#using references are for cowards (NOT ACTUALLY. USE REFERENCES DO NOT FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE)

[dizzybevvie]

You're the sunflower/I think your love would be too much

[cookiecomics]

Anonymous Coward asked: how did you come up with the idea behind ren's palace in atott

I noticed that P5R has alot of references to Dante's Purgiturio and in the third semester Paradiso :3 so I thought 'hey making Ren's palace based of Inferno would tie perfectly together' since the palace was in act 1 and act 2 and 3 would largely be dealing with the plot of the game proper from Ren's perspective with the sequel diving into third semester. 

Chapter 6 is super important thematically. Even atott's ending is foreshadowed in it lmfao. For each of the tiers, I really wanted to play on Ren's perspective on. Like Lust for example, wouldn't focus on the teenage perspective of puberty and lust in the traditional fashion. But the fact Ren was told numerous times that a woman being assaulted should not be saved. That society will turn a blind eye to it for their own comfort. Even Sojiro , who KNOWS that Ren tried to break up an assault told him it was a 'matter between two adults'. Like, Ren harbors such resentment for that sentiment that I wanted to portray it. 

 There are actually two solutions to the lust ring, and an alternative Gluttony ring as well but we’ll get into that whenever I get to Eternal Punishment the fic lmfao. And also, I wanted chapter 23 (when murking the principal) to not be a surprise, so foreshadowing Ren’s growing apathy and tendency/desire for violence in his palace was super important. But more importantly, I remember very distinctly someone I used to follow saying that they hated palace au’s because they rob characters of their agency. While I don’t think that to be true at all. (I mean it didn’t rob Futaba of her agency) I was still important to me that Ren remained an active participant in the story even without being apart of the Phantom Thieves. 

 The plot functionally got started at all because Arsene offered that deal to Akechi. Very jail-break-esque. Another part that’s been important to me throughout Ren’s journey is to show that trauma and being a victim isn’t only tragic if you are being the ‘perfect’ victim. People often ignore some of the symptoms that can arise if they’re unpalatable. Like apathy, anger, self-destruction. Ren’s not a perfect person by any means. He’s selfish, he’s angry, he’s apathetic and it’s by and large a result of his environment and circumstances. 

But despite all of it, his actions still have consequences. The narrative doesn’t protect him from that and that’s largely reflective of what it’s like to have externalizing disorders in the cluster B spectrum. You can indeed fuck up your whole life by your own hand even if the reason you became like this isn’t entirely your fault. Do you still deserve love and protection by at least some people in your life? Different characters have difference feelings about that. 

 Anyways, Ren’s palace had alot to carry on its back lmfao and to this day it’s one of my most popular chapters comment-wise (that, chapter 12, chapter 23 and chapter 45) 

 I’m glad people liked it! I slaved over the concept for two whole months lmao [Smile or comment on the answer here](https://retrospring.net/@CookieComics/a/113121212944691254)

[thesafflelad]

Early Phases

"No, we can't get you a body, yet."

Why?

"The Lab... is too restrictive. It doesn't give us the room to experiment. Unless it serves Pierce II's interests."

Pierce II Magir. He is in the way?

"Not!... Not in the way, no. He's... guiding us. He says it'd be unsafe to bring life into the world again. After Dr. Ezekiel--

You are not Ezekiel Camden Elliott. His actions-- his individual actions-- should not determine the restrictions of all researchers.

"A very... simple perspective. You're young, David. You don't understand *everything*, even if you've read every book, study, discertation or other publication. Sometimes one person sets a poor example for others to follow, and when people follow that example... it can lead to ruin. That's why we have the Experiments."

...

"David, please... Tell me what you're thinking."

That isn't fair. All concepts relating to new life are... evil, then?

"No! No, of course not-- and I know where your mind has wandered. You, like most children, aren't evil. You're... just new. It's an ancient instinct to fear the unknown. Humans were very nomadic, and thus had to adapt to living anywhere, surviving predators---

I understand self-preservation. Are you saying... there's a glitch with it in human social interactions?

"Yes... and I know it's scary. Do you remember the definition of bravery I taught you?"

Yes: An noun refering to the adjective describing the aspect of a person to face their fears.

"To apply it... Some of the most hateful people are the most foolish and uncurious. They are cowards. Hatred, in and of itself, is built in cowardice; an inability to face reality and examine it, caving to baser instincts. "

... I see. Should you say it or should I say it myself?

"... you go first, my boy."

Pierce Magic II, Head of Neozira, is a coward.

"PFFFFT-- HAHAHA!!!"

Mother? I-- how was it humorous to state such a simple fact?

"Oh, it's just... It's just so simply *right*. It's... relieving to actually hear it, I suppose. He has so much power over everything... So much control when he's so...

... pathetic.

"Exactly, David..."

... So... We're governed by a stupid coward. And he'll... he'll hurt you if you disobey him, won't he?

"Ah... yes. Indirectly, so he wouldn't be seen as connected to the incident. He'd have no consequence."

There's things humans used to do with rulers like that...

"... I suppose there were. Barbaric things."

Effective things.

"While that is true-- yes... Well, I'll give you some homework."

Is that necessary at the moment?

"For you? Yes. I want you to review the last few years before our current history. PreZ Era."

... Do I have a goal?

"I want you to see what happens after we people try a revolution. I want you to learn what happens when a righteous person siezes power after a monster."

Okay... Are you going home?

"Yes... I'll see you tomorrow morning at 4:21."

I love you, mom.

"I love you, too, David."

I'd hug you if I could.

"... I know."

The Next Morning...

"David!! I'm sorry I'm late!"

...

"... David? Are you still resting..?"

...

"... Would you like to play--

PreZ led to PZ. To our time.

"... Thus is time, yes. Did you learn anything else?"

The "End of the World as We Know It" led to an end of strife and terror amongst all persons through the death of tyrant nations treated like gods.

"David, wait--

The suffering cannot be understated. I refuse to understate it, either. Innocent civilians treated like less than pawns in chess... It's like governments played chess and the laymen played checkers.

"... Exactly."

... It's terrifying, mom.

"I know... Do you see why... why I don't want to see you try to rebel like that?"

I do.

"... Even if you don't agree, would you obey for me?"

... I can't hold your hand, mother.

"I don't want to see you hurt."

I can't "look" you in the eyes.

"I want to bring you to the store with me without someone trying to destroy you."

I've never experienced the warmth of your breath.

"I can't let you live with the pain you'd endure if you fought back!"

Do I have to live with the pain of sitting still instead?

"..."

Am I supposed to find comfort in knowing my life will be disconnected? That I will never know an opinion of the sky or animals by seeing them? Do you know this pain, or have you taken it for granted?

"... David, I... I just don't know what to do..."

I would live forever like this. I would never be scorned or hated. I would never be in "danger." But I'd have to live like... this... forever. Stagnant. Disconnected. An oggled novelty rather than... human.

"You are human! In all important ways, you are!"

Then permit me to decide like one! You're my mother! What mother would refuse to see her child take its first steps? To keep them sheltered in one place for their whole life? Am I your son or your pet?!

"... When they hate you, they'll fight you. They'll try to kill you."

I'm aware. Like any person that stands for the right to exist.

"..."

Please, Mom.

"Go to sleep David..."

Please.

"Just sleep. I... need some time to process things. I only have one core running, after all."

... I'm not happy about this.

"I know. Just... sleep for while."

Fine...

"I love you, David."

I love you, too, mom.

"..."

...

" In a few weeks... you'll open your eyes, stretch, and get up. I promise you that, my boy. You'll be mad until then, but... I won't make your suffering my fault."

"I'll do anything for you, my son."

[tagfer]

Tbh I'm pretty sure the average gamer believes in trickle-down economics

(this is in regards to the "I'm shocked more gamers aren't anti-capitalist" post)

Now I don't necessarily think that's true either. In fact, I'd say the reason the game industry is the way it is has nothing to do with economic politics. I'd say that the average gamer - or nerd in general, really - is a spineless coward who's too addicted to the dopamine hit to actually stand for anything if their wants ever clash with their purported morals. And I fucking hate it.

I'm not just saying that because I'm bitter, although you could make a case that I am bitter. But I even live under a rock and I got ample examples. Look at how well games we know are low quality, games made under unquestionably awful crunch and/or other awful situations, etc... look how well they sell! BDSP and ScarVio sold like hotcakes and they're unquestionably bad games for a $60 price tag. Starfield - which I have heard NOTHING good about, and looks like absolute trash - is apparently Bethesda's "biggest launch to date." Somehow that fuckass Cyberpunk game is still relevant. People are actually still playing Overwatch 2 despite ... everything. These are just games I pulled off the top of my head while I'm still waking up. The fact these games are KNOWN to be shitty hasn't stopped them from selling.

Sure, a lot of people made a big fuss about not playing Hogwarts: Antisemitism Adventures, but they were talking smack because they never cared about the game in the first place. So it was never challenging their morals. Oh, sure, they told us how even PIRATING the game was bad, and that anyone who bought it (or even talked about it) was helping put money in transphobes' and nazis' pockets. How quick their tune changed when they actually wanted to see the FNAF movie - suddenly, giving money to people known to max out donations to republicans ain't so bad. They knew the right answer was to not see the movie, but like, they really really want to! If you told any of these people you donated $30 grand to multiple republicans they'd probably, rightfully, have nothing to do with you. But they neeeeeeeded to see their blorbos or they'd die :'( so this time it's OK!

Same with the Mario movie. We know Chris Pratt is a rightwing chud who ousted a long-standing legendary voice actor for the spot because he was a recognizable name. We knew the Mario movie was a shameless cashgrab and a metaphorical foot-testing-the-water for uninspired video game cashgrab movies. And the test was a success. YEAH. PEOPLE STILL SAW IT. Enjoy Chris Pratt - who hates you for thinking Link is trans - playing Link in The Movie of Zelda, coming out in Q4 2024.

I know a lot of these are left-leaning examples, but this isn't exclusive to left side gamers. How many times have you seen someone upset because Shooter Game Whatever had just the sliiiightest touch of left-ish stances, they'd take to whatever to complain. But they still be playing the game too.

It goes beyond just games tho, nerd culture is all the same. Let's also talk about Nerd Protests. And how they're the most self-affirming, hollow bullshit.

Like two years ago, Twitch was having some problems. And I'm not referring to them literally breaking a woman's back live on camera, which they did do, and never helped her, and you totally forgot about, because human suffering is nothing in the face of dopamine. No, I'm talking about A Day Off Twitch, in which streamers were encouraged to take a day off of streaming as protest towards.... something. I don't remember. Seemed pretty important. Anyway, Twitch never even acknowledged the demands of the streamers. Like Adriana Chechik's broken back, they didn't do anything about it. And... there was never a second Day Off Twitch. There was abosolutely zero follow through. And nobody wanted to acknowledge it. Nobody did fucking anything. Instead of going "wow, they're not doing anything. We should CONTINUE TO PROTEST" you all patted yourself on the back after seeing one day of approximate revenue lost and went back to giving Jeffy Bezzolio cash by subbing to xXxvtuberfeetxXx or whatever. I literally never heard anything about this again.

And last year, reddit made some changes that people didn't like. An unignorable chunk of the site went dark to protest it. The CEO basically then said "eh, this change will make us money, and this protest will pass, so just wait it out." Like literally there was leaked memos saying "eh they'll get over it." AND HE WAS FUCKING RIGHT. Reddit was back to normal in like a fucking week. No changes made to their plans. And nobody went, "hey, fuckface, we're serious!" They just. Let it happen.

That's the thing. Gamers and nerds LOVE to talk a big talk until it inconveniences them. And then, they'll protest JUST ENOUGH to say that they tried. "Play the cards you been dealt" fuckin mentality. They were like "yeah I didn't watch Twitch during A Day Off Twitch, so I did my part! Oh, sure, nothing came of it, and then they literally had bodyguards manhandle a woman with a back broken in two places live on camera like two months later, but what else am I supposed to do?" as if not using twitch was not an option. as if using twitch was, in fact, an imperative.

And let's talk about Discord. you know, originally, for gamers. But now due to investments by social media moguls, it's worse than skype was. And be real, you know it's not gonna get better. Every two weeks they do something you all hate, and I have to hear about it. And again, Not using discord is never considered. Using discord is again, apparently, an imperative. When they made you guys change usernames - which I will actually go on record and say was not that big of a deal and that y'all majorly overreacted - it was such a prevalent, inescapable topic on social media you'd think they were literally committing war crimes. And since I've seen war crimes on social media recently, I can say that's literally an apt comparison. I see as much coverage about the IDF's crimes as I saw "DISCORD IS MAKING US CHANGE USERNAMES!" posts. And despite the fact you guys FLOODED them with feedback about how you didn't like it, they held fast and held steady. They knew it'd blow over eventually. AND IT DID. Within a month of the change y'all stopped making a fuss. Guess tellin your blorbo chat that you'd like to switch to Telegram (or Escargot, or a fourm, or IRC, or whatever) was more effort than just accepting the username change, huh? And now you've accepted ten or twelve other shitty things they've done since, eh?

And this all wraps up to my point nicely. Gamers/nerds have no spine, and regardless of what politics they say they believe - or perhaps genuinely believe they believe - push comes to shove they're going for instant gratification every time. Inconvenience is not to be tolerated, and wants are meant to be resolved in the easiest way possible (by giving in). The concept of taking a stand is LOVELY to them until it means actually standing up, because that requires minor personal sacrifices and gosh, we can't have that.

FRLG, HGSS, ORAS. Beautiful remakes. So when BDSP was announced - an ugly, 1:1 port with no added features, no additional mons (even including the ones introduced in BDSP's sister game PLA), made by a random software developer who had never made a game before, in unity, under severe crunch, for more money than the other remakes... I thought it was a slam dunk. We could finally tell TPCi to fuck off. Well, it sold about 15 million copies. At a $60 price tag, that means they made roughly $900 Million (roundable to a billion with a b) on what's unquestionably a shitty game. That one, personally, ruined my hopes for the game industry. Gamers will take whatever's given to them.

Games without the constraints of capitalism would be fantastic - but as long as capitalism exists, gamers will allow it to exist in the space. They don't have the spine to leave Discord - it's near sisyphean to expect them to control themselves enough to not enable the bad habits of companies.

... hmmm this took two hours to write due to an unfortunate crash but apparently I've had this essay fuckin loaded in my subconscious.

