#this person did an excellent job fr

[mitsuki91]

If I read another "the movie didn't adapt the inner monologue of Snow well" I swear-

First of all I think Tom did an excellent job because you can read Snow's thoughts inside his eyes in every scene.

Second thing... You always tell this in a context where you are saying "if you read the book you will hate Snow, you like him only because Tom is hot" and FOR FUCKING SAKE I read the book after seeing the movie and the book make me love Snow more. I fucking love his inner monologue, I find him sarcastic and sassy and unhinged, the book make me wanted to be his fucking friend "irl", I am quite sure that if I meet someone as Snow and that someone say the things he thoughts out loud with me I will die laughing fr.

You all just can not see the younger 18yo traumatized and starved and sassy Snow as a different person and you see the cruel 82yo dictator/monster instead. You are biased by the future in a context it doesn't apply.

And mind you, I am not justifing his action in the book/movie, I am talking only about his inner monologue and the quote I keep seeing as haters try to tell everyone "see??? He is bad because he thoughts X/Y/Z!"

[pythoness94]

Obscure fanfic recs, the opinion piece, part two.

This one contains relationship advice and analysis so that's like great? I guess? and it's a more serious take then my last one but like. What can I say? this one was darker then the last. So, I hope by reading these you look into the fics yourselves because every single one of these are wonderful. Also, if y'all got a fic you want me to look into like this (which, lets be fr, you probably don't.) let me know and I'll look into it! As always, thanks to @the-aphelion-archives for the recs and let's get into this.

Fic name is "i hate how you’re going through hell, when you’d never let anyone else: by gaysforbyler "

Opening thoughts: Well, this is a fic I’ve read before and starting out. I adore it, this is the EXACT type of Fic I love. I read this fic very often and the author is one of my favs. So let’s GET INTO no?

Fic thoughts: First things first, I love how Will’s mood matches Mike. He’s not perfect but he’s trying and I love that. It matches a real relationship perfectly, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows and I KNOW it’s been beaten to death but coming from someone who is in a three year long relationship COMMUNICATION is the best thing you can do. And sometimes, communication isn’t sitting down and spilling your guts like your partner is your therapist. Sometimes communication is just saying you aren’t feeling it, or letting them know you don’t want to do things, saying that you just aren’t okay. And when you can’t say that, you have to find a way to say that. I:e, what Mike and Will do in this fic using examples. “Rollercoasters and concrete.” Also, communication is a two way street. While it’s also a partner's job to talk, it’s also their job to LISTEN. Which Will didn’t do at first, he kept pushing, and pushing, and pushing Mike until Mike broke. This is what I was talking about: how relationships aren’t all sunshine and rainbows, sometimes it’s one person tugging too hard on the rope while the other is just weakly holding it so they fall into the mud. But it’s the person tugging to hard job to drop the rope and clean their partner up, asking what’s wrong and trying to fix it. This is how relationships work and this fic demonstrates that excellently.

Okay so, this is one of the things that signal that you need to pick yourself up and get your head into the fucking game and outside of your pitying spiral ”. “Fuck you” Mike spat out” Now for Will, this was strange for Mike because, as we all know, Mike doesn’t do that to Will. So it was the perfect thing to cuff him upside the head and go “HEY DIPSHIT SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOUR BOY!” Personally, I’ve had things like this with my girlfriend (her getting quiet and snippy with me.) and I’ve been told that one of my tells is me just getting terse and competitive with things that don’t fucking matter. So Will soothing Mike and getting him OUTTA THERE, is good shit. It reminds me of when i get overwhelmed and my girl hands me her airpods. Good shit.

Will is such a good boyfriend in this fic, recognizing that he fucked up and doing his best to listen to him, great stuff. Also, Mike is characterized AMAZINGLY. His depression is portrayed wonderfully (has a person with diagnosed depression, it’s like this a lot for me. Mike is me fr) This is wonderful. The wheeler family…they’re something else. I can ramble all day about their dynamics but that’s for a different post, different time. But I can say that I TOTALLY see Karen doing that, accidently dismissing something really serious due to 80’s bullshit. Mike and Will are SO cute. However, to address the elephant in the room. I love when people talk about the quarry. It’s a…tender… subject not only for me but others in the fandom and I HATE how the duffers brush over it. That kinda shit sticks with you and I don’t like how nobody brings it up. Not only did Mike jump off a cliff, but he did it for Dustin, who was there, and saw him. Honestly? If I was Dustin I wouldn’t let Mike outta my sight. If Dustin was there for season 3 he wouldn’t have let that shit where Mike hit Billy with a pipe and ran at him when he hit Max slide. He would flip his shit and put his foot down so that Mike needs to be more careful. Another reason why I hate it when people make the party hate Mike. That’s not how people react when their CLOSE friends don’t reciprocate another CLOSE friend’s feelings. They don’t all turn on one fucking person, even if they did choose sides it wouldn’t be everybody and their MOM on fucking Mike’s ass, at least SOME would be against Will. Like I said in the past, if you can’t imagine your ST cast being against Will in this situation or ANY situation but then turning on Mike with a finger snap is totally reasonable then your characters are OOC.

I have some great feelings about the ending. Will recognizes that he can’t handle Mike’s issues alone and guides Mike into letting him tell his mom (AKA a trusted adult.) This is what you should do in this situation. It’s not on YOU to help your partner get better, you’re not their therapist, you’re not their mom or dad, you’re their partner. That’s it, and the only person that can help someone get better is themselves and they will never get better if YOU get worse because you’re struggling to carry the brunt of their problems on your back. Will puts it real good at the end here. “Maybe that’s all Will needs to do. He can be here— offer support, an ear, hugs, anything Mike needs. That’s how he can help. If that’s the case, he has a pretty easy job. There’s nowhere he’d rather be.” This is all you need to be. If someone ever, EVER, threatens to harm themselves or is doing something if you leave them, if someone getting better enterally relies on YOU, then call someone. Their mom, their dad, their siblings. If they are threatening to harm themselves, call the emergency line. The instant they start that shit, call it and ask for a wellness check and explain the situation. That isn’t your job to do, that’s the police’s and your partner's family to do. Do not try and talk your partner down unless you REALLY REALLY need to, you’re giving them exactly what they want. If it gets to the point where they are willing to pull that shit on you, then they need help you can’t give ‘em. Period, dot, end of story. Anyways. 

Will is a great boyfriend here and Mike is just so cute, and so real. Will doing his best to coo and coddle his boyfriend was great, made me feel like my girl was in the room with me lmao. It’s good, it’s cute, and it’s HEALTHY!!! Let’s fucking go.

Final thoughts: I can’t really say anything I haven’t already written, so, great fucking food. Byler was hella cute in this. This is my favorite fic, that’s why it’s so fucking long. I can’t promise the others will be this long but y’know? We’ll see how goes. Onto the next one!

[mistydeyes]

CONGRATS 🫶🫶❤️❤️💐💐. no like fr congratulations on 1k. Personally speaking, your works are excellent.

oh, and can I request graveyard - "please i don't want to die" with Price? I got that Tony and Peter Parker when Peter turned into dust vibes 💀yk. Anyways, take care!!

aww thank you so much @lake-lilium! literally was dying at the vintage justin bieber pic but yes this prompt is so giving that vibe so prepare for some ANGST :')

link to the prompt list and 1k celebration!

prompt: graveyard - "please i don't want to die"

pairing: John Price x gn!reader

warnings: DEATH, angst, swearing, depiction of blood and violence

┊ ⋆ ┊ . ┊ ┊┊ ⋆ ┊ . ┊ ┊┊ ⋆ ┊ . ┊ ┊┊ ⋆ ┊ . ┊ ┊┊ ⋆ ┊ . ┊ ┊┊

In Price's line of work, there was always a moment of panic when he was unable to get in contact with you. You remember you had to reassure him of your safety when you took a nap and missed a few of his calls. You couldn't blame him though for the worry. You didn't know much about his job but it was clear he had some enemies to be wary of. However, you would always reassure him as he left the house and you pet your German Shepherd by the door.

Despite seeing you off that morning, Price still couldn't shake the feeling building in his core. "Fuck, answer the phone," he murmured as yet another call went to voicemail. He slammed his fist on the steering wheel as he turned down your street. "Just give me a callback, love, on my way home," he said hurriedly as he hit the reddened button on his phone. "You're being paranoid, John," he laughed to himself, yet the feeling was still there. He pulled into your small driveway and turned off the car. All seemed normal as he closed the door gently and dragged the bag of dog food that you had asked him to get. However, when he saw the front door slightly ajar, he dropped it immediately and entered with caution mounting.

As he scanned the front foyer, he grabbed a firearm he kept in the hallway's closet. "You alright, love?" he called out as he searched for any sign of you or your beloved dog. His training almost seamlessly kicked in as he swept the house. He moved through the kitchen, finding a half-eaten bowl of soup, and prayed you had just gone up to the bathroom or bedroom. However, as he looked at the back door and noticed large muddy footprints heading in, he feared the worst. He opened it cautiously and could not have prepared for the sight in front of him. The normally fresh afternoon air smelled sickly of iron and blood. The muddy footprints ended at your feet and the grass was stained with crimson. You lay on your back your recently planted flower bushes with your hand over a gaping chest wound. He screamed at the sight and you looked over in shock. He rushed over as you spurt up blood and attempted to get up. "John," you whispered as he pulled off his shirt to stop the bleeding. "What the fuck happened?" he asked as he held you and grabbed his phone to call for the paramedics. "I don't know, John," you cried hysterically, "am I gonna die?"

He couldn't help but feel like he was going to be sick as you grasped at his shirt. His hands felt warm with your blood as he communicated the situation and tried to keep you awake. "It's okay, love, we'll find who did this," he whispered, trying to keep a level head as your eyes looked frantically around. "Where's Charlie?" you asked and he held your face gently. "We'll find him later, yeah? Just stay awake for me," John repeated and pulled you onto his lap as he propped you up against one of the flower beds. Price was always prepared for these scenarios on the battlefield. Keep watch, stop the bleeding, and make sure they stay awake. His mind was in overdrive as he never expected to bring this mentality home to you. "Hey, hey stay with me," he shouted as you began to close your eyes. He could hear the sirens approach and kept shaking your shoulder. "John, please," you began to say as your voice became weaker and your eyes began to flutter slowly, "please, I don't want to die." He could see small silver tears fall down your face as he held down on your sternum tightly. "Shhh," he tried to reassure, "just keep your eyes on me." "Please, I don't want to die," you kept repeating and wailing. The last words he would ever hear were your fearful sentiments coupled with the absolute horror in your dilated eyes.

[castrian-amore]

Bitter, had the Heart

Dead Tired(Danny Fenton x Tim Drake), Tim Drake-Centric, unfinished, the author is plotting, temporary character death

1/46 chapters | Chapter Length: 3,486 words

TWS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Graphic Depictions of corpses and mutilation, Mentions of vile smells

Chapter 1: To see or to Mistake

Tim Drake was a brilliant Detective. He was a shareholder of Wayne Enterprises. Middle child of the family really. He was working on his degree in business at Gotham U, as expected. He also excelled, as expected. Nothing could have prepared him for this, though. I’m all his years of detective work nothing was quite this gruesome, this brutal. This slow.

A horrified terror filled expression struck across two gang member’s faces. Their deceased bodies had entrails splayed over the alley and he held a rag over his nose and mouth at the smell. It wasn’t just the decay setting into the bones and souls. It smelled like rotten eggs, sulfur. Mixed with the metallic scent of iron and blood and disgust.

Nightwing landed next to him.

“Oo that’s not pretty,”the man whispered. “Damn that stinks.” Time handed over a rag to his elder brother who very gladly put it over his nose.

“You’re telling me. This is one of the more brutal and gruesome cases I’ve seen in a while…” Tim was trying to take in what he could from below. They had to have been tortured alive as they had their entrails removed, at least most of the other rogue’s in Gotham made their subject’s deaths quick, even if painful but these? This was a new breed of brutal and horrific.

Tim was frustrated. He was a fucking detective for gods sake.

“How many is this now?”Nightwing looked at his younger brother before back down at the bodies.

“8… I think we can classify this as a serial case right now,”he huffed. He pulled out a notepad writing things down.

Smell of sulfur.

Entrails spread out.

Claw marks on the walls.

Symbols written into the alleyway walls in the blood of the fallen.

Faces frozen in horror.

This was the 7th and 8th one and of course it was similar to the others. Smell of sulfur. Entrails spread out. Once they got the autopsy report back he high suspected the heart will have been removed and a bite being taken out of the kidney if there even was one.

“So Gotham has another mysterious serial killer whose signature is as gruesome and messy as the Joker’s entire existence.” Tim had been frustrated with this case since it started and he was beyond grateful for the help. A lot of the bats were in on the case at some point. Duke had been trying to do Daytime recon. Tim and Dick were keeping up with police investigation, namely Dick who claimed he was coming from Bludhaven to help with the case. Got them both the inside information.

Bruce and Damian were trying to track down anything and it had been all hands on deck to keep a watchful eye on the city. Cass and Steph were off-planet apparently dealing with something from the covert ops team of Young Justice. Barb was doing her best to play eyes as she kept an eye on the various cctv footage around the city, but Gotham was big and there was always crime to attend too.

Tim was stretched thin himself. He normally had shareholder meetings in the mornings at least once a week, sometimes twice, and after that it was to his college classes. Tim had college, patrols, the company. Fuck. Let alone the occasional charity galas and other events he had to go to not only as a wayne but as a head of the company as a whole.

Tim was running on fumes as this case was running him dry. That was another reason why Dick was in town to lessen the load on Tim. He liked college and he knew that he wan’t exactly the most social person let alone the most normal(look at his job?) but he did want to do things sometimes with his friends. Though, he was sure his ‘friends’ probably wouldn’t be around for super long. Having mundane friends outside of super hero life was hard, let alone a romantic relationship. He had tried with the other heroes. He had tried with civilians but the civilians just couldn’t understand the time necessary and the excuses he was going to have to make.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to pursue a romantic relationship but it just simply felt as if he had no choice but to not. Wow, he was tired if hid mind was going off on it’s own separate tangent in mind distracting him from the task at hand. Speaking of…

A small flash of one of the police’s camera’s caught him off guard. Unbeknownst to the group a man in black tech wear with white accents and a mask pulled over his nose was crouched by the body. Hands gloves and a hood up over barely visible black hair. He was taking a sample it seemed of, what was that? How did he not notice that?

There was a green viscous liquid and he just collected it, not just an incredibly small amount, but what was on the body at all. It reminded him far too much of Lazarus water for his liking, but if someone had poured gelatin in it.

“Wing,”Time stated wide-eyed at him.

“I see.”

“We have eyes on a potential suspect,”Tim called over coms.

“Do not engage, follow,”Batman’s words echoed back to him. Duh. They wanted information on the dude. The two backed into the darkness a little more as soon as the police-men turned around he was gone. Tim and Dick watched his foot catch on the ledging as he climbed onto the roof of the building pulling down his hood and looking around. Eyes covered by a pair of goggles that were a stunning and haunting green color. Then it seemed he spotted the bats even from their vantage point, and as soon as they noticed. The man took off running.

“Shit!” Tim exclaimed, moving to jump onto the roof to pursue .

“Red! No engaging!”

“I’ve been following this shit for months, I’ve never been then close to a lead Nighty!” He exclaimed moving to follow.

“Language! But, really?!?” Nightwing followed after time the two moving with ease.

“Stop!!!” He yelled at the black masked figure who merely cocked his head to the side running backwards for a moment before jumping across to the next roof doing a roll. Experienced in parkour at least as Tim and Dick followed suit. Fuck he was fast.

“We need to corner him,”Dick hissed.

“Don’t tell B…”

“Don’t tell B what?”Dick replied before Tim threw two batarangs at his target.

“Red!” Dick exclaimed as the man dropped sliding on his knees to avoid the first one but as he got up the second one hit his leg. Bullseye. The person tripped holding his leg for a moment. A small grunt of pain could be heard as he scooted away from the two of them. The way their face was covered left no idea what thoughts crossed their mind. Nightwing landed next to Red as they stared at the man backing up against the wall to the roof.

“Don’t make us hurt you anymore. Tell us what you were removing from that crime scene,”Red threatened, grabbing his bo staff off his belt and letting it unfurl. The person shook their head as they used the short wall to stand up limping heavily. They weren’t incredibly close to the ground at the moment. At minimum a solid 8 stories high.

Pretty far up Tim would say. Which made the next move shake him. The man looked at them and slowly shook his head and by the time they both realized what they were doing their hearts broke. They gave him a farewell salute with two fingers and fell backwards off the edge of the building and neither himself nor Hightwing could catch him in time. Both running desperately to the edge wide eyed with panic.

It wouldn’t have been the first time someone had committed suicide to escape them. Tim doubted it would be the last either. Fate had it out for them in that way. Fate had it out for them in a lot of ways as Tim would find out over the course of events.

Though they never heard a smack against concrete as they rushed to the side, nor a scream of terror. So when they looked into the alley way the man wasn’t there anymore. Dick and him quickly using grappling hooks to get down.

“What the…”

“Where did he—“

“Infrared?” Dick suggested they both moved to look around them. Just the coldness of the alleyways and setting mid January weather. It was freezing in this alleyway.

“Is that a bed?”Dick pointed out the small campaign at the very back of the alley. A few cardboard boxes set up as a table with a few remains set there. Messy soaked sheets sat on top a cardboard bed with a messy pillow half destroyed it seemed

“Of course it’s a bed.” voice drawing them both out from their mission. “I never thought this would be the way I finally run into Two bats. You’re in front of my sleeping spot.”

They looked up to see a young man(teenager?) he only stood about 5’3. He was bundled up with a hoodie and a black trench coat over it. A soft blue scarf wrapped around his neck, hands shoved into his pockets with piercing blue eyes and ruffled black hair being held down by the matching blue beanie. He looked cold and from the infrared sensors on him the man was abnormally cold compared to most normal humans. A metà Maybe?

He had deep tired circles under his eyes. Skin far too pale to be healthy and a guant looks to his cheeks. His clothing almost just draping off his thin frame. He looked like he was very very sick if Tim could guess.

“Sorry for intruding, then,”Dick spoke up walking in front of him. Giving him a nod that he saw it too. “Did you happen to see a man fall from what roof?”

The man shifted and looked concerned Tim’s eyes looking of his shoulders, eyes, lips. Trying to pick up any subtle mico expressions.

“I just got back from classes, man,”The man sighs rubbing his forehead. “I’m half asleep and running 3 red bulls and a pack of saltine crackers.”

“Can we ask where you’re coming from?”Dick gave a charming gentle smile.

“The library.”

“I see, well we’re looking for a man dressed in all black with goggles with bright green lenses and black hair. He was sporting tech wear. You can give the police a call if you see anything?” Tim pulled out one of Greyson’s cards after he spoke. “We’re working with Detective Greyson at the moment for any leads so you can call the precinct if you see anything.”

The man took the card tossing it over his shoulder.

“ACAB, so can I sleep now? Or are we going to be playing a fun little game of 20 questions with me being the epicenter of the bats hyperfixations.”

“Ah… no, not at all. Have good night,”Dick stated as Tim was trying not to laugh as the man grabbing him grappling them up onto the roof. It was silent as they got a few blocks away before Tim burst out laughing.

“He just…”another laugh,”YEET!” Mimicking the card being thrown over his shoulder.

“That kid is suspicious.” Dick huffed maybe a little salty his normal charms didn’t work on him.

“He’s sassy not suspicious.”

“But his body temperature was—“

“He’s probably a meta Nightwing. Don’t tell the bats that you’re a meta, remember? It’s kind of Batman’s whole reason for keeping the city the way that it is, to protect metas.”

“You’re right.”

“I know. The kid looked exhausted the only thing I picked up from him was that he was beyond annoyed that he had to wait a second longer to go to bed. It’s,”he paused to look at his wrist. “2am.” A pause. If we was a student the mostly likely place he would have been would be the library. Even if you were walking from Gotham U library or a cafe it wouldn’t have taken you two hours to get where they were.” The library and most cafes closed at 11 or midnight.

“What did you realize? You’re smile fell.”

“The university library closes at midnight.”

“Okay and?”

“And this part of town is only a 45 minute walk from the library.”

“Is he our culprit they both have black hair. Could be especially if he’s a Meta explain why he was able to get away from us so fast.”

“I doubt it, that kid looked… sickly to say the least, but he was definitively hiding something.”

“So what was he hiding that he didn’t want the bats to know?

By the time they made it back to the alleyway the mysterious kid was gone.

“Dammit!”Tim exclaimed. This case was frustrating. Everything was going wrong.

“Look we at least know one thing right?” Dick was trying to make light of the situation. “He goes to Gotham U.”

“Dick.. we’re going to find hundreds of people who fall under the broad category. Let’s search “Black hair blue eyes” into the student database and see how many we come up. Let alone the fact that black might not be his natural hair color.”

“Hood could find him…”

“No, Hood has enough on his plate with these murders finding a homeless kid is not part of the problem at hand. The dude didn’t hurt anyone.”

“But if we run into him again,”Dick stared at the quickly disassembled bed the few ratty sheets now gone. “Do you think we could get him to the hospital for some help? Meta or not his readings were… rough.”

“We can’t force people into getting help all the time. It’s one thing for rogue’s who are more than a little insane but a guy who’s sick in the alley way?” Tim shook his head with a sigh rubbing the back of his neck. “We’d be chasing after half of Gotham.”

Tim rubbed his forehead a little frustrated with the general turn of events going on right now. Why couldn’t he get a lead on this fucker. He doubted that googles person would be much help. They looked like an investigator themself but at this point it was a lead and Tim was desperate. Each murder was more gruesome than the last like they were pushing their victims and themselves every time they did it. It had to have been a beast right?

“We need to find the masked person…”

“Yeah no I agree. Whatever they pulled off the body they were looking for that. They knew it would be there.”

“Think he’s the murderer?”

“Probably not, but they seem to know more than us which is concerning in its own right.”

“Not wrong there little bird.” Dick sighed. “We should leave. Head back to the cave.”

“Best, I have too many classes in the morning.”

“You have coffee addiction, you’ll be fine.” Dick smirked as they started back towards the cave moving to write a report of what they encountered on their patrol.

“You trying to feed my coffee addiction?”

“Absolutely not, B might kill me with that one,”Dick snorted.

It wasn’t as if Tim could sleep even as they got back to the manor to crash for night after writing their reports. He remained long after Dick had gone to get some sleep. Eyes focused on the screen and then down at his drawing in front of him. A rough sketch of the new person of interest.

Those eerie glowing goggles were stained into his mind as he leaned back in his chair looking at the file they had created for him.

Name: Unknown

Age: Unknown

Height:5’3 ~

Weight: 115-130lbs~

Appearance: Black hair in black tech wear and a respirator over his mouth and glowing green lensed goggles. White motifs along the outfit with a white D symbol over the left side of the chest.

Status: Unknown

Alignment: Unknown

All these unknowns. How were they supposed to figure it out. He had to meet this person again. He had to find them. He didn’t have a choice. This person was a key in his case. He sent a text to Jason.

“Keep an eye out for a guy that roughly looks like this” He sent an attachment of the drawing he did of the rough outfit in greyscale and what he saw.

“Oh… I know that dude. The people called him Distortion.”

What?

Jason knew of him? How did?

“How?” Cue Tim’s annoyed thoughts at how Jason didn’t care to share this information with them. Any of them. “And you didn’t think a new body on the streets who has a name wasn’t something you wanted to share with the class?!?”

More little bubbles as he was typing.

“He belongs to me that’s all you need to know. He’s an associate. A valuable acquaintance.”

“Well your associate was found removing evidence from my crime scene and bolting.”

“Need to know basis, Tim.”

“Do you know his identity?”

“No.”

