#it's a real chicken and egg scenario

[flannelepicurean]

goku is an extremely "oh hey guys!" fella surrounded by "goddammit goku!" guys (gender inclusive)

[systemerrorbonnie]

* if i wanted to fuck the terminalz from ultrakill, would that be objectum or selfshipping

[iid-smile]

ideal dream , denji

x gn!reader ! profanity, slight suggestive implications at the end, mentions of kids and marriage, you're his unofficial housewife

author's note: um i got lazy so this is kinda bad ahahahahahahah

the smell of chicken and onions filled your apartment, but it wasn't overwhelming unpleasant. for dinner was budget katsudon, but your boyfriend wasn't picky enough to really notice the difference.

"what's your dream?" you suddenly muse to him, filling in the comfortable silence.

denji leans his head on the back of the couch, eyes drifting back and forth as if he's visually imagining a scenario. "to live in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere and you can cook for me all the time."

a soft chuckle turns into more of a sigh through your nose, and you take a quick glance up at him before focusing on the knife in your hand again. "if i refuse?" you ask, knowing full well you wouldn't.

"please don't." his response was quick and sounded pleading, his eyes drifting over to you as if it would convince you otherwise. too predictable, and unexpectedly cute.

chop. chop. chop. denji was sitting as close as he possibly could to where you were standing, his limbs spread all over the couch as he silently looked up at you through the open window to the kitchen. he throws his head back just that little bit more so he could get a nice view of you from below, admiring your peaceful and gentle face with so much attraction.

you exhale, dropping off some thinly sliced lettuce into a strainer after washing. "dreams are just dreams, you know? where would i get ingredients from, hm?" your crossed arms lean on the edge of the counter as you give him your full attention.

only for a moment does he look conflicted, eyes glancing away from you as he thinks of his answer. "i'll hunt them for you." now there's a small grin on his lips, as if he's already proud of his future self for going out of his way to hunt for you. "build us a little garden 'n shit."

in slight surprise, your eyebrows raise a little. "you sure? can't imagine you handling gardening too well, love."

"if it's for you, i'll do it." , looking more determined than before. "and we can have pet chickens too."

you were cooking some chicken for dinner, a substitute for pork cutlet because you couldn't afford it, so the reasoning should be obvious. but it wouldn't hurt to ask, right? "for what?"

"eggs."

random, considering he rarely asks you to cook eggs. "oh yeah? and what else?"

"i'll marry you, 'n the chickens can be our spectators, cuz we won't have anyone else. the plants can watch too, plants are alive, so they'd able to hear us say our vows." maybe you influenced him too much while watching the notebook... he's interested in marriage?

you can only shake your head with a smile, wiping your hands on your apron as you stand up straight again. "you are a lost cause. just a bit crazy."

"'m gonna make it real, just watch. i'll work extra hard, so we can get enough money and move the hell out of here." he suddenly sits up, turning around to directly face you. there's an obvious glint, a sparkle in his eyes. "and then, and then! we can have a whole bunch of kids and—"

you cut him off with a giggle, already knowing what he was going to say. "okay, i'm gonna have to stop you there, big boy. we're not rabbits, so we really don't need to go at it that often."

"aw..." denji's face immediately falls, a disappointment look overcoming his features.

you wouldn't want him to lose hope that quick, would you? especially considering he listens to your every word and takes them seriously. "...but... we can think about that when we actually have our dream place."

"YES!"

"don't sound so giddy about it."

[thewritetofreespeech]

Your Kunikida x reader was so sweet/well written! May I request Kunikida with an s/o (GN or fem) who's having a stressful time with eating right/properly...maybe they could be in a cooking or shopping together scenario? If the topic isn't one you're comfortable writing about, please don't worry about it!

Doppo Kunikida x reader

awwww! thank you so much!! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and was actually inspired to build off that story for a part 3! [part i, part ii ]

“How do you not have anything in your fridge?” Literally.

Kunikida had never seen a fridge so bare outside of an appliance showroom. Save for a few meager condiments, a single egg, one bunch of green onion (which had seen better days), and coffee creamer, it was completely empty.

“Uh...because I’m never here?” [Y/N] replied as they came out of the bedroom. “I’m never here that often, and it’s not like dad rents this place out when I’m not around. There’s no point in doing grocery shopping when I’m not going to be here that long as I’m usually out to dinner with him or friends, or just get take out.”

Kunikida frowned. As ‘sound’ as that argument was, he still couldn’t believe they didn't have any real food in their house. “You need to take better care of your diet. For your health.”

“What? You think my ‘health’ is suffering?” She flashed him a smile and lifted the bottom of her tank top & lowered the band on her bottoms to show off her body.

Kunikida had to gulp and turn away. He would not be distracted. “Come on. We’re going to the store. I can’t leave you alone like this with no reasonable means to feed yourself.” [Y/N] groaned but put up little more for an argument as they went to change.

The trip to the store was easy enough. At this time of day there weren’t many people. Just seniors and young mothers with their children too little for daycare. Kunikida glanced at them, then back at [Y/N]. Imagining, if just for a moment, a life where this could be their routine every Sunday.

Once the shopping was done, they head back to [Y/N]’s apartment and start cooking. “You know, we could have had food by now if we just ordered it.” She playfully grumbled. Cleaning the green beans as instructed beside him, while Kunikida diced some onion and put it in the pan with the chicken.