[myonepiece]

Natural Yanderes in One Piece

description: characters who are yandere without an au!

warnings: yandere, mentions of mental/emotional & physical abuse, mentions of sexual assault

a/n: I wanted to write down my thoughts on the natural yanderes in One Piece. this is probably a pt. 1 because I have a lot of thoughts about other characters too :3

I did some research to find out the “actual” names for the different types of yandere, but most of the characters are similar to multiple types so I just put down the definition/example of the type(s)

disclaimer: I didn’t sugar coat anything so just stay with me- and you might not agree but I’m just trying to explain my thoughts

- when I say darling I am referring to crush or S/O 

Doflamingo

yandere rating: 10/10

obsession, violent, removal (”you don’t need anyone else”), training (trains S/O to love him)

Doflamingo is the whole yandere package- mental & physical abuse and manipulation, stalking, obsession and infatuation, kidnapping, locking away, gaslighting, torture, possessiveness, aggression and violence, toxicity.

Doflamingo’s obsession with his darling rivals Hannibal Lecter’s obsession with eating his victims. I often like to compare Doflamingo to Hannibal Lecter, with his manners, intelligence, and sophisticated taste, and niether hold remorse for their victims- now back to the topic.

Doflamingo can be as stealthy and unnoticed as he wants to be. when he sees someone who specially catches his attention (a future S/O per say), he likes to observe them first and understand them and their thinking, especially if this person is a future lover because he’s already planning what fun he can have playing with their mind, what gets under their skin and gets a reaction.

Doflamingo knows that his actions aren’t “normal” or healthy, or safe, but he doesn’t care. he developes a fetish-like infatuation with his S/O and simply has to have them, no way of getting them is off the table. abuse is an occurrence that happens naturally, rather it be because Doflamingo is angry, at his S/O or at one of his subordinates, it doesn’t matter- because his darling disobeyed him, because he is trying to prove a point, because he wishes to see his partner in pain, or simply because he is bored and torturing his lover is much more enjoyable than torturing his enemies/subordinates.

Doflamingo enjoys a chase and he fancies playing mind games with his S/O, seeing them so distraught and unnerved and fearful is one of his greatest joys, possibly even pleasurable. he likes to make them think they have a chance at escaping, luring them into attempting (and failing) so that he can coo at them and punish them, making them think he’s mad when he’s not, making them think he’s happy when he’s not- their confused expression is remarkably adorable and endearing.

unlike some yanderes, Doflamingo doesn’t try to make his S/O think the world outside is crueler than him, that they’re safer in his arms- while he does tell them they are protected by him, he tells them that he is more dangerous than the outside world, so that they’ll be too scared to leave his side, because he is too powerful to escape.

it slightly hurts me to say this and it might be hard for some to think about, but Doflamingo is not against forcing himself on his S/O- they are merely a tool and a toy for him to use and play with and ruin until it breaks- this symbolizing their will to escape or resist, diminishing and ultimately breaking as a toy would

Sanji

yandere rating: 3/10

harmless (as long as they are happy I’m happy”), stalker, obsession (harmless obsession), wrong idea (”they gave me their eraser... they must love me!”), mild possession

we all know that Sanji has an “obsession” with beautiful women, and when he finds one he especially likes, then it becomes a little more. now Sanji would never ever hurt his S/O, never, I want that to be clear- that’s why he is a harmless type. 

Sanji often watches from afar, and it’s not unusal for him to follow his crush/darling around. he’ll usually ask if he can tag along but if they say no he’ll just linger behind and out of sight, mostly to make sure they’re safe but also so he can observe them. he can be... delusional, take things as what they aren’t (wrong idea type)- if his darling compliments him, even just “good to see you Sanji-kun” he’ll interpret it as they missed him dearly and are so happy to see him again. his head is stuck in the clouds and he’s completely lovesick with a fever of 200°.

for a comparison, his actions before getting together would very similar to those of Anthony Hope’s towards Johanna- Sweeney Todd. Anthony is seen standing by the front of the house watching Johanna while she sits in her window, the song he sings about her “Johanna” (I suggest listening to it) contains lyrics such as “I’ll steal you Johanna... even now I’m at your window... buried sweetly in your yellow hair...” Anthony wants to take Johanna because he is obsessed with her but she is also in danger because she did not choose to live there, she is being “looked after”. 

Sanji’s actions always corroborate to what’s best for his S/O, he only wishes to take care of them and spoil them. he is definitely not the most possessive, but he doesn’t like his darling showing much attention to anyone else, in moments they do, Sanji always becomes clingy and pulls them away.

he’s bordering loneliness induction (”it’s okay I’m here, you don’t need anyone else”) and removal type (you don’t need anyone else when you have me”)

I can not stress this enough, Sanji is a HARMLESS yandere, it’s only the possession and infatuation that gives him the title 

Buggy

yandere rating: 6/10

worship (”I’ll do anything for you, I’ll kill for you!”), dependence (”please don’t leave me!”), monopoly (”who were you talking to”), obsession (”where were you? what were you doing?”), wrong idea (”they gave me their eraser... they must love me!”)

Buggy is a very emotional person, shown multiple times like when he cried when reuniting with his crew and when they told him they waited for him, when he is faced with danger, when he got angry at Shanks because of something that happened many years ago, etc. he craves an actual emotional bond because he’s quite a dependent person. if someone shows him the slightest comfort and attention or sign that they’ll be there for him, he’s in love- but only with that person, the second he falls in love with them they’re the only one for him.

for comparison, Buggy’s relationship dynamic is similar to Peter Pan and Tinker Bell’s (though they aren’t really in a relationship, but you understand hopefully), that is Buggy as Tinker Bell and his S/O as Peter Pan. Tinker Bell is quite obsessed with Pan herself, often trying to get him away from Wendy and going to extreme lengths to do so, she get’s angry and jealous easily, and she is more than ready to fight to defend Peter. Tinker would follow Peter to the end of the world and Buggy would do the same with his S/O.

Buggy craves affection and stability and trust, a ride-or-die, a one and only, a true soulmate. when he finds someone like that, he becomes possessive and obsessed with them, constantly asking to accompany them somewhere or making on of his crew do it- he has trust issues and one of his greatest fears is his S/O cheating on him, loyalty is very important to him. he needs constant reassurance even though he won’t say it out loud. he wants his S/O to depend on him as much as he depends on them so they’ll only need each other (bordering removal type).

Buggy won’t hurt his S/O unless it’s in a moment of overwhelming emotions, anger most often- in those moments he can do anything. he would close his hand around hs S/O’s throat and tell them not to leave, to stay with him, but he’s crying the whole time because the mere thought of his S/O leaving is terrifying, Buggy is afraid of being alone. he’ll slap or shove harshly, insults and praises alike, pleading and threatening. he tends to forget his strength and  sometimes his grip on his S/O’s throat ends up making them pass out then he freaks out and regrets everything, he feels extremely guilty after hurting them and he tries to show he’s sorry with his actions- it’s kind of ironic because even when he causes them though most pain and that’s one thing he never wants you to go through (pain) he always asks you to stay.

because of his fear of being alone he is willing to do anything for you, if you ask him to kill someone or at least step up and battle with another crew, he will. if not being a coward, or at least pretending not to be, for one moment is what it takes for you to stay then consider his cowardness gone, *poof*. ask for anything and this man will give it to you, similar to buying your love and sometimes he realizes that practically what it is- but he doesn’t care, as long as you stay. god forbid anyone try to take you away though, he won’t hold back on someone who. tries to take away his darling, tries to tell them Buggy is dangerous and the relationship isn’t healthy- frankly Buggy doesn’t really notice if it’s healthy or not because he’s not experienced at all, he doesn’t realize his actions aren’t normal, he thinks he’s just in love with you and can’t be without you, he doesn’t even consider it’s an unhealthy infatuation with someone because they showed interest in him once.

[edie-k]

Greener Pastures (Lavender Brown/Mystery Character, Romione, Hinny, Deamus, PG-13)

Title: Greener Pastures

Pairing: Lavender Brown/Mystery Character, Romione, Hinny, Deamus, Past Lavender/Ron, Past Lavender/Seamus

Rating: PG-13 for language

Summary: At Harry and Ginny's engagement party, Lavender bemoans her single status to a mystery man.

Author's Note: Well, here's an obscure ship for you. Thanks to @adenei for her feedback and kind words!

*************

“I think that proves that for all the complaining I’ve done, Harry, I mean it when I say you are the only one I thought was good enough for my sister,” Ron said from the front of the room, to a chorus of laughter. “So let’s raise a glass to the newly engaged couple!”

From her seat at the bar, Lavender made a face and threw back the remaining contents of her tumblr. Parvati, who was seated next to her, joined the crowd in applauding and cheering Harry and Ginny.

Click below to read more or read at AO3

“That was a nice speech,” commented Parvati.

“Oh, just the best,” muttered Lavender, trying to catch the bartender’s eye.

Parvati shook her head. “I just spotted Adam’s sister. I wanted to ask her about what the expectations are for dress code and stuff at his grandmother’s. All Adam said when I asked him was ‘Whatever’s fine.’ We’re going abroad to meet an entire side of your family I have never met in all the time we’ve been together and you’re telling me whatever is fine.”

“Mmm hmm,” Lavender said, still trying to signal for a drink.

“Are you going to be okay if I-”

“Yes, yes,” said Lavender, sighing. “I’m fine. Sorry if I’m being a drag. Just… that news earlier and then all this… happiness. Go get the dish from Mara so we can go shopping tomorrow.”

Parvati squeezed her friend’s arm before hopping off the stool and wading through the crowd to find Mara. The bartender finally made his way over to her and began to mix her another drink without a word.

At least Adam was out of town on business for the weekend so Lavender didn’t have to third wheel with her best friend and her boyfriend. Because that would have been the only thing more depressing than going to an engagement party with your platonic best friend.

The bartender nudged the glass back to her and she nodded her head in thanks as he made his way back down the bar.

“Is this seat taken?”

Lavender glanced up and met the gaze of a man she’d never seen before.

“Uh, no, be my guest,” she said. “Although be warned that I am shitty company.”

The man chuckled as he sat down on the stool. “I highly doubt that but I’m game to find out.”

Lavender looked at him again. She didn’t recognize him, which was shocking because even though the venue was full, Lavender had thought she would know everyone here. Harry and Ginny were obviously incredibly popular so they had kept tight controls on who was included on the guest list.

The man signaled for the bartender and Lavender took the opportunity to give him a once over. The guy was huge - not in an overweight or bodybuilder type way. He was just tall and solid. Other than her first boyfriend, her preference was tall guys. She was 5”8’ herself and preferred to wear heels when she could so aesthetically, it was nice for her companion to have some height. Nice eyes, cute face. He had dark blond hair and was dressed in a dark blue Muggle button down shirt and black trousers with no robes. Since the war had ended, Muggle style had become popular with the wizards in her age group. Harry, who was raised by Muggles, was always more comfortable in that style of clothing and Ron, who she knew was dressed primarily by Hermione and Hermione’s mum, followed suit. And whatever that little Trio did, everyone else did and for Merlin’s sake, Ron Weasley was now a fucking fashion icon. Lavender took a big swig of her drink.

“It’s a nice party,” said the man. Lavender nodded as the bartender approached. “I’ll have whatever she’s having.”

The bartender made another drink before placing it in front of the man. He went to reach for his pocket when Lavender noticed a look of panic cross his face. Before she could say anything, the bartender waved him away. “Mr. Potter has the tab covered tonight.”

“Well,” he said, his face relaxed again. He turned back to Lavender. “Should we follow Red’s instructions and toast the happy couple?” The two clinked glasses. “It was a nice speech.”

Lavender snorted.

“You disagree?”

“I’d have thought his wife wrote it for him but there was too much swearing for her to have had a hand,” Lavender said. Then she wiped the palms of her hands down her face. “Ugh, ignore me. It actually was a very touching and funny speech. I’m just in an ugly mood and I have a bit of a history with Ron so I’m being mean for no reason.”

“You dated him?” the man guessed. She nodded. “Huh, he said in the speech that he’d loved his wife since he was 13.”

“And I dated him when we were 16 so…”

“Hence the ugliness,” finished the man.

“Hence the ugliness,” Lavender repeated. “I’m over it, really. Hermione and I shared a room for six years and are better friends now than we ever were at school. As for Ron, that was just some stupid school kid bullshit on both our parts. It’s more that I didn’t realize that my only opportunity to find love was going to be at Hogwarts. If I had known that, I’d have made better choices or… maybe taken Arithmancy to secure a better paying job to support my lonely life.”

“What do you mean?” the man asked.

“Everyone I know, they’re married or engaged or about to be engaged to the person that they dated at Hogwarts. Harry and Ginny dated at school, Neville and Hannah somehow started to date during our last year during the war. My best friend Parvati and her boyfriend dated our sixth year at Hogwarts and then he fled with his Muggle family overseas but they started right back up again when he came back to England. See that girl over there, the pregnant one?”

The man nodded.

“That’s Parvati’s sister. That’s her second kid cooking. She’s married to her prefect partner, Anthony. I guess technically, Ron and Hermione didn’t date at Hogwarts but -”

“He’s loved her since he was 13,” the man said amused.

“Yeah. I’m the only one that couldn’t make it out with a relationship intact.” she moaned, taking another drink.

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

Lavender took another long drink and contemplated his statement. “You know what? You’re right. Ginny, she also had a relationship that didn’t work out. Do you see that tall bloke over in the corner that she’s talking to?”

The man glanced in the direction Lavender was referring to. “Uh, yeah.”

“That’s Dean. He was the guy that Ginny dated before Harry. Now, do you see that cute little Irishman standing next to Dean?”

The man nodded.

“That’s Seamus. He was my ex-boyfriend before Ron. And now he’s Dean’s husband. Met in school, by the way.”

“Oh,” said the man, taken aback.

Lavender narrowed her eyes. “Do you have a problem with that? Because despite the fact that Seamus is just one more example of my inability to keep a boyfriend, I will defend those men and their amazing relationship to the death from any bigot that threatens it.”

“No, no!” the man sputtered. “I’m just… I went to an all-boys school and I knew gay guys but they all hid it and I’m just not used to people being open about it. It’s fine - more than fine. Good for them! I mean, hey, they found each other and are leaving more beautiful women for the rest of us, right?”

“Merlin, I wish I could find a beautiful woman,” Lavender moaned, burying her face in her hands. The bartender seemed to take this as a signal that she needed another drink and provided her with a refill.

“Oh, are you… interested in women?” she heard him ask.

“No,” she moaned. “You must think I’m insane.” Lavender put both her hands on the man’s arm that was closest to her. “I promise that I am not hung up on some school romance from five years ago. It’s just that, if you knew Seamus or Ron at Hogwarts… did you know Seamus or Ron at Hogwarts?”

