#not to be confused with “Connect” which came out in 2022

[notsocharmy]

🤔🏳️‍🌈?

Connection is coming out in less than four days (congrats on your coming out)

I think this is it guys. A possible new canidate for the "merciless evil devil from hell fandom & friends" fandom!

(Can I just say I love the picture above? What is this? Are they all connected by red strings of faith? Are those lasers? Are those supposed to show the connections between the characters?)

please don't be another Impossible Heir. PLEASE.

Just look at all the promo pictures we've got (i'm gonna babygirl this man, he looks pathethic)

[bengiyo]

Ben’s Big BL Blurb 7: BL Is Over Its Piners

It’s been quite a while since I wrote one of these. I’ve been watching a lot less, but I wanted to jump back in and meditate on the state of pining in BL, and also comment on how things haven’t felt this sparse in BL since maybe 2019 for me. 

I’ve noticed in some of the shows I’ll discuss below that piners are no longer universally lauded for the purity or sanctity of their one-sided crushes or obsessions, and instead have been confronted or challenged by the narrative. This is a fascinating (and honestly necessarily) evolution for the genre. Let’s get into it, in no particular order…starting with the worst.

Something’s Not Right is Appropriately Named

Adapted from the same source material as Blueming (2022), this show follows stressed piner Do Ba Woo and his crush on his childhood friend Ji Hoon. Ba Woo is at his wit’s end with the vivacious Ji Hoon and wants to end their friendship. Ji Hoon, responding as any man would to their best friend suddenly wanting to sever ties, ignores this and wonders what might be wrong. 

Meanwhile, interloper Jung Ha Min discovers Ba Woo’s diary and misunderstands it as a novel. He pesters Ba Woo into finishing the novel so he can use it for a webtoon, and encourages Ba Woo to ask Ji Hoon out for a week. When Ji Hoon surprisingly agrees, Ba Woo goes on to torment this confused man for a week with hot and cold behavior, rejecting Ji Hoon’s own confessions, and facing no realization about his own role in his misery before the story retcons the drama by saying Ji Hoon was withholding his own feelings the whole time.

Final Verdict: 4, Not Recommended. Friends, this show is a mess that also apparently erased its original supporting cast (@lurkingshan and @ahxiang). It fails to understand that Ba Woo is the problem here in that he’s constantly confusing Ji Hoon and treating him cruelly. It fails as a romance for me because I didn’t even want the guys to be friends by the end, and spent most of the show baffled by the apparent determination to make Ba Woo vibe with Ha Min. I also deeply-resent the show retconning Ji Hoon in the final episode by having him have also been nursing an older crush. At no point does Ba Woo grow from any of the events he’s encountered to reckon with the fact that he’s the one causing all of their problems. This was an unusually frustrating viewing experience that I do not recommend. 

While I do think this show wanted to tackle the intensity of unrequited feelings, I don’t think it did right by Ji Hoon at all. This show completely misses the mark on saying or doing anything interesting with one-sided pining and its impacts on both and related parties. Ba Woo was a rude, misanthropic friend, and this show was more concerned with Jung Ha Min developing his own unrequited crush than the believability of the romantic connection between its leads. ONE CHOP.

Business as Usual Should Have Remembered that Our Dating Sim Exists

I’ve been thinking about how elegantly Our Dating Sim incorporated the game development work into the second chance romance after finishing Business as Usual. Business worsens the conflict by having the guys be actively dating and FUCKING as our mad piner, Kim Min Joon, severs ties with Jin Hwan over a misunderstanding. Min Joon essentially stagnates for  eight years before Jin Hwan joins the same company. Jin Hwan is clearly still interested in Min Joon, and we eventually learn that Min Joon badly misunderstood a call he overheard and ghosted his boyfriend for no valid reason. 

My primary difficulty with this show is that it doesn’t want to spend time on the work Min Joon needs to do to earn its wedding epilogue. We recently finished the Theory of Love Romcom Rewatch, and this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot in the wake of dealing with Third again (probably helped by the uncanny resemblance between Chae Jong Hyeok and Gun Atthaphan). Compare this to Our Dating Sim, in which Lee Wan came face-to-face with the separation anxiety Shin Ki Tae developed after being ghosted, Min Joon mostly faces one tough conversation with a mutual friend that inspires Min Joon to do a dramatic run to the airport to say that, despite their differences, he wants to commit. I didn’t buy it.

Final Verdict: 5, Rewatch Our Dating Sim instead. I will grant this show that it did seem to understand that Min Joon was the major problem here, but it doesn’t know what he needs to do to make things right between them. I also want to give this show credit for letting the men have sex even though they hadn’t solved all of the problems between them. However, they failed to use their dating advice book conceit to help with the arc of the relationship at all, nor did they address the way Min Joon’s avoidant behavior led to him also being a bad supervisor. I generally struggle with second chance romances like this where the wrong party doesn’t go on a growth arc and face the reality that they hurt the person they loved. TWO CHOPS.

Gelboys Finally Gave Me Another Thai BL Built Around Internal Drama

I’ve been sitting on what I want to say about Gelboys for quite a while now due to my frustrations with the fast happy ending for both couples. While I don’t think that was wholly earned, I do want to praise this show for making the boys’ affection/obsession with each other the primary source of drama and driver of the narrative. Too often, I find that Thai BL relies on external sources of tension or romantic obstacles rather than face the fundamental personality issues that make the relationship difficult or impossible. 

In Gelboys, we have a quartet of boys who like someone in the group in a way that the other can’t or refuses to reciprocate. Fou4Mod wants someone (notably Chian) to choose him fully. Chian wants to be with Bua, and wants to use Fou4Mod to make Bua jealous. Baabin wants to be with Fou4Mod, but won’t confess. Bua eventually wants to be with Baabin, but Baabin won’t let go of his crush on Fou4Mod. They all end up making each other miserable. 

Friends, the misery of this show was delectable in a way that felt fresh after this creative team’s last major BL outing of I Told Sunset About You. It was interesting to see them completely avoid the conversation around sexuality in this show in favor of a focus on trains and youth freedom to play at malls to focus on how young people use internet tools to torment themselves and each other. I remember vividly the social moors of the MySpace top 8 friends feature, and I was obsessed with the way the kids used the Close Friends feature of Instagram to carefully show off information to their crushes. I was also deeply mortified by Chian asking ChatGPT for relationship advice, and Fou4Mod using a generative AI to make a fake makeout video. The digital landscape is dark!

On the pining front, each of these boys is such an asshole about the boy they’re pining over. Chian wants Bua, and is cruel to Fou4Mod for it. Baabin essentially ends his own friendship with Fou4Mod rather than confess properly. Bua finally pursued Baabin properly, and is the only one to properly apologize for the pain he inflicted on another over the course of this. This show was plain about how withholding feelings and using people’s feelings against them led to such cruel outcomes. Unfortunately, it rushed a happy ending that soured my taste at the end. 

Final Verdict: 9, Highly Recommended. This show is for those people who want to see what youth urban romance feels like in the modern era. There are so many ideas about how consumption plays into dating and flirting, particularly around the way the boys chose to have their nails painted (or not painted). It was really something special to have a show where what the characters wanted was the source of all of their issues, rather than an interloper inflicting contrived drama on the pair. In a year where I can’t seem to finish a Thai BL, this is a bright spot. 

Heesu in Class 2 Understood Unrequited Love

Heesu in Class 2 explores the impacts of two queer boys having unrequited crushes, and why these boys have avoided confessing. Of all the shows about boys I watched in recent months, this one felt the most queer to me. This was such a visceral experience for many readers who were able to appreciate the role of Heesu’s sisters (@soypim), the way admissions like Heesu’s will forever change your dynamic (@nabi-unveiled), the ways this show grappled with one-sided love (@wanderlust-in-my-soul), and how shows like this remind us why we seek out queer media (@watchingblsnowandforever).

While we had disagreement about whether this show’s divergence from the source material was worthy, I still think we got a great drama out of this AND I think viewers who want to see Heesu and Seungwon’s dating era should read the webtoon; I don’t think it’s a one or the other situation here. The webtoon is well-intentioned, and I think it’s a worthwhile read for people curious about how a simple narrative can be expanded into a full drama.

Final Verdict: 10, Don’t Miss This One. More than anything, I want to praise everyone involved with making this show. I loved the way they navigated turning this webtoon into a gay kdrama, and I hope the delays in releasing this don’t spell an end for this type of approach from Korea. I especially want to praise Ahn Ji Ho for his stellar performance as Hee Su. I loved this show immensely, and it’s currently my favorite of the year. This show is going to feel different from what romance viewers of BL content are used to, but it’s a really special show that tells you what it’s about and then delivers on it.

Fragrance of the First Flower Season 2

I am so glad we were able to return to these two after so many years. I’ve been struggling with the global state of GL, and this is the only bright spot I had this year. I loved seeing these two try again after their breakup. Yi Ming was able to divorce her husband, but she’s still working through so much to figure out if she can have a proper relationship with Ting Ting. I also loved the way this show used its second lead as a way to further Ting Ting’s steadfast devotion to her relationship while still respecting the feelings of a friend. Some of the boys above could have used that lesson. 

Final Verdict: 9, Highly Recommended. Seriously, just go watch it. We don’t get enough good lesbian shows, and this one cares a lot about lesbian realities while still managing to be kind to the characters and the viewers. 

Fellow Travelers Has Me Back in America (6/8)

I wasn’t kidding after Heesu when I said it might be time for me to stop identifying so much with BL and return to my roots. This show follows the lives of four queer characters and their families starting in the McCarthy era of government employment into the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. It explores the validity of queer love and the difficult realities about pursuing them across more than 30 years. Anchored by absolutely stellar performances from the entire cast, it is my biggest queer obsession right now. 

I originally avoided Fellow Travelers because it was a Showtime exclusive and, while I love Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, I wasn’t in the mood for white gays surviving the McCarthy era. Unfortunately for this show, the fans making fan content about this show failed to highlight that there’s an interesting Black couple in this show that are also exploring issues around race and gender in queer relationships. I also didn’t know that the series takes place in the 1980s as well.

What I have found so compelling about this show is how much information we have about where everyone is. We know who is alive in the AIDS crisis of the 80s. We know who chooses to marry into heteronormativity and who doesn’t. We learn who knows about who. This makes our time in the past far more compelling because now you’re paying attention to how people end up where they are not if they’ll even survive. I just finished an episode involving the son of a gay man and I am compelled to continue.

2 Husbands 1 Wife is Actually a Poly Show (5/10)

Featuring Asaka Kodai of Cherry Magic’s Tsuge, this show explores an attempt at a three-person marriage involving Yanaguchi Mia, Satomura Shinpei, and Mitsuda Takuzo. Mia, an office worker, wants to marry Shinpei, a dancer. However, Shinpei doesn’t think the two of them are big enough adults to make a marriage work, and so he proposes adding a third person to help them. After attending the funeral for Takuzo’s (and at one time Mia’s) rabbit, Shinpei proposes they approach Takuzo (who is Mia’s ex) to be part of their trio. Initially hesitant, the three are going closer during their trial period. 

What’s so compelling for me about this one is how seriously the show is taking the potential around sex, public appearances, affection and jealousy within the trio, and family management. As of episode 5 and the preview for 6, we’re even exploring Mia having to reckon with the fact that the two husbands will inevitably have a relationship with each other as well, following the fact that Shinpei was clear to Takuzo that they will be husbands as far as he’s concerned. This show has managed to accomplish so much in its 20-minute episodes, and I find myself eager to watch it on Thursday evenings on my nicest TV.

Top Form is as Sappy as Its Source Material (8/11)

I haven’t written about this one, mostly because I remember watching Dakaiichi years ago. While I have my own qualms about the changes the Thai show has made, especially when it comes to the timeline, I honestly think I’m just not enjoying the sappiness of the project this time around. That is not the fault of this show, which is actually accurately capturing how sappy Dakaiichi was. I was also turned off by their decision to basically adapt the assault storyline exactly as the original. Mostly, I’ve struggled with the sex for love politics of the Thai version in a way that I think has weakened the original Japanese narrative. It’s a personal issue I’m having, and I think if you’re curious about the show, you should check it out.

Dropped Shows

Look, I just can’t do it anymore. If the show doesn’t hit, I’m letting it go. GMMTV is the biggest loser here. Since the last blurb I’ve dropped:

My Golden Blood (1/12) - It’s not sexy enough, and the chemistry is deeply lacking.

Ossan’s Love Thailand (8/12) - It started to offend me, so I dropped it.

Break Up Service (3/12) - Off is good. The show is not.

Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist (1/12) - How could they do this to Mark Pakin?

The Bangkok Boy (1/12) - I want an action BL. This isn’t hitting.

The Boy Next World (9/10) - Things went stupid, so it got dropped.

Boys In Love (1/12) - This kind of saccharine isn’t hitting for me right now.

The Age of Pining is Over. Now is the Time For Earnestness

The biggest thing I’m thinking about right now is how many shows engaged with the negative side of unrequited pining this year. As a Known Piner, I am all for this. All piners must understand that they must face the mortifying ordeal of being known if they want to experience the benefits of being loved. It’s also important that we grapple with how withholding our feelings from the people we love leads to confusion, resentment, and possessiveness. I’m thankful that in Heesu in Class 2 we got to see all the contexts of why queer people would withhold those feelings and how it hurts everyone, and I’m glad Gelboys was willing to be so visceral about the ways young people love and hurt each other in the digital age. I’m curious what comes out of the other side of this if we start to see something more earnest. Perhaps we’ll get something as heartfelt and beautiful as When Life Gives You Tangerines.

But also...seriously...where is Japan? It hasn't felt this dire in almost 6 years.

[catras-breakup-song]

catradora's canon status turns 5 today. i also turn 20 today. 🪅

i've spent an entire quarter of my life, a whopping 25% of it now, loving the center focus of she-ra and what this show teaches us...

it's actually pretty wild for me to think too deeply about. truly, it can't not mean something absolutely special (if i love myself, of course) when that much of a coincidence is actually reality.

this story isn't just a hyperfixation, it's a permanent part of who i am. it's shaped my later teenage years and helped me through hard times consisting of confusion and loneliness. i resonated better with catra & glimmer than any other fictional characters i had known before or would ever know since then. i found the art style soothing to stare at all the time. i appreciated the words of comfort we're supposed to internalize. it's been a consistent source of familiarity when i needed nothing more than to rewatch the same scenes repeatedly.

the online community surrounding western queer animation, and particularly this piece of media, kickstarted my hobby of collecting video edits, up to the thousands, that many talented creators have made, on an external drive. unfortunately i lost that project over the summer last year and it devastated me deeply, however i never stopped keeping track of my favorites and supporting the works i loved as i continued coming across them, such as this one to “the great war” by @somanypetals, which i will never stop recommending to others here ─ you can also go through my tag for this topic if you'd like! in fact, i also got back into video editing myself for the first time since 2021 last month!

additionally, it wouldn't be an authentic CBS post of mine if i didn't highlight how beautiful five by five takes' analysis videos on youtube are to me. their writing is a top-tier heart-wrenching gold mine and i've lost count of how many times i've rewatched through that playlist again and again. if you love this masterpiece as much as i do, you'll do so tenfold here. i still remember watching the first part of the series, "how she-ra gives us hope", when it was brand new, and i love bragging to fellow friends about being one of 5X5T's earliest subscribers from this fandom!

i (sort of but not really, which is a long complicated story on its own), came from the traumatized wave of angry voltron/KL fans. thankfully i didn't struggle with trusting the writers to follow through on the groundwork they laid down because it had only been my first fandom and therefore i hadn't been hurt by queerbaiting multiple times, but i say this because it was a big deal when she-ra's finale showed something on screen that could not be taken away or undone. catra & adora's romance helped me find peace & pride in my lesbian attraction. although i ended up not being homosexual despite failing to realize it for another year, i am still very much sapphic and wouldn't trade that gift for the world!

speaking of which, one of the best things you can find in a partner is the relatability of a common interest that brings out the emotional connection between you. i've seen @bluedandylyon around before, but i got to know xim more closely on the SPOP creative flex discord server after i jumped in activity there about a month and a half ago (and i only started being active on this blog again after creating it in 2022 back in august last year, it's amazing what that did for me). the two of us genuinely could not have clicked better with anyone else and i believe we were always destined to stumble into each other eventually. i don't know why the universe decided that time was to be so recent, but after spending half a decade single it's been very exciting to finally leave that break behind. because of SPOP, i asked them if they wanted to date on lesbian visibility day (april 26) and something within me renewed to make me the happiest i've ever been! 💟

my thoughts are too scattered and unorganized for this to feel like a proper essay of some sort, but i know i needed to get this done in time and i enjoyed it. i can't appreciate enough how much my identity, the core essence of who i am inside, has been shaped by this 50-episode cartoon. a simple love letter could never cover how important this reboot means to so many people, even if mattel still refuses to acknowledge it. ⚔️🌈💖

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

“red flowers”: fae, vargas camp 2, and glorious masquerade

THERE’S SOMETHING IN VARGAS CAMP 2 THAT MADE ME DO A DOUBLE TAKE 👁️ 👄 👁️

So in 2-2, the pixies of the forest are trying to put out the campfires. The boys then talk about how there was a miner's campfire a while back that caused a forest fire, which naturally spooked the local fairies. AND THEN VIL GOES AND DROPS THIS DOOZIE OF A LINE:

EXCUSE ME, VI L SIR??????? ?? ? ???? ? ? ?? ? ? ? Did you just say RED FLOWERS? Is that not similar to the CRIMSON FLOWERS/LOTUSES that ROLLO tried to use to establish a magicless Twisted Wonderland in Glorious Masquerade?!

ADDENDUM: I learned recently (very shortly after this post went live, actually!) that the “red flowers” may also be a reference to what the animals in the live action Jungle Book call fires. I’m not personally familiar with this film, so I’ll be running with the crimson lotus/Glorious Masquerade connection for the duration of this post!!

Looking at how the phrases are written in Japanese, they use the term 赤い花 ("akai no hana"/red flower) in Vargas Camp and 紅蓮の花 ("guren no hana"/crimson lotus flower) in Glorious Masquerade. Crimson is basically a specific kind of red, and lotus is just a certain type of flower. Even more damning is that fact that in 3-8 of Glorious Masquerade, Malleus EXPLICITLY describes the spreading crimson flowers as having "a brilliance like that of fire". You can see from images of the crimson lotus that they do, indeed, seem to glow like fire.

