#like i don’t think this is making it less accurate to be clear! just kinda interesting idk

[leucosia-meme]

spotify wrapped :)

(plus lots of rambling in the tags)

[oswildin]

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that The Dark World Loki is the closest to an accurate portrayal of his overall character as we’ve ever gotten.

I just want to preface that I’m not saying any other writings of his character in the MCU are bad or ‘aren’t Loki’, this is just my own opinion and interpretation.

In that film we get to see his illusion fall after Frigga’s death, it’s the most disheveled and broken we’ve ever seen him - physically at least. But then in the next minute, he’s snapped back into that mischievous, cunning, sarky trickster as Thor frees him from his cell and has him aid him in his quest to stop the Dark Elves.

Thor is acting out of protecting the nine realms, but Loki is acting out of self-preservation and the need for justice for his mother.

“Trust my rage.”

To me, this simple line sums Loki’s character up (well, not entirely but don’t be pedantic.)

Loki’s rage has been an instigator and motivator for his past actions, for destroying Jotunheim, for trying to rule Midgard. His rage is the one thing he had been able to rely on, because it has served him well enough in the past for his conviction - maybe less so in Avengers but that’s another point.

The Dark World writes Loki as neither bad or good (minus the ending which kinda leans into the ‘uh oh that damn trickster betrayed Thor again’). But for the scenes he is in, we are made to sympathise with him & his plight - whether intentional or not. It’s clearer in this film than Thor 1, where it was still made for general audiences to go ‘oh, he’s the bad guy’ (don’t get me started on the deleted scenes that would’ve added a more sympathetic perspective).

The man who raised him, with chest, told him his birthright was to die, he was told he could never see his mother again (the one person we know as the viewer he had a lot of love and respect for), then he found out his mother was killed and it wasn’t even delivered to him by Thor but by a guard, he was then left alone with that news with no one to help him process it, not even allowed to attend her funeral… And that’s all within the first 30-40 mins of the film.

We see him go from this ‘villain’ in Avengers to being something far more human. And it keeps his traits and actions very true to the core of his character. He’s tragic, but he’s also capable of anything. He’s a trickster, but he’s also capable of despair and suffering. And whilst Thor 1 does a good job at showing his more human side during the scene with Odin in the vaults and his ‘I never wanted the throne, I only ever wanted to be your equal’ line to Thor (as well as Odin’s rejection on the bridge), they still make it clear he is the one we’re supposed to oppose.

I don’t know, just something about TDW!Loki feels right. And it annoys me they made him fake his death, even though that’s such a Loki thing to do, half way through the film. (Which I can’t believe they were actually going to kill him off but when they test screened it, the audience didn’t like it, so that’s why he appears at the end).

TDLR: The Dark World made the audience sympathetic towards Loki and still kept his core characteristics.

[assaultmystic]

I’m kinda confused still, how can media reify something that already does concretely exist? Like sure, the stereotypes around family are socially constructed, but being related to people is very real and has been a huge biological driver for like, all of evolution. It feels the same as being asked to question hunger or sleeping. They’ll exist and the biological necessities to do so will exist whether or not media says to

I completely agree with you on the violence fantasies half btw this is about the other part, as sure you can remove the structure of family or question it but that’s not going to deprogram humans away from it. Do you mean the nuclear family or just the concept of humans caring about their kin?

(Also yes some people don’t feel a desire for children or reproduction but that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that if they did have a family, the default IS caring about it. Not under all circumstances, but default)

alright, i think youre asking in good faith, so lets try another tack. when i spoke about reification before i was being imprecise in the service of being clear. so. one way of explaining reification a hair more accurately, is as taking contingent human social relations and transforming them into independent, assumedly already existent, necessary facts about the social world.

the family, however you conceive it (nuclear or otherwise), is one of these contingent social relations. we should be careful about invoking nature, or biology, always. we are social animals and our reality is normative. there are facts about our world that cannot be explained by recourse to biology, physics, what have you (all of which are discourses which have no special or ultimate claim to a primary truth). there is, for instance, no arrangement of atoms, or biological fact that instantiates a familial relation (motherhood, siblinghood, etc). for a trivial case consider adoption. the family is a social construct. we analyse it on these terms. it is no more (or less) real than money. what youre saying is in itself a product of that reification.

when we look at the work that the family does, materially it self perpetuates by way of the exchange of offspring in order to reproduce itself (and so is crucial to the construction and perpetuation of gender (which is to say gendered violence)). it instantiates a set of values “family values” if you want, and punishes deviance from this pattern of behaviour. these values are those that serve, naturally to reproduce the family. the family is also the primary transmission vector for private property (by way of inheritance), and is therefore crucial to maintaining the power of the bourgeoisie (who are the architects of family values) by way of capital. all of this is what is meant when we talk about the family, and none of it is biological.

human beings have been living together in social forms that involve bonds that are weighted in ways far different from this. some of those may be between people we might, for instance, consider parent and child. that does not make those relationships what we refer to when we discuss family.

[thewhitefluffyhat]

barbie doll not in a barbie world

We know John based Alecto’s body on his favorite Barbie doll. Does that mean Alecto literally has Barbie Doll Anatomy as per the trope?

Like, no body hair, no female-presenting nipples, nothing but featureless smooth skin between her legs?

Because I agree that John didn’t intentionally put Alecto in a doll-like body to make her “sexy.” But what if - accidentally or not - he instead made her sexless?

So first of all, we know that Alecto-as-Nona finds Harrow’s scrawny, lumpy-brain, unattractive-by-popular-vote body to be beautiful. And yet, in Nona the Ninth, Alecto describes her own body as a “hideousness.”

Now, it could be that Alecto hates the body John made her just because he got the proportions kinda wonky, or because there’s something unique to the Alecto-body that keeps her trapped there unlike when she’s in Harrow’s body.

But I can’t help but also think of the passage where Nona describes the “cradle creature” that she drew to the Angel. Because she doesn’t defend her drawing on how creative, or beautiful, or accurate the doodle was:

Nona looked down at the animal she had drawn, and thought perhaps she understood. She said, “No, I made it up. It does work, I promise. See these things? They're its ears,” she said in much the same tones as she would have explained to Kevin. “This thing is its nose, and you can’t see it because I didn’t draw it, but the mouth is under here. When it was first born it used to live in a river, but then it got cold so it had to get large. I know the legs can’t rotate, but you don’t think that’s stupid, do you?”

Nona the Ninth, p251

Instead, Nona is completely focused on the fact that despite her doodle’s unusual features, it’s an animal that “works.” It’s a being that could live.

Is Alecto… not a being that “works”?

At the very least, Nona doesn’t seem to like or need normal human food. Presumably, Alecto was the same way. So her lacking an anus or genitals likely wouldn’t be an issue given that this is a woman who thinks rubber and graphite are a yummy snack. Also who, per Mercymorn, might not even have DNA.

So why would this matter?

It’s because there’s something especially potent and horrifying about taking the soul of Earth, of Mother Nature herself, and then forcing her into a body without a functional digestive tract or reproductive system. Not, to be clear, that people lacking those things are in any way less human or less worthy of life. It’s just… speaking of life and nature in the most broad and planetary terms, ’can eat and reproduce’ are the significant features that set living organisms apart from rocks. The uniqueness of which is also what sets Earth apart from every other planet in the solar system.

Plus there’s the way Gaia (the ancient goddess, not Kiriona) was somewhat associated with fertility and the harvest. Meanwhile Christmas tree fairies, Renaissance angels, Adam and Eve in their innocent state, Galatea the statue, Frankenstein who was denied a mate… they’re more associated with the opposite of that.

