#yes this is an excuse to see these character interact in a fucked up setting

[pinknnight]

i love the comparisons of billford & hannigram, however im surprised no one has done an au of billford in the hannibal universe? like lowk pacifica could be in place of abigail, her thinking she’s free from her father (canon that she has nightmares trying to wash blood off her hands) then bam gets stuck with these two.

[pygmi-cygni]

writing tip - research

research is one of the pillars of writing. a poorly researched fic, essay, short story, novel, etc is immediately apparent because of several things:

lack of depth

stagnant plot or development

confusing or inconsistent setting

it doesn't matter what genre you write, if it's original or fiction, whatever. you need to research. depending on the relevance of your writing, the depth of research may vary, but it needs to happen. you do not know everything.

Fantasy

I see a lot of writers and authors use fantasy as an excuse to avoid research. Shut the fuck up. Every good fantasy is based on a real ocurrence or social dilemma. That's why we like it so much.

'but pygmi, fantasy is made up! it isn't real!'

SHUT UP. Even if you don't realize it, your story will have elements that readers are intimately familiar with. If you flub something, it will be noticed.

Besides, just because you make stuff up doesn't mean you can be inconsistent. You'll just have to fill in the cracks with made up stuff, which will even out to being about the same amount of effort. Pick your poison, either way you're gonna feel it.

Research is not everybody's favorite. I like it, personally, I think it's like going on little side quests for knowledge. But I understand if you wanna skip all the business and get to writing your baby. No shame.

Let me give you some pointers to make sure the time you spend researching is relevant and well spend.

Lists! God I love lists. after you have outlined your story and your characters and everything, make a list of all the things you need to have a deeper understanding of. This means determining priorities. - How important is The Thing? Will it majorly affect plot or character development? Is it a focal point of the setting? If the answer is yes to any of those questions, it's important. research.

Big picture, little picture. How important is The Thing (again)?. How much detail do you need to know? Especially when it comes to royalty or a hierarchal system, I see research being misguided. There are so many nuances to royal interactions that I could give a rat's ass. Big picture, general outline. I don't need to know everything, just basic courtesy, terms of address, appropriate convo. done. but if your MC is a coroner? might wanna put more detail into that; you'll be talking about the job a lot. determine how much the element will affect your story and go from there.

Don't fudge it for the plot. You'll have a preconceived notion of a certain job description, and then research it and think 'oh that's actually boring.' Don't muddle up the rules just to fit the aesthetic. It's sloppy, and your readers will notice.

To practice researching, pick your topic and after learning a bit about it, try teaching a powerpoint to your parents or friends. if you feel comfortable enough with that knowledge to do it successfully, I'd say you have a good enough understanding.

Setting

researching location is a big one that often gets overlooked. You don't always need to memorize maps, but get a general idea of the city/country layout so when you say "they drove 20 minutes from A to B" it makes sense, rather than having a reader think "Uh, A to B is closer to four hours, wtf?"

if you are making up your city, make a list of important streets and locations in relation to each other. This will help you keep it straight and organized in your head.

Get a feel for flora and fauna. Palm trees don't grow in Alaska. Don't write an Alaskan city with palm trees.

Weather? what's it like? Let me tell you, Portland doesn't get higher than 102F. rainy, cloudy, all that stuff.

Atmospheric details really add a lot, especially if your audience is from that location. It adds another layer of relatability. Also, use weather/plants/animals to your advantage! symbolism, possible curse, all that stuff.

Eras

Oh my god stop fucking this up. Baroque, Elizabethan, Edwardian, Middle Ages ARE DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER. STOP SLAPPING FANCY CLOTHES ON PEOPLE AND CALLING IT THE OLDEN DAYS.

get an idea of when electricity was widespread in homes. when was the refrigerator invented? did they use the word 'hella' in 1950? this kinda stuff is important for not breaking the illusion of a time difference. If you are writing a period piece and someone is chatting with a neighbor like it's 2015, we'll have some questions.

Unless it's doctor who. you guys can do literally whatever.

Plot and Character Development

If plot and characters are poorly researched, you are limiting the opportunities for growth. In researching your MC's occupation, you may discover a cool side effect that connects to a plot device. Stagnant, stale characters can be spruced up with a more developed backstory.

All in all, research is really important for your story. regardless of how professional it is, tumblr or the new york times. Do your research. As a writer, you are representing the community in your own way. Do us proud.

xox love you

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Love That Burns ~ Ending 1 ~ 36

LOVE THAT BURNS MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 2,245ish

Summary: Logan has a plan to surprise you. What could possibly go wrong?

Warnings: character returns from the dead

Notes: Check out the Everyday Moments Masterlist for more moments of our favorite couple! Also, the chapter numbers will continue from the main storyline.

Reminder: I DO NOT do taglists. Please don’t ask. Please follow and interact! I appreciate any reblogs, likes, comments, and asks! 

To say Logan was nervous was an understatement. First off, he hated flying. Second of all, he had never planned a trip like this before, let alone by himself. You had been pestering him for years about going on a vacation, a true vacation, but he always found an excuse to brush it off. Now that your anniversary was nearing, Logan wanted to do something special for the two of you. Logan was going to surprise you with a ten day trip to Hawaii. He had rented a small house with a private beach for the week, just the two of you. He could only hope that you’d like it. 

It was a Saturday, so Logan wasn’t working. You had slipped out to run some errands by yourself , allowing Logan to prepare how he was going to tell you about the trip. He had bought a new swimsuit for you, something he hoped you would like in his favorite color to see you in. He placed it in a bag and set it on the counter.

Anxious about the present, Logan waited for you outside, keeping himself busy with chopping wood and working on his bike. When his ears picked up the sound of the truck, Logan quickly set the tools down and wiped his hands clean on his jeans before standing to meet you.

You smiled as you caught sight of Logan waiting for you outside. You parked the truck and Logan was there in no time, opening your door.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he greeted, leaning forward and meeting your lips for a brief kiss.

“Hey, honey,” you replied. “You been waiting for me?”

“Maybe.” He smirked. “What can I grab?”

“Everything’s in the back seat.”

“I’ll grab everything. You head inside.”

“Are you sure? I can–”

“Go. I can handle a few grocery bags.”

You kissed his cheek before heading inside. It didn’t take you long to notice the gift bag sitting on the counter. “Uh, Logan? What’s with the bag?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he responded, coming in with all the grocery bags.

“So you won’t mind me taking a look inside then?”

He shrugged. “Nope.”

With curious eyes, you peeked into the bag and pulled out the new swimsuit. You held it up, studying it, before peeking back into the bag. There was nothing else in it.

“Thanks, honey,” you said, trying to mask the utter confusion you were feeling. “I needed a new swimsuit?”

“Fuck, I didn’t think this all the way through,” he muttered.

“What is going on, Logan?”

He sighed, running a frustrated hand up his face and through his hair. “I’m taking you to Hawaii.”

The swimsuit dropped to the ground. “What?”

“Tomorrow. You and me. Hawaii.”

“You–You’re serious?”

“Very.”

You squealed and jumped up into Logan’s arms. He caught you with a laugh as your arms wrapped around his neck and your legs wrapped around his torso.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Logan pressed a kiss to your neck. “You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

You pulled your head away enough to look at him. “Are you sure you can handle it? I know how you feel about flying and not to mention the water. Do you–”

Logan shut you up with a kiss. “Your reaction sealed the deal, baby. I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“I’m the one who planned it, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but–”

“Nope. We’re going.”

You squealed again, going back to hugging him tightly. “I love you so much!”

