#so yeah I'm never gonna agree with this complaint

[laufire]

just so we're clear, I'm NEVER going to agree with the notion that Caroline's storyline went poorly or that she was "made into JUST a love interest" or whatever new nonsense embittered shippers of whichever pairing they liked for her argue next (especially the grossest, most misogynistic comments I've had the misfortune to see in my reblogs over the years).

not only do I love the progression of her plot but I also think each and one of her love stories in the show ended up serving her plot really well, without encroaching on her journey (among other things, thanks to none of them being endgame lol). if anything the way things panned out the guys (even those with protagonists status!) were made into her love interests, not the other way around, AFAIC.

[ddejavvu]

maybe a blurb about r helping James w exercising sorry I'm obsessed ☠

"Finished," You hum, dangling the lavender bracelet from one finger as James completes what must be his seven thousandth push-up, "Wanna see?"

"Yeah," James grunts, panting as his arms sink into a right angle once more, "Put it on me, darling, 'wanna wear it now."

"Okay," You more than happy to oblige, shifting your legs from where they're crossed over the expanse of James's toned back. You rotate onto your stomach, doing your own exercise as you plank atop James's body to hang down over his shoulder. You clumsily tie the bracelet around his wrist as he does push-ups beneath you, his favorite form of working out.

"Pretty," He hums, but his voice is rough with strain, "'Think that's my favorite one you've made so far, angel."

"Really?"

"Really," He nods, turning his head to pucker his lips, "Kiss?"

"Kiss," You agree, leaning sideways to peck his lips. It's a little sloppy, it's a lot uncoordinated, it's incredibly awkward, but it's a sweet kiss all the same, and you twist yourself back up into a sitting position atop his back as he resumes his push-ups.

"My fingers hurt," You lament, and James almost laughs at the complaint, because his back is on fire with the ache that working out brings.

He's sympathetic all the same though, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. 'Think I'll read for a bit." You decide, reaching for your bag that's beside James's thighs. It shifts your center of gravity, and if you slap a hand onto his ass to steady yourself, it's pure self-preservation. The squeeze was for entertainment purposes, though.

"Easy!" James jolts, arms shaking from the workout as you stuff your beads back into your bag, pulling out your book instead, "Gonna drop you if you get fresh with me, darling."

"You'd never drop me," You scoff, laying down with your book flat on your back, pressed to his own. Your knees bend and your feet come to rest on James's ass, precariously balanced on him as he lifts and lowers you, "You want me to read to you, Jamie?"

"Mhm," He nods, and you feel the movement of his head beneath yours, "Bet your voice'll make me stronger, love."

[itsnothingofinterest]

Wild to me that people are looking at the new Hero Commission president being this guy:

And thinking: "oh yeah, he's gonna change things, make them better, bring about some much needed reform." Because I must've missed the part where he had any revelation that anything the hero system or the commission in particular were doing was wrong.

I mean treatment of villains is going to get so much worse between this guy ^ being in charge and every other reason we have to expect that treatment of villains will get worse. But even something as small as the ranking system, which I've seen suggested he'll do away with...but did we ever get a scene where he said he didn't like the ranking system?

I mean I remember him saying it could do with some improvement, but I also remember he really liked the idea of there being a number one hero to inspire people, it's part of why he tried to help Endeavor be that inspiring figure (The rest is him choosing the worst hero to be a fanboy of, but that shouldn't discount his personal logic).

And overall I just don't recall him ever having any problem with the existing way of things besides wanting more free time (and without giving any thought to what makes a villain, which he has not, that one's out of his hands), or else otherwise complaints about his personal annoyances being told what to do. But we never got that he thinks what he was told to do was wrong. Even Twice he still thinks of as "The pretty decent guy who it sucks I had to kill-which I definitely did, what does 'arrest' mean?" He even doubled down by calling for Toga's death. (Goodness sake, I give Enji shit but at least he knows when he did something bad.) So besides those little things; he had no criticisms, nor did he ever agree with people who did have criticisms. I'm just not seeing a lot of reason to think this is the guy who will improve things.

[circlebuttons]

“Actions” - Rafe Cameron x Gn!Reader Blurb

:short blurb abt explosive rafexgentle reader

(originally a carmyxreader but i thought rafe was more fitting lmao)

-

You can faintly hear the doors downstairs slamming as they lead to your shared bedroom. The sound of his heavy footsteps can only push you to imagine who or what has triggered Rafe for the night.

The door flys open, followed by your problematic boyfriend bursting through. "I'm gonna kill him!" Rafe yells to himself, pointing one handed in the air with the gun he already has drawn for god knows why, as he yanks the chair away from his desk and throws himself in it.

You slowly rest an elbow behind the rest of your body, sitting up to watch and assess his anger. "Who are you gonna kill baby?" You softly ask him in your most gentle tone.

"Fucking Maybank!" He rants the same rant you've heard a thousand times just with more gun violence this time. You get out of bed, sauntering over in your pajamas to where he's sitting as he finishes his tirade of murderous complaints. "Am I some kind of a fucking joke?" he bitterly spits out as you round his chair and sit in his lap facing him.

"No sweetie, you're not a joke" you assure him as you wrap your arms around his neck, hands holding each other behind his head as your thumbs brush against his nape. You get a better look at him as you straddle his lap, his eyebrows are furrowed and his lips are tight as he tounges the inside of his cheek. His chest rises quickly even as he sits in his mopey silence, so you lean forward to hold him. He doesn't move his arms to hug you back as your arms close in around his neck and rest your head on his shoulder.

The hard metal of his gun sits between the two of you, stiff and uncomfortable in your stomach, and piercingly cold on your exposed thigh. You ignore the discomfort and place a chaste kiss to the corner of his lips, trailing them down his neck on a short path before leaning back to look at him again. "No more, please" you ask him speaking just above a whisper as both of your eyes trail down to the gun in his hand.

He quickly nods, running his unoccupied hand through his hair. "Yeah, okay" he agrees. frantically trying to calm himself down. You drop your hand between the space you've created and lift his fingers away from the handle.

"Done?" You ask, holding firm eye contact with him as you move his gun from his grasp to the corner of the desk.

"Done." He confirms, as he wraps his now free hands around your waist, reciprocating your embrace. You let your arms loosely hang down to rub his back, while he pulls you harder against his chest. Your face buried in his neck as you mouth gentle kisses into his skin and it only takes a second for your breathing to sync and for him to relax.

His arms tighten around you and you take a moment to relish in it. You love having calm moments like these with Rafe, they somehow outweighed the bad. He's often quick to anger, so ever since you established your relationship the conversation of self control was a must. "You can rant about your day My Love, but we talked about the yelling-"

"And the gun. I know, I'm sorry" He finishes your thought for you with a knowing tone, always eager to apologize after impulsively breaking the boundaries he knows like the back of his hand.

"Actions not words, hun" you continue to speak gingerly to him even through your irritation, you can't help but give him an overflowing amount of never ending patience.

"Actions" he repeats, looking at you with the eyes of a hurt puppy and it just melts you completely as you lean down to press a soft kiss to his lips, a way you often communicate accepting his apologies. kiss and make up was the perfect way to capture the haste in which you always forgive him.

[welovetesvkaidan]

OPINIONS ON KAIDAN EE/IF???

My honest reaction:

in all seriousness, if you wanna hear me yap about it, more under the cut

warning like, genuinely a ginormous yap, like a HUMUNGOUS, sleep-deprived yap,,, im cursed to be obsessed with skyrim + modded followers instead of touching grass

I think a lot of this is probably gonna be the same thing other people have said, so im sorry

if you feel i'm gonna be bringing up redundant points and get mad at me😓dont read

I haven't experienced and thus won't talk about the versions of EE and IF that are now separate mods from each other. I don't know anything about that.

if they're better now yayyy but this is about pre-separation

I should preface this with the fact that I've played through Skyrim 3 times with different stages of Kaidan EE/IF:

The initial Dawnguard + fixes/miscs mod

Kaidan EE/IF versions before extensive faction/NPC dialogue for Kaidan

EE/IF w/ NPC Dialogue (AKA Fratpack)

I was also part of the two different discords that were purged and created during these intervals. i don't even know if there is a discord currently?

anyway, that is to say that I have experienced the mod and it's behind-the-scenes progress, extensively so I have a pretty good idea of what I liked and didn't like

That being said, I will introduce probably my biggest problems with it: Tonal whiplash

Okay, well the most common complaint is ofc that a lot of the writing is out of character - and I agree. But it's not just ooc on paper, it's his voice too. I swear, it is very jarring hearing hushed, mild og Kaidan 2 voicelines, and then being deafened by EE Kaidan SCREAMING in my ear ALL.THE.TIME. (like... why are you yelling at me rn jeez)

Seriously. I'm not sure why they didn't just re-record everything from the original mod instead of adding more and more contradicting lines on top of the originals. It definitely could have been a standalone mod, and sometimes it almost feels like it is - because he is just so different.

My most infamous moment in my last playthrough with him happened after we defeated the dragon at Kynesgrove. His og Kaidan 2 dialogue played first, in it he shows interest and is cordial about Delphine ("I wouldn't mind prodding her mind" or whatver dialogue), THEN immediately after his Kaidan EE/IF dialogue will play, in which he walks up to Delphine and STARTS YELLING AT HER AND INSULTING HER - like they argue for quite a bit wtf. And it's like, listen, I have my thoughts about Delphine, but whether or not it was okay to yell at her isn't the problem. It would be fine - IF he hadn't just calmly told me he thought she was okay.

It is sooo confusing how he contradicts himself :(

I mean, yeah, fragments of who he is are still there, I can tell it's Kaidan, but he's warped to fit a different character. Like a con-artist Kaidan.

Anyway, besides the contradictions, it also feels out of character because of his established backstory.

Let's go over it: He's an orphan, lost his only connection to his family(his guardian) to drugs, fell into substances himself, joined a violent cult, had to escape said cult, came clean from his addictions, has been traveling Tamriel bounty-hunting, got brutally attacked by the Thalmor, rescued by mere chance. Do you honestly mean to tell me this man would be yelling, pissing, drinking, lewding, and joking his ass off?? After all that???? NO - or maybe not these levels of extreme. (maybe some other dude might, but Kaidan's characterization insists he is a brooding, keeps-to-himself man, even though he never acts like it anymore)

That man should be tired, and he did feel like he was tired in the original. He was more brooding then than he is now, usually silent, but could still have an edge of comedy/wittiness, he was smart, he had been through a lot!

In that regard, EE/IF Kaidan felt like... we are experiencing Kaidan 10 years in the past - like a Kaidan in his early 20s when he was still a drunkard low-key terrible person. He is just so energetic, always yapping - GOD he talks a lot now. ugh but most of the time it wasn't about anything, it was either inside-jokes, meta jokes, and only occasionally did we get things that added to the experience.

For example, I think most of us who have played Kaidan 2 remember at least one specific line he has said while exploring. What comes to mind for me is either "Can you smell the magicka in the air too? Smells like a rainless thunderstorm." or "Watch for the mammoth with the carvings on their tusks, that's how the giants mark their herd." Alright, both pretty nice small talk for characterization (he IS smart) and worldbuilding.

Tbh i can't really remember any iconic lines from the additions of EE/IF Kaidan... the only two lines that stood out for me were: the "elevenses" line from the clip above (started bumping into him every time he was about to say this so he would stfu... total tonal dissonance), and one he said while I looted Lucky Lorenz ("poor sod wasn't as lucky as his namesake would have you believe!") kai HOW do you know this man, and his nickname, who told you that??? (idc about it that much but its like the only other added line i remember)

I thought that maybe his ooc-iness might have been caused due to the collaborative approach of the mod, I think the mod authors created their own perfect Kaidan - and that's good for them! It takes a shit ton of work (Ik cuz i was there!!) But I think the original essence was lost with each addition. It might have been lack of direction for the voice acting too, a lot of the lines might have hit better if they weren't borderline screamed.

