#tbh it seems obvious in hindsight now

[acatnamedlulu]

Memory unlocked-

So when I was in like, 1st (1st-ish??) grade, we read a story about these little talking forest animals, and the badger or something is baking a cake. But all his friends keep showing up unannounced and for some reason they’re all like “oh here! I got this!” and I swear, I don’t even think any of them asked, they just like, commandeered the entire table and started ruining everything?? 😅 And the badger’s like “wait, the recipe!” but his friends keep turning their noses up and ignoring him and being like “nah nah, I can do this better”. Even the ones who are genuinely trying to be nice are still just ignoring him. And they all leave, and when the badger puts the cake in the oven, of course it turns out like this, inedible tar.

And stupid me, I thought he was gonna be like “guys I know you wanted to help, but everything got ruined and you didn’t listen to me” and then the friends would apologize and try to make up for it. But like, that’s not even what happened, because the badger just threw the fucked up cake away, made a brand new one and was like “look guys, we all made this” to make them all feel good about themselves.

It’s been about 20 years and deadass, this shit still haunts me. I remember feeling so distressed over that stupid badger because his friends be barging into his house, getting in the way, fuckin’ up his hobbies like they own the place and they basically got rewarded for being rude 😂 I was pissed about it after I got home from school but I knew if I brought it up, I’d get made fun of.

Anyway, I got diagnosed with autism as an adult.

[smokescreenimusprime]

still reading through your aus and i am in pain wtf--- that depticon spy au??? THE REVEAL IS SO. OW. BECAUSE SMOKESCREEN WOULDNT EVEN HAVE A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN HIMSELF--- like I. HEAD IN HANDS.

NYEHEHEHEHEH >:33333

that's part of the fun tbh <3

and of course the Autobots are angry. Livid if we're being honest. They feel stupid for not seeing it earlier, after all Smokescreen arrived in a Decepticon pod, he'd supposedly managed to escape a prision ship himself and survive the fall of Iacon, he'd been captured again by the Cons and escaped functionally unharmed, he was always weirdly anxious and flighty around them, and they really just feel like they're been played for fools at what seems to be obvious tells in hindsight

admittedly the humans are a bit more hesitant to believe this sudden change, especially whichever human was the one who was traded for Smokescreen. After all, Smokescreen honestly bonded more with the humans than with his "fellow" Autobots. With the Autobots there was always this lingering anxiety and fear that they would uncover his secret, a feeling he hadn't felt since his early days of undercover work

but with the humans...... there wasn't as much fear. The kids were..... well, kids. They didn't know what signs to look out for in spies, they didn't know what he should and shouldn't know about Cybertron, they trusted him completely, so this apparent betreyal....... it hurts them a lot but they're also somewhat hesiatnt to believe it

but yeah, they don't exactly have too much time to deal with all these emotions regarding Smokescreen's betreyal before all of them get a single message from the guy

Run

then they end up finding out that the Decepticon's new base is Literally Right Outside Their Door and they evacuate

(also, since all five humans were kidnapped, this also means that Fowler and June get to join the Autobots on then run :) June is either going to go with Raf (since he's the youngest) or with Ratchet, but I'm admittedly not super sure about Fowler, either Ratchet or he manages to stay behind with Optimus somehow)

now....... this of course raises the question of what happens to Optimus. After all, Smokescreen isn't there to save him, right?

Wellllllllll

what if he was :)

what if after his "return" to the Decepticons, Megatron sorta...... lets him float around. Sure he's angry about his defection, but right now he's more than aware of how much more pain giving Smokescreen some amount of freedom would give him than simply locking him up. If he's in a cell, he's being trapped, but if he's "free"....... well, then that makes it all the more easier for the guilt to eat him alive :)))

(besides there..... really isn't a whole lot a spy with a blown cover can do right now)

unfortunatly, while the guilt part of the plan does work out, it also accidentally results in Optimus's survival and Smokey stealing the Phase Shifter and Forge and giving it to the Autobots

now...... Optimus admittedly doesn't have the best memory of what happened after the base came down ontop of him. The details aren't super great on account of the whole dying thing

However, there are a handful of things he is sure of with the utmost certainty

The Matrix of Leadership wanted to pick Smokescreen had he died

Smokescreen had a chance to take the Matrix of Leadership

Smokescreen didn't

Smokescreen stole the Forge and Phase Shifter from the Decepticons

Smokescreen saved his life

and suddenly Optimus is realizing the whole puzzle surround their newest recruit has become that much more complicated

[starrypawz]

So I've seen this happen a few times where discussions about people falling for banking/phishing scams get a lot of 'hahaha these people are so stttttuuupid i would neveeeeer' type comments

But as someone who has fallen for scams before before. And I'm someone who I'd say considers themselves decently cautious and scam aware like I grew up on the 90s internet and had internet safety drummed into me at a young age.

You are not actually immune to being scammed.

It's both a combination of

Scammers are getting more sophisticated you've probably seen it when you get scam texts or emails that now a lot of them are actually very close to legitimate messages it's less 'super obvious Nigerian Prince' scam and more 'fake email from Paypal that looks suspiciously close to the real thing' also not to mention things like spoofing phone numbers

Scammers also just need to come over just convincing enough to make you lower your guard, they don't even have to try that hard they just need to appear legitimate, and sometimes you just just need to be a bit distracted and boom next thing you know you'd managed to fall for something

Like the last time i feel for something was in 2020, someone called me posing as the fraud department of my bank. in 2020 my mental health was utterly fucked tbh and so my judgement was likely somewhat impaired, this scammer seemed to know I'd had fraud happen to me in the past (maybe it was a lucky guess but I also wouldn't be surprised if people pass around the details of previously compromised people) and the conversation was very similar to ones I had had with my bank before so it was enough to lure me into a false sense of security and make me do something in hindsight that was really freaking dumb.

Basically just it's a lot easier to get scammed than you think even if you are a scam aware person.