He chuckled in your grip. “I love you more.”

~~~

Logan knew he had made the right choice as he watched you bounce around the airport. He couldn’t help but watch you with a loving smile. You were so excited that it was becoming contagious. It was helping but his anxieties at ease, especially since he had a few more surprises up his sleeves once you two reached Hawaii.

“Oh, Logan! Let’s–”

He quickly grabbed your hand and pulled you into him. “No more stops, sweetheart. We haven’t even gone through security yet. We can explore more once we’re past that.”

“Oh. Right. Let’s go!”

Logan laughed as you tried to tug him along. He willingly followed you to the security line. To distract himself from the oncoming pat down he would be forced to have, he wrapped you up in his arms and held your back against his chest. He also needed to make sure you didn’t happily wander off before you hit security. You leaned back into him, completely content with him holding you still as you waited in line.

“Are you guys newly weds?” A kind old lady asked as she stood behind you in line, watching you and Logan.

“No,” you responded with a smile. “We’ve been married for a few years now and have been together for even longer.”

“Well, it’s nice to see two young people such as yourselves so happily in love still.”

You and Logan had to bite back a laugh. If only this woman knew that Logan was 183 and you were 85. You were probably older than the woman herself.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Logan responded. “I got lucky.” He kissed your temple as you melted into him.

The lady smiled and looked at you. “You’ve got yourself a keeper there, dearie.”

You patted Logan’s arm that was around you. “Yes, I do,” you replied before meeting his lips for a kiss. 

When you reached the security checkpoint, you gave Logan another kiss.

“I’ll be right in front of you,” you told him, knowing that he hated situations like this.

“Okay,” he responded, sneaking another brief kiss before he let you go. 

He watched as you walked through the checkpoint with ease before turning around to wait for him. You shot him a smile as he stepped toward the TSA agent.

“I’ll take the pat down,” Logan stated.

The agent turned to his colleagues, “opt out.”

Suddenly, the coins and all other metal objects around begin to shake and float up. You and Logan are seemingly the only ones who seem to notice. You gasp as you realize who is standing behind Logan. Seeing your concern, Logan draws out his claws and spins around but was stopped before he could do any harm.

“What do you want?!” Logan asked as Magneto lifted his head.  

Without even thinking, you rushed back through the scanner and place yourself between Logan and Magneto, flames ready in your hands.

“There are dark forces, Wolverine, Ember,” Magneto responded, still holding a grip on Logan. “Human forces, building a weapon that could bring about the end of our kind. What I want… I want your help.”

“Why would we trust you?” You asked.

“You wouldn’t.”

Slowly, Magneto released Logan, causing Logan to pull you back behind him. It’s then you noticed that everyone in the airport had stopped moving. Logan tensed as he held onto you and stepped through the scanner. Your brows furrowed as you noticed the look on his face.

“What is it?” you whispered. 

“A wheelchair,” he breathed out.

You followed his line of sight to see Charles weaving through the crowd of frozen people. You couldn’t believe your eyes. Charles stopped his wheelchair a few feet away from you and Logan, with Magneto remaining behind you.

“Hello, Y/N, Logan,” Charles greeted.

“How is this possible?” Logan asked, stunned.

“As I told you a long time ago, you’re not the only one with gifts.”

~~~

The X-Men jet was an unwanted familiarity as you and Logan stepped into it. Charles had promised to explain everything as soon as you reached the mansion. Magento and Charles let the two of you have your space in the back of the jet as you flew to your old home.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered to Logan.

He was completely confused as to why you were apologizing. “What are you apologizin’ for?”

“You worked so hard to plan a vacation and now we don’t even get to experience it.”

Logan pulled you into his lap and used his hand to keep you looking at him. “It’s not your fault. I’m the one who should be apologizing. Should have taken you on a vacation long ago.”

You sighed, resting your head in the crook of his neck. “Should have known that we’d get pulled back into this eventually.”

“We can say no.”

“You know we can’t… not when Charles is back.”

Logan sighed, kissing your head. “No matter what happens, we stick together.”

“Always.”

~~~

Ororo was hugging you before you could fully step off of the jet. You quickly hugged back, tears pricking at your eyes. You had missed her so much.

“You never called,” she rasped, growing emotional.

“I’m so sorry,” you replied. “Forgive me?”

“Of course.”

When the two of you finally pulled away, Logan was swept into a hug from Ororo and Marie was on you. The hugs continued through Colossus, Bobby, and Kitty, each excited to see you and Logan. 

“Hold up!” Marie exclaimed, grabbing your left hand and holding it up. “Did you two get married?!”

“Yes,” you responded.

“And none of us were invited?” 

The room quieted down immediately, with everyone’s eyes on you and Logan. Sensing your emotions being to grow, Logan placed a hand around you and pulled you back into him for comfort.

“Technically, it’s not legal,” Logan responded. “But it’s real to us.”

“I’m very happy for you both,” Charles said with a smile, trying to ease the tension.

You couldn’t stop looking between Ororo and Marie, both clearly heartbroken about the lack of an invitation or an update. It had been twelve years since you had last seen or talked to any of them. You basically cut off communication as soon as you left.

“I think we need to all rest and regroup in the morning,” Charles suggested.

Magneto scoffed. “We’re wasting time,” he argued.

“Not enough to make a difference.” Charles rolled in front of you and gently took your hand. “We can talk later. Your room is cleaned and ready for you and Logan.”

“Thanks,” Logan replied, sensing that you were about to break down. “I’ll come back for our bags.”

Logan was practically carrying you as the two of you left the hangar, everyone watching. You couldn’t fully take in the idea of being back here, feeling too guilty for leaving your friends in the dust. You froze once you were inside of your room. It didn’t feel like home the way it once did and it hurt with the familiarity of it.

“Sweetheart,” Logan whispered, trying to get your attention elsewhere. 

“Can you go grab the bags?” You murmured.

“Those can wait. You need–”

“Please, Logan… I just need a few minutes.”

Logan sighed. He knew that it wasn’t worth arguing with you in this state. “Okay. I’ll be quick.”

You nodded, still focused on the room. He kissed the back of your head before slipping out of the room. The last few hours seemed like a fever dream. Charles was alive. He and Magneto needed you and Logan to help with an end-of-the-world scenario. You were back at the mansion, standing in the room you once considered home. Weren’t you just going to Hawaii with Logan? Was this some nightmare that you’d wake up from? Did you really want to be here? Did you really want to help?

~~~

Logan was trying to be as quick as possible, knowing that you needed him close.

“Can we talk?” Marie stepped into Logan’s path as he was heading back to you with the bags.

“Not now,” he muttered.

“Then when? You and Y/N left and never reached out. None of us knew where you were or how to get a hold of you.”

“We needed the time to ourselves."

Marie scoffed. “Twelve years?”

“I ain’t going to apologize, kid, if that's what you're looking for. I—“ 

The familiar scent of your smoke hit Logan's nostrils. He was taking multiple stairs at a time before Marie could stop him. He burst through the bedroom door to see you curled up on the floor, panicking with smoke coming off your body. 

“I got you, sweetheart,” he pulled you into his arms, not caring that you were burning through his clothes. 

“Can’t—cool—down.” Every one of your words was a strangled breath.

“It’s okay, princess. We’ll cool you down.” 

Logan lifted you up and carried you into the shower. He turned it on cold water, letting it run over the two of you.

“I’m sorry," you cried. “I’m sorry.”

Logan shushed you. “You’re okay. It’s okay.”

He held you until you returned to your normal body temperature. He quickly stripped you both of your wet clothes before drying you off, slipping one of his shirts over you, and tucking you into bed. He pulled some underwear on himself before crawling in bed behind you and tugging you to his chest.

“This is a lot,” you rasped.

“We can leave,” Logan mumbled. “We don't have to help.”

“Yes, we do… They are our family… and you heard Magneto. This could affect all mutants.”

“Yeah,” he sighed, burying his head into your neck. A few moments of silence fell between the two of you.

“I hope you know that this doesn't get you out of the Hawaii trip by any means. You’ll own me.”

He chuckled, pulling you impossibly closer. “Trust me, sweetheart, I’m already thinking of how to make it up to you.”

next chapter >

[sage-nebula]

That look into Mimic's psyche was so fascinating, because—despite him being the most obviously unreliable of unreliable narrators—it truly seems that his actions stem from him being a deeply mentally ill man, torn between a desperate need to be loved and rejection sensitivity so powerful it drives him to paranoia and murder.

Few things before I elaborate:

I'm not going to "diagnose" Mimic with anything specifically, aside from what I myself have—namely, rejection sensitive dysphoria. Particularly when it comes to villain characters I think that armchair diagnosis can be really irresponsible, and reading symptoms off a website isn't comparable to living with an illness or disorder. I used to do that kind of thing, but I've since learned not to. So this isn't a "Mimic has x" post, aside from extreme sensitivity to real or perceived rejection, because oh boy.

