#an example of being able to feel the palpable care and love put into the placement and function of things

[cotilliond575]

Interiors from Designing The World’s Best: Children’s Hospitals(1999)

[champawattigress]

I have personally witnessed so many instances of pet owners forcing beloved animals to continue living far beyond the point of their quality of life hitting zero that the whole "Deux Face" situation was absolutely nothing new to me, except for the wave of genuine nausea I experienced at the social media reaction to her existence.

I can honestly say that I feel a palpable sense of relief, knowing that that calf is no longer being forced to live in that condition, and there's no amount of "well, she had vet care!" or "it doesn't seem like she's in pain!" that would have mollified me. I have been in hundreds of QoL consults with clients who parrot the exact same sentiments while their animal lies, completely recumbent and unresponsive, on the examination table. It's the exact same thing, except compounded by the ghoulish addition of the calf's value as a sideshow act.

Any normal presenting newborn calf that failed to thrive as she did would have been euthanized on welfare grounds long before the 26 day mark. A dairy calf is literally supposed to be able to walk away from its birthing site, a calf whose only developmental milestone was that it "can kinda lift its head" is a calf that has something inherently wrong with it. If Deux Face wasn't deformed in a way that makes well-meaning assholes spout that stupid poem, then she probably would have been put out of her misery ages ago. I keep thinking of the grotesque congenital deformities that domestic cattle can present with, twisted spines and fused joints and extreme hydrocephalus and cleft palates, and how, if Deux Face had presented with QoL reducing examples of any of those conditions, people wouldn't have even batted an eye at her euthanasia. She was literally forced to keep on living, just so people could keep "consuming" her continued existence. She was forced to live, not because it was to her benefit, but for the benefit of the farm, who romanticised and profited from her, and the benefit of idiots who think a goddamn newborn calf should be a source of inspiration in their own lives.

The people on this site who mourned that we didn't get to gawk at this animal a little longer disgust me. The only difference between you and the woman who keeps her 19 year old constant DKA, cushingoid, and severely arthritic Shih Tzu alive is that she, at least, has the excuse that this is an animal she has loved and cared for for decades. She's blinded by love, and needs to be counselled towards the realisation that the dog's existence is now more for her benefit than his. You're just upset that there are no more juicy pics of a recumbent, half-dead calf that you can caption with "TWice aS MaNY STArs As UsuaL!!!!!" in goofy ass fonts.

The only sad thing about Deux Face's death is that it took so long. Fight me on it, I don't care. Your gross parasocial relationship with a dying farm animal you've never met was not worth that animal's enforced suffering.

[pompompurin1028]

Can I request 😎💓 for Ranpo! Idk if you write for Ranpo, but if you don't that's fine! Then can I request Fyodor instead?

Of course! I've never written for Ranpo before but I think the first emoji fits him really well so I'll do my best :) I'll write for Fyodor for the second emoji!

Ask game: Send a character and an emoji [closed]

Ask Game Masterlist

😎 How do they impress their s/o?

I feel that the most common way Ranpo would try to "impress" you is with his 'ability'. This is especially true with you being his significant other since to be able to be such an important person to him, I would imagine that he thinks highly of you. So if you are tagging along with him on the case he went on, when he solves it he will seek to "impress" you, hinting at it with statements like "Wasn't Super Deduction amazing?"

Please praise him, because despite it being an attempt to "impress" you, he also wishes to seek approval from you in such cases (hence the quotation marks). Ranpo carries both feelings of superiority and inferiority, using a face of almost arrogance to seem confident, though he is aware of his abilities to a certain extent there still resides this insecurity (especially being placed among other ability users), and this is his indirect way of trying to get reassurance to assure himself, even more so when it is coming from you.

Another way he'd do so is remembering the things and places you like. Though characters like Dazai and Kunikida would do similar things, I see Ranpo as being more likely to voice such understandings out loud. For example, when someone mentions a food you like when the agency is trying to decide on what to eat per say, Ranpo would state that "Y/N loves that!". Because he wants to show that despite the carefree attitude he has, he does care for you.

💓 How do they act when they realize they’re in love/have a crush?

When Fyodor develops fondness for you to the point where he could designate it as a crush or being in love, I'd imagine that he's more likely to fall cold. Perhaps even convincing himself rationally that such relationships and ties are pointless and unstable, and even making it so he develops an additional weakness along with his own "anemic constitution" as he puts it.

I'd imagine interactions with him would feel more intimidating. Despite how dangerous he is, I always imagine that there is a certain delicateness and slyness to his aura, but there's also a palpable sense of not being able to be in control around him. And in such a scenario, I imagine the latter would be amplified. It would almost feel a bit cruel, how he interacts with you, teasing you subtly attempting to fluster you, bascially like he's trying to pull you around, perhaps it's his attempt to reconcile the sense of control he is so used to having but feels like he's losing control of in your presence when you make his typically restrained feelings become erratic. At least that is what happens until he realizes you have feelings for him.

[keltonwrites]

Where no one knows your name

How many times is a person meant to make new friends? When I moved into an apartment in DC with an absolutely iconic girl from Craigslist, I wrote in my journal, “you never know when you’ll meet your next bridesmaid.” Charmingly juvenile, as I was 24 years old. Ironic, as I never had any bridesmaids. And embarrassing, knowing I wrote something that’s surely been embroidered on a bachelorette party t-shirt by now. My point was: you can meet people you fall in love with anywhere, anytime, assuming your heart (and calendar) are open. Now my heart and calendar are open and I am one of Elizabeth Bennet’s sad sisters, cloying and desperate for attention while everyone at the ball ignores me. Meeting people here is unnerving and hapless and eye-clawingly vulnerable. My first new friend told me she was moving away in a few months. Do you invest deeply in hopes of another faraway friendship? Do you just go back to waving as you pass on the street? I like this girl! What an embarrassing thing to have to say to someone! Do you just invite people to every and anything like a lunatic? I can’t even remember to call the people I am forever-and-ever in cahoots with. I’m also deeply bound by what I’ll call the Movie Trap: say it’s 3pm during not-a-pandemic, and you get the urge to see a movie. You look at the showings, and there’s one you really want to see at 7:15. You think to yourself, “I should make an effort,” and you text a friend. “Hey, you wanna go see This Cool Movie at 7:15 tonight?” No one ever says yes. Don’t give me an example of when someone has, because it’s always one of these answers:

“Oooh, I’m actually seeing it with Kate tomorrow - wanna come?”

“Can we go to the 9pm showing? Stuck at work.”

“Yeah but let’s see Movie You’ll Fucking Hate instead.”

Now maybe I’m just lighting flares guiding you to the worst parts of my personality, but this drives me nuts. No, Liz, I don’t want to go tomorrow. I want to go tonight. At 7:15. So I can be in bed by 10. And you’d have to drag my dead body and prop open my eyes to get me to see something like Marriage Story in theaters. The Movie Trap is a big reason I usually hang out by myself, or I make plans weeks in advance. (Don't I sound like a blast.) Just the idea of being like, “I like you! Wanna hang out in October?” makes me want to collapse into a puddle of sad adulthood. Which is why on Friday at 4:30pm, when a girl I’d met a week prior asked if I wanted to grab a drink, I just said yes. I put on a pretty dress, did my makeup, put stuff in a purse, and drove the 25 minutes to town. It was really fun! And how novel to have new contacts in my phone like “Maggie blue house” and “Jess concert friend” — a throwback to the days of “Greg guy on L train” and “Devon ad party.” The very concept of not knowing someone’s last name or even needing it, and a year from now updating their contact info and smiling at your origin story. But for the most part, no one is in our phones. In terms of phone numbers collected, here is the list:

Two friends we knew prior who thank god you guys exist.

New friend who is moving away.

New friend who is game to drink tequila and ride mountain bikes.

Neighbor-not-yet-friend who I really fucking like and am not sure how to cross hang-out threshold with.

​Not to say there aren’t any other prospects or people I’m platonically gaga over, but I don’t have their phone numbers. There are honestly a lot of people like this because when you live in a small town (and you’re from the Midwest) you say “oop, sorry” to every person/object you bump into, and you say “hi :)” to every person you see. These are the rules. If I drive by you and don’t wave, it’s because I was so deep in a daydream I probably shouldn’t have been driving in the first place. This isn’t acceptable, because in our urgency to tattoo our vaccination status on our foreheads so we can make friends, it turns out just driving by someone can be a viable strategy. A few days ago, a man was driving by our kitchen window and then our driveway, and then he reversed back up to the kitchen window and started waving. Ben went outside — it was that kind of wave. The man had seen from his car a smokejumper emblem on the back of a truck in our driveway. “Hey, are you a smokejumper?” We aren’t. But my dad was, and he was in town visiting, accompanied by the emblem on the back of his truck. The guy said we should drink sometime. Numbers were not exchanged. We’ll call that a node, because it’s not quite a connection. And it’s mainly nodes, waiting to be connected, to have relevance. But first, no matter who you’re trying to befriend, you have to answer everyone else’s Do I Care Quiz. The quiz is employed by 93% of locals to determine how they feel about you existing within their personal 50-mile radius. The first question is non negotiable:

1) Are you visiting?

Variations on this question include “how long are you in town?” or “what brings y’all to town?” or my least favorite and most insulting, “did you just finish Jeeping?” I know I have blonde hair and say y’all, but how dare you. (Also, to be clear, you can own a Jeep, customize your Jeep, mod out your Jeep, and love your Jeep, but you’re not Jeeping until you drive too fast through a tiny town so you can hurl your Jeep over a mountain pass without ever getting out of it.) So the answer to “are you visiting” is “no, I live here.” Which brings us to the next question, my favorite for how loaded the gun, kneeling in the grass, scope on, target locked it is.

2) Are you part-time or full-time?

The first time I answered this question, I didn’t realize it was essentially like asking how someone voted in the 2020 election. The judgment was cocked and ready and the palpable relief/joy/or at the very least, tolerance, exuded by answering “full-time” was like when the sun comes out from behind the clouds on a 40 degree day. I was fine, but wow that does feel better. The third question though does not have a standard hoped-for answer. This is where nodes turn to connections turn to phone numbers.

3) What brings you here?

It seems like the best possible answer would be saying you work in town, and you’re going to begin construction on displaced-worker housing to ensure the people who run this town can actually live in it. We’d have everyone’s phone number. Saying you’re a writer who works remotely and bought a house from a legendary and beloved local who could no longer afford it is really something you keep to yourself. But in the interest of making friends, I just word vomit my entire history. We might as well find out at the onset if I make your eyes roll back into your skull. Not at all threatening that all it takes is a single social signal misinterpreted to be the absolute death knell of my ability to make friends in a town of some 1400 adults. In fact, I’ll share one such interaction. I was hiking with Cooper, about 5 miles by foot away from my house. I was on a trail, crossing a sloped meadow, and a group was traversing up the hillside to the trail. I said hi, where y’all coming from. One girl answered and we talked about the trail. She eyed me up and down. “Did you just move here?” “I did!” “I served your family last week,” she said. “Oh,” that phrasing. “Must have been my in-laws.” “Heard you bought Jack’s house. Such a bummer when locals like that are forced out.” “We didn’t even know about his house,” I said. “We were looking at another house and he asked his realtor if he could get us to come see his house. We just loved it, and him!” She had no emotional reaction to this. “You moved from California?” she asked. (Dangerous question.) “Yeah, got these sea level lungs, haha,” attempting to disarm with humor was a failure, “but couldn’t be happier to be out of California.” “It’s not like this all year. Winter’s really hard here, you’re in for a rude awakening.” “Well California’s the last place I lived, but I’m not from there. I’ve lived in brutal winters. At least Colorado gets sun!” I laugh with cloaked loathing. “It’s different when you live at altitude,” she said, like no human aside from her had ever been literally anywhere. “Are you trying to go around?” She indicated the path behind her. “No, y’all go ahead, just gonna wait to give you your space. I’m sure you’re faster than me.” “K, good luck making it to the lake." Maybe she was thirsty. Maybe she was hungover. Maybe she just has vicious delivery, but it felt like every blade of grass was leaning against the wind to listen. She was with four other people and not one of them said a word. I left that interaction not wanting to see another human ever again. But that interaction, and her intimate knowledge of exactly which house I lived in, made me want to decorate like we lived in a gingerbread house, all candy canes and plum drops, screaming to any passerby that we’re friendly. One of the mayor’s first questions to me was “what are you going to do to the house?” There are rules here about what your house can look like, and I kept emphasizing we bought the house because we loved it, not because we wanted to change everything about it. And now, instead of wanting to decorate the interior, I want to put up shades so we don’t contribute to light pollution, I want to hang a sign by the water spigot saying “grab some if you need” for hikers and mountain bikers, I want to paint a sign for the wild mint by our door that says, “I mint to tell you to take some,” because our neighbors were openly panicked they wouldn’t be able to just grab mint from the cabin’s garden anymore. Without question, COVID makes things harder. Dinner parties feel like dares. Dropping cookies off at someone’s house feels invasive. Grabbing a drink feels like the ultimate sign of trust. But at least we have nodes who can connect who can think to invite us and who can see that despite having lived in California, we’re not all that bad. In the meantime, I’ll be painting signs about water and mint, hoping to garner the benefit of the doubt from the so beautifully, earnestly, and waiting-to-see-if-you’re-worth-it doubtful.

