#still. i stay silly :3 and it's fun meta

[blessphemy]

Reblogging with some little updates, additions, and corrections! Because A) I missed names (rip) and B) Folks in the notes pointed out some cool stuff.

I forgot or misspelled these guys, sorry:

Gamila — variation on Jamil/Jamil, meaning "beautiful" (Port Auth, Balin's guardian)

Karime — Possibly English or Spanish, meaning "attractive." (ART's crew member. I misspelled this in the original post, rip. Dangers of audiobook.)

Miro — Slavic name meaning "peace, world" (From Lalow crew)

Mish — Perhaps Hebrew in origin. Or maybe short for something? (one of the FT refugees)

Additions and Corrections From the Notes:

Kiran — @drumlincountry: Kiran could also be from irish Ciarán, often anglicized to kieren/kirin/kieran/etc. Meaning dark one (diminutive)/little one

Rami — @zarohk: Rami might also be from the Hebrew - Tall, exalted; happy, joyous.

Ratthi — @cmdrburton: Ratthi is an occupational surname for a chariot-maker from the Sanskrit rath ("chariot")

Volescu — @nagia-pronounced-neijia: volescu would almost certainly be romanian and means 'son of vol'

Names in The Murderbot Diaries (character spoilers)

All Systems Red:

Ayda Mensah — "Ayda" is of Arabic origin, meaning “returning, to come back." Mensah is a Ghanian surname (most common surname in current-day Ghana), apparently meaning “third-born”

Pin-Lee — Chinese. Could mean a several things, depending on how it is written.

Ratthi — Possibly a derivative of Hindu goddess of love “Rati.” The surname “Rathi” originates from/is often found in Northern India.

Bharadwaj — A Sanskrit name common to northern India. “Bharadwaja,” was a Vedic saint of ancient India, a renowned scholar.

Arada — In Spanish, "arada" means "plowing." In Turkish, “arada” means “between.”

Overse — “överse” in Swedish translates to “overlook, disregard (the faults of others), ignore, tolerate, forgive” or “to oversee, to review, inspect, monitor, survey.”

Volescu — Possibly Romanian

Gurathin — A mystery. Possibly a variation of the Sanskrit "Krithin"

Artificial Condition:

Eden — Biblical: garden of Eden

Rami — of Arabic origin meaning “archer” or “thrower.” (Etymology honorary mention: the word “tercera” describing Rami’s gender identity, is a spanish word meaning “third”)

Tapan — Hindi name meaning “summer,” “fiery”

Maro — Multiple cultures use the name “Maro,” (Japanese, Greek, Armenian, Hindi)

Tlacey — My bet is this is a space future evolution of the name “Tracey,” which has historically been a masculine name that later became feminine. It means “warlike,” “fierce”

Art — Yes, I know it’s an anagram acronym, but as a human given name, it’s English in origin.

Rogue Protocol:

Rin — Japanese name “dignified, severe, cold,” but may just be a short moniker that Murderbot chose for nondescriptness.

Don Abene — “Don” is a Spanish honorific, masculine. Google search turned up sparse results for “Abene,” with a suggestion that it may be Basque (an Iberian ethnic group), in which it is derived from the word “pillar.” “Abene” could also be a spelling variation of “Abena,” which is a given name meaning “born on Tuesday” (‘day names’ such as these used by Akan people of Ghana). “Abena” is also a Gujarati surname.

Hirune - Thin results again, and once again Basque. Meaning: “trinity, three,” and variation on “Irune”

Miki - A Japanese name, with misc spellings that can mean different things, though typically the first kanji used is “beautiful.” But this may just be intended to be a cutesy short name.

Kader - Arabic, meaning “powerful, capable”

Vibol - Khmer (Cambodian), meaning “abundant, vast”

Brais - Form of Blaise (Gaelic, Latin) English/French

Ejiro - Urhobo / Nigerian, meaning "praise God"

Wilken & Gerth - Both English names, both vaguely military-adjacent

Exit Strategy:

Jian - Chinese (“build” or “strong”), or Hebrew (“God is gracious.”)

Serrat - French surname

Network Effect:

Consuela Makeba - Consuela is a Spanish name meaning “comfort, consolation.” Makeba is an Ethiopian name, after the Queen Makeba.

Mensah’s Marital Partners, Farai and Tano:

Farai - A southern African name of the Shona ethnicity, meaning “joy, happy”

Tano - Possibly Italian, short for Gaetano. Or just a nice 2-syllable name of its own.

Preservation Survey:

Amena - An Arabic name, “honest, faithful.”

Roa - Arabic, or possibly Spanish surname.

Mihail - Romanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek. Variation on “Michael.”

Rajpreet - A Sikh name.

Hanifa - Arabic name meaning “true believer”

Kanti - Indian and Bengali name. Means “beauty.”


Thiago - A Portuguese name, derivative of “Santiago” i.e. “Saint James."

Barish-Estranza:

Barish - Hindi for “rain”

Estranza - Spanish for “strangeness”

Eletra - Similar to “Electra” of Greek myth

Ras - Greek name, meaning “to love”

Leonide - Old Greek

ART’s Crew:

Iris - A flower. Also a Greek name meaning “rainbow.”

Seth - Hebrew. “Set, appointed”

Martyn - Variant of Martin. “Dedicated to Mars” (Mars = God)

Tarik - Arabic. “Evening caller”

Turi - Celtic. “Bear”

Kareem - Arabic. “Generous"

Kaede - In the audiobook this is pronounced much like "Katie," meaning "pure." "Kaede" is also a Japanese name meaning "maple."

Fugitive Telemetry:

Lutran - Possibly a variation on “Lutron,” apparently a transliteration from Greek. Which I would think is a stretch, except it means: “the purchasing money for manumitting slaves, a ransom, the price of ransoming; especially the sacrifice by which expiation is effected, an offering of expiation.”

Indah - Indonesian name, “beautiful one”

Tural - Azerbaijani, “to be alive”

Tifany - Variant of Tiffany, English name “manifestation of God”

Farid - Arabic, Persian, Urdu. “Unique, precious”

Aylen - Mapuche (Native American) name. Possibly, “joy”

Balin - Hindi name meaning “soldier, sword”

Tellus - Possibly a Latin name, meaning “earth”

Kiran (mentioned as a name MB used at TranRollinHyfa) - Used in a variety of places and languages: Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Nepali, Urdu. From the Sanskrit word “kirana,” meaning “sunbeam.”

Home, Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory:

Councilor Sonje - Variation of Sonia, an English name. Sonia itself may be a variation of the Greek Sophia, meaning “wisdom.”

Councilor Ephraim - In the Book of Genesis, Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, becoming the tribe of Ephraim.

Compulsory:

Sekai - A Shona name. “humorous, joy”

Asa - Hebrew, possibly “healer.”

Elane - Old Greek

Bonus: RaviHyral

Ravi = “Sun” in Hindi

(I’m guessing that other place/company names in the books could also be transliterations.)

[lover-of-mine]

Okay so, I like my buddie framing metas and I was making an edit and I noticed something. This one is about the positioning of them in the frame in 5B but mostly during Eddie's breakdown era.

I'm actually gonna start in 5x10 because it is where it actually starts. So the usual thing when two people are talking is to have them on different sides of the frame, that's the expected so when Eddie tells everyone he's leaving the 118, Buck and Eddie are on different sides of the frame. (Silly little guide down the middle of the frame to make this easier to understand)

But then we have 5x11 and the talk in the kitchen. When Buck tries to talk to Eddie (you don't need to pretend with me my beloved), he starts in the middle of the frame, but Eddie walks away from him, so we have Buck trying to reach a middle ground and Eddie not letting him in, right?

But once Eddie shuts him down, they are very clearly on different sides.

And Buck is always on the left side of the frame, for some reason.

What happens after this? Eddie showing up at the bar and not going in. And they are both on the left side of the frame, so if Eddie decides to walk in, they're in it together, but when Eddie decides he won't, they switch Buck's side, so they are again on different sides, and when he actually walks away, he's back on the right side and Buck is back in the middle.

Then we have Buck breaking down the door after Eddie wrecked his bedroom. Eddie is to the left, and he's in the corner, Buck is in the middle, again Buck is there with the let me in positioning.

When they move to the dining room, Eddie is still in the corner, Buck is still in the middle.

Now is when they'll actually start talking, right? But they're on different sides, but they switched the usual side up until now.

I'm going to assume Buck is scared of pushing so he's staying at a distance that's not going to make Eddie shut down again. There's one shot of Eddie in the middle, but mostly they stay on different sides, but at least now they're talking.

When they start talking after Eddie's therapy, they are still on different sides and they are still switched.

But then they start talking, the camera rotates and Eddie is back to the right and Buck is back in the middle.

BUT THEN, then we have the equine therapy place. Buck is still in the middle, but he's getting there, he literally walks over to the other side of the frame.

Buck is back in the middle, Eddie is on the left, while they are talking about the old days and Buck is explaining his point to eventually get to the shooting and Charlie.

But when Buck finally talks about the shooting, they are on the same side of the frame. Buck finally managed to break through and meet him there.

Eddie has a moment, Buck is back in the middle, Eddie is leaning away.

But then he understands what Buck is actually offering him, and they are on the same side even on the wide shot. And they are both to the left, Buck's side. In this case quite literally hopes side, because that's what Buck's offering.

And now they're back with the easy partnership that we see in action during Mayday.

Have some shots of them on the same side in Mayday just because I can lol

Also when they are talking about Eddie going to Texas, also just because I can (they don't really stay on the same side during this conversation but still oskaoskas)

And in the finale just for fun.

That's all for today, if you read this I love you <3.

Here are my other unhinged metas if you feel like checking them out after this experience.

[jojo-schmo]

hello! hope you're doing well. i was thinking about your roleswap AU (it's really good btw!) and thought about the little things... like the sleeping animations at kirby's house. they're silly and cute already, but when you're in co-op they get even cuter! there's one where kirby and bandee spoon... and of course, there's one where bandee falls off the bed altogether because kirby can't stay still to save his life. you think meta and dedede would be like that? bet one of them kicks in his sleep

Thank you so much for liking the AU!! Hope you are well too <3

And oh my goodness, thank you for reminding me of the nap poses!! I had so much fun and I want to make a hundred more of these, haha!