Okay, at some point while playing I got so tired of his constant himbo chit-chatter that I tried tuning him out and bringing other npcs from vanilla skyrim as followers. Problem: even without kaidan on your party, everything starts being about kaidan. Because the extension made it so that Kaidan either has history with/character interactions and development with different NPCs from the base game.

The main poor sods that traveled with me:

Erik the Slayer: Apparently was Kaidan's childhood friend, got inspired by Kaidan to become an adventurer. Least egregious in my opinion, they say sweet things to each other. I swear, Kaidan yells more at me than he ever did at Erik.

The Companions: dumb, dumber, and dumbest basically.. This part of EE/IF was also known as "The Fratpack" and y e a h they pretty much had Vilkas, Kaidan, and Farkas acting like immature frat boys all the time. Just,, absulutely taking away all the maturity out of these GROWN ASS MEN. im sorry, i guess i dont get the appeal. I liked it when they didn't behave like teens (Aela im so sorry, you deserved better than being part of this)

Lydia: All she does is simp for him, ALL.THE.TIME. You think she's about to have a meaningful thing to say? nope, she's checking out Kaidan's ass. Think she'll have a deep convo with another npc about one another? nope! she wants them to tell her all about Kaidan. Both the Companions and Erik will either talk down to her or have to deal with her thirst for Kaidan. i had to start leaving her home.

They also suffered from the same tonal whiplash as Kaidan, unfortunately

additionally, the mod added an "early flirt switch" - you could basically toggle Kaidan to start showing romantic affection for the Dragonborn before the amulet of mara., the interactions were good on paper, but everytime he stammered and stumbled over his words it was written in such an unnatural way... pls people don't talk like fanfics lol !!!

I did like that he gave me flowers, my inventory got full of them - but then he noticed how many flowers I had in my inventory and judged me for "picking everything i see" ugh dude you gave them to me, but also even if you hadnt... mind your business lol

Another addition was a feature that basically made it so NPCs could potentially throw flirtatious comments at Kaidan and the Dragonborn (Bishop flashbacks😨)

You can't do anything to defend Kaidan from those comments, but he WILL take it upon himself to defend your honor infront of any men, women, jarls, or criminals that even so much as find you attractive (THIS INCLUDES FARKAS AND VILKAS BTW :( ) by being rude, forthcoming, AND violent. so yea, you can guess the target audience

speaking of which, he definitely comes on too strong on you once you start the romance, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I specifically picked the "go slow" option for the romance, and the next day or two it was him constantly complaining about having to go slow under his breath, how he wanted to do anything but slow rn... and like just, wow. :/ yikeees lmao

Maybe this is the result of "i can fix him" romance ideals? im sorry but I liked him when he was down to earth

Bonus? He comes with a campsite now, which has to be magic because its ginormous and he somehow lugs it around despite it also coming with a whole ass furnace (fine fine i'll hold my disbelief)

anyway I do like it, its basically a player house you can take anywhere (so long as kai is with you ig) also you can have a cat in there

I like that there is an MCM, I like that the MCM lets you get through the quest stages in case you get stuck

I like that he can guide you places, usually he gets stuck in a tree or rock but its the thought that counts

I think if the mod had continued in the vein as its original iteration when it was just audio/bug fixes and included these qol features it would have been better than it is now.

But it seems maybe i'm just not the target audience, and as a young woman I'm really confused as who the target audience is 😓

okay im srry rant over

if anyone else wants me to yap about other kaidan skyrim things also ask or join in cuz i like yapping about skyrim and kaidan to people!!!

[hyunjilicious]

A/n: This was initially supposed to be the beginning of a longer fic but I ended up changing the plot a bit and this little thing doesn't fit in there anymore. So there's basically no plot here, just 3 bff's minding their own business when one of them decides to ask for a hickey :) you know, like all friends do.

Warnings: there's no smut, but I still wouldn't be comfortable with anyone underage reading it, so 18+ PLS. Also they're just friends but there's a hyunjin x reader x felix type of thing implied... idk... I love them both too much :/ (highly unedited, don't look at me, I just want it out of my drafts thank you) 1.4k

"Ok, I know this is gonna sound stupid, but bear with me for a second?" Hyunjin said, breaking the 10 minutes of silence that followed yours and Felix's relentless complaints about work and the last minute tasks you had been given. Once that topic had been exhausted, you each settled in a corner of your queen sized bed, entrapped by your phones. That was until Hyunjin spoke up.

"Yeah, what is it?" Felix answered but Hyunjin waited until he had your attention too before continuing.

"Can one of you give me a hickey?" 

Felix didn't even bother trying to answer, confusion just fell upon his features as he stared ahead, then at Hyunjin, who didn't even bat an eye, and then at you.

"Um?" you frowned, "Can you elaborate?"

"There are these girls at work that like me, I mean I think they do, and I've basically done everything to tell them I'm not interested but like… they don't get the hint, and they're very sweet, so I don't wanna be rude to them.. I figured this would be the best idea"

"You figured this would be the best idea?" Felix deadpanned.

"Yeah… they never walked up to me and told me they like me, so what kind of entitled asshole would I be if I just went to them and said 'Hey, I get that you're obsessed with me but I'm not interested'?"

Felix just blinked. "First of all, obsessed is a little bit too much, don't you think?"

"I agree. That's why I want a hickey"

"Just say you have a girlfriend"

"But I don't" Hyunjin shook his head, "That would be a lie. A hickey is just a hickey, and it'll make them assume I have someone"

"Or you could just talk to them" Felix tried again.

"Or you could just shut up and give me a hickey"

"I've never given anyone a hickey, I'm not doing it"

"I can do it" you offered, much to Felix's disappointment. It seemed that for whatever reason he assumed you'd be the rational one, but if anything, you understood very well what it was like to want to avoid difficult conversations.

"Thank you!" Hyunjin exclaimed.

"Come here"

"What? Now!?"

"What? Do you need to get ready? Need a moment of silence?"

"Um, no?" Hyunjin shily mumbled as Felix laughed in the background, "I just didn't expect you to do it now"

"We can do it later"

"No, no, no. Now is good"

"Ok, lay down" you instructed and shuffled closer to him. 

"Oh my god" Hyunjin chuckled as he let his weight fall back onto his shoulders while you straddled his hips. He watched you tuck your hair behind your ears and lick your lips, which made nervous giggles break past his lips as he threw his head back. "This feels so professional"

"Yes, y/n, the hickey master" you mocked and grabbed his hands, one forceful pull later and he was down flat on his back against the mattress. "Tell me if it hurts"

"I've gotten hickeys in the past, it wasn't that bad"

"Yeah because you were turned on and it was sexy. Now that's not the case"

"Hey, you're sexy" he grinned which made you slap his face away so you wouldn't have to see his eyes anymore.

"Oh god, I need to see this" Felix giggled and crawled closer, settling right next to you and directly above Hyunjin.

"You're breathing right into my face"

Felix wasn't having it, so he just smiled down at his friend. "You like it"

"Idiot"

With your lips inches away from Hyunjin's exposed neck, you found yourself struggling to find a starting point. Something felt off, a bit unnatural, and it made your ears tingle. "Ok, this is weird, but I don't know how to give hickeys without kissing too, so-"

"Kiss me, I don't mind"

"You're willing to make this sacrifice, huh?" Felix teased.

"Ok, but tell me if this starts to feel awkward, ok?"

"Y/n, you're both basically on top of me, one about to bite me and the other one looking at me like I'm a science experiment, awkward doesn't even begin to explain it"

"I'm sorry" you laughed, and despite the hurricane of thoughts that rushed through your brain at that exact moment, you shook your head one last time and finally closed the distance between the two of you.

Doing this robotically and by the book was never going to cut it, no matter how much experience you had and how many techniques you knew. So putting your faith into Hyunjin to tell you in case you went too far, you decided to do this right.

With your back arched and your body fully pressed against his, you snaked one hand up into hair, curling your fingers up around his roots as your lips started working on his still intact skin.

The kisses that initially started off as gentle and soft, turned fervid in a matter of seconds, your lips mercilessly sucking his perfect skin, morphing his light complexion into a perverse shade of red. 

Unconsciously, as you worked on the hickey on his neck, the hand that had been previously lightly tugging at his roots traveled down, gripping his chin and caressing its way down to his shoulders. 

Completely lost in the taste and feel of your best friend's skin, you failed to register the unnatural feeling of his hands on your thighs. You knew they were there, you felt their warmth down to your bones, but it never occurred to you that that had never happened before. So you let yourself get driven by his touch and refused to show any signs of slowing down as his curious hands made their way to your hips and then to your ass.

Fully engrossed by everything that was going on at once, you failed to notice the way Hyunjin was panting beneath you - his chest heaving up and down as his shaky, hot breath ran against your ear.

Once you figured you had him warmed up enough, you gave his neck the last bit of preparation which came in the shape of you licking up his jugular before you returned to your initial spot and sunk your teeth into his skin with no warning.

"Holy f-" he grunted, more than surely involuntarily bucking his hips up into you as his fingers dug into your hips. 

But it didn't deter you, you kept going - sucking, biting and licking all the right spots, keeping a steady pace until you felt satisfied with your work.

"Ok-" you said a bit out of breath before returning to pepper his traumatized skin with feather light kisses, "I think this should do it"

When you pushed yourself up to admire your work, Hyunjin hurried to hide his face behind his hands. "Oh my god"

"Was it good?" you grinned, placing your hands on his waist, ready to tickle a compliment out of him in case you needed to.

"I need a minute," he panted.

Deciding to give him the space he said he needed, your eyes moved to Felix. Despite not uttering one word, his face said a lot, his red cheeks, wide eyes and shy smile were enough to get the message across. 

Instantly, you opened your arms calling for a hug, but he just mirrored you and welcomed you when you finally crawled over to him. He gathered you close against his chest and pulled you down, the two of you now tightly wrapped together next to a still speechless Hyunjin.

"Was that awkward for you?" you whispered, hiding your face in the crook of his neck from the sudden wave of embarrassment that washed over you. 

"No, don't worry, it wasn't awkward-" he assured you with a kiss on the top of your head. "It was a… good tutorial"

"I still find it shocking that you've never given a hickey before" 

"I think the reason for that is because I always hated receiving them," Felix confessed, which prompted Hyunjin to come back from the dead, one long pointer finger up in the air.

"That's because you've never gotten one from her" 

"Ok" Felix laughed, "Can we stop with the hickeys? I feel like I'm high-school all over again. Adults don't have hickeys"

"No," you corrected, "Adults don't have hickeys in places others can see. Except that one" you pointed to Hyunjin. 

"You're just jealous"

"Of what? The hickey I gave you?"

"I don't know" Hyunjin gave up with a sigh and lazily rolled off the bed, "I'm gonna have a shower"

"Have fun!" you both laughed and then settled back into a tighter cuddle once the room fell into silence again.

