okay im sorry but just imagine being kageyama tobio. your parents are always working late, your sister quit volleyball years ago and now she's off being an adult and having a career, none of your teammates get why you care so much and the only guy who did, because he cared the same amount in the same way, graduated 2 years ago and also hated your guts. your peers have given you a cruel nickname just so they can reinforce how little they like or understand you, you dont have any friends, you have nothing but volleyball actually, your grandfather is dead and you are clinging to the promise he made you when you were a little kid because if you dont you might just go insane. you are so, so incredibly lonely.
and then, THEN, this scrawny 5 foot nothing kid stares you down outside the gymnasium bathrooms and promises to beat you, and he totally sucks at volleyball. like, he. is. terrible. but he can run, and he has good reflexes, he jumps so high he looks like he's flying, and most importantly he runs headfirst into a wall and then says 'we haven't lost yet' like its the most obvious thing in the world when his teammates ask him why he bothered. and you realise this kid is just like you, the same kind of fucked in the head you are. and youre furious, what the hell has this guy been doing for the past 3 years? your grandfather promised you that someone even better would come and find you are here he is, but you beat his team in less than an hour and you're pretty sure you'll never see him again, despite him promising to take you down, because never once in your life has anyone who was supposed to stick around actually do that. you're angry because you didn't have to be so painfully lonely all these years, you could've had someone who kept up with you, but he just wasn't there, because he sucks and you don't but he doesn't have to and that makes it so much worse than you just being a freak who was completely one of a kind.
and then you go back to your team, back to your last middle school tournament, and you play more games. only this time youre pissed. you know that there's someone else like you now, someone who will. not. stop until the ball has hit the floor and you don't get why your teammates won't just be better, try harder, move faster. and then they abandon you too. you thought you were alone before, but now you have absolutely nothing, not even volleyball. and you didn't get into the school your grandfather went to, and the coach you picked your back-up school for is in the hospital, and your plan for the next 3 years is to essentially bide your time until you get scouted into the v-league because you literally do not have anything left and you are doing everything your 15 years old and incredibly depressed self can because you refuse to let go of volleyball, no matter how lonely it makes you, no matter how much it hurts to cling on.
and then, AND THEN. that same scrawny dumbass from that 2-0 match in middle school is there and he still sucks and he's still the same kind of fucked in the head that you are and you won't give him one of your 'royal sets', not after what happened last time, you can't stop being lonely but you can at least try to not get abandoned again. and he says 'forget all that, i'll be here no matter what', and he spikes the damn set. he shuts his freaking eyes and he trusts you and you have just had the rug pulled out from underneath your damn feet because you understand, maybe better than anyone else, being ready to do whatever it takes to win but who the hell just fully puts their faith in someone else like that and maybe, just maybe, this kid was serious when he swore he'd get better and take you down.
he's invincible as long as youre there and so are you as long as you have him. you ask him if he's prepared to go all the way to the world stage to take you on, because you've never set your sights anywhere else, and he tells you he'll match you every step of the way. he picks up your crown, puts it right back on your head and proves to you that he refuses to leave you just like everyone else did, even at your worst. you tossed and he spiked and he said 'i'm here' and he is.
he is, and he never stops being here for you, chasing after you, making you chase after him, even when he's on the other damn side of the planet. and then 6 whole years after you first met him, first played him, first thought that maybe your grandfather would keep his promise to you, you get to play him again and you realise that he is your someone even better, always has been. actually, they all are. and you're not that lonely tyrant you used to be anymore, youre not that sad, abandoned kid hiding behind anger and obsession, you're doing the thing you love surrounded by people who love it in the same fucked in the head way that he and you do, and the man you love is there across the net from you, playing against you, and he's also there on the court next to you, playing with you, and either way he is here.
you got really, really good at volleyball, and somebody even better came and found you.
he's here.
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What do you think about middle aged sunflower ????
Okay I'm going to pretend I'm normal and didn't just have a conversation about it yesterday within which I had to restrict myself because of Discord's stupid character limit
Anyway. Gonna talk about fanfics briefly, because fics tend to get more complex with characterization.
