#Aza talks too much

[azalawa-scroggs]

I don't think Miles Edgeworth and Franziska von Karma were passive victims.

They are victims, don't mistake me. The ideology of absolute perfection is messed up and every single member of that family is a victim of it, though Manfred is a perpetrator too. Miles especially is a victim - his father murdered, his father's murderer taking him in, either with hatred in his heart or growing to hate him to the point of wanting his life destroyed. But I don't think either Miles or Franziska realised they were victims before Turnabout Goodbyes - Justice for All, for Franziska. I think they fully believed in the von Karma creed and all it entails and gave themselves to it fully and enthusiastically.

What I'm saying is, give me a five-year old Franziska begging to be allowed in law tutoring sessions with Miles. Give me a Miles bitter, disillusioned after DL-6, confiding in his mentor that he thinks he wants to be a prosecutor and not a defence attorney. Give me a Franziska whose "whims" are dismissed by her father, fighting to prove that yes she can be a prosecutor at thirteen - fighting to prove her worth. Give me a Miles more zealous than Manfred in his condemnation of criminals, fervently repeating precepts that Manfred dictates out of habit. Give me a Franziska raised by domestics who don't know how to handle her strong character and barely looked upon by her father, growing up indulged in everything but what she needs the most. Give me a Miles lost, grieving for his father and the moral beacon he represented; give me Miles latching onto Manfred as a new model role, burying an identity now painful and shameful to him to shape himself after Manfred, picking the same suit as him, imitating his every gesture; give me Miles calling him a god or prosecution not entirely out of fear but out of admiration. Give me Manfred looking on them with his head held high and the rare smile, distant but seemingly not inaccessible until they actually try. Give me a dynamic where they don't so much try to avoid his blows or his harsh words as they desperately seek his nod of approval. Give me a world in which they're terrified of him but they fear him out of love, not out of expectation of retribution. Give me a story where they don't rue their loneliness, but take pride in it.

Give me Miles and Franziska unknowing actors of their own unhappiness.

[aza-trash-can]

??????

Damn, I'm one talkative bastard

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

To continue the theme of "wtaf is up with that sanctuary that feeds bears Twizzlers and camels Mountain Dew", here's another recent social media post I find rather concerning. Who the heck is giving cheetah - vulnerable animals with a very small population - to a sanctuary that is rabidly, openly anti-zoo and anti-conservation breeding?

The reason this stands out to me so much is that there just like... are not cheetah in sanctuaries in the US. Most cheetah in the US are part of a breeding program, either AZA's SSP or ZAA's AMP - it's not common to find them in even unaccredited zoos, much less newly moved to sanctuaries. Of the 400-some cheetah I found doing the big cat census in 2020, there were less than 10 in facilities that branded themselves as sanctuaries. So where did these cats come from?

What's more, okay, there's no trace of these ladies on social media before now. The Wild Animal Sanctuary is normally very open about their acquisitions, and no facility they've gotten animals from since their last USDA inspection has had cheetah. I haven't heard about any imported cheetah recently either, which is another thing you can check for this facility, because the majority of their rescues are imported from all over the world.

There's another weird thing about this post, too. Look at the language. It's all very "here's a cheetah! they're very happy outdoors in their nice habitat." And if you're not facility with this institution and their messaging, you might not catch why that's odd. This facility emphasizes, in every post they can, that their animals are rescued from horrible no-good very-bad abusive situations. Normally they name and shame if they can, or talk about how they came from the cub petting industry or private exploitation or such. There's none of that in this post, and it stands out because of it - especially because it's the first time these very rare, very charismatic big cats are being shared with their audience.

So where the heck did these cats come from?

Whelp.

Turns out the answer is AZA-accredited zoos. And whew, man, does that raise some questions.

Luckily these girls have some pretty distinctive names, so I was able to find them in the international and regional cheetah studbooks pretty easily. For both cats, the most recent listing in the studbooks was at AZA-accredited zoos in Texas: in 2020 Dahlila was living at Caldwell Zoo, and in 2022 Jaina was at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.

Now, we don't know for sure that Caldwell and Fossil Rim are the facilities that chose to dump their cheetah in a sanctuary. There's some important context to know about exotic animal ownership and how animals leave AZA SSPs. General practice is that large charismatic mammals aren't bought and sold at AZA zoos, especially SSP animals, so animals sent out to other facilities for breeding or exhibition are moved around on loan. Sometimes their ownership changes with the transfer, but not always - it really depends on the species and how much control each facility wants to have over their animals. On top of that, the ownership of offspring sometimes alternates by litter or individual between the institutions that own the parents. When they're part of a cooperative breeding program none of that matters very much because all the animals are managed as a single population and moved as required for breeding and to fill empty display spaces. Where it's relevant is when an animal is removed from the SSP population - at that point it's totally up to the facility that owns it to choose where they live, as long as they send them somewhere AZA agrees is providing a reasonable standard of care. (This will be important in a little bit.)

So what we can tell from this situation is that Jaina and Dahlila were, for some reason, probably excessioned from the SSP in the last couple years. And whichever AZA facilities owned them decided to send them to The Wild Animal Sanctuary instead of finding a display-only placement at a zoo or safari park or similar facility.

Since I started writing this post, TWAS confirmed the origin of these girls in a Facebook comment.

I have real concerns about what appears to be an emerging trend of exotic animal exhibition facilities using sanctuaries as a "dumping ground" for their elderly or extra animals, in order to prioritize space for breeding or more desirable animals. I can't prove it yet, but there's been just enough weird transfers to have caught my attention. (In some cases, there's a good reason - sometimes all the habitats designed for the physical needs of elderly animals of a certain species already are full, and it's better for them to go somewhere they can exist more easily rather than trying to retrofit their current habitat - but it isn't every case). And here's the thing: many sanctuaries, like TWAS, message about how they have to exist to take all the discards from the zoo industry. In recent years that hasn't really been accurate, and historically, it did happen but not as commonly as it's portrayed. So... if that's true... and it's a bad thing... why are sanctuaries encouraging it by taking the animals zoos are transferring out to free up space? You'd think they'd want to say "find space in your own institutions and only call us if there's a crisis." (Money. The answer is money. Every new intake is used for marketing and drives additional donations.) Heck, why are zoos playing into that narrative, when they're frequently rebutting attacks claiming they discard the animals that aren't useful or aesthetic anymore?

