#joy and whimsy is a lovely thing

[skys-archive]

Sometimes, like an idiot, my brain will say, "no, you're better than blorbos" and then, again, like an idiot, a will become utterly obsessed with the little gay men in my spread and remember that, no, no one is above having a blorbo

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Person with no whimsy: Why are you trying to trick g-d with loopholes? 🙄🙄🙄🙄

[laauranenn]

A whole three four (4) people have said they'd like for me to talk about Nirei, so here we go!!

Starting off with how he's first introduced! He falls face first on the floor. (Which I love him for, he's the guy ever.)

He's introduced as this really goofy, dorky guy. He still has the tags on his uniform, falls again trying to get them off, and asks Sakura if his looks are caused by stress.

He then proceeds to run into the doorframe as he's leaving, and trips as soon as he's outside of Pothos.

This all paired with how he talks about Bofurin makes Sakura disregard him as someone who's all bark and no bite, as someone who'll run soon as a fight breaks out, which Kotoha then argues against with her coffee bean metaphor about not judging people so quick.

(It's honestly a little crazy how this was Sakura's first impression of Nirei, considering how close they've grown throughout the manga! )

Nirei, however, proves this wrong immediately. He saves a girl from a bunch of guys that are harassing her, and he doesn't back down. Even when running away would probably be the wisest decision with his complete lack of fighting ability or self defence skills.

He clings on to the guy, continuing to get back up despite getting thrown across the pavement multiple times. His perseverance is something that Sakura quietly acknowledges as well!

Something we also get introduced to very early are Nirei's reasons for joining Furin (and Bofurin by extension) as well as his backstory!

Nirei is someone who's been mistreated in the past. He describes being beat up and used as an errand boy, talks about how he had no choice but to obey them, until someone from Furin stepped in and saved him. This sets up his reasons for joining Furin, as he wants to help others like how that student helped him back then.

This is also where we first get to see Nirei's insecurity. Despite his determination to help others, he unfortunately lacks any fighting experience or skill. This is something that plays a role in his insecurities and his low self-esteem.

Because Nirei is insecure. Or at least not as confident in himself as he could be. When Sakura saves him from the guys, Nirei is the first one to criticize himself before Sakura can even say anything. He thanks Sakura and immediately follows it up with how much of a disappointment it must be to have someone like him in Furin.

Nirei also downplays his usefulness and skills multiple times throughout the series.

He memorizes the names and faces of the entire school in what's implied to be a single night.

"I borrowed the school list yesterday."

He doesn't downplay it too much, just a little when Suo praises him for it. He does something similar after the fight with KEEL, where he doesn't seem to think him calling for backup was anything special at all.

It's not something that shows up a lot, nor is it something big. It's just him lacking the confidence to take credit for what he's done.

I think it's worth mentioning though, as I think him memorizing the names and faces of the entire school is incredibly impressive.

As soon as Nirei gets himself together after Sakura saves him, we get introduced to his notebook! A small notebook that he collects data of "the guys he finds cool" in. He asks Sakura questions about himself, such as his height, weight, blood type and birthday. He also seems to have data on specific fights people have been in.

His notebook, as well as his lack of fighting ability, set him up as something similar to your typical mission control, or "the guy in the chair" sort of role, as well as the coward. Though he lacks the tech genius typical of the former and is more geared towards providing Sakura and the others with relevant information on the opponent.

But what makes his growth so satisfying, that sets him apart from other similar characters, is his strive to become stronger and help others.

Something I find so satisfying about Nirei's development is him being the one to drive it. He's the one to seek training, to strive to be better.

He's never told to stay behind despite someone needing to protect him, never cast out for it. The others, especially Suo, are entirely willing to take on the workload of protecting him. The only person to say anything about it is Tone Hansuke when fighting Suo.

Nirei is also willing to put himself at risk in order to help someone else out. We see this in almost all the major fights. First when we meet him, again when against KEEL, when he takes over for Suo on the bridge, as well as when he volunteers to take on Endo at the school.

(Honorable mention for him attempting to stop Shizuka from giving herself up)

This all paired with his role as Sakura's vice captain, as well as his promise to help Sakura to the top, eventually lead him to ask Suo to teach him to fight. Not because someone told him to, but because he himself wanted to.

And the training has seriously paid off! I have to bring up the bridge again, just because of how significant that fight is for him! Because not only does Nirei manage to cover for Suo while he's busy fighting with Obiki Kaito, but he also throws his first real punch!!

Sure, it's not a good punch, barely does anything. But that doesn't matter, because just the act of him throwing that punch is so significant!

And that brings us to where we are in the manga right now! He hasn't really been in a fight since Endo, and is instead helping Sugishita out!

