#it's DEFINITELY the nostalgia talking tho

[mayordeas-clone]

fates, awakening, and three houses were such a holy trinity of fire emblem osts for me. theyre sooo good

[ninashiki]

i feel like almost everything in utena has sort of already been extensively discussed in the last two (almost three) decades of utena's existence (not that there aren't new interpretations to be made, there always are) besides black rose arc (mikage+mamiya+tokiko). which is why they're so much fun to think about. i think the need to read between the lines makes it unfortunately easy to misunderstand or look past obvious stuff if you don't pay attention, but to me it's always been really obvious that mikage's arc is a literal representation of the erasure of queerness in ohtori (society?) by akio/everything he represents. and that's so fucking tragic! nemuro was never able to find a name for his desires. he lived and died as a puppet in the shadows.

[synthshenanigans]

I woke up at like 3am and had a quick idea for hms but I have no idea what tf it was cos the only note I left was this

What the fuck does this mean

[chrisbangs]

well at least smth nice will happen today 😁👍 i'm getting my second set of albums + my ktown pobs so... 🫶 wish me luck with my pulls

[777nicetits]

let’s make a video for our future selfs.

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ ❄︎ just pure fluff. talks of having kids. established relationship. not proof read. english is not my first language.

You were laying down on the bed, wire headphones plugged in on your phone as you listened to one of the hundreds of playlists you’ve created, mindlessly scrolling through pinterest when Schlatt walks in, camcorder in hand.

“And here- Oh look, it’s mommy!”

You frown, looking up from your phone immediately in pure confusion. “Mommy?”

He chuckles. “I’m recording a video for our future kids.”

Three days ago, on Christmas, you gifted Schlatt the exact same camcorder model his parents had when he was a child, and apparently the year ending nostalgia really got to him since he’s been recording little home videos for your future selfs basically every day.

You sat up on the bed to try and look a little more presentable for your imaginary kids. You wave at the camera, “Hey kids! Mommy loves you already, even though I’m still taking birth control!”

Schlatt snorts, the little wrinkles in his eyes making a sweet appearance as the corners of his mouth moved up.

“Show them what you’re listening to!”

You turn your phone screen to the camera, the song title and album cover showing up in your lock screen.

“See, kids? Ya mama’s music taste is trash,” he teased, moving the camera up to film your face. You roll your eyes at him, a big smile plastered on your face. “Don’t end up like this, I’ll kick y’all out!”

“Sorry guys, y’all are only allowed to listen to your father’s christmas album until you’re 18.” You teased back, earning an earnest laugh from Schlatt.

“That’d be a good way to punish them, tho.”

You just laugh at him, shaking your head as you took your headphones off, moving away from the center of the bed and a little over to the left, giving your boyfriend space to lay down with you, and he did. He laid down right next to you, using your chest as pillows, turning the camera around to get you both in frame.

“Look how cute we are,” You said, pointing over to the viewfinder. “We definitely should procreate. Our genes are too good to gatekeep like that.”

It was Schlatt’s turn to laugh and shake his head at your antics. “That’s a wrap. Bye kids, love ya!”

With that, he stopped recording, carefully placing the heavy camera on his nightstand before coming back to lay next to you, pulling you into his arms, both your bodies tangled together.

“Ya know toots, hate to say it but now we really have to get married and have kids, because if one day you ever break up with me, I’m gonna kill myself and leave that video as my suicide note.”

You threw your head back, loud laugh echoing through the apartment, quickly joined by Schlatt’s low, little giggles.

omg don’t look at me!! wrote this in one go because i have two other wips that have been a huge pain in the ass for me and wanted to post something before the year ends :( hope y’all had the best holidays ever, and an even better new years 🫶🫶🫶

[sitp-recs]

top 10 drarry fics by the sheer force of the feels they gave you? not necessarily good feels! things you remember primarily because they hit hard in some way.

obviously, i'd also love to hear exactly how/why they hit hard if you're up for sharing that!

Oh that’s such a wonderful ask, thank you! I’m sorry for the late reply, the 10 fics came easily bc whenever I see those titles I get immediately transported back to where I was and what I felt reading them for the first time. But putting into words what exactly makes them heartkick-y for me was a bit more challengeging. It’s usually a “when you feel it you know it” kind of thing (and quite literally too, as sometimes it manifests as an actual physical reaction!) but more often than not the fic just clicks for me and there’s no rationale behind it. As Clarice Lispector said: “I suppose that understanding myself is not a question of intelligence but of feeling. It either touches you, or it doesn't."

Anyhoo, I tried my best to keep this short and sweet but since I’ve written individual recs for almost all these fics, I thought I’d include them too :) thanks again, this was super fun! And I’d love to read about your picks as well 👀

An Emerald In The Sky by corvuscrowned | my rec

it doesn’t get more romantic than star-crossed lovers doomed by time travel!!!! (see also: my thoughts on The Eighth Tale by lettered). this is my brand of melancholy, something about the constant yearning, the beauty of stolen moments in liminal space, the unfairness of it all… ugh

Far From the Tree by aideomai | my rec

fft has altered my brain chemistry and ruined me forever with its tender devastation, I had such a visceral reaction to it - to the point of feeling dizzy and feverish. a simple time travel concept (this is my kryptonite istg) but the epic storytelling! the gratification! the bittersweet ending! rereading it would kill me but what a way to go

Forgive Those Who Trespass by Lomonaaeren

easily one of the most haunting and terrifying fics I’ve ever read, one jumpscare after the other but so creative and well-written I was too busy collecting my jaw from the floor to talk myself out of it lol

Little Compton Street by writcraft | my rec

as a queer woman, this one feels extremely personal and is very dear to my heart. I’ll never forget the emotions I felt learning about queer history and finding a sense of peace and belonging. lcs feels like coming home 🏳️‍🌈

Little Red Courgette by blamebrampton

this was my first bb fic and their sense of humor just blew my mind. I was so impressed by the smooth world building, by their wit and clever political commentary. I just couldn’t stop laughing. the dialogue is so good it makes me wanna weep, I can’t explain how much joy and comfort this fic gave me

Merlin Works in Mysterious Ways by lordhellebore

full disclosure: my reading experience was shaped by the fact that I didn’t realize the tagged disability would be major and permanent 🤡 by the time I noticed I was so emotionally invested I couldn’t stop. one of the most painful reads I’ve ever endured, worth it tho

Running on Air by eleventy7 | my rec

introspective fics are my jam and this one was just what I needed while working through some shit at a turning point in my life. so I guess it was more about finding the right fic at the right time, and I’m hit by mixed feelings of catharsis and nostalgia every time I revisit roa.

