#Shou Pun

[shigayokagayama]

shou briefly absorbed teru’s terrible wardrobe making decisions so that he could be included in official art for once

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

Stage play Shou continues to steal the sho(u)w.

Edit: added image IDs from @that-was-anticlimactic under read more! Thank you!

[ID: a series of ten screen caps of of Nagata Seiichirou as Shou from the third Mob Psycho stage play. the first image 3/4 body shot of Shou facing the right. his hands are in his pockets and he's smirking slightly as if he's trying not to laugh. he says: "Do you wanna guess. who I am?" to Ritsu, who is off-screen. the second image is a 1/2 body shot of Shou facing forward, but he is looking to his left. his right hand is raised and he is holding a spoon. he is smiling widely. he says: "Someone interesting is on their way here.".

the third image shows Shou sitting on the steps. he is reading a book. he is looking up from the book at someone off-screen. he says: "Yeah, pause on that idea. For real, guys? Brainwashing?". the fourth image is a 1/2 body shot of Sakurai and Shou. Sakurai is seen from the back. he is holding his sword to Shou's neck. Shou is making an exasperated face. he says: "Chill out, man! I was being nice.".

the fifth image is a 1/2 body shot of Shou. he is facing right. he's making a face as if he just had an idea. his left hand is in a fist and is sitting in his right palm, as if punctuating the idea. Matsuo and Sakurai are behind Shou, looking at him in confusion. the sixth image shows Shou sitting on the ground with his legs crisscrossed. his hands are behind him, holding him up. he is looking at Reigen, who is off-screen, with a teasing sort of smile on his face. he says: "Is that right, old man?".

the seventh image is similar to the sixth except Shou is leaning back on his hands more. his right leg is propped up so his knee is up and his foot is flat on the floor. his left leg is lying underneath his right leg. his smile is even wider as he looks to Reigen (still off-screen) and says: "I'm happy to help if you're struggling!". the eighth image is a 1/2 body shot of Shou. he is facing the right. he is laughing and appears to be having fun. he says: "It's like you're playing tug of war with a person!".

the ninth image is a 3/4 body shot of Shou. he is facing right and walking. his hands are in his pocket. he is smiling in a more relaxed and less teasing way. he is talking to Reigen (who is off-screen) and says: "Time to pay you back in earnest.". the last image is a 1/2 body shot of Shou. he is angled slightly to the right. he is smiling widely. he is holding his wallet in his hands. he is speaking to Reigen (still off-screen) and says: "You're not just a liar, are you?". /End ID.]

[fixa-ryeter]

did something cursed (japanese names except mandarin pronunciation)

[andypantsx3]

you walk in to this sitting on ur couch, wdyd?

I have never been in love like this before in my entire life oh my god.

[quackats]

[ceruleanpunch]

funny how I saw a 'guess your spotify top song this year' and wasn't super sure but like. now the comedian rhapsody preview is out..................

[icepoptrio]

Details I enjoy from the fanbook:

Shou has naturally curly hair

Ritsu might want to study science in college

ONE thinks Shou would be a good protagonist for a hypothetical MP100 sequel

The place Reigen and Shigeo get ramen at has a two star rating. Noodles are free, though

Shigeo still has the monkey shirt and plans on wearing it to an important event someday

Teru denies ever having worn a wig and claims his hair just suddenly "mysteriously increased in volume"

Reigen pays Serizawa a ¥300 salary. Upon being told he's getting reported to a labor board he panics and leaves

Q: Tsubomi-chan, what's the probability Mob-kun can become your boyfriend? / A: Right now? 0%.

Teru doesn't know he has a questionable fashion sense and has difficulty thinking of things he's not good at

Tsubomi is very curt and gives shorter answers. At one point she defensively says she's "not an AI"

Shou's entire section. He makes puns with his name, enjoys doodling in textbooks, plays horror games with his friends from school, and just generally seems to be doing a lot better

Ritsu doesn't socialize much with his classmates, but Shou considers Ritsu a close friend and they went on a fishing trip that turned into a discussion about family

[dracobrooklyn]

Durge Headcannon #2

|| MDNI || 18+

Durge's relationship towards the other Party Members If you don't know, this is about if Cannon Durge was a Companion instead of a playable character. These are my headcannons so not everything is cannon. If you want more Durge check this Masterlist here

also the Tav!Reader is in a Fem!POV

CW: threesome, murder, and killing.

Durge very much is in love with Tav!Reader, after connecting with you, how kind and patient you are with the White Dragonborn. He very much loves the way you comfort him, how you talk to him almost anything that comes to your mind, he loves listening to your voice. So How does he feel about the other Members of your party around you? And around him?

Astarion

Safe to Say Durge isn't a huge fan of Astarion. The pale elf being very much cocky, arrogant, and never gives you any respect. Durge glares maybe even curls a lip growling softly. He could care less about what happens to the elf. Even when he found out he is a vampire! He quickly get's over protective over you, a slave to Sanguine. He wasn't gonna let you get bitten by this coward. If Astarion tries to flirt with you, Durge comes up from behind you protective. Besides Durge want's you, he be a better match than Astarion. He actually cares about you, this vampire just wants you as a blood bag that's all. Even when you and Durge become a couple, and Astarion offers to join you both in a threesome, Durge would flat out say no, end of story, he rather smear Knoll shit onto his face than let Astarion share the same bed roll with you. He's fine with you and Astarion being friends but... if Astarion tries to pull something on you, Durge won't hesitate to beat the shit out of him... maybe kill him if he get's away with it.

Shadowheart

He does not mind the half elf girl, the cleric that isn't too bad around you. She does at least give you some sort of respect as an ally and maybe even a friend. Shadowheart might be one of the few people that maybe notices Durges feelings towards you. She even was amused with the idea but even questioned, how would a DragonBorn be like in a relationship. Though Durge is a strange one, especially when he has no memories of his past. She might even be protective of you the reader if she finds out what Durge has done hurting and killing their enemies. The way he does it, if it's over the top. Shadowheart will confront Durge about it. She be weary of him and tell you if she is not sure if Durge can be trusted.

Karlach

Durge actually likes Karlach. Despite her very positive upbeat attitude. He does like her, she treats with you respect, is kind to you, and does not talk down to you. I like to think Karlach kinda finds Durge attractive. Being a DragonBorn and all, she may even might notice Durges smitten face when he looks at you in love. Like a love sick puppy. She smile and comes up from behind him giving him a good slap on the back and say "twitterpated aren't we solider?" causing Durge to trip on his words blushing trying to change the subject while she has a shit eating grin showing her sharp teeth. She might even try to hook you two up. Maybe... maybe even join in the sex action. Durge might actually consider it... if she didn't burn you both. He would say yes as long you were okay with it of course if you were interested. But if Karlach (like Shadowheart) finds out what kind of things Durge did. Oh boy oh boy, consider the friendship bracelet gone. She would get in between you and Durge glaring at him burning with anger. (no pun intended)

Lae'Zel

Heh uh... she may like Durge because of his blood thirsty fight in battle. And he may appercaite that... but if she calls you weak and useless because you are not as battle hungry as she is. Durge will snarl. Step right up to her and speak up. "I will you not have you speak so lowly of her, she's the one that got you out of that trap, she's the one that saved the druids grove with our help, she is the one keeping the peace between all of us, you should thank her, because I would have ripped your arm off." causing the Githyanki woman to narrow her eyes at him. She might tsk at him or making the last retort walking away from him. Durge won't interact with Lae'zel unless he really has to. But if she threatens to hurt you, he will not hesitate to rip her apart. Oh if she even tries to seduce Durge, he will lean so close to her face in a low whisper "Even if you and were the only ones in this plain of existence, I would rather be a mindflayer than share a bedroll with you." And honestly that might hurt her a little but she won't show it of course. Durge heart is only to you, and only you.

Wyll

Would they be dude bros? Maybe? Durge does not mind Wyll at all. The man has honor, he's protective, he treat you with respect and that's what Matters to Durge. Though if he does come a little close towards you, Durge makes a look at him as if "nu uh, mine." Wyll would get the message though. Like Karlach he might even help Durge hook up with you. Give Durge advice what to say but most importantly Wyll will just tell Durge to be himself. Yeah which one? Durge also would also feel bad for Wyll with his mishap being a warlock and all. Durge would definitely spit down at Mizora feet just to stand up for Wyll. Fuck that bitch honestly.

Gale

Funny guy... stop flirting with my girlfriend don't you already have a lover? Durge very much has mixed feelings with this guy. He can be useful but when he learns that he needs to eat magic items to live or else he will explode and die? WHAT? Why the hell is he with party again? Oh cause he's infected too. When he learns about how his lover is goddess, I mean yeah he must think she is pretty-- oh she's actually a goddess. Oh... poor chap. He definitely would be a little jealous that Durge has you instead of him, but he would give Durge advice to "Seduce" a woman. Durge not sure if they would work... maybe one night he will use that advice. Maybe... eh. But Durge wouldn't pity Gale for doing that to himself where he explode not given enough magic items to eat. Also ticks Durge off cause he finds an item he can use to kill enemies and then Gale looks at him as if saying "for me?" while Durge growls wanting to roll his eyes in the back of his head pissed and just hands it to him. Also Wizards vs Sorcerer. Mortals enemies for life (no just kidding). But Gale will boast about being better than Durge when it comes to magic causing the DragonBorn to give Gale a side glance glare. "At least I was born with magic and don't have to kill myself for it." Durge would say causing Gale to frown.