“Home cooked meals are better for you. You can get more of the ideal nutrients & vitamins needed for ideal health.”

“Yeah, along with all the work and gross wrinkly fingers when you have to wash the dishes.” Despite himself, Kunikida scoffed. “Why are you so worried about my health & diet? You’ve never shown an interest before.”

“I have!” He was offended now. He always encouraged her to get a salad or more vegetables when they went out. She just never listened to him. “It’s just…I’m here now. And you shouldn’t eat take out for every meal.”

“You know I cook my own meals when I’m back at school, right? I have a cheese grater and everything.” He doesn’t comment. Instead focusing more on the pan in front of him, as if should he take his eyes off it for a second it would burn. “Is that what this is about? Your bummed I’m going back soon?”

“I’m not ‘bummed’.” Kunikida insisted. He would never use that word. Devastated, depressed, desolate, those were all words he would use. “I just want to make sure you’re taken care of when I’m not around to do it for you.”

[Y/N] gave him a slight, listless smile, then wrapped her arms around his middle from behind. “I can take care of myself, you know.” She raised up on her toes to kiss his neck. “But…I appreciate the assist. It’s not for much longer. I’ll be finished with my program in another year, and I’ll be back for good.”

Kunikida whipped around and wrapped his arms around her to give her a full kiss. Overcome with emotion. Every time she came and left was getting harder for him. This….void she left when she was gone was getting wider & wider. The thought that soon she’d be here, within arm’s reach, every single day just filled him with so much joy that he had to express it.

“Kunikida…” Her voice was breathless in his ear as she clung to him. “…the chicken…”

“Fuck the chicken.” He growled back. Nothing else was as important as kissing her right now. They’d get takeout like she wanted anyway.

The two of them continue their kissing, quickly escalating into something more, when [Y/N] suddenly pushed him back. Kunikida had to catch himself on the counter to not fall on the floor. He was about to ask her ‘what the hell’ before his blood ran cold. “Oh…hi Daddy…”

“P-President….”

Nothing could have made this situation more awkward or worse as a tense moment settled neatly between all 3 of them.

Then the smoke alarm went off.

[oneatlatime]

Want to get your thoughts on something you've touched on in a couple places. A pretty popular idea in the fandom is that one of the (in-universe) reasons airbenders have gone so hard into the peace-and-love monk thing is a self-awareness that, if they didn't, there's not a whole lot anybody could realistically do about it.

Like, Southern Air Temple pretty strongly implies that Gyatso solo'd a room full of comet-roided firebenders. It killed him but he did it, and while he is a master Airbender, we're not given any real indication that he is uniquely so, right?

I have many thoughts on this! Sorry in advance for the long post! And sorry if this goes a bit off topic!

Short answer: I don't agree.

Long answer:

We've seen that nations' cultures tend to reflect their native bending styles. Or vice versa. It's probably a chicken and egg scenario. The Fire Nation chose to spread (like wildfire) and is full of hot headed, impetuous roid-rage sufferers who can't see or plan for the long term. Fire itself easily becomes ungovernable and is at best muzzled/leashed, always waiting for the next chance to bubble over in unplanned / unpredictable / generally unhelpful directions (Hi Zhao!). So an element shapes a culture shapes and element until you've got a positive feedback loop (or in the case of the Northern Water Tribe, a negative feedback ourobouros due to outside pressure). Importantly, neither culture nor element develops in isolation; I think they develop simultaneously.

The Earth Kingdom is probably the most rigid and unchanging, even when it would benefit them to change/innovate. We see rigidity and humourlessness in response to change or the unexpected (see Toph's parents) and we see an inability to let go of a bad idea, or mitigate the consequences / think on the go when things that were clearly bad ideas go bad in ways anyone with a non-earthbender brain can see coming a mile off (think The Avatar State episode). Earth digs in when it should retreat, stands solid when it should duck and weave. It is grounded to the point of stupidity (unless you're Toph or Bumi, although even Toph seems to be unbending so far). It's linear to the point of being unable to deviate from that line.

This is me guessing, but I figure since fire and water are opposites, air must be the opposite of earth, right? So while we'll never see airbending culture in a non-shrunk-down-to-one-person form, we can look at earthbending culture for its dark reflection. Well, probably not dark, but you get what I'm saying. They'll be opposites in world view. We can extrapolate.

So if earth is grounded, humourless, aggressively traditional, linear, then air must be constantly fluctuating, unchained, lighthearted, bonkers-all-over-the-place. The heaviness of earth would dictate that problems should be faced by digging in and facing them head on until the problem blinks first. The lightness of air would dictate that problems should be faced the opposite way: blinking first i.e. removing yourself from the problem entirely. The linearity of earth dictates that fights are solved by fighting - you punch me, I punch you. The non-linearity of air would seek to recontextualise a problem until it's no longer a problem because we all forgot what we were fighting about in the first place, i.e. throwing pies at it or busting out the marble trick. The heaviness of earth would cause excessive earthly attachment; the lightness of air would cause excessive detachment from worldly concerns.

To start violence is to make a statement that you wish to be involved. It's rooting yourself to a particular dispute, choosing a hill to die on. It stems from attachment. This is earthbendery behaviour (and Zuko-y, but let's not go there). To never start violence is to never invest, never dig in your feet and make a stand. To be detached. (I'm oversimplifying here.) It's clear from in-show examples that Aang's pacifism is of the "ladies don't start fights but they can finish them" variety; he's got no problem with self-defence (caveat: we have no idea how typical an air nomad Aang was). But he never attacks first that I can think of.

