#I'd LIKE to just read for plot

[dranka]

I'm afraid CS Pacat has ruined literature for me 🥲

I'm trying to read something other than his books now, and it's like I'm forcing myself to eat cereal with water 🤧

[starlingfawn]

through starless sky to blackest ground

[wasserbombe]

hi guess who fell into a Band of Brothers pithole?

[celtrist]

I just vented out a whole rant about how aromantisim is treated within Hazbin/helluva. I'm not really sure if I should post it for multiple reasons, one of which being I don't want anyone to feel targeted about it or take it the wrong way (like I honestly dont have beef with Al shippers. Gripes, but no beef as I also ship him on occasion).

There was just a sudden burst of frustration I had with it that I think was in part just came from built up frustration from other things. There's things I'd like to have out there, but I don't really think it'd get far or, again, be just taken the wrong way. I don't see a point in posting if people are gonna ignore it, plus it wouldn't change how things are now. If anyone has any thoughts or are curious let me know, but I don't wanna make anyone feel like shit or put a pointless rant out there no one wanted to see. I also wanna keep rants to a minimum as I know people aren't always into that sort of stuff, especially if you don't follow someone for that and you just get an influx of posts of them complaining. And I still want to keep things relatively light hearted around here, at best maybe just some critiques on things here and there.

It's late, I'm on my phone when I should probably just sleep it off, so sleep it off I will.

[hummingjay]

More sci-fi robot leaning style practice (plus an actual background) featuring @lynxfrost13's Hoopoe!

I really like how the lineart looks so its down there if ya want it.

[utilitycaster]

just as there's something worth noting about how both D20 and CR have lately had strong messages about how fear and resentment makes you easy to radicalize, I think there's also something for how they've both had cases of mortal politics ultimately affecting the nature of the gods. Not just for an understanding of fictional D&D gods as living entities, though that's also valuable, but for an understanding that ultimately, these are concepts shaped and changed by people; people desired conquest and so made Ankarna into a god that supported that. I've repeatedly said and will continue to maintain that while Brennan does hate capitalism, the theme he consistently returns to is the much deeper one of "the bad people are those who exploit and dehumanize others in the service of their goals" and jokes about capitalism as the BBEG aside, if you destroy any one concept's physical manifestation, you still have to contend with the people who upheld it.

[overly-verbose]

If SIkuna will get the Heian era form later, can he change his appearance? I mean, it will be weird to see a guy with four arms hanging in public.

Assuming he were to do that,

(who knows, not me (I do lol) , if the hypothetical timeline where he and Yuji get separated is gonna be Canon to the Series *HeeHee HoHo's mysteriously*)

yup!

His alternate, 'human' form would be strongly based off of Yuji still, but with some differences.

(I've kinda drawn that as well, but I can definitely imagine it not exactly being clearly explained lol)

For one, he's significantly taller than Yuji (at least for now, the kid is most likely gonna grow to be not as much shorter lol) - although he can be shorter.

He usually isn't much 'shorter', because it's more comfortable - any much lower and it'd feel a bit like a too-tight shirt, but for your whole body lol

('down' to 6~ft/182~cm (wherein he usually stays at 6.4-5ft/193-195~cm) is the min. of proper comfiness)

He also wears earrings (I usually imagined some simple black ones, but he could just as well wear something Hello Kitty related lol (both for the Meme and just because) or just cute, or more colourful), and his left eyebrow has two slits - to kinda connect him visually to his Big Form heh

(I'm kinda contemplating adding some other things but yeah that's the bigger things heh)

And, although usually he only has these whilst in the Bigg form, he can have four arms, stomach mouth, and such whilst 'small' as well - but yeah, that's not exactly something that'd be useful/possible to use in public 😂

As shown in Chapter 2 of Visuals (although it is a different timeline, SIkuna is SIkuna lol), he can sometimes forget to close his secondary eyes, especially at the beginning of the Separation or when kinda mentally tired - it's just much more natural for them to be open

Some random person is more likely to assume they imagined it or he just had good cosplay than actual four eyes though, so hey at least there's that saving him

Not to mention interference from the kids he's likely hanging out with lol, Nobara is a quick-thinking Queen when her older familial figure is being a dum-dum and forgoring 💀 how to Human properly and we love her for it 👏

