#one worth fighting for {promo}

[sgxena16]

I just binged NCIS: Hawai'i and I'm so bitter it got cancelled. This show is so good and deserves at least 8 seasons.

[cadastrah]

It literally wasn't that bad

[hotshotsxyz]

friction

(8x08 spec) (buddie adjacent) (510 words) so, uh, remember that friction between buck and eddie that got mentioned a little while back? after that promo, i have some spec. mild spoilers for said promo, and therefore the episode

“—and he’s got friends and chess club and I just—what if he never comes back?” Eddie asks. His voice breaks, and Buck—

He wishes, not for the first time, that he knew how to do that thing Eddie always does. How to string together a few words into something that feels like forgiveness and hope and support. He doesn’t, though. He never has.

 “Eddie,” Buck says instead, hoping he might hear it anyway.

“And my parents!” he continues. “They’re not even pretending like—” Eddie’s lips twist and his gaze falls to the floor. His fingers scratch at the label of the beer he hasn’t even started drinking.

“You—you said you were done punishing yourself, right?” The question falls from Buck’s lips without his permission.

Eddie lets out a mirthless laugh. “What, you think I should just go dancing, forget that my kid never wants to see me again?”

Buck suppresses a sigh. “That’s not what I’m saying,” he replies.

“Then what are you saying?” Eddie asks bitterly.

They’ve had this conversation. They’ve had this conversation a hundred times, and Buck’s always been afraid of overstepping, but fuck it, he’s halfway there already and Eddie needs to hear it. And Buck—Buck thinks he maybe needs to say it.

He takes a breath. “Does he even know you want him to come back?”

“What? Of course he does!”

“Have you asked him to?” It comes out creaky and vulnerable in a way Buck doesn’t mean it to, but—

He knows that awful feeling, the one where no matter how much evidence you have to the contrary, you’re sure no one wants you around. Not unless they say it. And Christopher, he’s about a million times better adjusted than Buck ever was at his age, but he’s still a kid. Maybe Buck’s right, maybe he’s wrong, but if it was him? He’d need to hear it.

“I—” Eddie opens and closes his mouth.

“I know you’re doing what you think you have to, but Eddie, I think you’re hurting yourself and Chris,” Buck continues. “If this isn’t you punishing yourself, why aren’t you fighting for him?”

Eddie takes a stumbling step back, like he’s been slapped. “You think I’m not fighting for him?” He asked, wrecked and barely above a whisper.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” Buck pleads. “Tell me—I don’t know, tell me you’ve asked him when he wants to come home, or—or, god, Eddie, told him how much you miss him.”

A muscle in Eddie’s jaw works. “I’m not going to force him—”

“I’m not asking you to!” Buck says, louder than he means to. “But if there’s something you haven’t said to him—then he doesn’t know.”

“You know what?” Eddie asks. He sets his bottle down on Buck’s counter with a heavy thunk. “Fuck you.”

He turns his back and slams the door behind him when he leaves, and for a split second, Buck finds himself thinking about his breakup with Tommy. He shakes his head, and hopes it was worth it.

[baddybaddyadardaddy]

HELLO, IT IS I, BACK WITH ANOTHER UNHINGED POST ABOUT WHY ADAR AND GALADRIEL SHOULD FIGHT SAURON TOGETHER, HOW THE SHOW HAS SET US UP FOR THE "BATTLE OF THE EXES" AND WHY I WILL BE SUPER PISSED IF IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

I appended this to another post, but in response to "What was Galadriel thinking watching Adar do his Uruk funeral ritual," I think the answer was clear.

She was thinking of Finrod.

She was thinking of standing over her brother's dead body, mourning for her lost loved one that Sauron stole from her, and she's realizing that Adar feels the exact. same. thing.

Sauron has taken from both of them what they love most.

She's realizing that she and Adar are on the same mission.

They have the same enemy. And the same goal.

S2Ep2 hints that it would be unwise for Galadriel to face Sauron alone. Gil-galad says it's a bad idea, since she's already been susceptible to Sauron once. Galadriel's repsonse:

"Supposing I was not alone?"

In context, she's pitching him to let Elrond accompany her on her journey. But I think that moment is foreshadowing that there will be someone else at her side when she has the actual fight with Sauron, and I contend that person can ONLY be Adar.

Again, identical quests/goals. I laid out in this post how intentional the show has been about making the mirrors to one another/both sides of the same coin/represenations of dark and light.

They are also the ones who have been most victimized by Sauron. They have both been deceived, as discussed on their dinner date.

It's PERSONAL, for both of them.

It's also personal for Sauron.

Worth noting: it also isn't the first time this triad has been in conflict with one another.

In this scene in S1Ep6, both Galadriel and Adar were both under Sauron's deception. Galadriel thought she was aiding the King of the Southlands, and Adar thought he was... well... just some dude, who by his own admission he really didn't recognize.

My hope is that S2 is setting them up to have this ultimate climactic battle with Sauron where they can both go in with eyes open.

SO NOW FOR THE INSANITY.

As I mention in the previously referenced post, I think "The Last Temptation" signals that there is a third player in the fight between Galadriel and Sauron. Based on all the thematic evidence, as well as the objects we know appear in the fight, Adar's sword (by all appearences), Nenya, and Morgoth's crown, I think all evidence points to Adar.

So here's an completely unhinged breakdown of The Last Temptation track, and what I think is playing out. (I'm not an expert in music, I'm just going off of what I hear as a lay person. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but for now, I'm just getting this theory out of my brain. Take it for what it is: pure, unleaded speculation.)

The track begins with the Ring theme. Fairly obvious-- we know Galadriel is in possession of the Nine heading away from Eregion.

We then get an urgent build into Sauron's theme and ostinato. Almost as if he's in pursuit.

At 1:07, a new theme begins that we have not yet heard before. It's heavy, urgent and percussive, with a choir. I believe his is a new musical motif for a transformed Adar, because I think Nenya will give him some degree of healing from his corruption-- a key reason why we haven't seen him in ANY promo materials yet for Episode 8. But ALSO. Watch the brutal way Adar fights in S2Ep7 and then imagine that while this bit plays. BAMF.

There is a brief flash of Eregion around 1:23... I'm not entirely certain what to make of that, perhaps Sauron conjures some image of either Celebrimbor's death or the city burning?

Then we're back to the percussive Adar theme, COMBINED with Galadriel's theme. These blend perfectly together. So my guess is they're both locked in combat with Sauron here.

Then things start to get tasty.

Around 1:58, we get another variation of Sauron's theme in a high, solo voice. I think this is where Sauron really starts to manipulate both players. This first bit I think might be a manipulation of Adar (the high solo Sauron theme is reminiscant of S2Ep1 in the North). But then Galadriel's them briefly cuts in-- perhaps she's distracting Sauron? Re-engaging him to stop his manipulation of Adar?

So what does Sauron do? He turns his manipulation on her. At around 2:30, Halbrand's them kicks in, in what we can only assume to be a RUDE AS HELL vision.

What cuts through that illusion at about 2:55? ADAR'S THEME.

So then we have, until about 3:20, Adar's theme, racing strings underneath that I read as being connected with Sauron (not musical enough to tell you for certain, but it feels like it races in a similar way to some of his other themes), and GALADRIEL'S THEME, which kicks in at around 3:09. We're really in it now.

Then there is a 10-second build, which breaks out at 3:30 into the Nolwa Mahtar theme. It sounds triumphant, like maybe Adar and Gal have gotten a handle on things... but THEN. 3:47-- the triumphant theme falls apart, collapsing into the eerie, high solo Sauron theme. This, I believe, is where Sauron bests Adar. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a good bet Sauron fatally stabs him here. The music here is very reminiscant of S2Ep1 when Sauron was lying on the ground being stabbed by the orcs, so there's that mirroring effect there.

This is directly followed by a slower, mournful variation of Galadriel's theme. She's lost her ally in the fight, she is now, in fact, left to face Sauron alone. Which we know, from Gil-galad's comment earlier, is a dangerous place for her to be.

Cue Sauron's theme, full men's choir and sinister, at 4:30. He knows he's winning. At 4:43, we hear something that sounds to me (again, not musically trained, vibes only) like Galadriel's ostinato but warped/distorted somehow. Like Sauron is again fucking with her mind, or possibly physically wounding her. I think she could be fighting another vision, or another attempt for him to steal inside her mind and kick her when she's down.

But then there's another little build, and it sounds like we hear the "tinkling" ring sound-- this, I believe, is when Galadriel will retake Nenya from Adar, because we next get another build, which breaks out into Galadriel's triumphant theme yet again. As far as what's happening here, I can't quite say. Galadriel obviously doesn't win this fight outright, because presumably Sauron is going to abscond with the nine... but it sounds like something makes him retreat or perhaps vanish as his theme diminishes around 5:56.

Then, around 6:00, we get Galadriel's theme, slow and mournful, played on a solo harp. (IF WE'RE GETTING AN ADAR IS CELEBORN REVEAL, I'M CALLING THIS NOW: IT'S GONNA HAPPEN HERE, because there was definitely a solo harp playing when she reminisced to Theo about her husband in S1Ep7.)

Regardless, I think this could definitely be a moment between them where he is fatally wounded and she moves to comfort him. There is a creepy sounding moment around 6:24... but it could also be Nenya at work. Then there's an uplifting bit that begins, and eventually morphs into Elrond's theme.

So I think perhaps EITHER Galadriel heals Adar successfully with Nenya, or his wounds are too fatal and he succumbs, having completed his story arc with the redemptive act of giving her the ring back/fighting at her side against Sauron. Either way, Elrond will find them at the end, and see that Adar played a critical role in helping Galadriel fight Sauron. It will be revealed that Sauron stole away with the nine, but that Nenya is protected and restored to its true bearer, so there is still hope.

The Sun Yet Shines.

anyway, let me know what y'all think!

[pimosworld]

Only if you catch me

Pairing-Frankie Morales x f!reader

Series Summary-You meet Frankie when you least expect it. Both of you hiding from your past and trying to find each other won’t be easy, but it’s worth it if forever is with him. 

Series Warnings- 18+,MDNI, NSFW, Angst, hurt/comfort, Slow-ish burn, Explicit Smut, D/S dynamics, canon typical violence, Tom is mentioned (but dead), The boys got the money, Frankie helping reader open up in the bedroom, mentions of past abusive relationships, recovering addict, PTSD, tough family relationships, healing through therapy, protective Frankie, protective TF boys, found family, reader is a photographer , no description of reader other than the nickname Flash. 

WC-7k (who am I?)

A/N- This introductory chapter got me so excited for this. I hope you love these two as much as I do.

[Series Masterlist][Main Masterlist]

Not beta read

Chapter 1. Aperture

This should be a simple shoot.

  In and out. 

  Easy enough to dust off the cobwebs and get your name out there in a new city. An amateur boxer about to go pro. He needs a promo bill for some huge fight he has coming up. The details don’t really concern you about why. It’s the who. 

  Capturing a good shot isn’t about the camera or the angle, it’s not even about the time of day or lighting. That’s all secondary to who and what is in front of the lense. The emotion makes the image feel one hundred times better than the camera could ever try to capture. 

  You figured this would be a good way to dip your toes back into working. 

  You're early. An odd habit you picked up from knowing that the most meaningful shots are captured when everyone’s guard is down. When the family is setting up or when the bride is hanging out with her friends. When everyone is too preoccupied to pose…that’s when the magic happens. 

  It’s a modest gym, warehouse style on the edge of town. Thankfully not far from your new apartment so you didn’t have to stress about still not knowing your way around. Judging by the minimal trucks in the parking lot it’s a private shoot. That helps your nerves settle a little more not having to be in too large of a crowd. 

  You can tell you’re stalling so you brace your hand on your tote bag and the other on the door handle and haul yourself out of the old green Jeep. The most tried and true possession you own besides the Nikon Z nestled neatly in its case. 

  ****

  Low rumbles of men’s voices hit you when you enter the gym. The scent of sweat soaked leather and old wooden floors. The faint hint of liniment and gym mats. 

  The front desk is empty but you wait there for a brief moment. Taking in the clean front entry way  with various pictures on the wall. Some posed and some candids of the most attractive men you’ve ever seen. Just beyond the desk is a large framed photo of some of the men and one brunette clad in military gear. 

  A huge roar of laughter sounds from the other room, a welcoming sound that you feel yourself being pulled towards. So you take a deep breath, shrugging your strap higher on your shoulder and venture towards it. 

  You wanted to look nice,professional on your first job. Now the heels clicking against the wood, signaling to the men that a woman is approaching seems like the worst idea you’ve ever had. All eyes land on you as you enter the main area of the gym. There’s two men in the ring. One man is hunched over, dripping sweat as he looks like he ran several miles. A tall blonde leans on the ropes, looking the opposite of exhausted as he does nothing to disguise the way he rakes up and down your form. A huskier version of him is making his way towards you, a look in his eyes almost like he’s stalking prey, yet there’s something familiar there and it dawns on you that they were in the photo. 

  Another man across the room leans against the wall, his broad back turned away from everyone while he talks on his phone. His hand flits nervously to the back of his neck as he continues his conversation in hushed words. 

  “You’re early. I like that.” The man extends his hand and you compose yourself briefly to offer a former handshake than he expected. You can see it in his eyes as he releases it. “I’m Will, that’s my brother Ben in the ring that you’ll be taking photos of.” 

  “Hi sweetheart.” Ben blows you a kiss with his gloved hand and you raise your eyebrows at the forward gesture. Handsome, cocky, definitely not your type. 

  “Ignore him.” 

  “It’s kind of my job to do the opposite.” You offer up as you make your way to an open bench and he laughs genuinely. 

  You can feel the nerves rolling off you in waves as you open your bag to set up your camera. You know they’re watching, waiting for instruction and something about having the cool heavy metal in your hand always turns you into a bit of a bossy bitch. You don’t mean it but you can tell around these men you’ll have to hold your own or run the risk of being treated like a joke. 

  Will had already gone over in great detail via email what his vision was for Ben’s promo. The man was meticulous in his description of how he wanted his brother to look. You could tell how much he cared about his image in the way he wanted you to capture his youthfulness and passion for the sport. You didn’t need any further direction when you squared up alongside the ring. 

  “You here to capture my boyish good looks?” Ben flexes his muscles as you take a photo catching him slightly off guard. 

  “Just pretend I’m not here.” You gesture towards the other man in the ring who’s finally gained some composure. 

  “That’s James, don’t worry about him. He likes getting his ass kicked.” 

  “Oh…I guess you would know.” Ben scoffs and Will has to hide his smile behind his hands at your banter. Not one to back down from a little teasing and unbeknownst to Ben capturing candid photos while he tries to flirt. 

  You flit your eyes to Will in a silent communication. 

  “Ben! Focus please.” 

