#she doesn't mean to be hypocritical

[togoldlilya]

Summer is hot you know

tw/ mentions of nausea and throwing up

the sun is beating down harshly as it reaches midday. "toge you're gonna overheat or something, please take off your sweater" sayaka begs, already regretting agreeing to go on a walk.

"okaka" he refuses immediately, sayaka huffing at his stubbornness.

"come on kiki, you're gonna get heat stroke... again!" she argues incredulously. he just shakes his head 'no' causing her to groan loudly at him. giving up the fight for now they continue to walk around the grounds. by the time they reach the other side of the school sayaka is sweating profusely. not stopping they automatically circle back to where they started, as they near the other side sayaka starts to feel nauseous and faint. as she stumbles and starts to fall, she curses toge in her mind for jinxing her. breathing heavily, her head starts to spin, black dots dancing in her vision. limbs feeling weak she's barely able to help as toge gently as possible brings her to sit in the shade of a tree. closing her eyes she struggles to hold her nausea at bay, breathing fast and harsh. she begins to feel a small cool breeze on her face as someone pulls her hair back, the loss of it making her feel significantly cooler.

"its okay saya just breathe, remember nice deep breathes, you're okay" sayaka would recognize yuujis voice anywhere. trying to nod, she attempts to take a deeper breath, forcing her to push down a wave of nausea. "good job, thats good saya" the encouragement makes her heart calm down a little allowing her to breathe a bit easier.

"mentaiko natto" the words are mumbled but no less effective, as the sound of his voice instinctually calms her down fully, the sick feeling fading away as the cool breeze begins to do its job.

"here saya, drink some water" peeling her eyes open she's met with the sight of yuuji kneeing in front of her, waving a fan, surprisingly steadily, and holding out a bottle of water. shakily grabbing the bottle she takes a sip, the cool water a saving grace on her parched throat.

"thanks yuu" she breathes out finally able to take a steady breath without wanting to throw up, and is rewarded with a bright smile from him. looking to the side she comes face to face with toge who is holding her hair back, a worried look on his face.

"natto, takana?" he brushes her bangs back as he askes, voice deep in concern. her eyes flutter shut at the action, continuing to take deep breathes as she nods to his question. at her reassurance he begins to giggle, it quickly turning into a fully bellied laugh. she cracks her eyes open to shoot a glare in his direction which only spurs on his laughter.

"and why are you laughing so much sushi?" she deadpans, holding back her own smile. he continues to laugh for a minute before getting ahold of himself and pulling out his phone.

im sorry natto, its just so fucking ironic that right after you nagged me about getting heat stroke again you immediately get it right after

reading what he typed out makes her unconsciously reach out to land a solid punch on his arm, which only accomplished getting him to bust out in laughter again, loosing the hold he had on his hair. "wow inumaki senpai ive never heard you laugh so hard before!" yuuji comments, mouth hanging open at the blatant display. after a few more minutes of laughter from toge they finally manage to get sayaka back to the school and into an air conditioned room. spreading out on the cool floor, she breathes a sigh of relief, eyes falling closed at the lovely feeling. right before she drifts off to sleep, exhausted from the whole ordeal, she feels a soothing hand on her back, courtesy of toge. feeling safe and blissfully cool, she drifts off into dreamland, ready to wake up and potentially be laughed at again at the irony of the situation.

[seth-burroughs]

Hot take incoming but Makoto is one of the characters where everybody focuses on only one of his crimes, which is arguably actually the most justified out of all his actions, while ignoring pretty much. Everything else.

Like sorry but I don't think turning people into food was That Bad considering homunculi need human meat in order to live, they literally die if they don't eat it - it's either A. no humans get killed, and in turn all of Kanai Ward dies, or B. humans die and get turned into meatbuns, and Kanai Ward gets to exist. You could argue that the defective homunculi weren't really supposed to exist anyway but like, they do now so what. Makoto is also a homunculus, of course he probably sympathizes more with the other homunculi instead of the humans (that put them there in the first place) of course he's gonna choose KW over approx. a million humans.

If that was me in that situation I'll do the same thing fuck them bun filling lmao sorry I'm not saying it would be the best choice but it's one literally most people would choose anyway because like. What can you do, it sucks, moving on.

