#we could be heroes was SO GOOD it rewired my brain

[wordsgood]

I’ve only read one Mike Chen book and the first 5 pages of his time travel novel but I have suuuuuch a big fondness for we could be heroes that opening up lightyears from home feels like coming back to an old favorite author after ages away. is this how having an actual favorite author feels??

[kyliafanfiction]

Actually, really, now that I think about it in more detail, as much as I really loathe what Lisa does to Amy in the Bank, the truth is, if Lisa told Vicky about Amy's feelings for her then, if it was out and in the open between the two siblings...

Long-term, it's better for them both, I think.

It depends on how Tattletale actually tells it, like, specifically what she says, and also if she mentions the fact that Amy can do brains in that context. Also depends on just how many intrusive thoughts and temptations Amy has actually had to rewire Vicky's brain the way she does in Arc 11, and if Lisa picks up on any of that.

Now, I do think Vicky would be more upset hearing it from Lisa than from Amy (i.e. if Amy had come to her sometime, before this, and laid it all out, not that I think she ever would have without some kind of very potent or well-aimed external push) but I don't think Vicky would hate Amy over it?

Like, Vicky is Amy's #1 fan, I think, up until that critical moment. She loves her sister, and thinks of her as an amazing person, an amazing hero, etc. She might be some degree of weirded or even grossed out, maybe even uncomfortable with it, but she couldn't call Amy some sort of gross freak over it, wouldn't hate her, wouldn't like say 'stay away from me forever' over it?

At this point, Amy's done nothing to her, not acted on it... I mean, I'm not sure specifically what Vicky might try to do, because in part it depends on just how one interprets the level of crush Amy has on her. Is Amy just full on Vicky-sexual? Vicky-romantic? Some people still take it that way. Or is she just gay and just really in love with and attracted to Vicky? Is it just a super intense crush made worse by Amy's lack of friends or social life or any other outlets? Is it yandere-level obsession?

Certainly I've seen all those takes on it and more, and given what happens later on, plenty are content to assume full on yandere obsession. I'm not sure it's really quite that bad under normal circumstances (what happens during the S9 stuff is hardly 'under normal circumstances' after all), so let's assume it's not that. And let's go with 'Amy's Gay, but she's just in love with and attracted to her sister', for this thought experiment. No Aura, just - she's always been really attached to her sister (as the one source of affection at home) being socially introverted (to say the least) probably having a problem where people approach her wanting healing or cosmetic or w/e that makes her preemptively hostile to even those without negative motives, etc), etc.

I don't think she doesn't also love Vicky as a sister, and Amy sure would love to stop feeling this way about Vicky, she's just sorta given up on it because of... well, everything. As we see in Interlude 3, she's sorta close to giving up in general.

Like, there's a lot that Vicky could try - trying to find Amy a girlfriend would be A1, I think, at least in her mind at first, given the double dates pattern. Hopefully she might realize trying double dates given Amy's feelings towards Dean (which Vicky would have a better understanding of now) is probably not a good idea at first, but she might try for that.

I think she'd definitely push harder to get Amy to stop working at the hospital, not that that's all that likely to work, at least not so easily.

Obviously it's not like this is a magic path to mental health for Amy - even if she was willing to admit all this and more to a therapist, and I think it would take some prodding from Vicky to get her there, assuming Vicky even would, you'd need to find a therapist she could 115% trust. About all of it.

I don't think Vicky would tell Carol, though it is hard to say, as I can imagine circumstances where she might.

I do think Vicky would be a lot less inclined to take Amy to places or parties or w/e with her as a way to like, 'make' her socialize, because she might realize that that's still reinforcing the 'Vicky is my main social outlet' problem Amy has. She can't just force Amy to be social - that's likely why she wanted the double dates, and doing other stuff with Amy as a way to get her to have more of a social life (and probably figuring 'having Dean makes me much happier, getting Amy someone to date will make her happier!).

But it wouldn't be to the point of like, pushing Amy away entirely.

On her own, there's only so much Vicky can do to urge Amy to help herself, but the very fact that Vicky knows and doesn't hate her, and indeed, still loves her (as a sister) would do quite a lot, I think, to lessen the crippling/paralyzing degree of guilt that's always eating at Amy over this. Not get rid of it entirely, nor overnight, but... it would lessen it.

And with that being lessened, Amy's ability to actually try and her ability to muster the relevant emotional and mental energy to try and find a different social outlet, to maybe get help... maybe I'm just being hopeful, wishful thinking or whatever, but I think the odds of her attempting those things, and being successful, especially with Vicky giving her that push...

I think they're better.

To circle around back to Victoria herself - she's not gonna be thrilled to hear all this, I think. Definitely a little uncomfortable and grossed out, though hopefully she keeps that mostly to herself, at first (so as not to make things worse for Amy.) if Amy gets some therapy, so too should Vicky here. I wonder if Vicky might actually wonder if her Aura played a role, second guessing herself and all. She might actually blame herself for not noticing Amy was gay sooner, for not seeing what was going on, for not trying harder to get Amy other social outlets and thus continuing to let Amy only have her, etc.

That wouldn't be fair of Vicky to herself, but I don't she's incapable of that sort of self-attacking perfectionism. She is Glory Girl, after all, her whole power schtick is about the illusion and aura (ha!) of invincibility and perfection and if nothing else, she's Amy's big sister, she's supposed to be there to help her and all that, and she might feel like she completely failed.

Any road to Amy getting over her feelings for Vicky and getting to a place of better mental health is a hard one, and a long one. It's not simple, nor is it something that would for a particularly... dynamic fic, per se, but -

As much as it pains me to admit, one place where that road starts, one of the few places it could from a specific onscreen canon moment, is here, at the bank, if Tattletale had actually not held her tongue, if she just had kept talking a bit more.

[ninadove]

7 and 11 for the ask game! :)

7. Your favorite tropes to read/write/draw

I love hurt/comfort so dearly! There’s something that always gets me about characters growing and overcoming adversity together. Combine it with found family and SIBLINGS and you’re basically pouring liquid sunlight into my heart. It doesn’t get better than that!

Interestingly enough, I was always more of a friends-to-lovers/medium-to-slow burn person when it comes to shipping, until Feligami happened and rewired my entire brain. And because they get most of my romantic fics fastburns are basically all I write now. Feligami fastburn in Shadow Strike. Feligami fastburn in Glitter and Gold. Feligami fastburn in Escape the city and follow the sun. Feligami fastburn in the Black Cat Felix AU and the Black Cat Kagami AU when I get to them. It works because their childhood was stolen from them, because their life could end with a snap of fingers or the crack of a ring, because they’re both touchstarved and lovestarved and don’t want to lose a single second… It works because their love is always a choice and an act of defiance… Feligami Argami Ryargos Relix… Where was I?

OH YES. Redemption arcs followed by the reformed antagonist taking care of the hero who saved them. Reformed antagonists holding a mirror to the good guys and forcing them to confront their flaws. Reformed antagonists with imagery that is typically associated with heroes. Reformed antagonists in general. It’s about the growth.

I also apparently love bird imagery very much. Clive Felix Edelgard Yang Weiss Sasha —

11. If you're a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

I’m very proud of the progress I’ve made in the past year when it comes to pacing and imagery in my writing! And since we were just talking about subverting symbolism, today I want to highlight this fic:

They make me so happy 💚💜

Thanks for the ask, Anon! ☀️

[kusanagim91]

“Are you afraid? Can you feel them? Mmm? Can you feel them rewiring your little, puny, brains?” 

Misantropía chuckled, amused by the horrors.

He was beautiful and eerie, hair like snow, a pretty face, a wide smile of many fangs, a black eye, dark as night, and the other one the color of honey, many gears rotated in there, like a clockwork. 

He was inhuman, half monster, half machine. 

And, as his name said, he didn’t value the humans in front of him. 

“Don’t worry, the pain is going to end soon and you aren’t going to remember a thing, no even like a bad dream”. 

He looked in glee as the heroes twisted, contorted in pain, tied to the operating tables. 

The girl was resisting way more than the man, so Misantropía took another syringe, full of a clear liquid. 

“Your body is fascinating Miss Grentina, you’re composed of powerful enzymes, they make your body resilient and flexible, but also capable of dissolving everything, of course your absurd moral code prevents you from doing such a thing, but my babies are going to change that...”.

The woman looked in horror at how he injected her with that thing again. 

They were invisible to the eye, but she could FEEL them, like ants burrowing under her skin, making tunnels to her brain... or whatever she had in the place of a brain. 

And her body tried to fight them, her will tried to keep her being herself, her soul tried to be relentless and her heart brave, but it was useless. 

That boy, that monster, smiled at her as she slipped away, her true self taken over by something else, a new mind, a new way of thinking and feeling... But it was still her, it was still her for the rest of the world and for herself, the change was undetectable. 

G-Lo wasn’t G-Lo anymore, but she didn’t know that, nothing had changed for her, and the next morning she woke up tired on her bed. She had a dream, but she couldn't remember what it was exactly. A nightmare? And, by the time she ended her breakfast, she forgot completely about it. 