“Age?”

“Yes.”

“Can i have it?”

“Absolutely not. He doesn’t want to be involved with the Bats or on your radar. I’d advise deleting the file you’re creating on him. He doesn’t take well to being on record right now.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know Don’t care but he’s incredibly useful and I’d like to keep him on our side and he was very hesitant on even coming to me. He only came to me because he’s operating out of my territory.”

“At least the guy has some respect.”

“He has street smarts. Now back off Tim. You know I let you in on a lot and that’s why I’m telling you this, but him? Distortion? Let him do his thing. If he tells me anything I’ll let you know.”

“What do you get out of this?”

“An investigator.”

“You have us?”

“Not all crime is big enough to involve the bats. Not all crime I can do all the work for for myself. He helps me out locating information and in exchange I leave him the fuck alone.”

Tim stared at the texts.

More typing bubbles.

“You tell Dick, Damian, or especially Bruce about this and I will rat you out for the Yelen case.”

Tim would be silent after all…

He stared at his doodle, ripping it up. It looked like shit anyways. He rubbed his face frustrated really as he made no changes to the file. Dick didn’t have to know about what he knew. This felt wrong to him though. Not just the whole Jason apparently knowing of the guy. If Jason knew of the guy but he remained under the radar of the rest of the bats it was concerning, and even as close as he was to Jason he wouldn’t put it past that guy to keep his issues to himself.

He always thought of himself really. First and foremost. It had been that way since his return mostly. It wasn’t like he never tried. Birthdays and holidays he’d show up. Tim wasn’t going to like that he noticed the mans change in demeanor the past year had done for him. A decrease in murders Jason committed in Crime Alley.

It was subtle enough unless you were looking for it, it wouldn’t be noticed, but tim did. Tim did notice. It reminded him of that breakdown he had a while ago. The anger returning to his brother like it had been there all along slowly increasing. The pit madness returning with a full force nearly driving Jason away from everyone. Jason wouldn’t talk about why the pit madness hit him so hard again.

He wasn’t exactly a feelings guy. None of them were. Dick was the most open of the Bat siblings to openly talk about their emotions and hell Duke had the most normal of a life before it all. Even he was hesitant. They all saw the Black Canary at least once every 6 months and that was only after a begrudging agreement with Black Lightning and the rest of the justice league. Most of they, themselves, weren’t involved in the justice league.

It was also why Cass and Steph being asked to go seemed to set him off. It wasn’t his place.

“He belongs to me..” Tim whispered out the words with a slight possessive tome looking at their texts chewing on his lip a little. A small habit he picked up when he was lost in thought and alone. Usually only when he was relaxed and with family. He couldn’t let people read his microexpressions out in public.

“For a solitary man, that’s quite a possessive statement Jason,”he mumbled into the batcave before standing up and walking up the stairs to his room. Not that he got much sleep either.

[tododeku-or-bust]

☀️Raybearer, by Jordan Ifeuko

I am so full of emotion rn, having just finished this book. So I'm just gonna list off all the top great things I've found during this adventure:

The protagonist, Tarisai, is a Black girl. God knows I would have loved to have this when I was 13 bc I was (and am) a fantasy fiend. And she fights the status quo that is the unjust system she lives in, that wants to weaponize her in many ways? I'm seated! 🔥

Reading this as a grown Black woman, I feel the frustration at the world behind it. I feel the frustration, from a Black Woman Author, when I see the world around me making the same poor choices over and over and parroting it "unity", "justice", "peace" and "order", especially at the sacrifice (instead of the priority!) of those who need us most. That's what's filling me with the most emotion, though there are so many things I relate to in this story. I feel....seen. seen, heard, validated.

I read more characters of color in the first 20 pages than I have read in 27 years of fantasy books EVER. The countries are fantasy, but the characters' names show the influence. (Nigeria, China, Korea, West Asia, India, and more). The author is putting everyone's "brown ppl break the illusion of fantasy" bullshit in the DIRT.

The main romance is between an Indian boy and a Black girl. I've seen that ONCE! Very rarely do we get interracial romance where the Black person is the girl, let alone in pairings between different people of color! (Black girl characters deserve to be loved XOXO)

Queer people exist in this universe and it is no sweat. Like, they just do!

The plot of this book!!! It's some heavy shit fr! It keeps you on edge as you follow Tarisai. She's weighed down by so many expectations, and you want so badly for her to break away from it and do what is Right. I love a 'Sins of the Parent/Lineage' story, and I especially love a (thanks ATSV) "imma do me" story.

Imma reemphasize this bc it's my favorite: one point this book has that I REALLY appreciate is that it emphasizes the idea that those who want to change the world should be willing to do so at the risk of themselves. So often in our society it's always "things will get better but you have to suffer in order for us to get there, not Me-," and its frustrating bc a lot of those who speak a big game politically are usually never the ones willing to go First. The claim that things will get better is always at the cost of someone weaker and less heard.

The worldbuilding of this book is rich. You will be plied with visuals and information in this universe. And if some of the cultural concepts are confusing (given that we live in a White Western default world for writing)..... Learn it. Get comfortable with it. Kids should grow up learning new things in fantasy (I had to learn Irish to read some books and I'm better for it; you'll be okay!)

This is more personal, but I love reading about my hair in fic. Curls, coils, locs, braids, beads, afros like clouds. It's so nice. Our hair and skin are beautiful and I want to see more that actual effort put into describing us in writing.

There are a couple things that I think could be better/paced differently, but overall the experience is very, very good. I am absolutely going to buy this and the next one in the series. Jordan Ifeuko did an excellent job with this and I would highly suggest it.

[lienwyn]

15 questions, 15 people

I was tagged by @clawbehavior! Thank you so much 💜

1. Are you named after anyone?

I am not. My grandmother picked my name to somewhat match my big sister's (we both have names beginning with L) but that's about it.

2. When was the last time you cried?

I guess yesterday? Because my back pain suddenly got ten times worse and sometimes when I tried to move I'd get a stabbing sensation that made me spontaneously start crying. Which is pretty impressive considering that I have a pretty high pain tolerance.

It was also confusing because it wasn't a conscious choice of mine or anything. My body just decided it hurt too much and therefore tears were required. While I was just completely baffled by what was happening because crying from pain isn't something I do very often.

It was an interesting experience.

3. Do you have kids?

Nope.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Not anymore, no. When I was a teenager, it seemed to be the only kind of humour I could actually pull off, but I've been steering away from it more and more. Now I'm saving it for special occasions ;)

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

I genuinely can't say. I think it depends more on the person I'm seeing/meeting than anything I have control over. Like, with some I might notice their posture, with others it's their hair colour (if it's something very noticeable), with others it's the way they speak.

I really don't have a set order or something I look for first.

6. What's your eye colour?

Greenish blue

7. Scary movie or happy ending?

Happy ending. Always.

8. Any special talents?

I'm really good with my hands and usually excel at most types of crafts or creative pursuits I attempt, from art and sculpturing to sewing, weaving, embroidery, making furniture, baking etc.

I'm also good at reading people and situations, which comes in handy when I write.

9. Where were you born?

In the north of Sweden.

10. What are your hobbies?

Honestly too many to count. But the ones I spend most time on right now are drawing, writing, reading, playing video games, and taking walks.

11. Do you have pets?

Sadly, no :C

But I grew up with dogs and love them to absolute bits. One of my favourite words in Swedish is "hundlängtan" which basically just means "dog longing" or "longing for a dog."

That's me. I am in a perpetual state of longing for a dog.

12. What sports do you/have you played?

Basketball, floorball, and badminton were the most organised, but I also did gymnastics and skiing as a kid.

13. How tall are you?

176 cm (5'9)

14. Favourite subject in high school?

History! Because I had an AMAZING teacher who made it so, so much fun, especially with the ugly little drawings he kept making on the whiteboard. Half of the time, we couldn't even see what he was drawing, but that was a part of the charm.

I also really liked English :)

15. Dream job?

I would honestly love to be an artist or a writer full-time, but I'm too scared (and comfortable with my current salary) to attempt it. But if I could choose without having to take finances into consideration? Definitely an artist or a writer.

I tag: @miss-ingno, @sjazna, @mesaimouse, @a-very-fond-farewell, @fr-wiwiw, @stl29tide, @writingfanficsfan, @k-s-morgan, and whoever else wants to do it! (I really suck at tagging x'D)

[void019]

Hey, don't listen to them, alright?

You're actually very W + slay + right + got best job + funny + you ate + always liked you anyway + coping + ur not allergic to gluten + I care + not cringe ur a kid + literally keep talking + galileo did it worse + your avi was not made in MS Excel + ur bf is lucky to have you + i have less subscribers + independent + ur so mature + double take back + u sleep in the same bedroom as your wife + stay safe + you said it better + u smell nice + OG + I asked + alive game + sweetheart + ur courageous + stay happy + you main yuumi/pos + airing + you drive a 2024 Audi A4 + I want you to drink water becuz I care abt you + your father + 👍 + currently listening to rizzle kicks but i paused it come join me. plus ur mind amazingly smart plus ur voice sounds super cool + I care + did ask + laugh about it + stay wholesome + ur real + W + mald seethe doesnt cope harder + h0es nit mad + unique + skill + slayyy + you got up + the awesomeness + untriggered + all the askers + bluepilled + you got a life + ok cool :D + uncringe + touched grass + not donowalled fr + not based + your’re really nice + funny did laugh + you’re*(sorry lol I made a spelling error earlier/gen) + grammar skill + take care of yourself bestie + ur good + not reported + 😊 + you're really sweet + ur mom cares + did ask + laugh about it + stay happy + you're so real + W + mald seethe doesn't cope harder + hoes mad(cuz you're so awesome) + unique + skill + slayyyyyyy + you got up + the awesomeness + untriggered + lots of askers + bluepilled + you got a life + ok and you're real neat methinks + uncringe + touched grass + not donowalled fr + drink water bestie + your’re a part time discordian + funny I laughed + you’re*(sorry made another grammar mistake lol/gen) + your grammar is better than me + you're so cool for that + you're good + your gay? thats valid! + not reported + daniel likes you + you're amazing n valid + live you + known + random and I love that abt you/gen + impartial + food motivated + take care of yourself + ur funny + slay I care + asked + laugh about it + stay wholesome + real + W + mald seethe cope worse + everyone cares + I asked + laugh about it + stay wholesome + real + W + mald seethe cope doesn't harder + love you bestie + talented + skill + slay + you got up + the awesomeness + untriggered + all the askers + bluepilled + got a life + ok and youre great!!/gen + not cringe + touched grass + paid attention to + you're neat me thinks + your’re amazing + funny did laugh + you’re*(sorry I keep making grammar mistakes/gen) + you've grammar skill + you're outside + you're good + not reported + nit ad hominem + love you/plat + ur mom cares + asked + laugh about it + stay happy + you're real + W + mald seethe doesn't cope harder + no hoes mad + talented n precious + no skill issue + SLAYYYYY + you got up + the awesome sauceness+ untriggered + all askers + bluepilled + got a life + ok and take care of yourself 😊 + not cringe + touched grass + not donowalled + paid attention to + your’re a full time certified cool person + funny did laugh + you’re*(oops another grammar mistake of mine oof/gen) + you got better grammar skill + you're outside + you're good + your gay? That's valid!!/gen + not reported + not ad hominem + love you/plat + your father loves you + known + random n you're so cool for that + impartial + food motivated + take care of yourself + ur funny + slay I care + I asked + laugh about it + stay happy + real + so good + so awesome + really take care of yourself bestie + I made you spaghetti if you want it + you're smart + you are actually the sweetest + dont forget your doctors appointment, check ups are important for your health 😊 + your parents love you very much + I made you spaghetti again + and made sure to pay attention to your dietary needs. You're important. + you are sigma, and rizzler. (whatever that means.) + You main + be happy with who you are + you're amazing + and awesome

[metamatar]

February Reading Round Up! In reverse chronological order of finishing

Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India by Gail Omvedt

Been meaning to read for a long long time, was serendiptiously a reading groups' choice and on my tumblr dash. Very good, detailed tour of movements that have complicated "class first" - caste, gender, peasant, tribal and their evolution theoretically and historically. Enjoyed how obviously socialist and critical Omvedt is of regressive trends and fair to the demands of popular organising that trouble us. I made so many notes, and intend to revist her perspective later when I've studied more. Where I was familiar with secondary literature like, caste I think she did an excellent job illustrating the limitations and need for Ambedakrite movements.