Substitutes for human flesh are possible to create (thank you ramen guy) but it'd require him to seek help from others which would require him to tell them the truth which fuck no. Like in that regard I believe he should be allowed to kill whoever he wants actually!

What actually makes me go 🤨 about him is everything else he's doing. Or not doing - aside from providing food and rain clouds, aka only a portion the bare necessities, he's doing absolutely nothing for Kanai Ward, especially Dohya District. He lives in the most expensive looking penthouse I ever laid my eyes upon, there is so much he could do with all of his billions, like, I don't know, at least unflood the Dohya District do you remember the Dohya District it appeared once in chapter 3 I believe.

Also your city has a poverty crisis the population's like 10% rich bitch working for ✨Amaterasu✨ 90% i live in a sewer i have like 8 shien. Please stop saying you love KW like every othet sentence and actually do something I'm begging you I'm poking you with a stick right now.

Say what you want about Yomi but he was so real for telling Makoto he's not doing shit, only ever instance in rc where the guy is like.... somewhat correct. I was about to say something else but I stopped myself because I have a healthy amount of Fear.

Apparently Makoto's love for all homunculi doesn't extend to Kurumi though, a teenage girl, after he just dumps her along with Yuma in the restricted area for no reason whatsoever, endangering her severely. He also risked her finding out she was eating human flesh for three years straight, the only reason she didn't go into the freezer was because Yuma was there to tell her there was nothing there. There was no reason for Makoto to drag her along to be the audience to his epic showdown with his DNA donor.

I'm not mad at him for that though, that was so fucking hilarious, the fuck?? What is wrong with him <3333

Since I know somebody is going to say that Yomi existing severely limits what Makoto can actually do, which is fair to some extent, but like... Was Yomi holding a gun to his head and telling him he's gonna execute the hostages if he tries to unflood Dohya? Was he? Yomi controls the peacekeepers, he doesn't control where Amaterasu money gets donated. Yomi (and by extension, the peacekeepers - Yomi is, as I see it, the personification of everything wrong with the Amaterasu Corporation cops peacekeepers anyway) can be blamed for a large portion of everything wrong with Kanai Ward, but not the entirety of it; and Makoto can't be, either. Blaming everything on Yomi is not only just wrong, but also the most boring answer possible.

Speaking of -- Makoto didn't even care about all the abuse of power Yomi was commiting the entire time. According to him, "If all Yomi did was throw his weight around, that would have been fine, but [forgot the exact phrasing, but he says him trying to leak homunculus information was where he had to step in]", so you can't even give him points for being a Yomi hater! Sad. Anyway here's how makoyomi worsties can still win

Do I dislike Makoto? No not really. I don't really care about him as much as other people tend to, but he's fun when you let him be his silly (ominous) self. The atrocities are a part of him and I decided they're funny. Actually wait I changed my mind I love him now.

[monards]

sometimes teh hater agenda gets to me. and i need to reason myself away from it

[indi-glo-archive]

the young royals fandom is so fucking weird about sara and i hate them for it

[ruiiplume]

2023 vs 2012

Miwa by Melodeiia redraw

[zukkaoru]

i support women's wrongs but i have to say i'm also a rather big fan of consistent characterization,,

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

New rule here, you use "morally grey Wei Wuxian" in any capacity that isn't sarcastic and you think he is, I'm blocking for my own sanity on sight.

[dedahblog]

Ichigo : Hey what about I get to be your "friend" *smirking* 😏😏😏 (thinks he's sly ((he's not))

Rukia *pins him down on the floor, right knee on his stomach close to his crotch* : No ! Shinigami don't have friend !

Ichigo *pins her down on the floor*: I want to *panting* be your friend.*panting* What's wrong with that ?!

Rukia *staring straight in his eyes not even telling him to get off her*: I don't *panting* need a friend

Ichigo *still on top her glaring looking deeply offended* : what ?*panting* why?

Me:

You have no friends… I can be your friend. A reaper and a human can’t be friends.