I've officially run out of things to talk about, but I'd be happy to talk more about specific arcs or moments for him if someone wants to!! I'm desperate to talk about Wind Breaker at this point!!!

[spkyart]

My shayla????

[madaqueue]

one of my favorite bits i do for myself is wearing my corona shirt + my lime necklace … nobody has noticed yet but it makes me feel so happy :33

[partfae]

i’ve spent too long being sad so i will never stop myself from being a lovergirl or getting excited about things on main or letting everything be the best thing ever. life is short, so why would i hold myself back from expressing or participating in joy just because someone else finds it silly to be emotional? why would i waste my time curating away the wonder that it is to feel and to love?

[strangewonderful]

i wasn't built to have a job

[slasherflicks999]

4am slasher doodle to recover from the fact i spent 2 days hand sewing a shirt that i don’t even like the fit of HELP

you can NOT tell but his necklace is made of teeth hehehe

whoever it was that reblogged the last drawing i did of him saying they thought he was cool and u dug through posts to find him……. you gave me a crazy case of the smiles lemme tell ya /vpos

oh how i would love to lore dump about him…. if he had any solid lore to dump about

[unproduciblesmackdown]

winston my quant of billions

[seoulmatez]

𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓂 : gray x alhaitham

some find beauty in sumeru's landscape — its sprawling rainforests, its unique fauna. others find beauty in its emerging art scene — performances put on at the zubayr theater. alhaitham finds beauty in one person alone, his gray.

for @dilucs ♡

[radishearts]

My kotlc enjoyers pspspspsppspspsppspspss have some sketches for a fic im writing :D (Before I Burn)

It’s set in precannon, around 20 years before the current TL (So like, the 90s) following Kenric and Oralies navigation of Elvish Bureaucracy, classicism and inter-species politics. Also Brant is his brother and Kenric is desperately trying to dispute ability restriction — I���ll put the summary in the replies but if ur interested give it a read

[itsybitsybatsyspider]

YOURE SO TALENTED IM SHAKING. Your art and writing are SUPERB. You inspire me to keep creating thank you for sharing your works online <3

AAaahh thank you so much, Anon! I appreciate hearing that, it means a lot!

[mothymayhem]

I have been tagged in so many of these today! I just have to make one!! So into this we go!!!

I'm not good at words, but yippee!!!

@radio-atlas CRAZY IF YOU THOUGHT YOU'D ESCAPED ONE OF THESE FROM ME. First and foremost, you're absolutely my favorite person ever. You've dragged me from the depths of some of my worst moments this year. No matter how much shit I went through, no matter how many dumb decisions I made, no matter if I thought I was being the worst version of myself. You were there. You talked with me for hours about anything and everything. You were my shoulder to cry on. Truly an amazing friend! And even more so my brother!! God knows how many AUs we've created this year! And I hope we make a bazillion more next year!!!! You're stuck with me bitch!! We're sitting in vc as I type this and I can't wait to absolutely kill you when I post this.

@cataqu33rz YOU!!! THE MF WHO PUSHED ME TO HAVE WHIMSY AND JOY WITH MY GENDER. WHO BRIGHTENS MY DAY WITH ALL YOUR MENTIONS AND TAGS ON DCA POST. FRIEND OF MANY YEARS. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU SO CANNOT EVEN UNDRRSTAND. WE'VE GOTTEN SO MUCH CLOSER AS TIME GOES ON AND IT MAKES ME THE HAPPIEST. I GET SO HAPPY WHEN YOU DM ME AND WHEN YOU TALK TO ME. I LOVE THAT I DRAGGED YOU INTO TSAMS,, I LOVE THAT YOU'VE TRUSTED AND TOLD ME A BAJILLION THINGS. I LOVE THAT YOU ENCOURAGE MY BATSHIT INSANE BONKERS RAMBLING. I LOVE YOUUU /P

@milian-aran MY NEMESIS. MY RIVAL. WE'VE LITERALLY KNOWN EACHOTHER SINCE HS AND IK WE DON'T ACTUALLY TALK THROUGH TUMBLR OFTEN BUT YOU ALWAYS DESERVE A TAG. AND I'LL HATE YOU TIL THE DAY I DIE. PROBS BY YOUR HANDS! /aff /p YOU'RE INSANE AND AN AMAZING FRIEND!!! FUCK YOU <3!!!

@eternal-soup @beeshoesometimesdraws Definitely the people and mutuals that got me so much more accustomed to interacting on tumblr again!! I go bonkers insane whenever you guys pop up on my dash!! I verbally exclaim my excitement when y'all pop up in my notifications!! And by the gods!! I'm gonna get the guts to actually talk more with you guys!!! Y'all are so slay and full of whimsy!!

