#im so perplexed by this you dont understand

[international-repeater-station]

dear um. Scott pilgrim nation i actually have a question: what the heck did this very normal reaction to his friend coming out as gay actually Mean. any and all thoughts will be accepted because i barely have any idea

[ribbittrobbit]

hey mutuals hmu if i can complain with you about the phenomenon of t*ylor sw*ft bec its that time of year again

[ghoulodont]

i feel like the popular image of paranoia is looking out a window peeking through the blinds like hmmm thats suspicious and while it certainly can look like that i feel like that doesnt really capture the thoughts or the mindset or the reasoning of it, to the point that it took me kind of a long time to recognize my own experience of paranoia. for me its like everyone is being very hostile to you and i just accept it as reality without question. the looking out the window seems very passive and observational whereas when im paranoid im actively defending myself. im fighting back and being confrontational and accusing people of trying to harm me. and its hard to even notice im doing it sometimes

[cumulo-stratus]

Communication Issues

(GIF NOT MINE)

Plantonic!BAU team x french!reader

Description: reader is from France and lived there until he was 11/12 and then moved to america and his first language is french. He also has a little bit of an accent. Basically reader is new to the team and it is their first late night back home on the jet with him. And basically they learn that when hes tired he reverts back to his mother tongue.

CW: possible swearing, I can't think of anything else

A/N: I'm thinking of making a series about this, like just funny scenarios related to the reader being French, if y'all have any ideas let me know! Also reader is gonna be loosely based off me when im rly tired cus i get kinda giggly/floppy/goofy. ( also sry it's short)

French, translation

3rd person POV:

after a hard, and long case the team was very ready to go home. They had found a 9 yr old girl and rescued her from a man holding her in his basement to torture her. And even though it took the profilers almost 3 full days with almost no sleep to find her. To say they were tired was understatement. It was almost 2 am when they trudged onto the plane, all tired physically and emotionally. Y/N was the last on the plane and decided to take the couch to get some sleep. Just as he was sitting down Reid plopped down next to him. (Y/N and Reid liked to sit next to each other so they could read together)

“Désolé reid, je veux lire avec toi, mais je suis trop fatigué pour ça” (sorry reid, i wanna read with you but im too tired for that) you said to him, slightly slurring your words. “Huh?” Spencer looked up at you with a small crease between his eyebrows. The switch in language caught the rest the rest of the team off guard as well (evidently by the looks on their faces) you peered at them just as perplexed and asked “Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas?” (Whats wrong?).

“Dont worry guys I’ll talk to him” said spencer with a little giggle at his new friends antics. Morgan gave spencer a little knowing look and eyebrow wiggle at his conversation with Y/N, despite having no idea what they were saying. “Mon biche, tu parle français maintenant, pas anglais.” (Darling, you’re speaking french right now, not english) says spencers with a small smile. a look of understanding dawned your features and you said “je suis?! Oh c'est pas grave, Oh, tu n'as besoin que de me comprendre de toute façon.” (I am?! Thats okay, you’re the only one who needs to understand me anyways) you say with a wink ad a giggle. Spencers cheeks went red and emily gave him a questioning look. “Y/N, tu fais quoi?” (y/n, what are you doing?). you just gave him a mischievous look before putting your head on his shoulder and snuggling into him to fall asleep. The rest of the team got bored of making fun of the pair and began their own conversations or trying to sleep. But after a minute or two the team heard and hushed but strict “shhhhh!” coming from their resident genius. “You guys are so loud! hes asleep!” said spencer’s while he gestured vicariously to the sleeping figure drooped over his left side. “hush up pretty boy, your little boyfriend over theres out cold dont worry about it.” said derek with a teasing smile. spencers cheeks turned even more red than before if hat was even possible and started stuttering about the sleep man not being his boyfriend. “okay, okay, hes not your boyfriend,” said derek with his hands up in surrender after spencer kept spluttering on about y/n not being his boyfriend.

(small time skip)

As the plane landed people began packing up their things and getting ready to get off the plane. But y/n and Spencer had moved and when the team looked over they found the two agents passed out on top of each other and snoring lightly.

THE END

[kittygamer2888]

[One Piece chapter 1152 spoilers]

Well...

You know what they say....

Like father like son.

SO- I AM SO SORRY J DIDNT COVER LAST CHAPTER PPFFNRJD BUT HERES A RECAP:

• We learn the rules of Othello- I mean Imu shows the rules of their own powers-- apparently from what I'm getting (and from what other people are getting), the way that Imu turns giants into these demons is if 2 of said demons are standing next to a regular person on both sides, so with the regular person standing inbetween these demons, they get flipped and turn evil like them.

SO UHM... GUYS, DO WE STILL BELIEVE THIS IS A DEVIL FRUIT???? This screams like dark magic to me ajhsmdjdnd

(Fun Fact: Robin was also seen playing Domi/Othello with Zoro in the One Piece anime Opening 12. So uhm..... COINCIDENCE?? Yes. PPFFTTNRJH

And that scene I believe was a recreation from one of the color spreads from the Manga, so uhhhhhhsgfnf COULD JUST BE COINCIDENCE-)

• was NOT expecting Qilingham to look like TH A T. I was imagining them with like.. A clumsy or goofy demeanor, but the moment they stop being in their zoan form the design makes things change everything about them in an INSTANT, holy fuck😭🙏

Looks fire tho, lmfao

Bro looks emo and a badass🔥🔥

• Instead of swimming in the air for movement, Chopper decides to kick his feet like G5 luffy in the air just to get to Gyaban😭🙏

JDKDNFFM that's crazy, lmfao

Both are safe tho, Chopper used guard point to break both of their falls💥

• not sure if this is something we should pay attention to, but a detail that caught me a bit off guard was how perplexed Luffy was when he sensed Chopper and Gyaban falling... observation upgrades, perhaps? Cus I doubt it's the Voice Of All Things--

• Luffy also finds out that Gyaban is Roger's left hand man

• and then Imu sends it's dominance haki from the Sun Realm to the Real of the Dead, so uh.... with the scale of Elbaph, I think this haki might just reach more than Joyboy's, but who knows?

-End of recap.

....we good?

OK.

GUYS.

EVERYONE CALLED IT😭🙏

THE VERY THING THAT NEEDED TO BE ASKED HAS COME TO FRUITION

Who knows if he actually will in the end, though...

But if he will, will... will we get a Sunny upgrade???👀

Sunny's been through a lot, here's to us hoping she'll get another makeover or have a lot more space for an upcoming crewmate!! :0

AND I LOVE THESE NEXT PANELS OML😭

The amount of trust Luffy has for Loki is insane

AND NOT ONLY THAT BUT BASICALLY WHAT HE JUSTSAID HERE WAS: "if you don't want him I'll take him :D" AND ADOPTED A BIG ASS GIANT I- C H R I ST😭😭

reason why I say whether if he really joins or not is cus, same thing happened with Yamato in a way. Yamato was going to join, though he changed his mind the last minute and stayed in Wano instead, so ye.

OH

SPEAKING OF WANO???

THIS FINALLY GETS BROUGHT UP

HOLY SHIT???

LIKE... ITS ACTUALLY CONFIRMED, FULLY, AND NOT JUST A SAY IN WORDS IN THE KING VS ZORO FIGHT, THAT ZORO HAS CONQUEROR'S HAKI NOW

and the fact that it's an untamed one just kinda speaks for itself, Enma you wild beast of a sword😭🙏

I like how Zoro didn't even take into account until now that he actually had it even though it was told to him in the fight with King back in Wano, bro was too in the moment to care at the time😭

Severely wounded too, so makes sense--

Though, the fact that Conq. Haki is the Gods knight's weakness (or im assuming it is) is pretty interesting, and it definitely hurts them.. but the whole thing of them being immortal is a whole other thing.... (unless I'm understanding it wrong)

Also also...

THIS?????

THISSSS???

....

Bro was framed...

CALLING IT RIGHT FUCKING NOW

HE. WAS. F R AM E D.

