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vampelune · 3 years ago

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kamukomahina gender/body headcanons

a bit of a ramble about my body, gender, and general appearance headcanons for them bcuz someone sent me a curiouscat prompting this 3k words of hyperfixation nonsense

Komaeda:

- He has a naturally lithe body, with a thin waist, broad shoulders and hips, which give him an hourglass. and a rather andrognyous body, which is "lucky" for him, because I hc him as nonbinary and gender non-conforming

- Gender-wise, as I said, I think he's nonbinary. Usually I do view Nagito as AMAB but I indulge in transmasc Nagito from time to time depending on my preference and how much I wish to uh, well, project, lol. But either way I think he would use he/they pronouns in a western sense. In japanese, however, they don't use third person pronouns that other people refer to them with, and in canon he uses the first person pronoun "boku", which is a "soft" masculine pronoun, in comparison to the "hard" masculine pronoun, “ore” (which Hajime uses btw!) which fits quite nicely, in my opinion! Also, in Japanese, you can be 'fluid' with your first person pronouns depending on the situation, so I think he could use more neutral or feminine pronouns should he desire it, too, to play on his gender non-conformity.

- Komaeda is very secure in his gender, regardless of being AMAB or AFAB. He does not care about stigma, or discrimination, he does not care about being "accepted" by broader society. Broader society is sort of meaningless to him, the average person and their ideas about gender and presentation and effeminity mean NOTHING to him. Whether or not a random person the street genders him correctly or treats him with respect is sort of, pointless? Because to him, most ordinary people are pointless nobodies. Their thoughts do not matter to him. I think he is still prone to insecurity, however, when around his "betters" but I just struggle to think he would degrade himself in regards to gender. to him, it's the least of his problems. what he cares about is hope and talent. He could dress femininely or wear makeup or straight up crossdress and not mind it, really. He thinks people would find a problem with it are the problem, because why does it even matter? It speaks to the way Komaeda is detached from societal norms & "normal" people, he did not grow up in normal circumstances, so he doesn't interact with the world normally by any means. he can mask and act normally to the best of his ability, often unintentionally?, but he simply does not fit into broader society and doesn't seek to.

- Komaeda loses weight really easily, and doesn't gain weight that well. This is mainly due to his many illnesses but also the medications he's been put on. He has a low appetite and burns weight rather easily, even though I headcanon that he eats like garbage (mainly junk food & takeout, since he obviously cannot cook). This makes him overall, health wise, not very healthy, and stick thin because of it. A stiff breeze could knock him over, tbh.

- He has a lot of faded scars, self-inflicted or not.

- Pre-despair (in HPA) he is fairly healthy but still lithe, and progressively his body deteriorates through his 2 years of hopes peak before the Tragedy begins.

- During the Tragedy itself, his body is at it's worst. he is almost nothing but bone at times, barely kept together by a need to live so he can see hope triumph. His weight fluctuates but he's very unhealthy. He's not anorexic or on death's door, but he's not well off, either.

- After being put into the neo world program, right after waking up, he's very, very thin and gaunt. he was in a pod on feeding tubs for an indiscernible but at least probably a month's worth of time? So he's just very weak, like he could collapse if he moves too quickly.

- But a while after waking, he goes into remission, and starts to gain more healthy habits due to being rehabilitated and cared for by Hinata, and gains some weight, finally at a healthy, normal weight. I still think he would struggle with putting on too much weight, but I am slightly fond of the idea that he gets a bit of healthy pudge after a while. To him, it's so foreign being healthy, that he honestly think something's wrong with him at first.

Hinata:

- Hinata has a very... average body, true to form. His hips and waist aren't too pronounced but he has a loosely "hourglass" shape, too, just not as exaggerated as Komaeda's in comparison.

- Gender-wise, I am EXTREMELY fond of transmasc Hinata. While I think I portray AMAB Hinata more than transmasc Hinata (in art and writing), I still firmly prefer transmasc Hinata. The reason I think portray otherwise more is just out of comfortability, but I've been getting better at comfortably portraying FTM Hinata. I have some reasons I prefer it and think you can extrapolate it from canon, but let's get into that

- Hinata, in my eyes, has an arc and story that fits perfectly into him just. Being trans. His desire to be someone else, someone better, someone he can proud of, and the way he overcompensates for himself and has an extreme inferiority complex would easily lend to him having similar feelings about his gender. To me, Hinata is a trans man who overperforms his masculinity out of insecurity and a need to pass. I see him as someone who would strictly use "he/him" in a western sense, which is lended to by his use of the "ore" pronoun in canon, which is almost hypermasculine.

- Even if he were AMAB, I think it still works, I think he's still someone who's insecure and tries to assert himself more strongly and therefore performs masculinity in a way to appear more confident than he is.

(side note: I actually read a bit about queerness in Japan and how it relates to gender performance and the use of pronouns, and read a bit about how queer women in japan tend to use "boku" and "ore" to perform masculinity, which I find neat. “Ore” was also sometimes used exclusively to show anger and dominance, which is why it's categorized as a "rough" pronoun. I think Japanese language, gender, and expression, and how those all relate to one another, are extremely interesting and if you get the time you should read about it lol)

- Body-wise, pre-despair, I think Hinata would. not have top surgery, obviously. I think he has a fairly average but leaning a little on the hefty side chest (pre-op) and binds it, hence the '91 cm' (but also he still has 91 cm post-op because bazongas). I also just think he leans on the "twunk" side of things at this point, not buff but not stick thin or without muscle, just kind of average with average strength and all, though I think Hinata would've tried to do sports and stuff to find his talent so he's in shape :)

- My personal, kind of amusing, but also kind of... thematical? Headcanon, is that during the Kamukura project, he also underwent gender transition. to be honest, while it may not make sense in modern Japan, I think we can suspend our disbelief for fiction, and also make the argument that Hinata's "transition" into Kamukura CAN be read, in some part, as relatable or at least familiar to the trans experience. Iit is not out of the realm of possibility, either, to assume that because many bits of society in Danganronpa are advanced (specifically science, is extremely ahead of our understanding, almost sci-fi like at times) certain attitudes about gender and sexuality can be smoothed over more in a Japanese context.

(side note: I also think that science-wise, we can suspend our disbelief, and assume that top surgery and bottom surgery are much more advanced in this universe, given the almost unbelievable levels of science in Danganronpa, such as memory wipe, mind control, completely realistic virtual simulation, um literally everything about Kamukura which is body modification and brain modification to an extreme, etc. I think it's kind of fitting within these to assume that... Hinata/Kamukura could just, gain a functioning penis, lol)

Kamukura:

- Kamukura would have a. "Perfect" body. it's stated, I'm pretty sure, that they modified not only his brain but his body, because he needs to be able to perform every talent under their belt with ease, and his strength, instincts, technique, are all superhuman. So it's clear to me he'd have a buff body. toned muscles and all. He wouldn't really feel a need to keep it up, though, but I think since they're very... artificial (basically fucking steroids?) they wouldn't fade from a lack of keep-up.

- Kamukura also rarely ever is injured, but when he does, his body heals rather fast and can care for himself adequately, because again, his body is modified to a point of almost inhumanity.

- Gender wise, Kamukura genuinely does not care. however, I am not one to think that Kamukura is "a different person" from Hinata, rather, he is separate from Hinata, but an extension of Hinata as well, proven that he experiences some of his emotions even if subconsciously and without understanding them. he isn't a different personality or person developed in Hinata's body, but a very traumatizing, repressed, and manipulated version of Hinata given a new name, with memories repressed. He's like Theseus's ship in human form---if you get rid of everything that makes someone themselves and replace it, bit by bit, is it the same person? Technically, yes, but... truly? Who knows.

Because of this, I think Kamukura would have a leaning toward masculine gender performance (in canon, in fact, he uses the soft masculine pronoun "boku" in stead of "ore" like Hinata) BUT I think he is still very nonbinary. In a western sense, i think he would use he/they pronouns, but not really care if someone mistook him for a woman, I suppose.

- His appearance, unironically, is very nonbinary or "he/they" to me because he's wearing a suit, the archetypal form of masculinity, but has extremely long hair, which is considered feminine, and speaks softly (dully). Of course, the bishounen "pretty boy" appearance isn't uncommon or considered less masculine in japan, I think, but there is still a different between soft masculinity and rough masculinity in japan, which lends itself to being interpreted sort of gender non-conforming by western audiences :)

- Kamukura, due to his apathy, struggles with self-maintaining, but as we all probably know i am extremely attached to KamuKoma and thus headcanon that Servant helps him, sort of like a royal servant would royalty in the old days, take care of himself by bathing him, brushing his hair out, grooming him, etc. partially out of duty, partially out of appreciation for Kamukura's body, and partially out of maintaining his sort of "perfect" look since Kamukura, especially post-Junko death, is perceived widely by the public as the new leader of the ultimate despair, even if he is ambivalent to such a title.

Post-DR3 Hinata/Kamukura combined:

As I rambled on about previously, I don't think that Kamukura and Hinata are separate people or personality, I really dislike the interpretation that they are like a "split personality" or operate like DID, because they do not "form" like DID, but also in canon, are not portrayed as separate people.

In post-dr3, Hinata instead says that he is both of them, because he is. Kamukura is Hinata, always was, but had been given a new, false identity, had been stripped of his previous self, his memories, his personality, and crafted into something new. but that did not "split" his brain into two people. It simply repressed who he once was, and made him someone he now was. But when Kamukura regains his memories, his past self, through the means of the new world program by restoring his own memories after SDR2 concludes and he wakes up, as well as doing the same for everyone else, he decides to be "Hajime Hinata" who he always was, but carrying and shouldering the weight of what "Izuru Kamukura" had been, become, and done. Hinata *is* Kamukura, he answers for Kamukura's wrongdoings, his crimes, as something he had done as a different person who's mind operated differently, due to being artificially suppressed, modified, into an apathetic tool for the scientists who made him, and later and aimless, bored individual who simply sought meaning he did not have in the unknown of what despair would be at it's climax. And if hope could overcome it.

As such, I think, when Hinata's self is brought back into the mix, and he now deals with Kamukura's apathy and boredom in part, but much less consuming and much less often, I think hinata is less staunchly "masculine", does not overperform it anymore, and is trying to understand what his past means to him, what his present is, and what his future will be. I think that Hinata would still primarily use he/him (or still use "ore" in Japanese, as it's also a means of his personality, which is a bit rough around the edges and blunt), but be more ambivalent to rigid gender expression, still finding comfort and idealness in masculinity, but not be made dysphoric or feel frightened, uncomfortable, with non-comformity or anything like that. being boyish, masculine, is what he enjoys, but he's comfortable in it now, doesn't need to prove himself or overperform it. He can explore nonconformity without feeling like his gender or masculinity is at threat, even if it's not his preference outright.

Body-wise, I think it's safe to say he retains Kamukura's muscle and all, but Kamukura didn't put much effort into the everyday machinations of being a human being in general, and Hinata is much more fond of food than him now, eats more often, and I enjoy the idea that he gains a little pudge and has a kind of "dad bod" almost, post-DR3? lol.

Both for Hinata and Kamukura I don't see their bodies as “bara” or overly buff, masculine, but a kind of comfortable middle ground between twunk and hunk, lmao. I think they're also averagely hairy, not overly so, very lightly. kind of well groomed, and all. Hinata, pre-despair, put not so much effort into his appearance but still some, especially in trying to pass. (In fact I think his hair cut looks like a home job, all choppy and stuff, which fits him in my opinion, something done by his own hands even if messy and imperfect, he still prefers to be in control of it. also fits the trans headcanon tehe).

Izuru put very little if any effort into himself, only the bare minimum necessary to function, but servant helped him upkeep it to a perfect standard. Hinata, post-dr3 now, finds himself putting you know, an average amount of care into himself and his body, enough to be healthy, but not overly critical and conscious of himself.

Komaeda i have always seen as someone who takes a good deal of care about himself, merely if to alleviate the "disgust" of his appearance and body, by practically preening himself. He is someone who is good at cleaning and seems to appreciate clean and well kept spaces, so I think he would have a similar attitude toward himself. even if he is insecure, and of course, struggles with mental health and may slip at times in his routine in keeping himself well-kept, I think he still maintains an appearance for the most part, at least in his later years (teen to young adult). An argument can be made that he cared less in his adolescence because he had much more apathy about the world, but when he gave himself a purpose with hope and talent, I think he would care for himself a little better, even if his was spiralling mentally.

His hair is always washed, it is just very curly and prone to mess, so it often looks like perpetual bedhead, even when he combs and brushes it. His skin is soft even if a little worn by his tendency for accidents & injury, it's still soft and almost luckily so, and he takes pride in moisturizing and cleaning himself. His skin is a little sickly, still, and I think that despite having blemishes, scars, etc. Komaeda manages to look pretty in a strange way, not conventionally beautiful, but almost ethereal? He's just *pretty*, there's no way to explain it, he is nice to look at even with all his "flaws" and imperfections. Even when he's sickly and bony, even when his cheeks are gaunt or his hands shaky and weak, when his hair is a tangled mess or his clothes are dirty, he's nice to look at in a way that's nonconventional, and it's sort of mesmerizing.

Hinata I think is very average but also in a way that's nice to look at it. He's not ground-breaking hot or conventionally attractive, he has a good body, a nice face, and hair you could play with a little if you wanted. I think what's appealing about him is his normalcy, he's not trying too hard or "gifted" gene wise, but he's just kinda nice to look at, he's enjoyable to be around, an understanding person, or at least tries to be even when he fails, and despite having flaws, insecurities, blunt, he is someone you're drawn to because he's one of those people that's just, easy to talk to? An emotional anchor, almost. The kind of guy everyone kind of knows and has talked to at least once, even if you're not friends with him personally, not because he's cool or popular or anything, but because he's a normal dude who's easy to trust and talk to.

Kamukura, on the other hand, is intimidating, appearance wise and personality wise. he looks, strange, anything but normal, his eyes are red and his hair is this dark cloud that envelops him. His face may still be that plain one Hinata has but faces can be changed by the surrounding attributes as well as expression and such is true for him, with his apathetic and cold expression as well as otherwordly characteristics, he comes off as much more beautiful in a dark way, kind of? In a way that's intimidating or a little daunting, but he's still very beautiful. mesmerizing.

okay, thats my ramble. ty.

#nagito komaeda #hajime hinata #izuru kamukura #komahina #kamukoma #headcanons #my headcanons #kota.txt

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ironwoman359 · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on Remus Sanders

So the new video came out and I have a lot of thoughts on a lot of different things, but for this post, let’s talk about our new resident trash man, Remus Sanders, aka The Duke, aka the Dark Side of Creativity.

Remus’s Role (who or what is he?)