Since I imagine her dragging SIkuna out for clothes shopping relatively often, perhaps with other kids as well - and SIkuna doesn't mind it at all, he loves actively participating in the kids' hobbies 🥺 - she probably had to cover for his spookiness and such quite often lmao, even if he tries his best 😂

He is very respectful and polite to any workers they might encounter during their shopping though (well, assuming they aren't being unreasonably rude themselves but that's rare, especially in Japan I'd imagine), so fortunately even despite his Vibes being Very Off the two (or more) usually end up being a nice surprise to them actually lmao

- the fact that SIkuna likely takes everything that isn't chosen back perfectly into place whilst waiting for Nobara/other kids to put another outfit on probably makes their spookiness easier to deal with as well 😂😂😂

(He's not 'spared' from dressing up, but he can lighten the load on the workers' shoulders a little bit while he waits his turn, you know - he might be partially old as hell and from a time where that would have been unheard of to do for the sake of 'servants', but he also is partially someone from the 2020's lmao, he gets the pain)

(Imagine crossovers with Canon whilst he's in this form though lol, I feel like one Quite painful Misunderstanding that could happen is that This Other Sukuna apparently completely took over an older Yuji or something (since he clearly isn't there but Sukuna looks. like he looks.) OOF-)

.

[afurtivecake]

they had earth-shattering, world-changing sex...that is, from the perspective of everyone else. for them, that was the worst anybody has ever done it.

[fire-on-fuel]

If anything I think andor season 2's only problem is that its a little too proud of itself if that makes any sense. Like great, love the imperialism commentary, keep doing what you're doing cause you do it very well. But. Very heavy but. Where are the aliens. Why is chandrila's culture all kind of lazily yanked from east asian culture on the visual front. Why does everyone have a core worlder accent even outside the galactic core. Why are the "rougher" accents still all variations of english and other accents of that region. Are we in the mid rim? the outer rim? the accents are no longer a usable marker. Why is there an abundance of these sort of empty habitable farming planets/moons populated by sharecroppers or subsistence yeoman land owners- not that that's an impossible or uninteresting star wars concept but it gets old and fills its own cracks in with questionable implicit messaging about colonialism and "empty land". Why is yavin-4 also completely empty minus the giant predator creatures. Again, where are the aliens. Is it a budget thing? We're teetering on the edge of almost all the important imps being white. Human racism has never really been established in star wars within the narrative itself specifically, I want to know where theyre going with this and if they're trying to make a more blatant signal regarding racism and forgetting worldbuilding is in that equation in the process. Re: the aliens, it has been established that the empire is overtly speciesist and human-supremacist but right now only inferencing is covering for how andor answers the question of showing it. A less generous analysis would say that andor gets so excited about connecting itself to the real world it's almost like it considers operating within the parameters of star wars a chore when the structure of star wars isn't in service of building confident lines to hook to real life with. Not world ending by far, but like it's tripping on it's own feet a little. It would be a damn shame if all of these smaller things that effect immersion and connection to the greater star wars universe fell by the wayside because it wants to pat itself on the back for having direct themes of anti-fascism or being relevant, and because the audience might be willing to overlook them for the same reason

[khattikeri]

i don't think enough people talk about how the backbone of nie huaisang's plan hinged heavily upon jin guangyao's low birth, and the jianghu's willingness to dogpile on such people.

nie huaisang is upper class. he's specifically stated in the novel as behaving more like the idle rich than like a distinguished second young master of one of the five great cultivation sects, but he's still an heir by birth. even if nie huaisang had been more openly caught, who would do anything to him?

wei wuxian notices that bicao's testimony was bought with a few shiny baubles— that nie huaisang was the one who bribed her with a nice bracelet for her testimony. he intentionally kept his own sect half dead, barely afloat for years, just to keep up the guise of an incompetent loser!

but the only actual consequence he's faced for such poor leadership that probably hurt a lot of common folks in his territory over 13 years is that people think nie huaisang is an annoying, useless crybaby. nie huaisang has a level of protection from consequences that jin guangyao had to fight much harder for (and that jin guangyao ultimately never truly got).

nie huaisang knew his own class and social position extremely well, and he knew how most people of that position behave and think. he was more than willing to use this in his revenge.

