#so I have no idea how to properly interact with everyone except give things they like. regularly check on them. talk daily??

[starryrock]

Gays 🤝 Lesbians

Looking at Alex and Haley and thinking “I’m breaking that closet.”

[pikahlua]

Ahhh I meant to ask, if you do end up giving thoughts on the leaks, I would LOVE to know your thoughts and this epilogue’s endings for bakugou (obviously!) and ochako as well.. in detail pls hehe

Everyone and their dog apparently wants my thoughts on the chapter, and I have to say I just don't wanna give them in the detail people seem to crave. Look, the chapter is meh. It's just meh. There are some cute things that happen in it and it seems that's at the expense of consistency in the story. They clearly didn't think about the things they were implying hard enough. Oh, Izuku and Ochako just didn't fucking interact for 8 years after high school but NOW Izuku wants to talk more? What about Ochako's school program with children that seems RIGHT UP Izuku's alley? They're both practically pursuing the same thing but apparently never breathe each other's air. Despite not thinking about each other for literal years apparently they're still attracted to each other, which, why? What are they attracted to? They're entirely new people now, they're meeting as adults with quite a few years missing between them? Oh, here's the rankings but also we're gonna give a throwaway line about how they're volatile and useless bUT STILL WE'RE GONNA GIVE YOU THEM. THEY DON'T MEAN ANYTHING ACTUALLY BUT HERE THEY ARE. Okay let's just imply Himiko is going to be Ochako's voyeur for life.

But worst of all is the weird idea that this is somehow the logical conclusion of the story that came before it. A conclusion should cap off the themes of its story and MAYBE introduce a new question to ponder. The story should LOGICALLY lead to the conclusion. But this conclusion basically turns around and says "Things change when you're an adult. You'll be a totally different person and maybe have new dreams. Except also you may not. Life is normal and boring and dreams sometimes die." What? WHAT????? Where's the theme of service to others? Where's the theme of heroes inspiring the next generation? Why are we implying heroes who are too good at their job will force their job to become unnecessary and die out but then try to prove no wait heroes are still necessary because sometimes people get weird urges to steal cars? What? Whatttt??? So heroes just exist now to be the quirk police basically. This is what all those kids were growing up to be? That's a weird implication after a whole story where the entire adult generation showed a VERY DIFFERENT AND MORE ADMIRABLE BRAND OF HEROISM (except for those that didn't, which was far more interesting than whatever this is). So the future of heroes AND villains is banality? Petty useless shit?

This is why 430 was such a good ending chapter. It DID showcase heroism in a mundane setting that actually had meaning and impact and inspiration. It made Izuku's adult life look like a fulfillment of his dream just in a new way.

In 431, Katsuki Bakugo is the only major character that shows a connection to the story that came before. He's the only one that still dreams of heroism and unity and inspiration, and he still thinks about who Izuku is deep down and resolves to save him from his stupidity AND SUCCESSFULLY DOES IT. He's the only one that resembles the heroic ideal that All Might supposedly instilled in everyone's hearts. MAYBE Ochako does too, but it's for a brief flash and then suddenly we're back on the mundane train (pun not intended) in a bad way.

And Shouto. Shouto can stay because he's the only character who PROPERLY introduces the question of "more to a hero than heroism" in the ending as a conclusion that introduces a new question, but it just...doesn't lead anywhere. I could see a potential path for that to have led the chapter somewhere meaningful, but it didn't.

So I maintain Katsuki is standing there watching on as the only character thinking about how the fuck to inspire people to be heroes again.

In summary, if I consider this the actual conclusion to the whole story, it's ass. I don't want it. It's useless and almost condescending. It's like the chapter is shaming me. How dare I enjoy the 430 chapters that came before, how dare I dream and feel inspired, how dare I expect anything of the concept of "hero" introduced by All Might and then the next one introduced by Izuku? But if I consider it an extra DLC bonus omake what-if didn't-think-too-hard-about-this-I'm-just-spitballing-and-having-fun-or-whatever side comic, fine, whatever, the mundane banality it wants to be succeeds, because I'm bored and I'm ignoring it. I'll have fun with it in fanfic maybe if I feel like it, but I ain't tying this shit into the themes of the actual MHA story. It doesn't belong there.

If that all sounds like more than you bargained for with your ask, it's because I received 30 other asks all wanting me to expand on these points, and so I decided to consolidate them all here. It's just too many asks for me to respond to individually. If I don't answer your ask, random anon reading this, it's because I consider your ask answered well enough.

[sweetkpopmusings]

hyunjin coworker headcanons <3

a/n: i am determined!!! to finish this series of hcs asap asap asap...so hopefully that happens lol. truly obsessed with the idea of coworker!hyunjin, so i hope you are too :-) pics not mine <3

content: fluff, nonidol!au | wc: 0.9k | warnings: none really! | pairing: coworker!hyunjin x gn!reader | requests: open

office heartthrob!!!

who is a painfully huge dork <3

you learn this immediately. like so quickly that you get whiplash lol

on your first day you witness someone looking absolutely magnificent as they strut through the office

but, right before you can be properly intimidated, he trips on the carpet and acts as though he is having a heart attack even though he catches himself before he falls

who said being dramatic is unprofessional???

not hyunjin that's for sure 

you’re torn between laughing hysterically and asking whether he’s okay, and because of the first-day jitters, your brain manages to construct “you’re funny and okay?”

hyunjin just stares at you, and you’re ready to pack up your things, change your name, and move to a brand new city because why was THAT what i said?! 

then hyunjin cackles, managing to confirm that he’s okay once he wipes the tears from his eyes 

needless to say, 9:30-9:35 a.m. on your first day was quite eventful

from that very first interaction, hyunjin thinks you’re the funniest person on the planet 

the number of times he has fallen out of his chair after you made a joke has convinced the whole office of your comedic genius too :,-)

if hyunjin hears one of y’all’s coworkers repeating your joke, he’ll immediately step in and correct their delivery if it falls flat compared to yours which, in his opinion, it always does

you try to convince him to stop because people could get annoyed, but hyunjin stands firm in the fact that being the most annoying person in the office is worth it because he’s defending your honor :-(

like seriously he’s so dramatic for no reason but it’s his charm <333

it’s lowkey an office tradition for people to buy custom paintings from hyunjin around the holidays

he doesn’t mind the extra cash and he loves getting more practice, especially since people will request things outside his comfort zone

seeing as you’re special and “cooler than everyone else here, except for me, of course,” hyunjin gives you one as a surprise because he’s so thankful to have you at work and in his life <3333

hyunjin practically melts into the floor when he sees how excited you get after unwrapping it :’-)

you obviously display it proudly at your desk for everyone to see and be jealous of

and hyunjin blushes a bit and smiles really big (even if he tries to hide it) every single time he sees the artwork on your desk :,,,-) he’s simultaneously so proud and so honored

trust and believe that any gift you give him will be enshrined on his desk FOREVER

even if it’s a napkin with a drawing from a time you two went to a nearby coffee shop on your break, hyunjin cherishes it more than anything 

he gets it framed so it is protected from “the elements” whatever that means in an office lmao

sometimes he tries to correct you if you’re working on a project together and gets SOOOOO smug and then after fifteen minutes of gloating you look at him and quietly say “hyunjin…”

and he’s standing there like 🤨

when you tell him what the actual answer to the question is,  the man is CRUSHED to find out that he was wrong

almost every time he says, “there goes my dream of being the smartest person in the office”

as soon as you remind him he’s the most stylish and gorgeous person in the office, his pout disappears and he looks at you like 😁and boom! embarrassment at being a little dumb is gone forever

speaking of stylish

hyunjin loooooooooooves shopping with you for work clothes

weather’s changing?? hyunjin has sent you a calendar invite for a post-work shopping trip! work event coming up??? hyunjin has booked a conference room during the workday for you two to plan out your outfits!

he’s down to shop at any store you want, whether it’s high-end or thrifting

even if you can’t find clothes you like, there’s nothing more fun than putting together outfits for each other and cracking up during your fashion shows

any time hyunjin wears an outfit you helped him to create, he mentions it every 5-10 seconds

like so much so that people are coming up to compliment you for your fashion taste 

and you’re just sitting at your desk like ???? thank you ???

