#is it supposed to make me dislike firsts pretty sad face

[doublel27]

Wen you messy bench.

[strangemaleswaps]

Strange Christmas Family Swap

Christmas is supposed to be the time of year where you celebrate joy with your family and loved ones. But everyone has that one family member no one looks forward to seeing, and I’m no different. For me that person would be my grandpa. He'd always been a really cranky guy who, I swear, could find something to complain about on literally any topic. I don't know why he even comes over for the holidays in the first place. Maybe he's just lonely? At least my siblings are coming home. They're all older than me and left for college years ago. Sometimes I felt like I was behind everyone just because I was the youngest, but they always tell me to enjoy being young while it lasted. At least I still had my dog, Lucy, to keep me company. 

“Shoot. Ferris, we forgot to buy your grandpa a present,” my mom mentioned while preparing dinner for Christmas Eve.

“Does it matter? He's not gonna like anything anyway.”

“Yes I know. But it's Christmas. The time of year where you need to treat even those you dislike well. Could you quickly go to that gift shop and buy some cheap ornament?”

“Mom, it's Christmas Eve! Half these places are closed or closing soon.” She looked up a store on her phone and showed me that it closed at 5. It was 4:38.

“There's that one hallmark store within walking distance still open. You can make it in time! I just don't want to cause a scene.” I wanted to take the car, but it would take too long to shovel all the snow, so I walked. The store wasn't that far by foot, but it was still an awful time in the freezing cold. When I arrived, there was a single employee at the counter - an old lady with a messy bun. She greeted me and asked what I needed.

“I have just the thing.” She walked over to the shelf and showed me a little Santa ornament that was wearing a galaxy pattern suit instead of the regular red. It was actually a pretty good gift because my grandpa loved outer space, not to mention he kinda looked like Santa anyway, just without the beard.

“This is perfect.”

“Then why do you look sad?” Her response caught me by surprise. “What do you mean?”

“I can tell something’s wrong. It's Christmas Eve. You should be happy!”

“That's probably easy for others. But for me, Christmas means family time and I don't exactly like someone in my family.

“That's a shame. You're lucky to have a family at least.” She looked down at the floor sadly. It was clear what she meant by that.

“But since you still have people in your life I'd like to help you with your problem. Could I have that ornament back please?” I assumed she was about to check me out so I started reaching for my wallet, when she walked into the backroom with the present instead. As soon as the door closed, the power suddenly went out and I was in pure darkness until there was a weird purple glow coming from the door. All of this only lasted about 10 seconds and the power came back on as if nothing happened. Did I just imagine that whole thing? It was weird. The woman walked back out with a big smile on her face.

“Did the power go out or something? And what happened in there?”

“Oh nothing,” she said with a grin. “Merry Christmas!”

“Yeah, Merry Christmas. I guess.” She checked me out and I was on my way back home.

When I arrived, my siblings were already there, as well as my grandpa.

“Hey! It's Ferris!” said my oldest brother Calvin. He had definitely gained a lot of weight since I last saw him, even though he was an athlete in college. Looks like he still refused to shave the messy beard he started last year. My older sibling Sam grinned at me. They looked exactly as they always did - expressing their love of anime with a nerdy t-shirt and wearing ear gauges that have gotten bigger since the last time I saw them. My sister Em walked up to hug me. She was always the one I was closest with, since she was only 2 years older than me.

“I got a present for Grandpa.” He suddenly looked at me, and then to the bag I was holding.

“It's about time you buy me something! Lemme see.”

“Well not until Christmas.” Despite living to see many Christmases, Grandpa was still an extremely impatient person. He'd actually opened up his Christmas presents early before because he just couldn't stand the wait. This was my first time buying one myself for him (even though it was really just my mom sending me) so I guess he was beyond curious.

“Come on. It's basically Christmas anyway.” He got his large ass out of the seat and approached me. He was wearing a tucked in blue plaid shirt that covered the gut hanging over his pants. He stumbled over to me until we were face to face. I could smell the cigarette smoke on his breath, almost making my eyes water.

“Boy, give me the gift.”

“Dad, just wait until Christmas. You're gonna spoil the surprise.” My mom thankfully defended me and started walking over.

“Fine, but I-” He faked content and snatched the bag from me.

“Dad! Enough!” My mom shouted but it was too late. He had taken the ornament out of the bag, but clumsily dropped it. It shattered all over the floor before he even had a chance to react.

“Oh man.” Sam gulped.

“Now look at what you've done! You ruined my present!” Grandpa yelled in my face.

“Dad! Dad! Calm down. I think you need to go to bed now.”

“Fine! But only because your idiot son ruined my Christmas!” My mom escorted him to the guest room and Em picked up a broom. We both swept together as my mom walked back into the kitchen.

“Could he possibly be more…you know…” I started.

“Horrible? Pathetic?” Calvin added.

“Gross? Nasty?” Sam added.

“Your grandfather is just lonely really. His parents - my grandparents - let him do whatever he wanted. He's a real spoiled man. But I don't think there's any changing him now so let's just endure the day tomorrow and you won't have to see him for a while. Got it?”

“Fine.” The rest of the night was much better and I had a great time with my family. Calvin scarfed down the food so fast he almost choked, Em told me all about what college was like, Sam bragged about his new gauges, and Lucy practically flew under the table as soon as my mom dropped a piece of ham.

When it was time for bed, my siblings got settled into their rooms - Calvin and Sam sharing the same bedroom they did growing up, and Em sleeping in the basement because her old room was turned into an office. I looked at the Christmas tree glimmering with lights and decorations, excited to see what the presents underneath it would look like in the morning. It's a shame that Grandpa's present broke and we had to throw it away, but I guess he got what he deserved for being such a dick. I headed into my bed, where Lucy was already snuggled up in, and nestled up under the covers.

The next morning I woke up to the sounds of shouting, which was unfitting for what was supposed to be a peaceful Christmas morning. It was coming from the room next to me and sounded like my brothers, which was weird because my room was across the hall from them. But it sounded so close. I started getting up, to see what was going on, but when I looked around, I realized I actually was in the guest room

How did I get in here? I gazed down to find my stomach seemed swollen in my white tank top. I lifted it up and to my horror, I realized my slim chest was replaced with a flabby belly! How did I get so fat? I know I ate alot last night but this was ridiculous! The gut flopped out, to a bit over my waist. It felt weird knowing a part of my body was just hanging there. I noticed a bit of chest hair, which was foreign to me, but when I noticed they were gray hairs, it finally hit me. I was a fat old guy in the guest room. I somehow switched bodies with my grandpa!

I heard the voices leave the room so I stumbled over to the door, not quite used to the shift in weight compared to my old twink body, and was about to put my hand on the doorknob when I saw someone looking at me in the mirror. I turned my head to find that it was my grandpa…I mean me…staring back.

I really did look disgusting, not just because of my looks, but because I now had the face of an impatient jerk. I tried doing different facial expressions; it looked weird because I rarely had ever seen my grandpa smile at all. I noticed that I couldn't see my own dick past the belly, not that I would want to. It was probably all wrinkly and gross! What was I going to do? I opened the door to find Calvin walking to the living room. He looked pretty concerned, which was unusual for the carefree personality he usually had.

“Hey uh..Grandpa?” Fuck. Looks like I'm not imagining it after all. I hated this. “Sorry for the noise, it's just that…”

“I'm not even gonna try to pretend.” I spoke, but my voice came out gravelly and deep. It scared me a little bit. “I'm Ferris, not Grandpa. I don't know how it happened! I just-”

“Shit! That's great! I mean not because you're Grandpa now. But because I'm not alone! I'm actually Sam.”

“Sam?” It was actually kinda funny, Sam and Calvin switching bodies. They were close but still completely different people. I couldn't contain my laughter and started giggling, even though it came out as my Grandpa's gruff wheezes.

“Oh sure. I'M the funny one when Mister-wheeze-a-lot can't laugh without sounding like he's dying.”

“Hey! Well Mister-” I stopped myself trying to continue the joke. “Wait, how does that work?”

“The gender is all up to the person. Sure the…” they stared down at the new extra pounds they now carried and shook their belly. “...expression might be different, at least at the moment, but I'm still me. BUT the idiot who looks like me doesn't seem to understand.” As if on cue, Calvin in Sam's body appeared, walking in a macho way, something that Sam would never do.

“Check it out Grandpa! I'm an enby!” Sam gave a huge facepalm.

“Calvin my sweet brother, We. Have. Been. Over. This.”

“Hey whatever. I think it's cool. My face feels so empty though. Maybe I'll start growing a bea-” Sam cut him off right there.

“If you go out there without a clean shaven face, I'm shaving YOUR beard.”

“God no please. It took me like a year to grow that!” Calvin pleaded.

“Hey hey, what about me?!” I interrupted their arguing.

“Oh yeah,” Sam started. “That's not Grandpa. It's Ferris.”

“Oh man Ferris. You're a fucking old dude now!” exclaimed Calvin. He then poked my new belly. “Welcome to the chub club! Well…” He glaced down at Sam's slim figure. “My membership is on hold for now.”

Just then we heard a scream coming from my mom's room. We quickly opened the door, already knowing what happened. We found my mom staring at the mirror with a look of pure horror on her face.

“It's ok Em, we're all body swapped too.” She seemed to calm down when she realized that she wasn't alone in all this.

“Weird case of Freaky Friday here. Especially with Em….and Mom,” added Calvin. Just then my mom, in Em's body, walked in to join in the confusion.