If you look at the real life timeline of these events releasing, it also coincidentally lines up!! Like, the original release of Vargas Camp 2 (for JP server) was in mid to late SEPTEMBER 2022. Then Glorious Masquerade would come out mid to late OCTOBER 2022. Vargas Camp 2 was literally the new story event that came out RIGHT BEFORE Glorious Masquerade... WAS THIS FORESHADOWING??????????????? And even more importantly than that... What does this mean for fae??????

One could call "red flowers" just a poetic way for the pixies to label something they don't understand. But what's confusing is that there are clearly also fire pixies living in the forest; we see several of them in Vargas Camp attacking the students. It's not as though the fairies are unfamiliar with fire itself, so why not just call the campfires 'fires'?? What if... (and stick with me here) the pixies named the campfires thus because it's potentially a reference to something far deadlier (than even the forest fire) that they experienced or heard of in their history? In the time period of ~400 years ago shown to us in book 7, we learn that human invaders drove fae out of their homes and began mining their land for resources. This, more specifically, impacts the Briar Country up north, who are fighting against humans that arm themselves with iron (something which appears to repulse the fae). These humans are also known to use deceptive tactics, such as distracting the messenger team of Lilia and co. while they launch an assault on Mallenoa's castle, where she and her unborn son are. So... what's to say they wouldn't resort to other underhanded means as well? Mean such as... utilizing a flower known to suck out the magic from living beings :))) like maybe the... crimson lotus, perhaps?

In Glorious Masquerade, we learn that the crimson lotus has been extinct for a long time now. They were destroyed by humans centuries ago because of how dangerous they were to mages. We don't have an exact number of years, but "centuries" is enough to land it in the rough ballpark of the human-fae war. Malleus himself, who is canonically 178 years old, didn't even recognize the flowers at first (as very few records of them exist in modern times); this could imply that the crimson flowers were around before he was born, which further supports that they were present during the war era.

What's more, if we look at Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (ie the second live action Maleficent movie), we see a VERY strong parallel to the crimson lotus flower. In the film, we are introduced to the Tomb Bloom, a flower that just so happens to also be red and glows a little like fire.

UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE, NO? 🤡

Tomb Blooms are said to grow on the graves of fairies, and, when mixed with iron, creates "red dust". This red dust is considered deadly to fairies upon contact--and in the film, a fairy-hating queen lures a bunch of fae into a wedding venue to eliminate them en masse with the stuff. The crimson lotus flowers of TWST, meanwhile, are deadly on their own, draining the magic out of any magical being they touch (and permanently depriving them of magic once all the magic has been taken out of someone). For fae, who rely on magic for basically everything (travel, cooking etc.), it would be a miserable existence symbolically synonymous with death.

(Side note: in hindsight, this somewhat explains why Malleus is part of the Glorious Masquerade SSR trio. If the crimson lotus flowers were, in actuality, inspired by the Tomb Blooms (something which was weaponized against Maleficent and her kind), then it just makes so much sense for the antagonist of the event, Rollo, to utilize similar plants against Malleus, who is twisted from the Mistress of Evil herself.)

OKAY, now knowing all of that, here's what I propose as a possible timeline of events if we consider all of what I just said: ~400 years ago, crimson lotuses were plentiful. When the human-fae conflict escalated, the human side decided to play dirty to eliminate those pesky fae--because even the great Draconias would be susceptible to the magic-leeching properties of the flower. However, they discovered, upon repeated experimentation, that the flower could also harm their own mages, so they had to reformulate. Maybe this was when they learned that they could combine iron with the powdered lotus (increased surface area, and therefore also increased potency) to create something even more deadly to fae (like in Maleficent 2). Alternatively, this could contribute for the reasoning for the iron armor they wear in battle; iron repulses fae, but it could also protect them from the crimson lotus flowers due to how much of the skin it covers. For example, the Dawn Knight is said to wear a helmet that completely cover the face, and many Silver Owl NPCs do the same. There is little skin visible, unlike the armor of the Briar Country fae. But anyway, the point is that, some way or another, the humans abused the crimson lotus during this time. Once the war concluded (or in the period of reconstruction that followed), fae and humans came to an agreement to destroy all the lotuses as a part of their peace treaty/negotiations, agreeing that it was mutually beneficial to all magical creatures and mages. Humans were mainly responsible for this extinction, as there was a larger population of them that were magicless and could therefore handle the flowers without consequences. Because of the war engulfing an entire continent, fae in other parts of Twisted Wonderland would have heard about the events, fae migrated out of Briar Country to get away from the conflict, OR the conflict itself was a Twisted Wonderland-wide issue, not just contained within Briar Country. Any one of these could explain why eventually pixies on Sage's Island, in the Silent Woods (where the boys went camping), would know of the calamity caused by the crimson lotuses of the past. When they come across wild campfires, the pixies may be frightened by them due to their resemblance to the crimson lotuses and the trauma associated with war because it's human outsiders that are invading their home and propagating these 'fires'... the same situation as the human-fae war. There was the literal manmade forest fire that was far more recent, yes--but again, this doesn't fully explain why the pixies, who should be familiar with fire, would call it a "red flower" instead of just 'fire'. The association with "red flowers" being dangerous may be a result of what they recall from the war--that crimson flower which sapped away their strength and robbed them of their magic. Then, in modern day, we have Rollo somehow stumbling across seeds and breeding crimson lotuses of his own in secret for his own nefarious purposes. History (mayhaps???) repeating itself??????? ?? ? ????? ??? ??

DKJNsfhbvoqef32ygtr69r137fbofasib IDK, MAYBE I'M JUST TALKING OUT OF MY ASS AND EXTRAPOLATING TOO MUCH FROM LITTLE DETAILS 🤡 I just think it's kind of a fun theory, even if the whole timeline ends up being thrown out the window in the next main story update... Don't mind me, I'm still on my "Rollo will come save us all in a cruel and ironic twist of fate" copium--

[milevenstancyendgame]

On Eleven, Complex Trauma, And Romantic Relationship (s4)

This probably has been pointed out way back in 2022, but I just re-watched a bit of s4 and it struck me that El lying about being bullied in school is completely due to her surpressed trauma.

When you first watch it, the whole "I'm friends with Angela"-pretense seems pretty out of character for El - the only other time I can remember where she lied so overtly and consciously about something big to her friends was in s1, about the gate. As we know she did this because she was scared.

At the beginning of s4, we can't understand why she lies, and neither does Mike, and probably neither does El herself.

But then comes the Nina project and she unearths all of these trauma memories, which have been hinted at the whole time.

We see that she has been bullied as a child by her peers in the rainbow room and importantly that they threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it.

This explains her deeply entrenched fear of telling anyone (remember that she also didn't tell Joyce about it, nor the teacher at school when she asked her directly) about the bullying in school - although she couldn't remember the previous trauma, her body remembered it and reacted in the same way to keep her safe. This is a very typical trait of trauma.

And since El has complex trauma (there was continuous trauma in her childhood), this peer bullying got connected to other trauma, which happened soon after - the massacre at the lab.

We see that she has recurring flashbacks in s4 of this massacre, and she starts to believe that she killed the other children.

Add to that the whole trauma of being abused by Brenner and the other lab staff, this explains of course why she feels like a monster and believes that everyone else sees her as that too. If you've been treated like trash as a child, then that's what you believe yourself to be.

So the peer bullying trauma is connected in her psyche/nervous system to fatal danger if she tells anyone about it, and to her doing something terrible.

So when she finally snaps and attacks Angela with the roller skate, and everyone is horrified, of course this re-enacts the trauma of the past and confirms to her the belief that she is a monster/everyone sees her as a monster.

This then sets the stage for the argument with Mike, which - as others have rightly pointed out - didn't even have a lot to do with Mike. It was about El and her trauma.

Yes, the whole "Mike can't say he loves me"-thing was of course a problem for her. It was a cruel coincidence that all these negative things happened at the same time for her: Losing Hopper, moving away from Mike and her friends, a new environment, the school bullying, and the flashbacks. That's why she became fixated on this detail and it got entangled in all those trauma layers and became just another proof for El that she was unloved, because she is a monster.

It was literally just the wrong thing at the wrong time though, or the cherry on top. If she had stayed in Hawkins and there wouldn't have been Angela and co, and a new environment, and school, and horrid flashbacks; and if she had had all of her old friends around her, and Hopper! -

Well, she probably still would have been confused and hurt by Mike never saying the word love, but we wouldn't have had that kind of charged and escalating argument.

But as it was, the argument was about so many things at once, and the love-thing just came up out of nowhere, because everything was crashing down for El, and Mike was clearly overwhelmed and couldn't follow her or understand what was going on for her.

And again, like others have thankfully said before, saying that if Mike actually loved her, he would have hugged or comforted her in that moment - that would have been disastrous!

First of all, as I said above and as was more than obvious, Mike was overwhelmed himself. He was in no position to comfort anyone. He needed time to process.

Second, El was clearly pushing him away, she was in a very destructive state of mind, because all of that above-mentioned trauma got activated and was in full swing.

Anyone with an ounce of emotional intelligence could tell that she was not able to receive any reassurance in that moment. We saw that Mike tried to reassure her the whole time and it didn't work!

Trying anything further would have been forcing something on her, which obviously Mike would never do.

So, in summary - the bulk of El and Mike's relationship issues in s4 was about El and her trauma. There was at no point any hint that they don't love each other any more. On the contrary, both were scared to lose the other.

And to those who say that they shouldn't be in a relationship, because El/both have so much trauma:

First of all, it's bullshit. You clearly know nothing about trauma healing. I have complex trauma and the one thing I learned in my recovery journey about healing is that actually the only thing that truly heals you is love. Self-love is important, yes, but that can't happen in isolation. You need safe relationships to learn about safe relationships. The original trauma was caused by unsafe relationships, so it only makes sense that the healing needs to happen through safe relationships.

That's what is called a corrective experience. And we can see that El has had many corrective experiences with Mike, as well as her other friends.

And why would a romantic relationship be bad for El's healing, but not other relationships?

What's messy and shitty is that El nor any of the other characters are getting any trauma therapy, and yeah, in reality there would be a whole lot more issues, for all of them. But El doesn't have any more relationship issues with Mike than with Hopper (!!!!!) and strangely I don't see anyone suggesting that the last thing she needs is a new father figure.🙄

And secondly, Will has a fuck-ton of trauma too, lol. So saying El needs to not be in a romantic relationship to heal, but wanting Will and Mike to be in one, is hypocrisy.

El experiences Mike to consistently be there for her when she needs him, he's constantly showing her that he loves her, and he's saying it in words too.

And after the argument in s4, he showed to El that he still loves her, that he doesn't think she's a monster. Both his actions proved this and then also his words in the monologue, and he gave her what she needed, he said "I love you" many times, and he explained why he couldn't say it before, that this had nothing to do with her, it was his own insecurities and fear.

And this made El stronger than ever. And this is the set-up for s5.

Thank you for coming to my TED-talk.

[aroceu]

what's been happening at the otw?

so it seems that on twitter and possibly tumblr, people have been hearing things about the otw board/election stuff without really knowing what's going on. a lot of the different issues get conflated and confused with each other, and things that aren't related get connected while things that are related don't. i'm making this post to make things clear, since i've been following some of it (primarily the otw board stuff) from the outside so that people know exactly what is going on, and to reduce the spread of misinformation.

a lot of this information comes from this dreamwidth journal, which has been documenting many testimonies and receipts, for full context.

an earlier timeline of the csem and insensitive treatment of policy and abuse committee volunteers is documented at @221loislane, on this post.

the election season

every year �� for anyone out of touch with how the organization of transformative works (otw) politics go, yes this occurs every year as seats can be held for 3 years maximum but resignations happen, leading to staggering — the org has an election season for the main board of directors. they oversee all of the otw's fan projects, including ao3 and fanlore. there are 7 seats, one of whom is the president (kari dayton).

if a chair resigns, then their seat may remain empty to the end of the term or to the next election season, depending on when they resign. if they resign early, a runner-up from the previous election may take their seat.

elections generally take place every summer, but the actual changing of hands occurs in in the fall. board directors are known by their real life name; this has always been the policy. prior to this year, when candidacies were announced, it was with their full name. however, due to the csem attack emails that were targeting volunteers last may, it seems that they added a layer of protection for the candidates this year, and initially announced them with their first name and last initial.

this election season, there were originally 4 chairs that were going to be vacant and needed to be filled. there were also originally 7 candidates, some of whom applied for candidacy last minute. one of the candidates withdrew early (mid june), so this came down to 6.

in order to vote in an election, you must donate a minimum $10usd prior to a certain date in june (this year being june 30) and tick the box that says you want to become a member.

the republican candidate

on july 24, people started spreading the fact that one of the otw board candidates, audrey richards, is a republican. this is true: she ran for a republican seat for the us house of reps in 2022 (and prior to that, as an independent in 2020.) this can be seen on her ballotpedia. we know that she is the same audrey richards, because her ballotpedia page also connects her with the otw.

let me be clear: this is still in line with org policy, in terms of her real name getting released. their full names were going to be released to the public at some point, and as far as i know the org did not state that they would hide their full names until after the election.

many people, especially americans on the ao3 (full disclosure: i am one of the americans on ao3) were very wary about this, because the republican party has been endorsing increasingly dangerous laws and policies along the lines of fascism and transphobia. audrey running as a republican does not necessarily mean that she agrees with these values; however, because she, as a white woman, felt comfortable enough to align herself with a party that does, many lgbt people and people of color had every right to have reservations about her. her statements about ukraine (disagreeing with biden sending arms) and her involvement with "children and screens" was also brought under scrutiny: see this post by discluded. (i am not endorsing discluded's post; it simply cites some concerns with audrey)

due to claims of harassment (i am also not saying whether or not they occurred), she resigned from candidacy and from the org as a whole on july 25, declaring "congrats on the witch hunt." (x)

the otw then released a statement dissuading people from harassing board candidates. this was not taken well, as they were completely silent last year regarding unsubstantiated rumors about tiffany g, a previous election candidate who's chinese, with views that many were not comfortable with, to the point of saying that she might be a spy for the chinese government. this was spread by chinese- and english-speaking users alike. the otw was silent about this. however, this year, many volunteers internally have said that the otw's silence towards harassment is damning, and in any case, even in audrey's, they should speak up against it, resulting in their public statement.

reprimanding a volunteer of color

also on july 24, coincidentally enough, a volunteer of color made a post about receiving a letter about constructive corrective action procedure (ccap) from the tag wrangling team, due to making volunteers uncomfortable by speaking up about racism in the org.

the tl;dr of why they received the letter boiled down to:

talking about the org's racism in a ~certain way~ in public channels where volunteers could not leave made some vols uncomfortable

sharing internal chatlogs and correspondences to the public. EXCEPT THE THINGS SHE SHARED WERE HER OWN MESSAGES. and before july 25, the only OTHER thing she had shared to the public was the otw's direction on how volunteers should approach getting csem, from the spam attack last year, on a comment in a news post - which is an email that ALL VOLUNTEERS GOT. because none of that was public! no one knew what the org's approach to the spam attack in order to protect the volunteers was! she disclosed it so randoms who are not volunteers would know!

"outing" a volunteer, except she DIDN'T, because the volunteer had outed THEMSELVES in the chat program previously and repeatedly, then changed their icon at some point to indicate they didn't want to link the identities anymore. but there had never been a formal announcement or request not to link the identities, and who was supposed to take an icon change as an indicator of that, so IN THE CHAT PROGRAM (not in public!) kutti made a reference to something that person (under their real name) said in public (under their fannish handle/icon) and got reprimanded for it

emyn a has since made a post about how kutti's general behavior in the chat has made him uncomfortable and was one of the reasons why he withdrew his candidacy, and that he supported the fact that she received the ccap. he stated that alex tischer's abrasiveness (see below) was probably because of where alex is from, in europe. he also said that kutti outed a withdrawn candidate (probably audrey) in the chat program, which was not public information prior to his post. the rest of his claims are presently not substantiated, and most of what i have read about his accusations boil down to tone policing.

