#and act as if those things are overabundant to the point of being a problem lol

[pirateshelly]

Sometimes it's entertaining for me to imagine what the shared alternate reality the "it's actually groundbreaking and unheard of for a show/movie to care about MEN and their FEELINGS and other MEN without making it GAY!" crowd and the "it's actually revolutionary when a piece of media "allows" it's female protagonist to be strong AND feminine and not a big ugly mannish dyke" crowd must live in looks like. Oh to live in a world where the media landscape is completely inundated with nothing but butch lesbian heroes and men who start immediately having steamy gay sex with each other the second they make eye contact

[gallusrostromegalus]

Mayuri broke out of hell and his sword is his parole officer??? I need elaboration immediately, I have such a morbid fascination with Mayuri he's my horrifying little torture meow meow

So some important things about Hell in AEIWAM:

I haven't read any of Kubo's newer work and I do not have plans to unless someone can vouch that it's really, really cool

They REALLY don't want anyone to stay there, because Hell is functionally Rehab.

See, the function of Hell in AEIWAM is to act as a sort of repair shop for damaged souls- souls that harm others don't produce as much energy when they move from one plane to another, and prevent other souls from completing their cycles and that's bad for The Life Machine, so it's in The Machine's interest that those harmful souls Stop That ASAP. So in hell, a Soul that has say, done a bunch of murder is meticulously taken apart and examined by Demons, who figure out Why He Did That, and then come up with a treatment program to Make Sure He Doesn't Do That Next Time. Sometimes it's therapy, sometimes it's hard labor to undo the spiritual pollution you caused, sometimes they have to uh. vivisect a soul and remove an unhelpful segment of soul. There's no BAD souls or soul fragments, according to the Demons of Hell- what's dangerous egotism in one person is a healthy level of self-esteem in another person and you just gotta... swap the spiritual organs, as it were. The demons really, really want you to get better!

3. They also don't want you to stick around because Hell has a bit of an overpopulation problem.

See, when the Four-to-Five Noble houses dismembered the Soul King and used parts of his body to black off the spirit world according to political preference rather than any kind of functionality, they tried to block off Hell entirely, perhaps to evade the fate that awaited them.

But they fucked up, and now the only part of Hell that's Blocked is THE EXIT, and it's blocked by God's Divine Ass :/. Now, there is, technically, An Exit built in, as it were, but it's very small compared to the original exit, and now there is a Queue To Get Out.

This has created MANY problems for Hell- The Demons have a running Metric for "Does this soul REALLY need to go to rehab?"*, and even with it stripped down to the most generous assumptions of "this was probably more circumstances than your fault" and most limited definitions of "Harm" and "Danger", there's still a steady stream of souls entering Hell, and it's larger than the stream escaping out. So now the majority population of Hell is Perfectly Fine people who completed their Rehab, but can't leave because the airport is closed.

*The reason soul society doesn't attempt to reunite people in the afterlife is that they actually cannot- who goes where after death is the provenance of Hell, and shinigami don't have any input on the process, save to occasionally herd someone back into the afterlife queue via Konsho.

It's getting. Crowded.

It's getting crowded to the point that Hell is actually starting to Burst at the seams- which is a solution and a problem- these crack represent the dimension literally unravelling, but it's also an opportunity for The Ruler Of Hell to stabilize those cracks and make new exits and move a bit more of that Queue along.

It's during one of these stabilization projects that Mayuri makes his escape.

(Continued under the cut)

The thing is. Mayuri wasn't even in that much trouble! He'd been the Medieval Japanese equivalent of a Fry Cook in life and uh. Poisoned a few people trying out new recpies, mostly involving novel culinary mushrooms. His fault, if you had to pick the main one, was an overabundance of curiousity relative to his sense of caution and a minor problem of not being able to imagine the interiority of others. None of those are EVIL. Dangerous, sure! But entirely fixable! and Mayuri had been quite young when he died because he had gotten a little too curious and tried his latest recipe out himself.

So Mayuri had been assigned to Jizo. In Real Life, Jizo is a pretty cool religious figure- he's the Bohdisattva who's whole thing is that absolutely no-one is incapable of becoming a better person, and refused to achieve Nirvana until all the hells are empty. He's the last guy out when the universe ends, and the particular patron of dead children and orphans. He is associated with caterpillar imagery because he wears a long cloak that all the lost souls of children can take shelter under, and when they all trail out behind him, it looks a bit like he's a centaur with a caterpillar body from all the little legs sticking out from under him.

...Which is why Mayuri's Zanpaktou looks like that.

Jizo seems like a WEIRD spirit to be hanging out with Mayuri imho, unless Jizo was originally Mayuri's Guardian/therapist/parole officer, and Mayuri did something shitty.

I think Mayuri HAD been making a lot of progress in terms of "the scientific process is a PROCESS for a reason" and "Other beings have feelings too" and "Harming others is Bad", and he's a clever lad who could be doing a lot of good if pointed in the right direction, so Jizo advocated for Mayuri to be put on one of the Hell-Crack stabilization teams to give him a good outlet for his restless mind.

Unfortunately for Jizo, he miscalculated how much progress mayuri had actually made vs his desire to not go to rehab, and Mayuri pulled some sort of stunt that bound Jizo to a sword like an Asauchi, and absconded with him to the Spirit world through the crack, promptly got arrested for More Science Crimes in spirit world, got sent to the Maggots Nest, and eventually caught the attention of Urahara, who saw the Chemistry Brilliance of Mayuri and exactly NONE of the Red Flags.

As it stands Mayuri is... Sort-of the captain of the 12th division.

Sure, on paper he's The Captain, he gets to wear the Haori and has to go to the meetings, but R&D is only a fraction of what the 12th actually does- rememer, Urahara is the guy that STARTED Research and Development. Before that, I think the 12th division was 100% devoted with being the gotei-13's SUPPLIER- food, uniforms, medicine manufacture, weapons repair, gigai, soul candy, maps, communicators- if you got it for work, it was made in the 12th division.

I think Mayuri is aware of maybe 12% of what his division actually does, because the people who are in charge of manufacture were around before Urahara, took one look at that man and went "...Nah" and started quietly Not Telling Him About Things. When Mayuri took over, they went "Absolutely Not" and have been engaged in a century-long farce to prevent the captain of the 12th from knowing what his division actually does. Fortunately for them, it's extremely easy to lie to Mayuri. He's a suspicious bastard, but he LOVES good news, especially the kind of news that is good because it means he doesn't have to go to another boring-ass meeting. So things are JUST FINE down in manufacture, your latest improvements were TOTALLY IMPLEMENTED and are going GREAT. Everyone remarks on how much better the MREs are since we started adding live beetles to them Sir. Your Genius is Much Praised- Whoops Is That The Time? Gotta Go- the science never stops!

He's going to run into a bit of a stumbling block in Las Noches though. Not Sayzel, though Sayzel doesn't help. He's going to run into the consequences of a Former Experiment that are REAL FUCKIN' MAD AT HIM. No, not Uryuu, though Uryuu is FAR FROM PLEASED. Mayuri is going to have to face the consequences of a much worse experiment- one based on the procedures of disassembling and reassembling souls he learned while he was in Hell. Mayuri will have to face The Wrath Of Kon

[churchyardgrim]

16 and 25 for whatever fandom you want to rant about the most

for this ask meme, and of course i'm doing ravenloft bc nothing else exists in my brain at this time

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing

honestly i can't think of anything for this one hghdg, i get more worked up by the misinterpretations than i do about inexplicably popular canon material. that, and how canon itself seems to have a bit of a self-image problem in 5e - but most ppl whose opinions i care about are also miffed about that, so it's hardly an overabundance of popularity. i guess i could point to certain 5e lore changes (like falcovnia going from a fascist forever-war domain to your generic zombie apocalypse scenario, and what they did to poor ivan dilisnya) but again no one else seems to like those much either, so

25. common fandom complaint you're sick of hearing

"hey! why does my gothic horror have gothic horror in it! why are there all these icky themes of abuse and violence and misplaced lust! why is the villain actually a bad person in ways that would get him canceled on twitter, and not just a misunderstood romantic who would act in accordance with my idea of what socially progressive behavior is!"

i'm never gonna be over the time i saw a post claiming that strahd "understands the trials and tribulations that come with being bisexual" literally i had to go lie down for forty minutes so i wouldn't immediately start wwiii on that post.

[goddamnwebcomics]

Reply

For that segment for Bittersweet Candy Bowl, get over yourself! Like literally. This is ridiculous. You are being way too overdramatic about the husband’s white knighting crap. You’re just afraid of what one bad co-creator wastes his life doing.Out of all of the comics, BCB should’ve been (and deserves to be) in this rifflist. Period. It has all the problems deserving to be riffed. It has a weak story, pointless romantic pairings/tensions, an overabundance of melodrama, and repetitious conflict that should have a resolution but doesn’t. When the creators main intentions for this comic is that they like breaking up characters just to rile up fans indefinitely with “will they/won’t they ” storytelling taken to the extreme, no wonder this comic is in the mess they are in now.

One of the only, and I mean couple only, thing(s) I can say that’s redeemable is the art style, that admittedly fluctuates throughout its run, but still has a decent enough look that works well for the characters and world around them. The other is the character interactions because no joke. I actually think they are good for telling the story despite the melodramatic cancer that plagues this comic. They still have good enough interactions that really angers me on where they chose to head the comic in.This has all of the qualifications of what should be and is more than enough to be riffed regardless of what the artist’s husband says or does. You act like you have never dealt with anyone in your years of mocking comics that has received some pushback from any author or their fans where a roll of the eyes and a block button could easily solve. It’s not that hard, dude! If that’s the case, comics like Uberquest and even Peter & Company/Peter & Whitney should never be anywhere near this list with how troublesome those creators can be and are.

I’ve heard the husband does go out of his way to doxx people who mock them comic so, I don’t know. I like to be wary. Even if he doesn’t doxx anyone I still hate dealing with drama involving creators, that’s how SSC blog fell.

However, you do have a point that I might be overreacting. I will consider it.

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

Ok, so I’ve tried and tried several times to get this posted, we’ll see if this is the time it goes through. Half the reason why this review series has slowed down is not just the multitude of real life stuff I have to deal with, but also Tumblr just refusing to work with me and deleting my posts. I also can’t save my work else where due to Tumblr messing up the formatting. It’s been a frustrating mess and so far no one @staff​ has come up with a tech solution or work around. 

Summary: Rapunzel helps to rebuild Old Corona, (after its near destruction from the Black Rocks) which will become the permanent home of Red and Angry, who have returned to Corona to settle down. However, she begins to notice strange footprints around the area, as well as the livestock becoming more unruly and fearful. The group comes across a monster hunter named Creighton, who explains to the group that the area is being stalked by a werewolf, who possessed one of Corona's citizens. Aiming to save this person rather than kill them, Rapunzel sets out to find who it is. 

When Was This Decided?

No seriously, when was this decided? It’s a pretty big leap go from ‘the rocks makes various towns inhabitable’ to ‘let’s rebuild!’ What’s changed here? Cause the rocks haven’t been removed and Rapunzel failed in her mission to nullify their power. In fact the rocks were not only reawaken in the second season finale but shown to be under the power of someone who’s intentions were made unclear to the heroes.

So I ask again; who thought this was safe thing to do now? What provisions have been made to accommodate the rocks? They blocked the well, remember, and destroyed the fields; how are the people getting food and water? 

And most importantly why wasn’t the audience informed beforehand? When you change up the status quo in a story you need to provide just cause to the viewers. I legit thought I had accidently skipped an episode when I first watched because this plot point was not set up properly.  

Why Were They Ever Left Alone to Begin With?

In a story where neglect is a central theme and motivating factor for all the main characters, it is super tone deaf to have those same characters perpetuating neglect themselves. The decision to live on their own should not be left up to Angry and Red because they are children. Children are not mature enough to provide for themselves neither emotionally nor physically and when placed in situations where they have to do so it psychologically damages them. Which the series already showcased with Varian so why is this suddenly deemed ok? 

This Completely Undermines the Past Two Seasons

The entire conflict of the past two seasons was the rocks forcing people out of their homes. Eugene was made an orphan from them, Varian lost his entire support group because them, they drove out the Saporians from their encampment which prompted them to invade Corona, and Rapunzel and company spent an entire year on the road trying to find a way to stop them from spreading supposedly. 

All of that has now been flushed down the drain with this decision. And its super insulting to watch because it’s the writers telling us that we’ve wasted our time caring about this plot for two years. You don’t resolve major conflicts off screen and without explanation; it’s lazy!  

Also Where Is Varian and Quirin During All This?

This is not only their home and legal charge, but it’s also the ending to their ongoing story, and they’re not even here in a silent cameo. 

Wouldn’t Quirin be overseeing the rebuilding of his town? Wouldn’t Varian be using his skills to find workable engineering solutions for them, fulling his season one goal of saving his home and making his village better with his inventions? Also wouldn’t Edmund want to catch up with his brother and help out now that he’s here? 

In fact not a single person who actually lives in Old Corona is to be found in these opening shots. 

Oh, But We Do Get Earl

Earl might be from Old Corona, or he might not be. We’ve literally never seen him before. The artists had to create a brand new character model for this character, the writers had to write new lines for him, and the casting director had to hire an actor and have him record these lines for only less than a minute of screen time, never to be seen again. Even though they legit had shepherd models already to go from season one that they could have used. It’s a waste of resources and a prime example of the mismanagement going on in this show. 

