a proper family consisting of two parents, and his grades have never been better, not to mention that he's growing leaps and bounds with his quirk's potential. He even has Kirishima, someone he considers to be his closest friend.

Two faint knocks take him by surprise. That damn Kirishima just can't seem to leave him be. Katsuki gives one firm knock in return to assure that everything's okay. After that, it doesn't take long for sleep to claim him.

●•●•●•●

A shudder rips through his body as he steps into the showers. The warm water slips into the cracks and crevasses of broken skin, causing Katsuki to hiss at the sensation. "Fuck," he whispers. He clenches his teeth before any more sounds of pain can slip past.

Does he deserve the pain? The lines between yes and no are smudged like the dried blood along his body. He deserves it because of the foul, selfish desire growing enough to hurt himself over nothing. But he's tired, craving nothing more than to be held. Katsuki can't recall when such sweet and warm contact seeped through his skin and fizzled through his veins.

Tears nearly muddle with the water as unknown forces clench around his throat, making it a struggle to breathe. Wrapping his arms around his waist, Katsuki presses his back against the tile walls before his weak knees buckle, sliding to the pooling floor. His shuddering gasps echo through the showers, and no tear falls. He refuses. It doesn't matter how much the feeling suffocates him. Katsuki would blast his own arms off before shedding a tear.

And so he sits there, gritting his teeth, muttering profanities at himself, digging his nails into his sides.

He sets his plate down in front of Kirishima and almost gags at the food on his plate. Katsuki knows he must eat something, or his training and progress will be all for nothing. A fried egg and a single slice of toast fill half the plate.

"Hey man, how'd you sleep? It was nearly midnight when I knocked," Kirishima chuckles. A strange smile pulls at the corners of his lips. "I heard a clatter and thought it was weird to hear something from you so late—"

"I knocked over a book on my nightstand in my sleep,"

Kirishima hums before taking a bite out of his own breakfast. "Alright, bro," he says around a mouthful of sausage.

The two boys pick away at their breakfasts in silence. Peace finally settles over Katsuki like a familiar blanket he lost long ago. After battling with himself to the point of self-destruction, Kirishima silences it all. Kirishima mutes the thoughts that plague his psyche in hell-inducing, nightmarish ways. Kirishima shuts down the programming in his mind that encourages dangerous actions.

"Thank you," his voice cracks from how low he whispers.

"Huh? What for, dude?" Kirishima clears his plate with Katsuki hot on his heels.

Katsuki stays silent for a moment, contemplating his words. Why did he even say 'thank you' anyway? It doesn't matter. He needs an excuse to bring meaning to the rather hollow words. "You're the only shitty person in this world I would bother to call close."

"Aw, thank you, man! You're my best friend, too!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, you weirdo," Katsuki grumbles, but this time a hint of playfulness sneaks into his tone.

Katsuki and Kirishima work their way back to the dorms, chattering away about their plans for the weekend. Well, it's more Kirishima nattering away while Katsuki listens in silence.

"—and Kaminari and Sero are planning another sleepover. Do you think I should go?"

He shrugs. "I'm not your damn mother,"

"Oh, right," Kirishima chortles. "I'm thinking of maybe going, but Ashido's going through another break-up with Uraraka, so I might have to hang with her again—you know how they get."

He nods.

"Well...whaddya think?" Kirishima asks as Katsuki clicks the button for the elevator. It doesn't take long for it to chime open, swallowing them in as Kirishima presses the button that leads to their floor. "Should I or should I not go?"

"Do whatever the hell you want. I don't care."

"Oh, right," Kirishima grins. "And uhm, do you want to watch a movie or something?"

The elevator's jaws open up and spit them out, leaving the boys to make their way back to their rooms. A movie would be...perfect, but Katsuki still hasn't taken out his trash. Removing any and all evidence from last night should be one of the first things he should do.

"No, I need to finish some more homework and tidy my room."

Kirishima raises a brow. They stop at Katsuki's room, and he watches him unlock the door. "You? Needing to tidy up your room? Who are you, and what have you done to Bakugou?"

He shakes his head with a low snicker. "At least my room is always cleaner than yours."

"Hey!"

"It's true,"

The silence only confirms what they both know.

Katsuki steps into his darkened room as Kirishima calls out, "I'll see you later, then. Right?"

"Sure," he grunts out.

Not bothering to switch on a light or open the curtains, Katsuki eyes the brimful trash bin under his desk. Despite eating his fill and spending time with his favorite person, his energy is somehow more limited. So he merely stands there, staring at it before drifting into space. What feels like TV static and muted chatter rustles in his ears, and for a moment, his world detaches.

Katsuki lets his head finally fall to gawk at his hands. They tremble as sweat begins to moisten his upturned palms. The same feeling of being strangled slips around Katsuki like an invisible rope hitching around his throat.

Sleep, he blinks back his trembling waterline as he wipes his hands on his pants. I need sleep. Maybe that's all it takes to feel better. God, I'm such a fool if I'm wrong. Scratch that. Delusional might be a better word...

He rips off his turtleneck and flops onto his bed. Curling up, he doesn't bother to throw on his messy covers.

This pain Katsuki's in is brain-numbing, chest hallowing pain. It's swallowing him up.

And he doesn't know how to escape it.

Katsuki wakes up to the sound of rapid knocking. Peeling his eyes open, he can't even register the slurred conversation he just had until a weight settles on the side of his bed.

"Hey man, y'good? It's nearly supper time, and you haven't come out since this morning," Kirishima's voice is warm and inviting. After a stammer pause, it quickly shifts to trembling, fearful. "Uhm, mind telling me what those red lines are on your hips there, bro?"

He's fully awake as he jolts to an awkward sitting position. Reaching for what blankets he can, he covers himself from the waist down. He must have cut himself a little too far up last night. "The fuck you staring down there for?"

Hands pull up in defense with a lowering head. "Sorry, I'm sorry, dude. It's just a bit concerning when you've been acting the way you've been for who knows how long."

"What the hell?" Katsuki feigns ignorance with a scoff. "You think I would want to hurt myself? Kirishima, let's be real here. Why would I do that?"

Kirishima bolts up and waves his arms in Katsuki's direction. An irritated noise rumbles the back of his throat. "You don't think that I wouldn't notice, Bakugou? I've seen how much you've cut back on your food and how you'd stare off into God knows where! I've seen how much more silent you've become, only flipping people off when they frustrate you. I've been waiting to see if this is just one big phase, but the idea of what you might be doing terrifies me. Bakugou, please tell me anything's wrong...don't suffer alone."

Words on the tip of his tongue swallow back into his gut. He's fine. He has a plan. A plan to limit himself week by week until he doesn't cut himself anymore. At least, that's what he tells himself. The notion of carving into his skin once more raises an excited feeling in his simmering veins while nausea churns, fuelling the civil war some might consider his mind.

"I'm fine, Shitty Hair. I was training a while ago and scrapped myself—there's nothing to worry about."

Kirishima sighs, squaring his jaw. "Fine, but please come down to eat something tonight. Everyone else is done, and the food's almost cold."

Katsuki nods, "Yeah, yeah. Sure."

He leaves the room, and Katsuki immediately swings himself out of bed. Fingers curling around his army knife, he creeps into the bathroom with a strange buzz of giddiness. Kirishima almost discovered the slashes on his legs and hips, so what if he ventures out further to see if he can get away with more. Just a little more, nothing too serious.

With the weather growing colder, everybody has been wearing long sleeves and jackets. If Katsuki treats the self-inflicted wounds just right and cuts just shallow enough, they'll be healed with close to no scarring by spring.

Locking the knife into place, Katsuki lifts his forearm up and bends it to face him. The seamless and unblemished skin stares back at him, practically challenging him to do it. Can he actually commit to it? He twists his wrist up and down, then left to right, observing how each artery, vein, and tendon sink in and jut out against the wall of flesh. An itch only a blade could satisfy burrows through the base of his wrist that connects to his palm. He refuses the urge and slides the knife lower to where the middle of his forearm is. Gently applying pressure to the blade, Katsuki slides it down. Memorized by the trail of red—blood oozing much more compared to the other places on his body—Katsuki glides the knife to another spot on his arm. Does he dare to go further? The last incision only takes a quarter of his forearm, so he goes again, dragging the blade halfway before stopping.

