#to the point that i'm taking fucking improv classes now

[tittyinfinity]

for the love of god I need a different hyperfixation because I've milked this one dry

[quitedisastrous]

i wish i could just do nothing for a few days straight. maybe even just sleep for a few days straight. sooo excited for constant misery over the next 20 days

ranting in the tags. i would just scroll past if i were you

[anaalnathrakhs]

no really there is a special kind of academic grief when your classes are fascinating, they present interesting challenges, your homework is stimulating, fun to do, and you feel good when you get it done, your classmates are kind and fun and have so much interesting shit to say.

but you're wayyy busy spending your time 50% trying to be the best potted plant your parents have ever owned 50% blasting your brain with endless stimulation lest you start crying and hitting yourself because you had an unpleasant thought.

[dystopyx-blog]

I'm in a dark place right now.

Yandere Trey x reader, stuck in twst without meds. Aside from the typical yandere stuff, this one has heavy themes of infantillization.

This is how I'm taking care of myself. Make sure to take care of yourselves as well and skip this if it's too much ❤️

You were struggling with school, obviously, it's literally not your world. But you had Trey, who had been diligently tutoring you every day after class. You felt like you were finally getting somewhere. From D's to C's. You were fucking proud of yourself.

Not many around you were as impressed.

"It's a start." Riddle had said with a simple nod. "Keep up the good work."

That was pretty much the response you got from most. Grimm and Deuce were supportive, Ace was Ace. Then there were those like Leona who outright sneered at it, telling you you had nothing to be proud of.

But Trey told you he was proud of you.

You were early to your next study session, already looking through the textbook. You beamed up at Trey as he put himself down. "Hey!"

"Hey..." He greeted back. "Started already?"

"Mhm!" You chirped. "What Riddle said really motivated me!"

Trey chortled. "Did it now?"

"Yep! I mean, I know I probably won't ever catch up to his level, he has years ahead of me, but I know at least that improvement is possible!"

"Really?" You raised a brow. "I find that hard to believe. The teach

You grinned at Trey, who was still chuckling quietly to himself.

"Trey?"

"Oh, sorry." He stifled another laugh. "That's cute. Of course you want to improve, but don't put too much pressure on yourself, okay?"

"Of course not."

"Good." He ruffled your hair.

You had improved a lot since Trey started helping you.

You hadn't been improving much beyond that, though.

You continued to work on the same things, never really advancing.

"Trey," you said one day, studying the same old stuff as usual. He hummed in acknowledgement, so you continued. "I feel like we haven't really... advanced?"

"How so?"

"I mean... I feel like everything you help me with is all the same level."

"Mhm."

"And..." You made a gesture with your hands, unsure how to go on. "Yeah. I just kinda thought you'd start teaching me more advanced things."

He laughed. "Why did you think that?"

"Because... so I can improve?"

"You have improved. No one expected you to even get this far. We're all very proud of you."

"But–"

"Don't push this. The reason I haven't branched out is because there isn't anything else at your level. There's no point trying to teach you something you'll never get. Sorry."

You frowned. "Well that sounds like bullshit."

"Language."

"Well it does!"

Trey sighed, leaning forward to look you in your eyes (forcing you to now maintain eye contact).

"No one ever actually expected you to, you know... do well in school. It's just unrealistic to expect someone like you, so far out of your league, to be on the same level as any of the other students here." He put his hand over yours, swiping his thumb over your knuckles. "I'm sorry."

You stared at him. "Someone like me?"

"You know I meant no harm–"

"How the fuck else could you mean it?"

"Language,"

"No, dont you 'language' me, you tell me what you mean."

He sighed, turning away from you and pinching the bridge of his nose. When he turned back to you, his expression was serious.

"Someone who can barely function in day to day life, let alone at a school like Night Raven College."

Your heart dropped.

Trey put on his sympathetic closed eye smile. "I know it's hard to hear, but its really not worth it to put so much pressure on yourself. Why don't i bake you something yummy, hmm? You can help me in the kitchen."

He offered you his hand, but you swiped it away.

"Don't fucking talk to me," you hissed gathering his things.

You didn't look at him, even when he sternly addressed you by name.

"You're being childish." He said. You scoffed.

"I thought that was part for the course for someone like me."

"Are you trying to prove me correct?"

"Eat shit and die."

He just watched you leave with arms folded.

Of coutse, being without your antidepressants made you extra sensitive, so it was less than a second before the waterworks started up, tears pouring from your face and your breathing coming out in staggered puffs.

You were barely outside of Heartslabyul Dorms when you collapsed against the wall, hugging your legs to yourself and burying your face behind your knees.

You hear footsteps. You don't look up. You want to be alone. You should've forced yourself to keep going so you could be withing the (relative) privacy of your room.

Even with auditory processing that makes your ability to tell where sound comes from basically nonexistent, you can tell the footsteps are approaching you. Even though you'd rather not deal with anyone at all right now, you hope it's Ace or Deuce. Or Cater. Maybe even Riddle.

But of course, it's Trey.

"You're being dramatic.

"And you're being fucking mean."

"I'm being honest."

You're being ableist, that's what.

"Why does this matter so much to you?" He sighs as he asks you.

"Thought you were my friend."

"Of course I'm your friend–"

"I thought you believed in me."

"Of course I believe in you. But I also have realistic expectations and I don't want to see you push yourself and end up with nothing. Why does it even matter to you so much that you do well? Almost all of these subjects are completely irrelevant to you. You have to attend so Grimm can attend, that whole half student thing, but shouldn't he be putting in the effort, not you? Honestly, i think its unfair how much you have to deal with here. You have a chemical imbalance and no way to treat it, and yet you're still expected to carry on as the only magicless student at a school for mages, help in magical emergencies that even staff are unequipped to deal with, and then whatever else Crowley throws at you. Aren't you tired?"

He's preaching to the choir, and of course you nod.

"You shouldn't have to deal with this." You didn't even realize he was sitting next to you until you feel his arms wrap around you. "But I'll continue to help you. I promise." He stands up, bringing you with him. "Let's go to the kitchen, yeah? I have just the thing for this."

You barely process anything, sitting on a stool in the Heartslabyul kitchen. You wouldn't recognize it, but Trey used his signatures smell to mute everything for you.

He hums as he works. Although he doesn't always "bake with love," that's mostly circumstantial. After all, baking is really more of a strategy. But this is an exception. And if any treat of his deserves the description "made with love," it would be this one.

He watches you eat it with a smile on his face. "How is it?"

You're out cold before you can answer.

Trey has you locked up somewhere. You're not sure where, but there's no way it's Heartslabyul. You're kept in one room, with an adjoining bathroom. There are activities, all of them baby proofed. Some of them even intended for babies and small children.

Because aren't you just a small child? You know nothing of this world, you're a slave to your emotions, you can barely control yourself.

Trey reminds you of this while stroking your hair and cradling you in his arms after a nasty tantrum.

"You can't survive out there on your own."

The infantillization is at its worse when you're "bad" for him. When you're "good," he treats you like a normal adult, like he normally would. But as soon as you step out of line you'll be lucky if all he does is belittle you in that sickly sweet condescending tone, because he's gone so far as bottle feeding you or even monitoring your bathroom use. (That one typically gets you to behave real quick.)

And the worst part?

He really does make you feel helpless.

[lostiolite]

hii can you write something about monoma having a crush on a 1-A reader who has a personality like him but a little more nicer? have a great dayy

Everyone is better than me

Monoma x reader oneshot 0.6k words

You’ve always felt like a side character, worthless, expendable. it's something that kind of haunts you. You were surprised when you got into U.A. 

But, oh, your classmates. they were the best people on earth (except Mineta). Midorya went through so much to improve. Bakugo, despite being an asshole was talented, he had every right to brag with a quirk like that. Ururaka’s bubbly persona never failed to lift people’s spirits. Mina and Kirishima were the best people to give you motivation. Momo always tried to get you to understand your worth but you didn’t seem to budge.

You were kind of overwhelmed to be surrounded by such awesome people. They were practically shining stars, so much so that it blinded you. You wish to shine as bright as they do but you know you never will. Despite feeling inferior to them,  you couldn’t be more thankful to them.

Your class was your lifeline and you always praised them. Your classmates have been targeted and come out triumphant every time. Why wouldn’t you be proud? You would praise your classmates, obviously not in an obnoxious way like a certain someone, who always seemed to try and 1-up you when you talked about them.

You were always talking about them– not yourself, which caught the attention of Kendo, who recently worked with Momo. 

You were eating lunch with Mina in the cafeteria. You two were brainstorming on a class project and decided to sit away from the rest of your friends because you would get distracted. 

Unfortunately, Mina had to use the bathroom, leaving you alone. This is when Kendo came up to you, asking you about school. 

You started talking about what the rest of your class was doing in detail, making sure to praise them. Monoma who was in the area noticed, he tried to one-up you like always before Kendo karate chopped him. Kendo then cocked her head, returning her attention to you.

“And, what about you?” 

You were stumped. You just assured her that there was nothing interesting going on with you. She stopped you, asking why you didn't wanna talk about yourself. You were kind of stunned at her bluntness, she went straight to the point. You sighed,

“Because I'm not as amazing as them, and I probably never will be. But, I don't think that matters, because being able to support them is enough for me.” 

She gave you a somber smile. she didn’t really know what to say, which was new. She usually knew how to cheer people up. She’d have to get back to you later, her focus was now on Monoma, whom she half expected to start dogging on you. He didn’t say anything though. 

She waved you bye and retreated back to her table.

That's when everything kind of clicked for Monoma. 

He was usually intellectual and able to grasp others' emotions and feelings, but when it came to class 1-A and by association, you, he went on autopilot. His main objective was to dogshit on 1-A to bring light to 1-B accomplishments and that they were just as great as 1-A. 

Ever since then, he’s seen you in a different light, maybe even developed a fat fucking crush.

Mentioned before, but he goes on auto pilot when around class 1-A, so he doesn’t realize when he says things like–

“Maybe take a note out of [name]’s book and be more humble, because you look like a fool” he’d say taunting Bakugo.

One time bakugo called you an extra when you offered him help in a subject he was struggling in (which is rare for bakugo), and suddenly Monoma appeared behind him.

“Maybe that’s why you bombed the test, you think you're better than everyone huh— your fragile ego can't take a hit so you have to take it out on [Name]! Be grateful someone like them is even offering help to such a lowlife braindead creature such as yourself!”

That's when Deku caught on.

Monoma not-so subtly praising you is something most of 1-A doesn’t really take note of, but Kendo and Deku are absolutely appalled.