  It’s almost immediate the way he switches to fight mode. Dancing around his opponent, toying with him like he’s a child. He doesn’t seem phased by the snap of your camera as you take a few test shots. 

  The way he bites his lip when he’s squaring up his opponent. How he bounces left to right when he doesn’t have a good shot. Maybe only you notice because you’re watching him so intently when he realizes he’s found his opening. His vision zeroes in and his movements cease. 

  That’s when you take the shot.��

  “He’s too photogenic.” The low sultry voice registers behind you but it doesn’t cause you to startle. 

  “Disgustingly so.” 

  He laughs, and there it is again. The boldened, unadulterated laugh that these men have a lock on. 

  You don’t have to turn around to know the mysterious voice is accompanied by the man that you’ve been eyeing since you got here. He’s confident enough to penetrate your bubble of safety to occasionally peek over your shoulder as you check the shots you're getting. 

  If he notices you flinch at the sound of leather meeting skin he doesn’t say anything. 

  “It’s a shame such a handsome face chooses to subject itself to such torture.” You say as you continue to adjust the angle. He glances over to you, watching you work. Trying to keep his eyes off your legs exposed in your knee high sundress. 

  His body is closer to you now, this stranger. 

  “He doesn’t make a habit of getting hit.” He smirks when you look at him and there’s no cover for you as your lips curl into a smile. “It’s easy to not pretend that he’s so good looking.” 

  “Don’t sell yourself short.” 

  He looks at you then as he brushes his fingers along his lips. Chocolate brown eyes piercing into you and you can’t help but snap a picture. 

  It’s brief. The moment of apprehension from him as you study the photo on your lense camera. This stranger is awaiting your approval. Likely not having his photo taken in such an intimate setting in quite some time. Another one of the handsome men from the front desk picture. 

  It takes you by surprise when you see it. 

  If he notices he doesn’t say a word. 

  He’s beautiful. An old world beauty with all hard lines and soft eyes. He sidles up next to you and the warmth emanating from him is enough to have you delirious. 

  “So…what’s the verdict?” 

  You bite your lip and hold on as you glance up at him. His mouth slightly parted in an o shape as he watches you release it. 

  “You’re a natural.” 

  “Francisco.” 

  You give him your name and he says it like a command. 

  “Hey, I’m not paying you to take pictures of his ugly mug.” Ben’s voice cuts through the little moment you were having with him as he flips his friend off, looking a little sheepish at having displayed it in front of you. 

  You send him an apologetic look as you get back to work. You occasionally check the images to make sure the lighting isn’t off. It’s glaringly obvious that Ben is posing and it’s throwing you off. You want him to look more natural but instead it’s coming off like a cheesy catalog. 

  “So…you borrowing that camera from Andy?” There’s that voice again, so close to you and you can’t deny it does something that you wish it wouldn’t. 

  You smirk glancing down at the black and white label just above your lense. 

  ANDY

  “No, that’s her name…Andromeda.” Offering up no further explanation you continue shooting, walking around the ring because you have to find a way to work around Ben's chaos. 

  He’s following closely behind as his heavy footsteps creak on the old wood floors. His arms crossed against his chest as you look over your shoulder. His face reads exactly what you would expect from purposefully leaving someone in the dark for your own amusement. 

  “Andy because Andromeda wouldn’t fit…Andromeda was rumored to be the most beautiful and…” You trail off as you admire it in your hand. “She’s the most beautiful in my collection and the most important to me.” 

  Running his tongue over the front of his teeth you think he wants to make fun but it’s quite the opposite. You’re distractingly beautiful and cute and if he was feeling adventurous he’d call you Andromeda but he’s not confident enough to dish that one out. So he stays quiet. 

  Too quiet. 

  You’re panicking thinking how you’ve embarrassed yourself in front of this handsome man and you should back pedal. Explain away your ramblings because you’re so used to not being understood. Yet he surprises you. 

  “I have a heli named Lucy.” 

  He mentions all casually and you have to register that he means helicopter. Subtle 

  “Francisco.” 

  “Frankie, my friends call me.” 

  “Frankie…you own a helicopter?” 

  Will stepped into the ring to let Ben know he can stop torturing James. Frankie has to thank his friend as he sees him grab Ben to keep him from intruding on one of the best conversations he’s had in awhile. 

  “It’s not meant to be a brag, but yes.” 

  You hum in approval as you turn to look at him. Your eyes pin him to the spot and he feels his face grow hot. 

  “Lucy is a lucky lady.” 

  It’s the gleam in your eyes. The way his stomach does a flip when he gets a whiff of your perfume. He’d throw away all notions of the cliche love at first sight because maybe he finally sees how it’s possible. It also welcomes another uneasy feeling. The feeling that people are so quick to settle for less, something he’s done most of his life because that’s what he thought he deserved. His last few relationships he settled just to feel comfortable and one of those almost took him under. 

  “So did you turn me into a model or what?” Ben slaps Frankie on the back and he’s never wanted to strangle him more. “Or what.” Mumbled under his breath and he catches your smile ear to ear. 

  You don’t answer as you see Will approaching already knowing who has the final say. 

  Ben’s ribbing him, sending all sorts of suggestive eyes at Frankie as he wraps his sweaty body on his shoulders and you slink away to handle business. 

  ****

  “These look great.” You know Will is being nice when it comes to your work…you don’t want nice. You want honest. 

  “They could look better.” He snorts as he looks over at his brother shadow boxing Frankie.

  “Tell me more.” 

  ****

  You’d said your goodbyes and made your way out of the gym with your dignity intact. Stepping out into the parking lot to take the first deep breath in over an hour. 

  Will was thoroughly impressed with the photos. So impressed that he asked you…practically begged you to photograph Ben's upcoming fight. You think this may have just been an audition for that but you can’t be mad since he paid you for today and you got to meet Frankie. 

  He could sense your apprehension and assured you that the fights are nothing but professional and he would be there if you had any concerns. Of course you were secretly hoping Frankie would be there as well. 

  Since moving to Tampa Florida a year ago you knew dating was out of the question. The dramatic fashion in which you ended up here was enough to have you swearing off all forms of a relationship. As the months passed and you watched your savings dwindle you knew it was only a matter of time before you picked up your camera again and tried to find that sliver of hope that you hadn’t lost the passion for something you once loved. 

  Meeting Frankie was unexpected and it makes you wonder if you’re even ready for this. It seems you’re getting a little ahead of yourself because all you received when you left him was a polite nice to meet you. You didn’t miss the way his friends looked at him as though he had more to say. 

  You put the keys in the ignition of your old Jeep praying to anyone listening that it will still turn over. You know it’s on its last leg but you definitely can’t afford a new car right now. The weak ac blows in your face as it roars to life and you curse yourself for having chosen a place so humid that everything clings to you to the point of suffocation. 

  Your phone is buzzing in your tote and you already know who it is before checking. 

  “Hi Dom.” 

  “How’d you know it was me?” You take a long pause and hear her chuckle on the other end. 

  “Dominique, you’re the only person I talk to.” 

  Your sister, the only family member you can still stomach talking to. The only sane one who understood your struggles and didn’t dismiss your need to separate from your toxic mom and stepdad. 

  You felt bad leaving her behind but she had a family of her own that kept her afloat. Her wife Elise and your adorable nephew Casey were the only family you acknowledged at this point. 

  “So how was the shoot?” You can hear it in her voice. You know what she’s really asking. Are you okay?

  “It was great honestly.” You pause long enough for her to seem worried. She always worried, being your older sister. 

  “Hmmm.”

  “I’m being honest. It went a lot better than I thought. I was having second thoughts at first with this being my first one, but the second I started it was like riding a bike.” 

  “And you were fine with the fighting?” A beat of silence. 

  “Yes…it wasn’t really fighting, more so just throwing a few punches and dancing around.” You clear your throat. “The boxer is actually a sweetheart. His friend and brother were there too and they were really nice.” 

  “Ohhh tell me more about this boxer.” 

  “Oh no he’s not the one.-“ You hadn’t stopped yourself in enough time to catch the way you specified that there was one. 

  “The brother…wait no let me guess.” You groan at your sister’s incessant detective skills. “It’s the friend isn’t it?” 

  “It’s no one actually.” Which isn’t quite a lie. “Oh shit.” 

  You hear your sister frantically asking what’s wrong when you see Frankie exiting the gym. It looks like he’s coming right towards you but maybe he’s just parked near you. You don’t seem to be that lucky when he rounds the side of your car and taps on the window. 

  “Give me a sec Dom.” 

  You roll down the window as you try to calm your beating heart. He leans against the side slightly ducking to shield himself from the sun and you notice how snugly his shirt fits around his bicep. 

  “This Jeep has to be almost twenty years old.” He glances in at the pristine interior admiring your mini camera charm hanging from the rearview mirror. 

  “Wow, we’re starting off with insults.” You smile and he can’t help the way it’s already so easy with you. 

  “It was meant as a compliment.” The way he drops his voice and his close proximity has you sweating, or maybe the humidity is taking over. “Anyway…I just wanted to let you know I’ll be there on Friday. Will said you seemed a little nervous.” 

  You groan as you hide your face in your hands “Was it that obvious?” 

  He hesitates as he looks at the worry lines between your brows, wanting to smooth them out with his thumb and he thinks me might actually be losing his mind over you. “No…I’m sure it was fine.”

  Fine

  He removes his cap as he runs his fingers through his hair and it’s not evident if he’s doing it on purpose or if it’s a nervous habit but you wish he would stop looking so handsome. 

  “I look forward to seeing you and Andy on Friday.” His eyebrow arched and his lips curled up into a smile. 

  You plop your hands dramatically on the steering wheel. “I’ll be the awkward one with a camera if you can’t find me.” You both laugh and a moment passes as you wait for something, you’re not sure what. “Bye Frankie.”

  You roll up your window and sigh at the cool air hitting your damp skin as he takes one last look at you over his shoulder. You think he’s heading to leave but he retreats back into the gym and you realize he came out here looking for you. You are so fucked. 

  You shakily hold the phone up to your ear. “Dom, you still there?”

  A shriek echoes in your ear as you hold the phone away. 

  “I’m deaf now…are you happy?” You can practically see her face on the other end. All teeth and tongue as she tries to contain her sarcasm. 

  “Who’s Frankie, how does he know about Andy? What’s happening on Friday?” She’s spiraling now and you don’t have the patience to sit in this parking lot any longer. 

  “I gotta go Dom, I’ll explain later.” 

  “Don’t you dare hang up-“

  ****

  Friday

  You’d been nervously counting down the days leading up to the fight for several reasons. The thought of seeing Frankie again and the fact that Will had a lot of confidence that you were going to be perfect for the job. Despite never having watched a professional fight let alone photographed one terrified you. 

  Blood made you squeamish and the thought of possibly witnessing any broken bones had you sweating through your shirt. 

  You’re early again but Will was impressed by that. The fight is being hosted at a much larger gym so you wanted to make sure you didn’t get lost on the way. Giving yourself a once over before hopping out of your car with your tote and Andy in tow. 

  Heels didn’t seem appropriate for a fight so you went for a casual look of jeans and some thrifted tee shirt from ages ago that had Mike Tyson on the front. 

  Going anywhere alone always gives you anxiety but you muster up the courage to head inside. The moment you step through the door it’s an assault on your senses. The unmistakable scent of stale sweat and cheap cologne greets you. There’s a lot of people already here crowding around the ring and taking their seats. The air vibrates with a hum of conversations, discussions of strategy and predictions. 

  There’s a clear divide of supportive colors, some people clad in red and other patrons in all black with Miller boxing on the back of their shirts. 

  You’re thankful no one seems to notice you as you mill about searching for that one familiar face you’re hoping is here like he said he would be. 

  You’re taken aback by a promo poster of Ben along the wall. The image of the tall blonde flexing with his arms raised, looking proud as a peacock was definitely a photo you took the other day. Whoever designed the poster did an amazing job at not taking away the raw charm of the original photo. 

  “Admiring your work.” Will steps up next to you, arms crossed as he stares proudly at the photo. 

  “This poster looks pretty good for such a quick turn around.” You told him with a genuine smile. 

  He shrugs his shoulders. “I dabble here and there with photoshop.” 

  He notices you glancing around him, a small smirk gracing his features. “Looking for someone?”

  This isn’t the first time you notice how obnoxiously intuitive he is. “No, just taking in the scenery.” It’s a lie he'll let you get away with for now. 

  “I’m actually glad you’re early, if you don’t mind snapping some shots of Ben in the locker room.” He gestures towards the large double doors across the room. 

  You have to laugh at him. “I don’t mind doing my job, Will. It’s what you hired me for right?” 

  He starts walking and you follow close behind. “Sorry, I’m used to giving orders to men and asking for permission from women.” 

  “Will, please don’t ever apologize for that.” You add before he opens the door stepping aside to usher you in. His presence is so reassuring, it’s dizzying being around men that actually make you feel safe for the first time since you left home. 

  Will whistles and it echoes off the walls in the locker room. Ben glances up from his hands being taped and shoots you a nervous smile. You can tell his attitude is in fight mode, his adrenaline no doubt focused on his opponent. The bouncing, jovial man from the other day is subdued, concentrating on the task in front of him. 

  Your hands instinctively reach for your camera  to capture the pre-fight moments. There’s a woman taping his hands with red hair and strikingly beautiful green eyes. She doesn’t seem to mind as you close in on their space to get a shot of her intricate tape. Ben’s hands shake slightly but he does his best to hold them still. 

  He’s clad in all black shorts and shrugs off the Miller boxing shirt when she’s done taping. He can’t help himself as he turns to you and flexes. 

  “I think this is your signature pose.” You say as he turns to his brother, sending him a look of  ‘I told you so’. 

  “Don’t encourage him.” The woman adds as Will slides up next to her planting a kiss on her cheek. 

  “I think you both forgot why she’s here.” Ben gestures to you. “Yours truly is the main event.” 

  “I don’t know how the other guys gonna fit in the ring with Ben and his ego.” Will and the woman laugh as Ben looks less than amused and you snap a photo, candids being your favorite. 

  “I’m sorry, excuse my manners.” His hand placed gently along her lower back as he ushered her towards you. “This is my wife Amber.” 

  She raises her eyebrows at him as you offer your name and you look slightly confused as Ben scoffs. “I’m his fiancé, but I should be flattered at how eager he is to be my husband.” 

  “Wife has a better ring to it.” He leans in kissing her again and Ben just groans. 

  “They’re like this all the time. It’s obnoxious.” He says with mock disgust. 

  You snap another photo of the intimate moment, since they didn’t protest the first. I think it’s beautiful. 

  ****

  Still no sign of him

  But you can’t think about that right now as Benny prepares to enter the ring. The bright lights surrounding the room and the raucous noise is starting to get to you but you take a few deep breaths and hope you can hold out. 