Subscribe to the newsletter at tinyletter.com/keltonwrites — high altitude relocation and renovation in a tiny mountain town.

[k-s-morgan]

Hello! I came upon your Black Butler fic Those Gentle Slopes that Lead to Hell by accident a few weeks ago, and I just wanted to let you know I adore it. I first watched the anime when I was 13 (over 10 years ago now), and have since long fallen out of the fandom. Your story made me remember just exactly what I used to love so much about Black Butler and the dynamic between Ciel and Sebastian, so I wanted to thank you for that. If I'm not mistaken, I read that you plan to follow the anime in your story, including season 2. It made me curious what your thoughts are on season 2? Personally I rather disliked it when it came out, but I haven't rewatched it since. If you don't mind, I am curious to know your thoughts about it since you are able to put them so eloquently! Anyway, I am very curious to read how you will continue your story and how you will use the storyline of season 2 in it, I am sure that whatever you have in mind will be brilliant!

Once again thank you for your work, I really love it!

Hi! Thank you so much for your words, I’m so happy you liked this story! I have a lot of passion for it. And yes, I plan on following S2 - I absolutely love this season and consider it a love letter from Sebastian to Ciel! It has ellipses and missing words, sometimes missing sentences; some pages were left intentionally blank, but ultimately, it’s all about feelings. The whole premise is basically Alois wishing for Claude to destroy Sebastian, and Claude deciding to do that by taking Ciel from him. It’s pretty huge when you think about it. In addition, there is Sebastian wanting to prolong their contract and re-structuring everyone’s lives to accommodate Ciel’s amnesia, giving him another chance at revenge; being unable to kill him even after Ciel becomes a demon. 

There were some elements I disliked, like heavy and inappropriate sexualization of Hannah - many characters suffer from it, but sometimes it felt like they created her for this very purpose. S1 was more dignified in this regard. But all in all, I enjoyed the season a lot.

I like Claude as a contrast to Sebastian. From how I see it, he is an actual normal demon: he’s cold, shallow, with no morality or interests other than eating something & getting power. Claude doesn’t care about Alois, he’s really just fulfilling his duties. Sebastian is actually living a life of a butler, going out of his way to please Ciel and earn his favor. Claude kills Alois without a second thought; Sebastian cannot bring himself to kill Ciel no matter how many times he has a chance to do so.

I’m in love with the ending. It’s fascinating that Sebastian actually allows Ciel to become a demon. He was told clearly that the moment Ciel wakes up, he’ll do it soulless. Rather than killing him on sight, Sebastian cradles him in his arms and waits. He attacks afterward, when it can’t actually hurt Ciel. Instead of still killing him, Sebastian goes along with the charade and keeps doing his butler duties. Demons can kill their masters without serious repercussions, we saw that on the example of Claude and Alois. Sebastian has every right to kill Ciel - more than that, he’s in direct proximity to the sword that can help him with this. And yet, he stays.

Ciel acts like he’s in control, Sebastian acts like he has to obey him, but they both know it’s a charade. It’s so palpable in the moment where Sebastian pretends to make tea and Ciel pretends to drink it. They try to stick to their routine desperately because they feel lost, confused, and scared. Ciel knows what could happen to him any moment - he saw what became of Alois. He could also tell Sebastian to leave him and start navigating his new life by himself, unburdened by anyone and anything. And yet he not only keeps Sebastian close, he actually makes an emphasis on Sebastian having to stay with him for all eternity! And Sebastian acts all miserable when he can make a decision to kill Ciel any moment, putting an end to their contract once and for all.   Sebastian knows he doesn’t have to do anything anymore, but he can’t bring himself to kill Ciel to terminate their bond. He can’t face the idea of being invested in someone so much either, though, because this is it - he told himself countless excuses before to prolong the contract, but now there are no lies left. So he’s miserable and lost, going through motions and unable to make a decision, incapable of admitting he needs Ciel yet equally incapable of killing him. It’s such an open ending, but I find it extremely beautiful. 

[cgogs]

So I’m the anon who sent the first oxeye ask last night and after having a full day to come to terms with the ending, I was absolutely right that I would never recover from this (/hj). I truly don’t know how I’d survive an epilogue because there’s no salvaging their relationship. That said, please bring on the pain if/when you’re able!!

Also, just a couple scattered thoughts:

- I’m absolutely floored how well you nail the “fundamentally loving but too individually fucked up to be sustainable” relationship dynamic. You did a fantastic job of keeping the intended ending ambiguous enough to make me hopeful through the whole story, while still foreshadowing the eventual fracturing of their relationship. The chemistry in the dialogue and the careful way they dealt with their issues together really lulled me into this false sense of progress. Since they seemed to get better at conflict resolution over time, I was really rooting for them to constructively handle the hidden comm together instead of falling apart around it. They were such a likeable, realistic couple who felt genuinely in love–the sense of grief at watching them fall apart is still palpable haha. And god, Dream blocking George on his comm at the end was fucking brutal. I want so badly to know what happens between them next, but I know it can’t possibly be good after that.

- The effort you put into making the world come alive was phenomenal. It’s clear that you put a lot of thought into the using the game mechanics and SMP characters as a foundation to build the world on instead of a limit to world building. Aside from just being fascinating to read about, it made for some really unique storytelling. For example, creating a setting with populations outside the SMP characters gave you a way to drive Dream’s paranoia indirectly (ie. The conflict came from the lingering threat never knowing who/where was safe instead of from having to specifically fight off Sam, Sapnap, Q, etc), which contributed to interpersonal misalignment between Dream and George around survival strategies/priorities. There are other examples, but that one really jumped out at me. I absolutely loved it, and there’s a specific kind of sadness around not getting to explore more of their world that comes with the end of the story.

Thank you for your hard work on this piece-it’s one of the most gripping new stories I’ve read in ages, and made me feel Some Kinda Way! I’m looking forward to more from you :D

MOUTH AGAPE ? OH MY GOD OH MY GOD THANK YUUIOU THANK YOU EAHATAATATAT 😭😭😤😭😭😤☝️😓🤒😇😓🥰😩😩🥰

'The chemistry in their dialogue' -- i am so glad that I was able to make their dialogue not only realistic but also enjoyable, theres so much thought put into the way they move and touch each other, but they're not one for poetics. I wanted to get across something very human while feeling larger than life

'The lingering threat came from never knowing who/where was safe' -- I knew that it would feel cheap if I kept the home base characters in the plot itself, I also wanted several degrees of separation between George and the fine details of what happened to Dream. George never finds out who tortured him, why, or the extent of what happened in general.

AUTHOR COMMENTARY:

I feel like if dream had ever asked about the comm, ever put some real thought to the situation instead of just trying to ignore it and keep himself in the present as much he could, they would have had a constructive conversation about the comm instead of the shitshow that happened. Hell, if it had been during the day and george had been awake they probably would have had a better situation go down than what happened. It was extremely situational and that's the worst part to me personally. Dream still would have left, I dont think theres a way that reveal happens where he doesnt, but it would have hurt less. And maybe George would have tagged along, I dont know for sure

"Theres no salvaging their relationship" THERE IS! i PROMISE! They cant go back to how it was before, they both need to realize that living in the past/trying to restore it will only ever make things worse for themselves. But they can heal and carve a better life for themselves, they can salvage this, it's not hopeless. But the odds are just so stacked against them, admittedly. But they cant be without each other- however you want to believe that manifests is up to you. "After me, the flood" and all that

I'm so glad you liked my fic in depth kinds of asks like this blow my mind I smiled so hard when I saw this thank you thank you thank you 😭

[vanillasakura]

IT’S FINALLY HERE <3

I first got into Red Dead around late July or so when I watched my friend and her dad speedrun the game, and one of the first things I came across for this fandom was Sapphic Week, so I’m very very happy to be able to contribute this year, especially as I’d be lying if I said the lovely ladies in this game weren’t the main reason I initially got into it and ended up buying it for myself.

Once again, a HUGE shoutout to @rdrsapphicships and Aldrig for hosting this event! I’m so excited to see what everyone creates <3 Without further ado, let’s get into it!

RDRSW21 Day 1: Music 

Title: Close Your Eyes (As it Eats at Us)

Words: 1857

Pairing: Abigail Roberts/Molly O’Shea

Warnings/Notes: Slight John bashing I’m sorry but this takes place early chapter 2 so... slightly warranted 

(Title from Close Your Eyes by The Midnight Club)

ao3 link

  ≿━━━━━━━━━━༺❀━━━━━━━━━━≾

Don't you know, when your eyes are closed, you see the world from the clouds along with everybody else?

Indeed, Molly was on her own much of the time. Dutch could only afford her so much attention, and when he was away from camp or otherwise occupied, there wasn’t anybody who really came up to her on their own will. Not exactly like she could blame them, Molly wasn’t the easiest person to get along with. Growing up, she’d always assumed otherwise, but after seeing how Karen and Tilly had told her to stop coming up to them and “being a bitch for no good reason”, she began to wonder if everyone back home was nice to her because they had to be. Even if Molly herself wasn’t a picture-perfect example of politeness, being anything but an angel to the O’Shea daughter could have been considered blasphemy. 

It was lonely, terribly so, but Molly wasn’t quite sure what she could do to remedy the situation. She wrote poetry, she read books, she went on walks in circles around camp, she looked out over the valley (Horseshoe Overlook really hadn’t gotten its name from nowhere), but more than anything, Molly watched.

She watched how Reverend had gradually stopped bothering pretending to read the bible, instead choosing to start downing drinks earlier and earlier. She watched how Bill devoured Kieran with his eyes, all but confirming her suspicion that the man did indeed want to bed the new camp member. She watched how Karen would clench her jaw when Mary-Beth asked how things were going with Sean, but would then take his hand later and pull him out of camp, the pair slipping away to either do each other or to do nothing at all. She watched how Arthur hadn’t bothered to take down the photo of the woman who did nothing but cause him pain even after Hosea had told him to do so, instead still glancing at it longingly every now and again while he cleaned his guns in his tent. She watched Josiah practice speaking in all sorts of different accents on the outskirts of camp, correcting himself out loud whenever something wasn’t quite right. She watched how Jack would try and weave flower crowns for his mother, small hands shaking as he attempted to tie the stems of various blooms together, putting the ones he had broken too short or knocked a petal off of in a pile to his left. She watched how John admitted to Javier and Pearson that, if he could, he would kill Abigail and never think twice about it. 

The comment shouldn’t have startled Molly as much as it did. She knew that John was a good man deep down, but the way that he uttered the confession without so much as a second thought as to if what he was saying was okay made her sick. Abigail was nothing if not kind, hard-working, and strong, nothing like the type of woman you would imagine deserved those kinds of threats. What made John that angry at her, Molly didn’t know, and she wasn’t quite sure that she cared to. 

After that night, Molly didn’t just stop watching. She’d heard people say worse things, many times, but there was something about the raw earnesty in which John had spoken that made his words haunt Molly like nothing else had. She decided to start watching Abigail more, justifying it by telling herself that it was for the other woman’s safety, even though realistically, there wasn’t much protection that Molly could offer her. 

And one of the first things that Molly noticed as she began watching Abigail was that the woman could sing. 

Abigail had this habit, whenever she was sitting in her tent on her own while working on something that needed to be done, where she would hum a tune, letting her own voice pop in here and there with the words that she knew. It was an uncoordinated affair, but it was never intended to be anything but. 

It was also adorable.

So adorable, in fact, that Molly decided that maybe she didn’t just need to watch anymore, maybe she could actually go and sit with Abigail. After all, much like her, Abigail was alone, more often than not. What harm could come of it?

“You need any help?” Abigail looked up from her work, pausing her humming as Molly stood by her, close, but not so much so as to suffocate the other woman. 

“Didn’t know you offered that.” Abigail responded, expression unreadable. 

“Hasn’t been something I’ve extended before.”

“With all due respect, Miss O’Shea, I don’t need anyone’s help if they only do so because they take pity on me, especially someone who ‘isn’t anyone’s servant girl’.” Abigail’s eyes turned cold, her brow furrowed, and Molly felt anxiety beginning to set in. 

“That wasn’t my intention whatsoever, I just…” she trailed off, and Abigail cocked her head, “I just don’t want to be alone. Is it okay if I enjoy your company? Just for a short while.”