Violence is a very direct tool. If someone starts a fight with you, and you decide to continue it, you're choosing the most obvious action. Since when is airbending direct or obvious?

All this to say, I think that pacifism, peace and love, monkiness, etc., was more likely a natural and inevitable outgrowth of air nomad culture, caused by constant culture / element interaction, rather than a conscious choice.

So I think airbenders "have gone so hard into the peace-and-love monk thing" because the nature of their element creates a culture that discourages the traits required for effective offensive violence, and the inherent detachment and ever-changing nature of air naturally encouraged spiritual (i.e. monkly) pursuits rather than earthly ones, like whatever the conflict of the week is. I don't think self-awareness of the dangers of their element factors into it. Not to take away from Gyatso's accomplishment, but I think air is nowhere near the most dangerous element. From what I've seen so far that would be Fire or Earth, though I'd give the edge to Fire because they self-generate, and also because they've spent a largely successful century dominating the other elements. Waterbenders and earthbenders can be neutralised by taking away their element; airbenders - due to the very nature of their element - probably can't get past that initial avoid and evade instinct to become legitimate offensive threats.

As for Gyatso, I think he's an outlier. We know little about him so far, but we do know that: a) Aang says he's the best airbender (in I think the Southern Air Temple?); b) he's good enough that he was granted a statue while he was still living, learning, improving; and c) he's good enough that the monkly council (of which he is part) granted him the honour/responsibility of being the quasi-dad of the Avatar. These things tell me that Gyatso was the Spiders Georg of the Airbenders. I suspect Bumi is the same for the Earthbenders, and at least as far as the philosophy of bending is concerned, Iroh may be so for Firebenders. Even the example of Gyatso nuking the comet-enhanced firebenders is a case of defensive action in ultra extraordinary circumstances: he was staring into the teeth of a genocide while mourning the disappearance of his quasi-son and the likely loss of the world's only hope / chance at stopping the war. That's how far you have to push an airbender before they'll take a life. Unless the Avatar world pre-war is a lot more godawful than Aang has implied, airbenders probably wouldn't have been taking lives frequently enough for them to get to the point where they would have to start questioning whether they should consider pacifism.

I think what this fandom idea ultimately is, is a desire for the hidden badass trope. Everyone loves it when the most peaceful character in the story is revealed to secretly be a Rambo-level fighting badass, right? Who didn't love it when kindly grandpa Roku manifested in his temple and unleashed a volcano? But I think this trope fundamentally takes something away from the appreciation of Airbending, Air Nomad culture, and the concept of Pacifism as a whole. This is just my interpretation, but applying the "secretly the deadliest all along!" trope to airbenders undermines their commitment to pacifism and makes it performative rather than earnest. It's a cop out; an acknowledgement that violence actually is the answer, and even those head-in-the-clouds monks know to use it when the chips are down. This show goes out of its way to show that non-combatants have value and a place in this world that's worth fighting for, that fighting goes way too far pretty frequently, that non-violent solutions are valid, even preferable. It would kind of undermine that message if all of the elements were easily weaponisable.

Something I've loved so far about Avatar is the show's earnestness. There have been no Marvel-style fakeout bathos plots. I feel making airbending secretly the deadliest element or similar would be exactly that sort of thing. Can't my pacifists be peaceful not because they're secretly untouchable badasses who carry the biggest stick, whom the rest of the world leaves alone out of fear, who are not a threat only because they have chosen not to be, but because that's just who they are?

On the other hand: Aang's been a one-man-army plenty of times. We've seen that; that's undeniable. So air is stupidly powerful as an element. No denying that. Gyatso did murder a bunch of people trying to kill him, so air can be deadly. But I don't think your typical airbender could be deadly. If you gave a can of airbending to a firebender, an earthbender, or even a particularly provoked waterbender, I don't doubt that they could kill people with it. But the culture that the element generated - rather than a conscious choice by that culture's participants - prevents them from taking the direct, violent, solution. And I think that culture developed in tandem with airbending, so there could not have been a time when airbenders were deadly as a rule. Air shaped airbenders as much as airbenders shaped air, and it shaped them into non-violent people.

There's a lot of power in the idea of consciously choosing, and sticking to, something that is perhaps not in line with your natural abilities. Styling airbenders as deadly-but-choosing-peace is a great way to explore themes of agency, identity, strength of character, morals, maturity, etc. But, to me, there's also a lot of power in the idea that some people just can't - not won't, but CAN'T - fight their way out of things, and this doesn't make it any less wrong to genocide the crap out of them.

If the fandom wants to headcanon airbenders as secret badasses who consciously choose nonviolence, I say a) go ahead! there's more than enough evidence to support that conclusion; b) I respectfully disagree; and c) is Iroh not enough?

tl;dr in my opinion, air's pacifism was a natural outgrowth of, and restriction imposed by, the element rather than a conscious choice; airbending can be deadly but airbenders aren't; Gyatso is not representative; 'speak softly and carry a big stick' is all well and good as a philosophy, but those who speak softly and don't have a stick are of value too.

[prince-liest]

Ok so I know you haven't officially trans anyone's gender in any of your Hazbin fics, but I lowkey get really trans vibes from Alastor in most of your fics?

