#or TINY few more but even then it's in japanese so i can't tell

[zukoromantic]

I wanna be horny on main so bad i wanna be horny on main so badddd

[hawkflame999]

Ninjago Secrecy AU

So in this AU, it’s basically the same as canon, EXCEPT, the ninja stay secret.

it's not JUST their identities. It’s also their literal existence and history.

FSM didn’t want humans, who often misunderstood and killed Yōkai-kind, to know about the Elementals. So he kept himself secret, his two sons secret, and the people he’d later choose to become the first human-ish Elementals secret. Those people were street orphans and abused kids he’d rescued from other humans.

Elementals have basically been behind the scenes (and doing illegal stuff like underage driving) for several millennia, they’ve managed to keep secret all this time and continue to do so in this AU. 

When something big comes, like the Great Devourer, the ninja fix it but there’s only eyewitnesses and no camera footage and most of the time they somehow aren’t seen by humans.

Or Jay causes a blackout to make things harder for them to be seen.

Oh, yeah. And Elementals aren’t sure if they’re Humans with powers, something between Yōkai and Humans, or just full-blown Yōkai. 

They just don’t know, but they have the senses of Yōkai and they can see very well in the dark- they also have a keen sense of smell, they can follow trails. And their eyes glow, but they can control the glow when they need to. Among other things, like feeling vibrations.

Elementals also have feral instincts, though they can ignore those instincts and act human when the circumstances demand it. Lloyd, his father, and uncle all have Dragoni features like in my Headcanon #1, and they're the most feral.

If you saw my HC about the Elemental Bond, that applies here too.

The Elementals just tell people who ask that they’re a clan. They’re kind of common amongst the Realms, and to help the ninja, their clan is tiny, and sort of IS a clan, just a special one. 

Said clans that do exist either live off the land or live modernly now but they all started back in old times, and they keep touch and all nowadays. 

The Serpentine often receives a similar reception that Yōkai get, just less than that, so they don’t give the game up- they keep silent about the ninja. 

After meeting the ninja, the Formlings, the Geckles and the Munce, and others were asked to and agreed to keep quiet about the Elementals. So does Vania, (idk how that part of Master of the Mountain works but yeah).

In the AU, other Yōkai, (Kitsune, Kappas, Tanukis, Bakenekos, ect.) are more apparent and present in this, and even most of them don’t know about the ninjas, just a few friends know. 

The Elementals frequently attack and ambush Yōkai Hunters, and free the trapped Yōkai. 

There’s also more mountains around the Monastery, it’s a literal mountain range, and many Yōkai live in them. Years ago they all combined their magic to create a barrier, so humans can’t get in (they just get turned around and all,) unless they’re led, and it's really hard for someone to just find their way in, but it happens occasionally. 

IN THIS AU, THE SIX SEE EACH OTHER AS SIBLINGS, EXCEPT MAYBE JAY AND NYA, I CAN'T DECIDE.

Arin knows about the ninja ONLY because he’s from a village near the mountain of the Monastery, and his family is one of the few that the ninja trusted with the knowledge of their existence, because one of Arin’s ancestors, a few generations back, accidentally found a way into the mountains, and got caught in a storm, so the ninja of the time saved him. 

Also all the Elementals speak Yōkai. It’s their second language, and their first language is Japanese, English is their third language.  

Yeah, that’s it really.

AND IF YOU HAVE AND QUESTIONS, FEEL FREE TO ASK!

[danyvhell-writes]

General Ais headcanons (Touchstarved)

GN reader | The obsession with this game is real guys :') I can't get away

─────

• Cat boyfriend like, bro will fall asleep on you (your chest, lap...) but if you dare to move just a little tiny bit the magic is over ! He will wake up instantly and go somewhere else to take a nap :')

• He's not gonna tell you but he likes when you touch his hair. Caress him, touch his horns, ruffle his hair even ! He's down for it and the moment you discover his little secret he'll give you endless opportunities to do so

• ↑ Scratch his head, please. Weak spot is right at the junction of his back horns, tug softly on his hair and the boy will melt.

• Ais is a man of few words but he really enjoys talking with you. Most of the time he'll annoy you just as an excuse to interact with you so you can start talking with him (and 99% of the time it works). He finds your little conversations entertaining and relaxing somehow.

• Btw, this guy will listen to you rambling. Talk about your latest obsession, stuff you like, things that seem unimportant : he will listen. He's curious to know more and especially if it's related to your fascinating person. Sometimes he'll just sit next to you and lean in your space just to have a better hearing of what you're saying. It might feel like you're monopolising the conversation but no no, he'll respond with snarky comments, laugh if you say something funny or ask you to keep going with your story. And also, he really likes your voice so...

• You remember when he said "I got eyes in the back of my head." ? (something like that) Well yeah ! His eyes are on you, always. His gaze will follow you wherever you are, with or without him. I'm sure this man uses the Groupmind to spy on MC ! Like bro come on, stop crushing this hard.

• If you have pets, they're not yours anymore. He WILL adopt them. Could be any animal or magic creature really, he will offer them absolute love in just two seconds. "Oh, this is my cat ! Her name's Nori, you can pet her if you want, she's super friendly." *pets her* "Oh yes you are !" *lifts her up so he can take her in his arms like a baby*  "Look at you, you're gorgeous. Such pretty eyes, cute little face, kitty kitty~ !" 

• He loves seeing you close to his soulless but he's also a tiny bit jealous to see that you sometimes prefer Princess' company rather than his. He'd be like "Uh hello I can do tricks too if that's what you like ??"

• He likes tea. That's it. That's the headcanon. No more seriously... I feel like he could be a tea amateur and genuinely enjoys a good cup of tea. If you don't know alot about it, he'll teach you the different types, how to infuse them correctly, what dishes you can pair them up with ! Want to learn how to make a real exquisite matcha tea ? He'll show you with much pride ! 

• ↑ Chit chat with him around some tea he made and he's yours. Bonus point if you ask for more. Extra bonus point if you're able to guess which tea it is.

• Has a special cup he keeps just for you when you visit him. He remembers your favourite drink and makes sure to always have a bottle/the ingredients when you come.

• If Ais is an oni, he might be japanese, so, this man speaks japanese. Most people think that because of his appearance he'd be super rude but oh no no no, the boy is polite. People assume he'd use 'ore' but nah ah, full 'watashi' user over here. You know that thing when your voice and demeanor changes a little when you switch languages ? That's him. His voice tends to go softer when he speaks japanese, he doesn't even realize.

• We know he likes learning about new languages, teach him some stuff. Of course he'll remember the curse words & insults quickly but pet names and romantic nouns are his favourites. If you're polyglot, show off a little, he likes it. Talk in your native tongue, even if he doesn't get anything at first, he will crush even harder. "Eh t'savais que les girafes avaient le même nombre de vertèbres que nous ? C'est juste qu'elles sont plus longues. C'est ouf ça !" "You make French sound so attractive and I'm sure you're not even saying anything particularly sexy..." "Yep !" "God, I want them so bad." he thinks

• After some time, you'd both start to naturally use words or phrases you've taught each other/you've heard from each other. He'd flex on you just to show how much of a fast learner he is, he wants to see you proud of him.

• Cracks his joints. A lot. Also stretches a lot.

• That guy who asks you to pull on his arms or whatever to help him stretch as hard as possible. "More." "What do you mean more ? I'm gonna break your bones !" "I said more, I"m not fragile you know." until you hear a big 'pop' and he sighs with contentment.

• If you burp in front of him, he'll make it a competition. "You think this is a big one ? Oh sparrow... you're a little player." And then proceeds to traumatize you for the next decade. "Do you have the fucking devil in you ???" "Nope, just my friend Ocudeus. He's gross, I know >:)"

• Traces small patterns along your skin when he's bored. He's really gentle when it comes to touching you.

• That type of guy who's obsessed with your hair, especially if it has a different texture than his. You could be doing anything and this bastard (affectionate) will twirl your hair, put clips in it, try hairstyles if you let him. He'll let you do the same to him if you want ! Go on, have fun with your new doll lmao

• Give him the silliest clothes and accessories, he will wear them. The bimboest crop top ? Yeah cool. Bat hair clips ? Cute. 