Abigail sighed, chewing on her lip. “I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t know that feelin’ all too well. Truth be told, you’re the first person who’s come up to me in weeks.”

“I have no idea why that is, though.” Molly picked a sock out of the basket by Abigail’s feet, grabbing a needle and some thread along with it. “You’re such a nice person, it truly is a shame that others don’t recognize it.”

“ ‘Nice person’? Miss O’Shea, you hardly know me.” 

Molly felt the same dreadful wave of anxiety begin to rise inside of her again. “I may not have talked to you much in the past, but I’ve watched.”

“Watched? Me?”

“I watch everybody.” Molly admitted, stabbing the cotton with her needle. “Although I must confess, I do enjoy watching you. I know that isn’t exactly polite, though.”

“You’re right in that it ain’t, but I suppose I’m a hypocrite, so what does my opinion really matter?”

“You, a hypocrite? How so?”

“Gets lonely when nobody comes up to make conversation. Sometimes, you’ve gotta get your fix by watching others.” Abigail laughed. “You never really feel like a part of the group, but it can help alleviate the pain sometimes.” 

“Have you ever seen how Karen and Sean sneak off all the time?” Molly asked. “Lord only can imagine what shenanigans they get up to.”

“If I know either of them, they’re probably finding some tree to fuck up against.” Abigail said, a smile appearing on her face. “Although, on second thought, maybe not, given what happened at his welcome party.”

“At the welcome party? I guess you must have seen something I didn’t. Mind sharing?” Molly asked, her interest thoroughly peaked. 

Abigail snorted. “Well, you saw how the two of them were all over each other that night, right?”

“Would’ve had to be blind as a bat to not have.” 

“Well,” Abigail continued, “at some point, I saw the two of them go into John’s tent, and given my proximity to them, it wasn’t hard to hear what was bein’ said and fill in the gaps.”

“So they slept together at the party? Can’t say that I’m quite surprised.” Molly tied up the thread as she reached the end of the tear, reaching for a handkerchief to work on next. 

“They sure did, but that ain’t the good part.” Molly watched as Abigail’s eyes laughed, full of a mischief that she had never seen present before in her usually quiet companion. “Sean has got to be the quickest quick shot I’ve ever seen, and given my history, that’s sayin’ somethin’.”

“No.” Molly covered up her mouth, stifling a laugh. 

“Yes! Poor Karen never even got hers, it had to have been the most pathetic thirty seconds in her entire life.” Abigail smiled, and Molly’s heart twitched. Why?

“Thirty seconds? Wow, if that’s so, then maybe they aren’t all over each other when they go out, and you’re right.” 

Abigail laughed, smiling at Molly. “Well, who’s to say, I’m not sure there even is such a thing as a constant when those two are involved.”

“You may be right there.” Molly puffed one of her cheeks out, trying her best to figure out what to bring up next. She was having a lot of fun, she should do this more often, especially as Abigail also seemed to appreciate the time they were spending together. “Okay, now is it just me, or does Bill look at Kieran a little too often for it to be considered friendly?”

“Oh, it’s not just you, no worries. I’m just a little surprised that out of everyone, he decided to be sweet on Kieran.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I mean, he’s nothing like the kind of men Bill’s been sweet on in the past.”

Molly stopped in her tracks. “Wait, you’ve known about Bill before this?” 

“Yeah, it ain’t that hard to figure it out if you know what to look for.” Unable to gauge Molly’s reaction, Abigail continued on. “I mean, I don’t have a problem with it, whatever makes you happy makes you happy, y’know? And if that means lovin’ somebody of the same sex, I sure as hell don’t see a problem with it.”

“We’re in agreement there.” Molly smiled, going back to her work, her heart beat now more palpable. “I mean, as nice as it can be to see everyone here fall in love-”

“Or lust.” Abigail interjected, a smirk on her face.

“Or lust, that’s true-- I still think that my favorite person to observe is you.”

“Hm? And why is that?” Abigail still had that smirk on her face, raising an eyebrow. “What about me is so interesting that you’d prefer to watch me than whatever the latest addition to the Sean and Karen saga is?”

“I, uh,” Molly flushed, suddenly aware of what she was saying and how weird it could be considered. “I just, I like watching you hum and sing whenever you work. Something about it is just, I dunno, very relaxing.”

Abigail clicked her tongue. “You really do notice a lot, huh?”

“Yeah.” Molly replied sheepishly.

“I guess it’s only fair that I tell you that I find watching you write poetry is quite calming.”

“You saw me doing that?” 

“How could I not? Both of us do a lot of watching and thinking, we’re both very similar in that regard.” she said, unbothered by Molly’s embarrassment. 

“I’m… glad, you can find comfort in something that I do.” Molly settled on. 

“The more we talk, the more I’m beginning to think that I just find comfort in you. Somethin’ about you just makes you easy for me to talk to.” Abigail smiled. 

“The same goes for you.” Molly sighed, nibbling on her lip. “We should do this more often. I’m having a good time.”

“So am I.” Abigail agreed. “It’s much better to be with you than to be alone.”

“It really is.” Molly shifted a bit, turning more towards Abigail. Maybe working wasn’t so bad after all.

[emilycollins00]

Hey, if you want to (you don‘t have to through) could you maybe write a Muku x Reader, in which Muku‘s crush writes him a anonymous love letter but he recognizes his crush’s handwriting? But if you don’t to write it for Muku, than it can be somebody else! Like idk... Juza or Sakuya (that would have been cute too). Everybody’s just great🥺❤️ Have a great day!~ (*´꒳`*)🌸

Sorry for the delay, love. You are the sweetest thing! I don’t really mind if reader is the same age, also crushes are the cutest thing so... Muku it is! 💕

Hope you enjoy!

Title: Love letter

Pairing: Muku Sakisaka x reader

“I don’t know Yuki-kun, I’m sure Sakyo-san also wants the play to be a success. Why would he try to make it difficult?”

With school hours finally ended for the day, both middle schoolers talked as they prepared to go back to the dorm.

Yuki clicked his tongue “If he wanted the performance to be good he should at least be more lenient with the budget” he mused opening his locker, already making a mental list of the materials he would have to buy to make up for the cut he had been informed in the morning “That money grabbing yakuza… he could at least think how much work is to piece everything together”

“I-I’m sure you’ll do an amazing job! We’ll all make sure to help if it gets too much!”

“Of course I was already counting on it. I haven’t been training you all for nothing”

Muku laughed nervously at his retort.

“Muku-kun!”

His heart made a leap at the unexpected sound of your voice. Turning around, he found you running in his direction from the crowded hall.

“Y/N-san?”

Once you managed to catch up you held a hand up, asking silently for a few seconds to regain breath. Finally you lifted your head, cheeks slightly flushed from the sprint “Sorry, I wanted to give back the volume you let me before you left!”

“Ah, you shouldn’t have had to bother coming all the way!” Muku stuttered, taking the manga from your hands and holding it against his chest. He glanced at you hopeful “Um... What did you think about it?”

You clapped your hands, beaming “Oh, I couldn’t put it down! The main character was so sweet it made me want to cheer for them so much!”

Muku felt his previous tension being released. He had been the one who had recommended it after all. He smiled happily “I thought so too! T-the way the festival had…”

As always happened when he talked to you lately, Muku hoped he wasn’t blushing too much or sounded too weird. It had been a few months since you both started exchanging romance novels due to mutual interest and the more you got to know each other, the more Muku noticed he had developed quite the crush on you.

“I see you guys are leaving already. Practice?”

Muku played with the string of his schoolbag, self-consciously “W-well, spring troupe is next so we usually make street acts for the time being until Tsuzuru-san writes ours- ah, he’s the person I told you that writes such wonderful stories!”

“Oh! I hope summer comes soon then” you chuckled, making Muku’s stomach stir “I have to go now too, see you both tomorrow!” .

Once you were out of sight, Yuki glanced at the former athlete sighing with a hand placed in his chest and rolled his eyes “Why don’t you just invite them somewhere? I doubt they’d say no”

“Uh?”

“Y/N” his pointed the way you had left with his chin “You are painfully obvious, you know”

Muku waved his arms neglectingly, flushing “I-I can’t! If only I had the charismatic aura of Itaru-san or the elegance of Citron-sama b-but I don’t have any of those qualities and...!

“I keep telling you those two are the worst examples you should be trying to learn from”

He kept shaking his head stubbornly. You had become someone he truly admired for always doing their best. Your approach and attitude were so nice, so warm...  The thought of dating was too much! “A-anyway, shouldn’t we hurry to get to the dorm?”

Yuki squinted his eyes, but opted to shrug it off “Sure, I need to change before going to that thrift shop by Veludo Station. Last time the worker there showed me some…”

Muku relaxed inwardly, seeing Yuki was already on work mode. As he opened the locker to change his shoes though, something white fell from inside. He crouched down to the floor to retrieve it “A letter?”

He turned it, but saw no sign anywhere, which made him tilt his head confused. Why was a letter inside…?

Something clicked in his head as he stood up, blue eyes staring at the white envelope.

It couldn’t be real. He must be daydreaming.

“Maybe I could even- Muku?”

Oh god, what if he had been transported to one of his mangas? What if he now had to overcome the plot of the story to be able to get back and…?

“Hey! Earth to Muku, geez!”

Snapping out of it, he finally focused on the annoyed green-haired in front of him “Yuki-kun…? Have you also been transported into the manga world?”

“What are you talking about” the young designer sighed, crossing his arms over his chest when he noticed the envelope “Was that inside your locker?”

“You can see it too?!”

“Of course I can idiot. You didn’t have that before”

Muku nodded to himself blinking at the letter. So he wasn’t imagining it…

“Well, aren’t you going to open it?” Yuki leaned his back on the lockers, bending curiously.

“Yuki-kun”

“Mhm”

“I-I can’t”

                                           -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Mucchan received a WHAT?!”

“Could you say it any louder, you idiotic dog? It’s just a letter, who cares”

“Mukkun, I’m shook!” as Taichi kept crying about wanting to find love too, Kazunari jumped in completely elated “Isn’t this like the highlight of your school life mangas in real life? You def have to open it!”

Taichi’s reactions and Kazunari’s comments didn’t reach Muku, still zoning in and out of the conversation. After a long banter in school, he hadn’t had the guts to open the letter, so Yuki decided for him to take it home and give him time to process the situation.

Which is the reason he was now sitting on the couch in the middle of the lounge, surrounded.

It was true he had often dreamed of love letters. Who wouldn’t? They were so romantic! To receive a handwritten confession maybe even in poetry professing an undying love, rushing off to a midnight rendezvous with one’s true love… the mere thought made Muku swoon.

But one thing was his imagination, and another one real life, as much as he sometimes mixed both.

To think something like that actually happened to him didn’t feel real.

“I…I already told Yuki-kun this must be a mistake” he murmured fidgeting, not able to take his eyes off the yet-to-be-open envelope on the table “Who would want to write to someone who is a half-pint, small, dried-up stale beansprout like me?”

“You sure s’not a letter for a challenge, right” Juza grumbled from the other couch, throwing daggers to the letter.

“J-juza-san?!”

“Why am I not surprised that’s your first thought, Standard Gangster”

Muku lifted his head gasping with eyes wide open, scared “I-I hadn’t even think about that! What if I did something and now they are looking for revenge and…!”

“S’okay, Muku” Juza stopped him, cracking his knuckles “I’ll take care of ‘em if that’s the case”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on, dude!” Kazunari laughed nervously, placing a hand his shoulder to calm him down “Before we decide it’s something like that, how about opening it?”

“Mr. Extrovert is right for once” Yuki rested his chin on the back on his hand “You are taking too long”

As everyone watched expectantly, Muku glanced at the letter once more, swallowing with difficulty. Even just looking at it made his heartbeat go wild. He shook his head, took a deep breath, and carefully tore the edges apart.

The first thought that came to his mind was the fact that the colour of the paper was the same as his hair.

Then, the fact that his whole face was probably heating up after he read his name.

“Mucchan?”

“Just tell me who I have to beat up”

The summer troupe member lifted his head flustered, forgetting where he was “S-sorry I- it’s okay, Ju-chan! um, it’s not that type of letter!”

As he kept reading the content, Muku felt his heart ringing in his ears as well as the heat reaching and warming his cheeks. The message of the letter was definitely a confession worthy of a manga and the way he was being described… nothing could compare to what he was feeling at that moment, eyes fixed on the letter, practically glowing.

By the second read though, he noticed something weird. A somewhat familiar feeling, as if he had read this before.

He read it again. What was it?

“Let me see, let me see!” Kazunari soon moved to his side, reading with him and whistling “Mukkun whoever this is you have to find them, this is totes cute!”

He didn’t answer, still in deep thought. This handwriting�� where had he…?

You.

