#on a more shippy note:

[basuralindo]

Hey do you think Jamil has trouble seeing people his age as peers?

Like, growing up having to be a caretaker to a guy literally a few months older than him, always expected to act like the adult in the situation, expected to work with adults and adopt their perspectives and pick up their slack. Do you think he just, forgets sometimes?

I mean we've seen him go into caretaker mode with other sophomores, and the only people I've seen him take seriously are juniors like Vil who also act much older than they should have to (his reactions to Leona look more like a trauma response and I don't wanna get into it here). People like Malleus and Cater still somewhat get the caretaker treatment. Like I just highly doubt that he subconsciously realizes he's actually part of his age group

Aaand that inevitably brings up Azul, who also acts like he thinks he's older than he is. Whether you're looking at it from a shipping angle or not, he reacts to Azul like an actual peer. With older students, he seems more in his element but there's still a status hierarchy which he compulsively reacts to. With Azul he doesn't acknowledge any status worth respecting or see him as someone who needs to be looked after. He just bickers like an equal, in a way that implies he actually does see Azul as a real peer, like subconsciously he's categorized this guy into the same group as himself, who was previously alone on that level (he gets like this more with the twins too, over time, but it seems to start with Azul).

And my favorite part about this is, while that response stems from them both acting more like adults in general, they elicit a pettiness from each other which drags them both down to actually acting their own age, and I just love that. Their characters are perfect foils for each other and it seems to make them both less isolated in a way.

[yawpyawp]

I’m obsessed with Mac carrying Dennis around

[basofy]

jack and friends

bonuses:

terry giving life hintz!!!!

lul

[miscgallery]

[Day 4: AU] a close call!

(bonus doodles and context under cut)

peaky are sort-of "robin hood" characters who are rich themselves, but don secret identities to target corrupt politicians, government officials, and billionaires when the law fails to punish them. most of what they do is dig up dirt on their chosen target and bring it to light for the general public.

one of their targets had invited esora (current ceo of the shimizu group) to a mansion party. they decided that this would be a good opportunity to gather more intel and do a little snooping around the mansion.

esora attends the party proper with yuka as her "bodyguard". things are going well until the power goes out and a gun is shot. the room immediately dissolves into a panic, and yuka scoops esora up before making an emergency exit through one of the massive windows. kyoko and shinobu throw out a rope ladder and yuka grabs it at the last second before they make their escape.

[skitskatdacat63]

I feel weirdly compelled by this

[homosexualworkaccount]

Takes you by the shoulders and shakes you violently MAHIRU IS THE ONE PERSON KURO HAS BEEN ABLE TO RELY ON HIS ENTIRE LIFE SOMEONE WHO REFUSED TO LEAVE HIM EVEN WHEN HE PUSHED EVERYTHING AWAY THE ONE PERSON WHO ACCEPTED HIM IN HIS ENTIRETY AND LOVED HIM AND ALL HIS FLAWS THE ONLY PERSON WHO WAITED FOR HIM THE ONE PERSON WHO LOVED HIM SO MUCH HE WAS WILLING TO DIE FOR HIM THEY CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT EACH OTHER BECAUSE NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THEM TO THEIR CORE MAHIRU IS HIS FIRST IN EVERY FACET OF LIFE AND THE THING KURO IS MOST SCARED OF LOSING

[threshasaurus-writes]

In Charge, Chapter 29: Honesty

Fandom: Death Note (no Death Note AU)

Characters: Near, Matt, Mello, L, Teru Mikami, a whole bunch of cameos from canon characters as supporting cast

Ships: Shippy Gen with a friendship triangle (whee!)

Rating: M for violence and Mikami (you'll see) Summary:

Summary:

Matt, Mello and Near work under their mentor, world-famous genius detective L, training to become detectives someday themselves. Matt is generally okay with being in third place when compared to Mello and Near, but things are about to change. When Near suddenly collapses while he and Matt are home alone, the redhead finds himself in charge for the first time ever.

Matt rushes Near to the hospital. Just as a friendship begins to form between the two boys, Mello arrives and complicates the dynamic. Things go from bad to worse, as Near's obsessive nurse Mikami abducts him from the hospital, and Matt, Mello and L must work together to recover him.

(Continuing to add to my Death Note fanfic I first published in 2008. it's only a few chapters from finished after this, so I'm gonna finish it once and for all. We have to get Near some closure for all that I've put him through...

Chapter 1 has detailed content warning info, so be sure to read the author's note!)

Read it here on AO3!

Read it here on FFN!

