#off the cuff stuff

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

listen i haven't been in the bnha fandom since i was like 16 but man what was the fucking point of having deku hone his superpowers for like 400 chapters, take it away like 10 chapters before the end, and have him get New Superpowers in like the last 3 pages? it's not even that deku losing his superpowers wouldn't have worked if you wrote it right but the story just. didn't write it right.

like in the whole first half of the manga deku was being set up as this guy who was super good at analyzing how quirks work and different strategies ppl could do to get the most kick out of their superpowers. he used that not only to improve his own skills with one for all, but he helped his classmates too! if he'd lost his powers, he could have been set up perfectly to be the guy in the chair. bakugo goes on a mission and says into his headpiece "hey deku tell me about these villains superpowers and what i should blow up to defeat them" and then deku tells him what to blow up!

but i guess in the second half they stop focusing on that part of deku at all. we know he continues to use his skills in analysis to improve his several new powers, but we don't rly see it. we just know he's been working on it offscreen from offhand comments and a few panels every 20 chapters. same with the other characters we see that they've improved but we don't get to see them working on their skills anymore so any improvement feels unearned.

and obv this is not the only problem i have with the manga. there's a lot i can say about how horikoshi introduced so many characters that the story couldn't focus on any particular theme or arc due to cast bloat. or how most of his "we live in a society" commentary fell flat bc he is fundamentally incapable to imagining a functional society that is not a police state. and ofc he hates women. like so much. like holy shit most of the women in this manga were done dirty.

but like even if you boil all of bnha down to the story of this one underdog kid who gets to fulfill his dream of being a superhero, his arc was so unfulfilling. they gave him a skill that he could have used to distinguish himself from other superheroes. but halfway through the manga they stopped talking about it and instead just focused on how he's super cool bc he has the extra special superpowers that makes him punch good. and then they walked back on it and tried to hamfist in a lesson about how "uwu deku doesn't need superpowers he can still be my hero. in academia." and then they walked back on THAT and is like "hey deku stop being a normie we're gonna get you superpowers again bc thats the only way your abilities have value" like come on!

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[scarlettaagni]

feeling a little too seen

we are witnessing homosexual activityyyyy

I don't know how I got here from MS paint NGE cringe meme

[suchafaunystory]

a faun gets grabbed in the club, someone groping her body. someone a full head or so taller than the cute, squishy faun. she tries to resist for a moment before a pink cloud is puffed into her face, and everything changes. heat flows through her body, overwhelming her senses, and all her reservations are drowned out by a flood of desire. she sinks into the arms of the stranger, who keeps her from falling, easily supporting her weight with one arm, the other snaking down her body. squeezing her cute tits, pinching a nipple through her too-thin shirt, eliciting a little whine, rubbing her belly thinking about how big they're going to make it, how stuffed she'll be, and lower, and lower until resting between her legs, pressing on her cute, quickly hardening cock.

the faun is barely aware of anything but the feeling of the hand along her skin, the hand moving from her neck, down her front, then sliding up her shirt to play with her sensitive tits. and as she whimpers and whines, the body pressed against her back shifts, and she feels another pressure. a hard shape, pressing into her lower back. the poor doe's mind floods with images of what it could look like. big. stiff. leaking... gods she needs it.

the figure leans down, squeezing a tit in their hand, letting out a low, hungry growl into the faun's furry ear, the ear flicking, eyes widening, pupils dilating as the growl, the scent, the experience of it all activating something in her. a prey response of sorts. cornered prey.

while some react with fleeing, and other try to fight, there are some, always some, who simply

Faun

[mostie01]

Smacks season 2 ending of Ninjago with a whumping stick

Unironically Ninjago having a No One Mourns The Wicked moment after the Final Battle specifically about Garmadon.

(I mean obviously Garmadon survived still but the vast majority of Ninjago doesn’t know that. Plus since he’s been purified of the venom he actually looks normal again and not the menacing Oni who looks like a sentient Shadow.)

“Lady Irondragon exactly how dead is he?”