  Amber and Will are preoccupied on the sideline, hyping Benny up as he sized up his opponent. Who somehow seems two times the size of the young blonde. Something tells you not to underestimate him as the stone cold look washes over his features, making anyone who stands in his path sorely regret it. 

  The crowd roars as the bell signals the start of the fight. Your camera poised and ready with your nerves and excitement swirling in equal measure. If you thought Ben sparring the other day was bad, you were wildly unprepared for the sound of the first blow to his opponent’s face. You wince behind your camera flash as the distinct grunt of a possible broken nose is evident. Ben takes a wide shot to the ribs but he doesn’t falter. Blow after blow and it seems you’re getting more comfortable with the onslaught of violence for some odd reason. 

  Perhaps it’s the way Benny has handled each one or the fact that you’re finally getting the shots you so desperately wanted the other day. He’s actually focused on what’s in front of him and not on you. You can drown out the rest of the noise besides Will's coaching and Ambers cheers of encouragement. The shutter of Andy is all you need. 

  “Sweetheart, you should take my picture.” 

  You recoil at the sweaty palm on your lower back and the pungent smell of cheap liquor invading your senses. It’s no surprise when you turn to see a random man, bloodshot eyes from too many long nights and too much booze. You already knew by the sound of his voice that it wasn’t who you’ve been expecting. 

  “No thanks.” You gesture to your camera. “I’m sort of working here.” 

  You continue to try and focus back on the fight as it seems Benny has him on the ropes and it’s not too long before the other man is going down. 

  He’s closer now, caging you against the ring as his hand threatens to move lower and everyone is too preoccupied to notice that you want to crawl out of your skin. 

  “Come on hun, you don’t have to be bitch.” The last part he practically spits at you and with his opponent keeled over momentarily Benny’s eyes flash to you like a caged animal. 

  You think for a brief moment he might jump over the ropes but he flashes you a wide grin and continues to back up as the ref gestures his hands for the countdown. 

  The pressure is suddenly off you and you feel like you can breathe again, as you whip around to see where he went. “You know you shouldn’t touch women without their permission.” Frankie’s large palm is gripping the man’s shirt as he struggles to get out of his grasp. 

  “Get the fuck off me Morales, I know you’re not gonna hit me.” Frankie's eyes flash to you briefly in worry, a signal that he knows this creep and doesn’t want to be associated with him. 

  Frankie drags him by the collar just out of earshot as he sees you turn back to the fight so as not to miss any important shots. 

  “Listen up Jones.” He grits out through clenched teeth. “You’re gonna get yourself in some real trouble one of these days.”

  “Hey, Morales I didn’t know she was your lady okay.” 

  “She’s not…” He lets out a sigh of frustration. “Just quit fucking around, I can tell you’ve been drinking again. If I don’t see you at a meeting this week I’m gonna throw you into the ring with Ben and see if he can knock some sense into you. Comprende?” 

  He releases him with force as he shrugs his shoulders, trying to smooth out his shirt. “Ya ya, you’ll see me.” 

  Frankie watches the man disappear into the crowd toward the direction of the bar and just shakes his head. You’re still there as the ref signals that Benny won the fight and he shoves his way back through to you on the sideline. 

  There’s a look of relief and something else on your face when you turn to him. 

  “Benny won!” You flash him a bright smile as he laughs to himself. 

  “He always does.” It’s said assuredly and proud as you turn back to the ring. His arms lean protectively on the ropes beside you, careful not to touch you but close enough where no one would try to push you out of the way. 

  You glance down at the monitor to take a deep breath as you feel him behind you. His woodsy cologne mixed with the fresh body wash wafts towards you. That mixed with the fact that he was so instantly protective of you has your head spinning. 

  Trying desperately to focus back on your job you realize the last shot Benny’s slightly blocked by the ropes. You let out a huff of frustration as Frankie leans down close to your ear. 

  “Everything okay hermosa? Is it Andy?” No it’s you

  You close your eyes as you let the deep lull of his voice calm you. The voice you’d waited hours to hear. The one you couldn’t stop thinking about since that first day. 

  “Ya everything is fine.” You laugh to yourself at his genuine concern for your most prized possession. “I just can’t see very well.” 

  He worries his lip hoping he’s not overstepping after your encounter earlier. “I have an idea.” 

  Intrigued, you turn to him as he gestures to the side of the ring. “Step up.” You tilt your head at him and he raises his eyebrows and points to the ledge. 

  “Frankie.” 

  “I promise I won’t let you fall.” You falter for a brief moment, but the crowd cheers as Benny runs around the ring and you can’t waste another shot. 

  He steps up behind you, careful not to touch until you’re ready as you take one hand and hoist yourself up with the rope. Your other hand is securely on your camera. You think you’re fine but the rope gives a little and you start to fall back but the breadth of his shoulders is right behind you as he instructs you to lean on him. 

  Your heart is going to pound out of your chest as you realize how intimately he has you wrapped up. His arms around your thighs hold you steady and yet you can tell he’s doing it with the utmost composure to make you feel comfortable. 

  Benny runs over to you, flexing his arms with his signature pose, coined by you. Your hands still aren’t moving and Frankie nudges you slightly. 

  “I’ve got you.” You sure hope he does for your sake. The way he’s looking at you and holding you right now, you don’t think you’d be able to stand up on your own. 

  You turn back to Benny and snap a few shots of his winning smile. 

  “Fuck me, the flash is on.” You make a few adjustments and disable the automatic flash. The bright lights surrounding the ring provide plenty of light amongst the room. 

  Frankie has to take a few deep breaths, especially when your choice of words has him thinking things he shouldn’t with your body as close to his as it could get. He’s trying to be professional, he did suggest this after all and it would be rude to take advantage of the situation. 

  He can tell you’re relaxing as you go back and forth between glancing at the screen and Benny. Your ass is perched  perfectly along his shoulder as his arms protectively bracket your legs to keep you upright against the ropes. He can smell vanilla and something familiar, even through your jeans which he’s grateful for, if not for them his cheek would be touching the smooth skin on your thigh. 

  The crowd starts to disperse as Will and Amber join Benny in the ring. Benny playfully jumps on his older brother as he shrugs his sweaty body off of him. Despite you not taking any more pictures Frankie still has you wrapped as they come over to join you. Amber sends you a knowing look and your face grows hot as you halfway pretend to look over photos. 

  “So…how did it turn out?” Ben bounds over with a gleam in his eye. Adorned with a few scrapes and bruises but otherwise untouched. 

  He leans on the ropes as you hold out the camera flicking through a few of your favorite shots. His arm draped over you and the sweat and adrenaline is rolling off him. You can’t be too upset, the man just single handedly pummeled his opponent like it was just another day. Frankie swats him playfully to save you from the post fight stench about to seep through your tee shirt. 

  “Sorry, he doesn’t really know what personal space is.” You glance down to Frankie and realize how ironic that statement is coming from the man who's been the closest to you physically in over a year. 

  “Oh shit, she got a perfect shot of me crushing his nose.” Ben jumps up and down as Will sends you a half apologetic look. 

  You’re slightly knocked off kilter as Frankie tightens his grip on you. 

  You look over to see another handsome dark haired man pulling himself up to the ropes next to you. 

  “Who might you be?” His aquiline smile and toned muscles rippled through his shirt as he grips the rope. You recognize him from the photo on the desk but opt to stay silent. Assessment was your strong suit and he seems like the type that likes a challenge. 

  Amber looks like she’s going to say something but doesn’t get the chance as you’re quite literally swept off your feet. Your grip on Frankie’s arm tightens as he pulls you away from the ropes and the sickeningly sweet man beside you. 

  “Relax hermosa, I’ve got you.” He gently sets you down and grabs your hand, pulling you even further from the prying eyes as you try to catch your breath. 

  ****

  Santiago points at you and Frankie as he shrugs his shoulders. Indignation dripping off his features. 

  “Oh, I know he’s frustrated when he’s gone non verbal” Ben teases as he ruffles Santi’s hair. 

  Will sidles up next to his fiancé, wrapping his arms around her as he leans in. 

  “You’re staring at her like a piece of meat babe.” 

  “Sorry.” She hisses under her breath. “It’s just…she would be perfect for the wedding.” 

  “I know, but why don’t we give her some space. Let her get settled in.” He nods his head toward the two of you. “Also maybe give Frankie a chance to ask her out before you ask her to photograph the wedding. It would be awkward if she said no to him.” 

  “How do you know he’s asking her out?�� 

  Will lowers his voice as Santiago raises an eyebrow at him, doing his best to pay attention to Ben and eavesdrop. 

  “Look at his stance, he can’t stop moving from one foot to another.”

  “He’s taken his hat off twice.” 

  “Now his hands are in his pockets, and I can almost guarantee he’s sweating.” 

  ****

  You’re not sure what to do as he stares at you. His scent envelopes you even now that you’re apart. 

  Frankie clears his throat awkwardly as he bounces from one foot to another. He’s nervous and you’re not entirely sure why, seeing as though you’d spent the better part of the fight attached to his shoulder. 

  “I ugh…hope this wasn’t too traumatizing for you.” 

  You laugh as you dip your head. “It was definitely eventful. But you made it a lot easier to handle.” 

  He tries to hide his smile as the red creeps up his neck. His obvious nervous tick as he takes off his hat for the second time, running his fingers through his hair. You have the sudden wild urge to do it yourself as you busy your hands with the hem of your shirt. 

  “We usually go out for drinks after his fights to celebrate.” He leaves it open ended as he watches you visibly tense. 

  Shit 

  Shit

  “It’s been a really long day.” Not entirely a lie. 

  You can see his demeanor go from nervous wreck to utter panic and you can’t leave him out on a limb. 

  “Listen Frankie, I have to be honest with you. I don’t drink. I’m not a buzzkill or anything but…”

  “I’m sober.” He doesn’t mean to shout it at you but it comes out all rushed and now he can feel the sweat dripping down his back. “If that changes anything, if not I understand.” Frankie feels like he’s scrambling and realizing how much easier this was when he wasn’t sober. 

  You let out a sigh of relief as you glance to your right at the small audience huddled around the ring. Santiago quickly turns around while Amber and Will do an awful job of seeming interested in the ceiling. Benny flashing you a thumbs up as you chuckle to yourself. 

  “I would love to join you guys, another night maybe. I think I’ve had enough action for one day.” You hope the open ended invitation isn’t completely shutting you off from any chance with Frankie. 

  Every nerve ending in his body is screaming at him to stop but you do something to him that he hasn’t felt in a long time. That small subconscious part of his brain knows if he leaves it like this he may never work up the nerve to say something. 

  “Would you be up for dinner? Maybe sometime next week?” His voice cracks a little at the end like he’s some kind of pubescent boy. If the floor could swallow him whole or Benny could come over and just put him completely out of his misery that might suffice for the next few weeks. 

  You bite your lip, consciously or unconsciously. He doesn’t care either way. Some wild part of his brain wants to reach out and pull it down with the pad of his thumb. 

  “I would love to go to dinner.” 

  Relief floods his features and you have to fight the grin that crosses over your face. 

  “So it’s a date.” 

  Fuck a date. 

  You haven’t been on one of those in ages. 

  “Ya Frankie, it’s a date.” 

  He’s finally stopped fidgeting and he seems so much more confident now that you can really appreciate him. 

  You're both in your own little bubble of flirtation and you could care less who or what’s going on around you. 

  “Would it be okay if I hugged you?” 

  You smile. “I think after how close we were for the last hour it would be weird if you didn’t.” 

  His arms wrap around you instantly and that familiar scent is becoming so comforting for you. You have to fight the urge to deeply inhale as your nose is pressed against his chest. His touch is so delicate and grounding all at once and you fear you’ll grow to associate him with someone safe. 

  Why would that be a bad thing?

  The last time Frankie was this impulsive he got himself into a lot of trouble. This doesn’t quite feel the same as he tries not to inhale the scent of your shampoo as his cheek rests on the crown of your head. The way your body molds perfectly into his. The way he has to gain some level of composure when it comes to you and yet all reason has gone out the window. 

  It’s dizzying when you finally break apart. Your shoulder bag slipped slightly down and he reached over to secure it for you. 

  “Well, I should say bye to everyone.” 

  “I’ll do it on your behalf if you want to make a break for it.” He winks at you and your knees might give out right then and there. 

  Letting out an exasperated sigh. “You’re a lifesaver Francisco.” 

  You wave goodbye to more than a few confused faces and exit the gym to a mostly empty parking lot, inhaling the fresh night air. 

  ****

  “Did she let you down easy?” Benny teases as his brother smacks him on the back. 

  “Yee of little faith gentleman.” Amber says as she directs her attention to Frankie. 

  “As a matter of fact, we’re going on a date next weekend.” 

  Amber squeals and Benny pats his friend in the back as Santiago looks thoroughly annoyed at still being left in the dark. 

  Will's phone pings in his pocket and he pulls it out, the widest shit eating grin plastered on his face. 

  “Our boy is a little rusty.” 

  All heads turn to Will confusion written among their faces. 

  “You’re gonna need her number if you’re gonna take her on a date, Fish.” 

  Okay, so maybe he was a little rusty but he had a date. With you. 

  “Alright boys…and Amber. Let’s get some drinks to celebrate.” Benny jumps over the ropes like it’s nothing and heads toward the locker rooms as the rest of the men follow. 

  “Is someone gonna tell me who she is!?” Santiago yells out to them as they all leave him seemingly in the dark. 

  At least for now, Frankie’s gonna keep you to himself. 

Comments and reblogs are much appreciated

Taglist- @sawymredfox @morallyinept

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[babalu3rd]

Agatha All Along spoilers for ep 6:

Okay so now that we got Billy's backstory out of the way I'm hoping the rest of the episodes will have more coven dynamics in them. I like Teen but I fell in love with the found family and AgathaRio-exes-with-a-lot- of-feelings-still-there dynamics of the show.

Not sure how to feel about the ambiguous reveal(?) that perhaps Rio was not physically present in Agatha's TruCrime™️ delusions. Perhaps she wasn't physically there but her being The Green witch/Death makes it possible she was there just on another plane of reality. Her being behind the glass in the interegation scene/Agatha looking at the painting irl might symbolize that. But we know she definitely was there physically for the fight in ep 1 since Billy notes in ep 4 that "the charismatic but scary lady is back".

I did laugh out loud at the AGaTha iS JOlenE???

And that end scene...give all the rewards to Kathryn Hahn for her acting chops! The teary eyes as she says "It's good to see you again, Billy" fml that was so guh! Tugged at my heartstrings for real. I think she truly cares for the twins even though she probably didnt mean to. A softie at heart Miss Harkness, you can't fool us!

