#this show became so conflict averse

[epiphainie]

when they said buckley family drama i thought an internal conflict between the characters, not that a rando serial killer kidnaps maddie

[ladyazurith]

Cater Diamond Analysis

Honestly, my first impressions of Cater were…not good. When I very first started playing Twist, I picked Idia as my starting character because I love Hades (not the Disney version but the classical Greek mythology version, though the Disney version is great he’s a terrible representation of Hades but I think everyone knows that) After playing the game Azul quickly became my favorite (That’s why my first Broken Mirrors story was about him) and just Octavinelle in general. 

When I first picked up Twist I kind of sped through books 1 and 2. At the time I was still knee deep in the MHA fandom and was playing the game because a friend recommended it (they’d followed the JP release) And didn’t really absorb much. Books 3 and 4’s release is when I really started to pay attention. My Ao3 page definitely reflects this given stories started appearing in April of 22. 

The first thing I really remembered about Cater was Beans Day and I was overall just annoyed with him because I wanted to spend more time with Jade. And Cater it seemed was the reason he kept leaving. 

Another thing is I have Cater’s Birthday SSR from the first year (it was the very first Birthday Card we got in the EN version) I do not remember pulling for it, let alone actually getting his card but it’s there so…*shrugs* 

It wasn’t until I saw a music video on YouTube set to Kill the Lights, that I even took a second glance at Cater as a character. The video made me compare him to Twice from MHA (I was again still attached to the fandom at the time) and I loved Twice, so I started digging more. Twice has an incredibly tragic backstory and it made me curious about Cater’s. 

After that I dug through all the information I could about Cater, both in EN and JP releases, I watched translations of all his available vignettes or others he was in, and events he was a part of. I’ve always loved picking characters apart and I found that Cater was far more complex than I first gave him credit for. There are a few key cards/events that I believe are essential for understanding who Cater is.

First is of course is Heartslabyul’s chapter of the game. I know a lot of people will point to this and say it’s why they don’t trust him or take him seriously, but context is key. Yes, he does “manipulate” the group into doing some of his chores.  But in the wider context of the story, Cater is often left doing a lot of extra work around the dorm. Picking up the slack, because of his clones and making up for the mistakes of others. (Trey’s CR Card is a good window into this, along with Trey’s Star Sending Card) And honestly, this is about the worst thing he does throughout the entire game. 

What is also shown is that Cater is very forgiving. He’s never actually upset with Riddle for the way he behaves. It’s not that he condones his actions, but he knows why Riddle behaves the way he does and tries his best to be understanding while also helping the 1st years navigate the situation and in a way protect them. (He even asks Trey if he’s okay with what’s going on when Ace and Deuce get kicked out) Even at the end when Ace gets on Riddle for his apology Cater chastises him. In the end, Cater is very conflict averse, he doesn’t really want to fight with people, and would rather everyone just get along (this is part of why he Kalim and Lilia all get along so well in the LMC) I think some people see his reaction in the manga, and take his reason for not wanting to step in wrong. Personally, I don’t think it had completely clicked with him that this wasn’t an altercation that could be ended peacefully. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. 

There are a lot of hints that Cater is fairly depressed under his happy come-what-may attitude. His Labcoat personal story is less than subtle about it, (Vil and Lilia straight-up talk about what the Mandrake Cater tried to hide meant), And even his CR card shows that he’s not really a fan of all the socializing he does, and finds it exhausting. He also isn't afraid of death, at least as his clones, in the Heartslabyul Manga he takes a spear to the chest to save Deuce, and in Chapter 2 he creates replicas of the Diasomnia Spelldive team and allows himself to be trampled. The level he's nonchalant about it is a bit disturbing, especially because he can remember what happens as his clones (he makes a comment about not being able to use them to study because the information can get jumbled up) and they have been stated to *be* him. (this is part of why I HC that Cater's clones can confuse Rook's UM because he can't tell a clone from the real Cater)

Another really important one is Cater’s Halloween SSR (and really the first two Halloween events), His SSR is one of the few times we get to see his thoughts so clearly. He’s excellent at hiding his true thoughts and feelings. The conversation he has with Lilia and Kalim about not being really close to anyone, and preferring to keep people at arm's length is heartbreaking because it comes from a place of moving around, being forgotten, and being hurt. Everything Cater does is an effort to get people to remember him, from his guitar to his magicam account. 

At the end of his SSR is a very touching moment between Diasomnia as Lilia comforts Malleus, Cater’s left to the side feeling completely bitter about all of it. Angry Lilia thought he could ever understand him when he had connections like Malleus, Silver, and Sebek in his life. Connections Cater doesn’t feel he can ever make. The follow up to this is when he’s still standing there and gets the call from Trey who yells at him because he’s not in Heartslabyul to help solve a problem there, and gets called a liar when he explains what he was doing. (People sometimes ask me why I don’t like Trey and this scene right here is part of that reason.) 

As for the rest of the first Halloween, the only time we really see him relaxed is in Lilia’s card. Every other time he’s working, solving problems, or helping other people. Even at the very end when everyone else was relaxing at the after party, he was off comforting the Ghosts who felt guilty about causing all the problems with their picture in the beginning, helping them feel better and bringing the subject up to others.  

In the second Halloween event, he was one of the possessed missing students. I don’t think everyone realizes this but all the ghosts made the ones they’d possessed act in the exact opposite of their true nature. (Vil who he was stuck with is a great example, he was crying acting like someone who had no self-esteem, but the things he was saying were in complete contrast to his behavior, which in reality Vil acts like a very self assured person on the surface but deep down he’s a doubt ridden insecure mess. Kalim is another he was angry and violent) 

Cater was forced to be cruel and malicious, which lines up with being the opposite of who he really is from the little bits we’ve seen. He often tends to go out of his way to help people. When they needed help in the final act of Endless Halloween when the other students appeared he was the first one to step up to help take care of it. In Silver’s card, he took the time to console him and give him advice but even his advice to live in the moment and don’t care about what happens in the future tells us a lot about him.

Even Beans Day and the fact he stuck with Yuu (something that first annoyed me) is an example of this. A lot of people saw “us” as a liability and ditched the MC in the very competitive game, but Cater didn’t he stayed, and in the end, they almost won. 

Other notes along the way are he never really talks positively about his family. He’s always complaining about how overbearing his sisters are. How they treated him like a doll. Bought presents for him that were meant for them, not him, etc. And I know what he says about his dislike of sugar and how it came from one incident as a child BUT that’s not very likely. I have a feeling it was more than *one* incident and a repeated dismissal of his own autonomy in his family BUT that is just a theory. Personally, I think he downplayed the event like he seems to do a lot of these things. It’s very clear he generally conceals how he truly feels about an incident. 

He even comments about how he doesn’t want to go home over winter break because he knows his sisters will just put him to work. In his second year birthday jacket card he talks about how his sisters take him shopping and force him to carry everything. Every time his family comes up it's never in a positive context. 

In his Silks card, it’s shown he has a problem buying things for himself. Jamil pokes him about it, while he’s buying souvenirs for other people, and in the end, makes Jamil pick something for him. We get hints that Jamil can see past the facade he puts up and that makes Cater nervous BUT we also know Jamil absolutely trusts Cater. He left Kalim in Cater’s care in Silk City, and even though Kalim doesn’t generally eat anything but Jamil’s cooking (not even his own) Kalim is the one that judges Cater’s culinary crucible meal. And the way Jamil conducts himself in Cater’s birthday interview. 

Cater also tends to treat people as people. He’s never really been intimidated by Malleus, not the same way other people are (outside Yuu/MC), and will talk to him freely. When realistically he has more reason than most to be afraid of Malleus. It takes a bit of stringing of different card stories and events together, but Malleus has knocked Cater unconscious with his magic before. Because in Malleus’s first Birthday card, he talks about the incident, where Lilia invited him to the LMC, to play music, but he accidentally knocked the members unconscious. We know that Kalim arrived late in his 2nd year and that during Cater and Lilia’s first year, they were very quickly the only members of the LMC until Kalim joined. Meaning when the incident took place the only available victim was Cater. 

I also know Cater talks about not having a lot of money/not coming from a wealthy family, BUT I know this isn’t true. While it's not likely his family is as rich as I’ve made them in my stories, they are NOT poor. First off they move AT least every two years, and that is NOT cheap to do. We know his dad works for a bank, but there aren’t many positions at a Bank on any level that would require the person to move so much. Bankers are some of the wealthiest people period (not the tellers or general employees but those wouldn’t require moving)  Looking into it, his dad is most likely an investment banker which make $$$. This is also backed up by the fact that he does chase trends that take an incredible amount of money, and he’s talked about doing things like going “Glamping” which costs upwards of 1-1.5k/night  Then again maybe his perception is warped by Kalim lol. 

As far as his relationships go. I do think his perception is a bit skewed from past experiences. Riddle seems to care an awful lot about him/considers him a friend. I think this is very much a case of Riddle taking Cater at face value, not having the social awareness to realize Cater is faking most of what he’s doing. While Cater is still stuck on the idea that Riddle is just another shallow friendship for him. 

I also think Kalim thinks more of their friendship than Cater does. I also always wonder how Vil can insist the only thing Cater wants out of him is fame when *Kalim’s standing right there* While Kalim isn’t famous in the same sense Vil is, he’s INCREDIBLY wealthy and it wouldn’t take much for him to leverage that for his own fame, but we don’t really see him doing that, yes he does make posts with Kalim but it all seems to be in line with his friendship with him and things they do with the club, and the time Kalim invited him to Silk City. There is no hint Cater takes advantage of him at all (which I think plays into why Jamil trusts him)

Speaking of Vil, the reason I ship Cater and Vil is very detailed and delves into the nuance of their interactions and relationship otherwise. I know it’s easy to point at Vil’s “What it means to be a Brand” R card Vin, where Cater talks about how attractive he is and talks about dating him. (I’m still mad they took that out of the English version) as a reason, and while it is part of it Vil doesn’t tell him he won't date him, he tells Cater he can’t afford them. (Which to me sounds like a shallow comment?!?! When he calls Cater Shallow, gets a bit on my nerves but that's another rant) 

But what really sells me that Cater’s feelings for Vil are real and not part of his fake facade is his Birthday Jacket interview. He picks Vil as his choice of sibling and then goes on to talk about why he looks up to and respects Vil. It’s not about his physical features, but other traits he likes and appreciates. He seems to understand Vil. And this is my take on it but I think part of why he likes Vil (either romantically or otherwise) is he sees a kindred spirit, someone who puts on a mask to face an uncaring world that expects impossible standards, and the need to always be ‘on’ and performing. Remember it's clear that Cater doesn’t enjoy what he does social media-wise and the like, but it's something he feels like he has to do.

Trey is otherwise not someone he’s super close to. To me, their relationship comes across more like coworkers at a stressful job, than actual friends. Cater himself has said more than once that he’s not close to *anyone* and Trey in the star sending even talks about how even after all the time they’ve spent together Cater still doesn’t seem to trust him with his true self. Trey tends to be very dismissive of Cater’s complaints and Cater in general. And straight up TO HIS FACE told him he’d always be closer to Riddle. (As someone who didn’t have childhood friends themselves, and even now struggles with friends that line right there hurt a lot. That the idea that if you didn’t make a friend when you were a child then you could never be close to someone more than they are to someone else hurt and made me angry. And did not help my opinion of Trey AT ALL  Length of time is not the only qualifier to a strong friendship) But yet tends to also be dismissive of Riddle in some cases?!?! And is willing to manipulate him so there's that. 

I did an entire write up of Lilia and Cater’s relationship, but a summary is that I find it one of the most unique and complex in the game. Often times Lilia tends to treat the other students like he’s a mentor figure. Not just Diasomnia, but all of them in general when he interacts. Cater however isn’t treated that way and seems to view him more as an equal, and has been shown to listen to and take advice from him when he’s otherwise shown to be very stubborn and determined. And it's possible he intended to stay in contact with Cater when he attempted to leave in ch 7. Cater tells him that he can hit him up on Magicam at any time which means Lilia hasn’t deactivated his account (Cater would likely know that) and Lilia doesn’t tell him he can’t like he had with other attempts to stay in contact, but he doesn’t say he will either so it's more up in the air. 

Idia…also seems to listen to him!?! Honestly Idia and Cater’s relationship also probably deserves their own post. I don’t ship them, mostly because I think they’d end up in a self destructive spiral. BUT I do think they could be friends, like really good friends if they could both get past some of their issues. They have a lot in common, especially when it comes to being lonely and detached certain everyone will just forget about them someday. 

Over all Cater is an extremely complex person, and really about the only character who we don’t know a lot about. Most of what we have on him is how other characters view him, (which is why I think there is a lot of misconception and distrust of his character for people because they buy into what they see on the surface and move on)  and a few scraps here and there into who he actually is under the surface which completely contradicts the persona he presents. 

I have a lot of headcanons for him, and while I noted a few here in this, I tried to keep this to most extrapolation from what we see directly in canon. I love Cater, and I hope this helps some people have a better understanding of who he is. 

[queenofcats17]

Hello. I am still thinking about my role swap.

I've been thinking about a lot of different little ideas for the AU, so enjoy some disjointed thoughts below, beginning with what I think some of the conflicts between the two would be.

One of the big points of contention between the two of them, I think, would be the fact that John is incredibly cautious and risk-averse while Arthur is very curious and prone to risk-taking.

I think human John has learned to be incredibly cautious and to avoid taking unnecessary risks. Before he left the cult, I think it was because the cult leaders were incredibly overprotective of him. After all, they didn't want anything bad to happen to the vessel of their great King. And John didn't want to earn their ire, so he did everything he could to avoid upsetting them. And once he left the cult, he did everything he could to avoid being found by the cult and to avoid stumbling into some supernatural nonsense again.

I think John saw how dangerous knowledge and curiosity could be while he was in the cult and is thus very wary of pursuing knowledge and trying to get answers. So, when Arthur pushes for them to find answers and to try and solve the mystery they find themselves in, John is very resistant to it.

I think after getting Arthur in his head, John loses his memories, which means he doesn't remember who sent him the music box or anything else about his life. The only reason John goes along with the idea of solving the mystery of who he is and why he was sent the music box is because it might allow him to get Arthur out of his head. As he slowly gets his memories back, he probably is also determined to continue because Anna and Sarah are in trouble and he feels like it's his responsibility to help them since they got kidnapped by his cult in the first place.

Not to mention, I think John is just not a very trusting person because of his background. Even after he loses his memories, he has this ingrained fear of trusting people.

I think part of Arthur's desire to take risks and look for answers is a natural curiosity, but there's also the fact that he doesn't remember much of anything about his own life. He's pretty sure he was human at some point and he doesn't know how he got from human to what he is now. He doesn't really remember all that much about being human, so it doesn't bother him a whole lot, but it does still bother him not to know. He wants to know what happened to him. He wants to know how he became what he is.

And he's incredibly interested in solving the mystery that is John because this is the most stimulation he's gotten in years and he needs to know what's happening here. And it's been a long time since he's had a proper relationship with someone, so he's not... super great at respecting boundaries? I feel like he probably pushes too hard when asking John about his past and why John is so resistant toward some of Arthur's ideas.

I feel like since he's also a bit disconnected from his humanity, Arthur is even more down for murder than he normally is. John is also definitely pretty down for murder due to his survival-at-all-costs mindset, but there are definitely some times when he and Arthur disagree on whether to kill something. And I doubt these are quiet disagreements.

I'm not completely caught up on the show at the moment, but I know Arthur gets sent back to the Middle Ages in one of the newer episodes, and part of me thinks it might be fun if this entity version of Arthur is a version of Arthur who got separated from John during this transition and ended up stuck. Maybe in some desperate attempt to find a way to reunite with John, he ended up performing some sort of ritual that turned him into something similar to what John and the King in Yellow are.

Maybe Kayne even shunted him into a world where there was a human version of John because he thought it would be fun to see how their dynamic would play out with Arthur as the entity. I have not encountered Kayne in the podcast yet, but from the one animatic I've seen I feel like this is something he'd do just for shits and giggles.

Also. I have a pretty good idea now of the situation that led to Arthur being trapped in the music box and John leaving the cult.

