#usually they wouldn't actually live there at all

[mer-acle]

do you have any headcanons about the other gods?

Lol naturally hehe (that's also so much lmao)

I think I'll just try to add one for each Olympian besides Athena and add links if I already made bigger posts about them. (The non-EPIC gods might get a little shorter)

Zeus: Makes the biggest gestures, in debate, at dinner, just whenever he's talking. It's great for who's sitting next to him (usually Hera and Athena respectively) bc who doesn't love being almost hit in the face every two seconds?

Poseidon: Involves himself in arguments all. the. time. Nobody cared, nobody asked, he knows like half of the facts and has no idea what the problem is but SURE shout along.

Hades: A lot more measured and chill than his brothers, but lets himself be drawn into debates and he CAN get pretty heated if the arguments get too nonsensical.

Hera: Has a massive garden and tends to it herself. It has a peacock fountain and stuff, it's really beautiful.

Demeter: Will 100% cry if she gets a gift from one of the kids.

Hestia: The best. Gives people a bit too much space sometimes. Like, yes, all her nieces and nephews are stubborn but some of them really could need a venting session or a hug down the line, but she just leaves them be. (It is not her responsibility but she wouldn't mind them venting, she just assumes they'll come themselves)

Athena post here.

Hephaestus: Is actually a really good singer (we're not talking musical world rules where everyone can sing, normal world) Like mostly it's too loud in the forge but he sings to himself anyway and he has a good voice.

Aphrodite: Is an amazing swimmer. Basing this on her ocean-born creation myth even though I am more of a fan of her being Zeus' kid for my own version. For the same reason, I always picture her with pearls

Ares post here.

Artemis: In council, I believe she's the most confrontational actually. Yes, more than Athena. Athena lies to get what she wants. Artemis doesn't live on Olympus, she just comes for the council meetings so she might as well speak her mind even if it means the meeting is even more chaos than normal. In general, she never backs down from what she believes in.

Apollo post here.

Hermes: God of eavesdropping and gossip. Seriously. Do you really have to know every single thing that's going on? Also I think his funny persona is a coping mechanism but it's so deeply ingrained it would be literally impossible to shed.

Dionysus: Randomly says the most insightful shit you've ever heard. Like, Athena is speechless levels of deep stuff. Like... is it because of the drugs or is he on drugs because otherwise his being would transcend the universe, we will never know.

__________________________________

Okay that was fun hope you enjoyed :D

[skania]

Final Akane + AquaKane Thoughts

There are so many things to say that I don't even know how to start organizing my thoughts lol I'll also be including my final thoughts about the "love triangle" while I'm at it, so this is probably going to get long!

I've written quite a bit about Aqua/Akane this past year, so I won't be going into detail into any of the things I've already discussed up to now. Instead, I'll just focus on my thoughts on this final set of chapters, as well as my overall thoughts now that the manga is over.

I'll start with the (few) things I liked:

The Good

I mentioned before that I'm a sucker for parallels, and that Aqua/Akane having so many is one of the reasons why I couldn't help but ship them. We somehow got some very good ones in these last few chapters. We even got a scene at the Aqua/Akane bridge, the one where Akane's relationship with Aqua began and ended.

Aqua saved her life at that bridge, without any ulterior motives. And it's that very bridge that is pictured as Akane says that she has decided to live on. The imagery is poignant and pays its respects to not only Akane's arc as a character, but also to the Aqua/Akane relationship.

More than that, the parallels we got confirm things that Akane and Aqua/Akane fans like me have been saying all along:

Through it all, Akane saw him as he is and embraced the broken him. Each time, she willingly chose to get closer to him. When Aqua tells Akane that he has been saved ever since he met her, I get it. I have no doubt that for Aqua, who has been desperately fighting alone for so long, being seen and understood and loved despite all his self-perceived flaws and the darkness in him must have felt like salvation.

Akane is the one who knows Aqua the best, the one who knows him the most, the one who sees him exactly as he is and who loves all of him. Akane doesn't romanticize Aqua's flaws and his self-sacrificial nature, and neither does she idealize his virtues. She just accepts him and does her best to support and understand him through it all.

Akane being the only one who can see through Aqua's plan is enough to prove this, but it's actually not the most meaningful way in which Aka confirmed it. The most meaningful way was actually this:

Usually, whenever Akane thinks about Aqua, she calls him Aqua-kun. However, throughout her entire monologue in the last three chapters, Akane never addresses him by name. She just calls him "You". The same "You" (君) that Aka emphasized in Chapter 63.

The "You" that encapsulates everything Aqua Hoshino was: both the Goro and the Aqua.

This was a very, very deliberate narrative choice that tells you that throughout the manga, Akane was the one who loved Aqua Hoshino exactly as he was.

Aka also uses another parallel to confirm that Akane was indeed lying to Kana when she claimed that she was over Aqua.

When she finally breaks down, Aka allows Akane to be honest about her feelings, and the parallel to the Aqua/Akane break-up tells us everything we need to know.

Akane never stopped loving Aqua. She has been in love with him all along.

Ever since they broke up, Akane has been sacrificing her feelings for Aqua in order to do what she thinks is best for him. Akane's priority has always been to see Aqua happy. She is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish that. Back when she thought that Aqua needed to kill Kamiki, Akane was willing to shoulder that sin with him just so he wouldn't have to carry it on his own. When she realized that what Aqua truly wanted was to be free from his revenge, Akane was ready to deal with Kamiki on her own just so that Aqua wouldn't get his hands dirty. Then, when Aqua pushes Akane away, Akane becomes determined to stop him from killing Kamiki because she knows revenge is not what Aqua truly wants or needs.

But that's not all there is to it. Akane wants to be with Aqua, because she loves him. And it's precisely because she loves him, and because she thinks her love failed to save him, that she keeps her feelings to herself and is even willing to help another girl get close to him in her place.

So this chapter confirmed that the one who has been making the sacrificial play, the one who truly loved Aqua, was Akane. It is, essentially, the counterpart to Chapters 148 and 149.

It's no wonder, then, that Akane's feelings and her grief are the ones we follow immediately after Aqua's death. She goes to mourn him in the place he actually died, and when she's around his family, she keeps her pain to herself in order to not worsen their burden. We see her piece together what happened, we see her break, and then we see Akane put herself together and find some solace in knowing that Aqua kept her away to protect her.

Aqua is gone, and Akane is the only one to know Aqua's truth.

A lot of people spent the entire manga trying to downplay Aqua's relationship with Akane; claiming that it was a lie, a manipulation, or what-have-you. Now that the manga is over, we can say those claims were never proven.

At the contrary, until the very end, Aqua's thoughts & actions in regard to Akane were shown to back-up everything he said about her during their relationship.

Aqua could've lived if he had asked Akane for help in killing Kamiki, but he didn't want Akane to get her hands dirty for him. He broke up with her to not bring her down to hell with him, and when the options were to either die alone or make Akane bear the weight of a sin with him, the choice was quickly made.

At the end, he's even shown wanting the same thing Akane wanted: an equal relationship with her.

Unlike his thoughts about Kana (more on that later), which are just a 'might', this is something Aqua is purposeful about. It's something he is sure he wants. It's even the last thing he thinks of before wanting to see Ruby at the dome, which we all know was his dearest wish.

This also fits the panels chosen to be shown in the "romance" part of Aqua's montage: the moment he doesn't catch Kana's ball (symbolizing that their feelings don't connect) vs the moment where he chooses to kiss and date Akane for real.