• Would joke about eating you to scare you but strangely you're always the one ending up biting him ! (not that he minds)

• 100% asks you if you want to fight. Like not in a threatening way but to test you out, he wants to see if you can handle a little sparring. 

• If you're someone who enjoys working out, he proposes to train with you. It sometimes follows to some sparring which might end up with you guys kissing... weird uh

• Has a particularly good memory. He remembers things that even yourself forgot, like really he’s your second brain (and often you’re glad). Everytime you’re asking him “How do you even remember that tf ??” and he’s just “Don’t know 🤷🏻‍♂️“

• You're the type of person who calls any guy 'bro' ? No prob, he finds it funny. He's not offended in the slightest and even actually likes it, he knows it's a language tic. Would definitely send you this type of dumb shit ouezghfoez 😭

• He can be a little chaotic sometimes but you like it. After all he’s a demon, he likes joking and pranking so even better if you join him in his mischievous activities hehe. You guys would do the silliest stuff and try not to burst out laughing. Evil ones, evil.          

• Does that cute thing where he leans in close to you when you’re watching something and follows your gaze. He’s just a curious lil guy !

[nephilimcursed]

Bella's Route: Haunted Dark Bridal (G-Edition) - Prologue Part One

The game loads strangely, with slight distortion to your screen. You are no longer... playing as Yui. How strange, instead there is a dark haired girl with peircing, warm gold eyes in the corner of the screen. The background is a dark forest at night, black goo seeps over the leaves.

Bella: "Huh, well that was rougher than most of my fights..."

Bella: (It's been a while since a demon has given me that good of a fight. Maybe it's because I haven't eaten in a while...)

Your character gives her angel blade a spin before putting it back inside the sheath.

Bella: (I should consider stopping by a gas station or something. The Clave only give me a limited amount of money, so I'll only be able to afford Ramen again... but it's better than nothing. Plus it's been 5 days since my last meal.)

Bella: (I'm so thirsty... I don't have enough pecunia to buy a drink though. I suppose water from a river can do.)

Bella: (Ahh- My shoulder was wounded. It's deep, if it had gone through even an inch more, it would have been fully through my flesh and bone. Ouch... It's stinging by the moment.)

Bella: (If only I still had my stele, all I'd have to do is draw a rune on myself to heal. I should have never lost it to those Moloch demons back in New York.)

Bella: (Since I can't go to a Shadowhunter Institue unless ordered, I suppose I'll have to wait to get another. Which means no more runes for a while. I have to heal the human way.)

Bella: (I saw the gas station up the road, I can walk there, wrap up my shoulder, and get food. Then... back to being ordnance.)

Your character trudges up the road to a gas station, and the background changes to that of a interior of a gas station.

Bella: (Finally, that was a longer walk than I thought.)

Bella: "Mphm, ramen..."

Bella: (I'm kinda sick of this, this has been all I've had for a few months now. But at least it keeps my body running in a way. I should probably try to find a place to get some sleep sometime too.)

Bella: (Now that I have this though, I should get bandages and disinfectant. Without my stele, I could get infected.)

Your character walks to the tiny section of mini supplies for the medical supplies.

Bella: (Good, this will cost me all my money for the week. But at least it'll be enough to heal me and gain some of my strength back.)

Bella: (Why does it feel like... someone is looking at me?)

Your character turns, to spot our first familiar face, Ayato Sakamaki. He is simply staring at her as if to admire her figure.

Bella: (Ew... what a fucking creep. He has nothing better to do, huh? Argh, men...)

Bella: (Whoa, that bone structure though... and those eyes. They're like pure emeralds.)

We see another familiar face appear in the scene, Yui. It's strange, seeing her not in the corner, but on the same scale as Ayato. She looks quite worried. There is a Japanese audio, but it seems your character cannot understand the language.

Bella: (That boy... He's familiar... That doesn't matter- he's acting with a lot of disrespect toward the poor girl...)

Bella: (Should I butt in?)

CHOOSE:

Intervene <<<<♡

Don't Intervene

You chose Intervene.

Bella: "Hey, I don't think that's a very nice way to talk to a girl."

Ayato: "Hm? What did you say...?"

Bella: "I said, fuck off. I couldn't understand what the fuck you were saying, but I know you addressed her in a hostile way."

Ayato: "What makes you think you can tell ore-sama what to say to chichinashi, melons?"

Bella: "Don't call me melons, Christmas."

Ayato: "Christmas??"

Bella: "Yeah, you have red hair and green eyes, idiot. If you wanna pick a fight with me, be aware I'll snap back."

Ayato: "..."

Ayato: "Chichinashi! Hurry and come back to the car."

Ayato exits. Yui goes to follow.

Bella: "Wait one second."

Yui:"Hm?"

Bella: "Are you okay...? If he's not treating you right, I can help."

Yui: "Oh... That's very kind of you, but when Ayato-kun gets like this... Best thing to do is do what he says..."

Bella: (I can't help her if she doesn't let me...)

Bella: "Alright, but hey, take my number. If you want, call me. If I'm still in town, I'll get you away."

Your character hands Yui a slip of paper with your number on it.

Yui: "Oh... How nice of you. Thank you so much..."

Bella: "Yeah, what's your name, kid?"

Yui: "My name is Yui Komori... Who are you?"

Bella: "Bella Wayland, nice to meet you, Ms Komori."

Yui: "Nice to meet you too... Thank you."

Ayato: "CHICHINASHI!!!"

Yui: "Kya...! I better go..."

Bella: "Keep my number, be safe."

Yui: "Thank you again... goodbye..."

Bella: "Arrivederci."

Yui leaves, leaving Bella to pay for her food and leave.

[torveiglyart]

The more I think about my hobbies and achievements (or lack thereof), the weirder I realize my life is. I had never really thought about some of these things until as of recent, specifically when someone introduced to another as "cool". Like what.

First things first that I've talked about on here is I'm an oboe player. Which is already a kind of "different" instrument to play. And, actually, I've been third chair in the All-District wind ensemble for grades 11-12. So there's that.

Another thing I tend to tell people /if prompted/ is I'm a nationally recognized Scottish Highland dancer. I placed third in the southeast regionals and qualified to perform in Las Vegas along with everyone else who qualified across the country. This one is kinda like my "fun fact" during ice breakers 'cause it's something I know won't be repeated.

I'm a digital artist, as you all know, but I also do traditional art often. A few of my paintings in my portfolio helped me score a spot in NCSU's ID program. Maybe one day I'll scan them and post here.

I'm a singer. This one goes multiple ways as in: HS choir, church choir, musical theatre, and bands. I just like singing and got blessed with a nice voice... I think.

I can bake and decorate very well. As in won a cookie decorating contest at the NC State Fair well. That was a good year for me :). But it's also the perfect ganache every time kind of good. I guess the same can be said about cooking given no meal I've made has gone wrong or tasted bad. I seriously hope it stays that way.

This next one only partially counts because while I'm not /fluent/ by any means, I can somewhat comfortably hold a conversation in a few languages. French, Spanish, Japanese, and, strangely enough, Swahili, are languages I've worked on since uhhhh... I don't know at this point. And I've since added Scottish Gaelic to that list to work on. Languages just fascinate me and I plan to travel A LOT when I get the money to do so.

I do archery in my free time. Often enough I have my own bow and arrows. It’s fun. And last time I went to an actual range I never missed a target which I’m totally bragging here but it’s also just a fun activity to get anger out, you know?

Back to the musical theatre thing, I actually was called back for an audition to enroll at UNCSA, but did not make it. And back in freshman year, I did this whole Society Performers multi-class thing, but cut it short to work on my studies. So while I probably could have gone into theatrics, I don't think that would have been the best choice for me.

An going further back to the instruments, I can also play piano, ukulele, and clarinet, but lessons are those were far fewer than oboe.

Time for the weirder stuff.

I definitely have ADHD, and so does my dad, but we're both undiagnosed so let's just not go there.

