#self love with shira

[lavend3r-stardust]

You don't really miss them. You just miss what they could've been and what they meant to your self esteem. You'll always be better when you realize you never needed them at all.

[numberoneradioheadfan]

When he gave a big goofy smile she couldn’t help but think that she wanted to make him smile like that again, it was quite endearing. “Well, you know what they say about great minds..” she mused playfully. “I just hope they appreciate my efforts to find an open window rather than scold me.” Shira chuckled softly, his presence and their banter melting away her previous anxiety. “But I guess they're too preoccupied with the commotion downstairs to notice us at all, so that’s good.”

“You’ve found the best one in the whole house so I’ll have to agree with that, you are pretty good at finding a hiding spot.” She concurred, smiling before she said “I’m Shira, by the way.” She found herself actually thankful to have someone to talk to so she thought she might as well go ahead and introduce herself properly.

“Unfortunately I can’t say I’ve seen a scraggly version of you here, I’m sorry.“ She said sincerely, her smile turning wry as she turned to face him “Seems like your brother is also a master of finding hiding spots.” She accepted the joint, bringing it to her lips to take a drag. Exhaling slowly, she released the smoke out of the open window, where it mingled with the crisp autumn air.

Silas was taken aback at what Shira said, considering it was exactly what he was thinking. He did a goofy smile, "That's exactly what I was thinking. I wonder what they're gonna think about you smoking in here." He said with a chuckle. There is a weird feeling knowing that the person you're with is having the same thoughts as you, Silas pondered. Like that feeling when you remember everyone is their own person with their own story, but so much closer and much more personal.

"I understand that completely, I've gotten used to parties like this but when I was younger I got pretty good at finding hiding spots." He said, empathising with her.

He looked at the offering in Shira's hand, looked back up to her face, shrugged and accepted the offer. It's been a while since he has smoked with a stranger, most of the parties he attends in New York had people passing around mirrored plates with a straw or a bag full of pills, this was much nicer in terms of atmosphere though. He took a drag, and leant his head back against the frame, having turned his body to face Shira properly. "I was actually looking for my brother, Silas. You know him? Scraggly hair, probably doing the exact same thing we are in another room" He asked, maybe she would know where he is. A part of Silas hoped she didn't, he was enjoying her company too much. He took another drag and handed it back to her.

[ruvviks]

PLEASE DO NOT TAG AS YOUR OWN OC.

Rafael is driven by his independence and his anger, fighting for what he believes in and deems right to free his people and return peace to Medici. But his tendency to push people away blurs the lines between selflessness and self-destruction, and his desperation for control greatly overshadows the true lack thereof— and it has turned his spark into an all-consuming forest fire, with no way to douse the flames. And everything burned, as promised. OC WEB WEAVE SERIES: RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ.

richard kadrey, aloha from hell // by eyedeeuhs // firestarter; torre florim // by gundula blumi // savannah brown, from 'closer baby closer' // leach; bones uk // ocean vuong, from 'to my father / to my future son' // by ysociety // maybe, i; des rocs // victoria chang, to love anyone // 'smoke and fire 1' by jennifer walton // burn; vorsa // vita sackville-west, from 'solitude' // by spelio // arsonist's lullabye; hozier // shira erlichman, from 'how to become a forest fire'

[gatheringbones]

[“One author of the Clinical Psychology Review article was Shira Maguen, a researcher who began to think about the moral burdens of warfare while counseling veterans at a PTSD clinic in Boston.

Like most Veterans Affairs psychologists, Maguen had been trained to focus on the aftershocks of fear-based trauma—IED blasts that ripped through soldiers’ Humvees, skirmishes that killed members of their unit. The link between PTSD and such “life-threat” events was firmly established. Yet in many of the cases she observed, the source of distress seemed to lie elsewhere: not in attacks by the enemy that veterans had survived, but in acts they had observed or carried out that crossed their own ethical lines.

Soldiers were not, of course, the only people who risked committing such transgressions. All of the counselors I interviewed at the Dade Correctional Institution struggled with inner conflicts related to horrifying things they’d witnessed but failed to prevent. What kind of person was she? Lovita Richardson wondered after seeing a prisoner bound to a chair get bludgeoned and not intervening to help him. “Why didn’t I do more?” Harriet Krzykowski asked herself after learning about the “shower treatment.” Many of the prison guards I’d interviewed had alluded to incidents where they’d done things they knew they shouldn’t, as when Bill Curtis slammed a man to the ground, nearly fracturing his skull. Moral injuries were an occupational hazard for anyone whose job involved “perpetrating, failing to prevent, or bearing witness to acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs.” For most dirty workers, that is.

Among the veterans she counseled, Maguen grew particularly interested in the emotional toll of killing, which was sanctioned in the military but not when defenseless civilians were involved. “I was hearing about experiences where people killed and they thought they were making the right decision,” she told me, “and then they found out there was a family in the car.” To find out how heavy the burden of killing was, Maguen began combing through the databases in which veterans of conflicts dating back to the Vietnam War were asked if they had killed someone while in uniform. In some cases, veterans were also asked whom they killed—combatants, prisoners of war, civilians. Maguen wanted to see if there might be a relationship between taking another life and debilitating consequences like alcohol abuse, relationship problems, outbursts of violence, PTSD. The results were striking: even when controlling for different experiences in combat, she found, killing was a “significant, independent predictor of multiple mental health symptoms” and of social dysfunction.

