#which are missing their pair

[fcaruana]

the way he gets excited and starts speaking at 7383 km/h

[alalnsted]

[mirellapryce]

I genuinely believe that Charles and Edwin are soulmates, in the sense that fate, the universe and Destiny would all make sure these two meet. Specifically I believe that these two are meant to be a reincarnated soulmate pair, and that in every life before 1916, these two were fated to meet and love each other, in whatever capacity that meant.

When Edwin died and was dragged to Hell, that disrupted his reincarnation cycle, so the Charles from his time lived and died never meeting his soulmate. The Charles we know was technically born without a soulmate because Edwin never reincarnated, so it only makes sense that their souls met again the way they did. It was Destiny that these two would meet, and love each other again. They may be a generation off, but it was fate.

[sieglinde-freud]

let it be known that i love prince inigo with my whole soul. however sometimes it is SO much fun to think about owain and his two most loyal-est knights you ever seen: worst guy in the world #1 and worst guy in the world #2. i love retainer inigo and severa so much. retainers who bully you and make fun of you and trash on you but they’d leave behind everyone and everything they ever knew to follow you and protect you in a whole new universe. they love you so much that they’d swear allegiance to total strangers but that loyalty pales in comparison to what they’d do for you. and they were all lovers!!!!!!!

[finalacts]

something i've been thinking about with pluto is how the core three--ai, oom, and may--all have prescribed "roles" in their tangled mess of a relationship and how that has made it incredibly difficult for each character to see themselves and each other as People outside of those roles. this is where i think their core miscommunication happens, because it's not that the characters don't talk, it's more that they are constantly talking at or past each other, not to.

aioon and oaboom are obvious--aioon's the dutiful older sister, selfless to the point of being self-sacrificial, and oaboom's the overshadowed younger sister, precious only because her "weakness"** requires more attention. for aioon, moving forward is going to look like figuring out how to be a good sister/granddaughter without giving up her sense of self, and learning that these two things are actually one and the same--as we've seen, every time she sacrifices her happiness for what she thinks others want from her, it actually comes back to bite her in the ass. for oaboom, it's unlearning the belief that she is a burden because of her illness and learning that her ability to be loved is innate and does/should not need to be externally validated. for them both, it's going to include forgiving themselves and each other for their parents' deaths and all of the childhood hurts that ensued.

may is a little trickier to figure out, and i think i've settled on hers being that her identity and worldview--her role, literally--is almost entirely defined by that first interaction (one that aioon doesn't even remember, mind you). not only is attaching your entire sense of self to someone else's love for you just unhealthy in general, i actually think she spends quite a significant portion of the series unable to see aioon in her entirety because of it (not to mention how it basically caused the mess that was her relationship with oom). to her, aioon is still that teenage girl who showed her she was worth fighting for and how to fight--she's her savior. may's attachment to aioon is all encompassing, and it is devastating. it's why may keeps making aioon promise to choose her over everything else, not realizing that aioon (as she is now) would never be able to deliver. it's why her manipulations (lovebombing aioon every time she tries to tell her the truth or leave) ultimately don't work--aioon is not driven by love the same way she is. for aioon, that first meeting is inconsequential. it's not her lifeforce the way it is may's.

given all of this and the breakup at the end of ep 11, i think the only way forward for may is to figure out who she is outside of aioon--specifically, outside of this need to be loved by aioon. who is may as a person, an attorney, a cousin, a friend, when she doesn't have aioon guiding her (physically or otherwise)? personally, it's the only way i can see their relationship balancing out: may needs to have other things driving her the way aioon is driven by her family and friends, or else they'll just end up back where they started--with aioon leaving and may devastated.

ideally, their reunion would look something like aioon, the writer, meets metavee, the attorney, rather than aioon, may's first love, (re)meets may, aioon's twin sister's ex. a core theme in pluto is how our fixation on the past makes us unable to move forward, and how we should learn from our mistakes but not be haunted and bogged down by them. what aioon and may need is a fresh start, a chance to build upon new foundation, and i hope the ep 11 >> ep 12 time jump gives them that.