[kira-fluff]

I saw the “Sleeping with no pants on” headcanon and was wondering if you could do a pretty setter squad containing Atsumu, Kageyama and Akaashi please- ☁️

sleeping with no pants on | fem!reader x haikyuu!! [pt. 5]

a/n: i was not expecting everyone to be so obsessed with this prompt but I am LIVING for it. I love you guys so much 🩷 p.s. my lovely, atsumu is actually in pt. 1, but I'm going to switch for twinnie osamu, okay? 💕 also I'm so sorry i was gone for so long. busy busy busy working 3 jobs with college. forgive me if I'm a bit rusty. tw: sorta spicy idk

pt 1 pt 2 pt 3 pt 4

osamu miya "hey, 'samu, 'samu." "hm." he replied in a grunt. "'m tired." the two of you had stayed up the entire night trying out new recipes that osamu had thought of when he was supposed to be paying attention in class. so, now here you were at midnight, sprawled out on the couch, exhausted. "'n go 't sleep." "don' wanna drive home." "'n stay." you murmured an acknowledgement, then began slipping off your pants. osamu immediately sobered from his tiredness. "wait, the hell are ya doin'?!" "'m goin' to bed, obviously." "ya can't just take yer pants off with a man in the house!" you let out a little scoff, "oh, get over it." but osamu's mind was already racing. he tried to act cool on the outside, but you were just in your fucking panties and acting like it was no big deal? why were you always so clueless around him??? did you really not see him as romantic material??? osamu couldn't help but stare at the round shape of your ass even as your long shirt covered you. he had scarcely time to begin devouring the sight of your legs when you cleared your throat. "are you.....staring... at me?" he cleared his throat and looked away. "...s-sorry.." you leaned in close, just below his ear. "ya know... if you really wanted it that badly, you could've said something.." you smirked, taking a blanket and covering up your lower half with a conceited smirk, walking away. "h-hey wait! the fuck did ya mean by that?!" he trailed behind eagerly. the rest of the night? well... "just friends" was no longer in either of your vocabulary anymore.

kageyama tobio you friends, after all, nothing more. and you didn't want to make it weird. weirder than it already felt having hidden feelings for your best friend. it getting late after a particularly long study session which involved you trying to drill basic math facts into a brain that only understood volleyball. it was a hopeless endeavor, but you took him getting anything above a "50" as a win. so, you continued to attempt to help him improve his grades. you supposed "attempt" wasn't necessarily the right word, as his scores were generally improving, but sometimes you found yourself wondering if there was really a point to it all after you spent the whole lesson trying to help him relearn everything he misunderstood in the lesson from that day. so here you were, exhausted, with your head down on your table at home, tobio sitting across from you. "hey, kageyama, let's just call it a night." he paused for a moment, then spoke. "....do you want to sleep with me?" if you had any liquid in your mouth, you're certain you would've had a comical spit take. "ah, um, WHAT?" you sputtered, trying to make sense out of what he said. he didn't mean it that way, did he? no, of course not. "it's... late." yep. just offering a place to stay. "it is. but there are still trains. i can take a late one." "just get in my bed." your eyebrows raised. "hey, tobio, a normal person would misunderstand what you just said..." he ignored you. "just sleep with me." your face took on a reddish hue the more times he said it... and he just didn't get it? why was he messing with your heart like this!?!? "um... there are different ways to say that. like... 'want to spend the night?'" "then, spend the night." "why are you being so pushy?" "because i like you." as a friend. yeah. we've been over this. "ok, ok, you've convinced me with the power of friendship. but I'm sleeping on the couch." "no." "yes." "no. my bed has enough room." "not for me!!" you laughed nervously. does this guy even have hormones? like, what the fuck? "....I'm going to go shower. I'll see you in my bedroom." does this guy not understand the meaning of no? still, you found yourself begrudgingly trudging over to his bed, especially after you saw his couch was made with the comfort of a burlap sack. I mean, if he offered, might as well take advantage right? what could go wrong? spoiler: everything goes wrong. you thought he was fast asleep. so, in the stealth of 1000 ninjas, you slid off your sweatpants for the sake of comfort. it wasn't weird, right? oh well. you were tired and damn did he like his room hot. you jumped when you felt him arms wrap around you. then, he stiffened. "...are you not wearing any pants?" "um... maybe..." he sighed. "are you trying to seduce me?" "n-no it's just more comfortable!" he turned you around so you were facing him. "well, whatever you're trying to do, it's working. I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep." "wait, is it because I'm making you uncomfortable?" he went silent for a moment. ".... you could say that." "I'll... just put them back on then. sorry. it's just that your room is really hot and-" "can I kiss you?" you blinked in disbelief. "can you what?" "kiss you" he answered without a beat. you spluttered some more as he slowly leaned it, asking for permission, silently this time. you nodded and closed your eyes. sparks flew as his lips moved against your own and you finally understood what he'd meant when he said "I like you". kageyama tobio was head over heels in love with you, and you hadn't a clue. until now. the two of you broke apart. "...can we... do that again?" he asked brazenly. you leaned forward again in reply.

akaashi keiji akaashi would rather die than confess to you the things he woke up at night fantasizing about. you'd likely be especially mortified if you discovered that one of your most embarrassing mishaps was on a frequent replay in akaashi's brain when he fell asleep. he was supposed to be a gentleman, not some gross pervert that looked at one of his best friends like... that. but since it was all in his dreams, it was impossible to "turn off" no matter how many times he tried to think about something else before he went to sleep. and so, let's recall The Incident shall we? he had come to your house late at night and knocked at the door, fully expecting to see you up and awake as it was the early evening. to his surprise, however, you answered the door groggily, eyes still bleary from exhaustion and sleep. the way you looked would be forever ingrained in his mind. you were blinking back the remnants of sleep, wearing one of his shirts. it hung low on you, but not low enough to cover your supple legs and the white panties that peeked out below the hem line of his shirt. you hadn't noticed yet, either. "... what d' ya need...?" you asked tiredly, rubbing your eye. akaashi swallowed harshly, his brain turned into complete mush. "uhh.. uhh...." goddamnit, MOVE YOUR EYES BACK UP TO HER FACE. were her legs always that long? STOP. when he still hadn't answered, you followed his gaze down to your lower half. he still remembers the succession of events as follows: you blushed, stammered, and then slammed the door in his face. you didn't talk to him for a week. after, you finally awkwardly explained that you sleep without your pants on and that you didn't realize you hadn't put anything on when you answered the door because you were so tired. it sucked that you ignored him. and even that you explained yourself. because all it did was bring those... memories... right back to the forefront of his mind. whenever he saw you in the hall and you'd flush and look away, he was immediately brought back to the sight of your bare legs. when you stumbled through your explanation, his mind reeled back to those white panties. and he hated it. what kind of friend looks at their friend that way? but he knew in his heart that what he was feeling for you was beyond sexual attraction when, in his dreams, you smiled at him. and told him you loved him. and so, what if he dreamt a little longer? hopefully you'd forgive him. and maybe someday he could tell you how you made him feel...

[orionhelluvaranting]

My Predictions for Helluva Boss

Alright, guys, not gonna lie... I'm tired from HB! Protagonist-centered morality, favoritism, lack of stakes, Stolass' endless woobification, etc... It has become too much for me. Thus I've gave up any hopes for the writing improvement and refused to watch the show in the long run.

But!

This won't stop me from analysing the previous episodes that I've already watched. Furthermore, I wanna make a few predictions about what's going to happen in the next two seasons (unless those will be cancelled). Perhaps I'll repeat some of the points other critics had already made. So I'm sorry in advance for this, mates.

Now be careful, there's a HUGE list under the cut! 🔮

⋆˙˖⟡°˖⟡˙ {Predictions} ˙⟡˖°⟡˖˙⋆

None of the main cast is dead. The plot armor is too strong. Especially for Stolass. I mean, do you genuinely believe that Viv would kill her precious sad bean?! Bitch, please! 🤗

All/most of the antagonists are dead. The only exception I can think about is Cherubs. They're just too unthreatening to bother about. Prolly the D.H.O.R.K.S are dead but reborn in Hell and Idk if that counts or not 💀⚰️

If the rumors about one of the Deadly Sins' upcoming death are true then it's going to be Mammon. No other options 💸 (Btw I saw a fan theory about Blitzø killing Mammon and taking his place... Well, considering how poorly Viv handles the class problem I wouldn't be surprised if that came true)

F!zzarozz!e get married (S3) 💞 - 100% probability

Stol!tzø get married (S4, finale) 💞 - 100% probability

M&M became parents. Honestly I thought they'll save it for the end but after Sinsmas... Yeah. Anyway the truth about Millie's pregnancy is revealed (nearly to the middle of S3), she gives a birth for pro-lifers' delight and takes maternity leave becoming a background character. The child prolly is a boy and gets a better development than his mother. Apparently he's named Blitzø Junior or smth like that 👨‍👩‍👧

F!zzarozz!e & Stol!tzø double date💕

Moxxie's insecurity issue is showed at least once at the season. Now he isn't sure about himself being a good father/protector/role model for his son 💪

Loona shows her human disguise at least once at the season. Doesn't really matter if there's no logical reason for that 🐺➡️👩

More sappy sad ballads performed by Stolass 🎵

I.M.P. continue murdering people and not giving a fuck about morality (Sinsmas was the only act of mercy) OR they leave the business and fully go for Stol!tz soap opera (not like they haven't done that already- but hey! there's always room for degradation, right?) 📉

Stolass succeeds at the dime novels writing 📜✍️

Carnal hyper-sensual coitus between Stolass and Blitzø appears on-screen. Correct me if I'm wrong but I remember Viv expressed her desire to animate an intimacy act, so I have zero doubts these two are involved. It can't be anyone but them 🤢

Octavia forgives Stolass the moment she finds out about Stella's abusive nature. And since Stella's confirmed as a "stupid cow" the truth's revealed in the dumbest way possible. I wouldn't be surprised if Stella spilled the beans by herself 🤦‍♀️

Blitzø boosts his connection with Stolass the moment he finds out about Stella's abusive nature. After all we've got a sex out of pity, so why wouldn't we got a love out of pity as well? 🤡

Possibly Striker/Stella had been a thing at a certain time. Why? Because ✨fanservice✨ of course! And yes, it's going to be as dull, flat and out of nowhere as Cherr!snake. Or maybe worse 🙁

Stella's backstory turns out like the "she was born evil so don't you dare to sympathise with her" full edition. There is no valid motivation, no intriguing conflicts, no nuances - none of that. There is only Stolass' woobification arc. So this backstory isn't about Stella. It's revolved mainly around Stolass, maybe around Andrealphus or Vassago at the least. Granted that Stella ever had a chance to receive a decent backstory for herself Vivienne would've thrown it away right in the next episode without mentioning it ever again 😭

Actually Mammon can't play the guitar 🎸 He's just too dumb and untalented for this (according to Vivienne). Don't expect an epic villain song from him. I'd be happy to be wrong about this one but my hopes are dead

More fatphobic jokes toward Mammon 👎

Stolass' in drag. Just no comments 💄👠

Love triangle between Stolass, Blitzø and Vassago. At one point, Stolass leaves Blitzø because he doesn't satisfy his wet dreams well enough. Vassago and Stolass have complete mutual understanding and the idyll but Stolass feels smth isn't right. Smth is missing, smth like… Meanwhile Blitzø suffers and seeks Stolass' mercy. Eventually Stolass comes back to Blitzø because 💖 ~ they belong together ~ 💖

Perhaps after the breakup between Stolass and Vassago the latter will get together with Andrealphus 💘

Millie & Moxxie or Fizz & Ozzie giving romantic advices to Blitzø / helping him improve the relationship with Stolass 💝

Barbie Wire forgives Blitzø in her next appearance and then moves away from the plot without a trace 💨

Sapphic bait 💗 Verosika/Barbie Wire? Barbie Wire/Sallie May? Sallie May/Verosika? All of them together? I don't know! But I do know Viv would rather escape from being accused of wlw underrepresentation. Since she has promised S3 is going to be "a queer roller coaster" she would need to dilute her sausage party a bit. And of course the lesbian ship (whichever it would be) is poorly developed.