[ineffable-opinions]

Seme/uke - long response

A decolonial and subaltern take on three posts on seme/uke dynamics that aims to contextualize them while questioning ethnocentrism. I welcome alternative perspectives, corrections and criticisms.

Post #1: Seme/uke dynamics in Be Loved in House...  

@absolutebl responding to @echos-of-ivy

Seme – Uke

About two or more characters in a ship/pairing:

seme 攻め: top (the pitcher) (from origin - attack) also referred to as 左 (left)、タチ (tachi)、トップ (top)

uke 受け: bottom (the catcher) (from origin – receive / accept) also referred to as 右 (right)、ネコ(neko/cat)、ボトム (bottom)

riba リバ: verse (doesn't mind being either a top or a bottom) (from origin - reversible)

seme and uke are sourced from martial arts lingo: seme (martial arts), uke (martial arts) & is related to nanshoku tradition (depictied in ukiyo-e style painting below) of androphilia rather than western norms of queerness. Such differences in culture in queerness is seldom appreciated.

Spring Pastimes. Miyagawa Isshō, c. 1750

Sometimes, androphilic men use seme/uke/riba instead of the following terms which are popular in their queer community:

tachi タチ 凸 - top

neko ネコ 凹 - bottom

riba リバ 回 – verse

Other BL producing countries also have similar terms for seme/uke/riba. And those countries also have terms for top/bottom/verse/side in their queer communities.

For example,

In Chinese BL (danmei), seme/uke/riba -> gong (攻)/shou (受)/hu gong (互攻)[1]

In Chinese tongzhi community -

top: gong (攻) or 1 or 上 or 凸

bottom: shou (受) or  0 or 下 or 凹

verse:  bu fen (不分)or 0.5 or 10

side: 不10 or 纯爱[2]

四爱 (fourth love) is the Chinese term for heterosexual relationship wherein the woman tops. When fictionalized, such romances are referred to as GB (girl boy) romance as opposed to BG (boy girl) and the heroine is referred to as female gong 女攻め.

In Thai BL, seme/uke/riba -> me (เมะ)/ ke (เคะ)/ se (เซะ) & their queer community have these terms.

Evolution

When the work does not involve sexual acts, seme/uke/riba is assigned based on speculation (‘what if’) in line with audiences’ preference. There are a bunch of stuff that are employed to determine the dynamics but owing to variation in taste, audience don’t always agree with each other. Since seme/uke/riba archetypes rose to that status with the yaoi (doujin) boom with development of comiket, etc. tanbi, June, original shonen ai and other such types of BL don’t follow these archetypes. Live action which follows, to an extent, the latter tradition, such as Boys Love (2006), also don’t have uke/seme/riba archetypes, instead follows the archetypes that was popularized by tanbi literary movement. Tanbi literary movement was queer in more ways than one. It preceded/birthed BL (Mori Mari) and influenced it.

As no culture is passive recipient [pun intended], different glocalizations of seme/uke/riba dynamics exhibit different features, both within and outside Asia (eg. original English-language BL publication).

IRL

While being top/bottom/verse/side pertains to sexual preference/choices and acts or lack thereof, it is not devoid of other implications. Here are some interplay between these preferences/choices and the implications to consider:

Are these preference/choices innate or socially formed? Or both? Or neither?

What does it mean to be top/bottom/verse/side – within and outside the queer community?

Performance of masculinity, femininity, neither. Which masculinity/femininity? Is that masculinity/femininity performance – marginalized, soft, protest, hegemonic or amalgamated?

How local and global queer cultures influence it?

Is it some kind of conformation/attempt to fit in? If yes, what kind and why?

How are those choices impacted by history (including that of colonialism), legal/political implication (e.g.: pink certificate in Türkiye), local forms of patriarchy & heterosexism, class, nationality, race, skin color, caste, age, employment (including sex work) or lack thereof, physical location & avenues of exploration, abilities and disabilities, access to internet & other infrastructure, education (including sex education), health conditions and access to medical care, etc.

How do they form expectations regarding oneself and others?

While it can be argued that there shouldn’t be any other implication associated with such preference/choices, one can not simply wish them away as it is more often than not linked to certain social realities.

BL as well as gei comi are genres of fiction, telling tales of male androphilia – these are reproductions of imagination entwined with realities, reflecting desires, fantasies and biases plenty.

Conflation

I disagree that uke/seme/riba archetypes are conflated “casually” with bottom/top/verse in narratives and discussions around them. There is a difference that P’AbsoluteBL probably isn’t aware of:

Uke is the bottom in a ship. A character could be uke in a ship, seme or riba in another. For a character to be a ‘bottom’, he has to be sou uke or total/complete uke. It means no matter who he is paired with he will always be the uke.

Alternatively, a sou uke is a character that makes all other characters become seme for him and go after him.

Similarly, a character could be called ‘top’ when that character is a sou seme or total/complete seme. Unless a character is established as a sou seme or sou uke in the narrative, there is always a possibility that those characters are verse. While most BL involves set ships, it is not rare to find characters who are uke in one relationship becoming seme or riba in another. Sometimes, after a time skip, transmigration, reincarnation, etc. BL characters end up switching within a ship.

In Live Action

While there is plenty of riba ships in other BL media, live action has had very few.

These couples were riba in the novel:

Bai Luoyin and Gu Hai – Addicted – The censorship struck right after the couple had their first coitus interfemoris (based on the chronology in the novel).

Lu Feng and Cheng Yichen - A Round Trip to Love

Lan Yu and Chen Handong - Lan Yu

Dom/sub

While the P’AbsoluteBL is allowed to do whatever, I don’t think correlating dom/sub with seme/uke is a good idea in the context of BL because:

BL has a separate speculative fiction subgenre called dom-sub-verse (Dom/Subユニバース) which have its own conventions. It is one of the many subgenres that took inspiration from omegaverse and has grown parallel to it. It takes dominance and submission from the kink community and explores them as innate/biological traits.

It involves characters who are identified as Dom(ドム), Sub(サブ), Switch(スウィッチ), and Usual/Normal/Neutral(ユージュアル/ノーマル/ニュートラル). Along with the standard elements of BDSM in fiction such as safeword, sub space, sub drop and aftercare, it also involves additional elements such as kneel(ニール), glare(グレア) and collar (カラー). There are commands コマンド (命令) that Dom gives to Sub. Sometimes elements borrowed from omegaverse such as heats/ruts, suppressants and professional Dom also appear in this sub-genre.

Dom×Sub ship: Dom is the seme & Sub is the uke.

eg. Hizamazuite Ai Wo Tou 『跪いて愛を問う』 & Rhetoric 『レトリック』 by 山田ノノノ Mijuku Na Boku Ha Shihai Wo Kou 『未熟な僕は支配を乞う 1』 by音海ちさ

Sub×Dom ship: Sub is the seme & Dom is the uke.

Jouzu Ni Dekita Ne Watasesan 『上手にできたね、渡瀬さん』 by 野萩あき Shoshinsha Dom Ha Hameraretai 『初心者Domはハメられたい』 by やんちゃ Gohoubi Ni Kubiwa Wo Kudasai (ご褒美に首輪をください) by Naruse Kano

Dom×Switch ship: Dom is the seme & Switch is the uke.

Sono Meirei De Ore Wo Abaite 『その命令で俺を暴いて』 by 小夏うみ れ愛の声で暴いて by 泉門くき いでおすわりしてみせて by 由元千子

Switch×Switch ship: One of the switches is the seme and the other the uke. 

強情なSwitchの躾け方 by ことぶき

Dom×Dom ship: One of the dom is the seme and the other the uke.

コマンドミー、プリーズ by 町田とまと サディスティックに暴かれたい by 星崎レオ (uke is a Dom, seme’s identity is not made clear) Kyousei Switch 『強制Switch』 by 彩田あまた

Like most BL genres, it is yet to make its way into live-action BL.

There are plenty of BDSM themed BL as well as training (調教) style BL where seme/riba/uke can be switch or sub or dom.

Problematizing the Problem

Hence, the argument that conflation of seme/uke with top/bottom is “a PROBLEM” is ironic. The main reason given for that argument is that “het consumers [would] conflate (egregiously & incorrectly) top with male/masculine and bottom with female/feminine.” Here are some things that I think is relevant to think about that:

Why would ‘het people’ or any people for that matter think in terms of male-female / masculine-feminine binaries? Do they think in those binaries only and not other binaries such as wen(文)-wu(武)? Why think in binaries and dichotomies at all? Don’t they not think in terms of multiplicity of genders/gender expressions such as various kinds of masculinities and femininities) based off on their local contexts? 

Do queer people not make such/similar conflations? (Hint: they do.)

Is it a problem? While this seems to be the popular notion, plenty of scholars from across the globe has dismantled it.

What exactly do P’AbsoluteBL think ‘het people’ conflate riba characters with? Feminine-feminine? Masculine-masculine? Neither? Both? Something else?

There are different conceptions of masculinities within a culture which get reflected in cultural goods, including BL, from there. Here are some really old depictions:

Qing dynasty Chinese Water and Land Ritual painting depicting a divine civil official and thunder god in military regalia. [Wen - wu]

Paintings of Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the Buddha, from cave 1 of the Ajanta Caves.

