#your opinion is only relevant for your body and if someone asks you for your opinion on them getting x done

[ryanthedemiboy]

We need to work on our shittiness to people who don't look how we think they should, and actually stop thinking people should look a certain way.

That said: adults have the right to do with their body as they please, even if you don't understand it or dislike or or it makes you uncomfortable.

Bodily autonomy is not just for who you decide needs it. Trust people to know what they want and need.

It doesn't matter if it's a trans man getting a phalloplasty or a cis guy getting a penis enlargement or someone getting a tummy tuck or a cis woman getting large breast implants.

Not your business! Trust people to make their own decisions.

Look. I’m going to be honest with you. Adopting that hard anti-plastic surgery stance while trans people’s lives and right to transition is at stake is absolutely horrendous timing. Knock it off.

[citronverveine]

when you think about it, tgcf really wouldn’t have the same impact if xie lian didn’t cultivate through abstinence.

it’s funny because it’s not even relevant to the core of the plot itself; xie lian never uses his cultivation as a reason to stay away from hua cheng. he only reminds the reader of it when he drinks wine, which is pretty irrelevant anyway. but if it doesn’t impact his relationship with hua cheng then it must serve another purpose, otherwise it wouldn’t be here, because things in fiction don’t exist just for the sake of existing.

xie lian abstaining from earthly pleasures fits into the narrative of control, expectations, and divinity, the transcendance of his mortal body.

xie lian’s goal, very early on, is to become a god. and what are gods? above mortals. or that’s what everyone thinks, but not xie lian, not entirely at least. xie lian views godhood as a means to serve the people, not being above them. this is why he doesn’t think kneeling before gods is right, and why he doesn’t want his believers to kneel.

obviously, very few people agree with him and tell him how his godhood should be, even his own believers who think it’s stupid to not kneel before a god.

xie lian always saw godhood as a tool, and his body as a tool to reach godhood. xie lian is self-sacrificing in nature, and even if at first he doesn’t really know how much it takes, it reaches extremes once he is forced to self-sacrifice for a hundred people at once.

during that time, xie lian’s body and autonomy was taken from him. “this is what you want? then take it.” it makes it seem as though it was his choice. he wanted to help, so he got to help, he should be happy, right?

i often wondered why xie lian didn’t just say to hell with it and broke his cultivation through his eight hundred years of banishment. not once, as far as we know, does he willingly break it completely and irreversibly, even though he is shackled, even though he doesn’t even actively cultivate anymore.

i think it’s about control. during that time xie lian had very little control over his life.

godhood is about repressing your human traits. when he was a god, xie lian was asked not to care, not to intervene, not to help. he was asked to sit back and watch as his people suffered, as his kingdom threatened to fall. he couldn’t.

that’s why he couldn’t be a god. he realized that himself after almost releasing the resentful spirits on Yong’an. he ascended and asked to get bannished once again. all of what he did was too human, from start to finish, and he would never be fit for a god.

his cultivation was the third and last shackle, self-imposed from the start. the first shackle bound his spiritual power, the second his luck, and the third one his cultivation, asking him to repress his humanity.

this is why it’s important that xie lian makes the choice of breaking his cultivation for hua cheng. it’s an obvious choice when you understand all of this. hua cheng gave xie lian his autonomy back by letting him be himself and making his own choices, and trusting him with them. never did he doubt xie lian, never did he tell him what to do, even when he had his own opinion on the matter. hua cheng lets xie lian be. while supporting him through it all. he’s always behind him, no matter what happens, no matter whether xie lian does good or bad, he’ll always be there to catch him regardless of what he does, because he is there for who he is. he’s xie lian. he’s human. it doesn’t matter that he’s a god, a prince, a scrap collector, a curse.

and because xie lian has finally found someone who accepts him as a whole, can he finally let himself be whole and let go of the control he has on his body. he doesn’t have to hold back. he doesn’t have to try. he can indulge. he can be human. he can want. he can love. he can hurt. he can cry. he can laugh.

tl;dr: xie lian, once aware he has someone that will accept him, the whole of him, can finally let go of any artificial control on his self to fit in what the world expects of him

[sendothetaurus]

How to write good dialogue

Almost every story needs dialogue - obvious right? Well, this post is about the not-so-obvious sides of conversations. I've struggled a LOT with snappy and realistic speech, so I've made it my mission to collect some handy directives. Here is what I found:

Contents

Information Dumps

Setup And Payoff

Characterization Through Dialogue

Three Simple Questions

Four-Sides Model

Depth

About Answers

Sources And Credits

⮮ Let's go! (^▽^) ⮯

Information Dumps

Everybody knows them, everybody hates reading them. But how do we avoid them? Something really clicked for me when I understood context. If your character talks about something that happened in the past, they don't need to explain what happened. They were there. Here's an example:

"It would be nice if we at least got a B for that paper. Since I will go to college next year, I feel that this is important to me."

The speaker and the listener should be aware of the exposition (regarding their last year at high school). During dialogue, these conditions go without saying.

Setup And Payoff

Instead of dumping everything at once, let the reader guess what's happening. This is done by mentioning something that is not answered right away. Also dropping hints can increase tension.

Scene 1 "Why do you always carry that with you?" she asked and pointed at the box cutter. Her friend eyed her with suspicion. "For cutting." "Yeah, but why?" "Might come in handy sometime." Scene 2 An ice cold shiver ran down her spine as her fingers felt around the bag, searching for the familiar shape. There was nothing. The other tossed the thing onto the floor between them. "Care to elaborate?" She couldn't have known. "How could you!"

Someone definitely has a secret here that they don't want uncovered. It makes the reader speculate: Does she carry the knife to defend herself or does she plan on hurting someone with it?

Characterization Through Dialogue

The general rule of thumb is: Show not tell. If a character is shy, self-absorbed or chaotic, make them act like it. Also, readers take part in the characterization of your protagonists. Make them guess why a character acts a certain way.

"C- can I have your pen?" She twirled her thumbs and looked at the ground. "What the hell, no!" Disgusted, he brushed off his hands on the front of his jeans. "I'mma better disinfect that."

Notice how the girl is stuttering and the boy has a loose tongue. Mannerisms help identifying traits in a character. Everyone has a distinct way to speak (e.g. relaxed, polite, malignly) which makes it easier to tell them apart. Sometimes there is a difference between speech and behavior. This can be quite useful to highlight conflict inside a character.

Three Simple Questions

Who wants what from who?

Why now?

What happens if they don't get it?

These questions ensure plot consistency. For question 3 the only other outcome is conflict. Conversations thrive off of conflict and it is of benefit to have a supplicant and potential provider for a solution. It's basically intention versus obstacle.

1. She wants to be his wife. He doesn't want a marriage. 2. She is pregnant. 3. She needs to provide for a baby all on her own.

Tadaa, a conflict ensues.

Four-Sides Model

The four-sides model is a theory on communication. It assumes that a message has four distinct ways of being conveyed:

Facts -> data, facts, truth and relevance

Self-Disclosure -> explicit and implicit information about the own mindset; likes, dislikes, opinions

Relationship -> information about whether the person is liked or detested; approval and disapproval; "I assume you have [this] opinion of me"; body language

Want -> a direct attempt to influence the behavior of another person; advice, desire or instruction

Since this is highly technical stuff, I'll provide you with an example:

Customer: "I always drink my coffee black." 1. Fact: The coffee I drink is black. 2. Self-Disclosure: I like black coffee. 3. Relationship (POV of the waiter): Did I do something wrong? OR It's their fault! They ordered the wrong thing! 4. Want: Bring me black coffee.

Controlling the message through sender and receiver gives a new level of influence to an author. The relationship-level is the bottleneck in a conversation that holds the most potential for misunderstandings. I'm trying to be aware of it when I write subtext (see below).

Depth

On the nose dialogue is what we want to avoid at all costs. For this reason subtext is created in stories. Read this:

Scene 1 A: "I like you." B: "Nah, I don't like you back. You're so annoying." A: "Ouch, that hurts. I'm not sure if I heard that right." B: "We were never friends. Go away."

This is not how conversations work. Thankfully, dialogue like this is not entirely useless. It conveys what the characters really want to say. The challenge is to think of a way to not say the thing but keep a similar meaning.

The true meaning behind the dialogue is called subtext (scene 1). If I don't know how to continue after a certain line, I write down the subtext first before I decide on how to paraphrase it.

Finally, I add a fitting description of expression and body language if needed. I try to keep it short and simple.

Check this out:

Scene 2 She tucked her hair behind her ear. "I need a ride home later. Are you free?" -> I like you. "Sorry, all seats' re taken," he said without looking at her. -> Nah, I don't like you back. You're so annoying. "Uhm, okay. But I'm small. You could fit me in the footwell, honestly." -> Ouch, that hurts. I'm not sure if I heard that right. He leaned forward as if he had the urge to stand. "Ha, funny. But no, I'm not planning on doing something illegal tonight." -> We were never friends. Go away.

A character's action depends on their own intention and the other's response. I feel it is easier to keep track of what's happening behind the curtains when it's written alongside the dialogue.

Simultaneously, you can keep habits and traits in check. Does the the character apply all criticism to themselves? Are they disregarding or constantly marginalizing others? Do they worry only for themselves or solely for others? Subtext truly is the most powerful tool in conversation-writing.

About Answers

Did you know that you don't have to answer every single question? In fact, there are two other ways to show an emotion without telling it.

The first one is called sidestepping. The character ignores the posed question and carries on with an entirely different topic.

A: "Do you still love me?" B: "We should get going."

It's very obvious, right? By sidestepping the question, we can assume that the character is uncomfortable or angry with the other person.

The other way to answer is actually a bit paradoxical. Through silence, a great variety of emotions can be displayed. It is recommended to refrain from actually describing silence with words like "he remained silent", "he refused to say anything", "he never responded".