New unnecessary characters for celebrity VA's ⭐

Stolass was kidnapped... again?! Yes, Striker abducted him before but... Why wouldn't do this one more time? After all the stans love presenting Viv's auto-plagiarism as meaningful "symbolic parallels". Besides kidnapping is one of the most beloved tropes in fanfiction. And HB is an animated fanfic for sure ⛓

More shitty dads/exes? Because Viv adores reusing the same tropes over and over again 💩

"Positive" characters keep being justified and woobified infinitely 😇 while villains are losing all their charisma and braincells from episode to episode 😈

Nobody will ever remember that Stolass harassed Blitzø 🙈

Nobody will ever remember that Ozzie allows succubi to enter the mortal realm and seduce humans by hypnotic songs (which doesn't sound pro-consent, does it, Mr. Lust-Is-Not-About-Force?) 🙉

Nobody will ever remember that Queen Bee runs shelters (which are essentially slave trade hellholes) in terrible conditions 🙊

Stolass' "depression" is brought up occasionally as a reason to justify and pity him. Stolass' immediately healed by Stella's death. Right after that the depression has disappeared completely. Therapy sessions aren't required. Even if the therapy is shown then only as a lame joke 🌧

Stolass brings his powers back because he's out... for LOOOOoOHoOOOHoOOVE!!! 💓💃🏻

Stolass gets everything he ever wanted without any efforts and self-improvement. Because he's good enough already and everyone who disagree is just stupid and mean 🏆

Aaaaaaaand that's all! My forecast: at least 80% of these predictions will come true one way or another. And what do you think? Maybe you have your own ideas? Please share those in the comments/reblogs! It'd be cool if someone made a bingo based on all this. It definitely wouldn't be me because today I'm identifying myself as a lazy ass. Bye-bye! 👋😊

[slexenskee]

What Moon Songs (Do you sing your babies)

Sorry I've dissappeared off the face of the earth I'm crawling my way out of the abyss 😭 to make up for it here's 10 google doc pages of the GojoxHawks mpreg AU

(this is AU after the first few chapters of FLW)

//

It’s only afterwards— months afterwards, that he realizes the full extent of his own stupid actions. 

So many things had to perfectly align in exactly the wrong way for this to happen. But each and every one of them was his own damn fault, so there’s really no one to blame here but himself. 

It had to have happened when Hawks had been sick and recovering in his hotel room, that’s the only way the timing lines up. Gojo has always been good about practicing safe sex— considering how he sleeps around, he sort of has to— and has never slipped up even once… until Hawks. Multiple times, actually, not even counting the time he was sick. There’d also been that time in Palawan, when he hadn’t brought any condoms with him because he’d honestly thought he wouldn’t need them. That had been rather profoundly short sighted of him, in hindsight. And then of course there were the time(s) when Hawks was staying in his hotel room, when they couldn’t keep their hands off each other and once again Gojo hadn’t thought to go out and buy any condoms because he’d genuinely thought he wouldn’t need any. Hawks had been sick! Basically delirious! How was he supposed to know that the moment he’d recovered enough he’d jump him? And on a related note, how was Gojo supposed to summon up enough willpower to stop him? 

To that point— how was Gojo even supposed to know he should stop him?

That too, though, is entirely his fault.

Apparently it’s a regular part of sex-ed during middle school— except Gojo never went to class in middle school, so he’d entirely missed the memo. With the advent of quirks came a rare genetic mutation that allows for male pregnancies among a small subset of the population. Rare, but not entirely unheard of, either. It was certainly common enough for a segment to be taught in public schools, and testing to be done as part of the gamut of health checks most kids go through around puberty. Most kids aside from Gojo, who was out terrorizing organized crime syndicates just for fun at that age. 

Yeah, he’s a fucking idiot. This entire situation was so laughably avoidable, and yet he’d managed to end up in it anyway. 

Anyway so now he’s having an existential meltdown in the middle of his still unfinished bathroom, staring numbly at the flecks of grout still flaking off the new tile, wondering what the fuck he’s supposed to do now.

“Satoruuu,” a voice whines from the other side of the bathroom door. “I need to pee.”

Gojo scrambles to his feet, binning the evidence of all the pregnancy tests and burying it under a cloud of toilet paper just before he wrenches the door open, smile fixed in place. “Sorry Eri-chan! I was spacing out.”

Eri just takes the excuse at face value, bounding into the only current usable bathroom in the house and shutting the door behind her.

Gojo sighs wearily, slumping against the wall just outside the door.

Alright, first on the agenda is finding a temporary residence for them while he gets an army of contractors to fix the worst of the ‘home improvement’ sins he’s committed upon this house as quickly as possible. He’d originally thought redoing the rooms would be a fun bonding activity for him and Eri, but now he knows all those chemicals will be bad for… for the baby, so that’s probably a bad idea now. He’s also going to need this house in livable condition as fast as he can make it happen, because apparently… there’s going to be a baby here in less than six months. 

He’s also going to need a doctor, and a very good and discreet one at that. From what he’s read in his mad frenzy of online searching, male pregnancies are very high risk. He’s not at all worried for himself, seeing as though he can heal from just about anything, but that same protection doesn’t extend to the other person currently taking up roost inside him. He frowns. Or does it? Wouldn’t his reversed-curse technique still work on them when they’re still a parasite leeching off of his body? When exactly does their cursed energy start to deviate from each others to the point he can no longer heal them as an extension of himself? Man, what he wouldn’t give for a conversation with Shoko right now.

He can worry about things like clothes and furniture and baby food after he’s settled the most immediate concerns on his list. Namely, fixing this house and finding a doctor. And telling Eri, although he doubts that will be much of an issue. The girl will be beyond excited to be an older sibling.

Now as for telling his family and telling Hawks…

Gojo winces.

Yeah, okay. It says a lot that he’d rather tell Endeavor, to his face, that he’s getting another grandchild than fessing up to Hawks about carrying his kid. Even the thought of it is going to give him a stress tumor.

Well, stress is bad for babies, right? So maybe he should just table the thought for later. You know, for his health.

At any rate there are a lot of things he could have done differently to stop himself from getting in this situation, and plenty more he could have done to salvage it had he known about it. 

As it stands, mulling in his own regrets isn’t going to help anyone, least of all himself. 

All he can do now is try to find a viable path forward… whatever that may be. 

“All done,” Eri announces as she closes the bathroom door behind her, sounding inordinately proud of herself. “I washed my hands.” 

Gojo huffs out a laugh under his breath. 

She’s so adorably precocious. With the way she quietly longs for a loving home and family, she’ll be ecstatic to hear she’ll get the chance to be an older sister. She already bosses Meow around like he’s a little brother, and has a troop of stuffed animals she often pretends are her baby siblings. Between living with him and starting a life outside of the traumatic confines of the Shie Hassakai, bringing a new kid into the mix will be a lot on a little girl. But Gojo doesn’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing; the change will be good for her, and help her focus on things to look forward to. 

“Good job, Eri-chan.” He reaches down to ruffle her hair. 

It feels sort of silly to praise someone for using the bathroom and washing their hands properly afterwards, but Fuyumi had told him these kinds of habits are good to ingrain at this age. And at least he never had to worry about teaching her how to use the bathroom in the first place.

He internally winces at the thought. 

At almost six years-old, Eri is fairly self-sufficient. She can’t be left alone in the house, and needs supervision for things like bathtubs and cutting up her own food, but he doesn’t have to worry about her accidentally rolling over and suffocating herself, or falling down the stairs and breaking her neck. She can use words to express herself well enough, and for the most part can be trusted to sleep through the night by herself without incident. 

A baby… can’t do any of that. From what little he remembers of Fuyumi and Natsuo’s births, they can’t even lift their own heads up. 

And he remembers what it was like, having those two toddlers running about the house. Rei tried her best, and she even had housekeepers and maids to help her, but more often than not Gojo ended up having to figure out what the hell to do with these strange babbling creatures that kept trying to follow him around entirely on his own. It was definitely a trial by fire. He remembers dragging Fuyumi and Natsuo to the park by himself, trying to push Fuyumi on a swing while Natsuo wanted to climb on his back. Natsuo had ended up falling off his shoulders while he was attempting to keep Fuyumi from jumping off the swing. The two year-old Natsuo had, shockingly enough, brushed the fall off after a few seconds blinking up at Gojo waiting to see his own reaction; seconds in which Gojo had swore his heart stopped. He’d thought he’d accidentally broken his little brother’s neck. 

He’d refused to come out of his room, let alone spend unsupervised time with them, for weeks after that. 

Eventually he’d had to come to the startling realization that the little brats were more resilient than he thought, but he wasn’t liable to forget how easy they were to kill by accident. 

He didn’t do a… completely terrible job with them, in hindsight. 

He tends to forget about that time in his life, before he’d started sleeping out of the house more often than he did in it, before Rei started locking herself in her room for weeks at a time. But he’d been there for it, even if he didn’t have to care for his siblings in the manner he eventually would once both Rei and Endeavor were out of the picture. And despite his best efforts, there were times when a toddler would be thrust at him and he’d had to figure out what the hell to do with them without making them cry. 

But he hadn’t wanted to be put in that situation, and he’s not sure if he wants it now, either. 

He’s all for owning up to his own mistakes, but there’s more at stake here than just his own sense of responsibility.

He looks down at Eri, who’s blinking up at him with a curious expression. 

“Say, Eri-chan, you wanna go on an adventure today?” 

She tilts her head. “Adventure?” 

//

His very first instinct is denial. 

After that comes a surge of fear. He’s not ready for a baby. He’s not even ready for kids, despite the fact he currently has one. He’s never been ready— not in this life, or his last. He’d always shoved the thought out of his mind before it could take root. 

But standing in the backyard of the Todoroki house, he feels a strange sense of peace and inevitably overcome him. 

Sure, this was unexpected, but is he truly as unprepared as he thinks he is? 

Fuyumi is taking advantage of the unseasonably warm afternoon to spread a picnic blanket out by the pond and pull out a bunch of old picture books for Eri. She wants to start a scrapbook for Eri, now that she’s going to be part of the family, and the first step in that is apparently going through all of their old photos. Fuyumi is a little sad to see the box is mostly full of unused materials, and the books themselves are almost entirely untouched, but rallies admirably and decides to use the afternoon as an opportunity to finish them. 

This wasn’t what Gojo had intended when he’d dropped by the house to see her, but they seem to be having such a good time that he can’t bring himself to interrupt them.

