#ive never been so invested in a story before

[infizero]

grgrhgahahh i wanna read more pokespe but i cant do it on my phone and im not unpacking my stuff until the morning

[pikahlua]

Control your heart, but not like how you think

I've tried so many ways to write this idea out before. Hopefully I get it right this time.

There's a widely-accepted fandom interpretation going around a lot lately that I think needs to be challenged. Perhaps I won't be able to express it in its complete version because I don't subscribe to it, but I'll try my best to approximate it and hopefully most of you will know what I'm generally talking about.

It seems like a lot of people believe "control your heart" is a plot line that refers to Izuku's inability to contain his love for Katsuki, that "control your heart" is advice from a well-intentioned but ultimately incorrect adult who wants Izuku to suppress his feelings for Katsuki, and that Izuku is hiding his feelings but will eventually let go and embrace his love for Katsuki in an explosion of anger. Or something. Admittedly this interpretation varies a lot depending on who's talking about it, and I cannot hope to encompass every interpretation of it with one paragraph. But it always boils down to some version of "control your heart is about Izuku repressing his feelings for Katsuki."

Let's discuss.

Table of Contents I. Why I want to challenge this aka false dichotomies II. What Banjou said III. Katsuki's rage IV. Tomura doesn't control his heart V. The AFO connection

I. Why I want to challenge this aka false dichotomies

I want to challenge this interpretation of "control your heart," but my main goal here is not to shoot down BKDKs. I want this to be understood more than anything: the goal here is to help BakuDekus.

You see, fandom and shipping arguments--they're very susceptible to false dichotomies. I believe this is the source of a LOT of certain shipping interpretations that seem to go so far in one direction they fall off the rails.

I'll give you an example. I vividly remember how an anti-BKDK once went for chapter 1 in which Izuku rescues Katsuki. They started with the argument "Izuku didn't save Katsuki because he loves him, he would have saved anyone else in that situation."

This is a false dichotomy. "Izuku loves Katsuki" and "Izuku would have saved anyone else in that situation" are NOT mutually exclusive. It's very possible for both statements to be true (and I would argue they both ARE true). However, in the heat of an argument, it's very easy to accept the framing of these statements as mutually exclusive without stopping to think. You can try to argue against the premise. You can try to argue "no, Izuku saved Katsuki BECAUSE he loves Katsuki, and he wouldn't have done the same for anyone else," but you have to ignore or distort so many canon elements to get there. That makes it very easy for your opponent to point and laugh about how your interpretations are so wrong that they have to bend the story to make them work.

But there's another option: reject the framing. If you accept the framing, you're allowing the other person to dictate the discussion.

What does this look like? Let the evidence lead you to the conclusion and not the other way around. And that's a difficult thing to do. I would never say I'm perfect at it either. But if you are convinced Izuku loves Katsuki, then whatever evidence lies in canon shouldn't scare you. In some way, it doesn't MATTER what happens in canon--in that you're invested in their dynamic together and you'll ship them regardless, because there's ALWAYS an interpretation that will support the ship. But you can read the ship into whatever the canon provides. If someone says "Izuku would save anyone, so the reason he saves Katsuki is not because he loves him," one potential response would be "Izuku would save anyone, and also he saves Katsuki because he loves him." Don't let others control how you interpret the story with their words.

To take this back to "control your heart," there may or may not have been a shipping argument that spawned this--I have no idea. But there doesn't have to be. The point is to challenge the framing of the assumption, because there may still be another shipping interpretation if the original assumption doesn't hold up.

"Control your heart is bad advice that causes Izuku to repress his love for Katsuki and he will end up exploding" is one way to frame this.

But consider this new framing: "Control your heart is about Izuku using his anger/love as a source of strength so long as he doesn't let it control him--just like Katsuki does."

II. What Banjou said

The "control your heart" line comes from Banjou in chapter 213.

But I think people really gloss over the part that comes before:

This isn't about repression. Banjou says, "It's okay to get mad. That rage can be the source." Control here is not about repression at all.

This is about whether or not the rage controls Izuku instead. This is about Izuku going berserk and losing his senses. I've discussed the phrasing in Japanese before:

The phrase in Japanese is "kokoro wo sei suru" (心を制する). The word in question, kokoro, does not have a direct translation into English. It is often translated as "heart," "mind," or "spirit." The meaning of sei suru is "to control," "to command," "to get the better of."

The notion that "control your heart" means "don't let your rage get the better of you" is supported by chapter 367.

Tomura reveals that the reason he wanted to leave Izuku the "presents" of his comrades beaten and Katsuki dead was to anger him--which would cause Izuku to fight poorly. Mirio talking Izuku down after this further supports that "control your heart" is meant to be a good thing, something Izuku should do.

We also see a precursor to this in All Might vs AFO in Kamino (you know, the first one). AFO was determined for years to find something to "steal a bit" of his heart away--and he came up with using Nana Shimura's grandson.

Tomura himself stokes All Might's anger by attacking his students at the USJ.

But each time All Might gets angry, he keeps control and saves the day.

All Might is able to be effective despite his anger--or perhaps even because of it. Izuku needs to be able to do the same.

III. Katsuki's rage

In a weird way, the poster child for using anger as a source of strength is Katsuki Bakugou.

I say "in a weird way" because Katsuki's anger is often used as a front for something else. He hides behind anger. But at the same time, since he seems to be angry constantly, he surprises everyone with how much control he has over himself...

...to the point where Tomura even misjudges Katsuki's veil of anger at the sports festival to be resentment towards society.

And we know a big part of the dynamic between Izuku and Katsuki is about emulation.

We've just had a grand battle between Katsuki and AFO in which Katsuki achieved his strength by emulating Izuku--his battle analysis, his tolerance and willingness to endure pain, his use of his own pain as a weapon, etc.

So what if "control your heart" is the corollary to what Katsuki just went through? What if Izuku's "control your heart" is about him learning to use anger to win in the way Katsuki always does?

IV. Tomura doesn't control his heart

If Izuku does need to "control his heart" to be like Katsuki, this provides an opportunity for a moment in Izuku vs Tomura where Izuku can acknowledge Katsuki's role in Izuku's growth. This will depend on Tomura acting as a foil.

I start with the assumption "control your heart" means “if I want to save the people I love, I can’t let anger in the moment control me. I have to use my anger, which comes from my love, to reach the bigger goal.” In this case, Izuku has to control his heart long enough to get what he wants (to save Tomura), and he may have to go even further by applying this ability to someone else who doesn’t control their heart (Tomura).

I do think Tomura can represent a person who is not in control of his heart--which is why he lashes out and destroys everything. He gives in to his instincts to destroy. He loves destruction. And he represses the child inside him who has to explode out when someone like Mirio says he doesn't have any friends. If there's any character who represses his true desires, it has to be Tomura Shigaraki. He denies the idea that he's human, that he's saveable, that there's a crying child inside him--things Izuku asserts because he has seen the truth of them. So Izuku learning to control his heart may be what allows him to save Tomura, and if so, he can give some credit for that to Katsuki (and to All Might as well).

V. The AFO connection

I think one of the major details people discuss surrounding "control your heart" is this notion that Izuku lied about what triggered Black Whip in chapter 217.

"Any clue what set it off? Maybe something's triggering it." "I dunno..."

There's this assumption by the fandom that Izuku is lying because he should know that Black Whip going berserk was triggered by Izuku's anger at Monoma insulting Katsuki. Honestly, I think this is a misreading of the above scene. I don't blame anyone for the misreading because the scene is written in a confusing manner, but I think this page is talking about something else.

Katsuki isn't asking "What caused Black Whip to go berserk?" (answer: Izuku's emotions). He's asking "What caused Black Whip to become accessible?" In other words, why is One For All evolving in this way now? Why didn't All Might have access to these quirks when he had One For All? Why didn't you, Izuku, have access to these quirks until now?

To which all Izuku can say is, "they [the vestiges] just told me the time was right."

If you think about it, it doesn't make sense that Izuku's emotions triggered the "unlocking" of Black Whip and Izuku's sudden access to all these new quirks. If all that was necessary was for Izuku to have a surge of emotion and the desire to "catch" something to unlock Black Whip, he should have unlocked it back at summer camp when Compress kidnapped Katsuki or when Katsuki was about to disappear through Kurogiri's portal.

So in the above page, we're really meant to hone in on Katsuki's suggestion: "Yeah, something to do with All For One..."

There's evidence to support All For One is connected to One For All's evolution. In chapter 209, right before Izuku's team's match in the joint training exercise (where Black Whip first appears), we "randomly" get a cut to All For One in prison:

There are plenty of hints scattered about that this all has something to do with AFO. Remember, Izuku has a dream where Yoichi spoke to him the night before the Joint Training Arc begins--and the dream included a bit of AFO's backstory. It's very possible this was the true "unlocking." I would argue the best hint we have about what's happening with OFA is AFO's line of "I hear my little brother's voice!"