So when it comes to the symbolism of Alecto, there’s these Classical thematic connections between womanhood and abundance and fertility, now being placed in dialogue with a very Christian idealization of abstinence from food and sex. It’s Muir using two mythological building blocks and putting them in tension with each other.

(There’s also the building block of Māori traditions that Muir draws on with Alecto and her saltwater, though I am nowhere near qualified to comment on that… would love to read more about it, though!)

Last but not least, there’s the modern context to consider. Alecto’s body is specifically a Hollywood Hair Barbie. Hollywood formerly of the Hays Code, Hollywood now in the age of “everyone is beautiful and no one is horny.” The gilded facsimile of life, distanced from the messy, primordial desires underneath.

I don’t have any kind of grand thesis to tie all these observations together, but the juxtapositions are interesting, aren’t they? Especially in a series that is less shy than many about normalizing queer (often female) desire. In that context, taking such desires away would be a hideousness, wouldn’t it?

.

And you know, while we’re on this subject… it’s unclear whether Gideon can eat or feel arousal in her revenant form either. (Yes, I’m sure fanfic writers have opinions on this, but I haven’t gotten to post-Nona works in my chronological AO3 binge and we’re just talking about the text of NtN here.)

Did John take those pleasures away from Gideon too?

I hadn’t even really thought about all the Kiriona/Alecto parallels, but they sure are plentiful. John puts both women into bodies that seem superficially wonderful yet which they both resent and dislike. And they also both act/consider acting as John’s cavalier, with the implication that this is because they don’t have any other options or people who care about them. At least John seems to like their company, even as he manipulates and hurts the ones they love.

So yeah, what is with this dude and turning people into his perfect dolls? Once might have been an accident, but this starting to look like a pattern my guy.

[faller-of-kharbranth]

//These are just some musings and stuff about Self Insert Fallers, generally focusing on SIFkah in particular:

//It’s under the cut in case the discourse contained in this is not something you want to be seeing on your dash, especially now.

//I am legit just… thinking that SIF!Kah should just be me but a step to the left.

//She already kinda is…

//If we’re talking in timelines here, it diverged from me on the 17th of April, so we have about… 7 weeks, or more accurately 1 month, 3 weeks, and 1 day of difference between us…

//(And also a few details I changed for anonymity reasons!)

//Ultimately, fae’s still more-or-less just me. Kinda.

//But… hm.

//Just… thinking back on the whole thing with Self Insert Fallers…

//There’s sort of a conflict between the creativity and will of the mun/writer and the fact that some people just… don’t take unreality stuff like this very well.

//(And the blame isn’t on those aforementioned folks for being that way, not at all. Telling people to “suck it up” if you’re writing about something that distresses them in some way is never good writing etiquette.)

//There’s a balance to strike there, as with all things.

//A balance between your own vision and other folk’s mental health, to put it in summary.

//Ultimately, this balance is why I still use the Self Insert Faller tag, and have another tag specifically for meta stuff.

//If just seeing a blog like this one makes you distressed in some way, then you can simply block the SIF tag.

//And if you’re fine with Mun Fallers, but just… cannot do well with outright fourth-wall breaks or similar meta shenaniganery, the other tag, “malkah meta moments”, is there specifically to be blocked in that case, at least for this blog.

//And, to be very clear, SIFkah in particular isn’t on any higher level of metafictionality or anything—I have seen a few SIFs that work like that, but SIFkah isn’t one of them.

//She is just a Faller who is a Zork with inexplicable Magic Anon abilities and some outside knowledge.

//However, meta moments from her may look almost identical to ones from SIFs with the higher levels of metafictionality.

//Looks like isn’t necessarily is, but in some cases the difference is irrelevant. Just because a cucumber happens to vaguely resemble a snake doesn’t mean it is one, but it triggers the cat’s startle response regardless.

//Regardless of the explanation I give here, if it distresses you, the tag is there for a reason.

//And ultimately, all this makes me think that there should be a tw/cw tag specifically for meta stuff that isn’t localised to one blog like mine is, if there isn’t one already. (#unreality comes to mind, but I don’t know if it’s the right one to use here. There was discussion about it at some point, and I can’t remember the ruling.)

[sunwukongssuccessor]

You have a very good understanding of Sun Wukong and Macaque, I can tell by how amazing your writing is! Have your ever thought about doing a character analysis of those two? I’m asking because I have ideas for LMK fics and wanted to try and keep them as in character as possible and something like that would help me and a lot of other writers out there!

Anonymous asked: Sorry for not being specific! If my request is too intimidating please don’t push yourself to do it! As for specifics in the character analysis of the monkeys I guess maybe a dive into their surface level personality versus true personalities, their relationship with each other and MK, and their moral compasses? I hope that helps! You can take those as you will. If you don’t want to do all of that just do what you do want to do. Thank you!

It's no problem, I'm sorry that I took so long to answer and even then it still feels kind of vague.

I think the first way of getting to understand a character is getting a grasp of how they speak, both Wukong and Macaque speak pretty casually (one of the first things that Macaque says is "Your staff kind of gives you away, dude."), as well as clear and confident. I think it helps that I can memorize and hear voices in my head so that helps in me finding a way for them to stay in character and pick what sounds most accurate, but I know that doesn't apply to everyone.

Wukong, despite how he tries to play the role of retired goofball in the beginning, being somewhat indifferent about stuff like MK's training, but he actually cares to the point it's almost self-destructive. He doesn't want MK to worry about the Lady Bone Demon, so he lies about searching for a way to defeat her as a vacation of all things. He doesn't want people to get hurt from his mistakes and such so he wants to take the brunt of it but because he didn't try asking for help/support it kind of blows up in his face and makes it worse in the long run.

Macaque is opportunistic, something of a snark about it too. ("Also, side-note: How did you not know it was me? Shadows, kinda my gimmick isn't it?") He's not just dramatic, he's downright theatrical given the shadow play episode, he didn't have to keep doing more than one show after capturing MK's friends and even points out that MK went to multiple shows with saying "Ah, you again. You must be my biggest fan." but he still took it as a chance for the attention as well as be heard in his past as indirectly as he tried to play it off before the reveal. He craves the acknowledgement and probably more.

An interesting thing I noticed with Wukong in his interactions with MK is that he's the one usually initiating physical contact with him. (Sure, some of it is a bit of invading his space but that's just kind of how he is considering he's a monkey.)

Anyone else is kind of unwelcomed(?) in the space if he doesn't really like them or know them that well, he's even surprised by the affection from MK in the episode "Destiny Fulfilled" for a hot second until it settles.

With Macaque and his interactions with people from conversation to touch, something I noticed in the split second he meets MK, he sees him up close with admiration of all things as if shocked by it before settling back. After agreeing to mentor MK, he's starts initiating physical contact as a way to seem all buddy-buddy with him, almost like they're on equal ground despite the newly formed mentorship.

After what's probably a few weeks into the training, the physical contact is less soft, almost holding MK down instead of being a support to pushing MK into a losing battle until literally punching the Monkey King's powers out of him. Physical touch was used on his terms and for his gain.

When he does a similar arm hold on Tang in "Benched" when trying to appeal to Tang in giving up and letting him get a Ring of Samadhi, he even projects his relationship with Wukong onto the whole group before acting out when it doesn't work.

Their moral compasses are pretty different, Wukong trying hard in helping MK as well as the world with it, Macaque being that he looks out for himself since that's all he has. Wukong has many enemies but that doesn't mean the world is and tries to act sweet with Ao Guang like he's a bud and totally didn't steal the pillar to his palace and made it a staff.