Anyway,

the promos make it look like we'll have an Agatha vs Rio fight coming up and if so I hope it will be them fighting out their unresolved history/sexual tension and ending with a gay explosion (in a good way). This will probably not be until the last episode but I believe we'll see a lot more with and about Agatha and Rio in the next eps. I for one can't wait! I choose to have faith in Jac and Kathryn/Aubrey that they will make it worth the wait.

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

Aight here’s a few of my favorite SP fics that no one asked for

I’m generally more of a one shot kinda lad but since getting into South Park I’ve read SO MANY GREAT longer ones so here’s just some highlights: (all on ao3)

Ship In A Bottle FayOfTheForest. One of the first sp AU’s I read, we got PIRATES. HOMOEROTIC SWORD FIGHTING. WLW CREEK. SLOW BURN STYLE. (Injured stan my beloved) KENNY. BUNNY. The parents SUCK. Literally such a kickass story!

This House of Mine by OrcaTimes. VIOLENCE. GANG ACTIVITY. CREEK. I really love the characterization of everyone in this fic, especially Craig. Seriously man. Also THE K2 IN THIS SLAYS (we got some PRIME Kyle injury too god I love him) THE ENDING IS SO SATISFYING TOO!!!

Peppermint by boxwinebaddie. Bro. Literally my all time favorite style fic. I’m so serious. The writing and story are BEAUTIFUL LIKE SO FUCKING AMAZING The PINING. THE HEADCANONS. I COULD GO ON FOR HOURS. Pls if you check out any of my Recs READ THIS ONE.

Maybe For Real This Time & The Kids Are Alright by WeirdBBQDad. Dude. I have no words other than KENNY FUCKIN MCCORMICK. Also Style. Also families. Just- just check it out.

Hang ‘Em High by littledeathsinmusicalbeds. Cowboy au. Creek. Established Style. Bounty hunter Kenny. Massive slay.

The Thief Trilogy by wintergrew. WHEN I SAY IT LIVES IN MY HEAD RENT FREE. The world building is PHENOMENAL literally my favorite SOT AU OF ALL. Long as hell, but SO worth the read holy fuck. I adore Stick Of Truth.

You’re The Prettiest Boy I’ve Ever Seen by burnt_pancakes. CREEK. STYLE. MISCOMMUNICATION. BUNNY. KENNY IN GENERAL. the friendships in this are PERFECT.

Your name written upon mine by sooduhnim. SOT STYLE. Soulmate au that’s INCREDIBLE seriously I love this one and can’t wait for an update.

How We Began by PastorCraigEnjoyer. Ok yes I’m cringy as shit for the self promo but this is my favorite long fic that I’ve written. Slow burn SOT STYLE, no war just fantasy gays falling in love, injury, sickfic, all my favorite bullshit and I loved writing it ok.

N1SM by kiritila. A classic in the fandom. Style. A masterpiece.

Between the Sinners and the Saints by KaiterTot. Oh. My. God. When I say this one altered my brain chemistry… THE ENDING DUDE HOLY-

A Few Last Wolves by Jwink85. Yes, I am a resident of the State Of Style by way of Creek Nation but this is Cryle. And it’s a slay. If y’all liked Frank and Bills episode in TLOU, it’s kind of an au of that. It works man.

Winter Butterfly ALSO by Jwink85 and ALSO Cryle. What can I say it’s incredible. The Style in the beginning is CUTE until shit hits the fan, too, and I thought this fic was a really interesting take on all the characters and relationships. I adore Tweek in this one too.

Something Sweet Like Honey by bluebryy. Ok this one is unsettling and creepy Craig makes me feel icky but I cannot WAIT for an update on that fic, I got my fingers crossed for Style endgame. Also CHECK OUT THEIR ART ON HERE they converted me to a short king Kyle truther and it’s a slay tbh.

Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space by gremlinteeth. A classic. The first sp multi chapter I read. THE LORE BRO. CREEK. STYLE. STANS CHARACTERIZATION GOES SO HARD HES MY BOIIIII

Ok. That’s all my recs for now. Sry for being insane.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Gachi-Bachi: A Tale of Two Roads to Success (A Discussion)

Back again with another think piece on this blog. And while the last two came from an inspiration of topics that I had floating around in my head for awhile, this one came about from me scrolling on twitter (I'm not calling it X) recently and noticing the in real time evolution of two of the arguably biggest battle shonen releases of the 2020s. That would be Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi.

However, this isn't gonna be a simple compare and contrast of the series as works of fiction as I personally feel each one has different qualities that really distinguish them from each other in a way that doing a comparison wouldn't be too interesting. Rather what intrigues me is how they are a fascinating study in how series become big so to speak and despite the overlap in fans, there's actually some pretty key differences in their success stories that highlight greater things in the manga industry in particular. So let's ask ourselves: how did we get here, what role has fanbases played in it, what role has their respective magazines played in this, and just how truly successful are these series?

Background and Rise

Now for those who are just not initiated, I'll briefly explain the premise of these two series.

Gachiakuta by Kei Urana is a series set in a dark fantasy world where an orphan named Rudo is banished to the trash filled abyss after being framed for the murder of his adoptive father. In the Abyss Rudo discovers he has the power to use his magic gloves to turn objects into weapons, which he uses as a member of the Cleaners. He fights trash monsters and criminals in a journey to get back home and take revenge on the one who framed him.

Kagurabachi by Takeru Hokazono is an urban fantasy series set in contemporary Japan that deal with Chihiro, the son of a mystical blacksmith who had forged six magic swords. Chihiro's father is killed by a group of magical mobsters and his swords taken from him. Chihiro, armed with a secret seventh magic sword, will cut a blood path through Japan's criminal underbelly and take revenge on those responsible for his father's death.

I know Im grossly summarizing both works because I'm focusing not on the series themselves but rather the things surrounding each of them. So if you wish to know more, please check them out yourselves and see if you enjoy them. And just for transparency's sake, I have made multiple posts on this blog about Gachiakuta so I think its safe to say I enjoy it quite a bit. While my relationship with Kagurabachi is not that intimate as I actually don't read much Weekly Shonen Jump anymore, I did at least read the first volume just so I can say, I totally see why this got a following. Also just for clarity as I know the internet can flatten time in many instances, I want to point out that while I'd call these series contemporary, its worth noting that they're not exactly same time rising stars. Kagurabachi came out this year, in 2024, while Gachiakuta came out in 2022. A whooping two year lead. Hot did Kagurabachi get so hot? How?

Well if you're familiar with Kagurabachi in even a tertiary form you probably remember this meme.

This was a piece of promo art used by Jump along with a brief summary of the series before it was publishized. Now for a little context, at this time, two of Shonen Jump's biggest action staple series, My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, were in their twilight stages. And at the time the shonen jump magazine had an interesting assortment of genres probably more than the last two decades. However, while One Piece would still be evergreen and their were action series such as Sakamoto Days and Undead Unluck, there was a hunger for a new battle series. And not just a new battle series, a long term investment battle series.

So when the news came down that WSJ would be releasing a "urban fantasy revenge sword battle series" with an accompanying art that definitely would fit alongside the heroes of the 2000s like Ichigo Kurosaki or Death the Kid, there was a reasonable excitement. Course there was also a bit of an over enthusiasm. Now like I said in my 2000s anime nostalgia post, I don't think this definitively means anything deep that there are just people who got into anime around the 2000s who just enjoy that types of series they were introduced to and were excited for more of that. However, over enthusiasm on the internet, is always prime material for ribbing.

So a lot of people on Ani/manga twitter saw slews of people posting this, and I mean this with no disrespect, kinda bored looking guy drawing his sword and being excited for a series that hadn't come out. This lead to of course memes. Lots of memes.

That this was the best jump manga of all time before a single chapter came out. It even lead to a bunch of people redrawing this promo image several times with different characters each with the same kind of expression. Now of course, this did ignore the fact that there was at least a translated one-shot released by Hokazono that people could at least check out to see if they enjoy his work. As well as the fact this kinda happens everytime there's a new jump rotation. Its just kinda in fan nature to get hyped for something even if all they have is a simple description. But lots of memes tend to flatten out context.

And so it seemed like that was that, the set up for the ultimate punchline. People had some genuine excitement, a bunch of guys on twitter made a mountain of ironic excitement, and now all the series had to come out and not live up to that hype. But then Kagurabachi did come out and the chapter was good. Sure it wasn't change your life spectacular or anything, but for a first chapter of a brand new series, it did exactly what it needed to do: Clearly introduce the stakes of the world, who the main character is, what their motivation is, mixing in some action set pieces, and leaving a little room for intrigue to watch the series grow. It hit the emotional points it wanted and hit the action beats it wanted. The end. That wasn't bad at all. Quite the opposite.

So here we are, left with what was essentially a free marketing campaign for people who probably expected it to get the shonen jump axe like a lot of new action series tended to get and instead they got something pretty okay. If there was ever a group of people vindicated it was those guys excited for Kagurabachi for the start.

Yes I know, meme popularity can be dumb or annoying. And some super fans and hype beasts who want to be there on the ground floor can be kinda cringe, but there is no doubt this was one of the most successful social media campaigns ever for a series that actually was managing to justify it. And for the next few weeks it would keep going and irony was almost completely replaced with sincerity.

The fact this was actually getting Shueisha's social media to acknowledge twitter hashtags and release a promotional trailer for it in English was such a first. Even if you don't like Kagurabachi or are indifferent to it, there is no denying this was unique.

But I've spent all this time reminiscing about Kagurabachi's social media rise. What about Gachiakuta hmm?

Well Gachiakuta was a series made by Kei Urana who had served as an assistant to Atsushi Okubo on the Weekly Shonen Magazine series, Fire Force. Fire Force itself is an odd beast we don't have the time to fully get into, but it was pretty popular for a non jump series and featured Okubo, a creator who has possibly one of the most devout fanbases ever, striking it big with many people's formative anime, Soul Eater. Urana herself was a massive fan of the series and if you've read Gachiakuta you can see the inspiration. However, when it was time for Fire Force to come to a close, WSM had announced that a new series by Okubo's assistant would be starting just before its end. And people were excited right? Well not exactly. Cause you had to be looking in the right places to even notice this announcement.

At the time, WSM series were mostly readable on Azuki. However, there seemed to be a weirdly non commutable relationship with Azuki and WSM's publisher Kodansha. As such it was kinda a gamble if a new WSM series would even show up on Azuki let alone simelpubbed. So it seemed like whatever Gachiakuta was would be Japan exclusive. But as if by miracle, the translation group, Pair of 2+ came in and dropped an English version of the chapter on release. The first chapter of Gachiakuta was pretty strong though mostly for Urana's incredibly striking artstyle. Made even better by the fact that the world of Gachiakuta was a fantasy world. And not fantasy in the way a stereotypical isekai is borrowing from romanticized European fantasy. But rather this sorta grudge world that was capable of having what looked like modern convinces, but there was things like a mysterious trash pit, a bunch of soldiers who dressed in ostentatious uniforms and a ginormous and intimidating trash creature.

I know it might seem kinda like a broken record now, but a big thing in the 2010s era of action manga and anime was a move towards more grounded and contemporary setting with stories. Juxtaposing supernatural or spectacular elements with the modern day Japan structure and order. Plenty of series were popular with this such as My Hero, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, hell even Demon Slayer does the same though set in a turn of the century version of Japan. These certainly have an appeal and obviously they're not going anywhere, but there was a growing perception that fantasy worlds in manga were kinda fading. We weren't really getting a bunch of One Pieces. Were were getting stuff closer to Bleach. So of course, deny someone something long enough and they become enthusiastic for the tiniest taste of it.

So with all this, how was Gachiakuta's first few weeks. Well outside of some territory nods and the obvious "This manga is trash" jokes. It kinda stayed low key. With people relying on scan groups to handle it, there was really no guarantee of consistent momentum. Sometimes it'd take two weeks to get a chapter out in English while the Spanish versions were available. sometimes another scan group may come in a drop a chapter, making it harder to find the series in one place. However, all of this really did end up benefitting Gachiakuta. Because when you remove convenience you end up creating your strongest soldiers. If you were actively looking for Gachiakuta and not just waiting for an app update, that meant you were committed. And committed people had to use word of mouth to get this out there. If there was a moment of big promotion it would be when AniTuber Gigguk's Trash Taste podcast had well know Vtuber (Full disclaimer I know almost nothing about Vtubers or Hololive. I'm sorry in advance if I'm not going into greater detail on their significance) Mori Calliope discuss the Next Manga award winners and give Gachiakuta a shout out.

So, we had Bachibros and the twitter take over, while we had Gachibros and their slowly growing cult classic. Both methods ended up creating some real die hard fans, but the visibility and promotion of both series is very different. And ties into...

How Each Series Respective Company Has Handled Them

So before I start this section, I know I've made social media a big reference point for the success of these series. I want to make it clear that social media popularity isn't a full story. Something may be popular on twitter or YouTube but not necessarily be successful. I think social media can be a good barometer of the actual interest of a series, but not its end all be all for its results. And I think no series really knew this better than Hunters Guild: Red Hood.

For those unaware, Hunters Guild: Red Hood was a series that released in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2021 and was a big darling with Animanga twitter. Its art style, its premise on western fairytales, going for a more traditional dark fable vibe, and of course attractive characters. It was easily the series a bunch of people were calling the next big thing. And then it flopped. It was regularly last place in the popularity polls and its Japanese volume sales were really unimpressive. So it got axed by Jump.

To say this caused an outrage with people would be an understatement. This caused a trend of people really trying to find "the answer." Try and make this seemingly senseless action make sense. Well tragically if you are a manga industry watcher like me you know that this isn't actually all that unique.

For a lot of non Japanese fans, particularly Americans, we never had the accessibility of the Shonen Jump app or the Manga+ app in the 2000s-2010s. If you wanted manga, you were using MangaStream and MangaPanda which had focused on basically the biggest series in the industry. While countless series that have run in jump and other magazines have just been ended after 20 chapters. But that information wasn't available to us in real time the way it is now.

If you're around my age range and know about the shonen jump ranking system, you were probably introduced to the concept through the series Bakuman, manga about manga that was really the first popularized look at how the sausage was made in the Shuiesha offices. A big thing that was a point of tension was the rankings. If a series fell low consistently in the ranks of readership surveys filled up by the ones who purchased a copy of shonen jump and submitted it, then it would be cancelled by jump. Now its important to remember, Bakuman was a dramatized recreation of how Shueisha operated. Things were exaggerated in the name of making an entertaining and tension filled series. In reality, the ranking system is important, however the editorial department of Jump weights multiple factors when making this judgement: what is in the magazine at the time? Is something ending so we can risk having this run longer? Is there a new batch we want to role out soon so we need to free up space? How are the volume sales doing? And has this carved out a viable niche for itself?

While yes its a good rule of thumb to say something in last place is generally in danger for not maintaining interest to keep it around, its not a simple yes no.

