#my prospects aren't great with this anime

[perkeleen-lavellan]

Boku No Hero Academia is cursed because my favourite character Yoarashi Inasa was there for like 4 episodes and then he's never to be seen again even though he is literally the boyfriend of my other favourite character Todoroki Shouto and do you see my problem now?

[evilminji]

For once! Purely BNHA! Because I CAN NOT stop Pondering It!

Quirk: Transfer.

Vague name, right? Well it would have to be. Because NO ONE would believe a Self Insert, even in a world of Quirks. They wouldn't WANT to believe. Because? The prospect would be horrifying and terrible.

It's far easier to say it's "Quirk Related Neurosis".

Because "no, no, you silly child! Your Quirk can't POSSIBLY have grabbed a random soul from another dimension, which it now holds, as the ONLY thing powering your body! You can't have died, with all the trauma and loss that entails, only to be shoved into the body of a toddler! Silly baby, such wild imagination! Maybe your Quirk 'transfers' memories, too!"

Except NO, asshole. They are the one with the metaphorical arm here. THEY are the one who would know which way it does and does not "Bend". But trying explaining a something to someone who doesn't want to hear it. Something that makes them uneasy, that is outside of their world view.

That touchs on the random, unfeeling, chaos of the Universe and how it relates to their soft and supposedly sensible lives. What do you MEAN sometimes Bad Things happen to good people? What do you MEAN sometimes, even if I do everything "right" and take every precaution, terrible calamities can occur?

That I could Die?

That my very Soul could be ripped away from it's rightful rest, too some far off land?

That can't happen! That's not FAIR. It's not RIGHT. Crimes are Illegal! You can't be telling me that sometimes people DONT uphold their duties! Abuse their power! That things are unfair and injustice can strikes, no matter HOW safe I think I am!

That's Scary!

I'd rather believe you were wrong.

That things Make Sense and there are Rules I have to follow. That I am Safe and you are just a liar. Bad things happen for a reason. Bad people are bad BECAUSE they are evil and bad. Let's not think about this any more. Let's talk about TV shows and take-out.

What a terrifying Quirk.

To be held, at the nonexistent mercy, of the Universe's randomness and decay. Reliant on the compassion and understanding of Others, to cope with what has occurred.

Because while the Universe is uncaring, your fellow man SHOULD be. Bonding together against that great and frightful void. Making sense of it all. The compassion of stardust and all that. Children born of this universe, who in turn look back and observe it. Yet? To them you are either mad... or a liar.

Do they hide it fast enough? Do they even think too, in time?

Or is their's a childhood being told "your past is nothing more that hallucinations and stolen memories" before being fed pills, for illnesses they do not have? Do they doubt? Break down and believe. After all, everyone around them is telling them their memories are false.

Not to trust their lying mind.

Children have so few rights. Madmen even fewer.

Do they lie? Smile, nod, and agree with whatever the doctors say? Do they know their mind or does this destroy them? Perhaps... they are lucky. Good doctors and better care. Long talks and learning to cope, with no one believing. After all, hallucinations don't "go away" just because you know they aren't real.

Why would their memories?

A childhood never quite forgiving the ones who locked them away. Being treated as "insane". Being alone. Not sure if you WANT to "make friends" but trying anyway. Because humans are social animals. Because you know what an alarmingly intelligent and self disciplined child, who ALSO happens to be notably asocial, looks like to people.

A life of fear and lies.

The chronic, extreme, stress, and what it must do to their health.

Does Transfer grow with them? Most Quirks do.

What a terrifying childhood. To know, one day, it could just... quit. A straining muscle that finally gives out. The Quirk that binds you into this body just... running out of strength. Letting go.

Maybe grabbing a different soul.

After all, no one ever said YOUR soul was special. And no one believes you. So no tests have ever been done. And that hold? How strong, you must wonder, IS it?

Do they drift? In and out. Does their body suffer, from stress and a soul barely bound to it? Poorly transfered, by an Infants first manifestation? Why was it a SOUL? The first thing they Transfered? Was it based on need? Or was it always meant to be this way?

Can the Transfer other things, now? Or still just themselves? Still nothing but Souls? Is it even a transfer at all?

And what happens if it stops? Or gets copied? Influenced in anyway? Do they have a moral obligation to avoid those they know could be potentially killed by them? Who could potentially kill them by accident?

And, oh! Oh the QUANDARY of children! Quirks are GENETIC. Any mutation or variation of their Quirk? Will bring about ANOTHER. Do they have that RIGHT? Too kidnap another soul? Even if it's just to no longer be alone? Too condemn them to live when they may not wish too?

Their whole bloodline would be Self Inserts. No guarantee they'd be from the same universe! But they would be Reincarnations just like you. Born into a Story. One you KNOW, by nature, can never be peaceful.

Because a peaceful world is not an interesting Shonen Story.

Just as Batman can never truely win, just as the day never truely stayed saved, so too will this world forever decend back into chaos. So a new Protagonist can rise to meet it. What RIGHT would you have, to knowingly bring an innocent person into such danger, trapped in the body of a child?

I ponder the Self Insert Quirk.

How horrifying and numbing it must be. How crippling, the terror that, this? Is merely the beginning of a Tale that will destroy them. To be inserted into story's they long ago forgot, again and again, with no way to stop it. Forever.

Damned to be set dressing in another's grand campaign, even as they slowly go insane.

What a horrifying Quirk.

The Self Insert Quirk: Transfer.

@hdgnj @hypewinter @nerdpoe @the-witchhunter @lolottes @babbling-babull

[camprell-art]

Again, I am SO sorry that I came across wrongly.

The ability to make polygons attractive is a very interesting one and I enjoy looking at all the weirdness behind it, even if sometimes I can’t take it all seriously, it’s mostly the “The prospect is so ridiculous, yet the execution is actually good-“ type of humour I find in it all- Not “Haha this sucks and it’s stupid and I want to make someone miserable”

If I truly despised something, I wouldn’t even look at it, point blank. 

My constant repetition of a point was mostly to emphasise the peculiarity of the prospect of concept in juxtaposition to the well done execution of art- If my tone came across too wrongly, or that “I have nothing else to say so I’ll be a wind up juke box” then I’ll scatter some well earnt compliments I have yet to say- 

The designs are excellent, especially the weird yet very original translation of Dimentio’s polygon design into the attractive anime format. I find interest in your shading style, and the development on these designs. The fact you’ve been drawing art for this one fever dream Nintendo game from 17 years ago for so long in of itself is admirable too. 

Your recent redraw piece of the Bleck Crew was awesome too! Personally, I’ll always prefer the original one, as it’s the one I’ve seen the most, and I like the shading style you used there a bit more (I tend to like the usage of a character’s dominant colours approach a bit more) but that doesn’t change the fact that from an objective point of view, I VERY much see the improvement! I like Mimi’s original design a LITTLE bit more as I feel there are some more original angles taken to making her spider like, yet like a cute little girl, but that’s not to say her recent version is in any way bad! 

I have a tendency to come across the wrong way very often- My communication skills are far from adequate as you can probably tell, socialising is far from a forte to me- If I come across as ‘snobbish’ or entitled that really isn’t intentional, and that is not at all what I intend- So I thoroughly apologise. 

Keep doing what you’re doing. I apologise for offending you and your fandom again, and I shall be taking my leave. 

I hope you all have a great day! :)

-The Meanie Anon

It's alright! I understand liking the originals more because of familiarity and style, humanizations aren't for everyone, and it's completely fine!

I also appreciate the compliments, so thank you!

The only thing I'll ask you is to not call it anime, I hate anime ajfjauf

I prefer 🌟semi realism🌟 uwu

at least that's what I try to convey hehehe

Have a good night! Or day!

[orangepanic]

Directors cut for the uncommon rainsss

Aw, thank you.

Sigh. After the Uncommon Rains. Though it's not yet finished, this is without a doubt my least popular long fic. Despite some initial interest, even most of the people who normally read my stuff (all 2-5 of you, bless) aren't really picking this one up - or if they are, they aren't telling me about it. I have a few theories as to why this one is a flop, but that's not what you asked. Besides, I personally love it, so I'm gonna gush about it anyway. Maybe someone out there will give it a chance. And to the few readers it has, thank you!

As I explain in the summary and author's note, "After the Uncommon Rains" is essentially Jane Austen's last novel, Persuasion, rewritten as a Western. Some of this is self-serving. Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen, and one I think is generally severely underrated in favor of others like Emma or Pride and Prejudice. In it we have characters who aren't in the throes of folly and misunderstanding, but actually living with the consequences of that previous folly. The action opens with main protagonist, Anne Elliott, faced with the prospect of reuniting with Frederick Wentworth, a man with whom she was deeply in love and briefly engaged to some seven years prior. Her family disapproved of Frederick's lack of wealth; Anne caved to their pressure and broke it off. She's been miserable ever since. Frederick, however, is now the dashing and very rich Captain Wentworth, having made his fortune on the very wit and intelligence that Anne fell in love with. Now he's back. And oh boy, does he hate her for breaking his heart.

So immediately this screams Irosami to me. What I love about Anne and Frederick is that their attraction isn't just physical, but intellectual. They both love culture and reading and learning about the world, and have good hearts and strong moral compasses and are brave and selfless with their friends. Which is what I see as the chief attractions of an Irosami ship as well. Their minds are made for each other just as much as their bodies. But I didn't just want to re-write Persuasion with Iroh as the naval captain and Asami as the quiet victim of her family's hatred of benders. Not only was that boring, but it didn't quite fit. Asami stands up to her father in canon. She doesn't take anyone's shit. Of the two of them, I think Iroh the more likely to cave to the pressures of honor and duty. Therefore, Iroh is a more obvious Anne. And Asami, the ambitious and talented 19-year old CEO with a bit of a temper and ride-or-die loyalty, is a better Frederick. It also allowed me to bring in more members of the OC family I've already created for Iroh, including especially his little sister.

I also wanted to do something fun with the setting. I personally struggle when I have to follow another work too closely, so I thought the challenge of making Persuasion work outside of Edwardian England would help. I've been playing with the idea of a Western for a while. So, why not? A Western it became. What is Anne's stay at the Musgroves became Iroh working at Tenzin's sky bison ranch in the Si Wong desert, and Captain Wentworth's success in the navy became Asami's inheritance of Future Industrial Railroad, which just happens to be building a line out that way.

The most fun I've had with this fic is hands-down the worldbuilding I've had to do for the setting. I've done so much research on cattle ranching and clothing styles and climate and locomotives. I've looked at so many pictures of dresses and hats and trains. I have my friend with a horse on speed dial to ask her questions about riding and the care of ostrich horses. I feel like I invent a plant or animal or food every ten lines. It's really great. Is it a coach or a carriage? Did you know that there's a difference?