Macaque has to look out for himself, sees himself as the only one he can trust, all others be damned. ("Look out for number one, because if you don't, no one will.") Even if Macaque has a soft spot for someone (see MK) ("This is the thanks I get for checking in on my favorite student?" and "Hey kiddo, ya miss me?") he doesn't even see him as a potential ally, closer to amusement at best and enemy at worst. Macaque has far more enemies than allies (probably since he doesn't have any) and that reflects in how he practically hisses at the Mayor for giving him off vibes before even getting caught in the Lady Bone Demon's lackey's hold then taken hostage.

I'm sorry if this isn't the best analysis since it feels kind of all over the place but I hope it helps you in someway.

[wendy130]

heard you were looking for fake fic titles, so we got some for you!!!

Cast Out

On the Hunt

Ghost Chasers

Reality Sucks

Roll Call

Apocalyptic Nightmares

“Is anyone there?!”

// I did only a few of these bc otherwise this would get too long :P

// Cast Out, Ghost Chasers, & Apocalyptic Nightmares

Cast Out

—

Fish hunter- angler? I don't know but fish hunter sounds funnier-- Wilbur goes out everyday to catch fish. One day he catches a lobster hybrid Niki who is Not happy with being trapped inside a net. Thankfully, Wilbur hands her a fish and tosses her back into the sea.

But now every time he goes out to fish, Niki 'unluckily' gets caught again and again...

// This is entirely based on some dudes on YT who hunt for lobsters but throw back lobsters they can't keep. They give those lobsters some fish before yeeting them back into the sea :3

—

Ghost Chasers-- my fucking favorite out all of these has been moved to an entirely different post which you can find here!

—

Apocalyptic Nightmares

—

Disclaimer: I have no idea how blindness actually affects people on a day to day basis. This will not be accurate. And I have no idea how to write these characters either lmao.

It’s hard going through the apocalypse while you’re blind, but Dream has been… handling it fairly well, he’d like to think. 

Especially when that apocalypse is based purely on sight. Any human that looks at the- he’s not sure what to call it, honestly- the beasts go insane. He’s taken to calling them ‘Medusas’ because he’s fairly certain that, before everything went to shit, there was a story of some lady that would turn people to stone if they looked at her. He’s not sure. It sounds fake, to be honest, but he stumbled across another human who told him about it. They said it was… ‘Greek mythical,’ or something.

Regardless, he’s been able to move around with the walking stick he’s had since forever. Plus, since his eyesight is non-existent, his other senses have strengthened to make up for the lack of one less processor. Some days are… shit, to be frank. He’s dropped his cane and had to fumble around to find it, and that’s not even considering the rest of the disadvantages that come with being blind. 

He has.. no idea how he’s been able to survive. He thinks it’s luck. Whatever it is, it’s the only thing that’s been keeping him alive for so long. He’s thankful for that. 

And he’s even more thankful when he hears the rare shuffle of feet. It looks like he’s finally stumbled across another person- or… monster. Whatever, it’s company, even if the monster can’t talk back to him. Most of the time when there’s a monster, they end up wandering off and not responding to him. It’s how he knows who’s human or not.

Turning towards the sound, he lifts his head when the shuffling freezes, “hello?” he calls out, hoping that they’re human. 

After a clear hesitant pause, “hello?” And, oh! Finally, another person. He smiles.

“Hey! Great to finally come across another human,” he hears mumbling, but it’s incomprehensible. He shifts slightly to face the voice a little more, “sorry, if you couldn’t tell, I’m, uh, blind,” he laughs.

“Oh,” the voice still sounds.. confused, “uh. Yeah. I couldn’t… tell.” Dream pauses, tilting his head.

“Do you not know what being blind is?” It’s the apocalypse, it… would make sense that people might not know about it, he supposes. The voice is silent, and he quickly adds, “it’s okay. It’s the apocalypse, I get it. Information is a little scarce. I basically just can’t see. My name is Dream, by the way. What’s yours?”

”My.. name? Oh. My name. My name isss… George. It’s George,” the voice seems to fumble, and he laughs a little.

“Are you sure? It kinda seems like you just made that up, George,” he emphasized teasingly, feeling the edge of his mouth twitch up in amusement, “I guess that makes sense, though. I don’t come across people that often either, so it takes a second to remember that greeting people is a common courtesy.”

“Y..yeah,” the voice- George- laughs, a tad awkwardly, “yeah, it takes a little bit to remember how to speak, y’know?”

//

Dream meets George, who’s… not as human as he seems. But, hey, Dream doesn’t need to know that.

Basically, shenanigans between the two bc George is used to just driving humans insane and never exactly having company. No less company that doesn’t shut the fuck up. Dream gets someone who can make life a little bit easier, George gets to learn what it’s like to be human, and both of them get to have some well-needed company.

[maeamian]

Hi hi I stumbled across ur tags in that one tumblr post about atoms and I loved ur response!! I also had a question related 2 it. My knowledge of chemistry and atoms is very surface level (dropped out of my environmental sciences major after 2 years lol) so forgive me if this sounds a lil silly. But I thought atoms could touch? Like when they form bonds their electron clouds can overlap right? The cloud is part of the atom so they are touching I would think, even if the nuclei wouldn’t be. Or are those models inaccurate and the electron clouds don’t actually overlap, is that just a simplification for diagram purposes when teaching bonds? Ik you said we don’t know for certain about anything! Atoms are crazy weird but I was curious what the accepted opinion is on this! Ty u seem very very cool

Great questions, my background's mostly coming from the physics side of things and is a little rusty, but I've got enough mutuals who will yell at me in the replies if I get anything seriously wrong here.

That said, generally when physicists tell you 'things don't actually touch' what they mean is a) roughly speaking the 'surface' of all normal things are made of that electron cloud you're talking about, b) when things 'touch' those electrons get (obviously) very close to each other but still have a distance between them, because c) the Pauli Exclusion Principle, one of the basic underlying things that defines basically all of chemistry says that multiple electrons can't be in the same quantum state. This is all, more or less indisputable fact as proven by the fact that chemistry works and can make extremely accurate predictions about how chemicals will form, something that they could not do without this understanding of the electron as an elementary particle

But! You're also right that a covalent bond does represent an overlap of electron! The distinction between these things is twofold, first, when you, for instance, stand on the floor, the molecules in your shoes aren't bonding to the floor, they're reasonably well bonded to each other, but generally you're not creating new chemical bonds every time you stomp your feet, at least not to any significant degree. Instead what happens is that the electron clouds at both edges get very close to each other and go 'someone's already in here' by sending a blast of photons at each other, although here I have to note that the photons are what's called 'virtual photons' in that they're more mathematical conveniences than anything that gets out further than the local interactions, you couldn't see them because they're absorbed almost as soon as they're emitted to the extent that they have any reality, which they definitely kinda do in that they have observable effects on space when it's either very empty or very small.

The other distinction is that a covalent bond, the sort you're thinking is two atoms sharing one electron, in that case I think it's pretty reasonable to say that the two atoms are, for pretty much all purposes, touching at that point, since they can not be separated without the expenditure of energy to break that bond. The case that scientists are generally talking about when they bust out this Fun Fact at parties is when two electrons try to get near each other at the edge of a shoe and the ground rather than when two atoms bond, so you're right about the thing you're thinking of, but the scientists making this observation are also right about what they're discussing, I think OP of that post made it with the understanding that people would recognize it as being this argument rather than one about bonds, but it requires having been exposed to it before to do that, which not everyone has done! Hope this cleared things up and feel free to tag on any follow ups

[electricbluebutterflies]

Hands rubbing together to warm them up + damerey kiddos

It is 2023 and I am formally back in this spiral and... doing my usual vaguely-post-canon thing that didn't happen several years ago due to Assorted Unrelated Personal Bullshit. Turns out I missed these babes. PG-ish, pre-relationship, and also on ao3.