“Because there has been so much rumor and speculation. Let me tell you the whole story. According to the Celestial Clock the disintegration occurred at the thirteenth hour. The direct result of a blast of pure elemental energy aimed by a male child. Yes the Dark Lord Garmadon is Dead!”

Misako just has to go around announcing her husband’s supposed death while he’s off recovering secretly as the gang forges his new fake identity. So it’s just Misako visiting Ignacia and every other village being praised when she really doesn’t deserve it.

A veritable bouquet of Flowers pinned and woven through her hair because this is a time of peace and celebration now. Which many Fashion and Political columns will debate what she means by them? (It's the Kadōka of Ninjago who figure it out rather early on and those who knew Garmadon and Misako personally can be comfortable in their knowledge of such matters.)

Irises to symbolize Good News, Glad Tidings, and Loyalty (That Loyalty being to her Family not Ninjago itself as so many news publications and fashion magazines will argue)

Red Camellia to symbolize Perishing with Grace as a Warrior of such strength deserves and Being in Love (He didn't perish with Grace though did he? And no one knows how in love they were? Except a scant long lost few.)

White Poppy to Rejoice for the Dark Lord is dead and gone ( Rejoice for the Prophecy is finally over and no one died except for Him and what a fortunate event after all)

Gardenia to represent a Secret Love that she'll carry to the grave (No one can know of such matters now and who's to say the secret love is romantic? But one of Familial love.)

She has to bear the news and she will because Lloyd is too busy recovering himself while at the same time refusing to leave his father's bedside.

It’s also when she finally gets to hear the full hatred and dislike of her husband as the villagers of Ignacia cheer that the menace who kidnapped their favored daughter Nya is dead and caused such grief to their beloved blacksmith Kai.

The citizens of Ignacia are just a parallel to Munchkin Land just flat out belting their shared hatred and grief about this man and what he did to their village and them. The Skulkin raids as well and those Gods Awful Serpentine.

Orange Lilies are being shaken and thrown at the announcement of his death by seemingly the entirety of Ignacia. (They symbolize their hatred for what he did to Kai and Nya alongside their revenge finally being fulfilled.)

Of course there are some Red Spider Lilies in those shaking hands Veterans of the serpentine war long lost their prime mourning an old friend and ally long turned monstrous. (Never to meet again amidst their lost memories.)

That's not getting into those Black Rice Lilies or Fritillaria camschatcensis being tended to by the Skulkin and the other villainous factions (With a certain Banished Dark Sorcerer Cursing the loss of his ex. He was Clouse's first Love.)

Their Giant Garmadon effigy is very scarily detailed and even accounted for his newly gained pair of arms. No doubt a result of one of Kai’s furious letters at the time about his sister’s abductions and his angered sketches.

I like to imagine Ninjago City's reaction is more on par with this animatic

Some Character reactions that could be their own one shots

Chen doesn't lose much sleep once his former student's death has been confirmed. It just means the tournament can proceed even earlier.

Krux or rather Dr.Sanders-Saunders feels some amount of pity it didn't take him long to figure out the Youth or rather the Male Child was Garmadon's own flesh and blood.

Maya and Ray even bound to that hidden workshop listening to the radio and TV that serves as their one link to the outside world. Can only hold each other in comfort for the passing of one of their beloved friend's passing and can only imagine Misako's anguish.

The live broadcast of Ignacia's celebration and singing of his passing is even more painful for Ray because that was his best friend.

Harumi is fuming internally despite her outward Cheerfulness because HOW DARE THEY CELEBRATE HER SAVIOR'S PASSING?!?!!?!? IT'S NOT FAIR AT ALL! (She had to be dragged away from the Emperor and Empress's side during the televised speech of celebration.)

[albatross-the-pen-chewer]

Felt the impulse to share a bunch of doodle pages. This is what I do instead of drawing in sketchbooks, now, and it started happening without me really realizing it lol.

