#oversensitized

[innocuousquirk]

had a certifiable autism moment at the beach today when the sand was too hot for me to stand on with flip-flops

I forgot my water shoes (which would have provided more coverage) so I just decided to bail after suffering through half the walk

there were tears involved, but thankfully no yelling and now I am Normal again

[sleepnoises]

im reading more harriet lerner and truly this being a possible boundary that god doesn't immediately strike you down for had never occurred to me before. thanks steve

[wordy-little-witch]

Brainrot is kicking in, work has me by the throat, I am so tired

Enter: self indulgent sillies

Shanks and Buggy both were kidnapped very often as children - be it by Marines, enemy pirates, Whitebeard on occasion, random ass guys targeting two unattended children, whatever.

They both have gotten so desensitized to it that they don't even get scared anymore. It becomes more "I'm not held here with you, you're stuck here with ME" type of situation.

Buggy is sassy, snarky, rude and sarcastic. Shanks pops in now and again with some completely out of pocket shit that sends Buggy into hysterics. Think that scene from Helluva Boss with Blitzø and Moxxie being kidnapped.

This complete lack of care extends well into their adulthood - Shanks because it's honestly kind of funny that someone had the audacity to try him, Buggy because sarcasm and sass is his defense mechanism.

Enter: Cross Guild.

Marines try an infiltration mission to Cross Guild, but they severely underestimated the organization. Mihawk was off island at the time, so they thought that the biggest powerhouse who could identify them via observation haki was gone. Buggy notices immediately both because his haki is oversensitive and he's gotten scarily good at reading body language. Crocodile, when informed, proposes they give the squadron what they want with interest.

A series of unfortunate events lead to Buggy and some of the crew shackled and in the plaza. Buggy's got seastone cuffs on wrists and feet both, and has failed to mention the mini transponder in his hair piece. The Marines made the mistake of cuffing him behind his back, thinking it would limit his knife skills. They don't know that Buggy's anxiety and paranoia has lead to him having a secret pin in his boots specifically to pick locks.

Buggy then proceeds to roast the men with all he's got while he works.

The others present are both confused and fighting laughter as the commanding officer gets more and more pissed off before he finally backhands Buggy dark enough to split his lip. Then a hand clutches his throat, lifting him slightly. Buggy splutters. The marine grins, a nasty thing, demands Buggy apologizes, complaining about the blood on his white sleeve. Buggy tries to speak and can't from the lack of air.

"Oh," the officer coos, "what is it? Finally going to beg forgiveness?" He loosens his grip just enough for Buggy to get some air, lowers enough for the other to go on tiptoes to get a strangled breath. Buggy cracks an eye open, a smile blooming on his face.

"H-Harder, daddy~"

The Marine drops him in disgust.

No matter what they try, Buggy has a come back. Crocodile is listening in, and Mihawk, upon arriving back, has joined him to avoid the navy presence. They're both a bit stunned, a little intrigued, and mayhap rethinking some preconceived notions of the clown.

Especially when there's sound over the transponder snail, a little clink, thump, a shout, and something wet.

"Well," Buggy's voice carries over. "Who's next? Come on, I haven't got all day, you already made me miss two appointments, you dull Neanderthals."

There's a sound like a sword being drawn, a war cry, and Buggy chuckles. "Ohh. You're stupid, huh? That's okay, Buggy likey dumby~"

Turns out even in seastone cuffs, even in twice as much as a typical pirate or criminal wears, Buggy is more than capable of taking out a squadron. He uses his surroundings to his advantage, fighting dirty and taunting them playfully, much to the admiration of the other's present. One cuff is off his wrist, but three more are still on him, cutting off his powers. He still manages to not get cut until the near end.

Even then, it's because one of the stragglers tried attacking his chained subordinates. Buggy gets a cut to the cheek, mild and harmless, maybe needing stitches, but he's furious. "No no no," he grits out, "You're playing with me right now." A stolen sword sinks into an opening with ease. Buggy leans in close. "Don't you ever fucking touch my children. Understand?"

No response. Buggy shifts the sword. There's a scream.

"Understand?"

"Y-yes..."

"Yes what?"

"Y-yes... s-sir."

Buggy snorts. "I was looking for your majesty." Then he yanks the blad up and out, leaving the body to slump to the ground. He turns to the few remaining. "Well?"