She’s cold. She hates this.

There is, admittedly, a lot of life that Rey hasn’t experienced yet. An extended stay on an ice planet is not nor will it be the weirdest, but it’s still…

“Warm enough?”

There’s a lot more she needs to get used to, really. The fact that people care about her – both on a peripheral level, where it is very important that someone of her position have adequate clothing for every stop on what one of her friends described as the victory tour, and the existence of said friends, the fact that there are other living beings she trusts completely and-

Rey turns to look at her designated minder, who looks even less thrilled than she is about this particular adventure. “I will be. Eventually. Maybe.”

Normally this is the part where she’d add some little comment about how her comfort doesn’t matter, as long as she’s functional she’ll deal, but she’s learning to moderate that around certain people. Well, one specific person who absolutely refuses to listen to her and-

It’s not personal. It’s deeply personal. She’s not used to duality.

What she’s figured out, in these months of closure or whatever, is that the official reason they’re stuck together is the droid apparently has separation anxiety and that’s definitely a new one by her standards, and the unofficial one is that someone somewhere in Resistance administration figured that two chaotic humans would cancel each other out. This is… not exactly what’s happened, but it’s kept both of them out of trouble better than she suspects any other scheme would, and-

“So, not warm enough and going to pretend otherwise because you’re a self-sacrificing-“

“Like you’re any better!”

This is the part she’s gotten used to, the too-public verbal sparring matches that are still… affectionate, somehow. She heard all the rumors long before they got to this point, and she knows there’s no harm meant in whatever too-perceptive accusations might get thrown around, and-

“I think I’ve at least figured out layers,” Poe mutters, giving her an unimpressed look. “Whereas you…”

“Don’t… don’t make my inexperience into-“

“Worried, not amused. You look frozen.”

“I feel worse.”

“C’mere.”

She takes half a step closer and is unsurprised when his gloved hands wrap around hers, moving just slightly in repetitive motion, very careful not to touch the little strip of exposed skin between glove and jacket sleeve and-

“We’re getting you better gloves,” he murmurs.

“These are fine. They do fit. That’s more than-”

He gives her that look she’s starting to recognize as a specific flavor of… not exactly disappointment, that would imply more harm than she thinks he intends, but…

“Do you know how bad it looks for them if you get frostbite?”

“No?”

“Disaster. Complete petty disaster. We do not want that, understand?”

“Since when do you-“

Her voice cuts off as she processes the accusations that want to fall out that… aren’t quite accurate, really. Almost everyone she’s met in this world has been kind to her, at worst in awe and confused, but this man is…

“I’m sorry,” she says just a little too soft. “I know you care. I’m not sure why, but-“

“I have a droid who likes you more than me, you kinda saved the galaxy, and…”

“And?”

“I like you. Does it have to be more complicated than that?”

Yes, she thinks, yes it absolutely does have to be more complicated, but… she has months of evidence that it may not be. He’s been consistently kind and protective in a different way than anyone else, but it hasn’t gone any clear direction yet. No comments about her appearance, let alone-

“You like me,” she repeats, and the words taste right in her mouth. “That’s…”

“I didn’t mean to-“

“I don’t mind. I’m just… unsure what you want me to do with it.”

“Right now… nothing? I’m not sure I should’ve said that but-“

“Probably better to get it over with. Gives me time.”

“No pressure, okay? I’m not-“

“Do you ever stop talking?”

“What, is that not helping?”

Rey rolls her eyes in a way she hopes comes off as flirtatious and okay she’s never wanted to do that before and-

“I trust you,” she says, glancing down at their hands. “That isn’t…”

“Still-“

“We can fight about this when I’m not an icicle. Deal?”

“Deal.”

[horizon-verizon]

I love the Targaryens, but I never really got the impression that they thought women were equal to men. Don’t get me wrong, Andal culture is extremely sexist and patriarchal, but the Valyrians/Targs were not written like the culture of the Dornish/Rhoynar who do believe women are equal to men. I think the Targaryens definitely gave their women much more freedom and respect than Andals did to their women, but in the end, men were still considered the final authority.

So I think the Targaryens were more progressive than the Andals but less than the Rhoynar. Aegon I did conquer Westeros alongside his sisters, but in the end, it is only him that is referred to as the conqueror, while his sisters are not. I also got the impression that Aegon was the one who made all the final decisions even though Visenya was the eldest. So that’s my opinion what do you think?

I think both similarly and similarly: there's the fact that both Valyrian women and men flew out to Valyrian outposts to control them. It wasn't a total democracy nor did Valyria think women were perfectly equal to men, but they were leagues better and more "progressive" than Westeros.

I would not use the word “progressive” as an absolute or an accurate term for Valyria because:

Valyria developed into a slave-state and practiced enslaving people

the 40 dragonlord families seemed to have lead the entire society (there were nonddragonriding noble and common families), thus making this an oligarchy

It’s still through the man that a child inherits their surname, as we know Aegon, Rhaenys and Visenya’s mother, Valaena, was a Velaryon. The Targ family also was inherited by its men, and Aegon I had to marry his oldest sister in Targ tradition and perform his duties. Then there is the fact that Valyrian men (mostly the sorcerers) can have multiples wives (polgyny); nothing is being said about women having multiple husbands (polyandry)

and so "progressive" puts a modern political value on an ancient people and that implies that the Valyrians and early Targs were studious and aware of patriarchal and other systematic oppressions--trying uproot society from the ground up for altruistic deeds (maybe the women after Aegon I conquerors Westeros, but that’s part of the group, not the whole). 

Again, I’d just say the Valyrians were better in this one regard--gender. The Targs and Valyrians are still more about power than altruism or perfect equality, like 90% of every other person/group in power in this system and world. Until Dany, of course.��What makes the Targs-as-Westerosi-rulers different from their ancestors is that they did not colonize nor run an imperialist state; they merely conquered and ran a feudal state.

Let’s also then say that the Targs/Valyrian dragon-riders provide a means of social change in Westeros because their traditions, link to dragonriding, and the looser restrictions on women gives more of its members a bit of perspective and distance. Several notable members always have had this distance partially based on the fact that they are rulers trying to maintain their rule, but also because they are a people who are also foreign in culture and ID to the Westerosi nobles. Really, it’s the Faith of the Seven and the patriarchal traditons of the First Me and the Andals which create that ideological divide.

A Kinda-Digression about Dragons

Dragons are usually associated and stand in for untamed nature and chaos (disorder), or a huge force that ushers in a great change by clearing out what is before. A creature or a force that relentlessly consumes those things in its wake. a challenge that the hero must overcome or get through to obtain  In Greek myth, the serpent Ladon twisted himself the tree in the Hesperides’ Garden of the and guarded the tree’s golden apples. But they also can be the instruments of life giving and strength, as with Chinese dragons who are repsponsible for giving life-saving--or life-ruining--rains, or are made and intrinsically tied to the weather and the elements:

The Chinese dragon, lung, represents yang, the principle of heaven, activity, and maleness in the yinyang of Chinese cosmology. From ancient times it was the emblem of the imperial family, and until the founding of the republic (1911) the dragon adorned the Chinese flag.

They are raw, overwhelming power itself--while also embodying grace and balance-maintenance. 

