#when it's the same techniques being used in the way they're very often used because the therapists are taught to use them that way

[thethingything]

so CBT never worked for us in therapy. basically every instance of it was therapists trying to get us to stop being anxious about very real problems that were very likely to happen. like, situations that were not only likely, but would be very dangerous if they did happen. sometimes even things that had already happened and were likely to happen again.

meanwhile we have an app on our phone that guides you through various CBT exercises and it turns out when we use that for the kind of shit where we already know our brain is being irrational and we just want to get our thoughts together and work through the issue by writing it out, it works really fucking well and oh look suddenly we've been doing CBT for an hour and processed the root cause of several key emotional issues we've been having for years.

funny how that works. it's almost like we can actually figure out for ourselves when something is irrational and when it's an actual real problem that could put us in danger and shouldn't be dismissed. who'd have fucking thought it

[mrghostrat]

some tips for writing flow

i've had a lot of comments complimenting my writing style, most of which don't know how to explain or describe what they like about it. i never really knew either, but i've been paying more attention to the way i write things lately, in the hope of being able to understand and explain it.

a lot of this is "based on feel" with no hard and fast rules, but there's also very tangible techniques you can hopefully work into your own writing, if that makes sense? idk is this anything—

1 - sentence beats, and alternating them.

this is probably the biggest thing in my writing. i've realised my sentences can be measured in beats, based on their length and how many sections they can be broken into. the pattern changes often, and i don't have a concrete rule in how i fill a paragraph (again, i've only just put words to any of this), but it's probably the most important part of my flow. let's have a look:

1 beat: • this is probably the biggest thing in my writing.

2 beats: • i've realised my sentences can be measured in beats • based on their length and how many sections they can be broken into.

3 beats: • the pattern changes often • and i don't have a concrete rule in how i fill a paragraph • but it's probably the most important part of my flow.

it looks like a favour certain patterns, the only real "rule" i use is to construct a paragraph with various beats, and never put two side by side. whenever i'm struggling with my flow, it's usually because i've put two of the same beats next to each other and everything feels either stiff or crowded. i rarely put two side by side, unless it's for specific emphasis.

the other exception are paragraph breaks: these are a pause for breath, and allow us to reset the pattern. i often start and end my paragraphs with single beat sentences, and it doesn't feel like they're running on because there's that lovely breath between them.

2 - short paragraphs

the rule we learn in school is that new paragraphs are for new ideas. convert this to prose, and we can consider "ideas" to include the character's thoughts, new narrative tangents, and physical movement around a scene.

one of my biggest struggles reading "bad" fanfic is when paragraphs are too lumped together. crowley will walk into the bookshop, see aziraphale across the way, wander over to a shelf, select a book, then pour himself a drink all in one big chunk. i can't parse that. there doesn't have to be a new line break for every new action, but grouping the relevant ones together and breaking in between broad motions (i.e. walking across a room, acknowledging a character) can help ease readers through the scene.

paragraphs are a breath, not only for sentence flow, but for processing the action within a story. similarly, purposefully keeping multiple actions confined to a single paragraph can make them feel quicker, while breaking them up into multiple paragraphs will slow down the pacing (even if the amount of detail describing each action is the same). included some examples because i'm struggling to explain this one

3 - mixing metaphors

this might sound less flow related, but i used to struggle with it a lot as a young writer, and paying more attention to it has definitely helped clean up my flow and writing overall.

i love a good analogy, but it can be easy to get carried away, and this can bog down the prose. my personal rule is that i can get silly with my metaphors (see: the mon chéri magnet), but i can only use one at a time. no talking about the magnet in aziraphale's chest and the angel and demon on his shoulder within the same scene.

if i'm getting silly and long winded with a metaphor, i also try to limit the length of it to one or two paragraphs. paragraph 1: set up the metaphor, establish the analogy. paragraph 2: come back to the reality of the scene, then mention the metaphor once more to link it all together. if i'm feeling cheeky, then i mention the metaphor again ONCE in passing, a couple of paragraphs or even chapters later

the magnet was a fun one, because i kind of flipped how i would usually present a metaphor, with the long winded tangent coming last instead of being the set up. and even though i used the metaphor 3 times, it felt like 2 because the set up was really just a planted seed for what i'd be mentioning later in the theatre. referencing the "whispered curse in the dark" also helped tie the scenes together and keep the analogies neat and tidy in our heads

meanwhile i got a little more carried away with the space metaphor in postcards (i feel like there's probably a 4th and maybe even 5th mention during the bookshop scene), but each one was blink-and-you'll-miss-it brief that didn't slog down the prose.

4 - avoiding repetitive pronouns

we're all going to struggle with this, and i don't have a secret hack for avoiding a wall of "he this, he that, he then," and i honestly try not to beat myself up over it too much. but there are two things i check to make sure it's not getting too repetitive:

1. looking within a paragraph

apparently everything revolves around paragraphs and the breath between them lmao. i don't have a strict rule like "use the character's name once per paragraph, then 'he' for the rest" or anything like that, but it's in that kind of vein. i simply pay attention to one paragraph at a time to watch for too much repetition, and if i notice it's been one or two whole blocks without switching from 'he' to a name, i'll chuck one in to break it up.

2. paragraph starters

this is so picky. and i don't know if it does ANYTHING, but it bugs me when i'm writing and i notice every paragraph starts the same way. maybe it has no effect on the flow at all. but i like to make sure my paragraphs aren't starting with the same "he" "he" "he", and that forces me to go back and switch around the pronouns in recent sentences, so the next paragraph can flow on more smoothly.

5 - use interruptions appropriately

edit: sneaking this one in here as a final thought! i just want to mention the use of em-dashes, semicolons, footnotes, and parenthesis mid-sentence. it's common to favour one in particular, but each have spectacular uses and can add miles to the pacing and flow of your prose.

em-dash (—) interruptions, cutting off dialogue— pausing to make a point — like this — in the middle of a sentence.

semicolon (;) helps with making lists and continuing a compound sentence that doesn't really link with 'and' or 'but'; when you want to pause, but a new sentence would break the flow of things.

footnotes (¹) these should be optional additions to the text imo. you should be able to keep reading without looking at the footnotes and not lose an ounce of story. they're additive, not necessary.

parenthesis ( () ) a great way to interrupt yourself (less sharply) than with em-dashes, include longer pieces of information (like what you might put in a footnote, except more crucial to the narrative that you don't want people to miss!) and adding sass (lol) and tone to your prose.

[l-in-the-light]

Luffy vs Katakuri. Fighting Oneself on the Other Side of the Mirror (1/2)

This post about Luffy's and Katakuri's similarities was requested by @mewiyev, I hope you will enjoy it! Also, there will be a part 2 coming up :D

I often mention that Whole Cake Island is our Alice in Wonderland arc of One Piece. Strawhats explore the Mysterious Forest and find their own dopelgangers that look like their own reflections in the mirror. That theme is especially important for Luffy and Katakuri's fight.

The mirror and its reflective world are symbolic of transition, transformation, identity, and perception. Mirrors can also reveal the future.

Right at the beginning of the arc, Luffy finds his doubleganger. It serves as foreshadowing to his fight with Katakuri of course, but also introduces us to the oddities of this new adventure. Strawhats enter a fantastical world (mysterious forest, but also Whole Cake Island in general) where the laws of physics and logic do not apply.

To move forward you need to go backwards, when you want to rush, you need to walk slowly, everything is reversed, like in a mirror.

Resting and relaxing before a battle? That's not how world works according to Luffy! Doing a stealth mission instead of beating up the emperor? Unheard of!

A cooking Luffy?! Welcome to Luffy in the Wonderland adventure! Mirrors often show us also "the opposite of what is normal or expected".

There's even someone taking over Sunny and attemping to steal Luffy's position as the captain of the Strawhats! Even later trying to recruit Luffy as his own underling, turning the familiar hierarchy completely upside down.

And that person is suspiciously similar to Luffy, especially in his powers, but also his personality, code of honor and strength of will.

They even mention that it feels like fighting oneself.

Except the tiny fact that Katakuri is "slightly" better than Luffy.

His techniques are better versions of Luffy's.

Mochi, despite being quite elastic and stretching, is a bit different from rubber, it's sticky and you can eat it, and it definitely doesn't bounce. That's why despite the similarities, Katakuri and Luffy are also different people when they start this fight.

The obvious difference between them would be the mastery of observation haki.

Now, there's no denying that Katakuri's observation haki is very impressive, but, as we learn later, it's less about developing the skill and more about "how he uses it".

You can fool your opponent thanks to it. We know from Pekoms that Big Mom's strength lies in her ability to acquire information. That's her biggest power. Katakuri knowing what Gear 4 or elephant gun attack is, doesn't have to be the result of his observation haki, but cleverly faking it and adjusting it, based on all the intel he acquired about his opponent beforehand. That's how he makes his powers seem even more terrifying. Because like Bege said: "looking into the future doesn't make Katakuri more special", but overwhelming his opponent into believing that it makes him invincible is definitely working in his favour.