Which brings us back to the moment they broke up. That chapter was titled "Going Astray" and we now saw where that wrong turn led Aqua: to his death.

So chapter 98, the Aqua/Akane break-up, is pretty much officially the chapter that leads us to the ending we got.

Which means that what I said back in this post still applies. If Aqua and Akane had been honest with each other during that phone-call in Chapter 97, things could've been different. But truth is, it's nearly pointless to think about it, because what this all comes down to is that Aka wanted this ending and he wanted it at all costs.

So nothing could have happened any other way, because Aka didn't want Aqua to be saved. He wanted Aqua to die so he could have his forced "bittersweet" ending.

This is why Aqua and Akane had to break up, it's why Akane is practically not allowed to interact with Aqua again after their break-up, and it's also why Akane never found out about Aqua being Goro's reincarnation.

Aqua was never meant to be saved, and Akane more than anyone could have saved him. So, of course, Aka couldn't allow her to do so. It's forced writing at its finest.

This is also why Akane isn't involved in Aqua's fatidic confrontation with Kamiki. While there is Aka's typical contrived writing involved in Akane leaving Aqua to his own devices at the most crucial moment, I do think it makes sense.

I've mentioned before that from the very beginning, Aqua and Akane's relationship has been based on trust and on choices.

Aqua once gave Akane a choice, trusting that she'd be able to choose what was best for herself. After Akane made her choice, Aqua did everything in his power to help her accomplish her goal.

Ever since, Akane has been trying to do the same for Aqua.

Akane wants Aqua to choose what's right for himself. She will always respect whatever it is that he chooses, as long as it is a true reflection of what he wants and needs. This is why Akane was eager to stop his plan to kill Kamiki, she could tell that Aqua was ready to sacrifice his own future to accomplish it.

That's why, once Aqua chooses to let Kamiki live, Akane is reassured.

Something has changed in Aqua. Akane notices this and believes that Aqua has, finally, chosen to not throw his life away just to deal with Kamiki. She trusts that he has.

Personally, I'd like to believe that Akane was right. Problem was that once Aqua knew for sure that Kamiki couldn't be saved, he switched back to his original plan. Something Akane couldn't have foreseen without knowing that Aqua was the reincarnation of a dude whose issues made him suicidal... which is yet another reason why Aka could have never let Akane find out about the whole reincarnation business.

So all in all, Aqua/Akane-wise, this is all well and good. On paper.

When it comes to the execution however, it leaves a lot to be desired, because Aqua/Akane is sadly majorly brought down by the spectacular way in which Aqua's character was (mis)handled during the second half of the manga.

The Bad

Goro has always been someone who thinks his life has no worth, and this belief is deeply ingrained into Aqua. That's why I could tell that his revenge plan likely involved killing himself and making it look like Kamiki did it.

I just didn't think that he would actually succeed, because it kind of goes without saying that the suicidal character getting to kill himself is far from being a satisfying ending. Even less so when said character has shown time and time again that he actually wants to live, he is just too broken by his guilt complex to believe he has that right.

For a while there, it even looks like Aqua will make it. That he has once again started to embrace that this is a life that he wants to live.

Sadly, once Aqua realizes that Kamiki can't be saved and that he poses a danger to Ruby, all of that flies off the window and "Goro" takes over. And by "Goro" I don't mean Goro the character, I mean all the bad habits that Aqua has due to his guilt-complex and survivor's guilt.

So Aqua goes and executes his original plan, killing himself instead of looking for a better solution. Which means he started off like this:

Only to end the manga pretty much the same way, except you can switch "If Ai's gone, this world isn't-" for "As long as Ruby can live on in this world."

Though, actually, it's even worse than that, because Aqua realizes that he was wrong — dying would bother him — only when it's too late.

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth because it's like Aqua had no development through the entire manga. Cut everything after his break-up with Akane and nearly nothing changes, except the motive behind Aqua throwing his life away: protecting Ruby (Sarina) instead of revenge.

It all feels even more pointless because Aqua's death rings hollow due to how badly his character was mishandled in the second half of the manga. After the break-up, Aqua becomes a "..." bot. His character isn't allowed to grow and neither is he allowed to explore his feelings in any meaningful way, to the point that he dies confused and not knowing who he was.

Pardon my bluntness, but how pathetic is this? 160+ chapters and literally none of this guy's issues were ever solved. His character goes nowhere, only so he can be sacrificed to make the ending bittersweet for Ruby. Though for me it wasn't even bittersweet; the ending fell flat on its face precisely because Aqua's character never goes anywhere, so it's hard to feel anything other than vague frustration and disbelief at how forced the writing is.

Even the Kami/Ai - Aqua/Akane parallels were wasted because both ships ended up in the exact same way: Akane and Ai both unable to save Aqua and Kamiki. I wouldn't even be surprised if those parallels are something Aka came up with on the spot while writing the Ai DVD.

I'm sure some Aqua/Akane truthers will say "all Aqua and Kamiki needed to be saved was to be with Akane and Ai, and Akane and Ai didn't realize that" and leaving aside my issues with that kind of co-dependency, once again, that's all well and good — on paper.

Sure, those of us who ship Aqua and Akane could see it that way if we wanted to, but... did Aka make a point of clearly stating this? No, he left it to the reader's imagination, which means it's just another blank to be filled with headcanon.

Personally, I'm pretty tired of doing that, because everything there is to like about the manga may as well just be the headcanons we have filled all those blanks with.

I always say that I prefer showing and not telling, but there's a limit to everything. Truth of the matter is, if this was supposed to be the case — and especially if it was supposed to be important — then showing isn't enough. Because the majority of readers aren't going to spend hours breaking down every single Aqua/Akane interaction to draw those parallels and reach that conclusion.

Aqua dying soothed by a song by his favorite idol (Ruby/Sarina) doesn't really do it any favors either, because fact of the matter is that people who were never invested in the Aqua/Akane relationship will just assume Aqua never loved Akane back. They'll be more distracted by Kana's tropey, shallow shoujo romance, and this is something Aka allowed in his manga right up to the very end.

Aqua and Akane were the only relationship in the entire manga that got mutual, gradual, organic, continuous development. But this all came to a halt when they broke up, so at the end of the day, they're mostly left up to interpretation.

It's underwhelming.

Most of all, if you ask me, it was a terrible move, because Aqua and Akane could've been the heart of this manga. If their feelings had been properly explored after their break up, if Aqua had been allowed to think of Akane in his last moments, if all this blank-filling had been actual text, they'd have been a tragic love-story for the ages.

But Aka didn't want it to be the heart of the manga, because he had already decided from the beginning that role should go to Aqua and Ruby. Alas, he completely failed at developing that, too, because to the very end there's only Goro and Sarina. That is the entire basis of the Aqua/Ruby relationship and dynamic, and it gets one single chapter where it's explored beyond that, only to immediately focus back on Goro and Sarina as Aqua lies dying.

Goro couldn't save Sarina in his first life, so he wastes his second to do it. He jumped at the chance to free himself of the burden of that guilt without even bothering to think of how much his death would hurt the very person he wanted to protect.

Which takes me to...

The Ugly

Turns out Kana was pretty much just a mixture between Fujiwara and Maki, after all. Except that unlike Maki, she never grows (Aqua literally has to die for her to do so) and unlike Fujiwara, she's overused instead of underused.