The fact that women could ride dragons would automatically bump them up in a society that derives its power and identity through dragon-riding, even though only a section of Valyrians actually rode dragons--the 40 “dragonlord” families. this section fought for more influence and dominion over the Valyrian Freehold--the official name for Valyria and its territories. (The Velayrons and Celtigars historically were not part of the dragonriding families in Old Valyria). 

The Valyrians had no kings but instead called themselves the Freehold because all the citizenry who held land had a voice. Archons might be chosen to help lead, but they were elected by the lords freeholder from amongst their number, and only for a limited time. It was rare for Valyria to be swayed by one freeholding family alone although it was not entirely unknown either.

(A World of Ice and Fire,  pg. 13)

We don’t officially know if women could own land in their own right and autonomously and lead their families but it is likely -- dependent on circumstances where the male was unfit or dead and there would be less resistance or room to depose them.

Landholding was and remains a key defining part of being a citizen and having the right to vote when there was some form of voting allowed. Giving military commands and participating in government from the Romans of the Republic to the first leaders of the U.S. and their own ancestors who settled and colonized the Americas. 

Since women rode dragons, they definitely had a part in Valyrian expansion and imperialism (in the way that the Romans were imperialists, not 19th-20th century Europe and the U.S.), which also means that women had similar real, substantive political power as their male counterparts and particpated in govermental activities. The wars & using dragons to win them, after all, made Valyria as powerful as it was and dragons and the ability to ride them--symbolically, psychologically, culturally, etc. would have made the basis of their moral & aesthetic values. Again, they controlled Valyrian outposts as leaders as well.

So I think that Valyrian women could own land (and thus vote) in their own right, otherwise, how can they participate in expansion fully and maximize the use of their dragons?

Jaenara Belaerys rode her dragon Terrax, alone, to Sothoryos and didn’t come back until three yeas passed. We don’t officially know if she was weird even for the less-gender-restrictive Valyrians, or if women enjoyed having power and authority even while absent enough for her to expect that she’d still be welcome back into society. But I lean towards the latter.

Read this thread to start contemplating, if you want.

[thir13enghosts]

okay so I Know it’s been over five months since i made this post and it’s been little over two months since i elaborated on dana being the bound woman (sorry i get distracted easily)

but anyway here are my thoughts re: my version of susan being the angry princess

my version of susan legrow was a young pretty girl who died bc she tried to fight back against a man who wanted to control her (or: a princess defying a king). and even though she wasn’t the most popular person in life, she became Incredibly well-known in death, as a prom queen who never got the chance to claim her crown. from the details of her demise (both the accurate and inaccurate details) to the rumors that she still haunts the campus she died on, susan legrow (and to a lesser extent chet walters and everette webber) is very much still a household name around that part of springfield. whether that be as “that tragedy we don’t talk abt bc it makes us all deeply uncomfortable for various reasons” or as “that local incident that became a part of teen folklore bc the details feel like something straight out of a horror movie” or as “that urban legend everyone will tell you isn’t real even though they’re visibly afraid of it”.

as for susan herself, her death left her alone, in pain, inconsolable...but mostly deeply, deeply angry. angry at what’s been done to her, angry at how all her classmates/friends got to grow up and graduate and have lives, angry at how she didn’t get to grow up or graduate or have a life bc chet “the asshole” walters decided that if he couldn’t have her then no one could. she couldn’t calm down. her rage seethed and bloomed and festered until it lost its shape, until it seeped into the very foundation of south high.

so as you can probably guess, susan’s a Very hostile spirit—not a murderous spirit (chet walters being an exception) necessarily, but that doesn’t make her any less of a problem. she’s kind of a freddy krueger/mary lou maloney figure (except susan isn’t exactly Evil. just really fucking mean & bitter). the way i see it, susan metaphorically staked claim over south high and by the time cyrus & the others rolled around to take care of the problem, the whole school was her domain (with a few exceptions) and she had near-complete control over the area. kinda like horace and his junkyard or lenore and her manor or royce and the road he died on.

susan legrow might’ve never claimed her crown...but as far as she’s concerned, she’s the queen of south high, the campus is her kingdom, and the students are all her unwitting (and unwilling) subjects.

for example:

her presence is just abt Everywhere. not that ppl see her all that often; ppl only see her when she wants them to. she can see them though; she’s Always watching.

she can subtly manipulate someone’s perception of the area (especially if they’re someone more sensitive to ghost bullshit, like dennis or sheryl). for example: doors don’t lead to the place they’re supposed to, hallways & stairways are endless, lockers are a one-way trip to The Void, etc..

speaking of ppl who’re more sensitive to ghost bullshit, she Knows when psychic ppl are walking around campus. she doesn’t know their precise location, but she does know that they’re There and a general estimate of where they might be at. she can literally feel it. the more she focuses, the more clear it becomes.

every so often she chooses a random student—usually a boy, usually blonde, usually a football player, usually kind of an ass, though not always—and just kinda terrorizes them in their dreams (and occasionally while they’re awake) for a couple months. either until she gets bored and moves on or until her target switches schools, whichever comes first. again, think freddy krueger/mary lou maloney but less shitty. this became less and less often

it’s an unofficial rule to stay off the football field after 10pm, especially if you’re a m/f couple aiming to fool around a bit after hours. at best, she’ll completely ruin the mood by scaring the shit outta them both. at worst, she’ll ruin the mood by straight up giving the dude an asthma attack (and it’s always the dude, no exceptions there).

if she concentrates hard enough, she can control the building itself: shutting the doors and you can’t open them regardless of whether or not they’re locked, causing power outages, shattering windows, etc. she can only do this for so long though.

she’s at her worst (and most powerful) during prom season, ramping up in intensity until prom night where she absolutely goes apeshit carrie white-style. this has only happened once, however. after the near-disaster that was prom of 1990, south high didn’t hold a prom for over 14 years.

[burinazar]

Not sure what to do with this post I saw from someone saying the MCs of MiA could easily be replaced with adults and ‘not much would change.’ They’re speaking from a place of frustration with some of the uncomfortable content, an impulse I won’t argue with, but it's, like...untrue that "not much would change", the major themes of the story would fundamentally be altered. I dunno, or I think so at least. Now I’m wondering if other people don’t see the story as having big, narratively-embedded things to say about coming of age and the value of childhood, and simply regard it as ‘the kids are young Because They Are/for shock value’. 

Like i truly feel you could more easily age up the MCs in any given popular shounen, just pick one, any you please, and still have way less of an effect on the themes and plot than you could with MiA (which if anyone cares I am not implying is a shounen, it super isn’t. I’m using those as a point of comparison because featuring kiddos is common to them), which is almost uniquely invested in making meaningful statements about childhood, aging, vulnerability, et cetera. As in -- sure, Naruto is a coming of age story, but beyond the fact of being one, the story isn’t specifically centered on thematic statements about youth and age. 

MiA is also a bildungsroman of sorts (I mean I guess we have to wait and see how accurate this is), but on top of that it’s rife with themes centered specifically on what it means to be young, what it means for the young to suffer, what sets adults apart -- much of the ‘irreversable journey’/’children have unique powers and value’ themes intended as (to me) a clear symbol for the passage of time and the loss of youth/childhood, and much of the violence and horror is specifically positioned as a contrast to the innocence, vulnerability, and optimism of childhood, the latter of which is thematically presented as a powerful counterweight to bleakness and despair. The children aren’t, like, just there so there can be Uncomfortable Moments with them or something. They’re there because this is a story about the value of innocence and the resilience of childlike optimism in a setting that, as a recurring worldbuilding detail, regards young lives as disposable and will cast them away for money or power.

