#it's hard and it sucks and everyone has different circumstances but no one else is gonna save u or get u out

[badcountryofficial]

It's funny how "you just need to be uncomfortable to grow and growing is a good thing that you should try to do in your life" is considered a "boomer-like" statement and how many people will genuinely respond with "sure but it's also valid if you don't want to do hard and uncomfortable things!"

DISCLAIMER: OBVIOUSLY THERE'S NUANCE

[turbulentscrawl]

BUNS HEAR ME OUT.

Top 5 most protective survivors with the ‘who did this to you’ trope.

Let’s just say their S/O gets injured maybe in a match and it’s evident by the damage of the body that it’s definitely not accidental as they claim. So we get a “who did this?”

Maybe this could be a HC for you to do one day lol

Oh this one is quick and easy! I did go back and forth on the exact order here, but these are my top 5s. There is some overlap with the one I just did, but for the sake of changing it up a bit we’ll say that in this case your injuries are obviously also not from a Hunter.

Ganji is at the top because I think he’d be the most emotionally reactive to this specific situation. He’s not as severe as Naib in his revenge, but survivors hurting survivors is a big deal. Like, you’re all stuck here, in limbo, suffering, and some bitch thinks they’re going to start turning it into a free-for-all, too? Fuck no. He feels bad about it later, but he is a little aggressive while trying to get you to admit who did it. He’ll soften a bit if it was a genuine accident, but he still thinks everyone’s been here too long for simple carelessness to be an excuse. If it wasn’t an accident? There are unspoken rules here, and if the manor isn’t going to enforce them, Ganji sure as fuck will.

Naib still has to have a place here, but he’s a smidge lower because his anger is more controlled and calculating. His protective urges in general are pretty off-the-charts and, while he can’t do much about a Hunter hurting you in a game since that’s kinda the point, he can do something about a fellow survivor. He won’t press you too hard while you’re recovering, but frankly it doesn’t matter if you won’t tell him how it happened or who did it. He’s spent years of his life digging up information about targets and this is no different. If anything, it’s easier because he knows the culprit was someone else in the match with you.

Patricia comes after Naib and Ganji because her emotions lean towards desperation more than anger or bitterness. She’s been itching for someone deserving to lay her blood curse on, and this is the perfect opportunity. Someone who was supposed to be an ally has hurt her love? That’s rotten. That’s sinful. She won’t leave you be until you spill who did it. She’s gentle, of course, but every waking moment she spends with you during recovery is spent asking or subtly coaxing you to admit what happened. She’ll give up on asking after several days, but will forever be watching to see if your interactions with the others change. If she suspects anyone in particular, they’re gonna have a little chat.

Andrew can’t see what reason a fellow survivor would have to hurt you, but then he really can’t see reason at all when he’s so angry. He’s not nearly as likely as the others to go out of his way for revenge after-the fact, and he’s not intuitive enough to find out who did it if you won’t tell him…but FUCK he’s mad. Andrew just spends the next few days stewing in anger, tense, sucking his teeth, and cursing randomly in quiet moments. If you or someone else from your match tells him who did it, he makes it clear that he isn’t doing shit for them going forward. Oh, what’s that, they got chaired? Downed? Well, guess they’re fucked. He’d rather take the match loss than save their sorry ass.

Orpheus’s exact reaction is going to depend a bit on when you catch him with all of this. Getting hurt in the matches is normal and frankly he’s a bit numbed to it in most circumstances. But this isn’t a normal match wound, is it, dear? Some of his personalities are more reactive than others, and all of them are quite good at digging. He was a detective, after all. In short, he would appreciate it if you told him who hurt you…but even if you won’t snitch, rest assured he will find out. Whatever happens after that depends on which personality is in charge at the time.

[harpersdragons]

Doomed by the Narrative

Jason messed up on a mission, and like his usual dramatic self, blows it a little out of proportion and panics.

AKA 2800 words of Jason spiraling

TW: panic attack, dissociation, mild suicidal thoughts? (There’s a bit where he thinks he’s better off dead)

If there’s something else let me know

Fic below the cut, and here’s the link on ao3:

The wind sweeps through Jason’s hair, his helmet behind him on the roof. Gotham has an over abundance of gargoyles, some which are still stable enough to hold his weight. The ledge he’s in is small—more suited to teenaged him, but this was his favorite roof.

It’s tall, positioned where you can see most of the city.

He breathes deeply, head braced against the gargoyle behind him—looking at where stars /should/ be—arms resting on his knees.

He’d fucked up tonight.

He’d fucked up massively.

Dick almost died because of him.

/Damian/ almost died because of him

/Tick

Tick

Tick

The sound echoes in Jason’s head, his bones, his very being.

Why tonight, why this mission?

He should move, do something. Maybe warn the others?

He’s supposed to be clearing the warehouse with Dick and Damian, he should warn them, get them out. But he can’t move, he’s frozen, his mouth won’t form the warning.

Tick

Tick

Tick

Something slams into him, right before heat sears through him.

Dick’s groaning on top of him, taking most of the heat of the fire.

How did he let this happen?

He’ll never be allowed back now.

The bomb was far enough away to not kill them, but it still sucked ass.

He drags Dick up, tosses him at Bruce, and runs./

He can’t help but draw similarities to his favorite tragedies.

Running away, never looking back like Orpheus saving his wife.

There’s more, Jason’s mind is racing between the self deprecating thoughts and the analogies.

But the height of his perch, the way the gentle breeze brushes through his hair, brings him out of his spiral briefly. He can almost pretend it’s Bruce, running his fingers through Jason’s hair, soothing him after a nightmare.

That’s his Achilles Heel, his weakness: the way he craves the comfort of a family he drove away.

Gotham’s air could never be considered fresh, too smoggy, too polluted, but it’s home.

It’s /his/ home.

His home, which he may have to say goodbye to.

Everything he’s been working towards with the Bats, gone.

Gone in a single instant.

All because Jason froze.

It was a damn warehouse, they were locked in, and there was the ticking of a bomb.

A sick parody of his death.

Except

This time he wasn’t alone.

There’s no way they’ll invite him back now.

He’d tried.

He’d tried /so hard/

And it wasn’t enough.

Bruce doesn’t want him, won’t want him, /can’t/ want him.

He’s a danger, why would any father want him around their kids? Even his own father shouldn’t want that..

Jason can’t even keep his head in the field. All the work he’s done to reclaim his trauma, to prove he’s /better/ than that, failed.

Looks like he’s a long way from Prometheus, he’s never been able to reclaim his fire.

He’s still fucked up, still useless.

All it took was a ticking noise and a warehouse.

The circumstances were vastly different.

There were no chains, no joker, no /crowbar/—barring the one strapped to his back, now laying next to his helmet. Hell, he even had company! He wasn’t facing it alone, and yet he still froze.

Boots thump against the ground—clearly intentional, it’s the Bat after all—accompanied by the quiet swish of a long cape.

Of course, there are other bats with capes: Red Robin and Robin, Spoiler and Black Bat, pretty much everyone but him and Dick.

But with the weight behind the drop, and the fact that Batman’s cape has a distinctive sound—if you know what to listen for—all leads to it being the big Bat.

Exactly the person who’s arrival he was dreading.

He knew it was inevitable. Hell, he wasn’t even hiding, or running. He just wished it wasn’t the case. He’d wondered if Bruce would give him a day or two, wanting to be with his real children, to reassure himself they survived despite Jason’s fuck-up.

“Hood.” Bruce growls. His voice is low and dark, only spelling out the anger hiding beneath.

“I know. I fucked up, it was dangerous and reckless and I endangered everyone. If I say I’m sorry,” he’s not really, is he? Can you be sorry if it’s something you can’t control? “Will you spare me the lecture?”

He knows the lecture is coming, almost nothing is a big enough excuse to get out of the lectures. He may be resigned to it, but he’d like to at least pretend he’s not used to it.

It’s all he gets now.

/“Jason, you’re being reckless”

“You’re dangerous”

“You lack control”/

And on and on and on

He’s /sick/ of it. Yet he can’t yell, or fight, and god knows he can’t /leave/.

He can’t force himself to give this up, he can’t leave his family. Even if they don’t want him. Even if he’ll never be a true member again.

But was he ever?

He was never truly accepted. Not by Dick, not by society. Who knows if Bruce actually wanted him there or was pitying him.

He’s just the /poor, starving street rat.