Idk, it's a little hard go explain but what really tipped me off was his... distaste? Disfavor? Aversion? To his "male body" in one of the 666 fics. (I think the line was something akin to "the male body being what it is" in reference to Alastor getting hard fairly quickly).

There's honestly a lot of interesting things to speculate in relation to how Alastor views his body. Especially with his relationship with touch, and how he initiates touch and how he actively dislikes it (depending on the person).

Not to mention his feelings regarding his non-human features. How he doesn't inherently dislike them for being what they are, or rather, that they're "abnormal", but more so that they're not what they're "supposed to be", and not "what he was before" (though I do think that his dislike of his deer features is linked to his dislike of how he died, being viewed as something so easy to be put down - an animal).

Which also relates to how dressed Alastor constantly is. How he shields away his body using clothing, a customizable thing that he takes great pride in making sure is up to his standards (notice how when his coat is damaged he immediately goes to get it fixed, even though the ends of his coat is already damaged. He seems to have very complex opinions on how, exactly, his coat is supposed to be damaged)

I do think that Alastor's preference to being so dressed is linked to his dislike of vulnerability, but I also think it's a very trans(tm) move, lol.

(And I also do think that his dislike of vulnerability is tied to his transness, kinda in a weird "chicken and egg" scenario.)

I find it really interesting how Alastor's true feelings are revealed by his shadow, a being that can transform to look different, is mostly hidden, and is internally mysterious. Idk, it's just very trans(tm) to me!

I also think that Alastor's transness is linked to how he views masculinity, how he seems to automatically like woman, while automatically disliking man. How this is also tied to his parents. I've noticed in your fics (and could be completely wrong about) that Alastor seems to relate femininity (and his mother) with "safety" (how he compares the gentle touch in your last fic with feeling like his mother and his like of jambalaya).

I'm not sure if I would say that Alastor is a trans woman, but I also wouldn't say he isn't. Overall I think he has a very complex view of gender, but it's definitely something he doesn't put a lot into. Which relates to him not knowing what asexuality is.

I have a lot more Alastor trans thoughts, but this ask is already getting pretty long so I'm just gonna cut it off here. I hope I made sense, and that you're comfortable with me speculating on a character you've written about gender. (Totally valid if you're not though! If so, then please disregard this ask!)

I'll take "asks that made me realize I'm out here accidentally writing a character as nonbinary" for 300, please! Please prepare yourself for the mistake of letting me have a keyboard and talk about gender after 9pm, so sorry to literally everybody else.

You're gonna get a real fuckin' kick out of the first bit of the next 666 that I'm gonna post tomorrow. ;) It's definitely the point where I finally acknowledged to myself that I have a strong urge to inject some genderfuckery into Alastor in the form of him continuing to use his thing with Vox to explore his own relationship with, like, existing in his own body, and then also threw those feelings all over Angel Dust like a fistful of glitter while I was at it.

Like you said, I wouldn't say that I've ended up writing him as a trans woman, but I think I have seen him from the start as a character who is not exactly cis in a wibbly-wobbly way I have not previously defined but that I think I would perhaps characterize as "gender: monster condescending to play at humanity."

I don't think he eschews masculinity entirely, for what it's worth. He definitely strikes me as a person who aligns himself with the image of a smiling gentleman (if a hellish one) as the proper way for a person like him to be, and for whom that is an important, comfortable, and satisfying part of both his identity and how he relates to both his female friends and to men. However, he also strikes me as someone for whom that part of his identity is what he shows the world on purpose, presented as he would like it to be seen, rather than as something that reflects his bodily preferences. To put it another way, if he'd been AFAB, I think he would put just as much into his presentation, just in the direction of femininity, and it wouldn't make him any more or less comfortable with himself.

You're right in that I've definitely written him with a faint distaste for the mundane physical reality of his body, and a lot of this comes through in how he alternates between short moments of fascination with what new things his body is doing as he explores it and decides whether or not he likes it, and his much longer moments of utter disregard for the same thing. It also extends to the rest of his mundane humanity, though: his physical limits, his adrenaline-rush of fear, etc. He values the coat, the cane, the reality-bending static, the smile - but whatever he sees in the mirror when he gets undressed or whatever doesn't function to his purposes, he can take or leave.

I see Alastor as someone who defines himself first and foremost as the radio demon: not a person, but a monster and an enigma. A voice and a personality. Everything else is more or less incidental, and he would prefer to keep it set aside, thank you. The occasional dysphoria isn't just about his sex, it's about the humanity of his body as a whole.

[astralbondpro]

I don't know if I love bad movies because MST3K instilled it in me, or it was just coming up in the VHS rental generation in general. It's a real chicken or the egg scenario. Perhaps one helped the other?

[hawkinsbnbg]

After quitting his accounting job at his father's company, Steve left the city and moved to the countryside where he used most of his savings to open a small ranch.

Steve enjoyed his farmer life until one day, some of his chickens suddenly went missing.

At first, he thought it was the foxes, but even after he locked the doors, and set up the traps, his chickens still went away the morning after.

Steve even rang up Hopper, a local hunter, for advice.

But for all the efforts, he still couldn't keep his chickens safe from the foxes.

Eventually, when nothing worked, Steve decided to step up his game and catch the foxes before they could steal his chickens again.

And then that night, Steve witnessed a rug-rag of a man carefully step around the traps, creep into the henhouse, and then creep out with a chicken tucked under his arm.

Steve was like????

