#meanwhile where i used to be was the worst part all things considered

[brain-empty]

i think what i dont remember of my childhood is a lot worse than i assumed

[lilac-rose-writes]

KINDERGARTEN 3: Questions + Crack Theories

(Some done with @charismabee in messages <3)

1. Where are the other kids?

THEORY 1: The correct one. Bob adopted them all. Grabbed as many kids as he could see and took off with them. Their home lives sucked before? That's okay! Now they have a Bob! Unfortunately, despite his large janitor arms, he could only carry six children at a time. And by the time he went back for the others, they had been signed up to a new school and carted off by their parents. How sad. :(

THEORY 2: The Kindergarten one. They've all been kidnapped. Uh oh! They're hanging out with the mysterious disappearing former principal somewhere. Jerome is crying. Lily is furiously looking for an escape. Billy is having a panic attack. Ted "Felix" is being "Felix". Buggs is hitting things. Ozzy is having a panic attack. Things are fun <3

THEORY 3: The silly one! They're in the library. Regis looked at the troublemakers who have killed/want to kill/look like they want to kill people and put them allll in study hall together. And then put Ozzy there too. For funsies! So now they're all being scolded for committing all the murders and/or being Ozzy. Carla finds out she wasn't invited to Murder Club and she is furious.

2. What's up with Felix/Ted??

THEORY 1: After going home on Tuesday, Ted somehow discovered Felix's plans to kill him. Maybe he found the contract, maybe Felix straight-up told him (he is such a terrible liar. The WORST. I will be going back to this point in theory 2). However it happened, Ted learnt Felix wanted to kill him, pulled a Cain's Not Able alt route, and got his own back. He's in his Theodore era now. No more silly expressions. He looks at the space Felix left behind, and slots into it seemingly perfectly.

THEORY 2: The better one. Felix is pretending to be Ted. Felix too was grouped into the intended Murder Club, but he wasn't going to spend all day in study hall. Ew. So, he does the logical thing, and has Teddy fill his place. Felix thinks he's completely inconspicuous- like a sneaky hawk, so to speak. The thing is, he keeps "teehee"-ing between words and doing a frankly terrible impersonation of Ted. Remember all of his smug gloating throughout Cain's Not Able (e.g. "heheh... you have the most important part", the stealing Monty's arm plot failing so badly that Monty somehow knew Felix wanted to steal something from him and that said something was an arm, etc)? Take that and multiply it tenfold. Even the kids he's never spoken to before can tell he's not "Teddy". Meanwhile, Ted is sitting in Murder Club and trying so hard to act like Felix, but the only preparation he's had is switching shirts and he keeps trying to kill Ozzy when no-one's looking.

THEORY 3: Cain's Not Able just carried over through loops. Stevie's bandaged up, we only have one twin. Once again, Theodore arc initiated.

3. Alice & Ms Lovelett are related

THEORY: This one is simply because they are both redheads & Alice is an amnesiac. It's probably not going to be canon considering the amount of staff members' (principals') kids we have so far, but it's interesting to think about! I think it could add a lot of depth & mystery towards Ms Lovelett as a character, as well as giving us something to unpick about Alice's lost memories.

4. What's up with Monty's legs?

THEORY 1: The popular "Monty has Penny's legs" idea- part I. He went down to the lab (bc hey! Secret Lab! That sounds AWESOME for science!) and he found a Penny. A very dead, very robotic Penny. With legs. So, fitting right in with the weird limb rules of this universe, he does what Nugget did with Stevie's arm and takes those legs for himself. After all, it's not like Penny needs 'em anymore. He's being eco-friendly and reducing, re-using & recycling. It sucks that the skirt was also robotic. He could potentially get it off if he tried hard enough but he really wants legs again now and if he did there would be nothing else covering his new legs.

THEORY 2: The popular "Monty has Penny's legs" idea- part II. He still has Penny's legs, but this time, it wasn't his idea. If Applegate can somehow rise from the dead, who's to say that the superior-minded Dr Danner can't? Wouldn't be surprised if he's made himself immortal or something. He sees legless alive specimen Monty and legful dead specimen Penny and goes "hey little boy, want to swap legs with this robot?". Doesn't really matter if Monty wants to or not. His own legs are chopped off & replaced with Penny legs. He's so embarrassed about it. This will 100% ruin his street cred and also he didn't want his one-day broken legs to be gotten rid of forever. Sigh.

5. Romeo & Juliet

THEORY: This one's more of a silly guess/prediction, really. Either "Ted"/Ted gets cast as Romeo or we as Kid do (I like to think Kid will be managing all the behind the scenes stuff instead though :]) and Cindy demands to be Juliet. Only problem is, they're horrendous at acting. Cindy is over-the-top and overdramatic (like the queen she is). "Ted" is and always has been the worst actor to ever act ever. Ted too is pretty terrible at it and completely unused to being in the spotlight for anything. At least one character has stage fright. I can see Ms Lovelett as one of those teachers who start out sweet and welcoming, reassuring them all that they'll have lots of fun and put on a great show. But this is, of course, Kindergarten, so things quickly take a turn for the worse. She quickly becomes overbearing towards the performance, trying to perfect every little thing and criticising everyone repeatedly. With each passing minute, she becomes more and more frazzled. Her love for theatre is "insatiable", and she can't be stopped. The performance ends with the actors of Romeo and Juliet actually dying. Someone is poisoned, someone is stabbed. Maybe Nugget stabs someone. Maybe Nugget poisons someone. He has before. Seriously WHO thought it was a good idea to give him a knife in this game-

6. Regis' Deal

THEORY: Piecing together what we have so far, I'd say it's almost definite that he's the one behind the former principal's disappearance. He's taken on the role of classic Evil Kindergarten Principal, making both drugs and goo, making not just children but adults disappear too (hey K1 principal, imagine only being able to kidnap one child. To be fair he's a pretty sneaky hawk child who likes to hide in places but still. Skill issue).

Nugget's playing in the green goo outside. At lunch, he claims that he's "feeling funny again!", and at the start of the day, he encourages Kid to eat it. Upon doing so, Kid seemingly goes to the principal's office, where he is then sent to the medical room, looking distinctly green himself with a goo globule implying his death inside his last apple. It's safe to presume that this goo is at least somewhat similar to that of the goo in Kindergarten 2. Agnes adores it and it significantly disoriented Bob, so we can infer that it could have addictive/drug-like properties. It can kill people, as shown by the janitor's closet in K2. We know that it mutated people, and sustained Penny. It's dangerous. And there's a great deal of it all over the place.

In fact, there are elements from both of the previous principals' research scattered throughout the trailer. We see:

Green goo in a pool the janitor is cleaning in the cafeteria, a little away from the taped-over "STAFF ONLY CLOSET" door. Who has closets? Janitors. Who's a powerful member of staff? Regis, the former janitor.

Green goo pouring out of some sort of pipe into a puddle right below three tinted windows

The nurse's green cigarette smoke. We can guess that she designed the nurse's office, and therefore the posters within it- including the one discouraging/banning smoking inside of the medical room. So why would she be smoking herself?

A darkened, red version of the door presumably leading to the classroom. Dark, greenish stains cover the entire wall, but especially by that door in particular

The hole Regis drops Kid into for some reason. It has blood streaked down it- has someone been crushed by the closing mechanism before? Was one of the bloodied bags deposited there? Or, of course, did someone before Kid just spray up blood with the same absurd propulsion as a particularly bouncy ball?

IN THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE-

A brown monster with some sort of sword through its head

A bloody bag, perhaps containing the rest of the monster. It's leaked onto the floor, and bears a lot of resemblance to those seen in K1

A sword in a glass case, similar to the guns the principal had encased in K1

What does this all say? Well, I'd take it to mean that we have yet another shady principal/ murderous janitor on our hands. There's something behind those windows, something inside the staff-only closet, a reason why there are goo stains everywhere. Something happened to the former principal. Something's happened to the other kids. And Regis is the one behind it.

But other than that? Atm I've got nothing lol

I'd love to hear your own theories and thoughts on the trailer!! Maybe I'll add more to this tomorrow; the KG3 reveal has thrown me straight into analysis mode. No detail shall escape my scrutiny <3

[tea-the-not-understanding]

Saint Dragon Vanilla Cookie

So in my au, haven't got a name yet Where there are Carnaval style on Shadow milk cookie, his name is Spoiled milk cookie. And a Chimera Golden cheese cookie who I had idea where she still living in both digital world and kingdom. But mostly stay in both side that she manage grow enough power to have the digital power in the real world but not enough to revive her citizens yet. But still, even in the digital world, she still using the power to control everybody in the world. Not many cookie is free to do so much, all devoted and do what ever Goldie said. But still, all devoted and do what ever she said, unknowingly she been controlling their mind. And if someone rebel against her, she can just full on mind control them so they couldn't do what they wish but still aware that their body is being controlled. credit that this idea begin with @roseofdarkness0

Meanwhile Pure vanilla here have been a saint to everybody that he become part swan and mostly dragon. Growing his power and become stronger each days to help cookies and show them the way of being good and kind. Even with all of the goods, he also very amazing at keeping secrets and manipulate everybody to think he some sort of saint or angel. But when ever someone rebel or know the way what he does is manipulation to have cookies devoted to him to gain more power. Well... The rumors said that that cookie is never to be seen again. (Some cookies said that the cookies who are very devoted and do what ever saint vanilla said kidnap and killed them but for now NO ONE know that the one behind this is Saint dragon vanilla himself who took them, tortured to his sadistic joy and many more worst.) Spoiled milk learned that day. He thought he can destroy and took the soul jam from Saint dragon vanilla but oh boy he was wrong... It true that the past, ancient magics and everything is powerful and strong. But as the time goes, so does the magic grow stronger and everything evolves. Spoiled milk cookie not only a little lost in the new world with many thing changed but also learn that he is so very weaker when fighting alone against Saint dragon vanilla. Learning that Saint dragon vanilla using the power of healing to manipulate cookie bodies to make them weak or in pain. But also learn that Saint dragon vanilla is fucking sadistic. Spoiled milk considered himself lucky to survived and escape... Other beast left him alone and don't talk to him (probably thinking that he's too weak to defeat the healer.) But Spoiled milk know, so now he set back and find a chance to destroy or get his revenge. Showing the beast that he still strong. But the more day pass, His sanity is down rock bottom. He losing his mind, he become more crazed then before. And with the lack of sleep that he had for a long time. The rest of the beasts know that Spoiled milk is weaker and not fitting to be part of their group anymore. He is the one who made medicines for other cookies to be cured too so they don't need to rely on his power all the time as well.

the credit for giving me inspirations goes to @veresrhap and @ask-churro-cookie seriously, without their suggestion, he would look more boring then this

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for tattling on a guy who was cheating with me?

