#yuri's more substantial.

[s-aint-elmo]

microdosing on the tlt tag has been earth-shattering because it came with the revelation that my experience of being siren song'd into finally reading the series by ianthe tridentarius's abject dysfunction only be dashed against the rocks of her unanticipated tenderness was not universal

[obstinaterixatrix]

man, there’s a lot of mako/haru crumbs in the form of haru casually and very consistently complimenting makoto… I had like 100 words of a pre-relationship fic during the hawaii trip, I should finish it… I need to rewatch hawaii and also call upon the haru scholars

[systematicallycapricious]

[AoN] PxDN Lore Snippet: R-00 + R-01 Reactivation

Yep, I read Persona x Detective Naoto, and yep, I'm incorporating it into this story. Why? ‘Cause it’s not a bad read, and more importantly it’s got a lot of feasible world lore I can use to enrich the setting, of which I can do all sorts of fun stuff with. Also, Sousei and Sho share a lot of similarities in terms of circumstances and behaviors, so any chance for him and Sholar to cross paths has lots of fun potential as well, even if it's only once.

Anyway, this is just a little snippet from the full AoN-PxDN lore doc that I'm getting straightened-up, 'cause I'm excited about how nicely I got it to fit together. \o/

Spoilers for: Persona x Detective Naoto, Persona 3, Persona 4 Arena/Ultimax, and my fic "Apropos of Nothing" (very mildly though, otherwise I wouldn't be posting it xP)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(For quick reference, the R-series ASSW project spanned from roughly 2006 to 2009, with Sousei's run being from 2007-2008, Ai's spanning 2008-2009, and their endings being Yūri's death and Aigis's reactivation respectively. SEES is first founded in Spring 2006 (being Mit/Aki/Shinji), and P3 happens as normal from 2009-2010. The 7th Gen ASSW project also ended with the explosion & creation of the Dark Hour on Sept 10th, 1999.)

So, several times throughout 2011, Minazuki accesses Ikutsuki's isolated server + the Ergo database server in general, with the first instance of the latter catching the ShadOps/KJG's attention. A bit spooked by the unauthorized access, everything related to Ergo (both current and old) is given a thorough security check, resulting in the discovery of 3 ASSWs sitting around in storage, among other things.

(Note: the database server access happens differently in this AU, so up until now, Minazuki had been accessing the isolated server legitimately via Ikutsuki's whitelisted computer with admin credentials, and then attempted to access the general server with an unregistered device. I still have to learn how databases work though, so I might have to adjust that in the future.)

Pretty much no one seems to know much about this mysterious 5th Gen and two R-series androids, despite there actually being a decent bit on information on-file for the latter once they decrypted it, and so, alongside a bunch of other old Ergo artifacts, the three are shipped out to the Yakushima Ergo quarantine facility for inspection and threat assessment. Some of the staff who were cited to work on the R-series are also contacted by Mitsuru to get further information.

(Note: unlike OG, the transport goes smoothly, because canon-divergence. /o/)

Mr. Tsuge Tetsuma has been employed as a researcher in the Kirijo Ergonomics Robotics Division for a long time now, but more importantly since the R-Series project was abruptly halted and its products stuffed away into storage. Now, he was nowhere near happy about having to leave Sousei and Ai in there for all this time, mind you, but he didn't have the authority nor the opportunity to get them back out of storage on his own, and so it was all he could do to stick with the company until an opportunity might arise. Getting a phone call from Mitsuru provided one such opportunity.

With the aid of Tsuge, the three ASSWs are reactivated and inspected, and once Mitsuru learns that they're not threats and are sentient beings with "hearts" of their own, they're given official rank as auxiliary members in the ShadOps to keep Public Safety from trying to confiscate them on the grounds of being "highly dangerous weapons". And… I guess I haven't figured out the specifics beyond that point yet, like if they actually help out the ShadOps or not. I feel like they might given Sousei’s determination to prove his usefulness and Ai’s desire to help out overall, but Sousei’s determination to have a combat-type Persona might also undermine that? Anyway, Tsuge is also brought into the fold as an official ShadOps researcher and tasked with being the supervisor of the Kurogamis due to his past experiences and relations with them and their creator.

(Fun fact: the reactivation order goes Ai, Sousei, Labrys because they have more information on, and familiarity with, the R-series units than the 5th Gen unit, so there's less risk involved with activating the Kurogamis than there is with Labrys. (Plus, in the event that Labrys ends up being hostile or out of control, the Kurogamis could be called in to help suppress her.) Also, Tsuge knows that Sousei will be rowdier than Ai, so as one of the chief specialists on the team, he's making the executive decision to give the team the ‘easier’ one to start with, lol.)

A year passes (which is what makes up a lot of Sousei's impression of "smoldering away at a lab, not yet fulfilling his mission as a suppression weapon"), and in late 2012 the National Police Agency entreats the KJG for technological aid in civilian safety and law enforcement measures. With the Kurogamis’ robotic physique and Sousei’s Past Reading in mind, this opportunity gets presented to Tsuge and the Kurogamis, of which Tsuge eventually gets Sousei on board with when he learns that they can be stationed at Yagokoro's PD, where Aoi Touko works. Ai didn't really need a ton of convincing, being content to be wherever Tsuge and Sousei are and determined to help out where she can.

(Note: part of the "last year's brutal crimes" is influenced by the Inaba kidnapping and murder cases, as it caused quite a stir across the nation, though the other part is probably more mundane, non-magical crime. Also, other technology and robotics were implemented in other PD's across Japan, but Yagokoro was the only one to make use of ASSWs specifically.)

And from there, PxDN happens more-or-less as normal, although certain events may or may not have Naoto meet the Kurogamis and/or Tsuge before PxDN occurs. It depends on if they end up staying on Yakushima for the whole time or if they go to an Ergo or ShadOps facility on mainland Japan, and furthermore if it happens to be the one Naoto visits or not. Most likely, if they do cross paths at all, it'll be brief, or else an off-handed mention of them by someone else, but I'll have to see as I solidify more of that part of the timeline. P:

Also, Tsuge’s employment with the ShadOps lets him distribute Evokers to Touko and Naoto during PxDN’s events, perhaps special models more recently designed for use outside of the Dark Hour/CoUn, because they really shouldn’t be able to summon their Personas so casually in the conscious world. It’s somewhat believable for when Naoto Awakens to Amatsu Mikaboshi and when she’s trying to save Touko, given the circumstances, but outside of that. :P

[yuri-is-online]

Hello Yuri!! Congrats on 500 followers!! You deserve it, your writing is amazing and makes me so happy whenever you post something new! (・∀・)

If it’s alright, could I request Ace Trappola, Ruggie Bucchi and Cater Diamond with prompt four if that’s okay? About the reader meeting someone at the ball and ranting to the boys about them.

Thank you so much in advance, and congratulations again!! ☆〜（ゝ。∂）

4. You met someone really wonderful at the Masquerade Ball and have been ranting about how he was totally the love of your life to your abnormally quiet friend. Actually, wasn't he invited too? Maybe you should ask him how that went.

Hello Rhea! It's always a pleasure to see you in my notifications, though you did give me a bit of whiplash with how fast this request came in (;ﾞ°´ω°´) It makes me very happy to hear I have managed to make you happy, I hope you like this post too. Also thank you very much for the kind words, they made me feel much better.

notes: they/them pronouns used for Yuu, I know the prompt says "quiet" but these three are sort of the chatty type so it's more like dodging the question (sorry), the other event requests can be found on my masterlist here. There's a movie reference hidden here (kind of) that if someone gets I'll probably scream idk.

Ace

There is a god in some sort of heaven and he hates Ace Trappola. Well maybe not a god, maybe it's just Riddle, and he certainly doesn't hate him, Ace is just being dramatic. But there has to be some sort of rule Riddle is breaking here, seriously what beacon of morals and etiquette sits pretending to sip tea while obviously eve's dropping on what should be a terribly private conversation. It's a nightmare made substantially worse by just how long he has been wanting to have this talk.