In a version of this story which was reconfigured to center adults (...rather than, say, sometimes throwing in very interesting and attractive adults for a single arc, driving an Ebil to despair) all of these themes would be altered, absent, transfigured -- basically, it would be an incredibly different story. Like, the kids being kids is very much tied to what the thing is about. Kinda like if you took Old Man and the Sea and replaced him with a youthful upstart fisherman, it would not be the same thing. Like, truly the adults in this universe are very cool, to Me in particular, but the MCs being children was never merely an aesthetic choice or something but a thematic one. A retelling that centered adults would necessarily have entirely different things to say.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

SHINAH SO REAL bring my man back….

I’m ngl I fully forgot Lorenzo existed errrrr but yeah there’s the purple eye rep..!! Wait you know what kinda confuses me is Nanase’s aura….his name means rainbow so I was assuming it’d be rainbow but it’s some sort of blueish white? Maybe it’s a reference to how when all the colors come together they make white but anyways….considering his name they could’ve made his eye color a little more interesting but whatever I guess

I’ll be waiting LMAO just thinking of the ideas makes me want more beach day esque side quest shenanigans between the characters!!

Hoping this last match helps boost their rankings a lot because just looking at it right now the rankings do NOT seem accurate LOL

FIC INFLATION REAL my perception of length has been so thrown off these past months

LMAOOO imagine 60k kiyora fic /j quite literally would be carrying the entire tag on your blog HAHA

Imagine you did convert to gagamaruism though that would lowk be really funny

HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED omg…ok but I get it some edits are fire and are way too good at converting….lowk I think a tabieita edit was what pushed me into tabieitaism….it’s ok you got cleansed by other edits you’re in the clear for now o7 ok but wait drop the edits?? If you still have them saved LOL

FRRR WAIT STOP THE OTOYA IDEA IS FIRE??? Otoya getting trained into a gentleman and y/n becoming a heartbreaker bitch LOLL Its funny because we keep discussing ideas for people being wingmen for other characters LMAOOO atp it should just be the wingmen series

Also BAROUUUUUUU>>>>>> ok his little moments where he’s eating or has his hair down doing some sort of wind down/cool down routine>>>> if u20 Barou doesn’t get a glow up the Ubers match one fs will….but manifesting s2 glow up for Barou!!!

- Karasu anon

shinah…hak…kija…bring my boyfriends back to me 😭 honestly the author of yona of the dawn ATE w the character designs!! like even though all of the dragons were a certain color they still felt interesting?? maybe it’s the eyes like kija + zeno i think having the blue, shinah’s being absolutely gorgeous, and jaeha’s being purple iirc

LMAOAAO lorenzo is always in the back of my mind bro is such a phenomenon…for some reason i pictured him having brown hair and brownish reddish eyes?? and i haven’t seen many colorings of him so ig i never realized he has my fav color palette 😓 maybe it’s time for me to convert to loreonzoism /j also i didn’t know that abt nanase!! that’s def annoying that they made him knockoff isagi when there was the potential for smth cool 😭

hopefully after the nel arc we will get more downtime and fun ☝🏻 and next req should be up shortly!! like within the next three hours i think 😏

i’ve done it to myself too tbh 😭 consistently writing 100-200k word fics has made me view anything less than 100k as short…like unless it breaks 100k i won’t even consider it a true long fic!! i need to write smth that massive for bllk though 😵‍💫 hollyhock might make it but that one will be slow going because it’s a lot of external work to write 😩 peregrine i don’t think is going to be that long though 😓 i think if i do undertake a rlly long fic like that it’ll have to be for one of my absolute favs (so nagi karasu barou) or else i won’t have the motivation to finish it

HAHAHAA bfb kiyora’s version fr except he doesn’t have any sisters…i’m trying to think of what trope i want for him 🤔 i have some vague ideas but we’ll see what sticks!! i’m actually more worried abt karasu FJDKKS i’ve written sm for him that coming up with something different might be a struggle…what if i pick zantetsu for that req instead /hj

YUP IT WAS HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED!! although technically reo mikage would’ve fit in the censor too LMAOAOA but yk i’d never censor reo…only an itoshi bro could get that reaction from me 😫 and yes i saved all of the ones that cleansed me hold on i’ll post them here

barou edit

otoya + aiku edit

nagi edit 1 and nagi edit 2

third nagi edit that i just thought was really funny

not the edit i was referring to in that post because i didn’t save that BUT the edit of rin that made me post abt bllk on tumblr for the first time and get convinced to watch it by my mutual

the amt of saved edits i have is crazy 😭 mostly karasu and nagi ones but there’s more than a few otoya reo and barou ones in there 🤩 plus a couple of sae and rin ones that i couldn’t help but save

THE OTOYA IDEA HAS ME CACKLING especially if i do like a split perspective thing with it?? omg i’m just envision a line like “you had a crush on eita otoya, which meant you had to go to the one man on campus even worse than him: oliver aiku” and it’s all dramatic for the reader meanwhile aiku thinks it’s SOO funny that someone like her likes OTOYA (and conversely karasu and yukimiya think otoya is trying to be a gentleman to manipulate the reader better so they’re like “fuck no we’re not helping” but then they realize he’s serious so they lock in and do their best to help him)

barou…barou…barou…i think my 50 reblogs of my own post sum up my thoughts atm very well 😭 omg wait is BAROU my third rewatch man 🤔⁉️ that’s crazy if so but lowkey no complaints ��� the best part abt liking nagi and barou is i KNOW they’re not going anywhere for a while because they’re two of isagi’s main rivals + episode nagi is literally right there 🤩 so lots and lots of content coming for them (although lowkey epinagi artist does barou dirty at some points i fear…rn their hard work is going solely into nagi and karasu though so i get it)

[a-dumbass-jester]

Slaughter Web and Eye.

Hello this is part 3 of my designs for the Sentient Entities au!! Pt 1 is important if you haven't seen the {main post}

{End, Dark, Hunt}

{Stranger, Lonely, Desolation}

{Slaughter, Web, Eye}

{Spiral, Flesh, Corruption}

{Vast, Buried, Extinction}

For all of these I took heavy inspiration from this post and will be referencing it a lot.

SLAUGHTER

I like the idea of a punk slaughter. Mainly because it gives a lot more personality than some soldier or smth. But also the Piper already exists and I don’t rlly want Slaughter itself being just the Piper part 2. I was debating whether to just make it the Piper bc I mention in the main post that the entities can enter areas that that entity had created. They’re in between point. Like Vast with the Sky dimension thing. So in some cases of war it can enter/manifest and be the Piper, and I also mention that entities can have multiple forms, as long as it fits what it is so The Slaughter can be both the punk design I’m about to talk about and also the Piper. But I don’t rlly like that and want them to be separate things. Slaughter put Piper in charge of the war areas of it as it took over everywhere else.

ANYWAY ONTO THE ACTUAL DESIGN!! it’s basically that design I mentioned earlier. It’s too perfect sorry. I put some outfits I liked below with a collage thing that kinda represents what I was picturing. However I would like to add to her hair. I was picturing short dyed (bloodish) red pigtails with blonde at the roots. I like the image below but with the pigtails a bit higher up. The last image is a necklace I like for it (BULLET NECKLACE BULLET NECKLACE!!).

