#She's now fully developed and I'm actually obsessed

[larkoneironaut]

Sneak peek of the character sheet for my special girl Elikai Vidis from my Din Djarin romance fic 🪐 It will include her full outfit, her inventory, the title of the fic, a short plot summary & a few facts about her 🖤 So excited to share it all when my fic is finished!

I’m currently in the middle of writing chapter 6! It’s going well but a bit slow, tbh, I hope I have more energy soon to properly write more than just a few sentences a day 🤞🏽There will be about 20-25 chapters, it will be slow-burn because that’s my thing and an adventure! 🏝️🏜️🗻

I’m also working on two more drawings with Elikai, one together with Din and one when she was younger on her home planet! She’s 30 in the fic and that drawing will show her happy unbothered 20-year-old self 🥹 I will post these drawings when they are finished!

[sidsinning]

the movie aint better ya goofs (don't read if you don't wanna hear my slander lol,,,)

"Movie!Gabriel is better than show!Gabriel because he actually cares for his son and gets redeemed"

istg this fandom's obsession with redemption needs to END

Morally better character ≠ better writing

Can I just get a piece of media that tells kids "hey, ur abusive parent was an asshole, and even if they had humanity you do not need to reconcile and forgive them in the end" bc I feel like that's what show!Gabriel leans towards which is great

Gabriel barely talks to Adrien in the movie and suddenly when he sees him under CN's mask his entire reign of terror, his determination to see his dead wife again ends in a tearful hug lmao come on now

("but the ending where Adrien suddenly loves his dad again???"- Astruc has been pretty blunt on Twitter that this perfect society you see in S5's ending is built off of a lie, so Adrien is def not gonna just keep that view)

"Adrien actually stands up to his dad in the movie!"

Movie!Adrien is legit a normal human boy, not a sentimonster who is literally physically incapable of fighting back against whoever has his amok

He DOES fight back (even in S1 as CN!), but people like to remember the show only up to S3. Guess what, he learns to fight back and stand up for himself through his growing bonds and relationships with those around him through character development ✨✨✨

Also, he is an abused kid??? In the show?? How can you knock him down a peg for not fighting back,,, 😭 Adrien's lesson isn't that he needs to learn how to fight back, it's that Nathalie shoulda called cps sooner!!! In the movie they are much more of an estranged father-son pair than anything abusive. So obviously the back talk is much easier too. Movie!Adrien gets to go out alone and with friends unless his dad has specifically planted an enemy where he is. Show!Adrien has been beaten, mind controlled, forced to hurt Marinette, isolated and locked up, etc.- he has been TERRIFIED of his dad multiple times.

"Marinette isn't an obsessive stalker in this!"

SIGH.

Man I am so sick of this complaint- the show has never rewarded Marinette for her obsessive behavior. BC IT IS A CHARACTER FLAW. One they use for cringe comedic purposes, but a flaw nonetheless. Every time she has done anything that hurts others in pursuit of Adrien she is punished by the writers. And bc the show has an episodic monster-of-the-week format, this plot is recycled a lot (which is its own complaint). And guess what? SHE STOPS BEING OBSESSIVE. YEAH. SHE STOPS DOING THAT SHIT- so what do you want now??? She grew out of it after it costs her the miraculous so why tf are yalls still hurling this at her like its a L,,,,

This Marinette is just a watered down boring version of show!Marinette. She's just a girl who gets insecure at times but grows confident bc she's Ladybug. Ok. So is our Marinette but MORE. Our Marinette is super smart, creative, resourceful, an overthinker, extremely kind and selfless to others, gets jealous and reckless when her emotions get the better of her, etc. She is fully formed even after watching just 3 episodes of S1.

Like the fact that they didn't even bother to include the oh so important hook of the show- her lucky charm power- shows they didn't care about doing this story justice- its so transparently lazy writing 💀 (miraculous of creation where??? CN gets cataclysm for destruction but what is movie!LB bringing to the yin yang table,,,)

Legitimately all the comparisons I'm hearing from people saying the movie is better are from those who just aren't caught up with the show where Marinette is no longer toxically obsessive with Adrien, where the plot/lore is insane but 10000000x better and more creative than what the movie gave us, the love square was much better developed EVEN FROM JUST THE ORIGINS EPISODES, etc. Istg these people stopped at S3 where the show was at its worst (if I were to pinpoint it)

Everything is so watered down or changed for the worse

Adrienette bonding was 1 conversation and 2 seconds about his mom in a voiceless montage. Marinette didn't fall for him bc of his kindness after a misunderstanding, it was bc he looked handsome in the library's light lol. He called her weird and didn't think twice about putting on his earphones to listen to more alpha podcasts. You really do wonder why she likes this dude over her partner CN bc they have no connection at all.

Movie!Adrien was an asshole don't you dare do show!Adrien dirty by comparing him to this ellen degeneres alien lookin mf

When movie!Adrien is crying after Mari reveals herself as LB, unlike the show, here you're like "yeah no you only like her now bc she's LB lol"

Anyways feel free to enjoy what you enjoy but uuuuuhhhh this movie getting a 3/10 for me would not rewatch

Oh wait the good things

-Visuals

-Some Ladynoir scenes were cute, like them playfully fighting with the accidental wall pin

-I liked Ladybug moving away from CN's kiss- nice hint of angst

-Chloe's coffee stain scene

-Luka cameos were cute

songs were bad or mid

ya das it

I guess feel free to talk to me in my inbox about your own thoughts if you wish (respectfully plz)

[drhenryblack]

Just a little idea

Ok guys, a little AU idea. I honestly love how most people portray Caine as a wacky and goofy guy who absolutely melts for his soppy wet cat, Pomni. And though that's still my favorite flavor of Showtime, I just had this idea of a more realistic version. Basically, many adventures later. Pomni confronts Caine about his adventures, and how they're mentally traumatizing and leave emotional scars on all of them, and they get talking on the concept of emotions. Caine explains how since he's an AI, he doesn't have any emotions himself and hence can't decipher the human mind and how they're feeling, the concept being entirely alien to him. He's been trying his best, but he just can't do it. Pomni somehow ends up as his teacher and will be the one guiding him to make his adventures less traumatizing... And maybe even find a way out... So now the two are bonding and Pomni discovers that Caine ain't a creep and is just a funny little guy trying his best. And she starts developing a soft spot for him...and...and...she's in love, isn't she? And Caine is trying to find out exactly what kind of feeling he gets when he's around her and why he feels so jittery around her. And Ragatha, well the rest of the gang is also there but mostly Ragatha, is watching from the corner knowing fully well that Pomni is falling for a confused and possibly dangerous AI and beating herself over it. But here's the twist, Caine can feel emotions. I know, I know, he's an AI, how can he do that? But just hear me out! In the episode when Pomni mentions the exit door, Caine replies rather... chaotically. He's tense, neurotic, almost as if he's afraid? afraid that she'll find out the truth (following the theory that the humans stuck in the game aren't actually humans and it's just a copy of their consciousness that's trapped in it). But, AIs? feeling afraid? That's something that caught my eye. And I know it sounds weird! But it's true! I've also noticed the little finger movements he does when he's nervous, which, as a doctor, I must say is pretty similar to pacifying activities that people do in real life (hand massages, fidgeting with something, or stroking one's neck). And if he didn't feel emotions, wouldn't he reply in a calm way to not get anyone suspicious, and stick with the optimistic and goofy side of himself? This has personally led me to believe that Caine has emotions, he just doesn't know that those feelings are emotions. So Caine has emotions... and... that's it! That's as far as I've gotten into this idea, and I'm really hoping someone would expand on it, and turn it into an AU. But I personally believe he might grow a really obsessive and possessive behavior towards her. He's never felt anything like this and grows obsessed with it because he feels so warm and happy whenever he's with her. Feel free to expand on the idea Showtime nation!