"Honestly I wasn't expecting to have so much fun, I thought Crowley was just going to put on a cheap tacky formal, not an actual ball with proper costumes." You feel light headed with joy for a change, technically half of the things you've experienced in this world you never would have in yours but a real, fancy Masquerade somehow felt more surreal than the overblots or flying brooms. Maybe it was because you had seen pictures of real ball costumes and masks that made it feel more tangible, like this was something you really were meant to be a part of.

"The costuming was indeed very impressive." Riddle swirls his cup just gently enough to avoid spilling his precious tea whilst making sure to pour Ace's all over the Heartslabyul lounge. "I was surprised at how impossible it was to tell who was who."

"I know! That's the whole problem." You practically jump up from the couch, before remembering yourself and settling down again. Ace notices you still move subconsciously closer to him, even if your silly head doesn't know just who he is. Or would it be was?

"Is it really?" Ace really wishes you weren't so used to ignoring his whining. "The entire point of a Masquerade is to be anonymous, isn't that why you and Deuce thought it was 'romantic.'" He had wanted to have this talk in Ramshackle where it was guaranteed to be private- scratch that he wanted to have it last night while he was trying to imagine what your eyes looked like under your mask. What they would look like if he moved his aside and just said what he was trying to for once instead of flirting more with the subtext than you.

"Well yeah I guess." You mumble. Your chest has been tied up in funny knots and Ace's unenthusiastic tone isn't helping with the pain. "But it's driving me insane to think I could have met my soul mate and all I know about him is that he makes a really attractive clown." Riddle chokes, tea cup clanking onto it's saucer as he politely tries to pass off his laugh as a cough. "Well not just that..." you mumble, closing your eyes to conjure up the memory of the jester who had produced a rose from behind your ear and insisted on leaving it there for luck.

"What sort of luck?" He held onto the rose just a second too long for your poor heart to bear, you swear he could feel it if he pressed his fingers that much closer to your pulse point.

"Well mine of course, how else am I supposed to find you when this is over." It's odd not to see the man's lips, your heart tells you it suspects he's smiling but it won't confirm it.

"That's not luck!" You laugh. "That's cheating!" He shrugs, as if to say he knows, that's the whole point. As if to say it's worth it to break the rules where you're concerned. It's daring, the way he holds you as you dance, the way your heart is screaming for you to just-

"I should have kissed him." You groan, remembering how Grim had charged in between you and your date screaming about how he'd never approve or something dumb like that. Just who did he think he was anyway?

"Well then why don't you!" Ace cringes as he says it, neck beet red as you go to sass him back before the oddly serious nature of his tone and the implication of his syntax force you to stop. Riddle's exit barely registers as you stare each other down, Ace from the corner of his eye and you with the full force you can gather.

"Would you have let me?" You whisper. A familiar touch lights just behind your ear, pressing in this time to trace the speed of your heartbeat.

"Only one way to find out, prefect." You expect him to run. Make some sort of joke about how he was pranking you, or say kissing before marriage being against the rules. But he doesn't. He waits, perhaps in the way he has been since the first night he showed up at Ramshackle, collared and crabby, just waiting for you to close the gap.

And embrace you as you fall.

Ruggie

Ramshackle was closer to the main castle than Savanaclaw. That was the excuse Ruggie had used to get you to agree to let him crash there, in his mind anyway. Really, all he had needed to do was ask, but you know that's not exactly how he works. Your relationship has always been a series of scratches, offers of give and take that tend to be minor but offer just enough of a technicality for true feelings to remain hidden just out of sight. That doesn't change how surreal it is to see him here so late, or the sharp contrast between all the stiff collars and plaster faces you both had been drowning in just a moment ago and the worn gym clothes you both wear for pajamas.

"Man I'm beat." Ruggie says, sinking into the couch. You aren't in much better shape, if he wasn't taking up a part of it you would be sprawled face down across the length the couch. Instead, you satisfy yourself with curling up into the far corner. You have a dreamy smile on your face, content like how he usually looks when he eats a large meal, or when he thinks you aren't looking.

"I think I found your soul mate hanging around the buffet tables tonight." You lazily tease, tracing nonsensical shapes on the floor to amuse the nervous energy from your earlier encounter.

"Oh yeah?" Ruggie sounds vaguely intrigued, but he doesn't move much. If anything he settles his neck more firmly into the sofa back, eyes intentionally trained on the ceiling. "What makes you say that?"

"He was stealing all the apple fritters." You say, dreamy smile widening when Ruggie snorts. "Too bad I intend on stealing him from you."

"Do you now." He murmurs, head tilting back down into his palm. He rests his elbow on his knee, but he doesn't look at you, not immediately. Your well into your little rant before he does.

"Well at first I was just going to steal the food-" that was the whole reason he had wanted to stay here, the two of you had hatched a plan weeks ago to smuggle in some containers and smuggle out as much food from the banquet hall as possible and it just made more sense to take it to Ramshackle "but he offered to give it to me so long as I danced with him." There is a container of said fritters in between you both, sticky with caramelized sugar and a good reminder of just how expensive the Masquerade Ball must have been to throw. It's odd to have food last so long in Ramshackle, odder still with Ruggie so close.

"Nice try." You said. "But you won't trick me like that. My friend trained me well and I need to bring those back to him."

"Are you sure about that?" The man's voice is muffled by his mask, white plaster forming three faces obscuring any meaningful detail of his real looks. He's radiant, something about the way he's managing to thread the needle through the crowd despite his exaggerated mask is holding all your attention despite Ruggie's warnings. You're supposed to be competing to see who would bring the most food home, but instead you're dancing in the arms of someone else, laughing as he kisses your hand when he dips you in tune with the song. "Your friend is missing out, I have the best tasting thing in the ballroom right here."

"I'm sorry I was so distracted I only managed to snag a couple things. Did you get anything good?" You roll out of the corner closer to the center, just out of his reach but oh so obtainable.

"Nope~" he says, letting the word pop and looking away with more shame than you have seen on his face... ever now that you think about it. "I uhh. I may have... also.. gotten distracted." Both of you look at the single container of apple fritters, suddenly very much aware that neither of you actually brought anything else back to your dorm.

"Laugh with me." You try to protest but Ruggie has both your fingers up to your lips, his trademark smirk looks good on you, he wishes he could take a picture. "Embarrassed prefect? You shouldn't be so worried, I told you how I felt didn't I?"

"But you don't know how I taste!" You manage to wail and he finally cracks, shaking with laughter and letting you curl your blanket around you in a ball of embarrement. You stay like that for a good long while, trying to beat down the smile that twitches at the corner of your mouth until Ruggie reaches over to unwrap you casing and pull your head into his lap.

"Well then, maybe you should let me test you." He's wrong you think as your lips meet, Ruggie has got to taste much sweeter.

Cater

"Well someone looks like they had fun last night~" Cater says and you giggle in response. He allows himself to pause before he continues, Cater really hates the sound of his own voice. How anyone can stand him is beyond him, and he knows the conversation he's about to have has a pretty good chance- no.

It's going to destroy the carefully built illusion he's woven around your "friendship" even if you react positively. Losing you would be painful, but keeping you in the dark would be even worse. He has to play this smart, play you correctly so he can try and keep your eyes with him even if they only look at the superficial face he wears.

Yes, Cater has to play you carefully, but he is off to a bad start. You know before he sits down that something is wrong, it's written all over his face sewn into his unwashed hair and dark circles under his eyes.

"I want to say 'you too' but honestly you look exhausted Cater, you sure you want to be awake right now?" You don't want to press him in case that makes him run, but you also know Cater a bit better than he wants to acknowledge. You don't really think the bit of yourself you have to share will help soothe him, but he goes along with his script anyway.

"Seriously, you worry too much!" He can't say about me because he wants your worries, and he knows that denial would crack his mask. "Besides I've just been dying to hear about the dance, you seemed really excited to go!" There's a sparkle in your eyes, a flush to your cheeks that he desperately wishes he had put there.

"It went well." That’s all you can bring yourself to say as your hands go to fiddle absent mindedly with the sleeves of your blazer.

"That's good?" He tries to poke at the topic but you don't go further. "Or was is it not good and you just don't want to think about it?"