I can’t think of how they’d get Meta to actually nap with them since he likes his alone time and isn’t snuggly by nature. Maybe Meta Knight would’ve fallen asleep under a tree somewhere and Dedede picked him up and tucked him in with him and Elfilis. Perhaps Meta is actually a very light sleeper but pretends to stay asleep to allow Dedede to pick him up. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Oh, and Meta definitely kicks. Hard. He probably fights and trains in his dreams but it’s ok because the other two are heavy enough sleepers. :)

[furymint]

2023 Creator Reflection

ffxiv.

1. dance me to the end of love

this one was fun! i always like merging a character's outfit with the bg so i liked doing that again. picking the colors for elliots outfit was also enjoyable. ive wanted to make smth w that cover for a while

2. shame was still the tyrant of his life

i only wrote two nol and eli things this year and neither of them are finished. the first was a continuation of a scene where nol kisses elliot against the blue stained glass in his room--i once posted it but then i deleted it bc it made me feel woozy for its allusions to sex. i wanted to rebuild it and take a shot at it now that im comfortable writing n reading sex, but i never got very far. theres actually lots of nice parts! i just like nols dumb angsting the best!

3. valentine

i really wanted to focus on nol's eye here, but also not make it too obvious lol. i used a ps filter like a schmuck but i wanted it to be darker without making it even more difficult to see, so i took away their bodies and limited the colors to make it what it is.

4. amateur cracksmen

the second nol n eli wip, which doesnt have many interesting lines rn, was a raffles-inspired story where eli drags nol as his valet to a rival artist's house and tries to steal back the brooch that he bought from an underground dealer feat. much babbling abt the state of societal responsibility that war is supposed to bring

ffxvi.

1. herz an herz dir

i wrote some reflections about this one already here. i honestly was very (distressed voice) cant believe im writing pure fanfic for the first time in over ten years and lacked a lot of direction when i started bc uhhhhh terence has 8 and a half mins of screen time. i tried to convince myself that it's not much different than me stealing brucemont for my own evil devices, but the unique perspective of seeing quite so much fan content def influenced my interpretation. i wanted their relationship to be much more imbalanced from the get-go initially--dion using his power unintentionally and terence barely passing a thought abt it until later bc he's just so accustomed to obeying--but i ended up giving terence a lot more sway & ammunition in their argument. the breakfast bed thing is also smth im rly fond of.

2. mund an mund

there's also additional meta for this one here. i made a silly doodle abt it also. dion kept picking fights here! it honestly turned out how i expected. when i first started this fic, i was gonna have dion start out right in oriflamme and meet ter and kihel there, but i booted them to northreach so i could have this stretch of conflict. i think it's like. Bad Pacing. technically. if i still believe the conflict introduced in the next chapter is the core one, that is. which i sorrrrta do. but i dont care bc i rly like the visual of kihel laying in dion's lap and getting to put a gun on the wall w ahmed.

3. eines atems

its been two months since the last chapter and this chapter is humiliatingly not written. i have all my scrambled notes and scenes that i jotted down in between the first two chapters, so i have a full direction, but it's been really difficult to write lately. ive been devoting all my time to trying to recoup my mental health and work on my teredio secret santa. ill start next year with this wip as a priority, so for now i only have the photoshop edit for it. kihel is holding terence's hand--it's his pov turn.

overall i didnt like this year very much. i didn't read, create, research or do a lot even though i tried to. i became really disconnected from all of my friends bc im too tired to stay for rp or hold online conversations. at this point, i dont play ffxiv at all except the few times i managed to rp a little. i moved into nanny's house and have my own space, but don't have the presence of mind to do anything about my pc, books, and so on, although i did make a lot of progress rewrapping my books w fresh wraps and some other things. my plans for next year are to reach out to a couple of my friends, build my pc, relearn + rebuild + relaunch my queer lit blog on open source code, survive school, and rediscover the productivity ive lost the past few years.

teredio has helped me a LOT to find community, inspiration, and art in my loneliest year yet. im very proud of my fic and grateful every day to the ppl who have reached out to me about liking it. even if im sorry about my productivity rate in comparison to how many extraordinary writers there are in the ship's fandom, i know i have to be easy on myself to relearn how to write, create a writing schedule that works for me, and stop punishing myself when i cant get the words out.

past reflections:  2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

[yeehanfrf]

Week 3 Recs: Right on Time

This week's Yeehan recs were all modern/contemporary AUs. Those fics set in our world and time (or roughly thereabouts) that still include the OTP. Check out the recs gathered from the Yeehan community below, organized by rating then alphabetically by title.

Not Rated

Rootbound by wyntera [WIP; 67,484 words] Reccer comment: "Flower shop au bc yes"

Every plant is unique. They need love and care in the right environment to grow. Give them what they need, and they will flourish.

McCree and Hanzo are a lot like plants. Big, stubborn, root bound plants.

General Audiences

Conflict of Interest by orphan_account [28,222 words] Reccer comment: "Superhero au with a Lois Lane type beat"

“You know, I’ve been wanting to get an interview with you,” Jesse says as Hanzo happens upon another malfunctioning elevator shaft. How is it at all likely that more than one elevator is out of service? When Hanzo levels Jesse with a hard glare, the man keeps talking.   “I’m a reporter.”

Or, the one where Hazno and Genji fight crime, Jesse is a cigar-smoking Lois Lane, and everyone else wonders why they’ve been trapped in a bad comic book.

Teen and Up

Climbing the Walls by robocryptid [22,669 words] Reccer comment: "a social-distancing yeehan fic"

Hanzo and Cole are neighbors who have never met until social distancing forces them to stay in their homes. Neither can see the other's face, but that doesn't stop them from getting to know each other.

Da Capo al Signo by midgetnazgul & temporalSilence [75,482 words] Reccer comment: "an incredibly moving fic featuring musician Hanzo and rancher Cassidy falling in loooove"

In music, da capo al signo tells the performer to start over until they see the sign to move on. Life has its movements, too. Even when we must begin again, signs will appear to remind us that just because we feel we are repeating ourselves, we will not necessarily end in the same terrible place we were before.

It's 2018 and Jesse and Hanzo are both living in Tucson, AZ on second chances. Hanzo is on the cusp of recognition as a musician after his life in Japan is run aground by a devastating accident, and Jesse has chiseled out a life of purpose and achievement after a rough childhood. Together, they will come to understand how misfortune and loneliness can end, giving gifts they would never have found any other way.

Flowers for Assholes by HappyLeech [10,552 words]

Hanzo just wants to close up shop for the night. Jesse just wants to tell his boss where to stick it and quit his job.

Of the Pickle Persuasion by Byacolate and mywordsflyup [14,813 words] Reccer comment: "My favorite food truck au"

Hanzo is convinced that his bento wagon is locked in a corporate deathmatch with the taco truck down the street. Genji just wants to flirt with the produce vendor.

Searching for Game... by AsheRhyder [10,792 words] Reccer comment: "Cute, cute, cute, with fun meta jokes about the game, characters, and community."

Genji wants Cassidy to play the new game he helped develop: Overwatch.

Cassidy just wants his hot upstairs neighbor to stop throwing food at him every time he says "hello".

Shimada Dreams of Sushi by delicaterosebud [24,344 words] Reccer comment: "It's silly, but has the right amount of drama, angst and extremely uncomfortable situations."

As the owner of a mediocre taco shack with tanking reviews and multiple health violations, the last thing that Jesse McCree needs is competition - competition, specifically, from a sushi bar so popular that it drove every other restaurant in the neighborhood out of business.

From the very day that Shimada sushi opened its doors, Jesse had hated that restaurant with a burning passion. ...So how does he end up working for the man who runs it?

To the Great Deep He Goes by westerncibee [53,288 words] Reccer comment: "its been a hot second since ive read this but i remember enjoying this one"

Hanzo accompanies Genji to their new college, and of course Genji would want to room with his friend--leaving Hanzo to deal with a god-forsaken cowboy whose only goal that year was to be Hanzo's friend. And as the cowboy said, "You're stuck with me for the rest of the year." - and a lot can happen in a year.

Mature

The Cooking Cowboy by SadakoTetsuwan [WIP; 79,662 words]

It had started simple—he just needed a good recipe for matcha cake to surprise Genji on his birthday, and so he’d started clicking around for tutorials on YouTube.

But now Hanzo is in deep, and is officially part of ‘The Chuckwagon’; the mostly middle-aged, mostly female fan following of YouTube cooking sensation Jesse McCree, the Cooking Cowboy.

How had his life come to this?

Explicit

School Nights by rebeccastceir [WIP; 45,484 words] Reccer comment: "School teacher au and romance~"

Jesse got so flustered he forgot what he was doing and stuck his hand out. “Jesse. McCree. Jesse McCree. I’m -”

“Hana’s teacher, of course,” Hanzo smiled at him, shaking hands, holding on for a split second longer than necessary. He held his head cocked down, almost shy, but kept looking up from under his long lashes, pretty lips teasing in a grin, and ohhh, Jesse was in so much trouble he ached with it.

“Sorry. You knew that,” Jesse mumbled. Was he red? He felt like he was flaming red. __________

It's the fluffiest, smuttiest, romcom-iest, parent-teacher au we all need and deserve

Shear Bliss by wyntera [12,725 words] Reccer comment: "I think about the way Hanzo's hair is described in this fic all the time"

Sometimes you can't help falling for a handsome face...even if they are holding very sharp objects near your head.

And that's a wrap on Week 3! Thank you to everyone who sent in a recommendation! Keep an eye out for next week's theme: "The Rivalmance," or fics all about the rivals to lovers, enemies to lovers, competitive assholes to lovers of it all.

In the meantime, you can also check out the Week 2 recs here or see the list of past and future themes here!