it all makes sense when you see hyunjin wearing the sweater vest with teddy bears you begged him to try on

if you’re wearing something he picked out for you, he will walk around to literally everybody and ask, “wow! doesn’t y/n look amazing today?”

he’ll also say to you “whoa! whoever told you to get that has impeccable taste”

you always tease him by saying you can’t remember who you bought it with LOL

he feels so proud to know you that he brags about you all. the. time. 

not just about your fashion–hyunjin thinks absolutely everything about you should be celebrated

there is a y/n fan club at your work and hyunjin is the founder, president, and outreach specialist <333

while he mostly expresses it by teasing you, he thinks you are incredibly smart, talented, kind, funny, beautiful, and perfect in every way

on the morning of your 1-year work anniversary, you find your favorite drink on your desk with a card next to it

in the card is a handwritten letter from hyunjin, outlining all the moments he has loved spending with you over the past year, as well as messages of encouragement and wishes for many more special, shared moments to come 

while you two met because he almost fell flat on his face, hyunjin can’t think of a better thing that has ever happened to him at work because, if he wasn’t so clumsy, he may never have bonded with his favorite person in the world (you <3333)

[only-omo]

i know this has been said before but can we really go in depth on this

characters who are so incredibly skilled at pretending they dont have to pee that no one has any idea until they are suddenly wetting

characters who are actually almost painfully perceptive, but even they are shocked into silence as their friend just randomly starts peeing like its cool

and of course its only sudden to everyone else, poor victim themself has actually spent the past hour at least, if not more, doing everything they can to not flood themselves on the spot, but not anything that could give them away even slightly, so the desperation felt would be crazy extreme

they would probably start slowly leaking at some point, as they arent doing anything (except for mostly futile muscle clenching) physical to help them hold at all, and at that point theyll probably switch from trying to properly hold it, to just trying to be discreet about it. trying to hide any growing wet spots, trying not to go despondent and stay engaged so that people dont catch on, literally holding conversations as urine slowly runs down their legs and not really doing anything to stop it, but just trying to keep it slow and quiet, and above anything else, keep any clues of whats happening out of their expression and body language.

maybe they manage to be discreet the whole time, and no one ever even finds out what happened right in front of them.

or they manage to wet discreetly, but completely throw everyone off at a slightly later point, when someone suddenly notices their soaked pants, and cannot recall the last time any of them interacted with any liquids that could have potentially spilled, so they inquire. and now the victim can either come up with some poor excuse that maybe people probably dont believe, or they just come clean, rather sheepishly despite their nonchalant demeanor about it, that they did, in fact, piss themself, and it was actually a few minutes ago that it even happened

or they manage to kinda hold on despite leaking, enough to stretch their bladder to its proper limit, leading them to have a very noticeable, rather loud accident. maybe for some reason everyones attention was already on them, for something simple, like being asked if they want to order a drink or stuff like that, but they can no longer keep up the act, starting with just a long nervous pause, no one else able to figure out why the question asked poses such a conundrum to them.

after a long-ish moment, the victim would mutter out something, maybe an apology, maybe just weak noises of defeat, as the floodgates finally break, and they start wetting forcefully and messily.

theres something about more public wettings, especially if not even slightly anticipated, that is just the most thrilling. it can get to be so humiliating that it makes even me, as an omo enthusiast, cringe with embarrassment. but its the fact that, no matter how much anybody cringes, there is nothing that that person can do to stop what is happening. it is their reality and they have to deal with it as it is, even when its so humiliating it feels stupid

and you know that this kind of accident would be at the peak of max embarrassment, it doesnt matter if the people around them are understanding or mocking or what, the sudden attention on the one thing theyd been trying to avoid will send their brain over the edge of functioning, and the best they can do is just hide their face and wait for someone else to do something

[runabout-river]

Thoughts on JJK chapter 271 - the last chapter (spoilers)

I did a live reading of this chapter you can find here if you're interested how my panel per panel thoughts progressed while reading it 😄

This very last chapter we start where we left off in ch 270: with the mission where the woman can't see the face of her boyfriend correctly anymore.

The first year trio are hard at work thinking through their options on what to do and how to pull that curse user out of hiding. We get a new sort of funny faces from the idiot duo, for them at least, I think these faces appeared in the Kenjaku/Takaba fight as well

The trio enacts their plan now and they catch the perpetrator really fast. Nobara does some funny yet unnecessary property damage in the process and we first get a cool panel of her and Yuji together than another silly panel of them not able to see their faces properly.

The perpetrator btw is a no name never before seen character created just for this mission so the guys can have one last low stakes adventure together.

We get a Gojo flashback giving Yuji a talk, saying his students should become better than him and forget him too, at least one of them. It isn't out of character for Gojo to say that but the placement and the build up for it is somewhat unsatisfying.

Yuji shows how he internalized Gojo's last words by encouraging the criminal to be better.

We get a cool Megumi pose with Kon after he showed us why he was the brains in the group but unfortunately that's basically it for him. Even though he was possessed and tortured by Sukuna for a month there is nothing left of that on him except superficial scars.

When Sukuna took him over Megumi was turned into an object meant to suffer. Now it feels like he's still that: an object but this time meant to be happy in a forcefully conflict free way.

When the readers believed in the dream theory, elements like that was where our thoughts came from. This forceful happy ending for everyone, a genre shift from what JJK had been at this point 🤔

Now we get a surprise Mahito and Sukuna interaction in the space before souls move on. Their conversation is interesting as is the reference to Sukuna's past and what he chose for himself.

In a way it was always apparent that Sukuna was bullshitting the people around him when he talked about himself and what others should do and not. For me it was the speech he gave to Yuji after possessing Megumi about how Yuji should stifle his misery because he was born low.

That immediately stood in stark contrast to what he later said to Kashimo about being born unwanted and cursed because now he admitted that he was in Yuji's position once too and still he developed that insanely arrogant self image.

My problem here is that this interaction references things that were not implied before like what his two paths above were supposed to be. Every time I look at that I get new ideas on what it could've been he's talking about.

It's good to have room for interpretation on someone's backstory. But to this degree it's just confusing. I thought the woman on the left is his mother, others said it could be Kenjaku or Yorozu. Whoever that is, the meaning of what Sukuna says changes drastically here.

His relationship and history with Uraume is also insufficiently explored. This scene unfortunately does not have the emotional impact it could've had if Gege had planted the correct seeds previously.

Sukuna walking away from the curse that represents human hatred however is meaningful. That part was halfway build up during the Yorozu fight when Sukuna said he would be willing to accept defeat.

We get the end of the manga the way it started: with Sukuna's last finger back in a box in a small shrine. It's poetic but the path towards it, these last chapters and the last arcs...

...it felt underwhelming, not gonna lie. Towards this ending were those unneeded scenes with the NSS and even the majority of this chapter was unnecessary and wasted time. What could've been a better last chapter than this while still hitting all the same beats would've been one solely from Sukuna's point of view.

Sukuna from before his birth, his infancy, his childhood. Showing us the path he talks about here. Giving us a glimpse on what the Calamity was, his relationship with Uraume, showing us why he accepted Kenjaku's offer. Then the canon timeline but all of it from his view. His thoughts on Megumi while he possessed him. Even the talk Yuji had with Gojo could've been shown because of the established resonance between Yuji and Sukuna.

Then should come his talk with Mahito. Then we would've understood and sympathized with it without problems .

We did not need the trio's last mission. The end scene of ch 270 was enough to make us imagine that mission on our own. This chapter could've been about sth with more meaning and the exact ending of it could've still been achieved without problems, all e.g. with Sukuna's last thoughts narrated over the happy faces of Gojo's students 😣

Overall I liked the chapter but I felt like sth was missing from this entire ending. It was safe for Gege to write I guess but it was also boring in a lost potential kind of way...

...and then I see that fucking time on that one panel and I think again about Gege wanting to troll us!

That's the same time we saw in ch 269 and I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. So now I'll make one last fucked up prediction, partly meant to be serious, mostly meant to entertain me these last few hours before the official gets released:

The digital release of chapter 271 is going to be a different chapter than the magazine release.