All of this actually makes a lot of sense given how short on space all the AZA SSP programs are. Both in general, and for big cats, there are not enough spaces across accredited zoos to hold all the animals needed for sustainable populations. (This is why AZA just recently re-imagined their SSP programs, which is a whole other complicated mess that I am working on a writeup about). Recent political shifts within AZA corporate leadership have also discouraged collaborations between AZA-accredited zoos and non-AZA facilities, so while 20 years ago it would have been fine to move extraneous / non-breeding cats to smaller unaccredited facilities for display, that's less of an option. Which leaves sanctuaries as kind of the only politically appropriate option. This would also explain why the text of the post is so weird: there's probably a contract in place to prevent using their images to bash zoos.

The problem with sanctuaries as a solution for housing extra animals is, well, the quality of care they provide. If you haven't seen me say it before: sanctuaries are as varied in their expertise and function as zoos. In the case of The Wild Animal Sanctuary (and their other facilities, like the Refuge these cheetah are at) everything I have learned about them indicates that their animal care is highly questionable. Which is a problem, because - as mentioned earlier - AZA-accredited facilities are required to follow a responsible population management policy, which means ensuring that animals they send outside of AZA go somewhere that gives them high-quality care.

TWAS is an organization that prefers to feed big cats at multiple facilities frozen meat puree "frisbees" by chucking them over the fence. They don't have any way to separate co-housed cats to prevent conflict during feeding or resource guarding, because they don't build their enclosures with any sort of shift or lock-out areas. It's also unclear how they remove food waste without a way to shift animals out to go find it. (For bears they drive in on a truck into the habitat and then go on foot to clean, but I don't know if that's done with the big cats once they’ve been released from quarantine pens.

(These are my photos of food in carnivore habitats at TWAS this summer. Given the pest accumulation on the meat frisbee and the fact that I visited early in the day, it seems probable it was at least a day old.)

This is an organization that is ethically against training their animals for any reason: it's literally written into their statement of purpose as a “true sanctuary.” It's also described below, in a recent book published about the facility.

That policy means these cheetahs will not have a recall behavior, will not be trained for medical examinations or as a way to lower stress for procedures, and will not get the mental enrichment and interaction they're used to from regular training sessions. According to the book, medications are delivered on a long spoon / tongs tucked inside the cat equivalent of a pill pocket. (Which anyone with a pet cat knows falls apart as a plan if they're sick enough to not feel hungry).

I'm pretty sure there's no heated shelter for the large carnivores or bears at TWAS. The main shelter for animals at the Sanctuary is single-entrance concrete culverts buried underground far enough they're supposed to maintain a constant temperature all winter.

Sounds nice in theory, but with no second exit animals can get trapped down there, and there's no way to monitor them when they're inside. I don't know what type of shelter the Refuge provides, but it probably isn't much different. Even the quarantine spaces - smaller outdoor kennel-type pens with three exposed mesh panel walls - have no heat, and just an above-ground culvert block for them to curl up in. While cheetah are surprisingly adaptable to cold weather, winters in Colorado can be very harsh for prolonged periods of time.

As far as I know, most of the animals at facilities TWAS runs don't get regularly changed, novel enrichment. I've certainly never seen much in the habitats other than climbing structures when I've visited their main facility over the years, and most of their messaging around “toys” is semi-permanent furniture like giant telephone wire spools or a suspension bridge for climbing. I think some of the bears get balls? The messaging from TWAS is that their animal care is better because it's close to a natural life in the wild. Animals can be animals! When returned to their wild roots, animals shouldn't need anything from humans and are happier that way, etc.

When animals come to the Sanctuary (or the partner facility, the Refuge) they're literally chucked into a big fenced-off piece of land and left out there to "be cats" without human interaction except for feeding time and observations. Which is the polar opposite of what these cheetah are used to! AZA cheetahs, even those that aren't program animals, are intensely managed. They're used to regular human contact, frequent training, and constant enrichment. So what's "normal" for a wild cat is a far cry from what these cheetah girls have always known. That's not better - that's a loss of quality of life.

I don't understand how moving animals to places like TWAS is in line with AZA's Responsible Collection Management policy. I don't understand how AZA facilities think the type of husbandry the facility describes providing is acceptable. If another zoo utilized half the same care practices, they'd be drawn and quartered by their industry peers as well as by the public - and rightfully so. I don't understand why anyone wants to send animals there, based even just on what's easily observable. I don't have more information or really a conclusion, just that’s what's observable from an external vantage point is upsetting as heck and I worry for those cheetah girls.

[angelltheninth]

Paradise Comes Back to You

Pairing: Aza Chobe x Fem!Reader

Tags: nsfw, smut, rough sex, possessive sex, creampie, reunion sex, thank god you're alive sex, kissing, biting, slight dirty talk

A/N: Like I said, I'm going feral for him so he will in turn go feral as well.

"You're okay, thank fuck. I was worried." Aza's hands ran over your body up and down the best he could with your bodies pressed against each other fully, hips barely parting from one another before they slapped together again. "I thought about you every day, every night."

You hummed against Aza's lips, delighting in the way his tongue greedily pushed into your mouth. You never wanted to let him go again, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and digging your nails into his skin, your other head tangled into his hair, feeling slightly rougher then the last time you saw him. You didn't mind, you didn't mind how rough he was, you missed that roughness, that passion he gave to you.

"Missed you too, Aza. But I knew you'd come back to me, you always did." Truth be told there were many who told you he would die on that island, but you knew Aza better then anyone, he gave you his word, and he would keep it, "Tell me, are you still..." You bit his neck, muffling your moans as he sped up, cock hitting so deep inside you, deeper then your fingers could ever reach, "...are you still mine a I am yours?"

"Always, always been yours baby." Aza growled against your cheek, his hand finding your cheek and pushing up to look at you, his face soft and smiling, "I never went a single night without dreaming about you. It was so frustrating, waking up every day, hard as a rock without your warm cunt to sink it in. To spill my cum in, I wasted so much, and all I wanted was to give it to you."