[tyrannuspitch]

thor meta directory

hello and welcome, i'm lucian and i've been analysing mcu thor in excruciating detail since march 2022. this directory is intended to help me and anyone else interested to navigate my backlog of thor posts, which were all initially grouped under one umbrella tag.

a few notes:

my main focus is on the asgardian royal family, and my favourite portrayals of them come from 2011-2013. i have a bit of a loki-centric bias, but i do my best to be self-aware. i think all members of the family are terrible people and i love them for it <3

older posts should be taken with a pinch of salt. my opinions have developed a lot since i first started posting, but i've left pretty much everything up for archival purposes.

sometimes my opinions are strong, but they're never personal, even when i express them in hyperbolic ways. i promise i don't really hate you because of a marvel movie :3

to prevent clutter, source, character, relationship and theme tags are only applied to posts that also qualify for a meta or concrit tag.

some of the theme tags overlap a lot, but i'm doing my best.

most of the theme tags don't have an immediately obvious "thesis" post, but hopefully you'll get a sense of them by scrolling through. i'm also happy to answer any questions on this!

at the point when i organised this archive, it contained 1600 posts, so please excuse any tagging mistakes or typos, and let me know so i can fix them :D

finally: my inbox is open and i love talking about thor! comments, questions, suggestions, discussion, and lighthearted/friendly debate are all very welcome :D also, if you send me music associations or fanart, i'll love you forever - i probably haven't seen it, since i hardly follow anyone in this fandom. (just please no th-rki - i'm firmly in the familial relationship camp.)

okay that's all. have fun! 💚💙💜

main tag (textposts, almost all of them original, ranging from liveblogs and off-the-cuff jokes to meta. 2000+ posts)

asgardian art (umbrella tag for visual fanworks: art, gifs, graphics, etc. almost all reblogs. 1000+ posts)

by post type:

meta (800+ posts) - meta highlights (100+ posts) - concrit/negativity - text reblogs - fanart - gifs - stills - jokes and silly posts

by source:

thor 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - avengers 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - loki tv - other mcu - comics - thor: tales of asgard (cartoon) - other marvel - myth + history - fandom - other

by character:

thor - loki - odin - frigga - laufey - hela - malekith - thanos - the other - sif - warriors three - heimdall - valkyrie - jane - erik - sylvie - mobius - kang - avengers - fury

note: tumblr has a link limit! i've had to remove the links to supporting characters' tags to stay within it, but the format is: /tagged/ch:%20laufey, /tagged/ch:%20hela, etc.

by relationship:

thor: frigga - loki - odin - sif - w3 - jane - erik - avengers - fury

loki: frigga - odin - laufey - sif - w3 - thanos - the other - sylvie -mobius - kang - erik - jane - avengers

odin: frigga - laufey - hela - kang - fury - bor

house of odin (for when it's really the entire family at once - not an umbrella tag)

by theme/topic:

abuse + empire - fate + hierarchy - suicide + sacrifice - imprisonment + exile - devotion + treachery - honour + villainy - cycles + scapegoats - manipulation + mind control - order + chaos - war + apocalypse - undeath + afterlife - the threefold death - trickster loki - jester loki - servant prince

childhood + immortality - gender + sexuality - ergi - sorcery - prophecy - disability - ethnicity - godhood - monsterhood - playing the monster - mirrors + masks - eye motif

expressions of love - love as horror - neck/throat motif - grief - codependence - odinsons as twins - redemption - mjolnir - saint thor - thor's sinister side

worldbuilding - modern psychiatry - etymology - mimesis

and finally, my ao3 is here. i'm not as active as i'd like to be, but i'm working on it!

[simcardiac-arrested]

i am a little lego movie 2 hater but elaborate why you enjoy it. i want to know

like i said before the movie was great!!! Though if i were to list specific details of what i enjoyed …… well, i really liked the story!! i liked the Fighting Over Toys that happens when siblings don’t know how to share, when the older one still cherishes their toys and doesn’t want to give them to the younger one to play with, and the younger one just wants to feel included and share a fun experience with their sibling. i liked how the story happened both in the real world and in the lego world, how both of those worlds affected each other and how in the end it was all just one big misunderstanding because of the Sibling Effect . and more about the story: i just really loved how silly and whimsical it was!!! you can really tell that the first lego movie was made more for kids, and the second movie—five years later—was made for the ‘grown-up’ kids, but that it was still silly and meta and self aware. i dont know if im explaining it well…. seeing those positive happy toys try to act more mature and Edgy and Emo and Grown Up And Epic, it really put a smile on my face and i enjoyed that a lot! most movies or shows that grow up with their audiences just genuinely try to be more mature and Serious(tm). But not this movie. lego movie 2 is for when your 12 year old self who just started puberty and middle school and felt like their childhood was ending and the world was hopeless and unsalvageable. lego movie 2 is for all the edgy preteens and teenagers who drew knives and eyes and emo cats/dogs/various animals in their notebooks because they felt like life sucked. And sure, when you’re actually 12 or however old and Really going through that phase, you’d watch this movie and scoff at it. really? a happy ending? no one’s the REAL bad guy? so stupid. so immature. so childish. what a dumb movie. but when you watch this movie as an older person who’s already went through the worst of their edgy phases and knows that, sure, the world sucks, but that it’s still worth it? well then this movie is perfect for you. I really don’t get why people would rag on lego movie 2 for being too simple or juvenile or whatever—i think it’s a very sweet premise! i think it’s a good story about how growing up is HARD, it is DIFFICULT and SCARY and MORTIFYING!!! SUDDENLY ALL THE JOY HAS BEEN SUCKED OUT OF THE WORLD!!!! but it is a story about how facing reality is easier with friends by your side, with the people you love and who love you. it’s a story about how even if you weren’t saved, even if nobody was there for you, you should still stay yourself and open up your heart to people and trust, because that’s the only thing we have left when life gets scary (and life is scary most of the time). it’s a story about staying soft instead of toughening up (i sincerely believe lego movie 2 could cure toxic masculinity, could stop the rise of alpha male grindness and could end meanness as a whole), and it’s a story about self love. And sure batman might’ve flossed for 3 seconds but all of the music was banger and you’ll find me listening to Not An Evil Queen for 50 hours straight. 10/10

[mossymultiverse]

upd4te

me: yeah im gonna revamp the theme maybe thatll make me want to go back to pokemon ::]

me now: me now: ah.

ok, so, dont worry, im not gonna abandon this blog. i am, however, going to change it. as much as i love this community and have had a great time here, i do not control the hyperfixation, and i think instead of fighting it, im going to come up with a new solution for it.

technically, ive HAD a solution for it for a very long time- that solution being the very character i rp as on this blog now. moss is not confined to any one world, nor even to the same flow of time. that allows my brain to jump around and do whatever the got darn heck it wants to, because i can throw my little guy / self insert / persona / myself into as many worlds and situations as i want, and nobody can tell me im wrong. well, they can, but they can also suck my

anyways.

if you were following me for pokemon irl stuff, feel free to unfollow, i wont be upset. i will still do some pokemon stuff from time to time (as well as a lil in-character transition/explanation of the blog change), but tbh i doubt its gonna be for a while. i AM going to do a bunch of silly interdimensional meta multiverse bullshit, because the undertale fandom (among others, but that was my first and tbh strongest fandom, so) changed me, and i am trying to learn to embrace what makes me happy again, even if it is Cringe(tm).

i dont really have a proper story planned out per se, so its not gonna be super coherent all the time.. altho tbh i never really did, so ig thats not gonna change much :skykid_giggle: itll mostly just follow moss thru whatever they happen to be goin thru! which will usually be whatever i happen to b thinkin of, so.. ye! gonna b a bit.... odd.

so uh.. yeah. expect a theme change, prolly just back to the default tungle theme cuz im lazy rn, and expect a few posts where moss explains whats happening. or dont, and if you're unfollowing, i hope you enjoyed the ride! stay safe have fun ilu ::3

oh, one more thing. since i will no longer be confining this blog to one world (and tbh it had long since left the old chateau) i will also be changing the blog's NAME. that will be an in-character post, so dont worry too much, and im also gonna add that to my pinned, which.... also needs updating, actually. guess we're gonna be under construction for a while, huh. ....anyway.

if you do decide to stick around.... enjoy!

[hollowwhisperings]

reblogging, again, for the Arkham Meta.

The "Batfamily" was probably my first Western fandom: Cassandra Cain was the FIRST comics character I met who I could personally identify with & Gail Simone's Oracle was one of the first examples of UNfridging marginalized characters, of successfully saying "actually, SCREW excessive violence against women for male angst & SCREW anyone who thinks disability is equivalent to death".

but I have NEVER been comfortable with how Arkham Asylum is used in the DCU: there have been moments where it has been used for genuine treatment & rehabilitation, things like Bruce visiting or otherwise staying in contact with Harvey Dent during the latter's entering the facility. There has been SOME exploration, in supplementary works & within the fandom, of how Harley Quinn is a LEGITIMATELY TRAINED PSYCHIATRIST and how effed up her life was by Arkham (& by the Joker).

but, mostly, Arkham is used to trigger every fear and real life horror story that the past (& present) mental health system carries and to paint "DANGER!" over anyone vaguely connected to said system. Phobias, personality disorders, extreme trauma, abuse from medical professionals, systemic violence against the mentally ill and those coded as neurodivergent... Arkham ignites every Scare Tactic that keeps people from seeking help, reinforces every fear about what kind of "help" might be received, every nightmare about how society at large views anyone who doesn't "Get Better" with a prescription & 3-weeks of talk therapy.

The Gotham Rogues Gallery get two options for "care": prison or Arkham. The prison is Safer. There are times where the likes of Riddler, Harley & Poison Ivy see out their stays at Arkham and reintegrate with Society (the Gotham City Sirens series, for example), often making a Point of showing how unwelcoming Society is to ex-cons & publically Outed patients (and how much "easier" it is to just... go back into a cycle of [repeat offending], if only to regain access to some sense of "stability"/Actual Healthcare).

but... mostly? the times of "okay, let's actually Look at mental illness & how it impairs day-to-day life, how trauma shapes us, how social stigma-" "NOPE, TIME TO BE EDGY AND LET JOKER MURDER A BUNCH OF PEOPLE THEN GET AWAY WITH THE INSANITY CLAUSE!"

the Arkham video games are VERY MUCH consistent with how mainstream it is to ditch compassion and what progress may have been made for IRL stigma so that the Terror of Asylums can be used as easy set dressing for Horror.

nevermind that IRL mental health systems STILL haven't quite figured out how to deal with Long-Term Patients beyond sticking them in [more humane] Institutions, or how disproportionately the media depicts Mentall Illness as "dangerous to society" when the REVERSE is true (SOCIETY is dangerous to the mentally ill: cops getting called on people dissociating or having panic attacks, cops Freaking Out and HURTING the people most vulnerable to violence & abuse).