"No! No it's just. I met someone. Or I think I did anyway." Cater blinks. Once. Twice. Three times just for luck because he knows, or at least he thinks he knows, that he was the only one with you all night. What you're saying just can't be right, there's no way you didn't know it was him all night. "He was just so easy to talk to! I completely lost track of time and didn't meet up with anyone else..." Your little embarrassed smile confirms it, you didn't know. He laughs.

"Sorry," he doesn't mean that "you're just too cute Yuu." He pulls his phone from his pocket as you desperately stutter.

"Look I'm really sorry I know I said I'd look for you, Riddle, and Trey but I was just... I don't know, moonstruck?" He laughs more, practically chokes as he quickly types an apology to Trey and savors your embarrassment just a moment longer.

"Don't you mean starstruck?" He teases and you suddenly find a bit of your fight back and fiercely shake your head.

"No way! That's for famous people. Moonstruck is for when you're overcome with ridiculous love for someone even if you don't know them." You pout and Cater looks at his phone, not to do anything really just to center himself and his thoughts. He has a choice to make, and he doesn't know where either path will go.

"Are you alright?" Cater should have known you would find him, there should be something scary with how unconsciously in tune with him you are. He doesn't say anything, but that doesn't seem to discourage you. You settle yourself next to him, sitting quietly keeping him company until he's ready to speak.

"It's all just a bit too much." He gestures vaguely at the room, uncertain why he's decided to speak about this now and not run from it. "Everyone's here wearing masks and hiding themselves like it's a fun thing to do."

"It can be." You say calmly. "But always dressing like this would be a lot." You look over the crowd with the stranger, the conversation lulls, and you try to examine the man's costume for a hint of what might be best to say. "You know," your voice is uncertain, but the words that come to you aren't ones you don't believe in, "everyone wears a mask sometimes, especially when they're afraid or lonely." The man says nothing, but something about the way he sits suggests you still have his attention. "You're not obligated to remove those masks for anyone, it has to be done when you are ready to accept the consequences of how other people will see you."

Cater isn't ready. He somehow doubts he ever will be. He wishes there was a way to confess this with a guarantee that the consequences won't burn him.

"You weren't the only one moonstruck." You look hopeful almost, exactly like you did when you'd pulled him from his corner to dance. Exactly the same as when you had when he had teasingly pulled your mask aside to kiss you, the same cute look he would never be sorry to see on your face. "Say are you busy prefect? I think there's something I need to tell you."

[aihoshiino]

chapter 155 thoughts

Thanks for your patience! I had some stuff crop up IRL this week that kept getting in the way of my chapter review but we're so oshi no back

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 12

Aqua Hoshigan Status: White

i can't believe toxic yuri was the real core theme of this manga all along

With the long road to revenge seemingly conquered, Oshi no Ko eases us into a bit of a false high before the real finale comes barrelling in. As with 152, it feels like we're tying off a number of arcs that have lasted through the series, with certain characters getting what is clearly supposed to be their big emotional resolutions… and unfortunately, as with 153-4, while a lot of these beats are satisfying on paper, they suffer a lack of buildup that makes them ring a bit hollow. OnK's clumsy handling of certain characters during the Movie Arc has really come back to bite it during the finale, leaving me feeling like a lot of the emotional payoffs for them are undercut and the character work they're doing doesn't have the groundwork it needs to properly resonate. I defo didn't hate this chapter like some folks seemed to, but it has some pretty substantial issues in terms of micro and macro storytelling I am compelled to talk about. This is one of those chapter reviews I think comes across way more negative than it necessarily is lol but man did this one give me a headache…

To start things off, the thing that initially delayed this review: page fucking one!!! By total coincidence, this was the first chapter in basically forever where I didn't get a chance to look at the JP raws until like two days after it dropped and as such I was ripping my hair out trying to figure out who the narrator was on page one - the use of 'Mama' made me wonder if it was Ruby, but the visual flow of the page is much more biased in favor of Aqua and I probably don't need to tell you how fucking huge it would be for Aqua to have called Ai that for the first time!!! However, based on the speech patterns of the speaker in Japanese and the way subsequent pages flow from this intro, I'm pretty settled on it being Ruby - this chapter is a sort of closing of the book on her involvement in the revenge play or as my friend Mala put it, it's Ruby's homecoming so to speak. And like… honestly, thank god lol.

I get a lot of Ruby fans have wanted her to be more involved in this side of the story for a good while but I think the Black Hoshigan Ruby arc playing out like it did made it pretty clear that Ruby as a character is not super well suited to playing a role in the revenge half of OnK in the way that Akasaka wants it to be written. Not just that, but her actual post-BH characterization in relation to this arc has been such a wet fart that I really think it has taken away a lot more than it has added to her arc.

Not only that but… most of it didn't even happen onscreen lol! Not only did we get that absolutely baffling speech in 147 where she literally looked into the camera and Explained With Her Words the character arc she was supposedly having this whole time (just offscreen and nowhere the reader could see) but we now get Aqua going "well ruby decided to forgive him so it is what it is i guess". It feels so limp as a reason for him to have flipped on a dime like he did, especially when we still haven't fucking seen this supposedly lifechanging performance of Ruby's!!!! SO many characters have the resolutions to their Ai-adjacent arcs connected to how Ruby chose to play Ai in the movie but we're not actually seeing it. We're just sort of talking around it and having it exposited to us. I want to assume this is setup for us eventually seeing it ourselves but like… at this point, IS there any point to us revisiting the movie's content? Everything we might have learned from it has already been addressed by characters Telling Us To Our Faces How It Made Them Feel And Gave Them Therapy so it would ultimately be superfluous.

God. I hate still bitching about the Movie Arc now we're out of it, but it really is the albatross around the neck of this finale. So many of the issues littered through these last ten or so chapters are the result of the Movie Arc's fumbling and misuse of the cast and its failure to establish the emotional throughlines that should have been tied off by these chapters. I keep feeling like I'm repeating myself when I talk about XYZ Narrative Beat not being bad on paper but being less effective than it should do because of lacking underlying foundation but it really is the one central thing plaguing this arc right now.

i get what you guys are going for but. seeing aqua just let kamiki walk away when he has definitely killed people is really funny.

The twins' return to Miyako is another moment that I like in theory but honestly just feels frustrating. It's been over 25 chapters - a week short of an entire year since 125 came out where Miyako lamented her inability to reach the twins like a 'real' mother would and this thread was immediately dropped like a rock. She had zero involvement in the Movie Arc even during parts it was straight up absurd that she was not at least reacting to the events going on, didn't have any reaction to the movie or like… anything going on that could have more organically lead to this development.

I also have to say. The twins returning to Miyako performing this Snapshot of Aesthetic Motherhood (as u/DeliSoupItExplodes on the OnK sub put it) felt kind of. Weird and even a little icky to me in a way I've been struggling to articulate. Just that it felt extremely on the nose and kind of. eeeh.

that said. i won't pretend i'm not 4x critically weak to an 'okaeri' / 'tadaima' exchange at the end of a long quest or journey…

For all my complaints about the surrounding context, this scene in isolation is pretty much the one part of this chapter that just uncritically works. It's hard not to read it as a parallel to Miyako offering to adopt the kids in chapter 10 - except there, Aqua refuses to step into his new family. Here, Miyako pulls him into the embrace and the two of them finally engage not as peers but as a mother and son, as they've needed to do all this time. Her words here are so lovely and so, so sincere that it's really no wonder Aqua breaks down in tears. As much as I've bitched about the lacking work in his arc across the last major chunk of chapters, it's nevertheless been incredibly cathartic to see Aqua finally start letting down his walls, believing in his future and letting people love him. I just wish it had the buildup to really land.

also the twins just… still have not had a real conversation or interaction about literally anything lol.

Ichigo's back…! I already aired my major complaint about this scene vis-a-vis Ruby but I imagine this is the last time we're going to get a real Moment with Ichigo so I might as well get this off my chest now: it was and continues to be utterly bonkers to me that of the characters we saw having Feelings about the 15 Year Lie cast screening, Ichigo was not one of them. And it's even more bonkers that we got this whole bit waxing poetic about fucking Kaburagi and how he feels soooo bad about Ai when like… I'm sorry, but Kaburagi's feelings about Ai are so low on my list of priorities as to be functionally irrelevant. Quite frankly, he does not matter and it's INSANE that the story gave this misty-eyed moment to him and not Ichigo - you know, the agent of the industry that went on to exploit and kill her, her literal, actual dad whose guilt over what happened to her made him ghost his family for nearly twenty years? Can you imagine what an insanely powerful moment of resolution it would've been for that moment of Kaburagi addressing Ai through the 15YL poster to have gone to Ichigo instead?