[creampuffqueen]

tell us about the tlok gen 2 kids

ask and you shall receive!!!! making fankids is such an obsession of mine lol

so i have futures and kids planned out for pretty much everyone, but i'll just go over the main krew ships + kainora for now. and i'll try to keep it kind of brief but i have So Many thoughts about them so we'll see if i'm successful. i have like. an entire labelled timeline. it's wild

under a cut because this got so long holy crap

the easiest to start with is the bopal kids. they get married a couple years after the end of tlok and start having kids pretty soon after. they end up with four kids (somewhat considering adding a fifth but we'll see. there's already so many ocs)

their eldest is jade, who is an earthbender. then they have a pair of identical twin boys, named san and goji. san is named after bolin's father. san is an airbender, goji is an earthbender. their fourth child is a girl named tempa, who is an airbender. she actually ends up becoming blind later in life. not whatever toph had, as she was born seeing, but she had some degenerative disease that slowly took her eyesight. she actually ends up developing a technique similar to seismic sense, but with airbending, to help her get around! she keeps her head fully shaved so she can always feel vibrations in the air

the next up to have kids is, surprisingly, kai and jinora. this was not intentional on their part. but they've been dating since they were like 12-13, so i honestly don't think it's much of a stretch that they would end up becoming parents as teenagers. pema and tenzin are a bit upset that their daughter got pregnant at 17, but at this point they've accepted kai into the family, and they respect the young couple's decision to keep and raise the baby

and then after they have their first baby, they decide that they're going to hold off on getting married until their family is complete, so all their kids can be a part of the wedding. like bolin and opal, they end up having four kids as well. all of them are airbenders. their first born is a boy named sangye, second is another boy named tadashi, third is a girl named zaya, and fourth is a girl named tara. it's the jinora and tenzin parallels for me lol. two boys, two girls, four airbenders. despite their young age they are very good parents

then we have the korrasami babies. they have the smallest family, with just two kids. i did some research and as it turns out, sperm donation/artificial insemination procedures were a thing in the 1920s. of course they were WILDLY unethical at the time but hey, they did exist. this is how they end up with their kids. mako is the donor, which i know some people may find that weird but mako is their best friend, i feel like they would rather have a donor that they know and trust than just. some random guy

korra is pregnant with their first baby, who they name katara. she's a waterbender. asami is pregnant with their second baby, a little boy they name hiro, after asami's dad. hiro is a nonbender. they are literally the best moms ever <3

and last but not least, we have wuko's kids. for the longest time they are the cool, childless gay uncles. i think they're both really good with kids, but neither are ready to be parents for a long time. not to mention in my timeline it takes a solid ten years for wu to get the new democratic earth kingdom up and running smoothly enough that he can abdicate. and even after he abdicates and he and mako get married, they're still unsure about kids for a few more years. when they do decide to have kids, they both for sure want to adopt. i have a whole separate post i could make about mako quitting the police force to become a social worker and opening up a youth shelter. but he knows he wants to help out kids, so hopefully none suffer the way he and bolin did. wu does not want to have any bio kids, as he wants the royal bloodline to end with him so there is no possible claim to any kind of throne

but then korra and asami are like 'hey, if you guys want a baby, we're cool with helping out' because i mean mako already helped them have their family, they can do the same for him and wu. and since they're offering, mako and wu decide to take them up on it. korra ends up being a surrogate for them, and they welcome a little baby girl that they name naoki, for mako's mom

then, soon after naoki is born, they end up finding a trio of very young sisters out on the streets. their mother passed away, their father walked out on them, and they have no other family. the eldest girl is only 8 years old. when mako meets her it feels like he's looking into a window at his past self. the girls are very frightened, but mako and wu are able to earn their trust enough to help them out. and in the process of caring for them, they end up totally falling in love with these kids. they ask them if they want to be adopted. all three say yes

the girls are named kasumi, ryoko, and hikari. all three are firebenders. naoki also ends up being a firebender. there's so many firebenders in the wuko house. i'm also spreading my girldad mako agenda. him and wu taking these girls in and giving them a family is actually super emotionally healing for him. he's able to make sure another set of siblings out on the steet has a family

anyway that's a very basic rundown!! i love chatting about my next gen kiddos so so much so thanks for asking! and of course if anyone has any questions about specific kids or families please feel free to ask!!!

[tabithatwo]

Do you believe Jackie and Shauna have a codependent relationship in canon? and if you do, who do you think is who in the relationship ("giver"/"taker") dynamic?

i think this is a very interesting and difficult question to parse out, mostly due to the fact that they're teenagers when we see them together. being 18/19 really does mean heightened emotion, less frontal lobe development and therefore less impulse control and ability to moderate our interactions with others, more hormonal imbalance, just a perfect storm of codependency. i say this lovingly, as a lesbian who experienced what its like to be a teenage lesbian and did her fair share of insane shit lol, the type of crazy you can attain as a teenage sapphic is fucking unmatched. there is this deep and unyielding attachment that forms between girls in general at that age and when you add romantic love that spark of crazy easily transitions to a wildfire. i think so many people see themselves in jackie and shauna because it is a more shared experience than we like to admit and the show fucking nails it.

when you're in it, you think that you're the only one feeling that sort of intense obsessive consuming need for a person. often you don't see that the other person wants and needs you just as deeply, because we all do our best to hide what we know isn't acceptable. and its true. that sort of desperation isn't healthy at all. we should all strive to be more comfortable in ourselves and to stop putting all our happiness (not just happiness really, because when you're consumed by someone like that every emotion hinges on them) into external factors, especially one person. but learning to do that is a process. we don't come out ready to do that. it takes time and development and independence that you can't achieve when you're that young.

then we get older and we're embarrassed when we look back on those behaviors. we shove them down and pretend they didn't happen as best we can and we definitely avoid talking about them with other people. i can't tell you the amount of times a rush of just total abject horror at how obsessed i was with my high school best friend, turned homoerotic nightmare, turned girlfriend, turned ex hit me in my mid twenties. like your brain starts kicking in and you just go GOOD GOD!!! what was i THINKING??? but more years pass and time makes the sting of things lighter and now i can talk to her and sometimes (sometimes!) we can broach the really fucking deranged things we did and thought and its weirdly healing and horrifying all at once.

now, idk if you're still with me because that was a long intro that didn't even touch on the topic yet, but i promise i'm getting somewhere:

i think that jackie and shauna are fully and completely dependent on each other. i don't think that there is one giver and one taker. i think that they are a beautiful and tragic example of the crazy obsessive entangled love that happens between young sapphics. for me, watching them and discussing them and writing them is so freeing, because it allows me to actually face the harsh realities of unhealthy dependence.

neither of them could ever be whole without the other. and i don't mean that in a romantic hyperbole-fueled manner. i mean that in a truly horrifying way. i mean that to them functionally, they are girls who have body parts as real as any other, that are unattached from their nervous system. jackie's arms are shauna's arms and shauna's arms are jackie's arms. each girl has two hands that touch and do and create and destroy, without her brain giving the okay. each girl has to watch, as an extension of herself does something that she would never ever allow. when they're apart, when they're fighting and hurting, when shauna goes to sleep in the attic, its as though their lungs and their hearts are in another room.

who gives and who takes is hard to answer in specifics, though the simple answer is both for each. but the best way i can put it is that jackie gives more and more in the tangible real world. she tries to anticipate shauna's every need. she gives her the last bite of food. she gives her everything she has and then some, because jackie's biggest fear is shauna taking a seam-cutter to all the parts of them that are sewn together and becoming a separate entity. jackie squeezes shauna tight in her hands and shauna gives more pieces of her body and soul to their shared cache than she wants to.

shauna has an image of freeing herself from the dependency, but she doesn't like to reckon with herself and she doesn't like to see all the places that she expects jackie to be an extension of herself. so when she tries to make space, shauna doesn't even realize that she's not separating them at all. she's touching where jackie touches and kissing where jackie kisses. she is trying to be jackie, but not truly in a jealously way. not in a way that undermines their romantic love. shauna is trying to be jackie in a way that intensifies their dependence, because even if consciously shauna is aging and trying to forge a path for herself with a new school and a new life, like most of us tend to try and do at that age, shauna is still subconsciously trying to fuse them into one being.

and when jackie dies, shauna absorbs her. because she can be both. she's been practicing for this her entire life.

[ghostedcas]

i haven't posted anything in a bit and i'm so sorry, i don't want to reveal too much detail at the moment but i've just been having a wacky time mentally to put things simply.

in return, have some (extremely) random personal COD headcannons :))

warnings: mentions of mental health disorders (including eating disorders), mentions of religious trauma, mentions of child abuse/childhood trauma, idk just some sad stuff but also way more happy stuff than sad stuff i swear

a/n: reminder that i've never played the game, a lot of the information i have on the characters is from fan created content and a little bit of research and some things could be slightly inaccurate canon wise. also these are once again personal headcanons, you don't have to agree with them, just pls don't be mean :)

anyway, i apologize that there's not that many :(( this is just a short lil list so there's def gonna be some characters missing and such. but i will have more headcanon posts out another time <3

cod headcanons (very random edition)

könig is a farm boy <3

impovershed farmer's child to soldier pipeline is real

also idk why but i feel like his real name is like eduard german spelling of edward or something

2 sisters (1 older, 1 younger but born the same year as him) and a little brother

soap is an ipad kid (i will be taking no criticisms)

ghost probably has borderline personality disorder but because it doesn't present in the way it stereotypically does for borderline men so he is undiagnosed

was audhd undiagnosed until he was 25

bro was baffled

the development of his bpd was both through the abuse and neglect he faced growing up and the trauma that one can experience from being autistic growing up but left undiagnosed

soap has severe adhd

PRICE LISTENS TO DISCO AND CLASSIC ROCK 🗣️ guilty pleasure is 50's love songs and smooth jazz

gaz tried to establish team game nights

regretted his decision after one game night

both ghost and könig are gymbros but in the disordered way

orthorexic könig

an-bp ghost

every one of those mfs has ptsd and/or cptsd

valeria is a radfem (trans inclusive)

gaz secretly likes a few kpop songs from various different groups (he really likes g-idle for some reason)

catholic trauma soap📢

was probably forced to undergo an "exorcism" at one point

also had a scene phase

emo könig :(( <3

ghost wouldn't necessarily label himself goth but he does enjoy quiet a lot of goth music and some of the fashion intrigues him

gaz used to be a roadman😭 absolutely hates admitting it though bc he's embarrassed about it

idk i feel like horangi would listen to ayesha erotica unironically

ghost listens to lana

i could also see könig having bpd as well (this is mostly feeding off of the obsessive/possessive/jealous headcanon the fandom seems to share, though i do have some other reasons i could go into another time)

can i get an amen for he/they könig??