Anna and Sarah were kidnapped by the cult John was a part of and were going to be used as sacrifices to bring the King in Yellow to the mortal plane and into John's body. But the King in Yellow wasn't what came through. It was Arthur.

I think John probably talked with Anna and Sarah while they were being kept by the cult, and he ended up helping them escape when the ritual went wrong.

As for why Arthur came through the portal, I think it was because he felt John's presence, and even though he doesn't really remember all that much about his John or what their relationship was, he knows that John is a part of him that he desperately wants back.

And I think Arthur did kill Emily MacFarland in this case. Because she opened the music box and she wasn't John. He needed John.

He doesn't tell John about any of this at first, of course. Because while he's lost a lot of understanding of humans, he understands that this John probably doesn't know him and will probably freak out if Arthur just admits, "Hey, I think you're the missing piece of me that I need to feel whole so I tricked you into opening my music box so I could get inside you."

And John is pretty freaked out when he does find this out.

[starbylers]

The airport scene & Mike’s arc

The idea that Mike's awkwardness towards Will at the airport was purely due to (1) them not seeing/speaking to each other for a long time and/or (2) Mike being a typical teenage boy who's uncomfortable with affection is so...nonsense. These as explanations barely scratch the surface of what we subtly learn about Mike as the season progresses. Yes, their friendship became distant and Mike clearly feels weird hugging Will. But why? The Duffers didn't just throw in this plot point for it to have no relevance to Mike's character arc this season. These visible surface problems are just manifestations of his character’s internal conflict.

(1) Will has not seen/spoken to Mike either. He's literally the one with confirmed feelings. Yet, he's behaving perfectly normally. (Not to mention Will is the one to bring up the no contact issue at Rinkomania, so if he could put aside his grudge to enthusiastically hug his friend, why couldn't Mike?). It's been said a thousand times but in storytelling, things don't just happen because it's realistic to what might happen in real life. Mike's weirdness in this scene is telling us something about the character's emotional/mental state. If both boys acted strange at their reunion, I'd buy this explanation more. Like okay, their friendship mutually suffered from distance and they don't know how to act with each other. But that is not what happened. It's Mike being standoffish that is shoved in the audiences faces. It leaves almost everyone (including the characters if El’s expression is anything to go by) asking what the hell is his problem?

Even if Mike's inability to hug Will like a normal person is partially related to the lack of contact—which it is, but there's layers to it that Bylers understand ('El has like a book of letters from you'/'That's because she's my girlfriend!')—does it not strike people as suspiscious that Mike has such an extreme reaction to them not talking whilst Will is just happy to finally see him? I've seen people argue it's because Will is in love with him, so he's overexcited and Mike picks up on that and feels awkward? But again, this is easily debunked: Mike doesn’t know Will loves him, so that's not causing awkwardness. And as I've just shown, it's not purely lack of contact because Will who had the exact same experience isn't being awkward, so that's not a plausible reason. What else could it possibly be...

(2) Teenage boy awkwardness with friendly affection, the second most common answer I’ve seen. This is where the point sails right over people's heads, because they are right in a way, but they refuse to see it in the context of Mike's arc. If Mike was behaving like this due to some sort of ingrained male aversion to intimacy/toxic masculinity that makes it awkward to hug your best friend, should that not tell you something massive about his character? That he's dealing with something which, if they deemed it important enough to depict on screen, is probably pretty relevant to his character arc? Yes, toxic masculinity is a common issue but we are not shown Lucas or Dustin or anyone else struggling with this. They welcome Will with open arms upon his return to Hawkins. In the show, this is only a Mike problem. And only with Will. (He hugs Dustin just fine. Oh him and Dustin haven’t had distance in their friendship? Just refer to point 1 again).

So we can see neither of those explanations are sufficient as they are. They are plausible enough to try and discredit Byler but are really half-formed and don’t actually make sense. Another thing to mention, Mike is literally called out for being fake (‘It’s a shitty knockoff’), for trying to be someone he’s not. Why does Mike being someone he’s not have to co-occur with him being weirdly unfriendly/cold towards Will? The answer is staring us in the face. The exact same thing happens in season 3. When Mike tries to turn away from who he really is, somehow it always ends up ruining his relationship with Will. Because the two things are intrinsically connected.

It’s so easy to debunk these throw-away explanations for Mike’s behaviour when you actually look at him as a three-dimensional character rather than reducing him to ‘he’s just a teenage boy, it’s normal’. No, he’s a complex character with complex motivations, he is not your self-insert :)

[dizzyedgc]

[ tom blyth, man, he/they ] — whoa! CERRUS BALFOUR just stole my cab! not cool, but maybe they needed it more. they have lived in the city for TWO YEARS, working as an UBER DRIVER & UBER EATS DELIVERY MAN. that can’t be easy, especially at only TWENTY-FIVE. some people say they can be a little bit PESSIMISTIC and GLOOMY, but i know them to be CREATIVE and COMPASSIONATE. whatever. i guess i’ll catch the next cab. hope they like the ride back to MANHATTAN! — (freddie, twenty-four, aest, they/them)

BASIC INFO —

full name: cerrus chord balfour nickname/s: cer preferred name: cerrus age: twenty-five birthday: december 17th zodiac: sagittarius gender: man pronouns: he/him & they/them occupation: uber driver & uber eats delivery man sexuality: bisexualrelationship status: single ( + open for ships )

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE —

faceclaim: tom blyth hair colour: brownhair length / style: short & wavy eye colour: blue height: 6'2" tattoos: none currently piercings: none currently scars: small scars littered around body - hardly noticeable unless you're properly looking

PERSONALITY —

positive traits: creative, compassionate, street smart, athletic, flexible, gentle, kind-hearted, considerate, loyal, loving, devoted, caring, experienced, worldly, good-intentioned negative traits: pessimistic, gloomy, frustrated, burnt, stubborn, reserved, nosey, scatterbrained, brooding, distracted, conflicted likes: music, films, theatre, dancing, outdoors, nature, animals, fresh air, the smell of popcorn, sweets, fresh sheets, days off dislikes: traffic, deadlines, strict timeframes, insincerity, hypocrites, being stuck inside, boats, being in one place for too long, heartbreak, broken promises hobbies: working, watching films, listening to music, going for walks - he's actively trying to avoid most of his regular / previous hobbies bad habits: smoking, being overly stubborn, working too much, being unable to say no

BACKGROUND —

cerrus was born to eccentric performers, raised all over the world in their very own travelling circus. it was unconventional, but so magical for the young boy.

he became a performer before he could even walk, quickly developing his own skills, roles, and interests in each town they passed.

life on the road was as isolating as it was exciting; there were always pros and cons, but cerrus found it so much easier to love when he was so young.

the older he got, the more unconventional he felt, and the more trouble he faced from the kids in each neighbourhood he passed through that he tried to befriend.

at fourteen, cerrus experienced his first true feelings of hate for the lifestyle.

at this age, he developed his first crush, and while he had had to leave friends before, leaving somebody that he developed a much more special connection with was much harder.

unfortunately, this routine became his norm. each time cerrus met somebody who showed a real interest in him - something that was rare for the constantly picked on boy - he had to up and leave them before long.

he settled into an unhappy role in the circus until at twenty, he fell hard, and for somebody who reciprocated his feelings.

upon having to leave the town in which he found love, cerrus finally stood up and admitted to his parents that he could no longer live the nomadic lifestyle, and one that constantly had him labelled unpleasant things.

in his desperation to save his love, and due to his parents shock as cerrus had never voiced concerns before, the discussion turned into an enormous fight that ended with cerrus leaving on bad terms with his parents.

the fight was so ugly that cerrus developed an aversion for everything that reminded him of his old life; after not too long, this was what lost him his love.

saddened and in search of a life opposite to the one he had lived, cerrus found himself in search of the most mundane job in the most 'normal' place.

he moved into the city of new york, the closest city to him at the time, and he settled into what he tried to make the most mundane life possible - something that's proven hard, as it's as if cerrus is a magnet to those more peculiar, those like who he is deep down at his core.

WANTED CONNECTIONS —

ex love interest - the person that cerrus fell in love with at twenty years old; they eventually broke up as cerrus changed too much as he forced himself to be someone who he's not. i imagine they broke up with him, and he's still gutted about it. they met not too far from new york, but out of the city. any gender, similar age preferred, really open to plotting more together!

past audience - people who recognise cerrus from his time in the circus; they caught a show ( or maybe even multiple if they ever travelled themselves ) and they're shocked to see him acting as he is now. he likely pretended that he didn't know what they were talking about upon initially interacting.

oddballs - they could be friends, neighbours, roommates, enemies, anything! the only requirement is that they're a little odd, an unconventional person. cerrus tries so hard to live a 'normal' life, but he can't escape his true self - which is what i'm hoping they bring out of him more!

ex crush / flings from his circus days - cerrus travelled through their town with his family's circus aged fourteen to twenty, and either crushed on them, or had a fling with them before he had to leave town to go to his next destination. any gender, similar age required, open to plotting more together!

ex crush / flings / relationships in new york - cerrus hasn't been in any situationship or relationship especially serious, but he has dipped his toes into the dating pool in the city. it's hard as he's not being the most authentic version of himself, and searching for all of the wrong people, but maybe something interesting could have still come from it!

roommates - i don't imagine cerrus being able to afford his own place in manhattan ( can anyone ? ) so he's definitely got multiple roommates that he shares an apartment with. he's a relatively good person to live with, being considerate and caring to make good connections, but he is known to shut himself in his room for days on end when he's feeling blue.

friends - a big part of why he left his previous situation was to build connections he wouldn't have to leave. i picture cerrus having a group of close friends that he never takes for granted; they likely see his more authentic self more than others, and with them cerrus experiences true moments of happiness.

crush / love interest - similar to the friend connection, cerrus left the circus for a purpose, so it'd be super nice to see him romantically involved with somebody that he doesn't have to leave! unfortunately i think he looks for all of the wrong people, but it'd be super cool if he formed a connection with someone more like his true self ( an oddball, perhaps ) and if something happened real naturally.

customers - people who he consistently drives around, or delivers food to. maybe they don't get along, but he's the only uber driver who's always closest at the odd time that they need him, or maybe they've struck up a real friendship and he comes inside with their food delivery so that they can share meals together.

cerrus is also open to so much more, i'm happy to brainstorm or listen to any / all of your ideas !

[thyandrawrites]

For the shipping bingo board, Rin/Isagi, Kunigami/Chigiri & Nagi/Reo :3

Woo, a fun one!

Rinsagi:

Listen. They are The ship because they are divorced and soulmates at the same time. I love that energy they have going on. Their dynamic got sidetracked with the neo egoist arc and kaiser's introduction as isagi's new foil/rival, but imho bllk peaked when these two were still navigating how to coexist with each other and simultaneously come on top of each other. What I like about their dynamic is that is balanced. While isagi makes an effort to understand rin and work with him instead of for him like everyone else, isagi also doesn't coddle him or tries to fix him.

They are equally deranged for football and their skill levels are different, but on the field they push and challenge each other in ways that other dynamics simply don't, imho. I never get the feeling from them that either one has fully caught up to the other, and that's part of why I like them so much. They barely tolerate each other, yet they're the closest thing to actual teamwork this manga will ever have. What I love about them is that despite being polar opposite in basically every respect (personalities, family curcumstances, attitude towards others), they're also very in-synch because on the field they see the same view and think the same way. Everyone always says that kaisagi is the dbhwks equivalent of bllk, but to me that's rinsagi. Enemies that have way too much in common and don't want to admit it.

Plus I find it funny that they're both lowkey-highkey touch averse so that makes imagining them as a couple fairly fun :')

Kunigiri:

This is where I'm conflicted because this is a very very small fandom, and the bloggers who actively talk here (here being tumblr or discord) as opposed to just... Sharing things are almost all kncg shippers. For the sake of finding fandom friends, I tried liking this ship. Believe me, I did! But it just isn't hitting for me. And the thing is, I can see the appeal. They have the same tragic angle of friends separed that nagireo and bachisagi do, except it's even more tragic because one of them is almost eliminated! Plus the whole "came back wrong" potential angle! I should be shipping them! I live for angst and for hurt/comfort! But I just... I don't know. I find them a bit bland, and it doesn't help that I hate with a passion the nickname "princess" and you just cannot avoid it in this corner of the fandom

I guess I will try harder, maybe eventually I will find out the fic that will convert me

Nagireo:

This is where I reveal myself as unhinged because they have completely hijacked my brain. I STARTED SHIPPING THEM AS A JOKE. because it was funny. And then I read episode nagi. And then somehow they became my biggest comfort ship ever??? They can barely communicate. They actively make each other worse (at least as far as blue lock themes go. They'd be fine in a different manga). How did this happen.

Ahem. Without writing (another) essay on them (check my meta tag for those), I will say that I am absolutely feral about these two. They're fun because they are so Weird. They're the best friends to lovers trope but they can't talk to each other at all. Miscommunication is their daily bread. They're rivals who can't help being wrapped around each other's fingers. One moment they're trying to progress as their own individuals, the next they're back to being codependent. They exemplify so many of the themes of blue lock and one day I'm gonna write a whole essay on it. Like I'm not even kidding, reonagi, bachisagi and rinsae are all faces of the same coin. I'm convinced Kaneshiro introduced them all to drive home the idea that the best striker in the world cannot live for someone else's success, and those three dynamics are different stages of self awareness in that respect. In that respect I think all three are integral to the series and that's why they're the most nuanced dynamics of the show

But as for nagireo itself? I know they will make me miserable eventually because I want them to be a team and that will never happen (well, if you don't take into account how they're both likely to make it to the u20 proper at least). But still. If I didn't like pain I wouldn't be shipping them in the first place I guess

[randomnarutoausideas]

Star Wars ObiRin AU

A full post of my entire Star Wars AU.

As young Padawans, Obito, Kakashi and Rin had blue lightsabers, but as they got older they changed. Kakashi got a green lightsaber, symbolising his power and intelligence. Rin got a yellow lightsaber, symbolising her desire to protect and defend. Whilst Obito kept his blue saber, but over time it began to turn purple, showing that he constantly walked the line between the dark and light. As usual, Obito was in love with Rin, but Rin was in love with Kakashi, who did not return her feelings. Then one day after a mission went wrong, Obito was crushed underneath rubble, he stayed trapped for days, hoping, wishing, praying someone would come and save him, but no one did. In the end he felt betrayed and used the force to literally blast the boulders off of him. He became scarred and traumatised by this experience, as well as becoming detached from reality, growing cold and harsh and nihilistic. His love for Rin turned to hate and pain, but he wanted it to end, so he just gave up on his feelings, throwing away both love and hate. He then used cloning technology to regrow his missing arm. His lightsaber was lost, so for a long time he wandered the galaxy with only his vast force powers. Eventually he heard the call of something and found the rarest and most unique of lightsabers: the Darksaber. He felt the Darksaber beckon to him, and he claimed the infamous and legendary blade for himself. It suited him perfectly, a lightsaber as pitch black as his own life.

He then traversed the galaxy as a wandering killer, killing and destroying anything and everything in his path. With no real desire or true goal other than destroying. His powers in the force increased dramatically (I'm going with Legends force abilities, because they are far more powerful than canon abilities) He learned force lightning, flight and even teleportation, as well as essence transfer and even force drain. He drained the force from others in order to survive and regenerate his damaged body. He always wore a mask and a hood, no one ever saw his face, and those who did see him didn't live very long.

During Obito's time being "Dead", Rin is consumed by grief and heartache. She weeps and mourns for Obito for days. Kakashi is filled with guilt for his friend's death, and Minato is devastated and in protest against the Jedi Council forbidding them to try and search for Obito's body, Minato leaves the Jedi order along with Kushina. The two were in love and had already planned to leave the jedi order. The two eventually marry and have a son: Naruto.

Kakashi becomes a workaholic throwing himself into his duties as a jedi as a penance. Whilst Rin becomes somewhat reclusive, she hides away and develops a strong aversion to violence and fighting. Focusing on her ability to heal and help others, she rarely uses her lightsaber any more in battle.

Rin in sheer desperation confesses his feelings to Kakashi to try and fill the hole left by Obito, but Kakashi tells her that he doesn't love her and that she doesn't love him. She may be infatuated with him but it isn't true love, he then goes to say that Obito loved her. She was the reason why he was able to walk the line between the dark and light, she helped keep him centred and balanced, she was his guiding light.