- The laptop hummed. - The birds chirped in the trees. - She felt her legs going numb from sitting in an uncomfortable position. - His eyes wandered around, searching the parking lot for a familiar face.

It feels more natural to explain the things that grab our attention when we sit in silence.

This is it, folks. That's all I could find on the topic - for now. If there's anything missing, I'd love to hear it.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope this helped ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

My sources are this and this video as well as this article.

Also a big thank you to @zoropookie for helping me with the colors ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

[thewertsearch]

@manorinthewoods asked: Vriska and Eridan have now killed one person each. Tavros and Feferi's respective moons have been destroyed; as such, they cannot be revived via dream selves or the moon-crypt slabs. What do you think will happen now? ~LOSS (18/5/24) @manorinthewoods asked: Welcome to Murderstuck, aka Homestuck's version of Canaan House. Who do you think's going to survive this? ~LOSS (22/5/24) Anonymous asked: tavros and feferi are D----EAD! do you think they'll stay dead? you've already stated your opinion that there are death flags like crazy all over vriska, so do you think anyone else will die? if so, who? Anonymous asked: Now that the bodies have started to hit the floor, what's your prediction for who's gonna survive to meet the humans?

I'm actually doing to do something a little different this time, and analyze the situation primarily from an author's perspective, rather than an in-universe one. I had a lot of fun doing that with yesterday's Kanaya post, so I want to try it again.

Let's enumerate the remaining trolls, in ascending order of how likely I think they are to kick the bucket (😳) during Murderstuck.

There's no chance whatsoever that Sollux will die. His Doom prophecy is fulfilled, and if he were to die a third time, it would break his long-established duality theme. Plus, he'd have predicted it, and would have been complaining about it since Hivebent. He's fine.

Death flag score: 0/10.

We just got Aradia back. She's not even involved in Murderstuck, seemingly travelling to the Furthest Ring after being resurrected, so none of the murderers can touch her anyway.

Aradia is a powerful time manipulator who can freeze even the most dangerous enemies. It would take a lot more than Eridan and Gamzee to defeat someone who can stalemate Perfect Jack, and I predict that she'll survive the rest of the Act with ease.

Plus, killing her again so soon would feel really cheap. Been there, done that.

Death flag score = 0.5/10

Karkat and Terezi are too important to die.

This doesn't always guarantee a character's survival - A Song of Ice and Fire comes to mind - but ASOIAF kind of proves my point, doesn't it? Martin can throw all the Red Weddings he likes at us, but everyone still kind of knows that the really important characters aren't going to die until their arcs are complete. If A Dream of Spring ever actually comes out, Daenerys will still be around, and you can take that to the bank.

So no, I don't think Karkat and Terezi will be going anywhere. Now that Kanaya appears to be dead, they're undeniably the most important trolls remaining, alongside Vriska. And we'll get to Vriska.

Death flag score: 1/10.

I know it's weird to predict that an already deceased character won't die, but I wrote an entire post last night about why I believe this to be the case.

tl;dr: it doesn't make narrative sense for Kanaya to stay dead.

Death flag score: 2/10.

Now, we're onto the characters who I think might actually die.

Gamzee's still alive at the end of the countdown, so he'll at least survive the next couple of hours.

Certainly, his position seems rather precarious. His stated intent to wipe out the entire Veil will make him a lot of enemies very quickly - and based on the image above, he clearly gets into some sort of trouble. That scratch almost looks like it could be the work of Jack's sword.

However, I have a hard time believing the Most Important Character In Homestuck is going to die less than halfway through Homestuck. He's been saying all sorts of cryptic nonsense lately, and he strikes me as someone whose role in the story will expand even more than it already has. Gamzee is the one character on this list we know will stay relevant for the entire comic.

I don't think he's going to achieve his murder mission, of course. I think he'll probably be 'defeated' somehow, and expelled from the Veil by the surviving trolls, only to pop up again sometime later. There's still a chance that he'll be killed - but if he is, I'm 100% sure that he'll return in some form. Gamzeesprite would be even worse than Calsprite, in my opinion.

Death flag score: 3/10.

Yes, I still believe Vriska will die - but I don't know if she'll die in Murderstuck.

Scratch positioned her as someone who will perpetuate a monumental, large-scale mistake, and I don't think there's anything she could do on the Veil that fits the bill.

However, Vriska is more imaginative than I am. She could easily pull a trick out from up her sleeve that I didn't see coming - some terrible, horrible idea that earns all of Scratch's foreshadowing in one fell swoop. Vriska is known for her Incidents, and you never know when the next one is on the horizon.

Death flag score: 4/10.

There's not a lot tying Equius and Nepeta to the Veil, is there?

They don't have strong relationships any of the remaining trolls, and even among the B-team, they've barely had any prominence since we've left Alternia. Killing one or both of them would up the stakes of Murderstuck without introducing the narrative issues that, say, a dead Karkat would cause.

Plus, if one of them dies, then the other would immediately gain an incredibly strong motivation, and become a more prominent character overnight. I already like Nepeta - but a heartbroken, vengeful Nepeta hunting Eridan down across time and space? That's a fucking arc.

They could also both die, and return to the story from another direction. It hasn't escaped my notice that almost all the 'important' trolls are Prospit Dreamers, and the two Furthest Ring explorers are Derse girls. I've been wondering for a while now if the solution to the Veil's bloated cast is to split the trolls back into the Red and Blue Teams, with the Red Team joining the kids outside the session, and the Blue Team joining Aradia in the Ring for some secondary mission. I guess that implies Tavros will be resurrected, but there do seem to be hints that that might happen.

I don't want either of these two to die, but... well, killing them would raise a lot of interesting possibilities.

Death flag score (both of them together): 6/10

Death flag score (one of them) : 7.5/10.

Eridan is screwed.

Neither the story nor the trolls can allow him to ally with Jack and lead him to the Veil, and they'll do anything they can to stop him. I don't think anyone's inclined to show him mercy, either - Kanaya and Feferi were very popular.

I don't really see any way out for him. He has no allies, he can't Hopesplode everyone at once, and he's never shown himself to be particularly resourceful. I think if there's one troll practically guaranteed to be Murderstucked, it's him.

Death flag score: 9/10.

[kerubimcrepin]

ANALYSIS: Joris Jurgen, Mage-Slayer, Bearer of Grougalorasalar's Black Fire.

For quite a while I had wanted to make this post, concentrating my personal pet theory/something I noticed, but as of recently, it has been made especially relevant with to the role Grougalorasalar, as well as the Jurgen-Crepin family, may play in the manga.

This post touches on the following topic: Joris is probably mostly/fully incapable of using magic due to Grougalorasalar's possession, and there may be other consequences too, for his psychology.

"At the time of the Dofus film, we saw [Joris] as a mage-killer. Someone who does not practice magic, nor is attuned to it."

Note: Some parts of this were already proven true (or true-in-the-past-but-now-reconned) by this tweet, but I would like to go more in depth, and talk about why Joris is not practising or attuned to magic.

Black Fire, Stasis, and Dragons:

The magic of the world is based upon the Quadramental Breeze (the elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind), Black Fire (Stasis, energy of destruction), and White Fire (Wakfu, energy of creation).

All of these forces originate from the three dragons of Osamodas: the elemental dragon Spiritia, the white fire dragon Helioboros, and the black fire dragon Ouronigride.

The descendants of Spiritia became the four elemental primordial dragons.

Dofus MMO Book "Dragon Era - Found Fragments III"

Ouronigride had three descendants, of whom only two are extremely relevant to this post: Grougalorasalar (ebony dofus), and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, who refused a physical body, and therefore, remained without one, unlike all the other dragons.

Helioboros had three descendants, two of whom are important to keep in mind: Dardondakal (ivory dofus, his guardians used to be Joris, as well as Leorictus Sheran-Sharm), and Croulakrakoss, a dragon that has a history with Grougalorasalar.

Possession & violence:

"Young Lukruh… You don't know that I'm watching over you… From the shadows!"

Joris is not the first person in the history of the World of Twelve to be possessed by a Black Fire dragon — albeit his possession was less planned, and ended far less tragically for him.

While Grougalorasalar only resorted to possessing a body and mind that would not resist him, in order to save his own life — his sibling, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, had always yearned to possess and overtake, and for that end, he chose a man named Lukruh.

"Go ahead! Set them on fire! Oh yes! Lukruh! Your hatred gave the two of us wings! Keep going, and then nothing will stand in our way!"

He spent a long time slowly weakening his defences to overtake his body and mind (the downside of possessing someone who is not a newborn, and actually has a free will and a mind to overwrite, I suppose), and fed on his anger, at some point even giving him wings.

Feeding on anger to increase control over the body, something isn't unique to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

It is unknown whether possession is something only Black Fire dragons are capable of, but we do know the dire consequences it has for the possessed — because Joris has opinions on this story, and he voices in the Dofus MMO questline for the Ivory dofus.

During the first Crimson Dawn, he took the life of Dardondakal, and some time after, died himself. What really happened is murky (perhaps in part because this is not my lore area of expertise), but we know that Hyrkul ended up as an undead lich, before being abandoned by the dragon.

Joris explains that:

1. Dragons of black fire are not evil, but merely drawn to destruction. While I personally believe him, the fact that he mentions this immediately and unprompted may point to this being an insecurity of his.

2. The He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named kept Hyrkul alive, or turned him into a lich, using black magic. Then, in response to being asked whether it is possible that Hyrkul could have recovered his free will, Joris says the following:

This implies that 1. Joris views the condition of being possessed as one you can't recover from, and 2. that he still does not entirely possess a free will of his own. His mind has forever been tainted by/muddled with Grougalorasalar's, and that is simply not something that can be changed or healed from.

...Perhaps Black Fire stirs his thoughts too. No wonder he would mention this not being an evil thing, then.