Batman & the BatFam, for the most part, are compassionate and see the humanity hidden behind Hurt and, for Gotham's Rogues Gallery, that "Harm" DOES tend to be directed "Outward" rather than "Inward" as in IRL & thus Affects Bystanders (typically through entirely Fictional methods): I love the Batman comics, many if its Rogues Gallery, and the silliness that can happen but... Arkham and the imagery of mental illness as something inherently "dangerous" to OTHER PEOPLE is just Not Fun anymore.

fandom fills in for some of that Need for accountability (for reeducating the public, for looking at things from the Patient's POV, for unravelling the mythos of "Arkham Asylum" from the IRL history it takes from, "history" that is still FAR too recent for comfort) but... ultimately, Arkham Asylum's depictions have less to do with Batman and more to do with the disinterest of the masses to engage with the realities of ANY long-term Illness (mental and otherwise) beyond a Token Charity Week or a month's News Cycle Hashtag.

[uttersorcery]

I just completed watching the Final Destination films on Netflix jumping to Prime for “The Final Destination “ (4th instalment). The franchise follows a series of hapless teenagers who cheat death and realise death still stalks them with increasingly bizarre accidents. There’s a great pleasure in watching these often vacuous characters get squashed, snapped, smashed and crushed! My order of favourites would be 5, 1, 3, 4, 2 but they are all great fun! FD1 sets up the premise with a now classic opening 20 minutes, FD2 roars into view with an impressively filmed pile up, FD3 features an early performance by the now megastar Mary Elizabeth-Winstead who shows her impressive range in an early role. Incidentally FD3 is one of the stronger entries featuring lots of “I’m not gonna die” monologues followed by comedy dispatch. In fact it’s this see saw between comedy and horror that makes FD such a watchable ride. Some deaths are silly, some are slapstick and some are genuinely excruciating and grim. I enjoyed 4 but some of the effects are a lttle dated. That said it grinds out it’s kills to an enjoyable conclusion and comes in at a tight 80 minutes. Arguably the series peaks at the end with a solid entry that stays close to the formula and goes somewhere new with it. The opening bridge scene is top tier Final Destination. The set pieces are beautifully handled and there are several genuinely teeth clenching moments. The final 5 minutes is mind blowing.

Perhaps with Final Destination we are all on a meta narrative about our own deaths as each thing that happens to us in life is drawing us inexorably closer to death. It is this line of tension that makes the series so fun to watch as we both laugh and reflect on the folly of life.

[goldensunset]

SUNSET I JUST LEARNED THE WORD STRELITZIA USES FOR “AFTERWORLD” IN THE JAPANESE IS CLOSER TO “LAND OF THE DEAD” AND IM NOT TAKING IT WELL

WE WERE RIGHT AFTER 3 SORA ACTUALLY DIED

IM ALSO GETTING A BAD FEELING SORA DOESNT REMEMBER KAIRI OR ANY OF HIS FRIENDS SHES GOING TO HE HEARTBROKEN WHEN SHE FINDS HIMMMMM

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO JUST LIVE A NORMAL LIFE UNTIL KH4 RELEASES SEND HELP

i can’t even say i’m surprised; ‘afterworld’ is in itself a weird way of saying a world of the afterlife. they most definitely died. but as strelitzia also said, this is a world full of life. so they still exist. there are many ways to ‘die’ in this series but it’s pretty hard to actually stay dead. as far as we know, true death is when your heart returns to kingdom hearts, but then even then it seems you’ll be reborn.

this is all to say that it is hard, maybe even impossible, to ever truly stop existing in this universe. which is fun. in fact i’d say the closest thing we’ve gotten is in fact this nonsense with quadratum. like they really are Pretty Far Gone in a new type of way if they don’t even exist within our own reality anymore. but even then even if you’re no longer ‘real’ you still exist…within ‘unreality’…? that’s wildly meta. this series is bonkers. it’s such an amazingly cool and creative idea i’m jealous i didn’t come up with it.

so like. i WOULD say oh it’s not a big deal it’s just another place for him to be brought back from. but then apparently it’s hard to go back to where you came from. which is,,,very very concerning,,, it seems like getting there isn’t as hard as we’ve thought (riku can you really just open a portal?? as long as you have the nameless star’s help bc she’s from that reality??? i call hacks). but then leaving is. well we know nameless star came from there into our world somehow. it’s unclear if MoM went there and back and then there again or not. but i get the feeling you probably need some kind of great power to traverse the two sides of reality at will.

(we know MoM talks to young xehanort in our world at some point so he must’ve either time traveled first into the future then went to quadratum? or he went there, came back to talk to yx or whatever, then went back again. either way some time shenanigans have happened here bc he’s still alive and strelitzia is still alive and hasn’t aged. anyway blah blah blah i need to stop derailing my own posts-)

but yeah i am Worried for our boy. and i really hope they don’t downplay how bad this situation is. or how significant it is that he’s on the other side of reality. in absolutely no circumstances do i just want this to be a simple rescue mission for riku or even someone else like kairi that eventually decides to come join him. they gotta make this difficult and be creative with it. like sora might actually be screwed.

i mean i believe there’s always a way to fix things eventually but i can’t help but wonder if being there will have some significant effect on him. like what if he adjusts too well and doesn’t want to come back? he’s convinced he’s a part of this fictional realm now, maybe that he always was a part of it? or…what if…

what if he doesn’t forget his friends per se but starts to forget they’re real? like he can’t remember ever having actually met them and starts to think of them as OCs that he daydreamed up? or if kingdom hearts is an actual video game in this reality then like they become blorbo from his games instead of his real friends? so if and when he meets them again he knows who they are but either doesn’t believe his eyes or just doesn’t love them the same anymore???

imagine your friend dies and your memories of them start to slip away but then a video game with a character just like them comes out and you start to get really attached to them for some reason but you don’t know why cuz it’s just a silly game right? you’re obviously not taking it THAT seriously haha right?. do you ever think about stuff like that. what if this fictional character used to exist in our universe but we don’t remember. what if sora was our bestie from a time we can’t remember. that would be so meta i would lose my head screaming. sorry for the existential crisis

[oumakokichi]

Hello!! Since I saw you were enjoying YTTD, what do you think about Sou and possible parallels to be drawn between him and Kokichi? Love your blog!

Oh boy, that’s a pretty great question. I had a feeling when I started YTTD that it was only a matter of time before Sou wound up being my favorite, and I wasn’t proven wrong over the course of the game. There are definitely some similarities between the two of them—and some differences too!

Spoilers for both games under the cut, so be careful when reading!

Well, to start with the similarities: they both lie. Uh, a lot. In fact, lying is sort of the most memorable thing about both of their characters.

Kodaka has stated that Ouma represents ndrv3’s entire theme of lying on multiple occasions, and I don’t think anyone needs any convincing that lying is Ouma’s entire schtick. With Sou, Nankidai has never (as far as I know) said anything about him representing the concept or idea of “lies,” but it’s still pretty evident nonetheless from the narrative.

Where Sara tries to keep the group united and cooperating with each other honestly, Sou undermines her attempts at nearly every opportunity and lies time and time again, both in and out of the main game. Even his theme song emphasizes how much he lies. Vgperson did a great job translating the title in my opinion by making it “Not So, Sou,” and in Japanese the title is “Sou no Uso”—a play on the fact that his name is a rearrangement of the Japanese word for “lie.”

They even have a few physical similarities as well: Sou is physically taller and older, but both of them are fairly scrawny, underweight (this is lampshaded with Sou in Your Turn to Shine by the fact that he can put off dying from starvation for at least one extra turn), and of course, they both wear scarves.

I have actually seen a few people in the DR fandom call Sou “green Komaeda” when playing YTTD for the first time, probably due to his role as the “trickster” character within the main game, but I honestly think it’s much fairer to say he’s similar to Ouma instead. If anything, it’s kind of hard to not see the similarities between the two when going from one game to the other.

Ouma does, after all, go out of his way to antagonize people within trials as well, and both he and Sou are considerably paranoid and mistrustful of others’ intentions. Both of them are all too happy to play the role of the villain even if it means being hated by everyone else, because they want to make it out of their respective killing games alive and they don’t trust anyone who talks openly about “cooperating” and “believing in each other.”

Of course, that’s not to say that the two of them are carbon copies of each other. Sou is similar to Ouma, but he’s definitely not identical. Their key differences are easier to see when you look past their surface-level personas, as well as their motivations for why they do the things they do.

To put it simply, both of them lie, but for almost completely different reasons. It’s true that Ouma in part does lie because of his own paranoia and lack of trust for the rest of the group—but also, Ouma just really, really loves lying. It’s a core part of his character; he states multiple times that he believes having the ability to lie is the same as having free will, and this shows how deeply he resents the idea of “having” to tell the truth, or well, being “forced” to do anything, really.

He also lies to entertain. He says so pretty explicitly in his salmon mode ending, and it’s absolutely not a lie: Ouma is someone who loves being dramatic, over-the-top, and entertaining. He hates being bored, and he hates the idea of boring other people even more.

After playing ndrv3 at least once, it’s really easy to see that deep down he’s just a clown with a love for funny wigs and really dumb pranks, so I wholeheartedly believe that even outside of a killing game, Ouma would still lie all the time (in fact he does, again, in his salmon mode route). It’s just that his lies would lack any malice or hostility to them.

The thing that sets Ouma apart from many other “bastard trickster” characters in fiction is that his love for lies isn’t some of act or façade that he’s putting on. He enjoys it in the same way that a kid enjoys making a prank phone call or putting a whoopee cushion on someone’s chair. Within the constraints of a killing game, it’s absolutely true that Ouma is cold, calculating, and manipulative—but he’s also genuinely childish, fun-loving, and silly. These traits are honestly the reason I love Ouma so much as a character and find him so interesting.

By contrast, Sou lies out of absolute necessity. Knowing that he has a 0% chance of survival only increases his desire to make it out of the game alive all the more, and solidifies his distrust in Sara with her high rate of survival. He lies out of sheer desperation, willing to talk and act like a completely different person from his true self if it means giving himself even the slightest sliver of an opportunity to stay alive.

Even his name (his real name, that is), reflects this. He took on both the name and, to some degree, the persona of the real Sou Hiyori: a first name that is, like I said, an anagram of the word “lie,” and a surname that means “sunny.” By contrast, his actual name, “Shin Tsukimi,” means “truth” and “moon-viewing.” Before the events of YTTD, Shin Tsukimi was an extremely gentle, timid person who was honest and trusting to a fault, further confirmed when we actually see an AI of him in chapter 3 who acts completely different from Sou as we know him.