[myheartisonthetrain]

ugffhhgghh i hate being this kind of teenager but all my friends have relationships and i want one how tf do you fall in love with someone like sincerely

the only people it feels like i've LOVED have been 🐹 and Mj the rest are definitely something below that, and even then it might not've been real.

i don't mind half-loving someone, in fact it's much less overwhelming and would probably last longer with good communication and compatibility but all the teenagers in the world want PASSIONATE FANTASTY SEX LOVE and i don't really want that my fantasies are like totally different from what i actually want.

now here's the part where i compare the 2 relationships i've been in (trigger warning for uh everything)

with 🐸 i felt really comfortable and close with her, i might not have spoken about my deepest darkest secrets but i loved helping her through her feelings and she loved giving me affection and it was just really cute, we had a pinterest board and a spotify playlist together and we held hands at lunchtime, she never kissed me but i kissed her on the cheek and she said it was sweet

fast forward to now, about a year and a half after she broke up with me, she told me she hid a lot from me in the relationship to keep me happy, that towards the end she felt sick like she was using me because she knew the relationship wouldn't go anywhere and was still leading me on, i guess? it was my first relationship so i had nothing to compare it to but i was distraught after we broke up and i didn't talk to her for ages, which she also said she resented me for a bit (now forgiven) and i went out of my way to make new friends and start fresh. at the time she mentioned about her dad and i thought she had commitment issues and that's why she broke it off but she probably didn't love me in the first place.

she's always flirty with me in some way which used to annoy me because it played with my feelings but i'm used to it now and i don't like her in that way, especially seeing how she is when she actually does love someone. so in short we just love differently.

anyway, those new friends i said i was making? i started talking to 🐻 and a few weeks later she asked me out. i had a crush on a boy but i said yes anyway and if i'm being honest, it turned to hell fast. i didn't know if i loved her and i started to wonder if this was how 🐸 felt in our relationship, but it felt wrong to compare them because of how different they were. being openly trans and autistic, 🐻 was bullied a lot and i became subject to this, i was used to being bullied but not with this level of vulnerability. it reminded me of how it felt to be abused. being open about a lot of things, 🐻 was also open about love, she kissed me in corridors and laid on my shoulder during assembly and held hands in class, she told me all her secrets and that if i ever left she would want to die. people took photos of us kissing and they were spread around the school, i became so paranoid that i felt forced to stay with her because if i didn't it would just be me against everyone in the world. and she also might die. being a csa victim with symptoms of ocd did NOT help this at all and every day was triggering for me, she also told me she had a kink that was *unintentionally* linked to my traumatic experience and that's when i became really really scared of her. i avoided her kisses but felt like i couldn't say no because of how attached to me she was which i could relate to, and all i really wanted her to be was happy. i felt uncomfortable to the point of shaking and they took pictures of this. those fucking sick, inhuman beings, i thought. (because i didn't realise it was my responsibility to set boundaries. and to be fair 🐻 made that very difficult.) they laughed at us, people who were supposed to be my friends, people younger than me, boys, girls, everyone. i was asked about it constantly by people i didn't even know and each time i would have to stop myself from hyperventilating and breaking down completely. i HATED EVERYONE in that relationship except her, and i called that love.

some people would call this abuse, but it didn't feel intentional. it seemed like something she was immune to somehow that she didn't realise was happening and i admired her so incredibly much for that, as well as her ability to be so open and vulnerable and human and i wanted to protect this in every way, but it was always at the cost of myself. so i stopped, i broke up with her (on my birthday), and for a while there was a silence like the ring after a gunshot. she didn't die, i didn't die, i still suffered the paranoia up until very recently but in the end it was just a teenage relationship that didn't work, only heightened because we were both severely unstable. a week later i developed a massive obsession with ß, like all my excess love was poured out onto a poor old man because his eyes were forgiving and i needed to be forgiven. i didn't talk to 🐻 or 🐼 that entire summer and my heart ACHED for ß, even more than it did for 🐹 when we left school. my dad was acting weird for all that time too and i cried every night wishing i was with ß and wondering what he was doing. i felt so alone in a way i didn't know was possible, and the previous summer i'd literally joined an incel forum pretending to be an adult man because i felt so rejected. this time i felt more like the rejector, and like that was the only way to keep myself from being affected so drastically by other people - by pushing them as far away as i could. i still do this which is kind of why this blog exists (trust nobody except strangers because they don't know where you've been or what you really look like) and i'm more than grateful for this corner of the internet. if you actually read all that then thank you and take care ilysm

and yea somehow i'm still best friends with both 🐸 and 🐻 how tf does that work ????!?!??