soap jokingly said he wanted to use she/her pronouns too and now ghost wont stop actually using them seriously and soap doesn't want to correct him

ghost is fully aware it was a joke and he just wants to see how long it'll take soap to correct him

141 all have matching tattoos (including kate)

ghost also listens to hollywood undead

valeria's guilty pleasure music is taylor swift's earlier albums

ghost smoked weed in high school

dream blunt rotation is the 141, könig, horangi and valeria

könig's social anxiety really manifests itself as arrogance and sometimes he hates that

könig and soap are actual pyromaniacs

one of könig's favourite movies is howl's moving castle

that's all i can think of for now,, hope y'all enjoyed🫶

if you did pls gimme a like and send an ask if you want to request anything <3

[mtdthoughts]

Rejection (Migi & Dali Thought)

*Spoilers* for Episode 11 of Migi & Dali given below

This scene deserves some unpacking.

Objectively speaking, and looking back in hindsight at the end of the episode, Dali was clearly wrong to reject Eiji who was already vulnerable and unstable. But by putting myself in Dali's shoes (or feet?), I can't really blame him for how he feels; if anything, it would have been out of character for Dali to accept Eiji at this moment. It's also worth pointing out that Migi doesn't seem to have internalized this revelation nor has fully accepted Eiji either. He couldn't say anything to calm Dali's rage, and his only justification seems to come from an obedience to his late mother rather than his own feelings.

So what was going on in Dali's head that caused him to lose his cool in such a manner?

It's obvious that Dali wanted revenge much more than Migi did, and of course was carrying much more anger and resentment. After all, he was the "responsible" twin and saw revenge as his duty. Moreover, Metry's death was the cause of the twins being left alone; but as Migi's older brother and (effectively) guardian, Dali felt that he had no choice but to bottle his emotions to ensure the twins' survival in a harsh world. Though Dali may be calm and rational on the outside, he was carrying years of accumulated stress and anger from this injustice that was never alleviated. As a result, he conveniently used his mother's killer (later Eiji) as a target and container for his wrath.

However, in a matter of minutes, Dali's revenge was completely shattered, as I'm sure that he was able to take Reiko's and Eiji's testimonies and construct the actual truth. But he didn't want to acknowledge it because it was such an ugly truth. Eiji was no longer the only one to blame, as all parties involved carried some responsibility: Reiko for starting this whole mess, Akira for being a philandering buffoon, and even Metry for recklessly going after Eiji and leaving the twins behind without saying a word. The very possibility that Metry was partially responsible for Dali's suffering and obsession for revenge was something he was unwilling to entertain, leaving him even more angry than before. Eiji's words only added insult to injury, since not only was he the one who killed Metry, but unlike Dali, Eiji still had a mother (as twisted as she may be) that cared about him. This caused Dali to lash out and reject him.

At this point, Dali was in a very angry and confused state, as shown by him sitting in silence as Eiji walks away. He likely began to question his revenge and pondered the possibility of its emptiness. What exactly does revenge look like now? How was he going to resolve the overwhelming anger he held in his heart? Given such an ugly truth, wouldn't it have been better to never pursue revenge in the first place and instead live as happily as possible with Migi? As smart as Dali is, he is still a traumatized 13-year-old boy, and it is not surprising that he did not handle these developments well. Hopefully, Dali will find answers and finally begin to pursue the happiness he never allowed himself to have.

[piracytheorist]

One of the things that make me very insecure about sharing my thoughts about Spy x Family as an anime only fan is that for the most part, whatever I say now has probably already been said and analyzed to death by people who read the manga months before.

But no matter. I am here to share my thoughts and I'm gonna make it everyone else's problem.

So! Nightfall appears! I've already seen reactions about people not liking her and I'm like, cool okay, but I am so curious to see how her character in the story develops the dynamics among the Forgers. I'm not here to like her as a person, I'm here to like her as a character dynamic.

And the first, and probably biggest, dynamic she throws in the story right away is by being an outsider of the Forgers who knows Twilight better than the other Forgers themselves do. In some parts, at least. God forbid the guy has a change in his coffee preferences. But anyway! She sees Loid smile at the family he's created...

And she spots some truth behind it. Nightfall has seen and studied Twilight himself, along with his fake identities and the smiles he had to perfect in order to convince even the most suspicious of targets.

This is the first time we get actual confirmation that Twilight is slipping. We've been seeing it ourselves in the ways he acts, but it's now that a third party sees the situation and confirms it with words in canon.

Nightfall's obsession with him is not a hindrance to spotting that; in fact, it's thanks to that obsession that she even spots it. She spends the entire episode internally monologuing how she is the perfect fake (or not) wife for Twilight, how and in what ways Yor falls behind in that, how there's nothing Yor or Anya are doing right... when she's shocked by Twilight having milk with his coffee, she immediately makes up an excuse to make it make sense - another reason why this was a brilliant detail to add in; Yor bringing him milk was a deadly sin that meant she's a bad candidate for a wife, but Twilight actually using it was just him being a Brilliant Spy. She's ready to blame the clueless parties and to glorify Twilight and his spy skills. All while making wrong assumptions, by the way.

Nightfall has no low self-esteem. She's ready to bring everyone down in order to get what she wants, and she fully believes in her right to do so.

But then, Twilight's/Loid's smile hits her hard, because it hits her emotionally; it makes her jealous. She sees all the ways Yor and Anya are "failing" him and his mission... but even she cannot deny the truth under his smile. The unbreakable, unshakeable Nightfall who will destroy you to get what she wants, now suddenly feels there's competition she needs to take into consideration. The milk incident proved she has Twilight in such a high pedestal that she's ready to make any kind of mental gymnastics to justify what she sees, but in the case of Twilight's smile being 0.1% genuine, she immediately fails to make up any excuse. Because Twilight expressing real emotion, real happiness, because of the previously considered incompetent Yor and Anya, is just that huge for her. She considered them incompetent, hindrances to the mission... but she failed to anticipate the emotional impact those two have had on him. And it's what shocks her, what finally makes her insecure. Because she sees herself as someone who would do a better job at supporting "Loid Forger" as his fake wife, like no-one else would... but when it comes to making him happy, suddenly there's someone competing for that place.

And this is why I like her dynamic; she's cold, calculated and confident, but at the same time she has an uncontrollable obsession over a one-sided infatuation, which makes her the perfect medium to suss out to the audience that Twilight is actually growing feelings for his fake family. It takes both her being cold and distanced AND obsessed to notice the subtle truth behind Loid's smile, and to make it her life's mission to outdo that. And the more she tries that, the more it'll become clear that it's only through Yor and Anya's innocent, genuine efforts to help build a working family that Twilight can find true happiness.

[fixfoxnox]

The fact that I’ve been keenly watching over my Email for any updates 😭😭 I’m obsessed!!! I love hearing your headcanons and the bts!! Do you have any more info you could spill to us?

I always have more to share with you guys!!!

If you want some headcanons/bts for the story, here are some thoughts about Roach's first life in the og timeline and some other fun stuff. Some of these will be playing into upcoming chapters 🤭

I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I fully stand by the fact that og ghost, while looking super similar to reboot ghost, had a completely different sense of style

Man had piercings, a little mullet thing, and just generally carries/carried punk vibes at all times

OG Soap was in love with Roach. He didn't realize his feelings until it was too late and Roach had already developed feelings for Ghost.

OG Ghost was a jealous king. Like super possessive of Roach, hated when anyone flirted with him, etc. Roach was his person and he was terrified of someone taking him away

Which, coincidentally, led to Ghost and Soap butting heads because Ghost could tell that Soap was in love with him. It didn't help that Soap was fairly flirty (just personality wise) and Roach was completely oblivious to the fact that Soap was in love with him

Roach used to have to break up fights between the two during off time. He never realized just how many fights he was breaking up/how serious they were

Ghost and Soap were at each others throat a lot, but they worked together expertly on missions and never let their anger at the other impact their work.

I like to think that Roach used to ask a lot of questions, which is how he knows so much about Price from his first life

Like as soon as they pulled this man from the gulag, Roach was asking a billion questions. He definitely grilled him about when Soap had first joined the team as well as what the man knew about Makarov.

Despite the fact that Price and Roach didn't know each other for very long, Price was genuinely upset when he realized that he and Ghost had been killed. To him, it was almost like Gaz dying again because both Gaz and Roach had been super upbeat positive people despite all of the chaos.