“Well this is awkward. Two of my kids in each other's bodies, my own son in my dad's and I'm in my own daughter's body. Could this Christmas get any crazier?”

“Where's Grandpa?”

“Probably still sleeping.”

We headed over to my room, expecting him to still be asleep, only to find him flexing in the mirror - in my body. I didn't actually have any real muscles, being a skinny twink, so he didn't really have anything to flex. That didn't stop him from admiring himself. When he noticed us, he walked over smiling. It was a creepy sight, not only to see my body move on its own, but also knowing it's my grandpa inside there smiling.

“Hello everyone. It's good to be young again!”

“Uh hey Grandpa.” He looked right at me. “No, no! Call me Boris! YOU'RE the grandpa now!”

I felt so humiliated. He was actually…cool…in my body! And I was just the fat old guy that nobody liked!

“Dad, we need to figure out what happened so you can become your old self again. Ok?”

“Hell no! I'm young again for the first time in years. No way I'm giving away this opportunity!”

“I got it!” Em suddenly exclaimed. We all turned around wondering what she meant. She showed us her phone - or rather my mom's phone.

“What?”

“How we all swapped bodies! That ornament that Ferris got! There's an ancient artifact that can take on different appearances. It says it's been known to cause mischief when broken.”

“What kind of ancient thing is meant to be broken? How has it lasted this long then?”

“That's the thing. Everytime it breaks, it finds a new place and takes on a new appearance. But it always takes on the appearance of an object that its next victim will need.”

“Shit. And that's why the present seemed perfect for Grandpa.”

“Hey! I got a much better gift than any of you!” cheered my grandpa as he flexed his arms once agaih.

“But…how do we find it again?”

“Y-you don't. Unless you want to search the whole world for something you don't even know what it looks like.”

There was a deafening silence after she spoke those words. We all realized the truth was that we would never return to our old bodies. I was stuck as an old man forever!

“Hey, it's not so bad,” my grandpa started, seemingly reading my mind. He leaned over and lifted up my shirt, exposing my gut, and slapped it. “The belly is pretty comfy after all. You'll love it.” Maybe he was right. I'm sure I could make the silver bear look work. As I thought about that, I noticed a bulge starting to form. Grandpa turned to look at everyone with a huge smile on his face.

“Merry Christmas everyone!”

[aleksanderscult]

I don't understand how Leigh Bardugo could write something as bad as King of Scars and a trilogy as average and problematic in its messages as Grisha ?!

Knowing that she also wrote Six of Crows which was very good for me, limits most people to only knowing that about the Grishaverse (even if, if you take it in the context of the original trilogy, that makes the fate of the Grisha and of the Darkling even worse)... The Language of Thorns with some really cool stories, the Demon in The Wood (which makes you wonder even more why the Darkling is supposed to be the fucking bad guy in the original trilogy and die at the end ?!). Not forgetting recently The Ninth House which has 2 very good volumes and the beginning of The Familiar.

I have a hard time understanding how she can produce good things and such bad things.

I hear that not everyone is perfect, but for me the gap is still huge.

And the most paradoxical thing is that while she seems to gradually improve her way of writing, at no time does she acknowledge having made questionable choices in the writing of Grisha ?

Just see her attempt at moralizing backpedaling with the King of Scars duology...

TW!: Genocide

I don't think she knows or even cares about how genocide and prejudice in real life are not how she portrays them. And they definitely don't vanish by magical means. Clearly she put them in her story as a dramatic effect but she handled it with such unrealism and carelessness that makes you wonder what was the point of putting such issues in her book in the first place. She places such importance to the romance part (Mal × Alina, Kaz × Inej, Nina × Matthias) that the problems of her world take a third place in her books.

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom weren't such flawed because the heroes there did some personal jobs and didn't have a humanitarian goal. Kaz, in particular, has made it clear that he doesn't give a fuck about the world, only about his pocket. So they were some pretty straightforward books and well-written enough that you cannot see the issues.

But in the trilogy we have this huge war going on while the protagonist wails about her love interest, kills her enemy at his weakest (so no flex of her powers against him) and other people vanish the Fold for her.

In the duology Bardugo wanted to get back to her own readers:

- "People dislike Zoya. Hmm... Let's make her Suli with a very sad background. Also let's make her the most important character among the heroes just for these haters to shut up. Because if they don't, they'll be racists and misogynists"

- "People love the Darkling. Hmm.... Let's remind those readers of mine what he has done by having Zoya conjure up every delulu thought about him. Also let's have Mal, Alina, Zoya, Nikolai and freaking Misha make him shut up and look stupid"

- "Ah shit they love Aleksander too much. Ok how about this. I'm gonna make the Starless Cult out of them to prove how blind they look"

- "People didn't like the R&R ending. Hmm.... Let's bring Alina back and have her say how happy and peaceful she feels with her current state"

- "People hate Mal. Hmm... Let's have him be likable and funny while thwarting Aleksander's comments like a pro. It's not like he isn't a hot-tempered guy or smth"

(and about bringing the Darkling back, this was lazy writing. Instead of making the heroes face new foes from the north and south, she recycled villains)

By the way, when the TV adaptation of S&B came out she said that she wanted to fix the diversity. Can you imagine that? Not book!Alina as a character, not the trilogy's ending (not protesting on that cruel scene on the show where the Crows gleefully kill the Grisha that stood with the Darkling) but the diversity. Season two's ending was the showrunner's idea as well as Mal's change of personality, not Bardugo's.

Anyway, she should stay on writing short stories. I really love the Language of Thorns and Demon in the Wood so why ruin your fictional world further?

[ca-suffit]

This antiblack campaign the fandom just tried to kick up again (to avoid talking about the real issue with Nalyra) reveals how powerless they're starting to truly feel now.

They don't have many users left to vilify so they're putting people on blocklists who are brand new (I was here 3 days lol) or not even really in the fandom. That looks goofy and desperate but then it keeps going. DMing strangers to say "the truth" isn't about racism and "talk to me if you really want to know about anything." Everyone's reblogging those blocklist posts now and adding large commentary suddenly, when before they often fully sat it out. They're doing this in a group to look like they have larger numbers and are "revealing" there's a "big secret bullying problem"....except nobody believes them. Because there's plenty of accounts who are out here saying this shit straight to their faces and they pretend we all don't exist. All of this group has to manufacture drama solely because they just don't want to talk about harmful shit they actually do.

Neil has to make an antiblack statement she made suddenly be about antisemitism towards her, Nalyra's antiblackness is "actually" fans upset about shipping and "what's REALLY coming" in S2, showmey0urfangs is always happy to show up with her dumb screencaps and villain monologue nobody asked for so she can make her everlasting outrage about popular black fics and "feminized" Louis sound deeper than it is, Virginia suddenly cries about IRL issues and wants to leave the fandom because she wants to distract from the Nalyra receipts, Keybearer accused another black fan of trolling people and getting accounts suspended on twitter in 2023 when a Marius fan eventually confessed to it and his eternal shame for that means now every black fan except him is a bully (despite nobody talking about this ever anymore except him), chicalepidopterare mocks a black fan for blocking her "because I thought we were supposed to talk about racism" and then poorly tries to frame any retaliation against her to look like bullying ("see, they're misogynistic, they're bullying my art, they're mean for disliking these ships!").

To quote Claudia here, "You must think me an idiot." And the big cherry on top is also how none of these losers can stand to hear any mention of race....in the fandom of the show that nonstop talks about race. They're using very basic (and meant in a gentle, loving way) teasing of Jacob as proof that black fans are racist against Jacob too, black fans hate Jacob's white wife. People hate Lestat for being white too (what?). They can write crap meta all day about Lestat letting Louis "rape" him and only white victims (Lestat) being real victims to the evil black and brown "true" manipulators (Claudia, Louis, Armand) but gentle teasing from black fans about Jacob's haircut is the real racism. Okay lol. Care to tell us again why you think Delainey's Claudia looks "less innocent" now then? This 3D chess you think you're playing isn't playing how you think for anyone else.

I also notice that afaik there's not a single black American in this group. Idek if there's many Americans of any kind in the group. It's been a lot of shaming to black Americans specifically though, again from the show that's focused on black Americans....by people who aren't black Americans.

"There's people pretending to be black so it's okay to keep hating this whole group." It's not enough you already nonstop shit on black fans as it is, now you have to try to angle it as if none of this could be authentic in the first place. Vile behavior. For what? Tumblr isn't even a platform that pays you for whatever clout you have, so really what is the point here. In a small ass fandom on top of it. Some of you have pretty grown kids too, this is extra sad. It makes all the jumping through hoops to coddle Lestat's behavior make sense though, if you're the same kind of person yourself. Anyway, maybe you don't actually know everything because race exists in the real world beyond how Anne Rice wrote about it in her useless books! You make books written by a racist white woman your whole personality and guess what your outlook on life is going to be.

It's been really pathetic to especially watch any fans of color move more to this extreme bullying side as time has gone on. It will never pay off to promote white fandom ideals. These accounts you're trying to cuddle up to aren't even that big. The fandom outside of the tags actually has much more popular posts, supporters, and fics...although that's also half of what this all is actually about, fic numbers. Again, these are grown adults obsessing over this. We could have a whole different fandom if this group didn't exist and keep wanting to gatekeep everything and be the only people who get praise about anything.