EDIT: kutti clarified that emyn got her mixed up with another volunteer of color in one of these claims. she says that she has never talked about audrey either internally nor externally, and does not know what other handles she would link audrey to. she also specified that emyn's accusation of her using "provocative descriptors, such as 'disgusting'" was in context of her criticizing the org's handling of azarias — a volunteer who handled many csem tickets last year, then got their account suspended without warning, and then got implicated for distribution in an org-wide letter, which, yeah, is pretty fucking disgusting!

the alex problem

i mentioned the ccap above because kutti references it in her post about alex tischer here, and when i linked to it on twitter people were confused as to what ccap meant and why it was significant. and i don't think kutti's treatment should go ignored either, because i think it signifies a larger problem that the org has.

and one of these very glaring problems is alex tischer. alex tischer was on the board this year, being their last year of their current term. they were on the board previously too, from 2015-2018. tischer has been called a "missing stair" by multiple volunteers, and a huge problem in the org's function.

more specifically, and as confirmed by a former volunteer i talked to on an ao3 post (wherein they corrected me for conflating two incidents), some incidents that occurred with tischer were:

in 2020, when mainland chinese vols were encouraged to do more recruitment for volunteers on weibo (a mainland china site), the otw had added two new language tags on ao3: tai-gi (taiwanese) and cantonese. the vols were also encouraged to endorse this — not specifically by alex — on weibo. china and taiwan have VERY high geopolitical tensions, and the vols endorsing the addition of the taiwanese language on a mainland chinese site could potentially put them in danger. when they expressed this, alex had told them to "not appease a shitty government," or something along those lines — indicating alex did not care for their safety in a heavily censored country, over sticking it to the man or whatever. (alex is white/german and lives in the uk.)

in 2023, separate from this issue, the otw had decided to shut down the transformative works weibo page without consulting the chinese volunteers. the chinese vols were very pissed and protested, first in english. and then, when their concerns weren't being heard, they started in protesting in chinese. this prompted alex to reply to them, in german, "We can throw all sorts of things at each other, but if we don't agree on a lingua franca, we won't achieve much" (Wir können uns gegenseitig alle möglichen Dinge an den Kopf werfen aber wenn wir uns nicht auf eine Lingua Franca einigen erreichen wir nicht viel.) which, in my opinion, is pretty fucking irrelevant to chinese volunteers not getting their voices heard for something that they had every right to get their voice heard on, and basically told them to "speak english" when they had been speaking english previously and getting ignored!!!

a discussion from the otw slack in 2020 was leaked, wherein a black volunteer asked a question and expressed interest in knowing the diversity of the board of directors. not the diversity of all volunteers. they immediately got dogpiled on by multiple volunteers, alex included, saying that asking for such a thing could endanger the safety of volunteers (which is pretty fucking ironic considering alex's treatment of the chinese vols), the black volunteer should've backread a day's worth of chatlogs, saying that asking about diversity was chilling, etc. i cannot summarize in full how furious this chatlog makes me, so if you are capable i do recommend you to read it to see how utterly defensive everyone got at a simple question about diversity.

these things are relevant because on july 25, kutti made a post about alex — because other volunteers had been asking in the otw slack about kutti's situation, and a volunteer compared how kutti was treated, for speaking up about racism, to how alex was treated, who was consistently xenophobic and as far as anyone knew, did not receive a reprimand for it. alex then doubled down on their previous comments.

this prompted kutti's post, both to publicize this incident and to call for alex's immediate suspension.

board directors resign

there were, at the time, five chairs on board, due to the fact that two had resigned previously (heather in may 2023, jess in nov 2022; neither were replaced). after this incident, volunteers were furious and backed kutti up and also called for alex to resign, or for the other chairs to kick alex out.

two chairs in particular, antonius and natalia, were already on hiatus. they were also pressured to kick alex out, due to the fact that they were only standing chairs, not active, so volunteers wanted them to either come off hiatus and start the process to get alex out, or if they could not do their chair duties, resign. i believe the board needs a 2/3rds vote to kick someone off as a chair, which is why they were brought into the conversation — 2/5 chairs would not be enough.

on july 26, natalia did reprimand alex's behavior in the chat according to some sources. an anonymous source said that both natalia and antonius had started their resignation process prior to the alex-kutti incident; they made this public and official after/during this conversation.

on july 27, alex also said that they had resigned "yesterday." it is unclear if they only resigned from the board, or the org as a whole, considering they were still the webs chair, a tag wrangler, and on the translation and support committees.

all three board resignations were made public in an official announcement on july 27; natalia and antonius's were made first, with alex's as an add-on shortly afterward. however, as alex and antonius's spots were already outgoing, this has only opened up ONE slot for the election: a fifth one. and there are five candidates.

what happens next?

with five vacant seats and five candidates, this means that the election is uncontested. however, two of the five candidates will serve partial terms (the ones who get less votes; 2 years each), while three of the five candidates will serve full terms (3 years each.) if you've donated at least $10 to the otw in the past year, you're eligible to vote. a comprehensive schedule can be found here.

all candidate platforms/q&as can be found here in individual posts, and here as a spreadsheet.

by the way, this is not the first time most of, if not a full board has resigned almost all at once. this occurred previously in 2015, due to some of the following incidents (these may not be all of the reasons for the mass resignation, but definitely for many of them):

insanely incompetent financial handling wherein they had donations up to six figures held in paypal accounts

the removal of sanders, a candidate during that election season, because she had resigned from her role as treasurer recently, thus supposedly making her ineligible to run (candidates must have served as a volunteer in any position for 2 years), even though she was still on the dev committee. she did not resign from the candidacy herself. the election committee had objected to this but was overridden by the board. sanders is black.

a board chair had gone under a sockpuppet account during multiple candidate chats asking questions "as a concerned member," even though she was board chair, indicating a conflict of interest.

during the open board meeting in november (after the election), without warning the board decided to appoint andrea, the candidate who got the least number of votes that election year, to a spot that was vacated a whole year before. it was hard for me to find context around this situation but from what i've gathered, andrea was already friends with the present board and the newly appointed board had not yet settled in. when this was met with appropriate backlash and accusations of power grabbing, this is when the entire board at the time — minus the new elects — resigned.

i bring this up to show that the otw has never been a perfect organization — rather, it has always had its problems. i did not pay much attention to these incidents previously, but considering how the current election season has become more and more prominent on my social media, i feel that it's important for me to be in the know now, and to spread this information to others.

i am not a volunteer (although i used to be a tag wrangler for a brief time.) i am not speaking on behalf of anyone mentioned or linked in this post except for myself. i strongly believe in making an organization's policies public and for as much information to be accessible as possible, for a site that i'm an active member on and love to use. i believe in ensuring the safety, comfort, and consideration of volunteers of color. i am making this post because i believe the otw deserves to be transparent like any other organization. please feel free to share and discuss as you see fit; and if any of this information is incorrect, please let me know asap!

edit: follow-up incidents

this post by @fandomantiracism writes a detailed timeline of the mishandling of chinese volunteers (including the below incidents), and explains exactly why the environment in which otw volunteers in china must be handled with a modicum of more care than they do currently. please read it to fully understand the cvols' situation! (disclaimer: i am not affiliated with this blog.)

during the candidate chats, a chinese candidate got an extremely inappropriate question from a present chair/former or present board member, breaching on org privacy (even though kutti got a ccap for less), a clear attempt to attack the candidate by making them appear unsafe and immature, and with a lie that put their ACTUAL SAFETY at risk. see this post, and this thread on twitter

an aforementioned former volunteer detailed another incident where the treatment of chinese volunteers was severely mishandled; see here

[sunflowhamato]

𝑳𝒆𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒊: 𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝑵𝒐𝒏-𝑪𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒑 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝑵𝒊𝒏𝒋𝒂 𝑻𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒊 𝑹𝒂𝒃𝒃𝒊𝒕. 𝑨𝒏 𝑨𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒎, 𝑼𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒒𝒖𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔.

My first language is not English, use a translator, so if there are mistakes, I apologize. Most of the analysis was translated by

All credits to her.

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As I began watching Rottmnt, I was surprised by several aspects, most notably the widespread belief within the fandom that Leo was gay and in a relationship with Usagi. This rumor piqued my interest and became one of the main reasons for following the series.

I eagerly awaited the "chapter" where Usagi would make her appearance, anticipating to understand the basis of this relationship. Like many other viewers, I was shocked to discover that Usagi does not actually appear in the series, leaving me baffled.

Although this revelation was disappointing to find that there is no interaction between the two characters, my curiosity was intensified.

I asked myself: How did this shipp come about and why is it so popular? Despite my initial bewilderment, I found myself without answers as to the origin of the shipp. Although I can speculate, I believe a deeper context is required to understand its emergence.

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-🅲🅾🅽🆃🅴🆇🆃 🅻🅴🅾🆂🅰🅶🅸-

In 1984, the Ninja Turtles, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, achieved great success in the world of comics. In the same year, Stan Sakai began publishing Usagi Yojimbo, a series following the adventures of the samurai rabbit Miyamoto Usagi in Feudal Japan.

The friendship between Stan and Laird led to a crossover between the two series in 1987. Since then, Usagi has appeared in various Ninja Turtles-related media. In these crossovers, Leo and Usagi develop a close relationship, being considered better than the other two. friends on some occasions, depending on the version. This bond led to the emergence of a "shipp" between the two characters, becoming one of the most prominent non-canonical Ninja Turtles shipps.

Although they have had encounters in the comics and in the 1980s series, the 2003 series delved more deeply into the interaction between Leo and Usagi, showcasing several significant moments that strengthened their connection. The 2012 series did not explore this relationship as much, as it focused more on Usagi.

With the premiere of ROTTMNT, the series received mixed reviews, and drew attention to Leo's attitude, leading some people to speculate about his membership in the LGBT community.

In 2022, "Samurai Rabbit," which follows the story of Yuichi Usagi, a descendant of Usagi Miyamoto, was released on April 28, ending on April 1 in September of the same year. A few months earlier, on August 5, "Rottmnt: The Movie" was released. I couldn't find out exactly who came up with the idea of joining the two characters from different series, but it had a significant impact on the fandom of both. Thus was born the "Leoichi" marking a major shift in fan perception.

The Leosagi is widely recognized as the shipp involving Leonardo and Usagi Miyamoto. On the other hand, the Leoichi is completely different, and many gave it a unique name to avoid confusion.

To clarify, Usagi Miyamoto is not Yuichi Usagi. In this thread, I will focus exclusively on Yuichi and Leo.Since the characters have no official interaction, I will focus on my personal experience and share how I discovered this shipp.

I will quote some stories, comics or illustrations from talented artists, and from there, I will start my analysis to try to explain why this shipp is so popular and appreciated.

🅼🆈 🅵🅸🆁🆂🆃 🆁🅴🅰🅳🅸🅽🅶

I began my immersion in shipp content by reading stories, and one in particular caught my attention due to its popularity and the positive feedback it was receiving. I opted to start with "When Worlds Collide" by the talented celestiangel, fortunately already completed, which allowed me to read it in one sitting. From this story, I will take a few points related to shipp. However, I would not recommend reading this story at the beginning of your shipp exploration, not because it is bad, quite the contrary, but because it can generate confusion. In my experience, I read it before watching "Samurai Rabbit" and was quite confused, although that was my mistake. It is simply a small recommendation for those who are just starting to know this shipp.

🆆🆆🅲 🅰🅽🅰🅻🆈🆂🅸🆂

I will give a mini analysis of this beautiful story, so if you haven't read it yet, I recommend skipping this part, as I will give spoilers for the ending.

"Set in the first season, Yuichi is tasked with romancing Leo to get information about the dark armor for Draxum, but falls genuinely in love with him, generating conflict and pain between the two."

"When Worlds Collide" (WWC) stands out by addressing aspects that many other stories do not explore, especially as it relates to Yuichi's altering of history. Although its narrative differs from "Samurai Rabbit," the character remains the same, maintaining his prankster and rebellious nature.

The story dives into deep themes, focusing mainly on self-love and forgiveness. Yuichi is the central focus of the plot, allowing readers to delve into his thoughts. Although at first he seems disinterested in Leo, the story subtly reveals that Yuichi is deceiving himself and the viewer. This aspect requires a second reading to be fully understood.

I was surprised to discover at the end that Yuichi accepts his feelings, despite expressing his distaste for the situation in earlier chapters. The way you approach the subject of self-love is admirable. Leo's acceptance of Yuichi marks a subtle change in his personality. Unconsciously, Yuichi teaches Leo his true nature.

They both show affection without expecting anything in return, being a key driver for Yuichi to change and make the decision to risk his life for the person most important to him. The story culminates with a beautiful lesson about forgiveness. Although Leo does not immediately forgive Yuichi due to the pain of betrayal, he gives him a second chance.

Yuichi, now accepting himself, is determined to rebuild Leo's trust. The story highlights self-love, as Leo prioritizes his well-being before granting forgiveness, while Yuichi accepts himself and is willing to start over without making similar mistakes.

From here I will take several aspects to analyze, starting with

🆃🅷🅴 🅵🅸🆁🆂🆃 🅼🅴🅴🆃🅸🅽🅶

In the context of the fanfic, a detail to highlight is that, both characters feel attracted in the first meeting, or in the first chapters (like a love at first sight), the way this meeting is portrayed in the story does not feel forced in any of the two parts.

While it may sound cliché, the narrative manages to make it fit naturally, reflecting the idea that love doesn't always need concrete reasons to emerge; it just happens.

The concept of "good chemistry" also ties in with the above. From the very first moment, there is a palpable connection between the two characters, regardless of the plot. Even considering a more "canonical" approach, the chemistry between Yuichi and Leo, according to my perspective would be very similar to how the fandom describes it.

The similarity and difference between the two characters are exceptionally balanced, reflecting the essence of lasting relationships. The presence of this chemistry is a charming element that resonates with viewers when two characters manage to connect convincingly.

🆂🅸🅼🅸🅻🅰🆁🅸🆃🅸🅴🆂 🅰🅽🅳 🅳🅸🅵🅵🅴🆁🅴🅽🅲🅴🆂

Sharing similar interests and characteristics can lay the groundwork for establishing any kind of relationship. Both Yuichi and Leo share several affinities, such as their love for the sword as a weapon, their fascination with comic books, a strong belief in their abilities that could be interpreted as a certain degree of egocentrism, leadership roles in their respective teams.

Both characters experience arcs in which they learn to accept responsibility and improve as warriors. They also share moments of madness, showing that they would follow each other's example. In addition to their awkwardness and a certain antisocial tendency, evidenced in their difficulty to make a good first impression.

One more detail in common is that blue is their favorite color. Despite these similarities, having absolutely everything in common could prove difficult, as a relationship also involves both parties showing how they see the world differently.

Leo could introduce Yuichi to innovative aspects such as technology, skyscrapers and the vibrant life in New York, as well as sharing his love of pizza and keeping up with fashion trends. On the other hand, Yuichi could teach the importance of constant training, knowledge of one's own history (especially in relation to Yokai), and provide perspectives from someone who lived on a farm.

He could also share the beauty of life in the countryside, such as the ability to see the stars. Both characters would become reciprocal teachers, showing their respective worldviews and learning from each other.

🆂🆄🅿🅿🅾🆁🆃🅸🅽🅶 🅲🆁🅰🆉🅸🅽🅴🆂🆂 🅰🅽🅳 🅳🆁🅴🅰🅼🆂

In all the stories, comics, or whatever medium I've explored, I've noticed canonical events that always occur in one way or another.

One of them is that Yuichi always laughs at Leo's jokes, no matter how terrible they are or if no one else finds them funny. He manages to get a genuine smile out of Yuichi, even playing along on several occasions.

The acceptance and support for each other's follies comes across as genuinely charming. Another canonical event is that they both support each other's goals.

They have full knowledge of each other's capabilities and never judge, but rather take pride in each other. Leo can hear Yuichi's goal of becoming the best samurai, and confirms his admiration through multiple compliments of his skills.

In turn, Yuichi is aware of Leo's skills and is always willing to listen to him and give him a little push for any problem he may face.

🆃🆁🆄🆂🆃

Although there are several stories in which Yuichi becomes Leo's emotional support, there is one crucial aspect in all of them: Yuichi simply listens to problems without judgment or opinion.

This approach reflects the realization that, as one grows older, one realizes that sometimes people just need to be heard to vent their problems. Therefore, it is preferable to offer advice only when it is requested. The aspect is handled effectively in several stories, where if Leo doesn't ask Yuichi for an opinion, the latter simply listens.

Both characters shoulder problems together, but this does not imply that the other will automatically solve the partner's problem. Rather, they provide a little mutual boost, as they both know what they are capable of and fully trust themselves and each other.

Loving someone and learning to face problems together involves not only trusting in oneself, but also in the other's ability to be supportive.

-🅲🆁🅸🆂🅸🆂-

Most fanfics address Leo’s PTSD, some in detail and others more generally. IMO, I couldn’t say if they portrayed it correctly or not, but the inclusion of details and respect for these moments and tensions, they make them feel authentic and moving.

In these situations, usually one of the brothers or Yuichi provides precise support, which is relevant and can resonate with anyone who has faced similar situations. It is particularly notable that the support that Yuichi offers, although Leo also offers the support.

Yuichi never leaves Leo alone and is willing to help him through these difficult times as many times as necessary. This representation highlights how, when you love someone, you learn to cope with the conflicts and problems you may face.

Yuichi's unconditional support adds a layer of authenticity to the narratives and reinforces the idea that true love involves being present and supporting the person you love during difficult times. 

-🅻🅾🆅🅴 🅿🅰🆂🆃, 🅿🆁🅴🆂🅴🅽🆃 🅰🅽🅳 🅵🆄🆃🆄🆁🅴-

I've read several stories where Yuichi loses his family during the Kraang Invasion, or this "mistake" on Leo's part is addressed. The interesting thing is that, although a conflict may be anticipated, none of the characters take the blame. nor does he recriminate the errors of the other.

This reflects the idea that one should not judge without first knowing the full story. When you love someone, you do so with all of their past, as well as the possibilities that the future holds for them. The Leoichi becomes a great representation of this, since none of the characters are judged for their mistakes.

They accept each other and love not only who they are in the present moment, but also help and support each other in their personal growth. They are anxious about the future ahead, recognizing that the past experiences are an integral part of the person you love. This approach shows how love involves accepting the loved person in their entirety, with all their imperfections and mistakes, and supporting their evolution and future development.

And I feel that a great example of this is one of the fanfics that best portrays Samurai Rabbit. So In Love And Yet Nothing To Talk About by rosesofenvy

-🅰🅽🅰🅻🆈🆂🅸🆂 🅾🅵 🆂🅾 🅸🅽 🅻🅾🆅🅴 🅰🅽🅳 🆈🅴🆃 🅽🅾🆃🅷🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅾 🆃🅰🅻🅺 🅰🅱🅾🆄🆃-

“Leo wants to find his soul mate and is willing to throw himself (and his siblings) headlong into a new mission to achieve it.”

The story in particular handles the relationship between Yuichi and Leo exceptionally well. HE takes into account the story of "Samurai Rabbit" and incorporates its characters in a more meaningful way. This fanfic stands out as one of the few that actually considers Yuichi's story, elevating it to a broader level and giving it considerable relevance.

Both protagonists go through problems related to the respective invasions they experienced at the time. If you are new to consuming content from the shipp, I would definitely recommend this fanfic as your first choice to read. Helps to better understand the history of both characters, and the theme of soulmates, which is something new in the universe of both series, will surely awaken your curiosity until the end.

The well-developed plot and careful integration of elements from both stories make it a great read. enriquecedora para aquellos que buscan sumergirse en este shipp. 

-🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆁🅸🆃🆈 🅾🅵 🅻🅾🆅🅴-

One part that captured my attention and only made me fall more in love with the shipp was the extraordinarily sweet way the relationship between the characters develops.

People often associate love solely with kisses, but this fanfic stands out. that love can manifest itself in various ways and does not have to be rushed to work. Both characters act clumsily when falling in love, which makes sense since they are not experts on the subject.

In several fanfics I have noticed that, although they both fall in love in the First chapters, they take their time to express their feelings. There may be moments where they show their affection for each other, such as when Leo taps Yuichi's head or when Yuichi moves his ears.

This representation of pure and innocent first love is important and tender. Since they're teenagers, there's no need to rush things, and this is one of the main reasons I love this shipp. The content addresses this aspect without becoming cloying, allowing you to enjoy consuming the content and become attached to it. with both characters in a unique way.

It is also notable that in some stories, they can take until the end to kiss, highlighting the idea that everything has its proper time. Although it is clear that there is content intended for a more mature audience, it is less frequent. 

-🆃🅷🅴🆈 🅰🆁🅴 🅸🅽🅴🆇🅿🅴🆁🅸🅴🅽🅲🅴🅳-

As I mentioned, being teenagers, it is logical that many of the actions of both characters in the shipping content are childish and clumsy, which is adorable. It's like reliving first love, where we do crazy things for the other person.