I’m going to expand on the first part again ab i can and I want to share a hc (congratulations your fear god is trans!). I mentioned earlier that entities can take different forms and change over time. Slaughter wasn’t always like this. In its early developmental stages it took the form of an identity less soldier. Soldiers (Especially at that point) are typically men or at least very masc presenting. Which at the time it didn’t rlly mind, but eventually it grew uncomfortable and didn’t like it. When it grew into itself and focused more on violence on a normal scale and not purely war. It started to present much more as a girl. Basically what I’m saying is trans Slaughter. Congrats on the transition queen. I would also like to mention that she actually looks quite young. Mainly bc her being around teen age (I’m thinking around 19. 16 at the youngest) works rlly well in my opinion. Like confused, impulsive, emotional teen. Yknow? It just works in my mind. Also Slaughter is the youngest entity so her looking young does kinda work. Anyway I will be using it/she/he for the Slaughter (it doesn’t mind ‘he’ just prefers the others).

Images: 1,2,3: outfits 4: hairstyle 5: necklace 

WEB

For the Mother I took heavy inspiration from the post I mentioned earlier. I’m basically picturing Bayoneta but in a suit covered in webs. (She looks like Bayoneta bc I say so) As I mentioned with stranger a lot of them have clear historical inspiration and Mother is one of them. More specifically ~1920s. Her suit was Tailored in that era and her hair is very 1920s bob esc almost pixie. One of her glasses frames are cracked into a web. When she’s not in a suit it’s wearing some other 1920s outfit. Luckily i just found a post with 1920s suits (and other historical fashion). I was thinking more so of the one all the way to the right, but with a web design. I will be using she/it for the Mother.

Images: 1,3: Bayoneta(face claim kinda) 2:hair

EYE

Again I’m using that post:)!! So me and @helinedmightbehere talked about this a bit here. We were both thinking it would look like one of those weird core ocs that have an eye for a head. I was thinking specifically an eyeball. Mainly bc its other main form is basically a massive eye ball. Like one of those biblically accurate angels but without the wings. Beholding, like most of the others, takes a more humanoid shape/form bc it’s more convenient and easier that being a giant eyeball. I imagine the rest of its body (like the arms and legs) are also made of eyes. More specifically like how people draw those eyes around Jon or Jonah, but they make up its entire body. And it’s wearing a cloak like outfit. Like the one on that post. I will be using it/is for Beholding!!

Thx for reading!!:3

[mithliya]

Hello Mena! I was hoping if you can maybe help me with confusion about my ethnicity. I am from post-ussr country and so interact in english spaces less and not sure about few things. I am mixed ethnicity, various slavic and central asian ethnicity. But I am not half and half, rather from what I learned about my family tree I am a bit more then 1/3 central asian. But, as you can imagine, with woc women marrying into men of dominant culture, I was able to find only very little of my asian female ancestors. I mostly seen myself as white, but the genes of my asian female ancestors show on my face. I did not know about any of these when I was teen, I was just sure I am 'ugly'. I spend great deal of time trying to make myself 'pretty', which was kinda white washing myself. If I bleach my hair, shave my eyebrows, avoid sun like plague and paint my face I can be quite white passing, just with weird nose and small and dark eyes and wide face. I also struggled with people being very prejudiced towards me through my whole life, like they start right away acting as if I'm stupid and a bit slow. I have been wondering for my whole life if maybe I am weird or slow indeed in a ways I am not aware. I would never know if that is because of my face or not. But when I moved to less white region, it has been long time and no one acted towards me that dismissive. I also stopped worrying about my nose and keeping skin as white as possible, bc I don't stick out so much anymore. Hairdressers sometimes still try to convince me to bleach my hear, because I would look good, but I reject it. The thing is, if I talk about these in english speaking places while only mentioning my location, women (I suppose mostly white, who do that) try to convince me I am just a bit mentally unwell, imagined prejudice where it did not happen, obsess over my looks etc. If I mention my ethnic compound, they revert to blanket validation, which is also weird to me, bc it's so overt and suddenly they take me seriously. When they do it, I honestly feel like impostor. Or I guess before that they imagined slavic blonde like stereotypically shown? (It's actually wrong stereotype, but it's another topic.) My question is, I don't really I can call myself woc, I would be imposing on woc with actual problems. If I was say half and half with equal connection to both cultures, it would be another matter. But I also treasure my asian ancestry and what I could find of it, the genes of my asian grandmothers are seen in my face, and I think it is not fair to them if I don't mention that. Maybe you have some advice on that, on how can I indicate my ancestry better without imposing on others who deal with actual oppression unlike me? Sorry it turned out a bit long.

hi anon!! first of all, i feel like you’re questioning your perception & intelligence and just so you know, you don’t seem stupid at all to me. at least based on this message, you seem to be an introspective and well-spoken woman, albeit with clear confidence issues.

in terms of how you can accurately describe your ancestry, i’m also mixed but not 50/50 as it is intergenerational, so i understand how it can be difficult to describe ur experiences. i simply state im mixed & if ppl assume it means i’m half black and half MENA, i correct them and state that is inaccurate to my reality. you could say the same, basically calling urself mixed white + central asian or just mixed. even the term biracial does not necessarily mean half & half although some people assume that to be the case, so u could use that too. u could even say ur white-passing biracial (although im not sure if white-passing describes u accurately? since u said u feel like u look more similar to central asians when u live among them). u could also say ur white with asian ancestry if u feel like being white defines ur experiences more prominently

[pisoprano]

Author’s Commentary

And here we’ve reached the end of this fight! *throws confetti now that I don’t have to figure out any more battle logistics for a while* (and thanks again to Kasienda for helping me get over that final hurdle—my brain could not put into words what exactly Cosmobug and Oni-Chan were going to fight here and how the Lucky Charm would figure into it in a way that made sense, and Kasienda gave me the valuable insight of Cosmobug having to use both her Lucky Charm and her yo-yo to fight back, which unlocked the possibility of Oni-Chan continuing to teleport and putting Adrien in a position where I could get some indulgent hand-holding symbolism and still managing to wrap things up quickly enough to let the rest of the page have the space it wanted)).

That hug. I really wanted that hug. I was sincerely hoping that I wouldn't have to resize that hug to fit the page, and I was very lucky to not have to do that in the end. That hug was something I fought myself to include at all—back in September, I wrote this post, where I was contemplating having Adrien disappear before Cosmobug can even talk to him. I thought that giving her nothing at this stage would make something I have planned for the near-ish future have a stronger impact. But I still wanted to draw that hug. I couldn’t create bonus content the same way I could for my other issue I was grappling with in that post (that being moving Rolland’s bread lesson to a bonus scene)—showing people “this is the hug that I could have given you canonically but chose not to” would have led to riots in the streets. Eventually, I did figure out a way to appease my internal editor and desire to indulge: I cut off the conversation between Adrien and Cosmobug early and had him disappear without warning on her. You’re welcome.

The knife. The knife was the reason I brought back the concept of Adrien cutting a hole in his shoe from my early outline—I realized that it would be the key at the end of this fight to give Adrien a way to bring Oni-Chan to him, by using his reflection to become the ‘last person who saw Adrien Agreste.’ After that, it kinda just ended up as a running gag that I threw in because why not? (It’s surprisingly handy.)

So where is this all located? *shrugs shoulders* I originally planned for 'near-ish to Tibet' to build off of something that Mayura and Catwalker would have talked about, but that bit ended up being cut so it doesn't really need to be a specific place anymore (all it really needs to be is a few minutes away by space power up, and at that point I'm just going to handwave it and move on). I did still end up using this image capture of Baltit Fort Hunza for reference on the first panel, but once I was dealing with trees and clearings and cliffs that the characters would interact with, I started making stuff up. Like how the trees around the clearing at the top of the cliff are all brown with green highlights and all the trees at the bottom of the cliff are green with yellow highlights? That was something I did to make it easier to tell where the characters were. That long yellow divot at the edge of the cliff? Something I threw in to make it easier to identify the edge of the cliff. And then I went back and added those things to the first panel to keep these details consistent, making the original image even less accurate. (Though if Astrowalker had been going to Baltit Fort, he probably would have gone to the man-made pathway that the image is shot from instead of to a tiny spot on the mountain since he'd be much easier for Cosmobug to spot to lure her to him).