It’s Too Late In the Series to Waste Time On a New One Off Villain

Speaking of a waste, Creighton might have more story reasons to appear in this episode than Earl does but her inclusion is still a poor decision. The show already has an overabundance of villains, so many in fact that they shipped the bulk of them off in season two, and this is the final season; the season where we should be wrapping up plots and minor characters stories not kicking off new ones.

Taken on her own Creighton isn’t a bad character presa, she works for the episode, but when we could have gotten a resolution to Caine’s, Hector’s, or the Disciples’ story arcs instead it highlights how misused the series assets are. 

All This Lore Will Be Forgotten In Just a Few Episodes Time

We finally get like some magical rules and backstory only for future episodes to ignore it from here on afterwards. Red can turn into a werewolf whenever she pleases, night or day, with little explanation as for why.  

Just Arrest Her Rapunzel

You’re the acting queen. You have the power and the right to arrest or even merely detain someone who is threating your citizens and refuses to leave. In fact it’s kind of your job. You don't even have to throw her in a dungeon if you thought that too cruel. Just lock her up in a nice room somewhere in the castle until you’ve sorted out the mess yourself. 

The series wants to treat Rapunzel as the underdog when she isn’t, and her failure to wield her power effectively doesn’t make her look ‘nice’ it just makes her look stupid and grossly incompetent. This is a conflict that didn’t need to have happened and Rapunzel let it happen.  

Oh, So Now Y'all Riot

You didn’t complain when the king orphaned children with his crack down on crime. You rolled over as he dolled out overly harsh punishments to poor people who committed minor offences. You gleefully went along with the royals as they  scapegoated a child for their mistakes, even as they endangered your homes.  And ya’ll sat on your asses while invaders pulled off a coup and enslaved you. 

But this is what you get mad over? A rumor about a mythical creature existing that your princess has zero control over. Seriously? 

Man, I hate the townspeople in this show. 

Pointless Dream Sequence Is Pointless

This scene tells the audience nothing new and just wastes screen time. 

This Is the Wrong Lesson to Focus On Rapunzel

We do not tell the 12 year old to unload their phycological issues onto their baby sister!

You’re telling me parents were involved in writing this show? What the hell!?

Rapunzel you are the adult here. At 20 now you should be more adept to handle listening to the deep seated emotional traumas of a little girl than a fucking 10 year old! And if you’re not, or don’t want to, then it’s your job to find another adult who will. 

That’s the core problem with this entire episode. It treats Red’s and Angry’s problems as some eternal issue that they need to work out and not as the inherent failure of the adults around them that it is. 

It is neither Red’s nor Angry’s decision on weather or not they get live on their own. Nor is it their responsibility to be each other’s therapist. Yes, a change in living arrangements is always stressful and for children with abandonment issues it can be hard to readjust, but that’s when you need to step it up and deal with the problem; not shove it off onto the kids themselves! 

Monty Is Useless

Is this all Monty is good for? Being a red herring in ridiculously simple mysteries? Is this why we wasted a whole episode introducing him back in season one? Really?

Why Are We Still Treating Old Corona As Being Separate from Corona Itself?

Look, I get that it’s a joke, but it’s a joke that highlights how poorly thought out the worldbuilding is in the series. Is the Coronan government in charge of Old Corona or not? If so then you can just make those lease laws yourself as the acting regent Eugene. If not then Frederic shouldn’t have had any say in the matter of relocating Old Corona’s citizens nor putting a child outside of his jurisdiction under arrest.

But more importantly this is a just a repeat of that vague level of responsibility Rapunzel has for people who live off the island. She can’t order a whole village to be rebuilt while simultaneously claiming that she bares no accountability for Varian and Quirin’s problems in season one. 

Replacing Guns with Crossbows Isn’t the Safe Option That the Censors Think It Is

I find it kind of amusing that censors will ban showing a 17th century blunderbuss but allow it to be replaced by a weapon that is still mass produced today and can be bought in any Walmart across the country. Like I’m a major advocate for gun regulation in real life, but even I have to find this to be a bit silly. Crossbows aren’t some fantasy weapon. People still own and use them. But it would be seriously hard to get ahold of a working antique firearm.  

Seriously This Is How the Girls Have Been Living and the Adults Haven’t Done Anything About It Until Now?

I feel like I’m beating a dead horse by now, but it’s so engrained into the episode I have to keep bringing it up. The show itself is visually telling us that Red and Angry can’t keep living this way, but it never wants to call Rapunzel and the other adults out for not rescuing them from this life sooner. 

So All This Tells Me Is That Rapunzel Could Have Easily Checked Up On Varian In Painter’s Block, But Didn’t.

Remember they’re right next to Old Corona; meaning that Janus Point is also right next to Old Corona. Meaning that Rapunzel could easily have checked up on Varian right after Painter’s Block and choose not to. With each passing episode Rapunzel has less and less excuse for her behavior in season one. 

Yeah Remember that Plot Point That Wound Up Being Entirely Irrelevant to the Story?

In jokes don’t cover your ass when you make poor writing choices. Quite the opposite in fact as all you’ve done is remind the audience of all the various dangling plot threads that you will fail to follow up on. The disciples plot goes no where and serves no purpose, and it should not have been introduced as this big important thing if you weren’t going to do anything with it. 

Nice Idea, Poor Execution

I’ve heard fans of this episode tell me that they enjoy it because of this scene with Red. If you’re a naturally introverted person or neurodivergent and have trouble communicating at times then Red’s speech here can strike a cord. Which is cool; I’ll never deny someone’s feelings and if a piece of media speaks to you on a personal level for whatever reason that is great. What I’m here to discuss though is story structure and whether or not the story’s themes are presented well in context of what it’s set up. 

The conflict here does not work from a pure structural standpoint because it’s a surface level deflection of the real issues. Red’s problem isn’t that she is being ignored, it's that she’s been abandoned. Now communication issues can arise from that abandonment and feeling heard can be step forward in working those issues out, but Red’s central trauma isn’t going to be magically fixed by people ‘listening’ to her, i.e. being granted whatever she wants, but by providing her with a real home and with a real guardian to look after her. 

Because what Red wants on a surface level is harmful to her, and the reasons why she wants what she wants needs to be addressed more so than then sedating her angry outbursts in the moment. This is treating the symptoms not the cause.

So What Is or Isn’t Real About the Curse?

Once again, we finally get some actual lore and rules for magic and the writers are already throwing it away during the same episode they are introduced. I now have as little context for how the wolf curse works within the Tangled world as I did before the episode started. 

This Is Sweet, But Once Again Context Brings It Down.

So just to reiterate, this a surface level resolution to the conflict of the episode that doesn’t actually address anything. It might feel like an appropriate ending but only if you ignore the fact that Red and Angry are orphans who’ve been abandoned but the adults. 

Angry apologizing here to Red does not solve any of their problems, especially since Angry, as a child herself, is not responsible for her sister’s behavior, feelings, nor well being. That falls to the adults and they fail to address Red’s core issues and their own failings to her in their apologies as well. Not to mention that the very next scene undermines any optional progress that could have been made here. 

Listening to Someone Does Not Mean Giving Them Whatever They Want

This does not fix anything. Red and Angry are still left to live on their own without any real supervision. Giving them a big play house is not providing for them, it’s spoiling them. Would you let all the other orphans in the local orphanage roam free without an adult to take care of them? No!? Gee I wonder why? Could it be because letting a 12 and 10 year old raise themselves is a very stupid idea? One that will potentially damage them later in life assuming that they don't get themselves killed in the meantime. 

Moreover this is yet another example of the series overall problem with not understanding that compromise and resolving conflicts does not mean rewarding the characters at the end with everything that they want without having them work for it. That’s not how life works and it’s not how good story telling works. 

This Is Beyond Irresponsible

No! Bad Show! Bad! 

You do not get to pretend that negligence is the same thing as compromise. Yes I know Eugene said to come to him when they have a problem, but as demonstrated by this very episode children do not always know when to ask for help nor can they always find it when needed, that is why parents exist!  

Nor does the show get a free pass for turning it’s main characters into child abusers who neglected three minors multiple times now. Even when they themselves are victims of that same abuse!

How utterly blinkered do you have to be to not see the problem here? 

It’s the Return of the Pointless Parallels

Let me count the ways for how stupid this is. 

Red and Angry’s conflict has no impact on the on going narrative. Even with them now being reoccurring characters they still manage to contribute nothing to the future storylines involving Cass. 

Neither Rapunzel nor Cassandra learn anything from Red and Angry’s spat; Rapunzel because she refuses to acknowledge her own flaws and Cassandra’s not even here for any of it. 

The sister’s dynamic between Raps and Cass is not well established and the writers mange to piss all over it by series end because of gay baiting and poor writing. Therefore relying on lazy parallels to other siblings in the show to bolster this connection falls flat.  

Red and Angry’s argument has nothing in common with Rapunzel and Cass’s current fighting. One is about abandonment issues and the other is about shallow validation. Trying to tie these two themes together actually winds up undermining both conflicts. 

Red and Angry are children. Rapunzel and Cassandra are not. That very much matters. 

Red and Angry didn’t drag innocent people into their petty bitch fight and endanger them because they wanted to feel special. 

This Makes Zero Sense

I don’t know; she looked pretty happy during Crossing the Line. 

She was also able to control the rocks just fine then, so what happened? 

Not to mention soon after this Zhan Tiri is telling her she needs some sort of incantation to control the rocks, despite being able to already control the rocks.... 

It’s almost as if the writers are full of shit and don’t actually know what they’re doing. 

So Are We Remembering the Burnt Hand or Not?

Does the hand matter or not? Is it ever a motivating factor in what Cassandra decides to do? Is her waning control over the rocks connected to her burnt hand; even though having a burnt hand is what allowed her grab the moonstone in the first place? Did the moonstone heal the hand? Does Raps singing the healing incantation later on heal it? Does Cass have a forever burnt hand? 

Who the fuck knows! 

Not the writers that’s for sure, cause it never comes up again. 

Don’t introduce plot points and then not resolve them. That’s writing 101 guys. 

Wait if she needs the incantation to control the rocks and the angry thing is a lie, then how the heck is she controlling them just now? Make up your dang mind show! 

I swear I lose brain cells whenever I have to rewatch the evil Cassandra plot. It is so dumb  you guys.... so, so dumb. 

Conclusion

It’s not the worst thing ever but series has far better episodes on offer than this one. Even in a season as suck ass as season three. 

So there’s praying that this review posts this time and if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me in my projects feel free to leave a tip on my Ko-Fi. Thank you. 

https://ko-fi.com/rachelbethhines

[eoseowa-bangtan]

Hello! I would like to request a astrological pairing with Kim Namjoon. 03/11/2001 Columbus, Ohio 6:47 am

Disclaimer — All opinions are my own. My interpretation of Namjoon and his natal chart is just that: an interpretation. I do not know him, nor do I claim to know him or how he would act in real life. I am still learning about astrology and how to properly read a person's chart. If you believe I have misinterpreted a specific aspect, please know that all of this is all just for fun and entertainment's sake.

NSFW below the cut.

Synastry readings are based on certain aspects of both people's birth charts. These aspects are how each of your planets angle against each other on your charts. Each aspect has a different degree of separation between them. There are five total aspects: 0° (conjunction), 60° (sextile), 90° (square), 120° (trine), and 180° (opposition). Each of these means different things.

In brief, conjunctions are the best to have in a synastry; they represent mutual understanding and blended energies from your planets. Sextiles are also good in high numbers, as they give happy and harmonious energy in a relationship. Squares are a stressor in a relationship, and you want fewer of those than conjunctions, but they can offer some push towards action and room to grow. Trines are also a good one to have so long as they don't surpass the number of conjunctions; they give positivity and good luck and can balance out an overabundance of squares. Oppositions can be tricky; sometimes opposites attract but the energies can be so foreign that they can cause major problems if in certain parts of your charts.

Now that we got that explanation out of the way, here's the breakdown of your synastry with Joonie. You have 4 conjunctions, 6 sextiles, 6 squares, 4 trines, and 4 opposites. In brief, this is kinda a tricky one as there are more squares than conjunctions, the same number of opposites as conjunctions, and not enough trines to compensate for the high number of squares. However, you have a higher number of sextiles, which is a good thing, and your conjunctions are extremely powerful in your chart! Out of all of these, the most important ones are explained below.

Namjoon's Sun (Virgo) opposites your Sun (Pisces)

This one is a doozy. The Sun sign is the most powerful in anyone's birth chart. To have two people's Sun signs in opposition can be the start of your problems. A lot of energy may be wasted on having to explain yourselves to each other. Misunderstandings can be frequent and draining. Even if your relationship starts out on good terms, over time it can turn disharmonious if you aren't careful. This is especially true if neither of you respects the other's life choices. I can definitely see this being an issue, as Joonie is an idol and his lifestyle can ask a lot of him. If there is no effort or compromise, the relationship will be very difficult. However, don't give up hope! While this Sun-Sun opposition can be challenging, this can be softened by other positive aspects in the charts.