(To be honest, one of my own darker thoughts on this topic is that Joris as we know him has been possessed since infancy, so if Grougalorasalar overwrote his brain fully with his own personality without any memories, we'd just never know. Though, considering there wasn't really a personality to overwrite, it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg dilemma. Sorry for becoming a conspiracy theorist for a sec.)

Joris also elaborates further on their relationship in the Ebony dofus questline:

This reveals multiple things:

Joris may be implying that he and Grougalorasalar did not part on good terms.

The alternate explanation for his words here, is that Joris knows what Grougalorasalar feels due to his influence over his psyche — meaning that he also neither forgives nor forgets. While it is a fun possibility that fits in with the rest of the post, I am inclined to believe that the shorter and easier explanation for his words is the one meant by the developers. Occam's razor.

The conflict that led to their separation was based in their world-view and morals — but here Joris says something that is very interesting:

The thing about possession, is that it affects both parties, whether they like it or not.

(Imagine two pieces of clay. Imagine pushing them together, and then tearing them apart. There would still be a bit of colour from the other piece of clay, on both of them, you know? I suppose it works the same way with souls.)

Whatever their relationship used to be, Grougalorasalar no longer respects Joris's opinions. Joris still seems to feel protective of the Ebony Dofus — even if he couldn't fulfil his promise of keeping it safe forever.

Joris the Powerless:

The Black Fire eats away at all magic and life, like rust; and rules the thoughts and impulses of those affected by it, like hunger.

But it's not an evil energy — merely the yin to Wakfu's yang. It destroys without a malicious intent.

Even if we've seen the consequences that an abundance of it has, in season 4 of Wakfu...

*relevant parts of the quotes are marked with a red tint

It is not a secret that Joris was first conceptualized to be a character who had no innate powers of his own — instead drawing them from his magic wand/hand-held tree stump. (Well, the first idea was a warrior with a woman's voice, but Xa disregarded that brief and made up a whole new guy...)

It was the idea they had during the making of Wakfu season 1 — which is why he always held his magic wand back then — and it was the idea they had during the development of the cancelled spin-off game "Joris the Powerless".

It is also why he has seldom been shown with the tree stump afterwards — it has lost its relevance to his character outside of being his preferred weapon.

The reason I bring it up is that, while ideas change — when something is so integral to a character that you almost name a game after it, even multiple rewrites may not get rid of an idea entirely.

If black magic is a hunger that corrodes other magic, then wouldn't it make sense, if Joris could not use magic to begin with?

His situation is far different from Julith, who used black magic to try and resurrect Jahash. Black Fire is a part of Joris the same way it is a part of Black Fire Dragons, — it's not just a tool to him.

...Though, he does make use of it.

All of this together would explain why Joris was envisioned, and could still turn out to be, someone who neither practices nor is attuned to magic, and how the idea of him being a powerless individual may have evolved.

It is important to note, that while I think he is mostly incapable of magic, he can probably still preform simple spells:

Joris is shown using some type of magic in the Wakfu series, though we don't know what sort of magic it is, and what is its source.

And, this is a bit more shaky, but he may be shown using some sort of electricity magic in Dofus MMO's battles — to enhance his mobility/melee attacks. The only reason I am unsure is that it could just be game-specific animations, to make the fight more interesting.

Either way it would make sense — Black Fire Dragons are living beings attuned to Stasis, but they are not devoid of Wakfu, (if they were, they would either be dead or necromes...) and Joris is simply an individual whose body was warped — capabilities for branching out into other types of magic could be limited, instead of being gone.

From possession to possessiveness:

While the main point of this post was to analyse the fact that the possession probably affected his magical capabilities, it is also important to note, that I don't think his psychology was untouched.

We have multiple sources claiming that dragons are, in general, emotionally unstable, as well as textual evidence of said fact (via Arty's Burning of Bonta, which is mentioned by Qilby; Grougalorasalar's... Grougalorasalarness, as well as Adamai's many crises.)

As well as an interesting quote by Qilby, in regard to Grougaloragran. But it comes with a preface:

While we don't know whether the vocabulary of "white fire/black fire" applies to the Eliatropes, it is important to consider this:

It was said by Tot that six dofus are required to create a world.

The appearance of a new primordial black fire dragon (Rotalström) in the necroworld could signify that having six primordial dragons for the four elements, as well as stasis and wakfu, is a constant between various worlds.

According to Tot, Rotalström was the last dragon defeated by Toross. Could it be that Primordial black fire dragons play an important role in keeping the world safe? And is this why Grougalorasalar is very active in the new manga?

This would probably make Grougaloragran a black fire dragon. It would also explain why he is both impulsive, and very keen on self-control and trying to be a kind person. But this isn't outright canon — just my speculation.

(It would also explain why Adamai knows how to use stasis magic at such a young age, having been raised by him.)

Which brings me to this point: it is interesting to think about the way Grougaloragran craves violence and destruction as a baby (cute), and how this quote about impulsiveness and jealousy also fits Grougalorasalar:

Many people may not know it, but there is a lot of lore pertaining to Grougalorasalar in the Dofus MMO — and especially to his child, Crocoburio.

Crocoburio and Grougalorasalar tried to devastate and control the lands, slaughtering countless people, and Grougalorasalar was madly obsessed with his offspring: whispering him advice in the dark, supporting him every step of the way, giving him enchanted items.

These aren't necessarily normal behaviours for a dragon — but his son was so much like him, that it bewitched him for centuries, even after he was gone.

The quests in the MMO involve Grougalorasalar wanting to ressurect his offspring, even if it damages Crocoburio's soul irreparably — and the player trying to ressurect Crocoburio without hurting him, to use as a bargaining chip.

What I am saying is that:

Joris is a very impulsive person, a misantrope prone to poor decision making, involving himself in situations that don't concern him, and anger issues. He is also obsessed with his family — his so called "sons" (they aren't, but the three of them love playing pretend).

And maybe it's just how he was born — but maybe, just maybe, this too, is something that can be in some way traced to Grougalorasalar.

But maybe Joris also relishes in having posessive control over Kerubim and Atcham. Maybe he also hates everyone else besides them, and barely tolerates some people outside the family unit, with his brief friendships with others. Maybe its just like Grougalorasalar, and his love for Crocoburio.

[lexsang]

Hi! I was reading your opinion if father Sebastiaan and Sabretooth and you mentioned finally seeing sanguinarianism as a blessing. As someone who struggles a lot with seeing if as anything but a handicap and feeling frustrated, I'd love to hear more about how you managed to see the positive in all this.

This is a fantastic question. I'll try to cover it as completely as I can, but I do want to stress that my experience, like all of ours, is unique. Just a warning before I jump in, I am talking about my awakening in a decent bit of detail, so please ensure you are in a good place before reading. It might not be a bad Idea to have your favourite blood substitute on hand before giving this all a read.

I may have told a vague story of my awakening a number of times, but I think it's pretty relevant to this topic, so I'll start with that. Surprisingly, I don't think I have actually heard many in-depth awakening stories from other vamps, so I don't know if many of the details of mine are different from the norm. I do know that the general feeling of absolute isolation is fairly common though. When I first awakened, it was like a dam burst. Suddenly, and without any inciting moment, I had a vague interest in blood, and the curiosity in drinking it. But it only remained a small thought for a couple of days, and quickly exploded into full body cravings that left my mind unable to think about anything else. It was violent, disruptive, and absolutely life altering. I, unlike some lucky members of the community, had no previous knowledge of the vampire community, or that anyone else could possibly be have the kinds of experiences I was thrust into having.

I assume that having that knowledge would have changed the course of my awakening, but if I'm being honest with myself, I don't know that it would have changed a thing. Suddenly, I was an isolated individual, unlike anyone else, constantly wading through seas of people (I was in school, and then university at the time), and overwhelmed by vivid, violent thoughts. Like I mentioned, I like to think that having the knowledge that all I needed was to feed on a little bit of blood would have changed the depth of my awakening. However, my body, sending every signal it could in the effort to convince me to feed, pushed further and further, until the cravings pushed past just blood, and into meat as well. I mention all of this to help convey that I was wholly consumed by my cravings. For every second of every day for two or three years, this was my internal experience. What I have failed to mention, however, is how I felt about that experience.

I didn't push away from it or create tension between myself and those feelings and impulses. Of course I did maintain control (albeit somewhat loose control sometimes), but rather than being fearful of myself, I quickly accepted it as a part of myself. I have to be direct. I loved the feeling that the cravings sustained in my body. And that is the main thing that I think makes my experience so different from the experiences of many other sanguinarian vampires. I enjoyed the experience of vampirism from the beginning, I just closed my eyes and fell backwards into the sensations and the experience, with a smile on my face.

That being said, it did complicate parts of my life. I was in a pretty negative relationship throughout much of my awakening, and she, being the only person I had told about my cravings, was kind enough to fairly consistently remind me that she saw me as a monster, despite the fact that I was clear that these experiences were happening at me, and not from me (suffice to say, don't keep people in your life who are incapable of accepting you). It was also difficult to manage family at the time. Because of that relationship, I started going through some rough times, and the addition of unsated cravings complicated my ability to ask for help. My family became very worried about me, but there was only so much I could say. So I certainly won't say that vampirism is a completely enjoyable experience without it's difficulties, not to mention the very real pain that can come from cravings.

I do think there is a decent amount to be learned from my experience. That the experience of vampirism, though I harp on the fact that vampirism expresses itself uniquely in every individual, varies most extremely based on the perspective of the person experiencing it. And luckily, perspectives can be changed! You, at present, view your vampiric experience from the perspective that it is a handicap, but I can't imagine that that one perspective has been the entirety of the experience. The way I see it, my vampirism allows me to look at life as if I'm looking through a stained glass window, one that no one else will ever get the chance to see. Yes, there may be other vampires (which is also a good thing, we get to connect with others over something that makes us all unique and alike), but no one else will ever experience it in the same way you do.

