#that doesn't really matter since he is now outright stated to be

[nadas-dirthalen]

Societal Change in Dragon Age: the Veilguard

I've seen a lot of posts about how Veilguard doesn't really "move the needle" with Thedas' politics, so to speak. While this isn't a callout of any specific one of them (note the lack of links! this isn't about anyone), I wanted to talk about some changes I saw during my first two runs of Veilguard.

I also want to say that a lot of the changes we saw happen in the world of Inquisition also did not involve direct input from the Inquisitor. Dorian, for instance, was always going to go back to Tevinter and make change. The mage-templar war reaches a peaceful(ish) ending no matter which side the Inquisitor chooses to back. The Chantry moves forward after Justinia's death no matter who becomes Divine. The nobles are mad no matter who is made emperor/empress of Orlais. The Dalish flock to Fen'Harel after Trespasser no matter what.

That said... here's what I can remember off the top of my head.

Arlathan Forest and the Elves:

The Dalish got their land back. While the real-world Land Back movement is (obviously!) far more complex and far-reaching than can be portrayed within a companion quest in a video game, the fact remains: in my playthrough, not only did the Veil Jumpers (and by extension, the Dalish) get Arlathan Forest back, the magic there also stabilized. (Editing Note: this stabilization is implied through the slide with high faction strength, and stated outright in the ending with low faction strength, which says, "For the Veil Jumpers, the fall of the last elven gods left raw magic and chaos in its wake." Rook, therefore, decides whether Arlathan is habitable or not, since Arlathan's magic is described as fatal for most people during banter with a Veil Jumper Rook.)

The elves potentially also get their ancient knowledge back. Depending on what you chose for the Nadas Dirthalen, the Dalish potentially got a lot of their old technology and knowledge back, potentially putting them even further ahead in terms of magical technology than Tevinter in some areas.

... Or the Veil Jumpers chose a different path forward for the elves. If the Nadas Dirthalen was kept hidden, Rook and Bellara chose a path where the Dalish refuse to become like their predecessors, forever changing the path of Dalish reclamation efforts. The Dalish, then, become something other than what their ancestors were. Either way, the Dalish are significantly impacted.

(if the griffons were given back to Arlathan) An apex predator was returned to Arlathan. If you want to read more about how cool of a change this is, I suggest reading about how cool it is that wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone.

(added in edits) The truth about the Evanuris is well-known, or will be soon. Davrin says that while he did not notify many Dalish about the truth of the Evanuris during the events of Veilguard, it is the Veilguard's duty to inform them after. The same will likely prove true with Andrastians, and the Chantry at large. The truth will soon come to light—and even though rapid religious change has already been undergone once because of the cause of the Blights (Tevinter moved away from the worship of their old gods, save for the Venatori, because their old gods were the archdemons spearheading the Blights), the elves are already victims of prejudice in Thedas. The Chantry's response to the truth will likely be influenced by that prejudice. HOWEVER, it is my firm belief that the Evanuris also exist in the Chant of Light as the Maker's first children, and that truth being revealed or uncovered simultaneously has the potential to change the shape of the public's response across Thedas.

Kal-Sharok, Orzammar, and the Dwarves:

The titans' history has been remembered. Remember in Descent where it was said very prominently that Orzammar had struck all memories of the titans? That something political was motivating how the titans were entirely forgotten about? Now, thanks to the events of Veilguard, there is no turning back. No amount of suppression can make the world forget the titans now.

DWARVES. HAVE. MAGIC. NOW. Read that ending slide again! "The dwarven people rediscovering their lost magic, and their connection to the Stone." This is something the dwarven people have not had for literal millennia, and it's thanks to ROOK and HARDING that this change has taken root! Not Valta, but Rook!

Kal-Sharok continues to become more known to the world after being sealed off. We continue to get closer to understanding exactly what happened to Kal-Sharok after it was sealed off, and this is going to inform our understanding of the titans and the blight even more as time goes on.

Healing the titans has huge implications for the existence of red lyrium. Between Solas doing what he can (in his good endings) to soothe the blight's anger and (more importantly) dwarves connected to the Stone like Harding doing work to soothe the titans' anger on Thedas itself, we will likely see red lyrium gradually fade away all across Thedas.

The caste system of the dwarves is likely to be impacted by recent revelations. Regardless of what, exactly, is chosen going forward, it is clear the dwarves will take a good look at their own beliefs and practices about the Stone now that the truth about the titans has come to light. Their feelings about surface dwarves versus those who live purely underground are likely to be impacted here! I can't wait to see dwarf politics in DA5!

The Grey Wardens & Weisshaupt:

The Wardens don't hear the Calling anymore thanks to Rook's actions. You know... the thing that defines the life of a Warden? The thing that shortens their lifespan? That's gone. This has been a PILLAR of their organization since Origins, and the absence of the Calling is absolutely going to lead to massive change within the Wardens.

The blight is less virulent—AKA, it is greatly weakened, and has died in some parts of Thedas. Yes, completely. Read that again. Read that as many times as it takes for it to sink in. The blight has been a huge, looming threat for over one thousand years. For the first time ever, it is on its way out. Perhaps for good.

For the first time, new growth is coming back to the Anderfels and other blighted areas on Thedas. Discovering this—and keeping the Wardens alive long enough to discover this—is forever going to change the directives of the Wardens and the lands that were previously too blighted to thrive. The Anderfels, we know, are coming back to life—but some other zones that come to mind here are the Silent Plains, parts of Antiva, Denerim... anywhere a Blight ended in the past, or anywhere that the blight completely overtook in the past.

Minrathous:

An abolitionist sits on the Archon's throne!!! For the first time ever, someone who wants to end slavery is the head of Tevinter government. This is a huge step forward for the movement to end Tevinter slavery, which has had to exist in the shadows more or less until now (which we see even in the upper echelons of the altus class, in Maevaris, who was kicked out of the Magisterium for her anti-slavery views).

(added in edits) The Imperial Divine is also an abolitionist. While I did not include this point earlier because Rook has no hand in selecting Ashur/the Viper as the Divine, it is important context by the game's ending. Having abolitionists as Archon and Divine means there is tremendous potential for rapid, popular change in Tevinter. I am very excited to see where this goes in DA5!

The blight died in Minrathous when Elgar'nan was slain. Not just eased. Died. Because Minrathous was the epicenter for what happened to the Veil and the blight at the time, all blight in the city is dead. This proves that the blight can truly be ended, as well as cured. That's not secret knowledge anymore, if all of Minrathous knows it.

Treviso:

The Crows have been changed by Teia and Viago's actions during Veilguard. No matter if Treviso is blighted or not, Teia and Viago have brought the Crows into a different sphere than perhaps they were under Talons like Aranai in Origins. The Crows have a direct part to play not just in the governance of Antiva (which we knew about) but the governance of individual cities and even the organization of Antiva's military power. This was less prevalent before Veilguard (because we weren't in Antiva, but also because Antiva didn't have a Blight to defend against), but now that the Crows have stood against the Final Blight, there's no going back from the precedent their actions have set.

The Crows have a new First Talon—one who will undoubtedly bring reform. While Lucanis is no stranger to murder and there's no doubt in my mind that the Crows will continue doing just that, Teia and Viago now have a lot more pull within the Crows (and their humanitarian efforts by extension) because one of their closest allies is now First Talon.

Rivain & the Antaam:

An influx of former Antaam are potentially joining the existing Qunari in Rivain. By appealing to Antaam deserters, Taash and their allies are showing that there is a life possible for kossith (Qunari) outside of the teachings of the Qun—without attacking/invading under the orders of the Arishok. We have not seen this on this grand a scale before, and it will be fascinating to see what ripple effect this has on the rest of Qunari culture.

There is a gap left by the Antaam within Qunari society, too. While not tackled upfront in Veilguard, the fact remains that one of the three pillars of Qunari society left the Qun. Whether this is the entirety of the Antaam or a significant part of its forces, I don't know, but this will have destabilized the Qunari and will open the way for a lot of questions and change within their own society, too.

Knowledge about the adaari and about who the Qunari were before Thedas is emerging. We've seen with the elves and dwarves that when this kind of history is revealed over time, great changes happen within societies in Thedas. I can't wait to see what that means for the kossith/Qunari!

The Necropolis & the Mourn Watch:

The Mourn Watch are aware that an entire lineage of people on Thedas were spirits that took physical shape by crafting bodies made of lyrium. Knowledge of spirits has tremendously shifted. This changes the understanding of what a spirit even is, versus the soul of a living person.

(if Manfred is alive) It is increasingly apparent that spirits "grow" and mature in the same way that living children do, becoming more complex over time. This has big implications for the recognition of spirits as their own sort of people—not just in Nevarra, but everywhere.

It will soon become more common knowledge that the existence of the Veil is what ended elven immortality. This changes everything that the Mourn Watch knows about what mortality even is!

With the blight less virulent, it is possible that other cultures in Thedas start burying their dead, rather than cremating them. This could lead to a widespread rise in necromancy and/or Nevarran belief!

Orlais:

Orlais endured a rebellion of its noble class. While we can presume that their monarch survived it (and therefore probably cemented themselves as an effective leader, surviving the Final Blight and rebellion), there is just as much to be said for if they did not survive it (which would throw Orlais into political turmoil all over again). Either way, Orlais looks different as a political power going forward.

Val Royeaux—the seat of the Southern Chantry and its Divine—fell. While listed as under rebel control, I think there is just as much to be said here: the Orlesian people were likely shaken by the fall of Val Royeaux, and combined with the knowledge that will come of the Evanuris, the titans, and the Andrastian faith after the events of Veilguard, I can see a shift in how Andrastianism is perceived in Orlais, and the South as a whole.

Ferelden:

The Chasind and Avvar have allied themselves with Fereldan leaders, a shift from their former lives secluded from other Fereldan humans after a prior history of conflict with them.

Ferelden made an attempt at peace with Orlais. Whether this attempt was answered remains unclear due to communication difficulties during the worst of the Final Blight, but the Fereldan envoys were not attacked outright. This suggests that tensions between Ferelden and Orlais cooled, if even a little bit. However, it is unclear if this will remain true, given that Orlais might be in a weaker position than Ferelden due to this late lapse in communication.

Free Marches:

The Free Marches united under Prince Vael. From a quick look at the wiki, it's been 700 years since unification was even attempted.

The Free Marches fared better against the Blight than Orlais and Ferelden, and were even marching south to lend aid to Ferelden by the game's finale.

__

And there you have it! That's what I can think of that has changed in Thedas, either because of Rook or not because of Rook, in Veilguard. And again: many changes in Inquisition were either not the Inquisitor's choice (like Dorian going home, or the truth of the Evanuris being revealed over time) or did not have consequences that led into the next game (even in DAI's epilogue, before Veilguard, the nobles are upset whether Celene or Gaspard are on the throne).

