#because this is mostly about her lbr

[rahabs]

Lots of people complaining about The Mummy vs the new Cleopatra documentary but therein lies the issue: Cleopatra is claiming to be a historically accurate documentary, it is claiming to tell the “real” truth and even put out a statement on how Cleopatra’s ethnicity has been long debated (which, among scholars, no it really hasn’t, y’all just keep ignoring us when we say Cleopatra wasn’t black), but now they’re here to tell the real story that Cleopatra was really black and so was everyone in Egypt, especially the ruling class, at a time where they definitely were not as they were being ruled over by the Ptolemaic Greeks, while The Mummy was not claiming any historical accuracy or to be a documentary of real events, and that’s where a lot of the backlash is coming from.

[loptrcoptr]

I mean I had guessed who would be in dire straits at the end of stranger things 4, but being prepared for seeing all that doesn’t mean I’m any less bitter about it

[sarah-yyy]

a few of y’all have asked me about new life begins, and i’m procrastinating over work so............

BASICALLY this story revolves around the royal family of xinchuan (head of the nine states). xinchuan has a tradition wherein the other eight states send eligible women over to marry the xinchuan princes. the show opens with all these women coming into xinchuan for this selection

this is our main character li wei

bbg does Not want to be selected as a bride for any of the princes. she comes from jichuan (one of the least wealthy states, most of them are farmers) wherein people marry for love and men aren’t allowed to have concubines, she is Not Into this xinchuan polygamy bs, and is doing all she can to be sent back home asap so she can live her chill life

this is the sixth prince yin zheng, unloved (for now!) and mostly unnoticed (also for now!!) son of an unfavoured concubine. he’s introduced as being sickly and of little note in the political field. he mostly gets along with his brothers by virtue of having little interaction with them and keeping a real low profile

this boy is way smarter than he presents to outsiders!! he knows that the least favourable political marriage will be assigned to him, so he figures he might as well get ahead of it and voluntarily ask for the nominee from jichuan to be his wife

li wei ends up yin zheng’s concubine!!! which is the worst!!! not only does she have to conform to this xinchuan polygamy bs, she’s not even his main wife!!! she’s depressed for a few days until she catches wind that yin zheng only has a few weeks left to live (fake news) and it just kickstarts a whole bunch of hilarious shenanigans in which she tries to be nice to him before he dies and she gets to go home to jichuan as a widow

cue yin zheng (who doesn’t know what li wei is thinking) going: she’s??? nice to me???? mayhaps..........she be.........in love with me??????

(uhhhh because she’s adorable???? i like her) 

ANYWAY y’all get the drift, it’s the whole arranged marriage, strangers to lovers, pining after my spouse vibe that i absolutely love!!! 

but it’s not just that!!! it’s also that the female characters are all well-written and the friendships between all of them are so cute!! 

first left is shangguan jing, fifth prince’s wife! she’s from danchuan which is a matriarchal society. she’s good at martial arts and very straightforward. does not really want to be married to xinchuan (much less to the fifth prince who starts off liking someone else), but is Doing Her Duty. i am SO INVESTED in her relationship with the fifth prince ahhhh, he’s a wimp (affectionate) who, this far in the show, has come to love his wife and is fretting constantly over how to make her happy/make her love him 

first right is hao jia! she’s the second prince’s concubine and li wei’s bff. she’s sweet and well-natured and essentially Good At Everything. the second prince is kind of a dick with obvious dv tendencies, but he’s the eldest son of the emperor’s wife and next in line for the throne. i am just HOPING we get to see hao jia go off on him one day soon 😭 (side note: i’m actually also curious about the second prince’s wife - i wonder if she and hao jia will team up to get rid of the second price ugh)

this is yuan ying junzhu, my li wei’s yin zheng’s wife. hoooo boy folks, when the emperor ordered yin zheng to marry her against his Very Strong Objection, i thought we were going to start in on the angst and the whole jealous wife arc, but!!! she’s got zero interest in him, and they decide that she’ll basically stay at the manor as his advisor/li wei’s tutor! she 100% likes li wei more than she likes yin zheng lbr

not pictured but also a+++ characters that i love: the third prince’s wife + his harem of concubines (he’s named them all after the 24 traditional solar terms); the seventh prince and his wife (both of whom are adorable and just try to stay low-key and out of trouble); song wu²; all the servants at the sixth prince’s manor