Namjoon's Mercury (Libra) conjuncts your Moon (Libra)

This is a great thing for couples! This tells me that you and Namjoon have lots of interests and projects in common. But more than that, with the communication planet Mercury and emotional ruler Moon both in Libra--the sign of fairness and equality--the two of you understand each other very well. Sometimes it can seem as if you two read each other's minds, especially to those outside the relationship.

Namjoon's Moon (Sagittarius) sextiles your Moon (Libra)

You feel instinctively comfortable with each other and know how to comfort each other. There's a feeling of safety that you both have when around the other person. This can tie back to you both knowing how to interpret each other, understand each other, and translate silent communication. This is a peaceful aspect of your relationship, one that definitely balances out and subdues the negative aspects. Both of your Moons are in sync.

Namjoon's Moon (Sagittarius) conjuncts your Mars (Sagittarius)

Your relationship is filled with lots of physical passion. Sagittarius is a fiery and sensual sign, and with Namjoon's emotional Moon and your action-oriented Mars in conjunction, sex is never just sex. It's a way to express your powerful emotional bond. These placements bring excitement and energy to your lives. You both desire each other always and feel immense warmth due to this physical connection. I can promise you that this will never fade.

Namjoon's Mars (Cancer) squares your Moon (Libra)

However, that passion may lead to turbulent conflicts. A Cancerian Mars and Libra Moon can often have miscommunications and misunderstandings. These can lead to shows of passion, but those times might be focused on releasing emotional aggression onto each other. It's not makeup sex so much as it's releasing pent-up frustration. These instances may not end with healing; it may just come to an end with the root of the problem still intact.

Namjoon's Mars (Cancer) squares your Venus (Aries)

The love you have with Joonie, being particularly based on physical understanding, has both its ups and downs. It's passionate but has all the negative side effects: possessiveness, jealousy, aggressiveness. If your relationship does weather the storm, there can be a lot of hurt feelings and confrontations. Cancerian Mars needs a lot of reassurance and peaceful situations to be at ease; an Arian Venus can be a bit too upfront and spontaneous for the other's liking. The sexual attraction is strong in the beginning, but the disagreements often have a major impact on your sex life.

Namjoon's Moon (Sagittarius) conjuncts your Pluto (Sagittarius)

Again, the passion is there due to a fire sign holding both Joonie's Moon and your Pluto, and it can be uncontrollable and lacking thought. Jealousy and possessiveness also show up here, along with a need for the other's presence 24/7. Something that will help you and Namjoon greatly is building trust. When trust is in place, both of you will appreciate that your relationship is growth-oriented and far from a lifeless routine. Your feelings for each have evolved and will continue to evolve over time. You learn from each other on an emotional and mental level. Your experiences together, both good and bad, have helped you level-up. This fact is a treasure. It may take time, but you both will see that the love you have is transformative. Sometime down the road, when things have settled down, you will look back and see that you've become newer, better people through your relationship.

Namjoon's Mercury (Libra) sextiles your Mars (Sagittarius)

Part of that growth is in the area of creativity. Namjoon's communicative Libra Mercury and your expressive Sagittarian Mars are a perfect match for creative ventures. They stimulate each other to be more thought-provoking and forward-thinking. You both learn a great deal from each other. More than just creativity, you understand each other and like to discuss things with each other. You have a great intellectual and creative understanding. This leads to a plethora of joint initiatives, perhaps in some areas of art?

Namjoon's Neptune (Capricorn) sextiles your Sun (Pisces)

This reading has gone over a lot to do with the physical expression of love in you and Namjoon's relationship. Those points are still valid, but the way his Capricorn Neptune sextiles your Pisces Sun reveals that there is an attraction to each other beyond the physical. There is a level of forgiveness and mercy in the chemistry between you that dances across the line of spiritual. This is a wonderful thing to see in your chart, especially with the conflicts you may have in certain areas of life. Always know that if you have trust and communication, there will always be forgiveness offered to both parties. More than that, the two of you share your dreams with a sense of freedom and security. Tolerance exists between the two of you, which is a very soothing and settling quality. Earlier we talked about emotional safety and how you know when and how to comfort each other. This aspect only multiplies that ten-fold.

Namjoon's Pluto (Scorpio) squares your Mercury (Aquarius)

However, be wary of this square. A freedom-requiring Aquarian Mercury can often be stifled or made uncomfortable by the Scorpio Pluto's intensity. Namjoon may have the tendency to want to direct your thoughts and ideas. He may read too much into what is said and what is not said, and you may not feel free to express your ideas when Namjoon is off-kilter. This isn't as negative as the aspects above, but it is something to be wary of.

Namjoon's Uranus (Capricorn) sextiles your Sun (Pisces)

This sextile is an unconventional one. You will be enriched by your relationship with Namjoon, which will lead to the discovery of a new world, original and full of change. You both go well together, but Namjoon may resist marriage, at least on a formal level. In some cases of a Capricorn Uranus sextile Pisces Sun, the relationship works better when the bond is not formalized. Even if simply for the sake of the Capricorn Uranus' sense of freedom.

Namjoon's Jupiter (Scorpio) trines your Lunar Node (Cancer)

You and Namjoon are made for each other. You go well together, have intellectual understanding and confidence in each other, and are an overall harmonious couple.

Namjoon's Mars (Cancer) conjuncts your Lunar Node (Cancer)

This is one indicator that suggests the relationship will endure. Despite the conflicts, the miscommunications and misunderstandings, the hurt feelings and emotional struggles you may go through, your love and passion will grow and last for a lifetime if both of you put in the work to keep the relationship alive. Given time and space, trust and freedom, comfort and forgiveness, there is nothing that you and Namjoon cannot weather together. Remember that the greatest strength you have is each other, and never forget why you fell in love in the first place. Even when struggles come, even when you feel lost or confused, even if you begin to wonder if it's still worth it, know that his planet of action and your True North are in the same emotional and loving sign.

[spacenoise]

Steven Universe Future Theory!

just posting it before tomorrow! posting it under read more so no one sees it by accident

!!!DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP ON STEVEN UNIVERSE AND/OR STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE!!!

(also i apologize if i happen to repeat something you’ve heard before. i don’t really read too many of those posts since i like to be surprised by what the show throws at me)

(tw: for body horror)

while i do strongly believe steven may get corrupted i think the only thing holding him back is his human half!

remember steven has never really been able to properly shapeshift because of his human half.  if you look at how previously corrupted gems reform you can see why this is problem

(i’m gonna use nephrite to show exactly what i’m talking about)

back in monster buddies, this is when she reforms for the first time after being poofed by steven and the other gems. let’s assume this is her default size when she reforms. not too big not too small but when she starts to reform into her corrupted self...

she is a LOT bigger. i am aware that immediately after this she shifts into a smaller form so she doesn’t scare steven but remember: nephrite is a gem that’s been alive for hundreds if not thousands of years. she has had an overabundance of time to master shifting so doing so in corrupted form would’ve provided little to no difficulty for someone who’s been alive so long.

but what about someone who’s shifting abilities are only able to go so far? the most we’ve seen steven do is turn one of his fingers into cats and physically age himself. however unlike other gems, his forms are on some sort of timer: he can maintain the shift for only so long before it goes beyond his control. once it reaches that point, he usually ends up suffering some physical punishment as a result  (cat monster / turning back into a baby). the most he can do without suffering any sort of negative consequence is extend his limbs and his tongue (as seen in “too short to ride”) and that’s only if the shifts are done for a short period of time.

i think he has improved since we see him shift again in steven universe future (snow day) but he gets smaller. it’s much easier making something smaller but if you extend it too far / make something too big it falls apart. even amethyst, the one who shifts the most, can’t maintain jasper’s shape in “back to the moon” for very long. so i believe it’s easier for gems to shift into forms that are the same size or smaller, and only gems who shift frequently can hold larger forms for a decent amount of time. 

what does this mean for steven though?

steven is not even close to amethyst’s skill level when it comes to shifting skill, and nowhere near nephrite’s skill level (older than amethyst and able to shift her corrupted form). so what happens when his gem half starts to involuntarily shift/starts to corrupt?

exactly what we’ve seen since the beginning of “growing pains.” his gem form is probably shifting and starting to corrupt, but what’s holding it back, and probably helping him keep his shape, is his human half. comparing it to a water balloon, his human half is stretching in order to make room for his gem half. however, his corruption is only adding more water to the balloon and sooner or later it’s going to pop as a result. he can’t make his corrupted self smaller since he has little to no experience shifting so it’s just going to keep growing until it’s too late.

i see one of two things happening when it gets to that point:

1) eventually the corruption overtakes both halves, gem and human. this results in some sort of conflict regarding how they’re going to poof him (so they can heal his gem) without also hurting his human half.

2) steven unable to deal with the uncontrollable shifting anymore (since it is getting worse), removes his gem in an act of desperation. his human self would be in bad shape (just like in change your mind) but his gem half would be different. it goes through all previous forms before finally settling on steven’s form but then it starts to corrupt since it is no longer being held back by steven’s human half. it then becomes a race against time since the gems have to figure out how to defeat steven’s gem half before human steven dies.

I’d imagine that if either of these end up being correct it’d be #2 since it seems easier to work with and not as dark as #1 but the crewniverse has surprised me before with how dark the show gets, so i guess both are possible.

sorry for rambling for so long, but i just wanted to share my thoughts ;w;

[violetosprey]

Do you have an idea for reasons why a yandere would distance themselves voluntary from their s/o? I have a story set in a zombie apocalyptic world (actually it's biological warfare but anyway it deals more with personal relationships and shared trauma so...) and I need to seperate the yandere and the s/o for character development but I don't know how

Hello!  Ah, yes the zombie apocalypse is always a fun scenario.  I saw this question yesterday, but I decided to sleep on it first to get some better answers.  

If you think about it, a zombie apocalypse also can be weirdly beneficial for a yandere.  For one, they can take advantage of the terrifying situation and become their S/O’s close companion and even protector.  They could ALSO use excuses to keep others away by saying things like, “If we keep it just the two of us, there’s less resources we have to share,” or “It’s going to be easier to travel as just a pair rather than in a larger group.” When you have a scenario where there are other, more threatening forces at work, a yandere can use that to their advantage to stick to their S/O like glue.

That being said, there are two ways you could go about separating them: Voluntary separation vs. involuntary separation.

[EDIT: I know you had initially just asked for only voluntary situations, but it was hard to think of multiple scenarios, so I just talked about both types in case you want to try doing a combination for your story.  Do whatever you’re most comfortable with.]

Voluntary

Simply put, the conscious decision is made that the two need to separate.  At least temporarily.  Quick example would be the two enter a high stakes situation, like being cornered by zombies.  One of the characters then makes the decision to act as “bait” so that the other can get away.  It depends on how you set up the scenario really, but it should be a plausible case where BOTH of the characters escaping at the same time has very little or no chance of succeeding.  That’s why one of them acting at bait would make the decision more appealing.

I know the whole “becoming bait so my loved one can escape” isn’t highly original, but as long as it’s pulled off in a believable and serves to further the plot (like letting their characters develop more when separated~), then I think it’s perfectly fine to use this trope.

Now remember one of these characters IS a yandere.  So it should go slightly different from the usual hero/heroine putting their life on the line in the blink of an eye to save their loved one.

First off, I personally feel like it makes more sense for the yandere to be the one who volunteers as bait.  The only reason I say this is because I think the S/O is more likely capable of taking the opportunity to run away.  I’m not actually saying it for once as this being an opportunity for the S/O to “get away from the yandere.”  No, I’m imagining this scenario where the two like each other.  The reality is, I’m concerned if the yandere is CAPABLE of running away from their S/O who insists on putting themselves in the line of danger.  I feel like the yandere wouldn’t be emotionally capable of leaving their S/O in that kind of situation in order to save themselves. Yanderes ARE obsessive, remember? It would look a little strange for the yandere to be able to just duck out to save their own skin upon request. It’s more believable to me that they’d prefer to get themselves hurt over their S/O.  Again, this is not saying it’s because the S/O doesn’t love the yandere enough.  It’s just because the yandere has an overabundance of love here between the two characters. The S/O may feel upset about the separation, but the yandere will feel almost as if their oxygen supply has been cut off.  See what I mean?

You COULD try doing it the other way where the S/O does indeed offer to the bait instead of the yandere.  There might be a way to make it work.  The trick is to make sure there’s still some serious turmoil going on for the yandere.

That’s another thing.  Unlike the usual hero/heroine acting as bait, this decision to separate from the S/O should seriously mess with the yandere.  I’d imagine beforehand they’re trying to go through other scenarios frantically in their head that allow them to prevent separation.  Coming to the conclusion that to survive (or at least one of them to), should feel devastating to a yandere.  The last thing they want is to risk never seeing their S/O again.  As a writer, you should want to show some extreme reluctance on the yandere’s part outwardly (ex. sweating profusely and holding tight to the S/O’s hand), inwardly (ex. racing thoughts) or both.

Simply put, a voluntary separation between the yandere and their S/O here requires two elements:

1)     The separation is the best/only option left in the scenario

2)     The yandere displays devastation over this development

I think as long as you have those two elements, you should be fine. If there’s hope that the person acting as bait also can live if they’re escaping by themselves, then of course the inevitable goal is to somehow make it back to each other.  You can then decide how long this takes simply by what kind of roadblocks (physical or psychological) you put in that prevent an immediate reunion.  Even just having the two characters running in opposite directions as the result of this scenario would do the trick.