Buggy handles it on his own, the followers are even MORE fanatic, and Crocodile and Mihawk are facing a sudden and unexpected paradigm shift while watching Buggy happily eat a bowl of ice cream, kicking his feet happily and simply vibing like it's a typical Tuesday afternoon.

[skyeslittlecorner]

Orphan from Hades, outcast from Gehenna

I've wanted to do this for a long time, and I finally got around to it. Here I collect all the details that this sweet lamb has in common with Hades. ...aaand some rambling about him and his Solomon thing, because why not.

Yes, I miss him very much. Yes, I did it just to look at his beautiful face. Get ready for a collection of screenshots.

We all know that Sitri is a little... ok, very delulu about Solomon. As strange as it may sound, this is the most superficial of problems. This is eye-catching. But underneath the irritation he causes there is much, much more, and it is not good for him.

In the first part we will go through the facts and his connection with Hades, the second part is my long rant. You will have marked what is where.

PS. Sitri lovers, don't worry. I belong to this nation myself, it's not a hate rant.

Jealousy and distrust

Do I even need to mention it? He's regulary call out for this. And this is the jealousy he feels especially towards the Solo MC. During the Halloween event, he was even called out that, paraphrasing, "at this rate, maybe you really should leave Gehenna and go back to Hades". Unfortunately, I don't have this one screenshot, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Not only MC is a person which makes him jealous, but also his king. Offtop, Satan knows this and really enjoys irritating him. Apart from Sitri, MC and Leviathan (so probably all others kings too), I don't remember Satan trying to annoy anyone so purposefully, but it may be me just not remembering.

Additionally, constant doubts. Sitri has always distrusted Leamas, and if it weren't for Satan, he would have killed him on the spot. The first thing he does when Marbas appears and threatens us is pulls out a gun and puts it to his head (he is justified here because the kings did the same). In the Christmas story, whenever he sees Gabriel, he immediately throws knives at him.

Who else kills everyone who has even a 1% chance of threatening Hell?

Let alone the thing that they know and remember each other.

It doesn't mean that they knew each other very well or that they were friends. But, for example, Sitri and Bimet did not know each other. Since both Sitri and Leviathan remember each other even after some time, Sitri must have spent a lot of time in Hades. No wonder he took over their vibe.

Also, a little spoiler of ch5, just as Sitri only called us by our name when we drifted off into the land of sleep, Leviathan in his H-scene only softened when we were so unconscious that we could no longer remember it.

Weapon of choice

I have already addressed this topic here. There's no point in me dwelling on this too much. His weapon is straight from Hades. We mark this point off as obvious.

Mark & clothes

Here's a slightly more interesting thing, I admit that I noticed it only later. The tattoo on Sitri's neck. We see that it is a pentagram assigned to Satan and Gehenna, but I want to point a little curiosity.

At one point, the Sitri's symbol on his neck and Leviathan's symbol in his eye were the same. Also, very distinctive - Levi's symbol on someone's neck.

The second non-obvious thing is his clothes. Sitri is the only noble of Gehenna wearing all black. Nobles from Hades also wear black. Does this refer to this? Not necessarily, because we know that Satan's closest commandos wear dark uniforms the same as him. Sitri as a noble and Satan's right-hand devil may combine these two features.

Some headcanons and rambling

The part where I tried to be objective and draw facts ends here. Now let me happily chatter on how I interpret his behavior

bUT FIRST, I still have some unused screenshots, and how can I miss such an opportunity? PB why did you create something so beautiful?

My aesthetic sense is satisfied~

So. Let's go to my ramble. This sweet creature has huge abandonment issues. He is intelligent, and even Ppyong is confused and explains that Sitri is usually really smart, but with us he goes crazy. Besides, you can see that he behaves quite normally around others (the only exception, he can sometimes become detached around Satan).

As for our name, he knows it, and he is aware that we are not Solomon. The famous words at the end of his H-scene. So why does he call us Solomon? Because he is unable to come to terms with his departure? The easiest excuse is that he misses him and projects him onto us. That Solomon never left them and those years never existed. That Sitri doesn't care about us, that he only really wants Solomon.

But I like to think of a slightly different version.

To Hades belong the orphans, to Gehenna the outcasts. And Sitri belongs to both. We don't know what he went through, we don't know what's going through his mind, but we see his behavior towards others. He is calm and perfectly controls his emotions even during his H-scene. He is smart and morbidly suspicious, what we see a lot. Finally, he must have everything under control, to such an extent that in some matters even Satan does not try to fight him (the most striking example is that he is the only one who gives Satan blood).

