#is not quite friendship either

[cuubism]

dream and hob are really just that post that was like 'introverts only make friends when an extrovert forcibly adopts them'

[antianakin]

The constant pervasive ideas about the Jedi, that they're repressed and bad at relationships and isolated from the world and its realities and stuck in their ways, is actually just... Anakin.

Like people looked at Anakin Skywalker and assumed that because he was the protagonist that the way he acted was somehow a symptom of the Jedi's teachings or upbringing instead of just... Anakin's personality?

Anakin is repressed, more than almost literally any other character in the entire franchise. Anakin chronically refuses to really acknowledge how he's feeling and pretends he ISN'T feeling it while multiple other people might be begging him to do the opposite.

Anakin is bad at relationships, he pressures Padme into a relationship by constantly ignoring her stated boundaries and disrespecting her. He complains about his OTHER relationships to Padme and Palpatine, particularly his relationship to Obi-Wan. He's awkward and overly melodramatic, incapable of truly expressing himself in a way that isn't immediately off-putting to normal people or being able to express his more positive feelings towards someone in a way they might recognize or accept.

Anakin isolates himself from the world and its realities, refusing to see nuance anywhere, and preferring to view things from an entirely black and white perspective, particularly in order to make himself out to be the hero of any situation (the Tuskens are animals, the Separatists are evil, the Jedi are evil, etc).

Anakin is stuck in his ways. Similar to the last point, Anakin refuses to accept that any way but his own could possibly work or be worth considering. He thinks he's extra special and therefore people like Obi-Wan have literally nothing to teach him of any worth. Anakin doesn't WANT to think differently about the Separatists even when Padme tells him otherwise. Anakin does things in a certain specific way and refuses to change even if it might be better to do so.

I dare someone to try to come up with an accusation made about the Jedi's culture and lifestyle that "needs to change" that isn't literally just ANAKIN'S personality flaws projected onto the Jedi at large.

Maybe the Jedi don't need to change at all and Anakin just as an unhealthy toxic personality that even the Jedi couldn't fix.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Sapling Cage

YA fantasy, start of a trilogy

a trans girl and her friend swap places so she can join the coven of witches who wander the land instead of becoming a knight

as they travel and she starts to learn from them, while hoping she’s not found out , they uncover a corrupt magical blight that threatens to become a civil war

bi demi MC

[transgendermilesprower]

i keep thinking about how they use sonic advance 3 in particular in the one flashback in sonic prime, it's because that's where 'unbreakable bond' originates from!

Sonic and Tails' unbreakable bond is so important to sonic (the character and the series)

[ante--meridiem]

This is something I've definitely said to damn characters by faint praise before but I do actually mean it positively this time: I have to appreciate Jayce's taste in people, guy could only ever be happy in a power couple and I respect that.

[ruvviks]

toying with the idea of making yancey's friends not real. would that be too evil

[forestwhisper3]

Welcome back to [Not Quite] Midnight Meditations, although tonight, we are surprisingly more or less on time (as long as the clock still says 12 I'm counting it as on time), where I share segments from the darker corners of my flash drive. As stated before, these are all ideas that held my interest for a bit but were left unfinished for one reason or another. It is very unlikely that they will ever be fully fleshed out, but I figured it would be fun to share them.

Continuing in order from the last post, tonight's segment is Digimon again. This one is based firmly in Gen 2 and is yet another Davis-centric fic, but the concept this time is that he turns evil.

I do remember enjoying the concept of evil Davis when I wrote this (and I will admit the idea still holds some appeal even now), but I also remember being rather put off by the execution of many of the fics I read that pursued this plot. A lot of them had everyone suddenly turn on him because of one small mistake, or he decided he was tired of being "second best" to TK. That always felt sort of lackluster and unrealistic to me, so I tried my own spin on it.

This idea didn't get as much attention as the last one, so it's considerably shorter, but I feel like it sets the mood for what could have been the rest of the story rather well. Anyway, I won't keep you any longer, so here it is.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I-…I think something's wrong with me."

"…Wrong how?"

"I've been hearing voices."

Ken rushed through the forest, the others hot on his heels, adrenaline pushing them past their normal limits. Inwardly, he was berating himself. He and Davis had both considered this possibility, no matter how reluctantly on his part, but Ken thought they might have had more time- that it might not happen because it was so unlikely…

Ken stiffened slightly while Davis grinned weakly. "Yeah, that's what I've been thinking too."

"…How long?"

"About a month now. It wasn't so bad at first- I thought it might have just been the late hours mixed with my imagination…but now…" Davis gave a deep, exhausted sigh. "I'm worried, Ken."

So he had ignored the warnings. He brushed off Davis's increasing weariness, his growing paranoia and jumpiness at the slightest things, and his increasingly frequent concerns that something serious was at work.

"We can't be sure that it's something to worry about yet," he countered a bit fearfully. "Maybe you just watched too many horror-"

"Ken. That's not it and you know it."