He ends up sitting with them and going through the photos, feeling a bit overwhelmed by how nostalgic they make him. 

As much as he’d tried to run away from it all at the time, he’d been just as much of a parental figure in Fuyumi and Natsuo’s lives as their own two parents. Not because he’d wanted to fill that role, but simply because there was no one else. And at the time, it hadn’t seemed like that monumental of a responsibility. Gojo wasn’t alone in raising them; Endeavor could be counted on to fund their lifestyle, and there had been a vast array of staff to help with various household chores. There were some days when the cook had time off, and the messes around the house became too big to wait for the weekly cleaning service, and Gojo would step in to fill the gap, but for the most part he didn’t have to worry about little tasks like that. Their basic needs had always been taken care of, so it was only the more… personal duties that he ended up shouldering. 

They didn’t have staff for things like walks to school and back, or help with homework, or bedtime schedules. If Fuyumi needed help in the morning with her shoelaces, or Natsuo threw a tantrum because his favorite soccer ball was missing, Gojo had been the one to fill the missing parental role. He was the one who bought them all slip-on shoes just to bypass the hassle of shoelaces entirely, and he was the one who took Natsuo on an adventure to the nearest Donki to placate him with a brand new soccer ball and several other toys on top of that whenever he had a tantrum. 

At the time he’d just brushed all that off as the bare minimum an older brother (who was actually mentally a full grown adult) should do for their younger siblings, but looking back on it, that was parenting. 

The amount of meltdowns he had to endure was enough to make him shudder. Rei was never any good with handling those to begin with, growing anxious and frustrated the longer Fuyumi or Natsuo spent crying, and as the years passed she stopped trying to handle them at all. Gojo wasn’t any better at it, at first, but he’d learned through practice when to distract them and when to just let them cry it out. He’d learned a lot of childrearing tricks through pure trial and error; how to get them out the door for school on time without any whining or tears; how to entertain them on rainy afternoons; how to get them to brush their teeth and comb their hair before bed; how to pick out clothes the night before school so they weren’t scrambling around and wasting time in the morning. 

In hindsight, that was probably why he had very few issues with Eri. Aside from her trauma-related meltdown at the toy store, he very rarely had any problems with tantrums. 

Looking back on all the photos of his youth, he actually comes to realize… he’s more experienced and prepared than he’d originally thought. 

At this point in his lifetime(s), he’s technically raised two sets of kids— three, if he wants to count Eri. And each time he’s ended up in this situation, he’s gotten better and better at handling it. Sure, in all three of these situations he’d never asked to be put in the position of a parental figure, but that didn’t make it any less true.

He’s stunned to realize that at this point… he probably wouldn’t be all that awful at fatherhood. A damn sight better than either of his own fathers, at the very least. 

“So, I’m assuming you didn’t come all the way out here to reminisce on old photos,” Fuyumi says, after they’ve distracted Eri in the yard with an old bouncy ball. 

Gojo sighs, scratching at the back of his neck. He supposes he ought to just rip the bandaid off. “No, I didn’t. I actually… had a bit of a favor to ask you.” 

“Of me?” Fuyumi asks, looking rather mystified and perplexed, as if the thought of Gojo needing anything— let alone help from his little sister— was so surreal she could scarcely believe it. 

“Yeah.” 

He really hates to do this, but he can swallow his pride when he needs to. And right now, there’s really only one person he can entrust with this. 

“... Can you call Endeavor here for me?”

//

Truly, this child… Endeavor is never going to meet with him without having heart palpitations, is he?

“So,” Touya claps his hands, grinning brightly at him. “Remember when I said I couldn’t have kids? I lied.”

Endeavor staggers into the seat behind him, wondering if he’s having an out of body experience. This can’t be happening. This is… he cannot comprehend this. 

The strongest villain— and hero— on the planet, with the spotlight firmly fixed on his every move, with so many viciously hungry enemies waiting to tear him down on all sides of the law, is really trying to tell him that—

“You’re pregnant?” He repeats, voice high with disbelief.

“Surprise!” Touya cheers. “I’ve got… I think six more months until I have a baby? Give or take a few?”

“We have to start shopping,” Fuyumi gushes at his side, already looking effusively giddy at the thought. “We have to come up with a theme for the room! Not to mention all the clothes and the toys… let’s do something matching with Eri-chan! That’ll be so cute!”

Endeavor stares at her like she’s grown a second head. She’s taking this news without breaking stride. She actually looks pleased about it. She’s excited. There’s a new addition to the family, and a new child to dote on. A baby, no less. An excruciatingly helpless, tiny, little baby…

Endeavor cannot share in her joy at all.

He’s absolutely, unequivocally, terrified. He doesn’t think he’s been this afraid in his entire life. 

Despite all the chaos he regularly kicks up on a daily basis, Touya is a hard person to worry about. He’s too powerful, too in control of his own abilities and the world around him, to ever truly worry about him, no matter what life or death situation he finds himself in. 

And right now, at what is undoubtedly the most dangerous time in his life— he’s also at his most vulnerable. 

The fact that he’s here, coming to Endeavor at all, means he’s well aware of this fact. 

Endeavor sighs heavily. 

He wants to be happy for his eldest son. In a way, he thinks he is. Touya is an excellent older brother to his younger siblings, and already a wonderful father to Eri. He’ll be a wonderful father to this new child, too. And he doesn’t hate the thought of grandchildren. The thought of them throws him into a bit of an existential panic, but he’s hardly against the idea. If anything it’s a good thing, that his children are growing up and having families of their own, that he hasn’t ruined that for them in the same way he’s ruined so much of their lives… 

But it’s hard to be happy for him when, at his core, he only feels fear. 

Todoroki Enji has always been a creature full of fear. Fear of his angry drunk of a father, fear of being abandoned by his mother, fear of her new husband that was even worse than her first. As he grew, that fear quickly turned to anger, anger into hatred and, finally, into suffering. It’s a cycle that, in hindsight, he’s shocked he hadn’t pushed onto his own children. Torn of any outlet to feel anger towards, all he can feel now is fear. 

“No,” he finds himself saying, abruptly cutting Fuyumi off.

Both his children turn to look at him.

“It’s too dangerous,” he says. “We’ll have an assistant procure the necessities. No one can find out about this.”

“But, dad…” Fuyumi starts to protest.

He shakes his head adamantly. “This is a very dangerous situation, Fuyumi. You may be a private citizen, but you are well known as my daughter. Even that is worrisome, but if anyone was to connect you to Touya…”

Touya tilts his head at him, expression impossible to read. “You think I’ll be putting her in danger?”

“I think you’re putting yourself in danger.” Endeavor shakes his head. “Touya, this is… your situation is already precarious, and for the next few months, you’ll be at your most vulnerable. The media is already hunting for any information they can find on you, to say nothing of law enforcement and the government. You cannot have word of this getting out.”

Touya just raises a brow. “Are you trying to tell me what to do, old man?”

“No!” Endeavor denies, loudly, scared that his eldest will dismiss his concerns out of hand simply because they’re coming from him. 

He knows he’s never had a good relationship with his eldest son. It’s bold of him to assume he ever even had a relationship with him, at all. Touya has never wanted his advice, even as a child. As an adult, he probably wants it even less. 

“No,” he says, softer this time, closing his eyes. “I know I have no right to tell you what to do— just as you have no reason to ever heed my advice. But if I can offer you any bit of wisdom from my own experience having children in the spotlight, let it be this.”

He all but deflates in his seat, opening his eyes. He’s surprised to see Touya isn’t leaping for his throat at the very thought of his worthless father attempting to lecture him in any capacity. But Touya has always surprised him at every turn, so perhaps he shouldn’t be so shocked. If anything, Touya seems rather willing to hear him out, sitting placidly across from him.

He meets that unyielding, crystalline gaze with a solemn expression. “Your mother went to all her prenatal appointments under a false name,” he starts, slowly. “The doctor was aware of her true identity, but I avoided going there in person.”

That was, in truth, both a precaution and a personal choice. He’s ashamed to say he wouldn’t have wanted to go in the first place, and the security the anonymity gave her was simply a convenient excuse. 

“I can vouch for the security of Mustafu General,” he continues. “Almost every hero in the area uses them, and their discretion is top-notch.” 

He rubs warily at his forehead.

If he’d thought having children as the Number Two Hero was a liability, he cannot even fathom what it will be like for Touya. Rei was a civilian, and the secretive nature of their marriage made her easy to slip under the radar. His face and name may have been known unanimously across the country, but hers had not. But Touya was not only in a physically vulnerable position, he was also the one in the spotlight. And if the father is who he thinks it is…

He clears his throat, awkwardly. “May I ask who the father is?”

Fuyumi looks tentatively towards Touya, brow creasing. Touya doesn’t even bat an eyelash as he says, blandly, “No.” 

Endeavor nods. He’d expected that response. Touya has no reason to confide in him. 

“... Touya,” Fuyumi starts, hesitantly. “Do you think it might be… better to tell him?”

Touya shakes his head. “No, I don’t,” he says. He stares Endeavor down in a way that’s rather pointed as he adds, slowly; “I think, for everyone’s sake, it’s best if that’s left to interpretation. Plausible deniability, and all that.”

Endeavor swallows down the dry lump in his throat. 

Yes, Touya is right. It’s best if he doesn’t have definitive confirmation on who the father is. Nonetheless it’s a damning thing to say. Does Touya not trust Hawks? Perhaps. But more than likely, Touya does not trust who Hawks works for. Even now, the HPSC is maintaining a worrying, awful silence when it comes to International Pro Hero Six Eyes. And Endeavor, as a hero licensed under their jurisdiction, is just as beholden to them. If they come asking, for whatever reason, it’s better for everyone if he has nothing to tell them.

“Touya is right,” he agrees, voice grave. “The less people who know the truth, the better. Myself included.”

Fuyumi purses her lips, but says nothing else.

[ezziedoodles]

Why Season 2 Of Arcane Felt A Little Off

Let me preface this by saying I adore this show, and I loved this season. I laughed, I cried, and I had a good time watching it. The art direction and animation is a masterpiece. This is probably my favorite show, but I think it's good to critique the things you love and this entire season I felt like I was waiting for something.

For a show titled Arcane, season one had remarkably little to do with the arcane. Yes, there was Hextech and magic, but the show was centered on this class divide between Piltover and Zaun and all the conflicts that stem from this. The very first scene of the show is enforcers killing citizens on the bridge, with Powder and Vi finding their dead parents' bodies. Zilco's reasoning for doing anything he did was because he believed he was helping Zaun, including raising Jinx the way he did. Vi was so passionate about her city and the injustice facing it. Caitlyn witnessing this injustice is what causes her to question the systems she is a part of. Viktor and Jayce (but especially Viktor) created technology with the intention of wanting to improve life for the undercity. Ekko is a revolutionary doing so much to give his people a community and a chance to live their lives. My point is literally every single character is connected by this conflict between the cities.

