#only b able to do surface level stuff with it

[clannfearrunt]

Sometimes I start getting worried for no reason like “oh no what if people take issue with my different species in worldbuilding projects having different physical needs and abilities because it could lead to inequality” as if that isn’t an interesting and worthwhile topic to think about in itself. We have a society of ONE sapient species and we still have endless variation in our experiences and one million inequalities bitch you think it won’t be a problem when there’s even MORE variety? Dont you want to think about how this manifests and how people accommodate (or don’t accommodate!) these differences. Don’t you love passively generating entirely fictional toxic tumblr discourse threads <- don’t actually do that part I think it fuels the anxiety even if it’s fun in abstract

[yanderenightmare]

Bakugou Katsuki

♡ TW: NSFW, yandere

♡ gn reader

You’re attracted to Bakugou for many reasons – he’s tall and ripped and handsome and a bit of an asshole – but really, what you like about him most is that he doesn't seem like he’d be too much trouble. And you mean that in many ways. 

You’ve been in relationships before, and none of them have ended on good terms – always leading to deep upsets and disappointments. You’d come to the realization that boys, on any level that wasn’t purely sexual, were something you didn’t really need or want at the moment – which is why Bakugou, in all his disinterested glory, was just perfect for you. 

He’d fold you in half in filthy places like the locker room or bathroom or in his smoke-steeped car – making your heart beat from the thrill without that nagging feeling of being underappreciated because, well, you didn’t really care. He wasn’t your boyfriend and you weren’t committed to each other in any serious way, so there really weren’t any grounds for standards or expectations – it was just sex – carnal ball-clapping sweaty sex – pure and simple and just what you needed. No more, no less.

You didn’t go on dates or meet each other's parents or give each other chocolate on Valentine's Day or any other presents on any other holiday – you didn’t even hang out aside from seeing each other at parties and sometimes in the school hallways. He’d cock his head with a grin, and you’d smile coyly up through your lashes, and you’d meet in the handicapped bathrooms between classes to get drilled over the sink with your face smudged against the cool mirror.

It's only when he starts knowing things about you that you grow a little stiff with your arrangement - things he couldn’t possibly know from you as you’d never cared to speak about your private life. And sure, some of those things he could have easily found out through your social media standing – which already makes you feel a little iffy – but there are other things he’ll slip out, specifics about your interests and classes and whereabouts and the stuff you do with your friends – stuff you’re positive you’ve not posted anywhere. 

When you asked him about it, halfway jokingly with a somewhat nervous laugh, he’d only quirked a brow and brushed it off, insisting you’d been the one that told him. And you, despite being sure he’s lying, decide to believe it anyway. Because what the two of you have right now is still good – much better than any other fuck-friend you’d had before. Katsuki makes you so wet, and he's always so able to just pound your orgasm right out of you. 

If payment is small talk, you can humor him.

But then the sex becomes a little dull. Instead of his fist wrapping tight around your throat, he’s now sucking gentle love bites into the skin. And he no longer has his hand in your hair, forcing your face down against a cold surface with nails digging into your scalp to keep you still while fucking you fast and selfishly from behind.

Both his hands are instead holding you around the waist, keeping your body skin-to-skin against his chest as he gently lolls you on his lap – so slow you can’t even feel your heart – so slow you’re still breathing through your nose. He hasn’t slapped your ass once, and it’s beginning to get a little sad.

You want to tell him that you want him to fuck you like he’s a dirty cop and you’re a criminal resisting arrest – and not this old married couple shit. But you also don’t want to be rude. 

However, after all the one-sided heart-to-hearts he’d sat you through lately – spending more time chatting than making you cum – you were left feeling a little awkward, honestly. And between that and how he’d started texting you goodnights at eight-thirty – you were afraid he’d lost his original raw sex appeal.

He’s become so pedestrian in your eyes he might as well have been wearing glasses and a sweater vest.

You let him finish without saying anything – but you can't deny you’re happy when you feel him finally blow his load.

Dismounting him, you jump to your seat in the car and pull your underwear back up without a word.

It’s silent while he lights a smoke and rolls down his window – his hand coming to rest on your thigh after.

You look out your own window, your face in your palm while you think. And then talk. “I think… we need to stop.”

He's a little busy with his cigarette, but still, he answers, casually. “Stop what?” Smoke goes out his mouth and up his nostrils, then out again.

“This.” You answer. “Fucking.”

The hand on your thigh stirs and you catch him shifting his head to look at you, but you don’t return the gesture – keeping your eyes fixed on the puddle peppering with raindrops out on the empty parking lot the two of you’ve often spent time burning rubber drifting donuts before making the windows steamy.

“Why?” He eventually says. Flicking the spent filter out onto the wet pavement. Rolling the window back up and leaving the both of you in a way too tense silence of muted rain.

You sigh, leaning back against the headrest. “We’re not strangers anymore... It’s just getting a little boring.”

He taps another cigarette up from his box but doesn’t light it – just rolls it around in his fingers with his head bowed. “Boring, huh?” He repeats. And then there’s a pause. 

A hefty pause. A silent one that lasts a little too long and makes you forget the subject in favor of thinking about other things – like, had your roommate done the dishes this time, or were they still on the counter?

“What if I lock the car and drive us off a cliff?” He breaks through your thoughts, and this time, it’s you who turns your head. Looking at him while he still fingers the same slim roll in his hands – mumbling to it, it would seem. “I’ll laugh, you’ll scream… and maybe I’ll light this cig’ while we’re in the air…”

He sighs – as though what he’d just said was not what he’d said – then copies your action, letting his head fall back to rest against the leather – his face blank and his breath steady.

“If you fuck someone else, I’ll break their face.”

This time you blink when staring at him – face riddled, doubting what you were hearing come out of his mouth. “You what?”

“If- you fuck- someone else…” He repeats slowly. “I- will break- their face.” He says it so calmly you’re still unsure whether you heard him right. “Understand?” He asks – chin cocked up while glancing at you from the corner of his red eyes. “I won't stop punching until their teeth are on the ground and their eyes are so bloated and bloody they can no longer see who it is that’s throwing the hits.”

You blink a few more times. Stunned into a stupor, picturing it with parted lips without any words escaping them.

He rolls down the window again and puts the smoke between his lips.

And while he lights it and blows the roof full of grey, you’re still hung up on the image…

Maybe Bakugou wasn’t as boring as you thought.

♡ BAKUGOU KATSUKI masterlist ♡ BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA masterlist

Full altered fic with smut available here:

[thebucketpail]

When You Accidentally Kill a Clown pt. 3

Pt.1. Pt.4 Ao3

Woah part 3?? Crazy, enjoy!

Jason could hardly hold back his grin as Barbara hit play for probably the hundredth time. It was child's play for her to get ahold of a video of the Joker's death, and damn was it worth it. The footage was anything but high quality, which was a given considering it was in a random alley. But the Joker was unmistakable as he pulled a scruffy ravenett off the street at gunpoint. Luckily however, the camera was poised at the perfect position to catch the whole affair, in however grainy the imagery.

Only moments after Danny was pulled into the alley, a short struggle ensued, followed up by a bright flash of green light that threw Joker further into the alley. The video ended on a frame of a panicked Danny crouching by the body, checking his pulse.

“I need you to send this to me,” Jason said, his smile creeping every further.

“Already did,” Babs responded with a snort. “I also sent it to Harley, and I was going to send it to B, but I thought I'd let you break the news” Her own cheshire grin split as Jason nodded.

“Anything new on Danny?” he asked, nodding toward the screen.

Barabara’s expression turned to something more teasing, “I’m not here to get you a boyfriend Jason. But I did get you some surface level stuff,” she said, cutting off his slight protest, as she switched screens, pulling up some documents. “Danny Fenton, He’s an Aerospace student at Gotham U, starting this semester. He just moved here from Illinois. He lives in dorm 206B in the Truman building on campus, and he currently has no occupation. There’s not much on his hometown, there’s some kind of blackout I need to get past, but his parents are scientists of some kind, and his sister and father are both documented metas. Overall I don’t think he’s much of a threat, just a kid who got caught in the wrong place.” Jason Hummed in response, reaching for his helmet.

“Thanks so much Babs, you’re a godsend”

Barbara smirked, turning back to her computer, “I know”

Jason slipped out the window.

---------

Jason didn’t often watch the sunrise. Usually he was too tired, or too busy. But today he was so awake he could practically feel the energy buzzing in his bones as he watched the sun rise over the docks of gotham.

He hadn’t been able to shake the feeling since he found Danny hunched over the dead clown. But something in his chest was pulling at the thought of them. An ache of something familiar yet so distantly unknown filled his thoughts. There was something about that person that had lodged itself in Jason’s brain and refused to leave.

Unfortunately, Jason was pulled from these thoughts by the loud crackle of his comm.

“Hood, report to the cave for debrief,” Jason groaned, just because he wasn’t ready to sleep doesn’t mean he wanted to haul himself across all of Gotham to the Cave. He stood slowly, taking his sweet time to reply and savoring the satisfying pops as he stretched.

“Hood, report”

“Yeah, yeah, don't go getting your cape in a twist. I’m coming. Though I don’t see why it's necessary to pull me across the whole city when an email could do.” he grumbled that last part to himself more than anything.

Jason took his time driving through the city, stopping muggings, taking care of stragglers on their way home from late shifts. And if it took him an hour longer than usual to get to the cave, well then that wasn’t his fault. When he finally got there, though, there was no doubt; this definitely could have been an email.

When he arrived B, Stephanie, Tim and Damian were going over various minor things from their patrols, that didn’t really affect him much to be honest, just the routine; drug rings, arms deal busts, and oddly enough; ghost sightings.

“Finally,” he heard Tim mutter, as Jason killed the engine in his bike. “B! He’s here! Can we start now?”

“Start what?”

“B, wants to touch base regarding the Arkham breakout,” Stephanie said, sending him a withering glare, probably for making them wait so long. “I think he’s just being paranoid because Joker’s been unusually quiet.” Jason had to stifle a snort. If he played his cards right, this would be the perfect time to tell about the new lack-of-threat to Gotham.

“Paranoia and caution are not the same thing,” The bat himself growled from his place at the computer. “It’s been a week since he broke out of Arkham, we should have heard from him by now. It’s uncharacteristic of him to not have a scheme cooked up and in motion by now.”

“Father is correct, we should be looking further into finding the Joker,” Damian said, “If any of you have information regarding this case, I suggest you share,’’ he sneered, and if he wasn’t practically three feet tall, it would have been fairly intimidating.

“We're doing the best we can, Damian, if Joker’s up to something we’ll know about it” Tim said.

Up to this point Jason had been watching the conversation, trying to hold back his laughter, but a few chuckles managed to escape and he folded into it. Everyone in the group froze and turned to Jason as he pulled his helmet off, still wracked with giggles.

When he had finally managed to calm himself down, wiping a few stray tears from his eyes, Damian piped up, sounding wary at Jason's sudden outburst.

“What is so funny Todd?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Jason said, fighting back another round of laughter before schooling himself into a more serious disposition. “Joker’s not up to anything, don’t worry.” He said. We watched as his family’s faces went from wary, to confused.

“And how do you know that?” Damian questioned further, bristling.

And this was it. Jason delighted in the way everyone’s faces fell when he said with icy diction,

“Because that motherfucker is dead.”

And everyone exploded.

-----------

By the time he managed to escape the cave (and the incessant questioning) all his earlier energy had been sapped out of him and Jason was ready for a very long nap. He was heading back to his apartment in Park Row when something caught his eye. Or perhaps someone.

“Twice in eight hours? I know you’re not from here but that’s still gotta be some kind of record,” Jason quipped as he tied up the assailant he’d just knocked out.