I tried to think of something other than the “bait” scenario, but couldn’t come up with a whole lot.  You could do something different where the two come across the point where, again, it’s beneficial for them to temporarily separate so that they can perform different tasks.  For example, the two characters may have different skill sets.  One may be really good with computers and technology while the other is stronger and better at setting up blockades or clearing paths.  It depends on what you come up with, but they make need to perform their appropriate tasks in separate areas.  This may either be out of urgency, or it seems safe enough for them to go different paths, do what they need to do and then return to the same area shortly afterward.  However, something happens unexpectedly that makes it difficult for the two to return to each other’s side immediately.  Zombies show up, other people show up (good or bad), an accidental building lockdown is initiated, etc.  This kind of combines a voluntary separation with an involuntary separation actually.

Involuntary

In this case, nature just isn’t on the two’s side.  Something unexpected happens that physically separates the two characters, and further complications make it difficult to quickly reach the other.

For example, you could have the two characters walking through some construction that’s been damaged by the warfare or the military’s attempts to simply fire on some previous zombies.  It could also be a regular construction site, up to you.  Anyway, they’re walking across a bridge and it suddenly collapses in the middle (one of the characters may have pushed the other forward as they saw this happening).  The two characters are unscathed, but the gap now is too wide for either of them to simply jump across.  They think no biggie, one of them can just go around.

One or both of their attempts to reunite with the other though are halted by some unseen events.  Zombies popping out of nowhere, bad people show up, a task force shows up or some unexpected assault on the buildings via distant weaponry starts. Take your pick.  But in this scenario, it’s like having the first problem (the bridge callopsing) seem like a fake-out problem I guess, but another event actually causes further issues.

I think the yandere in an involuntary scenario might seem calm at first if it doesn’t look like they’re in immediate danger, but the more obstacles that start to pop up afterwards should cause their frustration and/or panic to build over being prevented from reuniting with their S/O.  I imagine also if the yandere comes across other individuals who aren’t their S/O after this, they’re going to be more reluctant to cooperate for a while because the yandere is solely focused on what might be happening to their S/O and how to get back to them.

I don’t know what kind of character development you have in mind (you don’t have to tell me) for the two. There is definitely some good potential for character growth in this scenario though.  For example, the yandere would have to learn to accept not having control of the situation and learning to trust that their S/O might be capable of taking care of themselves.  If the yandere is also worried about their S/O meeting someone else along the way, and the yandere and S/O are initially in a relationship, then the yandere has to learn to trust his partner will stay faithful.

That might not be what you’re going for though because it depends heavily on what their initial personalities are and how the two characters initially view each other.  Heck, I went through this scenario assuming these two characters already at least like each other or are even dating, but maybe that’s not how you have them start at all.

Whatever the case, I think the zombie apocalypse scenario is a nice way to force the characters out of their comfort zone and grow on their own because of the greater threat present (while still keeping their personal matters at heart).

Hope this was helpful!  It was fun to imagine.

[thetypedwriter]

The Toll Book Review

The Toll Book Review by Neal Shusterman 

My god I have so many thoughts about Neal Shusterman’s magnificent third installment in his Scythe series, aptly named The Toll.  I honestly don’t even know where to start, my mind and heart are still buzzing from finishing this thought-provoking series.

If you’ve read my previous reviews on both Scythe and Thunderhead, you should already know my thoughts on the characters and the general synopsis. But for those who have not, I’ll give a brief overview. 

The world is perfect. Human beings have conquered sickness, corruption, and even death. People don’t die anymore, they become deadish, a term used synonymously with temporarily out-of-order until they are revived, good as new.

There is no more hunger, poverty, or injustice. People have as much food as they want, money as they want, can even turn back their age and change their appearance at will. 

This perfect world is due to the actions of one being, if you could even call it that: the Thunderhead. Essentially, the Thunderhead is a complex evolved form of “the cloud” or even “the internet.” It is a benevolent omnipotent being that ensures worldwide happiness and maintains the perfection of the world.

There are no leaders, no mayors, no president, just the Thunderhead, a being that everyone can consult, talk to, ask for help or guidance. And it is happy to do so. Until it isn’t. 

This is not a rogue AI story (thank God). The Thunderhead remains an all powerful servant to humanity, but it cannot interfere with one thing and one thing only: scythes. The bringers of death, as the one problem the Thunderhead cannot fix is the overabundance of population.

So scythes are tasked with killing people in order to keep this under control. But as Shusterman points out, human beings are imperfect creatures. What happens when imperfect creatures inhabit a perfect world?

That is essentially the theme of The Toll, as Shusterman explores the effects of a corrupt scythedom at the hands of Goddard, the new Overblade, the desperate lengths people will go to obtain and hoard power, the power of religion and zealots, the draw of love and friendship, and the idea of purpose and fulfillment. There are so many important themes that this book draws upon that I cannot even realistically list them all. 

There are several POV’s and characters that this book follows, notably Citra and Rowan, Goddard and Rand, Morrison, Greyson Tolliver (aka The Toll), Munira, Faraday, Loriana, Possuelo, Jeri, the Thunderhead itself and a whole slew of others. Normally, this constant switching of characters is irritating and droll, as I often only wish to read about one character,  but in this case, Shusterman does it so masterfully and it is so enthralling that I don’t mind at all.

It adds so much to the story to see the differing perspectives and Shusterman is a master of even giving his villains backgrounds and motives. As a reader, you are given access to everyone's minds and the gift of that is unfathomable, as you are able to see even why the worst of characters are doing what they are doing. It’s as difficult to write as it is magnificent to read.

This last installment deals with the after effects of the gruesome murder of the Grandslayers by sharks (still can’t get over that ending honestly), Goddard’s increading advance in power, Greyson’s role as the sole remaining person alive that the Thunderhead communicates with, Citra and Rowan’s goal to find each other and peace, Faraday and Munira’s goal of finding the Founder’s fail safe, and the Thunderhead’s secret construction plans on a hidden island out in the Pacific ocean. 

As you can see, there are multiple overlying plot points that all intersect beautifully and all layer over one another in a complex web of intrigue, deception, action, and morality.

Shusterman not only manipulates time in this book, but he also manipulates POV, characterization, and even the occasional intersection of charts, journals, and commentary that all act like little breadcrumbs leading up to the ending of the series. 

Everything about this book makes me think. Which I absolutely love. I often feel that YA books often cater to their readers, that plot points and characters are dumbed down in fear that young readers won’t catch on. Shusterman holds no such view. He throws you in the midst of his book and you either catch on or you don’t, and I adore that.

It’s not that it’s over complicated and filled with jargon like other books, it’s that the plot is complicated and going in a thousand different directions and you are only offered a view of a handful of them at the beginning, with your lens slowly expanding as the book goes along. 

This book is amazing. This whole series is amazing. I cannot sing its praises enough. Strangely enough, my favorite character became the Thunderhead itself. I found it to be such a tragic character, and I actually felt bad for something not quite machine, not quite AI, and not quite human at the end.

All the characters were engaging and fleshed out and so interesting. I enjoyed how many powerful women there were, the complexity of the characters, the differences in their views, their goals, their thinking, all of it. 

If my abundance of compliments are not enough to sway you, then you should go out and get a copy of Scythe yourself and start from the beginning. It’s worth it, trust me. 

Recommendation: This book has something for everyone. I guarantee there will be a character you like, a plot point you enjoy, something that makes you feel, a tidbit that makes you ponder your own life and the consequences of your actions, an momnt that makes you smile for every moment that makes you cry. If you like intrigue and good characters and an awesome storyline this book is for you. Give yourself the gift of The Toll and the whole Scythe series as a whole this holiday season. 

Score: 9.5/10

[gtgrandom]

Where Young Justice: Outsiders went wrong

(And before you tell me to just stop watching if I don’t like it - I’ve been supporting the show since 2011 by creating a significant amount of content and giving back monetarily. I have every right to critique the writing, thank you).

Honestly, I think they pulled their act together in the finale, and this season left me much more satisfied than I anticipated. That being said, there are some issues I want to address.

Major flaws:

Overabundance of characters

Undeveloped Relationships

Lack of Continuity

Problematic Representation (getting better)

Weak Dialogue 

Lower Quality Animation

The Message

Overabundance of characters

I think we can all agree on this one. There were far too many characters in season 2, but season 3 is laughable. It’s hardly a story anymore. Instead it’s an episodic series featuring new heroes each episode to appease niche comic fans.

There’s a formula for a superhero show (and any group-oriented tale in general), and that’s having a central team of five or less. Then you can introduce one or two new characters max per episode as side characters or villains. But you always circle back to your main team. YJ did a nice job of this in season one. So did most CW superhero shows before they made the same mistake of expanding their cast to make their writing task easier. (Yes, easier - new characters means you can stop developing old ones, especially with time jumps).  YJ started to narrow down the team by the end of the season, but it still left many mains as side characters / aesthetics. 

It’s great seeing these characters brought to life - I won’t deny it. But you can’t delve deep if you have this many. You can’t focus on character development or meaningful relationship development (hence why nearly every ship was established off screen). Furthermore, you frustrate fans when you focus on one group more than another. With a smaller cast you can always count on appealing to your audience because their "fave” is always present in some way. In many ways, fans feel like they’re being dragged along simply waiting for their character to pop up because of a one time cameo. It’s not fair to the audience.

The relationships

I think the only romantic relationships we’ve seen develop on screen are:

Violet/Brion

Spitfire

SuperMartian

Robin/Zatanna

sort of Roy/Jade

- and all but one were introduced in season 1. 

The others were simply introduced as a couple with little to no previous interaction. Like:

Tim/Cassie

Dick/Babs

Jaime/Traci

Bart/Ed

Kaldur/Wyynde

Gardita

M’gann/La’gaan

Mal/Karen

That is not how you write romance. You don’t stick it in there for the sake of it. You have to show us why they work, how they got there, and why we should care.  I’m not saying there HAS to be romance, but if there is, it still has to be written well. 

Continuity

This begins to overlap into the next issue, which is continuity.  I understand that Outsiders is not necessarily a new chapter to Young Justice, but if you are going to call it Young Justice Season 3, then I expect story lines to bleed over beyond just villainous deeds.  

Let’s look at Dick Grayson, for instance.  He’s one of the only mains who has had a very consistent, though shallow, character arc throughout the series.  First he wants to lead, then fears it because of the sacrifices he would have to make - because he didn’t want to be Batman.  In season 2 though, he becomes his worst nightmare.  He risks the lives of his friends, lies to his team, and ends up losing his best friend anyway.  And in season 3, we actually get a little bit of continuity here with Dick mourning Wally and being afraid to take on another team after season 2.  It could have been expanded upon, but it was still present, and I applaud the writers for that.  Especially for driving home his leadership qualities at the end there.

Now, what about the other characters, specifically those introduced in season 2?  This season is called “Outsiders,” and yet, it seems to only focus on the original team and Violet’s new group.   

What about Bart’s entire arc of coming back, stopping the apocalypse, and then losing Wally, his mentor?  What about Jaime’s home life and the lasting effects of being turned into a villain who nearly killed all his friends?  What about TIM and his role as the new leader??  Where did that plotline go?? Why is the unfamiliar Beast Boy now the leader of this Outsiders group?  How did Ed overcome his anger issues and repair his relationship with his dad?  How did Jade go from being a supportive wife and mother into the opposite?   

The writers tried to avoid all these problems by giving us a time jump.  But that’s just lazy writing if you don’t take the time to answer how things have changed!    

Also, I’ve said this before, but continuity isn’t simply having characters mourn a dead character.  You can’t keep using that plot device to give heart to the narrative.  If that’s your only source of true pathos...and that character is dead...then you’ve got a problem. 

The representation

Okay, I’ll admit they saved their asses with Kaldur. I love my wholesome pansexual rep. Would I have preferred to see his relationship occur with a character we’d already been introduced to outside the comics? Yes. But I’ll take it.

Disappointed with Ed/Bart and Bluepulse. They could have shown us more, but they didn’t. They could have given us a story, but they didn’t.  And don’t hit me with “this is a children’s show - we’re lucky to get what we get” BS.  Because it’s not anymore.  This show is literally written by adults for adults.

I really don’t want to talk about the whole Halo/Harper kiss because it was just so wrong in so many ways, but it needs to be addressed. So, first of all, if you excuse cheating in any capacity, shame on you. I don’t care what the characters are going through or how old they are. You don’t both recognize that you have significant others and then proceed to make out!! Second, what the hell?? You’re going to have the first lgbt content be a bisexual stereotype of two girls cheating on their boyfriends (and two characters who have only interacted in one episode before??) Not to mention, underage drinking and gun use? That sends the wrong message to the audience, even if the teens were reprimanded.  

Also, Halo is supposedly non-binary, and yet they explained it away by technology, so idk, I’m hesitant to count it as legitimate rep. I still think it was a good discussion to have. But yeah...

Finally, Halo is not Muslim rep after all.  She’s a hijab wearing character, but she does not identify with her faith or her culture. She outright rejects it in her scene with Harper. So...what? Is she diversity points that you can continue to violently kill off over and over?  Not a fantastic way to treat POC. I don’t think the creators meant any harm by it, but it’s something they need to consider going forward.

(I do appreciate the number of POC characters that have been introduced however. Especially the Latinx and black characters. This show has improved its diversity. But without proper characterization, they’re sort of just...there).