"Bakugou..? I—oh, shit. I fucking knew it. Holy fuck," a voice warbles and rasps.

His head snaps up, and his arms fall. With wide eyes, Katsuki stares into Kirishima's reflection, petrified to turn around and find him standing behind him.

Tears well up in their eyes, but only Kirishima's fall. He stretches his arm out, palm up. "Bakugou," he nearly whispers. When Katsuki doesn't move, Kirishima takes a half step and straightens his fingers more. "Please, Bakugou. Hand me the pocket knife."

Warm beads of blood trail down to his knuckles before splattering onto the cool tile in dramatic dollops.

Another step forward forces Katuski back, and the right side of his hip digs into the counter. "Go away, Kirishima. I just—I'm fine, honestly," his voice is meek, not even a shadow of his regular boisterous self. "I'll be down to eat in a bit, just...don't tell anybody, please."

"No. You lied—"

"Because I had to!"

Silence freezes over them until the scratching sound of Kirishima's slippers charges at him. Before Katsuki can react, Kirishima has both hands in a fist, pulling them above his head. "Drop the damn knife, Bakugou. I'm going to see you hurt yourself anymore."

Katsuki tries to fight back, but it's a struggle with how the small of his back presses flush against the counter, borderline arching towards the sink faucet. His arm burns, blood trickling down his elbow and seeping into Kirishima's black long-sleeve muscle shirt. Kirishima must have finished a workout before waking Katsuki because the scent of salty sweat tickles his nose. "Just let me go, God damn it! Then you don't have to watch, idiot," he spits, some flying and landing on Kirishima's cheek.

"But you're my friend, I can't...I can't just sit back and let you do this to yourself!" Kirishima grunts as he struggles with Katsuki. "Would you do the same for me? Just gawk, frozen in place as my own fucking blood stains me? Bakugou, you're going to kill yourself if you keep this up, and I refuse to let you go through with it!"

He falters at the words, unable to process how Kirishima spins them, pushing him against a wall with his wrists pinning on each side of his head.

"You might be in your own personal bubble, but we care about you—I fucking care for you! You're my best friend, my partner. You're my favorite person in the whole damn world, Bakugou..." Kirishima's weeping now, but the sound drowns in his ears as TV static crackles in the back of his mind.

Katsuki turns away to stare at the doorway. It stands a few inches away from them, laughing at their—his—struggle. Don't look at me like that, he wants to say to Kirishima. I'm not doing anything wrong... I'm just not in the right headspace right now.

But he stays silent, cheeks and ears hot with embarrassment. Everything blurs, so he stares up at the tile ceiling, to not let a single tear shed nor look at his distressed friend. 'Sorry' is all he can mouth, but Kirishima either doesn't notice or cares.

"Please, Bakugou...just drop the knife, alright? I'm not mad, but scared," he whispers the last word as if taboo. When Katsuki brings his gaze back to Kirishima, he finds his head hung and grip weakening. They both tremble and shake as tears swirl with blood on the floor. In some strange way, Katsuki finds it funny how it's almost a literal, physical statement of blood versus water. Which will stand tall and persevere? Only time and the fates know, and it's up to them to find out.

"I'm so damn scared that I'll lose you. Listen, I won't do the whole stupid 'Quit For Me' speech because that's probably the last thing you want to hear, but please stop for your own sake—"

"If you think this is all for stupid attention, it's not. I fucking swear on it, Kirishima."

Tears fall harder as both of them start sniffling. Kirishima shakes his head again, sealing his eyes tight, his face scrunches in hurt. "I would never. But please think of your parents if something worse happens to you. Think of Midoriya. Think of your goals, Bakugou. Who else will be number one? I have no clue because, at Midoriya's rate, he might not make it past thirty with how much he's been trashing his body through his quirk. There's no way in hell that Todoroki will be number one after all the beef he's had with his dad—he wouldn't allow it. So I'm begging, Bakugou—I'll get on my knees if I must—but please, please, please drop the knife. We can work through this together. You aren't alone...don't suffer alone."

Silence steals them away, leaving them with just their heaving breaths and solemn thoughts. He gasps when hot wetness trails down his cheeks. His first reaction is to swipe it away, but his injured arm screams at him when Kirishima stiffens his grip.

"Shit," he mutters. As the uncontrollable flow of tears slips down his face like waterfalls, a strange sense of vulnerability squeezes at his chest. Like he's been stripped naked for all the world to see, Katsuki wants to curl up under his bed and hide until Kirishima forgets this event. Katsuki sighs and looks everywhere but his direction. "Kiri, in my bedroom...I wanted you to know. But I didn't want to tell you. I was so close, too. What I've been doing to myself is much more complex than you think. I don't even know why I fucking do it. Shit, Kirishima, I sit here and try to limit myself each week. But...but..."

The dam breaks, and Katsuki's knees buckle again. A clatter is audible from the fallen knife, but nobody pays attention to it. Kirishima eases him to the floor before Katsuki wraps his arms around him like he's dangling from the highest point of a skyscraper. "Fucking hell, Kirishima. You," he's interrupted by a hiccup in his choking sob. "You're right. I swear I w-was getting better. I had a plan. I had precautions. It just went all to sh-shit today. God, I'm so tired of it all. Please make it stop—I want this to st-stop. I'm sorry, so so sorry. Okay? Give m-me a chance, and I'll change. Fuck everything so hurts damn badly..." Katsuki sniffs before another shattering gasp wracks through his body. "I'm so embarrassed that you see me like this now. Don't treat me like I'm some stupid fucking toy needing to be fixed now. Don't treat me like a doll in need of stitches. I don't need the pity."

More inconsistent and nonsensical rambles slip past his lips, but Kirishima doesn't pull away. Kirishima only cradles him closer, not bothering to acknowledge the blood staining his shirt. Carding fingers through Katsuki's choppy hair, Kirishima rocks him softly. Almost as if engaging in a slow dance of comfort and stability, leaving Katsuki no chance but to comply with his sobbing babbles. "Don't be sorry. It'll be okay, Bakugou, I can feel it. You have me to lean on and wipe your tears. You have me to guide you away from those dark paths and thoughts. You have me for everything and anything. I promise I won't leave you."

His cold hands link with Kirishima's warm ones when they pull away. Kirishima helps him to his feet before stooping down to rummage in the cabinet under the sink. "Now let's get you cleaned up, yeah?"

●•●•●•●

About two weeks later, Katsuki slowly but steadily returns to a new normal version of himself. Sure, the first two days were messy, consisting of yelling and negative remarks from Katsuki; however, Kirishima gladly picked up his pieces and glued him together. For that, Katsuki has been forever thankful. Whenever he can, he leaves behind small gestures of kindness, whether it's cooking a meal, helping Kirishima tidy up, or slipping him the answers to their quizzes instead of lecturing about studying after getting their grades back.

But there's still this hollow, achy feeling nestling in the base of his chest. Katsuki doesn't know when it'll go away, but hopefully, it will be soon.

They curl up on Kirishima's bed, watching something on his laptop. Subtitles follow the screen's events as they watch an animated movie about wizards and moving castles. With almost his complete attention dedicated to the screen, he doesn't even understand what his body is doing to him until Kirishima points it out.

"Please don't pick at your bandage," Eijirou prompts, running his hand in a soothing motion along Katsuki's left arm and gently squeezing his shoulder.

Katsuki quickly threads his fingers together to stop the mindless action. He grunts in acknowledgment, resting deeper onto Kirishima's chest. Eventually, Kirishima found out about how touch-starved Katsuki is. So they've entered a silent agreement that whenever alone, Kirishima is allowed to hold him unless told otherwise, and the same applies to Katsuki.

"I'm so glad you're doing better now, Kats," Kirishima grins, shifting the computer with his free hand. "Do you...feel better? I can get you some ice cubes if you'd like."

Katsuki hums to himself before answering. "No, m'good."

If it gets worse, then I might hold some to distract myself, Katsuki sighs. But I have all that I need right here.

When the movie ends, the credits start to slide across the screen, and Kirishima closes the laptop and slides it off his lap. "I uh...got you something to celebrate."