Danny Fenton stared down at him from his place pressed against the alley wall. His face set in an indignant frown. His ice blue eyes glinting slightly in the ever growing morning light that had finally made itself through Gotham’s thick smog.

“Well it’s not like I’m trying to get attacked,” He ground out, “I just wanted some fucking coffee.”

“At four in the morning?” Hood responded, raising an eyebrow under his helmet.

Danny’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he turned to collect his discarded belongings. When he spoke his voice was softer, “I wasn’t planning on sleeping anytime soon.”

Oh. Jason had forgotten that, even if it was an accident, even if it was the Joker of all people. Killing was a hard thing to deal with, and this must be weighing on Danny. Jason mentally kicked himself for not accessing them for shock. In retrospect all the signs were there, hidden just slightly behind the shaky facade. It was in the way Danny hadn’t touched their food at first. How they were despondent and their eyes kept drifting between empty and piercing, it was how they sat stiff as a board until Jason had mentioned their major. Until Jason had distracted them.

After a long pause that seemed as though it would last forever, Danny sighed.

“I should probably be going now,” He said, pushing past Jason to the entrance of the alley. “Don’t worry, I’ll be more careful this time,” He threw a half hearted grin over his shoulder, disappearing around the corner. Jason couldn’t even get a word in before he was gone.

++++++

Ack! Sorry if Jason is a bit out of character here, I haven’t actually gotten around to reading most (Read: Any) of his canon content yet, and I’m running mostly off Fanon and various character analysis I've read over the last few months.

What are your thoughts? This is only my second ever attempt at writing something to post. I promise I read every comment and they make me so happy to see people interact with my word vomit. Next bit will be from Danny POV. Let’s see what's going on in their head.

Fair warning; I don’t plan on doing tag lists for the future, so this’ll be the only one. If you want to see more I recommend following me (I promise I do other cool things too)

@always-be-a-stranger @dragonfirefeather @thatonegaybitch68 @uraniumwizard @ace-aro-as-shit @rosiea184 @amyheart19 @sadpersonmadeoffruitpunch @dat1angel @tkiesai @idkmrpianoman @crystalqueertea @bianca-hooks123 @blep-23 @stargirl1331 @sjrose1216 @thegatorsgoose @akikkobara @help-i-need-a-cool-username

[grutadodaibo]

Lily Orchard's criteria for fictional works and how to write with her as part of your audience

I watched a lot of 2010's critics when I was younger and out of them I think Lily Orchard was probably one of the worse ones, in the sense that even for 12yo me the arguments on her videos were weak, flawed and untrustworthy, which is a lot that's coming from someone who thought that Nostalgia Critic's reviews were masterpieces around the same time. I took notes from what I understood from her videos and made a criteria list for what can be considered good writing based on her own opinions

- Characters need to be as vague and shallow as possible so actual characterization can be dismissed in favor of headcanons and other assumptions of what they are like, there's no better version of a character that isn't the one you see in your head.

- Your characters' morality need to be gray and complex but also it needs to be extremely black and white so discutions about a character's actions can't be made or questioned.

- Redemption archs only work if the character you are writing can't me considered a villain in the great scheme of things, sanitize as much as you can, don't engage with what the character is going for and if possible kill everyone with no remorse

- The plot should be in your face and straightforward and as possible, so everything considered "filler" can and should be thrown out because engaging with fiction takes time and being patient is a sin, so make sure you don't waste your audience's time with whatever you want to do that isn't the main goal of your story. The journey doesn't matter as long as you take your audience from Point A to Point B.

- Everything needs to be taken literally, nothing is allowed to have a symbolic, allegoric or metaphorical meaning, surface level is the only way, trusting your audience to interpretate your stuff is a categoric error

- At the same time, surface level things that are just there to be cool are horrible things to have because it makes people question why is it there in the first place and why should we care about it

- Fanmade material is more important than the official thing and it's related works, not because you like the thing and want more of it but because you can use it as a substitute for the actual thing

- Serialized stories are inherently bad and episodic stories are the superior form of storytelling, if an episodic series transitions to a serialized one, or even bounces between the two, that's bad because you aren't able to recognize that piece of fiction the same way you did when it was episodic due to a sudden tonal shift and that's for all fiction... don't try to analyse case by case or how and why it happens in the first place, that's an objective fact.

[ultfan]

MY DESPAIR DR3 IDEAS LFG

firstly, i just wanna say that i am basing everything here based of info we get in dr1, dr2 and dr0. i'm just wiping the actual anime itself from my brain. so anime exclusive editions are just gonna be scrubbed. i may be able to fit them in somewhere, but they're not my focus. this is origin story centric.

kick off during the first year of the dr2 cast. i think rather than showing how unified the group is it would actually make more sense if everyone was kinda struggling. obviously some people would form their close bonds, like nekomaru and akane, gundham and sonia, etc. but i don't think it makes sense for the cast to have as close a bond as they do in dr3.

hajime and chiaki were huge pieces when it came to keeping the peace/unity between the members of the dr2 cast during the game. they would not be present in class 77-B. because hajime is in the reserve course and chiaki is an ai.

if their first year of school was all sunshine and rainbows i don't see why they would erase memories of ALL of their time at hope's peak academy.

narratively it makes the most sense for their first year to be setup as to why these people would fall for junko. they shouldn't be having a great time at hope's peak. fuyuhiko's sister is killed, sato is killed, people have health complications, people are dealing with family troubles... even if they try to keep together there is a lot boiling under the surface.

nagito, as a known troublemaker, would 100% fucking make the problems they are facing worse. because on god you know komaeda would tell fuyuhiko to his face that his sister's death was a "stepping stone" and he could overcome it. — he is definitely a disrupter of unity, even if he's not trying to be.

hajime's deal is likely a seemingly disconnected b-plot until the izuru stuff happens (at least if you're watching without any danganronpa context... which would be stupid... but narratively that's how it would look). ——— he's separated from the rest of the cast, probably often witnessing things form the sidelines. the focus on hajime should be on his worsening mental health, going from being excited to be going to hope's peak to learning what it really means to be in the reserve course.

he strikes me as someone who would at least TRY to get involved with the main course students. i think it'd be interesting to see him all hopeful and trying to make ultimate friends or act like he's on the same level as them. only to get completely shut down and rejected by the people he does end up reaching out to.

really use him to show just how poorly reserve course students are treated by the school. the disparity between the two kinds of students — the fact that the reserve course are ONLY there to give hope's peak more funding and nothing else.

highlight how badly he wants to be part of that world. how desperate he is. how he'd be willing to do anything to feel "special." like he's worth something.

yasuke has to be important as the ultimate neurologist. he helped with the memory shit, he's implied to have helped on the kamakura project, and he is also said to have his research used in the neo world program. not including him in all of this would honestly just be a crime. he ties everything together in a neat bow.

given that they're both entering the school in the same year, and nagito got his diagnosis this year too, there is no way he wouldn't see this as fate. he is going to hope's peak at the same time as the ultimate neruologist! that has to be a sign. i can easily see nagito offering up himself to yasuke so he could study his illness and monitor his brain activity. yasuke, who has a past with this kind of disease, would probably be more than willing to as well.

in the middle of the year the school, being impressed with his work, yasuke is reached out in private to assist in the kamakura project. he accepts and gets on it ——— in the background hajime is scouted and accepts to participate out of desperation, not entirely aware of what he's getting into.

enter class 78 — and junko and mukuro — who, thanks to yasuke, are able to easily integrate themselves into the plot and where they need to be.

junko's relationship with yasuke allows her to learn about the kamakura project early on into the school year. she learns about it's progress, it's purpose, and where izuru is being kept (for future reference).

by coincidence — or perhaps thanks to bad luck — she is able to meet nagito through yasuke. this is a guy who's brain doesn't function normally. simply put, he is an incredibly difficult guy to predict/truly understand. i imagine he would interest junko — and his hope fanaticism would be something of note that can be taken advantage of. it is via nagito that junko is able to get an interest in class 77-B and learn about the misfortune they faced last year (when she wasn't here). this will eventually domino into her turning them into ultimate despair. this makes a lot more sense then randomly running into a guy and deciding he's important to the plot, imho.

izuru would get "rescued" by the despair sisters. with a combination of the information they got from yasuke, mukuro's skills as the ultimate soldier, and junko's ultimate analyst ability they are able to avoid trouble and smoothly get to him. this is the real start of her plan.

in dr2 it is said that junko "broke izuru's spirit" — which implied he had a spirit to break. in dr3 he was already dead inside, but i feel like it would make sense if the scientists really tried to make him incredibly loyal to hope's peak and the idea of hope. you know — actually attempt to make the ultimate hope. make that his entire identity.

izuru, incapable of remembering anything that has ever been told to the contrary, is given an entirely different view of the world through junko. izuru, given his little reaction to being on the boat (his excitement at the rocking) strikes me as someone who is surprisingly ignorant and impressionable. which makes sense. they took away all his memories/feelings/personality. and so, when junko gives her philosophy to him, he asks for her to prove it.

he doesn't initially believe her, thanks to how he was created, but then the idea of the first mutual killing game comes up. izuru participates out of sheer curiosity to see where junko is coming from — to see if there is anything at all to this. and given that is the incident that leads to the inevitable fall of hope's peak... it seems to izuru that there is. THAT is what breaks his spirit.

izuru learns that everything he went through, that everything he thought he knew, was a lie. and that the concept that he is meant to embody and put forth into the world isn't... really... anything. "hope" — what is that? it's such a vague idea and it's different for literally every person. it's just an empty promise. there's no hope for someone like him. and there's no hope for this school — or this world. not really.

the events of dr0 happen. most people actually know that ryoko is junko and that she lost her memories (at least class 78 and people who knew her beforehand were aware) — and we know the school is also covering shit up too. izuru goes into hiding. the reserve course students start rioting. kyoko goes to investigate the killings of the student council and is eventually told to stop by her dad (because if she got any further she'd learn about things the school couldn't risk getting out). mukuro tests out her junko disguise here and there, but probably not in public often (mostly just with ryoko). and yasuke is killed, his death covered up by the school.

if kyoko is able to investigate, i think it is logical that nagito also investigates. i mean, his beloved symbols of hope are dying! he is pretty close to kyoko's levels of deduction in dr2, often having solved the cases before everyone else and just watching things progress as he drip feeds hints. i have no doubt kyoko would've been able to uncover everything if she wasn't stopped, but nagito also has an advantage: knowing yasuke.

he would know yasuke wouldn't suddenly drop out and stop their research — he's the ultimate neurologist, after all. it's also likely that he knew he was treating junko (ryoko) for a while. and if he were to investigate his lab/dorm he could be able to find the research papers on memory that were stolen by the despair sisters for their future plans.

with this knowledge, as well as seeing that junko SUDDENLY regained her memories after yasuke's disappearance, i think it's reasonable for him to confront them and figure out what they're doing.

junko takes advantage of the kind of person nagito is. we know from monokuma's behavior in dr2 that it seems he really trusts nagito to go above and beyond when given the opportunity to challenge his symbols of hope. monokuma was supportive of komaeda in the first killing and even actively helped him a little bit when it came to setting things up for the investigation (hajime even mentioned it seemed like nagito had trained monokuma). and i've already talked about how the final dead room's highest difficult setting was likely made specifically with komaeda in mind — knowing he would do something extreme upon finding out about their identities of ultimate despiar.

what takes place is a proposed battle against hope and despair. junko would know enough about nagito from yasuke to know about his love of hope, as well as his abberant behavior. and, with mukuro around, she's not in danger if she spills some stuff to nagito. if he threatens to spill things before they're ready to be spilled, he'd get killed. luckily, nagito is 100% the kind of person to side with his enemies.

