#like.. i gotta set up an entire backstory now but i love it.. so much that im willingto...

[noxx-33i]

Guess whos the biggest little shit in the house hold

Always set your cats as alarm clocks

[liveontelevision]

Redemption Pt.2 | Lucifer x Reader

I'm kind of having a hard time getting motivation to write if anyone has any Luci prompts they wanna drop in my asks 👀

But for now, here's some more angsty fluffy slow burn Luci for y'all

(Check out Redemption Pt.1!)

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It's been an.. awkward... few weeks. You kissed Lucifer. You kissed the king of Hell, who you've known for almost 2 decades, your boss and best friend. If that information didn't overwhelm your brain enough, he's managed to make you doubt Redemption. Still undecided, you began to fear the outcome of just disappearing without getting to make a decision. Without saying goodbye.

Even with your mental disaray, Business went on as usual. You did your routine paperwork and helped out with anything Charlie needed. Lucifer wasn't asking much of you these days. You assumed the best of him. Maybe he was just too busy. Or maybe he was avoiding you. You shook the frightful thought out of your head only to suddenly be hit with the memory of Lucifer looking so lovely with your lipgloss all over his face and neck. Damned man has taken over your entire brain.

Charlie would often ask you to help with touring, partnering in exercises, or helping new residents set up. You didn't really consider how much free time you'd have without seeing Lucifer as much as you usually do. Some days, you did at least walk by him in passing. You would smile at him, maybe say good morning or hello, and he would do the same. Like strangers. His smile was always sweet in the past, but these had a sense of disparity behind them. You couldn't confide in your dearest friend, and your paranoia got the better of when considering going to others. But you needed another opinion.

"Well, shit! Good for you toots! That all tracks, Luci's clearly a bottom." Angel laid on his stomach, kicking his long legs in the air like some gossiping teen. You just needed some advice on redemption, but you ended up spilling out the entire interaction. You sat at his vanity, your arms crossed over your chest. "Angel, please. What do you think about redemption? You've been here longer than anyone, don't you.. worry..? About never seeing anyone here again?" Angel looked down for a moment before swinging his legs around and sitting at the edge of his bed. He pat the spot next to him, and you quickly took a seat by his side. He gripped the edge of his bed and hunched over his torso, propping himself up by his elbows with his upper set of limbs. "Actually? I'm terrified. I've been here for 70s years, kid. This is basically all I know now. I had a family, a buncha siblings, and a whole backstory n shit, but.." He spoke softly, his voice cracking at the mention of his biological family." I barely think of 'em. Even with Val up my ass, I think of this as my home now. Charlie and Vaggie, even Alastor - and.. Husk." He swooned, without even realizing, at his own words." I think you gotta want redemption, babes. Maybe that's why i'm still here. I dunno." He placed a hand on your shoulder and sent a sympathetic smile. The tender care you hadn't received in so long was too much. You sniffled a bit and let your head fall onto his shoulder. "I don't know what to do, Angel... " He rubbed your arm that had traveled around your shoulders as you attempted to slow your shakey brrath.

Lucifer did what he always did when he was stressed. He created. Frustration seemed to be a common inspiration for his.. hobby. He filled his office to the brim with ducks, each with a fun little feature that he came up with spur of the moment. Without acknowledging it, he did leave your desk clear. Like he was waiting for you to suddenly appear there, all neat and tidy. A glimmer of relief in the pool of chaos his life had become. This went on for days.

He was rarely a participant at the bar, alcohol was just another reminder of the wrecklessness that could occur with free will. But fuck, he needed a drink. Making sure it was far too late, to avoid any unexpected interactions, he went down to the lobby. Still looking dishoveled and exhuasted, he prayed that no one would be down there, to see the king of hell looking to get sloshed at 3 in the morning.

To his luck, it was empty. The lights were almost all off, but the lobby was still filled with the red glow of Pentagram city just down the hill. Letting out a sigh of relief, Lucifer steps behind the bar, struggling to read any labels without a set light. That didn't stop him one bit,, randomly taking a bottle and drinking whatever was inside. It didn't taste good, but his head finally seemed to forget your face for a moment. He'll realize how horrifying that felt in the morning.

Looking for another drink that didnt burn his throat, he continued to sort through the drinks without any clear light source. Letting out a frustrated scoff, he flung a handful of golden flames behind him, attempting to light a display of candles that sat at the bar counter for decor.

"Fuck - !"

The sudden voice that came from behind made him drop whatever drink he had in his hand. It shattered, the sound echoing through the cleanliness of the new lobby. He turned his body around way too fast, only managing to focus on your face after a few dizzying moments. You hold onto the top of your arm, a clean burn swiped right across your skin. His eyes were darting across the room, seeing only half of the candles lit, your sudden appearance and newly burned flesh, and a small flame forming on the top of the couch across the room.

Despite his dizzying mind, he snapped his fingers, planning to at least stop the couch from burning the whole place down. In this attempt, he managed to sinch all three flames, the room suddenly being plunged into a darkness that you both had to adjust to. Lucifer's overwhelmed senses made him stumble, clutching onto the edge of the counter and holding his spinning head in his hand. Everything he's felt for the past few weeks and the guilt of causing you any harm finally hit him.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck - I'm sorry, i'm sorry..!" He wailed out, almost at the brink of tears. He gasped for air, his chest heavong. He could barely feel your hand brush across his back and start to rub it soothingly. He hitched his breath, doing his best to calm himself from this little attack. You had rounded the bar, your back leaning against the counter. standing at his side, you ran your fingers lightly across his back, starting to trace along his tense muscles. It was the smallest affection, yet he shuttered before feeling his unbalanced body relax, then began to sway in your direction.

"I'm okay, Lucifer..! I-I barely felt it! You're freaking yourself out, just try and - " his body finally hit yours after a stumble, his shoulder falling into your chest and knocking the air from your lungs. You shifted your postion to brace him from behind, his back now flush against your chest as you leaned both of your weight onto the counter.

You did your best to keep a clear mind, but seeing your beloved friend in this state did nothing but make you panic. Your friend.. that's what he'll always be at the end of this. Your friend who you've known since you died, who took you in without ever considering you'd grow this close. Your friend, who's created an incredibly difficult decision for you to make.

"Sweetheart, I'm s-sorry! I never meant to scare you off! I-I'm so scared to lose you - I can't imagine my days without you, love, I need you -" you shushed him, needing to cool your absolutely heated face at his words, but also to keep anyone else from seeing this display. You ushered him to the front of the building and out the front doors.

Despite it being Hell, there was a light breeze that hit the both of you with a relief. Lucifer stumbled onto the nearest wall, finally releasing his face to adjust his eyes to the sudden change of setting.

Blinking slowly, he took in your appearance much longer than anticipated. You wore a comfortable baby blue slip that loosley hung over your figure. He surely wouldve taken the time appreciate your figure if you didnt have a a blanket bunched around your entirety. He did his best to not look disapointed, but failed miserably. You couldnt help but smile at his poor display of affection.

You took a hold onto Lucifer's clammy hands, making him turn redder than he was before from embarrassment. He took a moment to meet your eyes, something he hadnt done in days at this point.

"Come with me?" You spoke so neutrally, a clear tone that seemed to calm his thoughts. He simply nodded, allowing you to lead his staggering body around to the side of the building. It was a bit of a hike, but the brisk air and the movement seemed to settle Lucifer's high. That being said, he still kept his arm around your shoulders for balance.

Upon arrival, the sight was enough to startle him, a small walkthrough garden sprouting from the side of the building. It was lush with Hell's native fiolage, flowers and vines with dangerous looking thorns and teeth growing from them. The purples and reds growing from the fenced off border and the small iron table and bench that sat in the center just underneath an arch with flowers intermingled, it all looked so innocent.

"Wh-hhow.. what is this?" He managed to ask, looking over at you as you continued to lead him through the garden.  "I'm actually not sure. I don't remember seeing it in any blueprints when we redid the hotel, but i went for a walk and saw it here. Someone else must've put it together." You weren't sure if he was able to process that information, but you led him to sit on the bench with a thud. His body fell limp, hitting his head on the back of the frame with a ting.

You simply sat beside him for a moment in a bliss silence. It was comforting, despite all the previously chaos the two of you just went through.

"I should be scoldering you, sir. You haven't been drunk in years and last time you did - "

"Lillith. It was after she left, I know.." you only meant to call out how poorly he handled his liquor in the past, but it made your heart ache hearing him make that connection.

You let out an awkward agreement and continued to sit in silence for another moment longer. Lucifer finally let his head fall onto your shoulder and a sigh of relief escaped his lips, as you felt the heat coming off of his body.

"How'd you find this place? It's nice." He said softly, his voice raspy and wavering." I've been using it to escape.. to think." You said in an equally soft tone, unsure of his mental state at this point. You discovered this little hidden gem while desperately looking for air, struggling through one of your own panic attacks. Once you saw it the first time, it almost became a nightly routine. The walk to it was always clear from other demons, and passing Lucifer's giant pentagram in front of the hotel gave you a sense of comfort and protection. You felt him shift slightly, he pulled the blanket away from your arm and held it up lightly to inspect the burn that you had nearly forgotten about. His hands flinched for a moment, letting out a quiet hiss. He could've simply snapped his fingers or waited for your demonic body to heal itself, but instead he lightly ran his thumb across the entirety of the wound. As he pressed into your arm, you noticed the burn mark simply disapear behind his hands. You let out a satisified hum. It was always so interesting to see him use his powers, you rarely got to see him in action.

"I think - to be redeemed, you have to accept it. To be absolutely sure it's what you want. That's what angel thinks, at least." You wanted to ask why he was out of his room at three in the morning, getting drunk and why he was avoiding you for days. But you knew why.

"I still don't really know, Lucifer. I don't know what I want.. but I need you right now. I can't lose you because of t-this.." You admitted, your voice cracking slightly at your own words.

You fretted this conversation. You worried about how he would react to any answer that wasn't I'm staying with you forever! Forget redemption!

As your breath began to pick up, you watched lucifer stand, his back facing you for a moment. It made your heart drop, rushing to the conclusion that he'd leave you there alone. To your surpise, he makes a smooth motion of turning to sit in front of you on the ground, holding gently onto your calf that he pulled from the blanket. You jumped at the small touch. Turning beat red, your mind inappropriately jumped to conclusions.

