#not a funny story my rl

[stormxpadme]

I wasn't sure about all these little dialogues in a growing crisis situation on both opposing sides in tomorrow's chapter, but honestly, for the "How the fuck can you afford living in New York anyway? You do porn or something" line alone, this is going to stay.

[once-was-muses]

[ have a Pubby Moment™️ to make up for what's under the cut ]

[ I will never be able to escape this sometimes detail of the Contendings huh ]

[queen--kenobi]

Hi, I'm the anon who said about table sex. I made some criticism which you took the wrong way, your friends butted in and said nasty stuff to me, and I said nasty stuff back. It just escalated out of control.

If you were more humble then maybe you would see I was merely offering feedback. I did point out the good qualities of your fic.

Someone then took my anon identity and roleplayed as me on someone's blog saying I rode my ex on my parents coffee table. It's actually not me. The table incident I spoke about involved my husband and the dining table. Without going into detail, it was awkward, uncomfortable and impossible. People who say otherwise are lying. Unless you try it then you don't know. RL is not like fanfic.

I am feeling very lonely and low just now, enough to contemplate what the point of existence. Then I see your ridiculous table sex challenge and I am crying. You just keep making a fool out of me. You're obviously not a popular blog so you're now milking your five seconds of fame at my expense just to get attention. This is even worse when people hated on me for saying blood and cheese needed to happen and they deserved it. And I stand by that. Daemon did what he had to do.

I am still really upset not that you care. I felt guilty at upsetting you but not now. You're rude arrogant and vain. Your friends reblog your fic with out reading. That's why no comment nearly or reviews. Your story sounds like a turtle tried to write it and then gave up. You probably use AI. Your a bad writer and an even worse person. Your beta should be locked up in English jail they are the worst betas I have ever seen. You're a huge turd and I absolutely despise you. Never speak to me again Percy

Okay so, I had to take a minute to sit down and think about my response. This is actually going to be my last response because we're at the point where nothing productive is going to come of this

I did acknowledge your criticism in the first anon you sent to me. Is that fic perfect? No. As I said, I'm probably going to rework that fic. But a lot of your points were just... Not valid? One of them was but the rest were obviously to try and hurt my feelings

And you truly expect me to believe someone just took your anon identity? Like sure, yeah, they could have. But I doubt it. It sounds like a cop out

Also, love how you try to act like you're the victim but then add that last paragraph. Bestie, it's giving "I didn't really mean what I said"

And yk what? It's not arrogant and vain if I can back it up. Tbh if you genuinely think I'm that way you have not been paying attention and/or haven't ever actually bothered to talk to me

Also you're the one that came back! If you don't want to speak to me, quit coming into my house!

But

To get serious for a minute. You do not know me, and I do not know you. To put your mental health on a stranger is irresponsible, especially when you make it sound like you're going to hurt yourself. I am not responsible for what you do. You are responsible for your own actions, not me. If you are truly suicidal or wanting to hurt yourself, please. Get off the internet and find a professional to talk to. I'm not saying that to be funny. I am saying that as genuine life advice

[martellspear]

— power went out and I ran out of things to think this afternoon;

— this is a anti targaryen restoration post, be warned :)

One of the most surprising things in the entire ASOIAF books is simply HOW did that family manage to be around for over 300 years. I’ve never seen so many individuals being so dense – of course, we have exceptions – but ?? Perhaps that’s what you get for the inbreed, the stupidity gene remains and grows strong and turns into a parasite that eats brains.

Let’s start with the C trio; A united the Seven Kingdoms because he thought unity was the right path to defeat the Long Night, which is great, but then he did NOTHING to actually prepare for it ?? The Wall was built by the Starks. In F&B we see that, Targ after Targ, the prophecy has little impact on how they conduct things; I’d love to say something like: fine, let’s blame it on time and wars (which, they caused) but ?? your ancestors' most important words about saving the place you, and your descendants will, live just do not carry enough crucial significance for them to be carefully passed down to the next generation?

Then, we have R. I will admit that when I first read the books I liked him - and although I still find him an interesting character, I cannot let go of the idea of how obtuse he is (it’s deeper than that in his case but I’m annoyed) -. Since I’m venting, let me just say that it completely baffles me how some still view RL as a love story; that man was OBSESSED with the prophecy, he drastically changed his lifestyle for it, but he’d abandon everything for love? And then… proceed to – likely – hide from his lOvE that her loved ones are dead (his dad killed them) while keeping said person in a place that, regarding both climate and social aspects, is detrimental for her. Furthermore, to defy and insult three powerful Houses because he fell in love with someone he saw a few times?

Yes, love can make people take routes they wouldn’t normally take, but the cost was too high for it not to be “means to an end”.

Coming back to my original thoughts: I believe that Targs are unfit to rule – if you want evidence, you can literally just open F&B, any page will do – and the couple good monarchs that family produced doesn’t make up for all the damage they caused since they sat foot in Westeros. They feel entitled to a land that doesn’t belong to them and are saviors because the Gods said they are ??

It's a funny concept when you contrast it with how the series ended: Cersei on the Throne, Arya defeating the Night King and the two last Targs with awful endings (that’s martelldoo): one dead and the other exiled.

Anyway, I just wanted to vent because the thought of a Targ restoration pissed me off this afternoon – it validates every horrendous thing that happened to those considered “casualties” and puts these people in that obnoxious concept we see in succession: no real person involved. But since “we” have the power to save the world, it was worth it and everything it valid, RIGHT?–

[aleksa-sims]

RL Story

CW: c-section, surgery

I survived my first night at the hospital. I was woken up by a nurse at 6 am, who reminded me again, not to eat or drink anything. After an hour I was given some.... nice drugs, sedatives, by a Doctor. I felt so relaxed afterwards. As promised, Nico came to me. He smiled at me. I was soo happy when I saw him!!

Some time later at the surgery room, N. had to change clothes. He looked so funny in that... Doc-outfit. The Doc who did the C-section, thought Nico was one of his new colleagues. He warned N., to keep an eye on his things, because belongings keep disappearing here. Well, as long as nobody steals my Baby, I don’t care. While the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal anesthesia, the room filled with more and more Docs & students. Now the surgery started. I kept getting tired in between. I could hear (and feel) the Surgeon who did the c-section, struggling to get my son out.

I felt like I was falling off that surgical table. I said,"help I’m falling!" The doc behind me reminded me, I was safe! I was strapped to the table. The Docs have suspected that my Baby is huge, bigger than expected! I could hear everything!! Are those docs even aware of that, I wondered?🤷‍♀️ They were kidding about a huge Baby. 😄 MY Baby!!! Then finally, I heard my Son scream. So cute!! Like a puppy. "Congrats, it's a boy, a pretty tiny one." , the Surgeon said. (50 cm)

I was only allowed to look at my Baby briefly. The nurse held him to my cheek. I kissed his forehead. He smelled like apples, I remember that so well. I know it's strange. Why apples? Idk? That's what I smelled! The nurse then went next door with my Baby. She asked Nico to come along, but N. was scared for a moment, didn’t know what to do? Stay with me or go with our son? I remember I wanted to tell Nico, to go with our son, but I couldn’t talk anymore. I started to choke, I got really sick. Suddenly everything was black for a moment. For some reason, I passed out, which is why Nico got scared. He noticed that I rolled my eyes and was no longer responsive.

