#so forgive if it seems off

[ferniliciousness]

I don't know why, but the idea of just Garrus' crew of mercenaries sitting around and gossiping brings me so much joy. Especially the married ones, you can't tell me the wives didn't want at least some tea, you can only talk about so much when you're a part of a top secret vigilante group lmao.

N7month day 11 prompt: Crew

Gold paint drips onto a work table, falling from an outstretched brush which hovers over a piece of armor. A soft hum of music plays from Gaia's headphones as she puts on the finishing touches of paint. Archangel's symbol, now perfectly placed on Erash's rerebrace, shimmers in the light as she holds up her handiwork.

"Gaia? What are you still doing here? I thought you would have left by now." Garrus' familiar voice rumbles next to her, as the turian leans over the table to look at her work. "You don't have to stay here all day you know? I'm sure you have plenty of work to do at your shop and you've already finished the work we had for you."

"Please Garrus, I'm so bored at the shop. Lunette and Kellic have literally left me with nothing to do there. I swear they run that place better without me; I mean, I'm not complaining, but some days I do wish they would leave me something to do."

"Now, hold still." With fresh paint on her brush, Gaia quickly grabs a hold of Garrus' arm, he wasn't getting away from her this time.

"Gaia really?" The surprise quickly fades from his face as he sees what she's doing.

"Oh be quiet. It's your own fault. You're never out of this armor long enough for me to paint it, and you're the only one I have left now that I'm done with Erash's. Dont worry I'll be quick, only, if you can manage to hold still for a minute."

Garrus mumbles something under his breath, but he concedes to her wishes, holding his arm still while she paints. "Isn't there an easier way of doing this? That doesn't involve paint."

"Youre looking at it." Gaia meticulously places every brush stroke, making sure that it looks perfect. "This is basically like a metal stain. It will flake off in a day or two and leave the design behind, then nothing will be able to take it off. I mean unless you just gouge it out, but if you're getting damaged enough for that to happen I think you have other worries besides ruining the symbol."

"Say, Sidonis? Is it, you know, common, for Turians and humans to get together? Like have you seen it happen before?"

"Well that's a random question." Sidonis places a card down onto the table, where he and Butler were playing a quick card game. "I've never seen it happen, but I've looked at enough Fornax covers to know it does. Why? I thought you were happily married?"

"Oh god no, not me you idiot. Look." Butler quickly gestures over to the table where Gaia is still painting on Garrus' arm. "Look at those two over there. You can't tell me they wouldn't make a good match. Heaven knows the two could use some uh, company."

Sidonis can't help but look at his friend in utter disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me." A loud sigh escapes him. "I think you have picked the most unlikely pair of them all. Those two never stop working long enough to even relax, let alone think about romance.... IF there is any romance between them at all. Which I seriously doubt. Maybe try your luck with someone else.... "

"Who are you talking about? Garrus and Gaia?" The Salarian member Melanis spoke up from behind his workbench. "Hmm, Gaia never struck me as the romance type. Always treats that topic more like a Salarian than a human. I agree with Sidonis on this one. Maybe you should leave the match making to someone else Butler. I would think you would know better by now."

"That Gaia has broken more hearts on Omega than I can count." Vortash can't stay out of the conversation, even as the batarian works away on his terminal.

"Really! Gaia?! I can't see her being a heartbreaker?" Butler sounds surprised as he and Sidonis look up from their game.

"Please. Gaia had nearly every young Merc on the station pining for her when she was making runs, hell I heard even her own crew wanted a piece of her. She never paid them any attention though. I wouldn't be surprised if Melanis was right, she might just not be the type for.... All that."

"How did Gaia ever get that many mercs going for her? I can hardly see her being their type. She's just so.... Not a psychopathic killer." Melanis leaving his work, walks over to continue talking with the group.

"You should have seen her when she was in her smuggler days. I know half those stories about her probably aren't true, but even so, I know no one dared mess with her. Plus her family name definitely helps hype up the image."