Sou might put on an act and pretend that he enjoys lying and being a huge bastard in the middle of the main game, but he’s not nearly as good at keeping up the villain façade as Ouma, and his cracks show a lot easier. Multiple characters, particularly Sara, Kanna, and Keiji, call Sou out on his bad acting at various times, and insist that he isn’t nearly as evil or uncaring as he’d like to pretend. This is a sharp change from Ouma, who remained an enigma even after his death and played the part of the ringleader so well that nearly everyone still believed he was a Remnant of Despair until nearly halfway through the chapter 6 trial.

From what we can see of Sou’s personality, both in YTTD and YTTS, he’s not lying because he likes the fun of it all, or because he’s just a kid who loves pranking people deep down. He’s really, truly scared shitless and eaten alive by his own paranoia for pretty much the entirety of YTTD, and while he’s certainly not the trusting or naïve Shin Tsukimi anymore, he nonetheless tends to still show signs of being quiet, timid, and occasionally even grumpy and closed-off from other people.

For example, Sara has multiple opportunities to tease him or attempt to befriend him throughout the game. When you teasingly insist that you’ve “always been close friends” with him during the second half of chapter 2, he looks completely startled and taken aback, even a little horrified at her persistence in wanting to get to know him after all the stunts that he’s pulled. You can also have Sara bother him while he’s working on the laptop after they get rid of Mishima’s AI, to which he responds with more and more irritation. In my opinion, I get the sense that Sou is more used to being the butt of jokes rather than making them, and doesn’t enjoy feeling as though someone’s poking fun at him, even if people like Sara are doing it with good intentions.

While I called them both scrawny earlier, I do want to clarify that I absolutely, unironically think Sou is weaker than Ouma physically too. Ouma isn’t exactly super strong or anything; he complains when lifting the inugami statue with Saihara in chapter 3, and he doesn’t seem to like PE class from some of his dialogue in salmon mode. But it’s really clear that Ouma does hide some of his aces up his sleeve, and that he can punch a hell of a lot harder than he lets on, like in chapter 5 when he counters Momota’s second attempt to punch him.

Meanwhile Sou… Sou struggles to open cabinet doors and probably pickle jars too. He has weaker physical strength than both Kanna, a middle schooler, and Gin, an elementary schooler, in his YTTS stats. I love him to pieces, I think he’s a fantastic character, but it’s just too funny. Sou is not merely scrawny, he’s essentially the biggest, weakest pushover despite being around 20 years old or so and I think that’s great.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts on the similarities and differences between the two of them! Both of them are absolutely willing to go to extreme lengths in order to try and survive their respective killing games, and they’re both extremely paranoid and distrustful of others. But removed from the killing game, Ouma is pretty clearly someone who aspires to be a clown (both a class clown and a literal, pie-throwing, nose-honking party clown) and to entertain others, while Sou is honestly just an exhausted and extremely grumpy convenience store worker bordering on unemployment who has zero upper body strength and just wants to be left alone.

Thank you for the really fun question, anon! I really love both Sou and Ouma, so I had fun getting to write this meta for them!

[piracytheorist]

Blog Tag

Tagged by the sweetest @kwistowee!

1. Why did you choose your url? Finally, I can answer this with more confidence! See what a blog name change can do? Anyway, it’s obviously a pun, from the term conspiracy theorist; I’m not one for conspiracies, but I love pirates, and I also love the idea behind making your own anarchist community, so it’s that. “Theorizing” about pirate communities and how they could stand. I mean, that’s not what I actually do here, but it’s a reflection of my own thoughts.

2. Any side blogs? Most are inactive. I have a whump blog (enter at your own risk - I’m serious) @justsomewhump, a OUAT out of context blog @outofcontextonceuponatime, a Monkey Island-centered blog @you-fight-like-a-cow, and my old ouat sideblog @andheyfordavyjones, where I’ve mostly migrated from and never post.

3. How long have you been on Tumblr? I joined on late summer of 2014, though I started posting on a steady rhythm a few months after that.

4. Do you have a queue tag? “a pirate’s queue for me”! Arrr, matey!

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? At the very beginning, it was to look around for OUAT meta, make silly OUAT memes and talk in length about Killian Jones’ costumes and stuff. It developed into me writing actually serious meta on the show, and slowly dipping my toes into GIF making.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp? I love Douxie, and I love Archie, and it’s a sweet moment between wizard and dragon-cat familiar and it’s a comforting hug. If you asked me last year when I put it on, if I’d thought I’d still have it now I doubt I would’ve said yes, but things still suck, I’m still in need of a hug so it’s comforting to look at! ... Heh.

7. Why did you choose your header? I love KnightRook. This moment where Killian holds his baby daughter and sings to her is the top Killian Jones moment for me (for feels alone the “Don’t you know, Emma? It’s you” scene is a tie), and even though OUAT is well over and my blog is mostly centered on Colin O’Donoghue stuff, and he has moved on from the show too, it’s just a BIG moment for me and I don’t currently have the heart to take it off my header. Plus I’m never creative with headers, and this has been very fitting since the time I put it on, so it’s an easy choice to stay at.

8. What’s your post with the most notes? By far this edit of Pantalaimon from the BBC His Dark Materials series. It’s got nearly twice the notes than any other post of mine, and I just find it funny how it just sticks out like that.

9. How many mutuals do you have? I... actually had to look on my “following” list to count them. It’s around 16, though there’s also a few that I’m a mutual with “in spirit”, as in, I can’t really follow their blogs because of the content they post, but in my heart we’re mutuals.

10. How many followers do you have? 1494. It’ll take a bit up and down until I reach 1.5k for sure, though!

11. How many people do you follow? 94. 26 are inactive or near-inactive, and 7 are my own sideblogs, so my dash is pretty quiet - as I want it.

12. How often do you use Tumblr each day? I’ve tried to limit my time on Tumblr. Deleting the app from my phone has definitely helped. I’d say I spend at most 2 hours in total every day, though most of the time less than an hour total.

13. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? ... Yes. It got so bad that the other person blocked me, and I soft-blocked them back. But luckily it all stayed private and afaik no-one else actually realized how bad things had gotten between us, and I don’t wish to disclose any names and situations.

14. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts? I don’t need to reblog anything. This is a place for fun and escape from harsh reality, not guilt-tripping and moral judgement. There’s enough of that in the harsh reality we come here to escape from.

15. Do you like tag games? I love them! I usually fail at bringing an interesting result, but I love playing nevertheless XD

16. Do you like ask games? Yes! Tag me in all of them, please!

17. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous? I know that if you type in the search bar the name of a certain film Colin has been in, gοοgle suggests a question people often ask about it, and @killian-whump‘s post answering that very question pops up first in the results, so I’d say she’s Tumblr famous, whether she likes it or not.

18. Do you have a crush on a mutual? Listen bro I’m aromantic asexual I couldn’t even begin to realize what having a crush is like, last time I had one it took me a solid month to realize I was actually crushing on a guy, for all I know I could be in love with someone and dismiss it as simply enjoying that person’s company, anyway feelings are weird but short answer is no.

Tagging @carpedzem, @jollysailorswan, @chronicroc, @priscilla9993, @theonceoverthinker, @ankewehner, @justanother-unluckysoul and if you wanna do it yourself, do it and say I tagged you because I AM. RIGHT NOW. I’M TAGGING YOU. DO IT. DO IT. DO IT.

[musingsofanunorgainizedmind]

Top 10 Things I Love About Supernatural

It’s been almost half a year since the show ended and now that the dust has settlIed, I just want to list ten reasons I love this show. Despite it’s flaws, it’s been quite the ride.

1. Team Free Will

When I first got the idea to make this list, I originally planned on doing entirely separate entries for “Sam & Dean” and “Destiel”. Except then I wanted to pay tribute to “Sastiel”. And then I wanted to do an entry for “Team Free Dads”. By that point, I was already halfway through the list and I hadn’t even moved on from the main characters. A few months ago, I made a post about why I love every single pairing in this group. Obviously, Sam and Dean are a legendary duo. Obviously, Dean and Cas have an unparalleled story. Obviously, Sam and Cas are an underrated team. As for Team Free Dads, I’ve always had a soft spot for father/mentor figure characters and and all three tackle the role in different ways. I love Jack, too. I love how everyone in this bizarro family is “broken” in some way. We’ve got the Allistair’s prized pupil, the spawn of satan, the boy with demon blood, and the angel who nearly obliterated all of heaven. But they help each other heal by being supportive and seeing the good in each other. They all love each other so deeply and when together, nothing can stand in their way. Not Michael, not Lucifer, and not God himself. They tore up the book and wrote their own story. And it was a pleasure to watch it all unfold.

2. The Suppporting Characters

To list every single supporting character I have loved and lost in this show would take way too long. I don’t know if it’s the writing or acting performances, but I love pretty much every single supporting character on this show. Even villains like Azazel or Allistair are top-notch villains. Hell, I even like characters like Metatron, Lucifer, Mary, and John! Characters like Rufus, Charlie, Crowley, Rowena, Kevin, Ellen, Jo, Bobby, Gabriel, Balthazar, Mick...how am I not supposed to love them??? All of their stories were cut so short. I’d watch a show about any of these characters. The Wayward Sisters were robbed. So many ships were gone too soon (Sam/Rowena, Dean/Jo, Cas/Meg, Etc.). So many heartbreaking deaths. I want to be best friends with all these characters. Why be a “dean-girl” or a “sam-girl” when you can be a garth-girl? A kevin-girl? A claire-girl? A bela-girl? There are so many great characters with interesting and compelling backstories and so much untapped potential. I could go on forever on this, but I digress.This show has one of the best supporting casts I have ever had the pleasure of watching.

3. The Themes

It’s no accident that I got addicted to this show at the time that I did. Namely, my Senior Year of College and 2020. Graduating college and entering the “real world” felt like it’s own sort of apocalypse. 2020 definitely exacerbated my worst tendencies. Messages like “family don’t end in blood”, “you can write your own story”, and “always keep fighting” really resonated with me. I could definitely relate to the feelings of insecurity these character’s felt and the ways they suppressed/repressed their issues instead of facing them. I could relate to the feelings of not fitting in and I could definitely relate to the loneliness. This show helped remind me that I’m not alone. That it’s okay if my values and identity don’t line up with the what I envisioned for myself. And, most importantly, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that I should never give up. If Dean, Sam, and Cas can keep moving forward despite their demons and despite how bad it gets, so can I. Regardless of how the story ended, these themes resonated with me and I’ll still hold them with me. A single episode can’t take that away.