this school and the ultimates here are basically komaeda's coping mechanism. he believes that hope can overcome any despiar. and so he fully believes junko's plans will fall flat and that the symbols of hope will easily overcome her despair and be stronger for it. junko is able to egg him on — get him to prove it  — and he agrees to help her spread her despair just to prove her wrong. he doesn't believe his assistance will do much. because he believes himself inconsequential and irrelevant.

it is through nagito that junko is able to learn more personal details of class 77-B, and through him that she is able to manipulate them directly and indirectly. she is able to break each of them down one by one — really dig in and target them in ways that would break them specifically. and eventually brainwash them (in the culty sense, not the mind control sense) into accepting her despair mindset.

junko works a lot like a cult leader in my mind. she is able to perfectly analyze and predict others, and has great charisma. after breaking them down she could easily offer them despair to give them some "meaning" back into their life. and we know from mikan and nagito that "just despair" isn't always the reason for the members of ult despair to do what they do. mikan was doing it out of love and devotion for junko, for example.

as nagito sees each of his classmates fall over to junko's side and begin to add fuel to the fire of the tragedy, he starts getting a little nervous. but he managed to convince himself that they were just surprisingly weak in the end, and holds onto hope that the school itself and the majority of students would be fine. unfortunately, that's not the case.

the new members of ultimate despair manage to push the reserve course students over the edge — and start pushing the world towards the edge as well — leading to the mass suicide and the complete collapse of hope's peak. class 78 being "coincidentally" the only class to survive. this would end up getting nagito fully despair-pilled, even if he is still fighting for hope. and it would end with all members of ultimate despair (aside from mukuro and junko, who agree to be locked up in the remains of hope's peak) going somewhat into hiding to spread despair from the shadows (i say in hiding because we know that they didn't know the identities of the remnants, and didn't even know there were 15 other survivors).

i imagine part of junko's motivation for getting all these extra members into ultimate despair was to ensure that things wouldn't die down in the outside world without her directly involved. and, of course, to get help with the things she needed help with (building monokuma, for example).

EXTRA STUFF I WAS VAGUE ABOUT

how junko would get each individual member of ult despair is up in the air. i have nagito and izuru clear in my mind because i think it makes the sense for them to be the most directly involved in the plot, given their overall significance in the series. but i do have some ideas:

she probably preyed on maihiru's guilt involving the twliight syndrome murder case.

mikan is obvious — she preyed on her need for love/acceptance and gave it to her.

fuyuhiko and peko were probably targeted together, preying on the death of his sister and peko's role as a tool.

took advantage of ibuki's loneliness after leaving her girlband.

etc etc etc.

however she did do it for each of them, i believe it was a matter of ensuring they got to their lowest point (probably even with nagito's help, given his skills of manipulation and complete willingness to be a fall guy), and then swooping them in and being the person that they need in that moment. her true colors probably only really being seen/felt by the time they were all despair-pilled and it was too late for them.

at some point treating each other horribly is part being ultimate despair, yeah? like... kind words aren't used between them. it's similar to mukuro in danganronpa if ——— when she realized junko is cutting her off because she's being super kind and speaking about how much she loves her. for ultimate despair verbal abuse becomes a love language, it feels. hence why i think junko was pretty mean to the remaining remnants in the last dr2 trial. that's just how they interact! they make fun of each other, they're mean, they're abusive. so they can feel despair. because that's all they have at that point.

[jarofstyles]

Sugar Sugar 10

Hello my loves! Enjoy sugar sugar 10…. Things are about to thicken 👀👀👀

Check out our Patreon for early access and exclusive writing!

Warnings: fatphobia, witchcraft, the usual

Series masterlist

—-

His new couch was stupidly comfortable.

Y/N was laid across it, her head in Harry’s lap as they appropriately watched a home makeover show. After the deliveries and some organizing they’d called it a day and got their dinner delivered, leading to wine and laying on the new couch to ‘break it in’, as Harry put it. Neither were drunk, just enough wine to make the warm feeling cover them like a blanket. His fingers stroked her hair as they sat in a comfortable silence.

“If you keep doing that I’m going to fall right to sleep.” She warned him, eyes closed as she relished in his comfort. His thighs were perfectly toned, and he had changed into some soft blue sweatpants so that only added to her comfort. Her cheek rubbed against the fabric as she adjusted slightly, taking a deep breath while she felt his chuckle under her. The digits twirled a strand around, the motions making her melt further into him.

His place was more comfortable now. Even with boxes waiting to be unpacked and a pile of trash in the corner, Y/N had lit a vanilla tobacco scented candle and set up his coffee table to at least seem a bit more presentable, the flickering of the flame capturing her attention. Y/N loved candles and fire, incorporating a lot of that into her spell work. She was drawn to warm colors and feelings. It made sense she was drawn to Harry.

“That’s alright.” He murmured. “You can if you’d like.” There was a tiny bit of worry in his stomach for suggesting it so early on but he really would love for her to sleep here. They were waiting on his new bed frame to be delivered but it was doable for now.

With every new relationship, Harry knew that perhaps it was a difficult thing to find the timing of each milestone. When was too soon or too late to do things. Sleepovers, sex, meeting family, moving in. What was the timeline? Had anyone ever written a book about it? It would make sense if they didn’t, though, because relationships weren’t linear. That’s a mistake a lot of people seemed to make from his own nosy observations.

“I really would love to, but I’ve got no clothes.” She pouted, turning in his lap to look up at him. “Got to open the shop tomorrow too. Otherwise I would.” Y/N was beginning to become a bit greedy with his attention. Never had anyone so willingly and easily given her the attention she had always craved but thought to be selfish to ask for. He handed it over on a silver platter and offered her seconds. If she was comfortable enough sleeping naked with him, perhaps she would… but it was taking her a bit.

“Did you want to borrow some of mine?”

Harry had said it with such innocence, such a genuine tone that Y/N felt awful for giggling. Her hand raising to her mouth as she laughed quietly, stopping herself from actually laughing out loud as she shook her head. “Harry- my darling, you’re so kind. So sweet.” She sat upright, turning to him and pulling him in for a tiny kiss of appreciation. “Your clothes would fit my right thigh. It’s not a bad thing at all. I’m just not the size for that.”

With anyone else it would be embarrassing to admit that. It still kind of was underneath the surface level amusement, but she wasn’t ashamed like she used to be. Harry was muscular, sure, and she didn’t feel giant next to him, but he was small in terms of clothes. His shirt would work in a pinch, maybe, but she wasn’t going to be able to wear his stuff as sleep clothes. At least not now.

“Oh.” His cheeks flushed slightly, unsure how to respond. She didn’t seem upset and he genuinely hadn’t thought of that, but he still felt bad. “M’sorry.” He apologized quietly, letting her take the lead. “I mean, I’m sure some of it would work but I want you to be comfortable. Maybe…” he pinched his bottom lip in thought. “Maybe you could bring some stuff over in case we get to this point again? When it’s late and we hang out and you decide you don’t want to go home?”

He was essentially offering her a drawer. If Harry was full of one thing, it would be surprises. Y/N looked at him in slight shock, realizing he was deadly serious about the offer. He wanted her to keep clothes here just in case. A step she hadn’t been expecting in the slightest, but one that managed to make her giddy internally. Y/N had a bad habit of letting herself think that maybe she was the one feeling more in every single one of her friendships and relationships. A lot of the time , unfortunately, it had been proven to be true. This time, with Harry taking the leap, it seemed like maybe that wasn’t the case.

“Sure.” She said slowly, a little smile growing on her lips. “I’d really like that, actually. I…” There was a pause as she tried to gather the correct words she wanted to say. “Thank you.” Is what she settled on. “For not trying to like… undermine me and how I feel about it. Or lie and say I’d definitely fit. Those types of things used to really irritate me.”

Harry had to wonder what sorts of relationships she had been in that would make her thank him for such simple things. To be listened to and not brushed off. It wasn’t even a matter of her fitting more so seeing how she could possibly be uncomfortable with the idea. Harry wasn’t an idiot, nor was he unaware of her size. It just simply didn’t matter to him. He found her to be stunning. Her body was a vessel for all the things he had liked about her, and he loved how she looked regardless of what other people may have said or implied in the past.

“You really don’t have to thank me for that, Sugar.” He replied, taking her hand into his own and rubbed over her knuckles. “If you aren’t comfortable with something, if you would rather wear your own things, I’m happy with that. Your happiness and comfort here is what I want.” He wouldn’t be a whiny little boy or feign ignorance. Y/N had been someone he immediately felt comfortable around and his hopes were to be that person for her as well.

There weren’t proper words for a response, so she decided to kiss him instead.

-

The next morning, Y/N opened up the shop with a happy song humming underneath her breath. The sun was warm on her skin through the windows, dusting off the shelves as her patchwork skirt flowed behind her. The new incense had been lit and the oil diffusing as she worked, the sweet smell lifting her mood dramatically. She had been feeling a little sad that she hadn’t stayed with Harry the night before, but his send off had almost made up for it. He had a sinfully good mouth when it came to kisses and it had been almost impossible to rip herself from his hands but she would have stayed all night leaned against his car if she didn’t move away.

Her lips still felt tingly as she smiled to herself. Harry was a large percentage of her mind this morning and she didn’t think anyone would blame her.

A few things occupied the other spaces in her brain. The new shipments out in the back room, payroll, the new moon, and the tugging feeling for her own tarot reading. She woke up knowing she needed to do one for herself as she usually did when the cards had something to tell her. That was the last on her agenda for today.

The shop’s energy was fantastic today. The cleansing Delilah had done the night before had done wonders for the area, an easy breath floating through her body. Y/N loved her shop, loved her little place she had built and been able to sustain herself with quite comfortably. With the times changing and more people becoming open to spirituality, new practices and people doing what they wanted, it hadn’t been a better time for business. Growing up with the knowledge and yearning for growth that she had been blessed with had managed to help her tremendously.

As soon as Delilah had clocked in, Y/N headed towards the back room to unpack some of the new inventory. Rose quartz spheres she had sourced, some new sphere stands, some tiger’s eye carvings and other mineral specimens. A new tarot deck had come out that she managed to snag with the most beautiful artwork she had seen had been something else she had been called to order, the girl taking one and setting it aside for herself.

Grabbing the pricing stickers, she began to write down the prices of each piece and got lost in the 70’s classics. It was one of her favorite things to do. Sitting back and doing the busywork, her energy contained back here as she hear people enter the shop and make their first sales of the day. She could hear her second employee, Lily, come in and hang up her bag with a chirpy hello before going back out to the floor.

All was fine and good- until it wasn’t.

Y/N didn’t quite know how to explain it to people who didn’t feel it first hand, but without being cliche, she could feel the energy change. Like a lively flower being covered by a storm cloud, wilting in front of your eyes. Prickling of skin as the temperature changed, a shoe being dropped. Her hair stood up in the back of her neck, a quietness filling the usually lively and soft shop as all that remained was the music that even seemed to be quieted by the unwelcomed energy. There was something Y/N had called the ‘knowing’, or that’s what she called it. Whatever the energy was, it was here for her. Standing up, she covered her shoulders in her wraps to metaphorically protect herself from whatever it was, listening to a voice murmur and Delilah speaking crisp and clear.

“I’m sorry, the owner is on a call. Can I help you?” Her voice was no nonsense, no doubt being able to feel the atrocious air around the person and not wanting Y/N to have to be bothered, but they both knew. They always did.

“Actually, I just finished it. I have another in a second.” She called, approaching the door behind the register. Taking a breath, she opened the door and stepped out.

Immediately she could see that this customer wasn’t here because she wanted a crystal. There was something else brewing in her mind. Her hackles raised in her mind, though her spine straightened and she kept her head up as she met icy blue eyes across the counter. “How can I help you?”