“Are you ok?” Bruce’s low voice shocks him out of his thoughts again.

“I…am uninjured.”

Is he ok?

He’s not totally present, he wouldn’t know.

Or rather, he’s /too present/, and yet disconnected from his feelings.

His mind’s spinning, it’s racing and it won’t stop.

But there’s no emotion tied to the thoughts.

How can there be?

He’s been waiting for this moment since he started reintegrating back into the family. The moment where they kick him to the curb, tell him he’s not worth it and he never was.

He could still leave, he has his grapple. He could jump off, run away /again/.

He could stand and fight. Turn around, close the distance, and scream at Bruce until he’s hoarse, or it escalates to something physical.

His heart stutters at the thought.

He may love fighting, he relishes in seeing that vein pop out in Bruce’s forehead, the way his lips purse in displeasure, but he can’t do it tonight.

He can’t—

“—ood!” Apparently Bruce has been talking for a while. Interesting. “Jason!” That really startles Jason. Bruce has rarely ever broken his “no names in the field rule”.

Whatever it is must be important.

“Jaylad, I need you to answer me, son, I need you to breathe.”

Wait. That was him, wasn’t it? Bruce was calling to him? He was calling him son, breaking one of his most important rules, for /Jason/?

He turns his head, making eye contact with Bruce. He must’ve retracted the white lenses at some point.

“There you are lad,” Bruce’s voice is soft, he must’ve turned the voice modulator off at some point. “Can you come over here? I can’t get to you on that ledge.”

Bruce is crouching on the edge of the roof, arm outstretched to him.

“You with me, bud? I just need you to grab my hand.”

Jason can do that, right? That seems easy.

Bruce isn’t asking a lot.

Seems hard though. His limbs aren’t obeying him, he can’t raise his arm, can’t force himself to stand up.

He manages to shake his head ever so slightly, eyes pleading with Bruce to understand, to get what he’s saying without having to say anything.

“No? No what, Jay? Can’t move?”

Jason nods at that, trying again to force his arm to work.

“Ok, ok we can sit here a bit longer. How about you try taking some deep breaths for me? I’ll lead, just try and follow.”

Jason acknowledges Bruce the best he can, and his father starts the familiar breathing sequence.

Jason begins to feel his body again, he didn’t even realize when he stopped.

On his last exhale, he’s able to shift, bracing his hands against his knees and pushing up.

“There we go, chum. Take it slow, alright?”

Jason stands, keeping a hand braced on the gargoyle. For the first time in a very long time, his vision swims when he takes in the height.

“D’d?” His tongue feels heavy, mouth not quite cooperating enough to form all the sounds.

There’s a sharp inhale from the figure across from him. The swirling black against the—mostly—gray sky.

“I’m here, Jaylad, I’m here. You can do it, just come to me.”

His limbs are still sluggish, but he can do it, right? It’s just 2 steps. Two steps and he’ll be near Bruce, he’ll be with his dad.

But…

Does his father really want him there?

His thoughts keep coming back to that.

The endless circle of self doubt.

Everything about this situation points to Bruce caring about him. Wanting him back.

But does he actually?

Is this a ploy?

“Deep breaths, Jay, you can do it, I believe in you.”

Oh, his breathing sped up again, didn’t it?

Jason just needs to get to Bruce, take the two steps off the ledge and back into the roof.

He starts forward, breathing fast, heart pounding in his chest.

One step,

Just one more,

He stumbles and—

He falls.

Distantly, he can hear Bruce yell, see the black shape dive after him.

They say Icarus laughed as he fell.

Overcome with joy, with freedom, he laughed.

Jason…didn’t quite laugh, but how else can he explain the sense of calm, of peace settling over him.

This was always his favorite part of flying through Gotham, this falling.

The swoop of his stomach before he shot the grapple line.

He knows he should be grabbing the grapple, it should be instinctual.

It always has been. Until now.

What if this is how it’s meant to be?

Surely his family is better without him.

They made it through his death once, surely they could do it again.

He’s always been a Greek tragedy, doomed by the narrative, right there with Achilles, Patroclus, and all the other Greek heroes of old.

At least they were worth something, they were /good/ (mostly).

A force slams into him, knocking out whatever air was left in his lungs.

Bruce had caught him, Bruce knew what to do.

He was twisting them in the air, firing the grapple line in the same move.

The line pulls taut, yanking them upwards /hard/. He hears Bruce grunt at the impact on his shoulder.

It still wasn’t enough, they slam into the ground, with just enough momentum taken out if it so that the fall doesn’t seriously injure them.

Bruce takes the brunt of it, covering Jason with his body, his free arm covering Jason’s head.

Bruce groans, body twisting under Jason.

This is Jason’s fault.

Bruce is hurting because of him.

First Dick and Damian, now Bruce. Jason hurts everything and everyone around him.

He needs to leave. /Now/.

He shoves himself up, forcing heavy limbs to work, and stumbles off of Bruce.

He can hear the alarmed shout and Bruce scrambling to get up, but he doesn’t stop.

He /can’t/ stop.

He doesn’t make it far, his legs give out and he collapses back to the pavement. He can’t help the way he curls up, trying to force himself back to his feet and ultimately failing.

Heavy arms encircle him, propping him upright against a broad chest.

Bruce’s fingers find his hair, stroking through it soothingly. Jason’s muscles are tense, he sits rigidly in Bruce’s arms.

It shouldn’t be comfortable, and yet it is. It’s the most comfortable Jason’s felt in a /long/ time.

“I got you, you’re safe now. Everything we’ll be ok, we’re going to go home.”

Home.

Does he have a home? It sounds nice. He finds himself relaxing, slowly intending his muscles, breathing finally evening out.

An indeterminate amount of time later, Jason is bundled into the Batmobile. Bruce never lets him go, setting the autopilot and then holding him tight the whole way back.

He’s starting to come back to himself when they pull into the cave. He can’t bring himself to worry about what that means, what his punishment will be for screwing the mission up and almost costing Dick and Damian’s lives.

Aforementioned brothers are pacing the cave when Bruce pulls him out of the car. Well, Damian is pacing and it looks like Dick is following him and trying to herd him upstairs.

“—just wait upstairs! B will bring Jason up eventually!”

Damian is ignoring Dick, and is the first to notice their arrival. The kid has one arm in a sling, and a couple visible cuts and bruises, but otherwise appears fine.

Dick is outwardly limping, his posture slumped as if compensating for broken ribs.

Jason can’t see the burns, but he knows they’re there. Because of him.

“You /both/ should be resting upstairs. It’s been a tough night.” Bruce cuts in from his position next to Jason. He’d been guiding Jason towards the med bay, keeping him close.

“C’mon, B, did you really think we’d listen? The only reason the others aren’t down here is because Alfred put his foot down.”

Bruce settles Jason on the cot, and Jason slumps forward to rest his head on Bruce’s chest. Now that the adrenaline has bled out of him, he’s just /tired/.

“Hey, Jaylad, just a little longer, ok? I need to get your armor off.” Jason grumbles his assent, but makes no move to help. Bruce finds the latches on his chest piece, jacket ditched a while ago—maybe in the car? Jason’s not quite sure—and slips it off. It’s followed by his guns, which are unloaded and put safely into his locker.

Bruce feels along his ribs and chest, asking Jason to take a couple breaths as he does so.

Jason follows all the orders mindlessly, anything to get him closer to sleeping.

Eventually, Bruce finishes his check up and hesitates, “I need to go change, lad, will you be alright here?”

“Mmph.”

There’s a sigh from above him, and Bruce’s fingers return to his hair.

“It won’t take long, I promise.”

Hands—Damian’s one good hand, both of Dick’s, he guesses—and towards the wall. He’s dimly aware of Bruce stepping away, and one of them helps him change out of his uniform pants and into sweats, leaving. When that’s done, Damian and Dick slip into place on the table next to him, holding him tight.

“Akhi?”

Jason hums his acknowledgment, but can’t bring himself to actually speak. He knows he should be embarrassed at showing this much weakness to his baby brother, but he can’t help it. He’s barely in control of his body, and he feels like Atlas, weighed down by an impossible burden.

Or maybe Sisyphus is the better analogy.

He’s been working nonstop to redeem himself, prove himself worthy, until his body gave out, like Sisyphus pushing the rock uphill for eternity, always a battle, a struggle, he can never win.

But maybe it’ll be different for Jason? Maybe this can change. Maybe he can accept help, maybe his family /does/ want him.