I can't whistle or roll my tongue. People always seem really surprised by this one but it's not like I'm in a tiny percentage with that one.

I'm nearsighted in one eye and far sighted in the other, and I also only require one contact lense/prescription. Actually let's call this the whacky section.

I'm allergic to celery. Yes, celery. And only that. Not pollen, not pets, not dust, not even ragweed, but celery. And only when it's raw. Cooked in a dish? Fine. Raw in a salad? Cotton-mouthed and itchy. Not terribly sad about it though.

I can't ride a bike. Like, I know how to in theory, but I just never had a bike growing up. My older sister's always had a flat tire, and by the time my younger brother got one, I was too big to ride it. So I scooter instead :).

I have perfect pitch, as in I hear a pitch, and can tell you the note it is, and can tell you what key a song is originally in and sing it. I would get in trouble a lot as a kid for "picking a fight" with my siblings by telling them, "it actually goes like this," and then changing the key they were singing in. While many find this cool or helpful, unless you're a music student or something, it's actually annoying. The car radio is always a few microtones sharp and there's nothing I can do to make it in tune. My choir teacher would also have me sing the starting pitch for songs, no tuner, which was nerve-wracking.

WOW this was just me ranting (bragging) lol, sorry about that, but hey! Now you know more about me!

If you have any questions or comments, don't be afraid to ask! Or, y'know, do the whole asks thing. I think I changed the icon for that but I'm not sure.

[fraeuleintaka]

Chibi Sprite Comparison: Old vs New

This is the 55th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 26 days left until release!

Today's topic: a direct comparison between the old Pixel Art with the new HD Art Chibi Sprites!

The official Ace Attorney facebook account has posted several gifs showcasing the difference between the new and improved HD chibi sprites with the old pixelated versions and even some sketches of the process of making the new sprites.

The first few sketches are shown with Ray's (Eddie's) running animation as an example. Left is the base sketch and right are all the added details for the new graphics. The notes are in Japanese so I can't read them but even without it's easy to see how much has changed. Especially around the face and hands as well as the hair and creases in the clothes. It's amazing to see how much effort they put into these! Something I only noticed in this direct comparison is how they actually changed the scale of some stuff (e.g. the shoes are less bulky) and even some positions (e.g. the hand holding Ray's hat moved to the front while it was more on top of the hat on the old version). I think this makes it look more natural overall, with the pixel art it was more important to make the relevant stuff noticable and details didn't matter because you wouldn't see them anyway but with the HD graphics you see every little thing so everything has to fit perfectly. Amazing!

We also get to see some animations of side characters that we didn't get to see before! Here's Gumshoe's lovely police dog Missile, for example. Now he's even cuter! I love how detailed his running animation is. And the movement of the fluffy tail! So cute!

Coloured sketches are presented with Larry's walking animation as an example, probably because he swings a little from side to side while walking and that detail comes across incredibly well in the updated sprites. I love how you see a little more of his face when he moves and how the creases in his pants follow the movement as well! The colours are stronger and you can tell that Larry looks kinda bored. Interestingly, the little paint stain on his upper arm is missing in the HD version. I don't think anything in the other sprites ever disappeared with the change from pixels to HD. Maybe this isn't the final version yet? Or they thought it looks better like this?

Another new character sprite that's shown is Winston Payne's forehead tapping animation and I love it. He appears as a cameo in both first cases (no first case without a Payne), although he does have a tiny bit of plot relevance in I2-1, and tries to make himself appear a lot more important than he is. He does look pretty neat in the new HD style! I especially love the lock of hair on his forehead (looks very well groomed) and how you can see this self-assured, almost arrogant "I'm totally important!", expression on his face even with his large shiny glasses. It's so perfect!

There are also several comparisons made for sprites of some of the main characters; Miles, Gumshoe, Kay, Sebastian (Eustace) and Justine (Verity) to be precise; but they're all animations we've already seen on the website and that I've talked about before so I haven't added them. They all still look amazing of course. But seeing some animations for the side, and comparatively unimportant, characters is exciting in a different way since they usually don't get a lot of focus. Really appreciate them showing off a few of them!

[sfsolace]

A while ago, i got interested in the "Hakumei & Mikochi world guide", having only heard it brefly being mentioned or seeing a photo of one of the pages. So I looked into it.

Of course it's not available in english. Even the Dungeon Meshi companion book isn't out in english yet and that series is way more successful.

So I decided to look on ebay if i can find a nice copy of it and turns out: it's affordable! I found one that claimed to be mint condition and it was cheaper with shipping included than some used copies are without shipping.

So i took it as the sign to buy it.

A couple of days later it finally arrived! It came all the way from Japan (makes sense, given that it's in japanese) and even had this lovely postage stamp on it.

The book itself was a bit smaller than i thought. It makes perfect sense, seeing as this is more manga-sized. I gotta say, i would've at least assumed its the same size as the tankoubons. But maybe those are a different size in Japan as well.

The outside of the book is just a protective cover in the style of the main books, with the inside being this very beautiful line art.

Most of the pages of the book are dedicated to the different characters, giving backstory and notes about their outfits. There are also more general section telling the reader about the world of Hakumei & Mikochi.

Sadly, i can't read most of the text. My japanese js really lacking, i can read a few Kanji, but that's about it.

Important takeaways:

Narai is much darker skinned than it appears from the black and white artwork

Kobone's first name is apparently Maya? Not sure if that's mentioned in the manga so far

The hats/berets all signify different countries of origin

Also the book has an entire chapter with instructions how to make tiny foodstuff. Adorable!

So yeah, the entire book is very lovingly created and bursting with fun drawings and facts about the world (that i can't read).

A heartfelt "thank you" to the seller who sent it to me in such a good condition!

[penroseparticle]

Penrose Song of the Day, Day 34: Walang Alam by Hev Abi

I found this song through happenstance.

The other day my mom was telling me that I need to let my mind run the engine, so to speak, so that I can get it to wind down enough to let me do things. The proverbial "let the kid run in circles until he's tired enough to focus". And so I did. I closed my eyes, and just let my thoughts chase each other over and over and follow any path they wanted to until I settled down enough. It worked. I promptly forgot to do it any subsequent days.

I remember the phrase "LALAKINGS" though. Just popped into my head unbidden. I enjoy picking the threads of fate, so to speak. randomness is baked into everything, we are all on The Drunkard's Walk, sometimes going with it takes you somewhere you wouldn't get without it. So I take the time to be whimsical, or nonsensical sometimes. I impart more meaning to actions than they deserve because hey- it means something to someone, right? Why not this, why not to me?

So I did a quick Spotify search for the phrase lalakings. I had an inkling I could find something music related to it, and lo and behold, I hit upon a truly impressive playlist of some, frankly, insanely good hiphop. Shoutout Aeron Medina, if you ever read this know you have great taste.

Hev Abi was the second artist on the playlist, right after Coast Contra (Another high quality pick tbh, give them a listen).

I don't know if I would have picked Filipino Rap to be my new obsession, but I'll be damned if Walang Alam hasn't been in heavy rotation lately.

I'm no stranger to quote unquote foreign music, even in this series- Todo De Ti was featured earlier. Laisses Tomber Les Filles. I loved Telepatia when it came out. The Spark is blowing up as we speak. I'm an Ikimono Gakari Stan, I know Yelle by heart. PLEASE GO LISTEN TO TALCO, Italian Ska is the truth, weirdly. Connor Price's Globe series gave me some great hiphop artists to listen to in other countries and languages.

But strangely I haven't hit on any southeast asia, any pacific islander fare. Nothing to really

There's something so. Chill about Walang Alam. It's got credibility. I hear this and I'm like yeah. This guy is sad. He's sad in a different language which makes him EXTRA sad because i didn't even hear sad words to clue me in! He has poor wet meow meow energy via voice alone. Truly incredible.

I enjoy the acoustic approach to the song. Acoustic music is musical shorthand for more intimate, more emotional. your sound has less reach, so we know it's just for us. Maybe it hits different knowing it's private. Vulnerable.