By far the least fun - or maybe just the hardest - is matching up all the characters. In the novel there are far fewer main characters. The Musgroves' two daughters are Anne's only real rivals for Wentworth's affections. But in this fic I had to figure out what to do with all the air kids, all the Beifongs, Korra, plus Mako and Bolin. It was absolute chaos, with like five different people filling the roles of two. Other characters don't cleanly map - Baatar Jr. is playing the role of two characters, as is Bolin, while Commander Bumi is more like one and a half and Lin combines the roles of 2-3 bit parts so sometimes I feel like I forget that she's there. The endgame Linumi is based on the flimsiest of side ships. There's no renters of Kellynch, so Frederick's sister and the Admiral's roles are spread out among the cast. The whole plotline of Mr. Elliott, Anne's creepy cousin who almost marries her instead of Frederick, is dramatically reduced because I cut out the entire inheritance sub-plot altogether. Same with Tahno, who is playing a reduced version of Mrs. Clay who doesn't really want to marry Izumi (Sir Elliott), just kind of be a sponge on the family. Basically, it's been chaos.

If there's one mistake I made in planning, I think it's probably trying to force the Korra sami bit. For one, it's probably clear as day to a reader that I don't vibe with the ship because I can't write it to save my life. The whole Korra and Asami dynamic feels awkward and forced to me. Second, though I know it's an AU and 2023 and I'll probably be roasted for this, no one remarking on the same sex relationship also feels weird for both the Western and the Austin genre, mostly because there is always so much about inheritance and marriage there. Nobody batting an eye that Korra wants to marry Asami without addressing money and heirs and all that in a world where those concerns were the driving force of most of the plots seems a glaring omission. Finally, it introduces even more people into the mix, and other side ships like Makopal that I struggle to write or have to spend extra time justifying. I think everything would have gelled better with eventual Makorra and Bopal as the other side ships. Oh well. I wanted Borra. :-) I will live with my choices.

That said, I still love this fic. I'm having fun writing it. It's stretched me in new ways, most notably in it being the first time I've ever worked with beta readers. THANK YOU YOU LOVELY AMAZING PEOPLE. And whether a lot of folks read this story or not, I'm glad that I tried to do something different and difficult.

[bearpillowmonster]

15 questions 15 people ! i was tagged by @umbreonwolfy thanks (:

1. are you named after anyone? Nope, completely original.

2. when was the last time you cried? I don't remember tbh, it's hard to sort through dreams and reality, so if you cry in a dream and wake up, does that count? I mean Million Dollar Baby was pretty tearful though.

3. do you have kids? Nope.

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?  Kind of, I don't really think about it though, scared to be misunderstood.

5. what sports do you play/have you played? I played soccer in high school and teeball when I was 6, if you count playing with the grass

6. what’s the first thing you notice about people? Probably shirt and hair color.

7. what’s your eye color? Something of a Serene Blue if you look up an eye color chart because my blue and my sister's blue are completely different.

8. scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings, scary movies aren't usually scary to me, just reiterative and dumb a lot of the time.

9. any special talents? Depends who's asking, I guess because if someone sees something that they can't do then they call it a talent.

10. where were you born?  United States, unfortunately.

11. what are your hobbies? Draw, read, write, game. Also this.

12. do you have pets? The only one I actually consider mine is one of my family's dogs, for some reason she just seems to like me best therefore I feel about the same way.

13. how tall are you? About 5′6. (Hey, we're about the same, Effy!)

14. favourite subject in school? Tough, because while I mentioned that I love drawing, reading and writing, I didn't discover most of that until after I finished school simply because I was no longer forced and no longer put within restraints of what I could and couldn't write or read about. So really I liked the subjects that had the best teachers, I had a great Algebra teacher and a bad algebra teacher, complete opposite sides of the spectrum. I also liked whatever class had enjoyable students which happened to be history a lot of the time.

15. dream job? I want to be in animation...mmm, but my prospects are all over the place because I don't really like how mistreated everyone seems to be in that industry so I've been looking at different angles.

I just checked my following list and uh do it only if you want, like I said, I don't like to be forced to stuff either. I tag @sirladysketchh, @kassasaurus-rex, @joechoui, @baymaksu, @oveliagirlhaditright

[more-than-a-princess]

Tsubasa: 🐸New friends 💋 good/bad influence (COOL INFLUENCE) ♝ Found family (at least on Tsubasa's part - if you're a friend, you're family to them)

Anzu: 🐸New friends ▲ Besties (eventually, as far as she's concerned) 💃Partners in Crime (the crime is 'bothering shinobu')

Shinobu: ♫ Reluctant friends (from Shinobu, at least) 💋 good/bad influence (bad influence? good influence? who is to say really) ➣ One-sided crush (from Shinobu, she's gonna be very unhappy with herself about it) perhaps into € Mutual unknown longing (perhaps maybe maybe)

Relationship dynamics meme - Accepting. So very much accepting. Please send this in if you'd like to write with me/already are writing with me so we can plot!

Ooh so many great ideas! I'll respond to this by muse:

Tsubasa: Yes PLEASE have Tsubasa be Sonia's cool influence! I could see them becoming friends very quickly and easily, and Tsubasa teaches Sonia cool slang and not to sound like a 40 year old trapped in an 18 year old's body. Take Sonia to skating competitions! Or concerts! Or other cool teenage things! Let Sonia put temporary bright streaks or extensions in her hair and neon makeup! Give her a digital pet (that she will suck at taking care of but it's the thought that counts)!

She will be totally poggers in no time do people even say poggers or vibe or mood anymore but yeah Sonia still will because it's Sonia and no matter how hard someone tries, she's a dork. She's a dork around regular people because she's so sheltered. She's a dork in the upper classes because she's obsessed with horror/occult/serial killers/anime/dramas/gothic and romantic literature.

In Sonia's case, she can teach Tsubasa all about etiquette, or public speaking, or languages. Or horror movies. Is Tsubasa easily scared? For their sake, I hope they aren't.

Don't let Sonia cook for them either but that goes for any and all muses!

Anzu: Sonia will have no choice but to become besties with Anzu. One, she's just so nice and friendly and energetic! And two, Anzu will hear about how her bestest friend ever Shinobu met the Princess of Novoselic and didn't outright hate her and, if I'm right about this, that's good enough for Anzu.

These two tag each other in new IG filters and swoon over dramas, I bet. Anzu tries to take Sonia to do young, cool and hip teenage girl things, like meeting her favorite hosts at the host club, but Sonia is uncomfortable by the prospect of paying someone to talk to her/be her friend. If just for the fact her family has already done that in the past, or people tend to befriend her because they want what she represents or something she has, instead of who she is.

Anzu is also the Queen of the Stairs. That is: Sonia will learn to think twice about taking the stairs at Hope's Peak Academy - she'll never know who's lying at the bottom, clearly in pain from a certain gremlin who has pushed them and made it look like an accident (my money is on Hiyoko ending up there sooner rather than later).

But still, very good and agreeable friends, though Anzu always seems to be laser focused on...

Shinobu: Oh yes, if there's any reluctance in this friendship, it's on Shinobu's end. Sonia is already plenty entertained by their morbid outlook on their attire and the ball in general, so she'll be more than happy to befriend them. Despite all the rumors floating around Hope's Peak about how cruel Shinobu Yaguchi is towards...well, everyone. But especially girls who get too close to them and then get disappointed when they're rejected.

Fortunately for Shinobu, dating them isn't at the forefront of Sonia's mind, at least not at first. She's just happy to make a new friend! One that happens to be thoughtful, introspective, brooding, bitter but kind to at least one person/Anzu, tends to need a hug and a smile more than most...well, you can see where I'm going with this:

mutual/known longing is likely to happen in this case. I can see Sonia feeling at ease in their company, as they likely won't care about her title and is far more interested in Sonia's personality, or at least the concerning parts of it: her obsession with the disturbing and the fact she's not breaking out in tears every time Shinobu glares at her, or tells her she's annoying, or some other tactic that usually makes other girls crumble.

Sonia's not like other girls: she's got concerning hobbies, believes the best in everyone, and is an absolute idiot when it comes to recognizing someone is in love with her (Kazuichi aside).

They need all the help they can get, but don't tell Anzu that. She'll only be more determined to resolve this one-sided crush that could turn into mutual pining. They can both be the good/bad influence!

Also: can we say a prayer for Sonia's windows (from Shinobu) and Sonia's general privacy (from Anzu)? RIP to both. She won't see them intact again: not for long, at least.

[tothedarkdarkseas]

39 and 60

39. Who would rescue an injured animal and nurse it back to health? What would the other think?

I don't necessarily think either are great with animals, so I keep flip-flopping on this. I could potentially see Murdoc obtaining Cortez this way, if we wanted to rewrite the pseudo-supernatural canon instead; then again, I don't like to completely erase Murdoc's canon cruelty in his youth toward animals, not because I enjoy the thought but because it's something truly quite vile, and I do think in characters like these it's important to acknowledge the things that aren't sympathetic or relatable. I don't think he'd throw matches at Katsu now, very much think it was a byproduct of a warped still-forming psyche, but still I don't think he's necessarily the animal-whispering type. Stu I don't see as disliking animals at all, but he always has such scattered and odd "pets" in canon that all lean heavily toward the inanimate or fully independent. I don't think he was ever really given the responsibility of caring for an animal, and therefore never properly has.

I'm going to go with Murdoc and a raven/crow/magpie of some sort, perhaps as a successor to Cortez, perhaps just in an odd moment of sentimentality with no intentions of keeping the creature. Stu's already lived with the large, threatening bird in the house and isn't thrilled at the prospect of doing it again, so he keeps his distance. He'd look over Murdoc's shoulder from about four feet back and say "It's going to attack my eyes." "Best put your sunnies on then."

60. Who pulls the other closer when they’re sleeping?

I don't envision the two cuddling or spooning much, save a few intoxicated accidents, but Murdoc's more likely to press his luck. It's not so much pulling Stu close as it is ferreting himself in closer, maneuvering a codeine-heavy arm open to press his cheek against a clavicle, to hold him at his ribcage, pads of his fingers pressing in the dips between bone. He grips at Stu like he means to leave prints.

...Just sometimes, though. Often I think they can share a bed without sharing a sense of intimacy or affection. It's baser than that, and will turn to face-down drunk snores and knocking the other's stray hand away.

[futuron-of-my-youth]

I'd like to do more with my Tumblr than just Lego, but as I figure out how I want to use it I figure I'll show off MOCs, my pride and joy, My own MOC creations made with astonishing fidelity to the Classic Legoland Space part selections. Seeing as these are all parts taken from one each of the sets from 1987-1990 and including a few odd elements from the older and newer themes where I don't have the full lineup. If you were to tool around my blog you'll see I stopped reviewing after Blacktron and there's a few reasons for that.

Reason 1: I pushed hard from early 2013-2016 and collected a lot of Lego across four themes and wrote so much I had no time for actually relaxing and building with my Lego. I hit blogger burnout.

Reason 2: The Lego movie raised prices for the old Legoland Space stuff and changed the prices for the stuff I was trying to collect upward. I slowed down and haven't completed anything else to begin a write up. And coupled with my burnout, I don't yet know if I would, even if I could.

Reason 3: My last haul for this collection was January 2020... most of Unitron, Hence why I have any of it and why it appeared listed as parts in this MOC. After that the prospect of shipping myself objects that might make mailmen sick, or me sick, given what we knew about Covid at the time, seemed a poor idea, so I bunkered, and if I got Lego, I got it new in store... meanwhile prices for Old Space sets went even higher, and the prospect of collecting them continued to grow more daunting.