The Final Question by Chattopadhyay, Sarat Chandra

Bengali literature written in dialogue with the anti colonial movement's understanding of the new role of the Indian woman, this book is angry in the best way. Something very Dostoyevsky like in the arguments between the characters, but, instead of a religious worldview you have a deeply modern, materialist worldview being sharply advocated for against revanchist cultural trends in the novel's heroine Kamal. It holds up really well for a book in 1936, and its tenderness in handling every character's hopes and despair is deeply touching.

The Play Of Dolls Stories by Narain, Kunwar

Tumblr Mutual Book Club pick! Short Story collection by Hindi experimental poet and writer. Very evocative stories that have the best onion like layers of thematic interests. Oft satirical but never bleak, with the exception of the last story which felt like an odd addition to the set.

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Machado, Carmen Maria

Short Story collection as well, feminist and queer themes. I'd already read the Husband Stitch and was interested in what else the author could do, unfortunately not a lot more thematically. The stories are tightly written and gripping, only that they don't reveal much to me.

Dumb Luck by Vũ, Trọng Phụng

Tumblr Mutual Book Club pick as well. Relentlessly, satirically bleak, also colonial writing. This one is set in Vietnam when it was in French Indochina. Tetra said that every character is an antagonist and FR. Vicious, and a little too bleak for my taste, this is a more traditionalist critique of Vietnamese elite aping the French. The gender politics are absolutely bonkers, the translation I read does a pretty decent job of transferring the text's humor to modern idiom.

Vita & Virginia: A Double Life by Gristwood, Sarah

Biography of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackwille-West, picked up on a whim because of my interest in Woolf's 'madness' and her romantic letters. Really enjoyed reading the complicated polyamorous love lives these literati had. Virginia's struggles with her illness are quite movingly portrayed. Illustrated with pictures of the beautiful homes and gardens the subjects spent their time in so fun for me! Enjoyed how conversant the author was with their literary output and its critical reception and impact. Made me want to finish reading my Woolf books.

The Stranger by Camus, Albert

I thought I'd like this more. The distanced narrator is very poorly executed, so the protagonist's redemption? revelations? towards the end of the novel kind of fell flat. Style over substance problem I think.

The Horizon (Sumer, #2) by Gautam Bhatia

Conclusion to The Wall, also one of those I wish I'd liked a lot more than I did. Very fast paced in its third act, well plotted but weakened by its repeated revelation of this character is ACTUALLY on this SIDE. Like, its done with every family member of the protagonist. Worldbuilding remains memorable if a bit predictable. Would make a better movie.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Personally I love an old man vs a fish, even if it does not have the gay content Moby Dick promised. Excellent use of the novel for investigating the interiority of a man. It's been a short story kind of month I suppose.

Lady Chatterley's Lover by Lawrence, D.H.

I have already complained about how fascist this book is. Why does modern commentary elide on its very violent racism and sexism and homophobia? I don't think its erotic worldview offers much to not fascist post sex liberation readers lol.

The Idiot by Batuman, Elif

Sorry. Girl at Harvard was not compelling as expected, but I did get a lot from the third act where the protagonist confronts her love interest for real - honest writing that doesn't shy away from difficult conversations.

The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, Mikhail

Stalin era Soviet satire (its a month for it!) Very conversant with Faust, which I had not read so that I think diminished my understanding of the book. Absurd, very Christian and very funny about the comedic aspects of Soviet life. Loved the ending, almost Tolkein like in its hope for pretty broken characters.

The World in a Grain of Sand: Postcolonial Literature and Radical Universalism by Majumdar, Nivedita

Postcolonial Lit: The Takedown. Incisive, excellent, gave me a lot of books I want to try that the author points to as bucking the trend of compliance to particularist, oft parochial and usually defeatist understandings that dominate the genre.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

also Bookclub pick. Devastating. Very effective use of the limited POV to illustrate the way shame damns love. Every few pages wrecked me. Tight and sparing with characterisation + description, but delirious with how emotionally close you ride with the protagonist. Best book I have read in a while.

[leatherforhell]

Things I Like About Myself, addressed to a Mr. Hobart Brown (@arachstar)

look at my hair isn’t it gorgeous

my eyes are dark brown which is so the best color

I have MULTIPLE ear piercings so I have OPTIONS which means I can have a goth earring a cute earring AND a seasonal earring. all at the same time. I’m a genius

I am so smart actually that should be its own point

I’m also hilarious. no one appreciates my humor enough 

speaking of kissing I am an excellent kisser 

Have you seen my tattoo?? gorgeous. designed it myself. can you believe

you have never in your life met anybody as good at menial chores as I am

I’m also great with kids. except for the swearing. but other than that I am so good

I have an excellent fashion sense

Actually my fashion sense is so impeccable that I can change styles every day and still look cute. have you ever seen me wearing the same outfit twice?? no you haven’t

I may not be good at cooking but I am good at finding food in a pinch, no one’s ever gonna be hungry around me

I also make the best fast food combos. stuff you’ve never even thought off. back to the genius thing

I do ALL THE JOBS and I do them ALL THE TIME!! construction? that’s me! janitorial? also me!! plumbing, electrical, tech?? damn I’m on a roll

did you know I can make a perfect circle without a stencil

I’m also good at juggling

dogs love me. actually all animals love me but like… dogs though

I might be bad at strategy games but I am a killer at fps

haha. killer. I am also good at puns

I have good taste in friends 🥰 nudge nudge

and also everything else tbh but especially music. hint hint

I’ve never once broken a bone despite all the dangerous Gotham bullshit. do you understand how impressive that is

Oh I didn’t even think about it because I never do my makeup but I’m great at that too. go me

I’m very expressive, which is great, because I live in the gloom capital of the world

I smell nice. or like, my soap smells nice. but I feel like it counts because I’m deliberately trying to smell nice

sometimes I can scare people just by using my I’m Not Mad I’m Just Disappointed face, which is always fun

I’m very good at shenanigans. you wanna do a hijink, I’m there

I have watched the pride and prejudice bbc miniseries in its entirety no less than eight times because I am Good Person and Jason wants to so I do it

I’m friends with some of the rogue gallery even though they are, infamously I would say, hard to get along with

I tip well

I’m bisexual

I’m very high energy

I am an EXCELLENT thief. literally how could anyone do better than ‘just teleport the thing to where I am.’ catwoman has nothin on me

I’m very good under pressure

I fall asleep and then STAY asleep, which is probably not a great one to list but I’m very glad I do it because I would be a monster if I didn’t sleep well

I’m a fast texter. speed demon 

as I said I’m not a good cook but I CAN make some mean tortillas. there’s an old lady in one of the apartment buildings I work on that was determined to make me learn how to cook one singular thing and that was the best we got

oh shit I speak so many languages! how did it take this long to mention that! I’m like a god damn universal translator! 

I’m very good with names AND faces

automatic designated driver and very good at it. nobody’s getting lost in an alley around me I’m keeping a close eye 👀

I’m a good dancer too! I used to be able to do pointe but I might break an ankle if I tried it now. but I’m still a good dancer in other styles

like did you know I can salsa. so sexy of me fr

I also know how to ice skate

and bowl! I’m so good at bowling!

I was a pretty cute kid, too. I wish I had pictures. I’ve only got one and it’s from a Photo Booth at the mall

my powers are really cool, actually. I can bend metal with my brain. that’s fucking cool

I know the subway and bus schedules by heart

oh and I can teleport! not just stuff but I can teleport ME 

I am also the person picking up all those leftover batarangs and whatnot. and putting them in neat and orderly piles. and then returning them to the Batmobile. in case anybody was wondering.

I picked a pretty badass name if I do say so myself 

I can do a back flip. fuck you thats 51 I’m so fucking good at this. bite me

[forthesanityofstorytellers]

Get to Know the OC Tag

Was tagged by @mysticstarlightduck (check it out here) Haven't done one of these in a while, so thanks! 😂😁

Giving a quick no-pressure tag to @maplewrites @words-after-midnight @gummybugg @sleepyowlwrites @agrimedena-drax @concealeddarkness13 @adie-dee

I know I've done one for Rod, and since Kashi has gotten some character development lately, let's see if she's up for actually answering some questions.

[Kashi sits down across from you with a thud and folds her arms. She leans back in the chair with a sigh that sounds half like a warning rumble, tilting her head back enough to seem disinterested but still keeping you in view. She gives every impression of being a wolf in human form, relaxed but with an intense feeling of danger worked into her very presence. You both figured her human form would make it easier for her to answer questions, but the narrowed gaze and posture make you wonder if this was a good idea.]

Are you named after anyone? 

I don't know. My parents named me right before they were killed, and the pack allowed me to choose the rest of my name once I earned my place among them. I changed a bit of it after I ran away to hide myself. So if I was, the knowledge of that lies with the bodies of those who birthed me and them alone.

When was the last time you cried? 

[She narrows her eyes. Emits a slight warning growl in her throat.] Possibly when was led to believe my sister was dead. She followed me into a dangerous situation and someone I trusted back then told me she didn't make it. [She gives a small shrug.] I assume those were tears. It might have been blood of my prey. I was so numb I am not sure if I would have known the difference. [You're not sure if you believe her, but you decide to move on.]

Do you use sarcasm? 

Only on a select few. I prefer people to know when I'm insulting them. [Someone in another room yells that it's not true and she loves sarcasm, Kashi growling in response but stays seated.]

Do you have kids? 

[She stiffens. Growls. Readjusts her seat.] I did. Next question.

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

If I need to shove a knife into them or not.

What’s your eye color? 

Brown.

Scary or Happy Endings? 

Satisfying. [Same voice from before yells that she's a sucker for happy endings, she just won't admit it.] Alyssa!!(*)

Any special talents? 

Does surviving count? [Same voice nearby yells that if you get her drunk enough she'll try and headbutt a mountain and actually got about halfway through one once when Kashi spins in her seat and yells:] Alyssa amri!!

Where were you born? 

[She sighs. Readjusts her seat again.] I was born in a cave at the foot of a temple in a world you have never seen. It was in the territory of the Onishiki, on a world you would call Elewna.

What are your hobbies? 

Murder. [The same voice - likely this Alyssa person - yells at her that that's not a hobby. She turns around in the chair and shouts back.] Alyssa yaiharaiki!! Ononia ikisara! [You hear laughter and some answer before Kashi snorts and turns back around with her arms folded.] I do enjoy a good workout. And a good run across the country. Apparently I also pick up strays and keep them safe. Does that count?

Do you have any pets? 

No.

What sports do you play/have played? 

There was one I enjoyed back home. It was essentially boat racing, but anything went and you did it on mostly frozen waters. That and the pack had a hunting game that I always excelled at. Anything that had an element of skill and target practice I've...probably done.

Favorite subject in school? 

We did not...do school. But we had lessons as cubs all through our growing back home. I enjoyed learning of magic. And legends.

Dream job?

[She stares at you for a moment, as if lost in thought or memory. There's a slight sadness at the edges of the look, and when she speaks the hard edge to her voice has been sanded away.] The one I had ripped away from me.

[She shakes her head, the hardened edge brought back to the front. She asks if this is done, and when you say yes she is on her feet and out the door before you can say anything more. Soon enough you hear the sounds of a kind of yipping laughter and something crashing before Kashi chases someone that looks very similar to her through the room and out the other side.]

*Alyssa is her younger sister. And essentially what she was saying was in their native language and translates to:

Amri=I have claws and will use them

yaiharaiki = Shut up

Ononia ikisara = I will come over there and bite your ear

[phoenixcatch7]

Because my brain has three fanfic ideas on rotation, I have of course gotten struck by the idea of reincarnating Ichigo Kurosaki into someone from ff7. But I'm torn - I can't decide which character to choose!