What is this abrupt ending? Idk either, I'm sorry 😖

[ofmermaidstories]

i just wanted to say as a long time reader i'm so happy to hear your thoughts on the ending, because i feel like so many people were very "this is the worst ending ever and it ruined the series" or "this ending was perfect and anyone who disagrees just didn't understand the story" when i think neither is really true at all lol... like it's okay to take what you need from the ending and agree and disagree with certain parts! no perfect story exists because if it did then writers would stop writing! but i'm still so excited to see where your love of the series takes you in the future, and i'm grateful that you share your work with us always :) i hope you have a good week!

i love the series too much to swing blindly either way. 🥹 and i understand/can see perfectly how like, there’d be readers who’d be upset with the wrap up, or otherwise feel the knee-jerk reaction to defend it from all criticism. 🥺 i’m not one of them though. 🥹 hori achieved what he set out to do (tell a very specific story about a boy learning what it means to dream, and the cost and responsibility of gaining and losing them), there’s just some pot holes on the road to it. 🥺 and maybe they could’ve (should’ve) been addressed, maybe easily, maybe not (maybe it’s a problem for when the road was first built, in terms of foundation or missing approval plans, maybe) but the road still works. we still get there in the end. 🥹

i had fun the entire time, even with the complaints lmao. i agree with you, anon! like, i don’t think perfect creators/writers exist. we all have blind spots, or biases that otherwise skewer what we try to achieve. i think flaws make creators and their creations interesting!!!!!! if anything i think that tells you more about them and their work than the things they get right does. The way Hori protects and almost babies his hero boys—his men—from their consequences, lmao, like he’s almost too scared to truly hurt them in the long run? He always just shies away from saying things outright—things are always left just open enough that he can back peddle later on, fix things. The complete dry lack of romance, despite him taking pains to hint at it and the way it’s guarded among Ochako and Tsyu like some precious, girlish secret. 💀 Idc what anyone says about that last one, I don’t believe he’s deliberately subverting expectations—I think he’s just bad at writing romance (that isn’t unintended 💀) and also a coward, lmao.

But that’s the stuff that’s fun! It’s fun to pick it apart and then it’s fun to piece it back together either by writing fic or trying to find fics that have like, the fix-its you want. 🥹 Hori’s flaws and deliberate gaps are what makes it the perfect sandbox we know and love. and i think he knows that, tbh—there’s so many tiny things he hints at, throughout the story, that we just never get full explanations of. The UA robot uprising, lmao. The cyberwar after the kids leave school, mentioned in this last chapter?? The fact that he’s plotted out the past users lives, and is just kinda like—eh, yeah, i’m never gonna tell. LOL. Maybe what I keep calling cowardice is just a misjudgement of the lines he draws for himself, in the sand. 🧐🥺 I guess we won’t know, lmao.

i’m waffling. Anon, I hope you’re having a good start to your week. 🥹 Thank-you for being so nice, specifically with your last words—there’s a lot I wanna write for MHA!!! I’m excited to start something new that gets to play with what Hori left for us. 🥹 Like Lili said in her earlier ask—I’d like to write them a hundred other happy endings, too. 🥹

[peaxhxhair]

Can you do a Grey's Anatomy one, please?Where link and you are dating and living together and Link gets sick with the flu or something and you take care of him please.( Not enough Link sick shots anywhere ,and he's so cute )please

Pairing: Atticus Lincoln x Gn! Reader Warnings: None (?) A/n: Thank you for the request! It's been a while since I've watched Grey's so apologies if this is out of character for him LMAO- When I get to watching it again I'll write something like this again! Anyways hope you enjoy <3 Navigation Grey's Anatomy - MASTERLIST Consider Becoming a Member! <3

"Link, are you home?" You call as you enter your apartment. Placing your bag onto the closest counter, you began to slip your shoes off when you heard a grunt from down the hall. You had been at work for over twelve hours, noticing early on that your boyfriend had not shown up to work. At all.

You had attempted to call him during one of your breaks, but he didn't answer. It was a little worrying, considering he never avoided your calls. Usually he would pick up before the second ring - so it was a little concerning that he was seemingly M.I.A.

Having heard his grunt from the other room, you journey into your bedroom - finding him curled up under the covers. "Are you alive?" You joke at first - thinking he just took the day off to relax or something. Even if that was kind of unlikely. He makes a noise of complaint, followed up by a sniffle - moving his arm from his eyes.

Getting closer to the bed, you finally get a look at his face. Paler than usual, red eyes and nose, and he looked like he was about to pass away. You can understand why he wasn't at work now.

"Awe baby, why didn't you call me? I would have stayed home with you" You say, moving to sit on the bed beside him. He practically curls up in your arms - his head resting on your chest as he grumbles.

"You have a lot of patients.." He answers quietly, and you chuckle slightly - your hand caressing his back as a way to comfort him. Sure, you did have a lot of patients, though they weren't going to be neglected if you were to take the day off. Being the head of plastics meant you did have a lot of patients and surgeries, but the majority of them could have been pushed back - since only few were major.

"You know I'd take the day off for you" He smiles slightly at your words, his arms wrapping around your sides as he closes his eyes.

"You're gonna get sick" He mutters again, and you laugh at his words.

"Oh yeah? Well look who's clinging to me as if I'm about to run away" You hear a slight chuckle leave his lips, but he doesn't let you go. Instead, he simple looks up at you tiredly. You run your hand through his hair for a moment, before checking his temperature with the back of your hand - wincing dramatically at how hot he was. He rolls his eyes at you.

"How about I cook? Make you something to make you feel better?" You offer, and he thinks for a second before agreeing quietly. Even after he agrees to your idea, he refuses to let go of you. You pinch his arm gently. "If you're expecting me to carry you, you've thought wrong" You joke, and he laughs before letting you go - rolling over in bed and covering his eyes with his hand again.