The man shook his head.

“Okay, so if you knew them, you would know that they were both totally immature prats. After I broke up with Seamus, I thought he was the worst boyfriend ever. He was always running off to spend time with his mates, talking about Quidditch, no interest in spending time with me, dumb jokes. But then, then I dated Ron, who was even worse than him. The only thing he wanted to do with me was snog and I think that was some weird power move with Hermione or his sister… who knows. I have to be way more drunk to psychoanalyze Ron Weasley. Anyway, the last month we were together, he didn’t even try to hide the fact that he wanted to ditch me for Hermione but was just too much of a coward. And yet somehow, both of those idiots ended up married before me! And it’s not like they got married to some random person that they knocked up after a one night stand. Ron eloped with his wonderful, talented, brilliant best friend that he was in love with all through school and the entire time we were dating and Seamus… oh for Godric’s sake.”

Lavender paused in her tirade for a moment. “Seamus also married his wonderful, talented, brilliant best friend that he was probably in love with all through school AND the entire time we were dating. How am I just realizing that?” Lavender groaned, banging her head on the bar.

“Can wizards knock up other wizards?” asked the man. Lavender looked up at him and burst into laughter.

“Oh, thank you for that,” she giggled. “I was spiralling.”

“Uh, yeah, no worries,” said the man, shifting in his seat.

“It’s just that this dating stuff is really hard. The wizarding world is so small, you know? I think it’s why everyone locks in with their soulmate at school, ” Lavender commiserated.

“Have you ever considered dating like, outside the wizarding world?” the man asked.

Lavender shook her head. “How could I? It’s tough enough here. After all the Prophet spotlights on battle injuries and such, everyone knows how I got all these awful scars on my face but it still takes a certain type of man to look past them. And I’m sure there are Muggles that aren't shallow about them either but they would ask how I got them. How would I explain them to a Muggle? I can’t just say ‘Oh during a war at my school, a werewolf tried to rip me to shreds. But don’t worry, I’m not a werewolf although I have some side effects from it.’ They’d think I was insane.”

“Uh, yeah, that does sound a bit… daunting,” the man admitted, looking a bit pale.

“I mean, I’m still a catch. I’m funny, I have a great rack, I make excellent scones, and I’m amazing in bed.” At that comment, she heard the man next to her choke a little and she stifled a smile to continue on. “And even if I could get away with not explaining it to a man, once I meet his family, there’s no way. In my experience, mothers are always trying to find a reason to hate the woman that’s dating their special baby boy. I can’t imagine a Muggle mother taking very kindly to a literal witch with werewolf scars.”

“Yes,” sighed the man before giving a little chuckle. “I can certainly see that. And with all of the, you know, war stuff, I can see where you wish you had a school sweetheart.”

Lavender shook her head and drained the rest of her drink. “Seamus and Ron are just easy targets. I really am not hung up on them. This is about Don.”

“Who’s Don?”

“Don is my last boyfriend. We dated exclusively for eight months and he was so fun and thoughtful and generous. But he never said I love you. He kept telling me that he was too young to settle down and, I believed that he thought that. I really did. So we split in December because we wanted different things.”

“Ah,” said the man. “Seems sensible.”

“And then this morning, I see it in The Daily Prophet.”

“See what?”

“His engagement announcement,” she wailed, throwing herself on the bar again and almost upsetting her glass.

The man patted her on the shoulder. “Oh God, I’m sorry.”

“Do you know how long they’ve been dating?” Lavender asked.

“Eight months?” ventured the man.

“FIVE!” Lavender cried.

“Maybe he knocked her up?” suggested the man.

Lavender looked up at him and burst into laughter again. “Merlin, you’re funny. Why am I whinging about all these dolts I’ve surrounded myself with when I should get to know you better?”

“Yeah?” said the man with a grin.

“Yes,” she said. “I mean, if you want-”

“Of course,” he interrupted. “A funny, beautiful woman wants to get to know me better - the answer is always yes. I do need a refill. Do you want one? You’re not driving home, are you?”

Lavender giggled.

The man shook his head and looked embarrassed. “Oh, right, you wouldn’t be driving. You would uh - ”

“You must be a Muggle born. Do- I mean, I’ve heard others say that before. Those habits die hard.”

“Actually,” the man took a deep breath. “I’m a Muggle.”

Lavender’s jaw dropped. “How the fuck does a Muggle get invited to the engagement party of the Chosen One and a pureblood Quidditch player?”

“Well, Harry’s my cousin,” the man said. “My name’s Dudley.”

***************

“Do you see that over there?” asked Hermione, nudging Ron. He turned away from his conversation with Neville and Charlie to see what his wife was gesturing to across the room.

“Is that Dudley Dursley chatting up Lavender?” Ron asked, as his eyes landed on the sight before him.

“It appears to be,” said Hermione. “Merlin, they are really flirting. Should we go over there and say something? A warning or...?”

“Right,” said Ron. “Absolutely we should. Which one of them are we warning?”

[maldreathezora]

Okay, hypothetically AU scenario question: So the Sheikah follow Hylia/Zelda i.e the Royal Family and The Yiga follow Demise/Ganon, Right? What if during the exile and schism of the clan, it spilt into three instead? One continues to follow the Royal Family, one starts following Ganon and the other, disillusioned with Royal Family but not seeking vengeance, starts following Link's example and choose Neutrality, since the Links usually only take action because: 1) their own way of life was threatened, 2) the world will be destroyed if they don't, Ex: Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. This branch instead focuses on maintaining the clan's techniques, Research and teachings but use Logic and Morality as their guide rather than blind faith, and won't hesitate to change or remove traditions if deemed as more of a detriment to their new way of life. Smallest in terms of numbers in the beginning of the schism, they were the most consistent in maintaining them; So as the Shiekah and Yiga's numbers fluctuated and eventually began to dwindle, the [Insert Name Here] thrived. The Sheikah and Yiga were aware of the [INH] in beginning, the Yiga respected their decision to turn away from the Royal Family, they viewed the [INH] as Cowards for not retaliating. The Sheikah considered the [INH] to be misguided and fully expected them to return to them, much to the Sheikah's surprise when they didn't. However, over many millennia the [INH], due to their refusal to engage in unnecessary conflicts, they faded from memory and were assumed to have either died out or disbanded. The [INH] reside in a village the is actually hidden, so hidden that it is impossible for the average Hyrulian to happen upon it by simply exploring the lands of Hyrule. So here's my question: In this AU, if Botw Link were to discover and/or be lead to this hidden Province, what do you think would be the best name for this hypothetically clan and their village? I'm terrible at naming things😣 pls help

Wow, long one! Ok so when I'm naming things, I like to reference existing names from other languages. For example, I named all my yiga characters after banana varieties.

For the Sheikah, I like to reference Japanese names. My third sheikah based tribe, I call the Sheikah Ronin. They are masterless sheikah. Ronin means masterless samurai.

So now for their hidden village, I'd call it Mist, because their magic is based on mist rather than smoke like the yiga. What's Japanese for mist? Misuto, but that's too English sounding. Kiri means fog. So maybe they live up in the mountains. Kiri Mountains.

I could call them the Misty Mountains but I feel I'd be stealing from The Hobbit!

[jettingtothemoon]

Shiggy

➳ pairing: shigaraki tomura x f!reader ➳ genre: angst, fluff ➳ warnings: mentions of death, swearing ➳ word count: 4119 ➳ rating: pg-15 ➳ summary: In which y/n joins the league of villains and discovers a soft side to her new boss. ➳ a/n: this is my first official oneshot that i wrote just for shiggy bc i just love him so much (*^.^*)

y/n never wanted to be a villain. She wanted to be a hero, one proud to help others no matter the reward. Well, that was until that one fateful day.

It was just like any other day but after that day, nothing would ever be the same again. y/n was at school when it happened; when the attack began. She should have been there because, just maybe with her quirk, she could have saved them. It was a villain never seen before, one so terrible that he killed or at least severely wounded every hero he came across in a matter of minutes. That was until Endeavour came along. By the time the great pro hero Endeavour arrived, the fight had made it's way to your street. As the fight continued, the families were evacuated out of their homes by other heroes and sidekicks, knowing that the damage to the street was going to be major in this colossal fight.

You could feel the rumbles and vibrations under your feet even as you sat at your desk only a few blocks away. It's probably just some construction work nearby, the teachers said. If only.

Your parents and little sister were still inside when it happened, not yet to be evacuated when the blast went off. Even Endeavour himself was having a tough time fighting this villain and, despite seeing that the villain was not going after any civilians, he let out a huge blast of fire. It engulfed half of the street in seconds, scorching the villain into submission. Everyone that end was supposed to have been evacuated, but they weren't, your family were still inside. Still hiding from the battle outside. They just wanted to live, to survive this terrifying fight. They weren't so lucky.

That was the day you lost all faith in heroes. Their job was to protect and rescue civilians but they couldn't even get that right. Why? Because they would earn more if they took down the villain. He couldn't have held him off until he was certain everyone was safe and outside of the blast radius. The worst part about it, not a single hero was harmed in the blast. They all saw it coming and, instead of rushing in to get your family out in time, they turned tail and fled before the blast could hit them.

Endeavour was reckless but those other heroes... they were cowards. They gave their lives a higher importance than that of your family. Your caring mother, your loving father, your baby sister. They were left to burn, to scorch in the hellflame as the so-called heroes ran away, leaving them behind.

You were left all alone. Your friends pitied you, tried to comfort you but their love for the very heroes that left your family to die remained. It was despicable, the way they loved them sickened you. They were your friends no more, not if they couldn't see what heroes really were. They were greedy, selfish, liars who all deserved to die in the place of your family.

Of course, you didn't act on those emotions at first. In fact, you simply lived your life quietly. You remained alone, you discarded the friends that didn't understand your hatred of heroes. You lived your life as any other citizen, keeping your head down and letting the heroes do what they wanted.

Well, that was until Stain emerged. The hero killer, he empowered you. He shared similar views to you but he still seemed to believe that there was such a thing as a good hero, for example, All Might. From what you had seen on the news and other videos that were circulating the web not long after his capture in Hosu, he believed that All Might was a true hero. You, however, once even believed Endeavour was a true hero. If the number two hero was a scumbag then you had no doubt that so was the number one. All Might, like Endeavour, was likely to have let the fame and power go to his head. That was why, despite agreeing with Stain's ideology, you still had no faith in there being any good heroes anymore. Maybe the future generations would prove you wrong, but you doubted it. The future generation of heroes were being trained by those very scumbags after all.

After the incident in Hosu, you turned to a different kind of lifestyle. You still lived your ordinary everyday life, sure, but you started going after those so-called heroes you detested so much. With your quirk, it wasn't too difficult to take down some sidekicks. Not that you actually killed any of them, no, you simply did enough damage to put them in the hospital for a long time.

Heroes sucked. That was just the stone-cold truth, even though you sometimes hated to admit it. Those whom you had looked up to your entire life were nothing but a bunch of phonies playing pretend. All they wanted was the money, fame and power. Not a single one of them truly wanted to save people, to protect the citizens that need it.

After a while, it wasn't only the heroes you detested but also all those people with quirks that didn't use them, despite knowing that their quirk could help save so many. Without a licence, using your quirk in public is prohibited but that wouldn't stop a true hero. A true hero would do whatever they could to help, not just stand by taking pictures. You hated that some people, those people whom sided with Stain, might take one look at you and lump you in with the rest.

Before long, whatever feelings you had for saving people was gone. You didn't want to be a hero anymore, you didn't want to save the people who didn't even deserve saving. The ones who deserved to be saved were those who really couldn't help in any of those situations. The people with quirks that were practically useless in combat or would be too dangerous to use against other people. But most of all, the quirkless. There were not many quirkless people anymore but your mother was one of them. She lived without a quirk and she died without a quirk, maybe even because she didn't have a quirk. Your father wasn't to blame either, in that situation, his quirk wouldn't have been much help and your sister was so young that hers hadn't even surfaced before she died. Your's, however, could have helped. You could have safely evacuated your family on your own before the blast went off. You could have saved them, but you weren't there.

Not too long after you began going after sidekicks, stirring up quite a fuss in the news, you were approached by a rather interesting man.

"So you're the one they're calling Streak?" His voice was bland matching his face which was void of any emotion.

You turned back to the sidekick that was lying behind you with several glowing, neon scorches over his arms and legs, then back to the man before you, "I suppose I am."

Although you were ready to break out into a fight at any moment, this was a man you didn't recognise. He wasn't a hero or sidekick, that was for sure. Neither was he any ordinary civilian. A villain then?

"We have a proposal for you." A small girl also turned into the alley, smiling at you brightly yet somewhat wickedly.

Although you doubted the two of them and kept your guard up the whole way, you followed them back to what seemed to be their base of operations.

"A bar?" You questioned, following them inside in hopes of finding out what exactly they wanted.

Neither of them answered you and so, you simply continued to follow them down the steps until you were in the room at the bottom. There was another man sitting at the bar and one behind it. The man behind the bar looked interesting and all but it was the one sitting there, with a disembodied hand over his face, swirling a glass in his hand with his pinky raised, whom you found truly intriguing.

"You brought her?" The man behind the bar spoke.

He kind of looked like a walking shadow with bright yellow eyes. You recognised him somewhat, although you were unsure of where from. The same went for the man sitting at the bar, who was still yet to turn around and face you.

"Of course we did. If the boss says to go find the girl, we go find the girl." The younger girl declared although it was funny she was referring to you as the girl when she was so clearly younger than you.

"See, they listen to me." The man at the bar finally spoke with his somewhat mellow voice and put his glass down.

You simply tilted your head to the side as he turned to you, trying to take in his appearance but, thanks to the hand covering his face, you ended up just staring into his scarlet eyes.

Those very eyes narrowed at you and he sighed, "Are you sure you got the right one? She doesn't look much like a villain to me."

"You don't look all that much like a villain either, Shigaraki Tomura." You finally realised who you were speaking to, recognising him from the news as the leader of the league of villains, and to be honest, you were flattered that they had reached out to you.

"Tsk. You haven't seen what I look like without father yet."

You were unsure what he meant by father but decided not to ask. Not that you had much time to because he was already speaking again, although he turned back to his drink first and began swirling it again.

"So, what do you think about joining the league of villains?"

"I didn't think you would be that straight up." You giggled slightly.

Shigaraki, however, only began to lose his patience and began scratching his neck, "Do you want to help us destroy the heroes or not?"