Hearing his words made your heart skip a beat, he missed you just as you missed him, dreamt the same dreams you did. Perhaps, in a way, you were able to meet each other there, to still kiss and make love on those nights apart. That was a possibility, but this, this was reality, he was real, holding you, kissing you, his hot, pulsing cock sliding in and out.

"Then give it to me, Aza." You pulled him into yet another deep kiss, licking over the scars on his lips as you did so and let your release wash over you, and finally, after all this time you got to feel his cum filling you up again, so much of it, so quickly, a seemingly never ending euphoria between you two, the reunited lovers.

[munsons-mutiny]

I’ve had this headcanon forever and it’s just never come up anywhere, so I figured it’s time to write about it.

Caleb’s spell that he makes for Veth, Widogast’s Transmorigification, has major implications for Exandria’s trans population! This could be the magical equivalent of top or bottom surgery only it’s down to a biological level! I’m sure they’ve had their own procedures, but a body that you can personally design does seem like an upgrade from whatever technology/magic they have available!

I like to believe that Caleb doesn’t think about the spell in that context at first, why would he? It was designed for someone with a different type of body dysphoria, and he doesn’t interact with too many trans people (at least that he knows, I have no clue if he knows about Yussa, and they haven’t seen Bryce in ages).

But once he starts teaching, and establishes himself as a safe space for queer kids (you can’t tell me the empire is super open minded, especially their most prestigious traditional institution) the application becomes obvious. The first time his favorite student, a small purple tiefling named Aza who reminds him so much of Molly it hurts, comes to him mid-breakdown because of how bad the dysphoria is the solution just immediately pops into his head. He could fix this for her, give her the body she should’ve been born in.

He comforts her the best he can and then calls a meeting of the lgbt club he has set up (it’s run under the radar to make it safe even for students who aren’t out to their peers yet). Where he gives a presentation on the spell, and it’s capabilities, even has Veth come in to show the results and have her talk about her experience and if there had been any side effects.

A couple students in the room cry at the possibility, some remain uninterested, but many are enraptured with the idea.

In what seems like the blink of an eye Caleb has suddenly become an underground queer hero, he starts performing the spell free of cost to anyone who wants it and is above the legal age (you just have to help dig up the clay if you can). Ends up having a whole medical procedure to the spell, where he takes them to the blooming grove (which I imagine has plenty of clays heheh) where it’s peaceful and they can talk everything over with caduceus before and after. Who can guide them through their feelings much better than Caleb though he always tries his best. He always offer the option to go back as well (though they have to wait a year, which is of course stated beforehand) if it isn’t the solution they were hoping for.

(Totally off track but I fully believe Caduceus ends up super involved in Caleb’s queer club, there’s so little aro ace rep and seeing someone whose so confident in it would be so helpful for them, and I think it would be so comforting for Caddy to see others like him and to know he’s not alone in that)

They keep the whole operation quiet, but it spreads silently throughout the queer community, Astrid even stepping in a time or two to keep it off the Assembly’s radar (She may be straight, but she’s poly with a bi partner, and I believe she’ll use her powers for causes she believes in for better or worse. Thankfully this is one of them).

There’s still discrimination against the queer community, but this quiet movement starts to spread to the point that almost every member of the nein is involved. Beau uses her connections at the Soul to get new documentation for people with proper names and pronouns. Yasha starts running Rexxentrum’s first self-sustainable lgbt safehouse for kids with nowhere to go (the garden is incredible). Jester and Fjord turn Fjord’s old orphanage into a second lgbt safehouse after he gets it shut down. Veth adds lgbt education to her camps curriculum, and is an advocate for same sex healthcare in the Nicodranas school system. She has a tunic that says proud mother of a bisexual wizard that she wears a little too often much to Caleb’s chagrin. Even Kingsley (illegal pirate king that he may be, my beloved) ends up becoming as involved as possible in Caleb’s group. Loves learning more about gender identity, and becomes the first Plank King to be openly gender fluid (probably who knows, I don’t know much about Darktows history but I def didn’t get super queer vibes). Makes sure Dark-Tow is accepting of all who turn to piracy, and imposes harsh laws against discrimination.

Essek looks on all of this with pride, so proud of Caleb and even the small role that he got to play in the spells creation. It’s the first time he gets to see something he helped with create good in the world. With Caleb’s permission he ends up sneaking back into the dynasty and leaving a copy of the finished spell on the Bright Queens desk, with a big created by Caleb Widogast across it (with whatever the wizard equivalent of copyright is). In a culture that centers around rebirth in different bodies, the idea that you could choose to have your original body back is a big deal. Dysphoria after consecuted individuals get their magic back is a huge problem within the dynasty, and it does Essek a lot of good to know that he’s done something actually helpful for his country.

Basically this got super long winded and out of hand, and I know Matt has largely cut homophobia, transphobia, and non-fantasy racism from Exandria but this idea would just not leave me alone!! And either way the spells implications for a gender affirming procedure are still super relevant.

[babacontainsmultitudes]

As some of you already know, I am disheartened- though certainly not surprised- by the recent backlash against one Sparrow Oak Garcia for his recent transgression of *checks notes* having a mixed-to-negative opinion on zoos.

Part of me honestly feels a bit silly responding to any of this, but what are any of us here to do if not have opinions on fictional podcast characters. Anyways, I will get to the more important stuff, as obviously (if you've seen any of the criticisms I'm talking about) this ties back to Hero at the end of the day, but seeing as the first wave of hate I saw after the episode was largely to the effect of: "what the fuck does Sparrow have against zoos?", I would like to start by addressing that point briefly (and only briefly, as it's really not the sort of topic I care to discuss online), by saying that zoos and animal captivity more generally have a long history of being contested and criticized by animal rights activists, and that instances of animal abuse and neglect within zoos and other animal-based theme parks are anything but obscure. Furthermore, it feels worth noting that as of present less than 10% of zoos in the US are AZA-accredited. I say absolutely none of this with the intention of making any definitive statements on the nature of zoos, nor to judge people who do enjoy zoos, nor even to provide my own feelings on the matter. Rather, I offer this information only to explain that someone like Sparrow taking issue with something like zoos really isn't strange at all? And whether you agree with such a stance or not, it undoubtedly comes from a place of empathy. Moreover, I don't think we can honestly divorce Sparrow's take and compulsion to voice it from the metacontext that Sparrow is a character being played by Anthony Burch, you know, a vegan, who probably has his own views on the matter that may or may not differ from yours and mine.