Later, when she started directing a mental health clinic at a VA hospital in San Francisco, Maguen convened groups where veterans came together and talked about the killing they had done. In the VA no less than in the military, this was a taboo subject, so much so that clinicians often referred to it euphemistically, if at all. To ease the tension, a scene from a documentary was shown at the beginning of each session in which a veteran said, “Out there, it’s either kill or be killed. Nothing can really prepare you for war.” Afterward, Maguen would ask the veterans in the room a series of questions about how killing had impacted their lives. Some reacted angrily. Others fell silent. But many seized the opportunity to talk about experiences they later told Maguen they had never spoken about with anyone, not even their spouses and family members, for fear of being judged.

The veterans in Maguen’s groups didn’t talk a lot about fear and hyperarousal, emotions linked to PTSD. Mostly, they expressed self-condemnation and guilt. “You feel ashamed of what you did,” one said. Others described feeling unworthy of forgiveness and love. The passage of time did little to diminish the depth of these feelings, Maguen found. Geographic distance didn’t lessen them much either. Maguen recounted the story of a pilot who was haunted by the bombs he had dropped on victims far below. What troubled him was, in fact, precisely his distance from them—that instead of squaring off against the enemy in a fair fight, he had killed in a way that lacked valor. Obviously not all pilots felt this way. But the story underscored the significance of something Maguen had come to regard as more important than proximity or distance in shaping moral injury—namely, how veterans made sense of what they had done. “How you conceptualize what you did and what happened makes such a big difference,” she said. “It makes all the difference.”

Unlike PTSD, moral injury was not a medical diagnosis. It was an attempt to capture what could happen to a person’s identity and soul in the crucible of war, which is why it struck a chord among veterans who did not feel their wounds could be reduced to a medical disorder. “PTSD as a diagnosis has a tendency to depoliticize a veteran’s disquietude and turn it into a mental disorder,” observed Tyler Boudreau, a marine officer who served in Iraq and came back haunted by doubts about the war’s morality. “What’s most useful about the term ‘moral injury’ is that it takes the problem out of the hands of the mental health profession and the military and attempts to place it where it belongs—in society, in the community, and in the family—precisely where moral questions should be posed and wrangled with. It transforms ‘patients’ back into citizens and ‘diagnoses’ into dialogue.”]

eyal press, from dirty work: essential labor and the hidden toll of inequality in america, 2021

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: Playing the Best Version of Myself

I’m not intending to permanently turn this blog series into a “Sophie listens to podcasts and talks about the Starcruiser” thing, but… this week I found myself once again listening to a podcast episode about Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. It was The No Proscenium Podcast this time, and the episode was titled “Last Call at the Sublight Lounge.” One of the panelists, Kathryn, said the following about Halcyon passengers:

“I believe that a lot of the people on the ship were roleplaying that idealized version of themselves… Maybe you’re braver, bolder, more confident, more willing to stand up for what you believe in. Maybe it’s a version of yourself that you want to wish into being, but you’ve never had a chance to articulate it before.”

Funnily enough, this wasn’t the first time I’ve heard someone express this idea about the Starcruiser. On the final night of the show, I met up with a bunch of the performers after closing time. Emotions were running high, understandably, but a lot of those emotions were positive. There was so much love and gratitude in that space – for each other, and for what we had created and accomplished. Everyone kept talking about how much we’d grown because of the Starcruiser. Late in the evening, one of the performers attributed that growth to how we’d created a space where everyone who participated, everyone who came to play, could come be “the best version of yourself” – and playing as the best version of yourself changes you forever.

It gave me pause, when that performer said it, and I’m thinking about it further after hearing Kathryn bring it up again – because when I entered the Starcruiser as a guest, I didn’t think I was playing the best or idealized version of myself. I fully intended to not be myself. Sophie Katz knew too much about the Halcyon and its characters. I spent six months running around that ship, making sure that everyone else knew everything they needed to know about where to be, why they were there, and what to do while they were there. The beats of the whole two-day show are imprinted on my brain. So I thought that in order to have fun, and to avoid ruining anyone else’s fun with metagaming, I had to separate my guest-self from my writer-self.

Shira Alderaani Khesed was a character I made up almost two years ago. I wrote a poem about the destruction of Alderaan in Star Wars, and afterwards I fleshed out the character behind that first-person perspective. She was a woman without a homeworld, the daughter of Alderaanians who just happened to be off planet on their honeymoon when the Empire destroyed their lives. And as far as I could tell before my voyage, playing Shira would be about as far from acting as my real self as I could get without outright sacrificing my morals. Shira was a mechanic; she’d never had the good fortune to be able to pursue art as a career. She was cynical and cowardly, weighed down by the trauma she’d inherited and unable to imagine a better future – in direct contrast to my real-world optimism. She didn’t have a family or community to support her; her late parents kept her intentionally ignorant of her culture, believing that would protect her from her people’s genocide – unlike my real-life parents, wonderful and alive, who raised me to take pride in my culture. I wouldn’t have called Shira my ideal self; I certainly wouldn’t wish to be her or live her life!

I thought I’d successfully separated my real self from my Starcruiser-self.

But the performers on my voyage were quick to prove me wrong.

I mentioned last week that some of the performers dropped hints that they knew me. Gaya said I looked familiar. Raithe said he knew I understood what was going on better than anyone. Lenka outright added a bit to my backstory, saying she remembered how I helped repair the ship before this voyage.

There’s another example of this that I should mention now.

Captain Keevan’s path did not cross much with mine, but at one point late on the first day, I was standing with a friend in the lower concourse when the captain came out of the dining room. She approached us and asked how we were doing, mentioning she’d heard that I’d had some issues with Sammie the mechanic. I responded in character, explaining that Sammie had asked me to do something that I wasn’t comfortable with (lying to First Order Stormtroopers, which from Shira’s cautious-and-cynical point of view was a good way to get killed).