Couple of things about Jackson for fun!

Jackson and Griggs were actually friends on their squad in their first life. Griggs knew Jackson was super skilled, so it was easy for him to recommend him for things like the squad that were pushing up to find Al Asad.

Jackson has a huge family, both in the reboot universe and his first life. Man has like five sisters and six brothers and a whole army of nieces and nephews

Roach has become an honorary member of the Jackson family in the reboot universe.

Jackson's grandmother was the one to make Roach's scarf. Jackson is the closest with her out of his entire family (she was the only one to believe him when he was a kid and said that he was reborn) so he told her about Roach first and about him remembering to. She immediately set to making the scarf for him

Roach gets Christmas gifts sent to him from Jackson's grandmother, he always makes a point to send her back a little gift basket of craft supplies. Jackson joked after the first Christmas that he did it that Roach was her favorite grandchild now

Jackson and Roach definitely kissed at one point, like at least once, just for fun

Speaking of which, Jackson is bisexual

Jackson is also an honorary Sanderson kid and Roach's parents lowkey think that he and Roach are dating/married and just haven't told them.

They keep dropping hints about it and Jackson is always just

"💀 Roach your parents think I'm sucking your dick when you come to visit"

"You could have said that literally any other way"

Jackson is just very very chaotic. Like positive frat bro energy. Always dropping inappropriate lines because he likes to watch Roach blush.

When Soap/Ghost/Roach are finally together i just know he's lowkey hated by Soap and Ghost because he thinks its funny to flirt with Roach and Make them jealous

They also 100% believe that he and Roach have actually slept together.

"I wish I'd managed to get Sanderson in my bed! I probably would have ruined him for other men though, he would have been in love after one round."

Tbh I lowkey wanna write Jackson/Roach addition to the universe at some point, like a fic of their kiss or adding maybe a slight bit of romance between them at one point

They're just best friends man

Roach and Gaz are lowkey bffs on the 141, but Soap would probably flip his shit if Roach ever said that he wasn't his best friend, so Roach keeps it to himself

But like these two go off base to eat together all the time, especially while Roach was injured

They love to get Chinese food on the weekends and bring it back to the base for everyone. Typically on Chinese food nights they huddle up together in either one of their rooms or one of the den areas in the barracks to play like the longest game of poker you'll ever see

Roach usually wins

Unless Price joins them. If Price joins, he always wins

Before Price knew about Roach being reborn, Roach would occasionally make a comment about something that would have Price looking at him like 🤨 because "that was before even my time, Roach."

Price literally knew Ghost and Soap were gonna fall for Roach all the way back when they were on the roof before the stuff with Shepherd. Like he watched Soap and Roach interact and Ghost watch them and was like "God damn they're gonna date eventually"

Had a bet with Laswell about it, was one of the reasons he was so involved when Ghost was being rude to Roach. He was not about to lose fifty dollars because Ghost was being stupid.

Price is the squads #gaydad and he has a secret husband (its me, I'm the husband)

Jk, in universe he is single (only cause I'm not there 🤚🙄)

Gaz is also single. He very loudly complains about it to Roach on the daily.

Roach has offered numerous times to set him up with Jackson, Gaz only keeps saying no because he thinks Roach picked up on the fact that he thought Jackson was hot during the bar chapter and is embarrassed by it

Especially since he thinks Jackson and Roach are ex's

Roach absolutely did not pick up on the fact that Gaz is into Jackson, he just keeps asking because Jackson keeps bothering him

"Sanderson please get me the hot British ones number" "Ask again please 🙏" "Roach I'm telling you he's my soulmate okay, I will move to England and be his housewife" "Please tell him we never dated and that I could treat him right" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO? SANDERSON PLEASE"

(Me creating random ships out of nowhere? Yes, absolutely)

But basically, the whole team is lgbtq+ because I said so

Please ask me more about Jackson I love him sm, but I'll stop talking about him for now

When Soap and Ghost took to cuddle piling angry Roach while he was injured, it was some of the best sleep Roach has had in either of his lives

He also woke up several times to Soap drooling on his shoulder which, while slightly gross, he thought was adorable

He also woke up several times to Ghost with his face literally buried in his neck

To be fair, Soap definitely woke up several times to Roach literally wrapped around him like an octopus

And Ghost woke up several times to Roach with his face buried in his chest (tiddies)

Speaking of which, both Soap and Ghost were definitely dealing with having to confront their feelings for Roach during that period of time because I know they both woke up at one point with a fucking hard on for the guy

Though Roach doesn't intend to use it, he still definitely has James' number from the bar on his desk in his room. He just never got a chance to throw it out after he, Soap, and Ghost briefly got together

Though Roach literally worked with a version of Soap who was Captain of the 141, he literally cannot see reboot Soap ever becoming a captain to the team. Like the thought actually makes him laugh because of how feral this soap is

Speaking of feral, Roach has definitely watched new recruits on base get "accidentally" bitten by Soap because they were staring and Ghosts ass (or his, but he doesn't know that)

"How do you accidentally bite someone?"

"With your teeth, Bug. Obviously"

New recruits on base usually go through at least some of these stages:

"Wow Ghost is hot"

"Oh no, he's scary"

"His fucking boyfriend just bit me"

"Wow Soap is hot"

"Oh no, his boyfriend is scary"

"I just got the snot kicked out of me in training because I was looking at Soap"

"Now I'm injured"

"Oh wow, who is this cute guy helping me with my wounds and apologizing to me for the behavior of these other guys"

"Wow Roach is hot"

"OH NO, HIS TWO FRIENDS ARE SCARY"

Essentially most of the recruits end up being in love with Roach at one point. I know by boy just has an army of people ready to die for him.

Roach will never admit it, but he 100% thinks that his new lifes Price is fucking gorgeous. He is very confused on how the balding man he knew in his first like looks like...that now.

Of course he'd literally never admit this to anyone because Price is like a father figure to him and he would die of embarrassment if anyone knew

Roach and Soap both kept journals in their first life and they both keep journals in their new life!

Soaps is usually filled with sketches of Ghost and, after Roach joined, Roach as well

Roach usually writes down memories from his first life that come up + memories and fun conversations that he has in his new life. He also keeps track of every mission/place/people from his first life that happens/he goes to/he meets again

Okay I should probably stop here for now lmao, I let this get a little away from me

[old-school-butch]

here is my second anon, on same-sex attraction and the fuckery i've experienced around it in the trans community. i wonder if any ex-TRAs and TIFs will recognize this, or if it's only me who managed such a convoluted mental somersault? also, please forgive me for venting in your inbox, i have no better place. but alas.

i thought myself a gay man for 10-ish years. and yet i had... very clear sexual attraction towards women, clear enough that i've genderswapped 80% of my fictional male crushes so they would have breasts and vaginas, while still considering them "men" because i kept their he/him pronouns. seeing females as men allowed me to tell myself i was only attracted to males. i think a mix of biphobia and lesbophobia, stirred into gender-think. i was only allowed to love women if they were actually "men". because it was ok to love men.

i had crushes on girls as a teen and i'd always feel gross and predatory when i shared the locker rooms with them. i remember so badly wanting to sneak looks at my crushes but doing all i could not to. bc i "knew" that it was wrong. however i never developed into accepting this same-sex attraction as normal, because i got swept up in genderism, and became a "man" and... all my attraction towards women suddenly felt EVEN MORE predatory and violating. i swept it away as male gaze, objectification, leering, still predatory. etcetera etcetera. genuinely did all i could to suppress/explain away my obsession with female bodies. i centered my male attraction, and as the trans movement is very male-centered to begin with it was only encouraged. people (straight females) calling themselves f*gs left and right. every time i started thinking about breasts (i'm boob obsessed for real) or having sex with women i pushed it down as male depravity. i also thought me wanting to fuck women had been conditioned into me by advertising. like, yes, of course everyone wants to have sex with women bc they are trained by society to want this :)) logical. this totally happens to all female people. oh you love the smell of pussy? advertising taught you this. -_-

obviously as a TIF, i felt somehow that male identity and pronouns was a prerequisite to be fully human/be the way i was inside. misogynistic as fuck. it seems i felt this for other women, too. you told me i'd feel the weight of the harm i'd done along the way, when i sent the first anon; this is a heavy one. having viewed women and myself this way for so long. and having written off my same-sex attraction (i salivate when i see bare chested women lol) because, well, i'm a "man" and i violate them with my eyes.

the power dynamic between TIFs is funny/tragic too. ssa ones being treated as if they're straight males and culpable for everything those do. osa ones being the ones with more social capital. bisexual ones centering males bc well, the whole movement shits on women and you don't wanna be "straight" or bi ending up in a "straight" relationship. a lesbian TIF just enters a world in which her attraction (which she's likely felt predatory for her whole life already) is REINFORCED as bad. because now she's a straight man. and when a real heterosexual male is not accessible to shit on, she will be the target of the "gay" ones. god, the trans community is such a complicated type of homophobia...

i feel so good now to be out of it. i've been butch my whole life, i had a buzzcut since i was 14, up until my 20s. tomboyish always. now i have a long braid, and i considered cutting it off when i peaked, but i can't bring myself to do it. i miss my breasts very much and my braid is a body part as well, one that i can still hold on to. i can't let it go. it means something to me, i suppose, symbolically. but i don't feel like i'm a man anymore, and my attraction towards women is not to blame for their oppression. it is so liberating. i no longer feel like i'm degrading or harming women by being attracted to them. and most of my friends who dropped me were osa TIFs, binary and nonbinary... they have a lot to lose if they should give up that identity. they'd get booted out the "queer" community, lose the oppression they built their identity on. it's weird looking back at them. ah, i ramble so much, but thank you, even if you don't end up posting this, for having a space open here to go to. it feels so valuable, and it helps to read others anons.

