#they've probably see a lot of shit y'know???

[thewalkingthread]

you're losing me - R.G.

part 2

pairing: rick grimes x reader

summary: officer friendly gets too friendly with a certain blonde haired woman

warning: cheater!rick, swearing, kinda sad, established relationship, not a happy ending

a/n: idk man, hope you like it

word count: 1,991

"It's already dead, ya know? Don't have to keep stabbing it." Daryl grunted as he dropped his plate of food on the table, sitting in the empty spot of the wooden picnic table next to you.

You glanced down at your food, multiple holes littered the piece of meat from you stabbing it with your fork. You sighed, dropping the fork on the plate and rubbing your clammy hands on your jeans.

Your eyes landed back on the two people a few yards away. They've been laughing and talking for the past 20 minutes. Not a care in the world. You couldn't hear what they were saying, the chatter and noise of the picnic party drowning out their conversation. It didn't matter though, seeing their interactions told you enough. Some people would say they looked quite good together. Except, the only problem is, the man was your boyfriend.

"He ain't gonna do nothing with er." Daryl's eyes followed yours. You roll your eyes, your hands tightening in a fist.

It's been 5 months since the group arrived to Alexandria and you had a bad feeling about Jessie the moment you saw her.

The first day you arrived, you and Rick took a much needed shower together. While you opted to unpack the little stuff you guys had, Rick was downstairs getting a haircut from Jessie.

You walked into the kitchen, surprised that you had a guest. You were even more surprised to find Rick shirtless, sitting in a chair while this woman runs her hand through his hair.

"Wouldn't be too sure." You muttered back, forcing yourself to look down at your plate.

Daryl grunts beside you, giving you a nudge. "Rick's done a lot of stupid shit, but I don't think he's dumb enough to fuck things up with you. If he does, it's his loss, anyway."

Daryl's words are supposed to be comforting, but it does the exact opposite. Was it a possibility that Rick would betray you like that?

You glanced back up at the two again. Jessie threw her head back in laughter as her hand lands on his chest, slapping him playfully. Ever since Rick killed her husband, the two of them have been awfully close.

Everyone has noticed. You don't miss the passing glances and sorry looks on peoples faces whenever they pass you. You know what they're thinking. You'd be thinking the same thing if you were in their shoes.

Something changed the night Rick killed Pete. Not just for Alexandria but for the two of you as well.

It didn't happen all at once. It was gradual. Rick was slowly pulling away, he probably didn't even realize it. But you did. You remember every time he'd come home later than promised. You remember every time he told you one thing and then ended up changing his story later. You remember every time he'd slip out of bed in the middle of the night and sneak back in an hour or so later.

You weren't sure if Rick was cheating on you with Jessie, but you were pretty confident that your relationship was going downhill. It wasn't a matter of if you would break up, it was, when.

"Y'know," You turn your head towards Daryl as he interrupts your thoughts once again. "You could always just tell er to fuck off." He shrugs, bringing the chicken leg up to his mouth.

You bite the inside of your cheek, watching as Jessie's hand grazed Rick's bicep. You huff, standing from the picnic table.

"Atta girl," Daryl slaps the table with his hand as you toss your plate into the trash on the walk towards Rick and Jessie.

Jessie's attention turns to you as you approach the two. Rick smiles at you, holding his arm out for you. You smile, sliding into his body, naturally melting against him.

"Hey, darlin." He mumbles, giving your shoulder a squeeze.

"Hi," You sigh. "Is it okay if I steal my boyfriend?" You give Jessie a tight lipped smile, tugging on Rick to follow you before she could even respond.

Rick chuckled lightly as you both walked away. "Everything alright, darlin?" He asked.

You shake your head. "Can't say I enjoy other women fondling my boyfriend." You grumble.

Rick stops you both in place. His hands settle at your shoulders as he holds you still to look at him. "She was not fondling me." He rolls his eyes slightly.

"Whatever you say, Rick. Everyone can see the way you two act. Have me out here looking like a damn fool." You roll your eyes.

"How many times are we gonna have to talk about this?" His eyes glared down at you.

"Well, how long are you going to keep flirting back and forth with her?" You scoff.

Rick's jaw clenches tightly as he stares at you. This wasn't the first argument you've had about this topic. You've definitely brought up your distaste to Rick about his lady friend.

"You're being insecure and ridiculous." Rick drops his hands. "If you don't trust me, just say it."

Your eyes widened at his choice of words. You gulped the saliva that built in your mouth. "Fine," You throw your hands up before locking eyes with him. "I don't trust you. Until you can prove to me that I can, I don't want anything to do with you. Feel free to go back to your little friend." You shoot him a glare.

"Fine!" He glares right back. Your jaw clenches as he steps back from you, not really expecting him to respond that way.

"Fine," The word came out as a whisper to yourself as you watched him walk back towards Jessie who was now talking with Maggie and Carol.

You willed yourself to turn around, heading straight towards your shared house. You slam the door shut, locking it behind you before pacing the living room a few times.

There's been several times when your relationship with Rick has been rocky. There have been times where things were said out of anger and the heat of the moment. There's been times when you questioned the future of your relationship.

But it was never like this. Never this... definite.

You spend the next several hours deep cleaning the entire house, doing anything to try to get your mind off of Rick. You hadn't realized how late it was till Carl strolled in with Judith.

"Hey, Y/N!" He nods his head. "What's for dinner?" He looks around the spotless kitchen, noticing there's no food set out.

"Oh shit-" You mumble, looking at the time on the clock. "I'll throw something together..." You pull open the fridge, getting ingredients for a simple pasta dish.

"Hey, uh-" You glance at Carl. "Have you seen your dad anywhere?" You ask, trying your best to sound nonchalant.

Carls shakes his head with a shrug, putting Judith on the ground to play. "Not since the picnic. Why? Is everything okay?"

Nope. Not at all.

You force a smile on your face and nod. "Yeah, everything's fine. He just hasn't come home since then. Sure he'll be home soon for dinner."

He wasn't home for dinner.

He wasn't home to say goodnight to the kids.

You let out a deep sigh looking at the clock one more time.

It was almost 9:30 now and he still hadn't come back.

You weren't eager to see him but you knew you both had things to talk about. In defeat, you grabbed a jacket and pulled on your shoes.

You checked on Judith one more time before slipping out of the house to find Rick. You checked the gate first, thinking he'd taken an extra shift on watch just to avoid coming home. When he wasn't there you checked each post on the perimeter, coming up empty.

Eventually you just wandered the streets aimlessly.

You stopped in front of Jessie's house. The lights were all off. Surely he wasn't in there, right? Your eyes landed on the open garage, light spilling from it.

Jessie was probably up working on some art, it wouldn't be the first time. You contemplate going up and asking her if she'd seen Rick recently, but something about doing that just felt so pathetic.

You mustered up the last bits of pride you had left and made your way up the driveway. You were immediately stopped in your tracks when you catch sight of Jessie.

And Rick.

Kissing.

Jessie's arms were slung around Rick's neck while his were gripping either side of her hips. Gripping.

Your entire world shatters at the sight.

The gasp that leaves your mouth was automatic and sharp.

Rick pulls away first at the sound. Even if he didn't know it was you, he knew he was caught.

His eyes go from panic to regret the second they lock onto yours.

"Y-Y/N," He lets go of Jessie, taking two steps towards you.

You stumble back, your eyes moving between the two. Jessie is staring at you with wide eyes, unsure what to do. Rick kept taking steps towards you, matching the steps you took back.

You shook your head, turning away from them and sprinting the opposite direction. You didn't stop sprinting till his calls for you faded to nothing.

There wasn't many places you could run to while confined in the walls, but you couldn't be near him right now. You couldn't go home. You just needed to be alone.

You stopped at the windmill, sneaking to the back and sliding against the wall to the ground. The moment you stopped to catch your breathe, you let the tears fall from your eyes.

Even with how bad things with Rick have been, you didn't think he'd ever betray you like this. The thought of him cheating on you crossed your mind once but you convinced yourself that he was a good man and he would never hurt you like that.

You were wrong.

You wanted to slam your head against the wall. Anything to distract your from the pain in your chest.

The sound of his boots thumping against the dirt met your ears. You didn't take your face out of your hands when you heard them stop only a few feet away from you. You didn't bother looking up even when you could feel him there. You could feel his eyes burning into the top of your head.

"I'm sorry," He said simply.

You almost wanted to laugh.

"Y/N, I'm so sorry."

You drop your hands, looking at his dirty boots in front of you. He crouches down in front of you, hoping to get your attention.