When he saw us, of course, he felt the familiar spirit of Solomon. But what he really liked was us. His emotions were out of control and it scared him. So he dealt with it the only way he knew how. He can't afford to trust again and be let down again, so he forced his true emotions that he felt towards us into the "it's just love for Solomon" box. Because he has already experienced mourning for Solomon and he can cope with it somehow, maybe not well, but enough to function on a daily basis. If he was rejected again, he wouldn't be able to cope. And he can't afford it.

He is Satan's henchman, prince of Hell and The Guardian of Gehenna. He can't show weakness. He can't break down. So the defending remnants of his sanity did what they could to maintain the fragile status quo.

Does he know what he is doing is wrong? Of course. Does he realize that he is hurting us? Of course. But he is one of the highest generals in a country at war, he has to deal with all the nobles, he has to support the king, he has to be ready to fight at any moment. And his Hades mentality makes him willing to sacrifice his happiness (and last crumbs of sanity) and our liking for him to protect his king and country.

Emotions cannot be controlled. But he tries nevertheless. If he didn't feel such strong emotions towards us, he wouldn't try to deny them. If someone is traumatized, they do not always know how to properly cope with it, and his mechanism is not healthy, it harms himself and us. But what else is he supposed to do? We know the approach in Gehenna. Only strength counts. Besides, he is the "responsible one" who would listen to him and help him? We? The moment we deny him, his psyche will collapse like a house of cards.

Maybe I'm exaggerating, overinterpreting, or it's just a running joke. But after how well-developed the characters are so far, I don't want to believe that his brain just turns off with the snap of his fingers.

After all this, I only have one question.

Sitri. Baby. Who hurt you?

[canisalbus]

just found ur blog and im kind of obsessed. especially with machete,, i relate to him so much. i know youve said he has anemia, does he have chronic pain? because i would love to project my own onto him. he is so!!!!

Thank you! I'm glad you like him!

I think a lot of the time he's in varying levels of vaguely uncomfortable. He gets headaches and migraines, often from some extremely fixable bad habits like not resting or eating enough, and from stress and work related neck and shoulder tension. His eyes are very sensitive to bright lights and he doesn't see that well, so he ends up squinting more than he should, which leads to chronic eyestrain and more headaches.

[tin-can-iron-man]

I'm just gonna say it again real quick:

Yes!! Iron Man is a tragedy! It has and always has been since the very first appearance in 1963 which describes itself, Tony's life, and legacy, as such.

Tony causes most of his issues himself, he is his biggest villain, a majority of his rogues gallery are caricatures of the worst versions of himself brought to life (when they're not just being racist cuz...60s...). The worst thing about being Tony Stark is that he can't stop being Tony Stark (he tried!!) That is the point.

The majority of pain Tony goes through, is pain he inflicts on himself, whether intentionally or inadvertently. That is the point.

He is not A villain (at least. Not usually. There are...some rough moments and arcs that are. Not great. As there is with any character as old as he is). But he is his own main antagonist.

[whitegownsandflowercrowns]

Ok. I have an opinion. It is a very unpopular opinion. I am afraid of getting hate for this opinion. If you disagree with this opinion, please just scroll by or block me.

Here goes.

I think that it is impossible to compare the House of the Dragon characters to the Fire and Blood characters, because we can never really know the Fire and Blood characters. Let me explain.

Thanks to the nature of the Dance, the telling of it in Fire and Blood relies on two sources: Mushroom and Septon Eustace. Both are heavily biased and oftentimes tell wildly different versions of the same event. We know the basics of what happened, but thanks to their narration there’s so much we’ll never know. While Show!Lucerys’ death was definitely an accident, we can never truly know if Book!Lucerys’ was as well. What exactly started the rift between Alicent and Rhaenyra? We’ll never know. This, of course, leads to wildly different interpretations among fans.