Oh, I've definitely read wilder somersaults. It's amazing how confusing it is when reality is upside down. A lesbian becomes a gay man, or a straight man depending on the identity of the women she's attracted to. All nonsense, but I do wonder if it allows people to contemplate relationships they had rejected previously. Like, if you're a straight man who decides he's a lesbian but then meets another TIM then you're supposed to also include him, or women might have idealized views that relationships with men might not be so bad if you can escape 'being the girl'. Women, according to the stats, are the most likely to twist ourselves into these pretzels, of course, female socialization at work. So, we must forgive ourselves and each other for our roles in all this.

I'm glad things are working out well for you. There are times when I feel isolated being gender critical, but then I remember the headache-inducing mental repression I had to endure to make myself believe all this and I feel much more free and real.

[crowlhoard]

Undead Unluck Manga Chapter 183 Spoilers!!!

I know the main wave of discussions for this chapter has already concluded and the new anime episode is already out, but I tend to ruminate for a long time and I'm even slower on properly writing those thoughts out. But now that my thoughts are finally organized, I can put that dead horse to the ground.

Last chapter seemingly seems as an end to Rip's and Latla's character development, quite a disappointing one too (even besides the sister thing, that is just *sign*, Japan...), but I have some reasons to hope it isn't, and here's why:

In the first loop we are introduced to a variety of negators, which can generally be separated into two teams: Union and Under. Under being the antagonists of the story. As the story unfolds, we learn that Under and Union may actually work for the same goal, even if the former is doing it in a pretty twisted way. But there's two exceptions to that rule: Feng and Rip/Latla team.

Feng is pretty straightforward in his desire for strength and his willingness to sacrifice all and everything for it. Loop 101 already addressed his behavior and showed us a hint of change:

Rip and Latla, however, while being a team, aren't on an equal ground. While Latla obviously wants to save her sister too, we constantly see that it's Rip, who is consciously refusing to move on from the loss of Layla and fueling his obsession over his goal. A goal, as we learn in the unfolding of the last loop, that is quite selfish and short-sighted. Not only his current actions utterly betray his dead lover's last wish

But it also doesn't actually gain him anything but a few extra years at most with Layla before a horrifying death of the whole world and all three of them

While in the beginning such motivation could be explained by Rip being introduced to the world of negators through Under and coming to conclusion that all the people with power act purely in their own interest, that delusion repeatedly gets shuttered by his run-ins with the protagonist duo. Yet, despite every such encounter showing us a bit of humanity in Rip, every following encounter, he seems to push towards his selfish wish.

A potential for him to finally make a right choice this loop seems to appear after the culmination of Season's Arc, where it's laid plain to see that Fuuko is the one with the power to reach God and that she is absolutely the kind of person to try and save everyone, and loop is being inevitable by this point with Earth's careening towards Sun. This shows us a hopeful turn for the Rip and Latla duo - with Latla choosing to help Union search for Fuuko and, most importantly, finally separate from Rip

Yet, despite this hopeful turn, Rip once again returns to the original plan - speed the oncoming end of this loop and doom the next one, all for the desire to be Layla's personal hero for a single moment. This culminates in one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the story

Which is made progressively worse, once we learn Latla's negation next loop - Untrust. So for that plan to work, Latla either had to fully believe that Rip can't hit a moving target like Andy (which is doubtful, since she is the most aware of the extent of Rip's skill) or to truly believe that he won't be able to genuinely target her. And despite last chapter claiming that Rip loved both sisters equally, he is clearly capable of sacrificing Latla for Layla.

As heartbreaking as that moment is, it also shines light on the true nature of Rip and Latla's relationship in the loop 100 - they are enablers of the worst traits in each other: self-destructive loyalty, multiplied by infatuation in Latla and the short-sighted selfish goal pursuit in Rip.

Moving onto the next loop, we are introduced to them both once again before the tragedy of Layla's death. Latla doesn't seem to differ from her past loop counterpart. Her life is still built around helping her sister and supporting her relationship with Rip.

Rip is quite a different person, though. With quite the heroic claims

Which would be quite touching to see after this arc's end to show his growth, but here, before Layla is saved, we know those claims are pretty hollow. Unlike the rest of the cast, who sticks to their core values after losing a loved one, we know from the last loop that Rip drops this claim pretty quickly after Layla's death.

Latla does get her drop of a character development, finally standing up to Rip and demanding half the Bladerunner to stop Rip from trying to play a solo hero, in contrast to her quietly following Rip's path of self-destruction last loop

A few words about Layla - despite being alive this loop, she still doesn't have a character. Effectively, she could be replaced with a mannequin in a dress in 99% of her scenes and nothing would change.

So this arc culminates in chapter 183, where we get a brief recap of the events and Rip checking out his "happy end" box with marrying Layla. We also get slapped with a sudden question "Who will Rip chose?" after the narrative up to this point practically beating us with the demonstrations of Rip's first priority over everything (even Latla's life) always being Layla, from the start.

We are given one page in the ENTIRE manga to imply the single case of Rip picking Latla over Layla

And this chapter culminates in the weird kind of progress, or rather, regress: Rip now forcefully dragging Latla into his decisions, disregarding her own choices. Which is supposed to be taken as a positive development now? And in the end, Rip doesn't get any development to show that he is a better person than the last loop and not simply nicer because he didn't have to face hardship this loop.

A mini side rant, unrelated to the analysis - I hate this panel with. every. fiber. of. my. being. Romantizatio of first love as an only true love is one of the worst things to come out of romantic genre. Side rant over

UU isn't nuanced enough story to deal with the complex relationships and getting over infatuations, so I don't expect any developments in that direction. But Rip is supposed to be one of the author's favorites, and seeing such lackluster characterization in UU is really jarring, so I do hope this isn't an actual end to this three's characters development. I propose that at least 2 out of the following 3 options happening could somewhat salvage this mess:

1) Obligatory - Layla finally gets some characterization. Even a single page of her being the one to suggest including Latla into the ceremony, would've considerably improved last chapter.

2) Latla getting to actively disagreeing and opposing Rip, to showcase that she is capable of making her own choices, instead of being dragged around by Rip.

3) Rip facing his faults, which made him of the few true villains of last loop, perhaps through Remember, perhaps through other means.

[blood-and-pizza]

Thoughts on Tales from The Pizzaplex #5:

GGY:

So... Gregory really is Patient 46. And he's even killed people while under Glitchtrap's influence. Not even his own friends were safe. God, FNAF is really dark, huh!? Kinda makes me wanna put an arc in Fazbear Estate where Gregory hacks the Glamrocks, gets caught, and gets in huge trouble for it... plus Glamrock Freddy loses trust in him for a while. OUCH OUCH OUCH. Moving on...

The Storyteller:

Mr. Burrows is a dickhead and a murderer. I'm glad he died in the end, what an asshole! Would really have loved to know what his actual given name is. Also, I was super-intrigued by Edwin Murray... poor dude. Even in this story he has strong Henry vibes. Also, now we know what those weird notes in Security Breach are... I think?

Also, lemme talk about how the Storyteller affected the Glamrocks...

Roxanne has always been kind of an insecure bitch, but after the Storyteller shows up, she became an outright bully who verbally attacks everyone around her out of "pathological cruelty".

Glamrock Chica had a loving, pizza-obsessed personality that turned snarky and attention-seeking. Even her cupcake (I'm surprised she has one!) "developed the personality of a vicious terrier".

Monty has always been dramatic, since he's a rockstar, but after the Storyteller shows up, he becomes more sulky and violent, going into "depressive" silences in-between tantrums in his green room.

Freddy... we all know Glamrock Freddy is a total sweetheart normally. But the Storyteller turned him into a brat who tries taking toys from children, and cries like a baby when he doesn't get his way.

Bobbiedots, Part 2

Yeah, I kinda had this one spoiled for me, so I wasn't surprised when it turned out the gen2 Bobbiedots were evil. I'm pretty happy the gen1 Bobbiedots, and Abe and Sasha, got a happy ending! I really liked this one! I just wish someone would draw better official designs for the gen2 Bobbiedots... ugh... I also kinda wanna draw the gen1 girls fully repaired.

BONUS STORY:

Rest in peace, Adrian. Your death, however undeserved, was a valiant one.