Reason 4: I play more video games, and watch a lot of anime these days... getting the Lego out to build in my 1 room studio demands full use of my space, and so, I just don't get it out very often, and when I do, I try to make something great. Typically I'll go hard for 1 or 2 afternoons, but usually If an idea doesn't come together in 1 sitting I abandon it, I'm impressed by folks who make grand MOCs spanning months, but my space and personality aren't amenable to such a task.

Reasons for my long slide into Ex-blogger obscurity aside... I discovered some Facebook groups that were active around my favorite Lego themes with discussion boards, and I've enjoyed communing with the other Space builders, as opposed to laboring on a niche blog in solitude, so I jumped ship and hang out with my fellow fans these days, posting Moc's and less intensive Blog posts once in a blue moon.

[semimedieval]

the beach part 9: Okay then. BYE BYE!

What I failed to mention – because I completely failed to notice it – is that in the midst of Spark's ice cream heist, the set-up for the ultimate resolution to the Soul Pearl plot was actually present the whole time.

Suddenlly a wide 34 year old lady wearing fancy clothes strolled around. Chuji stared at the high heels. "uncomfortable......"

Talk about Chekhov's Gun, because Augustine goes on to disappear for the entire long span of posts discussed previously. The conspicuous absence of Augustine might have something to do with the conspicuous absence of Obsidian, come to think of it, because god forbid anybody talk to characters who aren't their love interests.

Anyway, we remember the lady is there only after a long break, when we're informed while Quartz and Spark are talking that Chuji is running around in circles for unclear reasons, catching the lady's view. Spark is suspicious.

Spark looked at the lady. "Who is that?" she whispered. "I have no idea," Quartz replied, her eyes narrowing.

Everyone's characters get activated, suddenly, because the gang surrounds the lady as if its their beach and other people aren't allowed to walk there. Big ups to her for wearing heels on sand, by the way. I'd have taken those right off. Without pussyfooting around too long, Augustine drops the reveal.

Obsidian woke up to see the lady standing a few feet away. A surprised squeak exited his mouth and he scrambled up. "A simple lady who-" she stared at miyon "MI YONG?!" Miyon squeaked "Hi auntie." "Auntie...?" said Obsidian. He looked from Miyon the the lady and gasped. Spark ran up to Miyon. "This is your Aunt?" Now the Lady was flailing her arms "MI YONG! WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS?!" Their bones in GoatVille....." Mi Yong looked down

Quartz reacts to these revelations with a #problematic endorsement of blood ties over chosen family, but who can blame her, I like the element of straight projection in me that rejects Anime Tropes in favor of "this 15 or so year old is terrified by the prospect of being partially responsible for a whole child."

"Whoa! That's great! Miyon will have a real home now probably!" Quartz exclaimed, laughing. The lady reared her face towards Spark "You better believe it!" Spark gave Miyon a strong hug. Ky looked at the lady skeptically. Spark faced the woman straight in the face, glaring. "Miyon is perfectly fine with us, lady." "Now Now. I'm Duchess Calimbrie Rosa-Flower Darmka.. The eleventh."

Well, if she's the eleventh. Quartz clearly thinks so too, because she's clearly on team Fuck Yeah No More Babysitting. It comes off a little more callous than I think Quartz would be in real life. Frankly, I'm still tempted very regularly to ditch Miyong/June's stupid ass altogether, the only Arguments For keeping her being character development for Lark, her presence as a fun character in next gen, and the fact that I've already written out Chapter 3 with her in it. The Soul Pearl plot certainly doesn't count – I can come up with plenty of creative ways for them to get it. Still, I like the ideas that June's inclusion conveys about family within and without the bounds of legality, and its impact on Lark's character in the long term. If I had a full outline it would be easier to make these decisions.

Anyway, Quartz has this to say. You can tell that this is before my 'I've decided being kind matters a lot actually' arc, which I guess spans from summer 2013 onward.

Quartz grabbed Spark's arm. "Spark! Calm down! I know you love Miyon, but she needs to be with older people, family, people who have had experience with children! Do you want her to grow up in some cave with teens, eating nothing but goose?" Spark gave a forced smile, trying to hold back tears. She bent down and gave Miyon a huge hug. "It's for the best. We'll all miss you." "Besides young.. girl.. I'm her aunt and you have NONE OF her blood and a permit for her to be under you roof!" "We're very sorry, Your Grace," Lupus said, bowing charmingly.

What a little suck-up. I believe that Leander would turn on the charm in this situation, but I don't believe that he wouldn't defend his friend. Of course he would defend his friend. That's his friend!

Ky's mouth was still in a frown. Royalty meant nothing to her.

The word Ky is looking for is nobility, but still real as hell. My characters are being suckup teacher's pet chumps about this situation, I'm man enough to admit that.

Then, the moment of truth!

"Come come Mi Yong, I'm sure puff will be excited to see you." "Wait!" Mi Yong said loudly "I wanna say thanks to my friends for saving me..." She then took off a necklace she had made recently, On it was a pretty blue and purple pearl Ky gasped. Could it be.... "The soul pearl!" Spark couldn't hold back the tears. Nobody knew how much that little girl had meant to her. "Miyon! Don't go!" "It's Mi Yong, Spark...." Mi Yong looked at her side ways. "Mi Yong then." she pushed back a strand of Mi Yong's hair. "It suits you." she laughed as bittersweet tears fell from her eyes "Don't mind me." "Okay then. BYe BYE!" and she skipped away behind her aunt leaving them with her little necklace

"Okay, then." Ouch! This whole plot line is a mess and I wish it wasn't there. I am just not very prone to Pet Child-centered sentimentality when done poorly – one would recall that I resisted the presence of Omega in The Bad Batch before I came to my senses and realized that Omega is one of the Star Wars characters of all time.

Jack is unhappy with Quartz and Obsidian's choices to say goodbye to Miyong nicely instead of getting on the ground and throwing up. My response, while unfair, is fairly reasonable given the circumstances. I will tentatively give myself this credit as a writer: I am slowly working towards the idea that moments of emotionality can be subtle, can be earned, can be repressed the way Quartz represses hers in the previous post. Those are all interesting modes of writing, but screaming and crying and throwing up can be an interesting mode of writing too, and certainly the right character choice for Spark in this situation. We're both right, in short – that's the gist of it.

TOESOCKSQUEEN: (.....that was a bit wierd. XD Why is no one sad about leaving friends who they've known for like half a year?) DRAGONODSESSED: *shrug* Quart was sad but distracted and knew what was best for Miyon, and neither Lupus nor Obsidian really spend much time around little girls.

But now, at long last, the Soul Pearl. Spark is decentered in these revelations, as is Chuji, which I think is kind of dumb because they're by far the two most Tozi-centered character. Instead the task of remembering the Soul Pearl comes to the third most Tozi-centered character. And also Ky.

Obsidian knelt down next to it. "Do you really think it could be the soul pearl?" he asked softly. Ky flipped it over in her palm. "Let's ask Tozi." "Tozi!" Obsidian called. "I think we might have found the soul pearl!"

Spark remembers she's supposed to be in love with the guy, and hands it to him. Also I love the way everyone at this point assumes it's the soul pearl due to pure plot convenience, with no contemplation given to how Miyong would have come across it. This is making me realize that I really need to finish macro-outlining at least the next three adventures before I write much more.

"Hmm? HA well let's see." Spark scooped it up and held it too him. "Well?" He suddenly yelled and a BIG poof of light surrounded him, then.. There he was, in the clothes he wore the day her died, still bloody. He was back. "Tozi!" Spark screamed, running to him. She almost knocked him over with her huge hug.

Looks like the wedding is BACK ON, girls!!!

Obsidian is really laughing here because he's realizing another girl is interested in Tozi, thus unburdening that situation from being his problem. Quartz, in another classic demonstration of being A HOMOSEXUAL, realizes it's her problem now instead. The Greythornes will never be free.

Obsidian blinked -- it had all happened so quickly. Then, understanding what had happened, he laughed in joy, sounding a little demented. Spark started laughing. "You're back! You're really back!" Here was the boy who told stories by the fire. Befreinded them. Risked his life for Chuji. "Ha ha. Yeah" He said while detaching Spark. Quartz looked at Spark. She really did like Tozi. Spark stepped back,starting to blush. Did she really just do that? She did'nt like Tozi that way. Did'nt she?

Girl, you were asking yourself if he was up for grabs yesterday. I like Tozi's awkwardness here – the last physical sensation he felt was the pain of dying. So I think so much of his discomfort here is that hugging Spark is his first real human touch, and that he is still covered in clothes covered with his own fresh blood. So much of the imagery here is super cool. Tozi/Tallin doesn't come back wrong, but that's only as a product of his best efforts. I like that I changed him in 3.0 from dying instantly to dying slowly, and I like that I stopped metanarratively dunking on him. I like Tozi, you guys. I still kind of think that he and Spark should epic divorce but I'm not completely set on that either.

One more section to go before Extranei Summer really, formally ends and Complicated Extranei Fall begins. What could possibly happen next? Hint: as per Augustine's suggestion, it starts with B and ends with Each party. I like to imagine that September by Earth Wind and Fire, which is not on the nostalgia playlist, starts playing around now, in the best 'end of a 2010s movie' tradition. It's not the end of the movie, of course, but the end of the movie was left for 2016 me to write and 2024 (2025?) me to improve.

[theghostpinesmusic]

Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Loop (2/3)

The goat did not come back overnight. When I woke up in the morning, I was alone. I didn't know this at the time, but I was done with intense animal encounters on this trip. However, I did have one more long day of distance/elevation gain between me and Strawberry Lake, so I made sure to get an early start.

Before heading out, I scanned the rock walls encircling Little Slide Lake one last time by the morning light, but saw no sign of the goat. From past observations, I knew that goats tended to climb up high at night, so I guessed he was somewhere beyond the rim of the cliff; ironically, where I was headed to that morning, albeit by a different route. The couple and their retriever camped out along Slide Lake were still asleep as I passed by through dewy, knee-high grass. I managed to not wake up the dog, or, more likely, he heard me and decided to ignore me.

After a brief descent, I hooked on to the evocatively-named Skyline Trail and headed south. I was excited by the prospect of taking what looked like a fun, steep traverse below the 8,300 foot Rabbit Ears, and it was great. It was one of those traverses where the scree and the slope combine to make the trail almost invisible, and where the footing is straightforward but the margin of error is small. In short, the sort of thing where you can feel like you're doing something really dangerous without ever actually being in that much danger of falling.

Once I'd crossed the traverse, I turned around and took a photo of the way back, which definitely made it look cooler than it was. If you squint, you can make out the trail.

With the traverse behind me, I climbed up a bit to a point south of and just below the Rabbit Ears and, with reception for the first time since my hotel stay, I briefly called Lindsey to check in. Then I circled around the point and got my first view of my next destination: High Lake. It was...burnt.

Fortunately, it was windy enough and early enough in the day that the long, winding descent down into the basin wasn't too hot. I hadn't covered a ton of distance by the time I reached the lake, but I'd passed through some tough terrain and so I had to stop and refill a water bottle. While I was waiting for the solution to mix, I wandered a bit around the shore of the lake and was happy to find it was absolutely covered in mountain goat tracks. I didn't see any goats anywhere near (not for lack of looking), but they clearly dig High Lake, at least when there aren't people around.