Davis's smile was so full of sadness and understanding that it made Ken tear up even while filling him with fury.

He had ignored it when Davis had started growing easily irritated and distant as well, although that wasn't the case with the others, who had finally caught on that something was happening. Not that they could have done anything by that point- the confrontation between TK and Davis was still a painful subject for all of them.

There was no ignoring it anymore.

"You're wrong! The dark spores were destroyed! There's no way for them to be affecting you!"

"Ken-"

"Don't! I don't want to hear it!"

Tai was the one who had found the letter.

It was as if Davis had known all along that Ken would never find the strength to admit that he was slowly losing his friend. Perhaps, in a moment of clarity, Davis had realized that it was something that they wouldn't be able to fix in time and wished to explain. Whatever the reason, he had somehow managed to sneak the letter into Tai's home and hid it away in Kari's scrapbook.

Davis went missing the very next day.

A long, tense silence fell. It was the sort of silence they hadn't felt between them since the early days of their friendship. After what felt like forever, Davis sighed and stood up.

"I need to head home. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure."

He nodded and went toward the door, pausing once it opened. "…Just promise me you'll think about it."

Davis was gone before he could answer. Then again, he doubted he would have been able to.

Now, they had finally gotten a reading on their leader's digivice…but he was afraid of what they would find.

Every day, the digital world seemed to grow just a little bit darker. Any digimon that weren't at Ultimate level or higher would stay hidden, and there were whispers…

"Ken?"

The tentative voice brought him out of his thoughts. The others were looking at him in concern, but he couldn't bring himself to even pretend to be all right.

"It'll be okay, Ken," Kari tried to assure him, although the way her brows were furrowed betrayed her worry. "We'll get him back."

"Yeah," TK agreed. "Davis is tough. I'm sure he's fighting whatever's possessing him with everything he's got."

"You don't understand," he whispered, not caring at how his voice cracked. "He'd been fighting it for almost a year before he disappeared. The thing about darkness is its subtlety. It waits for the best times to strike, and it always goes for your weak spots. It's amazing that he's lasted this long, but even Davis isn't invincible. One slip is all the darkness needs, and then you're overwhelmed…"

"I hate to say this, but Ken's right," Matt cut in, expression solemn. "We've all encountered darkness in some way, and we all gave into it eventually. It's a testament to Davis that he held it off as long as he did, but we have to face the fact that when we see him, he won't be himself."

"You saw the changes," Tai added grimly. "The Davis we know would never act that way. All we can do is fight and hope we can reach him like he reached Ken."

Hesitantly, they nodded.

Still, they weren't prepared for how much their friend had changed.

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

[escap3ist]

Love Letter

When I told my dad that I was aromantic, he said to me "You can't be aromantic, you love too much." He's told me that he struggles with the idea that there's different kinds of love and attraction.

Being aromantic doesn't mean that I don't love, or that I'm emotionless, or that I'm broken, it just means that I don't experience romantic attraction.

I don't love romantically, but that doesn't mean I don't love. Society will have you believe that romantic love is the highest form of love, but it's not, no love is better than another.

Since coming out to him, my dad has often expressed the concern that I won't have someone to share my life with, that I won't have someone who knows me better than anyone else, but in a way, I already have that with my best friends.

Some of them, I talk to every day, sharing random thoughts in my head without judgement and rambling about whatever comes to mind.

Some of them, I talk to less often, but when we do talk, we can go on for hours, just catching up on things in each other's lives and sharing new interests like catching up with the main character in a story you haven't read in a while.

Others, I only talk to when we end up in the same place together, but we easily fall back into that old and comfortable dynamic in which we know how to care for each other.

I don't fall in love, but I love my friends so much. They're my favourite people in the entire world.

[sysig]

if you have any slots open for requestober, could i request green from animation vs. minecraft with a flower crown? :0

Day 24 - All your favourites!

[bothzangetsus]

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[altruistic-meme]

2300 words!! yay!! now THATS more like it. i haven’t even quite reached the end of the opening scene, but i need to go do laundry so i’m going to have to set it down for now :( hopefully i can write more later ;;;;

[reikunrei]

sleepy bc I accidentally stayed up late monologuing to myself about how free! really should have ended for the nth time 🥴

[plugnuts]

It’s OC posting hours with Felix and Ebony

[fellhellion]

The Durge Vel thoughts got me acting unwise

[shroomierambles]

why’s it so embarrassing when u start catching feelings for someone aaaaaahhhhhh

[pankomako]

sometimes i think about interactions boat and i have had and things he's said to/about me over the years and it makes me feel as though i must occupy some little space in his heart. like i live in his mind rent-free the way he does for me, although not nearly to the same extent lmao.

speak of the goddamn devil i just got a steam notification he's playing tf2

anyway i never thought i'd have that kind of effect on a person, much less my favorite content creator. but it sure appears to be that way, and idk. it makes me feel special. warms my heart n all that :)