#pretty standard stuff for me

[collophora]

Do yourself a favor and go read the entire fanfic work of @fanfoolishness

(In order: Under sun and shade, Blind Side, and Breathless (patching up is one of my fav too, I just had no cool sketch idea for it)

[ikkaku-of-heart]

Gods I fucking HATE going into the Heart Pirates tag and constantly seeing people post about how Law's crew "isn't there for fighting" and is just there for "emotional support." I don't even care if it's supposed to be a "joke" because frankly, I'm sick of seeing this shit. So I'm going to clear something up:

No crew, regardless of how strong their captain is, makes it to the New World if they aren't strong fighters.

Like, they don't just sit around on the ship and let Law do the hard work all the time. There is canon proof they can hold their own. They fought alongside the Mink Tribe when the Beast Pirates attacked Zou. They fought the Beast Pirates during the Raid on Onigashima. We saw they employ clever underwater tactics and hold their own against the like of fucking BLACKBEARD. You know, the guy who's one of the major villains of the whole series? Losing to him doesn't fucking make them weak. They lost because the guy is designed to be basically unbeatable by anyone but the main heroes.

Honestly. We've seen the Heart Pirates fight about as much as the Kid Pirates, and I don't see people claiming Kid's crew are "weak" and "just there for emotional support." Both these crews are strong and willing to fight, kill, and die for the sake of their captains.

I'm all for making a joke. I can genuinely laugh at the silly posts and memes. But when 90% of the posts about them are like this, it's clear people aren't telling a joke - they see them as a joke. Because it seems like nobody talks about them as a legit pirate crew to a powerful pirate captain. Characters can be powerful and badass AND strike goofy poses and be affectionate to their captain. It's what makes them interesting. The fandom really needs to realize that.

[unbelenting]

God I have work to do but... thinking about how many sfth couples fall into this category of "infatuation at first sight, but then they form an honest friendship and that's worth more than anything in the world"......

Prompted by Malcolm from That Time We Were Alive bc my brainrot is returning. He puts his hand on the other's thigh saying it's "exactly what he wanted from this trip" but then when he's referred to as a friend he almost tears up because no one's ever given him that before.

His friend (trying not to spoil by giving u a name or occupation) is definitely into him, at least later on, but he also just likes Malcolm for being the light in his bleak world. Also he just rly loves freaks I guess.

Additionally, this loosely applies to Snakeroots too but whatevs!!!!! WHO CARES!!!! (dies from caring too much)

[purplecatghostposts]

One of these days, I’ll write the rest of this fic, but I really like the beginning and I really wanted to share it so. Here.

[serpentface]

What’s the Janeys/Brakul death scenario?

So like upon review I mostly just was going to kill them off for Couya + Faiza + Hibrides’ character development (#FEMINIST WIN!!!!!!!).

The background situation of their death scenario is something that will happen either way:

Throughout the story, the pilgrimage requests tribute from the towns it passes through (mainly food and other supplies). This is a common practice for pilgrimages and the travels of royalty, and Imperial Wardi civilians are used to the concept (just not so much during a famine). Some people give fully willingly (a lot of people believe in the pilgrimage's goals/and or the necessity to keep its high status participants fed), most are at least partly coerced (usually not via direct threats, but the pilgrimage contains a couple hundred soldiers, the Usoma, and Odonii leadership. The threat is implied), some are Fully coerced via threats.

In the latter third of the story things are not going well. There’s been a lot of internal struggles among the soldiers and dissatisfaction with pilgrimage leadership (mostly Stavis), men are starting to defect and a large body are getting outright mutinous. The group has also lost much of their food supplies and things are getting desperate (they've been starting to eat their own pack khait and oxen)

With this going on, the pilgrimage sends three soldiers to exact tribute from a farming village in the province Lobera. They meet a group of men acting as representatives for the village, who flat out refuse to give tribute. Things escalate into an outright fight, the soldiers are better armed but few in number and are killed.

One of the village elders finds out that this happens and panics, knowing that the men who killed three of the Usoma’s soldiers (one of which is her son) have signed their own death sentences, and possibly that of others. She attempts to persuade the families to preemptively flee, and then takes the village's one remaining skinny old plow ox to carry the bodies of the dead soldiers back to where the pilgrimage is camped. She supplicates herself before Stavis Amanti and begs for mercy, saying they don't even have enough food stored to feed themselves, much less to give, and that the men thus considered the killings righteous self defense. She shows that she’s returned the bodies for rites as an act of goodwill, and offers the ox in tribute, the most valuable thing she can provide. She begs that the Usoma accepts this as tribute and spares the men's lives, and that the pilgrimage moves on without taking anything else.

Stavis bids her safe passage away from the camp (without confirming or denying that he's accepted her plea), and the heads of pilgrimage confer on what to do. The killing of the soldiers is a violation punishable by death, but this would be like, a notably bad PR move. Meanwhile a contingent of soldiers (including some major side characters I haven’t introduced) break off and lead a raid on the village to avenge their fallen brothers and loot supplies. Others get drawn into the fighting, and it devolves into a full on massacre.