Dialogue

I can’t be the only one who cringed through entire episodes this season?  Some episodes had stellar writing. But the bad ones were very, very bad.   Obviously, not every joke is going to stick the landing, but if you’re going to kill off your beloved comic relief character, you have to have a better backup plan.   

Like, do you guys remember how witty some of the lines from the pilot were?  The whole “Speedy” vs. “Kid Flash” debate in the opening sequence?  You can tell how much effort went into those scenes.  How much love was given to those characters. Because they knew that was their only chance to hook the audience, to get a green light for a full season.  So they put everything into character development and plot - and now they’ve lost so much of what made the show precious in the first place.  (It’s still precious, but it’s tainted in many ways for me now).

Animation

It’s gone downhill. That’s really all I can say without being mean.  Some episodes seem slightly better than others, but if you compare the animation from 3x01 to an episode like Failsafe...there’s just no comparison.  I could hardly watch Wally’s scene without frowning at the frame rate.

Message

I don’t understand what the show is telling us anymore (or I didn’t, before Black Lightning gave a very “on the nose” speech about what it is that we were supposed to take away from this season).

I mean this has always been an issue with the show, but at least it was a little clearer in season 1.  Then, we had several themes:

Found family (+ Actions speak louder than heritage)

Don’t call us sidekicks (AKA the kids can make a difference)

Secrets are poison (They can tear a team apart. Trust in friends)

Season 2 was a little convoluted...and sort of just recycled material. 

Secrets are poison (dammit, Dick)

You are in charge of your own destiny (Jaime/Connor)

Sacrifice (Kaldur, Artemis, Wally, Bart...they all gave something up for the greater good).

But what is the message of season 3?

Secrets are still poison (Tara, Violet, Batman v. Wonder Woman team)

I suppose it’s about healing and letting others in?  Like how  Brion and Victor have both worked through their anger?  Artemis and Jefferson and Dick and Gar sorting through their grief...somehow...off-screen...(except for the episode devoted to Artemis saying goodbye to Wally.)

Perhaps...accepting yourself?  (Victor, Violet, Brion, Connor?)

Do you see my issue here?  How much harder it is to see what I’m supposed to take away from the show now?  I’m not saying there aren’t any good messages being told, but they’re difficult to interpret.  Sometimes that can be good.  But this time I’m on the fence.

Conclusion

I love many of the characters from this show, but the fandom acts as if the writing is impeccable, and that’s just not true.  Not everything is bad.  Some of it is still miles beyond other animated television (looking at you vld).  And I genuinely enjoyed about half of the episodes this season. But I think it’s important to recognize the flaws in media, as a writer myself, and as a consumer of these shows.  

Plz be civil in the comments, and understand that this is only my opinion. 

[bemused-writer]

The Cain Saga Volume 3 - Kafka

Before we get into this volume I just want to let you all know that I had it all written already and then my computer crashed. Thus, this is the rewrite but hopefully it will be better than what came before. 8D

Also, typical warning for the series: it is rated “Explicit” for its themes. Please bear that in mind as you read the review. Also, there are just tons of spoilers here. For my previous reviews, you can find Volume 1 here and Volume 2 here.

The next thing I want to talk about is the glory of this volume cover:

Look at how exceptionally 90s this thing is. The baggy clothes, the overabundance of wrinkles, the broad shoulders, the poses. It’s incredible. There is the slight problem that, if I didn’t know this story took place in the 19th century, I would probably just assume it took place in the 90s or possibly even the 80s. It has a very Anne Rice vibe to it.

Speaking of Anne Rice, those streams of blood on Cain aren’t just for decoration: vampires are very much our theme this volume. As a brief analysis of the cover (outside of its 90s glory) I will point out that while Cain has been bitten by a vampire (a physical representation of corruption or lost innocence) he is also wearing a cross, indicative of an attempt at preventing this from happening on his part. Yet despite his efforts at keeping himself pure he is still brought back to his curse.

A minor thing: in The Cain Saga Cain is shows as having light brown hair for the most part, or at least light brown highlights. This changes in Godchild where he’s almost exclusively shown as having black hair. This is probably just a stylistic change but we could also interpret it as his life getting darker the further he goes.

And finally, a note on the title of the volume, “Kafka.” I haven’t talked about this at all in the previous two reviews, but each volume has a loose theme. In the first one it was “Forgotten Juliet,” a reference to Suzette who tried to win over her Romeo (and failed). The second volume’s theme is nursery rhymes, which is used primarily to demonstrate the loss of innocence and a corrupted childhood. This volume references Franz Kafka, who was known for his surrealist writings that included themes of losing one’s humanity and things of that nature.

And now into the volume itself. I talked a bit about how Riff is someone Cain trusts implicitly in the last volume and the beginning of this one goes out of its way to reiterate that once more. Upon waking up from a nightmare about his father where he’s led to freedom by someone’s hand, wondering whose it could be we see this:

The implication being it’s Riff that leads him out of darkness and back to the light. However, there’s someone to the left trying to overshadow him, and that’s something that this volume really takes a look at: What if Riff wasn’t so trustworthy? What if someone tried to take his place? 

The doctor, who introduces himself as “Allen” but who we will refer to as Disraeli because that’s who he is immediately inserts himself into Cain’s life and insists he needs to go to the countryside to restore his health. I’ve always enjoyed this bit of Victorian advice. Have you been ill for weeks? You need to breathe some better air. Honestly, that was probably somewhat true all things considered; smog was a force to be reckoned with.

Disraeli tries to assist Cain with his clothes but he refuses and Mary Weather considers this:

We already know from the previous volume that Cain bears horrible scars on his back from his father’s beatings. This is something he does his hardest to hide from everyone, including Mary Weather. The only person he doesn’t make any attempt to shun in this regard is Riff, who already knows all about it.

Cain ultimately goes to the countryside just as Disraeli suggested and one thing I’m happy to see is how much Cain cares about his little sister, Mary Weather.

Cain has a lot of iffy moments in the series where you really question his opinions and mindset but I’m happy to report that his relationship with Mary Weather is always a source of happiness and remains untainted by all the other crazy things that go on around him (as much as that’s possible, that is).

The trip to the countryside quickly goes awry when night falls when Cain discovers a woman who can only be described as a vampire:

Even as he manages to escape her, he’s attacked by an unidentified assailant upon reaching home whom he leaves a scratch on.

And this is where we start to see why Riff’s honesty is being questioned this volume. Was he the one who attacked Cain at night? Who is the vampire?

Personally, I got a kick out of reading Kaori Yuki’s author’s notes on fan reactions to all of this. Apparently, Disraeli was not popular and she was confused as to why everyone was judging him so harshly when he hadn’t done anything wrong. (This is even more amusing when we get to the end only to discover fans were right.) Furthermore, Riff fans were apparently very unhappy with him being “replaced” with Disraeli and that Riff was being portrayed in a negative light whatsoever. It sounds like Yuki had her hands full with keeping fans content. XD

Fans were also unhappy with Cain’s “player” tendencies this volume (there were some dissatisfied readers! XD). The next morning, Cain meets a boy named Dirk who owns Witherby Castle and swiftly meets his sister, Justine, as well. Turns out, Justine looks exactly like the vampire from the other night. The only difference is that while the vampire was bloodthirsty and appeared to be something of a seductress, Justine is sweet and innocent.

I don’t think there’s a single reader who believes she’s actually innocent of the whole affair and that it’s only made more difficult when you realize she’s so delicate she can’t bear to look at mirrors or be under the sun.

...Yeah, sounds like a vampire.

Cain thought so, too, and decided to test his theory in such a way that led to the fan complaints I mentioned earlier:

She doesn’t immediately try to murder him or drink his blood. She has a very bashful reaction instead, so we can safely assume she is not a vampire (except no one is assuming that).

Cain notes she had a faint scar on her face, which doesn’t completely match the vampire from before. Half of her face had suffered extreme burn marks, so once again there is some difference between Justine and the vampire from before.

He promises to meet her again but I personally think the above panel has Cain looking a great deal more like how he’ll look in Godchild, which is the main reason I’ve included it.

At any rate, her brother is outraged at what Cain has done and immediately asks his sister whether they’ll be together forever or not with an insistence that can only be described as “odd.”

I think I’ve mentioned before in my VNC reviews somewhere that vampires are basically always used to explore something forbidden, especially when it comes to love and this story is no exception. I will point out that Yuki doesn’t really need an excuse to explore forbidden love, but having vampires involved increases the chances that she will by a lot. Needless to say, we’re about to get into some uncomfortable territory.

We see Riff behaving oddly once more by discarding Mary Weather’s hat. He rushes home, she’s fine, but he and Riff have a revealing conversation:

Now, I’m just going to let you all know that they are both, technically, acting right now. They both suspect Disraeli, but they’re going along with things and they’re putting on a performance to make it look like Cain is losing faith in Riff.

However, the amount of truth in this statement as well as the relevance of it all in Godchild is immense. I’ll get more into that when we actually reach Godchild but suffice it to say for now that Cain relies on Riff to an almost unhealthy degree and if anything truly threatened that we would see something very different from this.

Also, I just want to point out once more that you can really see some parallels between Cain and Riff with Ciel and Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji. I would genuinely be shocked if Toboso hadn’t read this series previously. There are some noteworthy differences though: Ciel and Sebastian have a far more confrontation relationship where the master/servant dynamic is largely a facade. Sebastion will win in the end, after all, so in many ways they’re equals but there’s no love lost between them, no matter how much Ciel relies on him and orders him to never lie. With Cain and Riff things are a lot softer: it’s a relationship built on genuine trust and affection but the master/servant dynamic is also a great deal more real as well. Riff is a servant and Cain is an aristocrat. It’s hard to separate them from their roles unlike with Sebastian and Ciel. Still, Cain’s need for Riff to be there and to be loyal to him is just as genuine as Ciel’s.

Getting back to the volume at hand, Justine and Mary Weather prove to be fast friends and suddenly Cain and co. are moving into the castle. Needless to say, Dirk is furious. Furthermore, the amount of people being attacked by that vampire is only increasing and paranoia is mounting.

Disraeli himself sees something strange:

Riff appears to be with a vampiric woman himself. Disraeli thinks of how terrifying her eyes are and proceeds to find Cain, telling him of what he saw. Cain refuses to believe Riff would ever betray him (understandably given he’s in on it) but the exchange he and Disraeli share is important:

The meaning behind what Disraeli is saying is extremely layered. On the first, he’s accusing Riff of being untrustworthy and of that he’s not looking after Cain out of the goodness of his heart but out of something far more malicious. On the second, Disraeli is referring to what he himself is doing: he’s getting closer and closer to Cain, Cain is “trusting” him, and doesn’t realize he’s only there to bring more pain. The third layer is by far the most nefarious and is only truly revealed in Godchild, so I won’t discuss it here just yet.

Cain goes to meet with Justine once more, gives her an earring (one that the vampire had dropped previously, I believe) and departs but her brother, Dirk, is in high dudgeon and it’s revealed that he loves Justine and is jealous of how interested she is in Cain. She refuses him and he says, “Have you really forgotten that night? I was the one who protected you from Father!” He follows up with, “It’s not fair! You forget everything in the daytime, Justine!”

We’re finally starting to sort out what is going on here. Their father has been mysteriously absent, there are rumors of a vampire who was burned at the stake, and there had been a fire earlier on.

Things come to a head with Riff and Cain dismisses him from his employ. He then finally meets the vampire once again, who claims her name is Gertrude.

She notes that his eyes mark him as someone who is just as cursed as they and she offers him eternal life. If he’s going to be cursed, why not get to live forever? And Cain is tempted by the idea. We don’t get to see what his ultimate decision would have been as Disraeli bursts in and chases her away with a cross.

Still, I can’t help but wonder. I don’t think Cain would have accepted. He despises himself for his cursed lineage and views his own existence as a sin. In order to prolong his life in the way Gertrude is suggesting he would have to kill more and more people, thus making his life even more cursed than it was before. I don’t think he could bear that, and so I think he would have refused her.

Afterwards he’s comforted by Disraeli and they have another layered conversation:

On one hand, Cain is telling the truth. He doesn’t like people seeing through him and it’s part of why he goes to such pains to conceal how much pain he endures. But he’s also not being wholly honest; he’s nearly always allowed Riff the privilege of both these things. As for Disraeli, he’s also being honest about watching Cain, but it’s hardly out of the caring concern of a doctor. 

Meanwhile, Mary Weather is confronting Riff about leaving. She insists if he only asked, Cain would take him back. That is certainly true if he were actually leaving. But Riff needs to make his departure convincing and so this is what he tells Mary Weather: “Until now I’ve been everything for Lord Cain. I was his mother and his father. We’ve strengthened our bond without even using words.”

He’s laying it pretty thick here but there’s still a lot of truth to it. There would have to be in order for it to be even slightly convincing. Riff is everything to Cain as we’ve talked about before. He’s been there when no one else was. Without him, Cain would be lost.

When Cain next meets with Justine, she begs him to take her away because her brother is looking at her with evil eyes. Cain’s response is a little, uh, not helpful:

Here’s the thing, Cain is not the right person to be talking to about this. He has no idea what a normal relationship even is and as far as he’s concerned, running off with him is not freeing yourself from a cursed relationship.