This is a recurring element in each type of content, whether it is a story or a comic (although there are exceptions). We will always see Leo trying to tell a joke to make Yuichi smile, or Yuichi trying to demonstrate his skills as a samurai. Overall, the Leoichi relationship begins innocently and sincerely.

Both characters learn along the way what it means to love someone, which contributes to creating a charming and touching atmosphere. The clumsiness and innocence that characterize his actions faithfully reflect the experience of first love. making the connection between both characters more authentic and endearing.

-🅲🅰🅽🅾🅽🅸🅲🅰🅻 🅴🆅🅴🅽🆃🆂-

It is interesting to note that in many shipp stories there are recurring events that we could call "canonical events", as if they were characteristic elements that are repeated as a game.

Some notable examples include: Choosing a Picnic as a setting for a date or meeting is common in many shipp stories. It is common for the characters to meet in "Run of the Mill", and in several of these stories, Yuichi works in said place. Although there are few exceptions, in most stories, Leo is portrayed as the first to fall in love. In some plots, one of the brothers becomes overprotective regarding the relationship between Leo and Yuichi. It is common for both characters to be the last to realize the attraction they feel for each other. Although in a way curiously, on many occasions, it is Yuichi who suffers the most, and may even die in some plots. Events involving joint training or a fight between Leo and Yuichi are recurring in these stories.

The follies of both characters often result in some kind of disaster or comical situation. These recurring elements could be considered part of the "formula" that defines the dynamics of the relationship between Leo and Yuichi in the ship, offering readers a recognizable set of situations and events that they contribute to the charm and familiarity of these stories.

-🅻🅶🅱🆃 🆁🅴🅿🆁🅴🆂🅴🅽🆃🅰🆃🅸🅾🅽-

The topic of inclusion has gained relevance in recent years, and in Rise, diverse representation is evident, with Leo being the main focus and universally considered part of the LGBT community.

Labelling the characters or questioning whether the Representation is adequate may seem unnecessary, since each person is free to decide or change their preferences over time. While some stories deal with serious and realistic topics in exceptional ways, others may focus on engaging the audience without going in depth. in these aspects. What I highlight in the Rise universe is that it does not seem to focus on demonstrating the sexuality of each character.

Everyone is free to decide their preferences, and these do not seem to generate conflicts. Whether April is lesbian or Splinter is bisexual, the story does not create dramas around these elections. It is crucial to normalize these terms without the need to question each individual's attractions, recognizing that tastes can change over time. Works such as Sakura Card Captor or The Owl House address this topic in a way that conveys the message that "love is simply that, love." Be yourself without the need for labels.

The Leoichi has stories that touch on this topic respectfully, providing interesting information. Although it is not the central focus, when it is addressed, it is done in a way precise and accurate. It is an LGBT ship that manages to captivate without depending exclusively on being a representation of the community, showing the diversity of relationships in a natural and authentic way.

-🆁🅴🅲🅸🅿🆁🅾🅲🅰🅻 🅻🅾🆅🅴 🆆🅸🆃🅷🅾🆄🆃 🅴🆇🆃🆁🅰 🅳🆁🅰🅼🅰-

The Leoichi stands out for its balance of love, respect and empathy between Leo and Yuichi, showing a healthy and authentic relationship. When we explore love stories, elements of drama are often included, such as the recurring love triangle.

Fortunately, the Leoichi avoids this cliché. Although there are stories that address the topic, they focus on it from the beginning. Instead of falling into typical clichés, the Leoichi adopts different approaches, such as family overprotection, distance or conflicts related to the villain's plot. Overall, Leoichi avoids common clichés that could be considered unnecessary.

-🅰🅽🅰🅻🆈🆂🅸🆂 🅾🅵 🆃🅷🅴 🅽🅾🆃-🆂🅾-🆂🅴🅲🆁🅴🆃 🆂🅴🅲🆁🅴🆃 🆂🅰🅽🆃🅰-

IMAGE

BESIDE LEO IMAGE TEXT: it is my moment. mine of me To all the assholes who underestimated me, you will see romantic Leo

BESIDE USAGI IMAGE TEXT: You're not going to believe who touched me in Secret Santa. I knew I was God's favorite.

“Where Usagi gets to be Leo's secret santa and vice versa. “Both boys believe this is the perfect opportunity to declare themselves.”

Are you a person who looks for new and innovative things to tell a story?

This story offers an innovative narrative by following the events leading up to Yuichi and Leo's declaration. The unique way tweets and conventional storytelling structure are intertwined is captivating. Unlike many narratives, it shows that it is not necessary to address sad or deep themes to create an attractive story.

The plot focuses on the relationship between Leo and Yuichi, exploring their own thought worlds and their connection with friends. What is notable is that the story is not limited to Leo's perspective, as is usually the norm, but also considers Yuichi, providing a more complete view.

The plot unfolds in an understandable way, and manages to get several laughs on multiple occasions, which is evident by the positive reaction of readers, even those who do not fluent in Spanish have made efforts to understand it, highlighting its significant impact. In short, I don't think I have to explain why I would recommend this story (It's great).

Offers a distracting experience that brings smiles, uniquely exploring both characters, as well as others, maintaining the reader's interest and leaving the feeling of wanting to continue reading more.

-🅰🅽🅰🅻🆈🆂🅸🆂 🅾🅵 🆃🅷🅴 🅲🅾🅼🅸🅲 🅱🅸🅶 🅼🅰🅼🅰'🆂 🅲🅷🅸🅻🅳!-

“A ROTTMNT and Samurai Rabbit AU mainly inspired by Tangled, where Leo is separated from his family and becomes Big Mama's son”

The enveloping plot of this story is fascinating, although it is inspired by "Tangled", it manages to infuse it with your own touch of originality.

The mysteries surrounding the characters, especially the relationship with the past between Leo and Big Mom, keep the reader intrigued. At the same time, Yuichi is not marginalized, since he contributes with his own story, adding layers of mystery surrounding the Hamato and exploring the intriguing topic of Jei.

Unlike the base story, this story broadens its horizons by touching on topics just as serious as the film, such as the separation of the brothers, the representation of Big Mama as a fearsome villain, the Yuichi's connection to the Hamato, as well as the stories of his friends and the world where they live. The plot also addresses the theme of death, adding complexity and depth to the narrative.

Characters' unique reaction to challenges contributes to the uniqueness of history. The way the plot unfolds and envelops the reader is impressive, and the fact that the story is told not only through narrative, but also visually, with beautiful drawings and a fluid rhythm, adds a significant plus. Details like the colours, clothing and surroundings combine to create a fascinating and captivating experience.

-🅵🅰🅽🅳🅾🅼-

Leoichi content, created by the passionate fandom, stands out for its support and positivity. As an upcoming artist, entering this space is an incredible experience, with notable support for content creators. The connection between stories and art is palpable, with artists expressing their appreciation through visual creations inspired by the plots.

This appreciative environment towards writers, cartoonists and other artists is unique and rewarding. The community has made a significant impact, and being a part of it is a source of pride, since the Leoichi, although small compared to what the entire TMNT fandom encompasses, reflects the constant support for creative projects, providing an unmatched feeling of support.

-🆁🅴🅿🆁🅴🆂🅴🅽🆃🅰🆃🅸🅾🅽 🅾🅵 🆈🆄🅸🅲🅷🅸-

It is disappointing to see problems in the representation of Yuichi in various media, and it is essential to advocate for change. The lack of knowledge and understanding about this character highlights the need for further investigation.

Yuichi is a character notable with a fascinating story, which is told in Samurai Rabbit, and deserves fair and accurate representation. Advocating for a deeper understanding of characters and their stories is key to overcoming these challenges.

-🅾🆃🅷🅴🆁 🆂🅷🅸🅿🅿🆂-

It's notable how many Shipps exist in the fandom like the "Donsagi", and I personally enjoy this type of content. It brings freshness and generates interesting stories with new concepts, earning my full support as a multishipper. It is common for them to raise diverse ships in fandoms, and respecting each person's preferences is essential. If someone does not share the preference for the Leoichi or other ships, that is their right, but it is crucial to avoid negative comments towards those who support it. As long as you don't follow tcest or any sick shipp, there won't be any problem (Don't support this type of content, seriously- Sunflower) (I also do not support this content. -Tiny)

-🆁🅴🅲🅾🅼🅼🅴🅽🅳🅰🆃🅸🅾🅽🆂-

Although I haven't explored everything in the Leoichi, I would like to recommend a few stories that I think stand out and could be ideal if you are discovering this Shipp or already know it. These recommendations are only a small sample, since the complete list would be extensive.

-StarBlind by WeirdNCrazy: It is one of my favorites, although it is not over yet, it really manages to make me scream at several moments, and although its focus is not entirely Leoichi, it is a very interesting Alternate Universe story that I recommend 

“Leo has been blind since he was mutated by Draxum when he was a baby turtle. Although the plot remains similar to the series, it develops in a unique way due to this circumstance. Additionally, more complexity is added with the arrival of Yuichi and his friends.”

-Midnight Blue by TugboatExpress: Although it is a One-Shot, it really portrays the dynamic in a unique way for both characters, having tense, sweet and funny moments. I laughed a lot at this story and each character has their moment to shine, which only makes it more special. It has a second part, which is also one of my favourites.

“Leo faces death in a hostile dimension, but the next minute he finds someone special. “This is the life of Hamato Leonardo.”

-It's Worse to be Nothing With You by CheddarCat20: The dynamic between siblings, the problem of long-distance relationships, and the theme of a band. This fanfic has many things that I love, and it cannot fail with the moments or complications that Yuichi and Leo face, it has a satisfactory ending, although it makes you want more of this AU.

“I read andHis brothers, the band Teenage Mutant Ninjas, seek help from Usagi Yuichi, a famous Japanese musician. “What starts as a business becomes something more meaningful for Leo.”

-Ghost of New York by jamisafan: This is one of the few fanfics that manages to perfectly detail the Yuichi's personality, Leo's subtle background plot that will be important, and their relationship from hate to love.

“Usagi had wanted to be a ghost hunter ever since she could remember, it was where she belonged. Finally, the aunt sends him on his first solo mission, where maybe I’ll make a friend along the way.”

Believe me when I tell you that I have more favourite stories, but I didn't want to go overboard with this thread. I will leave the links to the stories, and I will also leave the link of users who make content that I recommend from this Shipp (I must clarify that they are not all the ones I would recommend)

-🅻🅸🅽🅺🆂-

-When Worlds Collide-celestiangel:

-So In Love And Yet Nothing To Talk About-rosesofenvy:

-StarBlind-WeirdNCrazy:

-Midnight Blue-TugboatExpress:

-It's Worse to be Nothing With You-CheddarCat20:

-Ghost of New York-jamisafan:

- El santa secreto no tan secreto:

-Hitok´s (Big Mama's Child AU and Villain!Usagi AU comics artist):

-🅵🅸🅽🅰🅻 🅾🅿🅸🅽🅸🅾🅽-

What can I say?, I LOVE THESE TWO!, and I think this thread is proof of it. The Leoichi is one of my favorite Shipps, it really manages to hook you from the first moment, you can feel identified with any of the two involved, all the content that I have consumed and continue to consume is a gem for me and brightens my days, there are several reasons To love the ship, I love the whole story behind it and that precisely this analysis has come out only because of the content that the fandom has made (Which is admirable). I have to mention that I have not named as many recommendations as I would like, but if you are an artist or writer If you want to make yourself known, you can leave a comment in this thread (Here we support everyone <3).

Also with the analysis of this beautiful Ship, I considered the option of starting to analyse its content, really the analysis that I gave to When Worlds Collide is very little of what I have in my mind, and I would like to give it an appropriate analysis with every detail, going deeper into the theme it addresses, the character arcs, the final teaching, etc. I feel that it would be a good start, and in that way move forward to analyze other stories or comics.Many credits to the talented artists who made the illustrations I used in this thread <3

Without further ado, thank you for reading the thread, if you have anything to say regarding everything I have mentioned, you have your right, all with due respect wait for the analysis of When Worlds Collide soon <3

PD:It doesn't let me put links to some talented artists who make Shipp content, but I leave the link to my profile so you can see the thread (There are links to the artists)

[hcgossips]

Once In The Rain, You Get Wet

That’s the message the lesson addressed to Cavill brought. And, that’s what this PR stunt is all about. I don’t see an obvious connection between Superman announcement and this PR stunt, but it depends on who was actually responsible for Cavill’s management and what this person had against him.

DG as Cavill ‘s manager: We all know DG was managing Cavill and her ex, who was excited to promote his BA, a new antihero in the movies, and that Cavill considered DG a friend. But, behind DG, we have WME, a much bigger agency, which includes DG’s agency.

So, during that period of BA’s promo, she might have lost the autonomy she had with Cavill, but things haven’t changed much. She might have lost it, because now, she was being controlled by WME, or she was fired (Was she?) or she’s decided to dedicate her time to other projects.

The cameo in BA: So, DJ was interested in having a certain control in the movie Industry and in promoting his BA as a character coming to stay. They needed a huge buzz for its entree. To establish that and guarantee BA would come to stay and have a second movie, the idea was to suggest a battle between BA and Superman. But, according to Gunn, Cavill wasn’t replaced as Supes’, because he was never hired for the role in the following movie, in first place. So, ...

Attention: DJ was interested in a battle between BA and Superman. Not Cavill. But, Superman. Regardless of the actor who played Supes, BA could still be back in a new movie, if a hit and if his proposal with BA was accepted. But, it seems DG nor DJ are very liked among some in the Industry and that hostility fell on Cavill’s lap.

Interesting is that, after the fallacy of Superman’s announcement by Cavill (recorded months before it was out, even before this PR) and the failure of BA, DG and DJ stayed quiet and kind of vanished. DG never came in Cavill’s defence. The only time she came public, was to defend herself from racism accusations.

DG and DJ wanted to pressure the Industry to turn BA into a significant character, to guarantee a second movie. And, maybe, letting Cavill believe he was coming back as Supes’, would help promote BA, what the announcement had the intention to do. Or maybe the three of them, Cavill, DG and DJ were all d*cked around. There’s no way DG wouldn’t know about Gunn’s Superman and what was going on in DC if what Gun says is true.

Question: Someone here questioned a gap between Cavill’s announcement and Gunn’s narrative questioning how Cavill would be allowed to be in the cameo and make the announcement  if Gunn’s Supes had already been considered and ongoing and Cavill was dismissed? That’s a good question.

Cavill’s announcement: It was in 2022, but apparently, recorded months or even years before, saved by DG and, maybe, released in 2022 without Cavill's knowledge and consent. Gunn was already moving on with his Superman with David (not Cavill) in mind and in talks with a few people in DC. So, supposedly, everybody knew Cavill was not the choice. And, Gunn was clear when he said Cavill was “d*cked around”. So, how could DG release that video? Only to promote BA? Still trying to pressure DC?

How could she make that enourmous mistake, putting her client in that situation? She apparently, sacrificed a client for another. Was it a mistake or she intended to humiliate Cavill, using him to promote her ex husband’s movie? We, clearly, have a conflict of interest here. And, Cavill was apparently, made a fool.

The PR with Viscuso: It was clearly a trap to mock, humiliate and to bend Cavill over, sending a message and an attempt to teach him a lesson. Was DG responsible for that, too? She was considered a friend by Cavill and apparently,  his manager at the time.

So, why would she suddenly, turn against him? That bad publicity looks terrible for her as a manager as well. Maybe, it could all be connected in a bigger plan to screw the three of them, because this confusion was also a terrible publicity for her as a manager and BA was a box office failure. Maybe the three were d*cked around.

The PR contract could have brought a NDA he knew nothing about. And, the joke over this PR stunt started on a TV show that made fun of it, while displaying the photos of the first pap walk. It clearly, discredits Cavill as a man and DG as a manager. What the host of the show did seemed to be previously, ordered, planned and intentional. So, there’s obviously, someone in the Industry who has something against him or them and trying to bend him over.

The Machiavellian Plan: This PR stunt was the perfect trap, the negative publicity was intentional and, maybe part of a PR contract NDA . Releasing the bl*w j*b photo was part of the plan. Viscuso obviously, has the opposite image of a woman you all would imagine to be beside Cavill. She’s an exhibitionist sl*t, promiscuous, vulgar, an unknown tacky, fumbling and ungainly.

Cavill is a classy and elegant British, always worried with his public image. Systematic, picky and selective, even if he really had had night stands with Viscuso, he would never choose to be publicly seen as a boyfriend of this type of woman. She would be kept as a hidden escort.

But, someone wanted to expose him as a man with no criteria, obligating him to be seen with a promiscuous with no self-respect, he obviously didn’t know well, faking a steady relationship. Why insist on faking a steady relationship and paternity after the scandal and when everybody knows it's fake?

Yes, they wanted to give him a new mask, a mask he wasn’t expecting to put on, but one he is forced to wearing. Because this thing with Viscuso, whatever it is, convinces no one. It’s clear someone played a trick on him that made him accept the plot, while taking advantage of his, at present moment, idiocy. And, he accepted, maybe afraid of a bigger shame.

But, I also believed he convinced the promiscuous - who was initially chosen to screw him -, to play by his side and not against him, in exchange for spotlight, a blue checkmark on IG, appearances on every public event, attention and money. That’s how she became his Godsent. But, if she’s Godsent, who is the Godfather, DG?

This circus and Cavill’s misery wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t accepted to be a Hollywood pr**t***te. In parallel to acting, he decided to be a professional escort of wannabes gulable for attention and spotlight. But, this PR stunt allowed him to become at least, Viscuso’s friend. And, now, one supports the other.

And, Cavill got lemons and made a lemonade. He challenged who tried to screw him and decided to take the circus ahead, showing he wouldn’t be intimidated. But, to do so, his fandom had to be sacrificed. Because, they had to create a diversion to avoid fans from seeing the truth.

Cavill must have pissed somebody in the Industry. The reasons could vary from a refusal to sleep with a producer, director or a a writer; a rejection he caused after sleeping with the wrong person; a boycott because of being annoying for being a real conservative, naive and picky, refusing sex scenes (things directors and producers usually don’t expect from actors), while staging to fans a man he’s not.

I am sure what has happened since 2020 has a finger of someone with a certain influence, a title, that could screw a manager and an actor’s image and career with a phone call. Since 2020, Cavill has been in cameos and in movies of low budget, thrown here and there as a starter, a freshman.

Why, if he had been in nice movies with great characters, such as Geralt, August Walker (which I love) and Superman (the three, unforgettable)? It’s like someone wanted to delete his prior acting jobs, avoiding people to associate him to Superman. Well, that’s impossible. Some might not agree he was the best Supes. But, he definitely is Superman! They won’t take that from him.