4. The Fun Episodes

This show has so many legendary standalone episodes. Changing Channels. Ghostfacers. The French Mistake. Fan Fiction. Tall Tales. Bad Day at Black Rock. When this show goes for the absurd, it goes all-in. It takes the risks it needs to take, it gets completely insane, and it pulls it off. So many of these episodes could have easily been the moment that the show “jumped the shark”. Yet, time after time, the show delivered on it’s potential. I don’t know how much I can say about these episodes except that they made me laugh out loud, made me fall even harder for these characters, and that they’re the episodes I remember best. If I were to rewatch any episode, it would be one of the fun ones. This show knew how to not take itself too seriously and how to poke fun at itself. I’ve always had a soft spot for shows that can make me laugh and cry (X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, Doctor Who, etc.), and this show definitely nails the fun part. 

5. The Sad Episodes

Death’s Door. Hammer of the Gods. Despair. Carry On. Abandon All Hope. In My Time of Dying. Swan Song. When this show wants you to cry, it doesn’t pull the punches. It gets downright devastating. No character is safe. Literally every character you love will either be forgotten or will die. Or both. The amount of trauma Sam and Dean have to go through is insane. Both have literally been to hell and back. Both have killed countless people, including innocents. When this show decides it wants to wreck you, it’s overwhelming. I sobbed when Bobby died. I sobbed when every single member of Team Free Will died for the final time (I still can’t watch any of those scenes). I still wish Jo, Ellen, Charlie, Kevin, Mick, and Gabriel had been given more time to tell their stories. Being a hunter means a life of endless angst. Being an angel or demon doesn’t get you off the hook, either. I remember going into this show thinking it couldn’t hurt me. My favorite character type is “mentor/father figure”. But holy hell...I don’t think every single sad moment was necessarily good writing, but when it was? Damn. 

6. The Biblical Themes

I’m not a relgious person. But, despite this show being steeped in Christian mythology, it really touched on my feelings about the Old Testament in a profound way. Well, really just Ben Edlund and Robbie Thompson did. I’ve never seen a show really hit the overall feel of the bible the way this show does. The idea of Angels as mystical and terrifying creatures. The idea of God as a flawed father figure with a penchant for wrath. The sheer epicness of the biblical stories. The idea of family members constantly being turned on each other. Cain and Abel. Jacob and Essau. Moses and Ramses. Moses and Aaron. Abraham and Isaac. The bible is full of stories of family drama. This show doesn’t always give angels and demons weight. Sometimes it’s silly and stupid and cheesy. But when it hits right? It’s epic. This is more of a personal thing I love about the show, but definitely a plus!

7. The Music

The early seasons music is so good. I really miss the classic rock of the golden era of the show. I mean, there are still some great musical moments later on, but damn. I loved hearing songs I recognized and I loved learning new songs. I loved when the song and the scene hit perfectly in time (Death’s intro. Cas’s return in Season 13.). Also Supernatural wouldn’t be Supernatural without the ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ song at the end of every season. Even at the end of a season I didn’t love, that recap would always get me pumped. Also Chuck singing Fare Thee Well? Dean and Lee singing together? Fan Fiction? All great. 

8. The Cast & Crew

I never care about the actors or actresses in a show. I definitely don’t bother with the names of specific writers and directors or their styles of writing/directing. They’re just random people who happen to write for or play these characters I love. They’re not actually the characters. But these guys? Well, for one, I’m pretty sure half this cast actually is their character. At least to some degree. They’re also just...really cool people? Who are all friends? They make a point to do community service, to interact with fans, and to promote positive ideas. Jared’s Always Keep Fighting campaign. Misha and GISH. The fact that they all participate in fundraising opportunities and encourage fan engagement. Do they all have issues? Definitely. Have they said stupid things? Yes. But the good far outweighs the bad. They’re an entertaining bunch whether onscreen or not and I hope they all do well in whatever their future endeavors may be.  

9. The Fandom

I joined this fandom late. To be honest, I thought this fandom was obnoxious before I found myself a part of it. Now that I’ve been in the trenches? It’s got it’s ups and downs like any fandom. There are some parts that are more toxic than others. A lot of people yelling that their opinion is the only opinion. But overall? The good outweighs the bad. And the good? The good is great. Some fanfictions I’ve read are better than actual books I’ve read and just as moving. The fanart? Incredible. I love reading all the metas about random aspects of the show I never would have noticed. I love the music videos and I love the analytical videos. In real life, I’ve made many friends through our mutual love of this show. Hell, even getting sucked into GISH once or twice has given me some solid memories and brought me closer to friends. I wish all fandoms were this much like family. I’m so glad I got to be a part of this fandom and I can’t wait to continue being a fan. After all, nothing ever stays dead in Supernatural.

10. The Chaos & Insanity

Season 16 has been a time. First, Destiel went canon. Then suddenly Sherlock was having a 5th season, Putin was retiring, and Georgia was going blue. Destiel going “canon” and Joe Biden winning the presidency will always be correlated in my mind now. Things in the fandom went from quiet to blaringly loud real fast. Carry On happened. The fandom went into a civil war. I can’t even remember half of what happened in Season 16, but it’s been a wild ride. There’s been ups (my personal favorite being the french dub and the Saileen wedding). There’s been downs (Jared’s controversial statements and the original scripts being leaked). At one point Misha Collins had sex with Bill Clinton???? It’s been a wild time. It’s honestly gotten me through the end of this pandemic. At least it’s entertaining. I would say that at least all the craziness is over, but is it ever really over? Every time I say that something else completely insane happens. But it’s been fun. I’m glad I started watching this show despite my reservations and here’s to whatever happens next. 

[theinsanecrayonbox]

haha ok, here’s a fun backlog of doodles that needs some explaining...at least the progress of evolution of thought i guess

so, first i doodled Sabreclaw and Scarlet Spider-Girl; fun shipping, yay. then i doodled Yellow Jacket and Doxxie; again, fun shipping. but then i hit a bump, as Misha’s single, and is certainly NOT going to date Patrick, so i doodled that silly ‘comic’  still fun. -the story there is meta and ‘canon’, wherein Misha originally had a crush on Wiccan (who wound up with Hulkling), then tried to date Speed (and screwed that up because pf the whole twin replacement thing), then eventually found himself kissing Thunderstrike -(i am REALLY loose with my timeline here...since Kevin Masterson was part of A-Next, matching Sabreclaw and Spider-Girl’s ages, yet he’s that age in current continuity with the Maximoff twins so...idk)

then, during one of many car rides, thoughts went wandering, and i came upon the idea of the “Panther twins” there. (people who’ve followed me for ages might recognize, and yes this is a rebooted Adanna). they are not actually twins; T’Challa and Ororo got married in my timeline here, but had a hard time trying to conceive and have an heir; eventually they went for invitro, and it was a rough pregnancy, so rough that the doctors took some of the unimplanted embryos and used a surrogate to have a backup heir...without telling them. Ororo ended up giving birth to Adanna, and about 7 months later they couple were told about Azari (7 months, because the doctors/state heads who put the backup heir plan into action figured that if Adanna didn’t survive, that was long enough to cover up the first baby’s death, but it’s long enough that they could also spin it that Ororo ha just gotten pregnant again immediately if they both survived). T’Challa and Ororo were furious of course, because this was a huge violation of their trust and other stuff, but...they took Azari, because he was their son just the same as Adanna was their daughter, there was never any doubt or argument over that. however...it all doesn’t fully end happily as we roll up to the “current’ time of my MC2 where we got teenagers here; when the kids were somewhere between 12-14, Ororo and T’Challa got divorced, the kids staying in Wakanda; Azari’s origins were discovered by him at that time, but he didn’t bring it up (and secretly kinda believes he’s part of the reason his parents split up). so they’ve had somewhere between 3-5 years without their mother constantly around to help buffer the royal training and stuff, because oh boy; there are those who think Azari should be the crowned heir, because he’s the eldest son, while others think it should be Adanna because she’s the eldest child and Panther spirit approved (give me a little leeway here, not 100% familiar with Black Panther lore...). when it comes to the kids, Adanna wants to be queen, wants to be Black Panther, while Azari doesn’t want to be king, and has mixed feelings about the Panther mantle (again since he knows his mom didn’t give birth to him, he kinda fears the Panther spirit doesn’t think he’s a real heir...). Adanna inherited some of the heart-herb powers (again because she was naturally born) and electrical conductivity, while Azari inherited more of their mother’s skill sets (they can actually “link up’ and super charge electrical currents together, completing a proper positive to negative circuit, yay for mutant siblings’ powers working in tandem) and is kinda super smart but easily bored so seems like a slacker; he gets along pretty well with his aunt Shuri. so anyways, there comes a breaking point, a blow up between Azari and T’Challa, and it’s suggested that Azari perhaps go and lives with Ororo for a while...

so Azari comes and joins an X-team, just about the same time that Misha leaves his Avengers team (i mean, they had multiples, and they had both Creed brothers, so it makes sense to split them up lol) after the Kevin fiasco and the two of them kinda hit it off and wind up coupling up. leading to plenty of jokes about Azari’s callsign, cause he can’t *really* settle on one he likes, because Misha is Warwolf, so “Battlecat” follows that naming scheme, but at the same  time Misha could be “White Wolf” if Azari goes with Black Panther XD also, Azari hates being called T’Chaka, because in Wakanda all the adults only ever addressed him formally as “Prince T’Chaka”, so that’s why he primarily goes by Azari Munroe...plus you know, trying to blend in better while living with his mom

that was a lot of text...i think too many things sometimes

[teaplease1717]

I'm Here: You’re Not Alone

Ship: Todoroki Shouto x Yaoyorozu Momo

Rating: T

Chapters: 1/1 (Complete)

Ao3: Click Here

I want to give a shout out to everyone who participated or helped out in the @todomomo-mini-bang-2020! This event has blown me away! And thank you to my fellow mods for all your hard work!

Before beginning, I must also thank my betas: FlourChildWrites and Emberstork for your help making this readable. And Taq for giving me some ideas on the ending.

Also big thank you to Marls_Bars21, who has drawn the beautiful piece found in this story. <3

A couple of last notes, there are slight spoilers for the current arc, but they are very light. Also, for this fic, the boys and girls' sides of the U.A. dorm are not separated with a barrier. I imagine it more like a hotel; you go left for the girl’s side and right for the boys.

XXXXXX

The pure black of the night bathed the U.A. campus in velvety darkness.