It's no surprise that people who worship Anne Rice have major ego problems themselves. It's been fucked up to deal with but the good thing now is that big egos have big collapses eventually and that's what we're starting to see happening now. People are sick of you and able to see through your basic ass manipulation techniques. People just want to have a fandom, they're not here to worship fans who want to be dictators. Nobody is here for your fragility, losers.

[notsoencrypted]

I'm just... I'm really sad about everything with BioWare. I was one of the weirdos who really enjoyed Andromeda. It wasn't perfect. Liam had so much potential that wasn't explored (and oh did I love his VA). Yeah, the faces were goofy at launch, but it was fixed quickly and up until Veilguard, BioWare faces have always been goofy. So when the reaction to Andromeda was what it was, I was really nervous. With everything that's gone down since then, it's felt like the BioWare devs have been trying to fight off the inevitable.

I feel so much for the devs laid off. While I don't know them, so many of them have been a huge part of my life. DA:O got me through a tough part of my life, Inquisition released right before the one-year anniversary of my mom's death and helped me with that... Mass Effect was just fun, and I made some great memories with friends in early SWTOR times. And while Veilguard was OK for me, it was only OK. I don't blame the devs for what we got. I think they did really well with all the chaos of multiple changes in the project, a pandemic, etc etc. It is an absolutely beautiful game, and the cut scenes and animations are just absolutely fantastic. But it still felt like there was so much unused potential, and thus makes me sad that it will very likely be the end of Dragon Age. I really wish we could have gotten more time with the characters. I wish we could have seen more. I know there's fandom etc, but I'm also a weirdo who doesn't really enjoy fanfic. I've tried. I just can't. And that's OK. I am honestly jealous of folks who can get into it. But this means it's pretty much the end for me, and this game has always been a part of my adult life, though obviously in the background most of that time. But still there or with the potential to be there. And as for the next Mass Effect... I haven't been looking forward to it since we got the first teasers. I absolutely loved Mass Effect 3. I disliked the ending. The extended ending helped a bit, but it didn't address the issues with expectation vs execution for the ending. But I've always been OK with Shepard's story being done and with the Milky Way story's being done. I think this is part of why I enjoyed Andromeda more than other folks--I didn't want more Shepard, or more Milky Way. So considering a new Mass Effect that's supposed to take into account both Andromeda and the Milky Way? It just gives me "ick" feelings. How do you resolve the three colors choice for everyone? How do you make a story that can proceed from those three different choices (especially destroy vs the other two)? I don't understand how you can build a stable foundation for a story with what we were left with while also not invalidating choices that folks made in the past. And at this point? Again, I feel like the story in the Milky Way is done. We're in Andromeda now, and there's so much potential for stories there. Let's do that. But nope, the next game is going to try to deal with both. And I think that sets it up for failure. Which means this very likely will be the end of BioWare, and I'm afraid it'll go out on an unfulfilling note for me, which will make for extra suck. I hope I'm wrong, because while Mass Effect isn't my preferred IP of the BioWare IPs, if BioWare can survive after this next game, that will give me hope. But it feels like it's not going to happen.

[casasupernovas]

i know it's not just me who gets really irritated when the dw media minimises martha's arc (and the doctor's for that matter) like this. this bio is summarising the first half of the season btw.

because why does so much doctor who related media have such a great reluctance to say what the doctor is actually doing in series 3. he is using martha to get over rose. i suppose they don't say it because it sounds bad if you say using because...

if all the doctor really did that season was just be sad and martha didn't care, i would understand the dislike towards her character.

but what this little bio neglects to mention that he is the one who pursues her not the other way around. and the doctor doesn't treat her much like a friend either. and as for just coming to terms with rose's loss - the way this manifests is the real issue here. heck, if he had litey just said that, that literal line 'i'm just coming to terms with losing her', we would have had a very different season. people think martha should know this when he doesn't even tell martha he lost rose.

series 3 is forever murky because no one is being fully truthful here.

when martha uses the analogy of her friend pining over a guy who doesn't notice her, it's not the full truth of what happened between her and the doctor is it? she was being nice about it. if martha had mentioned that this guy also kissed her friend, hung around her, compared to his ex girlfriend, would be nice to her one moment then mean the next...but also didn't want to leave her either...maybe then we could have got somewhere.

it's pretty clear to me that the outside content doesn't want to dive into this because it makes the doctor look bad. it's one thing to do the timelord victorious, it's another to address the tenth doctor outwardly being bad towards his companion.

the closest we got was that 13 comic and even that didn't get it completely right.

i'm pretty sure it's why there still hasn't been a target novelisation of any martha story yet. i don't think they know how to address it yet. especially with the racial aspect, it makes them look almost comically bad. like you really had the opportunity to bring in the first female black onscreen companion of the show's then 40-something year history and you selected her to be the one to dump on? really? the worst part is that a huge chunk of the fandom, especially on this site isn't completely embarassed by this or by how they contributed to it either.

i still remember how red faced an old friend was when she showed me martha's season, and i correctly predicted before even watching the series that martha was gonna get the short end of the stick not just by the show, but by the fans too.

worst case scenario is that the general consensus is the doctor was completely justified in treating martha the way he did. now WE know from commentaries and the writers tale that the doctor indeed is in the wrong this series. but that doesn't exactly translate when you get it's own media doing this.

[ironladders]

of every ashrah outfit in all timelines, canon or even unused concept arts if they exist, which is your favorite? im very curious 👀

this got kind of long & out of hand im sorry i just like gushing about this girl (+ i have to air out my thoughts on her skins. i have opinions on literally everyone's outfits)

sadly ashrah doesn't have many costumes to choose from because she's only been in 3 games 💔 oh well though

i think my #1 look for her has to be her mk1 union of light skin:

like it's probably one of the prettiest skins in the entire game. insanity. it's so elegant/beautiful and her hairstyle is really cute, i like how it frames her face. in a way it kinda reminds me of her original design but updated to have more detail. the flowers are so pretty and ugjhghgljgkljg idk what else to say i just love this skin so much

that said i don't dislike any of her outfits, they're all great!

the only one that i actually think needs some help is her ood skin; it looks fine at first glance but the more you stare at it's just. hmmm. this could've marinated a bit longer

there's also the issue that this doesn't feel like an Evil Version of ashrah, which i think is a problem when the whole point of the ood skins is that they're supposed to be darker versions of the mk1 cast. but i digress

also if i may say something controversial..... i don't dislike ashrah's classic mkd/mka looks, i love them! BUT:

now that we've got a game where ashrah has distinct demonic features, i wish they did that for her older appearances. because as much as i love her deception skin and want them to remake it in mk1 (please @ nrs we need another skin for ashrah), she just looks like some lady? if that makes sense? like,,,, i would see deception ashrah in the grocery store and pay her zero mind:

i guess before mk1 the other demons also just looked like regular humans but idk... some facial markings similar to the ones sareena had would've at least been nice. they've got the kanji on her hat translating to "demon/ghost" and that's it.

and i know that's sort of the point, that she's supposed to look like a normal human upon first glance, but idk man! she wasn't done with her absolution yet, midway should've let her look a little strange 😭😭 there's some people who want her to have a normal human face if/when nrs gives us deception ashrah as a skin, but i'd rather they keep her demonic features

on the topic of mk1: i love the contrast here on her mk1 default between ashrah's clothing — clearly inspired by angels — versus her actual appearance. it's really smart and imo reflects how much she tries to distance from her origins as a demon. it really sells the idea of her being an ascending demon & i hope everyone that makes fun of her hairline + face steps on a lego

when the banished trailer first revealed ashrah some people were sad she didn't have her hat, but tbh???? i feel like her mk1 default is fine without one. it would've been nice and probably helped older fans recognize her but i'm not sure if this outfit needs a hat. yknow.

the only other ashrah outfits to talk about (because again she has SO little it's criminal) is the ones from mkd concept art that didn't make the cut:

i have no strong opinions about either of these, they're here i guess. the first one is cool, i like the idea of ashrah with super long hair and she reminds me of a jedi there lmao. the second one is also okay but something about ashrah with a mask feels weird so i'm glad they didn't go with it

speaking of concept art CAN NRS SHOW US THE CONCEPT ART FOR THE MK1 DEFAULTS because i really want to know the early ideas they had for ashrah. we get the final character concepts for everyone which is fine but i desperately want to see the initial ideas they had. i hope they get added to the shrine in the future 🥲

idk how to end this so boom. ashrah face

[leonenjoyer69]

Wanted to ask something about your bbg Elias, s there any difference between his face shape to Robert's the way Edward is different from Henry?👀

Been a while since I've last read your fic about Elias (two weeks in total but MAN those were some ling weeks-) so I might be forgetting stuff or small details about it cmdbcjbdksbxksbd

Don't worry, I forget things about my own fics very quickly 💀 I need to reread it and pump out the next chapter already, no matter how much I may dislike it. Also, honestly I've rambled and come up with so much stuff seperately from the story that I don't even remember what lore has been included in it! I just know there's really not much at all 💀 But!!! Yes there are differences! Uh, more below the cut cuz I'm gonna include art and stuff lmao

Okay, so, first of all, Elias's face is less round than Lanyon's, and a bit shorter. basically, his jaw is a bit more refined and also less chubby than Lanyon's, I guess. You know how hyde's face is shorter and chubbier/rounder than Jekyll's? Yeah, well, since Lanyon's already got his cute chubby cheeks, I figured Elias could lose some of that, he's still got very squishable cheeks tho, lil fella :3

otherwise, other facial differences include:

-lighter freckles, but still definitely visible, and he may have more than Lanyon

-lighter(?), less saturated skin

-usually has more of a flush on his cheeks

-less round eyes, generally have a more squinted look, since he's more sensitive to light (blue and green eyed gang with a sensitivity to light, rise up!)