Rin is even more devastated to hear this, as she realises that Kakashi is right, and that her true feelings were for Obito, and now he's gone.

As the years go by, (Obito, Kakashi and Rin are in their mid 20s) Rin, Kakashi and Obito's powers grow and grow. With Rin learning an ancient and powerful technique called "Battle Meditation", a technique not seen for centuries, she rarely uses it as she avoids conflict as much as possible. She is also able to create life and regenerate cells. She can also commune with the living force and hear and sense its thoughts and feelings.

Kakashi's power has started to resemble Obito's a bit more, he is able to use certain darkside abilities, without fully turning to the dark side. And he now wields a purple lightsaber. Rin is regarded as the purest Jedi, and Kakashi is regarded as the most powerful jedi of their generation, but both hold great pain and grief in their hearts.

By this time, Naruto has joined the Jedi Temple along with Sasuke and Sakura. The three are wild cards and very free spirited, but very talented and powerful students.

And by now the stigma and complacency of the Jedi has become a major source of ire for both Kakashi and Rin, both of whom distance themselves from the council as much as possible, even turning down the offer of joining the council. The two have even considered following Minato and leaving the Jedi Order. But the two stay in order to train and look after Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.

Itachi and Shisui are Jedi too, and were close with their cousin Obito, Sasuke doesn't remember him but Itachi always tells him stories.

Eventually Sakura becomes Rin's apprentice and Naruto becomes Nagato's, whilst Sasuke becomes Kakashi's.

All the while Obito's power and darkness grows in the outer rim of the galaxy…

Whilst Rin and the others are training the new generation Obito has been very busy burying himself in darkness.

Whilst he is not a sith, he does go to both Korriban and Malachor V in order to learn from them, seeking knowledge and artefacts. He learns a lot, especially about one specific Sith, Darth Nih*******, one who once held the ability to drain the force from others around him. And one who had become a being of pure nothingness, a creature from oblivion.

Obito finds inspiration from this, and seeks to fulfil his original plan: the end of all life in the galaxy.

Obito, travels to the dark unknown regions and encounters the Sorcerers of Rhand, a dark, unknown, mysterious dark side cult far different from the Sith, who seek only one thing; Death and destruction. Upon Obito's arrival, the sorcerers welcome him, sensing his emptiness and darkness, the sorcerers make him their new herald, the harbinger of death, the one who will end all life in the galaxy, just as they had chosen Obito's predecessor to fulfil this destiny.

Obito gladly and instantly accepts, and learns all the power of the sorcerers, increasing his power 1000 fold. He now can consume life from entire planets, cause instant death just by looking at someone, and can teleport instantly, in the blink of an eye, to anywhere in the galaxy, he can even manipulate time to a degree, and finally he can disintegrate matter at the subatomic level.

After years of training he returns to the galaxy and starts his crusade in the outer rim, he also manipulates the criminal underworld and other factions to create widespread tension and fear of all out war.

He first starts to destroy a few random star systems, before finally people start to take notice, especially after he turned an entire star into a black hole.

All throughout this, the very last vestiges of Obito are buried so deep that they are effectively dead. He feels no love nor hatred for Rin or Kakashi, he feels nothing at all. To avoid being heartbroken he became heartless.

And now he seeks to end all life, however there are strange occasions when he thinks back to his past life and what he had wanted: To show Rin how strong he was, to love her freely and openly, to be friends with Kakashi, to learn more from Minato, to be respected by the Jedi, to be acknowledged by the Republic, to be recognized by the galaxy, to be a hero, a saviour. His hearts aches as he remembers these dreams, and he is then filled with anger and hatred at the Jedi's betrayal and abandonment, his love for Rin having turned into hatred realising that she would never have loved him and she would only ever look to Kakashi, and believing that Kakashi always outplayed him, and that Minato held him back, and that the council always shunned him and disliked him. When this unbearable hate starts to build his next move is to just stop. To stop feeling at all. He stops caring and allows the empty void to envelope him.

After several star systems go dark in the outer rim, the Republic and the Jedi decide to investigate. Several republic scout ships are sent to the systems, only to find them gone. All are dark and barren. Devoid of life. Even the stars have disappeared.

This causes alarm and the Jedi decide to send Rin, Kakashi and Nagato, along with their newly knighted apprentices: Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.

Rin has become a very powerful and kind hearted jedi master, known for her compassion, gentleness, wisdom, kindness and intelligence. But she is filled with sorrow and grief, and is depressed, her heart is broken. Only those closest to her know of this. Sakura is aware of her master's pain and sorrow and always tries to comfort her and cheer her up, Rin appreciates it and has come to see Sakura as a little sister.

Kakashi is just as powerful, having truly mastered his ability to use the dark side for the light. Nagato himself is known as one of the most powerful jedi ever, but he seldom uses his power out of fear that it will corrupt him. He has the ability to use both dark and light, but normally sticks to the light.

The six are very close and care for each other immensely. Naruto is still very cocky and adventurous, and somewhat naive, he believes that everyone can do good, even the worst of people. Sasuke on the other hand is walking a fine line between the dark and the light, and is at a slight risk of the darkness consuming him.

The six jedi arrive in the outer rim, and discover a star system recently obliterated. The planets are barren and empty, there's no life at all, and what is more is that three planets seem to be missing from the system and the sun is gone.

The Jedi sense a powerful dark presence above one of the planets, they move in closer and they sense an empty void, but somehow the presence is distantly familiar.

They move above the planet and detect a being literally floating in orbit above the barren wasteland. As soon as the being senses them it disappears.

The jedi follow the presence of the being chasing it throughout the outer rim. Star system after star system are literally drained of life. The Jedi are quick to report this to the council as they hunt for the mysterious entity.

They finally track the mysterious being to the degraded planet of Malachor V.

The six jedi quickly confront the mysterious stranger, they ask him who he is and what he is doing. But Obito says nothing.

After numerous attempts to try and talk to him, Obito makes no move whatsoever. He is surprised to see Rin and Kakashi again, deep within him he is at war within himself, but he barely notices. On one hand he is happy but on the other he's angry. His hate and love clash once again deep inside him.

Finally the Jedi decide to try and take him into custody and so they ignite their lightsabers (Naruto: blue, Sasuke: purple, Kakashi: purple, Sakura: Green, Rin: Yellow, Nagato: purple) and surround him.

As soon as they get close Obito unleashes a massive force shockwave which sends them all flying. They quickly recover and move to attack, as soon as Kakashi gets close enough to strike, Obito pulls forth his own lightsaber and ignites it to block Kakashi's attack. Everyone is shocked to see a black lightsaber.

They all attack in unison, but Obito is more than a match for them. Using both his darksaber and his immense power over the dark side, he easily overpowers them. But then Rin and Kakashi succeed in actually damaging his mask, and for the first time in a long time, Obito feels something. He feels rage and pain. The strike from Kakashi's saber cut part of his hood and the right side of his mask above his eye and forehead.

He looks up and glares at the Jedi. Obito's entire eye is pitch black but flashes red in rage for a brief moment.

Rin and Kakashi suddenly feel that the anger is eerily familiar as they stare at the unknown man. Obito makes eye contact with Rin, and for that brief moment when his eye flicks red, she recognizes the look in his eye, it's the same look Obito would get when they were younger.

Realising that he has to leave Obito uses his powers to teleport away from Malachor V.

Rin is shocked, as the horrifying thought enters her mind, as the look eerily reminds her of Obito. Meanwhile Kakashi is starting to get the same thought after feeling the anger radiate off of him. Both Rin and Kakashi refuse to accept this idea, they can't bear to think about it.

The others are also shaken to their core but they do notice the immediate change in Kakashi and Rin's demeanour. They ask what's wrong, but Rin and Kakashi just brush it off not wanting to think the thought.

Obito retreats deep into unknown space to rejuvenate himself, and compose himself. He builds a new mask and repairs his cloak and decides to accelerate his plans.

Meanwhile the shaken jedi decide to return to Coruscant, and give their full report, this is later given to the senate. This has the entire republic in a frenzy and the entire senate demands action, so they order that an army be created for the republic in order to hunt down this being.

The Jedi themselves are confused, because from the report this man is not a sith, nor a jedi. But regardless they decide to send as many Jedi into the outer rim to hunt for the masked man.

Minato, despite not being a Jedi, decides to go along with Kushina.

Kakashi and his team are once again sent back out there, even more determined to find the masked man.

Rin, and Kakashi share their feelings with Minato and tell him that the masked man somehow reminded them of Obito. Minato is distraught and horrified to hear this, and hopes that the masked man truly isn't Obito.

In the months that follow an army is built for the republic, from both recruits as well as clones.

In the shadows of the galaxy the sith still plot, but are very wary of this new masked man, since he is not a sith.

The Jedi and the Republic army are sent out to hunt for this man and to save as many people as they can.

It doesn't go well, Obito's acceleration leads to even more worlds being consumed, in the end half of the outer rim is dark. And Obito has already started to move to the mid and core worlds.

Obito is often forced to engage against both jedi and the republic army. But everytime he quickly kills them and leaves no survivors.

Those who arrive in the aftermath, only find dust and darkness.

Eventually, Rin, Kakashi, Minato, Kushina, Nagato, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, with help from Yahiko, Konan, Hinata and Tenten track him down and face him again.

After a drawn out battle, Minato and Naruto succeed in destroying the mask, but the hood still remains intact.

As the mask falls, Obito keeps his hood up, until finally he lets it fall down and his face is revealed.

Rin, Kakashi, Minato, Kushina, Nagato, Yahiko and Konan are shocked and devastated as their worst fears are confirmed; the masked man is indeed Obito.

However unlike last time, Obito feels nothing, and unleashes a massive shock wave of energy. He then disappears once more, with Rin screaming his name in desperation and devastation.

Rin breaks down and sobs as Kushina and Sakura hold her.

The team reluctantly reports their discovery to the council, all the while Rin cries in heartache.

The Council decides to make this jedi business, and thus demand every Jedi to bring Obito to justice, they give a kill or capture order.

Rin is horrified by this. Kakashi and everyone try to persuade the council to try and take him alive, so he can be saved, but the council refuses.

Rin runs out of the chamber crying, quickly followed by Kushina, Sakura and Konan.

Rin hides in her own chambers and cries for the next two days.

Finally she comes out and meets with everyone again. They are all distraught and upset, but decide that they have to find Obito before any other jedi does.

Meanwhile Obito has now learned a terrifying new power, he has learned to use his spacetime manipulation in tandem with his force drain and he can now drain life from across lightyears. He now hunts for an ancient artefact that will allow him to consume the entire galaxy all at once.

A year goes by, and Minato, Rin, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kushina, Nagato, Yahiko, Konan, Hinata, Tenten, Itachi, Shisui along with exiled Jedi masters; Jiraiya and Tsuande, hunt for Obito, at the same time they try to figure out what happened to him and how he became like this.

During their travels they learn from a former Sith, that there are legends of a mysterious dark side order deep in the unknown regions. Known as the Sorcerers of Rhand. The sith explain that unlike the sith, who seek power, the sorcerers seek death and destruction.

This gives them an idea of what happened to Obito.

They encounter him on several occasions, each time he quickly teleports away before they can get close to him. Many more Jedi and Republic troops die as well as hundreds of star systems.

Eventually the group decide to set a trap for him, to lure him to them.

Using an ancient sith artefact as bait, they bring Obito to them and they all engage him in combat.

However Obito is still too powerful for them to subdue.

Rin and the others beg and plead with him, to stop what he’s doing and to come home.

But Obito just says that the Obito they knew is gone, and that what they see before them is all that remains.

Minato, Kakashi and Rin sob and apologise for failing him.

Obito remains silent and stares at them. Before finally saying that he is not their failure.

“You didn’t kill Obito Uchiha… I did.”

He ignites his darksaber and slowly begins to move forward, he says he will end everything, and give the Jedi the peace they desire. By bringing death to everything.

Rin feels her heart shatter into a million million pieces. She cries harder than ever, and asks what happened to him, what made him like this. What made him empty and dark.

Obito only answers with a cryptic “I did.” He continues to advance towards them at a slow pace.

Rin breaks down and begs Obito to come home with them, and she screams out loud that she loves him, she has always loved.

Obito stops dead in his tracks. He stares at Rin as her words sink in.

She loves him.

For the first time in years this breaks through the endless darkness that had enveloped Obito and his feelings are once again awoken with a fury. The war between his emotions starts up again as the darkness and emptiness slowly starts to dissipate.

And for the first time, Obito’s eyes change, not to the sith red, but back to their natural obsidian.

It is in that moment that Rin can see the turmoil and conflict inside him, buried deep under a shroud of darkness and numbness.

But before long Obito’s eyes flicker into sith red and then back into their hollow black.

He then stares at all of them one last time, before he whispers, barely audible; “I’m sorry” and then teleports away.

After Rin’s confession Obito is torn, and his emotions finally resurface, and he is instantly pulled into a war of feelings. On one hand he still hates them all, on the other, now that he knows that Rin loves him too, his old self is rekindled.

Obito isolates himself far away from everyone. At the edge of the galaxy. In the months that follow, the galaxy is given a brief respite and the galaxy slowly starts to recover, but now the Republic is more hellbent than ever to kill the masked man. And the Jedi are under a lot of scrutiny as well.

Rin and the others discover Obito’s ultimate plan, to use an ancient darkside artefact to destroy the entire galaxy at once. They wait for Obito to make his next move and to try and convince him to give up his plans. Knowing that he is after an artefact known as the Star Forge, they try to find it.

Eventually the republic and the jedi do find the location of it and so does Obito, and so the final showdown begins.

The entire republic fleet is sent there as well as nearly every jedi, including Rin and her friends.

Obito having refound his dark resolve to go ahead with his plan, believing it is far too late for him to stop, arrives at the Star forges location wiping out half of the republic fleet as a show of strength.

He boards the star forge to use its darkside power to amplify his own so he can consume the entire galaxy in death in one stroke.

On board he faces several jedi and quickly dispatches them.

He eventually faces the council, who try to make him surrender, but Obito quickly kills nearly all of them, sparing 5 so they can witness the end of everything as revenge for the slights against him.

But as he enters the core of the Star Forge he finds his friends waiting for him, now with even more resolve to save Obito from the darkness.

He realises that he has to fight all of them to reach the heart of the Star Forge.

Obito is still fighting an inner battle inside himself.

But he quickly engages in a ferocious duel against all of them once again.

At the same time everyone uses talk-no-jutsu on him.

First Rin, then Kakashi, then Minato and even Naruto. They all try to convince him to stop and return home, Obito tells them he no longer has a home and even if he did give up, the republic and the jedi council would never forgive him. But they tell him they’d find a way, they would all leave the jedi order if it meant having Obito back.

Obito is put into even further turmoil and conflict by this and as he continues to fight them, the inner war he is fighting is becoming more and more frenzied.

Finally it reaches a tipping point as Rin once again tells him that she loves him. And Obito is brought to a standstill.

He then says that he thought she loved Kakashi, not him, but Rin tells him that she thought that at first but then came to realise that she only had a crush on him, and that she truly loved Obito. It took his death to make her realise that he meant the universe to her.

The others then go on to tell him how much they miss him and how sorry they were for not helping him more, they even tell him that they wanted to go back and search for him, but were prohibited by the council, and that Minato left the order in protest.

Kakashi and Rin also reveal that they thought about leaving the order too, but only stayed to train Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.

Naruto directly speaks to Obito and tells him of his dreams and convictions, and Obito is shaken to his core. It is like hearing his younger self talking to him.

Obito collapses and says he doesn’t know how he can go back to the way he was.

Rin walks forward and says that the first step is to allow them to help him and to let himself feel joy and love again. She then leans in and kisses him, Obito is shocked, and is terrified that he’ll drain the life from Rin or turn her to the darkness, but the kiss has the opposite effect. The kiss fills him with love, hope and joy. It washes away both the darkness and the hate buried underneath it, and Obito for the first time in a long time finally feels like himself again.

However the joyful moment was not to last as they were interrupted by first; the remaining council members, and then the Sith themselves who had decided to take advantage of the situation and use the Star Forge for themselves.