...because it sounds like the AFO-OFA resonance from chapter 369.

Putting all these pieces together, I would like to share with you my current theory about "control your heart." You don't have to subscribe to this idea, but this is where I personally am at right now.

I think the fact Black Whip went out of control in the Joint Training Arc reveals this evolution is about the resonance between OFA and AFO (the QUIRKS, not the people) that we’re seeing in the story right now. Katsuki’s role in this is that he’s the trigger for Izuku’s anger, which didn’t unlock the quirk factors but allowed them to go berserk in the moment. The idea of "control your heart" most likely means “anger is good, but don’t let your anger control you, you should be the one in control.” And Shigaraki understands this because he tries to provoke Izuku’s anger to defeat him. Izuku has to keep his own anger from interfering with his heart’s desire to save Shigaraki, and Katsuki is horrified that he’s a trigger for Izuku in this way (which is why he freaks out when Izuku attacks Tomura in the Paranormal Liberation War, and why he tells Izuku "stop trying to win this on your own" after he gets stabbed saving Izuku). This informs Katsuki's desire to "no longer stand in Izuku's way," because Izuku can only be triggered when Katsuki isn't strong enough to keep himself from being exploited. Izuku was triggered by Katsuki's death, but he managed to CONTROL his anger, not suppress it. He's still angry, he's just channeling it to achieve his goal of saving Tomura. And it's likely this point could come up in Izuku's attempt to save Tomura as Tomura is someone not in great control of his heart. And in the same way Izuku was an example for Katsuki to emulate so that he could use his pain and analysis as a weapon to defeat AFO, Izuku can use Katsuki's example to emulate "controlling his heart" aka controlling his rage to be his power in battle.

For your consideration.

[sukunasweetheart]

I just realised Sukuna gives me Bowser vibes and I can't help but imagine him singing Peaches to reader 😭

New crack au where Sukuna is a king with too much time on his hands and keeps kidnapping the princess of a neighboring kingdom, reader.

The king and queen of that neighboring kingdom become so confused when they see that she's been returned safe and sound. They only know Sukuna as this terrifying tyrannical guy but reader is like "nah we had sandwiches for snack time and he showed me his cool sword collection."

✦ stella .ᐟ

its crazy bc ive thought abt this before, how he has similar vibes to sukuna,,, wild, i know (no bc u cant tell me that bowser and sukuna dont have the same features?? bro i swearrr hear me out) this idea is so cute ngl

Imagine he intended to kidnap you just for the funsies just to get under his neighbouring country's skin but you end up comedically falling for him while being held so comfortably captive with the sandwiches and sword collection

"Can you show me your other sword while youre at it, please?"

Sukuna: 😳😐?

Imagine trying to court him openly after he returns you that the whole kingdom gets invested in the love story-

Your sickeningly sweet love letters 💌 the people read the copies of them in the morning like a gossip magazine

He never gives a reply back 💔 and then things turn for the worst when one of the princes that you rejected the proposal of in the past comes attacking your country to force you to marry him...

Here comes sukuna out of the blue swooping in with his soldiers to fight him off, bc he likes doing what he does best - waging wars and coming out victorious

But the at the end he personally comes to visit you, wearing a fancy cloak and everything else a king would wear

"I've come to take your hand in marriage, princess."

He decided that getting to rule a second country all the while getting to fight off your other admirers sounded like a good time to him (also charmed by your poems, but he wont admit that)

Now, there is a grouchy, almighty ruler and his giggly wife who is a sweetheart

[alornights]

⟢ gossip session.

➜ in which ! kyle finds himself interested in your gossip.

💌 ﹫kyle broflovski.

✩ 🎸 warnings﹗gossip about teacher/student affair.

🍓 ⟡ notes — i love gossiping lmao. i also realized ive been spelling his last name wrong for like ages until now lmao.

he loves it, no matter how hard he tries denying it, he love it.

at first, he didn't care for it, actually, he found it annoying. he never liked people talking about others behind their backs.

especially if they are personal matters.

so when you two are just in his room casually hanging out and your face-timing your friend talking about the latest school gossip he made sure to tune it out opting to listen to music.

until he one day overheard you gossiping because he forgot his headphones. then he starts paying attention and listening more carefully getting very interested in the story.

he can't help himself now from listening to your rambles.

"No, you don't understand Heather. PC Principal has no fucking clue about this which is surprising since he knows everything that goes on in this school. But like, how does he not know that a teacher is banging the head cheerleader of the school but fucking Butters of all people knows?"

"Yeah no, I have no idea how long it's been going on."

"I heard she might even be pregnant with the teacher's kid. Yeah, uh huh, no way- HE HAS 3 SEPARATE FAMILIES?"

kyle tries so hard not to ask because he knows it's not the right thing to do but in the end, he can't help himself.

he starts listening every chance he gets. trying to put pieces together if he hadn't heard the other parts of the story.

it gets so bad that he starts listening

hell, he even listens to some of cartman's gossip.

finally he admits he is gossip addict and decides to talk to you.

As you walked back into his room after having a quick call with one of your friends about the recent gossip that just surfaced.

Kyle sighed mentally bracing himself for what he was about to say.

"What happened next? With the teacher-student thing I mean..."

You stare at him incredibly, tilting your head in confusion. "Huh? I thought you hated gossip since you know it's people not minding their own business or whatever."

The teen grumbled a bit before turning away. "Maybe I've had a change of heart."

and when he means "change of heart"

he actually means he's so invested that its like an addiction.

the guy becomes a crazed gossip girl kicking his feet giggling.

Words couldn't describe the look of happiness on your face as you raced over to his bed slamming your body on top of him in giddiness. "Okay listen closely. So right now, 2 of the 3 families have found out about this situation and are all divorcing him."

"Actually?" He questioned sitting up, shifting you in his arms so you were both comfortable. "How the hell did he find out? Didn't you say that they all lived far away or something?"

You nodded. "They do but someone from our school who shall be unnamed, leaked it to them with photos of the teacher and student, well, getting the groove on after school in his class."

"No. Fucking. Way."

"Yes, way!" You clapped your hands with a smirk. "That's all for now since this just happened like 2 hours ago."

A beat of silence passes by until he looks back at you staring you dead in the eye. "You'll keep me updated... right?"

You laugh nodding your head excitedly. "You'll be the first to know."

[kosmical]

alr i'll bite what's isat

Omg thanks for opening pandoras box! You will regret this

In stars and time is the recent food source of my brain eating amoeba and it Will Not Leave. before i get into why im rabid about it though ill give a brief synopsis . putting a read more here because i suspect this post will get LONG.

its a game about a classic rpg party on the last two days of their quest to save the country from The King who is freezing everything, including people, in time. the main character, Siffrin, is the party's rogue who, upon going into the House of Change (the game's dungeon so to speak) and promptly dying, finds out that they're trapped in a time loop. they're the only one who remembers repeating the last two days- aside from a star named loop who helps him try and figure out whats going on, why, and how to break out.

Now personally ive never been invested in a time loop story?? Im not sure if thats because i havent consumed much media thats implemented it before as its main premise or if i just havent been interested but i think in stars and time meshes the two different genres a time loop story can fall into really well (the mystery and the emotional conflict).

The mystery is what drives you through the game (and there are other questions unrelated to the timeloop about siffrin's origin and the world itself that i think handle a variety of themes like loss of culture and personal transformation really well but thats a different tangent) but the emotional parts are what really got me. You have to watch almost in the backseat as Siffrin is like. Slowly depersonalized from the people they care about. All while refusing to tell them anything about their misery because they don't want to burden them or drag them into his suffering. Even happy moments that Siffrin doesnt mind repeating become tainted because it becomes a matter of acting so that the "scene" doesnt stray from its path and his party doesnt become suspicious.

and yet they still DO, both in regards to Siffrin's World Alteringly Terrible Case of the Mondays and the actual time loop. they notice how tired and fake he seems. one of my absolute favorite scenes is one where you interact with a closet and it provokes a conversation about where Siffrin got their cloak from and how long they've had it, because its really one of a kind. it has temperature regulatory magic imbued in the stitches and is made to grow with him. And siffrin just cant fucking remember. not only because hes been looping so long that its created a haze over his mind but because he has no true "identity." and as he's scrambling to fill in an answer for this hole in his head, a gust of wind hits his face because one of their friends, isabeau, flapped his cloak while inspecting it to ground him. and he disguises it by commenting on the thickness of the cloak.