Still Life (orphaned) | my rec

my definition of a perfect shortfic. gorgeous prose, flawless execution, the “nothing is happening but everything is changing��� vibes I live for, one of the best Harry pov I’ve ever read and an ending that always makes me gasp in awe. few authors can write complex emotions so effortlessly as seefin, absolute masterclass

Super Rich Kids by trishjames | my rec

criminally underrated, this story broke my heart but also gave me such a THRILL. I usually avoid substance abuse in fic but something about Draco’s spiral journey felt so raw it kept me at the edge of my seat. devastating but also a surprisingly funny and exciting thriller. the range!!!

The Long Fall by tackytiger | my rec

as someone who’s never been into kid fic and family dynamics, this was a punch on the solar plexus and rearranged my whole view about this trope. I was deeply moved by Harry’s longing for a family of his own and despite not having or wanting kids, this still felt really cathartic and changed me in a way I can’t quite explain.

[parasolyaa]

Hi!! How are you doing?

I saw your post inviting asks and something I've been wondering is, if you could tell me about some things from Misha's childhood that are unique to Ukraine which he might feel nostalgic for as a young adult (snacks, toys, kids tv shows, etc)?

Thank you for the informative posts you make, you're awesome ☺️

hi!! i'm doing good tysm!!! couldn't be otherwise after getting an ask from the most legendary artist in this fandom, i adore your ricky art!! i'll use this post as an excuse to yap endlessly about random media that will mostly be irrelevant, but also a peak into that time and place. sort of.

the epithome of ukrainian childhood nostalgia is zhyvchyk: both a drink and a tv show (which is just an advertisement for that drink). it’s a bubbly apple soda, in other words - a drink of gods.

(also fun fact: after russia occupied crimea, they tried to make their own version of zhychyk there. they called it zhyvunchik and the only design change was that they ??cut off the arms of the mascot?? since zhyvchyk basically means “lively guy”, it was kinda ironic)

other drinks he’d definitely miss would be kvas and kompot (obligatory laughing and giggling when he calls it cumpot).

starting off with more traditional snacks, i envision young misha with a necklace of booblycks (obligatory laughing and giggling when he calls it booblicks)

also any roshen candy! (obligatory laughing and giggling when he mentions the nut out chocolates) (they indeed are called that) (they are pretty recent tho). the undying classic is crazy bee and shypuchka/fizzy boom (the darker green design is the older one).

also there are some fancy sets, associated with holidays or family gettogethers. strila/arrow, kyiv evening and kyiv cake

the thing misha would DEFINETELY love and miss is flint ?bread chips?, this is an unmatched snack. once again, darker green design is the older one, and also with a pretty wild taste. there is a big variety of those.

ukrainian childhood cartoons were mostly distributed among three channels - pixel, plusplus and malyatko tv (disney, nickelodeon and cartoon network were here too, but no point in talking abt them now). the first two usually broadcastered whatever cartoons from around the world were relevant at the time (ukrainian dub for ducktales was unmatched!!), and also a few ukrainian things. i will highlight "abetka tivi" (alphabet tv) from pixel. it was, well, a show about learning the alphabet. "auntie owl’s lessons" was another one, and there were much more episodes, usually about famous art, world history and etiquette.

on plusplus, there was a show called "fairytale with dad", in which male celebrities read out fairytales to children. something about healing daddy issues with this one. also there is a whole plusplus cinematic universe, because this show sometimes intervened with another original show of theirs about ??shapes going on adventures??. and there was a show called useful suggestions, which was universally disliked by kids for being too on the nose about the life lessons they were trying to teach.

and then there was malyatko tv. when it stopped broadcasting in 2023, everyone weeped and so did i. there were vibrant music videos, eg "turtle aha", "helper boy" (self PR for my fic with that name. sorry.) and other. and, even though this wasn’t original ukrainian content, i feel the need to mention this: malyatko tv often showed some old anime cartoons - "haidi", "pocahontas" and others. ukrainian opening dubs were ethereal. to me.

there also were old cartoon classics (broadcasted on a creepy channel called children's world, an ugly sibling of malyatko tv) - the “how cossacks” series and “there once was a dog", but there were tons more.

(also this made me remember another long-gone channel called Qtv. basically what the cool kids watched, it also shows up in every tiktok #ukrainechildhood #nostalgia #2000s video. it's showed simpsons and stuff and had cheeky editing, eg in an advertisement for death note they only showed spongebob clips to make it look like he was kira. pretty funny imo)

peak nostalgia is the show "кр��їна у" (country u? krayina u? untranslatable title), which is a dumb sketch show consisting of shows on its own about people from different regions of ukraine. bringing this up because odesa was one of them, and, no matter if misha disliked this show or not, this definetely impacted his childhood. the schtik about "once upon in odesa" was that there were four guys in odesa and uuuuh that's it? i don't remember much about it tbh ...

there were also popular reality tv shows and stuff, i really really wanna highlight "the world inside out". it's a travel show about this dude dmytro komarov getting to most remote an unique places in the world. don't get me wrong, he was being an idiot half the time, but it was peak entertainment. he uploaded old episodes with english dub on youtube and now does charity work. props to him

back to cartoons, "fox mykyta" was a nice, more modern cartoon. it's vaguely based on ivan franko's book with the same name, which in turn is vaguely based on "the blue jackal". speaking of books, ukrainian school literature programe is traumatising asf, and i just need to mention "fedko-brigand". it's a short story about a young boy who misbehaved but only lied once, when he took the blame for pushing a rich boy in the river, which he didn't do. it's also the reason why ukrainian 5th graders all spent at least one night crying, and since rereading it, i just keep thinking about misha. i feel like he'd relate

i'm convinced every ukrainian child had this specific "abetka"(alphabet) book with rhymes to every letter. the "а-ба-ба-га-ла-ма-га" publishing house never fails with their illustrations.