"I just want to know why," Your tired eyes land on his. Rick's mouth opens to speak before he shuts it again, trying to muster up an answer.

Rick sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know." He admitted.

"How long?" You raised an eyebrow at him, doing your best to stop your voice from cracking, but the quiver was there.

"That was the first time. I swear." His hands grab onto yours and it feels like fire on your skin. You yank your hands away, causing him to flinch. "I swear on my life, baby-"

"Don't." You spit out, "You don't get to call me that ever again." You pick yourself off the ground. "I really hope she's worth it, Rick. I hope she's worth losing us over." You sniffle the last of the snot in your nose, stepping to the side to escape Rick.

You were a few strides away when his voice broke through the air.

"It felt like I was losing you... I didn't know wha-"

I didn't know what to do.

Your eyes rolled so badly, they could've fell right out of your head. You spin around to face him once more. His face hidden in the shadows, only half of his face lit by the street lantern.

"Didn't know cheating was a valid reaction to that." You scoff, "Congratulations. You've officially lost me." You call out before walking away from Rick.

[drunkenskunk]

There's a project related to my interest in Warhammer that I've wanted to do for quite some time, but I know I'll never get the chance to actually do it. At least, not properly. And it involves... I think "historical preservation" is probably the best word for it?

See, I like to occasionally sift through my collection of old "out of date" rulebooks and army codex books from earlier editions of 40k. The sort of things that have been out of print for many years. Games Workshop hasn't sold these books in 2 or 3 decades, and they've all been supplanted by the current rules. And I do this because I think it's interesting to see how the game - in both crunch and fluff - has changed since 1987.

More beyond the break...

For example: the different ways the galaxy has been depicted in 40k between the different editions. In the first rulebook, when it was still called Rogue Trader, all we got was a small, almost abstract, image on the bottom of the page. The 2nd edition rulebook that came out in October 1993 (specifically, the Codex Imperialis book) had a two page spread, but it was also very abstract with a few notes, but no real detail to speak of. As far as I can tell, the first time we got a map of the galaxy with the segmentum divisions that we're all accustomed to now came from a very unexpected place: the very first Tyranid codex that came out in August 1995.

Of course, my copy of the 2nd Edition book is a very poor quality black and white scan. Those segmentum divisions could genuinely be there, and I just can't see it. Not to mention, it's entirely possible that a map with segmentum divisions first premiered in an issue of White Dwarf first, because GW liked to do stuff like that in the old days where you'd see it in the hobby magazine long before it was "officially" released in a rulebook.

There are a lot of glaring omissions from a lot of the other files in my collection: poor scans, missing pages, corrupted files... There's a lot I still don't know, because it's impossible for me to currently confirm that the little I do know is, in fact, accurate. My collection is woefully incomplete. Plus, I don't really have much past 6th edition anyway.

And this, in essence, is my idea: try and complete the collection. Find pristine copies of all the old 40k rulebooks, army codexes, even old copies of White Dwarf, and digitize them all into a huge archive for the sake of historical preservation. Of a sort.

Basically, I want to become a Lexmechanic of the Adeptus Mechanicus, looking for Dark Age of Technology era STC's uncorrupted by the Heresy or the war with the Iron Men. Either that, or I want to become Trazyn with his Infinite Archive on Solemnace.

Unfortunately, there are many problems with this plan. The first being GW's overly litigious nature. They see all this Warhammer shit as "product" first and a hobby for people to enjoy a very, VERY distant second. Doesn't matter that these books (and the magazines) are long since out of print and they don't sell them anymore, effectively making the old editions the tabletop hobby equivalent to video game abandonware... if they got wind that I was attempting a project of this nature, I just know GW would smack me in the face with a cease and desist.

Of course, the other major stumbling block here is the financial issue. And I'm not just talking about buying the books. Obviously, there's the problem of the rarer books that go for upwards of $300 or more on ebay, but there's also a volume problem. Even if you find some good deals, and you're able to find older books for $10 or $15 a pop, there's just SO MANY books, that if I were to attempt this I would be wasting several thousand dollars that I just don't have.

More importantly, there's also the machine I would need to buy in order to do this project in the first place. Because if I was going to do this, I would want to do it right, y'know? I wouldn't want to simply shove the books into my dinky little scanner-printer combo hooked up to my computer. The only way I'd get a clean scan using that method would be to physically destroy these very valuable books, and that's the last thing I'd want to do. No, I would want to do it right, and get a machine like Scribe, the book scanner used by the internet archive:

Now, obviously, I can't get access to that machine, specifically, because Scribe was custom built by the engineers at the Internet Archive. But other V-cradle book scanners that let you digitize books without destroying them do exist... and they're all REALLY expensive. A good one to produce professional quality scans is, like, $25,000.

And I know what you're thinking: why do I even care about any of this? Even if this project was not entirely out of my reach, it's ultimately pointless, right? Why would I want to preserve all these old, out-of-date, no longer relevant rulebooks for a tabletop wargame that has only existed exactly as long as I have?

Because... let's be honest, this isn't really about Warhammer. The reason I want to do this stems from a much deeper desire to simply Remember. It's amazing and terrifying in equal measure just how easily history can be erased, either deliberately or simply through neglect. All of these things in our lives that are seemingly so important to us can easily vanish from history, like sandcastles when the tide rolls in.

Hell, if you really want to know my feelings about this, just watch Jacob Geller's video on this very subject.

If I had infinite time and infinite money, and I didn't care about any kind of repercussions from GW's legal team, this project would not be beyond my reach.

But I do not have infinite time or money. And there are more things in my life that I need to be concerned with that are far more important than creating a... stupid archive.

Shame, really.

[storkmuffin]

first, i just wanted to say that i really appreciate the translations and analysis you did for The Leaders! however, i can't lie, the context you brought made not only the song, but Ateez (especially certain members) now seem kind of...icky.

and don't get me wrong, i'm not out here pretending to know who an idol actually is behind the scenes. for all we know, Seonghwa, San, Jongho, and Wooyoung could be stone cold misogynist andrew tate types. it's just that my ick comes from, y'know, not wanting to support people like that?

on top of that, there seems to be a very public progressive-ness to Ateez with what they've spoken out about and supported. (especially so with the whole World Z lore where Ateez are explicitly cast as rebels and direct opposition to destructive, oppressive authoritarianism that deliberately intends to suck humans dry of their humanity.) so seeing the content of The Leaders is extremely jarring when putting these two theses of the group side by side. (1. we are a group that supports the marginalized and rebels, and hope to help bring about revolution and freedom for a better future; 2. arrogant asshole Renaissance kkondae dreams and beliefs, conformity and hierarchy through punishment and subjugation.)

i don't know if The Leaders (and The Real) coming out in 2021 means that Ateez possibly might have grown a little since then, or if they just recognized that the branding of The Leaders (and its ideas) was not a good idea? and scrapped that branding to something completely opposite because the yikes were too much? or, was The Leaders all kayfabe? half truths? or am i just being a gullible goofball and not recognizing satire/sarcasm in The Leaders because i do be me tho?

do you think Seonghwa, San, Jongho, and Wooyoung (the ones you singled out), or Ateez as a whole really do believe in the ideals of The Leaders? it feels almost uncomfortably not just shock-that-sells. it actually explicitly reminds me of early Eminem, the content of The Slim Shady LP. almost too serious, but still tongue in cheek about the seriousness. but it's real! but it's not. but it's just extrapolations! but it's not. haha jokes on you for believing all this! but for real though...? (insert side eye emoji here)

idk, my thoughts are as scrambled as my eggs rn. also sorry for any grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors! my keyboard is dying on me for some reasonnn

Holy shit - No. You do not need to feel icky about Ateez. I do not have any reason to think they are like Andrew Tate. I think all of them would be horrified at the comparison. I also don't think they are anything like Eminem not least because they are not writing the songs.

Also! Ateez in particular and Kpop in general are rarely trying to express personal opinions of the performing artists nor the songmakers - they are trying to put on a good show. If my little essay turned you off of Ateez then that's a failure of my writing and I am very sincerely sorry I put a damper on your good time with a band I really like a LOT.

To be more concise than my big long thing - there are personal (I repeat PERSONAL) reasons I don't like that song very much and what it says. What Ateez does as part of the entertainment they try to provide is be all the stuff boys and girls jointly think are fun and cool for boys to be - bikers, revolutionaries, anarchists, pirates, underground artists, cowboys, hackers, gamblers, boxers and fighters etc etc. One of the things they tried for with The Leaders song was just a major personal turn off for me. That's what I was trying to express.