The captain told me that I shouldn’t have to do anything that made me feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Half joking, I looked at my friend and said, “Does that mean telling my friends to not sing anti-First Order fight songs?” (Which, yes, is another thing that happened. Video evidence here. Sophie loved that scene; Shira did not.)

“Well,” said Captain Keevan, “something like that could be a useful distraction, at times. I find that some people work well on the front lines, and their actions make it possible for others to do the important work they need to do in the background.”

“I do well in the background,” I said.

And she smiled and replied, “And I know you’re good at keeping things on schedule.”

As she walked away, I realized something about Shira. I’d thought that by making her a mechanic, I was making her unlike me. I’m not a hands-on hard-science building-things sort of person. I’d even been a bit nervous that someone might ask me something technical that I wouldn’t be able to answer.

But as Lenka had pointed out, as a mechanic, Shira was someone who had helped prepare the ship for this voyage. And as Captain Keevan had pointed out, Shira was someone who worked well in the background, supporting the people who were visible on the front lines.

In other words, Shira was the me I aspire to be, as a professional creative writer – not the person in the spotlight, but the person who makes it possible for other people to do well in the spotlight. The person who builds the world, who takes care of the details in the background, and who, if I’m doing my job right, goes unnoticed. You don’t notice a mechanic unless something breaks; when things go smoothly, you praise the captain. Similarly, you don’t notice a writer unless the dialogue is bad; when shows make you laugh and cry, you praise the actors and directors. That’s how it is. That’s the space I work well in and take pride in. Sure, I want people to know what I can do, and I want to get credit when I do a good job – so that I can continue to do this work that I love and make a living with it. I don’t dream about being a big flashy hero with crowds chanting my name. I want to be quietly essential.

I realized that Shira had an opportunity here – to learn to be that quiet, essential background player.

And as the show progressed, moments kept coming up that developed her story in that direction. When Lt. Croy ordered that a restraining bolt be put on beloved droid SK-620, Shira whispered to Sammie that he needed to go through it, despite the boos of the crowd, to keep the ship safe. The next day, Shira helped lure Lt. Croy and the stormtroopers downstairs to give Lenka and Saja Fen a chance to rescue SK. During the heist, Shira didn’t get one of the many “noisy distraction” jobs; instead, Raithe secretly passed Shira the gem, and she stood far away from the action, quietly keeping it safe while Captain Keevan ordered Raithe to turn out his pockets. Moment by moment, act by act, decision by decision, Shira was learning how much of an impact she could have on the galaxy from the background, even if – perhaps even because – most people didn’t know she was there doing the work that needed to be done.

Everything culminated in a scene that caught me off guard just as much in reality as in character. Shira wound up in the middle of the atrium, with a whole crowd of people’s eyes on her, telling Lt. Croy a series of objectively terrible lies.

It would be impossible for me to exaggerate how uncomfortable I am with improv. I’m fine with public speaking – I’m honestly pretty good at it – but I always prepare a lot in advance. If you’ve ever heard me say something cool, it’s because I spent at least ten minutes beforehand planning it out. I did not plan for this moment. And so, in that moment, even though I objectively knew that no real-world harm would come to me, my fear and Shira’s were one and the same. All I wanted to do was run away.

But I didn’t run away. I kept talking – babbling, really – because I had to keep Croy’s attention on me, so he wouldn’t turn around and see Raithe sneaking up to the mezzanine to steal the coaxium. Because that’s what Shira would have done, after everything she’d been through on that ship. She would play her part. She would make it possible for other people to do the more obviously important and visible job. And, as soon as the job was done and it was safe to do so, she would run away… straight towards Raithe, who promptly handed her the suitcase of coaxium. He knew he could trust her with it.

And me? I want to be trusted. I want to be someone that people can rely on. I may not literally want to be Shira Alderaani Khesed, but I want to have the kind of impact she had on the story unfolding around her, just by being me, hard at work in the background. Building worlds, preparing experiences, and keeping everyone around me on schedule. Relied on and appreciated by the people who matter most. Quietly essential to a life-changing experience, and given the chance to be so again, and again, and again. That’s the best version of me.

You wanna know the best part? Those two days I spent as Shira was not the only chance I had to be that best version of me. I now understand that the role that Shira played on the Halcyon was the role I played with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. I see it now more clearly than ever before. We don’t often get the chance to see ourselves so clearly, and I am so grateful to this cast for helping me see. They gave me such a gift. They gave everyone who set foot on that ship the gift of getting to be – and to learn that we are – our best selves.

I know what I can do for others – for a creative team, for an audience, for the world. I want nothing more than to do it again, and again, and again.

Let’s do it again, together.

[doomed-era]

also. with kishu facts how about widget facts? whats up with her /intrigued

well. she is in the castle currently! she has been waiting for four years (i give you a deranged smile)

-but she has been stasis for around 100 years, or at least not completely conscious. she has a very poor concept of time/self in there which helps her from going completely bonkers. it's kind of like being in a submarine. a stressful work environment 💔

-originally i planned for her to be physically 17 when gaffen frees her, however i scrapped it because i thought it was weird. she's physically and mentally around 20-21. how does this work? idk. Magic.

-she can be intentionally bratty and passive aggressive but mostly she just doesn't realize when shes causing harm. it is a genuine fear of hers that people cannot be honest around her because of her social standing

-DESPITE THIS! she does still refer to herself as a princess post-calamity I think. she's just kind of. adjusting. and the first ppl she meets besides gaffen are the sheikah who absolutely refer to her as a princess. she considers it her duty to reestablish hyrule as it used to be because that's what she's been taught is right, but she doesn't really want to. part of her arc is going to be exploring that. COUGH

-she's really embarrassed by the "antennae" she has on the sides of her hair and her teeth.