[fushiglow]

i cannot stand this smartass!! (affectionate)

the thoughts are flowing and i can't keep a lid on my brain, so here are my hastily written thoughts on jjk 235 before something juicier on sunday

HE DID IT!! HE DID THE THING!!!! 😭

now that's out of my system, let me just say that being in the jjk fandom feels like constant gaslighting sometimes lol

i've always believed deep down that gojo would win this fight. i didn't think it would be *this* clear cut, but it seemed like the most likely outcome given what we know about the characters and the story up to this point. he's the strongest, right??

so WHY have i been doubting my own sanity every week since 221 came out???? like, i have two literature degrees and generally think i have a good grasp on literary analysis, but there have been multiple moments over the last few months where i felt like i must have made everything up??? even though gege gave us ALL the signs from the start????

anyway.

it goes without saying that i loved this chapter and the fight on the whole. i've seen countless (*ahem* whiny) complaints that gojo vs sukuna was 'boring' or 'unimportant to the narrative' or 'destroyed their characters', but i think time will be kind to this arc.

the best plot beats are those that seem obvious in hindsight. twists are only satisfying when they're given sufficient foreshadowing (like sukuna possessing megumi) so i've always thought that gojo dying after sukuna wiped the floor with him would be a shocking choice in the worst possible way.

i put my faith in gege and i'm glad i did, because he's just delivered a masterclass in making the expected ending feel unexpected. as they say — it's about the journey, not the destination!!

some things i loved this chapter:

"first time blowing myself up" looool i guess gojo is still the same nerdy teenager at heart. he's been treating this fight like it's an academic exercise, and he was SO excited to learn something new about his technique — even though it nearly melted his face off 💀 gojo is kinda mad scientist coded and i think that's beautiful tbh

while i don't think gojo is out of the woods just yet, i do believe that 235 marks the definitive conclusion to the battle of the strongest. putting gojo aside for a second, i'm genuinely delighted with the outcome because i think it's by far the most interesting choice for sukuna's character too. this is a 1000 year old guy who equates losing with dying, so how is he going to wrap his head around a defeat that challenges his entire worldview? sukuna's character arc starts NOW

also also the callback to chapter 76 and the "automatic selection of the technique’s target" to explain why mahoraga didn't get pulled by blue but gojo did? pure genius 😭 gege is so meticulous with his callbacks!!

as for what happens next, who the fuck knows??? although i've got my predictions, i can't see how any of them fit together at this point.

in gege we trust!!

[mimikoolover]

Jungkook would have mentioned Jimin the haters would have been hating anyway unfortunately. using the fanservice excuse or whatever. It is beyond me how ppl who claim to be his fans just don’t support him and would rather have him all alone during his service and potentially not doing good mentally rather than being with Jimin and denying how close they are and how much comfort they find in eo. It’s totally insane when you think about it. I’m so glad they have eo, it was a real relief to learn they chose to go through the buddy system. I truly wish those dumbasses who constantly hate Jikook would leave the fandom before 2025. if only the jikook show could be the last straw for them… a girl can dream I guess.

you don't know how much i agree with you😫the jikook travel show will be another shitshow in the fandom but tbh i let them be miserable now! i was just thinking this morning how relieved i am that they have each other and have duties which fit them well and they're not outside shooting at things all day. i think it's obvious jimin and jungkook didn't want to go but in hindsight once they found out they can enlist together i think they were both relieved and it made it seem less daunting for them which is great. if this was any other pairing in the fandom enlisting together people would be insufferable with how they would mention it at any opportunity like it's the greatest thing and it show bts really are close. but with jikook it's crickets🤔as usual.

thankfully jikook ain't bothered and neither should we be. let miserable people be miserable, they're ruining their own lives with it at the end of the day😂

[mythos321]

Chapters 6 and 7 of me reading Moon Rising! and my random scattered thoughts

first up is of course Chapter 6,

which I had a lot of for lmao

•Kinkajou wakes up like that “Gooooood morningg(insane high note)” meme(I hope someone knows what that is

•“I was a little worried about it at first because I was, like, ACK, that means I’ll have to make friends with a NIGHTWING.” Kinkajou somethings are better left unsaid. Trust me, I get it, but you don’t have to outright say it-

•“I can’t wait to meet our Seawing, they sound so weird.” When did Kinkajou enter the racism olympics-

•completely valid to be nervous of Tsunami tbh

•Starflight managing to memorize 35 new names is legitimately super impressive imo

•“tail kisser” that joke still makes me laugh a little even when reading it here

•Umber being so small is frustrating to me he is the same size as Clay

•“We decided to switch a couple of dragons around, since you guys seemed like a good match.” Tsunami Winter threatened to violently murder her-

•What were Sunny and Clay thinking with that, since it was likely them who thought of it since they were the ones present

•Can someone make Qiblis brain shut the fuck up-

•I love Kinkajous crush on Winter admittedly, I know Winterjou isn’t popular but I feel there’s potential

•I’d also like Umbers to an extent but it feels off due to him being the same age as the DoD? I know the age gap is only 2 years but the DoD feel much older in comparison, I just chalk this to being a Tui flub though since Umber acts the same age as the others

•also I love Carnelian hating everyone there lmao

•I kind of like Moon feeling safer around Turtle, I know it’s cause she can’t hear his thoughts, but I still find it cute

•Tsunami introductinh herself just to spite Sunny because she said she wouldn’t is hilarious to me lmao

•the fact Tsunami never actually does anything a head of a school would do is so funny they 100% gave her that title to stop her whining-

•“When do we eat? Just kidding. Pretending to be Clay.” Fuck you Umber, I hope you get eaten by animals actually

•“did I sound like an idiot?”

YEAH YOU DID FUCK YOU-

•Note, the two above notes are to be played for laughs…however I am legitimately not appreciative of that joke-

•“It was impossible to ignore how handsome Winter was, especially with Kinkajou thinking about it all the time” just gonna leave that there-

Tsunami:I brought fish!

Turtle:Yooooo

Kinkajou:FUCK-

•Oh Carnelian you won’t ever get that promotion for a very different reason

•also imo all of the stuff Qibli pointed out felt kinda obvious? I got that read off of Carnelian as well before Qibli mentally pointed it out so we can know how totally smart he is

Carnelian, the red skywing:my favorite color is red

Kinkajou, the yellow rainwing: My favorite color is yellow!

Carnelian:Basic bitch-

•honestly Qibli just feels like a mean bitch to Winters MOODY mean bitch-

•““And I’m Umber,” Said Clay’s brother”

that is one of his two claims to fame in this series lmao

•“See, I’m your destiny”

“Wish he were my destiny”

lmao

•Qibli I’ll tell you right now Moon is not laughing at your lame joke, only Kinkajou and Umbers punchline-

•“Winters such a moonlicking crocodile” of all the expressions to use-

•Why did no Nightwing ever write down how their powers work when they got to the island, or keep those in tact, there’s no way they’d be THAT stupid- oh my god they would-

•I love Kinkajou stepping in for her friend, I appreciate her way more in this than the Graphic Novel(like her a little more and like Qibli and Winter less)

•Qibli thinking to himself of how he’d beat Winter is so funny with hindsight with Icicle absolutely whoops him lol

•I don’t even blame him for thinking about that btw Winter is legitimately being out of line here

Kinkajou:Idc if you’re hotter than the rainforest during a humid day in summer you and your perfect face can’t be mean to my friend-

•I legitimately love how infectious Kinkajou is as a person, she even got Winter to tell his first joke

•Also, more like Winter Turning into a tsundere am I right(🦗🦗🦗)….anyways!