But one thing is true: whether you enjoyed Veilguard or not, it is not true that nothing happened during the game. Much did! The Veil may not have come down, and Rook may not have had an omniscient perspective looking down on Thedas at changes outside their immediate scope, but the world did change around them.

[pha55ed]

You and I | F2 (kimi bday celly!)

type ::fluff tw/cw :: fem!reader for all :( contains :: kimi!, ollie, paul, pepe request :: you and i w kimi ollie paul & pepe plsss (literally my top 4 drivers LOLL im surprised by how many f2 requests there are) link to kimi bday celly!

Kimi Antonelli | 04

Being one of the only girls in F2 meant that you were basically shipped with everyone on the grid, no matter if you ever talked to them. It was odd, but you expected all the ships to die down eventually, which most did. Except one ship: you and Kimi. It made sense, since you both are teammates after all.

Kimi doesn't know how to react to the shipping. Because on one hand, he knows it's inappropriate since you're teammates but on the other hand, he has a huge crush on you so he doesn't really mind it. So he's stuck in the middle, not sure what to do when asked anything about you.

When people ask him things like, "Have you seen the (Y/N) x Kimi fans?" or "Have you considered dating (Y/N)?" he just awkwardly laughs. Which is the worse option he could have done, since it just fueled the fanbase even more because he wasn't outright denying it.

But, he might have planned that: since he does love seeing all the edits of you two together :)

Ollie Bearman | 87

Since he's one of the most popular F2 drivers, he's already experienced being shipped with other people often. But usually he's shipped with boys, and he's comfortable with his sexuality to not get offended by the shipping since he knows he's not gay. The only issue now with being shipped with you is 1. you're a girl, 2. he does like you.

Whenever he's asked about you, he gets slightly flustered. It's clear to many that he might have a crush on you, but thanks to his delusional fan girls (I'm one of them) they spam Twitter and Instagram stating that you're just platonic soulmates with Ollie.

But Ollie is secretly basking in the ship edits of you and him. He doesn't want to be your platonic soulmate, he just wants to be your soulmate, period. Since he scrolls online so often to keep feeding his crush on you, he accidentally likes one of the ship edits.

This sends twitter into a meltdown, tons of moms and teen girls sobbing over Ollie basically confirming that he likes you. But thankfully, they gaslight themselves into thinking he thought it was a platonic edit. He knew damn well what he liked, but he's not allowed to say anything since it's a risk for PR and contracts - having two drivers date each other can get messy so fast. But he'd be ready to risk it all for you.

Paul Aron | 17

He's surprisingly bashful about the ships of you two, it's cute to watch him turn slightly pink in the ears and cheek at the mention of your ship name. Whenever he's asked about you, he can't help but try and lead the interviewer on - yet never give them a full answer of your relationship.

Your team won't allow you two to date, due to the high stakes and PR damage it would do. Especially since you're both so sought after - Paul being wanted by every girl, and you being wanted by every boy. But Paul didn't care for any girl besides you, you're all he wants and he's determined to get you. Most likely by dating under the table, hiding it from the world.

Whenever interviewers ask him things about his love life, he always hints that he has his eye on someone. Or whenever he's blantanlty asked about you, he can't help but smile a little and give a cheeky shrug, since he can't speak much on the matter.

As your teammate, he does try to flirt with you - but not in a douchebag way. Which is surprisingly, since his Instagram posts and friends scream frat-boy, he's different from them. He tries to take it slow with you, not wanting to scare you away by being seeming like a weirdo or asshole in any way.

Pepe Marti | 21

Being shipped with you made him happy and he's unable to hide that. He's naturally super smiley, so when he hears your name - it's almost as if you can see his tail wag at the mention of you. Just like a puppy, he has major puppy-love for you.

But he tries his best to not feed into the ships due to it going against the contracts and policies in place. His face just can't hide it though, he's grinning ear to ear when asked if he would ever date you. Only for him to reply, "Only if I got the chance to :)"

Basically: he makes your PR team work overtime to ensure the audience that you two are JUST friends. But it's hard to do when Pepe straight up tries to hold your hand in the paddock. Or when he posts on Instagram that you're visiting his family for dinner.

Thankfully, the PR are great at manipulating the public to believe you two are just friends - which you are technically,,, but you both know you're so much more than that.

[leonawriter]

It's a normal day in school - that is to say, school in Ekoda, Japan, since if he were in education in England he'd currently be attending college rather than the equivalent of Secondary education. More to the point, Saguru has been in and out of Japan often enough that the simple task of working in a teacher-assigned group was proving... difficult.

Their teacher must have noticed that although he could get along with almost any of the others merely by being polite, Kuroba did tend to act out less around him. Because they had been put in the same group, and expected to work together.

Only fifteen minutes in, however, and he could tell that things weren't working out. When Kuroba wasn't being belligerent, he was outright ignoring him.

Four and a half minutes later, and Kuroba wasn't even anywhere to be seen. Most likely he was somewhere nearby still, but the possibility remained that he'd simply taken off.

It was a state of affairs that had Saguru unable to stifle a sigh, no matter his relief that Aoko was still there with him.

"I get the impression," he said quietly, "that Kuroba-kun actively dislikes me. Perhaps I should have a word with the teacher and dissuade her from pairing us together, in future."

For an entire two minutes and thirty five seconds, Aoko didn't say anything. He glanced over, only to see her frowning.

"Really...? Aoko... isn't sure."

He blinks, confused and surprised. Surely she should have picked up on the awkward tension between them, by now-?

"Really?" He said dryly. "He can't ever seem to get rid of me fast enough."

It didn't matter how long it had been since the way he'd acted when they'd first met, or how he'd changed since then. Kuroba had made up his mind, and Saguru would be lying if he said that it did not, from time to time, hurt.

Aoko again took her time to think of how to respond.

"Kaito... Aoko thought he'd stopped doing that ages ago. He used to, after-" she cut herself off, but he could fill in the blanks. Kuroba's father was dead, after all, and grief did things to people. To children, especially. "He pushes people away when he thinks they're getting too close. He tried to push me and 'tou-san away too, but we're stubborn, and he doesn't bother anymore. But you didn't hear Aoko say any of that."

"Of course."

Kuroba didn't return for the rest of their classes.

Later that evening, Nakamori called with the news that a notice had somehow been delivered. Fairly straightforward, but in being so easily read it was also easy to read into it - the heist was due to take place once Saguru was supposed to already be back in London again.

The pieces were falling into place. He still had many missing, and it would be preferable to get confirmation from Kuroba himself (or Kid, if the case may be), but it was a working theory.

"It's a damn shame you won't be here," Nakamori was saying in the here and now, Saguru's attention snapping back to the problem at hand. "Could do with your help."

"No need for that," he heard himself say. "I'll be there."

It wouldn't take too much, to cancel his plans.

He was sure that the Kaitou Kid Task Force likely thought that the smile on his face was the result of him thinking of innovative new ways to trip Kid up - and in a way, they weren't wrong. Kid couldn't possibly be expecting Saguru to have decided that like hell was he just going to let himself be pushed away like that; now that he knew what was needed, he'd be as stubborn as it took.

[thegh0st-of-ingrid]

Alright, little Modern AU IvanTill scenario (Tw: probably ooc)

Premise: it's difficult (at least for me) to immagine the alnst characters in a modern setting since the enviorment they grew up in is really different from ours. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that their mental states and behaviors don't exist in a modern setting but that there they would be dealt with in different ways

So, in this AU Ivan and Till are childhood friends that growing up had a pretty tumultuous relationship but always stuck together at the end of the day no matter what

In this au I'm mantaining Ivan's "I'm unlovable but that's how it is" mentality and less relevant for the scenario Till's avoidant tendency and more relevant the 'if I don't get too attached than I won't suffer once they're ripped away from me' that than evolves in 'I can't/don't want to let you go' mentality once there's an attachment (this is ispired by a line from Cure and one from Blink Gone) for the sake of this AU. I'll leave the 'why are they like this in this AU?' up to you.

Ok, so, in this AU their feelings are ultimately mutual, and after a really bad event akin to the canon meteor shower (or the round 6 kiss, something that makes Ivan's feeling clear to Till) they reconcile and start a situationship.

Till is trying to navigate this new found stability in the relationships but something worries him, they don't put a name to what they are since what they have is clearly not the friendship they had anymore, and Till is ok with it. What's bothering him is that he know that their feelings are mutual by now, but Ivan just keeps giving him mixed signals and deny his feelings to the point that it's driving Till crazy with confusion, bc even though they both want to be more than what they are, Ivan would walk away from it as soon as this truth get's too concrete.

After some attempts at bringing their situation up Till finally snaps and confronts Ivan about what really are they in what would be an arguement that would have outright ended their relationship if Ivan wasn't also on the breaking point of his own internal conflict that had him confront the reality that Till loved him, a thing that went against everything he belived.

Thanks for reading this idea loosely ispired by Super Psycho Love by Simon Curtis

[purrincess-chat]

I need a reasonable person's opinion. Do you think the entirety of NYC Special is Marinette and Adrien cheating on their respective partners? Or others trying to get them to commit cheating? I've seen this take more than once, and I'm genuinely confused.

Really rich coming from the crowd that has been begging them to cheat on each other as LadyNoir ever since Adrinette got together. I guess it's fine so long as Adrinette is the one crashing and burning 🙄🙄 but I digress.

I went back and watched the beginning of the NY special to be sure, and I think this encompasses the way the show handled the rival ships as a whole, not just in this special. Because at the start of the NY special, we have both Chat Noir and Marinette proclaiming that they've both moved on and accepted the fact that the person they're in love with just doesn't love them back/isn't meant to be. But it's glaringly obvious that they aren't over each other throughout the special. And in Marinette's case, her friends knew as much and had an oh, you're over him? Riiiight 😉 reaction because we also know that she wasn't. And this issue surrounding the rivals wasn't just isolated to the NY special, it was the entire premise of the rival ships. And I know the rival ship lovers will hate to see me say it, but the rival ships were only there to solidify to us that the love square is meant to be. There was literally an episode where the blue boy took Marinette on a date, and she kept calling him Adrien. When he got akumatized to try and learn her secret, everyone kept telling him she was in love with Adrien, and he was like yeah, no shit, I know. It was a well known fact, even to him, that Marinette was not over Adrien, and he clearly wasn't that upset about it. Cuck

Now, as for the NY special in particular, I'm sure you/the people with this take are referring to the way Marinette's friends schemed to shove them together on the trip. Marinette herself was in full denial mode and insistent on being his friend, and everyone could clearly tell she was in denial. I think their motives weren't intended to encourage cheating, but to force Marinette to confront her feelings rather than running away from them. Because it wasn't healthy, and they could tell she wasn't being truthful with herself, and subsequently, her boyfriend. In the end, when Alya encourages Marinette to chase after Adrien, it's Alya pushing Marinette to accept that she isn't over him and decide whether she's going to do anything about it. Is she ready to let him go truly? Or is she only hurting herself more by pretending she is and letting go of something that could make her happy? It wasn't about the blue boy, or even Adrien really. It was about Marinette being honest with herself. It's fine for her to admit she isn't over Adrien. But refusing to admit she wasn't was hurting her, and inadvertently him too. In that scene, Adrien wanted to stay with his friends, but Marinette let him go because she was so far in denial and insistent that they were just friends. And in that insistence, she didn't want it to seem like she liked him, so she didn't ask him to stay, which hurt both of them. That's why Alya pushed her to decide.