The Jedi and Obito agree to fight together to destroy the Sith.

After a vicious and fierce battle against the Sith, during which the Star Forge activates and the darkness grows, Obito decides to make the ultimate sacrifice, he will use the Star Forges power to destroy itself and the Sorcerers of Rhand and the Sith, along with himself in the process.

Everyone vehemently disagrees and refuses to allow Obito to do this, but he tells them that this is the only way, not just to save the galaxy but to erase the threat of the sorcerers and the Sith once and for all, as well as to prevent anyone from seeking the Star Forges power ever again. But also, this is his penance, for everything he had done, all the death and destruction he had caused. Rin runs to him and kisses him once again and tells him she will not leave him, not again. Obito for the first time in forever smiles and kisses Rin back, before telling her that he loves her too, and he always has and he always will.

He tells her that they’ll meet again one day.

He then turns to the others and the remaining council members and tells them to get the Republic fleet out of the area, he then pushes Rin away from him and uses his powers to teleport them all onto a Republic cruiser.

Obito turns around and bonds the Star Forge’s power and then teleports it and himself along with any Sith he can sense in the galaxy straight to the Sorcerers.

There he pulls out his Darksaber and using the power of the forge annihilates the sorcerers and the sith along with a lot of the unknown regions. Feeling drained after using the immense power, he then plunges the Darksaber into the heart of the Star Forge and uses its power one last time to destroy it and himself.

Meanwhile Rin and the others are in complete shock at what just happened. After comprehending what Obito had done, they all break down, especially Rin who literally feels her heart break all over again into a million pieces. She can’t accept it, she won’t accept it, she had just gotten Obito back, and they had both confessed their love for one another, and now he’s gone for good. Rin wails and cries in agony, and the others aren’t doing much better, they are all mourning Obito’s sacrifice.

The remaining council members are thinking over Obito’s sacrifice, and decide that Obito is a hero, they decide not to tell the Senate about the masked man’s identity, but they will make it known that Obito is a saviour of the galaxy.

Months later, they are all still mourning Obito, especially Rin. The Republic is slowly rebuilding, but many are still tense with so many dead, the Outer rim has become a black zone, no one goes there.

The Jedi are decimated, with very few members left.

After their return, Rin, Kakashi, Itachi, Shisui, Nagato, Yahiko and Konan all decide to leave the order as a way of keeping their promise to Obito. And eventually Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten all decide to leave too. Especially with Naruto and Hinata having fallen in love, as had Sasuke and Sakura.

The group are allowed to keep their lightsabers and decide to go wandering off into the galaxy to help those in need.

Minato and Kushina move away from Coursant to a more peaceful and serene planet.

The group often travel individually, but sometimes travel together.

Then one day news reaches them that something impossible has happened; several planets in the Black zone have been resurrected, life has returned to the planets, but what is more is that the planets have been restored to their perfect natural state. In the following weeks more planets suddenly return from the aether.

Rin and all the others go to investigate, they arrive on a beautiful lush serene planet. Whilst exploring the hills and the fields, they see a strange cloaked figure, wearing a light grey cloak and hood.

They approach him as he is kneeling in the grass holding earth, he looks up and his face is covered with white bandages.

They ask him who he is, he lets out a small chuckle and stands up tall and proud, they spot a lightsaber attached to his belt, the hilt is of a design that is eerily familiar.

The man says in a muffled voice, that he has been waiting for a long time to see them.

Everyone recognizes the voice despite it being muffled, the man then removes his hood and starts to unravel his bandages covering his face.

Once they are removed they reveal the scarred and weary, but happy face of Obito Uchiha, smiling more brightly than ever.

Rin gasps in absolute shock.

“Hello Rin” He says in a soft and warm voice.

Rin feels her eyes fill with tears and throws herself at him hugging him to her, never wanting to let him go again. Obito returns the hug and holds Rin close, feeling happier and more at peace than ever before in his entire life.

END

Epilogue

After reuniting with everyone, Obito says that now strives to help rebuild the galaxy, using his powers to restore the life he once took.

After having restored most of the Outer rim. Obito decides to go on his quest to help out in the galaxy.

Rin refusing to let him leave her again goes with him, the two travel the galaxy helping others and protecting the innocent. Known as the Lady of life and the Lord of light.

Obito settles down on a beautiful greenfield planet and starts a farm, a place for him to rest and relax. Rin is immediately taken with the idea and helps Obito set it up.

With help from the others they quickly set up a very simple but fully functioning home.

Obito and Rin still wander the galaxy, but will often return to their farm when they need rest. During this time Rin also heals a lot of Obito's wounds, but his facial scars remain, because she likes them.

Obito now wields two white lightsabers, after taking the red crystals from two sith lightsabers and healing them.

Rin’s saber also changes to white as time goes by.

Naruto and his friends go off into the galaxy for new adventures. But often call upon Obito and Rin for help when they need it.

In the end Obito got what he always wanted; peace and recognition and to save the galaxy.

And eventually he even gets to be with the love of his life.

Obito asks Rin to marry him about a year after meeting again, and everyone is invited to their wedding, which is held on their new homeword. Many others arrive, including Fugaku and Mikoto, as well as other old friends of theirs; Anko, Shizune, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai, Iruka and more.

About 6 years after their wedding, Rin becomes pregnant with Obito’s first child.

After the death of the sorcerers of Rhand and many sith, the force was fully balanced and peace lasted for a long time. In the end the sorcerers were happy for this outcome, because they received what they were looking for: death.

Obito and Rin continued to live happily together, travelling the galaxy and spending every second with each other.

And that's the end of my Star Wars ObiRin AU.

[saltymcsaltything]

I have... a lot of emotions stirred up by this post. I'm not sure if I have anything to add that isn't already stated or implied, but it's a little hard for me to process everything given the emotions. Apologies if this is just reiterating what is already there, sometimes I don't always realize that my own words are already reflected perfectly clearly in the original post, just phrased differently.

CW: Child abuse, SA, religious abuse

I was fortunate that my parents were not the kind to force me to do things, punish me physically, or otherwise force compliance. Plenty of indications in hindsight that, beyond actively trying to counter the physical and emotional abuse their parents inflicted in them, my mom was very deliberately and intentionally respecting our autonomy and individuality in a way that her parents never had.

As a girl with an aversion to rigid gender roles and expectations growing up in the 50's in Catholic school, she was exposed at an extremely young age to rigid and violently enforced expectations of conformity that she deeply resented and she never forgot it. She was also targeted by a predatory priest and as, soon as she caught on that the questions he was asking her were deeply disturbing, she adamantly refused to ever be near him again unsupervised. She was called a liar and physically punished for daring to accuse a priest, but she stood her ground. She always suspected that she had narrowly avoided something horrific but that some of her classmates hadn't.

Decades later and years after he had died, that priest showed up in the NY state attorney general's report on child sexual abuse by the clergy with multiple credible accusations. The other priest at the same school, the one who she had told me seemed to target the boys, was also in the report. She didn't forget what had happened and she knew deep down that there had to be other kids being targeted, but nobody believed them and the culture of compliance made it easier for these predators to do what they did and get away with it for decades.

Growing up, she very specifically told us to tell her if anyone ever tried to touch us or made us uncomfortable no matter who they were. My Dad was on the same page, and had his own experiences in his teens that made him equally as vocal. When the behavior and attitude of a priest in our parish during my childhood made her deeply uncomfortable on multiple levels, we all left the church. He wound up in another state attorney general's report, and there are indicatuons he was attempting to target teen boys in my brother's age group. I still can't shake the feeling that her instincts may have saved us both from being targeted the way she had been.

My parents took this shit seriously, and they did an awful lot more than most parents of their generation to try to create a supportive environment and to treat all of us like actual people with individual personalities, needs and a strong desire for autonomy.

The one thing that they didn't count on was some of my neurodivergent traits. We didn't really have language for my social and emotional differences. There are a, lot of autistic and ADHD traits in my family, but in my immediate family I was the outlier in one area in particular - my default stress response is to freeze, and I also became deeply conflict avoidant as a coping mechanism for the social difficulties I had in school. I am so deeply terrified of confrontation and conflict that 90% of the time I would not tell anyone if someone hurt me because the fear of being questioned and having to talk to psychologists or cops or prosecutors or school administrators and being dismissed and called a liar like my mom had been was so nightmarish to me that when I was hurt by others in my teens, I told no one.

I also internalized things I saw or heard in the wider world, like the idea that boys 'always want it', and if I *didn't* that meant there was something wrong with me - and given my generation and the completely pervasive queerphobia of the time, the implication of what was 'wrong with me' is glaringly obvious.

Not that it mattered that I tried to be as masculine and straight as possible - I got clocked as queer constantly in my teens and I was terrified of the social stigma as much as the very real possibility of being violently attacked. Three times in my teens I was assaulted by peers and didn't report it to an adult. Two of the incidents were male peers and had an obvious queerphobic motivation, and I at least lashed out verbally and tried to fight back. One of those three times was by my date to a dance, and that's the one that sticks with me the most because it was the one where I completely froze and could barely speak. I couldn't even say no or pull away. It happened repeatedly all night and I just checked out emotionally and watched it happen like I wasn't even in my body.

My Dad drove her home afterwards because I was staying to help cleanup, and when he came to pick me up, she had apparently said things on the ride home that he found inappropriate and said he really didn't think I should see her again. I didn't tell him what had happened but I think he had an idea - if not that it had happened that it might in the future. He did what he could at the time in the aftermath but he couldn't protect me in the moment when he wasn't there. Telling me he had concerns was enough validation that what happened wasn't my fault and wasn't right that I was able to break off whatever relationship was developing. If he'd been the kind of Dad who was trying to push me to be something I wasn't instead of realizing that I was in a situation that was wrong for me, it likely would have happened again.

Here's the most fucked up part: peers and chaperones saw some of what she was doing and either thought it was funny - the peers - or glared at me like I was an active participant instead of what I actually was - panic stricken, emotionally overwhelmed young teen whose body was fully on autopilot. Their reactions at the time made me feel like there was something wrong with me for not being 'into it' and feeling violated. I threw up that night after my Dad came to pick her up and I felt disgusted with myself for that. And I don't even really blame her as much as I blame the chaperone. You had *one fucking job* and you stared right at me and did nothing.

That social pressure to conform is intense, especially when you're autistic, undiagnosed, and don't even know what the fuck is going on in your own head. If I had understood my emotional and social difficulties more, and if the pervasive social pressure to conform outside the shelter of my home wasn't so intense, I might have avoided a lot of that trauma. I'm 44 years old and still haunted by those experiences, and 9 years ago I was assaulted in the workplace by another coworker. I couldn't even call it what it was when it happened - it was "just" harassment and bullying. But I felt exactly how I did when I was a teen and I knew what it was even without putting the right name to it because it had happened before. But even nearly 20 years later I was still conditioned to minimize what had happened, and to blame myself for not stopping it.

What's the point of all of that? To footstomp what happens when social pressures literally condition kids like me into a state of nearly automatic compliance. Our entire society needs to drastically change the prevailing attitudes around the autonomy and rights of children.

How parents teach their kids about consent and autonomy matters, but bystanders matter too. Family members who speak up for kids and give them the validation they need to resist shaming and coercion matter. Modeling respect for bodily autonomy so that other adults can see the difference it makes matters. Showing someone who is repeating the same behaviors that were likely used to force them to comply with social expectations in opposition to their own rights and needs so that they can break that cycle matters.

And what bystanders don't do matters too.

Teachers who stand there watching someone being mistreated matter. Coworkers who won't speak up thinking "not my problem" matter. 'Friends' who think it's funny to matchmake the painfully awkward and shy people-pleaser with someone who is openly sexually aggressive matter.

Every time I was assaulted and froze, or tried to fight back and failed because my panicked, angry reaction was exactly what the person hurting me was aiming for, there was someone there who could've helped but didn't. And because they didn't help, I minimized it and blamed myself even more, because clearly if it had been a big deal somebody would have at least said something, right?

Teach your kids about consent, yes, and teach them that the consent of others and their own consent should be respected regardless of gender. Teach them about their own bodily autonomy, teach them to speak up for themselves and others, teach them that you will be there for them and have their backs if they ever have to speak up so they don't feel alone, teach them that anyone can be a victim or a perpetrator and that someone's perceived gender doesn't make them immune from being a target so they don't ignore some situations because the victim doesn't look the way they expect. Teach them that it's not just "stranger danger" and that just because someone is a friend or a family member or a person in a position of trust doesn't mean that they can violate your bodily autonomy.

And teach those around you that there need to be adults everywhere who will speak up for and protect children. There are spaces where a parent can't protect their kids, and unfortunately there are too many adults who are bystanders when children are hurt.

tl;dr -- I have lived the version of this where the combination of my own undiagnosed and poorly understood social difficulties - especially my tendency to freeze when I am in distress and my debilitating fear of confrontation and conflict - and the inaction of peer and adult bystanders left me traumatized despite having better parents by far than most others of my generation. It's everyone's responsibility to address this and normalize respect for consent and bodily autonomy everywhere, and to teach kids that their body is theirs and others are not entitled to it from the earliest possible age.

I see a lot of posts saying "teach boys about consent".

While that is true, a lot of parents will do that and fail to see how their own actions are the problem.

If you've spanked him, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've forced him to sit on Santa's lap, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've forced him to give hugs and kisses to family members, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've grabbed him in order to force him to sit still, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've labeled him as "too sensitive" for not wanting to be touched, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've assumed he's okay with something because he technically allowed it even though he felt pressured, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you're only going to criticize his actions but not your own, it won't work.

[teenageread]

Review: It Ends With Us

Synopsis:

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

Plot:

*Trigger Warning: Domestic Abuse*

Lily Bloom hates her father. Or hated, as today was his funeral and she gave the worst eulogy in the world. She was supposed to say five great things about her father, which she did, by standing there in silence for two minutes before a family member took her down thinking she was too emotional to deliver the speech. Lily hated her father due to how he abused her mother throughout her life and beat up Lily’s first and greatest love. On the roof of some apartment the night of the funeral, Lily meets Ryle, an equally broken man who strikes up a conversation with Lily to tell each other naked truths. Truths to the core, and where Ryle had some about how he wanted to have a one-night stand with Lily, he also had the trauma of being a doctor and watching a child die. Where Lily talks about the death of her father, and how she also thought Ryle was hot but was uninterested. It was Ryle who inspired Lily to, six months later, open up her flower shop, a dream Lily had since childhood. Hiring a rich girl who needs something to do, Lily quickly became friends with her solo employee Allysa. Helping to get the shop open, Allysa brings over her husband and younger brother, who happens to be the same Ryle that Lily met on the roof all those months ago. Deciding to go for it in a relationship, Lily and Ryle quickly become the it couple, who are both in love with their jobs and each other. Thinking she found the prince charming, Lily is flabbergasted when her first love, Atlas, comes back into her life. With her new relationship with Ryle showing some darker threats, Lily is stuck in an unneeded love triangle between her first love as a teen and this current love of both brightness and darkness.  

Thoughts:

Colleen Hoover wows readers with this stunning adult version of a love triangle romance novel, featuring bad boy Ryle, protector Atlas, and twenty-three-year-old Lily Bloom. The story is told only from Lily’s perspective, both as an adult with Ryle and through diary entries as a teenager talking about her and Atlas. Told in two parts, Hoover kept the story fast-paced and interesting with the progression of Ryle and Lily’s relationship, along with Lily's friendship with Allysa, and rekindling with Atlas. The main trigger warning and romantic conflict of the story are centered around abuse, both in her mother’s and Lily’s relationship. Domestic abuse is a large part of the story and how our characters deal with it separately. Not to spoil the “surprise” as Hoover’s book is best to go into the blind, it shows the creative edge and sensitivity of the writer Hoover as she narrates this harsh subject matter. Unlike the previous Hoover book, the sex is quite light in this story, despite Lily and Ryle doing it multiple times, Hoover does not waste the page space as they have in previous novels, instead keeping it almost PG, as there were better matters to focus on in the story. The title is beautiful and not what I expected, as Hoover keeps it a secret till the end of the novel, to the meaning of the title and its relationship to Lily and her loved ones. There are good parts of the book like Lily’s diary entries being addressed to Ellen DeGeneres, but sometimes bad parts of Lily's character fall flat despite being the star of the story. Yet Hoover should be praised for how they navigated the idea behind domestic abuse and why women stay, as she gives Lily countless opportunities, and then shows the aftermath of what happens when you do leave. This novel is worth it for that alone, as Hoover uses their platform to tell readers Lily’s important story of ending the cycle.