Inside the dorm, there was a feeling of tension that hung in the air, like static electricity building.

Momo rolled onto her back. Draping her arm over her forehead, she stared up at the silken canopy of her bed and briefly wondered if she'd ever get to see it again. She felt restless.

The truth was no one knew what to expect tomorrow. The heroes had no real insight into how many villains there would be or what their quirks were.

She felt a faint sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. It wasn’t as if she was afraid per se. Perhaps anxious or uneasy were the correct terms. They were only sixteen, yet were being sent off to fight — what was technically a war — against the League of Villains and Meta Liberation Front.

She wished her mother was there to hold her.

Turning over, Momo clicked the power button on her phone. 12:30. Too late to call home. She placed the phone back down and turned back over. She stretched her legs.

She really needed to try and sleep. Her alarm was set for 5:30, less than five hours away. Momo drew in a deep breath to clear her mind, but couldn't fall asleep.

All the top heroes of Japan would be present at tomorrow’s operation.

They’d been divided into four teams, two offensive forces and two support guards. Endeavor, the current number one hero, would be leading the main battalion, which would be over 80 kilometers away from where she would be stationed in the woods.

The likelihood that she would be fighting any of the more powerful villains was slim.

But not nonexistent.

Momo’s mind returned to the current number one hero, and her throat tightened. He had almost lost an eye fighting against the League earlier in the year.

What if an enemy with a power type quirk attacked her tomorrow? She’d be at a distinct disadvantage. Would she even be able to win?

Momo was fairly confident in her deductive and strategic prowess, but in the heat of battle, especially fighting Nomus, there was always a chance of failure.

Her fingers clenched the silken sheets. They had fought the League of Villains before — at last summer's training camp — and, if not for Awase, she would have been cleaved in half by one of the engineered Nomus. A shiver ran down her spine at the memory, and she turned back onto her side, curling into a ball.

What if she got a massive scar across her face like Endeavor?

What if she lost an eye?

No one would ever want to kiss her if she didn’t have both of her eyes. The thought hit her like a bucket of cold water, and Momo instantly felt guilt twist in her stomach. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Disgraceful, she berated herself.

Even if she were to get hurt and lose an eye or a limb, there was a lot more to the world than looks. Besides, getting injured was part of being a hero, too. She should be proud she was participating.

Still, Momo's chest clenched painfully. Anxious butterflies fluttered in her stomach at the thought of never receiving a first kiss.

She drew in a long breath as she turned back over. Her thoughts were jumbled. Momo could almost hear Jirou poking fun at her for jumping to the worst possible conclusions, but she couldn’t help overthinking things. It was hard to turn off her mind when her thoughts started spiraling. She needed to talk to someone or at least not be alone.

Momo debated getting up. Perhaps, Jirou would allow her to sleep in her room. The Earphone Jack Hero might still be awake; she could talk her down from the metaphorical edge. And it wasn’t like her spending the night in Jirou’s room was unprecedented. Momo seemed to always end up there when she had a lot on her mind.

She sighed as she gave up on sleep and got up. Slipping on her house slippers, Momo assessed herself quickly in the mirror hanging on the back of her door, ensuring her white chiffon nightgown was appropriate before heading down to the third floor.

The elevator dinged quietly as the metal doors slid open. Momo tiptoed out and made her way down the dimly lit hallway.

As she rounded the corner to the girl’s side of the dorm, a faint glow from underneath Jirou’s door caught her attention. Momo’s eyes widened, and she inhaled deeply, the tightness in her chest loosening.

She hurried closer, a smile pulling at her lips as she stopped in front of Jirou’s room and raised her hand to knock when soft laughter wafted from behind the closed door. Momo froze; her eyes widened.

Jirou and...Kaminari?

She felt something sink in her stomach, and she pressed her lips together. What was he doing there? It was late; he should be in his own room.

The conversation was muffled by the door, but it was definitely his voice from inside, she was sure of it.

Momo swallowed over the unbidden feeling of jealousy that rose up in her throat. She let her hand drop back down to her side and took a step back.

She shouldn’t interrupt.

It wasn't like people were required to have only one friend. Jirou had no responsibility to her. She was allowed to have friends outside of Momo.

Besides, Jirou and Kaminari had been growing closer recently. Momo would just be intruding if she were to ask to join them.

Her shoulders slumped, and she looked down the long hallway. The only other girl on the third floor was Hagakure.

Would she still be up?

Momo shook her head. She shouldn't be waking her classmates up just because she couldn’t rest and wanted to be with someone.

She sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that night and headed back towards the elevator. She paused before the metal doors, her finger ghosting over the raised button for the first floor. Would anyone still be downstairs? Momo pressed her lips together and pulled her hand back.

No.

She really needed to go back to bed. Staying up would set a bad example for all the other students. Besides, she already knew no one would be down there.

Momo drew in a deep breath and pressed the top button.

As she shuffled out of the elevator, she paused. The moon shone through the plexiglass windows like a beacon in the dark. Momo looked to her left. The door to the roof was on the boy’s side. Her fingers twitched.

No one would notice.

She knew from experience that the alarm on the door had been disabled. She could go up there for a few minutes. The fresh air might help calm her, she reasoned as she turned and crept down the right corridor.

There were three boys on the top floor: Satou, Sero, and Todoroki.

Momo’s eyes flickered unconsciously towards Todoroki’s door as she passed. The placard with the twenty-one strokes of his surname glowed faintly in the soft light of the display case.

She bit her lip. She had watched Todoroki since the beginning of the school year. He had been a recommended student like herself and yet had been so different from her. He was strong, confident, unwavering. He was the type of person that brought others calm.

And she admired him immensely.

Momo pressed her hand over her chest as she felt her heartbeat speed up. She didn’t know when it had happened, perhaps when he had encouraged her during the practical exam against Aizawa, but she found herself increasingly fond of her seatmate. It was like a seedling had taken root in her chest, growing slowly over the last months, and transforming her passing crush into a chronic state of pining.

She looked away as she continued towards the stairwell. A selfish part of herself wanted to see him tonight, wanted to be near him. Maybe not to confess — definitely not to confess — but, perhaps she could talk to him like Jirou and Kaminari were doing. Momo’s chest tightened.

Out of all her classmates, Todoroki seemed to understand her better than anyone. He was quiet and unobtrusive, but he knew how to make her smile. And when her thoughts began to spiral as they were doing that night, he always seemed to know how best to save her.

But, Momo wasn’t about to wake him up for something as silly as to talk.

The green exit sign glowed above the stairwell.

She climbed the steps and took a deep breath before pulling open the steel door to the roof. The fluorescent lights flickered to life at her movement. Momo gasped as she stepped outside and felt the crisp April breeze on her face. The wind nipped at her skin, rustling through her nightgown.

For a moment, Momo stood uncertain in the doorway, looking out at the empty concrete space before drawing in a deep breath and moving over to the chain-link fence enclosing the rooftop. She leaned against the cool metal, her fingers slotting into the holes as she gazed out onto the silent campus.

The tall training halls speckled across the forested grounds like boulders sticking out of the sea. And in the distance, the lights of Musutafu shimmered as if they were stars painted across a dark canvas.

A sudden gust caught in her black hair and rustled her white chiffon nightgown, sending a shiver down Momo’s spine.

If it had been a regular school year, this month would have been the school dance. Perhaps, Todoroki would have asked her to go with him. Her heart stuttered as the thought swirled unbidden through her conscience. Momo’s mouth twisted into a frown.

What was wrong with her?

There were far more important things in the world than to be worried about such frivolous things as first kisses and school dances.

Momo closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure where this sudden narcissistic streak had come from, but she needed it to stop.

And yet, was it wrong to crave normalcy? Did being a pro hero really mean she had to leave her other dreams behind?

“Yaoyorozu.”

Momo swallowed over a nervous squeak as her head jerked up. Letting go of the fence, she turned in surprise towards the deep voice that she would have known anywhere and straightened.

Todoroki Shouto stood in the doorway staring at her. He had changed out of his U.A. jersey and into gray sweatpants paired with a white t-shirt that seemed to fit him a tad bit too well.

Momo felt her cheeks and ears grow warm.

“To-Todoroki-san?” Her voice hitched as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What are you doing up here?”

Todoroki stared at her for several seconds before sighing. His head dropped as he slid a hand out of his pocket to rub the back of his neck.

“I thought I heard you walk by,” he said, giving her a sidelong glance. “You said you always come up here when something is troubling you, so I thought I’d check.”

Momo’s heart leapt at the thought that he had remembered such an inconsequential conversation before she pushed the feeling down.

She licked her lips and dropped her gaze.

“I’m fine,” she said, running her hands down the front of her nightgown, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. Momo forced herself not to overanalyze the comment or the fact that he had come to look for her.

She wouldn’t hope.

“I was just having a hard time falling asleep. I’m sorry to have woken you.”

His heterochromatic eyes were pale gray and blue as he raised his head and stared at her, his expression masked. “You wouldn’t be up here if you were fine,” he finally said as his eyes locked on hers. “What’s wrong?”

Todoroki’s expression had barely flickered, but something in his tone sounded genuinely concerned. Momo felt her chest tighten. She shifted and grasped her other arm. She wasn’t sure how to respond.

She was simultaneously hopeful of what his concern could mean and disappointed in herself for reading into his every word.

Todoroki was going to become a great hero, the type of hero who would bring peace to the citizens of Japan. And, no matter how much she wanted to, Momo wasn’t foolish enough to think that his concern was anything other than a general courtesy. Surely, he would extend this kindness to any of their classmates.

Wouldn’t he?

“Can I join you?” he asked abruptly, pulling Momo from her thoughts.

Her eyes snapped up. Todoroki didn't wait for her to respond as he moved closer. He stopped on her right side and stared out at the U.A. campus.

There was a long silence.

Momo took a moment to study him from under her lashes. He was striking. All contrast. Fire and ice. Crimson and moonlight. Turquoise and steel. And as much as she tried not to let appearances affect her judgment of people, she couldn’t help but agree with Ashido that Todoroki was the best-looking male of their grade.

What would he think of her if she had an ugly scar across her face like his father? Momo felt her stomach drop at the thought, and she looked away, suddenly embarrassed and ashamed.

It was a silly notion. He had his own scar over his left eye. If there was one person who wouldn’t judge her for a facial wound, it would be him.