[benevolenterrancy]

I've been looking at your art with Jin Guangyao like million times and noticed that his face features kinda fluctuate on different non-chibi drawings. Curious if you just like trying different designs or does this just reflect changing with age (he's almost a teenager as Meng Yao and a fully grown adult after the timeskip after all), and generally if you have any particular headcanons on his appereance?

Sorry, I'm just a little (or not a little) obsessed with character design XD

ha ha ha man I wish I could give a cool answer about how yeah, you totally saw through me, I am definitely intentionally making little fluctuations to mark the passage of time etc etc, except I'm tragically not 😅 The closest is that while he's Deputy Meng Yao I do try to make him a little more... optimistic? Give him a bit more youthful pride and confidence that he's finally succeeding and might have a chance to get what he wants? So I guess that ages him a bit between Meng Yao and Jin Guangyao, in theory... but when I'm not drawing silly comics, things just tend fluctuate and I'm not always very good at sticking to one look (I like trying different things!) All I can do is hope my art continues to improve... they're certainly never hiring me for animation or anything that requires consistency!

My headcanons about his appearance that I do try to keep in mind but might not come across in my art:

I almost always try to give him a somewhat round face, or at least rounded cheeks, I'm not sure why but I imagine him with quite a soft looking face... youthful, even as he gets older, and I think he'd be willing to play into that

I usually draw him smiling (because if something has made him show a distinctly different emotion he's probably alone or shit's popping off) and I'll often add dimples as part of my JGY Visual Shorthand (along with critical things like Goofy Hat)

WWX was able to see the goddess statue carved to look like Meng Shi and assume it was a statue of JGY, so I assume he has fairly delicate, almost feminine features -- she was supposed to be beautiful and he looks like her, ergo he must be pretty!

I imagine him with very straight hair, and I think he found this mildly frustrating with the Nie who I usually give more of a wave to -- his hair doesn't hold braids as easily as the Nie brothers! Frustrating when he's trying to fit in!

(listen I know the braids are a show thing not a book canon thing but I will die on this hill) I subscribe to him keeping his Nie braids under his hat you can't take this from me

This doesn't come across in my art because I just do whichever is more fun or fits the comic requirements at the time, but I imagine while Meng Yao / new to the Jin, he wore cuffs at his wrists, anything to keep his sleeves back, for pure practicality's sake. As sect leader I like to imagine he doesn't, and goes for the long, billowing sleeves and more layers as something of a status symbol: he doesn't need to worry about dragging them through dirt or blood or ink anymore!

[fingertipsmp3]

Maybe I did this to myself but it does irk me when people see me knitting and they ask who it’s for and I say it’s for me and the immediate reaction is “you should sell it” yeah… let me spend at least a week’s worth of my free time making an item I like, want, and would wear just to sell it on etsy, making at most a £2 profit on materials and not being compensated for my time whatsoever 👍🏻

[herefortayloronly]

Star Wars is so much fun when you don't have a stick up your ass reminding you of lore shit and timelines and all that. It's like when will Star Wars fans just let go of this rigid rulebook they've decided is their bible. Those reylo fanfics are eating y'all up why? Because they don't take themselves seriously and that's how Star Wars should be!

[butmakeitgayblog]

Based on your tags, I thought you were gonna say something along the lines of finally having her fingers all to yourself

Lol I'm taking the question seriously, sheesh. And. Well. I mean she's a straight woman, so while yeah I go wild in my tags with jokes, realistically my guess is spending a day with her would be exactly the same as hanging out with any other straight girl. Especially one who has always lived as affluently as she has. Except she's also beautiful so I would have a hard time not just staring at her stupidly pretty face 😅

[divinekangaroo]

got that **** assignment in tonight 2 days early DESPITE every possible thing that could have blown up happening during the assignment's duration

[stoopid-turtle]

made-up mbti types for dd and gg

So the GQ event that dd attended recently (you know, the one with the love hat) was supposedly gonna share his MBTI type with us. I don't think they ever did, probably because dd just didn't do the test thing. I'm not surprised we never got to see his mbti type, but I did have my own guess as to what he'd score, so I figured I'd share here.