A flashback of him looking at your notes in class and thinking how beautiful your handwriting looked crossed his mind. Muku covered his mouth from the sudden revelation.

“Muku!?”

“You okay, Mukkun?”

If he was blushing before, his face must now be a downright crimson mess.

Could it be a joke? Or was he daydreaming again? B-but that WAS your handwriting. He had caught himself so many times staring that it.

He checked once more afraid. No, it definitely was yours.

“B-but Y/N-san, they…”

“Y/N?” the surprise on Yuki’s face when he heard your name was palpable. He grabbed the letter, smiling at the end “Well, aren’t you lucky Wonder Boy”

“Who’s Y/N?”

“Ah, Muku’s crush”

“WAIT- MUKKUN’S!?”

“MUCCHAN’S?!”

“Muku, you…”

“W-wait, what if they did this as a way to test my acting? O-or to try to recreate a scene for a new manga?” his mind kept rejecting the idea “They said they wanted to see our performance, what if tomorrow they keep asking me what happened today and I can’t act naturally and then they think I was spying on them only to be told that-!

“Muku, please” Yuki rolled his eyes “As if someone like them would do this as a prank”

The young actor looked around everyone in the room insecure and then again at your letter, taking it with both hands carefully “It’s just… I’m just me” he finally whispered.

Kazunari chuckled softly, ruffling his hair.

“Well, that’s plenty for us, you know it! And judging by the letter it’s the same for them”

                                           -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Next day Muku paced around the entrance of the school, waiting for you. No matter how many mangas he had read, nothing had given him the answer for how to act. 

Was this how the heroines felt? His lower body was barely being able to sustain him.

“Muku-kun, you called for me?”

Okay, stay calm Muku. Y-you got this! He forced himself not to let his nerves show as you walked up “Y-yeah! Um, do you have a moment to talk?”

“Sure?” you tilted your head curiously.

He had to avert his gaze “t-The thing is, um; yesterday this was on my locker…” Muku took out the letter from his pocket, praying for a reaction.

You stared at it dumbfounded, and for the first time, Muku saw your cheeks growing slightly red. He kept talking “I… I somehow recognized your handwriting! S-so I wanted to say that I too-!”

He couldn’t finish as he watched you covering your face, which caused him to frown confused “Y-Y/N-san...?”

“Please hide me” Muku could tell your ears were bright red at this point “Sorry, this is not… it wasn’t…”

You groaned to yourself. You worked so hard to not let it show, appearing even before he saw the letter and your handwriting was what gave it away in the end…? Talk about embarrassment.

“Ugh, I’m so lame”

“It wasn’t lame! Not at all!” Muku’s heart squeezed, talking louder than he had imagined, but he wanted to make his point clear this time. Lame was the last thing that could have crossed his mind when he read it “You are so cool and the letter was beautiful!”

“I-It was…?”

He nodded although you couldn’t see him “Y/N-san” you felt his hands holding yours, taking them away from your face. Once you couldn’t hide anymore you looked up, a blushing Muku welcoming you with a warm smile.

“If you are okay with me, would... would you like to meet up sometime?”

He really looked like a prince.

_______________________________________________________________

Wishing you all a wonderful day! 💕

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian Chapter 15 reactions; *nobby nobbs voice* ‘s all gone a bit percychological, sir

 - so from both chapter 6 and now this: rick famuyiwa is incredible at portraying prolonged discomfort and tension (and also at getting din’s endless love for that baby across through the stress of being separated from him. this is the very first episode with no baby in it at all, isn’t it? wow that’s a heartbreaking milestone to reach im crying)

I liked this episode SO MUCH but I had to pause it pretty often and take a breather because it all made me so viscerally uncomfortable on din’s behalf -- not just the armour and having to take the helmet off and be seen for the (almost, ilu IG-11) first time in decades, people keep touching him in this episode when he clearly doesn’t want them to but can’t stop it and it makes me want to claw my own skin off in sympathy, it’s so awful. that’s really neat film making to manage to keep that tension steady almost all the way through!!! 

honestly this episode felt a little bit like psychological horror, with the cheering storm troopers and din in the wrong armour and clearly not digging it and there’s the palpable absence of baby and that ever present dread of being Perceived when you’re not ready for it; everything’s turned upside down from how it should be. and it’s playing with that discomfort both in the main character and in us, the audience, in having the familiar be made unfamiliar and also introducing these questions that shake up everything (that feeling you get of ‘but... if it’s not the helmet, and not the armour, but there’s his face, but we’ve only seen that face once before so it’s still basically new to us, is this... is this still him. is this still Dad’ (oooh I wonder if we’re... sort of getting some of the ??? the baby would be feeling about it too?) we’ve all imprinted on that t-shaped visor like little baby birds, and this was a very clever episode to break us out of that and start to really get used to the thought of him having several faces that are real simultaneously, in a way, and not just a voice. it’s all very smart and interesting and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of incoherent thoughts about this in the weeks to come lol)    

- the actual reason din can’t take off the helmet is that if people were able to see his wide confused puppy eyes they would no longer find it in themselves to send him on long arduous side missions and would help him immediately just so he’d feel better, and that would rob us of like 80% of the content for this show 

mayfeld in this episode: clearly a casualty of this. he literally sees one glimpse of the vulnerability there and then within five seconds goes on to materialize a few redeeming character traits after being a complete jackass for an episode and a half. (I mean. he was 100% still an imperial so I’m a bit ‘hm.’ about how easily especially cara let him off the hook, but with the way it was set up I guess it would have been quite shitty of them to just throw him back in prison so I mean I GUESS. I would be endlessly grateful someone got my awkward bff out of there alive and well too I suppose)

- I actually think din’s sense/integrity of self has gotten so much stronger and more resilient (though probably still quite fragile pls handle with care precious cargo within); if this had happened in the first season I think it might honestly just have killed him (and if it weren’t for IG-11 it probably would have lol)

- can you beLIEVE din is so bad at lying that they literally should plan for contingencies over it fjkasdlhfskajdhfsdj     

- very grateful for the scene with the spear throw that’s basically there to reassure us ‘uh-huh, he absolutely knows how to use it, don’t worry about that part at least’

I want to make a whole post about that fight scene, though, it’s just so GOOD! there’s so much storytelling and characterization in it! even out of the armour din has some real hand to hand MOVES!! he clearly came out of that aching all over, he can barely get back in his seat!!!

- so what I’m mainly taking away from this is that din absolutely cuts his own hair and you know what? he does a good job considering the conditions he has to work under, I love him  

I still find it so goddamn darling that he meticulously maintains that little mustache/stubble combo under there even when there’s every reason to believe no one will ever see it 

I suppose we can also gather that he did not ask cobb about whatever insane feat of magic he’s come up with to avoid helmet hair, but I don’t care looking a bit frazzled and tousled is exactly right for him (he’s so put together when he’s in the armour and a MESS when he’s out of it and I  l o v e  it) 

- boba fett is honestly so fucking hot in this I don’t know what to do with myself haha. he’s so CALM and CALCULATED and COLLECTED in his newly painted armour and he’s GOT THIS and he made that ‘I’ve got one of those faces. one of jango’s many, many, many faces’ joke and he’s so thicc now, he looks like he could easily lift me over his head with one hand and he’s just quietly steady and undramatically supportive and sdalfhsdjhfsa 

- ...din does know who the clone troopers were, right. I mean of course he does. he has to. but does he though. I’m sure he does and just wasn’t thinking. 

- no matter how stressful it was I’m still really grateful that in the end taking the helmet off was something din got to do himself -- it’s under some duress, but it’s still his choice and for the sake of the baby, and almost in two more manageable steps between putting on the storm trooper gear for a different helmet before taking it off altogether. it’s not something done to him by gideon, for example, that would be. so much yuckier and worse. he still has that control and agency intact, even if it’s been tested really hard, and now gideon doing that doesn’t hold the exact same nightmarish power anymore because there’s already a little space opened in din’s mind for different things it can mean, if you see what I mean. I’m not sure I see what I mean actually I just have a lot of feelings haha. so I guess thank you mayfeld for being decent about it and helping him towards that realization that he can still be himself outside these really really inflexible structures he’s set up around himself for like. stability and keeping himself upright for a really long time, and that even someone halfway decent won’t disrespect the boundaries he still has about it at any given moment. man there’s a lot in this episode isn’t there

- the sigh din gave when he saw even more pirates coming and knew he had to get back up... never has a single moment in cinema better captured how I feel about being alive. most relatable man in the world din djarin

- it was really cruel of them to make me listen to din’s dead bleak voice say ‘the child is gone’ again, it wrecks my heart every goddamn time 

- again... I wish carano wasn’t Like That in real life because the cara & fennec scenes should have been everything I could ever dream. ah well fennec was still wonderful and if I just allow myself to think in-universe for a few seconds it was really touching that din would entrust cara with his entire armour, that’s some prime BrOTP energy right there

I love that we got two female characters who were just allies and working together, no competition or nothin’. listen the bar is low but it’s nice to see something actually leap gracefully over it as well lol

- this was one of those with some pretty big open plot holes (why, exactly, would a scan of a completely unknown face be helpful to get into this classified system lol), but a) I don’t care, the emotional storyline was so sound it doesn’t really matter and b) eh handwave handwave let’s say mayfeld programmed that little stick with the good shit and overrode the code saying there needed to be an identity match within the system, it’s all fine 

- I know I joke a lot about this but din really is one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever had. just watching him struggle with eye contact and going pretty much nonverbal under enough stress is like. wow a bit close to home there could we, perhaps, nOT?? (honestly though these are trauma/anxiety things I really don’t see portrayed a lot, especially in protagonists, it’s so odd but healing to see it in a character I love and who’s EXTREMELY competent in many other settings)

- din repeating gideon’s speech back to him word for word (except for the crucial detail that he calls grogu ‘him’ instead of ‘it’ 😭😭😭) and saying nothing else is truly Everything. I’ve said some stuff about din’s deliberate and thoughtful relationship to language in the past and this is such an amazing example of it; he’s remembered that pitch perfect all this time, he’s kept it around in his head and mulled it over and then redeployed it to change the meaning of it completely from dehumanization to love. can you. can you even imagine. and it’s yet another example of his hilarious wonderful petty streak and I can never get enough of it fasjhdfkjalhs    

- din always noticing the children first and foremost Y_______Y (the kids running by is the only thing you see him sort of acknowledge when he’s walking into the covert in season 1 too)  

- please... please I just need him to be able to hold that baby against his chest all safe and sound and okay again I can’t it’s........ hh

NO SEASON END CLIFF HANGER ON THIS I AM  B E G G I N G  YOU 

- I would be having some thoughts about how much space there actually is on slave 1 and what that might mean (do not kill boba again please don’t kill him again), but honestly there’s only ‘GET BABY’ hours in here now, I can’t speculate about anything

[petriichvrs]

ONE  YEAR  OF  NOXTMS  /  five  dyanmics  with  two  bonus  !

more thoughts / information under the cut ! 

001.   𝐃𝐔𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐘  &  𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐘.   ( @ddudleys )

every single day, i think about this pair & just how unexpectedly ... brilliant they are. i hope by now my love of dudley is just very apparent, but if it ISN’T - i love his character so, so much, and i think you’re an incredibly talented person for being able to give him this whole personality and existence beyond the end of the books that fits with his canon so well and still gives him his chance to be a good person. dudley & ginny bonding following the war, attending support group together ... ginny telling him wildly incorrect things about the world for a laugh, the fact they have TOTALLY bonded even more over both being sports people, the moment where they held hands at grimmauld place, everything after ... jesus christ ! i can never ever be eloquent enough to express the way they make me feel, and the way that any new little insight into their dynamic be it by meme or by thread just makes them that bit more real to me, but i’m so grateful for this funky pair, and you better know it ! 

002.   𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐎𝐘  &  𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐎𝐘.  ( @dolors  )

tell me a year ago that someday i’d actually care about the malfoy family and i’d have FOUGHT you over it - at no point did i ever expect to pick up narcissa, and after i did, i never expected to get such a complex and amazingly thought out lucius to write opposite of. i still remember the moment where blo and i realised you were going to bring him, and the EXCITEMENT we felt at the fact that this individual i already knew semi okay who was writing such an excellent interpretation on hermione was going to bring us a character who can be so polarising, in a lot of ways. the hope ? the willingness to die for you immediately, simply because you were going to DO it ? cherry i cannot believe there was ever a time where we were not friends in the way we are now, and i REALLY can’t remember an instance where i didn’t have malfam + lucissa to get me through my day. they’re my emotional support morally grey family who think of themselves first & foremost and everyone else after, okay ? lucius is a lot of things, and you do such a good job at writing ( and acknowleding ) them, but inside the walls of malfoy manor he’s narcissa’s honey bunch with an unhealthy emotional attachment for his peacocks & brilliant taste in erotica novels for their next book club session. 