Katsuki sits up, criss-crossing his legs, and faces Kirishima. His brows knit together as his nose scrunches ever so slightly. "Whatcha mean by that? It's nobody's birthday, and no holidays are coming up."

Kirishima turns to grab something in his bag from beside the bed. "Well, because what we're dealing with is a total beast, I thought after each milestone, I'd get you something to congratulate!"

'What we're dealing with.' That thought echoes against every corner of Katsuki's brain, warming him to his core. That's right, I'm not alone.

With the back of his unbandaged arm, he uses the back of his wrist to swipe away at the tears that well up along his waterline. That's another thing Kirishima has been trying to teach him. He can cry, and it's okay to do so. Nobody will make fun of him. Nobody will look down on him.

Kirishima holds up a book and a paper bag with the label of their favorite bakery's logo, a proud beam plastering his face. "Ta-da! Oh, jeez, was it the wrong one? Is that why you're crying? I think I still have the receipt somewhere..."

"No! No, it's fine, Kiri," Katsuki's lips turn up into the faintest of smiles. "You're just too kind to me, and I really don't deserve it. I just don't know where I'd be if you didn't come to check up on me that day."

They've checked in on each other several times before, but there's no need to elaborate on which day he's talking about.

Kirishima sets the items aside and pulls Katsuki into another warm hug. "Shhh, it's okay, Kats."

The pair stay like that for a moment. Katsuki doesn't know where he starts, and Kirishima begins, but he doesn't mind. In fact, Katsuki actually enjoys it. He enjoys how the idea of silk-smooth possibilities settles his thoughts. He enjoys how his fingers twitch in consideration and the temptation to hold Kirishima at any moment. He enjoys the feeling of satisfaction when he knows he is, in fact, getting better with each baby step. He enjoys the pride that swells in his chest on how he did and will survive. He enjoys it all.

Every. Single. Bit.

I'm so sorry for any inconsistencies towards the characters!! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter even with it being more on the darker side of things. I was planning to have more of the comfort aspect come in, but then it would've been too long, so I had to cut it off short, sorry! Below this is the link for if you wish to read this on AO3!! Also, if you would like to have this fic gifted to you, please @ yourself the next time you request! Thank you~!

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

no worries at all, i've never been asked that actually! i really apologize for how long this took to answer because i was thinking so long and hard about characters in media that have touched my heart in different ways.

but in no particular order my top 10 favorite characters are

honda tohru

haruno sakura

narancia ghirga

rengoku kyojuro

bakugou katsuki

iwakura mitsumi

yamada asaemon tenza

nijimura okuyasu

furina

sokka

+ 2 bonuses for fun

the protagonist of fruits basket, my girl tohru. my fellow clumsy queen. if i were going to list down 4 characters i related to the most in animanga, tohru would be one of them. maybe it won't be too much of a surprise she's on this list because one of my highest ranking posts is literally a deep dive into tohru as a character. shameless self promo read here, but this would definitely explain all the reasons i love her so much. but the amount of love this character exudes despite all the painful things she's been through, how i relate to how she tries her hardest to present herself as bubbly to hide her loneliness from even herself, there's just so much i can't help but love about this character.

sakura is one of my girls from now until forever. she's the reason i love cherry blossoms so much. if i had to pick only one character from naruto to call my favorite, it would go to sakura hands down, no questions asked. i'm a first generation sakura fan (lmao is that a thing?) where i liked her from her very introduction to naruto. i loved her pink hair, her green eyes, how she carried herself and you will always see me in the trenches defending sakura as a character and what she supplied to the naruto series. maybe it's because i also related so much to sakura growing up and growing up with the character as well, so there's a lot for me to love here.

narancia is honestly one of the most beautiful characters in jojo for me and i'm not just talking about aesthetics. off rip he comes off as a dumb, violent gangster when in actuality, in spite of the more obvious aspects of his characters, there is a strange purity to narancia. in his loyalty, in his straightforwardness to even how his stand ability manifests as a toy army plane. the implications of the child soldier narancia very much became, his efficiency in being able to kill while very much so still being that kid whose biggest fear than anything was being alone. narancia truly believed he was going to die alone in that alley. his death in jojo is honestly still to this day, one of the hardest hitting. because it was so brutal and unexpected and in a lot of ways so unfair even if the rationality as to why he was targeted made sense (i've talked a number of times with my mom who has seen jojo about how all of the characters who die in pt 5 are core members of the 'heart' of the bucci gang, narancia ofc being one of them). in that moment, everyone cried for him whereas prior he was the one who cried on behalf of the party for the loss of abbacchio.

rengoku lwk just might be everyone's fav in demon slayer but i don't care, same here. his owlish design, his vibrant energy, the conviction to stay behind his principles and even die by said principles? i can't not admire the guy and how despite his short appearance in the story, you still feel the ripple effect of it throughout the story. sasori, maybe deidara had a point when he said true beauty is fleeting and an explosion.

katsuki honestly stole the whole show of bnha for me. hell i was out here enjoying him even when he was just an irredeemable bully because i could see early on the complexity of the character and was honestly curious to see where such a belligerent personality came from. how he's reflected on himself throughout the story, becomes better than the person he was the day before, all of that is really admirable to me. it's lwk honestly gets to a point where if katsuki isn't the focus of an arc or episode, i lose interest. show me the explosion boy please. i also feel like even with the great aspect of the character, there's a lot of disservice towards him regards to how the way his parents treat him is swept under the rug, the way they completely brush over the fact they muzzled and chained him on live television due to his refusal to accept an award and presented a strong student as mentally unstable to the masses (something that led to his very kidnapping, mind you). but my gripes with those things honestly make me love this guy even more than i already do.

mitsumi from skip & loafer is another relatable character for me. from the older trans woman figure in her life (one of my moms) to the clumsiness. like mitsumi, i too am always falling over and because of that i've gotten good at picking myself up. characters like mitsumi, you can't help wanting to follow the model of. i love her straightforwardness, her open-mindedness and appreciate how she views life and those around her. i can only hope to be more like her, among some other characters i love, in my daily life. i love how it doesn't really matter who someone is in relation to her or someone else she knows, she makes her own fair assessments of that person and judges based off her experiences with that person.

tenza is the best character in hell's paradise. argue with a wall i can't be argued against here. damn did we lose when his fine ass got axed early in the storyline. i deadass almost stopped reading hell's paradise after chapter 21 because i was that upset about his death. i'm a sucker for a character who dies saving the rest of the group, and the way he went out in a blaze of glory. already dying, already bleeding out but still deciding he'd spin his last few minutes of life buying time for his comrades. his final thoughts wondering what his life could have been like if he weren't dying in that moment. the students he could have had. the wife he could have had. the visceral reaction i had seeing his body get tossed over like he was nothing but garbage? still feel that. he's another example of a character who didn't have long to shine in the story in terms of number of appearances but the way you feel his presence in the story after his death? how it fuels shion and nurugai's quest for vengeance. how that vengeance almost very well destroyed one of them. how tenza in spirit gave nurugai the will to save shion's life. i really, really loved it. it was such a subversion of expectations seeing the pupil die rather than that master.

okuyasu is definitely my favorite character in diamond is unbreakable. he comes off as just comic relief, which to be fair, okuyasu is very funny. however comma, there's so much to depth to the character that you really appreciate as the story goes on. he's a follower by nature, you can see that from the very first episode you meet him where he follows his brother's orders. that once keicho died, he immediately found someone new to follow in josuke, our jojo for the part. but you see him slowly starting to take those steps towards becoming someone who doesn't just follow, but leads. someone capable of deciding for himself what he wants to do. especially after his brother dies and he becomes a caretaker for himself and his father. how he wants to put large windfalls of money into his savings. how he is able to work around his intellectual shortcomings with his strengths. okuyasu is dumb but he isn't an idiot. he is actually quite astute in a lot of ways one doesn't expect and that he doesn't give himself credit for. so all of this made his grand decision not to follow his brother into the afterlife so satisfying.

oh how i loved furina from day fucking 1. from the moment her design got leaked i knew where my primogems were going. when she entered the story officially? i was even more in love just due to how different she was as an archon. i could understand why she wasn't for everybody but she was everything for me and that's all that mattered. then we get the level 4 tragic backstory, her 500 year long opera where she alone is on the stage? it wasn't enough just to pull for furina, furina deserved everything my account had to offer. her story quest really made me want to shove paimon and the traveler into a blender but regardless, this character has my whole heart and i will eat up any content that pertains to her as i fucking should. she deserves my everything.

sokka. absolutely sokka. seeing sokka finally get his fucking flowers during the atla revival during 2020 brought so much joy to my soul. i've loved sokka since back when atla was still airing on tv. he has been my favorite and honestly i think some of my humor and sarcasm of today relates all the way back to the guy with boomerang. i got both of my moms into atla and it really made me happy to see the guy they initially saw as the dumb funny one in the group when they just glanced at the tv when i was watching it, is actually arguably the smartest on the team and a literal genius who grew into the man he wanted to become since episode 1. that he was actually the most logical member of the team and the most practical when it came to their long term goals. he was humbled and realized his misogyny was an incorrect way of thinking, he learned from his mistakes an even with his insecurities about where he stood on the team, he never let that get him down for long.