First off, Remus’s ‘Side Title’ as it were is definitely Creativity. He is not simply “Intrusive Thoughts.” That is not his function, intrusive thoughts are a result of his function, an area of thinking that he is responsible for. Like Roman, he embodies Creativity and the Imagination, but unlike Roman, he deals almost exclusively in ‘dirty,’ mature, dark, or disturbing ideas. Sure, the video was about intrusive thoughts specifically, but that’s not all that Remus does. He said himself twice, once in song and once in regular speaking, that he wants Thomas to explore more mature themes in his videos and to be more “realistic” with his creations. So while the other “dark sides” like Deceit and Anxiety (maybe Paranoia?) have different functions than the “light sides,” Remus and Roman are two sides that embody the same trait: Creativity.

As Thomas said, the Duke and the Prince literally wear black and white, because his relationship with his imagination while he was growing up led to Roman encompassing the “good” parts and Remus the “bad” parts. Both ‘sides’ of creativity are important over all, but Thomas specifically gave Roman, the light, the positive sunshine rainbow unicorn side, more import than the dark, the twisted macabre disturbing side. Hence Roman is a Prince, while Remus is merely a Duke, a lesser rank of nobility.

Remus’s Goals (so what does he want?)

Like Roman, Remus wants Thomas to create things, things that he can be proud of. And more SPECIFICALLY, he wants Thomas to be remembered, to have a legacy. Roman, you will note, wants this too. All sides, after all, want what they believe is best for Thomas, but they all have different views of what that looks like AND of how to get it. And Remus believes that the darker sides of creativity that he encompasses are the way for Thomas to get that notoriety he craves. Just look at the way Remus talks (or sings) about himself in relationship to Thomas’s content:

“If you really wanna challenge your viewership, then you need to stop limiting me.”

“If you want the spectrum A-Z you’ll need a little help from me.”

(in reference to Thomas only wanting bright and happy things in his content) ”Hey Prude, your art is Bad.”

“What will our legacy be? Will you even have one? How about this: you get buck naked on camera and self immolate to Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off! That’ll leave an impression!”

Remus wants what ever creator/performer wants: he wants to be remembered. But unlike Roman, he holds no reservations about how they get there.

But Remus ALSO a rather chaotic force in general, and you get the feeling that he really just wants to have fun...unfortunately, what’s fun for him is not very fun for most people, Thomas included. Remus is more like the way many of us characterized Deceit at his first introduction: likely to be cruel for no reason. Because it’s fun! Right?!

Roman vs. Remus...why?

I have a headcanon that Patton (or Patton’s influence) is largely responsible for the development of Remus and Roman as separate entities, actually. During their conversation about Just Like Heaven, Patton mentioned that a happy ending “makes good cinema.” And...no, it doesn’t. Objectively, good cinema, good ART is not dependent on whether or not it is happy. Now, whether or not it is happy is certainly a valid indicator of whether or not YOU as an individual like it. But not it’s objective quality. And that’s what has happened with Roman and Remus, anything that Thomas’s Moral Code (again, Patton himself or his general influence) deemed as “bad” or “wrong” got shoved into Remus, while Roman kept all the good parts for himself.

When you look at it that way, it’s no wonder that Remus spends so much of his time sending intrusive thought’s Thomas’s way. (Yes, intrusive thoughts are fairly common, but not everyone has them, and not always to the severity that Character Thomas does) That’s basically his ONLY creative outlet, as everything else has been given to Roman. And why it makes sense that he is desperate to be more involved in Thomas’s creative process. Intrusive thoughts are all fine and well, but if Thomas isn’t ACTING on them, then Remus is effectively not being listened to, which as we all know is every single side’s greatest source of frustration.

His Logo (this is a pure guess based on my own theories and observation, but it’s fun to think about.)

It’s been theorized before that the “dark sides” have something animal themed in their clothing and/or appearances. Deceit’s is obvious the two headed snake, and Virgil’s is largely thought to be a raccoon, and if we look closely, Remus seems to fit this theory. His animal is some sort of tentacled sea creature, as evidenced by the thumbnail of the video, his green coloring, and the belt buckle he wears. Some have suggested a squid or octopus, but this IS Creativity we’re talking about here...it could be Something Else. Something a little more...creative.

“Whoa, you guys are acting fishier than the Kraken’s crack.” -Roman, timestamp 3:43.

I propose that his ‘animal’ is a Kraken, a giant sea monster known for causing great destruction, killing sailors and dragging ships down into the depths of the sea. Sort of like how our Dear Old Duke seems to take pleasure in being destructive towards both himself and others and dragging Thomas’s thoughts down into the depths of depravity? Huh? Maybe? Imagine a logo similar to Roman’s, but instead of an idyllic castle, it’s a giant sea monster. Perhaps reaching it’s tentacles around a ship? Or perhaps looking a little sleeker and going for something like the Hydra logo in Marvel? I dunno, it’s fun to think about!

The Rainbow Theory (no, I’m never gonna let this one go)

Remus’s existence, and more specifically, his color palate, only reinforce the Rainbow Theory as being canon. Thomas is Full Rainbow all the time, and each of his sides encompasses one color on that spectrum. You have Red (Roman), Orange (a yet to be discovered “dark side”), Yellow (Deceit), Green (Remus), Blue (Patton), Indigo (Logan), and Violet (Virgil).

One of the reasons I really like the rainbow theory is that it allows for a sense of balance between Thomas and his sides. I like to imagine it like this: There are three “light” or “good” sides, (Roman, Logan, and Patton) and three “dark” or “bad” sides (Deceit, the Duke/Remus, and an unnamed, Orange party). I use quotes on these labels because arguably, any trait could be used for good or for bad, and no side embodies this more than Virgil. Violet, the odd little shadowling out. The side that is now canonically CONFIRMED to have once been considered one of “the Others,” but who now has an equal seat at the discussion table. The side, if you will, that is the tipping point on the scale between whether or not Thomas is a “good person?” Ah, but that’s a theory for another post ;)

If you combine the rainbow theory with a color wheel, Remus’s appearance also all but confirms some theories that we’ve had about “dark” sides in the past: they are opposites to/extensions of/foils for a corresponding “light” side. It’s no secret who Remus’s corresponding side is, both he AND Roman are literally both creativity. And what is Red’s complimentary color on the color wheel?

Green.

While it’s harder to tell who Deceit’s foil is, since the blue/indigo and the yellow/orange parts of most color wheels you look at are more blurred, but I’m leaning towards Logan, the darker blue, the indigo, being the foil to Deceit’s Yellow, and Patton’s lighter blue being complimentary with the Orange Side yet to be revealed, since the light blue is closer to the green and the orange is closer to the red.

This also solidifies the idea that I have that Virgil himself has no foil. I see some people suggest he could be Logan’s foil, but I honestly think that Logan’s foil is either Deceit or Mr. Orange, and the Patton’s is whoever Logan’s isn’t. Virgil’s trait doesn’t necessarily have a perfect foil...and purple in particular has no opposite color that isn’t already sort of taken by one of the other three “light” colors. But I digress, this post is about Remus, not Virgil. I just like talking about the rainbow theory, I think it’s neat!

Other, smaller observations (mostly just fun things I noticed/liked about his character)

As much as they are opposites in ways, Remus shares many mannerisms with Roman, from his expressions to his vocal ticks to his gestures.

Literally less than a minute after he first appeared on screen, he broke out into an entire Disney Villain style musical number. (no really, he appeared at 6:00 and started singing at 6:53)

I sort of mentioned this earlier, but he is not only responsible for the darker parts of imagination, but also clearly things like childish potty humor and sexual innuendo. For THOMAS, this is a “bad” thing banished to it’s own separate side, but for some people, that kind of humor doesn’t cross the line. Joan, for instance, has both a raunchier sense of humor and darker sense of humor at times than Thomas, as holding up a disembodied corpse prop’s middle finger is, yeah, TOTALLY something they would do without Remus’s influence.

He cannot be insulted through traditional means, as he takes them as compliments. It is only through him being discredited/weakened by Logan’s words that we see him having any sort of negative reaction to the others.

Again, a point to get more into detail with another post, but he was particularly interested in beating down Virgil specifically, and in ways that seemed less relevant to what was going on like his taunts to the others. Just like with Deceit in the courtroom, he clearly knows Virgil well enough to get under his skin, and he relishes doing so.

The trash boi does not sit still, if he’s not engaged by what’s happening, he’ll find some other thing to occupy himself with, such as picking his nose or eating deodorant.

Like Deceit before him, he gets huffy when he doesn’t have his way, and then does his best to just be a general inconvenience (read also: a dick) to Thomas if he can’t be actually listened to.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading <3

#sanders sides #sanders sides theories #ts theories #fanders #thomas sanders #remus sanders #ts remus #dealing with intrusive thoughts #long post #longpost #virgil sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #deceit sanders #the rainbow theory #ts spoilers

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alienheartattack · 5 years ago

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In the Spider’s Web (NSFW)

Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. After literal years of feeling uninspired by ship stuff (the manga is so far beyond shipping at this point that I now ship Mikasa with years of therapy), I went through my drafts and found a few attempts at the prequel to Things That Go Bump in the Night. To catch you up: modern AU, Levi is a vampire, Mikasa has been hunting him since he murdered Eren, then boners occur. And this time, thanks to the Comic Sans trick, I was able to bang out just under 5000 words of Rivamika vampire/hunter fun.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve written smut or even prose in general (I’ve been writing exclusively for stage and screen for the last 3 years) so I’m feeling kinda self-conscious that I may have lost my fanfic mojo or whatever. I usually don’t press for feedback but I would really love some this time around if you have the time. I hope you enjoy the story!

CW: death, gory injuries, getting drunk on blood, and straight up fuckin’.

Mikasa has to stifle a wild howl of laughter when she finally picks the lock on the blacked-out skylight atop the vampire's lair. This is it, she thinks, the culmination of her hard work to kill the man — No, not the man, the monster — who killed her brother. A flash of memory quickly stifles her silent celebration: the now-familiar sight of the shell that used to be Eren. The seemingly fathomless well of her sorrow threatens to overflow as she remembers the details she has tried so hard to forget: his golden skin turned to ash; his dimmed green eyes wide with surprise, staring infinitely into the void. Mikasa takes a few long, deep breaths, sucking in lungfuls of chilly October air until the image fades from her mind and she can devote herself entirely to her task.

The vampire's name is Levi, and even the most debased and inhuman Kindred speak of him in awed tones. Through her work with the Hunter Corps, Mikasa has learned of his legend: that he can puncture a mortal's throat and have the poor sack of meat half-drained before they realize they’ve been bitten. That he is faster, stronger, more cunning, and more ruthless than any of his kind. That he will not hesitate to display his physical and mental superiority to anyone, be they human, Kindred, or Hunter.

Tonight, Mikasa plans to drive a stake through the heart of the legend. She has followed him for over a year, tracking his movements and shadowing him as he prowled the streets of the City, hunting for prey. She has tried to kill him twice before, and twice he has held her off — but not hurt or killed her. Mikasa finds it peculiar that she has not yet met her fate at the end of his fangs, but has never considered why. The motivations of a monster are of no interest to her.

It has taken her far too long, by her estimation, to come up with this plan. She will hide on his roof at night while he finds his next meal, then wait for sunrise and sneak into his lair to kill him while he sleeps. She prefers to dispatch her quarries in a fair fight, pitting her impressive speed and skill against supernatural ability, but with Levi, her need for revenge outweighs her honorable convictions.

Mikasa watches the first rays of dawn creep over the horizon, chasing away the cerulean darkness with streaks of crimson. She takes the bloody sky as a good omen. According to her watch, it is 6:37 AM, just a few minutes before sunrise. Levi should be at his most vulnerable after falling into his daily slumber.

Time to go, she thinks, steeling herself for her mission.

She smiles a rictus grin as she slowly opens the skylight, careful not to let its hinges creak. Holding her breath, she climbs inside the building, finding a series of metal rungs to guide her down fifty feet into Levi's lair, and closes the skylight behind her. Her boot-clad toes seek soft contact with the next rung as she climbs down silently, languorously, like a stalking cat. Every few moments she stops to listen for his movements, to look down and see whether he is lying in wait for her. She hears nothing and sees nothing, so she continues.

The room below serves as some sort of ceremonial dining hall, with a long wooden table stretching across most of the room. Ornately carved wooden chairs sit around it, with the largest and most intricate chair at the far end: Levi's seat, undoubtedly. The table is set for a banquet with a multitude of plates, wine glasses, and silverware at each seat; empty silver candlesticks and candelabras run down the length of the highly polished oak. The hall is lit with hundreds of flickering candles in sconces and chandeliers, providing a dramatic backdrop to the priceless works of art contained within: painted portraits in gilt frames, marble sculptures, antiquities on pedestals and in glass cases. It is a museum of opulence, of corruption. Mikasa's stomach turns as she surveys the scene, imagining the countless people who gave their blood and their lives for Levi to amass a collection to rival the world's greatest museums.

And then, while she is deep in thought and dangling ten feet above the heavy wooden table, one of the metal rungs comes loose from its moorings — and Mikasa falls.

She has the forethought not to yelp in surprise as she pitches away from the wall, but cannot help herself from crying out as she lands on her side on top of the table, ceramic plates and crystal goblets shattering beneath her weight. Mikasa lies there, the wind knocked out of her, unable to take a breath from pain and shock. After a few moments, she regains her senses and groans as she registers a new pain; no, two of them, a dull ache in her ribs and a sharpness in her thigh. She feels around her thigh with shaking hands until agony surges through her and she finds the source of the pain: one of the silver candlesticks has pierced clean through her leg, its heavy base embedded in her hamstring muscles and its fluted tip sticking out through her toned quadriceps.

"Noooo," she moans. Even if Levi is not there, he will return any moment to see her served to him on his dining room table, bleeding and ready to be devoured. Mikasa attempts to sit up but finds that the slightest motion hurts so much that her vision starts to go white around the edges and hot tears stream down her cheeks. Even breathing hurts, sending stabbing pains through her side as she tries to catch her breath.

"So that's what you've been scheming, little fly," comes Levi's disembodied voice, slithering out from the room’s flickering dimness. Mikasa tries to summon the last of her strength to move, to do anything but lie there and suffer, but she can only raise herself a few inches before she lets out a tortured, feral scream, a wild animal cornered at last.

"Surely your feeble human brain can still form words. You're badly injured, but you're not dead yet," he says in a sharp, mocking tone, materializing seemingly from thin air next to her. "Emphasis on 'yet.'"

Mikasa takes in a shaky breath, rage and agony coursing through her in equal measure. "Fuck… you… Levi," she spits.

"For the record, that's not a sufficient apology for smashing my property and getting your blood all over my table." He goes to speak but pauses when he registers the scent of her blood, meaty and potent and alive, more delicious than anything he's ever smelled before.