-despite her love of learning she often hated her tutors. she's got a if it sucks hit da bricks mindset tbh. thankfully she liked her last tutor a lot! he was a sheikah named shira longan and he uh! had magic that allowed him to see through a little metal eye he had as a hair accessory. eye on the back of his head :] they got along well

-widget is stealthy and difficult to track! good at hiding too. it is genuinely impressive that gaffen manages to find her.

-some people she knew at hyrule castle tried to set her up with the court poet as a joke

-if formaldehyde existed (i am not sure if I want it in gboh) she would keep small animals in jars

-overfamiliar with people she likes, and very touchy. will bop you on the head and want hugs, talk to you about weird laws and sheikah tech and biology for 182423462746823742 hours, etc etc. she's a BIT more chill post-calamity but not by a lot

-"shes a scholar and wouldn't fight" my ass if she thought she could help people or saw a need to defend herself she WOULD learn how to fight. and she does. so

[ian-loves-fanfiction]

Well

I finally finished I See You, Sundrop! by @shirajellyfish

Slight spoily warning!

It is 1:14 in the morning as I write this (editing about a day later) and I have my first day of my senior year of high school tomorrow, but I just had to get all of my thoughts out while they were fresh.

I have never, never hyperfixated on a fanfic so hard. I've never read 400k+ words of a single fic in under a week. Somehow I managed to do that and have time to draw fanart (something I'm pretty sure I've only done once before for a fic, actually) and do my irl life shit.

How, you may ask? By continuously staying up into the wee hours of the morning :D (like 4-6am type shit, don't recommend it even if I think it was personally worth it).

I think I was so hyperfixated on the fic that I honestly didn't absorb the emotions like I should have? I felt things, surprise, excitement, a Sense of Impending Doom (/hj), but I don't think I really felt them.

I was probably a little more dissociated while reading than I usually am lol. I was so absorbed that some things barely registered. I am 100% going to have to re-read everything.

At one point I worried the fic wouldn't have a happy ending. Doesn't have the "angst with a happy ending" tag afaik and it got much worse before it got better. Saw a comment on one of the end notes and was reassured thankfully TvT. I'm very happy everyone is ok.

Love how the after ending note basically boiled down to "everyone is fine and Felix finally got some sleep" lol.

This fic was just. So good. Riley is such a dynamic character, so awesome and so cool. I really want to headcanon them as autistic (some of their behaviors just. They just. It's hard to explain, but if you're autistic too I bet you probably felt it, just a lil. They got the vibes /hj) but I know some authors can be kinda iffy about people headcanoning their OCs (which I get).

It was really cool to see an honest to goodness nonbinary character, a full character and not a self insert or y/n (no shade, I love y/n stories too). It was just cool to see a complete OC, and I love that it was all platonic, even if Sundrop did catch a little bit of feelings.

Honestly I relate so much to that, as someone who gains and loses crushes pretty fast. I'm happy it stayed platonic though and Sunny wasn't hurt or stuck pining or something silly. Plus his absolute embarrassment and mortification at his slip up was pretty funny. Might try to draw it, if I have any left over motivation (the bottom of this post sure is interesting hint hint).

Update as I'm editing this about a day later: I can't stop thinking about this fic. It was just so good! I already want to re-read it but I know I should give it at least a little time so I don't burn myself out. This fic was probably the best story I've ever read. Period. Even better than the published books I've read.

Honestly without spoiling any more than I already have, read it. If you like the DCA, read it. If you like cool nonbinary characters and great platonic relationships, read it. If you like a plot that sneaks up on you before hitting you in the feels like a truck, read. It. Do it. It's sososo worth it, I promise you.

If anyone has some good fics to read (completed preferred but actively updated ones work too) PLEASE FEED ME. Now that I'm done with ISYS I am desperate for more DCA fics. I've read so many and I n e e d m o r e.

Bonus fanart to celebrate my completion I guess(?), embarrassed Sun boy!

I guess I just really like drawing embarrassed boyos. Sorry if it looks weird, I've never drawn a pose like this before :P

Shira if you're reading this, thank you. Your fic was just fantastic. Also thank you for helping me get out of my art block! I had it for the whole month of ArtFight (sadge) but I'm so happy to have some motivation again. Thank you.

[bleuangel88]

On Dylan Shakes

We have one major mystery down!

While many of us probably suspected that Dylan Shakes was alive and that he had gotten away from his father's abuse, it was lovely to have that confirmation during Harlan Coben's Shelter Season 1 Episode 6.

It was also so touching to have that reunion between Dylan and Mrs. Friedman.

The reveal that Sunglasses Man was Dylan Shakes tied up one of many threads in this series.

Dylan definitely knew how much his absence affected Mrs. Friedman, who wanted to adopt him. I wish he had given her some closure much sooner. She deserved that rather than death threats.

With the number of mysteries that this series drops at us rapidly, it's nice to have a clear-cut answer for at least one of them and bits and pieces of things coming together for some others.

Shelter has been a blast to watch because the characters and cast are so much fun that you'll watch them do anything.

And we have, whether or not we could follow along with whatever they're doing or not.

I could watch a whole series of just Mickey Bolitar, Ema, and Spoon being regular teenagers who aren't trying to serve as a Gen Z Scooby-Doo.

On Whitney

Whitney hurt Ema beyond forgiveness, in my book. She knows how her brother is, and it doesn't matter if he blackmailed her. He'll always have that information on his sister and will do whatever he pleases with the second she stands up to him.

She'd do better owning up to what she did before he could release it so she could be free of him.It's such a shallow, self-absorbed issue on Whitney's part that she sold Ema, a girl she genuinely seems to like, out over some followers controversy on an app.