He's the strongest General Officer in Big Mom's empire and Strawhats declared war on her all the way back in Fishman Island arc. Katakuri had plenty of time and reason to do his research for his future potential opponent.

Katakuri sees right through Luffy's attack and understands his intentions like they're transparent. That's because he would probably do exactly the same in this situation: take the blow on himself to prevent anyone else from getting harmed.

Katakuri as a child would never accept people laughing at him, but he learned his lesson thanks to Brulee getting hurt. The same way Luffy learned his lesson from Shanks, who ended up losing an arm as the result.

They both want to defeat each other at their best.

They both rely on imagination in the fight, adapting new techniques quickly. Katakuri was so delighted with the donuts he made them into his new attack. At the end of this fight Luffy gets inspired by Katakuri and exploits the future sight's weakness by adapting unpredictability (like in his fight with Enel) and as the result his Snakeman is born. It's the first time Luffy's attacks don't follow any laws of physics, instead they mimick Katakuri's mochi qualities!

And meat is source of strength for Luffy.

They're on the same page. They want one on one fight with no one disturbing them. Katakuri even brought Brulee here, like he was hoping Luffy's actions would lead to this outcome. They're almost guessing each other's thoughts here. Is that observation haki, or is that them just being so similar to each other? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Katakuri criticizing Strawhats for being overly emotional, despite being worried about his own brother as well. He keeps his calm no matter what, but he doesn't do it for himself, he does it for the people he still needs to protect. Luffy also demonstrates it when he tells everyone to not waste Pedro's sacrifice and escape.

But just like rubber and mochi can be similar but aren't identical, Luffy and Katakuri also have some important differences.

Katakuri is quite considerate, but also peculiar about his sweets. It's kinda reversed for Luffy who can eat just about anything and won't complain (despite his preference for meat), but will often behave in inconsiderate ways, especially when he eats all the food by himself and won't leave anything for others.

Luffy also is clearly more chaotic and crazy than Katakuri, if Brulee's reaction is anything to go by. And she probably knows Katakuri the best out of everyone ;)

Katakuri has a reputation to uphold which is vastly different from Luffy's: the walking chaos. Katakuri is the perfectionist on the surface, but...

It turns out even Katakuri isn't perfect and can also lose his calm. He has his weakness, he hates when others see how he looks when he eats and would avoid it at all costs. It didn't use to be this way, it's the result of his past, he decided to "change his nature" (carefree, earnest, soft) for the sake of others, literally and figuratively hiding it from other people's perception.

Mirrors are said to have the power to deeply disclose who we truly are. That's not a coincidence that Luffy and Katakuri's fight takes places in the mirror world of all places.

But Luffy, after catching up on Katakuri's true nature and seeing through him, knows that Katakuri isn't that stoic perfectionist that we were led to believe. Luffy is honest with him here, telling him he needs extra time to recover, not hiding anything. Katakuri reacts with "I'm not so soft to let you get away like that!", but he actually is. After Luffy miraculously escapes, Katakuri just sits and waits for him to return, despite the fact he says he half-expected Luffy to escape and not come back.

As the battle goes on, differences between Luffy and Katakuri dimnish further, they start to reflect each other more and more. Even the thing Katakuri couldn't comprehend: Luffy's neverending determination to stand back up despite falling to the ground over and over again in shame of defeat.

Luffy tells him. "It just feels much better that way". Being able to just freely voice his thoughts, to complain when he feels pain or hunger, to thank his opponent when he feels grateful to him, to fall to the ground when his opponent's attack is stronger and better. Live earnestly, embrace everything that is thrown at you, just do your best the way you are, not by trying to be something or someone you're not. Be free.

And at the very end of their battle, Katakuri does the same, for the first time in decades, erasing the last difference between Luffy and himself: he also falls on his back. Luffy placing the hat on his face is the sign of respect, but if you think about it, it erases the whole point Luffy was trying to make, doesn't it? It's like telling Katakuri to still hide his weakness. But Luffy never meant to undermine Katakuri's resolve. He just tried to show him that he can be free while also respecting the vow he made to himself long time ago. One doesn't exclude the other, if that's what you choose for yourself, by yourself.

That's what changed for Katakuri and it stays true later on. Katakuri is still hiding his face, as we are shown through Egghead arc. And that is not a contradiction. The vow he made in his childhood never stopped being important to him, after all, and we will explore the reason for it.

But what changed for Luffy? Alice in the Wonderland is said to be a tale about Alice maturing. So does Luffy change or learn lessons from this adventure or does he just become better at haki and that's it? We will take a closer look at it in part 2. Edit: part 2 is done! https://www.tumblr.com/l-in-the-light/763644921544638464

(yes I run out of pictures per post space again)

[midnightshade]

GojoHime: Evidence and Discussion

Jujutsu Kaisen isn't a romance series. It's a horror action series that focuses more on platonic bonds and camaraderie between its characters. That being said, just as any shounen series, it has its fair share of ships, each with its own assortment of crumbs and small details.

GojoHime is a particularly interesting ship to look at. Being a massive fan of it myself,  it's fun to pick through the evidence that supports it. I'd like to share the evidence that I and many other GojoHime fans have found. I'll be starting with the smaller, weaker evidence first and working my way up to the strongest evidence.

Before I start in earnest, I want to clarify that this isn't made to attack any other ship. People can ship whatever they want, and no ship in the series is canon (aside from exceptions like Hakari and Kirara). I like GojoHime so I want to talk about it. That's really it.

With that out of the way, let's begin.

First, let's start with the evidence outside of the manga itself. This one isn't very compelling, but it is cute. In Japan, there is a chip brand called Bakauke. Bakauke has two mascots known as Borin and Barin, who are girlfriend and boyfriend. When Bakauke collabed with Jujutsu Kaisen, Utahime and Gojo were chosen to represent the Borin and Barin respectively, thus being depicted as girlfriend and boyfriend.

Moving on to evidence found within the actual manga, we see that on the splash page for Gojo and Utahime, the print behind them depicts arrows known as a Yagasuri pattern. In Japan, this is a symbol often used for weddings. It's meant for good luck because "a shot arrow does not return," and therefore, a married woman does not (or should not) return to her parents.

We also see depictions of them under an umbrella often used at weddings. Sharing an umbrella is also a common romantic trope in Japan.

Other smaller evidence exists in the form of their phone call. This consists a beeper code, where the number of their call spells out "I like you" in code, and another interesting detail is that Satoru calls Utahime from his recent contacts, implying that he calls her often.

Gojo and Utahime were made to be opposites. Aside from the obvious "opposites attract" trope, it creates a compelling visual story between them. Man and woman, strong and weak, modern and traditional, blue and red. Satoru hates alcohol and loves sweets while Utahime loves alcohol but hates sweets.

Gege said Gojo only puts down his Technique with people he trusts, which we see him do with Utahime. He trusts her enough to have to actively put his Technique back in place after she throws a teacup at him.

Moving on to some of the strongest and most convincing evidence, we have Waka Inoue, Utahime's very own technique, and Gege's past works.

Gojo had a picture of Waka Inoue as his background as a teenager. He clearly finds her attractive, as is common, considering she's a popular model, but the reason why this is important is that Inoue shares a lot of similarities with Utahime.

Both women have noticeable bangs, they're the same height (166cm), and they share a love for alcohol, karaoke, and sports, specifically baseball. Waka is described once as a "competitive crybaby who hates to lose," and as we see in the Anime, Gojo has a way of firing Utahime up and she is also prone to being a bit of a scaredy-cat and a crybaby. We also see her more competitive side come out during the baseball tournament between Kyoto and Tokyo.

Moving on to Utahime's Cursed Technique, as some Japanese fans have pointed out, Utahime's Soro Soro Kinku (Solo Forbidden Area) is based on a real love song about forbidden love with lyrics about a masked lover. The records from the singer, Akina Nakamori, are called Utahime records, and the singer even does Gojo's unlimited void hand sign during her live performances of her song, "Fin."

The most compelling bit of evidence for me is Gege's past works. Two of his three one-shot manga have characters who are very similar to Gojo and Utahime. The male protagonist is usually cocky and teases the female protagonist, while the female protagonist gets annoyed at his antics but is otherwise down to earth and kind.

In Nikai Bongai Barabarujura, the protagonist, Noroma, reminds me of teen Gojo in appearance and behavior. He is "the strongest" who teases Nodoka, the female protagonist, for being weak but has an obvious respect for her drive and inner strength.

In Kamishiro Sosa, we have a similar set-up as before. The male protagonist, Ganji, is very energetic and careless with the female protagonist, Rekko's, feelings, and is seen to have a very similar type of banter as Gojo and Utahime have.

Gege clearly likes that type of pairing, which isn't surprising given the bickering couple and rivals to lovers is a popular trope in romance. It's not unusual for Mangaka to reuse old ideas, and that seems to be what happened with Gojo and Utahime. Even their appearances share similarities.

As you can see, GojoHime has a lot of thought put into it, and it's very interesting to see the little details Gege has put into their dynamic. There's definitely a reason why so many adore this pairing, and I'm glad Gege has paid attention to that.