Mimic being mentally ill is NO EXCUSE for everything he's done, and I don't feel sorry for him in the least bit. This is not an "alas, poor Mimic" post. Again, I have RSD and I don't go around murdering people because of it. But it is fascinating to look at.

He is canonically 32 years old. He is indeed a man, not a boy.

So as I said, Mimic's main thing is that he is torn between two powerful emotions within himself: a desperate need to belong and be loved, but also an intense fear that he'll be rejected by those who might ultimately love him. Mimic being an unreliable narrator, he's a bit all over the place with this, but he does acknowledge his need to be loved in a few places:

But as you can see, he tied it up with "the spotlight" — with validation and appreciation, something he later tries to convince the reader he believes is beneath him (hence—unreliable, because an attentive reader knows he's a lying ho):

He just wants his skills appreciated, and it's childish to yearn for friendship and belonging, so he doesn't and won't. Along with that lie, he also claims he only joined with his other teams out of cold practicality as well, and betrayed them for the same:

It's important to note that his "I mean, in worldwide discord . . ." justification came immediately after "again I felt that nagging ache [. . .] to belong." So yes, he's lying to himself and the reader to cover what really happened.

And what really happened?

Mimic displays a pathological fear of rejection. It's impossible to say what started it. Mimic claims all of his issues stem from the war:

But to quote Phoenix Wright, he's lying, damn it, and I can prove it!

In the very first panels of the flashback, set before the war starts, we're shown a scene of Mimic on set during his actor days. And what happens?

He gets forcibly removed from set after he ruins the scene. Look at how he reacts: wide eyes, reaching back for set . . . he looks panicked. And these were people that he at the least considered colleagues. Instead of just telling him not to do it again, they kicked him out altogether. They rejected him. And at this point, he already had a strong need to be seen and accepted.

While I don't think that this was where it all stems from—I think Mimic faced rejection before this as well, for rejection sensitivity to flare up as bad as it does for him—this incident did stick with him. We know it did.

So no, the war did not fuck Mimic up. Mimic was fucked up long before the war. And exactly how is Mimic fucked up? What is it that he's doing, specifically?

Rejection sensitive dysphoria is when a person experiences an unusually strong, negative emotional reaction to real or perceived rejection. What serves as a rejection trigger varies from person to person. For some people it's things like, everyone suggests a restaurant for an outing but Jessica says she doesn't like your choice, and your RSD brain takes that to mean shs's rejecting you. For me, I've always struggled in situations like group chats where my messages seem to be ignored but everyone else seems to interact and get along really well. It sets my RSD off something fierce. It's really different for everyone.

Just like there are a myriad of triggers, there's also a myriad of reactions. Some people, and especially those who may not realize yet that they have RSD, may lash out and get angry. So Jessica might get blown up at because she said she doesn't really like Chipotle and suggests Five Guys instead. Others may start fawning and clinging, figuring that if they pretend to love Five Guys hard enough (side note: Peridot, that's lying!), Jessica won't reject them anymore / after all. And still others might bail, figuring if THEY leave first, then it'll hurt way less than if they're asked / told to leave later. This has always been my go-to in the past, unhelpful though it is to maintaining relationships when I'm tempted to do it on "perceived" rejections my brain made up.

And Mimic . . . Mimic also perceives rejections that are not there, mostly via catastrophizing (another out of my brain's playbook), and then takes "bail" to a whole new level: "murder." (I personally have never done this.)

Let's look at the meltdown scene, shall we? Here's what triggers it:

Before, he was working with the Diamond Cutters, and they expressed admiration for his skills, yes. That was all fine. But here, they're giving him special masks that essentially make them a real, bonafide unit. Smithy describes them as being one on the battlefield. And he is included in this, absolutely, without any question; a personalized mask was made just for him. Whisper says, despite Mimic's internal narration telling her not to, that she's so glad that he's there to watch their backs and that he makes the team complete. This is the Diamond Cutters truly, unreservedly, letting Mimic know that they accept him, they care about him, he is one of them, he is their friend. He belongs with them.

And that is the rejection trigger for Mimic.

Not because of anything the Diamond Cutters did, per se—but because of what Mimic thinks they could, or will do. He outright says this himself in one of his rare moments of blunt honesty (and I think the tell that he's not fully in control here is the stuttering):

Yes, the Diamond Cutters accept him now. The Diamond Cutters love him now. But Mimic is terrified that the second they learn who he "really" is, they'll turn on and reject him. They'll throw him out like his colleagues at the theater company did. That is why their friendship hurts; because it is, as Mimic himself said, what he wanted. It's what he has always wanted. But the second he gets the love that he desperately craves, his brain immediately starts sounding the rejection sensitive alarms, telling him that there is danger ahead, that this cannot and will not last, that if he lets himself accept this, it will be to his own downfall.

But here's where things go from "Mimic is having an understandable trauma reaction to something that happened in his past" to "Mimic clearly has deep psychological issues that have never been treated or seen the light of any healthy coping mechanisms and he makes this everyone else's problem by murdering them."

If Mimic left it at, "If they saw the real me, they'd reject me" and bailed, then he would be putting the blame on himself. But this is not something that Mimic is truly capable of doing. While Mimic does say at the end of the comic that he is selfish, cruel, and cold, he also says that he's happy and that he likes what he is. That, too, is part of him being an unreliable narrator, I believe; I don't think that this desperation he has inside of him for love and belonging has ever actually gone away. But nonetheless, Mimic isn't really accepting blame for anything by saying that he's cruel, selfish, etc. He's not putting the onus on himself as being the problem. Instead, he's celebrating himself and almost recommending that others do / accept the same thing he has. It's a defense mechanism. A shield. He's reclaiming being a ruthless, remorseless, backstabbing murderer so that such accusations can't hurt him.

And Mimic does something along the same lines in this meltdown. He doesn't—he can't—leave it at, "if they saw the real me, they'd throw me away" because that puts the onus on him. And he also can't just leave these people that have accepted him so earnestly, that he wanted to accept him, that he himself wants to accept. So instead, he twists them. He takes the perceived future rejection (which, reminder, has not happened and he has no proof even would happen!), and takes it several steps farther, deciding that all of this has been a lie and that they're monsters and therefore he's doing the right thing by plotting to kill them:

A few panels ago their love and acceptance was making him hurt from the terror he felt at the idea that they could reject him. Now he's convinced himself (at least on some level), that they are untrustworthy liars that he needs to dispose of, for his own (emotional) safety. As I stated before, Mimic lies not only to the reader, but to himself; and he does it so harshly here, with such fervor, that on some level he makes himself believe it.

So then, we get to this:

(I have to upload this from desktop rather than mobile, and it looks blurry on desktop . . . hopefully it's not blurry when actually posted.)

As I mentioned before, some people with RSD will bail on those they think are rejecting them, a sort of, "I'll abandon you before you have the chance to abandon me." But Mimic is so far gone that his strategy is to go to the farthest extreme imaginable; he has them murdered, because the thought of them still existing in the world without him—the idea of them smiling, laughing, having fun, loving each other, without him there—causes him pain. He can't stand it. Mimic feels—or at least, he tells us that he feels—that the only way that he can be at peace and move on from his time with the Diamond Cutters is if they're dead. If he can't be friends with them, then no one can. They're not even allowed to live.

Of course, the tragic thing is, he could have been friends with them. He was friends with them. But he was too fucked up to see that, and I think accepting that now would destroy him to the point where his psyche won't let him acknowledge it as even a remote possibility. Because if he acknowledges that none of the Diamond Cutters were lying, and that they truly did like him—and, more than that, that they would have kept him even knowing about what he did in the past—then it would mean admitting that he killed them for no reason. And I truly don't think that he would be able to handle that.

Again, I don't feel sorry for him. I'm mentally ill myself and I deal with RSD. One of the several things I'm working on in therapy is my RSD, in fact, because I'm very bad with the whole "perceived rejection, time to bail!" thing, and I don't like how difficult it makes my life. Mimic was a 32 year old man who, instead of recognizing and finding a way to deal with his mental illness, decided instead to murder a bunch of teenagers and one barely adult (Smithy was the next oldest at only 20). And even now, he's still stalking and trying to murder a 16 year old girl who is just trying to move on with her life. I don't feel sorry for this man, and neither should you.