It's such childish dumb stuff, yet for teenagers, it's their entire world, so as frustrating as this development is, I can't even say it's unrealistic.Maybe Ema will be able to forgive Whitney, and maybe not. They were an endearing potential couple.

But it's hard to get past something like that, especially when Ema has learned that there are peers of hers who have more backbone and can do what's right.

She has Spoon and Mickey Bolitar as best friends, so it's hard not to have a certain level of expectation for future relationships, platonic, romantic, or otherwise.

Maybe she and Whitney will end up like Shira and Hannah.

On Hannah, Ken, Shira

But Hannah Taylor has gotten a new lease on life from the second Shira came back into town. It was like she needed Shira to free herself.

On the one hand, that's endearing as far as their love story goes and how much Hannah loves Shira, but on the other hand, that puts a lot on Shira.

There is no way this plays out where Shira doesn't feel like she's the reason a family is splitting up and Hannah is doing all these things.

Hannah can't do all the things she desires because of Shira. She should be willing to do these things for herself.

And Shira is placed in the middle of this marriage in many uncomfortable ways. Ken seeking Shira's advice at the memorial was awkward.

He thinks there is an avenue for him to get his wife back because he spent years not even knowing that she was unhappy.

He may mean everything he says, and he'll try to make improvements moving forward, but it's too late, and as terrible as Ken is as a husband, he also doesn't deserve to get blindsided without even a chance to know how to make things better.

It sucks that they got this far into their marriage without resolving their issues. This sets things up where if he learns the truth about Hannah and Shira, he'll think about Shira breaking up his marriage or Hannah deceiving him and not thinking about his role in their marriage dissolution.

Hell, chances are he'll probably wonder if Hannah ever actually loved him or even Shira back in high school. When you think about it, what stops Ken from feeling like he was a glorified beard for 25 years?

Did Hannah ever love Ken Taylor at all? Or did she love having this piece of Shira? And that goes for Ken, too.

But Shira's issues are apparent. Initially, it felt like Shira would be the one set up for hurt, and there's a chance that remains the case. But there's also a matter of Hannah getting hit worse.

She's ready to blow up her life that wasn't making her happy anymore and start anew with Shira, and the prospect of that seems to terrify Shira and has her ready to shut down.

It's a challenging situation, and Shira seems more afraid of its fallout than Hannah, which could influence her position and why she's pushing Hannah away right now.Ultimately, they deserve to be happy, preferably together, with the truth out in the open, consequences be damned.

[slumberingrose-fandom]

SK8 Masterlist

This masterlist is all list my OC / fankid of SK8 shipping that people loves, such as Renga, Joecherry and Tadaai.

And it is crossover with Twisted Wonderland, which might be easy for me to make.

All the information are below.

Characters

Kanako Nanjo

Profile

Headcanons

School Uniform & "S" attire

Home Life in Okinawa

➽──────────────❥

Akane Kyan

Profile

Headcanons

Home Life in Okinawa

➽──────────────❥

Shira Hasegawa

Profile

Headcanons

Home Life in Okinawa

➽──────────────❥

Kimiko Shindo

Profile

Headcanons

Backstory

Home Life in Okinawa

Family - Suki Shindo

≿━━━━ ༺❀༻ ━━━━≾

Outifts (TWST Event)

Fairy Gala

Ghost Marriage

Port Fest

Glorious Masquerade

White Rabbit Fest

Disorder Up! (Fan Event)

Halloween

Stage in Playful Land

Disney 100 (/Birthday Event)

≿━━━━ ༺❀༻ ━━━━≾

Others

Skater Girl (@/k-looking-glass-house)

In different art style (@/cozymochi)

Outfit Meme (@/terrovaniadorm )

Carol & Kimiko's bond (@/fumikomiyasaki)

Outfit Ask (@/valse-a-mille-temps)

➽──────────────❥

Alternative Universe / AU

Kimiko's Royal AU (+ Deuce)

➽──────────────❥

Others

Incorrect Quotes - 1 • 2

Animal companion for Sk8 Girls (Kanako, Akane & Shira)

Deuce x Kimiko (Self-ship)

Akane Twins (w/ @/lovelyllamasblog)

Skateboards

[re-x]

How would you rank these girls?

I am including Devi twice, because it is impossible for me to consider Devi and season-two Devi as the same person.

Here’s mine (best to worst):

Devi: self-explanatory. 10/10 would recommend.

Margot: Margot helped Ben feel more at-ease with himself at a time when he needed it. She also helped Ben gain an appreciation of art and its potential as a therapeutic outlet for himself. Ultimately, though, she didn’t love Ben for who he was, and she did not understand Ben like Devi did. That said, the fact that Ben wanted to stay friends with her even after their breakup is a testament to her character.

Shira: An awful person, for sure, but at least she was funny. And in a way, Ben used her as much as she used him. Their relationship was pretty much transactional.

Aneesa: I have very few (more like zero) nice things to say about Aneesa, so I’ll let Jaren Lewison speak on her behalf instead: “I do think that they’re both trying, and I think…they’re just not quite great together. It’s not the right time, I don’t know, but I think that it’s also really fun sometimes to be able to play that kind of a relationship again as an actor … when we do these scenes they’re also really complex and they have a lot underneath the surface that you’re playing. And there’s so much inner monologue going through your head and you’re trying to think about all these different levels.”

Season 2 Devi: the literal worst. She broke his heart in the most callous way possible. 0/10 would NOT recommend.