Dick’s fingers slide through his hair, Damian’s hand is at his back, rubbing soothing circles. One of them is humming, and he doesn’t know which.

Eventually—Jason’s unsure how much time has passed—Bruce shows back up in front of them, dressed in loose sweatpants and a soft t-shirt.

“Come on, Akhi, come with us.” Damian’s voice is soft and coaxing, he and Dick guide Jason off the table and towards the elevator. Bruce is close at their backs, and Jason leans heavily on Dick.

Jason is only dimly aware of being led through the manor, pausing briefly at the heavy oak door leading to Bruce’s room.

The rest of his siblings are all there, Tim, Steph, Cass, all curled up in the bed. Cass sits up and blinks owlishly, tilting her head as she takes in Jason’s body language. He fidgets under the scrutiny, and Damian still tugs him forward.

Cass’ face softens at whatever she sees, and reaches out her hand. He takes it, and they all climb in the bed.

After some maneuvering, and careful jostling of Tim and Steph, Jason is situated in the middle of the pile, with Bruce at his back holding him securely. Damian fits himself between Jason and Tim, and Dick between Damian and Tim.

This is even better than being held earlier, now there’s no hard armor digging into him.

He can hear soft murmuring, but surely it’s not important. Not when he’s so tired, and wholly safe for the first time in years.

Nothing is quite fixed, yet it feels like it might be able to be fixed.

Whatever happens later, right now Jason is safe.

Without anything else stopping him, Jason finally lets Morpheus pull him under, dropping into the comforting darkness.

[mirrortouchedsea]

Secret Santa 2024 PART 2!!! Once again this is a gift for @oh-great-another-blog-posts, this time we have HiMERU and Jun just hanging out on break from a job. CW for general reimei isms.

@enstars-secret-santa

---

Jun wipes his forehead and slumps down in one of the break room chairs. He’s doing a job without the rest of Eden today, but a few other CosPro idols were there too, so he isn’t entirely alone. He takes a swig from his water bottle and leans back in the chair to catch his breath. 

Jun perks up when the door creaks open and someone else slips inside. Oh, hey HiMERU…san. Ah, HiMERU didn’t realize you were also taking a break in here Sazanami, HiMERU will leave now. Oh, you don’t have to do that HiMERU-san, I thought we were friends? It takes a moment for HiMERU to respond and Jun worries he’s overstepped. Kaname always was touchy on that subject, wasn’t he. Ah, yes, HiMERU apologizes for that. He sits down awkwardly across from Jun and also drinks from his water bottle. The silence is deafening and Jun racks his brain for something to say. What did Kaname even like? Does Jun even know him at all? 

In the end, HiMERU is the one who breaks the silence first. You did well during our last shoot, Sazanami. You weren’t half bad either, I didn’t realize you could dance like that. HiMERU has many talents and must be flexible to be the perfect idol. What’s with that anyway? With what? Being the perfect idol, I mean, you were pretty obsessed with Kazehaya-senpai--Do not say his name around HiMERU. Sorry man, but you were pretty obsessed with uh, that guy I guess, talking about how perfect he was and how you wanted to be like him. HiMERU remembers no such thing. Jun thinks to himself how Kaname’s injuries must be worse than he thought after that incident. Whatever, forget I said anything, but thanks for the compliment I guess. 

…

…

… 

What was HiMERU like in school, before the…well you know. You were such an asshole when we first met, but I’m not shocked you don’t remember that at all. Ridiculous, HiMERU treats everyone with respect. Just yesterday I saw you calling Rinne-senpai some colorful words that would make Ohii-san’s ears bleed. Amagi is a different case. Yeah? He’s an insufferable asshole who decides things on a whim and doesn’t care for anyone else. Uh huh… Yesterday he decided to place a plastic bucket full of water above the door before practice and it fell on HiMERU causing him to be soaked. That sounds like Rinne-senpai alright, but you haven’t left Crazy:B or anything so it can’t be that bad can it? Unfortunately no, Amagi is a competent leader when he wants to be. Rare to hear you admitting something like that about Rinne-senpai, I mean even Sakura always has something to say about the guy. It is a rather unfortunate circumstance HiMERU has found himself in, though he is not surprised that Oukawa has vented to you as well. 

Back on topic, is there anything else about HiMERU from high school you remember? I mean, you were pretty popular with the special students for a while there, it was hard t’ get ya alone sometimes. Why would you need to be alone with HiMERU? Well I don’t fuckin’ know, I wanted to try and be your friend after your time in the work house and with Tatsumi-senpai. HiMERU still cannot believe he was ever ‘friends’ with that freak. Tatsumi-senpai is amazing, but anyway, once you became a special student, you never wanted to be seen in public with me which sucked but like, I get why, those guys are brutal, but still. HiMERU apologizes for being so cold with you back then, he would actually like to…get to know you better. Yeah? Yes, he would like to make amends for his past transgressions. Well I s’pose this is a good place to start with that, oh, could you toss me that water bottle? Sure, here, it’s important to stay hydrated during jobs like these, HiMERU should drink some water as well. 

Jun takes a swig from his water bottle. HiMERU is definitely a weird guy, and he’s definitely not the same guy from Reimei Academy that he knew, but could that all be chalked up to his injury? He isn’t entirely sure, something about this HiMERU in front of him, drinking from his water bottle in the most perfect form despite it just being the two of them in the room, wasn’t Kaname, but…well Jun shouldn’t pry into those reasons, should he. He was partially responsible for not warning them in time, so he shouldn’t get those answers just because he wants them. 

They finish their water and go back to work, but Jun is a little lighter on his feet. Whoever this HiMERU is, they care a lot for Kaname. He won’t pry into it, at least for now. 

[delta-lethonomia]

18, 22, 25 if you like!!

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

Ooooh. That's a good question. Ok, couple options: Wyll's repressed drive for power, and how much of that ties into how Mizora treats him. How him becoming Duke Ravenguard is obviously his bad ending, and how similar it is to his absolute ending. Karlach's absolute ending. The joys of Minthara/Gale. Minthara/Astarion. Wacky mom!Lae'zel adventures.

Worse - you forget to give the egg to Lae'zel, so there are newspaper articles about the gith baby hatching in the Elfsong tavern, wrecking havoc. Do Tav and Astarion adopt the baby gith they forgot????? Wait, worse - unromanced Astarion fucks off to the Elfsong like 3 days later, after everyone else has partied and left, and finds the egg just as it's hatching. They're both monsters hiding in the dark, forgotten: but now he feels just a tad responsible for it. Maybe it bites him and that's like, vampire bonding language, you know. feral cat vibes. gremlin vibes. I NEED THIS (I literally just mentioned how I dislike happy ending dad!astarion. This is different. This is "throw child at Astarion and watch him throw a fit." As it's a githyanki, they might actually survive the process once he figures out they need something more substantial than blood and bread.)

Anyway I also like putting Astarion in awkward positions like imagining him getting recognized in taverns he used to hunt in. That's why I wrote him being banned from Sharess' Caress: surely someone has caught onto what he's been doing, even though in SC they think he's a freelance prostitute stealing clients. Even though his lovers all disappear, someone must recognize him. Some people go to the same bar every day for years. It's impossible that no one knows him. Let some patriar recognize him! Let someone mention Cazador in a positive light to his face! Make him squirm.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

This is absolutely not a surprise to anyone but Cazador's mansion is my favorite part. There's so much mystery and hidden stories everywhere - how do the human servants interact with the spawn? How much do they see? Do the spawn get to kick them around? What's up with the werewolves? Cazador clearly can be diplomatic - how is he with them? Does he schmooze at parties? Do people think he's funny because he's very funny. I just - I feel like it implies that Cazador just roasts Astarion on occasion and elicits laughter from the other spawn. I think that's where a lot of Astarion's absolutely savage snark comes from. (I overthink how much of Astarion's demeanor looks like Cazador's. There are similarities!!!!) Astarion said the spawn weren't allowed to learn Kozakuran. Does this imply they tried? Did they try to gain favor with Cazador by learning his language? Does he leave notebooks in Kozakuran around, or books? (Remember, Astarion has never seen that gate to the ballroom closed.)

ok but ignores - honestly my brain is kind of fried at this point and I've just got Caz on the brain. I'll come back to this if anything else occurs to me!