•Hold on was Kinkajou on drugs once-

•Darkstalker get your mansplain manipulate malicious ass AWAY

•“Dragons who like you now are most likely to betray you. Believe me, I know”

Darkstalker, I could give a million and one reasons why you lost your friends, and believe me, you are the root problem in all of them-

Now for chapter 7!

•Qiblis such a loser bruh, Moon can tell you’re watching her you creep-

•I love Moon getting gleeful when she realizes she can have a goat to herself(also her sharing with her friends!)

•don’t worry Qibli we all know you’re a bum you don’t need excuses for why you can’t hunt for shit-

•Moon you’re the size of a car how is a goat heavy-

“You don’t need to be popular if you’re powerful”

-Guy who 100% got shoved in a locker once

•“Moon wanted to ask what he meant by calling Qibli desperate” Girl you’ve seen his thoughts this guys more desperate than a dog being taunted with a bone-

•God I love Kinkajou

•Okay over the top Qibli hating aside genuinely fuck Cobra, I genuinely want to cave her face in for how she treated Qibli

•“Who was “she” Qibli had been asking about? His mother? Thorn?”

I know it was intended as separate things, but I first read that as Moon calling Thorn his mother(in the adoptive sense) and my heart melted for a sec, so ima read it as that instead

•time for Moon to lock in and try and stop a murder, here’s to her succeeding and nothing bad ever happe- okay I can’t even finish that joke lmao you don’t even need to read the book to guess what’s gonna happen-

[httpiastri]

just watched kimi’s Q&A and i guess i was wrong about the whole school thing because he said he’s done with it HAHAHHA

this just honestly makes think that we’ll be seeing him in f1 next year (not that i’m sad but he’s too young imo)

anyways i saw someone saying that they are team paul and i’ll say that i’m team pepe because he’s such a good friend to us (especially the phone thing last chapter i LOVED it)

and last final thought of my ramble:

does anybody agree that the LAP vlogs just feel kinda different? idk it’s not the same as they used to be, they seem more distant? idk how to describe it better :(

OH ??? pls that's so funny 😭 ig being a superstar comes with its perks even when it comes to school...... but yeah now it does feel much more probable that they'll put him in f1 😶

aaa im team pepe too !! if yn didnt already have two pretty boys to choose from then i would make her go for pepe all day every day !!!!! tbh i really think that pepe would be a great friend irl too, very attentive and gives u what u need and just <3<3

oh 100% about the lap vlogs... i havent watched all of them from this year because indeed it doesn't feel as like homey as it used to? not as cute and cozy? it's not the same thing anymore when it's not the same ppl :( sure dino and ollie are cute together, and i love the kimi content, but still..... and i've commented before about how dino doesn't seem as happy as he was last year, and i said it kinda as a joke but... it's actually pretty sad..... he was much happier when paul was around, joked around more, and i just :(( and it definitely goes both ways because i feel soooo sorry for paul :((( not only because of the obvious (merc and prema, though in hindsight leaving prema was so good for him), but because of the friends he's missing out on 💔 he was a prema boy for so many years and the time they all spend at the factory together, doing challenges and making content and all that stuff.... suddenly losing all that and those friends must be hard 🥲

[minalblood]

Episode 8, here we go! Finally! Im dedicating this review to @noybusiness and @shallowseeker for the encouragements to return to this.

Oh yes, Loki/Gabe! I forgot that's this one. I will say I still could not tell you which one it is. I WILL try to figure that out by the end of this.

I appreciate Mary immediately going to wanting to punch her dad while he's unconscious. Top tier sentiments.

I love (read: am banging my head against a wall) that John thinks what happened last ep counts as having hit the Akrida "pretty hard". It's kinda laughable tbh. The Akrida have already shown extrmely adept at infiltration (basically their whole thing) as well as the whole swarm of locust vibes associated. What i mean by this is, they have no clue how many Akrida there are or where and the dozen or so Samuel got rid of could easily be such an expendable number. But John assumes they weren't... why? Based on what? I also highkey love that Carlos just fully skirts addressing John's remark here and instead refocuses on the case du jour while Lata and Mary also say nothing. It's just funny to me.

Yessss, Lata and Carlos team up!!!

Ughh Dean's talking about dreams and sacrifices, just rip my heart out why dont u? Tho I will highlight his words about gaining more than u lose, Ive always appreciated the fact that Dean prefers to focus on what he has if possible. And it's not like he doesn't have a plethora of regrets, but he has reached a point by like.. season 11/12 I'd say where he became content with himself enough not to wish it different. I also deeply love the acknowledgement of said sacrifices made, it's not this empty optimistic view of things, shit has been bad before, but that doesn't negate or dimish the good that you've also gotten/found.

Lata's absolute judgement and unimpresed reaction to what Carlos has just called a "cathedral" give me life. This ep I think is one where we really start to see some more contrast in Lata. Because up until now, she's certainly been there, has def had complexity, but now we're not just seeing her be excited about knowledge, but rather learn some of the minutiae of her personality. Like how she is not easily impressed and also her niche interests and Carlos' dont match. We've seen Carlos be interested in her hobbies before, begrudgingly and with vague horrified expressions, but intrigued nonetheless. The opposite, we can now see for sure, does not apply in reverse for Lata. She genuinely doesn't seem to give a shit about the supposed prestige of the Knave and is more than happy to fall back to what she enjoys.

I adore the bartender. He is my fav and I am endlessly mad he dies. I loved that man and his "leave me.tf alone kid" vibes.

Carlos not wanting Lata to know about Rivers Gemini is soo funny. And 100% reminds me of Dean and how he prefers to hide his interests so he isn't made fun of/keeps appearences. And this won't be the only Carloa Dean parallel this ep. Hell, Dean's intro words apply most to Carlos this ep as is.

I love the fact that Mary and John actually TALK about their relationship and boundaries and the kiss. The emotional maturity is astounding tbh.

Jericho immediately making his excuses for why he hadn't seen Brock when he died gave me apprehension when I 1st watched this ep live, but now it's very obvious he was preemptively giving his alibi. It's honestly subtly done especially when contrasted to how obvious Loki/Gabe are. Glorious mustache on him btw.

Carlos has a very... interesting view on hunting. Because on the one hand, it did kinda kill their dream of being a musician, but they alao very much approach hunting with a lot of enthusiasm and genuinely seem to enjoy it. Again, the Dean vibes are off the charts with this one. I love Lata for adressing and checking in with Carlos as well, just making sure they're ok.

The roadie/Loki/Gabe is also pretty obvious in hindsight. It makes little sense to have this dude just go fuck off but oh no actually lemme tell u exactly what u need.

Oh no, Millie and Samuel. I am not ready for this. They are so similar and so different at the same time. Mainly because I genuinely believe Millie by this point has had the chance to process part of her issues whereas Samuel very much so is ... Samuel. And you can see this plainly for both of them. They are similiar, they butt heads because of it, but Millie has spent all this episode giving both John and Mary the space they need to work their shit out, without making any of her usual comments except for the tea Ada gave Samuel and even then she's quick to retract her statement when the tea works. Samuel meanwhile spends a good chunk of the episode saying shit that only serves to diminish or undermine.

I do appreciate the confirmation that Samuel knew who the MoL are/were. It makes perfect sense for the Campbell's to know considering their hunting legacy. And it's endlessly funny thay both him and Henry (when he met Sam and Dean) put down the other's profession. It's a fun parallel (i hate it). Millie putting him in his place was very very satisfying for me.

I will forever be screaming about Chuck being front and centre in this episode several times. An episode where we have Loki/Gabe and is about music (Chucks already said music is where humanity popped off for him) and on top of that discusses the themes of making up ur life as you want it despite whatever fate decrees (aka hunting means sacrifice and death but Carlos get to perform on the best stage in the area in from.of their friends regardless). Not to mention that I constantly have Chuck saying he likes "front row seats" and "hiding out in plain sight" on a loop in my head. Like of course he'd be keeping an eye out for his faves or would've done so before he was defeated. The timeline's a bit messy here because either this version is no longer the Chuck that Sam and Dean fought and defeated and is essentially the leftover consciousness from this particular world or time happens sorta simultaneoualy? I lean toward the 1st tbh, but then the question still remains of how much does he know. It's very very incriminating that he is in fact there.

And all this to say that I cannot believe that we have Loki alone here. I don't see it, can't. It makes more sense to me to actively mess with the Campbell-Winchester bloodlines via fucking with their friends while giving a speech about playing ur part for Gabe. But then... it ain't like Loki's mythos don't also deal with themes of predestination... soo...

And it's so so obvious that Loki/Gabe is gunning directly for Carlos btw. Like so obvious.

The bartender deserved better and I will go down with this.

Yep, that tattoo is def a parallel to the Mark of Cain. Which again, interesting choice 🤔

I love Mary's no nonsense vibe with Samuel, especially when he's trying to fuck around and find out aka deflecting the bullshit he's been pulling.

The photossssss, yesss.

I need John Winchester to not say shit like "should treat her more like a daughter less like a soldier' because I will have a stroke. I am so so in agreement and applauding but simultaneously thinking how fucking rich it is that this comes from any version of him. I am.in paaain. I wanna kill SPN!John with my bare hands and hearing this John say shit like this only adds fuel to the fire.

Ah yes... the innuendo. Forgot bout that. More on it, the personality Loki/Gabe shows here matches Gabe wayyyyy more than Loki, but the outfit and earlier peronality matches Loki. Cannot speak to MO since that's fully dif fron SPN, no just deserts here. Just a very bitter demigod/archangel. I am starting to think they are actively working together here and are both present and fucking around. He really really hates Lata tho. Like he's gunning for Carlos, but actively scorns Lata. Interesting.

Also also the disappearing Jericho thing... yes Loki could, but we've most seen in with Chuck and Lucifer, so I fully believe that the version that gets Carlos to make a deal is heavily leaning towards Gabe moreso than Loki.

Maggie's books save the day once more. God Maggie could've been a glorious Woman of Letters (to quite Charlie) in another life.

Uuuuuh Samuel seeing how things have changes, yess. Makes sense of course he's the one who's literally been on the outside and not being influenced by the Dean meddling til now so he still relates everything to what used to be true of the people we've been watching. But they aren't the same anymore, shit's changed and they've changed. This is what I've been trying ro highlight as it's been happening these past 8 ep that led us to Samuel confirming it.

At least he's self aware hes not a people's person. I do appreciate the distinction between monsters that kill to survive vs those that kill for fun. (And I am once more wondering if I should just post my bachelor's on the nature of monsters in spn)

Winchesters and their family specials... Aaaand I just realized they SPN!John likely had made his moms recipe for Sam and Dean when they were sick... think Dean called it cure-all kitchen-sink stew? If I remember my spn correctly...

Uuuu it was Samuel who mentioned the weapon...not Lata as Loki/Gabe accuses and mocks.

I love the arguememt between Mary and Samuel. And am mad that Samuel actually shows more emotional maturity in explaning himself here than SPN!John every did... I feel like I'm chewing glass here fellas, pray for me. Wonderful self awareness actually, love the clear generational trauma "dont want you to hate me like I hated him" indeed Samuel. Aaaand he's pulling a SPN!Mary move of rationalising his being away and distant and working on his own while his kid worries and fights the same fight by saying he's doing it for her...

So Samuel is Spn!Mary and is fueled technically by the guilt of what his choices have wroth his child. And Millie is son!John and is fueled by the grief and rage of having lost her husband to the supernatural and is reflecting it onto on her kid.

But... vitally, both are trying to fix shit and are given the space/time to do so.

Fun fighting sequence.

The bait and switch is a Loki/Gabe classic.

The Samuel stabing his daughter... oooof. Not left handed??? That's what u based it on, you absolute moron! I agree with Loki/Gabe mocking Samuel here tbh.

I will say the personality has shifted a bit after the bait and switch. The version of Loki/Gabe is now simmering with barely contained anger and is far more serious in his comments. There's more bite to them. I do believe thats more Loki leaning.

"For someone your height, you're very loud" was a helluva projection for Loki/Gabe.

I adore how Carlos breaks the rules here. And it's based in the sacrifice of hunting, but it's not because of it per se. And in doing the selfless thing, impulsively I'd even say, he broke the deal/curse. Ah... the free will of it all.

It's a very interesting arguement that Loki/Gabe gives here about humanity. Could fit either really.

Lata's mild sadistic pleasure about annoying Loki/Gabe, my beloved.

Awwwwww, they're familyyyy

I still like the Millie and Samuel dynamic. It's kind ... juicy with trauma in such a specific way.

At least now Samuel tells Mary where he's going, rather than just taking off like an asshole.

Calling Samuel, Sam... oh John, you disaster of a person, I kinda love you.

Carlos being fully behind forgiving Jericho, lovely. And omg Jericho is basically Lee here, isn't he? Is that a stretch??

Uhhhh such a gorgeous fucking voice.

Fucking Chuck still there tho and it gives me anxiety even tho I know how this ends.

I do like seeing everyone during the song montage, love the forward movement of it. The future it sorta aludes to. And Mary deciding to go on with her and John's relationship only adds to this sentiment.

Aaaanddd Dean MOTHERFUCKING Winchester has join the chat. I remember that moment when I 1st watched this... on his bday. Such a great time seeing this live tbh and it still is a hell of a reveal now too.