Moreover, if the problem is hinging on a particular understanding of seme/uke: the one in which seme is not feminine or uke is not masculine enough. If latter is the issue, it can be fixed by sticking to BL media with otokomae uke or macho uke. If former is the issue, there’s more than enough works with maiden seme and josou seme. If one is yet to encounter any such works, one is not looking far enough.

Masculinities in BL

Here are three central characters from Finder series embodies different types of masculinities – a lot of it is presentation, physical attributes, age, power and social standing. Akihito is a young and vivacious uke who happens to be short and sinewy. Asami Ryuichi is a supadari seme: a guy who is tall, well educated, high earning, with good looks. In addition, he cooks and cleans and cares when he wants to. Fei Long is tall, beautiful and cunning and can be regarded as a riba character. But can any of these characters considered not masculine by regular standards?  Isn’t Akihito masculine enough for his age? And if we are to compare Asami, we are sure to find him lacking but then give him time to grow. They have a dozen years between them. Moreover, can average men stand comparison with a super darling? But then in the grand setup of patriarchy, isn’t power concentrated in the hands of the older men who dominates even the super darlings, both in real world and fictional ones.

Ayase Yukiya & Kanou Somuku from No Money

Consider the case of Ayase, would you call him a “feminine” uke? Probably yes. He is small in stature - petite and cute. He is definitely very small in comparison to his seme Kanou. They probably have one of the most exaggerated size differences and an extreme case of the traditional pairing.

The traditional pairing comes from the customary practice of androphilia in pre-modern Japan. It involves relationship between a wakashu and a nenja or from the tradition of nanshoku. The former is not considered a man by the period’s standards and is considered a third gender by some scholars. The latter is considered as a mentor and lover for the former. While the traditional faded with ‘modernization’, tanbi literary movement (among others) kept alive remnants of it through the writings of the likes of Yukio Mishima.

Note that the youth on the left is wearing a kimono whose style (furisode) and color was considered appropriate for adolescents of both sexes but not adult men, which along with the partially shaved pate denotes the boy's wakashū age status while the exposed bare feet indicates the purely sexual demeanor.

The traditional pairing has clearly inspired Japanese mangaka both BL artists and others. Look at the wakashu in customary androgynous clothing, younger, fairer and even smaller than the nenja, with relatively less experience being embraced by nenja who is in customary male clothing.

Check out more shunga about nanshoku to see visual ancestor of “yaoi”. The visual legacy continued with the likes of Go Mishima. The queers did it first.

From the series "Mishima Go Book of Young Man" - Japan - 1972 (Showa 47)

Ayase in No Money fits into the wakashu ideal. Moreover, the creators of this manga explicitly differentiated between feminine uke with wakashu uke by juxtaposing Ayase with Someya who embodies traditional femininity.

Someya and Honda from Henshin Dekinai

Putting it into perspective, it is noticeable that many a BL involves similar pairing. A lot of criticism BL faces is when it sticks to nanshoku dynamics. Interestingly, critics who can’t imagine genders beyond masculine and feminine, fail to tell apart “feminine” characteristics from wakashu characteristics. But there is no dearth of such dynamics getting subverted in numerous ways in BL:

ship with younger, lower class, petite, androgynous or any combination of customary wakashu characteristics in seme/riba.

ship with all parties being of similar age, class, physical attributes, experience, etc.

Emancipation

Shouldn’t typical uke archetype be seen as an example of subversion of the main character masculinity that dominates media landscape? Shouldn’t they be exalted for being what they are? Uke archetype that allows all genders to project onto and gain pleasure from, is that any less than a marvel in itself?

Pursuer & Pursued

In order to analyses if there is a shift in seme-uke dynamic, the P’AbsoluteBL employs the following to categories who is active:

who is pursuing whom

who makes the first call in terms of declarations and physical touch

who seems to be more in charge of the relationship

In BL, these are never reserved for seme/uke/riba. Who takes on which role depends on the narrative. BL rarely have fixed pursuer-pursued. All parties involved in a ship take on active role in different circumstances.

Take, for example, the original edition of Ossan’s Love, Hasegawa Yukiya employs certain indirect tactics to pursuing Soichi Haruta such as cooking, cleaning and caring for him. (These are tasks that seme/riba/uke usually engage in lighter BLs to gain and retain the attention/affection of the one they are pursuing.) Hasegawa also engages in activities they do together as a means to grow closer. Once he learns of his love rival, he switches up the tactic. He pursues more directly and aggressively. Soichi rejects him. He withdraws and returns to the original tactic but without attempts to grow closer. Soichi feels the loss and tries to get close to Hasegawa but is brushed off. He does not back down. Instead, he takes on a more aggressive route of pursuit - making amends and chasing after Hasegawa.

What P’AbsoluteBL implies with “I think BLIHID’s main couple has a REALLY weak seme/uke dynamic from the get go” is made abundantly clear in with “ShiLei does a lot of active pursuit, also he’s very self actualized.” Here, using pursuer/pursued would have sufficed. Instead, P’AbsoluteBL chose to disappropriate established terms ‘seme/uke’ and imbibed them with implications of “active pursuit” as well as “self-actualization” [regarding queer identity] that seme/uke/riba doesn’t carry originally. Most of it based on biases built on equating all BL to one type of BL: the one with traditional pairing that follows royal road progression.

What P’AbsoluteBL actively avoids discussing is that Beloved in House is basically following the super popular ‘domineering president’ plot based on a BG romance.

Live Action Struggles

P’AbsoluteBL mentions an imagined ‘struggles around seme/uke’ in live-action BL. I think the actual issue plaguing live action BL is the struggle to balance business and other interests while being able to do justice to the diversity within BL as a media genre.

source: (chil-chil.net)

In the chart:

ほのぼの – heartwarming – Example: Restart After Come Back Home

コメディ – comedy – Cherry Magic

ダーク – dark – Sing in Love

シリアス – serious – Cornered Mouse Dream of Cheese

キュン – exciting (kyun) – Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss

Japan has trouble in diversifying its live-action in terms of sub-genres and treatment/mood. Even Thailand, despite the amount it produces have trouble offering variety. Riba couple, maiden seme, yarachin characters, yandere X yandere ship, etc. are either very rare or non-existent in live action BL. Moreover, live action BL is seldom explicit and are mostly in the speculative territory with seme/uke/riba dynamics, making it all the harder to diversify.

Tbh, what fascinated me the most is the “I kind of automatically cringed” part of the question. I would love to know what brought about that reaction. I am sure that it would help shed some light on discourse surrounding BL in general.

Post #2: Blushing Maiden Trope & Seme/Uke

Discussion (intended and in italics) between an anon, @heretherebedork & P’AbsoluteBL on actions and reactions during physical relationships.

The discussion centers around “the character placed into the stereotypically feminine role” being repulsed/reluctant/hesitant when it comes to physical relationships. It is directly attributed to “purity culture in BLs”.

BL have a complicated relationship with “purity” or being “clean”. Tanbi roots of BL hinged on sexuality and obsession with beauty to the point of decadence. Shonen ai (original meaning) works also had characters who are usually promiscuous for one reason or the other, never forming very deep relationship (at least not enough to stick to monogamous unions for long) yet endlessly entangled with other characters, often baffling non-queer characters in those works.

from Song of the Wind and Trees

*

[Inviting readers to hazard a guess: who is the seme and who is the uke. Answer at the end of this post.]

*

But how explicit the depiction of physical relationships has varied in BL with time and space. Japanese BL with the self-published BL (aniparo / yaoi – original meaning) boom saw very explicit depictions side by side with the commercial BL which have barely any explicit content or those which take a closed-door approach. Now Japanese BL have a wide range in terms of explicit content and have grown to incorporate elements from other genres including gei comi. Korean BL is similarly doing well. It is not uncommon to have chapters or parts of chapter in manhwa and novels dedicated to the celebration of physical relationships. Thai BL also have no dearth of explicit content, especially in web publishing. Chinese BL in its early days had lots of explicit content, especially in self-publishing. But as censors started taking notice and cracking down, authors and platforms clamped down. Most BL were purged of any & all explicit content. Some of it migrated to Taiwanese platforms, AO3 & other foreign hosts. Now all danmei published is “pure love” devoid of even allusion to depiction of any physical relationship beyond above neck action.

When it comes to BL live action, things are a little different. In Japan and to an extend abroad, there has always been overlap between audience of BL and audience of Japanese GVs and pink eiga. Moreover, early live-action Japanese BL was probably aimed exclusively at hardcore BL fans. They were way more explicit on average and did not always involve physical relationship between the main ship. Same seems true about early live-action Chinese BL. A Round Trip to Love Part 2 (2016) even had bondage and SM scenes which wasn’t there in the novel; but then it didn’t have the hard-earned happy ending the novel had either. But now, even dangai with “socialist brotherhood” (社会主义兄弟情) can’t be aired. Meanwhile, Japan’s average BL today lacks much explicit content. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t drop an occasional Sei no Gekiyaku (2020) once in a blue moon. Here are my speculations to why more of those doesn’t get made.

There is another reason for “purity culture” in BL.

Sathaporn Panichraksapong, an MD of GMMTV, a major producer of BL series, claimed that audience members who are mainly heterosexual women look for romantic relationships among the characters rather than sexual relationships.