also probably the most popular children's books are the ones by vsevolod nestayko, eg "toreadors from vasyukivka" and "wonderful adventures in the forest school".

about games and toys, i honestly can't recall any ukraine specific ones except "this thing but slavic!" (monopoly ukraine, stuff like that). motanka dolls count as an original toy. out of computer games, maybe the most popular one at the time - "stalker: shadow of chornobyl"? some irony in that. real life games tho? the only difference between the games of tag and kvach is the name. "сossacks and bandits" maybe... there's a bl comic with the same name btw, and i also think that's the only place where you can find the rules for it in english lol. or google translate the wikipedia page.

misha lived by the sea, so he probably played a lot of games on water, other than that - all the same things american kids experience. generally my main advise when thinking about misha's childhood is to remember he had all the same things people in uranium did, excluding canada specific media. after auntie owl's lessons came ninja turtles, and after eating flint bread chips it was only natural to sip coca cola.

also i can advise to just look up "ukraine nostalgia"/"дитинство ностальгія" on tiktok. half the time it will be uncomprehensive stuff, and the other half might be something that'd help shape the view of what it was like. this is an invitation to ask more specific things and also for my ukrainian mutuals to add on because i only scratched the surface. hope it was useful or somewhat interesting xd

[d-lanx]

Ok now I’ve slept and the hype over last night is over I’ve had time to actually think about what could happen. So my theories are below the cut. I've almost definitely forgot something so might add to it or tweak it later.

Firstly, Drew possibly feuding with Damian? He was eliminated by him and seemed shocked. Then there’s the whole thing about drew apparently storming out after the show and complaining that someone messed up and eliminated him too soon and “had to get their moves in”. I'm assuming this is probably part of a storyline. So I guess damian? Reminds me of what they did when punk returned. Which also means drew on smackdown as they’ve previously been hinting at :( tbh I’m still surprised. The bloodline story he had was interesting, I was sure he was gonna have a match with Roman at mania. And I feel like it would be weird to briefly go after Damian for something seemingly unrelated to the bloodline, and then to go back to Roman. So I’m assuming this will be a feud till mania. But it does feel very random.

Seth I think might be doing something with Roman reigns. There seemed to be a lot more focus on their dynamic in the match tonight. And now Roman has no title it would be even easier to have a blood feud. Also kinda tired of Seth v punk tbh cos it’s not really as fun when the two of them can’t even talk about half of the shit that actually happened when punk left. Tho a three way match between the lot of them to tide us over til mania would be pretty good. Tho I feel if that happened it would be a mania match, not something for elimination chamber so maybe not. Cos I have thoughts about punk rn.

With punk I’m wondering if the favour might be to garauntee him a place in the chamber match, or to otherwise get him a title match/chance to qaulify for one. I was so sure if he went for a title it would be with gunther cos they keep mentioning him and they had those house show matches. It seemed like only a matter of time before he was back in the title picture. But now I’m wondering if it might be Cody. I was surprised to see punk vow to go for Cody in that promo before the rumble after so much Gunther setup (again, he was constantly mentioning him thru the drew and Seth feuds and they had their house show match). And I’m wondering if this is why. Cos they wanted to pull the trigger on Jey and it only made sense for jey to go for Gunther so they shifted punk to Cody.

The punk/cody promo was interesting with punk being worried for him, and Cody seeming burnt out. Then they seemed to have Cody snap in the match last night. I’m wondering if we’re finally gonna get psychotic heel Cody now for punk to feud with. The thing with Cody is that after his storyline to get the title, his title loss will need to be something just as major.

Punks first wwe title since 2013 would be very major. And I can’t imagine them doing a story of his first title in so long and have him be a heel. Cos all the nostalgia fans r gonna be rooting for him no matter what. So it’s not really worth it to try make him a heel. Plus I think it’s an interesting idea that punk, the former burnt out champion fighting a heel Cody, the current burnt out champion, right after warning him about said burnout.

Yes punk was pissed about his loss last night, but if this is what they do then he won’t be going full heel, just typical angry punk with dirty tactics.

Of course this could all be wrong though. Punk might go after Seth again, or wind up in a three way feud with Roman too after the rumble drama. But the thing is, neither Seth or Roman caused him to lose so aside from Seth going mental afterwards, I can’t see why punk would want Seth when hes been so adament about a title ever since he finished his match with seth back on the first netflix raw. Still not sure how I feel about Seth v punk tho considering how mid the punk/seth feud has been. It’s dramatic, sure, but Seth’s arguments really fall apart when u think about them for more than 5 seconds and consider all the other stuff that happened that they’re not talking about, and punk looks weird not mentioning it.

Of course this all leaves out cena. If he wasn’t here I’d be certain of the Cody/punk feud. But with him I’m not so sure. It’s entirely possible that punks promo with Cody was just to provide a bit of foreshadowing before he actually snapped in the match. And that we’re gonna get heel Cody v cena. Cos I do find it hard to imagine that cena won’t be in a main event on his last mania in the wwe. But I also find it weird that they would have cena take the title from Cody if he’s not gonna be sticking around for long after mania. Also from the sounds of things, Cena won't be on TV till elimination chamber. And if they keep that up all year, with him not being on tv and only doing the PPVs its gonna be annoying if he's the champ and never around. It seems like a weird way to end Cody’s title.

And tbh both of these Cody feuds, I feel if they happen, would lead to the title change. But that means a year long reign for Cody. I was so sure he would keep the title longer. But then again, after the major drama to get it, it needs a major place to lose it, like at mania. And I suppose after Roman they don’t just wanna lock into another multi year title reign. They might want the belt to move around a bit more and give more people chances at a title match. So yeah.