See y'all next time where we'll be diving into my still unresolved trauma of the spn finale, vampires (my beloveds), the Ursitoare and how annoyed I am constantly about the pronunciation of most Romanian in English shows and much more!

[crusherthedoctor]

13 + 73

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

This is a difficult one for me to answer because TBH, I rarely look at writing advice posts anymore.

Reason being because, as there's usually a subconscious bias from the person making the post (which isn't inherently bad mind you), that means you'll have plenty of advice lists that end up contradicting each other. One will tell you to do something, then the other will tell you not to do it. When I used to look them up, this almost scared me away from writing because it convinced me that no matter what I did, I would always be getting everything wrong according to someone's list. And on top of that, what's all well and good for one type of story might not work so well for another. That especially holds true when you're comparing franchises with wildly different universes, tones, rules, etc.

So nowadays, I just rely on my own instincts. I keep in mind the no-brainers, like "make sure everyone's in-character", "don't drag out a single paragraph for too long", all that good stuff, but otherwise I have faith in my ability to put what I know about a franchise I'm already a fan of to good use.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

Eggman is actually the villain and doesn't get abruptly killed off or turned into a loving dad.

In hindsight, in my efforts to make my story not come off too much like a copy-paste of a previous story in the games, there's ended up being a lot of deliberate contrast instead. A lot of elements that seem similar to This Thing from This Game, or This Thing from That Game, but with a twist that becomes more obvious over time. Considering the overall plot of Stellar, and the beautiful yet mystical and occasionally disorienting nature of Viridonia, this actually worked out pretty well.

Aside from the previously mentioned attempt to write with the original flavor in mind, my desire to create a memorable setting causes me to put some focus on the scenery. I try not to go overboard and drag it out for pacing's sake, but I like to emphasize things like colour scheme and architecture, really painting a vivid image in the reader's mind. It's fun. :)

In the original Beyond the Stars, there was a firm distinction between the Story Narrator and the Gameplay Narrator, in that the latter would be more snarky so as to add yet more personality into the fic and help it stand out all the more, with the more serious narration being reserved for the actual story moments so as to avoid tonal issues. This overall idea is being maintained for Stellar.

I guess in a way, for better or for worse, Sonudis might also help. At the risk of making it sound like it was inserted for clickbait, OC/canon ships have always been equated to an instant bad fic, so once it was decided that I'd tackle the ship to see if I could pull it off while keeping Sonic in-character, I knew I was painting a huge target on my fic's back. But I wasn't afraid then, and I'm still not now.

[baconlettucetomatoeggs]

lest reality may gaslight me...........

i admit there's this growing jealousy of mine when she talks about her escapades in coding. it kinda reminded me how little i know, when in fact i should know this.

now the semester's coming (yep i got enrolled, thank god) i did what most people do when they're dunno what the heck things would do: ask their nearest person

"so, honest question, do you think we're work-ready?" "i dont think so. why's that?" "if beginners nowadays can code RISC-V like it was nothing, what's left to us? sure we can say we studied this course for like 4 years but... isnt that a waste?" "i mean... yeah? i mean even the webdevs of our course were really cocky. no one even taught us AI. heck, our classmates are working on BPO. nothing wrong about it but it's such a waste of skill" (some context on the text above: the mate's specializing in AI. also some of us know webdev. at least we can deploy XAMPP and call it a day. others feel fancy with their javascripts. the second person also has a knack of wanting to make a RISC on their own. welp) and i'm still here being jealous with even seeing double colons on code, or even a simple coding example. i just cant do this anymore. it's filled with spite and i dunno where to channel that frustration: i need to learn this. but i cant. and i'm demotivated.

then she started planning on making a compiler.

we never had that kind of stuff in my course. so in confusion, i asked my mates who were studying outside of my cooleg

"hey y'all made compilers in your course?" "yeah." and idk what to say. i just wasted 4 years of my life. just. gone

"why didnt you take a course that has a license? i mean, with that entrance exam score you're set to every course" because i liked it here. but now it's just a lie.

and i wasted 4 years of my life here.

i remembered the Cult Leader (my prof, not really a cult leader but their messianic complex is HARD) said to us: "what's the use of learning low level? everything's done in web these days" as my mates and i were doing system calls on our devices.

and the worst of it all was the fact that my bff told me a real cold hard truth accidentally:

"hey did you know? your course is just a minor on this other engineering course"

lol i have no pride left in my what is essentially me, my hobby, my joy, my life. not only im dumb, but i know nothing

so, there are two options left for me:

just cry about it.

accept that everything is mediocre and you need to walk on your own, spite and all

while eating my lunch today, i told to myself i need a focused learning of all the things i wanna learn to. no i wont speak it beacause im afraid it wouldnt come to fruition

i wanna apologise to her tbh. not only she didnt know, i just dunno what she talks about 80% of the time. i like it when she's around, and i like it when she's eager on something. sorry ><

kinda disappointing that i'll go back on 4th year instead of 1st year. i definitely need that introductory class.

all i got in the end was... please dont tell your hobbies, because if you do you'll feel insecure about it when you find you dont hobbied hard enough

or maybe stuck myself reading philosophy books, whatever.

P.S.

so i asked myself wtf are we geared upon??? and welp it was obvious in hindsight, and in that one startup i worky on: it's all about building systems, the macro scale. hell we have prereqs for software engineering and another one for the Master's course

and while washing the dishes, i though like: COME ON, THAT'S EASY! IT'S EASY TO FOLLOW PARADIGMS AND JUST MIRROR IT AS IS! ANYONE CAN BUILD A MODULAR SYSTEM, OR EVEN A MONOLITHIC ONE, COME ON!!!!

sorta like the disconnect between businessmen talking about their plans 10 years (they always talk about this) vs friends planning a vacation 12 hours in advance. the first one dont need that much mental flex, only daydreaming.

...probably this is why the trend seems to be microservices, where they all struggle to keep their modularity in check. and now they removed the ethics board. they wanna think about futures, but not the present. may they rot in peace.

p.p.s

ok if you ask me what i wanna learn, it'll be HDL (verilog?) on the mondays, C/Rust on the tuesdays (cant decide. fuck it PSP time), RISC-V on the wednesdays, MIPS on the thursdays (fuck it PSP time), and friday's just Cebuano. saturday and sundays are for dumb time. cant decide how to tho. you can prolly do algorithms on any of those but that would be silly unless it's higher level i seriously wanna learn like functional languages, or languages near the theoretical side of things. we dont have the math touch in our hands and in fact we only have like 2 semesters of calculus.

this isnt prolly gonna be in fruition considering i laze around and dont have the will for anything than breathing and living

im kinda excited what shits will do in our embedded systems class. they said it's all arduino and stuff, why not go nuts? i guess.

there's 2 days of Neural Networks. no we wont build exotic stuff like GANs or something.

sigh. even with all this, i'm still dumb.