[coolmedstud]

The Doja thing. She never made her man or any man part of her brand so why would her fans harassing her about it like that and from what I saw he's just an asshole calling him an abuser is pushing it. I don't know sometimes fans just do the most.

[kanansdume]

It's not actually misogynistic to watch a trailer that is actively attempting to trick you into thinking a character might be an antagonist and come away thinking said character might be an antagonist, especially if they've been an antagonist in prior media in the franchise. Yes, even if the character in question is female.

And even if the trailer in question WASN'T doing that, it's not misogynistic to watch a character say something rude and assume they're probably doing so unprovoked when being insensitive and rude to people unprovoked is a known aspect of their personality as set up by multiple prior TV shows they've been in. Yes, even if the character in question is female.

I love that we all heard Bo-Katan say "Your cult fractured Mandalore, where were you" in the trailer and immediately went "wow what a bitch" and the reality of the scene was that Din started it by sitting there calling her a coward and a loser to try to goad her into coming with him to Mandalore so he could regain his honor.

AND she admits that there were MULTIPLE factions that helped fracture Mandalore, not JUST the Children of the Watch. While she doesn't name those other factions, this is the closest we've gotten to Bo-Katan admitting her own involvement in fracturing Mandalore by being part of Death Watch.

So not quite as much of a bitch as she was advertised to be.

[beetlejuicyy]

criston cole is such a female-experience coded character and it is exactly why he is hated so much hear me out

his whole character is built around the idea that rhaenyra seduced him, had taken his dignity and made him feel like her whore. his vow and his duty are close enough to the idea of women's purity and value. you were sullied, you have to marry the man that devalued you, otherwise you are spoiled and unworthy.

on top of that, his identity as a knight, as kingsguard means he is submissive. he is not seen having a lot of opinions or plans to how things are done, the big guys in the council decide and he has to obey to their orders.

on top of that, when he does act at last, it's portrayed in the form of scheming, behind the backs of people, and it's mostly attributed to his sentimental nature, to his inability to think straight, be logical because of his personal feelings. that's how women have been portrayed for centuries.

another thing that makes his character harder to grasp is the choice to have the same actor play the pre-timeskip and past-timeskip criston. 20 years have passed and yet people see him as the same person who refused to be rhaenyra's whore but now he is hypocritical because he is alicent's whore. 20 years have passed and, even if you can't see it on his face, he's bound to have changed too.

in his relationship with alicent he doesn't talk as much. he is obedient, she's the one in charge. she gets to say when and how things happen, he is just at her service.

his entire character is build up to revolve around rhenyra, like women's lives are supposed to revolve around men. if he refuses to acknowledge his status in his youth he is no longer allowed to later (after 20 years mind you) find some sort of comfort in another master. it's like saying "if you say you hate the system why take part in it"?

his pent up rage and hatred is evil, because what happened to him was behind closed doors where no one saw or heard of it. because if they knew of it he would lose everything, exactly the way women have often refrained from talking about their condition in fear of being villainized themselves. in the meantime, the one in power will keep their dignity and spotless reputation like rhaenyra is not even held accountable for having bastards pushed forward as heirs, not to mention the fling she had with criston.

this rant is in no way trying to portray criston cole as a saint or a good guy or trying to justify his behaviour. this is actually the problem with hotd, the effort to draw a line between the good guys and bad guys. have it be either balck or white. it's not, it can't be. you either have complex, morally grey characters with flaws and mistakes or you go watch marvel or something. even there villains are more humanized than in this petty effort of righteousness.

LE: thank you everyone who mentioned the aspect of criston being a man of colour from dorne and the power dynamic between a royal and a lower born who fought his way into the world! this rant was written in a rush and while i couldn't express the latter as eloquently as most of you in the tags/comments, i completely overlooked the former. i love looking through everyone's tags and comments and seeing your takes. as @jazzyclarinet pointed out in the comments, seeing criston's character in this light does not erase or diminish the injustice other women in the story experience.

on another note, i feel like part of the blame is on the way hbo marketed the season with the pressure to pick a side. however, i think what we've been lacking as a society in the post covid years is actual unbiased analysis of art. swallowing up content without any question and making said content a personality trait is harmful. as i said, i don't like criston as a character, but i can make these points about him simply because i watch the show critically and i don't blindly defend a character while trashing another.