He knows to stay put, so he doesn't follow you when you leave for the kitchen.

~~~

It didn't take too long before you had prepared the meal. It was a simple soup, but it had vegetables and stuff in it. You had googled the best ingredients for soup - luckily having most of them in your apartment already. You hoped it was good - or at least he would avoid telling you how horrible it was. What if it was so bad that he died? No, that's stupid. That would never happen.

You bring the hot bowl of soup - and hot tea, although that came from a teabag, not homemade at all - into your shared room on a tray. Link was sat up when you entered the room, rubbing his eyes with his hands as he yawns. You had just now noticed how messy his hair was, and it made you chuckle.

He whines tiredly. "Baby, don't laugh at me while I'm ill" He says, though you can hear a twinge of laughter in his own voice.

"Sorry, you're just really cute" You chuckle as you place the tray onto the beside table, before reclaiming your place on the bed. You see him roll his eyes again as he begins to eat his soup - moving to rest his head on your shoulder, the two of you sat up against the headboard.

"Thank you, baby"

"Of course, Love", You kiss the top of his head - a smile on your face as you watched him.

[starlightshadowsworld]

Pre HOO Jason just casually usurping his father for the Olympian throne.

And everyone's like oh how typical of a son of Zeus... Jupiter(?) always searching for power.

Jason's just like "you think I wanted this? We've been lodging complaints for years because you guys never visit us.

If I didn't do this the 1st cohort were gonna sacrifice Steve, and no one wants that especially not Steve.

So we held a vote, and well..." He sighs like someone who's just done with everything. "Everyone voted for me, even Octavian so you know shit is fucked.

Anyway, I'm in charge because you sir are bad at it like... terrible at it. Don't worry I'll give it back, once you sort out your... Everything."

Zeus/Jupiter is pissed as all heck but Poseidon calls a vote and shockingly everyone votes in favour of Jason.

Jason is just yay my plan is working but also... Why me?!

"Why did they vote you?" Asks Annabeth.

Jason shrugs "apparently other than Reyna who said no way, I'm the only other one who has 'common sense' and won't 'fuck things up anymore than usual.'

Apparently keeping a bunch of Romans from burning down camp every other week, makes me qualified to lead. The whole lead them into battle against Krios only made it worse."

Annabeth blinks, before nodding "no yeah, makes sense. I'm Annabeth Chase."

"Jason, Jason Grace.... Erm is she okay?" He points to Thalia who is just trying to process everything.

"Oh she's fine, just a lot to take in. She's my sister, well our sister Thalia Grace." Says Annabeth, having figured it out already.

Jason grins "no way?! Really?" He frowns "hey wait Nico told me she was a tree?" Annabeth snorts "it's a long story."

That he can agree with.

"Soo... What should we do with him?" Asks Percy pointing to the very pissed off Zeus/Jupiter who's laying in a heap on the floor.

"He's going to lose his powers. He's going to become someone that even a newly turned demigod can defeat.

He will know what it means to helpless and have no one to turn to. He will have the same immortality of that of a huntress, all the while everyone he's ever messed with hunts him for sport.

His only allies will be those who choose to aid him. He will be shunned, he will be isolated and learn what it means to be mortal."

Evetuone looks at Jason in shock, probably because it was the first time they'd seen him so serious.

Suddenly an entire legion voting this guy to be Zeus/Jupiter's replacement made a lot more sense.

"And what" spits Zeus/Jupiter, getting up to glare at his spawn. "Makes you think you can do that to me?"

Jason smiles, but it isn't kind "wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?" Before throwing something that engulfs his father in blue smoke.

When the smoke clears, the great king of Olympus now appears as a young man. He tries to pick up his masterbolt, enraged and it shocks him.

Hera is escatic, pulling Jason into a hug "you did it, I knew you had it in you." She says ruffling his hair "Lady Hera!" He pouts, trying to fix his hair.

She frowns "none of that, I have told you time and time again to call me mum." Jason mouths the words as she speaks, very clear they've had this conversation a lot.

"Sorry your majesty, Lady Hera, Queen of Olympus." Hera sighs but her gaze is fond.

"Mum?" Asks Annabeth. "I'm her champion but she'd watch over me as a baby and as a kid so she basically helped raise me." Explains Jason.

He totally knew about the bet Hera and Lupa had to see which he'd call mum first, and he totally wasn't messing with them both.

Nope, absolutely not.

"And er yeah, you guys can take him back to your camp when you want." Says Jason.

Hera lights up, a devious smile on her face. "I'll take care of that" Apollo raises a hand, a similar look on his face "I'll help."

The two vanish with the now fallen king.

Well that should be fine.

Probably.

Jason shrugged, ah well he tried.

"Soo... Who are you anyway?" Asks Percy, curious. Jason sighed, he was gonna have to put that nap on hold.

"Well it all started when my mum left me to the wolves, pun not intended."

(@star-archivist I'm not sure it this what you meant by "needing more of this", but.. Here it is 😅)

[one-vivid-judgment]

Hiya! Butler/Mistress RP headcanons with Tomi and his s/o 🙈 🙉 🙊 Thx!

Me: Oh hell yeah, I'm posting something fluffy tonight!

Also me when I remembered this, needing the pretty, pathetic man ruined: Ah shit, here we go again 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️

“Remind me why I said yes to this stupid ass bet.”

“Because you let your dick do the thinking. Now you gotta walk the walk, honey.”

Tomi groans. You chuckle, making yourself comfortable in the backseat.

He looks so out of his element like this: in a suit, wearing actual shoes and even gloves. You didn’t quite manage to get him to neatly groom his hair, but you can’t be asking too much of him in that regard. He’s already gonna do everything you ask of him for a day—that’s what your bet was all about: you played darts and whoever lost had to do the winner’s bidding for an entire day. And against all odds, it was you who won. You’re pretty sure Tomi is cursing the day he taught you how to play in his head as he drives you to the Anaconda shopping centre.

The butler outfit was just a joke at first. You had never seen Tomizawa in a suit before, and since he would be acting as your servant for the day, you thought it would only be appropriate if he dressed up like one. Oh, he tried to whine his way out of that one, but ended up complying in the end. He is a man of his word, after all.

And oh, how happy you are that he is.

All things considered, you’re not too mean to him. You don’t make him pay for the new clothes or makeup, knowing that he’s no exactly the wealthiest man—you do make him carry your bags though, and you do take your sweet, sweet time looking through every shop. He looks like he’d rather be anywhere else, but utters no complaints out loud. You treat him to hot dogs for lunch later for being such a good boy. Not movie theatre ones, like the ones you know he loves, but he likes it nonetheless, if the pleased little hums he makes as he eats.

Almost as cute as the ones he makes back home, when you tell him to drop to his knees and eat you out.

You never agreed on whether he had to call you some special names or not, but the way he moans “Mistress” when you tug at his hair to pull him closer and get his tongue in deep is enough to make you decide “Oh yeah, that’s what I want you to call me.”

And call you Mistress he does. He even endures some lighthearted teasing.

“You poor thing, you’re so hard already! You sure you won’t come right away?” He groans. It makes you laugh. “Oh well, you’ll just have to fuck Mistress until she comes, too.”

Tomi is not usually so eager to get off, except when he comes home full of pent up stress—that’s when he starts spewing absolute filth and treating you more roughly. This time, although eager, he is also more... sensitive, as it were. Submissive, would be the word. It’s you saying the dirtiest things in his ear, and the way he whimpers as he thrusts inside gets you going like nothing else.

He makes sure you come first and then even asks Mistress for permission to come. And you didn’t know you wanted to hear him beg like that, but he did anyway, and oh, fuck, he sounds absolutely heavenly. It would make you want to go for a round two immediately afterwards, but the poor thing looks too exhausted for that. So, you just give him a kiss and thank him for everything he’s done for you today; you’ll return the favor by being his maid one of these days, you say.

“Oh, hell yeah! You bet I’m holding you to that!”

[apupp3tw0-strings]

Please Turn Off Adblock and Reconnect to WiFi

Date: November 1st, 2131

Since Taffy never got to introduce himself in the car, he took the opportunity to do so as soon as possible (as well as taking the opportunity to introduce everyone else too). Another opportunity Taffy jumped on was the chance to introduce their stupid influencer group idea I never agreed on and that they've roped me into. It's something that Taffy and the others have been bouncing around for a while now, but has recently become more formalized in the past year when we've heard people calling our friend group "The HotSpots". I'm pretty sure it started because Taffy, Blaze, Neil and Blane all seem to be on their phones whenever they can be, and thus anytime the internet went out, at least of them have a mobile hotspot on or something.

Taffy and Blaze seemed to love the nickname though and adopted if for our "future influencer accounts"... (Guys... We're nine.) Shortly after that, Blane seemed to make up a slogan on the spot, one he thought and still thinks is a brilliant use of wordplay and innovation and jumps at pitching whenever possible. A pitch which he often drags the rest of us into, much to my discomfort. (I never agreed to any of this, but then again, I never explicitly said "No" to it either... Gyeh, tis the way it seems to go with my friends.)

As you might've guessed, as soon as Taffy brought up the whole "HotSpots" influencer group thing, Blane jumped on pitching the slogan. Luckily this time I was outside his arm range and didn't get roped in. I still had to nervously smile and cringe in the background though. Spamton didn't seem to enjoy it either judging by the sour expression he gave during the whole performance.

Seems Kris also seemed to share my view point of "Guys, what the heck. We're too young for this, please stop talking about this like it's something that's gonna happen any time soon" and started a bit of a verbal disagreement with Blane (as well as with Blaze and Neil) that Taffy and I had to mediate and ensure didn't go south.

When we both came back and Taffy made some snarky remark about Blane being an idiot, Spamton looked up and, very bluntly told Taff to their face,

"... I [hate mail] U THE MOST."

"Spamton!" I get Spamton is a blunt person. I've been around him long enough to know he's not someone to dance around topics and will state his opinion loud and clear, no matter how rude, but seriously!

Taffy was clearly taken aback by this, which, who wouldn't be? I tried to assure them I'd talk to him and that the rest of the group should just go on ahead a bit. Thankfully Taffy agreed as I stayed back a bit to confront Spamton on how he's been acting.

"Okay, seriously Spamton. What is going on with you?"

"N0THIG. I JUST D0 N'T [leave a like] UR [[trashy intenet friends]]." Yeah right. There's something deeper to this than simply "not liking them"

"You've barely met them!"

"ND I CAN ALR EADY TELL THEI R [fake news] AS CAN B3," Spamton turned to look me in the eye, "KID, D0 U REALLY THINK THOSE [[trendy teens] ] HAVE YOUR BACK?"

"Yes??? I've known them since I was in kindergarten, I sure hope so at least!" ... Sometimes I think I have to really convince myself of that statement. It's sad that I have to convince myself.

"AND YET U'VE [file a complaint] B OUT THEM [[Multi-purpoose tool]] TIMES. HAV N'T U TOLD ME UR [deep dark fears] ABOUT THEM [[leavving for greener pastures]] U?" It wasn't helping here that yeah. I had complained about worrying that my friends didn't actually like me. Mulitple times. In front of Spamton. ... I didn't think it would come back to bite me in the moment! I was just just... Upset, I guess.

I shook my head, "No! We're, we're not doing this right now! That's just my anxiety. I know they wouldn't just, abandon me because they're good friends!" I looked off to where the rest of the group was. They were heading forward without us. They were leaving us behind. ... They were leaving me behind. ...

In that moment, it didn't matter to me if I have my doubts about the HotSpots. I just didn't want to get left behind again.

"And... and right now I just want to have a good night where I can spend time with them, alright?" I looked back to Spamton. I was frustrated at first. I was getting left behind because of him. Because of his behavior. ... But then I started to remember his situation. His friends. Probably where this was all coming from...

I probably shouldn't have just walked off after that. I should've stayed with Spamton, or made sure he came with, especially considering the state I found him in a few minutes later... But I was too afraid of getting left behind again.

After I had caught up to the others and we'd hit the first house, I noticed Spamton wasn't following us and went back to check on him. I probably should've made sure he was behind us when I first walked off, because when I came back I sorta found him zoning out and his glasses staticing... I hope it wasn't because of what I had said. It could've been something the askers said, but...

I was able to snap him out of it a bit (not without a bit of a startle though due to his sudden laughter though), we were able to catch up with everyone else and continue on with the night. Everything seemed okay for a time, we got to trick-or-treat (Jevil and Spamton even joined in), we ran into some of Kris's friends (Or... I think they're friends?), made some future plans to hang out at the Fun Center since Blane and Neil were curious when we passed my aunt's house and I said she wasn't there likely because she was working, and overall had a mostly fun night.

... That was until we reached the last stop of the night. A haunted house set up on the old fairgrounds.

To Be Continued

[fallenclan]

TW for: Child death and heavy emotions