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing People complaining about "Save the Artist" in Act 3. It's not that hard. Yes, the camera sucks for different levels, but it's not that bad, and tbh I liked the storyline. I've seen some takes that absolutely shit on Oskar Fevras for bringing back his old flame to ask her if she killed herself over him, and yeah, it's short sighted, but emotionally I completely get where he's coming from. Dude's a dumbass who keeps knocking it out of the park with women who are too good for him, but I think anyone would feel the way he did in that circumstance. I liked the story and it's a freaking haunted mansion, dude, I will forgive a lot for that.

[bokettochild]

forgot about this for awhile, but if you remember that post you made about how the chain would react if legend lost his memory? i’m not sure if you really talked about it a lot, but wild was one of the ones who embraced the “new” legend with no memories and was broken up about the fact that people wanted the original legend back because that would mean the same about him. so i was wondering what wild thought about the legend without his memories, like did he miss the original legend at all? or was he just feeling a lot of emotions because he saw himself in the same situation? (hope this made sense btw, have a great day too!!)

This post?

Honestly, I think Wild would have a difficult time with it just like everyone else. He misses the old Legend, and sometimes even the bitterness because Legend got it.

One thing none of the heroes can deny is that no matter the circumstances, Legend would understand your pain, your struggles, so while he wasn't always obvious about it, he was always there for them. Losing that, because now Legend doesn't have the memories to help him understand their hurts, is hard. Sure, this new version of Legend is a total empath, and he cares, and he does listen, attentively so, but it's missing that harshness to his manner that they're all used to.

I think for Wild though, he sees so much of himself in the vet now, maybe he's just projecting his struggles, he does wonder about that, but he does get it. He misses old Legend, but he's also eager to embrace this new version of his brother because that's what he would want if he could meet the people of his past again. Whenever he starts thinking too hard about the changes and about what he misses, it's not uncommon for Legend to pick up on it and ask him what's wrong. Unlike the others though, he has no issue telling Legend about who he was before, and without fail, talking about it helps him because Legend may have changed in some ways, but he still likes making fun of idiots, of which he counts himself as one, and they can laugh about him sometimes, or just talk about things, which leads to helping the vet figure out more about who he once was, which is good for both.

I think Wild finds some healing of his own in helping someone else through his struggles, and also having someone who now knows exactly what he goes through all of the time. Sure, he does miss the old vet sometimes, but unlike the others, it's easier for him to understand that Legend is still the same person, just changed, and he's nothing if not good at adapting to change. He doesn't bottle up his feelings about Legend like the others, and they work to process the change together, so they both kind of grow around that hurt and loss while the others struggle with it.

So, I'd say he does miss the old Legend, and he does project a lot, but I think he handles the situation really well all things considered. He does have moments where he just super misses Old Legend, but then Legend will purposefully start acting like an ass to try and simulate how he once was and the champion just ends up laugh crying at it. I think he mourns the loss of who his brother was, and comes to understand Zelda and Impa and the others better, but generally speaking he heals and moves on.

Hence why, if Legend did get all his memories back and return to his old self, Wild takes it so badly. All that growth and change and healing feels like it's being thrown back in his face and maybe wasn't worth anything after all, maybe was a lie? Was pointless? He can't hate Legend for it (is a bit jealous actually) but man does it suck! And he just lost Legend again? The Legend he actually got to know and bonded so much with? Like, sure, Legend wouldn't forget everything that happened while his memories were gone, but he's still different from the kid they got to know, and while he probably does try and help Wild with it, the rest of the heroes aren't really helping the champion's situation with how eagerly they accept this. Because it would take so much longer for them to heal and Legend coming back would mean they don't have to continue that journey, especially since they were still struggling with the first steps.

For the heroes, it's like setting out on a long walk because your car broke down, only for a friend to drive up and offer a ride.

Meanwhile, for Wild, it's like being dropped out of a plane right back at the start of the path, right after he made it to the end.

[davekat-sucks]

If there's one thing i don't like about this fandom it's how much they make the kids more meaner? Villainizing? Than they actually are. Don't get me wrong, they have done a lot of bad but like these characters are FRIENDS. They do genuinely care about eachother in the end they aren't cold hearted and revel in other's suffering, they aren't Caliborn or Vriska afterall. I think they read the comic wrong, the kids were willing to sacrifice their own lives for eachother, a prime example of this was Daves conversation with doomed Rose. I blame the spaceship meteor part of the story for ruining the characters. Like everyone acted so ooc? Why were Jade and Davesprite giving John such a hard time about his dad die dying? Both of them literally had to watch their guardians die in front of them, you'd think they'd be the most sympathetic here? Or how Dave and Karkat, characters who will go through lengths to protect their friends just fucking stand there as everyone else tears themselves or eachother apart? Karkat is an ass yes but this was the same guy who was crying his heart out when he saw Solluxs dead body when in game or how he told Aradia bot that he would've tried to get her back to life if it weren't for other circumstances. Why was everyone being so uncaring at this part? It didn't feel right. The alpha kids got it the WORST, from bad writing to fandom treatment. I remember back in the day seeing stuff where Dirk was just down right mean to Jane "hahaha sucks to be you Jake is mine fat bitch". There was even a little bit of this aggressiveness in House of Dirk, now i do find that story fun but the small part where he calls Jane "xenophobic", bothered me. Like he would NOT say that to her. Have you seen how he speaks to her? "If you ever need help, Jane. If you're ever in any trouble at all. Let me know. Just say the word." Same guy who built a robot to protect her life and pretty much wrote an entire book for her, i think Dirk cares about Jane guys. This fandom and comic is so mean to Jane, as funny as i thought it was that Caliborn called her a fat fucking pig and cow, she really just became a punching box at that point. They'll shit on her because she's a woman getting in the way of the gay men. The ONLY thing people get from her as a character is that she's fat, because Caliborn said so along with a bunch of other things. Jake, poor Jake, gets sexualized by everyone he knows and had to burn his Grandmothers body right in front of him. But according to fans HE'S the asshole here because he cant communicate properly. Gee i wonder why. Roxy gets put on a fucking pedestal by the comic and fans, super extra special treatment. Ignore how she sexually harasses Dirk or almost killed Jane, no she's incapable of doing wrong, isn't that right Calliope? Yes, Roxy should be the new leader AND kill the Condescension yes. Now i never finished reading the epilogues because why would i? I'm probably missing a lot if we're taking them into consideration but not taking it into consideration because my point still stands because thats how the fandom treated them even before those came out. And even when talking about the base comic i still see those attitudes.

These characters DO have their personal problems but when people talk about they insert angst where it doesn't exist for favor of projection and i hate how common its become.

If people claim it is just cynicism that comes with growing up, there's clearly a difference between being cynicism, nihilism, and being a straight up asshole. If people say it is Dave and Karkat's depression is the reason why they stand around doing nothing as Rose becomes alcoholic and Terezi gets abused by Gamzee, it's sure strange they got over their depression right as VRISKA comes in to solve everything and those two bastards act like nothing had happened. Everything by Act 6 and Post Retcon just made all the characters worse. They have become an empty shell of who they used to be. The bleak outlook has become a theme for current Homestuck. It's been like this for Epilogues and Homestuck^2 too. I don't know if James Roach and HICU can really save the franchise and get out of all the characters having this negative light. Andrew Hussie and WhatPumpkin has shoved this jaded feeling right in the audience's faces that it's become the norm to expect the worse. Readers expect characters being assholes and more depression, they will receive it because Hussie and WhatPumpkin made it so.

[hello-there]

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[lover-of-whatever]

Fandom AUs do tend to lean towards not engaging with the material so much as treating it as a mere prompt to slap any aesthetic on. Swap AUs have become infamous for changing characters into something completely unrecognizable, but I don't think the Au is an inherently bad idea. I think Swap Au's are at their best when the two characters in question are already narrative foils and come from similar backgrounds/can easily be put in the same situation as the other.

My favorite example is kinda cheating because there is kinda basis in canon for it, but it's from one of Don't Starve Together's skin sets, called The Triumphant. The context for it is that upon being placed on the throne that controls the world of DS, you become a pawn for "Them" and they warp you into a worse version of yourself. But it's okay, you get a cool goth outfit and magic powers. Every character gets a super evil version of themselves, all but Maxwell. Maxwell as a playable character had already spent years as an evil pawn, before that he was the timid and dweebish William Carter. His time hanging out with/being used by some weird shadow shit straight up had him take on a new identity. Default Maxwell is already "Triumphant", so in order to have a skin in the set he is instead reverted back to William and literally dubbed "The Untriumphant". This is literally a Swap AU but instead of two people it's Maxwell swapping with everyone else out to kill him lmao. That in of itself is hilarious and more Swap Aus should do that actually, but that's not the example I'm going for.