I think it's also very important to take time with the cravings. By pushing against them, many vampires add tension to their experiences, and make it harder to deal with. Use substitutes if you need to, or feed if you have the opportunity to, and disconnect from the experiences of others. Just sit in your own body and let the cravings be there with you almost like meditating with your vampirism. When you are present with them like this, without judgement, how does it really feel to sit in that vampiric experience? When there isn't something pressing that the cravings are distracting you from, how does that experience manifest?

And of course, feeding is probably the big one. Yes, we gradually get to a point where we don't feel healthy. The level and timeframe of that varies from vamp to vamp, but it is a fact that that aspect of vampirism is a handicap. But through that difficulty, we get to experience feeding, something that 99.999% of people will never be able to understand. People say that you can't truly experience the good in life if you haven't experienced the bad. I won't necessarily agree or disagree with that, but I will say that that is a great way to relate to the experience of feeding. The instant dissolution of whatever doubts that might have been swimming around in my mind, along with the sudden removal of negative symptoms is a blessing. And in my experience, that is just where feeding starts. It obviously shouldn't be seen as a drug to be used for regular recreation, but the feeling of feeding, if you see it as more than just filling a need, like taking a prescription, is really something else.

This has definitely been much longer than I had originally intended, and I'm too lazy to look back through it to see if I messed up any spelling or anything, and I solemnly apologize for the number of times I used the word 'experience'... but I couldn't think of any other word, and it's too late to crack open the thesaurus. I hope this helped, and if you have any more questions or are looking for any clarification, please feel free to ask. I'm more than happy to help where I can :)

[sapphos-darlings]

A certain strangeness has become obvious to me through detransitioning, and it's that for the first time, I'm well and truly aware that other people have very strong opinions about my body and who I am or should be and what that means for how I should be presenting myself.

At home, I have a wonderful bisexual partner who loves me for me, which includes the traits of me that are atypical for my birth sex. Particularly, they love the little facial hair I grow - and, to my surprise, got very sad when I shaved it for a trip to the capital. Of course I did, the same way I'll wear something that isn't my pyjamas when showing up in public for more than a trip to the store, but to them, this was a loss of something, and upsetting on a level that I hadn't expected. A silly thing, from both perspectives, they admit to this and there is no real pressure for me to show up as a caveman to the outside world, and in this case, it was a very positive and reassuring experience of someone having preferences for my body, because hair is something I grow naturally and my partner's reaction reinforced that this is not unwanted or ugly, which is a message I perhaps would expect from most people.

When I brought this up to my mother, however, she immediately reacted strongly in the opposite. She told me, very straightforwardly, that the facial hair that I grow is unsightly and I should get it plucked or lasered. I'm sorry, what? I spent four years of my life taking masculinising hormones so that I could grow facial hair and this is the best I could do and you'll tear it from my cold dead hands, thank you very much. She's also told me that my leg hair, as fine as it is, is horrible and I should shave it off. Why? Why should I? The only venue at which I present my hairy legs at is my own home. The hair that I grow hardly bothers anybody, and if she doesn't want to see it then maybe she shouldn't be looking when she comes over once every two months or so for a couple of days. She's entering my space, voluntarily - I'm not going to shave my legs for my own goddamn mother and if she can't deal with my body existing in its natural state then that seems like something she might need to go to therapy over, not my problem to deal with.

At a doctor's appointment, recently, as terrible as it was, I was trying to have changes made to my SSRI medication because the side-effects of it were driving me up the wall. Instead, this doctor diverted the discussion to her own personal problems with me.

"I was expecting a male patient. Are you changing your sex?"

No, ma'am, I am not. Sorry about the misleading name but that has nothing to do with my medication's array of side-effects. I had to explain to her that I am a born female, tried transitioning but it didn't work out because my body is extremely determined to stay female thank you very much, and that I am not male, never was, and I'm most definitely not MtF, not that it has any goddamn relevance to, again, my medication - which we never got around to discussing, because she did not care.

I ended up lowering my dose without supervision and dealing with the withdrawals to get rid of the worst of it, since clearly the psychiatric unit was not interested in helping me out with the issues I was having.

This is extremely jarring to me, because prior to detransitioning, I never faced issues like this. Now it feels like I'm questioned left and right about who I am and why I have a name like this and why I look like this and people feel entitled to opinions about my body and my appearance in ways that they never did before transition or during transition. When I was transitioning, I had few encounters in terms of people asking about my transition - but when they did, they were positive encounters. The most common one was chatty nurses during my million urgent care visits during that time, where they'd carefully sniff out how I felt about discussing my transition as a topic, and often fell into a casual, friendly conversation about how it all works, because I was never averse to talking about it and they were often dealing with the first trans patient of their careers, so it was the first time for them to be able to hear how it all worked and what it was like. It was never a negative experience, and nobody ever commented on how I looked, how I presented myself, etc.

And now it feels like that has been flipped on its head. Everyone has an opinion on my body, who I am, how I'm showing up. I should be doing this differently, I should look different, I should wear different clothes, I should have a different name.

I'm grateful to the people - my partner, my friends - who truly accept that I am who I am and I look the way I do and this is a positive thing for all of us. The rest of these people, I need them to, frankly, piss off about my body and identity. None of your fucking business how much hair I have on me or what my name is. Deal with it.

[psychewritesbs]

Unpopular opinion in the fandom right now, but I don't think Megumi becoming a villain is, if at all, plausible. It would be way too typical for Gege and very obvious.

I don't think he'll get out unscathed either and that a corruption arc is likely to happen, but in jjk's case this 'corruption' may be interpreted as the need to confront the worst version of one's self in order to reach completion. Kind of like a union of opposites (like how he got Totality after white divine dog got killed).

Don't know how Gege will do it but Megumi's upcoming arc might just make him the best character this series has to offer, and he's pretty much already on the way there.

Dear anon, I want you to know you are EVIL* for inducing the brain rot. Your cunning took you to the top of the ask queue. I have things I should be prioritizing, and yet here we are--me gladly taking the bait you so generously placed in my inbox lol.

You see, the thing is... yeah, my agenda is that I want to see Megumi go feral and do feral Megumi-things and be a menace. To whom? I'm torn 50/50 on whether I want him to be so distraught that he turns against everyone, including Sukuna, or whether I want him to shred Sukuna to pieces only. There's absolutely no denying that. But I suspect you might be right and I had already thought something similar might be the case.

I still think Megumi needs to take responsibility for himself, after all, him becoming or not becoming a "villain" and taking responsibility for himself are not mutually exclusive. But...

Evil*-induced word vomit under the cut.

... there's just something about Megumi right now that is asking for healing and self-acceptance and, yeah... other than the fact that Megumi going full on villain is an "obvious" outcome, a "cliché/obvious villain" arc feels kind of jarring rn if I'm honest. And while he could still become a "villain" and redeem himself (which is where I'd put my money--"corruption and redemption" arc)... idk anon.

I'm kind of with you actually? And at the same time I feel like being a "villain" in jjk is far more nuanced than just doing "#evil things".

Again. I want to see Megumi be selfish and go feral. But I really think right now the situation is calling for Megumi accepting everything he doesn't like about himself. Could he just loose his poop and go on a killing spree and then redeem himself? Sure.

I like the whole idea that someone you saved could hurt others. People have brought this up a lot recently.

But something that I can't quite put my finger on feels like you might be onto something.

Anyways, there's layers to your ask. Let's peel them back.

What if the corruption part of the arc was getting possessed by Sukuna?

Notice how the parallel between Toji and Megumi and them going on a path of carnage has to do with being "unconscious".

To be more specific, ever since Megumi got possessed I've been wondering whether the possession itself wasn't meant to be the corruption arc in question. As you say, "'corruption' may be interpreted as the need to confront the worst version of one's self in order to reach completion" and I couldn't agree more with you.

I wonder if Gege isn't telling us that Sukuna is what Megumi could be if only he got out of his own way. Tons of parallels to support this idea. But I think particularly relevant to this is that when we are "unconscious" to our potential and who we are, not only do we call what happens to us "fate", our sense of self is vulnerable to corruption from outside sources.

In Megumi's case, we're talking about Sukuna possessing his body because Megumi had a tendency to live for others and reject aspects of himself that he projected onto others. Cue that one panel showing "learned helplessness":

So... for a very long time I've been wondering whether getting possessed by a demonic force means his soul was corrupted.

Jacob's Ladder

Here I go talking about Jacob's Ladder again. Like... don't I have something better to talk about?

NO!

Guys. Seriously. Jacob's Ladder (1990) is... just do yourself a favor and go watch it and then watch videos analyzing it because I can't do the themes in it justice if I'm honest.

What I'll say about it for now is that this movie is a bit of a metaphor about the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Now, there are archetypal similarities between the stages of death according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead and Dante's Inferno in the Divine Comedy. This is relevant because Gege gave us two references to Dante's Inferno.

The first is that the purpose of the bath is "to be near evil" in the official translation.

But if I remember correctly, the Japanese raw uses the kanji for "beast" or something like that. Don't quote me on it. But the thing here is that at the very bottom of hell in the Divine Comedy, Dante meets the Devil.

The second reference is a little more of a leap in logic but we see it in the presence of Urizen's compass in the panel showing us Jacob's Ladder. Urizen is a character by William Blake who represents "God" and "good" as "reason". Blake is also the author of a painting depicting the Biblical "Jacob's Ladder". At the top of Biblical Jacob's Ladder and after climbing out of the Inferno, there is "God".

Gege dropping these references is interesting because they go back to the idea of good vs. evil and jjk "villains". More on villains in a bit.

That said. I'm going to leave this here just for funsies:

Jacob: I was in hell... it's all pain. Louie: You ever read Meister Eckhart?... Ekhart saw hell too. You know what he said? He said the only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life. Your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul... so the way he sees it, if you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, you see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth. It's just a matter of how you look at it. That's all.

