#resulting in someone sacrificing themselves to stop it all by going into that time

[pyromaniac-cyndaquil]

I still find it funny that the past two mainline pokemon games we've had have had extremely strong themes of time travel 😂

[ashyjingles]

jason grace headcanons

as requested by @sacrifical-lamb-core

ive been known to enjoy some more feral leaning jason grace but this is more of an authoritative take on his personality if you will. feel free to add to or dispute anything i have here!! this is all kind of a jumbled mess of first-come-first-serve deal in my head and i have yet to go through and weed any out

he has problems with authority. not outwardly; in fact, to everyone else, he’s the picture perfect kid who follows all of the rules. but that’s because he’s terrified of what would happen if he stepped out of line. he grew up with lupa, who was incredibly harsh to ensure survival in her pups. and then when he got to the legion, all of the officers were required to uphold the law. jason saw what happened to people who stepped the line, and the results were never pretty. (in son of neptune they mentione tying someone in a bag with weasels and throwing them in the little tiber for fuck’s sake) he grew scared to even TOE the line. 

because of the previous hc, he’s scared of kids. he knows how rambunctious they get, and he knows that if it came down to it, he would have to punish them and follow through on it by necessity. its what all his predecessors did after all. but he doesn't want to harm them. hes always had that soft spot for the new and/or younger kids. so he’s not scared of kids themselves, he’s scared of being the one to give them consequences to their potential actions. he leaves that to someone else with more guts

the previous two leave him with a lot of cognitive dissonance that he never really gets over. he’s an incredibly empathetic person and no matter how much he tries he can never really stop that feeling of regret when he has to punish someone who clearly regrets their actions. but give them an inch and they'll take a mile. he has major problems with dissociation where he removes his sense of self from the scenario and lets his logical processing take over without any emotion. reyna has had to pull him back from it a few too many times.

between the dissociation, magical amnesia, adhd, and constant brain damage, that boy has one of the worst memories youve ever seen

he really likes steak. specifically rare steak. (wolf!jason truther…)

he can see electrical currents! and can. see? wind currents. its more of a knowing the wind currents are there without thinking about them rather than a visual thing though. its how despite his poor eyesight he was an excellent fighter before he got the glasses

jason has really sharp canines! so does thalia! they get it from their mom, who filed her own canines down for a softer appearance and would have done the same to her kids once they were old enough for that type of dental work. 

jason is left handed, but because of military-style training early on it was forcibly trained out of him either because nobody realized he was left-handed or because they looked down on left-handedness for the sake of unanimity in the formations on the field. he just thinks hes naturally ambidextrous

gay. mlm. boy kisser for certain that man does NOT like girls. he treated reyna and piper the exact same despite one of them being his girlfriend (and treated reyna in a way where she thought he might have liked her back) because he treats them both in accordance to his emotions toward them: ie, he likes both platonically, which is why theres no difference. he just cant tell.

he fucking LOVES mint. says brushing his teeth and chugging a cold glass of water makes his mouth feel like being up in the air and 15 thousand feet with the wind in face.

he’s half asian! beryl grace is asian (i usually go with either thai or vietnamese) and usually i just went with wasian but then the show came out and now i go with blasian. or maybe beryl grace is wasian? whatever the case, i always pictured him and thalia as having some sort of asian descent.

hes really good at archery. dont tell anyone its just him controlling the winds though

hes such a dog person oh my god

his eyes light up like circuits/lightning when he uses his powers. specifically his lightning powers. 

jason doesnt have dyslexia but he does have dyscalculia. like, really bad dyscalculia. but he still greatly prefers reading in latin!

jason hated reading for the longest time because they didnt have any books purely for enjoyment on base. in new rome itself they had bookstores with plenty of books. (they were mostly classics because they didnt have too much contact with the rest of the world, but they were more than just military reports or old historic scrolls you needed express permission to even breath on) but when he discovers newer books he finds himself really liking them! though his favourite genre is definitely classics, and when someone breaks the news to him that he couldve had these books the entire time hes devastated

when he was younger he was better at latin than english because most kids who arrive at camp jupiter know english already and theyre well equipped at teaching people latin, but not english. they had to send him to a school off base/in new rome for younger kids to learn some more rudimentary skills

it was under juno’s orders that he lived on base. she wanted him to be as prepared as possible for his future, which meant starting his training bright and early. otherwise he probably would have spent some time in camp jupiter as a normal kid until he could at least, oh i dunno, read and write. tie his shoes. eat with cutlery. take a bath by himself.

if jason had been there long enough without the swap ever happening, when he stepped down from praetor (not for another longggg few years) he would have done law in new rome. 

if post swap jason grace had the opportunity to do law in new rome, he would have pushed for rules regarding kids safety. of course, if another jason case were to happen nobody would have been able to deny a god(dess) but jason was never a normal case, was he?

can you tell i like lawyer!jason

less of a headcanon more of commentary on his character but as strong of a character as he was, camp half blood taught him how to have a back bone. in rome he was incredibly disciplined and had no trouble ordering other people around, but it was always in accordance with new rome’s laws. camp half blood taught him how to abide by his own moral principles rather than ones that someone else gave to him. (after all, new rome was about unity while chb was about individuality.) 

he honestly really likes his work as pontifex maximus. it fulfills his inner desire to be doing the ‘right’ thing by rome’s standards (especially because the title is highly revered) while giving him the room to express his creative desires, which is something that he had never been able to do. its also not at the cost of someone else, which usually ended up happening when he was upholding the law as praetor

this one works in contrast or in tandem with my previous bullet on his sexuality (specifically the comment on how he treated piper and reyna): he knew that reyna had a crush on him. he didnt know why he couldnt feel the same. queer culture wasnt really a thing in the modern world for the time it took place, and i dont imagine new rome was any more progressive. he didnt understand lots of things about his sexuality at the time. he didnt know that not liking girls might have been an option, and that he didnt have to like reyna back. so he tried his best to convince himself into having feelings for her, which led to reyna thinking they were reciprocated. once he met piper, that confusion happened all over again and even without his memories he found himself repeating the process

his favourite is blue like the sky, and ironically his and thalia’s eyes

thalias eyes are slightly darker than jason’s. more grey as well. jason’s are the brightest fucking blue youve ever seen. think the clearest, sunniest day youve ever seen, and it still doesnt hold a candle to his eyes. thalias are more like the sky before a storm.

jason can feel (along with see as given by previous bullet) electrical currents. he could feel someone switching a light switch from half a mile away if he thought about it

hes constantly brimming with static electricity and WILL shock everything he touches. a handshake? you get shocked. he tries to open a car door? literal sparks. as a kid he had to wear electricity resistant gloves because he didnt have a hold on it and it became dangerous because when his emotions are heightened, so are his powers. if he gets angry or excited or sad the air around him smells like ozone, and sometimes you can even see the sparks

cows really like him. straight up adore him. theyre his favourite animal!

he smells like ink, ozone, and something metallic. some people say blood, but hazel says its something like copper or nickel

[theholypeanut]

KIYOSHI TEPPEI X SECOND CHANCES

Peanut Wheel of Fortune Event

Cw: 2,3k, hurt to comfort, angst, Kiyoshi getting hurt (as in knb plot), one curse word, gn!reader

Plot: Kiyoshi was your biggest love, but it’s not easy to date a person who will sacrifice themselves on every chance they got

Event Masterlist

Kyoshi Teppei was a perfect guy. 

When you met him at the beginning of your high school life, you couldn’t help but wonder if there was anyone who embodied Golden Retriever energy better than he did. He was so nice to everyone, energetic, polite, and well-mannered, and he simply shined everywhere he went. You couldn’t believe how that happened, that one rainy day he confessed to you, with this bright smile, a tiny blush, while rubbing his nape from embarrassment. You could guess he asked at least three different people for their good luck before talking to you. Of course, you liked him too, how could you not? It was Kiyoshi Teppei. 

The first month of our relationship felt like a dream. He was Prince Charming, the greenest flag, the person who, on hearing you say you were thirsty, would run to the shop to get three of your favourite drinks and a soup just in case and sprint back before you even noticed. He always put you first and talked to you for hours, and your family loved him too. You cheered him on at every game and you became friends with his team, it all felt like the high school romance manga of your dreams. Until it started to fall apart.

Kiyoshi not only put you first, but he put everyone first. He was the most selfless person you knew. When Seirin started to get far in Inter-High elimination, he was the one working the hardest and sacrificing the most. It didn't surprise you that you spent less time together as a result: you couldn't be angry, and you'd support him no matter what. Or so you thought. Kiyoshi would never talk to you and tell you what was wrong, but you noticed a change in his behaviour at some point when his shine was no longer so bright. You noticed micro-expressions on his face like he was in pain - but whenever you asked him about it, he'd brush it off and tell you everything was fine.

Your dates became less frequent, but you were okay with that. Having a boyfriend with big dreams wasn't going to be easy. And then the Kirisaki Daiichi match happened. 

At this point, you already noticed that Teppei was overworking himself. He always put everyone first without looking back - that was what you loved and hated about him at the same time. But when you saw him get hurt during the match, it broke your heart. The whole scene looked awful and you had to cover your mouth in case you were going to throw up. The match was stopped and everything was chaotic. You barely remember anything until you got to the hospital. You wanted to be there for him, to support Kiyoshi in his worst moments. But your final straw was when he refused surgery because otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to play basketball in high school. 

You yelled at him to the point that the nurse asked you to leave. You cried and just told him you won't take it anymore. You refused to just stand there and watch him kill himself for basketball. He didn't say anything.

And that's how your relationship with Kiyoshi Teppei ended. 

People always say that your first love rarely is the last one. You wouldn’t know - even after some time had passed and you hadn't talked to Kiyoshi since the break-up, you couldn't imagine dating someone else. You were partly grateful that he was in hospital for so long and that you didn't have to see him, because deep down you knew that if he asked you to come back, you'd do it in a heartbeat. Your friends stayed by your side, telling you that you deserved to be with someone who didn't put basketball ahead of his health and, well, you. But as the year went on, you couldn't help but wonder if you'd ever loved someone as much as you loved him.

The graduation passed and you still didn’t even see him in the school. At first, you were angry, but as time went on you had to fight the temptation to call him and ask how he was. You avoided his friends from the team till graduation, but it was eating you from the inside how you couldn’t even catch a glimpse of him at school. Graduation of the first year, spring holidays, beginning of the new year. No sight. No call, no message. You were going through all stages of grief. You heard rumours about the basketball team being amazing again, without Kiyoshi. „Good for them” you replied to your friends when someone tried to break the news to you as a kind of small talk. Everyone around you knew not to mention basketball anymore. At that point, it almost felt like it was basketball that took away your first love.

But deep down, you were rooting for Seirin. How could you not? This team was built with your lover's sweat, tears and blood. But it made you sad that he was not here to contribute to its success. Until Kiyoshi showed up for the winter semester. And instead of feeling relieved that he was well, you were angry again. When he didn't even find a second to write you a single message for a year, you kind of wished he had a good reason: not that he'd just come back to school, all bright and shiny like before, without a proper explanation. Or has he moved on?

You wouldn’t know, and to be fair, you didn’t want to know. Because the idea that Kiyoshi simply moved on, because it was not as important to him as it was to you was as painful to you, as getting hurt during the match was to Teppei. So you decided to ignore him. Pretend that you never crossed paths. Sometimes it was less painful than seeing him behave like nothing had happened and that you had never been together.

You didn’t come to any games, you didn’t want to listen to the exciting news about how Seirin had a realistic chance of winning this time. Until one day, out of nowhere, you got a message from an unknown number. 

You hadn't really blocked Kiyoshi the year before, because he never really tried to contact you. But one day, a month after you broke up, your best friend invited you over for a sleepover, you had two beers together, and after being influenced, you deleted his number and all his messages. But you knew his number by heart, so when it popped up on your screen, your heart skipped a beat.

„If we win this game, please let’s talk” it’s all it said. Of course, that was so Teppei. He was at the school for almost four months and needs a fucking game to schedule when he will talk to you. You didn’t answer. There weren't enough words in the vocabulary to describe how angry and sad you were, and you didn't want to be the salty ex who wrote him an angry essay and made him lose a game.

But it happened: Seirin won. And just out of curiosity, you actually watched the game this time. You couldn't get rid of the painful feeling in your chest when you knew how much it had cost Teppei to achieve all this. On the one hand, you were relieved that he finally made it, but on the other hand, you couldn't deny the sadness. You never replied to that text, partly out of fear: you didn't really know what to expect from him anymore: it had been a year since you broke up, what was there to say? You felt stupid for never really moving on, but life went on without you. And maybe Kiyoshi too.

Days after the game, you stayed longer at school, stuck with your class responsibilities. It was quiet and the evening sun was glowing through the window, as you stapled the notes teacher asked you to bring after classes. Just as you finished, the classroom door opened abruptly. "A perfect student as always?" You heard a familiar voice and felt a shiver run down your spine. "Stop making fun of me, I've never been a perfect student anyway" you replied, slightly annoyed. This was so him: trying to make up for the year of ghosting with a friendly joke. "You never replied to my text. Did you change your number?" He ignored your answer and asked without further small talk. You avoid his eyes as you reply, avoiding the question: "Congratulations on your win, Kiyoshi."

Your tone was neutral, cold. The worst part was, it’s not like you hated him. How could you? But the wound was too deep to just fall into his arms like in a cheap romance novel. You heard his footsteps as he came closer, sitting on the table right next to you. „I’m so sorry.” You heard his full of regret voice. „I don’t even know where to start with all of the things I should apologise for. But what you need to know is that for all this time I could never stop thinking how I want to make it up to you.” He stopped for a second, and continued, hesitantly: „All I want to know, is if you… still love me enough, to give me a second chance. Or love me at all.”

You smiled, to his surprise. You finally looked at him, for the first time since he had entered the room. "How is it that after all this time you still know exactly what I want to hear?" He smiled back, but before he could say anything, you continued in a serious tone: "Why didn't you say anything for a year?" This was no time to beat around the bush - no amount of sweet words would change the fact that he had simply let you go and only returned when he had achieved his goal. No matter how you look at it, it seems that you were never his priority, only basketball.

Kiyoshi felt slightly intimidated by your straightforwardness, but sent you one of his branded bright smiles. 

"You know, that's one of the things I've always loved about you: you're the most honest person I've ever met. I still remember you yelling at me in the hospital. I have thought about your words ever since." He paused for a moment, looking down at his huge, calloused hands. "At first it took me a long time to process what had happened. Can you imagine that the whole time I was in hospital, I didn't believe it was over? I just refused to believe it. All the time I just believed that we would talk it out and it would be the same. Every day I rehearsed in my head my apology when you'd walk through the hospital door like you used to. But you never did. It seems so silly now, but all the time I thought that if I wrote to you, the break-up would be real. It wasn't. I think I only realised it when I came back to school and you refused to look at me. I don't think I've ever felt so empty in my life. Not even Hanamiya's foul came close to that pain. But I didn't want to just come crawling back to you and repeat the exact same pattern as last year. I did not want to... disappoint you like that again."

After you heard him pause, you couldn't help but wonder if there was any way you could have resolved this sooner, by communicating. You looked at his face attentively. "But now… I guess after we won with Hanamiya… All I could think about was how much I want us to be together again. It is embarrassing to admit how much I missed your voice. Even if you'll just scold me. But at least" he hesitated, and you noticed a tiny blush on his cheeks, "at least I had the courage to finally ask you if there was any chance that you felt the same way." His face became even more red as he quickly added: "I heard from Riko that you don't go out with anyone, if you do, I'm so sorry for saying such things."

You looked at him, still stunned by everything you'd just heard, and you couldn't help but think that Kiyoshi Teppei really is a perfect guy. No matter how much you wanted to hate him right now, to scream at him for all the time he hadn't reached out to you, you felt the anger just go away by looking at his face, all red, and his beautiful eyes trying to avoid your gaze out of embarrassment and fear that he might have said all those things to a taken person. How could you be so angry with him? You moved slowly towards him and rested your forehead on his chest. He was surprised by the sudden touch, but didn't move. 

"You're so stupid" you said as you grabbed his shirt. You waited a second to not let him notice that your voice was cracking. "Promise me you'll never do anything like that again? I never want to hear you put basketball before your health again." You couldn't see his face, but he sighed and put his hand on your head. 

„I promise” he said with the most gentle voice. 

You know what they say, that love is not enough for a relationship to survive. But this time you really think it will be enough to fuel both of you to work it out and grow together so that you'll never break up again.

Bonus:

[defiantdreemurrs]

after finally watching madoka movie 3 i am 100% convinced the internet hates homura because they misunderstood her completely

the only crime you could ever pin on her is that she considers herself lesser than madoka and therefore is convinced she has to sacrifice herself so madoka can be happy

the same crime madoka herself is guilty of

both of these girls feel so much love for each other and yet they also feel so little for themselves, both of these girls are convinced the only way they can make each other happy is if they accept an eternity of suffering, and both of these girls practically leap at the chance to suffer for eternity if it makes their beloved happy

the only thing homura ever did wrong was to not love herself, and i honestly cant fault her for anything else as a result

the things she did for madoka are expressions of how much she loved madoka, as well as how little she loved herself, and i cant help but relate as someone who is so deeply filled with self loathing yet so madly in love that i would gladly sacrifice myself for her

homura isnt a villain, shes not evil, she willingly damned herself and occupied the role of the dissenter, the rebel, lucifer morningstar, solely so madoka could be happy in a world where her family was safe, she and her friends didnt have to fight witches, and homura could still be with her

which is something madoka herself did too, shes only doing what madoka did, but because she accepted her role as the devil to madokas god everyone sees her as pure evil and thats the whole POINT of the god vs devil imagery in the movie is to comment on how what we see as “good” and “evil” are so heavily dependent on framing and aesthetic and how those things can make two girls doing the exact same thing appear to be completely in opposition

the point of madoka isnt that homura is evil or that she shouldnt be so obsessed with madoka or that shes wrong for loving madoka as much as she does, the point of madoka is that you should love yourself and subjecting yourself to endless self sacrifice because you think so little of yourself is only going to hurt those you love and possibly to the point of locking you into a neverending cycle of self sacrifice in opposition to your beloveds own self sacrifice

the only thing homura ever did wrong was to not love herself as much as she loved madoka, because she certainly deserves to

(in other words, in case you misunderstood me: homura did basically nothing wrong and all her actions in movie 3 are justified she just kinda needs to love herself and i theorize movie 4 to resolve things essentially by having madoka show her that neither of them has to be so self sacrificing because its so very clear that this is the only thing she ever does wrong and that madoka has also been doing the exact same thing and that both are at fault and they just kinda need to stop escalating this endless cycle of self sacrifice, and one more time explicitly homura did nothing fucking wrong and becoming the devil to lift the weight of the world off of her beloveds shoulders is both a deep expression of love for madoka and a show of how little she loves herself)

[juiceshiru]

i absolutely adore spacea and tiempa ….

these two.. spacea and tiempa… used to be literal stars!!!! STARS IN THE SKY!!!!!!! two lonely stars (as spacea puts it !!!) watched down on earth and it’s inhabitants. They both took likings on two people:

Trinity and Stella.

tiempa absolutely adored trinity’s appreciation for time and how she lived her life to the fullest!! Trinity ,the playful girl, gave everything she could in life :] (she was the middle sister of 3)

and spacea took a liking on a girl named stella. A calm, polite, silent and scholarly girl!!! She balanced the personalities of her two sisters. (the youngest sister of 3)

These two lived at the kingdom in ghovora, which their older sister ruled: griselda!!!

they all lived happily until humanity killed arceus. Chaos roamed around the region, there was danger everywhere and people desperately wanted the archetype’s power. The Power arceus left behind. They wanted to save themselves, they wished to live, no matter the cost!!

This all led to griselda getting paranoid day by day.. she wanted peace more than anything, she wanted to protect her kingdom, her people, her sisters and most importantly her daughter!!! She loved them so much, she’d do anything for them…

which is why she teamed up with leisel and started sacrificing humans and pokemons to make crests

Crests made her army unstoppable. She broke off the alliance of the 7 kingdoms and started taking over the region. Why? Because if she took control over the entire land, she’d stop the pain and suffering all together!! No one could plot anything under her finger tips !! She’d stop it before they even happen !!If true peace is to be obtained, it will be through her.

thats where Variya comes in and offers both the sisters to be interceptors. She could give them the power to stop their sister from destroying the entire earth!!!

but they cant… both of them are afraid …and scared…they dont want to suffer anymore.. they want the pain to go away !! How could their older sister do something so cruel??? They couldn’t go up against her, they loved her… they just couldn’t …it’s too much for them!!!

So Variya offers both of them a deal: letting someone else do their job, beings that are not human will take over their body and do it for them…and they accept the deal.

Two stars fell down to earth and took over the bodies of stella and trinity….

Spacea and Tiempa were born. (And i assume they were the first interceptors to ever be, since variya was working all on this after arceus’ death and all 3 sisters lived in the same layer ..!)

They have the option on either saving the entire planet or damning it forever.. they choose to save it, because trinity and stella loved this earth so much. It meant a lot to them and was precious to both

the hags were doing it for the poor sisters, not for humanity, not for anybody … just for stella and trinity…

They build their own kingdom…and confront griselda one day. Griselda refuses to stop the war. So they result to the only thing… the death of their sister. They have to kill her.

So they team up with Griselda’s daughter (who has no name btw LMAO) and poison her… as she was dying, she saw the faces of her three beloved family.. why would they do something like this? Why would they betray her like this? All this war… and all the pain she has caused… it was all for them to be safe !! She just wanted the best for them….

This marks the end of an era

But whoops griselda turns into giratina (somehow) and starts thrashing and destroying everything in her path out of anger and hurt. She rips her daughter’s soul and locks it away

and spacea and tiempa, not wanting any more of this, lock her away to the distortion world!! By now, all the kingdoms were ruined and in shambles. So many have died….

they then volunteered to the overseer thing to help variya with whatever she needed, because hey….it was thanks to her that they got to save something so precious for stella and trinity ….they got to help the two people they liked the most..… and they got be humans …they just had to repay the ‘god’ of this world …and so they become the false gods we know as today (yay !!)

and then the plot happens and yeah…! So sad..

Also omg in paragon tiempa admits that she looks foward to finally dying !!! LIKE !!!! AUGHH ….she wants to die!?1?1!!1 hello!?!1??1

And…….. these two love each other very much and i love that ..i love sisters……

spacea mentions how tiempa was the only person to be ever with her from the very beginning..!!!!! She says how the status of this world doesn’t matter to her if her sister isn’t with her …!!! Even after her betrayal …she still looves her veryyyyy much …UAGHHH immmm gonna cry

[navigatorsghost]

Snippet time! This has been knocking around in my drafts for ages and I'm not getting any further with it, so I thought I'd toss it here as it is and see if I get any more inspiration as a result. You know those fics where the Akatsuki members get turned into cats and some poor character gets stuck with them? This is, like, the inversion of that trope. Gen, crack-treated-seriously, rated T for canon-typical violence (Hidan sacrificing someone).

~~~

Kakuzu was counting his money, like a normal bounty hunter on a normal day, when he was interrupted by a sudden outbreak of screaming.

The collection office agent, a short man with a rabbity face and nervous eyes, visibly twitched. Kakuzu, having caught the name Jashin-sama being loudly declaimed in the midst of the chaos outside, sighed but didn't stop the flick of notes between his fingers. Whatever problems his partner was causing could wait.

By the time he got out of the collection office, the screaming had stopped. Kakuzu looked up and down the street, scanning for the inevitable bloodstains.

The collection office stood on one side of a wide, shallow roadway that at its other side sloped down to meet the little river that meandered through this quaint village. Under normal circumstances the water ran clear and greenish-blue, shadowed by the flowering trees that overhung it, picture-pretty. On this occasion, a broad streak of crimson was feathering slowly downstream from the heart-pierced corpse in civilian clothes that had fallen half-in, half-out of the river. Jashin's mark had been swept in vivid, violent arcs and lines across the ancient cobblestones, and kneeling by the body was Hidan, his scythe lying at his side.

He held a battered cardboard box in the crook of his arm, balancing it on his raised knee, and was reaching into it with his other hand.

Kakuzu shunshinned over, stopping almost on top of him. "Hidan," he demanded, in tones deliberately weighted with disapproval. There was no possible way he wasn't going to disapprove, after all, no matter what Hidan's explanation. Easiest to get a head start.

Hidan jumped gratifyingly, but glared up at him and clutched the box tighter. "Oi, back off, Kakuzu! You'll scare them!"

"Scare what?"

Hidan carefully tilted the box, just enough to show Kakuzu the contents.

Kakuzu stared.

"Kittens?"

"This piece of shit," Hidan waved his free hand at the corpse, "was about to drown them when I caught him! You think I should've just stood there?!"

"Why not? I'd have thought your kami would approve of drowning kittens."

Hidan spluttered like an outraged tea kettle. "What? No! Shows how much you ever listen to a word I say... Jashinism only allows killing animals for food, or as offerings which is spiritually the same thing anyway. The scriptures are completely clear about that, animals can't understand suffering the way humans can so it's immoral to inflict it on them without necessity. And nobody needs to drown a kitten!" He held the box protectively to his chest.

From inside it, there came a pathetic-sounding squeak.

Kakuzu sighed. "Fine. You saved the kittens. Now find somewhere to get rid of them and come on. We need to leave."

"How do you think I'm going to do that in five minutes, Kakuzu?! I'm bringing them with me. I'll let them go somewhere safe when they're a bit bigger and can look after themselves-"

"Hidan, are you listening to yourself? You're a missing-nin. You can't keep pets on the road - how many even are there?"

Hidan looked in the box again. "Not sure, they're wiggling a lot... quite a few? Uh..." He reached into the box. "Ow! Don't scratch me, Jashindammit, I'm trying to do you a favour here... um..." He looked up at Kakuzu. "Twelve? I think."

Kakuzu pressed his fingers to his temple under his hitai-ate, feeling a headache starting to develop. "Twelve. Twelve kittens. One dozen."

"Give or take... yes."

"Fine. Do whatever you like. But if they annoy me," Kakuzu stared hard at his partner, "I'll eat them."

"Kakuzu!"

"What? You just said your religion permits killing animals for meat."

"Yes, but - but how much meat do you think there is on a kitten?! You'd just be doing it out of spite!" Hidan's eyes were wide with horror. "Every time I think you can't get any worse-!"

"I could say the same about you. Now shut up and move before I drown you." He turned away.

"He shouldn't say things like that," he heard Hidan mutter behind him, apparently to the kittens. "It's blasphemy against Jashin-sama, him pretending like he can kill me... ugh, come on, then, I guess. I'm sorry you're going to have to put up with his grumpy heathen ass but I promise I won't let him eat you, okay?"

Kakuzu sighed again. The next few weeks bid fair to be even more irritating than usual.

[archivalofsins]

Man the funniest thing is rewatching MeMe and seeing all the eclipse imagery. Like that could be a yellow moon behind the hang man but it could be the Sun as the halo is originally depicted resembling the sun in the hanged man design. Just drawn in Mikoto's style.

That would basically mean the back of the card has the Sun and Moon overlapping while reflecting on the water's surface. Kind of working in conjunction. Something that would explain the glare. Plus go along with Mikoto being up during the day and the other guy at night.

It being an eclipse would also work well with Mikoto's first cover being Mono Poisoner as well given some of the lyrics.

"When wielding this toxic desire to monopolize and projecting it into you- It seems like it can be so easily erased, the entirety of that heart." - "After brandishing that poisonous desire to monopolize and having erased you completely, it seems like it can easily be embraced, the entirety of that heart."

If it was sun and moon imagery this entire time, then that would change the meaning of the blood moon and the back of the tarot cards quite a bit. Based on how lunar eclipses and solar eclipses work.

I feel silly for not thinking about it that way before when the sun is alluded to in the original hanged man card. The paintings themselves even overshadow each other as the Hanged Man one lays atop the fool pushing it under while being held up by it.

Also, in the beginning of MeMe Star pointed out that the hanged man painting we see is reversed which has been stated to mean,

"The reversal meaning of the Hanged Man card represents a very specific period of time during which you feel as if you are sacrificing a significant amount of time while getting nothing in return. You might have felt as if certain things are at a state of an absolute standstill without any particular resolution or movement. It’s as if you are putting your entire effort and attention into something but nothing turns out as it should." X

"The upright Hanged Man encourages you to pause for a moment and see things from a different perspective. Reversed, this card can show that you know you need to hit the pause button, but you are resisting it. Instead, you fill your days with tasks and projects, keeping busy and distracting yourself from the actual issue that needs your attention. Your spirit and body are asking you to slow down, but your mind keeps racing. Stop and rest before it’s too late. The Universe will only dial up the volume if you ignore it, and as a result, you may end up crashing. So, as soon as you hear the call, clear your schedule and make the space so you can tune in and listen." X

"If I could laugh, if I could go back- I’d play dead even though I’m alive right? If I could end, if I could stop- How long would this dream go on?"

It can either be telling a person to move forward or take a break. Considering the lyrics, we hear after it is displayed showcasing Mikoto's reluctance or inability to stop it's more than likely the latter. Couple that with the upright fool. A card that is pretty much about being open to new experiences, taking things in stride, and having courage.

"To meet him in a reading can also be seen as a call to the risk-taking part of your own character. He inspires courage, for he understands that every day is a chance to open up new areas in your life, and with that comes a mixture of anticipation, wonder, awe and curiosity. The Fool is there to show that you can never really tell what lies ahead, and you can only greet it with joy." X

"This is an excellent card to meditate on if you are struggling with dread, worry or self-doubt in your life. The Fool is your guide, as someone who is daring and carefree. He is the embodiment of who you really are – your free spirit, your inner child, and your playful soul." X

"You don’t have to keep it in and hide it away “I” will save “me”."

Really alludes to a conflict between their lived experience and internal beliefs. Looking at it from this angle is interesting.

[someseriousthot]

Madoka Magica: Rebellion - A Soapbox

Madoka Magica: Rebellion has to be THE most watched movie I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched it at least 30+ times by this point over the past 6 years, and I’m still noticing some little things here and there the animators included in the movie that I didn’t see on a previous viewing.

But for all of my viewings, whenever I see people commenting on why the movie sucked, why the anime sucked, why the anime’s ending sucked, why the movie’s ending sucked, or why all of them were good, I’ve yet to see someone with this take, and I feel like as a result a lot of folks are missing an extremely important Thing™ that directly lead into the ending of the anime and the reason why the Rebellion story turned out the way it did.

This is going to be filled to the BRIM with spoilers for the movie and the 12-episode series, so if you haven’t watched it I highly highly recommend you do, even if you found the ending of the anime dissatisfying. I was one of those people (the ending felt like it fell super flat for me, and I heard at the time it split the fandom 50/50) and I was so glad I watched it, it’s one of my favorite pieces of cinema ever and I recommend it to everyone I talk to when I mention Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

(I watched a vid about a guy’s blind reaction to the movie and it was hilarious but the comments had me FUMING because I kept seeing the SAME takes over and over and I GET! Where they’re coming from with their theories! But at the same time I feel like it’s missing a HUGE, VERY ESSENTIAL PIECE THAT WAS IN THE ANIME! Hence the soapbox moment)

TL;DR at the very, very bottom

A quick refresher on what happened at the end of the series:

- It’s revealed that because Homura kept rewinding time, a bunch of threads of Fate have tied themselves to Madoka as a result, and because of this, every time Madoka makes a contract, she becomes the world’s most powerful Magical Girl before turning into the world’s most evil Witch.

- Homura has created a noose for herself with those very same threads of Fate, because if she fails to save Madoka she’ll either reset the timeline again or turn into a Witch herself.

- Madoka uses her wish to become a “concept” that purifies Magical Girls before they can become Witches, ascending to a higher existence and essentially becoming a God as a result, disappearing from the world and everyone’s memories save for Homura.

- Homura decides to carry on for Madoka’s sake, trying to protect the world that she sacrificed herself for in honor of her memory, but at the very last second we see a strange scene in the final episode post-credits...?

Sound familiar? Familiar enough? Good. Now, before I go into what happened in Rebellion, I want to tackle an elephant in the room that’s going to be extremely important for what takes place in Madoka Magica: Rebellion, as it’s this Very Important Thing™ that serves as the catalyst for the entire movie.

Point 1: What was that ending?? (aka The Final Timeline)

A lot of folks were really dissatisfied with Madoka essentially disappearing from reality/becoming a God because it felt like it came WAY out of left field. Why didn’t Homura just reset again? Why did Madoka have to disappear like that? Why didn’t she just wish that magical girls weren’t a thing, or that the Incubators never came to Earth?

If you remember the anime, then you know that:

- Resetting the timeline again would have just added more Fate to Madoka, which would have exacerbated the problem without solving it (which is why Homura began to despair when she realized she couldn’t stop the cycle she was currently trapped in).

- Because of the nature of Madoka’s wish, she couldn’t do that just as a normal Magical Girl; she had to be able to reach every Magical Girl that was falling into despair and risking the destruction of their Soul Gem (and becoming a Witch). Unfeasible for a measly human body, or even the body of a single Magical Girl.

- During her discussions with Kyubey, it specifically says that Magical Girls were the sparking factor for a lot of humanity’s development and creating the society that Madoka lives in today. If the Incubators never came to Earth, then we would all still be naked living in caves.

NOW: Up until this point, the timeline has been playing out like every other that Homura has lived through thus far. The month starts over, she goes back to school and meets Madoka for the “first time”, she tries to warn her not to make a contract with a creature promising a miracle in exchange, she starts preparing for Walpurgisnacht while trying to keep an eye on her. If she can’t beat Walpurgisnacht, or she fails in keeping Madoka from making a contract with Kyubey, she resets the timeline.

And things play out normally! She was hoping to prevent Sayaka from making a contract with Kyubey, considering she knows what’s going to eventually happen to her, and Madoka losing her closest friend (that she knows of) at the time is tragic, but that’s not Homura’s priority. Losing Kyoko was tragic (especially since she was trying to save Sayaka somehow), but that was another calculated loss. She manages to prevent Madoka from making a contract with Kyubey (with a couple extremely close calls) until the end of the month, and then it’s the showdown with Walpurgisnacht, and past experiences have her pulling out all the stops to finally defeat her this time.