Read more reviews: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon

[graceshouldwrite]

Writing Childhood Best Friends to Lovers

instagram: @ grace_should_write

This is a super popular trope, and these are some of my personal takes on how to write it properly!

ALSO, SORRY FOR THE LACK OF POSTS. Finals season and extracurricular performances have KILLED ME this past month. But, I hope this means more consistent posting 🥲🥲🥲

Thanks for sticking by, and enjoy these tips!

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1. Flesh out their history

Childhood best friends means what it says—they were best friends during CHILDHOOD. As the author, you must know what their childhood was like.

For practice, you can do things like:

writing out important backstory scenes that were CRUCIAL to their relationship

ex. a big fight, when one of them helped out the other in a very bad time, when they became friends, etc.

creating a TIMELINE of their relationship

often based on point 1, with important moments being roadmapped to show how the relationship developed

thinking of moments that produced EXCLUSIVE MEMORIES to the best friends

ex. inside jokes and specific references, “remember when ______?” and “he reminds me of ______!” moments, friendship bracelets worn to this day, etc

Exercises like this make the trope more realistic—you’re showing to yourself how the children became BEST FRIENDS, and how their relationship was defined after it was determined.

2. Something has to change

Childhood best friends don’t just become lovers—something needs to change!

Whether it’s puberty increasing horniness by 100%, not seeing each other for a while, or anything like that, something has to happen to move them away from the “friends” route and onto the “potentially romantic” route.

Here are some ideas:

one or both glow up

new jobs, new schools, new setting in general

they suddenly meet once more after a long period of time (ex. 10 years)

on that note, they could meet in DANGER (like a heist or a battle), in a ROMANTIC setting (ex. seeing each other awkwardly at a bar), a CORPORATE setting, a SIMILAR SETTING TO THEIR CHILDHOOD… (could be anything!)

they help out a mutual friend who doesn’t know they know each other, but then they see each other again and are SHOCKED

a childhood betrayal (at least interpreted as such by one party) leaves them not speaking… but they meet again! (this is GREAT for cleaning the slate AND embittering the memories!!)

3. Make it awkward 

They shouldn’t immediately accept the change (usually). Human nature generally makes us change-averse, so having a period of shock and denial over brewing feelings is very natural. It’s also a NATURAL source of conflict!

Generate conflict ideas from the awkwardness. They can:

actively fight against the relationship (ex. being a bit meaner when they see each other)

be colder towards each other

hold childhood memories AGAINST each other (using the BAD memories to undermine the other person)

avoid each other, but not stop thinking about the other person….

mentally compare their former relationship to this one, asking themselves “what happened?” “what changed?” “…HOW DID WE GET HERE?”

notice NEW THINGS about the other person, and think of it in a more resentful light: ex. “Your hair was shorter back then…I don’t know, seemed more practical.” “I’ll bet you can’t even swim the length of our old pool now—not like you could.”

Before they get to the ROMANCE stage, this period of iffy “wtf” is an excellent source of angst and conflict.

4. Something BIG happens

Big doesn’t always mean LARGE-SCALE BATTLE DRAGONS MAGIC BULLETS FLYING SWING SWING (although it could)—it’s simply something that affects one of the characters deeply.

Some ideas include:

the death of a close friend or family member

the loss of a job or a dream slipping out of reach

a tumultuous break up

a near-death experience

one of the characters suddenly disappears

a vestige of their childhood is destroyed

one other close friend or family member betrays them

These are all heavily impactful things that have the power to ruin someone, at least for a period of time.

During this time, because the characters are too busy focusing on this disaster than anything else, it will make it a lot easier for the childhood best friends to become close again.

It gives them more opportunities to show how much they care about each other, and to actually be there for the other person as they go through it.

Eventually, they’ll realize through these massive series of development that the one for them was right in front of them! IF it’s a happy ending >:)

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THANK YOU GUYS FOR STICKING BY!!!

I promise, I’ll try to post more! I miss the writing community so so much and I can’t wait to have more time to dedicate towards it <3333

Let me know if you have any questions through responses, re-blogging, or DMing me at @ grace_should_write on IG.

Happy writing, and have a great day!

- grace <3

[mbti-notes]

hi i’m an istj. i fear the problem im going to describe is resolved by being more Te proactive and taking on more leader responsibilities and failing. just typing that out makes me feel burned out and miserable. anyway i get involved with groups that align with my values to get things done but it always feels like i somehow join things that aren’t as efficient as i’d want them to be or stagnate. at the same time that i have strong opinions about what to do i resent having to take on more responsibility to enact it. i want to be part of an established, moral, process/group but it seems like everything is in flux all the time. just making sure: is this Te-Ne dysfunction ?

Your question is about type development. An important aspect of type development is understanding the weaknesses and flaws of your type, in terms of the ways that your type tends to misuse functions. You seem to believe that your problem boils down to a simple lack of desire to lead in group situations (weak Te?), but it probably goes far deeper than that.

Si-Ne problems often manifest as a general aversion to change, specifically, unwillingness to change how one looks at a situation, which would then significantly alter one's approach to it. Imbalance between Si and Ne becomes a very unhealthy stubbornness when one is also prone to Si-Fi loop that thinks in terms of pure absolutes. In essence, you believe what you believe and you want what you want, and nothing and nobody can break through that mental wall. Perhaps not even you.

Auxiliary development is meant to help with Si extremes and Si-Fi loop stubbornness by making you care more about empirical facts (Te) than your frustration (Fi). It isn't always easy to develop the auxiliary function when you come to believe that it interferes with what makes Si feel most comfortable (e.g. "just typing that out makes me feel burned out and miserable"). If using the auxiliary function feels so "tiring", it doesn't mean that you should avoid using it. Quite the contrary. It's an indication that you haven't yet learned to use it properly, which means further development is necessary.

Te wants efficiency, that much is true. However, what separates immature Te from mature Te is how exactly one conceptualizes "efficiency". When Te is immature, one has a very rudimentary understanding of how to be efficient. For example, one is likely to believe that efficiency is achieved through assertiveness or even brute force, i.e., "making" things happen despite all the obstacles in the way. Is it any wonder that using Te feels tiring, then? You're essentially forcing yourself to swim against the current. Si doms are painfully aware that their energy is finite, so they quickly run out of steam.

However, Te isn't really about mustering up energy. This is not what makes TJs smart, strong, and formidable. Mature Te conceptualizes efficiency as reducing the amount of energy required whenever possible, which is why they have a lot of energy to take on very heavy workloads - some people call it "working smart". This is done through facing the empirical facts of a situation head on and learning to work closely with them, which makes it far easier to make them work in your favor.

Your problem requires a two pronged attack:

Are you able to change how you look at situations in order to improve your approach (to address Si-Ne imbalance)?

Are you able to face the empirical facts of the situation and work with them rather than against them (to develop better use of Te)?

Wanting to be part of a process/group that aligns with your values in order to enact some good in the world is an admirable thing to strive for. Presumably, the other people involved in the group have the same sense of mission, otherwise, they wouldn't have joined. However, what you fail to take into account is that people aren't generally single-minded.

Human beings are complex because they are motivated by a multitude of factors, whether they realize it or not. They are full of psychological conflicts, contradictory desires, irrational impulses, old baggage, and unconscious bad habits. And when you bring people together, all that stuff comes out and creates complicated entanglements. A "group" only becomes a "team" when it is able to overcome those psychological obstacles together, and it can be a very long process of learning how to maximize strengths and mitigate weaknesses in every individual member. That's why a lot of groups simply fall apart. While your intention to join the group seems simple and straightforward (because Si-Te is admirable in its ability to keep things simple and straightforward), other people's intentions might not be so simple. If you fail to take into account the irrational aspects of human nature, you will cause yourself needless suffering.

Your frustration with people is likely a manifestation of your unrealistic expectations of them. Perhaps you aren't able to understand people who don't resemble you, let alone work with them. And you will certainly be doomed to fail if the only way Te knows to deal with individual differences is to force everyone to become more like you. That's an impossible task, not because it requires the energy of a thousand suns as you assume, but because you're choosing to fight against reality. Mature Te would advise that you should first face down the empirical facts of how people operate if you hope to discover the most effective way to influence them. Your repeated experience of feeling disenchanted with groups tells you that you're missing an important piece of knowledge about groups and how they operate.

I'll give you a very simple example from my own life. I used to gather with a group of 30-50 people once a week to conduct planned discussions. The discussions never really started on time despite everyone being in their seats because people weren't focused enough at the start of the session. There was often whispering and sidetalking and such that would go on for about half an hour before the room felt settled and focused.

One method of addressing the problem arose organically. Whoever was the main speaker simply started shushing people and it became a thing. Sometimes, it would even escalate to calling people out, like a teacher scolding a student in a classroom. This definitely made the social atmosphere less inviting and more tense. Sure, people would shut up after being called out, but they became less focused due to seething with resentment. Power struggles aren't great for group morale, especially if it's supposed to be a group of equals coming together for a common cause.

It all sounds quite childish, but these kinds of judgments are useless. You can call people childish, inefficient, incompetent, etc etc, but it doesn't solve the problem. And, worse, being judgmental blocks you from understanding people better and working with them. Perhaps an ISTJ would see this as a "mess", an "inefficiency" that wastes time, and evidence of bad character when people break the rules.

However, if you change the way you look at the situation, you might not be so quick to make such judgments. Actually, it's kind of weird for a bunch of people who know each other well to enter a room and immediately sit down quietly. Humans have a natural tendency to socialize as a way to strengthen interpersonal bonds. Isn't group cohesiveness a good thing, since it encourages better cooperation? If you are able to see the benefits of their chatty behavior and how it contributes to group cohesiveness, then instead of fighting against it, you would think of ways to harness it.

The real problem wasn't inefficiency; inefficiency was merely the symptom. The more primary problem was that a lot of people joined the group not just to "get things done", but also to make friends. The structure of the event denied them from fulfilling that important need and then they were more likely to act out. This problem was discovered when people had a chance to talk about what was frustrating them, which meant that the group had to make space to conduct some uncomfortable conversations.

To address the problem, the group eventually decided that the first 15 minutes would be devoted to socializing and allowing people to catch up, with the explicit promise to get down to business when the time was up. Some people brought drinks, others brought snacks. Some even showed up early to have more time to socialize. It enlivened people and enriched their relationships. Being "officially" allowed to get the chattiness out of their system, they were better able to sit down and focus on the planned agenda. The meeting felt like fun rather than a chore. And if you're interested in a cause, don't you want to recruit more people to support it? Making things more fun is one good way to attract support. You can look at it as wasting 15 minutes OR you can look at it as a 15 minute investment.

Solutions to human problems require:

cognitive empathy: figuring out what's really going on inside people's heads (in Te terms it means working only with the empirical facts of the situation, rather than indulging negative Fi judgments)

strategy: taking the time to work with people and figuring out the best way to help them get over obstacles (in Te terms it means investing energy early and wisely to maximize your returns later, rather than putting effort into the wrong places or only stepping in to tackle mere symptoms of the problem)

creativity: harnessing natural human tendencies to produce something useful or worthwhile (in Te terms in means taking what's already there and transforming it into a NET positive, rather than getting too fixated on every little negative detail and losing sight of the bigger picture)

Te can be a great function for dealing with human problems as long as you overcome the immature aspects of it, such as impatience, bluntness, or inflexibility. Every person is unique, so every group is different. Let go of the idea that there is only one way to approach a problem/conflict and you will start to be more creative in your approach. By accepting the fact that things are always in flux and using empirical evidence to understand and predict how change works, TJs become much more effective and efficient at everything they do. When it comes to people, meeting someone different from you is an opportunity to learn how to deal with that kind of person. The more knowledge you have of human psychology under your belt, the better you get at dealing with people's weird or negative tendencies. If a strategy works, use it again. If it doesn't work, adjust it to fit their psychology better.

In your situation, you see the problem as people being inefficient, so your inclination is to step forward and do something to "make" them more efficient. Humans aren't built with the prime directive to be efficient. They're not machines. Their psychology is messy, so trying to force them to behave like a machine is to force them to go against their psychology. In other words, you're choosing the least efficient approach. The more efficient approach, though it requires more intelligent thinking on your part (you want to become more intelligent, right?), is to properly understand the more primary problem of what's really causing them to be so inefficient in the first place. That is the way to discover the right strategy. If you are able to target those obstacles at the very root, efficiency improves more naturally.

Oftentimes, working smart doesn't require you to step up and be THE leader for everyone. As an introvert, it's probably more comfortable for you to work behind the scenes to talk to people, get a better idea of what they need and/or what problems they're experiencing, and incrementally remove the obstacles that are preventing them from focusing on what they should be focused on. You can't fix everything all at once, so just do what you can to fix what you are able to fix at any given point in time. It's a process and some progress is better than no progress.

[vermithwhore]

it's interesting; whenever aegon took the throne (whether you view his ascent as justified by the preestablished laws of succession or as a coup against viserys' preference) it became rhaenyra's choice to either accept his position or contest it. and she really could've just accepted it. the choice to contest it was a choice she made, and she must have known it would have to lead to war, despite her aversion to the realities of war.

she could've rode to king's landing, knelt at the throne, and sworn her loyalty. she could've proposed a marriage pact between aegon (iii) and jaehaera, she could've lived a good life as a prominent noble. she could've avoided all the loss she's experienced simply by not chasing after the throne.

and before that, she made the choice of lying about her sons' heritage. she could've given them a comfortable life as royal bastards, they'd have lived well beyond the means of 99% of westeros. they might've even been legitimized. but instead she used them as a tool to push her claim, seemingly not realizing the rumors of bastard sons were actually hurting her claim and destroying her relationships at court. and she showed little care for the deadly consequences it may have for her sons down the line.

like, even if she somehow had managed to make her way to the throne uncontested, her eventual death would only lead to conflict between the bastard harwin lineage and the trueborn daemon lineage. jacaerys never would've taken the throne after her without a civil war of his own. she may push the thought to the back of her mind; but she must know westeros never would've taken a bastard king quietly.

and ever since crowning herself, she's sought ways to avoid war- but she has to know her goals and her desire to avoid war are inherently opposed. she doesn't sit on the iron throne, and she wants to take it. she must know there's no scenario where the current court of king's landing will simply leave and let her have it.

she positioned herself for an inevitable war, and then she got it, and now she's fence sitting and trying to stop the rollercoaster ride she started, because although she is self-centered, she doesn't want to actively call for mass death in her name.

and sneaking in to king's landing to speak to alicent.... what did she really hope to gain from it? there's nothing she possibly could gain. even if she was able to persuade alicent to her side, what could alicent do?

request that aegon step down and hand his crown to the people who killed his child? continue pleading for the avoidance of war? assassinate her own son? rhaenyra's so self-centered in her goals that she travelled all that way and took such absurd risks to her own life, yet never even stopped to consider the fact that there was literally nothing alicent could do?

and, if she truly believed in viserys' prophecy, wouldn't the honorable thing be to share it with alicent so she could pass it on to aegon in the event of rhaenyra's potential defeat? is she really willing to go to war and potentially die with knowledge that could doom all of westeros? she's so focused on the throne that i don't think she's even considered the implications of what that prophecy dying with her might mean for the future.

tldr; rhaenyra's very selfish and it's an interesting character trait

my favorite flaw of rhaenyra's is her self-centeredness (which makes perfect sense given how viserys raised her and only makes me love her more, before some of y'all get mad) and i loved the way it was both showcased in this episode in her conversation with rhaenys.

first, we have rhaenyra focused on the assassination attempt against her, while rhaenys points out that this was clearly an impulsive reflex to jaehaerys's death and likely not the work of otto or alicent.

then we have rhaenyra focused on the theft of her throne above all else, while rhaenys points out that the smallfolk don't have rhaenyra's investment in her claim and that they may even view other events (including those caused by team black) as the cause of the war.

next we have rhaenyra blaming alicent for the violence so far, accusing her of permitting it, while rhaenys points out that rhaenyra cannot assume alicent allowed or even knew of luke's death or the attempt on rhaenyra's life, just as rhaenyra did not allow or know of jaehaerys's death.

all throughout this conversation, rhaenys is pushing for peace, and in doing so she is pushing for rhaenyra to see beyond herself. but in the end, rhaenyra just comes back to herself: "her son sits my throne. there is nothing more to be said."

it's an interesting way to frame things; i think it would have been more sympathetic to point out that rhaenyra has valid reasons to think her family would be killed if she tried to surrender peacefully right now. but ultimately her throne is the only thing she names aloud. this isn't to say that show rhaenyra doesn't necessarily care about the smallfolk, troops, dragons, and family members who are likely to be killed in the war- just that she cares about her own throne more.