Now let's take a look at the second season. Where is this part of the story that was so essential to the first season? There's a brief revolutionary beat with Jinx and her followers but once they escape from prison, the show moves on from this and never touches it again. We see Caitlyn's descent into corrupt madness, becoming everything she and Vi wanted to stop. Eventually she realizes how wrong she was but do we see her make any reparations to Zaun specifically for the damage she caused? She gassed the city, poisoning the air even further (with gas that has been confirmed to make people sick in the long run), harming hundreds of innocent people. And Vi, a character so vehemently against enforcers in the first season, goes along with this for how long? Days? Weeks? And only stops when she can visually see the impact of Caitlyn's madness as she almost kills a child in front of her. These characters are flawed and I love that, but we see them get their happy ending without ever truly addressing or helping with what they did to Zaun.

Ekko sees an alternate universe of everything his city could be, everything they all wanted so badly in the first season. Equality, safety, education, food security, and more. He says he is thankful for the reminder and I fully believe he will go forth with this vision in mind, but do we ever see it? And that right there is the problem. We don't know what happens to Zaun in the end, we don't know if things get better. All we see is Sevika on the council but we don't know if that will fix anything since people have stood up for the undercity in council before and it did nothing.

I want to see Ekko rally his people and repair the damage caused by the war. I want to see Vi open up the last drop and make it what it was always meant to be, a place of community. I want to see schools open in the undercity in honor of Viktor and Jayce. I want to see the two cities heal from the damage done to each other. Fuck it, I just want literally any closure on this plotline! Just tack on a 2 minute montage of what happened to this city after the war and I'd feel a little better. But instead this part of the story was completely sidelined throughout the season and ignored entirely in the finale. I'm not someone that thinks every story needs to have a moral, but this show was trying to tell us something! The first season was screaming from the rooftops to beware of privilege, beware systemic oppression, to fight inequality, and I find it really sad that there was no conclusion for that.

I do wish there had been three seasons to give it a smoother transition form politics to magic but it is what it is. Nothing is perfect. This season gave me so much including the best depiction of soulmates I've ever seen in my life so you win some you lose some ig.

[dereks-unrelenting-heart]

SFTH Chaotic Highlights (Too Big To Be A Jockey)

My 5th longform commentary :)

Classic stagecraft confusion with not knowing where exactly the horse is-

"It's not about the rider" "I'm pretty sure it's important" Sam could've said a lot more then (a la 'invading Spain through the East') but he clearly restrained himself this time

"You're a specialty" "I'm a specialty" "Yes" When instead of acknowledging it, they double down on their bullshit

"Ol' Johnny Jones, even though he's a tall guy" "He's 6'6"" They loved assigning roles to Tom early on huh

"Don't slap me in front of Thunderclap!" What is this, an abusive relationship with their child in the room?

Sam trying to fit the show title into the story also happened in a lot of earlier shows

"Get your hand off my horse's tits" One of my favorite Sam running jokes

Johnny Jones choosing the creepiest possible way of entering the scene, sneaking up and putting his hands on Jeremy's shoulders before letting himself be known to Franklin

"I'm saying if this man rides this horse too many more times, she's gonna split in half" You know, I am starting to feel bad for Thunderclap here

AMAZING CHOICE for Johnny Jones to just lift Thunderclap to move her

"Little man" "He is a little man" Absolutely shocking this bit wasn't directed at Luke for once

Johnny Jones being taller at 5 years old than he is now, nice one AJ

"Swallow the spit, don't waste it" I take back my previous statement, Tom was never safe from the spit jokes.. And this is a damn good one

"The one with the Irish Yorkshire-man" ".. I thought he was from London, personally" It's not a SFTH play without a bit of accent confusion

"And by golly he can win that competition!" "She" "She?" "Don't misgender the horse" Yeah Luke you fucking bigot /ref

"Ridiculous double names these poor people have isn't it? It's just the same name twice!" "They couldn't afford another one" Luke and Sam's rich person humor vs Tom's reference to improv comedy not being a great financial choice in OMGITAJ

"He's lost all of his races" Hey Johnny Jones, it wasn't just your height and weight before, we definitely were questioning your legitimacy as a jockey

I know this wasn't the implication from the 'not standing next to an object' thing, but I just imagine Johnny Jones sending a job application with a photo of himself in front of one of those school photoshoot backgrounds that's either a pure black void or a random mix of colors

Sam fully losing it from his own dumb 'wrong station' joke is so great

"I go home to inform him of the horses" I imagine those conversations are incredible "Daddy daddy daddy, the horses!" "Yes son, the horses are still there" "And Thunderclap, is she okay?" "Yes son, she's fine" "Are you sure? Johnny Jones isn't curving her spine into the shape of a horseshoe?" "... Thunderclap is as fine as she usually is"

"Creepy.." "Get you mind out of the gutter, I said my annex!" You can blame the fake alcohol all you want, but what you were thinking was a little more than just 'creepy'

Sam blatantly setting up for the kid to be the jockey, only to act baffled by the idea when Luke finally suggests it

"But, sir-" "w h a t" "... Good idea-" The death glare I know Luke gave him in that moment was deserved

"Ice?" "Come on, sir. You're meant to be upper class" Coming from someone who is both below the legal drinking age and is very much NOT a part of the upper class, let the man have some ice-

"My presence bestows upon you a great many blessings" Wrong direction, but sure close enough

"We are family, even though we look nothing alike" This is one of the only times in sfth history where that's an incorrect statement

AJ: *gets on his knees and kisses Tom's knuckles* Tom: *surprised at the mafia route his character went in*

"The horses do not like it when you cry.. I do though" Cantuccini and his nephew are both freaks huh

Oh boy it's time for my favorite scene

"I'm to be your new jockey!" *literally points and laughs*

Sam urging once again to move the plot along

"I'm here to ride horses and take names" Best line, specifically because it's coming from a 5 year old whose voice sounds like Sam inhaled helium

My reaction to AJ going from 0-100 by getting out a gun is perfectly summarized in Sam's subsequent "what thE FUCK"

"I changed my mind :(" Sam really has a knack for taking up animals roles and ultimately regretting his choices (ie. Mario the Sheep)

"What is this tiny fucking runt of a pony?" Luke, 10 seconds before playing the role of 'small blonde dog':

Luke, the most fabulous blonde horse/dog I ever did see

I like how while AJ and Tom are talking here, Sam and Luke are having their own telepathic conversation of just "Was I not.. supposed to be here? Did I fuck up?" "Idfk man, just let them sort this shit out"

I was gonna say that when it cuts to him riding Thunderclap, Sam is the perfect embodiment of the :D emoji, but turns out the official subtitles beat me to it

Anyway, this kid is so happy to be riding a horse, I sure hope nothing happens to him! *cut to Johnny Jones running towards him at record speed* oh no!

"I'm so terribly sorry about your son, Gavin" Oh my god he's dead "He's been trampled to death by Johnny Jones" HE WHAT

Luke: "Did he have a brother?" Gavin, sweating: "No."

Poor Gavin's gonna lose both of his sons in one terrible work week

"What is the exact nature of the land I own?" When Luke realizes he doesn't know what's going on and desperately tries to stay in character while asking about it

"What do you farm?" ".. Peasants?" Insane response, I love when Luke plays a morally questionable/evil rich guy

I'd comment on their back-and-forth about farming, but I know no more than Luke does about the subject so I'm just gonna 🤐

Realizing I don't know Luke's character's name here or if he was given one, so I'm gonna call him Sir since that's what Gavin's said about a million times

So 'Sir' is very insistent on potentially killing another kid, leaving Gavin sad and childless

This scene is a good second place the the first child one

Bro knows exactly what he's getting into and he is not thrilled at all

"Hullo.." *long pause* *gets gun* "..Look I've had a shit week alright, can we not do this right now-"

What A Twist #2

"The butler" "No" "The land owner" The farm owner, or farmer, one might say

"So it's you who's been sending children to my stables" Yeah and it's you who's been threatening them at gunpoint for some fucked up reason

"Look how high he can lift you with his hands" "I've got a gun" Well there goes Johnny Jones' murder plans

Tom coming in with the ultimate plot twist

I actually thing this is the only time they do a costume related switch up where they can't either continue being themselves (Bubba from Inside The Mysterious Cube) or have the actors swap out (Jelly Jeremiah, also from Inside The Mysterious Cube), so it's just extra confusing

AJ and Sam's opposite reactions to the turn of events, AJ telling him to quit it and Sam immediately wanting to hear Tom attempt to explain how the fuck this is possible. I'm team Sam 100%

I also have no idea who supposedly slapped AJ there, but that's one way to leave a scene ig

Not sure what's more fucked up, the fact the kid was alive the whole time and he didn't tell anyone so his family mourned him, or the fact to stay hidden he made a MEAT SUIT OUT OF THE DEAD GUY... Probably the latter but you know, food for thought

"You leave my family alone!" "Or else what? Oh right, the broken hand-" Tom would never forget such an important detail in his stagecraft *cough*Unrelenting Aubergine*cough* smh

"We're gonna ride the horse together" "But we weight too much together" I thought you were each basically 80% helium tf is this about

Luke's Small Blonde Dog/Horse returns!

"And they said I was too big to be a jockey" Love whenever Sam does this, as mentioned earlier, but I especially love that in this case it doesn't make any sense for the character-

Final Thoughts: We'll never know what Sam was gonna say before Luke called scene at the end..

[dickgraysonsptsd]

Do you know what's up with all the fanart and fics and stuff that show Jason super close and Brotherly with Damian/Tim/Cass/Steph? Because not to be a Dick Grayson biased guy, but it really does seem like some backwards level misogyny taking people who have complex and important relationships with dick (especially Damian??????????) And being like nahhhhhh Dicks just the fun older bro lol he can't and doesn't have complex relationships with these guys but Jason who lower class and was tragically murdered does :D the Jason and Tim stuff Especially because Tim fucking hates Jason in canon and yet every 4th batman related fanart that pops up is them being closer than close brothers and Dick just a background character. I do understand people have biases and fave characters, but at this point, it seems people are doing this just to push dick out the way or undermine his importance, literally backwards misogyny fridging dick (and Barbara and steph) so Jason and cass get to play house and have that hug they absolutely had in canon

so i think a lot of this comes from what i understand to be a huge influx of new fans to batfandom during the pandemic, most of whom were primarily interested in fanon depictions of the characters. they got into the bats through fanfic or wfa or tiktoks or whatever and while some people then got into comics, tv shows, etc from there, plenty stayed in the "fanon universe" corner of fandom.

jason is especially popular among these types of fans, which led to them making more fanworks of him that got more new fans interested in him, and so on. this is is fine! i'm glad people have their biases and their faves because i certainly do too, we need lots of people with different faves for a diverse ecosystem!

unfortunately a lot of the things they say they like about red hood jason (good big brother, protective of and respectful towards survivors and sex workers, caring, compassionate, engages with his community, wants to improve his city, fights openly with bruce but is capable of reconciling with him, etc) are literally just dick's traits given to jason for the sake of softening jason's very abrasive and antagonistic post-crisis character (and anything set in/around utrh is necessarily based in post-crisis!). even jason's relationships that they say they like, such as his n52+ friendships with roy or kory, are... dick's. and fans of roy or kory generally hate how they're portrayed in relation to jason because their characters have to be warped to force them into relationships with him.