Unbeknownst to her, Kyubey has been having these little meetings with Madoka, where he reveals that she has an insane amount of Fate attached to her, despite her being just a normal school girl. In their next meeting he tells her that once she makes the contract, she’ll be the most powerful Magical Girl ever, before becoming the most powerful Witch ever. And in a later meeting, he reveals the reasons why Magical Girls fall into despair (with disturbing visuals), the reasons why Incubators came to Earth, and the purpose of Magical Girls dying to release energy into the universe. It’s also because of these meetings that Madoka decides to use her wish to help save Magical Girls before they become Witches, so their wishes (and their hopes and dreams) wouldn’t have been in vain.

So, right when Homura is about to succumb to despair and turn into a Witch, Madoka intervenes and promises her that all of her sacrifices, all of those timelines she spent trying to protect her, won’t be in vain, and she makes her wish and disappears forever.

Sound familiar? Frustratingly familiar? Good, because there’s something I want you to think about before we proceed to the movie:

At what point did Homura find out about these little meetings between Kyubey and Madoka?

She’s been way too focused on preparing for Walpurgisnacht to know about their little clandestine meetings. Not to mention that this is the first and only timeline that these discussions even happen. Kyubey even comments on this in the first couple episodes, that he’s never encountered a Magical Girl with so much potential before. He’s twigged onto it early on, and that rouses his suspicions, even moreso every time Homura kills him or interrupts before Madoka can make a contract with him, and it comes to a head when he finds out about her time magic. (Remember, Homura is NOT from this timeline, and so Kyubey doesn’t remember ever making a contract with her.)

Kyubey has never revealed the secret about Magical Girls to Madoka in any other timeline. In fact it’s because of Mami’s (unintentional) death that spurs Sayaka into making a contract with him (despite Mami’s trying to warn her not to), then Madoka throwing away her Soul Gem that it eventually comes to light, and it’s following Sayaka's (and Kyoko’s) death that he reveals the rest of it. Things never played out like this in previous timelines either.

Now, onto the movie, but keep this plot point in mind. This is going to be really important later.

Point Two: The Flower Field Scene (aka The Turning Point)

Midway through the movie, we get to the infamous flower field scene between Homura and Madoka. Homura’s already realized something weird is going on and has been trying to figure out who’s created the labyrinth they’re all trapped in, and now that she and Madoka have time alone she’s able to come clean about a lot of stuff that’s been weighing on her in the past three years. Namely her “bad dream” that Madoka disappeared and she was the only person that remembered her, that she began doubting her memories and thought she was someone she just made up, etc.

Madoka then tells her that she would never go somewhere so far away that she couldn’t see any of them again.

“I would never want to go somewhere I could never see anyone again. Even if there were no other choice, I know I’d never have the courage to do something like that.”

And Homura has a horrible moment of realization.

“Right...that’s right.”

Those are your honest feelings. And yet, I...how could I have made such a stupid mistake?

I shouldn’t have allowed that to happen. That no matter what I would’ve had to do, I should have stopped you back then.

This scene comes back to haunt her later in the movie, as well as DIRECTLY influencing her actions all the way up to the ending. However, I feel like a lot of misinformation has been happening that’s colored the reason why the movie went the direction it did.

A lot of people think that Homura realized that Madoka essentially martyred herself to save all Magical Girls from despair, feeling that she was forced into that decision on behalf of others. But we know that’s not the case, she entered into that contract willingly and was content with her fate, even if it meant everyone would forget her. Even her own family.

That Madoka seemed like she was happy doing this, but with what Madoka’s saying she thinks those are her “honest feelings” and that she should have stopped her from going through with it. That Madoka’s ultimate fate was her fault instead of a conscious decision Madoka made on her own.

Homura then spends the rest of the movie angry with herself for allowing it to happen and then trying to figure out how to reverse it.

Point Three: God and Demon (aka What was that ending?? 2: Electric Boogaloo)

Homura’s turning into a Demon in the end of the movie and splitting the mortal girl Madoka from the Law of the Cycle seems to be a really big point of contention for fans as to the reason why she did that. From the comments I’ve seen:

- Some folks think that Homura “knew” she was going to turn into a Demon if Madoka and the others saved her while in the labyrinth, and was wanting to destroy herself before that happened

- Some folks think that Homura was dishonoring Madoka’s wish by separating her, exercising her will over Madoka’s, which is completely unfair and disrespectful to what Madoka wanted

- Some folks think that Homura was planning on separating the mortal version of herself from the Law of the Cycle the whole time, or at LEAST after Kyubey revealed the truth about the Isolation Field and the experiment

- Some folks thinks it was because Homura missed/loved (or was obsessed with) Madoka so much she couldn’t bear to be apart from her any longer and that’s why she tore a piece of her away (to “keep”, as evidenced by the spool of pink thread - the records of Madoka before she ceased to exist - literally becoming the basis for Homura’s new Soul Gem)

But overall a lot of folks were probably confused (and rightly shocked) at the events that took place at the end of the movie, and were trying to figure out the justification behind it.

Now, I’ll ask you again: At what point did Homura find out about these little meetings between Kyubey and Madoka?

The answer: She never did. Therefore she is missing a very massive and crucial piece of context for the decisions Madoka made.

Remember, these discussions never happened in any other timeline. Homura found out the truth about Soul Gems and Witches long before anyone else did, but with the reactions they garnered in previous timelines she felt no reason to try to hammer it home with folks because they’d either be in denial or snap.

Another thing: Kyubey and Sayaka both said mentioned alterations with Madoka’s memories - Kyubey with wiping (or supposedly wiping) the memories of everyone that came into Homura’s labyrinth, and Sayaka saying that she and Bebe were “holding onto them” while the Incubators were focused on her so they could move about freely under their noses without their realizing.

Neither of them could have realized the ramifications this would cause with the famous flower field scene between Homura and Madoka, because not only does Homura not know that Madoka knew this whole time about what was happening and why, but that she thinks what Madoka’s saying (about never wanting to go somewhere she couldn’t see everyone again, that she’d never have the courage to do something like that, that she wouldn’t want to do that even if there were no other choice) are her honest feelings. And Madoka has none of her memories that helped her make that decision to do all those things. Homura takes her at her word because she has absolutely no evidence to the contrary.

So when she’s presented a chance at the end of the movie to undo that decision? To undo the damage done to Madoka and to give her that second chance of living a “normal” life that Madoka herself said she wanted?

It was inevitable. I couldn’t see the movie ending any other way, and I’ll explain why.

Point Four: Breaking down the arguments (aka that Pepe Silvia conspiracy meme from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia)

1. The idea that Homura “knew” she was going to turn into a Demon if Madoka and the others saved her/was planning on turning into a Demon (somehow) the whole time

I don’t think this was the case at all. Homura was pretty damned determined to die during that whole fight scene. In her Despair Zone™ she was even about to put a bullet in her skull to kill herself before Madoka reached her, since her plan for the others to kill her fell through. She was so intent on it because she wanted to prevent the Incubators from reaching Madoka through her, which would have rendered everything the two of them went through for nothing.

If anything, being forced to relive Madoka’s deaths over and over in her own private Despair Zone™, AND Madoka coming to save her herself, is what probably influenced that part, which I will get into.

2. The idea that Homura purposefully, intentionally went against Madoka’s wish

Again, Homura was missing several very big and extremely important pieces of context that lead to what happened. Would she have still made that decision knowing? Who knows.

3. The idea that Homura was obsessed/”loved” Madoka so much that she undermined her wish

This might have some part in what happened, but I don’t think it’s the biggest player in this.

Again, it’s been three whole years since Madoka disappeared and Homura was left with only memories of her and the timelines she went through. During the flower field scene, she said she was starting to doubt her own mind, wondering if she had made all of it up. Then during the final battle, Homura was stuck reliving all the times she failed to save/protect Madoka over and over. Reminding her of the pain and sorrow she went through trying to change her fate. That those emotions were real, that those things happened, that she went through hell and back for her.

That whole thing with Homura saying she just wanted to see Madoka one more time? Betraying her “wish” (Madoka warned her not to be alone/go anywhere by herself, and if you remember the post-credits scene from the anime, that was PROBABLY how the Incubators got ahold of her), not caring what she would become as a result (which I think she meant turning into a Witch, NOT a Demon, or at least not yet) as long as Madoka was at her side?

And then the two of them team up, bolstered by the innate power Madoka has as the Law of the Cycle to destroy the Incubator’s trap and free her? Showing Homura that there was a way the two of them could be together without risking Madoka’s secret?

Homura saw a chance to fix her “mistake.”

She wasn’t scared, after becoming a witch she accepted whatever was going to happen to her.

And she wasn’t going to hesitate anymore.

NOT TO MENTION what do you guys think would have happened had Homura not done that?

What if Homura had allowed Madoka to whisk her away, joining the Law of the Cycle?

What if she hadn’t turned into a Demon and imprisoned the Incubators, using them to hold all the curses of humanity?

The reason this happened at all was because, right before the end credits, Homura was telling Kyubey about what happened in previous timelines. The Incubators had three years to plan this for when Homura was ready to be taken by The Cycle. (A fact that Homura is deeply frustrated with during the whole reveal scene when Kyubey starts monologuing)

What would have stopped the Incubators from doing this with another Magical Girl? Now knowing that the Law of the Cycle is more than one entity/aspect, what’s to stop them from trying to create another, more cunning trap for next time? Chipping away at the Law of the Cycle’s power a little at a time until they do eventually completely conquer it? How many Magical Girls would be sacrificed to this end? They created the Isolation Field for Homura, they could probably come up with something smarter for next time. And if it were any other Magical Girl do you really think they’d have the willpower she had not to call upon Madoka to save her?

Homura saw what she thought was a happy ending and, if fate wasn’t going to give it to her, she was going to bend reality and force it.

This also sets up the scene for the fourth movie because: 1) Homura can't sustain this reality forever. Once all the Curses are gone, or if she decides to destroy this universe, there's probably going to be a final battle somewhere, which will involve all of the other Magical Girls and their ultimate fate, especially since Sayaka alone remembers the truth (and Madoka was so close to remembering as well). 2) With the Incubators otherwise out of commission, this also means that there's going to probably be a finite number of Magical Girls now. With no Incubators there to grant wishes, for all the girls that fall into despair, that means others won't be there to take their place. Does that mean Madoka's Godhood (and therefore Homura's Demonhood) will become finite? Will the curses of humanity begin to overrun reality? Will reality reset itself and all the magical girls up to this point will have history rewritten to where their contracts, and therefore their adventures as magical girls, never happen?

Thanks for letting me get on my soapbox for a bit. If you have a chance to see the movie, I highly recommend it if for the fight scenes if not the story. The soundtrack is super nice too.

TL;DR: Homura didn’t know Madoka was told The Secret about Magical Girls and Witches™ by Kyubey in the timeline during the anime, so during the flower field scene she thought Madoka’s words were her honest feelings (when they weren’t). Then when being stuck in her own head after turning into a Witch she was forced to relive all of Madoka’s deaths over countless timelines over and over, which also served as a reminder why she went through all those timelines (because she loved Madoka) which is why she turned into a Demon in the end and forced a “happy ending”, not out of obsession or to ruin Madoka’s wish but because that’s what she thought she wanted.

[ilikelookingatthings]

hazbin hotel adam lilith eve lucifer theory and the exorcists