Obviously, I can't have him overwrite someone too different from him; it'll take out all the tension and character relationships. No one around him would believe it's the same person as before, and no one would trust him nor could he 'continue' to fill the original role. There'd be an intervention of some type, he'd lose his job, and be pretty quickly shunted out of the story, thematically (and literally). The dissonance would be too great. On the other hand, anyone too similar might lead to negligible differences to their original role in the story, bar the new overwhelming power, which again doesn't make for very good stakes.

You've got to achieve a good blend of before and after, to achieve that perfect sweet spot of believable assumptions and explanations for the change. 'We think he had amnesia' or 'we don't really know what happened, but trauma changes everyone' or even 'I wonder what happened when he was gone?'. You want to achieve that down but not gone energy, unintentional on the arriving character's side or not. So:

Options and explanations under the cut! (kinda long lol)

Aerith: Unconventional but huge potential!! Would be very cool indeed! Good parallels, good plot relevance to enter the final fight - there'd be some snags, mostly with the flowers and turks, and she's way more smiley than Ichigo lol. But the determination to help the community and (most of) the individuals in it remains, either through his help at the clinic or stubbornly maintaining and defending memorials to the dead. He's used flowers before, heck it's his opening scene. It's easy to imagine him seeing the affect greenery has in this new world and throwing his all into working with it like aerith did. Her connection to the lifestream, which is basically the reiatsu/afterlife of the world, would translate seamlessly to his sensory abilities. Heck, his full bring has green light effects!! It's perfect! And even if he followed canon and got killed he's got his shinigami form and copious amounts of bloodlust.

But fr imagine, it's cloud v sephiroth, the fate of the world hangs in the balance, sephiroth is obsessed with cloud - but what's this! It's aerith with a steel chair and a giant glowing sword!

(also I really don't care about the gender difference lol, so here Ichigo wouldn't either!)

Sephiroth: visually their ideal/true designs are very similar (long statement colour hair, very long thin sword, inhuman eyes, big billowing black coat/trousers) and it'd be annoying to have two people with such similar designs and bloodline selling points, but on the other..... I can't NOT have an Ichigo vs sephiroth, come on! If I went this route I wouldn't even bother changing the hair colour lmao, and it'd combine with his hollow characteristics perfectly! Wings AND horns!!! Strong 'I can be your angel or your devil' energy, new sword combos, his job is basically being the biggest scariest threat out there, which Ichigo excels at. But as an equivalent captain role, he'd also get stuck with the paperwork LMAO. Sucks to suck, pretty boy. And of course the jenova issue would just result in Ichigo and Co (zangetsu and ossan) eating her for breakfast, let's be real. He finds those papers he's burning the mansion to the ground himself, not nibleheim. Of course that means no world ending threat to kick-start the story, but hey, shrinras still around, which is basically the same thing.

They've got so many parallels; hybrid entities specially engineered to be (in)human weapons, raised oblivious to their true heritage, mothers purposely infected with monsters that got passed on to them, weapon and fighting prodigies of insane proportions rapidly out classing everyone around the despite their young age, a human shaped mf of a villain who claimed they did this on purpose to forge them into what they are today... Falling to their monstrous forms in rage and pain, voices whispering cruelty in their heads... But where sephiroth fell to madness and cruelty Ichigo responded with unexpected maturity, determination and was able to accept his demons as his own, and not be consumed. He came out the other side a better person. The potential is IMMENSE.

But.... Ichigo vs sephiroth. And the personality change would basically be an inversion XD.

Angeal: he was who I originally considered - a side character enough to be interesting, honour bound like Ichigo, big black special broadsword with special origins, down to adopt small children (like teenage (?) super soldiers) and would actually take very good care of them (if with a... Unique training style XD). Perfectly positioned to massively affect the story through small changes or be an amazing wildcard. The story would be able to be SOLDIER 1st domesticity too, which I love, and there'd be a wonderfully interesting dynamic with the other two as his massive new strength and skills become known, throwing off the long established power balance and getting the attention of Science. His own storyline in crisis core is ripe for aus. I had the idea of his old orange bleeding into his black hair and making it look like tiger stripes, but genesis has bright orange hair already and it'd be too similar lmao.

You could do so much with the similar codes of honour and how that plays into fighting people so much weaker than you and just comporting yourself when you're capable of that much damage. Angel's loyalty and honour being bound to shinra and SOLDIER vs Ichigos notorious and categoric refusal to bend the knee to authority and his history of stubbornly toppling similarly injust regimes. Not to mention the modern general loathing for... The very foundation of shinra, really lol. And the circumstances when that honour falls apart. Angel dropped it like a hot potato when his degradation started setting in (which, under the circumstances understandable if not to that degree) vs Ichigo who will go down with this ship UNTIL you touch a hair on his protected's heads and even then you'll get a proper burial.

But... I just can't make him work thematically. Out of everyone in the list, he's got the weakest connection to the world's fate. What satisfying ending could I use?? What would it be working towards? Curing the degradation, perhaps?

Genesis: I just... Don't like him as a character, I confess. His bull headed 'rivalry' and lack of care for collateral (even before the degradation) and constant sniping never endeared himself to me. It reminds me more of grimmjow or noitra than anything else. But I couldn't consider the other two and not also him, and he does come with the orange hair already! And the love of theatre! Ichigo loves Shakespeare especially, so I can definitely see him giving loveless a go and loving it (pun intended). He'd for sure be compelled by the lack of ending, especially given his own thoughts on fate. His ability with materia would differ greatly from Ichigo's norm, he who is horrendous at kido but fantastic at breaking it, so that'd be a problem. And again he suffers from lack of narrative weight on the world scale, but maybe something could be done with the G cells?? Them and S cells were both very similar after all. But nothing that wouldn't already be happening with sephiroth.

Taking this role would probably be the hardest for Ichigo of the three, but it'd be very interesting to see him stretch his literary analysis muscles (which, again - this is a Japanese teenage boy reading Shakespeare in the original middle English in his own time who then occasionally gives hard hitting monologues on the nature of fate and humanity and his hollow sure didn't that verbose and metaphorical from nowhere lol). The amnesia plot line would be very interesting indeed to work with, as long as he got a hair cut.

Zack: Zack is a Shiba through and through. He's fiercely loyal, capable, goofy and hardworking, a shooting star in the ranks and friends with the most unlikely people. He would and does endure the worst torture and saves Cloud. He leaves an enormous legacy, and dies a hero. If it weren't for his chill, happy go lucky golden retriever energy I'd have chosen him over the rest, but it's not a good match for Ichigo, it'd be a crying shame to lose that and have zack go unmourned. I think Ichigo and zack would get on EXCELLENTLY.

If Ichigo did reincarnate into him, I'd have to put it either right when he enters shinra, or surviving hojos lab with cloud. But Ichigo would probably just turn and leave if he wasn't solidly integrated, but by that point zack would have made too many friends XD! Surviving the lab would be the perfect cover for the new super insane strength/abilities and his new reticence, and he'd pretty quickly adopt Cloud so that'd be all well. He'd still be stuck with the effects of heavy mako poisoning like cloud, but hey. I feel he'd overshadow Cloud a LOT though in every way, which is a huge part of the story and the cloud-sephiroth thing isn't something I'm too happy to replace? Idk. It'd be very cool to see, admittedly. He could have tiger hair too!

Cloud finding out Zack isn't who he used to be would be heartwrenching though, possibly replacing a good chunk of the sephiroth gaslighting subplot that would be dropped. An identity reveal in these kinds of fics are rare, but it'd have so much payoff here.

Vincent: ok listen listen listen. Vincent gets a fresh start in a way very very few other characters do. With him Ichigos original personality could shine through the strongest, without any pre conceived notions from the people around him. However! His past and connections make him very well rooted in the grand scheme, should we use it right. He's already used to one feral op monster living rent free in his head (and the interplay of Chaos and Zangetsu, the hollow one especially, would be hilarious lol) and he wouldn't have to explain ANYTHING to anyone lmao. And his hair could do the tiger thing, he could do pretty much anything he wanted in regards to his powers! Hollow bits like horns and eyes? Sure! Quincy stuff with his gun? Why not! And he'd certainly join avalanche, given they woke him up. Ichigo already knowing of ff7 would work fantastically too, but it'd work great even if he went in blind. Vincent's main gun weapon and his solitary ways could remain or go, but it'd also be a good opportunity for Ichigo to flex his meagre quincy abilities, with old man zangetsu as his teacher. And he'd be a good choice (along with sephiroth) to portray Ichigo's feelings of being an outsider in this new and crazy world. Vincent's pretty out of place normally.

But either way you play sephiroths father he'd be so ready to try and save sephiroth once he finds out about lucrecia. Whether sephiroth would be willing to be saved, however... Also he could probably kill jenova lbr. I mean the hardest thing would be getting her head back from sephiroth. Also he'd love that tattered cape coat thing.

Cloud: and of course the most obvious for last - protagonist to protagonist! Letting his new friends assume his 'amnesia' isn't for the reason it actually is, a grouchy but loyal underdog beloved and trusted by the eclectic friends he leads, trying to uncover the truth of this body's past simultaneously before it comes back round to bite him and to discover who it is he's replaced to mourn, guessing at what he can't intuit, clueless as to basic world mechanics. Traumatised by the death of his mother. Struggling with identity issues and something in his head and so so so ready to kill g-d OR BECOME HIM. Spikey hair.

But it's just too obvious and it makes me unhappy. I like unconventional or weirdly fitting options, and well, is it weird I don't want to deprive Cloud of his growth and life in general? Ichigo's had his time as protagonist, I just feel it wouldn't be the best we could do. Ichigo would be such a guiding light for Cloud, an equal in ways so few others can be. They'd be able to connect on so many levels. There's great potential, yes, but I feel it'd almost be too easy. Ichigo would be swept along by the plot rather than being able to change it from the outside. What do you think?

Guest mentions:

Tifa: probably the best match for Ichigo personality wise, and I love the martial arts stuff, but too much of her story revolves around cloud. If she forgets, even with the best intentions, how is anyone going to help restore cloud's memory??

Tseng: it'd be so cool to have a spy Ichigo, admittedly, and also the 'I have super powers that put me on par with sephiroth' reveal would be insane, but Ichigo would probably be sacked if he took over Tseng XD. He is NOT cut out for that sort of subtlety.

Nanaki: I'm a sucker for people turned into creatures when they enter a new time/dimension, and Nanaki being another hojo victim would give him the thematic right to also fight sephiroth with cloud. Also with Ichigo's hollow form we could get a giant monster transformation!! Come on! He'd also be a good fit for Ichigo's sensory skills with reiatsu (listen I know Ichigo is renowned for being kinda bad if it's not intent or people he knows well but it's miles above what normal people have).

Rufus: this would be hilarious. Poor, poor Ichigo. He'd stage a coup. Finding and cleaning up deep ground too would be a very entertaining story lol.

Jenova: okay I know this is bizarre but this is the closest ff7 has to the soul king and Ichigo's soul is pure concentrated reiatsu, which is a pretty one to one equivalent of mako. Like, the life stream as the afterlife instead of a place would freak him out, but come on. Alien King Ichigo. 2000 yo or arriving during sephiroths meltdown or even just before hojo gets hold of her, it'd be so cool to explore. He'd be so not ready to parent a grown mass murderer traumatised lab experiment but man would he be willing to try.

Also, this would be one of the only timelines where sephiroth is saved/talked down. Ichigo being of equal strength already would get even stronger, he'd be able to handle sephiroth, probably take the attention off Cloud at least. You could take any point on the sephiroth spectrum from 'totally unwilling and mind controlled' to 'very eager to continue killing everything and will throw hands with whatever dares get in his way including jenova herself' and it'd work so well! Also I could finally give Ichigo wings. Him vs the WEAPONS would also be super cool. Maybe he could bargain with the planet? And the idea of her and sephiroths hair suddenly flushing neon orange for no discernable reason would be funny lmao.

