#they are both trash eaters

[abirddogmoment]

now that you've had rory for a few months, how does she compare to mav as a puppy?

It's hard to say for sure because the circumstances are pretty different, but here are some thoughts:

🌌 Rory is super thoughtful, way more than Mav ever was. She doesn't really jump into things but chooses to think things through, generally.

🌌 Rory is really really sweet and snuggly. She likes praise more than any food and seeks out pets.

🌌 Rory settles better in the house than puppy Mav, she will put herself for a nap on the couch without needing to be crated.

🌅 Mav was much braver as a puppy. He wasn't really phased by anything, whereas Rory has some uncertainties.

🌅 Mav had more stamina even as a younger puppy (*Mav got way more off leash time as a puppy though).

🌅 Mav was a louder puppy overall. Rory demand barks and that's annoying, but Mav made more noises and took more work to be quiet.

Overall it's been really cool to see which traits I enjoy are "brittany" traits vs "Maverick" quirks. Rory makes a lot of the same expressions as Mav did and is pretty similar, but has some key differences. It has been pretty easy to avoid comparing them so far.

Thanks for asking!

[how2bmotorized]

what a dude (his species thang is by @jeebusmeebus ,,,)

[dmumt]

found a 3am notes app entry from the other day where i assigned exo members to iasip characters why did i say jongdae was artemis helpppp

[qqueenofhades]

I think its genuinely fascinating how Biden has somehow become the bad vibes sin eater for the party. I'm seeing people who were doing the whole "voting doesn't matter both old men are the same" pivot hard into voting as harm reduction. The anti voting rhetoric has COMPLETELY lost The Youths on tiktok. People suddenly remember the good things the Biden administration has done but don't associate Harris with any of the things they didn't like. In my swing state volunteers are signing up in droves. People feel ENERGIZED, the vibe shift pre and post Biden dropping from the race has just been insane

Y'know, that is a... good way of putting it. It's also why I'm quite sure that Biden has probably been planning it for a while. I don't think he was intending to step down, and didn't want to be forced out at the drop of a hat, but after he realized that the circus was never going to stop until he did, he did the honorable fall-on-his-own-sword thing and definitely, DEFINITELY spent some time choreographing this behind the scenes. Because while the roll-out has been very smooth, it could just as easily (as many of us were expecting) have been a total disaster, and that doesn't happen without SOME planning. It's also entirely possible that the campaign staff flipped from Biden to Harris are superhuman, to come up with a massive online roll-out, new branding, new signs (they had plenty of 'em in Wisconsin yesterday), new everything, but I'm guessing it's a combination of both. Biden has spent his entire political career being underestimated, and after we literally made a meme out of Dark Brandon juking the Republicans out of their shoes, we should definitely give credit where credit is due in how masterfully he pulled it off.

Because we have had eight years defined by the central question of Whether The President Is a God King Who Should Serve For Life (the MAGAts obviously think yes), the sheer idea of a president willingly giving up his power BEFORE he had to is also novel and admirable. It's sad that this is the case, but so be it. The Republicans also got a heaping helping of Be Careful What You Wish For that was undoubtedly brilliant; they've been yelling for years that Biden is old and frail and can't serve and should step down. Biden went "lol okay" and gave it to them, and now they're fucked.

Aside from that, on the most basic level, it's far, far easier to see the actual difference in the parties with Harris as the nominee, just because it shows that one party is willing to make progress and reflect the new demographic reality and social mores of America, and the other one is not. Now to be clear, Biden deserves an incredible amount of credit for coming out of retirement (he was ALREADY 77 years old when he became president and had had decades of a long and respected career in public service behind him) to fight, beat Trump, and deliver an incredibly successful presidency. He held the line against authoritarianism at home and abroad, he rescued the trashed American economy and managed a world-leading recovery from Covid, he stood up for democracy, he spent four years filling the benches with liberal judges to reverse even some of the Trump/McConnell hack job, he finally passed comprehensive infrastructure investment and the Green New Deal under the name of the Inflation Reduction Act -- and so on. Many of these priorities had been languishing for decades or were completely trashed under Trump, and he could not have done so much in just 4 years without all that age, skill, and experience. Hence why all the Ageism!!! was (aside from being a Republican/media smear job) dumb. He's able to do the job because he has had decades to study. Turns out that makes you actually pretty damn good at it.

Yes, Biden could not do as much as he wanted or originally planned, had to deal with MAGA Republicans and Joe Manchin/Kyrsten Sinema sabotaging him the whole time (lololol Manchin, possible possessor of the World's Biggest Ego and with Trump around that's saying something, popping out of obscurity to self-righteously announce he would not be willing to be Kamala's VP. YEAH ASSHOLE. LITERALLY NOBODY ASKED YOU. NOBODY WHATSOEVER. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS AT LEAST WE WILL SOON NO LONGER HAVE MANCHIN IN THE SENATE). And yes, Biden made some serious mistakes of his own, because he IS from an older generation and a different style of doing politics/different beliefs that no longer resonate with the younger segments of the electorate. But this old white Catholic guy at the age of almost 80 still managed to be the most progressive president ever, coming in at a moment of incredible domestic and international crisis and getting us safely to the other side, and all cynicism, criticizing, and caveating aside, he deserves an incredible amount of credit for that. I mean that absolutely, and I am very grateful.

As I said, willingly relinquishing that power takes guts, and when Biden saw the writing on the wall that he had to sacrifice himself, he took his time, he didn't jump too early, and he didn't jump too late. On the most basic level, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to make the "both parties are not the same" argument when one is running a (comparatively) young brown woman and the other is still running their loathed felonious old demented orange traitor. Most Americans are not plugged into policy minutiae and details. They look at Biden-Trump, they see two old white guys. When you take one of those old white guys away (who goes in a self-sacrificially heroic manner and in sharp contrast with the coup-happy fascist) and put Kamala Harris in there instead, it generates an obvious jolt. People can see for themselves that there is a real difference that doesn't rely on closely reading news and tracking complex policy, because as noted, most Americans simply don't. The brown first-generation American daughter of brown immigrants is a quantifiably different story from "old white guy career politician," which for better or worse is how Biden was seen, especially the old part. We needed that establishment expertise to beat Trump in 2020; I still think Biden is the only one who could have done it, and as noted, we owe him a great debt for doing so.

However.... 2024 is not 2020, and it is not 2016. There has been this HUGE and unbelievable swing to Kamala because she represents the antithesis of what the last eight years of Trump-induced anger, fear, panic, chaos, and hatred has stirred up. That's why people are so ready to rally around her, just as they were (I daresay) around Obama in 2008, after the exhaustion, chaos, war, and mounting economic misery of Bush. Trump has been out of office for the last four years, but his shadow over the American political landscape has been omnipresent. Now people know that we finally have a real chance at getting rid of him forever, and just as Biden was uniquely positioned to capitalize on that in 2020, so Harris is now. Which is why, however tough it will be, she has a real shot at winning. I can guarantee the Republicans know that, and are shit scared. Because the Black Lady Army of Democracy has indeed arrived in force to Get This Shit Done and I don't know about you, but I found that incalculably comforting:

Yikes! All lined up for Kamala pic.twitter.com/Dt4OCDp7WX

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) July 24, 2024

This, at the most basic level, is what scares fascists the most, it's exactly what we need now, and what Harris is uniquely positioned to mobilize, along with her gangbusters appeal to young voters:

This is the energy we need. This is what Biden saw and planned for and which he launched us into, and where all that experience and age paid off. This is why people, even people otherwise disengaged, disillusioned, or checked out of the tedious and mind-numbering drudgery and depression of American politics, are responding to it. Because it's easy to understand, it offers hope, and it tells a very simple story that is nonetheless long overdue:

Thanks so much, Joe. Go absolutely waste that orange fucker, Kamala. We got your back.

[butterflyscribbles]

Freenoodle Headcanons (Part 1) - bc there’s no way I’ll have time to draw them all out fast enough and I need to get them out of my brain:

Hidden underneath bc it’s loooong…

- Tang and Pigsy met in a college-level business class. Pigsy was going for a general business major with a minor in culinary arts. Tang was pursuing Chinese Literature and Lingustics in order to eventually be a librarian or museum archivist as well as an author on the side. They started interacting more bc Tang threatened to call Pigsy out for cheating on an exam and Pigsy “bought” his silence with a bowl of homemade noodles.

- It started with “blackmail” that Tang was gonna tell if Pigsy ever stopped making food for him but gradually they just started hanging out. Pigsy began to realize that if it weren’t for him, Tang would have most likely wasted away considering he was not only a picky eater but would also completely forget meals while being so focused on his studies. Tang in return started helping Pigsy with study before big exams as well. It became routine until they both finished the class. That was one of the only classes they had together being on pretty separate tracks but by then they were close enough friends to continue hanging out semester after semester.

- Tang’s family was not too fond of him hanging out with Pigsy and eventually Sandy who had a bit of a rebellious (and somewhat criminal) hot streak. Lots of being kicked out of bars for fighting, loud music and band parties that somehow would force them to migrate into Tang’s apartment after they trashed their own.

- Tang used to have pierced ears that were Pigsy’s own handiwork but his mom made him take them out the minute he visited home. He wants to get them pierced again even now because he loved how it looked but is lowkey too chicken to act on it bc ouchieeee needles it was hard enough the first time

- They never really defined themselves as dating out loud in college but they were definitely “more than friends” after a while. Pigsy crushed on him first but Tang fell harder once he finally caught on that Pigsy liked him. They were both too emotionally constipated scared to slap an official label on it though.

- Tang is almost always freezing and wrapped up in sweaters, scarves and mittens. Pigsy is always hot. Equilibrium achieved.

- Speaking of scarves, Tang’s trademark red scarf and most precious comfort item he owns, was a gift from Pigsy’s mother when Pigsy introduced him to his parents. He is almost never without it and takes very good care of it because it is hand-made and one of a kind.

- Tang was NOT a fan of the Pigsy mustache era™️ but that did not stop the pig man from burrowing his face onto him and teasing him near to death with prickly kisses

- Pigsy’s affectionate nickname for Tang became “truffles” for a hot second after this^^ Tang secretly and begrudgingly loved it. The nickname is still stashed away for special occasions and ONLY when its the two of them.

- The mirror to that is Tang found out Pigsy’s weak spots were his ears and under his chin. Loves scritches and sometimes Tang would just reach out and idly play with his ears if they were within reach. That’s also something that occurs in present time.