The woman was beautiful. There was no denying that. Lithe and sharp, her lips pouted and painted a bright red, she was very much old Hollywood type of beautiful. Straight, glossy honey blonde hair fell down her shoulders, her handbag clutched in the crook of her arm. She looked like someone Y/N would compliment when she came on screen at an awards show, saying how she liked her makeup or dress. Dressed in all black without a spot or wrinkle, she looked like she stepped out of a film too. Large diamond earrings sparkled as she moved her hair and gave a smile that was far too big, giving Y/N a once over.

Y/N wasn’t unused to this. The raised eyebrows, the slight noises, the scanning of her body. It wasn’t a friendly thing. It was judgment, sizing up, for whatever reason. She never really could quite place why people would do these types of things. Get that look of pity, or disgust at someone who looked different from them. Why what other people looked like mattered to them, she never would be sure. However, one thing she did know for sure was that the once overs would never end, and this woman did not come for a good reason.

“Hello. I’m Claire.” She replied. “I was just in town, exploring a bit, and decided to step into here. I heard about it from some locals. My brother is a big fan of Harry Potter, so I thought when they said there was a Witchcraft store they’d meant something themed after that.” She gave a chuckle which Y/N only nodded to. “I didn’t think it would be… serious.” She looked around again, icy eyes staring at the books and guides and tarot decks with a little wrinkle in her nose. “Is it a gimmick? You don’t actually believe in all this stuff, right? The readings and crystals and all that. I’ve seen plenty of these things at fairs and stuff, so I’m assuming its a bit like that. For the children. There’s no way grown adults can believe in stuff like this.”

Delilah stiffened slightly, raising her own manicured brow but not saying anything yet. This was Y/N’s conversation and she could handle it like a grown woman. This wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last time she got this from someone who walked in. There were always skeptics. That wasn’t inherently a bad or disrespectful thing. In fact, Y/N liked it when people had a healthy dose of skepticism because it meant they wouldn’t be fooled by people hoping to make a quick buck or scare them into giving them more money. People would always be skeptic of things they couldn’t understand and with things of the magic variety? It was understandable. People could believe whatever they wanted to. Sometimes people came in simply to learn about it and decide for themselves.

However, people like Claire? They already had their minds made up. The joking as if they were going to go along with it, the condescending tone, it was a show she had seen so many times before. Not to mention the dark cloud she had hovering around her. Almost like a lack of an aura, a cloudy life force. Something corrupt was following her and embedding in her veins. Nothing Y/N nor Delilah wanted a part in.

“We do, yes. We all believe in different things, and that’s alright. Life would be very dull without a bit of magic.” Y/N gave a little smile to the woman. “It could be called a witchcraft store. You can get supplies here for that. We mainly sell crystals and offer readings, palms, tarot, oracle, and we have guest mediums as well. It’s alright if you don’t believe in it. Everyone can have their own opinion as long as it isn’t disrespecting the very people in the room.” Her hand ran over the stack of crystal bracelets she had on her hand. “Is there something we can help you find? Did you want to learn?” She looked towards Delilah. “D, can you sweep a bit please?”

The girl smirked, nodding her head as she grabbed the broom and began to sweep towards the door.

An old trick. Sweep when you wanted a guest to leave. It worked every single time.

“Oh. Well… I suppose I thought we all grew up and stopped entertaining things that were useless.” Another viper-like smile made Y/N want to roll her eyes. The woman wanted a reaction. “I was just in the bakery across the street. The young woman said the owner wasn’t there but I was curious if you knew him? How to get a hold of him?”

There it was. A dark pit in her stomach rising to her throat, her eyes meeting Delilah’s across the room. She watched as she grabbed a spray, spritzing it in the air before putting it down.

This was why she was here. To get ahold of Harry. And she didn’t like the intention she felt from her. Not in a jealous way, though that had a little to do with it. But… a way in which made her suspicious. If she knew Harry, she should have his number. Harry hadn’t divulged much about his life before moving here but she had an inkling he wanted to start over. He wanted freedom. Y/N would be damned if she let someone from his past come and stomp all over the good thing he had started here. Her gut told her to throw her off his trail.

“I’ve met him a few times before. Lovely person. He’s not in often, but I don’t have any way you could reach him. I’m sorry.”

She watched as the woman cleared her throat, beginning to back towards the door. “Oh. Well, the employees said you two are friends.” Irritation was visible in her eyes and it made Y/N smile internally.

“I wouldn’t call us friends.” She would call him more.

“Ah. Makes sense.” The woman let out a cough, looking around at the store once again. “The incense in here is too strong.” The protection incense. Ha. “But if you see him, can you tell him that I stopped by?” There was something devilish in her tone that made her bristle. Y/N wouldn’t call herself easily irritated but this woman managed to do it to her. Pissed her off immensely. Her intentions were to cause problems. Not just for her, but for Harry. She had no clue why, but the level of protectiveness she felt towards her boyfriend raised quite a few notches. It would be her mission to keep this woman out.

“If I see him.”

Delilah continued sweeping at the door, pushing it open and letting the woman out.

As soon as she left, Y/N felt like she could properly breathe again.

“My god.” Delilah exhaled. “She’s got some dark shit attached to her.”

“Or she is the dark shit.” Y/N retorted, grabbing a cleansing bundle and lighting it up. “That was awful. I felt her as soon as I walked in.” Y/N had seen her fair share of bad energy in people but this had felt deep, dark and personal. The woman probably hid it well to others, a gorgeous face and body, good acting skills, but nothing could hide a true intention.

[triptychgrip]

Impact of figure skating politics on post-canon Yuri!!! on Ice

So, even aside from the rampant doping, I think many people are familiar with how the politics within the sport of figure skating really suck -- whether that's in terms of how skating federations meddle with their athletes' careers in ways these athletes clearly don't want or don't even know about, the way regulatory bodies -- the International Skating Union (ISU), and its various Commissions -- can and do remain silent when it comes to speaking out on abuse or corruption, or the complete shit-show of bias within judging, sometimes on a ludicrously visible level.

After all, this is a sport where a judge that showed clear bias at the PyeongChang Olympics was not only invited back to judge at the Beijing Games, but was given the position of being the technical controller!

Sheer madness...

It makes sense why Yuri!!! on Ice didn't delve into this stuff in a 12 episode season b/c the reality is: it's a major bummer.

But I work in public policy and am a social justice researcher whose career focuses on institutional change. So I often find myself asking the question "what would cause institutions/people/movements -- especially with a lot of history and influence behind them -- to change for the better, whether by 'force' (public outcry, insider advocacy, etc.) or their own volition?" It's a question I started thinking about a lot almost as soon as I got into Yuri!!! on Ice a few years back, and specifically, thought about in a post-canon context.

Some of the politics-related questions that surfaced for me, included:

-When Viktor returns to skating, how would his federation (the FFKKR) choose to treat his absence? Would they, perhaps, "make an example" of him at the Rostelecom Cup, purposely underscoring his performances? Or, would they have "given up" on him, trying to focus all of their attention/resources on Yurio's obvious rising star potential?

-Further, would they (with tacit or explicit media support) take a negative stance regarding his and Yuuri's highly public relationship -- perceiving Viktor's romance as a "threat" to his ability to return to the field as strong and focused as before -- or would they choose to ignore it, altogether?

-How would Yurio's growth spurt (which is hinted at in canon) impact the FFKKR's treatment of Viktor if the former is no longer able to put out the kind of performance that he did at the Barcelona Grand Prix Final? Or if Georgi retires from the field?

-How would skaters that wish to skate independently of corrupt federations -- something that is currently not possible under the way the ISU is structured with 'member nations' -- navigate their careers, and what avenues would they have at their disposal to avoid burn-out from the shitstorm of pervasive corruption?

-How would politics affect our favorite characters at an event as globally visible as the PyeongChang Olympic Games, and in its aftermath? (I say this with the caveat that I generally write yoi fic w/ the premise that it took place during the first half of the 2016 skating season, though there is no way to pinpoint the actual season).

All of these questions kept circling about in my head, and I felt highly motivated to begin writing a multichapter, post-canon "future fic". Specifically, a fic that would tell the story of married Yuuri/Viktor at the 2022 Olympic Games, but jumping back in time at various points over the previous five years to showcase how a particular scandal -- other than doping -- at the 2018 PyeongChang Games has "followed them" throughout the years (and has deeply impacted the sport/our other favorite characters).

This fic turned into a series called "Gold's On The Inside, Elevated My Feet", which currently is at 293K total words, and is being updated 1-2 times per month.

I know a lot of people aren't into long, novel-length works, especially if they're WIPs, but if you, like me, are fascinated by some of the real-world issues that might impact Yuuri/Viktor/Yurio and others post-canon, I hope you'll consider checking my work out.

I've included a spoiler-free excerpt from Chapter 11 of part 1 of the series, below, that I feel hints at the politics while encapsulating the Viktuuri fluff, friendship antics, and overall supportive themes that I've tried to weave into my stories.

I hope it piques your interest and encourages you to check the series out, or my other Yuri!!! on Ice fics!

---------

“First of all, how the hell would you have even managed to contact me from all the way over in the Kiss and Cry?” Phichit went on. “Did they imagine you had waved a wand to send a carrier pigeon flying through Gangneung Ice Arena to land directly on my head ? After which, it would peck an intimidating message in Morse code straight onto my scalp?”

Yuuri was now hiccuping giggles, and he was pleased to see that he’d begun to wipe a profuse quantity of tears from his cheeks.

When his best friend had told him that he wanted to hear all the nitty-gritty details of his International Court of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) hearing, Phichit had definitely had some misgivings; Yuuri and Viktor had flown to Lausanne for their own proceedings directly after the latter’s retirement party in Milan, and given what they’d told him about each brutally long-winded 4 hour session, he’d known fun things were not in store for him.

“But Yuuri without his glasses on can be very intimidating…very sexily intimdating,” Viktor said with a grin, prompting a playful slap on the arm from his fiance; thanks to Yuuri’s thirsty fans, the hashtag #Yuuri’sNearsightedSexySquintTally had become a staple on the competition circuit, and both he and Viktor had taken to alluding to the phrase as much as possible.

“Yes, I’m sure that’s exactly what permanent-frown-dude-arbitrator was referring to,” Yuuri responded, sarcastically, “my nefariously sexy squinting that so very clearly spelled out that Phichit better file a claim, or else.”

He and Viktor both laughed, and he shared a few more snippets from his hearing before conversation moved along to discussion around the other Olympics claimants’ hearings.

“Oh my god, just imagine Christophe during his,” Yuuri said, before giving Makkachin a kiss, right to the top of her fuzzy head.

The poodle was splayed out across both of her dog-dad’s laps, taking up much of the bench directly in front of the rink boards at Hasetsu’s Ice Castle. After their hearing, the couple had flown to St. Petersburg, spending just a few days there to get Makka and Meni and do a round of cursory packing. They’d then taken off for Japan where they planned to stay until mid-June, which was the beginning of the rainy season.

Even from afar, Phichit had been able to keep tabs on Yuuri thanks to Nishigori Yuuko. After thoroughly bonding with her at Viktor’s retirement party – after all, a willingness to drunkenly act out the unhinged plot of The King and the Skater 3: Because Time Loops Are A Thing tended to solidify people in Phichit’s mind as lifelong friends – she had been messaging him through Instagram as well as contributing heavily in the “Yuuri Support Squad” chat.

Soon enough, he’d be able to keep tabs on him in-person, as his own trip to Hasetsu was just three weeks away.

“He’d be all: ‘And then, my esteemed arbitrators, I got distracted from calculating Yuuri’s grade-of-execution, because my eyes were too busy lingering on his delectably muscled thighs as he came out of his triple-lutz, triple-toe combo’,” Viktor said, in a deliberately put-upon Swiss accent, while lasciviously licking his lips.

Phichit barked out a laugh while Yuuri grinned at him.