But it is still interesting to look at how he ticks, to see how he created the self-fulfilling prophecy that led to Whisper rejecting him so hard that she would not hesitate to bust a (wisp) cap(sule) in his skull-less head if given the opportunity, all because of deep-rooted psychological issues that I don't think Mimic himself even realizes are there. It's certainly more interesting than "he's just evil" or "he did it out of cowardice."

All my love to the original Diamond Cutters. Mwah.

[petrich0-r]

warning!!! long rant incoming

weeks later and i am still not over how much reading chapter 426 traumatized me. seeing touya reduced to a what??? burnt-up corpse strapped to a wall and on life support, barely breathing and with no hope of recovery, with only a bleak "slow march toward death" ahead of him was only the first blow.

then we see the todofam marching into the hospital determined to "talk with him" while he can barely string together a few sentences and is strapped to a heart monitor in a way that invasively reveals his true feelings of upset/excitement/anixety at whatever they feel like talking to him about, which was personally mortifying to witness.

one of the FIRST things he says is how he isn't "some damn tourist attraction" for them to come gawk at and talk at to make themselves feel better. and yes even though most of my ire is directed at enji i still dislike how the rest of the family acted in this chapter. all determined to say their piece now that he's forced to stay there and listen to them, and even shouto's part in all of it being framed as him "saving" touya and making time for them all to have together while he is DYING an AGONIZING and SLOW death. also natsuo not even saying anything to touya even though he was the only one to ever advocate for him and constantly remind everyone in the family of what happened to his brother and demanding justice from enji. although if i interpret this as him recognizing that talking with touya now would only violate his privacy since he can't hide his feelings because of the heart monitor his behaviour is the only one that makes sense.

enji once again taking the opportunity to talk about what HE is doing to atone for "his sins", in a way that fills me with such indescribable rage and fury at this man's audacity to even show his face to any member of his family and makes me once again want to kill him with my bare hands because i am SICK and TIRED of hearing about his "atonement" and "rejection". and even though natsuo renounces him definitively once and for all once they exit the hospital, he also says he thinks enji is a "badass" now???? EXCUSE. ME. also shouto calling him "father" still makes me want to puke i'm sorry.

to rub salt into the wound the chapter then switches to hawks talking with nagant who is now fully recovered?? from literally exploding??? in a parody of what i hoped a final dabihawks interaction was going to be. but i guess only heroes and "good" victims get to live and have miraculous recoveries in this story.

another thing that makes me livid is this trend horikoshi has set of showcasing touya in pivotal panels as not-being-burnt-to-a-crisp so he can?? what??? show us his imagined facial expressions better??? idk it just feels so disingenuous to him being crippled, burnt to death, stripped of all bodily autonomy, irreversibly and gruesomly injured only for horikoshi to take the easy way out when he wants to show emotions on his face so we can what?? see him as a person still and not a disfigured corpse???? i don't get it.

as someone who up until those chapters at the end where horikoshi decided that yes izuku should absolutely vanquish tomura was very hopeful about bnha's ending and where it was headed and what kind of story it wanted to tell i feel immeasurably and utterly betrayed and furious at what happened to the remaining lov characters. touya's end is a nightmare scenario on a personal level but what tomura's character went through at the end felt like a complete butchering of everything he as a character stood for. and don't get me started on himiko, a fucking TEENAGE GIRL who i was SURE would get to live if nobody else from the league did. but those are rants for another post.

my final thoughts for this rant are musings on whether horikoshi is aware how hurtful and trauma-inducing chapter 426 is. i struggle to grasp how he could write such a nuanced character without apparently knowing the first thing about how to resolve their story in a satisfying way. whether or not he waffled on how he should end bnha and then chickened out on its "true/controversial/revolutionary" ending i can only speculate but at this point i don't even care because the fact is he CHOSE to end the story this way and i have no idea what the point of it all even was anymore and i am tired and rant over because i've been rambling like a lunatic for way too long now

anyway sorry if this doesn't make a lick of sense idk what i'm saying or trying to articulate here, this is my first post of this length and i was gonna keep it all inside but i felt i had to let it out somehow. if u got this far thank you for reading this and have a good day <33

[noodle-anime]

just! finished saiyuki og series!!! discovered the first resurrected edition volume recently and it has been. well. it's been a journey lol

oooooooooh boy there sure was some Anatomy and Proportions happening in the first volume but it was super fun to see the art style progress actually. it encouraged me to notice more complex poses and things in the later volumes, and when there was an occasional repeat panel like Sanzo and Goku's first look it was very cool to see the difference in quality.

i have a coupla favorite panels/spreads and generally tried to pay a little more attention to how things are precisely laid out and it was a fun aspect of reading. i want to do some actual breakdowns now, maybe compare early and later layouts.

also! i discovered and watched zeroin! my first intro to saiyuki was discovering reload blast forever ago. the art style in zeroin and the fact that there's a whole set of characters i'd never heard of before made it feel like an au or semi-canonical anime movie, sorta, but i enjoyed it So much and there are some specific notes on sanzo characterization that i want to dig into

sanzo is my fave and the kami-sama arc was So Very Good in that respect but it also grew my love for gojyo three sizes.

the way that they all react when gojyo leaves cracks me up so much. they're So Offended. something so funny and also so tasty that they will not under any circumstances admit out loud that they care about gojyo and miss him so instead they're like we are going to Hurt Him (because he hurt us) for Disrupting Our Daily Routine (he's a fundamental part of our lives) and FORCING us to turn this car around (he left with the full knowledge and expectation that they would follow through with actually continuing to pursue this Very Important job like they always said they would)

mmmmm gojyo's savior complex mmmm it's good.

got blasted by the idea of gojyo and hakkai starting an orphanage when they're done with the mission. hakkai was a teacher and still models himself as a "childcare professional"/co-parent to goku and gojyo wants to save somebody So Badly. also good luck resocializing goku to not be killing people/fighting for his life every other day for Two Entire Formative Teenage Years, helping kids and not having it backfire spectacularly in his face would be good for him

i just read the fourth volume so that's most of what i've got on my mind, i know i have More thoughts from the other volumes

besides the fact that sanzo's joints are gonna/have gotta be So Fucked Up. he really is a grandpa. poor guy.

feels good to nail some characterization aspects like genjyo "i'm a coldhearted bastard and you'd better stay out of my way" (developed coping mechanisms to deal with the traumatic loss of a parent and people repeatedly Attacking Him at an early age) sanzo, cho "yes i'm the wife/mother, please excuse these skeletons, the cleaver is only for special occasions" hakkai, sha "i'm the only one here who understands how to be a normal person" (he does not but he does have the highest emotional intelligence) gojyo, and son "i'm a teenager" (he's a teenager, also growing up with the aforementioned trio as parental/familial figures and starting to come into his own!!) goku

not a single one of these men has had a normal relationship or even prolonged interaction with a woman

i had no idea there was a whole brainwashing segment with kougaiji?? and i really want to see more of lirin, there are fun parallels there to explore that i really wanna dig into

i had no idea to what level sanzo was a bastard gremlin with a gun who just Happens to also be the highest of high priests before and now that i do it delights me. the very hypocrisy of his acceptance in his position disgusts him because He Is Not Priest Material but also it's what his dad wanted for him so fuck everybody who tries to take that from him. in any other situation he'd be the shady penniless vagabond gun for hire but koumyou happened. and now we all get to enjoy it.

[annoyingblondebracket]

Round 1 | Poll 6

~ Note: This poll is being done out of a genuine love and affection for these types of characters! Please keep that in mind when adding commentary.

Propaganda (very long on both ends 😭) under the cut!