A while ago, I got really into Marvel, and for two months I did nearly nothing except read spideypool fanfic all day and night. If you know anything about these two (that isn't from the MCU) (I hate the MCU, I hate it so so much, this is not who Spidey fundamentally is, he is supposed to be a friendly neighborhood loner loser and you Cannot just give him an Iron Man suit and a mentorship with Stark and intergalactic missions at 16 or however old he is in those movies when the essence of the character is that he is an average struggling teenager who just happens to get superpowers and fucks up a lot at the beginning of his journey and mostly works alone and quit the fucking Avengers himself) (wow I started rambling sorry. Ignore that), you'll know that they are both around... 25-30ish, currently. Something like that. The only other fandom that I read as many fanfics of was Ace Attorney, where depending on the timeline, they can be from 23 to like, 35 with a kid. So I'd say me being so invested in a ship with 16 year-olds is... kind of an anomaly.
I don't usually like the coming-of-age, teenage love stuff, and I honestly have never found a single sunflower schoolfic I liked (except Spiral of course but even then they're in college) because all of them tend to... infantilize both Sunny and Basil at great length. And also tear down anything that makes them interesting characters. I think a lot of OMORI artists (that includes writers) are very afraid of doing anything substantial with teenagers, despite, you know, the actual plot of the game, and as a result, a lot of the time most fics where the characters aren't aged up tend to be... incredibly boring. Of course there are some that are good — exceptional even — but in the end all I can think of is the huge gap in... quality? that sounds wrong to say about a creative thing... interesting-ness, let's say (a very personal and subjective concept), when I stopped reading Marvel and went back to OMORI. I stopped reading fanfics altogether because I just couldn't find one I liked as much as the average Marvel fic that I hadn't already read.
Maybe it's a result of the writers themselves being young? I know OMORI's fanbase is generally a lot younger than Marvel's, so that could affect it. I mentioned schoolfics because there's a lot of them and because they were mentioned in my rant yesterday, but it's not really about the fact that they're schoolfics, it's about the fact that more often than not, the setting is the plot, and since it's just your average highschooler writing their favorite blorbos into their own environment and projecting (which is very cool btw, 99% of my own writing is projecting), the plot is... basically nonexistant. It's boring. It's boring and the characterization is usually dull. But even outside of schoolfics, I think I stopped trying to read fics that start with Sunny getting out of the hospital after the True Ending for the same reason : it's often plain and plotless and boring. And, fuck, my favorite books and mangas and such are slice of life, I'm all for mundane plots! But there's a difference between a mundane plot/realism and just no plot at all.
(This is not, like, an attack of OMORI writers who make schoolfics or fics that start with the above mentioned premise, btw, I want to make that very clear. It's very much a personal preference. I think it's boring because all of the fics I read in Marvel had a very unique plot/premise is my point. And also because the characters were a lot more mature and complex. Different strokes for different folks)
I think that's what I'm kind of sad about. OMORI characters tend to be complex and morally grey in their own way, and people tend to forget about that because they're teenagers and obviously no one can do no wrong before the ripe age of 18. Children are all innocent and therefore cannot be more morally complex than cinnamon roll soft boys/girls (looking pointedly at Sunny, Aubrey and Basil. But mostly Basil). Also, I think people tend to straight-up forget that 16 year-olds aren't, like, 10? Of course they're not going to be as mature as grown adults, especially Sunny OMORI, Dissociative Amnesia World Champion, but like... When I was 16 reading OMORI fanfics, half the time I was like "a 16 year-old would not fucking say that". But also generally more mature characters are inevitably more interesting to explore to me because I prefer more mature themes — I'm simply extremely upset at the fact that people don't explore the complexity that's already there when they're 16, including the very mature themes that are already there.
TL;DR: I love middle aged sunflower, I love middle aged ships in general ! In fact, I will tend to prefer sunflower when it's aged up.
(... I probably should've led with that.)
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This was a terrible idea. Really, it was. With how many times she’d been rejected it was practically ridiculous that she thought this would go over well. And Amy was well aware of how low her chances were. But she just couldn’t help it. Besides, he was far too reserved to ever ask her out. She had to be the one to do it.
Amy sighed and looked at her dress in the mirror again. It was a medium length white dress covered in a leafy pattern in various green hues and even had a ribbon to match. It was brand new. Which she may or may not have bought for this specific occasion. An arguably unnecessary expense but Amy justified it by telling herself she needed something nice to boost her confidence.
But… what if it was too nice? If she got rejected then it would have all been a waste and every time she saw the dress again she’d be filled with disappointment and heartache and loneliness and-
She panicked and darted over to her wardrobe and began to frantically look for a possible alternative. How foolish she was to buy such a dress. What if he didn’t even like green!
Amy startled suddenly at the knock on her bedroom door and a young rabbit poked her head inside.
“Amy, aren’t you supposed to be on your date?”
“It’s not a date, Cream. Well, at least not yet. But hopefully, it will be.”