From High Lake, the next step was to climb back out of the basin to the west and link up briefly with the road that terminates at High Lake Rim Trailhead. This was a hot but relatively short climb, and when I topped out at the trailhead, I immediately bumped into two heavily armed hunters and their friend, who was being noisily sick in the bushes. I did not take any pictures of this part.

After making sure the sick man was going to be alright, I chatted with the other two men for a few minutes. They were friendly, and I was friendly, but it was funny how clearly they were confused by my desire to simply hike through the woods for days on end with no "real" goal in mind, likely to the same degree that I was confused by their need to shoot big animals to death for fun.

I headed north, briefly, on a paved road. It's not the first and likely won't be the last time part of one of my backpacking trips involves walking on asphalt, but it always feels slightly weird.

Before long, I got to the Road's End Trailhead, and proceeded from there along - unexpectedly - a really gently-graded, grown-over double-track for awhile.

It occurred to me partway through this section that maybe "Road's End Trailhead" was the end of a new road, and what I was hiking on now had once been an older road that had been cut off and abandoned because of the wilderness boundary established along the ridge in 1964.

Because I had reception and am a huge nerd, I opened my GaiaGPS app, switched on the 1930 USGS Topo layer, and immediately saw the double-track represented on the map as a road rather than a trail. Pre-Wilderness Act, then, you would have been able to drive a car all the way to the Onion Creek Trail! Trail history is pretty, pretty cool.

As it was, being 2023, I had to walk the double-track all the way to the Onion Creek Trail instead. But once I got to the intersection, I was rewarded with amazing views of Indian Creek Butte and the surrounding hills to the west, and my first view of the absolute spike of Strawberry Mountain to the north.

My route to the summit seemed pretty straightforward from here.

I followed the surprisingly narrow and loose Onion Creek Trail north to the intersection with the Strawberry Basin Trail, then settled into the shade between two trees and took a good, long break. Technically, I had covered about half the distance I'd planned for the day at this point, but I was feeling worn out and I still "had to" climb a mountain, then descend to Strawberry Lake.

I really enjoyed this little spot, but I don't have a photo of it to share. Oh well.

During the approach to the mountain, it became clear that even though the "official" trail lead around the cone to the east and then ascended to the summit via the north side, there was also at least one human-made scramble trail going up the south face. While this use trail would have been shorter and faster than hiking around the girth of the mountain to climb it from the north, the last decade of my life is absolutely littered with hikes where I took the short, hard route instead of the slightly longer easy route and ended up regretting it. So, taking into consideration the fact that I was already pretty wiped out and that my stomach had started hurting again, I followed the trail around the mountain and then up to the summit.

Considering that this was almost 1,000 more feet of gain above the spot where I'd taken a break, it was actually much easier going than I'd expected, and pretty soon I was finally standing on top of Strawberry Mountain, looking out at the beautiful, blasted wasteland that is eastern Oregon.

I spent an inordinate amount of time on the summit (by my standards, at least...it was probably thirty minutes, total), enjoying the view and watching a murder of crows play around in the air currents, and then it was time to climb back down.

I took the south-facing death-route down. Of course I did. What did you expect?!

It was really steep, but also really fun since I didn't actually break either ankle. There was no actual trail, so I just made one up.

Back at the trail intersection, I availed myself of my break spot a second time, then descended down into the Strawberry Basin, noting as I did the first big patch of (north-facing, dirty) snow I'd seen on the hike thus far. Still some leftovers from last winter hanging on!

This portion of the hike was blessedly downhill the whole way, and passed through some meadows below Strawberry Mountain proper that would have been absolutely full of wildflowers a month or so earlier. As it was, I enjoyed the change back to green (instead of brown) scenery and kept moving.

I took another break at Strawberry Falls, which was surprisingly loud and impressive for this late in the year. Then I continued on, via a brief climb, to Little Strawberry Lake. This was where my already-long day started becoming longer than expected.

Originally, I'd planned to camp at Little Strawberry Lake instead of the bigger, further away Strawberry Lake. I'd wanted to do this to avoid the crowds (like the one I'd seen on my way into the wilderness the day before), and my impression was cemented when I got a glimpse of the big lake during my descent and noticed that it seemed scummy and marshy.

Unfortunately, when I got to Little Strawberry, it was more of the same. While there were a few good camp sites, the entire shore around the lake was essentially one huge tangle of deadfall. The lake's level was very low and the water had a film across the top: not particularly atypical for mountain lakes in the dry part of Oregon this time of year, but also not something I really wanted to have to pull drinking water from if I didn't have to. I wandered a bit further east on a use trail and found a beautiful meadow boxed in by some more cliffs, but the lack of clean, accessible water was still bugging me. I sat down to take a break and eat at one of the camp spots while I thought things over.

By the time I finished my snack, I'd resigned myself to hiking back to Strawberry Falls and then descending to Strawberry Lake proper. I just hoped that the water there would be a little more...drinkable.

Technically, it was only 1.5 more miles, all downhill, to get to the big lake. But, it had been a really long day already, and I was ready to be done. Unfortunately, it wasn't over yet. When I reached the lake from the south, I was presented with a really beautiful, marshy tableau in the fading sunlight, but nowhere to camp or easily access water.

So, I decided to circle the lake and see if I could find a place to stop. Here, though, my tiredness made me stupid, and after hiking about a quarter of the mile-round circumference of the lake, I dropped my pack at a bad-but-available prospective spot and continued on without it. When I finally found a good spot, I had walked completely around to the other side of the lake from my pack. Which meant I had to walk the half-mile back to get it, and then the half-mile back again with it on my back before I could set up camp.

Fortunately, I kept my energy up the whole time by cussing myself out under my breath.

By the time I got the tent set up and scooped some water out of a hard-to-access but fast-running streamlet that fed down into the lake from behind my site, I no longer wanted to punch myself in the face and could relax and enjoy the view, and one last night in the wilderness.

For as huge as the lake basin around me was, I heard almost no noises all night. Right at sunset, there was one deer that wandered through my camp, and twice I saw a headlamp across the lake belonging to one other person, but aside from that I was alone on this supposedly super-busy lake for the last night of my week-long trip.

The wind was blowing a bit more than the previous night and I was surrounded by way more grass, so I passed on having a fire and went to bed early. I had a huge one-mile hike back to the car coming up in the morning after all!

[wordsandrobots]

Iron-Blooded Oprhans: Urdr Hunt - Episode 15: Brothers' Ship [Part 1]

Trafalgar Log's latest set of fansubs for the Urdr Hunt are up and this installment sees us whisked back to Earth for a Zan Clan family reunion, Wistario going into the mining business, and Berose fervently wishing the job market was more in her favour.

Before we get to that, I need to note my continuing discomfort with the artistic choices made regarding the Zan brothers and now their father. I'd welcome the opinion of somebody actually qualified to have one - particularly in relation to other depictions of African Americans in recent Japanese animation - but from the perspective of a white Englishman well-aware this is far from the worst example of racism in anime you could pick, the exaggeration and colouring decisions nevertheless feel extremely yikes.

Rightly or wrongly, nothing about the writing itself has struck me as egregiously othering. Rome and Aiko are rich, blundering bullies, but they're still presented as people, with this episode unpacking their motivation and adding a little more depth to Aiko in particular. I'd feel differently if they were the only black/non-Japanese characters in Iron-Blooded Orphans, but this is not at all the case.

IBO's art direction, however, makes a lot of its shady underworld types into grotesques. The anime's style is generally fairly unflattering, with few characters being overtly pretty (Shino has his jug-handle ears; Akihiro, his resting thundercloud face; Chad clearly needs to eat more; and while I notice someone has been turning the bishie dial up on his recent art, Eugene is generally more sour-looking in the show itself; etc). But then there are the likes of Orcus, the Brewers and even Jasley, who stand out for ugliness that takes on cartoonish proportions. Mix that with explicitly racialised features and the results aren't great, particularly when the detail level drops during the actual animation.

It's frustrating in light of, for example, Gundam:Narrative being actively edited for things like this in its English release, G-Witch not having the problem to begin with, and IBO's own manga spin-off presenting a comparable example of character design that *isn't* as heavily exaggerated. (This last being the reason I wanted to draw attention to this link with alignment - Jizil Jizin [Gundam names, my gods] is an honourable and upstanding man, in contrast to the Zans.)

Anyway. Didn't feel I could write this episode up without addressing that. Now on to the plot.

Hajiroboshi  (Part 1, Part 2)

Departure (Part 1, Part 2)

598 (Part 1, Part 2)

Corridor of Betrayal (Part 1, Part 2)

Holder of the Ring (Part 1, Part 2)  

Unexpected Encounter (Part 1, Part 2)

Venus’ Worth (Part 1, Part 2)

Brothers' Ship (Part 1, Part 2)

We open with Rome Zan phoning his local wholesaler. He and his brother are heading home to visit their ailing father and Rome wants some souvenirs. Hearing it's for Mr Rubian, the saleperson is happy to oblige, offering flowers before Rome insists on fine booze and a selection of luxury food as well.

Aiko Zan is less interested in the prospective gifts than the fact their dad has summoned them out of the blue: that is usually a sign he's pissed-off -- and not, as Rome suggests, that he's getting weaker and wants to see his sons.

Rome waves away the concerns, explaining that that's why he's going to show up with lots of gifts, but Aiko is unconvinced at his older brother's ability to put Rubian in a good mood, muttering that he always tends to make dad angry instead . . .

Of course, he's not brave enough to say this to Rome's face. But he is brave enough to threaten 'Berosuke' -- that is, Berose Kousa, the Zans' Urdr Hunt guide -- against blabbing about the brothers' total failure to make any progress.

Berose -- who is so utterly done with these two -- tries to explain that she hasn't had contact with Rubian since he gave the ring to his sons, which Aiko doesn't believe, though that scarcely matters. Rome is busy convincing himself that this sudden invite means his dad is about to hand full control of the Zan Clan over to him!

Spoilers: nope.

Down on Earth, presumably in the SAU, we arrive at an honest-to-goodness castle, set in beautiful garden grounds and decked out like a palace. In a fittingly richly-decorated room, Rome greets his 'Big Papa' with an enthusiastic hug, which the elderly man returns, greeting Aiko too. But the formalities quickly sour: the bed-ridden crime boss is not happy with Rome's gifts. He has no time for flowers and his doctor has told him to stay away from booze and meat. He called them here to discuss the Urdr Hunt. How's it going?

Rome deflects the question to Aiko who says it's going so well, dad'll laugh his ass off! Which does not sound like the reports Rubian has been getting . . .

We're then introduced to Jabiro, an actually competent member of this crime family (albeit not an actual relation, as far as I can tell). He has been monitoring the brothers in order to make sure the Clan's reputation isn't tarnished by their shenanigans. It's obvious he has a very low opinion of them and the feeling is mutual.

In any case, Rubian concludes over Rome's protestations that the fastest way to get an accurate update is to invite Berose in to join them.