Because a closer look revealed that that was Eddie Munson, the local carpenter who had given Steve several discounts on the furniture he had bought when he first moved here.

Every week, Steve would exchange some eggs and meats for some wood from Eddie.

In return, Eddie would help him with the fences and barns whenever they needed to be fixed.

Although Steve hadn’t known Eddie that long, he would still like to think they were friends.

Thus, seeing Eddie here felt wrong. Weird, but a betrayal nonetheless.

Steve just stood there, stunned, before he came to his senses and called out to Eddie.

"Hey! That's my chicken, man!"

Eddie turned around, slowly, and then their eyes met.

Steve didn't think he could breathe.

Those eyes seemed unnatural, they were black, red-rimmed, and too bloodthirsty to be considered human. He knew Eddie had always looked pale, but under the moonlight, the other man looked like a ghost.

"Steve?" Eddie gasped, looking as terrified as his stoic facial muscles allowed him to.

"Eddie…” Steve hesitated for a few seconds before pointing at the chicken under Eddie’s arm. “Why are you holding my chicken?”

At his question, Eddie remained silent and stood strangely still, almost like a statue.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Steve. It couldn’t be, but since all the evidence was here, Steve couldn't lie to himself any longer. "Are you..?"

"What?" Eddie stared at him, wide-eyed.

"Are you the chicken stealer?" Steve squinted and watched Eddie adjust his grasp on the unconscious hen.

Oh my god, she had been passing out this whole time, Steve belatedly realized with growing concern.

"I'm sorry," said Eddie before quickly running away, leaving Steve behind to gape at his retreating form.

The next morning, Steve went to Eddie's place with two chickens.

Eddie had eyed the cage with a guilty look before sitting Steve down and explaining about his reason for stealing Steve's chicken.

Eddie had been stealing chickens to give them to his sick uncle who had been bedridden for weeks now.

The reason sounded off, but Steve still bought it because he didn't want to think about the alternative of why would Eddie need so many chickens in the first place.

But Steve's attempt to remain oblivious had sadly failed when Eddie moved in to live with him at the ranch.

(Why? Because they had become boyfriends after one year of flirting and sharing tender moments.)

He had caught Eddie drinking blood from a chicken one early morning when he went to check the henhouse.

"Wait, babe, I can explain!" Eddie, lips blood red and eyes midnight black, had held onto Steve's hands pleadingly and desperately.

And though Steve had half a mind to suggest Eddie give the ducks, gooses, pigs, and cows a try, he decided to comfort his boyfriend first.

He told Eddie that he had been trying to avoid this exact scenario because he thought Eddie would drop him and hightail away the moment Steve discovered the truth.

This time, Eddie sat him down again and told him about the real reason why he had stolen those chickens.

This time, Steve finally learned about vampires and the truth about his boyfriend.

This time, Eddie cried bloody tears when Steve reassured him that he wouldn’t go anywhere no matter who Eddie was or chose to become.

Still, there was this question that he had been itching to ask Eddie.

"But why the chickens?"

"They're tasty. Can't help it, man."

"Touché."

[tsunderestimated]

They need to do a case study on why jeep drivers are like that. Were they bitter and stupid so they bought a jeep to piss everyone off out of spite? Or did they become bitter because they were stupid enough to buy a jeep and everyone made fun of them for their shitty car? A real chicken or the egg scenario we've got here.

[circularcheez-it]

Ok but for real tho this is such a chicken or the egg scenario because on one hand.

Is the reason Dean had tension with every man because they were all gay all along ?

OR

Were the people who had the best chemistry with Dean also those who kiss men?

Like was it a coincidence that tinted the show in bisexual lighting ?? Or was it part of the job description??

[everyneji]

What's your opinion on the Hyuga clan slavery aspect?

Well, I can't say I'm a fan, but I assume you're not so much asking if I think it's horrible but about the place it has in the narrative.

In text, the Hyūga system is only called a matter of 'main' and 'branch' families. This reflects many real life noble clans -- but in real life, cadet branches were not so rigidly restricted. If a bunch of people dropped dead, for example, a random cousin could end up inheriting a great deal of wealth and power, which we know is a no-go here:

What makes the Hyūga clan unique is that it's really more of a caste system. It's hereditary discrimination that sees them as inherently lesser because of the situation of their birth. Then we get into the slavery by the fact they are branded and are forced to assume a subservient role under threat of death or torture.

Why do they do this? That gets into more speculative territory. We have the generalized answer (people enjoy power and having a stratified social system allows them to better exploit that power in a way they feel creates 'order') and the in-text explanation from Hizashi:

Neji further explains to Naruto that the branch family are to "shield the main branch ... and never disobey them."

This comes down the real issue which is: the branch families may have always existed for reasons of clear inheritance, but the sealing practise (and the dominance of the main family it represents) can't be accepted at face value of 'protecting the family's techniques' -- and so we get into a chicken/egg thing about the function of oppression and the seal in the clan's hierarchy. In other words, what came first: the oppression, or the seal?

The sealing practise is illogical as we see it applied. After all, main family members become shinobi and go on missions without a protective detail of branch family members or a seal to protect their eyes. I discuss it more at length in this post here, but to sum my view up: I believe the branch family's duty is to take on the most dangerous or difficult work the village demands of their citizens so the clan can retain its honour, without risking people of the main family as often or as thoroughly.