"Your blood," he repeats, softer this time. "Oh, god." He groans under his breath, suddenly feeling weak in the knees as a potent hunger unfurls in his belly. Levi's expression starts to shift: his eyes widen and his mouth goes slack, exposing the tips of his fangs. His pupils dilate, inky black overtaking the otherworldly silver hue of his irises. He approaches her slowly, seemingly floating towards her, his eyes locked on her impaled thigh.

"Kill me," she grunts. "Just get it over with."

"No," Levi says, his voice hushed, almost reverent. "I don't want to kill you like this." He reaches one pale hand toward Mikasa and she attempts to roll away from him, crying out wordlessly at the waves of torment wracking her broken body. But he does not touch her: instead, his finger finds a spatter of her blood on the wooden tabletop and wipes it away, placing his finger between his parted lips.

The sensation that hits him is so unexpected and overwhelming that it nearly brings him to his knees. He almost comes in his pants just from anticipation; the fraction of a second it takes for his finger to enter his mouth feels like ten lifetimes, and he groans in ecstasy as he finally tastes her, all iron and heat. Mikasa's blood sings on his tongue, burning down his throat like the finest whiskey, filling his belly like a sumptuous meal and paradoxically making him even more ravenous for her. He is surprised to find that he does not want to drain her dry; he wants to savor her, coaxing a few drops of blood from her at a time, enrapturing her with the power of his fanged kisses.

Once the intense sensation fades enough that he can think somewhat clearly again, Levi realizes that Mikasa has been watching him the entire time. He meets her gaze, hoping he doesn't look as wild-eyed and utterly undone as he feels. If she notices, then he cannot tell, her face still distorted into a tortured grimace.

"Don't toy with me," Mikasa grinds out from between clenched teeth. Her breath hisses shallowly in and out of her mouth, occasionally punctuated by low moans.

"I'm not," Levi replies coolly. "I want to heal you, and I want you to come back and try to kill me in a fair fight. This..." he motions vaguely towards her curled body, "this isn't fun for me."

Mikasa lets out a guffaw despite herself, then howls as pain radiates through her broken ribs. "Fun? You find this fun?"

"I do," he says. He smiles wide, letting his razor-sharp fangs peek out from between his lips. "Your pathetic attempts to kill me have been fairly humorous, but the irony of you ending up in a bloody heap on my dining table, of all places, is too satisfying to put into words." Levi sucks in a shaky breath, inhaling more of her blood's heady perfume, then leans close to her, his mouth inches from her ear. "I should eat you up," he all but purrs. "But I won't."

With that, he disappears, leaving Mikasa alone in the great hall. She drags her arms, covered in her protective leather jacket, across the tabletop to sweep the shattered plates and glasses onto the floor, sending silverware clattering against the hardwood. She then feels around the tabletop for any other blood she has spilled, wiping it off with her hands before he can drink any more of it. Even if he swears he will not kill her, she does not trust him, especially if he becomes intoxicated on the heady, rich blood of a Hunter.

He reappears a few minutes later, bearing a lacquered wooden tray. On it rests a delicate bone china teapot and two matching teacups and saucers, each painted with a pattern of vines and red roses. The roses look almost obscene to Mikasa, plump and splayed open, ready to be plucked.

"You're bringing me tea?" she sneers as Levi pours a measure of steaming amber brew into each cup. "That's really going to help get this candlestick out of my leg."

"No, but this will," Levi says, raising his wrist to his mouth and slashing it open against his fangs. He positions his hand over the tray as his blood washes over his alabaster skin and into one of the cups, darkening the tea until it looks like wine. He then licks his wrist clean, sealing the gash. Within seconds, his wrist is pale and pristine once more.

Mikasa goggles with disbelief at Levi, who places the cup of blood-tea near her hand. "You want me to drink your blood?"

"Are you just going to state the obvious over and over?" he snaps, earning himself a murderous glare.

"Pardon me for being a bit perplexed at my current situation. I don't usually make a habit of taking tea with the monster I'm trying to kill." Mikasa wrinkles her nose at him, thankful that she’s found one expression of contempt that doesn’t make her entire body ache.

Levi picks up his cup of tea, lifting it by the rim with his slim fingertips, and takes a sip. "Perhaps you should."

"Don't humor me."

"Look. I'm offering you a gift, in exchange for a promise."

"Then it's not a gift," Mikasa grumbles. Levi slams his teacup against the saucer but doesn’t spill a drop. The rattle of china on china echoes throughout the hall.

"Will you shut up? You’re really making me regret not killing you." Mikasa lets out an angry sigh. As much as she doesn’t want to make a deal with Levi, she can see no other way off the table without further injuring or killing herself in the process.

"Fine! Tell me your terms!" she grinds out.

Levi takes a long, slow drink from his cup before he answers. "You drink the tea and walk out of here healed and whole. In exchange, we call a truce. From now until the next sunrise, I don't try to kill you, and you don't try to kill me."

Mikasa considers his proposition, trying to find some flaw or catch. "Why should I believe that you'll honor this agreement?"

"Because if I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead by now," he says, his voice low and raspy, seductive yet poisonous. Levi puts down his teacup and reaches over to her, placing the pad of his index finger on her pulse point just beneath her ear. He feels her heart fluttering, the pulse of her blood through her veins, then traces his finger down the path of her jugular. Mikasa's breath quickens beneath his hand. His caress blazes a path of heat down her neck, into her breasts and belly, and lower.

"Or I can toss you out into the night to defend yourself. I can think of a few Kindred who'd love to get their hands on you." Suddenly he removes his finger from her skin and uses it to push the wine-dark teacup toward her. His gaze bores into her, evoking the same peculiar heated sensation as his touch. "Drink."

She doesn't want his help, doesn't want his blood flowing through her body. She’s read that drinking a vampire’s blood causes a bond between them, albeit an ephemeral one, and she does not want to test this theory for herself. In this moment everything feels too intimate and too perverse to her, the vampire who drained her brother dry offering her tea and sympathy instead of a swift death. But the pain in her body grows with each breath, and she knows that she cannot leave here under her own power. At best she will have months of recovery, at worst she will be permanently unable to continue her hunt. Mikasa reaches out a bloody hand toward the porcelain teacup, but before she can grasp its delicate handle, Levi stops her, capturing her wrist in his grasp.

"You're not touching eighteenth-century bone china with your hands caked in—" he swallows thickly— "filth."

"I can't exactly wash my hands—" Mikasa says, but is cut off by Levi running his tongue over her hand, licking her skin clean. He sucks on each of her fingers in turn, rubbing his lips over her fingertips, lapping at the semi-congealed blood pooled in the hollow of her palm. He lets out a ragged sigh and braces himself against the table with one hand as his cock grows hard again and his knees tremble at the taste of her.

Mikasa is transfixed by the sight before her, Levi's eyelids fluttering closed as he lavishes attention on her skin. She has been this close to him before but has never noticed the length of his eyelashes, the soft pout of his lips, or the raw male power emanating from him. She has been nearly nose to nose with him in a fight, but now, lying battered and bleeding in his lair, she has never felt more wetness or more warmth between her legs.

"God, you're delicious," he moans, licking the last of the blood away, and Mikasa has to fight herself not to mimic the low, rough sound. Her chest rises and falls heavily as she contemplates the tainted cup of tea before her, wisps of white steam swirling above deep garnet.

"I have to avenge Eren," she tells him, her tone steady and resolute, yet mournful. "No amount of kindness from you will change that."

"I know." Silence stretches out between them for a few moments. Levi looks as though he wants to tell her something, conflicting emotions warring on his face until he lets out an annoyed grunt and decides to speak.

"You should know that I did him a kindness as well. He was wanted by forces much more monstrous and evil than even me. The Strigoi," he says in a hushed voice, seemingly too afraid to speak the name of the vampire elders’ council at full volume. "A quick death was the best I could do for him. That is all I can say on the matter."

Mikasa stares at him, her eyes shining, then gives him a small nod. "Thank you," she whispers, then reaches for the china teacup. Her eyes do not leave his as she lifts its delicate rim to her lips and drinks the entire thing in one swallow.

She can feel the potency of the drink as soon as it hits her tongue, the grassiness of tea leaves mixed with the smoke and steel taste of his blood. It swirls around her mouth and warms her, trickling down her throat and into her stomach. Without realizing she is moving, she lifts her other hand to his mouth, smearing blood across his lips until he grasps her wrist with both hands and hungrily laps at her crimson-stained skin.

Her breath quickens as she feels his blood doing its work, suffusing itself into her cells, making her insides roil as bruised organs repair themselves, fractured bones knit together. Mikasa reaches for the candlestick in her leg, wincing as she wraps her fingers around one end and prepares to yank it out.

"No!" Levi cries. "Not yet. You’ll bleed out and I... I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself." His voice is husky, thick with what Mikasa realizes is barely-contained desire. He runs his tongue across her thumb, capturing one last droplet of blood lodged in the corner of the nail, then lets her hand go.

If he wasn’t dead, he’d be blushing, Mikasa thinks, a similar flush blooming across her cheeks.

"Can you help me, then? I think you know your blood better than I do," she says with a knowing smile. Levi returns the smile and nods, climbing up on the table and kneeling beside her. He rests his palms against each side of her calf and runs his hands up her leg, stopping near the wound on her thigh. Mikasa shivers beneath his touch; the contact sends bolts of arousal throughout her body, overriding the last few threads of lingering pain. The only sound in the room is her labored breathing becoming more regular as her ribs heal, then the sound of fabric tearing as Levi rips her pant leg off from around her injury, leaving most of her leg bare.

"What are you—?" she blurts.

"I need to seal the wound," Levi interrupts, his tone brusque. "It’s easier this way." He waits a few moments, watching intently as the ragged flesh and muscle starts to join together. When it is sufficiently closed for him, he pushes Mikasa’s knee to her chest and grasps the base of the candlestick protruding from the underside of her thigh. He then yanks the candlestick out, sending it flying across the room, and attaches his lips around the open wound, drinking the residual blood and licking at her skin. Deep muffled moans escape from between her flesh and his mouth. When he is finished he gingerly puts her leg down and does the same to the other side of the wound, burying his face in her thigh. He uses one hand to steady himself and the other to rub his painfully hard cock through his pants, hoping to relieve some of the tension there. Mikasa writhes beneath him, though whether it is in pain or pleasure he cannot tell until he looks up from the now-healed wound to see her gazing down at him, her eyes heavy-lidded, her mouth set in a pouty O.

In response Levi leaps on top of her faster than the human eye can discern, pressing her against the tabletop with his heavy, muscled body. Although he is shorter than her, a fact she never hesitates to point out, every inch of his body is toned and taut and imbued with superhuman strength, giving him the presence of a man twice his size. Mikasa gasps with the dueling emotions of fear and arousal when she feels him atop her, unsure of his intentions.

"You promised," she says softly, surprised that she feels wounded at the thought of his betrayal.

"I did," he answers in a low, breathy tone, then lowers his mouth to hers and takes her mouth in a fierce kiss. Mikasa immediately responds, her arms crushing him to her, her hips arching up to meet the rigid bulge in his pants, her tongue flicking against his as she opens her mouth to him. Levi presses himself against Mikasa, grinding his cock against the now-damp juncture of her thighs. She moans wordlessly as his zipper grazes her clit, marveling how she can feel such a thing through layers of fabric. Levi seems to share her thoughts, momentarily pulling away from her so he can unbutton his shirt and pants. Mikasa does the same, undoing the zipper of her jacket before Levi presses his hands to hers, stopping her.

"Let me," he rasps, his voice rough with need. He finishes undressing, throwing his crisp white shirt to the floor, kicking off his shoes, pushing down the waistband of his trousers. Mikasa mentally notes with a smirk that he does not wear any underwear and that his noted penchant for cleanliness seems to have disappeared under the influence of potent blood and sensuality. When he is finally naked, his muscled frame looking like sharply chiseled marble in the candlelight, his cock swollen and thick and ready for her, he pulls her up to a seated position and slips off her leather jacket, pushing his hands down her arms until it drops off of her body and falls to the table. The jacket hangs there for a moment and then drops to the floor. Her shirt soon follows, his fingers undoing each button with agonizing deliberation, tracing each inch of exposed flesh with his hands and lips; then her bra, which he flings in some random direction. He doesn’t know where; instead he is gazing deep into her eyes, seeing his hunger reflected in her dilated pupils and parted lips. His movements are soft and sure, dragging out the process of undressing her until they are both trembling and frenzied, ready to pounce on each other with barely-controlled lust.

He is the first to move, grasping her by the hips and yanking her pants and underwear off in one fluid motion and pressing his mouth to her pussy, inhaling the scent of her before finally, blissfully tasting her.

"Fuck!" Mikasa moans as Levi drags his tongue in leisurely circles around her clit, each circuit coaxing more noises out of her, breathy little gasps and sighs that only serve to drive Levi wild. His cock throbs in response and he groans, aching to be buried deep inside her. Mikasa rests on her elbows and watches him, looking down the flat plane of her belly at the top of his head as he licks and sucks at her most tender flesh. She flexes her hips and opens herself even wider to his touch; he responds by gripping and massaging her inner thighs as he devours her, the taste of her sex as intoxicating as that of her blood. He is firm and confident against her most sensitive parts, each motion pushing her closer and closer to an explosive peak. Within minutes she is shrieking and thrashing beneath him, orgasm tearing through her body with a force that only Levi possesses.

Before Mikasa can fully come back down to earth, he reaches his hands beneath her body and flips her over, depositing her on her hands and knees, sending silverware skittering, plates and glasses crashing to the floor. He barely registers the wanton destruction, focused only on the needs of his body, the desperate desire to plunge himself into her. Mikasa pushes her ass against the stiff length of his cock, silently begging him to ravish her, to give her pleasure by mercilessly taking his. Levi chooses not to indulge her just yet, grasping his shaft and rubbing his head against her folds a few times before he can no longer take it. He growls as she takes him inside her, her cunt hot and tight and slick with shameless need.

"Yessss," she hisses, overwhelmed with the delicious sensation of herself stretching around his cock, feeling herself adjust to his thickness. Levi tries to savor the moment but cannot resist the frantic urge to slam his cock into her over and over again, her ass slapping against his hips with each frenzied stroke. Mikasa starts to keen, her pussy clenching around his cock, sending electric currents of pleasure through both of them with every motion.

Levi loops one arm around her waist and pulls her upright against him, molding her back to his chest as he still maintains his furious rhythm inside of her. Mikasa leans against him, arching her back to give him access to her bared neck. His features briefly take on a look of disbelief at her actions, but the look in her eyes says Come, taste me.