Wilson is the kinda protagonist of the series, poster boy is more accurate, but he has the most involvement in the narrative for a playable character. As a result the official narrative of the game is that it was Wilson at the end of the first game that freed Maxwell from his throne and took his place. While their roles as protag and antag are loose, esp since Max is no longer the main antagonist but another guy just a part of the ensemble, they were written to have reasons to hate each outside of circumstance. While neither would admit it, they are very alike. Both are stubborn and insist on being gentlemanly, but are ultimately just massive dorks. Maxwell more the former and Wilson the latter, but Max is still subject to the butt of jokes by the rest of the cast and Wilson is literally called "The Gentleman Scientist". Both had ambitions in their respective fields but sucked at them, and when in a moment of desperation They took advantage of their desire's and offered them a trade. Max/William practices magic and Wilson science, and each insist that their. Methods let's call them is superior to the other. Their fighting is ultimately pointless, the world they live in is capable of both. They may be able to come to an agreement if they were to admit they both really wanted the same thing, knowledge. Knowledge is what drives the game; you may die and no longer have the tools of the previous sessions, but you have your memory. You can learn from your mistakes and get progress. Wilson isn't GREAT at science, but the mc/posterboy/protag is a scientist for a reason, he's as curious as the player is.

The main difference between the two is that William didn't get full understanding, his magic in the real world was all just a performance using something he didn't fully understand. He literally faked it so hard he became his persona. The extent that Wilson understands his knowledge isn't clear, but in his circumstance he has to use that to survive an environment out to kill him. When Maxwell is freed and has to live in that same environment, he does the same.

How much of Maxwell is William and how much is the result of Them? The extent of Them's influence isn't clear, but what is clear is that Maxwell would not have come into existence without Them. Every cast member has the potential to become Triumphant, not just from the potential to do evil in everyone but because They would enable that evil. Wilson's Triumphant skin is even a bloody three piece suit like Max's for Pete's sake. Wilson literally would of looked like Maxwell after taking his place. To swap the two would be to explore the worst aspects of Wilson, and William as his own character with less Them influence. What about their dynamic changes now Wilson is the one with more power? How then would they view each other? Would they still have that iconic slap fight gif or is William nicer/weaker than that?

I think it's neat :)

[missielynne]

I feel so out of sync with the Ghosts fandom! I just don't care at all about fanwanking everyone's gender and sexual identity and even the canon romances are meh to me. And I was so meh about this Christmas episode while everyone else loved it. The possessions didn't work for me at all, and the Pete stuff...not to sound heartless, but we've already been down that exact same road with him and Laura so it didn't hit nearly as hard this time. I also don't love Jay as much as most do---he's kind of a wimp who apparently went years without standing up for Sam to his family and he's always so desperate for acceptance. Speaking of his family, yet another way I'm different from most of the ghosts fandom is that I can't STAND Bela. Like Jay, she thinks way too highly of herself and is kind of a social climber but lacks Jay's endearing qualities. Can't wait to read your review of this ep!

What are a few predictions you have for the rest of this season? Not obvious ones like Nisaac getting back together (which...yawn!) but kind of bold and unexpected ones?! Mine: Trevor is getting sucked off, Sam will discover she's pregnant and Hetty's power has something to do with time travel!

I totally get it, even though I will disagree to varying degrees on varying levels on some of those things. (Like for instance, Bela's my girl but I see where you're coming from.)

As for the episode itself...it's weird cause I DID like it...but not as a Christmas episode. It didn't feel particularly like a Christmas episode at all compared to its predecessor unless it was trying to replicate the holiday chaos of something like Home Alone or Christmas Vacation (neither of which are faves of mine. I prefer the stuff with warmer, happier endings and messages). I feel like the Christmas part of it was so on the periphery of the story that they could have made each possession be its own normal episode and the same story could have been told without it changing anything.

Like I LOVED the idea of Nancy helping Sam indirectly make headway with her mother-in-law in ways she couldn't do on her own. That was cool. But was it particularly Christmassy a la Thor the Grinch possessing Sam and learning what Christmas means? No, it was not.

And Pete possessing Jay? Entertaining and I LOVED that it gave him the opportunity to meet the ghosts "in person", but I wish they could have used the opportunity for the two to connect more rather than just turning Pete into a Hetty who's using the possession for his own gain (even though I understand the whole Laura thing and love them connecting, it was under a circumstance that could have happened any time.) I'm hoping that since the showrunners and writers know how big the Pete/Jay face to face/connection is to all of us, they're doing some sort of build up, from first trip out together to possession to...whatever comes next until they finally do talk and it's like a Very Special Episode or something.

Now I don't feel as strongly about Jay as you do, but I definitely agree with the idea that there needs to be some sort of reckoning in his and Sam's relationship where he finally just, I don't know, starts spilling out all his frustrations and says how he really feels. And I don't care if it leads to them having marriage troubles or what (if it's temporary and leads them both to actually learn something) but I hate Jay always having to get the short end of the stick and doing nothing to improve the situation. It's very frustrating.

I agree about Trevor getting sucked off. I won't be surprised if it happens because they really seem like they're setting something like that up. I hope with all my might that Sam doesn't discover she's pregnant now or at any point in the series. I really don't like this habit of showrunners feeling like every happily married couple needs to have a baby pop out of nowhere to be complete and I would like to have at least one show where that doesn't happen. (They did it in BBC Ghosts and it was a factor, IMO, why the ending was so unsatisfactory. But if it happens, I'll deal.)

Hetty's power having something to do with time travel? Interesting! Although I'm still thinking it's a phone thing. And in the Halloween episode she was going on about it showing up suddenly so maybe if she has phone powers, like there's a storm and they have no power and no way to reach anyone and then voila, in their hour of need, Hetty's power appears and she saves the day.

I also think Sas' COD is coming. Maybe something to do with food? (And possibly if that's a cause, maybe Jay's restaurant will be part of the reveal?)

And we haven't had our Stephanie episode yet so I wonder what they'll do with her and what it will take to get her sucked off? Maybe she gets to have some sort of revenge on her killer? Like he gets out of jail on parole and ends up at Woodstone somehow where she helps catch/reveal him like with Trevor and Ari but more intense?

And I wonder what else they'll do with Elias since he's coming too? Maybe there will be some talk about the Thomas and Alberta situation and we'll find out that Thomas has been chilling with his dad downstairs and...they both come up under the guise of Thomas making an apology to Alberta and...chaos ensues?

[skaruresonic]

🤍, 🖤, 💖, 💔, 💕?

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think?

Lmao how many people can I piss off if I jokingly say "Eggman"?

Huh, this is a tough one. Can't really think of any.

I guess I'll fall back on an oldie but goodie and say the ARK, as a whole, was morally ambiguous. While they weren't performing unethical surgery on Shadow, you also don't develop WMDs in secret without some kind of agenda.

I also think GUN's shadiness fluctuates depending on the game. They seem to have shaped up after the events of ShTH and started acting towards a more collective good in honor of Gerald's memory, but their actions in SA2 suggest an inept government. And, well, you know the old saying about stupidity becoming indistinguishable from malice after a certain point.

I tend to wonder what the Commander's plan was during the events of SA2. Although the game portrays GUN as a bunch of flat-feet until it's revealed that they raided the colony, I can't help but wonder if he in some part manufactured Sonic's framing in order to head public scrutiny off at the pass, much like how they portrayed the raid as an accident reponse. I can't imagine the Commander would have liked it to be known that Eggman stole Project Shadow while it lay under his jurisdiction.

---

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

...Eggman. Just because he speculated on his grandfather's motives once or twice doesn't mean he's rethinking his life choices. The war criminal life didn't choose him, he chose the war criminal life lol.

---

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

THE ENTIRE WORLD CAN FIGHT ME ON THIS BUT YOU ARE TRIPPING IF YOU SAY SA2'S TREASURE HUNTING STAGES ARE WORSE THAN SA1'S. BITCH WHERE. HOW. WHOMST.