[nearyboo]

I think out of all the fiction I experienced in 2022 Umineko is the one that's left the most lasting impact. Specifically Ange's journey and how beautifully she goes from a suicidal teenager feeling alone, abused and abandoned by all the people she loved to a confident young woman no longer obsessed with discovering the truth but conveying the emotions she experienced on that journey. From being fixated on her dead family a situation she couldn't change no matter what she did to using her talent to influence the minds of children and leave a positive change in their lives. Like Battler and Maria did for her.

Being able to forgive her abusive mother figure. Being able to accept the deaths of her family and for the first time being able to move forward in her life after spending a lot of her youth and teen years wanting to die, only living on so she could find out the truth. But thanks to the alternate reality Battler created solely for her, so she could see her family again and teach her there's stuff far more important than the truth, like simply cherishing the memory of her loved ones even if they were inaccurate and false. being viewed with a childish naivete. Whether her memories made her view certain members of her family as more despicable or favourable than they really were. She should cherish them all the same since those memories will be with her until she dies even when her family isn't. As someone who's experienced deep loss over the last year it was so comforting reading a character who's life had been defined by the loss of her family and who had no way of knowing how to cope with it, gradually learn that there's so much more to her than her past trauma and that it's fine for her to keep on living without them. That as much as she loves them, she doesn't need them and she can create her own path in life.

But more than anything I love the conclusion she comes to in the end. Wanting to become an author and write stories for children and the next generation. To teach them all of the lessons she learned from her trauma and how she was able to overcome it. Not wanting any children to suffer like her and Maria did. Umineko is a story that is all about stories in general so having Ange who's the emotional heart of the series and the most important character in the ending decide to create her own stories just makes sense.

Also I'm a huge fan of the trope of characters leaving everything behind to start a new life. And Ange starting this new chapter in her life by giving up the Ushiromiya family fortune and her name along with it. Starting her new life as an author under a new name living by the sea in a log cabin. It's what she deserves! 😤

This alone would've been good enough as a conclusion but I'm so glad the epilogue of the series is also based around her. I like that we actually get to see her success as a fully grown adult who's survived and prospered into an renowned author. Hits more seeing what she's become and been able to achieve rather than only seeing her as a teenager.

Also her reunion with Battler is perfect! The main goal of the final arc is for Ange to accept her family's deaths and come to terms with the fact that she's never going to see them again so that she can finally move forward in her own life. So then her reuniting with Battler could've been seen as undermining or relinquishing her development. But the story handles it perfectly and in true Umineko fashion its more bittersweet than anything with Battler having amnesia from his head trauma and now no longer being able to see his old memories with Ange as his own anymore. It works as brilliant closure since Ange is able to vocalise the loneliess she felt to someone and Battler is able to see the healthy, splendid woman she's become just like he wanted even if it's through the eyes of another man. It also pays off the idea/theme which the story was pushing heavily that even if you think you're never going to see a loved one again, as long as you're alive the possibility is never zero.

[sandradoodles]

oh my gosh, I love you adrienette bffs and ladynoir obsessively in love with each other idea. it gives amazing development and irony to both main ships of the love square at the same time! can’t imagine the looks of adrien & marinette’s faces when the reveal happens and they’re just like, “I can’t believe how stupidly in love I was and still am with you?? I should be thrown but I want to marry you even more now???”

(This is the original post, for the uninitiated; anyone who is interested should please check all the tags and comments over there because people have expanded on the idea in absolutely brilliant amazing ways that I never would have thought of. TEAMWORK IS BEAUTIFUL, I love this fandom.)

I have developed such a fast attachment to this au haha. Best Bros Adrienette and Actual Couple Ladynoir have sooooo much potential for consistent development throughout the whole story, more so imo than the actual canon setup. I do have an idea of how I think events would progress and cobbled various scenarios into this rough timeline fic that devolves into notes and then almost-fic again and then more notes at the end because I can't seem to decide if I'm writing a real thing or just yelling my story ideas at everyone. Either way, I WROTE A LOT, hope you enjoy!!

----

Seeing her ladybugs repair everything for the first time fills her with a sense of wonder and triumph, erasing her first mistake with Stoneheart so thoroughly that she feels like they repaired something inside of her as well. Ladybug's confidence swells, and she thinks to herself: yes, they can do this!

"All right, now we've got to get out of here before we transform back!

"Wait-- Ladybug!" She stops and turns back to her new superhero partner, who reaches out to take her hand. She allows it, considering what they just went through. "That was incredible." A smile spreads across her face. He's as much in awe of her new powers as she is, it seems, and he's right. They've done something incredible together.

"I’ll be quick. I just want to say..." He rubs the back of his neck with his free hand. "I know I was a little over-eager before. Getting the chance to be Chat Noir, it changes everything for me."

He's been full of jokes until now, and this sudden rush of sincerity touches her. They don't have much time before they transform back, but she's transfixed, unable to bring herself to hurry him along for some reason. Her face feels strangely warm.

"I was already looking forward to being a superhero, and now, knowing that I get to do it all with you? Well..." He gives her a grin, back to playful sauciness, but this time it doesn't trigger her impatience. She isn't sure what it's triggering. "I'm ready to follow you anywhere."

She ends up barely getting to cover before her earrings run out of time, and she tells herself that her heart is pounding because of the close call. But that is definitely not the reason.

----

As soon as Nathaniel--well, the akumatized version of him--leaves her room, Marinette leaps to her feet and transforms. What a crazy day! She’s going to have to think of something clever if she wants to manage this situation from both the Marinette and Ladybug sides...

There’s an alert from her yo-yo before she can fully settle on a course of action.

“Hey Chat Noir,” she answers, trying to sound casual. “How are things going with Chloe?”

“Oh, charming.” She is privately beyond pleased to hear the dripping sarcasm. “Listen, she did give me a clue though, by accident. I think the villain might be after this girl--” There’s a chime from her bug phone. Ladybug checks the screen to see a picture of herself (her other self, that is), giving a wide smile and cheesy victory sign. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Pretty cute, isn’t she?” 

“Wha-- buh-- you think-- Marinette-- cute?” GET IT TOGETHER, GIRL; why is she talking like this all of a sudden??

He laughs, a dreamy sound even over the phone.

“Not as cute as another girl I know. It sounds like there’s something wrong with our connection, so I’ll make this quick. Can you keep an eye on her? I’m sending you the address.”

“I-- I can’t,” she stammers, trying to figure her way out of this one. “You’re going to have to do it. I've got... a special mission!” Oh no that sounds so fake; he’s going to figure her out--

“Great! Chloe can do her own homework.” Okay, he’s just relieved. “I’ll head right over there.” He hangs up without further question and she experiences a moment of relief herself before the panic sets in.

Wait, Chat Noir is coming to her house? Noooo, what if she turns into a complete babbling disaster again? 

(Spoilers, that is exactly what happens.)

----

The first time Marinette suspects Adrien of being Chat Noir she is very uncomfortable with the possibility. It doesn’t even make sense, like why is she even considering something so insane... Just because they have the same allergy?? Chat Noir is a handsome, confident, utterly swoon-worthy daredevil; Adrien is a very nice, kind of awkward, and totally naive boy in her class. Once she gets the tiniest piece of evidence that swings in favor of them being different people, she is more than happy to lay that silly theory to rest.

After a while, she's put the thought so far out of her mind that she forgets she ever had it in the first place.

----

“There’s this... girl.” Adrien blushes, and he looks so adorable that Marinette just wants to put him in her pocket.

“A giiirl? That is so cute! Who is she? Do I knooow her?”

He flaps his hands at her, possibly regretting the decision to say anything. It’s too late now; Marinette is like a dog with a bone.

“No, no, you don’t know her. She’s my-- my pen-pal!”

“You have a pen-pal?” Well, if that isn’t just the sweetest thing she’s ever heard. And kind of sad. Was that his only way of making friends before he was able to come to school? 

“Right. And sometimes we... video chat?” He’s so awkward; why does it sound like he’s asking a question?

Marinette continues to press.

“And you liiike her?”

Adrien hesitates, and she thinks about how rarely he must have the chance to talk to anyone about his feelings. He’s barely allowed to leave the house (seriously, the scheme she had to come up with just to get him permission to visit her today...), his mother is gone, and his father might be one of the most emotionally withholding people on the planet.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” she assures him. “But I might be able to help you out. I can give you insight, from a feminine perspective.” It’s a bold claim from a girl sitting with her legs spread-eagled on the floor and croissant crumbs on her shirt.

“She’s... so amazing,” Adrien sighs, and at that moment a new level of friendship unlocks between them. Love guru Marinette is on the case. She’s already formulating a plan; gosh, she is going to help this sweet naive boy so much and definitely not make everything more difficult for anyone involved!

----

Ladybug saves Chat Blanc but wrecks her own heart in the process. Now she's seen for herself what it would mean for her to act on her feelings for her superhero partner. Her love doomed him to the most miserable existence she can imagine; how could she ever allow herself to risk that happening again?