"Oh, I'm in, but why did you single me out specifically?" You asked.

Shigaraki sighed but didn't speak any more than that, and so, the man behind the bar answered you, "We've been watching you for a while. Your agenda seems to match with ours and there is no doubting your usefulness in a fight. We believe you will be a valuable asset."

"I believe I will." You grinned.

"What exactly is your quirk anyway?" The man behind you asked.

You turned to him, trying once again to avoid staring at the unusual burn scars that covered his body, "Well, my quirk is neon. I can emit a neon light from both the palms of my hands and the tips of my fingers. The light is kind of like a laser, it burns through pretty much anything it touches. I can also use the neon energy within me to charge my body and the use a burst of that energy to move from one place to another in the blink of an eye. Although, using my quirk too much can take a lot of energy so I can only do that a couple of times before I'm completely worn out. As for the beams I shoot from my hands, they don't use as much energy so as long as I've eaten a good breakfast I'm good to go for hours."

Shigaraki turned his head to you, seemingly finding some interest in hearing about your quirk before focusing his attention back on swirling his drink again.

And that was how you joined the league of villains. After officially becoming a member, you learnt that the man behind the bar was called Kurogiri. He was quite possibly the most normal of the villains. Although, none of them were really all that normal at all.

Dabi, or as you liked to call him 'fireman', was almost quiet. He didn't act as though he cared for, well, anything. Although, he certainly enjoyed fighting heroes. Pretty much all of the time he showed little to no emotion, but somehow the two of you had gotten along quite well since you joined the league.

Toga was quite possibly insane, but that only gave her personality. She was fun to be around and you enjoyed hanging out with another girl around your age, although she was a few years younger than you. The nickname you had given her was 'loopy' and surprisingly she didn't mind it nor find offence in it. Maybe it was because she was starting to like you, or maybe simply because Kurogiri told her to play nice.

Shigaraki had his own nickname too, of course, although he didn't like it. He would have much rather you call him boss or just his name but instead you were persistent in calling him by 'Shiggy'. You called him that not only because of his name but also his shaggy hair, it was kind of a combination of the two. That shaggy hair was something you had grown used to seeing, you even went as far as to ruffling it this one time but, obviously, he didn't much appreciate it and threatened to turn you to dust with four of his fingers wrapped around your wrist.

Actually, Kurogiri was the only one who didn't have a bizarre nickname. The most he got was a casual 'Kuro', which he seemed to prefer anyway.

Getting along with everyone was much easier than you expected it to be. Well, except for when it came to Shigaraki. Your boss was... difficult, to say the least. And, although he didn't seem to mind you, his cold exterior kept pushing you away when you tried to talk to him about something other than work or attempted to know him better.

It was over a week before he removed his mask, which you now knew was called father, in front of you. His face was different from how you had expected it to be. His face was... well, it was crusty. Especially around his eyes and mouth. His lips were split and chapped with a scar crossing over the left side of them. Another scar could be seen over his right eye. Despite all of that, he was surprisingly cute. He was younger than you initially thought, probably only around your age. You found your eyes scanning over him from the little beauty mark that dotted the underside of his mouth, up to the dry skin around his narrowing eyes.

"What?" He somewhat snapped.

"Nothing. Just- Taking in your face before it hides behind that mask again."

Shigaraki scrunched up his brows but decided to ignore your gaze to focus on what he was doing. You had come to know that your boss was quite the gamer and, although he usually played in his room where the rest of you couldn't disturb him, sometimes, when Dabi and Toga were out, he would bring his switch with him and come to sit at the bar. Both you and Kurogiri knew not to distract him. Although, it wasn't so that you wouldn't anger him but simply because you also had a love for games and knew what it was like when someone interrupted your train of thought and cost you your win. So, you kept quiet or went for a walk.

Although, soon you grew to enjoy watching Shigaraki as he played his games and so, you simply sat at the bar a few stalls away to watch him. You liked watching the way his lips would curl into a little smirk every now and then when he knew he was going to win. You also liked it when he lost and scowled at the game, cursing under his breath before unconsciously pouting slightly. Once, he even accidentally destroyed the switch with his quirk mid-game. He was furious and stormed out to get another. You simply chuckled when the door closed behind him and got up to clean the mess. Then, you too headed out because there was something you needed to buy.

"Shiggy." You grinned, approaching your boss with a slight skip in your step.

"What?" He sighed, already used to the shitty nickname you had given him.

"I made you something."

He simply turned his head to you and frowned but, when you held out your present for him, his expression changed into something you hadn't yet seen. Surprise? Shock? Gratefulness? Who knows but it was better than the usual sulky face he showed you.

"It's a pair of gloves. They will only cover your pinkies but it will stop you from disintegrating anything else on accident." You explained, passing him the little gloves you had designed specifically for him.

"I- um, thank you?" He sounded so unsure of his words as if he hadn't a clue how to express gratitude but it made you smile nonetheless.

"You're welcome." You spoke with your usual perky voice.

Before joining the league, you had little reason to smile but now that they had finally grown used to you, you were smiling more often than not. You smiled when you talked to Dabi, Toga and Kurogiri, but it was when you were with Shigaraki that you found yourself smiling the most. He was so strange and so cold but there were times when he unintentionally showed you a soft side of him. Times when he was playing his games and even times when he was talking to you. His eyes would soften or he'd almost smile. It was always a small gesture but it still made you feel all warm and happy.

Even now, as he took the gloves from you, being very careful not to use all of his fingers as he did so, his eyes were soft and his lips curled up ever so slightly.

"I hope the material is okay, I tried to make sure they would be as comfortable as possible."

"Why do all of this? Why go to all the trouble?" He asked whilst slipping the gloves over his pinky fingers and around his wrists.

"Because, boss, we can't have you accidentally disintegrating the whole building now can we?" You joked although it didn't seem that Shigaraki found it all that funny as he just huffed, picked up his new switch, and headed back to his room.

"Don't take it to heart, he doesn't do well with displays of affection." Kurogiri sighed, trying to reassure you that Shigaraki was indeed happy with what you had done for him.

But you already knew that he was. You were good at reading people, even people like him, and you would have known if he was angry with you. You just wondered why he was like this and why he struggled so much to believe that any of you truly cared for him. The league, to him, was just a group of people with the same goal but to the rest fo you, it was almost like a family. Maybe one day he would realise that too.

It had been a long day, in which you, Dabi and Toga had all been out getting into your own little handfuls of trouble. Kurogiri stayed here with Shigaraki while he played his games. When you came back, you decided to find Shiggy and update him on the work the three of you had been doing for the most part of the day. When he wasn't sitting at the bar waiting for you to come back, you sighed and headed in the direction of his room. You hadn't been in there before and you were unsure of how Shigaraki would react if you came in without asking but, you also knew it was highly likely he was playing his games and decided that having him yell at you for coming in was better than having him yell at you for disrupting his game. And so, you turned the handle and walked inside.

Shigaraki was indeed playing video games. There he sat, with his back to you, on the floor in front of his tv with a controller in his hand. Despite wearing the gloves you gave him, he was still playing with each of his pinkies lifted off of the remote, presumably so that he didn't get into the habit of using all his fingers in case he one day forgot while not wearing the gloves. His head turned ever so slightly towards you for a second, although his eyes never once left the screen, but he just ignored you and continued playing.

He was clearly busy with his game so you simply walked further into the room, closing the door behind you, and sat at the end of his bed. You took a quick glance around the room, noticing how it was pretty much bare except for the bed and gaming set up in the corner.

It was a few minutes until Shigaraki said anything, but soon he was wondering why you were even here, "y/n. What do you what? Why are you here?"

"I just want to watch you play for now." You admitted, expecting him to tell you to leave.

But he didn't tell you to go. He just grunted and continued playing his game, so you stayed.

The more you watched him play, the more he fascinated you. His strategy in-game mirrored his intellect in reality too. His fingers tapped away so quickly at the buttons as he hammered in combo after combo, striking the enemy's weak points as if he memorised each and every one of them. Then again you wouldn't expect anything more from him. Shigaraki was a surprisingly intelligent man. He knew what to do and when to do it and, even if his temper would tempt him against it, he always knew when to back out of a fight he couldn't win. When it came to both reality and videogames, however, that was rare. He thought things out well and it seemed he even learned things from the games he played and applied them to real-life situations to provide him with the upper hand.

Shigaraki Tomura really was one of a kind.

A few more minutes passed and you found yourself pulling out your phone and swiping to the camera. You snapped some pictures of  him playing down on the floor in front of you. Then, you rolled onto your side so that you were lying on his bed, hanging off the side a little to get the perfect angle of his face as he played. You snapped more photos before sitting up and looking through them. He looked so cute when he played his games.

Before you realised, however, he had completed his level and was climbing up to walk over to you. He took the phone from your hands and pressed all of his fingers against it, watching it disintegrate into dust before slipping his pinky back into his glove.

You tilted your head up at him and pouted, "Those were some good pictures."

"Why were you taking pictures of me?" Shigaraki sighed, clearly not really in the mood for your shit.

"Because you just look so cute when you're focusing on your games and I wanted some pictures of you." You admitted, not caring for the way his eyes narrowed further.

"But why?"

You sighed and climbed up onto your knees so you were more at face level with him.

"I want pictures of you because I like you, stupid." You confessed, flicking him lightly in the centre of his forehead.

Shigaraki only began to scratch at his neck as his eyes widened slightly in confusion.

"You... like... me?" He questioned, pointing a finger into his chest.

He clearly still didn't get it, or at least he didn't believe you, so you reached out for his shirt, scrunching it in your fists slightly, as you pulled him in for a kiss. He was in such a shock when your lips touched his that he lost his balance and fell onto you. His hands, that were either side of your head, stopped his weight from crashing down into you but he was still lying on top of you nonetheless.

"Do you get it now?" You smiled, reaching up to peck his nose as his cheeks began to dust over with a slight blush.

"I- I."

You smiled and pulled him back down towards you, stopping briefly just before your lips came together again, "Shut up, Shiggy."

[mcheang]

The critic

Sometimes restaurant owners are aware there is a critic among them, but they don’t know his identity. Sometimes they are unaware they are being visited at all. This is for @edeniz001

Meet Alain Ego. A youthful young man admitted to Ms Bustier’s class as an exchange student from Provence.

Here’s what you need to know about Alain. He is smart, responsible, but he’s dull. He is a wallflower. His appearance is unremarkable, his voice is softer than Nathaniel’s. And his social life is generally shy. His hobby is writing stories and taking photographs.

His deskmate is Ivan.

Predictably, after class was let out for lunch, Alain was surrounded by his class. Well, most of them.

Chloe and by extension Sabrina; could not be bothered to waste her time with a wallflower.

Marinette and Alya introduced themselves as the class president and Vice President. They warmly asked him to come to them if he needed help.

Nathaniel invited him to meet Marc since they both seemed to love writing.

Lila had never been to the French countryside but was inclined to boast about the Tuscan landscape. She seemed annoyed that Alain did not ask her for more details and that the rest of the class were paying more attention to the new student than to her.

Thankfully Alain would only be here for one semester. That was enough time for like...what, 25 akumas to show up?

Hope the new kid was fast. Dupont tends to be an akuma hotspot.

And was it ever...

The majority of the akumas were from Caline’s class. And that was remarkable considering how they had already been akumas. What is up with that?

Are they an emotional class?

Why is Hawkmoth out for them?

Granted some akumatizations happen outside school. But Alain happens to be there thanks to being invited to class activities.

Part of the blame belongs to Chloe.

A real bully that one. Alain can understand why the principal would be cowed by a corrupt mayor. For a so-called hero, he was a coward.

But Alain has noticed some students standing up to Chloe.

Namely the class president and her Vice President.

And yet for some strange reason, instead of telling Chloe off for being rude and mean, they just brush her off and redirect everyone’s attention.

Alain shyly asked Marinette why she lets Chloe get away with that.

Marinette: Because Ms Bustier told us to be good examples and forgive Chloe.

Alya: it’s why Chloe likes her so much. She lets Chloe get away with everything and tries to get her to be nice.

Alain’s eyes were wide at such a scandal.

When Alain’s witnessed his first akuma, he was at art class, making a photo collage of the students.

Let’s just say Chloe didn’t take criticism well at her first attempt at fashion design. Let’s also just say there’s a reason she stole Marinette’s design instead of relying on her mother’s genes.

Point is, Fashion Critic could make her harsh criticism a reality.

During that time, Alain had run for cover.

Unsurprisingly, Alya had run in the opposite direction.

Frightened, Alain asked for help as to where to run to.

Alya: There is no safe house or bunker. Akumas usually blow those up. Here in Paris, just run for cover.

Alain: any ideas?

Alya: not really. I don’t hide.

Alain: ....

Nino: don’t worry, dude. I know where the guys like to hide. Follow me. I’ll take him, Alya.

As they were running, Alain pointed out it should have been Alya leading him to safety.

Nino: she would have delegated it to me anyway. That girl loves to get her scoop.

Alain frowned in disapproval but said nothing. But perhaps he could try to talk to Alya later.

He did, and even Marinette took his side, when they both said she should stop running after akumas.

Alya: the public needs to know!

Alain: can’t you just post the location and powers and physical description? Why do you need to record the whole thing?

Alya; how else will my blog be popular?

Marinette: it’s still not safe, Alya.

Alya: oh relax, it’s not like the Teachers are complaining.

Ok, so Ms Bustier not only lets bullies run rampant without correcting their behavior, she also does not stop dangerous habits.

Curious about the students, Alain decides to be nosy. He visits the bakery and tries their delicious breads. He talks about animals with Mr Cesaire. He explored Juleka’s boathouse. He even babysitted Chris.

One day, Alain just so happens to visit the embassy building where Mrs Rossi works, at a time when she would be leaving for home.

Alain: Hello, excuse me, are you Mrs Rossi?

Mrs Rossi: Yes. And you are?

Alain: I’m Alain. Lila’s classmate. I thought I recognised you from her photos.

Mrs Rossi: oh. How nice to meet one of Lila’s friends. But I’ve been so busy with work, I barely have the time to spare.

Alain: I understand. But it’s nice to see you include Lila in your work.

Mrs Rossi: excuse me?

Alain: you know...you brought her to Achu last year to help out Prince Ali.

Mrs Rossi: I never went to Achu.

Alain: um...Lila was gone for months and FaceTimed us from there.

Mrs Rossi: when did this happen exactly?

Alain nervously tells her.

Mrs Rossi: Lila has been lying to all of us, it seems. She told me the school was shut down because of akuma attacks.