AT LEAST THEY'RE NOT COPY-PASTED DIRECTLY FROM SONIC'S LEVELS WITHOUT REGARD FOR KNUCKLES' MOVESET. ROUGE AND KNUCKLES MOVE JUST AS QUICKLY AS SONIC AND SHADOW. "IT TAKES TOO LONG" YEAH BECAUSE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LEARN THE LAYOUT AND GIT GUD. JESSE WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. THIS IS SUCH A NONSENSICAL CRITICISM FOR A GAME THAT HAS KART RACING. I DON'T GET IT. IT SAYS "TREASURE HUNTING" ON THE TIN. YOU'RE EXPECTED TO LOOK FOR EMERALDS. THAT'S LIKE GOING FISHING AND COMPLAINING ABOUT GETTING WET.

PLUS THE RADAR IN SA1 BUGS ME SO MUCH MORE BECAUSE IT NEVER SHUTS UP. I LIKE THAT SA2'S RADAR DOESN'T DING EVERY TIME I GET CLOSE TO AN UNINTENDED EMERALD SHARD BECAUSE I CAN JUST PICK UP, NO MUSS NO FUSS NO COCONUTS. THIS IS LITERALLY NOT A PROBLEM. OMFG IF I HAVE TO HEAR "SA2's tReAsUrE hUnTiNg SuCkS" ONE MORE TIME

that being said I will agree that Death Chamber and Egg Quarters suck a bag of dicks, particularly Egg Quarters Hard Mode which leaves you at the mercy of the Kikis' wonky AI. motherfuckers always blow themselves up and ruin my A-rank

---

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

You all are really gonna hate me, but Blaze. You could remove her from '06's plot and nothing would change. Hell, the fact that she resides in a different dimension inherently means you could remove every single aspect of her circumstances and nothing of the series at large would change.

Idk man, I just don't think she adds much, honestly. Her personality is kind of Mary-Suish while also being underwhelming, as well as largely informed: her fear of heights, for instance, doesn't impact Rush's gameplay at all. She enjoys special exceptions other girl characters don't, and it's a pain in the ass to even include her in a future game because you have to explain why she isn't back in her own dimension.

---

💕: What is an unpopular ship that you like?

Is Shadria unpopular enough to count? Guess it's only unpopular with antis.

Oh, well. I'll say Sonegg :P

[mirikitakato]

[Translation] Banquet for the Scarlet Flower Dyed in Darkness: Episode 5

Ivan: ......Jessica's life is at stake, I can’t afford to rest. I’m the one asked for help in the first place, so I can't leave it all to you. I may not be able to do much, but... I still want to do what I can.

Heathcliff: Ivan...

Riquet: I remember! I brought honey cookies for a snack. Everyone, also Ivan, please have some. Let's give a few to Jessica as well. Even a wizard would have a hard time only eating nectar. I'm sure she'll be able to eat something by tomorrow morning.

Ivan: Honey cookies...

Riquet: Something wrong with honey cookies?

Ivan: Oh, no, this reminds me Jessica likes them. This village is remote, but it's famous for its honey because there are many flowers.

Heathcliff: By any chance, you mean honey made from Oz flower’s nectar? Isn’t the flower poisonous?

Ivan: The poison is only in the roots, so the nectar is harmless. The taste is so rich that would make people want to keep eating it. But...thank you, Jessica will surely be happy too.

Riquet: You're welcome, eating what you like gives you energy.

Ivan: ......You all are so kind. I thought I would feel scared of wizards because of Lord Oz’s legend. But you all have been nothing but kind to me since yesterday. Jessica too...I guess wizards aren’t that different from ordinary humans.

Arthur: Lord Oz is like that too. He's no different from us. He's kind and generous, and he makes mistakes like anyone else. For example, when I was a child, I asked him to make pancakes for me, but he didn't cook them well and burned them.

Ivan: Lord Oz…made pancakes...and b-burned them?

Riquet: He is good at making them now. He even draws pictures on them.

Lennox: Cain also said he got a cute drawing of a rabbit on his pancake.

Heathcliff: I was also really surprised when I first heard Lord Oz draws on pancakes.... He's also created illustrated textbooks that are easy for Riquet to understand, since he is studying reading and writing.

Arthur: Yes, he has done that too. It was really fun to draw pictures together.

Riquet: If there are things couldn't be conveyed through pictures alone, he would use magic to make them move. I'm still studying from that book.

Lennox: I once drank with Lord Oz at a bar.

Ivan: Lord Oz went to a bar…!?

Lennox: That time, it seemed he concerned about me throwing myself into danger without regard for my own well-being. He's a kind person.

Ivan: ......

Arthur: Does it surprise you that a Demon Lord would act like a normal person? But it’s also one of Lord Oz’s appearance. His immense power often leads to misunderstandings. Whispers and myths distort the truth, painting him as something entirely different. I think...the flower that blooms in the forest is similar.

Heathcliff: …With its size and beauty, that flower is worthy of being named after Lord Oz. The stories passed down likely contain a variety of circumstances or reasons behind them.

Ivan: You’re right... It’s such a strange rumor that a simple flower likes to suck human blood and life force. Maybe we, and our ancestors who have lived near here for generations, misunderstand the flower because of the name "Demon Lord Oz"...

Arthur: ...... "Oz" is a precious flower to me too. My journey with Lord Oz in pursuit of that flower was unlike anything I'd ever known. The world stretched out below us in a kaleidoscope of sights, each day brimming with the unexpected. It was only for a few days, but it felt like we were having an adventure all over the world together.

Heathcliff: ...... I'm sure Lord Oz felt the same way as Prince Arthur. Given the widespread recognition of Lord Oz's name, clearing up all misunderstandings may prove challenging…but perhaps, we can begin to untangle the smaller grievances over time. I hope this will be the first step towards a positive outcome.

Arthur: Thank you, Heathcliff.

Ivan: ......

Lennox: That pendant is also made by a wizard.

Heathcliff: A protective spell is cast on it. Did Jessica give it to you?

Ivan: This... Jessica gave it to me as an amulet before I left. I see, so it's a protective spell... That's why I was able to travel such a long distance safely...

Arthur: The two of you get along well.

Riquet: Hehe, Ivan loves Jessica.

Ivan: Eh?! Wh-what are you saying all of a sudden...?

Riquet: You had a very kind expression just now. It feels great when the person you love cherishes you back.

Ivan: No, no, no, it's not like that...Jessica and I grew up like siblings because we live close by. Her parents are not around, and my parents were often away from home because of work, so we practically lived together. Jessica can be a bit of an airhead sometimes. There are times I can't tell which one of us is older…

Riquet: ......So you treasure Jessica like she's family? Isn't that loving someone?

Ivan: Ah, you mean in that way...

Lennox: Haha, I'm sure Jessica loves you just as much. The protective spell cast on the pendant seems to be filled with a lot of heart. Wizards use magic with their hearts. So I can feel a warm heart in that pendant too.

Heathcliff: I see. A warm and strong heart. ......But the protective power is a little weak, though.

Ivan: I-is that so?

Heathcliff: Perhaps it's the effect of time passing, but...it’s definitely also because it's been protecting you with all its might. If it's okay with you, can I fix it? Jessica's magic will remain unaffected, of course.

Ivan: Ah, thank you, if you don’t mind…

Heathcliff: 《Repsev Aivulp Sunos》

Ivan: Wow... it appears even shinier somehow.

Heathcliff: ......Something important given by a precious person, who has grown up with you since childhood, huh…

Ivan: Huh?

Heathcliff: No, it’s nothing… ...Let's pray together that we can get through tonight safely. With Lord Oz and Teacher Faust around, I'm sure we'll be fine. We'll help as much as we can too.

[Scene changes]

After parting with everyone who are in charge of investigating the documents in the village, we are walking along the path that leads into the forest.

Shino: Exactly as Ivan said, the flowers become denser and denser the further we go.

Murr: The air is getting thicker too! The flowers are swaying and moving, like we're being invited into the forest.

Faust: If you were human, you would naturally stop because you could sense the danger. Well, no one is living here to begin with…

Akira: Speaking of which, "Oz" is poisonous, right? Ms. Jessica said she can only eat its nectar for now. Would her body be okay?

Faust: Only the root is poisonous. She’s probably fine as long as she only eats the nectar, but...

Faust stops speaking and looks at the forest, raising the brim of his hat slightly.

Faust: …I can sense an aura similar to the flower in the pot. As I thought, the reason these flowers are discolored is probably due to the miasma floating around the forest. Although the details are still unclear, the bottom line is that Jessica, who ate the miasma-tainted nectar, is now only able to eat it.