-eyebags/sunken eyes

-hair is a pretty obvious one, they have completely different hair types (what those types are I couldn't tell you tho) and colors (and lengths, obviously)

-more scrunched up nose, basically always has that line between his eyes on his nose. kinda gives a small feeling that he's always a little disgusted, though people kinda got used to it as his usual appearance.

-funky lil eyebrows! They kinda end like Jekyll's do, with the little squiggle, but way less extreme and more up than down, if that makes sense? (pic of him bald for ref lmao) this is something that usually doesn't get noticed I feel because of how his hair covers them

-when front facing, he has the same lil nose thing that Lanyon has, that goes over the bridge of his nose and under his eyes. He's also just inherently got this insanely sad look I suppose 💀

And then there's,,,, this one. Uh, his body is far more lithe than Lanyon's, and his ribs show a bit. His freckles also span his chest and back and shoulders like Lanyon's do. His collar bones and such are also more present

OTHERWISE, for comparisons, this is,,,, one of the 3 times (basically) I've drawn Lanyon, and I don't really like it ngl, messed up the eyes too much, but some of the differences should kinda be visible.

Otherwise, there's also this piece--

Where I like how Lanyon looks and kinda,,, don't like how Elias looks, bc I kept messing up HIS eyes and mouth 💀 literally the best Lanyon I've drawn tho, shout out to this Lanyon specifically 🗣️🗣️

Anyways!!! Yeah!!! They certainly have their differences, as well as their similarities, I love my babies so much and I really really need to update my fic... Once the English language returns to me. Thank you for the ask, and I'm glad you enjoy my story and characters :D

[sednonamoris]

pony up

Pairing: John Marston x gn!reader

Summary: John and Abigail continue to argue. You and Jack are both stuck in the middle, so you make the best of it by teaching him to ride.

Warnings: Toxic relationships, arguing, strong language

Word count: 1,464

A/N: Two chapters in one day - PHEW!! I have to say I’m pretty pleased with how this one turned out. If you didn’t catch my earlier post there will be a bit of a break between today’s updates and Ch. 15 so I can take a moment to read and rest and make sure the coming chapters are as good as they can possibly be. I feel like a broken record saying this but thank you all so much for your support!!!

Series masterlist • AO3

—

You take to the Heartlands like you were born to endless green and not the cracked desert of your youth. Valentine makes boasts of civilization, despite Hosea’s stance on its mud and morons, but the wilderness that surrounds it is what captivates you. Sprawling and wild. Half-tamed and raw. Unbroken. The chirping cry of the eagle and mournful bugle of the elk command a symphony in your soul that begs to be set free. Each night your heart stampedes the open plains with the wild horses, and each morning it returns when the songbirds first sing. 

Then the fighting starts.

“You ‘n me is one thing, but you could at least show up for the boy!” Abigail says this morning. 

“Jesus, woman, quit naggin’ me!” John snipes back. He’s supposed to meet you to go fishing. You have a feeling that might not happen.

“I ain’t naggin’! If you would just—”

“I don’t have time for this. Ghost and I—”

“I don’t wanna hear another goddamn word about Ghost!” she all but screams. You flinch, even over by the hitching posts as you are. “What about me, John? What about our son?”

John’s eyes go hard. “What about you?”

It’s a low blow, even for him, and the backhanded slap that hits his face a moment later is no great surprise to anyone.

What is surprising is that when Abigail marches away, she marches toward you. You shift a little in place but don’t run, much as you’d like to. She points an accusing finger and doesn’t stop until it jams into your chest.

“You—” she chokes past the tears in her eyes, but when she sees the look in yours she can’t finish the sentence.

Because what is there to say, really? That she would kill for John to spend as much time with her as he does with you? That she wishes he would wait out for her when she goes into town, or comes back from the creek with baskets full of laundry that he’ll help her carry home? You know that already. The same as she knows, deep down, that you’d give anything for him to look at you with that same want in his eyes when he sees her. To have him come to your bed every night and wake together every morning. And isn’t it just sad? And aren’t you just fools?

“You watch out for him out there,” she finishes lamely, and you grasp her hand that’s still on your chest and squeeze the apology that’s lodged in your throat. 

“Sure, Abigail. Take care.”

You let her go and she walks away, glaring at anyone who dares stare. John doesn’t say a word when you hand him his reins and head down to the river. 

— 

Days later, you’re sitting next to the fire enjoying a morning smoke with coffee strong enough to feel in your teeth. Pale, pre-dawn yellow streaks a sky marred only by your curling whisps of smoke. For once it is blessedly, blissfully quiet.

“Morning!” a bright voice chirps. 

You close your eyes and take a deep, calming breath before turning to snarl at them, only to be met with an unexpected face.

“Jack,” you say, trying not to sound surprised. Or mean. “Where’s your ma?”

It’s not that you dislike the kid, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t try to steer clear of him most of the time. Just seems better that way.

“She’s at the river. Reverend is supposed to play with me but he’s sleeping again.”

Fuck. Of course he is.

You look around to see if someone - anyone - is around who can watch him instead, but most folks have already headed into town, and the girls are surely with Abigail doing the washing at the river. Fuck. 

“Well, hey,” you fumble, “why don’t you ‘n me do somethin’ while we wait for him to wake up?”

“Really?” He sounds so excited. It breaks your heart a little.

“Really.” 

You’d been planning to ride out, maybe find a horse to fence, but instead you while away the morning playing every game imaginable with little Jack. He’s way too smart for you, listing off the wildest names you never heard of while you play pretend. You’re Penelope. Telemachus. Charybdis. He always gets to be Odysseus, who must be the hero. Then he wants to go hunting for bugs, so you dutifully lift rocks only for him to squeal when centipedes and beetles come creepy-crawling with all of their legs and pinchy parts. Then he tells you it’s your turn to pick something. You try to wrack your brain, but the only thing you can think to ask is if he knows how to ride on his own yet.

You smile when he says no.

“About time you learned, then.”

With a sweet chestnut Morgan who sometimes packs for you on hunting trips as a model, you take your time explaining how important it is to take proper care of your horse. How to brush with the grain of the hair. What every piece of tack does. You thought he might get bored, but the kid absorbs information like a sponge. He asks question after question, until finally he hits you with one you aren’t expecting. 

“Why are you called Ghost? Aren’t ghosts scary?”

“What,” you say, “I ain’t scary enough for you?”

He suddenly looks nervous, so you smile and ruffle his hair. 

“Relax, kid. I only scare bad guys and little shits who don’t mind their ma.”

“What’s a ‘little shit’?” 

You raise a brow at him. “Take a guess.”

He laughs. 

There’s just enough room at the edge of camp for you to work in, so under watchful eyes you let Jack lead the mare over. He’s terribly proud of himself. 

“Ready to mount up?” you ask, then don’t give him a moment to think about it before lifting him up and into the saddle.

He stares at you with wide eyes, scared and excited all at once. You remember the feeling. 

“Breathe, kid,” you remind him. “And get those feet in the stirrups. Sit deep. Shoulders tall.” You touch a hand to his stomach. “If you’re strong here, it’ll help you both balance. Less likely to fall.”

He nods, trying to do everything at once. He’s only halfway successful, but it will all come with practice. You lead the mare in between and around picketed horses, twisting and turning but keeping a steady pace. Every few strides you remind Jack to tilt his heels down, or square his shoulders. His little brow furrows with concentration. 

You don’t even realize how much time has passed until the sun sits high in the afternoon sky, and Abigail returns with the girls and baskets and baskets of laundry. 

“Reverend!” her shout rings through the clearing. “Where the hell is my son?”

“Over here, Mama!” Jack calls from atop his mount. 

He’s graduated to guiding the mare in circles off the lead, but you’re still close by. She’s being a wonderful sport about it, eyes half closed while she putters about barely registering the butterfly kicks her young rider gives. 

Abigail stops short when she sees you. Before she can say a word, Jack smiles and cheers for her attention to show off his new skills. He makes the mare turn left, then right, then beams over at the both of you.

“That’s,” Abigail starts, “Well, that’s real fine, Jack. Did you say ‘thank you’?”

“Thanks, Ghost!”

“Sure, kid. Any time.” 

The emotion that shines in her eyes is hard to place, but it brings a fragile smile to your face that she mirrors.

You help Jack down and he runs up to hug her skirts, smelling of sweat and horses, you’re sure. 

“Should Jack help cool her out?” Abigail asks.

You huff a laugh. The mare hasn’t broken a sweat. “I’ve got it. You two go on now.”

They turn to go, Jack racing off ahead, but Abigail stops and turns back. “Ghost?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.” There’s so much packed into those two words, years of misunderstanding trying desperately to heal the pretty blue hurt in her eyes. The desert cracks in yours. 

You tip your hat, nod in understanding, scared that if you try to speak no words will come. 

—

John finds you later.

“Heard you an’ Jack had fun today.” 

You cut your eyes at him but keep your head on straight at the shirt you’re mending. It’s a botch job, but at least the hole will be gone. “Sure. Good kid you got there.”

“Ain’t so sure he is mine.” His laugh is humorless. Caustic.