The chill of leafbare had set in these past moons. The usual greenery of Fallenclans borders had long since faded into the cycle of change. Moosekit breathed in the warm scent of moss as the colors in the sky outside washed away, leaving a dull horizon. Sorrelstem curled around each of her kits, her soft underbelly cushioning each small kit against her. Owlkit let out a long yawn followed by a complaint. Sorrelstem tilted her head down to Owlkit, Moosekit stretched up as his mother gave each of her kits a small lick on the head. A purr rose in Moosekits throat, which his mother responded with a purr of her own. "Now it's time to sleep you cute little furballs~" Sorrelstem purred. "I'm not gonna." Wasskit said bluntly "You always say that!" Moosekit retorted.

Sorrelstem, despite the growing exhaust in her eyes smirked. "But you always end up snoozing off when I tell you a story." she teased. " Yeah Moosekit!" Wasskit objected "WASSKIT YOUR-"

"Okay okay! Hush hush. I do not tell stories to noisy arguing kits.."

"Sorry Wasskit." "Sorry Moosekit."

Sorrelstem chuckled, "Alright my little warriors, you are going to be made apprentices soon..So how about a fitting story about my life when I was an apprentice?"

"100 moons ago?" Shrewkit asked so earnestly that everyone in the nest burst out laughing.

"Okay Shrewkit. I'm not that old. I'm actually quite young."

The laughter died down as Lightingtail called over, asking for them to quiet down.

"Back then I didn't always take everything so seriously, I goofed off a lot. And if I know you sillys then being serious and focusing may be tough for you."

"remember Owlkit! No rivers!" Wasskit ordered

Owlkit looked away, her face growing hot with embarrassment.

Sorrelstem shook her head at Wasskit and gave Owlkit a few licks on the head.

"Hailcrash, believe it or not, was actually my mentor."

"Hailcrash?? She's so cool!" mewed Moosekit

" She would be a cool leader!" Shrewkit agreed

"And she was an even cooler mentor, im sure whoever your mentors will be just as brave and thoughtful. Just make sure you treat them with respect and follow the rules"

"What are the rules?" Shrewkit asked

"Lets start with going to sleep at a decent time." Sorrelstem chuckled

All the kits curled up huddling for warmth. it had become harder for them to all fit in the nest lately. As cold gusts of wind crept under your fur, causing it to bristle, being huddled together suddenly seemed very appealing.

"Im not.. Sleepin..g" Wasskit trailed off, her voice being lost in the fur of her mother.

Moosekit embraced around Shrewkit, she was always so cozy. He sunk deeper into the fluffy moss, causing his eyelids to grow heavier. His body relaxed, he listened to the rise and fall of Shrewkits breathing, a slow yet fast rhythm that lulled him to sleep.

Moosekit shifted in and out of sleep for a moment, a wave of wind bit at his face. He grounded and shifted in the nest facing away from the nursery's entrance. Still half asleep he reached his paw out to find Shrewkit. He peeled his eyes open when his paw fell, an empty space where Shrewkit should be. He looked out, the nursery was blanketed in darkness, only the dim light of early dawn leaked in through the entrance.

Moosekit blinked as he took in the nest. Owlkit and Wasskit snuggled together. Owlkit twitched in her sleep, deep in some dream. Moosekit pulled himself to his paws, peering at the nest once more. Still drowsy from sleep, he in a hushed voice called out.

"Shrew..?"

When Shrewkit didn't respond, Moosekit tiptoed to the center of the den. There Lightningtail and her kits remained asleep, no sign of Shrewkit. A sense of dread tightened in his chest when he realized she wasn't in the nursery. Moosekit looked to his Mom, nothing like this had never happened before, he didn't know what to do.

He shook his head, he was gonna be a warrior! And warriors dont call to their moms when they get scared, they keep going!

That when he saw a shape outside the Nursery. The object was too far away to see, the light outside to dim. He didn't make a sound slowly creeping out of the nursery, the icy air hitting his face. His paws stung as he took each step of the frozen ground. The dark shape got closer as he moved forward,he opened his mouth to catch a scent. The wind tried its best to dull it, but he breathed in the whiff of something so familiar he almost didn't catch it.

"Shrew? Why're you sleepin' in the snow?"

The silence was so eerie he thought he might have been mistaken for a moment.

"Shrew..?"

Moosekit finally stood right at her side, any silence there was had started to be overtaken by a ring in his ears.

"Shrew.." he said breathlessly, his chest was now light. His flank slowed with his breathing.

Shrewkit looked almost blue, her fur covered in snow. She was in such a tight ball, twice her normal size.

He curled around her. He didn't know why. The usual warmth was instead cold.He could only blankly stare at her fur. The ringing rose into a loud shriek, or maybe it was the wail of a cat. Yet it was all he could hear, he didn't react.

The rise and fall of Shrewkits breathing couldn't lull him out of this horrible dream. And it never would again.

-🐁

AUGHH G???? AUGUHG??? WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME WHY DO YOU HURT ME <started it

GOD this is so painful. moosekit and shrewkit . aughghg im having feelings about this little guys im in agony

[dundunny]

Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy XVI completed, and wow, I think it's my favorite Final Fantasy since IX, and I'm surprised more people aren't talking about it (focusing on VIIR2?). It's not a perfect game and has some glaring flaws, but I haven't had this much fun playing a Final Fantasy in a long time.

I'll start with the issues, and I think number one is the items, which affects the game twofold. First is there's a completely fucked up weapon upgrade system. Literally after I get a shiny new sword, barely an hour later I've gotten another one. It's like Square didn't track when a player should get trying out something new. The second is the rewards for exploration or epic battles don't matter. There are maybe a dozen different upgrade materials in the whole game, most of which you get pretty early on. So I'm literally running around the final area and finding fucking sharp fangs, which I started collecting way back in the beginning when Clive was like fifteen. Yeah, (some) bounties have good drops, but I literally defeated Bahamut and got forty bloody hides, of which I already owned hundreds. None of the accessories felt like game changers either, so opening up treasure chests felt like meh. You need a sort of nice reward for effort. If I'm gonna walk across the map for some distant treasure, it better not be five of what I already have hundreds of. It's annoying because they put so much effort into everything else, so literally hiring one dude whose sole job is this I feel shouldn't've been hard.

Then there are regular battles. Let me say this first: boss battles were amazing and I was completely satisfied with them. But XVI suffered from the same issue as Hogwarts Legacy: too little variation in enemies and you're way overleveled early on. There's no incentive to fight regular enemies on the map because you're not getting much EXP since you're already way over, their drops are pointless like every other item, so they're more or less just an annoyance you avoid. I didn't put any effort in trying basic encounters, and I beat the game one level below max. So what's the point. Given how much effort Square put into the battle system, it's a shame they didn't let me flex my muscles with it more often.

This is a personal preference but I think others would agree: I'm a big environments fiend, and you don't get to explore any of the major cities. Hell, you never see the Iron Kingdom's capital even in a cutscene. The cities are just dungeons, so you're basically there as a continuous fight so you don’t have time to appreciate the surroundings, and when you do everything is in the process of being destroyed or already is. You don’t even get to visit what should be a moderately sized town, Port Isolde, and even Northreach felt like a minor checkpoint before the capital moved. All that's left are small towns or even just hovels. I wonder if they were trying to save resources on environments; Oriflamme looks amazing from the outside, I can't imagine having the render all of that.

That being said, dungeons are following the trend of a linear path with perhaps a quick diversion for treasure. There's no puzzles, no thought (although a good portion of the time the dungeons are mid-battle of a large attack so there isn't time). XVI isn't alone in this; I've noticed most RPGs in recent years don't do the puzzle route as much anymore.

Another minor complaint is at times they would shove the point down the player's throat until it became fantastical. Yes, slavery is bad and people abuse slaves. However, I cannot imagine even in the cotton-picking South some person would purposefully have other people's slaves be killed by a giant wolf. That is someone else's property. Slaves to that extent are safe from others besides the master. Some dude is not going to go out and start murdering slaves randomly because even the law protects the master's possessions. It just doesn't make any sense.

Now onto the good things: pretty much everything else. The plot is solid and feels like Final Fantasy returning to form. Big crystals that need to be destroyed, kingdoms falling, a higher power controlling things behind the scenes... One thing I appreciate, and I think many recent games have lost this, is XVI had many sidequests that had us check in on friends we've met along the way and continue with their subplots. You never really forget these people and it shows how a network of connections and bonds is maintained. Even Eastpool, which was massacred fairly early on, rises up again much later on.

Another factor that I think is important is I just like Clive a lot. He's also my favorite Final Fantasy protagonist since IX. Don't get me wrong; I did like Lightning but if I ever had to work toward a common goal with her in real life, I probably would punch her in the face. I have no idea how she was ever in the military because she has zero sense of teamwork, and she acts like an asshole to even people who are actively trying to help her. Clive in contrast is very mature, has strong leadership abilities, not overly angry or obnoxious or lonerlike, and is just trying to do good in the world. He does make mistakes, but they're reasonable ones that happen because he didn't have all the information or there were circumstances he couldn't've foreseen, unlike other protagonists who do things you know are wrong and stupid but they do it anyway for the sake of plot. He makes the effort to play with the kids even though he isn't great at it, and they admire him for that. Even when he's angry in the beginning of the game, he's still respectful toward Cid and says, "Thanks for saving me, I have nothing against you or your group, I just have my own path I need to take." He recognizes his own weaknesses, and in such situations seeks assistence or delegates to others. He feels like an actual, filled-out human being, and kudos to whoever wrote him.

The other members of the cast are great too. Jill is very badass but a bit quiet and subdued, but given her time in the Iron Kingdom that's understandable. I thought Joshua would just be a plot point, but he really grew into his own. Cid was fun to be with, and I was sad when he was gone. Gav as always was cool. The enemies were great too. Benedikta died early on, but they threw in a great backstory with the little time they had. Kupka was an idiot and not deep, but you could feel his love and pain. Dion's path was surprising and I never knew what his next step was.

The battle system is definitely the best in the series. It was cool to experiment with each of the summons, and really it can be tailored easily to your style. No one I've asked equipped the same three summons. It feels like they were trying to reach a God of War level of combat, but simultaneously they fumbled on the actual fights. Again, bosses were amazing, but regular fights were just meh. I guess that's why they threw in so many boss fights so frequently.

In terms of music XV was definitely better, but I wouldn't stick my nose up to this. As with many aspects of the game, there were a lot of throwbacks. Prelude and the Final Fantasy Theme came up repeatedly, but also On the Shoulders of Giants had the traditional Final Fantasy regular battle opening. And also randomly for one of the times you fight Ultima, it's the FFI world map theme. I've definitely heard better, but I could listen to this OST on its own. The lyrics however are stupid. From what I'm understanding, they tasked the English translator to provide them, and considering this is the dude that wrote out "such foul attaint may not be sublimed through gainstanding," you can tell where this is going. I'll give a few examples:

A sickle forged of adamant To server the man from his hooded past No more a slave to sorrow's gloom In onychine eyes burn chthonic doom An evil hidng from the sun Blinding, he screameth eschaton immanent Now in its wake yawned lightless abyss Yon gaping maw his circumfix

I feel like this written by a high schooler who believes using as much SAT vocabulary they just learned makes them sound more intelligent. I don't know why anyone would compose this.

Visually it's all right. XV had a prettier environment, but this wasn't bad, especially when you're walking around Rosaria. I touched on how you never explore epic architecture, but the nature is beautiful. Unfortunately in the second half of the game when everything goes to shit, the world gets this haze over it and nothing is appealing to look at (which isn't unusual; other Final Fantasies, especially VI had catastrophic situations in the second half of the game). I guess that's kinda the point; the Blight is wiping out everything and actually Clive's efforts could ultimately be for naught and it's too late.

Which is how I'm going to end: It's a very depressing game. There's a lot of death, a lot of tragedy, a lot of loss. Clive lives a totally fucked up life, and he's not alone. The fact I still enjoyed this never-ending sadness demonstrates how well it was done. Totally recommend, play it as soon as you can.

Also... can we address that whole Barnabas and his mom thing? They had literally one scene with that and never mentioned it again. What the fuck was with that?

[vro0m]

vro0m's rewatch - 187/332

2016 Brazilian GP

Alright penultimate race. Remember that if Nico wins this one it's over, and Lewis has never won there at this point. And it's actively raining! We open on the drivers truck about to leave and Lewis puts himself between Seb and Raikkonen, very close, very intimate. 

The grid : Lewis qualified 0.102 ahead of Nico. Then it's Raikkonen, Verstappen, Seb, Ricciardo, Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Perez and Alonso. 