“Are you sure you aren’t just verbalizing the thoughts you wish you could have expressed during your hearing?” he asked his fiance.

Viktor gasped, theatrically, and clutched Meni even more closely to his chest before responding.

“I would never think such a thing! I’ve become an expert at admiring your beautiful thighs while simultaneously calculating your GOE,” he said, sounding proud. “As any good coach should be.”

[shiraishi--kanade]

An aspect of Saki's character that interests me as a disabled person who, admittedly, only keeps up with Leo/need at a very surface level (not for the lack of interest but because if I tried to be invested in 4 more characters my head would explode): a) how did she and the rest of the girls meet b) how did they manage to keep their friendship alive considering Saki's prolonged hospital stays.

I think there's... A weird kind of isolation that being chronically ill from a young age brings into your life.

You see, I was never a popular kid in class, okay? Very obviously neurodivergent, absolutely socially clueless, and frankly a bit of a stuck-up asshole in the way straight A's kids in elementary school tend to be. Even so, I had a couple of friends. The ride or die friends for a elementary student, which usually amounted to stuff like going home together and the like.

Until the second grade, that is. Which is when I got sick for the first time, had to spend half a year in quarantine, and acquired a heart condition that would later lead to my lifelong disability.

I'm not about to say my friends abandoned me immediately when I returned to school because that would be untrue. As a child, you're really struggling with the concept of invisible disability, I think. As hard as is was for me to accept I'll just Be Like This, for my friends it was basically non-existant.

But there was a difference. One of the best runners in the entire school suddenly no longer able to run. Constantly dizzy. Constant headaches. Missing school. Having to tap out of activities early. Adults interfering with your plans and fussing more than normal. All of the things elementary aged kids took Very Seriously and I was suddenly not able to participate in most of them, while my injury remained absolutely invisible to everyone else.

I don't think they ever ditched me outright. Nobody told me they didn't want to hang out anymore. I don't think anyone does it that way; it's mostly just slow, painful realisation that people invite you out less and less, until it's not at all. Gradual isolation.

Also, even if you're feeling fine about doing stuff, there's a non-zero chance the adults around you wouldn't. I was not allowed to participate in PE anymore. I still had to be there for the headcount, though, so with that done I'd just sit there on the bench for an entire period. You know, like a loser. Which isn't a good first impression make when you join a new class.

I was, and still am, very frail. This fact was made very loud and obvious by the adults around me, to their credit, in my best interests (or so I hope). You know what happens when kids get told "hey, this thing is very frail - if you touch it they wrong way it'll break and you'll have Consequences"? They will either avoid the thing in question with all the power they have at the fear of accidentally breaking it, or smash it head on to see what happens. Neither of these were pleasant to deal with.

Which is to say: loud announcements that you're disabled whether or not you want to disclose that because the homeroom teacher decided to make you a good example during the "how to treat people different than you nicely" morning assembly is not a good friend maker either. Even well-meaning ones come with presumptions, and are very quickly to fall out once they realise you're not the timid and shy disabled kid they've been fed the idea of.

Anyway, considering the above said: my experiences make me so so very interested in how exactly Leo/need friendship happened and stayed alive for this long, through so much stuff, especially considering whatever Saki was going through was much, much worse than I.

[filmmarvel]

PJO Series Overall Thoughts + Pros and Cons

Disclaimer! First of all, there are a lot more cons than pros here, and if you loved the show and don’t want to hear my criticism just keep scrolling. Second, I’m not someone to complain just because it isn’t exactly how it was in the book! I have quite a range of feelings about story changes. In regard to the ones I’ve listed as cons, i’m just irritated that they haven’t been able to match the book in frankly any capacity. I believe that if you’re making changes, it should be a) out of necessity, b) to improve upon the material, or c) taking positive creative license to try a new spin on an element from the source material. But the changes I’m complaining about, for the most part, haven’t met any of those requirements.

Pros:

Sets and Visuals

It was so magical seeing camp come to life!

The Underworld looks fantastic, the visuals are super cool, especially the Fields of Asphodel. That was a really cool spin on the books- the CGI was pretty good, and the concept there was really interesting.

Olympus was very cool looking too! It reminded me of Asgard.

Overall I Just Think There’s Lots of Potential!

Since the leads are fairly inexperienced (and kids), you can’t expect them to be incredible. They’re doing just fine, but I think they have a lot of potential, and I’m excited to see them grow over the course of the series!

Generally I still really like the casting and have high hopes for these actors, I just wish (for our sake and theirs) that they had better material to work with.

Plot Changes

This ones kind of a pro AND a con: Generally, I really like the flashbacks! They add a lot more depth to Sally, and her relationships with Percy and Poseidon. That being said, the episodes typically feel far too short to be adding material that wasn’t in the books. I thought it was fantastic in episode 7, but in other episodes it didn’t quite work when so much else was cut, or there were opportunities left untaken as a result.

I also liked that they included a few flashbacks with Luke in the finale- there was so much training and time at camp that didn’t fit into the first two episodes.

They got rid of the “names have power” stuff which is great (never made sense in the books).

They did a really nice job humanizing Medusa, but still creating conflict with her, and simultaneously setting up further issues with the gods.

I also agreed with their decision to move the fight from Santa Monica to Montauk, to save time.

Cons:

Dialogue and Writing

The dialogue is definitely less charming than in the books. It’s a huge part of what makes them fun, and the dialogue here is honestly pretty bland. The characters don’t totally feel like themselves, but it isn’t only the acting. Forcing the characters to be explaining stuff to each other nearly every time they have a conversation makes them a lot less personable.

Honestly, this series feels kind of elementary in comparison to the middle grade books. I’d imagine that, like the books, they were aiming to create something that could be enjoyed by young kids and adults alike. But I didn’t find it as successful as the book in this regard.

And the dialogue is consistently so surface level! Stiff, boring, and above all, CONSTANTLY telling over showing. This affects the likability of the characters, and the ability of the actors. Both parties are deterred by the info dumping, as they aren’t really given as many genuine lines or interactions as they should have.

Honestly, it kind of feels a bit like they gave some of Percy’s personality to Annabeth in parts of the show? I saw someone else point out that they’re kind of giving Annabeth the Hermione treatment (ie giving her some of the other characters good moments), which I kind of agree with. However, a lot of that was towards the beginning and middle of the season and has somewhat improved since.

I posted a whole rant earlier about the Lotus Casino episode, which I’ll just summarize: theres a consistent pattern in the show of having the characters figure out what’s going on immediately, removing the danger, and more importantly, not allowing the characters to make mistakes, which weakens both them and the plot. In addition, I didn’t like that they brought up May Castellan already, primarily because it was just another info dump, which (in my mind) gets lost amongst all the other info dumps and removes the poignancy from the reveal. Now, there’s absolutely time to fix the May Castellan situation and ensure that it still packs a punch later on, but for this season it wasn’t great. Go check out my last post if you’d like to hear the rest of my argument on that episode!

Some additional examples of the ‘not letting the characters experience danger’ thing: Procrustes (obviously), and Kronos- forget whether or not Percy should know who Kronos is, the biggest issue is that there’s very little evidence or buildup, so (again) there’s no tension or shock at the reveal. And finally, with Luke. I was so annoyed when Percy figured it out! I could’ve believe that they were doing it AGAIN. I still enjoyed that scene because Walker and Charlie were great, but that was disappointing for sure.

The thing with the pearls honestly amounted to nothing, and there was no reason for Annabeth to not be present in the underworld: that was just a tearjerker for the sake of being a tearjerker (manufactured drama).

Lowering the Stakes

I just wish they’d made it SLIGHTLY more mature- don’t get me wrong, it’s a kids show! I’m very well aware of that! But this feels a lot tamer than a lot of kids (PG) movies involving monsters and stuff.

Gabe was a real piece of shit in the books, but in the show they just kinda made him look lazy and turned him into comic relief. And I don’t believe in the argument that they had to make this change to benefit a younger audience- they didn’t really need to change anything there.

Throughout the majority of the season, I felt like they weren’t allowing the gods to be truly intimidating, or powerful. First with Ares, who wasn’t BAD but generally didn’t have that kind of dramatic presence that he had in the books. Again with Hades, who wasn’t shown as being REMOTELY intimidating, and perhaps the biggest offense of all- Zeus. Having the deadline pass with seemingly zero consequence or threat of consequence does absolutely nothing (and certainly doesn’t increase tension like I’m pretty sure Rick Riordan said was their reason for changing it). Up until the finale, viewers had very few reasons to fear the Gods. Even Dionysus and Hephaestus! In the books there’s a clear line- you can interact with them, but you DONT want to offend them. There’s a clear threat of power, and that just wasn’t remotely present for a while.

And again, I just want to clarify- this is an overall writing problem! It’s not that Ares, or any other one of the gods I just mentioned has a different personality than in the books, it’s that a show like this (KIDS OR NOT) should still be compelling, and part of that includes having real danger and clear stakes.

I would add that they did a much better job with this in the finale! Lance Reddick gave such an amazing performance, and truly made Zeus an intimidating figure. The fight on the beach with Ares was great as well. So I’m optimistic about this criticism moving into season 2, but I stand by the idea that this was an issue for the majority of the series.

Overall, it felt like they weren’t taking the serious parts seriously, AND they didn’t take the comedy as seriously either? So it isn’t as lighthearted OR as impactful as the books. It feels so much more bland and watered down by comparison.

Episodes Were Too Short

Everything just flowed really well in the books, here the pacing is off and the dialogue isn’t as natural (again, they’re forced to rely on a lot of telling instead of showing which takes away from genuine moments). Many character details and personality traits were cut for the sake of additional verbal explanation

As many others have pointed out, the fight scenes also feel pretty rushed, and haven’t quite conveyed the sense of urgency that they should. It all just lowers the stakes.

This Ones Kind of a Joke, but the Casting for Hephaestus

It’s mostly my book bias. This guy was NOT giving Hephaestus. Mainly because Hephaestus is the god of the forge, and I can’t picture this guy anywhere near one of those. He kind of looked like one of Santa’s elves, he’s giving tinkerer not GOD of the FORGE. This is also something they can absolutely fix/win me over in time lmao

Changes

I already mentioned most of the changes (good and bad) already, but there’s one more. I kind of wish they had kept Percy’s dream about Tartarus, especially given that they decided to have Percy figure out Kronos is behind it all earlier- it just would’ve clicked a little easier.

Finishing Thoughts

I don’t want to totally sound like a hater! I’m still enjoying the series, and I really hope it gets renewed for season 2! I was just disappointed in the weak writing. I hope that the writers will be able to recognize these flaws and improve for season 2.

Alright, I don’t really expect anyone to read this whole thing, but if you made it: thanks for reading! I’m curious to hear your thoughts, so I’d really appreciate comments, just keep it civil!

[cat-mermaid]

OK I FINISHED X MEN 97

JESUS CHICKEN POT CHRIST

this is the best thing since spiderverse, and I consider spiderverse 2 be the best thing media-wise

like seriously there is and has never been a reason to do live action super hero shit except in handful of cases, you can go so fucking hard with animation in a way you can't with live action enhanced with cgi

i was gobsmacked at how incredible the action was in this while still remaining faithful to the look and style of the 90s original!!!!

and the writing? at first I was like wow they're actually gonna commit to that old fashioned style of dialog from the original, this is gonna be so silly! But no

like i teared up

A LOT

this hokey melodramatic cheesy soap opera throwback had me FEELING

and you know what? Having it all be super surface level dialog thats kinda blunt and we don't go Steven Universe and spend 5 minutes talking about our feelings? Kinda refreshing!