Murr: And there are twisted beings lurking in this forest like the undead! Was she seduced by “the source”? Or was she driven by it? In any case, she is now under a curse of sorts.

Shino: So, the flower itself doesn't want life force or sacrifices.

Akira: According to Jessica's dream, the source of this miasma lies deeper within the forest, at the very location where she saw a field of Oz flowers. The closer I get, the heavier the air becomes, like I was being pressed down by something…

Oz: 《Vox Nox》

Oz, who is standing by, recited a spell. A wave of warmth washes over me, instantly calming the tremors of anxiety and cold that have gripped my hands.

Oz: The miasma can’t kill us, but it's not something a human can withstand for long. If you're not feeling well, let me know.

Akira: Oz... thank you.

As we walk through the forest, the trees thicken, casting a night-like darkness despite the late afternoon hour. The canopy overhead blocks out the sky.

Shino: Oz, you traveled with Arthur to find this flower. Did you come here before?

Oz: No, we found it in the North. The ground was covered in snow, and there were fewer flowers in bloom.

Murr: What kind of journey was it? What brought Oz, who had confined himself in his castle for over a thousand years, out of the castle? Why did you think of looking for “Oz” flower? Did you become interested in the flower that bears your name? Or did you just want to show it to Arthur?

I meet Oz's eyes briefly as he turns his head away to avoid Murr's curious gaze. I’m also interested in the story of his journey. Oz realizes the unspoken curiosity in my eyes and slowly turns his gaze to a flower blooming nearby.

Oz: ...It was Arthur who brought it up. He was a child who wanted to know everything. There was nothing special about the trip itself. It was just a trip to find a flower, and we found it, but...

Looking into the distance, he speaks softly and slowly, as if trying to pull up past memories from that beautiful and large flower.

Oz: When Arthur was a child, the twins gave him a storybook telling a legend of this flower. Arthur was happy that it had the same name as me. He wanted to see it with his own eyes, so he held this book, came to me on a broom and said: "Let's go see the Oz flower together!"

Listening to Oz’s gentle voice, a smile tugs at my lips. I envision the image of little Arthur, whose face flushed with excitement, gripping a broom in his hand.

Akira: Sounds so cute... So, you guys went to find the flowers by riding brooms?

Oz: Yes.

Episode 4 | Episode 6

[the1312daysofchristmas]

Dif anon

I'll be honest, I didn't have any inkling he was anything but white until I found your blog recently. I had been a fan for two years and seen all the youtube interviews at that point. This is coming from a close to white, but not quite white hispanic person./gen

ive talked a lot about this but theres a lot of forces contributing to this. pictures make him look lighter, people just assume that since hes emo hes white, interviewers stopped asking about it when he wouldnt let them peg him as a sob story (you see this bait a few times in early interviews, right before/around them getting big, theyd be like aw was it hard being the only black kid in your neighbourhood :((((( and hed be like i guess but my band rules lets talk about that). besides that theres this sort of expansion of the definition of white passing thats happened, like lightskin people of colour with visible ethnic features will be called ambiguous or whitepassing and they straight up are not. like avan jogia is another example of someone who was whitewashed by media when hes south east asian. its an assimilation thing. if you look at petes features he has a wide mouth and broad nose and his skin is visibly darker than everyone else in the band, even when its at its lightest* like he is light skin and he is whitepassing in this cultural moment due to a lot of factors directly relating to the alternative scene and broadly relating to culture at the time of fall out boy gaining fame but he got a lot of racial slurs thrown at him back in the hardcore scene and there is at least one instance of a guy trying out for fob and asking 'what is pete. is he black or white or mixed or what.' like back in the hardcore scene it was not a secret. hell everyone knew his mom. and his sister does NOT pass at all. i feel for her by the way having 2 lightskin brothers and one is pete wentz that has to suck. id kill him with rocks.

*as an aside i should note thats another contributing factor, he appears lighter for longer, this is something ive noticed happen when people become wealthier because they dont have to spend as much time in the sun, it happens to any black person when theyre in the sun less. here in the caribbean whenever people go on vacation to america or canada or england the first thing people say when they get back is that they "got white" because their skin has lightened from less sunlight and a persons summer skin shade is going to be darker than their winter skin shade regardless of their race, but it is often very noticeable with black people. i saw a post from someone on this site of a picture of them in summer and then in winter and in winter they straight up looked lightskin while in summer they were midtoned. white balance and exposure may have contributed but my point is skin shade varies depending on a lot of circumstances. you notice a difference during summer tours.

[girlwithteeth]

I really wanted to like Gundam Witch but I feel like it really drops the ball so hard. Like, there's a lot of cool setup in the first season to talk about how fucked up the adults in this setting are treating children- every single kid in the privileged private school for rich kids is being made to be involved in things like war profiteering and the central conceit of the whole dueling apparatus is straight up military training. The thin veneer of respectable detachment is lifted and we see where that was always going to lead - there's an attack by child soldiers as a completely mercenary operation that leads to several people dying pretty brutally in front of one of our leads. In one episode a kid gets completely fucking disappeared and replaced with a look-alike for not going along with the corporation's plan.

The whole second half of the show's main plot revolves around a plot to use a doomsday weapon. The main character work happening is around a new diplomatic angle (there was always wheeling and dealing, but it was shady back room stuff where you know they are talking about shit that is immoral as hell and the second arc has, like, diplomatic representatives from world governments and tries to paint that as squeaky clean in contrast), a kidnapped heir learning that the mercenary children are real people who have tragic circumstances, the supporting cast dealing with PTSD from the attack, and a double agent for another company in their midst feeling remorse because she had been manipulated into being a double agent. It's a fucking BINGO of tropes and it's all so surface level!!!!

Why did they bother to rip away the curtain and show these kids how closely tied to war their whole lives had been, what that really meant in the cost of human lives? Why did they set themselves up for the drama of that and then ignore their own thing that they did for most of the cast? The whole fucking point of the ending to the first season is that Suletta is a child soldier more in the vein of the mercenaries than the trust fund kids who had been protected from the reality of their world by the system that they lived in, right? It's a nice cliffhanger that sets up a rejection of that reality that could be conceptualized in different ways as the main driving force behind the emotions of our cast!

And I kind of get why they went the way that they did. In the new frame of reality for our cast Suletta is no longer the outsider who doesn't understand things, it's everyone else. And they keep her mostly the same, because she was actually aware of this reality the whole time. It's supposed to be a twist in that it wants us to re-contextualize her behavior. But, the writing doesn't want Suletta to come across as fucked up or traumatized, because she has to be 'good' in opposition to the traumatized child soldiers who are 'bad'. So everyone just says "Wow Suletta I can't believe you are still helping people and acting cheery after the violence. The violence made me sad." and she says, "Well, I want to help people!" and the lesson is that everyone tries to be like Suletta and help people.

It's like the show describes coping mechanisms for the incredible trauma happening and says that one is morally right and the other is morally wrong and believes it. It smooths out a lot of interesting wrinkles to believe it.

It's just... really frustrating.

And!!! It's, like, barely gay at all!!!! Yes, technically Miorine and Suletta are a gay couple, but there is so little affection. They literally run away from it and the show wants to have it's tension so bad that it just kind of skips over the part where they have any drama by not having them talk to each other for a while. And then they are together in the end.

They don't even fucking kiss. Sucks ass.

[deadmegumi]

8, 10 + 2 if you're feeling heinous 😈 24 if ur not 😇

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

well MY special little noble is actually the most inherently just and pure of heart and when they win the throne there will be a thousand years of peace. Wdym inherent violence of feudalism that's not real. And while there has been a downtrend in this belief throughout the last five years it HAS influenced a lot of other discource subtly... most people have realized that the way to start fixing westeros's problems is not thru a nice feudal monarch, but they dont understand that abandoning this framework for character/plot analysis also means abandoning a lot of other framework. In the arya v sansa wars people still use feudal patriarchal definitions of femininity to decide who is the Best Sexy Feminist (preteen girl). In debates about morality for certain actions people excuse things because it aligns with the feudal code of ethics- a deeply flawed and violent code. See: ned HAD to take theon hostage because well we live in a society. Like i think it's important not to hold characters to the same moral standards that we hold people in modern times to, because their circumstances are so wildly different, but we dont have to adhere to THEIR feudal values when analyzing them because its only a detriment to their characters. They live in a society but WE do not... cmon guys...