It’s hard to say for sure cos it means we now have 3 world title feuds to consider. There’s not enough belts to go around. I saw some theories that punk would use his favour to get a title match before mania, get the belt and then take gunthers place to face jay. But that feels a bit too convoluted for a 2 month storyline. It would be hard to have punk as a face in even the early days of that kind of story if he's going after Jey, and I find it hard to believe they would try to make him heel for his first title back in the company. Cos they won’t be able to get anyone to boo him. Plus I’d be surprised to see him get a title at elimination chamber instead of mania, again cos it’s such a major thing in his career.

So I don’t really know. All I know is I don’t really wanna see Seth v punk anymore. And Seth v punk v Roman could be good, but I’m still not fully sold on that yet, I guess cos Roman and punk haven’t done a whole lot of talking. Also if they did this, it would have to be Roman v punk at mania cos what tf else could they do? The three of them all have very different relationships with each other and they would need to just focus on something. They’ve already done of lot of Seth with each of them, so maybe do Roman v punk and focus on that a bit more and build on survivor series. I just can't see them going for a 3 way feud instead of them trying to get the title. Presumbably all three will be in the chamber match, but then what? All three of them AGAIN at mania??

But the issue I’m still having with that, is that it leaves out the favour. And the favour has been hyped up so much it needs to be something significant. It doesn't have to be like "give me a title now", but rather "get me in the chamber match". Last night I legit thought when punk stepped up to Heyman, he was gonna cash it in, and have it be to get him back in the rumble somehow. Obviously they didn’t do that, and tbh it’d be a bit beyond Heyman's authority to just put him back in, but the point is it’s gonna have to be something important. And if it turns out to be a place in the chamber and he still loses, I feel like it would be a waste. So maybe the chamber and he wins? But then what about cena?

If jey v Gunther wasn’t happening, u could have cena and punk as faces going after Gunther and Cody and do whatever. There was so many storylines that needed finishing and they decided to revive jay v Gunther which we already saw last week at snme and the whole build to that was just incredibly fucking boring. I love them both, but their feud was just boring, and I thought they only did it to fill the card because they didn't want anything too major when they had the rumble literally the next week.

I still feel snme should be for tag titles and mid card titles to give some of those people more tv time, cos otherwise some of these mid carders only really do anything of note at rumbles (still annoyed tozawa lost his sport to ishowspeed for a meme, i liked otis and maxine, but what has tozawa done of any significance on tv??).

I like jay and Gunther individually but their feud has been dull. It’s just been your average “I’m gonna win because I believe in myself :D” and that’s it. Just like his snme Gunther feud. And just like his ic title feud. It’s a repeat of Sami v Gunther, which I also didn’t care for for the same reason. Also Sami didn’t really do much with his reign, and I feel like that’s gonna happen to jay, just like his IC title run.

I get they wanted to pull the trigger on jey, but there’s just so much other stuff going on that needed finishing. I feel like they should have waited till mitb, have jay win that, and get a title that way once all this other stuff is finished up. Cos there’s no need for him to go after Gunther specifically, as there’s not a lot there aside from gunther’s “I don’t think u can do it” lines. So just have him go after whoever is champ after mitb. But obviously it’s done now so they need to make the most of it. It would be a good opportunity to build jeys character some more beyond being the yeet man, cos otherwise this feud is gonna tank over the next 2 months.

Also, my theories all rely on Cody going heel. If it turns out that isn’t happening, then it’s so fucking over. Cody v cena or punk as a face v face would be so shit. And in either of those feuds, it just wouldn’t make sense for cena or punk to be the heel, and there’s not enough real bad blood between any of them to have a feud without heel/face dynamics and be basing it on fans personal opinions of them like with Seth and punk.

So yeah, Cody’s apparently gonna be gone for a little while. Fingers crossed he’s gonna be coming back as a heel.

Also if they even try to do Logan Paul v cm punk I’m gonna end it.

So yeah I’m feeling a lot about last night and I’m really confused what they’re gonna do. But I can’t see cena not being a main event in his final mania and also not getting a title. So I’m gonna guess it’s cena v Cody and jey v Gunther as main event title matches, then Roman v punk, Damien v drew, and then Seth v ???. But still confused why they keep hyping up future punk world title matches and not fucking doing them. It’s getting annoying. And still no idea where the favour comes in. They need to hurry up and use it tho before people get sick of the edging with that as well. And after all this build up, it needs to be something major.

I was so sure cena and punk would win the chamber and rumble matches, then we’d have Gunther v punk and heel Cody v cena, so I’m not sure what to think now. And I can’t really come up with a good theory without leaving some major plot point of person out completely. Maybe I’m not thinking enough. But I’m still mourning that Gunther v punk match we could have had. It would have been so good. They’d have sassed each other to no end, and I imagine their matches would be really good too, based on what I saw in their house match.

But then again, hhh did say in the post show that they dont want to always go for the obvious match, so maybe jay will go for cody after all? Also I really hope we dont get cena as champ if he's not even gonna be on tv aside from ppv matches. I get that he's ppv talent, but theres plenty of other people of tv who do promos and little scuffles but mostly/exclusively do only ppv matches: like seth, roman, punk. They've done the odd thing on tv, but most of the time, they save their matches for ppvs. If cena's not even showing up between ppvs, theres gonna be almsot no build for anything. I really hope that's not a pattern that's gonna happen all year. But he did say in the post show that he's going to Hungary to film something and won't be back until elimination chamber next month. So yeah, no build. Maybe that's why they didn't have cena win the rumble? cos he's not gonna be around for a title to be worth it?? but I still find it hard to believe he's not gonna get a world title at mania. But who knows. Maybe we will somehow magically get that Gunther v punk match after all.

Still not sure how I feel about everything after last night. There were so many storylines that could have been explored, and I feel like jey and Gunther could have waited. The way it's been so far, I just think it's going to be a boring feud and the match is just gonna feel like a waste of a main event spot. But I imagine my feelings on the rumble could change again after raw so who knows. Maybe hhh secretly has some sort of master plan that I’ve yet to realise and I need to just shut the fuck up and wait. But I enjoy theorising so leave me to make my silly theories, I swear I’m having fun.