[crystallinecardinal]

I’ve been working on my Watcher!Grian Desert Duo fic (I Will Only Break Your Pretty Things) and I keep thinking about the progression Grian has to go through from seeing everything through a Watcher lens to reacquainting himself with being a player, as well as what that means, especially when it comes to actually taking care of himself during Third Life.

Long ramble about worldbuilding, Watchers, time, wings, pain, exhaustion, rest, neglect, and feeling safe after the cut. Or, just a really long thought process for a scene in which Scar helps Grian sleep one night in the desert.

I feel like Watchers don’t have to care for themselves in the same way players do. Which, sure, maybe that’s a given, even with the way this fic toys with and alters Watcher lore, but the basics of the idea are still there. Watchers are still beings that feast on emotion, I just like to expand on them a bit.

Point is: Watchers don’t need to physically eat, or sleep, or drink, or preen, or blink, or do anything that a mortal player would have to. Aches and pains aren’t felt by them. You’ll never hear a Watcher complain about a headache from overindulgence, or about unkempt wings. It simply Doesn’t Happen, especially not out in the Void. They are immortal, god-like beings that do not have to exist the same way players do by their very code and biology.

Which, in the end, I think would make it especially hard for Grian, both coming in to being a Watcher, and having most of his power stripped from him as he enters Third Life.

It’s hard to tell how much time passes in the Void. It’s like time is different, in a way, akin to sitting outside the edge of the event horizon of a black hole. To a player, time can feel much shorter or longer than it actually is. Months can speed by in an instant, and just the same, only a few weeks can pass when it feels like years. Time is just Weird in the Void. Watchers barely sense it. Time is infinite to a Watcher, they can manipulate it as they see fit in the worlds they observe.

When Grian first became a Watcher, I can imagine it wasn’t easy to get used to. Imagine, all your life, you’re mortal. Of course, mortal in the vague sense, respawning is a thing you know well. Any player knows about respawning, but the point is: you still can die. Suddenly, you fall into a place filled with stars, and are brought amongst the ranks of beings beyond your world. Just like that, you’re no longer human, if the new eyes and small wings that would surely grow and multiply with time said anything. And now, you don’t need to blink. You don’t feel hot, or cold, or anything. But you feel hungry, a dull sensation not quite like pain that ripples through your senses, spawning a new kind of instinct you aren’t familiar with. And as time presses on, you forget how it once was to be a player, and fall in line with the new normal.

I feel like during that time, lost in the Void, learning what it meant to be a Watcher, Grian felt time slow. It passed for him as it does all Watchers, but it felt like ages. And in the process, he learned how to feed on player emotion, the one thing all Watchers must do to survive, to maintain their code, and he lost himself. Gone was the player Grian, the one smiling amongst friends, and in was Xelqua, the Watcher who had forgotten what it meant to be human, gaze ceaseless.

So, that all leads to an issue. When you’ve forgotten your time as a player, how do you cope with turning mortal again? How do you deal with a new body, with aches in your wings and pain in your muscles? How do you relearn basic functions that don’t come with instinct, how do you learn to take care of yourself again?

It’s a simple answer if you’re Xelqua, taking your old name back: you put on a badly hidden facade, try to dismiss your failing memory, and cope.

Sure, maybe you relearn some of it, or at least the parts you’ve had to learn from years of Watching. Preening is part of that. You’ve only ever had wings as a Watcher, and even those barely had to be maintained. Now, you need to keep up with them as much as possible, and even worse: you can feel all of the sensations that come with it, and absolutely do not want to unpack that. And, of course, you’re trapped in a death game of your own design, meant to feed Watchers, all the while you feel a dull ache in your stomach. Lovely!

So, knowing all this, that brings me to the main thought I’ve been having: What if during the early parts of Third Life, back when Grian first left the Watchers and was stripped of his immortality, he felt vulnerable and unsafe when his eyes were closed?

He’s always had them open, for as long as he can remember. As said previously, Watchers don’t need to blink, Watchers don’t have to sleep, Watchers don’t have to take care of themselves like mortals do, so his eyes have always stayed open in some way. He always Watched, and never stopped, not even in idle dormancy. He’s never been without sight for what feels like years, and he’s never been threatened with pain and possible death for the same timeframe.

Now, stranded in his own death game, he feels like if at any moment he shuts his eyes, closes out his main avenue of sensing danger, then something could kill him. No one’s red yet, but danger still lurks around every corner. He’s not yet used to pain again, nor the way death feels, and it’s worse knowing that he only has three chances. He goes to the desert, bound by oath, and even there, there’s still an ever-present danger, but at least there’s distractions. He has a sand castle to build, a vast amount of sand to light up, and a teammate to keep alive. He ignores the way exhaustion tugs at him, because, well, when you’re really stubborn about keeping your eyes open, who needs sleep when there’s something to be done?