It would be easy to say he’s thinking of his father and the incestuous relationship he had with his sister that led to Cain’s birth but this appears to be on a different level. Cain isn’t in the habit of defending his father’s horrendous choices in life.

After Dirk reveals the truth of Justine to her (which we’ll talk about momentarily) he and Cain discuss things and it becomes clear why Cain was so particular about what Justine said:

It turns out Suzette wasn’t simply his cousin. I’ll be honest, I completely forgot that tidbit. All I can say is that it’s been awhile since I read this...

At any rate, Cain is admitting he is in no position to be judging Dirk. However, the fact that Cain thinks he’s as bad as his father goes to show how deep his self-loathing is and how much he isn’t considering the entirety of the situation because it honestly isn’t the same. 1) Cain had no idea Suzette was his half-sister until after she’d died. Alexis knew perfectly well what he was doing. 2) Alexis forced himself on Augusta. Cain did no such thing to Suzette.

Cain’s love for Suzette is better likened to Oedipus than to Alexis: he tried really hard to avoid incest but the gods (Yuki) just wouldn’t let him live in peace.

Cain also says “It’s no use. If I’m not related by blood to the woman I’m not capable of loving her. I don’t know how to love.” He declares that he and Dirk both need salvation.

The thing is, Cain doesn’t actually know this for a fact. He’s had multiple flings but he’s never actually stayed in a relationship where he’s in love and his partner loves him in turn. He’s despairing and thinks he knows how things have to be but the fact is he doesn’t.

Honestly, the lack of Riff in this volume becomes pronounced around this point. There’s no one there to try to offer an alternative explanation to Cain or to try to get him to look at things from a different angle. He’s left to his own devices and that means he reaches the worst conclusions possible. 

Anyway, going back to what Dirk revealed, it turns out their stepfather had been abusing Justine and had put her through some kind of dark ritual in an attempt to bring Gertrude to life. In other words, another personality was superimposed over her own.

What I don’t like about this is how the narrative kind of frames this as Justine’s fault. She was the one who manipulated Dirk into killing their stepfather (rather understandably, I’d say!) and she was supposedly the one who seduced Dirk. Furthermore, it’s implied she was the one in control of their stepfather as well. Dirk definitely accuses her as if it’s her fault and Cain doesn’t exactly help. Of course, Cain’s perspectives are so skewed as to be useless in this situation, so...

Regardless, it’s implied that she was never a vampire (which I suppose I could believe) but that this was her true self coming through (which I find much harder to believe).

Ultimately, she and her brother burn to death after she goes on a rampage. It’s hard not to feel bad for both of them despite the awkward way this whole thing has been framed. They were both abused by their stepfather and never given a chance to remake their lives. They were trapped from start to finish.

Cain is understandably upset but when Disraeli comes to “comfort” him it’s revealed at long last what he really is: a soul catcher from Delilah. He also reveals he was the one who set the whole thing up along with their stepfather:

Just as Disraeli goes to remove Cain’s eyes, Riff finally makes his reappearance and everything comes to light once and for all:

They “kill” Disraeli and learn a few things from him as well:

Alexis is still alive and Delilah is an organization he’s a part of. Cain tells Riff never to leave him again and we get an idea of just how hard this has been. He’s been without Riff for a long period of time now and he’s witnessed two siblings die during it. 

On a lighter note, I enjoyed seeing Riff explain to Mary Weather how he was lying:

Up till now I would have assumed he had no sense of humor but clearly I was mistaken. XD He’s teasing her terribly! It’s also revealed that the vampire Riff had been with earlier had been Cain the whole time, which makes things a lot more amusing as well. Lastly, it’s revealed Disraeli survived, which isn’t all that surprising.

Anyway, that wraps the volume up, and what a volume it was! Rather than tackle multiple short stories, this one had one big story! I enjoyed that it was one story that tackled a lot of things relevant to the plot but there were a few points that could have been smoothed out, notably how harshly everyone was in judging Justine compared to Dirk. The other thing I really wish we got more of is who Suzette was as a person. She only showed up in a singular chapter, but she’s having a profound impact on Cain himself. I think we needed to learn a lot more about her.

The Kafka reference is also a little clearer: neither sibling felt human anymore and Cain hasn’t for a while now. While it’s too late for Dirk and Justine, it isn’t yet for Cain. Perhaps we will see him make some progress in the next two volumes.

[pope-francis-quotes]

22nd August >> (@ZenitEnglish) #Pope Francis #PopeFrancis #General #Audience of #PopeFrancis (Full Text): On the Acts of the Apostles (4:32-35). ‘There are so many ‘tourists’ in the Church who are always passing by, but never truly enter the Church … They are only tourists from the catacombs’.

Pope Francis’ General Audience (FUll Text): On the Acts of the Apostles (4:32-35)

‘There are so many ‘tourists’ in the Church who are always passing by, but never truly enter the Church … They are only tourists from the catacombs’

AUGUST 22, 2019 15:56DEBORAH CASTELLANO LUBOVGENERAL AUDIENCE

The General Audience of Aug. 21 was held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, where the Holy Father Francis met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and from all over the world.

Continuing with the series of catecheses on the Acts of the Apostles, in his address in Italian the Pope focused his meditation on the theme: Among them, “everything was in common”. Life in the Christian Community (from Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35).

After summarizing his catechesis in several languages, the Holy Father expressed special greeting to groups of faithful present.

The General Audience ended with the singing of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.

Here is a ZENIT working-translation of the Pope’s full General Audience:

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The Christian community is born from the overabundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit and grows thanks to the ‘leaven’ of sharing between brothers and sisters in Christ. There is a dynamism of solidarity that builds the Church as family of God, where the experience of koinonia is central. What does this mean, this strange word? It is a Greek word that means “to put together”, “to put in common” to be a community, not isolated. This is the experience of the first Christian community, that is, “sharing,” “communicating,” “participating,”not isolating oneself. In the Church, at its origins, this koinonia, this community, refers above all to participation in the Body and Blood of Christ. We enter into communion with Jesus and from this communion with Jesus, we arrive at communion with our brothers and sisters. And this communion with the Body and Blood of Christ, at Holy Mass, translates into fraternal union, and therefore also to what is most difficult for us: to pool goods and collect money for the collection in favor of the Mother Church of Jerusalem (Rom 12:13 ; 2 Cor 8–9) and of the other Churches. If you want to know if you are good Christians, you must pray, try to approach communion, and the sacrament of reconciliation. But that signal that your heart has converted, is when the conversion arrives at ones pockets, touching one’s own interest: this is where we see if someone is generous with others, if they help the weakest, the poorest: When the conversion arrives there, you are sure it is a true conversion. If it remains only in words, it is not a good conversion.

The Eucharistic life, prayers, the preaching of the Apostles and the experience of communion (Acts 2:42), make believers a multitude of people who have – says the Book of the Acts of the Apostles – “one heart and one soul alone” and “they do not consider what they possess, their property, but keep everything in common (Acts 4:32). It is such a strong model of life that helps us be generous and not tire out. For this reason, “There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.”(Acts 4:34-35). The Church has always had this gesture of the Christians who stripped themselves of the things they had, and in addition, of things that were not necessary, to give them to those in need. And not just money: even time.

How many Christians – you, for example, here in Italy – how many Christians are volunteers! This is beautiful! It is communion, sharing my time with others, to help those in need. The voluntary service, the works of charity, the visits to the sick. One must always share with others, and not just look out for one’s own interests.

The community, or koinonia , thus becomes the new relationship between the disciples of the Lord. Christians experience a new way of being among themselves, of behaving. And it is the Christian way, to the point that the pagans looked at Christians and said: “Look how they love each other!” Love was the way. But not love of words, not fake love: love of works, of helping one another, concrete love, the concreteness of love. The bond with Christ establishes a bond between brothers that flows together and expresses itself also in the gathering of material goods. Yes, this way of being together, this way of loving, reaches the pockets, no longer being impeded from giving money to others, and now looking beyond one’s own interest. Being members of the Body of Christ makes believers co-responsible for each other. Being believers in Jesus makes us all co-responsible for each other. “But look at that one, he has this problem: I don’t care…” No, among Christians, we cannot say that, we cannot just say: “Poor person, he has a problem at home, he is going through this family difficulty.” I must pray, I take it with me, I cannot be indifferent.” This is being a Christian.

This is why the strong support the weak (Rom 15:1) and no one experiences the indifference which humiliates and disfigures human dignity, because they live this sense of community: to have the heart in common. They love each other. This is the signal: concrete love. James, Peter and John, who are the three Apostles as the “columns” of the Church of Jerusalem, establish in a communal manner that Paul and Barnabas evangelize pagans while they evangelize the Jews, and only ask, Paul and Barnabas, which is the condition: do not forget the poor, remember the poor (Gal 2:9- 10). Not only the poor, materially, but spiritually, the people who have problems and need our closeness. A Christian always starts from himself, from his heart, and approaches others, as Jesus approached us. This is the first Christian community. A concrete example of sharing and communion of goods comes to us from the testimony of Barnabas: he owns a field and sells it to deliver the proceeds to the Apostles (Acts 4:36-37). But next to his positive example another negative one, sadly, appears: Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, having sold a piece of land, decide to hand over only a part to the Apostles and to hold on to the other for themselves (Acts 5:1-2). This cheating interrupts the chain of free sharing, the serene, disinterested sharing. And the consequences are tragic, are fatal (Acts 5:5,10). The Apostle Peter exposes the impropriety of Ananias and his wife, and tells him: “Why did Satan fill your heart, so that you lied to the Holy Spirit and held back a portion of the proceeds from the camp? […] You have not lied to men, but to God “(Acts 5:3-4). We could say that Ananias lied to God because of an isolated conscience, of a hypocritical conscience, that is because of a “negotiated,” partial and opportunist ecclesial belonging. Hypocrisy is the worst enemy of this Christian community, of this Christian love: that pretending to love each other, but only looking out for one’s own interest. To fail in the sincerity of sharing, in fact, or to fail in the sincerity of love, means to cultivate hypocrisy, to distance oneself from the truth, to become selfish, to extinguish the fire of communion and to turn oneself to the coldness of inner death.

Those who behave in this way pass through the Church as tourists. There are so many tourists in the Church who are always passing by, but never enter the Church: it is spiritual tourism that makes them believe they are Christians, while they are only tourists from the catacombs. No, we must not be tourists in the Church, but brothers of each other. A life set only on profiting and taking advantage of situations at the expense of others, inevitably causes inner death. And how many people say they are close to the Church, friends of priests, bishops, while they are only looking for their own interest. These are the hypocrisies that destroy the Church!

May the Lord – I ask for all of us – pour over us His Spirit of tenderness, which overcomes all hypocrisy and puts into circulation that truth which nourishes Christian solidarity, which, far from being a social assistance activity, is an inalienable expression of the nature of the Church, the tender mother of all, especially the poorest.

[Working English translation by ZENIT Senior Vatican Correspondent, Deborah Castellano Lubov)

© Libreria Editrice Vatican

22nd AUGUST 2019 15:56GENERAL AUDIENCE

[cosmosbunnies]

How Fire Emblem Fates tried, and failed, to live up to Awakening.

Fire Emblem Awakening was a tonal and mechanical masterpiece. It set a new bar for Fire Emblem games and the like, so Fates had a lot to live up to. And boy, did it try. And fail. I've got about a million complaints about this game, but I'll list my top three here:

Setup

Fire emblem awakening's avatar, Robin, was relatable. Not in deep ways, but we could sympathize with their situation. They knew exactly what we knew about the world – nothing. They awoke with amnesia and were found by the royal family. Amnesia is a wrote plot point, but its popularity is not baseless. In games especially, dropping the player into the second act allows for swift action, and playing catchup in the story comes for naturally to a player who knows everything their character does, meaning dialogue and exposition can come across as being natural and not ham-fisted.

On the other hand, we have Fates. Mind you, I have only played Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, but I believe these problems extend to Birthright as well; the setup is bad. Instead of giving our player character no knowledge of the world around them via amnesia, they use a different method; seclusion. Corrin as a character is locked away inside of the Nohrian castle throughout their entire childhood and is only allowed in the outside world during the rising action of the story. This, akin to Robin, gives them no knowledge of the world around them. There's one key distinction, however; the family. In Conquest, Corrin knows their family well, and there is an existing dynamic that was built up long before we, the player, entered the scene. So, while Corrin knows nothing of the war and the land, they know much of these characters – and we do not. This flows very poorly. The characters end up awkwardly barking out their relationship to our main character in expositional dialogue before we ever end up even fighting alongside them, instead of having those relationships grow in real-time as we play and allowing us, the player, to form a relationship with the cast based in mechanics while Corrin gets to know them in the narrative. Corrin already loves the cast, regardless of what we think, and we have no choice in the matter. Fates makes the erroneous assumption that the player's interest in the world around them exists in a vacuum, but in reality an average player is interested in how the world exists in relation to the established characters and mechanics, not in the Deep Lore. In fact, Deep Lore is called just that because players who desire knowledge of the world are willing to go to greater lengths to uncover it than players who do not care. This is what in-game history books are for.