[ckret2]

Do you believe bill will eventually get better, even if it takes close to an eternity? Or do you think that is just his destiny, to forever be in denial of his mistakes?

I think on a long enough timeline change is inevitable. One way or another, Bill can't stay the same for an eternity.

He isn't necessarily getting better, though. Meds could leave him brain damaged, brain dead, or dead-dead—that's a real risk in psych wards from overmedication, errors, or adverse reactions to drugs, and I doubt Bill would have complained about the place being overmedicated unless the drugs were actually doing something to him. He could crumble under the stress and end up complying with whatever it takes to get him out of there and leave as a broken husk of who he once was. Or he could get more traumatized, more angry, more defiant, more hateful, spiraling on into infinity.

Psychiatric hospitals are, by and large, awful places to be. In fact the only time I've ever seen positive reviews of a psych hospital are from people who have been to multiple and are relieved their latest one is so much better than normal. A very common happy outcome of a psych hospital stay is literally "I absolutely needed to be there and going was the right choice, and I'll be traumatized the rest of my life because of it." And that's when the psych hospital did well.

The Theraprism uses solitary confinement + total sensory deprivation—which humans use as a torture and interrogation technique—as a punishment. I don't think they're doing it well.

I think Bill can improve—mainly because, frankly, at this point there's not a lot of ways left his situation could get worse—but if he does, at this point? It'll be in spite of the Theraprism, not because of it. It's pretty common in psych hospitals (particularly forensic psych hospitals, where all the patients also have the stigma of being criminals) for the treatment to hold patients back more than help. Things like patients that have committed more violent crimes being scrutinized much more than other patients and thus rated as more unwell than other patients displaying the same symptoms. Or patients objecting to taking a med that makes their mental condition worse, and being written up as noncompliant for it and pushed further back from being released until they agree to take the drug that makes them worse. Or patients having innocent behaviors reinterpreted as signs of mental illness ("keeps a journal" = "pathological need to write").

But he could improve. Maybe being cut off from his powers & his enablers will cause him to think over his life for the first time; maybe he'll make actual emotional connections with fellow patients that help him improve; maybe he realizes "this is the worst place ever, I've GOT to turn my life around" and starts checking out self help books from the hospital library. There's even a very slim chance he might get a competent psychiatrist who listens to him, doesn't assume he's incapable of self-insight just because he's mentally ill, and sees him for more than fifteen minutes once in a blue moon—all of which aren't traits you find in psychiatric hospitals as often as you might hope.

Dandelions can grow from the cracks in sidewalks, and people can improve in shitty psych wards.

But I expect the Theraprism will have to reform before Bill reforms.

I expect even more that Bill will find a way to escape before either thing happens.

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Lorch is talking about writing again...

[Lily's Post]

Where do I even start here?

Okay first lets define what subtext is. Subtext is when a detail or meaning is conveyed indirectly through tone, dialog, character actions etc.

I talked about gay icon Gus Fring in relation to Lorch's thoughts on villains recently. Him being gay is entirely subtext. Even his final scene in Better Call Saul that practically hits people over the head who didn't pick up on him being gay is still subtext.

Gus is not the kind of man to come out and say "I'm gay", you won't see him at a Pride parade, you won't see him decking Los Pollos Hermanos in rainbow flags during June. That's just not in character for him. And yet both shows still, through subtext, communicated to us that Max was not just his friend and business partner but his lover.

(even the name of their restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos is a clue. It was not unusual for old school gays to just claim to be siblings in order to explain away why they live together)

And Gus' final scene in BCS shows him very much mooning over the sommelier he seemingly often chats with at his favorite bar. But we can also see him decide at the last moment to not get involved as his cold, dangerous drug and revenge filled lifestyle won't allow for love to spring anew. None of this needs to be stated aloud.

Okay with that out of the way lets dissect Lorch's nonsense:

So as usual Lorch's opinions on writing all absolutely come down to her not getting it and being bitter that other people do.

Whenever she talks about writing or fandom it becomes clear that the one thing Lorch absolutely can't stand is not being the smartest person in the room. But she has never been the smartest person in the room. So instead she has to decide that things other people understand that she doesn't are just worthless and overused and need to be done away with.

Subtext, worldbuilding, metaphor, lore, they're all just stupid things people use to SEEM smart, because LORCH doesn't understand them and so they must not matter.

Notice she doesn't give a single example of these things. She just starts with the assumption that people only use subtext because they think they have to or are trying to "look smart" and not because, you know, most audience members don't want to read or watch something that's basically the cliff notes of a story like you do, Lily. Subtext can aid in immersion and believability, especially when it comes to dialog.

You don't understand how to make an analogy either I see.

How the fuck is Lorch putting serialization in the same category as subtext and metaphor. Serialization is a method of story delivery, Lorch. It goes all the way back to dime novels and penny dreadfuls.

Something could be completely absent of subtext and metaphor and still be serialized. The fuck are you even talking about?

People don't "understand your point", Lorch, because you don't know what you're talking about and every single one of your opinions just comes back to your inability to understand narrative and your annoyance that other people do. But instead of expanding your understanding you try to control how people engage with and discuss narrative. You haven't deconstructed shit you just rage like a child at writing techniques that have been refined over centuries.

[denial-permanente]

I love your page and that the two of you share so much of your lifestyle on here. I’m not sure if this is a statement or a question. I’ve read your answers about realistic feeling of this strap on you have and the technique of warming it up first. I just can’t wrap my head around your preference for it compared to the real thing. There has to be some give and take here like, it doesn’t feel as good but Tom’s technique with it is better than the real thing? Something along those lines. Stamina maybe? Either way thank you both for sharing so freely and so often!

😅 Oh boy, this is a hard one for some people... both women and men... to understand.

A lot of, women say that they don't like the feel of dildos, that they are unnatural, or they feel off, or they're too cold, or they just don't like the idea. I was kind of like that myself, and honestly I never even thought about using them with my husband. He was... very satisfying in bed and I honestly didn't feel the need to bring anything else in.

So, when my husband discovered the Vixskin company, he researched them carefully and bought a model that had a size and shape that was very close to his own. There was something about the feel of it that felt more normal to me. It wasn't quite him, but it felt okay and it was attached to him... so it was him close to me, his smell, his muscles, his arms holding me. I decided that I could live with it.

But here is the important part. After a while his wearing it began to feel totally normal. Just like having him locked all the time felt totally normal. I loved him being horny and affectionate all the time, I loved having all the control over our love life, and I loved how passionate he was making love to me while wearing the Tex.

When I missed feeling him come inside me I would unlock him... but those times became less and less often. We often went for months at a time without me wanting to unlock him... which meant that his wearing the Tex felt more and more natural to me.

Eventually he figured out the trick of warming it up before we made love, and that made things go from feeling natural to feeling... better. Like, I don't know why he didn't think of it sooner, it's so simple. But because I could feel the heat inside me it made our lovemaking more intense.

And now here the part that you men always ask about: unless your wife is a porn star, do not assume that she really wants a foot long monster inside her.

After 4 years of using only the Tex my husband asked if I wanted to try something bigger. While I honestly did not feel the need to I went along out of curiosity. We ended up with the Ranger X for several reasons. One is that it was supposed to have been made with a different process that made it more lifelike. Another is that when looking at the dimensions it was only a little bit bigger... maybe an inch longer and a half inch thicker. But when we first opened the package that little bit bigger on the website looked huge!

I have written before about what it was like getting used to it. But to the point of the question, I found that it made my husband feel the same to me but different... and in a good way.

Remember... when we make love I am feeling my husband holding me close, whispering in my ear, his weight on top of me, his hot cage pressing into my ass. All of those things are him... how he feels and smells and sounds. And because he is totally focused on me, he moves the way I want him to move to give me pleasure depending on my mood.

I guess what you were looking for was for me to say "I love the Ranger, but I miss my husband because..." except that there really isn't anything because I don't think of it that way. I do not think of him as wearing a strapon... I just think of it as doing what was very natural for us... just with something that feels even better than the Tex.

[quillpokebiology]

Riolu/Lucario are vulpines??? This is news to me, do you have any fun facts about them?

I had facts about both of them a while ago, but I deleted those. But here's some Riolu Facts!