Argylle seemed to have been ordered for him to promote his image as a spy for Bond, the same time he could show a versatile side of him in a frame: a “funny” character, far from the sex symbol. They also made sure to promote The Ministry of Ungent....(huge name for a movie) relating it to Bond’s creater somehow. So, it seemes he has been fighting for his career.

[halliescomut]

Love Sky to Love Sea connection

Alright, so I was going over everything following the news that our beloved FortPeat are going to be the main couple in a new show for Mame.

And if you have been partaking in Mame BLs for a while, you may be aware that all of her novels and the shows that are based on them have existed in the same universe up until this point (a la the MCU). Following the creation of MeMindY she has not cast previous actors from her shows into new roles, instead having them return in cameos as the universe progressed forward.

It's easy to understand why she would choose this moment to recast FortPeat (and very likely BossNouel, but that confirmation will come in a couple of days). The chief reason of course being money, Love in the Air was arguably one of her most successful series, equaled only by TharnType. This is due to the stories, the performances, and also just luck of timing. The boom of BL shows for international audiences, from what I can tell, occurred in late 2021 - early 2022, with shows like Cutie Pie and Kinnporsche (and the impeccable chemistry presented in both) being some of the most common first forays into BL. I have only assumptions and inferences as to why this is, I think the popularity of shows like Love Victor and HeartStopper on streaming services led more people to essentially google more queer media, and found that there is a rather awesome amount being produced in Thailand, but in South East Asia and East Asia altogether. I also know a number of people were on the K-Drama to BL pipeline, assisted by Netflix and Viki. But back to my point, generally I think the popularity of MewGulf and JaFirst locally, or at least within SEA is fairly equal, but the inclusion of a much larger international audience at the time when Love in the Air came out has created a level of popularity that I don't think Mame expected.

I think another very valid reason why Love in the Air is incredibly popular is that while it exhibits some of her 'classic Mame' tropes like histories and instances of SA, and her ever-present 'No Kink', it is arguably one of the less problematic stories that we've seen on screen so far form her. (And this is coming from someone who actually likes a lot of Mame's stories, though I'd imagine my affection for brat-type characters is a leading cause of this.) This means that for many viewers for whom this was a first foray into Mame's universe and characters were not being immediately put off by some of the more problematic scenes and storylines presented in previous shows.

Mame has most certainly observed the potential for success in recasting these well-liked actors/pairs in other companies, top of said list being pairs like ZeeNunew, EarthMix, FirstKhaotung, and many others. So to take a pair whose chemistry and ease onset is equal to those and cast them in a new role, while breaking a previously established 'rule' is certainly a choice where the potential benefits far outweigh the risk. Literally the only 'risk' is potential confusion from those that are aware of the fact that ALL of Mame's work exists in a single universe, which if you came in on the LITA train is not likely to be something you would know. You may know of the clear connection to Sailom and Nuea presented in Wedding Plan, but connections to the further universe beyond LITA are limited to two rather small cameos that even I didn't pick up on immediately. (These cameos being the brief appearance of the twins and Leon from Don't Say No.)

So, I wanted to give an idea of what exactly is the connection between their existing LITA characters, but also the kind of show why it's really not going to be as big of a deal as far as causing confusion. This is a diagram of the existing Mame universe in terms of her novels, I've updated it as needed to include the connections to Prapai and adding in the Love Sea story as well. I have included a link to the original as well.

I've placed stars for the LoveSky/LoveStorm stories and then added ones by Love Sea and The Boy Next World (which we anticipate to star Boss and Noeul). Because the universe is so large, it is a bit confusing, so I did break it down into more simplified connections.

Hearts represent romantic relationships and the dashes are platonic. most of them are just friendships of various types, though Tharn and Pookan are cousins. But as you can see there is at least 5 people between the characters in LITA and the actors' new characters. So even in-universe the likelihood of these characters ever meeting would be slim, but beyond that the connection of LITA to the over-arching Love by Chance universe is pretty tenuous as previously mentioned.

In the case specifically of Love Sea, this is an unpublished novel, so it's possible Mame will remove or choose to leave out any mentions to the greater universe (meaning either changing the name of Kom's character if he is present in the scripted version, or leaving him out altogether). In the case of The Boy Next World, Pookan is related to Tharn, but let's be honest, do we really expect Mew to show up in a cameo? He's already moved on from Mame, TT, and the MewGulf ship. At best we may get fanservice in the way of a name drop, and it's possible we could see other characters from TT, but I'm skeptical. Since Pookan barely shows up in TT at all, the better option, especially with the passage of time since the first season of TT came out, is to have him be Tharn's cousin, but have him attending university after Tharn has graduated. And that's really only if you want to include that connection, you really don't have to. Given the amount of detail that we get about secondary characters in a lot of these shows, it wouldn't really be that difficult to simply rename any characters that cross over into the greater universe because there's just not going to be enough specific detail to really connect them.

I did also want to include the small amount that we know about Fort and Peat's new characters. We of course don't have much information yet, but there was some crumbs dropped at the recent fanmeet and appearances.

Their characters are Mahasamut(Fort) and Tongrak(Peat). Mahasamut is the son of a hotel owner who after a falling out is now living on his own. It looks as though he is quite young, along the same age of Fort IRL, and he is working as a tour guide to support himself. He is someone who is, I would say, likely lower income, and he's very ambitious and at this current time his goal is to kind of amass a certain amount of savings. He is running his own company as a tour guide and is considered very popular among foreigners both because he can speak good English but also because he is very charismatic. The information given at the fanmeet also includes that he has a diving certificate and is also good at fighting. How that will come up in the story, I don't know.😂

If their hints are to be believed, these characters will be in the same age dynamic as Fort and Peat meaning that Peat's character Tongrak will be older than Fort's character. Tongrak is a writer, specifically of romance novels. He is wealthy, though it is unclear if that is through his career or familial wealth. There's a strange emphasis on how beautiful he is, but in fairness Peat does very accurately fill that criteria. It also says that he does not talk about having a partner, he goes his own way, tends to be a loner. And this is with the implication that this is a result of past negative romantic experiences. Because Mame is who she is, there's also a possibility that part of his solitude is the result of past violence from a previous partner. Fort and Peat did state that they felt the story for this series is more challenging than Love Sky (which honestly scares me a little). But out of all of the stories Mame has told so far, I did feel that Sky's story was handled the best, so hopefully that trend continues.

It's not clear currently if Mame will be directing this series as well, previously she has only directed Wedding Plan, while all of her other series, even those produced by MMY did have other hired directors. We can see from the behind the scenes footage that even with a separate director, Mame was heavily involved in the filming, so her touch will be there regardless.

As far as further timelines, based on past series it is usually about 5-6 months from announcement of a series (and the cast) to the premiere of said series. It does depend on many different variables. The length of the show being one, as well as the level of difficulty. LITA was a more complex series with some pretty large set pieces (the night time races) and more complex scenes in terms of filming (the Stop and Payu race) in comparison to Wedding Plan. Since we don't have a published novel to study and theorize about potential scenes and the difficulties of filming, I can't really give much insight. I will say that the specific inclusion of the fact that Mahasamut holds a diving certification could indicate some diving/underwater filmed scenes. While those are not necessarily super complex, they can be time consuming, require special permits, are very weather dependent, and would require special filming equipment. I also very sincerely hope that if Mame does venture in that direction that she will also make sure that specialists with the necessary expertise are on set to maintain the safety of both the cast and crew. I know what the requirements are in western media, but not in Thailand. What all this boils down to though is that I would not expect the series to premiere earlier than February, and I'd put my bets on March. It's possible she may film a special trailer like she did with LITA, and if that happens, then we may see footage in late November or December, if not I expect a trailer after the New Year. A lot of this actively depends on when we get confirmation that filming has started.

I did also want to note, that while we expect Boss and Noeul to be the leads for The Boy Next World, since she is announcing that after Love Sea, I'm also expecting that to be filmed after Love Sea, even though we suspected that BNW was on the docket way back in March, Boss is still attached to Zomvivor with Mandee/Domundi, which could begin filming this fall, though that's not fully confirmed, it's based on the schedule presented at their look-aheads last year and what has already filmed and aired. But my point is that Boss may not be free to commit to the filming of BNW for a couple of months. There's a lot of variables that go into it.

But anyway...I hope this little rundown/update was helpful. If you have questions and I can answer them, my asks are open.

[alyxmakesthings]

'Over The City' Chapter 5

Summary: Your return to the turtle's Lair brings about some interesting connections. <Click to read on AO3.

Happy Pride! So The National Arts Club is super cool and I’d love to actually go to it! It hosted a drag event on the 13th and as a joke I wanted to post the chapter on that day but… Nevermind all that. If you can go back in time, have fun, if not consider checking the place out anyway! Enjoy!

Tags: Reader-Insert, Fem OC Reader, Post-Movie: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2022), Aged-Up Character(s), Canon-Typical Violence, Human/Turtle Relationships (TMNT), Neurodivergent Reader, Slow Burn, Named Reader

Catch me slippin' through the concrete.

The walk back to your building is short. The air had cooled significantly since the sun had fully set and compared to the warmth of. Wherever you had been before.

As your feet carry you to the door Elsa is quick to beat you to it, worry knitting her face together.

‘Oh shit.’

“Where have you been, dear? I tried calling you but the number wouldn’t go through?” You felt bad that she had worried so much.

“I’m sorry,” you could not have Elsa feeling bad about this. “Uh, it died and,” she looks down at your pants.

‘pleasedon’tnotice.PleaseDon’tNotice.PLEASEDON’TNOTICE!’

“Is dad home?” her mind seems to have snapped to attention at the subject of your father.

“Oh right,” she leads you inside out of the fall air. “He actually came by the building shortly after you had gone out,” the two of you reach Elsa’s desk.

“He just stopped by?” The accusatory edge to your voice has Elsa tilting her head to purse her lips at you.

“He wanted to know if you had gone out and I told him you had,” she reached over the desk to retrieve a thin envelope. “He gave me this letter,” Elsa reaches out offering the envelope to you, “to give to you.”

You take it.

‘Why did he leave me a letter?’

Opening the thing reveals a single piece of notebook paper that had been cleanly torn at the perforation, your father’s hand writing scrawled neatly across the page.

Your confusion is now replaced with exasperation.

It was merely a few sentences saying he would be gone, business as usual, keeping him away for the next few days.

‘Jesus Fucking Christ.’

“It’s so short, why didn’t he just tell you to tell me?” You flap your arms once letting them fall to your side with a slap, “Or text me?” Elsa gives you a sympathetic look and places a hand on your shoulder.

“I’ve given up on trying to fully understand Mr. Daniels,” removing her hand Elsa sighs.

“How about this Els’,” you return her previous gesture. “If I ever catch up we can compare notes.” You then take a step forward sliding your hand around her shoulder to pull her into a hug. The older woman returns it warmly. “I’m sorry for freaking you out. I promise-”

“Oh,” she pulls away to see you, “I know it’ll happen again.” Her bluntness is betrayed by how affectionately she says the words and she sniffles slightly before continuing. “I just need you to know there’s someone here waiting for you to come home.”

For a moment you just want to stay there.

Basking in the warmth of that sentiment.

‘But you can’t’

“Thank you Elsa.” The woman in question waves her hand as if dismissing the need for ‘thanks’.

“Don’t you worry about a thing,” she now gives you a more serious glance. “You should be worrying about getting to bed.”

It was sound advice and for the first time all day.

You took someone else's advice.

—

Well you almost fully took her advice…

Waking up the next morning to blinding sunlight had you scrambling to see what time it was. Horrified to see that 10:24 was staring right back at you alongside a message that you had received a couple hours prior from Donnie.

‘Shit.’

Jumping out of bed you make your way back the halls to the laundry room before hitting the dry cycle to run again. You had started laundry as soon as you could in order to be able to bring, whomever’s, pants back to them. Which now accounted for how late you had awoken.

You finally take the time to check your phone as you make your way back to your room to get dressed.

[Donatello - “Meet us at The National Arts Club at 11:00. Present this to gain entry.”]

What followed was a QRcode.

‘Eleven.’

“OH fuck!” You woke up late. The realization screaming in your brain.

Quickening your pace you don’t even bother fully closing the door to your room before you are ripping your pjs off. Besides, it's not like anyone was home.

Grabbing your shoes you clumsily put them on while you snatch the device from your squeaky drawer. Making sure the door is shut this time, you run back to the dryer to sift through the mess of blankets to locate the pants you had been lent.

Finding the article of clothing you fold the jeans neatly before setting them in your brown saddle bag alongside the drive. Racing out the door you stop only at the elevator as you wait for it to arrive at your floor.

Your minimal proximity to the ground being the only reason you weren’t taking the stairs.

The trip down feels too slow.

Like the wheels above you were trying to keep you here or make you more late.

‘What if they aren’t there?’

The new worry adds to the dizziness you feel in the space.

Like a top spinning out into space.

No friction to stop its accent.

The elevator stops.

The sudden halting of all movement breaks the spell you found yourself under as the doors open.

‘I don’t have time for this.’

Taking a breath you cut through the lobby as quickly as you can, the only thing keeping you from running out being the need to look calm.

The portly doorman tips his hat to you on your way out, which you of course acknowledge before slipping out the front of your building.

Once you round the corner and are clear of the windows it’s off to the races as you try to make your way down the sidewalk the fastest you possibly could. When you arrived at the building you had been dropped off at the night prior you checked your phone, 10:59.

Somehow you had made it with a minute to spare even.

The sleek darkly colored double doors open to unveil the ornate stone interior, the floor a maze of black and white tile.

‘Pretty.’

You couldn’t believe you had never made the time to come here. The sound of a woman clearing her throat takes your attention away from the architecture.

“Can I help you Miss?” She’s an older woman, face pinched and adorned with dark glasses. A beaded chain catches the light as she turns in her chair to better face you.

“Yes, um I’m here to meet someone uh,” you start to pull out your phone but

“Oh you must be the girl Miss O’Neil told me about,” she pulls out what looks to be an old school pager, typing away. “She’s just up the stairs so it won’t take her long hon.”

“Thank you,” you give her a smile that is returned as she returns to whatever work your arrival had taken her from. You take the opportunity to return to the investigation of the unfamiliar space but are quickly interrupted by a new player entering the game.

The yellow of her under shirt caught your eye first, peeking out from a dark suit jacket that seemed to shine green. You didn’t have much time to process as she looped her arm around your own. With a gentle tug you find your body ascending the scarlet stairs following a total stranger that hasn’t said a word to you.

“Umm,” you try to start some kind of dialogue.

“Not yet,” she doesn’t say the words with any kind of ire. Choosing a more sing-songy style as if she were the Rabbit from Wonderland.

The sets of stairs later you’re greeted to an ornate pair of darkly stained wooden doors. O’Neil knocked a rhythmic pattern, the sound echoing down the empty hall.

“Sorry about all this,” her sincerity was evident and made you feel more at ease. Soothing the itch from where she had suddenly grabbed you.

The sound of the lock sliding and the door opening stops your response as the door opens to reveal Raph standing there. He ushered the two of you into the room quickly, before closing the door, re-locking it.

“Thanks for this April,” with how close he was, you could feel the timber of his voice through the air.

“Guys why does this have to be a whole production?” The girl, April, stood there now with her arms crossed pushing up what looked to be a Channel 6 press badge.

‘An April O’Neil at Channel 6?’

You try to capture why that seemed familiar but the blue clad turtle occupying the furthest seat from the door puts a stop to it. “Running late?” You’re taken aback for a second.

‘I arrived on time.’

“Were you-,”

“Yeah, ‘Miss Manners’ over here thought you were some kind of spy.” Her pointed look was leveled directly at Leo.

“Just precautions,” he shrugged.

In your mind it made sense. If they had portalled you straight from a location you picked.

‘It could’ve been a trap.’

“Oh please,” O’Neil waved her hand at him. “Are you guys done with this whole thing then? I am here to work after all.” April’s tone put her displeasure at the forefront.

Leo’s gaze flicks back to you now that she has finished erring her grievances, “Yeah, almost April. Got the goober?” Your confusion must be clear.

“He means the data from the computer,” Donnie shoots his brother a look.

“Yep,” you patted the saddle bag you had grabbed before leaving your apartment. “I brought the pants back too, and I washed them.”

The stillness in the room felt very palpable now.

“I’m sorry, was I not supposed to wash them? I guess I should've asked um-.” Thankfully April putting her arm around your shoulder cut off the oncoming ramble. She was currently glaring daggers at the blue masked turtle.

“Boy,” the sternness in her voice was honestly kinda scary. “She washed my pants. You better be happy that I have to get back to work.”

She takes her arm off your shoulder, retreating to the door you had entered through. She pauses after unlocking the door, looking back at you.

“We’ll talk more next time,” she gives a little salute to the room before slipping back into the hall.

“Shall we?” It seemed showmanship was number one in Leo’s book as he absentmindedly twirls a single sword. He makes sure to give it an extra bit of heat, the blade singing through the air, before making an exit for the five of you.

The shift between one place to another while passing through still felt strange. Tingling energy that clings to you as you enter, and almost doesn't let you go when you exit.

Stepping through the first thing you noticed were the tall ceiling and the cool metals that seemed to cover every surface. It was far different from where you had been last night but there were many similarities with the look of it.

“Ah, Lair sweet Lair,” Mikey fell into a bean bag chair that shared his signature color just off to your left. The little corner of the space looked like a miniature living room dropped into the Enterprise. It seemed to have respective spots for them all, and space to spare.

The rest of the room was at times perfectly organized and in other spaces a chaotic mess. A methodically laid out space for tools existing beside what seemed to a milk crate stuffed full of circuit boards.

“Now if you would please,” Donnie held his hand out to you waiting for you to hand over the drive. Before you even have the chance to retrieve it from your bag the wiring of small fans catches your attention followed by an LED screen replicating a face flying up to you.

“So does your pop’s company take interns because I’ve been working on AGH-,” his words are cut off by Donnie pushing down on him causing the blades keeping the machine aloft to push harder.

“I’m sorry his circuits must be damaged,” the purple turtle was giving the drone a death glare. “I'll have to fix him.”

“My wiring’s fine! You guys brought her back which means she’s good,” he tilts a front rotor at Donnie in an accusatory manner. “Besides you wanna know too!” Donatello’s face was one of a man ready to die, most likely of embarrassment.

