#speaking of formatting i can't tell if this is going to look weird

[nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos]

BIG OL HECKIN EDIT:

I am a dum dum who forgot how to spell @sassenach-on-the-rocks amid my existential terror and dread of the deleted-draft incident mentioned below, and then did a Dum Dum no Double-Down by forgetting to update until now. This headcanon is their brainchild and they deserve all the credit for it.

You may now continue with your previously intended brainrot viewing.

I'm VERY INCREDIBLY MIFFED, MY GUYS.

I had this entire post finished and almost completely formatted and saved it as a draft to finish formatting it on my computer

And it DIDN'T SAVE. And I nearly SCREEEEEMED.

It was for an ask request and I also can't seem to tag the person that sent the ask.

I am A N G E R Y

But after several deep breaths and reminding myself that violence is not the answer, here we are.

At any rate. The ask request was for headcanons involving One Piece boyos taking reader to a Masquerade ball.

To the asker, should you still be around to see it, I really really loved this and thank you so, so much for it ❤️❤️ I really enjoyed finding masks to match their aesthetics.

Only deviation I made was Zoro; you meet him there rather than going with him. It just felt right that way for some reason.

And awaaaaaaaay we go~

The Masquerade

Sanji, Zoro, Shanks, Mihawk, Buggy x Reader

SFW Headcanons

This was really so fun and cute and I thank Asker so so much for this.

♫♬Little By Little — The Fratellis♬♫

You wear your mask, I'll wear mine, they don't come cheap but they fit just fine

You can be her and I can be him, and we can both sink while the rest all swim

Sanji

He heard about it when you made port, and there's no way he's not taking you.

He's been looking for an opportunity to take you on the perfect first date, and this is it.

Perfect opportunity for the two of you to get away from the crew for and have a little alone time.

A little dancing, a little wine, a little champagne—it's perfect.

Makes sure not to tell anyone else, if Luffy hears there's free food he'll insist on going and the whole thing will no doubt end in chaos.

He doesn't even tell you—all he tells you, after presenting you with a brand new dress and jewelry (which most likely cost him every last berry in his wallet), is that he would like to take you out for the evening.

And how could you turn him down?

"Come on, love. I promise it will be the best evening you've ever had."

The effort he's already put in, those puppy-dog eyes....

You spend the evening dancing, talking, enjoying the free food, every ounce of his attention on you the entire time as he ensures that you feel like a princess.

Making sure that everyone has their eyes on the pair of you on the dance floor, that they know you're there with him.

Somehow ending up chit-chatting with the catering staff toward the end of the night and being invited to their far less formal after-party.

Stumbling back to the Merry hours later together, half-drunk and giggling and positive that it's the best night you've ever had.

Zoro

"What the hell...?"

He got lost and wandered in.

No idea what's going on, why are all these people wearing masks and dancing?? What exactly is going on this is weird as—

Oh hey there's an open bar, cool.

You recognize him from his bounty poster fairly quickly. There are a lot of marines here, and he really isn’t causing any problems, but he's getting a lot of strange looks...so you decide to do the guy a favor and shove a mask in his hands.

He looks at you like you're speaking another language as you explain where he is and convince him to just put on the damned mask already.

"A ball? I thought this was some kind of weird cult or something."

You just stare at him in disbelief—he thought it was a cult and he's just standing around enjoying the free drinks. 

What.

You brush it off and tell him if he wants to fit in, then dancing is probably a good idea.

He's frowning at you again.

"Yeah, I don't really...do that."

You roll your eyes—there are still people eyeing him suspiciously, you have to do something, so when he finishes his next drink you just grab him by the wrist and drag him out to the dance floor.

Cue impromptu ballroom dancing lessons. He keeps stepping on your feet and mumbling apologies, but it's kind of cute how hard he's trying.

You really can't help but giggle at his explanation that he just got lost and wandered in here.

But you're glad he did—you doubt you would have had nearly as much fun otherwise.

Shanks

Heard about the whole shin-dig while in port.

"Hey that sounds like fun, we should crash it."

You try to be stern, but he pulls out the puppy dog eyes.

"Oh come on please?"

God dammit....

And maybe an hour later you're both making masks.

There's glitter and glue and feathers all over the captain's cabin and you're already dreading cleaning it up.

His has a giant gaudy pirate hat. Because of course it has a giant gaudy pirate hat. He's so proud of it, grinning like a little kid in an arts and crafts class when he holds it up to show you, that you can't even bring yourself to admonish him for it.

And of course the whole thing is invitation-only, and of course he manages to sweet-talk his way in anyway.

Just having such a good time, really doesn't care if anyone recognizes him.

Really doesn't care, just drinking and making small talk and joking with several lower-ranking Marines in attendance who are clearly very nervous.

Within an hour, while you're in the middle of dancing and deciding that maybe this wasn't *such* a bad idea, an announcement is made for everyone to leave immediately.

Judging by the sheer number of Marines outside there's no doubt as to why.

He just gives you a guilty grin before picking you up over his shoulder and bolting back to the ship.

Mihawk

Actually received an invitation, just rolled his eyes and tossed it in the trash.

You dig it out and pout about it until he rolls his eyes and gives in.

"Fine. No more than an hour."

At lease there will be free wine.

Unsurprisingly spends a great deal of time standing in a corner and sipping said wine while staring around haughtily at the other partygoers.

Would much rather be drinking wine back in his secluded castle and not having to deal with other humans.

Spends the vast majority of the evening standing in a corner and nursing a glass of wine while glaring around haughtily at the other guests, daring them to even think of attempting to make small-talk with him.

Doesn't move from his designated corner until he sees other guests daring to flirt with you, at which point he promptly saunters over to pull you to the dance floor and ensure everyone is well aware that you're there with him.

Lightens up a little after that (which may or may not have something to do with the several glasses of wine he's already consumed), but absolutely will not admit that it actually turned out to be a rather nice evening.

He will, however, hold this over your head and remind you that you owe him.

But you know the truth, considering he's a little more willing to attend such events with you after this.

Buggy

Oh what now? An excuse to be absolutely flamboyant and unhinged in public?

You're going. Period. There will no arguments.

He's already got a collection of masks and costumes anyway, this is going to be a blast.

You lose track of him shortly after you get there. You're pretty sure that the explosion that went off toward the back corner of the dance floor had something to do with him.

He finds you while you're sipping a glass of champagne in downright annoyance and proudly informs you that he's made bank going through pockets at the coat check while everyone was distracted by his little diversion.

"Ah, don't worry, babe, they won't notice. They're too busy schmoozing and kissing ass."

Standing around making small-talk with other guests in the most ridiculous put-on aristocratic accent he can possibly muster, introducing you variably as some foreign dignitary or princess from a far off land.

Literally can't take this idiot anywhere.

[omghallucinations]

Bang Chan Chart Analysis: in the weeds edition

chart patterns, degrees, fixed stars, aspects, final dispositors, basically all kind of deeper cuts.

ah, bang chan: a double libra gemini rising whose other planets are acting up so much i barely even touched on venus and mercury somehow

like he's clearly an air sign in every respect--he loooOOOves to talk, he's curious and interested in a lot of different things, he's never met a secret he doesn't want to immediately tell five hundred thousand people on live... but damn some of those other planets (saturn, mars, jupiter, uranus) are loud.

right away i noticed his chart is a bucket chart--every planet is in one half of the circle, except for one planet who becomes the "handle": his aries saturn. saturn is hammering all the other planets on the head so to speak.

saturn: you'll have to come through me motherfuckers

saturn is screaming it's ME i'm the BIG BOSS and as the handle, a lot of things in chan's life are gonna be based on or deal with--for better or worse--saturn stuff (maturation, fear, control, authority, judgment). chan's saturn automatically rockets to the top of his Big Boss list (it will not stay here tho, we've got some other bosses coming).

saturn is in its fall in aries--it doesn't speak the language there. any planet in its fall is usually marked down in influence but i also think it makes the planet more important? chan has to struggle with it. a saturn at home in capricorn (barring other chart factors) is very natural. 8/9 members of girls generation have saturn in capricorn and wow does that make sense. saturn in capricorn prizes Work and is self-conscious/guilty of its feelings (feelings are not productive), it's alllways anxious it hasn't done enough, it is very scared of disappointing people, it's deeply conscious of societal conditioning.

aries is a weird sign for saturn to be in. saturn has a lot of fear, and aries has a lot of fearlessness. aries is a baby and saturn is all about maturation. aries is about acting without thinking, saturn is about making a list and checking it 5 times then deciding not to do it just in case.

and then. this is fun. saturn goes on the big boss list again because it is unaspected--this doesn't mean there aren't aspects, it means there are no major aspects to other planets. when a planet is unaspected, everyone around you can sure as fuck see the hell out of it, but you can't really. it's center stage but not in the play.

bang chan: i am the cutest, fuzziest lil libra guy :) i just care about my work which is normal :) and i express that care in a very reasonable and chill way :) i just want things to be good! :) everyone around him, shaking in fear from his scathing judgment and innate leadership aura: uh-huh

an unaspected planet is usually a generational thing--chan really popped up like hey girl :) i'm here to really personify our family problems of work, judgement, fear and maturation and just like. make 'em huge and unavoidable. haha. :)

chan's gonna show real extremes of behavior around his saturn, which

in aries seems like it's dealing with issues of creation, self-determination, doing it on my own, that kind of stuff (so he'll deny himself or assert himself too much in turns)

in the 11th house backs that up--the 11th is the aquarius house, so saturn is in aries (a "me" sign) in a "we" (in a sort of detached intellectual sense) house

11th/aquarius usually wants to set u free :) but in a kind of back-handed passy aggy harry styles way, like "i love you so i'll set you free, because i am such an open-minded person, unlike other people (who are tethered to humanity which is both embarrassing and scary to me yuck), also setting you free is less terrifying to me than being perceived :) go with god :) bye :)"

it's in the sun decan, so there's a flavor of "look at me look at me" and identity formation (am i what i produce?)

saturn's most exact aspect is sesquisquare mars which acts a lot like a square, my favorite aspect! squares get such a bad rap but i think they're so much better for your life in the long run bc they force you to deal with things. his mars is in sagittarius, so we have a double fire sign situation: explosive, passionate, loves attention and creation. mars, who also gets a bad rap, is our survival planet. it's like, how are you gonna survive this. how are you gonna get what you want and defend yourself and win (if you care about winning) (chan cares about winning).

sagittarius mars is gonna go forward kind of joyfully but also in a "fuck you lmao" way. it's courageous bc it doesn't really think anything could go actually wrong. it's gonna Leave if it's bored (and it's already bored). it's gonna wide-angle zoom on the situation and be like "lol embarrassing... for you" and feel 100% sure it's right All The Time. sesquisquare saturn tries to control this force, adds a bunch of fear and repression and Issues (and often in later life, wisdom), so -> chan's gonna really be afraid of his own anger, of losing control of his temper -> ironically he will be unable to stop bouncing between these two extremes to various degrees. u can't control what u can't accept my dude. -> he's also afraid of not being in power, of not winning -> the me/we extreme will also come into play--especially with his sun and moon in libra (that's their whole Thing) sagittarius says "i'm right for objective, philosophical reasons" and aries says "i'm right because i just am bro i don't have to explain myself to you" mars in the 6th house--that drive to assert himself is gonna really go hard at work and in his daily life. this is a #gymbro placement for sure. his daily routine is Let's Fuckin Go At 150% -> his 11th house (where saturn is), loves the idea of people, community, his ideals, is detached from humanity and it comes into conflict with -> his 6th house, which is very much of the world, very critical, very let's get actual shit done and be of service to people sidebar, mars is exactly conjunct the asteroid quaoar-- creation, making new rules and structures, diverging from how things Have Always Been Done, please hold this thought for his uranus, coming up soon

libra moon at 29 degrees: heard u were desperately trying to maintain equilibrium for emotional security reasons lol

another planet i'm eyeing is his libra moon which is in the anaretic degree, 29. he's very good at this energy but it's gonna test him. with his libra moon he needs contact and dialogue with people to feel secure but it can't get too deep because that's gonna freak him out. he is super comfortable being vulnerable and emotional on the internet because the internet is not real. i mean it's real, but it doesn't feel real. it's the equivalent of over-intellecualising your feelings so you don't actually feel anything (which an air moon always enjoys, as a hobby). just like it's way easier and less scary to be in love with an idea of a person, rather than the actual person! the actual person can really fuck up ur moodboard!

chan needs things to be pretty, equal, even-keeled. libra is such a funny sign because often it gets flattened to this like "cutey pie flirt" stereotype which i would say is almost exclusively libra venus. libra is a cardinal sign--an acting, initiating sign--and can be a lot more controlling than it likes to pretend imo. it's also in his sixth house--he's gonna feel safe when he can be of service to others, when he can get things done, when he can edit shit, basically.

he's also a new moon baby, which gives a moon a fun, aries-y, baby-tries-(food)-for-the-first-time vibe. removes a lot of those libra inhibitions and adds a lot of need to feel special.

chan is so good at making sure he feels safe by trying to keep everything cute and not too deep and staying on the surface or removed from the situation through constant activity and like, pruning everything, trying to perfect everything (therefore not having to actually deal with anything). howmstever, this system is gonna repeatedly implode throughout his life. soz bud. his emotional foundation's gonna get pummeled on and off which sucks because he has an almost manic need

for emotional safety through strategic diplomacy and avoiding confrontation

for emotional safety through constant work and "perfecting" everything

for people to like him everyone needs to like him or he will die

(not the real him, that makes him nervous, the projection of him that he painstakingly curates, that is safer)

it's not especially fun to deal with.

bright side, wisdom in later life!

mercury, ruler of chan's ascendant: pretty much exactly what you'd expect?

as a gemini rising, chan's ruler is his mercury in libra in the 5th but ironically i don't feel like she's as major of a player as some of these other planets. you can see the communication and curiosity focus of his life, and in the 5th house of self-expression, creation. mercury is sextile mars and pluto, a talent for making his voice heard and powerful, trine uranus in the 9th he's confident about and believes in his unique voice/perspective.

like mercury is there and she's important, but she's not like. causing big waves? it's like his life direction, again, important, but i'm more intrigued by...

mars conjunct pluto opposite his ascendant: oh boy!

this is his one big opposition and it's on the gemini-sagittarius axis (my fave, she's just fun and curious, she's not super dramatic or that difficult although she doesn't exactly make it easy to make... decisions... or get anything done?). however if we were worried about getting shit done, mars and pluto are here to scream. mars conjunct pluto is exactly as dramatic as sagittarius-gemini is not.

this is an exact conjunction and it's wild. anything pluto touches blows up in a way. it makes it intense and secretive and adds the planet to its portfolio of unconscious past life soul security demands.

lmao i just realized that red lights is fully this conjunction lmao oh no. i don't know if i can talk about this conjunction normally. it's very... ... nsfw.

sometimes pluto conjunct mars forces mars into the background and makes the person afraid to assert themselves, but i don't think that's exactly the vibe here, although it's similar. it looks to me like chan has a lot of rage and anger in him that, with his libra placements, he probably has a very difficult time acknowledging or facing. he'll easily internalize it and turn it inward and be a real asshole to himself, and also his temper will flare up randomly and he'll go for the kill shot when he meant to communicate like a normal person. he has a lot of strong desires, he also wants power, but he's gonna hide it and run from the reality there. he does have almost inhuman will, courage and drive tho, he can truly endure anything.