Why???? Because wtf not?? Shueisha and Gege probably too hate the leaks and don't you think this is only a problem in the anglosphere. Of course the Japanese side distributes these leaks around as well. From one small glimpse I saw, Japanese fans are wondering if JJK was cancelled because of this ending.

It would also fit with the dream theory or just my own thoughts from above about a differently structured last chapter.

So like, why not troll the fanbase? Many of whom have shown with Gojo's death chapter how they can't keep their eyes away from the leaks. Previously my own thoughts had been that WSJ could release final chapters like this exclusively on digital first to nip the leak problem in the bud.

But like, don't take this theory too seriously 😄

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Yuri posting time. These are ships I personally vibe with from what I post about on here.

Higuchi and Gin (BSD): Okay, I'm not sure I can really explain this properly because it's so entwined with the plot of a particular fic I've been wanting to write about them, and I don't really want to spoil where it goes too much? Basically, I love the potential of two characters who (it's implied) got involved with dangerous work for the sake of their siblings. Higuchi's idealized view of romance contrasts with Gin's survival mentality (which is similar to Akutagawa's). At the same time, Higuchi gives Gin opportunities to express different sides of herself. They both work for the sake of others. Okay, so canonically, there isn't a lot there, because there is little exploration of the themes of BSD through these two characters, unfortunately. But, with a combination of "what if I explored the themes through these characters", some influence from O-Gin and Higuchi-sensei's works, and a touch of my own personal brand of "fuck it, we ball, and see where it rolls", I think there's a lot of fun things you can pull at.

Higuchi and Tsujimura (BSD): Not a long-term relationship. They're best friends who had a brief fling and then decided to remain friends. To me.

Wells and Sasaki (BSD): Absolute crack ship that I have not stopped thinking about since you suggested it @lucythejudge. It's so funny.

Meryl and Milly (Trigun): !!! THEM!!! AUGH! They spent!!! Eight months navigating the apocalypse together!!! Milly's smile and presence is enough to help Meryl out of her dark thoughts! Milly is unable to sleep when Meryl is in danger! Milly challenges Vash and Wolfwood when they try to stop her from rescuing Meryl! Meryl has complete faith in Milly to intervene when she has a literal contract killer pointing a gun at her head!!! They're always at each other's sides! THEY!

Coco and Agott (WHA): They give me slight killugon vibes (also maybe lumity - but I've never actually watched owl house unfortunately). Cute and pure. I hope they continue to inspire each other. :)

Theta and Morena (HxH): Saw art for this once. They haven't even interacted. But still, my brain thinks about it and goes ohohohoho

Ann and Shiho (P5R): Ahhh... they want to be strong for each other... avenging Shiho was Ann's reason for awakening... ahhhhhh

Ann and Mika (P5R): I just think Ann's canonical admiration for women who are mean is incredibly funny and so real. Get her a mean girlfriend.

Makoto and Hifumi (P5R): Okay, they hit it off immediately and also I want to see how intense they get over a game of shogi. Everyone quietly backing away from them... lmao. Also I think it's nice because Makoto could understand Hifumi's struggles with expectation and wanting to help her family, and Hifumi offers a familiar setting (intellectual, strategic) with opportunities for Makoto to expand her understanding as well as form a solid connection. They should be best friends at least!

Bonus:

This idea I had for a fucked up polycule that never actually becomes a polycule and is literally just Yosano, Wells, and Mary all being needed for some kind of research, with a stressed Tsujimura as their supervisor. There is... some kind of tension happening amidst the often inadvisable scientific decisions being made. No sex or romance actually ever occurs but there are conversations that sound suspiciously like flirting that usually end in Yosano gleefully hacking at something or someone in her temporary office, Mary nearly downing the entire grid because she diverted all the power to her latest project that then promptly exploded, or Wells vanishing then abruptly and calmly reappearing minutes later with no explanation except "the world will survive another day". Tsujimura is about ready to tear her hair out. The cat thief drops in sporadically to cause extra chaos. This too, is yuri.

[sillygoofyqueer]

I have been summoned by the newest chapter of losing hope :3

Not much happened but I’m taking this as a “I will give you fluff both after and before things go to shit”

Jingyi being Jin Ling’s reluctant friend is honestly pretty hilarious and I can’t wait to see those two start to get close because I feel like that’ll be like “I hate this person with every fiber of my being but if you make him cry there will be nobody searching for your body and no body to find either.” Especially after they realize the type of environment he was in his entire life in comparison to their childhoods. They’re goofy and I love ‘em.

Wangxian being shameless is always amazing (love that it’s LWJ doing it too!) but Wwx missing his sword. Jesus, that made me sad. It’d be interesting to see how suibian communicates with Wwx because in canon we know that the swords have spirits but that’s never really expanded upon. Especially since suibian sealed itself. It’d be nice to see them communicating with their weapons (also imagine suibian mother henning Wwx? Or even Wwx thinking of suibian as a sibling/parental figure? The angst for that would be great especially combined with the scene of Wwx giving away his golden core. Both of them would know Wwx would never be able to properly use suibian again and wow that would hurt. Also I’d imagine since Jiang cheng can also use suibian, suibian does care for him much like Wwx but also it’d be funny if it didn’t particularly like him. Like, the entire time Jiang cheng uses suibian it is fluently cursing at him.)

Jingyi picking up on LWJ pining/flirting is very funny but probably not as funny as it will be when sizhui realizes that A) they’ve both been pining for each other for almost two decades B) 100% they are not in a relationship even if they’re totally shameless with each other and C) they both SOMEHOW have NO IDEA that the other likes them back. The facepalm when that realization sinks in will be funny :3

As always fuck JGY.

Also as always, your writing is amazing four and I wish I could give you more Kudos <3333

Remember to take care of yourself and take breaks!

Just...just picture me holding you close right now. That's it, that's the sentence.

Now, I don't know what you meeeaaaan, there is barely any angst in my fic whatsoever and there will never be anymore angst-...*checks timeline doc*....for nowwww....In all seriousness though, I can't actually remember/decide if there will be any angst next chapter, but oh boy if there was wouldn't that be silly. Wouldn't that be sooo goofy? Guess we'll never ever ever EVER know. I was feeling soft and silly, and this was more of a filler chapter, so I was like, "fluff be upon ye" I guess.

Jingyi and Jin Ling are going to have a very interesting friendship - Jin Ling's been raised differently because Wei Wuxian has kind of been a part of his childhood, so I wonder if that will affect how he builds/views relationships with other people - what do you MEAN I can't foreshadow in my post, who said that?! Anyway, I can't wait to think about it from Lan Sizhui's perspective; dude feels bad for Jin Ling because it is OBVIOUS that this poor guy does not know how to talk to people and if he is befriending what everyone labels as a dangerous criminal, then he is in severe need of friendship. Then there's Jingyi in the background, barking like a chihuahua every time Jin Ling does something that the Lan doesn't like until they devolve into fighting.

Ever since I learned about sword spirits, I've always wondered how Suibian would interact with Wei Wuxian and how they work together. I read one too many SVSSS fics where sword spirits hold a big value in them and it was all downhill from there. Think about it - Wei Wuxian had a lot of people who knew him in Lotus Pier, but he was never truly vulnerable with anyone (except maybe Jiang Yanli, but even then, it wasn't much) because he didn't want to sound ungrateful. So, imagine a Wei Wuxian who found solace in ranting to Suibian. Now imagine a Suibian listening and soothing in their own way. You see my vision, right? Imagine losing that when he needed it the most, during the Burial Mounds. Imagine finally being able to get it back after years of unforgettable trauma and torture, when he desperately needs someone he can rely on without second guessing everything to do with human duality. That doesn't exist with a sword spirit - Suibian just cares.