Okay, on to more important matters. At the forefront of things I suppose is the assertion that Sparrow's behavior regarding Normal and the zoo and all that is hypocritical and perhaps even nonsensical in light of what Hero was going through at the time with her training. "He wouldn't take Normal to the zoo but he forced Hero to kill a deer with her bare hands?" Certainly the sort of statement that will elicit a strong emotive reaction from the fandom, but one that ultimately relies on a pretty major assumption, namely, that Sparrow acted as the primary organizer and perpetrator of Hero's training, one who supposedly felt no internal conflict towards the situation whatsoever, rather than instead serving as an enabler of it, who ultimately intervened but only after far too much damage was already done. Neither is a great thing to be, but there is absolutely a difference between both of these roles, and I think that Lark and Sparrow's respective behaviors over the course of the season point almost unanimously towards Sparrow being the latter and Lark the former.

(The above being a non-exhaustive list, of course)

The funny part about the whole zoo thing is that it only further corroborates the notion that Sparrow is someone who is sensitive to the suffering of others, and by extension only serves as more evidence that he most likely was not the one actively making Hero undergo the worst of what she had to do. Does this make him guiltless in the matter? Absolutely not, but it does point to Sparrow having issues that are fundamentally different from Lark's, and means that the instance with the zoo is not only consistent with Sparrow's characterization, but frankly not actually all that hypocritical if you look at it for more than a second. That is, there is a very important but simple difference between the situation with Normal and the zoo and that of Hero and the deer that accounts for the variances in Sparrow's behavior between both cases: Lark. Sparrow isn't okay with either situation, based on all the evidence we have so far of who he is as a person there is absolutely no reason to think that Hero's training is not something that deeply upset him- I mean for fuck's sake everything about how Sparrow raised Normal down to his name stems from not wanting his kids to have to live that kind of life. So why doesn't he put a stop to things sooner? Why does he let any of Hero's training happen at all? Again, very simply, because Sparrow cannot say no to his brother. I mean, he does eventually, given Hero's current status, and that change is an important and still ongoing facet of Sparrow's growth and his arc, but at the start of things it is something he struggles with even more than he does now, to his own suffering and detriment and of course even more so to Hero's. But did Sparrow himself "force Hero to kill a deer with her bare hands"? Almost certainly not, and I have to admit that I find it quite frustrating how quickly Lark vanishes from the collective conscious of the fandom when the time comes to assign accountability for matters concerning Hero. But then, who is Sparrow if not someone who takes the fall for his brother, apparently even in the fandom-space.

[Not that there isn't any nuance to Lark's utilitarianism, either. In general I feel as though discussion of the twins' biggest mistakes too often omits the acknowledgement of the fact that all of it has been to stop an eldritch horror responsible for the death and torture of millions of people, but anyways. Not what this post is about.]

I think that's mostly it lol. Got some thoughts on the family's policy on pets (and how it relates to the Hero thing but also to Beanie actually), as well as some remarks on Rebecca and how we really shouldn't be leaving her out of this discussion (I say, leaving her out of this discussion) but eeehhhhhhh y'all I'm especially low energy as of late eheh and mostly just wanted to speak my peace on a couple major things so let's cut it here for now I think :b

[daisywords]

rereading Fairest bc I have my own copy now (yay $2.50 at a used bookstore!) and so far it's as lovely as I remember

but anyway I do like how Aza's "ugliness" is characterized by people actually treating her badly because of it. People talk about the stereotype of YA protagonists being like "oh poor me I'm so ugly" in an attempt to make them relatable but the narrative actually treats them like they are gorgeous and every character that isn't a villain finds them attractive.

Vs. here it's like. yeah her self perception is all tied up in cultural ideas of beauty and she's definitely not objective either, and a lot of what she thinks is inherent to her ugliness is all wrapped up her related social anxiety, etc.

but! It's very refreshing to see a book that deals so much with beauty standards actually commit to it! It's not like she's just vain and obsessed with looks! You can tell she wants to be beautiful because she wants to be treated like a person! The way it is just that blatant! Most people are rude to her or ignore her! And she makes it worse in her head and compounds the problem by letting her own insecurity draw attention to herself, but at the end of the day, she's right! People would treat her better if she looked different!

The details that we get about her appearance are not even "ugly" traits, either! Like we get the pale skin, black hair, red lips combo pulled directly from the traditional Snow White fairy tale, where those traits are supposed to be beautiful and desirable! But in this culture, apparently those traits are a part of her ugliness, which just perfectly highlights how the beauty standards are inherently arbitrary! And yet! They affect her life in real ways! It doesn't matter much how we, the reader, picture her; we believe that she is ugly because people treat her like she is!

Anyway I especially love how her insecurity regarding her size is portrayed. The combo of feeling small and meek and timid on the outside but being large and imposing on the outside. She feels like she takes up too much space. She doesn't want to wear anything at all attention grabbing. She doesn't know what to do with her limbs. Her biggest fear about demonstrating her magical singing trick is that she would have to show people how she moves her stomach (the horror!)

anyway everyone ever should read Fairest. I could write 12.5 dissertations on it. fantasy books for 12-year-old girls are the most serious fiction in the world actually

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Gabimaru & Chobei; Their Humanity & Some Parallels

Both Gabimaru and Chobei are one of the most dangerous, strongest, violent criminals of the story. Even though, they dont interact much because they have their own story and journey, its like there is this Aza brothers and Gabi-gang. Be carefull for the spoilers :)))).

1- Humanity of Two Crazy Savages;

Those two characters are easiely one of the most interesting characters in series because of humanity in them, despite the fact that they are bloody criminals and what makes it better is its different for both of them.

With Gabimaru, every interaction and connection he made with others shows a different side of him. First, with his wife Yui, first person who ever kind to him and we get cute, blushy side of Gabi and later with Sagiri, she saves his life and despite the fact that her job is killing him, she empathise with him as person, not only it helps her to grow better and she also helps him to grow too, they connected deeply. And his interaction with Yuzuriha is sassy and they dont really get along but it still feels geniue, like sibling relationship. And with Mei, he decides to help that little girl because he remembered that she was treated horribly, just like Yui was and he empathize her desire to live normal life which is something he desperately wants too. And with other comprades he made with Tamiya, Fuchi and others, he naturaly gets along with him because why not? They dont have any reason to fight and all so we get this another side of Gabi with the connections he made with multiple people. We get version of him being flustered, sassy, grumpy, nekomaru etc, its fun to explore of him because he is not hollow. And the fact that he is small guy makes it funnier, lol.