"U-Uhm - Lucifer.." you called out his name as if you had any idea what to say in this moment, with him at your knees holding you so tenderly.

"You've done so much for me, love." He planted a small kiss right below your knee. "I promise I'll do anything in my power to keep you happy and safe while you're in Hell." He paused in between words, to move his small kisses up your leg." No matter how long that will be."

He's much bolder with drinks, you thought. That aside, you couldn't help but feel small tears well up in your eyes, a combination of relief and embarrasment washing over you. "Really..?" You asked so quietly, it was as if you were still worried about the answer.

He nodded with a sleepy smile, resting his head on your knee. In need of any type of comfort, you carefuly reached for his head, brushing your fingers through his dishoveled locks. He shut his eyes, letting out a sweet purr at every touch. What a strange effect he had on you. Your heart was racing, yet its mever felt lighter. Your mind, still full of dreaded thoughts, only occupied his relaxed expression in this moment. Your face was red with embarrassment of this treatment, but you were ready to beg him to keep touching you this way.

You placed your finger under Lucifer's chin and guided him upwards, making him stretch to his knees and place both his hands on either side of you. You hesitated in front of his lips for a moment. His breath was so steady, and feeling the pulse through his throat, his heart seemed to beat much slower than yours in this moment. You gulped, more nervous than before, before meeting his lips with yours. Your kiss was tender, yet it hinted at a longing for something more. He decided to take the lead, compared to last time, his hands moving up to cup your cheeks and wipe any of the wet streaks that had stained your skin previously.

Tilting his head to invite himself into your mouth, your breath hitched at the energy he seemed to eminate. He stands for a moment, then places a knee beside you, moving his hands to either side of you and caging you in by holding onto the back of the bench. This upper hand that he suddenly had made you squirm a bit, letting out a nervous yelp into his lips. You felt his smile at the sound of your voice, making you turn impossibly red. After pulling away for air that you didnt realize you needed until then, he pressed his forehead against yours and let out a sweet hum.

As he went back in for more, the breath that hit your lips reaked of alcohol. That was enough to snap you back into reality. As he reached down, you planted your hands firmly on his chest, a serious intent, even with your eyes being glazed over as much as they were. "Come to bed with me, Luci. Just to sleep, alright? It's been a long night." You said softly, running your hands up and down his curves despite your intentions of not taking advantage of him any more than you've already done. You felt his skin crawl, his breath finally speeding a bit, a more nervous side of him that you were used to coming out. Maybe it was the idea of sleeping beside you, or him overthinking the invitation. Or maybe the newfound nickname was just too much for his drunken mind to handle. He quickly nods, making you pull the blanket back up around your shoulders and lead Lucifer back inside.

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You take him into his bedroom, which you've rarily seen since you moved to the hotel. It wasnt as large and regal as the one in his previous residency, but it still was much grander compared to yours. His colour scheme matched the rest if the hotel, rich reds and purples. Most of the room was filled with the bed that sat on a slightly elevated platform and hit the cieling with a canopy that adorned silky drapes. A bed truly fit for a king, was unmade and unkept. Blankets were thrown about and the pillows were scattered in various places. The room was slightly cluttered, a few stray ducks that you recognized from his office making their way into his room like muddy footprints.

Lucifer stumbled his way into his room, immediately pulling his shirt off over his head, letting out a groan and letting his body cool down as he started to remove his boots. You couldn't help but stare, no matter how hard you tried to avoid it. You turned your body to the side, covering your eyes with the side of your hand. You manuevered your way around him and plopped onto the edge of the bed. You nearly sunk in with how plush the blanketing and mattress was. Still keeping your head lowered to avoid peeking, you curled up into your own blanket.

Feeling the mattress barely shift, you quicklly looked up to see Lucifer crawling his way towards the head of the bed. He barely changed, just managing to throw on a more casual pair of pants that you recognized seeing on the floor when you first walked in. His still bare chest left you abolutely flustered. His porcelain skin had shifted to a pink hue where he had gotten too cold. He immediately pulled his large blankets over his body and relaxed to the point where you assumed he had fallen asleep immediately. You listened to his steady breath for a moment, a comfortable silence in your mind, then rose to your feet, ready to shuffle out of the room.

"Noo, come back - " he groaned. It wasnt intimate or distressed, he sounded like a damned child. You rolled your eyes, unconciously smiling and crawling a comfortable distance from him on the other side of the bed, an easy task considering the size of it. You thought it best to keep your hands to yourself, so you curled up into the blankets with a comfortable wiggle to situate yourself.

Lucifer slightly opened his half lidded eyes, seeing you coccooned in his blankets, nuzzling your head into his pillows. He would pray for this to be the last and first thing he saw everyday. He closed the distance, pulling you into his chest and intertwining your legs in an attempt to be closer. His skin was incredibly soft, smooth and still warm to the touch under your cold hands that snaked around his waist. You felt him nuzzling your head, taking in a deep breath and resting his chin atop it. How was he so calm right now? This is a completely different side of Lucifer that you've yet to see. And certainly werent expecting to see any time soon.

This is fine. You'll wait until he's in a deeper sleep and leave before anyone else wakes up! Easy peasy. You just wanted him to get to bed after all.

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[gffa]

The absolute worst thing about Batman comics is that trying to just lay the groundwork instead of having a single good starting point, is kind of a nightmare.  Like, I have to explain the mindset going into them! I have to explain that stuff doesn't always "count" as a canon!  I have to explain the different continuities and constant retcons! The thing about DC comics is that you can't approach it the way you would another source material, there is no one "true" source, there is no one "true" author of the characters, there is no one "true" canon. There is a central timeline, but it's constantly being rewritten both in-universe and out-of-universe. You have to jump into it accepting that there's no good starting point in terms of reading the story unfolding in sequence. And you have to accept that, even googling "best Batman comics to start with" has a list of comics that kind of made me moan in horror, like noooooooo those comics will not hook you and so many of them are comics that are stand-alones because they're plays on the tropes and established status quo, like The Dark Knight Returns or A Serious House on Serious Earth won't really work unless you're already familiar with Batman stories and also they're absolutely not what fandom will be posting about. I mean, I'm not your mom, you can start there if you want, but I personally think they're pretty difficult places to start. Instead, if you want to get into what the fandom is into (which may be very different than what think pieces write about), instead I think it helps to find someone who knows comics reasonably well, ask them some questions you have about the lay of the land (ie, "So how do these Robins all work? Why are there so many of them?" is a question I answered for a friend recently because I love to talk about this stuff, most comic fans do!) and then get yourself some recs once you have a general idea of who's who and why they're going around as the costume they're in. (You can always ask me, too!  I'm happy to nerd out about helping gain traction with a lot of these things! I may not be able to answer finely detailed questions yet, but I can give you a bird's eye view that'll get you on your feet, too.) You'll also want to get an idea of what era you want to read in, because there's this thing called the "New 52" (or Nu52) and it's kind of a line in the sand, a "before" and "after" that's helpful to keep in mind whether or not something "happened" to the character. So, in 2011, after many many decades of convoluted comics history, DC decided that they wanted to completely reboot their entire universe so that new readers could jump on and not have to read a thousand backissues from the 70s and 80s or earlier.  All existing books were cancelled and an all new lineup of 52 different comic series were announced--hence, Nu52. In theory, an idea with potential! The problem was that they gave too much free reign to the creators and not nearly enough collaboration, so nobody knew what was still part of a character’s backstory and nobody knew what anyone else was writing. And it cut out a lot of elements of the stories that people were really invested in, so despite the initial splash it made, sales slowly dropped and dropped because people just didn’t care. So, what does DC do?  Basically, since then they’ve had company-wide events that have been slowly chipping away at the divide between the “before” the Nu52 and the current storyline, that they’ve had multiverse-level events that have absorbed some of people’s favorite stuff back into the storyline, so some stuff now has happened again. And that makes it extremely confusing to just pick up an issue of a comic and know whether something “counts” or not, so you kind of just have to roll with things and understand that there is no one “true” canon set of events, it’s constantly shifting, and you just gotta read for the things you enjoyed reading. That’s kind of a high bar for entry and I hope this isn’t scaring you off, it’s genuinely an attempt to explain the lay of the land so you know what to expect when you pick something up and can enjoy it for what it is!  Once you get a feel for the set-up, I think it’s really easy to just pick up any comic at any time and start reading! I’m assuming there’s a fair amount of basic cultural osmosis for Batman, but if anyone needs a 101 course, let me know!  In the meantime, this list of recommendations will assume that you’re familiar with things like, “Dick Grayson is the first Robin after his parents are murdered, but eventually Bruce fires him because Dick got shot by the Joker, then eventually he became Nightwing and now he and Bruce have a complicated but generally good relationship, nobody holds the family together like Dick Grayson does.” or “Jason Todd was the second Robin and he died, but then Superboy Prime punched reality so hard that Jason was jolted back to life (or at least that’s the version I go with, I don’t care for the one where Talia dug up his lifeless body) and he was real mad about it for awhile but he’s getting better” or “Tim Drake was the cutest super genius stalker who ever was and he’s got his issues but also I love him DC LET HIM KISS CONNER YOU COWARDS” or “Damian was raised by his mother in the League of Assassins and that fucked baby bird up pretty good until Dick took Damian under his wing to be the Robin to his Batman for awhile and showed him that Damian didn’t have to prove himself to be worthy of being loved, he was loved just because he was Damian, not because he was a Wayne or an al Ghul, and the others are coming around, but those two will always be the most special to each other”. Some good places to start imo: (Note:  Pay attention to year numbers and authors, because many of these titles have earlier runs that are not the ones I’m recommending as good starting points!) - Robin & Batman (2021) by Jeff Lemire, a three-issue mini series set during the early days of Dick’s training, when he and Bruce are still getting the hang of understanding each other, featuring some truly gut-wrenching emotional moments and absolutely stunning art. - World’s Finest 2022-current by Mark Waid, an on-going series of Batman and Superman working together and being friends, the current volume is set during the young-ish days of Dick being Robin and it’s utter joy so far, so many good moments of Dick and Clark bonding by being the most annoying people Bruce has ever had to work with. - Robins: Being Robin by Tim Seeley, a mini-series where the various Robins (Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, and Damian) are all working together on a case that’s tied up in the story of the role of Robin, featuring some top-tier sibling dynamics that had me howling with how much I love these idiots and a story I genuinely liked. - Nightwing vol 4 2016-current, started by Tim Seely, currently by Tom Taylor, which skips over a lot of the timeline, but I think it’s a better starting place.  Dick’s solo title is usually pretty entertaining for me (and I do like the previous volume, from 2011-2014, but I think the 2016 one is a better starting place) and is has some absolutely gorgeous art and a good amount of Dick working with other superheroes that are friends and/or family.  The writing is fun, charismatic, and just a good ride.  (The wiki has a list of trade paperback collections with their titles to read them in story chunks instead of flinging yourself at individual issues.)  You can also start with “Leaping into the Light” if you want to read something more current and skip over some of the middle issues that are a bit of a slog.  (The 50s to the 70s are not the greatest time on this run.) - “Court of Owls” and “City of Owls” by Scott Snyder are from across various Bat-related titles (like Batman and Nightwing and Batgirl and such) and you can find the two collections/tpbs under the quoted titles.  I’m currently reading this one so I can’t comment on the whole thing, but I’m enjoying the interaction between all the various Bat-family members immensely and it has a really strong story at the center of it, and it’s just a solid place to start for stories in this universe, rather than just characters. - “Batman and the Night of the Monster Men” by various authors is another tpb with a self-contained story that’s kind of wild (comic book logic is basically “Wheeeeee!”) but had some excellent Batfamily interactions and some fun fights against giant monsters, and was an all-around self-contained good time. - “Batman: Cold Days” by Tom King (from the Batman series) is probably a bit of a controversial rec, I know so many people who dislike King’s writing, but I had an amazing time with this book, because it’s the lead-up to Dick getting shot in the head, so there’s extra emphasis on his interactions with Bruce, to really rub salt in the wound of how necessary this kid is to Bruce’s life.  Only background context you really need is: Bruce and his long-time love interest Selina were about to finally get married, but she stood him up at the altar for various reasons, and he’s in a dark place because of this.  Dick comes along to annoy Bruce into a better mood, but one of Batman’s villains is trying to destabilize him so that he can take over Gotham and Nightwing is fucking up his plans by making Batman too stable, so he has KGBeast shoot Nightwing in the head (which will lead to Dick’s amnesia arc, which is not the greatest time for us readers), and the emotional stuff of it was great.  Includes flashbacks to Dick’s early days in Wayne Manor that were really good for me.  (I also enjoyed “Batman: The Rules of Engagement” by the same author, set just before Bruce and Selina’s marriage, it’s the run up to it, and it had a lot of great family interaction stuff, including Selina’s take on how she loves Bruce in a way that really sold it for me.) And a final semi-rec:  While the characterizations might differ a little and the dynamics aren’t a 1:1 match for the comics, the Young Justice animated series from 2010 was a lot of fun, included some great characters, had some genuinely good stories, and you can actually watch it in order!