Riolu Facts

-The scientific name for Riolu is "Caniculis Aurus" which roughly translates to "Little aura dog"

-Riolu have the same Aura sensing abilities as Lucario, but it can be overwhelming for them as they're not used to all of these emotions. In the wild, Riolu can hide when they feel overwhelmed but it can be difficult to do that when with humans. To make your Riolu feel comfortable, you should try finding a quiet place where they can relax or use grounding techniques

-Riolu are both highly diverged canines and vulpines, and are most closely related to Houndour

-Riolu are very clingy pokemon and will follow their trainer everywhere

-In wild Lucario packs, Lucario will put the ones with positive auras around the eggs to guard them, as they think it can make the egg hatch healthier

-Riolu are very popular anime protags because of the way they vigorously train their aura abilities and battle abilities

-Because Riolu mostly live in mountains, their paw pads are very tough to protect from any jagged stones. It's very yard to break the skin

-Since they are able to sense other people's aura and emotions, they're very popular pokemon to have as therapy mon

-Aura travels in waves, and Riolu will communicate with other Riolu and Lucario by sending out Auras and tracking them back. It works similar to echo location

-Riolu will also use their aura sensing abilities to sense how strong an opponent is, determining whether the fight is worth it or not

-Wild Riolu are very quiet as they can communicate through auras. They're a lot more talkative in captivity

-The things on Riolu's head are flaps of thick skin. They are used to help Riolu sense and travel their aura sensing abilities

-Riolu are able to sense emotions and aura, even before they hatch. Many Lucario parents will show affection to the eggs, send their auras, or speak to the eggs so their Riolu will recognize them once they hatch

-While Lucario don't often like being petted due to respect for their trainers, Riolu love being petted and love affection from their trainers

-Riolu's mask are used to protect them from the glare of the sun

-Riolu are excellent pacers, and they can chase their prey for hours. They're entire hunting strategy is waring out their prey until they collapse, which is when they go for the kill

If you're curious, here are Lucario Facts!

[yourbloodysunrise]

Hi! I saw your blog and I love your writing btw.

Can you do a separate platonic hc of Ninjago ninjas (+Wu and Gaemadon but they're optional) with a male oc who's basically a lot like Sun Wukong from Lego Monkie Kid, but different?

Basically same idea, super powerful immortal dude thought to be gone, that caused havoc with the hierarchy. Unlike Sun Wukong the legends doesn't describe him as a hero, but as a cruel destructive monster, and yes the legends are true. So then dude was sealed away for centuries until villains freed him to help them conquer Ninjago and destroy the ninjas.

But then dude just doesn't, like straight up doesn't want to because he doesn't feel like it, turns out he's very chill and easy-going, also lazy, looks very human and normal but still powerful as hell. And then he just seems to take interest in the character that you're writing the hcs for, acts very mocking and condescending towards them for being 'mortals', likes to scare the shit out of them, will do it more often if they are scared of him, and sometimes show them what is supposed to be forgotten techniques and knowledge out of 'pity'. He actually do care about them but won't show it unless they're in actual real and serious danger. And may tone his annoying habits down with time.

As for Wu and Garmadon same thing he just acts way less condescending and mocking towards them than he does with the ninjas but it's still there.

🌤 — my, that's sound interesting!I'll do all my best to try making this as you expected to see :)

❝ Isn't this guy should be a villain? ❞

— FANDOM: NINJAGO

— PAIRING: MAIN NINJAS(+MASTER WU and MASTER GARMADON) x MALE!OC

— PLATONIC

— HEADCANONS

— TW: BAD GRAMMAR, BAD ENGLISH, OOC, IDK HOW TO CALL OC SO HE MENTIONED AS "you" xd, NINJA'S DON'T REALLY LIKE DUDE AND I CAN'T BLAME THEM, CAN CONTAIN SPOILERS

LLOYD:

☆ ┈ Like almost everyone else, at first he will treat you with distrust.

☆ ┈ It's like, "you're that dude from the legends, right?Shouldn't you be, well, evil?"

☆ ┈ Most likely, you are interested in him because of his status. The same green ninja who defeated the Overlord himself in the battle against good and evil, but is still a teenager?

☆ ┈ How intriguing.

☆ ┈ He is usually annoyed by your taunts and responds to them with sarcasm.

☆ ┈ You can't blame him, imagine that some guy from the legends is awakened by villains, but instead of fighting you, he starts just walking next to you and mocking you, and you can't even do anything about it.

☆ ┈ At first, he will be scared if you start scaring him, but over time he will get used to it and stop paying attention.

☆ ┈ He's really trying to treat you better, but your taunts in his direction put him off.

☆ ┈ Now, let's talk about what can fix the situation.

☆ ┈ For example, if you show him some kind of combat technique that is considered forgotten.This..Flatters him. No, really, he's pleased.

☆ ┈ Perhaps at some point you will offer him additional training to develop his potential, because "as a green ninja you could do better."

☆ ┈ I had the idea that you would literally be Lloyd's bodyguard at the time when the Sons of Garmadon took over the city.

☆ ┈ You is like: this girl Harumi hunting this green whiner? Pfft, tough shit. *secretly running away to kick her ass*

☆ ┈ Soon you will become something like..Friends, almost.

☆ ┈ Lloyd starts to like your company, but with time, and you stopped mocking him(not quiet, but in the most part)

☆ ┈ Others ninja's honest reaction when you two suddenly began to get along: 😶

— "I feel like I can be myself around you!"

— "..You're weird and lazy around me."

— "Think about it."

NYA:

☆ ┈ Her reaction to you would be "I won't hesitate, bitch." AND IT'S TRUE.

☆ ┈ Nya been hostile to you for a long time, mostly because she doesn't fully understand you.

☆ ┈ Wow, a dangerous dude who could destroy you turns out to be lazy and calm guy, and also constantly hangs out around you and laughs at you?

☆ ┈ Cool, yeeeaah…

☆ ┈ And why?

☆ ┈ You are definitely interested in her personality.  Independent, brave, but at the same time sensitive and also diffident. What a cocktail of feelings!

☆ ┈ You won't be able to scare or offend her, she'll get kind of angry, but she'll just try not to think about it.

☆ ┈ Due to the fact that Nya usually does not pay attention to you, some people from the outside see you as something like friends. It annoys, but it amuses you.

☆ ┈ After that, you will purposely call her like "bud", "darling", "Lily pad"..Just to see her reaction.

☆ ┈ Your relationship can definitely be called complicated.

☆ ┈ If the villains freed you during/before season 5, you will be the one who will help you train. Nya doesn't seem to mind, but she doesn't understand why you're helping her despite her hostility.

☆ ┈ I think she's just closed to you, but there will be times when she'll soften up. For example, if she is in danger and you help her.

☆ ┈ Over time, Nya may become more in contact with you, because in her eyes you cease to be an enemy. She is not ready to see you as an ally, because she still doubts you, but certainly does not consider you an enemy.

☆ ┈ It seems to me that Jay might be jealous, but not as much as he is of Cole. If your presence touches the love triangle of Jay, Nya and Cole, then you would be the one who pushed Nya to talk to them about it.

☆ ┈ Of course, it would sound something like "Come on, I just started to like you, pull yourself together and deal with them, don't make me change my mind!"

☆ ┈ But hey, you at least tried, right?

☆ ┈ In general, you have a dynamic of dangerous creature that for some reason simply refuses to destroy, and a person tired of it who cannot get rid of the creature.

— "What's up with you?"

— "Mm, what do you mean?"

— "You've been nice and helpful all day. What's your game?.."

JAY:

☆ ┈ Guy is completely confused and does not understand why you paid attention to him.

☆ ┈ Come on, man, there are so many people here!Just go away, okay?

☆ ┈ When you try to treat him condescendingly, Jay just either jokes or interrupts you and leaves.

☆ ┈ He actually feels uncomfortable about it. Like, is he worse than others, since you are bothering him or what?

☆ ┈ Jay could be really scared if you start scaring him, and if you continue to do this, he may start to get hysterical about it and try to get into a fight with you.

☆ ┈ He is stopped in time, but he will still feel hostility towards you for a long time. It seems to me that he is the most vindictive towards you of all.

☆ ┈ You will have a hard time if you try to establish a relationship with him. Yes, you care about Jay, but at the same time you treat him mockingly, so it definitely makes him angry.

☆ ┈ He, like Nya, will not quite appreciate your gesture if you reveal to him some forgotten knowledge. As it were, he would rather be confused and try to figure out why you did it.

☆ ┈ In order for you to somehow fix the relationship, you will most likely have to not scare him at all and turn ridicule into jokes. Only then will he think that you are not so bad.

☆ ┈ Jay will definitely start liking you more if you help him with Nya. No kidding, if you "out of pity" give him some advice without ridicule, he will be very grateful to you.

☆ ┈ In general, there are four phases in your communication with Jay: Denial, Anger, Confusion, Acceptance.

☆ ┈ I recently reviewed Skybound, and if I may mention it here:

☆ ┈ If you were freed after the events of Skybound, then he can mention you about it after the Acceptance stage, when he will already trust you at least a little, but not fully;

☆ ┈ If you were freed before/during the events of Skybound, I am sure that you will be the one who will actively protect Jay, so that you will instantly move to the stage above Acceptance, but I do not know exactly what the outcome of events will be, so be content with what you have :p

☆ ┈ It seems to me that you would have the dynamics of a more sensitive MK and Macaque, if compared with LMK.

*Jay and Nya look into each other's eyes*

*You open a can of soda*

— "Hey, can you keep it down?!We're having a romantic moment here!"

— "And I have soda."

KAI:

☆ ┈ Unlike others, he perceives you as a kind of rival.

☆ ┈ Kai is not mind a good opponent in the form of you. He is overconfident in this..However, this has always been his problem.

☆ ┈ Maybe you decide to feed his competitive spirit simply because it amuses you?