But one final thing, there better actually be a cena v punk moment at the chamber or I'm gonna flip. Why the hell did they all stand in the ring together and just stare at each other?!! Pls I need to see Punk v cena one last time.

Anyway I probably forgot something here so might add to this theory or change something later if i remember something else or someone points something out to me.

[curiousaromantic]

Just finished Ghost of Tsushima main storyline AND Iki Island DLC.

sighs

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT, OMG

One of the best games I’ve ever played tbh, it was beautiful, I fell in love with Jin Sakai and his character, like, he is genuinely a beautiful person and omg I felt pretty charmed by his resolve throughout the entire game—more men like Jin Sakai please. (yuna youre so lucky girl…)

I’m not much of a gamer myself, kind of I guess, I play when I have free time in my PS5 and when it comes to action games I’m a coward lol idk why whenever I am pushed into a battlefield I freak out (I almost had a heart attack when I started Ghost of Tsushima and the mothafuckers sent straight to fight at Komoda Beach, HELLO? The intro was so beautiful tho…). But Ghost of Tsushima balanced everything very well, and I enjoyed doing NPCs side missions, I felt powerful and badass.

(The way how the fear that the Ghost inflicts on his enemies is portrayed??? Chef’s kiss honestly. And the Records items, especially Conversations with the Khan, I enjoy the lore with so so so so much glee hehe.)

The characters, I fell in love with the characters. I knew I liked videogames when I first played Far Cry 4 and the characters felt so dear to me, and Ghost of Tsushima brought me back to when I was like 9?? and I was playing FC4 on my dad’s PS3. Jin’s story and the rest of the characters’ Tales hypnotized me, idk. The flashbacks, the foreshadowing, the small conservations within Jin and the others…I was sobbing in the ending and in Masako’s and Yuna’s tales. AND THE LOVELY WAY WE GOT SO MUCH APPROACHES TO IMPORTANT THEMES AS WOMEN EMPOWERING, FAMILY, QUEERNESS, TRADITIONALISM, ETC. jin baby you deserve the world.

Ngl, while I was playing the game not only I cherished every single interaction of Jin and his allies/friends, but I was glad he had the time to talk and rest, yk? And that’s why I love Yuna so much, gods.

From what I’ve seen, many ship Ryuzo and Jin, and while I kind of understand and respect Ryuzo, I don’t personally ship them. I was too excited to duel him the moment he was deemed a traitor lol, this game brought out the worst side of me (i was cackling when i got the ghost stance, run fuckers!). I did cry a lot on Iki Island whenever Jin had Ryuzo’s hallucinations, like, ouch, I would hurt forever if a childhood friendship ended like that.

(Talking about Iki Island, Kenji doing a cameo there LMAO, and Jin teasing him with “so you left Tsushima and you didn’t even bothered to say goodbye?” AJDKAKDKAKS YES YOU TELL HIM JIN)

Now, Jin and Yuna??? Muah muah muah, they are soulmates, romantic or platonically or both. Its the way Jin (throughout the story this loyalty builds up, love that) does everything no questions asked when it comes to Yuna, going with her to her tales? Damn Jin straight went and brought her heads! How romantic. The way Kenji was like “he cannot refuse if I tell him Yuna’s waiting”, AND THE WAY JIN HIMSELF OUTRIGHT SAYS THINGS LIKE ‘I would give my life for you’ OR ‘so you and Takeshi…?’ Hehehe they are so precious. They are definitely in love your honor, at least for me.

Wish I could still find the characters in the map or something after the main story ends, I’m at my new home behind Omi Monastery full of nostalgia because Jin’s home is a mosaic of gifts and remembrances of everyone he has known. Yuna’s gift, Ryuzo’s hat, Taka’s hook, Kenji’s sake, First Horse’s saddle (Nobu precious, I wish you had been there with me 😭) and lots of other stuff from Masako, Ishikawa, Lord Shimura, and many others that I don’t remember rn. Like, it is clear Jin loves his homeland, his people, his friends, I’m sure he would have made a perfect Lord, aw.

Thank you for reading my venting. Now, I need fanfics.

[chobbleblog]

Oh man I just remembered Steve Saga and went down a nostalgia rabbit hole and then looked on Tumblr...apparently this fandom's still kicking. I mean I guess the guy never really stopped making steve-related content until like a few months ago, seems like.

I have so much respect for Sabre. The way he took what was for everyone else a short-lived trend that just passed through all of the big kid-oriented MCYTs at the time and made an actual huge story and world out of it that went on for like 6 years...a world which is really weird when you think about it. Why are they all named Steve?? Why do they look Like That? And Sabre himself I remember talked about how many plot holes there were, and backing himself into a corner writing bigger and bigger enemies. But yeah. Just so much respect. At some point I just got bored of it and procrastinated watching for so long that I eventually unsubscribed. Definitely gonna give it another shot tho. Rainbow and Galaxy I remember really carried it comedically and tho I'm not a big fan of the kid-oriented "scream and make funny noises" people like Sabre did a lot of especially earlier in the series, I can turn my volume down for nostalgia's sake. Plus, I had always been the over-analyzing kid trying to figure out the smoke and mirrors, so that'll be fun to look back and go "oh. duh. that's how they did that." and answer little me's burning questions.

[hyuneskkami]

The impact of social media in a historical lense

How social media works & brief history behind it

First hand accounts of history (journals, newspapers etc)

A prediction for how we can use social media in the future

How social media is somehow both more and less biased

Propaganda through social media

Why romcoms don't hit like they used to

Dating scene totally sucks (dating apps, talking stages, sucky people)

We can't relate to the average romcom

Nostalgia plays a factor

Generative AI versus Analytical AI: What's the difference?

The creation of AI, and why it was created

Analytical AI: using it to do important math, predict breast cancer early, nd other things. Why its g9od

Generative AI: definition, chatgpt, stories, and cheating for school. Why its bad.