Thanks to Shueisha's Shonen Jump App we now get everything as it comes out. We get the future best and the future failures and there really isn't a way to control it. So to see Red Hood a series with some very vocal fans, it was always at the whims of Japanese customers who seemed neither interested in voting for it over other series in the magazine or purchasing its volumes as they came out. It is a hard pill for people to swallow, to have something that they like, that they want to be invested in and tell its story to be cut short.

But I would say that in this day and age while it is hard to witness this, the benefits of the SJ app are phenomenal. The SJ app is a convent subscription service at a reasonable price that offers the first chapter of a series free as well as the latest three chapters free. So even if you want to not subscribe you can still keep up on an official platform. And Manga+ being similar and not region locked. Thanks to this any new series debuting in Shonen will have the eyes of the world audience on it. When there is a new batch of manga that enter the series, it feels like an event. It really is a high risk high reward situation-you run in WSJ and you have the opportunity for everyone even beyond Japan see your work simultaneously, however you will still have to fight and maintain interest and hype for your series on a weekly basis.

As previously stated, Kagurabachi absolutely benefitted from this. And while yes some it was ironic, the fact that the promise of a new battle series was going to be on everyone's screens and have the biggest reach to find an audience is good. Now of course, we have to remember that WSJ still doesn't let non Japanese voters participate in polls, so while you can find a foreign audience it might not be what gets people excited in Japan (Although there have been instances of foreign fans purchasing Japanese volumes). Well jump may have gone an extra mile with this one. Kagurabachi would actually really early into its run cycle be given a recommendation by Gege Akutani author of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Now for those who actually don't know, in Japan, some manga are printed and packaged with a recommendation band that acts as an extra form of promotion. Siting a famous or well liked author giving a series a recommendation and a little image of the series they worked and sometimes a quote.

Obviously getting an on the cover cosign is a bit more prestigious than say, going to your Barnes and Noble and an employee has written why you may enjoy this series. And not just any mangaka, Kagurabachi was getting props from one the biggest mangaka in the magazine with a pretty ravenous fanbase. But for me a big thing that got my attention that showed how much jump was investing was the previously mention Kagurabachi PV trailer. A simple YouTube animation to get people to check out the work, plenty of series get this. But Kagurabachi's was the first to have it in English. A Japanese company acknowledging the server of the global audience is huge and I'd say this already seemed like it was hyped up enough, but then you have an editor of Jump+ openly acknowledging the "#BachiFlex" in an official statement. There's no doubt there is a fanbase and Jump is absolutely aware of that fact. And of course you can't forget those color pages.

So that's how Kagurabachi was doing, how was Gachiakuta doing? Well first we need to talk about Weekly Shonen Magazine and get something out of the way, they do not have a ranking system like shonen jump. Weekly Shonen Magazine actually seems to operate more along the lines of volume sales. waiting for a manga to hit print and see that actual tangible interest of the people who buy it. Because of this, you can see that WSM has actually a much lower turn over rate than WSJ. And that when there is a new series its usually only one or two at a time in a year. So if the series hinges on sales, it should love having a massive reach?

Well sadly, WSM and Kodansha have been pretty poor when dealing with the global market. I mentioned earlier its relationship with Azuki getting official scans out but there was also the deals it had made with Crunchyroll to have a reader for their work. Both services were not the best received, so wouldn't it be nice if Kodansha had a web service like Jump? A simeulpub on the international market. Well enter K Manga and possibly one of the biggest fumbles ever.

I mentioned before that the SJ app was made with the mind as a subscription service, this was done with awareness of what western audience were willing to financially invest in. Well, Kodansha instead responded with a resigned version of their Magazine Pocket app that included a frankly confusing points and ticket system with just straight up micro-transactions. If you're keyed into the Webtoon scene you probably know this type of weird gamification of a service is done in Asia.

Im sure you've heard the famous quote about how piracy is a service problem and not a pricing problem. People would be perfectly happy to spend money on an official release if the way to access it was ultra convenient. And making Americans learn things like 24 hour tickets, and daily prizes, and just having you pay for each individual chapter. Its just really cumbersome and I'd rather get back to reading scans instead. Also to add some insult to injury it is region locked so even if you wanted to purchase this in countries like Europe, you can't.

I will at least say some positives, I think K manga has a much wider range of series available than the SJ or Manga+ apps. As it takes from Kodansha's many different manga magazines like Weekly Shonen Magazine, Weekly Young Magazine, Monthly Afternoon, Monthly Morning, Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, and Magazine Pocket originals. And Gachiakuta was part of the first few titles at launch and it was some good promotion as later that Fall, Kodansha USA would release the English print copies. But promotion through an app a lot of people weren't really happy with.

Speaking of the print side wasn't doing so hot either. As this may be a surprise to some, WSJ is rare in the fact that it makes manga a real center focus of why you should purchase the magazine, meanwhile many other mags use covergirls.

Look Im not gonna say Shueisha doesn't do this, their Weekly Young Jump covers are really raunchier than this with their cover girls. But yeah not exactly the most bright thing for a series when its being paired against glamor girls and quite literally pushed into a corner.

But it wasn't all bad as Urana would actually end up promoting the series through other means. As mentioned before, a pretty popular Vtuber had already devoted time to promote it of her own free will, Urana herself would even be commissioned to draw cover art for them. Urana would do the same for Jpop band cvlte. We'd even have Kodansha ambassador and professional skateboarder Yuto Horigome have Urana in for a session to talk about art and just recently, British rock band Bring Me The Horizon was promoting the series.

Now its my opinion that no series deserves success or deserves failure. It needs to stand on it own merits and the ones interested will come to it. However, I do find it interesting how Kodansha as a company has chosen to promote their work. Even when its going harder (especially post anime announcement) it feels weirdly word of mouth. Getting all these guys from different subgeneres to talk about it while internationally having such a mixed roll out. But maybe that close inter-personality is what makes the Gachiakuta rise story more unique. Sure it doesn't have the same all eyes on me as Kagurabachi has gotten, but in a way its kinda made this more intimate whether once again cultivating fans who are really really faithful to Gachiakuta's success. This comes to a head in the 101st chapter of Gachiakuta with a color page, Urana thanks her friends in it fitting several graffiti names of people who have supported her and the studio that will be making this a reality.

And hey, while I've definitely been critical of Kodansha, there's no denying that, but hey they agreed to give this series an anime so that must mean its a success. Right?

Success?

So I've been mostly talking about aspects of Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi's more social and industrial significance. How they became popular and how they're been treated by their respective companies. But what about results? Why bore you all with all this hot air when I can just give you cold hard facts? Well by sales-yeah Kagurabachi is a hit. Like there's no other interpretation. It is a hit. It debuted at number 4 on the manga sales chart, by two volume on the market it had hit 100K copies in circulation, and is receiving reprint after reprint.

Also this is a bit tacked on because this happened while I was editing, Kagurabachi just overwhelming won the Next Manga Awards print category. By a huge margin and being the second highest number of votes submitted for a series after Oshi no Ko. Like I don't really have much to say but like... Congrats to Takeru Hokazono. Like there's not denying this is a hit. Like I read the acceptance tweet, he knows. He knows people have been gasing him up as "the next big thing" like. I have nothing else to say this is a success.

The Kagurabachi train is a rolling and knowing how hotly people are anticipating it to fill the shoes of success like MHA or JJK, its showing the results to back up those expectations. In fact, this has actually been one of the few times I've seen a lot of anticipation for a series that doesn't have and anime and that anime is probably off for quite a bit. As of the time I'm writing this Kagurabachi sits at 46 chapters.

As for Gachiakuta this was actually the most surprising for me to actually see the Japanese sales figures.

So for all the anticipation its final result is... okay. Like yeah these sales are fine. There's no way it be in danger of being cancelled and like any business would look at this and say its steady. But that's kinda all it it, steady. I always kinda hate talking about sales that are kinda just doing okay. Cause no one ever wants to be told that its not exceeding expectations, but there's no like rubbernecker cratering that can be entertaining. Its doing just fine. And that's really all there is for a series that's manga only for now.

Obviously the anime is announced. Its coming and it will likely get a boost in audiences interested in it (Know if it doesn't get stuck on like Disney+ or Amazon), but that's kinda why I wanted to get this blog post out before hand. Cause I wanted to compare these series as manga. Now of course you have to remember these sales charts are accounting for Japanese sales on debut. So its likely that there is longer tails than we know of for each series. However, its kinda funny seeing Gachiakuta's figures and remember how it won a Next Manga Award in the category of "Global Special Prize." So its not too much of a stretch to say in Japan Gachiakuta is still pretty punk and underground and the value is definitely in that global market. Though I have to have a bit of laugh now a how much that's been a pretty hit or miss effort.

So Gachiakuta is a success story, but its that sort of "A first party Nintendo switch game sold over a million units" type of success. That's good, but its not like making those Mario numbers.

Conclusion

So I'm sure you're asking what was the point of all of this? Why did you spend so much time of comparing the rises of two shonen action series that outside of probably their hardcore cheering section don't really think about their success stories?

Well to me, I'm of the belief that the ultimate goal for a mangaka (And really any creative professional) at the end of the day is to be able to tell their story, entertain people, and make a comfortable living while doing so. The end goal may be the same for many, but the paths to how we get there can vary greatly. If you made it there by blockbuster success or by underground hit. And the fact that those paths can be so varied by factors ranging from independent social media movements and the actions of making a piece of media even available for an audience you want to reach.

When writing this piece, I really got the sense of just how much bigger manga in particular is effecting the more broader ani/manga subgenre. Its not just that thing where only the best of the best we're getting English translation posted on scan sites, we've reached a point where now a global audience can have a series in their reach. Yet their reach varies.

We still don't have the chance to submit surveys in jump and we still don't have physical volumes of manga printed around the same time so we can take into account global sales, but we can hashtag. We can share these on live streams. We can have our own grassroots efforts that are actually having something resembling an effects on the choices of Japan. All of this change in practically a decade.

Will Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi go onto to be pillers of the anime and manga community? Mmm maybe. Their fans are super passionate and the great thing about fans is even though they can be loud, they are the ones helping make new fans. They're the ones making the fan art and fan fictions and reddit posts. For all we know when they get anime they'll pop off harder than before. Or maybe they'll get a bunch of normies who don't get or like them and will tell you how its secretly never good.

Still its interesting to see how despite these two series having so much of the same ground, both of their roads were so different. And that maybe you can't control how things will turn out in the world of social media and corporate management. Sometimes all you can do is your best and stand on your own merits and the people will find you.

Whether they run for 200 chapters each or 700 chapters each or anything down the middle. Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi, here's to you're accomplishments now and here's to many more successful years down your respective roads.

Anyway folks that's my time. I hope you enjoyed this think piece. If you do please drop a like or reblog. It'll really tell me if you're interested in seeing more content like this. And maybe I can share more and more about this industry that I'm passionate about.

[witchlingcirce]

AHHHHH we got Promo for the new season today so I wanted so share my thoughts and opinions 🫶🏼❤️‍🔥

First off… THE OUTFITS, OMG ACTUALLY GORGEOUS. They’ve obviously upped the quality this season and I am FOREVER grateful. Emma D’arcy and Olivia Cooke look absolutely STUNNING.

I really enjoy how they went with a very Daenerys season eight looking outfit for Rhaenyra. It’s probably a reference to her gradual decline into cruelty (ugh hate how this happened to Dany in season eight but irrelevant). Love how there giving Rhaenyra good old Targ colours!!! GORGEOUS.

Don’t even get me started on Alicent, Olivia Cooke is one of the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen. The outfit is so flattering, the fabric is gorgeous SHE IS GORGEOUS. The detailing on this dress is actually so stunning. Green and auburn/red hair is actually like perfect Olivia.

I’m really liking the expression on these two ladies as well. In the bigger poster that this promo is apart of, you can see that it’s Alicent kind of looking at Rhaenyra. I feel like this is meant to represent Alicents inner turmoil with her decision. I think ultimately she kind of regrets, I’ve read some 🚨leaks that say that Aegon stops listening to her, and I think that ultimately makes her realise maybe all of this wasn’t worth it🚨 while I do think it’s a look of regret, I mostly think it’s a look a grief. B&C causes Alicents daughter to go into horrible grief and also leads to the death of her grandson. Very interesting! Cant wait to see what Olivia Cooke has in store this season.

For Rhaenyra I think it’s a look of determination. She completely looks past Alicent and it looks as if she’s looking at the iron throne. I’m so happy that this season there giving Rhaenyra the same cunningness and agency she had in the book. I kind of hated how in the show you didn’t really feel the desire she had for the throne. But THIS SEASON! I have so much faith.

There both so gorgeous as well!! I think these are my favourite promo images.

Hmmmm I wonder if this promo could foreshadowing to any possible events in the future….hmmm…..hmmm…..

Anyways, both of these promos are really cool. I really like how they both have there swords out (ofc Aemond sword isn’t as cool as Darksister…), there both in front of there banners ready to fight for there team!

I’ll be honest I don’t really have much to say about these promo’s itself other than it’s obviously setting the kind of rivalry these two have (sort of.)

Although for these characters I’m really curious on where there characters are headed. I think at the end of season one we saw that Aemond kind of regretted his decision in killing Luke (whether that’s cuz he didn’t wanna actually kill him or didn’t wanna deal with the consequence) I’m really interested in how he will handle it. I don’t think he’s in Kingslanding when Jaehaerys dies but I wonder how he will handle the news. ‘Son for a son, an eye for an eye’.

Daemon I’ll be honest I can kind of assume will probably stay the same, I feel like the type of character he is was set up nicely ect ect. I’m curious with how him and Rhaenyra’s relationship will be. Obviously it’s a bit rocky, with him choking her, and also him organising B&C against her wishes, I’m very curious! Matt Smith will be phenomenal.

Aegon I hate you but you ate this ONEEEEE little thing. His promo ate so bad guys I’m sorry like… who let him serve that much?? Also RHAENYS IS FREE FROM THE CONE HEAD! THANK GOD! I PRAYED FOR TIMES LIKE THIS.

Overall Aegons promo is probably the most ‘symbolic’, in the corner you can see one of the swords going through a green banner, probably to symbolise his usurpation and how the throne isn’t ‘his’. I also find it really interesting how he’s holding his crown and not wearing it, whereas Rhaenyra is wearing hers. I think it’s to show how the iron throne is something that Rhaenyra WANTS it’s something that was promised to her for most of her life Vs Aegon who was kind of forced upon the role.

Also interesting that Cristons hair is long and in BTS pics we see that he has short hair, I wonder if he cuts it during the season. I also like how he’s next to Aegon, “kingmaker” also a sign to how he becomes Aegons hand of the king.

I dont think theres anything to say about Rhaeny’s and Corlys other than that RHAENYS SLAYS!! Thats my queen FR.