Madeleine Cookie:

~ everyone he has any kind of relationship with thinks he's insufferable (espresso cookie, financier) except for his family and he is so full of himself and always makes a show out of being a noble divine hero or something like that. His in-game story description says " On the day of his Commander's Oath-taking, Madeleine Cookie dedicated himself to the Divine and was granted the Sword and Shield of Radiant Light, which he prizes the most among his numerous possessions. The glorious Knight Commander's usual duties included trotting around the city on his snow-white sugar horse or letting his heavy cape flutter dramatically on the wind during his sparring sessions." (this is not all of it btw just the part abt him being annoying) and just fuckin look at him that's the face of a man who is never going to shut up about himself ever some trivia from his wiki page: - According to his unique loading screen's flavor text, "Madeleine Cookie excels at swinging his sword to heroic music with his cape fluttering in the wind." - According to his aunts, Madeleine Cookie has a sweet tooth and wouldn't eat anything if it wasn't sugary as a child. They also mention that he used to kick the blanket away when napping as a baby. -In the Halloween Commotion Costume Set Story, Strawberry Crepe Cookie analyzed Madeleine Cookie's dough and found "the most ridiculous amount of narcissism", alongside a considerable amount of light energy. also an interaction between madeleine and espresso M: Another magnificent day of my cloak waving in the wind! Wouldn't you agree? E: Of course. Yes. How marvelous. Please excuse me, I have rather urgent business to attend to. M: Too busy to even marvel at moi? What's the point of living then? also has a bond story with him and espresso called "we've never met" and it's about espresso avoiding him like the plague after seeing each other for the first time in a long while (if i remember correctly) another thing: just compare him to Financier Cookie, who is essentially madeleine 2 except she's not annoying and actually has respect for people and tries to protect people without looking for the satisfaction of being given praise or adoration. madeleine and financier are both paladins, they both are sworn to the divine, they're both from the same place, and YET financier turned out SO much better than he did. in one of financier's quotes, she says "Ser Madeleine Cookie could be so much more than... that." and in the kingdom overworld quotes, she also says "Light, guide my blade! ...What?! Madeleine Cookie says that?!" GIRL DOES NOT WANT TO BE COMPARED TO OR ON THE SAME LEVEL AS HIM JUST. WHAT IS HIS FUCKING PROBLEM

~ Theseus was an auto-admission and thus has no proganda! However as a Theseus yumejoshi it would be remiss of me to add nothing here, so here's some of my favourite lines of his <3

[abandoned-as-mustard]

I gotta get this off my chest. Am I the only woman who didn't like it? Really???

Here's a spoiler (rant) review, (not) sorry

To start off with, I really appreciate the effort into set design, fashion, music, choreography, casting, all the historical barbie references, how important barbie is to many girls, the nostalgia, HOWEVER....

'It's not meant to be taken seriously!!' The movie preaches about patriarchy and feminism, they literally go to the real world and interact with these real concepts, we are made to sit through feminist speeches about women who hate themselves, how are we not meant to take that seriously?

Fucking hell, I was being whammed on the head with a sledgehammer, the plot can literally be summarised with 'taking down the patriarchy'. And that itself isn't the bad thing, it's how they framed it -

Because just when that plot concept itself became clear, as if I was entirely stupid and needed to be reinformed, they then had several feminist quips and jokes (which can be summarised as 'haha look how women don't have any power in our US centric world view!') and speeches (used as actual plot devices to un-brainwash the barbies once the kens took over) wherein if I was a woman who already fucking hated myself and had no self esteem and hadn't seen any other movie in my life, I would've loved. While I understand many women hate themselves, the fact that there are women who don't hate themselves wasn't acknowledged at all when 'women' is used as a general term.

So guess I'm counted out.

There are scenes where the Ken dolls start enjoying stereotypically guy things like 'watching the godfather' and 'liking trucks' and 'having beers' and putting flatscreen TVs everywhere, and they are also even apparently mansplaining to the barbies. It's portrayed in such a silly way that suggests there is something cringe in real men genuinely liking any of those things. Yes, Ken is silly, but you are now incorporating real things.

I was confused the entire time - what is this supposed to be? A fun silly movie? THEN WHY ARE YOU PREACHING AT ME? WHY. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. DOES BARBIE SEE THE HORRIBLE REAL WORLD AND GO 'yes please I want to be there and find myself'

I'm sorry, what? You literally just established that ken's only role was to be Ken to barbie, and that he had to be himself, but you're saying barbie can't do any of that from barbie land just because she doesn't have a 'role'? THE MAN WHO DID NOT HAVE ANY ROLE EXCEPT TO BE A BARBIE SIMP GOT TO STAY BUT BARBIE BARBIE HAD TO BECOME REAL?

oh yeah and the whole 'become human and feel but also you'll just die at the end' because thanks yeah that's what we all believe right, that death is the end of everything but the pitiful excuse of our lives and ~~~~feelings~~~ makes it worthwhile? You can just tell an existential person wrote this

But also there were the weird metaphysical elements with the literal ghost of the creator of barbie being referred to as 'creator' and that she 'can't control you' so yeah, that perfectly sums up the fucked up theology and how humanity really fucking likes to think of themselves as gods.

'Mustard you're taking this way too seriously!! It's a fun silly movie about pink and clothes and dolls!' THEN WHY WASNT I ALLOWED TO ENJOY IT WITHOUT WATCHING BARBIE BECOME SOME RANDOM HUMAN WOMAN IN THE CHEESIEST FUCKING SEQUENCE???? She wasn't even allowed to be 'my' doll anymore!

'But barbie shouldn't only exist to be yours!' SHE IS A DOLL THAT IS HER PURPOSE

'But barbie never got to choose ken' - she's also a doll (Aka, not real, despite what the movie portrays). She has like, 200 careers. Having a hot boyfriend is not a serious problem. Barbie actually LIKES ken in other Barbie movies, and why would their theoretical doll relationship even exist if she didn't like him? (If you say heteronormativity I will bite you.)

His existential crisis was the problem that led to Kendom, but they did not spend an awful lot of time on his character for that. Barbie is allowed to sledgehammer home the points about women's self esteem and needing being perfect, but you LITERALLY HAVE KEN DOLLS RIGHT THERE being toned and sexy and hot, AND THEY DIDNT GIVE ANY LIP SERVICE TO THAT IN RELATION TO REAL MEN. EVEN ONE LINE. the closest they come is 'you're ken, not 'and ken'. Uhh thanks? If I based my feminism on this (which some people already are) then I wouldn't think men have ANY problems being human beings.

Barbie and Ken don't even end up together! It's not even that, but that they separate them so that they can NEVER be together and maybe I don't know, LEARN to love each other?? Clearly some of the other barbies were still attached to kens after they stopped being brainwashed. Why couldn't our barbie?

So the other problem is the heavy marketing of ken's feelings for barbie (complete with music video) made it seem like a romance. It was not a romance. And I felt like an idiot for expecting a little romance.

It swings from wildly silly to heavy concepts and back within seconds.

'But it's about forced heteronormativity' and 'amatonormativity' *BITES YOU BITES YOU BITES YOU* so it's NOT just a silly movie then? Huh?

WHAT IS THIS MOVIE TRYING TO SAY?

That's its real problem.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS PINK, BARBIE MOVIE, COULDN’T YOU JUST LET IT BE A FUN MOVIE WITHOUT FORCING ME TO SEE BARBIE BECOME PART OF THIS SO-CALLED TERRIBLE WORLD?

[notarobot1006]

As much as I otherwise love, Baldur's Gate 3, I really do not like the game's approach to inherently evil races. Because that approach boils down to 'yes they exist, fuck you.'

It first shows up if you brain bond with the Gnoll Flind: This creature that's intelligent enough to communicate with other species and use tools is also incapable of seeing the world in any terms other than Pack and Food. This is an inherent part of her nature. Gnolls are a type of demon in this setting, but that's the opposite of an excuse. It just means that instead of wondering why this one species is self-sabotagingly dim, we're left wondering why an entire class of species is.

Later act spoilers about the Mind Flayers under the cut:

Yeah, Mind Flayers/Illithids are the other example of this. They are canonically soulless, inherently manipulative bastards who don't see other people as people. Not due to some twisted ideology or because the big bad Elder Brain is controlling them, but because it's in their nature. On one hand, you have Omeluum, who's a genuinely decent person actively looking for a more ethical food source than the brains of sapient beings. But on the other hand...you have the player character.

I went full Mind Flayer at the end of my playthrough because I thought it was my best bad option: Karlach wasn't in the party and I'd feel like a bit of a dick making my friend do something I wouldn't do myself, and I thought that making Orpheus do it would screw over the entire Githyanki people.

It led to some interesting interactions in the post-bossfight and epilogue, but it also had the narrator outright saying that in order to not be a huge dick, I had to overcome my nature. My nature of being a huge dick. And then in the epilogue, I had to roll at the tail end of a perfectly normal conversation not to eat my friend Shadowheart's brain.