[starreo]

not trying to be rude at all, im a fan and a follower...but i didn't focus too much on yuri, just thought he was a background character, playing the same siscon role that almost every anime seems to have...sorry but can you give me a brief maybe? of your pov? cause most people seem to hate him

hey hey,, no my lovely it's completely okay, don't apologize :3

the central idea of yuri briar is that he's here just for comedic relief, and obviously, he's such a siscon and this and that, right?

and i don't blame people for thinking that in their minds, because of the way the animators and some of the writing board seem to set him up...

even endo, had said that, he just wanted yuri to be a sweet little brother people would adore, but the writers made him like this, and well, you know.

anyway, even with this personality, his character's backstory provides a lot of justification to his behavior,, like sure, at first he might seem like the comedic relief type of character, who's inappropriately in love with his sister, but actually, it's not like that at all...

in the anime, they've sort of butchered his character more,, from the changing of the lily bouquet for his sister to the rose one, and then obviously the little translation mistakes here and there.

now, let's just get to the point.

in the scene where yuri calls yor and talks about the party, he asks her if she wants him to introduce her to someone, and tbh he seems very genuine with it.

in the scene where he's meeting loid for the first time, he tells yor he can't just accept this marriage. which is so fair, because imagine your literal blood, someone you grew up with, the only person you've really ever known, gets married, and then doesn't tell you for an entire year. like, that's gotta make you upset and question things right?

i do agree, that his attachment and his admiration and obsession towards his sister is unhealthy, but hey, at least give him a second. understand his perspective right? he was just a boy, who lost both his parents to a war and grew up with his sister being the only one who went above and beyond to get him basic essentials.

and, obviously, you'd love your sibling if you were in this situation right?

so it's just that he's not really yet grasped how to normally love yor,, now this doesn't really mean that he loves her abnormally lol.

im sure that the writers will continue to develop his character as the manga continues. he's already developed a lot, and while the overly obsessed brother trope is quite funny and well-used, especially in this manga,, i still believe he has more of a personality then they show us.

and the only thing annoying is that people seem to judge him and then make posts about how he's just so creepy and weird,, which proves that they've obviously not paid enough attention to his character details to understand the reasons behind it yknow?

anyway.

...

[riftdancing]

I'm insane but on my toes I could keep the world balanced on my nose I had a slumber party wit' all my foes Now I wear them like a badge of honor on my clothes

If I'm crazy, I'm on my own If I'm waitin', it's on my throne If I sound lazy, just ignore my tone 'Cause I'm always gonna answer when you call my phone...

Where do I start with this woman? At some point on Tumblr I stopped talking about my characters and I want to start breaking that starting with this post. Because I haven't filled most of Tumblr in on this character this is going to come with a little bit of backstory?

I love flavor abilities for characters. Ones that aren't over powered, often shadowed by some sort of weakness or draw back... and Blink's nickname unironically comes from her own flavor ability.

This woman can short range teleport up to three times within a rested cycle. While this potentially has the availability to be incredibly over powered I have always roleplayed it very respectfully. Something my roleplay partners seem to really enjoy about Blink's ability is the fact that it comes with a strong set of consequences.

The first 'blink' is pretty inconsequential. She might feel a very mild bit of fatigue from it, but not enough to hinder her combat prowess.

The second, however, will wind and stop her for a hot moment. She's gotta recover from it a bit, and she will absolutely be feeling a substantial amount of more fatigue.

The third is a last ditch effort. Rarely has anyone pushed her to this state. This is a fight or flight response, most commonly used as flight- but I have seen her use it once for the sake of combat to try and land a finishing blow (which, for the record was a preplanned fail). After this charge is spent, she's incapacitated if not knocked out cold entirely. And it usually messes her up for a day or two afterwards. This is a life or death situation use for her.

But it takes a basic understanding of this 'ability' of hers for me to describe where the inspiration for these screenshots comes from, ha.

Blink loves a good free fall. She lives for the sky, and nothing makes her feel at one with it more than a free fall moment. Heights do not scare her. Why? Because more often than not if she's managed her ability right she can blink before she hits the bottom.

The amount of times she's pulled this stunt as a get away has lead it to almost become an art form for her. So much to the point that she's learned how to blink inside of moving ships flying in to 'catch' her. (Though not with some mishaps... oops- ask me about that later if you want. Legitimately. If you're reading this and want to know, shoot me an ask. Its a funny story.)

But just...

A lil cocky half ass salute to the people chasing her, then arms outspread, she just leans back, and suddenly she's gone...

That's my gal. Ex-sky Pirate extraordinaire. sksksksksks.

I love this woman with my whole chest.

[jedifarmerr]

Pepper Sprout (mini-series)

Pairing: Joel Miller x F!Reader/OFC (no physical description, established backstory & personality.)

Premise: Set after the events of the Last of Us Part 1, Joel befriends, then slowly falls in love with Ellie’s teacher.

Rating: E for future chapters (18+ blog)

Word Count: 2.5k

Warnings: some violence at the beginning (guns and blood), language, a tiny amount of drinking, and ambiguous age gap. This is pretty tame...for now.

A/N: Hello! I thought of this series a few months ago while playing the game and I am seriously so excited to finally be sharing it. Currently, this is shaping up to be around 5 or 6 parts? This will include some spoilers (the ending) of The Last of Us Part 1. Reader is related to a character from the Last of Us Part 2, but it's a faceless NPC.

Part 1

The air stunk of dry-rot wood, spoiled food, and flesh. He could practically taste it as if it was sitting on his tongue like a wet fuzzy sock. 

Joel was hanging back by the host stand, scanning from salad bar to sundae bar. Finger hovering over the trigger. This fight wasn’t over. 

Not yet, anyway. 

He’d dealt with enough infected over the years to know that in a horde of this size there would always be an aftershock. Just waiting and watching; somewhere out there - lingering. 

But where? 

This Golden Corral was a buffet of Cordyceps. A goddamn petri dish. The floor was covered almost entirely in torpor corpses; a dusty gray with sprinkles of crimson from those freshly slain. Florid fungus cobwebbed itself to the walls. 

A crack of glass – a screech – echoed throughout the restaurant. 

Joel whirled around. Just as the kitchen doors burst open and out flung a spider-crawling stalker. Bingo. Joel jerked his gun, aiming right between its jaundice eyes. The barrel kicked back with a bang, and blew straight through its moldy brain. 

Splat. 

Its head broke into tiny bits and pieces; blood gushing from the severed neck. 

Never one to be too careful, Joel waited a long minute before slinging the shotgun around his back, calling it. 

He took a step and immediately winced. His knees were inflamed to the point he could hardly walk. Hobbling to the nearest chair that wasn’t wrapped up in bone-dry veins, he slumped down. 

“That was too damn close,” he grumbled at Tommy as he went on massaging his achy joints. Despite the cool weather, he was drenched in sweat. His shirt was completely ruined – soaked through and through with guts. 

So much for a day off, and one he could’ve really used. He was completely exhausted. Running on pure adrenaline, and one too many shitty cups of coffee. 

The last three weeks had been intense with fall officially here, and the infected beginning their official migration north for winter. 

Tommy swaggered over. “11…12…13. 13 of those fuckers, and look at that - barely a scratch. Shit, that’s gotta be some kinda record.” He brought a hand down on Joel’s shoulder and squeezed. 

Even with blood smeared along his brow and sweat-greased back hair, Tommy looked unfazed. He actually appeared elated, reveling at the carnage and their ultimate victory. 