"Now, now Vortash. Are you sure we're talking about the same Gaia? The one currently painting fancy designs on our armor, the girl who owns a small shop down in the market... that Gaia.... Is the same Gaia?"

"Oh, you didn't see her when we took down that Blood Pack weapons cache. That girl definitely knows her way around a rifle." Sidonis speaks up, remembering when Gaia had helped him and Garrus find and infiltrate the gang camp. "Let's just say I'm glad she's on our side. She might not look like it but that girl packs a punch."

"I swear I think all of you are just crazy." Butler can only shake his head and return to his cards, while the rest of the group laughs at his disbelief. "I still think they would make a good couple, mark my words."

"Yeah, yeah, if you say so. Just don't be surprised if your wrong... Again. Leave them be Butler, those two have enough on their plates as it is without you playing matchmaker." Sidonis joins him again, and the hideout returns to the quiet.

[mochasucculent]

Was looking at refs and since Viktor has two different leg braces I was wondering, do we think he wears them simultaneously?? The refs don't perfectly line up perspective-wise so it's hard to tell but parts of the one he wears during the Hexcore scenes look like they could maybe line up with the brace that he wears over his clothes, but also some parts really don't and look like they'd be super uncomfy. Also HOW does he take these on and off. Experts weigh in

[shroomerr]

minor spoilers for @mantequillamcwhoremick ‘s fic Chaos Plan, Chapter 20!!

How I pictured that one moment in chapter 20 when Kenny spotted Kyle and Stan

[bumblingbabooshka]

Between some of Tuvok's favorite music being monks chanting, having a copy of a proto-Vulcan drama in his quarters, reciting poetry that no one else likes (his own? someone else's? unclear: It's a talent night which implies the former but the two who mention it say 'Vulcan poetry' - not 'His/Tuvok's poetry') buying a meditation lamp from a Vulcan master even though the guy doubled the price on him last minute, the fact that he's always reading alone in the mess hall and wants others to know he stands apart from them (taking steps to ensure this is the case), and that he's memorized The Dictates of Poetics by T'hain of Vulcan (being very opinionated about them), I feel like we the audience can cobble together a lot about his taste in media and that's honestly so special. He also likes and actively follows sumo wrestling. That's important. Not because it adds or subtracts to what I've said above but because I think it's kind of funny. He, Janeway, and Chakotay all just really like sumo.

[eikichi-supremacy]

and they were singin', bye-bye Miss American Pie // american oldie i think kuwabara unironically listens to

(low effort lyric edit im queueing here in May cos im probably gonna forget it exists otherwise)

[katoska]

I just realised that growing up, no adult in my life ever tried to name my emotions from context clues. Like, I was either "fine" or "upset", but the only out-loud assumption about the latter was that I was trying to get attention or being stubborn. There was no "aw, did you get scared by the dog" or "sorry that you are disappointed we're not going to the park, but the weather is too bad, ok? If it clears up, we can go tomorrow", or "you're crying cause you didn't get vaccinated in daycare today like many of the other kids did? Like, are you jealous? Or relieved?"

It was all just, as my Mum calls it, either "Böckchen" (german for "little goat" aka kiddie-typical stubborness) or attention-seeking. Like, mind you, I ofc did those too, bc all kids do, but my point is that whenever I was crying as a little kid and people asked why, all I could say was that it's cause my throat hurt. Cause crying does make my throat hurt, and describing physical hurt was the only language I had. And the adults and other kids just left it at that.

And I guess I could have picked up some emotional vocabulary from kids who were better at it than me, but kids don't exactly want to hang around someone who has far less emotional maturity than themselves and is prone to inexplicable (to me, and usually them, not necessarily the adults around us, though as I said those adults didn't explain shit) bouts of crying.

And I don't think this is just a case of my parents being flawed of me happening to have bad care-takers outside the family. Many adults just generally don't expect kids to have the same emotions as they do, and so fail to treat them with respect. Which includes making reasonable and kind assumptions about their emotional states (eg not automatically assume that crying is an attempt at manipulation).