So for a few weeks I was long-distance sexting this guy. (I am also a man, if it's relevant.) It started off as mostly just a really exciting connection because I wasn't expecting to wind up SO compatible with someone from the site I found him on, either sexually or emotionally. We wound up both having tumblr accounts, incidentally, and started chatting and following each other here. And really quickly our conversations were hitting a balance of like 90% sexual, 10% lowkey romantic, and the latter was increasing by the day. Nothing really overtly serious especially considering how little time passed, but we were also talking almost constantly for several days at a time, and with both of our sexual tastes involving a flavor of tenderness, tbf we were kind of inarguably acting like real lovers. Wake-up texts, goodnight texts, "i love you"s (granted in the context of sexual rp), talking about how we'd cuddle afterward, etc.

Then one day he texts me with a confession to make: that he has a boyfriend, and he was afraid to mention it before but he thinks I should know, and this isn't at all him saying he wants to stop what we're doing bc he's been really happy talking to me. He just doesn't want me to have to find out by any other means about him having a long-term relationship and be surprised, in case the two of us get more serious. He told me that he and his bf are stable together but not sexually compatible anymore and emotionally drifting apart in general, and what we'd been talking about were all the things he was missing from his sex life and whatnot.

I can respect that he wanted me to hear it from his own mouth that he has a pre-existing relationship, but I couldn't respect the fact that he was cheating in the first place. Admittedly I also hated to feel like I was someone's side piece, whatever their reason for wanting one was. Part of it was specifically that at night we'd talk like we were each lonely and needing to be touched meanwhile he actually did have his boyfriend right next to him. It just rubbed me SO wrong.

So after that, for the first time I went out of my way to search his blog and I pretty easily found the account of his bf and I sent him screencaps of the conversation, including the confession. I thought he deserved to know that his partner of 2 years was trying to have an affair.

...And this is where I've been made to feel like maybe I went too far, in fact I've been told by friends specifically that I did go too far, either in including screencaps of that guy specifically detailing his relationship, or in reaching out to his bf at all. But idk, I have a pretty strong reaction to cheating bc I feel it's one of the worst ways you can hurt someone. And in a way I feel cheated on, too? Given the few weeks that I was under the impression I was talking to someone who was single and lonely just like myself rather than partnered and just bored. I expected to get some kind of angry response so I preemptively blocked the guy I'd been sexting and I have no idea what he might have tried to say to me, if anything. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[demodraws0606]

You know I think there is something interesting to say in terms of where the fuck WxS is going because like

I think WxS is the only unit where the end goal or overall progression is probably the most unknown out of all of them ???

MMJ and VBS are extremely obvious, they both have the most explicit goals that are said to us in a straightforward way

25-ji, in the end we know the main goal at the end will be for all of the characters to go over their hurdles with Mafuyu finally being able to find herself and move forward

Leo/need is probably the closest in terms of vagueness but we know the end goal is clear for them to grow as a band, probably ending in a big concert or something along those lines

But with WxS...like I guess the closest thing I can see to an end goal is all of WxS preparing a show together with everyone playing their part but that definitely doesn't feel like something you'd build up for an entire arc and definitely not something that feels fitting after the emotional turmoil that was the disbandement arc ???

In terms of physical achievements as well they literally revived an entire parc through one gigantic show, so it just comes into question what they can do now.

Then you look at their first few event for this arc considering usually the first event kinda set up what will be planned for the future but it's...weird.

Yeah, Tsukasa and Rui's events set up they're inexperienced and how they will grow in the future but also there is this weird feeling of something feeling off ?

The plays/scripts all are strangely depressing, the play in Tsukasa's event being about a failed writer planning to drown himself (which I believe is one of the only undeniable explicit description of suicide ever in the game?????) and the second being someone whose given up on life meeting their estranged sister only for her to become ill.

We even have Emu's side story in Rui's event where they watched the movie Rin was watching during the event made by the same producer and Emu herself note how depressing the story is (meanwhile the main character of the movie clearly parallels Rui)

We don't see the conclusion of these in-game stories as well, lingering on their worst moment never really seeing the presumably happy conclusion.

THEN we also have Emukasa fes which....again strangely different in tone from what you'd expect a WxS fes card, they're not really all that conclusive either. Tsukasa never aknowledges how he relates to the brother in the story and Emu doesn't really get a conclusion on her grief.

Then we also have Rui's entire fuckign event with the cards and his cyberpunk deadbo-YOU SEE WHAT IM SAYING

The closest we fucking have to knowing what WxS's fucking endgoal towards the story is, is fucking WL which....TELLS US NOTHING

At least with VBS we know that they're goal is to go even further beyond and conquer the whole world, that is a developpement of their goal.

What I'm saying is I don't know what the fuck colorpalet is cooking wiht WxS but I feel like i'm a fucking twilight zone reading the way they're writing WxS now because I can't be the only one feeling insane at how weird all of this is

[new-tella-us]

So this is a part 2.

I'm not really into the "Yandere" genre anymore, I used to be when I was younger... which is a little concerning but hey everyone goes through a "toxic love" phase, hopefully. But my old obsession gives me some knowledge of how it's written.

Yandere Damien...oh boy.

Here's my idea as I don't see too many people pull this. What if the brothers were included in his possessive behavior. Now, of course, the brotherly love he has for his family is not the same as the romantic love he has for Mika but the results can be similar.

He's made himself entirely dependent on his brothers and Mika, unable to see a world where they eventually part ways. Now for Mika, that's not too much of a problem. She isn't leaving him and she's mainly safe. No, it's his brothers that start the first crack in his breaking point.

They're falling in love and that didn't bother him but, they're now considering moving out. They're leaving him behind. They're not leaving him alone but he won't see them everyday anymore. How can he confirm that they're safe if they aren't close enough for his mindreading to work? The one good thing about his powers is that it confirms that everyone he loves is alive.

The second crack happens when he made the mistake of visiting the Pink Lady Cafe. It was a special event that Mika wanted all the boys and their girlfriends to come to. They had a maid theme and all the employees dressed up in their most flattering outfits. At first, it was fun but then Damien's mindreading made him peer into the thoughts of the men around him. Many of their thoughts were... impure to say the least. Many of their impure thoughts were directed at Mika and it made Damien's blood boil. If it weren't for his self control, he would have probably attacked some of the ones with the worst thoughts.

The third and final crack would come from the actions of those around Mika. Friends always asking to hang out, family taking her away, work always asking Mika for overtime. He could barely see her anymore and she looked so exhausted. Always complaining about how the other employees would call in sick, knowing that she would pick up their slack or how classmates like Lisette wouldn't participate in group projects, making her so frustrated. Damien ignored all the good times Mika had with others to feed his confirmation bias that she was secretly miserable. And it wasn't just her, small relationship or job issues his brothers had turned into huge red flags in his mind.

And then, he made up his mind. He would remove these stressors from their lives. He's not a violent guy, he wasn't going to hurt anyone. But slowly, one by one, each brother was calling for a fun brothers' day. And every time that happened, they never came back. Mika quit her job and stopped going outside too.

Everyone, the girlfriends, the friends, Mika's parents, hell even K tried to figure out what was going on. But Damien is a very good actor. Anyone who asked got the same answers. "I don't know where my brothers are, they aren't answering their phones", "Mika doesn't want to talk to you". And sure enough, when Mika's parents finally stopped accepting Damien's answer, he got Mika to parrot what he said. She yelled at her own parents, telling them to not contact her anymore.

Meanwhile, when the doors finally shut, all of Mika's "anger" faded into pure terror at the man that just made her isolate herself from her friends and family. She sits at the dining room table with all the other boys as they are forced to act like how life once was. Not even their thoughts were safe. They forced themselves to block out all their negative thoughts to seem like they agreed with Damien inside and out.

And from Damien's perspective? It's all in their best interest, and maybe one day, they'll agree. After all, memory is fallible, and if you think something enough, you'll be convinced that it's true.

Annnnnd I'm done with yandere stuff for a while

This was part 2 of 2

Here's part 1

[zaenaris]

Thinking about how Tenjiku was extremely painful but important for Koko and Inupi’s development and sub plot.

It was the moment where the worst fears of both of them emerged in very dangerous moment.

Inupi feared that Koko saw him only as Akane’s substitute and Koko feared that Inupi was using him for his own interest - the gang and money, since he’s good at making it - like everyone else, having internalized and accepted it was the only way to make amend for Akane’s death and that it was the only thing he was good at and that people needed him for.

Take into consideration both of them was thinking of saving the other:

when Mucho and Sanzu ambushed them, Koko had no choice in joining Tenjiku to save Inupi -and Takemichi-, (and it's not that just because Kakucho says to Takemichi that Koko "chose to be in Tenjiku himself" , that's how it went: it's obvious Koko was coerced and tried to do the best he could to help Inupi and himself given the situation: he was alone, he couldn't fight the whole Tenjiku alone), while Inupi wanted to be in Toman, under Takemichi’s division, because he saw that Toman is similiar to the original Shin's BLACK DRAGON and because he knew they wouldn’t have been used anymore, Koko in particular since he’s the “money maker”.

But Koko was so used to that life and to not consider his own wishes that he never reconsidered joining Toman, it wasn't the safest option. Koko had no attachment to any gang in particular, he cared about Inupi and his money making activities, therefore as long as Inupi wanted him in a gang, he sticked with him (we saw in the last birthday pic that Wakui draws for Koko, that middle school koko made business with the haitanis before being in the 10th gen BD, he clearly had his own illegal side activities unrelated to gangs-of course being in a gang helped with his business and of course when he was one of the executives of BD, that gave him also power and protection, but Koko always did what he did alone, before being in any gang) ;

but that time Toman was weak, meanwhile Tenjiku, even if it was the opposite of the gang Inupi wanted to belong to, was the safest option and a situation more similar the the 10th generation Black Dragon, where violence and profits were the norm; so Koko negotiated a place for Inupi if he’d joined Tenjiku, thinking it was the safest option.