And fine. Joel could at least admit this was a pretty solid win. 

Too bad the bodies still needed to be searched, and god - he was so desperate to get out of here. He gave himself ten second of rest before forcing himself back onto his feet. 

“Mike’s gonna be sorry he missed it.” Tommy crouched beside a clicker with a shiv sticking out of its neck. He wiggled the handle loose, and blood oozed from the wound. 

But hey - at least the blade was still intact. 

“Yeah, right,” Joel scoffed. “That guy owes us big time - that’s for damn sure,” he reiterated for the dozenth time that day. 

It was a Tuesday, meaning the on duty patrol for this route was Mike and Eugene. Now, Eugene was actually sick with a nasty case of the flu. So, he could slide, but Mike. Hell no. His excuse was, now get this - his ankle was bothering him. 

His goddamn ankle. 

While it was probably an old injury flaring up from days of chilly rain, the guy decided it exempted him from the patrol, reciting some bullshit he’d memorized from the handbook. 

Seriously, who wastes their time reading that? 

Section four of protocol states…blah blah blah. What a fucking nerd. Joel couldn’t stand him before, and this definitely didn’t help. 

“Lucky for you, he won’t be joining us for dinner,” Tommy said, as he jingled a few shotgun shells loose from the last in his pile. “Ellie did tell you who’s coming, right?” 

Joel flicked his tongue over his lips, and chuckled under his breath. Man, he really should’ve seen that one coming because knowing Tommy: he’d been waiting all day for the chance to slip her in. 

Maria and Tommy had been playing cupid, and recently landed on a new target. 

Mike’s younger sister, who just so happened to be Ellie’s teacher, and also, a family-friend of Maria’s. It was all a very twisty hodunk small town over here. 

“She sure did,” Joel stated. Matter-of-fact. He couldn’t feed the beast, or else it would never end. 

Joel checked over the last runner, and pocketed a travel-size bottle of hand sanitizer. Some good that did them. 

“And you’re cool with that?” Tommy trailed over to the busted window they came in from. His eyes wide and bright and full of ulterior-motives. 

Joel curtly nodded befor climbing on through. 

“Guessin’ you would be.” Tommy tapped his fingers against the gun at his side. Joel stared down the end of the street at the McDonald’s; the horses were safely holed up in the Playplace: tied to a support beam for the windy slide. “Thought I remember, you saying you liked her, like as a person.” 

“I barely know her,” Joel shot the conversation dead. 

He was just telling the truth. The bulk of what he knew came from Tommy and Ellie and whatever people around town said. Always good things. She was like this patron saint of Jackson. Mother fucking Teresa.

And who knows? Maybe she was. Joel had hung out with her a whopping three times: two of which ended up being a complete mess. The first one had ended with her doubled over and hurling outside the Tipsy Bison, choking and gagging out apology after apology. She was a lightweight and supposedly, too much sugar made her sick.

Anyway – 

Then, came meet-the-teacher night where he took his turn making a complete ass of himself. It’d been fine until Ellie upped and left to use the bathroom and alone – it was painfully awkward. He’d take the piss for that one. Small talk and pleasantries were never really his forte. 

“Well, I’m not gonna say she would be interested, but-”

“Okay, Tommy,” Joel scrubbed a hand down his face and sighed. “I know where you’re going with this, so before you go on and get any ideas. It’s still a no.” 

Tommy’s expression dipped into a frown. “But what about -” 

Joel held up his hand. “I appreciate it, but I’m just not interested,” Joel let him down easily, but the assurance in his tone left little room for an argument. 

Tommy opened his mouth, but quickly clamped it shut. He huffed – defeated. Once again. That was his fifth reject; one for every month Joel had lived here. 

Despite the outcome always being the same, Tommy just kept trying. No. No. No. Not even a maybe. Not once. Joel had made his stance pretty clear. Scratch that - translucent. Dating was out; marriage was a hell no. It’s not like his first go-around had been anything to write home about, clearly. 

What a crapshoot. 

Joel viewed relationships differently than Tommy. His little brother was sickly in love, and good for him, but Joel thought the whole thing was nothing more than another liability. 

Why would he risk it? 

If he’d never been any good at them in the first place. It always seemed to be the wrong place or wrong time or too late. He’d never been able to get it right, so it was just better off this way. 

He was better off this way

---

Cleaned up and rested; later that evening, the five of them gathered at Maria and Tommy’s for dinner: roasted meat and rosemary potatoes. Served family-style, just like her mother used to do. 

Rory wasn’t here to babble away like usual as he was staying the night at his grandpa’s. 

The conversation was otherwise nothing special, mostly centered around the newbies in town. Some whispers about Jackson had spread south, and what had once been three hundred had steadily grown to around four or five. More would probably come spring.

Joel slugged back his beer, and stole a glance at the woman beside him.

She was attractive, and being this close, in this light, he could appreciate her features even more. She was inches from him, and he could smell her perfume? Soap? It was real nice. Fresh and clean and soft and as sweet as her famous nickname. 

Lolly. 

A childhood nickname that stuck to her like glue. 

When he’d first heard it, he’d expected some young girl, barely 18 to be sitting at the bar top. 

Not…her; a full-fledged woman. 

Sure, she was younger than him, but not by enough to make his stomach curl with cradle-robber shame whenever his gaze lingered for just a moment too long. 

Like now. 

Joel shook his head, and focused on Ellie, talking about school, and her extreme dislike for their most recent unit. 

While school wasn’t mandatory, all the kids enjoyed going. It was only three times a week, and half-days with all age groups coming together on Friday. Younger kids still learned how to read and do basic math, but at Ellie’s age, it was mostly job and life skills. Sometimes people would come and speak about their occupation, other days they learned how to read a map and purify water or currently – sewing. 

“Laugh all you want, I almost lost a finger.” Ellie flashed the band-aid on her pointer as proof. Lolly looked slightly guilty, even as she giggled. 

“Well, not everyone can be as talented as Lolly over here,” Maria boasted, pointing to Lolly’s little dress. “Let me guess, you made that yourself?” 

Lolly’s chewing slowed as she squinted at Maria. She was no dummy; it’d taken her all but a few seconds to sniff out the set up. 

She swallowed. “No, actually. This is one Mike brought back from that boutique in the square. I just added a little material here and there, so it would fit.”

Joel’s gaze traveled over the dress, following the flick of her wrist. It was a rusty orange number with big sleeves that reminded him of the 70’s. Even though it was completely impractical, it was also hauntingly cute. 

“Still impressive,” Maria insisted, and Lolly clicked her tongue - not playing along. 

A moment of silence followed: amplified by the scratch of silverware on porcelain. 

“Joel and I had a pretty eventful day, ain’t that right?” Tommy perked up, spearing a cherry tomato on his fork, and popping it into his mouth.

Great, now it was his turn to be buttered up. 

“Oh. Trust me, I’ve heard. Everyone in town won’t shut up about it. They keep saying you might be the best patrol we’ve ever had.” A teensy smile teased her lips, and Joel’s tongue immediately became dry toast. 

 Joel gulped, and waved off her minuscule praise. “Oh, no. It was nothing-”

“Nothing?” Ellie snorted. “Psssh. Sure smelled like something to me.” Ellie wrinkled her nose and shooed away the residual stench. 

Goddamn kids and their honesty. At least, Ellie didn’t mention finding him sprawled out on the couch with enough ice packs to drown each leg. 

Joel leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Really now? You think you can do better, kiddo?” Joel challenged – light-hearted. 

Ellie shrugged – a cocky maybe. 

“Guess we’ll be finding out soon enough - 8 months?” Tommy pointed his fork at her. 

“9.” Ellie glanced at Joel. 

He’d snuck her a few times, and taken her up to the pond for those swimming lessons he promised her. He would surely do it again once it warmed up. 

Ellie looked at Lolly, and her brows wrangled up with some sudden thought. “Have you ever been on patrol?” 

Maria’s head whipped up as fast as a sucker punch. Lolly eye’s widened, but Joel wasn’t sure if it was Maria’s reaction or the seemingly innocent question itself that caused her to react, but then neither of them said a word. 

Joel wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on. He looked at Ellie, then his brother, but Tommy looked just as confused as them. 

Lolly must’ve noticed the regret creeping up on Ellie’s face, since she immediately offered her a small grin. 

“Believe it or not,” she said, “I used to go all the time.” 

Joel blinked back. What? When? 

He’d never seen her name listed in a single log book, and those dated back almost 10 years. Give or take. 

While Joel had only been here around six months, he’d never heard anyone talk about it, or anyone ever stopping patrol so young. Most people kept going until they either couldn’t or died. Eugene was like, 70? And he was still out there a couple times a week. 

Nobody said anything for a long minute; the silence sat heavy and tense and uncomfortable. 

Maria clapped her hands, “Anyone want dessert?” 

---

Fluffy chocolate mousse was the answer as the conversation returned to idle nothingness until it was time to go. 

While putting on their coats, Tommy offered they walk her home because the streets of Jackson were crawling with crime and all. She’d brushed it off at first, but Ellie insisted.

Turns out, Lolly knew a thing or two hundred on constellations and Ellie used the walk to pick her brain. Joel trailed a step behind them, watching Lolly’s finger trace the blanket of stars. 

Lyra. The W – named for some vain queen in Greece. Cassie something or other. Next to it, was her husband. Another C name. Supposedly it looked like a stick figure house, but Joel didn’t see it. 

Still, he listened to the sound of her voice; there was something soothing about it.

Sadly, that peace couldn’t last as Mike was out on the front porch. He was chilling on the small swing, downing a beer as if he knew Joel would end up walking her home. 

“I was wonderin’ when you’d get back.” 

Lolly jumped at the sound of his voice. She’d been so engrossed with Ellie that she’d yet to spot him. 

“Ellie. Joel.” Mike spit his name out like a jagged piece of glass. Oh yeah, the dislike was mutual. 

Joel drawled out Mike’s name; a little friendlier than usual, just to irk him. “How’s the ankle?” He pointed to the hack job wrapping. 

Mike sneered. “Better. Thanks for asking.” 

“What’re you doing out here?” Lolly butted in; the words spoken through a tight, nervous-looking smile. She refused to look directly at him or even Ellie for that matter. 