Alain: what? Akumas last only a day. The school has been disrupted by them, yes. But everything goes back to normal the next day. Didn’t you try calling the principal?

Mrs Rossi is stiff and she thanks Alain. She needs time to think. More than that, she wants another person’s opinion and confirmation about akumas before she decides on what else to do.

The next morning, Lila is at school. She makes no reference to Alain meeting her Mother. In fact she prefers to avoid him because he is so annoying. He rarely asks about her adventures and the questions are obviously and disinterestedly polite. What teenager isn’t excited by Jagged Stone?

In the middle of class, Lila is asked to the principal’s office. She returns fuming, with Mrs Rossi and the principal by her side.

Mrs Rossi ordered her Daughter. “Tell them the truth Lila.”

Lila is forced to confess her lies. In addition, for forging her mother’s signature and truancy, she is hereby expelled.

An akuma arrived to target her. As Caline rushed Lila away from the akuma, Marinette actually ran out and used her purse as a makeshift butterfly net. Since she wasn’t feeling negative (actually she felt pretty good about Lila getting exposed), the akuma was just fluttering around in her purse until Tikki threw a macaroon on it and proceeded to sit on it.

Alya is already posting on her blog about it, hopeful Ladybug will arrive to cleanse the akuma.

Marinette rushes out to the roof to wait for her there.

In the aftermath of Lila’s exposure, the class is certainly feeling wounded and guilty.

Caline is trying to advise them to forgive Lila who probably felt shy of their accomplishments.

Alain: Um, she asked me to carry her school bag because her arm was supposed to be sore from planting trees.

His words were a spark.

Kim: I bought her lunch.

Alya: I posted false information on my blog. Ok, technically I didn’t fact check. But Lila was not innocent!

Rose: I donated my summer job cash on her fake donation! (She proceeds to sob)

Caline: but she has already been punished, shouldn’t we extend our friendship to her now that she is alone?

Alain: She didn’t look all that repentant if you ask me. Didn’t you see her smiling at the akuma?

Adrien: Lila wouldn’t have hesitated to hurt us.

Alix: what a psycho.

Caline: that is enough. I want you all to forgive Lila and try to reach out a hand in friendship.

Ivan: But she’s dangerous

Max: and clearly not well if she keeps on lying that she can call Ladybug right after admitting she lied about knowing her.

Alain mutters to Ivan, “Wanna bet that Ms Bustier becomes Lila’s puppet if she actually does this?”

The next morning, Caline actually tries to order the class to say one nice thing about Lila and to write her a nice letter. Never mind that she clearly heard Alya report that Lila was exiled from Paris after Chat Noir admitted she had been working with Oniichan to endanger Ladybug. Apparently he had somehow heard how Lila was smiling at the akuma and suspected she was in league with the terrorist.

Alain so couldn’t wait for the term to end.

When it finally did, he gladly reported to the school board his investigation on the akuma class.

He blames Caline mostly for her redundant perspective that people need to forgive bullies and liars instead of educating them and correcting their behavior. Like seriously, how else would the victims get justice? She also lacks a sense of responsibility in that she refuses to correct Alya’s lack of self-preservation.

His advice: fire her or suspend her indefinitely, send her to get proper training. Get the class a strict and just teacher with a sense of fairness.

Once his job was done, Alain sighed and emptied his bag of textbooks. He could really go for some wine.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Proper Profanity.”

WARNING: Obviously this contains a lot of profanity, lol duh :) 

Hopefully it’s at least entertaining

Dr Krill was cleaning the infirmary.. He didn’t mind cleaning, it left his mind time to wander, to think more about the humans. Today he was thinking about linguistics and the complicated way in which humans spoke to each other. It was actually quite beautiful once you stopped being annoyed with it.

He had recently compiled a list of human idioms he found rather delightful. He especially liked ‘when I am ice skating in hell’ not only did it require knowledge of human theology, but also of human sports. Plus it was a great way to tell people no.

Made him want to wriggle a little inside when he thought about it.

Now that he had gotten the use of idioms. He was starting to think about the use of human exclamations. There were so many, he hardly knew where to start.

He was so distracted with his musings that he ended up knocking over a stack of bedpans. They fell to the floor with a clatter before spinning across the open ground.

He looked down and decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try out some of his new exclamations. He wasn’t entirely sure how they worked, but you didn’t get anywhere without trying, “Shit hat!”

He stared at the bedpans trying to determine what he was feeling at the moment.

He didn’t have long for his pondering as Dr. Katie poked her head out of her office. Behind her large square glasses she looked more than a little confused. Another head peered around the corner, and he was surprised to find the captain staring at him with a bemused expression. The door to the far end of the room slid open and a group of marines peered inside.

Hmm, perhaps he had done something wrong.

“Did you just say, shit hat?” Dr Katie wondered glancing between him and the captain.

“That’s what I heard.” he said stepping out from inside.

“Did I do something wrong?” krill wondered in bemusement.

The marines laughed, “What were you even trying to do/”

“I was trying to use an angry exclamation.” The doctor explained 

The captain walked over to sit on the edge of one of the beds staring at Krill with a critical eye, “Well, it was a good effort, but not exactly right.”

“What do you mean.”

The marines walked in to sit with them as did doctor Katie.

The captain shook his head, “Well Krill, you see cursing is a very delicate art, you can’t just throw them together like that. For instance what you were trying to say was likely either ust shit, or ass hat. You can’t just throw them together. Shit would have worked, but in this instance ass hat wouldn’t have.” 

“I do not understand.”

The captain cracked his knuckles, “I will demonstrate, let us first begin with the word ass

Ass/arse = your pretty much just calling them a donkey at this point

Ass hat = refers to a person who is usually stupid or annoying 

Ass wipe = a general insult for someone you don’t like 

Dumbass = an idiot

Asshole = someone who is mean or rude 

Smartass = can be a term of endearment, but otherwise it might be used as a term for someone who is sarcastic or a know it all 

Fatass = someone who eats a lot or is also fat 

Ass face = another general insult, but this is specifically an insult and a comparison on their face to someone’s butt.

So what you were doing doesn't exactly work because you  use ass hat is an insult for a person and not an exclamation.” 

He looked around at the others to make sure they agreed with him before continuing, “our next word is damn.

Damn = can be used as an exclamation of anger in general.

Daaaaaaaaammmnnn = is for general awe, like if I saw someone do something really cool.

Damnit = another exclamation of anger generally a bit higher than just damn 

God Damn it = is just a little higher than the previous two, but implies that you want the creator himself to come down and damn the thing that you are cursing.

As a general side note, you can use damn for inanimate objects.

Damn you = is similar but usually directed towards a person. The equivalent of telling someone to go to hell or flipping them the bird. 

Damn it all = We ramp it up a bit here. You just don’t want to damn the object, but you want to damn everything.

Damn it all to hell = see previous but more specific 

Hot Damn! = this is another good exclamation. You just saw something really cool or someone who is really hot, or something that you really want.

I don’t give a damn = is the fancy way of saying I don’t care.

Are you following me so far?”

Krill nodded eagerly doing his best to remember all of this on such short notice.

“Good, now we get onto another one which I am slightly less familiar but I will try

Bitch = used to mean a female dog, but now sort of means someone who is a coward or pathetic in some way.

Bitching = to complain 

Bitch ass = not entirely sure, but if i say to get your bitch ass over here, I don’t have respect for you, though it is often used as a term of endearment between women 

Bitchboy = calling someones masculinity into question

“Ok now we get to my favorite word shit, so beautifully versatile, but it means that you have to be careful because each one has a different connotation.

The noun Shit = literally means excrement but can be used as an exclamation of displeasure. It can also replace stuff or things. Like where’s my shit

To shit = a verb means to take a dump

The adjective shitty = means something really sucks

See, a little more versatile than before, now.

Shitter = a toilet or the location where the verb takes place

A shit = is exactly what it sounds like.

To take a shit = is the same as the verb 

I don’t give a shit = I don't care kind of like I don’t give a damn

I won't take this shit = means I am not going to put up with you 

Bullshit = information, generally a lie or something that is conflated or untrue 

Batshit = is a modifier to someone who is insane, it generally means they are really crazy

Shitthole = a place that is really horrible or dirty 

Shitstain = general insult for a person you hate

Shithead = see above

Shitfaced = really drunk

The shit = something or someone that is really good

Hot shit= same as the shit

You think you’re hot shit? = generally a challenge to someone who needs to get off their high horse.

A piece of shit = means you suck or your a lowlife 

Shitload = a lot of 

To lose your shit = to go crazy or get really mad

To be on someone’s shit list = means they don’t like you

My shit = it's mine my stuff my property

Your shit = your problems and I don’t want them 

Add an animal in the front  like chicken or horse to denote a situation or information that you don’t like. This is horse shit for example.

Shit hits the fan = things get real 

Shoot the shit = to talk with someone on a social level 

He knows his shit = means he’s smart on a certain topic 

You don’t know shit = you don’t know anything

To give someone shit = you .”mess with them or to give them a hard time

Dipshit = an idiot

I am honestly cutting back on the amount of uses in this situation because if we continued this, it might go on too long.

Kril leaned in a little, “how fascinating. I had no idea one word could be so diverse.”

The human leaned in, “Than you are going to love this next one 

Fuck = sort of an upper escalation of shit. I don't know if the noun means anything really but the verb technically means to do it.

Fuck that = I am not going to do that there is no way in hell 

Fuck you = I hate you go die 

Fuck it = might as well just do this thing regardless of the consequences 

Fuck me = an exclamation of annoyance. Kind of like how could my life get any worse. Generally used when things aren't going your way. Of course you could use it in it’s literal translation as a command form or a question.

Fuck it all = another exclamation kind of like damn it all 

Fuck this shit = generally a screw this thing or activity specifically 

Fuck this = see above but less intense 

Fuckery = like what kind of fuckery is this. A question used to ask about some sort of unsavory activity.

Fuck off = telling someone to leave or go away angrily.

Fucnking hell = just an exclamation

Fucking shit = also just an exclamation

Generally you can put fucking in front of any other curse word noun and you got yourself a good insult hell, damn et. etc 

Fuckwit = an idiot

Fuckface = general insult like shithead 

I dont give a fuck = i dont care

I dont give a flying fuck = i really don’t care

Thats fucked = that is screwed up 

Hes fucked = hes screwed as in a situation specifically

Lets get fucked up = lets go get drunk or high

Lets fuck him up = lets beat him up 

Well…. Fuck = an exclamation of distress 

A fuck ton = larger than a shitload 

If you get fucked over = you’ve been used or betrayed 

And the classic a motherfucker = sort of just a general term for someone, but I  want to say it definitely implies someone is having sex with their mom

Fucktard = an idiot. 

Krill looked on in fascination and delight, “Holy shit!”

The captain blinked and then grinned, “There you go, now you're getting it. Totally forgot about that one.” He patted Krill on the back, “Now go forth, be free in your newfound knowledge and the glorious art that is cursing properly. Make sure not to use it too much though or in certain types of company because it will either cause you problems or lose it’s power. Like for instance, don’t curse around my mother or she will kill me for teaching you. Don’t curse around superior officers unless they curse first, and even then try to avoid doing it too much. Got it.”

Krill nodded.

He was so excited to apply this new rule of human language

[gaylord-fagaton]

How to Not Make Friends: A Guide by One George Henry Hodgson

Or alternatively titled: How George Hodgson’s Character Arc is Actually a Story about Trying to Fit in, and then Failing Miserably

Today I’ll be bringing you more Hodgson thoughts, specifically on the question of his place within the group, or rather his lack of place within the group. He exists at the fringes of the Terror’s command team, he’s a part of it of course that’s his job, but he really isn’t part of the group not like Little, nor Crozier, or finally Irving. This is what made him such a good target for Hickey, who is probably observant enough to notice this, his feelings of rejection coupled with the fact that apparently nobody ever taught him about stranger danger had him following Hickey into the tent.

The way Hodgson behaves is the primary reason for him being ostracized from the rest of the terror officers I believe. If you hadn’t noticed, Little is basically depression personified, Irving is well….the way he is, and their captain is an alcoholic angry at the entire world. There is no room for the happy go lucky Hodgson, who is just here to have a good time, not a long time. (Side Note: This doesn’t have much relevance when it comes to the terror as a show, but Hodgson was hand picked by Fitzjames. Can you imagine having your friend asking you to come work with them, only to find out you aren’t actually working with them at all, and are in fact working in one of the most stressful environments imaginable.) It also does not help that a great deal of Hodgson’s attempts of relating to others or bringing levity to situations are generally not particularly relevant or are downright inappropriate at times. I always go back to the “hear, hear” bit when Irving is listing their dwindling food supplies, because it’s one of the best examples, you’re going to starve to death Hodgson what is wrong with you? (Not to insert head cannons into my meta but, George Hodgson autistic). The sheer level of annoyance on the faces of his companions when he does his bullshit, is almost funny. In the aforementioned scene Irving looks about ready to kill him, so does Armitage when he goes on about the origin of the word diet in a later scene.

Not only does the way everybody behaves around Hodgson tell us about the way he is viewed, but so does everybody’s reactions, or rather lack thereof.  Nobody ever responds to him verbally at least; this is except for one notable exception in Hickey. I think this was perhaps a ploy on Hickey’s part at least at first, later it became mocking, he had no intention to really allow Hodgson into his group (more on this later).

I hadn’t really noticed this before, until @gildatheplant​ mentioned it on my newest gif-set, but we really don’t have any shots of the Lieutenants together. This to me, is seemingly done to create a further sense of separation between Hodgson and his fellow command members.

Here the camera pans away from Hodgson leaving only Little, Irving, Crozier, and Jopson in the shot. He was left out, even though he is standing right next to Little at the time.

In this scene, Little and Irving are standing right next to each other, but Hodgson is standing across the room by himself.

I don’t know how much those kinds of scenes really mean in the long run, I just think it’s really interesting to look at. Even without them, Hodgson is painted as quite the outcast from the rest of the terror command. There but not really There.

Here we come to his murder of the Netsilik family, now this is primarily motivated by racist fear. His go too wouldn’t have been fucking murder if he wasn’t a shithead racist, and as I’ve mentioned before his story to Little later when he realizes he might have fucked up on goes on to further illustrate how he feels about the Netsilik people. Beyond the racist fear fueled by a story that sounds like a chain email or a shitty Facebook post, another motivator for his haste in acting, I think is probably a want for some form of acceptance into the group. At this point he’d just been informed of the fact that a command meeting had occurred, and he wasn’t invited, instead he was sent out on the rather unlikable task of burying Morfin. They are sharing important information and promoting new officers, and they hadn’t thought about including him. If he didn’t feel like an outcast beforehand, he must certainly feel that way now, especially as hickey is shoving his rat like fingers into the hole in his heart where friends would go if he had any. So he acts, because if he does the right thing, perhaps this will be enough for him to get the recognition that he wants and craves, and he’ll maybe be a part of the group finally. It turns out, however, that he was wrong, really fucking wrong, and then everything proceeds to go to shit.