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Katfl commenthough, part 10 (? The search feature‘s infamously broken and part 9 is the last one I found)

Forgot if the music is always the same, but the music for the forth level is pretty cool

It’s gonna be an ability-focused level! Nice.

The green tint gives this snow area a spooky feel

There’s these ice blocks here you can either melt by copying that one fire enemy and then going back to grab the hammer again- or using a charged attack of the fully upgraded hammer. That’s such a neat detail and rewards players who didn’t just breeze though everything, which is pretty nifty

Usually parts of a level are always marked by a warp star. This one just panned put the camera instead. Granted, it was pretty obvious in hindsight, but still F, gotta backtrack for the souls later it seems

I just lost all HP cuz I kept falling a jump with cone-Kirby, oof XD

They made the star shards fly past the stage while you’re in a fight rush, that’s so smart but also so evil

Oooh jumping from one boat to another, that’s a new way of using them…aaaand I didn’t keep the ice ability, bet there’s smth hidden

Ring! Brb gonna check if there’s smth hidden at the very start - and it’s not? Huh- would’ve been a neat hiding place tho

Oh the building looks straight up ominous in green light

HE OURPLE

Boss music’s not his, ig it’s the usual boss music for this world? (Tbh I forgot)

He’s just standing there. Menacingly

(Died while trying to take a photo lmao. My guy’s really camera shy it seems)

Aksjdkskdf SIR THOSE THINGS HAVE SPIKES HOW ARE YOU HOLDING THEM-

First fire, now lighting that can freeze the ground- when did this penguin become the avatar

When you catch a golden fish with Elfilin they go "woaaaah :O” it’s so cute ;-;

[truculentbitch]

hello belly, first of all I would like to thankyou for this experience, it has been a real blast from the past!

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/715323108755636224/you-guys-just-read-too-much-dnf-fanfiction

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/728001098635526144/hewwo-what-r-yr-thoughts-on-dnf

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/724073796394450944/its-hard-for-me-to-believe-george-is-not

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/718954349792002048/lets-move-on-i-wanna-know-the-bedgate-theories (fringe fandom truthing activities!)

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/720141532126199808/so-uh-idk-if-you-know-guys-this-but-its

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/720142671482585088/dream-calling-austin-to-take-care-of-drunk-george

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/720142753639645184/hah-thats-what-im-saying-like-wdym-dream-is

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/720146615816617984/listen-even-if-dnf-are-currently-dating-dream-is ik you didn’t write it, but listen, idc, reblogs imply agreement

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/717337221556027392/if-any-of-dteam-have-partners-its-not-that-big

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/718762030863204352/theres-also-the-fact-the-1-george-is-not-out

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/718764582378848256/im-talking-about-thinking-dream-and-george-are

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/718767258592329728/wait-so-did-something-happen-in-dnf-land-why-are

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/718844424883470336/would-anything-actually-convince-you-dnf-is-real pt talking about dnf soft launch… I shed a tear

Also thought I would look at ur reaction to the me and george are not gay tweet since you are quite adamant that this was him making it clear that him and George aren’t dating. and huh, you yourself took the tweet as a joke and don’t discount the possibility of dnf still being real?!?!

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/711564727945510912/pls-come-back-youre-the-only-one-who-can-save-us

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/711324410353696768/hes-literally-being-srs-in-the-tweet-hes-just

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/711325776589602816/if-they-arent-together-right-now-then-theyre

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/711326063101394944/looking-at-his-main-most-of-his-latest-tweets-are

https://truculentbitch.tumblr.com/post/711326145174552576/can-everyone-just-listen-to-biboyhalo-and-calm

it seems like you were very open to dnf is real speculation, despite now thinking that it was all obvious jokes (hindsight!) :) unfortunately I couldn’t find the ask I was thinking of where someone asks you if you think dnf is real, and you essentially say you are unsure- but I will not be gaslighted into thinking it never existed! This has all been incredibly depressing, crit was so much more of a happier place a year ago. I’m now going to delete Tumblr and think about life

i'm honestly really confused about what you think most of these posts mean?

i am open to dnf is real speculation. i think it's harmless and fun when done on platforms separate from the ccs. nothing i've posted has ever indicated that i think dnf are or were dating irl, just speculation about the nature of their feelings. 'speculation', a word that appears in a lot of these posts. if you want to know why i reblogged others' posts, i can give you my perspective now but you'd have to take that on trust. if someone asked me i think dnf is real, my answer would be what it is now - ofc dnf is real bc dnf is just whatever their rlship is.

like? me saying i think dnf have a close, loving rlship and are each other's favourite person is not me saying i think they're dating. referring to the bedgate thing by saying a timeline of the 'conspiracy' should start with earlier conspiracy theories? do you not see how that's unserious?

i was going to go thru each post and explain things to you but that's just too much work tbh 🤷

[moondirti]

all the ways i can have you

pairing: Din Djarin x f!Reader rating: explicit (18+ mdni) word count: 1.3k summary: he's hooked on making you feel good. warnings: naked female clothed male, edging, overstimulation, fingering, pussy slapping, squirting, unprotected p-in-v, blowjobs, hickeys, biting, cunnilingus, rimming, face sitting, this is so filthy don't look at me. notes: here's a little thirst i wrote in my down time. It's not affiliated with The Remedy in any way; i just really needed to get all my thoughts about our favourite beskar man out tbh because the slow burn with those two is killing me

The Mandalorian is absolutely filthy.

It’s not something you expect. He’s awkward at the best of times – pointedly avoiding any possibility of social interaction by the drawing of his blaster or an elongated silence. Honestly, for the first few months that you’d known him, you actually thought he hated you. Sure, you were never the unfortunate soul skewered onto his spear, nor had he ever threatened to throw you into his carbonite freezer, but he always had a handy excuse at the ready when you tried to make conversation. It was torture until you learnt not to take it personally; you figured he was probably used to being alone, and that’s no fault of yours. His lack of social skills could not be your burden to bear. So, eventually, when he gave nothing but a grunt to your occasional bizarre musing, you’d simply shrug it off and go back to playing with the kid. 

In hindsight, maybe you should have picked at the source of his reticence. It certainly wouldn’t have taken you as long to get to this point if you had. Because now, it occurs to you that he’d probably been so tense from withholding the desires that the two of you, in fact, shared.

It seems so obvious once the dam had lifted, but keen deduction has never been your strong suit. 