(I love Steven Universe, I live for that show, I love that we are in an era of kid's animation where we respect their intelligence and have mature and healthy dialogs about stuff. Just covering my ass here, wouldn't wanna go back to the stupid dur dur kids shit needs 2 B dumbed down era of cartoons for anything)

the best thing tho? Minus a few things like blood, use of the word "god" and the handful of swears and saying "death, died, die, killed", this super duper could have aired on fox Saturday mornings in the year 1997/1998.

You can show this to an 8 year old no problem!!!!

(4 those who don't know, only in the last 10 years or so have western cartoons been able to say death, died, die, killed kill. Before that you could only say destroy or eliminated or stuff like that. Thats why dbz's early dub was so infamous for its "another dimension" aka DEATH nonsense)

god almighty I hope this gets another season

[summersmithlatinxgyatt]

The following is a really rough theory of mine that also involves Summer. I’m going to keep it at all at a very questionable pace because it sounds very far-fetched, but it has understandable proof. Let’s just start out with a question that I’m not gonna answer very well 💀

Is Summer smart?

…no seriously, that’s the question of the day. Is Summer smart or dumb?

You can say she’s just kind of a dumb teen girl, but there’s some nuance to it that warrants a theory to be made.

She mentions that she chooses to get decent grades instead of being an A+ student. She doesn’t really go on about any classes other than Spanish class (which she cheats her way into), since we know she stopped attending flute practice. However, she’s been shown to be very smart in battle and with Rick. The two of them are an unstoppable force, but we only see that happen with our Summer and our Rick.

Looking at the Gazorpazorp episode, I think that’s what cemented their relationship. So if Summer wasn’t accidentally brought along, she wouldn’t have been brought along ever again and have that trust be built up.

Realistically, no other Rick has had this incident and no other Rick probably has any reason to have Summer work with them. Every reason DOES have an inverse argument though. The most obvious one is that Morty blocks the brainwaves and Summer doesn’t, but that also means Summer can’t be tracked and is a surprise ally.

That being said, it’s likely that every Summer is told to stay in a “dumb” state because it is literally illegal to be around Rick and be a part of his life. That could very much be the reason. Summer always does what she wants, which includes being mediocre at school.

Her Night Summer personality is also the one who has to learn Spanish, so deep down she’s wanted this but somehow can’t or doesn’t want to.

My theory is that, since the Council of Ricks rules that Summer cannot be radicalized, Rick keeps her as distracted as possible as he focuses on himself or Morty in the meantime.

I also don’t know how valid this next point is, but Night Summer doesn’t know her Twitter password. This could be because the surface-level Summer is really being forced into just being on the side and being on her phone 24/7

I’ve brought up this scene from the GoTron episode. Every other family member is interacting with themselves or each other. Summer isn’t. She’s just still on her phone

Except our main Summer, of course

I WAS going to go on about how maybe Rick built her a phone that is so addicting that it keeps her attention at all times or it lowers her intelligence. Our Rick was able to detect that Mr. Needful’s microscope was going to make him reta- I mean, less intelligent. But keep in mind that:

A) Our Rick is the smartest Rick. Other Ricks are likely not doing this kind of stuff. Also this is just to make it clear what I mean by “Rick”.

B) Our Rick doesn’t suppress Summer anymore

I think it’s likely other Ricks might have done this? It’s probably just a healthy dose of neglect

One more thing. I pointed out in a theory about the fascist dimensions that Wasp Morty was looking at fascist propaganda online that the Citadel was using to radicalize others and come back after Rick took them down. If the Citadel of Ricks considered having Summer work with Rick a crime, then maybe alternate Summers have their phones connected to a similar network that keeps them suppressed and docile. The entire point of that aforementioned Mr. Needful scene was the basis of Rick removing curses and traps from other items and technology. He can remove this theoretical Citadel suppressing network from Summer’s phone, he hates them

[grailfinders]

Fate & Phantasms #23P: Medusa

today on Fate & Phantasms we finally leave the knight classes behind and head into the riders, starting off with the O.G., Medusa. she is a Druid who gets her magic from the Elementalist archetype, because let’s be real here you only really need like, two spells to play her.

or do you?

she’s also a Duelist to whip it, whip it good.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

next up: lemme take a selfy

(also as a reminder- we've opened suggestions for viewers' choice builds again! just leave a comment on an F&P post by the time the Faerie Knights are released)

Ancestry and Background

Medusa is a god/monster, neither of which is easily found in the player races, so we’ll make her Human to pick up some useful feats as we go. I mean, she’s human enough to be a servant, right? that’s… not saying much these days, to be honest.

still, you get a boost in Dexterity and Charisma anyways.

that being said, you’re not entirely human. thanks to being an earth god you’re more of an Oread, giving you some extra options to choose from as you level up. this gives you low-light vision, which doesn’t matter much when you’re always wearing a blindfold.

and while you can get cool Oread stuff, first we have to stop off at the Unconventional Weaponry store for level one, if you want to wield a whip, at least.

at level five, you can shatter the Treacherous Earth around you once every ten minutes, turning the area you’re standing in into difficult terrain. half the trouble in fighting a medusa is getting around their “statues”, y’know?

at level nine, your Earthsense gives you tremorsense up to 30’ away. now you can wear that fashionable blindfold you like so much!

at level 13 you make a Shadow Pact with Zon-Kuthon, so I guess you’re Nidalese now. with it, you can use your own blood to cast Creation at will. you can do this whenever you like, but you a) take 1 point of damage each time, and b) you can only have one item up at a time. they also dissipate into nothing if placed in bright light, so Blood Fort Andromeda isn’t super powerful yet.

finally, at level 17 your Metal-Veined Strikes make your unarmed attacks either cold iron or silver as far as resistances are concerned. it’s a shame we weren’t able to fit much monk in here, but hopefully this helps even the odds in a fistfight against your sisters. I don’t normally ask for violence against children but they kind of deserve it.

I’ve also discovered one way to give you a goddess core thanks to the Anti-Magical background. that gives you proficiency in Aquatic lore since you live on an island as well as a boost in Constitution and Wisdom. but more importantly, whenever you’d get affected by magic (including your own) roll a d20. on a 2 or a 1 the spell doesn’t affect you at all. thankfully we’re not super huge on self-buffing here, since you don’t need to be strong to fight a statue.

Class Levels

1. starting things off, as a druid you’ll get a boost in Wisdom since it’s your key ability, meaning a lot of your class features are based off it. you’re also trained in Perception and Nature, as well as Fortitude and Reflex saves, unarmed and simple attacks, and all armors except heavy. a dress isn’t armor at all, so you’re fine. you also get trained in Acrobatics and Occultism now, and eventually Arcana later when your intelligence grows. spoilers, I guess.

one last proficiency- you’re an Expert in Will saves.

now we get to the fun stuff! your first Ability Boost will bump up your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom, for better physicality and better stone eyes later. you also learn Druidic, because every ttrpg feels the need to give people languages they probably will never use. more importantly, you join the Stone Druidic Order, giving you some more earthy options later, as well as training in Crafting, the Steadying Stone feat to succeed better at balancing and staying on your feet on rocky surfaces, and the Crushing Ground order spell, sealing a creature away in a fissure for up to a round.

you can also use Primal Spellcasting by preparing your spells each day, and unlike in D&D when I say you prepare the spells, I mean you prepare each spell. you have to name the exact spell each slot will be used for the day before, so good luck with that! you’ll always have cantrips, at least? I’m not going to go over every spell you can use since that’s a lot of stuff, but I’ll make sure to suggest at least one or two spells each level.

you can use a Shield Block if you have a shield (you shouldn’t), and your Wild Empathy lets you use diplomacy to make an impression on wild animals, even letting you make requests of them if you roll well enough.

finally, there’s one unfun thing we need to cover- your Anathema. basically, if you act too much like a captain planet villain you lose your powers for a bit. as a stone druid, you don’t like polluting the earth or mining unnecessarily, but like all druids you also can’t spoil nature, teach druidic to non-druids, or use metal armor or shields. they say nothing about weapons though, so your chain whip is still 100% on the table!

now onto your spells. for a cantrip, Tame will help you ride just about anything you can get on, increasing your standing with a domesticated animal for up to 1 minute. that’s not a lot to start with, but as you level up it can eventually grow to an hour of ride time. afterwards, they’re immune to the spell for a day.

for your leveled spells, Ant Haul will give you some truly monstrous strength, and Tether can tie down a creature with your whips, either slowing them down or completely immobilizing them for up to 1 minute. as you level up, the whips get tougher to destroy.

2. at level two, your snakiness gives you an innate Poison Resistance equal to half your level, and you can Tame Animals by using a nature check. finally, we’re picking up the Elementalist dedication to spice up your spells even more. there’s also an alternative spellcasting style we could’ve gone for here, but I like the full druid list better. as it stands, right now you can attune yourself to one of the four elements each day, giving you resistance to effects originating from that element.

3. at level three your Alertness and Great Fortitude make you an expert in Perception and Fortitude saves, respectively. you’re also learning your riding skills now as an Express Rider. while riding a creature, you can make a nature check to make their travel speed faster.

you’re also better at Occultism now. if fate and exactly one historical fiction book are to be believed Medusa is a long-forgotten goddess turned into a monster, sounds pretty occult to me.

at level two, you get your first of many options to summon Pegasus, Phantom Steed. right now you just summon a roughly regular horse, but a cringefail one that fails all saves. however, by sixth level it will be able to fly at 80’ per turn! I also grabbed Slough Skin, because snake. with this, you can much more easily remove persistent damage effects on your skin, and contact poison is less effective on touch.

4. at level four you can make Elemental Summons to make preparing spells a lot less difficult. now you can spend ten minutes to replace any other prepared spell with summon elemental. these flying creatures are a lot more useful for combat since they don’t fail every save and can actually attack, but they come at a cost- you can’t keep them summoned for more than a minute, and you won’t get one big enough to ride until you have sixth level spell slots anyway.

if that does happen, make sure you use your Cat Fall to reduce your falling damage. if you don’t, there’s going to be one godly pancake on the ground when Emiya’s through with you.

you can also summon a Familiar now, because we needed to get a second elementalist feature before we could swap out. I mean I’d allow a baby pegasus, that sounds cute.

5. level five now, boost up your Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma with this Ability Boost. you’re also better with reflex saves now thanks to your Lightning Reflexes, and you’re better at Acrobatics to not splat later.

we’re mostly picking up Elemental Absorption for the defensive options, giving you resistance to one kind of elemental attack for up to a minute, but you can also fire off all the energy you stored up to end the spell early. also picking up Organsight because again, snake. it lets you make a precision attack against a target’s vital organs for extra damage if you make a recall knowledge check beforehand.

6. a sixth level druid can know Steady Spellcasting, your best spell is literally looking at someone, so it doesn’t make sense they’d be able to stop you that easily. if someone tries to stop your casting with their reaction, you can try a dc 15 flat check to stop their stopping you from stopping them from living. that sure is a sentence. the important thing is your spells work more.

you can also make a Quick Squeeze to slip through tight fits like some kind of slithery serpentine creature. like an eel.

you also have an Enhanced Familiar now. Pegasi are cool like that.

7. seventh level druids are Expert Spellcasters, making your save DCs even higher and just generally making you more terrifying.

you’re also a bit stronger now, thanks to Hefty Hauler beefing up your physicality. speaking of, we’re also boosting your Athletics this level.

you can also cast fourth level spells like Elemental Gift- giving a willing creature elemental powers for up to one minute. we’re mostly here for either Air (move speed and flight) or Earth (bonus against tripping, makes difficult terrain), but it’s nice to keep your options open. for a no-nonsense option, try Weapon Storm- swing your whip around so fast you attack everyone at once, hitting all creatures in a 30’ cone or 10’ radius around you.