MANY PEOPLE WERE ALSO THINKING OF THIS TOO

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHITNRKFF

AND DONT YOU FUCKING SAY THAT I AM NOT GOING TO IGNORE THIS EITHER.

SHANKS???

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS MARK SHANKS????

Bro.... I swear.... if this is what Shanks meant when he said it's time for the new generation to take charge or whatever he said.... (in like a flashback between Mihawk or Whitebeard, I think, back in the older pages/episodes of One Piece)

If this is why Shanks no longer has contact to Marijoise... ALL BECAUSE HE SACRFICED THAT ARM WITH THE MARK FOR LUFFY

PL E ASE

THIS GIVES THE SCENE WITH SHANKS SAVING LUFFY SO MUCH DEPTH IN TERMS OF SHANK'S CHARACTER

HOLY FUCK

I can only imagine that Shanks was set free from having that mark on his arm... because I assume that it's bad, IT LOOKS LIKE THE W.G SYMBOL BUT WITH A CIRCLE.

IS THIS THE ABYSS MARK THE GODS KNIGHTS HAVE OR IS THAT JUST VIZ HAVING TRANSLATION ISSUES??? WH.. ok no, it probably wouldn't be that easy to get rid of either way, BUT STILL- it's possible it could just be to identify whether if a person with a tattoo like that is from Marijoise and if they come from a very important..... family...

....

FUCKING..

G A R L I NG.

Real question is.. for how long did he have that tattoo on his arm? I can only assume since birth, but who knows really--

OH

AND WE ARE NOT IGNORING THIS EITHER-

Talk about Father and motherfuxking SON-

HARALD, WHAT THE SHIT???

THIS WAS HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO, SPECIFICALLY 109 YEARS BEFORE THE DAMN PRESENT

HARALD LOOKS LIKE HE WAS AN ASS AT HIS 40'S☠️

So we can only assume, something must've happened between him and Imu that involved Elbaph to turn into the way it is now, because the way it's been said how Elbaph is now learning to be at peace instead of being at war or fighting all the time for honor implies to me that.. they had no choice but for Elbaph to turn out this way so Imu could lose at something, not sure what, but something happening at that time that resulted to the W.G not ruling over Elbaph as much (I think)

Holy shit, though... this chapter was.. kinda shocking in terms of lore ngl

Was not expecting for Harald to be like that, but hey, Loki's gotta get his attitude somewhere, especially since Loki and Hajrudin don't exactly have the same mothers..

Edit:

OH

AND NO BREAK NEXT WEEK

[lanymme]

My hottest Arknights take is that Kal'tsit is not the one who makes events confusing.

its this fucking dude.

Like. Okay.

People talk about how Kal'tsit is hard to understand and she has these long philosophical monologues referencing oblique lore events and making hints at themes and things, all rendered in Arknights' characteristically bizarre writing style that makes me feel like my reading comprehension is about 30% worse than I normally do.

And yes, it's true, that can be confusing and obtuse. she basically shows up and vibe checks your knowledge of The Lore in the middle of a nice family dinner.

But you don't know true pain until you've been really following an event's narrative and themes so far, investing in the characters' stories, really just tapped in there, and then all of a sudden in the middle of a chat over coffee The Doctor is like

and suddenly the anime girl sitting on the other side of the table is like "ah, i see. when did you know? Have you planned all this from the very beginning?"

and I'm like ??? y'all were LITERALLY JUST GETTING COFFEE TOGETHER, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING????

then they give you like three dialogue options of the doctor saying a perplexing variety of Obtuse Mysterious Smart Shit like [Rhodes Island Operators will continue to pursue the truth.] [When this gets information gets to the Dingleberry commitee the situation will likely change beyond your expectations] [If Jimmyjohn Andrickson knew what you were doing, do you think he'd approve?]

and Im like no. please. no dont do this.

and then the anime girl says some shit like "...heh. you've surpassed my expectations, Doctor of Rhodes Island. I'll call off the trade deal with the Glockenspiels. But you know what this means, right?"

And then the Doctor pulls out their finishing move and says something like

[I do.]

and it's like, well I DON'T! what the FUCK are you two talking about?? that isn't in the story even at all!!

and then your only choice is to cry in impotent rage at the prospect of having to either accept you will never understand the machinations of Lowlight, or spend like an hour and a half trawling back through the weird fucking cognitohazard writing or searching up "arknights what the fuck is happening / what the fuck is happening arknights" on google to put together a like, 60% convincing picture of what the fuck even just occurred

and the worst part is THAT'S YOUR OWN CHARACTER DOING THAT TO YOU TOO!!! that's so fucked up dude!

it feels like this:

[subdigitals]

doing this for my own enjoyment: gadget's ship review

i dont really go here so im just making up these ship names as I go sorry if they have one and i didnt use it <3 bolding all the ones i care about. obvious ones first and then by character:

oddlita: you can't deny that it has sauce. unbeatable and unkillable. theyre just sooo fun together i have to stan jerlita: awesome. no notes yumi/ulrich: definitely the evil monster haunting the show but unfortunately i still like it* idc lets go warriors lets go *particularly later in s4 when they finally have something new and interesting going on

william/yumi: william deserves someone who actually likes him even a little bit and he should also probably stop bothering her. so, pass, william/odd: I actually love william/odd in pretty much all forms which is why I thought that episode of evolution where they were enemies was awesome. and any ep in the cartoon where they got along william/ulrich: this completely sucks sorry to all these people who like it for some reason. it ONLY has legs or sauce in evolution which is basically like having nothing at all william/jeremie: i dont think jeremie could be with someone as...how do i put this....uninterested in intellectual pursuits as william. im sorry to say it william/aelita: this actually goes crazy if you do it right so SUPPORTED these two understand each other on a very specific level wrt esoteric trauma from a dark magician computer virus and that is awesome

ulrich/jeremie: i just don't really understand this but i do like that they are friends i guess. i have nothing to say about this...ulrich could probably get jeremie in the oddrich divorce ulrich/odd: I have a complicated relationship w this bc sometimes it feels like people like it just for there to be yaoi. and they're not really that yaoiful but i also have so many opinions about it and like it when done right/in MY way. #PICKY basically i think if odd could platonically or dubiously platonically do the equivalent of baby trapping ulrich he would. also you have to admit that ulrichs commitment to caring about odd in the face of everything that odd does to him is impressive ulrich/aelita: TRIPLE PLATINUM LETS GOOOOOO #ULRITAFAN98 #ULRITALIKER #ULRITAFOREVER this makes it sound like this is my favorite CL ship of all time and i dont think it is but i do like it an irrational amount

yumi/jeremie: ANOTHER TRIPLE PLATINUM FROM MEEEE LETS GOOOOOO YUMIJEREMIE FOREVERRRRR hoping to write a WHOLE FANFIC about it I think it goes CRAZY! FUCK YOU! yumilita: would never ever talk ill of yumilita yuri forever and honestly could be some serious butchfemme realness yumi/odd: yumi does NOT deserve this. she should have beat him with a frying pan. get that little freak away from her. also it would never work regardless yumi/sissi: this has sauce if you love toxic yuri unfortunately I do not care for it at all

odd/jeremie: this perplexes me but i DO find it funny and awesome that odd flirts with jeremie anyway, just for funsies. also i like that jeremie complains about odd's nicknames for things but then uses them anyway and legitimizes them

honorable mention to oddsissi, which my best friend really likes so ive grown to find it interesting (and I wrote her a fic abt them). i find their evil queen fights and insult wars very entertaining tho

[nerves-nebula]

rambling about social cues and stuff

im in a weird state of understanding social cues where i conceptually understand some things but dont always get it in practice.

specifically with that kind of indirect communication thing where people state something randomly and expect you to do something about it. like someone saying "are you hungry?" and expecting me to understand that means they're hungry and/or that they wanna have a conversation about it.

partially this is just cuz i be saying shit and not expecting anything to be done about. so if i say "ugh i want the windows closed" I'm mostly just Saying Shit so it perplexes me a bit when someone gets huffy about having to close the windows. cuz in my mind its like well it'd be nice if they want to close the windows, but clearly i dont care enough to get up and do it myself so why are they acting like i'm being annoying and i told them to close the windows. do u get what i mean?