Berose proceeds to drop the brothers straight into the shit: so far, Rome and Aiko have failed to visit any of the four waypoints, instead starting fights with the other participants that they lost and suffered a great deal of damage as a result. She assumes this places them far behind their rivals.

Rubian thanks her for confirming Jabiro's intel and Jabiro himself is ecstatic, seeing this as proof the brothers are unfit to take over leadership. The old man concurs. He thought choosing between his sons by assessing which of them contributed more to the Hunt would force them to grow as leaders, but instead they've wasted time, people and money. If that continues, he'll need to have them eliminated for bringing harm to the Clan.

Jabiro would be only too happy to fulfill that order -- but at the end of the meeting 'Big Papa' relents slightly. Without much time left, he gives Rome and Aiko one last chance to make him proud they are his sons.

As the scene ends, we are informed that from the bottom of her heart, Berose does not care about any of this.

Returning to the battleship, an infuriated Rome wishes his dad would hurry up and die. Perhaps he ought to kill him and take over by force! Aiko cringes at the idea -- Rubian would definitely take Rome out first -- and anyway, surely he doesn't mean that? Rome shouldn't joke about killing their beloved father.

Rome brushes him off, caught up with worry that Jabiro is going to take over the clan in his place if they mess up again. He rounds on Berose, pissed she betrayed them but needing to know how they can win the Hunt.

She sighs over the fact they're only now asking this and explains she doesn't think it's possible when they're so far behind. She drew the short straw to act as their guide, and has given up all hope of them succeeding.

Rome grows angrier yet but Aiko begs him not to actually hit Berose -- what if that gets them disqualified? Berose herself expresses complete indifference to the prospect. Did I mention how few fucks she has left to give?

Thus thwarted, Rome orders his crew to prepare to crush all their rivals. If there's no one else left, surely that means they win? With another sigh, Berose proposes a more efficient method. The mission of the Hunt appears to be to visit each of the waypoints and hit certain goals (gather a prize, confirm you've been there, collect data). There might be a system by which everyone who reaches a waypoint could achieve the same goal. So if the other participants have completed the four already flagged, perhaps the Zan Clan could negotiate with them to share what they've already collected -- or something?

Predictably, Rome and Aiko immediately decide to take the data by force. But who to rob? They don't want to mess with the Omden Colony Company and one of the crew has found out that the Rakou Pirates are linked to Teiwaz -- definitely a no-no. With Foundling now under the Pirates' protection and the Zans apparently not being aware of Mendou yet, the choice is obvious: the brat in the three-horned mobile suit!

Pause because apparently we have character limits on 'blocks' now. Take a break! Have a drink! Revel in the fact that the IBO Moon Steel manga now has its own website! Now back to the story.

Over at Radonitsa Colony (an indeterminate time later; I assume the Zans were travelling to and fro over the couple of weeks established as passing in the last episode), Wistario himself is inspecting a refitted hangar aboard the Erda II. They'll now be able to carry both Hajiroboshi and Asmodey inside the ship, which Range in particular is happy about.

Katya hurries up with a basket full of cloth -- she's decided to make curtains for the windows inside the ship, putting her sowing skills to use. Although, she's disappointed with the fabric selection on offer in the colony. Don't they have fashionable shops here?

Demner admits it's a results of the limited supplies Radonitsa receives. They barely have what it takes to get by. Katya points out they'll need to improve that if they want to encourage visitors and sets herself up as an advisor on the kinds of goods to sell. Range is taken aback by her leaping straight to planning tourist tat -- shouldn't that wait until they've founded their country? But Katya is firm: there's so much to do, they *have* to start planning ahead. And off she goes to get started on those curtains.

The others reflect on her improved mood, with Korunaru concluding she must have sorted out her feelings before asking to be allowed to help Katya out.

Wistario, Demner and Range head back to the Afam Equipment office, where they find Sprah in the middle of a crisis. Mobius Metals have suspended deliveries of colony repair supplies on account of their entire mining workforce quitting to go find better-paid work further out in the Earth-sphere colonies. While I obviously salute miners seeking greater remuneration, this puts our Wiz in a bit of a bind, since without those metals, Afam Equipment can't keep Radonitsa in working order.

Never one to shirk his duties as an upbeat teen anime protagonist, Wistario decides the best course is to fly out to an asteroid with the mobile suits, mine the ore themselves (scab) and return it to Mobius for processing. If nothing else, it will be a great way to test the upgraded ship while they wait for the next waypoint announcement.

Impressed as usual with his charge taking the initiative, Demner starts to offer him a misuzu candy -- only to be beaten to the punch by Sprah! So many spoiled brats in this game, my word . . .

Might as well start doing segment breaks more generally then. Please stop me if I start doing custom line breaks ala my fanfic. Or, you know, don't. I'm sure I'll end up writing about these guys eventually.

The Zans are back in the Venus-sphere and they pick up the Erda II as it heads off to do some blackleg mining. Rome immediately orders his (I remind you: human debris-piloted) mobile suits to smash the Afam crew to bits in an all-out attack. Aiko reminds him the aim this time is to steal the Hunt data and totally crushing them would therefore probably not be a good idea. Rome counters that he only means to destroy the mobile suits; they'll take over the ship afterwards.

Quite correctly, Aiko points out that they've failed multiple times to best Wistario and Range. He calls on the crew to support coming up with a better plan, which gets a couple of tepid positive responses, to Rome's extreme displeasure. He accuses Aiko of being a coward, telling him not to worry. Rome's taken care of everything so far. Better to let him keep handling things, right?

This proves to be Aiko's breaking point. He insists they need to do things right this time. Because, he adds tearfully, Dad said he was proud of them!

Berose reminds the audience that this is not exactly what Rubian said, but Aiko warms to his theme, saying they have to win the Urdr Hunt to make their father happy (which, to be fair to him, does indicate he's got the gist of his situation even if the details haven't quite landed, and he certainly has a better grasp on what will make Rubian happy than Rome does).

Aiko proposes dividing their forces, with one half creating a diversion to draw the Gundams out before the other surrounds them for the kill. Rome stands fast though. Why should the mighty Zan Clan need to plan against such a tiny organisation? His dad always made the Clan bigger by attacking their enemies head-on. That's how Rome -- the Clan does things and anyone who has a problem with it can step forward now!

With the crew cowed and the ship arriving at the asteroid, he orders the first and second squads out, with two more and a chastened Aiko on standby . . .

The Edra II quickly detects the approaching Gildas and we're treated to a new launch sequence centred around the extended mobile suit bay, which can now deploy both Hajiroboshi and Asmoday at the same time. It's cute and provides a clear idea of how the cockpits work, even if the bay itself is literally just a big box bolted on to the back of the ship.

Range is still wearing his poncho over his normal-suit, by the way. Love a man who commits to the bit.

Anyway, the Gundams unceremoniously wipe the floor with the Zan Clan forces because of course they do. Rome actually appears to attempt a variation of Aiko's suggestion here, allowing the first wave to engage the enemy then sending the third and fourth squads to surround them, but it's to no avail. Frustrated, Rome orders Aiko to head out and take command. But again, Aiko says no. This happens every time! They've got to pull back and regain their strength.

Naturally, this does not calm Rome down. He insists if they keep attacking, it'll be different, and hits Aiko for talking back to him.

Quite possibly from the floor, Aiko correctly breaks down his situation: Rome is always like this. He's always right, Aiko is useless, he does what Rome says. Well, Aiko can't take it any more! He's going to go his own way to do his own thing!

And taking his mobile suit plus a couple of crew members (who came to his assistance when he was struck and now seem very eager to get off this ship), he leaves, Rome shouting impotently after him.

In space, Wistario notes the Zan Clan seem to have stopped attacking, which Range observes was quicker than usual. Where are the gaudy brothers? Well, who cares? Time to dig up some rocks!

Rome gets a report about the Gorgeous Silver and two Gildas escaping the ship. He cannot believe Aiko has turned his back on him. With a roar of rage, he once more demands his brother return.

Watching from the sidelines, Berose wonders what the hell she's supposed to do now.

And there we leave things for this installment. As I said up top, I do feel this started to give us some depth to the Zan brothers. It's nothing unexpected, but it's clear that while Rome is willing to make a performance of caring for his father, he lacks any real affection for the man and just wants him to hurry up and die. Aiko, by contrast, genuinely seems to care about making Rubian happy and definitely craves affection from him. Rome's unthinking aggression in combat is apparently derived from beliefs about the way his dad did things, while Aiko continues to display a greater degree of thought that he can't really do anything with in his brother's presence. It was predictable they'd come to blows and I'm interested to see how this pans out. I think it unlikely Aiko will be in a hurry to genuinely ally with Wistario but I do wonder if he'll do something with Berose's suggestion of negotiation now, even if only as a ploy.

Berose herself gets some extra characterisation too, which is mostly 'this sucks and I couldn't care less about these people', placing her at odds with the other guide we've spent time with. She did leap quite quickly to suggesting ways for the brothers to catch up, though, implying that she could continue to be a source of support for Rome going forward. We'll see.

[skittidyne]

Speaking of ocs how is it going for bbac originale? Unless I missed something, but I haven't seen any news updates lately 😊

Have you decided on names and personalities for the characters? (I remember that you had some names down.)

Wishing you a happy new year! 😊

(I hope this doesn't come across as pushy, I've been lowkey excited for originale ever since you announced it; I can't wait to be able to buy a physical copy and have it on my shelf)

oh i LOVE you, anon! :>

the first book of bbac originale is completed! it's been edited, looked at by a few people, and ready for querying, and i just... haven't queried any agents (even tho i have a list! with tiers!) because it's scary .w.

but anyway, yeah, names and personalities are pretty set, haha. i guess i've been coy about it, but i can outline at least some of the main cast here! because they're great.

vivienne sayre: korean, wavy black hair, short, fat, undead, our main character, somehow even more of a mad scientist than suga was. she's a huge nerd and so fun to write. also the fact that she's short and has a v tall gf is equally great to write. enthusiastic about magic and her job, at least when it's not something like tracking down a demon summoning.

natalie stirling: ambiguously physically described bc why not, but she has bangs at least. that is her one unit of recurring specific description. our precog psychic who is doing the best she can. she doesn't affect much so others think she's creepy, but well, she doesn't mind since there are bigger things to do right now.

thomas novak: ambiguously white, scruffy, black hair usually in half man bun, has a great smile, and he's sexy popular and he knows it. he's eyebright coven's golden child, the strongest witch in generations, but too bad he's since learned that that sort of power and fame doesn't get him what he really wants. but it's okay, since he's used to doing things on his own. is creeped out by vivienne since she's the one thing he killed that didn't stay dead. she enjoys this.

christine davies: probably the only character as short as vivienne, black, cute puff pigtails, big gold eyes, and seriously everyone wants to protect her because she's so cute, which is only partially due to the trying to become a luck spirit thing. she also acts like a nervous, newborn fawn, so it'll be really funny in 3 books when she becomes one of the strongest characters and is still going ;A; at everything.

emil zolotarev: lanky, sandy brown mop of hair, russian blue eyes, and perpetually ready to fight the world bc of projected defensiveness. he and christine have an adorable and only somewhat codependent relationship going on. goes :D at the prospect of learning about magical things, then goes D: when he finds out the bad parts about said magical things. there are a lot of those. he's having a tough time.