We know that our audience are [sic] women. Women want to see only two boys having romantic moments together. They don't want to see sex. Sexual relationships in BL are for a gay audience. That's why in SOTUS the Series we have only two kissing scenes. With only these, audiences were already screaming. This is enough for them. (Interview with Sathaporn, GMMTV, 10 Aug. 2017)

Jirattikorn, Amporn. "Heterosexual Reading vs. Queering Thai Boys' Love Dramas among Chinese and Filipino Audiences." (2023).

As Jirattikorn goes on to highlight, this [wrong] perception about the audience (“women”) have changed ever since.

While early BL series tend to portray pure love without showing many sexual relationships, later BL series started to show more sex scenes between the two male lead characters.

Jirattikorn (2023)

“It’s always the character being pursued, who is typically in his first relationship, who Never Thinks Of Sex. They’re often very sweet and innocent and wide-eyed.”

While heretherebedork attributes it to “purity culture”, it can be argued that this has to do with what audience wanted:

I like the way they portray love in Thai BL. It is a kind of puppy love. BL of other nations, like Chinese BL, are darker. In Thai BL, two male characters often start off friends, then develop feelings for each other. It is very light, very sweet. (Krissy, f, 27, Philippines)

Jirattikorn (2023)

and what media houses thought they wanted, as evidenced by Jirattikorn’s interviews with BL fans. This is not to dismiss struggles with purity culture which is often a very slow part of decolonialization.

P’AbsoluteBL goes further to the argument that “purity” is associated with seme/uke dynamics in BL and maps it to typical het pairing (BG):

The stronger the seme/uke dynamic (the more heterosexually dysmorphic and less actually gay) the more likely this trope will manifest. Simply put: the man (because he is hooah a MANLY MAN DUDE) wants sex but the woman (delicate pure flower of cleanliness and joy) does not. And if she does want it she is a DIRTY, worthless, whore - so she MUST protest sex (GASP) at every single turn. (Seme is acting the male and uke the female in these kinds of narratives.) *please sense my sarcasm dumb interwebs, mm’kay?*  

It’s true that the argument seems persuasive but is it right? Probably not. Seme, uke and riba characters can be divided into strong/weak categories based on their characterization - with the strong ones being those who pursue, take initiative, most likely to initiate intimacy at least for their first time, etc. and weak ones being those at the receiving end of pursuits and initiatives. Pairing a strong one with a weak one is probably more traditional –

strong riba x weak riba like in Addicted (at least before time skip)

strong seme x weak uke like in Old Fashioned Cupcake

weak seme x strong uke like in Saezurutori Wa Habatakanai (at least before time skip; pavam Doumeki)

compared to those with both parties being strong (which leads to delectable friction and sparks flying when done right) or both being weak (which leads to audience wondering: will either of them do something? No? Very well!).

BL’s sex negativity

Seme gets overwhelmed by his lust for uke, acts aggressively and has to be shut down or warned off. 

Not only seme, uke and riba characters does this too. P’AbsoluteBL attributes “getting overwhelmed by lust” and “acting aggressively” to seme when it can be attributed to both uke (襲い受け) and riba as well. Other than acting aggressively, characters may employ seduction (eg. Xia Shang Zhou in You Are Mine (2023) - tried and failed & Charlie in Pit Babe (2023) - successful) and/or manipulation (Color Recipe by Harada).

Seme won’t take no for an answer because his needs are too great and his needs take precedence (he’s “the man” after all) and the uke is just TOO CUTE how could anyone resist? (After all the seme is only gay for this one guy because he is so cute. Everything, therefor, is the uke and his cutenesses’ fault.) 

Moreover, P’AbsoluteBL is probably not aware of kawai seme who employ their cuteness to get uke to lower the guard and to seduce. Cuteness is clearly not a uke prerogative.

Like the sailor-costume wearing seme on the cover, cuteness is sometimes invoked through conventionally women’s clothing, cosplaying (maid, sailor, nurse), etc.

If the seme makes the choice to have sex for the uke, then the uke is not at fault and is still technically innocent. Only if an uke wants it, is he actually impure (or actually gay). In H4 when they both comfort and sex shame the bottom after the rape sequence, this is the narrative’s mentality. (A man who does not want sex is assumed to be able to fight another man off.)   Oh and ALSO, the seme must read the uke’s mind and know what the uke really wants.

I don’t even know what went into this argument. There is an entire subgenre: 調教 BL (training / conditioning) that is focused on pleasure training. If a character (seme/uke/riba) wants sex in a narrative, it usually only means that their partner is on the right track. Moreover, when a character wants, actively seeks and are denied intimacy for manipulation reasons, then their partner is made out to be cruel (either 鬼畜 or ゲス・クズ).

In other words, if the uke is interested in sex, he’s made impure by this interest.  Sex of any kind is an act of desperation and indicates lack of control and therefor diminishes both parties but particularly the uke, therefor the uke shouldn’t have to take responsibility of wanting sex, so the decision must be made by the seme for both of them. He is being a “good seme” by doing this. The uke, therefore MUST appear reluctant to have sex, or he is not a good/pure/virtuous person.

Honestly, I haven’t come across BL which gives off this kind of message. However, two-faced scummy characters (seme/uke/riba) get to employ hypocrisy, which includes slut-shaming, to humiliate characters they are shipped with but then such narratives are built to illicit hatred (for scummy characters) and angst and often punished with:

(a) unhappy ending for the couple

(b) breaking up of the ship

(c) groveling which may or may not end in redemption of the scum

(d) switching within ship – uke turns into riba/seme or seme turns into riba/uke – or shift in power dynamics (rich character becomes relatively poorer, junior from school becomes senior/superior in workplace).

A lot of readers find such dramatic plots satisfying and hence it is a successful subgenre.

*

Can you guess the seme in these 20 BL manga? Try this quiz on renta.

*

Post #3: How do they determine who will be archetype seme/uke?

Discussion regarding seme/uke determination in BL: @elynn0723 & P'AbsoluteBL (intended and in italics).

I think your confusion is partly nested in the fact that seme/uke is not about who fucks who, not really. Certainly not anymore. Seme/uke are narrative archetypes not physical acts.

Disappropritation. Discussed above.

I should say for the record that personality is NOT sexual preference. 

P’AbsoluteBL goes onto give examples (all of which are fictionalized in different genres – GB, BL, etc.) but probably due to being limited by lack of exposure, goes onto ask, “How weird that anyone would think queers do this.” Queers do this. If one is willing to look beyond LGBTQIA+ form of queerness (which is born and brought up in America), one can see queer possibilities. For example, Kothi-Panthi queerness in India/South Asia. It is probably a good idea to pay attention to it when generalizing queerness given how big India/South Asia’s (queer) population is. There are very many similar forms of queerness in other parts of Global South. In many cultures, sexuality doesn’t inform identity but sexual preference does.

[ Aside: Kothi-Panthi model of queerness

This model doesn’t work for whole of India – region (India is so big and heavily populated - different sexual cultures and practices); linguistics (different terms in different region, same terms different meanings in different region, decline of Farsi (used in queer spaces in Delhi) and other queer argot/cant and their replacement with American English internet slang); class & caste (LGBTQIA+ being self-identification of mostly urban/rurban, upper class, English educated v/self- identification common among the sex workers, working class and other lower classes in rural as well as urban spaces who are excluded from consumerist queerness);

NGOfication of queer movement & action; global queering and neoliberal take over leading to americanization –– intermixing & “gay” (and other terms) being used differently by different classes.]

How do they determine who will be archetype seme/uke?

P’AbsoluteBL points to narrative roles - who is “after” the relationship more, and then goes onto claim “the heroine is the main character, the love interest is her love interest. It’s decided for them because it’s a romance novel.” I don’t know if this helps explaining either seme/uke/riba archetypes in BL or pursued/pursuer. Aren’t there romances where hero pursues heroine and the other way around? Aren’t there romances where both party pursue each other?

Even if we assume that androphilic female audience is projecting the sexual mores & expectations imposed on them onto male characters, then by the very act aren’t they subverting those expectations.

How do they determine who tops?

P’AbsoluteBL provides the following schema:

seme = active pursuer

since active pursuer is “the male role”

he should do the penetrating

which has to be done

P’AbsoluteBL also gives a term for this association: heterosexual dysmorphia - "the idea that any couple must fit into predetermined binary gender roles". This is probably coming from a place of ignorance since the example given is confined to musings about sexism concerning the upper class in Global North. Also, at least in the ambit of Kothi-Panthi sexuality, fitting into masculine top-feminine bottom dynamic doesn’t place them into any predetermined binary gender roles. Instead, it only places them in the fluid space of multi-genders: can/are seamlessly float(ing) between being kinnar/hijra/ali and being “cis-men”.

If one is to ask the question: “Which one of you is The Girl?” to a kothi-panthi couple, the kothi would tell you without hesitation: “I am The Girl.” Might even asked you in turn, “Couldn’t you tell?”

Kothi [is the word used by] effeminate men who desire to be penetrated by "real" men whom they call ‘panthi’.

Queer Movements by Paromita Chakravarti & Aniruddha Dutta

Seme/uke/riba archetypes are imbibed with different traits and different spin on personalities that a seasoned BL sommelier might be able to spot easily but would confuse those who are less familiar with all that the genre has to offer. The following excerpt from an analysis by @ranchthoughts reflects the most popular idea about seme/uke dynamics.