She went to work, she was an efficient and well loved hero, but she was secretly unhappy and unfulfilled.  

She always felt like that... Didn’t she? 

Yes! Exactly! She never liked that job, she never liked PEACE, and she never liked the path of good! 

For many her change in career came out of nowhere, but for her it felt natural, something destined to happen, something she always planned to happen. 

Misantropía smiled once again, admiring his work, the gelatin girl made a whole spectacle on public television, a quite... aggressive revelation of villainy. 

“Hail Black Hat!” she had proclaimed with pride. 

Misantropía laughed, playing with a flask in his hands full of that clear liquid. 

“Oh, my babies” he said, looking at the nanobots with his mechanical eye “We are going to do so many beautiful things together”. 

[firespirited]

NOPE 2022. Review with spoilers under the read more

Nope didn't quite work as horror for me but was a decent action flick, I'd have enjoyed the experience better if it wasn't under "sci fi" and "horror": spent the time expecting something else instead of properly being in the moment - I was tired, had specific ideas about what might happen, then immediately wanted a rewatch because I'd missed the good stuff looking for other stuff (will do that rewatch as soon as possible)

It didn't work (as sci fi horror) partly because I'm a know-it-all/super nerd who gets all the sci-fi references and knows all the tropes and partly because Peele really doesn't do subtle.

Entertainment chimp chaos + ufo + horse wranglers = space chimp chaos, it was clearly a people and horse eating creature from jump so no build up there. I'm totally used to aliens being either creature based or beyond our understanding.

// or that wonderful balance in between that films like Arrival and Annihilation (or Evangelion) found where there's a logic but it's larger than we are, we're space dogs compared to their space humans.

That's my jam. The existential horror/wonder of encountering something advanced enough we can interact but to understand it? That's beyond us: might blow our minds or change us forever or leave us without answers because we're just not good enough. Yeah. Tangeant over lol //

- The second very specific thing is the sound of screams. I have trouble telling the difference between good and bad ones, I have had dissociative freezes at fairs and theme parks looking at people clearly enjoying themselves. For some reason that I cannot rewire or logic away, my brain assumes 1 of the people on the ride must be in genuine distress. Occasionally it happens with playground screams too. It's something I've had to work on as I lived close enough to hear fairgrounds every summer from age 15 - 30. I've heard them on the wind in july here for ten years. I cope well nowadays, a brief shudder then it's fine.

Anyway, Nope also didn't work as horror for me for two very specific personal reasons:

-the first that I won't really expand on here is trauma turned into a good story: dealing with something bad (and also very much NOT dealing with it) by having a good story to tell. The fact that this story dropped that into the narrative then didn't follow up meant that I briefly thought there might be something to break my heart in two... but that wasn't the point being made, the point clearly was a childhood exploitation turning into a pattern of exploiting everything.

// If you know of stories about trauma turned into a story to avoid confronting it directly or giving a good end send me reccs I'm ready to pick at that wound (okay okay maybe not 'I May Destroy You' final episode levels of ready, Michaela Coel is too powerful). //

So I was looking for that and it didn't happen.

So I knew exactly what the opening sound was, what the faint sound in the wind was. So the only reveal was that it wasn't mimicry or psychological tactics by the alien (i was still in the mode of thinking of various sci fi beings who used/enjoyed fear instead of just a wild creature. I was primed to puzzle solve and there's no puzzle just layers of meaning).

But I did love OJ the cowboy hero and his sister Em on the motorbike. They had very believable sibling energy despite one of them being in a deep funk at the start. And yeah the Akira bike slide was awesome. I really liked the alien design, starting with something we think we know but actually more of a sand dollar then popping into the jellyfish form but with the non-organic, not quite working within our physics square.

If it's an action film, it takes its time to really start which is why I was stuck on slowburn dread sci-fi mode for so long but that could be western film pacing. I honestly have no understanding or knowledge whatsoever of westerns: the whole genre stank as ahistorical attempts at myth making.

// It's one of the reasons I don't watch war films, often about myth making, post hoc justifications, glamorising a life of 95% boredom 5% hell. //

But yeah my expectations were a little too high: it hit me way too late that it was a 1:1 chimp metaphor not a more vague tampering with something we can't control and really thought the creature would be playing with fear or have somehow been formed by fear (like the boar in Annihilation having taken on its victims traits).

Also suffered from way too dark syndrome. I loved the well lit final action, if it'd been well lit during the creature choking over the house scene that would have been so much cooler. I have a low tolerance for ooh it goes bump in the dark for half the movie, I'm just squinting and cursing you for padding the film with anything but character moments in the aftermath or in dread that would make the human impact feel more real.

Solid action flick: We need dashing Daniel Kaluuya on a horse in more films. Keke Palmer is a scene stealer I look forward to seeing more of her. I liked the emo tech guy. Film dude was wack without being funny. Why did they give him so much screen time? Steven Yeun does what he can with what little he had. I would have liked to have lingered a little longer on his conflicting relationship to fame.

My review? No yet rated. Gonna rewatch it as an action flick in the dark and enjoy it for what it is. Something tells me it's very rewatchable! And... I need to stop making assumptions based on genre expectations.

[blitzgamev]

hi hey hello here are some of my fav spies are forever london bits in a random order :) i am going insane about this :)

Never done a read more! Surely this'll work first try!

- The Deadliest Man Alive stinger. Him coming back on stage just to say it again for the stinger was top tier and the fact Everyone looked into the audience when it played!!

- The fact they had enough cast now to have DMA stand there visibly not enjoy his time at the ball except when people talked about pulling toenails off??

- HOLY SHIT TORTURE TANGO HELLO

- No seriously doing an extra Owen there when Curt said it and not just having him to the lil pose but also walk across stage, look around, notice what's going on AND DOING THE GUN SHOOT WITH DMA HELLO CAN ANYONE HEAR ME

- The wolf whistle during That part of the stairway scene? Whoever did that is my hero that was hilarious

- Managed to get past the booking agent for the banana yippee

- Speaking of the emoting between Curt and Owen during the slow motion fall was top tier love these actors

- The DMA into Owen reveal was so funny because Owen walked on before The Line to stand behind DMA so you couldn't even hear it over people cheering and laughing

- The slow turn while Joey narrated and the little low walk for the trap door?? Top tier

- Vanger visibly cringing every time someone said something negative about the prince was hilarious but also the implication they aren't even trying to keep it down...

- Facial expressions! Some very very good ones between Curt and Tatiana in not so bad

- DMA being like "yeah I did that look how cool I am cheer for me" at Some Point I Don't Remember like I love how the actor played him

- The deafening cheering whenever Mama Mega showed up was the most based we ever got as an audience let's go Mama Mega

- This did lead to the cheering being so much that we didn't stop when Joey came on to do the scene transition and him having to go calm down guys just doing the next scene lol

- That was definitely not helped by the insanely funny Vanger bit to start act 2 like the cyber bullying in the 60s?? Every cosplayer (pog shoutouts btw) being him??

- The little acting choices Tatiana made in general?? The suspender bit in particular

- Speaking of acting choices. The Whole of Owen's appearance at the end felt like a performance for the audience to me and I need to know if that was A Choice or if I imagined it

- Seperate but related point but spies are forever reprise being on the programme... All I've ever needed now add it to the album smile

- Argh the staircase scene... To see that in person is to be alive I think. The shaking on the gun arm on That Bit. How close Owen looked and sounded to crying during the reprise. MOVING ON OKE KING

- Barb

- Did the informant just not die here??? Good for him maybe don't get into the song next time yeah?

- Curt hesitating to take the first shot is also gonna haunt me that's always been the one issue I had with one more shot

- All the little extra flourishes in the songs were very fun love actors making it their own

- The henchmen!! They lived! I don't know that tickles me no quick changes needed so they get to Vibe and giggle

- BARON'S DEATH SCENE "ouch my back *turns around* ouch my front ouch my self *dies" <- he bows after this btw

- Joey shouting out people who were at the matinee but not the evening show was not a planned bit I bet but it Was funny

- The band!!! Hearing overture In Real Life rewired my brain

- Also a shout out to the stage hand we cheered on before the show and act 2 started

- Everyone's faces but especially Tatiana when Sergio was doing the plead reprise were top tier "what are you DOING get away"

- YOU GOTTA y-you GOTTA :) the whole song was really good loved this Cynthia

- The one handed moves for eyes ii was necessary but also just fun

- Also DMA making curt move the whole chair over and him refusing for a while for realism

- HOW COULD I EVEN FOR A MOMENT FORGET DOING THIS TOP TIER SONG TOP TIER ACTING

- The way Curt kept sputtering and touching his lips way after Tatiana got over it and also agreed it was shit way more

- Prisoner of my past is haunting In Real Life holy shit

- One step ahead :) that one moment they kept getting closer to eachother until they did the hand thing again and it looked like Owen was leaning in completely to the hug. Hey you can't do that. I wish I remembered who pushed the other away to mirror the opening betrayal line

- The final pose was so so good to see I adore spy dance and getting to stand up and clap for it was an out of body moment (I hurt my ear cheering)

This turned into a non chronological recap of the show but whatever I wrote all the energy and memory out that I had so good night tri state area . tri london area

[captainbobbin]

Hi, hello! 💜 📝🦐 please! 💜 Also: *boop!*

(in response to this ask meme)

awuaaaagh a boop! - prepare for one in return mwuaha - also I'm gonna do these two out of order because it will flow a little better haha, plus I'm rambling so its under a readmore -

🦐 - tell me about a character or story that is giving you shrimp emotions right now

spoilers for DQXI ahead!