(idk i think he should be a little worried about his physical body, so many of his coping mechanisms depend on exercise/endurance and with pluto--transformation, security--in the sixth house i worry his health might force transformation? ur body can't carry all of ur unspoken shit my bud?)

gemini rising wants to seem very fun, very friendly, very cute, but with mars and pluto on his descendant chan is almost hiding or ignoring a huge part of himself--all those darker impulses which aren't going anywhere. my guy loves a taboo and (redacted redacted redacted redacted REDACTEDDDD). whatever, it's good for creativity and in sagittarius he has a good sense of humor about it.

jupiter: uno reverso???

damn chan really got #blessed here, a lot of that chart was really screaming Issues, Internalized Rage, Fear, Depression, etc, but jupiter really bounced up to be like "never mind haha. i mean yeah, true, but also whatever"

first of all jupiter is in its home house, the 9th--chan's on a Journey, he's eat pray loving, he's Listening and Learning--and it's in aquarius, so that belief system and personal philosophy is gonna be very open-minded, very science fiction, very predicting trends, very ahead of society.

jupiter conjunct his MC: this is what pulls jupiter up to the big boss list. anything conjunct your MC is at the top of your chart--people see it. people notice it about you. and goddamn are people just gonna give him stuff. and they always have. no wonder jyp was like This Is My Special Boy, like that is jupiter conjunct MC to a t.

(the public perception of chan is also gonna be a lot... cuter and more exuberant and fun than the actual man. not that he's not those things. just that the jupiter of his personality is really what people are noticing about him from the outside: his personal vision, his expansive side, all that. they are not looking at that prominent saturn as much, even if saturn is a bigger player)

jupiter trine the sun: another one where people are just gonna like you. for one thing they'll notice chan's good intentions and generosity--altho they will also notice his tendency to moralise and be a liiiiittle condescending--but his tendency towards bouncy optimism (at least outwardly) makes people want to follow him aquarius jupiter trine libra sun: two "we" signs in a big way, except aquarius is "we" like "humanity" and libra is "we" like "you and me", but they unite in a tendency to conflate the personal identity with the group identity--with jupiter and the sun at play it's like chan is able to bring people on board with his identity and personal vision (but he often presents an idealised version of himself who does not have needs, somehow) 9th house trine 5th house: basically a repeat of jupiter-sun, since the 5th house is the leo house--chan has a talent for using his personal philosophy/vision in creative works

our final big boss of the night, perhaps the ultimate big boss: aquarius uranus

chan's aquarius uranus is really talking to everybody. it has by far the most aspects of any planet. uranus has its hand in his ascendant and every planet except jupiter and neptune. with modern rulers aquarius is at home in uranus, and i'm coming around a little bit on modern rulership even if i think it tends to be less prominent than traditional. still:

aquarius uranus: original thought, technological progress, your box is dumb i'm not going in there uranus in the 9th house: he's gonna have an offbeat belief system--no chance he buys into korea's societal norms, or anyone's societal norms for that matter. he's not a conformist. trine his gemini ascendant: whooooo boy he is really not a conformist. when he's not in a Mood he's not judgmental at all, even when he's in a mood he has a real benevolent Ah, Humanity Should All Be Free to Pursue Happiness vibe. gemini couldn't give a shit about morals, and uranus and aquarius think morals are bourgeois. he has a talent for his own difference--some uranus people (like most of ateez, my weirdo darlings) have chips on their shoulders about being different, but chan with his easy trine is just happy to be himself. i mean a trine uranus isn't gonna change the world (unlike harder aspects like squares, who would be more driven to do so) but he is gonna set a good example just through his identity.

this is a fun side of chan! i like this!

square moon: mmmm ok about that chip on his shoulder. although it's not really about being different--it's more about he both wants to be stable and emotionally secure and also free and independent and he's soooooooo fucking stubborn (but he doesn't see it that way because he's Right, not stubborn). he's prone to feeling really itchy and stuck and then making big changes out of nowhere. also he's very intuitive but overly sensitive and when he's hurt he's gonna shut down completely and not tell the person what they did wrong. didn't he give someone the silent treatment? jisung? yeah that's uranus square moon energy. he has a lot of fear around his emotions and only lets himself feel in short sharp bursts. he feels hurt and he cuts out the person immediately without warning to protect himself--even if it's completely illogical he will dupe himself into believing it is very logical and correct, actually libra moon square aquarius uranus: yeah this looks like a "keep the peace even if it is unhealthy" v. "radical change out of nowhere the tower ass" argument, he'll bounce between the two extremes again. heyyy gemini rising i didn't even see u there!!

man. really haven't gotten into everything including his sun in libra (in its fall), his nodes (classic idol 5th-11th axis, soooo many of them have this), etc, but i've been working on this for so long!! aughhH!!

ok drumroll please, let's gather up his chart big players!! normally i would rank these, but i keep changing my mind.

aquarius uranus

aquarius jupiter

sagittarius mars-pluto conjunction

aries saturn

libra mercury (2nd to lastish)

libra moon (definitely last on this list)

tentatively i'm gonna put uranus-jupiter tied at 1, then mars-pluto then saturn then mercury. ugh i don't know though. they're all big players! chan in general has one of those spread-out charts--when you look at the ruler of each planet, he has what's called a "committee" tree

where there isn't one or two final bosses, and the planets are all connected in one tree rather than being separate. you can see how chan's 3 top planets are sag mars, aquarius jupiter and aries saturn--they all work together and are super interconnected. he's not as single-minded as someone with a singular dispositor (ateez hongjoong has a singular final dispositor tree with his pisces jupiter) but also not as split or conflicted as someone who has split trees (ateez seonghwa has a planet in rulership tree with separate parts).

anyway this has been really interesting! for someone with what seems at first glance to be a very unified chart (air moon, air sun, air rising) he has some interesting conflicting energies--altho i'm sure he sees himself as just an air person. i'm sure he is lowkey aware of that mars and pluto conjunction but i'd bet he really pretends he does not see it (except for in REDACTED REDACTED EXTREMELY REDACTED situations), and he truly cannot see his saturn at all (altho everyone else can!).

[keysorsomething]

The Shape

2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Just a little fluff fic I wrote a couple days ago :) I compulsively check the Nikto tag so maybe I can make someone else who does that happy! And it mighttt have a pt. 2 in the works ! Also sorry if the format is weird I was never a tumblr girl

Cross-posted on Ao3

Nikto was hardly a man. Hardly a person. Hardly alive. He was just a shape. Just a thing. All he did was kill who he was told to. But, you didn’t think that. You didn’t believe that. He was a person to you. And you treated him as one.

You didn’t force anything. You didn’t push, pull, twist. You let him do what he wanted. He wasn't sure why. For as long as he could remember, where the memories of childhood - memories before him - become fuzzy, he was never treated like that. No one asked his opinion. Even if it was for something simple, like what was for dinner.

You were always so gentle with him. It was almost nauseating. With you, it was always “Aw, hey, Nikto! How are you?” or “What's the word for that in Russian?” He didn't understand it. You were not friends. He did not reciprocate your politeness. Maybe that was just normal where you're from. But, his current running theory was that you must have some form of brain damage. Perhaps you were dropped as a baby.

He stood in the doorway of the armory, head slowly leaning to the side as he studied you. His bright blue eyes broke through the dim lighting as if they were backlit by two LED bulbs in his skull.

You sigh. You really weren't in the mood for it at the moment. You've had a really sucky day and were just trying to clean your gun before you put it up for the night. His gaze burning through your skin as he studies you like a zoo animal is not what you need at the moment. But, you know him enough. You’ve learned a few things from your interactions with him. You know asking nicely, or even demanding won't do much for him in this state. He doesn't mean anything by it - at least you're pretty sure it's just harmless curiosity. Still, you just aren't in the headspace for it. So you have to shoo him off. And luckily, you know just how. You place your gun on the table, rising up.

He doesn't back away as you approach, instead turning his head more. Slowly, you reach out. He’ll snap out of it if you move to touch him. He'll jump back, then growl and stalk off. You're sure of it, that's how it is anytime anyone tries to touch him.

So when the tips of your fingers meet his chest plate, you're the one to flinch. His eyes look wider from under the mask, but he doesn't move or even open his mouth to speak. He simply blinks at you, one eye closing and then the other. Like a frog.

Okay, he's staying when you touch him. That is completely out of the ordinary. Maybe you could weird him out enough for him to leave you be..? You raise your eyes to meet his, and something about the way they shine down on you is… unusual. You can't tell if he's staring at you affectionately, or with the look of a girl in a horror movie that stumbled upon a dead body. Or perhaps both.

Still, you swallow down your confusion, any reservations you have, and shame. Slowly, while maintaining as intense eye contact as you can, you drag two fingers down his chest, like petting a stingray at an aquarium. Before you go lower than his peck, you pick your fingers up and place them back at the top - where his chestplate covers his neck.

He blinks again, looming over you, his shoulders are squared. He's clearly tense. He'll back away soon. You repeat the action several times over, becoming more confused and frustrated the more he doesn't back away. Eventually, his hand raises, and he places two of his fingers on the squishy part of your neck, where it meets your chest. Your breath hitches, fear creeping into the back of your mind that he was trying to kill you.

Slowly, and with a lot more pressure than you were doing on him, he drags his fingers down your chest. He was mimicking you. You tense up, watching as he drags his finger down your chest before circling back to start at the top of your neck again. His hand is almost suffocating, even if he’s only putting two fingers on your neck. And you’re sure he could put so much more weight into it. He could snap your neck, pin you to the wall and strangle you. He’d probably cock his head to the side as he did it. Like fucking Micheal Meyers.

You shiver, closing your eyes. But the violence never comes. He’s very gentle with you, as gentle as a man of his… caliber in his profession can be. He does take his other hand to yours, dragging your hand down and circling back up. He was trying to get you to do it again. You crack your eye open, meeting his piercing blue stare, like hot water down the back of your shirt.

Slowly, you start to move your hand again. You stand there for a moment, your fingers starting at the peak of his neck guard and sliding down his chest as he mimics you. You look at his eyes, as he looks at yours. It was a strange, somber moment between the two of you. You watch his shoulders fall, relaxing under your touch and gaze. He's breathing heavily, like someone hyperventilating after being jumped out at. Your own hands are shaking, still unsure if this is a vulnerable moment or a trap. And his hand is going to flatten against your neck. And then it was going to be lights out. You swallow thickly, but you don't move your eyes from his. His pupils keep dilating and constricting, which you're not too sure is healthy. You hope this doesn't kill him.

All at once, he pulls away. His hand from your neck, his neck from your hand. His eyes narrow at you. He holds his hand at his chest as if it were covered in some form of filth. He looks down at it like it betrayed him before his eyes turn back to you. 

“Спасибо,” He growls out before his dark form melts into the shadows of KorTac base after dark. Once more just a shape, he stalks off, leaving you standing in the doorway of the armory, shock running through your body. His footsteps fade into nothing as he leaves you all alone, frozen in shock.

You just touched him. He just touched you. And then he thanked you? You stare off into the dark, now bare walls. They are an uncomforting grey. You look down at your own hand, turning it over in your sight. You... pet Nikto. On the chest. With two fingers. Like a stingray, in the pet pool at the fucking Aquarium of the Pacific. 

…How do you even process the moment you just had? Would you ever have another one? Was that a one-time thing, or would he creep to you at night like this, for the most barebones form of touch like that? You close your fingers, rubbing them against each other, before you turned around, slipping back into the armory to put your gun up. Still in some odd trance, eyes distant and foggy as you focus on the various thoughts floating through your head. You don't know if you can call it a fantasy.

 

But, that doesn't mean the thoughts are unpleasant.

[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Autistic Anime Boys Prelims - Propaganda Division - Group 8

Propaganda:

Itsuki -

"Does things in ways the protagonist sees as strange and talks in a very formal and roundabout way. He also talks with his hands a lot. He has admitted to faking his personality to be more to Haruhi Suzumiya's liking in both the main timeline and the timeline where he's an ordinary human."

Akira -

"Akira cares deeply for animals maybe even more than other people, he’s completely oblivious to the fact both his best friends are in love with him and when he fuses with a demon to become a demon hunter he calls himself Devilman because he’s a demon and a man at the same time."

Yukiteru -

"Yuki is incredibly socially awkward but also has a knack for befriending odd people, he writes everything he sees in his diary and is super dedicated to keeping the format exactly the same every time oh and did I mention his ‘imaginary friend’ is a science themed god?"

Haru -

"He's really into the patterns of storytelling, and his goal in life is to be a "protagonist". Once he becomes an Appli Driver, he places a lot of his self-worth in being a protagonist and the role he fulfills (which, in my opinion, is a type of script-following) and he winds up in a bad place when he realizes him being a protagonist was built on a lie. He spends all of his free time reading & sometimes gets so invested in reading that he skips out on social activities (and lets his 2ft monster (Gatchmon) go trick-or-treating in broad daylight all on their own). He always has the same pair of goggles on his head but wears them maybe once. His buddy Appmon (digimon partners are often reflections of their human partners) is basically the personification of a search engine and will go on tangents about whatever they've looked up."

Mio -

"Has special interests in ancient medicines and photography. Abstract thoughts and oblivious to social norms. Resists change (example: reacted negatively to the schools curry being unavailable since that is his possible safe food). Other characters notes him as being strange. Poor reasoning (example: Thinks it more efficient to just take supplements instead of eating). Ignores other in pursuit of his interests."

Akira Agarkar -

"A 25 year old man who works for a government agency named D.U.C.K., where flamboyant/eccentric people investigate aliens, and goes undercover as a highschooler to gain information about Haru; doing a poor job of trying to blend in. He is a quirky silly man and his best friend is a duck named Tapioca who he talks to. He also has a special interest in fishing and gets so excited by it that he sometimes yells "FIIIIIIISHH" in English when he reels them in. Bad puns upset him so much that he is physically incapacitated and lies on the floor. What else can I say, I love him."

Kaiji -

"Can't tell when he's being tricked by other characters, and sees human connection as pointless because of how isolated he feels. Says that other see him as weird and that 'being difficult' is easier for him than acting like someone he isn't."

Shou -

"His special interest is math. He uses math terms in regular conversations and calls people yoctograms/zeptograms which earned him monikers such as "math man" and "pi-face". Speaking of Pi, he once shouted 155 consecutive digits of it through a megaphone just because he could. He's so normal."

Saguru -

"high school detective who shows up to crime scenes in full sherlock holmes cosplay because this is totally a normal thing one does, right?"

Souji -

"this lonely genius used to be a computer-like man, now he's a (tragic) villain. the bisexual who swings both ways and misses both times, he's associated with insects/butterflies, flowers/black roses, anachronism, beautiful memories, elevators, and coffins- but who in SKU isn't, really? oh, and fire. he's also voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru at his raspy best."

[kangen-wanshi]

Hi! I really love your Kisses ft Larry, Brassius, Hassel post! Could you do how would Larry, Brassius, & Hassel confess to reader? Only if you want to!