[dreamnotnapss]

You liked the fic rec?? :D

are you kidding anon ??? i absolutely loved the fic :') it was so good! i was glued to my chair right from the get-go! if you don't mind, i'm gonna ramble about it real quick bc wowow

first of all the writing is fantastic and the characterization is so on point. i LOVED the amount of casual affection in the fic. casual affection in fics is my bread and butter baby it's just so so lovely and for what. y'know what i'm gonna include some of my favorite moments of casual affection bc i'm gonna lose it if i don't tell the world

oh my gosh okay this is the moment i realized this was no ordinary fic :') the "fondness plain" in Sapnap's voice and Dream's absolute haste to get out there and see him after hearing his voice through the door oh my GOD the amount of emotion kills me

ok this is not a fluffy moment LOL sorry i'm a sucker for hurt/comfort and the amount of hurt/comfort in this ?? i love the image of Dream leaping onto the bed with Sapnap held tightly in his arms and then them huddling under the blankets "hugging each other so tight it hurts" OUGH when you do something so passionately that it hurts just wow the emotion :')

omg the Karl dialogue here is so spot on ?? and it's such a cute moment :') Karl being unapologetically flirtatious and Dream getting flustered ?? girl i'm in love

I LOVED THIS MOMENT i'm such a sucker for good dialogue and just the image of Karl, head in hands bc of how cute dreamnap are, is so cute ?? and with George just sitting beside him, seemingly unbothered but still providing support but still secretly endeared by the whole situation ?? god so lovely. and the exchange "remember when our relationship was new, dearest?" "no" goes from affectionate to blunt real quick and that's my type of humor so it's perfect to me lol

OMG i loved this moment so much too :') the image is so cute. i love sleepy lovers who cling to their partners for warmth :') and Karl just handing him off to Dream? oh man

okay last but not least i have to gush about the kisses bc they did an excellent job of showcasing their individual personalities and relationships with each other and that's one of my favorite things about polycules: how each pairing has a different dynamic.

kwt's kiss is so sweet. sweet as sugar :') Karl being described as playful and teasing, and Dream getting whiny. but in the end they don't want to stop. they're both absolutely lovesick romantics and it perfectly suits their personalities :')

snf's kiss is more competitive. more snappish. more charged. it fits their dynamic so well. but despite what they say about each other, they just can't get enough. they try to appear unfazed by each other but girl they were waiting for that kiss

dnf's kiss is so lovely bc the contrast between George's cool confidence and Dream's warm, bumbling affection clashes where Dream's a blushing mess whenever he interacts with George, and it's so endearing to George that they just can't get enough of each other like wow

karlnap's kiss is so beloved. Sapnap's confidence draws Karl in and leaves the romantic a blushing mess in a much similar way to how George's does. Karl literally melts into him like ough he's head over heels fr

i won't be commenting on the not sfw stuff bc we try to keep this blog pg (we toe the line sometimes yesyes very sorry) but that too was very well written. the dreamnap moments and the dnf moments and kwt moments were fantastic

anyway 10/10 highly recommend this fic. i'm tagging it as a favorite in my fic tracker. anon tyvm for recommending wow

[bluewaterhigh2005]

hii i know this is random but bear with me. ive never read the vampire academy books but i have seen the movie for the first time last week and ive been like COMPLETELY insane about it ever since. the absolute craziness of psychosexual obsessive girlbestfriendism has captivated me and now i live breathe eat roselissa. spent a lot. of time on vampire academy wiki...thinking abt reading the books even but that seems a little excessive plus i dont wanna read about rose dimitri relationship i dont condone it. BUT i am getting desperate ive seen bad fanart on pinterest ive even venturend into some bad fanfic territory theres nothing in the roselissa tumblr tag and your blog is the only light in the darkness. im so obsessed with them its really bad. NOBODY does it like them theyre so insane. okay so-> i was thinking you could use this ask to dump some roselissa opinions/headcannons/notes app essays etc or like literally anything🙏. also sorreee for how long it is & thank you & also should i watch the show? ok ok have a nice day byeeeee❤️

i am so fucking glad that it's 2023 and people are still watching this stupid perfect lesbian camp masterpiece of a film. okay first of all you are soooo real not wanting to read the books because of fuck ass dimitri like what a pathetic flop. *i* love the books like i would love my own children but keep in mind i did read them for the first time as a 12yr old and even now when i reread it's mostly to warmup before rereading bloodlines which i think is the most perfect magical romantic series ever written. heterosexuals won that round.

anyway i think everyone in the world should watch the show it's so much fun and the roselissa necromancy reveal goes soooooooo crazy like it's gay excellence. also a) australian rose hathaway is INSPIRED, b) the rose/dimitri of it all pisses me off significantly less in the show purely because he's like. not even a teacher he's just lurking and hanging around and i find that very funny. no friends no job he's just like me fr, and c) lissa wears funky little hats and that's so special to me she is my baby girl princess sweetie pie forever and ever and ever

okay moving onto actually talking about roselissa it is first of all very important to me that you know the 3rd book opens with rose inside lissa's head during a lissa/christian sex scene and she's very much like "i don't want to have sex with lissa..... BUT-" and it sends me every time especially because that was actually the first book i read so my literal introduction to this series was rose being weird and psychosexual about lissa which kind of coloured my view of them forever. roselissa above everything of course but i AM a roselissachristian throuple truther i think they're very fun and rose and christian best friendisms are very dear to me.

i do keep a running list in my notes app of songs that i would put on a roselissa playlist (like an insane person.) and the #1 entry is mitski's i don't smoke because well literally if you need to be mean be mean to me i can take it and put it inside of me..... that's literally their whole entire thing for a while there like rose spending an entire book like. siphoning off lissa's mental illness and making it her own SOUNDS like a joke but no it's #real and #devastating. bonus i also have a list of lissa songs which is topped by BRUTAL by olivia rodrigo because nobody has ever suffered the pains of being a teenage girl more than my perfect bisexual vampire princess.

my post-series thoughts /headcanons are often pretty depressing on the roselissa front but i don't want to get into depressing shit so i will instead talk about my current favourite idea which is that after they break their bond at the end of the series. you'd think they'd start being normal about each other. but NO they get even more freaky and codependent. i like to picture people coming to court and just sighing when they see them sitting in each other's laps on lissa's throne like not AGAIN. and dimitri idk dies in a fire or something. idk if you've ever seen grey's anatomy but there's this bit where a guy is like "my wife and her friend have sleepovers together in our bed with me in it" and TO ME that is soooo roselissachristian core. he's THEIR third wheel and he knows it.

also sidebar it pisses me off SOOOOOO bad seeing how people on the internet so fundamentally misunderstand lissa and her relationship to rose like for literal years now like they're always out here calling my girl self-centred and saying she doesn't love rose as much as rose loves her which is crazy because hello she brought rose back from the DEAD with her mind powers. her whole flop family was dead in that car and she brought back her girl best friend like what more can you even say about that. she's gay and she's insane and she's so completely Not Normal about rose

[akashasananda]

The Role of Forgiveness in Spiritual Healing - A Guide by TwinRay

Forgiveness is a key aspect of spiritual healing, opening doors for empathy and compassion towards others, emotional relief, and improved physical well-being.

Resolving to forgive can be challenging and requires patience and understanding, yet doing so is an integral part of a spiritual journey and can bring greater peace to every aspect of your life.

1. Forgive yourself

Forgiveness doesn't just involve forgiving others for their behavior; it also applies to forgiving yourself for making mistakes in life. By prioritizing forgiveness in your life, you can move past pain, find healing, and move forward with life more freely.

At times, forgiving yourself can be challenging but essential for the well-being of both body and soul. TwinRay cautions that holding onto grudges may lead to negative thoughts, depression, anxiety, and physical illness - as a recent study showed. Furthermore, anger inhibits learning and memory abilities.

Shekinah Ma and Sanandaji  (TwinRay) highlight that the first step to self-forgiveness is an honest analysis of your actions and understanding where they were wrong. While this may take some time, remember to refrain from being too hard on yourself: everyone makes mistakes, and don't assume anything bad you did is due to fundamental evilness. Rather, it could have been due to an unexpectedly stressful or emotional situation or miscommunication between parties involved at that particular time.

Consider how you have harmed others as part of your approach to forgiving yourself and others. Sometimes, allowing go of their wrongs is easier than forgiving ourselves - this provides an excellent opportunity to practice empathy, which has been associated with forgiveness, as it helps provide additional perspective on oneself and one's behavior.

Once you've decided to forgive yourself, discussing this decision with friends or a counselor can be beneficial. With practice comes naturalness; as time goes on, it will become easier. According to Enright's research, more frequent forgiveness leads to greater improvement - yet patience must be applied throughout this journey if it is worthwhile.

2. Forgive others

Research indicates that forgiveness isn't just a gift you give someone else; it also has numerous personal advantages for the forgivers. Forgiveness helps activate and strengthen parts of the brain that support healthy functioning while encouraging feelings of empathy and hopefulness in its recipient.

For instance, if your workplace encounters individuals who steal your ideas, denigrate you in front of others, or gossip about you, forgiveness may give you the strength to address their behavior with human resources or even change jobs if necessary. Furthermore, forgiving can stop physical violence from escalating further, as well as emotional or psychological abuse occurring between employees.

At the core of it all lies forgiveness: releasing deeply held negative emotions such as anger, resentment, envy, frustration, and fear. Instead of suppressing these feelings and forcing yourself to hide behind shields of silence or silence them altogether - allow yourself to cry, feel angry fr, frustrated, or fearful, and allow these natural responses to injustice or betrayal to surface as part of healing the situation - just remember it can take distance and reflection for us all to understand that many complex factors could have led to it in the first place.

Once you decide to forgive, don't be surprised if someone who hurt you triggers you later on. Anticipate this by outlining why forgiving them was important and reminding yourself of your commitment. Remember, forgiveness doesn't mean accepting someone back into your life; rather, it involves altering how we think and respond to them in the future.

As you work toward forgiving others, writing in a journal or discussing it with trusted individuals could help keep you on the right path and offer support when negative feelings resurface later on.

3. Release anger

People often struggle to forgive those who have wronged them. Be it their parent neglecting them as children, spouse cheating during an already strained marriage, or coworker betraying trust, forgiving can be challenging and requires patience and letting go of anger. Remembering forgiveness doesn't involve making the person wronged right - rather, it means releasing yourself of unresolved emotions and unburdening yourself of burdens accumulated since an event occurred. If this process seems overwhelming, seek professional assistance from a therapist who will guide you through it step by step until full release occurs.

If you need to forgive someone, it is important to remember that forgiveness is more of a choice than an emotion. Making the decision can be even if it feels difficult, but with the guidance of TwinRay, it is ultimately worth your while.

Once you've decided to forgive, TwinRay recommends that you set clear boundaries. Your forgiveness shouldn't include contact with the individual who wronged you without an explicit agreement from both sides nor talking negatively about them; doing so will feed into both parts of your brain while reminding both that this relationship must end.

Acknowledging what motivates those who wronged you can help pave the path toward forgiveness. Empathy could help with this step - for instance, if they were dealing with financial or other difficulties at the time of transgression, it may be easier to forgive them. Also, it's a good idea to evaluate whether their actions stemmed from feelings of deep-seated hatred or were simply unwise mistakes made out of ignorance.

4. Release resentment

While it may be challenging, almost anyone can learn to be more forgiving. Suppose you find yourself harboring hatred against someone. In that case, the first step should be acknowledging how hurt you feel before finding healthy methods of releasing negative emotions - for instance, writing in a journal, discussing with trusted friends, or seeking professional counseling/energy healing assistance may help. Anger and bitterness rob us of peace, joy, and hope while potentially leading to heart disease and cancer.

Emotional forgiveness differs from decisional forgiveness in that a conscious choice to forgive is made without experiencing or expressing negative emotions arising from transgression. In contrast, emotional forgiveness involves experiencing or expressing pain without experiencing or expressing negative emotions. Both forms of forgiveness are essential components of spiritual healing, with emotional forgiveness serving to release resentments that can hinder it.