I also have to note this weird ongoing thread of 'the Dome' being framed as Ai's dream that Ruby is inheriting when it, uh, patently was not! I'm sure she felt some pride in her success but all she herself said on the matter back when it came up was that she didn't get what a big deal it was but that since everyone else was happy, she'd be happy too. I initially took this to be laying the groundwork to disprove this idea and make the characters work out what Ai really wanted in her heart of hearts but now the narrative seems to just be uncritically treating this as a value neutral fact. So… who even knows lol.

Short hair Akane returns…! I don't imagine it was planned, but it's a cute coincidence that she cut her hair in the manga right around the time anime Akane grew hers out for season 2. I've always liked short hair Akane best so this was a nice surprise…

I have to say it was uh, really funny to see so many people get so shocked and mad when Akane talked about 'imitating Hoshino Ai' and screaming that this was a retcon or ruining Akane's character when like… was this really news to you guys??? Even before she grew her hair out, she flipped her bangs to go in the same direction as Ai's as soon as she started acting as her and she was popping hoshigans all over the place when she was getting her career off the ground… like, seriously, was this really a shock to people???

Anyway uh. Vindication for me from this scene!!! I've been pointing out for over a year now that we should be very cautious about taking it at face value that Hikaru killed Gorou and Yura because the story has been very delicately implying that to be the case while avoiding confirming it outright in a way that reeked of a red herring to me. That combined with his failure to even mention these two victims while 'fessing up to Aqua really raised some additional red flags for me and finally, we see Aqua confirming that no, Hikaru was not the one person behind everything, Light Yagami style and the final boss of the series seems set to be B-Komachi's former Queen of Smiles. Fuyuko Niino.

And Iiiiiiiii… feel very uneasy about this twist!

First of all; I have to acknowledge that nope, we have no fuckin clue how either Aqua or Akane figured this out but we'll probably get the exposition in that regard over and done with next chapter. Also something a lot of people caught is that Ryosuke is referred to with a different name here - Sugano vs Kaihara, which was used during the Movie Arc. I've heard this called out as a mistake/retcon and it could be, but tbh I'm inclined to think it's just that Ryosuke's name was changed for the movie, since a point is made about needing everyone's permission to include them in the movie and they, uh… can't exactly ask Ryosuke!

But… back to the real point here.

Nino has been one of my favourite OnK characters since I first read 45510 and every subsequent expansion on her character and her relationship with Ai has only made me more invested in her. But the story setting her up as the final villain here is… it leaves me feeling a little cold and very uncertain about how it'll go.

First off, the framing of Nino on these last two pages is just so overwrought that it's a little ridiculous lol. The image of her squatting in her filthy room, listening to old B-Komachi tracks and staring at a poster of the old group with all the other members but her and Ai aggressively scribbled out… it feels downright parodic to an extent that I think honestly makes Nino that much less nuanced and human by its inclusion alone.

Like… a big part of what I loved about Nino's inclusion in the story and how her relationship with Ai was framed was that it was messy and honest in a way that felt like it wasn't judging Nino herself or making her out to be a villain. Her and Ai's relationship breakdown was a two-sided failure of communication spurred on in large part by Ai's own avoidance and inability to have frank, sincere discussions with the people who cared about her. Nino's tangled up feelings of admiration and desire, envy and resentment, love and hate were not flattering but they felt so real and so human. She was a young girl put into an impossible situation and without the power to change the invisible dynamics of the systems around her, she lashed out at the person in front of her that she could see. The impression I always got was that part of what so deeply fucked up her feelings about Ai was her lack of closure - that she had never gotten to say sorry or patch things up. That she had screamed I wish you'd die at someone she loved and then she fucking died. No wonder she was a mess.

All this though… maybe I'm overreacting when we're just a page and a half into this reveal but again, the framing here really does feel so exaggerated and shallow. It feels like it's falling into the trap OnK previously fell into with the GRSR relationship where it attempts to amp up the drama by massively overexagerrating the emotions at play, blowing them up to their hugest possible extreme and letting all nuance and subtlety get lost in the noise. Ultimately, this will all come down to execution and while it's possible for AkaMengo to get us back on track with the Nino I already liked… idk. Like I said. I'm uneasy.

I also can't let it go unsaid - accidentally or otherwise, the framing of Nino here leans extremely hard into the stereotype of the 'psycho'/predatory lesbian and I don't think I need to explain why that sucks donkey nuts, especially in the midst of a manga that is so insufferably hetero at all other times.

at least she has good taste in b-komachi tracks.

[akihatohnoofficial]

akihafr and ntriderfr get substantially more popular than the originals by playing really hard into the yuribait. as this escalates, they both get so sanitized and distorted that they turn into humorless moeblobs, leading to you and rose getting lots of asks like “i prefer the toxic yuri of the original blogs”

SCARY…

[maaarine]

South Korea politician blames women for rising male suicides (Jean Mackenzie, BBC, July 9 2024)

"A politician in South Korea is being criticised for making dangerous and unsubstantiated comments after linking a rise in male suicides to the increasingly “dominant” role of women in society.

In a report, Seoul City councillor Kim Ki-duck argued women’s increased participation in the workforce over the years had made it harder for men to get jobs and to find women who wanted to marry them.

He said the country had recently “begun to change into a female-dominant society” and that this might "partly be responsible for an increase in male suicide attempts”.

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates among the world’s rich countries but also has one of the worst records on gender equality.

Councillor Kim’s comments have been criticised as the latest in a series of out-of-touch remarks made by male politicians. (…)

In South Korea there is a substantial gulf between the number of men and women in full-time employment, with women disproportionately working temporary or part-time jobs.

The gender pay gap is slowly narrowing, but still women are paid on average 29% less than men.

In recent years an anti-feminist movement has surged, led by disillusioned young men, who argue they have been disadvantaged by attempts to improve women’s lives. (…)

Last month, another Seoul councillor in his 60s published a series of articles on the authority’s website encouraging young women to take up gymnastics and practise pelvic floor exercises in order to raise the birth rate.

At the same time, a government think tank recommended that girls start school earlier than boys, so that classmates would be more attracted to each other by the time they were ready to marry.

“Such comments encapsulate just how pervasive misogyny is in South Korea,” said Yuri Kim, director of the Korean Women's Trade Union.

She accused politicians and policymakers of not even trying to understand the challenges women faced, preferring to scapegoat them instead.

“Blaming women for entering the workforce will only prolong the imbalances in our society,” she told the BBC.

Currently women account for 20% of South Korea’s members of parliament, and 29% of all local councillors."

[shachaai]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers!

I was tagged by @zipegs. Thank you, Hunter! These were interesting questions to think about.

Tagging: @needcake and @dr-fumbles-mcstupid! No pressure on either of you, but have at if you'd like.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

198! Hetalia really upped the work count out of all my fandoms, but I also crossposted a lot of my better Yu-Gi-Oh fics from my days back on FF.net. I've still got a huge amount to crosspost from LJ, DW and tumblr though.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

998,583. It's taken me 14 years on AO3 but my next fic update is going to finally take me over a million words and I'm so excited!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

My main fandom right now is Hannibal (and the associated HEU), but I'm also working on some uber long Hetalia works in the background. (The latter won't see the light of day until they've got a substantial amount done for them.) I started out posting fic online with Yu-Gi-Oh, then Death Note and Yuri on Ice. I've also worked on a lot of fics for CLAMP's works, primarily Tsubasa, Cardcaptor Sakura and XxXHolic.