I went back and replayed some more DQXI yet again yesterday (I play a good chunk of it every week on stream for my chat and I always loredump and theorise with them as we play haha) but I had missed a few weeks due to the recent funeral and other irl distractions. But going back to it was like coming home and. man. man. Hendrik. Hendrik my special boy who I love so dearly. I could talk about him for weeks, he has rewired my brain chemistry. I'm pretty sure you followed me for my KH stuff in general but DQXI is another square enix game and to me Hendrik has a nice overlap with the way I characterise my version of Isa. Hendrik is a big brooding dad type of guy who begins as an antagonist to the player due to being misled, lied to and betrayed; as the game goes on you realise that not only is he the most powerful thing in-game but that he is wracked with survivors guilt, catholic guilt, imposters guilt, every kind of guilt imaginable, he's a giant socially awkward unstoppable force teddy bear man who is the worlds most revered hero, destiny's chosen strongman, a horsegirl and a clown and I will never tire of talking about him he is just so so special to me. He's so pretty. I think I spend most of my time playing DQXI either deep-diving into lore/theories or just going 'god look how pretty Sylvando is. Look how pretty Hendrik is. I love them. I love them so much' lmaoooooo (a lot of people pair Hendrik and Jasper together and I totally get that but I love Sylv and Hendrik winding up together, they just work so well as a pair, they fit together so nicely auuugh)

One of the things we talked about in my last DQXI stream was that right at the start of act 2, when Hendrik is at your side but not a party member yet, (and hes only just getting over his projection of angst onto you and he's trying so hard to be better already and he dedicates himself to you there and then pretty much), in the throne room of Heliodor's ruined castle where Hendrik once served you fight the Spectral Sentinel Tyriant, and we discussed the possibility that Tyriant might just be the reanimated dead body of Arnout, the former king of Zwaardsrust (Hendrik's original home, which was razed to the earth when he was just a little boy.....). The size of the body, the way it fights, the fact that the orb it is designated is the purple orb, which was buried in the ruins of Zwaardsrust..... awauaugh I love this game so much and I am obsessed with digging up lore and playing with it, especially the stuff revolving around Sylv and Hendrik haha

I just. I love the guy. He has so much grief and inner turmoil and layers and the entirety of Act 2 is him learning to be a person again and trusting those around him, pushing through his internalised blame (with debatable results) and just trying to heal while out on the road. I'm just. obsessed with him. My big purple wife 💜

📝 - tell me about a project you're working on, or share something from a WIP -

here are some messy notes I did recently for the next instalment in my Open Wounds series, which is about Hendrik dealing with his emotions regarding Norberto (Sylvando) and their strange, budding relationship -

Thank you, my darling. It hung in his ears. Hendrik had followed Sylvando to the Stallion and back five times over, carrying whatever burden he was issued, internally leashed by those words of praise. In order to save the world, one needed provisions. The ship needed stocking. Hendrik was only doing his duty. It was merely a boon that he did so whilst looking at Sylvando's back, sauntering ahead of him, smile easy and reputation preceding him. The scarlet clouds ought to make the clown vanish into gloom, as it had yesterday, yet spirits seemed to have risen. Like Hendrik's own flesh, perhaps the world was healing, just a little. The clown's presence certainly gave the impression of that effect. The longer they were in Gondolia, the more people came out of hiding, the more townsfolk did business with them, the more smiles began to appear. Conversations were had with shopkeepers that Hendrik did not understand - don't you worry, honey, those Beastly Boys aren't so anymore! They've done me very proud since last I was here - and Sylvando glittered under Erdwin’s Lantern, a thought that was both horrid and harpsichordical; in times of strife and despite any grief, the strong flourish and bloom, and to observe a knight perform his duty and be one with the people, taking hands and offering encouraging words, offers of support, promises to repair, all while doom crept ready to be taken down, it offered Hendrik a cacophony of implacable feelings that he really could do nothing with. He just followed, experiencing it, fascinated by the way civilians recognised the two of them, recognised that the two of them were together, recognised that the two of them were different, and then recognised that the two of them were the same. 

Shamefully, Hendrik had almost forgotten to think of Jasper. Shamefully, he still rather had.

The only time Hendrik's mind had drifted to Jasper was when, as they gathered materials together, idly talking about nothing - and by the Gods it was nice to talk at all, to be able to talk at all with him - Sylvando regaled some airy tale of a time when he had discovered some squeaky little mousies had made snuck aboard his ship and tried to make a nest in a gap in the pantry floorboards. He talked of how he had kept an eye on them, left small amounts of food near the opening to save the mice from gnawing through sacks and taking more than their share. Sylvando had scooped them out the next time they moored and freed them, finding some snug shrub to set their fluffy little hiding place under and watching them scurry away. He had told the story, again, smiling, faint gestures with his hands, harmless, pressureless, filling the silence. It was rather admirable, and Hendrik could not help but think that it spoke of Sylvando's character, a character that had not changed despite everything else changing so much. Norberto had tried to bring home a wild sabrecub once - his father forbade it, for obvious reasons. But the boy - and now the jester - had always been able to see the good in all things, had always had a soft spot for creatures in need of aid. 

Hendrik's back tingled.

Sylvando had cared for rodents aboard his vessel, had refused to outright kill pests that, by all means, he could have and perhaps should have to ensure the ship was clean and safe and without burden. Instead he had left tissue nearby for them to nest with, crumbs and peeling nearby for them to eat, and had personally made sure that the mice had a real home as soon as he was physically able to, carrying them to where they ought to be with gentle hands and no doubt nurturing words.

Vermin, Jasper would have said. Disgusting, vile, loathsome little cockroach-beasts. He would have raised his boot over them and brought it down swiftly with a wrinkled nose and curled-back lip. 

If we pass where I left them, I'll show you, Sylvando had turned to him and said, smile light and charming. It's the finest little mouse-house around! I bet none of their other forest friends have purple crepe paper and ribbons adorning their humble abode, eh? Those little stowaways got only the best - I'd have nothing less on my ship, you know.

Hendrik peered out of the window, stood in the belly of The Stallion. 

[deathbydarkelves]

OKAY now that I've caught up on my dash mostly here are my thoughts on The War Within and all the announcements:

-I was losing my fucking mind watching the reveal cinematic. You can see the fucking folds of Anduin's eyelid. What the fuck. Thrall has peach fuzz. These models are insane. I know we've had similar tech before but it continues to blow my mind.

-The final shot with the sword got me man. The shadow that thing must cast. You can probably see it from, like, Mulgore at least. If I was better at math I could guesstimate how far you could see it from.

-BEARDS ON FEM EARTHEN LET'S GOOOOOOOO hopefully they let fem dwarves have beards soon too

-PLEASE let the Shado-Pan hero spec give me cool stealth/ninja abilities. I love incorporating Cathala's shadowmelding in fics but there's currently no way to do that in-game.

-The only thing I care about with Warbands is that my little guys can all sit around a fire together on my login screen. Once that comes out it's gonna rewire my brain.

-Obviously YAY DYNAMIC FLIGHT ON OLD MOUNTS however I really really hope they change their mind on requiring you to complete the War Within campaign to unlock normal flying, because that is a huge accessibility issue. I love dynamic flying to bits but there's a lot of people who just can't do it for a variety of reasons, even with the options we have now.

-And lastly, just kind of a personal opinion no one cares about: I've never found Titan and Light/Void stories all that interesting, so I might spend a good portion of these next three expansions just sightseeing. I'd like to be wrong, and I probably will, but... yeahhh this premise is a bit of a tougher sell for me. I'm going to play them no matter what, but there are some mixed feelings here.

[betterbooktitles]

Screen Time, Take 5: A Blast From The Past

My college girlfriend asked me to watch Fellini’s La Strada with her one night. A professor from the theater department had assigned it for a class I’m sure was spent forcing students to walk across the room pretending to be tigers or as if moving through Jell-O before discussing a Samuel Beckett play they all had skimmed that week. I agreed to watch the movie. Of course, I owned a two-disc DVD copy of the La Strada and, of course, in the two years since I bought it, had failed to watch it. My Fellini phase started at 16 because Roger Ebert said I had to like La Dolce Vita (I saw it, hated it, pretended to like it for years), and solidified when a cool, attractive person I never ended up dating told me her favorite movie was 8 1/2, a movie that rewired my brain so that I only liked that movie and no other movie for about 5 months. Certainly, La Strada would be somewhere in the middle?