☆ ┈ Kai can't fight you seriously, considering that it's not in his best interests, but when it comes to something not deadly, he doesn't mind taking the initiative.

☆ ┈ For example, if you live with a ninja (no matter how much times they try to kick you out), he feels that he has to compete with you.

☆ ┈ You, finding an opportunity to have fun in his fiery mood to fight with you, play along with him.

☆ ┈ Because of this, you two really can't called enemies. You treat each other almost the same, make fun of each other or just joke, sometimes it feels like Kai doesn't even know how powerful you are. (most likely, he does not know, and he will find out later, but it is too late and he does not change his attitude towards you)

☆ ┈ This is probably a rare case where a ninja doesn't hate you right away. I would say that Kai finds you a rival, not a villain, especially considering the fact that you refused to destroy the ninja, even if you did it just because you didn't want to.

☆ ┈ He will often ask you to fight, of course you don't fight at full strength, so as not to flatten him against the wall, but enough to knock the spirit out of him.

☆ ┈ Kai is definitely the one who will train with you. At first it's just your usual duels, but with your advice, and later he can easily use your techniques. At some point, he may even actually fight you.

☆ ┈ The main thing: not overdo it!Other ninjas didn't like when you accidentally knocked Kai into the wall last time..

☆ ┈ If you were freed before/during season 4, expect a lot of work. In the end, what can you do if your favorite ninja is trying to fight an snake army of crazy noodle man, a fire snake squeezes all the strength out of him, some ghost inhabits his friend and also many bullshit?..A lot of work!

☆ ┈ P.s. When you scared him, he tried to scare you for 2 more weeks in retaliation.

— "Nice scar, hot head, but hair? Gosh, what you was thinking about, bud?"

— "Ha, you're the one who telling me that? You should see your hair after being sealed away for damn centuries!"

ZANE:

☆ ┈ He is..not sure how to react to you.

☆ ┈ Thanks for not helping the villains and all that, but is it necessary to mock him?..

☆ ┈ By the way, whether you will mock at him or not is a big question. Let's take a look at the possible options.

☆ ┈ If you were freed during/after 4 season, then you will most likely laugh at Zane for being a robot and easily incapacitated.

☆ ┈ If you still caught a moment when he looked like a human, then everything will be the same, BUT after he sacrifices himself and restores himself as a robot, your honest reaction will be this: 😳

☆ ┈ You can say that in the second option you leave Zane alone, because you most likely have already become attached to him and are just glad that he is here again.

☆ ┈ In general, it will probably be difficult for you to tease or scare him simply because he either does not understand most of your taunts or does not react in any way. Often both. And it doesn't work to scare him at all, he just passes by.

☆ ┈ He's strangely polite to you, and that puzzles you. Soon, if you stop mocking him, he may begin to see you as something of an ally.

☆ ┈ Zane will be grateful if you share with him something that is considered to be forgotten. Most likely, it will become publicly available later, so don't be surprised.

☆ ┈ P.I.X.A.L. DOESN'T like you, she constantly warns Zane that you are still a dangerous villain who brings destruction. In order for her to start trusting you, you'll probably have to save Zane from some bullshit.

☆ ┈ I thought back to season 11, and I had the idea that maybe Zane as the Ice Emperor could remotely remember something about you. (yeah, this is exaggerated, but listen-)

☆ ┈ Of course, he doesn't remember you fully, but he remembers that you were connected to him. Perhaps he has a silhouette of you or something in his memory, so his minions are strictly forbidden to attack you.

☆ ┈ All in all, to sum up, the two of you have a dynamic of "I can fix him." and "Haha, funny robot, lol."

— "You should stop acting ridicilous."

— "Well, someone's gotta be jester for the court, after all."

COLE:

☆ ┈ Okay, let's start with the fact that he doesn't understand you.

☆ ┈ Yes, exactly doesn't understand. Cole can't understand why you refuse to fight the ninja, why do you hang around him so often?

☆ ┈ He would be flattered by your attention if you didn't behave so condescendingly towards him.

☆ ┈ Cole finds you..Annoying, but at the same time, he's not against you. He wouldn't want you to help the villains who freed you capture Ninjago instead.

☆ ┈ Sometimes you can have fight, and, well, it's unpleasant for both of you..

☆ ┈ Cole is physically strong even without his elemental power, although it reinforces this, you are just as damn strong, but not completely physically. Because of this, you both get hurt in your fights, and your relationship noticeably hinders your ability to get closer.

☆ ┈ Soon, when he starts to get used to you, the fights will stop, but quarrels are still possible. Most often they happen if you make fun of him or try to scare him.

☆ ┈ Despite your quarrels, you and Cole are a great duo!In fights, the opponent should pray that you are not alone, otherwise nothing good will obviously happen.

☆ ┈ Both of you will soon relent. There are fewer quarrels, you become less condescending towards Cole, and he in turn becomes more relaxed with you.

☆ ┈ Show him an old, forgotten dance!No ancient knowledge or techniques can arouse his interest as much as dancing.

☆ ┈ If Cole has free time and Jay is busy, he prefers to spend it with you. Yes, you are not the best choice..But he likes you, so you have a pass!

☆ ┈ He most likely prefers to train with you, or, what else is better in his opinion, just be lazy with you. He even tried to teach you how to play his favorite video games.

☆ ┈ Your complicated relationship, even after a long time, will become something like a friendly one. Cole likes your presence, you like his personality.

☆ ┈ You form a strange but successful collaboration. Other ninjas don't say anything about it, because they see that you care about Cole, even in your own way.

— "I want a cake.."

— "Me too."

— "Let's steal it from that fiery guy!"

— "..."

— "Well, why not-"

MASTER WU & MASTER GARMADON:

☆ ┈ First, let me explain why they both in one headcanons, when others separate.

☆ ┈ Considering that Wu and Garmadon have lived for about a millennium, you are most likely familiar with them. Perhaps were even friends until you began to destroy, and Garmadon succumbed to evil? Who knows..

☆ ┈ I prefer to stick to that version that, and therefore it will be more convenient for me to write about them together.

☆ ┈ In this, you are interested in Wu and Garmadon rather because you are curious about what happened to them while you were sealed. After all, so many years have passed, you'd like to know how they went!

☆ ┈ If so, this explains why you mitigate your annoying habits with them. It's rude to mock old acquaintances, isn't it? This is definitely not the way to greet your friend!

☆ ┈ While you are trying to restore your friendly relations with Wu and Garmadon, despite everything you have done, Wu treats you neutrally, and Garmadon is more lenient.

☆ ┈ God, please don't mention that you and Garmadon are similar in that you both tried to destroy Ninjago, it will infuriate the hell out of him because unlike you, he was literally forced to become evil. (cough Overlord. cough)

☆ ┈ You're just trying to get your friendship back, which you're having a hard time doing. Garmadon is disappointed in you because of your actions, and Wu does not want to stir up the past because he already has a lot of problems related to it.

☆ ┈ Mocking or trying to scare one of them will most often end up with you being hit on the forehead with a staff. Because you've been sealed for centuries, you don't look very old, but they already look old, so you look like a naughty child and his guardians.

☆ ┈ For some reason, I have a feeling that you can make friends with Lloyd in this. In the plan, you probably won't be condescending to him just because he's Garmadon's son, and he'll be friendly with you.

☆ ┈ If you were freed before season 5, then rest your soul, because Morro can't stand you. If you have not yet been sealed at the moment when he was still a student of Wu, then he remembers you perfectly well, and this is BAD, because no matter how he resents Wu, he knows about your former friendship, and believes that you betrayed his Master, and for him this is unforgivable.

☆ ┈ At some point, they will most likely start to get used to you, which means they will stop being wary of you. You wouldn't put up with it for so long just to get back at them in the end.

☆ ┈ The dynamic of former friends, one of whom tries to restore friendship, and the other two ignores him, but eventually accept him, I think.

— "Heeyy!It was long time ago, friends!"

— "We're not your friends."

— "How do you even get in Monastery?"

— "..Okay, you two didn't miss me, I got it."

..:*･ﾟ☆.｡.:*･ﾟﾞ｡.:*･ﾟ☆.｡.:*･ﾟ🌤

🌤 — ah, I've finally finished writing this!sorry for the long wait, I had no motivation for some time, but here we are!

🌤 — I decided to do Wu and Garmadon because I long to write for characters that are important in the plot, but for some reason no one asks for them :/

🌤 — but here we are!hope you like it, come back soon!☆ <3

[comicaurora]

Lighting critique of a recent panel ! Dark ambient lighting is a favorite art subject of mine, so i figured this would be a good time to give some input ! ii say as if we havent been in the undergroound chapter for like a month in which it didnt occur to me to pay attention to lighting Oh well loool here it is nowwwwwwww hope you dont mind the input

Huh.

Okay, so first off, thanks - this is cool and your lighting looks very nice. I look forward to seeing what you make!

Second - I really hope sending this kind of ask isn't a habit of yours, because unsolicited artistic criticism comes across as remarkably rude.