4. Top five fics by kudos?

Due to the kudos requirement, this is obviously only from my stuff on AO3 (because I actually think an anon work I wrote on a kinkmeme back in the day would also feature here otherwise). 1. Commencer Par La Faim (Hannibal) - 1,470 2. The Lindworm's Lullaby (Hannibal) - 503 3. if(touched by love's own secret)we (Yuri on Ice) - 382 4. Apples (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles) - 379 5. Heartbox (Hetalia) - 299 The last one completely mystifies me.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I really try to. I've got much better about responding to comments in the past few years, I think, but I'm still more likely to remember to respond to comments on WIP longfics than on oneshots. (Sorry!!!) Lately, I've fallen into the habit of replying to comments on the most current chapter of a multichaptered fic as I'm doing the final edits on the next chapter, because they often prompt me not to forget things. ;;; (So, if you receive a belated reply to your comment on a WIP, I'm likely going to update it soon.) I really do appreciate every comment though, and they've been such a source of inspiration and good feeling over the years. I'm still going back and trying to say thank you to comments left on my works years ago... It's late, but I do want to express my thanks.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Bold of you to assume I ever finish anything. I don't tend to write works that have endings that fall primarily into the angst territory (I don't think!). Bittersweetness, usually. A lot of my hetalia stuff is technically angsty because it's open-ended and based on real history and history sucks. Obviously it's not posted yet, but the ending to Commencer Par La Faim is probably going to get people coming after me with torches and pitchforks. For posted works, I guess I'll go with my first ever completed multichaptered work from my YGO days: Both Sides of the Border. The whole fic is an exploration of love, remembrance and death (as best as I could write it as a purple prose-obsessed 15 year-old).

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Bold of you to assume I ever finish anything x2. Many of my hetalia oneshots fill me with the warm n' fuzzies due to their endings. Yes, this answer is a cop-out.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

None currently, but I have done on multiple separate occasions in the past.

9. Do you write smut?

I do, but it doesn't come to me easily at all. I wish I was a better smut writer and I'm really working on it, but I still don't think my current stuff is up to where I want it be. People seem to enjoy it though, so I must be doing something right? At least a little?

10. Craziest crossover?

...Sorry, I'm blanking. I wrote YGO/Harry Potter back in the day, and I've Daemon AUs all over the place (His Dark Materials). CLAMP fanworks are all, technically, huge crossovers.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Once, a YGO piece I'd rather not mention now. My concepts have gotten ripped off a bunch over the years though - which I wouldn't even mind, I'm delighted to share my ideas freely (and, hell, not have to write the fics I want to see myself!), but if you're going to use my exact phrasing (and hours of research!) in your work could you at least give me a mention? It's a little hurtful sometimes, but I try not to let it bother me unless it's super overt.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I gave full permission for someone on a private Chinese fanpage to translate any of my engport works into Mandarin, and I know they translated a lot of the oneshots! (Obviously, I can't link you.) athousandnights translated the prancing and pawing of each little hoof into Mandarin. VanessaLocke translated Splinters & Mosaics into Vietnamese. @dr-fumbles-mcstupid/Dr_Fumbles_McStupid is also currently poddficcing my WIP fic, Poems - translating to audio.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! In every kind of way. It's wonderful to do with a friend/someone you have a good rapport with, and it's a good way to develop a friendship, I think. I still find the thought of co-writing with a stranger assigned to work with me nerve-wracking though, and those situations have never worked out terribly well for me in the past. @-@ I'm currently doing a lot of 'alpha reader' work for a few friends. It's the writing part of writing a fic that isn't really putting down the words. (Plotting, pacing, research, editing.) I'm too busy with my own solo work to do any more right now.

14. All time favourite ship?

Haven't got one. I've got my darlings across every fandom I've looked at and written for.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

>> << Honestly, if it's something I want to finish I refuse to doubt that I will finish it. There's always hope.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Writing about food and scents. I've been told I'm pretty good with conveying the senses associated with them pretty well, and I've been scolded frequently by readers for making them hungry with my food scenes! (This is a fantastic source of glee to me now that I'm writing in a fandom where the food is, often, people. Accidentally converting people to cannibalism one fic at a time.) I also think I'm pretty good at writing about clothes - how they look, how they're put on and taken off, the sensation and movement of fabric - and capturing the voices of characters. Also, mostly because of a lot of the above, establishing a setting by sneaking in lore.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Long and extremely complicated sentences. I'm trying to get better at this, but commas, hyphens, colons and semi-colons are my comfort blanket. (Periods? Never heard of her.) The utter inability to shut up. Every fic is longfic these days. ...How incredibly slowly I write.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

It can be incredibly interesting, scintillating and useful, adding a lot to a fic - in moderation. Dropping huge paragraphs in the middle of your work in a language that isn't the main one you're writing in is just confusing and offputting, in my opinion, but sprinkles here and there offer insight into your worldbuilding and your characters' backgrounds/voices. I do occasionally write characters speaking other languages in my work, but I've usually got to have a good reason for it. I don't always provide translations either - but when I don't, it's also for a reason. XD;;; It's usually either that I'm keeping secrets from the reader, I think the speech is evident given the context, or I want the reader to have the delight of discovering what what I've written means (this usually means it's a funny pun).

19. First fandom you wrote in?

Cardcaptor Sakura - or Cardcaptors, as the dub was called in the UK. I was 8 and got hooked, and got my two closest friends hooked, and I got so upset that it finished I wrote fanfic for it to tie up loose emotional ends in the plot. XD;;; The first fanfic I ever wrote and posted online was for Yu-Gi-Oh, on FF.net. I was 11. The first chapter was up for a week before I read more works and realised how bad a writer I was, and I took it down immediately. My first months in proper fandom were a sharp learning curve!

20. Favourite fic you've written?

I'm gonna be a sappy loser here and say 'everything I've written (even the unposted stuff) for the Gods AU' and Commencer Par La Faim. I'm so glad I worked up the courage all those years ago to approach Eden (@edencomplex) and Hoof (@hoofae) and ask if I could write something for this cool AU they were chattering about and drawing stuff for. I found two wonderful friends and a wider home in a little corner of fandom, and the AU itself really expanded my ability to research things and develop different writing styles. I'm working on more things for the AU now because I really do want to finish it as my, Hoof's and Eden's legacy - and, of course, in Eden's memory. Commencer Par La Faim is a WIP, but I think it's rapidly become a favourite for me because it's the culmination of so many different things. It's brought me friends in the Hannibal fandom. It's a crowning - and bloody good, imo - example of my developed and mature voice as a writer. And it's so fun to work on. I also think it's a fantastic little bite of the a/b/o trope. I've done a lot with a/b/o across fandoms and over the years, and CPLF has really drawn all my scattered thoughts together and, I think, made something really unique amongst all the different presentations of it online. I'm still working on the fic, of course, but I'm proud of what I have achieved with it so far and I believe it will continue to be beloved to me.

[triptychgrip]

What if a drunken/accidental livestream led the public to find out about the Sochi banquet, four years after the fact?

MOTHERing_Heights commented: 12-09-2019 at 07:15am Love your posts, as always.

Regarding theories as to how the ISU kept banquet details from leaking…we all know the organization is all but broke, so they probably didn’t bribe any of the skaters to not mention it through $$$. More than likely, Viktor “I Have Gorgeous Eyes But Cross Me And I’ll Shoot Laser Beams Out Of Them” Nikiforov probably made every banquet attendee swear not to leak anything, realizing Yuuri might not want that level of media attention.

We now know Viktor didn’t realize Yuuri was that drunk, so his desire for discretion back then was probably more along the lines of “well I’m so famous and this level of scrutiny is something Yuuri probably isn’t used to, best to keep this quiet” and less of the “Woe is me! My future husband was trashed the night he captured my soul, gotta keep this hush hush” variety.

1 response to MOTHERing_Heights Lets_Get_You_To_Bed_Grandma commented: 12-09-2019 at 07:25am ajldkfjlskdaldkflskdf “Woe is me! My future husband was trashed the night he captured my soul…” This honestly sent me to the moon....why is this totally something Viktor would have thought?!