“Does it matter?”

He’s silent for a long moment before admitting on a sigh, “I don’t know anymore.”

You don’t either.

[mins-fins]

TO MY FIRST LOVE (K.JH)

SUMMARY . . . a letter to his first love, kum junhyeon, and the memories that follow.

PAIRING . . . kum junhyeon x male!reader

GENRE . . . fluff+angst (deadly combination)

WARNINGS . . . none i'm pretty sure!

WORD COUNT . . . 777 (wow shorter than i expected!)

NOTES . . . here we go with junhyeon!! haha, can't tell if this is supposed to be sad or cute but you can decide that for yourself

dear kum junhyeon,

it's been a while, it has. i like to think that i'm a consistent person, but the last time we talked was almost three months ago, and i just wanna check up on you! i hope your okay, how's the performance art major going? i know your passing with no issue, you've always been insanely talented, i have no doubt that your the star student, especially with how much of a lovable person you are.

i hope you haven't forgotten me, because i haven't forgotten you. i know you've responded to my letters, all of them, but it's been three months, and even though this might make me sound like a clingy bitch, i assume you'd forget me already, because.. i just don't really think i'm memorable. i also just wouldn't be surprised if you forgot me at all, because your busy and having fun, i wish i could be there with you, but the world really just hates my guts.

if your interested, art has been going well. my teachers have told me that my paintings are so good that they could get accepted into an art museum someday, you told me that once, remember? when we were twelve and you saw my painting of that house by the lake, you told me i was gonna become the next 'da vinci', which resulted in me punching you in the shoulder.

i dislike thinking about the fact that we haven't talked for the past few months. i constantly check my phone and frown when i see no notifications from you. did you know, the picture i chose for you is the one from your twelfth birthday, when i put icing on your noise. you always said that photo was embarrassing, but you looked cute, even though you would always vehemently deny that.

it's difficult these days, you know student loans and all, but thinking about you always seems to help me forget about all the horrible stuff going on in my life (you better not call me cringey in the return letter), because.. i don't know, i just like thinking about you for some reason. years ago, i could have never imagined myself saying that, but now, it's kind of hard to go on without you, if you get what i mean.

i could never imagine my life without you years ago..

i hate writing like this, because.. well— i sound stupid when i write about stuff like this. sometimes, i wish i could have convinced my parents to not move me to new york for college, but then again, i am "successful" now, so i guess in the end it all amounted to something. of course, i still have a long way to go, i'm only nineteen, there's still so much for me to do and accomplish, but it's disappointing to think i have done this all without you by my side.

i still have that painting you made me, your a really talented artist, i can't believe you called it "just a small hobby for when i'm bored", when you've made some better paintings than me, and that's saying something. i miss you, like a lot, junhyeon, writing my feelings on paper makes me feel stupid, because expressing myself through writing has always been difficult for me to do, as i've told you before.

i know what we have has always been a little complicated, our feelings are mutual are they not? i'd like to think i'm right in this instance, hopefully, because it would be super embarrassing if i was wrong, but at the same time, how long will it be until we see each other again? how long will it be until i actually get to see you face to face and tell you how i feel all over again?

this is getting kinda depressing, sorry, i just— i really miss you a lot okay? this may come off as desperate and stupid, but honestly, it gets kinda difficult knowing your all the way across the ocean and i could be right there with you if the circumstances were different, but alas, not everything is gonna be in my favor, i realize that now.

anyway, kum junhyeon! it'll be nice to catch up much more personally sometimes, if we ever get the chance to see each other in person once again, which is probably highly unlikely but hey! we all need to have at least a little bit of hope.

of course, make sure to take care of yourself, love, stay hydrated, and get a full eight hours of sleep everyday, i'll talk to you again soon :).

xoxo,♡ y/n

[thegeminisage]

it's star trek update time!! last night* we watched tng's "gambit part i" and ds9's "invasive procedures." *earlier tonight but i am typing this at stupid o clock and letting it post itself tmrw.

gambit part i (tng):

had high hopes for this one initially. i love it when they put on civilian clothes, for starters, and also we got a little riker e worf e deanna before we ALSO got e beverly and the joke about her 1. being riker's sister (shoutout to that trill episode where she wouldn't fuck him at first because she said he was like a brother to her) and 2. picard getting her knocked up BECAUSE LIKE HE ABSOLUTELY DID KNOCK HER UP WITH WESLEY CRUSHER THEIR AFFAIR BABY really sent me to the fucking stratosphere. tng's been pretty watchable lately so i was giving it quite a lot of benefit of the doubt

unfortunately, we went directly from that to riker yelling at deanna for no reason...i always really disliked riker's relationship with picard. he's so weirdly hyperprotective of him in a way beyond his job duties. it doesn't feel like coworkers or friends or equals or even like it's supposed to be secretly shippy the way spock and jim were - riker is too overprotective for it to even be likened to a lover's realtionship. it also doesn't even really feel fatherly, like picard is stepping in for riker's shitheel of a dad. actually, riker almost acts like picard is HIS child. it is SOOO fucking unsexy and uncomfortable

physically grinding my teeth once picard DID show back up because with ANY other two characters this would have been fantastic. riker and worf. riker and deanna. riker and literally anyone because he has that kind of chemistry and down to clown attitude. even picard could have been ok paired with beverly or data or someone he actually works well with. it could have been ANYONE. even two people who don't talk to each other much like geordi and deanna or whatever. instead we got these like truly fantastic moments of noverbal communication and mutual scheming and pretending not to know each other while actually knowing each other sooo well and it was with the LEAST fun combination of characters out of the ENTIRE cast!!!!!!! augh

AND!!!! IT'S ALL FOR STUPID ARCHAEOLOGYYYY

PICARD GET A LIFE CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!!!

it's not even that the writing was bad. i'm annoyed because the writing in this section was GOOD. but picard and riker's relationship is bad, so it soured the whole experience

anyway, i think riker should have battled his eyelashes at that wrinkled little alien when he wanted info from him. instead of whatever that was. also he was making REALLY good faces when they were torturing him with that neck thing and he was on the floor. that's a rage glare. a kill you look. mwah

oh side bar i physically could not look at geordi this episode. so that's been fun.

invasive procedures (ds9):

oh girl we are In It

firstly, odo's little bucket prison. that was SO sad because he doesn't goop in front of people. i felt horrible for him. my poor best friend odo

i really like how ambiguous it is like how much of jadzia dax is jadzia and how much is dax. does dax have his? her? their? own personality and all, or are they just the sum of their past hosts? when dax was inside that other guy, did part of them want to get out and go back to jadzia where they chose to be to begin with? to save jadzia's life? or do they not care? is dax themself not super sentient unless they're inside a host and then that host's personality is sort of dominant? so many questions.........trills are fascinating conceptually bc there's no clear definitive answers, so i was really dismayed that dax was easily the most boring character in season 1. but now!!!!!

ok, before we get into it, i have to say also, the cast rallying around dax/jadzia...really really good. actually, all their interactions with one another were spot on. bashir being SO NICEYS with odo's little bucket prison and then quark also springing odo from the bucket prison, bashir absolutely chomping at the BIT to treat o'brien's phaser wound, kira threatening quark on jadzia's behalf, quark tackling that klingon to save her/redeem himself. oh yeah and kira saying with her Whole chest that if odo's free there's no way any of the bad guys are escaping the station. my future otp......................

speaking of quark i did say the worst thing in the world to catherine while we were watching which is "this is what he sounds like when odo's plowing him" and the longer the noises went on the worse it became for her and the funnier it became for me. cathy when you read this you have my apologies

i did feel a little weird about julian stroking jadzia's face when she was naked and vulnerable recovering from worm surgery (the worm surgery was GREAT by the way) when she has explicitly and repeatedly turned him down in the past, but i'm giving it a reluctant benefit-of-the-doubt pass on account of he felt terrible about what he'd had to do and probably just wanted to comfort her, and considering the state she was in there weren't very many other ways/places to touch her except her head and maybe her hands. also i forgive him because him talking back to that klingon was sooo fun

i would have also liked for this episode to push on the insanity of being bonded to a symbiont and then being forcibly unbonded. like its just now striking me that curzon died alone. beverly's little trill boyfriend died alone. jadzia would have died alone, too. and the dax part just has to move on. like that's crazy. does dax grieve for past hosts? or would it be like grieving for yourself? what is it like seeing dax inside another body when they've been inside yours for almost your entire adult life?

but actually what i really wanted was to see this bad guy's insanity reflected in jadzia. instead of saying oh man i feel so alone she could have been like. more of a wreck. and conversely, he would have been that same kind of wreck after dax got taken back out of him. that would have been cool.

i would also like to know how the dax part felt about forcibly being put in another body they never wanted to be. are they fighting with themselves? himself? the host wants things to stay as they are but dax doesn't, so what happens? does it not feel like an awful violation? i could have used 5 more minutes of that episode

also. sorry. dax and sisko................"i wish we could have made it three" it's, sorry, toph and aang and korra core. do you think friendships can last more than one lifetime...........

icing on the cake was that he was so mad at the bad guy whose name i keep forgetting that he was like DONT CALL ME BENJAMIN and shot his ass stone cold. bc that was better than letting his friend be taken by this asshole lol

anyway, my final dax question is when does her hair get smaller. her head is such a weird shape. is she wearing a wig, is that's what's happening? and the rest of her head just looks weirdly big because of it? it's making me crazy.