Meanwhile Inupi was willing to fight to finally be free from that world. I am always so sad that Inupi's trauma is always so overlook and never directly addressed in the manga (un-directly it was, I mean joining a gang it's not a thing that you generally do when everything is fine in your life). Because Inupi

was saved by Koko when he was looking for Akane - and Inupi knows it, that's where the fear of being just a substitute for Akane comes from

sees Koko being desperate about trying to save her and blaming himself when she died anyway

is aware that his parents have financial problems after loosing the house and ofc they're a mess for Akane

some of the. following facts are in headcanon territory, but how could have Inupi have felt after her death? of course we see him crying and sad, but he's aware he's alive "by chance". How did this conditioned him? did he felt he wasn't supposed to be there? that his parents and Koko didn't love him enough and would have preferred her instead of him - canonically we kow Inupi doesn't go home often -ch.157- and so we can assume he has not the best relation ship with his parents, which is understandable after such a tragedy; we know Inupi is grateful that Koko always followed him -ch.142-, which is the same Koko felt about Inupi -ch.252., but was Inupi grateful to be alive at all or he himself would have preferred to die? and his relationship with his late sister? he cries, he grieves, but then what? is there a part of him that sees Koko so desperate for Akane that, in an irrational moment, would like to be on the receiving end of all koko's attentions? does he get a closure? probably he does, but it's off screen.

At this point of the story, -Tenjiku arc- Inupi understood Koko's behavior, when he tried to talk about the whole situation (in the previous arc, when he asked Koko if he was still thinking about "the promise") and Koko denied. Inupi never insisted because he knew Koko wasn't ready yet. Maybe Inupi, probably for narrative reasons, or maybe because that's how he is as a person, or maybe for some other reason that Wakui didn't explain, somehow managed to arrive to a point of self awareness, but in that moment, it was a complete chaos, and the insecurities and the communication problems that Inupi and Koko always had emerged and couldn't be contained and escalated the way we witnessed.

Even if they had the other’s well being in mind, but all their deepest fears came out in the worst moment and that lead to their break-up.

**spoilers for the end of the arc and their sub plot resolution in the final arc under the cut**

But even after their fight they still wished the best to each other, showing their genuine care even after what happened, because in the end, Koko wanted to be with Inupi, it's his conscience in Akane's form that "frees" him and allows himself to follow his heart and to stay with Inupi forgiving himself for something that wasn't his fault❤️‍🩹

[gabessquishytum]

I realized recently that one of my favorite regency romance novels is so incredibly dreamling-coded, you truly don’t need to change much (probably make it a/b/o for regency proprietary reasons), and ironically enough its title is “The Corinthian” 😁

(As I’m typing this I realized that another book by this author is also very dreamling-coded, might follow up on that later)

Sir Dream Endless is a titled, wealthy, and handsome alpha, but has a reputation for coldness and disinterest for the eligible omega debutantes of society. His family is nagging him to marry and produce an heir, and since he’s never expressed any interest in anyone year after year, they say that he might as well have a marriage of convenience with a family friend.

The thing is, Sir Dream Endless is in fact a romantic despite his reputation, and wants a marriage based on mutual love and affection; his standoffish reputation is because no omega has ever showed interest in him for himself as opposed to his wealth or position, not even the family friend (who in fact thinks love is only for gross lower-class poor people, and is therefore looking forward to a “mostly uninvolved in each other’s lives” marriage of convenience with Dream, which is his personal notion of hell).

One night he’s out walking while seriously considering succumbing to his family’s nagging and propose to the family friend despite his distaste for it all, only to pass by a random house and see a young man trying to shimmy down a bedsheet rope out a window, and Dream decides to investigate to distract himself.

Meet Hob Gadling, an orphan omega living with his aunt and uncle, who is running away because they are trying to force him to marry his cousin to get their hands on his fortune. His plan is to make his way to the country, passing himself off as a beta with scent suppressants, and seek out his godmother for help, possibly marrying a childhood friend if need be. Dream, feeling empathy for Hob’s situation and already charmed by his friendly manner and determination to live his own life, decides to escort the young omega to his destination, basically all but running away with him.

Shenanigans ensue as what should have been a 1-2 day journey turns into a week of shenanigans (including having to spend a night at an inn where there’s *gasp* only one room they have to share!) and being dragged into other people’s drama, as well as falling head over heels in love with each other.

-🪽anon

First of all - lowkey hilarious that the book is called The Corinthian, that's so funny.

Second of all - I am so obsessed with this, hell YES.

Hob is deeply suspicious of Dream’s intentions, he doesn't generally trust alphas (or rich people), but this seems like his best option and Dream does seem to be behaving himself very nicely. He also just straight up throws money at Hob to buy him new clothes, suppressants, whatever he wants. Which is very nice, because Hob likes nice things!

The shenanigans inevitably ensue, they come across people who want to tag along with them, like Matthew (who used to work for Dream and accidentally got fired) and Rose (who is also running away from questionable family shenanigans). Matthew ends up taking Rose to one of Dream’s properties for safety, and Hob and Dream are left alone...

Now, just because Hob's on scent suppressants, doesn't mean he won't have heats. He can feel it coming but he's too embarrassed to say until it's too late. Hob is shaking and sweating in Dream’s arms, in terrible pain from cramps and therefore too distracted to be horny... meanwhile Dream has to pull in his worst instincts and try to be a good person.

If Hob turns up and his godmother's home with a husband, well, short engagements are ever so fashionable these days! He doesn't mention the part where he lost his virginity in Dream’s velvet lined carriage. Dream was such a gentleman - he waited until Hob was out of the worst of the heat before declaring his feelings. Hob obviously jumped into Dream’s arms as soon as possible and begged to be taken there and then.

Hob does have a small fortune, so Dream’s family don't go absolutely apeshit. At least there's a chance of him finally producing an heir. Dream is absolutely disgustingly besotted with his omega, though - completely gross. And you can bet that Hob is just as bad <3

[summersmithlatinxgyatt]

Childrick of Mort has got to be one of the worst episodes of Rick and Morty, solely because of the choppy character writing. This level of writing rarely appears, with the only example of this inconsistency I can think of being ‘Vindicators 3’ (sorry to any fans of that episode) It seems like to get Rick and Beth development (and even Jerry development), we had to give up any semblance of Summer and Morty’s character

Summer HAS been cynical to Jerry before, but she is so cynical for no reason in this episode. Meanwhile, Morty is reduced to a spineless child who only cares about gaming

A few notes I can give this episode

I actually didn’t mind Jerry. I’m not the type to completely hate him, but the problem is how they have to alter everyone else’s character

Beth squealing was also a cute note

The design of the little Rick and Gaia kids was also something small I liked

Overall, I did like Beth and Rick in this episode, but the pacing of this whole episode was extremely quick for my liking. Plus, I liked how they acted more in the first half. The second half feels so discordant and all over the place

The fight Rick has with…a literal god, isn’t that bad. I actually liked that they cut the music, made it feel more awkward in a good way

I will not just talk about Summer in this episode because they butchered Morty in this episode. Summer’s love for drugs and getting high is something I mentioned once, because they actually hinted at it in ‘Pickle Rick’. Any hate for her family is not connected to getting high, it’s something she merely wants to explore. As a result, basing herself around wanting to get drugs misses the whole point, especially when she goes off on Jerry because of it

The fact Morty can’t simply reverse-engineer the ship or Summer didn’t help other than getting high was so…out of character. They’re actually smart characters who could stand there own when it comes to these kinds of situations. While Morty knows about these space adventures, Summer is perfect for surviving apocalyptic or similar events. That’s why she’s consistently good at them. Furthermore, these situations need her to be there for her family. Completely tearing apart other people does nothing for her or their survival

The only times that Summer also goes wild on Jerry is when he’s directly using her love for the family as a manipulation tactic. You can argue that Jerry did it here to make himself feel important, but this is a passive and consistent part of his character. This is unlike ‘Look Who’s Purging Now’, where he specifically uses memories from her childhood to make her give him money.

The dialog is so on the nose that it’s counter-intuitive. If they just wanted Morty and Summer to be an afterthought, it really shows. Why bother at all when they both blurt out “Wow gaming/drugs are fun” or “This reminds me of my game/bong”.

Oh, and they just HAD to throw in one incest joke (two but I’m referring to one that Summer tells Morty). I was hoping I could call this the worst episode that doesn’t involve incest (because wow we have several to choose from), but since it’s not a plot theme, I might give it the title

Morty also seemed so meek and spineless, the way he also just wants to play games. Considering this is season 4, this feels like a trait that shouldn’t have popped up once more. At least with Summer we get hints that she loves smoking (Tricia’s bong ooo her future wife’s bong ooo) but again, it never gets in the way of family or is BECAUSE she hates her family. She doesn’t! That’s one thing the show keeps getting wrong when they write Summer. She loves her family because she’s the one who has to keep it together after nearly losing them from something she thought was HER fault (now that I think about it, that’s probably a trait that parallels Rick). She was just so pissy and quick to give up or give in, too. Where’s that version of Summer who’s tough as hell and wants to make sure everything goes right?

If this were more accurate, she would’ve reprise a role similar to GoTron, wherein she’d help out with building the city. Instead, that role goes to Beth. Morty also didn’t have any real traits. He’s just spouting science jargon sometimes which contradicts how he ends up acting

While writing this I also realized that Jerry consistently thrives in environments removed from usual societal norms or any structure. Curiously, he shares this with his dismantling apocalyptic daughter!

All in all, this episode is heavily weighed down by how they butcher Summer and Morty. It may not be the worst episode of the show, but it’s in my top fives. Quickly, my list for the worst in no particular order so far:

-Childrick of Mort

-Vindicators 3 (fucking awful pacing, basic character dynamics and conflict, some of the worst dialog ever written for Rick)

-Final DeSmithation (you know why.)

-Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri (the second worst cold opening besides Rickdependence Spray, this episode felt pretty pointless and forgettable. This is the one episode whose season I cannot remember every time)

-Rickdependence Spray (you know why.)

[alpinelogy]

10 & 19!

Lourdes do you have the slightest idea what have you just asked me? Thank you so much for asking :DD

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

maybe we got lost (in translation) a thousand times over. Beyond the fact that it is my second fic that has broken the 100 kudos barrier which is already insane to me cause I did not expect anyone to read it since its a niche ship imo, the way people see the fic is so different from the way I saw it as I wrote it. For me it is a fic mainly about language and communication and how it changes based on who we talk with. Also specifically Esteban's relationship with English is very much based on my own experience with it, from being thrown into an English-speaking group and told to swim to English slipping in even when he is speaking in a different language ('the language spoken is a mess of French and English') Meanwhile at least from comments people see the relationship between Esteban and Lance way more strongly than I do. Which fair, it was partially written as a love letter to my bilingual friends who try to understand me even when my brain does not comprehend language and in hindsight I sometimes ignored the language part in favor of developing their friendship so I can see where they are coming from. And the fic is tagged as estelance so... lol Essentially what I am trying to say here is that people focused on way more on a part I considered secondary than I did while writing it, but I can see why. Also I've gotten so many nice comments on it and even tho I forgot to respond to them I do reread them on the regular because they spark so much joy (also first time someone whose writing I enjoy commented on my fic and it sent me for a loop lol)

19. Give us a small teaser from one of your WIPs.

I actually dont have that many wips rn, I know, shocking, its mostly just scribbled ideas and disconnected scenes. And kinkmeme claims cause I currently have uh... 50 of those

Anyway i do have this. A race engineer!Oscar AU Loscar in which Logan has never been normal about anything related to Oscar. Ever. Starring Logan as a pining mess, Oscar as the calm and collected love interest and Fred, Alex, and Liam as the victims of Logan's pining

“Good morning Logan.” Oscar says as a first thing on the first day of testing over the radio and Logan returns back to his thoughts of screaming, almost vibrating out of his seat in excitement. Goes back to his year old promise of not doing anything stupid ten seconds into the season. Hopes that when the cameras catch his inevitable joy after he gets back to the garage it will be brushed off to just being glad to be back in the car, rather than anything else. As a worst case scenario, he will just put up the Alex Albon patented peace signs because those always somehow make pictures so much more grounded and Alex is really onto something there, Logan needs to study it. He will need it for this year. Probably. Maybe. Most likely. It's fine. It's, whatever. It's definitely not that Logan also spends so much time looking at Oscar in meetings that Fred has noticed. It's definitely not that Fred, with all the subtlety he has, cornered Logan in his drivers room and unceremoniously asked what gives two days into the season. Logan deserved that one probably. When Logan tries to brush him off, it seemingly works because Fred lets himself be brushed off, does not mind Logan redirecting the conversation onto another topic instead. Logan does not know what actually awaits him days later. It's Liam this time, who corners him a few days later, after testing, after the first race weekend of the year properly starts, right after the last free practice before qualifying. Being Formula Two teammates must have done something to their understanding of personal space between each other because Liam waltzes into his driver's room like he owns the place without even knocking. Logan has a half mind to kick him out just for that, force him to knock before entering.

(this got long but look, this is 300 words out of 7.8k that i am fighting to stay under 10k it's small okay?)

fic writer ask game

[co-mixed]

Fantastic Origin (Reed Sucks)

Let’s do it, let’s kick off the Fantastic Four review journey. 

The first ever run of Marvel’s first family aka the team I had been actively avoiding until recently. 

Most of Lee/Kirby books are extremely different from what we see in the comics today. You could easily attribute that to the days of yore or just the fact that these books have served as stepping stones towards bigger and more complex stories. Or you could take them for what they are.

Right away I will have to get misogyny out of the way. It’s there and it’s ugly. These books are filled with ridiculous stereotypes and absolutely unacceptable degrading behavior towards women. It’s all the more upsetting when you get to read fan letters from women, they hint at that constantly. 

I gotta say, it worked too because when Crystal became a part of the team, she was relatively badass and was treated with more respect than Sue. But dammit, poor Sue. You can try and convince me that Reed is a good husband but that won’t help a bit. In a world where literal supervillains exist, he is definitely not the worst human being but since he’s being portrayed as a hero, I’m gonna accept the fact that he’s trash. 

Of course, I see what the creators were going for: Reed was supposed to be a hyper-focused, single-minded, science-obsessed team leader with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was supposed to be flawed but sympathetic. 

Especially compared to his beloved Sue who was supposed to be a loving and caring homemaker with her invisibility power being a reflection of her relationship with Reed. As in he only sees her when she’s in danger. 

The way it looks now, 60 years after the cosmic rays incident, is very different.

Sue is a young woman, seemingly younger than Reed, who somehow stumbled into a relationship with a man who treats her as a status symbol. She’s a tag-along, something pretty to walk with, have at home, and look at when it pleases him. Because she’s younger (bear with me, I’m only assuming this based on the Lee/Kirby age), she is very susceptible to his influence and opinions, there’s a power misbalance and she doesn’t really know that things could or should be better. Which is kind of easy to assume, considering her mother was dead and her father was in jail. She also had a brother in high school to take care of and Reed was successful and rich. 

Then after she got powers, she kind of got permanently stuck with him, and that trauma bond became even more dysfunctional. She did assume the role she probably saw in the media at the time, overly caring about everyone but herself, and she accepts material substitutes for actual comfort, such as shopping, because that’s what’s been said and taught to her. 

Her relationship with Reed is passionless too, hence when Namor shows up, she entertains the idea of him. Although, let’s not forget that he keeps kidnapping her and trying to convince her to become his queen of the seas or whatever. Maybe if he was less straightforward and didn’t try to kill her brother in the process… who knows?

But he does, meanwhile, Reed is putting that good-for-nothing brother of hers through school, so she chooses Reed. She even marries him, entrapping herself in a loveless marriage. And after two years of horrible home life with barely any time to get to know whatever she’s been wed to, she gets pregnant. All in all, at this point, at that time, it’s over for her. And as a reader you know she doesn’t escape that. It’s pretty tragic. 

Reed is a scumbag. Yelling at Susan is just part of it, he also acts like he’s the boss of everyone (which I do get when it comes to Johnny and Ben, who are let’s just say irresponsible.) 

He constantly sticks his nose into things like the negative zone, causing meanies like Annihilus to show up. He keeps using Ben or The Thing when he needs and then swears he’ll turn him back. It gets repetitive and no one can really trust him. He pretends to act like a hero after causing a problem and keeps trying to sacrifice himself forgetting his wife and eventually son. Bro, you got responsibilities over there!

I believe that’s the intention but Reed is not that different from Doom, except Doom actually has a sob story to explain his obsession with science and the occult. Reed… at this point in the run we don’t know if he does or where his assholery comes from. All we do know is he’s an equally terrible leader, husband, and friend. Bet he’s not much of a father either. 

But hey, at least he’s putting that good-for-nothing Johnny through school. 

Ben is irritating. We’ve discussed it at length with several people, how so many people can relate to him and consider him their favorite character. But Ben Grimm is awful. You know what? I think the unstable version of him that was around for a brief moment when he could switch into The Thing and back, that version is the real Ben Grimm. If anything, his insecurity is holding him back in that anger. When he gets both strength and his human appearance, that’s when you gotta run for the hills and summon the Hulk to put him down. 

Ben went from petty, insecure, and angry to overcompensating and calling himself pretty and lovable. All the while his paranoia regarding Alicia and her love for him is growing more and more bizarre. He really doesn’t trust her when she says that she likes him as The Thing, he claims he wants to be Ben for her but hey, she’s pretty uncomfortable with Ben so there’s that. 

He did act better than Reed would’ve when he thought Alicia had chosen Silver Surfer but then he ghosted her and threw a tantrum every time Surfer popped up. Have some self-respect, Ben. 

What pissed me off the most is the way he treated Franklin seconds before he found out his middle name was Benjamin. Like, seriously? You’re taking it out on a baby? Besides, neither Sue nor Reed owes you anything. Well, maybe Reed does. But it doesn’t help that Ben keeps getting into fights with that good-for-nothing Johnny.

Johnny is good for nothing. He’s an ok kid I suppose but he doesn’t attend school and somehow ends up in a university (which even managed to piss off one fan! Seriously, don’t ignore the fan mail if it’s there!) Then he spends exactly one semester, meets a friend who participates in his whacky adventures for like a week, and forgets this friend exists. He also forgets the school exists. 

Johnny is either acting out at home, fixing his car, or chasing after girls. Until he meets Crystal and immediately becomes obsessed with her, which no one really cares about. Then Crystal gets stuck under a dome with her merry Inhuman family, and he broods and throws tantrums. They are torn apart and brought back together, and then are torn apart and then brought together, it’s a whole X-men level soap. I actually liked that.

And out of all the villains I’m only gonna focus on Doom. Don’t get me wrong, Galactus is forever the star, but let’s talk Doom. 

He’s an interesting fellow but I don’t get the massive fan base. Dude’s a literal dictator of the worst kind. He experienced dictatorship on his own skin since childhood and he grew up and enslaved his whole country. I would understand if he brought prosperity and happiness to them but that? I was actually pretty impressed by the Latverian arc, in which the FF went to Latveria and were depowered and treated like Doom’s dear guests. It was a creative way to draw a little image of what this kinda system is and how it functions from within. Doom rules by fear and they experienced that fear, they even almost lost hope. I would’ve done this arc a little differently but hey, I’m here 60 years later. 

But at least Doom hadn’t killed that good-for-nothing Johnny.

The Stories

That’s what we’re really here for –  the silly early villains and the bizarre tactics that save the day. We obviously have some baddies that stood the test of time and a few that didn’t. But Reed’s approach throughout everything is pretty much “let’s throw them into space and hope they don’t come back.” They do, Doom’s been to space twice and even made a trip to the microverse. He’s well-traveled now.

In the beginning, it’s a very repetitive scheme: one issue = one arc, Ben argues with that good-for-nothing Johnny, Sue is there, Reed saves the day. But the arcs stretch to two and more issues and the stories become more and more entertaining. At some point, even Sue gets to save a few hours. Not the day though. 