He had to leave the surgery room anyway, so he went with our son. 15 minutes later I woke up slowly.

Once I opend my eyes, I saw my Doc. He examined me and asked me how I was doing? I couldn’t answer him right away. He told me I was in the recovery room. My Baby's fine and Nico's with him. They’ll be right here with me.

How it went on and why I passed out, I tell next time.

Previous/Next

[liesmyth]

sorry for being too serious in the asks in response to a legitimately funny joke. But like I've been thinking about the Dios Apate... it can be considered to be a rape case, right? Because John so did not consent to his semen being stolen. It's just something that I am always thinking about when I'm thinking about rape and it's strange that no one seems to see it that way.. Am I tripping??? Or do people just not talk about it for other reasons?

Anon are you in my head! I was literally talking about the Ethics of Jizz Heist yesterday in my DMs, so this feels very timely.

I completely agree that the consent situation in the first Dios Apate threesome was iffy at best — in RL, it'd absolutely constitute sexual assault. But I'm just not interested in engaging with it as such, and I don't think the narrative expects us to.

That's partly because, as a Problematic Queers Enjoyer, consent issues in my ships are a feature, not a bug (To Me) and I'd rather engage with it on a "well that's spicy" level than dissect the ethics of consent.

The other reason is that neither the story nor the characters involved treat the (lack of) consent in Dios Apate as a big deal. John feels betrayed because his friends lied to him, but doesn't regard it as a sexual violation, and it's not presented in that way by the author. There are plenty of things in the series that are regarded by the characters as a given BUT are framed narratively in a way that's supposed to unsettle the reader (like, 14-year-olds joining the Cohort) but Gideon's conception isn't one of those. Pyrrha doesn't appear fazed at all that she'd been using her best friend's body to fuck Wake and he didn't know what was going on half of the time, either.

That said! I know there's a side of the fandom that's very keen on analysing the series and characters dynamics through lenses of sexual assault / abuse / grooming metaphors etc. — personally, it's not my speed because I don't think it's a major theme of the series, just because if it were meant to be interpreted as factual IMO the narrative would make a bigger deal of the noncon nature of Gideon's conception.

That said it's a theme I've had FUN considering for fic purposes or in a "here's a new angle to look at stuff" sort of way. But... yeah, I think it can be an oversight in the fandom that, when we consider many plot developments or character dynamics as veiled metaphors for sexual assault, often we actually leave out that there is ONE actual, factual, 100% non-metaphorical case of sexual assault in the book, and the victim is God.

(the first part of your ask is here! I couldn't get to both yesterday so I split it)

[aristocratic-otter]

Ten Questions for Writers

Thank you @artsyunderstudy, @facewithoutheart and @nausikaaa for the tag! So, it's that time again, huh? Well, some things have changed since I last did one of these, so here goes.

How many works do you have on AO3? 35 but one was a group fic (Birthday Man). So technically 34.

What’s your total AO3 word count? 957,040 - 39,132 for birthday man (not going to try to figure out how many words my chapter in that fic was) = 917,908. So close to that million words!

What fandoms do you write for? Carry On only.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Always. I can't say my responses are always inspired because, just like in real life, sometimes I just don't know what to say. But I always reply, because I know for myself how hard it can be to write a comment, so I want to honor that. That, and I'm really truly grateful for everyone who takes the time to tell me what they liked about my work!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No...my fics are pretty long and specific, it'd be really hard to pass something of mine off as someone else's. I know it hasn't happened on AO3, though I can't speak to Tumblr or other platforms, since I don't spend much time there.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, Birthday man, of course. And the Star Trek Redemption series is a lovely collab with many talented people. But also, I consider all of the many artists I've worked with co-authors, because so much of what I write comes from bouncing ideas off of them and being inspired by their art. So I'm considering @krisrix, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, @frjsti, @moments-au-crayon22, @artsyunderstudy, @alexalexinii,

@steppjes, @letraspal and @cutestkilla as cowriters

7. What’s your all-time favourite ship? The one and only OTP, Simon and Baz

8. What are your writing strengths? Hmm...I think I'm good with blocking, because I visualize my stories in my head before I write them down, so I'm good about knowing where characters are in space at all times. I'm also pretty good at characterization? And while my fics aren't usually laugh-out-loud funny, lots of comments point out things that are amusing, so I guess I write humor fairly well. Definitely good at scientific background stuff, of course. I don't know, other than that.

What are your writing weaknesses? Plot, plot, plot...not that I don't write decent plots. I think I do. But it can take me hours of dwelling on how to get characters from one plot point to the next. I tend to plan a fic in broad outlines and leave out minor details, and then I get bogged down in the details later. Other than that? I have trouble with witty banter. I can do dialogue, but I struggle with, for example, coming up with amusing insults for Baz to use on Simon. It just doesn't come naturally, because in RL, I'm the type who thinks of the witty response hours after the conversation ended!

Oh, also I suck at continuity. I constantly have to go back and read earlier chapters because I can't remember what I already had a character do or say.

First fandom you wrote for? CSI is the one I'll admit to.

I have no idea who's done this, so I'll tag: @cutestkilla, @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @angelsfalling16, @palimpsessed, @bookish-bogwitch,

@best--dress, @emeryhall, @hushed-chorus, @prettygoododds, @larkral

[panharmonium]

Hi! I love your Naruto thoughts and meta posts with all my heart and I want to ask your thoughts on something that has been on my mind literally since I was 13: what do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura? I went from being a hardcore shipper when I was a teenager, to being against any romantic relationship in Naruto after finishing the anime when I was in my early twenties. Nowadays I'm very into platonic love and depictions of friendship and I think the anime's obsession with forcing the "romantic interest" curse upon the main female character robbed us of... so much. There are a few wonderful moments in the anime where Sasuke and Sakura acknowledge each other, but because she's always "the girl with the crush", her actions are so often interpret as irrational or selfish by the fandom.

Hi @riemmetric!  It's great to talk to you again! Sorry it's taken me so long to answer this; RL has been making demands of me lately and it took me way longer to finish writing this up than I wanted it to (then again, I knew from the minute I read your original ask that my reply was going to get long, so I suppose I should have predicted a delay XD)

It's funny, my sister once asked me to choose between Sasuke or Sakura for an “unpopular opinion” meme, and I ended up doing Sasuke solely because I think the negative fandom opinions about Sakura are so unhinged and divorced from the actual text that I wouldn’t even know where to start.  People are entitled to dislike whatever characters they want, obviously, but there are some fandom takes that are, for me, so obviously rooted in bad faith viewings/readings that there’s no urge in me to discuss them.  That said, since you asked, I’m happy to go into my own thoughts on this a bit, with the disclaimer for other potential readers that I only write about fandom things for my own personal enjoyment, not as a contribution to The Discourse. If you don’t like Sakura, great!  I have no interest in changing your mind. Please consider this a sincere invitation to scroll on by and go enjoy whatever parts of the fandom appeal to you.