With Chobei, another criminal we explore his humanity, during the story but in opposite way because Chobei doesnt really care about other people the way Gabi did. He has no interest in them and he has no motivation to change and to him, he already has everything he needs. Power, respect, Toma. He is egoistical barbaric guy who can easiely get along with others but he simply dont want to so what makes his character interesting isnt the ‘interaction’ he had with multiple people, it is just one person, his little brother Toma. Everything he did, his beginning, his ending, his motivation, everything is connected to his love for his brother. Chobei become a bandit to survive so that he could protect Toma. His one of the most important memories are being big brother. ‘Break down. Come apart.’ Something he repeatedly said from that specific memory. He doesnt mind dying for getting hurt for him and always ready to protect him. He loves Toma, he wants to protect him, he wants to be with him. It is interesting because he is very self-absorved character who couldnt care less about other people, except he will throw it all away for Toma.

If this story was longer and if Toma wanted to have normal life, i think Chobei would abandon his bandit king life. Their relationship is easiely one of the most interesting thing in story because it affects each others character, they mess each others up by only closing theirselves off from others, they are trauma bonding and has several abandonment issues but also their love is so pure that at least they have each others. Its just, no matter what happens, they will always be each others number one. (One of the funniest thing about this is the fact that only reason Chobei didnt try to/murder main squad is simply because they just little take care of his precious brother.) And no matter what kind of life they have, they would most likely still be close as possible, because thats how they are. (Relationship between Aza brothers is too much to talk so for now, thats it.)

Both characters want to go home, something they mentioned during the story. Gabi wants to Yui and Chobei wants to Toma because its their home, their humanity. I guess, what makes Gabi and Chobei different is for Gabi had nothing, so its about him finding people whom he can see as family, friends, lover etc while Chobei lost all of it at once except Toma, so he wants to protect that one family he has forever, he doesnt need others because to him, Toma can fullfil all roles for him.

2- Parallels; The Hollow and Bandit King

Gabimaru was born into nothing, he lost his family before able to knowing and fully connecting with them. He has nothing, this is why he was empty, until he met his wife. Chobei was once had everything. He was royal boy who has nice family and cute little brother but then, one boy one, he lost all of them except his little brother. Ironically, the reason they become ‘villain’/criminals are opposite. Gabimaru became criminal because he had nothing, Chobei became criminal because had something to lose. And ironically, being criminal made Gabimaru prisoner of his messed up village while it made Chobei free from messed up rules of society.

Gabimaru had no reason to feel any feeling for those he killed because thats how he was raised but Chobei wasnt raised that way but he still had to survive, he had no choice but to adapt to protect the one he care about. Chobei mirrors the people who stronger than him to adapt sitution which eventually turn him into bandit. We can say they both didnt have much choices in life.

Later after meeting his wife, Gabimaru found something he doesnt want to lose, he started to regain his humanity and during his journey, he regain it more, with the help of Sagiri and other people he encountered during his journey. He and Sagiri connect and later, he decide to help Mei anyway and he connects with others.

Though, unlike Gabimaru, Chobei is a lot closed off towards strangers. Thats why while Gabi changes during the story, Chobei remains the same at core, only his little brother who learns to connect with others change and Chobei adapts to it. While Gabimaru wants to redeem and live normal life, Chobei wants to continue live his life as criminal. Gabimaru is a lot like hero while Chobe is a lot like villain but they are very human characters in the end. Despite they seem opposite, i think it is important to remember that their beginning is different and they both are ready to give up on their humanity to return to ones they dont want to lose. Their home. Their family. For Gabimaru, its his wife Yui and for Chobei, its his little brother, Toma.

They both have compatible partner, (platonic soulmates) in a way. They have opposite, perfect match partners for them.Gabimaru’s partner is Sagiri, even their element are matching. Fire and wood. For Chobei, his partner is Toma, their elements are matching too. Metal and Earth. Sagiri is tall, black hair girl while Gabi is short, white hair boy. Sagiri has mature, compatible, mother energy, she is obsessed with rules while Gabi is cat like, stubborn, desire his freedom but also obedient. Chobei is dominant, masculine energy while Toma is obedient, feminine boy. They match perfectly. (Sagiri and Toma are kinda parallels too, in a way with their loyalty and support, etc.)

Whenever Gabimaru and Chobei about to loose their humanity, Sagiri and Thoma are the ones who reminds them to their humanity. (Though, in Gabimaru’s case, its both his wife and Sagiri.).They do their best to help them.

Another difference is about their desire to live. Gabimaru wants to have normal life for himself, thats why he tries his best to survive during the story while Chobei only wants to survive to protect his little brother, its for someone else’s sake, the moment he thought his brother can handle things by himself, he was okay with dying, thankfully he didnt.

At the end of story, both Gabimaru and Chobei die and become plant-person and saved by Sagiri and Toma. Gabimaru finally receive the normal life he wants with Yui and Chobei continue to his weird adventures with Toma.

There are many things to say but for now, thats it. Jigokuraku specifically focus on humanity of criminals and craziness of samurays so its interesting to explore, especially Gabi and Chobei gets many focus so i would like to talk about them more. There were too many pics that fits here but well, i didnt want to use too much. I read this manga years ago, kinda in a mood to talk about it more.

[incorrectpnatquotes]

Here’s the bracket for Starch Radness 7! This year’s theme is funny expressions.

We’re continuing our prediction bracket contest where you can win merch from the Paranatural store or items from Zack Morrison’s itch.io.

Additionally, for every bracket we receive, we will be donating $5 to Care for G*aza (censored due to Tumblr causing issues with posts regarding the matter).

Because we are continuing to use Tumblr polls this year and you can see the live results after voting, entrants may NOT post screenshots or percentages of the results before the poll's voting has ended. Encouraging people to vote one way or another or saying that X choice is winning or losing is permitted, but we feel giving exact numbers may sway the voting too much. If there is an issue, we will talk to you about it first to attempt to resolve it, but we retain the right to disqualify you if a resolution cannot be reached.