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 40

hello and welcome to fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

The Heart of the Scorpion by crystalklances

Lance has a big old crush on the school's Soccer Captain, Keith. He tries to deny having a crush even while their every interaction sends his heart aflutter. Romantic horoscopes and secret love letters? Totally not related to Keith. Luckily, heart and stars align to prove him wrong.

i will fucking miss crystalklances every single day of my life he was a PILLAR. i wish he had kept his account and just abaondoned it but im grateful at least that he only orphaned his fics and didnt delete it. he had so much to write about the college scene and soft klance and them being tender and soft and open about it!! he also often gave keith parents and he almost ALWAYS wrote trans lance like he invented the tag!! crystalklances i miss you and this was one of my favourite fics of yours

2. It's Not Spying If You Don't Call It Spying by @jilliancares

Turns out everyone is spying on Lance and Keith's blossoming relationship.

this is truly so goofy and silly and the team is SO so nosy and they need to be involved in 110% of klance's shit. as they deserve tbh. theyre all so annoying and i support all of their crimes

3. i wanna love you (but i don't know if i can) by @rickybowens

So, of course, that was when Hunk had said, "You know, it's really good that we're all friends here. I feel like it always gets awkward when two people in a group start dating, you know?" "Well, I don't think we have to worry about that with this group," Pidge had piped up, "I love you all, but there's no way in hell I'd date any of you." Everyone else had murmured their agreement, except for Lance and Keith, who had shared a look before trying to discreetly scoot away from the other. (Or, Lance and Keith decide to date in secret so their relationship doesn't make their teammates uncomfortable. It goes about as well as is to be expected.)

secret relationship you will ALWAYS be famous. its literally my favourite trope idc!! and this arc made SO much sense in terms of a reason for them to be dating in secret!! i loved how the team was the problem but that was very much not their intention but it made sense why klance was afraid and just...this whole fic was cinema truly i love it so so much

4. Of Pidge, Perception, and Prosecution by @erinnovelist

Of all the paladins, Lance knew Pidge was the one he had to watch out for. The only time her guard was down was after she woke up. She didn’t talk, glasses discarded after long hours staring at a screen, and she couldn’t function properly without her daily cup of coffee-equivalent alien juice. Which was why, when he wandered into the kitchen that morning, Lance hadn’t expected Pidge to zero in on him and ask, “When did you and Keith start fucking?”

teehee this one made me giggle its so ridiculous. and yes i did scroll thru the secret relationship tag again idc its so good!! i love the idea of klance thinking theyre so so sneaky and the whole time pidge is like yeah bitch ive been knew yall aint subtle in the slightest

5. Shifting Rock by @ohcontrary

Shiro is back with the team and things are... difficult, but getting easier. But even as he feels more and more like himself, he notices how his relationships have change. It's possible his relationship with Lance is changed irreparably. Luckily, the mission they go on gives them a chance to talk. But on a trip so perilous, they'll need to pay attention-- It isn't just their relationship that's on shaky ground.

lance and shiro NEEDED to talk fr. if ur gonna pretend the later seasons happened then they needed to CHAT. and what better place to chat then mortal peril and the threat of being crushed to death!! holy metaphors!!

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[misty-wisp]

Curious how Sunny would’ve interacted with like the other headspace versions of his friends? I know we already saw him interact with batsubrey but I’m curious about the others (you can include stranger too if you want) :3

OOOOOH I CAN TALK ABOUT THE REST OF THE TIMESKIP CHARACTERS YES YES YES

okay I'll put this all under a cut just in case I do work on the fic more one day

so for me to properly answer this I'll have to spoil what happened with the other headspace characters, which I can easily do! because that's the first thing I ever thought about in this au!

we already saw that aubrey took over what was left of sweetheart's castle and made it into her own fortress. as for the rest of them, weeeellll...

hero, upon everyone giving up on their search for basil, mari, and omori, went back to his old job at the last resort and eventually climbed the ranks to owner. this is similar to the bossman hero sequence but it's much more gradual than instant like it is in the game. he's corrupted by capitalism, of course, but also by revenge. since everyone got their memories of past loops back, hero's not really fond of omori, just like aubrey. except this time he's convinced he killed mari rather than basil.

so I don't think hero would be very trusting of sunny, either. however! he's a gentleman! so he'd give sunny the benefit of a doubt--by offering him a job to get him away from that monochrome bastard, or. well. trapping him and forcing omori to bet on whether he lives or dies! it's a gamble!

sunny's of course appalled, because this guy is nothing like the hero he knew. he's not even sure if it's possible for hero to act that despicable. with aubrey it was almost expected, but hero? out of the question.

alright, I actually didn't have much of anything planned for kel, but what I do have is this: he left for otherworld to be a space pirate, and also climbed the ranks up to first mate! yay! oh and an old idea of mine (well. my old beta reader's) was that they sometimes raided last resort for the money, but...idk, it doesn't sound right.

anyways! kel's a breath of fresh air compared to the other two, in that he's scared of omori, but really trusting of sunny! they look similar, sure, but they're different people, so it's okay! and on sunny's end...well, it's still kel. good old kel. guy with toooootally no issues.

now that I think about it, that arc could have sunny realize that kel's one to hide his emotions....hmmm....

I think he and hs kel could be sort of friends maybe? if omori wasn't factored into the equation, at least. again, I haven't figured out anything regarding this arc, so a lot's in the air.

basil!!!! basil really looks up to sunny now that he knows he's basically god! and that makes sunny feel really awkward! their dynamic would be so funny, I can imagine hs basil asking all sorts of things about sunny and his reality while sunny's very embarrassingly like "haha,,,, yeah,,,,"

on the other hand, stranger (in their flower form) probably wouldn't let sunny hear them! they don't like that he's all buddy-buddy with omori!!! that guy's dangerous, dreamer! stay away!!!! so all sunny knows is that basil has a talking flower that doesn't like him and won't talk to him. SAD!

[majorasnightmare]

What canon character gets annoyed by dirge? Has dirge ever had to let a canon character down easy? Who would dirge most likely to get a puppy-crush on? (but it can’t be the cc they’re actually shipped with!)

THANK YOU ANONNNN 💜💜💜💜 i love being enabled in my blorbo posting it gives me a reason to procrastinate my real world responsibilities 💜

What canon character gets annoyed by Dirge?

Dirge is often deeply infuriating and only rarely annoying. In practice it actually tends to be Minthara, because Minthara is the only person who makes a point of making Dirge justify his decision making to her, as everyone else will have their own opinions but not really push them. Its part of how they respect each other because despite Dirge relying on Minthara and the power she voluntarily wields over him, he disagrees with her every so often, and refuses to capitulate his opinions just because she holds his leash. It's a fond annoyance though, because Minthara enjoys that he holds his ground against her despite being otherwise submissive, and she knows that she can always push him on it if its something she feels strongly about.

Everyone else either rolls their eyes or gets the full unabashed Fuck You treatment

Has Dirge ever had to let a canon character down easy?

GODDDDD YEAH. YEAH. Act 1 Dirge was very much exploring the social dynamics of Being In A Relationship With Other People and hadn't quite grokked the nuances between platonic, romantic, and sexual affection, so he mimicked a lot of what the others around him were doing, which meant a looooooot of casual flirting. The other companions are looking for their own kind of social fulfilment, but Dirge is still learning the rules, so he gets some lines crossed. By the time Dirge DOES have a better idea of what he wants out of a relationship, hes more or less tripped head over dick into sleeping with half the party.

Shadowheart never really kicked things off after the cliffside wine drinking, Lae'zel was more interested in Dirge's brother Haflidi and less interested in the party bicycle. Astarion and Dirge had a casual fuck buddies situation up until Act 2 where they both mutually figure out they're looking for something more platonic. Karlach and Dirge flirted off and on for a while and after getting her engine tuned up, had a one time friends-with-benefits situation (because homies help homies. always.) and both of them moved pretty squarely into being casually physically intimate friends. Gale caught feelings hard and after a very emotional confession in the shadow cursed lands, Dirge had to very gently let him down because the things they both wanted out of a relationship weren't really things the other could provide. Still fucked him tho cuz gods be damned if Dirge was gonna let a bro go to his death with MYSTRA as his last fuck. Wyll did his storybook romance dance routine and Dirge had to gently let Wyll down for more or less the same reasons as Gale, except Wyll wasn't interested in anything more than an admittedly very nice night in each others company. That one hurt the most because Dirge has a critical weakness to puppy dog eyes.

God this dude got around.

Who would Dirge most likely get a puppy-crush on? (but it can't be the cc they're actually shipped with!)