Getting this scene by accident on my playthrough made me feel so many feelings dude like . Siffrin isn't the only one trying to hide things. Their friends care about him so much and they try to disguise how concerned thwy are and its just. Im . Im Normal.

its not just about that though . Like if you start finding shit a little too fast they'll start catching on to whats happening. a little sound effect will play whenever you know something you shouldn't know and the others notice and whenever it happened i was like. Twisting in my seat waiting for them to call me out.

it all builds up into this really fucking painful emotional climax that i will not talk about because i don't want to spoil more than i already have but omg. I was writhing. It was. Hhhggnngh.hfg. Glass shards in ym mouth yummy

On the topic of shit i cant talk about: My favorite character is this fucking thing

I have held off from talking about loop's role in the story because i cant describe to you why they make me so ill. Not because i dont know Why but because it is something you should experience yourself. They're really charming and funny and their dialogue is fantastic. Of course that's part of the reason i lauve them but theres also the underlying secondary mystery of why they're here/who and or what they are/etc. And when u know. Its. I Cant Tell You. BUT ITS REALLY GOOD. ITS REALLY REALLY GOOD. Just know that if you get to the end and are still confused about them. That theres more than the main ending . AND IT IS PROBABLY WHY I AM SO INSANE ABOUT THIS GAME HONESTLY. I LOVE YOU FOREVER LOOP . im ok

In short: In stars and time is a game that is good and you should play it :) Im pretty sure its on sale right now on steam so yeah go get that.

if you made it through this fucking dissertation length post on isat CONGRATULATIONS ! heres some miscellaneous doodles ive done of it in the past month since ive played it love love

[cr0wbees2]

ayup art blog i need to ramble a tad before i head off i LOVE the ways minecraft can be used as a medium for storytelling. there are so many things; dream smp, whitepine (which is awesome btw check it out if you haven't - it's just getting started), fable smp, the life series, lifesteal - haven't watched it but ive heard a lot about it it's all so interesting to me one thing ive always liked about dream smp specifically is the way it wasn't made to be a lore smp - it started off as just a fun survival server with friends and over time people made characters and stories and expanded on things and the fandom came out with amazing aus, artwork, animations, songs - it's absolutely incredible what can be created out of a source material. the fact that there were so many things in both the dsmp fandom and other fandoms that were enjoyed by people who had never seen the source material and knew almost nothing about it - passerine, man. passerine was and still is absolutely incredible. it's definitely one of the most memorable fanfictions to come out of the dream smp fandom that ive seen. there's so many others too that i may not have personally read but ive heard a lot about - bones in the ocean (?) is one of them there's something so cool to me as well about having multiple perspectives to watch something from - there's no main character because everyone is the main character in their pov. of course, on dsmp there ended up being a sort of "main storyline" in which tended to focus on tommy, tubbo, dream, etc. but there were so many other stories going on at the same time. i was personally most invested in the "main storyline" but i could recite bits of various characters' lore there's no other medium i can think of that can do something like that. shows may have a plots, b plots - but it's nothing like this. it's such an incredible, unexpected medium for storytelling and ive personally created some of, if not my favourite ocs through minecraft. storytelling through minecraft and other games has been such a big thing to me and i truly hope it continues to be that for people okay, thank you blog and goodbye (for now until i have more art) !

[demadogs]

ok the rate at which shows are being canceled after one season is becoming more and more ridiculous and excruciating to the point where they dont even give people TIME to watch the shows anymore!! i will be recommended a good show by a friend and think “ooo im excited to watch when im not super busy” and then just a month later before i even had the chance to watch it, its already canceled.

and these days whats considered a “successful show” has to surpass hundreds and hundreds of millions, sometimes over a BILLION hours streamed to be worthy of renewing but when shows get somewhere between 50 million and 100 million theyre treated like they were a complete flop even though that is STILL MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO WERE INVESTED IN THE SHOW AND WOULD WATCH FUTURE SEASONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i was going to watch that show. i was so beyond excited to watch that show. it had one of my favorite actors in it and it was produced by the same creators of my favorite show of all time. but because i have responsibilities from work and school like a normal fucking adult, i couldnt make the time to watch it and now only a week after i was recommended the show, it was already canceled.

i am used to mourning stories that ive become attached to that will never be complete, but this is altogether different. you didn’t even give me a chance to meet these characters or watch this story. a story that an entire cast and crew of probably thousands of people put all their hearts and soul and TIME into and yet you gave it just a fucking month before you decided it was unworthy of pursuing. even though tens of millions of people who were lucky enough to have been available to watch it at the time thought otherwise.

[pixelnrd]

hello! ive binged your blog this past week and have been so invested and impressed with how professionally everything has been done. I particularly liked the snippets of your 'process' you've hinted at in other asks. I havent been around since the beginning so i wanted to ask what inspired you to undertake such a large project! or, rather, did you expect it to be as big as it became? each generation has 70+ daily posts, their portrait headshots, family portraits... i love it! were you trying to build an audience when you started out? was it a covid project that you had time to build a huge queue for? i think ill be starting my own narrative simblr here soon and i'd love to hear your thoughts or advice about your journey with it, if any.

Hello and thank you for such a lovely message, it's so nice to receive feedback on the quality of my Decades Challenge because I do put so much effort in behind the scenes thanks to my agonising perfectionism!

As a project it has grown beyond what I thought it would be, to a point that I had to reign it back in in early-2022 because I couldn't keep up. I'll put more detail under the cut ✨

The Langstons started as a covid project in 2020. I was an unemployed student with a lot of time on my hands. I'd done legacies before and was pretty good at getting close to the end so that was the 'project', to do the Decades Challenge. And while looking for inspiration like cc and builds etc I found simblr and discovered people were posting their Decades Challenges here with narrative attached. By this stage I'd already played a fair bit into my Langston family (they had 4 kids by that point) so I decided to start posting my sims as well, which pushed me to put a bit more effort in with shots, story, editing etc because I had imposter syndrome. I didn't intend for there to be much narrative or story, and I think that's pretty obvious when reviewing the 1890s Langstons, but it started to grow as I was posting because I wanted to give my sim characters justifications for their life paths I was sending them on... and it all kind of took off from there, as a Decades Challenge story.

Covid over 2020 and 2021 in my country forced us into hard lockdowns, and over those 2 years I had heaps of spare time for home-based hobbies - so I just kept pushing myself to keep going with my Decades Challenge for something to do. I got really into creating storylines and costuming and wanting to do the project 'justice' because of how much effort was going in and how many generations I needed to cover to finish it. Then I stared doing lookbooks, creating portraits and character pages, and then making cc (which was a fun side project).

I wanted to build an audience at the start because I wanted to gauge whether anyone was as interested in my sims as I was in others', and when I stared getting feedback and responses to my posts it was very validating and flattering, so that spurred me to keep up. I never dreamed it would get the audience it has now! It's nice being told that something you are making is good. IRL at the time, I was pretty miserable - I graduated my Masters without a job, I was trying to conceive and failing, I was lonely due to covid and lost some of the best years of my 20s - but simblr made me happy and was a distraction from those hard things and so I really poured effort into the thing that brought me happiness.

2022 and 2023 forced me to pull back from my Decades Challenge project due to pregnancy and becomming a parent. It felt very natural to drop it at the time, but since finding my groove with parenting and my new life I still want to finish this project because it's been nearly 4(!) years of effort and I'd hate to leave it so close to the end. So that's why I'm still here - in a reduced capacity to what I was in 2020 and 2021 at my peak - trying to get it done. I don't post lookbooks or do cc anymore, because I just don't have the time anymore. But everyone is so encouraging, I have made some nice friends here and I'm constantly in awe of and inspired by the sims, content and stories others are creating. There is so much more potential for historical gameplay in the years since I started my Decades Challenge - farming! horses! infants! - and I hope that my project has inspired others to have a go! That's the best legacy I could hope to leave...