**just a quick aside mostly for myself to say that oaboom being canonically chronically ill is very interesting to me!! and i will be letting the thoughts abt that and how disability in general plays out in pluto percolate some more

[lansplaining]

please talk about gusu shuangbi oooh my god gusu shuangbi. Today I was thinking about how an alternate translation would be the paired jades

this ask made me think about Lan Qiren, and his line at the end of the novel lamenting what had become of his two perfect pupils. something about “paired jades” instead of “twin” suggests a duo that were polished and cut in order to be paired together, rather than being born that way. made to be this flawless duo that could sit at the front of the Lan clan and maybe distract from anything that happened in the past.

and THAT has got me thinking about the passivity of the image overall: two perfect stones in a case, unlike the twin heroes/prides of Yunmeng, who are obviously deliberately playing on that image but in a way that emphasises their activity, the things they’ll do to earn that title.

which makes me think of Lan Qiren again, and the second part of that thought, which is something like “who never caused him any worry.” they’re just meant to sit there and be lovely and polished and not trouble anyone or anything.

[cent-scratchnsniff]

FAILURE; INABILITY

[ultravioletlightwaves]

Rogers, who has worked as the catcher for all of Skubal's starts, jogged to the mound at Globe Life Field to examine his batterymate. He investigated by poking just beneath Skubal's eye with his left index finger, and then, for no reason in particular, he slapped Skubal softly on the other side of his face with his right hand.

"I gave him a little love tap there," Rogers said.

Skubal couldn't help but smile.

"He's a beauty," Skubal said.

------

"I think we have a better relationship off the field than we do on the field," said Skubal, who spent two weeks with Rogers at the alternate site before making his MLB debut in August 2020. "That's not to say we don't get along on the field. It's just, that's how close I am with that guy."

-------

Before every game, Skubal and Rogers complete the USA TODAY crossword puzzle as part of their individual pregame routines.

...

Skubal has improved significantly at the USA TODAY crossword, thanks to lessons learned from Alexander and Rogers along the way, but he still asks Rogers for help.

"I'd say, every other day I need good help," Skubal said, "but some other days I can get it. Today, I got it by myself. Typically, if you can get going and get some clues, it helps you out. If you get stuck in one area, and then you get one word, it'll unlock like 15 words. He'll help me get the one. He's like, 'OK, this is the one that will unlock the puzzle.' And then I'll be able to do a lot of it."

Skubal and Rogers also exchange at least one text message every single day, whether the Tigers are in spring training, the regular season or the offseason.

It's because Skubal and Rogers play Wordle, a web-based game in which players have six attempts to guess a daily five-letter word that's the same for all players. They have texted each other their results every day for the past two years. There's usually lively banter between them, especially if someone doesn't get the word within the allotted six guesses.

-------

Skubal had talked about getting Rogers a gift at the end of last season for catching every pitch of his incredible campaign, much like Justin Verlander would buy a watch for his catcher after throwing a no-hitter. Before the follow-up season begins, Skubal delivered in his usual low-key fashion.

“He got a nice little gift on his wrist, a nice Rolex,” Skubal said Friday. “I just gave it to him the first day I saw him here.”

Actually, two watches.

As a left-handed pitcher with a 100+ mph fastball and a nasty changeup and slider, Skubal is arguably one of one. The watch he gave Rogers is one of two, with Skubal buying the other for himself.

------

The gift is a reflection of that trust. Since then, Rogers has been trying to find occasions to wear the watch, which he joked might be the most expensive thing he owns.

“I’ve been [in] ragged shorts and a t-shirt wearing it,” he said. “I’m wearing it every day. I just got engaged and we got engagement pictures, so I got to wear it last night and show it off a little bit -- hopefully not taking away from her ring. …

“But again, it means a lot to me, so I’m going to try to wear it as much as I can.”

(source one) (source two)

[caguaydreams]

Self indulgent sketches from when I started playing TotK :)

[luna-the-cretar]

Fuck it I’m rewatching eom

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Had to explain to a friend today that No Really I Swear Magneto And Professor X Are Friends And Like Each Other Thats Canon And Real

[sieglinde-freud]

oh im obsessed with this actually… who ever wrote this one i am kissing u on the forehead and hugging you real tight… inigo is such a loverboy im kkkhhhhhhijnsdnfng

[dearlybelovedemilyko]

shadows house is NOT "the selfcest bait anime". except of course when it is. and when that's the case i fully endorse it

[slipperyslideyday]

Honestly Deltarune explores how compulsory heterosexuality ruins close relationships really well, too many people can’t handle nonbinary people as a concept to even see what’s being put on the table tho