“It’s a nice night, don’t ya think? Guessin’ it’ll be the last one for a while, so thought I’d enjoy it. By the looks of it, seems as if you two thought the same.” 

Mike glared at Joel with a threat in his eyes: think about touching her and I’ll knock your teeth in. Joel would love to see him try. 

Joel wondered if Mike was always this suffocating. If so, maybe that’s why she was still single because who would want to deal with him? Mike was about to square up with a middle-aged man and a 15-year-old girl for what? Walking his sister home?

His adult sister. Nonetheless. 

Joel didn’t try to understand it. 

Lolly held Mike’s gaze for a moment before turning around with a word. She forced a smile, and it actually looked believable which was slightly concerning.

“Well, uh. Thank you both for walking me home. Ellie, I will see you tomorrow. Joel-” 

Mike cleared his throat and the anger seethed from her pores. She squeezed her eyes shut, so tight she nearly burst. Taking a deep breath, she peered back up at Joel. “It was nice seeing you again.” 

With that, she spun around and bolted up the steps. Mike didn’t seem to give a fuck, rocking back and forth so slow that the rusty screws gave into a haunting squeal. 

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Ellie spoke out of the side of her mouth, waving at Mike while taking a step back, then another. 

“You read my mind.” 

Joel and Ellie booked it down the road. 

Fuck, if he would ever go back there again.

[wolffallsintodanmeihell]

So I was talking to my bf the other night and made this rec eps list for fun. The idea pretty much was like to challenge myself to see if I had to recc someone who was hesitant to watch the entire show due to length and wanted to get a general gist, which eps would I recc for them to get a good feel, esp if they've maybe onIy had prior experience fics/art or want to delve on that but wanted to have an idea of canon first. I llimited myself to 15 eps with 5 extra "reccomended ", my focus being character dev eps and plot stuff like the lead up to reign storm, valerie's plotline, danielle, etc.

To be honest it was kinda hard at points lol, esp since DP is episodic moreso than plot heavy so it's not really like making a list for like a long running battle shonen or something, but hey this was fun to do fndnd.

Also again this is not a "you must follow this or else" type thing, I only did this for fun, I'll even link the tiermaker I used in case someone has their own version and opinions they wanna post as well which I'd honestly love to see.

To explain my reasonings

Req. Tier

Mystery Meat - First ep of the show, get introduced to main cast, set up yada yada

Parental Bonding - Introductuon to Paulina, first ep we get an idea for Sam and Danny's relationship.

What You Want - Tucker only really has two episodes during the show, so at the very least the first one focusing on him would be good to have to delve a bit into him.

Bitter Reunions - First Vlad ep, esp since he's Danny's arch-nemesis would be weird not to get introduced for later on.

My Brother's Keeper - Jazz finding out about Danny's secret, plus I really feel this is a great episode showing their dynanic and getting to learn more of how Jazz is.

Shades of Grey - best character Valerie gets introduced here, so felt it was pretty important to include esp for later on.

Public Enemies - This is the first episode where the status quo is changed and now Amity Park is just generally aware of Danny. Thinking he's an enemy yeah, buttttt still aware of Inviso-Bill i nearly typed in buffalo bill

Maternal Instincts - Danny and Maddie getting screentime together, Vlad's second appearance, and the start of Maddie straight up hating his ass lol.

Memory Blank - Mainly chose this one since it's where we learn how Danny first had the accident, so hey backstory stuff.

Reign Storm - The whole plotline with Vlad and Pariah Dark's ring and crown, more Valerie development, it's a fun episode imo. Too bad this didn't get followed in S3 but-

The Ultimate Enemy - Do I really gotta explain lol, Dan and Clockwork, Danny finding out Jazz knows his secret, etc etc like it's pretty much the episode every reccomends.

Flirting With Disaster - Big development for Valerie showing how she's developed imo, continues the Danny and Valerie stuff from Reign Storm, also again I'm biased towards Valerie lol

Reality Trip - Look I'll just be blunt I fucking love this episode, like it's genuinely my favorite of the three specials. It's a fun adventure, I love the Danny being revealed plot line, it's an exciting watch, could not leave it out.

Kindred Spirits - Danielle introduction plus more Vlad development as well, plus depending on your watch order I think this is counted as the S2 finale?

D-Stabilized - More on Danielle and Valerie's plotlines, and for a general bias honestly find it to be a pretty good episode and if any I'd say are "required" from S3 it would def be this one.

Recc. Tier

These were the most difficult cause there's still a bunch of episodes I'd rec.

Life Lessons - First ep where we see Danny and Valerie learn about each other outside of a negative context, plus pretty funny episode.

King Tuck - Again, Tucker barely gets any episodes so I do think his should be watched. Similar reasons to what I put for "What You Want".

Secret Weapons - First ep post-TUE where we see how Jazz and Danny are now that they're both aware she knows his secret. Get more development between them and more Vlad screentime too.

Eye for an Eye - This was such a hard one to choose between D-Stabilized and it, but I felt the former was more important in the end. Sets up the Vlad becoming mayor plotline that gies throughout S3 and also it's just funny like Vlad really rigged an election over a prank war with a 14 yr old.

Urban Jungle - I'm personally not the biggest fan of this episode, plus it's not really a special despite being advertised as such, but it does introduce the ice powers Danny gets that stays with him till the end so I felt it would be a good one to have listed as well.

Fun fact I actually had an earlier ver that incl. Million Dollar Ghost over Public Enemies, but when I thought about it I felt the latter had more bigger impact than the former simply setting up a plot line that Reign Storm goes more into anyway. Plus I really wanted to include Control Freaks cause it introduces Freak Show but again was limited 😭😭

Also it's very hilarious that for all the villains who's episodes I couldn't include, Desiree got BOTH her episodes in, like damn her impact 🤣

Anyways here's the Tiermaker I used in case someone wants to do their own!

[xryosakeyx]

Anyways, here's some random sketches related to the fic I finally can get around to posting 'cause it's a bunch! (These span from about three months, so yeah...) They don't really lean into heavy spoiler territory, so I thought it'd be safe to post them!

^Blawsth's champ (name's Lucille, if anyone cares...). First sketch is from earlier today and it's supposed to be of him in his youth. If you've read chapter one already, a specific detail that was made was that the Pokémon Ash is looking for pops up every thirty years or so, and let me tell you, a whole bunch of stuff happened within that time lol. The rest of the sketches were made in June, so I haven't drawn him in a good while. His whole thing was that I based him on shock-rockers and his backstory does take influence from that subset of performers. That comic in the last pic kind of gives ypu the idea of it, and that is if you can even read my stupidly tiny handwrit–

Okay, y'know what? Let me decipher it:

JAKE: You don't get it Ash, Lucille was banned from performing 'cause he went overboard!

ASH: Oh, really?

JAKE: That and he's the champ!

PIKACHU, as a tiny blob thing on Ash's shoulder, turning his back away from the camera as he sees a weird goth-thing from the distance: Pi.

JAKE: Ah! There he is, great eyes Pikachu! Lu-cille! Sign my autograph, please!!!

Alright, satisfied?

^Some gym leader stuff. First sketch is supposed to be of a double-battle gym where one specializes in water and the other with fire. Their main motif is that they're supposed to be treasure hunters, so their Pokémon are very agile in combat as they bounce back from one another. I'm still trying to work on their outfits a little, but their masks are supposed to be based on their aces which are (of course) more fakmons! Their names (right to left) are Lenny and Hans.

Second was two sketches I did of the grass specialist, Vendanna, who is an actor known for her stunts. The main challenge in her gym is the various status effects her Pokémon can create (mostly poison), so trainers should watch out!

Third is Lizzie who is supposed to be a ghost specialist. She tends to be very introverted, only popping up whenever the supernatural bells ring, but her Pokémon are the complete opposite and love getting other's nerves. I based her off trad-goth stereotypes because I feel like they're very underespresented in media, but yeah, she's basically Blawsth's personal "witch" and has more knowledge about the card game than most people (still unsatisfied with her boots though...). Also, her ears are pointed 'cause I felt like making them pointy :P

Also, BTW, these won't be the exact order of gym leaders Ash and co. have to deal with, I just felt like sharing them for now!

^Rivals. I unfortunately can't really share much of their story with you guys as their role leans into spoiler territory, so I'll keep it as brief as possible. First is named Cianna and seriously wants to be the The Very Best Like No One Ever Was™. Out of Blawsth of course. Alright, in all seriousness, as a childhood friend who had to move upstate years ago, she hoped to reunite with Miley, who is oddly very evasive towards her, which is quite sad because she never got around to say goodbye to her...And that is as much info I can actually share on the both of them as characters! Alright, onto the next one...

The second is named Urie and oh boy I seriously can not wait to finally introduce him to the story. If you can recognize who I nabbed his color pallete from, congratulations, you're still not really going any relevent story info until I actually write about it. Anyways, all you gotta know about this guy is that he has this smirk you just want to punch and he's annoyling very friendly, surprsingly enough. To an extent (I could only post this single sketch of him though as (A.) I was only going for the color pallet when it came to this set so I couldn't care less about the face... and (B.) I do have an entire page just dedicated to him because he's so absurd of a character to me, but unfortunately it's behind another page filled with sharpie sketches and if you guess anything from the third pic, it likes to bleed through a lot).

Third is Luka and not only is she a coordinator hailing from Unova but she also participates in gym matches as well! She also oddly wants Ash to step away from his companions, for some reason...Yeah, gotta keep things hush-hush, lol. Other than that, she's a very snarky individual, some might even compare her to an Ekans. Others...a more sinister Pokémon...(anyways, say hi to Lizzie again at the bottom corner! She's selling her a doll that doesn't even work, LOL!) (Also, I imagine this one with a Joisey accent!)

Anyways, that's as much as Tumblr will let me post without going over the image limit, so I'll go follow up with this post tomorrow! Your SOTD has been brought to you by, once again, Specimen! I keep thinking of this song in paticular when it comes to contest ideas, especially considering Blawsth's whole culture going a little bit overboard with it ever since Lucille was banned from performing.

[thychesters]

ok backlog of thoughts on the one piece arcs i did not think to liveblog! putting a bunch under a read more because this got long and i don’t want to make a ton of separate posts for retroactive takes.