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

wibta for using characters that might be too similar to ex friends for my own writing/art?

background: i had a lot of friendships that ended very badly while i was in an extremely compromised state. for a lot of them it ended with them giving me a very vague wall of text about my behaviour without explicitly telling me what i did wrong, so i feel i cannot apologize in any meaningful way, and i cannot contact them first, so instead tried my best to cut myself down as small as possible so they would never see me again. this still confuses me, and ive entertained the thought they were 'too scared' to tell me what i did wrong beforehand, but if thats the case, i was too, but i was the only one wanting to work things out. that isn't the point of this, though.

with a lot of these people i did something like collaborative worldbuilding. some of these concepts, ocs and oc ships i was very very invested in while i was at rock bottom, sort of coping with them, though the interest never felt reciprocated despite my efforts to stoke it (neither was i told to stop, though). i wrote a lot for some of them, as certain characters had a lot of stylings of archetypes im very fond of and tend to write over and over again (partially cos they remind me a lot of myself, if i can project) regardless of their involvement.

with the rug pulled out from under my feet irt that i didnt really know what to do with my parts from all that (going from thinking about them almost once a day to having to stop myself from ever thinking of it again was. extremely hard) and even thought about trashing the characters i had. after months of deliberating and trying to refocus the characters to be single and building up casts of all my own characters, i ended up liking the chemistry between some of them and the old ocs i almost threw away and decided to work that angle. the more i focused on these new characters (which id created to be a vent pit for the feelings i was trying to sort out irt all this) the more they fit into those archetypes i love, but i tried to lead them away from the ex friends characters.

but i did give one character brain damage, while i was trying to figure out what mine had done to me. ive been coping with it and what it did to me through them, but i remembered one ex friend gave their character brain damage as well. it feels like a sort of stand out trait and im worried if they ever see my shit again they will look at this and the archetype and use this as evidence im trying to steal their character or something. im not sure what is too similar. fwiw when they cut people off before in this sort of situation i know they would make fun of and kill off the other person's characters, so i know they've probably done that to expies of mine (one person liked to joke about doing this to one of my happier characters while we were still talking). for my part all i did was axe theirs from the story entirely.

tldr: i accidentally created characters that have similarities to ex friends' to fill in the holes for characters i didn't want to throw out. if i keep them, will i be an asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[suffarustuffaru]

If you don't mind me asking but when did you first get into re:zero

yeah i dont mind at all :o ig yallre gonna hear my full origin story now haah. its my—my… ok id say tragic backstory but i dont think this is really that tragic LMAO. my humorous backstory? silly backstory?

anyway i got into rezero in summer of 2020!! this was months before s2 started airing and by around this time there was just s1, s1 directors cut may or may not have been out?? i forgor :<, but then s2’s first teaser came out right about now.

it was quarantine…. i was bored one day and wanted smth new to watch… and by then id only really briefly seen rezero—like you know that s1 promo poster with subaru standing there while surrounded by some of the main girls in s1 (beatrice felt emilia rem ram)?? yeah id seen that. in the back of my mind i kinda assumed the show was just another one of those abt a dude surrounded by his harem of girls or smth?? :< but then i learned the Real Premise is the time travel. via death!!!! and ive always loveddd angst and whump so i was like “NO FUCKING WAY I HIT THE JACKPOT” and eagerly looked into rezero some more to see if it was worth watching. and then i saw all the shit reviews on rz that never seemed to agree on if it was good or not…… and then gigguk’s video…… and then i saw mother’s basement on youtube make a defense of rezero s1 and i was like!!! ok fuck it im watching this show. i want the angst i want the complex time travel shit. i think id spoiled myself on a couple of subarus deaths by this point trying to decide if i should commit to rezero and then i started binge watching s1!! esp when i was like ok this is a good time to get into it s2 was announced right??

anyway i got hooked on rezero fr 👍👍 the first s1 emisuba lap pillow had me quaking in my boots ;-;;; and i was already invested from ep1 bc i liked the characters a lot already!!! i am simply BUILT DIFFERENT i loved subaru from day one!!! by the royal selection episodes ofc i was dying of secondhand embarrassment but tbh i grew even more invested in rezero after that!! i was and still am super impressed that the narrative had the balls to have subaru fuck up sooo so so bad there. like seeing that emisuba argument and the julisuba duel for the first time was crazyyy. the conflict was really good and the latter s1 development…. woagh.

and then you know i finish s1 and i immediately get to researching how to read, i read arc 4’s wn and bawl my eyes out from the sheer amount of rollercoaster both the emotions and Long Ass Novel gave me (yes i was bawling my eyes out at parent and child) (yes i was bawling my eyes out at choose me) (yes i was bawling my eyes out for all the suffering loops) (yes i was bawling) (i have no clue how i read all those pages fr like that arc is massive), i speedrun arc 5, i accidentally spoil certain bits for myself (arc 6 stuff), i read most of arc 6 in spurts, tune in every week for s2 (and bawled my eyes out seeing the s2 part 1 op for the first time) etc etc!! one thing lead to another and now i am here…….. three yrs in this fandom… nearly (?) a yr being active on rezero tumblr… HAH

also i made a reddit account back inn…. 2020 or 2021 bc i wanted to be a tinyyy bit active in rezero reddit (this was half a mistake btw. i think i have more balls of steel now but my younger self was sooooo naive. shaking them by the shoulders. this is an anime fandom!!!!!! and this is reddit!!! whatre u expecting???? i am less shy now on the internet thats for sure!!). anyway im still a tiny bit active on rz reddit now after not touching it for like a year. now i use my reddit account for spreading otto propaganda and slander /lh …../hj

but anyway ive never been active in fandoms until rezero and thats bc id usually lurk and a lot of my past hyperfixation medias were :< big fandoms :<<< but then. ok im a fanfic enjoyer and i didnt write much fanfic or publish fic at all before this fandom but then in 2020 after watching s1 i checked rezero’s ao3 page and *sniffles* *sobs* thERE WAS ONLY LIKE 2 PAGES ON THERE MAN….. A WHOLE DESERT…. yes and then one thing lead to another and now there is more fic and also ig id be considered an english fic writer elder maybe…… i started posting in like fall/winter 2020? and maaaan im one of the only ppl from that era whos still posting i think!!! ive seen the entire english fanfic scene pop up!! ive participated in a bunch of community events… sooo wild to think about. i feel old guys!!!

but now i have gotten more and more active in the rz fandom yes :3 its been fun!! rezero is very important media to me and ive met lots of cool people in my time here :) when october 2024 rolls around itll be s3 time (AAAAA HYPE HYPE HYPE) and like four yrs of me being in this fandom?? its wild but my lifes genuinely changed a lot bc of me getting into rezero!! met lots of cool people… made pals… gotten my writing and art out there and improved on it via. large amounts of rezero fanart HAH.. became more unhinged.. etc etc :D even got to meet one of my buddies i met via rezero irl 👍👍 more irl crossover events will happen i swear.

also gigguk in my eyes redeemed himself for his old rezero skit vid by making a glowing review for rezero s2 with his pals. i can forgive him i suppose :<<<

in conclusion: idk if i count as a fandom elder but i sure have a lot of my own fandom lore pfft :<<<

[bloodgulchblog]

In light of what others have asked about the Banished, do you ever feel like the narrative writers (not all, but by-and-large) haven’t been interested in telling stories about morally complex aliens—writing them as people, in other words?

After years spent waiting for the post-war setting, for me the Kilo Five trilogy’s messaging signaled that 343 weren’t interested in telling that kind of story, especially after more years of alien terrorists who really want to kill humans again constantly being centered (while seemingly ignoring that the Great Schism was A Thing) and with the Swords of Sanghelios being deemphasized to the point where only a paragraph in the 2022 Encyclopedia’s “Splinter Factions” section was dedicated to them while the Banished got three dozen.

With some of the new story shards and Halo: Outcasts I feel like things are starting to turn around, but I do worry that they’ll shift back.

I don't know anything about anything for real but I think what's going on is this:

First and foremost, before it is anything else, Halo is an investment Microsoft is trying to make money on. The way it does this is primarily by selling purchases in a live services video game where you compete at running around shooting other players and (only recently) sometimes computers. They do make money on merch and things like books and such, but it's not remotely as much as they make on shootman video game.

They have a huge incentive to continue telling stories where running around shooting is the main action. Ergo, the stories Halo's writers tell need to create excuses to have this action and to make that part seem fun and enticing.

(The fact that Halo's pvp has never really had anything to do with events occurring in the lore doesn't really matter, once they have the campaign story excuse game for the multiplayer. "It's a training exercise for Spartan-IVs" was a very late addition, and oldschool Halo didn't bother framing it at all because nobody cared. Frankly, I think most people who play Halo PVP still don't really care.)

So, Halo's not interested in post-war and anything that amounts to recovery because it doesn't do a lot to contribute to Halo's core goal of making shootgame money that keeps convincing Microsoft that the people who make Halo should get the paychecks they need to afford to live indoors and eat food.

I do think there are people working on Halo who are interested in and curious about these ideas, and I really do think the Arbiter and the Swords of Sanghelios and the Sangheili in general are house favorites. (Why else would they be finding excuses to continue bringing the Sangheili into the games even if they can only fit them in as part of the Banished now, when the Sangheili are the species the Jiralhanae probably hate the most?)

Honestly, Halo isn't good at deep or complex characters of any species most of the time and when things are good it's because someone managed to give them some extra love somewhere. Halo has never needed a watertight, emotionally intelligent narrative. It just sometimes skates close on things like the Arbiter, and even though the Arbiter's arc is easily the strongest part of Halo 2's story the gamers hated it and that's why it was so curtailed in Halo 3.