we know lan wangji is the type to use his wealth and position to do good for others. nie huaisang is the opposite— he's the type to use his wealth and position for himself and his own personal goals.

and this wasn't just something that started after his brother died! avoiding responsibilities, never carrying his sword, ignoring the fact that he wasn't honoring his sect or ancestors the way others wanted… his underground ring of selling porn as a teenager even got him out of the worst part of the wen indoctrination camps, because he bribed the wen cultivators overseeing everyone else.

my point is, nie huaisang is self-aware enough to know he doesn't really ever do the "right" thing! at no point in the story does he delude himself or others with grand ideals of how one ought to behave. he doesn't care.

unlike almost every single other upper class cultivator in the story— jiang cheng, jin zixuan, nie mingjue, lan xichen— who all think of themselves as righteous in a way, who are always able to justify their thoughts and actions, rarely if ever able to conceive of those thoughts and actions as flawed or wrong... nie huaisang KNOWS his own selfishness.

like lan wangji, nie huaisang recognizes that his class can easily be used as a shield to do whatever he wants. while lan wangji at worst uses this nifty privilege to silence people he doesn't like, refuse to explain himself in inconvenient situations, and bring wei wuxian along with him everywhere, nie huaisang uses it to shirk his duties for decades and tear jin guangyao apart in revenge.

jin guangyao being the son of a prostitute automatically amplifies bad rumors around him. bringing to light his incestuous marriage and the gruesome way he murdered his upper class father, however deserved, is obviously going to impact him in a way that someone higher class wouldn't be as hurt by. combining that with a final lie to get his sworn brother to stab him in a flash of doubt, and well...

is that good or righteous or just? no, of course not. nie huaisang doesn't spend any time pretending that his actions were conducted based on morality, or that he "had no choice".

nie huaisang just wanted to destroy jin guangyao, and damn did it feel good to finally do it.

[thetardisisnotourdivision]

I am unreasonably upset about the fact that I've been forced to accept that Gabriel was a Gerald.

For context, in An Inspector Calls, Gerald Croft is engaged to Sheila Birling when he meets a homeless, struggling Eva Smith in a bar, and essentially in return for a home and money he shows her affection (ahem), then gets rid of her once he no longer has a use for her. Now, obviously this isn't a direct translation, but the essentials are - a Gerald is a character who uses another character, in return for something they need, usually masking the fact that they're using them with affection and love.

And against my will I've had to accept that this is exactly what Gabriel does to Nathalie.

Did I want to think he had potential to be better? Did I think he genuinely cared for Nathalie?? Hell, did I just really really want somebody to care about Nathalie???

Probably all of the above but the point is: he's Gerald. And I cannot - I literally can't unsee it now. Their whole dynamic in S3 is like “oh boohoo I'm sorry I wish you didn't have to use the peacock Miraculous and kill yourself over it but uh I need to use your powers” “yeah no that's fine I'm all good”. Which, given the "Gerald" theorem, I'm assuming leads to the fact that what Nathalie needed, above all, was someone to care about her - and Gabriel came along, as Sheila Birling puts it, "like a fairytale prince", and was so caring and gentle and... Yeah. She fell for him. And. Yeah he genuinely did seem to care like twice. But so did Gerald. Gerald actually admits that he did care for Eva, just not the way that she cared for him, and, uh, not enough to not just dispose of her. So he discards her anyway when she stops being useful.

Leading me neatly to my point.

He starts using the peacock Miraculous the second it's fixed, the slimy bastard, HOWEVER. It runs way deeper than that. Assuming I'm right (which I almost DEFINITELY am), then Gabriel only needed Nathalie while she was useful. She didn't stop being useful in season three - she's still scheming for him, helping him with plan after plan. It's only partway through season 5 that she officially servers ties with him, and starts to actively hinder him.

Nathalie stops being useful when she fails as Safari. And I reckon that's when Gabriel and Tomoe decided she had to go.