- luffy really just set out to sea with the thought process of “if i die well lmao.” decidedly unlmao, but don’t tell him that. he also immediately decided koby made a perfect punching bag

- the entire exchange with zoro was basically “join my crew!” “no.” “i think you should.” “guess i have absolutely no choice but to join.” and that is now their entire story

- luffy getting anyone to join his crew is basically just that gif that cuts between bryan cranston dancing and pointing at himself. luffy isn’t asking, either. welcome to the crew, you start in an hour.

- also, love this dinghy. two dudes, chilling in a small boat two feet apart because there’s no room. luffy’s having a blast with his two man crew and zoro’s just along for the ride. completely unfazed. gonna work on his tan and nap.

- also, also. they showed it later in the anime but it was the first thing in the manga, but luffy stabbing himself in the face. see, i remember reading the first volume in middle school so i was waiting for that scene. i also had vague memories of other characters like zoro and sanji, so it was nice to see them appear again. not so nice to remember my first introduction to one piece was the 4kids version lmao

- i love makino. this woman is like 20 on the outside but you know after dealing with luffy and shanks & co. she’s gotta be feeling 50 on the inside. i hope she gets to hit someone with a broom at some point. or go on vacation.

- shanks is like the cool uncle you’ll let watch your kid for a few hours, but only because you called another adult to watch shanks. the dude leaves a devil fruit on the bar in plain view of a hungry child and goes yep, surely nothing will come of this. of course he fuckin’ ate it. freaked out for a minute and went damn, well what can you do lol this is inconvenient

- these bandits coming into the bar and giving shanks shit, only to have luffy give the leader shit back and the guy decides well! guess i, a grown man, have no choice but to beat up a child.

(karma said lmao)

- nami showed up and said she’ll fuck luffy’s shit up if she has to. and then she did. good for her.

- i think the introduction of buggy was the first time i really went oh, so we’re weird weird here, huh. i mean, with a name like “buggy the clown” being taken seriously that’s when it clicked. AND THEN HE STABS THE STRAW HAT? sir you’ve crossed a line. luffy’s gonna chop chop your head clean off and drop it in the ocean.

- when i got to the syrup village/kuro arc i was like damn, how long is this battle. oh you fool, you pathetic fool. you knew nothing.

- jango got sent after some kids to go kill them and like. not for nothing but if i had a nickel for every time someone went after a kid in this show ...

- ok but when kuro was doing his whoosh whoosh invisible move or whatever the hell it was, why didn’t someone just get out a stick and trip him. fight’s a lot shorter then.

- zoro’s backstory thus far is just here’s his friend! and now she’s dead! he has no friends but he has a dream! he + the others need therapists.

- see when we got to sanji i knew him!! i remembered this man. 4kids also gave him lollipops instead of cigarettes. lolly suckin’ loser. love zeff too. between the anime and manga i’m not sure which canon i want to lean into more: him severing his foot to save sanji, or him eating it.

- mihawk fight!! the way luffy SCREAMED when zoro nearly got slashed in half and the weight behind “i will never be defeated again. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT, KING OF THE PIRATES?!” ohhh these two boys in a dinghy. there are a lot of promises being passed back and forth.

- the don krieg fight! idk that guy was just annoying. not much else to say about that aside being glad when it was over. also hilarious how for each of these fights everyone took their turns. like no, no, like mihawk and zoro fight, and then we’ll go next. and meanwhile those not involved are just pivoting to watch each fight.

- i feel so bad for baby sanji. i still want to study the grown man like a bug, but that baby has been through a lot. (hey, so, does this show hate kids or something.)

- arlong park! ok this was the first arc that really shows how deep the story can get, i think, or at least the first glimpse into it. this was more than “i took over this town to get some money.” this was using a young child to get something he wanted and her using him in return. and she had to work for the man who murdered her mother! who he shot right in front of her and then laughed and dragged her away!

- zoro beat up a bunch of fishmen because he got BORED. luffy told him to wait and “what do you do while i’m gone?” “wait for you to get back” except there are bodies everywhere

- NAMI STABBED HERSELF IN THE ARM SO MANY TIMES how does she not have serious muscle pain after that? AND THEN LUFFY GIVES HER HIS HAT. that’s the first time we’ve seen that one. oh my god

- also zoro is still heavily wounded from his fight with mihawk, arlong rips his bandages off and even he’s shocked he’s alive, nami and the others are horrified, and then luffy just fuckin’ tosses him into the ocean

- luffy’s secret move in a boss battle is just to piss them off. what’s the difference between their species? idk, noses? he’s going to break arlong’s. AND HE DID.

- luffy: “huh, maybe we should get a doctor on our crew first instead of a musician.” zoro, getting his innards sewn back in: “why do you say that?”

- he’s so excited about his bounty! good for him. he’s a wanted man.

- i like this smoker dude. seems like an okay guy.

- roronoa “can i borrow money but also jk i got two swords for FREE” zoro who has so much debt his credit score has plummeted. he’s never going to be able to financially recover from this.

- usopp v daddy fight. words i didn’t think i would say and yet.

- only luffy would nearly get executed and treat it as a “WHOOPS LMAOOOO” only to have an act of god save his life.

- the millenial dragons arc. oh my god. why does apis SCREAM LIKE THAT. they spend five episodes going back and forth to two different islands. “is this the right one? oh jk actually it’s the one we just came from.” is this what hell is like

- because sailing UP a mountain into the grand line makes perfect sense

- THE WHISKY PEAK STORY AHHHH the first moment where luffy jumps to conclusions and zoro doesn’t get a chance to explain himself, but also why should he have to? and luffy yells that he’s going to kill him? they’re supposed to trust one another implicitly! since day one! and then luffy punches him in the face and he’s not holding back and neither his zoro

- luffy says “i’m going to beat the shit out of you” and zoro says “go ahead and try” and nami says “WATCH THIS”

- love that vivi’s like don’t say his name too loud! and luffy immediately goes “who, CROCODILE?”

- an island with dinosaurs. because it just makes sense.

and that’s about caught up to where i started blogging during little garden

[metanarrates]

dumb question: could you elaborate on what you meant when you mentioned the character relationships regressing in princess tutu?

honestly, maybe "regressed" wasn't exactly the right word. the progression gained in s1 still exists - ahiru has gotten to know a bit more about rue and believes that rue is still somewhere in the kraehe persona, fakir no longer wishes to deny mytho his heart, and most critically, fakir and ahiru are now allies. none of those major developments have been set back.

however, literally all these relationships have flattened by virtue of the show simply not choosing to focus on them. rue appears to no longer feel ambivalent about princess tutu (which is sort of gestured at as being part of her retreat into the kraehe role/the raven's daughter, but there's no actual attention drawn to it.) we get next to nothing about how fakir feels about mytho other than "well we gotta get his heart to him and solve the raven's blood problem." I DO think fakir and ahiru have gotten closer, but their relationship is a rather straightforward friendship. it's still a little complex, but it lacks the drive and relative complexity of s1.

this would not be a problem if fakir/ahiru was a background dynamic to all the other ongoing dynamics, btw. they don't need to always be in a fraught ideological struggle. I think their dynamic is cute! but given that there's just very little complexity in any relationship in the show at this point, it does feel like a regression. ptutu has always been a kid's show, and so I never expected a crazy level of complex characterization, but there was a sense of forward momentum and struggle between clashing personalities and motives in s1 😭 compared to that, s2 has felt so empty.

well, except for one dynamic. and that's between rue and raven's blood mytho.

i will say straight up that this dynamic is WEIRD. not for any actual reason of the dynamic itself (in a vacuum it's a fascinating dynamic) but for the writing surrounding it. ive talked EXTENSIVELY about how much I hate the choice to make mytho be possessed by an Evil Self, and this is another extension of that. we know raven's blood mytho is just meant to disappear like a puff of smoke by the end of the plot. in essence, this undercuts literally any and all screentime he gets. we know that, because he is a plot obstacle, he is just not supposed to be taken seriously. his scenes with rue are meant to establish HER as a poor little meow meow, and not to establish him as a genuine character with motivations and feelings of his own.

and of course rue, come season 2, has been established as being pretty much entirely princess kraehe. her motive to possess mytho has been further fleshed out as being part of her backstory as an emotionally abused girl who wishes to free her father and gain a happy ending with mytho.

I do feel this comes out of nowhere and undercuts some earlier stuff with her character. however, it's not a horrible change. even if it's not what I wanted or liked about her, it DOES say stuff about her and lend texture to how she views mytho. however, some of this was unintentional by the writers. rather than being only tragic, she just seems pathetic and sad. I'm wishing for her to both break free of her father AND break free of her idealization of mytho. both her father and raven's blood mytho treat her like shit, and she doesn't care if regular mytho loves her so long as she can possess him. i want so badly for that mindset to go away for her, but from what I know, it doesn't.

all that aside, that brings us to the one dynamic relationship in s2 so far, and that's between rue and raven's blood mytho. as discussed, he is basically a new character. he doesn't feel like he is at all related to regular mytho, even inversely. the only other character he Could be related to is the raven, but given that he's not literally the raven possessing mytho's body, his characterization tells us very little about either character. so... not great for the idea of Existing dynamics progressing. they had to invent a new guy for rue to have character development with!

I do like it. they're mutually using each other, which is interesting. I like their little plotting sessions, and I like rue's continual wish that he will at least love her a little, even though she's mostly concerned with actual mytho rather than him. they feel like fun, toxic allies, and you get a great sense of how they view each other. they're both characterized quite interestingly in their moments together. their mutual ruthlessness is put on great display.

but well... we get a good sense of how rue feels about regular mytho. we know exactly what she sees in him. mytho himself? we don't get his viewpoint on hardly anything.

now, this is justifiable from a watsonian standpoint because of his heart situation. he isn't himself, and is spending most of his time fighting against his evil alter ego. but s1 mytho also had an incomplete heart, and we got a good sense of how he viewed other people! he went from unquestionably allowing fakir and rue to overrule him to asserting his own emotions against them. we see that he was drawn by princess tutu. it seemed like he liked fakir and ahiru at least somewhat. and even before he had his heart back, he still pretty obviously had interests and had his own viewpoint on fakir and rue.

now? nothing. we know he wishes to see tutu, isn't interested in rue's attempts to control him, and that he dislikes his raven's blood persona. that's it. we don't know how his views on anyone else have shifted. a lot has happened - it would be really natural for his perspectives on everyone to change! but we don't see evidence of it. the only time we see the Real Mytho is when he is desperately struggling against the raven's blood.

so yeah. theres just less dynamism between any of the four main characters. it's really not great.