They gotta make shootman games, and sell the shootman games, and that requires an acceptable enemy. For a while they were pivoting toward having Forerunner enemies, but now those are associated with an unpopular time in Halo (especially Halo 5). And Halo is at an age where it feels like every new thing about it is "trying to return to the roots" so... shooting familiar-looking aliens that people have nostalgia for.

Frankly, this is the biggest reason why I'm sighing and waiting for them to bring back the Flood again even though I'm really just not looking forward to that. It feels inevitable.

[drivestraight]

just finished reading your new fic and im so blown away by how u manage such perfect perfect characterisation and tension thru the whole thing like... i was GRIPPING my phone with both hands as i was reading i was cheering and booing and gasping i genuinely dont think ive ever been more engaged with a piece of media actually.... oughhh landoscar thinking they want the same things vs maxcar knowing each other innately... like recognising like... this fic singlehandedly convinced me of maxcar and now i will never stop thinking about them!!!!! also liam was a real highlight in this one im obsessed with his moxie and wish him all the best in the future truly

but anyway all this to say im so in love with the way you weave such a compelling and heartwrenching narrative and i hope you keep finding joy in doing so because we r all better for it !! perhaps my nightly ao3 in bed is making me too sentimental. and also would you be okay with people making fanart for your fic :3

thank you very much ! i’m really happy you think the characterization + tension throughout the fic was rly good :) and i’m so happy to know the story was engaging !! ❤️❤️ maxcar my loves… i wasn’t super invested in them before i started this fic but i’ve pretty much convinced myself into shipping them fr HAHA

and liam !! i adore him… liamoscar teammates… they go wayyyyy back

also i’m sooo excited to see liam on the grid next year as a side note

thank you so much for reading and letting me know you enjoyed/liked it :)

and ofc you can make fanart for the fic !! i’ll never say no to that hahahahaha. just be sure to send/tag me !! i wanna make sure i see it :)) wishing you well anon

[maskedjoker]

Alright so I want to talk about some fandom stuff since I've been getting back into it with a few people/places. It seems like some old issues are still kind of around. The biggest thing is we all have been in this thing for a while, and it's been so slow I think we've all kind of made our own theories and views we keep most of the time. We all then "check in" when chapters do actually come out and since we are all very invested in the story and in more closed groups the rest of the time there is conflict.

Now I'm well past being upset by differences in story interpretation. We can all enjoy dgm without agreeing on everything, especially all the unrevealed stuff. I don't like it all the time, but it's perfectly fine.

What's bugging me most is there seems to be some inconsistency to how people treat certain characters/ideas. There is A LOT of headcanonning and fans of the past! crew like Allen, Nea, and Mana as well as Cross(and bookman Jr if you interpret them as separate, though I personally do not). People get very defensive of their relationships and circumstance when it comes to debate. This is on its own not so great, but not particularly a problem either. Trust me, I get character offense.

I'll just cut to the point and say it though, the main reason this becomes a problem is people seem to care about characters in order of attractiveness. I've been a fan of The Earl/Adam since almost the beginning of the series, and it's been hell. People have never treated him with the same care or thought they do to other characters, despite him being very central and important to the story. I'll also say before anything more that no, he's not more amoral than the other villains, so that doesn't matter here.

Being disinterested would be one thing, but it's usually more than that. When this stuff started it was just basically calling him Hitler(pre mana stuff) and treating him much worse than the other Noah(like tyki). Later on, when his human form was revealed, people jumped into basically replacing him with mana. Let me be clear, I don't mean they realized the connection. I mean they were actively ignoring the current character(personality/goals/identity) in favor of mana walker or Campbell's personality, and would only reasonably talk about the earl in context of Nea or Allen in the past. Memory loss or no, the actual earl was treated as a non-character that only existed as a way to recreate other characters. The stuff around 219 was especially rough as most people did not even consider what the earl said or felt, it was just about Sad Mana Is Confused TM and should go back to being like him right now. This was done with no consideration of Mana's feelings towards Adam or Adam's feelings towards Mana.

Now that we have confirmation from hoshino that there is a third entity, that his name is adam, and that he's basically past!earls Noah memories+suit as well as having his own autonomy and personality, people are still treating him poorly. I have had people assert to me he doesn't have a soul OR separate personality and isn't the earl(?) because Mana is. Now that he can be separated from Mana, it's back to treating him as Evil and Not A Person. He's an AI or a machine or fake in some way, despite him basically being the only character we've ever known as the earl. Those same people also assumed, somehow, that when the story said the earl was being used by the other Noah without his knowledge that he was somehow Not Included and was actually both aware and part of this betrayal on Mana. That's not to say there is no crossover with Mana, because they've shared a body for some time and Mana is his host after all, etc. That doesn't excuse these behaviors though.

And all of that nonsense is because frankly, people don't want to bone him. They look at his design(suit form usually, but not always) and immediately assume Evil and Gross despite the story's themes, writing, and Hoshino's own words against it. Ive literally had people say as much, especially when talking about shipping. He is actively pushed away from character groups or dynamics people actually talk about. The only other character treated even remotely similar are characters that don't like Allen(like chaoji, some of you must have been around long enough to remember the hate he got at the time) and/or are perceived as not attractive(like apo or Leviare). I don't think it's justified there either.

It's just really getting me down that a really well written and interesting character that is quintessential to the narrative is basically shit on, while people clutch their pearls if Cross or Allen's back stories are a little different than they expected. I expect this from young teens and the like but this fandom has frankly aged out of that a long time ago and it's not cute anymore

[misguidedasgardian]

The Lifeaters (IV. 1)

IV. The Quidditch World Cup

MASTERLIST

Chapter Summary: You enjoy your summer alongside your family and friends 

Pairings: Draco Malfoy x Fem!Reader (platonic)

Warnings: Cursing, magical objects, Mugglephobia, classism, charms and curses, MINORS DRINKING, underage drinking,peer pressure, might miss some warnings

Wordcount: 4 k

Notes: This is getting good! muahaha I think

Regulus Black was your father

He was handsome, you thought, as you gazed upon the picture of him and your mom, both in school uniform, Slytherin obviously

Both smiled at the camera, and they were together, he was wearing his Quidditch jumper, he was a seeker, and to make matters strange, you actually had a picture of him, it was the year the Slytherin won the Quidditch cup undefeated.

You never knew it, you had a picture of your father since first year.

Now that you knew, your aunt had given you a little box of keepsakes, that was your mother’s, and had pictures of your father, and things of her, there was still a lot you didn’t know, but this was surely a start. 

You watched the Firebolt your uncle, -so weird-, Sirius had given Cercille to give to you. You had it on its own stand on a desk in your room. So he was the one who gave one to Potter, who apparently was his godson. What a small world

You still couldn’t wrap your mind around the fact that your uncle, your father’s brother, had been convicted for murder and had an order to be killed on sight by dementors, but that is another thing entirely. Was he innocent? like he claimed? maybe, your aunt seemed to think so. 

“Allez petite-fille, nous devons y aller”, called your grandfather, who had spent all summer with you, you wanted to go to France, and you did, but you came back early… there was a huge event that you were of course attending, because your grandfather was such a fan, a fanaticism that he had inherited onto you

The Quidditch world cup

Tickets to all the major French and English games, top seats, appearings alongside Cornelius Fudge, and the French Minister of Magic, the Malfoys by your side of course, even though, it was clear to you that your grandfather was not a fan

“I’m going!”, he hated it when you spoke english to him, but, you were in England 

You grabbed your bag, you were so, so excited for it, but you still had too much going on to really be invested in it.

 “My beautiful granddaughter”, your grandfather appeared through the door, “are you ready, ma petite-fille?”

“Oui”, you said simply. He placed his hand on your shoulder and guided you down the hall

He hasn't spoken with you about your parents at all, he knew that you knew now some of the story, but still, he pretended like you still didn’t know

And that was fine.

You think

Because you still weren’t ready to talk about it, and in this month that had been by, in which you went to Paris for a few weeks and then came back, you haven't talked to your aunt, you couldn’t find a single memento to do so. You even hoped to meet Sirius Black when you got to Paris, which know you believed it to be silly, he could never had lingered in your family state in Montmartre 

And this was not the time either

She had told you that it was of complete secrecy that Sirius Black had been in your house, that he used the VERY illegal international floo network that you had. So you swore to keep it to yourself, and since Sirius Black hadn't been in your house, you didn’t yet know about your father. 

Regulus Black

You sometimes caught yourself saying it out loud whe you were alone, like a little prayer

Sounded so foreign and yet, so natural to you.

You were a Black

You know little of the family, but now everything seemed to click into place, the Blacks were one of the sacred 28, one of the most prominent and powerful wizarding families in Britain, you were as good as Wizarding Royalty, how insane that was?