A couple families had fled at the elder’s suggestion, but most refused to leave their homes. Some of the villagers believed they would be left unharmed if the killers were given up, others had been preparing for a reprisal and armed themselves with everything available. But they have few actual weapons and none are trained combatants. All of the remaining men and adolescent boys get killed, one woman manages to take out a soldier using a shovel but is killed, most of the other women and girls are spared murder but several are assaulted. The village is looted for supplies and kindling for funeral pyres.

Stavis Amanti has no fucking idea what to do. The soldiers defied orders and killed Imperial Wardi civilians, but the current climate amid the pilgrimage would make it EXTREMELY Bad for him if he demanded their punishment (but also potentially very bad if he didn't- not all the soldiers participated in the massacre and many were horrified). Faiza encourages him to exert authority in a measured response by having the ringleader of the mutineers killed but sparing the rest, and offers to publicly back him in hopes of avoiding full on mutiny.

The raid reveals that the villagers had been hiding more grain than they claimed they had (as in like, enough to feed their people on starvation level rations for a few weeks). Stavis takes this as an opportunity to justify not punishing the mutineers (as the villagers DID technically have something to give, and execution IS technically the punishment for refusing the order of tribute (though not execution of the entire community)), but insists that their Galenii bless the village dead and their men build pyres for the civilians as is honorable conduct. (This attempt to make amends is not particularly appreciated by the survivors.)

The pilgrimage holds a funeral for their own dead soldiers. The village ox that was given in tribute is killed and butchered for the funerary feast.

----

In the Bury Your Gays route, Brakul is one of the three that gets killed during the tribute extraction. Janeys loses his fucking mind when his body is brought back, and tries to slit his own throat on the spot. Couya stops him by wrestling him to the ground while Janeys screams threats at her and the old woman in a very pathetic public spectacle. He is deprived of all sharp objects.

While the pilgrimage leaders are conferring, he hovers miserably around Hibrides (who is also not feeling so great about all this). He's suddenly very interested in her pregnancy for the first time ever, asks to feel the baby (which has been just starting to kick). She's like "fuck off", but he strongly implies he's planning to commit suicide asap and she concedes and then is like Okay I Let You Feel The Goddamn Baby Now Leave Me Alone Holy FUCK.

Janeys turns his attention to fucking murdering anyone tangentially involved in this happening. He’s among the initial raid party, plays a major hand in it turning from its ostensible 'find and execute the ones responsible, subdue the rest, steal their food' directive to a full massacre by directing his men to immediately attack the first man he sees. He and his group capture three young men as prisoners and demand that they be slain at the soldier's funerals as is wartime custom (this isn't wartime). Janeys additionally demands that he should get to do it, as the only kin of any of the dead men. Once that's done he immediately cuts his own throat and bleeds out. They wind up getting cremated at the same time so things work out how Janeys wanted it.

At one point I realized that this is kind of just The Iliad?

----

So like obviously whether they die here or not has little impact on THESE events, but a lot of the endgame revolves around Couya Faiza and Hibrides and these deaths would be very significant to THEM in varying capacities. It affects the trajectory of the final stretch of their arcs and adds a lot of layers to the ultimate Couya/Faiza conflict. I also liked their deaths being kind of random and shitty and meaningless because that in of itself is kinda ~thematically resonant~ with the story. (A lot of tension between the lack of intrinsic meaning to events and the profound levels of meaning ascribed to them).

I'm almost definitely not going with this version of events though. Janeys and Brakul don't have much active involvement in the endgame and don't Really need to be alive for it as it stands, but I think the version where every main character (except Faiza she's doomed) survives to see What Has Been Wrought and living to experience the fallout ultimately works better.

[cluescorner]

I cannot imagine being a Damian stan right now. You've got both Zdarsky's bullshit (where he clearly doesn't give a shit about your boy) and The Boy Wonder (where Juni Ba clearly gives so many shits about your boy) coming out on the same day. The whiplash must be insane. I hope y'all get some nice warm soup for your efforts jfc

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

I know you dont care about pesterquest but i wanna know, did you think they wrote eridan well or bad?

bad

[bambiliciouss]

If your man dont look at you and thinks of all the possible ways to give you the world maybe that aint yo man😳

[doomdoomofdoom]

god fucking damn you mike flanagan and your profound horror series making me feel things about life and love

[eggsistential-basket]

man the struggle of going back into my old art and trying to see if i've improved or not

[soukokumychildren]

Has Chuuya ever dropped Dazai? On purpose or accident?

Despite what it is in cannon, Chuuya in my Au is a big no-go for hurting Dazai unless he absolutely deserves it (though he’s the type of dick to always deserve a punch) and puts him in line in other ways like threats.

Dropping him on purpose if they were flying is a thing, Chuuya can hold him one of two ways—a piggy back ride, or by hanging onto his hands and letting him admire the view he could die from for a quicker landing. He throws him at a safe distance, Dazai drops and rolls and tehdahhhh

Or when doing tricks in the sky, that too.