003.   𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐙𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐍𝐈  &  𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐘.  ( @ofzvbini )​

mozzie, let’s not cut straws on this one : holy fuck. holy JESUS. holy moley. all the holys. here is the thing - my love for blaise zabini as a character / concept and my appreciation for the blaise/ginny dynamic that could exist had NEVER gotten to be mutually exclusive until you came along. never ! it wasn’t something to feel hard done by, or anything, but... i kinda do, now, but for a different reason, which is that you’ve set the bar for characters SO HIGH in general and i’m never ever going to be able to find another interpretation of blaise that even remotely lives up to yours, nor do i think that anyone will ever be on the such a similar wavelength to me, when it comes this connection. the energy all around is just utterly UNMATCHED, and the fact that... even just rereading our replies from the last event to get this excerpt, i realised i wanted so badly to reply again right now immediately, because the sparring of their words and lets be honest, the PALPABLE sexual tension going on in that thread was so genuinely fun and entertaining. i just think you knock it out of the park so consistently with your characters and the connections you write with them. i could have said any of our dynamics - luna + ginny, luna + nazli, luna + narcissa, eulalia + niko, blaise + merry, blaise + narcissa, blaise + niko - YOU GET THE PIC ! i love u moz. please marry me under the moonlight i think it would be very romantic-

004.   𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑  &  𝐍𝐈𝐊𝐎 𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐅.  ( @pclearwaters )

i want in on record that penny clearwater is the love of my life, actually. i want it on fuckin RECORD, because the love i have for this character who gets paid nothing but DIRT in the series all because you took her up & gave her this whole life and character and storyline that made her into... like, a real person ? who makes me feel sometimes ... just very sad, but who also brings me such joy. penny & niko are another example of that fun little thing we do where we throw these totally different characters together and then see what happens ( usually the most perfect of unexpected friendships ). i loved the last thread we did between them most, because it was one of the first chances i had ever gotten to showcase that a side of niko not really seen so often, and his confusion at penny’s genuine beautific happiness was just ... really fun to write and get into. i truly think you do such a good job with penny, and i love the dedication you have to the clearwaters, full stop. here’s to many more of their weird lil interactions ! 

005.   𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐎 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐎𝐘  &  𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐘. ( @blondsnake )

six months ago, they were one of the dynamics i chose to talk about in the original meme. when i did it that time, the excerpt i chose was : “i’m sorry,” he tells her, voice cracking, and he doesn’t know what he’s sorry for anymore. for the sins of his father? for ginny’s ruined childhood? for the fact that he is draco malfoy, and not someone else? & the REASON i chose them was at the time we wrote that thread, it felt very... real and raw and human, to me. it felt like we were exposing a nerve. the malfoy / weasley dynamic is expanded on so much when it comes to every other weasley, and ginny’s interaction with the family she has so much of a history with, with the son of the person who really took a key role in what she went through as an eleven year old, was just... so non-existent that getting to touch on it in the way we did felt...  incredbly important, and i remember the thread best for setting the continued tone. 

i’m choosing them now because i never, at any point, thought that we would end up where we are right now. i spend a lot of time, now, thinking about them - i can’t believe i never realised just how similar they were as people, and just how much possibility existed between them, because so much does, and every time we talk more about them, i come away with the feeling that this is a connection that’s like once in a lifetime esque, and i’m SO lucky that i’m writing it with you. you know ? you’re an incredibly talented writer who has four incredibly well thought out characters, and i love that i get to write with them all, because ALL of them are a treat to write with. i always wanna hear your thoughts, i always wanna hear your ideas and concepts, i always love the posts you send me and the things we joke about - almost as much as i love the things we don’t. that first night we realised what we had here came from utter meme and became something very very important to me. i’m always thinking about ‘he gives her a long look’. if you know you know, you know ? !  

006.   𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐃𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐇𝐎𝐕  &  𝐍𝐈𝐊𝐎 𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐅. ( @rcveuse )

saz, i know we’ve only gotten the one thread started so far, and they’re newer... but can i just say, i’m really really glad that you decided to come back to nox, and i’m even more glad that when you did you picked up those specific connections of mine, because they were some of my FAVORITE ones on the page & had never really gotten their dues ? the niko one in particular, that amelia is filling - i remember writing it because i wanted him to have moments of his life that were happy, and the best way i could think to showcase his emotional side was via someone he loved for real. i always said niko loved fiercely and was just as fiercely loyal, but i hadn’t gotten the chance to write it, because he’s a character so difficult to put into positions where he would. he takes a long time to fully bond to people. even after he does... he’s just. odd. it was a v important connection to me, and i love amelia so much, already, and can see exactly what existed in her that he fell for when he did. i’m so excited to write them more, and i can’t wait to see where the dynamic that exists now goes ! 

006.   𝐊𝐀𝐄𝐋𝐀 𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐅  &  𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄. ( @taciiturns )

i love kaela. i know we know this. i know i’ve said it so many times, and i know i’m going to say it again, a million times more - but i really do love mikaela karkaroff, and i already had the niko connection, so i really shouldn’t have been greedy, but.... i didn’t imagine what’s come to exist between kaela & merry at ALL. it’s a very interesting dynamic built from very simple beginnings, and it’s become one of my most enduring merry connections - i think it made her more of a person, and i totally have you to thank for it. they’re such different people from such similar worlds, with such an interest in one another that i have such a difficult time explaining - IT WORKS, it so works, but it works in a way where i kinda have to admit i never even expected it, and i feel like i’m learning more and more about it with merry. that’s a very fun sort of connection to write when it’s with someone who loves their character as much as you do kaela, and i’m endlessly interested in where it’ll go ! 

[untamedunrestrained]

The Untamed and Mo Dao Zu Shi

These past eight days have been surreal.

I have drowned so fully in this story that it feels like I am just surfacing.

On Valentine’s Day, fandom on tumblr reblogged this fanart of WangXian by qulfeeh and I was intrigued. The reblog was tagged with two important key words ‘Wangxian’ and ‘The Untamed’. In the brush of a few keystrokes I came across the Wikipedia page for a show known as the Untamed that was available on Netflix. The thing that stood out was that it was based on a BL novel and that both the very male protagonists were described as each other’s soulmates and somehow that was enough. So, I opened Netflix and after like a second of hesitation I started watching the show and I didn’t stop. I started at eight in the evening and I watched nine episodes in a row which basically meant I was up till five in the morning. What followed seems like a record for me. I finished all fifty episodes of the Untamed in under seventy-two hours.

I put hardly five minutes of thought into my decision to watch this story and ended up dedicating the past eight days straight. The first three days to the live action drama and the past five to reading the novel.

If it isn’t obvious this story is that good.

The Untamed

The Untamed is a first for me on so many levels. I have never watched a Chinese show before ever and that seemed extremely significant to me because China is actually a neighbouring country yet as far as my mind is concerned it might as well be on another planet. Which seems particularly odd considering shows from English speaking countries like the UK and the US are a staple for me which makes these countries feel so much closer though they are geographically on the other side of the planet. Of course, a major factor is the language barrier but another is the political scenario between our two countries and amazingly this show made me realise how much of an impact perceiving different cultures can have on your perception of their people. It has literally opened up a whole new world for me that I have just realised I have never taken the moment to discover. Well, considering this is me we are talking about, how appropriate, that it would be a drama based on a BL novel that unlocked this whole new world for me.

I have tried reading a Danmei novel before which was awful and it completely turned me off the genre but it did have a side effect of educating we about elements of a wuxia novel which made this xianxia world seem a little familiar but even if it hadn’t, I would have still been hooked.

It didn’t take long for The Untamed to find a new fan and I have been obsessing over it ever since.

The Untamed is an amazing drama which revolves around the love Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian have for each other and the plot is so intriguing that you wouldn’t be able to stop even if you tried (I didn’t because that thought didn’t even manage to enter my mind).

It’s a love story and that is undisputable for me, they don’t say it, it isn’t mentioned but there is this palpable force influencing events and you know they love each other. I have somehow really disregarded how much a show can show you stuff without ever explicitly stating it but The Untamed set me straight in that regard. I doubt anyone who watches the show would mistake it for anything but the love story it is.

Wei WuXian was an instant hit for me. He is a lovable, gregarious character always up to mischief but is someone who always wants to be on the side of justice and I have a weak spot for characters with a hard on for justice. He is just such a lively character who keeps smiling all the time that it’s just hard not to fall for him in minutes. His antics and his demeanour are so charming that you’re hooked. He would have easily been my most favourite character in any other drama that doesn’t have a Lan WangJi.

Lan WangJi is an amazing character. In a world, which has become increasing about everyone voicing their opinions (like I’m doing at present) it is hard to believe that people like Lan WangJi exist. People who are quiet, who don’t speak unless absolutely necessary. He is literally the embodiment of tranquillity and more important he is Wei WuXian’s hero. Like literally he protects him like he’s protecting his life which on second thought he definitely is.

I literally had second-hand embarrassment from how obviously romantic these two are.

Hands down the best thing I have watched in 2020 by far! The characters are amazing, the plot is intricate and it is so, so interesting. I watched almost fourty hours of this series non-stop and I don’t remember a single point where I felt like the story became boring for a second which now that I think about it is, is… astonishing. How can such a large drama be so engrossing? This isn’t binge-worthy there is literally no other way to watch the show!!!

Mo Dao Zu Shi

But after coming down from the high of the first seventy-two hours of being submerged in this world, I was reluctant to leave this world so much so that I didn’t even contemplate it. I had a wide variety of media to choose from. The story is based on a web series by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu that was made into a manhua, followed by an donghua, followed by an audio drama followed by The Untamed. It must speak to the universality of the story that the people are willing to read the same story in so many different formats, I know I’m not done.

But, high up on my list was the source material, one of the articles described the show as being extremely faithful to the novel, which made me want to jump on that wagon posthaste, and I agree whole-heartedly. I read the translation by Exiled Rebels Scanlations and what struck me was how the show and the novel were tonally the same. I had switched mediums but it didn’t feel like a different story or like I was reading different characters which is shocking because that’s literally how good the show was at translating words into video.

Differences

One of the startling things about the book is that it really ties up the plot neatly. There are tons of plot points that aren’t as completely resolved on the show as they are on the novel which I only ever realised after reading the novel. A lot of this had to do with how certain details of the plot are different. A classic example that the reason behind the scars on Lan Zhan’s back is different in the two. In the novel, LWJ whisks WWX away from the Nightless City after he massacres and pretty much beats-to-a-pulp the entire alliance of sects. LWJ then has to tend to WWX so they remain in hiding for three days. When cultivators from the GusuLan Sect finally discover the two, LWJ has to defeat all of them to keep WWX safe and that’s why he is given one whipping for every cultivator he defeated. Of course, since WWX dies on the battlefield in the show this couldn’t be the reason behind the scars so they have LWJ defend Burial Mounds which wasn’t all that fruitful considereing the LanlingJin Clan does end up with a lot of WWX’s artifacts, there was no point in defending Burial Mounds as he couldn’t have kept it up in the long run but him going to Burial Mounds after the massacre at Nightless City is important to ensure they story can credibly reveal Lan ShiZui to be A-Yuan. So, yeah differences, the show focuses on the Wen Clan and the Yin Iron while the novel doesn’t have the Yin Iron at all and focuses on Jin GuangYao. But, despite the differences the story still feels coherent between the two mediums mainly because the relationship between LWJ and WWX that is at the core of both remains central to the plot at all times.

The plot of the novel though is extremely intricate and the author does an amazing job of deconstructing it which makes it easier to understand what’s happening while the show in hindsight does get away with sweeping up certain loose ends.

Of course, the kisses and the sex are gone but I will gladly take that cliff scene in exchange. I was actually shocked that the novel actually doesn’t dwell on WWX’s first death at all. Like, we don’t even know how exactly he died in the novel and this was hsocking given how pivotal that cliff scene is in the show.

Characters

Surprisingly though a lot of the roles of side characters were expanded for the show, the novel seems to have delivered a better understanding of these characters. The biggest example for me being Jiang Yanli.

She has an elaborately expanded role in the show which does highlight how deep her bind with her brothers particularly WWX is but somehow she seems like a timid character among a bunch of very strong characters. What the novel does is that it gives you a very realistic picture of her, she might not seem like a significant influence on the story but her impact is far-reaching. The novel doesn’t showcase much of her character but the scenes that feature her in the book are some of the most poignant ones and incidentally those are the same ones that stand out in the show. I feel like novel did a better job of showing off her strength. While, in the show I couldn’t look beneath her timid demeanour the novel manages to showcase the strength of her love. She cares deeply and loves deeply and the novel manages to show you the courage it takes to love someone so deeply. I definitely admire her character more and in fact I’m kind of in awe that someone who appears so traditional was so awesome. It felt easy to dismiss her character but reading the author’s words made me realise that I would be very, very wrong in doing so.