This is why I say that we can never know the true Fire and Blood characters, because the book itself won’t let us know if our interpretations are correct or not. Here’s an example: in the book, Alicent may or may not have said “mayhaps the whore will die in childbirth” about Rhaenyra. Now imagine you have Person A and Person B. Person A wholeheartedly believes that Alicent said that, while Person B believes that she never would. Because of these perspectives, Person A thinks that Alicent became cold to Rhaenyra once Aegon was born, and that she is to blame for that relationship falling apart. Person B, on the other hand, thinks that Daemon turned Rhaenyra against Alicent, or that Rhaenyra herself grew cold once Alicent kept having sons. Person A thinks that Alicent said “bastard blood shed at war” out of pure spite; Person B thinks she said it after being devastated by the loss of her children and granchildren. Needless to say, Person A and Person B have very different takes about who Book!Alicent is. So when they turn on House of the Dragon, Person A thinks that Alicent’s character has been completely bastardized, that the writers are terrible at their job because they took someone who was clearly a stone-cold villain and tried to make her sympathetic. Person B disagrees; they think Alicent was done well. Where Person B thinks the writers are terrible, however, is that they’ve made Rhaenyra, an entitled monster in the book, into a sympathetic character.

The question is, of course, who is right? Have the writers bastardized Alicent or Rhaenyra?

The answer is that there’s no answer. The question of who has been ruined depends entirely on what parts of Fire and Blood you take as canon and which parts you take as being made up. Who do you think is more reliable, Mushroom or Septon Eustace? In fact, is any of this true? Is anything that has been written down in The Princess and The Queen remotely close to how any of this happened, or is it just bullshit propaganda meant to convince the people of Westeros that the Targaryens are the Best and Most Powerful™️ people ever? There’s only one person who knows what really went down, and somehow I don’t think he’s itching to release Fire and Blood: How it really went down.

This is not me saying that the show writers are perfect or infallible or that I agree with every choice they’ve ever made: I’ve disagreed with and side-eyed a couple. But I do think they get way too much hate for trying to adapt a novel that seems pretty difficult to adapt to me. Because their job is to create an objective version of a deeply subjective story, they’re going to piss someone off no matter what they do. Alicent, Daemon, Rhaenyra and Aegon are always going to be seen as white-washed or villainized to some corner of the fandom, because no one agrees on who these characters actually are.

So anyways that was my rant, I hope you all enjoyed it.

[ambyandony]

mutually overprotective

[plasma-packin-mama]

Working on a two page comic but I like this panel so I'm posting it. This is their dynamic right?

[lazzarella]

Maybe it's just because I watched so many low (LOW) budget 00s queer movies that I had to scour local video shops for, or maybe it's because I'm still new to BL series and I'm in a honeymoon phase or something, but so many of the series I've seen a lot of people say are trash are fine actually? Some are even quite good??? IDK, I've mostly watched more recent ones, and I'm only about 40 series in, and maybe it's just the people on MDL and Reddit, but some of the criticisms seem overly harsh to me

Or maybe I just have shit taste lmao

Either way, I’m having a great time!

(Also, I guess there’s an element of when you watch a certain thing for a long time you might get sick of the same stuff being repeated but then again, I’ve been watching murder mysteries my whole life and I’d watch basically the same thing over and over with those and be content, so… maybe I just like that I have so many ‘samey’ shows to choose from)

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Tbh I don't see the point of Luka learning mirakungfu while Adrien and Marinette don't, even more so if the reason why Suhan teach that to him is because he knew LB and CN identity. Then shouldn't those two learn it also since they basically holding the miraculous that the villain want most? But then again it feels like "adult is useless except for some" seems to be one of the rule in this show.

I kind of despise the concept of mirakungfu because it makes no sense and because it feels disrespectful. I am by no means an expert on Chinese culture, so I don't know if it's actually offensive, but when all the writers are white, the name for the made up martial art is a parody of a real martial art, the box of magic items has nothing to do with the culture it's supposedly from, and the main character is completely removed from her heritage, it's just not a good look, especially since the monks are Tibetan and everything about the miraculous themselves is pretty explicitly Chinese. It just gives me uncomfortable vibes of Asian cultures being treated as both window dressing and an interchangeable monolith, but I don't have the expertise to really discuss that issue beyond "this feels like a bad idea and you probably want to talk to an expert on these topics to make sure you're not doing something offensive."

On the other hand, I love the concept of Guardian Luka! I have actually always wished that he had been given the miracle box instead of Marinette simply because I don't think that Marinette's personality is well suited to the role of Guardian and because I wanted her to have an actual team. Meanwhile, Luka freaking shines when they have him in a mentor role (Wishmaker & Migration) and I am of the firm belief that the Guardian should be a mentor to the other holders. It's why I said Marinette isn't suited to the role. As written, she just kind of hands out miraculous and orders people about. That's perfectly fine for a team leader! It's not so great for what I expect when I hear "guardian who chooses the holders of the ancient and powerful artifacts."