"So fucking hot," he cries. He grips her tighter around her waist, using his grasp as leverage to fuck her harder. His free hand finds her clit, teasing it with his fingertips until she twitches and shudders against him, primed for another orgasm. Levi increases the tempo of his thrusts and swipes at her clit roughly, building a furious rhythm that will soon leave her limp and exhausted, if her frantic moans are any indication. His ministrations increase in speed, building to a fever pitch as he feels his orgasm start to build in his thighs and his balls. Mikasa’s eyes clench shut in concentration; an iridescent sheen of sweat appears on her forehead and neck, and blazing spots of color burn in her cheeks. Just before he comes, just as Mikasa’s cunt starts to flutter around him, he sinks his fangs into her neck and takes a long drink, the familiar but still somehow unexpected taste of her blood pushing him headlong into an orgasm that feels as though he is the one being drained. In that moment there is no Levi and no Mikasa, only two beings of pure pleasure, screaming their release as one.

Mikasa is the first to regain her senses, collapsing forward onto the table, sending another plate and glass to the floor as she catches herself on unsteady arms. Levi’s cock slides out of her pussy, glistening with her wetness. She makes a disappointed noise, feeling keenly the loss of him inside of her, a sensation of emptiness without his cock filling her. She lies on her stomach atop the table and lets out a long, sated sigh.

"Holy shit," she rasps, her voice hoarse and her throat dry from her heavy breaths and screams. She looks over her shoulder at Levi, her hair damp and matted to her forehead in dark tendrils, her countenance disheveled and gleaming. If he still breathed, the sight of her would take his breath away.

"Yeah," he murmurs in agreement, reaching out one hand to stroke her lightly sweating back, his mind utterly blank. Physically he remains pristine, not even a hair out of place; mentally, emotionally, he feels as confused as he does satisfied, as though he has been broken apart and rearranged in a foreign configuration. In due time he will register the magnitude of this encounter, will rage and seethe at the destruction they’ve both wrought in his lair, will scrutinize what the hell he just did with the woman who’s been trying to kill him, but for now all he wants to do is gather her in his arms and take her to his bed. He does so, moving with such speed that Mikasa barely registers what has happened until Levi is propping her up against a mountain of pillows, her skin glowing against his crimson silk sheets. He settles himself next to her, his body curling around hers as she does the same to him. Mikasa reaches over and brushes a strand of dark hair out of his face, then presses her lips to his gently, almost chastely.

"What just happened kind of makes me wish I’d asked for a longer truce,” he says after a few minutes of intimate silence.

Mikasa giggles softly, then sighs. "Me too." Neither of them suggests one, though, because that is not the way of the world. He is a vampire and she is a Hunter. They fight on opposite sides of an eternal war; they are not supposed to be lovers and bedfellows. After tonight they must return to their roles and forget about the passion between them and how they gave in to it, although they both know that they never will.

"You do know I'm going to try to kill you tomorrow night, right?" she asks him.

"I know," he replies, his lips curving into a wry smile before he can think to hide it. "I'm looking forward to it."

#rivamika #levi ackerman #mikasa ackerman #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #alienheartattack writes #i swear to god if tumblr gives me another error when i try to post this i will burn this website to the ground and salt the earth

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bearpillowmonster · 5 years ago

Text

Persona 5 Review (Confidants)

You can increase relationships with characters, increase your knowledge, guts, charm, proficiency and kindness in your free time for various uses in the future, it’s really intricate and interesting because you’re seeing so many storylines at once and uncovering other characters’ pasts, it’s really engaging. I guess it's possible to not have maxed social stats but I didn't really have a problem with it. I know that there are some things you can only do before or after a palace but I ‘usually’ try to get it done in one run as early as I can, it’s almost like the palaces are the break from taking breaks. Though if you do leave a palace, it restores hp and sp so that’s cool. Also, finishing a palace early opens up a lot of relationship opportunities because they aren’t nagging “You wanna go to the Palace today?”

So, if you can spend time with only so many characters then which ones did I spend time with and which ones do I recommend spending the most time on? Well first off, you can dabble, like just start someone’s route and if you don’t like it then just ignore it and move on, I like how it gives you a chance to meet everyone before any major commitments. Also finishing one up sometimes gives you exclusive personas you can make.

Let me start with Chihaya, I like the Chihayafuru anime so I went along with it but I really just wanted my money back, I’m not sure if the star actually did anything but the story was just average and that money wasn’t coming back. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with her though I kind of wish I had because I saw a rumor that she helps with something significantly, as long as you have the cash for it, which is very apparent around endgame or even if you had the part time jobs.

Ryuji’s story was average but I use him a lot in combat so I wanted to increase my bond. I’ve seen headcanons that these characters do really crazy stuff and go to prison for it but it’s not true, they’re just a band of misfits, the prison that you see in promos is a metaphorical one, a dream prison held inside their own mind, it’s in the very beginning of the game, just want to clarify that because it worried me going into this game. I finished his confidant.

Queen’s is rather decent, as I mentioned, she was...She acts way too attached to not like him, I mean look at the way she’s clinging to him during that house break in scene, she’s always the one to take initiative and be second in command. What I don’t understand is that if you go somewhere with her and see someone, she’ll immediately play it off “he’s just carrying my books”. She’s also the one that went straight to Alibaba when getting hurt, I like that motherly aspect. I ship my Joker with Queen for him but Kawakami for me (it would be kinda weird for him since she's older and his teacher). It’s the amount of growth we see her character go through, she seems the most genuine even if her side story focuses on her friend.

Panther’s is alright but she wants you to help her get mentally strong, O..k..? I’m not exactly one for Panther so I didn’t choose her romantic route because I think she has more chemistry with Fox. Though she seems to be the most connected to Ryuji for some reason, despite bagging on him all the time. DNF.

Fox, I will say that spending time with him made me appreciate him more and I like the rewards and art that goes with it. He’s actually hilarious, this game has a sense of humor and when it comes to him, it’s just gold, he’s so passionate and proper which makes for the best type of lines and delivery. DNF.

Kawakami, I obviously have a soft spot for but I see that her story is a real thing that bothers her, I’m not a big fan of what she reveals half way through, that seemed kinda pointless other than keeping that a secret but if you have a decent amount of money, I would up her confidant as well, it certainly wasn’t anything I expected. I finished it relatively early but by the end she enables you to go out at night even if you’re tired from mementos or a palace. Imagine my surprise when I instantly like her and then the way they introduce her route...I’ll leave it at that other than I finished her confidant.

Speaking of, quick break in the section to mention this. You would think something as in depth as this game would include a meter or consequence of sorts if you start neglecting people or duties but it’s not as stressful as that, you don’t have a sleep meter so you can do stuff in the evening (though sometimes sleeping will enable certain things like dreams which give you points with characters you spend time with regularly)

Mishima is actually one of the more interesting ones to bond with because his story seems very casual but it’s interweaving with the main one until the end of it and I like where it heads, I usually tried staying nice to him for the most part but making sure he doesn’t go “too too far”. The big thing you get is being able to increase your “other” party members stats as if they were equipped in your main party which can be useful. He was one of the first I maxed.

Yoshizawa is the new girl in Royal, so I tried to get on her good side, I actually met her and thought she was kind of robotic because of how apologetic she was but as time went on and as I grew her her confidant, she became more appealing. She was the first I finished because she only has 5 ranks but it was alright, as I said, she’s new so her story is going to be in there anyway but ranking just gives a bit more context is all. Getting all 5 ranks doesn’t finish it. However, it never seems like it's actually "finished", of course I didn't do the romance route so it might've been longer that way but for the most part, from what I see, the romance routes are mostly copy and paste with different characters outside their confidants. Other than a few dialogue options with different context but they’re the same events. The field trip in particular is the main one that I’m talking about. (I know I just revealed I played Royal, I’ll explain why this review isn’t about Royal towards the end though)

If you want, you can help Caroline and Justine experience human stuff but it isn’t a confidant, it just gives you items.

Sojiro. I only did his about half way because he gifts kindness and sometimes enables you to get coffee which gives you hp or sp. Which is cool but I wasn't sure how the confidants worked just yet and was scared I would drag him into the story unnecessarily but that's not the case for any of them, the consequences are a lot different than you might first imagine. He takes calls from multiple people, some who we figure out, some we might not and then he dresses in that sketchy outfit and says "dress for the job you want." and the way he's dressed makes him look like a pimp so...that's concerning. DNF.

Akechi is a bit questionable but every now and then I would spend time with him. He reminds me of a lion. There isn’t much of story though other than that one thing about his parents. Most of these are just spending time with the character and they start to build more substance about half way through. DNF.

Oracle actually has a really cool personality, I think of her more like a sister type to my character though. You have to have a good level of kindness in order to do a lot (which is the hardest to obtain) Once you do though, it seems to tie into a side quest and it’s really dumb because you change a gamers heart...for cheating. And that leads to...

Shinya. Why does this character even have a confidant? It easily could have been Iwai to help with that sort of thing. I didn't even rank him up, sorry, just wasn't really enough of a reason to.

Hifumi is cool, I like how she’s in a church and plays Shogi, it reminds me of Hunter X Hunter with Gungi. Her story is kind of sad too but not too much different from the “I’m on all the magazines but don’t really want to” she just wants to promote the board game. I waited until after I maxed out Queen to get past Rank 4 for her though because I was wary of giving some of the girls the wrong idea especially since that meeting between her and Queen. But once my character and Queen were official, then I decided to come back to Hifumi. DNF.

Takemi has an interesting take, I ranked her confidant up but wasn’t psyched about it, it provided a source for the guts attribute for a little while, it’s really sketchy in hindsight but the story is a little bit similar to Kawakami, with being shunned and all but Takemi seems to embrace it a lot more. I maxed her confidant, it allowed me to get discounted prices for health items.

Noir. She’s actually what I expected Persona to be like, she’s the neutral in my eyes, kind of bubbly but cute about it instead of overly obnoxious. She takes certain events way better than I expected which is good for her but I think the story would’ve packed a punch during that arc if they went deeper with how she takes it. It’s poetic how she’s acting healthy while her father is not. Not to mention that it’s like she’s planting the seeds for her new self both metaphorically and literally. You can gain some pretty good items if you do it right, SP is always a welcome in my book. DNF.

Iwai. I’m not going to recommend which thing you should prioritize, that’s up to how you want to play the game, you should keep it balanced but this guy requires a pretty high guts level. He can mod your weapons for you which comes in handy, the story is kind of mysterious because you go undercover. You also get discounts. DNF.

I love the idea of Joker bringing around a talking cat the whole time, it’s a total aesthetic, sneaking him some of his food, keeping him in his backpack, he’s as big a part of the team as any, if not the biggest. You don’t really choose to rank him up though, he’s intertwined, you can still choose to be nice to him though. Even though he doesn’t act like him, Morgana kind of reminds me of Daxter with the dynamic, wherever Joker goes, Morgana goes. I let Morgana kind of take free rein and he ended up being the strongest on my team, you don’t know how many “1-More”s I’ve seen this cat do, he was probably the one that was most consistently in my party.

I didn’t mess with that political guy or the journalist.

Also make sure to have figured out what gifts go to which person because once you get the option, it may be hard to get it back if you refuse. Ranking up people outside of the Phantom Thieves affects who is there for the ending so maybe keep that in mind.

Now you may or may not have noticed I missed a specific character, I have been writing this review since I started the game, accumulating different opinions and such, as I mention some in the Palace section of my review. The final days of playing this have pissed me off. From here to the end, I’m going to rant so if you don’t want to hear it and just want to take what I’ve said and leave, now’s the time, I’ve written everything else without this burden on the game hampering my score. However, you need to know this if you want to buy Royal specifically.

Maruki is far and few between, not much substance but I don’t mind sitting down with him once in a while. I only got about half way through so if you want to increase his confidant, do it early because it’s not always available but he helps with SP like the temple in Kichijoji. That’s what I wrote, then I finished the game and I was like “Wait a minute...something isn’t right...” So I looked it up and apparently Maruki is a new character to Royal as well. Alright, fine, so what? Well you need to rank him to level 9, there is in fact a reason and I completely missed it because I played this game BLIND. Biggest mistake and the game doesn’t tell you otherwise. So with Persona Royal, you get an extra semester longer than the original game with new story and new content that deals with Yoshizawa and Maruki in particular. The regular additions to the vanilla game hinted at it but I never knew there was more to it. So, I could’ve played the regular version of Persona 5 and had the same experience. Oh, but to put the icing on the cake. You need to rank up Maruki by November 18th. I only ever had two save files and you know what the one I didn’t finish was at? NOVEMBER FLIPPING 19TH. But wait; How do you play the new content if you can’t go back to the save file? And to that I say “HA” You don’t. I screwed the pooch unless I want to play the entire game again on new game+, has to be the same ending I had too so no finishing early with one of the other endings. Even if I played on the easiest difficulty, have all the stuff from new game+, use all the strats that I figured out afterwards, it would still take forever. The shortest speedrun of this game is 16 hours, that’s enough for a whole other game, I beat Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood in less than that. Why isn’t there a function to skip to a certain section?! I’M PISSED so for now F- this game, if I ever manage to play through those sections at some point then I’ll update this review getting rid of this and making its own review. I’m not just going to look up the cutscenes either, I got Royal instead of vanilla for a reason.

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ziracona · 5 years ago

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Ziracona’s Writing Commission Info:

*CURRENTLY CLOSED*

I’ve looked at a lot of different people’s pricing options for similar work, and most people who offer writing commissions (or do freelance work) go off of a penny per word/$1 for every 100 words. I know that underpricing art is sadly prevalent and also very damaging to artists, and I absolutely don’t want to contribute to that in any way; however, my personal preferred writing style is just kind of naturally long, and I think my speed is faster than average, and so I’m going to experiment a bit with what seems equivalent to that for me, and right now I am going to be offering $1 every 400 words.

As far as what I write, I am open to writing for any fandom that I have solid firsthand knowledge of (so, probably if I blog about it a lot, it’s on the table, but feel free to ask about my knowledge of any). I don’t mind writing for other stuff, but I will charge a bit extra for the added research time.

Fandoms I’ve written for already include Dead by Daylight, Heavy Rain, Halloween 1978, Disney, Until Dawn, Nancy Drew, and Fallout 4.

ACTUAL COMMISSION INFO:

Price: $1 per 400 words. Any commission shorter than 400 words will still be charged $1.

Payment through paypal or venmo.

Half payment upfront, half on completion.

Right at the moment, since life is busy, I’m stopping commission length at 40,000 words.

For anybody curious about commissions but unfamiliar with my writing, here’s a link to my AO3. : ) (and for quick reference for content to price, the Halloween/Michael Myers fic Isolation is 15,355 words ($38.40), the entire Anna adopts Quentin fic Half-Life is 26,675 words ($66.70), the whole Heavy Rain fic The Third Person is 19,908 words ($49.80), and the Until Dawn one-shot Almost Gone is 772 words ($1.90).