10. Worst part of fanon

no one fucking draws these characters ugly enough. Asoiaf fandom has a plague of sameface ig model syndrome and it sucks cause george puts so much distinct personality even in minor characters and then people are like hmmmmm what if they had the same button nose and good chin that everyone else has. Brienne is ugly let her be ugly!!! Arya and jon have long plain faces u dont have to draw the teen/preteen kids as super defined and striking! Let the kids look like kids. I don't care how beautiful dany is let her be a 15 yr old. OR the instinct to make everyone best friends forever and soften the complicated dynamics btwn these characters. like modern aus where the starks are the benevolent rich people who adopted theon from his abusive trailer park family grind my gears like hes a child hostage from a powerful noble house and u cant erase such a defining part of his character bc you want everyone to be nice to each other. Also related to this is people making jaime nice/acting like asos was a redemption arc or that he didnt commit some uniquely horrific acts in agot/acok. His actions thru out the last two books are not the acts of a changed man they are the acts of a man who realized he can make choices based on empathy and reason not instinct. LAST thing which is something i dont reaaaaally see here much but i know the cunts on ao3 are doing it: the post canon thing where people want brienne and jaime to get married and have twelve kids. Fuck you eat shit and die brienne is not an incubator especially not for that lannister SLAG

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

cersei is not necessarily my fave but shes a character whose sexuality i often think of. In canon the only time she's had sex with a woman she's topped and every time she fucks a dude she's disassociating so hard shes on another planet. Even when fucking jaime shes like imagining herself in his body fucking him in her body. In the bulldyke cersei universe he's stone. The pants stay on during sex and so does the shirt and probably also the shoes. Cis gay guy cersei universe he already thinks being gay is emasculating enough so obviously he's not going to let anyone penetrate him. Transmasc bi universe its like you've never been strapped until you've been strapped by a dude who's never cum once in his whole life. THANK YOU!

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

"Daenerys is basically george bush because she uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well its a post 9/11 metaphor and uhhh well astapor is basically iraq and uhhhhh nuclear arms" "dany has never done anything wrong in her life and criticizing her means uhhhhh you hate women and abuse victims" "dany is a RAPIST and a RACIST and wants ALL BROWN PEOPLE TO BE SUBSERVIENT TO HER" "mirri maz duur deserved to die horribly for killing (checks notes) her enslaver" "dany is a colonizer (that's not what that word means. you need to look up what that word means)" brothers. Lets all link arms and kill ourselves

Jesus Christ this is long as hell. Sorry I got a lot of beef

[fortunesrevolver]

So... life sucks right now.

Not only is my disability application still pending (November will be month 10 since I applied. Isn't waiting for the government to process things FUN?) But life is just... hard. And complicated.

My dad is currently going through ECT treatment because he's very resistant to medication for his depression. If you don't know what that is... honestly, I just snatched this summary from Google because I don't have the mental spoons to break it down right now:

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT for short) is a treatment that involves sending an electric current through your brain. This causes a brief surge of electrical activity within your brain (also known as a seizure). The aim is to relieve severe symptoms of some mental health problems.

It's honestly not an uncommon treatment, and apparently a very successful and common one for patients who, like my dad, are resistant to medication.

The issue is, one of the side effects for this are memory loss. So right now, dad can't work. And his memory is just... awful right now. He's forgetting a lot of things from the past few months (let alone past few days or weeks) and it's just... a mess. Mom and I are doing the best we can to keep it together and keep things going... Taking him to his appointments (that are god-awful early in the morning) making sure someone is always home with him...

But it's hard. It's hard when he took on so many responsibilities like submitting payments for bills and such on his own and always assured us he had it when we offered to help.

To be clear, my dad is not at all a bad or controlling person. He just took pride in being able to take care of his family. It was one of the things he felt like he could control against his depression. Taking care of us was sort of his... anti-depression isn't the right word. But it's what kept him going. That's how he'd always explain it. We'd always just do whatever we could to support him and try to everything else easier for him. (Though in retrospect, I guess that's just how families are supposed to work. Taking care of each other as best you can.)

But right now it's so hard... He's not himself at all... and all of these symptoms can take up to 6 months to fully heal, and that's after treatment finishes (which has about... 2 weeks left, I think? It depends, really. There's a range and everyone is different.)

He's my dad and I love him a lot... but it's hard. It's hard to see him get confused or forget very basic things like the voice command for the lights he was so pleased with when he set up. Or watching a TV show one day and then immediately watching it again the day after because he doesn't remember watching it. Or that a bill set up for automatic payments will got through and he'll see it show up on the bank accounts he unconsciously remembers to check, but doesn't know what it's for, and then we scramble to not only make sure something wild didn't happen, but assure him everything is okay.

And, reading back over this post, it seems like such a small problem from an outside perspective. I'm barely touching the tip of the iceberg, but I know there's people out here that are dealing with similar circumstances ten-fold and probably handling it with way more grace than I am.

I just don't know what to do anymore. I try to help as best I can, but my dad has always been a bit of a stubborn man. Not cruelly stubborn, but stubborn about being the strong, independent one. And he can't do that right now... but he's still trying to.

I can only try to pick up whatever pieces I can with my mom and make things work as best we can.

But it's still a mess and complicated and I feel like I'm just a horrible daughter for venting like this.

[thesilverlady]

What do you think of Tyrion ? For me there are 2 of them. The book one and the show one. Show one I hate. Book one I kinda enjoy because he constantly flirts with darkness. I don’t buy show Tyrion poor misunderstood meow meow. And I hate that they did the same with show Aemond. That’s why I prefer Aegon and Daemon. From the beginning you know where they stand, there are no attempts to make them sympathetic bullshit. Stop whitewashing characters in order to make characters more sympathising for audience. The reason why the Joker, Soprano Family and Roy family from Succession are so great is because they aren’t portrayed as some poor people being victims of their circumstances all their life. Aemond wanting to console Jace at Driftmark? What the fuck is that? Also giving him sexual trauma made me laugh. The show made it clear I and everyone else is meant to feel sorry for him but I just laughed at how pathetic they are. Like you have weak Viserys, pedo Daemon, rapist and drunkard Aegon and traumatised and with only one eye Aemond. So yeah, the winner of who should be the fan favourite is clear. Instead of showing the 4 of them as bad and letting people choose who their favourite is, they create 3 of them in unsympathetic light and make one of them #1 victim and the other 3 as monsters or weak men. Sorry but I hate the narrative where I am being shown down my throat who I am supposed to love and who to hate. Especially if 3 out of 4 characters are doing terrible things and only one behaves properly until starting the war. I really can’t wait for Aemond to burn Riverlands, most stans would leave his fanclub and began to see Aegon is not the worst guy out there. I just hope TGC won’t stop playing Aegon until the moment Aemond will show everyone what a legit psycho he really is. And tbh Aemond was my favourite green character in the book but the forced victimisation and the way the fandom act as if aemond is the most opressed character and "feminist" to ever walk in westros when he is the targaryen ver of Andrew tate in reality has completely ruined my enjoyment of him

I don't really have anything to add. I agree with your complains for the most part. I think lots of shows nowadays are painfully censored, the writing has to be simple and the views have to be walked by the hand because they cannot make an intellectual conclusion on their own.

Dunno if you've watched this. But Hannibal nbc was one of my favorite shows of all time. An interesting adaption that was definitely very different from the book material but didn't try to pretend to be better. It was its own thing and was extremely controversial while it was airing due to the violence, themes, and overall subjects. It also remains very much loved despite the years that have passed with an ever so dedicated fanbase.

it seems hard to recreate shows like this. Even GoT's writing was starting to suffering way before the last two seasons but ofc people were trying to be optimistic and we still had hope that one day George might publish another book...

I loved Tyrion and still do in the books. His pov happens to be a favorite of mine, but the show version of him got very bad very fast. It's as you mentioned, there doesn't seem to be a balance about the characters who are supposed to be dark but also possess good traits. It's what makes them interesting in first place.

There's a very weird love for oversimplification in recent times and it kinda sucks out the joy ngl.

As for show aemond, I've ranted so much about him I'd probably repeat myself. I'd only advise to keep expectations low. S1 they managed to make him murdering Lucerys an accident 💀 I wouldn't be surprised if they try something similiar with the burning of Riverlands (perhaps another misunderstanding like the alicent x Viserys one?) who knows. we can only wait and see