In general terms: I love Sasuke and Sakura’s relationship as much as I love all of the relationships in Team 7.  If we’re talking about them specifically as a romantic couple, then I probably fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, because I do like them together in a post-canon (to be clear: non-Boruto) setting, after time has passed and they’ve continued to develop individually and reconnect with each other, but I also wouldn’t exactly call myself an intense “shipper,” in the sense that I have no interest in pulling things out from the text and incorrectly citing them as evidence that Sasuke has hidden romantic feelings for her during the canon period. He cares about her in the canon period, just like he cares about Naruto and Kakashi.  That’s not up for interpretation; it’s the text.  But Sasuke during the canon time period does not demonstrate specifically romantic interest in anyone.  

[A note before people who might ship Sasuke with Someone Else emerge to rail against this statement - please just scroll past and continue enjoying fandom in whatever way is most fun for you. It is cool to ship whatever fanon thing you want; I think that’s great!  But earnestly citing any loving or emotional thing Sasuke does re: various characters in this story (yes, Sakura included) as indicative of specifically romantic love isn’t supported by the text. I know there are always going to be enormous subsets of any fandom who insist that it is, and I'm certainly not going to barge into anyone else's space to complain about that (because other people having fun together is harmless and none of my business), but I'm not obligated to indulge it on my own blog, either.]

Anyway, that said - the reason why I love Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship (from here on out I’ll use “relationship” in a general, non-romantic sense) is precisely because Sakura isn’t just “the girl with the crush.” Sakura has an arc when it comes to Sasuke, and its trajectory moves in the exact opposite direction of “irrational” or “selfish.”  She specifically goes from “the girl with the crush” to “the girl who steels herself and tries to put her personal feelings for Sasuke aside for the greater good” to “the girl who knows she can’t put her feelings aside, but who also knows full well that Sasuke doesn’t reciprocate them, and who still wants to save him regardless, because he matters to her as a person and a friend.”

[I'm putting the rest of this under a cut to save everyone's dash, and also to emphasize once again that this is a personal post on my personal blog which I wrote in response to a question from a personal acquaintance, the full content of which no one is obligated to read. I am not sending this post to random strangers and forcing them to look at it. I'm not even putting it in the character tags. I'm typing it up on my own blog and putting it under a cut. If you already know that you don't like Sakura, but you still click the link/read the post and then feel an urge to comment and complain, I am going to copy-paste this disclaimer and remind you that I specifically recommended that you scroll past and go have fun with fandom in your own way. Thanks in advance for responsibly curating your own fandom experience!]

So, from the top:

1. the girl with the crush

Sakura is, obviously, completely obsessed with Sasuke at the beginning of Part 1.  She’s also deeply clueless about him and his history (bizarre though it is, the story seems to indicate that she initially doesn’t know what happened with his family, the same way young!Obito is initially clueless about Kakashi’s father).  But what I like about Sakura and Sasuke’s Part 1 relationship is how this changes over time.

The critical scene that kicks this off happens right at the beginning of the manga, when she and Sasuke are talking by that bench - she complains about Naruto and blames his behavior on him being all alone/having no family to scold him; and even says she’s jealous that he doesn’t have parents to nag him all the time.  This obviously triggers an outburst from Sasuke, who tells her she has no idea what loneliness means and that she “makes him sick”/she’s “annoying” (importantly, the exact same thing Sakura said to Naruto in anger earlier that day), which in turn prompts Sakura to reassess herself and wonder whether she’s been making Naruto feel this terrible all the time, too:

From that point on, it’s a process of her putting little pieces together.  She still has a MAJOR crush, and she still acts like a twelve year-old, but as we approach the end of Part I, Sakura actually has a more accurate grasp on Sasuke’s current state of mind than Naruto does.  Naruto is initially excited to fight Sasuke on top of the hospital, because he feels like Sasuke’s finally acknowledging him, whereas Sakura is the one who immediately recognizes that something is wrong about this situation.  She is also the one who, after this fight, is concerned that Sasuke is really unwell and might do something drastic like run off in pursuit of the power Orochimaru promised him, but when she communicates this to Naruto, he assures her that this would NEVER happen:

(Sakura isn't convinced, though, because she goes to monitor the exit out of the village anyway.)

I’m not criticizing Naruto for his response here.  I ADORE hearing him say that Sasuke is too strong to need Orochimaru, with such perfect confidence - I love seeing how much respect and admiration he has for Sasuke underneath all their fighting, because that’s the whole reason he’s always baiting Sasuke and yelling at him and claiming “you're not so great!” He looks up to Sasuke; he wants to be like Sasuke; he thinks Sasuke is awesome! (It’s that Obito @ Kakashi behavior, you know?) But the fact remains that he is clueless about what’s actually going on with Sasuke in Part 1, and he remains clueless(ly optimistic) for a long time.  

(Eg, when he catches up to Sasuke during the retrieval arc and Sasuke climbs out of that cursed seal coffin, Naruto waves at him and calls "Come on, let's go!" as if Sasuke has been successfully rescued and is now going to come running home.  Even in Part II, when Naruto hears that Sasuke killed Orochimaru, he beams and immediately says, “So he must be on his way back to the Leaf Village!”  And everyone else in the room is like, “....,” because they know better.  Naruto doesn’t yet fully understand [or doesn't want to accept] the extent to which Sasuke has willingly chosen this path, and it’s not until after Jiraiya’s death/the Pain attack/the Five Kage Summit that Naruto really starts to understand Sasuke more clearly, which is something he himself admits.)

Sakura, in Part 1, has access to more information about Sasuke - she’s there for his first dissociative monologue during the bells test, she’s there for the curse mark’s placement, she’s there for his first violent transformation in the Forest of Death - she is, in fact, the unwitting catalyst for it (“Sakura…who did this to you?”), and her compassion is the reason Sasuke is later able to overcome the curse mark’s influence - so she has a more accurate/complete picture of “how he’s doing,” for lack of a better phrase, whereas Naruto, who doesn’t know about the curse mark in the first place, is still in the dark.  This means that Sakura is able to accurately discern that Sasuke is struggling more than Naruto realizes, and specifically to predict that he’s going to run away.  

(This dynamic is then interestingly flipped in the back half of Part II, since at any point after the Five Kage Summit, Sakura doesn’t have access to extremely relevant [if currently questionable and unproven] details that would in any other circumstance inform her behavior).

Of course, just because she has more info in Part 1 doesn’t mean she has some kind of miraculous insight into Sasuke’s every thought and feeling.  There are parts of her attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village that are as clueless as any of Naruto’s assumptions, and they showcase the kind of magical thinking common to childhood - like when she says that if he stayed with her, she could give him happiness, she’d do anything for him, even help him get his revenge - this idea that she herself can do something to make him feel better, that she can love him powerfully enough to defeat his pain - obviously none of that is rooted in realism.

Is this part of her approach irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered?  Of course it is!  But it’s no more irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered than Naruto’s stated plan to drag Sasuke back to the village even if he has to “break every bone in [his] body!” 

Hating on Sakura for her Part 1 attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village while simultaneously lauding Naruto for his feels like a bad faith misread of what is, to me, pretty clear narrative intention.  The story doesn’t at any point intend for us to see her begging him to stay as a selfish or conniving attempt to get something she wants.  She’s begging him to stay for the same underlying reason that Naruto is: she cares about him.  She thinks he’s making a mistake that will only cause him more pain in the end (she’s right) and she wants to make it so he feels less pain right now (she can’t.  But she doesn’t understand that/isn’t able to admit that, and she’s willing to try ANYTHING that might help).  