I’m now imagining him pacing and hand-wringing in his/Yuuri’s hotel room at the Barcelona GPF the night he found out that Yuuri didn’t know (the same night of their engagement, apparently?!). Oh, to be a fly on that wall…

And speaking of hand-wringing, can we all spare a moment of silence for the freaking PINING Viktor must have undergone during that 4 month gap between Sochi and hauling ass to Japan?? I’m wondering if he consoled himself in the meantime by commissioning a fanfic writer to bring to life all of his lovelorn fantasies on the page? Or, perhaps he went the route of us mere mortals and stalked Yuuri’s (formerly nonexistent) social media outlets? LMAO

---

Ahh, in-universe social media freak-outs: I love writing them, and the above excerpt/text message image is from my latest one-shot: part 1 of an eventual 3-part series about the aftermath in the event that the public finds out about the Sochi GPF Banquet shenanigans, four years after the fact.

As in: well after the Yuuri of my fic-verse wins gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics, as well as after he and Viktor get married.

The ensuing chaos has the potential for humor, of course, but also major feels, which is what attracted me to wanting to write about it in the first place

In my fic-verse, our YOI faves are having a hell of a time in Turin, Italy, enjoying themselves at the 2019 GPF Banquet, which ends up being a celebration of Yuuri winning his second GPF title (just a few points ahead of Yurio).

Due to Mila and Sara's peer pressure, Yuuri and Yurio drink far too much of the locally reknown grappa, which leads them to 1) set off together in search of more substantial food than the slim hors d'oeuvres pickings, and 2) accidentally go live on Instagram while discussing what went down in Sochi (well, it's more like Yurio slurring in his explanation and Yuuri interjecting now and again with incoherent "wait a secccc, tha' wuzz me? I did that?!" exclamations)

Needless to say, when a few Yuri's Angels record the live and upload it online, the internet EXPLODES; up until this point, everyone had believed Yuuri and Viktor's relationship origins to be pretty straightforward: they've been together since October 2016 and since then, they've never hinted at anything even slightly chaotic happening in Sochi.

Part 1 focuses on everyone's initial reactions the morning after Yuuri and Yurio's livestream; part 2 will be hurt/comfort-focused, as both Viktor and Yuuri grow insecure (though, for very different reasons); and the final part will feature Yuuri and Viktor hosting their own (sober) livestream to "take command of the narrative", as Yuuri's extremely stressed publicist suggests

I hope this overview piques your interest in my story, or encourages you to check out my other Yuri!!! on Ice works

[tenebriskukris]

Oshi No Ko Chapter 149 - My Thoughts/Analysis

This was an amazing chapter! Amazingly unnecessary, I mean. Spoilers for Oshi No Ko Ch 149 below. 

Oh, where to begin with this chapter. Instead of getting more information and character depth on Ai and Hikaru during an arc specifically tailor made for them, we are instead treated to the return of this love triangle bullshit. It was acceptable during Tokyo Blade, but it’s overstayed it’s welcome by now.

The “reveal” that Kana’s been eavesdropping on the Akana-Kana conversation is a cheap tactic that dredges out intrigue for Kana during the wait between this chapter and the next one. Would it kill the series to lay things out in chronological order instead of relying on these sorts of flashbacks like a crutch to create the illusion of tension? It’s a half-assed tactic that any competent writer would stay clear of because it’s the equivalent of a sucker punch to the readers’ faces. The movie arc is already shoddily made and we don’t need what little goodwill that the readers have for the series go down the drain even further.

The Akane-Kana conversation is nothing more than air. There’s no substantiality to it. No introspection on Kana’s part. There’s no introspection on Kana’s part. She basically just saw Akane and Aqua talking and immediately jumped to conclusions. While, yes, this is in her character, framing it now, like this, is basically the specter of the dreaded love triangle plotline coming back from the dead. Instead of more necessary insight on Ai and Hikaru we get yet more screentime for Akane and Kana fucking about when it comes to Aqua. Fan-fucking-tastic.

I feel absolutely no sympathy for Kana’s despair in the majority of these scenes. Everything about this situation has been entirely self-inflicted. Despite knowing that her sharp tongue is a problem she hasn’t taken any visible steps to fix that. From the flashforwards her tongue is still something that she can’t control. She hasn’t taken any steps to pursue Aqua throughout the series and is content to hang around him like an annoying mosquito. Both Akane and Ruby have already made their moves on Aqua and she’s basically just sat on her hands the entirety of the series when it comes to him. She even had the gall to say that she doesn’t even think of Aqua as a love interest despite the reader knowing very well that it isn’t true at all. 

I read somewhere online that all the panels of Kana’s crying can be used to fill two whole volumes. While I don’t know how true this is, I can certainly say that I’m starting to get tired of this whole song and dance with her. There comes a point in a narrative that you see someone in the story that’s been continuously kicked down by their own bloody choices or has every opportunity to change but never seems to do anything substantial about their own situation and you have to ask, “Why should I care?”. That’s basically where I am with her at the moment.

“My love for him is like a mother to her child!” Akane, please. I know you can mimic Ai but this comparison might be a bit too far! Not that Aqua would mind Akane acting as Ai in bed but this is a whole new level! 

Even Akane is getting fed up with Kana’s shit. Good for her! Honestly, Akane needs to get past her obsession with Arima Kana because that’s something that’s holding her back from growing as a person and an actor in my opinion.

“If I were a man, I’d definitely choose you.” This has to be some of the lowest hanging yuri bait I’ve ever seen. Get this shit out of my face. You’re going to need a hell of a lot more for me to suddenly start spouting the virtues of the Kana-Akane pairing. This conversation doesn’t even pass the Bechdel test. 

Akane pushing Kana to do something and then Kana running away seems to be the story of their relationship. If she doesn’t even have the initiative to get together with Aqua herself then she doesn’t deserve him. She might as well be the rope between the Akane-Aqua tug of war, a proxy for Akane to try and “fix” Aqua. 

Kana feeling sorry for herself and not doing anything about it. We’ve seen that before. I’m just surprised the author is pulling this stuff some more and expecting people to still have sympathy for her. It’s like beating a dead horse at this point.

Akane jumpscare! It would be creepier if her face was drawn more accurately but the paneling is kind of odd there. Slightly surprising that we’re still on this plotline—I expected a cut a while back because that’s just how this manga has been rolling recently.

I—Wow, Akane. Wow. This is going to be a completely fine plan with no repercussions whatsoever. It’s in-character for her to want to try and save Aqua, but doing it like this is almost certainly the wrong move. I didn’t think that when I said that Kana would be the rope between the Aqua and Akane tug of war that it would actually happen! 

This is going to go horribly. The fact that Akane, someone who we’ve seen is relatively intelligent among the cast, attempt something like this is just—it’s just bad. Bad writing is what it is. As soon as Aqua gets a whiff of this—and he will, because Kana is weak to Aqua in general—that’s the Kana-Aqua relationship going down the drain in the worst case scenario. Does Akane really think that this sort of manipulation is something that Aqua won’t detect when Kana acts so out of character? Her level of manipulation is leagues worse than Aqua’s if this is the best that she can come up with. 

For Kana’s part, I think this is the nail in the coffin for her attempts at actually ending up with Aqua, though I’m more than sure some fans are still hoping and praying for a Kana victory at the Aquabowl. If your waifu is basically being strung along by her rival in to vie for the main character’s hand when she herself doesn’t even have the initiative to go for it—well, it might be a bit of a controversial take, but I don’t think that’s the type of behavior of someone who’s actually going to get together with the main character. Just saying.

We already know for a fact that this plan fails because of the flashforwards. Aqua, at least in public, is still more or less single by the time the movie premieres. It’s just a matter of how bad this fallout is going to be in the meantime.

The elephant in the room is obviously Ruby. We don’t know how Aqua has reacted to the kiss, nor what he thinks about it all about it. His narration has been left in the dark for so long that it’s become quite grating. How much longer are the authors going to tiptoe around this topic? Any discussion with regards to romance is going to be incomplete unless we get Aqua’s thoughts on how Ruby kissed him. And I don’t think he’ll be very conducive to Kana trying to get in his pants while she’s being manipulated by Akane to do so.