On accident I can see numerous scenarios involving Chuuya getting distracted, with, lets say Tui (a dragon specialized shapeshifter), or one talking to one of Gin’s crows

He’s pretty animated so maybe he accidentally drops Dazai like that and—OH SHIT YA GOTTA CATCH HIM HE’S GONNA DIE

Or the usual hold Dazai bridal style (which they barely do if at all unless to cause a scene or be funny), and then unceremoniously drop him if he’s being an ass

…Am I talking too much yet

[akkivee]

since i’d fallen off reading comics that weren’t bl or korean shoujo lmao, i decided to try some shounen recs from the tl and bro tell me why my very first pick happens to have an mc whose last name is harai, has red hair, a fuckton of piercings and is absurdly powerful WHAT IS THIS 😭😭😭

[hellobadomens]

TLDR: Brain dump processing recent personal breakthrough

I have to say it is a very jarring experience to go from just understanding that you should be less giving to people in general vs actually being ready to do things about it.

It reframes every relationship you have, including with yourself. You realise every time your brain has been driving you to be someone's closest friend, it's because you forgot to be your own best friend first.

That's why you're lonely, despite being loved. That's why you didn't know you were so lonely until you got triggered out of your usual state of apathy.

If you're unlucky, you'll have lived with some unhealed, tornado from hell of a person, someone who ripped your heart out of your chest in the recent past. If you're lucky though, you'll be able to use that to see how accountability and blame are separate. They weren't trying to hurt you all that time, until you hurt them to protect yourself.

Que sera, sera plays in your head for the hundredth time.

Then you get a tidal wave of epiphanies at once, all holding yourself accountable without blame.

YOU are the one who let people keep you in their lives, despite how you were always putting in the effort and getting nothing back.

YOU did this to yourself because you didn't ask for what you needed, you just gave and hoped everyone would do the same.

YOU are the hypocrite, who forgot to follow their own mantra of "how am I supposed to know if I've never been informed?" for other people.

YOU couldn't even pay enough attention to yourself to know what it was that you needed. To even feel your emotions and work that out.

And then finally, YOU only did that because you forgot. You forgot that you are actually an amazing friend, with so much love to give people — once they prove they deserve it. People SHOULD put in the work to have you around, but you still have to let people know what the work involves.

Of course that should make it scary again, because you might end up losing people who have proven they deserve you, all because of your own past mistakes. Yet somehow, you can make peace with the fact that those relationships may change or end, because that's OK. It's nothing personal, it doesn't mean you stop caring.

You just remembered to care about yourself again too.

[virtuousvigil]

mini upd8

dropping two more fics on ao3 today before the deadline for bottom jayce week fully hits. Wanting Wrapped in Red will be uploaded as complete, but the other is a WIP that i should have done in about 2-3 weeks. (lowkey hoping no one really checks it out until it's done LMAO) then i'm gonna take next week off from socials/writing, cause i am burnt out from cramming all these fics in a month while also starting school again & dealing with health things. after that break it's back to getting AMSATASM chapters ready! i'm making the executive decision that i'm not gonna participate in any more events until the hurt/comfort week in october; that way i have time to prep and don't fall into the negative feedback loop i hit while trying to push out all these bjw entries. maybe next year i'll try my hand at joining some zines, but for now i want to pace myself and invest in more personal projects/perfecting AMSATASM.

thank you to everyone who's shared, supported, left kudos/comments/bookmarked everything i submitted so far! the reception has been incredible. i realized today that my stats on ao3 nearly tripled between hark the herald angel sings & the premise of promise, alongside the extra traction AMSATASM has gotten. we're almost to 1.5k hits on AMSATASM and you guys have pushed me over to almost 100 total bookmarks, which is absolutely insane to me since i only started posting what... three months ago? i think?

big fat forehead kisses all around. i'll make a post later when wanting wrapped in red is ready :)

[gaydivorcetual]

crazy that indonesian isnt even top 29 help??? its 56(?)

IKR??? esp bcs Indonesia is like the fourth modt populated country in the world ,,, like obv mandarin and english n hindi wld be above it, then spanish n arabic bcs its got so many countries, but its wildddd its so low for native speakers. Even if u include non native speakers its only 11th :0

[dare-to-dm]

Also, regarding my criticism of over consumption: I am of course not completely innocent.

I used to paint miniatures. I never really enjoyed the painting part itself, but I loved the end result, and I loved having and growing my collection of miniatures. They still see frequent use in my tabletop campaigns.

But at some point, the painting just became too difficult to make time for. Did I immediately stop buying miniatures and painting supplies? Of course not! I own probably at least a hundred unpainted miniatures and part of me still swears that I'll get to them someday. I did, however, make the conscious choice to stop buying them at some point. And I put away my supplies so they're not just lying around my house anymore. I accept that it isn't a hobby I'm actively interested in doing right now. And that's okay! Accepting it actually brings me peace because I no longer feel guilty for not making time for it. And I can always go back to it later if I want.