and now that these fanon-focused fans have built a version of jason that they love which happens to overlap heavily with dick, they have to do something else with dick. which is usually, as you pointed out, assigning him a shallow personality or pushing him into the background of fanworks in some way. he has to be mindlessly supportive of daddy bruce, cheerful, ditzy, a crybaby, etc to simplify him out of his normal central role in the lives of characters like tim, damian, bruce, etc (it's interesting that he's often loaded with stereotypically Annoying Feminine Traits in comparison to jason being made a "strong but soft" masculine man... hm...).

the only mainstream comics canon that i'm aware of with meaningful basis for any other bats being closer to jason than to dick is n52, which has a really funny full page spread of tim going "wow.. i've never had a brother before... not like jason my beloved... <333" while laying next to jason on the ground. otherwise this whole "jason is the real big brother who all the bats love" thing is pure fanon.

now like. as to motivation for this. i think the vast majority of jason fans don't hate dick and don't have any ill intent towards his character or his fans. i feel you because as a dick obsessive i also get frustrated with all of this, but i seriously don't think most people who do this have any intent beyond having fun with their toys. and i don't think the fanon jason fans are really thinking about canon dick or jason to begin with for the most part--they're essentially playing with dolls shaped like the bat characters. and they're having fun with it so.... good for them *said through clenched teeth*

basically i think it all comes from a pretty harmless place but it's annoying as fuck and FEELS targeted lmao.

now, not speaking as a dick grayson superfan anymore--the shit that steph and cass get in particular to bend them into people who would looooove jason and embrace him as part of the batfamily is ABSURD. i can't imagine being a cass superfan in this society. as if CASSANDRA CAIN would give jason a hug and go "big brother <3" when jason has repeatedly desecrated the batsymbol (which is how cass would see it, as desecration!!!). jason had the option to not kill and he chose to kill because he wanted to. cass would beat his ass.

i am especiallyyyy peeved when i see "steph and jason would be besties because they're both from poor families :D" takes because like. first of all, weird to reduce them to "the poor robins." and very weird to try for a "both of their dads were villains/henchmen" angle too because red hood jason has killed plenty of criminals who left kids just like steph behind. second, steph would not tolerate post-crisis jason. jason tormented tim and then--EDIT: GANG I MISREMEMBERED THIS jason is not the one who shot damian in the spine. however i still firmly believe steph would beat his ass.

(i do personally think an element of misogyny/homophobia is involved in how readily people will strip dick of his personality and relationships and give them to the more traditionally masculine jason, who has no "questionable" relationships with men and whose relationship with bruce is "pure" and straightforwardly familial, but i don't have the spoons to put that into words rn. but i feel you. but it's also a complicated thing to talk about without sounding like i'm talking over misogyny towards actual female characters. you know)

[rahleeyah]

I was taking night classes at the local community college during the Obama/Romney election. I was the youngest person in every class by 20 years; it was all adults, predominately Black women, who had jobs and kids and were in the process of changing careers and looking to improve their circumstances, just like me. We were all poor; I was clearing $12-$14k a year, sleeping on the floor and putting gas in my car $5 at a time. I was buying cigarettes with loose change. It was a rough time.

The thing about people who teach at community colleges, at least around here, is they don't make shit. Pennies. Like maybe $1,000 a class a semester. There's no such thing as tenure. So for the most part they either have day jobs or are retired. I was taught by an active duty police detective, a public defender, a magistrate, and people who were actively employed in my field. Including this one lady.

I said up top this was during Obama/Romney. Picture if you will, a classroom in which there are ~15 Black mothers aged 45-60, and one 22 year old white lesbian, in 2012. Imagine what happens when you put a 50 something year old white Republican Christian nationalist "in charge" of this particular group of people. Carnage, is the answer.

She kept trying to talk about politics, which always exploded spectacularly in her face. I've never been in a classroom that was this antagonistic between the students and the teacher. At one point we had to give presentations on federal laws, and just to fuck with her I did DOMA, and my classmates asked really smart, insightful questions during my presentation and ended up asking the teacher essentially wait a minute, you support this? What's wrong with you?

The class after the "the Marine Corps' preferred weapon is the bayonet" debate was pure fucking comedy gold.

Anyway, there's one particular event from this class I remember almost every time I'm behind the wheel of my car. In an attempt to like idk seem more relatable or something one day the teacher was complaining about traffic. And she said something to the effect of gosh I hate it when a light turns green and the car in front starts off so slow and then they start going much faster later. And I think she was trying to say she didn't like it when people weren't prompt to react to the green or took their sweet time to get up to speed or were inconsistent about their speed or something but in the moment that wasn't what it sounded like at all.

One of my classmates looked dead at this lady and said "you got beef with the concept of acceleration?"

And now pretty much every fucking TIME a light turns green I think about that interaction. You got beef with the concept of acceleration?

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Dangancember 2024 - Danganronpa Top 24 Class Trials: Number 23 Danganronpa V3 Case 6

//Oh Jesus...

//Now, let me just make one thing clear with this one. I actually don't dislike V3's ending with a burning passion. I definitely don't LIKE like it, but after sitting on it for a while, some of the twists and events of the trial are...pretty good actually, and really show what Danganronpa V3 is all about.

//So I don't tend to agree with the lavish hate that this trial gets.

//HOWEVER, with all that being said, I DO agree that this is by far the worst ending in the entire franchise. And yes, that includes both the Another games, Ultra Despair Girls, AND DR3.

//Which...Actually, to their credit, despite having a very iffy runtime for me, all of those examples had actually pretty killer endings that I really enjoyed.

//But yeah, I mean...V3's final trial and the whole thing that happens in it is just so fucking infamous. And for all very valid reasons. So...without further ado, let's talk about it for the umpteenth time.

//In case I already didn't make it clear, describing Danganronpa V3's final trial and ending as "controversial" among its audience...honestly doesn't do the full scope of the situation justice.

//It's very hard to come by someone who has played V3 and is a fan of Danganronpa who probably doesn't have more mixed feelings about a single segment of a video game.

//And honestly, I'm not sure if I should talk about the good things, or the bad things first; because again, divisive implies that it kind of balances out.

//I think I'll focus on the stuff I don't like, because that's the main crux of the argument that explains this trial's placement.

//Something I've always noticed is that when you look at the ending trials for all three mainline Danganronpa games, you notice that all three of them suffer from very similar issues. Those issues being the ridiculousness of the events, the sheer length, and the fact that they are just incredibly blatant plot dumps that try to scramble every bit of the established lore together in one uncomfortable package. And the reason why DRV3 is the worst of the endings is because it does all three of these at MAXIMAM VELOCIPY.

//(I spelt that wrong on purpose by the way.)

//In the Danganronpa series, it has become widely recognized that the trials progressively increase in length with each installment. I kinda see this as a good thing, as it contributes to the franchise’s appeal, because longer trials mean more intricate mysteries, additional plot points, and unexpected twists.

//The final trial in Danganronpa V3, however, takes this idea to the extreme, likely in recognition of its status as the series' concluding chapter. It goes all out, lasting, at minimum, 4 to 5 hours.

//And unlike the ending trials of 1 and 2, that ridiculous length of time is filled up by basically random bullshit. Some sections are highly innovative, like the segments where players must intentionally fail certain minigames to progress as a means of rejecting hope in confrontations with Tsumugi. However, other parts can be frustrating, and just...packed with pointless dialogue.

//For example, the whole segment where they kind of bring up the fact that Kaede had a twin sister as a red herring? Pointless.

//I mean, I take advantage of that fact later, but generally why was this even a plot point to begin with? It's so weird, and nothing comes of it.

//There's also the strangely unfomfortable spike in difficulty, and the fact that fluctuates VERY often.

//The trial features a mix of straightforward puzzles and extremely challenging minigames, some of which rival the difficulty of Danganronpa 2’s notoriously tough (and ridiculously fucking stupid) "Improved Hangman’s Gambit." These difficulty spikes, combined with long stretches of dialogue between minigames,don't do anything for this trial other than cause a pacing imbalance.

//How about the actual culprits though? Well, they are equally as divisive.

//This is, unfortunately, the only moment in Danganronpa V3 where Monokuma gets to show himself off to be the same bad bitch bear he was in the original game, and the Monokubs don't stick around long enough to be an issue to him. And unlike the first two games, he sticks around for the entire trial.

//But then he's coupled...with Tsumugi...

//And all my homies HATE...TSUMUGI...

//Okay, to be fair, Tsumugi is one of the most fun characters to write for Survivor, but I feel the need to point out that a large part of her character arc is that it involves her desperately trying to take up the mantle of the Ultimate Despair, and be on the same level as a criminal and terrorist Mastermind as Junko.

//And the reason I even have leeway for this type of character building for her is because there isn't just room for character development and improvement with her. There's FAR TOO MUCH of it.

//Tsumugi isn't just the least compelling masterminds in the series, but one of the least compelling characters IN GENERAL. And even after she IS revealed to be the big bad, she somehow remains the incredibly blank and boring character that she was for most of V3's run time.

//Junko, Monaca, and even Nagito as something of a pseudo-Mastermind were all batshit crazy and demonic to the core, but it's important to point out that they all have REASONS driving their evil acts, as psychopathic and evil some of them were. But Tsumugi lacks any sort of personal motive, and relies on her role as an avatar for the audience’s desires. The general passivity compared to other masterminds makes her insanely underwhelming.

//Speaking of which, if I may be allowed to go on a bit of a tangent here; the way that Tsumugi is outed as the Mastermind is kind of controversial in and of itself for me.

//By which I mean it's discovered that what actually happened at the beginning of the game is that Kaede's trap to kill the mastermind failed to kill Rantaro. But because of the first blood perk that meant the students would all die if no one was murdered, it meant that time was running short, and in the heat of the moment, Tsumugi got a second shotput ball, killed Rantaro with it, and used her authority as the Mastermind to frame Kaede for the crime anyway.

//Which all feels like unnecessary bullshit if I'm being honest.

//Case 1 and the twist that Kaede was the actual killer was great; and her subsequent execution is one of the most emotionally impactful moments in V3, because it it sends her off as a tragic, morally gray protagonist who was willing to kill for the greater good. Hence the reason why she's my favourite character in the series.

//However, the revelation here retroactively strips her of agency, making her a victim of Tsumugi's manipulation rather than someone who took a flawed, bold step to save her friends.

//This twist also diminishes Kaede's character arc. Her determination and selflessness, even if her actions were misguided, is largely the reason why she manages to be such a spectacular character despite her short runtime. By revealing that she was framed, the story shifts her role from an active participant to a passive victim, which feels like a betrayal of her established personality and the unique premise of her narrative.

//Additionally, the reveal is poorly foreshadowed, and feels like a contrived attempt to shock the audience, and a desperate attempt to redeem Kaede, rather than a natural development. The explanation relies heavily on Tsumugi’s ability to perfectly execute a plan without leaving meaningful clues for the detectives, which feels inconsistent with the game's emphasis on logical deduction, and inconsistent with her being an absolute dumbass every other time, even AFTER her Mastermind reveal. As a result, the twist feels less like a clever subversion and more like an unfair rewrite of the story's emotional stakes.