"I'll say it!" ft Larry, Brassius, Hassel

The struggles and process of confession can be quite challenging for some individual. But how would they go through it?

Tags: separate, romantic, pining?

A/N: I'm glad you like them anon! For this one, Larry's and Brassius' are actually inspired by my recent previous post haha, I hope you like it! And sorry for the weird formating, Tumblr is hating me rn.

Larry, With a newfound confident

It's not a secret that Larry can get quite.. Shy? Timid? Quiet? When it comes to a time where he's required to speak up.

Unfortunately, this also happens during his confession. 

Larry didn't really.. Plan his confession. He's stressing over the fact on how to do it, yes, but he's never really got any plan figured out.

Rika's suggestions are too flirty, Poppy's are.. Well with how sweet it is he feels like it's gonna make him feel out of touch to execute it, and anyone else just keeps telling him to just tell you straight up.

So he did just that.

It was a small dinner between the two of you. Nothing fancy, as he cooked simple dishes he learned from the internet and invited you over.

It's the most normal, simple, plain idea of 'date' that Larry can think of.

Often the darker side of his brain caught up to him and mocked him about how he's just an old bachelor that doesn't quite deserve a relationship. Especially with someone as perfect as you.

But when he fought that dark side of the brain, is actually when he boldly confessed to you.

"I love you. Truly."

It's so simple. So quick, and so quiet. You had to stop yourself before doing anything further.

Him, on the other hand, is fully aware of what he had just said. But there's no going back now. As he stares at his food, his hold on the fork and knife tighten by the seconds of your silence.

That is until you asked him to repeat himself.

When he took a deep breath, his lips trembled. Closing his eyes, he's decided that during that moment, he won't back down or sink away from his own confession.

"I love you. Will you.. be willing to be mine?"

You'd expect him to confess with his art and portray his affection through poetry with some grandeur announcement?

Brassius, Through Beautiful Accident

Think again!

Brassius is nervous. Nervous doesn't even cover the word.

Yes, he's expressive. Yes, he has admitted that you're so important to him, beyond being his beloved muse and source of inspiration. But confession? A romantic love confession? His head spins even trying to think about it.

Often he argues with himself about how he should express this feeling to you, aka confession.

He's torn between making it sentimental by giving you one of his handmade gifts, or declaring his love with well arranged heart shaped roses, or with poetry, or even with a sculptor made with love engraved within it.

Ended up not executing any of it.

His indecisiveness will be the end of him. Truthfully with how much he praises you or expresses his adoration, you already got the idea (or at the very least the slight confidence) that your feelings are actually reciprocated.

It's just the confession that came late.

So how this happens, is most likely because he just can't help himself to say the three words to you under the guise of simply complimenting you.

"Your battle was magnificent! The conjoined effort between you and your pokemon - absolutely breathtaking! I can't help but fall in love with the way you conquer the difficulty in battle!"

You were about to thanked him, had toy not caught the whisper under his breath:

".. And I suppose, I couldn't help but to fall in love with you yet again."

- Which caught both of you off-guard. 

Brassius is red. His pale cheeks turned warm, as he watched you watch him with wide eyes.

He was about to laugh it off, pretend that it was a slip off and he didn't mean it that way. But with how you look at him, red tinted your cheek, and softly asking him "Really?",

Well, the truth comes forth to those who're willing to embrace it.

Let's just say that he couldn't ask for a better love confession.

By far the most normal out of the three.

Hassel, With The Classic Galar Style

Hassel has a good amount of experience in terms of having relationships. So he knows the sign when he falls for someone, and luckily, he knows how to handle himself.

Though he's not hasty. Despite his passionate nature, Hassel is patient and takes his time with doing things. Including processing his feelings, and considering yours too.

He drops subtle hints first. Offering you his jacket when the weather got particularly chilly, offering to walk you home, helping you with your work however he can, taking care of your pokemon, etc.

Surprisingly can read your reaction very well, while being subtle about it.

So he's good in that whole department.

When he's sure that you're into him as much as he is into you, he plans his next more: The Confession.

While yes, he kept his cool and he knows what he's doing, he's not immune to the Nervous.

But he got this! He got help from the new Champion of Paldea, he got help from Tyme, from Rika, he'll do fine!

So he ended up inviting you on a picnic. Just outside of Mesagoza.

A small picnic. He brought the food, even though you offered to bring some too, he insisted on treating you to this little date.

It's sweet, really. Just chatting along, watching some pokemons walk over to the two of you asking for some extras, sharing laughter and smiles.

And when the sun started to sink, he made his move.

He pulled out a basket that he's been hiding from your sight, before putting it between the two of you. Obviously you asked what it is, but he just encourages you to open the blanket inside.

And surprise surprise, it's a shiny Applin, peering up to you with an innocent tilt of head.

If you didn't know the meaning behind the Applin tradition, expect that he already explained it to you at some point prior to the date (aka one of his subtle ways of seeing how you'd react to the topic of love confession).

Either way, he offered the little guy to you with a sheepish smile, as his cheek grew red.

"I couldn't imagine a better way to explain my feelings to you. If you would accept it, accept this little friend of mine, I hope you would cherish and let him grow stronger. And if you may allow it.. I would like to be by your side to help it grow." 

[hypn0sssss]

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is my @milgram-valentines-exchange gift for @thatbiblicallyaccuraterat !!

This was really fun to write! I haven't written either Amane nor Mahiru before, so I hope I did good with staying in character! Also, sorry if the formatting is weird lol! I hope you like it!! :D

TW for mention of Kotoko's attacks and Amane-typical religious themes

“Amane-chan!”

Amane had been sitting in her cell when she hears a familiar, cheery voice from outside. She turns to see Prisoner 006, Mahiru Shiina at her door. She's still in her wheelchair, like she has been since Yuzuriha's attacks. She smiles at Amane, waving at her with her non-bandaged arm.

“Are you busy? I need your help with something, if you don't mind!”

Amane doesn't know what to say. Shiina is rather pure, in a way that stands out in such a sinful world. But isn't she a sinner as well? Allowing herself to let that sinful doctor to ruin her trial like that, with no defiance whatsoever.

But… the way Shiina smiles at her, Amane can't help but want to help her. Despite the misdeeds done against her by Es and Yuzuriha, she's still smiling wide. But that doesn't fully hide the pain in her expression.

Amane relents, standing up from her bed.

“...What do you need, Mahiru Shiina?”

Shiina somehow smiles even wider. She rolls over to Amane. “I want to make a gift for everyone!”

“A gift?”

Shiina nods. “I asked the warden for some bracelet making supplies! And they got some for me, but… it's hard to make them by myself.” She gestures to her slinged arm.

Amane hesitates. She sees no use in making such childish things!

…But the way Shiina looks at her, with such determination in her eyes and such a bright smile, Amane can't help but relent.

Not because she wants to make bracelets or anything silly like that. Not at all. She pities Shiina, that's all.

“Amane-chan?”

“...Fine.”

Once again, Shiina somehow smiles wider. Any pain that was once in her expression seems to disappear, replaced with the brightness of her smile.

“Thank you, Amane-chan!”

There's a moment of slightly awkward silence between the two. Then, Shiina chuckles awkwardly.

“Ah, could you please push me to my cell?”

Amane lets out a sigh and pushes Shiina’s wheelchair back to her cell. When they get there, Shiina gets comfortable on her bed, and Amane sits on the floor. Shiina hands her the bracelet stuff, and starts to tell her what to do.

….

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Amane was supposed to be telling Shiina about the sins she's committing by letting the sinful Kirisaki Shidou treat her. Telling Shiina that she should let her trial run naturally, and not to interfere. That's what the rules of God say.

But she's not doing that. She's sitting on the floor, doing childish crafts, letting Shiina pick out the colors that she wants for each prisoner’s bracelet.

She had finished Sakurai’s and Kashiki’s. She was now working on Kajiyama’s. Shiina had picked shades of red and orange for his.

Amane had never made bracelets before. It turns out that it is just a tedious repetition of putting colored beads in patterns.

Shiina hums rhythms that Amane does not recognize. It must be some of that sinful music that mother tells her to avoid. But Shiina seems to be enjoying it, so Amane will let it slide. Just this once.

She's almost done with Kajiyama’s bracelet when Shiina speaks up.

“You're very good at this, Amane-chan! Are you sure you haven't done this before?”

“No, I have not.”

She puts the last bead on the bracelet, tying the knot on the bracelet. Double knotted. That's what Shiina has said.

“Well, that's impressive! You're impressive Amane-chan!”

Amane looks away. She feels slightly patronized, but her voice is so sincere that Amane can't find it in herself to tell Shiina off.

Why is Amane feeling like this? Is she growing weak?

There's an awkward silence for a while. She grabs another piece of string as Shiina realizes that Amane isn't going to answer.

“Ah, anyways! For Muu-chan’s bracelet, I was thinking…”

…

The monotonous pattern of bracelet making happens again as she finishes Kusunoki’s bracelet.

“That looks great, Amane-chan!” Mahiru smiles wide once again. “For Shidou-kun’s bracelet-”

“No.” Amane interrupts. She already felt immature doing these extremely crafts, but she draws the line at making something for such a horrible sinner.

“But, Amane-chan-”

“We refuse.”

Shiina seems to notice the change in Amane's tone and word choice, because she drops the topic. “Alright. Then for Kazui-kun’s bracelet, I was thinking these nice teals over here!”

The words come out before Amane could stop them. “What about your's, Shiina?”

Shiina seems surprised for a moment before she answers. “You can call me Mahiru, Amane-chan!” When Amane doesn't answer, she continues. “These are supposed to be gifts! It's kind of silly to make a gift for yourself!”

That logic doesn't make much sense to Amane. “...I'm making the bracelets though, Shiina. Pick some colors.”

She doesn't know why she's doing this. She wants this childish activity to be over, doesn't she? Why is she prolonging this?

“Are you sure, Amane-chan?”

No, she's not. “Yes, I am.”

“Ah, then this orange… and this yellow, please!” She points to the colors. Amane gathers the colors and starts making the bracelet.

The room as silent as Amane starts the routine again. Put a bead on, put a bead of the other color on. Shiina watches in silence as Amane continues.

In what feels like no time at all, Amane finishes the bracelet. After making sure the knot was tight enough, she gets up from her spot on the floor. Her legs are slightly sore from sitting for so long.

She walks over to Shiina's bed. “Hold out your wrist.”

Shiina smiles, but there's some hesitation in her smile. Amane doesn't know why.

“Amane-chan, you didn't have to…”

“It is too late for that, Shiina. Please hold out your wrist.”

After a moment, Shiina follows Amane's instructions, holding out her uninjured wrist. Amane slips the bracelet on with care.

Shiina rotates her wrist, admiring the bracelet. She then turns to Amane, once again smiling wide. “Thank you so much, Amane-chan! This is so cute!”

“...There is no need for gratitude.”

…

After that, Amane continued making the bracelets. She finishes Mukuhara’s and Kayano’s with no problems, and was eventually convinced by Shiina to make one for Yuzuriha. Why would Shiina want to make one for Yuzuriha despite what happened? Amane can't figure it out. Shiina is too kind for her own good.

“Thank you so much for this, Amane-chan!”

Amane finishes packing up the bracelet making materials. “It was nothing.”

“Don't say that, Amane-chan!” Shiina reaches for something in her pocket. Amane didn't realize that Mahiru's uniform even had pockets. “I have something, as a thanks! Come here!”

Amane tilts her head in confusion, but stands up. She walks over to the bed, where Mahiru was.

“Now, hold out your hand!”

When Amane holds out her hand, Shiina pulls out a bracelet. It is… nice. The different shades of green seem to match her hair.

Shiina smiles wider as she puts it on Amane's wrist. “I had asked Mikoto-kun it help me make it!”

“Thank you, Shiina.”

As she said this, a chime rang through the prison. It is time for bed.

“Thank you so much for this again, Amane-chan! This meant a lot!"

“...It was no problem, Shiina.” Then Amane left the room.

Maybe making bracelets with Shiina wasn't as childish and tedious as Amane thought.

[ofliterarynature]

DECEMBER 2023 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok no thanks (reread) book club*]

Mixed Magics • Chalice • To Shape a Dragon's Breath • The Haunting Season • Hither Page • The Henchmen of Zenda • System Collapse • The Phantom of the Opera • An Unexpected Peril • A Minor Chorus* • The September House • (The Dream Thieves) • The Fragile Threads of Power • The Pinhoe Egg • (Network Effect) • Some Desperate Glory

total: 16 (audiobook: 12 / ebook: 4)

Happy New Year booklr! Here's to actually getting my last monthly wrap-up post of 2023 out in decent time for once.

Some Desperate Glory - I'm getting myself off to a bad start here because I don't actually remember much from the book and I didn't write a review at the time. oops. But I do remember that once things got going I was hooked, and I couldn't wait to pick the audiobook back up. Definitely some content warnings to look out for, but an incredible read. I definitely need to go back and check out the author's other work.

Network Effect - the last book of my Murderbot reread, still great, glad to have finally read this in a text format! Also better suited to be read *after* Fugitive Telemetry, I wish I'd known to read them in chronological order the first time.

The Pinhoe Egg - a nice wrap up to the main Chrestomanci series! Though if anyone can tell me why on eARTH the 'recommended' reading order is like *that*, please explain it to me. I'd forgotten so many things by the time we got back to Cat, if I ever reread I'm going chronologically.

The Fragile Threads of Power - lord help me, I could do a whole rant. A quick summary of my relationship to this series: loved Shades of Magic when it first came out, did not love/was very annoyed by most of it when I reread them in 2023. Also have not really liked any of Schwab's other work. BUT. I was under the impression that this spinoff would have new main characters, and the old ones would be present but not in the center. If I didn't just make this up, it was LIES. The original MC's still dominate probably at least 60% of the book, and you'd think 7 years in-book and more experience on behalf of the writer would mature them, but a) no, and b) so many goddamn flashbacks. And Kel's assasin-sona was so cringe I wanted to cry. I did actually like the new main character which really is the biggest shame of all. If you see me contemplating the next book please stop me.

The Dream Thieves - I don't know that I have much to add yet to my thoughts about TRB in my Nov post, but I've been having a very strange experience where when I'm actively reading these, I'm having an incredibly good time; when I'm not I completely forget I was reading it. lol?

The September House - this is possibly the closest to my ideal horror book that I've ever found??!!? I have a weird relationship with horror, wherein I am not uninterested, but I almost never enjoy the ones I read (I think it has to do with my irl anxiety, idk). But THIS one. It's such an INCREDIBLE blend of like, mundane horrors and dark humor? I loved it. The "you can live with the horrors if you just follow the rules" is very much my vibe, and the way the author chose to have it integrate with the main character's experiences of domestic abuse was very smart. Deeply enjoyed, but probably won't be a favorite.

A Minor Chorus - this month's book club pick! I really really wish I'd liked this, and I'm torn between "thank god it was short," and "oh I wish this was longer." It's about a queer Indigenous doctoral student in Canada who's somewhat lost his way on his dissertation and is instead writing a novel (maybe), inspired by the stories of people in his community. On one hand, the writing was sometimes very beautiful and the different stories were interesting! On the other, my academic-speak abilities are limited, and the narrator did not hold back. He even explicitly states at one point, oh I can't describe my book this way to [character] because he won't understand my academic language. And...yeah. My brain got a little overwhelmed and I skimmed a lot of those parts. The hopeful part of me thinks if that if the book had been longer maybe I would have had time to "get it," but idk.