and since i do just be sayin shit sometimes i dont pick up on when people are trying to communicate with me. hence the "are you hungry" i might just say "what? no." and then either forget about it or take like 30 seconds to go "oh, are you hungry? why not just say that."

but even that, which would be my full understanding, is probably not the entirety of whats being communicated. i can basically only ever get to the "the other person is probably saying that because they are hungry" thing and not much further

the fact that i understand it CONCEPTUALLY also makes me feel dumb as rocks cuz if/when it's pointed out to me i'm not really sure what to say.

like if someone says "obviously i wanted to eat, why else would i ask randomly if you were hungry?" it's like ok. in retrospect that makes a lot of sense and i don't really have a rebuttable. but in the moment i'm assuming ur just saying that ur hungry and i presume you're gonna fix that on ur own or something.

so like i can write characters who use this to communicate with each other and i understand that its using context to signal to what you want or w/e but i also miss these a lot IRL cuz IRL i assume ppl just be sayin shit and will inform me if they want something from me.

this is made complicated by the fact that i WILL sometimes get this more indirect style of communication but only if its like. really obvious/exaggerated. like if someone said loudly "GEE it sure would be GREAT if the windows were closed right now!" I think i'd be like "i see you are doing a Bit like from Stories and you are doing this bit to signify that you want me to close the windows"

BUT EVEN THEN a lot of the time my reaction to that is like. mild annoyance. like sometimes i'll close the windows to "play along" but often times if you could put in the effort to make an exaggerated show about something i dont get why you wouldnt just do it yourself. or ask me outright. anyway. this was all spurred on by watching another youtube video so link below. its about 4 minutes in where he talks about indirect communication. content warning he says the word "neurospicy" at some point which i know a lotta y'all hate lmao

[joelletwo]

wrestling with the 4devas bitchslap again to convince myself its fine if graveyard wins the best ep tourney: it's not the other bloggers who are wrong, it's me

not a complete response to but definitely in conversation with and asking some of the same questions again as @reductionisms's 4devas essay, which tries to square gintoki's "life doesn't need to be fun, i just need you to live" being a series-sanctioned message he's given to villains as an arc-concluding moral continuously up until 4devas with it here being an incorrect worldview that needs to be (physically) corrected by shinpachi, the straightman tonal signpost of gintama

a conflict i have been perplexed by ever since i got to this line on my first watch a year or two ago, since i've seen this line before! all over fandom! as part of the general "dont [bottom text] kill yourself" motivational messaging of gintama that i love!

and, briefly, when i hit 4devas i was also in the middle of being really frustrated by the new arc pattern i was seeing crop up: i loved the villains-turned sympathetic-turned someone worth saving by gintoki tune of the first half of gintama, but it fell massively flat for me in Yoshiwara in Flames, where i was never convinced to be on housen's side but had to watch him get a heartwarming redemptive death at the side of the woman he abused anyways.

then shortly after i had the same exact experience in Red Spider with jiraia, and i thought, if this is what gintama is gonna do with its shitty dudes from now on im gonna quit the fucking show. and then shortly after that i met jirochou and saw him cut down otose the woman he loved (under a raining sky!!! the fucking sky motifs!!! the signpost im about to watch a dude be shittily violent to women and be expected to feel sorry for him about it) and saw too much red to really take in the rest of the arc level-headedly or care about anything in it lol.

so it was written off in my mind as the 'otose almost gets fridged' arc until i rewatched it this week. then i had to remember, oh yeah, there's a ton of political maneuvering fakeouts in this arc that i never actually squared back with how the plot presented itself prior to the reveals, so i'd still been thinking about the "fakeout" plot. then i read the manga version with all the "truths" in mind from the start, and finally i felt like i could understand what this arc is doing a little better.

(way) tldr (4.4k words. sorry): do i love this arc? eh. do i still hate it? eh. but it's doing stuff!

first, i was able to see an echo in all the "actually i was planning to betray you the whole time" "actually i was working to help you the whole time" plot beats of what sorachi does with the larger edo/universe story further into the back half of the manga. if i ever sound like i didnt enjoy or wasnt convinced by the execution of these "reveals," it's because i didnt and wasnt, lol. but it's fun that he had fun with them i guess.

the arc starts with pirako ingratiating herself into yorozuya, then having a classic "bump into you and pretend to be injured to extort you" encounter w her dad's gang. to resolve this without escalating into violence, gintoki... does it back to them, which is really funny. but thus the tone is set for the arc of: DISHONEST APPROACHES TO CONFLICT.

pirako isnt honest about her overall intentions the, like, seven different times that she "admits her real ones." kada plays at peacekeeper in the devas while being the ultimate person scheming to get the upper hand over everyone else in the end. (she's also secretly harusame, evil amanto outsider who acts as a unifying force for the kabukicho fighting itself to band together against and expel: sorachi's favorite move! the problem was never internal, it's the shadowy REAL antagonists who infiltrated us)

jirochou and otose are ultimately doing a pantomime of conflict to try to keep temperatures down and escalations from breaking out, so no one they care about has to get hurt. gintoki doesn't know this until the end, but he follows in their footsteps after his encounter with them in the graveyard: he plays at having given up to the rest of yorozuya so they'll leave and escape the coming kabukicho war, the same thing otose was trying with him. it fails both times. i'm really not sure why gintoki and otose thought it would work, honestly. they should know their kids are stubborn as hell.

but gintoki is in a bind because of the things he needs to protect, and all of his actions are primarily in service of that, to the detriment of how he'd prefer to act if he were less restricted. he is unsurprised and unoffended to hear saigou is only willing to warn them, not help them, because her son is in danger if she acts directly. all four devas are, seemingly, being mutually restrained this way, holding back even when blatantly manipulated to do so. the other constant of this arc: everyone is dishonest, and no one wants to risk losing what they have.

gintoki understands that! of course! he's had to make that calculus before, after all :)

and this arc is just one big cliff scene echo: the entire graveyard scene pushing gintoki to emotional regression because he thinks he's losing another parent figure, one he's just seen the Gintoki Figure of the arc cut down, no less (takasugi stolen valor when he goes berserk against him and only ends up uselessly bleeding out on the ground about it, honestly). otose goes into this willingly so gintoki can live. he accepts this decision because he values protecting her values (her kids living on) and is briefly broken by it (the story says, before giving him shinpachi to "put him back on track"). prior to the bitchslap, after saying he just wants them to live, even if it has to be without him, he says:

i dont have a good understanding of when we start getting reveals of gintoki's backstory versus foreshadowing because i went into gintama already knowing most of it, but definitely by the recent red spider where we get our first real look at (or really, first listen to) shouyou. but here we actually get some of what gintoki felt about it, which he keeps closely guarded even when the whole truth comes out: he's done his best to survive having lost, but it was so unbearable he can't face losing again.

(also, honorable mention backstory echo, the person calling him a brother sets his home on fire to drive him and his parent figure out of town. as i liveblogged: this one would really hurt gintoki if gintoki cared about anything oboro ever did!)

but with the shinpachi story-rerouting, they get the good end, keep everyone (otose, yorozuya, all of kabukicho, even pirako and her dad - everyone but kada) safe without having to sacrifice a single thing, even keep gintoki hopeful for this outcome. so, as goose points out, we are left to understand that there could have been a good end on the cliff, that something is different here than there, and, skipping a lot of math, that that is the people around gintoki.

which i do find really funny to imagine as a slam on takasugi and katsura. sorry you kids suck too much, your teacher dies bc u were cringefail. but lets look at it.

everyone is dishonest, no one wants to risk what they have: gintoki rallies himself to keep fighting but is determined to do it alone. kagura and shinpachi fight him on this; they can't leave because they don't want to lose their home, they can't let him fight alone because they don't want to lose him. they're just as restricted by what they have to keep safe, but their only option is to act where everyone else's is inaction. shinpachi says:

if i may skip over the bitchslap itself for now, gintoki does consent to let his allies fight with him after it. yorozuya stands alone against saigou, who's heavily demoralized but resigned, strongarmed into fighting them by the threat to her son. but on seeing their resolve to keep protecting their own precious home and family she says:

and, to skip straight to my thought, i think this is what turns the tides back in their favor. there are more twists and turns to the fight. pirako equates what binds saigou, which she herself equates to what binds the yorozuya, to what binds her:

(with an intentional distinction that she's willing to actively destroy the others', as opposed to their purely self defensive fighting, which is echoed at some point in her distinguishing gintoki from jirochou in the same way, that jirochou not only lives to protect like gintoki but is willing to destroy in the process. i don't find that part as interesting, but it's more fuel to the power of having something to protect as a driving force as an arc theme.)

so now all three stand on the same ground, absolutely unwilling to give up what they hold dear, but all their cards are on the table. they aren't dealing in 12 dimensions of tricksy defensive pre-emptive moves anymore. they know it wouldnt work, anyways, since they all know their drives to protect are the same and no one will be talked into backing down. now they can directly duke it out and let the winner be determined that way, on strength of will. even before the actual circumstances change, the fight somehow feels freer seeing how inevitable it is. and with everything out in the open, yorozuya can now protect each other and saigou's son, taking out one side of the conflict.