Dirge had a lethal case of love at first sight with Minthara, which solidified when he got a glimpse of the person beneath the Absolute when Minthara tried to pry into his mind for the Grove's location, and the subsequent mental struggle peeled away some of the cultist veneer. After refusing to kill her while defending the Grove, he genuinely didn't think he'd see her again, and I think he developed a bit of a puppy-crush on Karlach afterwards, especially because he can't physically interact with her, and thus can't properly fix her scent in his mind, and it sticks in his head. It settles into their more casual friendship but i think in the inbetween of the Underdark and the Creche its kind of up in the air

[rabbitindisguise]

I think I'm going to socialize less irl (long vent post under the cut)

I feel like I've tried so hard at the Be Normal And Nourished from Normal Hobbies and Normal Interactions but tbh it just has not worked. I have not become neurotypical in the slightest (well, duh, should have expected that) and I feel like I'm struggling extremely badly with literally everything all of the time. Something has to give and I think "something" is "having more time to relax and reflect because I'm not talking to people 5 out of 7 days a week."

The thing is that like, I want to do what works and feels best for me. But I feel like the outside world can't accept "hermit that mainly does stuff by themselves." The alternative however is becoming what seems to be a huge jerk. No one else seems concerned with this, like they think the jerk-ness is an active choice and not one that arrived organically because circumstances despite my attempts at learning coping mechanisms and things to stop it. People will complain about X behavior (reasonable) and then act totally unconcerned when I'm like "look this is happening because I'm literally at the end of my rope. There's no rope left. I need to get more rope. That is the solution. Eating broccoli, no matter how helpful that is, is not going to give me more rope."

We're supposed to be perfect even when we're miserable is the thing isn't it?? Maybe that makes me a bad person (to fail to do "basic decency" in a bad place) but I'd rather be a bad person and antisocial or whatever than an active jerk while attempting doing "normal." This is a very easy decision to make actually.

I just need like a break. Some time to get it together. Idk.

. . . and like, there's so much to unpack form "be normal."

When I was living with other people, I was obsessed with doing chores properly so no one would have reason to be upset with me (because ADHD fears™), and house organizing was always something I deprioritized as something not worth asking for flexibility on, etc. I couldn't set rules and I couldn't stop doing what I felt was useless but crucially I didn't want to get mad at other people about that. So I tried (failed) to manage myself to make that sort of situation possible.

I'm general "doing normal" is "follow conventional health advice like to talk to your friends when you feel bad." Except I feel bad and it doesn't help. Lose/lose.

Who knows what other stuff I've internalized trying to just Do The Magic Thing to become tolerable. I feel like it's an impossible task and people keep congratulating me for trying but I feel like it's not the thing I want to be hearing tbh. Isn't that what everyone wants, to be accepted even when they don't fit societal norms?? "Thank you for trying to not be your weird self" feels icky. They're just trying to be supportive of what I thought was necessary, I know, I just also didn't pull "do normal" out of my ass- it's everywhere. Everyone seems to have an idea of the basic steps someone who isn't good at socializing should do (shower more, sleep more, eat correct things, do hands on hobbies, join clubs, take leadership roles in organizations, practice self help tips, exist in one community for a long time, talk about what other people are interested in, ask questions, practice active listening, assertive communication, setting boundaries, anger management, venting to friends, doing therapy, doing physical activity, etc etc etc). But no one seems to have any idea that sometimes you're just like this. And by "like this" I don't mean socializing- maybe I'll find a balance of something that will work. No, I mean the thing they think is the key to socializing that everyone should do. I cannot physically do all of them- especially when plenty are contradictory.

It's like weight loss right?? You might feel more alone than ever, feel physically ill, and struggle with constant fatigue- but at least from the outside you look normal! :) you did everything possible to carve away the stuff people blamed your problems on only to find that- surprise!- the problems were unrelated and that was one of the few things that made you content to begin with. Where are people then? What advice do they have when it "works" to satisfy them but the cost is too damn high for you? What explanation do they have when the thing they thought all your problems were the source of does not improve your life in any way? If you're only allowed to have problems if you try to look normal, what happens when looking normal becomes one of your problems? Do they take your word on it, that you tried the normal thing and it was uncomfortable. Do they finally stop pressuring you to do the normal stuff. Do they reconsider their priorities. Or were their "suggestions" from a place of not considering your welfare to begin with?

I guess we'll find out.

[screamsviakeyboard]

I watched Scott Pilgrim Takes Off last night and while I did enjoy it I was ultimately a little disappointed. I thought the idea to focus more on Ramona was cool, and it was fun watching her interact with everyone. While I didn't really personally feel much from her reconciling with her various exes, it was still nice and the jokes and characters were enjoyable enough to watch even if I wasn't emotionally invested. I also think the idea of Scott himself being the ultimate evil ex is fun and feels like a natural direction for the story to take. The animation and fights were neat, although I've been poisoned by sakuga so excepting a brief section of Lucas Lee skateboarding most of it didn't really feel like anything to write home about.

That all being said, my disappointment stems from two main sources of criticism. The first is that the story doesn't do enough to immerse itself in Ramona, and the second is that I don't think the emotional narrative of the story manages to properly impact the final battle between EO!Scott and the rest of the cast.

To preserve your scrolling, I'll go more in depth under the cut.

Criticism 1 - Ramona Doesn't Play Video Games

I think the main culprit is ultimately the video game-ness of the setting. In the original comic and movie this works really well. It attracts nerds who will be able to connect to Scott on that level, and shows us a world fundamentally colored by how Scott sees it. By simply observing this world, we're empathizing with Scott. The evil exes are the bosses of a video game because that's how Scott would see things, and we as an audience, immediately identify them as obstacles to be overcome through battle before he can win the game/get the girl.

The story is able to subvert this to a certain extent by giving Ramona more agency and introducing alternative solutions to these boss battles, but the video game nature never vanishes. We're always firmly grounded in Scott's perspective.

This is a problem for the new series, because the story isn't really about Scott. The main protagonist is Ramona looking for him. However, even when he's not present, his perspective remains. The video game homages continue, with fight announcements, point counters, and the pee gauge all happening around Ramona as she undertakes her journey. Even though none of these elements of perspective are hers.

The story is still perfectly serviceable with these elements. They're cute and charming. I find them relatable. So why am I whining?

Because it could have been more!

Ramona's own perspective goes unexplored, even when the story focuses on her. What interest of hers is comparable to Scott's video games? How does she see the world? How has the media she consumed as a child shaped that? How do her past experiences affect the way she sees future obstacles?

For Scott, you only need to look at the screen and you have your answer, but for Ramona there's barely anything. Her character is still defined as "the girl who dates people." Every flashback she has involves her relationship with her exes, and every action she takes is driven by either a desire to find her new boyfriend or to reconcile with the exes.

What little she does get is only partially there, and is never really touched on by the story, in my opinion. She dyes her hair every episode, she gives people particular tea and sets a timer for it to steep, and she likes Columbo.

That last bit is the closest glimmer we get, and arguably the "whodidit" nature of the show is meant to align with that. Now, I could go on a rant here about how the structure of a whodunnit is actually not present in Columbo, and so the whole thing falls flat on that front, but even if we imagine that it made sense Ramona's detective idiom is barely even able to fit in the same space as the omnipresent video game of Scott. And even then there is also a depth to Scott's video games, there are references to actual things! Reversals, DP inputs, virtual guuy! Ramona gets a notebook, a pen she uses to cross things off, and rough knowledge of when Columbo was on.

While the show is still good and enjoyable, in my opinion this is a huge missed opportunity, and once I realized it was there, I was disappointed it wasn't seized.

Criticism 2 - It Didn't Make Them Punch Gooder

In my opinion, one of the most satisfying parts of having an action adventure emotional journey is the final climax, when your growth as a person gives you the strength to overcome the final challenge. This is often catalyzed as a distinct realization had during the climax, giving the good guys the inspiration or strength they need to reverse a disadvantageous position, and ultimately come out on top.

This does happen!

Ramona realizes she's been running away. Not from what she loves, but from herself loving things. She chooses to embrace her past, present, and future, becomes super Ramona, boops EO!Scott back to his abandoned house, and destroys the A.K. machines to kiss her boyfriend. Woo! Happy End!

Except, what? Why? Where did this come from? How was this a problem when she originally married Scott anyways and they were happy together for at least a decade?