THINGS I WILL WRITE:

Gore/Graphic Violence/Torture (never voyeuristically or as kink though—only as plot element/heavy situation for cast).

Trauma, Mental Illness, Drug Use, Self-Harm, Suicide, Abuse (again, as a plot element, not as kink or for pleasure), and Other Intense/Serious Situations.

Action/Fight Sequences.

Lore/Magic/Backstory.

First or Third person, past or present tense (although my preferred writing style is close third-person past-tense, and I’ll do that if you don’t specifically want something else. Can do 2nd person or unusual format like texts or journal style too if you want that 👍).

Fiction prose, Poetry, Song Lyrics, Screen or Stage Play.

NSFW. (Makeout, Fluff, or Heavy Petting are the same price as any other work, but I will charge extra for full length in-depth sex scenes. How much depends on length. Probably around +30% [IE + 3 bucks for a $10 story]).

OCs. (PRICING NOTE: If you just have a vague idea of the OC and I only need a few lines of detail and can just go wild with my own idea of what they’re like, the price is the same as normal. But, if you’ve got a well-established character, first of all props to you because that’s cool, but also I will charge a bit extra for such OCs the first time I write them, because I have to do extra work/research to get to know them well enough to write them as well as the rest of the cast. But, if you commission me for the same complex OC again, the price is normal after the first commission, because once I know the character, I know the character, and they’re the same amount of work as any other cast member from established canon. Charge for OCs will depend on how much time it takes to learn the information I need in order to write them correctly. Probably I’ll just charge minimum on that. US average is 0.12 cents a minute, so like, $1.20 per ten minutes spent learning how to write OC).

AUs or Canon.

Angst, fluff, hurt/comfort, found family, comedy, drama, pretty much any genre.

I hope this didn’t need to be said, but just in case there’s anyone wondering, I very much will write LGBTQA characters and relationships, including polyamorous ones and ace/aro etc purely platonic partnerships.

THINGS I WILL NOT WRITE:

Noncon or Dubcon.

Underage + Adult / Pedophilia (for obvious reason).

Characters/Relationships I personally am uncomfortable with or greatly dislike. (I don’t know if this would even ever come up—also, I don’t mean I won’t write something with characters I hate point blank—if you want me to write Adam Faulkner-Stanheight and Lawrence Gordon beating the shit out of John Kramer, I’ll under-charge you. I just mean I’ll have to hard pass on a request for happy domestic John Kramer and Jill Tuck AU because it would literally kill me to even attempt to write that. For the ‘uncomfortable with’ thing, I mean that there are some ships that I don’t think are like, de facto bad, or hate, or something like that at all, but that at the same time are ships I have personally been so inundated from my own first experience of that ship onward by gross versions of it that I would personally no longer feel comfortable portraying the ship. This is rare but I think there are...two? dbd ships I know fall into this category for me? And since I know I am most known for writing DbD, it seemed worth warning about.)

Canon characters wildly OOC, unless you’ve got a really cool reason, in which case, my interest is piqued. [Note: for DbD, with a few exceptions, I adhere p exclusively to OG canon, not ret-con, because OG was better. Feel free to ask or clarity though.] Also if you want OOC because you want screwball humor/crack, that’s totally fine.

Incest.

Abuse in any kind of a positive or romanticized/romantic light.

At present this is all that is coming to mind, but I may add more to the list as there’s probably stuff that should be here that I just haven’t thought of yet.

So there you have it! If you have any questions, for clarity or about a potential commission, feel free to send an ask or a message! I know this was kind of long, but I promise I’m not actually too scary.

I'm gonna start small, so as of right now, I'm opening 2 commission slots.

Thanks! ^u^

#writing #commission info #commissions #dead by daylight #dbd #writing commissions #writing commission #info #sorry to the person who asked half a year ago that this took so long my life went uh very chaotic for a while #but yeah anyway. offering some fic commissions if anyone is interested #fanfiction commissions

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 6 years ago

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Episode 115: Adventures in Light Distortion

”There's no time.”

Steven recently had a really long day. It began with checking out an art exhibit at the barn, and ended in a spaceship grappling with his mother’s dark and secret past. It had its moments, like fusing into Smoky Quartz, but all in all it was life-changingly bad. It’s not fair that another such day has come for him so soon, but here he is.

We don’t have a moment to waste as this follow-up to Steven’s Dream opens, because every second spent on Earth is a second where Greg is speeding further from it. Steven is already blaming himself for the abduction, adding a more personal sense of rush to the affair. The irony is that while Blue Diamond’s actions aren’t his fault, the guilt he harbors causes serious mistakes that are his fault. But considering the dire circumstances, who could blame him?

Even the exposition here is swift and economical, as Garnet gives Amethyst and Pearl the lowdown on our last episode and Pearl dusts off her old Pearlsplaining cap from Season 1 to tell us about the Zoo. As is standard to this show, we learn important plot details while developing the character relaying them: in this case, on top of being a great showcase of Pearl’s nerves (“Amethyst, turn into a chair, I need to sit down!”), we add new wrinkles to her past. Her terror is informed by how anxious she was at seeing the palanquin in Steven’s Dream, and that brief moment of her eyes darting away from “When I still served...Homeworld” speaks volumes. We’ll go into more detail later about the implications of the Zoo and Pink Diamond’s efforts to help Earth through half-measures before going full Rose, but for now, it’s a terrific beat in retrospect that Pearl only knows where Greg was taken because she served the creator of his new prison.

With the Gems all caught up, we get straight to business prepping for takeoff, and it’s here that Steven makes his first two mistakes. First, he brushes off Peridot, the planet’s most qualified expert in modern Gem space travel. He doesn’t even invite her along, despite how obviously helpful she would be. Impatience trumps any sense of caution, and while it doesn’t make much sense for him to leave a helpful ally behind even in his frazzled state, her inability to grasp the importance of the situation (mixing serious travel concerns with pointless aesthetic quibbles) perhaps makes her a liability in his mind. Regardless, his second mistake is even bigger when it comes to his personal life, and it also involves leaving someone behind.

Yes, there’s no time to waste. So no, he probably shouldn’t have waited for Connie. He even tasks her with defending Beach City, showing that he does value her as a fighter as well as a friend. By itself, this probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But alongside his second foray into space down the line, it’s understandable that Connie starts to think that Steven doesn’t take her as seriously as he should. While there’s truth to that, the bigger issue is that Steven thinks that he alone should bear the burden of his perceived mistakes, and while it’s only hinted at now, that sense of martyrdom only gets worse as his guilt grows. This is a throwaway moment in the episode, but has major ramifications down the line.

And then we’re off! I’m honestly not into the gag of Pearl still not getting that 70 years is a long time for humans—it works early on, such as in Space Race, but she definitely would know better by now—and it’s joined by her not knowing the word for “birthday” despite several episodes introducing her to the concept. She’s grown a lot, and at times the show doesn’t seem to want to reflect this when an easy joke can be made. But at least she’s good at winding her way through a variety of space rocks, including tiny sentient ones.

Upon remembering the whole reality warping element of modern Gem space travel, Steven makes another hasty decision in boosting the speed, despite acknowledging that it might kill him. I mean, he makes a joke about how syrup can go with his new pancaked form, but it’s still an acknowledgment that self-sacrifice is a badge he’s proud to wear. And while it’s obviously a good thing that he survives, it can’t be healthy for his self-image to be proven right when he takes actions that might hurt or kill himself to help others.

Perhaps not wanting to delve too deeply into that topic quite yet, we get an extended comedy bit about the weird distortions the Gems face as physics gets wonky, as well as a small lesson about how light constructs work (complete with unusually cartoony diagrams, such as the one above comparing heights). I’m surprised by how effective the humor is; it’s not riotously funny to me or anything, but considering the stakes it really ought to feel annoying and in the way, and it works just fine. Part of the reason is that there’s nothing else to do while we’re waiting for the ship to arrive, so nothing feels interrupted. But I also appreciate it because it finally starts to show how destructive Steven’s rashness can be.

Activating the gravity engine was a choice that was reckless, but made sense: Steven needed to get to his dad in fewer than 70 years. But frantically pressing buttons he doesn’t understand to fix the Gems, instead of letting a more experienced hand figure it out, is almost frustratingly dumb. I say “almost” because it’s crystal clear by now that Steven is losing it, and the sight gags of our growing and shrinking Gems can’t hide that something is going to go wrong. When it inevitably does, and Steven is alone for the first time since Greg’s abduction, all that manic energy collapses into the grief he’s been trying to put at bay.

After the little visualized diagrams and the distorting forms of the Gems, we get an even more impressive animation-exclusive sequence: the striking use of onion skinning to convey the mindbending speed of the ship. Together with the ruby red lighting and the immediate disappearance of the Gems’ bodies, the tone lurches from one form of alarm to another. What was once a frenzied dash to fix things becomes a life-threatening race against the clock, and allows for one of the best performances of Zach Callison’s tenure on the show.

Steven has panicked before, but the greatest asset of this episode is Callison’s ability to crank it up a notch and sell the sheer stupefying terror of not knowing what to do in a crisis. He’s amazing throughout the episode as he practically hyperventilates his lines without delving into overdramatic emoting, but his despair as he’s left all alone on a doomed ship is heartwrenching.

It takes a strong performer and good, earnest writing to make a scene like this work, because verbally laying out all of your problems could come across as just telling instead of showing, and openly weeping can falter in any number of ways. It could’ve been melodramatic, it could’ve been overly childish, it could’ve been incoherent, and instead it’s a raw and moving outburst of sorrow after an episode where huge tears were a reaction to danger instead of emotion.

It’s also a great choice to follow up this moment of anguish with quieter determination. Instead of narrating his newfound resolve as he tries again to turn off the warp speed, this time eventually succeeding, the sequence is wordless and tense. Steven doesn’t need to tell us why he’s trying so hard, and after such a strong speech there’s no need to gild the lily when visuals work on their own.

The return of the Gems coincides with the return of regular light and animation, creating a palpable sense of relief despite it being sort of a given that they weren’t really going to kill off three main characters in this episode. Garnet provides Steven some much-needed reassurance, and while it doesn’t solve his martyr complex forever, it’s a welcome capper to the episode.

The logistics of an episode that’s literally just getting our characters from one place to another can’t be easy to navigate. If the crew wanted, we could’ve used that warp speed to jump straight to the action. Still, despite moving faster than light, it’s nice to slow down from the huge cliffhanger of Steven’s Dream to let our hero have a moment to collect his thoughts. Now that the initial shock has had a chance to pass, we can proceed with the rescue operation with a competent Steven that isn’t unrealistically okay with how things are going, and as a bonus we get our second episode since Bubbled that explores Steven’s increasingly sacrificial mindset. Everything working out for the best may seem like a neat way to finish Adventures in Light Distortion, but we’ll see the downsides in time.

Future Vision!

Yes, Steven leaving Connie behind is a catalyst for the Breakup Arc. But perhaps more importantly, they combine with Garnet similarly tasking Peridot and Lapis to protect Beach City to form the Crystal Temps!

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

A perfectly good entry in the Steven Universe catalog, bolstered by an amazing performance from Zach Callison, but ultimately an episode that isn’t too special on its own. It needs Steven’s Dream to pack its full punch, and the victory at the end is just reaching our next episode safely. Still, I like it!

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

No Thanks!

6. Horror Club 5. Fusion Cuisine 4. House Guest 3. Onion Gang 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#adventures in light distortion #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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raeynbowboi · 6 years ago

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The Other Ships in My Fleet

So, I’ve already made a post talking about how I feel about certain ships in My Hero Academia, and another post about some of my other fandoms. Both posts got a lot of likes and reblogs, so I figured I’d talk about my ships from other fandoms. If this post also gets a lot of positive feedback, I’ll consider starting a second page to post my fan content for all of my fandoms, while still maintaining this one almost exclusively for My Hero Academia and Kiribaku specifically.

Klance (Keith x Lance) Voltron: Legendary Defender

I’m fully aware that this ship is probably not going to happen, but it’s really the only ship in the series that speaks to me. I will not lie, I am a big fan of dark and moody dating happy-go-lucky, and the rivals to friends to lovers element is just icing on the cake. It’s only further helped by Lance being Keith’s second-in-command. They help each other grow, and the trust that forms between them is cute and endearing. They also shared a major element to their characters. Both of them feel out of place, Keith because of his Galra heritage, and Lance because he doesn’t have a niche role.

Rabies/Rae x BB (Raven x Beast Boy) Teen Titans (2003)

While there wasn’t a lot of shipping fodder for these two in the 2003 iteration, the two are a canon couple in most versions of the teen titans, having been married in the comics (more than once, I think) so this is sort of a unique ship in that I ship it across every version of the two characters. Sporting a snarky moody goth and a lovable goofball, their dynamic was like that of an old married couple, or a moody teenager and her annoying little brother. Still, the two were good friends, and even though their personalities were polar opposites of each other, they had a lot of quiet, emotional moments together in the series. Whether you want to read them as friends or potential lovers, I think it’s hard to deny that there was a genuinely nice bond between the pair.

Garnet/Rupphire (Ruby x Sapphire) Steven Universe

As the show’s literal physical manifestation of love and a perfect relationship, it’s hard not to like the relationship between these two adorable lesbians. With the show sometimes being edited to remove the queer elements, it’s absolutely hysterical that they had the two get married in an episode very important to the plot, and put Ruby in the dress so that absolutely nobody could misinterpret her as a male. Editing it would only confuse viewers as to why everybody is in wedding attire, thus taking a very satisfying stance against censors and bigotry. Garnet also marks a first in children’s programming as the first same-sex wedding in a children’s animated show, at least as far as I’m aware.

Pearl x Mystery Girl Steven Unieverse

Although only featured in a single episode and having no dialogue, Mystery Girl (possibly named Sabina) is a very important element to Pearl’s character, being her first step toward moving on from Rose Quartz. There were fans that hoped that Mystery Girl would come back, but even if she doesn’t, she’s still important to Pearl’s character development.

Amedot (Amethyst x Peridot) Steven Universe

I know a lot of people prefer Lapidot, but frankly I find Lapis too selfish and cold-hearted to be ready for a relationship as she currently stands. I find Amethyst to be a better fit for Peridot, since they both share issues with their height. That, and the way the show frames them has romantic comedy tropes interwoven into their scenes. But even if they’re just friends, Amethyst’s approval means so much to Peridot.

Stevonnie (Steven Universe x Connie Maheswaren) Steven Universe

I’m not usually a fan of lead boy dates lead girl ships, as they tend to be very poorly done, and many feel forced, or are just boring and predictable. However, the bond between these two feels very genuine. They don’t feel like a lead boy and lead girl forced into a relationship at all. They come together very naturally, and the show takes its time to build their friendship up slowly. The show remembers that they’re kids first, friends second, jam buds third, and love interests last.