It isn’t. But that didn’t stop my girlfriend and I from popping in the second disc after we’d muscled our way through it to see a special feature with Martin Scorsese saying “this movie is good” for 40 minutes over clips of the movie we had finished watching five minutes prior.

“I don’t like how it’s dubbed.” I said.

“It’s the commedia dell’arte,” she said as I brewed a giant travel mug’s worth of coffee at my dorm room desk. This was before K Cups. I had a big tub of grounds and a machine that made one travel mug’s worth of coffee in my room so that I could wake up five minutes before class, and be caffeinated by the end of my morning power walk to Olin Hall. I also found that I needed caffeine in the evenings to get through any movie screening or exhausting conversations with other Bard students.

“OK. Yes. I get that.” I put the disk in the DVD player and sat back down in the maroon Dorito-dust-covered papasan. I poured powdered creamer into the mug and hit the button on the remote to hear what Scorsese had to say.

“La Strada is about commedia dell’arte.” he said to the documentarian.

“Hmm.” My girlfriend looked at me and then wrote ‘commedia dell’arte’ in her notebook. I rolled my eyes. She had recently learned about a subject, told me about it, heard the subject mentioned back to her, and wanted to make sure I heard that she was right about the thing that she said because now a professional director was saying it back to us from a screen. She often gave this affected performance of making sure I heard something she’d said before repeated by a friend at a party or a professor. It irked me but it was far from her most annoying habit (the incessant cheating).

There are several ways I would have reacted differently now. First, I would have remembered to bring my travel mug to the cafeteria so I could bring better coffee back to the dorm that evening. Second, I wouldn’t have scoffed at a person who knew a fact, heard the fact repeated, and took pleasure in acknowledging “Yes. I know that fact.” This moment of satisfaction is one of the rare pleasures a smart person gets to have.

Who doesn’t love already knowing stuff? It feels great. At a party “yes, anding” someone who said a fact you also know from a Bill Bryson book you both read? Or hearing someone repeat a snippet from RadioLab and finishing their sentence? That’s a true nerdy connection. It’s the same feeling I get when I read a history book and see an event I memorized the name of in high school and finally gain a real understanding of said event now that I have the patience to read and comprehend a modicum of historical context. Is there a word for that? For seeing something you’re familiar with in passing and then retracing your steps to find out more information, or even information you already knew? Not self-satisfied smugness, like someone who says “hmm” after your boyfriend’s hero repeats a phrase on a DVD extra. Not confirmation bias exactly. I mean the joy of watching a Ken Burns documentary and when the narrator mentions The Teapot Dome Scandal, your brain lights up and says “The Teapot Dome Scandal. We know about The Teapot Dome scandal. Hmm. Yes.” I swear, this feeling must have a name. It’s on the tip of my tongue.

Read the rest here

[maareyas]

alright i've recovered from the heart-shattering and i can put my thoughts about Octopath Traveler 2 into words now.

Gameplay is great, Visuals are great (though somewhat overwhelming with the light effects when you just start playing), Stories ranged from great to eeeeh, Characters are all mostly great too

overall experience is 10/10! This game has rewired my brain in some way and i don't know what

less succinct rambles below

I love this game so much I don't know how I'll ever recover from it. The exploration alone was so much fun, the concept of path actions and the day/night mechanic is so good. It reminds me of my favorite turn-based RPGs from when I was a teen. But nostalgia has nothing to do with how good this game is, it's so genuinely fun and I wish there was more stuff for me to do alksjdlakjsd

And the music!! I love the music. I wish the dungeons got more unique themes but given how many there are + the amount of banger character motifs we got, I understand why the devs decided not to do that lkasjdlksajd

now though, gotta talk about the main selling point of this game: The Narrative✨

Ochette was my starter but tbh my favorite tales have to be Castti and Throne's. Partitio was a close second and honestly, the most consistent in quality to me.

Following his is Hikari's tale, since I feel like it had some untapped potential. He's very...idek, Classic Samurai Hero™ (I say that as if I've seen enough samurai/East Asian swordsman media to know) Disgraced prince, heart of gold, honorable to a fault, evil shadowself--the works. I don't think his shadowself was utilized as much as it could've been, but I can see why since they have to fit an entire journey into a few chapter's worth of cutscenes.

Temenos is in the same rank. He's a fun character to follow and I love the mystery aspect. Solid overall but I wish it had more personal stakes for Temenos aside from avenging Roi (who deserved more screentime imo), the pontiff, and Crick

Ochette is slightly lower overall but BOY did her final boss hurt me emotionally and in battle :''D She's one of my favorites As a Character too

Osvald's story is interesting and well-executed, with a satisfying ending, but it's not really my taste and as a character, he's kinda boring to watch unless there's someone else to play off him ksjdlkas like his and Parti's Crossed Paths tale. That plot twist with Elena's brainwashing was brutal, tbh. I love it.

Agnea...still has a weak story to me 😅 I like how bright it was, especially compared to the others, but like with Hikari, I feel like there could have been more done with it. It just felt too light, y'know? None of the stakes feel too hitting even on a personal level. I like Agnea but I don't love her, yknow?

honestly, if these were truly individual stories, I would seen them as only "pretty good" at best. But their "brevity" plays well into making them feel like parts of interconnected whole--of Solistia. Each journey is different, but not above nor below the others, if that makes sense. I love that vibe of it ✨

THE EXTRA STORIES THOUGH that was. kinda bad in hindsight. It should've been its own campaign instead of just One Episode 😭 Or like, had any proper build up at all. All the plotwists either feel like they came out of nowhere, or added as an afterthought. The whole episode felt like an afterthought. They hit hard, but not in a way that's satisfying :^( The NPCs don't even acknowledge the eternal night aside from maybe those at Flamechurch cathedral.

In general I think the game struggles with leaving a bunch of lore bits unresolved. Claude's entire existence is the most obvious example. He's just hanging out ig. grandson of D'arquest, with Vide blood, Throne was supposed to be some "Vessel" we don't elaborate on that??? p l s. Arcanette being immortal??? literally WHO is she aside from the Moonshade Order's leader?? are the two of them the characters from that fairytale that keeps being brought up? and like. that thing with Trosseau and Castti apparently just walking around Lostseed to collect herbs when Lostseed, to me, was implied to be "hidden".

much to think about. Or maybe I just missed a lot of things, like that detail with Roi being the monster that Ochette fought in her chapter 1

I love this game and its worldbuilding graaaahhhh i wish Extra Stories was better :^(

[violetren]

I started and finished this show in one afternoon and I am going absolutely feral over it.

First of all it is AWESOME and getting full text romantic love between two female leads that other characters see and recognise and support instead of having them hiding in the princesses villa like it's a special thing just for them that would have them otherwise shunned was so far beyond my expectations I'm dizzy.

It did have one wild moment of cognitive dissonance where literally right after we got a fade to black on Euphie pinning Anise down of the bed to go in for another kiss we got a scene with the king saying "Anise as Euphie's new older sister you have to look out for her" that slammed me right back into the fact that as much as things have progressed this is still an anime and the industry has a reputation. Like guys, buddy's, friendos, just fucking marry them, or declare them engaged. Euphie is literally becoming queen to tear down an age of tradition and the monarchy along with it. The nobility is gonna be crying pissing and shitting themselves over the changes anyways, might as well throw out the "royals have a responsibility to produce more royals" tradition with a gay marriage to mark the occassion.

But the thing that has me going well and truly feral is that if the show was this good at twelve episodes how much better could it have been with 24, or 50?

I'm not saying it has the material to be as long as something like My Hero Academia but I reckon it could have comfortably had a run as long as something like Death Note or even Code Geass.

These fuckers cover story lines that would have been covered across 5 episodes at a bare minimum in a rush in older series in one episode a piece and somehow still made a decent product because as much as they distilled everything down to the absolute tiniest margin of spacetime and used every god damn shortcut for conveying or glossing whatever information they could, they managed to make a compelling web of relationships.

Technically they aren't covering 1 arc in an episode it's that they set up ALL of their arcs and have them ALL in motion basically from moment one and then just resolve each one just before it can tangle up the possibility of resolving the next. Which means we get episodes devoted to burning through and resolving the vast majority of each arc in quick succession. And it works but fuck if it doesn't say some very depressing things about the culture we've built about churning out constant and fresh content as quickly as possible.

The folks that made this very clearly loved the story or at the very least really really wanted to flex their story telling abilities to have managed to make the condensed concurrently developing arc thing work THIS well, because a lot of shows just don't.

Even then though twelve episodes is SO few for how much this story has to offer and the dramatic emotional reactions required to carry that pacing do at times edge past "oh well it's anime" and right into "everyone in this show is having a manic episode for plot convenience."

The emotions make sense when you look at the info and context being presented to you but sometimes it feels like they change before you actually get the time to process the info being given to you so it's only after the characters have cycled through like the 5 stages of grief or whatever that you get a chance to puzzle through what the fuck just happened and go "yeah ok, that's an unhealthy but convincingly human reaction to what the fuck is happening here."