I've been thinking a lot about sadness. How to deal with it. I feel like I can only feel my emotions incorrectly. Like some dumb ogre stomping around breaking things. I'm so angry all the time and I don't have anywhere to put it. I don't want to burden people. Lord knows I've done enough of that. But you can't hold the hurt and do anything else, I'm finding.

So how do you turn it into roses, or whatever. You talk about it right? We're hardwired to be helped by the talking. But how, and to who, and how much is too much, and hey don't forget you're intruding on their personal wellbeing by being unwell at them.

You are a tire fire, but ouroboros'd back around at myself. It won't shut off though so I'm trying to bushwhack through it. Bear with me, under construction, etc.

I think this song is the good kind of sad. Where even though no solution has been presented, something of value was gained. Reflection? Perspective? A sick single? Whatever it is, Hev Abi seems changed and resolved by the end.

The tiny pop of english at the end is a nice touch too. very "moon in japanese is different, more evocative and mystical" somehow. Like yes fellow musicians this is a big time music artist he has mainstream america appeal there's english words here. I don't know, I think the intentional choice for the last few bars to be different gives that resolved feeling mroe weight- the words literally change at the end of the song.

It's quiet. It's reflective. It's tight, too, at 3 minutes almost on the dot (Still not optimized for streams and with a full song structure, so I consider it a dub)

I don't have a lot on this one today. I wrote like 70% of this like 2 weeks ago and then just stalled out. But I finished writing something. Allegedly this is progress.

Just remember. You could be dead right now. Go listen to something you love

[gemsofgreece]

my mum sent me this video from Facebook of a Japanese society performing greek pontic music, even with a pontic lyra!

https://www.facebook.com/DoryforosMuc/videos/1632621017219667/

and I think a few years ago radio arvyla had also shown a video of a Japanese band performing greek songs (can't remember if it was also pontic) and my grandpa keeps telling me about Chinese students talking greek (I think you had also posted a video some while ago?) so that's quite interested and cool how countries so far away and from such different cultures are so interested in also "modern" greek culture, contrary to the ones "closer" to us from european/western countries who are only fixated on ancient greece, idolizing and fandomising it, but don't really care about modern greek culture other than the touristic side of it

Yeah I have noticed that there is a strengthening of the bonds between Greece and Far Eastern countries like Japan and China. Relevant courses are introduced in East Asian universities. Modern Greek music has found a (still pretty niche I assume) audience in these countries. You might have heard of the band Pyramidos who were really trending a few years ago. However, again, those populations there are so large that I suspect that what seems so prominent to us might just be a teeny tiny percentage of them who are actually interested in Greece aside from honeymoons in Santorini.

Chinese and Japanese also trend a lot amongst Greeks as foreign languages. Especially Japanese, I think, thanks to anime. Besides, Greeks typically study many languages and those are considered the languages of the future and of business. Many go there in exchange programs or for work.

There is also an older mutual friendly relation with these countries, I think foreign and diplomatic affairs from both sides try to strengthen such bonds with a perspective of “ancient cultures solidarity”, at least with China. At least it is presented this way. Of course, it’s a (further) opening of East Asian markets to Eastern Europe and on the other hand Greece wants to have more business relations with these powerful countries. Or, you know, investments…

I have also heard of some rise of interest in Greek things in South Korea, although there it is all very classical and mythology oriented, because South Korea gets pretty influenced by what is trending in the west.

[blazehedgehog]

Do you think the people complaining about the Sonic movies not being faithful are being entitled? The movies do well at the box office and lots of fans like them, so what's the problem?

It's a weird complaint because historically very few video game movies are ever faithful. Even when we're talking about the most faithful game-to-movie adaptations, there are always things the movies change.

Like, Mortal Kombat, right? It said Scorpion's spear was a little magic lizard living in the palm of his hand.

Go look at a list of every video game movie ever made and tell me which ones are totally, 100% accurate (and AREN'T Japanese anime). You can count them on one hand. And even then, I bet they still make small changes.

Resident Evil, Doom, Alone in the Dark, Max Payne, Silent Hill, Prince of Persia... they all change. All of them!

And the more accurate a movie gets to its source material (the 2018 Tomb Raider, the Warcraft movie, Uncharted) the more boring it is. I mean, jeeze, that Warcraft movie was insanely expensive, it sounded like Blizzard was extremely hands on, and it came and went like a fart in the wind.

A lot of people who make video games clearly want to pretend they're making movies, but video games still require things that definitively make them games. There always has to be a moment where the story steps back and you get to control the characters for yourself. And that's usually stuff like shooting 3000 guys or delivering a shipment of gortusk livers or poking rats with a stick.

And that kind of stuff can and does become entwined enough with the identity of the game that you can't separate it, and it just wouldn't work in a movie. Even tiny tiny narrative stuff is sometimes written in a "video game way." So it has to be changed, because that's not how movies operate.

I should also stress: a movie. Comic books and TV shows get a lot more time to stretch out and establish concepts, characters, and a world. Movies don't. Movies generally have to be two hours or less. And they have to appeal to more than just the hardcore fans who are already familiar with all this stuff, too.

So they make concessions. They trim things down. They restructure the world, the characters, and simplify concepts. The Chaos Emeralds form the Master Emerald now, okay? It's faster and easier to explain it like that. Even a "short" 6-10 hour game is too much for a movie.

The fact these movies are celebrated should be the focus, not whether or not they're accurate. Because most video game movies have never been accurate.

Heck, even that upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie by Illumination isn't being totally accurate, despite people going nuts for its callbacks and references.

Honestly, when it comes to people being that picky, I wouldn't even pay attention to what they have to say. They'll never be happy and they probably don't even realize how harmful it would be to get what they want. What works in games does not translate directly to a movie. Period.

People who focus on "accuracy" watch too much CinemaSins style garbage on Youtube.

[zielenna]

12 and 17 :)

Hi! :)

I think you heard most of this already, but here goes.

12. Any books that disappointed you?

Quite a few! I tend to avoid books I am not confident I will enjoy, but it still happened. First one was Lee Mandelo's Summer Sons, which I only read 70 pages of. And you know, that one is on me, I should have known that a novel marketed as a follow-up to Dream Thieves would not be great, but I thought it would make a decent breezy summer reading, and I was compelled by the premise of estranged friends, ghosts, campus politics, southern gothic, and blood magic. And to be fair, the campus part was almost solid; I do believe that the author had been in a graduate program. But the prose was so clunky! It was possibly the worst-written book I read in the last couple of years. It wasn't just unremarkable, it was so bad that I had difficulty parsing it, and I am quite sure that wasn't intentional.

Unfortunately, my quest for a novel with ghosts intervening between estranged friends led me to another disappointment, Bryan Washington's Family Meal. I was mostly bothered by two things. First, there was much of "therapy-speak," both in dialogue and in narration. People told one another that the other person didn't get to say X to them, and apologized each other for trauma dumping. Second, possibly as a result of the author's other stylistic choices (spare, simple prose; limited access to characters' interiority), the descriptions of various locales and characters' actions were dominated by proper nouns - so I knew the exact demographic make-up of every neighborhood they drove through, I knew the names of Japanese ingredients they cooked with, and I knew that the love interest was Thai and used they/them pronouns - but I couldn't tell you anything about their personality. This made the novel feel rather flat.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Well, because I am so picky, I am rarely positively surprised… Zola's Bête humaine surprised me with how well it was constructed. I can't recall it in detail as it's been a while since I read it, but I remember being impressed with how intricately the various plotlines were interconnected, how self-contained each chapter felt, and how effectively they cumulated. It felt very clean, like a classical tragedy. The novel also had a very striking center, towards which the plot and the characters gravitated, and from which the violence which the novel examined had originated. Funnily enough, Zola seems not to have been aware of it, as the novel explicitly provides a different account of the original crime - one which accords with his ideas about heredity, but isn't really persuasive.

Other than that, I was surprised by how much enjoyed Esther Yi's Y/N (it was even more to my taste than I expected) and, frankly, the Chaucer texts that I read this fall. I don't recall having a strong response to him in my undergrad, and it took me long weeks in the summer to read Troilus and Criseyde when I was assigned it in my second year. But now I had a really good time!