But that's not what they did with Luka. He isn't the holder of the miracle box. He just knows how to fight off miraculous wielders because reasons, so I have no idea what they're trying to do with him. Especially since his existence is straight up breaking their lore. In this case, it's the lore established back in Furious Fu, Su-Han's intro:

Su-Han: Let me remind you about some of the Perfect Precepts that you have broken. (flips pages) Precept 14: Kwamis must not live outside the box. (flips pages) Precept 52: Guardians must never lose a Miraculous. (flips pages) Precept 133: A guardian cannot, under any circumstances, wear a Miraculous. (closes the book)

Su-Han accepting Marinette as Guardian because what's done is done makes sense because of the memory BS (why is there no other way to hand off the box?), but that whole "Guardians don't wear Miraculous" rule is there for a reason! I think it may go a step too far, but the general principle does make a lot of sense. The Guardians should be in more of a support role simply from a security standpoint.

It's another reason I'm iffy on Marinette being the Guardian. The Guardian knows everyone's identities and - in the context of canon - has a direct line to the miracle box that any rando can access by capturing them. This makes it a really bad idea to have them fighting on the front lines as they know too much and are something of a security risk. Meanwhile the snake feels like a perfect miraculous for the Guardian to wield since the snake is meant to watch the battle from the sidelines.

It's all very confusing to me because I'm getting a thing I wanted, but in the most confusing and least interesting way. Instead of this feeling like a big plot point, it just feels like something they did because it's cool. I fear this is going to be like Luka learning the secret identities: a thing that should lead to something big plot-wise, but that ends up mostly ignored because it would complicate things too much. If anything, I expect this to mean that he's left out of big moments because the writers very clearly don't know how to write him now. Like he should have been involved in the Risk/Strikeback fight! His powers made more sense than anyone else's! But he couldn't be because then the Felix thing couldn't happen.

I do very much agree that Luka leaning mirakungfu is a big WTF because, if holders are randomly allowed to learn it now, then Marinette should be learning it too! She's actively fighting against a rouge holder, she knows all of the other holders' identities, and she is the guardian! Why is Su-Han mentoring Luka and not the actual guardian? It's all very annoying and I do not like it. It would honestly make more sense if Jagged and Penny were trained, but Luka was not, because Jagged and Penny are not holders, but they are acting as Luka's bodyguards of a sort. Instead, the writers have once again shat all over their lore in the name of doing something cool for a season finale and I would bet you that they're now going to have no idea how to handle the consequences of that in the coming season because they keep doing that. See: season three ending with a mass reveal and the writers subsequently ignoring the identity rules.

[wordy-little-witch]

Ooh either spin the bottle or two truths and a lie for Cross Guild?

Oooooh I wanna Mix Those, thanks nonny ♡♡♡

Spin the Bottle + 2 Truths 1 Lie

Nobody was quit certain how the situation had come to this, but it was undeniable now. Mihawk nursed his glass of wine, empty bottles at his hip as he lounged not unlike a panther across the lounge, sleep pants hung low and shirt unorthodoxically cut to show more skin than it perhaps should. Golden eyes cut to his equally dressed down compatriots.

Crocodile was taking the full couch with a mildly annoyed tinge to his brow, hair still slicked back perfectly despite the loungewear he himself had donned for this exchange. The man proved his commitment to his tastes even in his pajamas, it seemed, with the rich deep emerald silk of his pants offset against the nearly skin tight black tank top. It would have shown far more skin than he'd ever exposed before had it not been for the unbuttoned mate to his pants left to take place of his coat, though his arms filled the sleeves here.

Across from him, kneeling on the rug was the very one who'd proposed this meet up in the first place. Cerulean locks were held fast in a neat french braid, the tail trailing well past his shoulders to brush his hips. Sans makeup, it turned out that the clown's lips were either stained from his lip tint or simply far more florid than most, only his nose more red, and both bowing out to the pigment of his eyes and full lashes. As if the rare sight of a bare face were not enough, the other man had opted for a set of pajamas seemingly intended for women more than men by the cut of the shorts and thin straps of his top. The bottoms were plaid in a mix of neons over a midnight base color, either black or a highly pigmented blue or purple, while the top seemed perhaps a size or two too large with one strap continuously slipping along his bicep. The shirt was, at the very least, more modest in cuts than Mihawk's own, though the bright orange toed the line between tasteful and garish against such pale, surprisingly scarred and freckled skin and his oceanic hair.