(As a note, MBTI is pretty much junk science but it's fun. Just don't take it too seriously. I used to be really into it in a fannish sense and it's the closest I get to woo-stuff. If you don't know what MBTI is, here have fun.)

Cut to the chase: I'd guess dd is ISFP. My reasoning below the cut.

Introvert - The best way I've found to describe the difference is that introverts recharge by being alone. That is, a weekend full of social engagements is something they need some alone-time after. For an extrovert, social events, themselves, recharge them. Being alone is what's exhausting and what they try to avoid.

DD's probably rarely fully alone, given his busy schedule and the life of a celebrity. But introverts have ways to introverting, even among a bunch of people. I think sometimes people conflate "introvert" to mean "shy", but they're not the same. I don't think dd is particularly shy. It's just all about where your energy comes from.

Sensing - This one is about how you process information.

As an illustration, my bff and I were on a road trip once. She's the type who liked to literally pull over a smell the freaking flowers. And she could name every single flower/plant/tree she came across. Her eye for detail and ability to describe things with precision is always boggling to me, because to me, the most I can say is something like "It was sunny and the trees are green". Very vague. All about the overall impression rather than the details.

In MBTI terms, my bff would be Sensing while I'm Intuition (this is the N. Just go with it). Intuition folks are thought of as the big picture, abstract thinkers while Sensing is about the details and about the Facts of the World.

I mentioned before that dd strikes me as a pretty literal thinker, and that type of thinking overlaps with Sensing more than Intuition.

Feeling - People get confused by this one. It's not about whether the person expresses emotions or anything like that. It's about decision-making. When making a choice, does this person weigh the pros and cons? Try to come to a reasonable and sound decision? Or do they go by gut, following their emotions like animes tell them to?

This is hard to assess because we don't know much about how dd goes about making the decisions he makes. We don't know what went into his decision to go into idol training, say, or why he put his hat in the ring for The Untamed.

I'm making a guess that he's more driven by emotion than thinking. This isn't to say he acts blindly without any thought or that he never makes rational decisions, but he weighs his feelings highly. He'll pursue a gay romantic relationship with another celebrity, despite the risks, because he's in love and, you know, he follows his heart. His decision to submit his headshot for The Untamed, especially, strikes me as being Feeling-driven. Given his career at the time, acting in a BL adaptation was off the beaten path and risky. He lost fans because of it.

I think both gg and dd make a feelings-based decision to drop candies for turtles. There's no rational business case to do so. It's simply because they value having a group of fans who recognize them as a couple and they want to keep those fans with them.

Perceiving - This one's about how you plan or organize your time (or don't).

Judgers are the type to have a planner with a set schedule a routine. They have trouble adapting when their schedule gets disrupted. Perceivers are more go with the flow, able to take things as they come. When taking vacays, they would rather not have a packed itinerary bc they want the freedom to go where the moment takes them.

This is also something I don't feel I have a lot of insight on. DD's schedule is heavily managed and heavily packed, and he spends most of his time diligently following along with that schedule. That's part of his job, though. On his own, would he be inclined to keep to a schedule? I kinda don't think so.

I'm just going based on his...um...general chaotic energy. That and his tendency to do his KPI social media posts all at the last minute. Classic Perceiver move.

***

So, ISFP. In truth, each of these traits is a spectrum and people show examples all along the different traits at different times (for instance, dd's decision-making in SDC is typically strategic rather than based on feelings). Most things are based on context. But this feels right to me, overall.

For gg, I haven't watched near as much of him as I have of dd, but a guess would be INFJ.