[bitethvhand]

closed starter ⊹₊ @numberoneradioheadfan location ⊹₊ ⋆ the cardinal chronicle

The internet was a vast place, filled with chat rooms and websites that showed Eden things she never knew existed. It had become a safe space after moving so far away from home and starting college. After awhile a few new penpals surfaced, one of the important corespdonues that the witch had, was with a queer photographer named Shira with the username numberoneradioheadfan. It was the name that drew her to the other, excited to speak with anyone who understood her taste in music. Soon the two grew more connected, chatting about deeper topics such as love and lust, something that felt so scandalous for the Prior girl. Yet, she couldn't seem to not think of Shira and what she was doing in the moments both of them sat on their computers and talked until the early morning.

They'd planned to meet up in person, there was an undeniable spark the two gave off and it was hard for Eden to resist. They'd plan to meet in the middle between Portland and Massachusetts, but a few days before the witch had an incident that caused her to become a shell of her former self.

Any emotion that wasn't sadness or anger, managed to leave the young woman as she become less active online and began the transition of moving back home. Eden thought she'd never hear from Shi again, a realization that also left her feeling hopeless. But the fates had other things in mind, because as the brown haired witch walked into the Chronicle, there on the wall of photographers was the photo of someone she'd only seen in blurry photos via chat. A heat rushed through her whole body, causing her to feel flustered and nervous, but also filled her with a feeling she hadn't felt in so long, happiness.

Checking the company directory, Eden quickly made her way to Shira's office, unsure of what she was going to say but also excited to see the other in the flesh. Once finding the correct office, she placed a meek knock on the door as her palms began to sweat. "Excuse me, I just wanted to introduce myself....it's uhh Eden." Biting her lip, she hoped the other wouldn't be upset for how she left things.

[morgana-ren]

With all this talk about the gods, what other DnD deities do you like besides Bane? There's a lot of interesting ones

Well, like would be an interesting word for what I feel for the Gods.

I used to think Shar was interesting, but much like serial killers, her whole shtick breaks down rather simply: "I hate life! Fuck you, you wretched beings! You don't have a right to exist, and my bitch sister is to blame for your existence, so I am going to create so much chaos and so much misery that the world will fold in on itself!"

It's pathetic once you break it down. She's a jealous, angry, violent, and self-absorbed harlot, and she's dead-set on taking it out on everyone that lives. She uses people foolish enough to turn to her to realize that vision. They all have their own justifications, but it's serving a master that actively thinks you are filthy and wants you dead. It's pointless and an exercise in futility, because she will never 'Embrace you in darkness' or whatever lie she has promised. She is open about her hatred if you are not so enveloped in her lies that you fall for them.

Literally, this woman has a plaque in her temple that reads "Equality in darkness. No beauty and no wealth. Only equality" and then, in the next fucking room, has a 500 foot statue of herself with gold filigree standing on innumerable humans skulls.

She is the edgy goddess with no real point. Undirected and unwarranted anger. Great purple aesthetic, but ultimately embarrassingly pointless. She targets the weak and the angry and sharpens them into instruments for her will, and then discards them when she no longer needs them. For some reason, none of her followers see this pattern and keep justifying. Not exactly bright, this lot.

I can appreciate what Ilmater stands for.

But their beliefs are flawed. It's an ouroboros of suffering.

His entire domain is ultimate selflessness: I will do whatever I can to ease your suffering, even taking that suffering upon myself and even dying if need be. The God on the Rack. The Martyr. The Crying God.

You can see why that might have some flaws.

More than that, as you can see in the temple, most of the people that serve Ilmater do not even understand his teachings. People are suffering because Ilmater does not correct these people. Refugees are dying because his own acolytes find them filthy and disgusting and find them unworthy. This goes against all of His teachings. What the fuck are you even doing here?

If this is so important to you, why do you not correct this behavior? You are breaking your own beliefs with your inability to act because these people-- these children-- are suffering and dying because those operating under your holy name are harboring delusions that are actively harmful-- and even malevolent.

Caring, compassion, love for the aching and the dying? These are good tenants, but like most Gods, he takes it too fucking far. You encourage selflessness and martyrdom, but to be there for another is to have a steady foundation. You cannot ease suffering if your own suffering is so great that you cannot see through it. You are offering the chance to romanticize it and 'self-flagellate'-- sometimes literally.

If you are not healthy, you cannot ease suffering. You will not know what to say. What to do. You will follow scripts and rules, but suffering does not follow these things. When someone is truly in pain, how do you ease them if your own pain is too great? How do you comfort them? How can you show love when all you know is pain? People who cry and weep and moan but cannot truly help anyone because they themselves are bleeding.

He is creating a cycle of suffering. People who mean well, but are such push-overs that they cannot help themselves either. To take suffering is not to ease it. It is not to cure it. It is not to end it. It is to bring it on to one's self or another. It isn't sustainable. You have a god that does not help pain, but passes it on. (Shira Clarwen and her ancestor who sought to give her the amulet?)

Another extreme taken to an extreme. Unsustainable.

Umberlee I actually like for one reason.

She is the sea incarnate. The whims of the ocean. The cruelty, the tumultuous violence, the senselessness-- and man's desperate need to appease it despite the futility of it all. The desperate need we feel to have some level of control over it. Maybe if we appease her or if we can gain her favor somehow--

We make foolish offerings in her name. We name our boats after women-- mothers-- to feel protected on the waves, almost reverting to a child like state in the face of her power. We pray to her, revere her in the hopes that she will spare us.

She has no real demands that we can understand. We can pretend we understand. We give her things that we would want. Gold. Riches. A piece of the treasure her benevolence allowed us to take. But really? She will turn on you for no real reason, and we are left to speculate.

She is the brutality of nature. A thing that man cannot tame or understand or truly appease. Her domain is vast and beautiful and she will protect it viciously. Sometimes, she will destroy you simply because she can.

Give her what you will, should it make you feel better. Offer up what you can. There is no true way to know. You can hope and pray. You can watch your step. It might not matter in the slightest.