This made sense

Your aunt Narcissa was indeed your aunt, because you knew she was a Black before she married Lucius and became a Malfoy

She was your father’s cousin, apparently, and that meant you and Draco were cousins twice removed. That was insane

Did they know?

They probably did, that is why they kept so close to you, as you heard your aunt say to Sirius

Sirius, your uncle, did not like you to be so close to the Malfoys

But why? Who was coming back? and why was it safer for you to be near them? well, they are very powerful, so, that made sense too

But still… so many unanswered questions 

The sun was barely shining in the horizon when you left your house, your grandfather had insisted, he wanted you to walk towards Malfoy manor, and from there, you were going to travel to the place you were going to stay for the Quidditch world cup

“It is a beautiful morning, isn’t it?”, it was true, it was a nice morning, although still a bit cold. You had used a simple spell to make your baggage small, and like that, you could take it in your pocket, your big trunk, and you started the walk

You looked at your grandfather, walking by your side, and your aunt on his right side. He was one of the most powerful and influential men in Wizarding France, and yet, he preferred to walk to his destination. 

To you, he had always been a bit mysterious 

But you knew his temple of steel, he could be terrifying to those who crossed him, but he had never been like that with you, he was kind and gentle, with his “petite fille”

But like he said, he was part of a dynasty, an important family and as such, he had expectations of you and your aunt as well, you were to behave properly, look pleasant at all times and specially, excel at your field, whatever that might be. You were free to choose your own path, but you were meant to be great at it.

Your aunt was exceptionally good at potions and contributed to the family business, your grandfather was a prominent man in politics and you, well, that is to be determined 

“I heard that you became the youngest animagus, probably ever!”, he said, smiling pleasantly, to make conversations

“I think I did grandfather”, you say happily

“You make me so proud”, he said with a big smile

“Thank you grandfather”, you said with a shy smile

The walk was pleasant, it took you only 45 minutes to reach the Malfoy state, the guards felt strong as you crossed them and the huge house appeared before you

“Désagréable”, muttered your grandfather

He did not like the Malfoys at all

They were waiting for you, in the foyer, you greeted Draco warmly as he did you. You haven't seen him in a month and a half, but he seemed different, he had stopped putting gel on his hair, now having it styled, and he was now taller than you. And by his side… Matthew, his hair was longer, more unruly, dark chocolate curls, and his eyes seemed even more mischievous. 

“Guillaume”, greeted Lucius, taking your attention. Matthew looked at your grandfather wide-eyed 

“Lucius”, greeted your grandfather, but then he turned to Narcissa, grabbed her hand and kissed it, “Narcissa”, he said softly, you and your aunt shared funny looks, “young Draco, and… friend”, he said dismissively 

“I’m glad you are both here”, Lucius said, greeting your aunt and you, “shall we?”

“Oui, s’il vous plaît”, muttered your grandpa, signaling for you, your aunt, and Narcissa to guide the group, opening the door for you.

“The rest will meet us there, in ten minutes”, he said, watching his clock, you walked out of the guards of the state, and then you saw, over a small hill, a birdhouse, it was an odd object. You shared complicit looks

Guillaume looked at his own watched, looked at you both and touched the birdhouse, as Narcissa, Lucius and Draco, in mere 10 second, you were transported through portkey to your destination 

The first game was tomorrow, today, you were going to get installed in…

“Are we really staying there?”, you asked, excitedly, in front of you there was a huge castle, bigger than you had seen before

“Is not bigger than Malfoy Manor”, said Draco contemptuously, uncle Lucius nudged him on his chest with his walking stick

“Yes my love, for the world cup”, said your aunt. This year, the Quidditch world cup was in Dartmoor, in the coast of Devon, and for the occasion, uncle Lucius and a couple of his friends had decided to… rent… this huge castle, so you could stay there and then easily apparate to the Trilenium stadium to watch the games, you were in for a treat as you were going to watch the French games, the English, Irish and Welsh, and even the Bulgarian ones, because they were this year’s favorites for the cup.

It was more than a month, and you were going to spend it here.

Pansy and her parents, Daphne, her younger sister, and their parents, Matthew, well, you didn’t know if his handsome uncle was going to be there, and Theo and his father, Vince and Greg and their parents were a no show this time, maybe they didn’t enjoy Quidditch 

You were barely exploring the first floor when the rest showed up, and it took you another ten minutes to finish with the greetings 

It surprised you really, the Parkinsons and Greengrass didn’t seemed to be quite enthralled in the Cup itself, but it was a nice castle and it served as a good vacation

“There are only 8 rooms”, said Lucius

“The girls will share, and the boys”, said Narcissa, and everyone agreed, you had the biggest rooms in the last floor

It was uncomfortable, as Cercille was single, and Theo’s father, and Matthew’s uncle and your grandfather

But it was funny as Morfin and Tiberius were forced to share a room because of it

From one second to the next the castle was filled with life, everybody had brought their house elves and they were walking, cleaning everything and cooking for the small army you had gathered. You could tell that uncle Lucius was not in his element, and this was clearly for Draco’s and your benefit, and of course of your friends

You were indeed a bit spoiled, as your grandfather was pleased with the Quidditch cup, but not with the staying arrangements, but he did it for you, as did your Aunt Cercille 

The rest of the wizards were camping near the stadium, and it seemed more fun, but you were not complaining

You were happy to share with your friends, even more so knowing that you could sneak into your aunt’s room anytime it became, “too much”

You could barely sleep out of excitement, and the very next morning, you were the first one up, and it was funny to you that your aunt and grandfather were there in the dining room as well

The first game was the one of France against Peru, and it was going to be epic

You woke up the entire house by chanting the French Quidditch song, already dressed in the team’s colors. It was hilarious, they were not as happy

They played at noon

And sharing the prime box with the prime minister of France himself did not deter you, your grandpapa and aunt to yell and scream and grab onto the golden railings and yell obscenities at the referee. it was hilarious 

A good start to the Quidditch cup, the stadium was incredible, apparently it took a long time to build and it was all golden and huge, more beautiful than the French one, even though you were not going to let your grandpapa hear that. 

You went back to the house with your heart beating strongly, France had qualified to the next step of the competition and even though it wasn’t the opening game it was quite a turn up.

Later, at night, it was the first English game and it was going to be amazing, so you were preparing for that. You still had face paint in your face and the French Quidditch jumper on, you took a wrong turn instead of going up the stairs you ended up walking down the wrong hallway

“Why are you still here? you were supposed to leave!”, you heard Matthew, he was talking to his uncle. So, as the curious person you were, you stopped and listen

“I have my own reasons to stay, just like you”, you heard him answer, his voice was smooth and silky.

“Why?”

“Maybe even similar”, the door opened and you were discovered, standing in the corridor, they both looked at you, but instead of looking angry, they just smirked

“Sorry”, you muttered, and walked away hastily, Matthew, as any, didn’t like his “guardian” to stay and look over him of course

The opening game was incredible! it was Bulgaria against England, and even though it wasn’t good for the guests, it was one of the most incredible games you had ever seen.

You were so hyped you could barely sleep that night, even Daphne and Pansy were excited even if they weren’t the biggest fans

There was also Astoria, Daphne’s little sister, for only one year, but she was very sweet, and nice.

The entire event lasted a month, a whole month!

France was brutally eliminated out of the team stage of the tournament, in the round of sixteen,  and even though they played beautifully, they were eliminated by Bulgaria. They were this year’s favorites to win the cup, so you better hope they go on and win the entire thing, to make it worth France’s elimination

Your grandfather was angry, so he went back home, promising to be there at your house when the whole thing was over, to spend the last two weeks of vacation before school starts.

You had certainly deflated since France’s defeat, you did not sing any longer and you had put your jumper away from sight. Your only hope was England but they were eliminated also.

But that didn’t quiet down the party all round the stadium.

They were people from all countries, places and cultures, it was funny as their teams were losing people left, but others came in instead. It was revitalizing, too see all those tents, of different sizes and colors

You had been around, but never like this, it was amazing!

And time flew by! The parents came and went, as a month of vacation was a bit much, but of course there was always more than one couple with their eyes set on the big group of kids.

They had placed rules in order, but… you always managed to sneak into the boys rooms, and vice-versa

“I stole a bottle of firewhiskey”, said Matthew one night, with a big grin, you found it risky, since tonight, it was his uncle in watch of you, your aunt, and Pansy’s parents 

“Matthew!”, nobody knew what to say or do, as you exchanged looks, but Theo was quick into following his friend, grabbing the bottle

“Should we…?”, you asked shakily, you and Draco shared looks, the most you had ever drink was butterbeer, even though it had a bit of alcohol, it was still harmless, but firewhiskey was… something else entirely

“Don’t be such a wimp”, said Theo with mockery, you caught Pansy looking back at you with pleading eyes, begging you not to ruin this, she was still crushing hard on Draco.