Feel free to share your own ideas. Or squee about the love hat. Whatever. 🐢🐢🐢

[jackabbot]

if you see me being more sporadic around here and only reblogging edits and tags, just know it's because I can't deal with the endless specs from people who will cry about queerbait and bad writing when (and it's a when not an if) their theories get disproven and act like the show is about two characters only

I just can't deal with it guys, it's annoying as hell

[buk0wskis]

i think i’m actually gonna start using my ao3 again. been wanting to lock the fuck in and actually write my oc stuff for a hot minute

[blackjackkent]

I've been thinking a lot about that disapproval that Karlach gave when Hector asked who we were fighting after we got pulled into the Stone Lord/Nine-Fingers battle. I'm still not sure what the actual intention behind that disapproval was, but decided to take a stab at rationalizing it, at least for Hector's playthrough specifically.

----

"Something's bothering you, love..." Hector comments to Karlach as they begin climbing wearily back up towards Rivington from the beach.

"That obvious?" she asks with a slight, wry smile.

"Maybe not," he says mildly. "But I pay attention."

She nods and is quiet for a moment, thinking. "I don't like this. Us making friends with that group, out of nowhere."

He nods slowly. "I can't say I was overly pleased with it either. The situation snuck up on us a bit."

"Yeah." She frowns. "The Guild's nothing to mess around with. People usually don't end up in bed with them by accident."

He nods slowly. "A dangerous game - and one where we can't see all the pieces." He pauses and tilts an eyebrow up at her curiously. "But... forgive me if this is an indelicate question, but weren't you with such a band of criminals yourself, before Avernus?"

Her eyes flick away from him and he watches a brief ripple of flame roll along her skin. "I was, yeah. Gortash was no big patriar when I knew him. He was black market smuggling, arms dealing. And I kept him safe." She smiles bitterly. "Until I didn't anymore."

He knows this is a difficult, sensitive subject for her, so he chooses his words carefully. "I might have thought this Guild group would seem like familiar ground, then."

She shakes her head sharply and scowls. "That's the problem, Hec. All too familiar. I've seen what that life does to people. It makes people like Gortash. It makes backstabbers and traitors and liars, who rip up someone's whole life for fun, for a deal, even though all they ever gave was their best--!" Her voice cracks abruptly and she comes to a halt in the middle of the path, her shoulders heaving with sudden sharp breaths.

He stops next to her at once, reaches out to take her hand and hold it while she calms. "I'm sorry," he mutters. "I shouldn't have brought it up..."

"It's fine," she answers shortly, but then she's quiet for a minute or so, steadying her breathing, staring down into the rough sand below their feet.

"I've seen how that shit changes people," she finally says quietly. "And I don't want you to change too."

His eyes narrow in understanding and compassion and he interlaces his fingers tightly with hers.

"You're always trying to do the right thing," she goes on. Her tone eases a little, though her eyes still look haunted by the memories they've called up. "And trying to get us to do the right thing too." She manages a slight grin. "Even Astarion, against his will." She draws a slow breath, lets it out shakily. "You start working with the Guild, in the underbelly... I've seen how fast people lose the good in them."

He nods, tugs her hand to his lips and presses a kiss to her knuckles. "I'm not going to just stand here and say, 'Of course I won't,'" he says after a moment's thought. "Because what you're talking about is serious, and I know it is. But I will watch for it. And we'll watch for each other." He smiles slightly at her. "The smoothest journey comes from neither horse nor cart but from a friend on the same road."

He's relieved to see a slight grin in answer. "Monk proverb?"

"I heard it from a traveling merchant who passed the monastery, actually," he says mildly. "Wisdom grows in all places." A pause. "We both want to see this through - to do the right thing. So we will help each other stay on the right path, while we navigate these darker routes. And I promise you I have no interest in what the Guild can offer me, beyond information about our greater enemy."

She nods slowly. He sees her shoulders relax, the tension starting to leave her eyes. "Good. OK." She squeezes his hand. "Thanks, Hec."

[msburgundy]

not sure exactly what i did this morning when i sat up by my shoulder kinda rolled out again, not nearly as bad and seemingly without further injury so i'll still count the overall healing progress as good. i just wish i knew why so i knew where to focus

it seems like it doesn't like to be extended forward while in internal rotation, but i'm not sure what i should be targeting to fill that gap?