[olderthannetfic]

The “noncanonical pairings are usually wish fulfillment” thing is so bonkers because there’s so much variety in terms of what is “non canon.” By the strictest definitions of canon, something like Anthy/Utena isn’t “canon” in the original anime series because they never explicitly say they’re romantic lesbian lovers or kiss (except in the ending theme, which people often don’t count), even though the entire fucking show is about that relationship and it makes significantly less sense if you interpret them in a platonic way. Same with something like Yuuri and Victor in Yuri on Ice. Most people would call those “canon” (I would with both) but I’ve seen people fight over it because it’s not “explicit enough.” A lot of people who are used to really didactic storytelling — which, lbh, is clearly a lot of people in fandom spaces based on the discourse that gets started here — don’t really know what to make of works like Revolutionary Girl Utena that rely a lot on symbolism and allusion, and in expecting their audience to do the work to meet them where they are rather than getting down to where the dumbest possible viewer is.

Then, on the next level, you get relationships that were built up to in some way, but then the writers later decided to take it another direction. You get ones that got a lot of subtext, but they were a same-sex relationship or an interracial relationship or something else taboo in a time before that was permissible in mainstream media of that kind. You get ones where it was the actors interpreting it that way, but not the writers; or the writers, but not the directors; or the directors and script, but the actor didn’t play it that way. (A good example of both of the last two examples: Garak/Bashir from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, whose actors have both admitted to playing them that way and supporting the ship, and where the creators have basically said they saw that there was something there but knew they wouldn’t be able to get away with that on a Star Trek show then.)

On the next level down, you might get something where it fits into a well-established romantic trope but the creator somehow has no idea of but the fans pick up on it — for instance, maybe they would only see it as romantic if it were between a man and a woman, but this is two women, and they don’t recognize how it’s going to look different to someone who is less heteronormative in their thinking. Maybe the creator just has such a strong bias against some particular combo of characters that they don’t want to acknowledge what they wrote by accident. (Like how J.K. Rowling was so mad that so many of her readers liked Draco Malfoy even though it’s pretty obvious to anyone else what’s so appealing about how she wrote that character, but for relationships rather than individual characters.)

And then of course, you do get some ships that are just completely out of left field, someone projecting a particular dynamic really hard that they wish was there on some characters that don’t have that kind of chemistry at all to anyone else watching/reading/etc. One of my fandoms had a really vocal group get really into a ship like that recently (because the person who started it framed it as “progressive” and herself as a bit of a BNF so a lot of younger discourse-addled people went along with it who also thought the more popular main ship was “problematic”) and it was annoying because they were so self-aggrandizing about how there was all this hidden subtext that no one but them was seeing because we were all less social justice enlightened than them or something. When it was really just that those characters didn’t have that dynamic at all, but they THOUGHT they should. There was a lot of hilarious misinterpretation of scenes that were in context, not remotely shippy, but one character was touching the other one very slightly or something.

But IME, those kinds of ships getting any kind of substantial following is rare. Most fairly popular ships that are non-canon, including pretty much every non-canon juggernaut ship I’ve ever seen (going back to DS9, Garashir is like 45% of the DS9 fanfic on AO3 last time I checked, so it’s definitely a juggernaut ship), there is at least SOMETHING there that comes from the original work. Even if it’s just “these two guys have the kind of buddy-cop dynamic that slash shippers often like to envision in romantic ways,” “this guy and this girl are the kind of lifelong childhood friends that we’re used to being romantic in anime like this so a lot of people started shipping them immediately,” “these two girls have the kind of Fuffy/Catradora/etc. friends-to-enemies-to-friends-again-to-lovers dynamic that makes a lot of femslashers lose their minds,” etc. Even with those three examples, while it may not be *intentional* on the part of the creator, it’s bizarre to say those people are “projecting” when they’re responding to those couples fitting into longstanding media trends that a lot of people identify. “Projection” to me is something like the earlier example I gave of the obnoxious people in my one fandom, where they are just determined to make some square peg fit a round hole because they’re desperate to have everything be round. And again, I don’t think that’s nearly as common as a lot of people, and especially salty het shippers who want to demonize the popularity of M/M or F/F in their fandoms, seem to think it is. (Also, like het-only shippers aren’t the ultimate in seeing romantic dynamics with every time a man and a woman are close at all, and throwing a fit when it doesn’t happen in canon, lol)

(I also think some of these people confuse the “projection” for people who are more dedicated rarepair shippers, where the motivation is often more “okay this might not be here but WHAT IF” than sincerely thinking the work is actually doing something that it isn’t really doing. Again, I’ve met people who are into rarepairs who just seem to have a really bad lack of understanding for what “subtext” is and confusing anything they wish was there with “subtext,” but I think those people are a rarity. For a lot of people who like rarepairs, the fact that it’s not at all what canon is suggesting is something they are aware of and that is The Point. It’s “I know the work doesn’t actually suggest this, but how can I change it so that it does”)

--

In my experience, that particular flavor of oldschool homophobe invariably ships tons of het that is not actually canon.

They just don't like it when 1. anything that's not their favorite gets popular and 2. people think a character could be queer without it being literally stated in the first episode/page.

[jigschosai]

Advanced Paladin Skills

I've felt for quite a while now that while Paladins may not be the best tank for day-to-day stuff, they are the best tank when things go wrong. When well played, we can prevent a wipe, not just finish off a boss solo. However, it's rare to see these skills used with any frequency and it seems most players just assign them to "button bloat" rather than looking to see how they can be used.

I figured I'd put together a short guide in hopes that fellow Paladins may start using the skills a bit more often. They're especially handy for the higher difficulty that Dawntrail is providing.

Clemency - Making the WHM jealous

Cure potency of 1000 (base!)

When cast on a party member it will heal the Paladin for half of what the party member is healed for.

Will become instant cast and higher potency with Requiescat.

Very MP hungry

This is best used when one or both healers have gone down. It's also good for newbie healers that are struggling and you can toss out a few heals to help out.

This heal is strong enough that in a pinch you can heal another tank or a small group. That meme going around about tragic yuri when only a DPS and the tank survive a mechanic, if that boss is already low enough on hp, you may as well finish them off. Seriously, there's no reason not to if they're at 25% or so. In most cases the only reason to give up would be if the bosses HP is so high that it'd take too long with a single DPS.

The one downside, because it does need one, is that it's very MP hungry. So, keeping a solid rotation is a must to ensure your MP regenerates.

Cover - Someone's get out of death free card

Takes ALL damage for the target

Macro's easily and reliably

Target must remain within 10 malms

Shares oath gauge with Sheltron / Holy Sheltron

Sometimes mistaken for chain mechanic and the intended target runs out of range.

This is a great skill, but very situational. It requires the Paladin to have good situational awareness of how their party is doing, and to some extent know mechanics coming up.

The best use case for this is when someone has a few vuln stacks and may not survive a mechanic. You cast it and stick close to them. If it's to protect them from group damage (e.g. room wide or stack marker) it can be combined with Hallowed Ground so you take only their damage.

The biggest issue with this spell has nothing to do with the spell itself, but rather it's a social issue. People are not used to seeing it so they'll think it's a chain mechanic and run away.

Cover Macro for #4 In the party. /merror off /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /ac "Cover" <4> /micon "Cover"

Intervention - Have someone else experience the joy of being a Paladin

Provide a 10% mitigation on the target for 8s

If Rampart or Sentinel / Guardian are active adds 4s of an additional 10% mitigation and a heal over time for 12 seconds

Macro's easily

Shares the Oath Gauge with Sheltron / Holy Sheltron

This is a fun skill and one that can be used frequently in trials or raids, especially if off tanking. It can give some substantial mitigation to the target if used in conjunction with Rampart or Sentinel / Guardian. For shared tank busters it can leave the co-tank with substantially more health.

In a pinch, it can also be used to help out healers or others in the group that made need a bit of help to better manage a mechanic or could do with a HoT for a bit.

Intervention macro for #8 in the party. /merror off /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /ac "Intervention" <8> /micon "Intervention"

[cedarnommer]

Something that's deeply disappointing about Japanese yuri media is its fear of commitment and its lack of queerness. Lesbian couples are subtly implied, yet frustratingly kept hidden or shown in a more purified form. I have yet to see a manga come anywhere close to what How do we relationship? was able to accomplish. It almost feels like a fear of fully committing to complex same sex or gender relationships and it frustratingly makes me crave something more substantial. This post was triggered from seeing a scene of New Game that was posted as a cute yuri moment. Yet the lack of deeper characterization makes such a scene feel so shallow to me. In some ways, I think western media is better purely for how unrestrained it can be on the topic of being queer.