Also, Adrien's actually using the hood on his hoodie! He's specifically pulling it up to make sure Cosmobug doesn't actually see his skin while he was trying to summon Oni-Chan to himself. He didn't take into account that Oni-Chan could teleport her sword out of his grip (mostly because I didn't think of that until so late), but he did succeed in his goal of making it easier for his lady to defeat the akuma so he'd consider it a win.

Part 27. Safely Seen (Oni-Chan 2.0, part D)

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Description below the cut

Astrowalker flies toward a mountain, near the base of which is a small clearing at the top of a sheer cliff.

Astrowalker (internally): Good, she's not here yet.

Adrien detransforms as he drops to the ground and reaches for the shoe that he previously cut a hole in.

Adrien: Claws in.

Adrien puts on his hat, pulls up the hood of his hoodie, and pulls out Rolland’s knife.  Plagg gestures towards the knife incredulously.

Plagg: A knife?  You came all the way out here to pull out a knife?

Adrien: I'm here because this is where Cosmobug is going to be.

Adrien peeks from behind the tree towards the sky, where Cosmobug is flying in.

Adrien: And there she is.

Adrien holds up the knife, where he looks at his own reflection.

Adrien: So here I am.

Adrien walks out from behind the tree as Oni-Chan teleports in.

Adrien starts to petrify as he grabs Oni-Chan’s sword and stabs his knife between the branches in the sword, locking it in place.

Adrien: Gotcha.

Oni-Chan tries to jiggle the sword out of the frozen Adrien’s grasp.

Oni-Chan: Some boy seizing my sword isn't going to stop me from...

A close-up of Oni-Chan’s face as she realizes who this boy is.

Oni-Chan: Wait.

Oni-Chan reaches a hand towards Adrien’s frozen face.

Oni-Chan: You're...

Cosmobug (wearing the red glove side of her Lucky Charm, still attached to the black glove part) flies towards the akuma and throws her yo-yo.

Cosmobug: Get away from him!

Oni-Chan teleports behind Cosmobug, attacking her with her sword.  Cosmobug, her yo-yo having gone too far to immediately be of use, blocks the strike with her Lucky Charm gloves.

Oni-Chan: Ladybug, you don't understand!  That boy down there is—

Cosmobug slips the black glove of the Lucky Charm into Adrien’s frozen hand so that they’re holding hands together.

Cosmobug: Adrien Agreste!  I know!

Cosmobug uses her grasp on Adrien to give her leverage as she simultaneously kicks Oni-Chan in the chest and uses her yo-yo to grab the sword and (using Adrien's arm as a way to redirect the yo-yo string) and yank it away.

Cosmobug: I figured out he was going to be here!  And I'm going to save him!

Oni-Chan goes flying off the cliff and into the trees below.

Oni-Chan: Aaahhhh!

Cosmobug: No more evil doing for you, little akuma!

Cosmobug breaks the sword with her yo-yo and captures the akuma in one smooth motion, then throws the Lucky Charm gloves into the sky to cast her cure.

Cosmobug: Time to de-evilize!  Miraculous Ladybug!

As the magical ladybugs restore Adrien to normal, he is startled (to the point to dropping his knife) as Cosmobug jumps on him, hugging him with her arms and legs as she wears a ginormous grin on her face.

Cosmobug: Adrien!!!!!!!  I found you!

As Adrien and Cosmobug fall together, he lets himself wrap his arms around her, relishing this moment where he can accept her embrace again.

Cosmobug: I can't even explain how worried I've been, Adrien!  I'm just so glad that you're alive!  I searched everywhere trying to find out where you'd really gone!  And now you're here!

Adrien: I'm here.

Adrien smiles sheepishly as Cosmobug pins him to the ground.  Cosmobug’s eyes bug out in embarrassment at the position she has him in.

Adrien: But, uh, Cosmobug?  Can I sit up please?

Cosmobug: Waaahh...?

Adrien: I don't mind being like this!  But I think I fell on something pointy...?

Cosmobug jolts up and flings the knife straight behind her.  Adrien holds up his hands and tries to laugh off his situation.

Cosmobug: Eep!  Sorry!  I didn't mean—!

Adrien: It's fine!  No harm done!

Cosmobug: It's not all fine!

Adrien leans into Cosmobug’s touch as she caresses his cheek, wiping her thumb at the tears that have started forming in his eyes.  With her other hand, she points her fingers towards the bruise on his neck, stopping short of touching it.

Cosmobug: I can't bear the thought of you getting hurt, Adrien.  Whatever you've been through?  You didn't deserve it.  None of your suffering was okay.  Which is why I refuse to let it happen again.

Cosmobug holds up her hands theatrically as she starts dreaming up the perfect plan.  Adrien is shown from behind, expression unseen.

Cosmobug: I'll personally see to it that you have someone who cares about you by your side 24/7, so you'll be completely safe!  I know you have some amazing friends who would do anything for you!

Adrien (talked over): Cosmobug, I don't think I—

Cosmobug: And since I know it can be hard to ask people for help, I'll ask them for you!

Cosmobug smiles and raises her hand towards her earring as it starts beeping loudly.

Cosmobug: I just know Marinette would love to—

Adrien (talked over): Really, I—

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Cosmobug: Sorry!  I'm about to detransform!  Be right back!

Cosmobug hovers off the edge of the cliff, giving a wave and a thumbs up.  Adrien kneels, reaching his finger towards the ring he stashed through the hole in his shoe.

Cosmobug: The end is in sight!  Just sit tight for a second and you'll be home free!

Marinette, all starry-eyed, touches the sides of her face in glee.  Tikki is mostly focused on eating the space power up cookie.

Marinette: Adrien's here, Tikki!  Thank you thank you thank you for giving me that Lucky Charm!  It led me right to him!

Tikki: Lucky Charms are more the universe providing you what you need than me...

Marinette: Close enough!  If it weren't for you, I'd still be powerless to help Adrien.  But now I can protect him!

Tikki, halfway through her cookie, looks away uneasily.

Tikki: Aren't you forgetting to ask Adrien what he wants?

Marinette: I know what he wants: to be with the people he cares about.  His friends are all dying to help, so we'll be perfect for giving Adrien everything he needs to feel that he's safely home!

Tikki: I guess... but maybe you should first make sure that your other friend gets home too?

Marinette grabs the side of her head in distress at the reminder.

Marinette: I FORGOT ALL ABOUT KAGAMI!

Somewhere in the trees at the bottom of the cliff, Cosmobug finds Kagami and waves to her.  Kagami shows Cosmobug the knife she found.

Cosmobug: Hey, Kagami!  I totally didn't forget to come get you!  I've just got a... surprise for you!

Kagami: Was the surprise this knife that almost hit me in the head?

Cosmobug: No!  I mean... The real surprise is going to be much better than a knife, ha ha!  Let me show you!

Cosmobug, having picked up Kagami to bring her to the clearing at the top of the cliff, gestures in front of them cheerfully.  Kagami looks confused.

Cosmobug: Tada!

Kagami: ...I am confused.  There seems to be nothing here?

Cosmobug turns her head in shock.

Cosmobug: What?  No!

Cosmobug kneels prone on the ground of the empty clearing, Kagami watching from behind at the cliff’s edge.

Cosmobug: Adrien was right here...  He was...

Below is the same image as above, only without text: