#obviously it would've been better of they'd done something together

[subtle-as-an-earthquake]

ok i'm going to do a proper post soon but i'm completely beat and also had a fair few guinesses, so for now let me just say i had an INCREDIBLE time at the gig tonight, i love this band so much 😭💗 and miles genuinely blew everyone away, it was absolutely brilliant 🐢💖

anyway, here's a couple of pics from me but i'll have to catch up with everyone's else's posts tomorrow and see if I have anything else worth posting 😅💛

[pastorpresent]

Inspired by a lovely ask/prompt from @flower-majesty-anon, who asked for some deadclaws lipstick marking and mirror shenanigans with a sprinkle of angst:)) thank you so much my dear for the prompt!

Logan is panting hard into Wade's mouth, making desperate little noises everytime Wade thrusts into him. The sort of noises Wade wishes he could literally keep in a bottle, because they are fucking glorious - and he puts a lot of that down to the fact it's The Wolverine making them. Who would've thought he would dissolve so beautifully during sex? Sound so sickeningly sweet?

Wade could admit he was obsessed. Who wouldn't be? It's funny, because back in the Honda odyssey days, Logan would've swore up and down that he was not a bottom, and yet the first time he let Wade try, one otherwise dull Tuesday afternoon - about a month ago, a few weeks post world saving... well, Wade hadn't had a dick in his ass since, and Logan had become his own personal flesh light.

And Wade was a gentleman. He left it to Logan everytime to choose which half he wanted to be, and then silently squealed in delight as the man, Logan Howlett himself, would blush the prettiest of pinks and ask to be fucked open on Wade's dick.

Life did get better, kids!

Their sex was violent, and rough, and neither of them would have it any other way. How else were you supposed to do it when you finally find someone who matches your immortality and boner for being ripped into?

Honestly, despite what most people would likely think, Wade was just a tad more on the aggressive side than what Logan was. Of course that was only because most the time the older mutant was getting fucked so hard and edged for so long that he wasn't cohesive enough to fight, settling for lazy bites on Wade's neck that barely broke the skin, because he was rocked into a moan before he could finish the job.

Wade loved to mark Logan. Biting and sucking hickeys everywhere he could reach, the marks smeared with a little bit of blood. It meant Logan was his. All fucking his.

"Fuck," Logan breathed, grasping his shoulders to stop himself from being smacked into the headboard with the force of which Wade was hammering into his body, the tightness absolutely fucking delicious, hugging his dick perfectly. Jesus, he wanted to be inside Logan permanently. It was his happy place. Screw unicorns and waterfalls and meadows - the best place he could conjure up in his cesspool of a head was here, with Logan all sweaty and desperate beneathe him while he hammered his g-spot.

He leaned forward, catching Logan's lips in a brief kiss before moving just below his jaw, nosing at the skin, sucking hard, nipping with his teeth.

It drove Logan crazy, as usual. Wade felt him tighten around him, and the brunette gasped, lifting his chin higher. Always so beautifully accomodating and obedient. His Kitty.

By the time he was done ravaging at his neck, they'd both came, and Logan looked like he'd been mauled. In the best way, obviously. His neck was bruised, hickeys layered atop of each other like some sort of dirty collage. He looked gorgeous, sprawled out on the mattress, chest heaving, marked up.

After a minute or two of being collapsed in a sweaty heap together, Logan got up to go grab a towel. And yeah, Wade knows as the 'fucker' that really ought to be his job, but he was comfy lying in the mess of bodily fluids, and realistically Logan had the easier job! He just had to lie there looking pretty while Wade did the hard stuff. Ha, get it? Hard stuff?

Yeah, not his best, but there was something about a two hour sex marathon and orgasming a half dozen times that turned his brain a bit mushy.

He watched Logan go, said mush brain not quite awake enough to muster an ass comment, so he settled for just staring at it. He was heading for the bathroom, but Wade watched him pause at their mirror.

His fingers traced over the marks on his neck as they healed into nothing.

The expression on Logan's face was... sad, as he ran his hand over his bare neck and jaw.

He didn't say anything, moving to get the towel, and returning without mentioning it. He cleaned himself up first, and Wade watched. There was rarely silence between them, mostly because of Wade- Logan could probably not say more than single word every half hour and there still wouldn't be lues of silence.

When there was, it was comfortable. As it was, the current silence was because Wade was studying Logan, trying to get a read on his earlier reaction.

Did he not like the marks? They went away pretty quick, and he enjoyed the process of their creation well enough. Was it too much? They didn't really have any limits at all when it came to sex, because they could always sort of tell when the other wasn't into something, but he could've sworn Logan was into having his neck turned into some sort of crude rendition of Van Goghs 'starry night'.

Wade's train of thought was cut off by Logan cleaning his dick, his light touch too much for the very sensitive part of Wade's anatomy.

"You're too quiet," Logan said as he wiped down his chest, which was sticky with their combined release.

Wade took the towel from him and gently wiped Logan's eyebrow, where he'd missed the bit of come Wade had landed there on his third (fourth, maybe...?) orgasm.

"I'm not the one staring at themselves in the mirror like some teenage girl the morning after prom night," Wade replied, and yeah, maybe the humour was a bit of a defence mechanism here - because he was internally panicking over the idea that Logan wasn't into this, them, as much as he was, and worse still - he didn't feel comfortable enough to let Wade know.

Logan looked uncomfortable.

Fuck, dammit!

He couldn't lose this. Now he'd gotten a taste, he'd be a damn addict for Logan's skin and...

And he was the person who could make Wade feel fucking alive, for the first time since he went and got himself tortured into a damn freak. There was something about dying and regenerating over and over - you come back, breathing and solid, but it's like there was still a death rattle beneathe your ribs.

When he was with Logan, whether they be balls deep in each other or just eating fucking breakfast, that coldness dissipated. Quietened down into something Wade could conceivably ignore.

"It's nothing, just drop it," Logan muttered, but that had never been Wade's strong suit.

"Nope, tell me what's up or I'm never putting my dick in your sweet ass ever again," Wade slapped said ass, and Logan growled, cheeks going red.

"It's... fuckin' stupid, you'll just make fun of me," Logan scoffed, folding his arms over his chest and looking down at the bedding rather than Wade himself.

"If it's upsetting you it's not stupid. Come on babygirl, spill your guts to daddy," Wade purred, which only made Logan's glare intensify and the redness to spread down his neck.

He huffed a sigh, moving to get up, but Wade grabbed his wrist.

"No, hey, c'mon! I'll stop, I'll stop. Just tell me what's going on in that head of yours, peanut," he said, and Logan settled back on the bed, pulling one of their blankets around himself so he wasn't completely naked.

Wade didn't really give a shit about covering himself up, lying spread eagle on the bed still.

"Just... no fucking laughing, alright?" Logan gritted, and Wade nodded, "pinky promise," he said, holding out his pinky finger which Logan ignored.

"I like when you leave marks. I... I really, really like it, actually because it..." Logan's quiet voice trailed into silence in the room as he fidgeted, growling low in his throat as he grew frustrated at finding the right words.

"It makes you feel owned? Like you're mine, baby?"

Wade really wasn't mocking this time, reaching out to run a hand over the exposed skin of Logan's thigh, which earned him a full body shiver. Bingo.

"Uhm- I- yeah, and I know it's pathetic but I... I like it. I like feeling like I'm- I'm yours," Logan admitted, somehow even quieter.

Wade sat up, cooed softly and brought his lips inches from his kittys, lifting a hand to cup his cheek, "you're all mine, hm? All mine forever?"

Logan's expression faltered a little at that last bit, and Wade frowned, "so what's the problem, angel?"

"The marks don't stay. They dissapear too quickly and there's... there's nothing. No proof of it- and I know it's stupid, cos it's hardly like I could show up to work looking like... but it just gets to me a little, seeing them fade as fast as they do."

Logan's staring down at his lap, struggling to swallow around a lump in his throat, and Wade just wants to melt into a pathetic puddle, because he understood what Logan meant but also to have his lover genuinely upset that he couldn't show off the fact he was getting fucked rough and good every night... it was as hot as it was depressing.

"What if you let me take photos next time? We could keep them in the drawer, and whenever you need a reminder..." it wasn't a perfect solution by any means, and he planned to brainstorm something better, but it would do for now.

Logan smiled softly at the idea, but it looked like he was still a bit dissapointed, "sounds good."

Wade kissed him, soft, just lips, and swore he'd make it his mission to make Logan look like his in a more long lasting kind of way.

//

Logan felt utterly stupid.

Why the hell did he admit that shit to Wade?! He must think he's the most ridiculous, pathetic person on the planet - and Logan wouldn't blame him.

He'd admit he may have some... issues. Issues that make it so he needs to feel owned, because if not he just feels like he's floating without purpose.

And, well, nothing in his life seemed to last, generally speaking. The x-men were supposed to, once upon a time, before he let them be slaughtered. His quiet life in the mountains was supposed to, his relationship with Scott and Jean... but none of it ever did.

The only things Logan had come to know as permanent fixtures in his life were pain and, ironically, loss.

And maybe it was because Wade had literally pulled him up from the abyss of nothingness, but he really needed him to be permanent. Needed them to be permanent.

But everyday he'd watched the marks the merc would bite into his skin, cushioned by affirmations of appreciation and devotion and ownership, dissapear into nothing, leaving no trace behind as if they'd never happened at all.

It hurt. It broke him a little bit to watch them fade, because he couldn't lose this and he didn't need the very physical visual reminder that with just one stupid fuck up, he very well could.

He might have already, in all honesty.

They hadn't fucked in two days. Which to most, is nothing. For them? Well, Logan can only fuck himself alone on a dildo so many times in a 48 hour period, and he thinks he's on track to set the damn record.

Wade is sort of just dipping in and out the apartment, never around enough for them to kiss, nevermind fuck, and Logan feels like some girl with a crush, sitting around twiddling his thumbs and waiting on Wade to fucking notice him - or more accurately, to take him to their room and fuck him stupid.

By day three, he figures it's probably over. He freaked Wade out with his chronic neediness and instability, and he pulls up apartment listings and thinks about packing his shit. If he really has ruined this, he just needs to be gone. He can't drag it out, not this, not with what they have. It's too much, and if it's going to disappear, Logan isn't going to hang around and watch it fade like the marks on his neck.

He'd say he has too much self respect for that, but in reality he's just a fucking coward.

On day four though, he's woken up to kisses.

On his chest. His neck. His shoulders.

Soft lips pressing against his skin, and he blinks awake, squinting against the sunlight creeping between the gaps of their shitty curtains.

"Hmph," he breathes, and those lips kiss his jaw, teasing the corner of his lips, "morning, gorgeous," Wade's familiar voice breaks through the fog in his brain.

He glances down, and at first he's confused by the red painting his skin. He wasn't in pain, and Wade didn't tend to make him bleed unless he was a willing, conscious participant.

Then Wade came into view, and Logan realises the red, for once, isn't blood.

It's lipstick.

"What..." he frowns, lifting a hand and pressing his thumb lightly to the mercs red lips, which stretch into a smirk as he does. His thumb comes back the same shade of red.

"It won't be permanent," Wade says, kissing his jaw, nibbling a little in a way which makes Logan's back arch the tiniest bit, "but it will last longer, especially 'cos the lady in the store told me this one was a right pain in the ass for staining skin," Wade wiggled his non-existent eyebrows, and Logan stared.

Stared for a bit too long, probably, because Wade is lifting off of him, the tiniest dredges of embarrassment visible in his expression, "if you think it's weird, we can stop. I just thought-"

"Not weird," Logan interrupted, pretending the hoarseness of his voice was purely from just waking up, "I just... you thought about solutions? You... you went fucking lipstick shopping? Consulted the damn sales clerk? All for..." Logan trailed off, his throat suffocating on emotion.

"For you, babygirl. Anything for you, you should know that by now," Wade finished.

Logan is almost relieved when Wade returns to kissing his way around his body because at least he doesn't see the way his eyes well up just a little.

He gets lost in the feeling of Wade all over him, relishing in it, by the time the merc moves to his ear, biting playfully at his earlobe and leaving a smudge of red there too.

"I want you to see. Want you to watch me mark what's mine," Wade spoke low in his ear, and Logan felt his entire body shiver at the notion of it, knew Wade did too by the way his smile widened, in that annoyingly smug way it tended to when he discovered something about Logan that he'd prefer to stay hidden.

"You like that idea, sweetheart?" Wade hums, sickeningly sweet.

Logan keeps carefully quiet, but Wade isn't exactly one to drop things and if anything, his evident embarrassment only eggs the merc on.

"Nuh-uh, princess. If you want something, you gotta use your words like a big girl or daddy isn't giving you anything," Wade pulls back a little, an obvious threat, and Logan glares because even that, those fucking nicknames, did something to him that he didn't get. Drove him insane with a need that he didn't know he had until he met Wade.

Part of him was just overwhelmed and pissed, never really one to submit quietly - but while Al was a pro at getting the blood out, she couldn't do much if Logan slashed up the sheets into ribbons.

He bit his tongue hard enough for copper to fill his mouth, and when he spoke his gritted teeth were stained red like the trail left behind from Wade's lips, "please, Wade."

"Please what?" Wade pushed, tilting his head and grinning from ear to ear.

Asshole.

"I- I want..." he swallowed, exhaled.

"Want what, honey?"

"Want to watch. Want- want to see you marking me and fucking me, please," it all came out a bit rushed, but Wade seemed pleased regardless.

"Your wish is my command," and then Wade was moving off of him, but bringing him with- fingers intertwining as the merc guided him off their bed and in front of the full length mirror they had propped in the corner of the room. It was dirty, and cracked in the corner, but Logan still felt his breath catch when he caught his reflection.

The trail of red smudges up his neck, around his jaw, bright and stark against his skin.

Marks from Wade. Kissed deep into his very being, born from a devotion he didn't deserve - because honestly? All Logan had ever wanted was to be owned, claimed as somebody's, but he'd always been tossed out. A stray. Good enough to pet, but not good enough to keep.

'Girls flirt with the dangerous guy, Logan... they don't take him home'

At least no one had ever thought so until Wade.

Wade, who found him at his lowest and claimed him - even all the way back then. Gave him a home and a second chance at life, and then did all of this. Went and bought lipstick, because of some dumb little hangup Logan had. Did all of this for him.

The gratitude was overwhelming. His knees buckled, his throat impossibly tight, and Wade caught him with ease, adjusting them so most of his body weight was pressed against Wade's scarred skin.

"Need a break, baby?" Wade asked behind him, lowering them both to the floor, tugging Logan back until he was sat on his lap, his eyes still on their reflection as he leaned his head against Wade's shoulder.

He shook his head the tiniest bit.

"Good girl," Wade praised, the words going straight to Logan's achingly hard dick which was standing to attention against his stomach.

Begging for attention Logan knows it won't get, not yet anyways, because when Wade's in this sort of mood, his cock goes completely ignored while he focuses on-

Fuck, there it is. A finger teasing his hole, dipping in just enough to make Logan groan, thighs jolting, his head hitting back against Wade's shoulder with a dull thump.

"Love your pussy, princess. She practically pulls me in," Wade teases a second finger, and Logan can see how embarrassingly red he goes.

"Wade," he scolds, unable to manage much more, and it's mortifying anyway because instead of the gruff warning he intended, his voice instead came out all breathless and squeaky.

"What?" Wade asks innocently, "you want me to stop?"

And it's not a question, not in the way Wade asks it - because he already has his answer.

He takes his fingers out, dragging them up his torso, tapping Logan's bottom lip. Logan's jaw drops open so fast it clicks, and Wade slides the digits in far enough to make Logan gag.

He glares at mirror Wade, biting down a little in retribution, which just earns a chuckle from the man behind him, "wet 'em, babygirl."

Logan swirls his tongue around them, unable to stop himself from nibbling just a little, until they are soaked.

Wade pulls them out, moves them back down, and Logan lifts up a little so he can slide them in like before.

He let's out a startled sound when Wade shoves him forward instead, barely catching himself with his hands as he's forced onto all fours.

Wade thrusts both fingers in all at once, wriggling them deep until they are simply pressing against his prostate with the most irritating, feather soft touch.

Logan tries to push back onto them, but Wade smacks his ass, tutting loudly.

"Now, now! If you can't be good, daddy is going to tie you up and make you watch him jerk himself to the most disgusting porn imaginable, all while you get nothing."

That stupid nickname again. Logan couldn't speak, his brain seemingly offline, so he just sort of whimpered instead, struggling so much to stay still that his arms began to shake, every cell of his body begging him to start moving and fucking himself on Wade's stupidly good fingers.

"That's it, good girl," his other hand trails until it's cupping his chest, a thumb grazing his nipple, which makes Logan moan.

He looks away from the mirror, mortified seeing his face twisted up in pleasure. How the fuck does that turn Wade on?

Wade notices, because of course the fucker does. He's always so damn vigilant, but it's like it gets cranked up to a thousand during sex. Or fighting. But Logan would put money on the fact it's higher during sex.

"Watch yourself, sweetheart. Look at how pretty you look with my fingers inside you while I play with your tits," Wade says, and Logan reluctantly meets his own gaze in the mirror, which makes Wade coo with praise, "there's my pretty girl, you're a damn vision! And you're all mine, aren't you sweetness?"

Wade punctuates his point by leaning forward, draping himself over Logan's back. The switch of position drives his wriggling fingertips into his prostate for a second, and Logan very almost buckles to the ground. He kisses along the bare side of his neck, starting at the junction where his collarbone is, biting down hard enough to tear into muscle.

The blood blends in lovely with the red lipstick, and Logan is panting like a fucking dog in heat.

"Mine, all mine," Wade repeats, and it's like everytime he says that magical little word, something punches into Logan's gut in the best possible way.

He kisses up to his jaw, then over his cheek, his tongue dragging over the kiss marks and smudging them a bit, making them messy.

Wade grins at him in the mirror, and Logan would smile back but his lips seem frozen in a permanent 'o' position as he watches Wade leave marks. As he watches them remain on his skin.

"Wade- daddy," he whimpers, and for the first time probably ever, he's the one who renders Wade speechless during sex, watches as his pupils expand so wide his eyes are practically black.

Wade is still on top of him, until a punched out breath leaves his lungs, his eyes rolling back a little, "jesus, Lo. Fuck," he mutters, and Logan blushes but feels distinctly proud of himself.

"Gonna fuck you so hard your healing can't keep up princess," kisses over his spine, and when Wade shoves him down a bit more, forcing his back to arch, he can see the trail of red left behind.

"Please," Logan breathes.

Wade takes his fingers out, brings both hands up to bracket Logan's hips, holding him firmly in place.

There's no lube involved when Wade pushes into him, and it burns. The stretch burns him from the inside out, but it feels so fucking good.

"So fucking tight. You feel like a damn virgin, you been saving yourself for me, Wolvie?" Wade's normally steady voice sounds a bit wild at the current moment, as he finally bottoms out. Logan moans at the fullness, squirming a little, holding his breath.

"Except no- because no virgin moans like the two dollar whore that you do. No virgin can handle a dick in their soaking cunt like you do, babygirl," Wade grunts, and Logan paws at the carpet, breathing heavy and uneven as every word makes that heat building low in his stomach even more intense.

Wade pulls back, then slams back in, holding him in place with nails digging into flesh, fucking him hard and fast and brutal.

Logan screams into the carpet. Wade grabs a fistful of his hair, yanking his head up, "fucking watch, bitch," he orders, never slowing or faltering in his rhythm.

Logan does. Sees the way Wade looks totally gone in his pleasure, thrusting ridiculously. Watches the way his body jerks with every movement, the red marks on his skin catching the sunlight, barely distinguishable from the ever so slightly darker shades of blood.

"I- I'm close, can- can I-" it's like Wade is pushing every word out of him, and Logan realises that he's going to come with his dick completely untouched, and that thought twists it so instead of his rapid run towards the end, he's barelling right past the finish line, and he should've came by now from the impossible tightness in his balls but it's like he physically couldn't. Like he needed Wade's permission and fuck, he really was his bitch in every sense of the word, wasn't he?

"You can come, baby," Wade says, and Logan does. Immediately. Like on fucking command, and he can hear Wade chuckling as his arms give out and he goes falling face first into the carpet, his lower half only staying up from Wade's impossibly tight hold.

He glances at their reflection, mouth dry as Wade continues to fuck into him, his thrusts getting more unsteady but no less forceful as he gets close.

Logan whimpers, his entire body tingling and oversensitive.

"Almost there, sweetheart. Want me to finish inside of you? Knock you up? Want everyone to see you with my baby in your belly and know you truly belong to me?"

And Logan really doesn't get how he manages it, because his dick was half softened, but he comes again, his stomach clenching in a way that hurts as his second consecutive orgasm rips through his utterly confused body.

He must black out, and Wade must come, because the next thing he knows is blinking through bleary eyes up at their ceiling, and it's like he's up there and floating, chest heaving with exertion.

"Lo? You back with me?"

Wade. Wade, he wants Wade. Needs him, now.

"I'm right here," Wade hums, pressing against him, and Logan whimpers, chasing his lips, eyes half lidded.

Wade kisses him all gentle, fingers scratching over his scalp, humming against his skin, "you look gorgeous, baby. Look," and he's tilting Logan's face slightly, just enough to see himself in the mirror.

He's still all marked up. All Wade's, and he makes a happy sound in the back of his throat.

"Are you purring?" Wade asks, incredulous but teasing, his tone light.

Somehow the glare Logan aims for is just a smile, and he tugs Wade in for another kiss.

He does have to shower eventually. They both do, when the come drying over their bodies becomes gross and sticky. The red is washed away, but Logan almost cries in relief when he discovers Wade was right about the staining.

It's subtle, slightly reddened spots on his skin which will likely remain for the next couple of showers, but Logan finds himself running his fingers along them throughout the day, smiling softly to himself.

And well - when they do fade into something no longer visible a couple of days later, Wade has no problem recreating them.

[adobe-outdesign]

I am so late to this but I had only just realised Neopets added new gray nostalgic styles with brand-new artwork for combos that don't exist pre-conversion! Do you have a favourite out of them?

(I already did the main grey review here before the new pet styles were released.)

Even as someone who enjoys customization, I think the execution of it was pretty poor. It definitely should've been that you could freely switch between the UC design and the converted design at any point, and the option would exist for pets that were painted after conversion instead of it being a thing you had to grandfather into. Likewise, I'd argue that TNT should've done new UC designs for colours that used to get special poses even after customization, so you wouldn't be losing the beautiful art.

It took the NC Mall and 17 years, but new TNT finally wised up and switched all UCs over to purchasable NC pet styles. Originally it seemed like they were only going to include pre-existing UCs; then, it seemed like they'd do pre-existing UCs plus some other pets with old art but no UCs; and then, finally, we learned that TNT would be giving pets that didn't even have old art styles. This is a great idea, as it gives the pets that didn't get a chance at unique art (Lutaris and Vandagyres being good examples) to have some. Plus the converted versions still exist, so it's just more designs for everyone.

(Pictured: Two UC/styled grey pets with pre-existing old art.)

The most interesting part about these new styles is watching new TNT trying to mimic the classic Neopets' art styles. There's no hard rule as to how old Neopet art worked (because different artists worked on different pets), but the following are what I'd consider the most consistent and important points:

Shading: Hard-lined cel-shading with only one or two layers. Generally high-contrast, especially for grey pets. Sometimes there'll be a small amount of highlights, but not always.

Lineart: Not too thick or too thin with natural weight variation.

Design: Not always present, but often times will include fun little plays on the original design like the Yurble's uncurled ears.

Pose: Easy to read with a good sense of motion. Matches the proportions of the original basic colour pet.

Of course, just because a new pet style isn't quite on point doesn't make it inherently bad (though I personally like the on point ones more, and have highlighted the best in that regard below). The new grey Xweetok style is pretty off compared to an actual UC; like, here's the old sad blue Xweetok pose, which is somewhat similar to it:

You can easily see that there's way too much detail in the shading and highlights (highlights too thin/plentiful, shading too hairline and layered too closely together), and the proportions and design details are also way off model (eyes missing the black "liner" at the back; head way too big; paws too big; ears slightly too big). But dang, it's absolutely adorable, and much much better than the converted version, which looks vaguely ill. It's a good example of how much personality a style can add.

Favorite (New) Species:

Blumaroo: BROKEN HEART FEET. BROKEN. HEART. FEET!! That's such a wonderful detail, and 100% feels like something a UC version would've had. The pose is also really good, and the shading and lineart are pretty accurate (the lines are just a smidge too thick, but obviously not actually a problem).

Bruce: Another pretty good pose with excellent lineart and shading (might be the same artist for this and the Blumaroo)? It's adorably mopey and little things like the extra chubby cheeks and bigger bow add a lot.

Hissi: The shading's not quite as accurate as the above two (one too many layers on the wings, which are also a little too fluffy relative to the non-converted Hissi's wings), but the pose on this one is perfect and really feels like something that existed back in the day. I really like the eye shape in particular and how it affects the entire upper brow, so to speak.

Least Favorite (New) Species:

Bori: Sorry, Bori, but you're not quite right. There's just a lot of things slightly off with this one, like the shading (WAY too much fur detailing that doesn't flow with the actual lineart fur; too low contrast; highlights too minimal in areas like the tail fur). Like I said above, accuracy doesn't matter if the design and pose are good, but that also feels off here. The pose is just kind of strange, like it's about to be smacked or something, and the head is like... off, like it's too far down and too far in in a way that makes it look like it has no neck. It's still got a lot more personality than the converted though, so that's good.

[the-way-astray]

Hi-can I ask for your opinion on Alden as a person?

Not Aldella-though that's a very nice ship, possibly the purest one in KOTLC (apart from Dex's parents and Grady and Edaline)

I mean, just Alden as a person.

Like........he's a good father figure to Sophie and co, but I've also seen people saying that he unintentionally pressured his children to be social stars, which meant he kind of abused them because they were traumatised in some ways. I've heard people say all of this, and honestly-

I don't care about that. Like, yes, that is bad, but you know the one thing I care about?

He wiped Sophie's human family's memories-he ripped their lives away like they were nothing more than, I dunno, dumb animals or something. To make it worse, he's the one who suggested the idea (I think ) and Sophie's family had to suffer and had no autonomy in the choices because he didn't refuse to do this.

I'm not blaming Sophie-I'm blaming Alden for this.

Actually, why I'm sending this is because I read one of @cynicalclairvoyantcadaver's posts and they have a rant about the terrible thing that he did and I went back and read the first book and HOLY SHIT THEY'RE RIGHT.

So what's your opinion on Alden as a person? (Saying this as someone who loved the Anti Keefe rant) No pressure to do this immediately

ah, that post. i saw it, but figured the op wouldn't want a fight.

but first, to clear things up, i personally don't see aldella as a pure ship. it's pretty nasty. fucked up in all sorts of ways :)

so the argument seems to be that sophie's human parents did not have any autonomy, and that they'd have been better off thinking sophie was dead over having their memories wiped and being relocated. (and quick clarification: he was not the one who suggested it. that was sophie. alden was for killing sophie off in her human parents' minds, and in fact tried to talk sophie out of her decision.)

anyway, i really, really disagree that sophie's human parents would've been better off thinking sophie was dead. later on in the book, you can see sophie describe to marella how heartbroken her mom was when her grandma died. she was in a really bad place and incredibly emotional over it, and was thinking all sorts of devastating thoughts. sophie has seen her parents deal with the grief, and that's why she suggested to alden that they shouldn't have to be put through that unnecessarily.

as for alden, it's very clear to me that the reason he eventually backs down is because he realized he'd be putting sophie's human parents in the same position grady and edaline were in. if you read the line right before alden agrees to sophie's proposal, it's sophie saying something to the effect of "this option is better than them thinking their daughter is dead". then there's some line about alden realizing something, though at that point, sophie doesn't have the information necessary to piece together that it's about jolie. but it obviously is.

in fact, just in the line before the one i mentioned, the one about sophie saying it's better than thinking their daughter is dead, alden himself brings up op's main point: that they'd lose their jobs, friends, and home. he's well aware, but he has seen the exact kind of grief he knows sophie's human parents would have to live with. he knows exactly how they'd be affected, as someone who's close with grady and edaline.

there was no perfect solution there. like, fully nothing they could have done would have been a pure thing to do, there's no option that was indisputably good. there were just two options, both with some level of dark areas to them, and they picked the one that would cause the family less pain. or at least, that was the idea. obviously it didn't go according to plan. but that's because of a completely different flaw of alden's which i shall not delve into at this exact moment. so that's what i say to the notion that sophie's human family had their autonomy ripped away. like, yeah, but also there really wasn't a better option, as far as i'm concerned.

the entire situation falls under the category of morally ambiguous in general, but i've always been of the opinion that situation doesn't dictate a character's moral grayness, if that makes sense. a morally good individual will do the best thing morally they can given any situation, even if that decision is a bit morally gray. but what else could they have done? the situation only allows for morally gray choices to be made, meaning if the person makes the best moral choice from a series of morally gray choices, that actually makes them morally good, not morally gray. it's only when a character has free reign to choose between good and bad choices and chooses to pick a morally worse option that they are morally gray.

but in alden's case, as i've said, there was no perfect choice. there's no way he could've made a perfect morally good choice given the circumstances. he was backed up against a wall. he made the best moral choice from his options (in my opinion at least, for the reasons i've given above), which actually does mean he's morally good in this particular scenario.

i do personally see alden as a tiny bit morally gray, because of one thing he does at the beginning of nightfall. but that's a different thing entirely. when it comes to this particular situation, i do see him as morally good. i really don't see how a better moral choice could've been made.

and about the pressuring his kids, there's actually no evidence that he did that in canon. that's a fanon trait that's frequently given to alden in fic, and, if i'm understanding correctly, it's because people like to explore fucked up vacker family dynamics in fic. but as far as canon goes, there's no evidence he's ever pressured his children to be perfect, even unintentionally. i personally headcanon (and it's actually backed up by canon, so it's not even really a headcanon) alden and della to be fantastic amazing spectacular perfect parents, except they just have a fucked up relationship with each other. this doesn't affect their parenting abilities, only strains their relationship with one another.

anyway. the point i'm trying to make is that a lot of people seem to think alden pressured his kids (even unintentionally) in canon, because i do think that these fics have influenced fanon, which in turn has influenced the way people see alden. which is fine. but people do really need to admit that, as far as canon is concerned, there's no evidence to suggest alden did any, even unintentional, pressuring of his kids. there's in fact evidence to suggest the opposite, as we can see from the way he treated keefe in the flashback memory. he wanted keefe to take a break and wanted his father to stop pushing his so hard. i think (and this next part has little-to-no canon basis, but it's extrapolated from canon, so) that alden would actually go out of his way to make sure he was not subtly pressuring his kids because he'd seen the way keefe was affected by his father. i think alden's aware of that whole cassius-thinks-he's-doing-everything-for-keefe-out-of-love nonsense, and he'd be worried that he's accidentally doing the same thing with his own kids. so i really do think he'd go out of his way to make sure that he's not pressuring his kids at all, even accidentally.

[eriexplosion]

I never let myself really believe they'd bring Tech back (because Occam's razor, or whatever). And I'm so used to weird/bad writing choices from other works that I'm mostly able to shrug my shoulders and go "aw rats, disappointment again :\" about TBB's ending.

... But I still feel kinda hollowed-out, post-finale. I'm not autistic (I think), but my sibling is, so it meant something to my old withered heart that a Star Wars show about family would have a confirmedly-ND character among their cast (though, somewhat tangentially, I agree with your post about all of the Bad Batch being arguably ND-coded). I was delighted that he was well-written, and that he'd eclipsed the stock "smart guy" trope he'd started out as in TCW.

And, I dunno. I feel like a sucker, having hoped for a brief moment that the writers wouldn't throw all that away. And for what? People on reddit were saying for months on end that "his sacrifice is meaningful and shouldn't be wasted", but I can't agree. I think it would've been more meaningful had he lived.

I feel disappointed with the trajectory the back half of S3 took, and I don't think that's unreasonable. Even beyond the disappointment of "dang, they really did that?", S3 after the first handful of eps (imo) felt kind of... rushed? Underexplored? Like there should've been a season 4 (for pacing/development's sake) and various changes to the plot, but there weren't.

Told myself several years ago that I'd reserve judgment for the writing until the series was over and done with. And now that it's all just wrapped up, I suppose I'm stewing with my thoughts, a little. The character arcs all feel like they fell short of their potential payoff, to me -- and maybe I'll change my mind in a few months, but right now? Eh.

Crosshair's got PTSD/trauma that makes his hand shake? Cut off the hand. Omega's got potential force sensitivity/a decision to make concerning what to do going forward? Who cares about that. Tech's getting a decent (and suspicious, in hindsight) amount of character development? Better kill him off so the audience really feels the sting. Cid, Phee, CX-2, Echo, Scorch? Who cares about them; they can show up when their skills are needed and fuck off without halfway-decent closure when they aren't. The familial/sibling themes that were open to being explored? Eh; let's focus predominantly on this one father-child bond. Omega doesn't even need to say goodbye to Crosshair and Wrecker, lol. Foreshadowing and setup? What foreshadowing and setup.

... I'm realizing that I'm actually Quite disappointed lmao. In a lackluster "I don't know what I expected" kind of way. Time to read so many fix-its

There's just a lot that was set up that never came to fruition and it's frustrating when the show has been so good up until that point. And the thing is that Tech being CX-2 would have resolved at least some of it! The CX-2 plot obviously but also, Crosshair's guilt and trauma being helped by being able to fix at least one of his mistakes? Omega's guilt over putting her family in danger being relieved because she finally has them all back?

It didn't even need to be fleshed out, I wouldn't have cared. The only thing I wanted this whole show was the family to be together and complete. And not only did we not get Tech back but yeah Echo was basically just not counted as part of that and Phee was ignored in the end.

This season feels like it needed another editing pass to work as a whole, even though I'd liked everything up to the finale it didn't really end up coming together for me. I'd even have accepted Tech being gone if they had put actual mourning in the first half, instead of stringing it along with little mentions and the CX-2 stuff. I'd be frustrated and mad, but at least it would have felt like they respected him as a character.

Really the only good things I have to say is I think Nala Se blowing up the databanks was a fantastic end to her character that didn't really redeem everything she's done but did bring her to an interesting stopping point. And I am glad everyone else made it out alive. I'm glad that Crosshair especially did after everything he's been through, he's still my boy after all this time even if the Tech stuff has overshadowed a lot of his growth in my head.

[dazzle02]

Shameless -- Ian Gallagher 5x12-7x11 Defence!!

I'm going to start this off by saying I love all the characters. (Minus the obvious...) I despise the way so many fans talk about Ian. I HATE the narrative that Mickey deserved better than him, that Ian was always wrong in every disagreement. I seriously do.

The one I hate the most is Ian not going to Mexico with Mickey. He was NOT wrong for that. In the slightest. In fact, I'm sorry, but Mickey was wrong for asking him to.

Ian had worked so hard to build a life for himself. He fought so hard to become an EMT. He worked so hard to get to a stable place. And he's just supposed to abandon all of that? Ditch his family who he loves. Leave the job he worked so hard for that he loves. Totally risk his mental health due to not having access to proper health care due to the fact that he would become a fugitive had he gone with him, plus the instability of a life on the run would've been terrible for him.

And yes, in S8 he did end up manic, and he did end up a fugitive and then in prison and losing his job. But he didn't know that was going to happen. He DID know it would definitely have happened if he'd gone to Mexico with Mickey. And if by some miracle they managed to stay out of prison, he never would've been able to see his family again. I know everyone loves to say Mickey was the only support system he needs or whatever, but that's just NOT true in the slightest. Ian loves his family. His siblings mean the world to him.

And you know what? In the long run, him not going was much better for both of them. If he'd gone, they would've just spent the rest of their lives on the run in Mexico as fugitives, he'd likely never be in a very good place with his bipolar, and it'd just be them and I truly think they'd have grown to resent each other. But with him not going, Mickey ended up turning himself back in when he went to Prison, and ended up getting let out the right way meaning they could actually have a life together where they had other family, Ian could take care of his bipolar properly, and there likely won't be any resentment.

Now look, I love Mickey. And I totally understand him. He's got so much trauma. But I'm gonna be pretty critical of him right now. Mostly because no one ever seems to be and I need to point this out.

He was in Prison for a crime he DID commit. He drugged Sammi. He planned to torture her. He thought he'd killed her. And hey, I hate Sammi and I honestly do enjoy those scenes between Mickey and Debbie. But at the end of the day, he DID commit the crime he was arrested for.

And I hate people saying that Ian should understand he did that for him and that he was in prison for Ian. NO!

Ian never asked him to do that. It wasn't for Ian. I'm sorry, but it just wasn't. To me, doing things FOR someone it HAS TO BE something they'd actually WANT done. Or that would actually benefit them.

Ian never would've wanted them to go after Sammi like that. And it wasn't going to do him any good either. She was leaving. She hurt him in a TERRIBLE way and she needed some sort of consequences, but at the end of the day that wasn't doing anything for Ian.

What he'd needed at that point was stability. Ian obviously got out of Military Prison and ran off with Monica, then came back and broke up with Mickey. But I honestly believe that if Mickey hadn't then been arrested Ian would've found his way back to him pretty quickly, I mean just look at Ian during that scene. He was NOT okay. He was on the verge of a depressive episode. And he felt he was hurting Mickey by keeping him around, and he also was feeling like everyone just saw him as something that needed to be fixed. I mean, he was on his meds from the start of S6! I truly think that had Mickey not been arrested, they would've been able to work things out.

But instead Mickey was arrested. And I truly think Ian was really hurt at learning what went down. It wasn't about Sammi, he couldn't care less about her. I don't even think it was even about Mickey trying to kill/torture her.

I mean, look at it from Ian's perspective for a moment. He's just opened up to Mickey about how shitty his meds make him feel, he feels he's getting somewhere with Mickey being his partner again instead of his caretaker, then MP's show up and arrest him and he's in Military Prison. And what does Mickey decide to do? Torture Sammi. Get revenge. Sometimes revenge isn't what someone needs. At that point in time, Ian needed stability. I think in his mind, Mickey took this huge risk at the time he needed him the most and it got him in prison. And I think that would've hurt him. But I also think he would feel a lot of guilt, because Mickey's excuse for it was that he did it FOR IAN. And I will always hate things like that.

People say Ian just abandoned Mickey in Prison. But I honestly think Ian felt abandoned by Mickey too.

So yeah, Mickey was in Prison because he committed a crime. Then he escaped. And I get it. No one wants to be in Prison. But people act like he was in there for a crime he didn't commit and that just isn't true.

Ian didn't owe Mickey anything. Him not going to Mexico was NOT a betrayal. It was him realising that it wouldn't be a good idea. For either of them. He gave him ALL HIS MONEY! And that is HUGE for a Gallagher. He grew up with so little money. They were barely scraping by so often. And he was finally making a stable income, he had SAVINGS, and he gave it ALL to Mickey. Because at the end of the day, even though he knew he couldn't go with him, he wanted Mickey to be okay. And he WANTED TO GO! You can see it that Ian wanted to go. But he knew he couldn't.

And while we're at it. Fiona wasn't wrong for telling Ian that Mickey would set a match to the life he'd built. HE WAS A FUGITIVE! It's not even about Mickey as a person. It's about the fact that Ian never could've had a stable life with him while he was a fugitive having escaped from prison. (Honestly, I could write so much about Fiona and Lip and the narrative that they always treated Mickey terribly and never gave him a chance. I will defend the Gallaghers forever. They've fucked up, but this is something I will ALWAYS defend them on!! And I might make a post about this another time...)

In conclusion, Ian loves Mickey. Mickey loves Ian. But Ian was not wrong to not go to Mexico, and I maintain that Mickey shouldn't have asked him to. I just genuinely don't think he stopped to think about the damage it would do to Ian's mental health, which is understandable as he was in a very stressful situation. But people need to stop villainising Ian for choosing to do what was best for them both.

[katemagic]

thinking about cherry magic th ep 7 and how I'm SO glad the story went this way, even though I admittedly found the karanachi plot of this episode immensely stressful to watch alsd;kfj;aksdlf like it was so so perfect and fitting for them and their arc

cause like... sure they could've gone on a beautiful perfect sweet date where nothing went wrong and it was just a nice cute classic BL episode 7 plot and the character development/relationship development happened later on, and there would've been nothing wrong with that!! but that wouldn't have been very true to their characters- it makes SO much sense that they'd both worry about it a lot and that karan would deal with that by overcompensating and achi would deal with that by not expressing his feelings of discomfort- and it also just would've been such a less meaningful episode overall

like obviously the major theme of the episode as echoed in the other plots as well is getting to know someone organically- not using mindreading or anything else, just communicating openly and honestly in order to better understand who someone is and what they like and don't like. and obviously that's what karan realizes he should've done all along, and I LOVE that we have that moment where he explains WHY he did what he did- he wanted to impress him!! he was nervous!!- which of course makes sense, but the fact that we get this lovely character growth moment for him where he realizes that he should've like... asked achi if he liked it!!! can ask next time to make the next date something much more achi's speed!!! now has so much more information about who achi is as a person after this series of missteps!! is just my favorite thing

and ofc achi has the same moment of like "wow yeah this would've gone better if I had communicted my feelings to you" al;djfa;ldsj and like... I have a lot of feelings about how achi is able to break through his fears of hurting karan's feelings in order to communicate his thoughts and feelings directly cause it is truly just so good for the health of their relationship long term but ALSO is so extremely good for achi himself to have done. achi is someone we emphatically know struggles with self-worth issues AND has idolized karan for a long time- it would make sense that his go-to move would be to devalue his own feelings of discomfort and not want to confront karan about this. but the fact that he IS able to acknowledge his own discomfort and not write it off and also communicate it to karan feels like such massive growth imo, and a sign of him feeling more secure in himself and slowly removing karan from the pedestal he put him on

and it's just also the sweetest thing in the world to me that achi is like "I don't want anything special being with you and talking like this is special enough" like that's perfect :(((( the communication and getting to know each other better and how to care for each other better is what makes the date special!!!

...though god even when talking about the insane date itself, not even the post-date clarity connection conversation, despite everything, achi still says that every minute they were together was special. that whole insane date. that's so lovely. he's so in love.

like I genuinely feel like they will both remember this as such a wonderful first date (that the necklace will immortalize forever al;sdjkfaklsdf) because despite all the missteps and stressful components they were spending time together and learning more about each other and that's the most lovely thing for both of them :')

[kitkatopinions]

why do you think Yang and Weiss should've been endgame in lieu of Yang and Blake?

First off I do want to note that I think Blake and Yang could have been a perfectly fine ship that I might've liked if I thought that the writers were better. I'm not sure, but I think I haven't actually said 'Blake and Yang shouldn't have ever been a thing' before. I think the concept of Blake and Yang is fine, but they were just badly written, which is something I also think about Renora and Arkos so I'm very unconvinced that the RWBY writers can manage any romance and write for it well.

With that being said, there are a couple of reasons why I think going with Weiss and Yang would've been more appealing to me personally.

Obviously rwde and anti-bumbleby under the keep reading. Please do not read this if you can't see criticism of the show or the bees without getting angry.

Number One: I like the ship better. This one is pretty self explanatory, but yeah personally speaking, I tend to like rich out of touch person/down to earth person of the people ships, I tend to like the type of ship Yang and Weiss fit into.

Number Two: I really like the idea of Yang and Weiss's aesthetics, I think they look good together and compliment each other and this would especially be the case if the people in charge of RWBY had Weiss kind of throw off some of her 'rich princess' vibes as she broke away from her family and turned her into a bit more of a rebel, which is something I think they're wrong to have not done.

Number Three: Before the Fall of Beacon, I did not think that Blake and Yang were close, they barely even felt like friends, more like.... Yang wanted to be friends with Blake and kept trying to be, and Blake wanted to be friends with Yang too but she (understandably) was taking awhile to open up to and trust all of her teammates. After the Fall of Beacon, the writers kind of speedran a badly done (imo) 'they're awkward around each other, wait no they're fine now, now they're caressing each other's cheeks and can't be apart' thing and I cannot stress enough that the time between Blake reuniting with everyone at Haven and the post-Adam-fight face caress is like three weeks. Imo this makes their relationship feel pretty shallow and based in trauma considering that prior to reuniting at Haven, they'd had like three important conversations, one of which was shared with Weiss, one of which involved Yang leading Blake around with a laser pointing and angrily hitting her, and one in which Blake is actively trying not to think Yang had done something horrible. Yang and Weiss didn't have very many big important moments either, but unlike with Yang and Blake, we saw them seem to have fun in more relaxed settings more, like they planned the Vytal dance together and played board games together, and Yang's the one that kind of tried to talk to Weiss about how Weiss was acting when they found out Blake was a Faunus, and Weiss would try to make Yang-like jokes, and they fought Neon and Flynt together. For me, Yang and Weiss felt way more like friends before the Fall of Beacon than Blake and Yang did. And then after the Fall of Beacon, Weiss and Yang meeting back up in volume five and spending most of volume five interacting with each other really made me start being like 👀 because with them having actually felt like real friends, things like the hug and Weiss taking Yang's hand to try to calm her down and comforting her over Blake having left... All that actually felt natural, and it seemed like they were really connecting and helping each other. I much prefer ships where they're friends first and connect in natural ways, and I feel like with Blake and Yang, they weren't really friends and then the writers wanted to just brush aside everything that happened between them without talking about it so they could get to the 'and now they matter more to each other than anyone and they can't be apart' phase, and it left them feeling more forced.

Number Four: As someone who has sisters I care about more than anything in the world, it's very important to me that characters with close family members (or super close best friends that may as well be family like Shawn and Gus from Psych) have romantic relationships that don't come above the family members or feel like they have to compete with family members. It's important to me that the romantic partner of whoever has a family member really loves and wants to include their partner's family. So when Yang and Ruby opened their arms up to Weiss, and when Ruby sat with Yang and Weiss to drink coffee together, and with Ruby being 'besties' with Weiss, it feels like Weiss and Yang being in a relationship wouldn't actually come above Yang's relationship with Ruby but would instead keep her welcome and in the circle. Like Shawn and Abigail Lytar going out to the movies and Gus being in the backseat ready to watch with them. I know people are going to get furious with me if I say this, but the RWBY writers have written Blake and Yang to care more about each other than anyone else in a way that feels like it comes above Yang's relationship with Ruby, and to me that's annoying. They're more like Juliet telling Shawn not to bring Gus with him somewhere because she wants to go, and Shawn feeling like he has to either choose between them or lie to Juliet. Apathy Grimm are attacking? Yang grabs Blake's hand to pull her out of the room, leaving Ruby behind to haul their drunk uncle (who Yang is also supposed to care about btw) out by herself. Someone suggests that Yang and Blake ever do anything without each other? Yang gets so mad her eyes go red. Yang has a fight with Ruby but then also she's apart from Blake who she didn't fight with? She doesn't think about Ruby, she's too busy wondering if Blake thinks less of her. Ruby's having a very obvious mental breakdown after losing a close friend? Yang is off flirting with Blake and barely takes the time to say 'are you okay' and always gets distracted from the answer, leaving Ruby without the support of her big sister. Ruby pretty much tells Yang that she feels like people don't care about her and she can't fight and be the leader anymore? Yang steps in front of Blake to defend her without doing anything to help Ruby and then just gets mad at Ruby! On top of that, Blake and Ruby have only actually spoken once since season one, and it felt super forced, so Blake and Ruby don't even sort of feel like they're friends. The way that the writers have been writing Blake and Yang's relationship feels like Ruby is excluded from it and has now become less important to Yang. That makes me like their relationship a lot less.

Number Five: Almost every single step of Blake and Yang's relationship has come in a bad moment where their lives were on the line. Now don't get me wrong, I do like a certain amount of trauma bonding and tension in my ships, but when every single step of their relationship growing is accidental, unwanted by at least one of them, or filled with trauma and tension, it makes their relationship feel not only unhealthy (which can be fun,) but also kind of forced - and not in a writer forced it way (though I'm not not saying that,) but in a way where it feels like the characters themselves feel like they wouldn't have picked the relationship if they hadn't been pushed every step of the way. They teamed up on accident, their first 'moment' happened because Yang forced it, Blake rejoining the group only happened because she coincidentally came across them, the first instance of handholding involved Blake feeling guilty about Yang's arm, the first face caress and promise to not leave happened after a deeply traumatic experience with Adam, their 'big moment' in volume eight happened because Yang and Blake both felt guilty for ??? not being glued at the hip I guess, and their confession and kiss in volume nine was literally forced on them by the world around them putting them in a life or death situation where the win conditions of getting out of it was confessing their feelings. Their whole relationship feels like it was more or less forced every step of the way. I'm not saying this wouldn't be the case if the writers had gone with Yang and Weiss (because the writers are bad at romance) or that it couldn't have been different with Blake and Yang (again, I think they could've been a really well done and compelling ship.) But as it is right now, it felt way more natural for Weiss to grab Yang's hand than it feels for Yang and Blake to kiss, because it feels more like if Weiss and Yang were together it'd be because they wanted it, and the entire world around them wouldn't have to force them into a kiss.

Number Six: Fans of this ship have made it a lot harder for me to get past my frustrations about this ship. This is one of those fandoms that try to insist that everyone needs to like certain characters or ships and will scream bloody murder about anyone who doesn't conform to the fandom enforced rules, and shipping the bees is a big one. Of course people will say "it's okay to not ship Blake and Yang" but then they always follow it up with a "BUT" and then proceed to pretty much say that you do have to like it. Like they'll be like "it's fine to not ship Blake and Yang but you better not ship either character with a man and if you ship Yang with Weiss it's just because you hate when sapphic women are actually together and you only like wlw in theory, and also you still have to think that everything about bumbleby is good and just not your thing, AND ALSO if you prefer any other ship than you hate queer representation and women too probably and deserve to be sent hate anons." So like... When you get attacked by enough bees fans for daring to not like one single ship, it kinda starts just further dampening your enjoyment of the ship. Like when Blake and Yang kissed in volume nine I was thinking a lot of things, but right along with "well any canon confirmed queer characters helps normalize it" I was thinking about the fact that Bees fans were probably going to try to bully me about it and use it to insist that me and other queer people were no longer allowed to criticize RWBY. It really made a bad (imo) ship worse.

Now, there's also a couple of reasons that I think aren't just personal preference. These might not be deal breakers for everyone, but they just add to why I don't like the ship.

Number Seven: Yang was anti-faunus towards Blake with that whole laser pointer thing. This was never addressed or apologized for. This alone wouldn't make me hate the ship, but coupled with everything else, it just feels especially bad.

Number Eight: The writers aren't good at emotional weight, pay off, or dealing with serious topics and serious baggage. And there are so many conflicts that Blake and Yang specifically should have worked through that instead constantly got shuffled off to the side and forgotten and never got worked through. Yang having reminded Blake of Adam? Never dealt with, despite the fact that Yang is actually more prone to anger and blow ups now than she was and specifically wants to solve things with violence which makes Blake cringe as she tries to handle Yang's moods. Is this going to be addressed? Almost definitely not, and frankly it should've been talked about before volume nine anyway. Blake having left Yang without a word to explain or a goodbye at least, thus hurting Yang's feelings, but Blake not actually being obligated to have stayed with her like Yang wanted her to? That definitely should've been talked about! Yang could've explained how she felt, Blake could've explained what had happened and apologized for pushing Yang away and leaving without saying goodbye, and Yang could then say that she forgives her and also that she understands that Blake needed time to recover too and that she didn't have to stay with her. Blake treating Yang like she was fragile and Blake needed to take care of her because Yang had lost her arm? That should've been talked about! The fact that they had to kill Blake's ex-boyfriend together after he revealed his face was branded and screamed about how Blake was going to leave Yang and all that? That should've been talked about! And the things that should've been talked about just keep mounting and now include how Yang's little sister tried to kill herself after basically saying that Yang no longer cares for her and is too busy flirting, which in any good show would create problems and tension for Blake and Yang as they deal with that and what that potentially could change in their relationships. But the writers never actually address any problems or baggage that Blake and Yang have. One reasons why I think in a post-V3 planning sesh that they should've gone with Weiss and Yang is for similar reasons why they shouldn't have killed Penny, or why they shouldn't have given Ruby suicidal tendencies, or why they shouldn't have tried to do a 'fall into villainy' arc with Ironwood. Because they aren't good enough writers imo to properly handle serious emotional weight and depth and real baggage and problems. Imo Weiss and Yang would've been a better choice post-V3 simply because writing them to have a good relationship would take less work.

Number Nine: The writers wrote Blake into a different character in order to ship her with Yang. She has almost nothing in common with who she used to be as a character. This could've happened with Weiss, admittedly, but also I kind of think it would've happened to a less significant degree because of the connection Weiss had with Ruby prior to the relationship. With Blake, once they got rid of Sun her closest friend and confidant in the show and dropped her WF plot, she kind of didn't have much in the story outside of Yang. I think it would've been harder for the writers to completely reinvent Weiss's personality, especially because I truly think a lot of the fandom doesn't give a crap about Blake past her romantic relationships, but a lot of people seem to like Weiss and liked her connection to Ruby, so the writers probably would've felt pressure to not change Weiss up too much.

Number Ten: The relationship feels like the opposite of what Blake needs as a former abuse victim. Weiss is also an abuse victim, but it's very different. Blake's abuser was her romantic partner, who was aggressive specifically in the blowing up way, who got angry at her for leaving and was possessive and controlling, who made Blake nervous but disregarded it. And although Yang could've grown into a character who was more grounded and less prone to angry outbursts who learned to let go (which was where I thought she was headed after V5,) Yang instead has just seemed to grow angrier and more prone to outbursts, has been pretty possessive herself, and despite making Blake nervous often and despite knowing Blake's history of giving up, Yang filled her 'things I like about you' moment in the V9 confession scene with things like "you've never been intimidated by me" and "You don't run from things." And when Adam was screaming about how Blake would leave Yang and then in a moment born of trauma Blake promised not to ever leave Yang again, Yang was just like "I know you won't." Like ??? Blake as an abuse victim needs space, she needs a partner who is fine with her independence, not one who goes red-eye at the thought of them doing a mission apart and freaks out that Blake's opinion of her has changed when they're apart for a day. Blake should be with someone who isn't so quick to anger and have outbursts, Blake should be with someone who pays attention to her actually instead of going into what they like about her by saying things that aren't true. Blake needs someone who would be fine being apart because they know Blake is independent and they're fine with it. Either they should've taken Yang in a different direction like I thought they were going to, or they should've gone with a different ship. Because as is, I'm sitting here like "Wow Yang is really not the healthy option for Blake here, it's so sad to watch Blake cringe while Yang loses her temper."

Again, Blake and Yang could've been well done, but yeah I prefer Freezerburn tbh. I just think that since the writers apparently didn't want to put in the effort with Blake and Yang, it's put a damper on what could've otherwise been a good ship. Anyways, please nobody send me some stupid hate anon over this post.

[another-whump-sideblog]

Jane's Pets Chapter 91: Training

TWs in the tags

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Kitty is having a bad time.

Is this about the conversation they had with Bunny yesterday? They knew they shouldn't have talked like that when Jane could be listening. Now she knows they have hope for the future and she'll try to torture it out of them! Stupid fucking pills, they weren't thinking, they never would've done that if they weren't drugged! The drugs are supposed to make being compliant easier!

At least it's just them being hurt? She must have something planned for Bunny, though, she's been shockingly easy on him despite the murder attempts… But for now, at least, it's just Kitty in the basement. That's good. They try to focus on that instead of the pain from being thrown down the stairs and the possibility of being put in sensory deprivation.

"Kitty. You know how Puppy has those phrases that make her do certain things? How I can make her pass out or go limp with a few words?"

She pauses, and it takes Kitty a second to realize she's waiting for a response. "Yes, master." They do not like where this is headed.

"I want to do that with you. The medicine has made you really good, much better than before at least. But not enough." She smiles wickedly. "Don't worry. This is more of a long-term project. You won't be down here long today- you'll just be down here again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, until you're conditioned how I want. How does that sound?" She pauses again.

"...I don't know what you want me to say to that." 

Even if she puts them in sensory deprivation, it won't be longer than a day. No matter what she does, it won't be longer than a day before they get a break.

Jane laughs. "That's fair. Good Kitty, trying to figure out what I want you to say instead of just saying the first thing that comes to your mind. Look at how much you’ve changed… it’s going to be so much fun to take more of your autonomy from you, more of yourself from you.”

They recoil. Fuck, that might be worse than being constantly drugged! Their breathing quickens.

“I want to see if I can make you feel pain with just a phrase. So-“ she holds a cattle prod. “Bad Kitty.”

She shocks them, and they don’t bother to hold back their screams. They have no one to try and look strong for, and the screams are a good cue for Puppy and Bunny to know Jane is focused on Kitty anyway.

“Bad Kitty.” Another shock. Their entire body convulses painfully.

"Bad Kitty." ZAP! They bite their tongue and blood fills their mouth- fuck, what are they going to do if they bite their tongue off? They try to clench their teeth together, it would be better for a convulsion to break a tooth than for it to bite off their tongue.

"Bad Kitty." ZAP! This is so stupid. They hate that this works, that they know they won't be able to hear that phrase without feeling fear because Jane has done it before with their name. It's so stupid.

"Bad Kitty." ZAP! They're trying to shield their head with their arms as much as possible, but it still gets slammed against the floor a few times. Just what they need, another concussion. They wonder if they'd even notice if it resulted in permanent brain damage, or if they'd just assume it was a symptom of the drugs.

Jane eventually gets bored of the cattle prod and takes out a whip.

"Bad Kitty." CRACK! Kitty can't decide what they prefer- obviously the shocks can lead to damage from the convulsions, but if they were tied down and had something to bite on…

"Bad Kitty." CRACK! They're not looking forward to having to deal with the wounds on their back, but at least the pain's localized to just their back while the shocks burn all over…

"Bad Kitty." CRACK! 

It goes on and on and on. Their world is pain. They don't try to fight it, distract themself from it, or beg for mercy. There's no point. 

They can feel as their most recent pill wears off, and the world grows sharper, more in focus. The pain grows too. They're not sure if they'd rather the torture continue or be drugged. Both take away their ability to think and function like normal, but… they feel more themself while being tortured. Which is really fucking sad.

But it's not their choice. It's never their choice. 

Like always, it eventually ends. It could've gone on a lot longer, but Jane sticks to her word- they weren't down here for long today. She puts the collar back on them, makes them swallow a pill, and sends them upstairs.

~~

Puppy and Bunny immediately jump into action when Kitty gets up the stairs, cleaning the wounds and bandaging them up. It's… not as bad as it could be. Not as bad as Puppy expected it to be. That worries Puppy a little, but Kitty explains that they'll be in the basement a few hours every day until Master is satisfied, and that makes more sense.

She looks forward to being able to take care of them every day, to making the time in between the torture pleasant. That's usually not an option, at least not on this smaller scale. Obviously, she does her best to make the times in between big tortures pleasant as well.

Kitty's body twitches every once in a while, making them wince. It'll wear off before the next torture session though, so that's… better than it could be.

She can't comfort Kitty through touch and she can't comfort them through humming, so she finds other ways to help them feel nice. She wraps them in blankets and makes them a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch (their favorite food). Bunny comforts them verbally, promising this will end soon and they'll be safe, that they're strong and they'll get through this, and that they'll still be themself no matter what. It seems to help even though Kitty doesn't really believe him.

This is alright. Everything is warm and cozy and nice for now. Puppy finishes her chores while Bunny soothes Kitty, and when she comes back Kitty is asleep. That's good. Hopefully they have nice dreams.

She's trying not to think about her conversation with Bunny. She technically didn't do anything against the rules, but that wouldn't matter if Master was watching. She probably wasn't, Puppy doubts Kitty would scream like that if she wasn't there the whole time, but the possibility never leaves Puppy's mind. Master could've seen. Master could be planning a punishment right now-

But she's probably not. It's probably all fine. And she would do anything for Bunny, even if it tears her up inside thinking of how much danger he's putting himself in by not giving up on murdering Master.

Would you do anything for me, Puppy?

Master has asked her that before. It felt so wrong, hearing it come from Bunny… but she would. She would do anything for him, or for Kitty. She just… would do anything for Master too. So when those things contradict…

"Puppy? Do you wanna sit down?" Bunny pats on a spot next to him on the couch.

Puppy has been pacing around the living room, trying to stay awake and keep an eye on Kitty. She shakes her head. If Bunny asks her to sit anyway, she will, she would do anything for him, but she doesn't want to. It's so much harder to avoid sleep sitting down, and she's much better trained than the others, she knows better than to risk things like that if she doesn't have to.

"Gotcha." Bunny doesn't push. She appreciates that. He's not like Master. He's just… desperate. Which she understands.

He's going to need to be trained soon too, she's sure. Master's going to rip him apart, remove any scrap of hope, and put him back together how she likes. But for now, at least, Master seems to find his defiance entertaining, and Puppy can do her best to make the time before he gets tortured pleasant. It's all she can do.

~~

Peyton thrashes and cries in her sleep. She can act as calm as she wants around me, but I know she's afraid of me - there's nothing else in her life that could possibly cause nightmares like that!

She gasps awake and looks around her room. She doesn't see me, of course, I'm in my void. She closes her eyes and breathes deeply- in for 4, hold for 7, out for 8, like she tells me to do- then picks up her phone and calls someone.

"Chris?"

I can hear their voice from my void as if I was right next to Peyton with my ear pressed to the other side of her phone. They sound tired. "What's wrong?"

"I, um… I'm- I had a nightmare about- about one of my clients dying, and I can't get the images out of my head- can you stay on the phone with me until I calm down? It- it's okay if you can't, I just can't be alone right now, I can find someone else to call or something if you can't-"

"No, that's fine. I can stay on the phone with you. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay, okay. I'll just tell you about my plans for tomorrow then. I don't have work, so I'm going to vacuum my room-"

The conversation is boring from there, but I stay until Peyton's more composed. I never get to see her like this, what a treat! I wonder how she'd feel if I killed Chris…

She has nightmares about my threats, which is very good. She takes them seriously, even if she pretends she doesn't. I wonder how much she'd cry if I did kill her client. Would she be able to hold it in until she thought I was gone? Or would she let herself look weak in front of me? Would she lash out, or get self-destructive? So many possibilities…

I control her, even if she likes to pretend I don't. That's what's important. It's nice to know! She's just as well-trained as my pets, but she doesn't know it yet, which makes it even better. It's going to be so fun to destroy her life!

But not yet. I'll know when the time is right, when I can cause maximum damage, and we're not there yet.

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list!

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff

@fuckcapitalismasshole

[nonclassyparty]

Bree baby can we know about other potential endings u had in mind?

Love! 🩷🌸🌿

of courseeeeeeeee!!! i promised i'd explain them

i had three other endings in mind apart from the final one that's posted.

san. i can't exactly remember now bc i scrapped that idea awhile back but she was supposed to end up with san. instead of meeting mingi at yeosang's party, she would've met san at the dinner party after coming back from paris. obviously there would be a lot of begging and forgiving done in between, a lot of getting to know each other and fixing all the ways they've gone wrong about each other in college but in the end they'd get there but that ending just didn't feel satisfying to me bc throughout the story san never had any romantic feelings for her that went beyond physical attraction so fast forward two years and for him to suddenly want to pursue a real relationship with her...no, it just didn't work. for san to end up with someone like y/n...it's just not in his character. and she would obviously never be able to get over all the ways he hurt her and she deserved better, so i quickly crossed that ending out.

mingi obviously. this was the ending i worked on the most and why the story originally was supposed to have 13 chapters. there was supposed to be a chapter where they go to japan to visit hj and y/n and mingi grow closer, he buys tickets for a concert of her favorite artists (as a way to make up for turning her down two years before), it was also supposed to be then that yeo and wooyo hook up for the first time lol. the whole purpose of the trip was supposed to be like...idk...to show that mingi cares about her and wants to be with her (he still wouldnt have talked about anything directly tho until she met san again just like it happened in the original). after the fight, she was supposed to forgive him tho and they were going to be together but...it didn't feel like it fit y/n's character, she wants the starring role after all and she's not accepting him not choosing her when it mattered.

yunho lmfaooooo. i've thought about this idea a lot bc i characterized yunho in a way where i thought it had potential to turn into something really good between them. bc he obviously dates like properly 😭 and has experience in relationships. i also thought it might've been cute to see yunho learn more about her as he had the impression that she was a 'high maintenance' girl as she mentioned that one time and didn't like that she was so full of herself but then he'd get to know her and find himself actually being into her quite a lot and above just being into the way she looks. i've shortly had the idea of them meeting at yeosang's party and starting a little casual thing but yunho would quickly be like "i'm too fawking old to be having a fuckbuddy, we're not in college anymore u either want to be in a relationship with me or not" bc he's actually quite open when it comes to feelings as opposed to coughsanandmingicough and it would take y/n by surprise bc for the first time someone wanted something more from her and was outright asking her. i thought it could be cute and he could show her what a real relationship actually looks like bc yunho is a good boyfriend but then it felt like a complete cop-out and like i was just looking for a guy for her to end up with just so she ends up with someone when really, she doesn't need to end up with any of them to be happy with her life.

[casspurrjoybell-27]

Our Hearts Collide - Chapter 33 - Part 2

*Warning - Adult Content*

Vince

Too stunned by his quick-witted responses and jabs, I had to stop and shake my head.

I hadn't even thought that far, marriage, that is.

Well, not entirely that far.

The idea of it came up now and then, occasionally in a dream but it wasn't something I had allowed myself to dwell on.

A proposal seemed even more daunting.

All that planning, calculating how and when and other variables led to a surprise.

At least with most weddings, most planned everything together.

Writing a proposal seemed more reasonable but that would mean admitting Xavier was right and I couldn't let him win that easily.

"Whatever," I mumbled.

"That only proves that you really should take my advice. Tell Sam how you feel. If you've learned anything from me and everything I've done, just communicate and be honest with him."

He hummed.

"I'll think about it, seriously but I should get going, Jonah and Lilah are probably wreaking havoc on the clinic."

"Uh-huh. Go save your boyfriend," I teased.

"Sorry, future boyfriend."

"Haha. Very funny. I'll be home soon."

"Okay."

Xavier hung up just as I saw Simon approaching from the pack-house.

He smiled as our eyes met, his pace quickening as I pocketed my phone.

"Hey," was Simon's breathy response, his arm winding around mine.

"Everything okay? You weren't outside the council room."

I nodded as our hands intertwined.

"Xavier was telling me these things the southern pack's Alpha was saying and I didn't want to worry any of you if you could hear me."

"That bad?"

I pursed my lips before reiterating some of the southern pack's Alpha's words, getting upset about it all over again.

Simon frowned, too, obviously as distraught as I was about the situation.

"Had he called me from their territory, I probably would've sped through traffic to confront them myself but he told me it wasn't worth it."

"I would've joined straight away," he said.

"Who in their right mind would try to say that? Especially to someone you've just signed a peace treaty with?"

"Exactly. Xavier handled it better than I would've but I'm sure he's still pretty shaken up about it. I'm just glad he's out of their territory."

I glanced back at the pack-house.

"Did everything go okay in there?"

Simon nodded.

"Surprisingly better than I thought. I was hesitant to leave them alone but they both seemed content asking each other questions. Usually, Aspen doesn't open up to people that easily."

"Oh, I know," I joked.

"I think he's still getting used to me."

"Yeah but he's been receptive to the things Arthur explained and I think this is good for them. Aspen has so many unanswered questions from his mom's side and while I'm sure Arthur doesn't know everything, he can help fill him in on certain things."

I squeezed his hand.

"I'm sure this won't be the only time they'll have time to talk, either."

Simon looked back at the pack house and smiled.

"I'm happy for him."

"Me too."

Simon's smile widened as he leaned his head on my shoulder.

"Hungry? Loreta made some fresh cookies. Pulled right out of the oven when I walked past."

My feet were already moving before he finished his sentence, dragging him back to the pack-house.

Simon didn't understand but Loreta's homemade chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies were to die for.

If the Betas were around, they'd be gone in five seconds.

"Let's go."

Aspen met us downstairs about halfway through our plate of warm gooey cookies.

Enthralled by the scent of cookies, he muttered a greeting as he strolled around the kitchen counter to grab a few cookies.

"Everything go alright?" I asked him, my fifth half-eaten cookie in hand.

Aspen nodded.

"Better than I had thought. It's easy to think the worst of people but it's clear there's a whole lot more to what he explained. He was young when he made those decisions and I'm in no authority to judge him for it, especially knowing who he was dealing with."

Simon tilted his head.

"So, what next?"

"He wants invited Sarah and myself to his pack. There's still a lot of things he wished to discuss and a few items that he held onto from Willow," Aspen said, holding out his cookie toward us.

"Which means we could use a babysitter."

"Us?" I frowned.

"You're not taking Rowan?"

He shook his head.

"I'm not saying I don't trust him, it's just, this is already a lot to deal with and I'd hate for this to get ugly if Rowan is involved. His family led that pack and since he's their heir, I don't want this to become a responsibility passed onto my son. Not for right now, at least."

"Of course," I muttered.

If I had been given a chance, I'd kindly decline ever taking the Alpha role after my father died.

That expectation, even the slightest bit of it, was enough stress as it is.

"It's why I didn't mention Cedar either, even though he's not blood-related," he added.

"I want to approach this slowly. I wouldn't have mentioned Sarah but it slipped when he discussed his marriage with Clayton. Besides, he probably noticed my wedding ring already."

"Back to the babysitting thing. If you two are free, which I'm sure you are..." he smirked.

"We'd greatly appreciate it. It would be two days max, I think. Although, it's probably best to stay at our place since all his things are there if you don't mind."

"We'd love too," Simon said as he turned to me with raised brows.

"Right?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sure we can handle it."

"Good," Aspen said, narrowing his eyes.

"Just don't sleep in our bed, alright? We've got a spare room for a reason. I already had to scold Cedar for not cleaning up after he and Bryce crashed at our place. Needless to say, I've revoked most of their babysitting privileges."

Simon blushed.

"They really have no fear, do they?"

Aspen shook his head.

"I really thought Bryce would be more terrified. Cedar's risqué behavior has rubbed off on him. I have no idea what I will do about those two."

"Well, you won't have to worry about us," Simon said.

"Vince is still definitely afraid of you."

"As he should be."

Aspen narrowed his eyes with a sarcastic grin but Simon was partially right.

There was no doubt in my mind that Aspen could and would kill me if I did anything wrong to Simon, not that I would even dare to.

"As I should be," I echoed.

Technically speaking, Aspen would outrank me, given Arthur's status as a true descendant of their pack's founding Alpha.

Even my father wasn't supposed to lead, it had been ripped away from his older brother, Dwaine's father when they were younger.

Even when I was in power, I'm certain Aspen could've easily challenged and won in a fight, not that I'd want to test that theory.

I'd willingly concede if it ever came down to it.

"Just sleeping," Simon said, holding his hand up as if swearing an oath.

"Though, I can't promise that there won't be kisses or other mild forms of PDA in front of Rowan."

Aspen rolled his eyes.

"He's already seen Sarah and me kissing in the kitchen before. It's fine. Oh and Simon, you're in charge of the cooking. Don't want another fire, Xavier nearly started one when he babysat Rowan at his place."

I mimicked Simon's gesture, holding up my hand.

"I promise I won't set a finger on the stove. Unless with the direct instruction and supervision of Simon."

Aspen laughed.

"Good, nothing less. I'll leave some notes for his meals and nap times, but you can always text or call Sarah or me. Thanks again. I'll let you know when we decide on a date and time."

[orumad]

"bet," smiling, agreeing. all their words mean the opposite things. it's like an in-joke or, more precisely, reasonable doubt. do it again. is that even an option... and what's it cost? the tense air isn't sliced so much as neglected for something less base, more real. wouldn't fucking be so much easier than this heart to heart, he wants to ask her. "iknowiknowiknow," max insists somewhere between the lines of her explanation. and he does know, he gets it. it was part of the reason he found himself compelled to her and frankie, the blondes void of a filter. themselves to the point of self-destruction. jenny maybe even moreso, and he acknowledges as much with a smug sidelong smirk. she really did spiral there at the end and max wonders what his presence might have done to quell that, or potentially worsen it. for some reason, he thinks she would've been better off with him.

"little bit," he confesses, shrug of his shoulder daring her to blame him. then he shoots her another glance. "but i can mean all that shit and be pissed. look -- you're gonna have to let that shit go, the ghosting thing, okay? obviously not responding to some of your messages didn't really change anything." the motion between them, here, in a jersey casino, is meant to indicate his meaning. they still end up together trading quips and barbs, no matter his intention. "neither of us can be mad forever." even a dirty little grudge-holder like maxwell braddy.

now this explanation resonates all the more with him. i just wanted to. exactly. he nods, concurring. granted, he'd had a whole lot less to lose. "it's pretty fucking crazy," max laughs a little, can't help but grant her that. they'd never really gotten a chance to confer, post-shower. post-game wrap-up, really. "blew my mind a little bit. like, i knew you were a fucking nut, but...," tongue clicks against his front teeth, "i was ready to start ignoring you right then and there, then -- bam. you're bare naked giving me shit attitude in the shower."

where: atlantic city, nj who: jenny & max

her heels snag as smooth marble floors give way to the gaudy carpeting of the casino, a cigarette already lit and dangling from her lips. she tromps over to a slot machine—one that isn't in the smoking section, as a security guard not-so-kindly points out, but her phone is already pressed to her ear. "are you kidding?" her eyes roll, a bony arm flinging out toward the machines not two feet away, safely ensconced within the smoking zone as if the smoke can tell the difference. "literally, how does it matter?" she groans, popping the cig back between her lips with an antagonizing flick of her brows and plugging her ear in anticipation of the familiar answering machine. @orumad

[d4-z3]

__

So I basically spent the last week unfruitfully trying to stop myself from wasting hours reading that Hare Kon manga online. And just ended up finishing it anyways so it wouldn't plague my brain anymore.

I was kind of unsatisfied with the progression and ending of the story as many were I guess. So I just wanted to write out how I thought that the story should've went, not that it matters. I just want these constant contemplative thoughts out of my brain.

As most people will agree from what I've seen, it was the great illustrations that drew them into the story. And I thoroughly agree, they were really beautiful. It's weird to read an ecchi-ish type story where the male character is almost more detail drawn than the female counterparts sometimes. But I guess it was drawn by a female, so maybe that influenced it a bit.

Obviously he was drawn handsomely, but I really don't think he should've just gotten his way at the end of the story. His backstory wasn't very satisfactory, even though it was alluded to be explained later, I don't feel like it ever really was. Basically he was a kid who seemed poor, lonely, and shy. He had a father who obsessed over the piano? But I don't get just how that affected him and his family...? Did he want him to be a perfect pianist? How did his mother react to this obsessiveness? Did his mother die when he was young? Did he run away from home? Why did he hang out alone by a shrine? Why did he have to return to Tokyo to do something?

In my opinion, they could've made a point to delve deeper into his trauma of what could be abandonment. Maybe his mother was the only one that he felt close to since obviously his father wasn't there for him. And when she died while he was still young it brought up great feelings of abandonment and loneliness for him. Which Koharu as a child helped him forget for a brief time when he met her. Which is why his connection with her is so strong. And which also made him grow up into an adult that felt like he needed more attention from multiple women at a time with him always being the center of attention.

I think that at some point when Koharu chose to leave finally, Madoka should have gone through with the DNA test and Joe should've come back for Yuzu and their baby. Finally, leaving Ryuu to confront his abandonment issues alone. And confront the pain he was putting these women through. Much like, the pain he probably felt from his father caring more about the piano than his actual son, and how he mirrored it by caring more about what these women can be used for than their actual feelings and what would be more condusive for their happiness.

Bringing in Joe's character almost felt like a waste of time if they weren't going to end up with Yuzu in the end honestly. It's clear as day that she loved him way more than Ryuu. He got along much better with her family and siblings compared to Ryuu who was almost just rude to them for caring about their sister. They even showed him and her taking care of them when they were little and they looked like a cute little family walking down the street. Yuzu is obviously the only one totally okay with the hare kon because she doesn't really love Ryuu selfishly as much. It would've been interesting to see her be jealous of Joe with other girls because that's not really a side we ever saw of her. Honestly it would've been cute if they could've all lived close together, since I feel like the only reason she didn't leave was because of the close relationship she developed with Koharu. And Ryuu and Joe got along well since their both just man-boys. And they'd basically already done it with Madoka before. It would've been funny to make Riinosuke call Ryuu Daddy #2 maybe after Joe came back just so he could get a taste of his own medicine with the number system he put on his wives.

For Madoka, it's a little more complicated. I don't really think she should be around Ryuu at all. He literally made her knife-flailing crazy. I think it was nice her character grew and she was able to make a career for herself and be independent. She had a pretty sad upbringing, worse than Ryuu. It was nice that he stuck his neck out for her when she was young, of course. But I think what Madoka needed was some unconditional love. Which was something that neither her parents nor Ryuu gave her. I think that it would've been a good (random storyline from my head) for her character if she somehow through her nursing (i think?) job, was able to adopt an orphan from a troubled family. Her being able to save a young life and it in turn it giving her the unconditional love she always needed would've been a palatable turn for her story.

In the end, although this whole story is called hare kon, I think it should've ended with just Ryuu and Koharu together. Like I said, Ryuu should've been left alone after Yuzu left with Joe to contemplate what he really wanted and come to the conclusion that that was Koharu. He should've manned up and gone to find her alone at her new tiny place and begged her to be with him. Maybe after seeing his dad praying with his and his mom's wedding rings. He saw what real devotion is, even if he was a bad father. It seems that once he lost his wife he never remarried or replaced her. That devotion seemed to amaze Ryuu when he saw it because I don't think he thought he could ever achieve that.

It would've been a cute end, to see her ask him how he was going to get along with out three women fighting over his affection. He could say something along the lines of "but Koharu, your jealousy and anger is big enough for 5 women! I think I can manage with that" then she whacks him. And they run playfully like a cat and mouse around their house, illustrated like the carefree kids they were when they were young playing together around that shrine.

I honestly don't think Koharu being pregnant added much, but they could've alluded it for later maybe as an epilogue illustration of all of them hanging out together still even if they're not in a hare kon.

But alas, it ended how it ended. And this was Hare Kon and not Fruits Baskets with it's parallels and deep emotional character growth. Still, it tickled my brain somehow.

[dragon-in-a-mug]

Shared Memories

Natsume week day 5: whispers/sharing

Summary: Gossiping isn't something Takashi liked, but it still led him to having a fun afternoon with one of his best friends. After all, experiencing something new together was always better than doing it alone.

Additional: Natsume, Tanuma, Natsume's childhood, fluff

Since Natsume Takashi could remember, he had always been surrounded by whispers. They were of all different kinds, but there were three main categories. The murmuring of youkai, rumors and slander.

Unfortunately for him they almost always went together, at least in his case. He wasn't sure if it was typical for others as well, but he didn't really think so.

When Takashi was a kid, he'd learned early on that words could have a lot of power.

He still heard people calling him a liar in his dreams and sometimes, on really bad days, he could hear his friends and family saying the same thing.

'Liar' was one of the words most often used to describe him, but it was, by far, not the only one. Some had been screamed in his face, others had been whispered behind his back. Despite their attempt at secrecy, he still overheard most of them.

With time, Takashi got somewhat used to it. That of course didn't mean that they did not hurt anymore. It's pretty hard to grow numb to that kind of stuff.

Together with the insults came the rumors. Changing one's place of residence as often as he did, obviously attracted the town's gossip. He wasn't sure if the people didn't notice that he heard them or if they just didn't care.

Few of the things they said about him were actually true. He was an orphan and he clearly moved a lot, so much was obvious. That he didn't have any friends was, unfortunately, also true.

Most other tales about him though, were either complete lies or things that got horribly misinterpreted.

One of the rumors that he couldn't seem to shake, no matter where he went, for example, was the belief - mostly of concerned parents - that he liked to scare other children with his monster stories. They thought he made those up to get attention, but if they'd actually known him, they would've been aware of the fact that Takashi was absolutely incapable of spinning tales. He could lie, sure, though to be fair, as a young child he hadn't been skilled in that either, but something as extravagant as what they accused him of making up? No, definitely not his division.

And all that stemmed from the same issue. Takashi was able to hear, see and interact with things most others didn't even believe existed. Of course it would be less complicated to just keep telling themselves that that weird, orphaned child was either a desperate attention seeker or had something wrong with them, that could probably be diagnosed if somebody would've bothered to make an effort. Not that anyone had cared enough.

But it was different now and it was strange yet so wonderful. Takashi still feared that this beautiful card house he was living in would one day crash and burn, but it was easier to forget about it for short periods of time. The people around him could make him forget it.

It'd been so long since Takashi met someone who'd genuinely enjoyed his company and wanted him with them.

The Fujiwaras were the kindest people he'd ever met and he would never be able to pay them back for everything they had done for him.

Nyanko-sensei could be complicated at times, but Takashi would be forever grateful for his company.

The youkai of the Yatsuhara forest had surprisingly become a fixture in his life as well. Never would he have guessed that he could grow so fond of youkai.

And then there were his friends. His amazing, understanding and considerate friends. The last close thing that he'd had to something like that, was when he'd run into Ogata. Quite literally.

Now there were Nishimura, the first person in his new class to talk to him, and Kitamoto, who always cared for what Takashi had to say.

Sasada was often a bit pushy, but he admired her perseverance and somehow she too had waltzed her way into his friend group.

And then, of course, there were Tanuma and Taki. Taki was incredibly kind-hearted and he knew could go to her with everything.

The same applied to Tanuma, obviously. But even though Taki knew about the things he could see and had had a glimpse at them herself, his bond to Tanuma was different.

Tanuma understood him on a deeper level. They shared a lot of the same or similar experiences and childhood memories. The loneliness and isolation, the tendency to fall ill and the awareness of the presence of youkai to name a few of them.

It was easy to talk to him and although Takashi was afraid to drag the other boy into danger where he could get seriously hurt, he was still glad that Tanuma stood by his side. Because they were both socially awkward, they had a hard time making new friends and sometimes struggled with social cues and interacting with others. Maybe that was another reason why they fit so well together.

Takashi was glad that he had a friend like Tanuma.

—---

Takashi knew what it was like to be the subject of gossip and rumors. That's why he was all the happier that his new school was relatively tame in that department. Needless to say there was still some school tattle, they were teenagers after all, but there was definitely less of it than he was used to. They weren't as malicious either.

Also, the longer he lived in this town, there seemed to be less and less rumors about him, which was a big relief.

—---

Takashi stood in the hall, Tanuma next to him was leaning out of the open window to let the breeze ruffle his hair. A group of girls walked past them, chattering and snickering.

"-met him over the internet. At least, that's what I heard," was one sharing.

"No way!" exclaimed another.

Then they were past them and Takashi couldn't understand them anymore.

He looked over to Tanuma as the boy huffed annoyed. They looked at each other and Takashi raised one eyebrow in question. Tanuma shrugged. "I don't like gossipers," he admitted. Takashi nodded understandingly.

"Who does?"

"Other gossipers, probably," guessed Tanuma.

Well, he couldn't argue with that.

"I hate how far and fast things travel because of them."

"Yeah," agreed Takashi. "That's never a good thing. It's the reason I don't tell most people anything about me. Doesn't always work though. One time I told Nishimura and Kitamoto that I couldn't ride a bike. They didn't tell anyone - they would never - but someone from another class saw us and two days later the whole school knew it. It was pretty embarrassing. The others had my back though."

Tanuma shot him a sympathetic look.

"I get you. Something similar happened to me last week. Some people in my class were arguing about what the most autumnal activity was, building chestnut men or flying kites. When they asked me, I told them that I thought I wasn't the best source because I've never flown a kite before. They'd looked at me weirdly, but didn't say anything. The next day I overheard someone in a class over ours talk about it. I'm pretty sure it didn't make a big round, but it's still not cool."

"It really isn't. It shouldn't have been a big deal. I have never done it either. It's not a big deal," reassured him Takashi and patted Tanuma's shoulder.

They were disrupted by the warning bell before either of them could say anything else. With that they said their goodbyes and went back to their respective classrooms.

—---

On his way back home, Takashi couldn't forget what he and Tanuma had talked about. He thought about it hard and carefully and just as he reached the gate from his house, he made a decision. With his mind made up, he scratched Nyanko-sensei, who had been dozing on the garden wall, between his ears and then hurried to the house.

"I'm home," Takashi called as he entered.

"Welcome home, Takashi-kun," came Touko-san's response from the kitchen.

The boy toed off his shoes and went over to the kitchen.

Touko-san stood in front of the stove and was preparing lunch. When he entered she turned towards him with a warm smile. He smiled back.

"Can I ask you something, Touko-san?"

"Of course!"

—---

Takashi waited outside of Tanuma's classroom for the boy. When he left the room he walked towards Takashi. The two fell into step next to each other, as they walked towards the stairs and than down to the shoe lockers.

"Do you have anything planned for today," inquired Takashi, exchanging his indoor shoes with his outside ones.

"No." Tanuma shook his head and looked at him questioningly. "Why are you asking?" He and Takashi left the school.

"I wanted to ask you if you'd like to come over this afternoon," he explained.

Tanuma knew his friend had something planned, but he couldn't tell what. Even so, he still accepted the invitation gladly.

When their ways separated, Tanuma assured Takashi that he'd come over as soon as he finished his homework. Although he was obviously curios, he didn't ask Takashi any questions. It was a sign of trust that warmed the blond's heart.

A little over two hours later, Tanuma arrived at Takashi's house and knocked at the door. The boy opened the door and stepped out, already dressed and something that was wrapped in a piece of cloth was tucked under his arm. Nyanko-sensei was trotting behind him.

"Can we go?" he asked Takashi brightly.

Tanuma chuckled. "I have no idea where we are heading, but sure. Lead the way."

Takashi told him that it wasn't far, just a few minutes. With that they got moving.

True to his word, Takashi hadn't led them anywhere that was further than five minutes away. They stopped on a wide open field.

Tanuma looked quizzically at him, but Takashi had already squatted down and was now unpacking whatever he'd brought with him.

As he folded back the final sheet corner, he looked up at Tanuma with a sunny smile.

"I thought we could try it out together," revealed Takashi.

There on the floor laid a colorful, diamond-shaped kite. Tanuma's eyes went wide as he looked back and forth between the kite and Takashi. The latter was getting a bit anxious and hoped he hadn't overstepped. His anxieties were immediately smothered when Tanuma smiled warmly at him.

"That sounds like a great idea!"

With that they started setting up the kite he had borrowed from Touko-san. After the two boys had figured out what they had to do, it was just trying to get a hang of it. It took them quite a while to get it airborne, not made easier by Nyanko-sensei who'd started chasing the kite's tail - unsuccessfully, should be added - , but it was still a lot of fun. Flying the kite itself was even better though. Tanuma was the first to try it out and when Takashi saw the joyous sparkle in his friend's eyes, he knew it had been worth it.

They spent the whole afternoon outside, alternating who took control of the kite. At the beginning it often crashed, but with time they got the hang of it. It was a lot of fun.

When the sun had already started to set, they finally stopped. Packing everything up, Tanuma and Takashi made their way back to the Fujiwara residence.

They walked in peaceful silence for a bit, before Tanuma opened his mouth. "Thank you, Natsume, for doing this for me," he said sincerely. Takashi smiled happily. "No need to thank me. If anything, thank you for being there."

The boys brushed shoulders as they shared a warm look. It was really nice having a friend like that by your side, thought both of them.

[windupaidoneus]

like. obviously he could tell something was off. i feel like for any wol with an affinity for magic (but especially white magic) it kind of makes sense. can't imagine the aether corruption would keep your magic the same, it'd have to have some impact... & hildegarde has researched aether before. for the necromancy. yknow the necromancy that he did. & tried his hardest to keep it ethical (ftr haurche agreed to it due to his ride or die sick & twisted devoted heart), hence all the researching. not only that but i mean obviously he immediately noticed sin eaters used the same magic he did. it was kind of a really easy tell

& the only people he knew in that world were either obviously hiding shit from him or just... gestures toward whatever thancred had going on in shb. the twins don't count bc hilde is a grown ass man he was never going to emotionally rely on them. once his aether's corruption started being bad enough that haurchefant's form became subtly (but not subtle enough for hilde to not notice) distorted he just... stopped. he could rely on haurchefant a little at first, manifesting him a physical form by feeding his soul his own aether, it was always temporary but it did offer him some measure of comfort. but his aether just HAD to not be able to contain the wardens' light! WOMP WOMP. & so he bade haurchefant adieu in a much less dramatic way than in the vault lmao. haurche would've wished to be summoned again "once his aether got better" surely, but hilde absolutely expected himself to be unsalvageable even before mt gulg. this was the actual final goodbye for him. & surely they'd meet again in the aetherial sea. maybe. maybe not. maybe his aether would be too corrupted to go there

& of course ardbert was there. but um. ardbert was also kinda in the midst of watching his world maybe die maybe not after having traversed it as a ghost for a hundred years unable to do anything to help. hildegarde was hardly gonna put much emotional weight on him. there were things they could talk about but they weren't That familiar with each other & had very different lived experiences, & hilde takes a while to trust people. it's not like they knew they were shards of the same ancient at the time lmao, they were kinda just stuck together because of circumstances... & it is kind of hard to look a ghost in the eye, the ghost of a hero who tried everything, & tell him you think you're not capable of saving his world, actually, & you're probably gonna destroy it even.

so well. who was left but emet-selch. very twisted for hildegarde to rely on him considering he very much wore the face of solus! as someone raised in the empire hilde both resented him for the horrors the empire committed (the same way he resents himself for participating in it. yknow. something he totally had a choice in. lol) & like... well... indoctrination doesnt really go away in a day. everyone's made to revere solus. regardless of whether he ever met the man personally (which he didn't), the emperor is a religious-like figurehead ; there's just going to be an odd sense of trust associated with him even if hilde knows all he's done is horrific.

that, & hilde felt emet might've been the most straightforward with him at the time (not quite true but not quite wrong either, he does willingly give away a loooot of information which shouldn't be nearly enough for hilde to put trust in him but he wasn't exactly the pinnacle of mental stability & good decisions at the time), alongside with um. well i hate to say it but emet being demeaning & rude toward him was validating to him #TERRIBLESELFESTEEM. it felt like he was finally being seen for what he was (& let's not even get into how horrible yet cathartic it felt for emet to call him "eater" post crown of the immaculate.. lol.....), which sure says a lot about the kind of mindset growing up in garlemald while visibly not 'pureblood' can instill in you. & emet also gets more personal. calls him nicknames even if condescending, shows him his humanity, even gets a little vulnerable with him.

& so i do believe the black magic knowledge hildegarde has at the time of shb comes from emet himself training him from time to time. in my beautiful canon. bc hilde asked, believing magic that is more inherently umbrally aligned could help him quell the corruption. which does lead to more "bonding" if you can even call it that... & makes it easier for hilde to dissociate emet from solus in a sense? he sees more of emet beyond the character he embodies (which is also just part of canon. ppl who think emet acted as himself while playing the role of emperor are completely fucking stupid. but i digress), it feels less & less like there is a power imbalance between them (to hilde) (TO HILDE) (HILDEGAAAARDE THERE'S STILL A POWER IMBALANCE!!! HILDEGAAAAAAAAAARDE)

btw i started thinking about all this bc im drawing arr hildegarde you know it's bad when drawing arr makes you think about shb

i don't really know what the conclusion of this post is. misplaced trust because he felt he had no one else to rely on yeah, & ofc emet pulled at his heartstrings due to how emotional & empathetic he is (not to the point he ever considered actively switching sides or anything of the sort, but more than enough for him to desperately wish for another way that didn't lead to the ascian dying Again). & he did fully intend on going to the tempest alone. though it baffles me to think emet might've believed the wol capable of working out how to get to the tempest let alone amaurot on their own while being tormented by the horrors of light corruption. especially since he claims to expect them further into the transformation, at which point they would likely not be as... sapient. if i'm honest with you i genuinely fully believe emet was consciously orchestrating his own death there despite everything he says & does because there's no other way to make sense of everything that leads up to the dying gasp. oughhh i miss him

amaurot fucking sucks guys.

shb was so heavily the shitter for hilde thancred was there but clearly not emotionally available bc he never is but ESPECIALLY NOT then, had to stop doing necromancy on his one actual proper partner bc his aether corruption couldve ended up corrupting haurche's aether too, hancock was decidedly not in the first, shtola & urianger hiding shit from him the exarch never ever being straightforward on anything alisaie being traumatised every other day & having to keep supporting alphinaud to the best of his ability through everything despite it all. also trying & failing to shield ryne from bearing too much responsibility as the oracle of light. & having to save the world. while his own aether was eating at him in the form of the very magic he wielded best threatening to turn him into something hed always believed himself to be deep down (a monster. not a sin eater specifically.). And if all of that wasnt enough emet-selch was there. is it really any surprise he ended up emotionally relying on the antagonist the most out of all the characters in the expansion bc he really did not have anyone else when shit got bad

[scenetocause]

ok i’m gonna pick TWO out of a MILLION, both from the same fic

They spend the day together but they would've done that anyway, except Lando holds Max's hand for a minute when they're walking into the golf course and they tangle their feet together even more than usual during dinner. Lando drapes himself over Max and kisses his ear while he's doing the washing up and Max accepts it for the clumsy seduction attempt it is, twists round so they can kiss properly, softly, both giggling into it.

"Baby," Max shivers at the name, pressing closer to Lando like he's scared of breaking the spell here, somehow. "Can I take you to bed?"

like YEAH this is how they would turn into something more. nothing much is different except lando wants to hold max’s hand, so he does, and they play footsie (i’m still convinced lando thinks the way to play footsie is kick people), and then lando asks max if he can TAKE HIM TO BED sweet dorky little romantic move he doesn’t know what he’s doing and max doesn’t care.

Lando just assuming they'd eventually get round to having sex is the most him thing ever and makes Max slap him on the arm, lightly. "Fuck's sake, dude. Can't believe you just thought we'd, I dunno, get married or something."

"Didn't you?" The amusement's gone out of Lando's face, not laughing about it just honestly looking up at Max.

He swallows heavily before saying, "didn't really dare to hope, buddy."

kill me. this is it, this is the thesis, this is the dynamic. max a little bit more self aware. max sorta sure of lando bc of course he is, it’s lando, but not wanting to think about it too hard bc he’s aware how bad he wants it. lando just ASSUMING, the little menace, but it’s not obnoxious or entitled it’s just, obviously, this is how much he loves max. the way they get serious for a second and a lot of things get said really quickly. ugh!

honorable mention for that part of lando coming to max’s on xmas fic where they’re texting and lando refers to overrys... not 2 be weird but nadia & i quote that constantly

😭 overrys is one of my favourite attempts to get like. lando knows words but doesn't use them right sometimes and also like, he's a lot better than he used to be but he used to somehow not quite speak english? while also not speaking any other language? a truly mashed up kart team concoction where i can well believe him and max effectively had their own language because knock it off, tom, he's doing his best. you know he's shy.

i think about them too much? like it's been going on for years now and it's deeply unhealthy. but they are sooooo interesting. ty for joining me in scholarship of wtf is going on