She is the patron of those who roam the seas and are dependent on Her whims. She is a form of nature. Cruel, lovely, and yet, we cannot resist. We traverse it because we feel the need-- because we must. But that will not save you.

There are some varied examples of what I think of the Gods. I highly prefer the ones that are open about their indifference. They are patrons of something, and not here for humanity. I find the ones that utterly rely on humanoid worship and yet remain utterly indifferent or even cruel absurd and irritating. Shar and her bullshit and the the ones like her. Even worse are the ones that claim to be 'virtuous' and yet use that Godhood for nothing.

I am sure there are good things to be said about Good Gods, but they seem like celebrities to me. They come out once in a blue moon and do some miracle that costs them nothing and demand worship for the next 200 years while they allow horrific things to happen to those that give them power. When questioned? Always some bullshit nebulous answer. It is the people who worship them who do good. They are ideas to uphold, and that is the only true good they serve.

The evil Gods? The manmade Gods like the Dead Three? At least they are open. They are honest-- and that is more than you can say for most of these Gods. The rest are figureheads that cannot even get off their own ass to stand for their ideals. They rely on man to carry it out.

So I ask: Do we really need them? Other than the devastation they threaten? Other than fear? What use are they? The evil Gods offer fear openly and readily. The others? A silent threat. A waiting fist. A sheathed sword.

Mystra? Oh, the almighty goddess of Magic. Without her, the weave dissipates. So, that means she gets to run rampant, because what is one life-- or millions-- against her own? The greater evil for a lesser good, I suppose? Lathander, who could not protect his own devout and yet wielded the power of the morning sun?

And what of the afterlife? What of that promise? That security? It is known that Shar will abandon her followers once they die. Is it truly outlandish to believe the others do too? They didn't care about you when you gave them power-- when you were alive. What use are you to them now? A bronze piece they cannot trade? A weight in their pocket? Useless.

The kingdoms are built by mortal hands. They are maintained by mortal hands. They are protected by mortal hands. The gods claim credit, but what is it, exactly, that they truly deserve credit for? Morals? A symbol? What is it? The masons who laid the stone? The young men who died protecting it? The wisdom of the king who ruled it?

The raiders earn their credit, as do their Gods. They own the blood on their swords. The meat in their teeth. The cruelty in their hearts. They earn it. Their God sits as an advisor, ever present and ever demanding. Palpable.

That's more than I can say for the pantheon. Faerun or otherwise.

[ettawritesnstudies]

Hyperspecific Poll Time

Click under the "read more" to learn about the character you picked! And feel free to send me an ask if you'd like to learn more about any of them! I'm turning this into a writeblr tag game too so if you want to join in on this, I'm tagging @abalonetea and @ashen-crest and @theroseempress

Option 1: Luca Laine

"It was far too lovely a day for a riot, but not even the warm morning sun or the light breeze flapping the trader's multicolored tents could keep Luca from taking advantage of the fact that there was, in fact, a riot."

The protagonist of Storge! He's a desperate kid who picks up people's trash and tries to salvage it into useful stuff for his family, but when he dares to steal a magical charm from the avian, Acheran, he's too much of a paragon to get away with it. His honestly earns him a job from the reserved shopkeeper and they end up becoming solid friends who look out for each other when their city devolves into a civil war.

Option 2: Grace Laine

"I could have killed you by now if I wanted to. "Uh yeah, but you didn't."

Luca's younger sister! As a powerful energy sink, this kid can absorb magical energy and use it to bolster her own stamina and healing. This also means she can't use magic to fight, and so her father taught her martial arts at a very young age. As a result, this 14 year old menace is fully convinced she's indestructible and sasses assassins and terrorists with absolutely 0 negative consequences whatsoever /sarcastic

Option 3: Enne Laine

Luca and Grace's older sister! Despite being blind, she's the only sibling with common sense or self-preservation. With a lockbox memory and a lifetime of strategic thinking, she's extremely good at getting her way. While her sister is busy provoking the assassins and terrorists and keeping them distracted, she's arguing her way to freedom and sabotaging them on the way out.

Option 4: Hannah Teagan

When her younger sister, Cecelia, goes missing and all signs point to abduction by fae, Hannah promptly storms into the woods behind their house to bring her sister home. She gets more than she bargains for in the Seelie and Unseelie courts, and its up to her to find a way out of their maze and back to the world she knows.

Option 5: Cecelia Teagan

(this one's a spoiler :3)

Option 6: Min Larua (aka Miragel aka Maxk aka Visige aka Mentira)

A changeling who wants to become the Liege of Thieves. They use their various alter egos to set up a "crime ring" all reporting back to their leader Larua to make it seem like they have a stronghold on the criminal underworld in their city. They eventually recruit a real team, none of which have no idea that their rival, ally, and boss are all the same person.

Option 7: Both Tess Teagan and Weswin

(The first one's a spoiler as well.) Weswin is cursed to have a constantly shifting appearance that he can't control, meaning its impossible for him to maintain an identity or make friends. He eventually forgot his name after years of coming up with different constantly changing personas, and so he eventually settled on calling himself after the "west wind" which he follows in his wanderings.

Option 8: Sora Shiraishi

When you suppress your abilities out of fear for years, it can be terrifying when they start to forcefully manifest themselves and you don't know how to recognize them. Especially when you think you're hallucinating strange sounds and objects moving around, even though it's just the friendly spirit that your family's soul is bonded to, trying to get your attention. She only learned much later that she was experiencing a normal connection to the spirit world, and not losing her mind.