This show feels like it has done things to rewire my brain but also like it's totally possible I will have no memory of it a week from now because it was built to be consumed quickly and leave space for whatever morsel the studio pumps out next.

Anise and Euphie be cute AF though.

Watching The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady and the whole vibe is Anise fell first but Euphie fell harder.

Also it goes from 0 to 60 so fucking quickly, like I get that they had to fit a lot into a 12 episode show but damn bro.

[aro-aizawa]

Locked Out - Chapter 6

A Danny Phantom / My Hero Academia Crossover, set mid season 2 and pre-canon respectively.

[Chapter 1]  |  [Chapter 5]  |  [On AO3]

"Wow. Uh. Yeah." Shinsou said as he blinked at the paper Danny had handed him. "Yeah, you might be a lost cause."

Danny groaned into the table they were sat at. "I'm so stupid!" He half yelled, getting a few looks from the others around them.

"Didn't you basically rewire my phone and practically replaced my battery without any spare parts to replace it with?" Kirika interrupted, setting down their drinks. "Kid, you may not be brain smart but what you do know, you know well." Uncharacteristically, she smirked and ruffled Danny's hair while he was still face down on the table.

"That's different, Tucker taught me that trick..." Danny groaned into the table.

Kirika gently swatted Danny's head causing the teen to complain and lift his head to whine at her. "And get your head off the table, I'm gonna have to wipe it down anyway, at least be kind to your servers or I will have failed as a guardian."

"Bold of you to assume that I don't respect servers, you're just the exception."

"Brat."

Danny grinned, and looked over at Shinsou's quiet snicker.

Kirika looked at Shinsou. "Hey, if he's a lost cause, then that's fine it's not like I'm expecting solid As or whatever. He just needs to skim by and maybe pass a high school entrance exam if he'll be sticking around that long. Homeschooling is really not gonna work out and his parents'll kill me if he doesn't go to school."

"Don't worry Kamiya-san, I'll help him out." Shinsou replied politely, to which Kirika snorted hard.

"Don't let the fancy get up fool you kid. You're calling me Kirika or I'll call you eyebags and you'll be stuck exclusively with the kiddie menu here, take your pick."

Shinsou looked at Kirika with wide eyes which made Danny almost cackle. "O-okay then, Kirika-san."

Kirika sighed dramatically. "I suppose it's good enough. Make sure he doesn't slack off." She grinned at Shinsou, messed Danny's hair up once again, then headed off to get back to work. They were luck that Kirika's boss was understanding of her plight and let Danny monopolise a table almost every weekday, they didn't need to push his limits by Kirika not working while he was here.

"Your cousin is cool." Shinsou remarked as he flipped through their textbooks to get to the right place. "Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."

Danny smiled. "Yeah, she's annoying sometimes, but cool."

If she stops stealing things she'd be even cooler... Danny thought to himself, remembering their last trip to the market and seeing her pull out a variety of trinkets she'd slipped in her pockets when he wasn't looking.

He'd given up trying to stop her a little while ago, it only increased her haul afterwards out of spit. At least this way it would draw less attention to them, and sometimes Kirika would swipe something cool for him which was fine. In those cases though he tried to go back and leave the thing where she'd stolen it from if he could. She'd caught onto that fact though at some point and only stole things he couldn't easily return. It was a silent war between them that likely would never fully go away. Danny still hadn't forgiven her for being an accessory to car theft that first day together.

"But seriously, please help me or I'm going to be the laughing stock of the school and become a social pariah." Danny bemoaned his fate.

"I don't know why you're doing so bad? This is the kind of stuff that's just cementing everything we already know, unless you slept through the entire school year, I really don't understand." Shinsou remarked with a slight frown.

"I told you before, I was already an idiot back in America. Didn't help that my school got constantly disrupted by small time villain attacks, well the town in general did a lot, so my lessons were a mess. Plus, I kind of have a low work ethic if I'm not fixated on a specific goal." Danny replied, musing on how he could have probably done a whole lot better with his grades if he hadn't dropped his ambition to be an astronaut completely after the accident.

His family always had a rather high work ethic, unsurprising considering they were all overachievers most of the time, pre-Accident Danny was among the top students in his year. He'd been considering taking a few AP classes, but decided to wait until sophomore year for that, in a way it had been a good choice, it made it less embarrassing to rapidly drop grades as much as he did.

"You got a lot of villain attacks? Didn't you say your town only have a few thousand people?" Shinsou asked, looking even more confused.

Danny hoped he wasn't going overboard in trying to integrate his history into what could possibly have happened her in the Quirk Universe. He was trying to keep it as close as possible to the truth so he wouldn't trip himself up with a lie, but it was still so hard to judge what was and wasn't normal here outside of theory.

"Yeah, there wasn't really much there. I guess people just liked trying to attack our only pro hero? He wasn't all that good, which is probably why the villains kept getting away to strike later, but he always tried to help the town as much as he could. I think as a whole, the town like him? Well, the people in my school do. Not sure about the adults or whatever outside my parents, but he does the best he can. We're so far out in the middle of nowhere though that no heroes want to move there and help, and the only reason our hero hung around is because he's from there."

"Huh. Sounds like you have a lot of respect for him." Shinsou mused, almost trying to seem casual as he asked his next question. "You like heroes then?"

Danny shrugged. "I mean, they do their jobs? I find it kind of weird how ingrained they are to popular culture, but they're hard working. The flashy ones look cool, but I only ever like to read about them if they're fictional which is unfortunately a dying genre...actual flashy heroes just give me a headache honestly."

He'd unluckily been in the presence of a fight that had Present Mic involved. He'd been almost two blocks away and yet he'd still gotten a migraine from the sporadic yells. If the police hadn't sectioned off the area, he was sure that anyone in that range would have had burst eat drums, which is probably why he'd been called in.

Shinsou snorted. "Glad you have some taste. If you said that you adored the big flashy heroes, I think I would have ended this arrangement before it even began."

Danny grinned. "Nah man, you can't get rid of me. I'm stuck you like a sticker slapped on a public transportation system."

"I don't think that's a saying."

"It might be a fancy american saying where I'm from, you don't know."

"Yeah, I do know. I think the american saying is 'stuck like glue', not whatever you said."

Danny threw a fry at Shinsou, starting an unfortunate mini food fight where they tore the fries into smaller chunks and tried to hide what they were doing so they didn't get kicked out. It didn't stop Kirika from hitting the backs of their heads with her notepad when she came over and saw the carnage, watching them with a stern expression as they tidied up after themselves.

"I'm never going to move again." Danny declared to the room, barely managing to speak through the fur.

Distantly he heard the snickers of Yume, and saw the eyeroll of Shinsou but all he focused on was the deep rumbling purr of the biggest cat he'd ever seen, along with the other two cats all laid on him for some reason.

He had no idea if this was some dormant part of his powers or whatnot, due to his lack of interaction with cats post-accident (all the cats in and around Amity were mandatorily indoor cats on account of some rare wildlife that cats had pushed to the brink of extinction in the area), but shortly after he arrived at the Shinsou apartment, the cats that were being looked after practically swarmed him.

There was one cat that was a giant Norwegian Forest cat, with a thick white coat and the most striking yellow and blue eyes, that was responsible for the purring; the tiniest adult cat he'd ever seen, that was the forest cat's sister who was pure black with a sleek thin coat; and one tortoise shell cat that was a little old lady who was delicately laid across his neck, rubbing her nose through Danny's hair.

He'd already been warned in advance that the big Norwegian forest cat was incredibly friendly and would demand to be played with, but he hadn't expected him to launch from the couch and into Danny, making him slip on the wood floors without shoes on and almost hit his head as he fell. The perpetrator in question had then turned in circles trying to get comfy before turning into a loaf on Danny's stomach.

Seeing the cuddle pile for what it was, the tiny cat had sprinted over and snuggled up to Danny's side, not actively on him but he had no doubt she would have been if the forest cat wasn't almost completely covering Danny's torso. At that point, he'd thought that would be it, until the little old lady cat at a staggering seventeen years old had daintily pattered over to them and laid across Danny's neck.

Shinsou had come in from the kitchen where he'd been getting them drinks and was bemused by the whole situation. Yume was delighted, but started to worry when Danny explained that the forest cat had pushed him over.

"Are you alright, Danny?" She asked, carefully making her way over to him and hesitantly trying to feel the back of his head for bumps. "Chibi doesn't usually launch himself at people..."

Danny grinned up at her. "Yeah, don't worry. No harm done, I'll let you know if he cuts off my breathing though."

Yume grinned in reply, gently stroking the tortoiseshell under her chin, before getting up and giving Danny some space.

"Well, you're gonna have to get up, your homework was terrible this week and we're starting to get closer to high school entrance exams." Shinsou remarked, kicking Danny's leg who gave him a whine in return.

"Dude I'm already a lost cause, give it up. Let me flunk out so I can waste away peacefully under this soft and warm pile of cats." Danny dramatically declared, lifting his hands to stroke Chibi and his sister.