NEXT TIME: tng's "gambit part ii" and ds9's "cardassians" AND I LOOKED IT UP AND GARAK IS FINALLY BACK!!!!!!! i can't wait....................

[hxhhasmysoul]

Happy holiday.... What do you think that made Yuuji is so likeable as a character? I've only been in the JJK fandom for a year, and I've seen a lot of other JJK characters' stan. But one thing in common, they all love Yuuji and mostly will include him in their top 5 fav JJK charas (including me :D)...

Also, extra kudos cause your blog is anti-gojo. Most of my moots love him and can't stop talking about him. I already tell them that I don't really like him (actually I hate him), they're okay but still so into him. So I'm so happy when I found your blog.

What do you think that made gojo so famous? Is it the pretty face and bad personality (I'm still confused until now)....? I dislike gojo kinda like I dislike dazai from BSD. They're both called "The one who stole the spotlight from the protagonist" (by my animanga group)....

I hope your holidays were nice! And everything best in the new year :D Thank you for the ask.

I think Yuuji is likable because he's very relatable. There's this post about how much we learn about him in the first few chapters and it clearly shows how there are just layers to him from the very start. How it's not easy for him to make close friends he can open up to but he tries. How he deals with family issues. How he is towards strangers.

There's this very strong humanity to Yuuji, he has super powers but he's extremely normal and human about it. He's such a contrast to the jujutsu society he enters where most sorcerers are so detached from the normies. Nanami isn't as detached, neither is Miwa. And Nobara isn't fully detached either. That is probably why Yuuji connects with her so closely, closer than with Megumi who's very steeped into the whole jujutsu ideology.

And as the story progresses we see Yuuji dehumanised, insulted and targeted. We see him trying to constantly reconcile his values with his new reality, we see him try not to lose himself when everyone tries to tell him he's wrong. When actually he's the one sane, the one that hasn't instrumentalised human life.

_

Yeah, this is a safe space for those who aren't in the Gojou cult. I think my main problem with Gojou is the dissonance between who Gojou is and what he actually stands for or does in the manga, and what a lot of his fans think he is. Also the fact that like two times his fans came at me and actively tried to evangelise the cult of Gojou to me. And like, I've never gone to anyone and tried to convince them to love Kenjaku or Sukuna, or even Yuuji XD

I think Gojou's looks contribute a lot to his popularity, something I personally don't understand, I find the white haired blue eyed anime boy ugly. But Gojou also has very flashy powers. And he's shipped with his friend turned antagonist, and it was all very dramatic and sad.

I think in JJK not only Gojou steals not exactly the spotlight from Yuuji... I don't know how to call it. But Megumi and Yuuta do it too.

My experience with this fandom is that a lot of the fans don't get what JJK is about and what kind of story it is. And they want to squeeze JJK into a certain stereotype of what a shounen manga is supposed to be.

So in that stereotype a shounen manga is one where a very special boy fights (sometimes metaphorically because it's for example football XD) his way through progressively stronger opponents to achieve his goal. The goal can be noble and grand or very personal. The boy also accrues friends along the way who help him fight somewhat but like the boy fights against the boss of the arc. And generally the plot revolves around him and happens around him.

Which some shounen surely are, I'm not super well versed in any genre, but from what I vaguely remember from trying to watch Dragon Ball a long time ago it had that kinda vibe... I wouldn't bet money on my memory of that though. Chainsaw Man also had that vibe to me, and Demon Slayer and Blue Lock - as much as I've seem of those titles.

It's just that I don't even know how statistically relevant that stereotype is. Hunter x Hunter isn't like that, neither is Hell's Paradise. Full Metal Alchemist leans that way at times but isn't really that.

And JJK isn't like that either. It's a story driven by its antagonists - Kenjaku, elders, recently Sukuna- and not its protagonist. It actively deconstructs the myth of the strongest Gojou is as much a product and a problem of the jujutsu society as Sukuna is. People talk that loneliness is the theme in JJK because recently Sukuna's fan club was asking him to cure theirs and he did, for all of them. But what people forget that the theme of loneliness as a motivator started with Yuuji. But the loneliness isn't the only theme. There's this huge discussion of what society should be, what is the place of jujutsu in society and in the world and Kenjaku and Yuuji are at the centre of that. There's the theme of the value of human life that Yuuji is the point of view character for, Nanami, Higuruma and Megumi occasionally chip into that but it's always in the context of Yuuji. There's a huge theme of bodily autonomy in JJK that connects many characters but Yuuji is very much central to it, together with Kenjaku and Yuuji's personal foil Mahito.

Also Yuuji isn't what you'd call a stereotypical shounen protagonist, he's much closer to a stereotypical shoujo protagonist and when you realise that, when you realise what the themes of JJK are, you see that there is no other protagonist of JJK. I'm linking to the ask where I outlined that.

So I think people who talk about Yuuta or Gojou being main characters actually just like these guys and are wowed by their super hyper flashy techniques and don't give much of a shit about what most of the manga is about. With Megumi I think it's because he's a pretends he's an intellectual and says these fake deep broody things while the close up is on his lashes. I mean his technique is super strong and flashy too... when Sukuna uses it because Sukuna is a jujutsu nerd and he actually knows how to use it XD

[silvyslayer42]

ok so (explanations under the cut)

in order of worst to best we have-

F - satosai. get out of my face, satosai.

full disclosure though- i used to really like satosai, but then i grew as a person and part of that is realizing satosai is painful amounts of overrated and mid (im joking obviously, though i do truthfully dislike it, no shade to you if you do. plus i still look at ship content of it sometimes because it’s there in mass amounts and they’re cute sometimes). also some satosai fans are so annoyingggg (you know the ones) and will go after other saiki ships and be like “anyways satosai better” and i do genuinely think you’re annoying and should get off of my page if you do that.

E - kuboyasu x teruhashi. it goes in E tier for “Eh?” because i do not get it

i have nothing to say about them, to the point that it’s not even funny. this is like, a very sober crackship to me. im sure someone who does really like this ship could sell me on it but it hasn’t happened yet. i see this ship around sometimes and just get so confused. i do not see the chemistry

D - kubosai. even more confusing than the last one in some ways but i kind of see the charm of it.

again though, nothing much to say. they work aesthetically, like—the bones of a good ship are here, but there’s no meat to tear into. in their canon/close to canon versions i cannot see it at all (probably because i like other ships with both of them a lot more), but in a good fic or au i do very much indulge in the BAMF x BAMF content. yeah idk what else to say, they’re so low on here because i just do not think about them as a romantic pairing or seek it out. i don’t know why it’s so popular (unless there’s some solo chapter with them as a duo that ive never seen)

C - imuteru, hii x satou, and makoku (with one u). yeah, I know, C tier for “Contreversial Take” i suppose.

OK LET ME EXPLAIN OFFICER-

imuteru used to be higher up on the list, but then terusai took over my body and soul, and i just can’t really see them together anymore. whenever i think of imuteru i think of unrequited imuteru on imu’s end and that makes me sad :( for some reason this same effect didn’t happen with teruchiyo or mikoteru but that might be that those two have other ships with the characters aswell idk

satou x hii would be further up because i do really like them together and i think the whole luck balancing thing is super cute, i just don’t think about them enough to put them higher. yes, your boos are understandable, and your tomato throwing. someday i’ll decide to read a fic about them and it’ll probably become B tier idk

.. ok now you REALLY HAVE TO HEAR ME OUT. makoto x kusuo could be so funny. this is a true crackship, and one laced with the absolutely most fatal drug cocktail you’ve ever seen. in a world where makoto isn’t literally a walking incest joke and is just a protective and pretty idiot it slaps so hard. kokomi would hate it, kuusuke would hate it, his parents would be questioning how kusuo managed to bag a famous actor without mind control. it is utter chaos and so so much better for it. i think they should be more popular and it’s probably my worst saiki k take. still, putting them any higher is basically saiki k fandom sacrilege atp so.

B - nendou x saiko, mikosai (+mikoteru and teruchiyo which weren’t on the tierlist for some reason), kaisai, and yumekai. now we’re getting somewhere. i quite like all of these.

nendou x saiko is just very fun to me. idiot for idiot but it’s in the romcom rich guy who doesn’t know shit meets guy who doesn’t know shit either. silly x tries to be serious but can’t really pull it off. i think they can both mutually make each others lives better + their interactions in canon were great. i wish they were more popular

oh boy mikosai!! oh boy, mikosai… mikosai is the first sight of my polyship i like to call “psychicshipping” which is where i ship all of the PK psychickers together romantically as a weird kind of OT4. i have so much to say on mikosai and a lot of thoughts about them, and i do genuinely like them as a pairing a lot, BUT. it ranks lower than the other psychicships because the fandom put a bad taste in my mouth with it. often, i see a lot of people hating on terusai in favor of mikosai or saying that mikosai is somehow more valid and im like “?”. it often feels like mikosai is the het saiki ship for teruhashi haters, which SUCKS because i do see the vision. like, THIS:

this is great, yk? they look good together and the dynamic is great, but the way the fandom treats and characterizes them is not even close to how they should be, at least to me it’s not. this image sums up my feelings on them pretty well:

closing thoughts: i should be the only one allowed to ship mikosai because only i understand them NEXT

mikoteru + teruchiyo bonus round because i like them too and they deserve to be here: these ships are both great in my professional opinion, but their paragraphs get combined because i don’t have a lot of vested interest in them specifically despite really liking them. I think teruhashi’s problems could all be fixed if she had at least one girlfriend (preferably more) and that is my only thoughts really. i get very happy when i see people making ship content for either of these, please make more yuri content with teruhashi now thank you !!