As for did cheating actually occur? No. Both were very much in a friendzone, even a forced one, the whole trip. And their rival relationships weren't brought up the entire time either. There was no "oh no, I can't be into him because I'm with the blue boy now" or "oh, Adrien is in a relationship, I'm going to respect that" it was strictly Marinette just outright stating she wasn't into him anymore because she decided it wasn't going to happen because of her numerous failed attempts at pursuing him. She was trying to convince herself and her friends that she was moving on, but the truth of the matter was that she wasn't. And they knew. And I could see two motives for them pressing her like they did. 1. To prove to her that she wasn't over Adrien in order to get her to confront those feelings properly either by breaking things off with blue boy and actually pursuing Adrien or properly dealing with them so she can actually move on, or 2. Letting her prove that she was actually over him and getting past that barrier so they can actually be friends like she was insisting. (But let's be for real they knew it was the first one).

All in all, her friends just wanted her to be happy. She's been a hot mess the entire time, and now she was giving up entirely without even knowing how he felt about her. Because, mind you, she never once confessed to Adrien prior to that. She just gave up and was like oh, I'll go be with this person because I can't seem to muster up the courage to tell Adrien. Which is a shitty excuse to be with someone and was unfair to the blue boy too. That's why their relationship crashed and burned too. Same with Adrigami. Neither one was really over their first love, something both rivals came to realize. They were destined to fail, which wasn't isolated to just the NY special. I feel like cheating is a hand-wavy argument at best because no cheating actually happened, and the motive behind everyone's actions wasn't to cheat, it was to stop denying the truth. And the rival ships broke up the literal next episode after that for other reasons so 🤷‍♀️ And funnily enough those episodes are titled Truth and Lies because the truth of the matter was, they were both lying to themselves. (And subsequently their partners)

I guess tldr, no, they didn't cheat, and anyone insisting that they did is probably just bitter the rival ships only lasted half an episode. I wouldn't let it bother you.

[menfenced]

I've seen a lot of posts in the last 24 hours about why Kamala lost and I feel like most of them are failing to actually look at reasons voters are giving. Instead, they're putting forward what they personally didn't like about Kamala's campaign. But here's the thing to remember... You didn't like that thing about Kamala's campaign. You still voted for her. There's something else going on.

Because people didn't just vote against Kamala. They voted FOR Trump, and early polling results are showing they did it across the board in almost every demographic.

I've seen the calls for investigations into voter fraud and voter suppression because "this doesn't just happen!" and I agree with one thing. This doesn't "just" happen. There's a reason and democrats aren't listening. Because it's not just a handful of counties that got hacked or had crazy people trying to stop votes or didn't get all of their ballots counted. That's not to say that none of that stuff happened, of course. There may have been serious issues in some counties. But across the board, in nearly every state and every county, even if he didn't outright win, Trump made gains. The only two states where he didn't make gains: Washington State and Utah.

If that's due to voter fraud or hacked elections, it would have to be on a scale unlike anything we have ever seen before and honestly, we don't have any evidence of that right now.

So what happened? What do we know?

We know that since the pandemic and since the record inflation that caused, incumbent leaders all over the world have been losing elections at higher rates than usual. That crosses all political persuasions and again, has been seen across the globe.

Based on polling prior to the election, which remained fairly consistent throughout the election run, 3/4 US voters think the country is on the wrong track and 2/3 are unhappy with the economy.

Biden's approval rating when this election started was 40-41%

This is all a recipe for an incumbent losing, which to be frank, most people still saw Kamala as, even though she was running instead of Biden.

In addition to all of that, let's look at what the exit polls showed.

Kamala's approval rating in the exit polls was 48.5%

Donald Trump's approval ratings in the exit polls was 44.54%

And I know he wasn't running, but just for context Biden's approval ratings were 40%

When asked if Harris's views were too extreme, 46% said yes, 51% said no.

When asked if Trump's views were too extreme, 55% said yes, 43% said no.

So how did he win?

People like him less and think he's more extreme. Why did they vote for him?

Well, let's look at some other polling data.

45% of voters said that their family's personal financial situation was worse off than it was four years ago.

Only 25% said their financial situation was better than it was 4 years ago.

75% of people polled said that in the last year, inflation has caused them either severe or moderate hardship.

When asked who can bring needed change, 73% of voters said Trump and only 25% said Harris.

What that means is that a majority of American's don't like Trump. They don't think he's a good person. They think he's too extreme. And yet they still voted for him because the issue that was most important in this election was the economy.

Will Trump be better for the economy?

No.

But there's a perception that the current administration did not do everything they could have to fix it and people were willing to roll the dice on someone different.

Maybe we could have done more. Kamala only had 110 days to make her case and no matter what she said, the fact remained that she is the sitting VP. Maybe there was no way for her to escape the incumbent/status quo perception.

I hope we can learn something from the behavior of the American electorate this year, and I really hope Trump doesn't fuck things up too bad before we get another chance to step in, because the Republican Party is learning things too. They're learning that they can be as extreme as they want, but if they can make people believe the economy will work better under their leadership, even if it's not true, they'll still get votes.

[betweenthings2]

was rereading your prompts (as i often do) and i got to this one https://www.tumblr.com/betweenthings2/754773732176887808/now-long-has-it-been-since-someone-hugged-you

in it george says “Matty, I'm here. I'm here 'cause I wanted to be with you, no matter what state you were in. I wouldn't have left if you were high when I got here. I wouldn't have left. Only reason I would have left is if you weren't here."

anyway i think a blurb where george shows up and matty IS high would be really interesting to see and i’d love to see you write it :)

First of all, I am so touched that you reread my prompts!! 🥹 <- this is me reading that. Second, thank you so much for the brilliant, phenomenal, wonderful prompt!! I love it. The referenced prompt is linked here =)

Time passes strangely for Matty when he's high, especially when he consistently as high as he's been. He's not sure how long it's been since he talked to another human being, or how long it's been since he talked to another person who wasn't he dealer. He doesn't know when he last bathed or ate properly or did the shopping. He doesn't know where is phone is, if it's charged, or what notifications he has. All Matty knows is that he wants to be high. Life falls into a routine of getting high, then being high, then coming down and getting high again, over and over.

Matty would be lying if he said he wasn't fairly contented with that. He likes being high--it's comfortable and quiet. His brain isn't running faster than he can keep up, he hasn't made a stupid mistake in ages, he hasn't had an outsized emotional reaction to something small in ages, and none of the little aches and pains that he's begun to accumulate from years of treating his body like it's replaceable bother him. He's comfortable. It's nice.

Sure, he hasn't spoke to his friends and family in ages and sure, a drug habit is ridiculously expensive, but he's fairly certain that his friends and family won't abandon him over this, not when this is what he needs to keep being him, and the royalties keep rolling in, so it's fine. And sure, Matty might miss human contact a little bit, what what's a human touch compared to the warm embrace of opioids?

The only thing Matty would be willing to admit outright is that he misses George. He knows this is driving a wedge between them and he loves George, he does, but George loves him and George is not the kind of person who gives up on someone he loves, therefore he won't give up on Matty, even if, by his own words, Matty is a neurotic, fucked-up, emotionally stunted junkie who barely finished high school. George would have about fifteen different positive descriptors for Matty and he wouldn't let it go until Matty said something vaguely positive about himself.

So yeah, Matty misses George, he just doesn't know how to reach out. Not like this. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it seems like George is going to solve that problem because he appears in Matty's living room one afternoon. At least, Matty thinks it's afternoon. He's kept all the curtains drawn for a while and he's just upped his dose a bit, so he's very, very high, so high that he really has no idea when it is and that he's sure George is some kind of hallucination or weird dream brought on by continued opioid abuse.

George doesn't act like a figment of Matty's imagination, though. Matty's not sure what he would do if he were, but what George does do is take a long look at Matty, sprawled out on the carpeted floor, needle in his hand, then check his pulse. His fingers are warm and calloused against Matty's neck and he relaxes a bit when he finds Matty's pulse, a little bit slowed, but steady all the same.

"How are high are you?" George asks, resigned.

Matty can hear the disappointment in George's voice, so he shakes his head and slurs, "'m not high."

"Don't," George says. "Just answer me."

"'m not high," Matty repeats. "'m Matty."

"Alright," George says. "I'm gonna get you to bed and you can sleep it off, yeah?"

"Not high," Matty insists. He is. He's so high. It's nice and he doesn't want to go to bed, he wants to keep laying here on the living room floor with his next high within reach.

George doesn't really respond to that, just gently removes the belt Matty had used as a tourniquet and sets it on the coffee table, before saying again, "Let's get you to bed."

Matty shakes his head. "Comfy here," he says.

"Oh, love," George murmurs, brushing hair from Matty's forehead. His fingers are cool against Matty's skin. That's nice too, Matty thinks.

"Like that," Matty mumbles.

"Yeah," George murmurs. "You help me get you to bed and I'll keep doin' it, how's that sound?"

Matty doesn't have an answer to that. All he knows is that George's hands feel nice and he doesn't want that to stop. He wants to keep being comfortable and floaty and happy with George's gentle fingers against his skin.

George apparently doesn't need an answer because he just moves so he can pick Matty up and carry him to his bedroom. It's a little bit disorienting to simply be moved, but George is warm and he's careful, so Matty rests his head against George's shoulder and closes his eyes again.

The next thing Matty knows, George is tucking the duvet around him. That's kind of nice, too, Matty thinks. George's care is nice. Sure, he doesn't deserve it, but Matty has never deserved George's care and he's here anyway. Matty is high out of his mind, and George has stayed. Matty was passed out on the living room floor with a needle in his arm and George has stayed, but now he's leaving, so Matty reaches out with a clumsy hand, not sure how to ask George to stay.

"I'll be right back," George promises, taking Matty's hand for a moment. "Promise. I'm not leaving."

George probably isn't lying, Matty figures, so he doesn't protest again when George goes. Matty isn't sure how long George is gone, but he does come back, setting a glass of water and painkillers on the nightstand and a bin by the bed when he does. He squeezes Matty's hand for a moment, then he's gone again, but he comes back a few moments later and sits on the other side of the bed. It takes an almost herculean effort but Matty moves to put his head in George's lap, hoping for more gentle touches. After all, George promised.