Explaining why people should try to be original even if its harder

Essay ideas i might do cuz im bored. Ugh i wanna be so cutie and write essays but i feel like im not good at articulating myself enough. Anyway if you can think of more key points thay would be so cutie. Omg or if you have essay ideas (not for me to steal ofc hst to listen)

omgggg I sooo wanna read all three of these ☝️☝️

also dw your first draft doesn’t even have to be perfect, it js needs to have words in them so ����‍♀️

and ooh do you want essay ideas on stuff you can research? bc like research essays are sooo cool

you can try the obvious ones like big bang theory, or maybe how the covid pandemic occurring changed 2019-teenagers lives and how 2025-teenagers are slowly going back to being kids like it used to be before covid (like journalling, hanging out at parks with friends more often, getting off phones and playing irl games instead, etc.)

feel free to write any of them tho omg it’s not stealing if I beg you to write it 🙏🙏

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

I just watched Hayao Miyazaki and the heron and I don't even know where to beging to talk about it.

It's a documentary on the production of Hayao Miyazaki's The boy and the heron that I had been wanting to watch for quite some time and I finally got to do it because it's now on Netflix!

I watched The boy and the heron at the cinema when it first came out, at it was probably the best thing I got to do last year. And all of those who've been here for a while know that I really love Studio Ghibli's films and I love reading about them and learning more about the people that make them. And this documentary was so, so interesting but most importantly incredibly pretty and also very moving.

I didn't grow up watching ghibli movies, or at least I didn't watch any until the begining of adolescence, and even tho I'm still an (older) teenager now they give me a lot of nostalgia and at the same time make me feel peace. That's probably the reason why the documentary made me so emotional. It was so cool to see a tiny bit of how Miyazaki's mind works and how his films are created. The documentary also features some clips and songs from previous ghibli films, which makes it all even better.

I'm not gonna lie, i did tear up quite a bit watching this, probably because I also cried with The boy and the heron, and really any film by Miyazaki can potencially make me sob. This documentary really was amazing and it's definitely worth watching to any other ghibli lover like me.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

shiratorizawa/inarizaki headcanons bc i miss them and i love them and i crave yamagata and reon content so i have to be the change i want to see in the world. so let's go!!

reon, the love of my life

i actually think he really likes comforting cozy slice-of-life sim games, like stardew valley and animal crossing and such

okay this is the part where i retcon the entire haikyuu timeline bc i really like the idea of everyone piling into reon's and tendou's dorm and watching reon game on a switch

or just like. gathering in the common area and squishing onto the couch or whatever while reon roams his island collecting fruits and bugs or whatever

(these games are the only sense of peace and stability reon gets at this goddamn school)

anyways it's funny bc tendou screams every time reon runs into a wasp's nest and yells "RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN" until reon either gets stung or successfully evades them

admittedly i do think the ds and gameboy are sacred and, for the sake of nostalgia, are definitely used to play pokemon (of which everyone has a favorite gen and get into endless arguments about it)

tendou DOES teach goshiki how to pirate shit and get ROM hacks and emulators and such tho

reon and semi are the most popular members out of the third years btw

they're both polite and calm and generally nice and don't have an RBF that makes people nervous

too many people keep trying to fight yamagata just bc they think he's glaring at them and he is SO tired

yamagata (slightly inspired by my own recent purchase) decides to get a phone charm to see if it'll help him keep track of his phone btw

he mentions this idea to semi who mentions it to reon who mentions it to tendou who blabs to the whole team. and guess what? everyone gets the absolutely brilliant idea of gifting yamagata a phone charm!!!

so now he has like a dozen different ones. and he's STILL losing his goddamn phone, so now his convos are like "have you seen my phone? yeah right now it's got a little phone charm hanging off of it, so just keep an eye out for that. what does the charm look like? oh i meant it's a charm that is literally a phone. of course it was tendou, who else do you think it was"

tendou has also taken to putting stickers on yamagata in an attempt to make him "less scary". sometimes yamagata knows about it. sometimes he doesn't.

kawanishi: "yamagata-san, pardon me for asking, but why do you have one-punch man on your butt" yamagata: "i have what now"

tendou meets someone he can talk to manga about online in some fandom/community forum or whatever and he is absolutely BETRAYED to find out that it's akagi michinari of inarizaki

okay not really but he is SUPER dramatic about it and keeps going on and on to akagi about how he can't be caught fraternizing with the enemy

akagi is just like "yeah yeah now are we going to talk about the complexities of yoru being both a victim and a perpetrator and his inevitable redemption arc or what"

(GO READ GOKURAKUGAI I AM BEGGING)

aran is still scared of tendou btw. like he won't outright admit it but he's still not over the time tendou yelled that he was going to piss in his pants from all the way across the court.

when akagi tells him they've become friends aran is like "are you SURE about that"

also i know tendou gets pissed off at suna. but i think it'd be REALLY funny if suna got pissed off at kawanishi

something something "he should be more sure of himself, he'll never stop aran-san like that" something something "and i thought i was a sarcastic little bitch" something something "no i DON'T think he's cute what the fuck are you on about"

(i didn't mean for it to go that way when i started typing it but i DO think it'd be an absolutely hilarious development)

i htink kawanishi and shirabu go on a lot of study dates, holing up at coffeeshops and boba cafes with their backpacks and notebooks and spending hours on homework and studying

shirabu worked his ass off to get into shiratorizawa and he intends to keep it that way!! he's a model student. probably even the top of their year. everyone knows him as the high-achiever.

kawanishi is there to make sure shirabu doesn't get lost inside his head and gets him take breaks and makes sure he doesn't get sucked into the endless soulless spiral of academic rigor at an elite private high school

basically: shirabu's consistently on the path to burnout and kawanishi is there to keep the flames alive

(hey that would be a good fic summary)

maybe that's another thing, then, that helps kawanishi and suna become friends. because suna's been there. suna knows, sometimes, that feeling of imposter syndrome. feeling like you don't belong. feeling like you have to prove your worth, your entire existence, just to be able to stay in a place you love, even if that place might not love you back.

and kawanishi knows shirabu would rather shove a volleyball down his throat than open up about the bad days and the bad feelings, so he picks suna's brain instead to find out how he can help. what he can do. what shirabu might be thinking and how kawanishi can fix it

you can't, suna tells him, you can't fix something like this. he has to learn to live with it. to grow around it. to believe in something better until it's the only thing he believes in. but having people you care about care about you helps. it did for me.