Most BL shows can be read through a lens of seme/uke dynamics, which originated in yaoi. The seme is the “pursuer” character and the uke is the “pursued”. There are certain physical (height, skin colour, etc.), social (age, wealth, social capital, etc.), and personality (active vs. passive, extroverted vs. introverted, flirtier vs. shyer) markers which are typically associated with either the seme or the uke. For example, semes tend to be taller, wealthier, older, flirtier, tanner, more active, and have a higher social status, while ukes tend to be shorter, poorer, younger, shyer, paler, and have a lower social status. “Seme” and “uke” roles are also sometimes conflated with masculinity and femininity (semes are “masculine” and ukes are “feminine”) and sexual preferences (semes are dominant and tops and ukes are submissive and bottoms). There are also tropes associated with either the seme or the uke, like ukes typically give cheek kisses and semes forehead kisses. Thus, things like height, age, wealth, personality, presumed sexual preference, and the role they take in tropes can index the character’s status as a seme or a uke, and in turn the character’s identity as a seme or uke in the narrative (pursuer vs. pursued) indexes a character’s personality, sexual preferences, etc., however unrealistic and simplistic that is in real life. In a BL, we would expect the seme (pursuer) and uke (pursued) characters to exhibit most, if not all, of the associated seme or uke traits and roles in tropes, though this is not always true (and some BLs have little to no seme/uke dynamics at all).

There are two interesting things about such an understanding of seme/uke dynamics:

It closely resembles nenja/wakashu dynamics (and its cousins) in the customary and mostly age-stratified androphilia in pre-modern Japan.

Live action BL, at least the ones that were current and popular, stuck mainly to a single type of dynamic: pairing of one seme of a particular kind (スパダリ – super darling) with one uke of a particular kind (ヘタレ – milquetoast). There are barely any riba couple. It is painting picture of BL in monochromes. So much so that Bad Buddy and My School President were seen as some path breaking feat and a break away from “yaoi” tropes by live action audience, rather than seeing them having just another (or less familiar) set of yaoi / BL tropes.

What P’AbsoluteBL identifies as “heterosexual dysmorphia” in “yaoi” is basically what BL inherited from Japan’s pre-modern androphilia including “femininity” in uke from chiago, wakashu and androgynous Kabuki actors and (hyper)masculinity in seme from nenja and others who enacted “the male role”. BL did not passively receive any of these. And for moe, artists and audience alike, subverted it all.

This is true for all tropes that are attributed to seme/uke.

Height difference – Earliest BLs had petite bishonen pairings. Yaoi introduced height differences – all of them: tall seme x short uke short seme x tall uke (this is probably the most sexualized height difference) tall seme x tall uke (with little to no difference) both/all short riba CP/ship both/all tall riba CP/ship tall riba x short riba short riba x tall riba

Cuteness – Used to establish how irresistible a character (seme/uke/riba) is irrespective of their attitudes and behavior are. Oft part of seme’s seduction tactic, especially when uke has a weakness for cute things. Even when cuteness is not one of the seme’s attributes, it is invoked either actively by serving kawai in speech or through actions including cosplay; or passively like in the following example where a typical super darling seme, Asami Ryuichi from Finder unintentionally triggers moe in Takaba Akihito (his uke) by cuddling a baby.

Uke’s cuteness is exploited to establish a sou uke (an uke every other character turns seme for) or subvert the same like in No Money where one of the epitomes of bishonen cuteness, Ayase (uke), who manages to enthrall others however isn’t a sou uke as one might expect and thus subverts the wakashu trope. Moreover, Kanou (seme) wasn’t initially drawn to Ayase due to his cuteness but due to Ayase’s kindness that lifted him out of the abyss of despair, when Kanou was at his weakest.

3. Bulk – BL have main characters (seme/uke/riba) with varying bulk and body types. There is far less diversity when it comes to Live Action BL.

4. Blushing maiden/virginal innocent trope – applies to all sorts of BL characters.

Edit: Conclusion

1. Surprisingly, ethnocentrism and loud echo of colonial masculinity in particular seem to permeate the discourse surrounding BL.

2. I really wish live action BL would have as much diversity as other BL media. Why is it so slow to diversify? Is it because of business interests? Is sticking to super darling X milquetoast pairing with royal road progression a sensible business decision? Or is sexism promoting wrong impressions of what audience want?

3. How come the Japanese terms "seme" & "uke" are used a lot but not "riba"? Where did live action BL audience learn these terms?

***

Yaoi = [how P'AbsoluteBL uses it] synonym for ボーイズ ラブ (boys love) manga.

            = [popular use in anglophone BL manga fandom] BL manga with explicit content; as opposed to shonen ai.

            = [original meaning] derivative works, which were mostly plot-what-plot type, that are self-published (doujinshi)

Answer to a question posted above: Gilbert Cocteau – uke in Song of the Wind and Trees

Below is the seme: Serge Battour

from Song of the Wind and Trees

Earliest BL manga had very pretty seme/uke/riba characters (if we are to call them so) and were not too preoccupied with "manliness" or a single type of "masculinity". But, they were surely obsessed with bishonen.

-

[1] 互攻 is also used to indicate POV switching between gong and shou in fiction.

[2] 纯爱 is also used to indicates asexual androphilia.

CP/pairing - involves 2 characters. Ship - involves 2 or more characters.

Inviting @waitmyturtles and @lurkingshan to share your thoughts if any (since I have noticed you guys use the terms "seme" & "uke" as well). Hope you guys don't mind the mention.

[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Autistic Anime Boys Prelims - Propaganda Division - Group 8

Propaganda:

Itsuki -

"Does things in ways the protagonist sees as strange and talks in a very formal and roundabout way. He also talks with his hands a lot. He has admitted to faking his personality to be more to Haruhi Suzumiya's liking in both the main timeline and the timeline where he's an ordinary human."

Akira -

"Akira cares deeply for animals maybe even more than other people, he’s completely oblivious to the fact both his best friends are in love with him and when he fuses with a demon to become a demon hunter he calls himself Devilman because he’s a demon and a man at the same time."

Yukiteru -

"Yuki is incredibly socially awkward but also has a knack for befriending odd people, he writes everything he sees in his diary and is super dedicated to keeping the format exactly the same every time oh and did I mention his ‘imaginary friend’ is a science themed god?"

Haru -

"He's really into the patterns of storytelling, and his goal in life is to be a "protagonist". Once he becomes an Appli Driver, he places a lot of his self-worth in being a protagonist and the role he fulfills (which, in my opinion, is a type of script-following) and he winds up in a bad place when he realizes him being a protagonist was built on a lie. He spends all of his free time reading & sometimes gets so invested in reading that he skips out on social activities (and lets his 2ft monster (Gatchmon) go trick-or-treating in broad daylight all on their own). He always has the same pair of goggles on his head but wears them maybe once. His buddy Appmon (digimon partners are often reflections of their human partners) is basically the personification of a search engine and will go on tangents about whatever they've looked up."

Mio -

"Has special interests in ancient medicines and photography. Abstract thoughts and oblivious to social norms. Resists change (example: reacted negatively to the schools curry being unavailable since that is his possible safe food). Other characters notes him as being strange. Poor reasoning (example: Thinks it more efficient to just take supplements instead of eating). Ignores other in pursuit of his interests."

Akira Agarkar -

"A 25 year old man who works for a government agency named D.U.C.K., where flamboyant/eccentric people investigate aliens, and goes undercover as a highschooler to gain information about Haru; doing a poor job of trying to blend in. He is a quirky silly man and his best friend is a duck named Tapioca who he talks to. He also has a special interest in fishing and gets so excited by it that he sometimes yells "FIIIIIIISHH" in English when he reels them in. Bad puns upset him so much that he is physically incapacitated and lies on the floor. What else can I say, I love him."

Kaiji -

"Can't tell when he's being tricked by other characters, and sees human connection as pointless because of how isolated he feels. Says that other see him as weird and that 'being difficult' is easier for him than acting like someone he isn't."

Shou -

"His special interest is math. He uses math terms in regular conversations and calls people yoctograms/zeptograms which earned him monikers such as "math man" and "pi-face". Speaking of Pi, he once shouted 155 consecutive digits of it through a megaphone just because he could. He's so normal."

Saguru -

"high school detective who shows up to crime scenes in full sherlock holmes cosplay because this is totally a normal thing one does, right?"

Souji -

"this lonely genius used to be a computer-like man, now he's a (tragic) villain. the bisexual who swings both ways and misses both times, he's associated with insects/butterflies, flowers/black roses, anachronism, beautiful memories, elevators, and coffins- but who in SKU isn't, really? oh, and fire. he's also voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru at his raspy best."