It’s critical that this farewell scene is set in front of that same bench from their first important confrontation - she references that day and how angry he got at her, and this time she tells him that she understands his reaction.  She’s learned things and she recognizes how insensitive she was being back then (“I know what happened to your clan, Sasuke”), even though she still can’t fully grasp all the complexities of the situation. She tells him that him blowing up at her back then helped her understand what loneliness actually meant (as opposed to her previous shallow understanding of it), and she challenges him about his choice right now: "So that's it, you're choosing the lonely path?" And when she tells him that she'll be very lonely if he leaves, we're immediately shown a panel of Sasuke thinking of both his friends, with the very clear implication that if he goes through with this, he will be lonely without them, too - that he's still struggling with the idea of leaving them, no matter how hard he tries to pretend:

Sakura at this point knows that Sasuke isn’t interested in her the way she is in him, but she still wants to give him happiness, however fantastical and immature her ideas sound to us (and, I’m sure, to him).  “I’ll do anything, even help you get your revenge/we'll have fun every day, and...and you'll be happy! I'll make sure of it!” - of course, it’s completely childish.  It’s irrational.  It’s ridiculous to think that any of this would ever be effective, but no more ridiculous than Naruto’s belief that he can simply break every bone in Sasuke’s body and keep him in the Leaf by force.

Both Naruto and Sakura are children who have a deeply oversimplified understanding of Sasuke’s situation.  They both still think they can fix him themselves.  They both think they can save him themselves.  They both think they can convince (or force) him to do what they want, what they think is in his best interests.  Both of them don’t yet understand that he has to want to come back, if it’s ever going to mean anything.  Their attempts to keep him in the village are immature and unrealistic, yes.  What they aren’t, however, is selfish, because neither Sakura nor Naruto are doing any of this with the intention of advancing their own interests.  They’re only thinking about Sasuke - how to keep Sasuke safe, how to make Sasuke happy - even when neither of them are taking an approach that will actually work.

Naruto and Sakura are children.  They’re afraid of losing somebody they care about.  Their attempts to prevent that from happening are desperate and messy and ultimately ineffective, but they are also genuinely felt and rooted in a true desire to rescue Sasuke from his pain, which - and this is the single most important thing that should impact our viewing of Part 1 - is something that Sasuke RECOGNIZES.  He doesn’t spend that agonizingly long moment bowed over Naruto’s defeated body so we can pretend he doesn’t understand that Naruto was just trying to help him.  He doesn’t take the time to murmur, “Sakura…thank you,” before laying her out carefully on a bench, just so we can discount it and pretend that he doesn’t recognize and appreciate her genuine intention to make things better for him, however clumsy that attempt might have been.

2. the greater good

If Stage 1 Sakura is "the girl with the crush," then Stage 2 Sakura is a progression to “the girl who decides to put her feelings for Sasuke aside in order to protect innocent people, including (but certainly not limited to) Naruto.”  She’s driven to this decision by interactions with Shikamaru, who all too recently had to grow up fast himself (“We're not kids anymore...we can't allow a war to break out between the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud because of Sasuke") and Sai, who risks his new friendship with Sakura and Team 7 in order to speak some hard truths and deliver one of my favorite lines in the whole story: “I don’t know what promise Naruto made to you, but it’s really no different than what was done to me.  It’s like a curse mark.”

(INCREDIBLE.  How can anybody be complaining about a season where Sai gets to say something that goes THIS HARD and Sakura LISTENS and takes DRAMATIC ACTION that actually propels the story forward in a meaningful way - )

[Okay, yeah, brief personal opinion interlude - it is just bonkers wild to me that there are people who complain about Sakura in the Five Kage Summit arc. That entire season is the greatest character arc she ever has.  Literally she has never been more interesting and dynamic than in Season 10; it’s the first time she ever gets to be as deep and fascinating as the boys; what is everybody so worked up about?  Oh, “she lied to Naruto that one time” - Sasuke joined infant-kidnapping baby-murdering human experimentation machine Orochimaru when he was twelve years old in order to (dare I say it????) selfishly pursue his personal goals and yet, somehow, we are still able to root for him.  He abandoned his friends/allies to imprisonment and death (Suigetsu and Jūgo) or outright stabbed them in the chest himself (Karin) in order to (SELFISHLY) get what he wanted, and yet, somehow, we are still able to love him, understand him, and be on his side.  Naruto is canonically not upset with Sakura about her lie after receiving context for the situation and I think we can probably take our cues from him without feeling the need to bring her up on war crimes; please calm down]

[Sorry, I just really love most of Season 10 and think it’s one of the best examples of how good this story can be when every single character gets to do something that matters (as opposed to things being all Naruto, all the time) so I get a little bit worked up over people complaining about some of the best writing Sakura ever gets.  I don’t understand what certain elements of fandom want from her. People complain about her being “useless” and not doing anything that contributes to the story, but then they complain just as much when she does finally get to act decisively and have just as complex/dynamic an inner world as the boys.  She’s “weak” for being unreasonably in love with Sasuke, but when she tries to be “strong” and put her love for him aside and eliminate him in order to protect Naruto and the rest of the world, she’s evil, because she should have been more understanding of his situation (despite the fact that she doesn’t KNOW anything about his situation).  But then when she can’t go through with killing him after all because she cares about him too much despite the things he’s done, she’s not "compassionate" or "kind" or "a good friend," she’s “weak” again. Nothing Sakura does in S10 is more wrongheaded or rash than any of the batshit, buckwild things Naruto and Sasuke have done in the past (and will continue to do in the future), but when Naruto and Sasuke have big feelings or take bold action, it makes them interesting characters, whereas Sakura can’t breathe in anyone’s direction without being minutely scrutinized for moral impurities.]  

Anyway. Back to a more measured response.  

Every single piece of development Sakura has with regard to Sasuke in this season satisfies me so much.  Her initial shock and disbelief at hearing that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki?  Good, appropriate.  The fact that she starts to acknowledge the reality of what Sasuke’s done sooner than Naruto does?  Also extremely appropriate, very in-character for both of them.  Her taking Sai’s words to heart and deciding that the promise she asked Naruto to make when they were children is causing him to suffer and she has to relieve him of that burden?  Juicy!  AND thematically significant (promises!!!!  the burden that a promise places on a person, especially when it can't be kept - we've seen that before in this story and we'll see it again).  Her anguished pivot from wanting to protect Sasuke to realizing that she has a responsibility to protect the countless innocents who will die because of the war he’s trying to start?  HELLO THIS IS INCREDIBLE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.  Her knocking out the classmates who agreed to help her so they don’t have to share in her burden (and so the only person Naruto will hate when it’s over is her)?  BRUH.  Her being so committed and focused on her goal of saving innocents and protecting Naruto (not just from being harmed by Sasuke/the Akatsuki, but by the possibility that Naruto will someday have to hurt Sasuke himself) that she tries to take everything on by herself and walks into a confrontation that she absolutely cannot win??  INCREDIBLE.  (Literally the first time I watched this, I said, “Finally!!!  It’s Sakura’s turn to go off the rails!”  I laughed with my sister about how Kakashi isn’t even mad, because Naruto and Sasuke have been pulling stunts like this for years and Sakura was way overdue for her own meltdown.)  And then, after Kakashi intervenes in the fight - Sakura barreling back into the battle when she realizes he’s going to take on the burden of killing Sasuke himself in order to spare her and Naruto the horror - “I can’t let Kakashi-sensei bear this burden!”  I love her for that.  