8. at level eight, you can now tell people Can’t You See? when someone tries to point out your location, they need to make a DC 14 flat check, otherwise whoever they’re talking to will have a harder time spotting you. this also works on creatures seeking you when you’re hidden or undetected. I don’t know what happened at the end of F/SN that lets you all hang out together and cook, but you’re definitely good at blending in.

servants are also really good at noticing magic in the area, so your Assured Identification will help you ID magic items.

finally, Water Step lets you move across liquids as long as you don’t end your turn in them. Medusa had actual screentime in an anime, so we have to add a lot of monk techniques to this build somehow.

9. level nine’s super easy, just bump up your Athletics again. it’s also easy for spells, since there aren’t any I want here. there are plenty of fifth level spells to choose from though, don’t make this a dead level in a game at home. maybe grab Fly if you want to pretend you have a Pegasus a little early- probably less complicated in terms of mechanics too.

10. at level 10 you get a boost in Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma. we also get a lot more physical this level!

you can now Harden Flesh while standing on earth or stone, giving you resistance to all physical damage. turns out partial statufication has its uses- just ask Galatea.

you can also make a Powerful Leap for extra mobility, and we finally pick up the Duelist Dedication. with this, you can Quick Draw a weapon to draw and attack at the same time. whips fit in one hand, so we can actually use these feats this time around!

11. at level 11 your Druid Weapon Expertise gives you… expertise… in druid weapons. pretty self-explanatory, tbh.

you can also Kip Up, standing up as a free action that doesn’t cause reaction attacks. servants move super fast, you’re not going to get hit by most of the things you’re fighting.

your Resolve makes you a master of will, and your successes are always critical to boot!.

finally, bump up Acrobatics again. we’re at the point where you can actually use Pegasus, so your fall resistance had better be top-tier.

this is also the busiest level for spells- both Summon Elemental and Phantom Steed produce decent Pegasus counterparts here, and you can also cast Flesh to Stone at this level. if they fail the first save, they need to keep making saves every turn, gaining and losing slowed points as they go. if they stop being slowed altogether, the spell ends and they’re fine. if they lose all actions, they’re permanently turned into a garden decoration.

12. at level twelve, you can use Cryptic Spells as long as you’re in natural terrain. if you spend this action before you cast a spell, you can make a nature check against everyone else’s perception- if you succeed, they won’t even notice you casting a spell. this only hides the actual casting, not the effects- they’ll still notice the petrification setting in.

since you’re riding Pegasus now, you’d better be good at it. grab Aerobatics Mastery to make flying maneuvers a lot easier to pull off. you get a bonus to making maneuvers, and you can combine two of them in one go.

you also learn how to put a Disarming Twist into your attacks, so if you hit them with your attack you’ll also disarm them. even if you miss, you can still leave them flat-footed.

13. thirteenth level druids get armor expertise, a boost in Nature for sneakier spells, and a Weapon Specialization for more damage with weapons you’re good with. there’s not really any seventh level spells I want either- I mean maybe Plane Shift if you want to be really generous about how the summoning system works?

14. at level 14, your Timeless Nature prevents you from aging, and gives you a +2 bonus on saves against disease and all primal magic. it’s a shame you got this feature so late, otherwise you might’ve been able to stay sister-sized.

you can also Rapid Mantel to grab ledges easier, and you can make a Dueling Parry to block incoming attacks. Medusa can make it real hard to find an entry through that chain she’s swinging around.

15. alright, here’s the home stretch! bump up Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom for better everything we car about, then grab some Bizarre Magic to make it harder to recognize your spells. y’know, because they’re mostly just your eyes. to get this, we had to bump up your Occultism proficiency this level.

you’re also a Master Spellcaster. good luck figuring out what that does!

we’re getting to the point that you’re just going full Gorgon if you cast any spells aside from upcast Flesh to Stone, but as long as we’re here might as well grab Monstrosity Form. it’s Gorgon the spell. get big, eat people, you know the deal.

16. at level 16 your Effortless Concentration means you’re way less likely to go splat when things get hairy. you can now sustain spells as a free action.

you can also Consult the Spirits once a day to learn information about an area. you’re really old, you probably know a lot more than you’re letting on.

you can also enter a Dueling Dance while wielding your whip, permanently giving you the bonus of dueling parry.

17. another easy level! bump up Nature. you can also use ninth level spells like Disjunction. I’m not sure if you can really use your eye on nonhuman objects, but sure, why not. now you can turn magical artifacts into nonmagical stone, usually for a week, sometimes forever.

18. at level 18 your Primal Aegis gives you and your nearby allies resistance to a whole host of effects- acid, cold, electricity, fire, negative, and positive damage. gods, man. they have some nonsense powers protecting them.

you also get Natural Medicine because they’re nothing else I really wanted at this point for your skill feats. I mean, you definitely can’t count on the gods to patch you up, right?

you can also cast a Rockslide Spell- if you’d cast any spell that affects an area you can turn parts of that area into difficult terrain for a round. this also gives any spell you’re using the earth trait, so you can blast an area you’re standing in and still take reduced damage.

19. your penultimate level teaches you some Ambush Tactics while you’re in your preferred terrain. I mean, does Medusa ever play fair? always hiding in her statues.

you’re also a Legendary Spellcaster, so it’s particularly hard for anyone to make their saves against your flesh to stone spells now.

on a similar note, you’re now legendary in Acrobatics, completely negating all fall damage and allowing you to perform three maneuvers at once while flying.

finally, you’re a Primal Heirophant. that doesn’t really do much, but you can cast a 10th level spell now. and yeah, there’s no tenth level spell we can pick here that would be in character. maybe Primal Phenomenon, since it’s mostly just copying lower level spells?

20. ahh, your final level. felt like just yesterday we started this build. tbh level 19 was a really nice way to finish the build, but let’s press on anyway.

for your final level, bump up your Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

you also gain an Advanced Elemental spell from the stone order, letting you make a Stone Lance, dealing damage and impaling a creature if it hits, with a critical hit pinning them in place entirely. if that’s not enough, once they pull themselves out they’re still stuck with persistent bleed damage! lances are more little you’s wheelhouse, but this is pretty close to tying someone down with your whip, so I’ll allow it.

you also get Oddity Identification to help figure out when people are spying on you, and if a fight breaks out you can redirect elements, sending an incoming spell with an elemental trait to another creature if the attack roll misses. tricking Caster into hitting an ally, always a fun time for all!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

you have some ungodly amounts of defense against magic, resisting both certain types of spells as well as damage types to really shut down spells you can see coming, pun a little bit intended. your various resistance types stack on top of each other, allowing you to no-sell weaker attacks without even having to dodge, and that’s not even touching the chance spells have to fail against you entirely.

on the flip side, you’re great at casting spells without being seen, making you almost as good an assassin as cursed arm. subtle spells are a huge benefit to you, letting you petrify people without them ever knowing you did it.

you’ve also got a decent amount of melee training to fall back on once your spells are depleted, with plenty of tricks to protect you from nonmagical attacks as well.

Cons:

your whip proficiency isn’t great, so while you can defend yourself just fine, you’ll have trouble actually hitting your enemies as you move into later levels.

your mystic eyes and Pegasus both rely on 6th level or above spell slots, which are in short supply. hopefully you won’t have to pull out your noble phantasms too often.

a lot of your abilities are situational, not in terms of usefulness, but in terms of when you can use them at all. even ignoring your anathema, most of your features work when you’re either in nature, or standing on stone. again, you have duelist training to fall back on, but you won’t be able to kick ass in classrooms, so you’re not quite up to par with the real deal.

[itgirlgyu]

fav authors?

surprise to literally no one i actually don't have one because i don't read much in real life, (like the ones I ever bought in real life were horror stories compilations) but i really like sarah hogle's humor, and rick riordan oh and!! diana wynne jones!!!

i also like humayun ahmed's short stories and anuja chauhan's novels ( funfact i read all of them) are my guilty pleasures tbh.

never forgiving red chillies for ruining the zoya factor by casting sonam WHEN THEY CASTED MY BABES DULQUER?!? (ik im going off tangent lols)

now now COMING ONTO THE REAL DEAL!!!

my favourite author is my inspiration, my muse, my mentor, my lover, my best friend—my rahrah!! no like fr tho i don't think i would have taken up writing seriously if it hadn't been for her. i got into writing as a means to like extend my overactive imagination onto somehwere so i didn't care about making it sound coherent or like organised until i met my favourite author. i read her stuff and it made me realise ah well fuck i gotta pull my shit together and took a hiatus from writing while trying different genres ( i had never wrote a drop of angst before that) and tried to replicate her writing by reading dozens of romantic era poetries because when i tell you her writing is literally flowing poetry while heavily based on action. like. you're behind the camera with her as she effortlessly narrates what is happening ad though youre experiencing it herself. it's safe to say ill never be able to reach her level but i geneuienly feel so blessed that i can call her my best friend and send my stuff to her bc like i dont think world recognition would as much her word does to me.

now onto TUMBLR,

who else other than @wildernessuntothemselves i had stopped reading on tumblr becase everything I was reading was getting boring and so many people were deactivating, UNTIL I stumbled across like this one drabble of yeonjun from them and oh my GOD WHEN I SAY SOME EMOTIONS WERE UNLOCKED IN ME it's like i had opened this whole new fucking chest of wonderful things—this is when i realised how much into dark stuff i am. and I feel like I really clicked with their writing because their dark writing, the obsessions and themes stems from the things like love which is like the best kind of motivation ever lmao ( it sounds so weird trust me im not a coherent person) and SO I READ ALL DO THEIR WORK, and again and again so i finished the loser lover series, the enhypen series they had and it was during yaqmn when i realised im into this shit for like i was SO FREAKING INTO IT like beomgyu is my favourite character ever from them ( close second to taehyun in hogwarts au sshhhhh) but yeah yaqmn made me realise that i wanna stay on tumblr but like also interact with them and be active in my own writing endeavours. also the author gave legit introduced me to so many cool authors with similar writing tropes and I am so so so thankful that I have found this side.

@hyewka gotta thank mort for introducing me to THE WONDERFUL WORKS OF rana like fr tho, like from the first story it was a hit on the nail on me. i love love love the way rana writes so so so much like they way they articulate their works, the whole situation and the emotions and their TROPES AGH CHEFS KISS. i love that their works are so long because it leaves room for me to see the development between the two characters making it feel so much worthwhile when they fuck in the end lmao like even their toxic works ( BRO HOW DO THEY ARTICULATE THEIR TOXIC CHARACTERS SO WELL) LIKE I'm literally always in awe bc it doesn't ever come off surface level? it's always so so detailed in the plain sight like whatever fucked up shit they do it notion they have it comes off genuine like this person isn't a caricature which is so hard to pull off. i can only ever wish to ever plot a detailed one shot like rana.

@itz-yerin the angst queen fr she is. okay but i know yerin is quite literally famous for her angsts( I'll come back this later) but what drew me to her stories were the fluffs. as someone who doesn't write fluffs because i feel i come off phony ( wow go off edgelord) but dude i read works and the way it's crafted with so much simplicity and love that you genuinely feel the love the characters have for each other and its done in the most mundane situations of life and i love that so much!!!

and her angst too omg, like i think ive never seen anyone tumblr yet use the trope she does in her angst and it's such a wonderful touch that makes me wanna keep reading ans ik most of her works don't really have a happy ending but it creates such a bittersweet ending that leaves this biting feeling in your heart. yerin truly the queen of hurt-hurt genre.

@channoticedmeuwu i know i haven't read much of kai's works YET BUT BRO listen the drabbles that ive read from like the flow of them genuinly makes me believe it's like those pretty lores and fairy tales that you are meant to narrate out out. the vocabulary choices and the way she structures her sentences gives me so so much joy like a number of time. ive literally sat there in awe rereading her sentences again and again. ALSO PACING!! the pacing makes me feeling like I'm walking the character, sometimes they way it indulges you into storyline is literally so magical. i swear to god i wish i could write like that man it's so so so soooo pretty!!