Wei WuXian might be the luckiest guy in the world to have a shijie like her followed by a husband like LWJ who both seem very determined to spoil the hell out of him. I might be experiencing some jealousy right now.

The author somehow manages to imbue her characters with qualities that makes them real and unique. Like WWX forgetting everybody’s face which is a real world problem that I have never seen anybody suffer from in a novel but just the fact that WWX doesn’t immediately bring his old hang-ups in his subsequent meetings with side characters didn’t only have hilarious consequences but made everything that much more intriguing and credible.

This author also does an amazing job of flipping characters. There are very few villains who are black and white in this story. WWX himself is a character caught in the gray of it all, universally reviled for standing up for the right reasons. This is a theme throughout the show and the novel where bad characters might be good and good might be bad but the author endeavours to show us all sides to a character. While this most definitely applies to Jin GuangYao, I’m surprised with how it resonates with Xue Yang who’s relationship with Xiao Xinchen can only be characterized with the words “It’s Complicated”. I don’t actually know what to think of these two Xiao Xingchen was definitely betrayed but can we ignore the fact that he found himself a companion in Xue Yang his sworn enemy and Xue Yang’s feelings for Xiao Xingchen are enough to drive me crazy. This guy has no idea how frustrating he is, that piece of candy clenched in his fist will drive me crazy for the rest of my life. The entire Yi City Arc is a big mess of grey there are no whites and blacks and the show underscores that with this quote –

Once upon a time, there was a little child who liked sweets very much. But because he had no parents nor money, he could never have such things. So he’d been dreaming if only someone could give him a candy every day.

Don’t even get me started on the music that plays in the background when this quote is being narrated.

There are just so many amazing things about the show and the novel. I mean the show might have actually worked harder to make things more romantic and one scene that I’m surprised isn’t from the book is the lantern scene with both of them making pledges like that particular scene neatly underlined who WWX is and would become. The hand-fastening scene is also not from the book but then there are other scenes and other delights to be found in the novels.

This story is definitely worth reading and watching for years to come. If anyone has any apprehensions about the novel I will be glad to clarify but the everything about “The Untamed” and “Mo Dao Zu Shi” stand in the same breath.

[blkgirlsinthefuture]

Kindred, Bodyminds, Speculative Fiction 💆🏽‍♀️✨

When I received the Paperback Graphic Novel of Kindred in the mail, I told myself I’d read half of the book and then set it down to, you know, pace myself, and launch into the 2 days worth of Biology Homework that I’d missed. I nestled into my pseudo-comfortable leather reclining chair, eyes tired, mind foggy… 

And then the book was done. The entire book. I couldn’t put it down. I loved Kindred for the same reasons that I hated it (but I did not love that she was with no white ma–). It was raw, grossly uncomfortable (as these topics always, always are), and forced a deeper looking into myself. 

Whenever I ask my grandfather why he loves The Color Purple so much, he always responds, “because you really feel like you just know the characters, and you could sit down on the porch with them and have a conversation with them.” This is exactly how I felt about Kindred. Of course, I wouldn’t call myself marching up to Tom, Margaret or Rufus Weylin and having a conversation about them, but they felt palpably, uncomfortably real. This is definitely in part because it was graphically rendered. I felt a distant coldness emanating off of the page whenever the Weylins entered a panel. 

Around Miss Sarah, Nigel, Carrie, Alice and Tess, I felt a sense of safeness and community. I felt as though they were real, in a down to earth, “got your back” type of way that the whites in the story could never achieve. I felt as though they knew something… “more” about life.  Interestingly, this could tie back to the Toni Morrison reading of what blackness symbolizes in novels. 

A character I loved in particular was Alice. I hated what happened to her, but gosh, I loved her. Alice’s case would be a good, interesting case to discuss on the terms of the Bodyminds Reimagined reading. Alice went through a bone-crushing, life altering event and had not only her agency and body, but the love of her life taken from her. She was left in such a dazed state of shock that she regressed back into childhood. It was in this state that Rufus felt the most comfortable with her. Because when she had a childlike, innocent, impressionable mindset, he could fully “””“protect”””” (in his sick mind) her, he could do whatever he wanted with her. She was easy to control. He was able to have his idealized version of her in the flesh. This mental anguish, shock, and trauma led to this disability for her.

Rufus’ favor soon dissolved when she was no longer in this state, on came the beatings, the r*pings, the threatenings, and ultimately the taking of their children which led to her suicide. This relationship actually perfectly, in my opinion, describes the general feeling of white people towards black people during this time period, or even beyond. In their eyes, childlike innocence such as this was a disability, shown in how they thought they were less intelligent and incapable of complex emotions, but it was a desirable disability for those enslaved. Whites wanted to keep them in this state, in a state of what they believed to be “unknowing”, so that they would be easier to morph and control, and as soon as they started showing themselves, they became dangerous, worthy of beatings and otherwise. Thrown into the field. 

Another layer to add on to this is exemplified by an enslaved individual at the beginning of the novel saying, “He don’t want no n*ggers round here talking better than him. Putting freedom ideas in our heads. Like we so dumb we need some stranger to make us think about freedom.” The whites thought the enslaved individuals were inherently disabled in this way, but they actually weren’t. The circumstances they were forced to be in, constantly choosing between life and death could make it appear to the whites that they were. The whites then came up with a patriarchal way of justifying themselves, constantly saying the slaves needed to be protected, and taken care of and that they would die without them. Rufus showed this thinking when he convinced himself that Alice couldn’t pick her own husband. Interestingly, Alice wasn’t even enslaved, showing this was a general thought about black people back then (and today!) 

So yeah. Alice and Rufus’s situation, to me, seemed like a physical example of the abstract thinkings of slavery. This approach to disability as outlined in Bodyminds Reimagined allows for a deeper analysis into the minds and concepts of this time period.

I’d like to end off talking about Dana. Her injuries that she got in the past and brought with her to the present were, to me, a deep way of showing that the scars from back then still affect us to this day. If we don’t actively fix them, then they will still linger on. Her relationship with Rufus showcases the true peculiarities of what is known as the “Peculiar Institution.” A jumble between love, hope, hatred, disillusionment, darkness, and light. She saw glimpses of innocent humanity within him, and believed that, if she influenced him enough, he could escape the environment and times he was in, much like her. Escape it by changing and being a better man than he was expected to be in that time. However, ultimately, he wasn’t able to, and turned into a freaking terrible human being just like his daddy. 

Anyways, yeah! Here’s a song I thought of when I was reading this, check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH3Fx41Jpl4&ab_channel=chachomg . 

Thanks for reading! :) 

Casey Casey

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Orchestrations

AU-gust Day Twenty-One: Professional Rivals AU Fandom: Once Upon A Time Pairing: Rumbelle

Rated: T

Summary: The members of Storybrooke Chamber Orchestra are taking bets on how long it will be before sworn rivals Belle French (flute and piccolo) and Cam Gold (cello first chair) finally admit their feelings towards each other…

Orchestrations

The general membership of Storybrooke Chamber Orchestra were not entirely sure how it was possible to have a rivalry across entirely different sections of the orchestra, and they were impressed that Gold and Belle had managed it. 

Rivalries within instruments weren’t uncommon. There was always someone in the first chair leading the section and there was always someone else who wanted to be in that position instead. 

Rivalries within sections weren’t unheard of, although it was usually a friendly rivalry stemming from the fact that the violins got all the good melodies whilst the cellos were stuck with the harmonies. (Pachelbel’s Canon in D was often brought up as an example whenever these arguments occurred.)

Rivalries between sections themselves… These were not as likely unless rehearsals had gone spectacularly wrong and all the sections were blaming each other for the mistakes. Of course, there was always the casual one-upmanship of strings being better than brass or woodwind being better than strings, but deep, personal rivalries? Definitely not as common. 

Which was why the open professional rivalry between flute player Belle and cello player Gold was so much of a mystery to all of their colleagues. 

Several people wondered if it was not so much a rivalry as personal hostility that had been translated into something more professional for the workplace. 

Trombone first chair Cara Mallory, who had been with the orchestra for longer than most of the other members and who knew Gold very well as a result of their longevity in their current positions, had hit upon another idea. 

“I think they’re flirting.”

Rory looked up from cleaning her flute and raised an eyebrow. The two of them were sitting in the auditorium after rehearsals, watching the interplay on the stage between the two rivals. Well, Mal was watching. Rory had decided, ever since she had joined the orchestra two months ago and been initiated into the strange spectacle that was Belle and Gold, that she wasn’t going to get involved. 

Unfortunately, since it appeared to be the most frequent topic of conversation among the other orchestra members, it was getting increasingly hard to remain detached. She did have to admit that there was something intriguing about the whole affair. 

She looked over at Mal, who was still watching Gold and Belle arguing on the stage. From this distance they couldn’t be heard, but if pushed, Rory would admit that it was entertaining. 

“Are they at it again?” Ursula and Carrie came into the auditorium, taking seats next to Mal. “You know, the next time this happens we really ought to bring popcorn. It’s turning into a wonderful comedy of errors.” Carrie sighed. “Do you think we ought to lock them in a cupboard together to get them to admit their feelings for each other? Then it really would be something out of a film.”

Ursula rolled her eyes. “For at least the fifteenth time, Carrie, no. I’m sure that they’ll come to the realisation that they’re madly in love with each other in their own time. Well, madly in lust at least. The UST is almost palpable.”

“But waiting is so boring!” Carrie groaned as she flopped back in her seat, staring at the ceiling for a while. “I want to start planning their wedding now!”

Mal laughed. “Carrie, don’t you have your own wedding to plan?” Ursula cleared her throat pointedly, and Carrie waved the concerns away.

“Yes, yes, that’s all in hand. That planning is done. Now I need something more! Besides, I don’t think that Belle and Gold would want the kind of nuptials that I’ve been working on for me and Ursula. It would be a challenge to come up with something that suits them both.”

“Anyone would think that you were a professional party planner rather than playing the violin for a living.”

“It always pays to have an extra string to your bow, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

“Are they at it again?” This time Mulan had come into the auditorium, sitting down next to Rory. “Can we draw straws as to who yells ‘just kiss you morons’ at them?”

“No one will be yelling anything at them!” Ursula was getting increasingly frantic. “We need to leave them alone or we’ll scare them off! Whatever happened to watching things in their natural habitat and not interfering? You lot would make the worst naturalists ever. I said naturalists, Carrie, not naturists.” 

Ursula buried her head in her hands as Carrie continued to snigger. 

On stage, whatever the latest feud between Gold and Belle was had finished and Belle had walked off whilst Gold was fastening his cello case. Presently he looked up and saw the gathered crowd in the auditorium, giving a visible sigh. 

“Mal, you’ve got to stop this,” he called. “And you’ve got to stop encouraging everyone else as well.”

“I’ll stop watching you when you stop being such a wonderful spectator sport.” Mal smiled beatifically and Gold stomped angrily off the stage. Carrie sighed. 

“Well, it looks like the show’s over for today.”

With the entertainment over, people started leaving the auditorium, although Rory stayed where she was, mainly because Mal was giving her a lift home and Mal was showing no inclination to move. A couple of minutes later, the two of them were alone again when Gold came out, leaving his cello on the bottom step and trudging up to meet them.

“One of these days I’m going to get back at you for all this,” he said. “I don’t know how yet, but mark my words, it will happen.”

Mal just patted his shoulder. “I know, Gold. You say that every time we catch you playing slap-slap kiss-kiss with Belle. Although you haven’t quite made it to the kissing part yet. I’m sure you’ll get there soon enough though.”

Gold stared at Mal with a very affronted look on his face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Mal rolled her eyes. “Come off it, Gold. It’s blindingly obvious that you both have a crush on each other and you’re trying to hide it by bickering all the time instead. Rory will back me up here.”

Rory threw her arms up in defence. “I’m staying out of it.” All the same, she was very intrigued to hear what Gold and Belle’s thoughts on the situation were. She just didn’t want to be the one to initiate that conversation. Mal, apparently, knew no fear and was very content to keep poking her friend.

“Gold, of all the people to pick fights with, why would you choose a flautist? You cannot have a rivalry with an instrument you can’t play that lives on the opposite side of the orchestra to you.”

“It’s not the instrument that’s the problem, it’s the player,” Gold muttered.

“Hmm. And what exactly is the problem with Belle French?” Mal was evidently very amused by the turn that the conversation was taking; Rory could see how hard she was trying not to laugh.

“She’s just so… so…”

“Beautiful? Witty? Not putting up with any of your nonsense? One of the only people able to go toe to toe with you when you get into one of your moods? Although, you know, I think you’d both get on a lot better if you started talking and stopped just needling each other. Face it, you’re perfect for each other.”

“We are not!” Gold spluttered. “Besides, she probably thinks I’m just some curmudgeonly old man with outdated ideas about orchestra composition, I don’t stand a chance.”