Aqua and Kana are portrayed as shallow to the end, and I'd even go as far as saying that the narrative pokes fun at Kana for it. Even during the funeral, she puts on a hat that's reserved for family members and it literally falls off her head when Miyako slaps her lmao

Since this is a manga and not real life, the way Kana's outburst was handled in that chapter is likely meant to be contrasted with the way Akane's own grief was handled, because it pretty much embodies all the differences between both of their relationships with Aqua through the manga.

Kana is focused on herself and on her pain. She thinks Aqua was murdered, but she still irrationally blames him for it, too blinded by her own pain. Aqua was murdered, but not being able to confess to him properly is still at the top of her list of grievances. She is also shown overplaying that one conversation she had with Aqua about Aqua having a death-wish, as if Aqua somehow agreeing to not say that he wants to die was some vital promise that he broke.

Meanwhile, Akane focuses on Aqua. On what Aqua felt, on why he did what he did, and on what he would have wanted. Even her wish to be by Aqua's side is expressed through Akane saying that she'd have been willing to shoulder his burdens with him, no matter where that led them. It is also Akane's understanding of Aqua that helps her to find some solace and to overcome his death.

Kana always looked at Aqua from the outside-in, idealizing and romanticizing him, while Akane was Aqua's partner in every sense of the word. That's why Akane gets all the insightful narration about Aqua while Kana just gets to make a fool of herself at his funeral.

So to the very end, the dichotomy between "Ai" and "Koi" does perfectly illustrates the contrast between the two sides of the Aqua love triangle.

Kana was infatuated with the Aqua that she built up in her head, and focused on what she wanted Aqua to do for her (support her unconditionally), and what she wanted to be for him (his only idol), rather than on Aqua himself as a person.

As for Aqua, during his last moments, most Aqua can say about Kana is that it might be good to respond to her feelings. Might. He spends the entire story knowing Kana is at his beck and call, he even makes fun of her for it (you're so easy to manipulate, yadda yadda), yet when the opportunity to date her presents itself, most he can say is essentially "it could be cool I guess." He even pictures her pulling on his arm to get his attention, while with Akane, he pictures himself facing her and looking straight at her.

So to Aqua, Kana was at most a teenage crush. His feelings for her weren't deep or relevant enough to have any sort of impact on his character, while he outright called the year he spent dating Akane his happy days. An entire year that he spent without Kana even being in his life, mind you. Meanwhile Kana was out there living an entire shoujo where she's the heroine and Aqua is the male lead 😂

That said, I still think Aqua, who I'm sure must've broken a record at being bad at understanding his own feelings, was likely mistaking admiration for romantic attraction, and that he would've realized this pretty early into dating Kana.

The anime is even clearer about this because Aqua's reactions to Kana are paralleled to Akane's who is, quite literally, a fan of Kana.

But even if he wasn't, it doesn't really matter, because it's shown very clearly that Aqua deeply values being understood (to him, it feels like salvation) and that Kana doesn't really understand him. So had they dated, Aqua would've had fun at first, sure, but his emotional needs wouldn't have been met; instead his job would've been to meet Kana's. It just would've never worked in the long term.

Now that the dust has settled, I can say for certain that if Aqua had been allowed to have a happy ending, it'd have been with Akane.

So once more, this is all fine on paper. The problem is that Aka takes it too far. The whole Kana business takes too much panel time for no discernible reason other than to... bait readers? I've even seen some say that Aka intended to mock them.

But even if that were the case, considering that those same readers are likely going to walk out of the story thinking Aqua and Kana are a tragic ship that loved each other because of all the bait, who's really the butt of the joke? Them or Aka himself?

Conclusion

I've always been pretty clear about being an Akane fan first and foremost. Despite all my Aqua/Akane meta, I had no emotional investment in whether she ended up with Aqua or not, as long as she got a satisfying ending. That said, by principle, I most definitely didn't want Aqua to end up with Kana, because that'd be like rewarding Kana for all her crying and whining when she never even tried to understand who Aqua was as a person and I've already gone through that in Naruto, thank you very much.

So the two silver-linings about this ending are that Akane stayed amazing to the end, and that Kana didn't have Aqua handed to her on a silver platter. But considering just how much panel time Kana's meaningless crush takes up in the narrative and how side-lined Akane got after the break-up, it feels like a pyrrhic victory lol

Akane is still the best thing about the manga, and I'd say that she got by far the best ending of the bunch. I'm not sure if I'd call it satisfying, because Akane's one goal was always to save Aqua and she didn't get to accomplish that. But at the very least, she got a good ending, all things considered. She got to protect what Aqua entrusted to her, and she got to show just how emotionally strong she is.

As for Aqua and Akane, AquaKane could've been incredible if only Aka had done them justice, but he didn't. I joked before that the Aqua/Akane development was so good that it's like it wrote itself, and I actually think that's exactly what happened. Aka made things up as he went along, and he allowed Aqua and Akane to develop together in ways he didn't necessarily plan nor foresee. But as soon as he started heading towards the ending he envisioned, he dropped the ship and left a lot of it to the discretion of the readers.

While I'm sure that'll be enough for some, I'm afraid it's not really enough for me. If you were to ask me if I'm satisfied with the way they were handled, my answer would be: not really, but it certainly could've been worse lol

In my opinion, they're the biggest wasted potential in the manga (which is saying something, because the entire manga is wasted potential), and their potential was wasted simply because they're the ones who could've actually led us to a happy ending.

Aka didn't want that ending, though. He cared for his vision more than about his characters, and his vision was literally just an ending where poor Ruby would be a star that shines brighter "the darkest things get". Nothing else mattered. LMAO. As if Ruby hadn't already gone through enough!

Oh well, at least we're finally free!

[mikimakiboo]

Next in line for the backstory issssss

Killer !

Killer was born in the great Roman Empire in a very rich family !

As a slave.

His mother was a slave, and so he automatically was a slave too, and spent all of his childhood alternating between learning basic things and serving his masters, and then his teenage years just serving them

The house he was in was big with many slaves, his masters being very wealthy, even tho they lived in a rather small town

Killer's main job was cleaning, he would clean the floors as well as the laundry, clean the dishes, ... but he also served the masters directly by bringing them all sort of things the would ask for

Normally there would have been a slave per job but Killer was often punished and would have to work more

He wasn't the best slave, tending to be forgetful, slow, leaving out unclean spots, bringing back the wrong things... and so his masters would either make him work more when they were in a rather good day, or when they weren't in a good day, they would physically punish him by whiping his back, among other things

The times when he was working with the other slaves were calmer, they would chat, tell stories, the slaves who were once war prisoners would tell about their fights, he really liked listening to these stories and daydream about a different life in which he would be free

He knew some slaves could be freed, but usually these slaves were freed because they either paid a very high price, because their master died and wrote it in their will, or because they did an exceptionally great job and got rewarded, and Killer knew that it was all out of reach for him because he didn't have any money, his masters were young and healthy, and he wasn't doing a good job that would deserve a reward of any kind

He really wanted to be free thought, he wanted more than working everyday for the same persons, he wanted to travel, to discover the Empire that everyone kept saying was so great, to have a chance to chose his own way in life

He knew he wouldn't be freed anytime soon, but he also knew that if he didn't have any masters, then he technically wouldn't be a slave anymore

So he started plotting, he knew everyone's habits, he knew when and where they would be alone, what they would be doing, where the masters would be, he knew everything as he was here since his litteral birth