Actually, it was every easy for me to compate Y/N to Family Meal, which reinforced my opinions of both.

Y/N, a character's first impression of Seoul: "I drew aside the little curtain at my window. The proportions were startling. Row after row of perfectly rectangular apartment towers—thirty floors on average—obscured my view of a mountain range. Entire families were sitting on leather couches as high up as mountains. When the Han River appeared alongside the elevated track of the highway, I was shocked by its breadth. The river was a giant black snake with a muscular back, winding through the constructed landscape with a calm magnanimity I found menacing."

Family Meal, a character's first impression of Tokyo: "The publisher flew me to Tokyo to work with Hana on her edits. We’d been given a three-month deadline. But she and I spent most of our days in tiny dives around her neighborhood instead. We rode bikes past the financial district. We ate dinner with her ex-boyfriend, a stocky guy with dyed hair who blushed at the sight of me. The rest of the time, I slumped in the sento beside my rental in Setagaya, wading in the bathwater beside salarymen and shop owners and bankers."

I told you that what struck me in Y/N was its resistance to cliche. And that is a stylistic choice I sympathize with more than with the transparency of Family Meal.

[more-than-a-princess]

@awesomeuchuu asked: A little thing you do that you wonder if anyone’s noticed?

Munday Writing Stuff - Accepting!

I guess the most obvious is trying to set a scene when I'm writing a thread. I never just want to hear what your muse is saying, or the basic actions of moving from point A to point B, and I try to do the same for my writing partners. I want to know what the important parts of the setting, and situation, are to your muse, and I want to show that through mine. Is there a particular sound that Sonia can't ignore? Or a scent or taste that brings back an important memory? Or does she feel some sort of immediate response to something else? If I'm writing a starter, or even during a thread, I like to weave those details in. Sure, it's not always something the other muse will notice or be able to respond to, but it fleshes out a thread, and a muse, a bit more. Sometimes it even brings about additional headcanons.

Beyond that, it's using clothing and appearance to tell parts of the story. This is somewhat due to my own hobbies: I'm a fashion enthusiast, and I engage with it in a variety of ways. But I've always loved when fiction uses clothing and style, fabrics/materials, colors, wear and tear, etc. to add to a character's personality and story. So when I can, or at least have the foresight to think about it, I do weave that into Sonia's storylines. A few examples:

Sonia's pale yellow dress with blue roses and tiny green leaves she wore in the first day of the Cape May thread with @dxfiedfxte's Minato. She's unaware at the time that her life is about to take a romantic turn, but her summer dress and its print certainly do: pale yellow is both seasonal and representative of her hair color, while the blue roses are, of course, for Mr. Blueberry himself. Pretty sure I based this off of a Reformation dress: American sustainable (to a degree. They've had issues in the past few years) fashion that's both trendy with vintage inspiration? Very Sonia-appropriate for this thread.

Sonia's plunging emerald evening gown in the reunion thread with @cadcnce's Wylan. The green satin heels from the earlier Las Vegas thread hint at Sonia's feelings, but this gown is the clear indicator how not-over him she is. Green is usually Sonia's staple color, but this particular shade I picked with Wylan specifically in mind (as it's his text color, too!). And the amount of exposed skin was made to represent how exposed she feels emotionally when finally confessing her feelings. She's so far removed from the usual polished princess she often needs to appear as in that thread, and she needed to be fully pushed out of that comfort zone for it. And it's this Dior gown originally worn by Anya Taylor-Joy.

Sonia's purple ballgown from the first time she met @quickdeaths' Shinobu. Because of the thread at hand, Sonia needed to be in something that respected Japanese craftsmanship while still hinting at her current attitude and emotions upon their introduction. So I went with this purple Yumi Katsura gown: handpainted silk by a Japanese designer to look like flower petals, but in gradient purple to show that her feelings towards being royalty are varied. She likes to do charity work and bring Japanese art exhibits home to Novoselic, but she could do without being put on display and being regarded as a trophy dance partner (by others. Shinobu saved the day by drawing a decaying deer on her dance card!).

And now that I've said this, I'm hoping people don't expect it for every thread I write! But when I've got the inspiration for it, I do like to add clothes and accessories to Sonia to convey where the thread might be going.

[ratralsis]

Mine name

The thing about writing is, I have no idea how to do it, but I know sometimes I'll find something that, despite being absurd, works.

Today's piece is another example of that. I've shared a few others. This is just one more.

Have you ever played Chrono Trigger on the SNES? Don't bother answering. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna tell this story either way.

There's a moment in the game, where this dude, this tiny frog man:

Shouts at a mountain, "Mine name is Glenn!"

At least, he does that in the original English version. In the original Japanese version, which is even more original, he says "我が名はグレン！", which just means "My name is Glenn," but it's kind of old-fashioned talk. Because, you see, his name is Glenn. Except, up to this point, he's only called himself Frog to you and the rest of the playable characters.

You meet Frog fairly early on. He appears out of nowhere when you're infiltrating a church full of monsters on a mission to rescue the kidnapped queen. I'm not gonna explain more than this, so either play the game, or don't. Either way, as a wise man once said, "If you can't keep up, don't step up."

Frog is a swordsman, as you might have guessed from that ridiculous picture of him by Akira Toriyama earlier. You know, the dude who did Dragonball. Or… does Dragonball? I guess he still does Dragonball. He also does Dragon Quest, which is way better, but I'm probably the only dude around who thinks that, so I tend to keep that opinion to myself. Anyway, as a swordsman, Frog is just as good, if not better, than your main character Crono, who is also a swordsman of a slightly different variety. Crono uses a katana, and Frog uses a broadsword. One is a curved sword with only one sharp side. The other is a straight sword with two sharp sides.

There might be swords out there in the world with three or more sharp sides, but I don't really like to think about those.

There are, of course, swords out there with no sharp sides at all, only sharp points. Those are called "edgeless swords," and they really do exist, primarily for dueling, because they're still pointy on the end.

Swords with really long handles and short blades that are pointy are often called "spears."

Anyway, enough talk about swords. This is about Frog, by which I mean Glenn. Because we learn, as we play the game, that Frog wasn't always a little frog man. He used to be a little regular man. Actually, a pretty normal-sized regular man. A regular regular man, if you will. He was friends with a great knight, named Cyrus, who was a really big regular man. Cyrus was very strong and cool, while Glenn was average and extremely uncool. Glenn was the kind of guy who let the other kids beat the shit out of him when he was also a kid, because, as he put it, "it hurts to be hit," and therefore he couldn't bring himself to defend himself from the other kids. He didn't want to hurt them.

Cyrus told Glenn in no uncertain terms that saying that meant that Glenn was simply too kind, or "soft," in English. But Glenn didn't change. He was soft up to the very end.

The very end being, of course, when Cyrus attacked a dude named Magus, or 魔王 in Japanese. 魔王 is, you SURELY know, just a generic title meaning "demon king," and is part of the name of Bowser in Japan: 大魔王クッパ, or "Great Demon King Koopa." See, Bowser adds that 大 to the front that means "big," because he's bigger than Magus is.

That is because Bowser is far stronger. Bowser is not in Chrono Trigger, but if he were, he would simply kill Magus with his fire breath and/or by pulling his arms and legs and head into his shell and spinning fast and crushing Magus to death with his body. Magus would not be able to handle that. Magus is pretty strong, but Bowser is far stronger.

Anyway, enough talk about Bowser. This is about Glenn, by which I mean Glenn's horrible and embarrassing defeat at the hands of Magus. Because we learn, as we play the game, that when Cyrus attacked Magus, he lost spectacularly. Magus murdered Cyrus SUPER HARD, and Glenn, well, Glenn was also there, acting as Cyrus's squire and/or little buddy. I'm not really sure what their relationship was. I think Glenn was trying to become a knight, but he was just too goddamn soft. He saw Magus kill Cyrus, and what did Glenn do? Well, it sure as hell wasn't kill Magus right back, I can tell you that.