You can argue that this theme was developed. First of all, every time Ramona left one of her exes it was always characterized by a sort of silence. She doesn't want to talk with them, she wants to get out of there. Even when there's nothing about the ex in particular that should make her afraid of confronting them, she still can't even bear to say good-bye.

In addition to this, when she talks with Scott on their date, she obviously tries to avoid discussing the past in any detail. On first glance this is because she has seven evil exes that are going to come try and kill him, and that's probably part of it, but you can make the argument that this is because she doesn't want to talk about herself when she was dating them either. These two things are intrinsically connected, so avoiding one means avoiding the other at the same time.

Finally there's the hair thing. I'll be completely real with you, Ramona dyeing her hair went over my head. I don't know why it's there, really, other than to ground the episodes in her perspective. Scott only sees the different hair, in the Ramona series we see her dyeing it each time. It works for that, even if it doesn't really build to anything other than more hair dyeing. You could make an argument that this also has something to do with her discomfort with herself, but I don't know how much meat is there. Even in the epilogue, she's still dyeing her hair.

So this is kind of there, but it's also kind of not. This is the big realization that wins the day, but it's so subtly included in the rest of the story that I was just kind of confused when it happened. It's also not actually presented as a hindrance in the plot the way Scott's foibles are in the originals.

Ramona doesn't run from anything, herself or otherwise. She would obviously rather not be dealing with her exes, but with the motivation of finding Scott driving her, she doesn't hesitate much at all. Instead the obstacles to her interrogating them are usually external to her relationship with them. Functionally, Ramona's Big Problem isn't a problem at all.

Now, that's not necessarily bad by itself. A more subtle problem that someone is already in the process of overcoming, which then reared its head again ten to twenty years down the road is an interesting thing to focus the climax on. And presenting that problem in the background is a neat idea. But! I don't think it worked for me. I didn't get any catharsis seeing her solve it because it hadn't really made any impression on me.

As a result of that, it made the emotional journey leading up to the final confrontation feel, if not pointless, then at least disconnected.

This wasn't helped by the fact that the climax includes the entire cast of the show, only for everyone other than Ramona and Scott to be poofed out of the fight without meaningfully contributing. EO!Scott isn't beaten by brute force, and none of the other characters even gave Ramona any advice at the end, so, like, what were they even doing there?

The battle between Scott and EO!Scott doesn't even seem to be very connected to their relationship. Scott doesn't seem to understand how he eventually became this person. Which is kind of funny, but means there's no real emotional obstacle for Scott to confront in this either. Scott's not fighting himself, and he's not trying to change the parts of himself that led to this. He's fighting some hairy buff red-eye dude who's coincidentally also named Scott Pilgrim.

As a result of this, a very interesting theme winds up getting muddied and practically lost. The relationship between our past selves and our future selves.

3 - Who I Am Will Be Who I Was

Both Scott and Ramona aren't really going anywhere in the present, Scott has a past he sort of wants to return to (represented by Knives), while Ramona has a past she wants to escape from (the exes), they find each other, and the future inside of themselves together.

In this future, however, they split. Scott spirals back into being depressed and living with Wallace (the past) while Ramona drifts in the present again, looking for the space she needs even while she doesn't communicate to her (very stupid) husband that she still loves him. The exact breakdown of communication isn't delved into, but it doesn't need to be, in fact it's better that it isn't. Just like Scott and Ramona, we can't ever know whose fault it actually was, but the result was something neither of them wanted, and if either of them had been able to reach out to the other one, it would have been something they could have solved.

When she finds out that O!Scott wants to change the past, O!Ramona does her best to ensure that the record of her relationship with Scott remains, even if the relationship itself is lost.

Even though O!Scott is back in his past habits, he thinks that the problem is in his own past and wants to change that, even if it means he loses his relationship with Ramona (ironically, the loss of that relationship is the very thing causing his pain in the first place. He wants to have never had it at all, a return to the true peace of the past.)

Ramona wants to preserve the past, which shows growth on her part. She can know she still loves Scott and accept her past with him, but this growth turns her into a person all the more trapped in the present. She's more willing to adapt a novel into a screenplay, go back in time, and launder it into a movie, than she is to skate over to Wallace's house and talk to the man she still loves. Both characters have found themselves in slightly different, but still eerily similar predicaments to those they faced when they first met.

Scott's disappearance from the present forces Ramona to confront her own past, in the form of the exes, in an effort to find the future she sees in Scott. She reaches out to them and finally breaks the cycle. Then in the future, EO!Scott drags everyone to fight him, eventually forcing EO!Ramona to intervene before he can completely erase their past. The Ramona of the future finally confronts her present in order to preserve her past. But, in the end, she tells her past to give up and skate away. All of this has just been another failed experiment. Don't even bother saying goodbye.

EO!Scott's outburst in response to this finally crystalizes the thing past Ramona has been fighting all along. She doesn't run, the person she was and the person she will be accept that they are one in the same.

Super Ramona can finally talk openly with both Scotts. She tells EO!Scott that he's a mess, but a mess that can be cleaned. There's hope for him. There's hope for them. And while it may not be the ending he was hoping for, EO!Scott goes back home to work on fixing things.

As for present Scott, Super Ramona is finally free from the baggage of the future. She can cross the emotional distance, break the A. K. machines of EO!Scott's regret, and finally, finally, kiss her boy.

Woo! Happy end!

So that's basically what I think the themes could have been. I just think they got muddled along the way and became so subtle the resonance didn't hit properly in the finale. The show somehow almost felt starved for time to me, which doesn't make sense given the length, but oh well. I think with more proper focus on this, and unfortunately maybe less focus on the hijinks of the various exes and side characters, this could have shined through.

Present Scott doesn't really do anything here. But he does get kissed, and we're very happy for him. He already had his story told anyways, and he got to watch the musical of it, so that's probably enough.

[captainlordauditor]

12!

12. Pick up to 7 characters to star in a Teen Titans ongoing (any era or generation you like). What tone do you envision for this series?

oh boy this is a tough one

Gar Logan/Beast "Boy" (he really needs a new name). I'm picking him as team leader. He's the only one of the seven members of the 90s New Titans team who's never really had a chance to lead, and while most of the others have had the chance to explicitly reject the leadership, he hasn't. I think making him Titans leader would be a real step towards letting him grow and become an adult.

Alinta/Bolt. Of the Titans Academy kids, she and the Batpack were the most interesting, and I think it's a real shame the four of them got tossed into the void. There are already 20 dozen speedsters, sure, but Alinta interests me because she doesn't seem to be explicitly connected to any of the others, which is pretty unusual for a speedster.

Cynthia Reynolds/Cynthia Mordeth/G.psy Charlatan. Cynthia comes with a lot of baggage, but a lot of it can easily be fixed just by changing her name. She's underutilized, should be around Gar's age, and I think her quiet thoughtful demeanor would be an interesting play off of Gar's. If I have to assign five man band archetypes to this, then I'm putting Cynthia in as the lancer.

Danny Chase/Phantasm. I'm usually not one for bringing characters back from the dead, but I think Danny can be resurrected fairly easily without breaking suspension of disbelief (it's been like 10 reboots and he literally pretended to be a ghost when he was alive, guys, c'mon), and I think he kind of got a bit of a bad rep for acting like an actual teenage boy. I don't think I'm crazy for saying it's time we reboot him, and since he reminds me a bit of a younger Gar, I think he'd serve well as a contrast for everyone else.

Otho & Osul Ra/Super Twins - they count as one character, right? Whatever, it's still 6 if they don't. Baby Phaelosians who are new to Earth. I don't think I need to explain this one. They're cute kids, they're new. They're here for exposition purposes, and getting-used-to-humans purposes, and being-adorable-on-main purposes. Also, they, along with Alinta and to some extent Danny, represent the new, younger generation of heroes, who don't perpetually see Gar as an annoying little brother. They actually view him with authority.

Characters I wouldn't give starring roles to but would still show up a lot:

Cyborg. He's Gar's best friend. They're buds. He demands no further explanation.

Kori. I love Kori a lot, but I really think she and the other Tamaraneans should have their own book. If I were fully in charge, I'd probably even take this Titans book to establish comics!Kori and cartoon!Kori as two separate characters, because they are characterized vastly differently, and then have a book about Kori on Tamaran and make cartoon!Kori a reoccurring member of the Titans book. But I feel like that's cheating so she's going in this section.