(and with everything out in the open, the ultimate 4devas villain can become the single person who continues to betray the others, kada, whose further machinations - with everything out in the open! - saigou (and later yorozuya) can choose to protect pirako from. everyone wins! because everything was out in the open! do you see where i'm going)

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the arc is rerailed to the better outcome. so is the correction justified?

what does the correction accomplish outside of its moment? most convincingly to me of goose's presented options, i also think it's done as a thematic shift, a, okay, just live was a strategy that worked before but now doesn't suffice, so we need something more.

as to why this is needed now and not earlier or later...tldr bad planning <3 but like.

we have, prior to this, a consistent thrust of arcs where gintoki teaches people to lose. as well, while we meet the harusame and we visit space and we get the barest glimpses of takasugi's weird shadowy background moves there, largely we're dealing with kabukicho characters and kabukicho stories. we see or only hear about the shogun for short comedic moments only. we've largely dropped the series intro focus on things like the shinsengumi or hasegawa acting as foreign diplomats. it's a local series, a hometown series, a kabukicho and not even an edo at large series, a personal story about gintoki making personal connections with his personal experience as a flawed person with a flawed approach to life that has let him, chronic slacker, get by on the bare minimum.

at this moment, chapter 300, we have a slow trickle of gintoki backstory starting to come out to us. we've recently expanded the story focus to include yoshiwara, which gets a callout in this arc by kada to keep it relevant. we have an arc of sorachi testing out plot beats that he'll use again for the endgame, in all the political maneuvering and alliancing and betraying and shadowy outsider space governmenting, where he's also doing a lot of echoing of that backstory that only becomes clear later. so it's possible he's thinking about shifting gears and setting up for the eventual endgame, which means getting out of the episodic cycle so things can stick.

and after this arc, to my opinion and memory, we stop getting the classic gintama flavor sympathizable'd antagonists. a lot of the bigger arcs don't even have clear Big Shot antagonists anymore, being more about the shouyoucore theme of characters fighting against themselves, or if there is one they're always explicitly part of the Shadow Government now, a unified and more daunting force than someone they can win over with an inspiring gintoki interaction.

so 4devas does act as a turning point at least in some way. and it's not possible to say this definitively, since all gintama arcs are ultimately never going to be about gintoki or his friends Actually losing something instead of beating the odds, but it does feel like theres a different flavor to, say, dekobokko with its direct look at how chars lives could be different and better and they will still choose to keep struggling as themselves. and Kintama arc definitely doesn't feel like an early days arc, like it can only resolve the way it does with a gintoki who is now able to face his past and the possibility of losing again and again and again (now with, natch, his faith that yorozuya will by his side when he does).

why now, after 300 chapters of letting it sit ignored in the back of his brain working out perfectly fine except when it doesn't (the very reminder of shouyou in a fight making him go Demon Mode, which is like regular gintoki but worse at fighting, bc he is so unprepared to think about shouyou)? well i personally am in big favor of the "take a decade off" strategy for facing problems. it worked for me too. realistically watsonianly its nice to let things percolate in the brain and do some of the processing behind the scenes until its less immediately painful. and he's made many bonds over these 300 chapters, shown in this arc when the whole town rallies behind him, that are there to support him when he needs it now and weren't there before.

realistically doylistly eh. bad planning.

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the series as a result is rerailed to a writing space where things can start changing (leave the episodic, as you guys say, sazae-san format). it's useful in the future. so is the correction justified in terms of what comes before it? was the correction needed?

thinking about the bitchslap leads to thinking about the cliff scene leads to (sorry kagura and katsura, you guys arent really relevant here) pitting shinpachi and takasugi against each other in how they act with something on the line they can't bear to give up.

i don’t need the lesson of 4devas to apply logistically to the cliff scene. once they were set up on that chessboard, frozen in their assigned places as a backstory, it’s not like takasugi could’ve power of friendship’d his way out of being physically retrained if he decided he wanted to. it’s set up as a forced choice, it has to play out as a forced choice.

but we see that even before it’s asked of him, takasugi is willing, prepared, unbothered to give up his own life for shouyou’s. this is, goose lays out in the sequel, the cardinal sin in gintama - a teacher shouldn’t outlive their student. it would have been especially egregious to shouyou, whose whole desired life’s purpose is to raise students who can outlive him and outgrow him, take his lessons and go out into the world and do their own thing with them. takasugi doesn’t expect to do this and doesn’t seem to see a point in the possibility if shouyou isn’t back with them.

though we can also think of shouyou as a little too quickly willing to give up on the cliff - sorry, gintoki, the suicidal guy has thought about it for .02 seconds and decided the best outcome is for you to kill him even though he could get out of this no problem. maybe its no wonder gintoki gave up too. can we ask katsura what he would’ve done?

and is takasugi different from shinpachi there? he rejects the mentor’s attempt to exchange his own life for his. he’s not willing to consider a life without him.

but shinpachi is convinced no one is going to die. because they’ll be there together. incredibly naive - shinpachi and kagura, restricted to one option by what they need to protect like everyone is in 4devas, have acting as that one option because they are still free in a way gintoki and the other adults aren't. they’ve never actually experienced the impossible choice that forces you to give up, so they can act as if there isn’t one - what else would they do? why would they think to give up?

but gintoki is defined by having lived the impossible choice. its built into the foundation of him as a character and leaks out everywhere. he couldn’t have relied on his friends on the cliff because they were quite forcibly removed from the picture as an option, not by his or their choice. its written as an inevitability, logistics we find out later be damned.

if we refocus to 4devas, we can look at the Gintoki Figure for a different angle. jirochou, after he and gintoki resolve the arc conflict by being able to team up because they - say it with me - put everything out in the open, tells gintoki about his impetus for abandoning his family and coming back to his wayward life in kabukicho, the death of otose's husband.

it's, um, another now really obvious parallel to gintoki, lol. characters talk about how jirochou does everything he does in this arc to try to atone for his failure to both otose and tatsugorou, and i guess thats true bc he was written that way but he has an odd way of showing it, but anyways he resolves that, despite his guilt over this, all he can do now is keep living and keep protecting what they loved together. he's come to the usual gintama message all on his own, reinforcing that this is the correct way to live in this series. he had his own unavoidably shitty situation, and he came to terms with it.

so then where did jirochou go wrong, in the narrative's eyes (other than abandoning one woman and their child to deal drugs in the town of his other woman while ignoring her)? was there a point he could've changed how their trio's story played out? but he loved and trusted tatsugorou, and he was happy to step aside and let him be the one by their otose's side. i doubt he would have been happy stealing her away even if it were possible.

but if we look at the resolution tool of 4devas... he never put everything out in the open!!! everyone knows he loved otose, but in more of an open secret way. in classic romance plot, he never confessed for second male lead rejection closure. indeed, in the closest we ever get to a main character having a romantic plot in gintama, the very ending of the arc flirts with him doing just that now that he's made a little progress with the arc message, with the entire cast of the arc expecting him to (and interrupting before he can).