- On rare occasions, Tang would convince Pigsy to sing for him and most of those moments ended in tears both of sadness or laughter on both ends. Mostly because Pigsy would either sing songs his mom taught him or ones he could only half remember the lyrics to.

- They stayed in contact for a while even after Pigsy graduated (Tang was pursuing a PHD so he stayed in school longer). Tang and Sandy were both there when the restaraunt was passed down to Pigsy and they were the first customers at Pigsy’s Noodles.

Things got a bit more complicated after that…

- For about 5 months before MK came into their lives, Tang and Pigsy were actually having a huge fight and were not on speaking terms. Sandy’s anger and violence issues were at an all time high and he dropped out of college just before graduating, Pigsy and Tang struggled to define their relationship after they Tang’s family was insistent he finally cut them out of his life and it lead to a big fight where Sandy ended up leaving the trio and there was a huge and bitter rift between the three of them.

- Three weeks after Pigsy’s mom passed, little MK showed up on his doorstep. He was already running the shop alone for the first time and now he suddenly had a child who desperately needed him. While MK brought some much needed light back into his life, he struggled to properly care for the little ball of energy and still make end’s meet. His quick temper and the passing of his mom had seriously impacted business and chased off a lot of regulars as it was. So, he called the only person he trusted to help. The minute Pigsy explained his situation…Tang didn’t hesitate to come back, even as he continued classes. Things were awkward and messy for sure and there was a lot of baggage to sort through…but they made it work for their little monkey kid.

Okay that’s it ta ta for now part two is going to be Freenoodle Family focused I wanted this one to be more on the early days before MK to set it all up.

[alektro06]

the Neurodivergent Nocedas as I like to call them

Autism and adhd sibling duo fr

[dolphincultleader]

How Joshua would handle his S/O having an eating disorder or having issues with food

Tw- Eating disorder, reader has body image issues, one curse?, I am really sorry if I had trouble describing anything

A/N- How obvious is it that I am a sucker for angst?

Word Count- 810

---

*In the early stages of your relationship with Joshua, he had no clue about it. You always did a good job of hiding it well. He always thought you were just a "slow eater", taking your time.

*Slowly by slowly, he started noticing subtle things. Like how you always needed to go to the bathroom after having meals. Or how you spend most of the time picking at the food and barely any time eating it.

*You always dreaded dates that involved meals. Sitting opposite to each other while eating was an idea that never amused you. Joshua must had noticed it since he stopped suggesting them a few weeks into the relationship. He figured you'll come talk to him when you're ready.

*One night, he had came to your place after work. Bag full of food in his hand. His mom had visited and dropped these for you both, he explained. He started setting up plates for you two to eat.

*You had been having an extra hard time eating last few days. Thankfully, you were both busy with your own work to realise that.

*As you both sat together, he started telling you about your day. You listened as you picked at your food, occasionally taking small bites. If he was put off by it, he didn't mention it. Within an hour, you were almost done eating. You felt sick.

*His phone went off suddenly, interrupting your conversation. He smiled apologetically as he took the call.

*As he ended the call, he apologised and said some work at come up. You were sad as you were looking forward to spending more time together. But you were also relieved since you wouldn't need to finish the last remains of the meal.

*As you walked him to the door and said goodbye, you felt a tinge of guilt. Yet as you closed the door, relieve flooded through your body, followed by nausea. You quickly trashed the food with a silent apology to his mother as you rushed to the bathroom.

*Without closing the door, you fell to the ground and hurled everything you had eaten. You felt your eyes tear up. You hated not being able to eat. You wanted to eat so badly. But whenever you ate, you felt like you're committing a crime against yourself. After every meal, you looked at yourself in the mirror in disgust.

*The sound of a throat clearing broke you out of your trance. You looked up at the door frame to see a very worried Joshua staring at you with narrowed eyes.

*"Love, wanna explain?" He asked sternly but behind that sternness was hidden concern.

*He sat beside you on the bathroom floor, handing you tissues as you told him everything. Midst that, you broke down. This was the first time you had been so open about this to any of your partners. This was new territory for you.

*As you kept talking, he felt his heart breaking for you. He couldn't believe he missed it all these months. While he relaxed and scrolled on his phone after every meal, you went to the bathroom puking up everything. And he had been fucking clueless. You went through that all alone. He thought you were enjoying it while you couldn't wait for it to end.

*He'd feel so guilty afterwards. You would need to assure him. You were the one who felt it a secret. How could he even know?

*Afterwards, he always took care of your meals. He'd try to make or order anything you want to eat. He knew that your bad relation with food and your body image issues wouldn't leave in one day. He had to handle this carefully.

*He always ate with you. No matter the tiny portion you were going to eat.

*He also started blurring the part of the packets where calories and stuff are written (sorry for the poor description 😭😭😭)

*He'd check on you every day to make sure you're at least eating enough to get by everyday.

*If you ever relapsed or break down, he'd always be there, holding you and letting you cry it out in this arms.

*The last thing he wanted was for you to think he was pitying you. He knew that you liked being independent and he would never cross any boundaries.

*He never acted like you were something he needed to fix. He never made you feel like loving you was a chore. Instead, he loved you like it was his habit

*The last thing he ever wanted was for you to struggle alone. The thought of you crying yourself to sleep and feeling alone made him want to throw up.

*He mentally thanks the universe because if only he hadn't forgotten his keys in your apartment that day, who knew when he would actually know about this.

---

Masterlist

[wingedhallows]

my choice; sirius black

pairing: sirius black x reader | 2.3k words plot: nothing was ever choice, so helping the order and and finding your way back to the love of your life is finally your choice. authors note: hi hi, so this was requested by my dear scarlett @arwensloanebarnes & I'm so happy to have finally written it. I hope you like it, even if i've put my own little twist on it. love u & thank you for always throwing ideas and words of motivation towards me <3

navigation

“I want to break up.” His kind, lovely eyes now glared at her in disbelief. His arm slacked off the doorframe. His demeanor changed, his coolness gone. You watched him crumble, watched him break. His mouth opened and he didn’t say a word, your gaze wandered to his feet.

The shame washed over you like a cold shower. “Break up?” You couldn’t look at him, the man you loved to the moon and back, the man you would die for. That’s exactly why you were doing this, why you had to push him away.

“What the fuck do you mean?” He barked as he took a step towards you.

“I want to end our relationship.” You spoke, voice without emotion. He stared you down, hands in fists.

“End? What-what the fuck, you can’t just end our relationship like this, we’re Bonny & Clyde, we’re ride or die, we’re made for each other… we belong with each other.” He tried, his arms flailing around in anguish. You bit the inside of your cheek in hopes of stopping yourself from bursting out in tears.

“Not anymore, Black. I don’t date blood traitors.”

He stumbled back, his face in an expression you never hoped to see. It tore you apart, your chest felt tight as you watched him. “What?” You took a breath and grabbed your bag.

“Take care, Sirius.” Before you could turn back and tell him why you acted this way, why you had to hurt him in such a horrific way and take everything back, you dragged yourself through the door and left him behind.

You stood hidden behind a trash container, sparks flying and grunts audible. Damario and Vincius, two fellow Death Eaters, gleamed with confidence as they had cornered Albus Dumbledore in an alleyway. Their wands were held high, smirks on their faces.

“The Dark Lord will award us dearly, Vincius.” Damario spat, yellow teeth faced your way.

“I don’t think he will, Damario.” Albus tried as he popped a lemon drop in his mouth. He fished his wand from his long clothing and without a word spoken, his wand unleashed a spell so powerful that the both of them flew several feet. Damario grabbed Vincius’ arm and in a flash they were gone. 

Albus didn’t put his wand away as he turned towards you, eyes set on your frame.

“You can come out now.” He said and you cursed yourself, of course he would feel your presence. You tucked your wand away and raised your arms.

“You’re more guarded with me?” You tried, his face didn’t change though, your joke fell through.

“Of course, Damario and Vincius aren’t remotely as skilled as you are, Y/N.” You gave him a smile and stepped further towards him.

“Thank you, Headmaster.” He frowned and took a step towards you, wand still raised. “What brings you here, Y/N?” He paused to eye you.

“Do you wish to murder me as well?” The smile vanished from your face and you shook your head. “No, I do not wish to murder you.” You paused as well as you let your arms fall to your side.

“Then what is it?” You sighed and fished a small container from your jacked, and pulled your wand from your other.

“I wish to help you.” He frowned and cocked his head. “You mean betray your master?” You chuckled and shook your head.

“I do not have a master, nothing of what happened with me or my friends was my choice. I wish to help you, help you defeat Voldemort and make decisions of my own.” He lowered his wand and took a step towards you.

“I’ll show you.”

Without hesitation you raised your wand to your temple and pulled the desired memory from your mind and bottled it up for Albus to take. He took the bottle from you and left you behind, his form vanished with a worp of his surroundings.

You pulled the pack of cigarettes from your pocket and lit it with the lighter Sirius had gifted you on your sixteenth birthday. You eyed the small object and sighed, you’d make everything right.

Starting with this, with your memories. Would Albus believe you? He needed to, those memories were reason enough, right?

“We gave you so much freedom, so much space to become a respectable young woman, a great witch but what do you do?” Your mother paused, wand raised at you.

“We feed you, we provide you with education and a roof over your head and you go around whoring yourself out to a blood traitor!?” A woman, you didn’t know, held you by your neck, wand pressed into your flesh.

“You think you can go against us? Against the ways of the noble Devereux household? Every member of this family will serve the Dark Lord and his ways, my dear daughter.” Her fingers crawled into your arm as you tried to get away, desperately.

Another man and your father came to your mothers side. You stared at your father, tears in your eyes as he watched you.

“Stop fighting.” He tried to calm you down. You didn’t listen, your body twisted and wound with as much effort as you could manage. Screams and tears left your face, desperate to set an end to this madness.

Your mothers cold fingers grabbed your cheeks, nothing but hatred visible in her old face.

“Stop fighting it, dear. It was never your decision to make.”

Without wasting another minute, she placed her wand on the soft flesh of your lower arm and branded you, damned you.

Albus had sent his phoenix with a letter. It had said to invite you to a meeting, to announce your plans of being a double agent and to apologize for having thought ill of you.

You had learnt the hard way to not take others' words personally.

“They’ll insult you, take your appearance as an insult.” He spoke as he tapped his wand on the door of Sirius’ parents house.

His parents were arrested not too long ago, the house was now empty. You sighed as you watched the house appear through rumbles. Why exactly this damned house?

“I’d be disappointed if not.” You sighed as you flipped the cigarette away. Your hair moved in the subtle cold wind and your heart beat like it’ll break down any minute from all the effort.

Albus didn’t answer and stepped inside, you followed him. Your coat found its way onto the overflowing coat hanger. The dark hallway seemed too familiar, making your heart skip a beat. The old wizard walked forward, he was greeted with bright hello’s and smiles.

You kept your head high, hands shoved in your jeans as you followed Albus into the kitchen. Lily threw her hand to her mouth and James shoved her behind himself. Remus watched you, body motionless. You didn’t look his way, you couldn’t.

“Albus, what is the meaning behind this?” Minerva questioned, hand propped on the dark wooden table.

“Why would you bring a Death Eater in our midst? What the fuck are you doing here?” James threw your way. You stood behind the headmaster as your mouth shifted into a grin.

“Lovely to see as well, James.” You paused, fingers playing with your lighter inside your jacket.

“How’s Harry?” James' face contorted into hatred as Sirius raised his wand. “Don’t you take his name in your filthy mouth.” Your eyes wandered to the man you missed the most. He looked good, tired, broken but strangely enough, good.

“My bad.” You stopped as Albus eyed you, demanding you to finish whatever this was.

Albus sat down, you did as well. “Y/N offered to act as a double agent.” He paused and took a sip from his cup.

“After careful consideration, she has proven herself to be trustworthy.” Sirius huffed in disbelief, his wand still tightly clasped in his right hand.

“How are you so sure?” Sirius spoke, eyes in slits. You couldn’t fight the urge to smirk. He still had it, the fire.

“I saw Y/N’s memories.” The room stilled of all motion, attention once again on you.

“What memories?” Albus shook his head at Sirius' question. “Not my place to tell, Sirius.” He eyed you down and left it at that.

You closed the room to the restroom, turning off the light. Someone’s hand on your elbow as he dragged you towards the living room. The back of his head gave him away.

“What do you want, Sirius?” He closed the door and turned around. “What do I want?” He spat, his hand on the cabinet by the door.

“What do you want?” You crossed your arms, face in an emotionless mask. “I want to help you.” He shook his head, his lips formed in a cruel snarl.

“Don’t give me this crap, help us? You turned your back on us, you became one of them.” Your eyes left his face, shame crawling up your back.

“I’m sorry.” You simply stated. He swallowed, eyes leaving your face. You were never good at arguing when you were at fault, especially not with Sirius.

“You’re sorry? Alice and Frank were tortured into insanity, Y/N!” He yelled, face turning red.

“Marlene was murdered, her whole family wiped out!” He threw his fist on the couch.

“Our friends died, butchered like animals and you’re sorry? Sorry doesn’t cut it, Y/N.” He came towards you.

“You ripped my heart out and became one of those, those disgusting vile creatures, like it was nothing to you!” He was now yelling in your face.

“You disgust me.” He spat. You swallowed and watched him walk away from you. His hand was on the handle as you spoke.

“It wasn’t my choice.” 

He turned around, face hard and mad. You looked away, eyes already collecting tears.

“Nothing ever was my choice.” His eyebrows furrowed.

“What do you mean?” You let your hands fall to your side as you looked at him once again.

“I didn’t become one of them.” You paused to take a breath.

“They made me one of them.”

He watched you, his eyebrows still furrowed.

“Made you?” You tried to fight the tears but one of them left your eyes either way.

“My mother had me pinned to the ground.” He held onto the couch as his eyes widened.

“To brand me as one of their own.” You pushed some hair behind your ear as you took a deep breath.

“I had no choice but to belong to one side. Reaching out to Albus was my choice, betraying Voldemort was my choice and being a double agent was my choice, this is for once my choice and I’ll take responsibility for it.” 

You wiped the tears off your face. “I understand that you hate me, that I broke your heart and that I destroyed our friends lifes and I’ll take that guilt of not having saved Alice, Frank or Marlene but I’ll do my best to save Harry, Lily and James. To save Remus and You. I’ll do whatever it takes, so please, let me make this right.” You spoke, voice strained.

He watched you, eyes glossy.

“Why’d you have to push me away?” You gave him a sad smile.

“I had to keep you safe.” He nodded and turned to leave. Just as he opened the door he spoke again.

“I won’t stand in your way.” You didn’t answer.

“Oh fuck, don’t you die on me, Nicolai.” You cursed as you dragged the man with you, his blood made it impossible to keep a good grip on him.

“Fuck, fuck.” You cursed over and over again, his body almost limp. With the last strength you could muster, you aparated to a place you knew.

Street was dimly lit, the air was cold and the blood stuck to you like a second skin.

With a huff you sat Nicolai down next to the stairs leading up to the front stairs. You smashed your hand against the dark door and waited, hands hanging limb at your sides.

The door opened and before you stood a half smiling Sirius. His eyes widened as he took your appearance in. His hands flew to your shoulders, your waist, arms.

“Are you hurt?” He threw at you as he inspected you. “Not mine.” You managed as you pointed your finger at the unconscious form on the ground. “Good.”

“James, Remus!” Sirius yelled as he pushed himself past you. You leaned against the door frame, the pain in your shoulder slowly fading in again.

“Come in.” Lily spoke, her hand held out for you. You looked at her and reluctantly gave in. She guided you inside, sat you on Sirius’ sofa and brought you a cup of water.

“Sirius told us everything.” You nodded but kept your gaze on the ground. “We understand.” She said before she left you alone.

You downed the water and tried to get rid of the blood on your hands which had already stained your nails. Sirius made his way into the living room as he sat down on the chair which you had given him as a christmas present three years ago.

“He’ll make it.” He said as he pushed a cigarette between his lips. He held the pack out for you and without much thinking you took one.

He lit it for you and just like nothing of the past years had happened, you sat there.

“I didn’t know where else to go.” You spoke. “It’s fine.” He paused to take a drag.

“I’m glad you came to me.” You looked at him, a sad smile on your lips.

“I never stopped loving you.”

It had left your lips without much thought.

“Neither have I.”

He said, his lips in a small smile.

“Thank you for keeping me safe.” He spoke again and you chuckled, trying to keep as much ash in the ashtray as possible.

“Always.”

His hand found yours as his thumb brushed the back of yours.

This was your choice and it felt like the right one.

[chungledown-bimothy]

well now i'm thinking about the cultural impact of jaws and how glad i am that i was taught to interact with it differently.

like, to me, jaws isn't "sharks are malicious man-eaters!!". it's "sharks are wild animals and need to be respected. if *you* fuck around and disrespect them, you will find out. but that's on you, not them."

and there is text backing that up! (this is gonna be specifically pulling from the movie, as that's what i'm more familiar with off the top of my head and was the far more influential work. no one's read the book. and that's fine- the movie's better anyway)

in the scene where hooper, the first character we meet who knows anything about sharks, looks at what was found of christie's body, he says something along the lines of "sharks are perfect machines. all they do is eat, sleep, and make baby sharks".

when he and brody cut open the tiger shark, he emphasizes how they'll eat absolutely anything as he pulls out license plates and other trash. in both scenes, there's not even the slightest implication that there's any thought into what they're eating. they aren't malicious. they don't seek out people to eat.

when he first gets to amity, his suggestion is to close the beach. it's not an enemy that needs to be killed, it's an indiscriminate predator. cut off the food supply, and it'll leave. the shark doesn't specifically want to be hanging around and eating people.

it's not until the mayor puts profits over people refuses to do that that that things escalate. it's human greed and disrespect that cause further loss of life. and that's backed up when mrs. kintner confronts the mayor, specifically saying that her son died because the mayor refused to close the beach. she didn't blame the shark. she blamed the mayor, and that's framed as a justified response.

even quint, with his beyond traumatic experience surviving the uss indianapolis, doesn't attribute malice. his description is haunting as it doubles down on hooper's earlier description of them as mindless. they have dead eyes. like a doll's eyes. those men didn't die because they were human and the sharks liked that, they died because they were horribly unlucky and easy prey.

yes, there were still things the movie did to undercut that, like michael in the boat, bc it is still a thriller, but the vast majority of the "sharks are man-hunters" was all from uninformed hysteria. the people who have dedicated their lives to sharks, in their own ways, were like "that's not how they work."

there's also how brody fits into all of this as a stand-in for the audience (for better and worse), but this is already so long, i'll just wrap it up.

the movie is very clear in its message of "if they had closed the beaches, the shark would not have stuck around for the sake of hunting people. it would have moved on in search of other prey. because it is a carnivore and that is what they do."

it is (mostly) not the fault of the film that that's not what people at large took away from it.

thank you for coming to my ted talk that literally no one asked for

[mari-lair]

I’ve always found it strange how Aoi doesn’t have any female admirers, we only ever see guys attracted to her while Teru, someone who rivals her in popularity, canonically attracts both men AND women, you seem to be THE number 1 TeruKaneAoi fan, so I’m curious if you have any thoughts on that!!

It is quite strange! Even Yooko's big sister, a minor character, is described to be popular with both boys and girls. While our known beauty queen is only approached by boys.

So I do have thoughts.

Let's start with what is so heavily implied or explicitly told to us: Aoi's beauty makes girls jealous of her, so they obsess so much about what they lack compared to Aoi that they end up resenting her beauty more than being in awe of it. They feel inferior so they want to put her down, which is hard cause aoi excels at many things, grades, basket weaving, gardening...

(this Aoi with the music sheets draw is from when she was a kid, and kids are far worse at hiding their feelings, so I can imagine our multitalented Aoi is a better singer than the girl that 'unprompted' shoved her)

Boys also flirt with her, even those who are already in a relationship flirt with her, and it seems her lack of apology for something that she never liked, makes people assume she gets a power trip out of it, like seducing guys and playing with their feelings is a habit.

Their view is "There is no way the ice queen that is 'better than me in every way' have self-esteem issues, she is just playing with Akane cause she likes the attention, she is such a heartless man eater." Or something similar, probably.

Aoi doesn't allow others to get close enough to understand her and notice these rumors are nonsense so her bad reputation keep spreading.

Aoi is not a person to her peers, she is the 'perfect girl', a walking impossible standard' the peak of feminine beauty. Which I believe is a particularly brutal standard in Japan.

It's also something Minami will never have to fear: She is cool and pretty! But she is far from the kind of girl you'll see on a magazine for insecure girls, with non conforming short hair, boy-ish clothes under her minimal maid outfit, and an aggressive, unfeminine attitude.

It's A LOT of contrast for the 1 page Nanami was shown in.

But!

The way we only see Aoi being trash talked in flashbacks, never during the main manga, makes me believe that while this rotten crowd that blame on their problems on Aoi does exist and has been making Aoi's life harder since she was young, it isn't every girl that hates her, that's just Aoi's habit of focusing on the bad and blocking out anything else.

This is admittedly more speculative, but I like to headcanon that if Aoi paid attention to her surroundings and interacted with others she would have a considerable amount of female admirers.

Take Nene for exemple: To her, Aoi is perfect and awesome and makes hearts flutter! She is so beautiful and talented and nice!! Nene is undeniably an admirer of Aoi, she switches between interacting with Aoi as a friend and as a blind fangirl constantly.

Nene's gushing has many insecurities tied to it, it has a strong 'I wish I was like you!' quality, but most people who follow idols and love them to death also envy them. So if she smiled sweetly at other people instead of focusing only on her two friends, who knows how her female classmates approach would change?

Unfortunately, there is only this background girl that I have found directly interacting with Aoi, which isn't much.

What is going on nameless girl?? Why are you smiling with Aoi but your hand is clenched into a fist? Are you being a fake bitch and hating every second you talk with Aoi? Or are you nervous the beauty queen is talking to you?? Who knows! I don't.

The whole 'you're the ideal of beauty, the perfect girl, not an individual' is also why we see guys harass her.

Believing what they want from her is the truth. There is a lot of misogynistic undertones to the idea that their 'ideal woman' is someone that they are entitled to, but I'm getting sidetracked.

TLDR: The background girls are as obsessed with Aoi as the boys.

There are so many girls looking back at her here...

These girls wouldn't make wild speculations about how bad Aoi is as a person unless they paid SO MUCH attention to her every move. If Aoi ever approaches these girls and tries to be nice and sweet they would very likely not change their views of her as a bitch, but I bet they would grow overly alarmed and flustered, overthink the hell out of the interaction as they do with her interaction with other people and assume Aoi is actively trying to seduce them with her 'charms' or something just as wildly gay and off the mark.

After all, both boy guys and girls seem madly in love with Teru AND Aoi in the new timeline where she doesn't have rumors around her.

[annamaystudios]

What oc of your's do you share the most traits with, or the most important/special to you traits with, and how does that affect the way you write your character? Also, It's your turn now. Here's your chance to talk about Wraith. Go for it. (P.S. What's /your/ favourite soda, and why?)

Explanation lmao: I wouldn't say I share traits with my ocs, at least not anymore. My ocs more represent people or things I've dealt with as I grew up. Cyro was my first Undertale oc & I originally made him in middle school. Middle school Anna was depressed & angry at the world so I just loaded Cyro up with all kind of trauma. Sorry my son ToT Emma's original creation was an ideal version of myself if I was 'perfect' so she was born out of my insecurities. She is now her own character & I'd like to think she's a gray character (not purely good & not purely evil) She has made mistakes that she's not proud of & has let her emotions get the better of her.

Aabid started off as just a fun ship child with no real weight, but over the years I have made him representative of toxic/abusive spouses. It has helped me resolve some left over trauma but still keeping his fun character. I wrote him as Cyro's ex. Aabid is a caring person but only to certain people. If he can manipulate you or use you for his own gain, he will. There's more story to explain this but I'm keeping this short for now. Let me know if you want to know more.

Spirit. My beloved precious bean. I made Spirit with an old friend but over all he was made to represent my love for Halloween & paranormal/creepy things. He's a lil gremlin who is kind hearted but over all has no emotional attachment to strangers. He would turn you into a frog with no hesitation.

Apollo started off as a laid back pirate vibe. He loved the sea. But of course I traumatized him & gave him anger issues cause fire boi.

Lastly on this list Apex. Apex is just, what if I gave every dark intrusive thought an outlet. Apex is a soul eater. He goes on mass murder sprees often. But also just hot killer boi. Do I need to explain? lol

As for my beautiful wife~

she's a rat. JK lmao But for reals, @wr-n or Nighty, we have been friends for like 8+ years now. She's my BEST friend. We talk about the most silly & unhinged things & both of us are still obsessed over cartoon skeletons. Like how could I ask for a better wife? lol She's a silly goober who has seen me at my worst & has helped me through a lot. She is so kind & everyone is drawn to her cause of it. I would beat up so many people for this woman.

You know you are close with someone if you bicker like an old married couple & can laugh through the entire thing cause you know it isn't serious. AND you know who wins 9/10 of these arguments, me. cause I'm always right (inside joke) omg I love this woman guys. She's the best. I can't really put into words how much I love & respect her. I know she was being a feral lil animal when you asked the same question. So sorry if this simp(me) caught you off guard with my more...not chaotic response. I just love my short feral crazy wife & I hope she stays this silly forever. I hope you all can find your own nighty somewhere in this world. She would totally divorce me for Gaster though. She likes them dilfs

Also my favorite soda?

I am type 1 diabetic so I can only have diet soda. BUT I really like Diet Dr.Pepper if it is in a CAN. Fountion diet Dr.Pepper is trash. Other wise I drink Diet Coke Also unsweet tea...so good.

[coffin-ramblings]

The Coffin of Andrew and Renee Review Part 1: A Reused Resplendent Shroud Covering a Splintered Box

I played the Coffin of Andrew and Renee mod, and I have a lot of thoughts about it. It will be more critical than what you see so far and its breadth got so big, I have to make it into two posts. The first one will be focused on the plot beats, Andrew's and Renee’s relationship and characterization, and how the mod compares to canon. The second post will focus on my prediction for the identity of the “Homewrecker”, and how Andrew’s and Renee’s relationship here is (most likely unintentionally) written as non-physical sexual abuse.

Here is the link to part 2.

The game starts off with a hint to a flashback about Nina and Renee apparently caring about being a proper role model. Even though she casually cusses in front of her kids in canon and tells Ashley to “Cry about it” after being confronted for not helping them when she and her brother were starving for three months. Which was very jarring, but I went along anyway. It had some very funny moments, ones that have been posted all over so I won’t repeat them. Then Renee finds the can of tomatoes where she shows it to Andrew. I expected a more intense fight, but instead, Andrew just blatantly lies about why it’s in the trash, tries to gaslight his way out of it, and…compromises with her? I would’ve thought Renee would start lecturing him about lying to her, especially since it’s against their best interests and it’d be easy to portray her as being so domineering, she can make Andrew the “doormat” listen to her whenever she wants. But instead, it just shows that Andrew really isn’t that much of a doormat, even though that is his consistent personality trait in canon.

The hiding the can of tomatoes in general also makes no sense here because Ashley is impulsive enough to make it a meal quickly, while both Andrew and Renee here are strategic enough to ration it out. It feels like a copy and paste of the game that was executed with not much thought. In the original game, it immediately establishes the first impression that Ashley will ask Andrew for permission for things, Andrew will use trickery to try to keep her from getting what she wants, and while they’d fight over that, ultimately he will give in to her, seemingly because he’s a doormat. Here it gives the impression that Andrew is a liar just because and can be proactive, and Renee will not press him about any problems she sees unlike Ashley. This would have worked much better if Renee is depicted as someone who wants to do whatever she wants without a care for anything, which is somewhat her vibe in canon. However unlike Ashley, she can be persuaded to have self-restraint. 

Andrew is also weirdly way more rude and unappreciative about the meal than he was in the original game. He doesn’t act this rude in other low stress situations, and he’s not a picky eater either. He grew up poor and malnourished, he can’t be picky. He’s also way nicer to Ashley about the meal, and it serves as one of the hints that he is truly fond of her. I also expected Renee to start guilt-tripping by going “Oh it was so hard to cook this meal when I’m literally a walking skeleton!”, but she just tells him to stop playing with his food and eat it. There is no purpose to making him this rude as a first impression if he doesn’t act like this again. There’s no explanation to why he’s rude or even him apologizing for being rude to highlight how the quarantine is making the usually calm Andrew be more irritable. Ideally every character interaction should have some kind of purpose, but this doesn’t. 

It was also strange that right after, it’s revealed Renee has the balcony key, because when I inspected the balcony door before talking with Andrew, it just said that it was locked. It doesn’t give any justification for why Renee locked it or why she doesn’t want to go out right now. Sure it’s a minor detail, but it would add more reasoning or characterization to why it’s locked. The balcony key in canon is a hint of how Andrew actually has the final say on things Ashley wants to do with him, and he usually goes along because it’s what he wants, he just doesn’t want to admit it. Here, Renee with the balcony key shows she’s the one in charge at all times, which is expected, she’s the mother, but that makes her relationship with Andrew more unequal than what is intended. Maybe there’s more to it later that I haven’t thought of or haven’t seen, but who knows.

When the two want to cross to the other balcony by getting the broken shelf, Renee calls her husband “useless”, and before that, she calls him “good-for-nothing” when looking at the phone. These are all very OOC when she loves him very much and tries to assure him when he loses his job by saying “You’re too good for it anyway!”. I’d expect that even if they have some major falling out, Renee would be more bittersweet about it, like “My husband/your father is too scatterbrained. A shame since DIY building was his passion then”.

Though that scene is a relatively smaller issue than how she deals with the neighbor. She immediately starts threatening to kill him, which is very much the opposite of her trying to be normal in canon.

Why can’t she just knock on the door, yell at him to keep the music down, then threaten to call the wardens if he starts threatening her? She is not canonically that hot-headed. It feels like they made her more similar to Ashley just to balance out Andrew’s calmness, which makes no sense when Andrew takes a lot from her in personality in canon. 

We then had them watch TV. I decided to get the batteries and then turn on the TV manually, which was very funny. They hear the shitty news, and then they go to sleep. The flashback with the phone call with Julia shows Andrew seems to be actually happy with Julia, which has some possibly unintentional but still unfortunate implications on Andrew’s and Renee’s relationship. 

Or it could be Renee imagining it from her POV, which is what Andrew not saying “I love you” back to Julia suggests. But he also seems to slightly care about her more than in canon here, which also has unfortunate implications on his relationship with Renee, which will be discussed in the other post

This flashback also has a great set-up to her breaking up with Andrew because neglectful boyfriends are bad and potential shitty mother in laws are the worst, but then later…

No break-up happens. This is very unfortunate, especially with the common mindset that women have to tolerate their male partners’ mothers’ shitty behavior. The breakup also could highlight the toxicity of Andrew’s and Renee’s relationship, just like it did for Ashley and Andrew in canon. But apparently, Andrew is still with Julia, who is okay with him being apparently too busy for her and willing to commit to the long-term of dealing with his awful mother. This makes Andrew and Renee feel much softer in destructiveness than canon Andrew and Ashley, which is a compelling point of their relationship. This not happening makes Andrew and Renee less unique in comparison. 

Then the flashbacks show Renee talking with the ‘Homewrecker”. I will not talk about her here. She’s her own airtight can of suffocating worms.  

Anyway, the next day, Renee cleans up the house and passes out. I do appreciate the detail that there’s no dirt stains on the floor because she's cleaner than her kids, but what’s the point of being able to pick up the mop despite not needing it? And right after she cleans up, she passes out, but then the CG where she wakes up has her…sitting next to Andrew?

She was unconscious, why was she not lying down on his lap or the couch? Their eyes look off, Andrew looks way thinner than in other CGS, and the varying art styles of the CGs throughout the game is rather distracting, which makes me wonder how they coordinated all of the art.

And then, we get the call with Mr. Graves. He is barely even a character in canon, so it’s quite impressive how his few traits present were completely thrown out of the window here. He is very devoted and loving to Renee and he tries hard to hold down a job to support her and their children despite his own personal issues. Yet here he runs away from her, either complicit to or actively sold out her and Andrew, and apparently started a new relationship with another woman. He’s not even himself at this point, he’s just the mod’s OC wearing his skin. I’d say that is the writers’ most impressive achievement of this mod were it not easy to do. Sure it’s nice to see Renee’s insecurities out but it’s so forced by Mr. Graves being so out of character, and we could have gotten Julia breaking up with Andrew. 

Anyway we have the balcony scene, the first of several uncomfortable sexual moments throughout this mod, but much less titillating than the original because Andrew very much does not like hearing Renee talk about her sexuality and he is still grieving for Ashley. Renee thinking “Why is he still hung up over that?” is such a great moment though, props to that. 

I really have nothing much to say about lying on the floor scene in this post, so I’ll just focus on the successful demon summoning. That one was very weird for me, as Renee somehow decides that “Fuck it, time to unnecessarily commit a crime” and breaks into the apartment before the cultist dies. The demon sees her and asks who she offers, to which she offers up the cultist and after that…nothing happens. No trinket, no other reward, no Renee angsting over knowing she has a tar soul despite wanting to appear normal, no Andrew or Renee ever mentioning that she directly caused his demise. This feels like a moment to make it distinct from canon, but it falls very flat when it gets unaddressed and makes the warden sacrifice lose its impact compared to canon where he is the very first sacrifice by Ashley. 

The actions of Renee to their neighbor makes her have no care for appearing normal here, even though that is a core part of her character in Coffin and where Andrew gets his obsession to be so normal from. Her interactions with the neighbor create a huge plot hole of: if Renee is not the one insisting to appear normal, who does Andrew get his obsession from? 

But after that very weird scene, we see them chop up the cultist to eat, where the dinner was also…not very tense? Even if Renee is a better chef than Ashley, Andrew was still very nauseous at eating his body. It’d be more impactful if Renee physically forces Andrew to swallow it down like Ashley did, to show how at odds they are with each other about this. 

Versus

Horror is best emphasized when in contrast to the “normal”, which makes this scene in canon much more engaging. Ashley is very nonchalant about the cannibalism and forcefully insistent that Andrew must partake in it, even though he's reluctant about this despite it being for survival. This makes her more, well, horrifying to us and Andrew. It also is a building block to the eventual explosion of their simmering tensions, one we want to see. For Andrew and Renee, it feels more boring and not horrifying at all. In fact, it was very weird that Andrew is way nicer here than with the tomato sauce meal. That was kinda the opposite in canon. 

Versus

Why is Andrew suddenly all accepting and happy about this in the mod? Not even in Chapter 2 Burial, where he has fully decided to not give a shit about normalcy, was he happy with eating his parents. He was just being nice to humor Ashley. Now I was pretty disappointed about this, but when I decided to talk with Andrew after dinner…

My suspension of disbelief was surprisingly enduring for the past hour and fifteen minutes despite all the constant OOC-ness that drives this plot, but somehow, Andrew saying that broke it for me. At that moment, it was obvious that character consistency was not a goal for the mod. They do whatever the writers fit their fancies at the moment. Even though later Renee insists Andrew is “normal” because she’s “normal” was a nice in character moment for her and so was the Harekin story, it was too late. I just could not be that engaged with the mod anymore, knowing that what made them appealing to me can be thrown out at any moment.

I powered through the rest of the game, desperate to finish it. I was very annoyed at the major oversight of Renee waking up in Andrew’s room (despite sleeping in her own room in the scene before) and going down to the balcony to have Renee somehow know Andrew was next door cleaning up. And apparently, she knows this because he left a note on her bed saying that’s where he was, which I did not read at all, so I had to reload and find out what was happening. While I liked and was depressed at Renee seducing the warden to distract him in her home, it was annoying to go back and forth between the apartments to get blood from the warden to do the ritual. 

i also didn't like how Renee's immediate thought getting the gun was to smile and think about threatening Andrew with chores. The closest thing to Ashley doing that is yelling “YOU’RE LUCKY I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH TO NOT SHOOT!”, which was more funny because it’s in a stupid argument, siblings threaten each other without following through a lot of the time, and she actually didn’t try to get out of being choked by Andrew with the gun, so we know that she is truthful about that. I’m not sure if that was meant to be a joke or not, but it’s very much not funny. 

But the argument at the end definitely was a bad end to a pretty okay start to the mod. I have more problems with it that I’ll discuss in the next post, but for now, I’ll just do a comparison between canon. When I saw this Renee say “You let your sister take the fall of [Nina’s] death”, I expected that he’s going to start choking her immediately, and if not, soon. Soon after, Renee slaps Andrew, and I expected it to escalate to that…

…but it didn’t. It felt very anticlimactic with the lack of dynamism, thus, an explosion of the tension in the art. Compare with canon:

Andrew choking Ashley is horrifying because we realize that he can snap. That this seemingly normal and apathetic guy has his limits, and those limits can mean murdering his own sister. There is no horror to Andrew verbally threatening Renee and backing her into the corner, it feels more like he’s bluffing than actually willing to commit to matricide to evade the consequences of his crimes. It is a lot more boring and makes Renee appear more abusive to him as a result as she cowed him enough to not dare to use that against her. Andrew choking Ashley actually is a big tell that he also has power in the relationship, but he doesn’t want to show it often.

Also, him mentioning bitterly that Ashley is gone doesn’t get any major follow-up here other than Andrew going ‘You finally got rid of your daughter you always hated” and “Here lies Renee Graves, she should have had two abortions”. I would have expected him to choke her after she yells that she could have let him get sent away and tells her, “I raised Ashley because you made me. She was like a child of mine, and you let them take her away from me. I suppose it’s right for parents to avenge their kids, right?”. This would have fully established the tension between the two that it’s not Nina that made Andrew resent Renee, but Ashley. 

And what resolved the situation was...Renee saying she loved Andrew too much? Anyone who has been in a regular tense argument with a parent can tell you, saying “I love you too much” does not solve anything. It’s just overbearing and guilt-trippy and makes you even more mad. It especially is more useless to say here, because Renee here is being possessive of Andrew and he hates that. But the writers have to stick with Renee being an incredibly devoted mom even if it would not work in that situation. In fact, saying she loves him too much does not work at all when Andrew isn’t physically threatening her to gauge her desires.

It works better in canon because Andrew was choking Ashley as a calculated threat to both control her and gauge her desires. Her telling him that she doesn’t care if she dies if he wants to leave without her would have more of an impact on Andrew because he also can’t live without her and killing her will mean that is another crime he has to avoid the consequences of. Even outside of the siblings’ particular context, it would be very shocking for anyone to have their victim go “Well I don’t care about dying. If I don’t get to live with you, life is not worth living”. This makes both of them so much more fascinating. Ashley literally stakes her entire life on one person and we then don’t fully  understand why, but we want to know more. Andrew, despite his violent resentment of Ashley, seems to appreciate that, and we also want to know his perspective on it. They are very good hooks, both to learn more about their characters and see how much things can get worse. How the mod handles it does not give us hooks of its own. We just wonder what happens when they’re on the run and have Andrew’s word that he doesn’t trust Renee but he doesn’t show it, so it’s not as engaging.

After that, they go ride off with a cute bunny CG. Which was nice I guess. 

So do I like anything about the mod? Well some. I like Andrew’s literature major nerd moments. The jokes in the beginning were funny. Renee has her own distinct voice, her insecurities, and cynicism of being a woman in a very patriarchal society. However, I wished it was shown more outside of a few moments, that it is such a constant part of her that you can’t avoid. 

Despite the flashback with burying Nina happening after I started getting disengaged with the mod, it was well-done with its horror and Renee's manipulation that it kept my engagement for a while. I wished I can post the art here but I'm at the image max for this post.

However, it is soured that it feels so disjointed from the present, of how much better the mod can be. Apparently this is the moment where Renee resolves to be a better mother for Andrew, but she canonically did not give a shit about the murder, even though she knew that they were responsible for it. It’d make more sense if she’s like “Finally, I can finally get rid of that nasty girl and have Andrew, my reliable son who has so much potential to raise our socioeconomic status up, be all alone without her influence. I’m going to pay extra attention to him now.” This would make her constantly more manipulative, controlling, and guilt-tripping him, which with her high expectations, quarantine, and their crimes makes him eventually turn against her. 

So I guess I can say without any caveats and ignoring the small details, I really don’t like this mod. It had so much potential, and I played it to see how it’ll unfold with the characters I know. Instead, I got what feels like a beginner writer who just got into a new thing they like so much that they wrote a fanfic about it. The characters feel so disjointed, a critical character is written out due to the author’s preference or plot convenience, there’s meaningless changes, the conflicts are minimal between the MCs, and we have a contrived cheating cliche that serves to make at least one character look worse and another look much better. 

I see a lot of justification that it’s OOC because it’s an AU, but as this review showed, this is not a “oh the situation changed so they acted differently”. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason behind many of their actions other than it drives the plot. In fact, the mod is maddeningly boring for me because no real risks were taken to make its own identity while still being a The Coffin of Andy and Leyley game. 

The first sign of that is its title. What is the “coffin” in this game? The apartment is only relevant in the first episode, and it certainly doesn’t feel like Nina’s with how nice Renee is to Andrew (even if it should be). The major known meaning of the original game’s title is Andrew’s desire for him and Ashley to grow up from “Andy” and “Leyley” and become full-fledged adults. Why is it called “The Coffin of Andrew and Renee” here? Does that mean they’re going to die? If not physically, what is their goal that requires a part of themselves to die?

Furthermore, TCOAAL is at its core a horror game. The mod does not do anything to build upon that or make its own horror outside of the flashback, which was heavily based on what happened in canon. While this can be attributed to a majority of the fan content being smutty or shippy, if you want to make an adaptation of the game’s plot, you still need to have horror in it. It’s unavoidable as a social commentary and examination of what creates “bad” people. But Renee and Andrew are barely horrible to each other, which is a major part of the horror in the original game between the two siblings. This is a genre that ideally demands the creators be bold and daring in its entry to the world of fears and taboos, which the writers are clearly not outside of one scene.

And the final core issue of its lack of identity is that Renee is an Ashley with a different voice, one that creates more problems for Andrew’s characterization and makes her more abusive than Ashley ever was. Renee is Andrew’s mother, how she is has more of an effect on how he is and the mod forgets that. This is best seen with Renee readily charging into crimes without any good reason like Ashley did in Episode 1, Andrew somehow willing enough to admit he’s not normal, and him not really standing up to her when she slaps him at the end of the episode. This particular interaction and Renee’s role in Andrew’s life overall means she has more authority than him, which makes their relationship much more unequal than what Andrew and Ashley are in canon. Furthermore, Andrew can’t easily leave her as he can with Ashley, because she can stalk him and no one will really take it seriously because they would have more sympathy for her. If Ashley were to do that, most people would be more sympathetic to Andrew, especially since no one really likes Ashley, while Renee apparently can be popular. These problems are a reflection of the popular fanon misconceptions of Ashley as the sole abuser of Andrew in their relationship, and Andrew purely being her victim. This will be discussed in the next post.

[boypussydilf]

i can’t really inflict gachiakuta propaganda on my followers via the standard method of rbing other people’s posts about it because there aren’t that many posts about it. so i’m taking it upon myself to make a post straight up telling you to read gachiakuta

gachiakuta is a shonen action manga about a 15 year old boy who lives in The Bad Part Of Town™️ until the day he is falsely accused of murder and sent to The Abyss - the giant hole they dump all of their trash in, except it turns out there’s been people living there for centuries.

it uses the concept of imbuing a Soul into an Object by taking care of it for a long time to come up with incredibly fun creative weapons, like switching through different prosthetic arms that have different abilities due to being associated with different times in your life, among a lot other more spoilery concepts. the way weapons are designed and used is one of the places the soul eater inspiration really shines through too (the creator, kei urana, was actually an assistant to atsushi ohkubo!)

the protagonist, rudo, is special - obviously, being the protagonist, but especially because his abilities revolve around him having strong personal sentiment over Trash and using trash for everything, because he finds the concept of being abandoned and treated as useless so relatable. a major part of the story is him learning how to connect with people and make friends now that for the very first time he’s surrounded by kind people he feels he can trust. the Power Of Friendship had to come in somewhere and it builds itself on a very strong foundation in gachiakuta.

not to mention the character design really rules sometimes 💚

it’s on a weekly release schedule with 127 chapters to date and no sign of stopping - it’s absolutely full of mysteries that have yet to be solved and characters we’re only just starting to understand. plus we’re getting an anime adaptation (flash warning) this year - no release date yet, but we’re supposed to get news at anime expo at the end of march :)

i should warn for some of the heavy stuff - some self harm, and human trafficking/offscreen sexual assault is a major part of a character’s backstory, and there will probably continue to be topics like these in it in the future. most of the time though there’s genre-typical blood and not much else 👍

i like gachiakuta a lot, i think it’s a great story about feeling broken and about trying to reach out to people even if you don’t know how, with interesting worldbuilding and a giant cast of characters both tragic and deeply silly. so if any of those things are things you like as well why not consider reading the manga or keeping your eyes out for the anime.

my concluding message: look at my favorite weirdos ⬇️. these could be your weirdos too. imagine.

[smehur]

Trash Tuesday

thank you @faiell for tagging me! 🥰 this scene was written for my story more than i can say. i cut it out because it's overly dramatic, but also because i decided against making draco's relationship with blaise into a full-out subplot as i had originally planned. for those who have read the story, this takes place in the transfiguration class on the morning after harry's and draco's encounter in the ruins.

“Oh. My. God.”

Draco turns to Blaise with a start. For a moment there, the classroom and everyone in it ceased to exist, but now it all rushes back. The shuffle of pages, the murmurs of students, McGonagall’s tireless voice, saying something about ravens and writing desks.

Blaise looks like he’s seen a boggart. “I can’t believe it.”

“What?”

“It’s Potter, isn’t it?”

“What about him?”

Blaise leans in and whispers furiously in Draco’s ear. “Your mystery lover.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Draco hisses.

“You’re ridiculous, trying to deny it. I just saw you!”

“Saw me what?”

“Uh, eye-fuck him?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

McGonagall’s pacing brings her too close to continue, and both Blaise and Draco bend their heads, pretending to copy down. But as soon as she turns away, Blaise whispers again.

“Are you out of your bloody mind? He hates you!”

Draco clenches his teeth.

“So he keeps you like some dirty secret, or what? Did he make you swear you wouldn’t tell anyone? I bet he did. Saint Potter wouldn’t wanna be seen with a Death Eater, would he?”

“Shut up.” It comes out louder than Draco intended and McGonagall looks at him, thin brows raised over her spectacles. “Sorry,” he mouths, and bends over his parchment again. From the other side of the classroom, Potter watches him: Draco can feel his gaze like the beam of a searchlight, but he can’t risk looking up.

“We’re talking about this later,” Blaise says through his teeth.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Fine. Be that way.”

But it wouldn’t be Blaise if he just gave up. He catches up with Draco in the hallway and once the crowd thins down, pulls him by the arm behind a tapestry.

“What do you want from me?” Draco cries, yanking himself free. “I told you—”

“Draco. He hates you.”

“He doesn’t! Not anymore. He saved my life thrice now, for Merlin’s sake.”

“So what, you owe him? To be his whore?”

Draco’s vision darkens and before he knows it, he’s got Blaise pinned to the wall with a wand in his navel a forearm at his throat. “Fuck. Off.”

Blaise stares at him defiantly, breathing hard and trying to swallow to no avail. But he says nothing, and after a few moments, the dark haze clears from Draco’s eyes. He steps back, straightens his robes, and walks away, shaking like a leaf.

would love to see discarded bits from WIPs or posted things from @fluxweeed @cailynwrites @arminaa8 @thecouchsofa @sayschu-fanfic and anyone who'd like to hop onto this train! ❤️

[theeironprice]

Ramsay eating habits headcannon’s // thoughts 💭🗡️

This one might not make it out of the drafts lads 🫣😞 but if it does I’m only tagging it as ‘my drabbles’ to hide my shame😭 (fuck it we ball)

Please I am a little freak and I love that Ramsay eats a lot canonically so these are my thoughts but please don’t read this if this kinda content makes you uncomfy!! That is the last thing I wanna do.. but I have many thoughts.

CW: feeding kink, overeating, mention of weight gain

ASoIaF verse:

Alright, well these are less headcannons and more just things I like / some things that happen that made me go aooga.

-Ramsay giving Reek his scraps!! This is so important to me and I could write an infinite loop about this happening.. and occasionally Ramsay (often) forgets l and sometimes he’d be like whoopsies :3 I forgot (and immediately scold Reek for not ‘reminding him.’) while other times he’d tell his pet he’s too spoiled so he’s intentionally depriving him.

-I think in both a modern/In verse situation that Ramsay would refuse to have leftovers 🤷

-Him being whiny about Roose not throwing him a feast lives in my mind rent free 24/7 8 days a week. Bratty Ramsay is always a great flavor and I feel like he gets extra bitchy about food

-If he gets hungry at any point in the night he will make Reek go wake a cook up (Reek’s hands are too mangled to actually cook anything properly but he does try to prepare his masters food and drink when he can)

-When Ramsay feels like Reek doesn’t attend to him well enough during meal times he’ll accuse Reek of ‘trying to starve him’

-This applies to both verses’ but when Ramsay overeats and gets a stomach ache he will make it everyone else’s problem with how much he whines about it

-Him not being cognizant of trying to conserve food stores during winter is so 🥰🥰 especially when he goes to other castles and hold fasts and just has no concern about their resources; he’s just kind of a greedy fuck and it makes my brain go brrr

-When he outgrows his clothes he blames Reek for it and beats him

Modern AU:

-Ramsay just eating handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese in the front of the fridge is something I think about probably a weird amount; I mean him just always grabbing something small to eat every time he walks into the kitchen just plays in my noggin on a loop

-He would drink a smoothie from McDonald’s and be like ‘it’s healthy :3’ I think bro has no concept of what is and isn’t healthy and he probably doesn’t care either way

-Can’t stand not having something sweet after he has something salty and gets caught in a loop of savory/sweet

-This applies to both verses’ but he’s awful about drinking water; lots of beer/wine/ale and soda

-Whenever he gets takeout he starts eating it on the drive home

-If anyone eats his food he gets super bitchy about it but he never see’s it as an issue if he does it

-Really likes breakfast food: he likes meat and eggs a lot and it’s the easiest meal to just eat a lot of those particular things during.

-Way too lazy and impatient to cook. He makes Theon learn 🙂‍↕️ (who is also not very good at it but he can manage well enough; some things turn out better than others—but Ramsay will 9/10 just eat what he makes unless it’s really awful. Then he makes Theon get him takeout)

-Eats like way too much fast food and leaves his trash around

-I don’t think Ramsay’s a picky eater; I think he’ll pretty much try anything, but he has a tendency to eat junk a lot

-omg probably loves slushie’s

Alright well! I’m gonna go crawl under a rock now🫡 my depraved ass could write so many 😞

[thekingofwinterblog]

Maka vs Crona episode 20-21

When writing fiction, there are many points that can end up becoming the defining moment where a story peaks as a tale.