Deathstroke he and Gar could be nemeses if DC weren't cowards

Mirage - I know, I know, but I don't think she's been properly dealt with, and something about the idea of her interacting with Cynthia is really entertaining to me.

You may notice that, with the exception of Otho & Osul, all of these characters have been on teams before, but none of them are big names. This is very deliberate! I'm not sure how I'd characterize the tone - on the lighter side for me, on the darker side for the Titans, maybe? -, but I want this book to be about growth and to reference things that have happened in past books a lot. I don't mean so much that old villains would be coming back, but rather that I want to circle back to character experiences. Maybe we can circle back to Terra and finally tell things from her perspective? That would be nice...

Also, Trigon is Banned. No Trigon in this book. Come up with other plotlines.

[promiseiwillwrite]

Whatever Comes Up - June

As this month draws to a close, I have had the most anticlimactic triumph of my life.

I figured out a part of the brokenness of me, and Knew what to do with and about it when I found it.

And I have been gasping at the edges of the power vacuum it left in my psyche.

The Anxiety isn't done with me, apparently, but the largest driver of it has properly Fucked Off.

Don't Believe your mind if it tells you that other people Don't want you to be yourself. EVEN IF THAT IS TRUE.

Because you can't really confirm this idea. And you should believe whatever makes your life suck less over something True and Awful.

Obviously, know, if that is in your power, when your relationships are very deeply one sided, and when you are bending over backward to keep them, and when you constantly self monitor. You might be better off stepping away.

And Yes, it is Lonely. But Loneliness is not a punishment. Loneliness can give you real space to Rest.

And I've done that a lot lately. I have been binge watching cartoons, and spending hours on my couch in the basement.

Maybe it looks like depression from the outside. Maybe it IS depression, of a sort. Maybe I am numbing out after a Lifetime of Pushing myself to be something I am not for EVERYONE in my life, Always.

And maybe I am trying to weigh what a best life looks like for me without that pressure. What does motivation look like? Who am I really without Constant effort to present at what people want me to be, or to be perfect and useful for others? Where do I go? What do I do?

My answer, on many days, has been "I Am Tired." And that has been an EXCELLENT expression of how I feel. And rather than being shit to myself, and pushing through, I have Allowed myself to do what tired people naturally do left to their own devices. I have laid around watching TV after work instead of the Millions of busy things I spent Years telling myself I needed to do.

I have been Resting, and not feeling even one piece of guilt. Except maybe for the plants... They are probably a little thirsty. I've not been as attentive as I maybe should for them.

My house is Trashed.

My Laundry hamper is Full.

My Floors are Dirty.

But Resting has been more important, because the Burnout has been so Deep.

Today, I came home again and finished Steven Universe.

I've watched it before, of course. But re-watching it now was a very different experience. I have matured. I have a better understanding of some of the more nuanced emotional and identity stuff in there.

I also didn't catch Jamie running off with the former mayor of Beach City after Garnet's Wedding last time.

I have, however, come to an archetypal understanding of some pop culture deities.

I think there is a Trickster. The Shyster, The Snake Oil Salesman, The Grifter the Wizard... the man behind the curtain.

And I think there is Belonging.

There are a hundred thousand messages in cartoons now... And one thing that comes through some shows, and some media, Clear and Strong, is the Importance of Belonging. Every God has a Netherface... And Tribalism is that for this entity. This is their TIME. This world as we know it will be Transformed by the dynamic interaction between these two facets.

Friendship is Magic, dears. Understanding one another and seeking to make a place for each other is priceless.

And fascism is Horrible, and growing in Power. They want to be bound together in common Hatred. But you get a cool uniform, and you get to be in a secret club.

Belonging speaks to me through my Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work. It isn't the same as communicating with some of the other entities I've known. But This entity connected with me the other day when I was making some copies of the material for an activity in August. I felt like I was Alive. I felt like I was Myself. I felt like this was part of what I was meant to do as a person. I believed that it could make a positive difference for people around me. It tasted of Hope. It didn't promise fame. It didn't promise Ease. It promised incremental, difficult changes. It promised Conviction. It promised a clear sense of what right and wrong are, that could help people find their Own understanding. And it was Inside me. It was For Me. Because this is what I have wanted as a person my Whole life... I have wanted it because I couldn't believe I already had it.

[six-bong]

Oh shit hey we're talking 'bout me here

Yes yes Neka Nyi, the girliest girl of all, the cattest of cats, as much as a cat as she is a girl, as much as a girl as she a cat, language doesn't allow me to smush the two words together in a way that'd convey the idea properly, a cooking student (that for some reason always manages to be employed by rich folks, don't ask me how she just does) that has both of the last two nationalities in her world, japanese and murican, no there's no spelling mistake, and why are those two the only ones left? cuz everyone else got fucking demolished during the demon invasion that happened 50ish years ago. Status of Australia pending.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway girlypop over here is a hero, a magical girl, a magical catgirl if you will (you will) and is actually employed, so it can be considered as (one of) her student job, unfortunately however she doesn't get credit for it because she uses an actual (il)legal identity between her civil self and magical self. Neka Nyi by day and Nepeta Cataria the Magical Girl of Love and Hate or the Angel's Warrior by day too (she can split, it will be entirely used to play Monopoly/Uno with herself) buuut she mostly uses that last one herself to give herself a fear factor or try to put in perspective her strength to her allies (like istg please do NOT fuck around with people that do 200 damage on a punch that is NOT going to end well this is an ANGEL PLEASE) although that's not her first go at being a hero, or hunter, or whatever you wanna call it. Girlypop was a sentai member before. Y'know

These guys. Anyway at the time she was known as Ms. Pink and was quite competent, honestly I didn't think too hard about that part because it's not that important except for one thing. During her time as Ms. Pink her team leader confessed his love to her and she rebuked him, one because she doesn't feel like that about the guy and two because she's aroace (important for later, I actually bothered to give this one a sexuality so it is, especially since y'know, magical girl of Love, what does it mean to love? how do you love? y'know all that jazz) and that little interaction fucked up the entire dynamic the team had, which is pretty fucking important for something like the Power Rangers so she just decided to fuck off to avoid any dumb mistakes/injuries/deaths that would happen because of it. Since then she doesn't reveal her identity to her coworkers to avoid making what she considers to be the same mistake.

Closing note Ms. Pink is MIA (fr tho the battle suit is still around somewhere, probably hidden under cement like John Wick's weapon cache)

That gives an incredible parallel between how the two of her identities interact with the world. Girl is an absolute airhead and she does not hide it AT ALL, she quite literally smokes a blunt of weed laced with catnip on the job, trying to make her pay attention or care about anything (especially her magical self) is a herculean task. And don't even try to make her wear shoes, her school wasn't able to, the DHA (Demon Hunter Association) wasn't able to, her family wasn't able to, the actual fucking weather cannot make her anything, girl has beans and they WILL feel the FLOOR. Anyway yeah big airhead, the chillest motherfucker alive, a blood pressure of 2, an absolute shitser, girl is a 1m50 (5') gremlin, there is not a single thought bouncing between the blue eyes of this orange catgirl and yet she's somehow the most emotionally stable and mature of her group (I mean her competition is The Most Apathetic Man Ever(TM), a broody swordsman with a broom up his ass called responsability, a genuine child, and a what could be considered child since she seems to have gained sentience a week ago, the only real competition would be the consensual possession and the Queen of Hell that she curbstomped so hard she became good (that's your call Dice :finger_pointing_at_viewer:)) this little mindset of hers that she keeps both as Neka and Nepeta makes her absolutely loved as a civilian by her team but completely despised as a magical catgirl and I'm genuinely wondering why, girl did nothing wrong ever. Except maybe earn her title of Queen of Collateral because every she fires her death beam she razes an entire district of Tokyo and we're lucky she didn't hit the moon yet because she would vaporise that shit. (and her 7 constant felonies for existing)

Anyway yes correct she does use a 950 JDJ Fat Mac for it's intended purpose. Hunting, as in actually hunting, she cooks and eats the demons after she's done, she also serves them to her team if they want it, they mostly do. Except her employer as a civil, that man eats NOTHING and she is BASHING her head trying to find a meal he would even start WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TOAST IS TOO SWEET AND THE WATER TOO SALTY AAAAAAAAAAAA