isaac winters: probably not his real name, turkish, hazel-gold eyes, prone to putting herbs in his ponytail. incredibly closed-off, defensive, prickly, paranoid, and Many Other Bad Things, but he's a spellwriter, and vivienne can befriend anything, so she considers this challenge accepted. has 2.3 actual non-vivienne friends and can and would burn the city for them.

samael: sam for short, ambiguously white, blond hair, green eyes, and the biggest puppy in the city. he is one proof that vivienne can befriend anything. he also wants to be able to befriend anything, especially isaac, because friendship is great and he likes it far better when people aren't threatening to kill him. has a touch of an accent and scared of heights. scarily steep learning curve when it comes to dealing with humans.

dana haddad: half pakistani, half norweigian, which means she is a very tall goddess. quite built. she always keeps her (very) long hair in some sort of braid, getting creative with them thanks to online tutorials. loves books, animals, and vivienne given a book and a half. she's 100% lesbian (while many others are more vaguely queer) so i can make sword lesbian jokes later.

megan dellavecchia: curly/wavy strawberry blonde hair that makes them look like they're perpetually auditioning for a shampoo commercial, hazel eyes, freckles, and always ready to help. they're the only child of foxglove coven's leader but not a witch themselves, but a healer, so sort of adopted into the coven anyway. can and will drink you under the table with a smile.

hayley west: ruby red hair and emerald green eyes, and i named her h. west on purpose. viv's best friend, spellwriter, but she's dead now so i'm sure she won't ever come back into the plot.

mirai: a magpie tengu - medium dark skin, black hair with white at the temples, mostly black plumage but white on the inside of their wings - who is a little more devoted to the cause of finding a certain first egg than they should be. also secretly becoming fond of the human world, but would eat you sooner than admit that. excitable, proud, emotive, and commits to things even as stupid as that time when someone asked to become tengu friend.

codi clarkson: black, keeps her long hair in small braids, likes to wear red eyeliner. she's a universally respected hunter in the city, described as the best of the best. shameless dog mom, to the point where she buys literal diamond collars. questionably southern. questionable job fees. (questionably a lot of things, but most don't pry into her personal life.) cooler than you.

mark ito: tall, lanky, glasses, japanese, and always looking his best. our resident clairvoyant psychic! he's snobby, prone to being a trouble magnet, a little arrogant, more than a little flippant, and one of the most ride or die characters in the cast, which is saying something. i'm sure his attitude never gets him into trouble.

brynja: not a selkie (and not a skinwalker, either). incredibly muscled, medium height, rib-length black hair, and the red eyes characteristic of most shapeshifters. she's not happy with anything. but at least the bathtub is nice. secretly quite afraid of her old master, but with a realm between them, she has breathing space for the first time in centuries, though she isn't sure how to trust the offer of safety and protection mark gives her.

hammond two feather: lakota, tall, wiry strength, handsome because of his self-confidence - a professional dancer and his body and attitude certainly match. he has his own private culture-bound type of magic, but was unaware that vivienne had (general) magic, so when they found out about each other's they did the spiderman pointing meme. he's one of the few hunters with a day job, and finds that hilarious. he tends to do a lot of emotional labor for his friends, but i'm sure that won't end badly in the future.

rory day: ambiguously described outside of how he's well-dressed, because he's a ghost and doesn't actually have to pay for his clothes. very grumpy, flamboyant, and speaks harshly, but cares beneath that. deep beneath that.

kirara: a calico cat spirit, who in human form creates a small japanese woman with oddly colored hair (not to mention the cat ears and tail). she's a fiercely protective motherly type, but also, well, she is a cat, so her definition of that clashes with what humans would dare expect of her. but she's also a luck spirit, so she doesn't care what others think, and lets things happen as they will.

[colourful-void]

Supporting Satoshi - an examination and comparison of JN36 and XY121

Part Two: Dragging your friends into sandstorms is also not a recommended way to treat depression but at least this one worked

So back to journeys, where Satoshi has just lost three battles in a row and a sandstorm is luring people in over in Hoenn.

Goh is immediately excited about the prospect of a pokemon hiding in the sand and goes to ask Satoshi about coming along. It's a fun note of Goh's character devlopment that his immediate wish is to go together. Goh at the start of the season would easily have abandoned Satoshi to go research on his own, but it doesn't even cross his mind for a second in this episode. Great work Goh!

Satoshi's not doing too hot. He's curled up in a corner talking to himself about how he's dropped a whole class. Goh tells him to cheer up, it was only a few battles, this does not work. Another similarity to the xy episode.

We can see more of the root of the problem here, that Satoshi fears he won't be able to live up to his dreams and that trying is fruitless. Now I know we're on the jp dub but I really wanna shout out the english, because in the english dub satoshi says "Battling (Dande)'s a dream I should get out of my head, I don't deserve it."

"I don't deserve it", like I don't think there's a clearer way to represent the issue here than this line. He doesn't "deserve" to battle Dande, he doesn't even deserve to dream about it.

Goh dismisses these ideas and drags Satoshi out to Hoenn to go find the pokemon in the sandstorm.

They get to the sandstorm, Goh's excited, Satoshi's still upset. Back to the tried and true method of "just don't be sad"! Which of course, does not work.

We can already see the similarites to Serena in Goh's actions. Both try their hardest with genuine intent to cheer up Satoshi using methods that work for them. (You can argue Serena was trying a bit harder here since Goh had alternate motives at play). However, what changes here is what they do afterwords.

The problem of dismissing someone's negitivity as not like them remains and I'm still salty about it, but at least in this senario Goh is affirming Satoshi's postivity and not getting upset with him while he's actively upset. It's marginally better but the problem remains.

But that's not why I love this episode. What matters to me is what comes next.

Despite the distraction, Satoshi's still caught up in his eariler problems. He hasn't actually resolved them, so he can't let them go yet.

The boys make their way through the sandstorm, Goh rescues some people from the sandtrap, its going alright. At least until we run into flygon. Or more specfically, until Goh asks Satoshi for his help battling Flygon.

This is Satoshi's expression when Goh asks him for help. Despite agreeing, he's clearly hesitant about this. He doesn't feel confident in his ability to battle the Flygon. He's so out of it he forgets the type match ups, and uses electric moves on a ground type, which of course are ineffective.

Satoshi continues to self loathe, berating himself for not thinking. His hat begins shading his eyes when this happens! He gets caught up in his mistakes and begins to feel as though everything is hopeless.

Now, Goh doesn't do any of the 'no don't say that, you have to believe in yourself' stuff here. Instead, he keeps battling. He instead redirects the focus back to the fight, which is sort of the more pressing issue. It's also a good way of dealing with the problem as well! Goh's actively strategizing, looking for the next step to take. By doing that he's telling ash, indirectly, not to give up yet because there are still concrete steps to take, and that things aren't hopeless!

Satoshi is still paying attention to the battle though, and picks up on Goh's strategy. Goh and Satoshi also share a glance with each other when Flygon disappears under the sand.

Messon gets beaten and recalled.

and Satoshi begins to spiral. He gets so caught up in his previous losses that he visibly flashes back to them. He panics over what's dangerous for the pokemon, and the footage flashing specifically shows Riolu's losses and it being in pain after being attacked.

Both Pikachu and Goh call out to Satoshi in concern after he falls over and doesn't get up. Satoshi's body langauge is imporant here but unfortunately image limit. He's not clentched up, his fingers are loose. even when he grits his teeth, the rest of his body language all together reads as though he's gone slack. Unfortunately, Goh's attention is pulled away by the Flygon attacking again, and the battle resumes with Rabbifoot.

Satoshi protests Goh's strategy, still afraid that battling in too close is dangerous. Goh turns to him for a moment, but has to keep his attention on Rabbifoot. This actually pulls him out of dazed body langauge, as he tense and clenches his fists when Goh starts to put himself in danger. He's concerned for Goh and Rabbifoot!

Satoshi wonders what Goh's thinking, and he's not even looking at the battle anymore. He's just staring at Goh intently.

Or at least, until Rabbifoot successfully executes the strategy, and uses the meteors as part of ember. It's a wonderfully animated sequence, and it works! Goh's proud and excited, all the pokemon jump around happily, and Satoshi just sits there dumbfounded, though visably relieved as well (eyebrows are no longer drawn together) before he begins to laugh.

But Goh's not done helping out Satoshi, and this is what sets this and the xy episode apart, this is where everything comes together.

Goh does what he does best, a big dramatic monolouge. He tells Satoshi that he learned all those tactics from Satoshi, it's the first thing he tells him before he even explains.

Goh tells Satoshi plainly that he does know how to do this, he's a good battler and he can succeed when he remembers to work with his pokemon in tandem and doesn't get caught up in things. And he tells him this right after he proves it to Satoshi's face.

Satoshi learns from examples, from doing, and Goh uses that as best he can. He gives Satoshi the example first, and then explains it later.

And the visual symbolism is incredible here because as Goh tells this to Satoshi the sky clears behind him.

I cry over this part everytime. What better way to show that Goh has helped free Satoshi from the mental fog, that his words have cleared the way for him.

And of course, Goh keeps a smile on his face the entire time.

He continues to talk about working together with his pokemon, something Satoshi was neglecting to do because of his fear of not being good enough and letting those pokemon down.

Satoshi reflects on this, adjusting his hat so it hides his eyes as he does. However, he's in control of this now, actively holding the hat in his hand, symbolizing that while he's still upset, he's in control of his emotions now!

Goh specifically kneels down to meet Satoshi at his level and speak to him directly, he puts them on equal ground.

He talks more about strategy, and then he says a line I adore.

"Battling sure is complex, isn't it, Satoshi?"

Goh doesn't like battling, we know this. We know his only interest in it is as a means to an end and because he cares about Satoshi. And he says this because he's showing Satoshi how much he's learned from him. To really drive home that he attributes everything he just accomplished to Satoshi. All that trust and skill and work! Not to mention the fact that this is a call back to what Goh said after Satoshi won the Flutes in episode seven! Incredible, truly!

And Satoshi laughs and flops over, to which Goh worries. But Satoshi is smiling again, truly smiling. He calls himself stupid, the self loathing hasn't gone away entirely, but he is smiling, and he's staring up into the sky happily. There is no shade over his eyes anymore!

He finally addresses his pokemon again, with words similar to what he said in xy, and of course his pokemon love him and lay down with him. It's really cute <3.

And thats where the episode ends! My goodness, do I adore this episode. It's beautiful and i think about it all the time.

It's about finding new and crazy strategies to win, and when talking things out or distracting him doesn't work, Goh tries a new strategy that does! If he can't use ember and win with one strategy he'll try another. can't cheer up Satoshi with one strategy? try another.

What sets them apart is that Goh keeps going and stays by Satoshi's side, where as Serena got caught up in her feelings and ran off. Goh visbly takes Satoshi's way of learning and expressing things into account, and Serena doesn't make it that far.

There's so much care and effort that Satoshi and Goh share and it means the world to me. I can't wait to see what other moments they'll share in future, and what other parallels will be drawn!

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings, Thank you so much for reading this all.