but if he had when they were young. if he had been honest with his friends. could it have opened up other options that weren't available on his own, that they didnt know to offer? i have a preferred one lol. but u can get creative with all sorts of life paths that avoid tatsugorou dying that way or, at the least, jirochou feeling chained to a shameful life (living in a town he doesn't go out in to protect a woman he doesnt talk to and feeling like he doesnt deserve the family he abandoned for this) because of it.

and then if we take this and rewind back to the cliff... we get to grind my favorite ax, "shouyou shouldve told literally anyone literally anything about his deal." if gintoki knew more about shouyou, they could've faced his horrors together, the whole time. he couldve known that shouyou was being literal calling himself a demon and not internalized his own identity as one for life just because shouyou bonded with him over it. i truly genuinely think the logical conclusion of all of gintama's big messages are that shouyou and gintoki should have been more open with each other.

but i don't think sorachi thinks that. and, you know, by 4devas rules, the unriskable precious things he was protecting by staying silent were his students' humanity, and secondarily his own fragilely newly hopeful heart that literally couldnt stand another 10 millionth round of rejection (killed himself and then went on a 12 year rampage over it. girl i would too).

and takasugi really isn't dishonest about what's going on in his head when he tells us he expects to die for shouyou. that's as cards on the table as i could ask. gintoki is, a little bit, by omission. he does what i'd want him to here - tells takasugi try just not dying - but doesn't give him a reason to, and doesn't tell him he has no plans of letting anyone die for shouyou.

so what goes wrong on the cliff - shouyou is happy, gintoki is happy, oboro's even kind of happy, katsura is irrelevant - is that takasugi is blindsided (whoops) by their silent agreement that betrays the one he thought he and gintoki had. and then ruins everyone's party about it and spends the next ten years doing so for good measure.

which is also, basically, what shinpachi is going through that prompts the bitchslap, too. he thought they were a team, that they had each others backs, not that gintoki is a one-way protector of them. he is blindsided by gintoki lying to and tricking them and hiding things from them. he is hurt by gintoki feeling hopeless all by himself when he could share that with them and be encouraged by their endless child optimism.

and would it need to have changed anything on the cliff? in the moment after the bitchslap, what contributes to gintoki changing his mindset is tama telling him, we trust that you're capable bc youve always shown us that, can you trust us this time? when, later in the arc, gintoki seems to regress by sending kagura and shinpachi away, he asks them to trust that he's still trusting them, relying on them to help shoulder his burden, and in return they know he's staying alive, not self sacrificing. maybe it would've helped just to feel on the same team and not shut out, to be able to trust gintoki like gintoki was trusting shouyou?

so. two paralleled instances of gintoki making a bad situation worse by keeping to himself and being too self sufficient. that feels clear cut that feels fine im okay with that as a takeaway. do i think its exactly what sorachi had in mind while writing this, as opposed to just a good series 'hey lean on your friends' moment to read cool and tug at the heartstrings? eh lol. i think theres definitely room to read takasugi into this arc (i still need to refind the takagin 4devas post...) but its not so baked in that i think he was a PRIORITY in the plotting.

but is the shinpachi SCOLDING necessary is the scolding justified... and yes its in response to life doesnt need to be fun i just want you to live. still a confusing framing i can't immediately square. but/and more immediately its directly responding. to gintoki opening up to them about his insecurities!!

which, as said, he doesnt do!! he doesnt talk about his failures! its basically like, here and to hijikata that one time and otherwise even when we know all the facts about what happened we still never hear gintoki himself talk about it. (so he really DOESNT learn the lesson here either. he stays dissociated and triggered every time utsuro comes up. he tries to solve the altana baby problem on his own. he doesnt talk to his new friends OR his old friends. bwah. gintoki. silver soul.)

so this is like. its just in the wrong order!! its just in a baffling order lol. if you want gintoki to share his burden do you need to punch him when he shares it. does it also need to sound like you're blaming him for not being capable of upholding his promise to protect anyone when thats the insecurity thats got him all discombobulated this arc in the first place (a whole set of notes i took on this that i didnt find a place for in this post)?? its so weeeeiiiiiirddd lol i dont liiikeee itttttt. theres plenty of things shinpachi can validly punch gintoki for but this is such a weird one.

so i guess. having a clearer understanding of this arc do i hate it less? YES honestly. i hate fakeout plots generally they irritate me but everything... more or less makes sense by gintama standards now that i have the whole plot in mind.

do i hate jirochou less SORT OF? i enjoy him. in his individual relationships. i like his shitty dad deal i love shitty dads. i like him pining for otose who genuinely likes him but also brings up her husband every sentence she says to him just to keep him down. i like his parallels with gintoki that they both explicitly acknowledge and find macho comfort in. hes still not theeeeeeeee most well-developed gintama antagonist but you know? i at least think otose and pirako would want to be around him after this.

do i feel like i have a clearer understanding of the bitchslap moment. NOT CONVINCED I DO. i feel like its going to be one of those things that slips in and out of my understanding like sand in cupped hands. i have a tentative understanding of it that i dont think sorachi actually had in mind. so i dont think ive solved it lol.

will i be cursed to think about 4devas forever? god i hope not. am i okay with it beating farewell shins in the polls. god i fucking hope it does. in the horrible timeline where i have to see 305 make it all the way and then lose i guess id rather it be to this one than to hijigin. consider this poll propaganda?

[castlebyersafterdark]

as a gay guy, can you understand the people who claim to be gay men who dislike byler, because its 'more realistic for will to have an unrequited crush'? not to mention the fact he already thinks he has for like 4 seasons haha, and it's not a crush its LOVE jfc

but, why is sexuality the hinge here? it's also realistic for straight people to have unrequited crushes and love. but that wouldnt stop you rooting for will if he was a girl.

i dont understand why the realism comes into play only as regards will's sexuality. is him and mike having SUCH a special yet platonic friendship realistic??? its even less likely for mike, if he turned out to be straight, to be able to be SO caring and understanding of will in the 80s and continue to be his close friend knowing will is not only gay but in love with him.

the 'other shippers' (as im now calling milevens lol) make sense to me - we know their game. but people, esp gay men, who also hate byler? i just dont get why you wouldn't root for will's happiness. cos maybe it's too much to ask to expect shallow viewers to understand mike yet. but why arent more people rooting for will? no wonder so many girls and women love gay ships (and get lambasted for it too), because they are more likely to love a soft character like will than your average man.

i expect better of people in general i think. woof. will is wonderful.

I would... love to understand it, but I definitely don't! I can't say that I've met anyone personally like this - meaning encountered online, too. Are these fans lingering on Reddit or those who make reaction YouTube videos? Because I don't go there so I have only heard via complaint about these gay men who dislike Byler. Could it just be the type of fan who doesn't really care about shipping in fandom culture in general so they say this to be dismissive?

I've seen the argument that unrequited love is more realistic, but not a specific demographic saying it. If it's actually gay men - well, that just makes me annoyed and sad? Monsters from another dimension and children with psychic powers are also not realistic for the 1980s soooo. And I don't like blaming the decade either - it erases real stories. The realism only coming into play for Will's sexuality is very irritating. I just wonder why some people watch the show - some only care about the "mystery and monsters" and some only care about "shipping" when the show is pretty evenly split on both? What does everyone talk about on screen - the supernatural situation and their personal lives. That's the gist.

"Oh, it should just be about Will coming out and being accepted by his best friend which is shocking enough because realistically his friend would call him a slur and abandon him, anything other than a hate crime he should be grateful for." And I'm like - even gay men - how old are they? Teenagers or young adults like myself? We all know that there were plenty of gay people in the 80s, right? And not every single story was a tragedy. We just haven't gotten very many of their stories told, let alone mainstream media. It's not unrealistic - its underrepresented. It almost reads like a defense mechanism. Perpetuating the prevalent mindset of low representation expectations.