[idolsummons]

hana's thinkin about how fun it'd be to be in a relationship w/ a demon and like. her family wouldn't know about it but if they did they'd certainly be very upset and fearful and probably disown her tbh

[dnangelic]

it's a non-answer , and there's nothing more that he can give . ( nothing more that either of them could have done . ) instead , always , again and again , it is what it is , and he too was what he was ; wasn't what he wasn't .

' ... pfft . ha , you could have been a scholar instead of a fighter , sakura . ' a prodded , sarcastic murmur . for a knuckle-headed delinquent , sakura could be too sharp . yet the great phantom thief only sighs , reluctant to say anything more , the heavy press of his eyes watching his company move about , himself as faraway yet faintly curious as a black cat .

( --- or a fresh bruise . )

what did it matter whether anything was personal or not ? when did good intentions outweigh the insult and injury of an act ? ( i don't want to hurt anyone becomes i did and i have . ) she says that she gets him : and did she ?

( ... could anybody , even ? )

their worlds ; the very roles of their lives were entirely different . to something like him , she was still pure and rough-tilled as the spring hidden away into her name . a little sun , rain , and the rich loam of care would cure her of anything , even the drenches of blood at her roots . meanwhile , his own winters harbored no such flourish . mountains of ashes beneath his ice ; such little hope , and to no end in sight . the soft snows of his lies , the muffled pound of his twin heart ... he buried and kept each hidden like an intimate , private grave-stone .

( --- something sacred . )

silence shrouds him as swift as a blizzard . if he has any sort of answer to the question of the present , then it wasn't for him to try to express . the seconds ticking by in existence were no more belonging to him than was the slow age and impending rot of his body . ( this body . daisuke's body . ) even less lay his claim upon any sense of desire . ( his all-too human loneliness , which brewed an all-too human longing , that could , over the long and unbearable course of centuries and centuries stale and fester into an all-too inhuman loathing . )

' ... try it , huh . ' for once , his sentiments appear crystal clear , instantly legible across his expression . the wince in his eyes , the stiff cut of his sharp-toothed simper : it's impossible . wholly , utterly . true , for ordinary people , sakura's methods may very well have found a generous success . strangers could become friends , and those friends could come to readily love and support one another . yet who would have spared sympathy for a wild beast and wretched phantom like him ?

monstrous , criminal , a merciless curse ; that which should have not been only cold to the touch but similarly cold-blooded --- this country , if not the wide world at large already knew his name and recognized it just as readily as something damned . of course sakura wouldn't have known , oblivious to his overwhelming , overpowering reputation and therefore just as blind . she knew him merely a thief and loiterer and forgave ; promptly hid him as exception , even while her supposed loyalties did , could not .

his worse proofs too , he thinks , resided within a reality like that .

( the truly wicked should not have wanted outside of their suffering . )

--- and yet , the lent warmth still arrives . sunken away into the deep shade of his thoughts , the soft cloth takes him by surprise . it's shock and rescuing instinct that spurs his fingers to gently touch and clutch at the material , clinging to it briefly bewildered , his expression owlish all the way up until there's nothing more but sakura's back facing him .

( ... her . it was just her . )

speaking encouragements , presenting a soft-hearted kindness that he never could have expected ; never from her , but because of him . out of sight and left with nothing but her ambivalent turn away from her own invested statements , his cheeks turn rose-red with a deep flush . the hard , protective shell of ice that had fast followed her various shoves and slaps starts to fracture , chipping away in some places , thawing away and running in others . his heart starts to pound --- he shuts his eyes and briefly listens to the live , quickening thump-thump-thump of his pulse in his ears ; what live , frantic summer-drum he had , if only briefly , forgotten .

' ... sakura . ' one step . another . he makes no hurry of his following her , elated as he speechlessly accepts her resting invitation , happy just to be happy if only in this brief moment , pained proportionally if only by his very own doubled necessity to avoid and smother . the marble chill of his hands remains as it were . and yet , warmth floods instead in a seep into his voice --- so soft and tender , it could have been mistaken for another's .

' thanks ... thank you . '

the banal cruelties are forgotten . forgiven . he clings to the blanket around him instead , burying himself up to his neck in its scent and texture , making himself all the more comfortable in what small place he had already inevitably come to consider a safe nest . ( each antic / each argument / each delight --- always drawing them closer and closer in the end , somehow . )

' no matter what anyone says --- ' and no matter what happened too in her own future , ' you've got a good heart . '

a ripe and beautiful red .