it might juts be me...but does anyone else think that maybe the excorisms were a plan to YES stop the over population of hell which could threaten heaven(which seems right up heavens alley if the FLOOD reaction where they tried to restart humanity because there was too much sin is to be believed)....but ALSO..maybe its a way to scare hell into trying to find alternatives to stop it? such at trying to work on themselves and seek redemption?

I'm just saying when the humans adam and eve got tricked and ate the apple/fruit of knowledge they got punished by being kicked out of their home adn had to live life...go through hardship and then when they died they got judged whether you got to heaven or hell. We don't know what happened with Eve but Adam aparently worked off his sin and made it into heaven right after the hardship and not knowing if that would be the case....

What if the plan of excorcisizing sinners was also to give them a permanent threat they couldn't come back from which gave MORE meaning to their choices and a solid outside threat just like how outside the garden, hardship and death were waiting for eve and adam?

thus resulting in Charlie/someone coming up with the idea that the people in hell shouldn't just give up and keep trying to redeem themselves which wouldn't have happened if hell didn't have the over population problem and the threat of extermination hovering over their backs.

being only able to see the worst in humanity was lucifer's punishment...but I'm also curious if maybe lilith might have a plan...like we know deal for allowing the eterminations was also that no one would attach the hellborn citizens which of course would keep charlie safe.

Also...while Adam is definitely horrible NOW....anyone else kind of wonder if maybe Adam was TRYING to fall at this point? if maybe he got twisted by being stuck with all the people making a big deal abot him up in heaven a.k.a. the decedents who use the story and will often twist it to suit their needs....I can't help but find it a little suspicious...especially when adam attach charlie despite that being a hard rule for the exorcists to not attack hellborn people....

like sir petious redeemed himself due to the blast of fighting adam right? putting himself at risk and sacrificing himself for his friends without hesitation while believing it was a real complete no respawning death at the time.

and adam revealed the exorcist aspect infront of heaven despite sera saying it was supposed to be kept secert which will have heaven be judged and scrutinized by itself as well because clearly there is a issue because other heaven people HAVE fallen.

and just saying....Adam was apparently the one who brought up the idea...which could be just cuz he was bored and it was a growing issue and much like lucifer he saw there was shame in them and that there was a mercy in ending their endless suffering....

but....considering adam was the first human to enter heaven it seems...but abel isn't there despite being the first one murdered...and it doesn't seem like adam's wife eve is up there....

what if Adam concocted a plan to get worse and worse as time went on with the plan to fall or get killed by going down to hell so he could look for eve or abel? since heaven is always watching...actually making a concrete plan would be a bit difficult when everyone in heaven you can't justify hurting...but it can be easier if you tap into bitterness or negativity toward hell as a outlit but making it about 'fun' something more lighthearted could get past the angel's wrath meter or something.

just seems suspicious that lilith and adam were in cohoots and somehow Sir Pentious was redeemed you know?

also another theory....considering Adam was actually offered the fruit first and refused and they went through eve with the idea to also get to adam...what if lilith and lucifer wanted BOTH Eve and Adam with them?

and while Adam and Lilith are equals with strong personalities it makes sense they would clash so I don't think Adam was being inherently sexists in the begining....but I do wonder if eve being made from his rib...if maybe lilith and lucifer wanted to shift the power imbalance since she wasn't made from the same stuff lilith was by giving her knowledge...but it was actually her punishment after to follow Adam's lead more and Adam was punished for not stopping it...showing the issues of one being more sub-servant to the other which did seem to help problems spread in the rest of humanity from this unequal dynamic even if compartmentalizing what you do well can help people survive together...which Eve and Adam had to so after being kicked out of Eden....

What if Adam maybe respawns to hell to deal with a secondary route of redemption to learn issues with how he's been handling his feelings since his death.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

also just throwing this out there...but most of the sexist stuff didn't get invented til WAY later. Adam and Eve had to survive of the outside as the first family so while Adam definitly seems sexist now....

anyone else feel like Adam almost says all that without REALLY understanding what it means...like he knows it upsets people and gets a reaction...but he gives off the energy of both a kid not quite knowing what he is saying but going all in...and a old man using new slang terms from the hip kiddos...and it would kindof interesting if Adam DID come back if he was actually admitted or pointed out alot of the modern lady stuff vs guy stuff is kindof arbitrary and not invented back in his day because both him and Eve had to cook and work together. like the pink being girls with blue being guys thing that keeps switching in the centuries even though its just a color and has different means that people project on to it.

like Adam clearly is into modern sexism to some degree now which definitely needs to be adressed...but there is also wiggleroom cuz what if he's just being a dick on purpose and knows it'll get under the skin...like someone reaching for the lowest hanging fruit to get the reaction they want no matter what it is...and dude screams over compensating to hide hurt and fears where he will lie to himself and others til he believes it. putting on a 'mask' if you will.

just kind of want to see the sexist asshole rip someone else apart for being sexist logically using things from his own life to back it up.

[yuexuan]

[Review]惊悚练习生

Title: 惊悚练习生 Thriller trainee

Author: 妄鸦

Length: 251 chapters + 8 extras

Tag: transmigration, infinite flow, horror

Summary [taken from novel updates]:

The washed-up magician Zong Jiu transmigrated into a horror, infinite flow novel about a survival show, taking the place of the cannon fodder who died tragically in the first evaluation round. This show was very interesting. Out of the tens of thousands of people, only a hundred people could survive, and the c-position (strongest contender) could even get a universal wish ticket.

If it were someone else, they’d probably be scared to death.

No one expected that Zong Jiu was not only unafraid, but also caused a sensational stir, shamelessly showing off his tricks the whole way.

Once his tricks stopped, and his life could be considered safe and sound, he ended up in a rivalry with the novel’s big villain.

Today you try to get at me, tomorrow I’ll get you back, back and forth, it’s pretty fun, heh.

As a result, though it was just playing around, one time they got carried away and really did end up sleeping together. Watching the nemesis who was pressing him to the ground, Zong Jiu lazily lifted his gaze. “If you want to kill me then kill me, don’t speak nonsense.” Even when at a disadvantage, he showed no trace of fear, and actually continued to provoke him.

That person used his ice-cold finger to trace his ear, and the action heading toward the aorta suddenly stopped.

“What a pity. I’ve changed my mind.”

—

He was once very willing to personally give Zong Jiu death. Every day, he used to regret not gouging out his flesh, personally snapping his neck. But after this person fell into his hands, another, more urgent desire grew like weeds.

Compared to winning or losing, he would rather see him crying and panting, with eyes red, begging for mercy.

Novel | Novel [translated]

Comments **contain spoilers**:

The summary pretty much covers the gist of the novel. The main couple has an enemy-to-lover dynamic, with the MC being a cool and stoic world-class magician, whilst the ML being a cunning devil. On the surface, the two of them are arch nemesis, but beneath it all, they are pretty much the same type of person, seeking the thrills within each horror show.

Highlights:

The tension between the main couple is solid. ML is constantly trying to create troubles for MC and MC is constantly thinking outside-of-the-box to beat ML’s games. As the no. 1 trainee and ‘trainer’, ML has the ability to control any trainee and NPC of his choice, sending them to obstruct MC’s progress. Fortunately, MC received a stack of tarot cards that enabled him to seek out the characters that were controlled. The entire plot revolves around the two of them playing a figurative game of chess, until their enmity eventually evolves into something more hehe.

As with many infinite flow stories, worldbuilding is always a highlight. I liked how there were more ‘relaxing’ games after each ‘show’, where the trainees were allowed to rest or bet their lives on additional rewards. Out of all these games, I particularly liked the amusement park arc where MC befriended the monsters/ghosts and received their assistance in winning the game. It was kinda sweet watching the monsters/ghosts feeling happy interacting with the trainees.

Another unique aspect is that there were shows where trainees had to work together to survive. For example, the arc where they had to pass exams in a school was particularly touching when members of the 9th class sacrificed themselves to ensure the survival of the rest of the class ):

Aside from the main pairing, I also liked the second pairing a lot - watching them go from F-tier trainees to A-tier trainees through their hard work was so sweet and I wished there were more moments of them together.

Things I didn’t like:

This novel reminded me a lot of <这该死的求生欲>, where the main pairing also had an enemy-to-lover dynamic and ML was one of the bosses. More importantly, the writing style also reeks of chūnibyō from time to time. The way the novel described the interactions between the main couple and their appearances can come off as very immature-ish haha. That said, it does get better in the latter half of the story, especially after the two realized that they had special feelings for one another.

[buyumeacademy]

Where to Get the Best Root Touch-Ups in Faridabad

Keeping your hair color fresh is no easy task, especially when those roots start showing up! Whether you're maintaining a bold color, covering grays, or simply blending in your natural hair, a root touch-up can make all the difference. If you’re in Faridabad and looking for the best salons to handle your hair color, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s a guide to the top salons in Faridabad that specialize in root touch-ups, ensuring your hair always looks flawless.

Manohar Hair Salon

What to Expect: Seamless blending and detailed work.

Why You’ll Love It: With a reputation for precise and careful work, Manohar Hair Salon is a favorite in Faridabad. The stylists here are experts at making your root touch-up blend perfectly with your existing hair color. No harsh lines or mismatched shades—just smooth, natural-looking hair.

Extra Perks: The salon offers a welcoming environment, making your visit not only effective but also enjoyable. Plus, their affordable pricing ensures you can keep coming back without breaking the bank.

Manohar Hair Salon is a great spot if you’re looking for high-quality service with a personal touch. Your hair will thank you!

Hair Biz Salon

What to Expect: Premium products and personalized care.

Why You’ll Love It: If you’re someone who values quality products and top-tier service, Hair Biz Salon is the place for you. They use premium hair color products that not only cover your roots flawlessly but also nourish your hair. Whether you’re going for a natural look or something more vibrant, the stylists here ensure your roots are perfectly touched up.

Extra Perks: The relaxing atmosphere at Hair Biz Salon makes every visit a pleasure. You’ll leave not only with a fresh color but also feeling pampered and rejuvenated.

This salon is perfect for those who want a luxurious experience and long-lasting results.

New Face One Salon

What to Expect: Precision work in a luxurious setting.

Why You’ll Love It: Looking for a salon that combines expert root touch-ups with a bit of indulgence? New Face One Salon is known for its attention to detail, ensuring that your roots are touched up with the utmost care. They work with all hair types and colors, making sure the end result is flawless every time.

Extra Perks: The calming environment at New Face One Salon makes your appointment feel more like a mini-retreat. It’s a perfect spot for those who want to treat themselves while taking care of their hair.

Enjoy a top-tier service with a touch of luxury at New Face One Salon.

Ganesh Beauty Parlour

What to Expect: Affordable services without sacrificing quality.

Why You’ll Love It: Ganesh Beauty Parlour is a go-to for many Faridabad residents who want great results without spending a fortune. This salon is known for its budget-friendly prices, but that doesn’t mean they cut corners. The stylists here are skilled in delivering precise root touch-ups, ensuring that your hair looks fresh and polished.

Extra Perks: With high-quality products and a friendly atmosphere, Ganesh Beauty Parlour makes maintaining your hair color both easy and enjoyable.

If affordability and quality are what you’re after, Ganesh Beauty Parlour has you covered.

Big Boss Beauty Hub

What to Expect: Professional service with a modern vibe.

Why You’ll Love It: Big Boss Beauty Hub is a top choice in Faridabad for those who want professional-grade root touch-ups. The salon offers a wide range of hair services, and the stylists here are experienced in handling various hair colors and types. They make sure your roots blend seamlessly with the rest of your hair, leaving you with a smooth, even color.

Extra Perks: The salon’s modern and comfortable environment is perfect for those who want a relaxing yet professional experience. Big Boss Beauty Hub also offers a variety of other services, making it a one-stop shop for all your hair care needs.