And people in general not rooting for Will perplexes my brain entirely. He's such a likeable, sympathetic character! I don't understand! Other than surface level fans who only engage with bad, often repeated jokes and cliche. If you're involved deeper in the fandom - something went wrong. And I'm not even a "poor precious perfect baby Will with no flaws" Will stan, nahhhh that's boring, our boy has flaws - but human flaws, ones that are sympathetic. I feel like if there's gay men who don't like Will - maybe it's projection. His personality being that kind of man society judges, so there's internalized homophobia or something, idk. I'm not in their brains and frankly don't want to be...

[kisaraslover]

Do you think Kisara has any hobbies besides sitting in Kaiba's lap?

Well i like to look at established Kisara to draw out more traits so first things first is the dragonic nature. I think Kisara deeply enjoys nature and solitude and sitting in the sun. I dont mean this like camping either, from ancient Egypt we see Kisara already has unusual resistance to exposure to elements, with something godly in her veins so i think she might be really zen watching birds to flowers to the sky and basking her place in all this. We all have a passing moments of "everything IS everywhere all at once, all is one, one is all" but i think it would be a constant presence in her. she swings between "oblivious to life weird ass woman" and "enlightened higher being" VIOLENTLY. Meditating would be grounding to her, in the opposite way to all other people meditating.

and then music. dragons are a kind of bird <3 dont look that up. i think Kisara has an uncanny aptness when it comes to music. one of those people who can pick up any instrument and play a simple tune on it. i dont think she has a remarkable singing voice at all though. embodies "people sing because they want to not because they are good at it" hums gently music she likes. if she tries to seriously sing along to a difficult song her voice cracks loserly. she laughs and continues yknow? its still Seto's favorite and if he catches sound of her humming before entering a room, he waits outside to listen for a couple secs. its his secret no one needs to know shhhh. ALSO the fic Paper Roses has piano player Kisara and the romance is served so well by Kisara giggling while placing Seto's hands on the right keys so.

making things with your hand is a very grounding practice for anyone struggling to stay in the moment and stay present and i just cant move past these very artistic but expensive looking hobbies from youtube shorts -tries not to cry about capitalism locking the public out of arts- so after getting that Kaiba Money she'd just go "i always wanted to try glass art btw" and seto goes "?????. thats. alright ok. go for it"

im really conflicted on many "hobbies" and what makes them hobbies but if we work with the basis "how you spend your day is how you spend your life" i think she'd really be the least online person. the activies above WOULD be very frequent but i think Kisara spends her most days, ironically enough, socializing. she'd be talking to employees (important business) or talking to employees (just chatting lol) out with friends of all kinds and trades, Mokuba and his friends or Seto and HIS friends, or most surreal one, Seto and HER friends. shes the kind of awkward person who listens more than they speak, with her own charms and difficulties, thankfully when you try enough you can find people you can get along with. very endearing on the line of strange, bringing out peoples protective sides which is why she would gather Mom Friends and Bossy Bitches and Protective Eldest Siblings faster than you can say her name. while i characterize both Kisara and Seto as kind of introverted, i think Kisara would be charged with a thirst to know and understand humanity (both result of godly roots and alienated youth) so if her luck turned around after meeting Seto i think she'd build quite the social circle, not even realizing how many people shes getting close to at first. Seto's socializing would be more acknowledging part of healing means creating support systems, opening up to people -to whatever extent he can- surrounding himself with people who he cares about and who care about him in return, and definitely less easier than her collecting friends.

SO YEAH! sorry for the LONG ASS reply, i think Kisara is adopted by many Extroverts and on the time off she goes into her workshop does fuck all (DEF made a wooden dildo to see Seto's reaction. mokuba laughed his ass off thinking it would perplex him. he took one look at it and said its a pathetic cock and he could nude model for her. no ones laughing now.....)

[amalia-uwu]

INSEPARABLE

Photo by Monica Oprea from Pexels

Based on the fanfiction Firsts & Seconds written by Skerbbie @skerbbie

I DONT OWN -> Undertale, Farmtale, the fanfiction First & Seconds. The rights go to the respective owners!

Undertale by Toby Fox

Farmtale by GuinongTale_AU

First and Seconds written by Skerbbie @skerbbie 💙

Warnings ⚠️: very light angst, fluff, lots of fluff

Note 1: Since I don't know the Canon grandpa name. I'll create an OC. So, for the needs of this story I'll use the names

Aster Lilian Crisanto.

-> Crisanto means golden flower (if I remember correctly it's Greek) I'll use it as last name.

-> Lilian is the masculine of Lily it's French. (it will be his middle name)

-> Aster; is a flower, a font and it's Greek. It means Star. Αστήρ

Note 2: In this story Papyrus exists. Im just focusing on Sans. Let's say Papyrus is with Aster's sister. (headcanon) ♥

Note 3: Sans is around 5 years old in this story. While Aster is around 35 years old.

Fun fact /Note 4: this idea came to my mind, while I was doing my makeup! I was just putting eyeliner and mascara and I was like; well how about Sticks meeting Brinley for the 1st time?

Enjoy!

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

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His grandpa was holding him by the hand. "Where are we going grandpa?" he looked at him questionably.

"There is someone I want you to meet" he smiled lovingly at him. Sans nodded and smiled back.

They walked towards a door. When they reached it , his grandpa let go of his hand.

He added a little force and opened the big door. The little light that went through the windows and the door illuminated the place.

Sans looked around perplexed, staying close to his grandpa.

Sans saw a huge animal approaching them. He hid behind his grandpa's leg.

Aster chuckled "Don't be afraid Sans, she is big but she is kind and affectionate. This one here is Brinley. Brinley meet my grandson, Sans!"

Brinley rubbed her head affectionately on Aster's hands.

Then she noticed the little skeleton. She leaned down.

Sans hid himself behind Aster's leg a little more.

Brinley was patient. She knew from experience that human and monster children were sometimes intimidated by big animals.

"It's okay my boy she won't hurt you, she wants to see and sniff you" he assured.

"She is not gonna eat me?" he peeked from behind him a little. Eyes shining green. Sticks held Aster's pants for dear life. His voice low.

"Heh, no, she only eats grass and plants. Besides I am here, I would never bring you to harms way"

He slowly walked towards her. She was still there waiting patiently.

He raised his tiny hand on her face and she leaned closer. She sniffed and huffed softly.

He patted her. She closed her eyes, his touch was soft.

She gently rubbed her nose on his hand.

He was braver now, his grandpa was right, she wasn't so bad.

He gave her face a hug. She closed her eyes and huffed contently.

"Grandpa could you please give me grass? I would like to feed her"

"Way ahead of you bud" He was already holding the grass on his hand. "Here" he smiled

"Thank you" He took it and brought it closer to her face. She gently took and ate it.

He walked towards the grass storage a little further and took as much as his hands could carry. He ran back.

He stretched upwards and gave her more. She accepted the offering. Brinley gently leaned down and ate form his little hands again.

He was watching her in awe. He patted her leg. Her hair were smooth, soft.

She was like a huge teddy bear.

He stepped back and went in front of her again. This time he asked kindly and innocently  "Could I lay on your back?"

She understood and looked at Aster, as if asking for permission.

He nodded and she knelt down. His grandpa helped him sit on her back.

Once on her back. He laid face down and caressed her fur. He stroked her fluffy brown hair while giggling.

Looking at her eyes you could understand she likes him. Sans seems to adore her too.

"Come on Brinley get up" Aster said.

She didn't.

"Brinley? Get up please" he repeated and lifted his phalanges up.

Brinley stayed on the ground.

She looked at him and then at her back.

He followed her movement. After a few seconds...

It clicked. His expression soften.

She didn't want to accidentally throw him down.

Aster smiled and got moved. "Thank you Brinley, you are a good girl". She huffed softly.

Sans had stopped moving and was just laying there, face down.

"You okay up there?" he smirked.

"yeah, *huff puff* I just *pant pant* got tired"

"Come then Sans it's time for us to go" he gently stretched his phalanges and took him in his arms.

"Can we come later?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around his grandpa's neck.

"Of course we will visit her later. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.. she isn't going anywhere".

"Alright" he smiled, "See ya later Brinley!" Sticks waved at her.

Aster chuckled.