He would have to kill the masters, but he couldn't risk leaving witnesses so he would have to kill the slaves following them around, and since he didn't want the other slaves to tell everyone it was him, as he would be the only one missing since he planned to run away, that meant he would just have to kill everyone in the household, to make sure no one could ever know it was him who did it

It did sadden him a little to have to kill the slaves he worked with, he liked them, but his desire to be free was stronger and so he didn't hesitate when he stabbed them too

Once he made sure that no one was still breathing he waited for the night and ran away from the town with only a bag and his knife, going as far as he could, to make sure no one would catch him, and luckily his appearance changed when he started killing so he didn't look too much like himself anymore with the black liquid dripping from his sockets and his target shaped soul

Since that moment he started going from city to city, stealing food, clothes and all sort of things he could sell and make money from

He never stayed too long in one city and changed his name to a new one each time he moved, he picked Killer on the spot when Dust asked what his name was, and it ended up sticking with him

About the trauma now:

He has pretty bad scars on his back that he tends to hide, not wanting anyone to connect the dots and recognize it as punishment marks, and the scars are so big that he actually doesn't have that much sensation left on his back, he would feel it if you slap him but not if you caress the scars and due to this lack of sensations he absolutely hates it when someone touches his back, it makes him feel vulnerable and is part of why he always sleeps against a wall to make sure his back isn't exposed

He also hates receiving orders for a very obvious reason and he hates that his first instinct upon receiving orders is moving to do it, he has to stop himself from following the orders and he hates it, he hates how his training hasn't left him (the fact he doesn't understand any of what the gang says is good in a way because even if they do give him orders he just doesn't understand so he doesn't move, but he has the feeling that they don't give him orders anyways)

He's also very observant and notices small details about people due to him always analyzing his masters to see if they were in a good mood or not, he doesn't say anything tho, he just stares and sometimes smiles

And yes it's creepy, he finds it funny

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Imagine you could live as a brain in a jar hooked up to a computer and the Internet. You could view all websites, talk to people online over text and with a computer generated voice program, play video games, watch videos, movies and TV, read any fiction that is available online. You would feel no pain, and only the brain would age, allowing you to live far beyond the point where a body usually falls.

However, you would have no physical awareness, no senses other than video/audio of your attached device, and you wouldn't be able to interact physically with the world in any way that isn't mediated by signals over the Internet. Hormone responses would be simulated by your life support system, but that would be it.

[jojotichakorn]

i started penning a post about how i always find it narratively unsatisfying when an arc ends with a conclusion the following arc breaks, regardless of how realistic the repetition of the same mistake might be, which is still true, but i actually want to talk about something else right now.

i feel like, at least at this stage, jack is in a position that is both generally unrealistic and untrue to the specific events of the series. 'jack and joker' has a clear focus on poverty and money and class issues, but it seems to treat jack in a very special way. he somehow manages to stand on the moral high ground above other characters. specifically, other poor characters. which is, first of all, a little ridiculous, since he was indeed a debt collector and, in fact, almost became the boss's son. and, second of all, is generally Not Great, because it does idolise the idea that if you "just try hard enough", you won't "allow" yourself to be backed into a corner and therefore won't have to do bad things.

now, don't get me wrong, i am not saying that our characters who have made mistakes are completely blameless. tattoo did shitty things (and hoy followed suit), safe did shitty things, hope frankly admitted to enjoying doing shitty things. however, if we zoom out a little, we will see that all these characters are in a situation that is inherently unfair to them. we have all of these poor people in immense amounts of debt and then we have this disgusting rich motherfucker whose entire wealth is literally based on making their lives as miserable and unfair as they are. and i think that, in this particular case, the series would have actually benefited from a dichotomy. don't get me wrong, i'm usually absolutely brimming with nuance and also asking "what lies outside of it?" but this shall be my exception. (though you could say that joke already brings some nuance to it - he is initially from a well-off family and he actively makes choices to the benefit of poor people, despite it resulting in him being ostracised from said family and its riches).

jack walks the line of being poor and managing not to do anything "too bad" like he is a fucking circus performer on a wire. and, don't get me wrong, he is genuinely a selfless character. he makes choices that a lot of other characters in the same circumstances wouldn't make. he remains in debt and continues working for the boss because he keeps trying to help people and pay off their debts first - that is admirable. however, he himself was already set up for more success than others. sure, being forced to become a debt collector isn't a walk in the park, but most other debtors didn't even have that choice. jack has to work for the boss in order to stay afloat - that is an undeniably hard task. the other people the boss collects debts from, however, have to come up with a lot of money out of thin air - that is not simply a hard task, that is an impossible one that is designed to trap them in the cycle of doing this impossible task forever. that being said, ultimately, jack is still poor. his own hamster wheel should be somewhere around the corner, that's always the case. this idea is where i wish they would have taken jack's arc.

from the moment when he refused to marry rose, there was no escape for him. finally, much like our other poor characters, he found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. (and i think that it's very thematically appropriate for jack's particular "i can't do this anymore, i deserve to live a full life" sentiment to be connected to love, since he is, after all, a lead of a romance drama). he made the decision to say "no" and from that point on, he was completely and utterly fucked. because, realistically, that conversation that he had with the boss after refusing rose was insane. i don't know what he would have done to jack exactly, if that was a genuine conversation and there was no exchange of jack's freedom for the ring, but it would not have been anything good.

so i wish jack had to make the actual tough call there, instead of having joke save him all on his own (and later take the fall for it). and if it was, at least in some capacity, jack's decision to steal that ring, he would finally be placed in a situation where every other poor character already inevitably found themselves in. because the entire system is rigged against all of them and they are eventually always forced to do things that they should have never even had to consider in the first place. but they deserve better than living a life set up for them by evil rich people who literally live off of their suffering and they are allowed - no, at some point they simply have no choice but to - fight for a better life.

this, in my opinion, would have been a much more powerful message and - not to circle back to my personal preferences - would have also not left us with joke making the very same mistake that we decided we should never make again at the end of the previous arc.

[simpforsolas]

thoughts on how veilguard could've improved rook's and solas's character arcs

So I've been thinking about Veilguard nonstop since I finished it last night. I want to preface this with the fact that I liked many things about it a lot. While I do have my criticisms, it was probably the most fun I had actually playing a Dragon Age game. They made a lot of improvements in a lot of ways. But while I enjoyed (for the most part) what was there in the game, the entire time I just had the feeling that it was missing something (or maybe more accurately, a lot of things). This post won't go into all of those things, but I want to really delve into the biggest missed opportunity in the game: Rook's character arc and how it could have impacted Solas.

I found that Rook’s character arc was somewhat overtaken by the companions. But there was great potential for a phenomenal arc for them: what kind of hero will you be? From the beginning, Rook was set up to be a mirror to Solas. They remind Solas of who he was when he first started his rebellion: passionate, idealistic, wanting to make the world a better place. Basically, the quintessential hero. But Solas didn't stay that way. In pursuit of his noble goals, he made so many sacrifices and caused so much destruction that he accidentally became the villain. So if Rook is Solas's mirror, the logical conclusion is that Rook should've had the opportunity to reflect BOTH sides of Solas with two different paths: the "pure" hero path, or the "dark" villain path. Allowing two different paths for a protagonist in a game like this is tough, so I understand why it doesn't usually happen, but in this case, I think it would work because "pure" or "dark" path, Rook's ultimate goal would remain the same: stop the gods. The only thing that would change would be the way they go about pursuing that goal.

How would this work in practice?