Crystal gets her shining moments, and like I said before, she does very well and almost without Reed’s misogynistic crap. 

There are a few stories I liked, Galactus, of course (behold!), the would-be gamer The Thinker, Latveria visit, and the arc in which whatshisface scientist turned himself into The Thing. That’s pretty much the first time in this run when a one-issue baddie realized the error of his ways and made the ultimate sacrifice. Before that, the antihero role was pretty much Namor’s. Speaking of Namor, how’s his “movie” career? That arc was truly wild and smelled a lot like Golden Age comics.

Now if you’re thinking you’d like to read this run, do. But if you just want to know the origins and main encounters, just watch the 90’s show. Not only it covers most of the pivotal stories, but season one has a fantastic! intro song. You’re gonna love it and if you don’t, it’s gonna haunt you till you do.

I’m positive the stories are gonna get better. I was promised they’re gonna get better but I have a hell of a road ahead of me, 300 issues before I get to more modern days, and even more after that. I’m all in.

[basicallyjaywalker]

In those au's where Jasmine and Jay and Nya do talk about their feelings.

What would their relationship be like?

How would Jasmine act with them when dating Nya and Jay?

Sorry for all these questions I am just in a mood where I wanna read some posts on others oc x canon and I wanna see what their relationships with them would be and how they would act with them

Please don't apologize!! I love answering questions about my OCs

A polyamorous relationship with Nya, Jay, and Jasmine would be... dramatic to say the least. Jaya by themselves are already pretty dramatic, I think. Match each others freak etc etc etc, and I hc similar things for Jasmine in monogamous relationships with either (there's an old post floating around my blog where I say I think Jasmine and Nya would show affection by arguing what random part is better to use for a project they're working on). At the same time, they're all kinda ride or die for each other. If one is in trouble the other two are raising hell and highwater (the last one literally, in Nya's case) to save them, meanwhile that person is causing trouble for whatever poor, dumb villain or grunt is about to get their ass kicked

Jasmine I think would definitely be louder with them than she normally is. Jay and Nya are both LOUD people. They would end up in the TV room of the Monastery having a debate over some TV show that none of them are actually that invested in, they just like to bicker. It's like enrichment in their enclosure. Honestly, they'd help her open up more (considering the three of them getting into a relationship in the first place would necessitate Jasmine having to communicate in some way her feelings to them and have a conversation about it) and I think be really good for her and also the worst influences ever. She's gonna become so insufferable /aff

[mdhwrites]

What's your opinion in The Owl House villains? (The bad guys I mean not the misunderstood ones)

So the villains I haven't discussed yet mostly boil down to the one off villains and the coven heads, though the coven heads are effectively the one off villains of S2. I would also count Tibbles in this because him coming back from time to time hardly matters to the broader point. THEY'RE ALL THE FUCKING SAME. They're all just some sort of asshole out for selfish greed who barely actually interacts with the characters. The best of all of these is King's Publisher and that's mostly just because he's the one that actually has a neat magical gimmick to him that feels genuinely threatening and creative. Everyone else is fine at best, boring at worst. But it's hard to really care because none of them really matter. Even Tibbles is just there to facilitate higher stakes and barely that even for the most part with how things are framed. They're never given interesting personalities, they're never given much to do and most usually have at best one fun moment that might make them memorable or a good design and then move on. They're also the majority of the demon representation of the show, while there are no good demons (unless you count Hooty who is comic relief) amongst the main cast. The only reoccurring one that could be considered good is Big Nose, Dana's literal self insert. That's not a joke, that's what Dana has said from what I hear. And it's really awkward the fact that the ugly demons are contrasted so heavily with all the beautiful elven people. Honestly, the more people around me have talked about it, the more I probably need to do a deep dive on both how bad the implications of the twin races and beauty standards are (even Luz would be considered easily conventionally attractive and Willow is the definition of "More to love" when it comes to including a heavier set character) and why it's probably not done with the malice or the like. But let's actually swing back around to a more fundamental problem with the literal narrative structure of most of these one off villains. See, when Amphibia uses a monster escalate stakes, it's usually related to the actual plot. As an example: The lovebirds being used during a romance episode so they are thematically on point. Or giant flies highlighting the garbage that Hop Pop is selling and the larger rot he is introducing to the town. You don't get to say that with most of the one off villains. They have a point to be there but they're so business minded that they don't contrast or help the moral or thematic point of any given episode. Not only is this just pointless storytelling, it creates a deeper, more fundamental issue of them not being able to properly able to interact with the cast. Hooty's Moving Hassle is actually one of the best examples of this. In BOTH plots, the escalation caused by the villain only matters in that it facilitates downtime for the characters to talk to each other. Gus, Willow and Luz aren't interacting with people who think might is right and thus putting Willow down for her weakness but instead the angst is focused on Amity, making her the 'real' antagonist of the A plot to the point where the hunters effectively don't interact with the kids outside of threatening their lives and that doesn't say anything about anything going on. The only memorable thing about them is the line about wanting to shove kids off of cliffs because that is just genuinely an amazing joke. They at least DO get a resolution that is thematically coherent because the situation the kids are put in can only be fixed by Willow finding confidence and taking them all out. It's not a good ending because it's too easy and we don't even get to actually enjoy a fight out of it but it is narratively coherent at least.

Meanwhile, in the B plot, that side of the episode is effectively about Hubris and admittedly, Eda gets in trouble for assuming she's the best Hex'em Hold Em' player out there. But what happens after that? Eda, who only picked up the game this episode so it feels incredibly forced that she is this obsessive with it (which isn't technically bad for a kid's show but bad for TOH which wants to be serialized), talks to King, feels bad, promises to throw the cards away and then they luck into being saved when Hooty crushes the stall. There isn't an actual resolution that shows any growth or thought on Eda's part, just convenience and words while Tibbles isn't really being arrogant but smart. He also is barely interacting with the two besides treating King as a doll which is an excuse to put him in funny outfits but him being treated as a child, even by episode six, is getting repetitive by then and they don't do anything clever with the outfits besides the most obvious 'this is embarrassing' ones that any show does. And those are BOTH villains the show will use again but still not manage to ever find an actual thematic purpose to them. It's honestly bizarre that TOH sets up a rogue's gallery at all instead of just allowing it to be either the EC or the world that is the threat. Oh wait, they also do that which means no one gets to return more than twice after their initial showing besides FUCKING KIKIMORA. This even goes for fucking Hunter and Belos who barely get to be in the show, let alone as antagonists properly, because they're just throwing in too many of these wastes of space. And all of this is without getting into the fact that none of them come off as real threats. Because so often they have no part in the actual drama and their treating it businesslike, they're not actually even menacing the characters much. They're just doing the same thing they always do. I'll give Tibbles that at least. He seems to be reveling in being a villain instead of just doing his job. But this also goes for the heroes. They care so little about the individual villains, instead focusing on their personal problems, that it feels like the villains are dismissed by the characters as they don't treat this as a real problem. Frankly, if the personal stuff the villains were facilitating was good enough, that might be okay. These are one note characters after all that we're mostly not going to see again. But... they're not. This includes the Coven Heads where Terra is barely an aspect of her one proper villain episode, Falls and Follies, and has nothing to do with solving Luz's fears about the promise (which... I LOVE the fact that the promise is effectively entirely dropped from the series after that episode without resolution. Just adore that such a massive cliffhanger is mostly brushed under the rug afterwards, even to the point where Luz's choice to stay in the human realm isn't about the promise but entirely other problems.). Theoretically, Labyrinth Runners has Gus dealing with his anxiety but... He also already knows how to do that well enough to teach it to Hunter and what causes the anxiety feels very similar to MANY other life and death situations that Gus has been in so it feels kind of cheap, not helped by all the other elements in that episode that make it less about Gus, who is the only one that has any reflection in the villain in that episode and that's only because of their shared magic, but instead a Hunter episode.

And those are the better villains. A lot of S1's one off villains are used for King plotlines, even down to the only unique villains in Once Upon a Swap being for while Eda is inhabiting King. And can we all agree that King has really shitty personal plotlines that never feel they stick until his entire character is thrown out in S2 to be replaced with daddy issues? I mean, literally two of his episodes are considered the worst in the show by most of the fandom.

And he's dealing with such compelling personal issues like not fucking your friend over in a creative project or don't try to literally isolate someone from the rest of their friend group. Technically good lessons that are also not handled great frankly, especially when the latter still sympathizes with King by having him have the argument of missing Luz which will only be reinforced him being the ONLY character who acknowledges that Luz living in both realms might not be only a good thing.

And I mean, you compare this with almost ANY even halfway decently regarded kid's cartoon and it's frankly embarrassing. Rise of the TMNT, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, and Molly McGee all blow it out of the water. Danny Phantom and Kim Possible were doing way better over a fucking decade ago. Even FUCKING FAIRY ODDPARENTS, especially early on, was doing better than this at making those episodes not only entertaining but having the villains make sense to what moral dilemma Timmy was facing in a given episode. And that series literally is about wish fulfillment. It's just bad adventure writing. Honestly, it's bad writing as even antagonists like Boscha don't keep focus during their episodes. Like Boscha's episode theoretically tackles bullying by actually bringing in a bully character proper besides Amity. Instead, it's WAY more focused on Lumity and just sports shenanigans and Boscha being a bully barely registers besides "She has a bad attitude because she actually gives a fuck about her sport instead of treating like a game." Like... Her team abandons her and I'm just left with the question of "Do none of you fucking care how you perform? Is Boscha literally the only one who likes this sport in this school?"

I almost brought up Matt here but he IS in fact just meant to be misunderstood since after his first episode, he's really just a good guy with snark. Frankly though, his first appearance is one of the best in terms of actually having a villain who plays into the character angst of the episode. Then again, he was obviously meant to be a part of ANOTHER rivals to lovers ship like Lumity so get fucked I guess.

This all honestly begs the question of why the main cast weren't their own antagonists as well. Why there aren't more episodes about them clashing if the only point to all of these villains is that they're meant to facilitate conversation? Amphibia did this plenty where there might be a monster but it is ABSOLUTELY the characters antagonizing each other that is the actual villain and allows for compelling looks at their relationships. Their good sides and their bad... Oh. Well. I guess that does explain it. Can't really have Amity be an antagonist again unless you want to remember that she started as one of the worst people, not characters but as a person, in the show. Or have Luz purposefully look like an asshole. Or Willow. Or Gus. Or literally any of the main cast. They can only be bad on accident. Like losing a game you think is rigged in your favor. Fuck that.