"I'm here," George murmurs, combing his fingers through Matty's hair. "I've got you and I'm not goin' anywhere, not now. Just sleep."

Sleep sounds good, Matty thinks, so he lets himself fall back into the nothingness of sleep. The last thing he registers is George's fingers, still combing through his hair.

George is still there when Matty wakes up. There's no daylight filtering through the gaps in the heavy curtains, just streetlights, and he's not quite dope sick, not yet, so he can't have been asleep for too long, but George is asleep, his head resting against the wall. Part of Matty wonders if George still being here is just his brain playing tricks on him. Maybe he overdosed and this is his brain conjuring up something marginally good in the last few minutes of activity. Maybe he's in a hospital somewhere because George did actually come by but he called an ambulance rather than trying to take of Matty himself, so this is Matty's mind trying to protect him.

Matty forces himself to sit up and rests his hand on George's shoulder, asking, "George? Wake up? Please?"

George is a little bit slow to wake up at first, but when he sees Matty he seems to perk up instantly. "Hi," he says. "How do you feel?"

"You're here," Matty says, ignoring George's question. "You're really here. Still."

George nods. "'course I am."

"And you didn't leave," Matty continues. He's having a hard time convincing himself this is real.

"'course not," George agrees. "I wouldn't do that to you."

"But I was, when you got here, I was-"

"Matty," George interrupts, gentle, "I wasn't going to leave you. I wouldn't."

"But-"

"I know," George interrupts again. "You were outta your mind. You're still Matty. I'm not leaving you to be ill on your own and, honestly, I wanted to make sure you woke up."

"Oh," is all Matty can say. "I, I'm sorry." He can feel tears beginning to well up in his eyes. He hasn't cried in ages.

"Don't cry, love," George murmurs, reaching out to wipe a tear from Matty's cheek.

In the low light, Matty can see the box tattooed on George's thumb and it makes him feel worse, reminds him of everything he's screwing up and throwing away and that just serves to make him feel worse.

"How 'bout goin' back to sleep?" George tries. "We can talk about it in the morning."

That's a good idea in theory and it's worked on Matty before, but he needs another hit if he's going to be coherent in the morning, so he nods and goes to climb out of bed, saying, "Ok, just give me a minute. I'll be right back."

George catches Matty's wrist before he can get far and says, "No. I know where you're going and I'm not going to let you keep doing this. Do you want to go back to rehab?"

Matty would fight, he should fight, but he doesn't have any fight left in him and George's hand around his wrist makes him feel small and frail, so he stops. "I'm going to be sick in the morning." He says it like it'll somehow change George's mind, even though he knows it won't.

"Then I'll take care of you," is George's answer. "I always will."

[luna-loveboop]

Wild's apology

Since I really love proper apologies and taking account for actions, I MUST rant about Wild's apology because there are so many details making it... good. Just good.

First panel face, he looks uncertain. Hyrule said the little guy wanted to talk to him, but he doesn't know if it's only one little guy

We have the best opening line we all love, hoping he can imitate Zelda's diplomacy. Wild did not- his apologizing varied wildly from Zelda's, and I think that's a really good thing

His Zelda's diplomacy is a royal style, seen in totk memories. When diplomatic, she uses formal words and straight posture, with her hands at her side or clasped in front. She doesn't need to say it's formal, since that's assumed. Wild did not imitate her exact style, but he kept the end goal of peace.

This whole first panel with him showing such tension, hoping with all his might it goes well, resolving to act the best he can to fix it... yes

There's something really telling about Wild's face walking in. He looks angry. With everything we've seen of his actions after twilight was injured, it's clear by now that when Wild's scared, it comes out as anger. All the previous yelling was because he was scared.

Since Wild's face looks angry walking in, after deciding to imitate diplomacy? I think he was terrified.

One thing I love watching in people is how much the smallest body parts can show their thoughts. Hands can tell a lot about how someone's feeling. When Wild starts talking to Four, his hands show he's being open.

Arms down at his side, palms up and hand reaching out. That hand and arm position shows vulnerability- he's literally opening his body to be open in his words and feelings.

And he's says "I know why you wanted to see me", which, well

lol

Still, he came in immediately speaking to work to patch things up. The words "I'm ashamed"... admitting you're wrong is hard. Even harder is discussing the feelings that come with it.

Moving on, Wild's moving ahead to apologizing.

Wild is not royalty, and neither is four. Truly imitating Zelda's diplomacy with royal posture and attitude would have been weird. What they are is warriors, comrades who win battles together. And four works with the captain, who certainly sets an example of military respect. This is where him not exactly imitating Zelda's diplomacy is better, since he is not a princess.

He's a soldier in this moment. We don't know how much he remembers of his initial knighthood, but his soldier diplomacy kicked in here. He's basically standing at attention in the side view. Four is much shorter than him, but his straight posture and forward facing head (not looking down) shows absolute respect regardless of height. He outright states it's a formal apology.

Awesome. It's not polished or perfect, there was a pause before the rather awkwardly phrased statement about initiating. But awkwardness makes it real. His face still looks fairly angry here! I still interpret it as fear.

His hands are straight at his side, then formally on his chest. He can't be the perfect knight anymore- instead he's awkward and unpolished. But he's doing diplomacy the best he knows how, even if four absolutely did not care about a formal tone.

Moving on! Four's listening.

Wild loosens up here. There's only so long our wild child can be formal, so he's not unnaturally pausing and trying to phrase things formally anymore

Hand placement: the hand behind the head is the Link pose we all know, where apparently it's a part of the hero's spirit when feeling awkward.

His hand goes from behind his head to held up in the air when saying "look, I'm sorry for shoving ya" I honestly like to think of this as pulling the apology from behind his head lol. Thinking for words "now where did I put that apology?" Finds it and holds it up "look! I'm sorry. It was just in the back of my mind."

His hand then goes down to his side, and he's open again. Palm out, he's putting him out there.

His word choice matters. "ya"

"Honestly, that warranted an all out brawl" ... good. He's saying his actions were wrong- that he deserved anger towards him. Saying "all out brawl" validates fours actions. It warranted an all out brawl... that says that to wild, what four did was ok. All of it sucked, but it's ok.

My favourite line. "Thanks for going easy on me." It's important in so many ways for humility, showing respect, and how four could have done more, blah blah blah anyways I like it because I can imagine he says that and then the purple part of four just grins like "yeah I totally could have beat you up glad we're clear on that". I mean Four has done nothing but manically cackle when someone mentions his secret, so I think he probably had a devilish grin inside when Wild said thanks for going easy on me.

It's an apology and it's awkward! Awkward pauses, awkward faces. Hand behind the head, "ya". It was awkward. He kept going, showed sincerity. He struggled ahead, forging his way through (no pun intended), because it. Matters. To. Him. Being a person who can take responsibility is great and he cares about it. But the real reason is because four matters to him, and they have come so far. The amount of care it takes to just keep going until it's resolved shows a gold heart.

There's one of my favourite parallels between this update and a previous one in his explanation after apology. In his explanations... his face is the same.

And this gets me so much. Look at this guy and his past. He was a perfect silent knight. Losing his cool or expressing emotion or fears was not even an option. And now he can mess up- which is terrifying. But look at how vulnerable his face is, how much he's allowing himself to feel in order to properly express his want to fix things.

And then he offers four his hand. If offering someone your hand and taking it isn't the sincerest form of love... this is so sweet. His face is so open, really wanting to (re)connect with four.

They shake hands and the apologies are over, they move on to shiny metal. "Oh."

And overall this is incredible. People can admit they're wrong and apologize, anyone can say words. But to have facial expressions, posture all the way to hands, and connotations of words all showing honest sincerity is far more than most can ever hope for.

There's my favourite parallel in the progression in this update, the two times they took hands.

The first time is Wild offering his hand after apologizing, and this is where we get the last remnants of a formal soldier apology. Standing straight, arms straight towards each other.

Later on they take hands again, this time as friends connecting beyond making up.

...

Making mistakes and hurting people doesn't make someone unlovable. Working to fix your mistakes makes someone lovely.

[my-rewrite-academia]

Week 16-21 (Summer Break)

Summer Break

With the internships over, students leave for the summer break right away, only spending the first Monday back in U.A. to report back from internships. For breaks, students are to return to their homes, though exceptions can be made depending on the circumstances.

While there, plans are made. 1-A have two dates planned. One on the first day of summer break, the other a week before it ends. Shouto rejects the first date, already planning to visit his mother for the first time, but they're all free for the last one. Even Bakugou, who Eijirou drags into it. 

Monday ends, and the following Tuesday, everyone meets up at the mall. It's almost exactly like their first hang-out, with the exception of Bakugou now joining in. Bakugou makes an effort to never approach Izuku and mostly sticks with Eijirou and his group. At first, Mina is against Bakugou being there, salty at his appearance – she knows a bully when she sees one. 

However, throughout the day, she sees that Bakugou really is trying, cutting himself off whenever he begins to yell, referring to everyone by their real, family names, and just overall being more docile. Also in their group, Kyouka is the first to reach out, telling Bakugou outright that they don't care if he's angry; they care if he's a dick. Mina breaks next, telling Bakugou that he'll have to do a lot to redeem himself in their eyes, which he acknowledges, but he's not that bad right now.

Bakugou, as much as he refuses to admit it, is touched. And confused. He doesn't get what they mean by his anger being okay, and he has no idea how he's supposed to reform himself. But it's okay. There are people willing to guide him onto a better path.

Now, let's look at the IzuCrew! While Shouto isn't with them, that doesn't stop them from having fun. Ochako finally reveals her Kansai dialect, and Izuku and Tenya take it in stride, Momo admittedly being confused as to why she hid it, and Yuuga goes a step further, stating that being true to herself has made her more beautiful. 

Tenya feels a lot better already. None of them mention the new scars on his and Izuku's arms, and it doesn't matter anyway. They all notice how lighter he looks, smiling far more often and engaging with everyone. He hasn't returned to his previous demeanour, no. He's far less rigid, more open to everyone, and his laughter is heard a lot more.

Momo, on the other hand, is less okay, and they all notice that she's dressed a bit differently than usual. Her normal looks are modest and elegant. This, however, is not that. It's not raunchy, exactly, but she wears it like it's supposed to be exactly that, even winking. Knowing what Tenya nearly did, Izuku questions her about it, but she waves it off as 'experimenting'. Ochako actually defends her, arguing that a girl can wear whatever she wants to wear, Yuuga agreeing and calling Momo stunning. Tenya and Izuku are less sure, but, hey. They don't know how women work, so they leave it. 

Izuku is happy. Over the moon, even. He never used to be able to hang out with anyone but his family, yet he's out here with eighteen other people, having fun, and it's everything he never knew he needed. Sure, he's wanted it. But he didn't think it was a necessity. Now? Now, he can't imagine a life where he never spent time with his friends.

-

Dearest Mother

Let's take our attention over to Shouto, shall we?

He's been planning to visit his mother since the Sports Festival. However, with the dorms, he would have to request a leave, and he really didn't want to bring anyone's attention to the fact that his mother is in a psych ward. Before U.A., the idea of visiting his mother was met with a hard refusal. Not because he hated her or blamed her for anything. But because he was scared.

He had no idea if she would look at him with those eyes, full of fear and hatred, seeing Endeavour more than she saw him. Before the Sports Festival, before Izuku, his scar would ache at the thought of her, a reminder of his father's cruelty. 

(People may assume his scar was from a fire or heat, without taking in the logistics of his fire-side being heat resistant. Ironically, his scar wasn't from the boiling water, but from his mother icing it over. His scar is a freeze burn. Because his mother iced the burn she also inflicted.)

So, yeah. He was scared for the longest time that his mother hated him. That visiting her would only hurt her more. Then one Midoriya Izuku barged into his business and decided it was his business too. And, by God, if he weren't grateful for that. Memories he didn't realise he had, of his mother loving him before Endeavour drove her into insanity, affirming that he could be anyone he wanted to be, all of it came back as Izuku reached out to him.

Now, he walks into Fujitani Hospital, into Rei's room, and he's terrified but it doesn't look so scary anymore.

"… It's been a while." He cringes at his own words. Of all things to say! 

But, Rei turns to him. And she smiles. "Shouto… I've missed you."

The tears sprang to his eyes. He smiles, stepping forth, and she opens her arms, inviting him in. They hold each other close, and Shouto forgot how warm her hugs were, even with her Frost quirk. "I missed you too, okaa-san."

He was terrified. He's not scared anymore.

-

Welcome Home!

Two weeks into the break, the Midoriyas get a very special guest. Now, they already have a guest. Someone who's been taking refuge in the Midoriya household and learning first-hand many things: a parent-child relationship, a pseudo-brother, the ferocity of Inko when they play games, that Izuku inherited his tear ducts from Inko considering the movie nights. 

Yeah, Shouto has been spending more time with the Midoriyas than at his own house. Fuyumi understood why, even encouraging him to spend more time with his friends, and Endeavour can't do much. Shouto went on his volition, and trying to force him to go back would only paint a bad light on him. 

So Shouto has been staying with the Midoriyas, sleeping over often on a futon in Izuku's room. It's new to him, but he likes it. If it pisses off Endeavour, then even better.

Now, like I said before, two weeks into the break, someone special arrives, knock-knock-knocking on the door. That's right: coming all the way from America. The man, the myth, the legend! The one who helped Izuku pick up a katana! It's Midoriya Hisashi! 

He arrives without a word in advance, wishing to keep it a surprise, and boy did he surprise them! Izuku and Inko are both ecstatic, jumping him and crying all the while, Hisashi hugging them back and ignoring his luggage for the moment. Right now, all he cares about is his family.

When the emotions settle down, they introduce Hisashi to Shouto. He works in America, specifically as a data scientist geared towards heroics in the U.S. His job revolves around analysing a multitude of heroes' careers in America as well as support companies. He works freelance, like Inko, but he's so well-known that he doesn't need to be tied down to have a stable income. 

Izuku also reveals that Hisashi used to be a hero known as Salamander, picked because of his fire breathing quirk. Shouto doesn't recognise his name, and Hisashi explains that he wasn't very well known, only to Musutafu. More of a house-hold name than anything else. He doesn't explain why he left heroics, and nobody really asks. 

Hisashi spends time at home, expressing joy for Izuku and how far he's come, and assuring Shouto that their home will always welcome him. He brings a gift for Izuku – a grappling hook. He also makes Izuku swear to learn how to use it with his teacher's there before actually trying it. 

Shouto watches Izuku and Hisashi together, with Inko fawning over them, and he wonders if this is how a family should be. Even though Hisashi doesn't get to see them often, he loves them both dearly, and Inko showers them all with affection, and Izuku is so eager for their love.

Seeing this, Shouto honestly can't wait for his relationship with his mother to improve, and maybe he'll gain a relationship with his siblings too.

-

Hey Brother

Tenya, finally getting the chance to, visits Tensei. He's nervous. Before the internships, he only visited Tensei twice. The first when Tensei was admitted, the second when Tensei was asleep, and Tenya swore to take down Stain for him. Now, he visits, knowing that he nearly crossed a line he could never return from, and Stain's words plaguing him.

There was a reason Stain targeted him. A reason why he called Tensei 'corrupt' and a 'fake'. As much as Tenya looked up to him, as much as hated the idea of it, he had to know. If there truly was a reason Stain went after him, Tenya needed to know. Ignorance is bliss, but it's a hero's job to combat misery.

So, he visits Tensei, nerves at an all time high. His stomach churns when he sees Tensei and the brand on his neck – Stain's personal mark. It's scarred onto Tensei's neck, despite the many quirks that can get rid of scars such as that. Tenya subconsciously touches his neck, wondering if he would have received it had Stain not decided to kill him, (and only fail with Shouto and Izuku's entrance).

It takes a while to get to the question. For the most part, they play catch-up, Tensei expressing that it's nice to see Tenya in a lighter mood, but he also looks so tired. Tenya agrees, and finally asks, "Why did Stain target you?"

Tensei is quiet for a bit, but he sighs. "I was going to tell the public anyway." He gestures to his brand. "There's a reason I didn't get this scar healed." With that, he explains, "I was stupid, in short. I completely forgot the basis of heroics. That is, to save people. I… turned my back away from those who cried for help." 

Just like that, Tenya's word comes crumbling around him.

"There were a lot," Tensei says. "The laws dictate that using your quirk in self-defence more than necessary is illegal, and I followed it blindly. The amount of people who I've turned into villains is… revolting. I can't even remember their faces. All I remember is that they defended themselves and I labelled them a villain for it." 

'That's it,' Tenya thinks, hands clenched into trembling fists on his legs. "The laws…"

"The laws are cruel," Tensei retorts, exhausted. "I understand why they're like that. If you're under attack, you're only allowed to run away. If you harm your attacker, you can only do so in order to run. If you harm them more than necessary, it will be classified as assault. The issue is that, unless you're trained for such situations, people can't control how much they use their quirks when they're panicking. And I called many a villain because of that. All because they were scared."

Tenya shakes. His own brother, the one he looked up the most, punished people for defending themselves. For accidentally going too far when they were scared, unable to control their quirks in their panic. There must have been many who didn't even intend to use their quirks – their bodies attacking before their minds could register what was happening. 

It wasn't fair at all to punish them for being scared, for defending themselves. Yet that is exactly what his brother did. 

"In the end," Tensei continues, cupping his brand, "I'm glad Stain saw straight through me. He opened my eyes when I didn't even realise they were shut. Well, I don't agree with his methods, but somebody needed to call me out. With the state of our society, I can't think of anyone else willing to."

Tenya breaks even more, tears flooding his eyes. Tensei was grateful for Stain's intervention. And Tenya tried to kill him. 

-

Greetings, Hero

Throughout the summer break, many things happen. The Izuku, Ochako, Tenya, and Shouto hang out a lot, with Momo and Yuuga joining from time-to-time. Ochako works for her family a lot, (and she often wonders if Stain would have targeted her for becoming a hero for money). Tenya thinks a whole lot about Stain and his brother. Shouto studies the family dynamics of the Midoriyas. Izuku spends as much time as he can with Hisashi before he goes back to America. 

Then the second 1-A hang-out comes around, this time with Shouto there.

Both Shouto and Momo are taken to try fast food. Shouto is honestly excited to try it, as he's always wanted to try the crap Endeavour banned, while Momo is more tentative, having heard a lot about how 'disgusting' it is. But, with the power of Mina and Tooru combined, they have no choice but to, at least, give it a try.

They love it. They wouldn't eat it regularly, but it was nice to try it. Of course, Momo is appalled when Denki explains that even the healthy options aren't healthy, but it tastes nice, and she liked this minor form of rebellion. Shouto doesn't care either way – he knows that a single meal won't affect his general health, and he can't wait to tell Endeavour that he ate something as unhealthy as fast food.

Yuuga makes everyone go on a fashion trip with him, dressing them up stunningly. He even gets a few of the guys to wear feminine clothing, specifically: Izuku, Denki, Eijirou, and Mezou. They all rock it, with Mezou wearing a rather revealing set that many gush over. Many girls feel like they've lost to them. 

All throughout the dress-up, Minoru keeps his eyes away, even bashing his head at some points to get him to stop getting worked up over Mina in acid-wash shorts, Momo in a spaghetti dress, Tsuyu in a summer dress and– NO! Then the boys come out in skirts and he suddenly realises that he's screwed. He ends up fainting, and wakes up to see Yuuga carrying him bridal-style, wearing a full face of make-up, and he decides that he might just die instead.

The girls are happy to see that he's actually doing his best to control himself. At least he's actually improving. Their intervention did wonders.

There's a merchandise store. It's selling Stain merch. Many of them eye Tenya when they go past it, none ignorant or oblivious enough to point it out. But, Tenya can see them looking, and he waves it off. While he would never understand why people liked Stain, he can now understand why people acknowledge him, even if he is a serial killer. Besides, if even a victim can be grateful for Stain, then Tenya won't deny his impact. Even if he doesn't like Stain or his methods. (There are other ways to call heroes out.)

For a while, they just spend time together, having fun. Then, they all split up, some going to the music store with Kyouka, others to an arcade with Mina and Denki, a few checking out the merchandise store, or buying more school supplies.

In the end, Izuku is alone, holding a few bags, some left behind by Ochako, who left him to find a gift for her parents. He guards the bags, waiting for Ochako to come back. Then a hand snakes around his neck. His first move is to throw the one holding his neck over his shoulder, but then the guy speaks, and he freezes.

"Not so fast, hero." The rasp in his voice, scratchy, sending shivers down his spine, the scar around his wrist stinging, his bones aching from a fight long ago. Even without those hands covering him, Izuku knows who this is. "Hey. Did you miss me?" It's Shigaraki Tomura. "Let's have a chat, shall we?"

Izuku gulps. "And why should I listen to you?" 

"Look around. All these people gathered in one place. Like nothing could ever harm them. Let me ask you: how many people here do you think I can kill before you take me down?" Izuku falls quiet. He doesn't have any weapons on him. Only bags full of clothes, hero merchandise, school supplies, and nothing more. "So… Let's talk, shall we?" 

With Tomura's hand wrapped around his throat, only one pinky away from killing him, Izuku can only agree. They sit on a bench, and Tomura leads the conversation. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"The League were the ones to send Hosu into disarray," he says. "I ordered those Noumu to wreak havoc. Yet all everyone talks about is Stain." As if to mock him, people around them speak about him attacking Native, about his speech to Endeavour, some holding a Stain plushie. Even the NEWS speaks of him. "Why? We did more than Stain that night."

Izuku, for a moment, has half-the-mind to tell him what he wants to hear; just lie and say that people are talking about them. But then he remembers that Tomura is searching for an answer. There's a reason he hasn't just killed him. So, he tells him the truth. 

"Because you don't have a purpose." Tomura hums, and he listens. "I will never agree with Stain's methods. He didn't need to hurt people or kill them to get his point across. But you can't deny that he had a point." It's like ash in his mouth. "There are heroes out there… who use their status for their own personal gain. People are heroes to satisfy their own greed. 

"Native was targeted because he protected a drug ring for its monetary value. Past heroes he's targeted have done bad things. Icy Hero: Frost, beating villains to death, only with mutations. Natural Hero: Ivy, hiring villains to attack for her to take down and hurting civilians in the process. Night Hero: Star, taking bribes from villains to let them go. And many more. They were all corrupt, and nobody knew it until Stain targeted them."

It's exhausting, for Izuku. Recalling all those corrupt heroes, those 'fakes', and knowing he once looked up to them. 

"You attacked the USJ, attacked Hosu, and nobody knows why. We still don't know why you want to kill All Might, or why you attacked Hosu. It's just senseless violence. Nobody knows what you stand for, or what you'll fall for. Until that day comes," he swallows the lump in his throat, "you're nothing more than a group of delinquents."

He looks up, and his spine goes rigid. Tomura smiles, and it's horrifying. His lips dry, splitting from his wide grin, his eyes squinting as his cheeks rise, dark, dark circles running around them. There's light in his eyes, and his hand trembles with this new-found realisation. Izuku sees it and he's terrified. It's wrong, wrong, wrong.

"I see…" Tomura speaks with a low voice, breathy almost. His hand tightens around Izuku's throat, and he struggles against it, breath cutting short. "Senseless violence, huh…? It all makes sense now! None of you, not a single one, gets it… Look! Everyone is having such a good time, like a hero is always going to help them!" 

Tears sting Izuku's eyes as he struggles against Tomura's hold, but he's less scared of dying and more scared of that gleam in Tomura's eyes, psychotic and oh-so-cheerful.

"You know whose fault that is, hero? That's all because of All Might. Always parading around with that annoying smile! Like there wasn't a single person he couldn't save!" Izuku wheezes, and, shit. He's going to die. "It's all bullshit. I'll show them. I'll show the whole world that they should be scared! After all," his hand tightens even more, "you heroes can't save everyone." 

He's dead, Izuku morbidly thinks. He's going to die and then Tomura will kill everyone else and– 

"Who are you?" Ochako approaches, a bag in hand. "You're… not his friend. Let go of him." She's scared too, Izuku realises, then remembers who's holding his neck.

"It's okay!" he yells, panicked more than anything. "I'm fine, Uraraka-chan!"

She steps forward. "No, you're not." She reaches out, eyes darkening. "Oi. I said to let go of him." 

Tomura looks up at her, and he smiles. "Oh, I didn't know he came with a friend!" He lets go of Izuku, and he coughs, choking on it as he finally gets to breathe. "I'll be off, Midoriya." 

"W-Wait!" Izuku calls though his coughs, Ochako keeping him from collapsing. "Shigaraki! What are you planning?"

But Tomura doesn't answer him. He walks on, neck itching, hands twitching. Nobody takes them seriously because they don't understand what he stands for. So, he'll show them. And he'll kill All Might to do it.

-

Notes:

Once again, I did not expect this to be this long! 3.5k words! Whaaat???

Yeah, I finally gave Bakugou a bit more time in the spotlight, and he's finally getting along with his canon friends. Also, look! He's learning! Not quite educated yet, but he'll get there. This time, with Mina and Eijirou there to help

Rei and Shouto finally get to see each other again! Hisashi came back home for a short while! Stain had an actual reason to go after Tensei! 1-A actually having fun for a while! Minoru getting development! Yay!

Tomura and Izuku meeting, and earlier than canon. In canon, it was only after finals, but finals happen later in my rewrite, and as students live in a dorm, this is one of the few chances they'll get to meet. Their discussion is different from canon, as it didn't feel like Tomura really learned anything from it, other than, 'Man. I'm so right about hating All Might'

Conclusion:

Internships are now over, and the students are on Summer Break

Hisashi comes home to congratulate Izuku, and it's revealed he was once a hero

Shouto spends more time with the Midoriya's than at home, and finally visits Rei

Stain's reasons for targeting Tensei are revealed

Tomura meets Izuku

[merakiui]

post overblot riddle being literally horrified when coming to his senses and finding out what he did to you. nobody really knows how to act after that (ace has a thing or two to say, though...)

(cw: mentions of past non-con, continuation of this post)

The tension and the discomfort that blankets Heartslabyul is so thick and tangible you could slice it with a knife. For a dorm that is so bright and vibrant, smelling pleasantly of roses and pastries at all hours, a stifling darkness lingers. No one says anything outright, but they whisper, exchanging secret conversation about what may happen, about how you may be faring, about what will become of their dorm leader. Cater and Trey take charge, though it's mainly the latter who does so in Riddle's absence, attempting to smooth things over in the aftermath. They redirect attention on other matters, namely cleaning up the dorm in the wake of Riddle's Overblot. And anyone who asks about it is given the same answer from Trey and Cater each time: "Right now, let's just focus on getting back to the usual."

But there can't be a "usual." Not right now, at least, and probably not for a while. The sun feels colder and the rose maze is thick and thorny with sin. Someone has to tell him, but no one wants to be the bearer of that news.

Ultimately, it's Trey who sits down at Riddle's bedside in the infirmary to deliver the news a few days into his recovery. Ace had been adamant that he state the facts, cold and brutal, rip the bandage clean off, to prevent any coddling. He's had a lot of words ever since that day, and even though he and Deuce have tried to get into the private room you're currently staying in to recover you turn everyone away. It hurts, but Ace knows the pain he and Deuce feel is nothing compared to all that you went through. The only one permitted to see you is Grim, which is a relief because at least you have someone to keep you company while you talk things through with the headmaster. Ace will be the first one in Crowley's office if he, in his very frustrated words to Deuce, "fucks this up and doesn't help accordingly."

Ace is so angry. Deuce is, too, but there's a part of him that wants to sympathize with Riddle despite the horrible thing he's done. Because Riddle is their classmate, someone who Deuce looks up to, and now his very name is enough to remind him and Ace of that horrible day in the rose maze. There are a lot of conflicting feelings in Heartslabyul, but everyone can agree it doesn't feel the same.

Riddle's face falls as Trey tells him everything, sparing no details but choosing somewhat softer words to lessen the blow. He's not malicious in his retelling and he tries to be stern, but there's no soft way of saying it (and there shouldn't be a soft way of saying it, but Trey cares too much, even when he knows he should be objective right now). Riddle sits there in the infirmary bed, staring at his hands, unable to lift his head to meet Trey's eyes. His expression twists through all manner of emotions. He can't believe it. He, the rule-abiding, always respectful honors student, did something so callous? So brutal and monstrous... And what's more is that he has no recollection of it, his memories of that day falling away the minute blot consumed him. But Trey is serious and truthful. He knows it's not a joke or a lie.

Great Seven, he's crushed.

Riddle can't even sew a simple sentence together, struck speechless with shock and regret and disgust and all sorts of emotions. He's so ashamed and immensely apologetic. He doesn't know where to begin. And though he knows he shouldn't think like this, he can't help fearing what his mother will say and do, what everyone else at school might be saying as he sits here in the infirmary, what the professors will say, how everyone will look at him with revulsion because he's a vile, gross, villainous thing... He's meant to be good and that's all he's ever been, but now he's not. The weight of it all is too heavy; he feels like he might stop breathing if he thinks about everything too deeply. He still can't believe it. It's impossible to think he could ever stoop so low and cruel, to put his hands on you and do something so inappropriate and detestable.

And then there's you. You probably hate him for what he's done, and Riddle understands that well enough because when he looks at himself in the mirror he hates himself, too. Perhaps even more fiercely than you do. And you might be scared of him and you might never forgive him (which in his eyes is fine because he can't forgive himself). You might never want to see or speak to him again, and there's a scared part of him that doesn't want to face you. He knows he must apologize, but then no amount of apologies can possibly undo what's already been done.

For once in his life, he doesn't know how to solve this problem. Because it's not like an equation that can be worked out with a linear process. It's not like a textbook exam, where material can be pulled from the paragraphs and used to better oneself for studying purposes. It's nothing of what he's used to. The situation is delicate and must be treated as such, but he's certain of one thing.

He'll accept whatever punishment comes his way. That is what's fair and right, and Riddle will not argue that. When his own logic fails him and he struggles to come to terms with it, he can be comforted knowing that, in the eyes of the law, he has committed a serious offense and as such it will be punished accordingly. He uses this as a means of slowly working through it all: the situation itself, the impact, the emotions, the thoughts of you and everyone else.

Most of all, if he's allowed to hope and wish for anything, he wants you to feel better. When he cries, it's not for himself. He cries for you because you didn't deserve any of the pain and humiliation he subjected you to. You don't deserve to feel impure and filthy, scared and alone, disgusted with the way your skin fits over your bones after it's been used and disrespected.

An Overblot is no excuse for his behavior; he won't blame his actions on that. It's immature and wrong to avoid the matter at hand. He'll take full responsibility.

[lycansprites]

I'm curious about your Dr. Singh pmv ideas! What songs do you think you'd use?

⚠ Warning: Spoilers !!

Anon (and anyone reading) I have no idea how far in or if you've finished the show yourself so this is my proper heads up that there will be spoilers below!

SPINNING LIGHTNING SPEED RN OKAY SO I've had one big PMV idea all about Singh following him from Season 1 to Season 3/the Finale since I finished the show; it's an oldie but a goldie, if you've been in fandom space anytime the past 10 years you've probably heard it at least once.

It's that solid undertone of expected betrayal / something catastrophic happening that sells it for me. Singh's spiral is an outright tragedy born of love and a sense of perceived destiny. What starts out as a journey of unwavering devotion to his family then transitions to the determination to save the human race, by any means necessary, once his original motivation is no longer in the picture. In his most vulnerable state- which is saying something, considering how LONG that love had managed to see him through the worst- he dreams up the idea that his purpose, why he's still alive, is to continue to fall down this path of sacrifice. Self sacrifice and unfortunately the sacrifice of life around him for "the greater good". If he couldn't save Rani, then at least maybe he'll save humanity?

I love the lyrics "you'll be safe with me" being repeated throughout the song and is what I mean by expected betrayal. A wolf chasing a rabbit saying the rabbit will be safe with them, or a scientist / doctor chasing an immoral, nonexistent cure and convincing himself, the people around him, and the people he would then hurt or dissect that they're safe with him.

Dear rabbit, my legs are getting weak chasing you The snow fields wouldn't seem so big if you knew That this blood on my teeth it is far beyond dry And I've captured you once but I wasn't quite right So I'm telling you that you'll be safe with me.

This would focus on everything leading up to Rani leaving him. For the phrasing it doesn't matter if it's showing him and the hybrids or him and Rani but the core of it IS the start of the end; from the day he first finds out that to save his love he'd have to experiment on hybrid children. This is when both Adi and Rani believe the misinfo that hybrids are more animal than human, and thus when they use that to justify sacrificing them for her.

Oh rabbit, my claws are dull now so don't be afraid I could keep you warm as long as you can just try to be brave Yes I know I'm a wolf and I've been known to bite But the rest of my pack, I have left them behind

Where we see our troubled duo learn that hybrids are just as capable of human thinking and human emotion as they are. In the show you can see the IMMEDIATE expression drop when either of them learn this fact; Adi's face just completely falls when Gus thanks him verbally, and Rani immediately turns to concern. This part of the PMV would focus on how differently they go forward with this knowledge. For Adi it's a desperate not wanting to continue his work but still finding it necessary, but for Rani it's backtracking and deciding that maybe taking these lives aren't worth saving her own. I want it to hit Rani leaving and subsequently Adi locking himself in with the blue flowers on that last line.

And my teeth may be sharp and I've been raised to kill But the thought of fresh meat, it is making me ill So I'm telling you that you'll be safe with me.

Adi tracking down Gus and co, and convincing them to let him tag along to Alaska. REALLY focus on Gus's empathy and kindness in not wanting to leave anyone behind, in his willingness to believe that Adi's turned a new page. There's a lot of instrumental pause between "safe with" and "me" which could be used creatively for this purpose; I'll have to see if anything distinctly fits in my rewatch of the show. Potentially this could be when Adi corners Gus in the Cave and ends up killing Birdie.

We lapse into a very intense instrumental bit here that I would use to sum up the events of the Cave. I imagine everything happens VERY fast from Adi's POV as a man in a great bit of emotional turmoil so I don't want to linger too hard on anything that happens with the tree, just real fast glimpses of the fighting and of the Sick catching up to everyone present.

So rabbit please stop looking the other way It's cold out there so why not stay here Under my tail.

Now we've gotten to Adi's final sacrifice, where everything is literally coming down around them and he manages to save Gus's life properly and without any ulterior motives for the first time.

Um. That's. About it for that one.

The other one is with Daisy Bell

This one would be more about Adi and Rani specifically. For loving too much you'd be willing to lose yourself and in turn the one you love... I think about it a lot. This path was so tragic at every turn and doomed from the beginning but they were so good to each other until they weren't.

And then here's two other songs I've held in the Singh playlist but don't have any real ideas for right now;

I also have some general Sweet Tooth / Gus PMV ideas just lmk if anyone's interested in hearing those too >:D

[izunias-meme-hole]

One Villainous Scene - Cruelty vs Restraint

Fire Lord Ozai, no matter how pathetic he is as a person, is still one of the most chilling villains in any animated series (Outside of like Emperor Belos, Bill Cipher, DCAU!Joker, Slade, and Professor Pericles). Despite only appearing in the flesh in season 3, his buildup through both the Fire Nation and his own family is amazing. We see that he scarred his son for both speaking out against him and not fighting back, we see that he basically groomed his daughter into a killing machine, we see that he's authorized so many war crimes, we see the crimes of his ancestors, and they all showcase one thing. He is unbelievably cruel. Born evil? No. Cruel to the point of disgust? Absolutely. Ozai, as the head of an imperialistic system, believes that he has a "Divine Right to Rule" and that "strength is all that matters", though his idea of strength is pure relentlessness and remorseless cruelty. In his eyes, if you're unable to burn whatever stands in your way with zero hesitation, then that makes you weak. It's a simplistic ideology for a villain, but its effective because of the type of villainous force the Fire Nation is (The fckin' Axis Powers), and the type of protagonist that The Avatar, Aang is.

Aang is an Air Nomad, a monk to put it simply. He lived a simplistic life before his people got eliminated by the Fire Nation 100 years ago, and part of that simplistic lifestyle involved zero killing. It's literally ironic since previous Avatar's have never hesitated to outright execute someone if they had to for the sake of peace. Since Aang is the current Avatar, and the current Fire Lord is literally threatening the world with the most brutal breed of fascism possible... you can see where this is going. Aang wants to stop Ozai, but he isn't willing to betray the beliefs of his long dead people. So when this inevitable fight starts, it got ugly really quick.

After stoping Ozai's attempt at turning the Earth Kingdom into a wasteland, Aang gets his attention and tried talking him into surrendering, but as expected Ozai doesn't back down. Aang does indeed fight this bastard, but consistently spends the fight restraining himself. He has opportunities to just snuff out Ozai's life, but chooses not to because of his beliefs. Meanwhile Ozai isn't hesitating at all. This is a man who burned his own kid for speaking out against him and showing weakness, so he has no qualms with killing this child who froze himself for 100 years.

Aang continues to restrain himself, while Ozai keeps trying to go in for the kill, taunting the last airbender while doing so and making him run. The Fire Lord continues showing absolutely zero mercy towards Aang, even as the boy is hiding, and this ultimately became his undoing. Thanks to his literal inability to show mercy, Ozai forced Aang into the Avatar State, and from there he is shown a power far beyond his own.

Now that he's literally pissed off the most powerful entity on the planet, Ozai begins getting completely and utterly washed. He is getting stomped out, and there is not a single thing he can do about it. He cannot fight back, and running is definitely not a luxury that he's being afforded. Now he's the helpless one while Aang is the one showing zero restraint, and it's made all to clear when Aang literally pins Ozai down onto the ground, getting ready to kill this man with all four elements.

Except, Aang doesn't do it. He regains control of himself, and regains that restraint, that desire to hold onto his people's beliefs, and shows Ozai mercy. Despite literally everything, Aang doesn't want to end it all like this. Ozai on the other hand is pissed.

"Even with all the power in the world, you are still weak."

Ozai was shown the immense power of the Avatar, and he was afraid of that power. Then he is shown mercy by this being who could decimate him in one shot? As scared as he was in that moment, Ozai would've rather died to someone that could overpower or at least have the will to kill him than be spared. So naturally, he wastes the mercy Aang gave him in an attempt to kill him, but ultimately gets pinned down, and unfortunately for him Aang remembered a little trick he learned before this fight. The ability to remove one's bending. So just like that, Ozai doesn't die, but rather is is powerless, humiliated, and shown for what he truly is... a small man pretending to be a big bad wolf.

Ultimately for all of his thoughts on what makes one "strong" and "weak," for all his talk about how he has a "right" to rule, and for all of his cruelty and ruthlessness, Ozai is ultimately just an pathetic human being using the past of his bloodline and his nation to become more than what he is. Meanwhile a literal CHILD MONK, the last personification of restraint and simplicity, not only kicks his ass, but proves that him wrong on so many levels and exposes him for what he really is. Fire Lord Ozai is a simplistic villain with minimal screen time, but what carries him is indeed his buildup as this purely monstrous figure, his constant presence, his cruelty, and the payoff that is this phenomenally done final fight.

[minzart]

saw you bored, so!

how do you think the cast of twst would react to MC referencing the villains in ways that go against the dorm's fundamental ideals

In heastlabyul I can see ace, Trey and Carter agreeing with Yuu's "THE QUEEN BROKE THE RULES ALL THE TIME! HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THERE ARE SO MANY RULES THAT CONTRADIC EACH OTHER?!" Riddle however is fuming with rage and ready to absolutely behead you with his own bare hands, Deuce believes but he's having a hard time remembering wich rules Yuu's referring to

In savanaclaw I can see them not beliving Yuu or not giving a shit, "so? What if the king of beasts might have been a coward in his dieing breath? Were you there? Are you sure? No? So shut it"(Leona probably). Jack's probably more curious on were Yuu is getting this ideas from, everyone is tbh but he's the only one admitting it

Octavinele, Azul specifically, I can see him making excuses for Ursula like "SHE'S A BUSSINES WOMAN OF COUSE SHE IS GONNA TRY TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR WHOEVER THE HELL "ARIEL" IS?? THAT'S JUST HOW BUSSINESS WORK!" Jade is filming and Floyd is throwing more fire into the circus, sometimes siding with Yuu others with Azul.

Now Scarabia, I can see Kalim being more curious than anything, he would be more inclined to belive Yuu's words since they are friends, and bc he's the more emotionally intelligent I can see him believing these stories bc even The sorcerer of sands was probably a person with feelings and emotions that can get turbulent as anyone else. Jamil won't outright tell Yuu they are dumb but lord he is thinking about it and just would be like "alright but if he did when MAD with power then what about the stupid ruler?"

I can only see zero fucks given by the Pomefiore trio, "oh? She was jealous of someone's apearence? Sounds familiar to me-"(epel probably), Vil has Neige my guy of course he gets jealous, specially if the compliment came from someone you actually care about (see aparently in some versions the Mirror is Grimhilde's father), in other words he kins her, Rook is Rook he will wax prety poetry of the human nature still being beautiful even at it's ugliest

Ignhyde, I can see Ortho searching for this info online and either stating he found it or that the record has been lost to time and being frustrated by it, Idia will still say that the underworld king still invented that counter so Yuu can't say he WASN'T a genius, even if the way he made his plan was dependable on luck and organic matter.

In Diasomnia, Lilia didn't expected anything diferent knowing the draconia line he probably assumes every dragon fary is that petty, Silver doesn't doubt it happened but doesn't really care that much, sebek is siding with Maleficent bc he is a simp for the Draconia Bloodline and Malleus is pouting bc in his head she was absolutely justified to curse a fucking baby for not being invited.

[polyamzeal]

I don't know where I'm going with this, I think I just need to get it off my chest.

I'm a woman in a great, loving relationship with a man. However, I am also queer and would love to have more no-strings-attached sex with other women. Like, I'm not looking for a girlfriend or committed partner, but FWB would be nice, you know? Or, like, someone's booty call? That's not an unreasonable thing to want and *be open* with wanting, right?

But it's like, no matter how open I am about the fact that my husband would *not* be part of this (aside from like a quick convo so he can veto it if he's too uncomfortable for any reason), I get yelled at for being a unicorn hunter. I get banned from apps for being a unicorn hunter. I get underhanded insults about unicorn hunters in irl spaces. I get friends not wanting to be friends because I'm a unicorn hunter, even though I never hit on them at all. On top of that (and yes, I'm not a fan of this either, but it is what it is), my husband has a one-penis policy, so I get shamed and ridiculed for wanting to respect my husband's wishes, too. I don't want to be restricted to cis women only and I see how it sucks, but it feels kind of unfair that I get shit for respecting someone else's boundaries.