Art criticism for the purposes of improvement is a social contract entered between two artists, typically in a scholastic environment. An artist presents their work to other artists whose opinions they trust and value, and those artists weigh in with their thoughts. Critical to the process is that the presenting artist is showing their art for the purpose of improvement, and they're prepared to receive that input because they're actively asking for it.

In contrast, I make this comic so people can read it, and while I certainly don't mind if they take it apart to analyze it or find ways the writing and art could be improved, I, the creator, am not asking for that and - more importantly - will not really benefit from it.

For instance, in this case, my style of background lighting and shading is optimized most specifically to accommodate for the fact that I need to make a lot of these pages quickly, and correspondingly cannot give everything 110%. Any individual panel could absolutely be more polished, but I often shade these backgrounds in batches of ten pages or more, each page with an average of six panels that need individual shading. So that's sixty individual backgrounds I need to shade in one go. It doesn't make your advice wrong, or even unhelpful for an artist setting out to learn this kind of technique - but it does make it unhelpful for me. This is something you realistically had no way of knowing, and I don't hold it against you! But this is why I have a short list of artists and writers whose input I actually ask for sometimes, and that list is composed of people who know me, my creative priorities, and how my process works. Because they know what I'm working with, their advice stands a much better chance of being actually helpful to me.

Criticism, like all art, has an audience it is designed for. In art school environments or artistic coworker situations, the audience for the criticism is the artist being critiqued and the other artists who are learning from the communal experience they are all agreeing to share. This is the exception and not the rule, however. Outside of this space, the audience for criticism of a work of art is typically the subset of the audience for that work of art that are trying to learn something from the experience or understand what did and didn't work for them. This group can discuss what they did and didn't like, what they would have changed, what parts worked for them that may not have worked for other members of the audience, etc. This space of critical analysis forms the backbone of most fandoms and can be incredibly interesting and rewarding to play around in.

The audience for that kind of criticism is not the creator of the art. In the same way a creator can never be fully immersed in their own fandom audience, this form of communal critique from the audience side of things does not work when directed at the creator. In the context of this work of art, we exist in very different spaces and operate under different parameters. If there's one thing I learned from back when I used to check in on the fan discord community, it's that most conversation in this space operates under the assumption that the creator will not see it or take it personally. I cannot be in the audience of my own audience.

All that to say, thanks for the thought, but please be careful doing this in the future - tumblr is the land of kneejerk hostility and poor reading comprehension, and I don't want to see you getting shredded for a kind intention. And I hope some people find this impromptu tutorial helpful!

[the-sun-and-the-sea]

Odesta Week Day 1: Modern AU Monday

"Did you hear the news?"

Annie digs into her locker to find her coat, only half listening to the girls on the other side of the lockers. Whatever news they're sharing can range from somebody lost a paper clip to the world is ending outside, and she probably wouldn't believe them either way. The girls at Panem Skating Club have a penchant for gossip that is more frequently false than true. 

"What news?" the other girl asks. Annie can only see flashes of dark hair every so often from where she's standing, but she can't tell who's speaking. Somebody a few years younger than her, probably. 

"Finnick Odair is looking for a new partner."

Annie almost laughs aloud, but refrains at the last second. Finnick Odair is something of a legend in their skate club. His older brother Adrian was a former Olympic solo skater who took home the silver a few years ago. In their small town, that basically makes you a hero. Finnick himself is a great skater, but hasn't gone to the Olympics yet. Still, he and his partner Cashmere are pretty unshakable. The thought of either of them retiring so early is ludicrous. 

"No way," another female voice calls, as Annie pretends to not be listening. "Cashmere's only twenty-three. That's a pretty early retirement."

"Age isn't the reason," says the first voice. Annie's brows furrow. Injury, maybe? "She's pregnant." 

Whatever is said after this point, Annie doesn't hear. Her coat and scarf are wrapped firmly around her body and there's no need to listen to the gossip any longer. Even if it is true, listening in on the details of another woman's pregnancy just feels invasive. 

Her ankle aches dully as she walks out the doors of the skating club. She's recovering from a minor case of bursitis in her ankle. It's kept her at home for the past three weeks, and Annie hasn't been back on the ice until today. Today's practice had left her sore and exhausted. Apparently, it would take a few days for her body to get used to skating again.

That's one of Annie's biggest issues with solo skating. There's nobody there to compensate for your faults, or to support you in your successes. There are coaches and other skaters who may be friendly, sure, but come competition time, it's just her on that ice. 

These days, Annie's beginning to wonder if she even wants that. 

***

Annie can't be certain why she does it. 

She sits in her car, parked in the diner's parking lot. Maybe it's because the rink started to fill up and she had nothing to practice with no coach. Or maybe she's just curious. 

Okay, back up. Earlier this morning, she had made it to the rink for a practice session, although that quickly proved to be useless. The one highlight was meeting Mags Flanagan, Finnick’s coach. She was an Olympian back in her day before retiring from competitive skating to coach others into the same success she had. When asked about it in interviews, Mags says she'll quit when Finnick does.

So it was quite the surprise when Mags asked Annie to consider being Finnick’s new partner. 

The offer didn’t completely come out of nowhere. It’s not like Annie has anything better to do, and Mags had said that her technique was almost perfect. Her flaw in skating wasn’t about the jumps and spins. It had always been about emoting. Her coaches have been telling her that for years, but their vague instructions have never made sense to her. She can do almost any jump they ask of her, and her spins are basically perfect. What else is she missing?

"Finnick, on the other hand, feels the emotions of the performance very deeply,” Mags had told her. “Sometimes, his technique gets...lost."

And if Mags Flanagan thinks that she and Finnick can balance each other out, it’s probably not a bad idea to at least consider it. 

Taking a final deep breath, she leaves her car and walks into the diner. 

Finnick Odair isn't hard to find. Not only is he one of the most well known faces in their skating club, but he has a sense about him that radiates life. He sits with his back to her in a booth, idly stirring sugar into a cup of coffee. 

Before Annie can talk herself out of it, she slides in the booth across from him. 

"Hi, Annie," Finnick says, like he's known her for years. "Coffee?"

"No," Annie says. "Thank you."

She's expecting the silence to linger, but Finnick picks up the slack easily. "Mags told me you might be coming. I know you probably have questions, but if you want to know why Cashmere's retiring, you should probably go to her for that."

She shrugs. "It's not my business."

"Oh," he says, showing his first hint of surprise. "Cool. Okay. Well, I know this would be a risk."

Annie pretends to peruse the diner's menu, but her mind is on anything but breakfast food. "That's an understatement. Most pair skaters have been together for at least a decade. We'd be at a major disadvantage."

Finnick sips his coffee, wincing at the heat. He pushes it away. "True. But it's not like we're doing so great right now. I mean, my partner just left. And you're..."

She's what? Washed up? Obviously not making it anywhere beyond the confines of her own rink?

"You're a good skater, Annie," he decides on. That was diplomatic of him. "I've seen you perform, and I agree with Mags. But forget about that for a second. If you're happy where you're at, I can respect that. But if you're even a little unsatisfied, what do we have to lose?"

Annie's throat constricts. When she can finally get words out, she asks, "Don't you want to go to the Olympics?"

"I would love to go to the Olympics," he answers automatically, without thought. "More than that, I want to skate."

The same can't be said for a lot of skaters. She doesn't know many people who would be satisfied through the sport alone. There's a certain buzz that comes from competition. Watching her scores climb, standing on that podium. It's intoxicating. Sure, they love the sport, but they love more than just the skating. 

Finnick's unasked question still hangs in the air. "Okay," says Annie, because Finnick's right. Why the hell not? "Let's try."

[gayofthefae]

We've only seen a Mike and El kiss be shot intimately from Mike's perspective ONCE (I rewatched it before finalizing and would like to correct it to ZERO TIMES)*, at the Snow Ball.

Their first kiss was a wide shot then close from El's perspective. Their make-outs were all wide shots (Hopper's perspective), with him once leaning in in a closer shot in El's perspective before it cut back out to a wide. El kissing him in 3x08 was from his perspective for a moment, that's the closest, but we immediately cut away to a wide - something that I have heard many a note on "takes you out of the moment", and we can see his body language indicates that "intimacy" may not be what we were going for as close shots can also be used to indicate discomfort. One could also argue the closeup of her leaning in as simply a reverse shot to her intimate perspective the moment before. Then, of course, their airport reunion kiss. Famously distant, with I believe 4 extras crossing in front of the camera during the embrace.

Even the Snow Ball was a camera circling them not specifically for him, but it still was purposefully timed to include his perspective and chosen that way so I do include it.

It's just very interesting to note. We actually don't know how he feels about kissing her. We've been robbed of that information by only being shown a third party perspective.

Additionally, wide shots of kissing tend to make people uncomfortable. Naturally, it makes you feel less like you are one of the characters and more like a voyeur, watching your friends make-out. Or, in the show's situation, a father watching his daughter.

The wide shots of kisses elicit discomfort. The only times they're nice is when we see them in El's perspective and ONCE. Once. From Mike's.