Here’s how it works:

If you want to participate, fill out a template bracket (shown below, or you can fill out the photos above if the template bracket makes thing too small to read) with which power you think will win each bracket. These brackets must be turned submitted to Incorrect Pnat Quotes before 9 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, February 29th. You will receive a message or ask from @blairdiggory​ to confirm that we received your bracket.

The person with the most points at the end of Starch Radness 6 wins one item of their choice from the Paranatural merch store OR the entire library from Zack’s itch.io! Second place gets one item from Zack’s itch.io.

How to fill out a template bracket and how scoring works are explained under the cut. Have fun playing! :D

Template bracket:

First, I’m going to fill out the bracket with who I think will win each round (which is not necessarily my favorite of the pair!). For example, I think “Chapter 5, Page 188 (Johnny's Stalk and Hunt a Teacher Expression)” is going to beat out “Chapter 5, Page 135 (Isabel doesn't want to have anything in common with Mr. Spender expression)“. So on the line stemming from their bracket, I write “Chapter 5, Page 188” (or Johnny's Stalk and Hunt a Teacher Face, etc.) like this:

I do this for all pairs in the first round. Then, we get to the pairs in the second round. For my prediction bracket, I believe the first two powers facing off will be “Chapter 5, Page 188 (Johnny's Stalk and Hunt a Teacher Face)” and “Chapter 1, Page 36 (BE SYE-LENT!)”. Of those two, I believe “Chapter 5, Page 188 (Johnny's Stalk and Hunt a Teacher Face)” will win, so I write that on the line stemming from that pair’s bracket.

Continue until all lines are filled out!

Points and Scoring:

After every round, you will tally how many funny expressions that you correctly guessed would win the bracket. Round 1 is 1 point per funny expression guessed correctly, round 2 is 2 points per funny expression guessed correctly, etc. As an example, say “Chapter 5, Page 188 (Johnny's Stalk and Hunt a Teacher Face)” wins its bracket, but “Chapter 1, Page 36 (BE SYE-LENT!)” loses its bracket. I win 1 point for that section because “Chapter 5, Page 188 (Johnny's Stalk and Hunt a Teacher Face)” won but “Chapter 1, Page 36 (BE SYE-LENT!)” lost (and “Chapter 5, Page 94 (Not the answer Ed wanted)” wins). If “Chapter 5, Page 188 (Johnny's Stalk and Hunt a Teacher Face)” wins against “Chapter 5, Page 94 (Not the answer Ed wanted)” I get 2 points for that section. Then, I add the points up at the end of the game, so for this section, so far I have 3 points.

The person with the most points at the end of Starch Radness 7 wins an item of their choice from the Paranatural merch store or the entire library from Zack’s itch.io, and second place gets one item from Zack’s itch.io.

Still have questions? Feel free to send us an ask, and we can clarify. :)

[dontletmanagementfindme]

Short little thoughts I just can't get out of my head they just won't go away I must share these things with the world

(badly formatted hcs bc I'm going insane; gn reader; romantic context; takes place after events of the manga -after ch 127-)

Aza Toma x reader

* He doesn't have time for a relationship >:(

He's off being a bandit with his brother, wreaking havoc wherever he goes!

* Ok maybe he does have a bit of time :<

~~you are very attractive~~

As long as you don't get in the way of their bandit, world-domination- and as long as you can protect yourself if you get caught in the crossfire, you're okie dokie!

.~

* If you manage to get into a relationship with this gorgeous man, you get special privileges!!! >:D

He will let you comb his hair :3 and braid it, too. Or put it in whatever style you wish! Just be very careful! If you tug too hard or damage it, he is leaving you forever!!!! His hair is his pride and joy how could you >:O he will leave you to deal with the angry authorities after he and Chobe are done terrorizing them (haha jk. Unless...)

Another special privilege! On his own, he would never wear a dress! He does not like to, finds it embarrassing. But you've seen the way he goes soft when talking to those he cares about. He drops that distant and aloof personality almost entirely! I'm sure if you plead hard enough, he'd wear a dress for you. An extra pretty one, probably very expensive. He'll only wear one in private, and not often, so don't go bugging him about it. If you pester him to wear a dress for you too much, he'll hit you with the blunt edge of his katana (very gently)

* Even if you were not his lover, and only a close friend, he'd still worry and fuss over you. Always asking if you're hurt after you/you all go on a mission or "errand", or reminding you to be careful in your travels. If he sees a particularly nasty injury on you, he will cry. Please be extra cautious, if only for his sake. (After he is done crying, if you have not slain the foe who had caused you harm, rest assured he will not rest until it has died a painful death o7)

* When it comes to sleeping together (literally) he will always take the big spoon position. It's easier to keep you safe that way! But also... It feels really nice to be in your embrace--very comforting, warm. It makes him feel loved <3 BUT HE WILL NEVER TELL YOU THAT! So you best take initiative! (Toma small spoon real)

* Even if not in a romantic relationship with him, he will still seek your approval if you're close! It just gets amplified in a different way when you're lovers. He'll work extra hard to impress you and show you how good a boyfriend he is!

Ha! See how quick it was for him to slay those guys? And with such clean bladework too! You must think he's really cool now, yeah? :3

Oh, dear. Isn't he just such an amazing strategist dude, playing such a big role in helping his brother taking down that one powerful dude who was getting in the way of their bandit activities (idk what bandits do)

(see this makes him a good partner bc good partners are very skilled in battle and very awesome and smart, ofc. He does not know exactly how romantic relationships are supposed to work, he never desired one before you, so pls understand he is just very silly)

~~praise him for his accomplishments and efforts, he'll love you forever~~

* He often wears his heart on his sleeve. When he gets excited or very happy, even if he tries to suppress it, his lips quirk up a bit, and his voice takes on a different tone. And if you shock him with praise or affection or gifts and like, he won't be able to stop his eyes from going wide and his face red. It's very easy to fluster him, and he makes very pretty faces when that happens, so take advantage of that, I suppose.

.~

And that's all the thoughts I had. If only I could see more of him, then I'd have much thought. So much quantity of idea! But alas, I do not even know his favorite color 😔 nor even whether he can cook or not, which is very important for reasons.