Marriage

Fire Emblem Awakening introduced a new mechanic: marriage. Your characters' relationships would grow organically as they fought, and this would eventually lead to (straight) marriage, which would eventually lead to children. The plot of the game involved time travel, and thus a new system was born; the child soldiers. Children are born of your units, your units die in the future, and those children grow up alone and scared, learning to fight for themselves. Eventually, they all get together and use the fire emblem to go back in time. They meet their parents. They introduce themselves. They fight, as they always have, but this time with hope renewed. This created a fantastic dynamic; a younger solider in their prime, with a child they know they'll eventually have but are meeting for the first time. Throw in some well written, natural dialogue, a few fun time travel jokes, and you've got yourself a compelling personal story. It also tied into the main plot in a significant way, having Lucina be a product of this same time travel fiasco. Fire Emblem Fates takes a… different approach. Halfway through act II of the story, you enter an alternate universe. The place is strange, scary and full of mindless evil entities. You meet a character who had been presumed dead, and you fight your way out with him in tow. Upon leaving, you're informed that if any of your characters mention this alternate reality to anyone, they will cease to exist. The point is then dropped, and the unrelated story continues. This puzzled me… A lot. Why did this exists? Was is setting up a structure for a future plot point? Was it world building? I had no idea, I was completely confused.

And then Corrin married.

This was my first marriage in the game, as honestly, none of the characters (save for Niles/Odin, and Effie/Mozu) had what I saw as a real connection, so I waited some time. Corrin and Keaton got married. A popup appeared onscreen afterwords. “A baby was born. The baby is placed in an alternate reality to grow up safe from harm, but a side effect of this reality is that time flows differently, making the children grow up very quickly.” Ah. I see. It makes sense now – the alternate universe is a plot contrivance, created in service to the brand of “You can have children and fight alongside them.” So then you pluck these kiddos from their isolated homes one by one, skipping over the major plot hole of 'Corrin spent nine months fighting while pregnant and then had a baby in the middle of a war? How long did this war take?' and jumping right to “Let's recruit child soldiers.” And so you do. You recruit every child to fight, much to the apparent behest of the mother and father. There is no reasoning to explain why these sensible adults are asking young teenagers to fight in a deadly war. It's simply a fun mechanic, and the game does not expect us to think about it. Except it strips the system of its most important aspects: A) The children do not HAVE to fight to save a doomed world, and B) The parents and the children know one another well. This has removed both the believability of the plot point and the charm in the interactions, leaving us with strange relationships bland dialogue that has an overabundant use of the word “daddy,” which should be purged from every writer's page as it is written.

Incest

You can just. You can just marry your siblings in this game. And have children with them.

At first I though Camilla's apparent attraction to the player character was simply because she was explicitly designed for horny fans to drool over. While this is still true, it's not the only reason she shows an interest in her sibling, as she's more than willing to marry and have children with them. “Oh, it's fine!” You might say. “They're not siblings by blood, you see, so it's morally fine!” Which is the stance the game seems to take. I am not going to explain why incest bad. I will also not drone on about how in the game's counterpart, Birthright, your player is related by blood for plot purposes, but as not to miss out on banging your siblings, each sibling will explain just before marrying you that you're actually not related to them by blood either. Nope, definitely not going to touch that subject.

Small gripes:

I lied about only listing three things. Here are a few notable issues

-You can dress your characters up in stupid looking accessories that add nothing to the game and 95% of the time clip heavily inside the character's model. The characters ASK you to dress them up, and some of them even comment on how silly this is during a war.

-“A+” rank is a cop-out created in an attempt to appease the Queer community without alienating any fans, and the fact that they couldn't be bothered to write any dialogue for the A+ rank relationships shows their lack of interest in queer representation while they sit back and get praise of major publications for “progressivism”

-In the Japanese version you pet your friends on the face Pokemon-Amie style to get them to like you more. I am glad they removed this for the western release

-In the final cinematic, they paid a team of animators to animate your character's first-person experience as they run face-first into their sisters boobs, which joyfully go “Boioioing” and shake like maracas as you reel.

-Sometimes you walk in on your allies naked in the hot springs. You walk all the way in, sit down, relax and stare at the naked peer for seconds before they say “Hey I'm uh… Naked here.” As which point Corrin goes “Sorry!” and sprints out of the room with the speed of a cheetah. I do not know why this happens.

-Keaton is unreasonably erotic when you marry him. Fully voice-acted, he whispers sweet nothings into your ear as the screen fades to black. He is a furry's wet dream. This is not a complaint.

-The story toys with this “abusive father with a family of children who are closer for having a common enemy with whom they have a love/hate relationship” thing, but fails to say ANYTHING meaningful on the subject. It's just empty story dressing

-At one point, you have to choose to either kill or spare a person who just tried to kill you. If you spare him, he joins your party. This goes nowhere, and puzzles me as a narrative choice. He doesn't even bother to betray you or anything, he simply stops mattering.

-Nohr should be dark, gloomy, fun and interesting, and instead it fails to spark the imagination even slightly, instead being ��Bland fantasy setting but some of the trees are dead.” Give me some purple and black in that color palette! C'mon!

-There are two wolfskin characters. They are different genders, different heights and weights, but use the same exact model in wolf form. Compare these to the bunny people in awakening who have my heart forever, and this is a major insult.

Thanks for reading

[saint-yaint]

Petrichor Chapter 2:NYC to AMS

I walked into LaGuardia and immediately sought out some coffee I went into a Starbucks I quickly spotted in the airport. I came two hours earlier, Eileen expressed that there was a possibility that she can rush the info about the names of operatives that have been dispatched by Helmsley. The line was long and busy, I will not deal with that for a simple black coffee, so I wandered and just went to go find a suitable breakfast to give me a pick me up. I found a small stall that smell like my distant nearly forgotten childhood, it smells like berry pancakes, sausage, eggs and oatmeal. Yes I will admit that may sound quite plain, but something distinct caught my interest about the smell, it has the feeling of a southern grandparent's love. The spoiling of a child on a weekend morning with sweet treats and Grandma's perfume swirling in the air as we get ready for a lengthy church service. The unappealing realization of having to sit thought the preaching was overshadowed by an overabundance of singing, chanting, and cheering followed by the scores of food I indulged in provided by the congregation elders. I mindlessly wandered over to the stall and reached in my Louis Vuitton handbag to get my glasses to read the menu that seems so high and far from me. I fished out my frames, slid them on and looked up, I was still squinting and my eyes slowly adjusted to the lenses, words still blurry my mind tried to decipher the few letters I could recognized. My contacts are far superior to my glasses, but I never wear them on long flights, they dry out and make my eyes feel that they should be plucked from my skull. I finally could read the words and I felt a presence behind me.

"Have trouble seeing cutie pie?" I turned around to see a man with thick black glasses, a high bun, doe eyes, and a soft gentle smile. This man was an odd combination of casual and professional, quite nice actually. The thing is: I've learned from friends that meeting men in this attractive in an airport leads to fleeting and sometimes regrettable flings in public bathrooms. Therefore it's a worthless pursuit I was told never put effort in.

"Yeah I just have trouble adjusting to my glasses, I should get out your way so you can order" I rolled my suitcase out the way and let him through, he looked down at me, and I looked back troubled by the invasion of personal space.

"Tell me what you want to eat I'll see if it's on the menu and I'll order it for you." There he goes smiling, a bit wider than before.

"Well I would like pancakes, link sausages, veggie omelette, grits with sugar salt and pepper, and 2 extra large black coffees.Please and thank you. I'll stay right here so I can pay for the meal." His eyes widened and looked oddly bewildered, I know for sure this man can eat this amount of food three times over, he is muscular and looks like he is in the gym more than in his office.

"Well then little lady, lucky for you everything is there. But are you planning to carry half of that on the plane? Also the 2 cups of coffee I know its early sweety but that's so much for little ol' you." He chuckled, walked off and ordered the food and I walked over to the counter where he is luggage in tow and got out the money for the meal.

" Here is the cash, thank you again for this. I will tell you no I am not planning to take any food on the plane, that's quite odd and I will eat it all here. Is that why you looked so surprised earlier? Have you never seen a woman eat more than a miniature salad and sparkling salt water?" I spat those words, it was quite a strong way to put it but I don't enjoy having my eating habits questioned, I got enough of that from Kiwi as it is.

"Nope,I'll pay for it,I got myself something too. Also I am curious to see what it is like to be around a woman that doesn't eat mini salads and sparkling salt water,as you put it. So put your suitcase there and we will eat." Pointing at the closest table he wanted to sit at, I sat my suitcase there. He pulled out a credit card, quickly swiping it and started to hand me a bag filled with two Styrofoam containers and a cup with two coffees.

 I sat at the table with my food and was trying to find a way to pay this guy back, yes kindness is appreciated but still I hate owing someone. I just simply started to eat my food, oh holy hell I was hungry more than I realized. Doe Eyes came over to sit and eat with me I was on my phone and quickly put it away I didn't want any questions from him. He unwrapped his food and started to eat, while watching me eat, that was so unsettling and downright rude one should never  stare at someone eating! He reached over to take one of my coffees then was checking the time on his watch,and was about to say something to me. He was suddenly rolling his eyes and two other men joined out table and sat down. I guessed they were his friends. One with ocean blue eyes, a beard, and a close blond haircut his face simultaneous full of austerity and amusement, he proceeded to steal food off of Doe Eyes plate that made him visibly pissed off. The other man had long dark hair in a ponytail, brown eyes, and a unique modelesque face, he simple look at the other two men bickering and shook his head. I just was finishing up chewing my food, and I heard some words being said but it took a minute to register that someone was talking.

"So are you really eating breakfast without getting us anything?" Blue Eyes proceeded to steal more bacon off of Doe Eye's plate before his hand was smacked, he finally looked at me. "Oh hello there darlin' what are you doing having breakfast with him?" he reached over to tap the modelesque man and keeps talking "Hey Big Dog he's having breakfast with her and brought us nothing. What you think of that?"

"You know what Ambrose that doesn't seem quite right to me. We are quite hurt Rollins, friends no brothers don't do this to each other." Big Dog dramatically an playfully did a woe is me act. "So tell me missy did our brother here con you into spending breakfast with him?" leaning on the table looking at me.

"Woah there Reigns you really think I conned her? Now you wound me!" Rollins pointing his plastic fork at Reigns then slapping Ambrose's hand again to stop him from stealing bacon once more.

"Honestly I do, she looks like a woman that wouldn't give you the time of day." Rollins rolled his eyes "Miss, how did he get you to sit with him? He definitely approached you, cause women like you don't be around guys like him."

"I had trouble seeing the menu, he offered to help me order and then just ultimately bought my meal. He bought himself something to eat as well so we ate together." After speaking I finished my meal, my coffee cooled so I started to drink it. "If you two are hungry will I will get you something to eat if you want?" This is how I will return the favor to Rollins, by feeding his friends.

"Lady you just made my day!" Ambrose loudly spoke with a smile "See Rollins why couldn't you be more like her? You don't ever buy us breakfast until we break you down. Shit we just met her and she just offered no problem!" I hurried to finish my coffee to buy breakfast for Ambrose and Reigns. I grabbed my purse and suitcase and prepared myself to go to the stall.

"Ok I'm am ready to buy your food now" all three men followed me over to the stall. Reigns and Ambrose ordered their meals and I gave them cash for the total. Rollins just hung around me and was starting to ask me questions.

"I bought you food, you've met my brothers and you know my name. This relationship seems like it's escalating quickly, sweety." He puts his elbow on my shoulder and I swiftly moved it. "So what is your name, and you have expensive taste I see. From the shoes, clothes, accessories, even the way your nails are done. What do you do?"

"My name is Griselda Brunswick, I run a fashion blog and do consulting and buying for various fashion houses. My appearance is key to my money, either dress the part or get ripped apart." I droned. How dare he ask me questions about my work? My name is one thing but my work! Oh he is a bold and brazen bastard, he analyzed my appearance then made his assumptions. It's New York is why he amazed that I dressed like this? Or is it something more?

"Hmm the name Griselda isn't a name I come across often, it's quite strong. But it suits you I like it a lot. My first name is Seth by the way." he extended his hand and I shook it firmly as he did too.

My cell phone rang and I quickly answered the phone, it was Eileen.

"Hello Auntie, how are you?" I had to talk in code to Kiwi

"Griselda are you around people?" she talked quieter than normal

"Yes Auntie, I know I am busy but I am doing well."

"Shit, well I am here in LaGuardia out on the private jet, so you got about thirty minutes. Fifteen minutes to get through checks, you have been put on pre-check so you'll ease on by and be on the jet, fifteen more until take off so I can brief you about the operators the were dispatched against our clients. Hurry and see you soon."

"That lecture wasn't necessary, but I appreciate it. After this I'll take a break from work I promise. Love you too auntie." I look to Seth and his friends who are going back to the table we we just sitting at.

"I am going to be leaving now, I need to make my flight for work." I waved

"See you" Reigns waved back

"Thanks for the food!" Ambrose blurted out before resuming to eat. His loudness is jarring and unnecessary.

"Hope to see you soon Griselda, but until then adieu." Seth is grinning at me

I walked away briskly, I went up to the checkpoint put my bags on scanner and was patted down quickly. I walk to the jet terminal, Eileen was here in the states the duration I was in New York, maybe she was here in the city with me and didn't tell me. Despite how I am pissed about that, the identity of these operators is more important and will aid in our job, seeing what we are dealing with. I got on the jet and saw Eileen, she wore a fashionable floral outfit and had her hair in a bun. So she may be having to assist me in person as we are going under guise as fashion industry elites. She had her computer and I sat in the seat across for her. Eileen sternly and grimly stares at her computer screen. She sent me the debrief to my pda and I look over it as she spoke to me.