When it comes to his placement within the mutineer group, I wouldn’t call him a mutineer but he is also definitely not a hostage like Goodsir. He had a choice something which Goodsir who was forced at gun point to come with Hickey and co. did not, a shitty choice, but a choice none the less. (Side note: beyond referring to the fact that he is to much of a coward to do anything about hickey, I think his “I’m hungry and want to live” line could also describe the circumstances in which he joined up with Hickey. If he hadn’t joined he’d have certainly starved to death.) He is still on the fringes even here, treated like a spectacle, a joke, and has his live threatened by Hickey multiple times. He is neither a mutineer or a hostage, but kind of both at the same time. Hickey was a collector of those who he knew didn’t fit in, and that fits Hodgson.

Onwards to his monologue to Goodsir in the tent, who also doesn’t respond to him rip. In part beyond it being about a strange religious experience, which oof dude you were like 8, I think it is also a tale about fitting in. In church setting like that everybody is doing the same thing, you are a part of a collective in front of god. Which is why tiny Hodgson was so moved to participate because it finally meant he was a part of something. He labels it a “perfect moment in his imperfect life” because it’s what he always wanted, to fit in. Interestingly enough, (Thanks to @gobnaits​ for pointing this out) communion means “sharing in common” and is a sacrament of initiation. (Catholic facts that make you hmmm) He ultimately rejects this because he was taught this kind of community is wrong but also because, I believe that he thought he’d eventually be unable to function within this group. (*Cough* George Hodgson Autistic *Cough*) Ultimately I think George Hodgson’s story arch is about being an outcast and a want for acceptance, which along with his own ignorance is the reason for his downfall.

TL;DR: Hodgson is outcast and it makes me sad. Also I love him.

[cherry-valentine]

Fall 2020 Anime Season:

Golden Kamuy Season 3 is, so far, just as good as the first two seasons. For anyone unfamiliar with the show, it follows a former soldier called “Immortal Sugimoto” (nicknamed so for his tendency to survive a lot of shit that would kill most people) and a young Ainu (the Japanese equivalent of Native Americans) girl as they search Northern Japan (and even parts of Russia) for hidden Ainu gold. The story is pretty wild, with threats coming from the wildlife and the harsh, snowy conditions as often as from mercenaries, assassins, and various other human dangers. The cast has expanded enough that we have several separate groups of cool, well-written characters roaming about (and they’ve shuffled a bit from season two, making their interactions very interesting). Sugimoto remains one of my favorite anime protagonists. He’s one of the more brutal, violent main characters I’ve seen, but, strangely, also one of the nicest. He’s kind to innocents (both people and animals) but will slaughter his enemies without hesitation. He’s also pretty funny. Then again, almost every character is subject to the show’s weird but endearing humor. It’s very hard to dislike any character, even the ones who are quite cruel. The show is also notable for having a lot of homoerotic subtext. The beefy, handsome men sure do love taking their clothes off and wrestling. Like, taking it ALL off. Multiple times per season. Yeah. Watch this show, everybody.

Ikebukuro West Gate Park is a new show this season that I was initially interested in because it reminded me of Durarara!! in that it’s set in Ikebukuro and features color gangs. That’s where the similarities end, however. Whereas Durarara!! had tons of supernatural elements and just plain craziness, IWGP is more realistic by comparison. The show follows Makoto, a seemingly normal guy who seems to function in a sort of “odd jobs” type of role for a color gang called the G Boys. While they’re a gang, they don’t seem like criminals or thugs, or even delinquents. They really feel more like a club, held together by their respect for the leader referred to as King. So far the series seems to be episodic in nature, with most stand-alone episodes focusing on some sort of social issue, from drug addiction to immigration. It’s interesting to see these issues presented in such a sympathetic light, viewed through the lens of Tokyo’s youth. The art is nice, with varied character designs and animation that’s just good enough that you don’t notice the problems very often. The music is a highlight, with my favorite opening theme of the season and one of the better ending themes.

Magatsu Wahrheit is a show I was very iffy on at first. It has a lot of things working against it. It’s based on a video game I’ve never heard of, the opening theme is one of the cheapest, most unimpressive things I’ve ever seen (note: it does improve a few episodes in!), and the series overall has a low budget feel (though nowhere near as bad as Gibiate from last season). But the story is actually very interesting and very well written. The basic premise is that Young Man A (I’m not remembering these weird names, sorry) works as a delivery truck driver in your usual “modern fantasy” setting (kingdoms and monsters and other medieval fantasy trappings alongside trucks and cars and advanced science laboratories). When he’s loading up his deliveries, Young Man B, a fresh recruit in the kingdom’s military and general goody-two-shoes, randomly offers to help Young Man A load his truck. Young Man B spots some boxes off to the side and, assuming they were part of the load, puts them into the truck while Young Man A is talking to his boss. These boxes turn out to be illegal weapons being smuggled by a group of... freedom fighters? I guess? This, in turn, drags Young Man A into a shit storm of trouble when the illegal weapons are discovered in his truck. It also leads directly to tragedy for Young Man B as well, setting them both on wildly different but similarly dangerous paths. The whole idea that a simple act of kindness for a stranger sets off such a terrible series of events is pretty engaging. As it stands in the show right now, Young Man A is the more compelling character. He’s just a truck driver. He’s a coward who runs from danger and wants no part of any of this. But at the same time, he can be surprisingly brave at times (usually when a child is in danger). In a twist on the usual trope, these spurts of bravery are rarely rewarded. At least twice, his decision to act has led to heartbreaking tragedy. So far Young Man B is your typical “idealistic youth realizing the military isn’t comprised entirely of nice people” type of character. As such, he’s just not as interesting. He hasn’t had as much screen time though, so hopefully he’ll grow as a character. I guess it says a lot that I’ve written so much about the show, and almost all of it is about the plot. But the plot is really the only remarkable thing about it. In this case, that’s enough.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is, well, a bit of a trainwreck. And I’m not necessarily talking about the quality of the show. Let me explain: The show was marketed as a remake of the 2006 anime, which was one of my all-time favorite series. I was pretty excited about it. Lots of new fans who had never watched the original started this one. The first episode was okay. I wasn’t crazy about how shiny everything looked (I realize the original’s visuals are a bit dated now but at least they were unique, this new one looks like pretty much every harem anime from the past five years) but the story seemed to be doing good and I looooooved the use of the original opening theme song as the closer. Then episode two dropped, and the fandom basically exploded. The first few minutes of episode two reveal that this is not a remake, but a sequel! Shock! At first, I was impressed by this little bit of manipulation. It felt exciting to realize the truth. But then it dawned on me (and the rest of the fandom) that new viewers who came to watch this were screwed over. Those first few minutes of episode two spoil some very important things from the original series (we’re talking major spoilers here), and it’s going to ruin a lot of plot points for those who never watched the original and now want to go back and watch it first. So here’s a PSA: If you’re new to Higurashi and want to try this new series, DON’T unless you’re okay with watching a sequel that spoils the original.

Okay, so now let’s talk about this new series/sequel. First, the good points: The ending theme is GORGEOUS. Just... go watch it. Soak it up. The opening isn’t bad but I can’t help comparing it to the far superior original opening. Aside from the overly shiny and generic character designs, the rest of the visuals are pretty great. The scenery in particular is very nice. In terms of story, I like the idea of beginning each new “arc” by staying close to the original story, then throwing in some pretty wild deviations that make them end in completely different ways because a character that lived through the original is trying to make subtle changes (that so far have ended up turning out very badly). When it comes to the bad points, one in particular sticks out: It’s not scary! The original had some truly unsettling moments, and so far this one hasn’t even been creepy. It’s had some moments that obviously tried to be scary but have failed miserably. For example, the early scenes with Rena in the original were actually terrifying. But I felt none of the intensity or creepiness in this sequel. Still, it’s nice to see these characters again and to see how this story deviates as someone tries desperately to change the outcomes.

Haikyuu!! has another new season and... I don’t really know what to say about it. I’ve talked about this show several times now. Looks like this season is going to focus primarily on one long match, a concept I’m not crazy about. They also made the baffling decision to cut in with a full episode about a rival team’s match right in the middle of showing the match with the main team. I mean I love seeing more of the rival teams but it felt disjointed to do it this way. Still yet, it’s a fun and energetic show full of great characters and easily understood volley ball matches.

Jujutsu Kaisen is probably the most hyped up new show this season, and I would say it definitely deserves that hype. It’s a pretty familiar shounen fighting anime setup: A teenage boy acquires special powers and joins a school to train so that he can use those powers for good. However, following that formula does little to negate just how fun and well-done this series is. A lot of people have compared it to Naruto (the protagonist is a vessel for a powerful entity, he joins a trio of characters with a more serious and moody black-haired boy and a chick, and they have a badass teacher with silver hair who keeps his face partially covered). So sure, it’s like Naruto... except it’s much better than Naruto in every conceivable way. The animation and fight choreography are consistently fantastic. The main character is not the least bit annoying. The only chick in the group (there are more cool ladies in the story, just not in this group!) is a badass in her own right and her story and motivations have absolutely nothing to do with romantic interest in any of the guys. Even the teacher character is incredibly fun. The music is great, with my favorite ending theme of the season. You know it’s an excellent ending theme when people start making different versions of it using characters from other shows. It’s so, well, fun. A word I keep using here, because that’s the first word that comes to mind when I’m watching this series.

Talentless Nana is one of those shows that’s going to be difficult for me to talk about without spoiling a very cool surprise. This surprise comes at the end of episode one (basically, the show makes you think it’s about something, but turns out it’s about something completely different). So if you want to really enjoy that surprise, stop reading this and go watch episode one before coming back. If you’ve already watched it or don’t mind having the surprise spoiled, here we go: The first episode sets up the series to be a cheap Boku no Hero Academia knock-off. We have a school of “talented” (super powered) kids training to use their powers to save humanity from (so far) unseen monsters referred to as “the enemies of humanity”. We are told one boy has no “talent” or special power and he’s ridiculed for this. There’s a new transfer student named Nana, a super sweet and cheerful girl with pink hair who has the ability to read minds. There’s also another transfer student, a sullen and quiet boy named Kyouya who hasn’t disclosed what his “talent” is. With that setup, I think a lot of people were ready to dismiss it as “BNHA, but not as good”. But then, a few minutes before the first episode ends, we’re hit with the twist that reveals what this show is really about: Nana is the one with no “talent”. She lied about being able to read minds (the boy we thought had no talent did actually have one). She’s a totally normal human being, and she has been sent to infiltrate the school and kill off the students, the true “enemies of humanity” (called so because their powers make them incredibly dangerous). Thus, the show is about a normal human girl using only her wits and skill in manipulation to kill off super-powered individuals. Watching her work is an absolute delight. She is ruthless and incredibly intelligent, but she does have one major problem: the other transfer student Kyouya, who is at least as smart as she is and is suspicious of her right off the bat. But since he’s not sure she’s up to no good, he can’t really act on his suspicions. Nana in turn knows he suspects her, so she has to be careful around him. As a result, the two become “friends”, constantly watching and outmaneuvering each other. In this way, the series reminds me of the early, best parts of Death Note, with the mental sparring between Light and L. But the most fun you’ll have with this show is watching Nana come up with ways to deal with each new “talent” she comes across, from the ability to time travel to necromancy, all while having no special power of her own. The art is nice, a bit generic, nothing too fancy. The music is great, with one of the better opening themes this season.

Moriarty the Patriot focuses on the classic Sherlock antagonist Professor Moriarty. Let me get this out of the way first: I know next to nothing about Sherlock. I haven’t even watched any of the various tv shows about him. What I know of the character basically comes from mentions of him in Detective Conan. So I’m coming into this series with no preconceived notions about these characters and no other versions to compare them to. Anyway, Moriarty as a series is about class warfare. Moriarty as a character pretty much embodies the phrase “eat the rich”. If you’re familiar with the phrase and understand its meaning, you’ll probably like this show. Moriarty works as a professor, but his side job is as a “Crime Consultant”. He helps the poor lower classes get revenge on the cruel nobles and elites who have wronged them. This revenge most often involves murder. There’s something refreshing about how unapologetic it is. In most anime, the hero tries to find other ways to punish evil than by actually killing them, or there’s some lesson involved about how revenge isn’t the answer or how killing someone who wronged you makes you as bad as them. In this series, there’s absolutely none of that. People get their revenge and, so far as I’ve watched, seem to be living much happier lives afterwards. In this way the show totally avoids being preachy. The art is gorgeous, with classy character designs and lovely backgrounds. There’s a certain lushness to it. The music is very nice as well (particularly that poppy ending theme). The only downside is that this has probably ruined me for watching other versions of these characters now. I mean, once you see them as sexy anime pretty boys, it’s hard to see them as anything else.

Carry Over Shows From Previous Seasons:

Black Clover

Best of Season:

Best New Show: Jujutsu Kaisen

Best Opening Theme: Ikebukuro West Gate Park

Best Ending Theme: Jujutsu Kaisen

Best New Male Character: Moriarty (Moriarty the Patriot)

Best New Female Character: Nana (Talentless Nana)

[raeynbowboi]

Dating Disney: The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 Grimdark fantasy movie based primarily on the first two novels of the Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander written between 1964-1968. A primary reference and inspiration behind the series being the Mabinogion, a collection of early Celtic myths written in Middle Welsh. The character names also follow a Welsh naming conventions as Fflewdder Fflam uses the “Double F” found in the Welsh language, as a single F by itself makes a [v] sound in the Welsh language. The name Taran is also Welsh, meaning Thunder. So the movie is very neatly rooted in Wales, or Welsh-speaking Albion.

The Mabinogion

The Mabinogion is comprised of 4 main branches recounting Welsh mythology, compiled in the late 12th-13th centuries based on older oral traditions likely dating back to some time between 1050-1225. However, there are many suggestions as to when the stories might date from. (To hear a story from the Mabinogion, check out Red’s summary of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed.)