[turquoisephoenix]

You mentioned that you think after Grubba gets out of jail he has an uneasy friendship with Prince Mush. Do you think you could elaborate on that some? Like what do their interactions look like? Just curious as to how you think a murderer and a revived victim of his would act as friends

Okay, this one might be a little long, takes a bit of setting up, and involves some headcanons.

And I will emphasize that the relationship is "uneasy" and they're not exactly inviting each other to watch movies or anything. Grubba should be thankful that Prince Mush even wants to speak to him and give him occasional updates on how the Glitz Pit is running, at his request, while he's sitting in jail and later under house arrest (albeit a cozy house arrest at his tacky rodeo clown of a home, but he has to do it all with an ankle monitor).

Prince Mush is just something of a saint, very mellow, and extremely forgiving. He's just a bit of a wide-eyed shonen protagonist fueled by the power of friendship.

To explain why Prince Mush is so understanding where Grubba was coming from with his most terrible actions, both Prince Mush and Grubba have similar backstories - they were originally from poor backgrounds but then climbed their way to the top to become champion fighters.

This leads me to believe that Prince Mush grew up as a fan of Grubba. Especially since I made Grubba the type of fighter that had a LOT of merchandising and star appeal thanks to some rather aggressive contracts by his fight promoter/agent, who swooped in and saw a business opportunity. Prince Mush had secondhand toys of Grubba that they found in the local Rogueport goodwill because the store shelves were just flooded with them. Prince Mush bought some of his T-shirts and had a few of his toys.

And Prince Mush and Grubba got along for a good several years! Prince Mush had a very cushy Champion's life and his family got to see all of his matches and he was very comfortable! Grubba made sure to NOT treat Prince Mush the way he was treated in the past. Prince Mush had health benefits and vacation plans. Everything was good! Grubba was a good maybe-a-father-figure, maybe-just-an-older-friend type of cool old dude.

Until, one night, Prince Mush alerted Grubba to a strange machine that he found underneath the Glitz Pit Arena while he was training late one night. After Grubba asked him if he told anyone else (Prince Mush thankfully said no, so no killing spree for Grub), Prince Mush lead him to the strange machine and asked him "who could do such a thing?"

Grubba responded by hitting him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. They didn't even have an epic battle between champion and monster; instead Grubba panicked, acted like a cornered rat, and then immediately had to cover up the resulting disappearance.

Cut to a few more years later where Prince Mush is suddenly waking up in the Glitz Pit Arena and his own sister is telling him how he straight up died and his blood was on Grubba's hands, all while a little Italian plumber is waving at him and going "wahoo".

So in short, Prince Mush doesn't remember his own death and has to get all of his information secondhand from other people who were way way more traumatized about the events.

And Mush, being Mush...can't bring himself to hate Grubba.

At least, not totally.

Jolene hates Grubba with every fiber of her being and is very much a "if I see you outside of prison, it's on sight, mfer" type of person. Rawk Hawk has really mixed feelings about Grubba and oscillates between rage-filled hatred and survivor's guilt where he second-guesses all the nice things Grubba ever did for him, knowing that he could've been drained and shoved in a dirty old attic. He even visited Grubba in jail and had a shouting match with him as both of them had to unpack a lot of mental baggage. Rawk Hawk's change of heart is fueled by the fact that Rawk Hawk has grown self-conscious and scared of becoming as lost as his mentor.

Prince Mush? When he pieces the story together - the young star exploited at a young age so afraid of aging, so afraid of giving up his own business, that he'll use a magic demon artifact to render himself immortal at the cost of his own humanity and becomes a paranoid monster that can't get close to anyone without hurting or killing them...

He just finds Grubba sad.

And when he tells Grubba to his face while he's sitting in the prison cell, Grubba wishes he got the anger instead.