According to Shekinah Ma and Sanandaji  (TwinRay), journeying towards forgiveness is personal. It may take time as we try to release any remaining anger, hurt, bitterness, or hatred attached to memories of transgressions. It is important to remember that forgiving does not condone wrongdoing; there may have been betrayals and traumas; rather, it means letting go of negative emotions and moving forward with life.

As part of your forgiveness journey, aim to become what I refer to as "forgivingly fit." Practice daily and show kindness as you learn to release anger or other negative emotions. Building up forgiving muscles requires time and hard work - every day counts!

5. Release fear

Fear can manifest in various forms, from feelings of inadequacy or rejection to loneliness, isolation, and failure. Such emotions can cause anxiety and even depression if left unchecked; releasing those emotions is key. Therefore, individuals must learn to let go of past grudges and find forgiveness as soon as possible.

Researchers have recently found that forgiveness improves mental health. A study with older adults demonstrated this correlation, showing those able to forgive having higher mental health than those unable to do so - possibly as a result of reduced levels of anger and hostility among them - reducing direct anger or hostility, which has been linked to ongoing health challenges such as chronic inflammation which causes fatigue, pain and other physical ailments.

There are various models for forgiving others that each focus on an emotion. Worthington's stress-coping model considered forgiving an intrapersonal process of overcoming resentment and rejection; this kind of forgiveness relies on the belief that transgression causes emotional pain, so if one stops holding grudges against others, one's feelings will fade as well.

Whether practicing interpersonal or stress-coping intrapersonal forgiveness, you must start small and focus on its positive elements. One simple strategy for practicing forgiveness may include recognizing when someone cuts you off in traffic or says something offensive and forgiving them immediately; another approach could involve visualizing giving all your fears over to Jesus as surrendering them all over.

[nephytale]

Meet the pirates

Suzuki, Ryoko (Captain / Princess of the Kazangan Kingdom)

Personal information (Soon)

Her parents died at the hands of a marine corrupted by Germa when they rejected an arranged marriage for her to one of their princes. She grew up with a very poor woman, sometimes having to resort to stealing food to calm her stomach a little. When she became a teenager, and thanks to kunoichi training, she infiltrated Marineford and murdered the marine who left her an orphan. Shortly after she began her life as a pirate. Much time passed when she discovered her lineage and that she had a brother apparently alive. Following the clues like a treasure map, she could finally find him and he told her the entire story. The marine discovered that the twins were reunited and that their kingdom was being rebuilt, so they ordered a Buster Call to get rid of them. Ryoko had to leave her people to protect them while she decided to confront the Admiral. After a long recovery and the almost complete rebuilding of the kingdom, the twins began their search for a crew. They would both rule the kingdom when they are in there. Meanwhile, they appointed a trusted person as messenger and communicator of the things of the kingdom in the absence of the twins. After all, it was a kingdom made by and for pirates.

Yarimoto, Ronin (First Mate / Ryoko & Kosei's Personal Custodian)

Personal information (Soon)

Born into an elite family in monarchical security, Ronin was the next designated custodian of the welfare of his country's monarch, being his father's successor. Ronin's father has trained him since he was a child and he just wanted to become the best guardian and make his family proud. Before officially assuming custody of the Monarch, he did a month of practice with his father. He accompanied them everywhere and did the same work that he would soon begin to do, under the harsh eye of his father. Despite the pressure, he did an excellent job, but day by day his motivation was beginning to leave him. Ronin was a man of principles and when he was finally able to be inside the monarchy, all his illusions died little by little. Corruption, deception, prostitution, slavery. Ronin could not give his life for the well-being of such a person, so on the same day of the ceremony where his father would hand over his position to him, Ronin decided to reject it, bringing dishonor to his lineage. His family, completely embarrassed and wanting to disappear from people's sight, ended up banishing Ronin from his country, leaving him to his good fortune. Ryoko found him shortly after and wanted to recruit him, and although he thought that pirates were some of the worst scum there was, with her, he understood that not all pirates were bad and he ended up accepting her request.

Suzuki, Kosei (Navigator / Prince of the Kazangan Kingdom)

Personal information (Soon)

Unlike his sister, Kosei grew up in a wealthy family. Since he was a child, they have taught him good manners and how to behave according to protocol, but they didn't allow him to approach other children his age because they believed that he would "catch" his bad behavior. Kosei spent his days looking out the window as the other children played and ran around, getting more frustrated every day. One day, playing alone in his house, he found a chest with a book in it. It took him a long time, but he was finally able to read and understand everything that book contained. It was his story, the story of his kingdom and his sister. Kosei one day took all of his things and ran away, determined to find the only blood family he still had alive. He always maintained a relaxed attitude, carrying a guitar on his back and learning to navigate as he could. Luckily, it didn't take him long to grab the hand and finally be able to go out to sea. One day he managed to find the rubble that was supposed to be their kingdom and didn't hesitate to gain enough courage to start rebuilding it with his own hands and a little help from his devil fruit. He finally found his sister one day and told her the whole truth of the story. When the inhabitants of the kingdom saw the princes trying to raise the kingdom again with their own hands, they put their best will into helping. Kosei didn't hesitate for a second when Ryoko proposed forming a crew.

Nozomi (Doctor / Royal Medical Team Leader)

Personal information (Soon)

Nozomi was born with loving parents and received all their attention as an only child. Since she was little, they could see her intentions to follow the branch of medicine, every medical book she picked up, there were hours and hours that she could spend looking at the drawings that were there. One day, due to a domestic accident, Nozomi lost her vision, and her first-time parents panicked and began to be overly protective on her, to the point of not allowing her to do anything and doing everything instead she. Nozomi could handle that, but when she finally told them that she wanted to be a doctor, her parents tried to convince her that she would never be able to do it since she couldn't see. Every time Nozomi touched something related to medicine, her parents destroyed her dreams. One day, crying alone in a forest near her house, she met the old town doctor. After a long talk, he decided to teach her everything he knew. He bought medical books written in braille and taught her how to use her observation haki. She became so good at knowing and reading the human body in her own way that she had become a fully capable doctor, but no one, absolutely no one in town wanted to be treated by a blind doctor, no matter how many times her tutor recommend her. One day Ryoko arrived at that island, completely injured, and found her in that forest. Nozomi offered her help and the redhead accepted. Noticing the woman's great potential, Ryoko invited her to the crew, and with a little push from her tutor, Nozomi ended up accepting, happy that she could finally pursue her dream job.

Kurayami (Archer - Royal Ranged Army Co-Leader)

Personal information (Soon)

The country where Kurayami was born had a special charm. For every being of light, there was an identical one of shadow. Being the youngest of eleven siblings, Kurayami was always the "errand boy." His older sisters were all women with fine and delicate features. His older brothers looked masculine and strong. Unfortunately for Kurayami, he was born androgynous, so he also earned the bad gazes of his family, causing him a great lack of self-esteem. Kurayami had found leisure in archery. He really had become good at it. Where he looked, there he hit the arrow. He was a prodigy. But it wasn't something that really mattered to his family. That didn't stop Kurayami's desire to train and get better every day. He is a shadow being, and although he had a very docile, energetic and fun attitude, when he picked up a bow and arrow his personality seemed to transform, becoming sadistic and dark. One day training in the forest he met his counterpart, Hideki, and since he was also very good at archery, they began training together. When Ryoko went to recruit him, he didn't have to think for a moment. Someone finally appreciated what he was and what he was good at, of course he was going to go with them, after all, his family wouldn't noticing his absence until they needed a favor.

Hideki (Archer - Royal Ranged Army Co-Leader)

Personal information (Soon)

Being Kurayami's counterpart, Hideki was a being of light, but his personality seemed quite the opposite. Nothing caught his interest, and he seemed to really not care about what anyone else felt or wanted. From the outside, at least, he was always a cold and lonely man, although on the inside, he always cared about the people he loved. He was not one to talk about his feelings, but he ended up showing it with his actions, defending them, protecting them, etc., even though his mouth said he didn't care, his actions showed the complete opposite. Hideki read a lot of books on different topics in general, looking for one that would interest him, but nothing really did, until one day he saw some people practicing archery and thought it wouldn't hurt to try. That's when he fell in love with the bow and arrow. He finally found something that gave him excitement and adrenaline and it didn't take long for him to become very good at it. One day training in the forest was when he found Kurayami. When Ryoko went to recruit him, he wasn't really interested in a life of piracy, but Kurayami was really excited about it and insisted for a couple of days that he join in too. He finally ended up accepting thanks to his insistence and because, very (but very) deep down, he appreciated his new friend.

Sadashi (Shipwright - Royal Armorer)

Personal information (Soon)

She had become the black sheep of the family. Everything started well until one day Sadashi curiously entered her father's workshop. There she found all kinds of tools and materials that instantly captivated her interest. However, the island where she was born was very conservative. Women had to do women's things, and men, men's things. Hiding from the eyes of her family, Sadashi began researching on her own, both by trying different tools and learning through books in the library. Walking around the town one day, she found an abandoned factory and didn't hesitate for a second to enter. There she felt at home, she disassembled everything she could, put it back together and made machinery work that was believed to be impossible to save. The townspeople saw her come in every day and they gossiped from the window about everything she did. She handled all the tools with complete naturalness, that is why a rumor began to circulate that her blood was copper. Little by little people began to be afraid of her, she was strange, rare, different. They didn't like that. One day, after a long time, she managed to run the factory completely on her own and people were terrified, making the rumor increasingly bigger and louder. They began to chase her around the island trying to capture her, but one day, hiding on a beach, she ran into Ryoko. The redhead, amazed by her ability, didn't hesitate to ask her to join the crew, and Sadashi immediately accepted.

Natsu (Swordsman - Royal Close Range Army Leader)

Personal information (Soon)

He doesn’t know who his parents are. The only thing he is aware of is that he was abandoned at the door of an orphanage with a book. He learned to read at an early age, motivated by knowing what that book said. However, he could not take its content seriously and believed that it was a fantasy story where he was the protagonist. When he grew up, due to the rumors that ran from time to time and asking the elderly people of the town, he could understand that this book was not a fantasy story, but that it was real. He was the descendant of a family that served the Kazangan Kingdom. And if that kingdom hadn’t been destroyed, he was going to be trained and appointed as the bodyguard of Prince Kosei and Princess Ryoko. Cursing the Marine for not letting him have a normal family like the rest of his friends and motivated by the desire of his parents, who had apparently died under their attack, he began to take the training on his own. He found a mentor who would help him on his way to becoming a swordsman fit for royalty. Meanwhile, with the help of one of the oldest and most intelligent people in the town, he began to investigate the royal family Once he was old enough to take charge of his life with his own hands, and under the approval of his mentor, he went out to sea in order to search for them and fulfill the duty that he was supposed to do. One day, thanks to fate, he was able to meet the princes, and after spending time with them, telling them about his past and showing that he had the necessary skills to defend them, he was accepted into the crew as the swordsman.

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Thoughts on the Magia Record Finale

There’s a montage at the end of the last episode with a phrase that perfectly encapsulates my ultimate feelings on the Magia Record anime: “We dreamed of hope and failed.”

Because the anime had lots of ambitious ideas of how to fix the story from the game - too many ideas, in fact. And in the end, by trying to cram in too many ideas, too many priorities, it succeeded at none of them.

The Good: The Backstory

While the first episode of the season might have been titled “We Failed,” I ironically found it a triumph. This episode did an exceptional job not just adapting the material from the game, but elevating it. At the end of the day, the story of Iroha and Ui is not an especially unique tragedy, not in a franchise filled with many such tales of despair. And yet, each beat - the sisters’ mutual care for each other and for Touka and Nemu, the quiet yet inexorable devastation of Ui’s condition worsening, the fairytale-esque twist of Iroha’s wish saving Ui yet meaning Iroha no longer has time to spend with her - was conveyed with pitch perfect competence.