' so ... take care of it for me . '

even now , he graciously leaves stage --- exits right as sakura holds the door open for the both of them , keeping folded his black wings .

Her arm goes to shoot up, to push his hand back—but it’s gone faster than she can do it and; and...

And nothing. Because the sensation was gone just as quick as it came.

Her spine is still shuddering, but she still never meant to do it. And his silence, even if it does go broken by him even before his hand is on her head; is it from her reactions, or just something else...?

Well. Whichever it is.

“It’s not frettin’.” Not to her, she’s just—she means...

Or, rather, she doesn’t.

Urgh.

“And I—It’s just, it’s not personal. I don’t mean or wanna do it.” Because it isn’t, it really isn’t, and she wants to hammer that point in. “So...”

She has no problems saying sorry, but would Dark want to hear it? Would it be okay for him to; would it be okay for her her to say it?

(...wait, does she even have to say it outright?)

(Her storage closet is just a step or two to her left, at Dark’s own right; there’s somethin’ in it, somethin’ that may help all her points.

Or, at least, she hopes they do.)

She glances back at him, though, with a look she hopes doesn’t give her thoughts away too much; studies him like that, for a second, to just digest. Whatever it is he’s thinking, she can never know for sure—and what he says, too, may not even be what he really wants to, and definitely not all. But that’s okay; she’s always just tried to respond in the ways she knows how.

“...that’s a non-answer.” Bold-faced, coming from her, once again. “But I get it, in a way.”

Haruka herself, after all, has things she can’t help—a lot of them, in fact. If they just swapped out the word temperature, most of them could go said though there’s a lot of them that can’t be, too.

Continuing on, she moves off to her storage—keeps the door open, though whether Dark feels like following all of two steps is really up to him. She knows approximately where the thing she wants is, anyway, so she shouldn’t be long.

“Maybe in the long run it can’t be helped—but wouldn’t even just something for now be okay?”

She’s curious, genuinely wanting to know what he thinks—now, after all, just means any time him or her or anyone else’d be aware of the present. Now could mean anything, at any time, because most things work up until they don’t.

“‘And if you’re lonely...’”

She doesn’t make the ‘you’ personal, tries to keep the inflection of it casual, as she dredges up a memory past: Of a conversation about looking the people who’re willing to look in your eyes yourself, about how they’ll wait there until you do. She’d done it almost immediately, that time, but for somethin’ like this...

“Well, I’ve heard that the right people will come along eventually.”

Here in Makochi, at least, they will; there seems to be someone for everyone, here. The town, home to some of the kindest, most welcoming people she’s ever met in her fucking life. And that’s where Dark is too, now—even with him being the Phantom Thief, even with his mere presence being a counterpoint to what Makochi’s guardians stood for...Haruka’s sure that, if people just got to know him a little bit, they’d understand.

She did, after all—if only to a certain degree, maybe, but it’s substantial. It’s a lot. To her, it’s everything, even when she insists otherwise.

“Even if you’ve been waiting a long time, there’ll be people who come around that just, yanno. Get it. Get you.

“Or, sometimes, they’ll learn to, and then they’ll be with ya for everything; not just the good stuff.

“...sometimes, though, you can even find’em, too.” Even when you don’t realize you were looking; even when you don’t realize you have.

“But, to wait a long time, or to have been waitin’ awhile—it makes that shit scary. So it’s not like there’s a need to rush. You should just...try it, sometimes.”

But, man, something like this—it could be crueler, really, than anything else she could say. So she does what she (hopes she) does fairly well; she switches the topic.

“In any case—I’ve just never liked being cold myself, I guess.”

An explanation he did not entirely ask for, but one she offers up anyway, as her fingers bunch into the thing she’s looking for. As she pulls it out, she lets her words linger for only a moment before she adds, “So I don’t like it when anyone else is, either.”

It worries me. You’re hiding something, and it’s hurting you.

Are you okay?

Would you tell me if you were?

Questions she doesn’t think she could handle asking—any possible answer being one she doesn’t think she could handle either hearing or not, despite wanting to press on the thing that hurts. It isn’t good to keep that in, she’s learned, and she wants so badly to just get Dark to say something, but—

She won’t. She’s not cruel enough to force him; she isn’t as merciless as she tries to seem. So she doesn’t voice them, and instead backs out of the little room to throw what she’s grabbed up and around Dark’s shoulders.