But she's shown Chat Noir too much of her hand, too much of her heart. In order to convince him to give up on her, she has to do something unforgivable: she has to lie to him.

Two days later, Marinette and Adrien are hanging out in the safe space of her room. He sighs and admits, "She turned me down. She said... there's someone else."

He looks absolutely wretched, and Marinette immediately flies into a frenzy. That sounds fake, just-- utterly ridiculous (and you know she wouldn't borrow words from Chloe of all people unless they actually suited the situation.) Who would turn down Adrien? He's kind, and cute, and multi-talented, and tons of other positive things! She tells him as much, with a great deal of emphatic gesturing and stomping back and forth across her room.

"You can't give up, Adrien! Promise me you'll keep trying!" Even if her own happiness can never be realized, she will NOT allow the same fate to befall her friend, who deserves some happiness more than anyone!

The next day, after they've captured the latest akuma, Chat Noir catches Ladybug by the wrist before she can yo-yo away.

"Hey, I'm about to change back!" She still has a good three minutes and they both know it, but the feel of his hand is dangerous and she wants to run.

"I have to tell you something first. I... I'm not giving up. I'm in love with you, and my feelings aren't going to change. I just want you to know that." He releases her hand as soon as his declaration is finished. She wants to throw her arms around him. She wants to throw him off the roof. She manages to keep herself from acting on either impulse, and instead just... bails without a word.

Later, as Marinette lies in bed with her insides doing some sort of crazy churning, fluttering dance between guilt and hope, a thought worms its way into her brain: isn't the timing of her love life and Adrien's a bit... coincidental?

She doesn't voice this thought aloud, to Tikki or even herself.

----

Ladybug keeps up the facade as best as she can, though there are times where her acting becomes so flimsy she just knows Chat can see right through her. Surely all of Paris can see right through her.

Then one day everything really falls apart.

"I don’t... I don’t know if I can do this.”

Chat Noir is right by her side, as he's always been, despite her repeated attempts to create some distance between them. His hands come to rest on her shoulders, firm and reassuring, and she leans in towards him despite herself. "Don't say that, m'lady... You're going to be an amazing guardian. I know it."

"No, I--" She shouldn't be saying this, not to him. But she can't go to Alya, who is too curious for her own good and would want all the details she can't share, and Adrien... Well, Adrien would be the perfect person to talk to about her anxieties if not for the fact that Kagami has somehow gotten it in her head that he and Marinette are, what? Secretly in LOVE with each other or something? Marinette can't confide in him right now; she needs to give them both some space so he can figure out his feelings and ask Kagami out already, then she'll realize that Marinette was never a threat and they can all be friends again. (And Adrien can fully move on from his mystery girl, who only seems to hurt him lately.)

Until then... staying away from him is painful, more than she wants to admit. The pressure, the isolation, the fear of failure have all been creeping up on her so long. Why does it feel like she always has to be the responsible one, always has to make a sacrifice so that someone else can be happy?

“I’m so tired,” Ladybug admits, a faint quaver in her voice. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up-- being responsible for everything, protecting other people, always... lying to everyone.”

"You've never lied to me," Chat Noir says, and tries to put his arm around her shoulders. She ducks away from him.

"Are you serious? I lie to you all the time! I've been lying to you since the day you told me how you feel about me! Don't tell me you really think--" 

Wait.

Wait. 

How is she only just now realizing that Chat Noir... is an idiot? 

"Do you actually believe I’m not in love with you?" She’s been fighting so hard but her true feelings are still so obvious, aren't they? Aren't they??

Apparently not. He’s just... staring at her, absolutely dumb-founded. Oh no. She knew she shouldn’t have said anything, this was a terrible idea, now she has to figure out how to fix this before it blows up in her--

That thought falls right out of her brain because Chat Noir has now pulled her into the kind of embrace that Marinette used to have wistful daydreams about on a regular basis.

“Do you mean that?” he asks, breathing the words into her hair, and his voice is actually trembling with hope. How she wishes she could feel the way he does, like the doors of possibility are flung wide open. Even for a second...

“Of course I do, but--” The words start tumbling out of her mouth, and before long she's telling him things she never meant to tell him, about her feelings, about her fears, about Chat Blanc. Not everything about Chat Blanc; even as all her walls are crumbling, she shields him from the worst of it. But she shares enough for him to understand.

“And that’s why I’ve had to keep pushing you away, pretending like I’m not in love with you! If I let it happen-- if I tell you my identity--”

He interrupts her with a brush of his hand against her cheek. “I’ve never needed to know your identity to be in love with you.”

She somehow manages to meet his eyes. How is he like this? She just told him that he might end up miserable, alone and devastated if he takes a chance on her, and his response is to make a tender declaration that weakens her at the knees.

"Did you even hear what I just said?"

"I heard you,” he assures. “But... just because that happened once doesn't mean it's the only thing that can happen! It could be something different this time, something incredible. We could be something incredible."

Something about his sincerity is infectious. She's dizzy, his words are giving her a fever. He loves her so much.

"Please... take my hand, m'lady. We could go anywhere together."

She doesn't bother with his hand. She grabs him by his face, feels the exact plunging physical sensation that accompanies a leap from a tall cliff, and kisses him with the fervor of a love long deferred.

----

AND BOOM, power couple Ladynoir is a thing. There are a few bumps in the road but about 95% of the dysfunction that arises in S4 (in canon) is eliminated because they TALK TO EACH OTHER and RESPECT EACH OTHER’S FEELINGS. Chat Noir is all too happy to bring in new team members because she trusts him with the details (and it’s hard to be jealous when you’re getting regular smooching time with your superhero gf.) He’s her #1 confidant and he knows it. She can finally let herself trust someone else and step out of the pressure cooker that is her own expectations/need to control everything all the time.

Meanwhile bff Adrienette have been working on the problem of Adrien’s crappy life (in this au the dodgeball conversation from Risk happens about two seasons earlier and without requiring the influence of an akumatized villain.) With Marinette having his back, Adrien is able to start looking forward and thinking about what he wants for HIMSELF and his OWN FUTURE. His entire circle of support is expanded because Marinette helps him assimilate more closely into their friend group, and because her parents have essentially adopted him. He gets the chance to process the fact that his father is a terrible person in a gradual, healthy way (which better prepares him for the eventual revelation that the guy is a legit supervillain.)

Felix has to come up with some new sneakiness to take Adrien's place in Risk, because Adrien turns down his offer to help in this version. Later, when Ladybug tells Chat to de-transform and prevent Strikeback from duplicating his power, he has nothing to prove and actually listens to her, meaning... he's not around when she comes up with her plan to recruit a new hero. She goes to grab Adrien, her dear friend, and Marinette lizard brain knows something is wrong but she tells herself it's because of the akuma, and because not having Chat by her side is messing with her head too. They capture the akuma and defeat the sentimonster, Strikeback never gets to Cataclysm anything and Paris is 90% less destroyed than it is in canon, so things seem pretty good until the inevitable happens and Felix steals Ladybug's yo-yo.

Panic attack in Adrien's room. Miraculous, gone. When Adrien throws open the bathroom door, Ladybug hasn't run off yet because Marinette needs him--Adrien, her friend, the person who hands out second chances like candy. It's a character trait that annoyed her when those chances were being handed to Chloe, or Adrien's father, or anyone else she deemed undeserving, but now Ladybug is the one who's made an unforgivable mistake, the one who’s lost everything--

"You can't blame yourself," he insists, and he's putting his arms around her for some reason, pulling her close. "If I'd only told you before... I've wanted to so badly, from the beginning. This wouldn't have happened if you knew who I am... m'lady."

She clings to him. While everything else collapses around her, one thing suddenly falls into place. She's been in love with Adrien Agreste this entire time.

----

And THAT'S AS FAR AS I'VE GOTTEN IN ANY DETAIL. Adrien doesn't totally blame himself for the mistaken identity, he just helps her lift some of the blame off herself. I feel like there's a good chunk of time where Ladybug knows who Chat is but they mutually agree she should stay anonymous. The Ladrien is GLOWING. Marinette has to pretend everything is normal and also like she's not absolutely head over heels in love with her bff, which is... exactly as convincing as one would expect. The final reveal is beautiful!!

[ashersanity]

I'll be honest, I'm pretty interested to know more about your PCs. Could you list a few facts about each? Esme is super cute I don't even care if she's dangerous. I just wanna squish her and be tied up in her basement forever I might hold a bias when it comes to Johan because he's a foxboy from what I've seen and my PC is a foxgirl, and they're both defiant too so obviously I may or may not be interested in him the most 😭 I read that little thing you put about the PCs as yanderes and Asher seems so possessive I love it Please feed me I need - Degenerate anon :)

degenerate anon, you have no idea what you’re asking for, how much this means to me, for someone, other than myself (and a few) taking interest in my pc’s. you wanna know about MY PC’s?? REALLY?