+ 2

ojamajo doremi is coming back, so i gotta mention my two of my fav girls from the series that i relate to the most. first up, harukaze doremi or i'm doing myself a disservice. doremi is a character that has a lot of shortcomings from her clumsiness to her . and i relate a lot to her because of that. whenever i learn something new, i'm never the best at it. especially handicrafts and seeing others around me being good at those things definitely sucked. so seeing a character like that was great for me at that age. but one thing that is just so great about this girl is, to quote caribou-kun on youtube (please watch his video essay on ojamajo doremi on youtube) "she is the greatest friend in the entire world". and i don't say that lightly, she's like the tohru honda of majou shoujo. she would literally take off her shirt and give it to someone to throw up in if they needed it. the way she can connect to people. how she supports them when they most need it even if she doesn't know what is the right thing to say or even if it is at the cost of her own feelings. when i say i want to be a good friend to someone, doremi is one of the faces i picture.

and finally, senoo aiko. she was my favorite favorite of the ojamajos growing up. initially because, well, she was the blue one and blue has been my favorite color since before i can honestly remember. because damn did certain parts of her character also really relate to me. divorced parents (although in my case, they got divorced when i was very young and have been that way since my earliest memories) and doing your best to handle that situation even if you want your parents to get back together. my parents never got back together like aiko's but honestly, she i was happy to see that old dream of mine be realized through her. she has had to be the prince for herself and others in her life for most of her life, and when you finally get to see the moment she can just be the princess is wonderful.

there are other characters i haven't mentioned due to the limitations of just 10 characters but these are some characters that immediately come to mind for some major favs.

[bthump]

There are several scenes in Berserk where I have no idea what Miura's intention was but specifically in vol 12 when caska is healing Griffith's wounds and he tries to sleep with her I guess? I do not understand the reason why he did that. After that Caska is crying and shaking and we are also made to understand that her heart is beating fast. Is it because she is scared or is it something else? The scene that follows confuses me even more, Guts appears and notices that Caska is obviously upset so he asks her and she replies that nothing happened. Guts assumes that it has something to do with Griffith and he's screaming and it looks like he's going to face Griffith about something. Is he worried about Griffith or is he mad because he thinks he did something to Caska?

I've discussed the wagon scene in a lot of depth a few times if you're interested: there’s this, and I go into even more detail partway through this post.

but my short answer is that it's Griffith's reaction to Wyald's devastating attempt to drive him to despair. Wyald points out he's fucked for life, can't live on his own, dependent - so what he's doing in the wagon is essentially offering himself to Casca to tempt her to stay with him because he fears being left to die, and because he views his own worth in terms of what he can do for people, and that's about all he has left that Casca might value. And it fits his pattern of transactional sex.

As for the subsequent scene, I haven’t discussed it much so here’s my take:

Casca's little panic attack afterwards mirrors her heart beating hard when she freezes up in the torture chamber while they're rescuing Griffith. It's a reaction to Griffith's vulnerability, and the new reality that he's no longer the strong person she could once rely on for comfort. She also shakes as she contemplates that fact to herself while bandaging Griffith's hand in the wagon, which is why she spills the soup.

Wagon:

Torture chamber:

Wagon again:

I assume she's also upset because her plans have now changed and she's decided she can't go with Guts and she has to stay with Griffith because he needs her, and she has very mixed feelings about that because she wanted to leave with Guts. I think she also does want to stay with Griffith, like it's not just an obligation here, but it's definitely a difficult, painful decision, and it makes sense that it would make her emotional and sad. She’s essentially about to break up with Guts here.

And to me Guts' reaction strikes me as worry for Griffith. Casca was just with him, now Casca is out crying against the side of the wagon, and Griffith is, well, in the state he's in. If I were Guts I'd be wondering if he somehow managed to kill himself, or died of his gaping wounds (despite the manga minimizing the lethal harm that would cause lol), or went catatonic or something.

Honestly I'm a little curious what the original Japanese lines there are actually, because "Did something happen with Griffith?" and "No, that's not it!" does sound like there's a silent assumption happening but I'm not sure what it could be lol. Even if you believe that Griffith tried to rape Casca like a lot of fans do it's nonsensical to expect Guts to leap to that conclusion. Like honestly the way Guts shakes Casca when asking what happened and then starts storming away

gives me the impression that he's concerned about Griffith and he's on the verge of blaming Casca for something because she was supposed to be taking care of him.

I could almost buy Guts wondering if something sexual happened, given his jealousy earlier during the rescue and the general weirdness between them with Griffith back in the picture, but I just don’t see how Guts would leap there from nothing but seeing Casca crying. Unless he thinks Casca put the moves on Griffith and Griffith turned her down lol.

So yeah, it just seems like the most straightforward explanation is that Guts is worried that something happened to Griffith while Casca was supposed to be taking care of him.

Thanks for the ask!

[hcolleen]

Twenty books

In no particular order other than how I remember them, twenty books that helped make me who I am. Supposed to be without explanation, but I think I'll add some. I'm not saying these are all good, but they all influenced me.

The Time Quartet by Madeline L'Engle. I'm on my third copy of Wrinkle in Time (the other two fell apart and my current copy has loose pages)

The DragonRiders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Not sure if this was authorial intent, but there's a scene that impressed upon young me that you judge people by what they do, not by who they love.

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. I learned a lot about moths and butterflies in this book

Spock's World by Diane Duane. Taught me to question who and why behind news.

The Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Rex Stout. The first mysteries I actually liked.

Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne. The first deeper science book about cosmology and relativity that started a deep love.

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willow Davis Roberts. Haunted me.

For Love of Evil by Piers Anthony. Not all evils are the same, and sometimes evil is a means to get to the good ending, but still should be evaluated by results and motivation.

Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur. Got me back into PNR after Anita Blake put me off the genre, which led me to most of what I read now.

The Cat Ate My Gym Shorts by Paula Danzinger (and other titles). Helped young me develop resilience.

They Have a Word for It by Howard Rheingold. Started my love of linguistics.

GetBackers by Yuya Aoki and Rando Ayamine. The best manga I've read and I think of how it all ties together so well and deliciously often.

The Turing Option by Harry Harrison. An exploration of the divide between human and machine and what makes us human

The Last Coincidence by Robert Goldsburough. The first audiobook I listened to and while I thought it odd in high school, though I enjoyed it, is now how I read most books.

Double Trouble by Barthe DeClements. One of those books that haunts my brain from childhood.

The Vmapire's Mail Order Bride by Kristen Painter. Started my love affair with cozy PNR mysteries, my most read genre now.

The Utterly Uninterestig and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes. Introduced me to one of my new favorite authors.

The Cures of Chalion by Louis McMaster Bujold. One of my favorite books and an interesting exploration of religion and how it affects history.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. An openly curious exploration of everything that fascinated the author as a child, encouraging my adult curiosity and exploration.

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. History and science and crime and how our modern systems developed.

The Giver by Lois Lowry. Quite a haunting book.

[taohs]

You never have to be upset about not replying right away. So don't concern yourself about that at all.

And, besides, I know me sending long messages like these can be a bit overwhelming for people to reply back to. At least for some people anyway.