*Correction here! 0 times. The shot of him leaning in is in fact in El's perspective at the Snow Ball and the kiss itself happens at about the midpoint. So the closest you can get to an objective shot AGAIN. It also doesn't last long enough to truly reach qualifying as an over the shoulder shot of El for Mike while they're kissing. I would probably say it qualifies just as he starts to pull away, ironically. To contrast, Lucas and Max's kiss is definitively in Lucas' perspective, with their hug afterwards definitively in Max's, despite using the same camera circling technique.

In conclusion, we have 0 data on how Mike feels about kissing El. Zip. Zilch. Nil. That absence of information is queer-coded as hell. In El's perspective, he does not make distinctly emotionally decipherable facial expressions and in his kissing her is not an intimate experience. If anything, it's a distant one.

Stranger Things is big on "learn the rules so you can break them". That seems to apply to cinematography too. I have been told if you use an ots shot you HAVE to provide the reverse shot. They do not do that. They're short kisses, yes. But they could technically make them a second longer or rather lengthen them in the edit by showing the lean in from one perspective and kiss from the other.

One last comparison, J@ncy's very first kiss is also quite short. But they get a shot and reverse shot right before and right after before they kiss again. Non ots shots are used often for kissing and "non-conversation" but even then, they are typically close: shoulder up. Mike and El have a history of having their entire torsos in the shot, making you feel like you're sitting on the edge of the bed watching them. Perhaps because Mike is not feeling it and as such, still completely aware of his surroundings? Who knows.

Either way, there are ways to do it and they have done it those ways. Slightly less objective by putting it in El's perspective when they wanted us to be on board for the first two kisses, but not in Mike's. Never in Mike's.

[itsclydebitches]

The amount of times RWBY wants us to feel scared for the safety of characters while conveniently forgetting Aura exists is staggering. Neo attacks Ruby with the intent to kill but her Aura is still active. James almost shoots Marrow with the intent to kill but his Aura is still active. Watts hacks an Atlesian Knight to run towards Qrow, Robyn and the Ace Ops with the intent to explode but their Auras are still all active. Sure the attacks would hurt like hell but they're not gonna kill, why should I fear for their safety?

If we're being generous (I'm having a good night lol) I suppose we could read moments like James vs. Marrow as shocking not because it would be a one-shot death sentence, but because he's threatening - in general - to take Marrow down. Sort of the equivalent of an IRL person raising their fists. Is that an immediate threat to the person's life? No. Are you making it clear that you're willing to fight over this while also ambiguously leaving it open how far you're willing to take things? Yeah.

You're right though, too often RWBY relies on average action threats (a pistol, an explosion, etc.) to raise the stakes without taking into account that none of that should be very scary to our protagonists. Not until their aura breaks (and we have no sense of when that will happen, despite them all supposedly carrying Scrolls to tell them. Which I get because if RWBY introduced clear thresholds of when aura breaks they'd have to actually abide by that rule). I feel the same way about characters about to fall: Ruby hanging off the airship with Neo, Ruby hanging off the cliff while fighting Cordovin, Ruby and Oscar both going down in an airship. The very first technique we're shown is a landing strategy, so how is falling from a massive height - even while taking into account other factors like, say, snagging the farm boy who never went to Huntsmen school and might need to use you as a personal parachute - meant to be taken as a serious threat?

In this regard the void of Volume 8 is actually a GREAT idea. Suddenly your landing strategy doesn't mean a thing if you have nowhere to land. Suddenly a single hit can be a threat. Not because the hit itself would seriously hurt you, but because it might knock you off the edge. I actually love the concept of Yang falling at the start of that fight, RWBY just did such a horrific job of executing it that there's nothing left for me to enjoy. Why does Yang panic like that when, as established, a single hit from Neo is not going to kill Ruby, or even seriously hurt her? Why is she jumping in front of her sister at all when the entire POINT (supposedly) of her Volume 3+ arc was to learn fight smarter, rather than relying on emotional impulsivity? (I will seriously never be over how that moment is an exact repeat of Yang trying to save Blake and yet the show doesn't seem to realize that.) Why does only Blake have a reaction to Yang "dying"? Why didn't the whole team of talented fighters with various ranged weaponry/magic/speed make a serious attempt to catch her?

All of this isn't even taking into account how Yang, as someone who powers up via taking hits, should consistently be standing her ground like she did against the mech, knowing her aura will not only save her, but give her an advantage. She's the tank. If Yang had gotten in front of Ruby with a confident, calm expression that conveyed her understanding that Neo can't one-shot her aura like Adam once did, taking the hit both to spare Ruby's aura and power her semblance as a strategic decision (give her a smirk and a taunting line like, "Thanks for the boost" before knocking Neo back), then later falls some other way after her team tries and fails to save her... that would have been so much better imo.

Yang's lack of engagement with her semblance has been especially frustrating for me after her line about how Adam "cheats." If Yang thinks it sucks that she has to take a beating to gain an edge... show her actually taking a beating to gain an edge. You know, like the show once did. It would be so badass to watch Yang getting in the way of all the attacks against her team, toeing the line between safety and breaking her own aura, before finally EXPLODING with a massive attack she's been saving up for, making that sacrifice worth it.

(Also potentially devastating if she's taking those hits with turning the tide in mind... but then she falls before she can see her plan through.)

[transmascutena]

Favorite Utena & Anthy domestic hcs?

sorry this took a while to answer, i've been pretty busy! not all of these are necessarily domestic, just general hcs about their future, hope that's alright :)

they live in an apartment full of plants (no roses) and they dream of one day getting a small house with a garden in the backyard.

they learn how to cook and both really enjoy it. they use their own home-grown herbs and spices, and when they one day do get that garden, they'll grow vegetables too.

anthy attends a local university studying 5 different things at the same time because she likes to learn and keep busy. she also has a million different hobbies, her favorites of which are writing poetry (she has at least one very ciritcally aclaimed collection published), painting (she often asks utena to model for her) and gardening (again, no roses)

utena refuses to ever go to school again and works instead. i don't really know as what but i think it'd be funny if she was a car mechanic. she isn't able to play sports for a long time due to her injury, but she eventually takes up fencing as a hobby (she's unsure of it at first, but realizes that despite everything, she did genuinely enjoy swordfighting. and she has always admired juri's skill and technique.)

they have a car (pink, of course, though utena wonders why it has to be that particular color. anthy just brushes it off as it being her favorite and utena indulges her) that they'll occasionally go on road trips in. anthy loves driving and travelling, the ability to go anywhere. she's been all over the world before reuniting with utena and their goal is to visit all the places she stayed, together. she's also an incredibly reckless driver and utena always kind of fears for her life whenever they go anywhere. but in like a fun way

one day anthy brings home a stray cat that she named nanami. utena protests to this half-heartedly but inevitably agrees. nanami and chu-chu have a fierce rivalry over utena and anthy's affection, even though they both get plenty

they still hold hands every night when falling asleep, but they're sharing a bed and are right-side up from each other now :)

it's not perfect. they both struggle with love and trust after everything. sometimes anthy will bottle up everything she's feeling until she snaps, or sometimes utena will snap first out of frustration. they always feel bad and apologize and cry after a fight, but there's just a whole lot of pain and guilt and betrayal in their past, and not all of it goes away just because they're free of akio.

[pretensesoup]

So you feel like learning self defense

Self-defense classes get taught pretty frequently. They're great and will teach you a lot of techniques. On the other hand, you don't practice on an ongoing basis, which is a problem for remembering and executing the techniques. 

You could buy a gun and go to the shooting range. I don't know much about this except it seems like shooting guns accurately is harder than it looks. Also, I would not carry a gun unless you're prepared to actually shoot someone.

So: can I interest you in a martial art, perhaps?

I've been doing martial arts more on than off since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came out. I've been at my current dojo since about 2008. I've been involved in the following arts long enough to hold a rank: kyukido, judo, karate, aikido. I've taken the odd class in: taekwondo, wing chun, gong fu, BJJ (Brazilian jiu jitsu), kendo, and tai chi. Here's some advice on what to look for when finding a dojo:

* Is the space nice/clean? Are the vibes good?

* Do you feel like you're getting a sales pitch or an invitation to train? Do they require you to sign long contracts?

* Do they require that you buy a lot of gear thru them? Do they charge high test fees and require students to grade frequently? Are there young children who have become black belts?

* Do you like the instructor's style? Do you like the instructor as a person?

* Do you like your fellow students? What's the community like?

* Is the art itself interesting to learn?

* Do they treat each other with respect, including not injuring each other when training?

* Also, of course, proximity to your home and cost of classes is important.

Some dojos are very formal and some have only enough hierarchy to maintain a teaching environment. You don't have to become a paramilitary person to get something out of most of them, though. Also, to that point, some dojos get a little mystical--I have been to seminars on using acupuncture points, which I don't really believe in, and my current dojo often talks about chi in a way I don't really know how to think about, because my mind is pretty grounded in Western science. In a good teaching space, you don't have to feel like you're joining a cult or being forced to give up all your prior beliefs.