The final climax is ideally when this happens, and the amount of times when that is the case aren't exactly rare.

However it is just as common for stories to peak early.

Goku versus Freeza on Namek is generally considered far, far better than Goku's many, many following bouts, Tolkiens battles of Helm's Deep and the Pellenor fields, climaxing with Aragon's sudden appearance with the rest of the Southern Gondor Forces is generally remembered far more than the battle at the black gate or the scouring of the shire, while One Piece has tried, and failed consistently to recapture the glory that was Water 7 and Enies Lobby that together formed the absolute best story in Shonen.

As for Soul Eater, wheter looking at the Anime, or the Manga, it is not exactly a controversial statement that neither qualifies as it's absolute best. The manga ended on a terrible note, while the Anime while sticking true to it's themes, didnt quite hit the landing as good as it could have.

What both have in common though, is the moment where their tales peaked.

The Rematch between Crona Gorgon and Maka Albarn beneath the halls of the school leading up to the ressurection of Kishin Asura.

Rematches are always a fun thing in fiction, for a variety of reasons.

The most obvious is simply seeing how characters have grown or regressed since last time they brawled, but the simple fact is that rematches are baked into stories where there is conflict.

The Hero suffering an early loss, then facing their earlier foe only to emerge thriumphant is baked into the Storytelling DNA of the Human race. It's one of the most important parts of the Hero's journey for a reason, and you will find COUNTLESS examples of it, especially in shonen, which thrives on conflict and battles between individuals.

Ichigo vs Byakuya, Luffy vs Crocodile/Lucci/Katakuri/Kizaru/etc, team 7 vs Zabuza, and so on.

In the case of Soul Eater's rematch, on paper, and how it's set upon it's start, this battle is very much set up as a classic revenge rematch. Crona and Ragnarok obliterated Maka and Soul the last time they met, and now it's time to turn the tables.

It starts off with a kickass action scene where Maka has learned from her mistakes in the earlier fight, and so uses Crona as a punching bag rather than something to cut...

It event has both combatants trash talking the other... Everything is set up for a good grudge match.

The funny thing is though, that this could not be further from what this fight is actually about.

Because after that exciting action opening, that is meant to contrast with the first one sided fight, it almost immediatly switch gears to what it is actually about.

Maka and Crona as people, their flaws, their strenght, how both of them act as foils and mirrors, and brings out sides from the other that the story has not shown us before.

The first such moment is a follow-up to something Crona said in their first match.

"I don't know how to handle pretty girls"

That was a compliment, though obviously not meant as direct flirting, and this new line isnt either.

"S-stop. I can't look directly at people with big, strong eyes."

Crona looks at Maka as, in her own way someone to be admired... Because Maka has something Crona does not, and wants. Confidence, strenght, beauty.

Crona is both terrified of Maka... But also admires her at the same time.

The trash talk has nothing to do with bravery, or even looking down on Maka... Instead it's an attempt at putting up a brave front so the problem at hand will go away... But the moment Maka refuses to do so, and instead stares Crona down, Crona immediatly begins to crumble and instictively back down in front of Maka's cool and confident gaze.

Also while the fight goes on, a lot things happens concurrently. Not much of it is important for the Fight, but the other big battle taking place, is. Medusa vs Stein and Spirit.

This fight has two purposes, in regards to Maka vs Crona. The first is to give us Medusa's opinion and testimony regarding how she raised Crona, and thus we, the audience does not need Crona to make a long monologue about their past while talking to Maka.

The Second is contrast.

Spirit is absolutely certain that his little girl will win this fight. He has the bravery to trust in her, and her capacities, even after what happened the last time she fought Crona.

By contrast Medusa believes Crona will win because of logic, and calls spirit's faith in Maka "Blind Parental Love."

The funny thing is, they are both right.

Crona IS stronger than Maka... Yet Maka will ulimately win.

Their conversation also serves to contrast both of their children, and how they grew up. Medusa raised Crona as a weapon that is desperate for her approval and love. This will in turn be hammered in by Crona's own rather depressing flashback.

Meanwhile Maka was raised with love and care. It was not a perfect home by any stretch, brought down by adultery, abandonment and the blame game as everyone blames someone else, rather than accept the bigger picture(Maka blames her dad for everything rather than fully accept that her mother abandoned her, Spirit blames himself for his weakness rather than lay any blame at his exwife for abandoning his daughter and running off rather than take the parental responsibility she took claim too by fighting for Maka's custody, while mrs Albarn used her husband's infidelity as an excuse/justification to in turn abandon her own child).

Ultimately what this fight is all about, is both of these children finally beginning their journey to healing from the wounds left behind by their childhoods.

It also shows the values both Medusa and Spirit passed on to their children. Medusa twisted her child by instilling values like not killing... Then deliberatly forced her child to either break those values, or lose her affection, speciffically to emotionally break Crona down into an obedient weapon.

By contrast, Spirit, upon hearing Crona's backstory reacts with compassion, empathy, and understanding. And as the fight between Maka and Crona rages on, Maka will make it clear, that despite all of her protestantions to the contrary, she is her father's child.

The fight that follows between the next generation is a nice spectacle, but the next important development comes as both of the two meisters soul ressonance with their weapons, with Maka betting it all on her Witch Hunter, her strongest move...

And Crona completely blocks it with no problems, with a simple armguard, breaking the technique.

This moment is important for two reasons.

The first is the way it hammers in the point and themes that will later be repeated beat for beat during the climax of the series where Asura does this exact same thing to Maka's strongest technique in terms of raw power in either the manga or the anime, the Kishin Hunter, the same move that Shinigami used to beat and batter Asura around with ease.

Strength and Power will NOT beat madness and fear.

You cannot defeat fear, lonliness and depression by strength of arms, no matter how strong you are.

That is why ultimately Black Star and Kid will all ultimately fail to defeat Asura, and why Shinigami at his prime ultimately could not do it either, being forced to simply seal Asura away instead. Because every one of them faced this problem of trying to conquer their fears by using overwhelming force.

And they failed. Just like Maka fails here.

To defeat it you need something more, something completely different than might and power.

The second thing, and why this specific moment is what prompts Crona into going into a flashback right now, is that upon blocking Maka's best attack with ease, Crona suddenly has a spike of confidence, and lashes out, and brings Maka to her knees.

And it brings us into the next section of the fight, as we explore another aspect of fear, madness, and bravery.

"Weakness can imitate strength if bound properly, just as cowardice can imitate heroism if given nowhere to flee."

This is not a quote from Soul Eater, instead being from the Stormlight Archives, but it encapsulates the Theme of the next section of the fight perfectly.

Crona is not brave. The sudden burst of confidence did not lead to a turn around where Crona confidently and bravely defeated Maka in combat.

It was the lashing out of a scared child with nowhere to run, who HAS to win this fight, even if Crona does not want to be here at all. That one moment simply gave Crona the push to unleash an overwhelming assault of power that Maka could not match.

Weakness can masquarade as strength, and Cowardice can pretend to be bravery if it has nowhere to flee.

Which is why this in turn leads Crona compares Maka to the first creature Medusa forced Crona to kill.

The Fact is Crona has no idea how to interact with Maka, either as an enemy, a rival, someone who Crona finds Attractive and cool, or just a human being in general... So it sorta just jumbles together into a mess.

But Crona has not had the option of running away from either of their two fights, and so has been forced to actually interact with Maka, and so is completely all over the map in how to deal with her. Sometimes it sounds like Crona is hitting on her, cause she's an attractive girl as far as Crona is concerned, sometimes Crona puts up a brave face, sometimes tries to decisively kill her, and so on.

Which is why this in turn leads Crona compares Maka to the first creature Medusa forced Crona to kill.

We don't really know exactly how Medusa raised Crona before this point, but there are several important points to note here.

Crona understands at some level here that killing is, fundamentally wrong. When Medusa tells Crona to murder this thing, Crona does not want to do it, nor how to actually muster the will to actually kill.

That tells us 2. things.

1. is that Medusa deliberately raised Crona to be unprepared for this task. As Crona's mother, it would have been incredibly easy for her to raise her child with a far, far more viscious and brutal attitude against killing other living things.

But that is not what Medusa wanted. She wanted a broken and obedient weapon, an experiment she wanted to test and prod to see the reactions out of.

She WANTS Crona to not go through with it, and to be reluctant to do it at all, in order for the subsequent "Lesson" regarding obeying her speciffically no matter what, would hit as hard as it possibly could.

Upon little Crona's refusal to go through with it, she then locks Crona in a dark room with no food or water for days, alone with Ragnarok that bullies and beats Crona up for failing at the "task".

And when Crona still doesnt immidiatly go through with it, she throws Crona right back in, and blames it on her own kid again, hammering in the "lesson" that this Crona's own fault for being a "Bad kid".

this is all brutal, but it leads us into the second point to take from the way she raised Crona before this.

Crona WANTS affection from other people... But Medusa only gives it on a conditional basis, but also very deliberatly isolates Crona from ANYONE ELSE to the point where Crona doesnt even have contact with animals.

In the end, this does lead to Crona finally going through with it.

There is a very deliberate difference at this point between Manga and Anime though.

In the Manga, the animal that Medusa wanted Crona to kill was a defenseless, cute bunny, to further hammer in just how defenceless it is. The anime though, probably for censorship reasons was forced to drop this imagery... So they did something better instead, that connects it to what Maka and Soul are about to do.

in the anime, the animal is a small, dragon, unicorn thing that breathes fire, and upon first meeting it, Crona is for obvious reasons terrified of this thing, flinching away as it unleashes a jet of flame.

But after being starved, denied water, and physically abused by Ragnarok, Crona is let out from the room a third time. And this time, the reality that if Crona does not murder this thing, it will be right back to the room has set in... So when the dragon thing breathes fire right at Crona's face again, Crona doesnt even Flinch.

The fear is not gone though. it's just that with nowhere to flee, Crona mimics bravery, by embraces madness in order to not have to deal with the very real fear at facing the fire.

Crona is able to pretend to be both strong, and brave, by giving all in to madness.

The funny thing is though... Maka and Soul do the EXACT same thing.

Upon their tactic of just throw themselves in to the fight and hope to crush Crona with overwhelming force and power doesnt work, they instead decide to try to beat Crona and Ragnarok at their own game, by giving all in to the power of the black blood that makes Crona so powerful, with no heed of the dangers of embracing madness.