~

For my hyperfixations.. Animated or non-animated? Because that depends on what you may be curious to know about. For the most part, I'm usually drawn to whatever catches my interest so my preferences tend to be eclectic. But I also enjoy any underrated series a lot of the time, I'm not sure why but I do.

I know my answer is vague. But I thought I'd clarify before going too into details about something, only to find out you were asking about something else.

That has happened to me before.

~

I feel so old. I don't know how to feel about that..

And yes. I'm celebrating. Kinda. But so far, anything I have been doing hasn't gone according to plan for me though. Like I'm going to dye my hair before my birthday, but not the colors I wanted because it was sold old. We're also going to a restaurant, but not to the restaurant I wanted to go to. So fifty fifty for me at the same time. I am trying not to be bratty about it, but I know I'm actually being very bratty about it.

Since I don't have friends (friends in person, not my online friends), I don't have fun plans away from the family. So I'm stuck with the family. Which may be a good and bad thing, because now I will be happy to see certain family members that I don't often see all the time but also annoyed that I'll be stuck with any family members I don't like being around.

So the plans so far have been neutral for me but I'm sure I can't complain too much though.

But the horrible side to these plans. As an introvert.. Because of my age now, all of a sudden everyone is wanting to make plans to take me out for my birthday this year. Which means that I will be physically, mentally and emotionally drained within the next couple weeks. I'm not looking forward to it.

Not many people ask me when my birthdate is. And even less people actually know when my birthday is too. So I'm always "shrouded in mystery" because a lot of people never really ask about me, well, kinda.. But not really. Not really these types of questions.

~

Regardless of endings, I will always feel empty over the series ending. I know, I know.. It's so ridiculous.

Maybe because there is more to learn from the plot or characters, or anything that I haven't thought of.

But yes! That. No matter what the ending really is, I always want the conclusion to the story. Closure for the story to wrap up. To know how it ends. I'm really the same way about conclusions, closures, all of it.

Having an ending to a story is more fulfilling to me.

But worst case scenario.. If the ending isn't the end you were hoping for, then there are also stories and headcanons exist for people. And, if the character's not really an important character, then people can't complain if your canons are right or wrong either.

~

Before I forget! I can't remember if I mentioned it in my last message. Names for certain characters like Revy and Balalaika, their names were mentioned in the spinoff mangas. Since you asked about it in our last message, and I can't remember if I answered it.

~

I don't know much about her health. But I do know that she only works on the manga (or any projects) when she's in better health conditions. From what I do know about the creator anyway, which isn't even that much. But I know that much at least.

Without spoiling the story or characters.. There are a lot of twists and turns, expected and unexpected developments will happen throughout the series.

Are you watching in Japanese? Is Asta's actor a lot less obnoxious for you now? Because that definitely was the biggest obstacle for the Black Clover fans.

Fun fact! Trivia. Me and Charmy are about the same height, she's actually two inches taller than me. So I am a really short person. That's one fact about me. But I will never eat that much food though, that just makes me sick watching someone eat all that food.

- 💋

ahh, i was asking with animated hyperfixations in mind, but do feel free to talk about other interests you might have. who knows, maybe it'll be something that i know about too! i can relate to you with enjoying underrated series, some of my friends constantly has to deal with me yelling about my current obsessions that not many people knows about in hope that they'll give the series a chance too. right now the series i'm drawn to is whichever one has a good female cast for me to fall in love with

also, wanted to wish you a happy belated birthday! did your day turn out okay? and did you like your new hair color, despite it not being in the one that you wanted? i know you said you were neutral on a lot of things, but i do hope that there were things that you enjoyed on your bday <3 i totally get you as an introvert myself. my social battery gets drained quickly after i'm out for too long, which is ironic considering my career is being around other people the whole day. tbh i am so content being in my comfortable little room and just relaxing the whole day

(as you can see i ask a lot of questions, i enjoy learning more about the other person, so if that ever bothers you don't hesitate to let me know!!!)

about endings, it's definitely not ridiculous to feel empty after a series end!! in fact i think it's completely normal! sadly it's very rare that the author can fit everything i want into the story before they end it, so i'm usually not really satisfied with the ones i've completed. more often than not i just fall away from the series completely (even if i've loved it before). like you said, in some cases i just enjoy making up headcanons and aus to fill the void

yes i'm watching black clover in japanese still! asta is amazing to me after i got used to his yelling, he's one of my current favorites because he's so energetic and adorable. definitely one of my favorite character tropes. i know i started with just meeting mereoleona in mind, but i do find the story getting really fun and i adore many characters. i'm slowly falling in love with charlotte too. she captured my attention the first time i heard her deep voice... also she is so pretty. her crush on yami is just the cutest thing

aww really?! omg that is such an interesting thing to know! charmy is such a smol character but she sure can fit a ton of food in her stomach. i just went and checked their heights too, apparently im a tiny bit shorter than noelle haha

[bokettochild]

So, in honor of LU's 4th anniversary, I will be sharing the results of my introducing the Boys to my younger sister! I basically showed her a bunch of pictures and she made assumptions while I laughed my ass off and tried to type while keeping up with what she was saying.

Here are the results of that!

Let's get into it, shall we?

(For clarity, my comments are in italics and hers will be in quotation marks)

"His name is Thor

"Knight in shining armor, stern, leader but not totally controlling, honor obsessed."

(She got more detailed about them all later on, but yeah, she was short with the first few, but a bit on the nose XD)

"Weird insomniac guy

"Strikes me as distrusting, wily, protective of family, lone wolf "

(I died)

"Boromir

"Strikes me as being proud, vain, sassy, a bit of a narcissist, tries to look good but often breaks the rules, look out for Number #1"

You're not that far off, I mean, he's not a narcissist, he learned not to be after the villain um...lusted after him and hilled hundred of people because she wanted him to be hers.

"Shaggy

"Ugly, he ugly. Obviously he's got a super sword so he must have done something cool to get that but he doesn't deserve it, like, he's not cool after all. He looks like he's supposed to be really cool but is actually boring. Not very relatable, too perfect."

(She tore into him lol)

(I didn't tell her anything, but I guess she picked up on the fact that he's a religious nut. And when she saw me type this she kinda groaned so....)

(She looked shocked when I said he was dating a goddess) "That's not religious that's sacrilegious!"

"Legolas

"Cute! He's cute. Probably a bit mischievous, spunky, bit of a rebel, goes off and does his own adventures when he's not supposed to. Generally smart but gets his butt handed to him on occasion from going off my himself. He's just like a cute, mischievous trouble-maker who means well but get's himself screwed up."

(I was dying as I wrote it, she got him perfect!)

"Hiccup

"Getting a Hiccup vibe, but also Sokka- Is that a boomerang? It's a boomerang :)

"He a bit timid on the surface, but he's got his own thing going and is gonna stand up for what he wants to do. He'll go off and do his adventure stuff but he's also afraid of dying or getting hurt (like the 1st Hiccup freeing Toothless scene in the woods). Easily startled but quick to spring into action. Kinda like the sneak boi."

(Told me to make sure to type it "boi")

He's half fairy.

"That makes sense.

"And his sword is dying! Look at this!!!"

(She really disliked how his sword looks, we laughed like nuts)

"Kuzko

"Why Kuzko? I already don't like him. I feel like he's cocky, a bit of a flirt, tries to look cool and screws it up. Like he thinks he's really epic, "stand aside, let me do my thing", proceeds to blow himself up. Based on the fact that he's holding a bomb I'm guessing that he does something with explosives, but he's also got a sword. And what is that, a joker's vest? He looks like that weird kid who ran away to join the circus but is also a mercenary part time."

Anything else?

"He explode."

Everyone's gonna riot, you're just tearing into their favorites!

"Baby Face- No! Mort! (like in Madagascar)

Ew. He's like an ugly baby face, is he slinging a bell around? What is that? Is that a bell?"

It's a grappling hook.

"Either he's really small and immature, or just really young, or both. I feel like the creator designed him to be this mischievous lovable character but I would probably hate him :). Probably takes on too much, tries to be a hero but he's to amateur. Probably has a dramatic backstory; like he's a prince or something. He's probably got like a high pitched annoying voice (she dislikes kids). He's like if Deku was younger and medieval, except I like Deku. He probably cries a lot too."