[daz4i]

PLEASE elaborate i love hearing about people on tumblr being unhinged

ajskfkg ok ok take this with a small grain of salt bc there's always a real chance i made a mistake and the blog i think is theirs is actually someone else (tho, i found it through old dms, and unless I'm really misremembering stuff it's probably the same person. but yeah the chance is still there so keep that in mind, and that's also why I'm gonna make this post unrebloggable oof. don't want it to spread and accidentally hurt someone unrelated)

soooo we met on tumblr in 2018 through a common fandom and had a long-distance relationship that, as you can tell, didn't work out. i was still figuring out my aromanticism but really the main factor of why we also didn't stay friends after the whole thing, is they had a p big and sudden personality switch tbh. nothing bad but like it was weird to me and ig set off some alarms in my head to cut things off there

back then i was 19 and iirc they were 21 and in college

they presented themselves as a russian who moved to the us to escape their abusive father

they did post in russian sometimes (mostly in the tags of vent posts), very rarely, but they did. yet still some things didn't entirely add up

when we did voice chats they had an average american accent, which is definitely possible for someone who moved there from russia ofc, but considering how they moved to the us alone, that implied they did so as an adult, i'm p sure?? i can't remember if they mentioned having help with that but. yeah it was a bit odd, esp looking back

(also while i don't wanna doubt someone's tale of their abuse, esp in case I'm wrong, what they said abt how their dad abused them doesn't really work with "learned how to speak in perfect english with a perfect american accent". not gonna elaborate more than that)

another thing that didn't stand out back then was a conversation where they mentioned their grandma being jewish, to which i said that makes them at least partially jewish as well, and they really ran with it and put it on their blog and started mentioning it often, esp in relation to me and our relationship (bc yknow, I'm jewish). again, nothing too bad

but yeah we ended up cutting things off. fast forward 5 years i found old dms on one of my sideblogs and went "oh hey i wonder what they're up to"

and their bio says they're a native american + palestinian + 20 years old. which. um. as you can tell very much doesn't align with what i knew about them. no mentions of judaism no mentions of russia and a way younger age from what i knew. they only sent me one pic of them before and they looked very much white in it

so the real question is. did they lie to me about their age and backstory? are they lying now? both?? who knows!

(also i do gotta say. if i did indeed get the blogs wrong. there's only one other person i can remember who could be behind the blog i found now. and they claimed to be 16 when we met in 2016ish so things still don't add up lol)

and yeah that's it 🫡 I'm sorry if it's not a thrilling story but i hope you enjoyed it 🫡

[g-kat423]

I saw the post you reblogged with the tags about the stories you’ve written and how you feel like there aren’t too many people who seem to care for the Alcina character study, but I hope you know there definitely are!! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Something Sweet - it’s one of my favorites! But your character study also holds a special place in my heart as well, it’s so fascinating and I loveeeee the heart wrenching backstory you’ve created!

Awww thank you so much! It’s nice to know that people do appreciate it, even if that appreciation is much quieter and smaller than it is for Something Sweet. I think most people prefer fluff to the darker, more canon compliant side, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but man I love those who lean into her villainous nature and she’s actually so much fun to write that way too.

I just need to find the motivation to actually write because I ruminate a lot over scenes and dialogue. Then I open the doc and I’m not quite sure how to get to the scenes I want. I struggle a bit with The Fall of the House of Dimitrescu because I’ve told everything I’ve wanted to tell regarding her pre cadou history and now we’ve reached a point where she’s just taken it and has gotten the castle. There’s a lot I want to say, but I also don’t want to dwell too much on the mundane and I’m thinking the format might change a bit to show snippets of her life from 1950-2021 rather than going year by year.

Like I was thinking for the next chapter to have more of a flash forward to years after the previous chapter and then just tell certain past events from a framed narrative rather than continuing on from the next day like my original draft. I felt like I was over explaining a lot of things for fear of not covering my bases but, not every little thing needs to be accounted for and I guess at that point people can fill in the blanks or ask me what I think? idk haha. i mostly plan to cover major events like the creation of the daughters, the other 3 lords, the attempted assassination with the dagger, Alcina's past catching up with her, her affairs, then of course the main events from the game from Alcina's pov without just copying and pasting dialogue. Some of it will remain the same for canon compliance, but more internal monologuing and added conversation like Miranda's side of the phone call.

I need to start setting some time aside to write even if it’s just a few words until I get my groove back. I always put this pressure on myself where I feel I have to write an entire draft at once and if I can’t do that I might as well not try and that’s just…silly and unnecessary. I gotta stop doing that to myself.

[ilovebeingaturtle]

What are the turtles' personalities in your AU?

EE AHH OKAY THANK YOU FOR ASKING SHIT NOW I GOTTA WORDS GOOD AHSJSJ

Okay so-the complicated answer is my AU actually has two sets of turtles. And the short answer will just be me rambling about the main boys, so I’ll do that AHA

Mikey is the oldest! So he’s a very laidback party dude, his priorities are usually that everyone around him is having a good time. He’s not the type to try get his siblings to act responsibly, more so acting as strong background support while letting them be independent-he’s sort of? Developed into a people pleaser, but very much still a silly fun loving lil guy with a mischievous side. His charisma stat is basically maxed out, and he’s not above using that to his advantage

Raph is a mixture of wise guy and overconfident fighter AHA. He always just wants to do his own thing so it’s basically impossible to get him to listen to orders, he’s competitive and reckless, but while he has the usual Raphael anger it’s more of a slow burning holding a grudge type. He’s extremely passionate about fighting for those who can’t defend themselves so he’s super empathetic because of this, basically he’s very sensitive under the bravo, but also just. Yeah, he’s a comedy loving goofball, this is the 87!Raph blog okay we’re gonna get a boy very inspired by him

Leo is…one of the harder? Ones for me to describe? He’s very focused and practical, and he gets easily frustrated because in this version he isn’t regarded to have much authority at the start. He dedicated basically his entire life to training, so while he’s already a master at his craft he can be very awkward and lost in social situations or any situation beyond this. Eventually though he starts to loosen up and stop repressing the more adrenaline and fun loving side of him-it’s kind of? Like he has a reverse Rise!Leo arc LMAO, he goes from serious leader to total loser dork-I mean, cool guyyyy

Donnie’s the youngest! Without like, getting into the whole backstory, he basically starts out with zero fighting experience by the time the “ shows” plot starts, so he’s very guy in the chair at the start and needs to learn to trust his own abilities and step out of his comfort zone. Beyond that though, he’s a very snarky and deadpan Donnie, who’ll always do everything in his power to help someone once he sets himself to the task. He’s also kind of a dramatic little shIT

I don’t have proper reference art for my boys yet! But I have drawn them a ton, so have these for now AHA, I’ll try make better more recent art later

Oh! Also! Heights ❤️

[nukavolkov]

From the Fallout OC Questionnaire ~ I've just met em so I gotta know: 4. Give us a summary of their backstory. and 19. What natural alignment are they? (ex. Lawful Good, Chaotic Evil) For both your beans, please!

Oooh this will be a long one! I am still working on refining Beau so this won't be entirely set in stone for her.

Donovan would be considered Chaotic Neutral I'd say and as for his backstory. Im going to sum it up as best I can but theres a lot lol:

Donnie was born in Vault 101 and is younger than the cannon player character. His life wasn't amazing in there. A bit neglected by his parents who treated his younger sister like an absolute perfect blessing. He was a big scapegoat for almost everyone there. Getting the blame for so many things. It was east with how quite and awkward he was. He never really fought back. There were people who were on his side but the ones who weren't felt louder to him. He had particular disdain for Butch and the cannon PC. James and kid left the vault when Donovan was 15 and in the chaos he snuck out behind them. Looking for a better life than the one he had.

Immidiate regret on that. He found the Wasteland terrifying, hostile and cruel but he managed to make a few friends in Megaton and beyond. One being Moira as they worked on the Wasteland Survival Guide. Things were hard at first. He was afraid of everything, not very strong, lost a couple fingers and struggled a lot. But as time went on, he got stronger, taller and harder to kill abd developed a wild amount of skill with almost any gun he got his hands on. He was still afraid but he had more control. He also made some mistakes. And the cannon PC also got into some absolute bullshit that he pinned on Donovan. Being blamed for both their wrong doings earned him a real bad reputation in the Capital Wasteland. While he wasnt the most moral person around he wasnt full on evil either. He does genuinely care about people. But being labeled brutal, a monster, vicious. Every word they could come up with left him feeling bitter and as hostile to them as they were to him. His general demeanor, general expression and awkwardness didn't help at all. Just made it worse really. He's hard to read and comes across as rude without meaning to.

So he left the Capital Wastes at 34 with his reputation in unsalvageable shambles and made for the Commonwealth after Maccready (one of his few friends). He met Beau in Nuka World on his way there. Helped her clear out the Raiders then followed her to Sanctuary and eventually Diamond City where he settled nearby, got back to mercenary work and earned a far better reputation with friends to boot.

Now as for Beau. I'd consider her to be Neutral Good I think. As for her story. It's still a WIP but here's what I have so far:

Beau was and is a robotics and power armour enthusiast. Even before the war. She always loves tinkering, building and just making the coolest stuff she could. When she met Nate she was happy to settle down though she was plotting out where she could fit a workshop in their home and saving up to get her own Power Armour frame. She was happy to have Shaun and nestle in in Sanctuary until the bombs.

She hadn't trusted the Vault Tec lads from the beginning but didn't see much of a choice. When she woke to a dead husband and missing baby after being frozen, she didn't know what to do. She was scared, alone and confused. But after a couple aimless days she found her resolve. She moved out, helped Preston and reformed the Minute Men. Vowing to wear a suit of power armour with pride and protect everyone she could. Making the Commonwealth safe for her baby when she found him.

This is all I have so far but I'll give her more as time goes on 👍

[ninthhousedyke]

Nona The Ninth Live Blog #9

Okay yes it has been FOREVER but I can explain: I’m lazy. Also like…I sadly had to do human things like finals and not killing myself so I’m just getting back into everything. I also already do know most of what happens in the end because spoilers exist and I read them, but I still want to finish the book and catch any details I haven’t seen on my dash. Okay let’s begin!