All of Ateez songs probably further their very complicated multi dimensional lore so as I said in my post, there's probably some plot reason this song was written.

My critique is of the aesthetics of the song, not the individual performers who sing or perform the song. I hope that clears it up??

[panicloser]

School Zone Girls | Family Headcanons | Part 1

Yo so we never see the parents and usually not the siblings of the characters. Which suck but also it means I'm free to come up with whatever interpretations of them that I want *rubs hands together mischievously* >:)

Anyway I reread this manga recently so here's headcanons about what their family's are like, I hyperfocus wrote all these down in one night without editing them, some of these I came up with when I read it originally and some I came up with today, so yeah here's a bunch of food for the starving fandom

--------------------------------------------------

Rei Yokoe

-so it's confirmed that she has an older brother and it specifically says she's living with him. Plus lives in a small apartment and only calls out for him in this scenes which leads me to believe that she's only living with him

-i can just smell the mommy issues on her I don't know what to tell you.

-An obsessive attachment to a woman and has rejection sensitivity, sounds like mommy issue behaviour to me

-i think probably neglectful mother considering her want for attention from Kei and wanting to be around a person constantly

-i also just get the vibe that she only ever had one parent in the picture, so maybe her mom just got pregnant or whatever with no real relationship idk, either way no dad or anything

-her mom was never particularly attentive and was always quite flaky, went out a lot, did whatever she wanted to enjoy herself. gave her and her brother a lot of independence but not much attention. When they asked for things or showed her stuff she didn't really process it much most of the time

-But the few times she did give them attention she was overly affectionate and acted like nothing happened

-her mom also never really put pressure about doing good in school or anything obviously so that's why Rei doesn't have that at all

-once her older brother was legally an adult/able to live on his own she decided to fuck off and leave the two of them living there on their own. She pays them money to keep them sustained here and there maybe visits once in a blue moon but other than that she's not around

-she's a strange lady

-however Rei has a very good relationship with her brother because of all this.

-They argue at times of course but only in that lighthearted sibling way. They've always had the tendency to play fun games or do silly shit together

-i have a headcanon that her brother is just as weird and goofy as Rei but unlike her he's better at masking it in public or around people he's not close to

-Her brother unfortunately has to work a lot to sustain them both, leaving her alone often but he tries his best to not be like their mom and find time whenever he can to spend time with her

-I think Rei would try to talk about her mom's neglect like it's not a big deal but she's really torn about it on the inside and she doesn't hide it that well. Most of the time she just tries not to think about it.

-it would be fun to write a fic where her mom comes back to visit and Rei's in a weird mood about it which Kei notices.

Kei Suguira

-I think Kei hates doing school work and shit just as much as Rei but the difference is that her parents put pressure on her to be good at it

-i get the vibe that both her mom and dad would be serious people that put focus on having a successful career and the typical family and that kind of thing. They're social norm and rule followers y'know

-i don't think they would be as harsh as other parents and they certainly care very much about their kids and can say that but they try to nudge their kids in a certain direction. As long as Kei has doing her work she can have all the fun she wants outside of that

-both her parents are quite similar to each other and hold pretty stereotypical family roles

-Also I headcanon her parents are homophobic at least somewhat and have brought it up. Because Kei has to be getting her internalised homophobia from somewhere and it doesn't seem to be from her peers or her sister which leads me to guess her parents are

-speaking of her sister, we see her in the manga so I don't have to make up too much about her

-they argue way more than Rei and her sibling. Kei's sister making fun of her a lot is the reason Kei is so competitive and embarrassed easily. she's used to getting mad at her sister a lot so used to defending herself and being hotheaded

-her sister her teases her, she gets mad at her, but at the end of the day if the other really was going through something they would have each other's back. They've got a "only I can shit talk her!" type of dynamic

-I think Kei feels kind of nuetral about her parents, she loves them but doesn't feel close to them or like she could open up in a serious way

-her parents think Rei is really fucking weird and wonder if she's a bad influence but unless they found any major effects or about the gay shit I don't think they would make a big deal about it

Yatsude Negoro

-i think she has a pretty good relationship with her parents

-i feel like neither of them are particularly affectionate. Which certainly isn't from a lack of love, I think they both love their daughter very much they just don't show it in a stereotypical way

-the family love language is acts of service and giving each other advice

-her parents are quite similar to her so they all just kind of understand each other very well

-i think both of them are pretty career driven

-i think one of her parents is tends to be a bit nosey into her life which is where Yatsude gets it from and the other isn't and gives her a lot of space

-i could maybe see her parents being a same sex couple? But also maybe not? Idk either way I do kinda of imagine her having a dad that she has a good relationship with though. Maybe he's the one who's nosey.

-Yatsude says she doesn't have any siblings but she also says this line about little shits.

-I'm guessing that means maybe she has a lot of younger cousins. I headcanon that at family gatherings she always tasked with being the babysitter which is why she's got those mother instincts with her friends

The Hinase Twins

-so they mentioned their mom 3 times in their flashback thing and theres also that picture of them with their awards where they're with I'm assuming the mom

-never mentioned a dad or anything else

-considering that and that their mom probably pushes both of them (or at least with Hiragi at first) to do well in school and extraciruclar activities and the extremely codependent relationship the twins had from a very young age leads me to headcanon that maybe their dad died when they were very young. Like a bit before even the oldest flashback we see of them

-its a very bold claim that's likely not true but it would explain their codependcy, Hiragi's early on sense of responsibility towards Tsubaki and Tsubaki's immediate willingness to lean on that. Maybe their mom prompted them to do well at school or other stuff because she was worried about their future because of that loss or it was a way of honouring him. Maybe their dad was a fairly responsible or serious person

-their dad could have dipped too? That would also explain these things.

-anyway as for their mom, I do think she has overall had a focus on them being very successful, way more than Kei's parents. But I do think she is a fairly affectionate person and is willing to help them do the best they can in anyway they need

-probably works a lot

-doesn't push either of them to makeup if they don't want to, advices them individually when she has the time which isn't often

-pressures them but like in a nice way. And then the rest of the time she's busy

-Hiragi thinks her mom's niceness is fake but does appreciate when she helps

-Tsubaki thinks her mom's niceness is genuine but doesn't appreciate when she helps

-both of them resent their mother for a lack of care and feel the strong need to constantly impress her. They both wish she was more loving but neither of them complain about it out loud. Instead both of them just seek alternate authority figures to lean on (Hiragi through Akutami & Tsubaki through Yatsude)

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Link to Part 2

[ctwinsduo]

hey hi hey! do you perhaps have cniki/ceret/cwilbur hcs? any of them r fine and if you dont thats okay bye!!!

I don't have much c!niki knowledge I'm afraid however I will give what little hcs I have (also credit to my buddy @cinn-namon for half of these Eret HCs, if you want more feel free to mug him /hj)

Wilbur

- Prone to singing or humming whenever given the chance, when there's an audience he puts So Much Effort into it but he'll do it when he's alone aswell - Her first instinct in most situations is to laugh, she doesn't mean to but it just sorta slips out regardless of the circumstances - By far my wildest Wilbur hc: Wilbur is a nature spirit- my basis for this is mostly Greek mythology. In Greek mythology it's common for the children of gods and immortals to be some sort of nymph or dryad (basically a nature spirit) and the concept of nature spirits is a really vast one that can range from "pretty lady found in Trees" (Dryad) or "Unidentified mystical energy" for my HCs I tend to use more of the ladder. So Wilbur is a physical manifestation of the wilds, basically a shapeshifter but add a connection to the world itself. In theory he has no "true" form but the form he took when he was born was just a straight up fox (later learned how to shift into a more humanoid form as he grew) - More thoughts on nature spirit Wilbur ahead: how she appears and how well she can hold her form is entirely dependent on her current state, because of this she changed a lot between L'manburg and Pogtopia :3 When she first came to the SMP she looked almost entirely human, save for a few "off" traits (strange eyes, fangs, slightly pointed ears, ect.) but when Pogtopia hit she changed rather suddenly, becoming more like Fundy in appearance. Ghostbur was just a straight up spectral fox, and post revival Wilbur always has a few fox-like traits showing that she can't seem to get rid of - All of their mannerisms are slightly off- they don't quite emote "right". When they're fully human they come off as oddly animalistic, when they're more animal-like they're weirdly human. They tried to play themselves off as at least Mostly human for awhile but gave up pretty quickly - Has no fucking clue what his species is because of the samsung smart fridge nonsense- honestly he just assumes that he was Born Weird. When asked he's always weirdly cryptic about it - God awful cook, y'know those posts about people fucking up their food in unbelievable ways? That's Wilbur. Do not let her into the kitchen she will burn water - Disaster bi, seemingly most attracted to people who are either actively against her or have done shitty things to her in the past and she Cannot be normal about it (See: all of the shit said about Schlatt, Eret, Quackity, the list goes on) - Touchy but only when they're in a good mood. L'manburg era they'd always be putting an an arm around someone's shoulder or ruffling people's hair, small acts of physical affection, but any other time they've actively shied away from touch unless it's initiated by them. This is mostly because they're easily overstimulated by touch (despite being incredibly touch starved post revival)