And if there's anything I'd like to impart to you readers today. It's that Toma is very much wife material, he'd make a lovely wife. That is all. Good day to you, sir o7 (gn)

[thesadadventurersgame]

So how would Gunnar feel about the MC dating any of the ROs?

From the most hated to the most accepted. (Keep in mind: Gunnar doesn't like mortals.)

Douglas is a big no, he's the only RO that Gunnar will actively try to separate from you, but only in the early stages of your relationship (maybe).

F's mother did not have a good history with lovers. "The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, dear sibling."

He really doesn't like Antara and he doesn't understand why would you want to be with him. For Gunnar, Antara is nothing more than a gold digger with a hero complex, He won't try to separate you, but he will make it clear how much he wants Antara's end. Please never take Antara with you when visiting Gunnar.

Yueling has a complicated personality and their lies annoy Gunnar, he thinks your relationship is also a lie at first, but all it takes for him to believe in the veracity of your relationship, is A scream from him and a few sobs from you. The child makes everything worse.

Aza He doesn't like her because of her position as F's guard, but her personality is acceptable and not too annoying, If it wasn't for her job, she would be completely acceptable.

Rajinder doesn't talk and he likes that.

Bonus under the cut

Thanks for the ask!

Younger Gunnar enters his room only to see MC standing next to his bookshelf

Mc: Gunnar, why are you reading about "the 1001 erotic encounters of the evil princess"? I thought you didn't like romance? hehe.

Gunnar: Get the fuck out of my room.

[azalawa-scroggs]

Rereading the Turnabout Goodbyes transcript (for fic) and it’s just so obvious how reluctant the judge is to pronounce Edgeworth guilty for the death of his father. Poor guy is stalling as much as he can, asking him to confess like thrice to give him a chance to retract it, asking around if anybody has any objections, turning to Phoenix specifically with the hope that he’d pull a turnabout...

Like imagine that you’re presiding over a fairly regular murder trial (except for the defendant’s notoriety in your field), which turns out to have been an elaborate framing scheme all along. And just when you think you’ve gotten to the bottom of it, the defendant objects to being declared not guilty and confesses killing his own father fifteen years earlier, coming apart at the seams as he does so. The evidence is flimsy at best, but that was a pretty well-known case with seemingly pretty clear-cut facts, the confession leaves no room for confusion, and the statute of limitations ends today. The answer is simple, too simple, and too awful.

And you find yourself having to pronounce the defendant guilty for a horrible accident that happened when he was nine. You have to confirm fifteen years of nightmares to him. You have to look him in the eye, this man who used to terrorise your courtroom and who looks so small now, his most sordid secrets having been dragged into the open and leaving him with little in the way of dignity, and tell him he did indeed take the life of his beloved parent when he was but a helpless child.

“You were innocent. You ARE innocent.” is as much of a relief for the judge to say as it is for Edgeworth to hear.

[yanderelmk]

Hey brotherhood! My beloveds!

What do I do with this cool spear going through my stomach? It’s making me bleed and my shirt is all dirt now :(( and now I have a stupid headache…

Don’t ask how this happened

-🥶☠️

CW: BLOOD, GORE(?), IMPROMPTU SPEAR YANKING FROM THE BODY, GRIEVOUS WOUNDS, NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, ANGST Peng is the first one to vault from the couch, grabbing you and moving you to a laying position, your head in his lap while he applies pressure to the wound. "AZA!" Azure is already running to grab whatever medical supplies he can while Yellowtusk frantically kneels beside you, checking your pulse and trying to see if the spear pierced completely through. His hands are shaking, Peng's eyes are wide, and Azure's stumbling by the time he makes it back. You've never seen this before...they're completely petrified. Peng forces you to keep eye contact with him. "Y/N! Keep your eyes on me and speak with me. Tell me how you feel, do you feel numbness, a loss of your senses?" While you talk with him, Azure's claws rip through your shirt to get to the wound. At the sight of the dried blood already caking your stomach, Yellowtusk heaves. Azure turns to him. "We need towels. As many as we have, some doused in warm water. Hurry!" The elephant king hurries off, and you can hear the bathroom door being forcefully yanked open. Azure has his hand around the spear. He looks to you with gentleness in his eyes as if you were only a young child getting their shots. "Y/N, this is going to hurt. A lot. I ask that you trust in me and know I am sorry." When Yellowtusk returns, you can feel your body getting light-headed. Peng had your wrists pinned down with one strong hand as his other forced you to keep eye contact. You heard the countdown, but it was a foggy experience until you felt the spear being yanked from your body. You screamed. You screamed bloody murder and would have shot up had Yellowtusk not immediately pressed the warm towels against your wound, the force keeping you down combined with Peng restraining your arms. Instead you wailed in pain, tears going down your face as Azure repeated over and over, "I am sorry! I am sorry! Do not worry, it is over! It is out!" The pain lacing your stomach was too much, but Peng kept you from passing out with a simple method: squawking to startle you awake. He constantly barraged you with questions to answer while Yellowtusk and Azure set to work presumably stitching you up. You could feel your consciousness slipping away, and it felt quite nice really. The pain was lessening as you began to float off to the peaceful oblivion's open arms... When you had next opened your eyes you were in a hospital bed. The doctors said you were extremely lucky to have survived, if the Brotherhood were not experienced in tending such serious wounds you likely would not have made it. The wound would scar, and recovery would be a very slow, painful process, but through all of it the Brotherhood stayed by your side. It was a very trying time for everyone. The demon kings became fiercely overprotective, treating you during your recovery like a porcelain doll that could break at any sudden bump. To be fair to them, it was a horribly traumatic experience nearly having you bleed out right in front of them. None of them felt comfortable leaving you alone one of them was always by your side. During the night, the plan was supposed to be one of them snuggling with you in bed, but the other two always followed, too anxious to leave you be.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Do you have any opinons/information about the Greensboro Science Center? I know it’s AZA and I absolutely love going there but it’s so interactive and the animals are so visible that it makes me worried that it’s too focused on viewer experience instead of animal husbandry.

I don't - I've never been, unfortunately.

But here's what I'd say: next time you go back, go find a staff member (make sure they have a moment and aren't running off to do something), and ask them this exact question!