=======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[gyusimp]

°•Gyusimp x Mrs. Shabana Collab•° Part 1 (temporarily untitled)

Modern AU,Contains harassment/obsession themes, inappropriate language.

He had gotten rid of that jerk, his stupid face tormented him but he was glad to know that he would never see him again, that's why he felt nauseous and felt how his intestines churning when he saw him sitting at one of the desks in the classroom. Of all the faculties, of all the universities, why was he was here? Gyutaro was extremely disgusted to see that idiot with fuchsia eyes and varnished nails. Just seeing him or hearing his voice made him want to rip with all his force the skin under his hooddie until his anxiety stopped. Tengen was the worst and made sure that Gyutaro had some awkward moments when they went to the same high school, the white-haired one didn't mind meeting him again, he always considered him a zero so his presence didn't mean anything to him.

The blue-eyed boy just ignored him and took a seat at the back of the classroom, his gaze fixed on the floor and hoping he wouldn't be noticed by anyone. Meanwhile, people began to fill the classroom, filling the silence with laughter and conversations on trivial or pointless topics, which irritated Gyutaro a little. He put his hand inside his backpack that was on the floor and pulled out a black cable to start untangling the knot that had formed, he put on his earphones after connecting them to his cell phone and listened to some music at full volume waiting for the class to start.

The course professor entered the classroom greeting all the young people and introducing himself by writing his name on the board so that his students would remember him. After, he said the most feared words by all the students. "Let's make a dynamic" spoke the man trying to encourage the group. "Everyone will stand up and say their full name and age, so we can get to know each other better." Gyutaro damned under his breath upon hearing this so he nervously waited for his turn, he was annoyed but he took a seat in the back so he would be one of the last to speak. All the students present followed the teacher's instructions.

"Hello, I'm Mitsuri Kanroji"

"I'm Giyu Tomioka"

"I am Kyojuro Rengoku!"

And so on until it was Tengen's turn. The young man stood up introducing himself and saying a few other things to make his classmates laugh and flirting a bit with the girls. When he finished, he sat down again and a group close to him applauded and cheered him on. "It was the first day and this son of a bitch already had so many friends?" Gyutaro thought irritably.

Other classmates introduced themselves and it was Gyutaro's turn to do the same. With a bad attitude and some laziness he stood up while all eyes were focused on him making him feel very uncomfortable. "I...I'm Gyu-" His introduction had been interrupted by someone else. "G-good morning, excuse me, is this the classroom A15?" A female voice at the door asked making everyone look at her, ignoring Gyutaro, which he appreciated. "Good morning miss. Yes, it is" replied the teacher noticing the expression of relief on the girl's face. The girl entered and looked around looking for a place to sit. "You can take a seat at the back, next to the tall guy standing" the teacher indicated to the girl since most of the seats at the back of the class were empty. Everyone had avoided sitting around Gyutaro but he was so used to people rejecting him that he hadn't even noticed.

"Since you're up, could you introduce yourself to the rest of the class? Say your name and age, please, Miss" the teacher said.

The girl saw her classmates, everyone was staring at her and being the center of attention made her feel nervous. Gyutaro was ignored by everyone, no one noticed this, only him so he slowly sat down again. The girl said her full name and her age adding a short but kind greeting where she expressed that she was delighted to meet them and hoped that they would be good friends. All the people gave her a smile and continued with the presentations of the other students on the right side of the girl, it was the first day of classes and she observed how some people were already interacting with each other, she's not very sociable but this year she was willing to be more friendly so she wouldn't be "the rejected" one like she was sometimes at school. She was willing to change in a positive way and saw the opportunity to do it with the boy sitting next to her.

She kindly touched his arm to catch his attention. The boy looked at her with contempt vibes in his stare, his ice-cold blue eyes made her feel small next to him and somewhat intimidated, she felt as if she couldn't move. The girl swallowed hard and smiled softly before speaking. "I couldn't hear your introduction earlier, so, what's your name?

He wasn't in the mood to talk. He took his earphones back and put them on without even looking at her. "I'm Gyutaro". After saying his name, he pulled up the hood of his oversized hoodie and leaned back on the desk, hiding his face in his arms. It seemed rude to you but you didn't pay attention to it, this Gyutaro seemed like the type of person with whom you should keep your distance so you didn't allow this rudeness to affect you. There were many other people in the classroom and surely one of them could be your friend.

Classes continued until it was time for recess. You took your bag and left the classroom to go to the cafe area and buy something to eat. All tables were occupied, students from different classrooms went out at the same time for lunch so your only option was to eat somewhere else on campus. You walked around the place and so you had the opportunity to know it better, you found a small garden with a couple of empty benches so you took a seat, you were still alone and here far from the rest so you just hoped not to attract attention by looking strange.

You took your cell phone out of your jeans pocket to check your social media for a while, maybe Instagram would distract you. You could feel a stare on you, with the corner of your eye you could see a person near to you who didn't move from their place. You didn't want to look up but you were starting to feel uncomfortable, you noticed a movement and heard some footsteps coming towards you. "Hello!" said a feminine and somewhat shrill voice. You looked ahead to see a girl almost your height, she was wearing a short pink dress with a strawberry print that fitted her body, showing her breasts in a slightly wide neckline. Her hair was pink with green tips hairstyled in two braids making her look adorable, she smiled at you tenderly and that made you smile back. "I'm Mitsuri, I'm in the same class as you. I couldn't help but see that you were here alone, so, would you like to come with me? I have a table with some other friends."

She seemed nice. She didn't know you but if just by seeing you, you caught her attention you had to be kind to her. "Sure! Thank you". The green eyed girl took you back to the cafeteria where two other guys and one girl were sitting. "Hey guys, I hope you don't mind but I brought one of our classmates to have lunch with us".

You recognized the faces of the others, they were in your class too but when you arrived this morning you couldn't hear their names so they introduced themselves again. The first to do it was the boy sitting in front of you, a tall blond guy with bushy eyebrows and a big smile, he spoke a little loud but he seemed enthusiastic and pleasant. "I'm Kyojuro! Nice to meet you!" "Shinobu" the girl next to him said, she just smiled at you and raised her hand as she sipped boba tea. You guessed that her favorite color was purple since the ends of her hair, her nail polish, and some of her clothes were purple. "Giyu Tomioka" said the remaining boy, a dark-haired man with a deep blue gaze, his eyes looked like the same ocean, he was somewhat quiet and shy but in a good way, unlike the jerk who sat next to you in class.

You talked to them and they seemed very close, so you asked them if they knew each other before. "Of course!" Mitsuri answered, "Kyojuro was my teacher in some japanese classes I took last year, the course ended and we became friends". "Then it turns out that Giyu and Kyojuro met in high school" Shinobu commented, "And Shinobu is Giyuu's neighbor! Can you believe how small the world is?" Mitsuri said while laughing, surprised at this great coincidence. They were very nice to you, you talked to them about yourself and they brought up various topics of conversation until the bell rang and you returned to class as a group. At the end of the day, there was a name list indicating the building you would be in and your room number. Luckily you would have Shinobu as your roommate. You expected to have Mitsuri who you liked more but the purple girl was very nice too. Both took their things and went to the corresponding building.

Both of you reached the building and went up to the second floor. "Damn, I forgot my bag in the classroom. I'll be back in a second." You told to Shinobu after leaving the room. You ran as fast as you could back to the classroom, most of the doors were already closed but when you got to your class it was still open. You entered without warning deducing that it was empty and when you stepped in, you met two of your classmates. It was the boy from this morning, Gyutaro, who was talking to a tall guy with white hair, his clothes were modern and colorful unlike the boy in front of him who was dressed mostly in black. The white haired man moved away from him too quickly when he saw you enter, making you feel a bit awkward but then he acted natural moving away from Gyutaro to get closer to you. 

"Are you looking for something, precious?" The boy asked you, his voice was flirtatious but friendly.

"I left my bag here in class, I just came to get it." You started walking around the classroom looking for your bag on the desks. Gyutaro grabbed his things and started to pack them in his backpack in a hurry, Tengen was distracted so he could walk away easily ignoring him as he turned to you. As he packed his things, he looked up only to see Tengen looking you over from head to toe in a lewd way, tilting his head to look at your butt with a smile as you walked behind the seats looking for your bag. Gyutaro hated Tengen, he could leave immediately and leave you alone with him, it's none of his business since you're a distraction to get rid of him but seeing him looking at you like that made him feel angry.

"Isn't that one over there?" he asked. Why was he helping you? Again, it's not of his business.

You looked up and there was your bag, on the teacher's desk. "Yes, it's that one" you replied relieved, the tall boy walked over and took it to give it to you. This guy wasn't so rude after all. "Thank you, Gyutaro" you told him and left the class, then Gyutaro gave his opponent a serious and contemptuous look to get out of there too. Tengen was left alone in the classroom, you had ignored him and he noticed that. Him being ignored? that hurt him, but it hurt him more that you not only ignored him but also put your attention on that ugly bastard. Did you even know his name? His narcissistic ego was hurt and he wouldn't allow you to ignore him. A pretty girl like you must know his name.

Tengen ran out of the classroom, he thought you would be gone but he could still see you walking down the halls. He ran after you calling your name, making you stop to look at him. "Hey cutie, I couldn't introduce myself to you this morning, where are my manners? I'm Tengen Uzui." He said and shook your hand with his. "Nice to meet you, Tengen." The guy didn't seem to be someone you wanted to avoid, but he kept walking with you until you got to your building and the whole way he kept talking about himself as if he was the only person in the universe, that bored and annoyed you a little. You probably wouldn't talk to him very often.