[wakaoujisenhime]

Hello! Lots of love to you. 😘 can I request GoM+ Takao thinks reader is going to breakup with them but is actually not. It can be funny misunderstanding or angst anything really. Happy ending.

A/N: Lots of kisses for you my dear anon! 💋 I tried to keep them all the same length, but guess what?? I failed (✌︎ ՞ਊ ՞)✌︎ Hope you’ll enjoy these nonetheless!! <33

Tags: GoM and Takao x reader ✅ SFW ✅ fluff ✅ angst ✅ jealousy ✅

image/art source: Takao -> Pixiv (by もいさま)

━━━━☆ ━━━━☆ ━━━━☆

Kuroko:

Being in a relationship with Kuroko was filled with nothing but tranquility and love. The two of you rarely had any type of conflict with each other, but one very urgent problem you’d always had in mind was the lack of communication. Because your boyfriend was so silent and barely complained whenever something was amiss, you tended to misunderstand each other…

One morning after you’d entered Seirin’s school building, you immediately caught a glimpse of your blue-haired boyfriend, and just as you were about to go up to him and greet him with your usual hug, he wordlessly turned his back to you and disappeared in the crowd. His behavior was quite unusual, but you figured that he just didn’t see you and went on with your day.

Unfortunately, the young man kept showing you the cold shoulder on that day, and by the end of his team’s basketball training, he’d even gone back home before you.

“Did something between you two happen?” asked Kagami as soon as he saw your dejected reaction to the unexpected news. Your grip on your school bag’s rims tightened and you simply shook your head.

“Not that I’m aware of anything…”

“Then why don’t you just ask him?”

His teammates stared daggers at the tall young man who had once again said something insensitive, but to you, it was a simple summary of the constant problem between your lover and yourself, so you couldn’t help but giggle at his question and nod.

——

Just where have you hidden yourself Tetsu?!

Annoyance had distorted your usually calm facial features and was chasing away any of your classmates that hoped to approach you for whatever reasons. After Kagami had given you the necessary push you needed, you made it your mission to find your lover and confront him once and for all, but he was nowhere to be found. No matter who you asked, where you went, what you did, it was as if he never came to school. At times such as these, his low presence proved to be pretty useful and a damn nightmare for you, but you stayed vigilant and even decided to make use of some…unexpected tactics.

During the second break, you sprinted to your lover’s classroom, knowing fully well that he was already gone, and called for his partner, who only very reluctantly agreed to accompany you during your search. The plan you’d forged relied entirely on Kagami’s strong presence that - according to his teammates - was so strong that even the people who saw him daily couldn’t help but stare at him. You knew that Kuroko was more or less immune to this and preferred to look down at his book, so you were positive that with this plan you’d find the odd one out of the crowd pretty easily.

Luckily for you, the plan was a success and after just a couple of minutes you’d caught sight of the familiar blue hair, but when you locked eyes with your loved one, a sharp pain ran through your chest. Kuroko looked heartbroken and had to bite his lip to hide his anger and tears.

“(Y/N), this is your chance! Go! Run!”

The unexpected encouragement from the man next to you managed to wake you up from your trance and not even a second later you were running after your lover. Fortunately for you, he wasn’t that quick and on top of that, you were convinced that he ran extra slower than usual because somewhere deep inside of him he wanted to talk to you as well.

“(Y/N)…I-”

“We can’t continue like this Tetsu,” you began and intended to take a small breather before you continued, but the anxious face of your counterpart made you reconsider, “what I mean to say is, that we can’t ignore our constant misunderstandings due to miscommunication. I love you Tetsuya and whenever I am with you everything is nearly perfect, but we need to do something about your aversion of expressing your opinion and my reluctance to speak up about it.”

You couldn’t blame him for being so surprised that he couldn’t answer instantly since you surprised even yourself with how direct you were. Just as you were about to break the uncomfortable silence between you two, Kuroko unexpectedly wrapped his arms around you in a hug.

“Thank god…I thought you wanted to leave me for Kagami-kun.”

“Excuse me, what? Why would I-” you stopped for a moment and remembered the scene he saw just a couple of minutes ago before you corrected him, “…I needed his help to find you, since all of my earlier attempts were futile against the legendary Phantom Sixth man, you know?”

And with that small joke, you both chuckled, kissed each other, and decided to spent the rest of the break hand-in-hand, while you resolved the small thorn in your relationship.

Kise:

Being Kise’s lover was pretty tiresome and restricting. Since he was a famous model a lot of rules had to be followed by not only him but you as well.

Any selfies you took are not to be shared with anyone and not to be published. Bragging about him as your boyfriend was out of the question. Public dates? I think not.

When his manager had first thrown all of these at you, you were pretty stomped and ready to burst with anger, but he stopped you and after your talk, Kise reassured you that you would still do the majority of the things “normal” couples do, but you’d simply have to be more careful and aware of your surroundings than others. You trusted him of course and he didn’t lie, in fact, he made an enormous effort to provide you with a proper love life, one that you deserved. Much to your surprise, everything was working out just fine and you got used to the abnormalities of some situations pretty quickly, but as we all know life can rarely be filled with nothing but sunshine and rainbows…

-` EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MODEL №1 KISE RYOUTA ´-

That was the headline of one of the many magazines your boyfriend was featured in. You always made sure to show your support for his career by buying almost every issue that had a section dedicated to your blond lover, that and the fact that the photographers and designers always made him look hotter than he already was. With a big grin on your face, you browsed the magazine until you found the corresponding pages and began reading yet another interview.

At first, the questions were pretty standard and tame, asking the young model what his future plans were, how he manages school, basketball club, and modeling without being stressed out at all, and many more similar questions such as these. Being his significant other, you caught a few lies of his that he had to make up in order to keep your relationship a secret and even though it didn’t sit entirely right with you, you brushed it off since you knew that he couldn’t help it. With mixed feelings, you read on until one particular question and answer caught your eye.

-` Q: A lot of your female fans have been constantly speculating about what type of boyfriend you’d make, what’s your take on that subject?

-` A: (laughs) Well you see, I hate to break it to everyone, but I like the type of women that don’t tie me down. I just can’t imagine myself being with the same person every single day, it’d be quite suffocating, you know?

You stared at that answer for a while, hoping that the words would just merge into something that didn’t sound so…ruthless, but to no avail. Just as you were about to continue your lecture, the front door to your apartment opened and the familiar voice of your lover echoed, filling your home with more life than before. While the blond removed his shoes and jacket you quickly hid away the magazine and forced yourself to smile, hoping that he wouldn’t notice…

——

“You damn idiot, what were you thinking?!”

“Oh (Y/N)…what do you even see in him?”

“I have never been more pissed off to be in the same team as you…”

The moment Kise had entered the gym to participate in today’s training all of his teammates had surrounded him and had begun reprimanding him for something he couldn’t quite understand because of how chaotic everyone was. It took a while, but when they became more or less calm he used to chance to find out just what’s got them so pissed off.

“Isn’t it obvious you imbecile?! That over the top answer of yours is what we’re so mad about”

“Kasamatsu-senpai I can’t quite follow…what answer are you referring to?”

After being kicked down by the shorter man and lectured yet another time, Kise finally understood just what this fuss was about. You’d been quite out of it since his latest interview got published, so the guys decided to find out what had you so bothered and the answer was, of course, Kise…who else?

“B-But I didn’t mean it! It was just for show an–”

“Does (Y/N) know?” interrupted Moriyama with an unusually serious tone. Your lover intended to answer fully confident that you were aware, but a small voice inside of his mind stopped him in his tracks. How were you supposed to know that he didn’t mean it when he never explained himself? What if the reason you’d been so absentminded these past few days was that you were planning on leaving him?

N-No…I can’t let that happen…i-if we break up then what am I–

“Excuse me, is Kise here?”

At the unexpected sound of your voice all of the members instantly shut up, turning to you, but before anyone could answer you, the blond took off sprinting right towards you and wrapping his muscular arms around your body.

“Please forgive me (Y/N)-cchi, I…I figured we’d been over this and that you know that no matter what I say to the press, I never really mean it. It’s all supposed to be a façade to make me more attractive to the public, b-but you know me, right? The real, insecure, weak, and ambitious me…the one that’s no good without you…”

Even if he’d taken you by surprise with his sudden hug, his words rendered you pretty much immobile and left you with no choice but to listen to his desperate apology. He held you tighter and buried his face in the crack of your neck. The moment you felt something wet drip down on your clothing, you wrapped your arms around him protectively, gently caressing his head, and kissing his temple all the while he whispered one apology after the other, begging you to never leave his side.

“I won’t ever leave you, Kise…I promise”

Midorima:

“…and with that, we’re coming to today’s last and unfortunately most unluckiest signs of all…Cancer!”

At the sudden announcement, Midorima flinched, grip tightening on his iPod, as he continued listening to his daily horoscope. His sign being the unluckiest out of all was quite the rarity and that alone was worrisome, but the fact that today’s misfortune was predicted to be in his love life made the man the more afraid. Usually, he’d ignore any prognosis that went beyond his career, but the moment you had become his girlfriend, Midorima couldn’t help but lend an ear every time the presenter of his favorite show mentioned the word love.

Your lover’s flame for you has been near extinction, I suggest breaking up with them before they do, or else this pain will haunt you for eternity…

With heavy steps, the green-haired man made his way to his school, lucky item in hand and a never before experienced fear deeply rooted in his heart. If possible he’d try to avoid you as much as possible today, so that you couldn’t break things off with him. He was aware that his behavior was quite over the top, but that was his way to cope with the anxiety of losing you - his most important person. In Midorima’s eyes this was a solid plan, but putting it into action was harder than expected.

Every time you jogged up to him with your angelic smile, your big and beautiful eyes that sparkled the moment you saw him, the energetic way you waved to your boyfriend when you spotted him across the hallway were so adorable and heart-warming that whenever he had to act extra cold towards you, it felt like his heart was being torn apart anew every single time. While he was beating himself up over his behavior, you simply shrugged it off and figured that he was on his usual tsundere trip for some reason and decided to ask him about it after basketball practice.

“Shin-chan sure is acting weird today, huh?” asked Takao with a hint of amusement in his voice as he sat down next to you on a bench in the courtyard. You simply looked up at him and nod with resigned smile on your face as you answered: “I’m somehow used to his antics, but something must’ve happened for him to act so…distant.”

The boy next to you studied your expression and despite his usual enjoyment of watching a misunderstanding between the two of you unfold, he could see how much the green-haired man’s behavior was weighing on you, so he broke his silence and told you about Midormia’s plan that he’d schemed following today’s horoscope.

——

“Midorima Shintarou, we need to talk…now!”

Your loud and sudden order startled the young man in gym clothes, who was mere movements away from throwing his umpteenth three-pointer, as well as his teammates. If it weren’t for the serious tone in your voice, he would’ve come up with some kind of excuse to dodge the upcoming conversation.

Now that the two of you were outside of the gym you didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point: “Are you seriously avoiding me all day because of Oha Asa’s words? Is that how little you believe in me and my feelings for you?” Your boyfriend never quite knew how to deal with such straightforwardness and seeing how with each question you uttered, the tears in the corners of your eyes grew, pushed him even further into a corner until he couldn’t handle it anymore and just needed to shut you up. Out of nowhere Midorima took a tight hold of your shoulders, seizing your frantic movements, and pressed his lips firmly to yours, kissing you in the process.

“…now that I finally have your attention, allow me to explain myself, will you?” he asked and waited for your nod before he continued “Look…I know I overreacted and to be honest, my behavior bothered me more than you think. I was just…j-just so afraid to lose you. Up until now everything Oha Asa said came true, s-so–”

Before he could finish his sentence, it was your turn to kiss him on the lips and use his moment of confusion to stop the train of negative thoughts that were about to overwhelm him. “I love you Shintarou…more than any horoscope could ever hope to calculate and sure, every time you listen to this show it all comes true, but did you forget that my sign is on that show as well?”

Your sudden question caught him a little of guard, but the moment you pulled something small out of your pocket he couldn’t help but smile to himself as a light blush spread across his cheeks.

“Unfortunately for you, today is my lucky day and your beloved presenter advised me to be more assertive than what I’m used to, and show my lover just how much he means to me.”

Aomine:

With quick steps, you neared the basketball club’s gym while frantically looking around for your boyfriend, who’d once again decided to ditch today’s training and laze around somewhere.

“Captain, we might have a problem!” you shouted out the moment you entered the building, ready to break the unpleasant news to the young man in glasses, who looked surprisingly relaxed, even though one of his best players was missing yet again. But before you could even say anything he simply put his hand up, motioning you to look behind him with his head, and there you saw the wanted man, crouched down while reading something.

With a heavy sigh, you joined Imayoshi and Wakamatsu, who was looking at the power forward with hopeless and annoyed expressions. After explaining to them that you couldn’t find him at his usual spots, you asked how they got him to join practice that quick.

“Oh you know…the usual” the blond said as he tapped a few times on his mobile phone, searching for something, and the moment he found it, he showed you the typical photo with which they always managed to catch Aomine: one of his favorite gravure magazines being held above a candle’s flame. You eyed the image a tad longer than what the men next to you were used to and then replied drily: “I see.”

The two players you were standing next to, were quite surprised by your reaction and couldn’t tear their eyes from your back as you walked towards the bench where their coach and manager were seated. They wanted to brush it off at first but the moment you had sat yourself down, your sad expression managed to guilt-trip them to such an extent that they immediately walked to the dark-skinned young man to lecture him.

“Aomine, you idiot, stop reading these things already!”

Said man didn’t even flinch at the sudden scream from the blond and continued looking through his magazine. Wakamatsu was already agitated enough and ready to throw punches at his sitting teammate, but the captain stopped him with an unobtrusive head-shake and took his chance not short after: “Ya see…your cute girlfriend’s over ‘ere and she looks mighty disappointed at the fact that ‘er boyfriend gives some random women more love ‘n attention than ya give ‘er. If ya keep that up, then who knows what could happen.”

It didn’t take much to annoy or upset your boyfriend and if you were as tactful as Imayoshi, you could do it whenever you felt like it, but this time he intended to make the man before him aware of what seemed to be a minor problem.

The two of them watched as Aomine finally closed his magazine and stood up, a terrifying glare fixated on the wall before him, and hissed out: “My relationship with (Y/N) has nothing to do with you, so don’t even butt your noses where they don’t belong.” He turned and just as he was about to leave and enter the practice match, he stood beside the man with glasses and stared at him with the same amount of bloodlust he had whenever he faced a strong opponent, and whispered: “Call her cute one more time and see what happens, captain”

——

What the hell is going on?

With a furious expression and gritted teeth, Aomine’s eyes followed your frantic movements in annoyance. He watched how you held Sakurai’s hands and whispered something to him to calm him down, how Wakamatsu ruffled your hair as thanks for bringing him a bottle of his favorite drink and a towel, and how Susa and Imayoshi patted your back while praising you. Today was the first time he actually noticed this, but now everything was making sense.

Since the beginning of this week, Momoi told him that she’d be away for two weeks and couldn’t manage the team in that timeframe. Her childhood friend wasn’t interested, so he didn’t ask any further details such as why she going away or who’d take her place for the time being, but now he wished he would’ve.

During her absence, he didn’t receive any of those dreadful SMS and for the first few days, he was living his life, skipping every single practice day. He did ask you a couple of times whether you wanted to ditch your class and come hang out with him, but he got rejected pretty quickly. Additionally, he rarely asked you out himself so the lack of messages from you wasn’t surprising to him, of course until he heard some of the substitute players comment something about how well you were doing your job as temporary manager.