The journalist on the drivers’ truck says the crowd has been shouting Lewis' name. Lewis says it's amazing especially given the weather for them to still be there and out. "Yeah I'm not Brazilian but I still have great support here which I'm so grateful for," he says. (And a handful of years later look where we're at! He IS Brazilian!) The journalist says Charlie has already stated it would be a normal standing start. Nice, Lewis says. He says he's glad they took into account the complaints that happened at another race that they should have started on the grid. He's very distracted because he's waving to the crowd and spotting his fans in the stands.

"Did you see your fan club there?" he's asked. "Ya." the journalist is kinda wholesome, he's not looking at Lewis, he's also looking at the crowd smiling wide with him rather than at him.

He says they have good reasons to be excited because Massa is saying goodbye and he might win his first race here. Lewis twitches. "Yeah it's not an easy race to win," he tempers. "Due to all these conditions every time we come, but it is one of the best grand prix there is and I just hope to be as prepared as I can possibly be." 

Oh and later on in the build up we learn that Ferrari is appealing Seb's demotion in the Mexico gp. Good luck guys. 

Ohhh and Grosjean crashed on his way to the grid. Lewis has been heard on radio saying it's very wet out there and it clearly is. The start is delayed. The drivers are split on whether they should do a standing start or a safety car start. 

And it's gonna be a safety car start after all. 

And here they go. 

Lewis immediately radios in that he can't see behind the safety car and whether they can ask Charlie if they can follow at more of a distance because he can barely see the lights. Seb says there's a lot of water on the straight and between 3 and 4 which wasn't a problem earlier. Daniel also says it's worse than the laps they did to the grid. Are they gonna red flag it? Lewis must have gotten the green flag to put some distance between himself and the SC but he slows down a bit suddenly and we get a concertina effect that looks a bit dangerous in these conditions. Like, some of them are overtaking each other by mistake. Jenson says visibility is "non-existent". At the start of lap 4 Sainz thinks they can race but the visibility is on the limit. Ricciardo then says they're close. They're all agreeing basically that the track is getting better and the spray is the issue. Max says it won't get better if they keep going so slow. Magnussen says "it's easily ready to race". Lewis says when he pits later if they could find a way to block the top of his visor it'd be good because water is dripping in his eyes. Safety car in at the end of lap 7. 

Nico was caught sleeping a bit. Verstappen overtakes Raikkonen for P3. Magnussen pits for inters?! That's not gonna end well. You can tell Nico is more cautious than Lewis. Someone has crashed I think. Yellow flash in sector 3 and I can see Gutierrez falling in the standings. Oh it's cleared! Maybe he just spun then. Jenson pits for inters as well. 

Lap 10, still don't know what happened to Gutierrez. Seb is closing on Raikkonen. Alonso, Bottas and Massa pit. Inters for everybody. It still seems early for that. So many people in the pits. Kvyat, Palmer, Ericsson. Nico says he thinks it's too early. Ricciardo is closing on both Ferraris. Ohhh and Seb aquaplaned a bit there, Ricciardo is ahead. Oh no. Okay so. Initially he just kind of drifted on the straight but as he rejoins the track he spins for good and finds himself facing the wrong way. Scary, especially in such low visibility. He manages to go again thankfully. He pits. Oh there's a problem with the gun! 7.9. It's bad. Ohhh. Someone's stranded and someone almost hit him at full speed. It's Ericsson. Safety car. For some reason instead of stopping in the area between the track and the pitlane entry he stopped IN the pitlane entry. Bad idea bro. OH GOD. AS THE CAMERA PANS AWAY THERE'S A RBR OR TORO ROSSO CAR DIVING IN THE PITS AT FULL SPEED. Did they collide?! There's debris from Ericsson's car in the middle of the track as well, that's what the camera was panning to. It's Max who pitted. He had to take evasive action. And the pitlane is now closed. It's unfair! Really stupid from Ericsson as well. Also Ricciardo is now in as well so? Lewis asks if it was someone on inters and he's told yes. Lewis says there's still way too much standing water. Nico is told they expect the rain is gonna get worse actually. Bad news for the inter boys. And we see a replay of Perez doing a full 360 on the track. Magnussen says he thinks it's too wet now. Too wet for inters? His teams asks. Too wet period, he says. The pitlane is open again. Ricciardo is under investigation for entering the pitlane while it was close. Palmer pitted to get back on the full wets. "Lewis, just give us some feedback on current conditions in terms of spray." – "It's– it's no different." – "OK roger." Safety car coming in again at the end of lap 19 and Massa is under investigation for overtaking before the safety car line.

Here we go again. Lap 20. The order goes Lewis, Nico, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Perez, Sainz, Nasr, Ricciardo and Ocon, at the moment. OH AND RAIKKONEN IS INTO THE WALL! It just took a couple of corners and as soon as they crossed the finish line he crashed. Oh shit he bounced from one side of the track to the other and almost crashed into Verstappen in the process. Loads of debris everywhere again. They're definitely gonna red flag this at some point right? The safety car is back out of course. Yep, it's a red flag. We hear that Seb was calling for it. "Yeah we need extremes, first of all, second we need to stop the race. It doesn’t work. How many people do you want to crash? I nearly crashed into Kimi in the middle of the straight. Couldn’t see anything." Everybody is getting out of the cars. Lewis is talking with Pez, his start engineer. Nico is talking, in French, with a man about his visor. He's eating a banana. We see a replay of Max almost losing it on the straight as well and he says on radio he wasn't even pushing. Massa gets a 5 sec time penalty for overtaking before the safety car line. Daniel gets one as well for entering the pitlane while it was closed. Lewis then comes back out and talks with Bono. They’re very very close. 

Okay we got the 10 minute warning for the restart. And here we go yet again, under safety car. Ocon immediately says the visibility is worse than when they stopped. Oh god. Perez is told heavy rain is coming (what did we get until now then?!) and they expect it will last FIFTY MINUTES. This race is fucked. Seb says it's still bad and Hulkenberg pits, which is weird because it takes him from P4 to P15. Nico says it's still very difficult. Oh Hulkenberg had a puncture. And Palmer has DNFd and nobody noticed. Max is told they're potentially expecting more rain as the commentators say they think it's getting raceable. Seb says it seems like it's getting heavier, he sees more rivers in turn 5 and says he's nearly lost the car several times around the track. Oh. Palmer is out because he crashed into Kvyat apparently. Somehow they didn't show us until now. And Max just overtook Nico under SC. And Perez behind him has to break hard to avoid him. "We should be going, Charlie." Lewis says with a touch of music in his voice. A couple laps later Ted reports that Max is saying the same thing and that the crowd is booing. 

But they're not going. 

They're red flagging it. 

AGAIN.

The whistles are LOUD. Lewis, when told about the red flag, says the track is fine. The public is very, very unhappy. Drivers aren't happy about it either OH HEY! THAT'S WHERE THAT GIF FROM SHY LOVER CHARLES LOOKING AT LEWIS IS.

Ted says he gets that people are unhappy but names Jules Bianchi. And he's right. And we get another 10 minutes warning after a good long while. But the teams are saying they expect the rain to keep going as it is or get worse. We still have 42 laps to go and I wonder if it's gonna work out. They go again under safety car. And again we're told it'll do more than 1 lap. 

It's lap 30. Lewis says the lap is no different and Max says it's a little bit worse but they can race and indeed the safety car comes in. Nico leaves some room to Lewis but behind him Max and Perez are so close to him they're almost overtaking each other. Max has positioned his car to overtake. Now Lewis slows down as well and he's gonna have to get it right. He does. Max is extremely close to Nico. Massa pits. Max overtakes Nico. We could barely see it happen with the spray. Ricciardo overtakes Sainz for P5. Seb overtakes Wehrlein for P10. Max was getting close to Lewis but Lewis sets a fastest lap. The gap is 1.5. 1.7. 1.9. There's tight skillful racing in the midfield. Seb is chasing Ocon for P9, half a second away. And then Ocon makes a mistake and Seb is ahead. OHHH and Max spins but miraculously manages to not hit the barrier but it's still costly because Nico who'd fallen back a bit is now wheel to wheel with him down the straight but Max stays ahead! 

It's lap 40. Lewis, Max +6.7 (!), Nico +1.5, Perez +6.7, Ricciardo +0.5, Sainz +3.9, Nasr +7.5, Alonso +1.2, Seb +1.2, Ocon +4.3. Ted says Lewis has radioed in that his tyres are starting to fall off and he's been told to try to cool them down. Ricciardo pits. He serves his penalty. Goes away on inters. Let's see how that goes. Welp. Perez is told they expect heavier rain in 5 minutes lol. Massa, Bottas and Jenson in P16, 17 and 18 are also on inters btw. Seb overtakes Alonso for P8, and Alonso tries to come back but finds himself forced wide by the Ferrari! Max also pits for inters! It might be catastrophic for RBR if they got the weather report wrong. If they got it right they might get a nice undercut. And Daniel is setting good lap times at this point. Hulkenberg pushed Ocon wide. Seb overtakes Nasr for P6, and Jenson wants to go back on the wets saying the inters are bad. He's told other cars are still going on inters and he says he doesn't care, and cannot drive through the last few corners on this tyre. (I would trust him given his skills in wet conditions.) He pits. Oh and we see Nico had a moment as well. Bono describes it to Lewis as a "half spin exit 12 through 13" and tells him to be cautious. Gutierrez says there's something wrong with his car. There's a big fight for P7 between Nasr, Alonso, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo. They're all under a second from each other. Yellow flags in sectors 1 and 3… oh it's a crash again. And it's Massa. For his last home race. What a shame! Safety car out. And he's also stranded in the pit lane entry which means the pit lane is closed. He gets out of the car and stands there waving to the crowd. Bro it's dangerous, go away. There's a photographer there who hugs him and says something to him in a very animated manner and taps his helmet. It's sad. He walks towards the pitlane waving and then someone gives him a Brazilian flag and he holds it open behind his head. He's trying very hard not to cry I think. Ted says Lewis reported he had an aquaplaning moment. It's bad for Mercedes that the pitlane is closed. They would have wanted to change tyres, probably. 

It's lap 50. 3 more laps and they get full points. Oh. 

There's a marshal crying for Massa. It's cute. Massa is crying too now. Still walking sadly all alone with his flag under the rain towards the garage. Soppy. In the garage, his son is waiting. This is the saddest shit I've seen in a while. In the pitlane a couple of Williams workers welcome him and hug him and comfort him as he walks. His son is walking in his direction with his mom. OH MY GOD. I'm gonna start crying as well. All the Mercedes mechanics are lined up in front of the garage clapping for him as he walks past.

And his wife and son hug him right there. He's sobbing. I'm so emo, fuck. His engineer also kisses him on the head. Now it's the entire Ferrari garage flocking to him and clapping. And his dad is there hugging him. The pitlane entry is now open. But everyone is still celebrating Massa. The Williams people are also waiting for him clapping in a line. He's hugging everybody. They're all hugging him. So many people are crying. 

Back to the race, Ricciardo is pitting for full wets again. Lewis is saying he can't keep the temperature in his tyre with how slow the safety car is going. Nico says there's more water now and asks how many crashes they wanna see. It's lap 54 and it's full points. Max says in the last sector "it's like a boat" and I read he also wants to go back on full wets. Verstappen pits. Now it's complicated. Of course Nico wants them to stop the race, he's second. But Max went from second to fifth because they pitted and now they're pitting him again. He's gonna lose out big time if they red flag it. He's P16 now. But they're not redflagging it! We're gonna go again! Here's the current top 10 then : Lewis, Nico, Perez, Sainz, Seb, Nasr, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Kvyat. Here we go. 

Nico is very close. Lots of movement in the back. Oh yeah. Alonso spun. Oof. His front tyres went on the grass and the grass shredded. It's just mud. He didn't crash though and is going again, only in P17. Lewis pulled a gap. Max is up in P12 half a second away from P11 already. And P11. P10 is Daniel though, and P9 is Kvyat. Let's see how that goes. Hulkenberg is very close to Nasr. And Max overtakes Daniel. Hulkenberg overtakes Nasr. 

It's lap 60. Lewis, Nico +4.3, Perez +5.6, Sainz +3.0, Seb +1.3, Hulkenberg +3.8, Nasr +0.9, Ocon +2.2, Kvyat +1.2, no actually, it's now Max, then Kvyat, then Ricciardo in P11. Oof Max is now pressuring Ocon, who's catching up to Nasr. And Max is in P8. Gutierrez is out in a double retirement for Haas. He's shown throwing his gloves on the ground in the garage. Ricciardo overtakes Kvyat for P10, while Max attacks Nasr and is up in P7. It's really impressive what he's doing out there in these conditions I have to say. And Ricciardo is up in P9 after clearing Ocon. They're really the whole show in this race. And then he clears Nasr for P8 as well. Gutierrez and Steiner are having words. Seb is getting close to Sainz. But Verstappen overtook Hulkenberg for P6, and attacks him. But Seb defends and keeps his position for now. 5 laps to go. He attacks again, ohhh and Seb is on the grass… Was he pushed? He makes little work of Sainz, and that's P4. Incredible. Seb says he was pushed indeed. He says he was ahead. It's difficult to say tbh. Max sets the fastest lap and he's looming behind Perez now. What's the gap to Nico actually? Is Nico at risk? Oh yeah no he's not. Perez to Nico is 14.3 seconds and there's 3 lap to go. But he'll make the podium. Ooooof he attacks from the outside, Perez closes the door on him so he's off track but doesn't yield because he was ahead for sure and pushes Perez right back, he has the inside line in the next corner and they're a wheel to wheel in the exit and he's ahead into the next one! And that's the podium. And Seb overtakes Sainz for P5. Lewis starts his final lap. 