For the pure path, Rook would err on the side of protecting people. Examples of this could include: giving characters like the mayor and Illario a second chance instead of killing them, making the choice in an either/or scenario to save lives instead of going after the gods, refusing to make deals with demons for more power to help them in their fight. Pure Rook is basically what we got in the game so I don't need to go further on this, but Solas watching a pure Rook would be moved by what he sees. In Rook, he would see a reflection of what he could've been if he hadn't been corrupted and trapped by his own overwhelming guilt.

For the dark path, Rook would be willing to get their hands dirty and make questionable choices if it helped their ultimate cause of defeating the gods. Examples of this could include the opposite of above: killing Illario and the mayor, choosing to sacrifice people (such as the Dalish hostages) in order to not lose an opportunity to go after the gods, and making deals with the demons in Hossberg in exchange for power to help the fight. The motivation behind each of these decisions wouldn't be selfishness, it would be pragmatism. Making the choice that would give us the best chance against the gods, no matter the cost. Solas watching this Rook would feel validated in the choices he made. Rook reflects Solas's own downward spiral of a journey, in seeing yourself become the villain as you try to be the hero. He would see that when tasked with the near impossible task of stopping tyranny, Rook was willing to get their hands dirty, just like he was.

Giving Rook the agency to choose what kind of hero they want to be would tie in with themes the game already started, but didn't exactly deliver on. Solas asks the question "what will they call you, when this over?" and by the end of the game it's like, "well they'll probably call me that one nice dude who saved the world through friendship." But if they had the chance to become sort of Dread Wolfy themself, then that line would carry a lot more weight.

Now that we've established what a two-path Rook could've looked like, I want to explore a little more how that could've impacted Solas. I, personally, wasn't the biggest fan of Solas changing his mind only being made possible by Mythal releasing him from her service. For a few reasons, but what I'm going to focus on here is that it made his redemption into this one-event thing, instead of an overarching journey that could've taken place over the course of the game. What I think should've happened is that depending on Rook's path, Solas is either a) shown a new path that he could've taken or b) validated in the path that he took. Additionally, through conversations with Solas, you could challenge his worldview, or you could reinforce it. If you did a pure path Rook, Solas would basically be prepped to ultimately be receptive to the inquisitor/Mythal's attempts to appeal to him and get him to change his mind, while dark path Rook would reinforce Solas’s worldview so strongly that no one would be able to get through to him, and his mind couldn’t be changed. This way, his outcome would feel more like a culmination of choices instead of a one moment thing, you'd have more of a chance to see the gradual shift of his attitude, and Rook would have a more interesting character arc.

[kiyomitakada]

Light stalks into the hotel room at 1 a.m. It's November 12th already.

They called his mom earlier. He'd almost forgotten, in the midst of it all. Light told her the truth — or as close to the truth as he could get, anyway. The raid. The gunshot wounds. The blood loss. His words came out odd and robotic, which was bad, because it was suspicious. He wasn't sure why he wasn't projecting emotion right.

Aizawa and Ide kept sneaking glances at him through the whole thing. They weren't subtle. Matsuda wasn't either, but at least there was only sympathy in his eyes. Misa held his hand through it all, tracing circles with her thumb. The touch was repulsive. He's pretty sure he'd dug his nails into her palm, considering how hard he'd gripped her hand back, but she hadn't complained a bit.

Sachiko cried. Misa cried, too, even though Dad had never been her father. It felt like an insult to Soichiro Yagami's memory that Light couldn't make the tears come out of his own eyes. He was usually so good at faking it. The dryness felt damning.

"I'll arrange the funeral," he said.

"I'll fly over right away," his mom answered quickly. "I'll get Sayu—"

"No!" He lurched out of his seat without meaning to, then fell back. "Don't tell Sayu."

Aizawa and Ide eyed each other again. He wanted to kill them all.

"We'll have to at some point," his mom said gently.

"I know," Light said. He swallowed. "But Mom, neither of you can come. It won't be safe here. You rented the countryside house for a reason, right? You both have to stay put for now. Mello is still active."

He hoped she would argue. She didn't. "Alright," she said softly. "But you tell me if you need anything, okay, Light?"

"Okay," Light said, and the rest of the conversation was logistics.

It's almost half past one in the morning now. The task force is asleep. Misa is, too, on one of the twin beds they pushed together. He thinks about writing down all the criminals he can in one night and murdering everyone in the building and jumping off the hotel balcony.

"Ryuk," he says instead, as he sits down on the edge of the other bed.

"Yeah?"

He tries to laugh. It comes out wrong, too, but not as badly as the earlier attempt at tears had. "It's funny, isn't it?"

"Wow, Light, I didn't think you were that cold," Ryuk remarks.

"It's just," Light says, "that he only lived one day after trading for the eyes. So even if he hadn't… I guess he wouldn't have stayed alive that long anyway."

Ryuk frowns. "Huh? I don't get it."

"The eyes take away half of your remaining lifespan, right? And Dad wasn't killed by the Death Note, so that really was his natural lifespan. Which means, since he died after one day, he was only going to live two days if he hadn't traded."

It should be a relief. It is a relief. It's not Light's fault. Soichiro Yagami was going to die anyway.

"Wrong," Ryuk says.

Light flinches backwards. It's been five years, but sometimes Ryuk's smile still scares him. "What do you mean, wrong?"

"Welllll�� maybe wrong? I dunno, actually." Ryuk scratches his chin with one claw. "Yeah, maybe you're right. I haven't looked at the rules in forever."

"Ryuk, what are you talking about?"

"See, I'm not sure if that half is from how long you would've lived without the Death Note, or if it's from your new lifespan after you get the Death Note."

Light gapes at him. "It's obviously the second one!"

"That's the funny thing, Light-o," Ryuk says, and grins. "You can't know how long someone's gonna live if they have the Death Note. It's impossible. That's why you can't see the numbers over the heads of Death Note owners."

"But — Misa traded half her life away," Light says. "Twice. So it can't be her original lifespan, since that stalker was going to kill her."

Ryuk shrugs. "Who knows? Maybe she's been trading halves of zero this whole time."

"That's… No," Light says. He doesn't notice the way his fingers tighten around his grip on the thin hotel sheets. "No. That would be stupid."

"It is stupid," Ryuk agrees. "You're probably right."

"I'm definitely right." Breathe in. Breathe out. "So you don't know how much time you got from Dad — from my father?"

"No clue," Ryuk says cheerfully. "But it's okay. I've killed oodles of regular people, so I should still have a lot of life left to go."

Light abruptly, desperately hates him.

"I'm going to bed," he says. "Talk to you in the morning."

"Cool," Ryuk says. "I'll go sightseeing."

---

a/n: happy 11/11 :)

[springbandit]

Billy settled back against the pillows, chest rising and falling in shallow, ragged breaths, each one threaded with pain. Despite the slight relief, his gaze remained locked on Stu. He could feel his defenses cracking, but, he wouldn't let them fall. Not here and not now. "They'll let me out soon." he answered, voice tight. "Someone's gotta be there until I can actually get from the bed to the door without nearly breaking my damn neck." he let out a humourless chuckle, empty and bitter. "Hasn't been a lot of offers." The idea of needing anyone, let alone Stu, to get through something as simple as daily living grated on him. He despised it. He looked back at him, something tense and vulnerable skulking beneath his usual bravado. "It'll just be for a while." he swallowed, a tight lump catching in his throat, unable to outright request the other consider the task. His voice softened, a rare admission slipping through. "They said I can't do it on my own." The words tasted strange. Foreign. It all stung far more than any physical wound John could have landed on him. Pain was pain, but this? This was unbearable. "You've patched me up this far. Might as well make it official, right?" he let out a slow breath, eyes not leaving Stu's, as if to relent was to give him a chance at escape.