What does it mean to be a "villain" in jjk?

Last thing I will say about this evil* ramble is that "villain" and "evil" are used in a very interesting way in jjk. The Jacob's Ladder reference specifically is very interesting because, according to what I shared above, going through hell can set you free from reason and attachments.

And villains and evil in jjk simply means "following your desires without regard for others." Villains have no attachments to others and are therefore freer to be themselves than others who do. This is, of course, exaggerated and blown out of proportion in jjk:

Sukuna emphasizes why extreme individualism (lack of regard for others) as "evil" is "bad". But I think that what Gege is actually doing with his villains is criticizing the collectivistic mindset in Japan: or "there is nothing wrong with leaving your attachment to others behind, being selfish, and doing what you desire, as long as you live and let live".

Where Sukuna says "if you're in my way I'll kill you," Megumi says "I won't kill you, so please don't kill me."

ANYWAYS. All that to say... I still want to see Megumi be selfish in the pursuit of what he desires, however that looks like. If that makes him a "villain", then so be it. He's already a more nuanced "villain" than Sukuna anyways because he is neither "good" or "evil".

And I think that's because Sukuna is missing one key ingredient...

Megumi's heart

(source)

I think D and I had this conversation after chapter 248 dropped? Remember I mentioned Sukuna's body language and thought patterns are unequivocally Megumi? If I remember correctly this conversation is in regard to that.

I haven't seen/read HxH so I can't speak to what D is talking about, but something about it rings TRUE.

And this is when I realized that, while I want to see Megumi do the "villain" thing, it rings more true that the corruption arc is behind us and now it becomes about Megumi's healing.

Just the way I had a weird intuition about something ominous happening to Megumi way back when, I smell a blessing from a mile away. Or as you said, "Don't know how Gege will do it but Megumi's upcoming arc might just make him the best character this series has to offer, and he's pretty much already on the way there."

ANON. YOU ARE EVIL for sending me this but I love you all the more for it. Thank you! As per usual, hope this made sense? LOL if I rambled too much and wasn't able to justify my points, I blame it on you for encouraging the brain rot before I finished cooking.

[fictionfolk-safehaven]

I have so many mixed feelings about my sources. Mainly because I’m sources from:

(all from hazbin hotel)

-Valentino

-Velvette

-Alastor

-Charlie

-Camilla Carmine

-Lucifer Morningstar

my strongest sources are Velvette and Valentino

i don’t regret my source actions. I wouldn’t do it again but I don’t regret it.

I feel bad about not feeling bad though

-Destiny

(input wanted)

CW's for this post: Will add based off the above sources if asked, we just don't know the source; Mentions of explosives and arson and such, exotrauma, serious talk of guilt/shame, and self-worth.

Post author: Wilbur (DSMP fictive)

Quick disclaimer- we don't know your source media very well, and only really have one example of a problematic action from any of your source characters beyond typical "we're in hell lol" stuff. But from what little we do know, I think I'm the one out of our collective who relates the most. Also apologies in advance, I get sort of serious near the end of this. Nothing bad, just like- really genuine.

Hello! So, I'll start off with the fact that I see no issue with not feeling guilt for sources. I have some commentary because I relate a bit to this, but first... Our way of looking at it is like this; Would any of us feel guilt for something we did in a past life? We believe in reincarnation, but I don't think you need to believe in that for it to be relevant. Who I am now has no control over who I was in my source. That's not just past, it's outright another life. I personally feel- while other fictives in our collective have a different relationship to their source than I do- that there's no room for guilt in this situation. I don't feel bad, because that was another me so to speak.

As for what I did in my source- I'm often considered to be the character that started the ball rolling down the hill and into hell, pretty much. Not even joking, my profile picture on discord is me blowing up the homes of a solid chunk of my sourcemates. I felt a little bit bad, because... I don't feel bad for that. My actions were, at least from my point of view, understandable. And even if they weren't- who cares? Certainly not me. I'm allowed to have been a horrible person in my source, and to still accept myself now. I think I owe that to myself, actually, and to my sourcemates. Not to get all poetic, but- what use would causing more pain do? Would turning that pain inward rather than outward help? It doesn't change what happened.

Most of my sourcemates have exotrauma that's directly or indirectly tied to/caused by me. If they expressed that they were struggling with exotrauma from our source that I'd caused, I'd do what I could to help, but ultimately guilt and shame from me won't help them. Understanding will. I don't know if you have sourcemates, and I don't know their relationship to your source or you, but ultimately my admittedly-very-not-professional opinion is that guilt and shame just make people feel bad. They don't do much else. Whether we like it or not, we share a body and a life now. We have to learn that our wellbeing as a collective includes everyone. If someone is drowning in guilt, miserable, that's not a good thing! I'm not bad for not feeling that way, that's not what any of us want. I wouldn't wish that on even our worst enemies, if they were introjected. Once you're in here, you're in it for the long haul and you deserve happiness just as much as everyone else. Regardless of source actions.

At least, that's our take on it. I hope some of this made sense- I didn't know I had such strong feelings on this honestly. Kaeya made this blog mostly for himself and here I am ready to shake people by the shoulders into loving themselves apparently. /lh /silly

I wish you and your system/collective well. You all deserve it.

-Keeper Wilbur (yes I'm still signing off even though it says at the top of the post. I think the Haven Keepers thing is cool as fuck and Charlie liked signing off so we're doing that too.)

[sashaforthewin]

Once again, cleaning up more little ficlets. This one came about because I thought about how Eddie would've seemed to Robin if she hadn't known him in school. She's a protective friend <3

---

"Why didn't you tell me Steve was gay?" Eddie demanded. He slid into the opposite bench of her booth and made to pull her basket of fries over to the center of the table. 

"Why would I?" Robin asked, slapping his hand and pulling her fries back out of his reach.

"When I came out to you, you could've told me he was gay," Eddie pointed out, accusingly. 

"But then you would've gone after him."

"Yeah, because he is my dream guy!"

"Steve is everybody's dream guy. At least everybody that likes guys," Robin shrugged, continuing to eat her fries as if Eddie was not interrupting her lunch. 

"Yeah, but you could've helped set us up," Eddie pointed out.

"I don't want to set you guys up," Robin stated bluntly.

"Wait, what? Why not?"

"Because you're not Steve-worthy. You're kind of a big jerk," Robin said, matter-of-factly.

"What? How so?!"

"Well, in school you always heckled people in the lunch room, basically anyone that wasn't part of your little weirdo clique. You jumped out at people to try to scare them often, and you even shoved around your own cronies! And then you held a broken glass bottle to Steve's throat, teased him a bunch, and then you did exactly what he told you not to do and nearly died. That hospital waiting room took years of Steve's life."

"Well, shit Robin, I didn't know you hated me so much," Eddie scoffed, grabbing the ketchup bottle and starting to spin it on the table to have something to do with his hands.

"Stop that," she grabbed the ketchup bottle and put it back before continuing. "I don't hate you but unlike boy best friends that try to get you laid, girl best friends try to protect their friends from shitbags and losers. Contrary to his reputation, Steve is not a one-night-stand kind of guy and you are."

"No I'm not!" He defended.

"After you came out to me you kept coming up to me whenever Steve was doing something especially hot and you'd say 'if only I could sleep with him just once' as if that was a normal thing to say. You've said it like five times, now. It's why I've been trying extra hard to keep you two apart. He wears his heart on his sleeve and you are going to hurt him."

"I meant it in the poetic sense, like if I could get just one kiss I could die a happy man." He threw out his arms in frustration, body leaning onto the sticky diner table like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Save the poetic shit for someone that cares, I'm just trying to protect my friend and Steve is a lifelong commitment." Robin was over the conversation and her opinion of Munson had not changed, but she was a paying customer so she wasn't going to be the one to leave. 

"Are you sure you're not just in love with him and trying to keep him for yourself?" Eddie accused. "Why are you laughing?" He yelled, pissy in the face of her laughter.

"Because, numbskull, I'm lesbian."

"Wait, lesbian? Why the hell didn't you tell me when I came out to you?!" Eddie demanded. 

"Didn't seem relevant," she said, arms crossed and foot tapping. "You were only coming out to me because I am Steve's best friend. It was super obvious. " 

"Jesus christ, is everyone gay?"

Robin continued to stare at him, unimpressed.

"I'm still not helping you get with Steve."

"And I'm not thanking you at our wedding."

"In your dreams, Munson. You're still invited to movie night, by the way, but I'm not gonna let you sit next to Steve," Robin said, finally pushing her fries over to Eddie, who wasted no time in jamming a handful into his mouth.

[xerith-42]

Hi Xerith!! I saw you wanted someone to ask about your DSMP opinions, I am here to listen to the yapping (and secretly sneak lore out of it) :D

Oh my god I didn't realize you understood my yapping that's incredible!

I can actually tell you how I managed to make my MCD rewrite canon to my DSMP rewrite that you'll never read. Because while I have some... Issues, with later parts of the story, I LOVE the time loop idea. I have had so much fun coming up with different ways the loop and go, figuring out how people enter and exit it (there is no exit), and when the loop eventually breaks.

The reason this is relevant to MCD is because of its existence outside of this loop, but close enough to the pantheon of gods I've created that are also intertwined with the DSMP as a metaphysical experiment that they were going to cross paths eventually. In fact, before there was ever a time loop, there was a being who needed a vessel. And they needed this vessel to be strong, smart, and able to protect itself. But this needed to come from experience in a world harsh enough to kill them, but one they had the capability to thrive in.

Well, there's this little fantasy story going on over here. I'm sure Irene wouldn't mind if this being slipped their vessel into her world for its training. And y'know, that guy who was mentioned in one episode of Minecraft Diaries and then I turned into Technoblade? Well, he ends up becoming Menphia's champion and thriving in Tu'la, until this vessel appears and challenges the champion. And the champion barely wins. The vessel has almost bested the champion. But the most important part is that the vessel and the champion became friends here.

