#that's a dangerous mindset to get into. we don't know what everyone can be going through that they cannot comment at the moment.

[etoilesbienne]

please remember wilbur isn't the representative of the mcyt community as a whole, and does not represent all cc. there's been a lot of doomspiraling over the past few days, and i understand the lashing out and feeling hurt or betrayed, it makes sense in scenarios like this.

but he is not the end all be all of mcyt content, if you look in his apology tweet right now, you can see dozens of other mcyt cc speaking out against him or standing up for his victim. or even the people in private she came forward to that supported her coming out. don't let a bad apple cause the efforts of the rest of this community go to waste.

[slackerlifewhere]

Involving kids in battles

There are a lot of opinions about Cale Henituse, formerly known as Kim Rok Soo. Some readers love him and some readers don't. Some find him funny and some think he's annoying. Some see his selflessness and some judge him as selfish.

He's a very complex character that is just tired of the bullshit the gods did to a lot of people including himself.

But the one thing that some readers do not like about him is how he includes kids in wars and battles against multiple powerful threats.

I've made a post about female characters that slightly mentions this. It can be found during On's part in the post if you're curious.

So here's the thing about the kids in TCF, or rather, the kids in Cale's group. They're strong in different ways.

And most of them, excluding Lily and Basen, are not humans.

To understand why I think their presence in battles are okay, let me first bring up Kim Rok Soo's past to understand the way he thinks.

As we all know, at least the ones who finished the first book, Kim Rok Soo did not have the best life. His parents died from a car accident when he was young and he was left to his abusive uncle. He was mostly alone with no connections to other people (for reasons you need to read about if you haven't yet) until the apocalypse (when he was a young part-timer) happened where he had to survive by himself until he became a member of a team with different abilities. He was a member who had to fight and watch people die when he was young until he's 36 years old.

He doesn't have a normal life and childhood.

'Kim Rok Soo had once had to starve in the past. He did not enjoy seeing children looking so skinny. Although Lock had always looked feeble and his tall height made him skinny from the start, he seemed even thinner now.' - Chapter 234: Something Obvious (3)

So if a person who grew up under these circumstances is suddenly thrusted into another world where anyone can die easily, what would he do?

Basen and Lily

His first reaction to the idea of Basen being sent to the plaza where Cale knows a tragedy might happen, is to agree with Deruth's idea of replacing Basen, knowing full well that his younger brother will not come back completely fine, especially since he's a normal kid. He chose to sacrifice his safety for a brother he barely knows since he recently just got transmigrated in this strange world. Basen is more fit to help in their territory than to fight in battles. And he does not see this as a weakness.

When Lily asks for a sword instead of a normal toy a child of her age would normally want, he easily agrees. This is a kid who wants to learn how to fight. He knows that there will be war coming to Roan Kingdom and their territory will be the first to face this danger. So the idea of her learning how to fight, with the mindset of someone who survived in an apocalypse, made him agree without complaints.

Raon Miru

Fast forward and he gained the trust of three children who are harmed by a tribe and a cruel noble. He pities them but also understands their pain at the same time, especially after everything he went through. He knows coddling them would not make things better since they already know how harsh the world is.

Raon is a baby dragon but he's stronger than all of the people in his group, except Eruhaben. He's a kid who easily talks about destroying the world if Cale doesn't wake up after fainting. He's a kid who wants revenge against Venion and he never let go of that anger even when he was freed by Cale and his group. He knows he's stronger than Cale and does not want to leave this "weak" human despite the strong enemies they face.

But Cale, even with this thought of "putting him to use" at first, told him to hide himself in all battles and when around strangers.

Even though he knows Raon can fight, it's obvious the little dragon will face potential problems if everyone knows there's a dragon in the group. Arm would do everything to get Raon and bring him to DHB, the nobles would probably become greedy, a lot of people will rely on him for things he shouldn't even need to do, and Raon will never be truly free from all the expectations placed on him.

He could leave Raon with Elves and Eruhaben but considering what Arm did to the elves, Eruhaben's lair, and Olienne, there are no safe places to leave him.

Cale gave him the freedom of choice. He can live freely as a dragon without trusting a human. He was fully confident that Raon will not follow him. But he did. So Raon is his responsibility now.

I made a post about liking both Cale and Reigen Arataka and I can honestly see their similarities in this part. They know the kid with them is stronger than them but they also know that fully placing all the responsibilities and expectations on this kid will ruin them.

He, like Reigen, tells his kids that it's okay to run when facing a strong opponent. That it's okay to rely and let the adults handle the hard part of the battle. He respects and relies on them when necessary and pulls them back when they face real danger.

When the White Star first appeared, Cale's first instinct was to hide Raon in his arms and to defend themselves from the man. He was also prepared to fight until Eruhaben appeared. No matter how much Raon wanted to fight, Cale kept hiding him and was genuinely scared for the dragon.

So yes, he cares for the kids in his own way but doesn't treat them in a patronizing manner.

On and Hong

Like I've mentioned in my other post, On and Hong also did not have a great childhood. They were chased from their tribe who wanted to kill them because they're "useless" and mutants.

They did not trust anyone until they met Cale who says one thing and does the opposite. They placed their trust on Cale who may appear indifferent and cold but seems to care for them by giving them bread, medicine, and meat without having expectations from them.

Some readers might find it distasteful but it's obvious that they want to be useful, no matter how small their contribution is to the fight. I think the term "useful" makes it cruel but for them, it's something to be proud of. When he first uses this term, it's when they were saving Raon. But his next instinct was to check if they're okay after infiltrating the cave.

Is it bad to let these kids fight after they escaped death? Yes and no.

They should be safe, away from harm or danger. That's normal to think about children and I agree they need safety like normal children. But once again, these kids aren't human and they are in a different world from us. They grew up in a tribe that expects them to be strong so in every opportunity, they look for ways to be strong.

That's not exactly a normal kid's way of thinking.

And again, Cale's initial indifference to everything around him is the extension of what his former life did to his psyche. He's not a normal person either. None of these characters are normal. Oddly enough, the most normal are Litana and Valentino.

And in all honesty, knowing how he thinks and respects someone's needs and wants, if they want to stay away from danger or stop fighting, there is no doubt he would accept their wishes and let them hide somewhere far away from Arm. But like Raon, they want to fight back against the tribe who wants them dead. In a sense, they also want revenge and to prove everyone that they've become strong.

Lock and the Wolf children

Lock is still a young boy, no matter how much he shoulders after the death of his tribe. I still see him as a kid like Basen.

When Lock was having troubles during the war, Cale did not scold him. Instead, he encouraged him to eat since he noticed how Lock hasn't been eating since he first learned he can't use his berserk form. He told him that he did not need to fight. His only role was to stand and protect Raon. Simple but it made Lock feel relieved and happy that Cale didn't get angry at him for being weak.

I see it as Cale just wanting him to step back and get stronger, to rely on the rest of the adults and to not worry about regressing. I can only imagine what Kim Rok Soo went through to be so wise about this kind of situation.

This part is one of the most memorable to me because of what happens at the end of the battle,

'I am the adult.

I am the guardian of these two children.

I need to take full responsibility since I chose to take them in.

I need the Super Rock's power.'

Cale, despite all his inner complaints and initial reluctance about how he's suddenly involved in a group of children's safety and protection, finally admitted how important it is that he takes full responsibility of those he took in. And the way he does it is by "sacrificing" himself.

When Lock finally overcome his fear and was about to protect Cale, Cale got annoyed and said,

"Children grow up so fast" with a pat on Lock's head.

He sounded like a father or an uncle who was proud of Lock for overcoming his obstacles. This one scene among multitudes of others made me recognize how much he cares for these children. It's happening mid-battle but it doesn't detracts the emotional value but only increases it. It was another reason why I find Cale Henituse so interesting and mesmerizing.

Conclusion

Cale Henituse, for all his self-hatred and low self-esteem, does not bring down a child or person's confidence. He gives them the choice to become strong and protects them when they're weak.

He does not force them to do anything they can't or don't want to do. He knows what he went through as Kim Rok Soo is bad and he doesn't want them to go through the same thing.

Reading between the lines made me see that there's something deeper than what Cale shows.

___

I'm not gonna lie, I sound like Clopeh at some parts whenever I write like this. I felt the same when I was writing about the female characters lmao

I'm sorry if this is so long 😅 I became too passionate about this topic. I understand the people who are worried about the kids but this is still my opinion about it.

[el-jarado]

"Everything's Changed Since Polites"

In light of the extensive re-litigation of the events of Storm Saga after the Thunder Saga, I find myself thinking about "Keep Your Friends Close" a lot recently, and how I think Odysseus was set up for failure from the get-go, and not because of his crew being bad.

Polites's absence is felt like a knife in Storm Saga but the whole gang is feeling it. When "Luck Runs Out" comes up, this is the first time Eurylochus has seriously questioned Odysseus's plan in the musical; probably the first time he's seriously questioned him in over a decade. And what passes between them is pretty telling to me.

Where is this coming from, my friend? I just don't wanna see another life end You're like the brother I could never do without And suddenly, you doubt that I could figure this out?

From what I've seen, Epic takes the approach that Odysseus, Polites, and Eurylochus have been together since they were children. Polites is Odysseus's best friend, but he was Eurylochus's friend too, and he's the first of all of them to die in battle since Odysseus started leading them. They're both reeling from that loss, but how it comes out is bad for both of them. Eurylochus, as we see, is someone who locks down when he's shaken; focus on immediate safety for his shipmates even if it prevents a better course of action (run when the other cyclopses show up, the food is not worth having to take on another dozen Polyphemus; get the crew the fuck away from the sexy witch before she turns the rest of them into pigs; avert starvation NOW deal with (more) angry gods LATER). He does not want Odysseus to get hurt dealing with something as dangerous as a god, and tries to express that. Odysseus withdraws into himself and lashes out at anything that tries to reach him when he's shaken; he's already lashed out at Athena when she takes him to task while he's still grief-striken over Polites, and here he doesn't hear his brother saying "please don't be reckless, I can't lose you too", he hears "you weren't good enough to bring everyone home, and we don't believe in you anymore." He's cold and dismissive to Eurylochus's doubts to cover for his own hurt, and that just makes those doubts worse.