For me, whether or not I liked the instructor has always been the biggest determiner in whether or not I go to class. A good instructor will help you with what you're interested in, so even if competing is not your thing, you can still get a lot out of a taekwondo dojo when you find the right teacher.

Style: honestly, I think most martial arts are getting at basically the same objective, so this is less important. Also, you may live where there's just one or two dojos, so you get what you get. However, if you have choices, some things to think about. 

* There are linear martial arts (punching and kicking, like karate and taekwondo) and circular martial arts (throws and falls, like judo and aikido). Also there's grappling, which can involve throws (but not always) and chokes and joint locks (usually). And there's tai chi. Idk what to say about that. The chi tells you what to do.

* Some martial arts are sports, like taekwondo or BJJ.

* Some martial arts are very self-defensey. There's a lot of of argument in online spaces about whether they are actually useful. I could not give a smaller fuck about this discourse. 

All that said, here's my brief guide to disciplines:

I want to...

...break boards? Karate, taekwondo (TKD)

...get medals/trophies? TKD, BJJ, judo, MMA, kendo 

...learn to fall? Aikido, judo

...beat the fuck out of people? Krav maga, muai Thai, possibly BJJ or TKD depending on your sensei, maybe wing chun (also lineage-depending)

...dance? Capoera

...mystical chi stuff? Tai chi

...the stuff in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Gong fu + a lot of visual effects

...whatever Jackie Chan does? Mostly karate, I think, except in the Drunken Master series, where he does drunken boxing. I do not think practitioners of it actually drink, but I honestly have never seen it IRL.

...Bruce Lee? Jeet Kun Do or wing chun

...learn joint locks, but also with an emphasis on deescalating situations and trying not to hurt people? Aikido 

...all swords all the time? Kendo, iaido, or katori 

Some martial arts do weapons. Aikido does jo (short staff) and bokken (wooden sword),sometimes knife. Karate does bo (long staff), nunchucks, and sai. TKD does many of these, plus three-section staff, kamas, and probably some others. I don't think judo does weapons. Weapons can depend on dojo/lineage.

Your size and gender shouldn't make a big difference. I am quite short and routinely throw guys a full foot taller than me. It's not about physical strength, it's about position. I think arts like aikido do a good job of teaching how to take advantage of this. My karate senseis were both short, but we never really talked about taking advantage of that. 

A note about rank: it takes different amounts of time to get to black belt. In BJJ, ten years is not unusual. In TKD, it might be 2-3 years. Being a black belt means you've mastered the basics. Don't get too hung up on it. 

[tempenensis]

If you have time, do you mind helping me with some character analysis? Gojo is very hard to write because he's a very internalized person who doesn't actually show his inner thoughts very often. The times we get them, he is much more serious and analytical than his frivolous personality is meant to show.

Gojo is popular for the same reason that people hate him: truthfully we don't know much about *him* when it comes to the kinds of details which can be used to figure out where someone's personality came from. He comes from a privileged background, so there's lots of people who assume that he never really went through any troubles - that he never had moments of self-doubt or needed to find his place in the world, that his powers likely came easy to him because he's a prodigy, that his family "spoiling" him meant that he was never subjected to the cruel or intense training we know some of the nobles have set up in their family homes. He's also always been special, and it's unlikely that he ever had a desire to be a total non-sorcerer. He could walk away any time he wanted, like Yuki, and it's not like anyone could stop him either.

And Gege never truly refutes this. Gojo's personality is also so good at pretending nothing ever touches him (thematic!) that from the surface it could seem true. He is not the kind of person to be filled with self-pity so we never get panels of him hashing out his situation with the other characters (not that he can because no one is his equal enough to do this...). He's so busy he literally doesn't have time to dwell. He has been shown spending time with his friends, but no one wants to talk about the shit job they all do during down time, they unwind and talk about regular stuff, like regular people, and simply enjoy the company.

But deduction also tells us that people who grew up normal and well adjusted don't behave the way he's behaving. (Nobara and Yuuji had the most normal sounding childhoods of all the students and it shows, even behind the typical shonen characterization).

Clearly, the flashback arc is shown because in a way that is the origin story of the current conflict, and the origin of Gojo's current personality (Geto had a lot of positive influence on him).

Gojo turns against the sorcerer system because it cost him Geto, not because of anything that may or may not have happened to him. He was doing every mission the higher-ups could possibly have sent him on after Riko died. He wasn't rebelling against the system, he was trying to solve it by becoming the single solution all on his own. Again, not the response of a well-adjusted person.

He was not originally the kind of person to take revenge or turn against a system for personal issues, although he later becomes a little like this when he starts taking young sorcerer's under his wing.

There's a lot of fandom speculation that has hints that these things could to be true:

He was spoiled by his family, but they were emotionally distant in the way of all sorcerer families, praising the technique and seeing the technique instead of the child who was wielding it. It's possible he doesn't associate closely with his clan apart from very structured social patterns because he realizes that being "special" never meant he didn't deserve being treated like a child or taught how to behave. He's perfectly aware he has a "bad personality" and knows that this is in part because of how he was raised.

He projects emotionally onto the students in his care, and acknowledges that something about the way he was treated (mostly as a fine commodity) was deeply unfair, but he hasn't actually found another way except to acknowledge at the end of the day that this job gives you trauma and it's usually not worth dying for unless that's your thing (I mean how he throws the students into situations where they think they're going to die and his concession is to place himself as the safety net), and that you shouldn't miss age-appropriate events just because some grown up tells you to become a better little cog.

A lot of the fandom likes to assume that using Six-Eyes is overstimulating or possibly painful for him right away because at least then there's a cost to his using his power, and once again the sorcerer system doesn't care about the cost to its workers (I'm not sure about the right away part. we know that if he doesn't cover his eyes he gets tired, but Gege doesn't want to give gojo any weaknesses so who knows how long it takes).

Gojo is maybe not "afraid" of getting truly close to people but he keeps people at arm's length. No one at this point could bear the burden he does, and that's what he believes it means to be his equal. It's possible but unlikely that if someone reached out to him first, he would let him. We know touching Infinity can feel like you're touching him from the first vs.Jogo fight, and it's likely he truly does keep it on all the time, leaving him physically and psychologically prepared to keep anyone from touching him at all times, even if they don't realize it...

(Overall, it's very funny to me that Gege's friends apparently think his personality is like Gojo's. It makes it more understandable why he wouldn't want to talk about his character, or be annoyed that the person who is a secondary became too popular, but also the cat is a troll and is the kind of person to laugh and walk away if you try to ask them a question -_-. However, if you take the answers we do have literally, it sounds like Gege accidentally made a character with a lot of depth, but he doesn't want to deal with it…)

But we have no answers to the truth of these presumptions in a lot of cases, and I could keep going but I'm running out of steam and I'm already sorry to put so much in your inbox….

I know you don't give headcanons because your blog is more textual analysis blog, so I won't ask for them! Part of me is not even sure what to ask, because we simply have no answers, and I don't think anyone is going to give them to us. That's fine because fandom wants and needs space to do its own interpretations of the character, but when you want an answer that isn't there, it can truly feel like diving off a cliff to make that choice all on your own and run with it (cries because that means there are literally infinite choices to make and each of them alters the story a little).

Maybe what I'm really asking is, if you have time, would you pick apart my characterization of Gojo above? I'm a bit curious about what you agree with and what you disagree with because you're so good with finding the text evidence! I already appreciate you reading if you've gotten this far, and I appreciate all the work you do in the fandom. I won't feel bad if you refuse (not that you will, but I just want to make it clear I have no expectations!!) Thank you again so much for all you do and for letting us play in the space with you!

Hi, anon!

If you're asking about my opinion, I must say, this is pretty solid read. I agree with almost everything that you said, and can't really add much to this. Gege had said before that he "has no personality", I think that means he doesn't think too much about Gojou's character, unlike for example Yuuji or Nanami. This makes us learns more about him by crumbles dropped here and then - and not a lot actually told explicitly in the manga. ((it sounds like Gege accidentally made a character with a lot of depth, but he doesn't want to deal with it)) is actually a good point lol, fans' interest in Gojou is definitely deeper than Gege himself.

One of the most interesting thing about him is that despite his vocal opposing of the current jujutsu system, he still does his duty to this very system that he opposes. Even if he messes around sometimes, Gojou is the only special-grade sorcerer who actually goes to missions assigned to him and has been mentioned to clean other sorcerers' messes - which is why he is so busy all the time. This speaks more about him knowing that his priority lies in saving other's lives. I think for him, he is an actual proper jujutsushi who has lived as one since he was born because of the techniques he inherited - maybe the point of being a jujutsu sorcerer and what he has to do has been driven to him since he can handle his own technique. So all he knows is to be a jujutsushi first - and his desire to change the system only comes later, after he saw what this system does to people around him, especially Riko and Getou. Even then, he tries to change it from inside, as jujutsushi who is one under the very system he want to change. All he knows is how to live as a jujutsushi and he doesn't seem to want to stop being one, even if it means he can destroy the system from outside. He wants jujutsushi to continue, but with a better system, not to stop or destroy all of them entirely.