Eret

- Wither hybrid, they can shift to hide some of their wither parts. When they were apart of L'manburg they also played themselves off as human - Loves to bake and stress bakes when especially stressed out- I like to think her and Niki would often bake together - Looking directly into his eyes activates a person's flight or fight response, which is why so many people have gotten Jumpscared by his eyes in the past - Probably has one of the best fashion senses in the entire SMP and yet only really dresses up whenever someone is coming over (90% of the time she just lounges about in comfy clothes, we love a comfy queen) - His memory is absolutely god awful so he's prone to writing things down or- more often- taking photos. A lot of the pictures from early L'manburg were taken by him - The L'manburg uniforms were made with Tommy and Eret's combined efforts (Wilbur supervised and occasionally stabbed himself trying to help <3) - Sews all of their own clothes, they'd love to sew for someone else but they haven't gotten the chance to outside of the uniforms (if they did they'd probably make an entire wardrobe though) - She's the one that taught Tommy to sew :3

Niki

- Catgirl c!niki supremacy - She likes churus (the cat treat) and will eat them like gogurt - Being as close to Wilbur as she was she's absolutely heard way too much about all of Wilbur's awful crushes on their enemies (she can never look at Eret the same way again) - She has autistic girl swagger idk what it is but she just does. Has the most unsettling stare known to man (by complete accident) - Despite being a cat hybrid she enjoys playing around in local bodies of water, big fan of stomping around in rivers

[johnslittlespoon]

i have been dealing with the brainrot of twink college student john and biker gale but then the other half of the post jumped me in a dark alley and all i can think about is john's friend who is used to their friends having crushes on their dad but it's whatever. weird, but whatever, as long as they don't get vocal about it they can just use it as something to tease them about at the worse. john looking up at gale with big doe eyes isn't the first time they've seen a friend do that, they've seen other people who are considered more age appropriate do worse when faced with the gale cleven effect. only it never occurs to them gale feels like he can't breathe right and like is organs are too big for chest whenever he looks at john and feels like he's something too soft than he should allow himself to be but around john it doesn't feel bad, maybe it's a good thing he can unapologetically be soft for someone.

cue the ladies who thought they might be able to win over the quiet, intimating and rugged dilf biker seeing that his heart was stolen by none other than john clarence egan, the son of mr and mrs egan who everyone is sure are moments away from a heart attack.

the au post | GOD same it has notttt left my mind. and you GET ITTT you captured the vibe i was picturing for that version perfectly ugh.

literally 1k+ words of brainrot below the cut... deeply sorry. any excuse to talk about them and i'm spinning in my chair apparently LOL <3

like john takes one look at gale and knows he's not the only one who swoons over him, spends an ungodly amount of time pining from day one. but any fantasies are only fantasies, because he knows (thinks he knows) he doesn't stand a chance, both for the fact that he's his son's friend, and that gale probably thinks he's too immature, and that he's, y'know, not a girl.

but gale is gone too from their first meeting, he's just a lot better at hiding it (and finds it so endearing how bad john is at hiding it despite how well john thinks he's doing lol.) once he and john start tentatively feeling things out, and even before that really, the way he feels when he looks at the doe–eyed boy scares him– a vulnerable softness and urge to protect that he's been just fine with not feeling.

of course there's the conflict when he tries to shove down these feelings at first, because he knows how mad his son (who i headcanon as ken because he and leaving!john would be precious dorky besties) would be if he were to ever indulge in them, regardless of how much john wants it. and there's the guilt of feeling like john would be happier with someone his age, but john is the most persistent, stubborn person he's ever met, and the way he folds so quickly for him is terrifying.

and yet he falls for the attentive softhearted absolute puppy dog of a boy that john is, finds himself as fond of his moments of angsty bite and bristle as he is when he's docile at his side, melting under gale's gaze. there's no proper confirmation ever made to others about their status, no reason to need one, because they're attached at the hip and people learn quickly not to so much as look at john the wrong way, because gale's never far behind him.

and the angsttt of john's parent's disapproval– yeah, he's an adult and he's independent and is off doing college and all, but his parents aren't chill with "that gay shit" and he gets the classic "so long as you're living under our roof, you're not to see that man" talk, and what's an angsty rebellious lovesick john to do but get better at sneaking out of his window and jogging down the street to meet gale at his motorcycle so his parents don't hear it pull up?

i'm sure eventually it would come to a head because they'd find out he's been going behind their back when they catch him sneaking back inside late one night, and he's given the good old "stop seeing him or pack your bags" ultimatum. it takes gale a wild amount of self control to not storm into the house and chew out john's parents when he picks up the phone to a sniffling terrified john at two in the morning less than an hour after he'd dropped him off down the street.

it takes even more self control when he sees the angry red of a handprint on john's cheek when he pulls up and finds him sat on the curb with a hastily stuffed backpack, and his heart shatters when john starts apologizing, as if he'd ever be upset with him. but then, cue domesticity (and a different kind of sneaking around) as john temporarily moves in with him and ken. all ken is told is that john's parents kicked him out and he knows how badly they treat him so he doesn't ask many questions, so shitty circumstances aside, he's over the moon at getting to have his best friend stay with him.

john promises to find someplace to rent a room in as soon as he can because he feels awful for intruding, but gale finds that he really likes having john around, insists he stays with the two of them at least till he's done with his semester so he doesn't have to worry about paying rent. lots of nuance to sort out there but you get the gist. <3

also. john wearing gale's leather jacket sighhh. finding any excuse he can to steal it, face going all pink when gale drapes it over his shoulders when they're out on dates, beaming when gale lets him wear it home with the promise that he'll return it the next day, falling asleep with his face pressed to it, drowning in the smell of gale's aftershave and cigarettes and diesel.

+ slight tangent but the things that could come about from the sneaking around?? minor spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen callum's show 'leaving' that his character in this au is loosely based off of, but there's a scene where he and his milf not–gf are fooling around in his room and his parents get home early.

i have this scene in my head where john thinks he's meant to have the house to himself for the night, invites gale over, they end up in the shower and they hear the front door slam mid–fuck. there's a moment of panic, both of them freezing, john whispers that "dad's probably forgot his wallet or something," assumes gale will stay unmoving until they hear the door slam again.

only gale suddenly rolls his hips forward, and john chokes on a moan, gale's hand coming up to quickly cover his mouth, his other hand squeezing john's hip as he kisses his shoulder and murmurs "you can be quiet, can't you, sweetheart?"

anyway. yeah, this au has me in a chokehold so hard still, i'm 100% still planning on writing it post–dog fic <3 i do love this whole cliche best friend's dad route of this au, but i'm also not sure i feel like tackling the conflict of john having his friend find out about the two of them, and i feel like that would be kinda inevitable to have to write about if i took that route for the fic lol </3 so i think that version of the au will be limited to brainrot like this and when i write the actual fic it'll just be the college student x bikerider vibe, but honestly there's so much overlap with the two concepts anyway that it won't make too much of a difference!

thx for unintentionally encouraging my yapping i love this version of these two so much and i am apologizing in advance for the person i will become when i see the bikeriders in theatres xoxo

[mantisgodsart]

Did you know? You have to post art for people to see it. Wild, we know. Anyways, we finally drew our Bau's swords, and we're going to make you decipher their extremely thick (designated south Appalachian from our American Accent Experts) accent. Also comes with bonus notes under the cut.