Sure, Mind Flayer Karlach will say that she's starting to forget who she was the more brains she eats, so I can buy that the bonds of friendship might fray a bit if you become literally a different person as a Mind Flayer.

But Shadowheart is also an ally and a twelfth level character and at a party surrounded by people who would get really upset if I hauled off and ate her brain. Even the narrator says the desire to eat her brain is illogical. But the game still makes you roll not to do it. Because Mind Flayers, the psychic tyrants with the big brain Intelligence scores, are not only literally soulless for...some reason, but also apparently too stupid and weak-willed not to eat brains even when eating brains would get them killed.

Because it's in their nature. And for a game that goes out of its way to show that Tieflings aren't evil and that their persecution is wrong (I played as a Tiefling), it shoots that message of tolerance in the foot to also say "oh but this other group really is inherently evil and soulless."

Because now the message isn't "persecuting people because of their demographics is wrong", but rather "make sure you persecute the right people because they just can't help themselves from being evil."

[charlottedabookworm]

Dawntrail Day 1

spoilers up to: first lvl91 quest, after the msq split paths merge back together

original draft date: 28/6/24

scheduled release for: 26/7/24

early access time! planning on unlocking picto and then i'm leaping headfirst into the msq

*

okay the quest accept music

interesting

i like it

*

“You had me at ‘magicked painting’” lolllllll

*

….excuse me i didn’t agree to a job interview

i hate job interviews get back here you bloody moogle i-

*

“I’m uh- between jobs at the moment”

“My stick figure drawings are second to none…?”

pffft best job interview i’ve ever been on

*

furry little shites

*

okay i really do like the quest music

*

picto hotbars step up but subject to change

now msq time

*

Ali, love, that’s called jinxing it

*

shades triangle! we’ve heard about that before :)))

*

lolll poor wuk lamat gets seasick

*

oooo erenville lore

shetona from xak tural, doesn’t know his father and hey-

stupid crash i want to hear the erenville lore!

*

kay that shit is pretty af

*

i love erenville and wuk lamat you really feel the childhood friends who fuck with each other energy every time they interact its fucking great

“she’s technically royalty”

“just ‘technically’ ignoring me, then…”

*

Tuliyollal is huge and it feels so much fuller than previous cities

*

pffft

*

aight so Bakool ja ja is a twat and i don’t even care who wins as long as it isn’t him

his brother seems alright tho. less of a twat or maybe just a quieter twat

*

nevermind the mystic is just as much of a twat as the mighty is

the mighty is just louder about it

*

even all these expansions later it still sends a thrill of fear through me

*

ESTI!

ESTI IS DOING THE SPARRING SCENE WITH GULOOL JA HA FROM THE TRAILER

yessssss

love how we’re just smiling in the background

*

Esti is bigging us up!

love you esti!

*

elene’sh

erenviles name is elene’sh?!?! ir it is it a term of endearment like what gulool ja ja calls wuk lamat

*

erenville: this is the last chance for me to help you back out

us: flashback to raha

fucking hell i love that set would 100% be thinking of his husband in a time like this

*

genuinely appreciate that they gave krile the echo vision instead of us for once

sorry krile but i’m a little bored of it always being us that sees shit

*

holy shit the inn room

fuck it i’m moving to tuliyollal i live in this cabin now it’s mine sorry raha you’ll have to move out here

*

reached the quest split

experience tells me that one of these will be extremely traumatic and the other will be less so but maybe it’ll be a little less here? maybe? hopefully

please pelupelu don’t fuck me over this is my summer holiday adventure

*

so esti is gonna get utterly fleeced by the pelupelu huh

*

love that our first challenge is to approach a terrified alpaca

love rhat for us

poor wuk lamat

*

camping! Chilling out at the fire with all of erenvilles tent and stuff while waiting for wuk lamat!

*

i’m cackling-

*

oh fuck off and get some character development

This guy isn’t at fandanny or zenos level of ‘i hate you on sight’ but i really don’t like him

*

“There’s much less debate when I’m traveling alone” erenville i love you

*

“He lives and works in the House of Waters High, at the top of that large tree nearby”

turns camera

ah yes that tree the tree i climbed five minutes ago in search of a sightseeing spot found nothing and then leapt off to go back and do msq instead

that tree

Cool

*

“We have a two headed problem. Yes please hurry”

Erenville you are legit one of my fav characters i love you dude

*

i’m starting to really really hate bakool ja ja

like he was annoying before but the hatred is growing

i would seriously rather the warmonger first promise take the throne i am legit not lying rn

*

you fucking tell him (? Them? They use borh plural and singular when talking about the two headed mamool ja) ali

*

look i’m not a particularly enthusiastic person but we really should be doing something instead of just walking there

like dance a little alright? bop to the beat? something other than just strolling seriously along while all the hanu dance around us

*

annnd i'mma call it there for today got picto unlocked and to 81, msq is starting the 91 quests, and i've unlocked all the aether currents i can reach in the zones so far

[screampied]

well, hello there. (read as lady dimitrescu’s voice)

ok, vegas, you interacted with my account…again. love, i think you’re ought to find out who i am before we can even smell october 1st. so cute that you think i’m sweet, because whenever i re-read what i wrote for you im like “oh, that’s not…that’s weird”. i also think you are very sweet! i’m intimidated with people, so indeed i took the opportunity of being high and loose and approachable to send you that first ask.

i think being a whore for ghostface is as easy as saying it’s name. the masks stays on!! do i mean sex or the killing? both? yes. hm, moving along, what’s you favorite ghostface? mine would be stu and jill.

oh, oHH. ok but toji removing the mask, slowly, and the first thing you see is his scarred lips with that smirk. like stfu, i’ll show him a scream. and geto. that man is my lawfully husband, and picturing him with that knife is doing stuff to me. blood on his face, like in hidden inventory, passing his thumb to try and clean it…mshdhdjdjdk fainted

sam as ghostface would’ve been predictable, but it would still be cool. i think they could take a different approach with her. while everyone is scared shitless because a knew killer has show up, she would be excited because-well, she can kill now. again and again, with the excuse of saving her friends and sister. maybe might even kill someone by “mistake” who knows. i think it would be nice, i like the idea of the good character going a lil crazy crazy.

the thing about sidney is that they won’t have the courage to kill her. literal mother of the final girls. but… dale? yeah, i’m bracing myself and praying for her poor little soul.

yes!! they were right in what they did and the ones that loses are the directors. the movie won’t do good at all without them, so must likely they will comeback, as we say in my country, “the sorry dog comes back” as in the directors are the sorry dog, with tail in between their legs.

between cars and bikes im more inclined to cars, but bikers and drivers? ugh, i’m sold to the bikers. sukuna is the type of guy to go to street races just for the fun of nearly dying (in a modern world, of course). i picture a red vintage car with black flames draw in it. oh he would so sexy, he is sexy. others i can see in street race is toji (of course, he bets all the time) and suguru. idk this trinity can have me anytime any day anywhere.

SHUT UP HUNGER GAMES IS SO FUCKING COOL

i used to be a divergent person, but hunger games has grow in my heart. finnick and peeta forever the best boys, suzanne collins cooked with them. and then she fucking burned it with finnick’s. still not over it, how come gale is alive???

jokes aside, i actually fuck with her writing so much, because it’s true, there is no actual victory in a war, we lose too much to be able to live through it. too much nightmares and death.

i’m reading a fanfic set in the hunger games universe, nearly as many words as in the bible, and it’s so fucking good. the author wrote the aftermath of the games perfectly, the rebellion, missions, the games itself. it’s everything.

yapping is done, question of the day is favorite movie and favorite music? see ya!!

nut anon

SLLLAAAY

nutty pook i rly enjoy our long chats i just wanna let u know that 🫡. also the lady dimitrescu voice ????? stawp. do you play resident evil oh now that game is my shit.

LOLLLL DID I. i swear it’s not intentional man. maybe it’s fate 🧿🧿 you think im sweet omg ty AAAAH.

sex with ghostface where the mask stays on is actually cry FUCKKK IM GONNA WRITE THAT. october is gonna bring out the slut in my writing istg. ooooh my fav ghostface ?? probably jill and roman. i love amber too, but billy ofc.