Also, I want to point out at Aegons window we can see Vhager (you can tell by the sag, lol.) and at Rhaenys we can assume thats Meleys… Rooks rest anyone?💔

ALL the promos where so amazing, good job to everyone who worked on them and I will BE DISCUSSING THE TRAILER TMRW.

BONUS:

Olivia Cooke posted Trailer(s) I saw someone on twitter mention how maybe there will be a team green trailer and a team black trailer??? I HOPE SO.

Im really hoping that we see Jace and Baela in tbe trailer tomorrow… guys i miss jace 😭

[ovobawrites]

𝐵𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽: 𝐸𝓅𝒾𝓈𝑜𝒹𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝓊𝓇 ♡ 𝐹𝒷𝑜𝓎𝓈 𝒜𝓃𝑜𝓃𝓎𝓂𝑜𝓊𝓈

disclaimer: this has already been posted on ao3 and quotev, i'm just reposting this beach episode special as a promo for the fic. after this is all my previous author notes.

this is a fem!reader and also a half chinese!reader insert.

previous ♡ next

Dusk tinted the beach in oranges and purples as your group walked over to your bags. All of you were soaking wet, leaving trails of water droplets behind you as you trudged through the sand. Leona and Vil glanced over from where they were conversing, the lion looking as tired as usual while Vil seemed to be slightly more tanned than before. 

"So who won?" Leona asked, eyes half lidded as he leaned on a pillow Ruggie had set up for him.

You beamed, elated. "I did!"

"Yes, you really shocked us." Azul sighed, "If only you were on our team, then we would have easily won!"

"Oh please," Riddle scoffed, "Malleus and Lilia had gotten us out of your 'trap' so easily it was hardly a hindrance! Your small group was nothing compared to our team."

"Aww is goldfishie mad that he didn't save koi fishie~?" Floyd slung an arm over Riddle's shoulder and laughed. "You're not even strong enough to carry her!"

Jade chuckled alongside him. "Now now, Floyd, we wouldn't want to upset Riddle too much... even if what you're saying is true."

Cater sighed. "Oh no..."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME! I AM NOT WEAK!" Riddle yelled, face as red as his hair. "HOW DARE YOU!"

Floyd just laughed and reached for Riddle as the boy struggled to pull away from him. The two started play-fighting, well, Floyd was. Riddle was trying to strangle Floyd... despite the fact that he could barely reach his neck...

Trey nudged Cater and the two struggled to separate Riddle from Floyd. The two of them did their best to calm down their housewarden... but Jade joining the taunting put a stop to their plans. 

"It was rather fun to play that game." Malleus spoke up from besides you. "I particularly enjoyed swimming, though I don't understand why I could not just teleport over..."

Lilia tsked. "But where's the fun in that? Besides, then we wouldn't have gotten the chance to see dear (Y/N) save herself."

"You did very well," Silver gave you a soft smile. "I'm surprised at how quickly you swam."

"Right? You moved so quickly!" Ruggie chimed in, grin on his face. "How'd you do it?"

"Ah." You looked away. "My brother taught me how to swim that quickly."

Silver nodded, "Oh... so you won't drown..."

"No, it was so that I could escape any assassins while at the beach..."

Ruggie looked pensive. "Can't assassins just... swim after you?"

"That's why he taught me to swim fast."

"...So we're just gonna ignore the assassins part?" Idia muttered off to the side, like he was one to talk.

"At least I'm not the heir of a famous noble family." You replied. 

Idia rolled his eyes. "And yet I've never had to swim away from any assassins."

"And when you do I'm sure you'll drown." 

"That's no true, I'll have Ortho to rescue me."

Ortho nodded. "Big brother gave me a tracking software so I can locate him from anywhere in the world!"

Slightly concerning, but okay. 

"Why don't you just teleport away from any assassins?" Malleus wondered. "Would that not be more convenient?"

The rest of the group gave him a look. Riddle and Floyd paused their fight just to stare at him incredulously. If it weren't for the fact that Malleus was a crown prince, you would have thought he'd been living under a rock for his whole life. Besides, didn't he know?

"Teleportation fúlù are really expensive, Malleus. Just because I have them doesn't mean I'd use them to get away from some annoying assassin!"

"Your family's net worth is like, in the millions." Idia mumbled. 

"That doesn't mean I'm going to spend money like it's water!"

"Are you not more concerned about the assassin who'd kill you? Who cares about money when their life is on the line!" 

"Money is more important than life..." Ruggie shrugged, a sneaky glint to his eyes. 

"See! Ruggie agrees!"

"He does not! Ruggie is an outlier, if you ask anyone else they would back ME up!"

"How dare you call Ruggie an outlier!" You growled. "Look at him!" You pulled the hyena towards you and gestured to Idia. "He's so adorable, how could you say that about him?!"

"Just because he's adorable doesn't mean he's a good voice of reason! Ortho's way cuter anyways!"

"I think Silver is the cutest~" Lilia sang with a wide smile. "He was so adorable as a child-"

"Fa-Lilia! Don't say that!" 

Not breaking eye contact for a moment, Idia shouted, "Stay out of this, Lilia!" 

"Uh, Cater?"

"Yeah Trey?"

"Which fight do we break up?"

"...good question."

"Ortho, while admittedly adorable, is in no way cuter than Ruggie!"

"Leona, help me!"

"Yeah, Ruggie is definitely more adorable than your brother, Radish sprout." The lion spoke up.

"Leona!" Ruggie hissed.

"What?" He replied with a smug look. "I'm helping to defend your honor."

"If you wanted to help, that you'd get me out of here!"

"I don't understand why you think Ruggie is cuter than Ortho! Just look at the two!" Idia yanked Ruggie out of your arms and stood him and Ortho side-by-side. "Ortho has bigger eyes, a happier face and chubbier cheeks. He's definitely the cutest here!"

"Don't worry Silver, I still think you're the cutest!"

"Thank you, Father-Lilia."

"That's true, but Ruggie has the cutest personality! And besides, doesn't his thin frame make you want to smother him with care?"

At this point, sparks were bouncing off of the two of you as you glared at each other. Idia's hair was red in anger while your (e/c) eyes were almost glowing. At least Idia's hair was hot enough to evaporate the water from the ocean, drying off your bodies instantly. He took a step closer to you, and you responded by closing the distance even more. 

"What do you mean, 'Ruggie has the cutest personality'?! Ortho is so much more sweet! He's way more moe than Ruggie!"

"Firstly, I don't know what that even means! Secondly," The two of you had gotten so close to each other that your nose was almost touching Idia's chest, you had to crane your neck up to look at him. "I think you're just jealous!"

"Wh- Jealous!" Idia's face went pink, his hair following suit. He breathed in and then yelled out, "I'm NOT JEALOUS!"

"Okay..." Floyd said, "This is so not funny anymore."

"Agreed," Azul pushed up his glasses. "Jade? Mind helping Floyd to separate the two?"

"Of course, Azul." Jade's ever present smile had gotten darker when he saw how close you and Idia had gotten.

At Idia's yell, you had to hold back a flinch. You had let your emotions get hold of you. Ah. This was bad, how embarrassing. Your cheeks flushed. 

"O-okay..." You took a step back and looked off to the side, a full 180 from your brash attitude from before. 

This, of course, did not go unnoticed, and Azul took the opportunity to get Jade and Floyd to distract you while he talked to Idia. With your eyes off to the side, you missed the worried glance Idia shot at you, and the concern from the other boys. 

How could you let your emotions dictate your actions?!

I'm meant to be proper and polite, not- your thoughts spiraled even further.

The lack of control you showed was revolting. You had done the exact thing you were taught to never do. Self-loathing flooded your veins as you felt ashamed over your actions. You had gotten too heated, too angry. You were never meant to be that. It was- You were- a disgrace.

"(Y/N)?" Jade's voice snapped you out of your thoughts. "Are you... alright?"

"Ah-" You looked up at him and Floyd, who had walked over to you and stood almost as a divider between yourself and the others. "-I'm fine. There's no need to worry."

It was like shutters divided you from your emotions once more. Floyd couldn't help but miss the much freer you that was there just before. Your face was like jade, cold and emotionless. The only hint of the anger from before was shown in your eyes for just a moment. Then, it disappeared too. 

"...Are you sure?" Floyd leaned in, uncharacteristically solemn. "You know that wasn't a big deal, right?"

And he hit the nail on the head, by the looks of it. Your face displayed just a modicum of shock before swiftly returning to its stone-cold state. 

"No one's upset with you for breaking composure." Jade pointed out, him and Floyd leaning towards you. "In fact, your argument was rather amusing."

"Yeah, it was fun to see koi fishie so mad!" Floyd smiled. "You looked so passionate, it was so cute!"

"C-cute?!" You flushed a bright pink, ears to shoulders tinted in that warm colour. 

This reaction did not go unnoticed, Floyd and Jade exchanging a look before moving in even closer.

"Yes, you looked absolutely adorable." 

"I- oh. Thank you." You realised what they meant. Cute as in a kitten's hiss cute, not as in... attractive. 

...I shouldn't get side-tracked. 

You moved to grab your bag and dry your hair off. You had mostly dried off thanks to Idia's flaming hair, but you could still feel the unpleasant sensation of sea-salt sticking to your skin. A towel quickly and carefully got rid of most of the remaining moisture, and with a quick rummage through your bag, you put on your sundress once more. In that time, Kalim had popped up by your side with a kind smile. 

"You were super cool just then!" He remarked, "It was so fun to play with you, and it was so cool when you flipped Jade over!"

"That was nothing." You remarked offhandedly, "I only really intervened because I was getting a bit bored."

You missed the small frown Kalim gave at those words, remembering your bright excitement from before.

"Even so..." he started, "it was still amazing to see it happen. You were so fast! I was so afraid Jade or Floyd were gonna catch you but you got to the 'rescue point' just in time!" 

"Ah- thank you." The genuine praise was difficult to respond to, a warmth in your chest from just those simple words. "I doubt I would have won had I not managed to get Jade to crash into Floyd though... that cost them some time."

"But you did! So it doesn't matter if that didn't happen, since you won and it did!"

Oh. That's what I'm feeling.

It wasn't pride or happiness or glee. It was the warmth you feel around your brother. It was familial love. 

Oh dear.

This was... concerning. You've never felt this... love... for anyone before. Not since your brother. 

But that was a problem for later, for now, you were going to ignore it. After all, repressing it may just make it go away. You don't need this feeling, not now. 

Mini Theatre Ruggie: Mommy, daddy, stop fighting ;-;  Idia: Shut up!- Wait what- O///O (Y/N): Don't talk to him like that!  Ruggie: Omfg Leona save me from these stupid idiots already!!!

and here is the fourth part of the beach ep. if you'd like to read the rest of the fic, you can read it on ao3 here, and on quotev here.

[foreverjustaplace]

The Bear, Season 3 PREDICTIONS

OKAY! So with The Bear premiering slightly earlier now, I wanted to go ahead and get my predictions (and maybe some delusional wishes) out on here because I just saw the still where Syd and Carmy are drinking tea after Carmy gets out of the fridge and I definitely had Syd being there when he got out of the walk-in. I never did get my fanfic out before the new season (although who knows. There’s still time!) so I hope I’ll still be in the headspace to finish it after I see the new episodes!

I would LOVE to see everyone’s predictions, too, so add them in the comments or create a post and tag me!

My Predictions:

Let’s start with Sydcarmy first. Oh, hell. This season is going to be one that drags us through all of the emotions. It’s already giving angst galore from all of the promos. A lot of us are worried about this ship, but I have to believe that while Storer may have not initially been on the sydcarmy train, we have a believer in Calo and loves love. We’ll be okay but it’s not going to always be pretty. We’re about to go through it, 100%, but I think the arduous emotional jouney will be worth it in the end (the end perhaps not being this season…). 

As mentioned, I predicted to myself that Syd would be waiting for Carmy when he finally is freed the walk-in refrigerator before I saw the image. To add to this, I believe this will be a very tense moment. Syd is incredibly disappointed with Carmy, but we’re going to get a hellava moment between the two in the very first episode. This moment is going to show just how deep Syd’s love (and I actually do mean in the friendship sense here) runs for Carmy. Despite Carmy already fucking up by not get the fridge fixed, we will get to see Syd give Carmy more grace than he deserves. But she is going to be skeptical as hell of him. He is going to seemingly change overnight and ignore all healthy ways of coping and go straight into this maniacal version of himself. 

They are about to put us through a Sydcarmy fight for the ages after Carmy does his whole partnership shit. But when I tell you this is going to remind us of the most dramatic romances we read on our Kindles, I mean it. Imagine this trope as one of those whole ass agreement list things that one or both of the romance leads (in a friends to lovers, especially) have. The agreement is done when the friends have an insane, amazing friendship and there’s more there, obviously, but they’re afraid to admit it. Sometimes they truly don’t even know that they like each other! In the case of Carmy, he is so avoidant of all of his feelings, he doesn’t even allow himself to think he likes her in this way. And even if he does recognize it, he certainly doesn’t know how to properly channel that into a romantic relationship with Sydney but he is 100% cognizant of the fact that he doesn’t want to lose her. That he CANNOT lose her. This agreement is done under the guide of a professional work agreement, but what he is proposing sounds more initamiate this just a work agreement. I honestly think it’s going to be jarring because on one hand Carmy believes this will lead to a star, but on the other hand what he’s trying to do starts to look and sound more like a non-platonic relationship.  

There is going to be a DREAM sequence that will make sydcarmy shippers happy. I just have this feeling or maybe this is me in delululand. Look. There were one too many damn dream sequence jokes for me to not take it seriously. I’m always a big believer that dream sequences should go big or go home; in fact, I’m trying to go through all of the dream sequences I’ve watched before in my head right now. I can’t think of one that did not involve kissing OR the wake-up-right-before-they-kiss moment at least. Think back to last month’s Polin (Bridgerton). I hope we get the kiss but I’ll even take the latter. BUT I’m going to go big and say that this may not even be a all heated and sexy dream. Um. What if it’s a Sydcarmy wedding!!!  

Syd and Carmy will sit next to each other at the funeral. There will be some comforting hand holding that is going to put us in a chokehold. I think Syd cries and Carmy comforts her. 

Ya know how Carmy helped Claire move whatever the hell furniture last season? Yeah, we’re gonna see a parallel of the moving thing when he helps Syd. We’re gonna get a Sydcarmy moment inside Sydney’s apartment and they’re going to talk about the future. This will be a great scene and will be use in all the future edits for sureee. Fantasyland me wants Carmy to say some shit like, “Syd, I don’t even know why you didn’t just move in with me?” “Carmy, use your head. You have one bedroom ? ? ?” “I would’ve taken the couch, nbd.”