Anyway yes 950 JDJ Fat Mac, she uses it to fly due to her lightweight of three (3) grapes and no she doesn't use bullets anymore, instead she uses her emotions to create them, she is a magical catgirl after all, she can do that, use magic, her way of using it makes her patron animal cringe hard but he's also a party pooper so who cares, it makes her weapon fully automatic, no need to reload, ever. It also allows her to make the cheapest spells ever AND bypass the issue all magical girls before her had, burning out your emotions. All the others are retired and in hiding somewhere around the globe because they got consumed by their emotions, knowing that danger she firmly refuses to use her body as a magic focus

EXCEPT for the beam of Love and Hate that is charged through a (completely unecessary wink wink) gay little dance, honestly most of her fighting style is comprised of completely unecessary moves that are done entirely for flair, picture those guys that go way too hard on DDR arcades and the likes to have a good mental image, she knows that with her battle expertise and the power she's been granted she doesn't even need to pay attention to a fight, unless she allows herself to be hit she simply won't and it's been true for years now. She did sustain injuries as Ms. Pink but not as Nepeta Cataria. Except that's a wee bit of a lie she has been hit once, multiple times really by one individual also suffering from being the best in her field.

Enter Melissa, the biggest fucking Sphynx ever, those are big fucking paws and she ate all of them multiples times. This big lass gave her a run for her money and Neka barely managed to claw her victory by recalling her missed bullets to pierce Melissa's vital organs (they were both holding back at the time) she got better now! And they're rivals, worsties, besties, frens :)

Where was I? Oh yeah emotions, she's the current standing last magical girl and people think it's why she has two main emotions instead of the one the others had although that's a misconception. She is the Magical Catgirl of Love and Hate yes but truly only the Hate was given to her. The Love? All native to her, it's her love for the world she lives, for the world she cherishes, a world that doesn't really give her that love back or even allows her to express it like she wants. The Hate is her animal patron's. A snake named Noodle, well at least that's how she named it and will not bother to learn his true name, so yeah this little fella the size of a forearm channels all of his available hatred for demons into Neka, and that's why she doesn't channel magic into her body without shielding herself.

I think that's about it? At least all that I thought about clearly because she does have a family working in car (and mechs) manufacturing and I do have a start of an idea of what they look like but really I mostly have her brother in head that is probably going to be named Mirko Nyi and have a robotic arm (prommy no weapon this time)

So yeah Neka Nyi, me baby, me pretty girl, the silliest of all, very fun to play, don't give her a computer last time that happened she made the worst program ever split in 4 different floppy disks in a zip file. Oh ye btw if she can't be a magical girl in a universe she's a streamer, she is also very much aware of her alternate selves

Long live the catgirls

Okay I give you your blog back now Dice buhbyyyyyye

tell me more about neka nyi

magical girl catgirl whose best attack is a dimension-piercing laser beam

her primary weapon is a fucking JDJ Fat Mac that she uses the recoil of to fly

she belongs to @six-bong so pspspspsps girl come explain ur fuckin Creacher

[imagine--if]

hii i saw that requests for alice in borderland were open and i rann 🏃🏻‍♀️

could you do a scenario where chishiya and banda have a crush/interested in the same s/o?? how tense would that be, especially in the solitary confinement game?? 👀👀👀

A/N: Oooo this is an awesome scenario idea, thanks for your request!! I'm still open for AIB requests until the 15th, so if you're interested then send some in!! A particular ask has caught my attention for after this... jealous Chishiya 😵😍 Little obvious disclaimer that the GIFs aren't mine- but look at Chishiya's, he's staring RiGhT aT uSsS 😭

Chishiya and Banda Both Crushing On You Includes...

💛• How'd you even manage to get the attention of both these guys?!??! I'm jealous 🥲 because the way these two fall for someone, combined, is basically the most intense and warm and crazy hot experience you'll have in quite a while. Let's say that this all starts in the Jack of Hearts game:

💛• With Chishiya, he's drawn to the little, unnoticeable things that interest him, like being a lot smarter than you look, or making a good decision that surprises, or even outwits him somewhat. There's not much of that in the borderlands, apart from Arisu's selflessness that absolutely confuses him until he starts admiring it, and the deadliness of the games, everyone looks like they're going to die. Except you. So he'll most likely start following you around - very subtly - observing your way of doing things and interacting with other players, until he properly approaches you. Probably asking you for his symbol on his collar, and asks you if you want yours. If you turn him down but give him his or something, he'll actually be taken aback... in a good way, because now he's obsessed with wanting to know how your mind works. So, basically, you've got yourself a new partner.

💛• With Banda, however, subtly and patience are not his things. All it takes is one minute of eye contact, or hearing something a little psycho come from you, anything that's potentially original and beautiful to him, and suddenly he's right in front of you with that dark smirk, giving you a twisted but flattering compliment. That's it. Now you've got a new protector who grows oddly possessive and obsessive over the first few rounds, pulling you back when you think about joining the others' big group. You don't need them. You've got him.

💛• So when the two ultimately end up bumping into each other when they both go to talk to you or something, there's just a moment of stretched, painfully strong silence as Banda eyes up this new 'distraction' to your attention, and Chishiya takes him in with that annoyingly indifferent, and kind of smug, look, before his brown eyes meet yours. Banda looks in your direction too. No pressure 😅

💛• I mean, Chishiya tolerates pretty much everyone, but Banda lurking around and infecting your brain with his sadistic ideas of entertainment and advice on how to win every game like he has, is something he's apprehensive of. He'll see how you react to it at first before jumping in, but overall, Chishiya thinks you're the first truly curious and inspiring person that's caught his attention in the Borderlands, and that's something he doesn't want to let slip as soon as he's found it.

💛• Banda has little to no empathy or care for anyone except what you're happy and unhappy with, so he's gonna be pretty forward with Chishiya and give him one of his hushed, intimidating, close-up threats to move along and find someone else to play with. When Chishiya retorts smugly with a comment about how the last women he hung around with suddenly made it onto the murder section of the newspapers, he'll get a deathly glare in his eyes, and basically the only thing stopping him from snapping at that moment is the rule of the game being that you can't outrightly hurt anyone.

💛• They let it go for now, but neither one of them is put off from hanging around with you. The rest of the players in the big group find it odd how you're just sitting there at a table, and within a few moments, Chishiya comes striding in offering his snack with you, sitting beside you on the table, all the while Banda's unblinking gaze is fixed on you from the other side of the cafeteria, where he sits on the floor against the wall. The Jack probably notices it too, but doesn't say anything, since no one really wants to see Banda Sunato get angry.

💛• Once the game has gone on and it's over, Banda has some 'business' to attend to with Jack, and probably makes you wear a tracker or something so he knows how to come and find you when he's done and figuring out how he can have more, or all, control over the lands. Cocky psycho even tries to kiss you goodbye too, and whether you let him go for it and leave you flustered after an intense few moments, or push him away gently with a blush is your choice. Either way, he'll still respond with one of his smirks and a wink before he causally pulls out his pocket weapon and goes into one of the cells after Jack.

💛• That just leaves you with Chishiya, who Banda has 'trusted' to keep you safe while he's gone. Since Chishiya figured it all out with him and survived the round in a pretty impressive way, Banda doesn't misjudge his intelligence and capabilites, even though he seems a little too relaxed when entering these life-or-death games. Still, you'll end up leaving with Chishiya wandering by your side and making small talk about who you are as a person as you go for the next game, or to meet his gang from the Beach, like Arisu. He's surprisingly talkative in his own way as he uncovers more about you and listens to every word you say, but when the questions are reflected back at him, the answers are simple and short - at first, anyway. It's not all because he's reclusive, but mostly because he didn't really like his life, or have much of one, in his opinion, before the Borderlands. But now, maybe he does. Intelligent and nice to look at. He'll stick around for sure 😉

💛• Elsewhere, Banda basically pulls up every file and piece of information on you instead of outrightly asking. It's safe to say that he's an obsessive and possessive crusher/lover, and he'll make that known once he's sorted things out and comes to find you again. And he will come and find you again 😏