It's exactly the wrong mindset to approach Aeolus in, and this is the part I've really been turning over in my head. Aeolus's game does sound too easy; all he's gotta do is not open the bag, while sailing on a ship staffed by 43 men he's been leading for ten years, many of whom he's probably known his entire life. The winions add the obvious catch in that they spread a rumor among the crew that the bag is a treasure Odysseus is keeping to himself before Odysseus can explain himself, but I think in many ways Aeolus's whole song is putting a finger on the scales. Aeolus, in presenting it to Odysseus, implies that some of his brothers are enemies and should be treated as such, and the winions, spreaders of mischievous whispers, keep telling him "never really know who you can trust." (And imply he should kill and sacrifice when it's convenient, the act that ultimately destroys all trust in the crew down the road.) And I think that's a malicious twist in the game just as much as "It's treasure~! Buh-bye!" :D

Odysseus went up to the island feeling sore and defensive after his last talk with Eurylochus, and when he's told to keep his friends close and his enemies closer, it's interesting to me that he doesn't think "I don't have any enemies on that ship, those men are my brothers" or even "who can I trust to help me with this?"

He thinks "I need to do this entire thing myself." It could be hubris, a quality Odysseus certainly doesn't lack for, but I think this is the shadow of Polites not being there again. Odysseus had to leave some of his men behind for the first time in ten years, and he thinks he's lost their faith because of it. He's guided to expect a betrayal and feels like he needs to do something amazing all on his own to show Eurylochus and the others he's still got it, Polyphemus was a fluke.

Part of my understanding of human nature has been that people respond to our expectations and treatment of them. I sincerely believe if Odysseus had taken Eurylochus and/or a few of his most trusted men into his confidence for managing the bag, the temptation to open it would have been greatly diminished or negated. Odysseus doesn't treat any of his friends as if they're worthy of his trust, because Aeolus got in his head and he's trying to prove something to himself and to them by doing this singlehandedly. However, people respond to how you treat them, and Odysseus not realizing the crew are just as shaken by Polites's loss as he is and treating them with suspicion makes worry fester into doubt.

Polites's loss is felt keenly again; he's not there to tell Odysseus he can relax, that kindness is brave and he should trust in his friends to support him instead of treating them like potential enemies (Ody remarks on being unopposed as if he was expecting otherwise, which is not the relationship he's had with the crew up to now), and he's not there to reassure Eurylochus and the crew Odysseus must have a good reason for his cagey, secretive behavior and they shouldn't listen to the winions continuing to suggest a little peek to make sure of things wouldn't hurt. (I take the continued presence of the winions in the song to imply they're harassing the crew with rumor the entire time Odysseus is keeping to himself and trying not to sleep.) I don't think Eurylochus would have wanted to look in the bag if he was brought in on protecting it, that's not his relationship with Odysseus, but when they're nearly to Ithaca, Odysseus hasn't said a word to anyone in days, nobody really knows what's going on but there's all these rumors flying and the Captain's acting strange...

It would not surprise me if Epic's interpretation is similar to the Odyssey where they're almost back when the bag opens, in which case it might be even more tragic as an Orpheus & Eurydice twist; I don't think it was a case where the bag would've been opened the moment Ody turned his back, I think he stayed awake for nine days out of wholly unjustified paranoia/trying to make a point he's still got it by doing everything himself, and Eurylochus and the crew celebrated too early when their destination was in sight. They thought they were home, there's no harm in having a look now, right? Wrong; Aeolus (probably deliberately) didn't specify when it would be safe to open the bag, and certainly didn't feel the need to warn Odysseus the magic winds inside would blow them miles away from where they opened it. Like Orpheus makes it out of the underworld and then ruins his hard work because he looks back just before Eurydice has, I suspect the crew was not trying to open the bag during the days Odysseus was depriving himself of sleep to watch it; it's at the seeming end of the journey that "they wanna get the bag open so they can have closure." Like most bad ideas, it is likely Eurylochus did what he did when it didn't seem like there was any obvious harm in it; Odysseus said don't open the bag until we're home, but Ithaca's in sight, what could it hurt to celebrate a little early?

To make a long story short, I think Ody and the boys were hosed with the wind bag trial from the start without Polites around, and it's not just because the crew fell for a rumor introduced to make the game harder and Eurylochus eventually acted on it; it's also because a god Ody just met told him not to trust his friends, and he believed the god he just met instead of them because he's still mourning his best friend and misread his other best friend's concern for his safety as a sign his leadership was faltering. God games are rarely if ever fair; the house always wins, and it's a lesson Ody learns slowly and painfully.

I'm also not gonna do another long post about my point that people, Odysseus included, keep forgetting making it back to Ithaca with Poseidon still royally pissed at them would've been very very bad, but making it back to Ithaca with Poseidon still royally pissed at them would've been very very bad!

[shadowwolfmemes]

Clearing up misconceptions about furries

You already read the title, so let's get right into it.

Just because a few "furries" are zoophiles doesn't mean we all are. That's like me saying all white people are racist because I met one white dickhead who gives black people a bad name. And as for the zoophiles, the rest of the furry community don't claim them. You can ask any furry with a normal mindset and they'll tell you the same thing as well as calling zoophiles inhumane creatures from hell.

2. If you're not comfortable with the sexual side of our community, there's this thing called scrolling past or simply arranging your FYP. I mean, come on, this is the internet for crying out loud. You're going to see things you don't like. I'm not comfortable with the NSFW side either, but to think everyone within the community is the same is just ridiculous. But if you want to call it cringy, then I'm not going to stop you because like I said, this is the internet. People are going to say dumb shit, anyways.

3. Just because someone is a furry doesn't mean they're automatically fatherless. I've seen a lot of people saying this type of shit to other people just for having a HARMLESS hobby. Are people seriously getting angry over an anthropomorphic fursuit? People who blurt out "fatherless" to furries who are just minding their own business need to grow a fucking pair. This is the INTERNET, people! Let others have their fun!

4. Hunting down furries doesn't make you a hero. I find this shit hilariously stupid because you know you can't kill people over the internet. Nah because how are you this threatened by a personified animal? That's something I don't get. What makes furries so dangerous to mankind that they need to be "eradicated?" Or is it because you can't handle seeing a two-legged animal with human-like characteristics? Call us weird if you want, but please don't threaten/harass us for something you don't agree with.

Thank you for your time if you read through all of this.

[majachee]

One criticism of LMK I don't agree with whatsoever is that "LMK villainizes Wukong."

It doesn't. It really doesn't. The show's portrayal of Wukong is meant to be a flawed individual with good intentions, and the main themes of the show center around not letting the past define you and growing past your mistakes. While not every villain is redeemed, the clear message of growth is there within the main cast, especially with them being reincarnations/descendents of the Pilgrims. And Wukong's major character flaw is closing himself off, and this is very much connected to these themes.

MK, at the beginning of the series, idolizes Wukong. While he does acknowledge that Wukong was a troublemaker in the past, it's not elaborated on nor does MK really think about it. MK is excited about his new powers and meeting his hero for the entire first season!

It isn't until season 2 that doubt really starts to creep in, where this idea that Wukong is a perfect hero starts to fracture in MK's eyes. We, as the audience, know that Wukong is investigating LBD and trying to keep MK safe by leaving him behind; but to MK and the characters in the show, they take Wukong's word at face value. If Wukong says he's going on vacation, then he's going on vacation. While they're not pleased about it, they don't have a reason to believe Wukong is doing anything else. And that's what Wukong wanted, nobody following him and putting themselves in danger. He's the immortal monkey, he can handle this himself, in his opinion that is.

And then LBD gets the staff, and they finally learn where Wukong truly was all this time. The main group rightfully feels a bit hurt, they trust Wukong but Wukong didn't trust them. We know his reasons, but we can still empathize with the others' hurt and confusion. This doesn't make Wukong the villain or a terrible person, though. He wasn't plotting behind their backs, he was trying to handle the threat by himself.

In season 3, the most vocal person regarding their distrust of Wukong is Pigsy. Even before Amnesia Rules, Pigsy scrutinized Wukong's meditation and even the validity of the map to the Rings. And then Amnesia Rules happens, where Wuking reveals that there aren't just 3 Rings of Samadhi but 4.

Pigsy is rightfully suspicious, and its meant to give suspense to the audience as well. Why didn't Wukong tell them about the 4th Ring?

And then we learn the whole story: Wukong slipped during the ritual, and one of the Rings ended up forming inside Ao Lie. Mei, as a descendent of Ao Lie, now carries the fourth Ring. When it's revealed, Nezha specifically mentions the fire possibly burning Mei to a crisp. This is also when we learn that Wukong's plan was to extract the Ring from Mei and harness the power of the Samadhi Fire hinself.

Wukong's main fault in this entire scenario was his tendency to push people away and keep things to himself. His desperation when they begin the ritual without him also points to him not wanting Mei to get hurt. He also feels responsible for the Ring being in Mei in the first place.

His plan was flawed from the get-go, not because he's an evil villain, but because in trying to handle things by himself he pushed his new friends away from him, and created a situation where they couldn't trust him. We see this trait of his again when he goes to fight LBD alone, he feels responsible and wants to handle it by himself. His mindset is constantly looping between "I'm responsible for this" and "Don't get the kid and his friends involved." And what the show is trying to tell us is that he should reach out for help, and that this isn't a healthy mindset.

In season 4, Wukong's past mistakes are exposed for everyone in the main cast and the audience to see. And his past with the Brotherhood explains so much.

We don't know much about the pligrimage other than the fact that it was mentally and emotionally beneficial to Wukong after he got locked up, so for now I'm going to focus on the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood assembled to fight against the Jade Emperor, as Wukong was openly rebellious during this stage of his life. After the battle, he had to lock his former friends away because they clearly hung onto this goal of rebellion. We also see in the memory scroll that Azure Lion's "paradise" caused environmental devastation to the surrounding areas, and that after Wukong was imprisoned he lashed out at Macaque. He feels responsible for Azure's ideas of grandeur to some extent, in his eyes he was the one who fed into these ideas and lead their first attempt at rebellion. He was so caught up in his journey towards immortality and strength for the sole purpose of protecting his loved ones, that he ended up pushing them all away and hurting them. He even says at the beginning of season 4 that most of the bad guys MK faced were people he has history with, specifally that he crossed them at some point.

Based on Wukong's self-destructive behavior that's been previously established, season 4 brings a lot of light onto Wukong's behaviors. Once again, he left some things unsaid because he felt solely responsible. When MK and Macaque rescue Wukong from the scroll, it takes MK reassuring Wukong that he can still correct and grow past these mistakes that haunt him — with Macaque offering him a small, forgiving smile to really motivate him.

Wukong's character in this series is that he's a flawed individual who has made mistakes and will continue making mistakes, even with the best of intentions in mind, but that he can grow from them. And that he is going to grow from them with his newfound family. LMK made it's message of growth so painfully obvious here lmao

[lover-of-mine]

After the promo feeling a very "Eddie trapped under the fridge in the van" tonight... Ana what would happen if it's trapped Eddie again, Anna?? No, but srsly what do you think? Any spec...👀

Okay, hi, this is gonna get long, I'm sorry in advance, but hey, you asked oaksoaksoaksoaksa

No, but seriously, I'm gonna go back to what the goal of my drown Buck 2024 spec was to explain my thought process right now.

I said that initial spec came from the voices in my head, but I did have a somewhat logical thought process. Here's the thing, buddie needs to talk about almost dying, and (shameless self-promo incoming) while writing the trauma fic, I was trying to find what could be a canon trigger because I wanted to get as close to canon with that conversation as possible, so much so I didn't even plan on that ending up getting together fic, it just happened (and given the reaction I got to the fic, I think I did stay close to canon), and I realized the only way to get them talking about dying is to almost kill them again. And while in that trying to stay in canon mindset while looking at traumatic events, I caught on to some patterns on the way they handle and frame the ndes as triggers that were never pulled to their full extent. Considering the similarities between the well and the lightning (set on that here for better visualization) I was convinced we needed to give Buck a shooting moment. Mostly because buddie are connected through death. The big changes in their relationship are triggered by ndes. The truck, the tsunami, the well, the shooting, the lightning.

And well, the shooting is as intense as it is because of a few factors: it happens by chance, the thing they were supposed to be doing was already done but they weren't supposed to be there to begin with, it brings up a previous trauma for both Buck and Eddie, Buck is forced to do the saving alone. It's why the second collapse on the bridge made so much sense for so many of us. Because the show could draw us into a false sense of security and pull the rug the same way the shooting comes out of nowhere. They were at a bridge so adding water elements would be easy, and that's real for both of them since tsunami/well, betting trapped in/under a vehicle, doing the saving alone because everyone else is out of commission somehow. I also added the idea of equipment malfunctioning, because I kept going back to that (I don't fully know why I'm so hung up on that, it just makes sense in my head), and you could have all that happening at the bridge while Buck tried to get Eddie out.

But transferring all this to what we know about the 808 call. The cool thing about Buck and Eddie is that they are really mirrored and most triggers for one of them would work for both. Obviously, since I was literally mirroring the shooting, I latched onto the idea of Buck doing the dying and Eddie doing the saving (also because I know Ryan would EAT a desperate cpr scene), but it works either way. So let's assume Eddie is the one in danger here just because I think Eddie nde can have more consequences (you can trigger Eddie, Buck, Eddie and Chris, and buddie all for the price of dropping Eddie off a cliff or trapping him in a flooding car lol) and he's been relatively safe for a while since the bridge was a collective accident and Buck got him out with no effort. Oliver mentioned rock climbing and Tim said something about one character hanging off a cliff and I'm thinking maybe this is literal. So something collapses. We have very obvious water elements with the hydrants and the amount of cars makes the trapped under/in a vehicle easy too, something going to hell by chance, the street collapsing or the equipment failing and trapping Eddie inside the car we saw him in could do that, and since we have Buck and Eddie paired, Buck being the closest makes it so that he would have to do the saving. But the thing is, 809 is already done. So legit, if this is happening, this is where the episode ends and we get our first real cliffhanger.

I sorta want Buck to be the one who ends up trapped in the flooding car because I want the bragging rights, but I think rn, Eddie would have more consequences, but if we are talking pattern Buck is the one who usually dies with an audience, so I'm seriously going back and forth, it's all gonna depend on what they want to trigger here. Because the ndes are the beginning of the change, leading to some big consequences later on, and since Chris is not back yet, I can see them forcing a possible parallel oh moment in the way the shooting is supposed to be and then Eddie going to get Chris because Buck needs to get to a point where he's ready for Eddie and Eddie is never gonna truly find joy without Chris and then something on 8b triggers the getting together. Shit can go to hell for either or both of them. The thing that scares me is the way that 809 is already done, so they needed them still in the state they are now, so there will be little to no initial jump on 8b so I keep thinking cliffhanger.

But I'm also trapped into the idea of Eddie saying he's going to go get Chris, the call happening with no real issue and something happening to Eddie as he drives to the airport and the "Nobody’s hanging off a cliff at the end of the episode except for possibly one character." is actually Eddie while the rest of the team is unaware. (Or maybe buddie gets into a car crash while going together and then yall can call me Cassandra)

[buddiesmutslut]

Hot Take

BUCK IS THE BEST PERSON TO GIVE DATING ADVICE TO CHRIS, HEAR ME OUT.

Okay, I know we're all laughing about women fleeing Buck and how awful he is at relationships, but I don't feel like that's true.

First of all, just because a relationship ends, doesn't mean that it FAILED. Dating is as much about getting to know YOURSELF, what you want out of a relationship and what your own boundaries are as it is about getting to know the person you're dating. It's about growing, and learning from your mistakes, and I feel like Buck HAS done that. I'm not saying he's a perfect dater (the Taylor/Lucy thing, wtf was that?) but also, he has gotten better.

With Abby, he grew from fuckboy Firehose to someone that is considerate and thoughtful to his partner. (I don't LOVE that we credit Abby for his growth, since he was the one that made the initial boundary to not meet up right away because he didn't want to fall back into that sleep with anything that moves mindset, but she is mostly credited with it canonically, so we're going to use it.) Also, she didn't leave because Buck was a bad boyfriend or anything. She left because she needed to find herself after her mom died, and that's it.

With Ali too, she left because of his job, because she couldn't handle being with a first responder, which is a genuine concern for a LOT of people. It's hard to love someone with a dangerous job like that, and not know if they're going to come home at night. It had nothing to do with who Buck was as a boyfriend.

With Taylor, that whole relationship was a mess, IMO, them getting together when they did was a recipe for disaster. Obviously, Buck shouldn't have asked her to move in because he was scared to tell her about Lucy, but I'm not saying he's a PERFECT dater, I'm saying he's learning, and that's what's important. When he did admit to the kiss, Taylor is the one that decided that it wasn't a hard line for her, or she would have broken up with him, living together or not. It probably would have been awkward and complicated, but it was all of those things when they DID break up later in the series. From this relationship, Buck learned that it's better to be alone than it is to be with someone for the wrong reasons.

He has had a lot of growth from s1 to the end of s6, and that is clear in his dating.

Now, everyone that's saying Eddie should go to Bobby or Chim for advice, I'm going to say this: It's easy to date when you immediately find the person you're going to marry.

Let me be clear, I'm not saying that Madney & Bathena don't have their own struggles within their relationships, but Bobby and Chim got pretty luck, they found women that they clicked with and then eventually fell in love with almost as soon as they went looking.

When Bobby decided he was ready to move on from Marcy, the ONLY person we actually see him dating in the show is Athena, and they end up married.

After Tatiana leaves Chim, and he decides that he's going to be himself and look for a genuine connection, Maddie is conveniently placed in front of him.

I'm not saying that either of them are bad daters, or bad partners or anything, but we don't really SEE them date. Maybe it's because they're older and they already know what they're looking for and what they can and can't accept in a relationship, but realistically, it's wild to think that you're going to fall in love and get married to the first person that you find when you start dating. The majority of people have to date around and actually look to find the person they're meant to be with, not magically find them right out of the gate.

Especially for a FIRST first date, it's all about figuring out how dating works, what is and isn't expected and acceptable and navigating getting to know a new person, as well as yourself, and I think Buck is the clear best option when it comes to experience about women. He's had several girlfriends and also convinced only God knows how many people to sleep with him, so he's obviously charming, and pleasant to spend time within a romantic situation.

Also, God knows nobody is asking Eddie for dating advice, since the man only married his girlfriend bc she was pregnant and then had to be told (BY BUCK) that he deserved to be happy in a relationship instead of sticking it out for everyone else.

Anyway, this has been on my mind ever since that interview came out with everyone making fun of Eddie for going to Buck because he's had (based on what we're reading about Natalia's character) 4 "failed" relationships, but again, I truly believe that a relationship ending does not automatically mean it failed.

Also, Eddie goes to Buck because they're CO-PARENTS & SOULMATES but all of this other stuff too 😂

[babbletaels]

Like the problem I have with the jedi are the way they're a large institution that thinks they know what's best for everyone and breeds that mindset into their pupils. There are rules they have to follow to not get shunned from the jedi order, we see this as anakin can't tell anyone he's married and about to have children. It's apparently so secretive that even after anakin is left half dead and whats left of his body is actively burning to a crisp, Obi wan still doesn't call for help for padmé to give birth. It's only him and a robot! sorry I mean "droid" or whatever.

They freely host these rules that make their members want to hide their "mistakes" and their flaws instead of being able to work on their issues, and they see no fault in this system until it all goes wrong of course. It's clearly displayed this way for a reason, no?

One of the issues the jedi have is that they recruit children as young as possible, and when a person becomes a jedi they're not allowed to meet their family again because they're constantly on the job basically. We hear this being talked about in the movies and in shows too. I almost thought it was just a once or twice happenstance kind of thing, because anakins mom was a slave so she couldn't follow them, but it seems like they just literally do this every time. It's not healthy for children to be taken away from their families. Even kids from abusive or otherwise incapable families will have trauma from being taken away from their family. Even surrogate children can display trauma because of this.

Ask yourself, why are the jedi portrayed to do this instead of being portrayed as letting their pupils go home on the weekends or going home on summer break or why are they not portrayed as getting to bring one of their parents? You think it's unrealistic, that they can't host that many families. But there's fire in space. There's light sabers. There's an entire planet that's just one big industrialized city - and people actually like that place and want to be there. Why can't there be a family quarters? Some parents probably don't want to move and will let their kid go alone, so you can still have stories about sad kids who miss their parents.

The jedi are just simply portrayed as having flaws. Their methods of bringing up padawans became their downfall when one of their pupils couldn't handle these situations. In A new hope, only two jedi are left alive. They take in Luke who is an adult and train him to be a jedi, even though the jedi order doesn't take in adults to train them to become jedi. And Luke turns out great, so like what's even the issue. Why can't they take in force sensitive people of all ages based on requests? Post flyers that say "is your kid scaring you by making things fly? contact us". Everyone in the galaxy already know what the jedi order is. Instead of going somewhere and saying "your kid is force sensitive, I want to take him with me to train him because he's dangerous blah blah, and you have to make the decision right now" just let people contact you when they feel like they need you? And also let your employees have some time off where they can visit their fucking families?

Like the jedi order has flaws! Why are people so pissy when you point out that they have flaws, when the movies and everything ever deliberately made these flaws a thing in the first place! They didn't need to have flaws, they could've been perfect if they had been written as such!

[five-rivers]

Danger First Chapter 14

Wow! It's been a while!

.

"So, Midoriya," said Ms. Kayama, "putting together anything special for the Athlete's Oath?"

Izuku looked up from what was shaping up to be a fairly in-depth analysis of the second event of a sports festival that had occurred about a dozen years ago, a sense of dread pooling in his gut.  "What?"

Ms. Kayama smiled, brows pinching together just a smidge.  "The Athlete's Oath.  You were the top scorer on the entrance exam, weren't you?  I didn't get you confused with someone else, did I?"

"Oh, no," said Izuku, as he finally managed to put Ms. Kayama's question together with facts he'd known for years.  "I forgot the Athlete's Oath."

.

"Athlete's Oath?" repeated Yoichi.  "What's the Athlete's Oath?  Was it something Eighth had to do?  Nana, do you know?"

Nana raised an eyebrow.  "I was under the impression that all of you were here when Toshinori went here."

"Yeah," said En, "but that was about a hundred years ago."

"It was not," said Hikage.  

"It was just as long ago for me."

"Sure, but he was your kid," said Yoichi.  “Everyone remembers their kid better."

Nana made a face.  She… couldn't actually dispute that.  All these years later, she could still remember things like Kotaro's first day of school with blinding clarity. 

… and Toshinori's first day at UA, for that matter.  

"It's just a little… not a speech.  A recitation.  Just a few lines about playing fair and trying your best.  Used to be the top student of the third years would do it, but I guess they must have the top students for the first and second years do it as well, now that they're televised as well."

"Is Izuku the top student, then?" asked Yoichi.  

"The only test they've had is the entrance exam," said En with a shrug.  "Ninth got top in that, so…"

"And so, Eighth's bribery has led to Ninth's downfall," said Banjo in a falsely serious tone.  

"He didn't bribe anyone!"

"Izuku got in on his own merits!"

"Jeez, you guys can't take a joke."

Nana huffed.  "I just don't understand why they're so excited about it.  It's just a tiny thing.  You can read it from a little card."

.

As always, Izuku’s first resort was research.  He searched HeroTube for compilations of the most recent UA Athlete’s Oaths, and hit play.  

He watched the videos, chewing his lip.  There was just so much to do, so much to say–  How could he capture the spirit of Plus Ultra competition, his will to win and everyone else’s, the honor of competing, the honor of speaking for his entire year, all in only a few minutes?  In only a couple days, too.  

And without stuttering.  

He was going to die.  

No, no.  That was the wrong mindset entirely for a UA student with a shiny new hero name, much less All Might’s successor!  He could do this!  He would do this!  

He’d just… break down into tears a few times first.  

.

Nana felt eyes boring into the back of his head.

“Just a thing you can read from the back of a card?” asked Yoichi.  “This guy’s been talking for ten full minutes, and I don’t think he’s going to stop anytime soon!”

“I can feel you all judging me,” said Nana, “but I’ve been dead for decades.  It’s changed.  That happens.”

“You don’t have to feel me judging you, I’m doing it out loud.”

.

Izuku stared down at the pages and pages of repeatedly crossed out lines.  

“I don’t know why I thought I could do this,” he whispered.  “I couldn’t even come up with a hero name on my own.”

.

“This really isn’t a big deal.”

“It’s a huge deal!  Do you know how dangerous public speaking is?”

Nana turned to squint at Yoichi.  “When did you ever do public speaking?”

“Probably about the same time he went to school,” said En.  

“I did go to school!  Why will you not let that go?”

“Bizarre petty grudges and jokes are pretty much the only thing we can hold onto,” said En.  “That and the quirk.”

“Seriously, though, this isn’t going to kill him.”

“It isn’t?  What happens when my brother sees him on TV?  Speaking for the hero class?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Banjo.  “That’s a thing.”

Yoichi threw up his hands.  “How did you guys forget?”

“I didn’t forget,” said Hikage.  

.

“Maybe I should ask Dad,” said Izuku.  “He probably talks to lots of people for his work…”

.

“No!” screamed all of the ghosts.  

.

“That's different than public speaking, though, isn't it?”  He let his head drop onto his open notebook, heedless of the ink and graphite getting on his face.  “At least it's only the first year speech.”

He sat up with renewed energy.

“And there's no way it’ll be worse than Endeavor's!”

.

“That's the spirit!” cheered Nana.  

“I thought we were the spirits,” said Hikage.  

“It's just an expression.”

“Are we spirits, though?” asked En.  

Banjo groaned.  “Please, kid, don't start on that again.”

.

Kaminari waved furiously from across the field as the purple-haired boy next to him did his best to hunch into his uniform and disappear.  Far behind them, Snipe sat reading a paperback novel.  “Hey!  Welcome to our awesome training montage!”

“You can't have a montage in real life,” said Jiro.  

“Watch me!” 

.

Once everyone arrived, Iida started chivying them all into a loose circle.  Well, Izuku reflected, Iida obviously wanted them in an exact circle but… even Izuku could see that was never going to happen. Then Iida cleared his throat portentously and Yaoyorozu stepped into the center.

���Thank you for coming, everyone,” she said.  “Especially those of you who aren't in 1-A, we understand this is a leap of faith, and what we're doing here is a little radical.  For today, our goals are for everyone to get to know each other and to start working out strategic teams.  So, let's start by just introducing ourselves.  I'll go first…”

.

The purple-haired boy was named Shinsou Hitoshi, and he had thus far been very reticent about his quirk. About talking at all, really, which was interesting, given his attempt at a declaration of war earlier. 

Interesting, not strange.  In a similar position of not-quite-enmity, Izuku would probably be on the lookout for potential weaknesses, too.  As long as Shinsou waited until the third event, though, that was fine.  It wasn't as if everyone in class 1-A didn't know each others’ quirks already.

That was all a very uncharitable way of thinking about Shinsou, though, and Izuku felt a little guilty thinking about things like that.  He wanted to become a hero, too.  

.

“Alright,” said Yaoyorozu, “now, remember, the first event is the elimination event.  Our researchers say we'll probably be racing, competing for some limited resource, or trying to avoid being tagged out in some way.  Even with the teachers trying to be unpredictable, the number of students does limit them.  All of the events we've been able to brainstorm favor mobility, so you want to be in a group that you can move well with. Defense is important, too.  Bakugou, at minimum, is a problem, and we have to assume the other classes will target us.”

“Bakugou's the crazy guy who chased Midoriya down at lunch the other day,” said Kaminari to Shinsou at a volume that was obviously meant to be a whisper, but fell far short of the mark.  

“He's not crazy,” protested Izuku.  “He's just.  Passionate.”

Everyone regarded him dubiously.  

.

Predictably, the groups initially split along lines of friendship, acquaintance, and obligation.  Yaoyorozu and Iida walked around for a while, trying to keep the groups more or less equal in size before settling into their own class leadership group, along with Monoma.

“A waltz of darkness and chaos,” muttered Tokoyami, barely getting out of the way of Satou, as his group, consisting of himself, Ojirou, Sero, and Hagakure, trundled towards a shadier spot.  

Hatsume laughed.  “If you think this is chaotic, wait until the sports festival!”

“She's right,” said Uraraka.  “So, Midoriya,  what do you think we should do?”

“Eh?  Me?”

“Your battle trial plan was quite impressive,” said Tokoyami.  “Your strategic acuity will cast a long shadow in the sports festival as well.”

“I don't know about that,” said Izuku.  But then he glanced at Monoma.  They probably only had about ten minutes left.  “I guess- I guess the most obvious thing is for us to be a rocket.”

.

“Ow,” said Uraraka, rubbing her head.  

“I think,” said Iida, also nursing several bruises, “we should have come up with a better way to steer before we tried that.  And brake.”

“Yeah… We did go fast, though.”

.

“But, Hatsume, your, um, your ba- your inventions–”

“Call ‘em my babies with your whole chest, grappling hook.”

“I think your babies would help any team, but that you'd do really well with Yaoyorozu.  And Uraraka and I should probably be on different teams, since we both have flight-capable quirks.  Even if we both have time-limit issues…”

“Aww,” said Uraraka, “you're probably right.  I was looking forward to working with you, though.”

“What about Fumi and me?  We can be on your team, right?” asked Dark Shadow.

Tokoyami ducked his head and tried to push Dark Shadow down.  “Don't ask questions like that.”

“I don't know if that'd be a good idea, since Bakugou's explosions can make a lot of light.”

“That just means we're destined to be arch-nemeses!”

.

Izuku sat down next to Hagakure, Aoyama, and Ashido. 

“Okay, Midori!” said Ashido.  “Come up with a super move for us!”

“I’m sure you will come up with something that sparkles,” said Aoyama.  

“Uh, um,” said Izuku, flustered.  “How about, um, Aoyama, is your laser just light?  Maybe it could go through Hagakure - if lasers going through you doesn’t hurt.”

“No, that’s one of the first things my quirk counselor tested,” said Hagakure.  “My parents wanted to make sure that all the light going through me wasn’t going to give me turbo cancer or something.  The real problem for me is that for me to do anything with my quirk, I’m going to have to be naked.  We have to wear our PE uniforms for the festival.”

“Oh, non,” said Aoyama.  “I’ve been given an allowance for my belt, surely they would give you one for your suit.  Anything else would be quite unfair.”

“Or you could ask Hatsume, see if she can make something for you that would work temporarily,” suggested Izuku.  “She’s really eager to work with everyone.  Or even just plastic clothing, from Yaoyorozu.”  They'd all have to be careful not to overtax Yaoyorozu, though.  Anything else would be unfair.  She had to save something for the final event.

“Okay, okay, okay, but what about super moves?” asked Ashido.  

“Or some things we can do during the event, anyway,” said Hagakure.

“Well, if you're with Aoyama, like I said, and his laser can go through you, that could be a really good way to get in a kind of sneak attack.  No one expects a person to be in the same area an attack just went through.”

.

“Lowest setting first, mademoiselle?” 

“Just hit me already, Twinkles!  I can take it!” shouted Hagakure from the other side of the field.  

 .

“Are- are you okay, Aoyama?” asked Izuku, after they'd tested Aoyama's laser on a number of settings.  

“Oh, oui, my quirk just upsets my stomach somewhat, you see.  And it seems as if Hagakure is, how should I say this, my natural enemy.”

.

(In truth, Aoyama was feeling ill, but not because of his quirk.  Rather, the problem was his quirk’s origin.  The man had demanded that Aoyama keep an eye on Midoriya - and, if possible, make him win the sports festival.  A minor thing, really!)

(If only Aoyama had the courage to defy the man.)

(He hoped Midoriya would be able to survive whatever All for One had planned for him.)

.

All for One sighed.  He wondered if he could find a good enough disguise quirk to take Izuku out for ice cream after he won the sports festival.  Or after he lost and was properly filled with hatred for hero society.

“Sensei?” said Ujiko.  “Are you alright?”

“No.  You're being incredibly boring.”

.

“Ashido, how acidic does your acid have to be?  And is it always the same substance, just at different concentrations, or can you make different substances, as long as they're acidic?”

“Um,” said Ashido.

.

“I think that's it for me, today,” said Ashido, sitting down.  “I'm going to have to drink, like, a dozen liters of Gatorade or something.  You're brutal for someone so cute, did you know that, Midori?”

“He'd have to be, to get through the entrance exam without using a physical quirk,” said Hagakure, dragging Ashido back up.  “Come on, we still have the gym for fifteen, and I want feedback.”

“You're both brutal.”

.

“Um,” said Izuku, sidling up to Shinsou, notebook in hand.  “Your quirk is a mind control type, right?”

Shinsou, scowled down at Izuku.  “It's Brainwashing,” he said, rather gruffly.

“Oh, wow, that's great.  Mind control quirks are actually perfect for hero work, but the stigma means hardly any heroes have one.  Like, you could stop a fight before it even started, or get villains to surrender right away, or help civilians who are too panicked to move properly, or heroes who are compromised, or who would otherwise have trouble cooperating with each other, for whatever reason.  It’s really too bad that the entrance exam is all robots.”

Shinsou stared at him.  

“Any- anyway, I've heard that some- some quirks can interact unexpectedly with mental quirks, and I've noticed you're not-  You don't seem to be using it, much, even though we have permission here, and…  Um.  Just saying, you can practice on me, if you'd like.”

“Oh!  Or me!” said Kaminari, popping up seemingly out of nowhere.  “We should test and see if you can get me when I'm in wheyyy mode, or Satou when he's powered up!”

“What does that even mean?” demanded Shinsou.  He allowed Kaminari to drag him on, however.  

“Oooooooh,” said Izuku, his plan to test out the ‘hallucination’ thing Mr. Yagi had explained all but forgotten.  “That's a great idea!  I'll take notes!”

.

“I know it's a little disappointing that we didn't get a chance to appear to Ninth,” said Nana, “but don't you think you're overdoing this a little?”

Yoichi rolled over so that he was face up in his Bog of Despair.  “No,” he said, before rolling back over.  

“Forget that,” said Third.  “Am I the only one at all disturbed by how he's picking apart all the other kids’ quirks?”

“Yes,” chorused the other ghosts.

.

Izuku stood at the classroom door for several blank minutes.  Where was everyone?  Did he… Get the date wrong?  No, there was enough security outside to defeat a small army.  Which was probably the point, come to think of it.  Was he late?  Had he missed the sports festival?  When he was the one giving the opening speech for the first years?  

Forget public humiliation, he was going to be expelled.  As soon as Mr. Aizawa saw him, he would–

“Midoriya, what are you doing here?  Why aren’t you in the prep room?” 

Izuku squeaked.  Then he registered what Mr. Aizawa had said.  “Prep room?” he repeated.  “Oh, yeah!  The prep room!  Thank you, Mr. Aizawa!”

.

Shouta sighed as his number one problem child scurried away.  How illogical…  But there would be time to work on his memory and situational awareness in the future, and it would be downright hypocritical to scold him about it now.  

He shuffled into the classroom, careful about his bandages, because he had just been scolded by Recovery Girl.  The lights buzzed when he turned them on, more obvious without the students there… although they did have competition from the roar of the crowds in the festival stadium.  

He walked over to his desk and knelt to retrieve his stash of jelly pouches, especially the coffee ones.  Which he also wasn’t supposed to have, but what Recovery Girl didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.  Or cause her to hurt him, which was the more pertinent issue from his perspective.  If he was going to survive announcing the first year’s festival by himself, he was going to need them.  

Now weighted down, he started hobbling back to the stadium and the announcer’s box. Jelly was heavy, as it turned out.  

Recovery Girl really would kill him if she found out.  He sped up.  Not a lot.  Just a little.  Just in case.  He certainly wasn’t moving as fast as Midoriya had.

He made his way through staff passages, avoiding most of the crowds and pleasantly nodding to heroes who had been asked to come serve as security.  Finally, and in good time, too, because his stupid injured body was starting to get winded, he reached the announcer’s box and opened the door.  

“Yagi,” said Shouta, “what are you doing here?”  He shook off the sense of deja vu.

“Oh,” said Yagi, brightly.  “Young Aizawa!  I was getting worried that something had happened to you.  Principal Nezu thought that you could use some assistance here, with young Yamada being otherwise occupied.”

And so he’d replaced one loud blond with another.  He couldn’t even be that mad about it.  

“You have any training for this?” he asked instead.  

“Well, not for announcing sports events in particular,” said Yagi.  “But I have a lot of media and commercial experience and I’ve been practicing cheering on my students!”

“Right,” said Shouta, who was feeling as if he’d somehow asked a stupid question.  “Just don’t show too much favoritism.”

“Oh, I’d never!  After all,” and here he grew much more grim, “you know as well as I do, the risks of putting too much attention on young Midoriya.  Besides, young Yamada gave us a ‘cheat sheet!’”

.

Izuku, dressed in his PE uniform, stumbled into 1-A’s prep room.  

“Hey!” said Kaminari.  “It’s Midoriya!  We were getting worried about you, man!”

“Ah, y-yeah,” said Izuku.  “I wound up going to the classroom instead.”

“Huh,” said Jiro, “you’d think your quirk would have warned you against that.”

“Um, yeah,” said Izuku, “but I guess it wasn’t really dangerous to go to the wrong spot at first?  Especially since I got here okay, eventually, right?”  

There was a murmur of agreement, but with a slight uneasy undercurrent.  

“There’s not any real danger in the sports festival, either, though, is there?” asked Yaoyorozu.  

“I- I mean, there’s the danger of getting beaten up?”  And he’d been able to feel danger from wrong answers on a test before, so…  This should be the same kind of thing, right?

Yaoyorozu nodded.  “Right.  There is that.”

“Don’t worry, Midoriya,” said Uraraka, “I’m sure you’ll be fine.  We did so much studying for this, after all.”  She held up a fist.  “I’m feeling confident!  That’s for sure!” 

“Yes!” said Monoma, who twirled over with Aoyama.  “I, too, am confident that we will defeat those philistines in class 1-B, not to mention everyone else!”

“Oui,” said Aoyama, “our performance will be tres magnifique!”

“Don’t forget we have allies in other classes, you two,” said Yaoyorozu, slightly exasperated.  

“Yes,” said Monoma, “but neither of them are in 1-B.  We have the excellent Mock and the ingenious Brigid to support us.”

Ashido sighed heavily.  “Speaking of support, I sure wish I could’ve used my costume.”

“It’s to keep things fair,” said Ojiro with a shrug.

Iida power-walked into the room.  “IS EVERYONE GOOD AND READY?” he shouted, clearly as nervous as Izuku, but trying to cover it up with sheer volume.  “THE EVENT’S ABOUT TO START!  Ahem.  Where is Todoroki?”

“Oh, jeez,” said Ashido, raising a hand to her lips.  “He never came to any of our practices, so I just sort of forgot he should be here…”

Honestly, so had Izuku.  Todoroki had quite the presence, but he could also fade into the background with surprising ease.  Maybe it was just because he hardly talked?  More importantly, what had happened to him?  Was he sick?  Did he get lost like Izuku did?  Did he get kidnapped by people trying to get at his father?  Endeavor might not have the social and political weight that All Might could bring to bear, but Number Two Hero wasn’t an empty title at all.  Maybe he–

Izuku’s thoughts ground to a confused halt when Todoroki casually walked into the room.  

Oh.  He was just late.  

Todoroki stood up in front of the room, clearly intending to make some sort of address.  

“Er,” said Izuku, “Todoroki, what is it?”

“Objectively speaking,” said Todoroki, “I’m stronger than all of you.  Even if you’re all working together… even if All Might has his eyes on you, Midoriya, no matter the reason…  I will beat you.”

"Did he just… declare a rivalry with… all of us?" asked Sero, quietly.  In the hush that followed Todoroki’s words, he might as well have shouted.    

"Can you do that?" asked Kaminari.  "Is that allowed?"

.

“He's got a point,” said Banjo.  “A rival is like a nemesis, or a girlfriend, you can only have one at a time.”

“That's not true,” said Yoichi.  “You can have more than one girlfriend at a time.”

En squinted at him.  “Again, aren’t you gay?”

“Multitudes, En, multitudes.”

.

“Aw, come on, man,” said Kirishima, “do you really have to pick a fight with all of us, now?  We’re about to go on and fight anyway.  Make your statement on the field!”

“I don’t care.  I’m not here to make friends.”  He shouldered past Kirishima and left the room.  

“Uh,” said Midoriya, “that… was something.”

“Yeah,” said Jiro.  “Does he intend to just wait in the hall or something?  We’re all going to the same place.”

Tokoyami shook his head, Dark Shadow mirroring him.  “What a mad banquet of darkness.”

.

“Wow,” said Yoichi, chuckling.  “Sometimes I forget how needlessly dramatic teenagers can be.”

All the ghosts, except Second, turned to stare at him.   

“How needlessly dramatic teenagers are?” repeated Nana.  

“Yes?”

“Have you not been sharing the same afterlife as the rest of us, or what?”

.

The class waited in the tunnel, fidgeting, bouncing, flexing, whispering.  Any minute, now, they’d be called in, to take their place on the field in front of the cameras.  

Any minute, now.  

“Is it just me,” whispered Uraraka, “or is this taking a really long time?”

“I am sure our eagerness is only making time appear to be passing more slowly than it really is!” said Iida.  

“No,” said Monoma, frowning, “they really are starting late.  I wonder if it’s a problem with the cameras, or if something else happened.  Midoriya, have you noticed anything?”

Izuku shook his head.  “I d-don’t think so? Just, um, just nervous for the event!  I think.  I hope nothing’s– nothing’s gone wrong.”

.

Shouta and Yagi bent their heads over Hizashi’s so-called cheat sheet.  

“I’m not reading this,” said Shouta.  

“This is…  I thought we were supposed to avoid favoritism in these things,” said Yagi, sounding incredibly confused.  “What– What’s this about a ruthless grand battle?  That doesn’t really… sound heroic…”

“Yeah, this is just typical Hizashi.  Trash it and come up with one of those inspiring speeches you like so much.”

.

The intercom speakers crackled into life overhead.  

“Welcome to the UA Sports Festival!”

“Is that…?”

“All Might!” squeaked a Gen Ed student several rows back.  

“The once-a-year event where our new students show how they can go PLUS ULTRA!”

The crowd outside, in the stadium, cheered wildly.  

“First, put your hands together for a class that has already faced some of the worst the world of villains has to offer and PERSEVERED!  Class 1-A!”

Somehow, they managed to turn their initial rushed stumble into a confident march before they emerged from the mouth of the tunnel.  Izuku squinted against the light at first, but recovered quickly and attempted to mimic Iida’s wave.  

“And next up, we have an equally worthy group of young heroes, who have been polishing their skills until they shine like the stars they are!  Class 1-B!”

As the classes emerged, Mr. Yagi continued to read out names and short accolades, and Izuku started to feel like he was about to throw up.  Oh, there were a lot of people here, and once all the classes came out, he would be speaking in front of them.  

.

“Well, this is it, guys,” said Yoichi.  “The last minutes of Hisashi not knowing Izuku is in the hero course.”

“I'm still not sure why you think he doesn't know already,” said Nana, crossing her arms.  “You were listening to the conversation they had about hero names, right?”

“Are you kidding?  That's how I know he has no idea.  That was classic Hisashi, existing in his own world, having a completely different conversation than the other person.  That's why he got my lab partner deported when I was an undergrad.  He heard the word partner, and he immediately assumed our relationship was romantic.”  Yoichi shook his head sadly.  

“New question,” said Banjo.  “Did All for One ever go to school?”

“When in reality, Chan and I had only just started discussing the possibility of a QPR…”

“No, seriously, what is that guy's level of education?”

“They had to go back to China…  It was tragic.  Almost as tragic as Izuku inheriting that particular personality quirk.”

“Ew, don't talk about Ninth inheriting quirks from him,” said En.  

“I agree,” said Hikage.  

“Thank you,” said En.  

“That was indeed a tragic turn of events, Yoichi.”

“Is no one else interested in whether or not All for One graduated high school?”

“Furthermore, I believe that the danger involved in a non-ceiling vaulting and the preceeding kidnapping would trigger far more anxiety that Ninth is currently experiencing.”

“Er, thanks, Hikage, but you don't have to say ‘non-ceiling.’”

“Hey!” snapped Nana.  “Ninth's speech is starting, and I, at least, want to hear it.”

.

“Now!” said Ms. Kayama, brightly, snapping her whip to get the attention of people close to the stage.  “The athlete’s oath!  Your student representative, from class 1-A, is Wonder!”

Izuku pasted on his best smile and climbed the stairs.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Talking about *that* scene in 2.1 and more predictions on the 2.2 storyline (or are we seeing a pattern forming?)

Major Spoilers 1.9 here (Idk to post about Global right now, maybe more crack headcanons?)

Rambling and theorising (feel free to discuss in messages I want to hear other ideas for both CN and global)

The Tuesday and Vertin scene damn. The fact that Tuesday actually gets a kick out of it also is terrifying, like the last horror patch we had Jessica, the jump between Jessica to Tuesday was crazy.

Also props to Scarlet Grace, Vertin's va here; I know Tuesday did think Vertin did not have any fear here but I don't think that was the case. As Ive said before Vertin's fear is being in a position that she is helpless to save others, a position where she promises salvation that she cannot truly grant: Issabella, the Ring and Schnieder specifically as the trigger in CH.2 that led us to see the Breakaway Incident in her dreams.

Imma pick through Vertin's line delivery here:

Initially she is frustrated by Tuesday: "stop trying to get in my way and tell me where Argus is". As along as she can focus on helping and saving others she can hide her own fears and anxieties. Realising she was using the voices of Ring and Issabella probably put her back to the Oranges scene, so she focuses on the situation at hand, Argus being in danger of sorts. Focus on the safety of others and yourself.

When Tuesday questions why Vertin is afraid of the Storm Vertin is more frustrated and almost angry (I emphasise almost): "pulverising people under the crushing wheel of time". You can hear Vertin's voice actually waver at "pulverise", she feels helpless that in the past countless others she has met before have been taken by the Storm. How many experiments? How many times has she pulled someone into the suitcase and only find their clothes where there were hands? "You should be thankful you've never seen it". Someone has mentioned before but Vertin is emotionally repressed, therefore seeing what we percieve as normal show of anger is noticeable, her agitation at Tuesday, even if Tuesday did not notice it, showed that Tuesday did pick out her fear directly, hitting a nerve almost.

"We have the umbrella now": I think partially this is Vertin overcoming her trauma slowly but not entirely. Saying this aloud almost sounds like an attempt to reaffirm herself, the umbrella WILL work, it HAS to work. Don't get me wrong, the umbrella can now protect people despite the many who didn't make it to this point... But wasn't she in a similar mindset after realising Regulus was saved by the suitcase?

(Maybe deep down she still fears the umbrella might not be enough, but regardless right now it is the best solution to the Storm)

2.1 showed that Vertin is still haunted by the fact that she could not save many, despite the great strides and the creation of the Umbrella. (Again this HAS to work, so many people had sacrificed themselves for this to work)

Now what about 2.2? I think as early as CH.1 Vertin as shown uncanny willingness throw her life away for others if it meant saving them (pushing Sonetto and Mariam away and getting captured by Manus). She is now in the best position she can find her mother now, spending so far the most of the 2.0 story looking for Urd.

However it is already clear from the 2.2 PV she is in real danger now (everyone having a holiday whilst shes literally fighting for her life is ironic). And Anjo Nala's trailer has already shown the violence this new Manus is willing to go through to meet means and ends. Plus the fact that 2.1 hints with Stephen Vertin likely has a target painted on her back with Arcana's death. Arcana never needed to resort to physical violence with Vertin, largely emotional damage but this isn't Arcana now but new members of Manus with an actual vendetta against the person they see as the murderer of their saviour.

What am I getting at? We are almost in the same position as we were in CH.1:

Resolve at the fact that we have a way to save people from the storm: the suitcase and umbrella

Meet character/s that reluctantly side with the Manus: Schnieder/ Druvis and Anjo Nala

Faced with an enemy we cannot decipher their true intentions: Arcana and the new Manus, Order of Enlightenment and Apostles Brotherhood.

And a situation again where Vertin is somehow isolated from her allies: saving Mariam and being separated by the collapsing wall vs Vertin being somehow corned by a Zeno(?) officer and strangled almost to death by Anjo Nala

The true wildcard here is Bessmert/ Martha/ Urd here. Likely I have a feeling this is only part one, similar to In Our Time.

Crazy prediction: Green Oranges scene but worse either this patch or the next mainline patch.

(Summary: props again to Vertin's va, Vertin is being put through the works, Im either delulu or are we beginning to see parallels in the beginning of the 2.0 story to the beginning of the 1.0 story?)

(there's also Zeno's place in the story, I really only speculate they might be taken over by Manus or severely damaged in the 2.0 story as a way to rise stakes by crippling a major part of the Foundation's military capability, its looking clear with 2/3 new characters being in Zeno/ or affliated with Zeno that we are gonna get more on Zeno so thats nice)

(Minecraft Schneider is nice)

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

The way k-dramas have this opposite side showing to people than what goes on k-side is really something. Not saying like that's not how the world goes but the way i see everyone on other sns have this mindset towards Koreans as how it goes in k-dramas. My own country fans think that's what korea is about.....U know how men in there are, just a few months ago we saw them getting exposed with those telegram groups, them bullying their Olympics female participants over short hair n all. Saw 2 days ago the men victimizing themselves because a korean female writer won an award. She's actually the first female from Asia but here those men being "You can imagine what men in Korea have to go through daily".

Then you have this 21 year old idol having to leave his group because korean fans are mad he had gf and smoked before debut like??? Saw a video of him seeing all those funeral wraths with his own eyes because he walked passed through all of them like nothing is more fked than that shit. And I for a fact know that most of those fans are female fans. There's one picture of the "fans" sitting with those protests all seemed female (if I'm not mistaking what that picture and those banners mean). So these fans and more especially here these female fans (i know male fans for gg would be the same) acting like they own these idols is crazy. Put every single one of them in jail or in a mental hospital cause that mentality is harmful. Him going through this shit at the age of 21 is fked. This is gonna leave a big scar on his life forever but hopefully he'll heal.

I think a lot of damage is being done on the international community side, especially in fandom spaces, due to lack of education. It boils down to that. But of course, the issue is more nuanced. The average age has to be taken into account, but it's the lack of knowledge, critical thinking, mixed in with xenophobia that leads not only to a distorted image of a country and its cultural/social/political aspects, but not knowing how to properly differentiate between real life and advertisement.

Should we expect that anyone who is now interested in Korean entertainment to pick up some articles and read a few things here and there? What lead to the investment in culture and entertainment and how the state was involved? What is the purpose? To what end and for whom is it being promoted and how? No, although it would be ideal. But at the same time, you would think that anyone can understand the difference between an idealized and promoted image to be consumed and the real life. Unfortunately, it is not the case.

It is also not fundamentally wrong that the majority of people rely on k-dramas and kpop to get a glimpse or immerse themselves into another culture. A K-drama or any other type of media product is a narrative fiction that contributes to the creation of imagined, national communities. The mainstream Korean imaginary is created through the help of these mediated audio-visual fictions (this is applicable to other countries, as I myself took the terms from an analysis of American culture and its effects on Europe. Don't take my interpretation as a rule of thumb though, I haven't done any research into my response).

Popular Korean entertainment is meant to create a very specific image of national identities and values, but it clashes with other realities (which are also represented through fiction, but that's more marginalized). It is on us to be able to navigate between all these aspects, but my god, there's a lot of stupid people out there.

(It's interesting how my introduction to SK as an adult was through Kim Ki-Duk's films. I was hit with extreme levels of representation of violence and mysogyny, but also an incredible beauty in a controversial filmography. Nothing near the fantasy of the "CEO falls in love with the poor young girl in an environment that screams advertisement").