GHOSTFACE TOJIIII DONT DO THIS TO ME. he’s so do that, don’t mind me im writing this down 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️. real they can’t kill the baddest bitch, the whole franchise is nothing without mother.

sukuna as a street racer ID CREEWWAM. i literally saw a sukuna car at the race i went to. i had many interesting thoughts ……. kuna def bets ur so right, toji too with his broke ass.

KEKFLGLHL I LOVE THG ITS SO GOOD. do you like the movies or books better? i like the books but the movies slap

fav movie uhhhhh legally blond, fav music psychedelic pop and indie !!!!

[clonehub]

The original JaKi story was quite a bit forced to be honest. Jax was in crusade squad and Kiki was still a Jedi general but they barely interacted and then somehow somehow they're endgame post O66

and I tried to see how i could make it so that Kiki and Jax actually have a connection before they start their relationship after they both escape the GAR/Empire, but it was still feeling forced. I kept skipping over that immediate escape bit because it didn't occur to me that I actually could write through them getting to know one another (inexperienced writer)

and then I realized kiki doesn't need to have reciprocal feelings for Jax. she can be a slowburn/aro type of person 100%. I'd already set up her an Hahkin and her and Bliz in a similar fashion in terms of unreciprocated romantic feelings.

And Jax has his own journey with kiki, though he goes through it by himself: learning not to put her on a pedestal because she's a Jedi + he likes her. The former was what the Kaminoans taught them. That the Jedi are surreal serene gods who can do anything. Kiki is rather outgoing, energetic, blunt, and boisterous. She admits when she can't or doesn't want to do something. She makes mistakes. she gets in her head. Jax had to go from justifying or excusing her mistakes to himself and others to saying "No, she fucked up and if I have to tell her, I'll tell her"

Jax also suffered loads of verbal abuse from a drill sergeant on Kamino, which led to him having anxiety and self esteem/confidence issues. He's been working on it since he graduated if only because Edger has always been a steadfast believer in his capabilities. part of how Jax copes with his own poor view of himself is by believing in and encouraging others. He's patient, gentle, and understanding. He has to learn how to view himself as a person with valid desires and opinions rather than always shoving his own wants/needs aside.

But I also want to make Jax and Kiki friends before they both leave! yes at first Jax is terrified of Kiki, Kiki can sense that he has feelings for her, but she doesn't reciprocate them and she likes Jax's temperament and general personality. There may or may not be a bit of her teasing him just to see him get flushed when she stands next to him. She doesnt torture him though aksjdhfals

But they have really good conversations and quite a few private moments that help Jax to humanize and de-pedestalize Kiki. Times where she's training him with a bo staff or they're just stretching or its after a battle and she's checking up on him. And he, despite his nerves and fluttery feelings, does try more and more to do the same with her. The second she stops having god status in his head and he's able to talk to her like a person is when he fully falls in love with her.

so they're friends! I've got me a lil slow burn friends to lovers romance going on, which I like because it adds variety to how I normally handle my romances. Kiki doesnt really start looking at Jax as a viable partner option until he makes it clear he's also interested in being a father to her baby.

But I want a more concrete journey for Jax that doesn't revolve around his anxiety and his romance with Kiki. I've struggled with this problem for years. For instance, Ridge is one of my richest characters in terms of development + story. He's got a whole other life he keeps secret to cope with both the war + the PTSD he acquired from sexual abuse as a child on Kamino. He has identity issues and doesn't like being a clone because he thinks being a clone is why he was abused. He acts out a lot. And then he has a mirrored relationship with Bliz and they both take out their control issues on each other. But they both are friends with Kiki.

Maybe Jax's more abstract story line works for him? he's not flying toward a specific end point like ridge is. idk.

[magicalmelancholy-blog1]

A Quick Overview Of Why You Should Vote For TsubaKuro

@homoerotic-shonen-rival-showdown

Look I know CatAdora is going to sweep because they're fucking CatAdora. But why not consider a ship you've never heard of instead?

At the very least, read this if you've never seen She-Ra, because if you're going to vote based on second-hand knowledge, you should at least vote based on second-hand knowledge about both sets of characters.

And by secondhand knowledge, I mean I'm going to post dialogue straight off of the wiki. I'll try my best to include context, but it'll be short since I wanna focus on the stars of this poll.

The most important context is that Len'en is a bullet hell game, and thus for most of the on-screen time, people are going to be fighting.

Reason 1: Kuroji is always going on about being inferior to Tsubakura.

(Note: The Tsubakura here is a fake Tsubakura. Still, Kuroji hadn't realized it at this point so their response is genuine.)

Tell me there's a heterosexual explanation for this. I mean, you're allowed to interpret Tsubakura and Kuroji's genders in a way that would make them straight, but even if they're straight, that still doesn't make them straight.

(Note: Yabusame is a mutual friend of theirs and works with Tsubakura at the shrine you'll see talked about in these dialogues.)

(Note: Saragimaru is someone Kuroji blackmailed into doing their bidding because they're an asshole. This is a section of the game where KuroSara and YabuTsuba fought because the game creator didn't have enough slots to fill in all 6 stages otherwise, and a bullet hell game's gotta have 6 stages right? This isn't a critique I love all the duo attacks, themes, and character interactions that came out of this arrangement.)

(Note: Shion is a newborn youkai made up out of many souls that got entrusted to YabuTsuba after the third game.)

Reason 2: Kuroji vagues Tsubakura even when they're not around.

(Note: "black" here is used because Kuroji has kinda black hair and Tsubakura wears mostly black. I assume it's more natural in Japanese.)

(Note: Shou and Lumen are boss enemies in the second game.)

Reason 3: Witty banter

(Note: "The dumb one" is Yabusame.)

(Note: This is after Tsubakura said that Kuroji is actually a good person sometimes. You'll see that bit of dialogue later.)

Reason 4: Tsubakura has praise for Kuroji too!

(Note: This is YabuTsuba's bad ending for the third game. I actually forgot to include this in my submission! Anyway, the joke is that Tsubakura died but got brought back to life by a magic flower, and everyone is acting like they're still dead for the bit.)

(Note: Jinbei is the familiar of the shrine YabuTsuba work at. They help out with various duties.)

Reason 5: This Conversation

This time I'm going to give the context beforehand, since this conversation is a bit long. Some dialogue for the upcoming Len'en game was released a year ago, to give us a teaser. This dialogue consists of two characters, NiLU and Tom, going over the dialogue for the first game for the sake of information gathering.

Mainly it's just an excuse to have the dialogue from previous games in there at all (since it's a mobile game that the creator plans on using as an entry point for people that are interested in his series).

You remember from before when Kuroji said something like "You always, always surpass me"? This is the reaction to that.

Reason 6: I dunno where to put these two interview questions so they're going here:

Some Fanfic Recommendations:

This is mostly so you can experience the same thing that the runner of the poll did when I sent them a submission. Remember, these are not a reflection of canon. They are, however, fics I like (yes I know one of them is mine, that's because I'm proud of it).

Typhoon Commute by Nobelium

The Next Step by Nobelium

I Kept It Warm For You by FatalYeet

Only A Fool by MagicalMelancholy

[ghostherlig]

did you play the new dlc expansion pass? How was it? Any things you liked / disliked?

oh im gonna get into it bc i have some thoughts about the dlc-

but the TLDR of it is that i enjoyed it!! it was fun to play through, we got to see more of some less-seen characters, we got to see new characters, and i really liked being able to play more story mode and get to see the goofy and fun moments i was expecting... but i wasnt very happy with some of the character and story choices, especially how kuai liang and bi han ended up being, how noob saibot came about, and how everything sort of came together into one big glob of... hollow characters.