Tomstar (Tom Lucitor x Star Butterfly) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

Considering the show’s themes of monsters, racism, and not judging evil at face value, this ship serves as the most thematically poignant to the narrative that the show is setting up. It also makes Star a stronger parallel to her “evil” great great something grandmother, Eclipsa. Both are monster sympathizers with monster boyfriends. While the blood moon bonds complicate things, I see this ship as the most relevant to the themes and messages the show seems to want to send.

Tomco (Tom Lucitor x Marco Diaz) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

More of a joke/crack ship, I know it’s unlikely, but the entire episode of Friendenemies had romantic comedy written all over it. Between the literal in-universe break-up song to the show’s promotional art being inspired by dime store pulp romance novels fuel the fire that keeps this ship afloat.

Bumblebee/Bumbleby (Blake Belladonna x Yang Xiao Long) RWBY

Partners, teammates, and close friends, the ship really took off starting in season 2 during the episode “Burning the Candle”, as Blake spiraled into self-destructive habits due to obsessing over her problems. Nobody is able to get through to her until Yang comes in to talk to her. She doesn’t lecture her or beg her to stop. She instead forms a bridge of trust by first opening up about a similar situation she’s been in, and how she knows first hand that this sort of spiraling can only have negative impacts. They are shown to be parallels, as both girls are negatively effected by a loved one no longer in their life, and the trust issues that spring from that loved one’s actions. Yang was abandoned by her mother, a problem which she mentions Blake repeated. For Blake, it was the uncertainty of trusting someone’s character, and being afraid of someone slowly turning into someone else. She explicitly states in season 3 that her ex started off a nice guy, like Yang. The first time he hurt someone, there was a reason. There was always an excuse. Until eventually, she became the pardoner. The one excusing his actions. And, she expresses the fear that Yang could be following a similar path. Both girls have been hurt by someone in the past, and both girls are afraid of being hurt the same way again, and inadvertently hurt each other the same way as someone else has. It’s also known that RWBY characters tend to represent or be based on fairy tale characters. Yang is Goldilocks, and Blake is Beauty from Beauty and the Beast. However, based on the lyrics from Red Like Roses “Black the Beast descends from shadows, Yellow Beauty burns gold”, there seems to be an implication that Yang is the Beauty to Blake’s Beast. This is interestingly supported by Blake’s name. Blake is a Celtic name meaning both Black and White, and Belladonna literally means Beautiful Woman in Italian, but is also the name of a very poisonous plant often mistaken for the harmless blueberry. The duality of her name could be pointing to how she plays the dual role of both Beauty and Beast.

Seamonkeys (Sun Wukong x Neptune Vasilias) RWBY

A bit more of a crack ship, these two lovable idiots are far less likely to be canon, but since Sun is Yang’s main competition for Blake’s heart, I have no problem shipping him off elsewhere with his goofy best friend. Although they act more like usual best friends in the canon show, their relationship does have a much gayer tone in the less canon comedy show RWBY Chibi, where Neptune almost seems to act like a jealous clingy girlfriend a lot of the times. I doubt the ship would ever sail, but I mostly ship it because they’re cute together. Although, with season 6 just starting, I got the vibe that Sun was stepping aside to let Bumblebee sail uninhibited. Sun doesn’t really have a third popular ship, it’s just Black Sun and Seamonkeys, so this ship may be gaining validity in the future.

Gumlee (Marshall Lee x Prince Gumball) Adventure Time with Fiona and Cake

The male counterpart to Bubbline (Princess Bubblegum x Marceline), there’s no real difference between the two pairs other than their genders, and Gumball preferring baking while Bubblegum prefers science. Because they are effectively just gender-swapped clones of the canon ship, anything canonical between the girls is also technically canon with these two. It’s not that I don’t like Bubbline, but when given the choice between gay or lesbian versions of a couple, I’m going to be naturally inclined to lean toward the gay version.

Sasunaru/Narusasu (Sasuke Uchiha x Naruto Uzumaki) Naruto

Maybe there’s a cultural aspect I’m unaware of, but it’s a bit of a running gag in the Naruto fanbase at this point that Naruto is obsessed with Sasuke. So much so that he seems to care about him way beyond normal friendship. With how much these two obsess over one another, it’s no surprise why this became such a popular pairing. Their dynamic even dwarfed Hinata’s heartfelt confession of her love during the Pain Invasion Arc, because as soon as that ended, did Naruto go talk to Hinata? No, he immediately started thinking about Sasuke. Hinata definitely got the shaft in part II, which is a shame because I really loved her character.

Bob and Linda Belcher Bob’s Burgers

More of an honorable mention than a full on ship, I wanted to highlight them as one of adult animation’s only married couples that actually still like each other. In the wake of the popularity of the Simpsons, and the cementing of the genre with Family Guy, the stock dynamic of idiot husband and enraged but supportive wife became a recurring trope. Before long, every single animated sitcom-esque family fell into this very annoying cliche. So, finding a couple in adult animation that are not only married but still manage to show they love each other is amazing. Their marriage isn’t on the rocks, they find time to at least try and be romantic, and even when they have bets or are on opposing sides of something, the show never forgets that these two love each other at the end of the day.

Captain Swan (Killian “Hook” Jones x Emma Swan) Once Upon A Time

This relationship between Captain Hook and the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming might sound odd on paper, but this couple is by far one of the healthiest relationships in the series. Both Hook and Emma come from broken lives, and together build themselves up to something stronger. In a melodrama surrounding fairy tales, both characters are surprisingly grounded, realistic, and skeptical cynics, a very stark contrast from the usual wide-eyed lovey-dovey couples Disney is known for. Emma’s tendency to put up walls and Killian’s tendency to always put himself first are both slowly broken down over time as Killian tries to tear down Emma’s walls and get to know her while she works on building a foundation of trust between them. The pairing feels very organic, and they definitely feel like the most realistic couple in the series as they both take turns stumbling and working toward being good for each other.

Rumbelle (Rumplestiltskin x Belle) Once Upon A Time

In the early seasons, this couple was beautiful to watch. I truly loved their chemistry and dynamic, as both of them were given such strong characteristics without simplifying either of them. However, as the show went on, it started to lose that power. The couple started to feel toxic as Belle kept waiting for Rumple to change, and he kept on lying and lying. It even reached a stopping point. A perfect one. Rumple was redeemed. He was a good man again. He could be the man Belle deserved. But instead, he slipped right back into his old ways. It was then that I fell off the band wagon for this ship. I loved it once, until I got sick of watching him hurt her over and over.

Daenerys Targaryen x Khal Drogo Game of Thrones

Although together only for a short while, this power couple won audiences over very quickly, as Drogo’s gruff but passionate affection mixed with Danny’s growing confidence and rise to power made these two iconic.

Renly Baratheon x Ser Loras Tyrell Game of Thrones

Another short-lived relationship, the remarkable thing is that Renly was literally the only character vying for the throne with fully good intentions for the realm. He was concerned with the needs of the people, and was the only morally good candidate in the War of Five Kings. Sadly, the ydidn’t get much screen time, but they were still a strong couple.

Peraltiago (Jake Peralta x Amy Santiago) Brooklyn 99

A rare exception to the don’t force the leads to date rule, the show let them form a bond over time that went from a friendly childish rivalry to a friendly dating rivalry. While each character experiences change and growth, it is not at the expense of their personalities, and the progression feels like it was meant to happen.

#ships #shipping #fandom #steven universe #star vs the forces of evil #game of thrones #brooklyn 99 #once upon a time #ouat #star vs #rwby #naruto #voltron legendary defender #voltron #teen titans #bobs burgers #adventure time

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iggytheperson · 6 years ago

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Interview with Bloom Into You’s author Nakatani Nio

[translated from yurinavi.com]

「 I’ve gotten an interview with Nakatani Nio-sensei*, author of Bloom into You, the brilliant 2-year consecutive winner for our site’s annual competition for best yuri manga!

Thank you very much to Sensei and to the editorial department of Dengeki Daioh for happily taking on our request. With that being said, let’s hurry and get started with the interview! 」

「 To begin, I’d like to ask questions about Bloom Into You. 」

How did Bloom Into You come to exist?

Nakatani Nio: 「 What I wanted most when first coming up with the story was something that focused around a main character, who, despite wanting to have romantic feelings, is unable to do so, making them feel almost as if they’re not being allowed to experience such things.

Such a thing is actually quite common, but a lot of people simply aren’t made aware of it... 」

What’s your favorite scene, sensei?

Nakatani Nio: 「 Of course, my favorite scenes tend to be the ones that the fans like the most. For example, the last scene at the river in Volume 2, the makeout session in the warehouse from Volume 3, or the sleepover with Sayaka in Volume 4.

But I secretly enjoy some of the more subtle moments, such as when Yuu and Sayaka are casually eating fries and chatting in Volume 3, or when Yuu gets mad at the aquarium because she’s confused by the name of the opisthoteuthis californiana in Volume 5. 」

Many Yuri manga are set in all girls schools, what was your intent in having your story take place in a co-ed school?

Nakatani Nio: 「 The way yuri often tends to portray things is that if a girl loves girls, then she’ll love only girls no matter what, but I don’t think a “girl that loves girls” necessarily excludes loving boys from the equation entirely.

Touko absolutely loves girls, case in point, the only person she’s ever liked is a girl, and she’s individual from other girls in this regard. And of course, this story also has girls who don’t love girls. I though that differences between individuals such as these would be better illustrated in the co-ed environment.」

Can you tell us a bit more about Yuu’s line “I can’t understand love.”, as well as Touko stating that she can’t be her “plain self” around anyone besides Yuu?

Nakatani Nio:「 To begin with, I wanted to explore this girl, Yuu, but then I remembered afterwards that that’s not how yuri is made...or something like that.

So what I originally wanted with Touko was to draw a cute, troublesome girl. By first creating the image of a heroine who’s “at first glance, a seemingly perfect girl, but incapable of being positive on her own”, I thought about what kind of protagonist would work best to help this girl along to her goals. 」

Every subtitle** of Yagakimi is excellent, and it’s a pleasure to think of what kind of meaning was put into them. So here’s a question, at what stage of production do you come up with the subtitle**?

Nakatani Nio:「 In most cases, it’s when it comes time to submit the manuscript. In other words, I save it to the last minute. To cause myself panic.

For an unusual example of having actually thought it through, chapters 29 to 32 were a series of titles, and so it was decided before drawing. 」

「 Thank you very much. It’s clear that extremely detailed consideration has been done, from serif lines to subtitles. Next, I’d like to ask a few questions about you, Nakatani-sensei. 」

What’s your favorite yuri manga, sensei?

Nakatani Nio:「 Two from recent works.

First, Kobachi Ruka-san’s Hana Ni Arashi. First of all, I find it amazing that two sets of people are secretly dating in a group of five people. And it doesn’t feel too light or too heavy, making it feel like it’s full of realistic high school girls.

It’s basically a collection of little moments in day to day life, the overall depiction of it is really good, and I’m increasingly touched by the romance of these girls.

Next is Hara Yuriko-san’s Mayu, Matou. While it’s a bit presumptuous of me to write a recommendation when the series is still on volume 1, it’s already a favorite manga for me in spite of this.

The art is really gorgeous and I think it adds beautifully to the story itself, which is an anthology of loosely connected stories, and the relationship at the centerfold of it is also exquisite. 」

Please tell me how you started drawing manga, sensei.

Nakatani Nio:「 By the time I was in elementary school, I remember drawing something almost akin to manga, though definitely ripping off already existing works.

My first finished product was sometime around when I graduated high school, and by the time of entering university my artwork came out looking professional and proper, acceptable to be put up at art shows and galleries.

I tried proper artwork for a long time, but it was really boring. Then I remembered being little and being told I could draw manga when I grew up. Thinking about it now, it’s really funny that it took 20 years for me to believe it enough to become a mangaka. 」

What is yuri to you, sensei?

Nakatani Nio:「 I like romance stories, but it seems like the story people want to tell nowadays is almost exclusively to depict love as something that makes you complete as a person, and I think that’s really unnecessary. For a long time, it made me feel like I was lagging behind in life or that something was wrong with me. In that respect, I feel much more drawn to romances between same sex couples, as they never really fall into the ‘other half’ gimmick.

Apart from that, since the ideas of heterosexual love stories don’t really make any sense to me, I have to think about it a lot more than when I’m writing for a same sex couple, and so the end product comes across as strange and foreign when I attempt it. However, it is unavoidable that I come across works about same sex couples that have the old ‘other half’ thing in them...

I also like BL*** and I’ve drawn it before, but now I simply want to draw cute girls hundreds of times. I love yuri because I love to draw girls! That’s reason enough to draw it. 」

Finally, your thoughts for volume 6 and the new anime adaptation, please.

Nakatani Nio: 「 Volume 6 will be covering the school play, and give us a result to all that has happened between Yuu and Touko thus far. I think it will be very enjoyed.

Anime adaptation is something made with care and attention to draw out the directing and tone of the original. I’m getting more and more excited to see what the staff is going to do to bring the expressiveness to life in this new medium.

And all the chatting between characters is cute! Please look forward to it! 」

*suffix, directly translates to teacher. otaku will often call mangaka “sensei”, as is common when someone is awesome enough to deem giving them mad respect but also too middle class to use a royalty suffix like -sama

**it literally says subtitle, but what they’re referring to is the chapter titles.

*** BL = Boy’s Love. a nice, non-fetishizing term for boy/boy shipping.

other note: This is my first time translating literally anything and I probably didn’t do too well so if anyone wants to go read the article and tell me what I got wrong I’d love you.

#bloom into you #yagate kimi ni naru #eventually i'll become yours #nakatani nio #nanami touko #koito yuu #saeki sayaka

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gurguliare · 6 years ago

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Anyway I finally finally finished the TM post-mortem so have one last rundown

Really loved: Signet’s stupid relics runway show, Ali describing the Mirage/Splice resolution as “the most amazing Gift of the Magi fuckup,” and, oddly, Keith’s reflections on anarchism, though idk if enough of that made it legibly into the season---which is one of the ways Gig was underserved, I guess.

I also enjoyed and appreciated the discussion of TM’s utopianism as monumental artistic challenge. I obviously have criticisms wrt execution and I disagree with some of their analysis of TM’s failures and shortcomings, but I thought everyone was refreshingly honest about the sheer scale of the task, in a way that I often missed during the series proper---when the tone sometimes tended more toward “we’ve set ‘depicting a utopia’ as our goal, and of course we share a coherent (static) vision of what that entails, and know exactly how to get from here to there.”