Having his whole empire crumble and having to live with the consequences of his actions just renders him a pathetic, broken man. He needed wellness checks during his first week of prison just to make sure he didn't do anything drastic. (being away from the Crystal Star that made him young and strong for the first time in 40 years and realizing that he was gonna wither and turn into an old man made him just a touch suicidal for a little while)

On top of all of this, once it becomes more common knowledge that the Crystal Stars were connected to the Shadow Queen, Grubba isn't even sure how much of his actions were his own or if he was Corrupted By the Amulet. Everyone - including him - believes he was mostly in control, but it sure doesn't feel good either way having to second-guess just how much of the past few decades were of your own free will and how much of it was demonic influence and you were just Golluming your way into murder because the shiny rock needed more blood for the blood god.

TTYD is very much a game that ends on the idea of forgiveness for the villains. I'm not going to have Prince Mush stay with Grubba ala Vivian hanging out with her shitty sister Beldam, but Prince Mush seems like a cool enough dude to at least extend a hand and say "yeah you killed me, but now you're in a position where you can't harm anyone else ever again and since you're a paranoid and have like 60 mental illnesses, I'm not going to kick you while you're down and instead tell you that the Glitz Pit isn't on fire and that my sister Jolene is doing a GREAT job".

And eventually Grubba...feels more at peace with himself than he's been in over 40 years.

TL;DR, Prince Mush forges a shaky relationship with his own murderer because his murderer's mental health was impacted by both demonic magic and the exploitation of Hollywood stardom but things are actually kinda looking up? Prince Mush actually wants Grubba to get better, Jolene wants Grubba to choke and perish, and Rawk Hawk is unsure whether he sides with Mush or Jolene.

[luniviravosshipper]

POV: You’re sad and wanting comfort but the character you’d usually find comfort in was deemed unlikabled and totally undeserving of love by the narrative. So instead of feeling comfort thinking of that character now you just feel even worse. Because every time you try to immerse yourself back into the story they came from you have to constantly be reminded by it that they never got to receive any sort of affection and the story wanted the audience to know the reason was because it never felt they deserved any. Even when intentionally making them sympathetic at moments, at the end it’s clear that they were always planning on kicking the dog with them.

[soath]

these are the only Bells Hells Live Reaction predictions I’m willing to stake my honor (nonexistent) on.

[sliceofhotsoda]

miraculous has wormed into my brain again and I just wanna say WHY did alix not have marinette's back when lila was targeting her??? PLEASE alix is the biggest hater who isn't a bully and youre telling me that she didn't even give lila a side-eye or think of her as annoying and attention-seeking (like she so clearly is)? im so sick of this, WHY does everyone even like that girl!! ur telling me there's NO haters in paris who don't like her out of jealousy or spite? come on. come on. this is exactly why chloe would've been so good as an anti-lila weapon.

[dukeofthomas]

"He hurts you because he loves you" classic excuse for abuse, not an interesting angle to go at a story with, boring, annoying, makes me hate anyone who says this shit. "He loves you but he still hurt you" beautiful, amazing, empowering. Love is not a pure, good, flawless emotion, actions matter more than intent, and caring for someone doesn't mean you can't or won't hurt them, and in my opinion, it makes hurting them worse.

[doctahchang]

i love seven but it is also very annoying how media overall is more willing to sympathise with characters who committed countless atrocities and talk at length about their redemption arks particularly in comparison to oppressed characters whose fight against status quo is always being framed as terrorism :-)

[horsetailcurlers2]

just as they were finally about to revoke my membership card for the Certified Derek Shepherd Haters Club, i started rewatching bits of season one and two with the knowledge of what comes later and i i kind of want to rip out all his fingernails one by one

[wwerasliin-sideblog]

Jimmy continuing to show a little growth and maturity this week, in some aspects —

"We Are The Ones." - Roman. "Yea, but we're not though." - Jimmy. — Jimmy is starting to see things for what they truly are, he's seeing the here and now, reality, not living on past laid, power and accolades (as Roman mentions), he's being realistic about their situation, where they're at, right now. In this moment.

He sees they need help, he sees it for what it is, as it is. He's not got unrealistic expectations - he's had the opportunity to see it more *clearly*, from afar, being stuck at home, giving him some time and some clarity.