"Y'see, the thing with weapons is that if y'ain't careful wit'em y'can really tear up a man. Throwin' metal aroun' th'place doesn' come without consequences. It c'n take a lotta work ta master any weapon't all, an' even more work t' keep from hurtin' anyone y'wouldn't want to." "Take m'swords, for example. These're cuttin' blades, n' they're hooked't th'tip. Y'see this sorta thing fer sport, usually, but they're a bit useless fer actual fightin' cuz they don't cut shell. Y'need t'have some dexterity t'put 'em to work, 'cuz hitting shell with 'em's worse'n useless. Dulls yer blades, 'n such. Y'need ta hit b'tween th'shell, or't does nothin', 'n any actual hit'll be real likely t'kill 'r maim." "Mine've got swordbreakers in'm, cuz I don' really use'm t'cut. Bit narrow t'really club with, but I like'm narrow cuz I like t'get inta guards. Th'hook's made ta get inta joints, but't works just's well t'grab shit outta bags'r hands, n' th'extra grabbin' bits make't a bit easier t'nab that." "'f I miss, worse't happens is't some bug gets'r shell sliced, 'n tha' doesn't mean much, y'know? No major hit, 'll scab over'n a few hours'n be fine. 'f I used a crushin' weapon, though, 't might actually hurt 'em." "'n a pinch, they'll work jus' fine fer th' original purpose. Fit th' hook 'nto a limb, give'a shallow cut, 'n most people'll back off once they know y'could've ripped a limb off. Makes't harder for'm t'wield a weapon, too. If's somethin' real fussy like a velvet ant- they don' clot like other bugs, so y'can't really draw blood from'm- then'm usually stronger'n em, so disarmin' works jus' fine, 'n I can hold onto 'em if'ey still wanna pick a fight." "…'sides, carryin' aroun' two'a these makes me look real cool, don'tcha think? All fancy'n such."

Bau's specific accent for the in-universe setup rather than the "translating things" is, like. Distinctly "cricket or grasshopper who has not really made an effort to, like, get around the fact that their mouthparts aren't super made for the sorts of sounds used in bugnish" which is perceived as a Hick Accent because a lot of crickets Do tend to work around similar, like, Perceived As Hick Industries Done By Mostly Uneducated People. It takes Effort to sort of train yourself to speak in a way that will read to other bugs as More Educated, and Bau has just sort of… never bothered? Best they've got is enunciating it a bit more clearly, chief. They're not relearning how to speak a whole language to be seen as Slightly More Educated.

In terms of actual in-universe sounds that are Not translated to English they'll just sound a lot chirpier. You could probably interpret some of the words in there as adjacent to the sort of shit you hear out of birds. Might be able to unintentionally set off the fight-or-flight of bugs who used to be heavily preyed upon by small songbirds if cussing violently enough. Sometimes you accent sounds with actually making the standard cricket-chirp sound if you're trying to be sexy.

Sometimes you also do this when you are pissed off at people, This is because crickets are Like This and a lot of them will fucking fight each other for the approval of a potential mate.

Anyways, the fun part of Bau's weapons is that they are deliberately built for being showy and impressive and letting them do flashy sleight-of-hand with their opponent's belongings while also being hideously inefficient enough as actual weapons that bringing them onto the battlefield in the first place actively seems like a terrible strategic decision.

[saintplaquerat]

It's not technically any of those topics, but, like.... does anyone else think about the fact that in universe the Clergy is a REAL with ACTUAL practitioners? Around the world, probably?

I think about it. Then I think about the kids raised in the faith. They've got to have their own weird mini subcultures. They make it to high school and start rebelling by arguing with their parents that cannibalism is morally wrong. Maybe they see people online talking about having crushes on the Papas and have a bizarre bluescreen moment because that's like, the pope??????

Anyway. I have many half-baked thoughts on the topic that I'm too scared to post.

okay i'm putting this under a readmore because i know cult discussion can be really triggering for a lot of people.

I do think that yes there are people practicing this religion around the world. Or at least, in more than one country. The Ministry itself seems to be in LA going off the chapters, but the band has acknowledged being From Sweden and we know Necropolitus is from Poland. And Terzo went to Poland and was a cardinal there.

I don't think that people growing up in it are like. Generally very connected to society. The Satanic Ministry is a cult. One of the most well-known tactics cults have is isolation. I don't think any child is necessarily going to public school. I don't think every single person in there becomes part of the clergy, but I think life is very... Like, it's very possible to live a life and not really ever contact the outside world, in theory.

Papa is, y'know, more of a cult leader than a pope. He doesn't have any power so he's a figurehead, but the charismatic pull is very much there. Remember that the Satanic Ministry (especially through the lens of the Ghost project) puts heavy emphasis on sexual activity.

For sure though I think the cultures of different uhhh groups within the church are fun to speculate on. The Polish branch is different from the LA branch is different from the Sweden branch.

Anyway I like. Honestly really do like thinking about how the Satanic Ministry functions as more of like. Yknow. A Satanic Death Cult and not just. uhhh. Fictional Church That Is Actually Good. Like I dunno man I think there's a lot of shady shit actually happening. They want the world to end and everyone to die and go to Hell forever. I'm genuinely fascinated.

[xaeyrnofnbe]

my feelings on the boom! studios buffyverse comics specifically (spoilers ahead) (can you tell i really liked these ones)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel: Hellmouth (fun as hell, and the way characters have been shuffled around feels interesting and refreshing. having robin wood as part of the main cast from the start is an interesting choice, and while i wouldn't say he was handled perfectly, i really did like his inclusion. but you know who's inclusion i liked more? KENDRA. i loved getting to see more of her with her as a main character. i also really enjoyed all the Creatures: augie and vamp!xander's little guy i forget his name were both great, but ESPECIALLY camazotz, i loved himmmm <333. and speaking of vampire xander, i thought that was a really neat take on his character) (and i liked the final villain in theory but he was a little under defined and ended up falling a little flat for me.) (also i WISH they had leaned a lot harder into the multiverse stuff, they kept mentioning it but it barely mattered AT ALL until like. a brief couple of scenes at the very end. which was extremely disappointing.)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer 25th Anniversary Special (SPIKE IN MIRRORS DON'T LIE <333333333 that is all.) (oh and disco master. i'm not elaborating on the context but i thought that was really fucking funny)

Angel Vol. 1 and Angel + Spike (good shit!!! i love the implications that eldritch entities are just sort of drawn to fred, it not only gives her character some really interesting conflict but also explains more about the situation with illyria on the actual show! and i really love angel and spike's dynamic, i feel like there were Some Implications here and there, and they just don't feel like themselves without them tbh so that was good. the group dynamic was a little off without cordelia but they made it work. i thought the stuff with oz was really amusing but also kinda fucking devastating with the context of vol. 2, which is excellent. also shoutout spike's cunty little outfit with the pink shirt!! ! i want to wear that.) (i would also like to know more about how angel got to be this way without buffy as an influence on his life, since they never dated.)

Angel Vol. 2 (probably my favorite of any of the buffy comics if i'm being honest! even compared to the canonical stuff. ESPECIALLY compared to the canonical stuff. the new roles for the characters of angel investigations are SO INTERESTING and i really liked the additions of spike and andrew as parts of the main cast. angel and cordelia as actors is incredibly funny. and is it a little cheap to put lorne and andrew, the two queerest men in the buffyverse together in a romantic relationship even though they've never interacted outside of this particular comic? maybe....... that being said i'd KILL AND/OR DIE for them. ALSO THE VILLAINS?? evil angel and spike???? fucking incredible i just wish they had a little more screentime, y'know? and then the stuff at the end with 15yo buffy i'm just. i'm still rotating this whole comic in my brain in case you couldn't tell. it's so good.) (also how did spike get his soul in this timeline if buffy died before they could meet?? i need to know) (this was the only buffyverse comic series that left me so intensely Wanting More, so take that as you will) (seriously, follow-up comic WHEN????)

The Vampire Slayer (love how queer this one felt. from faith's little crush on evil willow, to whatever faith and buffy had going on, to SPIKE AND XANDER?? it's not explicitly confirmed in the text but it's definitely implied that spike and xander start dating like midway through in the midst of raising their crab-god son together. not the spike domestication arc i expected but i can say with full certainty that i liked it, and that i can't blame him because this is easily the most likable iteration of xander as a character in, well, anything. even the tv show. also diversity win! this xander is canonically bisexual! who knew that was all he needed for me to like him) (and spike's evil expressions every time he says something evil and then doesn't do them are SO funny. poor sucker can't follow through bc he doesn't want to hurt his boyfriends feelings </3) (also baby crab was a very lovable critter, his dads did a very good job raising such a big strong boy.)

The Lost Summer (very sweet family roadtrip! soft spuffy! spike being an absolute dweeb! what more could you want?)

Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer (also very good spuffy content, but buffy really shines in this one as a grumpy old lady. and thessaly makes for a really fun protagonist, though her character is a little simple at times, since she really doesn't have much going on besides being a magic slayer and whoever her girlfriend is at the time. oh well. and anya is an absolute treat, naturally.)