Gideon just….playing dead….while Pyrrha carts her around like a sack of potatoes is such an image and I love her.

No I wanna know what Cam said to Gideon in that truck! Was she yelling at her for stupidly thinking Harrow hates her? Was she asking “bro wtf”? Was she trying desperately to jab more needles into her as Gideon just laughs? WHAT DAMMIT!

Okay so I do know that Pash and Gideon are cousins, but is THIS the moment Pash realizes it? Is her “oh fuck no” because she sees the ginger hair and knows it’s Wake’s DNA?

Nona worried Pyrrha will flirt with Pash is so cute.

“I hate to agree with Pash but she’s right.” “Thank you; fuck you.” Everyday I am more and more glad I wrote a hatesex fic about these two because every interaction proves just how much it was needed.

Wow so BOE cannot control their people at all! Merv Wing is just doing their own thing with the Sixth House basically?

Aweee Hot Sauce and Nona made up!

Hot Sauce being named Hot Sauce because she likes hot sauce is such a non-binary mood.

AHHHH WAKE HAD PASH’S PICTURE ON HER!!

So will Pash ever know Gideon is her cousin? Is that coming next?

Oh never mind there’s a resurrection beast now

I love how the most dangerous thing Nona can think of is Cam

The resurrection beast spoke THROUGH Judith!?!

I know Nona is Alecto but DAMN that conversation with Varun and the “And I never was” at the end are still so damn powerful.

“Is anything ever really truly ready to die?” TAMSYN STOP IT RIGHT NOW

Gideon just taking a nap through all of this lmao

I just read the John chapter and I’m gonna need a minute…..or five.

Okay let’s talk about John!

The moral grayness of the entire backstory to this universe is insane. Blood of Eden are the descendants of the top 1% who fled the climate disaster they caused, and John was one man with an insane gift granted to him by a dying planet’s soul. Is there really a correct way to handle that situation?

So he threatened to set off all the bombs if the trillionaire ships were allowed to launch, and then not only did he actually set the bombs off, but he took the souls of the dead and literally Adam and Eve-ed up a body for Earth’s soul just to try and catch the fleeing ships. And he didn’t even get them all! This man ate the souls of the universe to stop some rich assholes from running away!

That line about John caring more for vengeance than salvation hits harder now that I know HE MURDERED THE ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM!

RIP Cristobel

He also watched all his friends get murdered which has gotta take a negative toll on someone. Cassie and Nigella had JUST gotten married!

Like I’m finding it really hard to feel upset at his actions. What was he supposed to do? Let the rich live and the poor die? On the other hand, I’m a huge proponent of murder is always the option but nuking the entire world and building a Barbie doll body for Earth was a bit much.

Alright done with John! Back to my babies!!

“Kind of pretending to be dead here.” Oh Gideon I cried reading that. I’ve missed you so much.

Gideon asking Alecto if she loves Harrow is so painful and I just want these two to kiss for real when they’re both back in their correct bodies and states of mind.

Palamedes really is THAT BITCH. He has no formal training in the River or how it works but he’s like “yes this is a good solution”

Cam has two dads AND a sister?! Why is this information I’m just now hearing about! Oh god she’s gonna die isn’t she.

“We were children playing with reflections of stars in a pool of water thinking it was space.” OH GOD TAMSYN STOP THEYRE GONNA DIE

So that’s who Paul is….huh…the spoilers did not prepare me for that one. So we just lose both of them at once? We now have this third thing who is a Lyctor and is neither of them? No go back. I don’t want this. Take it back now!!

So Pash and Aim and Noodle are going to the Nine Houses. So we’re gonna get more Pash in book 4? Please don’t kill Pash. Let one person in this series have a happy ending and get to live without any body-soul fuckery.

WHO TF IS AIM

River time!

Okay I should really go to bed now but hopefully I actually finish this book in the near future.

[tharizdun-03]

The Case of Vanitas Watchrough & Readthrough

The Vanitas Opening is cute, very rom-com like. Basically just the two of them going on dates lol. I hope they're actually gay for each other. I need that. I really need that.

Vanitas episode was pretty good. Definitely more of an emphasis on world-building than character so far tho, and still has that Pandora Hearts comedy, but it's way less obnoxious, and presentation wise it's slick and stylish. It's got a solid hook, so I'll stick around for more.

I appreciate the Vanitas anime keeping the OST running even during gags. I feel like most anime stops the music during quick jokes, but keeping it going makes it flow better.

Rewatching Vanitas from the start as I'm gonna catch up now, and this is a very strong overarching hook.

Yeah, he's not. Like, at all. That is a very weird insult.

Hmmm...

Ooh. It's interesting that Noe seems to respect his teacher a lot and is very loyal to him in the present, but with this reveal, that could be tinted to being something of a coping mechanism or something, cause he's gotta have mixed feelings about him after this.

I am reading the Vanitas manga as well, just to see how it did things, and the art is pretty excellent, as expected. Altho the quality of scans varies.

Some non-colored pages too, cause the actual art in the manga is very good as well.

I like the kind of preview they did for the next volume at the end of volume 2, hope they keep doing that.

Noé is precious.

Vanitas is intriguing. I like him a bit more in the manga (I'm not crazy about Hanae voicing him) but it's interesting to ponder whether his preferring that his love doesn't love him back is cause he doesn't want to be tied down or if it's some self-inflicted punishment.

On the one hand, his love for Jeanne feels genuine, but on the other hand, his actions towards her feel very calculated to get the most out of her. Of course, they're not mutually exclusive, I suppose. Either way, lots of potential here. Shame he's a bit annoying lol.

Noè is probably still my favourite character, just cause, he's a sweet, precious little cinnamonbun.

baby

Could be how Noé kills Vanitas in the future then.

Vanitas no Carte Part 1 was pretty fun. Looks great. Stylish and sexy, with plenty of intrigue and strong world-building. Some annoying comedic faces and chibi intercuts tho. Noé is precious and wanna know more about Vanitas. Most a really faithful adaptation too.

The Vanitas anime definitely cuts stuff from the manga, but so far it's not really super significant stuff and they manage to communicate the info in other ways instead. Altho that Mikhail has yet to appear in the anime.

Mmmm...

Backstory episodes in Vanitas hit different. They happen a lot in Jun's stories, she seems fond of them. It's one of the things she's the best at too, I'd say. Sadly, this was the first episode with real significant cuts from the manga imo.

Before it's always been skipping some details you can infer anyway from the context, but entire scenes were also missing here. Mind you, the episode on its own was very good, but, you get more in the manga, and it's more essential to the experience here than it's been previously.

The visual direction has been less Shaft-like overall, compared to Part 1, and a bit more standard Bones, which I think works in its favour at the moment. They pulled some trademark Shaft in this episode tho, but it fit a lot better here.

Jun is still a bit of a mixed writer for me even here in some regards, but she's definitely improved from Pandora Hearts. Her set-up is a lot better constructed here. Bodes good, gives me hope the climaxes she's very good at could actually properly hit for me here.

I was hoping for Chloé to have a little bit more self-agency, so very much like this twist. Not yet quite sure why she's going against Naenia tho, but guessing because she manipulated her to keep living and Jean to become the beast, and she eventually realized that.

I'm just spitballing, obviously, we'll get more info on this next episode, I'm just thinking out loud at the moment.

Ah, alright, yeah.

Again, anime cutting stuff but nothing that crucial, just further small moments, further details, or more action that isn't VITAL to the overall narrative. I understand manga purists disliking it but as an adaptation, think the anime is doing the best it can good enough.

OH SHIT.

INSANE VISUAL

So, the theme of loneliness seems to be the central one in Vanitas.

Oh damn.

Another great spread. It pays to see how the manga depicted these moments as well. 

Art was a bit off for the kiss in the anime, but they adapted the smile pretty nicely. This is very cute.

Usually, the comedy in Vanitas doesn't do much for me, but this was one of the most effective comedy-driven stretches.

Alright, I dunno how effective this twist is. Okay, I guess they're twins then, and not one year apart. And the reason for all this is because of some weird superstition that twins are bad luck for vampires or something? Maybe the manga elaborates on this but...

And then there's this, and I guess it's natural for her to assume that in her current state of mind, but with the twist not being that clever, this is just annoying, when it's obvious he might mistake her for him, as they look almost identical, and he has like PTSD so?

Mikhail is an interesting addition to the story.

Ignoring the execution of things, the ideas for her backstory feels very Mochizuki, and in a good way, so hopefully the manga does this in a way that is more effective for me. 

Yeah, no, the whole that Louis was said to be ill but not actually was vague from the start, as was him supposedly being one year old but actually wasn't, and it all being based on this weird superstition is a bit weak.

Some nice stuff for Domi, her cutting her hair to look like Louis would've been really disturbing in the right way if the context was strong enough to back it up, and it reveals why she doesn't think Noe loves her, as she thinks Noe agrees that Louis should've survived. 

But yeah, the twist and logic behind it are not strong enough to make it as effective as it could've been. I mean, I'm not here thinking it's so stupid, but it's just not super strong for me, but oh well.

This is also weird, why give Noé stakes AFTER he's dead? We'll probably get more on this tho, I think. Or I'm missing something. 

Mikhail is at least twisted in all the right ways, in typical Mochizuki fashion. Beginning of his backstory was a bit tonally off in the anime, but handled much better here in the manga. Excited to finish the anime and catch up to the manga tomorrow and find out more.

Dude, this confrontation between Noé and Vanitas is crazy good.

Oh...

We'll see where this goes, cause having him be behind a lot of the stuff in the story yet having been basically completely invisible throughout the narrative doesn't seem fair to the viewer, but we'll see.

He's got the same eyes as Noè's cats, and also calls them kittens. He might be the cat lol.

Vanitas No Carte Part 2 is a mostly faithful adaptation that when it has to cut things, chooses the least crucial parts, and story-wise it really ramped things up and delved into the more interesting and darker ideas, shedding light on its mysteries. Really good overall.

Jeez, his entrance is way scarier in the manga.

Caught up to the Vanitas no Carte manga, which was consistently very good, and occasionally great! Jun's writing skills have improved, and I'm more invested than ever right now, so I very much hope that she has a lot of story left to tell cause I think there's plenty of promise.