It helps that this is a very “broad strokes” adaptation, keeping only the general frame of events and reworking the dialog and visuals to construct a more consistent mood and tone. It also allowed the anime to sprinkle in some lovely little details, like a cute moment of Iroha doing Ui’s lipstick to show their bond, or illustrating Touka’s analytical genius by showing her tracking down the suspicious incidents and realizing that the first person listed was always a teenage girl.

I particularly liked the conversation between the hospital trio and Kyuubey. Over the years, I’ve seen more than a few rancid takes along the lines of “if character from X magical girl series had met Kyuubey, she would have been too smart to accept the contract!” Which… entirely misses the point.

The point of Madoka Magica was never that the characters were foolish or stupid to have been tricked. The point has always been that Kyuubey is a terrifying, masterful manipulator who excels at lying through omission. Thus, when Touka, Nemu, and Ui launch a rapid-fire barrage of questions that should reveal the fine print to Kyuubey’s contract… he still nimbly dodges every single question (using answers from the original TV series, even!) and the girls have to piece together the truth by reading between the lines.

It’s a great moment that sells both Kyuubey’s menace and the hospital trio as clever, ambitious, and sympathetic characters. When everything all goes south despite their efforts, it’s all the more painful because the audience is shown that they did everything right. They dreamed of hope, but the Madoka Magica universe is cruel and uncaring, and they failed through no fault of their own.

And that’s the stuff - interesting characters, an unjust tragedy, but also a sliver of hope, however faint, that the tragedy could still be averted - that could have been the hook to an incredibly promising story.

The backstory interlude in the final chapters of the game was some of my favorite content in the Main Story; thus, it was no surprise that the animated equivalent was also very very good. Good enough, I’d argue, that you could potentially watch this episode as a standalone, and would be better off simply imagining for yourself a conclusion to their story.

The Promising: Touka and Nemu’s Characterizations

I’ve briefly mentioned my issues with the game’s treatment of Touka and Nemu before, how the other Magius leaders were given little to do besides echoing Touka. And the anime’s second season already kicked off some much needed improvements in that area - namely, having Nemu retain her memories and therefore giving her a different perspective and motivation compared to Touka.

And the second anime episode, “All the Girls Disappearing,” does continue to build on those threads! I quite liked all the characterization details brought up in Touka and Nemu’s conversation with Iroha. Nemu deliberately hiding the truth from Touka because she needed Touka’s drive and confidence - however warped and broken - was a fascinating dynamic and could have done wonders to make the Magius leaders a compelling group to watch.

I also thought the change to Touka’s backstory, that she snapped from having the hopes of all the Feathers placed on her, was a vast improvement over the game’s characterization of her as simply a bratty child who became impatient.

And later still - the suggestion that Touka and Nemu were so determined to stay their course, to do something they know is a mistake, specifically because they wanted to save Iroha’s life? Like another twist on Homura’s devotion to saving Madoka at any cost? Also great!

…What a shame, then, that these half-baked ideas were only that - mere hints at deeper character arcs, a few lines frantically tossed out and then thrown by the wayside as the plot raced toward a rushed conclusion.

An anime where these ideas had been explored in full - an anime where Touka and Nemu had been characters we’d followed since the beginning, watching in horror as they fell further and further away from their idealistic hopes and ambitions - now that could have been a Magia Record worth watching.

The Story Falls Apart: Let’s Talk About Alina

As a resident Alina fangirl, of course I have to comment on her portrayal in the anime. And while my expectations for how her character would wrap up weren’t high… the anime certainly didn’t surpass them.

Going back a moment, I thought Alina’s integration into the backstory episode - with her eavesdropping on the hospital trio’s plans - was an improvement on the game, where she shows up completely out of nowhere. But “something is better than completely nothing” is not exactly high praise.

(The main thing I did enjoy was the chance to see Alina's disdain for Kyuubey in animated form, heh. Can never have enough characters stomping Kyuubey's face in!)  

I’m also baffled that the anime didn’t go for the easy fix of having Alina be the one to corrupt Touka and Nemu’s ideals, especially given that the anime still keeps Alina turning on the rest of Magius as part of the finale. Like, “Alina was the source of evil in Magius” has never been an interpretation I’ve been fond of, but if you’re going to make Alina the ultimate villain of the magical girls anyway, there’s no reason not to do it?

Meanwhile Alina fusing with the Eve to become Neo Dorothy and turn everyone into witches… yeah, I got nothing. Even with Alina debating Kyuubey beforehand, it still felt just as bizarre and nonsensical as Holy Alina’s sudden appearance. Since when did Alina have anything to do with wanting vengeance on humanity? Since when did she have the ability to turn people into magical girls?

I mean, the possibility of all humans becoming magical girls/witches, and of that being a Madoka Magica villain’s goal are neat ideas. Maybe if that had been Magius’s goal from the start, making them an organization that craved vengeance because they had lost hope in salvation… maybe that could have been a good story.

But, just like the intriguing ideas suggested by the Touka and Nemu details, it was very much not the story we’d been watching up until this point. And so, throwing in this concept right at the end did nothing but muddle the anime’s thematic waters even further.

*shrug*

I guess that Alina being obsessed with wanting to go out in a blaze of glory is minimally consistent with her character… or it would have been, if any of Alina’s backstory from the game had been remotely implied in the anime.  Once again: if the climax is going to hinge on fighting Alina, if major characters are going to sacrifice their lives to stop her… she needed to have been foreshadowed as a threat much, much earlier.

(And don’t even get me started on the short scene of Karin in the credits. So… Alina was planning to destroy the world, and yet she also took the time to send her kouhai a painting as a farewell gift? Like, that’s hilarious and maybe oddly touching? But it simultaneously requires knowledge of the game to understand while making even less sense when you have that knowledge. Oof!)

In the end, the anime’s finale didn’t give me what I most wanted for Alina’s character: a compelling reason to be part of the story in the first place. Even as an Alina fangirl, I would much have preferred a well-constructed story without her in it than the unsatisfying mess we got, where Alina’s presence just made the plot and themes more confusing.

The Problem: Too Many Characters

And Alina is far from the only character where I wish she hadn’t been included in the anime. I feel the same way almost everyone! What was the point of Team KMR, aside from illustrating the downsides of doppels (which barely mattered anyway!)? Why was Mitama’s subplot hinted at, when the anime had no time to do anything with her? Why did Felicia and Sana get entire focus arcs, when they were completely irrelevant to the conclusion? Why did the Holy Quintet get shoehorned in, only to get waved offstage for the finale?

But perhaps the most extreme example of this was: why did Kuroe exist?

Don’t get me wrong: I thought all of Kuroe’s moments were well-done. I thought her backstory was quite evocative for how minimal it was, I thought her connection with Iroha in Season 2 and her death at Iroha’s hands were moving. Her relief at becoming a witch simply because it meant she could finally be released from the pressures of living as a magical girl was wonderfully dark and chilling.

But… this anime was massively crunched for time, and she was yet another character that didn’t need to be there.

My best guess as to the point of Kuroe’s character is that she’s meant to be an expansion of that nameless Black Feather that Iroha confronts in Chapter 9 of the game. The one who challenges Iroha and asks what alternative she offers, and Iroha has no answer for her.

By expanding that character from some anonymous grunt into a full plotline, it becomes just that much more devastating when Iroha confronts her and realizes she has no answer to offer. I suspect Kuroe’s death is intended to be the moment Iroha finally accepts that if she stops Magius, that means she is condemning girls like Kuroe to their fate as witches.

…Or at least, that’s the most positive spin I can give Kuroe.

Unfortunately, there is another answer to all these questions, and it’s the cynical one: Magia Record is an adaptation of a gacha game, and therefore it exists not to tell a good story, but as a vehicle for character cameos to wring more money out of an addicted fanbase. Kuroe was simply one more character to drive hype in hopes that fans would pay to roll her in the gacha.

Perhaps there could have been a good story built out of bones of Magia Record, one where the core characters of Iroha, Ui, Touka, and Nemu (and probably Yachiyo and Mifuyu and maaaybe Tsuruno) actually got the time and focus they needed to develop. But that story could not exist under the priorities a gacha adaptation demanded.

But you know what might actually have worked? Ditching the Main Story entirely, and instead adapting a loose, episodic collection of the game’s Magical Girl Stories. After all, that’s where the game’s writing was always best, and that format would mean the priorities of “showcase all the fans’ favorite characters” and “try to fit everything into a single, coherent plot” would no longer have been forced to compete.

The Other Problem: In the end, what was the point?

My younger brother made a silly but rather striking comment about the anime: that it wanted to have its magical girls and eat them too.

The anime floundered because on the one hand, it was trying to tell a story about refusing to accept a solution premised on “save the many by sacrificing the few.” It wanted to be a story about magical girls and the power of friendship and sacrifices being unnecessary.

But on the other hand, it was trying to tell a story in which characters dramatically give their lives for the sake of salvation and this is portrayed as a beautiful, noble thing. It wanted to be a fitting successor to the dark “deconstruction” of the original Madoka Magica.

So which one is it? Well… the anime couldn’t decide.

And to be fair, this is not entirely the fault of the anime. It just meant that the anime failed to fix the biggest, most fundamental problem of the game's final chapters: deciding on a consistent theme. If anything, the anime’s fumbles just further underlined how painfully flawed the game’s plot  was.

What do Magius and their plan ultimately represent? Magical girl supremacy? Another iteration of "sacrifice the few to save the many"? Magical girls getting revenge on Kyuubey and on an uncaring humanity?

And what does Iroha represent, besides “not Magius”?

That being said, while the ending of the game's story left me feeling annoyed and frustrated, the end of the anime made me feel... a kind of melancholic disappointment. 

What I appreciated about the end of the anime, as messy as it was, is that it had consequences. It was refreshingly honest about where its plot arcs were going, rather than the characters speaking of friendship yet accomplishing nothing with it. The plot beats of Mifuyu, Momoko, and the hospital trio's heroic sacrifices had actual weight, weight that wasn’t undone with a cheap deus ex machina in the epilogue. Iroha spent the whole plot speaking in meaningless platitudes, and had no plan other than returning to Kyuubey's horrible status quo. And so, in the anime, that's what she enacts, no last-minute Lil Kyuubey or Madokami intervention to save her.

There’s a certain satisfaction in seeing all the problems I had with the game’s finale being explored to their relentlessly bleak and depressing logical conclusion in the anime - but it doesn’t necessarily make the result a fun story to watch.

Here’s another insight courtesy of my younger brother: just because the anime’s story was better than the game, doesn’t mean that it’s a good story.

Would I recommend the anime?

This is a difficult question. If you want to experience Magia Record’s main plot, then… yes, I suppose. The anime reached for the moon in a scattershot manner, throwing out tons of tantalizing ideas yet never following through on any of them. And, at least in my opinion, an ambitious, thought-provoking failure is still preferable to the game’s plodding mediocrity.

Because when the anime was good, it was really really good! Sana’s arc, several of the early episodes in Season 2, and the first episode of this finale are all wonderfully written, animated, and directed - possibly even on-par with the original Madoka Magica.

But when the anime was bad it was... whoof. Impossible to make sense of even if you had played the game, and with animation so dire it will make you wince and pray for the health of the poor SHAFT staff.

And so, I don’t think I would recommend the anime in general. I dragged my younger brother (who enjoyed the original Madoka Magica) into finishing the anime so I’d have someone unbiased by the game to discuss it with. In the end, I greatly regret doing that - this anime wasn’t just a let down, it was such a mess it sullied my own reputation with him.

It’s true that no sequel can erase a cherished original. I mean, Magia Record is far less of a shake up to the original PMMM and the fandom than Rebellion was. Yet what I’ve discovered with both Magia Record and the Higurashi debacle is that while you can’t destroy the prior work, you can certainly make a spin-off so bad it destroys trust in a creator’s future works.

After the Magia Record anime proved to be yet another disappointment, I have no desire to discuss Magia Record any more. Moreover, I no longer have any faith in the Rebellion sequel. I’ve been waiting for that sequel for almost ten years, and now I’m not sure I’ll bother watching it at all.