kaisai!! this was the first saiki k ship i read a fic for and the first ship i enjoyed. it’s very nostalgic to me because of that. to me they give “greasy gamer who could be blown over by a ghost of wind boyfriend who likes getting himself into trouble x stoic but secretly sweet boyfriend who subtly protects him” which is a rare and overlooked dynamic i think, and something you can’t really get from kubokai. kubokai might still be better but that doesn’t mean kaidou doesn’t have two hands now does it? closing thoughts: i think they’re very cute and need more people to see that, romantically or platonically.

yumekai. i think they should’ve been canon in the end idc idc. i might like other ships with these two more but that does not mean i won’t acknowledge how much i like them. they are honestly one of the best het ships in the entire fandom and need more recognition!! they can be angsty mutual pinning. they can be toothrottingly fluffy. they can be so infuriatingly stupid (they are always stupid but shush). they can be the incarnation of young love. they can and should grow old together. the only reason they aren’t higher up is because, like i said before, i like other ships with either of them so much already so there’s not enough room in my heart for them 😞

A - mikosuka (plus aikechi and torikechi bonus rounds that will both be getting their own paragraphs this time), saikechi, torisai, kubokai, and nendou x hairo. OH YEAH BABYY! all of these are solid and the fandom hasn’t ruined them, in fact all of the stuff ive seen of them slaps. 10/10

mikosuka. please be more popular aaa!! the only reason it’s not is because of how much toritsuka got done dirty in canon for the “pervert character” trope- and how much the fandom just despises him. they’re hilarious in a “married couple who do nothing but fight all the time but everyone can tell they love each other anyways” way to me, not to mention how they’re also a part of psychicshipping. i do think they work better as part of a polycule with saiki to center them, but i saw a post about how aiura could’ve been mistaken and toritsuka might’ve actually been hinted as her soulmate and it’s been a majority of my thoughts since. i think they should get married after a long journey of selfdiscovery for them both where at the end of it they decide they both like life better with each other. i think they should stay in a “will they won’t they” like idiot love interests in a bad but popular tv show forever. i live laugh love mikosuka. i think they both deserve better (mostly aiura but toritsuka too in some ways). closing thoughts: brain running wild all the time 24/7 for these guys forever and ever.

aikechi. i hadn’t really thought about them before making contact with @/no-psi-nan’s posts about them but now my eyes are OPENED!! honestly before that i just saw them in the polypsychiccule as connected via their mutual love for saiki but not with each other directly, but now they are so much more than that to me. he’s the right amount of calm to nicely contrast her passionate fire in a way that the other two just aren’t. they are the pinacle of competent 4 competent while still being idiots in their own ways. aiura shows a picture of him to someone and says “this is my loser pissboy husband. i love him so much”

torikechi. i started liking them in a similar way that i started liking aikechi but the vibes with them are so very different than aikechi. compared to toritsuka, akechi is the cool one and that is crazy 2 me. really really dumb x only a little bit dumb but extremely unhinged in other ways. akechi can finally talk at someone who and be halfway listened to without annoying the other person because of toritsuka being used to ghosts randomly appearing to talk to him all the time and he is ecstatic. toritsuka is just happy to be here and also very confused tbh.

saikechi. what’s there not to like about saikechi tbh. a lot of canon backing and the childhood friends trope? peak. the potential that this ship has for angst and hurt/comfort is sososo good gahhh!! akechi being torn up about saiki leaving and saiki feeling guilty. saiki thinking that he’s done something horrible and not expecting forgiveness, but receiving it anyway :((( aaaaa!!! “you really shouldn’t forgive me. you should hate me” x “i already forgave you, and how could i ever hate you when i love you so much?”. like??? hello??? they make me cry. they make me so happy. they can help each other heal and become better. they could even make each other worse if you play your cards right (you’d be evil for it tho). closing thoughts: screaming crying shaking sobbing throwing up clawing the ground and punching my pillow because of how much i care about them

torisai. they are so funny lmao. also they complete the psychicshipping love square

(^the psychicshipping love square. pink line between names means those two characters are dating, in love, married, etc.) so ofc i love them. as mentioned, i think they’re very funny (a common trait of a lot of the ships i like) and i think saiki could fix him (/j). not much to say since they are my head empty ship but yeah i like me some torisai

kubokai. do i even need to explain?? like torisai there’s not much i really feel i need to say about them but like. who doesn’t like kubokai? these two could not go an episode without doing something gay and we love them for that. not to mention the piles upon piles of content for them. closing thoughts: ofc i like kubokai, who doesn’t like kubokai?

nendou x hairo. HELL YEAH BABYY!! <- my reaction when i see a post about them. underrated as hell, just like how these two are as characters. they’re my sillies. the silliest gay couple ever. aso shuichi agrees trust me. also that chapter where they got mistaken for a couple was so fucking funny. it’s a shame like no one knows about it since it’s basically softcore in some parts so it didn’t get animated

S - terusai and aichiyo. MY FAVS! i eat breathe and live on this. i have a current pintrest board of these ships because i love them so much.

aichiyo. give me more aichiyo content, NOW. aichiyo is seriously my favorite aiura ship, and i look it up on this godforsaken website, and you know what i find? LIKE THREE POSTS. THREE. THATS BASICALLY NOTHINGGG. and there’s not really a lot of fics ive found about them either (if you have recommendations i want them. please). that episode where they interacted was so gay it outshined nearly everything else. like- they’re so in love!! *shakes you* listen to me damnit!! they love each other!! they’re just so adorable i don’t know what you want me to say. look at them LOOK AT THEMMMM

(^made by @/wowneh_toon on twitter) closing thoughts: they make me feral

terusai (ending with this one instead of going in order because they are my number one favs out of any saiki k ship to have ever been concocted). AAAAAHH!!!!!! I LOVE THESE TWO SO MUCHH!!!! terusai is the kind of ship that grows on you the longer you’re a fan of the show, and now it’s my straight up comfort ship. anyone who disagrees is WRONG this whole fandom is WRONG and im not afraid to say that. if you don’t like them at least queerplatonically i think your takes are immature and stupid and im blocking you. terusai is perfect for a fluffy future au where teruhashi is the breadwinner and saiki is her housewife. infinity/10 best romance ever written no complaints. there’s so many terusai moments and chapters (remember when teruhashi was about to confess to him as kuriko and he was blushing???like??? how could anyone see that shit and still think he genuinely hates her… i know i sound so mean here but idc im so so tired of this fandom and the absolute DISRESPECT terusai goes through on a daily basis) thank you aso shuichi for gifting the world with teruhashi and terusai. closing thoughts: i love them and if you don’t i do NOT want to hear about it. id fight the whole fandom over them if i had to im not kidding.

phew that was a lot of writing. i hope you enjoyed my ramblings because all of these came from deep within my heart. also my opinions are all cosmic truths so if you disagree then i guess we’ll just have to both live with you being wrong 🤷

[fizzingwizard]

why is a t-shirt more expensive if it doesn't have sleeves?? lol

buying my dad a birthday present and having my annual "I don't have a family anymore" breakdown :)

I actually think it would have been easier if my parents had separated when I was a kid. As an adult I have no footing to figure out how to be their kid anymore. It feels like we lived together under one roof for decades and are now complete strangers.

First my brother. dealing with his legitimate issues, pushed us all away, and now he only talks to my mom.

My mom separated from my dad also for legitimate reasons and is now living with her boyfriend.

My dad's pushed everyone who loves him away, which he thinks is because they can't handle his political views, but actually it's because he called them all stupid and idiotic to their faces. Multiple times.

Mental illness abounds. My dad won't see a therapist, he'll only see a family friend who believes some pretty hokey stuff about the mind and 'vibrations' etc. But I look at it as at least he's talking to someone. I may not understand her beliefs, but I do know her as a kind person, and if my dad feels comfortable confiding in her then the rest isn't my business. My dad has told me he thinks he has ADHD, depression, he blames it all on his own family life growing up, he recognizes his mistakes - but also he can't stop himself calling people stupid. He really tries when he talks to me though. I do think it's dementia or undiagnosed mental illness because at this point he spouts angry politics like a tic, anything triggers it, any alternative point of view or simple fact check is an attack, and he has to work really hard to rein himself in. But again, he does try with me.

My mom seems really happy and her boyfriend seems nice. I don't dislike him at all. But I feel like I understand the step kid reservations about the "replacement dad." I never did growing up. I just chalked it up to "feeling sad" but it's more than that, it's a future you thought you'd have with one person, instead of disappearing when that person does, continuing with an entirely different person. It's not bad of course. It's mostly good. But it's beyond sad at the same time. Someone was supposed to be there who isn't, even though they're still alive. Someone else is there instead.

Brother seems to be doing much better too. I'm not sure of the details but it sounds like he either officially has some sort of autism diagnosis, or has gathered enough evidence to self-diagnose. It sounds like he's made some supportive friends at his new job and is figuring things out, so that's great.

My dad is the hardest because I don't hear much good news from hi. I don't hear bad news either. I want to hear that he isn't alone all of the time. But realistically I think he's got to have trouble making new friends and being part of a community. He never had trouble doing that before, but his habit of complaining and talking politics constantly gets in the way now. When we talk he usually seems okay, right until he starts talking about our family and how things used to be, and then he starts to cry. So I really struggle through calls with him. Gotta do one today or tomorrow because it's his birthday and I'm so upset just thinking about it.