He's had time, time away; from being sucked into the epicenter of it, from the chaos mulling all around, at every turn, and every corner... It's given him the space and time to think, contemplate, reflect, learn and grow. He knows better now, he's more level-headed. At least, he seems to be for now.

He's got another thing coming though, if he thinks that Jey is going to drop everything and come running to them, just cause they ask nicely. Especially after what they BOTH did to him, hurting him and tormenting him, manipulating him and using him, playing with him, with his life like that; everything they put him through.. But, I will say, I'm glad to see Jimmy humble himself enough to acknowledge that they need help.

And I get that Jimmy has his own issues with Jey, but most of all, it comes from a place of hurt. He's only ever wanted to protect Jey, at least that's how it started out, but it slowly festered into something more nefarious, bitter and ugly..

But right now, there's a bigger problem to deal with. They may just have to put aside their issues, just for a moment to deal with this ridiculous monstrosity in front of them. They will surely have to circle back to and deal their own issues once they've dealt with this, this hideous and convoluted excuse they call the new Bloodline. Or, prove me wrong and sort fix yourselves first, before you try and sort fix something outside of yourselves.

There's a lot of healing to be had.

[brick-van-dyke]

My dad, jokingly: "I'm badman"

Me: "haha sure" (not thinking he's anything like batman)

My dad: *left/ separated from my mum when I was a teen, started a GTA gang that helps bullied kids, ended up emotionally adopting like 8 kids and helped them through bullying, suicide, abuse, etc.*

Me: *was hurt by an abuser and had to deal with said abuser being forgiven by family around me*

Me: *gets into Batman lore*

Me: ...

"Wait a second..."

[suffarustuffaru]

I don’t speak Japanese so I’d LOVE to hear more about the differences between the English and Japanese Re:Zero fandoms

yeah sure its very interesting to me now that ive noticed it more lately :o !! though ok disclaimer - i dont speak japanese either hah so if anyone is seeing this and does speak japanese + is familiar with the japanese speaking side of this fandom please add info if youd like!! and of course ill be mainly speaking from the english side of things bc im more familiar with that yes (sorry anon again im not a japanese speaker T^TT so sorry if i tread on info you already know!!). but yeah im speaking from my own experiences given the Topic at hand. ive been in this fandom since... 2019?? which is so wild to me aljsdfljsd.

anyway so - i think the big difference is mainly that the english fandom and many english speaking people that engage with rezero are. to put it bluntly, misconception runs Rampant to a very Interesting degree. to the point where it seems like the english speaking side of the fandom is More. Aggressive. than the japanese fandom. not that the japanese speaking side of the fandom is perfect - also bc what fandom is ever perfect 100% of the time, tbh - but that the louder people in the english rezero fandom are. well its a Very low bar. Very low. and from what little ive seen and heard so far, the japanese fandom tends to understand rezero and its characters better than the english fandom. which ig makes sense bc you know, rezero is japanese media, and also im sure cultural differences come into play here as well (im not familiar enough on this to speak about it in depth but the cultural differences feel Pretty Clear even though i cant 100% put my finger on what they specifically are).

but also bc yeah. its not That hard to beat some of the english fandom when it comes to media comprehension. misreading rezero is unfortunately Extremely common, both in and out of the rezero community. its Everywhere - youtube, myanimelist, ao3, ff.net, reddit, twitter, various rezero discords - and from what ive experienced, rezero tumblr basically kind of feels like finding an oasis after crawling through the desert for days on end lajdslfjs. which is probs bc rezero tumblr is Smaller and also a lot of us seem to be lgbtq+ in some way or be allies, so you dodge a lot of the misogyny and homophobia that happens in other rezero english circles. its why you see a lot of openly queer rezero-related posts on here while its a bit more. barren. in other rezero english places yes. bc its more safe to post queer rezero things on rezero tumblr rather than rezero reddit for Sure.