(It's painfully, I-was-ugly-crying-over-it obvious in Conformation that Gabriel is fully prepared to let Nathalie die - in the original storyboard, her alliance was encouraging her to sleep, and he's very obviously prepared for this moment - I've made a separate post about it that I'll link if I can find it. However, onto the next bit)

With all of this, there's one thing that sticks out to me - Nathalie didn't see any of it until it was already too late. There could be many reasons for this. But you know who would have seen through it? Whose parents were all loving and perfect until she married the wrong man? Emilie. Emilie, who left behind those videos, which on the surface look innocent, but when you look deeper look like a (love confession???????) AHEM a warning. I reckon Emilie noticed what was going on and realised that Nathalie wouldn't see through Gabriel, so she left those videos addressed to Nathalie (not Gabriel, which surely they should have been - they were about him, after all - unless they were there...) as a warning. I don't think the videos were supposed to be about helping Gabriel, I think Emilie was warning Nathalie to get the fuck out of that house, and to take Adrien with her. Because Emilie knew it'd end like this.

Yes I'm still mad ok give me a break.

[bugwolfsstuff]

thinking about that one Perpollo time travel reading the books fic/s I read that repeatedly bashed Annabeth (and Piper) and called her abusive and Percabeth co-dependent (Both during and post MoA, you know when one of them was missing for some months and after being in TARTARUS TOGETHER)

But then turned around and somehow accidentally made Apollo literally so so fucking groomerish (and not because Percy was 16 in it) and possessive it was almost funny

And how do I know it was an accident? Both the author and several fans of the author came into the comments to defend that it 'wasn't as bad as Percabeth' when people politely pointed out that Apollo was kinda being really possessive

Yeah so basically if anyone asks me this was the exact reason I dont ship Perpollo

[bratbarzal]

anyways it’s nowhere near done but would anyone be interested in beta reading my quinn fic when I actually finish it?

[vaguely-concerned]

bunter sending peter off to the club like a mother dressing her child to go to school in the morning and making sure he's brought his packed lunch and his homework and his extra pair of socks and all his silly detective gear. that's all. it's just very important to me

"You are quite sure this suit is alright, Bunter?" said Lord Peter, anxiously. . . . "I want to look approachable," he went on, "but on no account loud. I can't help wondering whether that stripe of invisible green wouldn't have looked better if it had been a remote purple."

This suggestion seemed to disconcert Bunter. There was a pause while he visualized a remote purple stripe. At length, however, the palpitating balance of his mind seemed to settle definitely down.

"No, my Lord," he said firmly. "I do not think purple would be an improvement. Interesting, yes, but -- if I may so express myself -- decidedly less affable."

"Thank goodness!" said His Lordship. "I'm sure you're right. You always are. And it would have been a bore to get it changed now. You are sure you've removed all the newness, eh? Hate new clothes."

"Positive, my Lord. I assure Your Lordship that the garments have every appearance of being several months old."

. . .

"And where's my lens?"

"Here, my Lord." Bunter produced an innocent-looking monocle, which was, in reality, a powerful magnifier. "And the fingerprint powder is in Your Lordship's right hand coat pocket."

"Thank you, Bunter."

a) the wodehouseian shoutout of it all. what is bunter but jeeves with the machiavellian streak tuned down and no need to create a certain sublimated frisson with his pet little guy over sartorial disagreements b/c it's truly and genuinely not Like That, b) I cannot get over the mental image of bunter sitting around doing the equivalent of cutting off all the labels and fixing up any annoying seams and washing everything to get the new clothes stiffness out (peter's clothes are obviously all tailored so he doesn't have to deal with those pedestrian sensory horrors in the first place but these are the vibes. 'you've removed all the newness?' is soooo. it's all so much. I love them)

[1singulargrape]

Been thinking about the prompt with Yuuji and 4 Sukunas a lot lately, mainly about what versions of Sukuna it'd be and trying to figure out a plot because that prompt had been living in a white void for me so far. So here's what I got :3

First of Yuuji: post canon ofc, more or less the same as we know except instead of occasionally looking at his missing fingers with some melancholy, he has his Blobkuna he carries with him everywhere, acting maybe a tad overprotective of him but still fairly normal [by Yuuji's standard] apart from that

Blobkuna: very fond of his brat, does wish he had more freedom but he isn't going to complain either. Him and Yuuji are basically always together, eating, sleeping, going to missions etc.. It took a while for Yuuji's friends to get used to that because they're weirdly codependent