I was dissatisfied at best with the conversation about redemption vs rehabilitation. I might be more convinced by the distinction if Austin had ever stopped saying “sin”... which, among other things, helps to selectively blur together abuse and other forms of violence. (I’ve given up on even dreaming of a world in which FATT covers its ass better in re: Christian-centric, frankly Catholic-centric readings of both morality and faith, and maybe it’s for the best that they lack the wherewithal to mask that.) That said, I think it’s very striking that Even Gardner’s violence and militarism seems dealt with in-story almost exclusively as a form of trauma and a thing that happens to Even Gardner, while Fourteen’s history with Castlerose is discussed (up to the time of the finale) almost exclusively in terms of Sins Fourteen Committed. I’m not saying those framings are ~flipped, but the ratio does seem off. Even has a fuckton of choices at every step of the way and experiences basically no material repercussions or visible change of heart, other than “once there are no Advent people left I’ll stop targeting Advent.” He’s also, notably, “brought back from the edge” by a played-straight romantic relationship, for some reason. Fourteen has like... half of a narrative about turning bad habits and even obsolete ideas to constructive ends, and half a narrative about reclaiming agency once safely away from your abuser, even at the cost of losing access to huge swathes of your life... but it’s an arc that goes so unacknowledged or unseen by the other characters that it never connects back up to the idea that, well, bound up in the problem of rehabilitation is the problem of forgiveness---or if we don’t like that language, then acceptance. It’s never clear on what terms Fourteen is judged and reintegrated into their community, and how and where their self-image aligns with others’ view of them.

Which is very, very lonely, and raises huge questions for me about the whole issue of Fourteen as ~disability representation and specifically as a test case for what terminal illness might look like in a utopia. It is just not clear what anyone’s goals were, as far as showing Fourteen supported in a systemic way and not just on the level of relationships. It’s very odd. I’m still puzzled by Jack and Austin’s remarks on this, especially the focus on what Jack had or hadn’t done with Fourteen in play. Literally every NPC (who has a stance on the issue at all) responds to Fourteen with undisguised horror at their memory dysfunction---the most sympathetic version of this is a lecture about integrating assistive technology into their daily routine! and the least sympathetic is the point-blank statement that Fourteen not remembering who they’ve killed is worse than killing those people in the first place. Like, what the hell? That’s a vision of morality that is entirely premised on repentance, and on the idea that expiation for a crime only comes with appropriate helpings of guilt. And it never really receives an in-universe challenge.

It was also weird to me that Grand didn’t come up at all in that part of the discussion. But then again it seemed like no one wanted to comment seriously on Grand’s arc in general; maybe Art was making really sad faces on the call or something. It’s a shame though, since you’d think it would be a good opportunity to go on some bullshit about “salvation NOT through good works,” or rather, salvation definitely through good works but everyone feels a little weird about it. Three bombs? Three bombs?

Finally, it is important that I dissect all remarks on shipping. I was a little perturbed by the discussion of Fourteen/Tender; I thought Ali’s IC reasons were perfectly valid but I found Jack’s slightly suspect, because I don’t think, uh, “this person flirts all the time but is too busy dying to pursue new romantic projects” really jives---either with Fourteen’s profound, active engagement with others (more active and deeper engagement the longer the season went on) or with Jack’s stated goal of presenting a dying person who, without being embroiled in regret or bitterness in the face of death, still loves their life. Obviously I don’t think romantic relationships are a requirement for that, but the blanket statement that Fourteen is Not That Person gave me trouble. Also, I just don’t think you can drop the “platonic relationship representation is so important” line in there without a LOT more unpacking of the pros and cons of that---who are the characters involved in that relationship, and are they people for whom nonsexual relationships are a top-of-the-line representation deficit? Also, is nonsexual vs sexual really the paradigm you want to cleave to here, in a discussion of the chemistry between an internet goddess and a hunk of data?

I’m a hypocrite though bc when they got to echogrand and went on about how it was important that Echo’s arc not center on romance I was like RIGHT ON

...

Okay. One more thing. Janine shooting down Signet/Blueberry; I was fond of this, though I obviously do not care about her opinion and will continue to do what I want---I don’t like “parental” as the trajectory for a dynamic whose foundational moment is the younger weaker party saving the older, that doesn’t do it for me. Of course children can save their parents, but they shouldn’t have to, and that certainly shouldn’t be the pattern that defines the relationship. And for Signet and Blueberry I think it really is; Signet offers Blueberry apologies, Blueberry offers Signet things Signet actually needs. That’s not parental. Nevertheless, I was fond bc it made me think about what a wealth of fun mentorship dynamics this season offered otherwise---with Tender and Morning’s Observation, and Fourteen and Sho, there are these really precious internal movements, or moments of slippage, from distrust to empathy and from faith to disillusionment, that I treasured as real, organic, slippery pieces of character writing and of writing about growth... My favorite example of this is when Morning’s Observation is FURIOUS with Tender after the fucking... rooftop debacle early on in the Wind’s Poem arc. And then again, more seriously, later, after he’s been essentially abandoned and has to save the day by drawing on parts of himself he wanted to give up. That feels like a moment of roleswap between “guardian” and “child” that is presented as appropriately bittersweet, pivotal, and rupturing, and which therefore preserves the logic of the original relationship even as it expands it. And I also love Grand’s awkward interference there, haha... esp in the context of Grand managing to disappoint Morning separately later on, when by that point it’s lost most of its oomph just because Morning has learned not to have expectations of these fucking geniuses. Which is its own mixed result.

(I wish there had been a bit more followup with Morning in the finale, actually, I don’t think he really got resolution on some stuff and I think “happy at the Brink with his moms” is more avoidant copout than anything, though not implausible or unreasonable avoidance from a character perspective. But like, the fucking... part in the Feast of Patina where it becomes increasingly apparent, throughout Morning’s glad monologue, that he did, in fact, do many of the same things as Grand? He betrayed former allies for an enemy faction in the name of convenience! That’s not all Grand did, but it’s not nothing. And everyone has to fall back on “but the Advent Group are fascists! Morning didn’t turn coat and join fascists!” when it’s like, well, would he have, if they had offered him spaghetti?

Not that I think Morning’s and Grand’s choices are remotely equivalent. But it was a very funny parallel for them to try to wriggle out of on the fly, and I wish they hadn’t---I wish they’d leaned into Morning’s lingering doubts, which would if anything have served to highlight that he does have good reason to stay. It’s just that those reasons don’t cancel out the doubts.)

#friends at the table #twilight mirage #ok i said last but i already feel another post boiling up in me about some comparisons austin made between c/w and tm but #i think i'll save that #for another time.

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h-alcion-blog · 6 years ago

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—— INTRODUCTION .

hey! i’m a lil late with this but better late than never, right? i’m n ( he/him or they/them ) and if you’re the type of person who writes that letter instead of ‘and,’ you’re free to call me either ‘enn’ or ‘nero’ alternatively. i really don’t have much of a preference for what people call me i’ll be real. i’m in EST but i have really weird waking hours. just know that tuesdays & thursdays are almost IMPOSSIBLE to reach me just because i schedule my hours at my uni to fill up the entire day and that’s no exaggeration.

i’ll be playing chitose hamaguchi, shsl pop idol! his public bio is here. his talent i feel is pretty self-explanatory but i’ll get into details about his fame under the cut amongst the other typical fanfare.

would your oc know him? :

oh probably. unless your oc completely avoids advertisements and music, ESPECIALLY pop music, then your oc logistically should at least know about his old idol unit named yumeiro. i 100% am willing to believe though that they might not recognize him or his name, but i’d say he’s about on the same level as knowing who, say, a.dam le.vine is out of m.aroon 5.

yumeiro is an “all-girl group” -- i put that in air quotes because chitose is a cismale yet he was a part of the group. at first it was a secret that he was male but very soon after their successful debut, he was outed by the fanbase. there was a bit of controversy at first over whether or not a guy should be allowed to be in yumeiro, but his talent in singing and dancing as well as his own individual fanbase was so powerful that people kinda stopped caring, believing that he was good enough to allow some flexibility with ONLY in his career. it’s also very apparent that the management knew his gender, so it’s not like he was lying to anyone except the fans at first. his fans affectionately refer to him as chitose-chan and by feminine titles ( queen, princess, etc. ) and he’s known as ‘ japan’s darling crossdressing idol. ’

addendum to above, but it’s possible that a lot of his fans never used pronouns to refer to him considering how easy it is to omit them in japanese speech. if they ever DID use pronouns though, they used he/him. without that though and without prior knowledge of chitose, it’s very easy to be tricked into believing he is a cisgirl whenever he’s in his yumeiro getup.

this is the appearance that most people would recognize him with. he always wore the pink wig and feminine clothing in public appearances until his switch to a new all-boy idol unit: C-HARM. however, C-HARM has been performing, so if you’re a fan of male idol groups, it’s possible to recognize him as how he is now in both appearance and voice ( he sings in a different register between his work in yumeiro and his work in C-HARM. ) C-HARM is super successful too, just not as popular as yumeiro -- also yumeiro has been around longer.

still, it’s not like it was impossible to know him with his current appearance beforehand. if your oc went to a lot of high society events, there’s a chance you might’ve seen him in masculine clothing and without his wig acting as an escort for darling fellow idol and child model sakurako ueda. sakurako’s mother is a very prominent woman in the entertainment industy being an extremely popular actress. her mother’s name is sumire ueda. sakurako ueda is the center of yumeiro.

chitose is also a child model but this is less likely for you to recognize him as. he’s been in advertisements and magazines since he was a toddler. he was dressed as a girl for the first two years but once he became school-age, he ended up becoming masculine presenting. he did not wear the wig until his entrance into yumeiro. he was mostly featured in clothing ads but has been in a few other types like food products, toys, etc. nowadays with his idol career, his photoshoots are geared more towards clothing and jewelry and during his time in yumeiro, he was used a decent amount of times in cosmetic commercials! nowadays though since he’s masculine presenting again, he’s used more for clothing and accessories only. up until his switch to C-HARM, he was exclusively in photoshoots with sakurako ueda. he never did solo jobs.

C-HARM is a new idol unit and he is NOT the center of it. in fact, chitose was never the leader of either of his idol units despite his personal popularity. his marketability in yumeiro was that he actually sounds like a girl ( just a slightly deeper sounding one ) whilst in C-HARM it’s that he’s a cute boy. both idol units are comprised only of people who are around his age.

both of his idol units specialize in love songs. they’re both standard idol fare. honestly, if you’ve played an idol game, that’s not a bad comparison. they don’t have gimmicks centered on being crossovers with metal, rock, or anything like that, but they’re both well-rounded genre wise whilst still being “safe” enough for the pop charts.

a pretty good term to use for chitose’s presentation in yumeiro and his extremely early modeling days is to describe him as an otokonoko. it’s a jp term that means quite literally “male daughter” and is used to describe cishet men who present femininely. chitose himself referred to himself as an otokonoko in those days. otokonokos are NOT to be confused with herbivore men, but they both get flack just because of japan’s declining birth rate and strict gender norms.

rules / law :

i’m cool with him being drawn and such! i’m also cool with my art being used for edits with filters and such.

as for shipping, i’m probably going to not be that open to it but if chemistry naturally happens, then it happens. i’ll just be plain and say that, at this point in time, chitose is in love with somebody already but doesn’t understand that fact. there’s also the whole taboo with idols dating people though, and he is VERY aware of the deep trouble he can get into if he’s ever discovered to actually be romantically involved with anyone.

i’m one of the few people here it seems who prefers public threads to private, but i’m cool with either! as a note, if you don’t use sprites, i won’t use sprites either. i don’t really mind LOL i’m flexible.

i’m kinda hrmmmm when it comes to plotting just because i’m more used to improvising, but if there’s something you want to plot out, feel free to hmu. i’m usually always set to invisible on discord, but i’ll get back to your message asap!

trivia :

chitose’s persona between his involvement in yumeiro and his involvement in C-HARM is virtually the same. literally, the only difference someone might notice is that he’s feminine presenting in one group and masculine presenting in the other. he’s known to be kinda an oresama in both units.

personal pronouns with chitose is a MESS. in yumeiro, he referred to himself with atashi, but at social events he referred to himself with watashi. nowadays in both social functions and in C-HARM, he refers to himself with boku.

chitose enjoys tea ceremonies! he’s particularly partial to green tea for ooc metaphorical reasons.

chitose, despite his previously girly public image, LOVES sports. his current fascination is paragliding and surfing.

chitose lives in kamakura, kanagawa! whiiiich basically puts him in the shonan area aka he’s always lived around the beach hence why he enjoys surfing.

chitose loves spicy food ( he loves ghost peppers ) and hates most sweets. his exception is strawberry daifuku.

regardless of if he’s presenting femininely or masculinely, chitose LOVES fashion. he’s very meticulous when it comes to clothes shopping ( his motto is ‘ don’t let the clothes wear you, YOU have to wear them! ’ ), skincare, makeup, and hairstyling.

chitose is Salty.jpeg that he’s not categorized as a cute student. he will judge the cute students in the roster based on their appearance Very Heavily now rip them.

i’m a mad man and made these references for all the symbols on his design a while ago:

#⚘ | art.#⚘ | ooc.#⚘ | ref.#⚘ | POP IDOL ( student: self. )

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years ago

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JUST AS HOUSES ALL OVER AMERICA ARE FULL OF CHAIRS THAT ARE, WITHOUT THE OWNERS EVEN KNOWING IT, NTH-DEGREE IMITATIONS OF THE ATTITUDES OF PEOPLE WHO'VE DONE GREAT THINGS

One of the most powerful of those was the existence of channels. Is there some test you can use is: always produce. If there's something people still won't do, it stops being a self-indulgent choice, like buying expensive office furniture.1 But I tried living in Florence when I was talking about how investors are reluctant to put money into startups in bad markets, even though that's the time they happen, using the state of the economy doesn't matter much either way.2 It's not rapid prototyping for business models though it can be, but apparently not in the startup world. Is the existence of English majors, and therefore jobs teaching them, that calls into being all those thousands of dreary papers about gender and identity in the novels of Conrad. But it would require a great moral effort; it would mean staring failure in the eye every day for years. We're starting to move from social lies to real lies.

I don't think the bank manager really did. It's also more dangerous. Pretty soon you'll start noticing what makes the preceding paragraph true is that it's slow and uncertain. When Microsoft and Apple were founded.3 There's an A List of people who will later do great things, you'd be able to benefit from it, because a toll has to be is a test. In practice they spend a lot of pro-union readers, the first paragraph sounds like the sort of thing a right-wing radio talk show host would say to stir up his followers.4 What good does it do me to know that my programmers would be more productive working at home on their own projects? But it doesn't matter much either way. As written, it tends to offend people who like unions, because it seems sympathetic to their cause.