Instead, what Glenn did was get zapped with a big spell by Magus, and that spell turned regular-sized Glenn into a smaller version of himself who was also a frog. So he started calling himself Frog, but he also became a pretty good swordsman, and he even rescued the queen of the kingdom… TEN YEARS LATER.

Glenn spent ten goddamn years being Frog, living in a hole in the forest all by himself. A lonely existence. A miserable existence! But he did it, without complaint, because what else was he gonna do? Stop being a little frog man? Fuck no. He didn't have the luxury to make a decision like that.

But then Crono comes along. Crono has learned a thing or two about Cyrus, and Magus, and how Magus is trying to summon a giant monster capable of destroying the world. And we know that this monster can destroy the world, because it does, 1399 years later, because, surprise surprise, Chrono Trigger is a time travel story, even though I haven't mentioned that before and won't mention it again.

So you might think, wait, if this thing destroys the world in 1399 years, doesn't that mean we know Magus fucks up the summoning? And yeah, we do, but Crono doesn't. At this point in the story, Crono thinks Magus created the thing here, and it destroys the world later. He doesn't know that it already existed.

That doesn't matter.

Forget all of it.

What matters is that Crono knows there's a sword out there in the world, called the Grand Lion (Masamune in English), that Cyrus used to have. It was made of a special metal. Crono has the broken Grand Lion and a big enough hunk of that metal that he was able to bring it to the world's greatest blacksmith, the man who originally forged it, and get it fixed up. And he also has the Hero's Medal, which Cyrus used to wear, which Cyrus got by defeating a really big frog.

Don't worry about the really big frog. He isn't important. You'd think he is, given that there's also a smaller Frog who used to be a man, but he isn't. He's just a big frog.

Crono hands over the Hero's Medal and the Grand Lion to Frog and tells him, somehow, it's not clear exactly how, because Crono is a silent protagonist, that he wants Frog to help fight Magus. And Frog, well, he doesn't know what to do. He's been beaten down by life. By ten years of living alone, in the forest, much the protagonist of the book I'm writing, because I don't have a single original goddamn idea in my head.

But Frog knows that sometimes a man has to stand up for himself.

男はな、立ち向かって行かなきゃいけない時もあるんだぞ。 There are times when a man must stand and face the things that trouble him.

Those were Cyrus's words to Glenn, years ago, and Glenn knows now that they are true. So, when Crono brings Frog to the mountain that blocks the path to Magus's castle, Frog asks Crono for the Grand Lion.

Crono stabs it into the ground. Frog draws it. And he announces to nobody, and to the world, simultaneously:

"我が名はグレン！" "Mine name is Glenn!"

And he swings the Grand Lion and cuts the mountain in half. He clears the way. He puts the sword away, and that's that.

And God help me, it's one of the greatest lines in any game I can think of, and it's as simple as a man telling us his name. His real name. Not the name he's been using for ten years. Not the shame he's borne for the last decade. He's done being ashamed. He's done running. He's done hiding. He's Glenn. And he always was, even if he forgot for a while. Even if the world forgot for a while.

[yutanology]

Promise Me | Yandere! Nakamoto Yuta X Fem!Reader

Warning : 18+, possessive, foul behaviours, sexual content(nothing biggie), mental illness, death, etc. No proofread. Please, don't be too harsh on me. I'm still new and this is my first ever one shot/fanfiction here :)

Word count : 2.4k+

"Could you just stop?" Y/n whisper shouted at her seatmate who had been bothering her since this morning.

It's not like this is new to her or to anyone in their class but today, he seemed to be more clingy and touchy than he usually was and she found it quite unusual.

By the time she stepped into the school campus this morning, he abandoned his game with his friends on the soccer field just to greet her with his dashing smile and a nice warm hug.

She didn't mind it at first as she was already used to it but when she thought he's going to leave her alone after that, he followed her around instead like a lost puppy. She could almost see a furry tail happily wagging behind him.

Everywhere she goes, he's there right beside her. Either his hands were holding hers or his arms were wrapped around her lower waist. Some people were jealous or happy when they thought they're finally officially together and when someone questioned their relationship, Y/n would immediately respond saying they're just friends while Yuta would say otherwise, leaving them confused.

He was still attached to her during her classes and even ditched his just to be with her. The teachers could only sigh in defeat and shake their head. They knew that whatever they say, there's nothing they can do to make the stubborn guy follow their orders.

At the end, he'd always get what he wants.

The Japanese boy glanced at her side profile. His head was laying on top of his other hand. Seeing her brows furrowed irritatedly, he stopped for a moment before continuing to twirl a few strands of her silky hair between his long fingers.

It doesn't look like he has any plans of keeping his hands to himself at all. She'd been trying to get rid of him for countless times and she failed with all of those useless attempts. She's so close of getting angry at him but she doesn't want to lash out on him and seem like a bad person.

With her another sigh passing through her soft reddish lips, she looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Just five minutes more, Y/n. Just a little more patience, you can do it.’ she tried to convince herself. By those five minutes, she let Yuta play with her hair.

When the school bells rang and echoed around the campus, she immediately fixed her things and rushed out of the classroom before the teacher could even dismiss them. The corridors are already crowded and she could only hope that Yuta wouldn't be able to follow after her this time.

She decided to go to the restroom and stayed there until she was certain that Yuta's nowhere around her. He's really acting weird and she couldn't understand why. Whenever she asked what's wrong with him, he'd always say the same thing like 'I'm fine. It's all in your mind.’

His gaze, the way he looks at her also felt different this time. She felt something uneasy somewhere in the pit of her stomach or maybe there's something wrong with 𝘩𝘦𝘳. Maybe she's just overthinking way too much since that's what she always do mostly when she doesn't get enough sleep and she stayed up late last night.

That's right... these shit are all just in her head.

She released an exhausted sigh and turned the faucet on to wash her face, hoping that it would also wash her frustrations away. She reached for a handkerchief from her bag and wiped her face dry as she made her way out of the comfort room.

Her heart almost jumped out of her ribs when she found Yuta standing just a single step from the exit. She gasped and her hand immediately flew to her chest in surprise. "Yah! Stop scaring me like that!" she yelled and he only chuckled in amusement.

"I've been waiting for you. What took you so long?" he asked her, locking his hand on hers as he lead her to the canteen. Eyes of the people they passed by were immediately on them like they're more interesting than the lessons that their teachers taught them.

"Wait, why were you waiting for me?" confusion was evident on her face.

"So we can eat together for lunch, of course. Come on, we don't have all the time. Classes are going to start after forty minutes." he casually said, pulling her closer to him when they walked passed a group of boys and he didn't fail to notice the way they looked at Y/n.

He didn't like it, not even a bit.

Y/n seriously couldn't count how many times she sighed at how she always end up letting Yuta do whatever he wanted to do with her. From the simple hand holds to sudden random kisses that he pepper on her face. No matter how hard she tried to push him off, he'd always stick himself even more closer to her.

It was like that for the passed weeks and it was honestly so tiring as hell. Yuta just won't leave her alone even when she goes to the restroom, he would insist to wait outside the cubicle that she had to push him away and lock the main door of the room.

She could barely talk to other people peacefully as he would shoo them away immediately and ask them to leave her alone. It was so frustrating and she's getting fed up of his unexplained foolish practices.

She's well aware that the guy likes her more than just a friend and she also can't deny that she's attracted to him but these behaviours of his are just too much for her.

The said dirty blonde haired Japanese guy was sitting closely beside her, his chin rested on her right shoulder as he watched her turn pages of the book that she's reading. He wasn't paying attention to the words written on the dead leaves. His eyes stared at her small hands, wondering how they would feel like around his cock—

"Yuta." the guy's ears perked up when she said his name. Snaking his arms around her waist, he pulled her to his chest and planted a kiss on her neck. Her cheeks heated at the unexpected skin contact but she tried her best to ignore the butterflies that he's giving her.