“So that’s why you were so busy, huh?” he asked in his typical monotone voice the moment you had come back to the bench where he and the coach had taken place. Without sparing him even a single glance you took your clipboard and began explaining something to the older man. Seeing how you ignored him, paired with your cold attitude made Aomine involuntarily remember his captain’s words.

If ya keep that up, then who knows what could happen.

Your conversation with the coach was quickly wrapped up and not soon after just the two of you were left sitting on the bench. Your boyfriend’s deep blue eyes glanced briefly at you and observed how you were writing something in a small pink notebook that most likely belonged to Momoi. He never considered the fact that you would actually lose interest in him or perhaps even break up with him, but your recent behavior change matched exactly that and it scared him more than he let on.

The moment you finished writing and intended to pack everything up, a big hand took a gentle hold of your wrist. Slightly startled and taken aback you looked at the man beside you, who was covering his lower face area as he murmured something that only you managed to hear and understand.

Please don’t go…d-don’t leave me

A small smile slowly adorned your lips as you took his hand in yours, intertwining your fingers, and squeezing it ever so slightly. You figured that the reason he was hiding his face was because of the blush that had painted his cheeks in a shade of dark red. An unusual but very welcome sight as well as a great reward for the plan the entire team had come up with alongside you. The goal? Teaching your lover a small lesson that he’s surely not forgetting that quick.

Mission accomplished…

Murasakibara:

“Hey Atsushi, my friend told me they’d be opening a new store in–“

“Mmm…I don’t wanna go (Y/N)-chin”

You were stunned at the sudden refusal of your boyfriend even before you’d finished your sentence and couldn’t help but giggle to yourself as you looked at his slightly annoyed face.

Of course, he’d say that…

And with that prompt rejection, the conversation between you two died down and you wordlessly continued watching the movie you’d put on for tonight, while gently caressing the purple head of the large man who was using your thighs as a pillow.

——

“Eh? You rejected (Y/N)’s invitation again?” asked the black-haired young man while he handed his gigantic friend a tissue for his sticky fingers. With a slightly annoyed glare, Murasakibara snatched the handkerchief from him and hurriedly removed the honey residuals from the snacks he had finished a couple of minutes ago, before answering: “Of course I would…I’m not in the mood to go shopping for hours in this heat.”

The man’s laziness never failed to surprise Himuro everyone who has ever talked to him was aware of his quirks and despite it all, no one has ever left his side. The same goes for you as well. Since the first time you’d seen him, your heart already belonged to him. It was easier to pursue him than you’d expected since his team liked you very much and always helped you out by telling you about his schedule or when he’d come to practice. He was pretty cute once you got to know him better and unbeknownst to you, he had also fallen in love with everything about you. Your smile, the adorable way you tried to follow his basketball practice, the way you panicked when he told you that he didn’t like the type of candy you’d picked out, and everything else about you made his heart thump hard against his chest.

“You know Atsushi…if you keep your indifferent attitude up, your relationship might end pretty soon.”

“W-What do you mean…?”

With a perplexed expression on his face, Himuro took a glance at his friend who had panic written all over him, and reluctantly explained how you could feel neglected by him, or even think of leaving him because he seemingly doesn’t want to spend time with you. The purple-haired young man opened his mouth, wanting to protest but anything he said was immediately rebutted by his friend who told him that he was the wrong person to tell this to, and with that, Murasakibara sprinted out of the room. His destination: your home.

——

You were just out of the shower and preparing yourself to go to bed, when suddenly the doorbell starts ringing furiously, scaring you in the process. With a thumping heart and silent steps, you made your way to your door and took a glance at your peephole, needing less than a second to recognize just who had decided to spontaneously visit you this late at night.

“Atsushi, what are–”

“I’m sorry (Y/N)-chin, please don’t leave me! I-I promise I will go to that store reopening with you a-and to any other event you’d like, I’ll even do it without you having to buy me over with sweets, just–”

Thrown aback as you were, you took a tight hold of Murasakibara’s arms, squeezing them while you screamed at him to hold on and stop talking. Despite your reassuring words it took him a good while to calm down, so you made use of it and prepared some soft drinks, and put a couple of his favorite snacks in a rotating multi bowl set. After putting everything down on the small table in your living room, you got your boyfriend his favorite blanket, covering him with it, and finally sat down next to him.

“Now then, I’m almost afraid to ask you this, but…why are you pleading with me to not leave you?”

With his big and almost puppy-like eyes, he looked at you and asked with a slightly trembling voice: “S-So you really w-want to l-leave me?”

“Heavens no! Who even gave you that idea?”

The moment these few words left your lips, the tension finally left the young man’s body and he slumped back on your couch with a relieved sigh, whispering a silent thank god before massaging his closed eyes. You had never seen your lover being as worried as tonight and you figured that whatever has been bothering him must’ve been quite serious, and that made you in fact even more curious than before. Despite that, you figured you’d wait for him to start his explanation, or at least that was what you’d planned, but after a couple of minutes of nothing but silence, you decided to speak up and reassure him first.

“I’m not quite sure what happened, but it seems like you’re feeling bad for refusing my invite from some days ago, and well…I was kinda disappointed about not being able to go with you there, but I’ve known you for so long now and truth be told, I was prepared for such an answer so I’m not pissed off or anything, you know? You’re just the type of person to prefer staying indoors while lazing around…that’s just how you are and how I love you, so…”

You got embarrassed after a while and the young man’s missing reactions didn’t make it any better, so you eventually stopped mid-sentence and called out to him.

Silence.

“Atsushi…?”

You put your hand on his shoulder and gently shook him, causing his arm with which he was covering his eyes to fall to the side, revealing his slightly puffy eyes and sleeping face.

D-Did he…fall asleep…?

Who would’ve thought that your reassurance alone would have such an impact on him and cause him to fall asleep?

You giggled to yourself and gently caressed some strands of his hair away from his face, giving him a soft kiss on his cheek as you silently wished him a pleasant nap. A few seconds passed during which you contemplated whether you should go to your room or snuggle up to him, you picked the latter and as carefully as possible, leaned your head on his shoulder, closed your eyes, and missed the small smile that adorned Murasakibara’s lips.

Akashi:

Akashi usually isn’t one to get jealous of other people, since he is quite confident that there is no one better suited for you but him. And yet whenever he sees how you talk to Mayuzumi he can’t help but feel a tight pain in his chest and notice how his mood instantly drops. He’d immediately turn away from the sight of the two of you and go somewhere else, preferably the gym where he can either let his frustrations out on the ball or on some of the unmotivated basketball club members. When you were close to him during one of his bad days he was prone to behaving rather rude and harsh and even though he regrets it seconds after opening his mouth he just can’t stop himself. One day though, he truly lost it.

Everything was seemingly going well and then he saw both Mayuzumi and you come in the gym together, hand in hand, laughing, and worst of it all: you were blushing. The red-haired young man watched how his upperclassman helped you sit down on the bench and the way you two looked at each other made the captain feel sick. That’s when a certain thought entered his mind.

What if (Y/N) is planning on breaking up with me for….

While you laughed alongside the older member of the basketball club, you noticed out of the corner of your eyes the way Akashi approached you two and immediately sprung up to calm him down. “S-Sei, please calm yourself down!” you pleaded as you held onto his wrists, but no matter what you said he wasn’t listening, he only had eyes for the man behind you.

Out of desperation you wrapped your arms around the slightly trembling body of your boyfriend and began whispering how nothing was going on between the two of you, how Mayuzumi had only helped you reach the gym since you had sprained your ankle on the way, and how he had teased you for loving the captain too much. As if released from some sort of spell, the young man came back to his senses and returned your embrace in slight confusion. While you were quick to forgive and forget the sudden snap of your boyfriend, the grey-haired man behind you wasn’t in the mood to just forget how the first-year would’ve stabbed him with a ballpen if it weren’t for you. Luckily the other main team members came to calm their teammate down, while you excused yourself, took Akashi by the hand, and went out for a walk to help him calm down.

——

Holding tightly onto your boyfriend’s hand you dragged him off to a more remote area where you could properly talk to each other and resolve any type of doubts that seemed to sprout inside of his already restless mind as a sudden and unexpected whisper caught you off guard. You halted mid-step, turning to the young man behind you, and asked him to repeat what he’d just said.

After a short moment of reluctance, he nodded and did as asked. “I’m sorry for losing myself back there.” His sudden apology caught you quite off guard and made you forget your initial plan. The Akashi you knew rarely showed such enormous remorse for his actions, he might have finally found inner peace with himself and his insecurities, but that didn’t mean that he was now a completely changed man who’d thrown his entire pride away. Not being able to hold back your curiosity, you asked why he felt the need to apologize.

“The way I was ready to lash out at someone older than me, in the same way, I did with Kagami back then was uncalled for…not only that but your expression,” he paused, softly caressing your cheek and continued with a silent voice “that fearful expression you had when you saw me…I-I don’t want to see it ever again.”

Now I get it…

A sad smile adorned your lips as you squeezed his hand tighter. You were secretly thankful for his small outburst right now because it showed you not only that he indeed loved you as much as he usually told you, but also that despite his perfectionism he was very much flawed. He was afraid of losing you and equally afraid of you hating him for expressing these worries. Without saying anything you wrapped your arms around him in a hug and held him tightly as soon as he’d returned your embrace.

“Seijuro…please don’t try to tackle every worry you have on your own. That’s why we are a couple, right? Anything that bothers you, no matter how trivial or serious it is, please share it with me instead of tackling that burden on your own, ok..?”

His sharp yet beautiful eyes looked directly into your own before he leaned his forehead on your shoulder and murmured: “I know, it’s just…I’m still not used to having someone so dependable as you by my side, offering me so much support that I don’t know what to do with it.”

You giggled at his statement and kissed his head, thankful that you had more or less resolved one part of his issues, but more than anything you were happy that from now on he’d involve you more in his worries and problems.

Takao:

Everyone from Shuutoku warned you multiple times that being lovers with Takao would cause you to have severe trust issues and you didn’t believe them at first, but after a couple of weeks, you finally understood their warnings. The lively young man was surprisingly a jokester and tended to take certain things not serious enough for your preference, but since it was a part of his personality, that you’d fallen in love with, you decided to overlook it for the majority of the time.

Usually, his jokes were kinda misplaced and sometimes even more sympathy-inducing than fun, but they never failed to make you crack even the smallest of smiles. But lately, though his jokes started focusing on love and were constantly dealing with the topic of breakup or cheating and it made you quite anxious and hurt that he took these two so lightly without considering your feelings.

Day after day you put up with them until you just couldn’t take it anymore and interrupted him, saying that he should just stop talking for a moment. You were so agitated that you failed to notice his taken aback expression.

“Hey (Y/N)-chan, you do know that I’m just joking, right? There’s no need for you to take it seriously!”

There he goes again with the same excuse…

The young man attempted to take your hand in his, an usual gesture he made every time he upset you, but right now this was the last thing you needed. When his slender fingers brushed yours, you slapped his hand away.

“Not this time Kazu-chan…I’m sorry” you whispered and hurried off, leaving your boyfriend behind who was blown away by your reaction.

——

A few days passed since your little outburst and you’d been avoiding Takao ever since, afraid of being confronted with what you’d told him. You felt bad of course for treating him like that, but you were just not ready to talk to him yet and needed some time to come to terms with your thoughts first.

“What’s with you two always gluing yourselves on me whenever you have some kind of problem?” asked the green-haired young man who you’d forced to stay by your side since then. You responded with a giggle and told him that thanks to his confident behavior and direct words you felt placid and could sort your thoughts in peace. He simply sighed and looked at his lucky item for today, a silver ring with a small green jewel, which he’d once again gotten from his captain, who told him that it was yet another merch of his favorite idol.

“You shouldn’t avoid Takao so much. We both know that he makes jokes to hide away his insecurities and weaknesses and what do you think might happen if he sees us right now?”

He’s…right

You bit your lower lip and slumped forward, leaning your elbows on your thighs as you nodded a couple of times. Nothing good would come out of you brooding over this on your own and having Midorima with you wouldn’t make your little “fight” with Takao just disappear. Seeing you so lost in thought, the young man behind you had an idea, one that he didn’t entirely like, but right now all he wanted was to make you feel better, so he swallowed his pride and handed you the ring.

“Take it…i-it’s not like I’m giving it to you forever s-since it’s not mine and all…b-but Oha Asa said t-that Scorpio might need some k-kind of symbol o-of…love so” he stuttered as he held out his hand, the fragile ring between his bandaged fingers. You were at a loss for words at his gesture and all you could do was whisper out his name in surprise.

“Shin-chan! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Suddenly someone took a hold of your slightly outstretched arm and tugged on it, causing you to stand up and fall against their chest. You looked at the face of the person and it was none other than Takao who was glaring at his friend through glassy eyes. As if bitten by a bug Midorima jumped up and began protecting himself, but all you could focus on was the man who had his arms wrapped tightly around your body. While the two men insulted each other and bickered you realized just how stupid this entire situation was and couldn’t help but smile.

You placed your hand on your boyfriend’s cheek and turned his head, so that he was now facing you, and kissed him, shutting both of them up almost instantly. It took the young man a shot while to return your kiss, but when he did he also took the opportunity to properly embrace you.

“I’m sorry for overreacting Kazu-chan, it’s just that I-”

“No, don’t apologize (Y/N), I know I went too far this time. You know I love you more than anything else in this world and that I’ll never think about leaving you.”

The smile that adorned your lips widened as you nodded energetically and reassured him that your love for him is also one that will most likely last forever.

While you two made up, smiling at each other, the green-haired young man looked at the ring and grinned to himself.

I knew it…Oha Asa is never wrong

[gatesofember]

Hey, I really love your autistic Nico take, it's super well thought out and I appreciate it greatly

I'm not autistic, but I do have PTSD and pretty sever anxiety, and I have almost down to a T, the same characteristics as Nico (I'm not saying he's not autistic, I think you're right)

(and OBVIOUSLY Nico has PTSD as well), do you think these things coexist? And um, how much they overlap?

I'm genuinely sorry if I phrased these wrong, I just love your take on it and would want to know more

(For context, this is the post being referred to.)

Hi! Ok so I want to start out by saying I’m not a professional and I can’t give you as good an answer as a real psychologist, so take my words with a grain of salt. However my undergrad education is in psychology and I have personal experience (I don’t have PTSD as far as I’m aware but I do have very severe disabling anxiety as well as ADHD, autism, and depression). I also did a bunch of reading on this because my textbooks never specifically mentioned the overlap of PTSD and autism so I wanted some actual evidence before I just gave you my own speculation.

In short, yes, of course autism and PTSD can coexist and there is a considerable amount of overlap between them.

A lot of neurodivergencies and psychological disorders have overlapping symptoms. In my post I talked a little bit about how some autistic symptoms are prevalent in other neurodivergencies, particularly ADHD, but I didn’t get into how some symptoms are also very common in both mood and anxiety disorders aside from mentioning RSD.

Autism and anxiety or mood disorders like PTSD/anxiety/depression can present similar behavioral symptoms, but have different cognitive triggers. Flat affect, for example, might be caused by having fewer positive emotions in something like PTSD or depression but by difficulties with social reciprocity in autism. Lack of socialization might be caused by social withdrawal in an anxiety or mood disorder but by socialization difficulties in autism. Hyperarousal and trouble with emotional regulation are seen in PTSD and anxiety disorders and in autism; in PTSD it’s often in response to something that reminds someone of their trauma and in autism it can be in response to emotional stimuli or something like discomfort or a loud noise that sends someone into a meltdown. Panic attacks and autistic meltdowns are similar, but a panic attack is triggered by fear while a meltdown can also be triggered by something like frustration, and panic attacks are more sudden while meltdowns come on more gradually. A person with PTSD and a person with autism might both be touch averse, but the person with PTSD may be touch averse because of a traumatic experience while the autistic person could have sensory issues that make touch unpleasant.