He walked home. Sans had his hands wrapped around Aster's neck.

Outside he gently put him down.

"Now let me clean you, then lunch and after that nap okay?"  he informed. "Okay" he smiled.

He gently put him down "Stay here!" he said softly. He hummed in response.

Aster took a special vaccum and removed the hair from his clothes. He took a piece of cloth and gently cleaned his bones. He'll give him a better bath later.

"Alright, now go put on some clothes and come back down to eat" he gently pushed his back.

"Mhm" he ascended the stairs and went to his room. He put on a yellow shirt, green floral pants and blue jacket. He then went downstairs.

His grandpa brought him the plate "here you go"

"Thank you!"

He waited, he rested his ulna and radius from both hands on the table. Aster got slightly concerned at the silence.

"Sans? Aren't you eating?"

"Im waiting for you" he spoke cheerfully.

Aster chuckled. He turned around and let the orange juice on the table. He sat down and both ate.

Sans finished his food and took his dishes to the sink.

Aster was watching him. He returned back to his chair and began drinking his orange juice.

Aster smiled softly. He finished his dinner and proceeded to wash the dishes.

As he was doing so, his mind got lost in thoughts.

Truth be told; he tries not to show it, but.. He is afraid. Ever since he found out Sans is a little fragile and that he will have some issues because of that.. fear conquered his soul.

He tried to teach Sans and Papyrus to be careful.

Papyrus despite being a child he understood everything his grandpa told him. Sure they did shenanigans like all siblings but they were good children.

Papyrus and Sans were very obedient, such good, kind children.

Papyrus also seemed to be protective in his own way around Sans. Smart and observant skeleton.

They loved and cared for each other a lot.

Okay, maybe at first Aster was a little bit overprotective.. But he worked on it. He accepted it. He tried to make their lives as best as he could.

It also made his soul melt at how protective Brinley is. It's good to know that she will be there for him in her own way. After all..

Who said animals don't understand and feel emotions?

.

.

As Sans was waiting for his grandpa to finish his jobs, he fall asleep on the table. Aster finished the dishes and dried his hands. He turned around and was slightly startled that Sans was still on the table sleeping.

Aster just stood there a few seconds and smiled affectionately.

Sans felt two hands picking him up. He opened his eyes "Sorry fall asleep"

"Its okay you still kept me company"

Sticks smiled.

He gently laid him down and covered him with the bedsheet "love you grandpa" he grinned.

"Love you too Sans".

.

.

(2 hours later)

Sans opened his eyes. He stretched, got up and exited the room. Looking down he saw that his grandpa had fallen asleep on the couch.

He took his small bedsheet and quietly  tiptoed outside. He then walked towards the barn, where Brinley was.

He managed to open the door with great difficulty.

She was still there, she saw him dragging the bedsheet with him. She leaned her head on the side. Sans stood in front of her.

"Brinley could I please take a nap with you?" he asked with pure innocence.

She huffed softly and laid down. He joined her and curled up.

She smiled and curled up. Both enjoying a peaceful sleep.

.

.

(Some time later)

His grandpa woke up. It was eerily quiet, he decided to check on Sans. He knocked on the door.

Silence.

He quietly opened the door and peeked in. Maybe he was sleeping.

.no sans.

He slightly panicked  but before he jumped to conclusions. He checked around the house.

Where did he go this time?

He suspected that maybe he went to Brinley.

He walked towards Brinley's place and noticed that the door was slightly opened.

He pushed the door and peeked in. Brinley opened her eyes and looked at him. She carefully moved her head showing Sans

"I'll check later" he whispered. He sighed with relief.

.

.

Later Sans woke up and his grandpa came to take him "warn me next time sweetie."

"Sorry grandpa" he apologized.

"Its okay" he hugged him a little tighter.

"See you tomorrow Brinley" he waved at her. She huffed softly. Aster chuckled softly.

It was clear to him that from that day, Brinley and Sans became

¡Inseparable!

.

.

.

.

The End! 😘

Thank you for reading! 💙

Comments, Likes, Constructive Criticism is accepted.

PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK!

[chronic-monachopsis]

this happens to me alllll the time (ppl reacting poorly to ur comic and not Getting It) like whenever i show ppl my art (bc They’re nosy) and they are so Perplexed and Weirded Out by it and it’s like ???? i get that it can be different to expectations or whatever but to dismiss any art (this esp happens to any art that makes ppl feel uncomfortable in Any way and that isn’t just ohh what a pretty picture :3) so wild to me like art is subjective and all but like ?? Look at it Look at what it’s Telling you, use a modicum of critical thinking i Beg.

also i fully believe all artists are freaks like u Have to be a little odd to dedicate so much of yourself to making things no matter what it is. i have also had people Get It in ways even i hasn’t thought of trust made me Think and Feel and dive deeper into my own art which is what it’s allll about !!

all that to say the girls that get it Get It and the girls that dont Dont. and the ones that do will eat it up (pun not intended). so dont let it get u down ! would love to see it when it’s available bc i also love a cannibalism motif <3

hope ur having a good day (and sorry for rambling lol) ! :)

hi anon !! First of all i would like to say. we have EXTREMELY similar typing quirks !?! and i couldnt help but notice ( not sure if it was intentional or not but i also do random capitalisation of words that i feel need extra emphasis, it confuses ppl at times LOL )

second of all, thank you for your thoughts, dont apologise for rambling! this is Ramble Central™ and now im gonna One Up you by rambling MORE than you heheuhuehe

anywho, YES. thank you for getting it! i think a lot of people get used to seeing art as solely decoration – like you said "a pretty picture". it is easy for some to forget that art is Also used as a tool of self expression.

i communicate best when i am creating, and oftentimes i will use themes that are unconventional? ( because i am pretentious )

Blood, Gore, Cannibalism, they are all visceral to look at. people will get weirded out and look away, tell me that im strange or that i should paint something prettier. and that can be very frustrating.

as an artist, i create for myself but i also seek understanding and connection through what i make. its the best line of communication i have, and to be misunderstood or judged through it feels disappointing !! ! i know lots of other ppl feel the same way.

if they didn't, there wouldn't be the Tortured Artist stereotype LMAOOoO

by the way there was no point i was trying to make here, SORRY LOL. i could talk for days about anything.. ! i plan on posting the comic sometime soon, maybe ina week or two when i have it finished ! :^)

[hello-jumping-in-puddles]

mid-year book freak out tag

tagged by @bloody-wonder, thank you!

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2023? 

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. i dont even know what to say. i want to sit raptly while someone smarter than me explains all the history and symbolism in this book that i missed. haunting.

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2023? 

partially just because i've read few sequels this year, The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik wins. I maintain that Orion is boring as hell after book 1 and I don't care about him but the rest of the book? Delicious. El is so snarky and dark. Ooooh im an evil witch princess im so scary my friends have to hold me back from committing evil (devotes her life to protecting other people) (refuses to live in an enclave because it feels like cheating) (shows up whenever people ask for help even if they suck). also the reveal with the mawmouths was just. such fucking 10/10 writing. the punch of understanding. the way the text gives the reader space to figure it out themself and just go HOLY SHIT.

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To?

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle. I have it downloaded. I am ready.

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2023? 

I have no idea. I just find books when I find them, y'know?

5. Biggest Disappointment?

ironically, the sequel to question 6, The Return of Fitzroy Angursell by Victoria Goddard. after a book which is about a guy whose whole thing is "really good civil servant" this book was just...not what i wanted. it was about a classic singing robin hood style hero who is charming and cool and magical and does adventures and maybe otherwise i would have enjoyed it but how can i read a book set in the world of my favourite bureaucrat Kip and not read about bureaucracy??? only book so far this year i just straight up didnt finish. also, you can only tell the same vague story about how kip made a joke that one time without actually telling the joke before it stops being "backstory" and starts being "the author never actually figured out what the joke was".