and so kawanishi is there to draw the blanket around shirabu's shoulders, and he's there to put snacks on shirabu's desk, and he's there to flip shirabu's textbook close when the clock hits eleven they need to sleep, and he cares for shirabu in all the ways shirabu can't care for himself and hopes that it's enough

[jupiter--dream]

Heyyyy friend! can you tell me about your favorite Dream headcanons please? :3

OMG OMG OMG OMG HAIIII HAI HAI

GOD GOD GOD YES YES YES!! I GET TO TALK ABOUT MY SILLY HEADCANONS!! (spoiler alert: they're not that silly, I love to watch Dream suffer in a blorbo way) Gonna put this under a read more cause holy damn it's getting long-

Before we start, I think it's kinda obvious at this point, considering I always use they/them for Dream, that I heavily headcanon them to be Non-binary; it makes a lot of sense to me! also to list off the self-indulgent headcanons, definitely AuDHD. Like Ink. Yeah. They're both ND as HELL, and also, since I LOVE it when people think of the sanses as having their creators' nationality + accent + knowing their languages; for me Dream's spanish, which is great cause I am spanish too! and I love Dream :3

(and also bc I think it's cute that both Cross and the twins can speak spanish following that headcanon, like they can gossip in secret teehee :3)

Now, to start, well, well, well, well... I feel like people don't play enough with the fact that Dream and Nightmare are basically just energy; like, Nightmare does use his appearance and properties to kinda scare people but he's also not the same NM under the tree, so it changes, but Dream tho!!

I wrote a oneshot once on AO3 where Dream's like very excited over very mundane technology for us, and Cross is the one to kinda explain to them how that works (and NM too, it was a wholesome platonic fic with Cross bonding with the twins), while Cross also takes note of all the very... magical qualities the twins have, fae-like even. It's kinda well-known that Core and Dream are good friends but for me, part of why they connect well is bc they're both in that strange cusp of "neither monster nor human; knowing a lot about this world but still struggling to connect with it on an organic level", bc of Dream's knowledge on the balance and energies and Core's--- whole thing.

Also, it is canon that Dream has a fear of owls bc they can turn their heads 180º and they have big eyes so Dream finds it spooky that they can always look at you, and I can't confirm if this is "100% canon" but I've been told that Dream's claustrophobic as well. Now, other things that I'd say would be hard triggers for Dream, well, people say apples could trigger them but personally? I think apples must be nostalgic to Dream, both bc Nightmare and also bc they represent their mom; I'd say Dream just gets rather extreme nostalgia around apples, probably not fond of ACTUALLY eating them tho lmao

Personally, I'd like to expand on the claustrophobia thing bc of course it'd remind them of their time as a statue, the small space with no way of connecting with the outside, that'd spook them, but I wanna expand it to them getting extremely anxious whenever they can't move in any way; so like, they heal fast bc of their healing abilities and durability but if they were to, idk, break a bone and need to lay in bed for a couple hours, that'd get them very very anxious. And that comes from both the statue and also a huge huge huge need to be "useful" and "productive". Dream was also abused before NM's corruption but their abuse was more like. Being forced to please the villagers and so and so; like, feeling less like themself and more like a tool to others.

But yeah, also while I said that apples wouldn't be a trigger in the sense of making them panic, fire surely is, since it burned the tree down and is very connected to the day of NM's corruption. Basically, I do think that they panic in a major way whenever there's a lot of fire around or something really smells like burning (so imagine the situation whenever Ink tries to cook something and forgets about it later smh) like, those memories of the Day Of Doom would come back FAST.

Also, going back on that time as a statue thing, I've written posts about this before but like, fanfics often end up describing Dream as having "perfect pearly white bones" and like, probably not!! my guy spent 493 years as a statue! stone chips and erodes! their bones probably have small flaws! nothing major, but they're probably imperfect like that!!

This is getting so long, I'm so sorry 😭, I'll just list off some other miscellaneous headcanons that don't need that much more explanation: Dream, again, has AuDHD, but also AvPD (since that includes a LOT of people-pleasing and self-deprecation); definitely a workaholic if I've ever seen one. Dream's canonically demi-aro and ace + implied to be pan (as in, said to not care about the gender of their partner/s, y'know) and I kinda share that but my self-indulgent side wants them to be ominsexual like me (in practice, they're still mspec, all good all good), I headcanon them super duper heavily to be non-binary, like, their gender isn't just "blank", but it's just nothing remotely CLOSE to "man" or "woman". I headcanon them to use they/them and ae/aer :3

And. Oh dear. Oh wow. That's a huge ramble ashjgbsjdfh!! but I mean, you did ask ME, The Dream Guy, to talk about Dream The Guy, so like, yyyyyyup yup yup. But still, I'M SO SORRY THIS IS SUCH A LONG POST 😭😭😭😭😭😭

My other headcanons end up being so self-indulgent and "ooc"-ish (smh they make sense in the context of them being other au's) that I didn't feel justified putting them in here cause they're not that justified either, some of my headcanons are just so random, like my headcanon that Killer plays the violin. Why? who knows!! not me!! I have no proof!! but!!

[aqua-dan]

What advice would Mera and Arthur give teenage Garth if Roy was bullying him

Sorry that it has taken me so long to answer this, but to be honest, I've had a hard time formulating a response to it. I feel like there's so many different nuances that I have to explain and I don't even know where to start...

Okay, I suppose I'll try to answer the base ask first: They probably wouldn't have much advice for him. It would probably be something along the lines of "ignore him" or "try not to worry about it." Unfortunately, I doubt that either Mera or Arthur would have much good advice for him in a situation like that.

Beyond that, it really makes me want to ramble about Roy and Garth's early relationship because it is so messy and complicated. To be honest, Garth really wasn't around Roy all that much during his teenage years. They converged on a few missions through the Teen Titans, sure, but after Roy joined the team permanently, there wasn't all that many times that Garth got to interact with him. (Retcons have changed this a little bit, but.... I prefer this version...) In those few interactions they had, most of them were negative. Roy had a lot going on in his life and that caused him to lash out at people. This wasn't fair to them, mind you, but he did it to just about everyone.