Back to the point, though. Mando is beyond borderline obscene once you manage to tease it out of him. Truly, he’d have never instigated things had you not been so uninhibited. But when his resolve shatters, it’s like his mind goes into overdrive of all the things he’d do to you. You actually think that, if given the opportunity, he’d lay you out for days on end to enact every fantasy he has. Because life has its way of intruding, though, he settles for the in-betweens of your day to day, taking you in the small gaps where it can just be the two of you.

You think he’s wild when he edges you the first time, his gloved hand palming your front while you stand in nothing but your towel. This is on you, he said, you little tease. It’s deliciously painful; his fingers find your clit with practised ease and he presses down on it, rubbing you in small, tight circles. With the way his hardened body presses into you from behind, clad fully in his armour – a stark contrast to your exposed frame – and his rough praise meets your ear, you almost cum from the miniature ministration alone. But he recognises what your quickening pants mean; he sees how your back arches into him like you’re trying to match the overwhelming pleasure his hands administer, and he pulls away at the last second, fingers returning only to give a sharp smack to your cunt. And of course it echoes – you’re soaked, for Maker’s sake – which only serves to make him repeat the action again and again until you’ve significantly darkened in shade. 

By the time you’re on the brink of collapse, Mando has you sitting between his legs, back to his chest, one leg hooked over a strong arm while you sob your pleas into the empty space of the hull. He fingers you fast and rough, delighting in your high-pitched wails and whiney begs, and forces your first orgasm out of you with an expert quirk of his fingers. It’s torturous relief, like white hot embers dancing upon frozen skin, and your vision blurs as you gush over his vambrace. But he doesn’t let up; he continues drawing them from your sopping core, turning in a complete 180 to overstimulate you until you literally have nothing else to give. 

He manages to serve you in a way no one ever has before – you're a complete, quivering mess by the end – so, you assume that’s the extent of it. But time with Mando proved that was the least he can come up with.

He revels in spreading your legs whenever he gets the chance, taking his time to pull your glistening lips apart and absorb the sight of your clenching hole. He says it amazes him – how such a tight thing is able to stretch over his length – then promptly digs his cock from within the confines of his pants. You find yourself agreeing with the wonder of how it fits; it’s by far the biggest you’ve taken – thick with throbbing veins that weave up to an angry, leaking tip – but his thumbs always dance in reassuring circles along your inner thighs when he presses it against you. And when he pushes in, you forget all about your worries, because the stretch is divine. Mando absolutely fills you up to the brink, the ridges of him catching along your inner walls, and he pounds into you with reckless abandon, like a man starved. It’s simultaneously too much and not enough as he reaches those hidden parts of you – that spongy tissue at the front, the wall of your cervix – and the sensation becomes absolutely addictive. You go cock-dumb without fail, drooling, eyes rolling to the back of your head, and you think he might disappear someplace else as well, with the way his words pour unfiltered. Good girl. Beautiful. So fucking tight. Cum for me, I want to feel you. He turns reverent when he gets you this way, awkward fronts be damned. 

Funnily enough, he’s too impatient for you to go down on him. In the rare moments he forfeits, he has to hold himself back from pulling you up so he can just fuck you already. It’s not that you aren’t good at it, either – no, your tongue is enough to drive the strongest of men wild – but he just… doesn’t put as much priority in his pleasure as yours. It’s something different with you entirely. He doesn’t see sex as a means to relieve his mounting tensions, it’s not the same exchange he’s found in all those brothels. With you, Mando is overcome with the unshakeable urge to wring out every pleasure imaginable. He’s obsessed with the plump of your lips and the folds of your flesh. He dreams of every single part of you everywhere – under his hands, between his legs, in his mouth. 

So, he takes off his helmet to put his lips on yours. And you, who’s naive enough to again suppose that the last, world-ending orgasm was the scope of what he could do, experience it as he transforms into something else entirely. 

His kisses leave no area untouched. They find your neck, tightening as he sucks purple hickeys onto your skin, then pepper down to your chest, where he pecks your pebbled nipples and bites the swollen tissue underneath. Mando leaves a trail of spit and welts in his venture, and you moan under the calamity, combing through his soft curls with shaky fingers. And when he finds you soaked through your panties, your nails dig into his scalp, your tummy flushing with slight embarrassment. The pain sparks something in him, it seems, because he pushes your thighs up with a renewed vigour so he can press his nose onto your clothed cunt. My favourite, he groans between long inhales, before he rips off the cotton barrier that separates his tongue from your clit.

Mando eats you out like he’d rather be doing nothing else. He doesn’t. It’s his favourite pastime, solely for the way you mewl and squirm underneath him. He licks, sucks, drinks from you, uncovering every patch of skin with his warm tongue, which flicks over your bud until you cry and drives into you to collect the subsequent nectar. He spreads you on the floor like a meal, dominating in every way. He kneels before you on a chair, open as you rub his stubble into you. He even insists that you sit on his face: ‘I need to taste you more than I do air.’ You have no reason to doubt it, though. He fucks into his fist when you grind down on his chin, his free hand directing you forward until he can lap at your asshole as well. Mando wants you surging, spilling onto him; crying out his name, his real name, which he whispers to you as you come down from his onslaught.

Din, he beams. To you, mesh’la, it’s Din.

[hatsukeii]

—The Shade.

Pairing(s): ex!idol!Seonghwa x gn!artist!Reader

Genre: angst, post-breakup

TW: nothing much tbh

Includes: stars that hurt to paint.

You can't seem to get the stars right in your painting.

They look too dull.

Well, dull might not be the right way to describe it, but how can anyone describe another artist's dissatisfaction with their own art?

They look too dull.

You take a look around the half-decorated studio space. The smell of cardboard suffocates you, boxes upon boxes stacked onto each other. Beautiful paintings of night skies line the white walls. Some may say they create a panorama.

The stars look too dull.

In hindsight, the silver lining was probably that it ended the week you were supposed to move out. One less box to worry about.

You place the paintbrush down on a wad of folded kitchen towels, running your hands through your hair as you let your head rest on the table in front of you. A sketchbook lies on the table tauntingly. You remember painting the starry sky on its cover. He liked that shade of yellow. Picking the sketchbook up, you rotate it in your hand, opening it up. Flipping through pages of mindless sketches, your fingers trace the granite lines, their colour ingrained into the rough paper. You pay extra attention to the star at the bottom of each drawing, fingers delicately running through the lines time and time again. The book is too much. You throw it aside as it falls to the ground with a dull thump.

With a click, the television turns on as familiar faces flood the screen. Seonghwa looks oddly tired for someone who's promoting his comeback.

He struggles to keep his eyes open, countless sleepless nights gone by. The crowd screams. It is deafening. He knows you can, and will see this. For that, forcing a smile is more of a challenge than it ever has been.