“Shoulda known better than to expect Shelly to wait for anything.” Raph’s tone was light as he was clearly enjoying his brother's discomfort. Of course they knew about your dad.

‘They probably looked up your whole life last night.’

The thought makes your stomach jump before Leo pulls your attention away. “Anywizzle, getting back on track,” Leo motions to your saddle bag.

“Oh right.” Flipping the thing open, it doesn't take you long to find it with how little you had in the bag. Handing the thing over to Donnie, lavender drive and all, he gives the device a once over.

Then he looks again.

And he keeps staring at it as his face tightens, eyes squinting while darting around the thing. The confusion isn’t just from you as you look to Raph to see if he could glean anything from Donnie’s shift in behavior to find nothing.

“Where did you get this?” Donnie’s voice is hard to place but he clearly is struggling with something.

“OK so,” eyes were fully on you again. “When I said I hacked in I might have been,” you paused, “exaggerating a little. All I had to do was plug that into the computer and it did the work for me.”

“Yeah, but. Who’d you get it from?” Leo’s brow was cocked up as he studied you.

You felt like wilting, but had to be honest.

“I may have dated this girl,” it felt like they all leaned in. “Who may, or may not have been an international cyber criminal?” You say it like a question when it is simply a fact. The silence in the room is loud and only bested by the outburst that follows.

“DID YOU DATE KENDRA?!” Donnie’s voice cracks as if he’s re-living puberty.

“You know her?” Based on the reactions from the room it seemed they all did, Donnie pressed on.

“She’s been my nemesis since we were teenagers!” There were many ways this reveal could’ve gone, and this wasn’t one of them.

‘Oh fuck.’

“How did you manage to date two criminals?” The suspicion in Leo’s voice was evident. Mikey looks like he’s going to say something, but you won’t find out what it is.

Anger sparking in the back of your mind driving you forward, “You say that like I dated them knowing they were criminals!” You gesture to yourself, irritation causing you to be more animated. “Yeah sure she’d make the joke, “Be Gay Do Crime”, but I didn’t think it was a real guiding principle of hers.” Leo doesn’t look fully convinced.

“Any more past exes you wanna share with the class since you’re two for two,” Raph shoots Leo a glare. Leo volleys one back at him, “Just to make sure?”

You try to keep your face schooled but the jump in your heart must have shown. Tipping Leo off, given the grin.

‘NO.’

“Oh?”

You gather yourself quickly, “I wish I could tell you.” You give the blue turtle a look, “But I’m just unlucky enough for it to have been just the two.”

‘Liar.’ ‘SHUT IT.’

“Seriously?” Even if the sincerity in Raph’s voice made you feel a little better you still began self soothing. Counting every time your thumb ran over your knuckle.

“Unlucky.” Mikey joined back in on the conversation, his comic book now sat off to the side.

“Maybe you should do a background check on future dates,” the blue turtles comment stopped your count. While you fully agreed with the sentiment, there was no way you were going to let him know that.

“Puh-lease, that is the last thing on my mind with an evil-ex running around.” The hits keep coming as Donnie makes a ‘hm’ face while holding up two fingers, clear in his implication.

‘Dude.’

“Very Ramona Flowers,” you now stare at Mikey with some disbelief. Although you supposed gentle ribbing for past mistakes was better than them being suspicious of you.

‘A step in the right direction.’

So you simply give a quick eye roll.

“Well your romantic sacrifices have at least resulted in something worthwhile.” Happy to be pulled from that little convo, you join the turtles in turning your attention to strings of data littered across the large monitor.

“Whatcha got DonTron?” Leo was now leaning on his brother's shoulder, eyes skipping across the screen.

“Not one hundred percent sure yet but I’ll comb over the data while Shelldon tries to hunt down those bank transfers.” The little drone in question now settled onto what seemed to be a docking station nearby before an avatar of him appeared on the monitor.

The form he took on now appeared like a little mecha, the same purple that made up his real body comprising his virtual one.

The digital form of him motioned to you, “Alright dude now that you get to hang here I’m gonna need to upgrade your phone.”

You walk closer to the computer, “Upgrade?” You don’t mean to sound accusatory but, you were pretty attached to your phone.

“It just needs a very special program of my own design,” Donnie places a hand on his chest, “it just runs in the background keeping your device clean no worries.”

You look at the turtles who seem to be the voices of reason in this family and seeing to objection from them you plug your phone into the console.

“Won’t take me long!” Shelldon’s little chirp was followed by the rolling growl of your stomach. You were mortified.

‘Maybe no one heard it.’

That hope is dashed when Mikey calls out from his spot near a pair of sizable metal doors, “Guess we’re doing lunch.”

‘Fuck.’

Of course they’d heard your stomach. The offending thing now twisted every which way as if suddenly realising it was empty. Waking up late had left no time to grab food let alone coffee.

The screen on your phone activated, “All done!” Shelldon’s little chirp brought you back to the computer, “Better go before your body starts eating itself.”

You were slowly starting to understand more and more why April was so exasperated earlier.

As you slip your phone back into your pocket the sound of hissing air catches your attention. The large double doors had opened, Mikey and Raph standing there waiting for the rest of you.

Donnie nudges your shoulder, “We can do a grand tour after we make sure you don’t pass out.” A hungry stomach drives you now as you head towards the exit.

Following the sunset duo of orange and red you notice the area just outside of the lab looked starkly different. The decrease in height and occasional bit of graffiti reminded you of the subway, not that you had used it much.

“Where are we?” It was a thought that had been eating away at your brain since last night.

“An old subway station that happened to be needing occupants.” You continued traveling the hall, Leo’s voice echoing across the space.

While taking in some graffiti that looked far newer than what you had seen previously, you almost didn't notice you had arrived at the stairs. You manage to keep yourself from falling but your first step is a little. Loud.

Keeping your gaze to the ground to ensure you know where your feet are going, and to avoid any possible eye contact after, that. You manage to successful navigate the rest of the staircase

‘No need to give them any reason to change their minds!’

You strangle the inner voice down as you take in the new space, Mikey was already head first in the fridge rummaging for who knows what.

“Tables here,” Leo walks past you, face glued to his phone as he points in the direction of a large table made of wood and metal in the corner of the kitchen. The bench style seat attached to the wall matched the table but the rest of the various stools and chairs seemed to come from different places, and be for different people.

So you took the safest of the options, the bench.

Mikey dumps an arm full of different deli packages on the island before his eyes find you from across the room. “Hey I forgot to ask, do you have any food restrictions?” The question caught you off guard.

“Uh, no. None that I know of,” he laughs a little at your statement.

“I guess I meant do you not eat meat but that’s good to know also.” He continues arranging the bags on the counter, various meats and cheeses becoming distinct from the original huddled mass.

“Oh, none of that either. I eat anything.” Your wording left much to be desired and pulled Leo from his phone. Snickering at your expense earning a scowl from Raph as he picked over the options.

“Sandwiches?” The largest of the turtles used a facetious tone with his orange brother.

“It’s like you read my mind.” Mikey answered back, his sarcasm matching Raph’s.

Donnie then goes to a rolling rack on the other side of the kitchen and retrieves a large tray covered in a purple cloth.

“If you mean to make sandwiches then allow me to unveil my latest culinary creation!” Donnie pulls the fabric back to show off the bread loaves that had been hiding underneath.

“Nice Don,” Raph leaned on his brother’s shoulder. “This from that jar you’ve been tending to forever?”

“Indeed they are Raphael thank you for noticing,” Donnie then takes a deep inhale of the sourdough on the counter.

They were hard to see from your vantage point but you felt like getting closer would disturb this perfect little moment for them.

“I call using mine!” Mikey picked up one of the loafs taking it to the cutting board.

“I made it!” Donnie’s indignance was clear. It was also clear that Mikey didn’t seem to care.

“I decorated it. So I was the last to touch it, therefore,” he pauses briefly. “It is mine.”

“Incorrect!” You had a feeling the argument might have continued if not for your stomach letting out another discontented groan.

Your hands fly to your grumbling belly as if it will stop your organs from complaining. “Sorry,” it’s almost too soft to hear.

“Food it is then,” disregarding his purple brother Leo snags a bread knife out of the block.

You feel lost as the others set to tasks without having to be told.

It’s easy, natural in the way that they orbit around each other.

“So I’ve been thinkin’,” Raph’s voice pulls you from the well oiled machine before you. Though once you meet his eye he shrinks a little, “Why didn’t you take actual self-defense classes?”

‘Oh.’

It was a perfectly reasonable question after all. It made no sense. At least to them.

“Well,” the others continued to work, their attention split. While the room was near silent, aside from the continued lunch preparation. Your mind was running through dialogue options like you were in an otome game trying to find the right tree to follow.

“Surprisingly enough despite,” you pause thinking of the right words, “how we met. Um, I’m generally a pretty relaxed person.” You sigh before continuing, “And if my dad found out I want to punch people sometimes I’d be stuck in the house for weeks.”

“I mean. I get not wanting to freak your dad out,” Donnie had paused his task to address you. “But why didn’t you just lie to him and take the classes anyway?”

‘They would’ve gotten along great.’

“You were sneaking around with a gang leader,” the sardonic way Leo made his statement had you clenching and unclenching your teeth.

“First off, by accident! Secondly he would know what I paid for and then know I lied, which would be worse.” You shrink back, feeling like maybe you put too much heat on that towards the end.

“He can see whatcha buy?” Raph’s unease with your statement was clear, leaving you to try and correct his course.

“I’m what the kids call a N.E.E.T., so technically ye~s.” You draw out the ‘yes’ to a comical degree. It only brings a slight shift in attitude, “But I am using his money so…” Explaining it always made your stomach flip, the anxiety of failure rearing its ugly head again.

“So he controls your finances?” Leo emphasised his words with a swift slice from his blade against the wood of the cutting board.

‘Fix it.’

“I wouldn’t say that,” you look down. Your cuticles and hangnails suddenly far more interesting than the mutants you shared a space with. “It’s more like I just never left home I guess. Plus it’s New York and my dad just likes to make sure I’m ok.”

You don’t look up to gauge reactions, choosing to press on.

“I had to just try my best to learn, something, and I usually have to do it alone anyway, so…” Fighting the urge to bury yourself you just barely manage to continue sitting there.

“Well you don’t have ta do it alone anymore.” Raph’s words bring your attention to how near he is now, having closed some of the distance while you were distracted. The words were genuine, you could feel it.

“Yeah by the time we’re done with you,” you turn to Leo. “You’ll be a little bad ass,” like a domino effect Donnie continues the sentiment.

“I’ll have to run some basic tests to start putting together an optimized routine…” You could see the purple turtle getting lost in thought as he returns the bread to the rack, Mikey now commanding the conversation after his brother.

“That’s all well and good but there’s a clearly more pressing matter at hand here,” with how bold the statement is it naturally gains everyone’s curiosity not just your own. “What would you like on your sandwich?”

The non-serious book end to the conversation brings a giggle out of you that you don’t try hard to stop. You stand from your current little corner of their kitchen and go to the kitchen island.

“Whatcha got?”

Thank you so much for reading! I greatly appreciate it.❤️

[majaloveschris]

I need to vent a little.

Even though we had the Page Six article of Chrisba meeting Harry and Meghan and that Mark started following Justin, things had been relativly quiet. No big drama, no something that seemed too important. This morning I woke up to this whole Carlisle and IMDb thing, and I don't know why, but it's usually the Carlisle house and blurry pictures that make me realize how much I hate this whole situation. I'm just tired of it.

I made this account around April 2022, a year and a half ago. Looking back at it, it's crazy how things have changed. How all of us changed. How our view of Chris has changed.

My only goal with this blog was to share my opinion about this and my point of view. In the beginning, I think most people were confused about what's going on here and why everything was so weird. People were freaked out because of her age, and 16 years turned into racism, fatphobia, and people who support nazis.

We all said and still say it's going to get better, but when? I find myself not wanting to talk about this or deal with this whole situation, especially on those days when life feels too much for me. I don't want to argue with anyone; I don't want to argue whether the Carlisle house is his or if they are going to live there or not. I don't want to argue whether he was in a blurry picture or not. I don't want to argue whether they are real or not. I just don't anymore. I never wanted to convince people that I'm right or that I know what's going on, because I'm not. I only want to share my opinion; that's it, and sometimes people here make me want to leave much more than this weird whatevership does.

I'm just tired of them. Tired of their stupid followings, likes, and comments...Of their stupid stories filled with little signs and tired of them tiring to make this believable when they are clearly incapable of selling whatever this is. I'm tired of their games, and I'm surprised that they aren't tired of playing them. I'm tired that now even those who aren't involved are trying to "troll" the fandom for attention.

Whenever we think it's getting better, they just do something even worse, and it obviously has an effect on us. His actually being in love with her and wanting to spend the rest of his life with her (which seems very unlikely when you look at them) would mean he is okay with their values and that he agrees with them. I think I could "forgive" him for this being PR, but if he wants to actually be with her, I don't want to support that with my money and time.

There are always and will always be people who cross the line when it comes to their favorite celebrity, but this situation seems to get the worst out of everyone, of those who are directly and indirectly involved. Since the very first Las Vegas day, we have been shown that if you want to know what is actually going on, you need to look for clues. On videos, on pictures, among somebody's following list, or among those people who liked something, I know that now people say, Why do we even care about whom he dates? I didn't really care that much about them being real or not until her and her friends pasts came out. Up until that point, the only thing that bugged me about this whole thing was that Justin and Alba seemed to troll the fandom for attention, and I didn't like the way they tried to take advantage of Chris and his fandom.

Some people can't seem to understand the actual problem with him being connected to them. I don't want to support someone who is okay with the behavior of Alba and her friends. But it's hard to believe and seems impossible to me that the man we'd seen for 20+ years has never existed. He is not that good of an actor, and I don't think somebody would be able to play a role for decades.

I have a lot of movies with him in them that I love and want to rewatch, but this whole situation makes it really hard for me. I only see him. I see him when I look at Colin, or Andy, or Ransom, or Steve, or any of his characters. I miss that guy who was always smiling and laughing during an interview. I miss the guy who seemed happy and healthy. Right now he isn't even the shadow of his old self.

I don't want this to come across as me complaining. I know that nobody forces me to be here. I know that I could just delete this blog and go on with my life, but I like having my blogs. I like coming here and talking to my friends; I like seeing funny edits; and I like making funny edits. I would love to talk about his projects, make edits, and share photos and videos. I had so many things in mind prior to the whole wedding thing, which may always remain in my gallery and my drafts.

I will still continue with this blog, but I needed to write it down how I feel, because I think a lot of us feel this way. I'm staying; I'm not leaving because I need to know how this whole thing is going to end, and I still have some hope in him.

[rjzimmerman]

Having read this story, I'm thinking to myself as smoke is coming out of my ears: "Where the fuck is Schumer and the Democratic leadership? Why aren't they in court? If Congress appropriated the funds and they were committed, how the fuck can trump and his mafia call these programs 'unnecessary' and shut them down? Again, where the fuck is Schumer? He needs to be gone, as in yesterday."

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

Dozens of nonprofit groups operating programs aimed at helping disadvantaged communities adapt to climate change have been caught up in the Trump administration’s spending cuts.

For days, several of the organizations who I’ve spoken to have been unable to access the government’s payment system to pay for staffing and expenses, or have had their grants listed as “suspended” in the system. Many have received no explanation from the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the funds.

As of Tuesday, the groups were still looking for answers.

The nonprofit groups were awarded the money through the agency’s $1.6 billion Community Change Grants program, which was authorized under environmental justice efforts included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden. Most of the awards were announced in December, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration.

The funds went to more than 100 groups, intended to fund projects to install wastewater treatment systems in Alabama homes and connect remote Alaskan households to water and sewer systems, among others.

In a statement Monday, the E.P.A. announced it had canceled $1.7 billion from “more than 400 additional grants across nine unnecessary programs.” These cuts, the statement said, came after “working hand-in-hand” with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to “rein in wasteful federal spending.”

But it was not clear whether the 400 canceled grants included any from the Community Change Grants program. The E.P.A. did not respond to a request for comment or clarification about which grants were canceled.

As of Tuesday, dozens of groups reported that they had lost access to the payment system, said Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network, an organization made up of former E.P.A. staff members.

The chaos and confusion is indicative of a larger effort by the E.P.A. to claw back billions of dollars allocated during the Biden administration, which has left several climate nonprofit groups reeling and led some of them to sue.

[totallyfunkless]

I was too soft for this world

I wanted to write about TGI and how much I love it. I spoke about it in therapy last week (lol) and my therapist helped me realize that I connect to it even more than I already thought I did.

Well, here we go.

I've always connected to Halsey's music. I was on here in the 2010s during my high school years and I remember seeing Halsey everywhere and falling in love with their music. I fell off for a few years, but when I saw the Graveyard performance at the AMAs in 2019 I was reeled back in -- and I couldn't be more grateful that I saw that performance.

From there I was listening to Manic all the time. I fell in love with it and connected to that album more than I had any album I'd ever heard. 929 is still my favourite song of all time, I love it so much.

I saw Halsey for her IICHLIWP tour in 2022 in Toronto at Budweiser stage and from that day I've been obsessed. Trust me, ask my friends and they will tell you how annoying I am, and I don't care lol.

When I heard The End for the first time in June I cried. For background info, I have been chronically ill for 7 years now. At 21 I randomly began having hip pain and was diagnosed a year later with a form of arthritis in my spine called Ankylosing Spondylitis. I also have Fibromyalgia and a form of Colitis. I write about my experience with my chronic illnesses (currently for WebMD) and I'm a chronically ill/disabled content creator over on IG.

I'd known Halsey was chronically ill, but hearing their experience in just this one song really got me. Then I heard Lucky. The pop song we all needed for the summer of 2024. I was absolutely obsessed with Lucky. I couldn't stop listening; it helped get me through the summer, which was probably the worst summer of my entire life.

I had just gotten out of a relationship that made me very physically ill due to the stress of it (hi, Panic Attack). My friend had passed away due to liver failure, and I was alone for the entire summer. I knew this album was what I needed, and every single that came out helped me keep going. Knowing I'd have to get through the summer to hear TGI helped too.

Fast forward to the release of TGI. Oh my god, I was waiting for this and anticipating it so badly. I wanted to hear it since the second I listened to The End. I knew it would destroy me, but I was ready. As soon as it hit midnight I had my headphones on and I was listening. This album means so much to me, and I relate so much more than I could have ever guessed.

Not just the chronic illness side of things, but the themes of toxic relationships, the relationship with my father, mental health, family, and friends passing away far too early.