A blanket—just thinner than the comforter on her futon (the one the two of them have lain back-to-back in for who knows how long, who knows how many times, by now). It was a thank you from one of the older women up the street, hand-delivered after Haruka had cleaned up her driveway and repaired a leaky faucet for her in two consecutive days. She isn’t sure if the woman made it herself or just bought it on a whim, but she’s held onto it since. She’d intended to bring it out only during winter, when her shitty place was sure to be colder than ice.

...if it’ll warm him up, though, then that’s reason enough to do it now. If only because she doesn’t know how well trying to warm just a hand worked.

She’s at her limit, though, and not just with being touched, so she doesn’t look him in the eye as she does it; as soon as the blankets around him, as soon as it’s secure, she drops her hands down to her sides. She doesn’t mean it as offense, and it’s all she can do to not take a step back.

(She doesn’t want to break...whatever this is, for once. Not just yet.)

“Then again, this’ all just me talkin’, though.” She shrugs, her arms coming to cross over her chest. “So who knows anythin’ about anythin’.

“In the meantime...I guess even you an’ I can chill out enough to do somethin’ like this.” Finally, a verbal observation of just how this night has affected her (hilariously, though, it’s one she means to keep mere thought, with the words just slipping out of her mouth instead). She may not be looking at him, and there may have been some brief seconds of panic, but...

Overall, it wasn’t bad. It isn’t.

(One day, though, if you can ever trust me enough, and if you want to...then you can tell me about whatever it is. Or don’t—it won’t kill me to not know.

Just know that I’m here, and will be, anyway.)

“I’m gonna lie down now, though.” She says, already turned onto her heel and with a hand on the doorway. She’s tired, so much so that she’s been stifling yawns for a little while now; if he is, too, then she won’t keep either of’em up any more. “You comin’?”

(An out, though, is still offered up; just in case things are too much now. It won’t hurt her if he takes it.)

[xenodile]

"Shuro loves Falin for the same reasons he hates Laios" Completely and utterly wrong, could not be further off base.

I get the impression a lot of people watching Dungeon Meshi as it airs, or are a bit removed from its original manga run, have forgotten that Laios and Falin being monster freaks wasn't actually apparent until the events of the story. The only person that knew Falin loved monsters as much as Laios was Marcille because they were best friends at school.

Once Laios and Falin were in an adventuring party together, they both had public facing personas because they had both learned through their separate upbringings that being super interested in monsters and dungeons wasn't normal. Laios is the blunt but well meaning, outspoken and opinionated guy we all know, but Falin was way more withdrawn and soft-spoken, non-confrontational, easy to get along with. Everyone that interacted with Falin would say she's a sweet, gentle girl that everyone likes. Because she was, frankly, kind of a doormat.

The whole thing with Toshiro's infatuation with Falin is he doesn't actually know her. She is outwardly very polite and reserved, and that appeals to Toshiro because it meshes with his cultural sensibilities and how he was taught people are supposed to behave. Then he sees her marveling at a caterpillar in a private moment and decides on the spot that she's the ideal woman and proposes without actually talking to or getting to know her.

And his lack of understanding of Falin as a person is brought to the forefront in every action he takes after she gets eaten. He leaves the party and makes no attempt to contact the two people that Falin loves the most. Whether it's a matter of him just not knowing how much Falin cares about her brother and Marcille, or actively avoiding Laios to rescue Falin himself, he's demonstrating that he doesn't actually know what's important to her or understand how she feels.

Then when he meets Laios's party on the lower floors and they go over what happened, it's made even more blatant that Toshiro's affection is shallow and half-baked. He came into the dungeon a week too late and neglected his health the whole way down, so he was in no state to actually try and save Falin when he got there. When Laios talks about eating monsters, something Falin was thrilled about, Toshiro is disgusted. He threatens to kill Laios and turn Marcille in, which would never fly with Falin. His anger at the use of black magic is entirely based in his selfish idea of Falin being tainted and blaming Laios and Marcille for "ruining" his attempt to rescue her, as Kabru points out that Toshiro would have done the exact same thing in their shoes and that he's being a hypocrite. To say nothing of how he'd rather kill Falin after she's been transformed and "put her to rest" rather than put any effort into saving her, because that would require further involvement from Laios and Marcille and methods that Toshiro doesn't approve of.