//All in all, Tsumugi's character feels less developed than those who came before her, and it feels like the emphasis on her being a "cosplayer of fiction" was little more than a bad excuse to avoid giving her any type of depth or a unique personality.

//She's just plain. And she stays plain even when she's revealed to be the main villain.

//Also, this is a comment that's gonna get me smited by everybody, but fuck it, I refuse to hide how I truly feel: Keebo is equally as dogshit.

//Keebo is such a NOTHING character, and I don't understand why he has such a massive fanbase. This is supposed to be him at his best, and his whole point is that he's the one who has to stick it to Tsumugi, but he fails to do even that.

//There's a tiny segment of this trial where we get to play as Himiko and Maki, and a large segment where we get to play as Keebo, and BOTH are UTTERLY POINTLESS, even though they are kind of cool.

//Keebo's actions during this trial when you play as him are a clear homage and cliche to the series' origins, where he is constantly encouraging everyone that they should never give up since the game isn't over yet. But this is effortlessly shut down when Tsumugi abruptly informs him that she WROTE his character that way, and it's exactly what she wanted him to say, as well as the fact that he unknowingly served as the audiences eyes and ears for the game. Thus Keebo's one single moment to shine in this entire game is ultimately futile.

//What was the fucking point of even that?

//So between the dogshit gameplay, and the dogshit Mastermind behind everything, this case is already bad enough. But sad as it is to say, we have to talk about the elephant in the room. Something that I believe is always a make-or-break for the final trials, and that's the Ultimate plot twist that it entails. Usually a big reveal of some sort.

Game 1: The world outside the academy has been basically destroyed.

Game 2: Jabberwock Island is a virtual simulation, and the students in Class 77 are the brainwashed Ultimate Despair terrorists who aided Junko in the Tragedy. Hajime is also Izuru Kamukura, a talentless boy who was experimented on by Hope's Peak Academy against his knowledge.

Another 1: Similar to Game 2. Yuki is revealed to be the true Mastermind behind the Killing Game, and his real identity is Utsuro, the boy with the power of Divine Luck that reshapes reality in his favor.

Another 2: Sora isn't real, is actually an AI based on Akane Taira, is the one who really has the Divine Luck Mikado seeks, and she is left behind as the virtual world is erased.

//I'm not gonna dance about it any longer than I have to, we all know the twist of V3, and we all know it's kind of bullshit.

//The case reveals that the events of Danganronpa V3 are part of a fictional reality show within the game’s universe. The students' lives and personalities were fabricated, their memories manipulated, and the killing game broadcasted for entertainment.

//V3 is actually the 53rd entry of the Danganronpa franchise, with the V in V3 actually being the roman numeral for 5. And Tsumugi directly references the previous Danganronpa games, framing them as part of the same fictional reality show franchise.

//This retroactively positions Danganronpa V3 as a reboot rather than a continuation, suggesting that the events of earlier games may not matter either.

//And the final trial frequently breaks the fourth wall, addressing the player directly and critiquing their role as consumers of violent, despair-filled entertainment. Tsumugi frames the killing game as something the audience demands, effectively blaming players for perpetuating the cycle.

//So yeah...

//EVERYTHING here just SUCKS!

//In the Meta sense, I will say that the twist is interesting, kind of humerous to an extent, and shouldn't be taken seriously in any sort of degree. Not to mention, to a certain extent, it's innovative and quite thought-provoking, as it rightfully critiques fan obsession with sensationalized entertainment.

//But it's done in a way that, in the attempt to portray their games audience, makes me wonder if Danganronpa understands its audience at all.

//The way it's handled here is a betrayal of the narrative, dismissing the emotional weight of the characters' struggles and reducing them to fictional constructs.

//If you're someone, like me, who is/was deeply invested in the original cast and continuity, this just feels insulting. It's like the series we love has been seemingly reduced to a meaningless cycle of fabricated tragedies. Some even see it as an attempt to erase the legacy of Danganronpa's 1 and 2, and it generally makes V3 feel disconnected from the rest of the series.

//I think what upsets me the most is that Tsumugi's claim that the game is made "for the fans, by the fans," is done as a way to make the player complicit in the killing game, suggesting that their desire for entertainment is what perpetuates the franchise’s cycles of despair.

//In other words, this game is basically telling you that you are a terrible person for playing and enjoying it. And I don't vibe with that AT ALL.

//This meta-narrative comes across as kind of self-indulgent and dismissive, overshadowing the characters and plot in favor of philosophical commentary. And not even the good kind.

//But this is why I specifically use words like "controversial" and "divisive" to describe this twist. The events of V3 single-handedly created a divide in the fanbase, with some appreciating the meta-commentary and others feeling disrespected.

//But besides the twist itself, what makes me personally lean towards the latter side of the argument is that all these twists, turns, and concepts are brought up, and despite the trial almost physically forcing the ideas into your throat, what baffles me is how strangely and concerningly ambiguous everything remains by the end of it.

//When you think about it, there are no grounds upon which Tsumugi makes her claims, so everything she says and states in this trial is questionable at best, and a blatant lie at worst. Shuichi even makes note of this at the very end of the game.

//It’s unclear whether the events of Danganronpa V3 were "real" in the context of the game world or entirely fictional within its universe, which many at this point in time have accepted as its own alternate timeline; hence why I make it so in Danganronpa Survivor. This ambiguity extends to whether the surviving characters have truly escaped the cycle of the killing game or are trapped in another layer of fiction.

//The surviving characters (Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko) are left in an uncertain state. Their escape from the game is metaphorical rather than literal, and their identities, forged through fabricated memories, remain unresolved.

//It's up for debate whether this can be called clever storytelling or unnecessarily confusing bullshit. For some, it feels like a cop-out that avoids resolving the story definitively, while others appreciate the open-ended nature, which allows for personal interpretation.

//The lack of clear rules or boundaries for what is real made the ending feel nonsensical or overly convoluted, and it's hard to get invested in a story that defies traditional narrative logic in this way. Even for something like Danganronpa.

//The ambiguity about the trio's futures and identities felt hollow, and that's why a lot of people want more closure.

//Speaking of which, yet another huge issue with this trial is something that V3 shares with 3. Despite the fact that the purpose of the game is to tie the knot on the franchise, there is SUCH a lack of CLOSURE, for FUCKS SAKE!

//Ultimately, it doesn't matter at all whether we can say that V3 was truly real, or fictional. It doesn't matter, because either way, people still want a satisfying conclusion for the characters they’ve followed, but V3 provides NONE of that. The ending’s open-ended nature, while probably done with good intent, makes it difficult to discern any definitive meaning or takeaway from the story.

//So god tell me, what did I just waste four hours of my life on!?

//Trial 6 of V3 is the worst ending in the series because it is generally a waste of time, spends so long trying to meticulously explain a very stupidly handled twist, and ultimately has NO CONCLUSION.

//Which is why it's so low, and yet, it still manages to avoid not only the honorable mentions, but the bottom spot (although it's really fucking close, trust me.)

//My opinion of this trial is overly negative, and it's not one I enjoy revisiting in any sense, but there are things about it I like.

//For starters, the characterization. I kind of already rambled on about this before when I went on that tangent about Tsumugi being a stupid as fuck villain.

//But while Tsumugi is incredibly poor...SHUICHI is BRILLIANT!

//I like all the Danganronpa protagonists about the same, and though I generally prefer Kaede, I ADORE Shuichi too, and THIS is why. He is EASILY the best-developed protagonist in the main series, and the way that growth that happens throughout all of V3 culminates here is near FLAWLESS.

//He's been through so much pain for this whole game, and it crushes him tenfold when he finds out what little enjoyment and fulfillment he DID have wasn't even reality, and just part of a fictional series. That, and the fact that people will never empathize with him, because in their eyes, he's just a character behind a screen.

//But he goes on to assert himself as a protagonist and chooses to challenge the killing game’s rules. His defiance is a moment of growth festered in him by the emotionally REAL relationships he had with Kaede and Kaito, showing that he can stand up for his beliefs, even in the face of overwhelming odds. His journey from self-doubt to confidence is deeply satisfying, well-handled, and emotional for fans who connected with his struggles. His choice to reject both hope and despair in favor of forging his own path is empowering, just as much, if not more, than even Hajime's from Game 2.

//There were a few characters, namely Kaede, Kaito, and Kokichi, who did massive gambits in an attempt to break the killing game and ruin it, but they all failed. It feels good to know that Shuichi was the one who succeeded.

//Despite its kind of unholy subversion, the trial also acts as a tribute to the Danganronpa series and how far it's come, incorporating callbacks, references, and homages to earlier games; most notably when Tsumugi transforms herself into characters from the series before this.

//It's not quite closure, but it's the closest we get.

//As far as the twist goes, while I generally think it was handled poorly, the idea behind it comes from a very important place. The meta-narrative of this trial turns the game into a commentary on the nature of fiction and the role of creators, characters, and audiences. It’s a fresh and daring approach that sets this game apart from its predecessors, making it memorable and thought-provoking in regards to people's relationship with the series and the medium of storytelling as a whole.

//And while I generally dislike the open-ended conclusion, it does invite the idea of interpretation, allowing players to draw their own meanings and decide what is real within the story.

//I mean, I did that. You're reading that very blog now.

//The worst part about this trial for me is the fact that it feels like the twist is designed to attack the hardcore fans; something that I can't really forgive. But the way the trial critiques fandom culture, exploring the implications of endlessly consuming horrible concepts for entertainment, is kind of a valid statement to make at the current state of the world. It asks the audience to consider their role in perpetuating the killing games and questions the morality of reveling in such dark content.

//I just wish it had done so more kindly.

//But yeah, overall while I do appreciate V3's final trial for its boldness and willingness to subvert expectations, I generally dislike it for its perceived disrespect to the series' characters, themes, and fanbase. Case 6 is somehow both a brilliant deconstruction of the series’ tropes and a reflection on the nature of storytelling, fandom, and media consumption, as well as a betrayal of the series’ core themes. The ending’s ambiguity, meta-commentary, and radical deconstruction of the franchise leave it as one of the most polarizing conclusions in gaming history, and I doubt there are many that come close.

[rigelmejo]

There are so many anazing free resources to study languages. So many.

I think it often just comes down to: some people don't want to actually learn, some people don't want to put in the effort and hours it takes to improve at a brand new thing, some people fear imperfection, some people just aren't good at finding resources on their own (libraries can help! Even just a quick search on reddit or language learning blogs can point you to some good resources!), and some people really struggle to make their own study plan or motivate themselves (and in these cases STRUCTURED resources may work best for you - either actual classes with grades to pressure you, or Coursera/linkedin/etc Massive Online Open Courses - which can be free but still paced like classes you pay for, or getting a textbook or copying someone else's study plan Exactly same time spent per day same activities everything).