She's planning to finally confront him and she had to make him stop whatever he's doing cuz it's no fun at all. It's not entertaining and she's not amused at all. "Yuta." he hummed, his kisses getting wet and he started to graze his teeth on her skin, lightly nibbling on them until he finally bit hard enough to leave a mark.

A whimper tried to escape her mouth but she's fast enough to bite her lower lip, trapping the sound until it disappeared on it's own. He was disappointed when she didn't make any sound for him, thinking that he didn't do well enough to make her feel good so he ran the tip of his tongue on her neck.

His hot minty breath heated her skin and tingles spread around her body when he blew her sensitive ear, nibbling her earlobe and placing a kiss on one of her flushed cheeks. His hands wandered under her blouse, caressing the side of her hips with his thumb.

He slowly dragged his large hands up under her breasts and just when he was about to touch them, Y/n pulled away from him. A low whine and groan simultaneously erupted from him, complaining at the lose of skin contact from her.

Y/n looked around the library if someone saw them and she was thankful that no one was there but only them. She straightened her blouse, closing the book and stood up. "Where are you going?" he also stood up from his seat, ready to follow her wherever she's going.

She didn't answer him. She slung one of her bag's strap on her shoulder, walking away with the book and placed it back to where she took it. Yuta was quick to keep up with her steps, confused of why she was suddenly in a hurry.

When they finally got out of the library, she stopped at the nearby bleachers where students barely pass by and turned to him with an exasperated sigh, "Yuta, seriously, what's wrong with you?" the way she questioned him came out more stressed out than how she wanted it to be.

Yuta blinked his eyes a few times as if he's trying to figure out what she meant. "What do you mean, what's wrong with me? I'm totally fine. Are you okay?" it was his turn to ask her, walked close to her and placed a hand on her forehead.

"Are you sick? You don't seem fine to me. Let me take you to the clinic—"

"Yuta, stop." she stepped away from him before he could even hold her hand. He halted, his brows met as his eyes stared at her worryingly.

"Stop whatever you're doing to me and please, leave me alone. I also need some time for myself and other people around me, alright? You can't keep me from interacting with anyone. This is honestly suffocating, Yuta. We can't keep doing this."

He felt like his heart shattered into tiny pieces. His chest tightened and his airways narrowed, making him unable to breath properly. Without him knowing, tears were already streaming down his cheeks.

Y/n was taken aback at this, immediately feeling guilty for making him cry. She didn't expect him to be this emotional for his appearance.

"Look, I'm sorry but—"

"D-don't you love me anymore, Y/n?" He didn't let her finish her words, leaving her speechless at the question.

Her mouth left agape, struggling to find the right words to tell him. "Did you find someone else better than me that's why you're planning to leave me, is that it?" more salty water poured out of his eyes.

"Yuta, w-what are you talking about? We're not in a relationship to begin with."

"Then let's be together officially! Just you and me, Y/n. I'll do anything just to be with you. I promise, I'll be the best boyfriend you'll ever have. I'll give you everything you want—" he held her arms, "—just promise me I'll be the only one you'll ever love and want to be with. Promise me, Y/n. Promise me!"

Yuta secured his arms around her, holding onto her desperately. Scared that if he lets go, he might lose her. He can't let that happen. Like what he said, he'll do whatever it takes just to have her.

All for himself.

"Y-you have to promise me, Y/n."

Her head was clouded with a lot of thoughts. She was barely thinking straight and her emotions also messed up with her. She really likes Yuta. The increasing speed of her heartbeat and the butterflies flying around her stomach with euphoria whenever she's with him didn't lie at all but it felt wrong.

These feelings didn't feel right.

She pulled herself away from him and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Yuta..." that was all she said before she left him without even looking back at him.

She had no idea how it broke him and how it made him do things that a normal person wouldn't do. He saw nothing but red after she disappeared from his sight. Everyone who tried to touch or talk to her the next day suddenly disappeared, a minute after they left somewhere else.

At first, she didn't think much about it until the number of people disappearing quickly increased and made everyone alarmed. All schools around the place were forced to close for a moment and people were told to stay at home with tight security to keep them safe.

Everyone was scared including Y/n, of course.

It made her so anxious that she could barely sleep at night. One morning, a knock on her door echoed around her silent apartment and she panicked, quickly hiding on her bedroom.

She almost peed her pants in fear when the knocking and ringing of doorbells continued for minutes. Her phone went off on her nightstand and she ran to it. Yuta's calling.

Without a second thought, she answered it with trembling voice. "Y-yuta..."

"Y/n, are you okay? Please open your door for me, I have to make sure you're safe. I'm the one outside your house."

And that was all it took for him to be with her. Make her scared to be outside, convince her that everyone is dangerous and he's the only one who can protect her.

Whenever he goes outside to buy food and other necessities for the both of them, he'd always return with a small cut or bruises and it made Y/n scared that she might lose him too.

He's all she had left.

He made her thought of that. He's all and everything she could ever need. She'd be nothing without him.

"Do you love me?" he asked and she nodded silently.

"If you really do, promise me that you'll love me and only me, Y/n. I wanna hear it from you." Yuta looked at her straight in the eyes when he said those words.

"I promise." his heart raced inside his chest.

A smile stretched out on his plump lips. "I love you, Y/n. So much than you could ever imagine." He meant it. He always had and always will. He leaned his body closer to her, locking his lips with hers and they moved in sync.

This is paradise to him.

He couldn't explain how much happy he's right now. With her here in his arms, it's the only place where she's safe. He watched her drift off to sleep, he kissed her forehead when her eyes finally closed.

He could look at her like this forever. The love bites that he painted on her skin looks so beautiful. She's like the most beautiful painting he'd ever seen and she deserve to be placed on his art gallery but she's only for him to be looked at.

He sighed dreamily as he continued to press more kisses on her neck. He successfully made her love him. There's nothing he could ask for, now that her naked body is already tangled with him under their soft blanket.

He could only hope that she'd keep her words and stay true to him.

Feedbacks are pretty much appreciated and requests are open! Feel free to share your thoughts!

I will not always be active but I will try my best to attend each of your requests and to also interact with y'all.

I apologize for not being word-perfect in English. English sadly ain't for me—

[redux-iterum]

Speaking of the Erins, what you two think Tui T. Sutherland and the WoF series?

DULLARD: I, personally, have not read the series, so I can't say much beyond "dragon cool I guess". Lynx has plenty to say, though, so get cozy.

LYNX: I think Tui herself is fine enough. She's well-meaning and hasn't done anything out of malice. Wings of Fire is a somewhat messy series, but at least it's a little more coherent than Warriors. Its fandom is kicking up its fair share of drama; some understandable, others dumb... a lot of it really dumb, but I digress.

Its supporting characters could be better, its plots can sometimes be... wonky, and the worldbuilding itself is an absolute mess. These spoilers will be out-of-context and won't make much sense if you haven't read them, so don't worry about being spoiled for huge plot revelations.

- How the fresh hell are these bastards able to breed with each other? Their speciation has gone in wildly different directions and this all happened in a few thousand years?

- You're telling me that after 2000 years of normal talking, everyone who is and isn't divided by geographical barriers is able to communicate with one another? And that hundreds of dragons adopted one dragon's tongue? I can get some dragons learning her language and its linguistic descendant(s) surviving as prestige dialects, but this is dumb.

- The maps are frickin messes. If the island is north of Pyrrhia's Wing, it'd be more like Iceland than Hawaii like they implied it to be. Also that's not how deserts work.

- WC and WoF have the opposite issue with peer polities: WC wants you to think it's a peer polity system (think Japanese or Scottish Clans, Greek City-States, and the English Heptarchy) when it isn't because the cultures aren't distinct enough, while WoF's queendoms are (theoretically) too distinct from one another, and shouldn't be considered independent states with a shared cultural identity.

- On that note, even as a teenager first reading the books, I thought the trope of "one faction for each species" was dumb because not everyone in that species would agree with their leader and would go make their own queendom or throw a coup or something! This isn't Ancient and Imperial China with their Mandate of Heaven!