So, in this more speculative territory that combines our real life explanation and the in-text explanation, the answer to "Why do they do this?" seems to be "Because the main family wants to feel powerful and important without doing any of the actual work, using the branch family as a prop and a resource."

Now, I wouldn't say their fears about their kekkei genkai being stolen aren't valid -- between them and the Uchiha, we see how desirable dōjutsu in particular are. This is where the second question of 'what came first' crops up again. Perhaps the seal started life as a genuine desire to protect their clan, but the whole 'brain melting' aspect make this suspicious. Neji's phrasing here is interesting:

You have to ask yourself, Does the the way the seal interact with their brain/eyes just naturally result in death and pain, but sealing the eyes on death was the only original purpose? Was it intended only as a killswitch (which could have a pragmatic purpose in wartime, if a battle was lost and an enemy nin was about to go for the eyes) and the torture was later discovered as a bonus perk? Was it developed for punishment and control and then they realized "Oh, the horrific brain frying can also kill if we push it far enough! Neat!" Were all of these applications discovered and/or developed together?

We don't know, but while in the first scenario you can see the seal existing outside a rigid oppressive structure, it only gets more telling from there. It's also telling that another person could ever even have the ability to activate or manipulate someone's seal.

My headcanon is that in the long warring eras before the villages were founded, the cadet branches were the vanguards of the Hyūga, and did the fighting while the main family hung back and handled things of a more political or financial nature -- like, Kishimoto doesn't really get into it, but there's a daimyō and a capital where he presumably lives and more going on in this world than just shinobi politics. We know that the warring countries hired shinobi clans to fight their wars for them, and that the Land of Fire was established as a political power well before the village:

Where were the Hyūga before the forming of Konoha? Who did they fight for? Who were their major enemies? How old is the sealing practise? We don't know any of this, but whatever the case, life was dangerous, and like most clans, they were likely either a militia or PMC. A lot of my theorized structure -- the idea of having 'forward forces' who are more expendable, accept orders without question, and who can conveniently have their most valuable secrets destroyed on death -- tracks with them being a militarized outfit.

Consider also that the kaiten is stated to be only taught to the heir of the clan. The idea that only the most important person in the clan would learn this incredibly useful defensive jutsu -- it suggests both that others are disposable, and that the clan head and heir need a panic button if an enemy ever did get too close. If it was purely about being a field ready combat technique, why keep it so secret? It's not like it's an incredible offensive power like the trigrams. The cadet branch and the kaiten are both shields, and that says a lot about how the primary concern of the Hyūga was not their clan head being some kind of ninja war god, but someone who stays protected.

This creates a divide between 'protecting the clan head' (i.e. the main family) and 'protecting the clan itself', despite some Hyūga main family members trying to link them:

Like, okay gramps, if protecting the Byakugan is so important, why don't all of you go get sealed right now?

It's interesting to consider that maybe once upon a time, everyone in the Hyūga family did have such a seal -- but regardless, the eventual evolution of its use to brand only part of the family tells us that it's about control. It's depressingly realistic to have a powerful social caste invent excuses to oppress another caste, and then when those of that lower caste become angry at this treatment, suddenly their resentment and potential for lashing out is also reason to need to control or suppress them.

Bringing this together, I would say my instinct is that the divide in 'main branch' and 'cadet branch' happened naturally to maintain the line of inheritance, but the oppressive caste system was a result of needing soldiers as vanguards while retaining a strong, protected core of the family. The seal was a wartime strategy to protect family secrets, but deliberately not given to every member of the family in order to reinforce the caste system and keep their soldiers in line -- that the Hyūga deliberately left themselves vulnerable as a whole just because that hierarchy of main family supremacy matters so much to them.

Neji, of course, challenges the main family's assumption of superiority: even Hiashi, who tells Hanabi "The Hyūga blood flows thicker in [Neji's] veins than anyone else's" is shocked by the great heights Neji has reached. Neji proves them wrong; Neji proves that the Hyūga family is weaker for the rigid hierarchy they have implemented.

It would have been nice to get some resolution for this clan beyond just "Don't worry, dead brother, Neji and Hinata are besties now 😊" -- in an ideal world there are reparations for the cadet members, but more realistically, I guess that Hiashi in his soft old age finally outlawed this practise and told everyone to deal with it and they were all riding high on Naruto TnJ peace juice post war so they were like "k."

I'll end this by saying that though we mostly all call it the 'Caged Bird seal', this isn't the name in the manga, only being using in any official respect in the anime. Saying it represents a 'caged bird' is Neji's view of it, and it's just so heartbreaking how he couches it in this poetic imagery. What can the caged bird do? It can't fly -- it can't break its bars -- but it can sing, sharing its pain with the world. This is, unsurprisingly, imagery you see a lot in writing by marginalized peoples. The bird sings until it can't anymore, or until it escapes (if escape from such oppressive social forces is even possible.)

Neji sees his treatment by the clan as an inevitability of fate, and fate is a cage, but I think once he came to feel more in control of his own destiny, he was likely able to more directly confront the real source of his pain. Or, at least, I think it makes for an interesting topic to write on ... the combination of 'the home as source of terror' and 'how do you reconcile your desire to be strong in the way of your family with your family's abusive treatment of you' and 'it's hard and demanding, to love the ones above you.' It's all interesting! I only wish the story of the Hyūga's internal oppression had a more concrete resolution.

Thank you for the question! ♥ I hope I answered the particular aspect you had in mind somewhere in this.