It is in the Tu'la gladiatorial ring that Dream first met Techno. And once their rounds of fighting were over, Dream was taken by their diety, now a properly trained vessel in the ways of fighting, and was instead trained on how to be their vessel. Thus started the first few timeloops, just a "chaos god" and its vessel learning how to operate a world and body together. And even if other friends came to fill in the void, even if a new story all its own that spanned dimensions happened before him, the vessel always thought back to that world.

To the man he met in the gladiator ring, more pig than human, yet more human than anyone he'd met, someone who showed him sincerity and compassion and recognition. And sometimes Dream wondered about that world, why his memories of it were so fuzzy, why it feels like his life started when he entered the ring, why Sapnap tells him they've been friends since they were kids but his earliest memory is of Techno. He'll never get the answers to these questions, or if he does, it'll be wayyyy later in the timeline.

But that's where it all started. A champion and a vessel fighting in a world that had largely rejected them, a world they didn't belong to, only to be ripped out of it by their own cruel divinities with other plans for them beyond this "meager realm".

[castlebyersafterdark]

as a gay guy, what's your opinion on periods and period sex? it might seem anachronistic to ask but i saw a video where finn was with friends and was saying periods are disgusting haha, and i can see that or that he was maybe just being all sassy and loose cos he was playing it up in that dynamic of a group. this was a while ago anyway but it got me thinking, cos i've known straight guys who are fine with period sex but also ones who dont even want to acknowledge that periods exist haha, and it made me wonder because if you knew you were gay from a teen and never experimented with girls, was it taught in schools? is it taboo for you? i always thought there might be this affinity between women and gay men because most of each group engage with something typically considered disgusting and taboo (anal sex and periods) and get on with it / see the beauty in it.

idk how this relates to byler or foah, but maybe that finn clip is just something i keep thinking about haha (it was the time when he was wearing false nails with friends lmao)

Interesting ask! My opinion is... it's just a non issue? Maybe I personally don't need to hear extensive details, but that goes for many bodily functions haha. And I don't think Finn is truly unkind, but you know how guys get sometimes. Annoying. We all say immature shit 🤷‍♂️The body isn't disgusting. It just is what it is, does what it does. And yeah, society has stupid hangups - I see the correlation you're getting at with anal sex, for sure. It's the concept of being normal and mature about bodies. We all know what an ass is for 🤣 But that's absolutely not the only thing. So, if you're with someone who has a period and sex is a possibility - I don't really see the problem if both parties involved are into each other and want to do that. To each their own. You can also maybe not want to do it, but don't be unkind, is all. Body positivity is key.

I'm never gonna be in a situation where the person I'm sleeping with has that as a factor, if that's what you’re getting at. I did actually try to date a few girls when I was a teenager but, yikes. Never got very far hahaha. But it's not like women (and those who otherwise experience this) are so super mysterious. It's not secret knowledge. Moral of the story: I just know for a fact that many men are purposefully obtuse or immature. Sexism. All that. Simplifying the issue but for the purpose of this ask! 💁‍♂️

Also, to relate this a little to fandom: I've read people's headcanons and ideas on here they've shared and not everything has to be hot to everyone, sometimes things are just super interesting. And I really do think it's a nice concept where a character who is in pain and needs some loving, and if having sex during will help that, that's an awesome concept that their partner is into doing that to help them through it, double cool if that's a way to both get off. Fictional and in reality. Like I said, to each their own. But I can understand how people find it hot. And even things that are not completely relevant to my life and inclination, man it's just cool to have spaces and opportunities to talk things out and share ideas, right???

[thelastonewastaken]

On Comedy and Comedians

In recent years, there's been a lot of debate about comedy and comedians, and about whether specific comedians are funny. So I thought I'd put some of my thoughts down, these are of course only my subjective opinions. I'm sure there must be a well-researched book on this matter.

Comedy is a performing art

It's very audience-based, and comedians learn how to work their audience: selecting the right jokes, presenting them in the right order, using specific inflections to deliver the punchline etc. It's no wonder that when on tour, comedians add a few jokes to their routine that are about the specific location they're in. (For example, watch Katt Williams' opening monologue at a show in Jacksonville.)

So if you listen to a comedian and don't think they're particularly funny, the first question you should ask yourself is whether you're a part of the audience they're speaking to. There are a wide range of comics doing very different types of comedy: Jerry Seinfeld does observational, everyday humour; Sarah Silverman likes to shock and takes pauses for effect; Michelle Wolf does conversational, quick-paced bites; Dave Chapelle does bit-wise comedy where you have to remember the full set; Aries Spears is great at mimicry; Jeff Ross is great at roasts; the list goes on...

In addition, comics build on the artistry of others: Seinfeld developed his niche based on Cosby, Eddie Murphy took some bits from Richard Pryor. So if you do not like one comic, there are many more you could like. One might simply not be for you, it doesn't mean they are not funny.

Jokes can be mean

The only requirement for a joke is to be funny, it might be mean, maybe tone-deaf, maybe even ignorant, but it should be funny. It might be funny in ways people are ashamed to admit, but that's what comics play on - that's their entire reason for existing.

Comics do not do shows to make people mad. It's counter-intuitive for a comic to try to displease their audience, it makes no sense on their part. They gain absolutely nothing from doing that, and they've thought about their jokes long before they say it. So trust me, they're not trying to be mean when they say something mean, they're being funny.

I agree that there's a thin line though. It gets mean when they continuously punch down on the same person, but typically comics direct a one or two jokes at a person then move on. So it's always good to think about intent. For example, Chris Rock's GI Jane joke at the Oscars was funny and relevant. It was a joke about a movie to an audience celebrating film and it was delivered perfectly.

No subject is off limits

Off-limit subjects are antithetical to comedy as an art form. You can not have a subject that people are afraid to make jokes about. It defeats the whole purpose of comedy. If you're offended by a joke because it's insensitive to something you hold dear, it's important to consider if it could be funny to someone who has no idea how dear you hold the subject matter.

You might also want to think about why you're very offended by it, most times it has nothing to do with the comedian. And I say this as a Nigerian (scams are a popular joke) and a Catholic (take your pick) who stutters (I mean...).

You have to evaluate a comic's full set

Long before comics record their specials that appear on Netflix or HBO, they go on tour. They test each joke at comedy clubs and nights they MC, they adjust and fine-tune each joke, gauging the laughs they get and how people respond to them.

When they record their specials, the jokes are ready. They know how to deliver them, when to back off, and when to double down. They also know how the audience will respond. So when evaluating a special, you can't take one joke and analyze it, you have to analyze the whole body of work. You shouldn't see a clip online and judge it, it's a bit like listening to only one song off a musician's album and passing judgement on it. You're unlikely to know what they were trying to do.

So, how do you know a joke is funny?

Comics usually play up a scene from reality and deconstruct it. It might be something they've witnessed or something imagined, they might focus on the scene's actors, the characters behind the scene, or the scene itself. They might ponder on what the outcomes of the scene were or should've been.

Then, they have to select an aspect of the scene for comedic rendering. To do this, they employ some language devices: analogy, onomatopoeia, symbolism, etc, as well as some elocution strategies. They may enlist some audience participation.

The only test for whether a joke is funny is whether the devices employed fit the aspect of the scene selected. And it's a valence test, i.e., how funny was it, as opposed to a content test, i.e., was it funny or not. The difference between a published comic and your funny friend is that the former's jokes are typically of high valence and the latter's jokes are of low valence. Whether a joke needs to be explained has no impact on whether it's funny or not, but typically the higher the valence, the less explanation is needed.

Finally,

There is the chance that you're listening to someone who just isn't funny, but unless you're in a comedy club that takes on unknown comics still trying to hone their craft, it's very unlikely.

[frostyyyroyalmilktea]

Morpheus x Reader High School AU

Summary:

A little High School AU where the reader gets stood at prom, but once her charmingly awkward classmate gets the wind of this, he decides that he just has to be the one to save her evening.

No warnings apply

author's notes: in this au Morpheus and his siblings moved to the US with their dad after their parents got a divorce. I headcanon them to be around 17-18 for Morpheus and Death, and around 15-16 for Desire. I had to adapt their names for the modern world so Death is Desna in this AU and Desire is Desirée.

For now, it's just a little oneshot, but if I have any good ideas for this AU I might write another part in the future.

When I was writing this I headcanoned that reader has pink hair, but you can imagine any other eye-catching haircolor you prefer ;)

Title inspired by Steve Lacy's Bad Habit but the song is not particularly relevant to the story, I just liked the vibes

Hope you enjoy!

***

“Morpheus!!” Desna—once again—barges into his room without knocking. She is the only one of his siblings to be granted such a privilege. Desirée on the other hand has learned the hard way to always knock and to never enter Morpheus’ quarters without an explicitly extended invitation.

“Sister dearest,” Morpheus acknowledges flatly, without looking up from his book.

“Do you have a suit?” Desna asks with a somewhat manic edge to her voice.

“Indeed I do,” Morpheus replies absentmindedly, engrossed in his reading. “For funerals and such.”

“Great!” Desna claps her hands. “You always look nice at funerals.”

Morpheus sighs, places a bookmark on the page he was reading, and carefully closes the book. Once he looks up, he can immediately tell from the look on her face that Desna has her mind set on some sort of questionable scheme and that Morpheus will be dragged into it regardless of his opinion on the matter.

“You’ll need to buy a corsage too, and fast,” Desna mumbles to herself, pacing the room back and forth.

“Not this again,” Morpheus rolls his eyes with a sigh. “Desna, I have repeatedly informed you that I am not going to prom. I have been asked out on multiple occasions and I refused as I do not wish to attend.”

“That’s because you were asked by the wrong people,” Desna scoffs dismissively.