[doberbutts]

Dobermann anon here, yeah I’d thought you’d say that, wishful thinking on my part tbh. I don’t know if you have a lot of experience with Euro imported dobies but do you think they might be a bit healthier than American lines since most have to have working titles to breed and you need a healthy dog to breed? Sorry I’m asking so much but we’re still in semi lockdown here (in Europe) and the only way to get breeders to talk to prospective owners is through events, which are cancelled rn

This is an older ask and I kept meaning to answer it and then forgetting.

This is a common lie that is told both in the US and also in Europe, that European dobermans are healthier and better workers because the DV in Germany requires health testing and titling prior to allowing the dogs to breed. And like all good lies, there is some truth buried in there.

The DV requires hips and elbows (I think elbows anyway), as well as a genetic test for one of the two markers correlated with DCM and a basic VWD genetic test, and an EKG.

The DPCA does not require for registration but does highly recommend within its code of ethics hips and elbows, the genetic tests for both markers correlated with DCM and the VWD genetic test unless the dog is clear by parentage or a known carrier by parentage, blood tests for the kidneys, thyroid, and liver to be repeated yearly, an EKG repeated yearly, and a 24hr holtor repeated at least yearly but ideally every 3 months.

While the DV has a base requirement vs the DPCA's just a strong suggestion, it is untrue that the DV has more robust health testing as a general rule. Most dobe people in Europe aren't doing holtors and are relying on an EKG and the incomplete answer of the genetic test to make their breeding decisions.

Similarly, the DV has a titling requirement, stating that dogs either need their IGP1/BH or their ZTP or similar breed/protection survery in order to breed.

Again, the DPCA strongly recommends taking dogs through the WAE and rewards people whose dogs have done so, but does not require it. The DPCA also strongly suggests those who are more protection minded work closely with the UDC, which is a non-AKC club and thus is allowed to host protection sport trials (AKC clubs ARE NOT allowed to do this thanks to political posturing from the Animal Rights crowd- if you have a problem with this your enemy is the ARA movement not the AKC) and the UDC again heavily rewards any dogs with IGP1/BH or the equvilant, ZTP or BSA ratings or the equivilant, or a successful WAE or TT or the equivilant.

The DPCA also recommends any doberman, protection-oriented or not, have a 'job' to do and for owners to be active in training and sports. They host a lot of events to get owners new and old engaging with the breed more and fund a large amount of projects dedicated to solving the problem of the breed's bad health.

So... are European dobermans more healthy than American dobermans? I don't think they are. Stastitics say they aren't. Statistics actually say that European dobermans are more likely to die from cardiac related complications, and that American dobermans are more likely to get cancer. My 100% European doberman died from cancer. His parents from cardio. Their parents were imports and died from a mix of cardio and cancer. So it's clearly not an American genetics thing.

Additionally while I hate to accuse without cause, I've also heard that a large number of these so-called great European dobermans with great titles are operating on, er, bought titles. Fraud is something really prevelent in parts of the European doberman community and big name kennels have gotten in a lot of trouble for bribery and paper forgery. So... on paper these dogs might have good titles and health testing... but the truth of the matter might be something entirely different. When I looked into Creed's pedigree history I saw an awful lot of "struck by lightning" young deaths in the Russian chunk of his pedigree. I don't know how so many dobermans could be struck by lightning in Russia at 4 or 5 years old. Convenient that lightning struck right when DCM is most common to, in my opinion, if you know what I mean. I think that kennel might need to invest in a rubberized field to run their dogs in...

I've seen dogs coming from so-called great working titled IGP3 x 10 dogs and, well. I don't think their papers are worth using on the toilet, honestly. Learning how to read a pedigree and doing your own pedigree research is a required skill when in this breed no matter what country you're in or if you've imported or bought locally.

[downwiththemutantnjnjaturtles]

Vulnerable [chapt. 1/2]

[2012 Leo x reader]

Based off of a request from an Anon: "A reader who is good at archery?" and the art is in fact mine, signature in the corner.

Leonardo grimaced as he walked. On his bad leg he still limped a bit, but he no longer was so dependent on his crutches. Every step was a twinge of pain in his knee, but he continued, bow in hand and looking for prey. The rest of the team was back at the farmhouse—he wanted to do this alone. He needed to do something. For himself and everyone else. 

He crept along the forest floor, senses hyper-aware of all of the things around him, as with his injured leg, he felt vulnerable. He jumped when a bird shot out of a tree nearby with another one hot on its tail feathers. When had he become so easy to start? Of course, as a ninja, he was trained to be skeptical. Aware. But he'd never felt so jumpy as he did after coming out of his coma, his throat wrecked and his knee in just as bad a condition. He took in a deep breath, then released it. Focus. 

He definitely felt like he was being watched. He was in a sea of trees and bush, wandering and out of his element, having come from the city. It was such a jarring change to have been struck down in a construction site on that frightening day, only to wake up three months later in a quaint farmhouse outside of New York City. His stomach churned slightly recalling what he could remember from his encounter with the Shredder and the wave after wave of Foot Bots. The cold rain, and their mortal enemy's imposing figure stood above him before going in for the kill. He shook himself of those thoughts—not now. Today was sunny. He had to look around him for a second as if to assure that there was light shrouding everything. That there were no shadows to hide in. Shifting his footing, his knee suddenly jerked forward and sent a shot up pain up his leg. He had to resist making noise, but in that moment, a shudder ran down his spine. The sheer pain, he remembered, of the Shredder's blades catching his neck. The trauma to his knee. He didn't know when he'd started breathing heavily, still and partially leaning on his bow. When would he ever be able to recall that day without it shaking him so deeply? Would the memories hit him during his next and inevitable meeting with Shredder? 

But he couldn't think about that now, not as he heard rustling in the brush ahead of him. He stilled. Crouching, he took to the large trunk of an oak and hid behind it, peering around the corner to catch a glimpse of what he was hearing. It sounded big; likely a deer. As long as he didn't engage with a buck and his fearsome rack of antlers, he would be okay. His knee ached as he kneeled there. No sudden movements, he reminded himself. 

He looked around the side of the tree and saw it. A tall, proud buck and his air of regality, eating from a plant and seemingly unaware of Leo's presence. This was his chance to make himself useful. To stick it to his cursed leg that he wouldn't let it stop him. 

Rising as slowly and quietly as he could, he lifted his bow and drew an arrow. He had to find the perfect moment. But he also couldn't wait too long, otherwise he would lose the animal. The buck paused his meal and looked up, smelling the air. He ducked back behind the tree when it actually turned its head toward him, almost as if in acknowledgement. But deer's eyes didn't face forwards—if it were looking for a threat, it would have turned its head. Ignoring that detail, Leo knew it would get his scent quickly, so there was not much time to waste as he aimed, shooting for something vital. The buck stiffened, readying to bound off. He was just about to let loose the arrow when he blinked, and suddenly, there was nothing. The buck was gone, the clearing was empty, and he was extremely confused. He stood up, letting down his bow as he stepped out from behind the tree and looked around him. It had been there one moment, gone the next. 

He jolted when a twig snapped behind him. He spun around, arrow ready to fire. Standing only but a few feet away was the large creature looking down at him, and in his surprise, Leo hesitated. He wasn't sure what to do beside lower his weapon, eyes fixated on the impressive antlers the buck donned. Those could deliver a fierce blow. 

He was backing away, opting to ditch the effort and try again another time, because the animal was certainly strong. And not with his bad leg could he defend himself as much as he would have liked—but unnaturally fast, the buck charged forward anyway. Heart pumping, Leo gasped and drew his arrow, trying to get a clear shot on the animal as it vanished around him, disappearing behind trees, reappearing elsewhere, running at him from every which way. He let out a loud grunt when he was struck in the abdomen by it, disoriented and trying to gain his footing. He tried to dodge the oncoming attack, but his knee buckled, and he fell to the ground against the mossy trunk of a massive tree. His bow was dropped elsewhere. In a last resort, he swiped his knife from his belt, eyes flitting about. He expected another blow from the strange animal, but nothing came. He was left in shock sitting there as he regained his composure, only noticing the buck out of the corner of his eye one last time. 

He watched it, brow ridge furrowed intensely as he got up and snatched his bow from the ground. The buck only stared back, his reaching presence making an imprint in Leo's mind. He knew then that there was something else to this. He had no idea, not even a clue, of where to start with it. But the creature sauntered further into the trees, disappearing into the thicket. 

"What was that?" he muttered to himself, unable to look away from where he'd last seen it. 

He returned to the farmhouse later that night, meeting you at the front porch when he dragged himself up there. His knee was irritated to all hell from the exertion, and you could tell, too; he favored his good leg when he stepped, wincing as he came over. It was then that you noticed he looked a little more rough than you'd originally thought. 

"Leo?" you said, meeting him at the stairs. He tried to give you a smile, but it was obvious he was absolutely beat, his leg was hurting, and overall, not in a good way. "Are you okay? What happened out there?" 

You helped him up the steps with an arm around him, supporting his heavy weight as he made his way into the house. He groaned, a little shameful, "I got attacked by a...deer."

He left his bow and quiver at the door. A deer? You gave him a questioning look, and he continued, "Yeah, a deer. Like with the antlers. It came at me when it realized I was there. I've never seen something move so fast." 

You were going to help him to the couch, but he shrugged your arm off with a sheepish smile, getting there himself. You sat down next to him. "So, an angry buck?" you asked. He nodded. "Weird...it's not mating season. Usually, they aren't so aggressive." 

"Well, this one was," he said, "and I know this is going to sound weird, but…" 

He knew it would be hard to explain why he suspected this was something otherworldly, due to the teleporting. He'd seen it clearly with his own two eyes. Still, it was just as confusing to him to think about as it would have been for you to hear.

"Wait, how do you know that?" he inquired. He looked over at you, blue eyes falling on yours. 

You chuckled, "My dad was into hunting, so I picked up some stuff as a kid. You learn that pretty early on; the antlers on those things can really tear you up. Though...you're lucky for having natural armor." Gesturing toward his bow and arrow, you bumped his shoulder with your own. "I'd say I'm good with one of those." 

Leo quirked his brow, curious for you to go on. He didn't doubt your statement one bit; he'd seen how you watched him practice, how sometimes, he'd catch you idly running your hand along the curves of the bow. "How good would you say you are?" 

Grinning, you padded across the room and got his bow, drawing back the string experimentally. It had been a while. You threw a glance back at him over your shoulder. "Fairly," you replied, setting it down. "I think my parents started me out when I was twelve or so. With one of those kiddie bows, the ones that are easy to pull back? I'm no master, but maybe...I could come out and help you next time? I don't think any of us should be going out alone, anyway, especially you with your…"

He noticed your eyes had fallen on his injured leg. 

"Uh, hold on. I'm not an invalid, [y/n]." 

He didn't want to be snappish, but the last part irked him a little. He could handle himself out there. How well he could was a different story, but nonetheless, he felt weirdly infantile hearing that. It should have been him telling you that and offering to help, not the other way around. 

Damn his leg. 

Still, he knew he had to swallow his pride, for now. He really was in no shape to be wandering the woods on his own. He also noticed that it was a great opportunity to bond with you more without everyone around to overanalyze it. 