As to the idol who was pressured to leave the group, unfortunately SM set a very dangerous precedent with their decision and it has been pointed out a lot in the past 24h. The company is telling so-called fans that their strategies work and that they have power over idols.

For them, idols are a commodity, hence why they become enraged and talk about their time and money which they have invested in them. It's a really dark way to think of these entertainers through this capitalist lense. Which is not particular to k-pop, it happens in any entertainment industry. But it slowly leads more and more to the dehumanization of idols. And that's a consequence of companies and fans. They are at fault for creating and perpetuating such a system.

[poemsfor-her]

GLOW UP QUIDE 𖹭⠀࣭⠀ֹ⠀͡꒱

I. THE INNER ME

— When you think of the word "glow up" , your mind automatically thinks of changing your appearence, right? For me the beauty is in our soul. If you think nasty and degrading thoughts of yourself that can be damaging in so many ways.

let's get some things clear here:

First of all, beauty standards always change, as trends come and go, and you will never be enough "pretty" for someone; because beauty is subjective and you might be the dream person for someone and for someone not. which is ok! there are so many beautiful flowers. i personally perfer tulips and peonies, but someone might prefer roses or sunflowers. that doesn't make a flower less beautiful because every flower is beautiful in it's own way.

— do you know yourself? we spend so much time trying to know others, but do we even know ourselves? go on pinterest and find some questions to ask yourself. here are some:

1. what qualities do i like about myself?

2. what qualities of others do i admire?

3. what am i scared of?

4. what would i like my mornings to look like?

5. who inspires me?

if someone asks me any of these questions i would answer them all in a second, because i know myself.

— SHADOW WORK. Grab a pen and a journal, go on pinterest and search "shadow work prompts". I Personally, don't know much about this subject, but i know it's talked about by many people i look up to. It helped them heal from trauma.

some videos i suggest you watch that helped me so much in changing my mindset:

why you'll never be pretty enough - zoe unlimited.

you don't need to glow up, our obssesion with glow up culture needs to STOP.

tiktok is DESTROYING YOUR IDENTITY.

what type of pretty you are.

— I suggest watching every commentary video of zoeunlimited. Her videos changed my views on various topics.

II. THERE IS NOTHING TO CHANGE

— you are perfect just the way you are. embrace yourself. there is only one you in this world. many women look the same to me these days and it's a tiring and sad thing. Everyone is following the standard that is going to probably change in a month. As Hwasa said "I am my own beauty standard" and thank you Hwasa for that!

Embrace your features, look for makeup that suits your face shape and eyes. I know that eyeliner doesn't work with my eyes so i don't apply it. I also know that a lot of bronzer doesn't suit me.

Wear whatever you like and don't be afraid to express yourself.

When it comes to exercising, ALWAYS DO IT FOR YOURSELF. Think of it as: "My body deserves to be healthy"

strech when you wake up, do yoga, workout or go for a walk/run. whatever you like!

eat healthy but don't pressure yourself too much. have it balanced. you can eat a healthy meal but that doesn't mean you can't eat a cake. BALANCE IS EVERYTHING.

my favorite fitness youtubers:

lily sabri

yoga with bird

mady morrison

emi wong

III. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

— if you follow my posts you know how much i respect and talk about education and it's importance. As my favorite saying goes "BEAUTY IS DANGEROUS, BUT INTELLIGENCE IS LETHAL." I stand by this!!!! READ BOOKS, FOCUS ON YOUR STUDYING, WRITE, PAINT, LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE AND DRAW.

here are some book suggestions:

i who have never known men

the great gatsby

the prophet

my body

the art of war

search some famous musicians or artists and get to know their work. i seriously find this so attractive.

watch documentaries.

watch news, read articles and just generally know what is happening in the world.

get to know your country's history.

watch some iconic movies.

beauty fades, but knowledge always stays.

that's it! if you have some questions send me an ask ♡

with love, t

[mcyt-builds-contest]

I'm not sure where that previous anon is seeing people say that Ghost's Vault should be disqualified? I haven't seen ANYONE saying that.

If they mean the 'these bribes shouldn't be allowed', we mean going forward. Ghost's Vault won fair and square (or, well, with highly coordinated voter fraud, which is allowed and we did it too. So it's as fair as it gets for this sort of thing). It wasn't disallowed, thus it's not really something we can say should disqualify them. We're not saying 'no they shouldn't get their win', we're just worried that any FUTURE bribes of that nature could end in a very ugly situation.

I think some of y'all who think it's not a big deal haven't seen any of the horrors and think we're exaggerating when we say we're concerned about potential consequences. Like, please understand; Dreblr has had people deal with serious things like stalking, doxxing, and utterly deranged shit like people threatening to kill pets over MCYT fandom darma. It can get NASTY-- just look at what happened with the USMP and QSMP. People were in literal, actual, physical danger because of fandom shit.

While Dominionblr and their ccs seem fine-- lovely, even, and excellent opponents; we think highly of y'all-- we've seen other ccs (and their fans) dogpile on fandoms and ccs that they don't like.

The concern is that someone with that kind of mindset and that kind of fanbase might see the results of the previous poll and take the wrong lessons from it-- ie, that if they dangle goodies above their fans heads they can get clout. They might actually not release that stuff if they lose.

We've seen multiple ccs decide to get involved with various tumblr polls, so I really don't think that's a huge stretch to imagine someone deciding to do those kind of bribes again but not release the goodies at all if they lose.

What happens if a less chill fanbase genuinely loses something they care about? People don't always lose gracefully, and it would be so easy to point the blame at the winning team.

Does that sound paranoid? Yes, yes it does, and I fully acknowledge that fact! But it's a genuine concern because we've seen and been through too many horror stories of hatred and harassment.

Plus, again-- adding Actual Stakes for a dumb tumblr poll feels weird! It can make the other team feel like they're bad people for voting for their side and potentially making the others miss out on stuff they really care about.

While Dominionblr knew that their prizes would eventually be given regardless of the results, WE DIDN'T. We thought that us winning would lock you out of those prizes. There were a lot of people who felt guilty for voting, and that's just not fun! It spoils the enjoyment of the poll because it felt like we'd be huge assholes for pushing to win when there were Actual Stakes Involved.

Someone in both fandoms did assure the server I'm in that the prizes wouldn't be lost, which very much influenced me deciding to commit massive voter fraud. I don't know that I would have done it without that knowledge. But not everyone saw that message, meaning a lot of people still labored under the assumption that prisonfuckers winning would mean that Dominionblr lost a lot of really cool content forever.

All we want is for the polls to stay silly. We don't want to grapple with the ethics of potentially depriving the other side of important things for a fuckin' tumblr poll. Even if it's not us who goes up against a fandom like that, it's unfair to whoever does so.

TL; DR: Ghost's Vault won completely legitimately and Dreblr/DSMPblr has zero issues saying that. Nobody wants it disqualified. We're just asking for FUTURE bribes from ccs to be disallowed out of worry it could lead to harassment & generally suck the fun out of the polls.

Yeah I understand the problem, smaller ccs will want to interact with a poll about them if they find one, you cant really stop them from doing it, and this things as been made for fun and was never supposed to be some sort of accurate classification medium, just silly polls. But we dont need more drama in the mcyt fandom so I understand where you're coming from

[tartarduck]

words about tot chapter 9

Gave myself a solid day to stew in my thoughts about ch9 and I just want to say that mihoyo is EVIL for timing it right before the anniversary. I don't know if I can be happy knowing Luke is suffering all alone in every conceivable universe other than his personal story/card timeline.

Point 1: How the chapter explored Luke's feelings of guilt for... Existing I guess?

I've been eagerly awaiting the reveal of Luke's survivor's guilt. The whole [wanting spirits to exist so he can at least apologise, or do SOMETHING, but knowing they don't] is such exquisite angst. I'm very happy they took the effort to write it in (though fortune tellers actually scare me in real life).

And now onto the related Point 2: Luke's feelings of guilt for literally everything else

I was reading through Luke's birthday greetings, and realised how often he calls himself greedy for literally wanting anything. God damn, SHE IS YOUR GIRLFRIEND IT'S NOT GREEDY OF YOU TO WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH HER --

That aside, it comes back to the theme of Luke Pearce's thought process, which in my brain goes a little something like this:

Good thing happens -> I do not deserve this

Bad thing happens -> It is completely my fault and no one else's

Which, might I add, vaguely reminded me of something from a lecture I forgot from my psych undergrad years. I'm worried for you, Luke. Please, Dr Yishmir, refer him to one of your colleagues for mental health.

In his personal 'route', he finally starts to come around with the idea that sometimes bad things... just happen and it's no one's fault (thank you, strategically placed rainbow in iridescent heartbeat). But in the main story? He's been feeling guilty ever since he saw MC after avoiding her for YEARS. There's no Aaron meddling with the two of them, or MC helping him clean his mess of a house to kick-start a card story. This is the man who hid in the attic after sending his confession after a YEAR of dates with MC -- the main story doesn't even give him a chance to start forgiving himself.

Basically, Luke Pearce is a mess in the main story, because everything that makes him un-messy happens by pure chance.

Point 3: Luke's black and white thinking of good and bad

One of the highlights of this chapter for me was Luke's anecdote about him faking a cold so MC would go out with her other friends and forget about him. Now, that's all well and good until he compares himself to the mum with Munchausen's syndrome, who is the closest thing we get to a 'villain' in this chapter. On top of his guilt, this whole I'm either a good or completely bad person mindset is really not doing favours for his mental health.

His anecdote also happens to be an interesting parallel to shape of you, because I remember Luke specifically wished to be forgotten in that card. He wants what's best for MC (because he thinks that he's taking everyone's love from her) but he also wants something for himself. And because he doesn't believe he's able to do both, but also because he isn't able to let go of his 'selfishness' sometimes, he thinks he's an awful person.

And now, to the last to do in my rant agenda.

Point 4: what happens in chapter 12. (Spoilers for CN server, but only about the Luke scene)

1. Ohmygod. He's going to run away. I can't see main story Luke NOT blaming himself for nearly hurting the MC. In whichever timeline, his priority is to keep her safe, and god, if he thinks he's a danger to her, the only way to keep her safe would be by disappearing again.

2. I'm going to read too much into this but MC trying to get Luke to recognise her while she's being pinned to the ground is such delectable angst. He's always worried that she'd forget about him -- whether it was the 8 years or literally just hanging out with other kids at school. But here she is, in a situation where he's essentially forgotten about her. The voice that my brain concocted up for MC was extra desperate in that scene.