im not sure how the japanese fandom is with that exactly but theres some interesting differences between whats popular in the english fandom vs the japanese fandom. i mean as an otto fan ive been noticing how hes more popular with the japanese fandom—and on top of that, ottosuba is Way More popular in the japanese fandom too. reinsuba and julisuba seem to usually be the most popular mlm subaru ships in both fandoms but ottosuba is like A Little Up There in the japanese fandom. not sure if its on the same level as a ship like reinsuba but ottosubas Definitely loved as a ship. from what little ive seen it also seems like ships like vichisha are more acknowledged by the japanese fandom? im not entirely sure on like—Complete differences regarding what the japanese fandom finds interesting that may differ from english fandom, so ill really have to look more into the japanese fandoms fanart and fanfic when i can bc im pretty curious too. in general though, it seems like the japanese fandom has a bit more variety…. you can find fanart on So Many characters in rezero (which already has a very Massive cast full of very fleshed out characters) there. not that you cant in the english fandom bc theres a Bit of variety too, but id more so contribute that a little more to the Big Cast and less to having actual variety in fancontent. and of course im not saying that the japanese fandom may be a bit barren in some areas of fancontent—bc inevitably when u have a big cast of characters, side character content is gonna be more sparse compared to the main characters, but to me it does feel like the english fandom lacks variety in comparison. (and also yeah. seems like the japanese fandom acknowledges gay ships more in general tbh.)

whats focused in fancontent makes it easy to tell what may be popular in a fandom in terms of how fans perceive the source material and what fandoms want to do with the source material, if that makes sense. and its very easy to tell that with the english fandom if you just hop on rezero ao3–or even better, rezero reddit given theres a fanfic ideas thread thats usually pinned right at the top of the site. again i havent looked at japanese fanfic for rezero yet (bc i dont know where to look oops ajdndn) but when it comes to the english fandom you can tell that theyre generally more focused on the female cast both in fanart and in fanfic bc. theyre women and many fans on say, reddit or various rezero discords, are cis straight men, so inevitably… well lets just say you can tell when a man makes content for this fandom o.o theres also the. very weird reaction fic trends and trends following popular fics in the fandom, the two biggest being the watching him die again and again react fic and re:forgotten, the former of which includes a harem plot with subaru and the main girls of rezero while the latter is one of those subaru gets tortured by his ooc friends and then he gets revenge on them fics. which i suppose says something about the english fandom too.

of course on ao3 its dominated mainly by english fics (of course not all fics on there for rezero are in english— big shoutout to all the non english fics on rezero ao3 ur doing great <3 — but the majority are in english). and while yeah ur occasionally gonna find stuff like queer content or side character content or rarepair content, its definitely not that big in amount and also comes with the risk of. Hate. if anyones reading this and remembers the lone star stuff. (if u dont know—lone star was a julius x emilia fic where they NTR subaru or some shit and then it got bombed with hate bc of the ship? yeah.) so yeah english fandom is very cis straight oriented, ironically with the nastiest people being the very people that rezero criticizes. though this is also my personal experience, i do know several people personally whove been in this fandom for a while or were here for a while and yeah english fandom isnt very welcoming at times???? and it seems like at the very least the japanese fandom is A Little Less Aggressive than the english fandom is.

otherwise. yeah im very very curious about more of the differences in popular content between the japanese vs english fandom. i mean the english fandom’s main focus on the female cast for. Interesting Reasons other than their actual character depth is… interesting. and the astreas being popular in general vs otto + ottosubas popularity fluctuating is also very interesting to me (but i have several guesses as to Why that is), among other things. yeah id love to know what else the japanese fandom likes about rezero and see more of their content. i also have to wonder if characters like emilia and subaru are hated less by the japanese fandom…. T^T well that and the english fandom and many english speaking people engaging in rezero have this interesting pattern of either hating subaru No Matter What, wanting subaru to Not Be Subaru (ie using him as a self insert almost or attempting to change him into virtually another character), or putting subaru on a pedestal and ignoring his flaws and mistakes and that he Can do wrong. like theres Really not a lot of nuance there. so i wonder if the japanese fandom is. A Little more chill when it comes to character opinions like this too.