"The little one is Aiko and the tortoiseshell is Kameko." Yume told him, staring at Danny with rather obvious jealousy. "The big one is chibi."

"Chibi, seriously?"

"Yeah, apparently he was the runt of the litter so they thought he'd be on the smaller side. Turned out he was going to be close to the largest cat of his breed in Japan." Yume shrugged.

"This guy wakes up the most out of all the cats we look after." Shinsou informed Danny, leaning down to gently pick up Kameko, to which she gave the sweetest meow to before he passed her to Yume. Yume lit up when Kameko started to purr and obviously demanded snuggles on the couch.

Shinsou then tempted Aiko away with a feather toy. He hadn't even managed to pick it up before she was shooting up and racing to attack it. With his foot, Shinsou gently pushed Chibi off Danny's chest. Chibi wailed pathetically (and dramatically) in response, staying sprawled out where he landed on the floor. Shinsou smirked at the cat, but Chibi calmed when Danny sat up and pet him a couple of times before he stood.

"Alright, I'm up. What was it that you said the other day? You can't wait to be absolutely destroyed by me in Mario Kart?" Danny smirked.

"Yeah, you're definitely remembering wrong because I said that I can't wait to absolutely destroy you in Luigi Kart. Still don't get the constant switching of Luigi and Mario's names..."

"I don't you, inside joke with my friends since we were five." Danny waved off, sitting on the couch and trying in vain to brush off the hundreds of white cat hairs that were stuck to his black t-shirt. "You going to be playing with us Yume? I'll go easy on you, I promise."

Yume grinned at him shyly. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Dude, if you didn't play it'll be more humiliating for Shinsou, at least if there's another person to race against, he can say he put up more of a fight than he did. "

Yume giggled, and Shinsou clearly had enough of Danny's jabs at him, so he waved the feather toy in Danny's direction. Aiko was on the feather as fast as lightning, but not fast enough to redirect her leap when Shinsou pulled the toy away from her, launching her straight into Danny's face with paws outstretched.

"Ah!" Danny yelled in surprise, making Shinsou snicker and Yume giggle.

"Alright, time for you to put your money where your mouth is."

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone that Yume did in fact utterly humiliate her brother and his friend. While she was wearing the winner's crown as Baby Peach, Shinsou (playing Waluigi) and Danny (playing Boo) had ultimately tied in dead last place below almost all the AIs, all because of how much they had been sabotaging each other rather than actually focusing on the race.

"They're so weird!" Aoki cried shrilly as she talked to her friends near the entrance to the school. "I mean, Fenton seemed cool at first, but now he's inseperable with Shinsou."

"Do you think that Shinsou brainwashed him into being his friend?" Tomue suggested idly.

"No, I bet it's because Fenton is just as freaky as he is. Did you see him use his quirk during gym class the other day? He managed to move his whole body out of the way of the ball I threw! Like, y'know his chest and stomach area? It was so weird! He seemed surprised after he did it too." Kanada chimed in, shuddering dramatically at the memory.

"Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if they were up to something—" Aoki started, only to scream along with the others as they were suddenly pelted with snow. Some of it even seemed to fall directly under her shirt collar making her squirm and yell harder.

After a moment of dancing around, she looked up to see Shinsou laughing quietly as he looked after at them, while Fenton grinned fiendishly. She didn't hesitate to point at them and yell, "I know you both had something to do with this!"

"We're all the way over here! How would we manage to do that?" Fenton called over from the other side of the courtyard, putting his hand to his mouth as he yelled to emphasize the distance.

"You have a freaky quirk, that's how!" Kanada yelled back, while Tomue nodded and glared.

"Okay, you quirkist bigots. But you might want to get inside and warm up, it's below freezing! You'll get frostbite and that'd be such a shame."

"This isn't over Fenton!" Aoki yelled before shuffling her friends inside and over towards the heater in the entrance hall.

Danny hadn't been in arcades very much, there had only been one back in Amity, and it had been really run down, what with the increasing availability of games consoles at home. No one was going to the arcade to spend $20 on half an hour of short games when there were much better games they could play at home.

So obviously, after years of it being run down and only visited by the nerdy teenagers of Amity that consisted of maybe a dozen visitors each week, it was inevitably shut down. Of course, this being Amity, it meant that a ghost violently objected to the closing of the arcade and started to fight, pretty much ensuring that it would stay closed.

All of this to say that it was refreshing to enter the arcade where he'd meet up with Shinsou. The games were very different and much more up to date than Amity's (there had been machines from the 80s there, the newest machine had been from 91), but the sounds were almost the same.

If Danny closed his eyes, he could just imagine that he was back home. With Sam and Tucker getting way too intest during air hockey and having to scramble to find the only puck between three machines after it was launched across the arcade and clattered somewhere between the other machines.

But it still wasn't quite the same when he heard the sounds of bowling going on, which was apparently how the arcade could continue to survive if it didn't get much traffic. Good business idea, a shame that Amity hadn't figured that out, but the bowling alley was half a block away and it was also just as run down.

Figuring that Shinsou would be a while, Danny headed towards the most bright and flashy game he could see, knowing immediately that Shinsou would get exasperated in the funniest way. It was really bright, Danny found himself almost squinting as he approached it.

It looked like some kind of side scroller bet em up, themed around All Might fighting random villains as he made his way through the states. He'd always found All Might's american theming just a little bit weird, because from his research he knew that the hero in question was 100% Japanese with no american upbringing, apart from a few years spent there in the beginning of his career.

That being said, if All Might had a move centred around Illinois, he would at least laugh a little.

As anticipated, when Danny heard the loud groan behind him, he grinned but didn't take his attention off the game. "Hey Shinsou, want to take over for me?"

"You little could not pay me enough to even look at that machine. I think it's turning me into a vampire."

Danny chortled, getting hit in the game before managing to recover and get back into it. A quick glance backwards to his friend showed that Shinsou was indeed facing away from it, so that the blinding light wasn't even in his periphery. That got Danny to laugh harder, and made him lose his last life.

"Aw man."

"Serves you right, c'mon let's go play something that won't blind me." Shinsou dragged him off before he could enter more money into the machine as he was just about to do.

Danny definitely appreciated being friends with Shinsou. It was...different from his friendship with Sam and Tucker. While they had their similarities, Shinsou had a bit of a sharper snark and more of a mean streak than Sam and Tucker did. It wasn't even targeted at the weak, mainly just those he thought deserved it.

Whereas Sam would stew in anger and bitterness until confronted, if Shinsou saw an opportunity to get back at those people without serious repercussions he'd usually do it without thinking.

For example, one day they had been slow to leave the classroom and were the last ones left. Shinsou had spotted Aoki's finished homework for the next day, which had fallen on the floor next to her desk. Instead of leaving it on her desk for her to find when she realised the error, he'd folded the paper up and taken it home. Aoki had to redo the homework between classes so she wouldn't get detention.

Danny didn't hold it against him in the slightest, sure it was kinda mean but the students at the school, especially in their class, were a whole lot meaner. It wasn't like Shinsou would do anything to get someone expelled or excluded, it was just little inconveniences that made him feel better about the whole situation and less hopeles.

(It was why Danny didn't hesitate to use his quirk on his classmates to help cheer up Shinsou when he needed to.)

In some of Danny's moments of extreme homesickness he imagined Shinsou and Kirika going to Amity park and showing them around. Maybe even introducing them to Sam and Tucker, and show them the Ghost Zone.

He and Kirika had been trapped in the Quirk Universe for over a month now, and Danny would like to say that he'd gotten Shinsou to break out of his shell a bit more. Though he still remained tight lipped on a few subjects, Danny was sure that he'd be able to crack him by at least the new year in a few weeks.

At least once good thing came from this whole situation being that Japan didn't really celebrate Christmas, which had been the best thing he'd heard when Kirika told him that.

"So we're getting close to high school applications, you have any idea of where you're going to go if you're still in Japan?" Shinsou asked as they sat down to play a racing game together.

Danny frowned. He didn't like the fact that applications were so close, it was almost the middle of December, and applications were late January to mid February. The idea that he was going to be here long enough to actually start a new school in April was nauseating really.

"Nope, no clue. I don't think it really matters to me, after all I don't think I'll be staying to high school graduation anyway." Danny shrugged. "What about you? I'll probably try to get into whatever school you're going to, being the new transfer student again would suck."

Shinsou faltered in his game slightly, allowing Danny to take over him, but the boy shook his head minutely. "I dunno. There are a few schools I've been looking at..."

Danny pursed his lips at that response. It was hard to figure out but it kind of sounded like when Shinsou didn't want to talk about something. Was he...worried about Danny maybe making fun of him or something?

"Dude, I can tell you have your heart set on something. I promise to take you seriously if you tell me."

Shinsou fell silent at that, and the silence between them persisted until the race ended. Danny turned to look at his friend, wondering if the boy would quickly move away and drop the conversation completely, but Shinsou was still sat there silently his hands still on the wheel.

They sat there in silence for a short while before Shinsou closed his eyes, took a deep breath as if to brace himself, then responded. "I want to go to a hero school."