[accio-sriracha]

James finds out about Wolfstar.

~~~♤~~~

James woke up and dragged himself out of bed. He didn't bother with his glasses, it was too early to see anyways.

He walked to the bathroom and brushed his teeth, taking longer than usual to try to comb out his hair a little nicer today. (It didn't work)

When he got back out he headed straight for his trunk, pulling out his clothes for the day, he wondered if Lily would want to go for a stroll by the lake after-

"Shit-" A hissed whisper cut off his train of thought. He turned to see Remus standing on the other side of the room, a blanket wrapped around him.

He looked like a deer caught in headlights, not a usual expression for him.

"Moony?" James muttered, squinting, "What's wrong?"

Remus only threw a glance at Sirius' bed, his eyes wide.

James sighed and walked to his end table, slipping on his glasses.

"Holy-" His jaw dropped when he looked back at Remus.

Hickeys and bite marks covered his skin. His chest and neck were so full of dark splotches you couldn't quite tell what his usual color was supposed to be.

"Remus. What-" James gave a short, surprised laugh. Remus gave a terrified squeak and tumbled onto his bed, yanking the curtains closed around him.

James turned as Sirius stepped out of his own four poster, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Moons?" He mumbled, still half-asleep, "Love, you okay?"

"Oh fuck!" James laughed loudly, clamping a hand over his mouth.

Sirius, also with a neck full of hickeys, was wearing shorts that hung low on his waist. James could see the finger-shaped bruises on his hips peeking over the waistband. His thighs were covered in hickeys and bites like Remus' chest had been.

His hair was messy, adding to the Freshly Shagged look. His eyes finally found James and he jumped,

"Oh! Hey Prongs!" He laughed, scratching the back of his neck, "Goodmorning."

"Don't goodmorning me!" James called, pointing at Remus' bed, "Dude, what the fuck?"

"Oh." He looked at Remus' bed, then back at James, "Okay, yeah, I'm not awake enough for this conversation." He laughed.

James sputtered, watching as Remus slowly made his way back out of his bed, his eyes fixed on the floor.

"You two-" He gestured between them wildly, "You two are-"

"We're fucking." Sirius said bluntly, yawning, "And I'd really like to get back to it, we can talk about the engaged part at breakfast, yeah?"

James' eyes widened, "Engaged?" He shouted.

Remus looked about ready to throw up.

Sirius nodded slowly, as though he was speaking to a child, "Yes, y'know, 'Remus, will you marry me?' Engaged."

James turned to Remus, "You're engaged?" He asked again.

Remus closed his eyes and pulled a necklace out of the drawer of his end table. James noticed scratches covering his back that looked deeper than they probably should have been and threw a glare at Sirius who only smirked proudly.

The necklace held a white-gold band on the end of the chain,

"We've been wearing them under our shirts. We were planning to tell you but it just got... complicated."

"Wh-" James threw his hands up, "Y'know what? I'm going back to bed, I don't know how to deal with this."

Sirius smiled, "Great, c'mon Moons." He tugged Remus' hand eagerly back towards his bed. Remus threw an apologetic look at James on their way.

They came to breakfast the next morning with the rings on their fingers, showing them to all of their friends. James noticed they charmed their hickeys away too.

Peter took the news a lot better than he had, tearing up and hugging them. He congratulated them and told them how happy he was.

Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, Alice, and Frank all acted similar, happiness and tearful hugs. But no amount of outraged surprise.

"So nobody's going to ask how long they've been together?" James asked, his eyebrows furrowed. Peter paused,

"You didn't know? They've been together for ages."

Remus looked to him now too, frowning, "Wait, Prongs, I thought you were just upset at seeing us sleeping together."

James pinched the bridge of his nose, "You two have been dating, and I didn't even know?"

Sirius snorted, "Guess so, mate. I thought it was obvious."

"Yeah, James, they kiss like all the time." Marlene nodded.

"And the handholding?" Alice added, "I don't think they've stopped holding hands since third year."

"Didn't Pads literally sit in Moony's lap at breakfast yesterday?" Peter asked. Sirius nodded,

"Yeah." He smiled, unashamed.

James stared at them, shocked, "Well how come you never told me?"

Sirius sighed, "Fine, you know what, James. Next time I'll sit you down and have a talk with you, okay?" He offered.

James nodded, "Okay. Thank you." He picked up his toast as Sirius suddenly pointed at it,

"There's butter on that by the way." He said, smirking, "Just gonna start stating the obvious right away to get in the habit."

James rolled his eyes as the group broke out into laughter.

Needless to say, Remus and Sirius had been dating for years, and sleeping in the same bed for at least one of them.

James was... well, he was a little oblivious sometimes.

~~~♤~~~

[autisticrosewilson]

thoughts on tanya and her relationship with deathstroke and the family? also any hc's ? 👁️

I think her relationship differs from the others by virtue of her being an adult when she meets him, she's a not a starry eyed/traumatized teenager looking for a family. She's still after a support system though, a team to be on after she leaves the Titans, an older mentor to help her better herself. So it's not quite a father daughter relationship, but she does probably admire Slades skill and she is willing to be vulnerable with him.

That doesn't mean she'll take his shit though, she questions his orders routinely, she refuses to be demoted to a sidekick. Just because she's a student doesn't mean she's subservient, it's something that definitely caused friction in the early days of defiance where she strained against his leadership in a way he wasn't used to. A grown woman forcing him to see her as an equal while he trains her is very different from impulsive teenagers disobeying orders and he's not entirely sure how to deal with it at first.

But if there's one thing about Slade it's that the more someone fights him, the more fond he is. Once they've worked together for a while things settle down, they learn to read each other better and trust gets built up. I think that Slade would consider her one of his kids, but Tanya sees him as like, the uncle she lived with in college y'know. He's not exactly happy about it but it's not like he's in any position to push. Compared to his actual children he has a pretty good relationship with Tanya which really solidifies his idea that it's some family curse or genetic disposition for sucking as a parent as opposed to like, generational trauma he should do something about.

I think she has a complicated relationship with the family. She doesn't really consider herself a part of it the way the rest are, but she does see some of the Wilson kids as siblings because it's hard to be on a team with people, fighting together, living together, seeing fucked up shit together without getting close.

I think she gets along best with Joey, he grew up in a lot of the same social circles and he also understands a lot of the belittlement she gets.

It's because of her camaraderie with Joey that she's not really fond of Adeline, being someone who also grew up mostly relying on her mom the radioactive relationship between the Kane-Wilson's is something she doesn't want anything to do with. Suffice to say that while she respects Adeline as a business woman she will not be accompanying Joey to any family parties or reunions.

Following that she's got the kind of "older sisters that always competed growing up but are also closer to each other than either of you are with your younger siblings by virtue of being closest in age" relationship with Sunny you either get or you don't. Very specific but I think they are fond of each other even though they fight constantly. Most of the time they're not even trying to fight, Slade will tell them to quit bickering and they'll look at each other in bewilderment because they were having a normal conversation.

I don't think her and Rose are close, I feel like Tanya just relates more to other people in Rose's life just because of the age difference. To Tanya, Rose will always be "Joey's little sister" or "Dick's teammate". That doesn't mean that Tanya doesn't care about her though, they still know how to work together and I think Rose has maybe asked her for advice more than once. Whether it be on stupid socialite etiquette, how to shut Slade up or even grieving with the loss of her mom. It's like having a younger sister you don't live with, and you two were never the closest but sometimes you come home to her in your new apartment because she needs to complain about your dad and a candle she saw at the check out reminded her of you, so she brought a house warming gift even though you moved in two months ago.

Now the relationship between her and Poppy is complicated because of their relationships to Tara. On one hand she doesn't want to step on Tara's toes by taking over too much with Poppy, but she also doesn't want to leave either of them hanging since neither of them really have anyone besides Slade. On the other hand Tanya sometimes worries that Poppy is after more of a mother figure than another sister, and she doesn't feel ready for that. So it's a balancing act between being supportive enough to bond with her without getting close enough to intrude on Tara's role or give Poppy the wrong impression.

Her relationship with Tara has the aforementioned issue and... Tanya is kind of freaked out by her. Like everything about Tara and her relationships to Slade, Rose and Poppy just really makes her sad but she also doesn't want to involve herself in all that crazy. Also Tara has A Thing for Beast Boy (It's not a crush in my rewrite, more of a hero worship thing for the person who broke up the Dark Side Club) who Tanya considers her best friend and it's really weird for her to hear and talk about.

I don't really see her liking Grant if he were alive, she would think him working specifically to piss off Slade is funny until it coincides with her own jobs. Mostly that's yet another complicated inner family dynamic she doesn't want to get close to. She's mildly fascinated by him the way a child's fascinated by a bug under a microscope, she's really curious to find out what being Slade and Adeline's least favorite kid does to a person. Their civilian personas have fake Twitter beef (she thinks it's a joke but he's very serious about it) though.