And then, of course, in the end - her not being able to do hurt Sasuke after all.  Despite committing herself to the act, despite forcing herself to put her feelings for him aside, despite resolving to stop him from starting a war and killing innocent people, she can’t harm him.  She cares about him too much.  This, too, is thematically significant - think about Itachi’s “you don’t have enough hatred” - she doesn’t have enough hatred to kill someone she cares about, even if it seems like he deserves it, even if would be the right thing to do to protect others.  She can’t do it, and Sasuke almost kills her for her compassion.  

I love the dynamic this sets up between her and Sasuke, for a few reasons:

1) Personally, I think Sasuke respects Sakura much more for trying to kill him than he would have if she’d just tried to talk him out of his behavior or beg him to come home (a la their original confrontation in Part 1).  This is the first significant interaction he’s had with Sakura in years, and the fact that she does something SO contrary to his memory of her is an important demonstration of the fact that she’s not the same girl she used to be.  Sasuke spends a lot of time after his defection declaring to his old team “I’ve changed; I’m not that person anymore,” but this is one of the moments where he’s forced to acknowledge that his teammates have changed, too.  Time didn’t just stop for them when he left.  While he was turning into someone new, so were they.  They grew up without him, and his old memories of them can’t encompass the whole picture of who they are now.  

(This is a little tangential, but in general, I love the spectrum of reactions that Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi have in this sequence, and the way that all of them are ultimately messages Sasuke needs to hear.  Sasuke - who we know textually regrets what he did here, who apologizes to Sakura for it later - for “everything,” in fact - needs Naruto’s aggressively optimistic open-arms policy, yes, needs that potential, that unconditional possibility of return.  He also needs Sakura’s refusal to let him hurt her friends and start a war that will kill thousands of people, needs her surprisingly ruthless attempt to take him down; needs just as much her failure to do so, because it shows him that she still loves him too much to kill him even as she condemns him.  And he needs Kakashi’s grim line in the sand, needs someone who very possibly won't hesitate like Sakura (despite the horrifying personal cost), someone who will try to reach him but also won't let him escape and become the next generation’s Orochimaru, who won't let him cause untold suffering to untold numbers of people just because a teacher loved him too much to stop him when he had the chance. 

(And then even Kakashi chooses not to deliver a killing blow when he has the opportunity -)

(I know that in fandom people are more likely to be all, “oh, Naruto Good, everybody else Bad,” but I don’t think the narrative frames Sakura or Kakashi as “worse” than Naruto in any way.  The story goes out of its way to make it clear how desperately they don’t want to hurt Sasuke and how much they care about him.  And [this is just my interpretation, so obviously I won’t claim it as fact], I personally think that Sasuke - Sasuke, who, looking back, can see how lost he was then and how tortured he would have been if he’d gone through with many of his plans - would be grateful to Sakura and Kakashi for making an attempt to stop him when he couldn’t stop himself.)

2) On the other side of this, the fact that Sakura wasn’t able to deliver the killing blow means a lot. Sasuke was incapacitated under that bridge; he was completely at her mercy - but she stopped with the kunai an inch from his back.  She couldn’t kill him, even though she knew that he was completely willing to kill her (because he'd attempted to Chidori-assassinate her from behind just a few minutes ago).  That’s huge!  Sasuke is too out of his head right now to process this or understand it, but later, it's going to matter.  She stayed her hand.  She spared his life.  She loved him too much to hurt him, even when he’d given her every reason to take him down.  She hesitated, and he almost killed her for it, but her inability to strike him ultimately gave him yet another chance to come home, another chance to get better, another chance to have a life outside of his pain.  Despite everything, some part of her still hadn’t really given up on him, and that knowledge will matter later, when he’s finally able to acknowledge it.  

The point of all this is to say that I really have no complaints about Sakura and Sasuke’s dynamic in their S10 confrontation.  This season is the point where Sakura fully grows past her “girl with a crush” stage and into her “shinobi must make very harsh decisions” adulthood, but it never means that she doesn’t care about the person she’s trying to take down.  Her ultimate inability to deliver the killing blow remains a dangling lifeline for her relationship with Sasuke, an open door that Sasuke is able to walk through at the end of the story (literally, in fact, when Sakura opens that portal for him and saves him from Kaguya’s desert prison, and figuratively, too, when Sasuke apologizes to her).

3. she only wants to save you

The last stage in their relationship is what Sakura settles into during the war arc.  She started off Part 1 being just a girl with a crush, then tried to harden her heart and put her feelings for Sasuke aside in service of the greater good, but she was unable to actually follow through and kill him, and because of that, what she’s come to accept by the war arc is actually two things: that 1) Sasuke truly is willing to let her die if it furthers his goals, and 2) she wants to save him anyway.  

She has no intention of pursuing Sasuke romantically.  She knows full well that Sasuke isn’t interested in her.  She even knows that Sasuke isn’t really on their side (there’s a great scene where Sai questions Sakura about Sasuke’s return, and she reassures him that everything is fine, and Sai sadly thinks to himself “even I can tell your smile is fake”).  She’s well-aware that Sasuke didn’t try to help her when Madara stabbed her.  She’s well-aware that he left her to die in the lava pit.  She’s also well-aware that none of this is enough to make her stop loving him.  He doesn’t have to care about her - she still cares about him.  She still wants to help him.  She still wants to save him.

This is not hidden, hard-to-parse character development.  It’s explicitly articulated on the page:

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

I’m not sure if people look at this last confrontation and unquestioningly take Sasuke at his word (as if we haven’t just read 71 volumes/watched 700 episodes showing us how how painfully distorted his thinking is), or if they stop reading/watching before the end of the scene, or if they don’t understand that Sasuke saying something doesn’t make that statement an accurate representation of reality.  The entire point of this scene is to show us how deeply mistaken Sasuke is about Sakura (and, by extension, the rest of Team 7).  He’s locked into a false pattern of thinking.  His single-minded focus on revenge and destruction has blinded him to the unconditional love his friends feel for him; he’s become so accustomed to using others and being used that he can’t understand or accept that someone would care about him without needing a reason, without needing him to love them back, without needing to receive something from him in exchange.

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

Sasuke matters to Sakura as more than a love interest.  He always has.  She does love him romantically, yes, but she doesn’t only love him romantically, and her desire to help him is not and has never been contingent on him returning her feelings, romantically or otherwise.  Sasuke isn’t able to acknowledge that in this scene, but that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to just sit back and agree with his warped perspective.  Kakashi is the one who’s explicitly positioned as the voice of the narrative here.  We, as the audience, are supposed to recognize that Kakashi is the one telling us the truth.