"You know, I...I appreciate it. I know you're just trying to help." He tried to hide the disappointment he was feeling with himself, but it was easily replaced by more positive prospects. He hadn't ever spent that much time with you alone, as they were always going, going, going. The farmhouse and surrounding woods was a slow change of pace—a good change of pace. But even then, he still couldn't always get away from everyone else, especially Mikey and Casey. "What do you say we go out tomorrow?" 

You nodded, "I say it's a date!" 

"Y–yeah," He laughed, looking down at the floor. "It's a...yeah. I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight, [y/n]." 

"Night," you said as he headed up the stairs. 

Mind on the kitchen for a drink before you went to bed yourself, you were slightly surprised to see April there, leaning against the counter with a curious smile on her face. "Oh, hey, April," you mumbled, reaching past her for a glass. 

"Hey," she cooed, "so, a date, huh?" A knowing grin crossed her face, along with that twinkle in her eye she got any time something like this came up. 

Face beginning to flush, you chuckled awkwardly as you filled up your glass from the tap. "Uh, it's more like a...it's not really a date. I just said that. For some reason. We're gonna go out into the woods and scope it out for a little bit." You glanced out of the corner of your eye and saw her sat at the kitchen table, patting the chair next to her. A date? Like that? No. In fact, he was likely offended to some degree that you even proposed helping him out. Not with how sensitive he was about his knee, lately, which was a hindrance to him. But you wanted to help, that's what friends were for. And maybe spending some time away from the antics of his brothers and Casey wasn't such a bad idea, either…

You were going to slip out of the kitchen, but April was set on getting the details. "Come on, girl talk!" she said, low enough so no one else would hear, but you could hear the excitement in her voice. "Did he get embarrassed? Oh, what about bringing lunch? Like a picnic, in the woods," she suggested, clasping her hands. "Quiet, away from you-know-who. It would be nice!" 

"Okay, okay, slow down there," you said. You took a seat next to her and looked behind you into the living room to make sure there wasn't anyone there, then added, "You see, I don't know for sure…" 

...if Leo felt the same way. There was a hunch, but that wouldn't do—you couldn't go off of a mere inkling, lest you ruin good friendship turning things weird. You liked him. How obvious it was, you didn't know, but you never tried to show it on purpose. 

April noticed the uncertainty of your expression and put her hand on yours in your lap. She could feel your hesitance over the subject. "You're worried that he doesn't feel the same way about you," she stated softly. "Is that it?" 

"In short," you answered with a small shrug as you kept your gaze on the edge of the table. 

She tilted her head in thought, humming to herself. "Well, I think you should go for it, if that's how you feel." 

Looking up at her, you inquired, "What if it makes things awkward between us?" That was the last thing you wanted. 

"I think Leo might have a crush on you," she said finally. "Of course, I can't tell you definitely, but...it's just the vibe he gives me."

Your heart fluttered. April's intuition had always seemed pretty on point; you trusted her judgement more often than not. The question was, did you have the guts to come out with it to him, or would it be another time gone past? Hung up on her words, you blinked. "Do you think so?" you asked honestly. 

She nodded and gave a reassuring smile. "I won't pressure you, but I still think you'll have a great time. I can put together a basket, if you want. We don't have much besides sandwiches, though." April was considerate. It was easy to feel comfortable around her; she was a gentle soul outside of combat, and supportive of yours and everyone else's pursuits (so long as they weren't harmful.) Especially pursuits of love, when they weren't directed at herself. 

You thanked her as you got up, to which she replied that it was no problem. Leo's door was cracked slightly open, you'd found out when you passed by, and inside he was fast asleep. he tended to leave it ajar out of habit; he felt that he needed to be able to hear what was going on in the rest of the house in case something happened, paranoid of ambushes. The only time he wasn't conscious of his bad leg was when he was unconscious, and even then, you had a suspicion that he dreamed about it sometimes. Maybe even had nightmares. You recalled seeing him toss and turn one night while muttering incoherent things after he'd fallen asleep on the couch in the lounge, almost rolling off the side before you decided to wake him. Both the mental and physical wound was fresh at that time, so he panicked himself awake feeling your hand lightly shake his shoulder. He apologized as you tried to help him, instead taking his crutches and left by himself. 

But Leo seemed to be having good dreams, tonight. You stopped just for a moment to watch him through the ajar door, seeing that his face was not tense, he wasn't moving around, and looked to be more at peace than he had in a while. That was all you needed to know.

"He looks pretty calm right now," a voice, Raph's, commented out from the blue next to you. He was leaned against the wall, arms crossed as he watched his sleeping brother. "Last few nights were rough. Wonder what has him all peaceful all of a sudden."

You couldn't mistake Raph's unusually soft disposition, even if he talked as gruffly as always. "Does he have bad dreams about it often?" you questioned him. Both of you knew what you were talking about, the event in New York City that landed them all at the farmhouse to begin with. 

Sighing, he answered with a light scoff, "More like nightmares." For a second, you thought he was annoyed by you asking, but he continued, shaking his head. "This just…I can't stand seein' him like this. Not like this, this, but on those nights he gets nightmares, and the hobbling around…"

"It really sucks."

"Big time." 

A silence fell between the two of you, but it wasn't uncomfortable. You both bonding over your mutual care for Leo and his well-being, brought together by circumstance. Raph went to bed. You did, too, thinking all the way that Leo deserved a good day. A normal-as-could-be day. 

You'd take April up on that picnic idea, you decided. 

——————————————————————

a/n: yeahh i find it difficult to believe Leo wouldn't have some kind of lowkey trauma aside physical after his last encounter with Oroku Saki before the Farmhouse

[rayegunn]

Another Thor speculation ramble

Yeah, been doing a lot of these uber geeky Thor speculation posts lately, but keep coming across stuff that makes me go hmmmm

So, was doing my occasional catchup on Twitter (I don't use it much, mainly just use it to lurk and follow what some creators are saying) and came across this: https://twitter.com/Doncates/status/1421534363192279047 and also https://twitter.com/Doncates/status/1421611974169825281 from the same thread. Intriguing!

And first of all, these tweets are vindicating, because I have been saying forever that 'worthy' doesn't mean being a pinnacle of morality and goodness, like some people seem to think it means. 'Worthy' is a neutral word and can mean different things based on context, literally anything the person dictating the terms wants it to mean, it is not synonymous with 'good'. In the context of Thor, we aren't entirely sure WHAT it means. We do know, after Aaron's run, that knowing you fall short of what's expected of being a good god, but trying to meet those expectations anyway, is at least part of it. But we don't know for sure if this 'be better' the wielder strives for is self defined or not. If self defined... yeah, it could be warped to be something bad. But that's clearly not all of it, or more people would have been able to lift it. Lots of people out there who could lift it if it was JUST that. The other requirements may not necessarily be good, or bad, but maybe something that reflects Asgardian culture, or something, we just don't know for sure. We aren't even sure any more if the worthiness qualifications are determined by Odin or the Mother Storm. This is one of the reasons that, even before the enchantment apparently broke, I thought Loki had a good chance of wielding it. Not the Loki of the past, but the current Loki is all about self improvement, and knowing he doesn't live up to expectations, but he's trying to. (not always successfully, he's got a lot of bad habits, but he's trying)

But on the subject of Loki, the second tweet is a bit ominous, for sure. And I may have to adjust some of my previous speculation, (TLDR, I think Loki is the next 'Champion', Thor's replacement, as all of Asgard shifts roles between characters, click the link for an explanation as to why) but not by a ton, really. I know some people would see that tweet, and take Loki lifting it as the 'terrifying' prospect. But it doesn't have to mean anything bad about Loki's face turn status (I really want the face turn to stick, I am invested in this direction for him), because Cates has already teased a far worse future for the hammer. I think this is more of a Thanos tease than a Loki tease.

My guess is, Loki will get the hammer, for a little while, as well as Thor's old role. But the role is not defined by being worthy of Mjolnir, it's more about the function they fill in the narrative. You can have the role without having the hammer. The Champion role predates the hammer by generations, and at least in the case of Sigurd, we know he had his own signature weapon, Gram, so it is entirely likely that Loki will get his own signature weapon as well. In fact, I would prefer this, since whacking things with a hammer really is not his style. He needs a sword, daggers, maybe a magical staff. Just something that plays to his abilities and style of doing things. It's just that the hammer has become associated with the role while Thor was in it, since he had used it as his primary weapon/worthiness gauge for most of his time in the role. But not all of it, he had Jarnbjorn in the beginning, which apparently first belonged to the valkyrie, Runa, who might have been the Champion after Sigurd, so it could make good sense for the Champion to use the weapon of a previous role holder until they get their own signature weapon. So I think in universe, the initial thought would be that the wielder of the hammer has the role, because that's how it's been for a thousand years. But they'd actually be mistaken, because the point of the great role shift is to update the roles, not just become a carbon copy of the person who was in the role before, otherwise there is not much point in the periodic shift of roles. So it makes sense that the new Champion would get a new weapon, and not just inherit Mjolnir, but I was envisioning a sort of transition period, to kind of ease everyone into things. I thought with all the Mjolnir stuff, he would get it at least for a little while, at last until he can prove himself. But... maybe not? These tweets make me less certain of the Mjolnir part, even though I do still feel Loki is getting the role, and will continue to be a good(ish) boy. It may be that Mjolnir has to be destroyed in order to prevent the bad future with Thanos, which would symbolically also make the role his own as a new weapon is created for him.

And while on the subject of Donny Cates' tweets: https://twitter.com/Doncates/status/1421898562275880960

Heh, so I guess Thor and/or Loki is going to Midgard and having a hotdog. I kinda hope together, so they can disagree and argue about best condiments. I dunno about Thor, but I do know Loki had a hot dog with Spider-Man once, and it involved 'green bits' so i presume it had relish. But lately he seems to have taken to mustard. So he appears to just go with his favourite colours.

Unrelated to the above, I had a random thought the other day, about the whole situation with Throg. It's not speculation, I have no idea if they will do something like this, it's just something i think could be fun. So, let's say Throg does end up trying to be sort of a mentor to Loki, I got to thinking that you know, Thori is probably bored as hell sitting around Asgard all day, he's a dog of action and violence, not a house dog. And he WAS Loki's dog to start with, so.... Thori could join Loki too as another animal companion. And then, I got to thinking that Thor would probably want to back seat drive, and he'd probably do that via Hugin and/or Munin, giving Loki a third animal companion. I just think it would be funny. And, of course, if this happens, at some point Loki has to shapeshift into an alligator. obviously.

Also, I realized today that next year is the 70th anniversary of Journey Into Mystery. A good time for a relaunch, no? It might be a bit later than I would personally like, I'm missing having a Loki solo story to follow in the comics, but it would seem to line up with where the solicits are going. The issue with Throg, 18, comes out in October. Then if we assume the arc where, presumably, the new status quo with the new Champion is laid out starts in issue 19, and likely goes for around 6 issues, then around March or so, they may have things set up for a JIM relaunch. Then Thor can focus on Thor, and Loki can go do his thing in JIM, and everyone wins. Again, this is not so much speculation as something I think could work, but it does seem to line up nicely.