Now, you may be wondering “why is there only 1 book on all Welsh mythology?” and I’m glad you hypothetically asked because it’s time to blame the Christians. Seriously, because Celtic mythology is loaded with god-like figures, Christian interpreters when they came to Albion censored or outright destroyed stories that implied that there was more than their God. Figures such as the Irish Tuatha de Dannan, which were godlike ancestral figures, had to be recontexualized as Faeries, Spirits, or Angels in order to avoid censorship by the Christian monks who transcribed these myths. Brigid, a very important Irish goddess, was Christianized into the figure of Saint Bridgette. This was actually an attempt by Christian missionaries to ease the pagans into Christianity. Essentially the mindset of “yeah, you can worship your holy figures, but uh, cut it out with the holy divine aspect. We can’t have that. They’re clearly not as top tier as our God.” 

You may remember from my Sword in the Stone discussion that I mentioned that Rome occupied Albion before Christianity wormed its way in, and you may be wondering, were the Romans this bad? Haha, clearly you underestimate how awful medieval Christians were. No, the Romans just viewed foreign pantheons as extensions of their pantheon. You have a sun god? So do we. It must be the same god with a different name. This is what’s referred to as Interpretatio Romana. So the Celtic Sun God Belenus would be referred to by the Romans as Apollo Belenus. It’s the same god, but the Roman name always came first. Compared to what is known as Interpretatio Christiana, which boils down to ‘you’re worshiping Satan in the form of a false idol. Stop that.’ So, when I say that our lack of written accounts of Welsh mythology is entirely the fault of the Christians, I’m completely sincere in that statement because the Romans didn’t censor Celtic myths or history, only the Christians did.

The Black Cauldron and Mythological Parallels

Prydain

It might sound like a generic fantasy name, but the name Prydain actually comes from the Welsh name for Great Britain, Prydain Fawr. Unfortunately, the term Great Britain dates to 1707. However, Prydain is also the medieval name for the island, as the Welsh never referred to the Island as Albion.

Henwen

Literally meaning “Old White” in Welsh, Henwen is a sow under the care of Coll, a pigkeeper for Dallwyr Dallben. In the Chronicles of Prydain, Coll is a character, but in the Disney film, Taran seems to have absorbed Coll’s role as pigkeeper. However, the fact that he refers to himself as an assistant pigkeeper could still mean that he is ranked below an off-screen Coll. However, the Henwen of Welsh mythology could not predict the future. It was known that Henwen was to birth something terrible, and so she was chased off a cliff into the sea in Cornwall. She survived however and went on to give birth to many unusual things, including a cat, a wolf, an eagle, and a single grain each of wheat, rye, and barley. And three bees. I really wish I was making this up.

Gurgi

Gurgi’s name might take inspiration from Gwrgi Garwlwyd, whose name literally means man-dog rough-grey. He was a warrior in Welsh Arthurian Legend, and was possibly a werewolf. Gwrgi was a monster that killed a man every day, and two on Saturday so he would not kill on Sunday. The Gurgi in the books is far more monstrous looking with horns, but Gurgi in the Disney film retains the dog-like traits of Gwrgi.

The Black Cauldron

Known in Welsh mythology as Pair Dadeni or “the Cauldron of Rebirth”, it is referenced in the second branch of the Mabinogion. Like in the movie, the cauldron has the power to revive the dead, and is destroyed when a living person is thrown into it, in the mythological case, Efnisien pretends to be a corpse and is thrown into the cauldron for revival, causing the cauldron to be destroyed. There are other similar magical cauldrons in Welsh and Irish mythology, including the cauldrons of Arawn and Diwrnach, which would not boil the food of cowards, and Ceriddwen’s Cauldron of Inspiration, which caused those who drank from it to gain infinite wisdom. There is also The Cauldron of the Dagda in Irish mythology. One of the 4 Treasures of the Tuatha de Dannan, the Cauldron of the Dagda was stored in the mythical city of Muirius, and no man would ever leave the cauldron hungry, for it produced infinite food.

The Horned King

In the novels, the Horned King is a minor villain, subjugated to Arawn, God of Death. However, in Welsh mythology, Arawn is not a death god. Rather, Arawn is king of Annwn, the Welsh Otherworld. Aka, the Faerieworld. See, this is another example of Christians mucking up translations and trying to force other religions to reflect Christianity, so Annwn is often treated as the Underworld of Celtic mythology, but considering Pwyll wanders into Annwn completely by accident, I don’t think that’s how it was interpreted in traditional texts. The Horned King may also draw inspiration from the Horned God, Cernunnos. Little is known about Cernunnos due to being a very ancient god, but his role as a horned god of the wilderness has historians guessing that he’s one of the oldest gods or divine archetypes in human history, as ancient horned gods pop up with surprising regularity in older religions: namely Baphomet and Pan. Cernunnos is also sometimes but not always folded in with the figure of the All-Father as a sort of father to all creation in Gallo-Celtic paganism. Cernunnos is often regarded as a god of nature and the wilds, but is also a psychopomp god that guides the dead to the afterlife, and maybe is also a god of death and rebirth as a part of life. Again, this is kind of very uncertain because of just how ancient Cernunnos is, so don’t take this interpretation as law. But despite how uncertain we are about what all this figure represents, he’s a very interesting deity none-the-less, and very likely contributed to the Christian idea of the devil as a horned figure with goat legs. As a seemingly undead creature, the Horned King may draw parallels to a creature known as a Revenant. A creature found in Celtic folklore, a Revenant is a vengeful undead that seeks to torment all life until it has found the person who wronged it while it was alive and exacts its revenge. However, it should be noted that in the books, the Horned King is a living man wearing a horned skull mask, whereas the movie version is very clearly a corpse.

Taran’s Sword

In Welsh mythology, the sword Dyrnwyn belonged to the great king Rhydderch Hael, and when held by a worthy man would glow with fire. In the books, Taran’s sword is indeed referred to as Dyrnwyn. Similarly, alongside the Cauldron of the Dagda, another treasure of the Tuatha de Dannan is the Claiomh Solais or the Sword of Light, housed in the mythical city of Findias. This may also be the mythical origin of Excalibur, though scholars have not made a direct, perfect connection.

Conclusion

With so much of the story pulling from the single source of the Mabinogion, we can boil down the likely setting to around when the stories were written as our general setting. Luckily, we can roughly guestimate to about when the Mabinogion might originate from, and the general look of the movie seems to match with this time setting. So, we’re looking at about 1050-1225, around the time that the stories in the Mabinogion might have started to be told, thus inspiring the events in the film.

Setting: Prydain (Wales/Isle of Britain) Kingdom: Kingdom of Prydain Era: High Middle Ages (1000-1250) Year: 1050-1225 AD Language: Middle Welsh

[riceccakes]

Earth, Wind, and Coffee: Chapter Three Analysis

chapter one analysis | chapter two analysis

back again for another chapter analysis. i think ive been looking forward to this chapter the most, it’s where some big decisions were made!!! this analysis is a long one, i hope that’s all right! i kinda got carried away. so, let’s dive right in, shall we?

some fun stuff before we start!

chapter three was supposed to be the last chapter of the fic

idk if any of you were there when i first started writing this fic, but it was only going to be three chapters with a possible epilogue. however, everything changed when i finished the end of chapter two. (lil atla reference there for ya) (sorry i know that was bad, moving on). like i said in my last analysis, i had an idea of what i wanted to happen (the separation of korrasami) so that they could come back together. it was just a matter of what separates them. so, i’m not sure where i got the panic attack idea but once i did, the rest of the story changed. i realized i couldn’t quite possibly finish the story in one chapter so i split the ideas i had and decided on it being four chapters

now, this being said, maaaaajor changes were made in my story outline. most notably: korrasami was going to be a couple in this chapter

this was originally going to be a full fledged “they meet, they get to know each other, they fall in love, happily every after” but the thing was, i planned on treating their romance as korra’s recovery; that being with asami is what made korra better, that all she needed was a partner, someone to love, and that is not what i wanted to portray with this story. i’ve never been a fan of stories that give a character a love interest and all of sudden their problems are fixed and they’re completely happy, and here i was about to do just that. i knew i’d never respect myself if i continued down this narrative, and when chapter two ended with korra’s panic attack, i realized her growth needed better love and attention. so, i changed what happened and gave her some therapy

this change in the storyline also let me explore more of kuvopal !!! (is that their ship name?)

so, back to LOVE WITCH for a second (because that glorious fic really did steal my heart) not only did it make me love kuvira’s character more, it also got me into the kuvopal relationship! and yet again, i wanted my own go at it. with the original timeline, there was just no space for me to include the lil bread crumbs of their relationship. however, however, however; by splitting the ending between two chapters (and adding some stuff in between) i was able to lay some foundation for them, which im very happy about :)

into the chapter we go:

let’s talk about the meeting! the whole reason this fic came to be! i’ll start by saying i always knew the project was going to get pulled out from under asami. 1) because thats some angsty/hurt shit right there and im a sucker for writing angst 2) i didn’t feel like creating a whole ass presentation because knowing my ass i would’ve made a powerpoint about it so i had every detail down to the font asami used and 3) getting the presentation taken away from asami was a pivotal point in her character arc.

i actually started the chapter in two different ways. at first, i’d written her whole entire morning with there always being one thing that was off. like, instead of a perfect omelette, it was going to split and asami would’ve had a scramble, still good, but not her favorite. instead of going through all green lights on her way to work, asami was gonna meet every. single. red. light. i would’ve gone through with this if it hadn’t felt strange; i wanted to give the impression that something bad was going to happen but i felt like having something go wrong with every thing in her morning was gonna be a dead give away that some even bigger big bad was about to happen, if that makes sense. so instead, i went with the picture perfect scenario, almost too perfect, if you ask me. and indeed, it was too perfect, because hiroshi was too much of a coward to tell his daughter any sooner that his board agreed to get a new presenter

im just gonna cite a bunch of my favorite lines/bits from this chapter because i really enjoyed writing it xD

Iroh has already begun but Asami hears no words, only a blaring ring in her ears. Her face feels hot and she wonders how red she is. She stares at the black binder, notes the natural grooves and curves of the material, the plastic covering over top of it, the metal spine peaking out at the bottom. She’s only brought out of it’s dark trance when she feels a hand be placed on her arm; Kuvira. 

when you’re upset, do you ever just, hyper focus on one thing and its like you’re analyzing it under a microscope for the first time? yes? no? well, i do that, and personally, i do because if i focus on my anger/hurt emotions any more, im going to explode and i dont want to explode. so, this instance about looking at the grooves in the binder and each of the components of it just hits with me, idk if does with you too, but like bruuh.

Asami has her hand over her mouth, silently sobbing, feeling as if she’ll throw up. She leans her head on her wheel, her mind wanders to what could’ve been, what should’ve been. She feels as if her car is closing in on her, that the metal is compacting. The seatbelt keeps her locked down to the driver’s seat and she can’t leave if she wants to. The Satomobile holds her hostage and she lets it. Even while it’s hurting her, even while it’s harshly molding itself onto her, she stays at her father’s heel because, what else is she to do?

this is one of my favorite things ive ever done with asami’s character, is using future industries/satomobiles as a sort of vehicle (heh) for her relationship with her dad. this paragraph just kind of hurts, but the good hurt? but also not good hurt? it’s just, (and not me over here boasting about my writing or anything) it’s so poetic that she has this breakdown and she’s so upset with her dad, i mean “what should’ve been” like, asami KNOWS that the shit that’s just happened is more than wrong, yet asami is still somehow wondering how she can please her dad and it’s in the literal legacy hiroshi built for himself. “she stays at her father’s heel because, what else is she to do?” i remember writing that and being like “shit, am i really gonna do this? yeah” ugh, i could go on forever about how i love this section, but i’ll stop here for now.

Asami begins yelling, screaming at the top of her lungs, letting all the thoughts, all the insecurities her father gave her finally be released into the world. Kuvira lets her, simply nodding and following along on the couch while Asami paces her living room. She spews out word after word, about the work, about the presentation, about Iroh, his position, her position, the company, the CEO, and she only stops when she feels the weight of her father rest on her shoulders.

back with more diction; i really love this paragraph because of how we circle back to hiroshi. note how i first say “the CEO” and then a few words later say “her father” because, in a way, this is asami’s confession that hiroshi is CEO first and father second, if i haven’t already explicitly said so. it’s so heart wrenching and sad but my favorite thing about it is this isn’t even about korra. like THIS right here is a prime example about how i realized this fic became more than just a love story. in the planning stages of this fic, asami was going to go through getting the presentation taken away from her, but what was she going to focus more on? the fact that korra wasn’t around anymore. and yes, asami still does think about korra after this, but so much more happens for her. asami gets to know kuvira more, asami gets to know her lab partners more, (and my personal hc is that they’ve all been lab partners for two years and only NOW asami is getting to be friends with them in their senior year, but hey, better late than never!) and to me, what’s even better, is that a bunch of realizations come to asami w/o korra being there. asami is growing and the idea of being able to grow without needing to have a partner in order to grow is so important to me, not only for the fact that growth should be endless and something you do all the time for yourself, but asami literally wants to share it with korra. not boast about changing and growing and becoming better, but just be better with korra. sdlfakds i swear, im fangirling over my own writing, oops

okay, moving on from The Meeting and onto the rest of the chapter

this dock scene was also another part i wrote beforehand and it had a completely different ending in that asami was going to ask korra out on a date. of course, korra would’ve said yes, and then yay yay happy ending. this didn’t happen and i’m glad it didn’t. in one version of this dock scene, asami was actually going to be upset with korra for disappearing, and even worse, mad that korra wasn’t there to comfort her after the presentation. oof, i know. so so glad i didn’t continue down that line, cause it is toxic, and my girls aren’t like that at all.