[tangential thing 1: You don’t have to love Sakura's last plea to Sasuke here. It’s not my favorite, either - the best part, other than Kakashi’s speech at the end, is the moment after Kakashi collapses when Sakura’s expression changes from pained uncertainty to pure rage, when she grits her teeth together - when I first saw that, I almost leapt out of my seat like “Oh my god.  She’s finally going to let him have it.  It’s finally happening - ”  I wanted that so badly, and I still think it would have been a more effective writing choice for Sakura’s last words to lean more into her anger at the suffering Sasuke is causing all of them (himself included!) and less into yet another of Kishimoto’s “let me have Sakura articulate what a shame it is that she can’t do as much as Naruto despite the fact that I literally just went through a major reveal sequence in the war to show that she’s caught up to the boys; I can’t make up my mind about whether I want her to progress or not” - it’s extremely frustrating (and it's something he does at the very end of the S10 Team 7 reunion, too, which is the ONLY moment of S10 that falls flat for me).  But at the same time, even if there are ways this sequence could be more satisfying, it doesn’t change the fact that her plea to him is not remotely motivated by a desire to be with him romantically and not anything to condemn her for.]

[tangential thing 2: I do like how she remembers that moment when Sasuke says “Thank you.”  That panel precedes her saying “If there’s even a tiny corner of your heart that thinks about me…” (which I’m sure is one of the things that people like to criticize about this scene, aka “oh she’s sooooo self-centered” etc), but that particular line of dialogue is preceded by that particular flashback panel for a reason: Sakura knows that Sasuke DOES think about her.  He thinks about all of them.  Sakura remembers that “thank you,” and it reminds her that despite everything Sasuke has done and said since, despite all evidence to the contrary, she knows in her bones that his expression of gratitude back then was genuine.  He cared about her once.  He cared about all of them.  She’s trying to reach the part of him that still does, if it exists.]

[tangential thing 3: The fact that Kakashi says “she suffers from loving you,” and it triggers Sasuke to remember his own family - thinking about how much he suffered (and still suffers) from loving them - “Perhaps…those are the ties to a failed past” - the idea that it’s not worth it to have bonds if it means you suffer this much…that it’s too difficult, it’s too painful, and if Sakura and the rest of Team 7 were smarter they would just give it up (all Sasuke knows how to do now is sever potential bonds before they can hurt him; so why aren’t Sakura and the rest of his teammates doing that, why can’t they let it go, why are they making this so hard - ) << yeah, he clearly doesn't care about her/them at all.]

4. the shadow of my family

This has all been a really long way to answer the original question, but the short response to “What do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura?” is “I really care about it,” just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Naruto, just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Kakashi. And I don’t think the story ever asks me to choose between them.

I’m not sure whether it’s the impact of Boruto-era “canon” that gets in the way of other people approaching things this way (I don’t consider sequel material when I evaluate the original story), or if it’s Kishimoto’s frequent disinterest in/disrespect towards female characters, which yes, does sometimes make it harder, or if it's a shipping thing (bane of my existence), or some combination of factors, but for me, taking one member of Team 7 out of the equation hobbles the rest of the story.  I can’t read/watch Naruto while hating one of the protagonists and loving the other three.  It doesn’t work like that for me.  The story wasn’t written that way, and there’s nothing in the text that would cause me to receive it that way.

That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with disliking one of the main foursome (or any character, for that matter) - obviously we're all going to have different preferences, and everyone is free to enjoy or reject whatever parts of a story they want, or to like or dislike whatever characters they want. I know that some people have more fun disregarding canon and doing their own thing, which is fine.  My own personal zone of enjoyment comes from receiving the story as closely to how I think it was intended to be read as I can, and personally, when I look at this particular story, what I see is that all the members of Team 7 clearly demonstrate their love for Sasuke in ways that he himself later recognizes and acknowledges. All of them are driven by their desire to save him and their unwillingness to hurt him. All of them make repeated choices to chase after him when he runs away, to trust him when he hasn't exactly earned it, to give him another chance when he doesn't appear to deserve it. ALL of them, not just Naruto, do these things multiple times throughout the story, and Sasuke owes his life (and thus his eventual recovery) to ALL of them, many times over. Kakashi disobeys Hokage-elect Danzō and breaks the law to negotiate for Sasuke's life with a foreign head of state. Sakura and Kakashi both have opportunities to kill Sasuke in the Land of Iron, and they choose to spare him instead. Kakashi stops Sasuke from killing his only friends at two different points in the story, which would have been a mistake Sasuke couldn't have recovered from. Sasuke would have died in Kaguya's desert dimension if Sakura hadn't saved him (Sakura, who knew that Sasuke wasn't even truly on her side yet, who knew he'd abandoned her for dead multiple times already that day). Kaguya's bone bullet would have killed Sasuke too, if Kakashi, with his intention to die in Sasuke's place, hadn't leapt in front of it (Kakashi, who also knew that Sasuke wasn't fully on their side yet, who also knew that Sasuke had abandoned him for dead earlier that day). Sasuke and Naruto would have BOTH died in the Final Valley if Sakura and a severely injured Kakashi hadn't chased after them to heal their injuries.

Remove any one member of Team 7, and Sasuke never makes it home. Without the combined efforts of all three of his teammates, he doesn't survive.  That’s the way it should be, thematically, for a story whose first and most foundational premise was the importance of teamwork, and since Sakura was just as essential to that framework as everyone else, I’m just as invested in her relationship with Sasuke as I am in his relationship with everyone else.  You can’t remove one leg from a four-legged stool without damaging the integrity of the entire structure, and for me, discounting any single member of Team 7 irreparably damages the integrity of the entire story. 

TL;DR: I love all of the Team 7 relationships, including Sakura and Sasuke's, because despite what some segments of fandom seem to believe, the text of the story never gives me any reason not to.

[burntsaltsblog]

No I'm mad because I was telling my experiences of Ginger Billy Butcher in a safe space where people would 'get' it (like RL, it would just get me blank looks). But it didn't go the way I wanted and I wish him the best, and it was what it was. Now someone or some people think it's funny to come on anon and impersonate me (I know the irony of being on anon) making up fake stories for shits and giggles, as well as confusing the OP blog and everyone who was enjoying my story.

i think if we figured out how to clone karl urban, then we’d stop having these kinds of problems

[ao3-oner]

hello just wanted to thank you for feeding me super-rare-pair rulehends and summoner's id is like so cute?? also i really enjoy how you capture each pro-player's rl personality almost exactly right like yes they would definitely say that... and then you add the fictional bits and they're so fun to read

Hi, and thank you so much for reading/enjoying/reaching out!

While I don't think I'll ever be in the running for the title of World's Biggest RuLehends Fan (there are a number of super devotees out there - though our ship is small, its support is mighty!), the pairing is certainly very near and dear to my heart. Their dynamic is honestly super fun to write, and they live in my head as rent-free as Siwoo does in Jaehyuk's. I'm especially glad that you liked Summoner Id because it falls cleanly into the category of 'fics I just wrote on a whim', so I'm always glad when stories like that turn out okay. I actually posted a chapter 2 for that fic just now, so if you're interested, please go and read!

Also, thank you so much for complimenting my characterizations of the LCK gang! I think my favorite part of writing RPF has been the few moments when I've doubted the way that I write a certain character only for the real life player to go and reinforce my interpretation. I have two specific examples of this:

In "Facecheck", I almost removed Oner saying 'Wassup?' while proofreading before resolving to keep it in because even if it wasn't 100% in-character, it was funny. Literally one week later, the official T1 English subtitles on one of his streams featured him saying "Wassup", and I instantly felt so validated.