An Unexpected Peril - Veronica Speedwell is as Veronica Speedwell does. Had a good time with this even though it's proving to not be the most memorable. Mostly I remember intensely panicking over whether or not V had practiced forging the princess's signature, lol.

The Phantom of the Opera - this was a last minute sub for my classics challenge; I've never seen any of the adaptations, but I happened to see the book on tumblr when I was scrambling for a replacement and thought it might be fun. And it was! Quite ridiculous and dramatic, and I had a good time reading it. I was surprised by the outsider POV on the story, but it was good, just a shame that it didn't allow Christine to tell her own story. If anyone has a Christine-centered retelling I should read, let me know! And are there any adaptations I should watch?

System Collapse - new Murderbot! I was so excited for this, I'm irritated that my brain and work schedule didn't want to cooperate and let me read my nice pretty hardcover; I ended up getting the audiobook from the library instead. I had an incredible time, because it's Murderbot, how could I not? But it's also interesting, because Network Effect felt quite cohesive and contained on its own, but this feels very much like an in-between story (almost like Fugitive Telemetry), rather than a continuation of the same thread. I'll be interested to see where Martha takes us from here.

The Henchmen of Zenda - my last KJ Charles of the year! I did mean to get through all of her books, but things slipped by me these last few months so I still have a couple, but managed to fit this standalone in! It's not the only time she's pulled characters from works of classic fiction, and I admit, I'm now very curious and kind of want to read the original Prisoner of Zenda? Definitely this version had an exciting plot that was fun to read, though I don't think it'll be my favorite of her works (yay for a non-traditional relationship structure tho :)

Hither, Page - I don't think I've read Cat Sebastian before, but I've had this one recommended and it sounds right up my ally - historical/cozy myster/spy shenanigans/gay romance! And it was an incredibly pleasant read, would recommend, but I do think it could have been better as both a mystery and a romance.

The Haunting Season - I almost picked this up in October for spooky season, but put if off for Dec since it's meant to be wintery ghost stories - and only just remembered it in time! I almost wish I hadn't. The first two stories were so meh for me that I almost DNF'd it, I just didn't want the fuss of having to find a new audiobook for work the last day before Christmas break. Luckily Natasha Pulley showed up next with a good story (I really ought to read her books) and there was a good run of 4 stories with another 2 meh to round things out. It wasn't a total loss, but I wouldn't really recommend.

To Shape a Dragon's Breath - If you've seen people singing the praises of this book, they're not wrong! It's a very good if sometimes heavy read, and this is definitely the closest I've gotten to liking a boarding school story since Protector of the Small (I got burned out on them very quickly, lol). It does sometimes read like the debut it is, it's not perfect (lots of infodump speeches, lord save me from the technicalities of alchemy/chemistry, and I would have liked to see more done in her relationship with her dragon), but it's also doing some incredible and unique things that really make me want to see more books in this series and whatever else the author writes.

Chalice - I've read Robin Mckinley before and I've found her work ok, but this one has been repeatedly recommended in the HOTE discord server - I figured it would be a good one to wrap up the year with! And surprise surprise, the fealty-coded discord loves a book about... fealty XD and good stewardship, and magic bees, etc. It's incredibly on brand, and I had a lovely time with this fairy-tale of a book.

Mixed Magics - a collection of Chrestomanci short stories; I actually read one of the stories a few months ago due to the recommended reading order (bleh), and thought it would be fairly simple to finish it off before the end of the year, now that I'd finished the rest of the series. All fun, if not equally interesting, and a nice end to the year. Now I just need to find a new Diana Wynne Jones series to try (not on audiobook, alas, my library is all out of those).

(I did almost consider then binging the Hither, Page sequel on new year's eve, just so I wouldn't split the series, but decided against it :D)

[taiey]

@sarahsscrapbook @doctorwhobechdeltest

Bechdel analysis on series 11, first 5 episodes. Not as fully-formatted as Mewiet's work, but numbered. I judged petty conservatively on "is that line addressed to the woman who responds or a (mixed) group".

Bechdel-Wallace pass rate: 100%.

Two queer women speak to each other: Ghost Monument (Yaz and Angstrom) — unless you count the Doctor, which... I apparently don't..? think on balance it doesn't have quite the relevant import..? If you count the Doctor it's 100%, if you only count characters who are explicitly queer in a way modern-day humans could be it's just that, Frankie from Arachnids has a wife but dies without talking to any women.

Two women of colour speak to each other: Rosa (Rosa and Yaz), Arachnids (Yaz and Najia, briefly Yaz&Sonya and Yaz-Najia-Jade); 3-line exchange in Woman Who Fell to Earth (Yaz&Grace; disappointing!), two-line exchange in Tsuranga between Yaz and Mabli.

Total line length of exchanges: 58, 29, 68, 94, 117. the hypothetical infographics may need a new band of colour.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth     11.1     7 Oct 2018 1.    SONIA: She smashed it with a hammer! 2.    JANEY: Cos you keyed me nearside door! 3.    SONIA: Because you parked in my spot! 4.    JANEY: It's not your spot. There are no spots. 5.    YASMIN: Ladies, please! Thank you. Can I suggest a simple solution? You pay for her cracked window, you pay for her scratched door, and we all agree that parking round here is a nightmare but that grown-ups really shouldn't need to call the police to sort it out for them. Now, if we're all agreed on that, there's no need for me to take any further police action and we can all get on with our lives. What do you reckon?

6.    YASMIN: Hey! Hold on there please, madam. I need you to do as I say. This could be a potential crime scene. 7.    DOCTOR: Why are you calling me madam? 8.    YASMIN: Because you're a woman. 9.    DOCTOR: Am I? Does it suit me? 10.    YASMIN: What? 11.    DOCTOR: Oh yeah, I remember. Sorry, half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman.

12.    DOCTOR: But the doors are locked. How did you both get in? 13.    YASMIN: Driver's window was smashed in. 14.    DOCTOR: What's your name? 15.    YASMIN: PC Khan, Hallamshire Police. 16.    DOCTOR: Name, not title. 17.    YASMIN: Yasmin Khan. Yaz to my friends. Can I have your name, please? 18.    DOCTOR: When I can remember it. 19.    YASMIN: You don't know your own name? 20.    DOCTOR: Course I know it. I just can't remember it.

21.    YASMIN: Wait. Can you stop, please? This could be a major incident. I'm the one in charge here. 22.    DOCTOR: What are you going to do? 23.    YASMIN: Call it in to my station. 24.    DOCTOR: What are you going to tell them? 25.    YASMIN: The facts. 26.    DOCTOR: Which are? 27.    YASMIN: The train was attacked. 28.    DOCTOR: By what? 29.    YASMIN: I need to take a look at CCTV footage. 30.    DOCTOR: And why do you need to check CCTV when we all saw it with our own eyes? 31.    YASMIN: I can't not report it. 32.    DOCTOR: You could hold off until we get the answers to the bigger questions. 33.    YASMIN: Which are? 34.    DOCTOR: What was it? Why is it here? Where's it going next? And, most importantly, how do we stop it? 'Cos whatever it is, I don't think it's done.

35.    YASMIN: I'm going to be in such trouble if they find out I were there. 36.    DOCTOR: Can we have the lights and siren on? 37.    YASMIN: No! I shouldn't be doing any of this. 38.    GRACE: Not Yasmin Khan? 39.    YASMIN: Hello, Ryan's Nan. 40.    GRACE: Haven't you done well for yourself, love. 41.    DOCTOR: Two weird things, one city, same night, makes me nervous. 42.    YASMIN: I'll see if there have been any more reports on that object. 43.    DOCTOR: Good, cos we need all the information we can get. Meet us back here. 44.    DOCTOR: Suddenly I feel really tired. 45.    GRACE: That was a big fall you had, love. We should get you checked out at A&E. 46.    DOCTOR: No, no, no. I never go anywhere that's just initials. 47.    GRACE: What's your best guess, love? 48.    DOCTOR: Two aliens, one city, one night. Best guess? Two species at war, using Earth as a battleground. 49.    YASMIN: Are you joking? 50.    DOCTOR: No, sorry.

51.    YASMIN: What do we do when we get up there? 52.    DOCTOR: Don't worry, I've got a plan. 53.    YASMIN: Really? 54.    DOCTOR: Well, I will have by the time we get to the top. 55.    YASMIN: So everything we saw, everything we've lied to people about, is this normal for you? 56.    DOCTOR: I'm just a traveller. Sometimes I see things need fixing, I do what I can. Except right now, I'm a traveller without a ship. I've stayed too long. I should get back to finding my Tardis. 57.    YASMIN: Doctor. Can I just say, you really need to get out of those clothes. 58.    DOCTOR: Right, yeah. It's been a long time since I bought women's clothes.

The Ghost Monument     11.2     14 Oct 2018 1.    ANGSTROM: Krin. 2.    DOCTOR: How much is a krin? 3.    ANGSTROM: 200 kavlons. 4.    ANGSTROM: I've never seen so much water. 5.    YASMIN: You're Albarian, he said? 6.    ANGSTROM: Yes. The planet of Albar. It's tiny. Crammed full of rusting high-rises. Everyone wants to leave any way they can. Even more so since... 7.    YASMIN: Since what? 8.    ANGSTROM: I don't know you. 9.    DOCTOR: How many stages are there in the rally? 10.    ANGSTROM: This time? 209 terrains, 94 planets. We start the race with nothing and barter our way up. 11.    DOCTOR: Is it worth it? 12.    ANGSTROM: To ensure enough for my family's safety? Yeah. Albar is being systematically cleansed. Half of my family are in hiding. The others are on the run. This is my only chance to bring us back together. 13.    YASMIN: So you left your family to do this? 14.    ANGSTROM: I left my family to try and save my family. They told me to. If I win, I find them, rescue them. If they're alive to be rescued. Whatever happens here, it's a better chance than I had back home. 15.    YASMIN: You're making me miss my family. That's quite some achievement, considering my dad drives me bananas and my sister's trying to get me to move out so she can have my bedroom. And I only saw them yesterday. 16.    ANGSTROM: Don't ever take them for granted. God, you all look shattered. 17.    DOCTOR: You should all rest. I'll wake you when we get there. 18.    ANGSTROM: How did you even do that? 19.    DOCTOR: Did I not mention? I am really smart. 20.    ANGSTROM: Thank you. 21.    DOCTOR: You are very welcome. Amazing what you can learn from a SniperBot. 22.    ANGSTROM: This exit ladder will take us up and out to the surface. 23.    YASMIN: What's up there? 24.    ANGSTROM: Acetylene fields. 25.    DOCTOR: I thought maybe you didn't believe me that I'd get you home. 26.    YASMIN: I thought you didn't believe yourself for a second back there. 27.    DOCTOR: Who, me? No. Never doubted. Don't know what you mean. Home, then? 28.    YASMIN: You can get us there? Really? 29.    DOCTOR: Start believing.

Rosa     11.3     21 Oct 2018 1.    YASMIN: Should we know what artron energy is? 2.    DOCTOR: It's the same type of energy the Tardis runs off. There really shouldn't be traces of artron energy here, unless they're ours, which they're not. 3.    YASMIN: And now you want to check it out. 4.    DOCTOR: Yeah, I should. Quick look, but quietly. History is very delicate. We stick together. 5.    DOCTOR: Brilliant. Rosa Parks. Lovely to meet you, Rosa Parks. Big fan. 6.    ROSA: Excuse me? 7.    DOCTOR: Big fan... of Montgomery. I am... we are just visiting. Recommend anything for tourists like us? 8.    ROSA: I recommend you get yourselves the hell out of Alabama before you find yourselves in trouble you can't get out of. 9.    DOCTOR: Okay, listen. I can deal with this. You guys go back to the Tardis and be safe. 10.    YASMIN: While you do what? 11.    DOCTOR: Locate the source of these energy anomalies. We're one day out of a tipping point in Earth history. I don't want anything disrupting that. It's easy for me here. It's more dangerous for you. You can walk away from this. 12.    DOCTOR: This is where the artron signals converge. At the bus company. 13.    YASMIN: All roads lead to Rosa Parks. 14.    DOCTOR: Yeah. Bit of a worry. Let's have a look around. 15.    YASMIN: Evening. She was coming home from work. I remember cos she said people thought she didn't stand cos she was tired from working, but she wasn't. 16.    DOCTOR: Where did she work? 17.    YASMIN: I think it was in a shop, like a department store. 18.    YASMIN: Hi. Nice to see you again. Mrs Parks, right? 19.    ROSA: Yes. 20.    DOCTOR: You helped us out earlier today with our little misunderstanding. 21.    ROSA: I remember. British. 22.    DOCTOR: Yes. Funny thing, you'll never believe this, we're actually doing market research for bus companies. Looking at people's transport habits. Answer the questions, enter the raffle for a prize. You get this bus this time every day? 23.    ROSA: Most days. Always this time. 24.    DOCTOR: And you live...? 25.    ROSA: Cleveland Court. Next stop. Ma'am, if you keep sitting there, we're all going to have to move. 26.    ROSA: If I win your raffle, will that give me the right to sit anywhere I want on this bus? 27.    DOCTOR: No. 28.    ROSA: I didn't think so. This is my stop. 29.    DOCTOR: Mrs Parks, enormous clothing emergency. Can you help me? 30.    ROSA: That is one nasty tear. 31.    YASMIN: Yes, it is. And there is nothing us Brits hate more than a clothing emergency. 32.    DOCTOR: Mrs Parks, I have to go out in that coat this evening, and if it's torn I'll get in such trouble. 33.    YASMIN: Can you take a look at it now? Double time Christmas bonus? 34.    ROSA: (checks her work book) Well, I don't have any collections until tomorrow afternoon. I guess I could fit you in. Now, if you come back just before we close... 35.    YASMIN: I'll wait while you work. Keep you company. 36.    ROSA: I don't need company. 37.    DOCTOR: No, but my coat does. It's very valuable. I don't usually let it out of my sight. Thank you. You're going to make a big difference. 38.    ROSA: Oh, I'd best set to work, then. 39.    DOCTOR: Don't let her out of your sight.

40.    YASMIN: Have you always wanted to be a seamstress? 41.    ROSA: I dreamed of being a teacher, but my grandmother got sick, then my mother, so that was the end of school. 42.    YASMIN: I'm sorry about that. 43.    ROSA: Oh, I got myself educated. Just took longer than I thought. 44.    YASMIN: But you kept going. 45.    ROSA: Always. An education makes you unstoppable. 46.    YASMIN: Everything here's a fight for you. Don't you get tired? What keeps you going? 47.    ROSA: Promise of tomorrow. When today isn't working, tomorrow is what you have. You married? Got a job back home? 48.    YASMIN: Not married, and I'm a police officer. 49.    ROSA: You're police? 50.    YASMIN: Yeah. Just starting. Not where I want to be. 51.    ROSA: Hmm. Where is it you want to be? 52.    YASMIN: In charge. 53.    ROSA: (laughs) Amen to that. 54.    YASMIN: Shouldn't you be finishing up? 55.    ROSA: If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well. 56.    YASMIN: But don't you have a bus to get? 57.    ROSA: I can always walk.