Just some thoughts.

[nach0]

MCYT Yuri Week; Day Five - Rarepair

"In the heart of the Evermoore."

Wordcount: 1360

AO3 Link

Shelby has been learning from the absolutely gorgeous ghost of a wizard long passed ever since she moved to the Evermoore. But the fog is shifting and changing, and the ghosts are growing darker with it.

Will she be able to resist the temptation laid out before her?

Most of the Evermoore’s ghosts were shades, echoes of who they may have once been, barely able to interact with the world beyond the bodies Shelby created for them and only kept awake by her magic fueling the fog’s.

One ghost was different.

It had taken time for her to properly form, like the others, but she just… hadn’t faded afterwards. There were days where she was more substantial than others, and she was prone to vanishing if she got too upset, but she stayed as much as she could.

Gem, she’d introduced herself as, a sad kind of smile on her face when Shelby told her about the other of her name. She’d been lost in the fog for a very long time, (“Almost a thousand years,” she’d said with a quiet certainty,) Shelby’s dimensional magic pulling her back to consciousness.

She was quiet about a lot of things. At first she’d tried to pass it off as lingering fog, then as just being a generally quiet person, but the undertone of melancholy was clear even to someone as socially awkward as Shelby.

Teaching, though, was where she really opened up. 

Gem had taken one look at her book and scoffed, launching into an explanation that was far more passionate than any of her professors had ever been and somehow still understandable.

It wasn’t when Shelby had fallen for her. That said, it certainly hadn’t hurt.

No, the sparks of feelings had come the first full moon after Gem’s appearance, when she’d realised the surge of magic made her tangible, made her real, even if just for a night. She’d laughed and dragged Shelby out to dance under the stars, twirling and spinning as the weak remnants of her magic floated an ancient song through the air.

After that it became almost impossible to deny the crush quickly spiralling into something out of control, a full blown attraction before she could stamp it out. Gem, blessedly, didn’t comment on it.

(The thought crossed her mind that Gem actually hadn’t noticed, but she brushed that aside. Her teacher had gone on many long tangents about the social etiquettes of her time and seemed to be a master of them. There was no way she was oblivious.)

And so they learned to coexist. Gem would spend her days filling in the gaps her professors had left, (though more than one day was lost to complaining about the state of the academy. It all seemed very personal to her for reasons Shelby hadn’t quite figured out yet,) and their nights most often found them cuddling, soaking in as much contact as they could before Gem went intangible again.

It was hard to work around each other, at first. Shelby was prone to accidents and often dropped potion vials, something that scared Gem so deeply that she often didn’t show up for hours or days again afterwards. Many of Gem’s mannerisms reminded Shelby uncomfortably of her stricter professors, clicking her tongue and pacing with barely concealed frustration when faced with a difficult task. They found a balance eventually, after far too many miscommunications and arguments, and were better off for it.

So naturally, something had to give.

It started with the whispers. The fog growing bolder, calling to her with promises of power and respect. Gem had been nervous, almost scared.

Then her eyes had turned blue.

But it was nothing to be worried about. She would just keep focusing on her work, ignore the encroaching fog, and it would sort itself out.

~

It was not, in fact, sorting itself out.

Sculk was beginning to creep out of every crevice, climbing higher and higher until it was well past the deepslate it was usually confined to. There was only so long she could pretend the ground squishing in the mangrove was just mud.

Shelby had brought up her concerns to Gem the first time she’d found sculk clinging to her, but the wizard had seemed… uncharacteristically relaxed about the whole thing.

“It’s just part of nature. Corruption has risen and fallen before, and this isn’t hurting anyone. Not like last time.”

Any further questions were met with a knowing smirk, growing wider by the day.

They still had a routine though, one Shelby could find some small comfort in. No matter what, full moons would be spent curled together on her couch, reading until they fell asleep and had to deal with back pains in the morning. (She did, at least. Gem got out of the side effects due to things like ‘having no actual body’ and ‘being literally dead, Shrub.’)

But when she started pulling blankets together-

“I have a different plan in mind.”

Shelby glanced at Gem, only pausing for a moment before continuing to move bedding. “What, did you want to go upstairs instead? I’m not sure if my bed’s big enough for the two of us unless we squeeze.”

“There’s something I want to show you instead. In the heart of the Evermoore.”

Gem didn’t wait for an answer before turning for the door, trusting in Shelby’s curiosity winning out to follow her. 

The emotion that spurred her to move was closer to concern.

While they could be spontaneous at times, Shelby more than Gem, they were both creatures of habit. You had to be to practise magic, it was as much routine as it was raw power and emotion. And yet here she was, walking straight into the fog with no care for the dangers it presented.

Of course she followed.

Deeper and deeper they went, the night growing ever darker despite the moon shining bright overhead, but no mobs seemed to bother them. The soft blue glow of the sculk lit their path, like stars fallen from the sky, oddly comforting despite the whispers that followed.

“Gem, slow down!”

Her pleas went unanswered as Gem strode with ease through the tangled mess of the mangrove. The roots seemed to clear from her path, leaving a clear trail in her wake. It was all the more concerning. The Evermoore was not one to change easily.

They stopped after what felt like hours of wading through mud and sculk. Shelby couldn’t identify whatever they were standing on other than the pure wrongness radiating from it. It felt of death, she realised, stronger than the subtle energy the ghosts put out.

In the centre of the clearing stood a single sculk catalyst.

“What are we doing here, Gem?” Shelby finally drew the courage to ask, glancing out of the corner of her eye to where she was standing.

Gem looked at her with something almost like pity.

“You’re becoming one with your empire. It’s what every ruler wants, isn’t it? And all you have to do-” she walked over, tapping the catalyst lightly, “-is activate this.”

“This- no.” Shelby took a step back. “Gem, I’m not going to kill someone. Just tell me what’s going on, properly, no riddles.”

Gem matched her step. Then took another. She backed Shelby against a tree, pushing against her to keep her in place. 

“Don’t you want to be closer to me?” She whispered into her ear. “I know you want me. You talk in your sleep, dear.”

The giggle she let out when Shelby blushed was so familiar, so her, that for a moment she almost let herself believe the words.

“Just give in. If you’re not with it, you’re against me. And I don’t really think you want me to leave you alone again, do you?”

Maybe she would have resisted more. Maybe she would have come up with a plan to escape, to fix Gem. Maybe she would have done nothing at all.

None of it mattered the moment Gem pressed their lips together, gentle but with all the passion of a raging thunderstorm. From her smirk as she pulled away, she knew she’d won.

The sound of a lute cut through the quiet of the fog. Shelby barely needed Gem’s prompting to jump forward with her scythe.

They laughed as the sculk crawled up them both, spinning and twirling in a sea of stars to the music of the night.

@mcyt-yuri-week

[greghatecrimes]

ugh why is yuri of characters from male-dominated shows written by misogynistic men SO good? i literally can't get enough of camteen...

LITERALLY. In the case of Camteen I tell myself "cameron and thirteen never substantially interacted because Sara and Liz (the lesbians in the writers room) knew it would be an absolute explosion of sapphic-ness all over the screen that they wouldn't be able to control" but. You're so right. Literally.

The bonus of that is that we as the fandom get to take it and make it NOT misogynistic and male dominated. and thus 100x better!

And I so agree with you, there is never enough Camteen in my life... can always use more.

[obsessioncollector]

Earlier I was reading about legend Yuri Knorozov, who played a huge role in deciphering the Maya script, which is apparently still the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. He loved cats and especially his kitty Asya (pictured on wiki), who he would credit as a co-author and always try to include in his official author photos 😊 But also what jumped out to me in the wiki article is that Mesoamerican cultures weren't even his original area of interest! He was into Egyptology and then Central Asian studies and only started looking into the Maya script bc a professor suggested it. And his undergrad education was interrupted by WWII, which was probably fortuitous in the long run bc he might not have ended up being so influential if his path had been more straightforward. Good reminder that you do not have to have been doing something since you were young to a) be good at it and/or b) find joy and meaning in it!

Also there is a monument to him and his kitty Asya in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico 🥰