(Sorry to the Wind, Sky and Four fans, I can't control her)

Last one (for now)

(told her he's my fav)

"Sonic

Oh no. Oh no. I think he's like, cocky, flashy, probably a bit of a flirt, but at the same time I feel like underneath that he's really sweet. He's a team player but a bit of a showoff. It's easy for him to get himself into a pickle."

He turns into a rabbit.

No rabbits! No! No rabbits! (She just read Melvina's Therapy webtoon)

"He looks like is James Hiller tried to be an elf knight."

Anything else?

"Idk he's just weird."

He's the most emo out of all of them.

"He's emo? He looks like a 'har har snicker ha' (a swashbuckler, for those who didn't grow up watching veggies hop around telling Bible stories), like Kirishima and Kaminari combined."

Showed her this Bunny Legend page

I"Oh my frick! It's a raspberry bunny! Like a raspberry bunny from Redwall! Like if Kirby ate a bunny! Oh my freaking gosh it's like if kirby ate a pokemon! Oh gosh! He's cute! I wanna read it I wanna read it I wanna read it!"

(I converted her, lol)

That mostly sums it up, but I did show her a piece of fanart, and she told me that Hyrule looks like my old OC Fitz (I might post the art one day, lol, it was terrible!), Warriors is He-Man, and Four is a blone Tarzan.

Additionally, I told her some of them were shifters, and when telling her that manga Legend becomes what is essentially a werewolf she went "Are there any vampires?"

.....

I told her Wars was the closest to a vampire, but only because @mmmwafflesart made him one.

She did like the idea of Shadow though, go fig..

(If y'all are curious I might follow this up with her thoughts on Malon and Ravio, but those were recorded and I don't think she wants that chaos soundtrack out (my hands were too busy to type at the moment))

Hope y'all enjoyed. Sorry again to the Sky and Four stans out there!

[gralunaisland]

Have you ever watched any of the big 3 (One Piece, Bleach, Naruto) if so what do you think of the ships in those fandoms whether it be canon or not ?

Also what’s your fav manga & anime ?

Such great questions! Thanks for asking!

No, actually I have not seen any of those, and I don't really plan on it, anytime soon at least. I know they're household favorites, I just haven't really ever been motivated to see them myself. I'm actually not too sure what they've done to earn their spot in the Big 3. Though, if anyone goes out of their way to suggest I watch it, then maybe I'll give it a try!

Anyway onto my thoughts:

One Piece seemed really similar to Fairy Tail from what I've seen of it, so I wasn't very intrigued. Plus the art isn't really my thing, and since it's one of the longest running animes ever, I never really felt up to the commitment of finishing it, so I just never started. I don't have much to say about its ships unfortunately mainly because idk any of the characters even by name besides Luffy, and even then idk what he's like.

As for Bleach, to be honest, I have next to no idea what it's about. I've seen an orange-haired guy with a sword maybe and a girl with short, dark hair, but I just don't know and have never really been curious about it. I'm guessing the MC and the girl are shipped together?? I couldn't tell you.

And lastly for Naruto, idk exactly why I've never watched it. I know you're not supposed to make judgements and assumptions based on just what other people have told you, but, despite it being one of the most well-known animes, I haven't really heard good things about it from people I know. I've heard its ships don't make sense and are cringey, and that the plot armor is ridiculous, power escalation too fast, tons of filler etc. Ofc I've also heard it's beloved by many as their favorite anime of all time. The conflicting reviews just didn't inspire me to watch it I suppose. I do know a couple (and I do mean a literal couple) of canon ships, namely Naruto x Hinata and Sasuke x Sakura, but even while not knowing much about the show or them, I have a feeling I wouldn't like either of those ships. (But I’ve also heard that Sasuke and Naruto make a good pairing? So maybe their ship redeems Naruto’s canon ones a bit haha). I've heard Sakura is basically as bad as juvia from fellow Anti-gr///vians, being obsessed with Sasuke and chasing after him or something and is just plain useless, and I generally really don't like those types of characters, i.e., characters who crush on a person from the very beginning. I find them annoying, and I find their relationship doesn't add anything to the show considering there's no room for growth on their part. Idk much about Naruto's and Hinata's relationship, but I will say this on the topic of shipping:

I generally like to ship the MC with available, compatible people, and that usually means those in their inner circle of friends and colleagues. In a group like Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, without knowing anything about them, I'd expect/want Naruto and Sakura to get together, and for Sasuke to find someone else outside the main group, either that or Naruto and Sasuke together and Sakura gets booted to the curb. I know my shipping Gray with Lucy stoutly contradicts that sentiment of mine, a sentiment not really founded on anything either, but it's just unsatisfying for me to think about how Sasuke and Sakura date, and Naruto, the real MC, is left being the one who has to find his love interest outside the main people. There's no real reason, I don't think, to think this way; I just happen to. Maybe I'll try analyzing why I do sometime.

As for my favorite anime and manga, that's definitely something that has changed recently. As mainstream as it might sound, I do think Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) is my actual favorite currently. I watched it for the first time just this last winter, and boy, was I blown away by it all, from the stunning art to the dazzling action to the wicked character design to the world building to the delightfully unique, lovable characters to the hilarious humor to the angst and the darkness to the inhumanity of the demons... it's an absolute masterpiece, and I'm beyond excited when each new episode is released. The way it balances drama and badass action and tragedy and horror and love... it's just perfection. I could gush on this for a while so I'll stop myself here (My multi-shipping heart is having a hay day with Tanjiro so that's also fun :D).

And lastly, for my favorite manga, it's really tied between One Punch Man and Eyeshield 21! They're both drawn by the same mangaka, Yusuke Murata, and he's just the best mangaka I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. His art is just immaculate, so detailed, so beautiful! He's not the only reason I love those two mangas though! OPM is just so delightfully hilarious and comedic, with suspense and loads of action and really unique characters and motivations, and yet has you feeling things at all the right moments! Saitama is my absolute favorite from that manga, and I am on his side till the end! #justiceforcapedbaldy! I've been checking my manga websites daily for the updates, and they come sooo slowly but the quality is worth it!! Tbh though, I'm not the biggest fan of the current arc, mainly because there's not nearly enough of the one punch man if you get me? I know it's hard to put him into everything since he can literally kill anything with ease, but still, I feel very Saitama-starved, and I'm not too happy with it rn. For Eyeshield 21, it might be lesser known since it's an American football anime set in Japan, but it is one of my all-time favorites. For one, I already love to watch NFL, so it's kind of in my ballpark, but I really love the character growth and the story pacing and the grit and gall by this little, scrappy underdog team clawing its way to get to the championships! Ugh I just love the characters, and Sena Kobayakawa, the MC, is just the best, so endearing and hard-working and well-meaning, I ship him with basically everyone. I'm on my second read-through, and I am loving every second of it! (I gave myself a couple years before I read it again so it could be all fresh in my mind as it had the glorious first time I laid eyes on it!) I highly recommend reading it if sports manga is your thing!

[chibimyumi]

Hey! I really liked your analysis and they got me back into the manga. Thank you so much! By the way, I was wondering what are your thoughts on Yana Taboso's writing? I think she's really good at foreshadowing and making strong characters but I could do with less fanservice. Anyway I'm curious and thank you for the blog recomendations. Also please take care of yourself and take the time you need. Self care is important!

Dear Anon,

Thank you for your considerateness and sweetness! (*ÓAÒ*) You take care of yourself too! After having indulged in your thoughtfulness, I now finally come to your ask (^3^)

The great things!!

I entirely agree with you that Yana is very good at foreshadowing and making strong characters. I personally find it amazing that Yana managed to take the super stale “secret twin” trope.......but made it INTERESTING AND ACTUALLY NICE!! I didn’t know this trope could be nice until Yana happened!

Another thing I find stunning about Yana is how incredibly skilled she is at language. Kuro is still really nice translated, but I cannot stress enough how goosebumps-inducing it is when read in the original Japanese. Hence my “Lost in Translation” series...