The two ghost caricatures over the slight swell of his breasts with the inappropriate pun curling below may have been over kill, the swordsman mused.

Crocodile moved, earning his attention back as the man flicked the sideways bottle on the table. It spun and spun, a clear noise that tickled his ears brightly. Sharp eyes traced the movements, as it slowed and crept to a stop - the opening moreso angle to Buggy this time.

The clown brightened. "Okay," he cheered, swaying in place minutely, finger moving to tap at his chin, green nail polish glinting in the low light. "Hmm.... oh! Okay okay, so," he grinned, eyes glinting like arctic waves at twilight. "I'm allergic to pineapples, I have oversensitive observation haki, and I like swordfighting!" He clasped his hands, propped his elbows and dropped his chin upon the lattice of his fingers with a mischievous grin.

Mihawk, despite the small knot of fond affection in his stomach, pursed his lips. The pineapple comment seemed self explanatory - they'd seen first hand the reaction he had the one time he did eat something containing pineapple. Dr Delilah had nearly torn her hair out when Buggy, dotted in hives and pouting, poked his head into her office for the medication. It was by no means a life threatening allergy, but it was certainly dangerous on its own.

That left the remaining two statements to be the lie.

Turning it over in his head, Mihawk sent a glance to Crocodile. He seemed to be in thought himself, gnawing absently at his cigar butt as he looked over the clown adjacent to both men.

Buggy, for his part, seemed to have an excellent poker face.

Mihawk initially thought it would be the sword fighting bit, knowing Buggy preferred ranged fighting - but at the same time, he knew intimately that the other was no slouch with any bladed weapon he could get his hands on. An unchoppable man with a penchant for weapons that cut seemed ironic and near infallible.

Crocodile spoke then, nodding to himself. "The Haki," he grunted shortly.

"Sword fighting," Mihawk followed up, still uncertain but willing to take the chance if only to gain the point over Crocodile.

Buggy grinned. "Hawky wins," he chirped, handing the dot marker over so the swordsman could add another mark to his tally.

The logia user tilted his head. "The hell is oversensitive observation, then? Isn't the whole deal supposed to be an extra sense? Extra awareness?"

"Mostly," Mihawk admitted, "It is akin to a sixth sense born from your other five. It has a psychological component as well. Some even argue it's spiritual."

Buggy nodded along absently, toying with the neck of the bottle. "Basically, yeah. Observation Haki is technically a heightened sensitivity to your other senses anyway, along with a special other little bit. But when you have a natural affinity for it, it can seem over sensitive," he paused, nail clinking against the glass. He sighed. "To have oversenstivie Observation haki means that your senses are always turned up higher than most. It can develop as a trauma response or it can be innate. It's not common to have it, honestly, and what little we DO know about that is.... kind of complicated? But think of it like.... being in a big crowded room, all the time. And you can see and hear and feel and predict so many things for every single person within your area."

"That is typical Observation, though unfiltered," Mihawk stated.

Buggy nodded. "Now imagine you can predict inanimate objects. You can hear the winds, the grass, the walls, the cobblestone. And now expand it. It's not the crowd. It's the town. The city. The island itself. You can hear and feel and sense every wave against the shore, the sea screaming, the cloud cover and winds and plants and people. Every grain of sand has a voice, every stone, every drop, every gust, ever piece of the world around you. And then the people, their feelings, you can damn near read their thoughts. It's everywhere, everything, constantly."

Silence reigned for a moment. Mihawk had paled, leaning back into his seat. He recalled Shanks admitting to information like that before in passing, grieving slurred words that he'd though were about a man dead. Instead, he realized in dawning concern, it was for a man livelier than most.

Crocodile snorted. "Sounds overwhelming and honestly kind of fake."

Buggy's eyes cut to him, studying for a moment. Mihawk shivered as those glacier blue eyes darkened, seemingly crackling as he tilted his head. Crocodile blinked as Buggy spoke. "Annoyance. Anger. You feel slighted and indignant, believing your first guess was right and we're playing you. That's something anyone who knows you can guess, Croco-chan, so here's something else." His eyes went marginally glazed. A lone curl drifted to kiss his cheek. "Daz is currently at the breeding tents. He's taken a liking to one of the blueberrywani that hatched with the latest batch. He's happy and content right now. Mohji is doing the last of the work in the stables. He was cleaning with Ritchie, Keeler and Misha. Baron should be helping too, but he's unwell, in the medical tent. Cabaji is currently with Alvida, they're happy and bright at the moment but also slower. Drinking, I think. They're in her tent-"

Buggy went on, describing key guildsmen or commanders in varying places, their actions, what was around them, their emotions. Some of them, he had no way to know of before hand. Two wide eyed gazes locked onto him.