Anyway, that's all I had to say about the recent main story developments in ToT. Keep the angst coming, writing staff. What a power move to send this out right before anniversary on BOTH servers. If there's anything I've taken away from this, it's that Luke stans are absolutely unhinged. Twitter circle people, I see you requesting more angst. How can we get even angstier than Luke nearly hurting MC while he's dressed in the outfit that he wears for his proposal card ??

[sys-confessions]

We have a violent alter and I (host) decided to talk to our therapist about him and she said to ignore him so I did for a while. I felt bad though and it didn’t stop the violent thoughts. I don’t know what to do because I know he’s just hurt and maybe even scared and it causes him to lash out but it also scares me that one day we won’t be able to stop him from doing something violent. To make matters worse he’s an introject (a fictive to be exact) and he’s stuck in the mindset he had in his source. He scares everyone including my boyfriend. If you have any advice I would appreciate it but if not that’s fine too. Just needed to get it out.

Hi anon! We definitely have some advice, though keep in mind that things might work very differently in your system compared to ours. I (host) will be answering you, as I coincidentally hold the charge to care for our "scary" persecutors, but also our littles (this will come up later).

This gets pretty long though, so I'll put everything under the cut.

First and foremost, I don't think ignoring your alter is a very good idea. I don't think it would lead to anything dangerous, but rather that it might simply be easier to acknowledge him than not.

You're already aware that he's scared and hurt, so that's a very good starting point. Having empathy for him is the most important thing right now, even if he might not respond to it in kind. Do not take it personally if he is mean or agressive to you, it's simply what he thinks will keep him safest.

Some of the best work we've had with persecutors stemmed from telling them that we would be there for them no matter what. They can scream, try to scare us off, or even threaten us, but at the end of the day, we will always be there for them. Partially because we're stuck in the same brain, to be honest. You don't really have a choice but to work together.

It might also be useful to analyze why he formed in the first place. What was your system feeling at the time and why did your brain believe that this alter could help/fit. This could give you a lot of insight as to how to care for them.

Now, why I spoke about my role as a caregiver for littles : simply put, caring for our "scary" persecutors is the same thing. Think of the way you might approach a child who is having big feelings (be it anxiety, sadness or anger). They're not equipped with how to deal with them properly just yet, they haven't had the time or experience to do so. Persecutors who lash out tend to have some very similar going on.

It's about being drowned in those feelings, not knowing how to deal with them, and thinking that becoming the thing that scares them most will give them control back. This can take many forms, and there's probably a better way to formulate this entire thing, but at the crux of it, it's what we've seen times and times again.

You have to meet them where they're at. It might get ugly, you might be hurt and then decide it's not worth the hard work. But I promise, it is. Some of our best protectors used to be "scary" persecutors. They used to scare me to the point that I did not even want to go in our headspace, but nowadays they're my best friends.

[otomehoneyybearr]

Act 12

Episode 11: Each of Our Depatures

Working w/ Maybelle Lace

Note: As you read, you will see that some sentences highlighted in a different color, this is what they indicate. Pink: Flashback Blue: Characters are acting

Taichi: Well, I'm off then!

Juza: Same.

Izumi: Take care.

Omi: It's only a little bit, but I've put some pre-made side dishes and dessert in the fridge, so please feel free to eat them.

Izumi: Thank you!

Banri: See you later, Director. I'll be in touch.

Izumi: Yeah, see you.

Masumi: I'm staying too.

Tsuzuru: Then there'd be no point to any of this.

Izumi: We went over this extensively yesterday.

Masumi: ...Then video call me daily. 24 hours a day.

Itaru: Scary.

Tsuzuru: You're sticking to her even more closely than when we're in the dorms.

Izumi: Everything will get back to normal in no time.

Muku: It's only for now.

Kumon: It'll be like going on summer vacation.

Kazunari: Totally. It’s a little sad, but it'll all be okay!

Misumi: Until then, I'll keep looking for triangles!

Yuki: See you soon.

Tenma: Be careful while you're alone.

Izumi: I will. See you soon!

Itaru: Since Sakyo's curfew decree no longer holds, I'm free to do all-nighters.

Izumi: Please don’t overdo it!

Chikage: Call me if you need anything.

Azuma: You can contact me even if you don't need anything.

Guy: You are always welcome to come to the bar.

Izumi: Got it!

Sakyo: Alright, I’m counting on you. If you ever feel like you're in danger, call me anytime.

Izumi: Roger that.

Homare: Well, I'll be off then. I'll make sure to write plenty of poems while I’m back home. I look forward to performing them for you.

Homare: Hisoka, please do make sure to keep a record of your marshmallow intake so you don't run out of them.

Hisoka: ...I know. I'll just find some new marshmallows.

Izumi: Let me know if you find any.

Tsumugi: I'm off. Thanks for looking after the dorm.

Izumi: Leave everything to me. Take care.

Tasuku: When I get home, I'll try to reflect on myself so that I can face the play with a new mindset.

Izumi: Sounds good!

Izumi: (The dormitory suddenly feels so quiet with everyone leaving one by one.)

Banri: Disbanding?

Tenma: Are you serious?

Izumi: Not at all. But, considering everything, I think this is the best way to go.

Izumi: If we all work together, I'm sure we won't lose to Amadate.

Izumi: But I definitely don't want to put everyone in danger.

Izumi: That threatening e-mail demanded that the troupe be disbanded, right?

Izumi: So I thought it would be a good idea to have everyone move out of the dorms and pretend that the troupe has been disbanded.

Sakyo: If rumors of disbanding get out, even Amadate might be fooled by it.

Izumi: If we all work together and gather enough materials to corner Amadate in the meantime, we might be able to resume our performances with peace of mind.

Izumi: Honestly, because of this situation, I want all of us to be together. I don't want us to fall apart.

Izumi: But we have to break up for everyone's safety for now.

Izumi: Even if we live in different places, I believe that we'll all continue feeling the same way.

Sakuya: Izumi...

Izumi: What will you do now, Itaru and Chikage?

Itaru: I can't relax at my parents' house because my older sister is there, so I'll just rent a monthly apartment for a while.

Chikage: For me, well, I have a lot of places available to me.

Itaru: Will Sakuya be staying with you?

Chikage: I have a place I can prepare for him.

Citron: I'll be living in a hotel for a while, so you can stay with me!

Itaru: As expected of a celebrity.

Tsuzuru: My house is small and noisy, but I can arrange for a place to sleep.

Masumi: There’s plenty of rooms at my place. You don't have to come though.

Itaru: Then why even bother pointing that out.

Sakuya: Thank you very much. But I’ve already decided where to go, so I’ll be fine.

Chikage: Is that so?

Izumi: Where will you be staying?

Sakuya: Kasumi was the first to invite me, so I'm planning to stay with him for just one night.

Izumi: For one night? What about after that…?

Sakuya: I've been seriously thinking over what I can do and what I wanted to do until I stepped on stage as Saku again.

Sakuya: So I thought about going on my first ever solo trip before the performance, but I gave up on doing it because there wasn’t much time.

Sakuya: Besides, I also have homework that you gave me, Izumi!

Tsumugi: I agree, as Izumi said, it might be best to pretend to break up.

Sakyo: If we want to be safe, that's the way to go.

Izumi: Oh, and one more thing, if you don't mind, I have some homework for you.

Izumi: While you're away from the dorm, I want you all to think about what your life would be like if you hadn't joined Mankai Company.

Izumi: Then compare that hypothetical life with the life you have now and the life you want in the future.

Izumi: After finding your reason why you want to stand on the Mankai stage as a member of this theater company, I hope you all come back.

Muku: That's...

Izumi: Of course, I haven’t given up on our future performances or the Fleur Award.

Izumi: But, in this current situation where we're at our lowest, I don't know for sure when we will be able to perform together again.

Izumi: I don't want to leave everyone in a dark situation where the future is uncertain.

Izumi: That's why I want each of you to step away from the company and reconsider your reasons for wanting to remain in the company.

Izumi: If everyone comes back after doing that, I'm sure the new Mankai Company will become a theater company stronger and more united than ever before.

Izumi: Of course, no matter what conclusion you reach, I will support that answer.

Izumi: So, please...

Juza: Got it. I'll take this opportunity to face myself again.

Azami: It could be a good opportunity.

Sakuya: After hearing your words, I felt like I could finally face my hometown, which I’ve been afraid to confront for so long.

Sakuya: I am sure that now is the time for me to set off on my journey. I'm not afraid anymore because I know you will be here waiting for me.

Izumi: I see...

Izumi: (When I think back to during our debut performance when he played as Romeo, he was terrified that his place would be taken away from him. He has grown up a lot since then.)

Izumi: I hope you have a safe and enjoyable journey. Please be careful.

Sakuya: Look forward to seeing your souvenirs! I’ll be off!

….

Kabuto: (I never imagined my old man would resort to such extreme measures... He's truly a scary opponent.)

*Phone rings*

Kabuto: ...

Aoshi: "Hey Kabuto, what’s your deal with skipping today's regular practice without permission?"

Aoshi: "Are you just sleeping at home again?"

Kabuto: I can't show up to practice for a while. Starting tomorrow, you'll be in charge in my place.

Aoshi: "What? Wait, what's that supposed to mean—"

Kabuto: And don't come near my room for a while.

Aoshi: "...Is there a problem?"

Kabuto: That concludes any business talk.

Aoshi: "Okay, okay. I get it. You won’t explain. At least I understand the situation regarding practice."

Aoshi: "However, since you're the poster boy of Hyakka Theater Company, it'll be troublesome if you don't come back soon."

Kabuto: I'm sure even my old man understands my value as a commodity.

Aoshi: "...Seems like this is related to Mr. Amadate after all. Please keep your parent-child conflicts in moderation."

Kabuto: You should be saying that to him instead.

Kabuto: (I’ve left the affairs of the theater company to Aoshi, but what should I do moving forward...?)

Kabuto: (It's likely my old man already knows that I tried to leak information to Mankai Company.)

Kabuto: (Since I don’t have all the necessary information yet, it feels like I’m being misled, and because of that, there’s a possibility that my movements will become restricted.)

Kabuto: (How can I contact Mankai Company without leaving any traces behind...?)

Subordinate: Mr. Kabuto.

Kabuto: …!

Subordinate: Will you come with me peacefully? I don't wish to be rough with you.

Kabuto: ...Tch.

Subordinate: Please hand over all of your devices.

Kabuto: … It’s just this.

Subordinate: Now then, this way please.

*thank you guys for your patience. Hopefully I’ll have a regular update schedule for everything by tomorrow!

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