Obviously there are countless things I find amazing about Yana, otherwise I wouldn’t have this blog to begin with... but what truly blows my mind most is her ability to fix things. She clearly wrote herself into a corner at the beginning with characters like Lizzie, Meyrin, Grell - and to some extent also Lau - and yet managed to get herself out of those corners by just PUNCHING A HOLE through the wall.

Before and After

I am eternally impressed that Yana wrote Lizzie to be nothing but a foil for O!Ciel to show off his virtues, and yet managed to turn that around for most people.

Yana never pretended she did not write Lizzie to be the main source of annoyance for O!Ciel, but she did give Lizzie's past behaviour some substance at least. If anyone is interested, in this post I have gone into a bit more detail about how Yana has changed her writing of Lizzie over time.

The first time I met Meyrin I thought it was just English “Maylene” or something, and I had no idea why her language was so weird. When I first read in the Character Guide that she is supposed to be Chinese, I gasped. “Wait, is THAT supposed to be the indicator of her Chineseness......!? OMG.... YANA!?”

In Japan because Chinese people are phenotypically almost identical to Japanese people, the way Chinese people are stereotyped in Japanese media is usually bad Japanese. This choice of Yana’s betrayed her susceptibility to this degrading stereotype..... like she had against women... *points at Lizzie*, LGBT people... *points at Nina and Grell*.........

Even though Yana had written herself into this corner which unfortunately established Meyrin as character, she still managed to SORTA save Meyrin. In this post “Lost in Translation IV” I explained how she did so. TL;DR: The flashbacks of Meyrin proves that Meyrin’s English is perfectly fine, and that her “Engrish” is in fact the result of her understandable failure at mimicking Sebastianese.

Though even at the beginning it was quite clear that Lau is more intelligent than he lets on, Yana did not do a great job at showing that Lau’s clown act was intentional. It seemed more like Lau was a clown most of the time, but had his bright moments every now and then... and then there is also the stereotype of THE Chinese man who is hellbent on making references to Chinese culture at every given chance.

Ever since the Mansion Murder Arc however, it became very apparent that Lau truly was using his clown facade to lower other people’s guards against him. That was very cool! But in the Weston Arc, it became explicit that Lau actively used Chinese stereotypes to use other people’s bigotry against themselves, and I applauded it! In this post I wrote a bit about me cackling at the relatableness of that action by Lau’s.

I have already written a lot about how Yana has been making amends for how dirty she had done Grell and who she is supposed to represent, so I shall not add anything anymore. Basically, this post sums it all up.

So.... these characters are more or less fixed.... Yana...redeem Nina or just yeet her please.... she is funny, but insufferable.

The not so great things......

Yeah... I really could do with less fan-service..... Yana, your writing and art is good enough to maintain a good fanbase... you don’t need to pander to creepos to hold down your job. PLEASE. This even actively goes against the message you seem like trying to convey. You portrayed an entire pedophilic cult, one narcissistic pedophile (Druitt), and another crippled pedophile (Kelvin) as revolting for preying on children, but then you do this yourself??? WHICH IS IT, YANA? STAHP. The minors who like this stuff are vulnerable to you sexualising them, and the adults who like and support this don’t deserve any more feeding........ STAHHHPPP!!!

Another thing I think Yana could do better is consistency.... ESPECIALLY with Sebastian ≽▽≼ At times his demon powers are just plot convenience... Click here for the most blatant inconsistencies in Kuro in my opinion.

The final thing I wish to mention is probably a very widely shared one... namely pacing. If you read Kuro in one go the pacing is in fact pretty good in my opinion, but the chapters are really short and there’s a month between every one of them. Whether a chapter is the old 40-50 pages per chapter, or the current 9 pages at worst nowadays... we still pay for the same price... Yana.... please take a break. We love you, and we will also after a break.

Well, that’s been it for me ^^ What do you all love the most and hate the most about Yana’s work?

Related posts:

Lost in Translation I

Lost in Translation II

Lost in Translation III

Lost in Translation IV

Inconsistencies in Kuroshitsuji

Nina......the predatory queer.... omg

Druitt.... the predatory queer-coded pedophile...omg

[a-tale-of-legends]

Hi there! You have me extremely intrigued about Jude and these aura powers (I'm a huge sucker for OCs with powers). I'm super curious about their struggles and just overall worldbuilding you have for aura in your verse.

Heya! Thanks for the ask!

The whole "Jude had aura powers" actually was inspired by your own pokeverse! Seeing you talk about your characters and the world building that goes with it inspired me a lot! Also, when I think about it, Jude having aura powers really fleshes out their character, and gives me more ideas about their backstory ( pre-XY).

While not everything is set and stone, I do know that Jude was always actively against their aura powers. This was mostly due to things happening from their youth: the pressure from both their mom and others to follow in her footsteps as a rhyhorn racer, to some kids their age only becoming their " friend" to reap the " benefits" like, idk, getting front row tickets to Grace's next race or whatever. It didn't help that they both would move around a lot, so Jude was only accustomed to people only faking their kindness. There will always be strings attached. All of these outside factors lead to them eventually hating their powers. Especially when it was seeing the aura of others( which also let them know their true intent). They didn't ask for that. They didn't want it. So they repressed it for years.

Then they moved to Kalos and shit just hit the fan.

Long story short, I did a Nuzlocke of Y. So Jude went through a lot emotionally cause A) Shauna is a genuine ray of sunshine and each time they meet Jude finds it harder to keep their walls up B) A Lucario is attracted to their aura and can probably sense the repressed aura C) Their bonding with their team, something Jude was not planning( lol how can you not plan that your a protagonist) D) their abrasiveness and generally prick behavior ( which has been slowly being torn down throughout the whole story) has lead to pushing their rival( Dante) over the edge and momentarily ( unknowingly) joining and helping Team Flare and finally E) THEIR POKEMON ARE DYING. Out of universe, not a lot. Especially compared to Alexis'. But death is death and oof, did it hurt.

So to say at the least, Jude's powers are REALLY acting up. Fortunately they have a Lucario and Sylveon by their side to help smooth things over.

As for aura itself, I'm still working on it. But for the most part, it's pretty close to how the games/manga/anime depicts it. Though I do have this theory about physics ( as in people not pokemon) are some variant of aura users, given how similar the two can be. Though in universe, it's all just theory, especially given little information there is about aura as a whole ( outside of Sinnoh, Kalos and Alola anyway. Even then, no one is really sure). Jude themselves has the ability to sense/see other people's aura, and given how much they repressed it, it's very unstable, which can cause Jude to get very overwhelmed. MAYBE they would have the ability to activate Time Flowers,or I could just give that to AZ( for plot reasons).

But yeah, that's what I got so far! Things might change, obviously, but aura powers! Jude really fits( also explains why that Lucario was ever so eager to leave Korrina other than " he likes your aura" or whatever).

I hope this answer suffice! If you have anymore questions feel free to ask :)

Edit: ( A quick little funny if you will) While Jude is very much working on themselves, and has been much more kind to others after the events of XY, they can still be very blunt. All of that to say if there was an inter-dimensional meet up or something, the first thing that Jude would say to Jabari( who is also a Kalos champion from my knowledge) is " who is this mother fucker and why the fuck do they have my job". How Jabari would react that is up to you :)

[papers4me]

Hi, I have always read your furuba reviews and I'm very curious about which are your favorite characters and why?

HI!

Thank you for reading my posts<3. I know I've been slow lately, but I'm not in a right emotional place right now, but I'll be back to posting soon. Actually talking abt furuba & story-telling here in tumblr is such a peaceful outlet that I'm thankful for.

While I love 97% of furuba characters, my faves kept changing while I watched the anime. I decided to have 5 top characters as faves & number one kept changing as the anime progressed.

Since I'm all abt story-telling, I think I need to separate the anime from the manga cuz no way in the anime that tohru would be on my top 5, heck not even top 10! I really don't like how her character was reduced to yuki's mommy-tohru, then angel-tohru, then villain-fixer tohru. The real individual tohru with her own personal story is just two eps long, so meh~. Also, while yuki is in my top 5 in the anime, I don't like how he's too perfect & prince in the anime while his own theme is the imperfect non-prince. Kyo's, too in my top 5 but I dont like how his own story is intentionally messed up by the anime with the stupid "I forgot" that contradicts the anime's own canon plot...