Aside from subtle differences in similar symptoms, one way to tell the difference is that autism should show up in childhood, while PTSD has a triggering event(s) and other anxiety and mood disorders develop over time. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help much in the case of childhood trauma/anxiety/depression. With Nico I think it’s difficult to tell because we didn’t see much of him before he found out his sister died and became homeless, which I’d say is the initial trigger of his PTSD (ofc Tartarus later gave him double PTSD) or at the very least was the start of a mood or anxiety disorder. We also don’t get a lot of time with his POV, meaning that most of what we have to go off of is behavior rather than his actual thoughts and we don’t know why he acts the way he does or how he feels.

But despite differences, you can also have both. None of those differences I listed conflict with each other. For example, I’m not very social both because I have socialization difficulties and because I’m withdrawn due to mood and anxiety disorders. I can’t tell the difference between panic attacks and meltdowns, probably because I am terrible at identifying my own emotions or how long I’ve been feeling them for, but I also think they’re often the same thing for me or they happen simultaneously.

In fact, most people with a psychological disorder also have another one. When a person has multiple disorders, they come together like a puzzle and you can’t just look at the individual pieces anymore. I might question if my flat affect is autism or depression, if I’m having a meltdown or a panic attack, or if the reason I say something inappropriate is autistic social problems or ADHD impulsiveness. The fact is it’s all of that. Every person is unique, the roots of each of their disorders are tangled together, and for me at least, my ADHD, autism, anxiety, and depression kind of roll together to make one case that is unique to me. I think it’s like that with Nico, too. His ADHD, autism, PTSD, and depression make up the unique Nico disorder.

That being said, the overlap in symptoms between various disorders, including autism and PTSD, can make them difficult to diagnose. Many professionals feel this way too, but I would not be at all surprised if autism was underdiagnosed in people with PTSD and vice versa, with PTSD underdiagnosed in autistic people. As a personal example of underdiagnosis, it took me a very long time to find someone who’d listen to me when I said I thought I might be autistic because everything I said was brushed off as either my ADHD or my social anxiety. I wasn’t even given the opportunity to explain why I thought I was autistic (btw, when I finally did find someone who was willing to listen, I sent them a detailed seven page paper full of reasons I thought I might be autistic complete with examples, and they said it was such a perfectly described case of autism that they asked for permission to use some of my examples to help other patients understand whether they might be autistic too).

(It’s also worth mentioning that the DSM-5 criteria for trauma is very limited and doesn’t include trauma that’s more psychological in nature, which leads to a lot of underdiagnosis of PTSD. For example, emotional trauma caused by bullying would not count as trauma if it didn’t include a threat of death or injury. I am ignoring this particular part of the DSM-5 because it’s bad. Trauma can have lots of causes and limiting the definition prevents people from getting help.)

Rates of anxiety and PTSD are much higher in autistic people than in neurotypical people (at least in adults; from what I’ve read, autistic children have similar rates of PTSD to neurotypical children, but I would not be surprised if there’s underdiagnosis going on). Often, experiences with autism can cause mood or anxiety disorders. (For me, most of the reason I have such severe social anxiety is a combination of uncertainty about how I should respond to a situation coupled with bad past experiences in how people have reacted to things I’ve said/done.) People who are neurodivergent are also more likely to be teased, ostracized, bullied, or worse, so they’re more likely to experience trauma. Symptoms of autism such as rigidity, difficulties with emotional regulation, and hyperarousal also make a person more prone to developing a mood or anxiety disorder. An autistic person would likely have a worse reaction to a traumatic event than a neurotypical person and would be more likely to develop PTSD as a result.

This is speculative on my part so I want to put out the disclaimer that I haven’t read anything about this specifically, but some autistic people have very high emotional empathy (I wrote about the different types of empathy in relation to autism here but basically the gist is that autistic people tend to be bad at identifying what another person is feeling, but not at feeling what another person is feeling, and some autistic people are actually very, very good at feeling other people’s emotions). People can get PTSD through indirect exposure to a traumatic event, such as a loved one going through the trauma or being a medical worker helping in the aftermath. Maybe autistic people with a strong ability to feel other’s emotions, especially combined with emotional regulation problems and hyperarousal, would be more likely than a neurotypical person to experience PTSD this way.

Anyway: yes, PTSD and autism can and often do occur at the same time and they can have very similar symptoms. Here are a few links to pages about PTSD and autism if you want to know more (all on my current favorite website, which is run by autistic mental health professionals): [1] [2] [3]

[algumaideia]

SJM treatment of Tamlin and why it is wrong

You know, she treated Tamlin so bad that only because of that I became his stan. That is literally the only reason why I am pro Tamlin. Just that. 

First, Tamlin did abused Feyre and Lucien in the second book. This is a fact. So don’t say that I’m here trying to appologize an abuser because I’m not. Actually the story that I wanted for Tamlin is that Feyre kicks him and go do whatever because I don’t care about her, Tamlin feels sad then goes after her, she says how bad he was and etc, Tamlin feels depressed because he realizes she is right, Lucien brings the Tamlin out of his depressive state through the power of friendship, Tamlin tries to be a better person, Tamlin becomes Tarquin’s friend, they both rebuild their court together. You see, my character arc for him has a part where he acknowledge he was being abusive(something that Rhys never did cof cof).

Anyway let’s start with why SJM treatment of Tamlin was wrong. 

I don’t know if my post needs it, but just in case. TW: abuse, ptsd, trauma, depression, sjm bad writing.

Ptsd, trauma and abuse

You know, at the same time that I know Tamlin’s abuse was wrong and horrible I also want to ignore it because, besides the negligence, it was just bad writing. What do you mean by bad writing? Well, let’s compare Tamlin’s ptsd with Kaz and one of my main characters. Why am I going to compare ptsd when I am talking about abuse? I am going to do so because Tamlin’s abuse is caused by his ptsd. Other point, I know it is imature, but I’m very insecure about my writing and compare SJM writing with mine makes me feel better. I’m sorry about that.

Kaz passed through a horrible experience and because of that he has extreme touch aversion. But the trauma and ptsd didn’t change his personality, they weren’t responsables to make a good kid become a rough boy that is the leader of a gang. The circunstances did it (I haven’t read the second book yet, no spoleirs). Of course that the trauma changed the way he interacted with people but what made him change was the fact that he was a lonely child with a heart full of hatred and desire for vengence living in a place full of thieves and gangs. Now Jafari, my main character, also lived a traumatic experience. He has nightmares, triggers and intrusive thoughts. However, the “basis” of his ptsd is that he ignores and avoids his emotions, his grief and his trauma. He doesn’t like conflicts, he is passive, he doesn’t deal with things, he just let things solve themselves. And that’s why his ptsd is based on him avoiding dealing with what happened and trying to process what happened. 

Tamlin’s abuse and ptsd is based on three things: anger, neglect and being controlling. To be fair the neglect and controlling part makes sense, but I still have problems with them. Now the anger is so weird. I don’t remember Acotar pretty well but during all the time Tamlin was UTM he had control over his actions and feelings. Amarantha wanted to hurt him by hurting his love and his friends, she was also problaby sexually assalting him. Tamlin saw Feyre being tortured, suffering and being sexually abused and he never showed any reaction because he knew if he did that Amarantha would make everything worse for her. Considering that how his ptsd and abuse is he having no control towards his anger? It makes no sense. 

In the first book Lucien insults and makes fun of  Tamlin all the time and Tamlin has no problem with it. Not only that but his court has no ranks, not like Rhys’ court cof cof. But now Lucien can’t give him even a suggestion that he is almost killing his only friend who survived during Aramanthas reign? Sigh That’s my problem with Tamlln being a control freak. And I aslo have the feeling that SJM only put it so then Rhys could say it is your choice all the time. 

About the neglect, Tamlin was trying to rebuilt his court, was dealing with his trauma and there was also the fact that Feyre wasn’t safe since other High Lords would be mad with her for having their powers. Tamlin neglecting Feyre is logical. But people forget that Feyre was also neglecting Tamlin. As I said I don’t remember Acotar pretty well but I think that Tamlin asked how Feyre was at some point, but Feyre never did that. She was all: ohhh Tamlin knows that I am throwing up and having nightmares why he does nothing? Tamlin isn’t sleeping well too, but he never asks me how am I doing. You want to blame Tamlin for his negligence towards Feyre? Good, do it, you are right. But Feyre did the same thing. She NEVER EVER even thought to ask if Tamlin was okay, or acknowlegded that he was also suffering. 

At least Tamlin tried to communicate with her, Feyre never did that. For example he gave her paints so then she could start painting again. And this was good, Feyre was depressed and that is why she didn’t painted. One thing that depressed people do sometimes is to avoid doing things they know will make them happy. Feyre was doing that. And this was also Tamlin trying to communicate with Feyre and she just ignored it and then was angry because he didn’t know that she couldn’t stand the color red, but Rhys knew. This is so wrong.

1. Rhys only knew that because he invaded her mind and discovered something she wasn’t confortable talking with anyone.

2. She never told about her problem with the color red with Tamlin. She never talked with him. How was he supposed to know?

3. This was the perfect opportunity to talk about that with him, but she didn’t.

Tamlin's ptsd was ignored through the whole series, he was treated as the worst person ever when Rhys who did the same things was treated as the best person in Earth and his logical actions were treated as stupid.

Tamlin’s “illogical” actions

You know, there is a lot of memes that say how Tamlin was stupid to think that Feyre would like to come back to him after spending sometime with Rhys. Yeah, how dumb! Why he would think that he love of his life would like to come back to him after being kidnapped by the guy who sexually abused her for months, the guy who joined Amarantha for no reason, the guy who has been known for torturing people and having a court full of miserable fae. Hahaha so dumb!! She even sent him a letter saying she didn’t want anything with him, and he was stupid to go after her anyway. I mean, the guy known for being a psycho that kidnapped her was also able to control minds so why wouldn’t he believe in the letter? Hahahaha. *Sigh*

A lot of people criticize Tamlin for colecting taxes in Acomaf, like how could he? People first, where do you think all Rhys money came from? His work? Second, it was the first time he did it in 50 years and he postponed it a month. He was trying to get everything back to normal. Besides taxes are an important part of a governament, it is from them that the governament can make things, like hospitals, better streets(at least they were supposed to do so). SJM didn’t make it clear what a HIgh Lord job is. She said that Tamlin job is to protect the Spring Court, but in every other moment it is implied that High Lord are likes kings so I don’t know. Anyway this makes perfect sense, congratulations to Tamln.

Then he allies with Hybern and people act like he did that to take Feyre back form Rhysand. How dumb! Hahaha. He did that to save his people. The Spring Court was in a delicated position, he lost a lot of his friends during Amarantha reign and they were problaby responsable to protect the Spring Court. The agreement would protect this people, got Feyre back and made him able to spy Hybern. And this is more than Rhys did. He only tortured people to protect a hidden city, nothing more. 

In the war meeting he had the all the right to be angry, but it wasn’t nice to say that about Feyre. I won’t say anything more because I could write a whole post about how wrong this meeting was. 

And finally he helped to resurrected Rhysand and it was put as an amazing thing. But it was nonsense. Why he helped the guy who kidnapped his love and manipulated her? Why he helped the guy who sent his love to destroy his court? Why he helped the guy who allied with Amarantha for no reason? Why he helped the guy who is known for being a monster for years? Specialy condering that this guy could get his powers. And after that Rhys decieded to visit Tamlin and make him more miserable than he already us. But that’s ok because Rhys is the best male. Not only that but Rhys now is visiting Tamlin oftenly in Acofs apparently. This makes me so ANGRY. 

This was my messy post.

Best regards, 

Me.

Ps. Sorry for writing makes sense and its variations too much, but that is because I don’t know English that well so my knowledge is very limited.

[emmanuellececchi]

Thanks for the tag.

Here is a snippet, or headcanon, but more a snippets of headcanon we shall say, for Tirwald Firebrand. @lucifers-legions I am thinking about you while posting this. I've lost a bit of my motivation, but reading that you loved my little minstrels, I've decided to show you a bit of what I had in mind. @from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras I know you loved them too, so here a bit.

Before he was born the situation in Rohan was already difficult because of the conflict Fengel had with his household and Marshals. Later when Thengel came back, Saruman had begun agitating the enemies of Rohan. Tirwald is not a hero. He was born from a farmer family, in a place close to Edoras. Tirwald, having a certain ego, would always claim to be from Edoras rather than from a village too small to have a name. Tirwald is of the same age as Theoden. His family was hard working farmers. But very early, the gangly youth knew that’s not what he wanted. Glèomenn were coming often in Edoras, as the tradition wanted and Tirwald had been lucky to be able to attend a few of their presentation. His memory was phenomenal as well as his arrogance. Even young as he was (he had been 10 at the time), he got into a fight with a young glèoman, Lèofric, on a particular point of oral tradition, convinced he was right (which he was by the way). The Master of this young glèoman, a very old man named Wise Frumgar, choose to take the young man under his wing. He became Wise Frumgar apprentice at 12, and since then followed him around. Tirwald is a traditionnalist. Growing up, his father was convinced that Rohan needed no one. And certainly not Gondor. The fact that Thengel had gone to live a part of his youth there and later, brought back a gondorian wife, did not go well with the farmer. Nor the fact the he couldn’t speak Rohanese. Theoden was 5 or 6 when they came back. He saw often the royal family going back to Gondor. Tirwald, proud of their culture and of the role of the glèomenn, developped a strong aversion to Thengel. Later, he would use his songs and travel to transmit the message than Rohan was for the rohanese people, and that their people didn’t needed another realm to stand tall against any enemies. He was too young at that point to do any harm to Thengel.

This will need work of course. Or will stay as headcanon. We'll see.

Snippet Saturday

I got a snippet! I got a snippet! For pHORSEuasion! Finally! (Excited dance of a slow writer who doesn't often have new material!)

It's the start of the third and final scene of chapter 2.

Rowena sat alone with Théoden. It was a cold and dreary day; the pale fire in the hearth did little to blunt the chill of the vast, damp hall. A clattering of jackdaws cawed on the roof, answering the creaks wrung out of the massive beams of Meduseld by a strong wind that had blown incessantly since in the morning.

Lady Éowyn had been all too happy to leave as soon as Rowena had appeared to take her watch, when the bells of noon were heard. Lady Bréda had stayed with her a few moments, enjoying having a sympathetic audience for her gossips and imaginations, but before long, she had also taken her leave to attend to a litter of new puppies born to Théodred’s pack.

The king’s initial wariness of Rowena had waned somewhat. The day before, during the first hours of her long watch, he had growled and scowled at her with unabated defiance. But gradually, he had lent an ear to her soft songs. He let her approach his throne, then touch him, and at last he had accepted food and drink from her hand. She observed his symptoms and attended to his comfort, passing time with the preparation of herbs and sewing. Every so often she filled the quiet with inconsequential remarks, for the comfort of hearing a friendly voice, even if it was only her own.

(...)

Théoden moaned. Rowena set her work aside to pull another fur onto his lap, and she looked up into his pale grey eyes. They appeared veiled and empty; their stare made her shiver. Reining in her uneasiness, she smiled at him and rose the cup of infused herbs to his lips. He took a few sips and blinked. She retreated to her seat, speaking gentle words and keeping a watchful eye on her patient. After a moment, reassured by his calm and regular breathing, she eased down. She picked up her thread and needle and sank again in her musings.

Éowyn had repeatedly rejected openings for intimate conversation; yet Rowena had distinctly felt that behind her cold, impregnable facade, the lady concealed a pain that she would not tell. A thought briefly crossed Rowena’s mind, that perhaps Théodred had called her to the capital not only to care for the king, but also with the veiled hope that she could comfort his overburdened cousin. But much as she knew about tending bodily ailments, none of the skills her mother had taught her held any power to relieve a hurting, desperate heart, all the more one that remained closed to her.

Suddenly, Théoden straightened up and his features animated, as though an unheard voice had called him to attention. His hands convulsed on his knees and his teeth clattered oddly. Alerted, Rowena looked round the hall, but it appeared empty, and straining her ear, she heard nothing but the gale and the hoarse cries of the birds. The king smiled with the most chilling, unnatural expression; an evil flicker lit up his eyes. Between the pillars of a dark side aisle, a shape stirred.

Tagging @sotwk, @emmanuellececchi, @dreambigdreamz, @dilettantefeminist, @from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras if you haven't played yet and you want to, and whoever wants to show something!