And it's the end of the race. 

Lewis wins ahead of Nico and Max. He's now ahead of Prost on the list of drivers with most wins, second only to Michael. He's also broken the record for the most different circuit he's won at, with 24. He is so so so happy on radio. Whooping, yelling, laughing. I'll post a clip of that. His first win in Brazil. Bono chuckles with him. Lovely. 

In the cool down room he talks tyres with Max and how much water was in the last sector. Max is very very elated as well. They're all kinda hyped up. Then they say something about staying second and Nico says Max wasn't faster than him and Max says he was but only for one lap then there was more water and he didn't have the grip. I think Lewis is impressed with his performance and he asks what time he was doing then Nico says "did you get the wall in turn 14?" and Max says "no, I just – Oh my god, that was a big moment." Lewis alludes to the fact that Nico also has a moment. Nico nods with a smile. He asks how Lewis knows. "Coz I know everything that happened in the race," Lewis jokes. "I saw it on TV." 

Brundle is conducting the interviews and he starts by thanking the public who stayed through it all. "What a race Lewis!" he says. "Not too bad huh?" Lewis says. They both chuckle.

He also thanks the fans. He says he was just chilling at the front and when it rains it's usually good for him. He says it was tricky for everybody though with the aquaplaning. He thanks the team, they are making history together. Brundle says he was talking about water getting in his helmet, was it the only drama for him? "That was the only drama, yeah. No mistakes, no issues, no spins." He says it was kinda interesting to hear along the race the people who spun behind him, but he didn't have that problem so he's very happy. 

The crowd is very agitated but I'm not sure why. Cheering then booing then chanting things I can't hear then booing again then singing like at a football match : ole ole ole ole, something something. 

Max speaks of his spin again and Brundle asks the others if they saw it and Nico says again he saw him pointing 90° towards the wall and Lewis says again he saw it on TV. Max repeats, baffled : "He was watching the TV!" (And now he’s the one doing so.)

Lewis says he'll give it his all in Abu Dhabi which is usually a good track for him but right now he wants to live in the moment. This has been his dream ever since the first time he saw Ayrton Senna race when he was 6. It's his first victory in Brazil and he says it's the 44th grand prix here so it's lucky. Brundle asks if it's one of his toughest wins, top 5 maybe? Lewis says it was one of the easiest ones. It was a very easy race generally. (I think he's being a bit cocky but I guess he really did not have any difficulty out front. The others did.) He says Silverstone 2008 was way harder. 

Niki says Lewis and Nico did a perfect job and Verstappen was outstanding. Oh and Johnny says he's one in a generation and it's good for Formula 1 and for the future “because we're gonna see stuff like that– can you imagine? Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen going at it? It will be awesome!“ Will it though? Lol. 

Lewis is very very happy he's finally won in Brazil. He says he remembers watching Senna drive there in ‘91 and thinking that's what he wants to do. He says he can now finally understand how amazing it feels and he's just super thankful and grateful to all the people who've helped him do it, his team.

They have proved this year they're the best team by far (they broke the record of the number of wins in a row or something like this I don't remember). He says in every area, “our hospitality, it destroys everyone else's, our food is the best, our guys in the garage are the best, our guys back at the factory are the best, my car is the best.” He's proud to be a part of it. The journalist says she has little notes about him because they didn't see him much during the race, how was it?

He says generally this is the hardest grand prix. He's been trying to win this thing for 10 years. But it just so happens that day was an easier race for him. He didn't have any problem, any mistake, any issue, nobody could match his times. It was amazing, he says. “Racing in the rain, here, on Senna’s turf, with Brazil watching, I mean it's a very very special moment which I will never forget.''

Finally she says the RBR guys pitted for the inters and it helped them (Mercedes) open a gap and if it wasn't for that stop Nico might have been further behind him in the points. “He got lucky today again,” she says. “Unbelievable,” he shakes his head, then laughs.

“When will it end. I mean RedBull made such a big mistake with that call.” He says there was never a moment, then says there actually was one moment after the first safety car the track was inter but more rain was coming. Other than that it was never an inter track.

He says when the team called him to say other people were going on inters he said they're crazy. He knew they'd have to pit again. And that's what they did. He calls it a shame. But there's nothing he could do about that. He says ‘he’ still had a great race and got back up to third, but it'd be good if they made good calls in the next race, he laughs. 

At the end of the broadcast, Simon asks who's gonna win, Hamilton or Rosberg. Everybody says Rosberg : Brundle, Di Resta, Hill and Johnny. 

[ousamaduo]

What tf is Knights !! arc about, or also why are the kouhais essential to their general arc:

I wrote this as a thread on the bird app, but since someone is k!lling that app, I'm putting this here, with a few tweaks. Obligatory disclaimer that I have kouhais brainrot :)

1. The main !! arc

I've been guilty of complaining that Knights !! arc has been pretty vague, and yeah, it sorta was. The thing is, it was more clear to see how their arc went in !, because it was pretty simple: a bunch of individualists leaning to come together as a unit, and also healing together from their past wounds. But now that they've sorta learned to work together and have a new leader, wtf is their arc even about?

I'd argue it's exactly related to their cute new leader, but first I wanna talk about his cute new kouhais.

2. The kouhais

First we see them mentioned back in the ! arc, in Operetta, which happens in... April, in-game, if I'm not mistaken? Sometime in the Spring, for sure. That was the event that set off my kouhais brainrot <3

Ritsu and Arashi discuss how there are so many newcomers in Knights, that soon it will be as big as Chess was, and how worried they are about it. (They also have a cute moment where they call Tsukasa a miracle, which is sooo adorable, the way they love Tsukasa so much.... sobs).

The convo basically sums up their past arc (the War stuff, Tsukasa being the miracle that helped them heal and come together, etc), but also sets up something that's gonna be recurrent in their future arc: the amount of newbies they have, and how it affects the unit as a whole.

The very first time we see Knights in !!, even before they showed up in the Main Story, was the gacha story Meowsketeers, the first !! gacha. Which, surprise, is dealing with the kouhais :)

In Meowsketeers, Ritsu is bothered by how Tsukasa just bluntly dismissed a bunch of newbies because they weren't taking things seriously. Tsukasa's argument was that it's ok if you just want to have fun as an idol, but in that case they should just go to other units, because, in Knights, he wants only people who take their activities more seriously - after all, they are the top earners of ES. (Which, looking back now, is sooo funny considering how stubborn Tsukasa is in protecting his kouhais later LOL).

Anyway, Ritsu really doesn't agree with that and spends most of the story stressed about it. He understands Tsukasa's point, and he wants to support Tsukasa since they chose him as their King, but he also feels sorry for the newbies. It all gets solved when the newbies send him a video of them practicing, and apologize for not taking it seriously before, and ask him to vouch for them to be let back in the unit, and he promises them he'll convince Tsukasa to let them join again. (We are never told if Tsukasa lets them back in or not btw lol I just assume he did).

In my opinion, it’s not for nothing that this was the first Knights story in !!, as it sets up the important themes of:

- Tsukasa is not adding just anyone, he wants his newbies to make an effort!

- Ritsu is pretty attached to them, despite the worries he voiced in Operetta, and it shows (especially in euthanasia lol)

- Knights as a whole doing their best to support Tsukasa’s decisions as their leader, even if they have complaints (they’re so cute in this story btw, teasing him and all, really, go read it)

But then you might ask, why tf was their first event Next Door, which has nothing to do with the kouhais?

Next Door, my behated <3, sets up another plot that inconveniences Knights later, ESPECIALLY in Sudden Death: Leo getting shipped off to Italy with Izumi. Now, I’m not sure in universe, but irl Leo and Izumi are arguably the most popular Knights, along with Ritsu. So let’s say it might be the same in universe: them being away would be an inconvenience to knights, right?

Exactly :)

Later in SS, when Knights’ orders get leaked, Leo wants to stay in Japan to support them, but he and Izumi have to go to Eurovisio--, I mean, a festival in Europe. Not to mention the amount of times they have to fly back and forth between Japan and Italy in other stories. Back then it was mostly a funny gag, but then Sudden Death actually used it as a real problem for them.

Would Leo and Izumi being there have changed how things happened? Likely not lol but we’ll never know.

I’ll get back to this, but back to the kouhais.

Next event, the first Knights unit song event, euthanasia, they’re once again the source of conflict. Izumi is upset that Knights funds and time are being used on the kouhais, Tsukasa insists it’s a necessary investment. Leo agrees with Tsukasa, because he wants to support him, as the former King (he actually does this a lot through this arc tbh and it’s so cute). Arashi sort of agrees with Izumi, despite being in Yumenosaki and supporting Tsukasa, she agrees that she doesn’t want to spend her time training the newbies, but instead improving herself. Ritsu isn’t happy with all the fighting and proposes a duel, euthanasia.

The thing is euthanasia is just a play for him to prove the kouhais aren’t just useless deadweight (as he has them performing alongside Knights), but he also understands Izumi’s and Arashi’s worries, so his solution is to leave the kouhais training in the hands of the Producer Association.

This event also brings back the concern Ritsu and Arashi had back in Operetta: with this many newbies, soon Knighs will be like Chess, and we know how Chess ended, right? But Ritsu squashes those worries by showing that: 1) unlike Chess members, the newbies are hardworking, and 2) they have the support of groups like the Producer Association now, while back during the War, Chess (and all other units) were on their own.

Also, one thing almost everyone forgets is that Chess actually ended because of the new payment system the student council set up: units received a certain amount for their lives, and it was up to them to share among the members, so the more members a unit had the less the individuals would be paid. Having a unit with more than 5 members would mean their payment would be less than their investments in the show, making it a loss to have to have so many members.

But Knights is a top earner now, one of the Big 3 of ES, so money is not a concern for them.

So now the newbies are not much of a hindrance to Knights, what else next?

After euthanasia, we get Fragrance, which again has nothing to do with the newbies, just like Sunshine, which is just Knights on vacation. But I’ll get back to that.

Fragrance is a pretty fun story, as it picks up on Arashi’s individualistic side (I don’t think it’s a bad thing btw, it’s one of Knights’ charm points imo). They’re offered to work with Aarashi’s favorite perfume brand, but she hesitates because he doesn’t want to taint her good memories of it. The others try to force her hand on it, and she ends up getting mad at them when they try to turn it into a duel. It’s a pretty good story for Arashi, as she shows her more assertive side again (after being more or less just going along with whatever their cute King suggested), but it’s also a pretty interesting story for Ritsu, imo. Back in !, he was a more laid back character who didn’t meddle so much, and Horror Night Halloween demonstrates this pretty well in the flashback sequence: he didn’t have the courage to step in and change things. When Izumi and Leo had that fight, he could only stand there listening behind that door. Now he doesn’t just stand there doing nothing, but actually takes action when Knights need it. Only this time he goes a bit overboard and ends up upsetting Arashi lol. It worked well with the kouhais conflict before, but he’s still learning how to balance his meddling lmao

Then after this we get, Sudden Death. (Man, I hate the SS arc…)

This time we get an interesting info on the kouhais: there are other, smaller, subunits of kouhais competing in Knights’ name in other regions. And there are about six of them accompanying Knights here, although they’re “in hiding”, as apparently they’re not very good yet.

I won’t give a summary on this story because it’s long and I always end up going on a hate tangent, but what’s important here are two things: the already mentioned bit of Izumi and Leo having to be abroad being an actual problem this time, and Tsukasa’s feelings for the kouhais.

I’ve talked a lot about this before on the bird app, but: Tsukasa LOVES these kids, despite whatever he says. Trust me.

After Tsukasa’s, uh, “execution” he’s too depressed to leave his room, so he can’t help Ritsu and Arashi with the plan of performing for an entire week in the avenue they reserved. Instead, it is the six not-very-good kouhais who step in to help them in his place. He reflects that he hadn’t really seen them as individuals before, but as tools, as an investiment for Knights. “Kohaku” argues that that’s not true, he must have cared for them or else they wouldn’t have stepped in to help as they did.

Sudden Death shows Tsukasa’s first failure as Knights’ leader. He trusted someone else and got betrayed. He then refused to fight back, even though he knew it would affect Knights negatively, to protect Kohaku’s family. In Requiem, when he received the crown, he declared he wouldn’t choose between his career as an idol, as Knights, and his family. But here he’s finally forced to choose between Knights and his family (Kohaku and the Oukawa clan). And he chooses his family. And it hurts him so much he’s almost suicidal.