"Okay? That's cool. You'd probably make a pretty good hero." Danny shrugged, and almost jumped when Shinsou's head whipped around to look at him immediately. "What?"

"You...Shinsou stared looking so baffled, Danny was almost concerned. Then suddenly his expression hardened, as he had to shove down hope. "You're lying. No one ever thinks I can be hero, if they know about my quirk."

Danny sighed and turned his body to fully face Shinsou. "Remember how I said that your quirk didn't scare me? That's still true, and it's a really powerful quirk. If you want to use it to be a hero, then good for you, you'll be able to pull it off if you work for it. Really."

Shinsou stared at him wide eyed for a long moment, processing the words, before he gave Danny a gentle and shy smile before he looked away.

"Thanks..." He said quietly before clearing his throat. "Anyways, I bet you I can beat your ass at air hockey."

Danny smirked. "You're on."

[kirika art]

[imtheflash]

Forgotten

It's been a two weeks and Alex still hasn't woken up. She was shot 2 weeks ago and still hasn't woken up. The thought hits you like a train going full speed. It's her birthday today, She wanted to watch the new Game of Thrones promo. No, no it was the new DC movie wasn't it? A horrifying realization dawns on you. Your forgetting her, its only been two weeks and your forgetting her. No you can't forget her. Kara tapping your shoulder to get your attention shakes you out of your thoughts.

"C'mon bubs. We might be able to get to the DEO faster if leave early." It's taken a toll on Kara too. Instead of being in an upbeat mood like she used too she was also rather depressed. It hurt to see your older sisters like this, one on a bed and the other putting an act on for you.

You nod and move gripping onto her shoulders as she takes on the familiar flight to the DEO but not before grabbing a post-it note stack off of the desk.

You start writing into the notes from your spot in a chair next to Winn in the DEO. He glances at you once or twice but eventually gets back to work on researching how to get Alex out of the small coma she was in. Apparently you couldn't help yet because your only 16 but that didn't stop you from hearing conversations and putting in you input where you could. You go back to writing keeping an ear out for any news.

She wanted to watch the new Spiderman when it came out

She always thought that donuts with chocolate sprinkles tasted different than rainbow ones

She almost got a motorcycle with blue decals because It looked more "badass" but ended up getting the black one because the other one was a triumph and she liked Ducati's.

Remember that she liked the alien gun "remakes" better when we worked on them together to rewire them so they'd shoot faster.

Once you and her snuck on to the roof of the DEO to see the clouds because you were bored. You almost got caught when you came down but she managed to get you guys away.

She always fought Kara for potsticker's but didn't really like them anyway

Little things like this kept on getting written down. For days you wrote everything down filling half of the stack of post its and moving them to a notebook small enough to fit in your pocket. Four weeks later Alex woke up and your notebook was forgotten for a few days. But instead of letting it happen you still wrote everything down

Once instead of saying c'mon guys she said c'mon gays and started laughing.

Her favorite song is Highway to hell AC/DC

It kept on going on and on and on. Eventually you stopped, realizing that she isn't going to disappear again. That Lena was good enough to bring her back again and then some. So you let lose a little. But you never let go of the journal. It stays with you in your pocket all the pages worn out and almost filled up with your handwriting. You never let anyone touch it.

But then Winn calls you from your spot in the lab looking at a piece of seaweed through the microscope because you've been in the lab for a couple minutes messing around with Alex, putting random things under a microscope just for the heck of it. The notebook gets knocked out of your pocket and lands on the floor as you race over to Winn with a smile on your face as he gloats about how he finally beat Kara at Pacman.

Alex finds the notebook face open to a random page. She knows that one of you are bound to trip over it if she doesn't pick it up. So she does and is about to place it on the table when she catches glimpse of the words inside. She can't stop reading after she reads the first sentence.

Her favorite movie is Moana but if anyone asks she'll say any horror movie.

Remember when you raced up the stairs to Kara's apartment and you beat her by 2 stairs

She loves to go rock climbing

Once we all rode ATVs and yours fell over and you couldn't stop laughing because you were fine and she was super worried

Once she almost

She hated

Remember when

She tried to

There are tears running freely down her face now as she see's you stumble back in the room tripping over the slight raise on the ground your head still thrown back laughing because of a gloomy looking Kara.

You have your back too her and are still looking through the microscope when she says your name

"Y/N"

You pause turning at her shaky voice and freeze when you see the notebook.

"I-uh" you try to find words, to try and explain how you needed to remember her. That you couldn't bear the possibility of not remembering every single detail about your older sister who was so painfully gone those days but now is here and is in front of you. She rises from her knees and steps closer to you.

Your voice comes out smaller than you'd like it too. "I didn't want to forget you." I couldn't forget you your brain screams as you run your hand through your hair

You elaborate "you were gone for so long it" your voice cracks "It sucked!" You pause chest rising and falling fast to try and phrase the next words, unable to look her in the eyes.

"I started forgetting things. Like your favorite movies or-or your least favorite song. I'm sorry"

Your voice died down to a whisper as you looked at your boots ashamed of yourself.

Two arms wrapped around you as you glance up surprised. Part of you wonders why Alex is hugging you. Why she thinks its forgivable to forget her, any part of her. The other part of you wants to sink into her arms and never ever let go. She seems to make the choice for you burying her head in your neck as you repeatedly murmur "I'm sorry" tears flowing from your eyes as well while you listen to the "its okays" and "its not your fault" falling from her lips"

At some point both of your tears stop and she finally lets out a small chuckle handing you back your notebook.

"My favorite movie isn't Moana by the way. Its Big Hero Six."

@bluberryboy

[ihatebnha]

With the beauty stuff going on here- think Bakugo and Shoto (maybe Shinso?) would comfort their s/o in regards to not entering certain clothing stores? I can't go into a lot of them because all/the majority of their clothes are for skinny/petite women and I can't fit into it. Plus, with all the good looking girls who work in those stores I can't help but compare myself and see the trash I am. Sometimes I get physically sick if I walk into the stores because its so overwhelming. Sigh. Wish those boys would be a comfort, but they'd probably just be awkward or break up wif me. Especially explody boy.

Legend... the only thing that’s trash here is your garbage attitude! I wanna let you know that I’m on the tubbier side, too... so when you say you’re trash, you’re calling me trash, too... and I honestly don’t like that nor do I agree... (and trust me, I hate fitting rooms too... why do you think i only wear pajamas all the time?)

because the truth is...YOU’RE NOT! You just live in a world that favors conventionally attractive and skinny people over everyone else. Obviously it isn’t bad to be either of those things, but we all have a duty to work hard at rewiring our brains to reevaluate society’s sense of beauty (esp since its very eurocentric, too). 

it’s also funny you sent me this because I honestly believe that all the boys in bnha like chubby girls (but ofc they don’t discriminate)! im very genuine when i say that EVERYONE is their ideal type, and i could honestly talk for hours about how they’re too busy being heroes to give a crap about petty things such as looks and weight. 

the truth is, “real men” (and real partners, for that matter) don’t care if you’re heavy, have beauty marks, anything, so therefore... the bnha boys dont mind those things, either. 

plus lmfao... todo, bakugo, and shinso are all actually in my top list of chubby chasers soooo (although im biased and think every character is on that list tbh)... 

none of them would break up with you for your insecurities! They of all people understand what it’s like to be ashamed of things (as Bakugo faces feelings of inferiority, Shinso has his quirk, and Todo’s family is bananas), so they would only want to comfort you if you ever expressed your concerns. 

Not to mention, they all seem like the type to be in a relationship for the long haul... So if they’re already dating you, it means they’re in it FOR LIFE🤞🏻

Which is why, none of what you do could ever bother them... and as for comforting... 

I don’t think either Bakugo, Todo, or Shinso are really going to notice if you don’t want to or can’t go into certain clothing stores. They’re heroes (and boys for that matter💀) with a lot on their mind, so if you mention you don’t like shopping somewhere, they’re just going to assume that you either don’t feel like it or it’s not your style. 

Their heads don’t really connect your insecurities with your shopping preferences, simply because they assume you already know what you like to wear and where you like to shop.

In Shinso’s case, while I can see him picking up on some of your subtleties, such as avoiding certain stores and/or sections, he’s probably not really going to think it’s a serious issue or bring up the topic unless you initiate the conversation yourself, mostly because he (doesn’t want to be at the mall) assumes you already know that he likes your body and really doesn’t care what you wear. 

That being said, when you are in fitting rooms together, he gets pretty handsy even before you start getting frustrated by things. Definitely distracts you from doing anything by whistling at you or grabbing at your thighs and pulling you between his legs from where he sits on the tiny stool they’ve provided... Also probably puts in some effort beforehand too, helping you pick out things that he likes and are more likely to fit in the first place.  

Bakugo is pretty similar to this, as well. With his parents working in the design industry, he definitely has a good eye for sizing and can help you pick out the most accurate things for your body type. He’s actually really useful because you can hold up anything, and he’ll generally have a pretty good idea on whether the style will suit you or not, and if it’s in the right size. This makes trying things on a bit more bearable, as you honestly end up fitting everything you bring into the changing room. 