So, I'll tell you my top 5 fave character in the manga so fat with no particular order.

Tohru, while I'm yet to uncover her own plot in the manga, so far she has way more character exploration & depth!! She really feels like a different character from the anime! I'm shocked! The facial expressions, the occasional doubtful self-talk, even the "fake-smile"mask she puts is so expressive. She is treated as a character with a personal plot , regardless of being the protagonist. Her own plot is not reliant on being yuki's mommy, or the sohma's shrink, or a fixer. Her own plot line is abt grief & being lonely. It's the most common struggle that we all share regardless of our gender, race, financial status. Death is the ultimate fact & we'll face loosing a loved one & feeling lonely is not related to social skills nor being loved. I'll forever hate the anime for passing on such unique universal theme in favor of emphasizing the most popular shonen-themed coming of age story ( a boy becoming a man) "yuki" or the over-exaggerated drama in "kyo's". Like I dont want them to pass any of the 3 characters plotlines, but the anime made a choice & forever cemented anime tohru as the most "fixer"character in anime history like 98765678 of other female protagonists.

Yuki has way more character & realness in the manga. He doesnt come off as narrator-y as he does in the anime simply cuz the anime only chose the parts where yuki narrates as a voice-over & told us how to feel & dropped all the parts where he's interacting & actually talking to other characters not just the audience. His own personal story is abt "observing, learning & having the guts to make a move & embracing his own imperfection". I love this! Anime yuki is not imperfect. no. he's the icon of perfect prince, he even initiates a set of fanclub girls into the world that they float! He's so perfect, he "heals" a girl simply by talking to her once. That's all it takes him to fall in love & find his soulmate. While in the manga, I'm starting to see yuki display signs of "kind jerk" in the making, that's refreshing!

I admit that I didn't include kyo into my top 5 until se02. Don't get me wrong, he's so endearing since ep1, but didnt seem to be complex nor refreshing as the others. but se02, ep 9 was the first glimpse into his own character depth & I got hooked! I'm so in love with the theme of "repeated mistakes & guilt". it's such a mature theme & speaks to a much wider audience. The more we repeat the same mistakes, the more we self-sabotage our lives. Also, I love the love isn't a magic healing element in his story. He's the most loved character by tohru, yet her love only hurt him more due to his guilt. Moreover, the romantic element itself wasnt a cliche "love at 1st sight, nor lovers since childhood, nor girl fixes a guy, nor guy protects the girl from danger". Not at all. It was "love blooming subtly, little by little by mundane daily life". I cant express how much I applaud Takaya-san for such complex writing. In the anime, kyo only comes when it's his ep, other than that, he's absent or characterless. I hated that. So far in the manga, kyo has an existence even in other plotlines & has different aspects of his character. Also, I'm shocked at how much inner dialogue he has! like no too much that it involves other character nor too little that you dont understand him. It's just the right amount.

Momiji. He's the most balanced character. He isnt fixed by tohru, but isnt perfectly fine either. He's the definition of the right amount of kindness. He doesn sell himself to make other happy like tohru or kureno, nor puts himself in danger to save others like haru. He does help others but also helps himself. He helped his mom forget him cuz honestly that wasnt even his choice. it's the dad's. He participated willingly tho in avoiding her, but he didnt dwell in self pity & locked himself emotionally. He let go of loving tohru & encouraged kyo, but while he genuinely loved kyo, he didnt just back off cuz he's kind & a sacrificial angel. He stood like a man & challenged kyo for tohru's heart, but let go when he realized the choice is tohru's. not them. They can love her aromatically, but she's the one who decides who to be with. I love the theme of "not competing for love". it's not a competition really. never was. Still, as love sick & heart-broken as he was, momiji didnt dwell in self-pity & after allowing himself to heal, he bounced back & smiled. Momiji is no foolish traveler.

The spot is reserved to a certain character that I want the manga to prove their worth. I dont want them to be as shallow as the anime made them to be. I want to see depth. I dont know if the manga writes them better, but once I finish the manga, I'll know.

I wanted to add shigure but no. Despite all the complexity & the unique roles he has & despite how much I love characters with big giant flaws & ugly characteristics, shigre fell from my top 5 long ago. Look, this seems petty but I can't get over the fact that he slept with akito's mom. ewwwww. It makes me wanna puke! so disgusting. yuck yuck yuck! I dont mind that he "cheated"or wanted to "hurt akito by sleeping with ANOTHER woman". As a matter of fact, such acts create drama, ugly feelings & emotional struggle. I love such things in fiction. but he did it with the mother. He actually laid with both mom & daughter in his life. ewwwwww! This level of eww is so revolting to me! Some ppl are disgusted by bugs & worms that they want to puke, me.. when ppl sleep with both parent/off spring, or both siblings. Yuck! & it's even more yuck that it didnt stop their "love" from being real/ happy/ perfect/ passionate! & that it worked in making akito "want him more & be a "woman" for him"... ew!

lol, so yeah~here's my super long answer to ur super short qs. but I dont be "papers"if I didnt write till my fingers hurt, now would I? XD. I enjoyed ur question so much! thanks<3.

Anon, Don't get offended ny my shigure-rant! XD. its petty, I know. if u read this, tell me who's ur fave?

[tetsunova]

Hi!! I was wondering if I could have a match up

i'm an infp I'm 5,5- 5,6 I'm not sure I'm a Taurus I don't mind talking to people I actually like talking to people although it takes me a short while to warm up to people but I normally avoid them. I try to be outgoing and friendly with my classmates because I want to get along with everyone and not cause drama. I also am the type of kid who participates a lot in class but only if I really like the class or else I'm zoning out.I really like to draw and when I like something I normally make headcanons for the characters that I could I'd about them for a long time. I can be very clumsy and bump into things alot or accidentally spray something in my eyes. I also really like anime my favorite are magical girls I also like romance animes a lot too! I also like scary movies/shows even though I have troble sleeping after. I tend to dress in a very hyper feminine way like lots of skirts I also really like pastel colors. I'm also have a big sweet tooth that I still need to work on. I'm also very jumpy and ticklish. I can also get sleepy easily if I'm bored like I almost fall asleep. I don't like the dark. I also tend to get distracted easily. I also have a really bad memory like I'll remember to do something if someone asks me too but I won't remember stuff from a year ago. I also really like videogames too like ddlc little Mrs fourtune franbow and cookie run. I also tend to be my friend group comfort person like if they have a bad day they just go to me not too sure why but I don't mind. I also really like to read alot even though it's mostly manga seriously the librarian knows who I am already which is nice. I'm also very curious about a lot of things so I ask a lot of questions nothing personal but just about why things are the way they are. I try not to be a picky eater but a lot of them time food textures make me not like the food. I like hugging and holding hands with my friends but only if we're close enough. I also get distracted in my thoughts a lot to the point I could have a whole movie playing in my brain. I also really like cute things like stuffed animals, rabbits and cats. That's all I could think about at right now! Have a good day or night!

a/n: hii thank you for participating hope you have an amazing day <3

I match you with...

Iwaizumi Hajime

His initial impression of you: He used to notice how outgoing you were and socialised with everyone but him. Poor guy just thought you didn’t like him when it was quite the opposite. He felt a little hurt when he saw you talking to Oikawa and ran away when you saw him. Little did he know you were getting advice on how to ask Iwa out.

Random Headcannons

Notices how you zone out so will throw an eraser at you just for the fun away and immediately look away

Loves when you draw little doodles on his book

Will be there to pick you up of you fall down because you tripped over your own shoelace. Will lecture you about it but you basically zone out because he looks really cute in the moment

He would never admit it but he secretly loves watching romance anime with you

Adores holding your hand and drawing circles on it; he finds it very therapeutic

Blushed when he sees you in skirts. He thinks they look very flattering on you

He’s the kinda guy to place his hand on your thigh when you’re sitting together

Never not amazed by your curiosity. You make him think outside the box

There to remind you if you forget something

Gets so flustered when he hears your laugh. It’s the most beautiful song to him

Knows your food preferences so he often cooks food for you

Will win you plushies at arcades

 A song that reminds me of you both

Godspeed - Frank Ocean

lmk what you think about it in my asks :)

(ps: refer to yourself as anon (3) if you do <3)