Panic Attack describes a lot of my life this past year. In August 2023 I suddenly began vomiting multiple times a day and no one could figure out why. My GI ran tests like a Gastric Emptying Study, an Endoscopy, and bloodwork. Nothing came back, and I was getting extremely frustrated with both him and my body. The vomiting went on for about 10 months. Multiple times a day, almost every single day. During this time I was in a relationship where my partner did not respect my limits in regards to my physical disability. They believed i could do more and told me that to my face. It wasn't until I was months out of that relationship that I realized that the vomiting was caused by the stress of the relationship. The further I get from the breakup, the less I have vomited. Panic Attack has opened my eyes a lot to what stress can do to the body, and how much a relationship can affect you not only mentally, but physically, too. "My spirit has been broken My optimisms getting sore And I would love to love you But my body's keeping score"

The End I already spoke about, but the theme of getting sick and dealing with doctors who won't listen, the confusion of becoming ill every so often with new diagnoses ties into my life quite perfectly. I know I haven't dealt with anything as serious as h has, but I can still relate to this theme heavily.

"If you knew it was the end of the world, could you love me like a child? Could you hold me in the dark? If you knew it was the end of the world, would you like to stay a while? Would you leave when it gets hard?"

Hometown reminds me a lot of my friend Karn, who passed away back in 2021. We went to high school together and were best friends afterward. We would bike together a lot, and then when I got sick, he was the reason I got my first cane. He was my most supportive friend in terms of my illnesses and my limits. I think about him nearly every single day and I miss him to death. The line "he's evergreen at 17 for the last 11 years" hit me like a truck. I'd never really thought about it, but Karn is evergreen at 24. Somewhere in the clouds he's riding his bike and laughing, just like he used to. He will always look the same. ♥ I'm so sorry that h and others can relate. The heartache of losing someone far too young has been so hard on me with multiple of my friends, so I hurt for everyone who can relate.

"Like the others from my high school, all those sad suburban ghosts Trapped in a cross next to a highway, while the rest of us get old"

Hurt Feelings oh boy. I've had a rocky relationship with my father since I was a child. The yelling, the getting mad at me for everything, making me scared of doing anything even slightly wrong. Things have lightened up since he's gotten older, but those memories are always in my brain. I'll never forget the feeling of fear when he would yell. "I'll be changing like the weather but I'll never be like him" Mark my words I will not be that kind of parent. Ever.

"You know my father isn't dead, but it don't feel like he's still here It's strange now that he's grey, getting older by the day And my eyes tell me that he's harmless despite what my heart has to say"

On the topic of parenting, this is one thing that speaking to my therapist made me realize. Something not many people know about me is that I've always wanted to be a parent. My whole life I've just wanted to be a mother. So badly. As the years have gone by and the more sick I've gotten, I've started to realize that this may not happen for me. The amount of energy I will need and the amount of energy I have daily do not match. It absolutely breaks my heart to think about it, but it's something I feel that I need to learn to be okay with. Whether it happens or not, I have to accept it.

So in the conversation with my therapist, I had mentioned that this album featured Halsey's son and there's a lot about him in the songs. She stopped me and said "Oh, she has a son?" and I responded with Yes. "Do you think you relate to this also because that’s something you've always wanted, and how do you feel that she has a child with all of their health stuff going on?". And I was stopped in my tracks. I hadn't thought about it. Obviously, I'm so happy that h has Ender and Avan.

Thinking about it now, I do have to say that I'm envious of them because of how happy they are and that they have this lovely little family building. Something I've always wanted, and something I hope so badly to have someday, despite all of my health issues. I've had many thoughts in my head since becoming sick that I'll never be loved and I'll never be fully understood because of my chronic health issues. My most recent relationship confirmed those fears, though my brain fights those fears because I see others with happy and healthy relationships despite health challenges.

I proceeded to tell my therapist about the photos from Halsey's 30th birthday party, and how happy she looked in them. Something about those photos makes me so happy. The look in h's eyes. I told my therapist that I hope to achieve that feeling someday.

Being a writer and content creator who speaks on my experience on a regular basis, I respect the hell out of you, Halsey. Talking about all of this and making an album surrounding it is so vulnerable, real, and raw. I know firsthand that it is not easy, and it opens up a lot of negativity from people who simply don't understand your experience.

I want to say thank you for TGI. Thank you for all of your music. You've helped me (and so many others) so much and I am forever grateful for you and your words. Your voice is changing lives.

I hope any of this makes sense. This is the first time I've written for fun in literal years, so I may be rusty.

Thank you, h ♥

Love Steff aka totallyfunkless

[peachjagiya]

i’m so confused as to how everyone seemingly came to the collective consensus that the dream premiere was some huge pivotal moment/statement for taekook. i don’t rlly understand how them showing up to a movie premiere together is a huge deal? it’s not like they waltzed in holding hands or anything like that. it very well could have just been two close friends/bandmates going to a movie premiere together bc why not? if any two other members had gone to a movie premiere together it would be seen as completely platonic and normal so why is tkk going made out to be some crazy brave and “wow” moment for them? everyone knows they’re friends. is it just bc jk was shy? bc that’s pretty normal for him tbh especially given that it was his first public outing since being on hiatus for a long time and only doing weverse lives from his house/gym.

also everyone seems to have concluded that they were definitely intentionally wearing queer coded clothes when honestly their outfits were pretty normal. ppl just dug extensively into the background of every item they wore and found some far-off connection to queerness/tkk when rlly it’s so unlikely they planned each article of clothing out like that. bc for what? they’re not actually trying to come out so why would they plan queer coded outfits as some “secret sign” ? like ppl really think jungkook looked up the exact quotes of the print on his jacket and traced it back to being vaguely alluded to something queer? and then said to himself “yes this is what i’ll wear to show the world” ?? and ppl genuinely believe taehyung intentionally wore the brand juntae kim to symbolize the connection of their two names together…like rlly? it’s just a brand…we talk so much abt how shippers connecting clothes/accessories to prove a relationship is stupid yet we’re out here doing the same and making it one of our biggest moments?

don’t get me wrong i love the dream premiere, it was cute, but i rlly don’t get why it’s been made out to be THAT much of a big deal. like i get the kappa tshirts thing bc those r clearly the exact same shirt on the same day but in what way is going to a movie premiere together some “huge step” ?

Vibes, my friend. Vibes.

Let me start by saying I also don't put much into the clothing. They may have been styled for it, they may have chosen themselves. Who knows? But I also wouldn't be surprised to find out it was deliberate. Tae is knowledgeable about queer culture, British music and art, etc. I don't think it's a reach to assume he knows who Morrissey or Oscar Wilde are. But ultimately no, I'm not factoring it into my thinking.

I found videos of a couple of other times two members attended a thing together.

Joonie and Hobi at Love Your W 2022 photowall.

They do heart poses together but when you watch the video, they are both completely focused on posing for camera. I'm not implying they're not close but there's a business-like vibe to it. Joonie was there to perform, it's on schedule etc.

I also found Jimin and Hobi at Dior in Paris.

This video doesn't show it but they arrive seperately, do photowall seperately* then sit together at the runway. They're on schedule.

(* there are some pictures showing them together at photo wall but they're edited.)

These both feel a bit different to:

👉 An off schedule event to support Seojoon.

👉 Tae going to his best friends premiere and taking a plus one.

👉 Being together at all points of the event from arriving in same car to leaving together to then continue being together with Wooga after the event.

👉 Hyungsik and Wooshik posed alone and they're super close. This might be because Tae and JK are grouped as BTS though.

👉 The pair of them having a number of moments of eyes on each other rather than anywhere else.

👉 JKs extreme giggliness which, though I see your point about him being shy, seemed excessively nervous.

👉 The fancams of JK stopping and Tae encouraging him.

👉 JKs somewhat pensive live later.

👉 This picture:

(I know it's a still photograph of a millisecond in time. I'm just being a dork.)

Vibes.

Thanks anon. It's good to look at this stuff twice and compare. If you know any other times two of them attended something, let me know! 💜

[tigertaurus22]

I was watching SCP videos, along with Pokespe stuff, and an idea came to me

SCP- 6517

Gotta Catch ‘Em All Part 2

6517 is an unassigned number as of the time of this post

Object Class: Euclid

What if the effects of SCP-5254 didn’t just apply to the Pokémon creatures? What if it was extended to the human characters featured in various Pokemon-related media as well?

SCP- 6517 refers to a series of cosplay costumes produced and sold from a particular website.

This website is called PokeTrainer Depot, which features a wide array of character costumes specifically themed to media released by the Pokemon Company and its affiliates.

Analysis of these costumes by themselves, even as separate pieces, reveals nothing inherently anomalous about them. They appear to be constructed of normal clothing materials such as cotton, denim and some plastic. Even chemical analysis revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

However, tags with the acronym AWCY? have been found inside the clothing articles, suggesting a connection to the avant garde art association Are We Cool Yet?.

Access to the website has been restricted to the public and can now only be accessed by the SCP Foundation given the necessary clearance.

Efforts are ongoing to keep the website from popping back up, as Ser_Viper seems determined to sell them all.

No pop-up or brick and mortar locations have been reported to date.

There is also no factory name on the labels found within the costumes. Just the logo of the website and washing instructions alongside the AWCY? logo.

Navigation of the site is relatively simple, with the costumes divided into sections based off of which ‘Generation’ they originated in.

For example, Generation 1 refers to the characters introduced in the 1996 releases of Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, and Pokemon Green as well as Pokemon Yellow in 1998. It also includes the remakes, namely Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen released in 2004.

SCP- 6517 was first discovered in 2022, post pandemic when a female cosplayer decided to go as one of her favorite Pokemon characters to a local convention, but didn’t have the time, talent or resources to make the costume herself.

So, she ordered it online.

After browsing several sites, ranging from Party City to Spirit Halloween, she found PokeTrainer Depot. It seemed to be of the quality she wanted and for a decent price (converted from yen to USD).

The costume was based on Rosa, the female Player Character from Pokemon Black and White 2.

She received the costume in the mail after about two weeks, and she immediately tried it on for size.

It fit her fairly well, though the wig was a bit cumbersome. She took it off after twenty minutes. She figured that was long enough to break it in.

A few weeks later, she attended the convention with a few friends, who were also going as Pokémon characters, and had a fun time.

They attended a few panels and ogled over other people’s art and crafts for sale.

After the cosplayer had worn the Rosa costume for over three hours, she started to feel an itchiness in her eyes that refused to go away.

She regretfully had to leave the convention due to the prolonged discomfort.

Once at home, the cosplayer removed her Rosa costume and slipped into something more comfortable. She took some painkillers and laid on the couch in her living room, eyes closed and waiting for the pain to stop.

Once it subsided, she felt the call of nature. As she finished up, she looked at herself in the mirror and gasped.

She noticed that her eyes had changed color to match that of the character.

She was confused and a little bit scared. She didn’t wear contacts, so how did this happen?

Freaked out, she contacted her doctor about the sudden eye color change.

She made an appointment for one week from then.

In that time, the young woman still had to go to work, but she noticed other changes as well.

Her hair grew longer and started to change color, though she was already a brunette so the color change was subtle.

Her skin tone changed as well, though again it was subtle as she was already caucasian. She felt a stinging sensation along her skin as it changed, though, preventing her from sleeping and thus arriving to work the next morning sleep deprived.

When the day of her doctor’s appointment came, she still looked like herself, save for the eyes, hair and skin tone.

She decided to wear her suddenly-longer-hair in a ponytail.

The doctor looked her over, tested her blood pressure and all the usual checkup procedures. When it came to blood and urine tests, the results were… unusual.

So unusual in fact, that her physician contacted their peers, which eventually reached the ears of the SCP Foundation.

The cosplayer lived alone in a rented apartment while working retail at a large name brand store. Her coworkers noticed the changes in her eyes and hair and complimented the cosplayer on it.

Though the pins and needles-like pain she felt in her body made her worried.

Over the course of the next two weeks, the cosplayer experienced further physical changes, including height and a visible de-aging. She looked like she was twelve again.

She also started blacking out without explanation, appearing someplace else some time later.

It was around then that the SCP Foundation went to the cosplayer’s home to investigate.

She let them in with no fuss and complied with answering their questions.

The entire conversation was recorded for future analysis.

She admitted she had to call in to work the past few days because she felt there was something seriously wrong with her.

The blackouts frightened her, and the pain and discomfort she felt in her body didn’t help. She knew it wasn’t time for her menstrual cycle yet.

It was like she was an alien in her own body.

As she was trying to explain her situation to the SCP Agent, she seemingly blacked out again, going silent and still for a moment. But she didn’t pass out.

When she looked back up, she wasn’t as shaken or anxiety-ridden as she was before.

It was as if she was experiencing a personality disorder, and another personality had taken over.

The Agent continued with their questioning, asking the new entity to identify itself.

It identifying itself as Rosa, a saddened look on her face.

She also complied to answering questions, while asking several of her own.

She admitted to being very confused as to where she was most of the time, and that she felt guilty about inconveniencing her host once she realized what was happening.

‘Inconveniencing’ was an understatement.

She knew she was no longer in Unova. She was in someplace called New York, where Pokémon existed only in fiction. As did she.

But Rosa wasn’t worried by this. Quite the contrary.

Rosa told the Agent that the last thing she remembered before waking up in the cosplayer’s apartment was darkness.

Her memories in fragments, recounting events extremely similar to that of Pokémon Black and White 2 from her perspective, with realistic details that the game and its adaptations never mentioned.

The Agent was able to help clarify the situation for the displaced Pokémon trainer, and asked her if there was any way to reverse the process.

Rosa shook her head sadly.

There wasn’t one she was aware of, as it wasn’t meant to be reversible.

Before the darkness, she remembered the end of her adventure.

While she was in the darkness, she heard a voice telling her that her story wasn’t finished yet. That she would be given a chance at a new life in another world.

Soon after that, Rosa switched out with the cosplayer, who panicked upon waking.

The Agent informed her of what Rosa had explained, as she had not been conscious for the duration.

The cosplayer directed him to the website she ordered the costume from.

The cosplayer was taken to Site 19 for containment and further questioning.

All the while, the Foundation contacted their Site in Japan, wanting to know if the Nintendo Company knew anything about the PokeTrainer Depot website.

It turned out they didn’t, and any instances of SCP- 6517 were already being kept secret from the mega million dollar company by an unknown third party.

Understandably.

If they found out there were cosplay costumes that successfully turned humans into their characters, albeit not the Pokemon themselves, it would be like SCP-5254 all over again.

After some digging into the website, analysts found an address attached to the sender of the anomalous costumes.

Members of special task force MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox"), the same task force responsible for neutralizing SCP-5254 instances that manifest in public spaces, were dispatched to the address to investigate and secure any instances of suspected SCP-5254 and/or SCP- 6517 that may be on the premises.

The location was a house in the Kansai region, surrounded by fields and sparse trees. The house was of traditional Japanese design with a second floor and some modern amenities.

When the MTFs arrived, one operative observed that there was someone waiting for them outside, sitting on the front porch.

They appeared to be a Japanese woman with long dark hair kept in a high ponytail wearing a simple loose shirt and long skirt. She appeared to be in her late 20s.

When the MTFs approached, she showed no resistance or hostility. She even showed them inside upon being asked.

She had seen the trucks coming and knew what it meant.

They soon found a group of children and teenagers, ranging in age from 10 to 14 years, huddled in the living room.

The woman urged the children not to resist and to go with the MTFs willingly.

She asked if where they were going was safe. One agent responded that yes, they would be kept safe and secure until they could better determine what to do with all the transformed persons.

But that wasn’t up to the MTF.

The woman was identified as Keiko Nakamura, daughter of the mysterious Ser_Viper connected to SCP- 5254

She informed them that her father’s real name was Eiji Nakamura, but suspected that he would’ve changed his name to stay hidden by now.

That much information was better than nothing.

Keiko requested to come along with the SCP- 6517 instances so they may feel less afraid.

The request was approved.

Keiko was immediately brought to an interview with a SCP researcher assigned to SCP- 6517, Dr. Ruka Onata.

Keiko confessed that she knew this day would come, and had made rudimentary plans for such an occasion.

She confessed that she was the one who suggested to her father about bringing the human characters to life too.

It gave the man the idea to create the costumes sold on the PokeTrainer Depot website, working with AWCY? to produce them. He continued to create and add to the collection with every new Generation and characters created by the Pokemon Company.

She had no idea where he was doing it from, as they’d cut ties after she found out about his involvement with SCP-5254

It had been about five years prior when Keiko encountered the first instance of SCP- 6517.

She had been driving home from work in the city, and had just parked her car in the driveway when she saw someone on the porch.

It had been raining, and the rain obscured the person’s shape, though they didn’t seem to be moving.

Upon closer inspection, Keiko saw it was a girl around 9-10 years old, who had fallen asleep on her porch, seemingly waiting for her return.

Concerned, she picked the girl up and brought her inside without thinking twice. It wasn’t until after she’d laid the girl down on some tatami mats that she noticed the blonde coloration of her hair and odd clothing.

The next thing she noticed was that she was running a fever.

Keiko nursed the mysterious girl back to health, during which time she learned her name was Yellow and where she came from.

She confessed that her host’s name was Himawari, fittingly enough. It meant sunflower in Japanese.

When Keiko looked into the website herself, she was angry at Ser_Viper that he’d put her address on the site, seemingly using her as his scapegoat.

Attempts to change it were futile, and she couldn’t move away due to financial restrictions.

Without much of a choice, Keiko let Yellow stay in her house but she had to earn her keep and so the Pokemon Special character became her adopted daughter and housekeeper.

Over the next five years, characters from Generations 1 to 4 had shown up at her house, following the same logic as Yellow had only to be disappointed.

Keiko let them all stay with her… until the SCP Foundation arrived.

She found that any Pokémon character costumes after Gen 4 were not available in Japan, and the same could be said in other countries.

Gens 5 and 7 were only available in America, Gen 6 was only available in France, Gen 8 was only available in the UK and Gen 9 was only available in Spain.

Notices were given out to SCP Sites in these countries in case instances of SCP- 6517 were ever reported.

As previously mentioned, the MTF squad had recovered several children from Keiko’s home, all possessing physical and personality traits matching that of various Player and Rival characters from before Generation 5.