"Hyung, are you sure you don't want to sit this one out?" Seonghwa remembers Hongjoong asking as they got their makeup done. He refused, the group is more important than this, or so he likes to think. Now that he considers the probability of you watching this, he has to think again. His limbs hurt from the intensive practice sessions following up to this moment, his head hurts from crying for weeks, blaming himself and his incompetence for everything, his throat hurts from all the yelling and singing, and by God these lights are fucking killing him can they please turn them down and just let him go home and cry into his pillow again while he holds onto the last thing he can salvage from the box full of his stuff before he crumbles into a heap of meaningless matter-

"Seonghwa? The shoot's finished, let's go."

Finally, it is done. Hopefully, his exhaustion isn't too obvious on camera. He'd rather not have Twitter blow up when it airs.

He may have fooled fans, but he can never fool you. That expression is all too familiar, from late-night talks to breakdowns in the living room of your dorm. With the slight furrow of his brows, the dull sheen that glosses over his eyes, and lips pressed together in a tight smile, it is all a telltale- Seonghwa is not okay.

You sigh, turning away from the television. If only he knew how you couldn’t even bear to watch him through a screen. Your hands once again find themselves dipping a paintbrush into soft, vibrant paint, the program on television now nothing but white noise to liven up the sombre studio. With each star that fails to meet your expectations, the lump in your throat takes over a new part of your body. First your eyes, then your ears, then your head, and finally your arms. You throw the paintbrush, leaving a bright yellow spot on the wall, cradling your head in your hands. Tears don’t fall. Your head hurts, and the ringing in your ears is killing you. The shade of yellow still isn’t fucking right.

Stars never hurt so much to paint, until the person who used to paint them with you no longer made them shine.

Tags: @vanishingboots @canadianwatermelon @dairyminki @bubba-t3a @hanabihwa @troy-on-sea

Note: what the fuck im back????? Im really bored so I decided to finish off my ateez songfic series:) we are ending it with the lovely mr park seonghwa, i havent written in a while so this might be kinda shit srry

[bestworstcase]

Do you think Oscar will get a Semblance? If so, what do you think it would be?

tbh i think either he won’t, or he won’t until he’s separated from ozpin. the semblance is the outward manifestation of the self, yk? it’s a cornerstone of a person’s identity—and oscar’s entire character arc is underpinned by the inescapable fact that he is losing his identity, losing his sense of an individual self, as his soul and ozma’s become gradually more intermingled.

possibly worth noting, towards the end of v8 oscar starts doing the green-afterimages speed burst thing ozpin does in v3; whether that’s magic or a semblance or a mix of both is unclear, but it was unique to ozpin until oscar did it too. it naturally went unremarked upon given the frantic scramble to evacuate mantle and atlas but i’m waiting antsily for it to come up once NORSE have a second to catch their breath. v5 semblance talk with oscar feeling pretty ripe for a reprise

(i Vaguely recall coming across some speculation on this theme a while ago that, iirc, dismissed the possibility that oscar might not get his own semblance due to ozpin’s reincarnations/the merge on the grounds that surely ozpin would have mentioned this during the v5 semblance talk, which lol)

but… yeah with how strongly semblances have been established as expressions of identity/selfhood the possibility of oscar manifesting one while being subsumed by ozma feels very remote—but likewise, if oscar becomes the first reincarnation vessel to meaningfully survive by way of separation from ozpin, it makes sense to me that he might develop a semblance if not literally during or through the process of separation then at least after it? something, something, symbolic claim of personhood outside of predestined role of Designated Meat Puppet, and such.

i haven’t given a lot of thought to what his semblance might be, so just spitballing here—& this is less theorizing than it is mulling it from a writer perspective: after two+ years enduring the chronic existential crisis of literally feeling himself become somebody else, and then hypothetically being freed from that fate, in combination with the traits, mannerisms, and memories he inherited from ozpin via the half-completed merge, my general inclination would be to give him something related to both identity and time—but not time in the direct-manipulation way ozpin seems to have with the green blur trick, more of a fading afterimage of ozma’s affinity with time.

something to do with memories, i think? the obvious pull here is erasure or implantation of false memories but both of those feel subtly wrong for a character so strongly defined by wanting to hold on to who he is for as long as he can—but an ability that could plausibly become that if he chose to push it in that direction seems in keeping with his knack for deception and the manipulative streak he picked up from ozpin’s bad habits. retrocognition might be kind of fun, remembering pasts that are not his own, or else maybe a play on perfect hindsight, like he can revisit his own memories and game out different choices to find (and maybe learn from) optimal strategies that he missed in the moment? the latter would be simplest to loop back to the identity struggle, i think, because you can use the obvious temptation of trying to find the perfect set of decisions and getting lost in the past as a lens to explore oscar’s uncertainty in the present and apprehension of the future now that he has one—and that also loops around into the story’s overall theme of the importance of moving forward and letting go.

so yeah maybe that 🤔

[sawthatmountainburn]

won't go into details for Reasons, but yeah, I also spent a long ignoring very obvious signs of gender queerness due to general Society(tm) and dumb shit I'd read online about the Queer Experience. none of it resonated with me. I didn't have this with my sexuality, which was just "oh yeah I'd like to date the same gender, seems fun" without much drama, but the gender shit involved like 3-5 years of "well I kinda am, but not really, but maybe kinda or maybe it's social dysphoria from all the essentialism idk". yet there were various specific instances of wanting explore being the 'opposite' gender, whether through fiction or through crossdressing, but it seemed like random unrelated flukes until I put them together and found a pattern. hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

I think what happens is that we grow up being taught there's a certain way gender and sexuality work, even with a super liberal upbringing, so when we have feelings that go against the grain our minds cope by going into denial and trying to push the experience into a more familiar mold. that, and sometimes one might just not have the words to express their experience in the first place, but that doesn't seem to be the case here and it wasn't for me either. it doesn't help when other people are also trying to push you into a certain mold or projecting their own insecurities onto you, which unfortunately happens in pretty much every community so it's hard to escape. there's a lot of people who'll happily explain why your doing something to you and deny you any opportunity to assert your own thoughts and feelings (<- people like this are the bane of my existence btw), which works really well to support the self-denial.

anyway, I'm glad you figured it out! I don't know if you would have been happier, I know I wouldn't have in my circumstances, but either way, you can work towards your happiness now. l spent a lot of years ashamed over different things (only like 12% gender stuff tbh) and what drives me now is that I know what's up and I can act on my knowledge to improve my life.

i've been called a dyke my entire life and for some reason didn't realize i'm a lesbian until this very year. i have no idea why i didn't think it was an option for me. i would /srs think things like "omg i miss thinking i'd grow up to be a lesbian :/ and i don't think i'll ever be happy with a man. it's really difficult, must be a mourning of myself because i'm trans." baby you're a butch lesbian. you ARE a butch lesbian. why did it take so long for this i could've been happy!!