For professional service in a chic setting, Big Boss Beauty Hub won’t disappoint.

Buyume Salon Finder: Book Your Appointment with Ease

Tired of calling around to different salons trying to book an appointment? Let Buyume Salon Finder take care of it for you. This platform makes it easy to find and book appointments at top salons in Faridabad. Whether you’re planning a visit to Manohar Hair Salon or Hair Biz Salon, you can browse reviews, compare services, and schedule your root touch-up—all online.

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Why Regular Root Touch-Ups Matter

It’s easy to overlook root touch-ups, especially when your hair color still looks great from a distance. But roots can sneak up on you, and before you know it, your color starts to look uneven. Regular root touch-ups are essential to maintaining that polished, put-together look. They help keep your hair looking fresh, healthy, and consistent.

Not only do root touch-ups keep your hair color looking flawless, but they also contribute to the overall health of your hair. With the right products and techniques, your hair will stay vibrant and shiny, ensuring that you always look your best.

The salons mentioned here—Manohar Hair Salon, Hair Biz Salon, New Face One Salon, Ganesh Beauty Parlour, and Big Boss Beauty Hub—all offer top-notch root touch-up services that keep your hair looking its best.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right salon for root touch-ups can make all the difference in keeping your hair color fresh and vibrant. Whether you’re looking for luxury, affordability, or a mix of both, Faridabad has some of the best salons to meet your needs.

And with the help of Buyume Salon Finder, booking your appointment is easier than ever. So why wait? Keep your hair color looking flawless with a root touch-up at one of these top Faridabad salons.

[openingpandorasbox1]

FACEBOOK CULL

FACEBOOK CULL

                I have decided to do a cull on my Facebook. I would rather have a small group of people on my Facebook than have a large number of people who are questionable. When I say cull, I mean cull on Facebook as well as real life. My safety and emotional health needs to be a priority. I only want genuine people in my life who are decent and good people.

I am on the internet at least once a day for an hour or so and I use the internet to do things that I enjoy, photos of friends, family, cats, history stuff, and music. just want to use Facebook and feel comfortable using it without feeling concerned.

                I don’t cull people that often, but at the moment after everything that has happened, I feel it’s the best thing to do. I’ve had people online who have been nicer to me than some of the friends and family I’ve had in life. I treat everyone with respect and kindness, but that doesn’t give them a free pass to mistreat me. In truth, there are a lot of assholes out there and I haven’t had the best people around me. I don’t care what people post on Facebook, as long as they aren’t bullying, abusive, or harassing me or somebody else. If someone is bullying, being abusive, or harassing me or another person, they got to go.

                Sharons’ boyfriend has abused me over the years and Sharon would often witness it and would be okay with it which enabled the abuse. She’s a flying monkey or perhaps Keith is the flying monkey. I hate people who belittle others in order to feel good about themselves - they are the dipshits of the world. Sharon has been nice and not-nice to me over the years. I often forgave her for things she wasn’t even sorry for. Whenever she was cruel I would get annoyed with it but would later let it go (and then it would happen again). It was usually always me who goes out of my way to contact friends and organize catch ups and I’m exhausted as a result. I won’t be doing that anymore. I said to Autumn once, “If it wasn’t for me contacting them, I would never hear from them” and when I finally did stop, that did come true. I usually would only hear from Sharon when it was her birthday and she wanted people to go out to celebrate her birthday with her. Sharon does have a good side and I don’t want to stop being friends with Sharon, but I never hear from her and her boyfriend has done wrong to me and she stands by him.

                I’ve always had to do hard work in these friendships and it’s been hard work, I’m exhausted and I don’t want to continue going out of my way for people just to get treated with disdain. It’s not worth it. Ever since I stopped associating with Keith (which was years ago) I hear and see less of Sharon, which wasn’t much in the first place. I haven’t had anything to do with Keith for about 2 or 3 years now. I regret tolerating BS from a lot of people, it’s time to bring change in my life and cut out all the BS. I’m constantly surrounded by feral-type people with their feral-type behavior, I don’t want to be around that. People like that scare me and I can’t relate to them. I’ve walked away from everybody’s bullshit and I have no regrets.

                I have to cut out people in my life who are toxic. If that means being left with nobody in my life, then so be it. I was always felt like I was on my own, even when I was surrounded by people. I have to acknowledge it and make decisions for my own well-being. I was sacrificing my own emotional health to keep people in my life and obviously.

                Keith isn’t on my Facebook as I have deleted him years and years ago but I still had Sharon as a friend on Facebook. Sharon is a lurker on Facebook, a ghost, she pretends she is never online and often vocalizes the fact that she never uses Facebook and she pretends she never uses the internet. However, whenever I have seen her in real life, she will often tell me how she’s seen all these posts on Facebook, what I’ve posted, what other people have posted and how she’s been looking up particular people (from our past) and telling me all about them (insults of course). Her kids have also vocalized more than one time that their mother is always online. She will tell people she never uses Facebook, but 10 minutes later, she will start telling us everything she’s seen on Facebook and has a source of information to relay about what she has seen on Facebook over the past few months. For somebody who spends no time on Facebook, she has seen a lot on Facebook and she often spends her time looking up other people. Even Keith has told us how Sharon is always online and on Facebook. She will never LIKE anything, even if she tells us in person that she liked something we posted. She also won’t comment on anything even though she wants to talk about it the next time she sees us in person. She lurks and I have always found that to be a little creepy and unusual. If I bump into her by accident she will mention something that I or someone had posted just recently. Once I posted a group photo of me and my friends (I didn’t tag anybody in the photo), and this photo included her and minutes after I had posted it she sent me a message from her Facebook account and asked me to remove it because she didn’t like the way she looked in the photo. I didn’t have a problem with removing it (I did remove it), but for someone who is never on Facebook, she seems to notices something straight away.

                She says one thing and does another, it doesn’t add up, and it’s hard to trust people who behave that way. I think she only tells people she doesn’t use Facebook or she hasn’t got time for the internet just to be pretentious. She wants people to think she’s above them. She pretends she cares about privacy, but she lurks people all the time and looks up to other people who we don’t have anything to do with anymore. It’s extremely contradictory. She has told me numerous times, whenever I see her she will inform me about someone she’s looked up to on Facebook and will tell me about how old and awful they look now, and then she will laugh. I know she uses the internet because she keeps telling me she is on this video thing with Charlie Sheen’s ex-girlfriend, she has no time for her friends but she’s got time to hang out with Charlie Sheen’s ex-girlfriend online. She says she never spends time on the internet, but in the next sentence, she will tell me how she’s always on video chats, “it’s the way of the future” she told me. Even though Sharon doesn’t post photos online, videos and doesn’t use video chat.

                Sharon and I had a private group online that we would use to write messages to one another, it was rarely used (of course), it was just like messenger but we used the group instead because we found it easier. She wrote me a message on it and I would write back within the week and would give her support. I had been going through a difficult time myself, a close family member of mine had been rushed to hospital and had to undergo emergency surgery and I was worried about that. It was during this time he was in the hospital that I wrote to her and let her know what was going on. In groups you can see if someone had seen your message, Facebook indicated that she had seen it but she never replied. Five months later I heard from her again and told me she had never seen my message, which didn’t make sense. She also replied to me under my message that I did leave her. She wrote that she never saw it (even though she wrote underneath it) and didn’t acknowledge anything that I had written to her. I read it, but I didn’t reply to her message straight away because I didn’t think she would see it straight away, I mean, she never uses Facebook right? However a few days later, I got a snappy message from Sharon inquiring why I haven’t replied to her message after three days, I thought that was odd. She takes a months and even a year before she contacts me, and she’s upset with me after not replying to her message after three days. There was nothing urgent in the message she sent me to make me think that it required an immediate reply. I wrote the last message in September 2016 and she didn’t care to reply, even though she demanded my reply instantly and that was 7 months ago. So I thought, “Fuck it” and I deleted the group. Occasionally she will contact me on my birthday and I contact her on her birthday, but that’s about it. I don’t even hear from her on my birthday anymore. I’m sick of going out of my way for people when they don’t care about going out of their way for me.

                I like Facebook because I have a lot of hobbies and interests and I also like good and genuine people. I follow a lot of pages and groups for that reason, I love music the most. I like people, good people, not the assholes. Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of assholes in real life; most of the people I’ve had online have been pretty decent. People always say that you have to be careful when interacting with people on the internet, which is true. However, I’ve found that I’ve had better experiences with people on the internet than I have had in real life. I’ve had too many toxic people in real life, throughout my life. I have come across toxic people online as well (people who I don’t know in real life) but I’ve come across a lot less toxic individuals online than I have in real life. Most of the people who have caused trouble to me online are the toxic people I’ve known in real life. I’ve had too many toxic people in my circle, at school, in friendship groups, and even family members.

                I don’t want to waste time on those who think they are better than other people, who look their nose down on other people and feel that they are somehow superior. I don’t like conceited people. I’ve come across too many passive-aggressive people who feel that they are self-important. I’m over friends who expect me to carry the weight of the friendship around and put little effort in themselves. I really wish I could be cold and heartless like them but I’m not.

                I don’t mind if people are busy, I just want people who are genuine in my life and not fake, not pretending. I’ve gone through some heavy shit through life, and I just want real people, genuine people, trustworthy good-intentioned people. I like people, just not the people who cause trouble and who are cruel. I just want real friends and good people in my life. I’m over the pretenders.

                It’s just time to cull the toxic people out of my life and get on with it.

[hopeled]

back at it again in the pain mines!! does a backflip and falls through the floor. so for this fun fragmemoria event, ritsuka will be experiencing something along the same lines of what she did in LOSTBELT 1, after Ivan had unveiled what destroying a Lostbelt entails exactly. a lack of direction, of feeling disconnected from her very self

the count of m//onte cr/sto: more specifically, what he means to her, the times he's saved her and the moments between them. all of that? gone. zilch. the only thing ritsuka recalls of the shadowy avenger is that he is an Avenger and a Servant of Chaldea as well as Saber's most recent warning to her. now, Ritsuka being Ritsuka, is always one to give others the benefit of the doubt but Saber's warning is what Ritsuka thinks explains that sudden hole she feels at the thought of him . and yet, there's a part of her that yearns for some reason but it's dangerous. after all, with the recent reveal about Marisbury, how can she be sure anymore?

original mistified run: more specifically, her death during the first run of that event. her death had a huge impact on her (she still gets nightmares about it from time to time) but now that memory is going to be gone, as well as all the fear and pain she felt from it and those two weeks in the Abyss. the only memory of injury from the mists she'll have is from the recent run where she had been stabbed by Lancer's spear

various encounters throughout part 2. there are many people who have had an impact on ritsuka and helped shaped how she approaches her role and herself throughout arc 2. the memories themselves remain but the people and their faces are gone. patxi, asha, gerda, macarios & adele, hope, teppue-- she remembers being with someone but can't remember their faces or names, their voices.

and all of this will be by-products of the one vital core piece