“The only person I would like to take already has a date,” Morpheus grunts.

His sister clicks her tongue, exuding some type of emotion Morpheus struggles to interpret. “Not anymore,” she says.

“I beg your pardon?” Morpheus asks, raising his brow skeptically. “There is,” he checks his watch, “less than three hours left till the start of the main event, so unless Trevor Birghin’s lifeless body is lying somewhere in a ditch, I can’t imagine a good enough reason for him to not show up.”

“Well,” Desna starts hesitantly, as if she's approaching a wild animal. “It’s not that he won’t show up exactly…”

“Desna,” Morpheus presses with a chilling edge to his tone.

“It’s just that I overheard Trevor and Danny yesterday, and they were talking about who’s taking who to prom and all that…” 

Desna takes a deep breath and proceeds to explain—in the most convoluted way imaginable no less—the trite and simple fact Morpheus was always all too well aware of: Trevor Birghin is a fucking asswipe.

“...and that’s when I remembered that at the start of the term,” Desna continues with her tortuous explanation, “Trevor said that he would love to take Christina to prom because, like, the whole quarterback/cheerleader thing, but she told him no because she wanted to ask someone else,” Desna gives Morpheus a pointed look, “but then she got rejected by that someone.”

“Are you implying any of this is my fault?” Morpheus asks, offended. “I have met oatmeal more capable of a riveting conversation than that girl. Can you blame me for not wanting to spend an entire evening in the company of her and her degenerate friends?”

“It’s not what I'm—” Desna starts. “I’m getting to the important bit, Morpheus, I promise. So Christina said no to Trevor, so he was forced—his words, not mine—to ask y/n because they kind of have a thing or whatever, I’m not entirely sure. But now that you rejected Christina, she decided to go with Trevor after all and so that leaves y/n dateless.”

Morpheus’ blood is boiling with righteous anger. He is not usually a violent person, but for someone like Birghin, he will be more than happy to make an exception.

“And I’m afraid that’s not the worst of it, love,” Desna adds quietly, almost apologetically.

“I’m struggling to come up with something that could possibly make this situation worse,” Morpheus grits.

“I’m like 99.9% confident that Trevor didn’t have the guts to actually tell y/n.”

Morpheus inhales sharply. “So, just to be clear, you’re saying that she is about to show up there without knowing that her date stood her up for another girl?”

“Mhm,” Desna hums, not meeting his eyes.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell her?!”

“And how exactly would that look, Morpheus?” Desna bites out. “I’m not even supposed to know about any of this. I don’t want to look like some nosy busybody.”

“While being one beyond any reasonable doubt,” Morpheus grumbles under his breath.

“Plus,” Desna adds, “I honestly think that y/n needs to clearly see the piece of trash that he is once and for all. She’s always trying to see the best in people, even when there isn’t anything decent there in the first place!”

Desna sounds genuinely distraught so just this once Morpheus decides against reminding her about maintaining personal boundaries of the people she barely knows. It’s not because he has a personal stake in all of this or anything like that, no.

“Why are you telling me this?” Morpheus asks, surrendering to the idea that there is no way he’s not going to involve himself now that he has all the facts.

Desna tsks, like she’s disappointed he even has to ask. “Morpheus, you know perfectly well why I'm telling you all this. You’ve been mooning over y/n since our first day at this school.”

“And she was evidently not interested,” Morpheus points out bitterly, “seeing how she went and got herself a thing, as you so eloquently put it.”

Desna flops down on the bed next to him, throwing her hand around his shoulders in a half-hug. “Morphey, darling,” she says softly, “that’s a load of absolute fucking bullshit. Anyone who had the misfortune to witness the two of you debate against each other in AP Lit felt like the biggest third wheel on this side of the Atlantic. This unresolved romantic tension makes people around you viscerally uncomfortable. Though I can’t exactly blame y/n for not asking you out. You did quite rudely reject—how many was it again, four or five—girls our first semester alone. I think you even made Mary Waylan cry.”

“Wonderful insight,” Morpheus deadpans. “Still doesn’t mean y/n likes me back.”

“Morpheus,” Desna sighs. “She always sits next to you in classes you share. Even the ones Trevor is in too.”

“Well, he’s an idiot and we get a lot of group projects as homework,” Morpheus argues weakly.

Desna rolls her eyes more dramatically than usual. “She remembered your birthday after I mentioned it once in passing, she got you an old-ass Lovecraft anthology for the said birthday, which made you possibly the happiest I have ever seen you in my entire life. She brings you coffee every Monday when you have calc together first thing in the morning because she knows you never go to bed before two am. She remembers all your odd opinions on Shakespeare and can refer to them months later, just to make a point to you about some poncy literary concept. She always says hi to you in the hallway even though you never reply and most people just think you’re just a pretentious brat, but I’m pretty sure she cracked you like a week after she met you and she’s in on the secret that you’re just painfully awkward when it comes to human interaction—”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Morpheus stands up, throwing Desna’s hand off himself. 

“I’ll need to borrow your garment steamer later,” he grumbles, grabbing his wallet and car keys.

“I’ll see you at the venue, sweetie!” Morpheus hears his sister yell after him as he leaves the house and heads for the flower shop.

***

You stand in front of the entrance to a fancy-ass hotel, staring at your phone with a mix of incredulity and rage. This piece of human garbage only deigned to inform you that he can’t be your prom date mere fucking minutes before you arrived at the venue.

from: Trev🏈

hey quick change of plans

decided to go with the boys as a group

hope there’s no hard feelings, see ya at school😜

What the fuck is that even supposed to mean? All his friends from the team had dates last time you checked. 

You open Instagram and swipe through the stories of a few girls you know from his friend group. Just as you expected, they all are still very much going with Trevor’s teammates.

If you’re being completely honest with yourself, it’s not like you’re even all that heartbroken over Trevor’s general shittiness right now. He hurt your pride, obviously, but not really your feelings. Right from the start of your situationship with him, he was barely more than a poor substitute for the person you actually wanted. Going with Trevor felt like a safe bet at the time because the idea that the person you actually wanted to go with would say yes seemed like an absolute pipe dream.

But you didn’t even ask Morpheus, the treacherous voice inside your head reminds unhelpfully. You convinced yourself you were doing the smart thing here, avoiding guaranteed heartache and embarrassment of being one of the girls he rejected. Right now, though, it becomes harder and harder to ignore the fact that you might've just been a coward.

Morpheus is probably sitting in some high-end coffee shop right now, reading Kaffka, or something equally pretentious, being all dark and handsome and utterly unapproachable. Definitely not caring about your inner turmoil about a stupid high school prom.

Someone goes in at that moment and through the open door you hear a faint reverberation of the song playing in the main hall.

“Yeah, I am an idiot with a painted face indeed,” you say to no one in particular.

“Waiting for someone?” A calm deep voice behind you asks.

For a second you genuinely believe that thinking about Morpheus so much gave you some sort of hearing hallucination. You whip your head so fast, you hear a crack in your neck. 

It’s not a hallucination.

“What are you…? How…? You… I…” You ask very eloquently.

The corners of his lips crawl upward as he rather unsuccessfully tries to hold back a smile.

“My sister has informed me of the unpleasant predicament you have found yourself in this evening and I simply couldn’t stand to see a lady wronged in a manner so galling and distasteful.”

“Really?” You ask skeptically, raising an eyebrow at him. “Since when do you care about chivalry of random people's prom dates?”

“I care only about one,” Morpheus says quietly, looking down at his beat-up doc martens. Under the harsh neon lights of the hotel’s facade, you notice the faintest trace of blush on his sharp cheekbones. “About a girl with a hair color so aggravating, my eyes can’t help but be drawn to it the second she enters the room, the girl who can’t help but argue with me over every single stupid little thing, like a font for our biology presentation—”

“Hey! Comic Sans is dyslexia friendly!”

“The girl who completely overestimates the influence of Tolkien on English classical literature.”

“It’s impossible to overestimate!!” You shriek, mentally returning to the argument from two weeks ago that landed the both of you in detention, when Mr. Stevens accused you of purposefully disrupting his class and told the two of you to “get out of his classroom and go flirt in the principal's office”.

Morpheus looks up, meeting your eyes. You can tell he’s thinking about the same thing.

God, why does he need to be so beautiful?

“What I’m getting at here,” he continues, unperturbed, “is that you're not some random person in my life, and I would like nothing more than to be your date tonight. Would you be agreeable to that?”

He holds out his hand and you look down to see a beautiful black rose corsage. Very on-brand for him, you can’t help but smile.

“You’re so stupid, Morpheus,” you sniff, willing your eyes to dry before the tears ruin your makeup. “Of course I fucking want you to be my date, I've never even wanted anyone else to be my date except you in the first place.”

He seems taken aback by that but recovers quickly and starts carefully fastening the corsage onto your outstretched hand.

While he’s busy with it, you try to take a closer look at him. To be fair, even if he showed up in a Hello Kitty onesie, you would still think he is the most gorgeous bastard you’ve ever laid your eyes on, but he’s wearing a tailored black suit with a black turtleneck underneath and—oh god, his little pocket square is baby pink to match your dress!! This is literally the first time you see him wear something not black and he wore it for you. You just might explode from feelings™ right now.

When he’s done with the corsage, he doesn’t let go of your hand, but intertwines his fingers with yours and pulls the door open for you with his other hand. “After you, m’lady.”

This doesn’t fucking feel real. Maybe, you think frantically, you just inhaled too much hairspray while you were getting ready and this is all a delirious dream. Except the warmth of his hand in yours is very real and so are the double takes from your classmates milling around in the hotel lobby.

“Do you want to take a photo before we go in?” Morpheus asks, nodding at the huge full-length mirrors along the wall.

You blink at him dazedly before the question registers. “Yeah! Sure, yeah, let me just—”

You start rummaging around your purse in search of a phone when you realize it’s literally in your hand.