ANYWAY this show is light-hearted and fun and an absolute delight to watch!! it’s been awhile since we’ve had a romcom-ish cdrama that’s had actual budget to produce something to this quality 💖 11/10 would rec!!! 

where to watch: iqiyi // viki // youtube status:  this updates every sunday to wednesday (local chinese time), with 2 eps being released every day. 22/40 eps have aired so far, i think iqiyi subs are up to date with the current airing schedule but i can’t be sure? someone correct me if i’m wrong! 

[aihoshiino]

Atp i would like to see how ruby and aqua's relarionship will go. Not in "Yasss incest!" way but more of how they (mostly ruby) realize that they need to go their past lives and accept their relation as siblings. Or at least how wrong it is even if ruby wants it so much. There is no way incest would happen because Aka hates it. I am more interested in their psychological state and their conflict and resolving that conflict.

I don't think we can definitely say Akasaka Loves or Hates XYZ just because none of us know him, but there is a weird sense of like... discomfort or maybe avoidance on the topic of incest in OnK that I find kind of interesting to just poke at in my head sometimes. Because like, one of my main issues with the way OnK has handled the incest since 123 is that it just... well, hasn't.

I know that sounds insane in a post 143 world but going through the way the AquRuby stuff (or lbr just Ruby) has been written since 123, it feels like there's a very clear distinction between the ideas of "Ruby having feelings for Aqua, her brother" and "Ruby (& Sarina through her) having feelings for Goro, her doctor". When the story wants to play AquRuby for laughs, it leans into Ruby being attracted to her brother. When it actually takes things seriously, the framing is almost always Ruby addressing Gorou and the concept of incest is so loudly, conspicuously absent. You can even sort of see this line being drawn all the way back in 123, just at the end where Ruby very pointedly first addresses Aqua and then, separately, addresses "Sensei". It's almost as if she's purposely trying to create a divide so she can have one without dealing with the reality of what it would mean to be with the other.

It's hard to tell whether or not this is intentional in the sense of being part of Ruby's arc but it nevertheless creates a sense of the series wanting to have its cake and eat it too, indulging in the shock value and spicy intrigue of incest as a taboo without meaningfully engaging with it as subject matter. I've described it elsewhere recently as the series exclusively toying with the *aesthetics* of incest, its surface level referential language and set dressing, while resolutely avoiding going any deeper and I still stand by that. The 143 kiss is actually a really good example of this - the imagery is that of two siblings kissing but on that very same page, Ruby reminds us that in her eyes, she is talking to and in love with her "Sensei". The series has conducted this deeply convoluted narrative trick where it can depict what is very clearly incest without it technically being incest. Even when roadblocks to the GRSR relationship are addressed, it's only ever in reference to their age gap and Ruby always frames it as something that *used* to stand in their way but is no longer an issue now she's 18.

On days I am feeling charitable towards the series, I'm inclined to think this is an intentional part of Ruby's arc and that she is, in universe, being a bit delulu about the whole thing as an unhealthy coping mechanism - her being avoidant of emotionally inconvenient truths is something we see popping up more than once, so this being an extension of that tendency would make sense. When I am feeling more cynical, however, I tend towards thinking this is just an excuse to indulge in shocking imagery that generates clicks without ever having to actually commit to upsetting readers by sinking *or* canonizing incest ship. My best guess is that the truth is somewhere in the middle but it must be stressed that this is just my thoughts and I have no idea what goes on in Akasaka's brain.

Anyway this is just a long and rambly way of saying "word". Regardless of what direction the story takes AquRuby, I just want the story to finally fucking commit to something instead of chickening out every time it gears up to do so.

[tsutsumi-kurose]

perspective in picture perfect vs 112

I’m so excited about this new arc!! it’s really interesting to revisit similar themes that were explored in the picture perfect arc now that so much more has happened.

I think the biggest difference I’ve noticed is that in 112 nene objects to an altered reality because of the importance of her past:

whereas in picture perfect, nene’s objections to an altered reality are expressed mostly in terms of what she wants for her future:

she talks about wanting a real life, but she’s still talking in hypotheticals and hopes. of course, as the picture perfect arc shows, hope is a beautiful and important thing!! it’s what drives us to live our lives!!

but… is it life itself? what relationship do these aspirations have to a real life? are these things really what nene means when she says she wants a real life?

what does a real life look like?

I think 112 begins to answer that very beautifully by having nene consider what this means by looking to her real, lived past rather than a hypothetical future

a real life is the life nene poured hard work and endless love into. a real life is not just dreaming but doing. it’s having things happen to her and reacting to those things. the people who came into her life and how she put love and effort into keeping them there, and it’s the love and effort they put into staying with her!! look at all of her adventures, at all she’s faced and overcome to be where she is now!!

I love seeing nene asking what to do, especially as she’s looking at how much she’s already done. it’s such a beautiful turn in her perspective!! she’s come so far from the post-picture perfect nene who kept insisting they could deal with her lifespan later. we’ve come a long way from far shore bound nene, who was trying to accept her death by accepting a future in the far shore. maybe not the future she wanted, but a future she could try to accept.

her perspective in these past arcs was almost entirely future-oriented.

I really love that now, while she’s starting to think about what to do, she can reflect on all she’s already done and gone through!! I love that she loves her past!!

it’s been hard, but it’s been hers. and she wants whatever comes next. she wants to make it and grow it herself!! no matter what the result is.

it’s so beautiful seeing nene looking back and cherishing her life… and makes me wonder if this is maybe a tonal turning point. to see nene pausing and looking back instead of charging forward. directing her optimism and idealism and endless love backward and realizing how beautiful and important everything has already been, despite the hardships.

I love that she still wants to put work in, and I believe she’s going to be putting in so much work and so much love to the end of her story, because that’s who she is!!

but her saying she wants her dying, rotted plant back… saying it’s important to her, even if it will never flower… makes me wonder if she’s gearing up to accept an end to her life, knowing that it was a real one that mattered, and one that she gave her best to

or!! maybe nene looking to the past with love doesn’t necessarily mean an acceptance of her death, but rather that her plans for her future going forward will have a more solid foundation than her plans that were solely based on hope (and, lbr, denial)!! maybe she’s looking to the past to clear out that denial so she can have a more reliable plan.

either way, the beginning of chapter 112 is such a beautiful character moment for nene. I think her looking toward the past is an important distinction between 112 nene and picture perfect nene. it shows how she’s grown so far throughout the story, and I can’t way to see what she does with the reflections she’s made <3

[markantonys]

I keep seeing comments (mostly from show onlies cause they don't know what's coming) regarding the Randlayne scene "oh God not another love interest like enough already." he has a lot of love in his heart! Leave him alone! Plus he deserves to have nice relationships now that he's out of that abusive relationship with Lanfear. I just have a bad feeling that people are gonna be really shitty about the polycule

yes, rand has so much love in his heart! he's not being greedy or trying to two-time anyone or to get 3 for the price of one, he is just Full Of Love! and he does deserve happy relationships after lanfear. BUT it isn't all about him, because elayne also deserves happy relationships with people who see her for who she is as a person, after spending her whole life lonely and surrounded by people who only see her title or want to use her for her position! aviendha deserves happy relationships where she can always have her heart shaded and where she can express vulnerability without fear of feeling shamed! min....................exists. djkfjg okay this is showverse, so show!min deserves happy relationships with people who care about her as a person and don't just want to use her for her viewings!

now, with that out of the way.............of course people are going to be shitty about the polycule. the majority of readers are already shitty about it and i won't be at all surprised if many show-onlys go the same way (though i'm sure rafe & co are well aware of how ~controversial~ a romance it could be and will do all they can to make it as ~palatable~ to a general audience as possible)

it feels like readers are split into 3 categories on the subject:

people (lbr, straight men) who fetishize the polycule for their own male power fantasies, but think that aviendha and especially elayne are too Annoying and too independent to be Good Girlfriends and that min is the only one who "deserves" rand since she "doesn't have any plot obligations to get in the way of being his girlfriend" (yes, that is a real sentence i once saw someone on reddit say with their whole chest lmao). i suspect this was the majority back in the day, but thankfully nowadays it's mostly a minority on reddit. these people want the show to have rand get to fuck elayne and aviendha, but only have an actual relationship with min.

people who think that one man having 3 girlfriends is inherently Misogynistic and Cringe, regardless of how consensual it is, how happy the people involved are with the arrangement, and how much agency the 3 women have within the relationship to set their own terms and call shots. this is the majority nowadays. these people want the show to split the polycule into two monogamous pairings, rand/min and elayne/aviendha.

a small fraction of people who genuinely enjoy the books' attempt at portraying a poly relationship and think it is a pretty good attempt for something written within the constraints of early 2000s mainstream fiction, even if it isn't perfect. these people want the show to keep the meat of the book polycule but just make some updates for the times, such as making textual the subtextual romance between elayne & aviendha and making min feel like she actually likes the poly aspect rather than that she's just putting up with it because she wants rand.

i think that the show-desires of group #3 are most likely to be met, but the beliefs of group #2 are the most prevalent, and so it's inevitable that people are going to be assholes about the show's version and start on that same shit of claiming that rand having 3 girlfriends could not possibly be anything other than Misogynistic & Cringe, while completely ignoring all the context that makes it, in fact, an equitable, consensual, happy, healthy, and pretty damn queer relationship. the Self-Described-As-Woke Internet Fandom Crowd is all over alanna's F/M/M throuple but as soon as it's F/F/M with rand/elayne/avi, they'll be crying Straight Male Fantasy. that's just how it is, unfortunately! some people just judge based on surface-level ~optics~ and refuse to take actual context into account.

speaking of surface-level optics, people will also be mad about rand getting more love interests what with egwene and all of that, so i'm thinking the show needs to a) have egwene and gawyn meet early in season 3, b) give them the most adorable and romantic meet-cute of all time, and c) make gawyn as babygirl and as lovable as possible so that everyone immediately jumps onboard the idea of him being egwene's new love interest and then won't mind as much if rand gets with aviendha later in the season. yes, this is all a purely objective proposal here, not at all me trying to cater to my own wishes djkfjgh

thinking of timeline, i'd bet they do the randgwene breakup quite promptly in 3x01, specifically because they need to start getting the audience adjusted to the idea of them not ending up together and there's no real sense in beating around the bush about it - the longer they postpone the breakup, the worse the audience reception of their subsequent romances will be, and i doubt rafe & co want that. i think the breakup will be entirely mutual, and amicable enough that egwene would give avirand her blessing later in the season and it would feel genuine (tho we may see some rand-egwene tension lingering since their relationship starts to grow mistrustful around this point in the books).

during 3x01 we might get some seeds planted for randlayne and possibly avilayne, but i wouldn't expect anything more than Vibes at this early stage. then, fingers crossed for a gawene meeting in caemlyn in 3x02ish to reassure everyone that rand won't be the only one getting new love interests! and then avirand will be the slowburn of the season, and they'd probably only juuuuust get together by the end, by which time hopefully people will be onboard with it - they should have a lot of good development time throughout the season to really build up to it and get the audience invested, and enemies/irritants-to-lovers is such a popular trope!

pair that with discussions of aiel polyamory and more randlayne & avilayne hints, and we're ready for elayne to join later; i definitely don't expect randlayne to happen before avirand, because i'm not sure there'd be a way to do that without it feeling rushed and audiences potentially feeling that egwene's toes are being stepped on. shuffling the order a bit to go for the avirand slowburn first and then add elayne afterwards just makes a lot of sense with the deepening of randgwene compared to the books. rand can't be getting into another relationship immediately after THIS version of the breakup (and particularly not with egwene's bestie), so it'd work better to have his first post-breakup relationship be the slowburn that takes most of the season to come to fruition. and they can reshuffle stuff to allow elayne a season 4/late s3 reunion with rand & avi, so that she can get involved at that time rather than at the beginning of s3.

(now, with rand/selene, obviously that relationship felt rushed & out of nowhere to the audience since they got together offscreen, and so people were very quick to complain about it, particularly for egwene's sake. but for this relationship, that's kind of the point. we're meant to see that the relationship means a lot to rand, yes, but we the audience aren't really meant to feel particularly invested in it ourselves, even when we think she's just a nice innkeeper. we ARE meant to feel a bit indignant on egwene's behalf, i think, because one of the central tenets of this season was that you can't and shouldn't do things alone, so we are meant to see that rand going solo has hurt his loved ones as well as himself. but with rand's actual endgame romances, totally different ballgame - rafe & co want us to truly enjoy, support, and feel invested in those, and so they'll be handled much differently than rand/selene, and hopefully will likewise result in different audience reactions.)

[jyndor]

oh my god

a show written by white us americans for us american kids, while often spot on with its anti-imperialism, is not actually the end all be all for how occupied and marginalized peoples can respond to their oppression and genocide. weirdo.

full disclosure I have my problems with the portrayals of jet and hama for this exact reason that i have previously written about here. because ultimately the gaang represent "good" resistance - mostly defensive/nonviolent. jet represents "bad" resistance, namely violent property damage that would have caused civilian casualties if sokka hadn't warned them. and hama, who thanking this op didn't bring up, is supposed to show how trauma can make a person do terrible things but really it just feels like a racist, misogynistic way to both sides colonialism and imperialism.

now unless I'm misremembering the story (I am not) that episode took place in the earth kingdom. why were those innocent fire nation civilians so close to the valley that jet was trying to protect? why was he worried about them encroaching on that valley enough to destroy the dam?

because they were settlers. the fire nation was trying to defeat and occupy the entire world, of course their settlers weren't just innocent civilians, they played a role like all settlers do in all conflicts. and jet and his freedom fighters were all displaced by the fire nation. they were refugees.

in the end, the gaang may have their problems with jet's tactics but they still mourn him and understand that he is RESISTING oppression, and not that he is the same as his oppressor.

katara is UNIQUELY empathetic and decent at times. during the painted lady, she makes it clear that she wants the liberation of ALL - including her oppressors who are also victimized by fire nation imperialism (and capitalism lbr). she sees the class dynamics in the fire nation, sees how they harm the villagers of jang hui. how the military industrial complex poisons fire nation citizens - literally. the problem is that they are happy to take her help when they think she is one of them, but when she reveals herself to be a waterbender, they turn away from her in their racist, xenophobic disgust.

the truth is that katara's form of universal liberatory politics is just one form of resistance against oppression. sometimes atla veers into making it seem like the only acceptable form of resistance, which is quite convenient for the white us americans who wrote the show.

one of atla's main ideas is that imperialism harms everyone, including the beneficiaries of imperialism. it was also written in the early to mid 2000s during the so-called war on terrorism, and with a us american audience in mind. so no I am not surprised that jet isn't seen in a totally positive light, nor am I surprised that the fire nation is occasionally presented in a "not all fire nation" way. it still posits that those innocent civilians are racist/colonizers and frankly complicit in many ways for what the fire nation is doing abroad.

this is why jet isn't a villain, he's just a complicated character. why he is made a martyr. why katara mourns him even if she's angry with him.

as for whether or not katara would condemn hamas... I'm not sure it matters. movements regularly have infighting and disagreements on tactics. even so, atla is a TV show. palestine is a real place with real people who have tried all kinds of forms of resistance. nothing is ever good enough for supporters of the settler colonial project of israel because the point is never, ever to live together in peace. two state solution? where do you see that in atla? if ANYTHING the show calls for pluralism and freedom of movement for all. for an end to nation states and nationalism, as well as preservation of all cultures. liberation for all.

I can't speak to the mess of the comics or lok because I don't care about those but if we're just talking about atla... come on. it's free palestine.

also nice false equivalency between the free palestine movement as a whole and hamas, which is just one part of the movement. racist dipshit genocide apologist.

[suguwu]

how does Bridgeton reader overall feel about her situation? do they feel like something's off, enough to tell their family or someone?

you definitely know your situation is off, but telling someone doesn't really occur to you/feel right because of the situation it will put you (and specifically your family) in! plus satoru and suguru—lbr mostly suguru—has a way of getting into your head about it.

so you don't tell your family! but your maid knows about it, so sometimes you can talk to her about it.

really what it comes down to is satoru and suguru (particularly suguru) play the game well. he knows exactly what to say and do to make you capitulate. to make you stay in your situation.

i think as time goes on, you get so used to your situation it does feel normal. suguru is very good at "helping" you normalize it and if you ever have a day where you're pushing hard, he's quick to remind you that he and satoru are protecting you from ruin.

so yes, you know your situation is off! generally speaking, you're frustrated with it, but as time wears on, you accept it. accept them. you're theirs, just like you're meant to be.

[misunhye]

CHEWING GUM

LINES

내 맘은 Chewing gum [ 1:03 — 1:05 ]

커지면 커질수록

점점 투명해져

내 맘을 이제 더는

숨길 수도 없게 [ 1:43 — 1:52 ]

달콤한 Chewing gum [ 3:03 — 3:05 ]

LOOKBOOK

HIGHLIGHTS

baby misun … my fav girl!!

majorly short back then like .. 152cm/5’0”

her hair was ALWAYS in pigtails she despised it, it made her look more baby than normal

her hair was a dirty blonde

a lot of fans thought she was really quiet, and that was her main personality trait for awhile

and well, they werent exactly wrong but thats all she was to them lol

she tried her very best not to get on sns during this whole era because she knew people would be upset that she was the only girl in an all boy group

but sometimes she didn't even have to, instead getting mail from those who didn't like her or the times when some were bold enough to say it to her face

the older members tried to shield her from it as much as they could but sometimes it couldn’t be helped

however she did have some fans! she had three fansites from the start which made her glad bc she didn't want to be embarrassed and not have any ... unlike the others DLDFN

see her fansites here

she wasn't very comfortable dancing in her skirt but she figured she'd just have to deal with it

especially because the stylists wouldn't let her wear shorts like the boys sigh

but nct dream and red velvet's promotions clashed this era!! she got to see her red velvet unnies more which was probably the most excited nctzens had seen her yet

red velvet made her sing some of russian roulette btw

fans went crazy bc they knew she was supposed to debut in red velvet

she also got to meet blackpink!! her and nari became really close despite the age difference, she also really liked jennie but overall she just really enjoyed their presence

and none of them judged her for being in a group full of boys 😌

when exo won first place during lotto louder and made nct stay on stage😭

oh she was so red she couldnt help it she was the biggest exol

she tried to stay away from lay, kai and chanyeol aka her biases 💀 and then she’d get to the other members and panic cause lbr … so she went and hid behind doyoung lol

she thinks its so funny in the contrast of outfits n concept when she sees a throwback vid on her sns

she loved being on the hoverboards though

she found them so cool

and was very glad she never fell off of them in public

she still has her hoverboard btw

she was mostly around mark or jaemin during this era while they were out in public

thus starting the ships from the shipper fans

long term best friends wbk

one fansite opened up for her AND haechan towards the end of this era, named 'SUNSUN' but closed in 2018 :( rip DOLL we miss you you were good to baby misun

jaemin would baby her a lot and

haechan kept climbing ALL OVER HER LIKE ??? boy give her some space and stop fueling the rumors

overall she was just very glad to be debuting finally but she wasn't happy about how fans were treating her

she could do boy group dances just as well

and her voice actually did fit in well with the boys, too

thats why they put her in nct dream

ngl although she knew, deep down in her heart she deserved to be there and that she was put in dream for a reason, she was still a 16 year old girl who was hurt at the insults hurled at her

so of course the hate got to her

debut was not really kind to her honestly

but she always almost always had her members by her side!! <3

more on that at another time

TWEETS

[astromechs]

Au where they survive Scarif and have kids after the war

1. after the war, neither jyn nor cassian are able to go live a totally uninvolved, quiet life, because there's still so much to be done for the galaxy. cassian works with new republic intelligence, repeatedly turning down promotions to general because that would mostly keep him behind a desk. jyn works in a more civilian capacity to help people displaced by war — which has her engaging with politics/the senate quite a bit (and which she's much better at than she'd ever given herself credit for). things are stabilizing; they have a home and they're happy together.