@starheirxero THE MORE I YAP WITH YOU. THE MORE I NEED TO SHAKE YOU VIOLENTLY /pos. You are by far one of my favorite people I love to yap with about lunar! Absolutely same wavelength type shit!! You've unfortunately been dragged into my bs! And you'll never be hearing the end of my cannibal lunar brainrot!! You're also so slay and whimsy!!!

@cirrcusbun You have made adjusting into the fakemon project so very nice! And obvi!! Had to tag as you're my wife!! But sincerely! Know we haven't been friends for very long but absolutely adore chatting with you!! Energy and vibes are infectious!! Anyways! Sorry for all the tags today!!! Heart emoji!! <33

@mister-bombastic I KNOW WE HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO CHAT ALOT BUT I NEED YOU TO KNOW THAT YOU'RE STILL ONE OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE AND THE MOON TO OUR DYNAMIC!!! ANYTIME YOU'RE ABLE TO POP IN IT MAKES ME SO SO SO HAPPY!! EVEN JUST SEEING YOU ON!! JUST NEEDED YOU TO KNOW YOU'RE LOVED AND THOUGHT ABOUT MF!!

☆ • ☆ • ☆ • ☆ • ☆ • ☆ • ☆ •☆ • ☆ •☆ • ☆ •

EUGH I STILL FWWL LIKE I'M MISSING PEOPLE BUT UNDRRSTAND. I APPRECIATE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND EVERY LIKE AND REBLOG AND TAG OVER JOYS ME!!! TRULY NEVER EXPECTED ANY OF THIS!!!! I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR EACH ABLND EVERYONE OF YOU!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS FUCKERS!!!!!!!!!

[cable-salamdr]

If you are going through my art tag be aware that I see it and I am in fact bemusedly looking at my notifications slowly passing by

[localsharkcryptid]

very interested in what characters specifically ur talking about 👀

Ah time for me to be weirdly vocal on fandom preferences- buttt character wise it's Bench Trio, Quackity, & Philza who've intrigued me with revisiting the swap au! All characters who I'm iffy with usually- thanks to some issues with ccs though I try to not let that affect me too much it does leak in, and just, fandom content with them is very repetitive I suppose - at least to me. Power to every writer and artist out there ofc, this isn't hate, y'all do you! But for me I'm very tired of seeing the same dynamics and plots time and time again with these characters - Tommy is often overused for angst or is treated as a golden child, Tubbo is kinda shoved off to the side or people only focus on Beeduo, Phil is almost always made into a father figure, etc. Idk what it's REALLY like on the other side of the fandom, I've migrated to dreblr entirely, but what I do see from everywhere else is the same thing time and time again and again I'm in dream country so not many people explore these characters often either. So it's just not engaging for me- but my swap au turns all the canon dynamics around, changes some entirely or creates whole new ones!

So with it, Tommy and Tubbo swap roles, Ranboo swaps with Slimecicle, Quackity swaps with Wilbur, and Phil swaps with Techno!

Again I will eventually get a list out so the 'swaps' are easier to keep track of for everyone else but my whole thing with this au is trying to keep most key character traits and personalities the same, it's mostly just the roles in the story that really change - and cause of that there are some character changes, like for instance Tommy is less impulsive and a bit more 'responsible' than his canon counterpart since he takes Tubbo's role and is the one to die via firework, thanks to Phil - so that also changes their dynamic drastically from canon. Ranboo swapping with Slime means that I get to explore his character learning and being taught 'how to be human', Tubbo being swapped with Tommy leads to getting into his consequential dynamic with Sam (who's swapped with Dream) and his technical role as a catalyst for a lot of conflicts, Phil swapping with Techno gives him a more active role in the story, more character interaction, I get to explore a timeline where him and Sam are allies in place of the distanced canon relationship - an ofc his relationship with Wilbur which is very messy. Quackity is shoved into Wilbur's position which is soooo fascinating, doing that basically like flips Q's character arc around so it happens in reverse and revived Q is just the saddest wettest bird/raptor you've ever seen - he can't even get laid cause Wilbur in this is sorta asexual.

So basically swap au is full of character exploration and exploring what ifs cause of the changes - so these characters are just thrown into something new and fresh that allows for a similar yet very different version of the DSMP we know and love and thus it just resparks my interest in these guys who've felt very flat for a long time to me :)

[finniestoncrane]

ok i will do more asks tomorrow, and i saw the one asking for oc help, i will be on that SO HARD i swear i will compile you some good shit but i am going to go to bed, quit while you're ahead and all that goodnight bugs in the computer, i love you and i love having a stable internet connection too 💚