And this is basically the last we see of Knights as a whole in this year, chronologically. We get a small peek at them during the SS finals, but it’s mostly them bickering. After this event, which reportedly left every TsukasaP dead, we rewind back in the year, to Tanabata in Seven Bridges, and the vacation in Sunshine.

Sunshine is a special case, the “funny filler vacation event”, the “beach episode” if you will. Leo fakes a slump to force Knights to go on vacation, except this vacation is basically performing at a summer festival, but which will allow them a few days to relax at the beach. And yeah, it’s funny and cute, until you realize this happens riiiight before A Dark Night’s Passing (aka that whole GFK mess, actually Leo might have already been involved in that guy during this) and Next Door (aka Leo getting scared his friends would use him, but then plotting a Judgment where he’d purposefully lose and allow them to do whatever they wanted with him, which ended up in him benign sent to Izumi to deal with). Fun stuff, right? Haha…. laughs in sad LeoP.

Seven Bridges once again is an Arashi focus, kicking off the 1.5 Main Story arc, with the plot of the cenotaph being removed and Arashi being upset about it. It also introduces Hitsugi/Negi.

But it also shows the kouhais once again, and how they were being treated by the students in the producer course (basically being ignored by the producers-to-be, who were all starry-eyed about working with THE Knights and only seemed to care about Ritsu, Arashi and Tsukasa), and Tsukasa being upset about it.

Now forgive me for being vague as this event wasn’t fully translated yet and I only read the livetweets a while ago. But basically Tsukasa is pretty upset at the Peace Party (a group of producer students who basically decides who will produce Knights, and has been lowkey bullying Anzu and Hitsugi/Negi), and after it is revealed that the cenotaph is being removed because of the Tanabata plan which the Peace Party forced Anzu to sign as her own, coupled with them treating the kouhais as less then, Tsukasa decides to basically boycott the school’s Tanabata festival and refuses to let Knights participate in it, instead choosing to participate in ES’s Tanabata. Of course, they end up participating later (I don’t remember exactly why, but if I’m not mistaken it’s because Anzu changes the plan to mix the school’s festival with ES, or something like that), but what matters to me is: Tsukasa is SO upset on the behalf of Arashi (who’s upset about the cenotaph being removed), Anzu (who’s being bullied by the Peace Party), AND his kouhais (who are being mistreated and ignored by the producer students).

But didn’t he say the kouhais were just some assets to him??

We get now to Mad Tea Party, which is set in November, right after Fragrance. Knights want their newbies to be the ones to participate in Underland (that Alice themed event we saw in Ra*bits and Alkaloid already), to better promote the newbies. Until Izumi learns that a fashion designer he admires is designing the outfits for it, and then he demands to participate too. They decide the five older members will participate along with the kouhais, but again Izumi is pissed that Ritsu/Arashi/Tsukasa are holding back during practice for the kouhais. He demands they choose only the best ones to participate. Tsukasa wants everyone to participate. Fight (duel) ensues.

We once again get Tsukasa “newbies are just an investment” Suou fighting for his kouhais. Once again we get Izumi on the opposite side of him.

This event also has an interesting point for Izumi’s character, with him complaining, why do they have to take it easy with the kouhais? Izumi himself didn’t have it easy when he started as a model and later as an idol! Remember how his favorite hobby is to bully newbies? His justification is that he wants to prepare them for how harsh the entertainment world is. This ends up clasing with how Tsukasa treats the kouhais.

But wait, wasn’t Tsukasa harsh to them during Meowsketeers?? He kicked some of them off because they weren’t taking it seriously!!

Exactly. Back then, during Meowsketeers, which happens early in the timeline, they weren’t taking it seriously. Mad Party happens in November, after euthanasia, where Ritsu mentions their kouhais are hardworking and won’t set them back. They are Knights too.

3. The real arc

I’ve talked a lot, but I’ll try to put it clearly now: this entire time, Knights arc has been about Tsukasa setting in as Knights leader, and how Knights support him/react to his actions.

Tsukasa is the youngest member of the original five. He’s also many times been referred to by them as their miracle. The one who guided them back to the light. Izumi puts it clearly in Requiem that they only kicked their asses back into gear because they had a “cute kouhai” nagging at them.

But because he’s so young and inexperienced, he also needs their support. He makes decisions they’re not always happy about, but he insists he doesn’t want to be a tyrant, so everytime they’re not satisfied with something they argue and duel until they come to an agreement. It always ends up mostly ok, until it doesn’t in Sudden Death.

Everything lines up to go wrong in Sudden Death. They’re up against Tsukasa’s dear Kohakun, who he absolutely trusts. Kohaku doesn’t know what the rest of his unit are up to. Izumi and Leo have to leave and can’t help them. Even Ritsu, Knights’ strategist, didn’t predict what would happen, because despite everyone being wary of Crazy:B, they decided to support Tsukasa who thought he could trust them. The consequences of both Knights and Crazy:B’s orders affect Kohaku, who’s loved by both Crazy:B and Tsukasa.

Even if they could have escaped the trap Crazy:B prepared for them, Tsukasa would have still been affected, as Crazy:B NEEDED to defeat Knights, or else Kohaku’s family would suffer. Tsukasa wasn’t aware of that back then, but the results would still hurt him regardless of what happened.

But it did happen, and Tsukasa had his first failure as Knights leader. And when he was at his lowest and couldn’t be there with his seniors, it were his kouhais who were there. Tsukasa thinks he “neglected” the kouhais, but “Kohaku” claims they must admire him, even be grateful to him.

We are never given names or faces for the kouhais. We are only told of their actions and lines through other characters, they’re basically NPCs. Ironically, they’re a tool in the story (but not in the way Tsukasa thinks lol): they’re here to showcase Tsukasa’s leadership skills. Even though Tsukasa believes he “neglected” them, we see it time and time again in other events how he stubbornly fought for them, even against his own beloved senpais. He diligently trained and invested time and money in them. He might have thought of them as mere assets, but they likely didn’t see it like this. What would you think if you had a senpai fighting for you, investing so much in your idol career, trying his best to make sure you flourish as Knights members? “Kohaku” was probably right. They likely admire him. Why else would they continue to perform even after they lost? Even after they saw their leader go through such a humiliating defeat? Everything Tsukasa did for them led to them being loyal to him.

This also brings back the parallel to Chess, which dissolved immediately after the students were told there wouldn’t be many benefits to being in a big unit. They weren’t loyal to each other, even before that the members barely even tried. When Leo offered them money in exchange for them not participating in Checkmate, resulting in their default loss and Knights victory, they gleefully accepted it. Because they weren’t “serious” about being idols. They didn’t have the pride and the will to win. They didn’t really care about that battle.

Ritsu and Arashi in Operetta, Izumi and Arashi in euthanasia, they were all concerned about Knights ending up like Chess, filled with a bunch of lazy members who would just coast along to their fame and not really do anything. But because of how strict Tsukasa was in Meowsketeers, how stubborn he was about how they were treated in Seven Bridges, how insistent he was through most of the !! events about training and investing in them, the newbies are now hardworking, loyal members to Knights.

Tl;dr: Knights kouhais were necessary tools to showcase Tsukasa’s leadership skills and how different Knights are now from Chess, hope this helps <3. Tsukasa is a LIAR, who says he neglected his kouhais but he’s fought basically everyone in Knights to keep them there. Ritsu is also the ultimate kouhai advocate, maybe even more than Tsukasa himself, and always comes up with a way to help them. IzuAra aren’t too happy, but Arashi still does her best to support Tsukasa, and Izumi ends up armstrong into training the kouhais too in Mad Part LOL. Leo had his Opinions, but ultimately he wants to support Tsukasa, as the old king supporting the new king. Knights kouhais are all stubborn hardworking babies who LOVE Tsukasa, and I’ll keep brainrotting over then as long as happyele keeps giving me Tsukasa being cute with them!

4. Conclusion: two kings?

We still have Knights climax story to go, a guaranteed Tsukasa 5* event. My prediction is that it will pick up from where Sudden Death left off, mostly on Tsukasa’s feelings of how he failed as a leader and how his seniors AND his kouhais still supported him after that.

Back when !! released, there was an interesting plot thread that was thrown in and then forgotten: Leo and Tsukasa acting as the two kings of Knights.

Tsukasa is too belligerent in the new arc, according to main story, and Leo usually acts as the face of Knights, to direct any ill comment towards him instead of at Tsukasa. Leo talked more about it in his first idol story, if I’m not mistaken, saying it confused the fans and how it looked like Knights had two Kings now, and that they might need to solve this with a Judgment lol.

And then that plot thread was just. Completely forgotten and dropped LOL. With Leo being shipped off to Italy with Izumi, supposedly Tsukasa was free to act as the absolute King and ultimate face of Knights, right?

I think that might be brought back after Sudden Death, though. We might get some conflict about how his actions led to Knights defeat, especially contrasted with how Leo wasn’t there to take the brunt of it. We were told the fans weren’t happy at all about what happened, in Parallel World Nazuna comments the fans were MAD at Crazy:B lol. So who knows, maybe the ultimate test of Tsukasa’s leadership is still to come.

It might just be my wishful thinking tho because I want leokasa gay fighting again <3

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk :)

[alitgblog]

volume V thoughts bc once again fusebox has got me intrigued

first of all omg wtf

I usually end up reading a few spoilers before I play bc I'm bored at work but don't wanna play the volume until I get back but I had such a busy day at work I didn't do that and wow ok I gotta avoid spoilers more often I was shook

so excess baggage was okay. like yeah makes sense we want the couples to be tense again before voting the couple superlatives thing, but also such a throwaway. (and also I talked about this in my post about last volume, but we have so many challenges in a row!! why)

since my MC did initially flirt with Oakley a lot more than Jin, I do think it's funny Oakley talks about how cool MC's secret is (like it's annoying fs but also something I've seen happen on love island to create small drama but then ultimately it's just talk so it's nice to have that happen here).

Also i was worried Oakley was gonna turn on us or flirt with us and abandon Emel, so I'm very glad he was just asking for advice. (I'm a big Oakley and Emel fan, what can I say?) I'd be okay if that led into a different storyline where you could pursue Oakley later, but with how fusebox has been making the seasons lately, once you pick you've made your choice and I do miss in for example s2 where even if you don't pick Lurik when they first become available you have a chance the next recoupling and it feels like it changes your route.

Jack is still mad at MC??

Couples game was fun. I wish fusebox formatted it so you discuss with your partner and then make a choice before everyone revealed their answers instead of people talking and explaining before the player picks their answer. Like we know the characters already, just let me pick and we can see who agrees.

Oakley's evening wear outfit 😍 best dressed boy fs

I of course could never bear to see Oakley and Emel go, but I surprisingly actually missed Sophie and Jack as soon as they left but like in a me missing Allegra and Miles/Jasper when they left. Like yeah they were irritating but they brought drama and I understand where Allegra/Sophie is coming from (and I support women's wrongs lol)

Jin going through his main character of S6 arc??? No but fr I can't imagine why the public would vote him out so he's either hiding something that's gonna come out when he gets back or he was voted most popular and is gonna come back soon. I hope it's not casa because (1) that already happened in s6 and (2) I want the chance to flirt around with new characters in casa lol. I've seen a few theories around and I have no idea which is true but if I could throw in another idea which is post casa, MC is finally with a bombshell, Claudia/Theo, or a casa boy and things seem good but Jin and Luna show up together as returning islanders and MC has to choose between Jin and her current LI.

It's so interesting for drama, like ik I'm here for it. But a lot of people like loyal routes so I hope yall are doing okay

I was like half hoping we could walk out with him even though of course fusebox isn't giving us that option but like I wish he said something like hey you just got here, enjoy your time at the Villa and I'll wait out there for you no matter what happens. just to explain why MC wouldn't leave. that being said, their goodbye was so sweet.

One thing that's different in the game than the show is the number of islanders present at once, which makes sense its hard to keep track of all of them (though they've done it before in s2), and it just is weird bc now the people in the Villa are MC (single), Claudia and Theo (who don't like each other), and Emel and Oakley (only one couple).

despite my complaint about the challenge thing this is great pacing/timing for a new islander. it's just a shame the screwed over Tyler coming in so soon after MC. I can't remember if I already wrote this in my last post but I almost wish he came in with MC and got a better chance.