@phantcmwritings

Stu sighed, his shoulders slumping as he watched Billy struggle to hold himself upright. He turned his gaze back to Billy. It was hard to see him all beaten down and desperate, trying to make a point when he clearly didn’t have the strength for it. The sight of Billy pushing himself like that sent a weird shiver, and sense of guilt through him. Something he’d rather ignore. Even with the familiar snarl towards him, it still felt wrong. “Alright, man,” he muttered, lifting his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine. It’s for us.” He said, gesturing for Billy to lay back down. Him sitting up had really painted the picture of how beaten up he really was. “We’ll deal with it, but when you’re better.” He said, not leaving any room for discussion. He leaned back in his chair and watched Billy for a moment, before brushing his hand through his hair again. “This is such a mess.” He said mostly to himself as he looked back down at the loose thread, letting the silence hang in the room for a moment. “So… uh… ‘s the doctors said when you can come home yet?”

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 112

These words instantly made Pan'er wake up with a jolt.

   What, is he planning to appoint a crown prince?

   When the emperor ascends to the throne, apart from sealing the palace, one of the most important things he should consider is the creation of a crown prince.

   After all, the crown prince is the foundation of the state, and most people who become emperor are not young, and most of them have already had sons, and more than one. It is a common belief that many sons are a blessing, but if you look at the royal family, you can see that sometimes this is not always true.

   As the sons grow older, they are surrounded by more and more subordinates, tangible and intangible, subconscious and subconscious, and everyone is betting on them. Can the family prosper for another hundred years? Who doesn't want to last forever?

   In her previous life, at first she never dared to think that Zong Yue could sit in the emperor's seat, after all, the crown prince's position was as secure as a mountain. It was only later, when there was a hint of it, and she found out that Zong Yue also had that kind of mind, that she gradually moved her mind.

But before that, that is, before Zong Cong mentioned it, she had not thought about it at all, and probably subconsciously felt that many things had changed in this life, so she did not think about it. She thought that Zong Yue was still young and did not need to think about this for the time being, but at this moment, Zong Cong's words made her wake up at once.

   How to answer?

   Although she and he were now getting to know each other better, and there was a little bit of heart-to-heart between them, and he was willing to talk to her about things that bothered her, these trivial matters were not the same as setting up a crown prince.

   The crown prince was too sensitive, especially as she had given birth to the second son, Zong Yue.

So she turned over in his arms and said, "Your Majesty, that's a strange question to ask, I've never been a crown prince, how do I know whether it's good or bad to be one? This should be asked of Your Majesty, weren't you the Crown Prince before?"

   "I used to be the crown prince, but a long time ago, I actually didn't want to be the crown prince."

Pan'er fell silent, and Zong Cong did not speak either, falling into memory.

Everyone thought that the crown prince was above all others, the future Emperor, and that he must have been a great success and highly valued. But they did not know that all this was a shackle, an existence that made them walk on thin ice.

The memories of the past, which Zong Cong never wanted to recall, were the days when he carried his mother and himself on his back, the days when he studied hard behind the scenes but pretended to be light-hearted on the surface, the days when he pretended to be generous even when he was angry, the days when he laughed in the face even when he knew that he was up to no good, the days when he had to tense his nerves every day, the days when he forced himself to be thorough and never missed a beat, and the days when he was not able to be a good friend. ......

Therefore, when he saw that Zong Duo seemed to be following his old path, Zong Cong's feelings were very complicated.

   If he was in good health, he might have been relieved in his complexity, but he was not in good health and had to compete with Zong Yue.

   But he could not blame the child, accuse him of not working too hard, and as for Zong Yue, he was even more innocent, was it a fault that he was smart and good at reading and had a competitive spirit?

Zong Cong could foresee that when the dust had settled, the court would definitely start a heated debate on the crown prince.

   What should we do when the time comes?

"Brother Cong you'd better not think too much about it, after all those things have passed, you're now the emperor, I remember you told me before that you had a lot of things to do? You still have so many important big things to do, so why do you need to think about these small things."

   Yes, he still had a lot of big things to do.

It must be said that Pan'er was still quite good at comforting, no, diverting, and Zong Cong's attention was soon diverted to his government affairs.

   He was lost in thought, his hand stroking her back with one hand, while Pan'er breathed a soft sigh of relief.

   --

   It was clearly a cold day, but Empress Chen was very active, asking daily about the progress of the Ning Shou Palace's repairs.

   It was the first year of the new emperor's ascension to the throne, so it was particularly significant that the Ning Shou Palace had not been repaired, and Empress Fu could not move out of the Kun Ning Palace.

   Two snowstorms in a row meant that repairs had to be suspended.

   Empress Chen was anxious but could not say anything on the surface. At the same time, Zong Duo fell ill again and although he was only coughing, he was still not well for half a month, which added fuel to the fire.

This was to be followed by the ceremony of the enthronement of the Empress and the investiture of all the concubines in the Eastern Palace.

After this, they have all become official and rightful ladies, although not yet moved to the palace, but several lower ranking concubines would not be able to be the master of a palace and instead would live under the supervision of a more senior concubine.

Kunning Palace and Jingren Palace is naturally out of the question, one is the empress residence, one is Su Guifei's residence. Su Guifei has always been solitary, and no one was allowed close, she's just favoured like that, it is not possible to get a person to their own palace to share favor. The only thing that remains is the palace of Consort Hu Shufei Zhou Xianfei and others.

At first, when Hu Shufei saw the frequent visits of Qian Guiren and others, she was a little surprised at what they were doing there. But she was always a meat and potatoes kind of person, and she was also a big fan of watching the fun, so she met them.

   The two of them were sent away in a rare outburst of anger.

   Qian Qiao and the two of them were still a bit aggrieved, so if they didn't want to, why did they have to get so angry? When the concubine Li found out about this, she even went to laugh at them.

   "If you don't go to Concubine Su's place and run to Concubine Hu's, you're clearly saying that she's not in favour and needs your help?"

Qian Qiao and the two of them realized that they still had no choice but to go there, otherwise each of the six eastern palaces would be dominated, what if none of them wanted them or if they were given to concubine Li by the Empress?

   They went back to Consort Xu, who was very decisive and refused on the grounds that the Fifth Prince had recently been unwell and it was inappropriate for someone to visit him.

After these two incidents, Consort De was not stupid either, so the Sixth County Princess were also a little uncomfortable.

   So there were only two concubines left, Li and Zhao.

   At this point, concubine Li was so pleased with herself that you didn't want to live in my palace because you didn't like me, so what are you doing here? The door was closed, and the concubine Zhao's place had been very busy lately.

These are all things that Pan'er heard from the people below her, just like listening to a book, and after listening to it,

After hearing this she poured cold water on the situation: "Even the Empress has not moved her palace, where else would the others want to move?

In fact, Pan'er's words proved true, and it was only a few days before the New Year's Eve that Empress Chen finally realised in despair that she would not be able to move this year and would have to stay in the Eastern Palace.

   There was no need to think about the congratulations of the first wife, or about being worshipped on the phoenix throne.

On New Year's Eve, Zong Cong hosted a family banquet at Qianqing Palace. There were many people there, including princes and their families, some close relatives, the Grand Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager, several imperial concubines and the ladies of the Eastern Palace.