So, what if that’s part of what keeps him awake much longer than a mortal should be awake for? What if it’s not only the drive to complete tasks, getting way too wrapped up in the progress of it, but also the fear of letting his guard down? What if he barely feels the way his body begs him to sleep, all until he’s standing still, but he continues to fight against it anyway?

And then, (here’s the fun part for the Desert Duo enjoyers,) what if it’s Scar who breaks that? Scar of all people, Grian’s new ally and the man he accidentally killed? What if it’s Scar who helps a very sleep deprived Grian to finally let go of his voluntary restlessness, and close his eyes? He has a silver tongue, after all, and in their castle amongst the dunes, maybe it’s one of the few times Grian gives in. One of the first times he lets himself be more vulnerable around Scar, and one of the first times he smiles, warmth in his chest.

All is to say: what if it’s Scar who starts to make Grian feel safe enough to sleep, and starts to make him feel human again?

[twinkskeletons]

seeing a tiktok of someone’s con setup and immediately going to my art tag desperately scouring 4 things i could make into prints

[themyscirah]

If Red Lantern Rankorr has 1000 haters one of them is me. If he has 100 haters I'm there. If he only has 1 hater that is me. If no one hates him I am no longer on this Earth. I hate Rankorr. Fuck that bitch

LMAOO going through my drafts rn and damn I really hated this guy. I mean I still do but idk this is funny to me

[marinerainbow]

If Greasy ever complimented Poppy's physical appearance/features (I.E calling her pretty, or express any desire for her), I don't think she'd really take it seriously.

Even if she didn't know him personally, Grease has probably made a name for himself around Toontown with chasing women, so she'd probably still would have heard of his perverse nature. As such, Poppy would take any nice things he said of her with a grain of salt; just assume he was just looking for somebody and she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Though if they did get closer, she would start to warm up to his words. Even if his words are still reddening, she knows he genuinely means it and doesn't just want to get in her pants.

[televinita]

with apologies to @empress-of-snark, the siren call of concentrated shippy content was Too Great to wait for actually sitting through the films and I just decided to watch this whole video. Which I have now watched ten times at least. I did not expect this to become my new favorite ship of 2023 but here we are.

[pawsitivevibe]

Oh no I finished the comic book I was reading now what am I supposed to read before bed.

[potatoesandsunshine]

just trust me... i'm so right about this one...

everything will be fine as long as they keep Not Talking About This

[beastliness]

[fumifooms]

Hien & Benichidori compilation

Okay so I put a & but this absolutely a shippy post, the hienichidori community is quiet af and there is no discourse but their comics in their Adventurer’s Bible profiles…!!! Many may ask, does Benichidori canonically have a crush on Hien?! Straightforward answer: It’s left heavily implied but yes. Alternate answer: If the framing of Falin in an explosion as Toshiro says that he loves her isn’t meant to associate the explosion with falling in love when it is mirrored in the next page, then… I think it’s a mix of both, I don’t think just this is true because Hien wouldn’t know who Shuro is talking about or even what Falin looks like, but it could be that the explosion is instead meant to show a world vision being shaken, the thing blowing you away. So for Hien, having Shuro say that breaks this unsaid assumption she’s always had that they might end up together, and thus Falin is taken like an explosion to the face. Similarly, for someone with facial dysmorphia and for who appearances and being subservient are everything, having Hien be confident and totally assume her plain looks, even uplifting herself, that also shakes her world like a bomb. And yes it’s not just about the makeup!! Benichidori’s drawn to her confidence, to her unapologetic attitude, to her attitude. Benichidori unexpectedly snapped at Hien too, but she was totally unshaken and she replied casually and lightheartedly even then; Benichidori saying she can be herself with Hien is about Hien not caring about her mask, both her makeup and her subdued demeanor. Hien is canonically special to Benichidori.

And on the note of that comic, I took a picture from my Adventurer’s Bible for this but I think the fantranslations I’ve seen are lovely too, really gets across all the meaning of the original sentence… Where Benichidori said "She was the only one I could be my unadorned self in front of" (which is my fave) or "I’m able to act my honest self with her". Benichidori having body(more specifically facial) dysmorphia is explicitly stated in the Adventurer’s Bible btw.

Pleasee how Hien’s extra is her talking about her life story and Toshiro to Benichidori… How Hien says "That guy is blind!" and Benichidori says "I’ve noticed that 😊" as if saying that Toshiro is blind to what a catch Hien is… Also in the ninja girls’ shared inn room Benichidori puts her futon next to Hien’s bed.