58.    ROSA: I think that should just about... 59.    YASMIN: Love it. Let's go. I'll walk you out. Pay you on the way. 60.    ROSA: Oh. 61.    DOCTOR: Yaz, you're here. How's it going? 62.    YASMIN: Mrs Parks fixed your coat. 63.    DOCTOR: Oh, thank you, Mrs Parks. Beautiful work. Much appreciated. 64.    ROSA: You're welcome, ma'am.

65.    YASMIN: What's the matter? What are you doing? 66.    DOCTOR: Counting seats. 67.    YASMIN: Has it worked? Have we done enough? 68.    DOCTOR: I don't know.

Arachnids in the UK     11.4     28 Oct 2018 1.    YASMIN: What're you going to do now? 2.    DOCTOR: Oh, you know. Back in the box. There's loads to see. 3.    YASMIN: By yourself? 4.    DOCTOR: Yeah, I suppose. 5.    YASMIN: Do you want to come for tea at mine? 6.    DOCTOR: Definitely! Yes, I would. Thanks. I love tea. Tea at Yaz's? Amazing. 7.    YASMIN: Hi, Mum. 8.    NAJIA [hotel reception]: Hey. Can you pick me up from work? 9.    YASMIN: What, now? I'm just in the middle of... 10.    NAJIA [hotel reception]: Yes, now. It's urgent. I'll text you the address. Don't let on to your dad. I'll tell you everything when I see you. 11.    YASMIN: Fine. 12.    NAJIA [hotel reception]: Thanks, sweetheart. 13.    SONYA: Married to the job. 14.    YASMIN: At least I've got a job to be married to. Bye. 15.    SONYA: Hope you don't crash. 16.    DOCTOR: I mean, I could open the door. 17.    JADE: What, like, break it in? 18.    DOCTOR: No, just sort the lock. If you thought it was appropriate. If you're worried about her. 19.    JADE: I am. 20.    NAJIA: Quick, get in before anyone sees. 21.    YASMIN: Hi! 22.    NAJIA: Oh! What's the big hug for? I only saw you this morning. 23.    YASMIN: Yeah, well, it feels longer. This is well swanky. 24.    NAJIA: Don't get attached. We need to go. 25.    YASMIN: Can I not have a quick look round? 26.    NAJIA: No, Yaz. I've been sacked. 27.    YASMIN: What? Mum! But you've just started. 28.    NAJIA: I know. 29.    YASMIN: They can't do that. What happened?

30.    JADE: We reckon there could be around 21 quadrillion spiders on the planet in total. 31.    DOCTOR: So what sort of research are you doing in here? 32.    JADE: We're interested in utilising the genetic strengths of arachnids. Ordinary spider silk is as strong as steel or as tough as Kevlar. 33.    DOCTOR: Did Anna have access to your experiments? 34.    JADE: No, she was on the admin team. Everything we do here is secure. We discard all carcasses responsibly through a specialist company. Unless she was taking things without us knowing, but... she's not that kind of person. I should notify the police. 35.    DOCTOR: What is it you wanted to show us? 36.    JADE: Reports of unusual spider activity in Sheffield over the last three months, from the police, pest controllers, and to us here. Rare sightings, an increase in numbers, spiders you don't normally see at this time of year. 37.    DOCTOR: Something's wrong with the spider ecosystem in South Yorkshire. 38.    JADE: Exactly. But we don't know what. They have nothing in common. Different species, different quantities. Some are large massings, some have been a profusion of web-building. I can't work out if they're confused, or angry or scared. 39.    DOCTOR: Or trying to send a message. 40.    JADE: What are you doing? 41.    DOCTOR: Where's that?

42.    NAJIA: Did you hear that? 43.    YASMIN: Yeah.  (Yasmin goes to the internal wall and carefully puts her ear to it. We are shown the giant spider on the other side. Najia's phone rings.) 44.    NAJIA: Hello? Yeah. It's for you. It's a doctor. 45.    YASMIN: Hi, Doctor. You're never going to believe it. 46.    DOCTOR: Are you at the hotel where your mum works? 47.    YASMIN [OC]: Yeah. 48.    DOCTOR: Can you let us in? 49.    DOCTOR: (hugs Najia) Hi, Yaz's mum. 50.    NAJIA: Najia. Yaz, they can't be here. 51.    DOCTOR: Najia, you made a very awesome human. Tell me what's going on. 52.    YASMIN: The room next door is covered in cobwebs, top to bottom. 53.    DOCTOR: Just like your neighbour's house. 54.    YASMIN: What? 55.    DOCTOR: Big spider problem in this city right now, Yaz. Glad to be home? 56.    NAJIA: I know the way out. 57.    DOCTOR: Everyone, follow Yaz's mum. 58.    NAJIA: It's Najia.

59.    JADE: They're trying to make the whole hotel their web. 60.    DOCTOR: And we're the flies. We're not leaving. We have to find out why they're here and stop them getting any further. We need to find a safe haven. Yaz's mum? 61.    NAJIA: Kitchen? 62.    DOCTOR: Lead on. 63.    DOCTOR: Any issues with spiders before today, Najia, here or at home? 64.    NAJIA: My home? 65.    DOCTOR: One of your neighbours had a spider problem. The link between both places is you. 66.    DOCTOR: Are you sure? 67.    NAJIA: Sorry, but who are you? How'd you know my daughter? Why have I never met you before? 68.    YASMIN: Oh, not now. 69.    NAJIA: Yes, now. It's not a difficult question. 70.    DOCTOR: It is a bit of a long answer. 71.    NAJIA: Well, I've got time. 72.    DOCTOR: But I haven't. Not right now. 73.    NAJIA: Are you two seeing each other? 74.    DOCTOR: I don't think so. Are we? 75.    YASMIN: We're friends. 76.    DOCTOR: Hmm. 77.    YASMIN: I owe the Doctor my life, quite a few times over. 78.    NAJIA: What's that even supposed to mean? 79.    YASMIN: Please can we not have this conversation now? 80.    YASMIN: Why are they in cocoons? 81.    DOCTOR: I think they're being stored as food. 82.    JADE: Spiders don't eat people. 83.    DOCTOR: I said they're being stored. They haven't eaten them. They're outsized and confused. All their behavioural patterns have been disrupted. How did they get like this? 84.    JADE: It doesn't make any sense. This is not what spiders do. 85.    YASMIN: Have you seen what's down here? 86.    JADE: It's landfill. 87.    NAJIA: Is that what the smell is? It goes on for miles. 88.    DOCTOR: And down.

89.    DOCTOR: Because spiders can keep growing as long as they live. 90.    JADE: What if our waste included something that we thought was dead, but was still just alive? 91.    DOCTOR: And with enough food in all that waste to survive, and enough toxicity to mutate and to keep on growing. 92.    DOCTOR: It's grown too big. 93.    JADE: She's suffocating. She's got too big to breathe efficiently. Even moving around in here, it's using up what little oxygen she can absorb. She won't survive for long. She's more scared of us than we are of her. 94.    DOCTOR: I'm so sorry this has happened to you.

The Tsuranga Conundrum     11.5     4 Nov 2018 1.    DOCTOR: Nobody move. (scans it) If I can keep it in temporal lock... No, it's got too many sensors, it won't work. It was camouflaged! This is someone's idea of a nasty joke. 2.    YASMIN: What is it? 3.    DOCTOR: Sonic mine. It's counting down. 4.    DOCTOR: You're mentioned in the Book of Celebrants. You helped defeat the Army of the Aeons at the Battle of the Underkind. 5.    CICERO: I was one of many. 6.    DOCTOR: You're a bit of a legend, though. 7.    CICERO: And who are you? 8.    DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. 9.    CICERO: Wait. I've heard that name. Aren't you in the Book of Celebrants? Isn't there a whole chapter about you? 10.    DOCTOR: Me? No. Very common name. Anyway, lovely chatting. Must be off. Hope you all get better soon. 11.    DOCTOR: You can do this. 12.    MABLI: Right. Yeah. I can. 13.    DOCTOR: What did you want to show us? 14.    MABLI: Well, if I sync my ocular recorders with the databanks... MABLI: All Tsuranga medics are implanted with lenses so we can record all treatments for training purposes, lawsuits, data records. YASMIN: Like a posh version of my uniform camera.

15.    DOCTOR: Too fast to chase and capture, too toxic to touch directly. It's a bit of a puzzler. 16.    MABLI: It's going to kill us all, isn't it? 17.    DOCTOR: Whoa, Mabli! You went there way too quick. I said a puzzler, not a death sentence. I mean, it's a bit of a challenge, and I can't quite see the solution yet, but that's life. Or medicine. Patients present problems, you figure them out and come up with solutions. That's what this is. A problem to be diagnosed. Medicine to be administered. You're a medic, I'm the Doctor. 18.    MABLI: A doctor of medicine? 19.    DOCTOR: Well, medicine, science, engineering, candyfloss, Lego, philosophy, music, problems, people, hope. Mostly hope. 20.    MABLI: I'm struggling to see much hope here. 21.    DOCTOR: It doesn't just offer itself up. You have to use your imagination. Imagine the solution and work to make it a reality. Whole worlds pivot on acts of imagination. 22.    MABLI: So what are you imagining now? 23.    DOCTOR: Broadly, I'm imagining that thing off this ship. Specifically, I'm trying to imagine the answer to the question, what does it want? 24.    MABLI: Does it have to want anything? 25.    DOCTOR: Every living thing, from the tiniest to the largest, wants something. Food, survival, peace.

26.    MABLI: But the first thing it did was kill Astos. That must be what it wants to do to all of us. 27.    DOCTOR: You know, there's a much faster way back to Resus One. Why is it routing us this way? 28.    MABLI: Asteroid field. Fast-moving asteroids all around. Really unpredictable. (An alarm sounds.) 29.    DOCTOR: What are these? 30.    MABLI: They're... bad. This craft has over 5,000 different scan sensors. They're constantly feeding back to Resus One. They monitor everything, both internally and externally, check the routing's stable and there are no hostile forms, however microbial, on board. The systems have detected the Pting. They're asking us to confirm or deny anything's wrong. We can't take a creature like that back to Resus One. There's thousands of vulnerable patients. 31.    DOCTOR: And if we confirm it's on board? 32.    MABLI: They'll recommend evacuation. 33.    DOCTOR: But we can't evacuate. 34.    MABLI: They go straight to RST. Remote structural termination. They destroy the ship. 35.    DOCTOR: Right.     Nothing wrong. We're fine. 36.    MABLI: We can't keep doing that. Three dismissals and they don't believe you. Precautionary detonation. 37.    DOCTOR: Oh, great. Who designed that? So this ship either gets destroyed by that creature, or by control from Resus One? 38.    MABLI: Yeah. Sorry.

39.    DOCTOR: I thought there'd be more questions. 40.    CICERO: I've encountered a Pting before. It massacred my fleet. 41.    DOCTOR: Okay. What did you learn about them? What do they want? 42.    CICERO: They kill. Relentlessly. 43.    MABLI: It must've got to the central systems. That means we'll soon lose oxygen and heat. 44.    CICERO: It'll go for whatever's powering the craft next. 45.    MABLI: We're on an anti-matter drive. 46.    CICERO: We could use stazers to defend ourselves. They can stun it briefly. Got any on board? 47.    MABLI: A couple, I think, in here. 48.    CICERO: If we're going to live through this... 49.    MABLI+CICERO+DOCTOR: Protect the anti-matter drive! 50.    DOCTOR: Snap! 51.    CICERO: Can we get to Resus One any faster than currently routed? 52.    DOCTOR: Not without breaking the ship's auto-routing, which would send a signal back to Resus One. 53.    CICERO: And they'd go straight to Hostility Protocols. 54.    DOCTOR: I could create a false positive route signal to send back, but there's no manual controls in the NavChamber. 55.    CICERO: Show us.

56.    DOCTOR: Everything okay? 57.    CICERO: Yeah. 58.    DOCTOR: With me, please. 59.     YASMIN: Where do you think it is right now? 60.    DOCTOR: I don't know. I can't trace it since the diagnostic systems drained. 61.    MABLI: Doctor, quick word, private. 62.    DOCTOR: Catch you up. Go on. 63.    MABLI: Eve Cicero. Her condition... 64.    DOCTOR: What about it? 65.    MABLI: Patient confidentiality. I can't discuss with you. But if you're a doctor, maybe you should examine her. I've got to go.

66.    DOCTOR: Sorry, where are we? Oh, anti-matter drive. What century is this? 67.    CICERO: Are you joking? 68.    DOCTOR: No. We travel in Time. 69.    CICERO: Are you joking now? 70.    DOCTOR: No. 71.    DURKAS: 67th. 72.    DOCTOR: Ah. Nice century. Bit tricky in the middle. It turns out all right in the end. See this, Yaz? Anti-matter drive. 73.    YASMIN: Oh. I did a bit on anti-matter at school. Never quite understood it. 74.    DOCTOR: The thing with anti-matter is you have to either find it or generate it. That's what this bit does. Particle accelerator. 75.    YASMIN: Like at CERN? We did that in physics. No, but the thing at CERN is massive. 76.    DOCTOR: In your time, generating anti-matter cost a massive amount of money. This is progress. Things get smaller, faster and cheaper. This is like the iPhone version of CERN, accelerating enough particles to power this entire craft. 77.    YASMIN: So how does it work? 78.    DOCTOR: The particle accelerator smashes the atoms together, like a little anti-matter factory, to produce positrons, which are then stored very carefully inside electric and magnetic fields. The positrons interact with the fuel materials to produce heat, which produces thrust. 79.    DURKAS: It's pretty old school, this one. 80.    DOCTOR: It's beautiful. Anti-matter powering the movement of matter. Bringing positrons into existence to move other forms of life across space. I love it. Conceptually, and actually. Yaz, you have to keep this safe from the Pting. If this drive gets destroyed, this ship will lose propulsion, we'll drift endlessly while the Pting... 81.    YASMIN: I get it. It won't be good.

82.    DOCTOR: Why are you on this ship, General? 83.    CICERO: Corton fever. Contracted it on my last duty. Can't quite shake it. What are you doing? 84.    DOCTOR: Hmm. Why would you be using adrenaline blockers for corton fever? 85.    CICERO: How do you know about the blockers? 86.    DOCTOR: Your slow pulse, my really good hearing. You asked Ronan for some. It isn't corton fever, is it. Is it pilot's heart? I'm sorry, Eve, but if we're going to survive this, you need to be honest with me. 87.    CICERO: I started as a pulse pilot. I graduated to Neuro Fleet Commander faster than anyone in Keeban history. I'm the most decorated general. I'm the poster woman. I cannot have pilot's heart. I cannot be that example to others. 88.    DOCTOR: But you have. And you've been using more and more blocker shots to get through the day. 89.    CICERO: Trying to control the surges of adrenaline around the heart. One big surge could kill me. 90.    CICERO: Ever flown that way? 91.    DOCTOR: No, but you could talk me through it. 92.    CICERO: It takes people a dozen years to train. 93.    DOCTOR: Oh, I really need to spend more time in the 67th century. 94.    CICERO: I know how to do this. I'm not stopping now. Everyone's going to live. Including me!