These include:

Kiiro (SCP- 6517-A), also known as Yellow

Age: 15

Akai (SCP- 6517-B), also known as Red

Age: 20

Midori (SCP- 6517-C), also known as Blue Oak or Green

Age: 16

Aoi (SCP- 6517-D), also known as Green, Leaf or Blue

Age: 20

Hibiki (SCP- 6517-E), also known as Ethan, Kin or Gold

Age: 17

Gin (SCP- 6517-F), also known as Silver

Age: 17

Kris (SCP- 6517-G), she is not known by other names, though she sometimes answers to Kotone or Lyra.

Age: 17

Yuuki (SCP- 6517-H), also known as Brendan or Ruby

Age: 15

Haruka Birch (SCP- 6517-I), also known as May or Sapphire

Age: 15

Wally (SCP- 6517-J), also known as Mitsuru.

Age: 15

Hikari Berlitz (SCP- 6517-K), also known as Dawn, Shirogane or Platinum

Age: 12

Kouki (SCP- 6517- L) also known as Lucas, Dia or Diamond

Age: 12

Jun (SCP- 6517-M), also known as Barry, Shinju or Pearl

Age: 12

While under initial containment in Research Site-79 in Tokushima, the victims of SCP- 6517 were kept in separate humanoid containment cells decorated to resemble relatively normal bedrooms.

They were later transferred to Site 19 in the USA for their own safety and because they had the additional housing necessary.

Luckily, the subjects were discovered to be multilingual, adapting to the many languages the Pokémon games are translated into.

Through testing, as with instances of SCP-5254, the effects of SCP- 6517 were irreversible, try as the researchers might.

Several trials were conducted to see if the subjects of SCP- 6517 could recall the memories of their hosts.

Some of these trials were successful, but it left the subjects with symptoms of a looming existential crisis.

To mitigate this, an on-site counselor was assigned to SCP- 6517 to help the subjects through this difficult time.

Other attempts to reverse the transformation with the twelve previous instances were proven ineffective, whether it be through hypnosis, wearing the Host’s old clothes or surrounding them with things that would hopefully trigger something from the Host’s memories.

The instances did divulge that while they could access some of their Host’s memories, their souls were gone.

For all intents and purposes, the original hosts were dead.

The Department of Misinformation made sure that the hosts’ deaths were made official despite having no bodies to show for it, the disappearances covered up and their families notified.

To test the effects of SCP- 6517 for themselves, Site 79 researchers ordered a cosplay of Lance, also known as Wataru in Japan, from PokeTrainer Depot.

Using Rosa’s testimony as a guideline, the researchers made the D Class keep the Lance costume on for three hours. When he began to complain of itchiness in his eyes, he was instructed to remove the costume.

The D Class was kept under surveillance for the next two weeks, during which time several notable physical changes occurred.

The D Class was originally a middle aged man with balding hair, a beard, and a portly body.

His eyes and hair changed color and shape. He also got taller, thinner with more angular features, and de-aged until he appeared to be in his late 20s.

He looked like Lance wearing the orange jumpsuit of a D Class.

They extracted samples of the D Class’ DNA every day, which allowed them to track how fast the effects of SCP- 6517 took to completely override the host’s DNA.

They also kept track of his brain waves, for when the other personality manifested.

It was after those two weeks that the D Class’ brain waves were replaced by another’s, though briefly.

Through interviews with the other personality, identifying itself as Lance, the SCP researchers learned that these instances borrowed several traits from the host in order to fill in gaps in their own personalities.

After the third week, the D-Class was gone, fully replaced by a walking and living version of a human Pokemon character.

The Cosplayer who became Rosa was given the designation of SCP- 6517-N.

After the transfer to Site 19, several other D-Class personnel were used to test the effects of SCP- 6517.

Lance was given the designation of SCP- 6517-O.

Three other characters were brought to life in this process, including N (aka Natural Harmonia Gropius), Cynthia (aka Shirona), and Hilda.

They are 20, 27 and 16 years old respectively

They were given the designations of SCP- 6517-P, Q and R.

Given that there were so many of them, the 0-5 Council allowed them to be moved to a separate location where they could be monitored but otherwise allowed to lead relatively normal lives.

The location was a campground located in Nevada.

The campground encompasses five acres of land, bordered by a concrete wall that only SCP personnel have clearance to enter and exit at any time.

The instances of SCP- 6517 have been given access to one acre of fruit trees and garden vegetables they tend to themselves.

The other four are woodlands that surround the campground.

Other food items and necessities are provided by the Nintendo Company as compensation for their involvement in the SCP-5254 fiasco that led to SCP- 6517.

The boys and girls sleep in separate cabins, as do the adults.

Personnel are assigned to act as Camp Directors, helping the instances adapt to how our world works and the animal species.

It is noted that they all own plushie versions of their individual Pokémon teams.

Addendum:

Having found the essay Eiji Nakamura had to prepare for the AWCY? Exhibition in 2014, SCP agents found exactly what they were looking for in terms of how SCP- 6517, and by extension SCP-5254 really worked.

The costumes were manufactured using a thread coated in an anomalous substance, one that once soaked through became indistinguishable from the thread itself. If used to stitch together clothing, the effects of the substance would spread to it as well.

The effect was listed as ‘transformation into the subject of the costume itself, believing themselves to be a certain character over a period of time.’

Other ways SCPs can bring Pokemon to life:

SCP-387 Living Lego

Lego Pokemon exist now

SCP- 507 Reluctant Dimension Hopper

If he somehow landed in the world of Pokemon and brought some back with him

[cultivating-wildflowers]

Books of 2024 - December and Wrap-Up

In contrast to November, I did get to both of my planned nonfic reads. I also ended up rereading a bunch of books I've been wanting to revisit; only one turned out to not hold up on a reread. And only one book this month was strictly audio; I really enjoyed taking it slowly with printed books as the nights grew longer. All in all, a lovely, cozy wrap-up to reading in 2024.

Fun fact: This is the first time in four years where I didn't read a C.S. Lewis book in December. (In 2022 and 2023, C.S. Lewis was my last read of the year.)

Total books: 10  |  New reads: 4   |  2024 TBR completed: 1 (0 DNF) / 36/36 total   |   2024 Reading Goal: 92/100

November | January 2025

potential reads

#1 - The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty - 4/5 stars (reread, audio)

This is one of those books I read several years ago, remember liking, and wanted to revisit. The first time I read it, I distinctly remember enjoying it--the writing style and world especially--but there were aspects of the plot that left me unmotivated to continue the trilogy immediately.

And then, just recently, I started seeing this series mentioned all over the place, so I decided to reread The City of Brass and see about finally continuing the series.

Upon completion, I find myself massively conflicted. Like.... What is the plot? What exactly is going on here? And why is it taking forever to get where it's going? My initial review called the writing "exhaustingly intense" which...I mean, yeah, if Past Me couldn't find a clearer way to say "I have no idea what's going on here and I'm feeling a little stupid about that, because I think something is going on?", sure. "Intense" works, I guess.

In fact, I'm so confused by this book that I'm breaking my own rule of never changing my initial rating of a book unless it's to give it a higher rating; with City of Brass, I deducted a star.

I love the world Chakraborty created. That's my favorite part. The writing style remains vivid and largely immersive (though sometimes the language shifts and I'm yanked out of the story), but it's so dense. It feels like The Final Empire all over again. (Another book I'd probably detract points from if I ever read it again.) I didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters except, oddly, Muntadhir and Zaynab. Nahri kind of just let the plot happen to her. Ali was equal parts compelling and confusing. Dara is...Dara. And then there's whatever is going on with the politics.

I still have no idea what's going on with the politics.

Honestly, it feels like too much. I wanted to like it, but by about the 60% mark I was so bored, and kind of irritated, and just ready for it to be over. I think I can see why people like this story and it looks like it gets better in the second book, but I don’t have the patience for it.

More books featuring the elements I DID enjoy from "City of Brass": The historical fantasy angle and Nahri and Dara's early dynamic reminded me of the Winternight trilogy, and something about Ali's arc reminded me, for some reason, of "The Goblin Emperor". Note that this is all based on, like, the first quarter of the book.

#2 - The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff - 5/5 stars (reread)

The Lantern Bearers is the book in this series that everyone talks about, and I've always intended to read it, and I know you don't have to read this series in order to enjoy each entry, but I like reading a series in order. I had intended to get to this one next year; however, someone recently shared some fanart of Cottia and a bunch of my mutuals were passing it around the dash, and I had to start my reread early. So here we are, with me revisiting The Eagle in preparation for diving into the rest of the series.

First of all: I remember almost nothing about this book! There were a few vague images and impressions in my head, and some of the details came back to me as I read, but it was almost like reading a completely new book. I definitely enjoyed this just as much as, if not more than, the first time around. Marcus is a fantastic POV character, sympathetic, compelling, and charming, and the supporting cast are all colorful and delightful. Sutcliff's ability to transport readers into 2nd century AD Britain, across all of its landscapes and in all of its varying cultures, is breathtaking.

And then Sutcliff caught me by the throat in the last chapter and laid me out in a wreck on the floor. I had a great time.

This will be going on my regular rotation of books to revisit. I probably won't get to the rest of the series until next year, though.

More like this: It feels soooo much like "The Blue Sword" to me. I'm not positive why. And the setting naturally reminded me of Lawhead's Pendragon trilogy.

#3 - Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto by Tilar J. Mazzeo - 4/5 stars ('24 TBR)

The last of my official reading list for the year! This book has been on my TBR for years and I'm so glad I finally got to it.

In Irena's Children, Mazzeo explores not just Irena’s story, but that of her network of wartime co-conspirators and resistance fighters; and of Warsaw and Poland at large, in all of its intricacies and terror. That alone makes it worth the read.

As far as the writing itself is concerned, Mazzeo relays events in very short “scenes”, the majority of them ending on some grim or dramatic note suggesting future trouble for Irena and her friends; and yet the story (especially around the middle of the book) regularly gets waylaid by repetitive descriptions that time and again remind us how terrible and dangerous everything is. The writing also feels a bit scattered or choppy at times, making it difficult to follow the details of some events as they unfold.

It feels awful to judge a book with such a heartbreaking, breathtaking story as anything but perfect; and it was clearly well-researched and written with passion. I would definitely recommend it.

#4 - Q's Legacy: A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books by Helene Hanff - 5/5 stars

Yes, yes, I chose to read this one now because it's a "Q" title, and probably the smallest "Q" titled volume on my TBR. In my defense, it has been on my TBR since I read 84, Charing Cross Road nearly two years ago.

That aside, I adored this one nearly as much as 84. Hanff's way with words is stunning. It's so gentle and unassuming and vivid and breathtaking. I teared up at several parts. And, like Helene with Q, I ended my reading with the urge to go out and buy all of the works mentioned here. Which, to me, is some of the best kind of writing.

#5 - The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein - 4/5 stars

Another book that came to me by ways I can't recall. I'm confident I learned about it on tumblr, but I have no idea from whom.

Thoroughly engrossing, with an easy, immersive style and compelling characters (plus a setting I always go ham for). And then it got a bit dark, a bit weird, and I ended it with a very befuddled, "Huh??"

I’m waffling in continuing the series because I don’t trust Wein not to hurt me lol.

#6 - The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner - 5/5 stars (reread)

I haven’t read this book in three years. I still love it.

#7 - The Girl and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden - 5/5 stars (reread)

It was at this point that I said, "Hey, I could get to 90 books this year with just a little effort, and also I'm home all week...." So I snatched up an appropriately wintry book I've been wanting to reread, and here we are.

It’s a testament to Arden’s writing that this book has so many elements I typically hate reading about, and yet it has stayed with me since I first read it seven years ago. And it’s just as solid on a reread: the setting, the characters, the fairytale depth of it. Gorgeous.

More like this: The Vibes are similar to "Spinning Silver", though the styles themselves vary.

#8 - Stand Still, Stay Silent: Book 1 by Minna Sundberg - 5/5 stars (reread)

I have finally returned to this series to read through it for the first time! (I only got about halfway through the webcomic.) And it’s even better than I remember. This is a perfect introduction to the world and characters, with STUNNING artwork. I love it so much.

#9 - A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner - 5/5 stars (reread, mixed print and audio)

Sophos my belovéd. I am drawing hearts all over this book.

(Also hi hello turns out the last time I read this, in August 2021, was also the first time I read The Eagle of the Ninth, which is fun. Also fun is the fact that the first time I read The Thief, I was entirely neutral about it, and it took me coming back to it years later with tumblr's help to fall in love. As with The Eagle.)

#10 - The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff - 4/5 stars (mixed print and audio)

Aunt Honoria 🫶

I’m learning that Sutcliff’s writing is best enjoyed read, rather than listened to; or else the narrators so far haven’t done her work justice. I listened to portions all the same while working. Not quite as compelling to me as The Eagle, but I LOVED Justin and Flavius’s dynamic so so much, and I’m always one for a ragtag band of heroes coming together.

The question now is whether I proceed with the series from here in publication or chronological order....

Similar characters: Evicatos's background is very similar to that of Ed from Digger, so naturally I love him; and Cullen reminded me strongly of Randal from The Perilous Gard.

Honorable Mentions:

I completed another Bible read-through this year! It was all audio again, so definitely not counting it toward my reading.

DNF:

Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot - While I agree with Elliot's thesis (if perhaps not some of the finer details) I found her arguments vaguely frustrating. I managed to get about 40% of the way through this before she once again got to the cusp of a conclusion and then skipped right on to the next point. I think Elliot's aim was to lay out every aspect of her overall argument and then bring it together in the end, but it felt so scattered that she lost me.

The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty - Got nearly 10% in and still couldn't be bothered to care about any of these characters. And, purely personal, but the five-year time jump was a bit odd. I am willing to be convinced to give this another chance, however, especially because it has a higher average rating than the first book, and the third book has the highest rating of all.

All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor (reread) - I took forever to get to this, and then it was due back at the library and I had lost interest. Yes, there's a clock ticking down to system-wide destruction. Yes, there's a bunch of emotional investments to...invest in...if you can keep track of the characters involved. But there's so many little pieces moving all over the place--or perhaps it's that the scope is simply too grand, too broad--that the impact is gone. It felt like such a drag, and I had no enthusiasm for it.

For the series overall (at least the original trilogy): I had a decent time revisiting it, but it's not going on my shelf.

Star Nomad by Lindsay Buroker - I picked up this book a couple of years ago because I loved the concept (war veteran abandoned on a dusty old planet just trying to get home to her daughter; Firefly vibes with her crew) but the writing was not it. Also I happened to glance at the content warnings and saw “graphic rape” so…. After years of it sitting on my shelf, I have to pass.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill - Barnhill is a very hit-or-miss author for me. This one was a miss. (If I’m being petty, I gave up when a passage made me say “That is NOT how you shear sheep” out loud.)

2024 Reading Wrap-Up!

Off the bat, I think my personal best accomplishment in 2024 is that I read more. Not necessarily more books, but I managed to actually make myself sit down and physically read more than I did last year. Audiobooks, as always, got me through many an hour of cleaning at my second job, many an hour of driving and household work and winding down at night, but in the earlier part of 2024 I was starting to feel like my ability to focus on the page was suffering. Now I'm a little less worried.

My goals for reading in 2024 included:

Read 100 books - lol that was optimistic of me. I got off to a slow start right at the beginning of the year and never quite caught up. Ironically, that was because way back in February I said I only wanted to read physical books, no audiobooks, for a month and I failed splendidly. How times change. However, I marked off a lot of books this year, especially if we count my massive DNF list, and I read some larger books, and I found several new favorites, so I'm content.

Get to some of the older residents of my TBR - I did this! I still have a decent backlog of old TBR books I plan to dig into in 2025, but I cleared out a chunk this year and I'm so proud of myself. (See above about the sheer number of DNFs; I have a feeling 2025 will go the same way, but it still counts.) (And side note: I saw someone online refer to the books on her longstanding as her "TBR veterans" and I love that description.)

More nonfiction! - I did SO well with this one, too! I set up my reading plan for the year with two nonfics per month--one firm TBR, one a more casual want-to-read. Throughout the year, I confirmed I am as picky with nonfic as with fiction (I prefer narrative nonfic, or the almost investigative style that comes with journalists writing longer stuff). Even with my pickiness in mind, I managed to discover several fascinating stories; and I feel a bit smarter....

General Stats:

Total Books Read: 92 (90 last year)

Rereads: 28 (30 last year)

New Authors: 31 (31 last year)

Audiobooks*: 54 (62 last year)

Nonfiction: 15 (9 last year)

DNF: 47 (a definite record for me; only 14 DNF'd last year)

Alphabet Book Titles: 26 out of 26!

Pages Read**: 13,059 (significantly higher than last year)

Hours Listened**: 501 (lower than last year)

*including books where I read part in audio and part in print form

** estimate, including whatever I read of each book I DNF'd

2024 TBR:

Read: 22

DNF: 14

2024 TBR completed in December!

My Top Five Anticipated 2024 Reads:

Agent Garbo by Stephan Talty - 5/5 stars

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - DNF @ 15%

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein - 4/5 stars

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach - 4/5 stars

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher - 5/5 stars

Top Five New Reads of 2024*:

Agent Garbo by Stephan Talty

Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown - favorite book of the year! shout-out to the tumblr circle for peer-pressuring me into this one.

The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

*can we please admire how only one of these is fiction? turning 30 did something to me.

2025 Reading Plans:

I'm aiming to keep it simple this year (ha). Instead of self-inflicted pressure to read a certain number of books, I want to:

Brave some of the huge books on my shelves and give them the time they deserve. (The average page count for the 24 books on my 2025 TBR is over 450. The average page count for the books I read in 2024 is around 300.)

Explore some new styles (like poetry and essays) and subjects (more nonfic!).

Mark off some classics that have been on my list for ages.

Dig into the backlists of some of my favorite authors.

All of this involves tackling my longstanding TBR. I was already building my 2025 TBR back in May, and the list included a bunch of the books I've had on my list for over five years. Several of these are marked as books I probably won't enjoy but can't bring myself to not at least give a chance. Hopefully I'll find a few gems in there! (Can I get my digital TBR down below 300? Unlikely--but! We shall see! It used to be over 500 and with some reading and a lot of weeding I've already thinned it out.)

Naturally, I am armed with lists! My actual list of must-get-to books in 2025 is very short, and largely comprised of familiar authors; then I built a second, much longer list, with books to choose from with less pressure. That list has the above assortment of classics, tomes, poetry, nonfiction, and iffy TBR residents I'll likely DNF.

And if I really can't decide what I want to read, I set up one of those online spinny picker wheels to choose for me! (Featuring only TBR books I own or have confirmed I can get from the library.)

Top Five Anticipated Reads of 2025

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

John Adams by David McCullough

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede