#they're a very fun tragic family

[thelaughingtree]

all great houses are tragic in their own ways but my read on doran is a classic 'putting future ambition ahead of immediate consequences' in a way that will (almost!) kill house martell. his decades-long plot to lead to a martell & targaryen restoration has eclipsed the actual needs of his children - we see this in arianne's PoVs where she's led to really stupid, reckless behaviour in lieu of any honesty. quentyn died trying to tame a dragon (viserion). arianne will most likely also die trying to tame a dragon (griff). trystane seems like the only child who could survive, but given his betrothal to myrcella, i would not be surprised if the two of them end up dying together in some romeo & juliet tragic elopement attempt after doran attempts to break that off and set trystane up with someone in daenerys' favour, if not daenerys herself.

given elia's line is all dead, where will that leave the martells? the enduring legacy will be oberyn's children - the four sand snakes, and his children with his paramour ellaria. it's possible that if no one is legitimised that the house name might die, but given that sand snakes are most likely being positioned to be involved in some really interesting power plays next book (see: alleras in the citadel, tyene by cersei's side), they might live up to the spirit of house martell far better than arianne, quentyn, & trystane, who are all lambs for the slaughter. i feel that highlights a core thesis statement of asoiaf - that the achievements of the low and bastard born are not worth any less than trueborn nobility, and can sometimes be be nobler and more valuable in purpose than what the actual nobility do: play the game of thrones, which itself is a game that ends largely in death and misery.

[keeperofthebees]

not sure if i ever posted my psychoanalysis of Lilo on here but here we go.

Lilo is neurodivergent. She might have autism, she might have OCD, she ABSOLUTELY has PTSD. These all have very many overlapping symptoms, so it's easy to get them mixed up.

Lilo rarely brings up her parents after they die, only to protect stitch. "Dad said ohana means family." She tells stitch about what happened to her parents before he leaves. She doesn't talk about her mom until she's brought up, and compares herself to her.

Lilo feeds Pudge, and that Used to be for fun. When she forgot to feed Pudge, her parents died. She decided therefore that Pudge controls the weather, and creates intricate rituals to make sure she does it Correctly. The harder the ritual, the more effort she has to put into it. If the weather gets bad again, it's easy for her to say she must have messed up the ritual with the wrong bread or the wrong filling. Maybe Pudge doesn't like peanut butter anymore. She's taking control of the only thing she can.

She's also EXTREMELY morbid for a girl her age. I know everyone says she's just like them for real, but there's a difference between playing pretend that you're dying and telling your sister to leave you alone to die. Some kids play dead because it's a concept they can't understand and they use that to figure it out. Lilo KNOWS what death is. She experienced the death of the two most important people in her young life. She's well aware of death. She mentions Picasso's blue period, his time of severe suicidal depression. She says that that's what her painting is. This is worrisome. She knows Picasso's blue period, words like abomination, asks Bubbles if he ever killed anyone and tells Nani to leave her to die. I know some of you think that's relatively normal for a little girl, but it is not, not the way she behaves.

She makes a doll, and claims that she's sad because she only has a few more [enter time period] before she dies. Why would she make this doll have such a tragic story? Well, that's what she knows. People die. It happens. Of course she's sad, but if it's everywhere, she can be less sad about it. Her doll is going to die.

She's also well aware of pain, which is why she's so violent. She doesn't understand that people don't have to forgive you when you're mean and violent, because her sister ALWAYS forgives her, and is sometimes mean in return. This is family. It's not her parents, but this is how it is now. She's mean to Nani, and Nani is mean back, and then they eat dinner. She's mean to her friends, and they're mean to her, but they don't let her play dolls so they need to be punished. Stitch is mean to her, and she desperately tries to prove that he isn't that bad. She knows that she shouldn't be so violent, so mean, but she doesn't know how not to, and she knows that her behavior is part of the reason she might get taken away.

Lilo projects heavily onto Stitch. She likes him because he's a weird little freak, but he's also HER. he's alone. He has one person who wants him, who cares. One person who gives him chance after chance and tries to get him to be good. If she can prove that Stitch can be good, then she can be good. She can get better, and not be such a burden to Nani. If Lilo can keep Stitch, then Nani can keep Lilo.

Lilo wants to stay with Nani, but she can't stop being the way she is. She can't stop screaming, and being violent, and running away and nor doing what she's told. She has very little emotional regulation due to the trauma she's endured, and she sees that in Stitch. She can teach him to control himself. She can be good. She can stay here with her one and only sister, all she has left. She begs Nani to like her more than she would a rabbit. I'm gonna cry

[arolesbianism]

I am still so enamored with the though of Jackie having grown up with a loving family who she probably loved back at least for a time that she then proceeded to push away and betray all for the sake of mindless progress and corporate greed. Klei pls let the baby announcement ppl be Jackie's immediate family I need her to have been involved in endangering one of her parents and the grandparent of her niece who was partially named after her so bad it's so important to me

[mcflymemes]

PROMPTS FROM WICKED *  assorted dialogue from the screenplay, adjust as necessary

it's good to see me, isn't it?

no need to respond. that was rhetorical.

because there has been so much rumor and speculation... innuendo, outuendo... let me set the record straight.

why does wickedness happen?

that's a good question.

like every family, they had their secrets.

one thing led to another, as it so often does.

i'm right here. i always will be.

you want to see something wonderful?

what have you done this time?

now you've made your sister cry.

you see... it couldn't have been easy.

as you can imagine, i have much to attend to.

is it true you were her friend?

you must understand, it was... a long time ago.

remember, it's not goodbye, it's farewell.

they're going to miss me so much.

you know what i believe? strangers are just people i've never met.

what? what are you staring at? do i have something in my teeth?

let's get this over with.

i for one am sorry that you're forced to live with this.

it's my intention to major in sorcery.

perhaps i could help.

offering to help someone you don't know with a skill you don't have. i'm sure everyone's duly impressed.

i could care less what other people think.

i doubt that's true.

i'll miss you.

if anything should happen to her...

you can of course come visit me whenever you want!

how tragically beautiful you are.

i just need to find my room.

this was my chance. my new start.

magic is merely the mind's attempt to wrap itself around the impossible.

i shall tutor you privately.

thank you for covering for me.

how long have you had this talent?

if you can learn to use your powers in the right way...

do you really think this is fair?

i'm just shutting the door.

i saved you some space, by the way.

how did you do it? tell me.

i can keep a secret.

some of us are different.

we cannot escape the past.

the past helps explain our present circumstances.

who is responsible for this?

it's all right. i have no friends.

once you learn to harness your emotions, the sky's the limit.

this is much bigger than just some words on a chalkboard.

is this how you go through life, running amok, nearly trampling anyone in your path?

i guess there's a first time for everything.

were you looking for something? or someone?

i met the rudest person last night.

what do you do for fun around here?

i would do anything for you.

it was nothing. i love helping others.

i'm about to have the happiest night of my life!

i don't follow.

what's in the punch?

i don't feel sorry for you! you're great!

my personal opinion is that you do not have what it takes.

i hope you prove me wrong. i doubt you will.

i can't watch.

it's not like it's your fault.

may i cut in?

that was your very first party?

you tell me a secret.

you really don't have to do that.

i can't wear things like that anyway.

pink goes good with green.

i'm afraid it's out of our hands.

you're not being told the whole story.

somebody's got to do something!

you think i'm really stupid, don't you.

you don't need to be scared of me.

you think i want to be this way?

so i should just keep my mouth shut? is that what you're saying?

you're bleeding.

this is your chance to make good.

i've heard so much about you.

i am changing my name.

don't you cry. you're going to have the wonderfullest time.

something bad is happening to them. they need you.

what did i tell you?

you've known all along... from the moment you met me.

you must trust me.

that's why i need you.

i meant every word about you having a home here.

[blueteller]

I want to tell you how much I like your lcf posts they're super helpful and fun! I was wondering if you can tell some infos about choi han, his wiki is tragically short and there's no many information there which is kinda ironic considering he's the "og protagonist" and is a major character. Do you by any chance have any idea about what era of Korea he came from and maybe the kind of uniform used that time?

In order to answer the question, "when Choi Han was born?", we must start with his family. And to do that, we must begin with our actual main character; Kim Rok Soo. When exactly was he born? We get a very decent clue right away:

"It was a typical day off. It had been a while since he had read an actual book instead of on his phone, so he went to the library to check out some books." –EAP translation of TCF Chapter 1

"It started as a typical day off. He hadn't leafed through a physical book in a while, what with how often he read on his phone, so he went to a book rental shop to borrow some." –Official translation of LCF Chapter 1

Both versions state pretty much the sam thing. We can conclude three things:

Smartphones and e-books were popular in Korea by the time the present happened, since Kim Rok Soo was used to them.

Because we have to take into account the Monster Invasion of Earth 1, e-books had to gain popularity BEFORE it initially happened, since after that point humanity would be mainly focusing on rebuilding, both in the physical and social way. I doubt e-books would be a priority for humanity to develop afterwards, so they had to be invented AND popular before that point.

Since Kim Rok Soo was poor before "the cataclysm", him being a college student with multiple part-time jobs on top of being an orphan… It would be wise to consider whether there was a time in Korea where electronic devices became a part of college scholarships. Because he couldn't possibly afford them on his own, so he definitely got used to them through a funded scholarship program.

According to my online research, the use of electronic devices in colleges was already underway by 2010, when smartphones were already widespread and common technology. I think this is a good starting point for our timeline: by the time Kim Rok Soo was 20, the state of technology of Earth 1 was at least comparable to what we had in 2010. This is our "earliest" starting point.

Our "latest" point should probably be in 2018, when the author of the series first started posting in Korean on Munpia. Because while this story does technically take place 16 years in the future, it is a surprise twist which gets revealed much later on; at the beginning, the readers are under the assumption that Kim Rok Soo is "a regular guy from a regular South Korea".

So: Kim Rok Soo was born somewhere between 1990 and 1998. This means Choi Jung Soo was also born between 1990 and 1998, because they were the exact same age.

Choi Jung Soo is Choi Han's paternal cousin/nephew once removed. In other words, Choi Han had a brother, who had a son, who then had Choi Jung Soo. So generation-wise, Choi Han should be around the age of Choi Jun Soo's grandfather.

Grandfathers generally have to be at least 30 years older than their grandchildren. Once again, according to online research, the average age gap between grandparents and their grandkids in Korea should be 59 years. So between 30 and 60 years sounds about right.

That means that the earliest age of Choi Han we should be considering should place his birth around year 1930, and at latest 1968 – let's round it up to 1970 for simplification. Then Choi Han transmigrated at the age of 17 (I heard once that Koreans measure their years differently or something so he should actually be 16 but whatever; one year makes little difference here), so around 1947, to 1987 at latest possible date.

If we take earlier numbers into account – Choi Han being born in 1930 and transmigrating in 1947, what historical era was it? World War II era, obviously, and Korea was under Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), so it probably wasn't such a great time. Luckily Choi Han was too young to get drafted into military, as the minimum age was exactly 17.

Then, what about the technology?

Most Koreans were involved in agriculture or low-level labor under the colonial regime, and Korean children were given substandard education, with no focus on technology use. Their society only had access to basic mechanical and electrical technologies, such as typewriters and factory machinery. Phone already existed, but were limited to landline, and more common in government offices than households – mostly exclusive to the upper Korean class citizens and elite Japanese residents. So the Choi family definitely did not have them. Between 1930 and 1970, cars were a luxury or rarity, with domestic car production only kicking off in the mid-1960s; so no cars for the Chois either. First public TV broadcast in South Korea happened in 1956, so they did not have TVs just yet either. Computers did not enter the stage until mid-to-late 1940s, and were only in use in military and research settings in countries like the USA and Great Britain. The internet came in only in the late 1960s in the USA, so Choi Han definitely never witnessed it, much less used it. South Korea's true technological development began in earnest during the late 1960s to 1970s, and accelerated through the 1980s and 1990s – so Choi Han could have witnessed some of it, but not all that much. Not with him and his family living in a peaceful countryside.

So, uh… we gotta face it guys… no matter of how much of a "modern" person Choi Han was as a transmigrator… he was actually kind of a peasant? Like, a legitimate one?? He could read of course, but his family DEFINITELY consisted of farmers, no matter if they could swing a sword or not.

I did not expect this when I began researching this topic hahaha!

No disrespect to farmers of course (that would be hypocritical of me), but like… no WONDER Choi Han had such a rough time in the Sealed God's Temple Test of Indignity! Imagine, this guy must have felt like on another planet!! (Well it literally was lmao) He made a jump from a war colonial era or post-war recovery era countryside, to the 21st century modern city and an office job! Man, I feel so bad for him. And his realization that he had no place on modern Earth make so much sense. I would have felt the exact same way in his shoes; Roan Kingdom medieval style must have felt more like Korea to him than the actual Korea.

As for the part of the question regarding school uniforms…

Not everyone was able to afford uniforms in Korea back then, due to obvious financial constraints, so many children did not have "real" uniforms and wore simple, handmade, second-hand stuff instead. But generally, what was considered Korean school uniforms for boys at the time was based on Western-style military: blazers, pants, high collars, neckties, buttons, caps et cetera. They were commonly navy or dark blue, with occasional gray maybe? Only after the war some USA influences came in, like turning the pants into shorts and overall making the uniform less soldier-like and strict.

So if you are looking for inspiration for fanart to draw Choi Han in accurate Korean-style school uniform from his time period, something that looks like a dark blue navy uniform is probably your best bet.

Wow, this was an expected dive into South Korea's history! I learned a lot. I hope you found this helpful at well!

[harmonyckrs]

making (slightly rude) assumptions about you based on your favorite Strangetown sim

remade to be more organized

Pascal: You're probably gay, trans, or both. Probably a Nervscal shipper as well. You're responsible for the amazing art within the fandom, which makes up for your surface level, black-and-white interpretations of every character and the fact that you reduce Pascal to either a boyfriend/husband or an alien incubator

Vidcund: You're either a CallMeKevin fan, an irony-poisoned individual, or have him on your hear-me-out list. You probably also projected onto him to some extent, whether it's being an introvert or being on the asexual/autism spectrum. You also have a very mixed relationship with the PSP game and you want Dominic Newlow's head on a stick

Lazlo: Either a chill person who ships Cryzlo or a Crystal hater who secretly wants to date Lazlo and projects onto the person that they're shipping him with. If you fall into the first category you have amazing taste and you should be proud of yourself. There's a possible chance that you might be bisexual/pansexual

Tycho: Pascal fans but instead of creativity you have objectively incorrect opinions. You probably haven't played the PSP game and just got all of your info from the wiki or someone else who only got their info from the wiki talking about it. This is like saying your favorite Pleasantview character is Unborn Baby Broke. If you wanted green with no personality, pick a Smith at random instead

---

Pollination Technician 9: You like aliens and have him on a hear-me-out list. Also you're probably some variant of gay/bi even though he and his family give off very stereotypically straight sitcom family vibes

Jenny Smith: You are in desperate need of a hug or at least someone to vent about your problems to. She either reminds you of your mother or she's the mother that you wish you had. I'm going to also assume that you're either straight or have very basic taste in women. At least she's a healthy choice

Johnny Smith: You're a JRO or TankJohnny shipper, and the reason why it's almost impossible to search up certain sims for reference photos without seeing ship art of said sim with another character

Jill Smith: Not sure if I've ever seen a Jill Smith fan but you're probably pretty chill, minding your own business and enjoying the weird snippets of Jill's character that we got from the PSP game. You probably also like Buck

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General Buzz Grunt: I'm so sorry for what you have to deal with. You all seem chill but I know damn well it probably gets annoying seeing your fave get slandered repeatedly over popular headcanons that get interpreted as canon. Congrats on still hanging in there

Tank Grunt: Golden child with anger issues and therapy who's possibly closeted to some extent. You also have a very conflicting relationship with your parents and people misunderstanding you

Ripp Grunt: You're probably not straight, dabbled in alternative culture but coudln't afford to actually give yourself an alternative look, and you probably played the other neighborhoods before

Buck Grunt: You pity him for being constantly overlooked and the fact that the Bus Driver won over him in that one poll. You probably also like Jill, even if you don't necessarily ship them

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Olive Specter: You think she's iconic/a girlboss and probably wish you could be six feet under her garden as well, not in a suicidal kind of way but in a "I'd be happy if she was the one who took me out" kind of way. The Life and Death pack was very important to you, and you think about Ichabod more than the average person

Ophelia Nigmos: You pick your favorites off of personality and lore rather than on how fun they are to play. You don't need to tell me that she's actually the best character because "she's an alternative teenage girl with anxiety who lives with her serial killer aunt and twenty one ghosts" or that she has a tragic backstory

---

(to either of these three: You have a very mixed relationship with the PSP game because you hate what they did to the characters)

Loki Beaker: You love the "hate everyone but her" type characters and people who would sacrifice the world to save the one they love over sacrificing the one they love to save the world. You're probably also a fan of malewives and make jokes about his eyebrows

Circe Beaker: You love girlbosses, you hate Dominic Newlow and want his head on a stick more than the Vidcund fans, and you probably have a very mixed perception of Vidcund. You probably also enjoy a good masculine woman/feminine man dynamic.

Nervous Subject: A fusion of the Pascal fans and the Olive fans. You were super happy seeing the Life and Death version of Nervous but got super pissed when you found out that they named him Nyon. You pick and choose which parts of the lore to care about and consume angst for every meal

Atom/Ceres: You're here from the Sims 3 and a stickler for canon. Also unrelated but Atom is a really bad name for a child, dunno why they couldn't name Atom after another Roman god like with Ceres. They even double as planet names which makes even more sense for knowledge sim Loki, like come on

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Ajay Loner: You love how little there is to him because you can literally just make him whatever you want and it technically still works because the lore never said that he wasn't

Chloe Curious: You love chaos and drama, and you're either some variant of queer or the type who wants a gay best friend

Lola, Erin or Kristen: Girl's girl, possibly sapphic. You're also more into career/drama-based gameplay than family gameplay, and you're probably not the biggest fan of Lola/Ajay

---

Bella: You love sim lore and you love Pleasantview more. You also get super hyped up anytime she appears in the background of your game. Anytime Bella appears in the background of your game you become that one picture of a wojak who's pointing at something in the background

Crystal: Lazlo fan and probably really chill considering you had to put up with the really bad interpretations of her that either reduced her to either nothing more than Lazlo's girlfriend or made her super toxic so he could either break up with or "fix" her. Barbenheimer was also very important to you

Abhijeet/Meredith: why

[pluckyredhead]

“I have larger thoughts about how DC has kind of written themselves into a hole with Jason and now he's stuck in this limbo that's unsatisfying to everyone which is why so many Jason fans are mad all the time, but that's for another ask.”

🤓 Do tell…

Okay, let's see if I can do this in less than a thousand words!

So Jason, at his core, represents a challenge to Bruce's ideology, right? Bruce's #1 rule is No Killing, and Jason's basic idea is: "That doesn't work. Some villains are bad enough that they have to be killed for the greater good." (There's something very funny about Jason, famously undead, thinking killing stops ANYONE in the DCU, but we'll leave that aside for now.) This is a really interesting ethical quandary to throw Bruce's way, and by having it voiced by his beloved son, his greatest failure, his second most profound tragedy, it becomes a deeply thorny emotional problem as well as an ethical problem. That's all great.

The problem is, DC can't allow Jason to be right, for two reasons:

Batman must always be right and must always win.

...I mean, come on. They can't actually publish a story advocating for a traumatized 19-year-old with assault weapons to be the arbiter of who lives and who dies, that's nonsense. I love Jason but really.

The problem with that is, Jason is a major recurring character.

UTRH works great in a vacuum. But if Jason is showing up in a comic every month, or even just a few times a year, this central conflict has to be addressed, and the options for doing that are limited:

Bruce and Jason fight and Jason wins. DC will never let this happen. (And what would "Jason wins" even look like, honestly? He's not going to kill Bruce.)

Bruce and Jason fight and Bruce wins. They've done this a bunch (sometimes with Dick in place of Bruce), but Jason fans don't want to see him repeatedly getting his ass kicked while being lectured, and frankly it doesn't make Bruce look great either.

Bruce allows Jason to kill people. This can't happen either; it would be wildly out of character for Bruce, not to mention literally everyone in the Batfamily. They are all canonically pretty opposed to murder.

Jason continues to operate however he wants, but outside of Bruce's reach/jurisdiction. As wretched as RHATO was, I actually think it was a smart decision to keep most of the action outside of Gotham, because then we can pretend Bruce doesn't know what Jason's up to, just like we pretend Clark couldn't super-hear everything in Gotham and save Bruce's ass every single night without breaking a sweat. The problem here is that it means Jason is unavailable for the kinds of casual team-ups and crossovers that fans of all stripes crave - plus, every time he comes back to Gotham, he and Bruce have to relitigate their entire relationship AGAIN.

Jason compromises and agrees to follow Bruce's rules in order to have a relationship with the Batfamily. This is basically where DC has landed, and I understand why they did, because it's the option that allows them to publish the most comics with Jason in them, which they want to do because he is an immensely popular character who makes them money. However, it leaves him in this awkward position where instead of being a tragic villain/badass antihero, he's just...the sassiest member of the family, while simultaneously always being available to be treated like shit because he's Bad. He gets punished without even the fun of doing the crime anymore.

So what's the solution? I don't know. Theoretically, DC could try to do what Marvel does with the Punisher. People always get mad when I say Jason is DC's Punisher, but he kills pretty much indiscriminately in UTRH and RHATO, for pretty much the same reasons. ("Dudebros think it looks cool.") And Marvel heroes inexplicably let Frank just kill however many people he wants unless they're appearing in a Punisher comic, at which point they go "Frank, you naughty boy, I shall stop you!" and then Frank kicks their ass and makes them look like an idiot. DC is never going to let Jason do that to Bruce, plus it would put a real damper on the Wayne family Thanksgiving dinner.

Alternately, they could make him a Nightwing villain. Dick has spent 40 years fighting inconclusively with Deathstroke; he's much better suited to go endless rounds with Jason without either of them Always Triumphantly Winning than Bruce is. I don't personally want this option because I just don't care that much about Dick, but it could be really interesting, though it would limit Jason to fewer appearances and primarily in Dick's book. (Jason would have made a superb Red Robin villain 15 years ago for similar reasons.)

My vote, I think, would be for a really good (god, if only), really thoughtful Jason series where he has reason to seriously reevaluate his philosophy towards crime - something that reshapes him into a character who can still challenge Bruce's entrenched ideas without being so diametrically opposed to them as to make him a villain. He needs to be close enough to Bruce's rules to appear in crossovers, but far enough and specific enough that he's not just Meaner Nightwing. Jason is a passionate character; DC needs to find a new way to let his passion work for him, because right now he doesn't have anything driving him, and it's satisfying no one.

(900 words, BOOM!)

[loudclan-clangen]

Fish in a birdcage for Rosehip amd Dodwood tho

YES

Bee is not one of the rogues himself, but two of his sons are! Also one of Butterfly's sons, and two of Coal's sons that he had after Fiercestripe left. They aren't really important to the story so they don't get names or anything, but I think that it makes everything a little bit more tragic that Fierce is fighting her nephews who she would have loved to watch grow up and might recognize her from when they were young.

2. Kingfur and Sockeyepelt would both be pretty devastated if Chumtail dies, she's similar to Dashpaw in that she's kinda the mediator between her two more polarized siblings. Really everyone who's up on the chopping block is the most stable of their family, meaning everyone is going to be very NORMAL after this, I'm sure. Also thank you!

3. Yes! There will be stickers of the mediator kids (especially now that you've asked). I'm drawing sketches based on what people have requested, and I'll make a post letting everyone know when they go up. Currently I have Weed, Siltsplash, the Mediator Kids, and some couple stickers in the works.

There were many factors in Fiercestripe's decision. 1. Thorn was 4 moons old by the time Fiercestripe left, so she was well past carrying size (especially with Fiercestripe being a small cat). Even if Wildfirecry could carry her, or she walked on her own, it would slow their pace significantly and require them to take more breaks, leading to the farm cats likely catching them. 2. If Fiercestripe had taken Thorn then the farm cats would have more justification to track them down and forcefully bring them back. It's one thing for a she-cat to leave, it's another for a she-cat to take her mate's kit with her. (part of why the farm cats have made it to loudclan now is because they're chasing a pregnant she-cat). 3. Wildfirecry hadn't agreed for Fiercestripe to come with him. He was a stranger who had stayed a couple nights with the farm cats and was just as likely to turn her away or harm her as he was to allow her to come with him. He would have been a lot less likely to agree to travel with her if she came with the responsibility of a kitten. 4. Wildfirecry and Fiercestripe did not have an easy journey. They didn't have a destination or a set path, they just wandered from place to place for years until they were convinced to join Loudclan. It's pretty likely that had Thorn been brought with them she would have frozen, starved, drowned or been eaten by a predator given that Wildfirecry was the only one with any hunting or fighting skill, and kittens aren't as tough as grown cats. All in all, bringing Thorn along wasn't really an option. Fiercestripe's only choices were leave Thorn or stay with the farm cats and hope that another outsider came along later when Thorn was grown. (Thorn's story is a bit different, Frost and Spider were outsiders who joined the farm cats later in life, so Frost knew how to hunt and fight, thus allowing them to wait for their kits to grow before they left.)

I designed them on my own! I find pretend genetics very fun and it gives me a chance to think more in depth about the rough backstories I have for these characters and how their childhood would have affected the way that we see them act in the story.

[luludeluluramblings]

Hi so I was having some brainrot regarding your small-town-neglected-meta reader and I wanted to share them with you!

One thing I've been thinking about alot is the way readers powers work and what kinds of weather they're likely to create, etc. One thing I specifically thought about is that readers powers definitely have to come from her mom's side. Bruce and no else in Bruce's biological line have powers so readers mom has to have the meta gene. I was thinking that maybe readers mom also controlled the weather a bit, maybe not as strong as reader can but still had some powers.

Like creating little drizzles, maybe some dustdevils, and little snow storms. Because her powers were so weak she never really used them for much, maybe to help out her own parents on the farm but that's about it(using her rain powers to easily water the crops)

In that same line of thinking I also wondered if readers little brother also has superpowers. Maybe the way his powers work or appear are bit different than readers because of they have different dads(I imagine Bruce has really strong genetics. If Damian is any proof of that lol)

One little crank in this little headcanon though is that Nana and Gramps would also have to have superpowers. But then I reread the first chapter and thought about One of the phrases you used to describe how reader got in Bruce's hands.

"but blood is thicker than water in the eyes of the court."

That specifically makes me think that Nana and Gramps are actually readers little brother biological grandparents and not theirs.(what happened to their bio grandparents 🤔)

But anyway, one last thing I wanted mention is how badly I want to see reader using their powers more freely when they're back in small town. Like they aren't afraid to use their powers to make it super windy and have fun with their little brother up on the sky. Or causing a blizzard just so they can have a snowball fight and make snow-men with their little brother. Or even accidently cause a power outage because someone pissed them off! No more suppressed emotions just freedom. (Also reader crying in the middle of the rain they made in front of their parents graves(they wanted to be buried in their hometown) would be so tragically fantasic.)

Anyway I know this is a lot to read and I'm sorry if I seem a bit scrambled but I wanted to send this to you just cause I had so many ideas floating up in my brain I couldn't stop thinking about it all. Thank you for listening to me ramble, I hope your doing amazing🩷

Your call this bain-rot, Imma call it fertilizer. This is long as mess, but I think I addressed everything. Lots of Smalltown!Reader lore and I made a Family Tree to help explain if needed.

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

Smalltown!Reader's Family Tree:

Complicated little bugger, ain't it? I didn't add Stephanie or Barbara because Bruce technically never adopted them or fostered them. This isn't an official thing, I made this and it was composed of little bits of information I found online. So some of this stuff might not be lore accurate.

Also, while I was researching I found out that Bruce's middle name was apparently Patrick, after his grandfather at one point.

Now, time for the pseudo science.

I consider the meta gene to be a genetic trait carried down by a parent. That would be Momma/Adeline, in this case. She carries the gene. Now, the meta gene does not always activate even if one has it. So, no, Momma was not making mini storms for us. She was, however, very encouraging of Reader using their abilities. It takes an event, usually a traumatic one, to activate the gene. (Little Brother could be getting power's in the next chapter, though.)

As for Nana and Grand Daddy we have this:

They don't have the gene, so they don't have abilities. (Which doesn't me their harmless.) They are Reader's Step-Grandparents, but they've grown to love them all the same. Now, in court, it is preferred for a child to go to the nearest blood relative after their parents die. Or, at least, that's what I roughly know from what the court in my state is like. I'm not from Louisiana or New Jersey, where Gotham's located, so maybe it's different. But, this is fiction. This is why Nana and Grand Daddy didn't get custody of Reader, though. Plus Bruce is rich with a bunch of adopted kids, on paper he looks like the best option.

☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎

I really love the thought of Reader using their abilities for silly little things while back in Smalltown, at least before things absolutely go to hell in a hand basket. So I'll probably include a bit. (They used to do things like that before moving to Gotham, definitely.) Something I want to mention is that Reader likes to make it rain when their happy. It's their favorite weather, they love it. So a grave scene might be a bit different. (I have to include that now. Thank you for that idea! Frick, Part Eight about to be long af.)

☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

If your curious about Reader's other grandparents, they just died from old age and health problems. I like to think that Reader had a close relationship with them. Calling them MawMaw and Gab for their nicknames and having spent a lot of time with Reader and their Little Brother before they died. (I'm sorely tempted to just commit to rewriting this with the OC I based Reader off of so I can include all this backstory to highlight how different their life in Gotham is compared to what it used to be, but I best finish what I started first.)

(Side Note: It's very common in the American south for people to give their grandparents nicknames. I have some for my southern grandparents, while I call my northern grandparents just plain Grandma and Grandpa. The nickname can vary and is usually what ever the first grandchild comes up with.)

Thank you for sending me this ask! Stuff like this actually inspires me so this was wonderful. Hopefully this helps. (Now to get back to work on my writing, I've been draggin' my feet again.)

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Favorite New Manga and Graphic Novels I Read in 2024

I read 114 manga volumes and graphic novels last year! Here’s a link to my Goodreads year in books, which tallies one book from each manga series ( I've arranged it so the manga/gns at the beginning, the novels start with Red, White & Royal Blue) and my storygraph wrap up.  

I have a post for my favorite books of 2024 you can read here! I also have a post on my top 12 anime for 2024 and you can read it here! (Also, since a lot of this is yuri, check out my broader yuri manga rec post here!)

Now let's get to all the new manga, with a little check in on ongoing titles at the bottom!

Love Bullet by inee

When someone who never had the chance to experience love meets an untimely death, they're given a chance to become a cupid. If they help enough people fall in love, they earn the chance to have another shot at life. Koharu meets her end after her best friend, Aki, confesses her love to her, and she becomes a cupid...

Love Bullet is a brand new yuri with fun characters and a cute art style that feels a little charmingly retro. The concept of modern day cupids using firearms and behaving like sharpshooters in an action movie is so fun, but there's also a beating heart behind it. The tragedy of Koharu's life being cut sort and the bittersweet arc where Koharu tries to help her living best friend deal with her lingering trauma over her sudden death...it's touching and well written. All the cupids already have a really great dynamic, and as befitting a yuri, the way the girls approach their jobs is casually queer, with the "targets" often shown to have both guy and girl options.

It's a story with great potential that seems like it could go a ton of interesting places. It's a little different than the rest of this list that it's not officially out in English yet. The reason it's here is because the author sent out an SOS that the first Japanese volume is struggling in sales, and the international yuri community, excited about the awesome story they've seen so far, rose to the challenge and bought out the first volume in Japanese! So far it's been successful! If you end up reading it (you'll have to rely on scanlation but they're easy to find) or even if you just simply want to support a cool story. I really encourage you to do the same. Here's a document on how to buy the Japanese version. Hopefully, the grassroots support will mean we get an official English release soon!

The Summer You Were There by Yuama

All you lovers of tragic lesbians, this is for you. The manga follows Shizuku, a deeply depressed girl who is so guilty about something in her past she's got some serious suicidal ideation going. But when Kaori, a girl in her class, reads her writing and guesses what's behind it, she challenges Shizuku to a bet where she has to write a novel about a romance between the two of them. Now they're suddenly spending a lot of time together, and Kaori is helping Shizuku unpack her guilt. However, Kaori is struggling too. She's actually very sick, and though she hides it, it's getting worse.

The manga is a heart wrenching meditation on grief and redemption. For very different reasons, both girls think they don't deserve love and both girls are shown they're very, very wrong by the other.

I like how Kaori tries to be the manic pixie dream girl who fixes all of Shizuku's problems, but then Shizuku very firmly says "what the hell. no. You need support too" and they're both allowed to be full characters who find solace in each other. Shizuku's backstory is also really interesting, and it hits hard. It's just a very touching, but very sad read.

Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa

Barefoot Gen is a semi-autobiographical manga by Hiroshima survivor Nakazawa Keiji. Nakazawa said the story is taken not just from his life, but those of fellow survivors he talked to and lived with.

The story follows a boy named Gen, depicting how most of his family were killed by the atomic bomb, and how he struggled to survive in a post-war Japan, while surrounded by the horrible effects of radiation poisoning, economic devastation, and American imperialism.

It sticks out from other animanga I've seen about WWII bombings in that it's very critical and angry at the Japanese government, to the point that Gen even calls the Emperor a war criminal. What stands out even more is how direct it is in denouncing of Japan's war crimes against Korea and China, as well as condemning Japanese racism against Koreans. It makes sure you know that Korean POWs and forced laborers also died and suffered because of the bomb, and that the Japanese doctors discriminated against them, forcing Koreans to wait on receiving medical treatment until every Japanese person was treated.

It does a stomach churning, effective job depicting the horror of radiation poisoning and war, and its message is extremely firm: Its the common people who suffer in the wars while those in power exploit them, that war and violence are an endless vicious cycle we must break free from, and nuclear bombing must never happen again.

Though it puts a lot of blame on the Japanese government for entering the war and on citizens for supporting it, the story is also critical of America's cruelty and imperialism, depicting lot of things America did to Japanese citizens post-war we don't get taught-- like soldiers sexually assaulting Japanese women, like getting Japanese labor activists and protestors removed from their jobs, like literally torturing Japanese leftists, like luring Japanese citizens to treatment centers with promises of medical aid for radiation sickness, only to collect the data and send them off with no help...

Though the manga is brutal, there are moments of comradery and kindness (and a lot of silly humor). Gen helps a lot of people along the way, and his resilience and his message not to give up is the heart of the manga. It's educational and very direct about subjects that both sides don't want to acknowledge-- both Japanese nationalists and American nationalists do not like it (you can learn more about that here). Despite extremely gruesome content, it's aimed at kids, so it's very blunt and direct in its messages and dialogue. But that can be kind of refreshing.

 It can get a little repetitive on occasion and storylines and characters tend to be introduced very abruptly, but it does keep you rooting for and feeling for the characters all the way through. I think it's an essential, highly informative and unforgettable read, and everyone should read at least a little bit. Or at the very least, read this interview with Nakazawa. If you can't handle the gruesome imagery of the comic, he describes his experience pretty in depth here, and there's a lot of other insight.

This Monster wants to Eat Me by Sai Naekawa

Hinako is a depressed girl who survived a terrible trauma and has been searching for death ever since. One day she gets approached by, Shiori, a mermaid who wants to eat her…but the thing is, this monster mermaid is a gourmet who wants her to be as delicious as possible, which means she’s going to make Hinako happy first before she eats her (as apparently that enhances her flavor). In the meantime Shiori has to fight off all the other monsters who want to snack on Hinako.

This is TOP TIER yuri horror and a must read for any lover of monster girls. It was custom made for a freak like me, who thinks a monster girl covered in the blood of her enemies seductively telling the protagonist she wants to devour her is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Shiori, the woman-eating mermaid in question, is a fascinating character right off the bat, always having a hint of menace and inhuman mystery, but showing some potential for genuinely caring for Hinako someday. There's an ongoing mystery of why monsters are so attracted to Hinako that's a good hook, as is the irony of Hinako starting to come alive thanks to a girl who wants to kill her. It's good stuff! And it'll get an anime soon, which I'm praying is worthy of such a cool story.

The Guy She Was Interested Wasn’t a Guy at All by Sumiko Arai

The green yuri! This web manga finally gotten a physical release this year! It tells the story of Mitsuki, a girl who works at a record shop. Her classmate Aya wanders in. Aya doesn't recognize Mitsuki with a face mask and hair hidden by a cap and immediately assumes Mitsuki's a guy. They bond over their mutual love of rock music and slowly start to get closer…and Aya finds her heart is fluttering not only over this mysterious boy, but her female classmate that seems a lot like him...

Despite it's clunky title, this manga makes a premise that could have been painfully cliche and, in the worst case, extremely uncomfortable and makes it work. It never swings into homophobic or transphobic territory imo. It helps that Aya is clearly catching feelings for "girl" Mitsuki along with "guy" Mitsuki from the beginning, subconsciously knowing they're the same person.

The focus of the story is the way their relationship develops through a shared love of Western rock music and it really captures the joy of finding someone who can share your interests and the affection that can spring up for that. The characters are very likeable and cute, the art is absolutely gorgeous, and the story as a whole has this laid back, naturalistic feeling while still developing at a good pace. I just really enjoy kicking back with my green yuri, and it's good reputation is well earned!

Maus by Art Spiegelman

This comic about Spiegelman interviewing his father, a Holocaust survivor, and learning his story (with Nazis being represented as cats and Jewish people as mice) is, of course, incredibly well known to the point it feels almost redundant to talk about it. But I did read it cover to cover for the first time last year, and unsurprisingly it's a great piece of art and an important story for anyone to look into.

The parts recounting the Holocaust were heartbreaking and horrifying as expected, and I'd expected that. But the things I hadn't heard as much about was how much the book explored Spiegelman's complicated relationship with his father, and his anxieties as an artist and whether he was the right one to tell this story. It was fascinating to see him struggle with those things, and it added a lot of layers.

The Moon on a Rainy Night by Kuzushiro

One rainy night, Saki runs into Kanon and is immediately infatuated with the other girl. When she sees Kanon at school, she discovers Kanon is hard of hearing. Kanon is understandably frustrated at the ableism she tends to endure. But as Saki reaches out and gets to know her, Kanon starts to open up. And Saki, having gone through struggles related to her sexuality in the past, starts getting anxious about her feelings for Kanon...

The Moon on a Rainy Night is just... REALLY good. Kanon is just a great character, and as a lover of stubborn, prickly girls I just find her so charming. She has a lot going on with her, like her interest in music and relationship with her family and various quirks.

One thing I really like is how narrative allows her to be frustrated about the stuff she goes through, allows her to have complex feelings about being disabled, and pays attention the little details. She has to clear up misconceptions she can't hear anything, she points out that only 20 percent of deaf people use sign language (but starts using it when she really relates to a movie and the way the cute actor uses it, which is such a teenager thing to do), the lip reading isn't treated as some magic thing, Kanon has to remind people to look at her or she can't hear them, and she misreads things a fair amount.

I'm not hard of hearing, so I'm far from the authority, but most examples of deaf and/or hard-of-hearing female characters I can think of in anime (okay so there's only two I can think of, can't say that qualifies as a pattern) are depicted as shy, super sweet and socially naive, so it's refreshing to have a character who brings some variety.

Saki is also super compelling as she wrestles with her insecurities.I really related when she was learning sign language and got bummed out by the heteronormativity of one sign (using "man" and "woman" for marriage). I also like that Saki finds an adult lesbian who gently supports her and mentors her, it's all very sweet. It's just a fantastic romance and character study, and I hope the upcoming anime does it justice.

Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith

Wash Day Diaries follows four best friends and their daily lives through interconnected short stories. As the official summary states: "The book takes its title from the wash day experience shared by Black women everywhere of setting aside all plans and responsibilities for a full day of washing, conditioning, and nourishing their hair".

The comic makes a great use of color to reflect the characters' moods, and the girls are drawn vibrantly and distinctively. The peek into the characters' daily lives feels like getting to know some good friends, and there's a great attention to detail, especially with the comic's beautiful step-by-step depiction of how each woman does her hair and what it says about her.

 The comic touches on topics like depression, dementia, and homophobia. Just like real life, these things aren't neatly resolved, but the story does offer some hope and catharsis. It's a pretty quick read, but it's packed with good stuff.

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. by Yu Aoki

I'm going to give myself a little break and just reuse my entry for the anime. (The only difference between them is that the manga flows a bit better than the anime, moving at a faster pace with huge panels suiting the art style and the action!)

Being a magical girl is no longer the domain of teenagers, and has evolved into an actual career dominated by adult women. Kana becomes a magical girl for a scrappy start up company, and tries her best to navigate working life.

It’s the magical girl story about adult women I’ve been craving for years! Magical girl media often explores the struggles of adolescence and growing up, and this show takes us to the next step by using magical girls to explore what it’s like to be a young woman entering the working world. The focus is one Kana struggling to grow her confidence and accept support from her workplace, but it also has a lot to say about companies exploiting their workers, prizing efficiency and growth over actually taking care of their customers, and it shows how the world could be better than what it is right now. Check out my review here for more detail!

I Married My Female Friend by Shio Usui

A pair of best friends enter a platonic marriage they both agreed to with the promise they’ll divorce if one of them falls in love. But one woman has decidedly not platonic feelings for her wife, and is trying to repress them...

This is a sweet, laid-back story from the creator of Doughnuts Under the Crescent Moon. It has a very slice-of-life feel, with the characters feelings and conflicts developing subtlety. There's a focus on domestic life and the compromises and struggles one makes along the way. It's set in a world where gay marriage is legal in Japan, which is cool to see. If you liked Doughnuts, or are just looking for a chill yuri, I'd check this out!

Himawari House by Harmony Becker

 Himawari House follows the story of Nao, a half-Japanese woman who immigrated to America when she was young. She's now returning to Japan and feels a feels a deep sadness from how disconnected she's gotten from Japan's language and culture. While in Japan, she lives with two other girls, Hyejung and Tina, who are from South Korea and Singapore respectively. They form a friendship as all of them struggle to get used to Japan and deal with language barriers.

We get the interconnected stories of all three girls, and all of them are really interesting in their own way. This story does a lot of cool things with language, for example, showing words fading out when someone can't understand them, giving the reader the same experience the character is having trying to understand the language. It was a fascinating experience. The book does an effective job exploring Nao's feelings of alienation from both America and Japan, while having a lot of other interesting plotlines that made all the characters feel rounded and developed, such as struggles with independence and expectations from parents, trying to navigate romances, and dealing with homesickness. The art is beautiful as well. This is a well crafted and insightful story, that you might find especially great if you're interested in languages, cultures, stories about identity, and stories about Japan.

Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl by Canno

Kiss and White Lily follows multiple lesbian relationships, with its main storyline being about two academic rivals, where one is determined to rank first in class, and the other is an effortless genius who becomes intrigued at the possibility of someone beating her.

The main couple have the kind of messy combative sexual tension I wish we’d see more often in yuri because it’s so good. I just love the drama and mixture of rage and attraction. The manga follows other couples too and while some stories are stronger than others, they're all usually entertaining in some way and its fun to watch the characters grow. The art's also very cute and the characters are vibrant. The ending is really strong too, putting a perfect cap on the story of the main couple especially.

However, big warning for some nonconsensual kisses in early volumes, with Kurosawa being especially pushy. There's also a storyline with...well it does leave you a little wiggle room on whether it's actually incest between a minor and an adult portrayed romantically??? but um. the implication is strong. Fortunately, that's mainly contained to the seventh volume--you can just skip any stories about the sisters.

When the manga is good, it's really good, and that makes up for some of the questionable elements for me, even if I wish they weren't there. You might agree or disagree!

Ongoing and ended titles:

Here's a look at some of the ongoing titles I've been following! You can look at this post for breakdowns of what they're all about and why I recommend them.

I Think My Son is Gay and I Want to Be a Wall both wrapped up with fairly open endings but remained good reads over all. I finally got around to finishing After Hours, a yuri about a girl who gets ditched by her friend at the club, only to meet a cool punk girl who introduces her to the world of DJ-ing. It's a very charming three volume tale, and I love the playful vibe and more natural-sounding dialogue, especially for the cool party-girl love interest.

There are several manga that just stay the course as far as being excellent go: Otherside Picnic (which is finally at some of the best parts of the light novels! It's getting real!), Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, Witch Hat Atelier, A Man and his Cat, How Do We Relationship, March Come in Like a Lion, The Summer Hikaru Died and She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat.

For Yuri is my Job, I have to warn for a intense predatory sexual assault scene between an adult antagonist and one of the underage main characters. It's even ambiguous whether the underage character in question got raped for a few pages (but she wasn't). It's completely framed as a an evil, bad act by the antagonist, but how it was handled was SO intense and kind of weird I'm not sure how I feel about it. Yona of the Dawn has gotten incredibly intense lately and continues extremely slowly but surely approaching the finale. Maybe we'll get it in four years or something.

And that it! I'm going to happily keep reading all these manga, as well as continue checking out some new ones, like Akane-banashi! I hope you enjoyed these recs.

[urautismdiagnosis-wistie]

•°○ let the fireflies play ○°•

✨she couldn't sing for nothing and he couldn't dance for nothing can I make it any more obvious✨

Kwaziis parents (in my au, Misty Memories), Anira and Kenneth. They're in their party clothes lol Yes they have full character arcs and lore and no im not going to share their whole lives right now.

HOWEVER,I shall BRIEFLY describe them and how they met under the tag!!! <3 u don't have to read but yeh :> 😊

If yall have any questions about them or their personalities tho let me know in comments or ask box :>

Their story takes place from late 80s to early 90s btw,

Kenneth is clearly the second son of the Calicoed Jack and younger brother of Kingsley by about 2 or 3 years. Kenneth (also nicknamed "Kenny boy"or "Kenny kit" as a child) is... Well to be honest hes not very good at being a pirate, especially not like his parents. An anxious and overly cautious one.

He couldn't properly swing a sword without closing his eyes for fear of injuring himself, he was clumsy (even by non feline standards-), and was afraid of spiders. (And heights... and loud noises... and that one Pelican that tried to eat him when he was a kitten- and also-)

However, he was still raised a pirate and had the soul of one, shanty songs and tales spread through the ocean about its depths and tragic battles- He was also very good at cooking-

As a result of his mothers... tragically lost battle with illness, (and witness of his fathers struggles with infection after losing his eye and leg)hes also extremely paranoid about disease and injury...

(his father loved him dearly but hadn't realized that kenneth had low self esteem for... not living up to him, his mother, and his brother... CJ was a young and inexperienced father and also tried his best to teach kenneth- you know like fun survival challenges between him and his brother and how to fight- he uh.. he was good at surviving on an island at least? It was very safe of course, they weren't actually stranded, but it was "just in case" and also "the pirate way" and whatnot.

CJ (calico jack) did tease him a bit about "still feeling like a wee kit" in regards to his pirate failures, it wasn't ever in mean spirit, more fondness over his sons excitement in sharing the shanties he wrote himself! (Shanties cj would later use to stay sane in the amazon...) but kenneth still felt hurt by those comments though he never showed it... laughing along🥺 <:< )

anyways since kenneth didn't want to be a self proclaimed dead weight and was so concerned about injury and disease (bot as easy to get hospital treatment as a pirate yk?) Kingsley advised him to get real schooling- schooling that would give him credibility for a fake identity so he could become their crews official medic someday. Something incredibly valueable and needed.

Thats how he ended up spending half the year at a "flexibility school" in Japan meant to accommodate children who couldn't stay at school for the full year. Whether it was due to international travel, long term illness, apprenticeships (the salty spirit was usually undercover as a "transportation vessel" for the "Sarah Sails" company which was just a fake company made by their clan the Split Tail), and ofc children hopping between foster families- because of the flexible needs yk?

Like Anira.

Anira Kucing (name inspired by the kucing Malaysia cat breed) is, who would've guessed it, originally from Malaysia. Anira doesn't know this but her mother had fled from her home country due to the unfortunate circumstance of being a prime suspect for the death of her sister. Unfortunately, while her mother did manage to take a new identity in a new country, she became very ill from cancer when anira was very young and died <:( thus she was legally an orphan, and ended up attending the same school

Anira is ah, ahem, a... unique individual- grew up assuming her father had abandoned her and her mother- only to lose her mom while young and still be seen as a foreign stranger of Japan despite being raised there her whole life. She also had an interesting tendency to pickpocket everyone in sight :) because if she didn't have anyone to dote on her she might as well dote on herself! Yk with like.. stolen cash that the rude rich kids that whispered about her didn't even need anyways >:)

Anira thus became Very Talented at getting people to talk about themselves, and while that was a great way to distract people from their wallets,it was also a GREAT WAY to get fresh juicy gossip ✨ then she hears about this FOREIGN ENGLISH SPEAKING CAT GUY???

Needless to say lil wee kenneth was uh.. a very new lil guy and ofc she just hadddd to help him cuz she's so kind and great! Esp since he looked so lost and like a total dumdum. well what happened was she ran up to him after school, dragged him away to a random street as she rambled in broken English, and then said "watch this!!"

And proceeded to pickpocket three very mean looking older teens. Kenneth, who, understandably, was very freaked out by this tried to drag HER away from them- and then well... hes got broken japanese and well things escalated 😔

He got into a fight with the three older teens, or rather a "run way swat at with claws and TRY TO RUN AWAY SOME MORE because oh great im corned in an alley :) , he also tried to find anira so they could both run away but uh... she was gone...

He tried to escape by scrambling over the wall of the alley only when a small paw reached out to help- and thus they escaped together-

Later on when they caught their breaths on a rooftop, he tried his best to ask her *HEY WHAT THE HELL* as politely as he could. This tiny little menace grinned as wide as possible and showed him FIVE WHOLE WALLETS full of coins she stole! She thanked him and told him SHE was going to treat HIM to some icecream 🥰🥰🥰 and anyways kenneth immediatly fell in love. And you just know she ate up his cringey (cute) middleschool love poems too

Of course when he went to "do his sailing apprenticeship" well- of course our girlie mightve sorta followed him and stowed away and well mightve forcefully wormed her way into his entire family 🥰🥰🥰 honestly tho she had like two crack headcanons that kenneth was actually an alien spy since he was so bad at being a cat or a secret pirate because he just agreed with crime very casually and didn't realize how strict laws actually were. She DIDNT THINM HE WAS ACTUALLY PART OF A PIRATE CREW THOUGH-

Anira very much fell in love with the freedom of being a pirate, the culture and the family, and also the beliefs of the polynesian cultures they visited and adopted many of the beliefs as an honorary sister of sorts ig? Yeh :>

If you're wondering yes she did join their crew and became a navigator of the salty spirit! Very good at it too lol, and CJ loved her and doted on her like his own daughter,often sneaking her candies- Kingsley and she became ah, how shall we say- the siblings who have heinous prank wars either with eachother or on literally everyone else and can't be left alone together under any circumstances.

anira always loved kenneth for who he was entirely and kenneths entire bloodline is just a wee man who falls for a woman who commits crimes and he's no different. I'll have to post about calico jackand his wife maddie sometime

Anyways thats it lol, more details about them and their relationship and story will be shared later on hope you enjoyed lol

Enjoy this icecream as a reward for reading all of that ✨🍨✨

[da-janela-lateral]

MP100 Soap Opera AU - AKA "Mob o Psíquico"

On the next friday, on 8 PM... Shigeo Kageyama, a meek and hardworking 18 year old, is forced to move to Seasoning City with his brother Ritsu after a tragic housefire kills their parents. They stay with their godfather Reigen, a good-hearted man, but with serious financial issues. Because he doesn't want Ritsu's studies to be interrupted, Shigeo decides to help with the bills by working as a butler for the influential Hanazawa family. He quickly becomes a target for his bosses' only son, Teruki, and their strange rivalry slowly turns into something unexpected.

With a main cast of:

Shigeo Kageyama - the protagonist of this soap opera, a timid young man who becomes a butler on the Hanazawa manor. He receives the mockery and the nickname "Mob" from the manor's old crew, yet gets to win their hearts with his kind personality. When Teruki starts to show him romantic interest, Shigeo is unsure if he should listen to his emotions or to his reason, as he knows he depends on this job and can't risk people purposely interpreting his intentions in the wrong way...

Ritsu Kageyama - his smart and talented younger brother, and his only family. Ritsu is doing his best to exceed academically and get a scholarship on a prestigious university. However, nobody suspects he is also sneaking out with his friend Shou to fight the Claw criminal syndicate, which he believes to be responsible for his parents' deaths...

Arataka Reigen - an esoteric itens seller and Shigeo and Ritsu's godfather. Reigen offers support and advice for the siblings while they're under his wing, despite being unprepared for this new role. What neither of them know, though, is that Reigen is dating older men to pay off their debts, including a member of the very organization Ritsu wants to destroy...

Teruki Hanazawa - the Hanazawas' only son and their future heir, an arrogant youth who rules the manor while his parents are overseas. He tries to annoy and boss Shigeo around like he does with his lackeys, but ends falling in love with him. His affection is forbidden, because his parents want him to marry Minori, the daughter of the powerful Asagiri family, as soon as they return...

Master Dimple - a priest turned capoeira instructor, he is the middle-aged friend of Shigeo and Reigen. Dimple is almost always on Shigeo and Ritsu's side and keeps giving them terrible ideas. When he is mistaken for another priest and confessed a shocking reveal to, Dimple doesn't know whether he tells Shigeo of what is to come, or if he keeps the promise of "being honest" he had made with him (not actually)...

-----

Have you ever thought your action shounen needed more ridiculously melodramatic intrigue? There is a solution! For some reason, I really wanted to make a overdramatic soap opera parody and this AU has been very fun to write. I hope I can share more of whatever this is with you guys soon!

[yellowocaballero]

what manhwa have you been reading? I've currently been on a very shitty romance isekai villainess kick lmao

I grasp your hands. Another pig in the trough of manwha. I'm not a huge villainess person, but obviously I have read a shitton of it. I read so much awful manwha, but the good is SO good. Everybody knows that SSS Class Suicide Hunter is perfection, but I feel like The Ember Knight is fucking incredible and not discussed as much! Everybody read The Ember Knight (if you like action)! It's incredible!

I just finished Concubine Walkthrough, which was AMAZING. So good! What a great usage of the premise! Chinese period piece concubine drama (a whole genre.) + 'player gets trapped in an MMORPG' flavor isekai + being ACTUALLY science fiction and extremely interested in the science fiction aspects of virtual reality. I refuse to read those gamer MMORPG manwhas because they're terrible, but Concubine Walkthrough is what you always wish those stories were like.