[vegance]

Is being a vegetarian okay? The only real thing stopping me from being a vegan is eating eggs, which I get from hens I or my friends raise, and I know they’re cared for well and aren’t kept to be killed. don’t use any animal products otherwise

I just really don’t want to contribute to all of this animal abuse happening in the world.

i do think that being vegetarian is a huge step into the right direction, and for many people it's a great transitional point towards veganism.

i do see some issues with backyard eggs though, as a vegan.

Where do the hens come from? are they rescues? do they come from a breeder? if so, what happens to the male chicks born on that farm? what happens to the hens who go to people who keep them just for egg laying? are they cruelty-breeds (meaning they suffer from being selectively bred to produce so many eggs)

how well are the hens being taken care of? do they have adequate space to roam? are they truly safe from predators? if they suffer from overproducing eggs, would they be given the implant that stops it?

do you take away important nutrients from them by keeping their eggs? producing eggs takes energy and depletes nutrients, many vegans feed rescues their own eggs, to maintain their health. is this an option/necessary?

i can see a scenario where i would have no ethical problems with someone eating these eggs. maybe the hens are rescues, they eat most of their own eggs but some stay leftover and their owner eats those. but i think using animals bodies can be a really slippery slope. maybe one day the owner is really craving an egg, and even though the chickens could use the calcium, they eat the egg instead of feeding it back to the hens.

it is also not something that could be a wide spread solution, since it could never deliver on the necessary scale.

ultimately, i think you are already doing much better than the average person, and if you need to rely on backyard eggs for a bit to keep up the changes you've made, i don't see a problem with that. sustainable change takes time, and that is ok.

whether your unique case is contributing to animal cruelty and exploitation is something you will have to figure out on your own <3

if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask!!

[jeffgerstmann]

Is there something that makes Playstation controllers better than Xbox or 3rd party that fighting game pad players all use them? Or does every tournament use Playstations for some reason?

I don't know, I assume it's just pad players who got used to a specific pad. I'm currently using a PS5 controller to play SF6 most of the time. It's reliable, easily replaced, and I find that I'm not having trouble getting moves out, though there might be some trickier combos or something that I'd probably be better off doing on a proper stick.

I look at it as a sign that we've completely moved on from the generation of players who came up playing fighting games in arcades. Now you've got pad players and people using leverless controllers and it's just wild.

They wouldn't be able to use an Xbox controller without some kind of weird adapter, since most tournaments are run on PlayStations. There are just a lot of ecosystem reasons why no one would run a major fighting game tournament on Xbox, hence why players end up using PlayStation controllers instead of Xbox controllers. I was talking someone involved with a peripheral maker recently and was reminded that fighting games on Xbox are pretty much dead. They might sell out of the gate to a more casual audience, but in a general sense, the Xbox fighting game audience isn't serious about competitive play. This ends up getting reflected in stick sales, but there's a chicken/egg argument to be had here, too. Because if you're getting into fighting games to be competitive, you aren't going to see a lot of Xbox hardware out there at tournaments. So you're not going to buy a fight stick for Xbox (and licensing generally prevents companies from making peripherals that _officially_ support both consoles). If you're serious about a variety of games, you might find that some of the major fighting games aren't even coming out on Xbox in the first place, so PlayStation ends up being the only real option. Even in a scenario where an Xbox version is available, wouldn't you rather make sure you're training on the exact same setup that you'll see at the tournament?

If I ever thought I might want to get serious about playing Street Fighter 6 and play it competitively, I'd probably never play it on PC again and stick to PlayStation 5, because it seems like that's what you'll see at most notable tournaments. That said, plenty of locals are probably run on laptops and various PCs since a local crew is more likely to be able to put together a variety of those setups instead of, like, investing in a bunch of PS5s, so... it all depends on what you're playing and where you're playing it, I suppose.

[vampvore]

When it comes to eggs, what’s your ideal clutch? Lots of small ones, or a few big ones? How about texture? Do you like ‘em firm or soft?

This is a great question!

In fantasy, I tend to think of fairly soft, gelatinous eggs around tennis-to-baseball size. That’s around 2-3 inches diameter, though if I feel evil I might go for 4. They have a lot of give in the outer layers, but only so much. For texture, slimey. Slippery. They’re covered in a thick goo. A fair number of these medium-sized ones… like 12 to 20? is usually my preference for oviposition scenarios.

In real life, my favorite eggs are soft silicone, both smooth or somewhat textured, and they range in size from standard chicken’s egg size to… the diameter of a coke can, and 3/4 its height. Sometimes though I feel like using my glass eggs, the hardness and smoothness can be really nice.

If I had to choose only 1 egg to have.. I would probably go with my one that’s about 3.5 in tall and 2.5 in diameter. It’s a good medium, very cozy.

Ask me anything

[masonuf]

Post for 4/8

“Sexuality” by Saito had me wondering about otaku as a chicken-and-egg situation. Does one qualify as an otaku by learning the traits Saito mentioned, or is an otaku usually observed to have these traits? Anyway, I’m not sure whether I agree or disagree with Saito’s ideas toward the end regarding the idea that all otakus can keep their idolization and sexual desires of anime characters within the boundaries of aesthetic performance. It’s just hard for me to believe that the Miyazaki incident was the only one of its kind. Maybe I’m wrong – I don’t know.