Carmy sees Syd’s tattoos. I hope!! Perhaps this is in the dream sequence? Or maybe they have an actual conversation. Carmy tells Syd what one of his tattoos means. She does the same. But, forreal, this is a headcanon for me. 

To end the season, Syd and Carmy forreal do something that makes it hard to deny they are 100% in the platonic love category. They kiss and there is a conversation that rivals the under the table scene. Richie is the one who helps them get to this point. 

Sydney makes the decision to step away from Carmy a bit. Does she go to Ever? God, I hope not. But I think her health problems are going to be crazier (PLEASE STORER do not make her sick!!! I beg you!) and she can’t deal with Carmy’s shit any longer. I honestly think we’re going to see the season span months and the angst will be rough. Hopefully it’s one of those, “Three Months Later” things so we don’t actually have to see it. LOL Just get me to the end. 

Carmy is about to piss everyone off. I think we’re going to see Tina, Natalie, Richie, Sweeps, even Pete get into it with him. 

There will be a good number of flashbacks this season:

*Mikey in his last few months, weeks, and/or days leading up to his death 

*But also we’ll see some fun, sweet memories involving Mikey. Moments with Richie, Nat, and Carmy.

*Carmy as a chef before The Beef/The Bear. I’m so looking forward to these! 

*We are finally going to see Syd’s mom in flashbacks! 

Emanuael and Carmy meet. Syd’s dad will not like Carmy. He’s not gonna be impressed at all. They are going to talk and Carmy is going to do everything in his power to convince Emanuel he will be better for Syd and that she’s everything to him. Emanuel is going to give him some advice to win over Sydney. 

Richie is going to start dating and at least semi-successful. I think his redemption arc is still happening and specifically related to his relationships. Not gonna lie, I do actually like the idea of Jess and Richie and so I’m going to keep that in the mix and say Richie is the one who sets up Syd with the Ever guy. Richie will attend Tiff and Frank’s wedding. 

Syd and Marcus grow so much closer. Syd is going to serve as a supporting, loving friend to Marcus. They’re going to bond over the dead mom club. It’s going to be wonderful to see their friendship.

Donna is there for Nat. Perhaps she goes into labor and Donna is there to ease her nerves. It’s a wild moment for sure but a pretty poignant one. 

Luca. Dude. I don’t even know. I LOVE his character. I want him to, like, I’d love for him and Marcus to hook up. That would be the absolute best. Hell, I’d really love for Luca to be Sydney and starting flirting with her and with get to see jealous!Carmy! (PLEASE!) but I’ll settle for some flashback scenes. I guessss. Perhaps Luca comes help out at The Bear? I’d love that.

I’ve seen a lot of people say that The Bear will struggle greatly and close. I cannot deal with this LOL. I don’t want this to happen so I’m not going to predict it, but I think there will be some struggling. 

Tina’s story is gonna be emotional. Her journey into the kitchen is going to be one that happens because she desperately needs a job. We’re going to see her with Luis’ father. We are going to see her with Mikey. We’re going to see that she has always been bright and so capable. 

Claire. Man. I don’t like that she is even in this season, but I appreciate a great story and don’t think we can fully wrap this whole thing up if the walk-in fridge breakup was it. Fak is starting to get on my last nerves with his matchmaking shit lol but I think we will see Claire in at least a slightly different and enhanced light. Chris Storer is intentional in everything he does and I don’t believe for one second this doctor can be so surface level. Carmy may have this guilt eating him up and his trauma keeping him from  wanting anything good, but ultimately Carmy doesn’t actually want her. She’s meant to represent this nice person and serve merely as (physical) relief. But I don’t even know. I don’t think she and Carmy are endgame at all. I want Claire to tell Fak to stop his nonsense. I want her to understand her worth and not go back to Carmy after he said all of this shit about her (and not just because I love Sydcarmy but because I’m for the girlies knowing their worth!). 

What I would really love to happen is Claire cursing Carmy tf out. I’d love for Claire and Syd to have a one-on-one conversation and Sydney says something that exposes how she feels about Carmy to Claire. Awkwardness ensues. 

Okay. Damn. I started typing and I couldn’t stop. It was as if I was ten years old again and typing my predictions for the upcoming Harry Potter book. Dang. Take me back to those days! Those prediction threads were unreal. Tell me your predictions! 

[astralexpressarchives]

Dan Heng, the Imaginary, and the Lunarescent Depths

So I was recently discussing lore with a friend of mine and we came to a very interesting conclusion about Dan Heng that just makes a little too much sense for me to not make post about.

Dan Heng is an artist who uses the blood of Long to paint imaginary realms into existence and also Long is probably an Imaginary Aeon

Okay hear me out.

So everybody has the 4 star version of Dan Heng on their account. Everybody would have seen his ultimate ability and should be quite familiar with his line:

This sanctuary, is but a vision... Break!

The animation begins with a zoom in on his sphere - very likely the same sphere he uses in his Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae form for his spells. He closes his eyes.

Now, the camera zooms out quickly so that we can see the sanctuary that is but a vision.

Then he attacks the enemy, his weapon trailing black splatters of...

Ink!

Alright, now let me back it up a bit for a brief intermission and introduce you to the Judges of the 10 Lords Commission. The Undestroyed Notes makes this statement about the Judges:

A sister among the disciples once described to me one of the judge's brushes — it could write talismans out of thin air, which would make the written words come true.

Of course, we now know this is likely a reference to Hanya as her recent promo material shows her using a magic brush:

She specializes in reading the karma and sins of criminals, and records their crimes and punishments with the Oracle Brush.

It's unclear is this Oracle Brush is in fact the brush that can write things out of thin air, but it's worth noting regardless.

The point is that there is precedence in HSR for characters using brushes/painting/writing to make things real.

Back to Dan Heng, though. It doesn't stop at his 4 star variation, either. Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae's ultimate is a very similar story.

A zoom in towards his sphere, his eyes are closed - this time, the (drawn!) clouds are circling him.

Then a scene where the entire thing looks painted! But it doesn't stop there.

Dan Heng and Blade

Now, as with any analysis of Dan Heng, it's basically impossible to make one without also mentioning Blade since Hoyo is obsessed with them:

Blade's sword graveyard (the Hellscape, as he calls it) is very similar to Dan Heng's heavenly moon realm. I believe this is because these locations are mirror images of each other - that is to say, the mountainous area is a real location and one or both of their ultimates are mirror/s of this location.

Also note that he also accesses this location by "slicing" it out of thin air with his Blade.

Also note the drawn aesthetic of the spiderlilies, I think this is implying they are in another realm - same as when he is in his ult and the spiderlilies are projected on his attack! In that same scene, if you look very closely you can spot some lotus the water (extra credit to my friend for spotting this one!)

The realm keeping commission has this image of a dragon's face over the moon between two sets of mountains, one set is upside down mirroring the other set.

A few more examples of Dan Heng and Blade as mirrors:

Blade in the reflection of the water. Note the presence of the moon and leaves surrounding Dan Heng vs the Arbor roots surrounding Blade.

We also know the arbor roots are a real location because we fight Phantylia there beneath the Scalegorge:

The Azure Dragon enters through a circular cloud formation and arrives at the mountainous location on the Xianzhou.

Blade in his fansong shown at the circular clouds swapping identities of Blade vs Yingxing (this happens when he is "marastruck" as seen in his trailer). In his fansong, the clouds lead to the red moon.

This is important because Blade is the creator of Cloudpiercer - the weapon attached to the orb Dan Heng uses to paint his imaginary landscapes - and Blade also created the sword he uses that cuts open the portal to the hellscape. It's unclear if the connection is the weapons or something else, like Dragonheart theory would would mean Blade's blood contains Long's blood which could be the triggering tool.

Anyway, we know these mountains are a real location because Dan Feng was imprisoned there. I believe this location is the Lunarescent Depths Delve below the Scalegorge:

We also know there is a moon present at Blade's Hellscape:

Keep in mind that this splashart features the moon (piercing through the clouds, very subtle Hoyo), destroyed arbor roots, the sword graveyard, and the spiderlilies. Now compare these images:

This is the same area before and during/after the sedition. Note the arbor roots that were present in the reflection of Blade, the water, the chains, the moon (eclipsed, too) that he is drinking the power of...

To drive the point home even further, here's Blade seated during Kafka's companion quest, courtesy of my friend:

Doesn't that painting look... familiar??? Other than in this location, the painting only shows up in two other locations on the Xianzhou one of which is the Realm-Keeping Commission office (which is literally covered in Vidyadhara mountain references - seriously go check it out for yourself).

Hoyo is definitely hinting at something with this set up, lol.

Genshin

It's hard to talk about a Hoyo game without mentioning Genshin Impact. Honestly, a lot of the Vidyadhara story mirrors the story in Genshin, especially Fontaine, for example:

Special water, potentially people made of water

Water dragon making rain in idle animation

Small female child contained by local scientists might have the soul of a god or could be a scam

And more... but the point is people who play Genshin might be familiar with the story of the melusines who were created with the blood of a dead dragon and they live inside it's corpse and also one of them is a painter using the blood of said dead dragon and also fiction is real and they can enter it in an imaginary space?

Yeah... I think they might have copied that idea and applied it to Dan Heng, allowing him to paint using the special water (probably the Blood of Long) and allowing him to create imaginary spaces. "This sanctuary is but a vision" a vision he literally painted!

I swear I'm not crazy.

Long the Permanence

Now here's an additional theory I have about Long the Permanence.

Long could be an Aeon that exists within the Imaginary space.

By this I mean the reason noone has met him or knows where he is or what happened to him is because he's always been imaginary. His scions exist in the primary reality, of course, but Dan Heng's power comes from the Imaginary element in his Imbibitor Lunae form.

This is further supported by the fact that the moon in reality (outside of the mountain scenery) only shows up briefly at key moments for corresponding characters.

It shows up briefly in Fu Xuan's trailer when she recites lines from a poem about the moon but otherwise is absent. Note how she has Long's constellations on the back of her outfit and dragon heads on her tools.

Jingliu's power is also moon based and you also see the moon in the reflection of her ice/nearby water. The reflection of the moon is actually the real power behind her attacks and the moon that appears behind her is a mirage projected from the reflection (not the other way around!). And in the recent Jingliu Myriad you can tell at the start that the moon only just appeared because the moon flowers are only just blooming! IRL these flowers only bloom at night time, presumably in the moonlight, so the fact that they only just opened implies the moon was not present earlier in the scene. This is the same flower eternally bloomed on her shoulder.

Also note how both scenes where she is drawing upon the moon's power also becomes drawn in an inky art style! Just like Dan Heng.

I might stop here because this post is already very long but I might do a whole post dedicated to dissecting Jingliu's lore and symbolism in greater depth, especially as more Jingliu content is released over the coming days.

[slimeboiss]

I'm bored and with more Hundred Line news slowly dripping out I figured that I'd give my impressions on all the characters we've seen so far.

TAKUMI SUMINO

The protagonist himself, and probably the one guy we know the most about, even if most of that is just standard protagonist stuff. Kodaka's protagonists pretty must just follow the same archetype - relatively normal character among a cast of far more talented and impressive psychopaths, which usually leads to him developing a complex about it. And from what we've seen so far... Takumi seems to pretty much fit the bill to a T. Will he probably subvert expectations? Most likely - we've seen it with Hajime and Yuma from Rain Code before. There's definitely more to him than meets the eye, but I highly doubt that he's gonna be anything more than an average guy at the beginning, the straight man for the more unhinged characters around him.

He *does* seem to have an edgier look than every other protag we've seen so far. The rest of his look is pretty background character coded, which fits, but his hair makes him a dead ringer for Yomi from Rain Code. Which if you still remember that game, is a pretty far cry from "just an average guy". 50 percent chance that this is some sort of stylistic choice or if it actually means something about his personality - maybe he's a lot more rebellious than he seems from a first glance? Hard to say.

From the earlier promo art from before we knew what this game was supposed to be, the two "protagonist" characters had the same red hair and black color scheme, plus the katana that Takumi uses in battle. It looks like these traits were carried over to the final design at least - an interesting tidbit, even if it meant that we lost another potential female protagonist. This time with glasses, even!

DARUMI AMEMIYA

The second character we know the most about so far, and she's gotta be one that sticks out the most. When the trailer first dropped in June I swear like half of all discussion was just talking about her - more specifically, her design.

On first appearances, she very much reminds me of like a Kokichi-esque character, you know the one character in every game that just exists to make trouble and make the game more interesting when Monokuma's not around. She's a murder game fanatic, she has a bunch of crazy sprites, and also fights with floating knives. She's like if you asked an AI image generator to create THE danganronpa character.

She's not the first female character to be like *this* in Kodaka's works - Junko, Genocider Syo, Shinigami, etc, etc. - but exactly WHAT her role is is hard to pin down. She's been a lot more prominently advertised than other characters, so part of me believes that she has to have a significant participant in the game. Whether or not she's THE designated problems clown that every Danganronpa game, 90 percent chance she's going to be like top five most popular characters to come out of this game. hundred percent guarantee.

As a bonus note, I wonder if she was based on this character from the old promo art before the game was retooled entirely? I have nothing else to go off besides similar vibes - but it was a thought I had nonetheless. Probably the only other character from these early images that I can see carrying over to the final game besides Takumi, so this is the last time I'll bring it up, promise.

EITO AOTSUKI

TV Tropes says that he's supposed to be an apprentice astronaut - I have no idea where they got this from, but it would make him design make more sense. Plus his last name also means "blue moon", for what it's worth.

On the surface this guy seems like a coolheaded nerd. That was my first impression anyway. Someone said early on that he had Nagito vibes, and well... yeah I can definitely see that. Pretty boys in Danganronpa are hardly ever sane, and aside from his massive forehead he is definitively a pretty boy. Of course, this was before Tokyo Game Show came and went and...

Well, you've all seen that screenshot by now lmao

So yeah he's definitely gay. And gay for Takumi, no less. And if we know anything about characters that gay homoerotic tension for each other in Kodaka games (and Uchikoshi games to some extent), is that they're NEVER unproblematic. Just look at his face in that CG - he's definitely a freak.

As a side note, when the trailer first dropped I was under the impression that his weapon was a huge ass wizard staff, which fit with his whole nerdy vibe. I then realized it's actually supposed to be a big ass scythe - so make of that what you will.

HIRUKO SHIZUHARA

I fucking love tall women with long hair and glasses. Anyway, she's the cold, serious type with a penchant for bloodlust. She has a giant axe and admits to getting excited cutting down monsters. She's a freak yeah, but at least she does that while looking hot.