“I’m sure he’ll say yes! I have a feeling this one's gonna work out. And I don’t need any fancy tarot cards to know that!”
“That’s right! I should do a reading and then I’ll-”
“Amy!” Cream shouted, cheeks slightly puffed up in frustration, “You already said you were gonna ask him. You promised me you wouldn’t back out again.”
“I know, I know. You’re right,” Amy sighed and wandered over to her drawer and pulled out her old deck of cards, “These cards have just really helped me out a lot, you know? I’ve had them nearly my whole life. If I hadn’t listened to them and left home then I never would have even met him, or anyone else, or even you.”
Cream quietly wandered over and sat down on the bed next to her friend and waited for her to continue.
“I’d been alone for a really long time, which was why I was traveling the world. I wanted to find a new home, somewhere I belonged… I’d read about Little Planet before, they used to call it Miracle Planet. It sounded like a beautiful place, “a world that defies time itself”, relics that create miracles, I couldn't ask for a more perfect place to call home… But just like everything else, it was temporary.”
Cream frowned as Amy sat down on the bed beside her. The little girl watched as Amy shuffled through her deck before finally pulling out a single card and handing it to her. The image depicted a brave looking knight valiantly standing upright with a single sword in his hands.
“But then I pulled this card,” Amy said, continuing her story, “The Knight of Swords. It represents action and says that if you propel yourself through ambition you’ll be rewarded. That’s when I knew that if I continued to trust my instincts, the same one that brought me there in the first place, then I would finally get to meet my knight in shining armor!”
Cream giggled, “And you did! Even if it was a little messy at first.”
“Heh, a little, but you gotta admit, he really knew how to sweep a girl off her feet.”
The two giggled some more before Cream suddenly sprung up from her feet, “Amy! You’re gonna be late! You need to hurry!”
“Oh Chaos you’re right!” Amy jumped up from the bed and hurried out the door, but when she reached the doorway she paused and looked back towards her friend again. “So, you really think he’s gonna say yes?”
Cream walked over to her and gave her a big smile, “Of course I do, Amy! Things are changing now and so are you. You’ve been the princess in the tower already, now it’s time for you and your knight, your real knight, to have your happily ever after!”
Amy returned the smile, gave her friend a big hug, and fought off the tears she felt forming behind her eyes, “Thanks Cream, you always know just what to say.”
The two waved each other away and Amy took off, and as she closed the front door behind her she couldn’t help but smile.
This was it. She was finally going to ask out the blue hedgehog of her dreams. It was finally time to ask out Metal Sonic.
[idea by @khalewren]
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So what’s Kitali’s plan to force Aymeric on this vacation? I know she does succeed but I’m SUPER curious to know how she’ll convince him to go.
It's not so much force as much reminding him that he took a raincheck on adventuring with her that he's never cashed in on lmao. A whole lot of "come see the world outside of Alliance meetings and battlefields with me".
I'm still working on hammering the caster role quests into a narratively cohesive story but without giving too much away I have it leave off with Kitali asking him the same question he asked her at that dinner date so many years ago: now that this is all over, what do you want for yourself?
Aymeric has had the problem of having spent so many years tied to his office and working towards a goal of a Better Ishgard For The Future that he has largely forgotten how to separate himself from his work. And Kitali has definitely helped with that, though it's like putting bandaids on arterial wound. She takes him to Sohr Khai with her and encourages him to take painting back up and they have a very firm rule of no titles in the house. But it often isn't enough since she still has Scion business to take care of and he is still both Lord Commander and Lord Speaker and it's very easy for them both to slip back into old habits when they aren't around each other.
And now that the world isn't ending and Ishgard isn't under threat of blasphemies anymore and there is effort on both sides of the aisle to mend relations with the Halonic Church, Kitali is getting more and more pushy about him taking his many many many many accrued vacation days that he has not used and she will get Lucia and Handeloup to count them to the number if she has to. There are enough people that he can divide his responsibilities to that a vacation isn't going to leave Ishgard helpless.
And it will do him good to be a wide eyed bushy tailed greenhorn to adventuring with Kitali leading him by the hand and Estinien having a headstart on life outside Ishgard to guide him. He deserves to have fruity drinks on a beach and sunburn so fucking bad because gods know when the last time he saw this much sun was. There's so many freckles and highlights he never knew he had and Kitali will count every one of them.
I'm so extremely hype to release him into a dungeon to do some Big Paladin Damage. A party can be a blue DPS and two red tanks and the two teenagers they are collectively chaperoning.
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