- Everyone knows Mudwings kinda got the shortest end of the stick, only having one glance into their culture at the end of the first book and nothing else, but the other cultures don't have much of anything to speak about either. Can you recall any religious beliefs that play into the story or character arcs? Are there any great philosophers whose musings sparked various social mores? Do they recite poetry or spin epics or sing folksongs? What does the average dragon do since we mostly see the managerial-class dragons act in the story?

- The hell is up with humans? Why is everything "dragon-sized" yet humans are so tiny? Why are blueberries the size of a fist?? Why are dragon-world sheep larger than earthen moose?? WHY IS THE CAT NORMAL-SIZED??

- Why do the dragons have cheese and how did they discover they could eat it. They're reptiles. Why are they eating dairy products.

[thunderheadfred]

❄️Todoroki HC's🔥

Aged-up pro hero Shouto. NSFW under the cut. Minors do not interact.

- - -

General

Might as well be tied with Bakugou for the #1 pro hero spot; they seem to pass the crown back and forth every other year. Everyone knows about their intense frenemies uber-rivalry. Well. Everyone but Shouto.

He's asked to speak at a lot of charity events. If he has time to prepare (and hire a speech writer) he is capable of stirring crowds to standing ovations. But if caught unawares... he gets cornered into hilarious on-the-spot interviews. He's been memed. Mercilessly.

He's an OP character, but unfortunately he rolled -500 in fashion sense. Eventually he wises up and hires a stylist. When he finally cuts his hair a slightly different and even more flattering way, it's a national event. People faint in the street.

Does god-awful sleight-of-hand magic tricks when he meets young fans, even though nobody asked him to. The second-hand embarrassment is palpable. But he keeps doing it. God, why does he keep doing it?

Has hovering arm syndrome in every fan photo.

Super into pop music. Not a fan of any particular group or artist, couldn't tell you the name of a single song. But every time he turns up the volume on the radio it's like... really? THIS? Probably pumps that shit through his hero agency to keep up morale. Has no idea what you mean when you tell him his music taste doesn't match his personality.

Similarly, he enjoys brainless romantic comedies and old silent movies. Doesn't laugh at jokes but loses it over physical comedy. Thinks Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are the funniest people who ever walked the earth.

He's long and limber. Runs practically a hundred miles every day just to "relax." Doesn't even get sweaty doing it. A filthy yoga addict. He'll probably live to be 200 years old.

He can regulate his body temperature for quirk use but in everyday life he's always half a degree outside the Goldilocks zone. It drives him quietly insane; he has an epic love-hate relationship with his thermostat.

Has a therapy animal pet. Doesn't matter if it's a dog or a cat or a bird or an iguana or a teeny tiny rodent. It's the best-behaved animal in the country and speaks more languages than you. It has its own room and an instagram account with millions of followers.

Lives in a traditional Japanese estate that doubles as a national treasure. Probably has government-appointed snipers at the gate, and he's just like, "don't worry about it." You are afraid to touch anything. Fuck, don't even look at anything, just to be safe.

Has an outstanding personal chef who only gets to cook five things unless (thank fuck!!) company comes over. Impossibly picky eater. He rotates between a few "safe" foods and suspiciously side-eyes everything else. If you cook something unfamiliar for him it will be the most awkward meal of your life, because he'd never tell you he doesn't like it. But oh lord, just look at his face.

This clashes directly with his love of traveling. Frequently uses his hero earnings to visit exotic foreign locales over long weekends... but rarely tries the food.

- - -

Dating

A grey-ace demisexual disaster. You could count the number of people he's been attracted to on one hand. He falls madly in love every time and always gets his heart smashed to pieces when his crush can't magically intuit the meaning of his frigid longing glances and generically courteous romantic gestures.

Which is stupid, because he gets propositioned constantly. He can't walk out the door without being flirted with. People keep slipping him their phone numbers and he always directs them to his agency like a moron. It's a good thing he will never understand how attractive he is because that's the only thing keeping him from total world domination.

Conventional attractiveness does not compute. Shouto doesn't have a type, doesn't care that he's an eleven whilst you are merely mortal. He will fall for your personality above all else.

Probably falls head over heels because your schedules overlap in a completely ordinary way and he witnesses you doing something endearing or brave or most likely: utterly mundane.

Pick a favorite, because you're his favorite coworker, or his favorite barista, or his favorite random bystander in line at the grocery store. You made him smile once; then he spent the next three months daydreaming about your future together before you accidentally stomped on his foot, initiating your first real conversation.

He's big on healthy communication. HUGE. He goes to therapy and it shows. Will talk through literally everything to the point of delirium. Sometimes his dedication to resolving every issue right away can get overwhelming; sometimes you just need some frickin time alone. But it pays off, because the two of you have practically never have a "real fight." There's just no way for bad vibes to fester.

STILL, his family wasn't exactly... erm... verbally or emotionally supportive, shall we say. For that reason, he might not give you all the compliments you deserve, because it simply doesn't occur to him to do so. He assumes you know how he feels. If you're self-conscious or insecure in the relationship, it might take him a while to notice. But when he figures it out (or even better, when you tell him directly) he will make it up to you with enthusiasm.

Will take you on lavish dates. Spoils you rotten without actually intending to. He's clueless about money. If you wanted a sugar daddy, you just hit the fucking jackpot. But if the word valet makes you uncomfortable, perhaps suggest some romantic picnics instead. He can still go all out with the food and five-star location without making you see cartoon dollar signs.

Chronic Insomniac. Stays up too late watching YouTube every night. His viewing history is an incomprehensible blur of k-pop music videos, serial killer icebergs, and super girly crafty ASMR channels. When he's watching a video, he is unreachable. Please call back later and try again.

He's disgustingly cute when he sleeps. Doesn't snore, but drools. Sometimes the drool freezes and leaves frost trails on his face in the morning. Still sleeps with the giant stuffed cat pillow that his mother gave him when he was like, zero. He'll inadvertently suffocate you with it, and you will welcome death with open arms because awwwwww!!!!!

The first time he tells you he loves you will be after your traditional Japanese shinto wedding. You won't hear it again until you start a family. Honestly, it's a good thing he doesn't say it often and is always holding you when it happens. It's a knee-buckler.

- - -

Icy-Hot

I don't even need to say it. Shouto is as old-fashioned as they come. You will never open another door or pull out another chair for yourself as long as you live. He will ask before he holds your hand. He will ask before he kisses you. He will stop and check in if you so much as breathe funny during sex.

If you don't orgasm at exactly the same time while staring into one another's eyes, he'll consider himself a failed lover. God forbid you want him to pound you into the futon... cause you are going to have to present that scenario to him in writing first.

Physical intimacy rarely leads to sex. He loves cuddling, craves physical affection. He'll sprawl all over you and turn into goo while you hold him close. He's an amazing, astounding, phenomenally good kisser. And that's... nice and all... but sometimes you have to grab his face and say, "Shouto, I'm horny," before he's like so that's why you're currently dry-humping me?

Even if he isn't technically a virgin the first time (or the millionth time) you sleep together, you won't know the difference. He's a blushing violet. Every. Fucking. Time. This doesn't mean he's a bad lay, oh no. But there's always ten minutes of confused bumbling before he hits his stride and remembers oh yeah, I DO know how to fuck good.

Absolutely silent during sex. Focused. Intense. Sometimes you have to push him a little to make any kind of noise at all, just so you know you're pleasing him (oh don't worry, you are).

His cock is Just Right. Not to big or too small. Perfectly proportioned and symmetrical. Somehow pretty. Like a fucking factory prototype. It truly is not fair.

Gets handsy and restless at night, even if you both have work the next day. Seems to crave sex at three in the morning. You've given him more than one exhausted handjob.

Gets offended if you don't cum. Will go down on you for hours. Of course he uses his quirk to tease you. He doesn't typically use it during actual intercourse, but he's all about foreplay, and he'll use every tool in his arsenal.

His sex drive is completely fucking unpredictable. Sometimes he's all over you, other times he's an icy slab. His line of work leaves him busy and stressed on a near-constant basis, so you can't entirely blame his personality for this one. Just give him some time and help him take care of his basic needs. He'll come back around soon enough.