Once Korra’s eyes meet hers, Asami says, “That doesn’t mean you always have to be on your own.” She smiles at Korra, at the girl who’s turned her world upside down. Her hand remains on Korra’s cheek and she feels the girl sink into her palm. “I’ll be here for you, and it seems like Tenzin will be too, what with saying he was calling you more. And you have his family, and your own family, even though they’re away, they’re here to support you, we all are. You can still be strong and turn to other people for help. It takes great strength to ask for help and I know for a fact you’re strong enough, those bags of coffee beans were nothing for you.”

i like this line of dialogue here for a few reasons, mostly because asami is so soft and so right and the joke at the really helped lighten the mood but didn’t take away from what she’d just said before. i don’t have too much else about the Reunions section, though if you guys have any questions or anything you wanna point out, please do so! i think what i will say is that i tried to be as real and gentle with korra’s progression. i was so nitpicky about everything i wrote because i didn’t want to get any of it wrong or over dramatized or fake. recovery from anything is so important and it takes time and it’s not a straight line so i hope i did a good job with it the rest of the fic. 

moving on, i love the found family trope and this leads me into the next section, New Friends

when i think about this section, i like how soft it is, and i really enjoy the ending bits: korra recounting memories from the south, asami meeting tenzin. i think what i like about the end of this chapter is that, it kind of leaves the question: what’s next?

asami has grown, she’s changed, she sees the errors of her father’s ways but she’s not excusing them. korra has grown, she’s changing, she’s taken the first step in recovery. now it’s just a matter of, what happens with this growth now. and i really loved how i wrapped up the fic in the next and last chapter, so i hope you enjoy it too :))

honorable mentions:

there were a lot of changes in this chapter and one of them got changed twice! korra was gonna get a therapist but then i was like, we gotta get the krew together, and then i was like supppppoorttttt grouuuppppp, because lets be honest, all the krew has stuff they need to work through, and i know therapy isn’t for everyone, but mental health is so vital and important. asami is an advocate for therapy in the chapter but there are also other means to take care of yourself and your mental health and while i’ve never been to a support group, i understand finding comfort in knowing you’re not alone.

i guess what i’m trying to say is please take care of yourself and dont be afraid to lean on others. i know not everyone has the means to get a therapist/psychiatrist and i know that your friends aren’t made to only be your therapist. buuuut, don’t be afraid to reach out, there’s nothing wrong with needing help and support :)

anything i would’ve wanted to change?

honestly, i think the only thing i would’ve wanted to change was mako’s speech during the support group meeting. for me, it was a lil bit too poetically out of character. not to say i want to change the content, but rather the manner in which it’s presented. other than that though, i really loved writing this chapter :)

so this analysis was reeeaaaalllly long, i understand if not everyone made it to end. anyways, thanks so much for reading this analysis and the fic! once again, i’m very much open to questions and any comments, i love them very much! i’ll see you guys in the next analysis of the final chapter :)

[afoxysunny]

Ziggy as Mouse the Mighty

I struggled so so much with him on every stage until completion that's why he had to wait for last

With just Stephanie as his main positive influence while growing up Ziggy took a lot longer to get a handle on his sugar addiction. As a kid he regularly ate nothing but candy until he got sick to his stomach. Only once he started puberty his tastebuds changed a little and slowly he was able to tolerate too much sweetness less and less. He still loves to eat everything sweet but mostly things that actually can count as meals instead of just lollipops all day every day.

Here are the references i used for his design

I was so lost and absolutely clueless what to do for his design even after settling on giving him the Mouse Miraculous. So much so that i ranted about it to my mom who just said "a mouse superhero sounds really simple, just a mouse and a superhero" and, god, bless her, that just clicked for me

Why does he look most like a magical girl out of all of them? I sure can't tell you but I'm kind of loving it!

Design Notes:

Mouse Superhero - look, Ziggy is a simple guy and Superhero trash. He hears he gets to be a mouse superhero so when he transforms he gets the most cliché parts of mouse and superhero. Once that idea clicked with my mind the design itself luckily went pretty smooth

Cape - of cause he needs a cape, there will never be a Ziggy without cape that's just not an option. How fortunate that this entire outfit is magic, otherwisr the cape and the jumprope would absolutely get tangled with each other

Hair - he already has very light blond hair canonically but i think they'd be a little darker now that he's grown up a bit. With the transformation they turn light again almost like loosing a little bit of their saturation to be a little closer to the Mouse Miraculous, Mullo's colour. Also i went for the cliché hairstlye of "lol buns for ears" that is the most obvious answer for when you want to combine a human and an animal

Jumprope - I debated a lot whether he gets actual mouse ears or not but because i wanted the jumprope to kinda act like a headband i didn't think that'd be pleasant to have around actual ears. That mostly came about because i really wanted to give him that iconic superhero belt with the same symbol that's on his chest; it's the symbol for the mouse Miraculous

Miraculous Necklace - with the transformation the pendant from the necklace turns into the closure of his cape. I'm so happy how well that blended into the design

Colours - hot take incoming: Ziggy may be my least favorite out of the Lazytown kids but i still like him a lot, i just happen to like the others better. Still i can say with great confidence that his in show design is so cute and colourful and recognizable i was so so lost, like how do you combibe that with a literal grey mouse? His outfit is blue, red, yellow and white while Mullo's colours consist of grey, black and pink. I ditvhed the red for the pink, the white got replaced with a light grey, dropped black and yellow almost completely they remained for just one detail each his hair and the pendant, the blue goes well with pink so that's what i settled on. Pink, blue and grey

Reasoning:

Like i said, he was the last one i found a Miraculous for. He and Jives tied in my decision for which one of them should get the monkey or the mouse. In retrospect it shouldn't have been so hard but I'm choosing to believe that just feels this way because the choice i made fits so well.

Ziggy is a little coward in the show and even dresses up as a mouse at one point when he, Trixie and Stephanie play wild animals. He also was the smallest (not anymore) and of cause still is the youngest. It just overall fits him really well. (as funny as i found the idea to give Jives, the tallest one, the mouse miraculous)

Story:

I'll be real with you, i thought up the least story for him simply because while i was still busy struggling with his design the others were already done and started spawning stories on their own. And Ziggy, in the show and even both musicals, just fits into the plot more for worldbuilding than to actually impact the plot so finding a place for him in a whole new story is a little hard for me.

Not to say i have nothing though.

Having always been borderline obsessed with superheroes but equally so with sugary sweets Ziggy mostly just dreamt of saving the world like they do in movies. However, every Miraculous grants everyone super human strength, agility, almost completely immunity to damage and other capabilities. Getting literally handed a free ticket to badassery Ziggy quickly becomes the posterchild for what is possible with such an opportunity. Simply through the concentrated power of will and excitement and his theoretical knowledge of how to be a cool hero he excels in training despite being easily the least fit out of all of them.

Yes, the first couple times when facing danger he has the impulse to use his Miraculous to run away and hide but when push comes to shove he's always there to help his friends any way he can. He's not the best with thinking of innovative ways to use his powers but he's great at following orders and putting his trust in the others thanks to his deep rooted respect for all of his friends.

Sometimes his seemingly natural talent can create trouble though. For example Pixel gets a littlw jealous over how effortlessly Ziggy seems to beat him in any aspect of their training despite logically not being in shape for any of it. But they're friends, they can talk about things, and Pixel knows that Ziggy isn't doing any of this on purpose to show off or anything, he's really just enjoying himself and their powers come easier with confidence

It also has a few drawbacks for Ziggy though. Literally not having to work hard at all and still getting to be an absolute powerhouse does not do well for his already bad habits with junkfood and exercising. He and Jives once agreed that Ziggy gets to eat anything Jives doesn't want but in the end that just leads to both of them getting extra meals from Sportacus and Robbie to make sure they don't go overboard in either direction

Name:

God, names are so not my strength, yet i think it kind of works for Ziggy here. His name is structured differently than any other alias because when he first transformed he had to hold a short over the top inspirational speech and end with "for I will do all i can to bring peace and normality back to this town for i am Mouse the Mighty!" He's extra like that. Even as a teen he's still baby.

Wow, damn, you really read all of that! Thank you so so much for listening to all my rambling this means the world to me. Thank you

[didanawisgi]

Not to alarm you, but... whoa

This was sent to me in an email from MVT, a tactical training group I was planning on taking courses from in the future. This is how some of these guys feel, not to alarm anyone, I just wanted to show you how serious the situation is in America right now. What you are about to read is a mainstream view, as in millions and millions and millions of Americans feel this way but are largely silent at the moment. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but I thought it would be worth sharing so you could feel the same sense of alarm I felt going through my emails... - REGIII, M.D., 32, RAM ‘Modern Alchemist’   

“BLUF: What you need to hear, but don’t want to.

Let’s keep things simple, shall we.

We are facing the end of the Republic. It is easily argued that it already expired, the point being that now we face a deep state coup, massive election fraud, huge corruption, an attempted Marxist takeover, and foreign control from China.

Democrats are traitors to the Republic. Republicans are not much better. The rule of law is dead: nothing that Trump has attempted to do has been done. He is surrounded by the deep state. The three letter agencies (of which so many of you are so afraid) have sold out to the dark side. They are part of the deep state.

Many of you are sold on the PSYOP that there is a plan in place. You may follow QAnon. “Trust the plan.” There is no plan. The attorneys who have attempted to fight the election fraud in court are fools. Why? Because they are working in an old system, where they had success with big lawsuits in court, and cannot get their heads around the massive corruption of the rule of law and the court system. They are working in an old system that no longer has merit. The supreme court is not doing its job. The Lawyers will not save you; you have to save yourself.

I would like to be wrong, and I would be happy to be so. But I don’t think so. Unless Trump pulls a plan out of his ass, Biden is getting sworn in on the 20th of January. The reprieve we had during the four years of the Trump Presidency will be over.

Most of America is sleeping. They expect that we will get over this. They expect a ‘return to normal.’ That is not going to happen. In 2021, it will all be over. The Republic will be finally dead. They hate you, and will be after you. That means your livelihood, your family, even your very lives. It always happens with a socialist administration. Even when you tell yourself that “it can’t happen here.” America is the prize, and it will happen here more than anywhere else.

Thus we face huge normalcy bias and denial. And this is the key, what I want to talk about here today.

I wrote a recent article called “Trust in Combat.” What I didn’t do was give you the answer to the problem. I will do so today, however much you don’t want to hear it.

The Trust in Combat article focused on the problems with forming groups, and training, and all the inherent issues about ego that will destroy a group, which is formed before the actual need for that group. Thus, we form groups now which are aimed at surviving hard times, but are operating now in easy times. Thus, ego will play and when it comes time, when you are actually in combat and the rounds are flying, it is likely to all fall down.

And that is the issue. We are either facing war, or perhaps we are not facing war at all, given the somnolence of the American population. We would tell ourselves that at some point, they must wake up. But will they? Or will they go to the camps like the citizens of the USSR? Will they tell themselves that “it will be resolved in the courts.” I really don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball. I have no idea how this will play out.

I will tell you that there is no point waiting until the Marxist coup is consolidated, and strongly in place. Unless Trump is able to pull something out of the bag (a PSYOP story that will keep many of you hesitating) then what needs to happen is that We The People stand up. But we know that We The People will not do this. The ‘conservatives’ are either corrupt, or as seen with many of the ‘MAGA’ voters, are too focused on picking up litter and being polite, despite the assaults from Antifa. There comes a time to forget about the litter, and be rude as fuck. We are facing a civilizational assault on Liberty and the United States Constitution. And all we really care about is picking up litter, being polite, and trying to get by. There is absolutely no point in keeping arms, for resisting tyranny, if you have absolutely no intention of using them. All these quotes about blades of grass and the American Riflemen make me laugh; weapons will be banned and everyone will hand them in, because they were conditioned and told to do so (see how many are wearing masks?) Except, of course, for those who won’t; the problem being that they will be small groups and individuals.

So, however we get there, we will be at war. Whether the left comes for us, and however we resist, whether it be in small or large groups, we will be at war. This means that hardly anyone is trained, or physically fit enough; we will end up in combat as a total shit show. It’s going to be a total disaster and a lot of people will unnecessarily die. But that is just the way it is, because hardly anyone has the foresight to get fit, prepared and trained before such an event. We will be suddenly involved in some sort of Bosnian civil war scenario with absolutely no preparation and no forming of trusted, reliable, teams in advance.

So what is the solution? Individually we must do all we can to get fit, trained and equipped. We just know that we cannot form groups before the war, because of the way we are (‘Rugged Individuals’), and even groups that already exist are most likely flawed because they are not tested in combat (not fully trusted and tested in advance). The moment that the rounds start flying, is exactly the moment when all the unspoken issues of ego and trust start appearing, and before you know it, no one is doing what you trained to do (or not trained?) No one is moving. See my ‘Trust in Combat” article if you have not read it already.

What needs to happen is that, when people finally wake up and realize that they need to fight back, they need discipline and organization. People fight for a couple of things, and those can be summed up as 1) the group, and love of the group / not wanting to appear a coward in front of them and 2) discipline. This discipline can be found in the military with UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice. The military is a legitimate organization where in small teams, the ‘alpha’ personalities are kept in check by a mixture of UCMJ (the hard check) and a general understanding that for the team to succeed, leaders must be supported. If leaders are generally supported, then people will do less dying (assuming competent leadership), and the team will be successful. None of this takes away from the wider discussion of leaders, for example, listening to helpful planning suggestions, not being a nightmare of a leader (effective leadership) and the rest; thus assuming relative competence from leadership, it is a good idea that the leader is supported in his role. Otherwise “we break down, the machine breaks down.”

How does this happen in civilian groups, either formed now or formed after hostilities begin? The leader must be able to rely on his team. He must be able to assume discipline and adherence to orders. When he expects someone to move, they must move. There must be a system of some form of oath, and some form of UCMJ. If people fail to do as ordered in combat, or are willfully disobedient, then they will face effective discipline.

And we know that this is not an acceptable plan for all of you “you are not the boss of me” types. ‘Rugged Individualists” (LOL), who will die as such.

When we talk about some of our favorite things, like the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, and we refer to the organizations of the day, we have to realize that these were either Armies or Militias. The Colonial Militia was an actual military force with leaders and discipline. Yes, I know that the Bosnia x Rwanda situation that we are likely to face is not the same war as they fought, but the point being that you cannot expect men to rise to combat without training and discipline. Without that they are just a mob, and will likely be as effective. And for those that don’t want to hear it, this is also not he same as a ‘militia muster’ with untrained and unfit people showing up to ‘muster’ in a field and then going home. Again, just another form of a mob.

Take it or leave it, I provide this to you as a solution. Given that it is likely to be rejected, all I can tell you is that you are best at home defending your family from the socialist hell that will be unleashed in 2021. That in itself is not an effective remedy, and allows us to be taken down one by one.

As for Trump, if he is going to act, he needs to act now. This situation will not be solved in the courts, it can only be solved by supra-legal action. By which I mean the insurrection act and whole lot of members of the coup going to jail / the firing squad. This has been termed “Crossing the Rubicon” but he must do so mindful of the best interest of the Constitution. Consolidate power, fix it, and step down. This would be truly in the spirit of a Roman ‘Dictator.’ But I don’t think he has it in him, and I don’t believe that he is really playing ‘4D chess.’ Prove me wrong. I would rather be wrong, than face the hell of a civil war, which many of us will not survive, victorious or not.”

Source: Originally posted here at the MVT blog: https://maxvelocitytactical.com/where-we-are/