A lot of people have compared her to Peko for obvious reasons, but honestly, she's like a pretty direct copy of Martina Electro from Rain Code to a T. A statuesque woman with glasses with a lust for blood? Yeah that sounds familiar. For how much of a clone she is, the one thing that differentiates the two is that, for all her presence, Martina was ultimately submissive towards the far more problematic Yomi (the guy I said is identical to Takumi, ironically) - while Hiruko hasn't really given off those vibes so far. Wouldn't be surprised if Kodaka doesn't somehow work that in though. Disappointed, but not surprised.

TAKEMARU YAKUSHIJI

I don't have good quality shots of him on hand so enjoy this crusty cropped screenshot of grumpy Takemaru.

Not much to say about this guy so far. From what I've gathered from his intro, he's a rough and tumble type of guy, a delinquent who still believes in justice. And he used a motorcycle in battle. Sound familiar?

I can see him being a standard "jerk with a heart of gold" - he doesn't seem to be quite as violent as a certain other motorcycle riding delinquent, but who knows. He's one of your starting party members, so I'm guessing he has some early prominence in the game.

KAKO TSUKUMO AND HER BROTHER

Putting these two together since they seem to be a package deal - and to be honest we're reaching the point where I don't have a lot to say about most of them.

Kodaka has NOT had a great track record with brother sister relationships - yes, not every brother sister relationship he's written has devolved into incest, but when Kako is saying "dearest brother" and seems to practically joined at the hip... can you really blame me for being a bit hesitant? There are of course ways that this doesn't end up being gross, and I sure as hope this doesn't turn out to be another Junko/Mukuro in DR3/Kiyo Chapter 3 situation.

OKAY, my fear from first impressions aside, Kako seems to be the meeker, quieter of the two, while her brother acts as her assertive protector. I don't think there's a scene where they've been apart so far... take that as you will.

Kako mentions that the two of them havent graduated junior high yet (im assuming that means theyre ninth graders, around 15 years old) - so they're presumably in the same grade. Maybe they're twins? It's hard to tell with same-face syndrome and all, but hair style aside they do have similar faces. Which does lead me to wonder... what if they're identical twins, but Kako's brother is transmasculine. This is just my pipe dream honestly - Kodaka hasn't been great with LGBT rep before, buuuuut he's improved... somewhat? Uchikoshi, on the other, is pretty good on LGBT issues - famously good even, especially in Somnium Files. It's hard to tell what influence Uchikoshi has had on the game aside from the branching paths approach to storytelling, but I have a little bit more confidence in the LGBT rep in this game if Uchikoshi is on the team.

Don't have much else to say about them, other than I'm CROSSING my fingers that they don't turn out to be weird. On my knees even.

ANGIE YONAGA TALENT SWAP

I know it's kinda cheap to do the whole "this character looks like this character" shtick because Komatsuzaki's style has had sameface syndrome since the very beginning, but coome ooooon, if you're going to give her the same skin tone-hair color combo then it's going to be impossible not to notice.

Anyway that aside, I can't really say much else about her. We hit the point where these character's dont have names yet so I'm going in blinder than blind. Out of all the characters, she seems like she could be a Danganronpa character the most - her outfit very clearly communicates a "talent", I'm guessing mechanics.

She gives me tomboy vibes. Like, she's also one of the only girls in the entirety of Kodaka's games to wear full-length pants as far as I'm aware.

THE TOKEN THING

Im still not sure whether or not this is a boy or girl. I'm leaning towards boy, but I'm only like 80 percent sure that's right.

He's the token character with the cartoony design that's inevitably going to rank at the bottom of every popularity poll regardless of whether they're actually a good character or not. Character-wise, they come off as a shy fifth grader - Chihiro level shy, not whatever Mikan had going on.

not much else to contribute to my opinion other than that their design is definitely just a retooled beta ryoma

THIS GUY

Exaggerated screaming sprite? Cartoon character on shirt? Fuckass hair cut? Yeah this guy's a fucking nerd. He's going to be Takumi's annoying "best male friend" character who you either love despite his eccentricities or want to shove off a building. Or both depending on which day you're on.

Flip of a coin that he's also the token pervert character.

-

Aaaaand those are the first ten characters. There are still five more characters to go through (plus the mascots), but I wanted to ask why the characters were split up this way. Why don't the other five guys show up at the beginning? My current working theory is that they're part of a separate class, perhaps one that gets the rest of their students massacred, leaving these five as their sole survivors. There is ONE character that could be an exception to this, but we'll get to her when we get to her.

GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE HE SELLS KNIVES

Yeah you can probably find better higher quality images somewhere else.

This dude... he's edgy. He's like someone's Tokyo Ghoul OC. He gives me Korekiyo vibes, but like, in the first impressions kind of way. He seems like a laidback kinda guy that would still stab you in the throat when you look away. And it looks like he's threatening the bowl cut nerd with a knife in at least one route, so that's not far off the mark.

His design also feels kinda traditional japanese mixed with modern gothic elements - the blue hair and eyepatch. The eyepatch also has an eye symbol on it, so symbolism yay.

SAMURAI GIRL

A real prim and proper girl. Highly traditional. Nothing much else to say, she has a cool design. That's not always an indicator of a "good" character in these types of games, but one can hope.

GREEN TOMATO GIRL

Hard to imagine this character isn't going to be a chuunibyou. Or at least, very difficult to take seriously. The creepy smile reminds me of a jack-o-lantern... wait is that the intent?

Not a lot to go off on rn, but she's definitely one of the characters I'm more interested in finding out about, if only to learn why she wears a mask with a smile for hours at a time. What's the mask for? What is the point of the mask?

ABSOLUTE UNIT

When I first saw this character from behind on the cover art, I thought she was chubby. Turns out she's actually just jacked. She's cute! She looks like a jolly character, just a ray of sunshine. It's nice to get female characters that don't just fall into the same body type.

As a side note - this isn't as blatant as Ryoma's design, but she does remind me a bit of one Sakura's beta designs, which gave her a more traditionally cute face to contrast with the rest of her body.

Her more cartoony face also reminds me of Ibuki's beta design too, although hers doesn't look *quite* as stylized based on the few brief glimpses we've gotten of her.

KARUA KASHIWA

One of the more mysterious characters so far - Takumi's childhood friends that Takumi tried to protect from the monster invasion. We don't actually know what happened to her after that - she;s not with Takumi when he wakes up, but she appears alongside the rest of the cast with a different outfit.

I know danganronpa same face syndrome is insane, but its hard to imagine that we're not at least meant to assume that these two are the same character

Theres zero chance that there isnt a huge twist regarding her, but what exactly she is or what role she plays is anyones guess because there hasnt even been an english trailer since what? June? Oh, speaking of June-

Both Kodaka and Uchikoshi have a habit of introducing female characters to be pseudo-love interests/close confidants. Think Kyoko, Chiaki, Kaede in Kodaka's case, and June, Phi, Iris, Mizuki in Uchikoshi's case. As far as characters we've seen so far, she fits the bill the most so far. She's the childhood best friend with a ton of mysterious circumstances surrounding her! She has white hair and purple eyes!

However because she's so obviously suspicious and close to the main protagonist, that also means that the likelihood of her actually being the "mastermind" is close to zero. So congrats Karua fans!

SIREI

Serves the same basic role as Monokuma but instead of Monokuma's gimmick of having the voice of a children's mascot, he instead has a deep sexy voice. I don't know whether or not he's supposed to be the antagonist or moreso a morally unhinged mascot character ala Shinigami, but idk both seem just as likely.

I would have a plushie of him.

NIGOU

ninety percent chance this thing is literally just comic relief who cares

IN CONCLUSION

I spent an hour typing this out and embarassed myself in front of my mutuals by revealing that im invested in how danganronpa 4 turns out.

[theninthdoor]

https://x.com/tmikpop/status/1782272659876647336?s=61&t=ga4uchx4UxisGCwQXWGMyg

Could you do a reading on if Min Heejin is actually going to step down from her position at Hybe? I mean she’s been such an integral part of New Jeans success but she also seems to have been really shady with Hybe (leaking other Hybe artists personal information, leaking confidential contracts in order to convince Hybe to sell its shares of Ador) and I can’t see Hybe being forgiving with her.

If she does step down from Hybe, what will she do next in her career?

And also could you take a look at how New Jeans’ career will be affected by this, if she does step step down and leave Ador ? They will still have their signature producers so that’s a plus but min heejin was certainly a big reason for new jeans success and I wonder is they can keep that up if she is replaced by somebody else.

cards: eight of pentacles, six of pentacles rx, five of swords, knight of pentacles rx

If she stays, it's because one of the parties gave up, took the L and accepted a shitty deal, as it was either that or losing everything. They will be forced to consider the long-term, and might just decide this just isn't a battle worth fighting for right now. On the other hand, if MHJ leaves, it was because she saw herself trapped, without options, and had to accept the defeat. They're going against her with everything they have, and there's like a thousand men vs MJH in my head - which could be literal, and likely is to a certain extent, but may also just be how she's feeling. Based on these cards, the odds are leaning more towards her leaving, but it could still change, obviously…

what if she does step down? || cards: the hermit rx, judgement, the emperor rx

So… hybe could (allegedly) end up blacklisting her from the industry altogether, or attempt to. Either way, if she steps down by own her decision or not, she's going focus all of her future efforts on exposing and bringing down those who caused this, and everyone she thinks wronged her. She might even consider establishing a new company and debuting a new gg to prove them that NJ's success was all her doing and not the fact that they were under Hybe, but I don't think that's the smartest idea ever. It's not gonna help anybody.

newjeans' career if mhj leaves || cards: two of cups, page of wands, king of swords

Oh, if MJH leaves, whoever comes next (mtl a man, as we have the King of Swords here) is going to change a lot of things about the group, specially their sound and concept, but also promos, collabs, etc. I don't think they're going to completely erase their identity, but for sure get rid of all of the more childish, cartoonish stuff (and i'm soo sorry for saying it like that, but that's how I heard it 💀). As they do, people who stayed away + disliked NJ because of those things, will gain a new interest for them, and that's going to bring them even more attention and success. Even the fans that liked this stuff won't mind the change, I feel like, and neither will the girls. And I also heard "That's going to prove MHJ wrong", so... yeah.

(Disclaimer: All is alleged and for entertainment purposes only. Based on current energies.)

[fantasticalleigh]

Rewatching old RAW from 2020 and it’s so interesting to see how the Randy vs Drew feud went down because there wasn’t that much intensity behind it so when they announced their Hell in a Cell match I just sat there like huh neato. But seeing how differently (and WELL) built the Punk vs. Drew feud was handled leading up to HIAC and all the emotion and excellent promos and hatred behind it is incredible. The difference is literally night and day (and Drew and CM Punk have chemistry for days compared to Randy vs. Drew).

Of course one has to factor in that the Orton vs. Macintyre feud feels like it was a lot shorter (I haven't checked to see how long it lasted but it definitely doesn't feel like 10-11 months' worth of content) and of course there was different leadership at the time AND it was in the Covid Thunderdome era so of course all that impacted the show heavily but it still has to be noted how much better one feud was executed over the other.

Also “I’m Randy fucking Orton and I demand the WHC title for the 13th time because I say so” is much much much less compelling as an opponent for Drew over “you injured me and halted my career for several months, then stole something precious from me and mocked my family, thus invoking the pettiest fucking man in the roster. It’s fucking go time.”

In 2020 Drew was a huge babyface, having come back and proven himself as worthy of champion status. He was a fighting champion and let anyone who wanted a shot at the title to try. He'd had his own irl hero's journey to make his way back to the WWE and got along with most of the roster and seemed well-liked by most. He was cocky but honorable and booked like a beast.

In 2023-24 so far he’s the broken down, deeply bitter, deeply angry man who’s been disillusioned by everything that’s happened to him to the point he’s turned into the opposite of what he once was. It’s been absolutely fascinating to go through the archives and see how he is such an opposite of who he used to be. He’ll blame everyone but himself for the challenges he’s faced and each loss he’s taken. He’s so determined to get back the gold, he’s blinded to everything else and doles out destruction wherever he goes. And Punk brings out the worst in him and he brings out the worst in Punk. They're holding up mirrors to each other fighting over who gets to say they've been wronged the most. They had months of slowburn where Punk was out injured and it was just Drew in the ring with a mic and it still delivered. And (though I haven't watched the Drew/Orton HIAC yet) at this point, having watched (and gone insane over the punkintyre HIAC match) I don't think anything can compare to that at this point.

There's more I could and would like to add to this but I've rambled beyond the point I set out to make so I'll cut myself off here.

(Must add the caveat that I know there are huge swaths of lore and character developments I'm missing from 2019+2021-23 and everything behind that. I only started watching WWE in March of this year and have picked through content to watch and learn from over on Youtube and Peacock. Currently I'm only focusing on all the RAW 2020 episodes but will continue in chronological order and maybe do the same for Smackdown starting in 2020 at a later date. There just...so much to get through... @-@)

[royboyfanpage]

What is your absolute favorite thing about Roy?

Oooh, this is a tough question, I love everything about Roy. If I had to pick, I'd say his relationships with younger people.

Obviously, the biggest example of that's Lian. Being a single father's such a compelling character trait, especially in a superhero setting, and it adds so much depth to his character. Even when Lian's not actively on-panel, the way Roy reacts to the world around him is constantly influenced by her existence. Hands down some of my favourite Roy panels are the ones where Roy forces himself to keep fighting when everything seems hopeless because otherwise Lian would be alone, when he bases his decisions on making Lian proud, or when Lian's in any sort of danger*. Lian shapes who he is, both as a hero and a person, and erasing her was maybe the stupidest decision DC ever made.

However, his relationships with younger heroes are also so endearing! A post by @/mysterycitrus made an amazing point about the significance of having a recovered addict being seen as a support figure to younger people, so absolutely go check that post out. Grant's the most obvious example, (which, a little bit of shameless self promo, but I wrote a fic of him and the Harpers which four people said was good so apparently it's worth the read) and the way that he and Grant interact is so telling of the type of person Roy is. Roy specifically requests Grant be added to the Titans '99 roster because he sees potential in Grant, and because he thinks that Grant wants that chance to prove himself again. However, when he realises just how much Grant has on his mind, he sees that superheroics isn't helping him so he gives Grant the chance to walk away. His relationships with Rose and Bart are also good examples of this within the Titans, and Bart respecting Roy more than Wally is one of the funniest/sweetest things to come from that era. Also the fact that Mia is explicitly inspired to become Speedy because of Roy, not just because of his accomplishments as a hero but also because of his recovery, is so sweet and an absolutely amazing message about how Roy's recovery is much more telling of his character than his addiction.

*An aside, while I hate talking about Rise of Arsenal because A) it makes me cry and B) it kinda had the same tone as a villain origin story, I do think that him killing the Electrocutioner was in character, and a good comparison point between He Who Is Incorrectly Labelled As DC's Best Dad and DC's Actual Best Dad. The differences between UtRH and Green Arrow #1 are also great for that.

Thank you so much for the ask!! :)