It's now been four years since my parents separated so you'd think stuff like that would be getting easier. I don't think it is for my dad. And for me, I just keep feeling like my mom's off living her life, my brother's off living his somewhere else, and my dad's living his in another somewhere else, and there's no longer any reason for all of us to be together again. I barely know them anymore.

Ironically I was the one who left first. Not that my staying would have changed anything, though. I just avoided home during what college breaks I could because of my brother's outbursts. I tried to get away. I was lucky that I was following my dreams. Since things started falling apart, I went to college, moved to Japan, got a job, met my boyfriend, and have just been living mostly happily. Idk why all the trouble happened around me instead of to me. I am grateful for it, but it also makes me feel like even more of an outsider.

Even when I was a kid, I didn't have the complaints that my brother did about our family or school or whatever. That doesn't mean his complaints aren't valid. It's a bit complicated but there's plenty of stuff that was messed up. Some of it affected only him. But what did affect me I guess just didn't bother me in the same way. I always felt like anything I didn't like would go away some day so I didn't worry about it. That's why I describe myself as an optimist even though I don't think that's people's impression of me when they meet me haha. But I have a weird optimism that just assumes any bad situation is going to work out. Right now my big fears are mostly about my dad being alone in his old age. I'm still thinking about what I should do. I don't have any money and I don't have a house. Even my apartment is a shoe box. I also live in a different country which my dad wouldn't like (just because he's very much a creature of habit and has never enjoyed things being different - food especially). I'm not in a situation where it's easy, or even possible, to just say come live with me. I'd probably have to leave Japan and go home. Which is something I always knew was possible when my parents got old. But I figured if that happened, I would have both parents living with me, not just one.

It could be good though. I just don't know how I'd do it. If I had to move home, I have no idea what that would mean for my boyfriend, who has never expressed an interest in even visiting the US, let alone living there. Having ties in different places feels like being made to decide who you love more.

[melodraca]

your oc tag intrigues me

can I have some fun facts about kade I see that name a lot and kade seems great

sorry am awkward

Don't worry, you don't seem awkward at all! ^_^ But oh my gosh, I'm going to apologize in advance, because seeing an ask about any of my ocs makes me really happy and I may or may not start rambling a bit. Bear with me here...

Fun facts about Kade:

He's a character from a roleplay between me and my friend

We actually both agreed that he's our favorite character

He's bi

Kade started out in 2015 as a slightly humorous antagonist who was supposed to show up for one plot arc and then disappear forever

We liked him too much, so we brought him back as a side character with a redemption arc

We then liked him SO much that he became a main character

(He was a diamond amongst the trash of our terrible old writing)

He was kinda toxic, kinda manipulative, but also so cringe and sexy, he captivated us

He's like 6'5"+. A beanpole

He's one of our most intelligent characters

I wouldn't say he's got low wisdom necessarily, but his sense of humor is really dumb

He laughs at his own jokes

The first thing he did after being introduced was unsuccessfully attempt to make the lives of everyone around him worse (he didn't have a clear motivation for this)

He loves his cool, scary wife so so much

He started out as a part of a gang, which was initially supposed to add to his ~villainous intimidation factor~ but he was so universally disliked by this gang that it was just kind of sad

He attempted to leave and somehow ended up in an infinitely worse situation (mafia-esque crime organization)

The first thing he did in this organization was form a codepedant relationship with the boss's equally touch-starved and closeted son (Nic)

Their relationship is healthier now, but for a while they both sucked so much. They enabled each others issues, and Kade loved to make Nic mad on purpose

He's polyam, and he's been collecting partners like pokemon cards

His partners have a groupchat that they didn't let him join

He was crushing on his cool, scary wife (Mian) for almost a decade, but she was his bestie and he didn't want to ruin that in case she didn't feel the same way (she did, but the whole time she thought that she just REALLY liked him as a friend)

Still unironically says "epic" (me too)

He had so many vices and issues <3 he still has so many issues

I'm pretty sure he questioned his gender at one point, and he came to the conclusion that he was still cis, but in an Ascended kind of way

He's in his 40s by this point

He has kids, he's genuinely really sweet with them (also collects them like pokemon cards; most of them are adopted. He's not the step dad, he's the dad that stepped up)

Deals with gut-wrenching trauma :(

He almost caused a divorce because a bromance with one of his best friends (Tsubasa) got a little bit too gay

"He has a very punchable face," - a comment I once got on a drawing of him vaping

He has his stupid spiked collar insured

Ate a cigarette more than once

I think we canonized him being autistic shortly after I realized I was autistic, because too many things made a LOT of sense retrospectively

During his wedding vows, he asked the audience to give him a "hell yeah."

I imagine that he smells very subtly like weed and drugstore cologne

He went through a lot of personal growth. Had some issues with toxic masculinity, now he respects women soooo much

He has a special interest in horror films/shows/books/etc. He also just likes film in general

His other thing is math, and all of his partners hate it

I just think he's really neat :)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head rn 💀 but thank you again so much for asking!

Art by swagamicchi on twitter, me (old art, but I haven't drawn a lot recently. rip.), and frozenspoots on twitter

[milo-hypno]

hey just to add a personal story - no one ever told me I was trans.

I mean, I knew vaguely about trans people as a kid, sure - I had internet access and eyes - but I didn't really care enough to research. No one ever taught me, either. I think the most conversation we ever had about trans people was when my mother sat me down at thirteen with a video of a man doing magic tricks with jam and peanut butter, which I watched and then looked up at her and went "yeah, duh, I've seen this before. Can I go back to my book?"

(To which, some may say that that was push enough - and to which I reply, this is the same woman who, when I told her I liked women, said "well at least you're not transgender!" She's a lovely woman, and one of my biggest supporters now - but to say that a single video was enough to 'make me trans' is a severe misunderstanding of humans.

My mother has tried much harder than that to make me like mushrooms, with an incredible lack of success.)

I knew I was sad long before I knew I was trans. I didn't know why I was sad. I knew I hated my hair - I hated that it tangled, and I hated how it looked. How long it was, how it framed my face. I would braid it to either side of my head day after day, because it was inconvenient and because I didn't like it enough to wear it down.

I would beg as a child, for my mother to cut it to my ears - but she refused, because it was blonde and thick and pretty, and because she didn't want me to dislike it. Once, when I was seven, I snuck out with scissors to cut it myself - but I was caught before I could ever make the first snip. Now, though, I was fourteen - and I had given up on the subject.

It took me weeks to convince her to cut it to my jawline. I thought that was the issue, the only issue. I cut it off finally, but - something still didn't click. Something still made me sad. I felt better, kind of - but that sadness just moved, just changed targets.

I don't know if you know what it feels like, to be sad without knowing why - but it's... confusing.

It's having a weight in your chest that makes it hard to breathe, and not knowing why - it's maximizing comfort over aesthetic and fashion, because none of it feels right anyways. It's being given hyper-feminine clothes, and feeling like you're naked in them.

It's staying up until three AM, feeling like you're drowning - but that can't be right, because you can't see any water around.

No one told me I was trans.

I found out, because I was fourteen and sad, and I thought growing up was supposed to be fun. I found out on accident because I saw a video of a trans man's transition timeline - and I had clicked on it out of curiosity, and I had left twenty minutes later with my eyes full of tears, and longing. Jealousy.

It still took me months before I came out. It took me months of doubt, and feeling like an imposter, and checking in with myself time after time after time again that I still felt like a man.

The answer was always yes, no matter how much I tried to reason my way out of it.

I'm still trans, you know. And that Sad feeling is gone.

It's been years, now, and I'm realizing that for the first time, when someone asks me where I see myself in five years, I actually can see myself then. And that makes me want to cry for a very different reason to the one I'd had back then.

I don't know why I'm writing this, honestly, just that -- I didn't grow out of it, and no one convinced me to 'become trans'. I always was trans, I just didn't have the words for it, and I didn't realize I was until I was in the midst of puberty - when something like a rock in my shoe suddenly became a boulder, and I had to find the answers before I drowned in something I couldn't name.

If you think otherwise, that trans people are recruiting others, that it's a choice - well, I can't change your mind. Or maybe I could - who knows?

All I know is that for the first time in my life, I look in the mirror and I recognize who I see. Every time. Every day.

I speak, and I laugh, because my voice is deep and it's weird!

It's a good kind of weird, though - the kind of weird that is like seeing yourself with a haircut that feels you, the kind of weird where you find clothing that fits right, that looks good, and you keep stopping in the street to look at your reflection in the mirrors, because you can't believe you look so good.

It's the kind of weird that feels like a part of your identity has suddenly slotted into place, and you still have to learn it, to learn its weight - but at the same time you can't imagine how you'd existed before.

I see photos of myself from mere months ago, and I can barely recognize myself - and it's like coming home.

I can't convince you otherwise, if you think someone made me this way.

All I can do is be happy, and hope that maybe one day, you will see that - and maybe you won't understand, but you'll know that for me, transitioning is the difference between being able to see a future for myself, and not being able to see myself in three months.

The indoctrination never stops.

Conservatives need a minority target to keep their followers focused/unified on hate. As the followers obsess on hate, their lives/emotions are much easier to manipulate.

Conservatives always vow to restore the country to some distant past that never existed.

It's an endless loop of failure.