He’s also good to shop with because he’s probably not gonna let you go to any shitty clothing stores either... So wherever you end up going is probably gonna have better stuff that’s in every size, anyway (it’s literally like 2200 and people have quirks... you can’t tell me stores would have things for literally every shape). The nice thing about this too is that everything you end up getting is super comfortable for that exact reason. 

Definitely can stay pretty serious in the dressing rooms... but you have to be careful because the moment you guys get home he’s gonna be horn-nee. 

Todoroki, on the other side of all of this, is literally motherfucking useless. It’s not that he doesn’t want to be comforting, it’s just he really just doesn’t put the puzzle pieces of your insecurity together AND thinks you look good in everything, regardless... so even if you tried to explain why you hate shopping, he’s just like “but everyone has things they don’t fit?” 

HOWEVER..... the redeeming quality about him is.... HE IS RICH!!! And probably grew up with a tailor, and/or at least a family stylist, so once you’re in with him, he just adds you onto the bill for that, too. Say goodbye shopping, hello to having clothing that fits you shipped right to your door... (and Todo just loves staring at you while you get measured for outfits). 

SO.... sorry for my earlier harshness... it’s just because I love and care about you sooooo much!! as well as understand what it’s like to feel like a freak in forever 21... 

ANYWAY... here’s just some little things I wanted to include, too! 

-

I used to think that Bakugo wouldn’t have a preference for thick girls, but then I saw this tik tok that was like, “my attractive friends always ask me where all the hot and fit boys are.... in these guts bitch” and my perspective changed entirely... I just know a beefy boy like him who has a mean mommy LOVES curves... like you can’t tell me he doesn’t see your belly and absolutely melts... like that shit is straight FAXXXXXXXXXXX no printer... (i also saw a tik tok today that was like, “would you fuck me if i was skinny? and the person said “i would fuck you right now.” and tbh that’s big baku energy LOL) 

Todoroki also definitely gives me vibes where if you’re like, “but i look ugly in ____,” he’s just like, “doesn’t matter, it’s you.” AND YES TBH i cried

AND shinso... god tbh shinso is the guy that all your friends are jealous of bc he’s the one who’s like, “I like my women with meat on them” because he doesn’t believe in skinny culture or diets... he wants you chubby bc chubby just kinda looks more correct.... tbh king shit

[rueclfer]

okay op this one is for youu ✊🏼 (soorryyyy timeline ik yall hate to see me coming with another hawks x todofam crashout)

so to understand hawks' and shouto's parallel to one another, i think it's important to look at their relationship with their predecessors and what went wrong™️.

i do not need to go into dabi and shouto's too deeply bc everyone is v much familiar with that dynamic (look at op post. yeah) but just to reconfirm, shouto is everything dabi was promised but never got. the quirk. study at UA. become a pro-hero. his father's approval.

the thing about shouto and dabi is that dabi has a glaring victim complex (AS A FAILURE. AS A KID WHO GOT REPLACED. NOT AS A VICTIM OF ABUSE) that he suffocates in while shouto doesnt? really? have? one? at? all? it's the best case scenario as an abused kid tbh like he takes his trauma and uses it as a step stool u know.

hawks and lady nagant RAAHHH lady nagant is trained to be a killer/weapon until she snapped and killed her handlers -> locking her away (circle back to touya real quick n think about sekoto peak. yup yup. mhm. wanted to prove to themselves that they could handle it until they couldn't anymore. YUP.)

(the parallelism in these panels actually makes me sick to my mf stomach like hori did not come to play)

so as responsible heroic adults do when they see someone break under the immense weight of being a murderer in the name of good, they.....................find someone younger and rewire their entire being and psychology to better fit the role. and it works. it works so well that hawks refuses to see himself as a victim. his loyalty is shackled to the commission after they made a child into a soldier and gave him someone to look up to and want to do well by (endeavor and lady nagant). -> THIS is what endeavor intended to do to shouto after his first failure child. fit the role. be #1. surpass. surpass. surpass.

i'm not saying that shou has some sort of fucked up heroic philosophy ingrained in his brain, okay that is not where their similarities lie.

their similarities lie in their role as the "glue" in relation to their families -> hawks ENVIES shou. in his brain, hawks believes that shouto is stronger than he ever could have been. he stayed for his family. he endured the abuse. he HAS a family. he became a hero.

"i gave up on them. moved on and left them behind" -> hawks talking abt his bio family

hawks couldn't save his family. despite being #2, having support from the hpsc, the popularity, money, looks, charm, etc, he will always be chasing that paternal love that HE thinks HE drove away. something that HE couldn't save. the hpsc preys on this and makes him believe that he's also the "glue" for hero society/hpsc, which he was made to believe to be his redeeming "family" that he can't risk failing thus making him so painfully loyal.

when i say that hawks is what shouto could have turned out like if he had dabi's mindset, i'm talking about if we take the failure, people pleaser, golden child complex, from dabi (lady nagant and hawk's inner turmoils too lmao) mixed with the talent, quirk, and popularity of hawks (his pro-hero facade do not get it twisted) -> endeavor's ideal perfect ass child

shouto had dabi to look back on as did hawks with lady nagant. two sides of the same coin, where one falls and the other runs. but only one makes it out alive (and its shouto. hawk's ass is too far goneeee)

people thinking dabi would care about the abuse shoto went through when this panel exists

his ass is JEALOUS!! HE DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK!! (i know it's nuanced but my point: this guy is genuinely so messed up in the head he doesn't Care, if anything he'd be mad shoto isn't grateful for this life. He wants what he has)

[todomitoukei]

I think its weird to use 100% real life judgment on bnha when its a story about people with powers. Like, the only reason bkg or dk havent killed anyone yet is because the author said so. The reason AM didnt kill afo is because hori didnt want to. Its the same violence and the same crazy powers from every side. Basically dabi is not much more violent than anyone else there, but hes a villain and hes craaazy 🤪 so everything is automatically evil with him.

People also forget about this part from the USJ arc:

when Shouto literally says “ayyy guys, I’m going to not kill you. Is it because of my morals? Nope! It’s because I wanna be a hero so I can’t :)”

Also not to forget how all these kids could have already killed numerous people but, just like you say, Horikoshi doesn’t want them to kill so people magically survive (i.e. in both movies, Shouto attacks a villain in a way that would definitely be fatal under normal circumstances).

Also, people forget that Dabi is literally a villain. He has to break some laws to get that label. He didn’t have to kill those thugs or Snatch, but Horikoshi wanted him to instead of having him just commit other crimes (considering being part of the League of Villains is enough to establish him as a high-class villain).

Not to mention the fact that this is a fictional story. There are so many fictional stories where people kill others and it’s barely addressed, if at all. Just think about all the video games (games like Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, Assassins Creed,...) where you constantly - as the hero of the story - kill people and it’s barely ever mentioned to be a bad thing because the people you kill are the bad guys and also they aren’t relevant characters - they’re just obstacles. But do you ever see people saying that Lara Croft is evil because of this? 

People forget that our judgment is heavily influenced by perspective. We are more inclined to side with the main character because we mostly get their side of the story and not that of the opponents. People then often tend to gloss over crimes that the hero of the story commits since we are supposed to root for them and stories usually tell us that those crimes are necessary; like with survival-type stories where it’s an either you or them situation.

This isn’t to say that killing isn’t bad. In fact, in the case of Dabi it’s supposed to be bad to those around him because he killed all those people in order to reach his goal of bringing down Endeavor. He wants this to be a bad thing.

But the point is that we - the audience - are not supposed to look at this VILLAIN and go “omg he killed 30 people, how could he???” - we’re supposed to look at the tragic case of a boy that never got to live his own life, who got raised to get to the top and then dropped as soon as he wasn’t good enough anymore; and instead of giving up, he turned the whole thing around and decided to raise the person that put him through this hell to the top only to drop him - just like he was dropped before. 

It’s the sad story of someone that was hurt so much he couldn’t take it anymore, whose brain couldn’t take it anymore so it rewired itself to the point where he thinks he has to commit crimes in order to ever find peace in all of this.

The characters he killed were nameless and irrelevant. We know Snatch’s name, but he got killed in the same scene he was introduced in. We’re not supposed to just see Dabi as a murderer because him killing people is supposed to show us just how bad the abuse has traumatized him.

Endeavor, on the other hand, we can more likely continue to associate with his crimes because his victims aren’t nameless, nor are they irrelevant. His entire family gets shown to us and how his past actions still affect them now. So if we have a harder time forgiving him/don’t want to forgive him at all, it’s not just because of what kinds of crimes he has committed, but also who his victims are. 

Dabi killed 30 people - that’s a number.

Endeavor abused/traumatized Rei, Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shouto - those are people we know.

Anyone that keeps bringing up the “he killed 30 people” argument is just outright ignoring the bigger picture and misses out on a deeper conversation about the effects trauma can have on people as shown to us through a fictional story because they somehow value the lives of fictional nameless characters more than that of real people.