There's also a lot of amazingly well made paid resources to learn a language. I'm telling you right now its not Glossika, or Rosetta Stone, or Duolingo, or any other "many languages X dollars a month subscription" apps. Some of those may be okay, and even work great if you're a beginner and quickly finish them and then go find intermediate stuff to study. But usually you can look up resources for the Specific language you're learning and find amazing resources specifically tailored to it. (Examples: Satori Reader app for learning to read Japanese is extremely well made and much more useful for Japanese than a broad LingQ app subscription, Pleco one-time purchases of Graded Readers and Dictionary add ons are much more useful for learning Chinese than LingQ, you get the idea). While the general "resource made in many languages" resources are fine, and work in a pinch if they're the cheapest or the only resources you can access (for example I really like Innovative Language Courses in the Hoopla library app, the Teach Yourself books, and the FSI/DLI old textbook/audio courses, since I can find the resource type I wish to study and find them free in pretty much any language I need to), usually the best resources for a particular language and particular goal in that language tend to be more specific.

Dreaming Spanish is like $8 dollars a month, and assuming you DO want to learn a language, you'd probably be putting in at least 15 hours a month (a half hour of daily study on average or more) making each hour of listening learning material less than $1. You might be listening to 60-90 hours a month if you're going at a pace like me with Chinese, which would make it even more worth 0.13-0.09 dollars an hour of study material. That's way cheaper than a tutor, or a college course, so if you stick to the plan it will work and it will be budget friendly. It's cheaper than Netflix.

Compare that to Glossika Japanese, which I fully completed after 128 hours, at $13 a month, and I was really not enjoying Glossika as it bored me to tears so I took like 6 months so I spent $78 dollars on fucking Glossika, or around 1.64 dollars an hour. Still maybe a decent price now that I'm looking at it like this... except I could've studied the same material completely free with japaneseaudiolessons.com and Nihongo Con Teppei podcast, and maybe I would've been less bored and studied more hours.

My point is: in many cases free options and paid options exist specifically for your language goals, for the language you're learning, and finding ones that support your goals and that you can enjoy will cause increased study time per day, more progress in less months, and more enjoyment.

It does take a bit more work to look up resources, yes. If you take the time, it is rewardingly helpful.

Someone asked on reddit the other day how to learn French free without Duolingo. They mentioned they had no money, weren't making much progress and didnt like the switch to AI, and wanted to know what to use to improve. Some people mentioned youtube - which is a great suggestion! It still takes some searching on youtube stuff like "learn french" "french listening" "french reading" "french comprehensible input" "french lessons" and exploring until you find something that works for you.

I suggested: French Comprehensible Input channel, Le Francais Par Le Methode Nature (textbook with 2 audio-text playlists on youtube), Coffee Break French (a podcast with french lessons - not on youtube but free and covers what beginner classes would cover), Language Transfer French (free podcast for learning French grammar basics).

And then later once someone knows some basics and can move into intermediate materials: Francais Avec Fluiditie, Inner French, and regular French speaking youtubers. All free materials, all available online with a quick search, all can help one to learn French and improve. If they had a different goal than me, or different learning preferences, then continuing to explore until they found resources more suited to them would work.

Just the fact you are on tumblr, following people who share resource links and saving whatever resources are useful to you, already means you are putting in effort to learn a language and effort to find study resources that will work for you. Which is hard! It is a slog to find study resources that suit you, and come up with your own study plan to tackle your goals.

[logmore]

hello logmore! silly question but i was curious about your thoughts on like a dragon: infinite wealth so far. you mentioned being bored by the first few chapters (fair) so i’m curious what your impression is now that you’ve played more of it. i wish sega was a bit more transparent about the development of the yakuza games because im kind of fascinated by some of the decisions they made in this one

I finished the game last night so I can reply now. I will talk about Infinite Wealth spoilers here:

Things I like:

Combat: Just Yakuza 7 combat but fleshed out, which is perfect. Being able to position your character is great, the team chain attacks and weapon attacks and stuff are fun to set up. The one flaw with it is that it does not interact with Kiryu very well, and by the end I was actually doing less damage with Kiryu if I got a tag team or weapon attack instead of a basic Brawler attack.

Classes: There were a lot of classes I ignored in 7 because they just weren't doing anything; it was just better to leave Joongi, Zhao, and Eri as their defaults and go to town. I think 8 has an improved skill inheritance system that made it more worthwhile to try out different classes, so by the end I switched every character away from their base class. Desperado and Aquanaut stood out as being very flexible and fun.

Kiryu: Technically this is an Ichiban game, but its more of a send-off to Kiryu than anything. I like how there was a ton of content dedicated to Kiryu revisiting characters from the past games, delivered in a way that I still liked it even though I only played 0 and 1. I thought the way they introduced leveling up his stances + gaining the ability to go beat-em-up mode was pretty clever. I also liked equipping him with gear that gave him buffs every turn so he could tear enemies apart like King's Hawaiian rolls.

Yamai: They knew what they were cooking here. You have to fight this guy like 4 times and I enjoyed it every time. He's cool, he looks cool, even the main characters say he is cool, and if he isn't playable in Yakuza 9 I'm gonna be astounded.

Things I don't:

Slow start: The first chapter got me pretty invested, but after Ichiban goes to Hawaii the story is a fucking slog for like 15 hours. I got so bored I stopped playing, and when I came back it finally picked up again.

Side content that I wasn't ever going to do: This is the reason the start of the story is so slow. I'm sure Dondoko Island and Crazy UberEats and all that is fun, but it isn't the type of thing I'm playing these games for, and when so much time in the story is spent ramping up all these side games to play, I just feel like I'm wasting my time. Next game might as well have a Virtua Fighter 6 tournament in the middle of it, why not?

Villains: Bryce and Ebina are just lame characters. This is a game with essentially 2 final bosses, but neither of them have the emotional core or the weight of the bosses from 7. Bryce is literally just 'a weird guy shows up', and while I understand what they were going for with Ebina, his goals seem so disconnected from what the protagonists are experiencing that him taking his shirt off and fighting Kiryu doesn't feel like a real climax. Getting Danny Trejo on board was a pretty inspired choice, but you fight Dwight so early that it framed him as a weakling that didn't matter. And he keeps coming back, in spite of that! There were a few showdowns in 7 where it felt high stakes/intense, but in 8 they had to bust out Sawashiro again to capture that.

Managing 2 parties at the same time: On one hand its cool because it means I get to use every party member, but I wish they bumped up the XP of whatever party you weren't playing, so that when you switched between them they were both at the same level. There were a couple of points where I had to grind because the difficulty of the content was scaling based on what my previous party had left off at, so I needed to get my current party to that level first. I also had to spend a lot of time doing the dungeons to get the materials for weapon upgrades on 9 characters. Just kind of time consuming, but it isn't the worst thing in the world.

Tatara Channel: Its dumb, but this is the only thing in the game that actually made me mad. The social media aspect of the story already feels dated in a way, and I don't care about Vtubers to begin with, but the thing that actually got me upset about this shit is that all the Tatara Channel scenes are just story recaps with unskippable dialog where something relevant MIGHT happen at the end. At one point I got tired of it and just skipped the cutscene, and then all of the sudden Kiryu is in front of Tojo HQ ready to fight. I hope they never deliver a plot in this way ever again

Even though I wrote more negative things than positive things, I still liked this game a lot. 7 is a way better story, but I think Ichiban and Kiryu are just too strong of protagonists to truly hate on the story, even if a lot of things surrounding it are dumb. I'm looking forward to playing pirates with Majima, and I will wish on a genie's lamp for Yamai to come back as a playable berserker-type character

[fanaticastrid]

FUCK IT IMMA SHARE THE BIT OF THE AU I WROTE- Meeting Sam Quinton, aka the SQUIP.

THIS IS LITERALLY ALL I HAVE WRITTEN AND ITS VERY EARLY IN THE WORKS WRITING WISE SO YEAH. also this would be my first time writing anything with BMC, everyone WILL be OOC as I'm not used to writing them. Also this is definitely not the final scene, this is-again- very early in the works and I'm just brainstorming at this point. It might end up being something along these lines, though!

---

"So, you hear the news?"

"What news?" I asked.

"Apparently we'll be getting a new student in class," Michael shared. "He's already the talk of our grade because one of the jocks tried to rough him up. Said jock got slammed into a locker with one hand."

My eyebrows shot up. "Seriously?" I asked with a bit of disbelief in my tone. There was no way someone could beat a jock so easily... not unless they're squipped, maybe, I thought with fear.

Michael must've guessed why I looked so concerned. "I don't know if a squip can even make someone stronger, but... remember." He smiled at me supportingly. "Yours hasn't spoken in a long time. AS far as you or I know, that knockoff Keanu Reeves can't hurt you or anyone, okay?"

"Right." My voice cracked. He was right, my squip had been silent for months and we could only guess it had finally succumbed to the effects of Mountain Dew Red. Still, I was constantly worried about suddenly hearing a voice call my name.

But it was fine. I was fine. The only voice in my head now was mine and mine alone.

Michael and I made our way into homeroom. Some faces I recognized, some I didn't. In the unrecognized category, talking to two girls that were no doubt trying to get his number was a boy with fluffy black hair, striking blue eyes, and the faintest hint of facial hair looked incredibly bored until he noticed us walk in. His eyes went wide and he straightened. That alone made my flight or fight response kick in, as he was half a head taller than me and was decked in all black with a leather jacket on top of it all.

"I think that's him," Michael whispered to me. He was trying to hide it, but I heard the nervousness in his voice. If even he was intimidated by the newcomer, that said a lot on how unsettling he was.

Not helped by him waving away the girls and beelining for us. He looked at Michael for a second before locking his gaze on me. "Hello," he said flatly.

"Uh, hi," I squeaked. "I'm Jeremy and this Michael. Are you the new guy I've heard about?"

"I'm Sam," he offered. "Sam Quinton. But yeah, probably." Sam crossed his arms. "If it's about e slamming that moron against a locker, he deserved it. He dared to mock me."

"How though?" Michael questioned.

Sam still hadn't taken his eyes off me. "I'm much stronger than I look, trust me." He leaned in a little bit. "I've heard about you, Heere. Something about you and the play last year?"

I went rigid. Sam had either heard the version where someone had slipped ecstasy into the potion... or the lesser known truth where-

"Squips for the whole cast, hmm?"

The frightening memory of my squip, now completely obsessed with squipping the entire cast of the play and possibly even the whole world, came back to me: I'm going to improve your life, Jeremy! Even if I have to take over the entire student body to do it!

I fumbled for my words. "I... listen, my squip tricked me," I said quietly, ignoring Michael's alarmed look. "I shouldn't have listened to it. But things worked out and-"

"And so, it technically did its job in aiding you?" Sam asked.

I blinked. "What?"

"Assuming you had it to, like, get with someone, it must've done its job even though it... miscalculated." Sam narrowed his eyes at me. "Squips are extremely useful. Maybe yours could have another chance, it's a learning AI after all."

I could see the outrage building on Michael's face, so I decided to cut the conversation short. "I don't think so, class is about to start, bye."

I dragged Michael with me, leaving Sam to blankly stare at us.