“So, you admit that firstly, you’re a curmudgeonly old man, secondly, you care about what Belle thinks of you, and thirdly, you would like to be in with a chance?”

Gold opened his mouth to say something in his defence, but under the force of Mal’s knowing smile, he visibly crumpled. “Ugh. Yes. Fine. I like Belle French, but we got off on the wrong foot on her first day, so I’ve been forced to keep the charade up ever since. There, are you happy now?”

“Perfectly.” Mal reached out and patted his arm. “Just tell her how you feel, Cam. I’m sure that you can get it all worked out.”

“I can’t if she hates me,” Gold pointed out. “The rivalry does go both ways, you know.”

“Oh, I know. I know. Believe me, we all know. We’ve been watching it for months now, and you’re not the only one we’ve been watching. I think you might be pleasantly surprised by how easy it’ll be to get yourselves straight if you actually have a normal conversation for once.”

Gold sighed. “Are you sure? I very much like playing for this orchestra and I don’t want to have to leave in embarrassment because I can’t face the flute section having laid my heart on my sleeve and had it trampled on.”

Mal rolled her yes. “You are the most dramatic person I know; did you know that? And I know Carrie de Ville, so that’s saying something. You’ll be fine. Trust me. Besides, Rory here happens to sit next to Belle in rehearsals so I’m sure that she can sound out her feelings in the same way that we have sounded out yours.”

“Stop bringing me into this!” Rory protested. Although, that said, having heard one half of the story, she was very intrigued to hear Belle’s point of view. Maybe she could get Mulan to help her tomorrow. The idea of locking the two of them in a cupboard together seemed to be looking ever more likely if they were ever going to get to the bottom of this.

X

“Belle.”

“Yes?”

“You and Gold.”

“Yes, what about us?”

“What’s going on there?”

It was the next day and Mulan had readily agreed to help Rory to work out what was going on between Belle and Gold from Belle’s perspective. As aloof as Gold could be at times, he really was a brilliant cellist, and no one actually wanted him to leave the orchestra as a result of romantic humiliation.

“What do you mean? There’s nothing going on there, why would there be, you know we don’t get alone, it’s a professional rivalry, there’s nothing more, it’s just what you see.”

Belle had gone distinctly pink and was avoiding everyone’s eyes as they set up on the woodwind section. Rory saw the moment that her eyes glanced over to Gold in strings and then quickly back to her own instrument on her lap.

“Belle, you can admit that you fancy him,” Mulan said, completely matter of fact. “I think it’s been obvious to everyone for a while now that you keep fighting with each other in an attempt to hide your feelings for each other. Wouldn’t it make life a whole lot easier if everything was out in the open and you didn’t have to keep bickering all the time? You could get onto much nicer things. Like kissing and hand-holding and all the other more licentious aspects of dating. We’d have a true orchestral romance on our hands, like Carrie and Ursula.”

Belle sighed. “Do you really think that would work? I mean, he’s him, and I’m me, and we’ve been on each other’s nerves for so long now that it would look strange for me to now turn around and say that actually, my feelings towards him are very different to the impression he’s been working with for the last few months.”

Rory shook her head. “No, I really think you’ll be fine. Honestly.”

“Honestly?” Belle raised an eyebrow. “Do you have some kind of insider information that I don’t?”

“Well, remember that Gold is good friends with Mal, and Mal is currently my taxi service whilst my bike gets fixed.”

Belle looked from Rory to Mal to Gold in such quick succession that Rory was concerned she’d get whiplash. For a long while, nothing was said, and even when she spoke again, the only word out of her mouth was ‘right’.

At that point, the conductor arrived, and all notions of professional rivalries becoming professional romances were put to the side as rehearsals began.

X

Despite the fact that, for once, there was nothing happening on the stage, there was still an air of anticipation among those who were hanging around in the auditorium, Rory, Mulan and Mal among them.

“I think I ought to start taking bets,” Mal announced presently. “Who thinks that they’ll make a move tonight, and who thinks that they’ll get cold feet and wait a bit longer?”

“Well, whatever happens, we’re hardly going to see it if we’re in here, are we?” Carrie sighed. “Why are we all in here instead of wherever they are?”

Ursula batted her arm. “We’re giving them some peace and quiet in which to make their anguished declarations of love. I think that’s best done without an audience.”

“We had an audience,” Carrie said.

“Yes, but that’s because you never do anything by halves. Although I do have to admit that proposing on the conductor’s rostrum was a nice touch, as embarrassing as it was at the time.”

“Hey, you said yes. It can’t have been that embarrassing.”

“IT’S HAPPENING!”

Jefferson raced into the auditorium, no mean feat whilst dragging a double bass along with him, and he waved the gathered group frantically towards the theatre foyer. “All systems are go, we have lift off, it’s happening!”

Everyone looked at each other for a moment before there was a mass exodus from the auditorium, everyone grabbing their instruments and rushing out into the foyer, where Gold and Belle were locked in a kiss that could under no circumstances be classed as chaste.

Rory was not quite sure who started the cheering, but it was probably Carrie and if not her then Mal. Soon everyone was swept up in it, but despite the racket, Belle and Gold didn’t appear to have noticed.

“Well, it took them long enough,” Mal said. “All in all, I think we orchestrated that quite nicely.”

Rory could only agree

[silencecunt]

Kankri is not a good person, nor is he a bad person. In my view, he is a wildly misunderstood character--both by the people who love him and the people who hate him. Both sides like to take only parts of his character and ignore the others that don't align with their perception of him. There is no harm in that, per say, but it does an incredible disservice to him as a character.

The Alpha trolls are, generally speaking, two-dimensional. They are caricatures of certain online groups meant to satirize those aforementioned groups. In Kankri's case, it's the SJWs of tumblr. At the time of Kankri's conception, social justice on tumblr was notorious for being outrageously PC and, hypocritically, malicious. People were threatened and "cancelled" over the stupidest of things. Naturally, this trend still exists and has spread from tumblr; however, it is not to the degree that it once was as those SJWs have now matured and created a healthier space (for the most part).

Kankri is a representation of the worst parts of those people--he is overly concerned with saying the "right" thing at all times, ignoring that words don't matter if your actions don't reflect them. Quite literally, Kankri is all talk. He lectures anyone he can about their "triggering" behavior while turning around and engaging in that same behavior when it suits him.

Therein lies the Mituna problem. Kankri is overly considerate of Latula's lack of sense of smell, Cronus's humankin, Horuss's belief he is two-spirit, etc. even when those (such as the case with Latula) don't actually care all that much. He does this because it's what he cares about and that's all that matters to him. But he doesn't care about Mituna. My interpretation is because he is jealous of him. Kankri is flushed for Latula, who is Mituna's matesprite, but Kankri doesn't think Mituna deserves to be in a relationship with Latula likely due to his cerebral trauma. A trauma he acquired after destroying himself in an ultimately futile attempt to save his friends, which is another reason Kankri is jealous of him. Much like Karkat, Kankri served as the leader of the group. Despite this, he was unable to rally the troops together due to his more passive approach in juxtaposition to Karkat's abrasive leadership style and general nature. Seeing Mituna act so boldly, doing something Kankri was unable to, was a hit to his ego. Already people don't like him and here Mituna was, making him look like even more of a useless asshole.

So, Kankri resents him. He doesn't want to care about Mituna, so he doesn't. Anger, bitterness, jealousy, whatever the case may be, he does not respect Mituna. Regardless, Kankri is Kankri. The way he speaks to him, insulting him and his entire existence, is phrased in such a manner that pins Mituna's disability as a flaw that he needs to work on. So much so, Mituna is obligated to apologize. Now, Mituna is not an innocent infantile thing that does nothing wrong and isn't a jackass himself because all trolls are jackasses. He is crude and can be inconsiderate of others. Regardless, Kankri does not approach the matter in a constructive way, seemingly almost glossing over those fair criticisms in favor of low blows.

This is something that is fundamental to Kankri's character. There are plenty of things he is right about, however he handles it in such a way that it only comes across as pretentious swill that no one wants to listen to. Alternatively, he overlooks those valid points to unjustly attack another's character. But, that doesn't mean he is always wrong.

Kankri, at his core, cares deeply and passionately. Whether or not you agree with what he concerns himself with doesn't matter because he will continue to feel the way he does with everything he has. His passion is palpable. The most notorious of which is the Beforian hemospectrum.

Under pre-scratch Feferi, culling doesn't mean killing. Rather, lowbloods are seen as incapable of taking care of themselves, so highbloods are responsible for them. Kind of like a pet. While not being killed is nice, being treated as a second--maybe even third-class citizen is still oppression. Kankri sees this and resents how their society functions. He doesn't want to be coddled and treated like he is inept because he isn't. Subscribing to how society wants him to behave would be a fate worse than death. If he cannot be independent and think for himself, doing what he thinks is best without the concern of others looming over him at every step he takes, he would rather die. These are the beliefs he held even as the Signless, although with different context. Thus, his motivation for his personal boundaries. When Porrim tells him he has grubsauce on his face and tries to clean it himself, he flips out. Porrim is high enough on the spectrum to be considered able to take care of him, and Kankri does not want any part of it. The mere thought is mortifying to him. Being touched is something that is (actually) triggering to him. He doesn't want pity, he wants respect. Even if his friends hate him and think he's annoying, at least he's being himself.

When Porrim wishes to discuss issues regarding women, Kankri doesnt want to hear it. Here is where many call him misogynistic, but I implore you to consider not applying human society onto the trolls because it doesn't make sense. Trolls are a matriarchal society, what with the empress being in total control. And, so far as we know, it has always been an empress. We don't know just how much gender affects things considering the hemospectrum plays such a large role in how everyone falls in society. My interpretation is that gender is nowhere near as big of a deal as it is with humans. Even if it were, between fusciabloods being primarily female and rulers, and jadebloods also primarily female and nurturing the Mothergrub (aka how all trolls are born), I don't feel it's too far a stretch to say that the women of trollian society are not oppressed. I don't believe the men are oppressed either because I feel that gender isn't much of a consideration for trolls, but that is just my interpretation.

That being said, Porrim expresses her concern that their matriarchal society was a false one operating under Lord English, ergo making it patriarchal in nature. Kankri does not share that view, feeling that it's a non-starter. In his view, Lord English's actions truly had no effect in that regard. Why would a time traveling demon set on destroying everything worry about frivolous details such as ensuring women are beaten down? In Kankri's eyes, it's stupid to assume he would even bother.

Regarding Kankri's celibacy, it's another example of Kankri merely trying to keep his chin high in the air and feel as if he is better than everyone else. His intellect is too high to concern himself with the oppressive nature the quadrants come with. It seems too much like another means to be controlled. However, his commitment to it is...questionable. Porrim and him are essentially moirails in everything but the name due to Kankri's pride. Not to mention, his flushcrush on Latula. If he were truly committed to his Vow, he would not pursue this crush as much as he does. All Latula has to do is say the word and Kankri would drop his celibacy like a hot potato. Again, another example of how he is willing to say the "right" things, but his actions do not reflect that. This hypocrisy is one of Kankri's defining traits. He simply cannot put his money where his mouth is despite the mountain of effort he puts into convincing everyone how serious he is.

As someone who admires social justice, he doesn't care for the Signless. His official reasoning is in regards to a difference in approach. While the Signless's rebellion reflects the violent society of Alternia, Kankri expresses how he feels a more peaceful method would have been better, a reflection of the peaceful society he was raised in. He feels that words hold more power than violence, something those baser than him resort to.

Perhaps this is due to the tenderness I hold for him, but I think the reasoning runs deeper than that. All of his friends liked hearing about the Signless, Aranea in particular. So much so that she wears his symbol around her neck. This is something that clearly bothers Kankri, but is it really just over a difference in opinions? At the end of the day, the Signless is Kankri. My theory is because everyone likes his post-scratch self better than they like him. The people who he considers his friends, who he trusts to return when they leave mid-sermon, who he tried to lead and protect can't stand him, referring to him as the Insufferable. Wouldn't that hurt you, too? He knows he's long-winded, he knows he preachy, he knows people find him irritating, he knows. Naturally, Kankri doesn't let it show, but he wants his friends to like him. The only person who (kind of) listens to him and actually treats him with respect is the crowned worst character of homestuck, Cronus. It affects him to hear how much others admire the deeds of someone who is him when, in truth, he is not really that person.

Many of the core traits in Karkat exist in Kankri. They are both drawn to leadership, drawn to helping their friends, short-tempered, and emotional. Kankri says a multitude of harsh things, things that are much crueler than the what Karkat says, and it's important to acknowledge Kankri's cruelty. That doesn't detract from the fact that Kankri does care for others, even if his feelings towards them are less than pleasant, because that's who the Vantases are. They are deeply flawed and oftentimes foul-mouthed people, and yet, at the end of the day, they still care fiercely. Kankri is not some disinterested, detached critic. He is just as much a part of the group as the others and he wants what is best for them. If he didn't care, he wouldn't bother lecturing. No matter how annoying and egocentric you are, no one likes to waste their time.