Eventually, Roy started to grow a lot as a person and stopped being so much like that. The other Titans got to see his growth and they all grew pretty close. But since Garth was absent most of the time, he didn't get to bond with Roy the same way the other Titans did.

Because the very limited interactions they had were mostly negative, Garth held onto the idea that Roy was a total jackass and specifically didn't like him.

On Roy's side, that's not at all true. Yeah, Roy was definitely a douchebag when he was younger, but he does not hate Garth. The things he said to Garth that came off negatively weren't specifically about Garth. He would have said it to anyone in those situations.

When they started to interact as adults, they held two VERY different views of how their relationship was. Garth thought Roy not-so-secretly hated him (and also thought he was racist towards Atlanteans), and Roy probably felt fairly neutral towards Garth but also had a little bit of nostalgia about him by proxy when talking about the old Teen Titans. I think that he WANTED to be closer with Garth, so he defaulted to the old jokes and jibes that seem to have worked for the other members regarding Garth.

Garth... wasn't fantastic at standing up for himself when he was younger, so he didn't make it very clear how much those comments upset him. He would tell Roy to stop, but never really enforced it much, thus allowing Roy to think it was all part of the little "game" between them. He thought he was coming off as affectionate in his teasing, and Garth never set the boundaries in an adult fashion to make it clear how much he didn't like it. (That isn't to say that Roy shouldn't have stopped when asked-- he just didn't understand HOW serious it was.)

That was until Gargoyle manipulating their emotions sort of forced them to confront this whole thing. I very much wish that comics meta hadn't made it so the confrontation became slightly moot after that point. Regardless, Roy's reaction to Garth actually telling him what he thought about him/his actions is VERY telling about Roy as a character and how he viewed all of their interactions.

They still clashed after this, but also had some very interesting conversations where they were able to meet in the middle.

If I were in charge of writing for them, I would LOVE to go and explore their relationship more and build off of that conflict. I would love to set up a situation where they are forced to confront this stuff again.

I'm off topic now tho.... But my point here being that Roy really didn't bully Garth in the classic sense. He absolutely DID put Garth down and make him feel awful, but the vast majority of it came from misunderstandings, miscommunication, and simply not being around each other much. So many of their issues could be resolved if they just TALKED.

So idk if the opportunity for Garth to ask Arthur or Mera advice on this would even arise, necessarily? Garth didn't really talk to them about this kind of stuff, and also the situation was far more complex than your typical childhood bullying.

I hope this provides at least a somewhat satisfactory answer! And sorry that I don't have more specific things to say on the Arthur/Mera front!

[boxofthings]

Hello! I have a question I want to ask but you don't have to answer if you don't want to.

I'm recently found out about Ghost x Roach ship and looked it up along with others ghostroach fics you and other recommended.

What I'm curious is, what made you ship it? What moments of them made you ship them? What hints have you seen from them? Or was it "I think it's a neat ship"? And I don't play cod nor likely would play it in the future. But I did watch the walkthrough of the og cod mw and still trying to finish it.

If you can answer this, thank you very much!

Hi! Completely happy to answer this and it's nice to see new people getting into ghostroach haha :)

I'll admit, there honestly isn't much in terms of hints in the games/in canon that prove these two would be a good couple/in love, and it's mostly due to the early fandom efforts that helped elevate the likability of ghostroach.

That being said I'm sure me and other ghostroach shippers can agree that a large reason why this ship is so appealing is more or less the "they died together" and the "doomed love/lovers" trope that makes room for so much angst (which we all know fandoms EAT UP) <-- This is the reason why I personally ship them I just love tragic couples

The og MW games came out when I was pretty young and yk how kids tend to hyperfixate on the most random things. Mine just happened to be og Ghost, and since we play as Roach I suppose me getting into GhostRoach was a bit like self insert?

But at the same time I thought of Roach as his own character and the fact that he didn't have a backstory (or really any info), that gave people the opportunity to give Roach any personality/quirks that they desired lol.

He was like a blank canvas for writers/artists to just throw their ideas on, and it's pretty common for people to ship their OCs with the most popular character, who, for MW2, would've been Ghost.

It's harder now to find the older content, but back then I remember GhostRoach being pretty popular (or as popular as a ship from COD back then could be) and I did notice people liked to make Roach out to be Ghost's perfect dichotomy, which seems to have stuck, as a lot of GR writers/artists nowadays, including myself, like to portray these two as two opposites that attract.

And with Ghost having a hella angsty backstory combined with him being a bit of a closed off, cold, soldier, it kinda seemed inevitable that ghostroach would become a thing, with people back them headcanoning Roach as a more optimistic, wide-eyed, type of person (and we all know people LOVE the brooding, hardassed, broken character falling in love with the caring, more lively and human character)

Even tho canon doesn't really offer much, there are still small moments that people love to bring up when justifying this ship. Like when Ghost specifically requests to be teamed with Roach on the op to raid Makarov's safehouse, as well as near the end of the Loose Ends mission where Ghost is the one dragging Roach's injured body to safety whilst reassuring Roach that he's got his back. And of course, when Shepherd betrays them, Ghost screams when Roach gets shot and immediately tries to apprehend Shepherd (him screaming "No!" just sounded so shocked and pained). All these moments made it seem like Ghost really cared about Roach.

The way these two died was pretty jarring, if I remember correctly I think even news articles were talking about this plot twist and their deaths. So these two are pretty well-cemented in video game history.

At the end of the day, though, GhostRoach is a pretty "I think this is neat" kind of ship. It's definitely enhanced by the nostalgia of the old games and the factor of being able to project onto Roach as a blank character lmao, but yeah you can't deny that people are gonna hyperfixate the hell outta the pairing that's always doomed to end tragically.

I feel like I could go on and on about them but I don't want to subject y'all to my messy rambles haha but if anyone wants to add their own thoughts I'd love to see it!