Option 9: Madelyn

Originally a very powerful mage, Madelyn lost her magic when her friend Alric betrayed and attacked her with a Relic. As she learns how to use magic from point 0 all over again, she logs her progress in her journal, and eventually learns how to cast spells from the ink and written words, binding her soul to it and becoming a Relic in her own right. It's a good thing her diary is extremely difficult to destroy as a result, but she refuses to risk losing her magic again. It wouldn't physically harm her, but she still might die of embarrassment if anyone ever read it.

Option 10: Seth

The child of high ranking dignitaries in Maaren, Seth was trained for the noble political life from the moment he learned how to talk. He resented this at first, not really knowing what he wanted to do with his life, but not wanting to be associated with his family's legacy. But after his family's power collapses and he escapes Maaren as a refugee, he realizes he's still really good at politics and rallying people behind a common cause, and uses his training as a force for good in the world.

[postgleeworld]

the most unrealistic part of nhie to me is how no one would want to date ben or have his fair share of popularity because jaren is a very fit and good looking guy this paired with him being smart, that’s it high school guy material lmao high school always has that one smart guy everyone is attracted to and i love how they are just now allowing jaren to wear tight shirts that show off his body and arms. and, no one would actually find devi unattractive because maitreyi is so beautiful so it doesn’t feel real.

but yeah i get this is a romcom style show that thrives with the idea of tropes but like it’s pretty unrealistic hdushdudgw

totally get where you're coming from !! however i do also want to note that reputation and what groups you run with also has a looooot to do with how people perceive you in high school. and from what we can tell, both ben and devi (and, by extension, fabiola and eleanor) don't really "fit in" with the main crowd. even when ben's with shira, he seems uncomfortable and out of his element, an outsider that was let in on extenuating circumstances (his parents' money giving him that in that he wouldn't have usually had due to his personality).

that being said i'm really glad that like, s3 onwards has shown that ben and devi (and well, all of the characters, really) are growing out of these awkward adolescent versions of themselves and starting to grow into the young adults they want to be. there's less focus on the fact that they're dorks and nerds or whatever you want to call them, and more focus on what makes them them, the things they like and the things they want and the dreams they have. it feels like such a natural progression - the show starting off with devi struggling with her own sense of self after her father's death and trying to change herself so a boy will like her, vs now as she lets herself be herself and surrounds herself with the people who love her for she is. ben working himself sick to meet up to his self-imposed expectations so he doesn't disappoint his dad, vs now letting himself breathe and have hobbies instead of flooding every waking minute with school work. it's so well done, and i'm so excited to see how that progresses into the final season.

[dayeongi]

Chapter 4 - The Desert Gives and the Desert Takes

SETTING SUN

(18164 words) by

dayeongi

Chapters: 4/?

Fandom:

Naruto

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationships: Nara Shikamaru/Temari, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara & Kankurou & Temari (Naruto), Gaara & Uzumaki Naruto

Characters: Temari (Naruto), Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara (Naruto), Kankurou (Naruto), Hyuuga Hinata, Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikaku, Baki (Naruto), Jiraiya (Naruto), Nara Yoshino, Shiho (Naruto), Sarutobi Asuma, Yuuhi Kurenai, Rasa (Naruto), Karura (Naruto), Yashamaru (Naruto), Uchiha Sasuke, Sen (Naruto), Yome (Naruto), Shira (Naruto), Rock Lee

Additional Tags: Sand Siblings-centric, Sunagakure | Hidden Sand Village, Konohagakure | Hidden Leaf Village, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Modern Era, Modern Royalty, Canonical Character Death, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - High School, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Mental Health Issues, Denial of Feelings, Alternate Universe - Politics, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Forbidden Love, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Coup d'état, shikatema-centric, they have phones but no videocalls, early 2000's aesthetic, will span several in-story years in three different blocks, Evil Corporations, Gangs, Eventual Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, unapologetic cursing, Gaara is aro/ace, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Politics, Princes & Princesses, Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Past Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma

Summary:

Temari had bigger fish to fry than most girls her age did; for example, surely most girls didn't have to figure out who was behind her father's assassination, go into protection under a fake identity, make sure Kankurō stayed alive, and keep Gaara from murdering anyone that slightly inconvenienced him. To top it off, she had to deal with her contact's annoying and whiny little shit of a shogi-playing Konoha Gakuen student mentee figure. Nara Shikamaru's problems were varied and many. To start with, despite having a fireproof success path already laid out for him, as the 16th generation of the Yamanaka Agricultural Services, Nara Pharmaceutical, and Akimichi Superfoods alliance, not knowing exactly what he wanted to achieve besides not burning the building down, his mother and Ino's nagging, Uzumaki Naruto always dragging him into his business, and Ino's attempt at matchmaking. The newest one, however, was Asuma's new employee. There was just something terrifying yet entirely too-enticing about the way she smiled.

[koheletgirl]

shira which atla character do u think would hate rep and who would love rep? additionally which les mis character would hate rep and who loves it? reflect on this

azula would love rep. her taste in music is debatable but it's not really about that – it's about taylor unapologetically taking her power back + it's about revenge + it's about being a woman who is finally acknowledging her worth and doing so without caring if people think she's a bitch + it's the snake imagery + azula loves to watch a trainwreck happen. she enjoys rep because it's a disaster but sometimes she will have lwymmd playing in her head as she stages coups.

i go back and forth on katara bc on the one hand she could appreciate rep as a feminist phenomenon but on the other hand i do like to think she has better opinions than that. but like 15-16 year old katara? yeah maybe

toph hates it. i can't imagine someone with her heightened senses would find that tolerable.

as for les mis... r would probably like it bc he's cringe. courfeyrac would love it that's self explanatory. enjolras isn't aware of the existence of taylor swift. javert has it playing 24/7 in his head