95.    DOCTOR: Mabli said that Resus One would terminate the ship if they found a Pting on board. How would they do that? It's too far for missiles. It has to be the same for every Tsurangan Rescue Craft. It's built in. Self-detonation. 96.    YASMIN: Bingo. 97.    DOCTOR: Ten points for Yasmin Khan. And yes, I am keeping score, for all of you. 98.    DOCTOR: Pick a number between 1 and 100. 99.    YASMIN: 51. 100.    DOCTOR: Pentagonal number. Interesting. 101.    (She sonicks the bomb and the countdown beeps start.) 102.    DOCTOR: Get in that corner. 103.    YASMIN: What was the number for? 104.    DOCTOR: Number of seconds before the bomb goes off. I moved it forward a bit. 105.    YASMIN: What? I would've gone higher! 106.    DOCTOR: Good number, 51. 107.     YASMIN: I'm really trusting you on this bomb, but I don't know what you're doing. 108.    DOCTOR: Think of the Pting as a mouse, and the bomb as a piece of cheese. 109.    YASMIN: A very large piece of cheese about to explode and take us all with it. 110.    DOCTOR: It's not a perfect analogy, I'll admit. You could've picked a bigger number. Where is it? Come on.

111.    DOCTOR: As the bomb gets closer, the energy's building, getting ready to blow. The Pting must be attracted to that, surely. That's what I've been working on this whole time. Oh, please don't be wrong. I'd be so embarrassed. 112.    YASMIN: And dead. Doctor... (The Pting arrives.) 113.    DOCTOR: I'm not bad. Admit it. I'm not bad. It's all in the timing. 114.    MABLI: They, er... they say quarantine scanning and craft detox should take no more than three hours, then they'll admit us to the facility. They're booking your teleport to Seffilun, as soon as you've spoken to the investigators. 115.    DOCTOR: Thank you, Mabli. I'll be sure to tell them how brilliant you were. 116.    MABLI: You all were. Light in dark times. 117.    DOCTOR: People prevail. Hope prevails.

[not-poignant]

Lately I have been trying to learn more about story structure and have been rereading books I've enjoyed while trying to pay attention to the structure specifically. I reread The Gentle Wolf and was just wondering, if you don't mind answering, is structure something you make a point to think about along with character/plot while you're planning out novel-length projects, or is it more something that happens instinctually for you?

Hi anon,

Tbh the answer for both things is kind of true when it comes to novels? I've talked a lot in the past about how I use a 3-act structure, and A/B/C storylines, so you only need to go back into the pia on writing tag to see some of those posts that have more of an explanation.

But I also generally speaking look at wordcount. I work out that I want to write a 90k story (give or take 10k words) - which is a standard novel). I generally divide that number by 4.5k (average chapter length, give or take 1000 words) and that leaves me with knowing exactly how many chapters I have to tell my story in.

From there, I mostly focus on having each chapter not be too 'busy' (i.e. focus around one major scene. The only exception are what I call 'transitional' chapters, where time gets super non-linear and I just skip ahead through a bunch of smaller scenes), and cleanly getting through my plot points as much as possible. In the chapter plan, everything is extremely short-handed. An example of my The Gentle Wolf chapter plan looked like this (copy/pasting from my chapter plan):

AODHAN

Thomas visiting Little Star. Aodhan happy to see him. They chat, and Aodhan realises he likes Thomas (or has known for a while) but that it’s been 2 years and he’s probably missed the mark. Thomas expresses needing information for his museum and because Aodhan wants to establish more of a connection, he suggests his grandfather.

THOMAS

Thomas meets Aodhan at Iona’s house. Iona treats Aodhan badly and Thomas feels bad. Wonders how this is connected to Aodhan’s ‘absences.’ The information Aodhan has is good. Thomas marvels because he has zero connection to his own wolf family, as he was put up for adoption. Aodhan mentions loving shifting, asking if Thomas would ever do it with him, but Thomas redirects: ‘I don’t like the loss of control.’

AODHAN

Aodhan with Hunter, shifting, chatting about Thomas. Hunter says Aodhan should just tell Thomas that he likes him. Aodhan gets a call, and leaves to see his father. Later he lays in bed and decides the worst thing about him isn’t that he’s demisexual.

(These are chapters 1-3 - Tumblr's formatting is weird and I don't want to touch it, lol).

The entire chapter plan is 1000 words, and one or two chapter descriptions are only one sentence. When that happens, it means I know around that point I'll need 'more' but can't figure out what I need yet at the beginning of the story. I leave those chapters as kind of empty spots for me to put any extra stuff in that might be relevant at the time.

But anyway you can see from chapter 1 we establish the unrequited aspect of Aodhan's feelings for Thomas, as well as Aodhan's workplace, and Aodhan's family as historically significant. In chaptaer 2, we meet Aodhan's family, and we learn more about Thomas' issues with shifting. In chapter 3, we learn that Aodhan is struggling over whether or not to tell Thomas he likes him, etc.

The Gentle Wolf actually had pretty slow / gentle pacing on purpose. But I tend to go with chapter plans like this because I just want bare bones of the events that are happening, or the emotionally significant events. I've got friends who write really long chapter plans (they're basically just writing a skeleton draft), but I've always done it this way - leave them as short as possible, focus on how to make these basic points powerful.

I don't chapter plan most of what I write, and the more complicated a story is, the less likely I am to plan it out (with the exception of The Ice Plague). The reasons for that are that I've had 9 years of practice writing serials, and I actually feel like I'm stronger at winging it and creatively figuring my way out of dead ends, than I am at pre-planning a story. So that's where the 'both' part comes in. I will also throw out an entire chapter's description if I think of something better as I'm writing the story.

I would say overall structure is pretty innate in the sense that...I've read thousands of books. I've watched thousands of TV episodes and hundreds of movies. I've read thousands of fanfics over the years. And I've done university-level courses in Scriptwriting and Creative Writing. There's so many different ways to look at story structure (3 act? 5 act? 9 act? etc.) I am a character first writer always, for better or worse, and I am mostly just interested in following characters through a story.

I try and avoid reading too many books on 'how to write' but I do like Dan Harmon's Story Circle technique (I learned about it late though, not at the beginning) and I feel inspired by the way Studio Ghibli tells a story, and many fanfiction writers that I love reading. I also find books written by writers tend to be extremely rigid and 'do it this way or else' (which is annoying when you realise they're all teaching you different ways), and a little (or a lot - in the case of Stephen King) ableist. So I avoid em! I'm the first person to say I'm not a great writer, but I like what I write, and since the great writers aren't writing specifically for me (not enough hurt/comfort, not enough angst, not enough BDSM, not enough diversity, not enough sitting with characters as they just talk about stuff and figure stuff out, not enough non-sexual touch, etc), I figured I'd fill that gap ;)

If someone wants to be a successful author, I don't think they should write like me, so...I'm just going to leave on that parting note, lol. There's a lot of other authors doing it better out there, just be wary of anyone who says that their way is the best and/or only way.

[grey-gteam]

GreyG: the formation of the group

Chenny:

We were still in the training room, all together, chatting, calmly. Jin Sol and Yerin were laughing like crazy, while Iji was judging them loudly right behind. Ara and Heni were in the middle of a discussion, adorable. Gabi was stretching with Mio, on the floor, except that's when Jin Sol fell backwards because she was laughing way too much, rolling backwards, bumping into Mio and Gabi.

Gabi: Soli!!! What's your problem ?

Mio: Ouch! I am in pain.

Jin-Sol: Sorry! It's Yerin's fault.

Yerin: Don't accuse me!

Jin Sol clasped his hands in apology.

Jin Sol: Sorry girls.

Iji: Are you bilingual?

Jin Sol: Of course!

Because of Jin Sol's burst accent, we all laugh our hearts out, making fun of her.

Chenny: You are the least serious here… Finally after Yerin. Nobody beats his stupidity.

Yerin: Chenny!!!!! How dare you ?!

Yerin then does her drama queen which makes us laugh even more.

Akane:

We had fun together, it was great. But it was still a long time that we were there waiting.

Akane: What have we been waiting for all this time actually?

Lynn: Yes, it's true we've been here for over an hour.

Ara: One hour?! Only I feel like I've been here for a whole day

Mio: I no longer have the notion of time since I left Japan, me, apparently you too Ara.

Ara: Is that supposed to be nice?

Mio: No.

We all laugh even more. It's weird our humor.

We were still making fun of Ara, when suddenly someone walks into the training room. We all get up in panic and line up, a reflex of our years as a trainee. It was a woman, very beautiful, probably in her twenties, accompanied by a man. Looks like a couple, the gentleman was also in his twenties, that's for sure.

_Hello girls !

Enthusiastic lady.

Us: Hello.

Without emotion, because in my opinion, we were a little scared.

_Hey ! Get a little excited girls, you've been chosen to be part of a group.

Ara: REALLY?!

_ That's the kind of reaction I want. Anyway, my name is Heo Erin, and from today I'm your appointed art director. Me and my colleague here, we have chosen you and propose a project for a new girl group to the management of SM. This is Mr Parker, your manager. We will take care of you as it should be.

Mr. Parker: Hello.

Ara:

We listen carefully to what they tell us.

Ara: We will then be in a group every 10?!

Ms. Erin: Yes, all 10.

Chenny: Since when do 10-member groups work, especially in SM?

Ms. Erin: That's the challenge we gave ourselves, me and Parker.

Mr. Parker: Don't call me Parker.

Mrs. Erin: Shut up.

We all prevent ourselves from laughing before being reprimanded, it looks like a couple.

Iji: Excuse me but we're still too young, me, Ara and Heni, no. Are you going to start us off like this?

Ms. Erin: The project still needs to take some time to properly train the group. Your debut will be scheduled for 2023.

JinSol:

Ah ok, so we still have time to improve before starting, I can't wait to start.

Jin Sol: So what do we do now?

Ms. Erin: It's Parker's turn to speak, isn't it Parker?

Mr. Parker: Shut up, Erin! Okay, you're going to move into your dorm, together. Then we will give you time to settle in. Tomorrow we will start to establish the bases of your group, the positions and all, with time, we will talk about the concept with the other madwoman there, and the rest will be communicated to you.

Jin Sol: Wow, that's crazy!

Mr Parker: By the way, we will also give you new stages names. Not all of them, it will depend on your choices too.

Yerin:

I didn't say anything from the start, I was so stunned, it's crazy, it's the start of a new experience, I don't believe it.

Yerin: Do we have a name?

Ms. Erin: Patience, you will be soon. Now go get your things together, a car will pick you up in two hours.

Then they leave, leaving us like potatoes in a field.

Chenny: In 2023?

Gabi: Are we going to start in 2 years?

We all look each other in the eye without saying anything, suddenly I explode with joy.

Chenny: Ugh! why are you screaming?

Yerin: WE'RE GETTING STARTED!! In 2 years but that's already it.

Iji: She has the right to be happy, I think we all are.

Ara: You're kidding me, Iji. Come, let's redo our handshake!

Heni: Uh...yes, let's celebrate, our...uh, new group ?!

Gabi: Let's go! 1,2,3

Together: dont'you know !!! we !!

Jin Sol: Woohoo!!!!

[eversea143]

"My last kin." You say, with something like a bittersweet victorious smile on your face.

If Death wasn't a skeleton lacking flesh or muscles or anything capable of expression, you're sure they would be either frowning at you in disgruntlement or reluctant respect. "You're a clever one, huh?"

You didn't say anything more, there wasn't much to say being honest. You're dead, which, yeah. A bit of a surprise, you kind of hoped you'd at least get to life to your eighties. Still, there was no mention of what the limits are, and you so do love finding loopholes. It's what had endeared you to your coworkers so quickly.

Death sighed, which is kind of weird considering he has neither lungs nor a need to breathe, but this isn't exactly reality so you ignore that in favor of the... window, is the best you'd call it, opening before you.

What you saw was beyond the wildest of dreams you could have ever hoped to imagine.

Firstly, they're not human. Not entirely. There's a resemblance, the stature and general shape. Humanoid. But the being standing before you isn't human.

Their skin is a splotched blue-yellow, the yellow more prominent near the extremities. Their face is slightly pinched, more angular, with strange frills acting like some kind of beard. They do have hair, a wild mane of brown streaked with haphazerd light-blue. It's wet, as if they only recently popped out of the shower.

The clothes they're wearing is a blend between what the ancient greeks wore (a toga?) and some type of sleek dress shirt. The pants stop near the calves, allowing the extra joined legs freedom of motion. Scales take the place of the protective layer. The toes are large, only four, and webbed considerably.

The being reached out with hands that are also webbed, sporting a stunning eleven thin fingers each. Their palms are very wide in order to fit so many digits.

"Alright?" They asked, and that's when you realize the format you're seeing them. The humanoid seems to be adjusting the camera of whatever footage you're seeing. Another voice speaks up, but it's like a guttural blend of non-words and articulate sounds. Whatever powers are allowing this must be translating your last kin's words so you can hear them.

The humanoid nodded at whoever is out of shot and then focused on the camera.

"This is Ska-fultar Rechtin Don'm" The name is a definite mouthful, but your last name is Rechtin, so there's no mistaking this is your kin, despite the clear differences. "recording what's likely going to be my last moments. It's... it's been a wild ride."

Ska-fultar stepped back, and that's when you notice what is in the background.

It's hard to tell because of the red sky (red!) but that can't be anything else but a black hole. There also seem to be structures around the stellar body, and you think there are a few outlines of other planets at the edges of the recording.

"Akilla-4B is nearing the end of its lifespan" Ska-fultar continued, snapping your attention away from the incredible view. "and there won't be a lot of power left to continue lighting up the skies once it's gone. There's no where else for us to go, the last star died out several million galactic cycles ago. The Last Council of Humanoid Descendants essentially put it up to a vote, and, well..."

They sighed, rubbing their neck, which you now realize has gills.

"It wasn't really much of a vote as it was unamous. There were a couple of outcries, of course, but what else is new? We have nowhere to go, no more planets to exploit or places to live. The universe, it's..."

They looked at the camera just so that their eyes reach yours. There's no sign that they know or see you, but it roots you to the spot.

It's the gaze of someone who knows how their story will end.

"It's dead. A few places might still keep going long after we're gone, but what for? There's no else around, if there are we're too far apart to tell. There hasn't been a sighting of Neros-65j in thousands of cycles, who knows if it or the Falcon Alliance is still there."

They huffed and clasped their too-many-digited hands.

"So I'm making this final recording and sending it out into the Abyss. I'm not alone, the idea picked up speed after the first hundred who did and posted it on the Net for good luck. Still, it's... depressing."

Sha-fultar looked away, then perked up and stepped out of view for a bit before returning with a sight that shocks you down to your core.

"I'm not alone" They motioned at the stunning being holding their hand, though it's a bit hard to tell considering this new... being, is made up entirely out of what seems to be some sort of viscous gas. "I have my beloved, Gaéc'ta, with me. We're going to be spending our final days together. My blood-brother said he might join us with the kids at some point, so we also have that to look forwards to."

Gaéc'ta said something, there's no other way the structured whispy sounds of wind and popping gas is just natural sound. Of course you don't understand, which is a true shame, but whatever the gaseous being said made Sha-fultar laugh.

"Yes, having the second-adjecent relatives around is going to be entertaining. I can already picture all the misschief they'll be causing. I'm pretty sure Torrent will bring his mates with, no way are those three going to be spending their last days apart."

Gaéc'ta said something else, the approximation of what must be a head dipping to tickle their beloved's frill-beard. Sha-fultar sighed softly, but with a soft and tender smile.

"I love you too." They assured with a love you know well, it's how you would say those special words to your own wife.

Whatever else both might have said is cut off by a tone echoing through the air. Both perk up and glance somewhere off screen, that first voice you'd heard proclaiming something rapidly.

"The countdown started." Sha-fultar noted ominously, and you can just catch movement in the sky behind him. The structures around the black hole are shifting positions.

"I guess this is it." Gaéc'ta whispered something whispy and the humanoid nodded. "Right, at least we did. I don't regret any of it."

"What comes after this is up to anyone to guess." Sha-fultar cracked a sad grin. "You know, I remember learning about this old system of belief during history reviews. It's from, geeze, all the way back during Old Earth times. I don't remember the religion's name, but according to it there's this place after death. No one's ever confirmed if such a place exists, but," They shrugged. "No point in trying now. Who knows, maybe there is."

A voice sounded in the air, and even though you don't understand it there's no mistaking the tone. A countdown.

"Almost time."

Sha-fultar Rechtin Don'm, the last of your kin, faced the camere and once again met your gaze by pure happenstance. Yet you don't feel like that's true. You want to believe, just for a moment, that they can see you. That they can see the pride you feel at knowing your lineage survived for so long. Witnesses to the dying throes of the universe.

"I just want to say, to whoever sees this, if someone ever will" They smile a brilliant, life-endured smile that's all inhuman sharp teeth but full of thousands of unspoken emotions. "we were here, we lived, we endured, we saw it through to the end."

"Thank you, to those of the past, for giving us the chance to life our lives to the fullest. I love you, everyone who's here with me. And I salute you, whoever in the future sees this recording. Goodbye."

Behind the happy and unique couple, the black hole suddenly sparked to life with an array of colors so blinding that you have to look away. The last image burned into your eyes is that of the pair, one smiling and the other more than likely doing their equivalent, joined hand in semi-tangible hand, not a single regret in sight.

Then the screen went snowy from loss of signal.

...

You stare at the screen for god knows how long, a feeling in your gut that you can't identify. It's something along the lines of mourning, but a kind mixed with pride and adoration.

Eventually you pry your eyes off the window and turn towards where Death is standing at your side. You hadn't even realized it moved spots.

"Thank you." You say, because there's nothing else to say. You were given a privilege; it's sad to think you may very well be the only one to see that, but there's no other possibility. You wouldn't know who would be able to see that. Not after the universe's demise.

Death motioned towards a doorway you hadn't noticed before. You look at it, then peer over your shoulder at the screen.

You walk into the glowing portal, not looking back again.

'If I get to see you, Sha-fultar, I will tell you what I feel.'

You looked through the glow as it engulfed you, and you're certain a familiar shape is waiting on the other side.

'I'm proud you lived your life to the fullest.'

“Yes, you are in fact, dead. I know this can be hard to hear.” Death said with a compassionate smile “I can’t "help” you, but I like to offer one thing. Your last. I will show you your last. What would you like to see? Your last kiss? Your last talk with your mom? The last hug from your son?“

[the-firebird69]

Freya Ridings - Castles (Official Video)

So I hear my father is saying you better get in running a format lady so I wonder what it is and he says it's going to get ready to start chasing me. So you can see her duck into the corner carefully and him flying by like 80 and the wind blowing. What we mean is it's not the music and songs and dancing and stuff it's the particular song her being saved or otherwise and we are going to send in many battle groups but right now we have 200 billion ships going there and the pseudo empire has sent a humongous contingent to 500 billion and it's the empire no everybody is going out there to fight they say it's over Venus but in all actuality those ships are coming active and Venus will be when it goes around the Sun which hasn't happened yet the truth is we need the protection before that happens so we are doing the right thing and we're on course and on time of course requires a long time and I got that going in years and years ago and we have to do this so we have a huge fleet that's after our mother and one of them is not so big but we don't like them at all and they're evil to us now right now though they are trying to get to Titan the tower ships Mars Earth and some to Venus and she heard it there's about 200 billion and it's on the new 800 billion ships they got activated today and loaded up everything and sent tons and tons of people to build and are competing now they're going to wipe each other out and we're going to stop them from going to Venus and they will start looking for ships from the pseudo empire then the minority and then they'll try and pull them out of the ground and out of tunnels and God be praised this change is needed so badly and Olympus work day and night on it and they deserve combination and they deserve us and our people all of ours and you sergeants better get with it you want to train more people that's the goal not less you trained sergeant first class and you think that's what they're called and tons of them and you get your butt going and make them do the job and made them sign up that's what you do we're hoping for a good result and we want to help you do it too you're not on your own you have the whole army and all of our people support you but he wants to speak directly to you so I'm doing it and he's asking you for the favor they send it back and tell him how it goes and it's perfect and deafening he says he can't wait to get trained by you whoever that soldier is as experience of a lifetime coming you're going to have to break him like a bucking bronco he's going to be the last lineup and the last out of the kitchen and I'll speak out when you think something's not right even though he's not supposed to and it's going to be a foot or foot and half taller than you and about 800 pounds every year heavier so he's not surprised and he's getting it going now we have a lot of stuff to do but this is greatness

Savage oppress it says the greatness now but if you let him go on it and she's saying it now he's jokes go downhill that's terrific

We're going to post now

Olympus

We have drill sergeants and they're going to help with movies and we get that

Thor Freya

We've had enough of everybody bothering us it's really weirdness and he's kind of used to it and he's just responding and he doesn't fast and it's a job and he says it's kind of like a manager's job we have it too but we do different stuff and he does make a Nations but and it machinations and we compare but it's really competition they're very good at it and we're very good at it we're the best he likes to hear it but he's going to say that this time he's going to show us something and it will be better than a lot of other stuff maybe not the best but he hope so and it might be it depends on our reaction and we get that

Zig zag

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1110 review

This is a chapter that doesn't disappoint. Things are really heating up as we hit the tenth chapter of volume 109 with Egghead's likely final end-of-volume cliffhanger to come in the next chapter or two.

But we start out with a new cover story, and yeah, it's Yamato following Oden's tour of Wano, which is probably the least exciting thing going on this week. However with the last cover story having such a large and immediate connection to the current story, I'm going in with an open mind and considering my hopes. Seeing some of the stuff that got shortchanged in Wano's clipped epilogue would be cool, like Ryuma's grave for example, or passing by Izo's tomb and seeing Kiku visiting. Perhaps a more direct confonrtation of the public's feelings about Tama's Kurozumi heritage. That one might be hard in the pantomime format of a cover story, but you never know. It's going to be a few installments before there's enough info to make any real prediction about the story's trajectory though, we know they never quite stay the course they seem to start on.

Getting back into it, Oda spends a couple of pages building into the big reveals. We also get a timeline update, with 3 minutes down already, which is a brisk pace as Shonen countdowns go. The summoning circles definitely seem closer together and like they're placed in a more rubble-strewn environment than in the final spread of the last chapter, enough to ease my concerns about the space shifting slightly.

And the monster designs that come out when the shadows are pulled back are truly awe inspiring. I don't know a lot of yokai or much about any of them (could tell you a little bit about classic sandworms though), but these are easy 10/10 beasts with all of Oda's best character design ideas on full display. When One Piece ends and he inevitably gets restless after his well-earned break Oda should absolutely do the Toriyama (RIP) thing and design monsters for games. What do you even say to a pair of pages like this? I can't stop looking back to them.

And these guys are made to feel like a threat too. None of them speak in the whole chapter; similar to Saturn's original rampage it makes them feel all the more inhuman. (Saturn did speak when he confirmed the summons in the last chapter, so we know they can but you still get the same effect from how sparse their dialogue is.) They spring immediately into action with no apparent coordination or communication between each other, and they go straight for their goals. There's no posturing or speeches or taking test shots at Luffy to measure his power. Nasjuro is off and running already, cutting down Pacifistas to unblock the Buster Call fleet, solving problems for the bad guys. Mars takes a shot at the barrier, and even though it doesn't work you know he's going to be there the moment it goes down for real. And Ju Peter and Saturn go straight for Luffy. They really don't feel like playtime villains, which is exactly what you need at this late stage of the story.

The absence of Warcury is curious though. Is he also fighting Luffy, or is he going for something else? Charging towards Bonney perhaps?

But what are they? The fact that the odaboxes simply give creature names without specifying a Devil Fruit type is super suspicious. Nasjuro's ice powers mirror Brook's abilities (which allegedly come from having returned from death, rather than being directly a feature of his fruit), which could maybe suggest that he as well has returned from some kind of underworld.

I'm not ready to totally rule out it being a misdirect and them having Devil Fruits of a matched kind, but the weird details are adding up.

Speaking of weird details, I can't quite tell if it's weird scaling/camera angles or not, but it almost seems like Lucci knocks Enma away from Zoro only for it to boomerang back to his hand. I'm not crazy, right, other people are seeing this? At a glance you think maybe it goes up and he catches it as it comes down, but that flight path is curved in every panel. So what, did Zoro just get lucky with the amount of spin, or is there some strange new property of Enma's power/contained Haki being shown here. Or something to do with Zoro's close grim reaper encounter? Stick a pin in this one I think we'll be coming back to it later.

I'm ambivalent about the Zoro and Lucci fight as a whole. The outcome was never in doubt, and it was too offscreen to provide any real character interaction or clash of ideology to add substance. Zoro snapping and finding the motivation to take the win right away when Sanji talks him down is a decent bit for the two of them, but it's not quite enough to make the whole fight feel like more than padding.

Truly, if Lucci had been handcuffed properly after the death game portion and never made his breakout attempt, I don't think the arc would have played out any differently. Even the silly anticlimax of the sliding ship serves the purpose of justifying the Sunny getting from A to B over dry land, but Lucci? Was taking Stussy off the table that important? Was it the only way to make it believable that Zoro wouldn't follow Sanji and Vegapunk down to the Labophase and get involved with the Elders too soon? I'm having a hard time seeing it, but the arc isn't over yet.

The final spread is a fantastic callback and great hype-builder for the next chapter. And I think it's going to prove just how far the Elders' regeneration is able to go. The Elders aren't going down here, definitely not, but with Dorry and Brogy there might just be enough muscle on Luffy's side to hold them back until the broadcast goes ahead.

We're getting colour pages next week, and I have to wonder if an Akira Toriyama tribute is coming. Jump has to do it, there's no way they won't, but the gap between when the pages are finalised and when we see them, and the break between when Toriyama died and when it was announced to the public makes it all kinds of tough to figure out the earliest that could happen. I could definitely see Oda pivoting last minute and trading out a finished colour spread to something in honour of Toriyama, but the timing is tight. We'll see soon, I suppose. May the hits keep on coming for the Egghead finale!

You can also read on my Wordpress!

[martyrblood]

5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 24!!

5. do you listen to music while you write?I don’t need music while I write, but sometimes I have it on? At a low volume or something instrumental like post-rock, because I have p bad ADHD and I can’t listen to lyrics and write at the same time lol

9. have you ever written a serious reply intoxicated?UMMMM maybe? Not like, Super drunk or high lol, but probably have written replies just a little bit buzzed. When I’m actually Intoxicated I cannot type anything recognizable as English or any other human language

10. how much do you proof-read as you are writing vs. proof-read at the end?Tbh sometimes I don’t proof-read at all lol, but when I do, I guess I’m more likely to do it at the end, quickly

11. when you are writing a reply, how much ahead in the thread do you plan?I like to have all of the major beats of a thread planned out before I start it. As in like, I like to know the setup, the possible points of conflict, and the desired outcome. Unless it’s settled ahead of time, I don’t like to be blindsided or dragged off into the weeds. Also important to me to have an open line of ooc communication with the other mun during the thread so we can stay on track and not step on each other’s toes.

12. is there ever been a time when you’ve had to drop a roleplaying partner because you’ve found their writing style exhausting?Yeah lol,,,, see previous question. I’m likely to drop a thread if the mun is communicating poorly or they aren’t doing their part to move the thread forward. I understand that plot isn’t a major priority for every writer, some people enjoy conversation and improvisation more, but that’s the sort of thing that can frustrate me, especially in a “Serious” thread or if I don’t know the mun super well.

13. does writing roleplay things in public spaces make you uncomfortable?UH if I think someone might read it, yeah lol. I have a lot of anxiety about strangers reading my writing (even keeping my rp blogs on public is a huge passive stressor sometimes) but I’ll write on my phone occasionally if nobody’s over my shoulder.

14. what do you do after you see a person has replied? do you read it immediately, or do you wait for it to show up on the dash? do you like it, draft it immediately, etc?I read replies immediately (or as soon as I know they’re there) but I’m slow at replying lol. This is slightly weird, but sometimes if I’m really excited for a reply… it takes me longer to read it? Like I want to savor it or draw it out I guess? So I’ll read little bits over a period of sometimes hours lol. If the other mun isn’t too impatient.

17. what is your biggest obstacle to writing every day, if time doesn’t count?The biggest obstacle that keeps me from writing every day is that I don’t really like to write lol which I know sounds kinda harsh but writing is not… an activity I can do passively or effortlessly, it takes a lot of energy and effort for me to do it, it drains me quickly, etc. If I had to write a novel it would take me 10 years easily. I want to be able to read a thread at the end and feel like we did a good job, I want to be able to develop my characters and plot ideas with people, but the actual writing part isn’t my favorite lol.

24. what’s your thought process when you format? any unspoken rules you follow?God it’s been so long since I tumblr rp. Um… I guess the only formatting I do is make sure there’s only the latest reply on my reblog? Oh also I bold the other person’s url I dunno why it just makes it easier for me to read I have ADHD mush brain idk

[ashthemadwriter-archived]

Hi! Can I request platonic headcanons with Fyodor and Dazai with a female reader and a High School!AU please?

Fandom: Bungou Stray Dogs

Pairings: Dazai, Fyodor X Fem!Reader

Genre: Fluff, Humor

Format: Headcanons

Warnings: None

Word Count: 0.8K

A/n: I have trouble writing for Fyodor. I should get him off my writing list lmao

⇝Osamu Dazai

Doesn't matter if you're relationship with him is platonic or romantic, He's always flirting with you🙂

Does not expect you to flirt back so don't because things might get weird or... change.

And you don't want things to change cause you've seen him breaking up with other girls after a few days of dating.

You two are always goofing around at classes, making fun of others while not paying attention to the lessons at all.

You claim that it's his fault because he's distracting you, and you're lowkey right but he keeps denying it😭

Other girls are not a fan of you because c'mon! You're friends with Dazai Osamu! The most charming boy in the high school!

Dazai ignores others because he thinks that it's not bothering you, but he gets upset when others bully you over stuff because of your connection with him.