@ox1-lovesick was legit gobsmacked by sav's writing the first time i read them. it's so beautiful, and it's like so soft that makes you feel like. you have something swirling on the pit of the stomache—the fluff is so genuine and it doesn't come off performative at all WHICH IS LIKE SO FUCKING HARD TO DO?! bc you're reading stuff so you feel like ah yes I need to make them look like they are in love BUT NOT SAV even if it's the shortest passage the way they write genuinely makes you see the love the characters share and im out here shoving a pillow in my mouth or SHOVING IT IN THERE TO STOP laughing like THEY ARE SO FUNNY?!? SO FUCKIN FUNNY LIKE THEIR ONE LINERS GET ME SM OR SOME SHIT THEY WRITE LIKE got me giggling and cackling like a witch.

i actually don't read much but I'm trying to change that so when that happens this list will get WAY MORE LONGER!!!

[cogaytes]

Roisin's Reading Rumble Week #2

i made a playlist for wylie! am bullet pointing a lot of it and not elaborating as much as i'd like on some stuff; chronic illness + adhd are kicking my ass rn but i still want to at least try to participate so!

@camelspit @arson-anarchy-death

welly boots by the amazing devil

represents prentice and wylie's relationship

the song is from the point of view of a father who has passed on, acknowledging the pain he has caused his child and promising that he's always with them

wylie has struggled since prentice's break, so it would make sense for prentice to express similar sentiments to his son

wylie is often bitter in the early books, calling to mind the lyrics "And when you scream that it's not fair" and "And when you scream "I'm not alright"/And throw my picture at the wall/"You were supposed to be my light/And keep me safe against them all/How could you leave me here?" you'll scream."

wylie's bitterness lies both with the organization/situation that prentice was in and also with his father himself for making that choice that caused him so much pain.

these lyrics about the father not being able to reach/visibly be present for the son evoke prentice's lack of consciousness when he was broken, even when he was awake: "It's like I've gone off to the coast/Left you behind just standing there/Pretending not to see your ghost/If only you could hear my voice"

2. hey jude by the beatles

represents tiergan and wylie's relationship

on the surface level, tiergan's canonical affinity for the beatles makes this particularly fitting

hey jude was written by paul mccartney for john lennon's young son to help him cope with the changes in his family when lennon was getting divorced (tiergan being a close friend of prentice parallels the lennon-mccartney relationship very nicely in that regard)

the song encourages the young boy (in this case wylie) to remember that things will get better even though things are hard with his family right now

this feels like a song tiergan would sing to wylie after taking him in, reminding him that he was safe and that despite cyrah's death, prentice would be whole again and not all hope was lost

the chorus, in particular, conveys this: "And anytime you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain/Don't carry the world upon your shoulders/For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool/By making his world a little colder"

this especially calls to mind a moment where wylie tells sophie that tiergan always insisted that he talked about his feelings, because bottling them up would do him no good

the song also references a "her" multiple times: "remember to let her into your heart"

rather than lennon's new girlfriend, in this parallel i would have this "her" represent sophie--tiergan asking wylie to be understanding and not blame sophie for prentice's break, which he clearly does in the beginning before moving on as sophie makes amends

3. 1994 by cavetown

this represents wylie's general arc over the story, his sense of growing up, and also how his attitude towards sophie changes

the song originally talks about missing the past when everything was simpler, and hating on a child (who represents the singer's younger child self)

however, these lyrics could be read as referring to someone else, in this case sophie

the singer talks about missing "mom and dad in love like it's 1994"; in the original, this line refers to robbie's parents' divorce, but it could also be taken as missing when his family was whole (i.e. wylie's family when cyrah was alive and prenticve wasn't broken"

particularly, the last verse is also poignant: "I felt so much older than the kids 'round the corner/But I feel so much younger now/Overtook them all and slowed back down/Blamed a child in a daisy crown"

wylie is older than most of team valiant, but still a kid; it would make sense for him to struggle with this the way the singer does

blaming a "child in a daisy crown" could be read as how wylie blamed sophie for prentice's break

4. the light behind your eyes by my chemical romance

song anticipates the singer's death/absence and encourages the young person being addressed

represents prentice and wylie's relationship

5. arms by the paper kites

song shares singer's heartache yet determination to comfort the people being addressed

represents wylie's adoptive father expressing his determination to take care of wylie despite grieving for cyrah and prentice himself

6. marjorie by taylor swift

song is about loss and the little details one forgets after it's too late

wylie lost his father young; likely has few memories of him and cyrah which means he lost a lot of important details about them

7. laughter lines by bastille

song about seeing someone again despite knowing that they will part and change in the meantime

another song that represents prentice speaking to his son and their relationship

8. little lion man by mumford & sons

song about someone wrongly receiving the blame for/consequences of another person's actions

could be read as prentice acknowledging how wylie suffered for his decision, or wylie acknowledging how he wrongly blamed sophie for prentice's break

9. on the train ride home by the paper kites

song expressing the singer's desire for a family that will never break/fall apart

wylie's lost both parents and moved in with tiergan; a desire for a stable family to lean on is very fitting

10. small hands by radical face

song about how the singer will support the person they're addressing through whatever, even if they make mistakes and take things out on the person, because they can always "come build your home in me"

represents the commitment tiergan made to supporting wylie no matter what, knowing he was hurting and that he may lash out/be difficult and resolving to love him anyway

[dreadfutures]

this will mean nothing to anyone here at all but today i spent three hours going through easyspin EPR fits with someone I consider to be an absolute leading expert in it and a) got validation that my systems are so complex that they might not be able to be fit with one spin system, and b) i have a pretty good understanding of EPR actually, which is something that I’ve thought i didn’t have.

i finally have a (deeper) understanding of where the idea of fine vs hyperfine vs superhyperfine perturbation vocab come from and why it’s not useful to describe the kinds of systems i work with, and like what kind of information i can actually get out of the spectra I have and whether or not they’re useful to my manuscript (no) or my thesis (yes), and i have a plan forward

anyway it was super nice and I wish any of my grad school friends actually worked because most of them just...don’t. it’s actually super sad and frankly shameful how most of my peers have lost any passion for their science and avoid going deeper than the most surface level... It’s really frustrating. Every time I try and have a deeper conversation with them about what they work on they brush me off with “you wouldn’t understand, you do different stuff”

except I don’t. I really don’t. And if they bothered talking about it, they’d realize that actually the point of our phds has been to develop this kind of applicable expertise.

Like.

my friend has had a whole thesis on quinones and co2 binding with quinones. I LITERALLY WORK WITH QUINONES. my whole phd has been this!! and when I finally was invited to a presentation she gave, and she was talking about the Big Problems that still plague her, I was like “oh, it’s this and this. I deal with that constantly but it’s actually pretty well understood if you bothered to look.”

But they don’t. and idk why* and it’s frustrating.

I keep thinking I don’t like what I do but in reality I don’t like being siloed away like this with no one to talk to about it :(

* the answer is very cynically the fact that people can get away with not doing work in their PhDs, get handed a PhD because we’re impossible to fire and the only way to get rid of us is to graduate us out. so everyone has learned they can coast, and act superior and enjoy Being A PhD Candidate and the Plebs will think we’re sooo smart and hard working, but... as long as you avoid other PhDs no one will ever know that you’re actually falling down on the job.

Like. C’mon. I study proton coupled electron transfer and use electrochemistry constantly. I do DFT and modeling and spectroscopy and everything myself. When I see the CVs and NMR data this group is putting up about their quinone systems, they make perfect sense to me and tbh I think it’s pretty shameful that the group known for carbon capture, PCET, and electrochemistry, doesn’t understand quinones.

anyway today was very validating and I have a lot of work to do but it’s kind of exciting to think about, I just wish I had people who could keep up with me to talk with about it.

[romantic-reveries]

So it’s been awhile, and while it’s the middle of the night and I’m still awake, I do still feel better about this than I’ve felt in weeks. I just keep coming back to the fact that I couldn’t let what happened go and I was just gonna keep being hot and cold and spinning us in circles.

It was so confusing because who I believed him to be wouldn’t have been so careless about everything with me, but he still wanted me in his life, and that’s what threw me off so much. I’ve never had that, and I didn’t understand it, but it was hard to be friends with him when sometimes I felt indifferent, the rest of the time I felt disgusted, and all of that time I felt weird and didn’t know how to talk to him anymore, and he seemed also weird.

I mentioned that to him tonight, and he kept saying things were different but they didn’t feel bad or weird to him. And then I felt fucking crazy for being the only one to feel it.

He said he was gonna try to make things more normal which a) how, when we’ve already established that I am the problem and b) why?? So I was like “maybe we don’t fit. Maybe we’re just fundamentally different.” Which is something I’ve been chewing on.

He says “what do you mean? We still have TONS in common” which feels like the most he’s ever fought me on something (and like… surface level shit, really. I mean, yeah, same political and religious beliefs, too, but ultimately, none of that matters in the kind of weird, detached friendship we were developing after everything and also like, fundamentally, we see and experience the world v differently, which I said.)

I sent: We do. We’re super similar, but it’s all sort of surface stuff, isn’t it? The way we think and experience things is wildly different. It’s why you were able to just switch feelings off once you realized it wasn’t gonna work for you. It never mattered to you the same way it did to me. I was thinking about this earlier. I saw this tiktok a few days ago that summed all of this up better than I ever could have. It said: “when you realize he’s a ‘timing and proximity’ guy which means he’s just entertaining whatever relations you two share out of temporary conveniences and although he may think you’re a great girl and even love you, he doesn’t really care for what unique traits you bring to the table but more so how well you fit into HIS narrative and also where he is at in his life/journey.” And it dawned on me then, that you’ve been saying the whole time that you believe in “timing”, and you yourself even referred to this as convenient. I’ve always heard about those kinda guys, but never met one, so I sort of ignored it, but I’ve always just hated that mentality when I’ve heard it talked about. No one wants to be chosen as a matter of convenience—they want to be chosen regardless of it.

Which is really the crux of how I’ve felt about… all of this.

THEN, after I told him I needed to step back, I’d mentioned more than once how most of it was because I was bothered by how he handled everything and by how the same guy who told me a month in that we were already too attached to walk away could just lose feelings so quickly. He kept not acknowledging or explaining it, so I asked. Did you lose feelings for me that quickly and if so, why? And this didn’t come from a place of wanting to hurt my own feelings lol I just genuinely wanted to know if it was something I’d done.

He replied: i wouldn't say that i've lost feelings for you, not completely. they may have changed a little, but i do still like you and want you to be happy. that's not gonna change.

I was like… you know that’s not what I was asking, but if you don’t wanna answer, that’s okay. I figured he just didn’t wanna hurt my feelings, but it’s also frustrating because we used to be very open and candid with each other (me more than him bc he’s very repressed, but still)

And he said: I guess I’m not really sure why then. i can't pinpoint a reason or anything like that. but i didn't lose the feelings

At which point I’m like ?¿

And I’m like “okay that confused me even more” bc wtf. You either did or did not lose them? What?

And I tell him it’s fine, it doesn’t really matter, I was just curious, and he goes: “clearly I don’t really know which is confusing for me too!” Like… why didn’t you just fuckin say that then. He said he didn’t want to admit it because he doesn’t like not knowing what he’s feeling, which is valid, but like. You literally had me out here feeling crazy for picking up weird vibes that DID exist. Infuriating.

And then suddenly, I just feel so terribly free. This man has the emotional range of a teaspoon and frankly, I deserve better. I feel like I can actually move on instead of mulling on it all the time now. I deserve open, easy communication and to be pursued for who I am, not how convenient I am, or how well I fit into your life, I deserve to be chosen despite that. I think everyone does.