6. Biggest Surprise?

The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. absolutely bizarre book. there is no real plot other than the emperor preparing for retirement. the first three hundred pages the emperor just. goes on vacation?? i was expecting political intrigue but the political intrigue is 90% just "the rich guys dont like it but our guy, Kip the bureaucrat, is the emperors specialist guy and also extremely stubborn so everyone has to go alone with UBI". the biggest conflict is literally just interpersonal miscommunication but good. i was so hooked it was ridiculous. where did the heterosexuality come from i am perplexed

7. Favorite New Author?

i was about to say catherynne m valente but i actually cant claim that because now i looked her up and ive read other work by her! she did The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and sequels which were extremely delightful also. so this one goes to Victoria Goddard on the basis of i have apparently read a lot of authors i already know this year

8. Newest Favorite Character?

Cliopher (Kip) Mdang my beloved

9. Newest Fictional Crush?

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

💕Best Ship💕

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

okay i guess maybe kip + the emperor? or maybe el + liesel because i was surprisingly a big fan of liesel by the end. though maybe thats just me wanted el to be with someone more interesting than orion.

10. Book That Made You Cry?

i can't actually remember if i cried but Driftwood by Marie Brennan was quite haunting and beautiful and bittersweet

11. Book That Made You Happy? 

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. now, all brandon sandersons are at least 30% power of friendship by weight but i really do appreciate that this one was like "yeah no we're saying that part out loud. people are heros because they love their friends anything else is just set dressing"

12. Favorite Book Adaptation You Saw This Year?

i...dont think ive watched any book adaptations this year

13. Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year?

don't write 'em, so n/a

14. Most Beautiful Cover?

im going to say Deathless tho i think i am biased because the book hypnotised me

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year?

so many. Ancillary Justice. I also really should read Nona the Ninth but book 2 was so...eugh. i ravenously devoured a bunch of Pratchett's last month and i am waiting on several more from the library. apparently theres a new murderbot out soon? i should check that out.

tagging @a-fish-bee, @foxsoulcourt if you want to do this one :)

[enlighten3d]

Same anon who sent you an ask about Death is the Cure, I wanted to clarify that the reason I sent you it is because I like reading your thoughts on stuff, and especially your theories, and I also need to understand Death is the Cure. (And also that I really don't care how long it takes you to respond to asks. I mean, I watch Ken so I have no idea what a reasonable timeframe is)

nodsnods yeah, ty for the clarification ! i did assume that, but. my brain is genuinely stupid so i need to take a hot sec to reconvince myself that ppl dont hate me whenever someone disagrees w me (even tho i heavily encourage ppl disagreeing w my theories HKSDLFG). so. not your fault at all, you did Not say anth wrong, i just. made that post to clarify that hey yeah it will take me a hot sec to reply bcs i would die otherwise. shrugs. the waiting out the anxiety works LMAO (+ that post was also directed at wheover sent in this other ask in my inbox that i havent gotten around to)

but yeagh. ty for the clarification, im glad you like my theories ^^ death is the cure perplexes me

[sunnyapollonjabrigidotter]

Ok.. i cant help but meditate on & wonder how my spiritual journey, somewhat so, more like a roaming through a few religions, influenced me & changed me a lot...

Im from an Orthodox (non-practicant) Xtian family, but the religion never really made sense to me, since i became influenced by the baptist & j.w. way of thinking (esp on the idea of not having icons..). Nowadays im kinda curious on what i missed, still im sure that some/many things wont make sense to me.. but some will do, ig, in a way... (a video ive seen of a priest' wife & Orthodox educator that's Greek-American, made me think that (esp the vids on Phronima)... lol, got the spark & it vanished, cs ive much more to learn on Hellenismos, obviously.. but sth somewhat some(more than id like to be)times sth makes me seriously, or more so, melancolicly when thinking of it... mb its linked to some old memories ... mb linked to the times i used to go to monasteries... or even churchies (yeah, in fact memories do tend to get lovelier w time, if ofc they were not of some traumatic events which you still do remember, or just bad ones..).

One of my lovely memories of going in a church was while in a village i went for the 1st time, & probably last, w some friends... but then we were like some Buddhist monks, more zen, than any dogma... and there were no other ppl in the church, except mb one who entered at some moment, & the service lady & ith some other in service... we entered at a evening kind of church -in english s call that mass? - can i call it slujbă? A thing we call vichernia, by the time of the day its held on, as i said in evening...

I guess the good memories & community ties do help a bit, altho idk moldavians being that religious, esp not younger ones, not of my cycle (tho knew just a few)... but some i know do hold on the traditions, like i know a friend that does light a candle for her father who died many years ago, & does give for his soul/in his memory (we call it pomană, forgot the english term, but will remember to check). But overal, she uses logical reasoning more... on more that is on her soul...

What i liked in the past abt those other two xtian traditions ive been aquinted w through some ppl was that they followed (irronicly for me now, cs yey, im free of that said bad thing/sin mindset - which is def as the hebrew word means 'missing the point' of the religion..) the 2nd commandment, statement rather, of the decalogue... having no idols, & boy, the icons... i mean, it still somewhat perplexes me, i mean now im idolatrious, i pray to Apollo, n id like a close connection w other gods, but im more like meditating on them & what they represent- but still "if u play that game & it has rules, at least play to the rules, no? But well, traditions (of the oldest church, mind it) ... well, worshiping Jesus (& God is 1, but 3 in 1, hmm, curious, why not some hundedreds in one? 😁) is in itself considered idolatry for the ones who dont do it (jews, muslims, unitarian xtians like j.w.)

& later on fell in love w another -but now ig more w some ppl, & their somewhat openness, i sure didnt lie when i say, they know how to be fishers of men (but some/many wont change their religion cs they dont need or want/used w the old, n now i know its fine as long as it serves them.. n that after many months after i fell in love agn w the Baptist church, tho had many limitations, which weirdly now, i was more than willing to accept then... ah glad that my social fears kept me away of going to there in real life.. & have a bit way longer journey... (ill surely 'run' from strict dogmas as fast as i can from now on/stay away from it..) Ah & then there was another one, 7th day Adventist, there i liked their care & how they actually go by all the Bible (except the jewish traditions that were abolished at the cross, n why they'd keep them, they're not jews anws)... after which i cameback to my jewish understanding of things (that i did understand ofc..)

.......... ......... ........ ....... ....... ........

Anws in the end i could say this are a few reasons for me to get interested in dogma psychology or how's that called...

Agh so much to tell, my text is a porridge!

Ah, on the fact why they do venerate icons, well, more like the saints in them, but anws, (& weird, didnt Paul or what other apostle (+ an angel) say like.. dont bow to him, WHILE HE WAS ALIVE??!! - but anws, i got this answer in a message, from another friend, from Romania. Basicly they said: it comes from a period in the OT times, noted there, ith it was while in the dessert... they were bowing at a REPRESENTATION OF GOD... sth w a depiction of cheruvims if i dont mistake, - ith the Ark of the Convenant? That which was stolen few times by the enemy & they're let by God cs the faith of Israelites was shrinking haaard xD... & that is the reason i remember, if i understood it well...

Yet another who said in an answer to a post, icons are not just pieces of art, no idolatry items, just dk what... & sent a pdf to prove it, from which i understood exactly nothing...

Yep, so interesting... & im somewhat still drawn to these like a fly to some sh*t...

Edit: ok, checked

Slujbă is mass (idk why to call it so if there was not a mass of ppl, but def a mass of religious songs, some weight it had...)

& pomană is alms

& ofc ones religion & believes are some deeply personal things, so i couldnt know of the believes of others esp if i didnt ask nor spend that much time w them to know of those... but on one of my mother's older friend i do remember... - how i could forget when she used to tell me on things related, & gave me a book with akatists, could i?? - i read from it just once or twice.. omy, at a time i thought seriously to read, but just cs i was going through some sort of treatments 4 mb treat my burnt disease (i was wearing a t-shirt that ith wasnt mine that was previously soaked in ogyasma, nice :D, & was ofc deeply influenced by the situation & by the person who gifted me that blue hardcovered book.. hm, wondering where i put it...

Anws, felt like studying more on hellenismos buy know its in plans to go somewhere today so...

Oh.. the dawn...

Hi Apollo 😊

Have a Good Sunday Everyone, & A Good Everyday ^^