   The atmosphere was very cordial and, although it may have been somewhat of an illusion, at least it proved that the majority of the people had come to terms with the reality of the new emperor's accession to the throne.

After the family feast, Zong Cong led the crowd to the Hall of the Nurtured Heart to visit the emperor.

This New Year's Eve, the Hall of the Nurtured Heart is probably the only place in the entire Forbidden City where there is no festive atmosphere, as the emperor has to recuperate from his illness and naturally needs quiet, especially since the emperor has been ill and cannot speak, his temper is getting worse every day, and the servants are all cautious and downcast as they wait on the sidelines.

   The crowd of people dressed in auspicious clothes visiting the Emperor looked particularly sarcastic.

   After all, it was not easy for the new emperor to think of the emperor at this point in his life, and even if he did, he was still being filial.

It was the emperor who seemed unusually unsettled, his mouth ahhhhh and not knowing what he was saying, but no one paid any attention to this.

The only one who took advantage of the Emperor's performance was the Prince of Qi, who made a fuss, reprimanding his lackeys for not serving him well, and saying that Zong Cong was treating the Emperor with apparent filial piety, but in fact he was secretly having people sparring with him, otherwise the Emperor would have behaved like this?

   But no one believed him, not to mention the fact that so many imperial concubines were present and had to queue up every day to attend to their illnesses. It was Pan'er's idea for Zong Cong to attend to his illness, but it was a lie to avoid suspicion. The Prince of Qi is being unreasonable, and at the same time, he is at the end of his rope.

After all, if he really had a solution for Zong Cong, why would he make a fuss over such a trivial matter? There were many clansmen present, and they all had their own opinions.

On the first day of the first month, the new emperor paid homage to his ancestors at the Imperial Temple, and announced the change of the reign name to Jianying.

   At the same time, the Kunning Palace was also bustling with activity.

   The Empress Dowager Fu was in the centre, Empress Chen was on the lower left, and the concubines of the new emperor, including Pan'er, were standing on either side.

   They were all dressed in gorgeous gowns, and it was difficult for the Home Office to rush so many gowns, but the momentum was really something like a new year.

But it's not a new year, since the fifth day of the first month, Zong Cong opened the seal, Zong Cong was all kinds of big action.

The first thing he did was to tell Empress Chen that her father had been made a marquis.

   This is a distinction that only imperial relatives can have, and it is usually added to the shade of the mother's family when the empress is crowned, but it is a lower rank than in the previous life, when it was a dukedom.

   Empress Chen was so happy and pleased that when Pan'er went to pay her respects, she could see the joy on her face.

   But as a result, Empress Chen was even more anxious to move the palace, and after the first month was over, she was concerned about the repair of the Ning Shou Palace.

   In the meantime, the six eastern palaces were also undergoing simple renovations, the only major one being the Jingren Palace, the residence of the princesses and the three southern houses where the imperial sons lived.

   In time for March, Zong Duo and Zong Yue moved to the South Third House, and Pan'er made several trips there to see the new paint, new doors and windows, new furniture and furnishings, and she also opened a special storehouse and added a lot of furnishings and other things for Zong Yue.

   In April, the Ning Shou Palace was finally repaired.

   Empress Chen personally supervised the decoration and furnishings inside, and waited for half a month after everything was finished before carefully mentioning that the Ning Shou Palace had been repaired when she went to the Kun Ning Palace to pay her respects.

Pan'er was present at the time, and now that she is a consort of the new emperor, she naturally cannot be as lazy as before.

The Empress Court was not the only one, but there was still the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager, so she could not wait around for the concubines to come to pay their respects, so she gathered at Kunning Palace and paid her respects to Empress Dowager Fu, and then went to Cining Palace to pay her respects to the Grand Empress Dowager at her discretion.

It is not that Empress Dowager Fu is not willing to go, but the Empress Dowager also knows that she is old, every day tossing and turning disgusting, a month only on the first fifteen to come to ask for peace she will not say anything, other times to come to her are too noisy, and over time to go gradually less and less.

   Although Empress Chen had already been very particular about the way she spoke, and did not open the door to the princesses, but made a reference to the courtyard where they lived, Pan'er still saw Empress Fu and Nianqiu beside her glance at each other.

   The gesture was a little more meaningful.

   So the Empress was no ordinary person, Pan'er sighed once more.

   It wasn't that Empress Dowager Fu had tasted the hardships of being an empress before, and now she had to pick on Empress Chen. You think that the palace is so big, some of Empress Chen's actions will not fall on deaf ears, watching the repair process of Ning Shou Palace, at best filial obedience, at worst is eager to let Empress Fu move out of Kun Ning Palace.

But it's also true that she, the empress, wants to move into the Kunning Palace in a hurry.

   So the hearts of the people are like this, no one is wrong, but it is inadvertently in everyday life that countless conflicts are gathered.

   Fortunately, this had nothing to do with her, and Pan'er was sincerely grateful.

   Empress Fu didn't delay much and ordered her minions to pack up the next day. She had been Empress for many years and had lived in Kunning Palace for decades, so there was as much stuff as one could imagine.

When Zong Cong heard about this, he even made a special trip, saying that the Ning Shou Palace had just been repaired and that it would be better to wait for the paint inside to dissipate for a while before moving it, as there was no rush anyway.

   The Empress Dowager didn't say anything, she just said to move the things over slowly first.

When Zong Cong came out, Nianci told him what had happened yesterday.

He asked Pan'er why she knew.

It was because it happened that she had been recruited to go to Qianqing Palace that day, and Zong Cong had a rare moment of anger in front of her, demonstrating his displeasure with Empress Chen.

   He was becoming less and less shy of Pan'er, but Pan'er was anxious. You say he said something bad about the Empress in front of her, should she, as a favoured concubine, to advise, or not advise?

[naamahdarling]

You know what? You know what I think?

I think that if we lived as we were meant to, in larger intimate ("extended family") groups and with more shared labor and time to do it (UBI NOW) people like me would not feel so useless and burdensome because there would be people around to help and to do what neurodivergent people can't while making valuable space for the neurodivergent to do what they ARE good at.

The way we live right now, all right, the way we live right now forces units of two adults to be able to do EVERYTHING or PAY to have someone come do it for them. I have to do the housework. I have to do it! But I am having to do a million different things and most of them I am not good at. I suck at them.

I wouldn't feel like shit, okay, if I had more than one other person around who was not a child and who could do the things I can't, like do the yard and cook and do repairs and basic maintenance; and someone else to split everything else that I like but is too much for me. It would free me to do what I am good at and enjoy. Cleaning, as in the sink and toilet, the windows, the blinds. Taking out trash. Folding, hanging, and sorting laundry.

But because all the shit I can do often relies on other shit being done first, and I can't do or have trouble doing those things, the shit I can do often can't be done. And even the shit I can do, I can't do ALL of it. So I can't keep up, and things get very bad.

We aren't meant to live like this. We are not meant to live like this.

That thought hurts so much because being able to flee the birth family is integral to survival for so many people. I'm so afraid that living in larger family groups would create more opportunities for, say, queer kids to be isolated, rejected, bullied, and abused. But if we gave people enough money to survive, and stopped considering children the property of their parents with no system in place to help them escape bad situations except a system that is often just as bad, just different.