She sent Slade a card with a condom inside saying "put the dick down" when she found out about Respawn. (She doesn't know he's Grant's clone yet.)

[batsplat]

on the point of ktm being more desirable before the whole… thing–i think vale hit the nail on the head when he said riders probably felt a little betrayed by ducati signing marc because before you could presumably perform on their satellite bikes and hope to get a factory seat eventually but then someone like marc who is an outsider just came in and signed on for a factory bike and full factory support, and that decision was made like what 7 races into the season? when he hadn’t even won a race yet. so i kind of understand riders fleeing to ktm’s and aprilia’s (even at the cost of missing out on v good bikes) because they probably didn’t see a future for themselves on a ducati

yeah I think that's a big part of it.... y'know, people debate so much about the wisdom of jorge's decision that I really feel like there's not been enough discussion of how flat out insane bastianini's move is. if you're going to a satellite team anyway, WHY are you going to the worse bike... where it's also not like there's a super obvious route to the factory team and there's one guy who's going to be the star of the factory as long as they can keep him... he could've gone to gresini!! he liked gresini!! it's not like the track record of ktm satellite riders is a particularly happy one either! it feels crazy!! but that's the psychology for you, right, you feel rejected and you feel like you need to make a switch and not go backwards and whatever, and then I suppose ktm did a decent job at making these guys feel wanted. which... at the time I felt like - with their rider management track record - ktm was really failing upwards in securing that line-up. all the things money can do for you, I thought. ah well. now I suppose they're just failing

and the ducati rider management thing is hardly JUST a marc-related problem, this is a rot that goes further back. check out casey indulging in some throwback conspiracism before the title finale when he was talking about ducati maybe sabotaging jorge - obviously a wound that runs deep. the way the whole bastianini/jorge relationship was handled 2022-23 was already a bit of a nightmare, like no shit jorge had extremely run out of patience by the time this rider market cycle came along. to some extent, this was inevitable. if you have a lot of highly rated ambitious riders and only two factory seats and that's how your model works - then eventually obviously some riders are going to feel pretty disillusioned. but also, some of this is also how you sell this process to the riders... ducati tried to play off jorge and bastianini against each other in some kind of misguided attempt to make them inspire the other to perform better, they really didn't spend enough time making satellite teams look almost as desirable as the factory team (which ktm has for instance done), and in the end they've managed to alienate both of them. they made everything about competing for The Big Prize that the two riders had to prostrate themselves for, it was constantly being dangled in front of them as the ultimate reward, and in the end they gave the next contract to someone who hadn't even been in the picture until this year. it's just extremely unsuccessful expectation management... ducati had already primed jorge to see this as a massive snub, they played their hand poorly and managed to fumble most of their assets, and they really don't have anyone to blame but themselves. it's a shame their bike is so good they're not really going to get punished for their lack of care in handling this situation, though I'd enjoy it if this came back to bite them one day. (tbh given the tone where the jorge/ducati relationship was left off, if anything it's more likely that they'll just reunite one day if the stars align. which, well, whatever, I would have appreciated some more hard feelings.) if it were just about the factory/satellite distinction and ducati went for marc/pecco knowing it would cost them a lot of their other assets, that'd be a perfectly reasonable choice. but the quality of ktm's satellite line up (with considerably worse bikes) shows that there's more to the story to that

so yeah, valentino's right, ducati riders felt betrayed. ducati with its eight bikes made it feel like it was a closed camp that would prioritise internal progression and nurture its own riders, rather than shop outside the tent for talent. and then it flirted with not caring about marc for years and then it realised it did care rather a lot about marc after all. classic case of wanting to have your cake and eat it, the whole thing felt pretty inept and amateurish. and the insane thing is they could have gotten almost everything they wanted. eight time world champion marc was at least publicly willing to accept a continued stay at a satellite team - as long as it was a satellite team he was already embedded within. if you hear these marc comments as ducati and you have been given a way of accommodating your two time defending champion, the current championship leader and the eight time champion + biggest name in the sport for another couple of years, you should be buying a lottery ticket since the sporting gods are clearly smiling on you and then move heaven and earth to make that situation work. it is sheer hubris that they tried to bully marc into accepting the pramac deal. they could have had marc and they could have had everything else too!! they were losing pramac anyway!! it's just such a ducati thing to happen to ducati, my god

and look, maybe it won't cost them. maybe marc will clean house for the next xyz number of years for ducati and ktm will have collapsed and pedro or alonso or whichever wunderkind is destined to win ten consecutive titles will end up at ducati's doorstep and the only thing that will matter is ducati having the best bike and they'll nail the next rules cycle too and we'll all be stuck with these guys forever. who knows. completely plausible. this is obviously what gives 2004 that satisfying kick, right - it's quite rare for manufacturer hubris to be so immediately and so conclusively punished. (ducati thinking they could do without casey clocks in second in the manufacturer karma rankings in modern motogp, not QUITE as conclusive since they weren't winning a title in 2011 with casey either but it's a clear 1-2 for those two.) ducati isn't going to be punished for this in the short-term. major injuries *knocks on wood* or other bizarre plot twists aside, they are basically guaranteed another 1-2 in next year's championship, and having marc on their books as a rider in factory red is just indisputably a win. which is unfair! it does leave a sour taste that ducati still hasn't learned its lessons where rider management is concerned, and they're not going to be punished for it. and yes, it's the game - but again, the point isn't the choice to take marc. the point is the years of ducati rider management that led up to that choice, all the reasons why jorge was even in the position where he felt he had to make an ultimatum start of this season that it was factory seat of bust. it's one of those fun little things valentino and casey are aligned on - of course it feels like a betrayal:

'normal that the riders feel betrayed' 'spent these years being loyal to ducati' they're so cute when they agree. I get why ducati made the choice they did (let's pretend for a moment marc in gresini wasn't an option and it was marc to the factory team or bust). marc is an eight time champion, his track record speaks for itself, rider egos aside it was always obvious the race win thing was a matter of time - and by now we obviously have more than enough information to say there is ample competitive justification for this choice. but motogp did not start in... whatever month mugello was. ducati spent years developing this whole 'pyramid' structure, as valentino so nicely puts it, before basically throwing it out of the window at the first test. so that was a waste of everyone's time! this is the problem, right, the whole thing's just kind of dumb and in a kinder universe would make young talent in future wary of ducati. if you don't want one of your competitors with way worse bikes to boast a considerably better satellite line-up than you, don't promise things to your riders you aren't ready to deliver on. because otherwise your riders will feel betrayed. more at eleven. hire me ducati, I have very reasonable rates

[2demon2slayer]

Hello, the new guy that kinda found the tsugoku AU in whim of fate and has been rereading all the entries religiously.

So, to the questions, how are Aoi's relationship with the resto of the characters, specially with Kanao, Kanae, Shinobu and Inosuke?

Does she do Insect breathing like Shinobu, with a modified sword because she's to weak to behead a demon or does she use a normal sword that also has poison?

Also I have this Head canon that Shinobu wants to speedrun her way to a Hashira so she can convince Aoi to retire a fully dedicate to being a doctor, but I would like to know what's Shinobu's personality in this AU?

Where do the butterfly girls Land on this, are they still nurses at the mansion?

welcome to the party! i'm glad you're having a good time!! this all started as a silly little roleswap au, but it's mostly thanks to you and everyone else who really enjoyed it that it's grown to be so big!

for the questions, aoi is at times a bit more distant with some of the others, because she's not super into the whole demon slaying thing. besides kanao, she's probably closest with zenitsu, inosuke, and tanjirou, mostly just because they hung out around her a lot since she was the only one of their friend group who had decent medical knowledge

inosuke, i'd say, is probably better friends with kanao at the moment than with aoi, but that's mostly because aoi's kind of . reserved? but methinks they'll probably get closer over the course of the story now that they've both got a bunch of kids to take care of

(as a quick aside, with regards to ships, i haven't said it yet but while i'll make allusions to various ships and many will be basically canon within the au, this story probably won't be super shippy or anything. it's about a bunch of friends doing dumb shit together and saving the country)

aoi is very close to her sisters, though! kanao is like her little sister, even though they're only maybe a couple months apart in age, and kanae and shinobu are her baby sisters! kiyo, sumi, and naho also come to be under aoi and kanao's care, but because they're a fair bit older than in canon, their relationship is a bit less "sisters" and a bit more "coworkers". they're still pretty familial with each other, though!

when aoi first became a demon slayer, she used water breathing! but over time, she realized that water breathing wasn't really for her. aoi is a bit scrawnier than kanao, and so she ended up picking up insect breathing to better cater to her strengths. this is also why she became a hashira a little later than kanao even though she became a demon slayer first

she does use a modified blade and poison, though she also still carries around her old katana from when she still used water breathing (y'know, just in case)

as for shinobu, she may have lost her parents, but she still has kanae and she's also been basically adopted by aoi and kanao, so she's still got a lot of life in her! she doesn't hide her personality behind niceties or politeness, she'll call you a dumbass straight to your face! she's stubborn and headstrong and she does what she wants!

for a while, after taking the kochou sisters in, aoi and kanao shared the task of training the two of them, but eventually kanae settled on learning flower breathing and shinobu on insect breathing. both sisters do know some moves from each other's style as well as some water breathing techniques (not the sword forms, just the concepts)

and also that's a really cool headcanon you've got there, so i hope you don't mind if i yoink it for my au! because wow, yeah, That's the reason shinobu would become a demon slayer. because shinobu is pretty perceptive a lot of the time (unless she doesn't want to be), so it makes sense that she'd see how much being a hashira really wears aoi down!!