At the end of the day, Kankri is not a perfect person. Far from it. But he's endearing and he's relatable and he's flawed. None of the trolls are good people. They are all assholes who say fucked up things. They use the r-slur, they make fun of Tavros for his wheelchair, Meenah is elated that her post-scratch self commits genocide on the regular, Vriska. Just Vriska. A lot of the hate I see regarding Kankri reduces him to a soulless monster who's only goal is to insult and talk down to everyone in his way. A lot of the admiration I see boils him down to an uwu sweet innocent blushy baby when that is the furthest thing from the truth. He's a snarky bastard who gives a fuck about his friends, even if they spit in his face because he spits right back. Please respect his depth, even if you interpret things differently from how I did. He is not as flat as many make him out to be. No one in homestuck is.

[flying-elliska]

Ellieeee, in case if you haven't heard it before you're writing is absolutely incredible :D and i think one of the best parts of your works is the universes you're able to create. they're so palpable and whimsical all at once and i love how you're able to immerse us into the worlds they live in. as someone trying to write her own fics, do you have any general tips for worldbuilding and making these universes?

lovely question anon <333 sorry for the late response but here are a few tips :

- a lot of the worldbuilding happens, for me, before I ever start writing a story. To me being a writer, and a creator of worlds, is more of a general attitude in life (oof that sounds pretentious lmao ! but really it’s just a skill to develop). It’s about being generally curious, noticing little details and stories around you, reading non fiction and articles, and filing it away in your head as something you can use in a story later. I specifically have a notebook for this that I call ‘story texture’ in which I write down interesting details and stories that inspire me, descriptions of cool scenes/people/conversations I have noticed during the day, etc etc.

- It’s also specifically about training yourself to observe, and to develop a type of perception that is attuned to what, in reality, could make a good story. Not detail for the sake of detail - but detail that is interesting, that carries tension, atmosphere, meaning, emotion, character. Observe the link between ‘superficial’ detail and deeper social/psychological patterns, learn to ask questions. Why do people dress a certain way, for instance, how are they showing belonging to a certain group ? Why are public settings designed a certain way ? What are the practical details that show a building’s history ? Studying sociology and anthropology is a tremendous help in developing that mindset. (you don’t have to go to college for that you can just grab some books/articles!). 

- Then there is a more artistic approach to detail and how you can use it to paint a vibe/emotion/atmosphere - what makes you emotional about your environment ? What metaphors can you use to describe feelings ? How are aesthetics, sensations connected to meaning, to reflexion ?  You’re crafting an experience for your reader, you have to be convinced of it yourself - the more you can actually taste and feel it, the more it carries over. You want to avoid ‘white room’ syndrome (characters just talking and you forget the physical circumstances) - instead having sensory details make your story lush and immersive and also deepens your character because they each should have a different way of relating to their surroundings. Are they generally numb or noticing more gloomy details ? Are they a poet in love and noticing everything beautiful ? Are they high energy and focusing on utilitarian details ? Etc etc.

- You don’t want ‘dead detail’ in a story that is there just because. Nobody cares that your character ate an apple this morning - unless the apple reminds them of their youth in the countryside, or is a symptom of their obsession with health/fears of being ill, or they sliced the apple very carefully and shared it with a loved one, or they’re learning to enjoy fresh food again after a long time deprived of it, or they picked a bad apple and it echoes a sentiment that they’re unlucky in life, etc etc. What you want to figure out is to learn how to use little details, apparently innocuous, to allude to a much bigger world of emotion/character/social relations/history, etc etc. 

- When it comes to worldbuilding, I’m not really the type to obsessively figure out everything about my world before I start with plot, it’s really the reverse. I figure out what sort of emotional arc and characters and themes I want to write, then the plot, and the worldbuilding is in service to that. For instance, for Diamants AU I knew I wanted to write about toxic masculinity, family rivalries and the cycle of violence, I wanted there to be lots of morality dilemmas and a ‘love amidst chaos/as a force for redemption’ etc and the mafia setting and the Shadow grew out of that. The fact that all these families are obssessed with their status, their symbols, their theater of power grew out of my desire to explore the class/power inequalities within Lucas and Eliott’s relationship, and to explore the relationship between physical force/skill and political power tied to status, and the meaning of crime vs. privilege. As well as study Eliott’s character through the lens of privilege and what it means to refuse it. Plus I wanted there to be balls and shit because they’re such a fun setting in terms of drama, appearances, etc.I really believe that you have to build your world in ways that allow you to tell certain stories and not the reverse. 

- Ofc a lot of the time it goes more like...okay...what do i think is really cool/interesting lmao. Like at the end of the day...what do you think would be an interesting world ? Why ? What parts of that world would it thrill you to see ? And just...let yourself experiment without thinking too specifically about putting genre/trope limits on yourself. Like !!! Think about tropes that you wouldn’t usually see together and how fun that would be !! Also ask yourself : why are you writing ? What specific story do you need to put into the world ?  If you could be completely self indulgent, what setting would allow you to tell that story best ? What aesthetic are you really into and why ? What political and social issues and potential problems would any setting create ? Example : you want to write about soft nostalgic longing with an autumn vibe ? Coffee shop AU, but it’s haunted. You want to write about epic longing that spans centures ? Reincarnation star crossed lovers AU ! Etc etc.

anyway I hope this inspired you at least a little ! happy writing <333333

[magioftheseas]

How would you rank the sdr2 girls from worst to best written?

That’s pretty hard considering there are like...different kinds of bad writing, from functional bad to offensive bad. But, then again, there’s both of that in sdr2. Also all but one of the girls who die only die in like... Chapters 2-3, the first half of the game, which come to think of it, is extremely fucking weird. Shouldn’t it be more spaced out...?

There’s also just that there are certain things that annoy me more than others, and I’ll maybe try to make note of that? Idk how solid this list is, but... Well, whatever.

Note: I’m only taking sdr2 proper into account.

Decent All Things Considered Tier

Mahiru - Probably the least amount of sexism in her character, with pretty defined flaws that contributed in her dying (her short temper and narrow-mindedness). Guess you could call them...fatal flaws. Hahahaaaa. Ah. Anyway, she was also fairly involved with story events before her death and her personality was pretty consistent. While there are still some issues and inherent sexism in her personality, at least she...still has...one? A nuanced one, at that? She’s not a shallow character, at least. Still, her “be a man shit” is annoying but I’ll take that over the other crap we have in this game.

Sonia - Generally involved and usually palpable in terms of handling. The sexist shit is more Souda’s fault than hers, so I don’t feel like knocking off points for it. The only issue is that she’s lacks big character moments and is overall a static character. She does get more fed up with Souda’s harassment though, which is something, even if nothing comes from it. Bah. Also the romantic subplot with Gundam is fine. It’s probably the most fine a romantic anything has ever been in this franchise. But because she lacks anything super profound, I can’t put her above Koizumi despite liking her more and her...surviving to the end.

There’s At Least Something Here But URGHHHHHHHH Tier

Mikan - Y’know I was pretty resistant to the idea of putting her at third because of her...everything. But, like, even so... I wouldn’t call her inconsistent, I wouldn’t call her shallow, and I think she’s fleshed out a decent amount. It’s just her...everything. Anyway, I’ve gone on length as to why I love Mikan’s writing on paper, supremely tacky and gross execution of her character aside. She’s probably the best example of a deconstruction in sdr2, being a ugu doormat with like, AAAAAAAALL the actual baggage and shittiness that kind of person would have. Mikan’s personality of being emotionally manipulative with a huge victim complex while also being incredibly resentful of those around her (for good reason) is still SUPER fascinating. There’s layers to how she even exploits herself for sympathy points as well as attention. But...y’know... Still inherently pretty gross and not handled deftly by someone who truly understands what a fucked up mentality that is. She’s definitely not palpable...but I guess the actual nuances of her personality make up for it in terms of...whether or not I think she’s at least well-written. Would have less qualms putting her this high if the characters actually learned shit from her.

Hiyoko - WE COULD’VE HAD IT AAAAAAAAAAALL. I love Hiyoko. She’s my other favorite sdr2 girl with Sonia. Bully girls often get a bad rap, but they can be interesting, and Hiyoko’s a particularly stand-out example. She’s not manipulative. She’s in fact, really soft-hearted and sensitive, and she hates those aspects of her, so she targets people specifically for having those traits. She’s insecure! And it makes her shitty! I stan! That she cares for Koizumi for actually reaching out to her is super important. She could’ve been one of the best if not the best...but then Kodaka had her killed for bullshit reasons and had to throw in a dumbass quirk about her not being able to dress herself to justify her bullshit death down the line, so any profound development she could’ve had is just...unceremoniously thrown out the window. It’s really so tragic. Hiyoko deserved so much better.

Peko - What’s worse, a terrible trope that’s fleshed out or a good trope that’s grossly wasted? Tough call, and this is what I ended up with. Still not sure if I made the right decision. Anyway, Peko’s entire character is based on the incredibly sexist trope of Girl Exists For Dude. Thankfully, she makes her own decisions and she’s presented as very woefully unaware of how Kuzuryuu actually feels. Her existing for Kuzuryuu’s sake to the point of happily sacrificing herself is, y’know, a flaw. That gets her killed. So I can pretend that Kodaka is saying it’s a bad thing that she’s like this. He’s probably not, given how Peko’s never really given a reason to live outside of Kuzuryuu, bUT I CAN PRETEND. Although I will say that as annoying as her canonically having romantic feelings for Kuzuryuu is, it’s still incredibly fucking funny seeing Hinata get crushed and rejected.

Just Not Good Tier

Ibuki - I sincerely had no idea where to put her at first. Ibuki’s writing is...fickle, due to primarily being comic relief so more often than not her dialogue and writing is more...jokes...than facets of a personality. And what personality is showcased has little variety. She definitely has those layers but they’re few and far between in the main storyline. And there’s stuff in her FTEs (her strong belief in individuality) that I don’t think comes up. Not to mention there’s completely untapped stuff such as how lonely she must be due to her band splitting, and... Really, she’s just the most wasted of the characters in term of how little she contributes beyond jokes. And sdr2′s sense of humor is pretty fucking shit, so I’m not a fan of a lot of the jokes, either. Ibuki is pretty...ahem, pardon the pun. Pretty one-note. The most offensive part of her character is probably from her attraction to women being portrayed really creepily, which I definitely super hate, but it’s only like...a few lines of dialogue and...I know for a fact how much worse it could’ve been. It could’ve been so, so, so much worse.

Chiaki - Could she have gone above Ibuki? Probably. I mean, her writing *is* more consistent and varied (even if she only has like, two more facets of a personality) buuuuuut. Kodaka literally said she’s his ideal girlfriend. And that grossness *does* seep into her writing to the point where it’s pungent. The fact that she’s idealized and that even her potentially off-putting traits are either meant to be endearing or desirable is... Ew. Pretty ew. But, with all that, she’s bland in what the narrative allows her to offer. Having her be the most moralistic of the cast also makes her pretty annoying when she starts preaching about trust, doubt, hope, killing is wrong, and then she makes excuses as to why she can’t be bothered to be involved with the plot a la Chapter 3 where she doesn’t do shit about the sick kids. She’s seriously more of a mouthpiece than a character and those can be fine...but maybe not so much in sdr2, and definitely not at the expense of other characters developing through learning this shit themselves instead of her having to tell them. The inherent gross sexism that she’s supposed to be Kodaka’s Ultimate Girlfriend sure doesn’t help.

Akane - I honestly feel kinda bad putting her at the bottom but...jeez, the more I think about it, the more Akane’s character really sucks ass. Like, she’s really shallow and uninspired. Even her damn “talent pose” is derivative of Sakura’s just with less ferocity and a panty shot. And as offensive as Nanami’s concept is, at least it can go unnoticed by the player. Akane being Boobs and Food girl is constantly shoved in your face. And the fact she has a history of sexual abuse really, REALLY makes it worse. At least with Mikan, there’s layers. With Akane, there ain’t. She’s just portrayed as too dumb to know any better. Urghhhhh. But what about her personality? Shallow. What about her arc? Frustratingly non-existent. She doesn’t learn a fucking thing despite her flaws actually making her a damn liability. Her...backstory? Well, abuse aside, it’s...weird. Her backstory is about struggling to survive. When...in the main story she's too stupid to live despite being a survivor. So, I don’t think it clicks, much less informs/fleshes out her character beyond giving us a reason for why she’s so sexualized and obsessed with food and...yeah, no thanks. Akane’s writing is the worst, both on the outset and in what little nuance we have.