[lakesbian]

ok listen. this is crucial. this is what ward aisha is to me in my mind palace.

aisha for the largest part of worm is Thirteen. alec is 15. they're both incredibly dysfunctional traumatized kids who like each other a whole lot living thru some crazy shit. and the one time aisha really has fun is when she gets to play at being on top of the world with alec, living out the rich-with-no-dumb-adults-but-brian-telling-us-what-to-do teenage dream w her best friend. she's Thirteen. her sole vision for the future is that the undersiders will keep winning and she and her Cool Hot Funny Best Friend Who Is The Only Person Who's Ever Gotten Her are going to be cool and tough and richer than god and paint each others nails in their cool shared supervillain base while the world fears, but more importantly, knows the names of Imp and Regent. her big brother has had unimaginably awful things happen to him and she can't fix it even an ounce, she's fucked up and has spent her life feeling invisible and she knows it, her best friend is fucked up too and she knows it, but she still gets to have this: the success as a villain, her legacy, the legacy as someone memorable with her best friend and her team that's so nearly within her grasp. despite it all, she's just a kid, and when she's texting alec a news article about herself or idly dreaming about installing a pool in her base, she barely even remembers the blood it's taken to get there. for a moment of her life she thinks this will never end and she'll finally get to be Seen, seen by her best friend, seen for everything great they're going to do together.

and then--she's 13--she watches her best friend kill himself in front of her, for her, and she's never going to get to tell him another secret, or make another dick joke with him, or be imp and regent on top of the world together. and her brother is even more unreachable than ever and one of the people she respects most in the whole world is gone and she's alone again, unseen, dealing w/ all this blood and no more prize at the end of the rope.

when we see her at the end of worm, she's fixated on the idea of establishing a Cool Villainous Legacy as the Badass Supervillain Imp, impressive enough to become what she and regent could've been together, but, like.

all she's actually doing is taking care of a bunch of traumatized children and going around stopping people from being terrible to each other. she wishes she were a villain. she's a charmingly edgy vigilante at worst. she spends 30 minutes straight making fish puns, stopping said traumatized children from getting into trouble, and preventing a dude from torturing ppl and hoarding resources. and then she pats herself on the back for another Successfully Villainous Act. and also while she's doing all this she's intentionally memorializing and safekeeping the legacies of taylor & alec (not brian because wildbow is a clown idiot buffon fuck but in my mind palace she's doing it for brian as well). all ppl she loved and lost, and she's desperately trying to prevent them from fading into the same obscurity as her.

so like. To Me. To Me. the reason she's still talking to herself about building her own legacy, about her own legacy being that as a Cool Villain--is because she's not ready to face that that dream from her childhood has long been dead in the water, that she's now a lonely person whose life is about tromping around in snow-proof cargo pants and making enough breakfast for all these fuckin' kids and yelling at people to be decent to each other. everyone who would've seen her has been left long behind in one tragedy or another, and on some level, she's not fully accepting that this is her life now: being the one who's left. the one whose legacy is just to carry the legacies of her friends who died too young around in her heart.

so To Me. ward aisha is abt like. i will have to rotate this in my mind further to determine more, this is the first draft of Thoughts, but to me ward aisha should 100% be about her coming to terms with the fact that she's grown up and having 2 memorialize the her that her 13yo self wanted to grow into as much as she has 2 memorialize her other lost loved ones. like scene queen kid aisha growing into an adult during a post-apocalypse where there are no longer hot topics to rob blind but she can still have silly fun hair dye for the her 7 years ago that really loved neon purple. not to fucking mention the thing where her brother comes back and they both have 2 reckon w how much she's grown and the fact that she was aspiring to be like a mini-him but if he was genuinely in touch with the emotions of the kids he's taking care of.

like what if you were an older brother and you died and then you came back and your immature little sister was almost as old as you now and bigger and taller and good at taking care of people Emotionally in the way that you never could 4 her. what then. wouldn't that be fucked up or what. aisha and brian my best friend aisha and brian

[babovens]

MP100 Theatre Kid AU

Welcome to the AU that takes all my theatre experience and shoves it into the mp100 cast members (pun intended) because Teru is the definition of that theatre kid and I have thoughts.

This is Teru and Shigeo’s character sheets, but I’ve got ideas for Reigen, Ritsu, Shou (definitely a tech kid), Serizawa, the BIC (stage crew), the telepathy club, and even Claw. (And maybe Mogami?)

Teruki “Teru” Hanazawa

Background:

He grew up being ignored by his parents and classmates. Nothing he did got their attention, no matter how big or small. Good grades were expected and getting in trouble got him shunned even more.

During music class in elementary, his music teacher, Koyama-sensei, announced their class was doing a short musical for the annual cultural festival and it would have some solos.

Teruki wondered if that would get him some attention, even a small amount.

He wasn’t expecting his audition to get a standing ovation.

That applause was the birth of his performing obsession (he was finally being seen).

He was quickly taken under Koyama’s wing who introduced him to the theatre troupe he was a part of: Seasoning Stages run by Touichirou Suzuki.

Teruki auditioned for the troupe and was immediately praised by Touichirou, saying that he had a gift. That he was special.

No one had ever said he was special before.

He was accepted into the troupe on the spot (because a certain Shou Suzuki was sick of the troupe and the type of people in it).

Shortly after, Touichirou signed off on his equity card at 13, and he decided to make his stage name just “Teru”. It was still him, but it was different. New.

He’s followed all of Touichirou’s advice of keeping your friends close but your competition even closer.

That way, when the time came for auditions, he could hit them where it hurt (intimidate the newbies and psych out the upperclassmen).

As far as he was concerned, he had made it. He was working professionally, he had friends (not really but don’t tell him that), and he was on his way to even better opportunities (Broadway?). What could possibly go wrong?

A certain boy with a bowl cut steals the lead from right under his nose that’s what.

Character Traits:

That Theatre Kid™

President of Black Vinegar’s Drama Club.

Tenor high-belt for days.

Very good relative pitch, but not perfect pitch.

Corrects those who spell “theatre” with an “er” instead of an “re”.

Sings/hums along during professional productions when in the audience (don’t you DARE do this. Yes I’m salty because there was a grown ass woman who did this behind me during Hamilton and I just about lost it when she sang along during Burn. No.)

Upset if he’s not the last one featured during bows.

Will blow a gasket if you say “the m word” backstage (Tome does this just to piss him off).

Gives “tips” to other actors (“Not to start drama or anything, but Inukawa, you’ve been doing that kick on 5 and 6 instead of 7 and 8. Yeah, it looks really bad.”

“Do you even know what a triple pirouette is?”

*Checks phone for the 1000th time for the cast list*

Specialty: Mega-Musicals/Pop (New Style)

Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama

Background:

Loved to sing Ritsu to sleep when they were little.

Discovered he had perfect pitch during music class as a first-year elementary student.

He didn’t mind others asking him to sing, but he was more focused on his singing getting Tsubomi’s attention.

Ritsu mentioned interest in the school musical, and so Shigeo took to the stage, hoping that would pique Tsubomi’s interest.

However, he quickly learned that the other kids in the show were not very welcoming to new kids. Especially new kids that got a lead on the first try.

They couldn’t target him because of the teachers favoritism towards Shigeo, so they targeted Ritsu (who got in the chorus) instead.

The kids struck during the final performance, but it went further than they anticipated.

What was supposed to be humiliation via bag of flour dumped on Ritsu turned into a loose stage light jostled one too many times falling.

They were lucky it hit his leg.

Shigeo’s normal performance nerves turned into full on stage fright after that.

Shigeo doesn’t do solos anymore.

He still participates in shows, but feels out of place, even in the ensemble.

When asked why he still does theatre despite his apparent disinterest, he simply replies, “because I don’t know what else to do.”

Music is all he’s ever known, and he isn’t sure what else he’s good at. He doesn’t know what else there is for him.

Meeting a certain arrogant blond arsehole, that’s what’s there for him.

Character Traits:

The Quiet Kid™

Sometimes comes off as a know-it-all due to his musical talent, but he truly just wants to help the performance be the best it can. (“Oh, no you’ve been singing the fifth in the chord a little flat. It’s okay though. That’s a really high note and it’s hard to sing.”)

Music is memorized by the first rehearsal.

Is always cast in the chorus (the “mob”) because of his stage fright.

Doesn’t have a voice type label because the kid has range. More often than not though, he’s in the baritone section, but has a bright tone. He sings in the section that’s the weakest.

Very calming to be around during rehearsals.

Secretly wants to be stage crew (BIC members run that) but doesn’t have the strength, and the constant running around can be overwhelming.

The only person who has heard him at his full potential is Ritsu and Reigen I’ll get to him later.

Specialty: Excels in all genres EXCEPT singer-songwriter/poetic: The most vulnerable genre of singing. It’s hard to be yourself when you don’t even know your “self”.

[tanenigiri]

I'm floored that people are still liking and reblogging the collage of BL and BL-adjacent works that I reviewed two (!!) years ago. I haven't stopped growing my collection of manga, so I figured I'd make a sort-of Part 2 with a collage of some other fluffy slice-of-life BL and BL-adjacent titles I've enjoyed ever since I ended that project.

While I don't have time to give them full-fledged reviews like before, you can find some of my quick thoughts on each of them under the cut. I recommend all of these titles just as much as the 18 I included in the first collage - if you liked any of those, give these 10 stories a try!

Hirano and Kagiura by Shou Harusono - From the creator of Sasaki and Miyano and set in the same universe, this series revolves around one of Miyano's senpais and the roommate that he's been shipping him with since the start. This is every bit as charming and wholesome as Sasaki and Miyano, though I think this is a lot more chaotic considering the more hilarious take on the main pair's dynamic. I did a more comprehensive review of its first volume here if you wanna check it out.