He noticed that you were already in the girl's rooms  area so he had to go. "Well, I loved spending time with you, honey. Do you have instagram or a number that I can text to you?" he asked, you weren't quite sure you wanted to get involved with him. He seemed friendly but smug and didn't make you feel comfortable like Mitsuri's group and the other guys did. "How about we get to know each other better first?" he liked your proposal, a difficult girl is a more fun challenge for him so he accepted. "Okay, see you later." He walked the opposite way but before he left he caught your attention again. "And, I don't mean to be rude but, it's best if you stay away from that Gyutaro guy. He's not good company." It made you doubt because you saw them both talking in the classroom, weren't they friends? you didn't know what was happening but you just nodded and went up to your room to order your things.

. . .

The bell indicating recess had rung, quickly, you headed towards the campus cafeteria to buy your lunch. You didn't have to worry about the table since Mitsuri and the others were waiting for you, it had only been a month since you met them but you liked them so much that you felt like all of you had been friends for years. You were in line waiting for your food, the girl next to the cashier mentioned your order number out loud and you went to get your lunch. You were walking towards the table where your friends were waiting for you when two big hands took your shoulders from behind, while a familiar voice mentioned your name in an animated tone. You knew that voice instantly, it was the same one that always cracked jokes in class, answered most of the teacher's questions and called you by thousands of different nicknames. You turned around and guessed right, the owner of that friendly yet irritable voice, was your classmate, Tengen Uzui.

"Hi, what's going on?" you asked trying to be nice.

Now that you think about it, it was the first time this guy called you by your name. "Where are you going, princess?" he asked. "Don't you get bored of spending time with the same people?" he said that with a playful voice, but you felt his intentions a bit rude. "Why don't you come with me? How about we get to know each other better? Like you said the other day."

You regretted opening your mouth about it, what you used as an excuse to run away from him and give him your phone number the other time, became your conviction. For some reason you assumed that you had caught Tengen's attention because the guy kept looking for you and convincing you to go out with him or do something together in his spare time. You could tolerate it at first but as time passed your patience was running out. You could have given him a chance but his good qualities were easily overshadowed by his proud and narcissistic personality, he could even be rude with his jokes on some occasions and that made the white-haired young man start to dislike you.

"You're so kind, but they are waiting for me. See you." You were a little irritated but you addressed him with a friendly tone. Another rejection of yours that hit directly on his ego. The boy wouldn't sit idly by, so he managed to get you to the nearest wall to seductively pin you against the wall. Any other girl would have killed to be in your place, but you felt very uncomfortable.

"How long are you going to keep this up? You're a little liar" his voice was still kind and relaxed, but you could feel a strange vibe that made you feel insecure. Soon the people who passed near you began to look at you and talk. Great, now everyone would think that between you two there was something. This wouldn't bother Tengen, what's more, it was what he wanted everyone to think but you didn't want to have anything to do with him. There were rumors that he was sleeping with 3 different girls at the same time and that he introduced all of them as his girlfriends. He was a promiscuous guy and you didn't want his "fuckboy" reputation to make you look like you were his fourth and newest acquisition.

"What do you think? We can..."

"There you are girl! I was looking everywhere for ya, where the hell were you?" A voice interrupted him, you peeked out from under him to see who was looking for you. With a neutral expression, Gyutaro stood with his hands in the pockets of his ripped jeans.

"What?" you asked something confused.

"Don't play dumb, you said you'd give me your history class notes. Or have you already forgotten?" You hadn't talked at all with Gyutaro, you just greeted him in class from time to time. He was not someone sociable, much less friendly, why was he helping you?

"Oh, you're right! I'm sorry, but let me give it to you now, before I forget it again."

There were so many people nearby, he couldn't do anything. "Son of a bitch…" he mentally insulted him.

Tengen stood up straight and with a flirtatious smile, caressed your cheek and winked. "So, this Friday at 5:00 p.m. right?" Did he tell you, did he think that would compromise you or was it just to make Gyutaro believe that he got a date with you? maybe both. Before leaving, he walked very close to Gyutaro only to shoulder him as he walked away from the spot. You looked at Gyutaro a little surprised, he looked at you too and then kept walking as if nothing had happened.

"H-hey, wait!" he was already going a little far from where you were, he was walking very fast so you hurried until you touched his back, you felt that he would keep moving away so you slightly pulled the hood of his black sweatshirt making him turn around.

"You... thank you, Gyutaro." "Why? It's nothing." he kept walking, but you sped up to keep up with him.

"Nothing? Do you know how many times he has done the same thing but no one does anything because he is a popular and handsome guy?"

"Uh-huh, you have 10 minutes left before going back to class. I'd eat something if I were you."

Damn, you stopped to look at the paper bag in your hand and remembered that you hadn't eaten anything yet. You looked up and Gyutaro was already walking a long way from you so you decided to turn back with your friends.

"What's going on? Looks like someone has a suitor" Mitsuri asked you playfully. Kyojuro and Giyuu were talking to each other so they didn't pay attention to anything that happened, unlike Mitsuri who saw everything from her place and excitedly, told to Shinobu. You quickly shook your head in a negative way. "You're so lucky! Any girl would be flattered to be in your place y/n!"

"I know, but I'm not 'just any girl'. I don't want anything with him."

"You sure you don't like him one bit? He seems to like you a lot!" Shinobu had no opinion about it, but she could see your discomfort on your face, you were a little irritated.

"Come on Mitsuri, no more questions. If she says she's not interested in him, then she's not interested in him." your partner said. Mentally, you thanked the butterfly girl who, uninterested in the subject, continued to drink her soda. The bell rang faster than you thought, and as Gyutaro said, you didn't have time to eat. Right, Gyutaro. You kept thinking about him but mainly about how he was the only one who noticed that you felt uncomfortable. Why did he help you? Now he would want something in return? Does he like you or was he just nice? It's seen that he does not like Tengen either, would it be just to annoy him? you had a lot of questions. You didn't know why he did it, but you wanted to thank him properly.

. . . . . . .

Classes were over for today, you put your books and notes in your backpack and stood up. You had an idea in your head, in your mind it sounded good but you weren't sure if it would really work. You didn't want to be left with restlessness and doubt, it was better to try and fail than to do nothing about it. You left the classroom to wait for Gyutaro outside and talk to him. The boy of the green hairtips was closing his backpack and placing it on one shoulder to head out of the classroom. You walked around the door a bit while checking your cell phone to go unnoticed by others but without taking your eyes off the door of the class until you saw a tall boy in a black sweatshirt, ripped jeans of the same color adorned with chains and combat boots with a huge sole. You had never noticed how good Gyutaro looked, the other students see him as a weirdo, but only his unique way of dressing was something that caught your attention.

You got distracted appreciating his outfit so you approached him casually to say hello.

"Hello, Gyutaro. What's new?" what kind of silly greeting was that?

The boy's deep blue eyes focused on yours, you felt very nervous and your tongue threatened to get stuck or say something stupid. Besides, Gyutaro must be upset for sure; he was wearing a black facemask now and you couldn't see his expression but you could guess he was irritated.

"U-umm well...I don't want to sound weird or make you feel uncomfortable but, are you free today? It's Friday so maybe we could-"

"Nope." He was about to keep walking but you wouldn't let him get away that easily, besides, you didn't want him to misunderstand what you wanted.

"Wait! You see, I'm feeling really grateful to you for the other day and I…I wanted to thank you in a proper way so we could go have a drink or-" he interrupted you again.

"Why do you insist on that? I told you it was nothing."

"It's a lot to me! Let me be nice to you and thank you."

"I'm busy, girl." He continued walking.

You weren't upset, rather you felt sad. Why? You last felt that feeling of nausea and emptiness at the same time when you were rejected by your school crush, but you didn't feel anything for Gyutaro. Well, he said no, the 2 for 1 coupons on smoothies would have to wait. Maybe Mitsuri or Kyojuro would be free.

"Wait..." was Gyutaro's voice, again. You turned around to see him.

"There is a cafe near the campus, it's small but I have heard that it's very good." A big smile appeared on your face. Both of you left their school bag in your bedrooms, you took your handbag and went down to the campus entrance where he was waiting for you.

Gyutaro isn't a very talkative guy so it was just your voice that made the silence disappear all the way. He was walking beside you, relaxed and with his hands in his pockets. You were walking on the sidewalk, Gyutaro walked around you and he stood on your left side leaving you on the inside side of the street. You hadn't noticed that you were walking on the side near the cars, you were distracted by the conversation and you suddenly fell silent.

"What?" Gyutaro asked upon hearing that you stopped talking.

"No, nothing." You continued talking, even though you felt a bit nervous.

You could feel your face very hot which meant that you were probably blushing, luckily the late afternoon sun painted the whole city orange so you didn't worry too much about it. You two entered the cafe that Gyutaro suggested. The place was small but nice to look at, its style was set in the 90's and the music that played was from the same era. A girl came over to take your order and then left.

The place was interesting, you couldn't miss the decoration and the coke posters on the walls, the design was very striking. Some rock music began to play in the place, there were a couple of flat screen TVs on which were the music videos of all the songs that were playing. You noticed that Gyutaro began to move his foot on the floor and his fingers on the table in rhythm with the music. Curiosity led you to see the screen but you didn't recognize the band.

"You like this music?" you asked, trying to get him to talk.

"Fuck, yeah. Guns N' Roses is one of my favorite bands"

"I see..." it was a very famous band, you knew this existed but it's not your favorite type of music.

"Do u like too?" he asked. After a while the drinks that both of you ordered arrived. You took a sip and those rumors were true, this iced tea tasted so good. "Well, I'm not a big fan of slightly old music."

You were the opposite of Gyutaro, he loves 80's and 90's rock, also some modern rock but he loves these songs even more.

"And what do u think about rock?"

"I like it, not all kinds of rock but I do listen to some songs."

"I see...my favorites besides Guns are Metallica, Nine Inch Nails and if I had to pick something more recent it would be IDKHBTFM."

"Seriously!? I love IDKHBTFM too! I can't decide if my favorite song is Absinthe or Bleed Magic"

"Both are fucking good, have you listened Mother Mother?"

"Yes!! Hayloft II is a masterpiece."

You finished your drinks but continued to talk and laugh, it turned out that you and Gyutaro had a lot in common and the way you think about each other changed completely. Gyutaro thought that you were the typical pretty girl who wanted everyone's attention, even from him, but he realized that today you acted very spontaneous and nice with him, you even said a few stupid things that made him laugh. You two could keep talking for many more hours, but it was starting to get dark and you had to get back to campus. You called the waitress to pay but at the last moment, Gyutaro handed the money to the girl.