When he began paling, a hand moving to tap-tap-tap in a familiar way, Mihawk reached out, slotting this fingers together to squeeze. Buggy jolted back. They all breathed together for a moment.

Then the clown shook his head. "Test however you need to," he said at last, glancing at Crocodile while Mihawk's awed gaze trailed over the tendrils of awareness he carefully folded back inwards. He took the bottle gently, cracking a smile. "Let's just play the game, okay?"

And maybe, the swordsman mused absently, maybe playing some silly little games to "get to know each other better" really was a brighter idea from their chairman. Skills, talents, powers and niches were paramount to portray to show a unified front. Any shortcomings could be twisted, supplemented or covered in turn by the rest. This game likely would be full of much to learn for all parties involved.

Including, he sighed as the bottle landed on him, he himself as well.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Ignore all logistical considerations of "would they ever meet each other under these circumstances". If you don't think Jules Bashir would have chosen to join Starfleet, imagine he is on the station for some other reason, or they meet in some other location.

I wanted to make this poll because I've seen various fics where Garak reassures Julian that far from being upset over him being augmented, Garak is grateful for it, either explicitly because (he thinks) they wouldn't be able to have their usual conversations if it weren't for the augmentations, or simply because he likes Julian "just the way he is" and wouldn't want him to be "different". I disagree that Garak would think like this (or at the very least, I think Julian would react negatively if he did, rather than be reassured), so I wanted to hear everyone else's thoughts.

[andypantsx3]

copying this into its own orig post & deleting the other so i can turn off reblogs to be safe

it's time to whip this bad boy back out.

apologies for momentarily disrupting the funsies vibes i like to maintain on this blog. i will ask that no one reblog this because i don't want to get into anything big and idk how this take will go over. but i am feeling slightly disillusioned with some of the x reader writer culture on tumblr as of late!!

i understand we are all playing in the same sandbox and it's inevitable that we're going to want to play with the same ideas, and we absolutely should be able to because that's how tropes become known and loved and spread and that's just like, how culture works overall.

but one thing that is really getting to me is the growing number of plagiarism & "paraplagiarist" incidents i'm seeing. (fyi i'm not talking about me here, luckily nothing has happened to me personally as of late).

like flagrant plagiarism is bad enough and i hate how often we are seeing it these days. but what i think of as "paraplagiarism" also really grinds my gears. it's where people take the same ideas and don't just put their own spin on it with a nod to the original author, but like, replicate most or all of the fic with minor rephrasings such that it is technically different but eerily similar. and then don't even credit the original author!!

(and i don't just mean like one or two lines or whatever because i know we all get inspired at the line-level as well. but when it's prevalent in large, obvious chunks or interspersed consistently throughout the fic idk it just feels different, you know??)

i think that goes beyond just being "inspired" by something and really toes the line into behavior that i'm uncomfy with.

idk if it's just like, well-intentioned people who are unfamiliar with the appropriate boundaries of storytelling or if it's some sort of deliberate behavior. but either way i hate seeing how discouraging it is to the fic authors i know and love who worked hard on their stuff.

and i don't understand how or why it is satisfying for the people who do it because they must know on some level that's not their work. not at the piece's core, anyway.

i just wonder why it's so prevalent and why people do it!! and idk if anyone else is as fussed by this as i am but it really makes me wanna slink off and disappear out of the community sometimes.

i just wish we as a community would be more intentional about crediting the people who helped or inspired us. because it literally costs nothing, not even your pride. and i wish we would be more intentional about telling our own stories in our own voice instead of trying to replicate what other people are doing.

idk!! just feeling some type of way today i guess!! please ignore me if this doesn't resonate with your own experience, i just needed to vent!! inevitably any opinion will ruffle feathers but i'm not trying to invite discourse onto the blog. just trying to work out my feelings, i guess!

[jamesdegriz]

It's really disturbing how wet and horny slasher/monster/horror movies make me…

[solomiracle]

solomon's cooking jokes can be done well, but the game uses them so often and for only like three different punchlines that i just wanna skip the story whenever they come up