“Oh, sure”, you said, Matthew had sneaked a small glass, and he took the first sip, Theo the second, and then they expected you to come near and drink it

You didn’t want to, but… you didn’t want to be the one to kill the party either

So when the small glass got to you, you drank its content without much thought. You almost threw up because of the sting in your throat, this was what adults drank for fun? It was disgusting!

Daphne and Pansy had similar reactions, but you were not backing down now, after everything 

You each had one more “drink” before the bottle was half gone. 

Your eyes were teary when you were done dawning the second glass of that thing

“Let’s play some games”, muttered Matthew who seemed all too kin on “doing things” tonight, you shared looks with Pansy, who in turn looked at Draco, you saw Daphne sharing looks with Theo, and when you looked back at Matthew you saw him looking back at you

Oh Merlin

Were you in a three for three kinda thing?

You didn’t know how to deal with this

“Let’s play spin the bottle”, one suggested

“How do you play?”, you asked innocently

“You don’t know how to play?”, mocked Pansy. You did know how to play

“I can guess”, you whispered. You didn’t want to kiss anyone, so when you all sat down on a round, theo had his hand on the bottle

You didn’t want to surrender your very first kiss to one of them. 

Theo seemed to have charmed the bottle, because it landed on Daphne, they shared an awkward kiss, but they were both smirking at the end of it, then it was Draco’s turn, it landed on Matthew so they of course made him drink another glass of firewhiskey. But then, already with her head in the game, Pansy took matters into her own hand and made the bottle turn, and of course, it landed on Draco

He did not seem too much into it, but Pansy did, she was smiling widely as they pouted and joined their lips together. 

Matthew grabbed the bottle, with a determined look on his face, and turned it, to nobody's surprise, not even yours, landed on you. You looked at him wide-eyed, and he had this silly look on his face

You did not want to back down, but still… your very first kiss…

But for the first time in the evening, luck seemed to be on your side, as your aunt, followed closely by Tiberius and Morfin opened the door with angry looks on their faces

“Really? Do you really think you could sneak out an entire bottle of firewhiskey? enchanting water instead? please, I invented that move”, she said angrily

Only those who were parents of the kids could parent, and your aunt took you away from the room to really go out on you, but she didn’t, not really, she only gave you a speech to not do anything you didn’t want to, and to not be pressured by your “peers”, even though if they were your friends.

Anyways, it was an exciting night!

Now you couldn’t even stand the looks Matthew gave you, like you owed him something

But to no consequence, because the semi and the finals had been, Ireland was playing Peru, and they were completely flattened, and Bulgaria played Transilvania, and the bulgarians totally destroyed them

The finals were set… Ireland VS Bulgaria.

You were cheering for the Bulgarias, you liked the players better, Draco went for Ireland, for sure, and you even brought in parchment, quill and ink the night before to really draw statistics and possible plays to see who might actually win. Win the Quidditch world cup

You almost had no problems from that night, except that know you were being watched at all times by Jolie, your aunt’s cat, and also, Lucius and Narcissa’s determined eyes 

You were so excited, but sad it was ending, you had met the French players, taken a lot of photos that ended up in the Daily Prophet, and in French papers, and also, had the best time with your friends

Now everyone was back for the grand finale, Uncle Lucius and aunt Narcissa were escorting your aunt and you to the Minister’s box, the rest of the lot, had returned home, not staying for the Finals, which, to your knowledge, was the best game yet, as they were the best of the best, even though they weren’t French nor English

As you entered the Arena, to find your way to your own box, and there they were, the whole Weasley lot, with Potter and Granger too! you tried to ignore them, but Draco and uncle Lucius were in a fighting mood

“Dang it dad, how far up are we?”, one of the twins asked 

“Well, look at it this way, if it rains, you’ll be the first to know”, mocked uncle Lucius, and you couldn’t help but giggle, as did Draco

“Father and I are in the minister’s box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself”

“Don’t boast Draco, there is no need with these people”, said his father, but as Potter had his arm on the rail, uncle lucius was quickly to trap him with his cane, “do enjoy yourself, while you can”, he said seriously, your aunt grabbed you and directed you to keep walking, already done with the exchange. 

“Ah Miss Basilik”, greeted Mister Cornelius Fudge, by his side, there was a tall and gruff man, “may I introduce the Bulgarian Minister of magic?”

“Nice to meet you”, greeted your aunt Cercille

“There is no need dear, he doesn’t speak english”, he said, bored, but the man kept looking at her and smiling

You all got to your seats, it was a privileged post, and you were so excited 

“Welcome! to the Quidditch world cup final!”, said Fudge, with wand in neck.

Even Ludo Bagman came and narrated the game, you saw the team mascots, you had to grab onto Draco for him not to jump out of the box when the Veela showed up, it was quite funny

You and Draco were both grabbing onto the railings watching the game carefully

You heard your parents and even the minister mocking your enthusiasm but you couldn’t care less about it

This was… something else

The level of international players was something out of this world! you could barely see them gliding in the air, flying quicker than anything you had ever seen, all on Firebolts of course, the favorite broom for this tournament according to what every player was using.

You couldn’t help but laugh when the Irish seeker plummeted tot he ground twice trying to follow Krum

Oh Viktor Krum, he was a bonbon, very cute, sturdy…

Anyways back to the game

It was one of the greatest you had ever seen. So electric

The Bulgarians caught the snitch, but the Irish had scored so many times that they undoubtedly won the Final, the world cup.

The Irish! This was going to be a great year! Many of the students were Irish, the party was going to keep going! 

The Bulgarians were also known for partying either way, rather for celebrating or to drown their losses.

So that is why you found so weird that your aunt grabbed you and made you leave the event as soon as the match was over

“I was hoping we could go to the camp and celebrate”, you and Draco said, but your parents were unmovable, you were to return to the last night at the castle and stay there. 

Matthew, his uncle and Theo haden’t left yet, they were still there, and you also found it odd when they didn’t even kept an eye on you that night, they just let you be

You never would have thought the chaos that would ensue on the campsite only moments after you had your dinner in the castle.

That at the same time you sneaked into the boy’s room they were muggle being tied and suspended in the air

That as you with Draco had gathered the entire French and English tea’s figurines, that a group of people were terrorizing the camp. 

You were never going to realize how close you were to said group

Until it was too late 

[mariatesstruther]

maria miller facts that are 100% true because i said so - for @clickergossip because you’ve been feeding me so well

she was the copy editor of her high school yearbook AND a cheerleader AND captain of the debate team

she still does her stretches every couple of days even post-2003, so even in her 40s she can still do some flips, a backbend, the splits, and a pretty decent toe touch

tommy is a big fan of this 😏

she TOO used to smuggle and do some shady, morally dubious stuff when she was living in a QZ with her father, mostly to keep them both fed and safe and healthy. she never tells him, and he never finds out. the first time she admits this to anyone in jackson is to tommy after he tells her about his past with joel and tess

while the world ended she was at work all day, while kevin was at home with her husband. she never fully found out what happened to them; all she has is that, by the time she got home, the house was trashed and there was blood all over her floor and her walls. she tries her best not to think about this at all

she and dina’s older sister talia are best friends. after talia is killed, maria pledges to herself that she’ll watch out for dina as much as she possibly can, and she basically ends up being dina’s #1 supporter during the pregnancy and first year with JJ. she and dina trade stories about talia and promise to make sure JJ knows how amazing his auntie tal was

sometimes JJ reminds maria so much of kevin that she has to step out of the room

maria has a secret stash of weed that her and talia kept in a jar under a loose floorboard in her house. she rolls joints with rose petals 🌹

maria is lowkey extremely scared of horses, but she doesn’t tell anyone for the sake of keeping up her reputation. one day when she and tommy are cleaning out the stables, a snake startles one of the horses so bad it bucks and kicks over a metal barrel. maria jumps so high and screams so loud it startles tommy, too, and suddenly he and her and this fucking horse are all needing to take a deep goddamn breath together. when she finally admits it, he’s like: ??????? ive seen u ride and get on a horse like you were born on a farm????? what?????