Yuujikuna: I'd say, post Shibuya-early Culling Games, a time where his satisfaction from his fights was starting to run out and he was growing frustrated with his captivity again, although he knew he just had to be patient and strike at the right time. He'd be mostly confused by this situation but also the happiest to have regained a body of his own and the one that has the highest risk of just running off and cause chaos on purpose, just to stretch his limbs a bit

Megukuna: I'd say he's from somewhere near the end of the training month, maybe 3-5 day before the 24th. This one is used to his freedom, at the top of his form and itching to fight. Being thrown in the future is annoying because he's already killed people that had the potential to entertain him although he really wants to know what the brat's been up to and who defeated him. So, openly curious, will try to start fights

These 2 are definitely disgusted by what Yuuji and Blobkuna have going on (although I'm not very confidant in my characterization for them)

Now onto True Form Sukuna, first things first I'm going with the post-271 version because I can't think of a reason an unrestrained Sukuna from the Heian era would stick around, in my mind he's running off the second he understands he's in the future

So, this Sukuna who chose to do one last act of kindness and did not curse Yuuji is brought back to life (already annoyed he doesn't get to walk into the void with Uraume) and sees the remnants of himself burdening being taken care of by Yuuji. He's happy to see Yuuji alive and smiling, but he was gone and that version of him shouldn't exist in the first place, and when he asks to take the Blob to have a one to one talk, Yuuji gets very defensive and refuses to let go. Otherwise he's the chillest here and enjoys watching Yuuji trying to wrangle with his other selves

I do see Yuuji trying to discreetly use his technique on them and coming to the terrifying realization that they all inhabit their own bodies and his soul cleave will be nearly useless if he actually has to fight them

[The Sukuna that had his original body quickly grabbed his wrist in one giant hand and held it up uncomfortably. Shit, Yuuji thought, I've been caught.

"What is it Yuuji~? Looking for the edge of my soul?" he flashed a toothy grin towards the younger man who started panicking, Sukuna wasn't using a vessel like he had hoped but had his own body, it made things more difficult for him is things got violent.

"That little trick won't work on either of us, although..." he lowered the hand holding Yuuji's without letting go, his gaze softening when he spoke the next words, "I'd love to see how much you've improved."]

(yes I believe true form would make the other 2 eat dog food. it's a chinese slang look it up)

Now for the plot, the part where I was struggling. If I was sure I'd be writing it I would've kept it to myself but I know I won't so here we go:

Yuuji has 4 versions of Sukuna to deal with that are sticking to him for plot reasons, and it's a lot. A lot of pain, a lot of grief, a lot of regrets and also, a bit of joy. Obviously this isn't normal and they have to be sent back to wherever they came from but Yuuji wants to take the time to reconnect with them a bit, show them that things could be different once they go back.

note: Yuuji's feeling towards them isn't something I've fully grasped yet but maybe his enthusiasm to show them love and attention might be in his smile but not his eyes and it makes a disturbing painting that leaves the Sukunas somewhat disturbed.

True Form would see right through it tho, he's been there after all. But the fact that a piece of himself stayed behind is upsetting to him so he eventually manages to separate Yuuji and Blobkuna to study it

And as it turns out, this isn't one of them at all. It's a curse Yuuji created without realizing because he didn't want to grief someone else. He has his grandpa and Junpei and Nanami and Choso and his brothers and his teacher and so many people he couldn't save and he couldn't add Sukuna to the list. Not yet. Not so soon. And that how Blobkuna was born, in the ashes of Sukuna's residues and out of a love he wasn't ready to let go. (it's similar to what Yuta did)

Yuuji kinda goes through it for a bit after learning that. He doesn't want to let go again ofc but he's had some time by then. Making his peace with all of them helped. It's not any easier but he has to respect Sukuna's final wish of moving on. (to Blobkuna it's kind of like learning you've never existed. they both take it poorly)

(I do see True Form sighing and pulling Yuuji in for a hug, then glaring at the others until they hug him too. Group hug for Yuuji, he needs it :'))

So at the end of the day, Yuuji had one, then four, then no Sukuna as they all leave. True Form tells him that they will meet again in his next life and Yuuji smiles and nods. It's a promise.

[puhpandas]

hi mutuals im just curious.