[x-neurotoxin-x]

Your turn I want headcanons 🔫

✨ rp hcs and fun facts ✨

Jin is low-key a kleptomaniac because he grew up in poverty and his bum alcoholic parents didn't buy him stuff so when he sees something he wants he just pockets it without thought. His parents were also the kind of parents that used their kid to shoplift bc kids are less likely to be suspected, so he learned how to steal really young.

Touya realized they were trans really young and Enji wanted a boy anyway so he was surprisingly supportive (outside of the csa where he feminized tf out of them and projected Rei onto them). So they were basically raised as a boy, though if they'd actually learned about gender identity properly they would probably identify closer to agender or a demiboy. Although they're a system here so their alters identify differently- one identifies exclusively as a girl and has a lot of internalized transphobia and sexism, another mostly uses he/him, and a third uses it pronouns and identifies as nonhuman so it doesn't align with gender.

Mr Compress has a dead wife and kids and his family was one of those corny families that had, like, "Spaghetti Tuesdays" and "Pizza Sundays"

Jin tried to grow weed at one point but every weed plant died bc he can't keep plants alive for shit :((

JJ's favorite food is mac and cheese with those little Vienna sausages and crushed up chip crumbs on top. Bc his bum parents never cooked meals for him so he learned how to cook when he was knee-high by throwing stuff into a pot. He 100% has started kitchen fires

Even before the Trauma & Horrors™ got them, Dabi had a habit of longing around mostly naked 'cause they have issues and clothing irritates their burns.

Homewrecker Dabi is so funny. They've unintentionally broken up or caused strain in so many relationships all bc they're so fuckable

And they don't even like sex

Jin will have casual hook ups but he's demiromantic

Mr. Compress firmly believes in aliens bc one time he got black out drunk and saw lights in the sky, swears it was a UFO but it was actually just, like, a drone or something.

Dabi has nonverbal episodes <3

Y'know what, I've been thinking about it and I think Giran should be trans and aromantic in the rp

Giran also was a sex worker before he was a broker, and learned people say the damnest shit during/after sex so that's what kickstarted him as an info broker. He also dabbled in drug dealing/drug trafficking too. He's a pimp on the side, but he treats all his workers good and fair because he's been a worker too and he knows how shitty pimps can be.

He'll also go out of his way to help trafficking victims and abused sex workers by "buying them off" their traffickers and pimps, then if they wanna work for him they can.

Giran's so 😌

[nono-bunny]

I was a bit worried about hearing Zack Tyler Eisen on the podcast because I read someone quote him on saying "it's all in your head buddy" about Zutara, which??? Doesn't sound great, and after how rude Bryke were I grew to be wary of Kataang shippers on the podcast, even though Janet does a great job or keeping them in check as much as possible and Dante is fantastic at easing the tension... I just don't like being condescended to like that, y'know?

But he was actually a great guest imo! He had a lot of unique experiences from the show by virtue of his age at the time, and in general sounds like a cool guy! I kinda thought he may have left acting after like having a bad experience on ATLA or something, but he sounds like he just really found a love for cinematography which is cool and good to hear! Like, he seems to still love engaging with the show every once in a while, and like, good for him!

Anyway this "all in your head" thing does seem to be like? Much more in jest than it may seem when reading it, he was kinda just messing around with Dante, and while I STILL disagree with him because Kataang is gross... He was much more chill about it than I thought, can't really blame him for preferring Kataang when he IS Aang lol

I am... Unhappy because when looking at future episodes to check out the guests I can look forward to (some real bangers, btw!) I saw that him and one of the Bryke duo are on Crossroads of Destiny which. Is kind of infuriating that there are two Kataangers on a Zutara episode, but honestly I'm? Kinda less mad about it than I was after listening to his episode, I feel like he might actually have some interesting things to say there since he said he liked the Guru Pathik stuff so! I guess I'll wait and see how I feel about it after reaching it lol. They better acknowledge that it's a Zutara episode though or istg...

I was originally SO mad when I found out about the Crossroads of Destiny guests being anti-Zutara that I typed out a huge rage post which I obviously shelved because it was completely out of proportion and written when I was barely coherent because I was extremely sleepy, it was all kinda funny tbh I was near on delirious writing it but tbf not all of my points there were completely wrong so? This post and a possible follow up in the future will exist in its stead lol

Also!! I do kinda just wanna throw this out there: I hate Aang and Bryke, but I have never had any issue with Zack for voicing him- he did a remarkable job voicing Aang! It's just unfortunate what Bryke did to his character development, and it's interesting to me that he seems to like the Guru Pathik stuff but? If anything I'm actually really interested in his pov, probably much more than I am in hearing Bryke's extremely biased one (they lied SO much over the years about the development process, wtf!! They've proven to be so unreliable, and alongside their shit takes I truly despise hearing them talk on the podcast lol)

[poisonarrow98]

soooo the whole omen drama from the recent episode? the voicemail of viper defending herself in front of brim when shit hit the fan?

ngl her voicemail made me empathize a lot with her in a sense that, if i were to put myself inside her headspace, i wouldn’t blame her for feeling a certain type of way for being portrayed as ‘the villain’ in the narrative now that everyone suspects what really happened to omen :(

almost as if her fears of being perceived as a monster were becoming a reality.

and it made me wonder if anyone besides brim or sage would try supporting her/checking up on her while the others tracked omen’s whereabouts . . .

mmhmm mmhmm soviper hc time — this one w/meaning too

yeahhhh so i can't stop picturing sova being that person to make sure viper's okay after all that went down. realistically bc sova was on that mission w/omen, reminding him about how viper wanted a report from them when they returned.

maybe sova's concerned smth serious will happen, if omen's tone towards viper was anything to go by? maybe part of him is worried about viper so he checks on her just in case?

also what makes sova a good choice for this is the fact that his convo w/viper about omen leaving would actually make progress bc:

sova doesn't have bad history w/her; he makes for a good neutral party

they've known each other/worked together for a long time as the OG agents to understand each other's POV as well as omen's

sova has such a compassionate, warm nature that their convo would be more for viper's benefit where she can voice out all her frustrations w/o judgment from him

(just really give her the safe space she needs y'know?)

more importantly i think sova comforting viper can tie very well with his voiceline where he asks her if there's any other way of finding peace ;w;

that voiceline is soooo important bc he genuinely didn’t know—probably still doesn’t know—the full story of how she came to be the way she is. what made her go down this path of violence? how far is she willing to go?

having viper willingly share a piece of herself with sova can create such a beautiful and intimate moment between the two. it can give him some clarity about her history; it can give viper the chance to self-reflect, maybe work towards forgiving herself for her own past doings.

(kinda like everything coming back full circle, so to speak)

ANYWAYS that’s how i would hc it for soviper.

ofc during their talk sova would never ever pressure viper into oversharing; he respects her boundaries and will take what she’s willing to give. really just making sure she’s heard when it comes to her side of the situation while reassuring her on how her past actions don’t make her a bad person overall—more importantly he doesn’t see her as a bad person.

omen will eventually understand her pain in due time if and when he's ready to come home to them . . .

as sova takes a step back ready to leave, viper will be the one to surprise him when she pulls him in for a long embrace. basically her way of saying 'thank you for being here with me; thank you for supporting me'.

finally allowing herself to fall apart from the weight of it all as he holds her close.

finally allowing herself to be at peace.