Candy Color Paradox by Isaku Natsume - I'm not usually a big fan of enemies to lovers - the tropes they work with are rarely my cup of tea. This is one of the few stories I've read where that dynamic works really well, though, with these two reporters clashing a lot early on but finding out that they're exactly what the other needs. I wasn't too sold on the first volume but the second one really brought me onboard - I thought they treated the personal conflicts of one of the main characters incredibly well there.

My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame - More BL-adjacent than BL, this tells the story of a man reconnecting with the husband of his late brother (and no, there isn't any romance involved at all - this is a family-centric story first and foremost). It doesn't focus entirely on dealing with this loss, though - it's also a look into the protagonist's own family dynamics and troubles, with his daughter being a very prominent character here a la Tane in Our Dining Table. One of my favorites of this batch as it has a lot of heart and soul poured into it.

My Love Mix-Up by Watanu Hinekure and Aruko - The most comedic title here, this takes the misunderstanding trope to a really funny direction and builds a really good story out of it. The main couple is very adorable, and their dynamic with the side couple evolves in such a fun way that I ended up seeing this as a story about the four of them that just so happens to have two couples. If you watched the live action, the manga has a slightly different take on the story, and of course it spends more time on certain plot points, but it has the same chaotic and hilarious vibe.

Hyperventilation by Bboungbbangkkyu - I've only read a few Korean BLs, but this one is easily my favorite of the ones I've read so far. This is a lot steamier than most of the titles in this and in the previous collage, but those scenes are surrounded by a heartfelt dynamic between its two leads who are realizing that the connection they shared back in high school was a lot deeper than they thought. If you've watched the animation of this title, the manhwa's pretty much that but in book form, but I did notice some differences in the manhwa that made the story stronger in my opinion.

I'm Kinda Chubby and I'm Your Hero by Nore - I was slightly wary of this title since body image issues are quite difficult to tackle, but it turned out to not really be the focus of the story - one of the protagonists just happens to be chubby, and while there is some discussion on it, this story focuses a lot more on his growth as an actor and his newfound dynamic with the story's other protagonist. It's a really sweet story at its core, and the pun is definitely intended as the other protagonist is a pastry chef lol. (I'm also not sure if I would consider this as BL or BL-adjacent, coz by the second volume (which is the latest one so far) they aren't really together, but you can definitely sense that their dynamic goes beyond friendship.)

That Blue Sky Feeling by Okura and Coma Hashii - Picked this up mainly because the story is by the same person behind I Think Our Son Is Gay, one of my favorites in the original project. This has a slightly similar vibe, where it focuses more on exploring homosexuality and identity instead of romance, and it does so with the same interesting depth that Okura did in the other work. This one definitely has more BL tropes than I Think Our Son Is Gay though, and I'm more inclined to call it BL than BL-adjacent.

I Want to Be a Wall by Honami Shirono - "Marriage of convenience between a gay man and an asexual woman" is such an incredible pitch that I picked this up immediately, and I really enjoyed it for what it is. Said asexual woman is also a fujoshi, and the man that her husband is crushing on (who is straight) is a prominent supporting character, so you can imagine the hilarity that ensues. This isn't a comedy though - it's very much a heartwarming tale about identity and finding joy in a situation that isn't exactly the best.

Delinquent Daddy and Tender Teacher by Tama Mizuki - Already the second title here that has the same two-male-leads-plus-child dynamic as Our Dining Table - do you see the clear bias hahaha. This is quite far from that story and My Brother's Husband though, and I honestly thought that this was going to be trashier than it was because of the title, but I really shouldn't have judged this book by its cover as it's a great story about family and building connections with each other. It ended up being closer to Would You Like To Be a Family? in that regard, but this takes the time to flesh out the relationship between the two protagonists and the child, creating a silly but heartwarming dynamic.

Hello, Green Days by Ayu Sakumoto - Stumbled upon this short story online, and it has stayed with me ever since even if it doesn't have a physical English release (yet?). The dynamic between the protagonists is really sweet, and how it weaves in the plant talk (one of the main characters is a botany major) into the story is very clever. I also did a more comprehensive review of this before, so check it out here if you want.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope you found more titles to add to your to-read list.

[zirawrites]

How would the companions react to a sole getting injured out in the wastes somehow and losing a limb? (Love your work btw!)

Cait: Cait let out a string of profanities as she watched Sole’s arm sever from its socket. Before Sole could even register what happened, Cait turned her panic on the Super Mutant that hacked it off with one clean shot to its head. She single-handedly (no pun intended) carried Sole back to Sanctuary to be patched up, cursing aloud the whole trip. When Sole recovered, Cait was shaken by both anger and relief. “How the hell do you expect to defend yourself now?” Cait took a deep, grounding breath. “That was fucking stupid of you to get so close to a Super Mutant. But I’m glad your alive to continue your stupidity.”

Codsworth: Codsworth shouted Sole’s name so loudly that his voice modulator cracked. He was on them in seconds to administer a stimpack and place his robotic hands over their wound. Sole eventually needed to learn to function without their dominant arm. Codsworth was always there to encourage their progress and lend a cheeky joke. “Need another hand, sir/mum? I do have three!”

Curie: Curie was well-prepared for nearly every injury that could occur in the Wastes. As soon as Sole fell in one direction and their leg toppled in the other, she was quick to stanch the bleeding and radio for help. Even when Sole was on the operating table, Curie instructed the doctors and passed medical supplies. Once Sole was out of surgery, Curie began scavenging for durable crutches and researching the best ways for them to regain their strength.

Danse: Sole’s accident wasn’t the first Danse had witnessed, but it definitely hurt the most. After the briefest second of stunned shock, Danse leaped into action. He tied a tourniquet around Sole’s wound and hoisted them into his arms. It took mere minutes for him to reach the nearest base where he barked orders at the recruits and shoved Sole into a doctor’s hands. His quick work saved Sole’s life. When Sole eventually awoke, Danse already had a recovery plan for them written down; numbered instructions and all. “It’ll take more than that to bring a Brotherhood soldier down,” Danse encouraged. “You rest. Let me do the heavy lifting for awhile.” 

Deacon: Both Deacon and Sole were blown back against the wall, but it was Sole whose arm got pinned to the cement from an errant shard of metal. “Shit, Sole.” Deacon sucked in sharp air through his teeth as he assessed the damage. Sole feebly pawed at the metal, and Deacon gently pulled their hand away. “Don’t move, partner. I’ll get help.” Deacon made it back to HQ in record time and practically dragged Carrington by his thinning hair to where Sole was trapped. The two men were able to free Sole and patch their wound, but Sole did lose their arm. Deacon, who usually had a joke for everything, was respectful and somber about Sole’s accident. “This doesn’t change a thing,” he assured. “You’re still a force to be reckoned with as far as the Institute’s concerned.”

Hancock: “Oh fuck.” The curse punched out of Hancock’s throat as he watched Sole’s limb rip from its socket; trapped inside a generator they were fixing for a settlement. Sole’s savage screaming ripped Hancock from his stupor, and he fell to his knees to wrap his jacket around what was left of Sole’s limb. “GET A DOCTOR!” he screamed, voice commanding but eyes glassy with tears. He stayed for Sole’s surgery, and of course offered them a place to rest in Goodneighbor. “You look badass,” he said whenever Sole seemed distraught. “Lets get you your own signature coat. I think your confidence will improve tenfold.”

MacCready: MacCready wasn’t the most stoic man in the Commonwealth, but he knew panicking would only make things worse. As soon as Sole dropped to the floor in the opposite direction of their arm, he delivered a swift headshot to the raider that hurt them and used his duster to staunch Sole’s bleeding. He then used all of his wiry strength to throw Sole over his shoulder and run to the nearest settlement. But as soon as the doctor took Sole into the clinic, he burst into tears as he explained how much Sole meant to him. Once Sole was out of surgery, the first thing they saw was his face against the side of their bed. He had fallen asleep watching them from a chair.

Preston: Preston was quick to shout orders and direct the Minutemen to holding Sole together long enough to get to the Castle. Once Sole was laid on a table and several doctors started tying a tourniquet around their limb, Preston took their trembling hand in his own larger, firmer one. “Hang in there, General. We’re doing everything we can. Just focus on staying awake.” In the weeks that followed Sole’s injury, Preston helped them regain their strength. And morale, of course. He constantly tried to take Sole’s mind off the accident with a quick stop into settlements or cold beer at the end of a long day.

Piper: “Blue, hey! Stay with me!” Piper followed the men carrying Sole from the rubble. When she noticed Sole was missing a leg, she covered her mouth to keep down both bile and a scream. Then, afraid she’d scare Sole more, Piper took Sole’s hand and squeezed. “You’re okay, Blue. It’s all gonna be okay.” Piper researched mobility aids and alternate forms of combat while Sole rested. She didn’t want her friend to be at any disadvantage. When Sole was back to saving the world again, she made sure to write a harrowing feature story about Sole’s recovery.

Nick: Nick knew basic first aid, but he certainly didn’t have enough medical knowledge to help Sole when half their arm was blown off. He tied his coat around what was left of their limb and kept them conscious as he used their radio to call for help in Diamond City. Then he counted Sole lucky they’d made so many connections in a settlement notorious for a lack of fucks given towards outsiders. While Sole was recovering, Nick gave them a job at his agency. It was to keep them feeling helpful while safe from the dangers of the Commonwealth while they healed.