Morpheus smiles, amused.

“You enjoying this then?” You want to sound irritated but it comes out more…petulant. “Me making an idiot out of myself entertains you?”

“I just like looking at you,” Morpheus says simply. “Is that such a crime? Your emotions are always so…scintillating. I find it impossible to look away.”

How can he just say shit like that and be 100% serious while doing it, you think, while desperately trying to will your face into not going red as a fucking firetruck.

What a beautiful, brilliant weirdo.

“Yeah, okay, Mr. Thesaurus, we get it, you like me,” you croak awkwardly, opening the camera app. “Let’s take some pictures, I’ll need them for the PowerPoint presentation my mom will expect on how I ended up going to prom with a completely different guy than I initially told her.”

“I hope there’s a word amelioration somewhere in the title of that presentation,” Morpheus teases as he stands behind, wrapping his arms around you to pose for the picture.

You snort at the implication, relaxing into his embrace.

***

The photos come out very nice. Though with a face like his, there’s hardly a chance Morpheus could look bad in them. You don’t always like taking photos of yourself, but surprisingly you like most of the ones you took together Morpheus. Some of them are silly, with the two of you making faces, some are very prom-ish looking, perfect for showing your parents, and then there’s…

“This one,” Morpheus catches your wrist before you can swipe to the next photo. “I like this one. Can you send it to me?”

In the photo, you’re looking past the camera, at Morpheus’ reflection as he holds you gently in his arms.

“I look silly in this one,” you pout. 

Bessoted would be a better word to describe your expression in the photo, but you’d rather lick chalk than admit it to him.

He doesn’t need you to, though. Morpheus looks at you knowingly, “No you don’t.”

You look down at your phone, feeling your cheeks going hot again. “How would I even send it to you?” You grumble just to be contrary. “With pigeon post? Gosh, who even has a phone with buttons anymore, aside from, like, grandpas? No, you know, scratch that. My grandpa actually has an iPhone 7.”

Morpheus just smiles at you indulgently. “Send it to my sister, she’ll print it out for me.”

Ridiculous. He’s absolutely ridiculous, you think as you type out the message to Desna.

to: Desna 🌸🔪

Local elderly citizen requires your assistance in procuring a photograph

attached file: ridiculousman.png

from: Desna 🌸🔪

you guys are so cuuuuuteeee!!!! 

٩(❀ •̀ᴗ•́ )۶~♡

Desna has a tendency to text as if it’s 2010 and her enthusiasm can be terrifying and a bit overwhelming sometimes but she’s one of the sweetest people you’ve ever met. You’re tempted to ask how the hell did she know Trevor was gonna bail on you tonight, but in the end, you decide that you don’t really give a shit. The only thing that matters is the outcome and looking at Morpheus fumbling with the tickets—he printed out the QR codes on an actual piece of paper because he’s a literal grandpa—you think that the outcome has literally exceeded all your expectations. Come to think of it, you should probably send Desna a fruit basket or something. 

***

author's note: I'm still not over the fact that Tom Sturridge has a phone with buttons and without access to the internet😂 Good for him though, I hope he's thriving

[gunsli-01]

Hey, so something's been bothering me since Yuno's second trial, and i've yet to see anyone point it out, i'm not sure if this is relevant or anything, but...

Who's the daddy?

Like, we've had two trials now, and almost no information on which client was the father. My best guess is Schoolgirl Yuno, and that's just because she actually seems to like that one? She's the only one that's never blue, she dissapears after the abortion is done, and the coat from t2 is hers

I love her, she's one of my faves, but i keep getting the sinking feeling that we missed something vital. And since the father is the only thing that hasn't been explained, i'm kind of fixating on it endlessly (contrary to her wishes, but we have a job to do babe, sorry)

I'm not sure where i was going with this, but... thoughts?

(sorry if this is a weird ask, honestly i'm just kind of losing it and i need someone to tell me if i'm focusing on the wrong thing. Also hi, this might actually be the first thing i've done on Tumblr. So, hi?)

Hi! It's definitely not a weird question to ask at all. I've discussed how a lot of things regarding Yuno were overlooked during her first and second trial. Mostly focusing on the very purposeful ignoring of her feelings regarding her crime and our verdict.

I feel like a lot of people neglected to look in the father of the child in favor of turning Yuno's case into a pro-choice vs anti-abortion debate. It was a politicization tactic that ended up working in Yuno's favor but something I very much believe she will dislike given her statements during her first interrogation,

In her first interrogation four minutes and thirty-four seconds into it she says this to Es after she says it's her belief Es won't be able to judge the prisoners.

"Ah! No that's not it. It's different from what you're thinking, prison guard."

"Then, could you let me hear about it in more detail."

"Well, this has been on mind ever since I first heard about the system... Prison guard, you decide who's guilty and innocent here, don't you?"

"That's right."

"Prison guard, that's nothing more than your likes and dislikes, right? I'm not super well read in it... But Japan's a nation where the rule of law prevails, right? Getting people to decide on what's good or bad outside of that will make them go all haywire, won't it?"

She then elaborates-

"For example, news outlets. They always make a big fuss about adultery, inappropriate comments, immodesty and so on... Right? Just to start criticizing the people who make appearances on there. Don't you think it's all so ridiculous? There's no end to how much people will punish one another outside of the law."

What happened during Yuno's second trial the reasoning people displayed fed into the same thing that Yuno herself admonishes during her first interrogation. The policization and scrutinizing of individuals lives outside the realm of the law. Something that rarely ever ends and extends the duration of pain that all parties may be experiencing.

This is in my opinion why the father of Yuno's child was conveniently overlooked. The political framing used to secure her innocent verdict isn't about the father but Yuno having the right to do whatever she chooses with her body. As it is her right and something she should be allowed to do regardless of anyone else's opinion.

Yet, it's not difficult for people to see how that framing conveniently ignores the fact that some random ass adult man may have gotten an eighteen-year-old pregnant. Or how that eighteen-year-old was to their own blatant admission a sex worker. Meaning that there were probably legal steps taken or put in place around all the work she'd been doing including contingencies in the case a pregnancy did occur. Something the new translation of Undercover alludes to-

"“UNDER” My cord’s being pulled but nothing’s ever enough Contractual desires, oh what to do, FUTURE."

Along with lyrics in Umbilical,

"Am I a bad girl? Please don’t answer What do you want to do? Please tell me."

"What type of girl do you like? I want to become like that, but that’s probably too hard for me."

I think a lot of people within the Milgram fandom are too young to understand sex work is work with legal restrictions and polices around it. Work that attracts many high-profile individuals as clientele. It can involve NDA's and contracts that the workers themselves have to sign. It can also lead to news scandals that can go on for months on end if those high value clientele are found to have met with sex workers at any point let alone are found out to have gotten one of those workers pregnant.

In Tear Drop it's alluded to that there are several possible options for the father of Yuno's child. The several different versions of her outside of the lingerie one being stand ins for her clientele. It seems to me that Yuno wanted this man to be the father given the lyrics that appear alongside these images,

"The wanted wanting the wanter. The overlap, isn’t that some sort of perfection? “Poor naive little girl”? So off the mark, what’s it to you? It’s just absurd."

So, chances are the father of the child was one of her clients and taking into consideration how sex work can be her getting pregnant at all could be considered a breach of contract. If one of her clients could prove that she did it on purpose.

Hence the repeated line of "I messed up. I found out." as Yuno giggling can also be heard. I've discussed the whole concept of pregnancy entrapment before when it comes to Yuno mostly in regards to getting her a 50/50 because it was apparent to me being voted overwhelmingly innocent for the reasons people were stating would more than likely piss her off more.

Because it conveniently overlooks every other thing, she's been saying since the beginning in favor of just keeping what looks the best. Ultimately, though the father of the kid was more than likely one of her several clients who she represents as the version of herself she was while with them. Basically, the outfits she wore to match with them while out.

Q.28   How do you decide what clothes to wear for the day?

Haruka: I wear what’s there

Yuno: I pick something to match with the person I’ll be with.

Though since the guy with the watch is all we see in the second video he's probably the one Yuno liked back and possibly wanted to be with.

[ryanthedemiboy]

I used to be in the [redacted] fandom (don't wanna share it)

And there was this huge controversy about a fic that included incestuous abuse.

People were tearing each other APART over this within 12 hours.

After 12 hours, the writer came back online to an absolute MESS

They explained they wrote the fic as a way to cope with their own teenage experiences.

And then suddenly, the anti-people split in two. One faction staunchly kept to their opinion is should be forbidden. The other half of them said it was OK since the writer had "relevant trauma".

As if a writer needs to share their personal details for such a topic to be allowed...

As if people cannot lie about things...

Literally it doesn't matter. If it's properly tagged, everything should be allowed. People have their reasons for writing it, and all those reasons are valid.

Precisely. Before i reply more: thank you so much for your ask. I hope your fandom experiences have improved since then <3

Even if I personally find it abhorrent, it's fine to exist as long as it's tagged/warned for appropriately.

Even disregarding freedom of speech, the second we make caveats to what is acceptable is the second our rights begin being taken away.

Incest writing only allowed if someone reveals their trauma to the world, queer people erased entirely, rape victims silenced... and it's been documented time and time again. LJ is the biggest one, tied in with, you know, the whole of Russia.

And ofc everything going on with "evil dirty queers raping our children through books about kids with two dads"

It's an all or nothing situation.

I will admit that it's different in a school library. Adult romance shouldn't be in a k12 school library, for example. It's a tricky subject, middle and high school libraries.

Elementary is easy though — age level makes it easy.

But kids need to read about incest to know it's bad and that they need to tell someone if it's happening to them. Kids need to read, age appropriately, about rape (ie "no adult besides your doctor or someone cleaning you should ever touch these parts of your body, and you should never touch an adult's body parts here"), etc.

Ugh. I hate people.