still, from then on, tommy is almost always at maria’s side when she has to mount and dismount her horse. because he talked to a few certain people about a few certain things, she pretty much exclusively rides this calm, beautiful blonde thoroughbred named cleo

maria first recognizes joel in ep 1x06 by his accent and the cadence of his voice. it’s so close to tommy that it immediately throws her, and when he says he’s looking for his brother, well—she obviously needs to know his mf name right away

maria needs to move closer to joel on her horse in that scene because she is severely nearsighted. homegirl needs glasses BAD. she can’t see for shit

tommy searches for glasses for her on every patrol. it is his ultimate life’s goal to find his wife some mf corrective lenses

it takes maria three weeks to convince tommy she is okay to go out on patrols while pregnant. it’s not like he’s being controlling or anything, but her pregnancy is very triggering for him anxiety- and nightmare-wise, and she wants to wait until both of them are comfortable with the decision before she takes any risks. they both settle on the compromise that it feels safe enough for her to go out on patrols with larger groups, as long as they stick to areas that have already been cleared of infected and are accompanied by the dogs

maria is a cat person. she would take care of her neighborhood strays as a kid. by year 10 in jackson, there is a thriving colony of strays that basically live out of her and tommy’s tool-turned-cat-shed at the back of their house

along with tommy, the entirety of the jackson community is invested in making sure maria has a safe and peaceful pregnancy. people start going to tommy and joel with problems that used to come to her, and part of it really annoys her because she knows she’s just as capable as she’s always been. still, a larger deeper part of her is deathly terrified to have this baby, so she ultimately appreciates the extra help and rest

she doesn’t ever tell joel or ellie, but she has a Very Emotional Pregnancy-Brain Breakdown because she’s anxious that ellie will never like her and joel will never like her and then tommy will leave and she’ll be alone with a baby she id scared to have and then the baby will never like her, either. it takes tommy an hour to calm her down—by the end of it, he’s crying a little bit too. he hugs her and kisses her and promises that he’ll never, ever leave—that’s it’s in his dna, his blood, to love her, just as much as it’s in his blood to be joel’s brother—and that he’ll spend his life at her and their child’s side. she believes him

when he does leave in tlou 2, she goes into their bedroom and trashes it completely—rips all the clothes out the closet, pulls down the dressers and shelves, throws his stupid fucking knick-knacks at the walls until they break, strips their bed her bed and rips the sheets. she locks herself in her home and doesn’t speak to anyone for two days; it’s the longest in jackson history that maria goes without working, aside from the week baby miller was born. the members of jackson make sure to leave her alone

when tommy gets back, she continues to refuse to speak to him while simultaneously sitting at his beside in the infirmary for a week straight

seth and maria have had beef that literally stems from the very start of establishing jackson. he’s just a fucking ass. FUCK seth like i will make a whole post about her beef with seth

maria and joel have mutual hate for seth. we’ve discussed this already over here lmfao, they get together and drink and talk shit about him at least twice a week while tommy and ellie have mischief time

sometimes maria and ellie will hear joel or tommy say some southernism that’s so unfamiliar and twangy to them it’s ridiculous, and together they instantly break out into hyper-exaggerated accents to mock them. the miller boys rolls their eyes but they obviously find it to be pretty adorable and hilarious

maria and ellie are not allowed to be on the same team for board game night anymore because they win everything and it is no fun for tommy >:(

tommy does metalsmithing and makes trinkets and jewelry with charms for maria whenever she gets the chance. the first time he makes a loc charm for her, she cries

maria knows how to make those cool patterned woven bracelets out of string and yarn. she teaches ellie how to make some so that she can make valentine’s day bracelets for dina

she visits jackson’s preschool sometimes and it’s so fun because all the jackson littles absolutely LOVE her. at first they think she’s kinda scary because she’s the Serious Boss Lady everybody and their families talk to upon first entering jackson, but one day at the beginning of the schoolyear she comes in and shows the preschoolers that she can do a cartwheel—from then on they’re all absolutely obsessed

[your-phantomfield]

HINATA = HIMEZURU

i .. ii .. iii circa 2051 for anonymous

Dating Hinata Himezuru...

I.

Loving Hinata Himezuru leads to the kind of relationship where everyone you know is calling you ‘married’ even before you’re officially dating. To be fair, that is what it looks like more often than not. Hinata takes anyone she grows close to and adopts them right into her family; anyone she runs into during the day is probably going to be invited over for lunch or dinner, anyone who stays for dinner sees a good chance of being invited to stay the night, etc.

Once you’ve got her heart, this behavior escalates. It’s already her love language! Hinata is a girlfriend who greets you at the door to her house as if you own it, tries to help you take off your jacket and/or shoes, knows your schedule well enough to already have a meal you’ll love waiting on the table, and will definitely want to feed some of it to you if the two of you are alone. This girl is 110% wife material.

II.

If she had it her way, she’d like to have you spending more time at her place than your own. She may not remember it well, but she spent a painful period of her childhood alone, and she’s been very social since. She just loves having you around. She likes getting to see you and touch you as much as she wants, she likes getting to hear your voice in the house, she likes to watch you getting along with the rest of the people she cares about, she likes when you’re the last person she says goodnight to before she goes to sleep and when she can be the first person to greet you in the morning… It’s a nice way to live, she thinks. It feels like you’re already one big happy family! It would be nice, to do this for the rest of her life.

III.

There are few days when you won’t be seeing her at all. Even when you don’t spend the whole day together, Hinata finds ways to sneak a little date in somewhere. She likes to invite you to join her on any errands she has, or ask if she can help you out with your own. If you can’t go together, she’ll still offer to do your errands for you, or pick up something for you while she’s out- that way she has an excuse to visit you while dropping things off!

It may feel like she spoils you too much sometimes. You don’t want to take advantage of her, or see her work herself ragged!

Still, try to let her help in whatever ways you’re comfortable with. This is how Hinata shows her love. She knows she isn’t the smartest or most capable person in the world- she knows there are a million things in your life that she can’t help you with. So it’s important for her that she has opportunities to support you in the ways that she can.

IV.

If we describe her preferred expression of love to give as ‘acts of service,’ then what she most likes to receive is ‘quality time.’ The sorts of dates she enjoys are focused on just being with you, rather than any specific activity. I mean, that’s obvious- what other explanation is there for a girlfriend who would list grocery shopping as one of her favorite date activities?

With that in mind; another one of her favorite things to do on your mini-dates is to just chat for a while. You don’t have to go anywhere fancy, you don’t have to do anything exciting- what Hinata wants most is to hear your thoughts and share her own with you.

Tell her about your day, tell her stories about you and your friends. Tell her about your hobbies or whatever you’ve been watching or reading! Tell her any fun, weird, or scary dreams you’ve had!

V.

She’s a great listener, always visibly interested in anything you’re talking about. She gets invested in even your most boring stories, and has something compassionate to say at the end of all your saddest ones. It comes naturally to her because it’s just part of who she is as a person.

She genuinely loves life! She finds something to appreciate in every single moment. From there, it’s easy to put an optimistic spin on anything.

She’s been through enough in her own life that you’ll never have to be afraid of her diminishing your problems or not empathizing with them- she’s overflowing with patience and compassion. But from that angle of understanding and appreciation, she’s always able to think of a way to improve the situation, whether it’s a concrete solution to try and move forward, or a hug and something tasty to start moving on.

VI.

Being with Hinata means being part of a huge family. She has no blood relations left, but a large circle of ‘found family’ that are eager to love you almost as much as she does- as long as you promise never to break her heart. Yuki and Akira both enjoy making their fare share of “I’ll beat you up if you ever hurt her!” threats at your expense. Don’t let their brash attitudes fool you- they get attached just as quickly as she does. They like you plenty, they just also like to run their mouths.

In turn, Hinata is very interested in meeting anyone in your life. As far as she’s concerned, any friend of yours is her friend too! She’s grateful to the people that take care of you and, by defaults, trusts anyone you trust. Whether it’s your family, your friends, or even your chummier acquaintances, Hinata’s excited to meet them!

VII.

Hinata loves most types of handcrafts. She does a lot of sewing, she’s tried embroidery and knitting and crochet, she’s done a little bit of origami and can almost make one of those fancy napkin sculptures that you find at expensive restaurants. She just loves to make things and work with her hands.

So, get comfortable finding places to put gifts! Hinata starts making you something warm every time she hears a weather forecast suggest it might get cold soon. She decorates her own cute cards to give you every holiday, and sometimes just for fun.

She especially likes when she can make something you’ll be using a lot. Something that will help with your lifestyle or hobbies. Patching up your clothes (or even better, customizing them with some cute embroidery) is am always helpful option that she absolutely loves to do.

VIII.

When you date Hinata, you have a relationship for the rest of your life. Even if something were to happen and things didn’t work out, she’ll always be your friend, and you’ll always be family to her. The point is, Hinata doesn’t do any relationship casually.

People are already joking about it all the time, but one day, she’d really like to marry you. It doesn’t have to be now, or any time soon; she’d like to go to nursing school next, and she already spends every day with you. You’re already family. She’s in no rush.

But it might be nice, someday. She could wear a big Western-style white dress like a princess from a fairy tale. You’ll be her true love, the sun shining haloing you like you just stepped out of a storybook. She’d like a wedding on a sunny day in a park, with enough space and food for everyone. You could send out a thousand invitations! Both of your ‘families’ would be there, everyone either of you have ever loved, all having fun together.

A perfect happily ever after.