Weak and pathetic — that is what he would think of her disgraceful thoughts. Momo's stomach twisted painfully; she didn't know if she could handle his scorn. She hugged herself and shivered.

“What are you thinking about?”

The air around them suddenly warmed.

Todoroki must have used his quirk.

Momo felt a light fluttering in her stomach at the realization. He was always so considerate.

She closed her eyes. “A lot of things.”

“About tomorrow?”

She hesitated then nodded minutely. He didn’t say anything, and she opened her eyes to study a crack in the gray concrete flooring.

“Todoroki-san,” she said softly after a minute. “Do you think we can win?”

From the corner of her eye, she saw him tilt his head back to stare up at the sky, his expression turning pensive. “It'll be difficult,” he said slowly. “But, they've gathered all the top heroes in Japan, so I think we can.”

Momo hummed in agreement.

His lips thinned, and he looked back down. “But, we’ll fight harder," he said, his tone firm. "We have people that we wish to protect, so losing isn’t an option.” He brought his hand up and slowly curled his fingers into a fist. “I think that is what makes us heroes strong — maybe.”

She looked up at him. “Your family?” she asked.

He dropped his hand, and his eyes met hers. “Something like that,” he said, and his stare seemed more pointed than usual.

It felt like there was more to that statement than he was saying, but she didn’t want to pry. She cleared her throat and changed the subject. “You’ll be with Midoriya-san, and Bakugo-san evacuating citizens near the city center tomorrow, no?”

Todoroki hummed, then turned to fully face her. “Yeah, but that’s not what’s really bothering you though, is it?”

Momo flinched.

He really could read her a little too well. She felt her face warm and drew in a deep breath.

“No, it’s not.” She folded her hands in front of herself. Then, before she could reconsider, added. “I’m nervous about tomorrow.”

Todoroki stared at her but didn’t say anything as he waited for her to elaborate.

Earlier, she had desperately wanted to see him, but now that he was there, a small part of her wished for him to leave. She didn’t want him to see this side of herself.

Momo dropped her gaze. Briefly, she contemplated lying to him but quickly disregarded the notion. Todoroki was incredibly perceptive and could be annoyingly stubborn. There was no way that he’d let the conversation go if he thought that she was hiding something, and she had never been a very good liar.

She could feel his heterochromatic eyes on her.

Momo licked her lips and drew in a deep breath. Knowing that he wasn’t going to leave, she suddenly was filled with the overwhelming desire to talk.

“I…I knew that we would have to fight one day, but somehow it never really hit me until tonight that we are only sixteen and are about to be helping out in an operation that is far larger than ourselves.”

He didn’t say anything. Her fingers twitched, and her eyes flickered towards him. Todoroki's hands rested by his sides, so close that if she stretched out her fingers, they’d brush his. She looked away, pushing down the foolish urge to reach for him.

“Todoroki-san, do you ever wonder what it would be like to be a normal high school student? If you weren’t on the hero track.”

Todoroki looked at her for a moment then tilted his head back slightly.

“I don’t know,” he answered after a minute. “It had never been an option, so I guess I never have,” he said slowly looking back at her.

Momo swallowed, twisting her hands together. Her throat felt constricted. “It’s embarrassing, really, but I was thinking about all the mundane and inconsequential moments that we may miss out on because of this path. Tomorrow we are going into battle, but I haven't even gone on a date or had my first kiss. And I wonder what if I never get those moments.”

“Don't get me wrong,” she added hurriedly, clenching a hand over her chest. She felt herself flush. “I'm proud to be a hero, and I'm not having self-doubts about my choice. But I guess I never thought about all the little ways my life would change because of it. I just wonder what if -” Her voice hitched. “What if something happens tomorrow that makes it so I can never have those things? Never go on a date, or go to a school dance. Never get married or have children. It’s so stupid. I know.”

An aching sensation spread across her nose and cheeks. She sniffed and brought her hand up to rub at her eyes with the back of her hand as she struggled not to cry. “I hate having these shallow thoughts when tomorrow’s mission could decide the fate of Japan, but I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t want to be alone just because I’m trying to be a her-”

“Yaoyorozu.”

Momo jerked at the firmness in his tone. It had been a long time since she had heard him use that voice. Not since Aizawa.

She turned slowly towards Todoroki, and her eyes widened in surprise as he stepped closer. “You’re not alone.” His gaze was intense.

A blush ran across her face and down her neck.

He lifted his hand and wavered for a moment before he pressed his palm against her cheek.

“I’m here,” he said softly, his thumb brushing away the tears she hadn’t realized had slipped down her face. “So, you don’t have to worry.”

His touch was gentle, almost tender as he cupped her cheek, and Momo choked back a soft sob as she closed her eyes. It was exactly how she had dreamed of him holding her.

Every night.

Every day.

In between studying and classes.

She let herself lean into Todoroki’s touch.

He was only comforting her, she reminded herself as her heart stuttered almost painfully in her chest. But surely, he wouldn’t judge her for this, would he? She was allowed this small comfort. Friends would allow for this, wouldn’t they?

After a moment, Momo drew in a deep, steadying breath and looked up.

Todoroki was close. His eyes were darker than she had ever seen them. They shone like molten silver and teal stars as he stared down at her, and Momo’s breath caught in her throat. It felt like her heart had stalled momentarily in her chest as he studied her face.

Then slowly — so slowly she wasn’t sure if her heart could take it — he closed his eyes and dipped his head down, brushing his lips against hers before fully capturing hers.

It was like lightning had struck Momo. She stood frozen under him, eyes wide, unbelieving for a moment before her whole body melted into his touch, and she closed her eyes and kissed him back.

His lips were soft as they moved over hers, and stars danced behind her eyes.

It felt like a burning, gaping ache that she hadn’t been aware of had finally been filled within her chest.

He kissed her a moment longer before pulling back.

His hand dropped from her cheek, and Momo’s eyes fluttered open as she watched him through a hooded gaze draw away. Then, suddenly it was like the magic of the moment had lifted. Her eyes widened as her mind jumped-started back into action as it tried to process what had just happened.

Momo could feel her face burning and she cupped her cheeks.

She felt elated and stunned that he had kissed her. But also uncertain. Was it something he meant or just something needed to be done to help take her mind off of tomorrow?

“Sorry if that wasn’t any good. That's my first kiss too.” Momo looked up. Todoroki had covered his mouth with his left hand. The tips of his ears were red, and the sight calmed her slightly.

Hesitantly, she brought her fingers to her lips. They were still warm from his mouth. “Wh-why?” she forced out.

Todoroki dropped his hand, and his usually expressionless features seemed almost bashful. “You said you were worried about never getting a first kiss. I - I hope it was okay that it was me?”

Momo felt her heart sink. So, he had only kissed her as a friend. He didn’t care for her like she did for him. She dropped her head. “Ye-Yes. It’s fine,” she said softly, turning away.

She inhaled deeply. She didn’t want him to see her cry. He had only been trying to help.

“Yaoyorozu.”

A strong hand closed around her wrist, and she looked up sharply.

Todoroki stared down at her. He seemed to be searching her face for something.

"Do you..." he started, and his eyes flickered slightly. He clenched his jaw and swallowed. "Do you remember what you told me after we defeated Aizawa?” He didn’t wait for her to respond before continuing hurriedly. “You said that I was the type of hero that brings people peace. That I make you feel at ease.”

His lips twitched. “I was really happy when you told me that. I had been struggling with what I wanted to be for so long, your words helped me decide. But—” Todoroki raised his head, and something glinted in his gray and turquoise eyes as they met hers. “It also made me realize that I wanted to be more than just a hero, too.”

Momo’s chest felt tight as she waited for him to continue.

He swallowed and seemed to hesitate before his expression hardened. “You asked earlier if I’d ever dreamed of a life not as a hero, and I said ‘no,’ but that’s not true. I have.”

“Todoroki-san…” Momo whispered; her heart was beating louder and louder in her chest, unsure of the implication of his statement.

He cleared his throat and straightened. “You have a lot on your list, so it may take me some time, but once this is over, I’d like to be the one who makes your dreams come true.” He looked at her, and his expression was intent. “That is, if you're okay with it being me?”

Momo drew in a deep, stuttering breath.

“Todoroki-san…” she forced out. She could barely breathe. It couldn’t be. She must be dreaming.

Something must have shown on her face because his lips tilted up into a small tentative smile that made her heart ache.

He so rarely smiled.

“So, I don’t want you to worry,” he said, releasing her wrist. Slowly, to give her time to draw away, he slid his hands around her waist and pulled her closer.

Momo was breathing quickly. She felt almost faint and didn’t know if her legs could support her anymore. Tentatively, she raised her arms and wrapped them around his back. She leaned her head against his chest. He smelled woodsy, like cedar, and she could feel the thrum of his heart as it beat through her.

Todoroki’s body relaxed. He dipped his head down to rest on hers.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll win,” he whispered into her hair. His tone was deep and unyielding, filled with conviction, and it warmed her.

Momo wrapped her fingers into the cotton of his shirt as the confidence of his voice sank into her. He was so certain, so sure of it, and Momo felt her heart catch in her throat. She swallowed. It was the same confidence that he had used all those months ago when he said he believed in her. It sounded like a promise.

She felt more tears slip over her cheeks as she drew back slightly to look up at him. She smiled. His face was so close to hers that she could feel the heat of his breath on her lips. “Yes, we’ll win,” she whispered back.

His eyes glittered; his hands tightened around her waist. And, as he leaned his forehead against her own, Momo felt the promise touch her soul.

XXXXX

This is dedicated to my hypochondriac, anxiety ridden self who would most definitely jump to the worst possible conclusion, and think I may die horribly or lose a limb or an eye or something if I was going into battle. One of the reasons I like Momo so much is because I feel she'd be the same. She's a thinker, and if she doesn't keep her thoughts in check they can easily spiral. I love the current arc, but shonen manga, in general, never have their characters dwell on the thought of getting hurt or killed. So, I wanted to touch on that topic. And how, when everything feels out of control sometimes you just need someone to ground you. Tell you that everything is going to be okay. To me, that is what Shouto is for Momo. He is her pillar of support, and he comforts her by telling her that no matter what happens he wants to be with her, and provide her hope that there is a life waiting for her after the battle.

Anyway, I was in a little bit of a mood (if you couldn't tell) when this came to me, so I hope it turned out alright and that it was enjoyable enough.

All comments and critiques are welcome. :D And once again thank you to everyone who participated or helped out with the TodoMomo Mini Bang!