"Hey! I told you it's on me!"

"Nah, don't worry. How about next time?"

Would there be a next time? Those words made your chest jump from the inside and with a smile you said yes. Both of you arrived at the campus, both were talking on the way to your rooms when Gyutaro's phone started ringing. You couldn't help but see the name of the contact on the screen that said "Ume" and it seemed to be a video call. The girl in the photo was cute, she posed like a model and her blue eyes were beautiful as was her long hair as white as her skin. Just looking at her made you feel that this outing had been in vain, was she his girlfriend?

"Sorry, it's my little sister. I'd like to come with you but if I don't answer her now she'll be a fucking nuisance later."

"Sure, see you later. Thanks for everything Gyutaro!"

He said goodbye while answering the call and walked to the opposite side of you. Your hands were a little sweaty, the color returned to your face when you heard him say she was his sister. Why did the thought that she could be his girlfriend make you so upset? You had spent an incredible afternoon with Gyutaro, you hadn't had such a good time in a long time and thinking about how little by little the two of you could become closer made you smile, but a nickname burst the bubble in your mind.

"Hey! Beautiful!"

"It can't be..." you thought. It was Tengen, coming from the girls' dorms way. At this time? It was kind of weird, but then you remembered what everyone was talking about him so it made you nasty. You let his greeting pass, if you were sharp maybe he would go faster.

"I told you you were a little liar and I'm checking again. We had a date, remember?"

There's nothing more annoying than being called a liar, especially by this guy.

"Wait, when the hell did I say that?"

"At the cafeteria the other day, I told you Friday at 5:00, did you forgot it?"

"I didn't think you were serious, you're never that formal." That made him very angry, you were starting to make him angry. He liked you and thought that conquering you would be something easy. Who would deny someone as attractive and popular as him? The way you kept walking by his side like he didn't exist made him explode. Were you making fun of him or trying to humiliate him?

"That's not very nice of you, sweetie. But I'm free now." He took your arm to get closer to him and take your face. He was invading your personal space.

"What do you say if we find a place where no one will see us and-"

"What the fuck!? Let go of me!" You jerked out of his grasp, pulling away from him. "I don't know who told you that I wanted your attention but they're wrong. I don't want anything to do with you and I don't want anything from you! I won't be your fourth whore if that's what you think, got it!?"

You were very angry, you felt insulted but he was even more. "I forgot. I have to be ugly for you to let me fuck you, right?" This guy had crossed the line, you wanted to go back and slap him across the face but if anything would hurt him more it would be if you completely ignored him like the trash he is. "Fuck off!" you didn't turn to see him. You turned your back on him as you walked by and gave him the middle finger. You were tired of him but you had finally made things clear, you hoped that with this rejection he would leave you alone once and for all but you had no idea what was to come.

Part 1 is here! I really loved doing my part and I hope everyone can enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Thanks to @mrsshabana again and don't forget to keep an eye out! she will post part 2 as soon as possible 💖 If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask me! ✨

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Festival Accompanying Chapter 20

This chapter revealed a lot of things about Mion that I never knew.

Irie had been doing so well in the last several chapters. Could he please just not be a creep for one arc?

Rika decided to just go straight to Irie and tell him that Takano plans to kill her. Understandably, he finds it hard to believe because that would be the worst thing that could happen to her research.

I'm kinda surprised about how much he's willing to reveal to Rika when she asks though. Telling her their research is to be concluded in three years is one thing, but actually admitting that there is an emergency procedure to kill all the villagers if anything happens is not something you just admit.

And Irie says Emergency Manual 34 would be used "in case the villagers ever show signs of a mass outbreak." I should remond everyone that the Queen Carrier hypothesis is absolutely 100% incorrect as proven in Cotton Drifting and Eye Opening. In fact, the VNs make it even more definitely true because the Eye Opening epilogue reveals all the secondary characters were still alive and well 20 years after Rika's death.

Kinda wild that those arcs on a cosmic level are the "good" endings since they're the only arcs where Operation Apocalypse failed, the village was spared, and Nomura did not get what she wants.

Irie also survived those arcs as well. So I wonder if part of the reason he was targeted by Operation Apocalypse wasn't just to pin the blame on him but also to keep any medical experts on Hinamizawa Syndrome from being able to prove that a mass outbreak wasn't going to happen.

Now that Rika has more information and less understanding why Takano would kill her, Hanyu suggests doing what the story has kind of said you should always do at times like this: Go ask your friends for help. But Rika, understandably, feels like no one would ever believe her. Maybe she wouldn't feel that way if she had her memories from Massacre. Hanyu is so confident that they'll believe Rika because she saw them believe her before.

But Hanyu does manage to come up with a framing device to get Rika to talk about the situation:

This made me do a quick dive into what manga might be around at this time. In June 1983, Doraemon, Akira, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind were all very early into their serializations. Meanwhile two works of Osamu Tezuka's, Buddha and Black Jack, would finish serialization a few months later. Speaking of which, Tezuka was still alive at this time so maybe Rika was into Phoenix. Unfortunately, Tezuka passed away before he finished it.

Another manga I found that piqued my interest is Touch. It's a manga about two identical twins and the neighbor girl wanting to become professional baseball players. It ran from 1981 to 1986.

I have just learned some very interesting things about Mion right now. I can imagine her having the managerial skills to handle things like story-boarding, promoting, and publishing; but I'd never guess she has drawing skills or any ability with typesetting.

Rika tells them the plot points she's come with for her "manga" and I bet Keiichi realized she's just copying the plot of the Higurashi VN beta that the regulars at Angel Mort have been sharing with each other (No seriously, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni's beta exists as an actual visual novel within the Higurashi universe).

When Rika asks for help about the "evil researcher's" motives, Mion suggests there is someone else manipulating her, and even though the "evil researcher" is doing something that doesn't benefit her, it would benefit the mastermind.

And Mion was exactly on point about what is going on.

It's a minor detail, but this moment really exemplifies Rika's "frog in a well" status that Massacre kept calling her. Rika has only known the village and the people living in it. When trying to understand Takano's motives, she isolated her thoughts entirely to the village and the villagers. She never considered someone completely unconnected to the village might be the reason for all this.

So did everyone realize that Rika was asking for help from the start or did they realize after Rika asked for help to figure out how the protagonist of her "manga" can win?

The very first thing Mion brings up is Satoko has built a whole trap mountain. Way back in Curse Killing chapter 1, Keiichi said Satoko could take on an army within the mountains and we're soon going to find out how true that is.

But just as Hanyu predicted, Rika's friends believe her and are ready to help. Now comes the time to plan their counterattack.

back

Spoiler Discussion

Near the end of this arc, we discover that Takano is beginning to suffer the symptoms of Hinamizawa Syndrome. At this time, she's very likely already low-level symptomatic and is experiencing the symptoms similar to Satoko's: Calm exterior with a burning internal hatred.

Hanyu said one of the ways to keep symptoms at bay is to go to others for help. We saw that at the end of Atonement when Rena calmed down because Keiichi was able to convince her that he cared about her.

In a far darker sense, Nomura is doing the same thing to Takano. She's convinced Takano that she cares about her and her research and Takano is becoming dependent on Nomura to keep from falling victim to Hinamizawa Syndrome.

And maybe finding out Takano is being manipulated is what affects Rika's motivations at the end of the story. Takano and Hanyu both have a wish that oppose one another. But at the end of this story, Rika will make a greater wish stronger than both of them, and her will shall be the one that wins.

[bestworstcase]

Listen as someone who loves Ozpin a lot, he got the better end of the deal and we know this bc Light said explicitly he would not be alone. No it’s not a GOOD deal but considering he found and reunited with and had kids with Salem in his first new life? Things only got terrible for him truly after they broke up / tried to kill each other.

Salem watched humanity be Destroyed by the “gods” of her world who thought she should be punished bc they were easily swayed into fighting by making her Love Forever, Invulnerable (can be brown. Apart but comes back together) and then Left Her Alone Until Humanity Evolved once again either by our real world rules or magical rules or a combination of the two.

Listen I’ll write an essay about Oz and his years of fucked up loneliness and body snatching he didn’t want but Salem being Alone for That long without even the release of death at her own hands? NONE of us would handle that well who knows how she rebates when life sprang up again like. She’s the villain for sure she’s fucked up for sure but man I would be too. I would be too

it’s funny that you say this actually because i think the opposite. salem may have been brutally psychologically tortured for millions of years at the hands of cruel and tyrannical gods, but 1. she’s still herself, 2. she understands that she did not deserve this, and 3. she was ultimately able to claw back some agency for herself by jumping into the pool of grimm (which is doubly true if that really did cause humanity’s resurrection, because in that case she actually ended the worst part of her curse).

meanwhile ozma got turned into a parasite who subsists by erasing and absorbing other people’s lives, over and over and over again, entirely against his will and in a manner that also forces him to experience this from their perspective too. and the god of light tricked him into agreeing to this—so he feels it’s his fault—on top of making it his sole responsibility to redeem humanity before the gods lest the whole world be obliterated. he’s been manipulated into a position where the one person who ever made him want to live is his greatest enemy and his whole existence revolves around a hopeless campaign to get rid of her so he can save the world that he only wanted to save because she was in it. and his sense of identity has been eroded so badly that he doesn’t even consider himself to be a person anymore. and he’s convinced all of his suffering is his fault and exactly what he deserves for having failed.

and rwby has been very, very clear that a person’s soul is their identity, their self-knowledge, which means that the nature of ozma’s curse is tearing his soul apart.

when salem found out he reincarnated early she kicked everyone out of the room, tried to calm herself down, had a meltdown, blew the windows in, and then very quickly shuffled her plans around to do damage control and even try to turn this development to her advantage (<- the ‘wring the lamp’s password out of him’ plan). when ozpin’s precarious house of cards collapsed he burrowed down into oscar’s head and went catatonic for months. and if V1 is any indication, as ozpin he regularly spent months on end just dissociating all the time. salem is like… a lot more emotionally functional than he is, and i think that’s entirely because ozma’s form of reincarnation is shredding his soul and forcing him to live in the bodies of people he involuntarily consumes.