If employees have to be made to work on. What matters in Silicon Valley is how much effect you have on the world. At best you may have a couple internships, but not, probably, to music. The better you understand them the better the odds of doing that. If the world had a single, autocratic government, the labels and studios could buy laws making the definition of property be whatever they wanted. It happens naturally to anyone who does good work.5 It's an exciting place. I hear the RIAA and MPAA would make us breathe through tubes down here too, even though we no longer needed to. You have two choices: give it away and make money from it indirectly, or find ways to embody it in things people will pay for.

It has always mattered for women, but in the late 90s said the worst thing about living there was the low quality of the eavesdropping.6 That's what all publishing used to be like. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. But I have a legitimate reason for doing this. Customers are used to being maltreated. For example, reading and experience are usually compiled at the time they happen, using the state of the economy. That's a separate question. At the moment, even the smartest students leave school thinking they have to get a job.7 Initially you have to show off with your body instead.8 The message Berkeley sends is: you should make more money. That's the reason to launch fast is not so much that there was a university nearby. Unproductive pleasures pall eventually.

Nor is there anything new, except the names and places, in most news about things going wrong. It would have been on the list 100 years ago. Whoever controls the device sets the terms. If they accepted it, it wouldn't be read by anyone for months, and in the meantime I'd have to fight word-by-word to save it from being mangled by some twenty five year old copy editor.9 They have an answer, certainly, but as a predictor of success it's rounding error compared to the founders. You can't blame kids for thinking I am not like these people; I am not suited to this world.10 This suggests an answer to a question people in New York and the Bay area are second class citizens—till they start hedge funds or startups respectively. Most people who did great things were clumped together in a few places where that sort of thing a right-wing radio talk show host would say to stir up his followers. On the blunderometer, this episode ranks with IBM accepting a non-exclusive license for DOS. But those are usually free. Ten years ago there seemed a real danger Microsoft would extend its monopoly to servers. They work odd hours, wearing the most casual of clothing.

Technology trains leave the station at regular intervals. The organic route is more common. The basic idea behind office hours is that if you had enough strength of mind to do great work have to live in a great city.11 The problem is the same they face in operating systems: they can't pay people enough to build something better than a group of inspired hackers will build for free. Everyone knows that these little social lies aren't meant to be taken literally, just as, occasionally, playing wasn't—for example, set prices based on the qualities of the founders. How lucky that someone so powerful is so benevolent. Most people fail.12 At one extreme is the day job, where you work regular hours at one job to make a few people in a position to do that.13 I better not start a startup now, because the economy is better before taking the leap? I'm not going to try. The reason these conventions are more dangerous is that they interact with the ideas.

If I had a copy of the New York Times. Teachers in particular all seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. Everyone knows that these little social lies aren't meant to be taken literally, just as we were designed to eat a certain amount of fiber, and we feel bad if you haven't succeeded yet. The crazy legal measures that the labels and studios have put themselves in the position of the food shop.14 But this time something new happened. And so the average person expressing his opinions in a bar sounds like an idiot compared to a journalist writing about the subject.15 If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you write about controversial topics you have to find the city where you feel at home to know what they want to do, but in most ambitious kids, ambition seems to precede anything specific to be ambitious about. The owner wanted the student to pay for the smells he was enjoying.16 But this is certainly not so with work.

Maybe I'm excessively attached to conciseness. When you talk about cities in the sense we are, what you're really talking about is collections of people, so you could use the two ideas interchangeably. Offer surprisingly good customer service. You should be hipper. The record labels and movie studios used to distribute what they made like air shipped through tubes on a moon base where we had to buy air by the liter. You have to like what you do? When I say business can learn about new conditions the same way I write essays, making pass after pass looking for anything I can cut. This is easy advice to give.17 When an investor maltreats a founder now, it gets out. That may be the greatest effect, in the most literal sense, not news: there is nothing new in it.

Notes

You're too early if it's dismissed, it's probably a bad deal.

Without visual cues e. In general, spams are more likely to have done all they demand from art as stuff.

Geoff Ralston reports that one of them. College English 28 1966-67, pp. Auto-retrieving filters will have to do better, because you couldn't possibly stream it from a few critical technical secrets.

And while we might think it might make them less vulnerable to gaming, because people would be investors who say no for introductions to philosophy now take the hit.

But let someone else. When an investor makes you much more analytical style of thinking. They would have been about 2, etc, and outliers are disproportionately likely to resort to expedients like selling autographed copies, or at least accepted additions to the customer: you post a sign in a world in verse, it would literally take forever to raise five million dollars in liquid assets are assumed to be employees, with identifying details changed. On their job listing page, they still probably won't invest.

The Harmless People and The CRM114 Discriminator.

After a while to avoid sticking. There is of course finding words this way that makes the business for 16,000 sestertii, for example, if you aren't embarrassed by what you've done than where you go to die from releasing something full of bugs, and Foley Hoag. Even the desire to do that.

99, and each night to make the police treat people more equitably. That wouldn't work for us to Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, both of which he can be and still provide a better user experience. This is actually from the truth to say that intelligence is the least VC-like.

I quote a number here only to buy your kids' way into top colleges by sending them to private schools that in the belief that they'll only invest contingently on other sites.

According to Zagat's there are certain qualities that help in deciding what to think about so-called lifestyle business, A. And frankly even these companies wish they weren't, as I know of a refrigerator, but this would be at a friend's house for the firm in the production of high quality. This is almost always bullshit.

5 to 2 seconds. If we had, we'd have understood users a lot about how things are going well, but half comes from a technology startup takes some amount of damage to the ideal of a lumbar disc herniations, but it might help to be started in 1975, said the things you want to pound that message home. The markets seem to be a predictor of high quality. Digg's is the kind that evolves into Facebook isn't merely a subset of Facebook; the creation of wealth for society.

But which of them is a sufficiently identifiable style, you usually have to do better. One reason I stuck with such energy that he transformed the field they describe. Or you make something hackers use. He had such a baleful stare as they are themselves typical users.

Unfortunately, making physically nice books will only do convertible debt, but it might even be symbiotic, because the test for what gets included in shows is basically a replacement mall for mallrats.

I think lack of movement between companies was as late as 1984. Greek philosophers before Plato wrote in order to win. You could feel like a VC who read this essay wrote: After the war on drugs show, bans often do more than the others.

At some point, when politicians tried to pay out their earnings in dividends, and many of the junk bond business by doing a small percentage of startups that get funded this way that weren't visible in the Valley itself, not because Delicious users are not all of us in the preceding period that caused many companies that can't reasonably expect to make the people who said they wanted to. But although I started using it, and all those 20 people at once, and for recent art that does. But it isn't critical to do it all yourself. My first job was scooping ice cream in the mid 1980s.

Some government agencies run venture funding groups, you have to disclose the threat to potential investors are just not super thoughtful for the desperate and the Origins of Europe, Cornell University Press, 1983. 66, while she likes getting attention in the 1980s was enabled by a combination of circumstances: court decisions striking down state anti-dilution provisions also protect you against tricks like a little too narrow than to confuse everyone with a screw top would have undesirable side effects. Living on instant ramen would be unfortunate.

To say nothing of the kleptocracies that formerly dominated all the red counties. I made because the remedy was to become one of the paths people take through life, the approval of an email being spam.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Jeff Weiner, Sarah Harlin, Geoff Ralston, Kevin Systrom, Aaron Iba, and Sam Altman for their feedback on these thoughts.

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scentedrunawayshark · 3 years ago

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African American history month – Black history month

The annual observance of Black History Month in February has its origins dating back to 1926 when the historian Carter G Woodson, author of ‘The Journal of Negro History’, announced the second week in February to be “Negro History Week”.

The flame flickered until, in 1970, the first Black History Month was celebrated at Kent State University between January 2nd and February 28th.

Six years later during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial, President Gerald Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity [of Black History Month] to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history”.

Of course, Black Americans have made ground-breaking contributions in many areas. In this article we concentrate on scientific and social advances made in the field of medicine. We examine what remains to be achieved.

Contents [hide]

James McCune Smith, MD (183-1865)

Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD (1831-1895)

Dr. Charles Richard Drew (1904-1950)

Marilyn Hughes Gaston MD (1939-)

James McCune Smith, MD (183-1865)

James McCune Smith was the first black American to receive a medical degree. Racist admissions practices at U.S. medical schools meant that he had to study at the University of Glasgow Medical School, where he was first in his class and in 1837 gained his Doctorate in Medicine. On his return to the USA he practiced in New York and became the first black American to own and operate a pharmacy (West Broadway). In 1863 he became Professor of Anthropology at Ohio University.

In this Academic year 2019/2020 Glasgow University opens the $120 million James McCune Smith Learning Hub. The hub provides a ‘state of the art’ learning and teaching facility for over 2,500 students.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD (1831-1895)

Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first black American woman to receive an MD degree. Like James Smith 25 years before, she had many obstacles to overcome before being accepted, 1859, at The New England Female Medical College, Boston. She was aided by the sponsorship of the doctors with whom she had worked for the previous eight years. Despite the interruption of the Civil War she earned her medical degree in 1864 (aided by an award from the Wade Scholarship Fund).

At the end of the Civil War she set up practice in Richmond, Virginia, working with missionary and community groups to provide medical care to newly freed slaves. On returning to Boston, Rebecca Crumpler focused on the treatment of illnesses affecting women and children.

Her book, ‘A book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts’, was a manual for women looking after themselves and their children. Published in 1883 it was one of the earliest medical texts written by an African American and possibly the first by a woman.

Dr. Charles Richard Drew (1904-1950)

Known as ‘Father of the Blood Bank’, “Dr Charles Drew broke barriers in a racially divided America to become one of the most important scientists of the 20th century” (American Chemical Society).

In 1922 he entered Amherst College in Massachusetts (on a football, track and field scholarship!). He was one of only thirteen African Americans in a student body of six hundred.

Apart from his athletic prowess Drew showed no great promise until a biology Professor sparked his interest in medicine.

As with many other fields, medicine was largely segregated. As African American this limited his education and later his career options. Nevertheless, his perseverance gained him a place at McGill University, Montreal, where he gained his MD and CM (Master of Surgery) degrees, graduating second in a class of 137.

During his internship at Montreal Hospital (1933-1935) Drew developed his interest in transfusion medicine. He went on to earn his Doctorate at Columbia University based on his assessment of previous research into blood and transfusion, blood chemistry and fluid replacement.

His key findings concerned the collection, processing and storage of blood products. This led to his appointment to Head of Blood for Britain (BFB), a project which collected and transported much needed blood and plasma to Britain during WWII.

When the program ended in 1941 BFB had collected over 14,000 blood donations and through the Red Cross shipped more than 5,000 liters of saline solution to England.

Drew returned to Howard University (DC) where he had briefly studied (1935/6) as Head of the Department of Surgery, the post he held until his untimely death in a car accident.

His self-proclaimed mission was to “train…young African American surgeons who could… in turn nurture the tradition of excellence”.

Marilyn Hughes Gaston MD (1939-)

Born to a family of limited means Marilyn Hughes was strongly influenced by her mother: “You can be whatever you want to be” and her godmother, who took her every Saturday with a group of local children to a local ‘whites only’ swimming pool. She, Marilyn’s godmother, succeeded in desegregating the pool.

Between them these two “fierce black women” instilled in her the twin values of ambition and perseverance.

Her college prep school discouraged her from starting on a medical career but she enrolled in Miami University, studied zoology and graduated in 1960.

She was faced with the dilemma of whether to pursue her ambition to become a doctor. She was poor, female and black.

One physician with whom she discussed her dilemma told her “You will never be satisfied with nursing duties [which she was then doing]. If you really want to be a physician go for it!” And she did!

Marilyn Hughes Gaston enrolled in the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine and graduated in 1964. She had been one of six women and the only African American woman in her class.

During her internship at Philadelphia General Hospital she had a chance encounter with an infant patient with a swollen hand, the cause of which she struggled to identify. The supervising resident suggested that the child might be suffering from SDC which was confirmed by bloodwork. From this she developed an interest in sickle cell disease (SDC).

This incident led to a lifelong interest in developing a superior means of treating the disease which led ultimately to changes in the standard of care for infants born with SCD.

On completing her residency (pediatrics) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center she practiced medicine in Lincoln Heights, an all African American suburb of the city. Refusing several offers to practice in wealthier neighborhoods she continued to pursue her interest in SCD and secured a grant to set up the Lincoln Heights Health Centre, the first Community Health Centre in Ohio, of which she became Director in 1969.

In 1972, using funds allocated by President Nixon, she set up and opened the Sickle Cell Disease Center which she led until 1976 when she moved to Washington (DC). She took the position of medical expert (Sickle Cell Center), one of the branches of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Sickle Cell Disease is an inherited blood disease found almost exclusively in infants of African or South Asian descent. At the time, mid 20th Century, the majority of children were not expected to survive into adulthood. Her leadership (NIH) and ground breaking research (published 1986) led to the rapid implementation of national screening tests to ensure that all new born children with the condition, whatever their ethnic background, could be identified and treated appropriately.

Gaston had joined the U.S. Public Service Commissioned Corps in 1979 and in 1990 was promoted to Assistant Surgeon General and Rear Admiral, only the second African American woman to reach this rank.

If there are lessons to be learned from BLACK HISTORY MONTH, they are lessons for all ethnic minority groups and all professions. The medical profession illustrates the need for society as a whole to address benefits of diversity in the development and sustenance of our communities.

These four thumbnail sketches spread over 200 years tell us that ambition and perseverance are key drivers to success. In every case the catalyst was a role model to provide inspiration and self-belief. Sometimes a relative, a teacher, a colleague, a superior or an institution but there is always an external influence and OPPORTUNITY.

After 200 years there are not so many ‘firsts’ but recent studies show that in medicine the situation has not significantly changed. The needs and opportunities are greater.

African Americans comprise 15% of the U.S. population but only 4% of U.S. physicians.

A recent study (Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, IL.,) considered student perceptions on the barriers to African Americans pursuing careers in medicine.

The major barriers cited by the students included

financial constraints

lack of knowledge about medicine

little or no encouragement at home or in school

lack of African American role models in the community and on TV

negative peer views on excelling academically

easier and more appealing ways of making money.

The researchers concluded that these factors might well “contribute to racial disparities in the physician workforce for African Americans”.

They went on to say “Exposure at a young age to role models and to medicine as a profession might increase the number of African American physicians”.

Do we need more Physicians? It is of course a matter of opinion/judgement but by comparison with other nations the answer is probably yes!

One measure is the number of physicians per 1,000 of the population. Canada, the UK and America range between 2.3 and 2.8. The EU average is over 3 and Switzerland has over 5 per 1,000.

There are still barriers to break but the needs and opportunities remain!

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