X6-88: “Sir/ma’am, no!” X6 was too late; Sole looked up at them with a look of pure, unadulterated terror as they clutched what was left of their arm. X6 had one job, and he’d failed spectacularly. He immediately transported them to the Institute where dozens of doctors descended upon them both. When Sole eventually returned from surgery, X6 had never felt worse about himself as a protector and companion. “I understand if you want a new courser assigned to you. It’s my fault this even happened. I should have been more observant.” Sole assured X6 that accidents happen; even when it came to the Institute. He internally disagreed, but was glad Sole still wanted him around.

[lowqualitygarbage]

Fetch Quest

This was it. The last part she needed to repair the Hotel's old water pumps was only a hundred yards away, according to the coordinates she downloaded onto her Pip-Boy. The trees began to thin, moss and twigs giving way to grass and pebbles as they approached the long-abandoned build site.

Her face fell as she took in what was at the center of this new clearing - something must have dammed the nearby stream some time ago, and now a small pond completely enveloped the construction site.

"Well, it looks like this plan's sunk!" Alastor chuckled at his own awful pun as Charlie wandered closer to the banks, her geiger counter starting to click sluggishly as she approached the water.

Vaggie followed her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We can always backtrack to MacGuffin Manufacturing and see if there's another one we may have missed."

"We spent hours hacking their old intranet for all the manifests," Sir Pentious whined. "This was the only model MGU1028 flange within 100 miles!"

Vaggie shot him a venomous glare over her shoulder as Charlie began fidgeting with her Pip-Boy gloomily. "Maybe we can see if Voxtech has any parts close enough to fit? There's gotta be some other options."

"Husk, go in and get it."

The ghoul turned to Alastor incredulously. "What?"

Alastor's smile tightened in irritation. "It's a pond of irradiated water. The shipment was made the evening before the bombs fell; they probably never had a chance to install the parts. You won't get poisoned going in for a quick dip to grab a box. "

"What? Fuck you. I might be immune to rads, but I still gotta breathe, asshole!"

Charlie turned back to the group, looking thoughtful. "You can't swim?"

Husk made an odd noise that may have been a derisive snort if he still had a nose. "Not a lot of swimming holes out in the Mojave Desert."

Niffty waved an enthusiastic arm, as if waiting to be called upon in class. "I can't swim either!"

Angel Dust turned to Charlie and Vaggie. "Don't some vaults got like, swimming pools and shit? Can't you girls swim?"

"666 wasn't really a luxury vault." Vaggie explained as Charlie shook her head sadly.

Angel looked over at Sir Pentious, who also shook his head. "Figured. Wasn't really somethin' to learn in the city, neither."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Alastor sighed in disgust, leaning his rifle against a tree and shrugging off his pack. "Hand me the Rad-x."

Charlie jumped a little and stared at him in shock as he started to untie his bowtie. "Uh, Al?"

He handed the accessory off to Niffty who appeared obediently at his side, and paused in unbuttoning his vest to gesture at Charlie to hand over the pills. "Nola is one of the Sunken Cities, and unlike you Wastelanders, we actually bothered with basic survival skills. I suppose it's up to me to fetch the parts for your little project."

"Seriously?!" Charlie didn't bother stifling her squeal of delight, rushing forward to hug him in excitement before backing off when he stiffened in discomfort. She cleared her throat awkwardly and handed over the bottle of Rad-X. "Here you go. Ohmigosh, thank you so much for this, Alastor!"

Husk turned to the radio host, pissed off. "If you could do it, why the hell ask me to do it, asshole?"

"Because, even if I know how to hold my breath, I'm still susceptible to radiation." He tipped out several pills and swallowed them dry before dropping his vest on Niffty's head. The maid giggled and folded the item carefully, following Alastor as he approached the water line. "Now, if you wouldn't mind turning around?"

When the others just looked at him in confusion, he rolled his eyes. "I'm not about to spend the rest of the day trooping around in radiation-soaked clothing, nor am I willing to put on a show for you all. So turn around if you want me to go through with this."

Charlie obediently turned on her heel and gestured for the others to do the same. Angel protested when Vaggie grabbed him by the shoulders and forcibly turned and held him in place. "Why are you actin' like I'm gonna sneak a peek or something, geez?!"

There was another minute or so of rustling as he undressed, and then Charlie had to steel herself not to turn around at the sound of him wading into the pond with a pained hiss. When she could no longer hear him moving through the water, she chanced a peek over her shoulder. The only sign of Alastor's presence was some ripples on the surface of the pond.

The others joined her in watching the surface. After several long moments with no sign of the man, Charlie started checking the time on her Pip-Boy nervously. Husk turned to Angel and Sir Pentious standing next to him with a smirk. "Fingers crossed he gets eaten by a mirelurk down there."

Vaggie couldn't quite stifle her laugh as Charlie gasped in horror. "Oh my God we never checked if there was anything in the water!"

Niffty huffed in irritation at the the others from her place as an impromptu clothing rack. "Don't be silly. There's no nests or tracks anywhere. Mister Alastor wouldn't have just walked right in if there was anything dangerous around."

Charlie tried to let Niffty's confidence bolster her, but as more time crept by without anything disturbing the surface, she couldn't help but start pacing anxiously. "How long can people normally hold their breath?"

Husk canted his head in a way she figured meant he was rolling his eyes, though their solid black color kept her from knowing for sure. "Your first mistake is thinking he'd do anything normally, princess. He's just -"

He cut himself off as Alastor surfaced and took a deep breath, trying to shake his soaked curls out of his eyes before glaring at the crowd assembled near the shore. "Really?"

He was met with sheepish smiles, before Charlie seemed to remember something and swung down her pack to dig through it while the others turned back around. The man narrowed his eyes at her, treading water awkwardly while trying to hold the container and keep his head above water at the same time. She shot him an apologetic smile, and placed her prize on top of Niffty's stack of clothing - her spare blanket for cold nights. "Here, you can use this to dry off!"

She obediently turned back around and listened as he swam back to shore, much less gracefully than before. There was a scrape as the box was dragged ashore, and she wondered if they should have just struck up a camp and started a fire despite the early hour. She wasn't sure if Alastor would be up for any more walking after an extended dip in radwater. To distract herself, she fiddled some with her Pip-Boy's map, wincing at a muffled coughing behind her while Alastor pulled on his clothes.

At the sound of slightly uneven steps from the shoreline, she turned around and winced again. Despite his careful pace, Alastor's gait was still unsteady, and there were livid pink patches visible above his collar and on his pale face. His shirtsleeves and vest were unbuttoned, adding to his disconcertingly disheveled appearance.

As she weighed if it'd be worse to bruise his ego by suggesting resting or letting him walk around like this, he dropped to his knees by his pack and fished out a bag of RadAway. With a practiced hand, he uncapped the needle and found a vein in his arm. He massaged the IV bag a little as he slowly got back to his feet, using his rifle to help prop himself up.

Before she could open her mouth, he pointed at the box on the shore. "There's your flange, dear. Husk, grab my pack; I'll get it from you later."

Vaggie jumped in, eye narrowed suspiciously. "'Later'? Where are you going? You're going to wander off on your own without supplies?"

His tight grin made Charlie wonder how he was able to keep the some sort of smile on his face no matter what was going on or how he was feeling. It looked like his gums might be bleeding a little. "That's my own business, my dear. You should head back to the Hotel and make those repairs straight away now that you have the parts."

With a dismissive wave, RadAway bag tucked into the shoulder of his vest, he started off in the opposite direction.

[ygodmyy20]

Hello!!! I hope you're having a nice time!!!

For the fruit emoji ask game: 🍓🍌🫐

Hi Nessa!! Thank yooou :D

🍓 What’s a fic you’ve written you feel is underrated?

Hmmmmmmm not underrated, but I am still kinda surprised everyone liked (basing this on kudos) Just Breathe so much haha I mean, I like it (I wrote it haha)! It's just, kind of a whirlwind and I don't think I paced it all that well haha I actually made a small scene tweak just a few weeks ago (sorry didn't tell anyone I did it and then forgot and now i remembered hahaha I should make post for that....)

Underrated would be Blackhole, but even that I don't think is underrated. I just am so proud of that fic for being what it is. I felt like it was so easy to write and when I re-read it, I just feel so happy with it.

🍌 In your opinion, what’s the funniest joke/reference/pun you’ve made in a fic?

Oh man. I don't know if I have made any....I think my fav joke/wholesome scene is in Float I have Shigeo laugh so hard milk comes out his nose and he is floating and flailing his hands and Shou, Ritsu and Teru are losing their shit at it, and it just makes me feel so warm and good. But yeah not a joke haha just funny scene.

Maybe best joke is the ongoing joke in Black Sweatshirt that Shou and Teru legit named their esper organization TRUST so as to emphasize that people should Trust them. And they almost named it Claw but Teru shot that idea down.

🫐 What’s your favorite underrated thing in your fandom? (A ship that only you seem to write for, a character there’s almost no fics about, a trope that criminally hasn’t been written yet, etc.)

Gosh.....I could always use more pre-canon content. There are a a decent number of amazing, amazing fics out there that are pre-canon (or diverge from canon) andI just love them so much. Many of them are my go-to readds when I need to just let my brain turn off. I kinda wish there was a touch more. But honestly, I like one of the more popular ships in mp100 and I Teru and Shigeo are my fav characters, so I am....not one to talk about not getting content for me haha