In chapter 1 of MSI, I have Lehends say "The kid [Peyz] is cracked at chess." Upon rereading the fic, I was a bit hesitant about it because I felt like I might have prescribed my own dialogue mannerisms onto Lehends's character too much. Later, I watched a GenG vod on YouTube in which Lehends looked at Peyz's League winstreak and said - a direct quote from the official English subtitles - "Peyz is cracked at this game."

In short, with RPF, you can have these amazing moments of "Not only would he fucking say that, he did fucking say that," and that is one great joy of this fandom.

[abiogenesiis]

thinking.

this is a screen capture i took when the cheren/bianca neo champion story event was still going on. in this scene, cheren is talking with marshal while he trains for the neo champion stadium. they talk about alder, and cheren talks about how he opened his eyes regarding his way of life in BW1. he mentions his journey in unova, but also...

THE FACT THAT LEAR APPEARS WHEN HE SAYS THIS??

alongside his experiences in unova, cheren's experience on pasio allowed his perspective to expand further. cheren was a key character in the PML arc – he butted his way into lear's business with hoopa and team break, ultimately helping lear have a change of heart and realize the importance of bonds with other people (cheren's intervention is one of my favorite RLS scenes EVER).

this particular inclusion of lear just makes me happy because cheren recalls his experience with him in the PML arc and how it also affected him TOO. THEY BOTH LEARNED FROM EACHOTHER!! and it's just cool that dena made reference to that in this event story. <3

i adore this quote too. BECAUSE in lear's prior interactions with cheren (before cheren's intervention), he just avoided him because he annoyed him and kept sticking his nose in his business. it's funny because after the defeat of team break, cheren just HAD to tease lear. and i just. oough.

[kissalopa]

Happy Simblr Gratitude Day!

I want to thank you for being here! Since I started Tumblr, you’ve been by my side. 🥰🤧 Your Sims & your funny posts about their crazy adventures or hard Challanges. have made me laugh so often. Idk if I’ve mentioned this before? Your posts, Sims, lovely comments & your humor that I really appreciate, helped me escape the darkness and negativity that surrounded me for a brief moment. Just coming here, seeing you & your sims on my dash, made me smile. Thank you! Last year was tough. 2023 wasn’t really better either. But I hope 2024 will be better for us ALL! 🥰 Love you & hugs! 🤗

Aleksa, thank you so much!! 💜 🥰

I'm so happy to hear that I helped you (even if it was indirectly)! And I want to say that you are helping me now!

I couldn't agree more about these two years, and I too really hope that 2024 will be better! ☺️

I love seeing you on my dash! I was in love with your stories when you first started and now I am invested in your rl story that you post (I hope that isn't creepy 😅)!

Love and hugs, my friend! 💜 🥰 🤗

[yunoteru4ever]

Musing about the forbidden appeal of stalkers and how Mirai Nikki's framework benefits the overall love story

Something I think is unspoken about the appeal of... oh, let's politely say off-kilter *cough* love stories such as the one at the center of Future Diary is that, for many people, the idea of having a stalker can sound... appealing? Romantic, even?

Let me explain what I mean in more detail: If you've never truly experienced the horror/stress of having a stalker? The idea of someone choosing YOU to fixate upon as the object of their unyielding love/lust can actually sound pretty nice, in concept. Hell — even moreso if you've never had anyone openly and proudly declare their love for you. The notion of having a stalker can feel VALIDATING, even! The less luck you have in love, the more that discovering you have your own stalker can sound like a weird, wonderful fantasy. Or, shit... even if you're doing just fine in the dating/romance department, imagining someone harboring an undying obsession/devotion can still feel like a massive ego boost.

My point is: When dealing with a stalker is only a distant, abstract and purely theoretical concept, the "horror" side of it can easily fade into the far background. So yeah, I think there's a certain Forbidden Appeal to stalker-romances for many, despite the inherent darkness and danger that could/should logically come with such a thing. (Especially in RL, of course.)

In that context, the way Mirai Nikki's central love story is presented and framed is especially genius. And I say that for two primary reasons:

First reason — Mirai Nikki taps into that Forbidden Appeal partly by giving Yuno an increasingly sympathetic portrayal, but importantly also by placing this unhinged stalker character into a framework where her biggest downsides become comprehensible or even beneficial. Sure, Yuno seems to have a taste for violence and blood, but she's trapped in a goddamn Killing Game where both her own life and the fate of the fucking world is at stake. Furthermore, we later learn there's a ticking clock element that demands the "game" crown a victor ASAP. Against this background, Yuno's violence and darkness becomes, at worst, a bit of evil that's also handily beneficial. And at best? Her behavior becomes totally understandable due to contextual morality. (Besides, it also provides us with a reason to exploit yet another off-kilter romantic concept that can hold a dark appeal for some: the "willing to kill for you"-level love.)

Second reason — Yet in spite of what I just said, Future Diary doesn't shy away (...much*) from the threat inherent to having someone develop an unhealthy obsession with another. Yuno isn't some harmlessly funny sitcom stalker, nor is she the kind of stalker who the narrative fails to ever acknowledge as such in order preserve the "purity" of the central relationship's appeal. Yuki recognizes her as an obsessive stalker from the very beginning! There's no denying that she's violent and clearly dangerous! The fact that she's mentally unstable and therefore seems unpredictable is absolutely core to her character! The story is utterly up-front about these things... and it never lets us forget that, for all that we may feel bad for her or understand her actions, she's still a threat/potential threat to EVERYBODY around her.

Long after it's clear that the bizarre situation makes Yuno's worst traits much more positive, there are still MANY instances when the narrative reminds us of just how much of an unpredictable threat she is to even her supposed allies.

However...

*...I added that "(...much*)" caveat because there are some rare exceptions . A signature aspect of every Sakae Esuno story to date is the way he delights in swerving from the primary horror/suspense/action focus over to sudden bursts of comedy. For that reason, Mirai Nikki is definitely guilty of playing Yuno's stalking as mere 'wacky hijinx' on select occasions — for better or worse. For me, these sudden breaks in the tension are quirky and delightful, but I can understand if individual mileage varies.

All of this is really just me thinking out loud about why the portrayal of such a clearly "problematic" relationship works so well for me and many others. It isn't afraid to confront the inherent problems, but it also provides a (totally unrealistic) framework in which the problems are more tolerable, maybe even acceptable. It makes the stalker sympathetic via the gradual reveal of her backstory, but it also never lets us forget that's she's legit dangerous. And it does all of this while showing us a twisted relationship that might already be oddly appealing to some members of the audience.

Besides, look — Esuno knows this is pretty "out there" stuff. He was once asked if he'd want to date someone like Yuno himself. In that interview, he laughed before replying, "It's probably best we keep that kind of relationship in the realm of fiction." So it's not like he's legitimately recommending that anyone go out and date a crazed stalker. That's part of why the framework has to be SO extreme and SO fantastical for it work so well, IMO.

[sotwk]

okay, I’m curious, where do you get your inspo for your sibling writing of your OC’s? Personally, I pull from my relationships with my siblings.

do you have siblings? or is it from your kids? — if you are uncomfortable sharing this info online, NO WORRIES! I get it 100%

I find that people that have siblings or see that interaction regularly just have a great way of writing them!

~ @entishramblings // vaya

Hi Vaya! <3

You know, I never really thought about it before, but you're right--I'm pretty sure I draw from my personal experiences and banter with my own RL siblings to write for the Thranduilion Brothers!