I also just read through My In-Laws Are Obsessed With Me, which sounds like it should be uninteresting but it is shockingly extremely good. Very good character work, extremely slow and realistic buildup of the importance of the FL in the family, great politics/character dynamics, and the slowburn romance is even really good. Just overall extremely good writing and it was an extremely good read.

I've also been reading Until The Tragic Male Lead Walks Again, which is incredibly fun and funny through virtue of himbo buff FL and sweet and sensitive ML. The ML is disabled as well, which is also always great to see, although it still has that strange character note that's identical to Touch My Brother and You're Dead and associates a man gaining a disability as losing masculinity and blah blah blah woke brain off. I also really enjoyed Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, which does a difficult thing and makes the OP hero story actually very enjoyable. I also re-read/caught up on Lead Me Kidnap The Male Lead! which is VERY fun 100/10 recommend. Also like a lot of other stuff but those are the ones I would recommend.

Always taking manwha recs so if you got any I will definitely check them out :3.

[mavlabajuri]

Aru'e, Aruetti, Dar'manda and my thoughts thereof

After this conversation sent me into a very fun and productive nerd binge, I wanted to compile my thoughts in one place. This is based on what I can glean from the available material and surrounding context of these words. Contains my thoughts on the adjective -yc, -la forms.

Aru’e - Enemy

“We must distinguish between the gebaru’e and the chaajaru’e.” - The Bounty Hunter Code

Meaning: “Enemy”

This is the most straightforward military or adversarial term. It refers to someone who is actively opposed to the Mandalorians, usually in war or ideology.

Use this when someone is an active threat, physically, politically, or ideologically.

Variant forms:

Aru'e is seemingly used both as singular and plural.

Aru’ela - hostile (adjective form; inherently hostile)

Aru'eyc - hostile (adjective form; currently antagonistic)

From The Bounty Hunter Code: Gebaru’e - "near enemies" (internal threats, with the New Mandalorians used as an example) Chaajaru’e - "far enemies" (external threats, with the Republic used as an example)

Aruetii / Aruetiise - Non-Mandalorian outside, foreigner, traitor

“He often wondered how the commandos trained by aruetiise—non-Mandalorians, a word that could mean anything from foreigner to traitor—felt about being surrounded by others who were so steeped in Mandalorian culture.”

Meaning: “Outsider,” “not one of us.”

This isn’t always hostile, but it’s often dismissive, distrusting, or contemptuous, especially when used by traditionalists. Used mostly for non-Mandalorians, even allies. Can imply someone who doesn’t understand, follow, or respect Mando culture or values. Use this when referring to someone who isn’t Mando’ade, not necessarily an enemy, but not family either.

Now, as I've pondered it, you can divide aruetti into two groups:

an outside/foreigner - someone who does not belong, that is not part of the Manda, doesn’t adhere to mandalorian values or principles of honor.

an honorless oath-breaker or betrayer - one can not be a traitor if one is never trusted, if there were no loyalty. Here the outsider/foreigner makes a return, as in “you have become an outsider, foreign to me, yourself and the Manda”.

Variant forms:

Aruetiise - plural form

1. Aruetyc - foreign, non-Mandalorian (adjective form; unfamiliar, strange; often disagreeable, off-putting, or offensive to Mandalorian sensibilities)

2. Aruetyc - traitorous, honorless (adjective form; behaving traitorously; someone acting in betrayal of Mandalorian values)

Aruetla - traitorous, without honor (apostate of Mandalorian values; the true antithesis of being Mandalorian - not someone failing the code, but someone who embodies its rejection.) Could also be for those who are culturally irreconcilable, used for beings or groups that can fundamentally never be Mandalorian. (I don't know if there are any sophont filial cannibalism in SW, but that's what I have in mind)

I divide it like this:

1. aruetyc = "You are acting like a traitor."

1. aruetla = "You are, at your core, a traitor."

2. aruetyc = "You are acting like an outsider." / "This is a non-Mandalorian concept/thing"

2. aruetla = "You are, at your core, an outsider." "This is, fundamentally and inherently, non-Mandalorian"

Dar’manda - Soulless / Lost Mandalorian

“All we have to hold us together is what we are, what we do, and without that we’re … dar’manda. I don’t know how to explain it … we have no soul, no afterlife, no identity. We’re eternally dead."

Meaning: “Without a soul.” (lit. not/no longer of the Manda)

This is much worse than an aruetii. A dar'manda isn't just an outsider or a traitor, they're someone who was or should be Mandalorian, but now isn't.

Someone dar’manda has no place in the Manda, and will not join it in the afterlife. They have lost their identity; have abandoned or been denied their heritage; have broken or forsaken the Resol’nare (the six tenets of being Mandalorian).

Not necessarily a traitor, but a tragic or pitiful figure, seen as empty, ignorant, or spiritually dead.

Use this when referring to a Mandalorian who has forgotten, forsaken, or been denied their cultural roots. In Mando thinking, this is the worst fate imaginable.

Quick Comparison

In short

Aru’e is your battlefield enemy.

Aruetii is someone who’ll never really get you.

Dar’manda is someone who used to be you, but lost the way.

For Mandalorians, identity is everything. These words don’t just define other people, they define the boundaries of belonging.

K'oyacyi! // Mavla

If you have any comments, feedback, corrections or speculations, they are as always warmly welcomed!

[angelinthefire]

So I thought it would be fun to talk about all the musical segments in season 2 of Arcane. Here's where you can find other posts.

I wanted to include the segments that are not highly stylized as well, just because.

"Heavy is the Crown" has a few interesting bits in it. The story is Caitlyn, Vi, and Jayce have all taken these very grim steps to deal with the situation that they would not have taken under normal circumstances. They all feel the weight of responsibility.

It starts off with portraits of Cassandra, with her voiceover, with Caitlyn in her family archives surrounded by her family colours, with the Kiramman crest projected on her face. She is the head of her house now, she has responsibilities, and her mother is still a presence with her.

And then as she goes through the archives, she sees depictions of the gray, and that gets projected onto her face.

And I love how ominous it is, how it looks like a skull on her face. How it identifies Caitlyn with the gray itself, like this is the monster that Caitlyn will become.

One other small thing, I had that post about the instances when Caitlyn's eyes are cut off. There's another one here. When Caitlyn in on the elevator down to the council meeting. A symbolic trip to a real low point.

And of course Jayce is going through it too. He's at his forge, surrounded by fire, bleeding through his bandages. Again, like the trip to the dungeons, evocative of descent into hell.

One thing I just noticed as I was screencapping is how similar Jayce and Vi's expressions are.

They're both so grim and defeated. Like they didn't want to get to this point, but here they are.

And then there's the shot of Jayce's branded mug at the end.

Like , good job, Progress Boy. This is where all your dreams ended up. It's tragic.

[correct-ace-attorney-opinions]

Can you say nice things about Franziska and Simon? They're my favorite prosecutors from their respective entries, and also hyperfixating-rotating in my brain right now.

Aha! Two good choices.

Franziska is perfect. No notes. She comes at you radiating confidence and strength. Arrogance. She has the audacity to use a whip in a court of law.

But it’s all a lie. She’s barely more than a kid. Her family is gone and she’s trying to avenge them by getting revenge on Phoenix, the only person she can still get her hands on who she can blame.

And she failed. Twice. Then got shot in the same shoulder as her father. Her father who she’s the spitting image of but yet can’t get the respect he did without having to literally beat it out of people. Who she idolized only to find out he was a murderer.

And yet still puts in the work to recover the evidence and do something.

She’s determined, she’s strong, but she’s pitifully alone even if she will do anything she can to not let you see it.

Franziska also has a great character design. She’s pretty. She’s regal. The ghost of Manfred is clearly threaded through her but she’s not a copy of him by any means.

I like her earrings, too.

As for Simon,

He makes me ask “what in the fuck are you wearing” but in the best way one could possibly say that. He is very memorable by look alone.

His bird is really fun and can rival the whip or the coffee cup from earlier prosecutors, and he’s got a good character voice too.

He’s another pretty tragic character, and his story, particularly when it comes to Athena, of course, is compelling.

I’m rusty on that trilogy, but I remember liking him.