"Well Товарищ, the intel unit and I had gotten more info on the unit. Helmsley assembled a group of three men, called The Shield. Colloquially know as 'The Hounds of Justice'." her frankness is on full display "They are a highly skilled and gathered from various SWAT and special ops teams, they have been active for years but be came a group about six years, and was brought to Interpol three years ago. I do think it is odd that he will only send three men, but going over their past missions they do a flawless job." It is very rare for Eileen to be impressed by anyone so they must be hot shit, but no matter I will get this operation done.

"So they are called 'The Hounds of Justice'? HA! How fucking pretentious and ostentatious, they work for Helmsley, that man is a cold blooded murder equal to those we kill and protect. They are in our neck of the woods with kingpins, war criminals, contract killers, and the spies that undermine the societies of the world. They are just as consumed by sin and blood as we are maybe worse!" I was incensed, they fight for justice but are directed by a man with no morals. "They will be humbled, I assure you."

"Griselda be calm now, there is still more to discuss. They consist of a sniper, doctor, and hand to hand combat specialist." clacking on the computer was intense and precise "The pictures of these men are not recent from about three years ago sadly but I can assure you they will be definitely in Amsterdam." She turned around the computer and I saw the faces my jaw dropped so fast and hard to the point it ached severely in the short time. My eyes shivered and I leaned on the table and Eileen looked just as shaken as I did.

"Товарищ, what has happened? I have never seen your resolve waiver like this!" She reached across the table and held my face "What is wrong?"

"Eileen in the hour and a half I waited for you." inhaling deeply I looked in her eyes "I was just with these men thirty minutes ago. I was with the enemy thirty minutes ago. I fraternized with Helmsley's lap dogs and didn't even know it, how did I let that happen?"

"My God Товарищ, they've seen you. How do we proceed knowing that we may be compromised?" Eileen sat back in her seat, as did I.

"Eileen we do what we always do, turn misfortune into miracles. Send out the pictures to the team, we will resume as planned." Eileen smiled team I regained my composure, she typed furiously and the plane started liftoff. I felt that malicious calmness fill me, I knew that I was subconsciously readying myself to kill. I saw myself in Eileen's eyes and I was stone, a pillar of brutality. A soulless vessel emerging formed from the darkest part of God's heart. Eileen knew it was me that was here now not the facade I put on, she smiled and held my hand across the table again her mouth started moving. I didn't hear her voice but her mouth formed the words.

"There you are, I was waiting for you. Good to see you again, my dear."

*Tovarishch, tovarisch or tovarish (Russian: Товарищ) is a Russian word meaning comrade, friend, colleague, or ally.

@adriennegabriella @ruderickrude @superrezzy00 @writinglionqueen

[kegelballs5-blog]

several Reasons You Might Need To Do Kegel Routines Everyday

how to use ben wa balls  Did a person at any time think about maybe in order to doing kegel exercises daily? Most only think with regards to it in brief and subsequently become so hectic performing things their common technique they have no period to essentially try it. Often fear of the actual unfamiliar stops them. Deficiency of being familiar with what is involved prevents others. Not knowing exactly how halts others. And right now there are always those that no longer act because they are clueless what the benefits tend to be.

how to use ben wa balls

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Consider those three motives, evaluate them, think in relation to these. When you feel about it, you can easily see that there are usually powerful reasons to look at trying to accomplish kegel exercises everyday. Do these cards influence you? In other phrases, the length of time do you need to live your lifestyle while managing incontinence concerns or even sexual related difficulties only because you need to be able to strengthen your pc muscle groups?

Seriously now, think regarding it for a time. No longer those reasons implement to anyone? Perhaps you actually really should do kegel exercises everyday and view just how your body alterations over the up coming several weeks or months.

[ghostmartyr]

Fic: A Terrible Idea [13/?]

Fandom: Attack on Titan Title: A Terrible Idea Author: Immi Rating: PG-13 Summary: Ymir’s pursuit of the hot cheerleader was meant to stay strictly lustful. But it’s a high school AU with a ship tag, so you know, fuck that. Notes: This chapter was going to be longer, but it got split for reasons I’m still not sure on.

Segment summary: They should probably have a candid conversation or five. But consider this: They could also not.

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII

Ymir and feelings had a great relationship. They said hi, they did Sunday brunch, smiled for the camera, then went on their merry way. No muss, no fuss, no clubbing anyone to death in a back alley.

That didn’t mean she wanted them for a house guest.

Porco, in typical Porco fashion, wasn’t helping.

“You kept saying you didn’t like her.”

“We’re a little past that, try to keep up.”

“But you said—”

For someone who’d been so offended by the idea that a person could want a strictly lustful connection with someone, he was taking the idea that Ymir might have been underselling the value of Historia’s pretty eyes very hard. Ymir could have mustered up an imitation of sympathy, but he was supposed to be helping her, and his current level of contribution was making his eyes go as wide as his mouth. Besides that, the other exciting new developments a new dawning school day was lobbing towards them made her problems way less fun.

First though, there was the morning after. Enter Ymir having finished up brushing her teeth in the cramped bathroom and while she gave her beloved housemate a few token moments that more awake people would appreciate for thinking.

“So,” Porco had said, speaking through gravel, “you like her.”

“Sure seems that way.”

“Historia.”

“Are you going to be like this all day?”

Porco had dunked his head in the sink and came out splashing water all over both of them. Marcel had crashed so hard his bed was still buffing out the dents, so for a brief segment of time soon to be all but erased, all this was his fun to miss. With a breath Ymir hoped he’d found fortifying, Porco wiped his face raw. “How badly did you screw up the kiss?”

Ymir rolled her eyes and came up with several biting retorts that made him cry, then they never spoke of it again.

If fucking only.

Instead, what had actually come out was, “I didn’t screw it up, I was savoring it. Standing still for romantic moments is what you’re supposed to do.”

Porco mumbled something which the record could not verify was actually, “Not that still,” so murdering him would not be the easily excusable brand of crime Kenny let slide, and Ymir still, in theory, had someone to bounce the wondrous trauma of emotion off of.

“Did you even talk to her after?”

“And ruin the mood?”

Porco had dropped his towel and looked close to a stroke. “Are you for real?”

“Between the two of us, my date’s the one that ended on a kiss.” A kiss which, Ymir had found out at that point, was not a good thing to reference if she needed more words to complete a burn. She rallied like a champ, though. “Unless you’re holding out on me, you don’t have much room to criticize.”

On another morning, the pale look of panic that bunny-hopped across Porco’s face would have been of interest. In a twist of very bad luck for one of them, they’d been living through this particular morning, where Ymir was trying not to hit the ground too hard from cloud nine, and Porco had not yet been embarrassed into silence.

“Maybe you should check your phone,” Porco had said, sure to have nightmares about the suggestion for another week. “Thing’s almost surgically attached, she might’ve sent you something to work with.”

All previous arguments to the contrary, Ymir had known by then that she was in some massive fucking trouble with the Historia situation. Her brain periodically turning to sappily romantic fuzz all night long when she was supposed to be sleeping was a good hint.

But when she’d turned her phone back on and found a waiting link to Pieck’s homecoming photos, she’d fallen down a whole new rabbit hole of emotion, and fuck Pock’s comments, if Historia had been in the room, she would have kissed her until she was the frozen one.

Needless to say, the conversation took a turn after that.

A turn Porco was still trying to skid out of as they walked to school the next morning.

“Your girlfriend,” he said acidly, for the fifth time, “told Pieck she could collect the Homecoming Queen crown for her. Pieck’s legs were acting up, so she gave it to me, and the King and Queen dance is traditional. It has nothing to do with anything!”

“Oh my gosh you two are so cute together,” Ymir said for the seventh time, scrolling delightedly through the shots Pieck had collected of the crowned royals dancing through the night.

Pock made a failed grab for her phone.

“Aw, and here your boyfriend is with Marcel. It’s so nice when everyone gets along.”

That locked Porco’s jaw right up, along with his fists and his gait. Probably because he could see the same smitten look Reiner was wearing in the Marcel pictures as he didn’t see in their pictures together.

Ymir didn’t mean to have a feeling about that, but she cuffed Porco on the shoulder anyway. “Don’t be like that, they’re best friends. It’s easy for a budding relationship to feel threatened by that kind of love, but I have faith—”

“Enough,” Porco said.

Ymir shrugged as gaily as she did everything. “Suit yourself. You should thank Pieck; she made sure to get your good side.”

He would, knowing him. With her around to nudge the thought into his head. Some of the stony redness taking over Porco’s everything backed off to plain ol’ redness. With an extra shoulder hunch for pity points.

Ymir didn’t need the pictures to know that he’d failed completely to turn his date into a date. She also didn’t need photo evidence to know that didn’t mean anything, because Pieck took care of Pock’s heart the way more sensitive people looked after a baby bird, but Porco didn’t know a thing about relationships. He’d be riding the sad until the next time Pieck smiled at him.

Or the grudgingly bitter. “What are you going to do about Historia?”

Ymir kept her eyes on her new prized possession. Pieck had caught the one nanosecond of Porco actually smiling when Reiner dipped him. “Are you back on that?”

Porco had the herculean nerve to roll his eyes. “Like you ever left?”

There was also a great shot Pieck had convinced Marcel to take of all three of them, both boys playing diligent honor guard to the lady joining their midst. The angle wasn’t perfect, but Pieck’s contented smile and Porco’s dopey one next to Reiner’s bursting grin made up for it.

“You barely even thanked her for those things,” Porco was saying. “Do you have some sort of plan?”

Ymir pulled a wrinkle out of her sleeve absently. “Things have been going fine so far. Why would I need a plan?”

The flummoxed silence was gratifying, but it didn’t last.

“You like her,” he said, more confused than horrified for once.

“Right.”

“…Shouldn’t you tell her that?”

“I don’t think dodging a confession for over a decade makes you an expert.” Ymir kept going before Porco’s softened nerves could pick up too bad of a bruise. “Look,” she said, “it isn’t something to rush into. I’m not gonna switch gears on her out of nowhere. She might not even be into that.”

The photos on her phone lost some of their luster with the words. To go with the excruciating pang in her heart saying them caused. The least punkest of rocks.

Porco, responding the way he usually did to being mined for mockery for a solid day due entirely to his own actions, said, “You mean what if she’s been a pervert all along who’s only interested in you for your body?”

“Hey. Hey. Hey Pock. Fuck off.”

----

She was not going to make it weird.

There was no reason for it to be weird.

The whole school already thought they were a thing.

They’d done it last week and no one cared.

Ymir was standing at the end of the fucking cafeteria line, wondering why in the fuck her legs couldn’t seem to move. Her only answer was an image in the back of her mind of what happened at one of the dances she’d actually attended, watching Porco watch Pieck. She didn’t care for it.

Historia was already seated, and looking at her was on par with how multiple lightning strikes probably felt.

The last time they were in the same room they’d kissed.

…Fuck.

How the hell was this doing this to her? Historia had always been beautiful. Her hair had always had that shine to it. Her legs had always gone on for days despite being a modest half-day, at best. Her arms always looked incredible. The very faded blue face paint on her cheek hadn’t been around long, but there wasn’t anything uniquely special about it. They hadn’t even kissed that time. Wanted to, very much, and oh hell that just put the time the want had entered reality back, and—

She always looked up and let the world stop when she saw Ymir.

So it was just going to be fucking weird.

Okay.

Ymir made her legs work. She made them drag her over to the table, and she made herself sit down, and she didn’t make herself stop thinking about kissing Historia because having all the romo didn’t mean she was suddenly a saint.

“Hey,” she said, sliding across the bench. “Thanks for the pics.”

“No problem,” Historia said.

Her phone wasn’t in her hand. The Tamagotchi was.

Ymir had a very serious problem. One the giant lumps taking up root in her throat were not helping with. Such a problem. A problem an overabundance of bad pop songs were written about.

Historia wasn’t going to bring it up. Ymir couldn’t call that a good thing, but she wasn’t going to complain. Who was to say there was even a reason to bring it up, when the whole stated excuse had been getting under her parents’ skin. A kiss here or there in the pursuit of pissing people off wasn’t anything at all.

What the hell was she supposed to do if Historia believed that?

What else was Historia supposed to think, when she went for a kiss and got jack back?

What if pissing people off was the only reason she’d gone for it?

How did people do this?

“Did you have a good… yesterday?” Historia asked.

“Yep,” Ymir said, like it was easy. “Bothered Pock, went for a run. What did you get up to without me?”

The somehow living bit-creature in Historia’s hand waved. “Not a lot.” Historia shifted slightly on the bench, putting their knees within a hairsbreadth of touching. Ymir could feel them both watching the splice of space, and it brought some very vivid memories back. “My life’s pretty boring without you.”

Was that flirting or just the truth? Both?

“I guess I should find more excuses to stick around, then,” Ymir said.

They were sitting too close for the kind of eye contact that brought on. Ymir tried not to look at Historia’s cheek. Barely any of the wing left, glitter lurking invisibly, and it gave her a thrill that went down to her toes.

Historia looked at Ymir, and Ymir could see stars in her eyes.

“You should,” she said.

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