I'm especially close to my younger sister, so I see similarities/parallels between me and her and Gelir and Legolas. The funny thing is, SHE is the snarkier and more sarcastic of the two of us, so she's the one who more often heckles and messes with me. (I'm the poor Legolas. Bahaha.) I also have a brother who is a wisecracking asshole on the outside but a big softy on the inside, so he probably subconsciously inspires my Thranduil as well.

My two sons are still toddlers, so they're still learning how to be brothers to each other! It's such a trip watching them though, and I'm sure they will inspire my Thranduilion stories in the coming years. For now, I've learned how to write more realistic child characters (i.e. little Legolas) from them!

Thank you for the Ask! I'm so glad you're back from your MIA break! :)

[aleksa-sims]

RL Story

Liam had a nice day with D. & me... I think? I mean... our cat was not really pleased about the short Baby-visit, but well, the little man survived it. 😬

An hour after we arrived home, I got a call back from my doc. He said my results were fine, my Baby's fine. I shouldn’t worry. So we went out with Liam. I played with him in a water puddle next to a kids playground. Under that water puddle was a..... small fountain into the ground. I thought it was off.

But that... water-thing turned on, just as I was standing in that puddle with Liam. Of course I got wet. Daniel couldn't stop laughing, but I admit, it was funny.

Once we were back home, I took off my wet clothes. Daniel head back down to the supermarket to buy groceries. Liam slowly got hungry. Our little stinky started to cry. I didn’t have time to go up to the bedroom to change, so I ran around in my underwear almost all day long. To prevent Liam from starving, I gave him half a banana while I prepared his baby food. Only 5 minutes later Daniel was back. I asked him to help me with Liam, so I could prepare our food. But Daniel, he.......wanted something else, me! He got horny. Just because I was in my underwear. I mean, I didn’t mind. I was glad he... liked me. Still, it was odd. This morning he got out of my way. He barely spoke to me, but now suddenly, he can’t keep his hands off me? And secondly, we were not alone! But Daniel didn’t care.

I washed my hands. I stood with my back to him. I thought D. grabbed a spoon to feed Liam, instead he grabbed me. He kissed my neck & touched me, I got goose bumps. I just let him go on for a moment... I could feel, that he wanted me. But Liam was hungry, so D. let go of me and went to our little stinky.

As I was preparing our meal, I thought about us, our situation. I wondered, if I should talk to him? Ask him, what was wrong with him this morning?.... However, I decided to... simply let things run their course. 🤷‍♀️

After dinner, everyone was full & happy. I looked at them all three. My horny husband, the hungry, dirty baby and our jealous cat. I couldn’t believe it! I actually managed to satisfy them all 3. Me, the only girl in the round. 😁 Okay, I’m honest, Daniel helped me.

Liam that little stinky got totally dirty while eating. But agh, who cares? The main thing he had fun and felt comfortable with us. Only Lucky, our Cat, seemed to have something against Liam’s cheerful, curious mood of discovery. The little one crawled through our apartment. He opened all our drawers he could reach.

He really enjoyed it, until Lucky came along and decided to push Liam. The little one rolled to the side, but he didn’t complain, looking for another quiet corner in our apartment to poop.💩

After Liam took a dump, he just fell asleep on the floor in his pooped diaper. 🤣Daniel and I didn’t get it right away. We were....... busy, but the smell of baby-shit forced me to let go of him. Also, maybe I should finally get dressed?

Anyway. I went back to the kitchen to check on Liam... Oh my, our stinky needs to take a bath. 🤢🤭

While Daniel was cleaning Liam, I went to get dressed. Now that I was no longer naked, I could help D., without him touching me all the time. Of course he was a bit disappointed, but still pretty horny. 🤨 As soon as Liam fell peacefully asleep, Daniel could finally........... vent a bit? 🤭

Ngl, I wanted him too. My hormones were partly responsible. I was pregnant and seeing Daniel with a Baby today, made him even more irresistible to me than usual. Besides, he's hot! Really hot and cute. We can also talk about our probs or the divorce tomorrow, yk? 😬Ugh, I didn’t want to divorce him. 😞💔

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[strawsoldier]

Spring 2024 Anime-Round Up

I tend to do this Round-ups before the next season starts but thanks to my vacation it was delayed until now. I still haven't caught up on all my spring shows, but I did watch and finish the shows that are going to be written up here.

Anime of the Season: Sound! Euphonium 3

Best Opening: The Parade of Battlers (Black Butler: Public School Arc )

Best Ending: Twinkling Ash (Delicious in Dungeon)

Drops: Wind Breaker, Unnamed Memory, Blue Archive: The Animation

Plan to Watch at a later date: Girl's Band Cry

Completed:

Delicious in Dungeon - (9/10)

Imagine being a popular, well-written, and beloved manga and getting an anime adaption this good. Most of the time, the anime gods are cruel, but sometimes they can be merciful. Soooo looking forward to S2

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc - (6/10)

Not sure how much milk the cash cow has left, but you can be sure the good farmers at Ufotable are going to keep squeezing that teet. I find it incredibly ironic that one of the complaints about DS when the manga was still ongoing is that the story progressed way too fast and now people are complaining the anime is too slow. At the very least, the switch to movie format should help the pacing issues...I hope.

Kaiju No. 8 - (8/10 (kek))

Real shit. (Kikoru spinoff when?)

Konosuba! 3 - (8/10)

Don't really have much to write tbh. It's still funny. Sucks the character designs are not as expressive as they were in the first two seasons, but we're here for the cast and they are still as good as ever.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 Part 2 -(6/10)

Didn't I say I was going to drop this series? Must've forgot. Anyway, watching this for Norn, would shot up to being the best character in this show, was worth it. Still don't care for much of everything else. Rudeus still sucks.

GO! GO! Loser Ranger! - (6/10)

The Boys- I mean. Loser Ranger is a show with a good concept and plot and some of the best direction I've seen in an action show. Unfortunately, it's boggled down by the fact that most, if not all. the characters in this show are not endearing or just flat out suck. I don't know if I'll bother with S2 but this was fun despite my lack of investment.

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night - (7.5/10)

I don't think this was as good as everyone was praising throughout it's run, but it's a very strong story nonetheless. The themes that it tackled hit a little too close to home and the drama felt very genuine. Kiui was my favorite.

Laid-Back Camp Season 3 - (7/10)

Peak comfy is back!! This time with a new studio and much more RL backgrounds. Both of which I did not like lol. Granted, eight-bit at the moment is very stretched thin giving how many shows their are working on. Maybe in the future more staff can jump on future installments of Yuru Camp and make it better than what we got. Please add Aya to the main cast

Sound! Euphonium 3 - (9/10)

Kyoani is back and stronger than ever as they bring Kumiko's high school journey to a close. The drama this season was some of the best Eupho has produced and the new characters were fantastic additions to the cast. I am sad we didn't get as many performances but the one we got in the finale more than made up for that, and even made me cry a bit. This series is so important to me and I'm glad it got to reach it's conclusion at the level. Well done Kitauji!

The iDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors - (4/10)

Remember when I said how cruel the anime gods can be?

Black Butler: Public School Arc - (6.5/10)

Never saw this show ever coming back. And with a fancy Ishihama OP to boot. Hopefully a sign that more is to come.