(longer thoughts under the cut 😅)

i dont know if i want to excuse the poor writing as being rushed (although that can very likely be the case with WB, it wouldnt surprise me), but i will say that i dont think it's all the fault of the writer (yes singular, thank you WB /s)

my main issues were with the characters themselves- i love the addition of sektor and cyrax as playable characters on the roster, i love that we get noob saibot and get to see more of other timelines and have great character expansions on rain and tanya- i dont love that kuai liang gets the shaft the entire story, or that bi han has all of the problems that his character has, or that there's so much unnecessary conflict the entire story

first things first, i really liked playing through the story mode- even though i accidentally played 98% of it on hard and struggled- it was a fun little adventure! i loved getting to see sektor and cyrax, i loved getting to see all of characters interacting again, i loved that we got to see harumi, and that we got to see more from other timelines-

however, as much fun as it was, there were certain points that just felt hollow, or pointless, or so out of character that it kind of took me out of it- the main sources of that issue being bi han and kuai liang.

bi han and kuai liang, throughout the entirety of khaos reigns, are the most infuriating set of bastards i have ever had to experience in an mk game- and it's just because they were constantly making the wrong decisions.

that isnt to say that you cant write a story where every turn is a left one and nothing good ever happens, you absolutely can and there are masterpieces out there that are like that, however in this specific story, it feels like not a single fucking time do bi han or kuai liang ever make a good choice until the last fucking cut scene- AND IT'S JUST KUAI!!

bi han doesnt even get any kind of redemption arc after THIS???

THIS IS THE STUPIDEST FUCKING MOVE IN THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN, AND HE DOESNT EVER GET TO REDEEM HIMSELF OF EVEN THIS?? IT'S THE STUPIDEST STUNT IN THE ENTIRE STORY-

and bi han isnt even one of the characters that i personally am super in love with (which may very well be bc of how he was written), but i still think that him jumping into that fucking portal for literally no reason was one of the WORST decisions i've ever seen-

there was quite literally no fucking need, there are a thousand different ways to get him into the khaos realm-

like, geras already gets taken- and the fight scene between them all couldve been improved if bi han had actually tried to help and not had his Dunce Moment of jumping head first into that portal- we couldve had an enemies to brothers story where bi han, kuai liang, cyrax, and sektor all go together to the khaos realm to get geras- and maybe after realizing he was wrong, bi han takes a hit for kuai and gets dragged off and that's how we get noob later in the story-

all that to say, things could've been different.

i think the story couldve even had a good (as in like.. happy-) ending, where kuai liang and bi han can at the very least be somewhat civil with each other, or put their feud aside and work alongside each other to protect earthrealm-

i think there was so much opportunity for bi han to get some kind of redemption arc, and i think it couldve fit into the story because liu kang wanted the best outcome for each of his champions, and bi han is a part of that!! it couldve been that bi han and kuai found a way to set aside their feud to protect earthrealm, for bi han to swallow his pride and admit he was wrong, for kuai to be forgiving and allow bi han another chance- there was so much room for character development and it just feels like it was squandered.

i love mk as a franchise because of their characters and a lot of their complexity that can be scraped from story pieces, but khaos reigns felt more like a cash grab than wanting to make a good story. the characters felt so empty, and having the story end how it did, with the tower endings afterwards stomping out any hope for any kind of redemption?

i'll say it isnt my favorite 😅 i liked the addition of new characters, i thought tid bits of the story like ww2 johnny and emperor rain and empress tanya were cool, i like that we got to see more of kenshi using his powers, i enjoyed seeing cyrax and sektor interact with each other and with others (although in my opinion sektor has a lot of problems with her character-) and i really like a lot of the kind of funky skins we got from it all... i just wish there was a way for us to keep the good and get a better story out of it... even if it still ended with noob waiting to be cured, i think it wouldve been nice for him to have someone other than sektor waiting for him...

[sashketter]

The Captain and the Senator Chapter 1 Footnotes

I don’t want to make an already long post longer, so I’ll separate these notes after each chapter. They’re not necessary reading, just some clarifying points about my thought process.

I had the bright dumb idea of each chapter beginning with Rex and ending with Riyo, to mirror the title, but I can tell y’all already I break the trend in Chapter 3 lolol I mean, it’s still a clone captain, just not Rex. Either way, I love starting in medias res, so most, if not all, of the chapters start mid-conversation.

Yes, “you stand out in your armor” is a cheeky allusion to our collective reaction to Rex in TBB season 1, but I like to think he always knew what he was doing. He’s kitted in the field where he needs the protection and in civvies when he needs to blend in. Makes sense.

If Echiyo peeks out here and there, I promise you that was not my intention lolol Rex, Echo, and Riyo are arguably three of the most morally upright characters in Star Wars, so of course, they overlap. Hell, they could easily have been a throuple! (🤔 Food for thought for other fics 😉) I’m not opposed to Echiyo at all, but I just want to be clear that my focus is on Rex and Riyo because they’re the leaders. In my mind, Echo sort of functions like the Lancelot to Rex and Riyo’s King Arthur and Lady Guinevere, which tbh lends more credence to Echiyo but I’ll let better inclined writers take that from here 😘

I’m sure Riyo has more than two guards with her on Coruscant, but since we only ever see two tops and the two that died never comm’d for backup, I’m gonna use that loophole as an excuse to fill it in with clones 😇

I deliberately didn’t name the Pantoran guards. They’ll be named in subsequent chapters to highlight how closely they’re working with the clones.

I’m not saying the Pantoran guards aren’t capable of protecting Riyo. RIP to the one who got her into the warehouse, he was a real one 🫡 I’m saying they’re not enough to face what they’re up against. Riyo seems to play at least an equal role to Rex and Echo in terms of their plans and activities, judging by how easily Echo left the garage and the troopers to her in “Tipping Point.” She’s important to them, so ofc they’re gonna take good fucking care of her (Rex especially 😉🤭 and I mean good fucking care 😉🤭).

I’ve been sitting on this chapter for so long that I’m not sure how necessary it is to the series anymore lol There’s no action, it’s all talk - must come off as boring 😭 But some of my favorite tv episodes are when the characters are stuck in one place and they start to argue and bounce off each other and reveal things they normally wouldn’t when they’re preoccupied with their normal activities. I hope this comes across similarly like a character study. It sets up how the personalities will interact with each other.

[outrunningthedark]

Your ask about Buck's storytelling problem makes me realized that Buck is, as Season 4 starts, is heavily featured in quite a lot of things. Those who commonly complain that "It's not a Buddie show!" is kind of inaccurate tbh, because the show is turning into "The BUCK show" without TPTB's capacity in planning continuous arcs that makes sense. I've seen more and more people frustrated with Buck's story including you because of this. since people are really tired of waiting for him to grow only for that to not happen.

the show is turning into "The BUCK show" 🗣️🗣️🗣️

Did Buck really need to be the one investigating Sue's accident? No. But it was an opportunity to show that he and TayKay were forming a "friendship" (that would soon lead to something more). The treasure hunt was a pretty fun episode, right? But we needed a separate scene of BT at Bathena's because...? The audience had to be misled into thinking they weren't gonna cross that line again? As a Buddie fan, I'd never complain about Buck going with Eddie to Charlie's and then witnessing the shooting, but the next episode? Did we really have to sacrifice Eddie's recovery process so BT could start a relationship right then? Chimney mentally/emotionally breaking without Maddie became an excuse to feel sorry for Buck because he got punched in the face :( (that's sarcasm!) And then the Chimney+Bobby/Chimney+Eddie scenes prior to Chimney's departure were cut so the story could focus on how Buck was feeling, and giving Buck reassurance that he didn't fuck anything up. Ghost Stories set up Past Is Prologue (because we really needed an episode dedicated to TayKay's childhood...would love to know what the hell was going on bts when KR thought the easiest option was to give a side character she was planning on writing out a solo storyline...) Then we had episodes like 5x11, 5x13, and 5x14 where, as a Buddie fan I enjoyed those scenes, but I can see how it would feel like too much when we were also witnessing BT hanging on by a thread and the BL interactions (which were less than what we were supposed to get, mind you). Flash forward to s6 and we've seen Buck in his feelings over not being interim captain; being the one most affected by Lev's death to kick off the "yes to possibilities" mindset that brought him to the sperm donor request, going to Hen for advice about C&K, the sperm donor thing coming back in 6x07 (multiple scenes discussing it), Uncle Buck being prioritized over Madney house hunting instead of them getting a one minute montage, even. Uncle Buck at Madney's just because people want more of that. Hen and...Buck at the renaissance fair. The 118 on the phone to...talk about Buck. 911blr is like "911 social media team stop being so obsessed with Buck challenge" and, uh...I think that challenge should also be issued to someone else...