her reason to fight. why is she doing this? why is she putting her body through this? for what purpose is she sacrificing so much for? she knows the world is in danger. she knows that she's trying to fix it. she knows that the human order isn't letting her. but why? what even is her duty anymore? she never asked for this, to suffer all of this and there is this hole in her chest that has never been filled, only growing in size with each passing moment. she's questioning but also she knows that she....can't stop. but she wants to find out why she feels like this and why she has kept going desite that hole. as a result, ritsuka may be a bit more open with her anger, particularly in regards to herself. (why is nothing trying to save her? why is the world rejecting her? things like that)

[ghooostbaby]

deeeep dive into why and how wei wuxian and lan wangji love each other, complete each other, are the inverse reflection of each other’s deeply hidden internal selves mirrored through the other’s external self, lan wangji’s inner wildness that he has to conceal and protect recognizing and loving wei wuxian’s outer wildness, wei wuxian’s deep, fuddy-duddy morality and values that he conceals with an elaborate subterfuge of jokes, mischief, and bravado, seeing and loving in lan wangji the ability to say no that it was never safe for him to express directly, “between you and me there is no need for thank you and sorry”

oh and a slight diversion midway through into a manifesto on WEI WUXIAN IS NOT INSECURE the whole story is about a society where being liked is ESSENTIAL for survival and it is actually completely perilous not to be liked, and his “people pleasing” is a skill and tool for his survival especially as an orphan and proven to be a necessary one when he stops doing it and STOPS SURVIVING

after the cut discussing the very interesting dynamics of consent in general in the novel, but not going into the consensual non-consent kink stuff till the last paragraph if you need to avoid for any reason.

I've been thinking about how Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian the exterior, unfettered expression of the wildness Lan WangJi holds in him and protects with rigid codes of conduct, propriety and outward dignity.

I have had this sense that these two are mirrors, either one reflecting the hidden, interior (and unallowed) self of the other. but it seemed more clear from Lan WangJi's side, especially knowing about his history with his mother and the spicy side that emerges when he drinks and in the extras.

I also - just... the way this whole story shows how romantic love is truly this longing for your self, to become yourself, to become the thing you're not allowed to be, seeing in that person the expression of whatever it is you can't become and longing for it, protecting it, joining with it as closely as you can without ever being able to let it live inside your own body.

On the surface it seems a lot more difficult for Wei WuXian to find a piece of his soul in Lan Wangji. I think its a bit too simplistic to see whatever draws Wei WuXian to Lan Wangji as a reverse-psychology sort of craving of acceptance from the only one who won't give it, pushing and pushing against this impenetrable boundary that he needs to break to feel assurance that no matter what he can make anyone accept him.

And he is SO drawn - in a mind boggling way, in the teenage flashbacks Lan WangJi rudely and aggressively throws him off over and over and Wei WuXian cannot keep away! Even when he talks about how boring Lan WangJi is, he never stops trying to be around him and talk to him.

I've seen discussions of the way Wei WuXian has always relied on the goodwill of others to survive, and that his placating of others to survive is a character flaw. Although that seems only halfway true. 

As a young child he didn't have anyone's goodwill for a while and he survived, and it seems like he can always find a way to survive from whatever means and sometimes very limited resources he has at his disposal. Doing what he has to do to become powerful enough to survive losing his core and being thrown into the burial mounds slowly costs him the goodwill of everyone around him - and what happens to him as a result shows how much placation was a truly necessary for someone without the protection of biological/hereditary family bonds.

(Don’t get me started on how his loss of his golden core and his development of demonic cultivation to give himself power by ‘unnatural methods’ through the use of a musical instrument is a metaphor for disability and the way ableist society sees the use of accessibility devices and tools. Actually please DO get my started haha.)

Wei WuXian is so charismatic and seems very used to getting what he wants and needs on the strength of that. He pushes a lot of boundaries and seems pretty confident and flexibly prepared to handle the consequences, whether beatings or harsh words. But he does work so hard to make others feel good, good with him, good with themselves.

When he is in the cave with Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian is described as "like one who forgets all past pain as soon as the wound heals". He can't resist coming up beside Lan WangJi and talking to him again and again after every time Lan WangJi pushes him off, only finally staying away when Lan WangJi bites him (and he still keeps trying to talk to him after a little bit!) and then calls him an awful person (!!! Bad Wangji! :(((( ). In the end, when Lan WangJi (very minimally) discloses what happened to his sect and his father, and even cries, because of all the defences/assaults Lan WangJi has put up Wei WuXian can't do anything or say anything to help and feels miserable.

Lan WangJi just absolutely refuses to allow Wei WuXian to take care of him - and I began to wonder maybe that’s what Wei WuXian actually really likes about him? Why he is unable to resist coming up to Lan WangJi again and again? Maybe because Lan WangJi refuses to let Wei WuXian appease him. He’s not trying to crack Lan WangJi to get to this impenetrable place of approval and acceptance. In a way he can’t quite understand, Lan WangJi is a respite for Wei WuXian from the constant work to be the one who pleases.

And  how different this is to how Wei WuXian is (or has to be) with Jiang Cheng when he wakes up in Lotus Pier after the cave. Jiang Cheng gets so down and really really needs Wei WuXian to do what he does so well (and wasn’t allowed to do with Lan WangJi) - chasing Jiang Cheng down while being injured and reassuring him about all his insecurities about his father's acceptance and becoming a sect leader and Wei WuXian's own abilities excelling his - and at first Jiang Cheng is pushing him away, but he really does need Wei WuXian to do all this to feel better.

Wei WuXian is described as not wanting to be lonely, and not wanting to see other people unhappy, and he keeps trying to push and pull with whatever he has to not be lonely and lift the mood for those around him. I don't think it's a kind of codependency or insecurity. It’s not that Wei WuXian is afraid to say no, in fact I would say he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do, but he must always do it creatively, with humour. Similarly to Nie Huaisang, he uses a persona of foolishness to give himself a covert agency.

I also think I'm writing this because I don't like seeing this discussed as a sad bean character flaw for him to always need to be liked - its a strategy, its a tool, its how he survives and excels. Doesn’t the whole story prove how essential being liked is to a human’s survival? And he is so so good at being liked, in making others happy, even when he is refusing to do what others want from him that he doesn't want to do, he does it in a way that deflects criticism, with a smiling bravado that never says what it truly means and has people writing him off as shameless or foolish or just endearing himself toward them despite themselves.

He is always at work really, with jokes and flattery or mischief and teasing, to get the resources he wants and needs. Case and point, when he makes a big coquettish show for mianmian, definitely not being "people pleasing" for her, but the group of girls around them all find it funny and cute and in the end she gives him a perfume sachet which ends up being a valuable resource for later. Or the time he outright tells Jiang Cheng that if you give the girls some lotus seeds they'll remember you and return the favour in the future. (Also notice how his interactions with girls seen as flirtatious are actually strategic resource-gathering acts.) These are the skills he has developed to meet his own needs. (THIS IS NOT A CHARACTER FLAW. I REPEAT.) He takes what he needs and steals from the Lotus Pier markets knowing it'll be paid for, he lives like he never know when his next windfall will come from so he'll take what he can when he can find it. Like Jiang Fengmian said, if there is no guarantee of a meal in the future then today's meal should still be enjoyed. It’s how Wei WuXian said to Nie Huaisang at Cloud Recesses, you have to find ways to make your own fun out of whatever you have. So he gets kicked out of class, goes fishing, gets alcohol, he pursues his own pleasure. He actually is quite insistent of his own agency and right to choose, he just can never directly say no.

And that little detail that Wei WuXian always tucks coins into his clothes just in case, that makes him able to buy food when he and Jiang Cheng are on the run... breaks my heart and reveals so much about the way Wei WuXian is constantly at work on ensuring his own survival and never takes for granted whether he is safe (he knows he never is). 

I've seen some people talking about Wei WuXian sacrificing so much for his brother and sister out of a need to be accepted out of a chronic sense of insecurity. But isn’t this just true? Doesn't he live in a world where being accepted is absolutely essential for survival? Doesn’t this whole story show the cruelty of a social system based on networks of hereditary/biological family that closes out and scapegoats any outsiders, and that without biological family connections that can enclose around you, you can never truly be safe if not constantly working to earn acceptance? (And then beautifully ends with the way a gay romantic relationship that queers marriage/family/etc disrupts all this and creates safety and inclusion for Wei WuXian without needing a normative family.) (AKA romantic love does not resolve some internal personal problem in Wei WuXian but disrupts and refuses and rebels against the problem of SOCIETY.) (*breathes heavily*)

And that’s why Lan WangJi is magnetizing to Wei WuXian. Lan WangJi is always saying no. Although what Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian is an exterior wildness, Wei WuXian is not really out of control so much as he is playing and caring and supplicating and showing off and pleasing people to get the resources and the acceptance he needs to live his life. He has firm values and desires that he can never outwardly state, only creatively spinning plates to distract and deflect while he refuses what goes against his values, protects who he cares for, or takes what he needs to in order to survive/thrive. Lan WangJi embodies an exterior of resoluteness and direct agency that Wei WuXian doesn't have the luxury of. And he's so drawn to him for his ability to repeatedly say no, to refuse to get along, or make others laugh, make other people happy, but just simply follow what he thinks is right.

Wei WuXian’s outward wild movement protects an inward stillness. He is an exterior of people-pleasing around an interior of refusal. He is an exterior of youthful rebellion around an interior of unflinching morality. He sees in Lan WangJi the outward expression of his stillness, his morality, his resistance that he can't express, that he's had to protect.

FYI after the cut gets more into the dynamics of consent in the story, and the last paragraph directly talks about consensual non-consent kink play in wangxian’s relationship.

When Wei WuXian is with Lan WangJi, there is no work to be done. Lan WangJi cannot be swayed by him, and so there's no point vying for resources or favors. Lan WangJi will either give him everything or refuse him everything based on who he is, it does not matter what Wei WuXian does and he can't do anything that will change Lan WangJi’s mind. Someone he literally can't win over. After the resurrection, they are often in an adorable tug of war, where Wei WuXian tries to take care of Lan WangJi, while Lan WangJi won't allow him to but demands to care of Wei WuXian right back. Actually, Lan WangJi insists that Wei WuXian take everything he wants or needs from him and is even angry when he doesn't take or when Wei WuXian tries to offer a gesture in return, even something as simple as a thank you Lan WangJi won't accept. It’s kind of adorable how frustrated Wei WuXian is in doing this thing he's learned that he needs to do, and just... so confused by Lan WangJi, and has to find a way to please this person who aggressively refuses to be pleased and is ONLY pleased by Wei WuXian being pleased.

(Not to mention the way Wei WuXian delights in finding that Lan WangJi can’t say what he wants, and they have sort of these chaotic cohesive both-being-so-pleased-by-working-hard-to-please each-other moments where Wei WuXian is letting Lan WangJi please him by finding out what pleases Lan WangJi and giving it to him.)

The wildness Lan WangJi had always hidden within himself is something he sees as just as dangerous as Wei WuXian thinks of his desire to refuse. He saw his mother be socially alienated, shunned, and eventually die because of her wildness. His ability to survive in the world, aka to be accepted by his family, is contingent on him being able to control this inner wildness. From a young age (re: Phoenix Mountain kiss) he could only understand his sexual desires for Wei WuXian as something repulsive or dangerous that had to be repressed and controlled, and that the only way he could imagine his desires as possible was as non-consensual. His secret gay desires were never available to him as anything but something monstrous.

Importantly, it’s not like everyone else other than Lan WangJi are all vampires cruelly demanding Wei WuXian’s constant sacrifice. Wei WuXian is always vibrantly, charismatically offering so much, before anyone has asked. It’s Wei WuXian who creates this kind of relationship for himself again and again. It’s Lan WangJi who simply refuses - he refuses to charmed, to be cared for. And so in the end Lan WangJi becomes the one person who Wei WuXian feels doesn't need anything from him. When he says he's eating the corpse's fruit to save Lan WangJi money and Lan WangJi says that will never be necessary. Or when Wei WuXian asks what toy he should win for Lan WangJi at the market game, and Lan WangJi says anything Wei WuXian gets will be the one he wants. (XD stahhhhp it’s too sweet !!!) He really just wants Wei WuXian to be, to exist, to spend his life discovering his own desires and allow Lan WangJi to help satisfy them, he doesn't want anything from Wei WuXian other than him living - happy and safe.