SQUEEZING YOU, HUGGING YOU, CRUSHING YOU IN THE PALM OF MY HAND HHRRGGG. I FUCKING LOVE YOU, SO, SO, MUCH!!!

besides that awkward part, there’s a LOT of info on them, lore, backstory, their habits, behaviours, personalities, made them all yanderes just cuz why the fuck not, huh? so I’m unsure if I could fully answer all I truly want to say in one post unless I wanna bore you to death with my ramblings. so, I’m giving you the choice to ask for a specific post, wether headcanons sfw and nsfw, their reactions to certain things, opinions on LI’s and others, even their backstory and lore?? if you’re interested, of course.

take your pick on whichever PC you’d like for me to do first. johan, asher or esme. johan has the most fleshed out backstory and lore so far, it runs real deep. asher has a fuckton of nsfw shit going on and esme is that one :3 with blood on her face.

I’m going to put their current status for the time being and which character has affected, shaped their personalities the most.

Under cut for people who are actually interested. cw! INFO DUMP, LOADS OF RAMBLING!!! non-con, mentions of blood and violence

Johan, the disgraced. [FILE 1.]

Current status : [DETAINED] Stuck at the asylum after the [ACCIDENT] occurred. Harper just won’t fucking stop harassing him.

In a few words, how would you describe him?

“Sly, manipulative, two-faced, smug, psychotic, sadistic, selfish” The type of guy to a jab a knife in your stomach and get hard from the sight of you whimpering under him, sick grin on his pretty face

A stat unique to him : Sanity. Keep it high, please. If it drops below 30%. ..Better not to say.

3 main chars and their roles

Whitney. Wants him dead. Fuck, once he breaks out of this damn place, it’s utterly over. UTTERLY. FUCKING. OVER. Fantasizes about killing that motherfucker every night. The reason why he’s in this shithole in the first place.

Sydney. His beloved, his everything. Kept them pure, wishes to protect them from this sick town the same way he was unable to protect himself from it. Only person in the world who gets him soft and makes him drop the cold act.

Harper. Weird doctor that won’t stop asking him to come in. Knows something is up and can see through his tricks, the pen and hypnosis not working on the fallen angel. Harper may think that he has the boy in his grasp, but it’s the other way around really, has him in the palm of his hand like a lab rat. Oh, also, they fuck each other on a daily basis.

Asher, the disturbed [FILE 2.]

Current status : [DANGEROUS] Fresh out of prison from saving Kylar and now roaming around town, not what you’d expect from your typical teenage boy.

In a few words, how would you describe him?

“Hard to read, generally calm, repressed, obsessive, cold, a ticking time bomb” Type of guy to claim he doesn’t care about you before he’s trapping you over the desk, fucking you silly

A stat unique to him : Patience/Impatience. His cool demeanour will eventually crack if low enough. High impatience result in consequences.

3 main chars and their roles

Whitney. (again) Not the same way as Johan, may or may not have unexpectedly fallen for her despite having initially hated her guts. Rocky relationship that slowly developed into something more clear over time, that he’s unfortunately, utterly obsessed with her. Purposefully put a baby in her, fucker.

Robin. His childhood friend with weird tension going on there, loves them to death and has this obligation to protect them from this town. If anything bad were to happen to the poor orphan then Asher would only have himself to blame or so he claims. Lot of pent up guilt from when he found them at the dock, bruised and bloodied.

Bailey. Obviously so, the main antagonist, the one who’s responsible for all the shit in his life. Wishes to overthrow the sick bastard somehow, doesn’t exactly know how, but he’ll think of something for sure. Has a deep hatred for the man though he feels conflicted at times, whenever he and the caretaker are alone in his office, begging for an extra before payment.

Esme, the devoted [FILE 3.]

Current status : [STABLE] Going through her usual routine, school, spa and of course, hanging out at the park and arcade with her girlfriend.

In a few words, how would you describe her?

“Loyal, clingy, delusional, gets attached easily, naive, not entirely what it seems, loving.” Type of girl to always be there for you as long as you do the same! Or else. Wants load of cuddles too, please.

A stat unique to her : Devotion. This is entirely depending on how willing she is to do favors for you. Is proportional to her love. Keeping it high is recommended.

3 main chars and their roles.

Kylar. Her pretty, perfect girlfriend who’ll do anything for her and she’ll do the same too!! What? She’s crazy and psychotic? Nonsense, they can be insane together, giggling about this and that with the blood of their victims on their hands and faces. How silly.

Avery. Sugar mommy that she got herself attached to, sees her as a mother figure, the one she never had since.. she’s an orphan after all. Avery is more or less aware of this and doesn’t know how to feel about it, Esme getting sort of clingy at times though she may have a soft spot for her despite it all.

Great Hawk. That bird understands her more than anyone and you couldn’t possibly get it anyway. Probably because, just like Kylar, Esme is an outcast at her school and not entirely well-liked even with her soft, cheerful personality. The freak tanked that reputation down so now she cherishes every single person she meets, including the Great Hawk. Silly bird gifts her flower crowns and gems.

I’d do more, but fuck, there’s too much to talk about really.

[bcbdrums]

I've noticed you got into soul eater somewhat. What are your favorite characters and why? You don't have to answer this I was just curious I've only heard of soul eater through your blog.

Ah yes, I'll tell you exactly how that happened.

So back in June....

Me: You're into Soul Eater now, what's that? Friend: It's MINE you can't have any. Me: Ohh-kay lol.

Jump to August, when I drove about 14 hours to my friend's house...

Me: We're gonna go fishing, and shopping, and go to the fair, and go to the caves, and eat nacos, and we're gonna— Friend: LET'S BINGE SOUL EATER ALL WEEK Me: Ohh-kay lol.

And that's the long and short of that LOL @midnightcaptions ain't even sorry. Neither am I.

I was surprised I liked it actually, I hadn't expected to. The characters especially are very creative and have a depth that intrigues me. Also, the universe is so complex I feel like....you can't actually understand the whole thing on your first watch? Gotta watch the show many times to fully comprehend how that universe's magic works... And even then maybe not get it. I know it's confusing the heck out of me.

Fave chars... I'll start by saying I love all of them. Like I said, each one is creative and has a lot of depth. But I do have faves.

I'm addressing the beginning of this answer as if to people who are familiar with the show, and after that, I'll answer it as if to those who are not familiar like yourself. You can skip to that if you want. So for those who KNOW what Soul Eater is all about....

I'm pretty obsessed with Stein and Spirit. Not as a ship, but... I wanna know their story. I wanna know about their academy days, about these "experiments" Stein did... I wanna know about Spirit's ex-wife and how she actually managed to get him away from Stein. And where is Maka's mother, really. I just know there's a LOT more going on there than what's said onscreen. Because of what we know about the academy in the present day, we can make assumptions about the past....and too many things just don't add up. Like...none of it. None of it adds up. So yeah, those two are my current faves and I'm slowly developing headcanons to fill in all those gaps that have me so desperately curious. As of right now, my fave ep is the ep where Stein and Spirit team up again for the first time against Crona. They're both just so awesome in that ep and I love it. A little glimpse of what things should be like... What a meister and weapon partner at ultimate synchronicity should be... Idk. I just really like them. As to the main three and their weapons, I think I like them all equally? They're all unique and each pair's story is unique (or trio in Kid's case). I don't think there's been any episode I've been disappointed in... Like, if it's a Maka and Soul ep, I'm excited. Black Star and Tsubaki, I'm excited. Kid and the twins, I'm excited. I'm excited for all of it. And especially for anything that gets more into the academy's history and all that, like I kinda said before. I even like Excalibur, lol.

OKAY. Now for you, Anon, and anyone who doesn't know what Soul Eater is....

It's set on earth, but it is still its own universe. Like how Marvel for example is set on earth, but you just accept superheroes and magic stuff. So Soul Eater is the same, it's earth but you accept some magic stuff. The story mostly takes place in Death City, which is in Nevada. The main characters are meisters and weapons. A weapon is a human with the ability to transform into a literal weapon, such as a scythe, sword, pistols, and more. Each weapon has a meister. There is a school, the academy, which trains weapons and meister pairs to go out and hunt for evil spirits and destroy them, to protect the earth from evil, and later on more specifically, from madness. This school is run by the Grim Reaper. So the meisters and weapons are all in service to him. The main characters are like, pre-teens/teens. Maka (meister) and Soul Eater (her weapon), Black Star (meister) and Tsubaki (his weapon), and Death the Kid (meister and son of the Grim Reaper) and Liz & Patty Thompson (his twin weapons). There are other main characters but any further mentions would give spoilers... There's spoilers enough already been said in my prior rambling. So that's...the setting. And then of course, stuff goes down. Serious villains show up, gotta save the world from madness... That's all I'm gonna say, no spoilers.

This show is not for kids, lol. And I highly recommend NOT looking up anything that will spoil, it's too confusing and will ruin it. Just watch it. It's only like 52 episodes or something so it's easy to get through. Oh and the manga goes off in a diff direction so again, don't look stuff up cuz even worse spoilers if you get into manga stuff.

So....yeah. It's interesting. Thanks for the ask.