From personal experience, I'd have loved to get a question like this from a guest, and I'd hazard the assumption that most animal care and education staff will too. Folk who work at zoos and aquariums and sanctuaries genuinely love talking about what their facility is good at, and often you'll learn all sorts of neat tidbits about exhibit design or the individual animals' preferences.

A couple tips! Make sure you find someone who actually is in education or animal care - you're not necessarily going to get the same type of discussion with someone who is in visitor services. Be sure to frame it from the standpoint of liking the facility but wanting to learn more, because there's so much negative industry scrutiny these days that sometimes people do get spooky about questions if they come off as combative or unusual. (That happens to me pretty frequently, actually, so if you run into it, just apologize and explain). And if the person you ask can't/won't talk to you about it, you can either a) try to catch someone else or b) find a visitor services type place and tell them you've got some just general questions and could they help you figure out who you could ask. They might look at you a little weird, but that's their job, so as long as you're polite and patient it's fine.

I want to encourage everyone reading this: if you're at a facility and you've got a question you think you might want to ask me later, find someone and ask them before you leave too! They're the experts in their specific facility, after all. (And then come tell me about your question and what you learned, obvi!)

[demcnsinmymind]

@badassxbirdy sent : [ savior ] in order to save receiver's life, sender uses their powers - but reversed, because this being the way Ty finds out The Boy has powers is too much drama for me to resist. 👀 | PROMPTS FOR SUPER POWERS / ABILITIES

It's the first time where it truly feels like things are almost normal again. Sitting in a diner in a quiet little town during the day, actually enjoying a meal and his surroundings for what they are. Peaceful. With ordinary people all around them, in an ordinary place. And isn't it funny. How very much he was against it at first, voicing his doubts that any of this is a good idea, considering his situation.

But of course. The woman before him is none other than Tyler. Just as stubborn as him but with such positivity and bubbliness to it that there really never was a way for him to say no. He still likes to tell himself that it's just because she's from before. But the truth is that he honestly, deeply, and unconditionally trusts her, sees so much in her that he does not want to disappoint or destroy. So here they are, in a diner, eating, and wouldn't you know it - there's a smile on his face. Unfiltered and honest. And they're having fun, talking about ordinary, silly things as if nothing's ever happened to either of them. But of course. This is them. And something like this never seems to last for them.

Because then it happens.

Reality calling, of course it does, and it hits him way harder this time because this is about her . Not him. Look on her face changing so rapidly, joy wiped right off of it in an instant. Replaced with a mixture of so many things he's way too familiar with. Fear. Disbelief. Anger. Fury.

Lance turns around to try and catch glimpse of what she's seeing, though the truth is that he doesn't even need to see. He can feel it. A presence. Having just stepped inside the place, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand right up, activating the thing inside him the millisecond it notices it too. Heavy. Power. Dark. Evil. Twisted. And and overwhelming sense of impending doom. Familiar in a way as it coincides with his hitchhiker's preference for chaos and mischief.

When Lance's body is properly turned around, he's face to face with a man, though he knows that this guy is so much more. Something that scares his friend, ruins a moment of peacefulness and normalcy. As usual, Aza/thoth is more than eager to take the upper hand, protect, lash out, defend territory, but the problem really is that Lance cannot get that image out of his mind right now. The way the look on Tyler's face changed so severely, seeing her scared. Like they'd been.

He swore to himself. Never again. Fucking never again. Would he let any of his friends be scared like this. Sure enough. Mostly, his plan had been all about avoiding it by having no friends whatsoever, keeping his distance. But that's just the thing. Too late for that. She is his friend, and the way this dude can waltz right in here and destroy her moment of peace, have the audacity to talk about him too, ignoring him, using him as a means to scare her more with the prospect of getting him caught in the crossfire of whatever it is that he wants from her....fucking no. This is the one thing Aza/thoth is not allowed to take the stage for. Because this isn't about him - this is about her. His friend, not its friend or him at all.

The dude's mid sentence through a speech which, honestly, Lance doesn't even know nor care what it's about when it happens.Time. Stuck in one single second all around them. A ripple of the entrance door opening over and over again almost rhythmically, doorbell ringing every single time to signal a new costumer who's always the same. A young couple fresh from the road, bright smiles on their faces, eyes fixed on the menu above the waiter who's mid pour, stream of coffee half suspended in the air, only ever touching the mug's bottom only to zip right back up again, looping over and over again. Making each and every one of the people stuck in that one second, pocketed and safe, utterly unaware of what happens in the meantime.

A knife. Hovering mid air, the blade an inch away from the guy's throat. A warning to not dare take one step closer to the woman of his interest. Tyler - still seated right across from him and not at all affected by their looped surroundings.

"She doesn't want you here. No one does" is all he says, eyes drilling into the side of the stranger's face.

[azaka3507]

Hihi, welcome to my blog :)!!

Name · Aza

Age · minor !!

Pronouns · Any

Birthday · November 16 :3!!

I do art and honestly random stuff!! I don't speak English that much, so it's very limited.

I'm also very dark humoured (?) And may get TOO comfortable with people, even if I just met them. So, if you feel uncomfortable with me, please do say!!

I haven't been in the internet for a long time, so I might be slow on some things.

Main interests:

≠ The Mysterious Benedict Society (TMBS)

♪ Project Sekai

≠ FNAF

Not so big interests:

♪ Genshit Impact

≈ DC

· MCI (Spider-man, Avengers, Black Panther, etc..)

· Steven Universe

≈ Ah girls go army

Past interests:

· Good Omens

≈ Chainsaw man

· Undertale/Deltarune

· Coraline

· Horimiya

· Minecraft

· Sasaki and Miyano

· Madoka Magica

Past Interests that I will not talk about (publicly):

× DSMP (HEAVY ON THIS ONE.)

× Gacha

× Danganronpa

× Harry Potter (VERY HEAVY ON THIS ONE TOO.)

My tags:

#aza's silly things

#azart

#aza can write

#azasks

#azanswers

I don't have a DNI list, but these things should be reminded:

× Don't be rude

→ Anything that involves hate in a specific group is definitely not welcome and will be blocked if I wish to.

With that out of the way, I hope we become friends!!

Other accounts:

@stonetowncatalogue

@asaka-aza - art blog