This moment, and the subsequent beatdown that Maka delivers is probably the single most iconic moment in the soul eater franchise.

Maka going completely nuts, completely unheeding of danger or any sense of tactics or morality, as she kicks Crona's ass, is Soul Eater's best action scene as it not only is visually stunning and entertaining to watch... but PERFECTLY encapsulates the stories Themes.

Maka wants to win this fight, and so she throws herself into a course of action that at first glance might seem to be brave... Giving up your sanity for power to win.

If Soul Eater was a story about people sacrificing themselves for the greater good, this might work, but it's not.

Soul Eater is ultimately a story about bravery, and bonds. About how it's people coming together despite all their differences, that makes life so worth living.

Sacrificing yourself... or others, is the cowards way out. It solves nothing.

Maka is not brave as she faces Crona withouth a hint of fear. Just like Crona prentended to be brave in order to have the capacity to kill that dragon thing, so Maka pretends to be brave by throwing away all her fears and sanity for power.

And in the end, embracing Madness only leads to Maka munching and gnawing on Crona's skull, having completely lost her marbles.

It's a different kind of defeat, but it still harkens back to her previous failure.

You cannot defeat fear by removing it, and pretending it isn't there... no more than you can do it with power.

Having completely lost herself to madness at this point, the only possibility left for Maka at this point, is to reassess her surroundings, and pull herself back from the edge.

And so, pulling on her speciality as a meister, her ability to sense and read souls, she begins that journey by reconnecting to her own soul, noting how it's such a small and fragile thing... surrounded by madness, it's so easy to fall in... And that's withouth jumping head first like she and Soul did.

And of course, being directly connected to her through the black blood currently steeping her very being, she also feels the soul of her best friend and partner Soul Eater Evans, a twisted, yet great guy who is always willing to listen to her, even when she's being selfish.

It is then though that Maka is drawn to another soul, one that fascinates her far more than either her own, or Soul Eater's soul.

Now the anime doesnt fully make it clear why Maka is immediatly so facinated by this soul... Crona's soul, but it's very clear that she is immediatly drawn to seek it out.

The manga however, makes the reasoning abundantly clear. She finds the soul beautiful for reasons she probably doesnt fully understand herself.

Regardless, she bonds with it, embracing it, and what it holds inside just like she did with her own soul, craddling it to her heart as she delves into it's mysteries.

It's mysteries is a beach with no water, an unatural thing, where there should be beauty and life, and yet is as as devoid of both as the desert it so resembles.

This is Crona's soulscape, the defining mental landscape of the young Demon swordmaster's psyche, as defining for Crona as Soul's jazz and piano room is for him.

It is here that we meet Crona's inner self, a young child, who deliberately draws a circle to be separate from the world... And yet so, so badly wants there to be someone, ANYONE else there.

And yet, when a companion appears, Crona's own shadow, Crona rejects it in a sad, yet resigned way, refusing to answer questions, passing on every one of them, until finally driving the shadow away as it becomes frustrated.

Now the questions are important in how Crona feels, but the actual takeaway isnt the answers, but how Crona refuses to respond to any of them, even completely obvious ones.

Crona does not know how to do so. Medusa's parenting and deliberate isolating her own child from any form of interactions besides her has completely and totally stunted Crona's growth, hence why here, inside Crona's own head it's back to the childhood self, not the teenage years Crona has entered into.

Which brings us to Crona's relationship with Maka. As bizarre as it might seem, Crona's interactions with Maka is the closest thing to actual socialization with another human being besides Medusa that Crona has ever had.

Because Maka by virtue of opposing Crona and refusing to back down has forced Crona out of that figurative sand circle, and actually had to interact with someone else. It was all over the place, but it was real, genuine, human interaction.

Hence why Crona thinks back to Maka in this moment as the shadow leaves, yet another lost opportunity that Crona let slip for interaction.

it's at this point that Maka, having now fully connected to Crona's soul, makes her appearance, in the form of her younger self with an adorable, lion's roar, scaring Crona, who protests that nobody else can be here, that this is where Crona is supposed to be alone from anyone else.

Maka does not care, and instead, upon being told of the circle's supposed purpose, destroys it by literarily stamping it out.

This completely destabilzes Crona's entire soul.

And upon returning to the physical plane, having left behind the Black blood and it's madness, Maka is face to face to a Crona who is having a form of seizure. All the methaphysical and psycological barriers that Crona has put up against the world have now been broken by Maka's actions, and is currently taking the form of the black blood inside of Crona's body shooting out everywhere in the form of spikes.

From a tactical perspective, this is a great development. Crona is wide open and immobilized, so now is either the perfect time to take another shot with Witch Hunter, or to just leave Crona behind to go join Kid and Black Star.

However, things have changed.

instead of doing either of those, Maka leaves Soul behind(much to his suprise and confusion), and withouth a weapon, completely calmly, walks up towards Crona, while talking in a kind, calm tone... The kind one does to someone who is freaking out and needs help.

And she keeps going forwards, despite the spikes that keep shooting forward almost impaling her every time.

In many ways, it resembles the kind of just abandoning fear to try to overcome it that she just tried to use to win this fight... But it's not.

Maka UNDERSTANDS Crona now. She knows what drives Crona to the core... And so she believes that Crona does not want to hurt her.

She doesnt know this. She fully understands that Crona might just kill her on accident... But she does it anyway.

She takes the risk that comes with this march forward, because she WANTS to connect further with Crona. Crona needs help, and maka wants to give that help.

That is bravery. True bravery, not the kind of bravado that drove her to take Crona on to begin with because she wanted to avenge her previous loss.

It is also insane. Pure madness... And yet it works.

Once more, she connects her soul to Crona, but this time, it's the opposite way, instead of delving into Crona's soul, she instead opens her own heart to Crona, to show that she understands.

Crona in response completely calms down, and after Maka lays out that she finally understands how Crona has never had anyone reach out and offer human contact before, Crona is... suprisingly at peace.

Crona still thinks that Medusa will now move and and that the time has come for mom to make good on her promises that Crona is expendable... And yet it somehow doesnt matter anymore.

Crona long ago gave up hope for physical, and emotional human contact with anyone, and now that someone finally has given Crona just that... That's enough.

It's time for Crona to just dissapear into the ether... To which Maka, very softly, but firmly delivers one of her book chops to get Crona's attention and out of the ending it all mindset.

Rather than let Crona continue on in this suicidal mindset, Maka instead takes the next step, and offers Crona the one thing that surpasses even the low, low bar of basic human contact and compassion. Her hand in friendship.

An offer that brings Crona to total tears of happiness and joy, and as the two of them grabs the others hands, they once more bare their souls to the other, while Soul Eater Evans looks on, and addmits to himself that Crona's great fear, of contact with other people is a fear that he too shares.

Just like Crona... And just like Maka, he too ran away from that very thing... But as the Manga shows in his thoughts, despite running away from his brother, he managed to find the very thing he ran away here at this school, in the form of Maka, blair, black star, tsubaki, death the kid, liz and patty... just like Crona now found Maka.

It's an astonishingly strong and powerful fight that encapsulates absolutely every theme and idea about bravery, madness, human companionship that the story had, while utilizing it's cast to the fullest, while also making use of it's power system to forge one of the strongest bonds in Manga.

However, we still have one final thing to discuss before we're done.

as we get as shot of Maka and Crona in Crona's soul scape once again, this time happy and smiling, hand in hand, the ocean finally begins, turning the desolate sands into beauty, washing over and then pulling back again, leaving the landscape actually alive, rather than the desolate, and lifeless void it was, and we end the episode on a special animation for the ending credit song.

That song is Soul Eater's second ending Theme, Style, and as we do a deep dive over Maka and Crona's development, we need to also go over it, and what it means, while also answering another question.

Why did Maka appear in the form of her kid self when she dove into Crona's soul scape?

the answer ties into why Maka and Crona made such incredible good foils and parallels for each other in this episode, and why both of them ultimately forged such a powerfull bond from these events.

Style you see, is a story told from the point of view of a child who is just making a new best friend by taking a risk and opening their door. It's about adults desperate to forge a "perfect future" like cogs in a machine, rather living in the moment, embracing everything as it comes, and asking god to make sure to record every one of the memories so they would be able to look back at these moments forever.

It is very much a soul eater styled song, but more importantly, it's a song that was very much chosen speciffically for Maka and Crona.

in a meta sense their relationship is DEFINED by this song, given how the episode ends with a special ending just for the two of them.

Maka and Crona's growth as people, are both defined by going forward... By going back and embracing their childhoods. More speciffically, what they both lost during it.

Crona lost both Childhood innocence, kindness and seemingly any chance to ever have friends and make normal, healthy human bond ever again.

Maka lost her ability to trust easily, became spiteful, hyperagressive, and lost her natural childhood kindness to others.

And both of them lost all of it, because of their parents. Crona lost it because of abuse, victim blaming, grooming and being treated as a weapon, rather than a child to be loved and nurtured.

Maka meanwhile lost all of the kinder, gentler, and trusting aspects of herself because of having to grow up and constantly see the dad she loved and looked up to cheat on her mother, and then subsequently being abandoned by that same mother, rather than have her serve as a source of strenght in her hour of need.

And through this newfound bond, both of them are able to regain all of it. That is the true beauty of Maka and Crona's relationship.

It's not as if all their problems go away, or their personalities go back to from before... the past, and how it has affected both of them is not ignored, or backtracked. but the path forward is a blend of what came before, and what they have become... while hopefully leaving behind the worst aspects of what they became at their worst.

Maka thinks Crona's soul is beautiful because deep down Crona is someone who wants to be kind and who thinks of others before themselves. all encapsulated by Crona's cute smile. That in turn brings out all of those feelings and emotions that Maka has tried so, so hard to bury to never be hurt again.

Crona thinks Maka is beautiful because she is a confident, brave, kind girl, who was willing to give even someone like Crona love, friendship, support and help even while being enemies. And in turn that makes Crona somehow reawaken the hopes, dreams and Values that Medusa cultivated just to deliberately murder for her own ends.

They both help the other to eventually get over their trauma in their own way and embrace their best selves... Despite the insane chance that Maka took to forge this relationship with someone she had no reason to even like, they were both so much stronger for it.

because they had the bravery, and madness to try.

Bravery and Madness, two sides to one coin.

And it all began here, over the course of two episodes.