I guess I just wish people wouldn't act as if I'm trying to set them up with my husband when I'm not. When I'm specifically looking for things I don't get in my relationship and I openly state that aside from just saying hi to him once, they literally do not ever have to even be in the same room again. But nope, all I get is "unicorn hunter kys". The funny thing is that he finds women to sleep with just fine without ever getting these reactions, even when he mentions me. Hell, even when those women meet me, he's never accused of the same thing.

It sucks. I kind of wish my husband could just get over his fear of other people's genitals so I could just exclude cis women since that seems to be the major issue, but it's not fair to demand that he shifts his boundaries for my benefit so here we are. I guess I'm just asking this - am I really doing something reprehensible and unforgivable here? Am I just the perfect example of the cringe space-invading loser in a one-penis policy het relationship giving every polyam person a bad name by wanting to fuck a woman every now and then? Am I the stereotype of everything you shouldn't be? I've given up on all of this already and accepted that my husband gets the adventures and I don't, but I guess I just want a post-mortem on how much I fucked up here.

I swear I already answered this but it is in my inbox and I can't find a record of answer it so I am just going to blame Tumblr.

You are not doing anything wrong. I think the most important thing is just being upfront and honest about what you are looking for. Be clear and direct with people. If they insist on making up their own assumptions and accusations then their loss.

That being said, I do think your husband's OPP is quite troublesome. I don't know if I would phrase it as "respecting his boundary." I feel like a boundary would be more like "He doesn't want you to sleep with other penis-havers so if you do then he withdraws his consent to have sex with you until a week after you stop having sex with other penis-havers" or something like that where you can decide what you want to do and if it is worth it for you but how he reacts is on him. This just sounds more outright like 'rule' rather than a 'boundary'. Perhaps it is all semantics though.

Putting all that aside, I would say just be patient as you try to find woman that understand your situration. And are willing to trust you to work with your needs.

[terrible-horrible-mind-of-aspen]

Oh great now I have TWO blorbos where I can't think of any happy ending that's character-compliant for them cause I think they'd just want to kill themselves

It's Levi Ackerman and Francis Abernathy, by the way.

I thought I could leave it at that but no, I can't. Huge self harm/suicide content warning for the ramblings that follow

I don't like Attack on Titan past about season 1. There are very few parts past that that I genuinely enjoy, and most of them are just moments that Levi is on screen. I think that his canon ending of peacefully retiring and living in Marley is stupid and out of character. The scene of Levi handing out presents to children is cute. It's sweet. And yes I do think he would enjoy that. He has a soft spot for children we know that. But I think that Levi's state of existence after that last fight with Eren is not something that he would be able to put up with long term. Levi has been fighting since he was just a kid. Kenny taught him how to fight when he was very young, and then abandoned him when he thought Levi was strong enough to make it on his own. And he did. He became a criminal, and a very good one. Then he joined the military against his will, but he gained a sense of purpose from it. I think that being in the scouts was the first time that Levi felt like anything he did actually mattered. He felt like he was doing something good for the world, and that he was protecting people, or helping people with the only skill he had- killing. Levi then proceeded to outlive all of his friends, if you want to call them that, and all the people around his age in the scouts. Now it's just him and a bunch of kids. And then the scout regimen crumbled. And with all of Eren's bullshit with the titans at the series finale, Levi's job has been made obsolete, and his leg injury rendered him unable to do it anyway. Now Levi doesn't have a purpose. He can't fight, which was the only thing he was ever good at, and he can't even walk. He's going to be at least partially reliant on other people for the rest of his life. And I think he would hate that. He does not like to let people get close to him, he has been fiercely independent ever since Farlan and Isabel died, and I don't think that his leg injury magically changed that. I think that when the dust has settled and life is peaceful for the first time since Wall Maria fell, Levi can't handle it. He doesn't know what to do with himself if he can't be a soldier. I think he would leave a letter, explaining himself and apologizing to those that are close to him, and he would kill himself on his own blades. Levi Ackerman is not someone who knows how to function in peace. He wasn't fighting for a future where he could finally rest, he was fighting to have a sense of purpose.

With Francis my thoughts are a bit more disjointed because unlike my thoughts on Levi, which I've been sitting on pretty much since the anime was completed, this idea about Francis clicked today. But the basics of it are that he's being forced into a marriage with a woman who he not only does not love but cannot stand. Priscilla means well, that much is clear, but she's not even good company because she is really not that bright. And Francis says outright that he can't refuse the marriage because he can't live without the money. Which means he also wouldn't run away. Some people in his situation would cheat. But I don't think he has that in him, honestly. I think at his core Francis is a nice person who cares about other people and while I think he does sometimes hate that about himself, he couldn't hurt Priscilla. Not like that, and not for the rest of their lives. He couldn't cheat on her because she doesn't deserve that - no one does - it's not her fault that he's miserable. And if his grandfather were to find out that Francis was cheating, he'd probably start having him followed or something. So Francis has two choices. One, be trapped in a loveless marriage with a woman he can't stand for the rest of his life, or die. I think he would just keep trying to kill himself until he succeeded and I really hate that because I LIKE him and I want to give him a happy ending but I don't think I can give him one that complies with what canon has given us. He's just too tragic

[halliescomut]

JYPE, Han Jisung and Tattoos

I've been thinking a lot about this since the fan meet interaction on Day One, and the 'reveal' on Day Three. And a lot of people are saying that it goes too far, JYPE/Div1 are doing too much, they need to let these guys be grown, but also fans saying that Han knew the rules when he got the tats, and so he can't then be mad that they enforce those rules. But then it becomes a conversation about why is it okey we saw his tattoos here, but not here, or whatever. And overall, do I really care that much? Like 37%. But this is fandom and discourse gonna discourse, and I as I have no one to actually talk about this with, it's going here.

I did ask in a couple of places if there are any active idols under JYPE that have tattoos that are frequently visible, and in general the answer I got was no. Yes all of the members of GOT7 have at least one tattoo, and same of the members have additional and more visible tattoos, but they no longer operate under JYPE.

And there's also a lot of discussion about Han and the rest of Stray Kids renewing/re-signing their contracts, and how that factors in. With contracts, it's difficult to say as we are not privy to the actual wording that's there. So their new contracts may have been structured to take effect immediately upon signing (presumably July of 2024, but we don't have an exact date), take effect at the time that the previous contract ends (which would be March of this year), or a combination of the two, with some portions going into effect immediately and some becoming effective when the previous contract expires. General consensus among fans though, is that at the very least the new contract did not contain any specific ban on tattoos, though may have wording that specifies visibility of tattoos. The fact that the tattoos are located on Han's upper chest and flank, they're not something you would frequently see unless he was wearing something that would intentionally show them, or shirtless.

But truly, there's a lot of contradiction going on, and a lot of the 'complaints' about JYPE and Div1 is coming from international Stays as far as I can tell. This matters because it is coming from both demographics (people younger than about 40, though people of all ages love SKZ) and cultures that are more accepting of tattoos.

So here's my two minds about it. The first is that Han is using Div1 and potential scolding as a bit of an excuse to not show them. Following the chest tattoo we did see a pretty awkward and unfortunate fancall where a fan revealed she had gotten a 'copy' of his tattoo, exact same place and everything. Now, we still do not have all of the details of what that tattoo looks like, and most of it was based on guesswork and short flashes seen during appearances, so it wouldn't have been an 100% exact match, but given that it's something personal to him, seeing it copied wouldn't be seen as complimentary, but invasive. Now, I believe the fan from that call did state the tattoo was fake in the aftermath of the call going around and people calling them out for being creepy, and that could be true, or could be a lie, I doubt we'll ever know, and even if it was true...doesn't make it less weird. And so I can understand him not wanting to reveal those tattoos in their entirety, because the possibility someone would take something personal to him and get it tattooed on themselves is now a possibility he is aware of. And just in general, Han's not a super flashy, showing his body type of guy. He doesn't tend towards the same level of modesty as Lee Know or Seungmin, but he also doesn't do the frequent teasing we see from Chan, I.N. or Felix, and even the infrequent reveals from Hyunjin. So if he doesn't feel comfortable showing the tattoos, but also doesn't feel comfortable saying outright to Stay that he doesn't want to (bc some Stay be assholes), choosing to say he's not allowed by the company is kinda a good excuse.

But to the second part- I think a lot of this more about appropriate time and place. So here's the thing- we already know that in general tattoos are not seen as favorable in South Korea, and kind of in a lot of East Asia, yes there's been progress in a lot of ways, but a lot of the progress has been from younger generations. Older generations like those on the board of JYPE, the people in charge at the broadcast stations, and just generally in charge of the government, are likely to still hold these prejudices. That baseline combined with the fact that JYPE does kind of market themselves as having pretty wholesome idols/group, it makes sense to me that they would not want to encourage or promote him showing his tattoos in general. But more specifically it may come down to situation.

I've seen a handful of posts asking what the difference is between them being visible at a concert versus the fan meet, and location matters, because I don't think we've seen them visible at any of the Seoul concerts of the dominATE tour, but also...the fanmeet, was being recorded and streamed through BeyondLive, who may have specific restrictions about tattoos the same way that national broadcast stations in Korea have regulations about that.

Also, the 'reveals' we've seen at the concerts prior have been accidental, or perhaps more like unintentional. He's wearing a shirt that he has an awareness could show his tattoos from certain angles or he's adjusting his shirt, and we see his torso for a split second basically. It's an outfit provided to him by SKZ staff, so it that moment the 'ban on showing them' isn't being enforced, clearly. And even the moments where they've been visible during like the ATE promotions were unintentional. Like it seems like clear effort is made to have the costuming for those performances cover the tattoos in their entirety, but simply because of the power of their dances, clothing gets moved about, it's just what happens. We've watched all of the member of SKZ fight their wardrobes, because the dancing was more aggressive than expected.

It would be unreasonable in the extreme for Div1 or JYPE to 'scold' Han for these little partial reveals. The moment during the third day of the fan meet the reveal was both intentional, and was also in a setting where it was more than just societal norms, or company expectations that needed to be considered, because the performance was being streamed.

So overall...in a lot of ways I think fans are reading too much into it in an attempt to either 'defend' Han or criticize JYPE/Div1. If you want to criticize the company (an activity I strongly encourage) there are many valid and serious concerns to have. But Han doesn't really need your defense, because he is a grown man, and he's clearly shown that he is willing to go against JYPE when it feels worth it to him I think.

I do think that Div 1 does kinda do too much in terms of how far they go in restricting Stray Kids in general, but I also think that it's in a lot of ways because of the level of popularity they have. As one of the most visible representations of the company, they want it to be the best possible impression, and I think that is why they are stricter with them for a lot of things. I think it's unnecessary, but I also know why they believe it is necessary, and also JYPE as a company have always felt pretty controlling to me, even among the landscape of K-pop companies, who are well known for being overly controlling of their idols.