And there's the fight he has with Laios, and Toshiro's subsequent confession that he had hoped to just take Falin home with him. He at no point gives consideration to what Falin feels or what she might want, only what he has decided about her based on the most surface level observation. Just like how his problem with Laios arises from his refusal to just talk to him about his boundaries, he has no actual connection with the woman he claims to love because he just wouldn't actually talk to her.

Like it's not a coincidence that every time his attraction to Falin is brought up, another character goes "yeah he's being weird about it".

[acid-ixx]

I hope you don’t mind but I need to ramble this to someone, neglected Wayne reader right? The fam would forget to bring them to social events and whatnot right? So there would be very few pictures, articles and interviews or even facts about them, meaning that reader Wayne is a rarity. Still following me? Reader Wayne with a small but devout fanbase.

I’m talking they are trading the latest pictures and sharing links to the rare interview with reader in it, following any social media they have that isn’t private, they are just fascinated by this micro celebrity that seems to always be forgotten. Okay but also imagine one of the heroes developing a para-social attachment to reader. My money is on Conner Kent, mainly bc he can project his own issues with his dads onto reader and he can Dolores ~Encanto~ reader with his super hearing and develop a even bigger parasocial obsession with them

I hope you enjoyed this ramble, I will leave you be now, see ya later alligator! 🐊

omg another one of my asks that actually predicted a major plot point... this ask ties well with the last part written here. i'm thinking about having the reader get a love interest/s but i have already written an outline but one thing is for sure—

you have more than just your family interested in taking you.

major spoilers below the cut. — an excerpt from chapter xx

(name) wayne may have been a name forcefully deleted off of the face of the internet, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its conspiracies of its own. nobody knows who you are beyond the blurry, unsolicited pictures of you. it may have been a photograph of your back, or articles published in unknown websites and buried at the far end about a kid entering through the fancy gates of the wayne manor.

you are a product of a one-night-stand.

but they don't know who the mother is, don't know your age, or where you come from, and what business bruce has with the woman to guarantee your adoption at the instance she had disappeared without warning.

your existence was a mystery most would like to solve. after all, it was your picture that was plastered all over the newspapers and articles, it was your name that journalists whisper and it was a silhouette of your face that the underground knows by heart. every known information about you was shared discretely yet efficiently like some sort of virus.

you were a target for interest, a large sum of money if they will. and alfred had taken it in his hands to make sure there would never be a repeat of what had happened before.

it was a clumsy mistake, one that cost you your memories, and one he swears on his life he'll never make again.

the first course of action he needs to arrange, which may seem difficult for most; he needs to confront bruce.

after all, your freedom is your doom.

maybe this is out of the picture, but id' like to imagine you and connor having a therapy session where one comes out absolutely obsessed with the other, and it's not you.

connor's character for me is so, so good for an angst potential. it's like his personal struggles is a way for him to show you how absolutely you two are meant to be. and he may have met you through bumping into you (false) or maybe... he has seen you stalking through the shadows back when he visits the manor. using his superhearing, he can hear your voice from the kitchen begging alfred to relay a message to bruce, sounding so absolutely desperate. it's the way you tell alfred how you wished your father actually spends time with you, or how nobody seems to notice you— that he kind of just makes a silent promise that he will talk to you soon, he needs to know why this family seems so keen on ignoring and how hypocritical tim is for literally doing the same thing to you when he's aware of kon's past.

if he (or anyone else) should be a love interest (though he is a minor character in the series unless you guys want him to be a major one), i can already imagine the absolute hell you have to suffer not only from your family but from your own lover. just imagine the stockholm syndrome or the delusions you convince yourself with because you're finally loved by someone but that love restricts you from the very freedom you tried to build.

the batfamily would be so conflicted because why are you choosing some stranger over them...? then you slap them in the face with, "well, this "stranger" wants to kidnap me and lock me up, sure! but at least they actually looked at me for more than five seconds!" and you can watch how the color drains off their face, their conflict giving you the perfect opportunity to run away from both your ex-family and your soon-to-be-kidnapper-lover who thinks your comeback is a funny way for you to propose.