Lowkey tries to be a bit distant but when he sees you trying to get close to him, he's relieved and things get back to normal.

Dazai has a special spot for his friends in his heart, and you already know that if you're familiar with Odasaku, and you're his friend too.

So he's protective of you, even though he's not really showing it; but will have your back when you run into trouble.

If some guy tries to break your heart, well... rest in peace.

Not saying that Dazai would get in a fight with him cause he's Dazai, but with his sharp mind and smart ass, he doesn't need to use any strength to teach that bastard a lesson.

As I said before, and you already know that, he's a player; and it bothers you when his exes come to you and ask you about him, or to see if they still have a shot with him and stuff.

You scold him when he makes fun of other people's height or their red hair or how they braid their hair and their outfit :)))

Though he's expecting you to collaborate with him on this one XD

Is not a fan of studying, so makes you study so you can tell him the answers, or gets them from another girl who has a thing for him and gives them to you to if you need any.

You were so distracted in the classroom that teachers make you sit far away from each other lmao.

But they can't do anything to you outside the classroom so that's when the real deal is on, baby 😎

You sometimes to different tiktok trends together and are kinda popular.

Others think that you two are a couple since you get along with each other well so you always have to tell them you're just friends, even though Dazai might not straightforwardly agree with you on this one🚶🏻‍♀️

⇝Fyodor Dostoevsky

Why is writing for him so hard what is wrong with me😭

Just because I wrote that much for Dazai doesn't mean I would do the same for Fyodor -_-

Anyway, he's not a really talkative person, so you're not attracted to him at first sight,

He doesn't look like a shy guy, he's just not going to waste his energy unless it's necessary to speak so you decide not to bother him.

But things change when you get a bad grade at physics and the teacher asks him to be your tutor.

He agrees cause he doesn't really care anyway.

Fyodor is definitely the top of his class. You never see him study but he pays attention to the teacher carefully while he teaches, so you know that studying with him will be helpful, but you're kinda nervous cause let's be real. the guy looks scary. (Hot scary😏)

So when you do spend time together, you realize that he's actually an interesting guy, and a super smart one, so you come to like him and start hanging around with him everywhere he goes hoping maybe you would become friends.

You're the one who comes to him though, asking where is he heading to and would be it ok if you come along and he always says yes cause as I said before, he doesn't care.

Now being Fyodor's friend is not something Fun at first, but rather meaningful and interesting. You gradually become familiar with his perspective of things and the world, and this would effect you way of thinking and seeing things too. After becoming his friend, you pay attention to details more closely than you did before, and you try to understand the connection and logical explanation behind them.

You two would never talk about you're relationship and that you're friends, because you don't know what his reaction would be and you're also not willing to take the risk, so it's not something offical.

Being his friend adds to you're knowledge and his effect on you is definitely considerable, so you like to be around him but you can never know if he does too since you can't ask him about him neither read his mind 🚶🏻‍♀️

Why does it all sound so dark lol I didn't mean to 😭

Reblogs are appreciated! :)

[kazewhara]

omg “You’re going to sit on that man’s lap just for a photo?” for childe or diluc

santa's big scene.

❄ winter prompts ❄

# — pairings: diluc, childe x gn!reader

# — characters: gender neutral reader, childe, diluc, scaramouche, signora

# — summary: you don't have to do everything on christmas, you know..

# — warnings: suggestive speech

# — tags: hc/drabble format, modern au, fluff, slightly possessive childe + diluc, smidgen of angst, suggestive speech

# — notes: y'know, i was only gonna do childe at first, but as i was writing the tags, i realized that both of them would have a slightly different approach to this! then again, now that i'm reading it over, for some reason i think i should put it with a different series i have here.. anyways, as always, reactions and reblogs are greatly appreciated, and i hope you enjoy! ❄

❄ wanna join the tag list? ❄

✧ — 𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐜 — ✧

he took you to a mall for christmas with the intent of spoiling you (because really, why wouldn't he?)

it actually took a lot of coaxing on his part to get you to agree to this, because while you liked getting gifts, you didn't want to bleed the man dry

but this is diluc we're talking about. c'mon. not only is he rich, but he's very stubborn

so that's how you two find yourselves at a somewhat upscale mall, looking for a store to start at

it's christmas of course, so there's decorations, music playing, little snack vendors here and there, the works

but most notably, the famed santa whose lap you sit on to take photos with

"oh my god, wait, can you take a picture of me with santa?" you ask, already pushing your phone into a confused diluc's hands. you were just telling him about what you might want to eat for lunch when you suddenly gasped and started fumbling for your phone as you stared at something with a childlike gleam in your eyes. diluc followed your gaze to the santa claus seated a little ways away, with children and adults alike lining up to sit on his lap to take pictures with him.

diluc shakes his head with a tiny smile, endeared by your enthusiasm. he was here to spoil you today, so who was he to refuse? "alright, alright," he agrees, chuckling when you celebrate under your breath. "did you do this kind of thing often when you were young?"

you nod rapidly and diluc can't help but chuckle again. "i loved santa as a kid." you explain. the sparkling of your eyes only grows brighter as the line moves up. "i knew he wasn't really pretty early on, but that didn't make him any less cool to me. it makes christmas really feel like... christmas, y'know?"

diluc hums in understanding. he did the same as a kid, but stopped as soon as kaeya ruined christmas by telling him that santa wasn't real. it didn't ruin the entire holiday for him, but diluc never forgot the immense disappointment he felt that day, nor did he ever let kaeya forget about the time he crushed his spirit.

it was dramatic, yes, but everything is serious in the eyes of a child.

once you two arrive at the front of the line, you hurry over to the mall santa and whisper something in his ear. the santa nods with a quiet laugh and adjusts himself for you to sit on his lap. diluc, who'd been curiously watching the entire interaction, finally speaks up.

"you're... going to sit on that man's lap just for a photo?" diluc winces internally as soon as the words leave his mouth. something unsightly rears its head when he sees you wiggle a bit as you try to get comfortable. mall santa rests his hand on your waist to keep you in place, and diluc really hopes he's not making a weird face right now. he balls his free hand into a fist in his pocket.

he's never been the biggest fan of this feeling. the urge to tug you out of mall santa's lap grows stronger with each passing second, but he does everything in his power to stomp it out when you look thrilled by the fact that you can be in the presence of santa.

"yeah, why? it brings back some fond memories," you reply, your smile never dimming. you clearly don't notice his agitation. of course you didn't; this was about you, not him.

diluc counts to three as quickly as he can and nods without a word. he raises your phone and manages to get about two photos in before he sees mall santa pull you in just a little bit closer. it's just a side hug and you lean into it with no hesitation, but diluc really doesn't think he wants to be here anymore. he takes about two more before closing your phone camera and waving it between his fingers. "all done," he says curtly.

you hop quickly out of mall santa's lap and dart over to view the photos. while you do, diluc keeps his eyes on the santa whose lap you were just sitting on. he's probably glaring at him, now that he's thinking about it. mall santa's eyes don't leave your direction until the next person comes up to him.

he's just doing his job; diluc's not an idiot. but if he's not, then why does he feel so... bitter?

thankfully, you beam up at diluc, distracting him from his sudden drop in mood. "these came out great!" you thank him with a quick kiss to the cheek before taking his hand and starting back in the direction you were heading before you got sidetracked.

as you walk, diluc suddenly tightens grip on your hand, almost to the point where it hurts. you glance at him to see if anything's wrong. at times, he'll do it because he doesn't want to alarm you when he sees something you don't, but looking at him now, you can't find that expression of muted caution on his face. instead, he looks annoyed and pensive.

"diluc, you're squeezing my hand." you wiggle your fingers and frown when diluc lets go with a soft apology. now he looks like he's beating himself up for something. you stop walking and step in front of him. "is everything okay? you look so upset."

diluc visibly grimaces at your concern. you can't see it, but his ears are burning. "it's... nothing." he lies through his teeth. he turns into the worst liar whenever you pressure him. picking up on your suspicion, he looks away. "let's keep going, yeah?"

"diluc.." you warn. "something’s bothering you. we're not going anywhere until you tell me."

"i said it's nothing. can we just--"

you shake your head patiently. "no, we can't. not when you're upset. we're here to enjoy ourselves, not stew in whatever problems we've got. talk."

diluc sighs in defeat. you're being so patient with him, but he can tell that it'll wear thin very soon if he doesn't talk; you've expressed your low tolerance for his habit of becoming tight-lipped whenever it suits him. "it's nothing serious, i promise." he tells you.

you don't say anything, you just raise an eyebrow, prompting him to continue.

diluc stifles a laugh. you're cute when you're annoyed. "but," he continues, furrowing his brows and not meeting your eyes, "i will admit, i... kind of wish you hadn't sat on that man's lap." he peeks over at you and makes a face when he sees you starting to look smug. "what are you..?"

"so you were jealous?" you snicker. "of santa claus?

"i feel ridiculous enough as it is, thank you." diluc deadpans. you chortle when you see his cheeks start to redden at your muffled laughter. "stop that. let's just go." he steps around you and starts walking away.

you jog after him, giggling all the while. "of santa claus, diluc? of all people?" you pause to laugh. you catch up to him and grab his hand, swinging it between the two of you slightly.

diluc huffs through his nose. you can finally see his red ears from here. "i'm ignoring you."

"should your lap be the only one i sit on?" you tease. you wheeze when diluc's blush deepens further. you're getting a real kick out of this. "i guess i know what i should get you for christmas now~" you sing-song.

diluc groans and covers his face with his free hand. "taking you outside has to be the worst mistake i've made today. you're insufferable."

you snort and raise his hand to kiss the back of it. "i love you too, diluc."

"...whatever."

✧ — 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞 — ✧

ah.. he would not take this situation as well as diluc

so, you two are at a christmas party

(i can hear you saying "zuzu, why is it always christmas parties?" because it's just practical, okay? i digress)

so. christmas party. people drunk off of eggnog with an obscene amount of rum in it (courtesy of none other than scaramouche)

you're not drunk and neither is childe, you two opted for the non-spiked drinks, unlike the other party goers

you have a friend who isn't drunk either, but he has this terrible habit of not saying no to people, so when some tipsy friends suggest he put on a santa hat and take pictures, he agrees

you and childe are laughing at the whole spectacle when someone suggests that you sit on his lap for a picture

"fine, fine," you concede, not wanting to hear your drunk friends pester you anymore. they can get pretty pushy under the influence, and after being the victim of their drunk demands several times, you've learned to just go along with it -- so long as it's reasonable, anyhow. you turn to your boyfriend and hold out your cup to him. "can you hold this for a second?" you ask.

childe just stares at you. "sorry?" he asks, as though he didn't hear you the first time. he was literally watching you this entire time, why was he acting like this? "what're you about to do?"

you roll your eyes and jerk your thumb in your friend's direction. "i gotta go sit in that loser's lap for some photos, so can you please do me a favor and hold this? he might be an asshole," you raise your voice so your friend can hear you, "and make me spill my stuff."

your friend flips you off and you turn to do the same, the two of you rocking matching grins. you turn back to your boyfriend who doesn't looks remotely as amused as you do.

"so... you're just going to sit on that man's lap for a photo," childe's question is less of a question and more of a dry statement, one of his eyebrows cocking up as he speaks. he huffs and mutters something you can't hear, but holds out his hand anyways.

you eye him suspiciously as you hand him your drink slowly. "okay," you drawl. not wanting to lean into this strange negativity that childe's created for himself, you head over to your friend and plop yourself on his lap.

"gross." your friend wrinkles his nose playfully at you. "you know bitches like you get coal for christmas, right?"

you slap the back of his head, snorting when he looks offended. "you're the worst fucking santa i've ever had. zero stars."

the two of you pose for the many photos and joke with each other the entire time, making newer and stupider poses with each one. after about three photos though, you get the feeling that someone's watching you. it shouldn't be strange, considering you have about four people taking photos and egging you on, but whoever is looking at you is beaming the side of your head -- so much so that you can almost feel the weight of their stare.

you look up when the photos are done to see where that was coming from and lock eyes with none other than childe. his face is blank, but it's still unsettling; his irritation is palpable. rather than approach him and ruin the mood, you look away from your boyfriend and talk to your friends for a while.

you hear retreating footsteps after no more than a few seconds, and you sigh. childe wasn't giving you a choice; you have to confront him if you want to keep having fun, so you start after him, following his bright hair to a secluded corner in the living room. he sits in an armchair and looks up at you.

neither of you speak for a little while; neither of you are proud of this, but each of you sometimes expect the other to read their mind whenever a problem arises. you're the first to pick up on it, grimacing slightly when you realize what you were doing.

"alright, party pooper," you cross your arms, "what suddenly crawled up your ass and died?"

childe's mouth twitches as he supresses the urge to laugh. he covers it up as fast as he can, but it's not fast enough; you saw that. you huff a soft chuckle through your nose as your boyfriend does his best to look annoyed again.

"you're done asking santa what you want for christmas?" he asks crossly, setting your drinks down on the floor beside the chair. "or was he asking you for something?"

you scoff out loud. "don't tell me you were jealous of that." you nip the situation in the bud as quickly as you can. knowing childe, he'd try to drag this out as long as he could with vague statements and backhanded compliments, but you're not that stupid, nor are you in the mood.

childe narrows his eyes. "i didn't realize it was so wrong to be bothered about the fact that my partner was in some other man's lap."

"you can be bothered," you agree, "but there's really no need to bring down everyone else with you when you're upset." you sigh. "you could've just... i dunno, told me in private? not do this weird sulking thing."

your boyfriend looks comically offended. "i don't sulk." he sighs and reaches out, pulling you down onto his lap without warning.

"you weren't even gonna give me a choice, were you?" you ask when you recover from your temporary shock. you wrap your arms around his neck on instinct and relax when you feel his arms tighten around your waist.

childe presses his nose against your cheek, making you shiver. "something tells me you weren't going to come if i asked." he murmurs. "but this is private enough, isn't it?"

you snort. "hardly. there's people everywhere--"

"i didn't like seeing you sit on your friend's lap," he cuts you off, kissing from your cheek down to your neck, "and i would much prefer it if you sat on mine. is that better?"

maybe you should've just waited to talk about this at home. you feel heat creep up your neck. "sorta? stop doing that, we're in public."

"that didn't seem to bother you and your friend much." childe bites at your neck harshly, chuckling when you reel back and put your hand over the area.

"the fuck was that for?!" you hiss. "biting me? seriously? what are you, a dog?"

your boyfriend looks satisfied, the expression only getting brighter when you move your hand. "i'd consider us even now." he goes back to burying his face in your neck, not budging when you try to push him away. you give up after a brief struggle and slump against him despite yourself. "see, was that so hard?"

"i hate you." you grumble.

"you can't hate me, it's christmas." childe whines. he pulls back to look at you, giving you his best wounded expression.

it's... hard to stay upset when he does things like this. it's hard to stay upset with him in general, actually. you kiss him quickly, rolling your eyes when he calls you mean for not giving him more. "that was your christmas gift," you shrug. "take it or leave it."

"there's more at home, isn't there?"

you flush. "...maybe."

"then, merry christmas to me."

✧ i do hope this was okay! i hope the end in particular is good.. oh boy,,