I'm aware that communes and collectives aren't all that successful and are kind of a joke. I don't mean that. I mean a fundamental shift to multigenerational families where taking in "strays" (which my family did) is also normalized so people escaping abuse into existing households was accepted, with these families centered in maybe a couple of different larger residences so not everyone has to buy and maintain their own fucking washing machine and vacuum cleaner, and so people can benefit from large group meals that yield leftovers, and so child and elder care can also be centralized.

Then disabled people and the neurodivergent and sick and injured people, and pregnant people, and grieving people, would not have to either labor through all those stressors or consign themselves to living off an unlivable pittance or being put under legal guardianship.

I'm not saying anything new. People live like this in other parts of the world and maybe it sucks and I am wrong. But I'm just really mad right now because I can either do laundry or clean the sink but not both, and I really think we could improve society somewhat by making it so I did not have to choose one without sacrificing the other.

[lunarharp]

What led to this (orufrey comic, cw an uncomfortable/creepy scene)

[sonicanvas]

Bold of you to assume you can hide this in the tags and think I wouldn't read.

I was thinking of a very sad Headcanon at first but it ends up being too happy for some unknown reason.

So here comes a sad one:

Due to Zaterrans not aging like humans(or even Edenians), it's easy for him to believe that "no Zaterrans in the Living Forest" could mean that none of them actually died. They were just so good at hiding among humans that we wouldn't know their presence. It makes sense to the Reptile season of Invasions being...basically a bad scenario of having a lizard person "Among Us"

It's like when you see a crocodile were frozen within the mud, but guess what? You should NOT poke them, because they're actually still alive and they're ambush predators. Instead of approaching the prey, they let the prey, come to them.

Only for your head to be unsuspectingly decapitated by a Death Roll(that's Reptile's combo Ender btw)

And thanks to this weird way of aging, he would watch his friends grow old and die, but he doesn't. Humans are short-lived. Lucky for him, he's not a regular Zaterran that sits like a log, but rather the shapeshifter one. He sheds his skin like every other Zaterran, but until he could regrow his skin as he grew in size, he would be more fragile than the regular one(on top of shedding the skin can be a very painful process due to how sensitive it is) and the safest way for him to avoid getting beaten up too quickly in his true form is by staying in human form, developing human-like appetites until he reverted to his usual diet once fully recovered.

He would love to stay in one place because of his stashes but his unnatural aging forced him to travel lightly across the realms, and later, forced to keep his distance from humans. After all, he's only "passable" for a human standard that he could move out as long as he kept his hoodie over his head. He would silently cry, but what was that feeling anyway? Zaterrans were never taught about emotions, let alone have a part of their brain to feel them. Must be some dust in his eyes that makes them dry.

Let's do a Syzoth Headcanon!

He likes to make weird sounds like "mrrrr..." or "prrrrp!" If his s/o is near. He mostly didn't do it alone because people thought it was weird and that's the only time he felt safe as a humanoid crocodile being himself

He learned human behaviors by mimicking other humans around him. Safe to say, he's the "jack of all trades" because he had different "personalities" depending on the person who sits next to him.

This gave him an identity crisis(imposter syndrome), on top of being a shapeshifter himself

Hates eye contacts. He would consider this a call for threat.

Hissing at you if you ever tried touching him. His skin is more sensitive than human fingers, especially in his human form

It's hard for Syzoth to get fat, because he would store his fat...in his tail.

He would have a shedding period once every month. Despite of his size in true form, he's still considered a juvenile Zaterran since they don't age naturally. He would reach adulthood in 10.000 years. Some adults in Zikandur Province were 500.000 years old.

He could survive a week without food, but if you see his tail drying out, be careful. He might be starving to death.

He loves the pool side of Cage Mansion, which is large enough for him to swim freely while being exposed under sunlight from the large windows

His emotions are intensified, ten fold. Sometimes he could be so excited it feels overwhelming and started breaking down to tears.

He reverted to his true form when expressing hostility(usually when he feels threatened or afraid, or when he was all sobbing by himself)

He LOVES Godzilla plushies. Bonus if it's life-sized.

And bubble wraps. That will keep him busy.

He discovered his powers very late in life. Though before he knew about his human form, he was already drawn to the outside of Zaterran society as they went out to hunt for resources. He had a secret stash of fabrics and pillows, all comes in vibrant patterns and colors.

[sharplimeade]

hc that Hatake females grow fur in between their breasts because their body recognized that the children weren't surviving long enough after childbirth so it provided a way to keep them warmer (ex. put that baby in fur when it's too windy or smth) and somewhat hide them from any "predators" (ninjas basically)

(changed this post up a bit bcuz another post gave me something to think about so I'll put what I sort of changed here:

The Hatakes being a somewhat migratory clan that will to places that are early spring wait will early autumn to leave and then travel through mid-winter

them traveling through mid winter also fits with headcanon as winter winds can be especially harsh on kids so having fur to hide in would raise birthrates (is that the right word?)

also i fit in the dog characteristic by having the Hatake's also herd animals as well as farm so the dogs could come in as helpers and do some weird chakra partnership thing that gives both qualities of the other to become more in tune

i dont rlly know anything about farming or herding tho so take what I say with a lot of salt

[polaroid-petals]

I'm this close to writing a fic where a few weeks post-confession, Hero has a dream where he gets the option to stab Basil in order for Mari to have never died, only for his knife to stab not this fictional dream version of Basil, but the real twelve-year-old one, whom he then slowly watches die as he's unable to save him from the gash in his stomach.

To his horror, as he wakes up four years after the murder with no memory of what happened afterwards, he learns that he covered up the murder, and he has no idea how or why he did it.

[starpros-sunshine]

You know. I'm part of the fraction "to each their own and let people handle their lives however they see best fit". But I do feel the need to say that I have seldom seen such an idiotic assumption as that breaking up with someone four days before someone's birthday when you also want that someone to do something for their birthday even though you know you and your soon-to-be-ex will both have to be there won't end with that person just not doing anything with anyone for their birthday. Partially because nobody wants that kind of awkwardness after a fresh breakup and also because the soon-to-be-ex has the lovely habit of wallowing in self pity and making everything about how they have it so bad. You know I just think in such cases you should've waited a week with the breakup. I don't care how much you want to fuck that other guy but I really think you should've waited a week.

[mourn-and-watch]

one super important detail about carver's 'pro-templar' stance is that he openly admits that he never saw magic as a threat before kirkwall. he can be petty and constantly annoyed by his siblings being all magical and special but he never thought of them as abominations who need to be locked up for everyone's safety. kirkwall is the reason he starts to express doubts and we know how fucked up the veil here is.

if he joins the order, he does that out of necessity but i'd say he's also that rare templar who's motivated not by fear for himself but by fear for the people he cares about and at least one of them is a mage. this city is full of demons and abominations and blood magic, situation here is a lot more complicated than in ferelden and there's also his not-so-almighty mage sibling who doesn't seem to be concerned about this. even though they can be killed by one of these things. even though they can become one of them.

also he desperately needs purpose and if he was never taken to the expedition he finds one and does so by his own choice. and for the moment he thinks it's the right thing to do but the order never helps him resolve his doubts. he's never proven wrong because there are still demons and abominations threating the city. he's never proven right because some things templars do are completely unjustifiable and straight up cruel. this is not the purpose he wanted. this is not the reason worth deeping the rift between him and his sibling even more than it already was but it's too late to quit just like that. it's not like he despised the templars. it's not like he didn't understand them completely. but the way he bitterly says "you don't understand this life. i didn't" to sebastian summarises how complicated his time in the order was all along