It takes someone like Lan WangJi to refuse Wei WuXian’s aggressive generosity, it’s definitely not an easy thing to say no to Wei WuXian, dazzling or annoying people so chaotically before they even realize there’s something to say no to. The sacrifice he gives to Jiang Cheng, he never even offers a choice - and perhaps it would have been too much for Jiang Cheng to accept if he had the chance.

Lan WangJi’s statement "Between us there is no need for thank you and sorry" seems like one of the most important sentences in the novel, and you can’t help but noticed the way “sorry” and “thank you” is littered meaningfully through the book. What is owed, what the characters owe to each other, the give and take, touches every part of the story (down to wangxian's erotic explorations!).

When Jiang Cheng talks to Wei WuXian at the Guanyin temple he makes a lot of contradictory statements about what Wei WuXian owes, what he was given, what he took, what he (Wei WuXian still) is owed in return. Wei WuXian, according to Jiang Cheng, took everything from the Jiang clan, and paid them back with their deaths. The Jiang clan give him his life when they took him in, and he owed Jiang Cheng service for the rest of his life as the right hand to the sect leader, that’s what Wei WuXian had promised anyway. At the same time, Wei WuXian sacrificed everything (his golden core) to Jiang Cheng, by giving everything he was taking one more thing - Jiang Cheng’s right to even be angry at him. Jiang Cheng had taken everything from Wei WuXian. Everything that happened around Wei WuXian after could be said to be because of the loss of his golden core, which Jiang Cheng might be said to be responsible for. But he never asked for it, maybe he never would have wanted it. He wishes Wei WuXian told him, but Jiang Cheng never told Wei WuXian his golden core was melted while he was sacrificing himself to save Wei WuXian. He wants Wei wuxian to say sorry, but that makes him feel pathetic. And Jiang Cheng says sorry too. It’s a mess of paradoxes, and in the end somehow it seems like the scales are balanced in the most hollow, dismal way.

What is owed, what is given, what is taken ... Wei WuXian has never been part of a family. He has always had to say thank you and sorry for everything he's taken. Wei WuXian himself admits that he used "thank you" as a way to enforce distance between himself and Lan WangJi. Lan WangJi's point i think is that they belong to each other, Wei WuXian is his, and he is Wei WuXian's, unconditionally. The way that Jiang Cheng speaks of him in the Guanyin temple (admittedly I read a fan translation and this is very nuanced, related to slight variations of grammar), even when Jiang Cheng clearly is so broken by the loss of Wei WuXian from his life, he talks about Wei WuXian as an outsider. It is what MY family gave to YOU, never what you took from our family. But at one point Wei WuXian was part of their family - but he takes too much, and becomes an ex-disciple, not a brother. Wei WuXian’s inclusion as a Jiang was always conditional. 

Even when Wen Qing and Wen Ning leave him to go take the blame for qiongqing path they tell him "thank you and sorry", drawing a line between them and him, so he doesn’t even belong to these people who he sacrificed everything for. The way Wei WuXian acted when he was younger, he was always keenly aware of this - he always knew that he didn’t belong to anyone, no one is going to protect him unconditionally. And after first escaping the Burial Mounds, he is done pretending. When Lan WangJi warns him about what a demonic cultivation path will do to his heart, Wei WuXian replies: “After all, on the topic of how my heart is, what could other people know about it? Why should other people care about it?” He is done pleasing. Nothing has changed really, he still belongs to no one and is alone, but now he is angry about it, and instead of saying thank you and sorry he is going to become too powerful to be at anyone's mercy. And then we see in the story afterward what happens to people who don't say thank you and sorry.

The whole point I think is the impossibility of choice, the impossibility of consent in this society. If he didn't forgo the behaviour his social acceptance was conditional on, he wouldn't have survived the burial mounds. But once he becomes powerful enough to survive and get revenge on the Wens, he is socially outcast. Except he was already outcast from the beginning.

And so how do Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi find a way through all that to a life together where all their desires are possible, where Wei WuXian can say no while also being pleasing (safe) to others, and Lan WangJi can indulge in his wild desires while still being good? The answer is kinky sex!

It is kind of miraculous and beautiful how Wei WuXian finds a way to say no, while simultaneously pleasing Lan WangJi, giving pleasure, while taking it, saying no, and knowing his refusal is not just tolerated, but gives Lan WangJi pleasure, knowing Lan wangji and knowing the painful belief Lan WangJi holds within that his desires are unacceptable and unspeakable, and that Wei WuXian can take care of Lan Wangji in a secret little way and please him and give everything to him by craving this wildness in Lan WangJi while at the same time he gets to say no again and again , and it won't push Lan WangJi away, he can refuse everything while at the same time be totally pleasing and thus safe, and also for Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian's pleasure at saying "no" while still being held onto, that he genuinely wants to be fucked even while begging Lan WangJi to stop (and the many ways he does give his consent for this throughout, especially their first time), allows Lan WangJi the ecstatic feeling that this idea that his sexual desires are only possible through force are not just something his lover forgives him for but something his lover is SO turned on by, and that he has consent for his fantasies of non-consent, Wei WuXian has the same fantasies from the other side, he is doing what he is supposed to while doing what he shouldn't, and actually these monstrous feelings in him allow him to take care of Wei WuXian in a way that he needs - that they both need - and all these impulses that are so wrong with Wei WuXian become very right and a way to do good. And they are just both so perfect and perfect for each other and I love them and I am so happy for them to have a long kinky life together.

[ahsoka-its-all-of-us]

whoops I had thoughts and broke myself with them so here, please enjoy

Slaves

Anakin hated slavery with such a passion that he was sure the Jedi Order would tell him it’s forbidden, if they found out. It didn’t stop him from killing every Zygerrian he came across, if he could. Every slaver deserved to pay for what they did, to his mother, to him. To his friends back on Tatooine, who would suddenly disappear or lose their parents or siblings, sold off to a new owner.

People were people, not property.

He had been furious with Obi-Wan for not letting him burn the entire planet of Zygerria to the ground after their mission there. He was furious with the entire Jedi Order for not taking action, with the Republic for comfortably allowing the status quo to continue.

When Rex told him of Slick’s betrayal, he dismissed it as a misguided action at first. But as the war progressed, he started thinking of the clone more and more. Looking around at how his fellow Jedi treated their soldiers.

It sickened him.

It sickened him how distant Luminara treated them. How everyone was happy Ahsoka rescued Plo, but nobody seemed to care about all the clones that perished in Trench’s attack. How the Jedi scolded him for killing Dooku when so often they willingly sacrificed their men for the greater good. He would be kicked out of the Order if they ever found how he had slaughtered the Tusken Raiders that took his mother, but they conveniently overlooked how they were responsible of the slaughtering of countless clones themselves.

He didn’t condone a betrayal like Slick’s. But Rex’s casual mention of how clones were bred for combat, and how desertion – not betrayal, desertion – would result in court-martial, made his blood boil. The clones were created with the sole purpose of doing the Republic’s bidding, of fighting in a conflict they had no stakes in, pawns in a war they couldn’t choose to participate in. The clones were little more than slaves, and the Jedi conveniently looked the other way whenever someone tried to address it.

He treated them differently. In the 501st, every clone was allowed a name, a personality, and he knew them all and stood beside them as an equal, not a master. He celebrated their victories and mourned their deaths, insisting that each and every victim be buried honourably and attending every burial personally.

The Jedi’s insistence that he let go of his attachment to his mother had cost her her life, and he would not allow that to happen to anyone else. The clones under his command would not be slaves of a cold and distant master, but free men, choosing to stand with him.

Anakin Skywalker may be dead, but Darth Vader was no different in this regard. And it was with murderous feelings that he burst into the Emperor’s office, lightsaber in hand.

“YOU’RE GETTING RID OF THE CLONES?!?” he shouted – except that with his new voice modulator the words didn’t come out quite as fiercely as he had intended.

Palpatine turned around in his chair. “Lord Vader” he said calmly. “The war is over. There is no need for them to fight anymore.”

Vader lowered his lightsaber, but didn’t deactivate it yet. “What’s going to happen to them?”

“They have been offered the chance to retire” Palpatine said. “Some are choosing to voluntarily stay in the military, but it is no longer their duty.”

Wooosh, there went the red blade. “You’re freeing them?”

Palpatine got up from his chair. “I remember your complaints about how the Jedi and the Republic treated the clones, Lord Vader. Our new Empire does not stand for slavery. The clones fought valiantly in the war, and chose the right side when the time came. They deserve to choose their future just as much as any other citizen of the Empire.”

“Yes, my Lord” Vader said, while deep within him that tiny remnant of Anakin Skywalker, those nagging doubts he was unable to squish, rejoiced. “I will personally see to their transfer into society.”

“Naturally” Palpatine replied as Vader walked away, giving that chuckle that sounded much colder since he had become Emperor.

[tartalitelle]

i like childe as a character but childe stans are really cringe most of the time. they’re always like ‘he’s just misunderstood hes not a bad guy’ but the thing is that he IS a bad guy and the whole misunderstood thing gets a little complicated.

i mean hes only like 20 and hes a psycho battle junkie war criminal clearly there’s gonna be underlying circumstances but to fully understand whether or not childe is really misunderstood, we gotta go back in time to when he was a literal child. we don’t get to really see childe’s past but his character stories do give us a fair amount of information. young childe (ajax) was apparently very timid until he fell into the abyss and was taught that being timid and weak would only get him killed. childe adapted his personality to enable him to survive in the abyss, and thats what got him in trouble when he came back to teyvat and didn’t know what to do with his newly developed violend tendencies. this is an instance where childe is truly misunderstood. his family doesn’t know what he experienced in the abyss to make him this way, partly because childe himself refused to speak of it. childe’s violent tendencies came about as a result of the trauma of his entire life being upended— thrown from the community of a quiet fishing village into the kill-or-be-killed environment of the abyss.

however, what happened in childes past doesn’t make him misunderstood in the present. he’s a fatui harbinger and his priority is to serve the tsaritsa before anything else. just because he wreaks a little more havoc than his job description requires doesn’t mean he’s not loyal. just by looking at him and seeing the fatui mask he wears, anyone would know that. the motivations for his actions are clear. one could argue that childe is ‘misunderstood’ by the ppl of liyue bc they think he killed rex lapis, which he didn’t, but he was GOING TO if zhongli hadnt faked his death first. and with osail, anyone who says that childe knew no one was going to get hurt is kidding themselves. The goal of summoning osail was to draw out the gnosis, but childe hints at knowing that the exuvia was all a big hoax, but if the point of that hoax was to expose childe and the tsaritsa’s plans, then someone other than the traveler would have been there to apprehend him. the only other explaination for using the exuvia as a prop is that the real rex lapis wanted to distance himself. childe would have known there was no guarantee that rex lapis would show himself and theres no way he could have predicted everything that went down with the adepti and ningguang sacrificing the jade chamber so in short: childe knew there was a high probability of people getting hurt and he just didn’t care. all this to say that childe acted to fulfill his mission issued by the tsaritsa, and even though things all worked out in the end, its clear that childe gas a general disregard for human life. it’s not that he doesn’t have emotions, as he clearly cares for his little siblings, and he’s also fairly attached to zhongli (as shown by the betrayal he feels upon learning that zhongli was rex lapis the whole time), but because of his experiences in the abyss and the fatui, violence is so engrained into him that it’s pretty much the only way he knows how to solve his problems.

in conclusion, childe stans, stop trying to justify childes actions, the fact that hes so unjustified in the violence he displays is part of what makes him such a good character. dont ruin him