Regarding “Media Effects” by Gauntlett, I actually hadn’t heard of the specific term “media effects model” before so I was a bit lost when I started reading it. But after searching it up, it immediately reminded me of the old discourse that “video games cause violence” that the media tried to propagate. Indeed, it’s quite a shocker that the intricate nature of human behavior cannot be reduced to some sensationalist headline.

In the first few episodes of Zipang, I wasn’t entirely sure if the anime was trying to glorify or denounce war. On one hand, the scenes of the Japanese army’s military routines, at least in the beginning, featured bright colors and uplifting music. The workers operated in satisfying harmony to carry out their duties. Even the sound effects of practice gunfire were seemingly suppressed. Finally, military officers showed compassion to others regardless of their alliance, as seen when Yosuke Kadomatsu saved Takumi Kusaka’s life and bore responsibility for his actions. On the other hand, the anime also makes it clear that it is not trying to come off as conservative propaganda. The question of “who were the bad guys?” is never answered because nobody is ever explicitly depicted as the “bad guys.” Furthermore, Kadomatsu tells the journalist that nobody in the army (during their time period) has experienced a war and they wish to avoid one. This sentiment contrasts with the national pride that Japanese nationalists attempt to uphold. Speaking of which, later in the anime, I found the premise of the imperial Japanese army clashing with the modern Japanese army to be highly interesting. Of course, in real life, it is common for Japanese people to have clear hindsight of their ancestors’ actions during the war and reflect on how ridiculous the views that were forced upon them were. However, in this anime that is basically the manifestation of a “what if” scenario, we see the reverse of that scenario in which someone from the past embraces contemporary Japanese views after modern Japanese people are miraculously transported into the past. Agreeing with contemporary ways of thinking, Kusaka says, “The work that I do here is not for the Imperial Navy. As with all of you, it is for the country Japan, and for the future to come.” I found this to be the most interesting line of dialogue in the show so far. Having someone from the imperial army whose mindsets were known to be heavily manipulated by the government be so empathetic toward a faction with a completely different way of thinking was a shocking thing to see, but I thought that the anime executed it pretty well nonetheless.

Image of Kusaka from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963150/.

[yesterdayiwrote]

I know it’s a bit of a controversial take, but I think if someone from a minor team gets dropped, Mick would be up for the contest too.

I am basing this purely on the facts that:

1. He has a third driver seat just like Daniel, so their roles in RB and Mercedes are at the moment very very similar

2. Not sure how strong the ties with Mercedes are in Mick’s case (ie: if he can be a free agent and go to any spot that opens up, RB associated included) but if they are loose, he’d have a chance to look at the whole grid and not only at Mercedes related teams.

3. This is a bit of a grey zone: Many of the TPs seem to openly share the opinion he would’ve still been in f1 had Michael been by his side, which could mean they want him back but could also mean they are morally supportive and no more

4. There is some obscure hints Toto has dropped last year about being confident a seat option (for Mick) would eventually open up, maybe even sooner than next season. Thought he meant Williams back then because Logan’s hiring had been on the edge until the very end, and it might still be a possibility should Logan not deliver at all (James V said between the lines he considered him a pay driver until he actually started working with him at Williams) or should Alex move to another team. Alpha tauri could be a chance as well though, IF Mick hasn’t too strong ties with Mercedes that stops him from going to a RB associated seat.

Not touching the talent area but basing on the stats only, Mick and Daniel are one the menu should a seat open up and should that team look more for an already experience driver rather than a rookie.

There are of couse lots more stuff to consider like price of the driver (Daniel on paper is 1st on the line for a reserve pick up, his problem is more his price and if he consider the team worthy enough to move into) and talent in general, but yes, I would keep an eye on them both if a seat opens up in the middle of the season. I would go more for an experienced driver to fill in the gap until next season and then consider more options.

Should the seat open next year it would be more of a challenge because rookies would definitely be more on the plate, still quite an interesting gossip subject I want to see how it turns out to develop in the end 😂

There’s a real blind spot with Mick, because he was relatively poor in the Haas, but the Haas was a relatively poor car and so it’s kind of a chicken/egg scenario and it’s not clear which was contributing more to the issues, especially adding in what we know now about how Haas were perhaps not helping him in ‘22.

I actually think the whole ‘he’d be in f1 still if his dad was in the paddock’ line of thinking is actually…not a great point in his favour? He should be in the paddock because he deserves a seat there, not because of his dad. Yes, Michael could have given him advice but he had Seb doing that pretty intensively and that didn’t help much. And they’re right, if Michael was there then teams would have been clamouring to have Mick on their team, but it wouldn’t have been for Mick, it would have been for Michael and that’s entirely the wrong reason to have someone on your team. It’s actually not a compliment imho?

I think Toto says a lot of things that aren’t always accurate and I’m not sure of any team that would immediately be interested in taking on Mick. He would be an option for AT, but equally a risk. Whilst Guenther was needlessly vile in some of the things he’s said about Mick, not all of his criticisms were without merit and would definitely work as a black mark against his name in contrast to an untested rookie (which themselves bring their own risks).

It’s funny because the cost cap has now made it so older drivers who lost their seats are actually in better positions to get them back than rookies because they’re seen as ‘safer hands’

But with Mick, who lost his seat because his team felt he caused too much damage… if you’re a TP do you take a rookie who will potentially make a lot of mistakes while they get up to speed with the car, or the driver with F1 experience who made too many mistakes… I feel like you’d take the punt on the rookie??