2. and their sense of that does start to evolve. eventually, after much time and deliberation (and lbr character development to acknowledge that his chronic pain from his old injuries is only getting worse over time and he can't push his body in the field so much anymore), cassian accepts the promotion. jyn takes a coordinator's position, which has her traveling a lot less. it's then, and only then, that they start to talk about having a child, because given... everything, this isn't something they're walking into lightly; the last thing either of them would want to do would be in a position that would risk abandoning their child.

3. kerri andor-erso is born about a year later. she's extremely willful and hell on wheels — which is to be expected, given who both of her parents are. she is, and they would say this with all the fondness in the galaxy, to be their only child. jyn and cassian are both getting a taste of their own medicine from early on, and she's absolutely wearing them both out lmao who is the only force that could take them out? yeah, their own kid

4. cassian is absolutely a girldad; man was born to be a girldad. the girl has him completely wrapped around her little finger and he knows it, and he puts her hair up in fancy little braids and makes her all her favorite lunches. jyn, meanwhile, is absolutely delighted to have a little mini-me she can teach everything she knows to — and i mean everything she knows. she doesn't have a favorite parent or one she's closer to more than the other, necessarily. and she also has a wealth of uncles and aunts who are all part of the family she knows.

5. and of course there's k2, who's now made it his life's entire directive to protect kerri at all costs. she puts hats and costumes on him and giggles about it, and he doesn't say one word. one word.

send me a potential AU, and i'll give you five facts that would happen in the story!

[sarah-cam]

Why do you hate Jeremiah so much/think Conrad is the better brother? Btw this isn't trolling, I'm genuinely curious for your opinion! 😊

oh boy this is a loaded question 😂 i am purely a watcher of the show, i have not read the books — and honestly, jenny han has literally said that the show is how she would write the story today vs over ten years ago when the books came out, so take with that what you will (also here's jelly vs bonrad)

i want to start this off by just saying i don't HATE jeremiah (i know i say that i do a lot but that's mostly just me being funny and i won't apologize for that 💅🏼) and while i honestly don't like him right now, i don't think he's a bad person and lbr all of these characters could benefit from some self-improvement via therapy. i'm also going to refrain from labeling any characters/relationships as "toxic" or "abusive" because frankly i think people (usually tiktok girlies that are clearly chronically online) overuse and misuse the term so that it's lost all meaning, and i'm not a psychiatrist 🤷🏻‍♀️ this is simply my interpretation and analysis of a tv show that i enjoy watching

if you love jeremiah, all power to ya!! i'm not going to tell you that you need "professional help" or to "reevaluate yourself" (like some people love to tell random strangers on the internet). these are fictional characters — they are quite literally not real and if you like some, cool. if you don't like some, cool. if you disagree with my interpretations, cool!! i genuinely do not care as long as you mind your business and stay in your lane

i'm going to say right off the bat that the biggest reason i prefer conrad is simply that i gravitate towards that kind of character, i don't know why but it's just a common theme among my faves

going into season two, i was/am team conrad but i honestly loved jeremiah!! that quickly changed and honestly when i rewatched season one, i saw the same behaviors and didn't like him as much. also, none of my criticism of jeremiah is meant to say that conrad is perfect and has never done anything wrong (even though he IS perfect and has NEVER done anything wrong 😜)

most of the issues i have with jeremiah all come back to one thing: his feelings of inadequacy and jealousy when it comes to conrad

manipulative: when he sees belly and conrad about to kiss, he sabotages it with the fireworks, then tries to play it off as an accident and like he didn't see them when conrad mentions it. at this point, he knows that belly has always had a crush on conrad but now he knows to a degree that it's reciprocated. he then proceeds to go out of his way to sabotage them, like when he goes to nicole and gets her to invite conrad to that music festival (which, also not cool to play nicole like that), though i will admit that conrad self-sabotaging ruining things with belly had nothing to do with jeremiah

guilt-tripping: this sort of goes hand-in-hand with being manipulative. on MULTIPLE occasions, he purposefully makes belly feel uncomfortable and guilty for simply being happy with conrad. some examples:

thanksgiving — she drops conrad's hand after jere stares at them from across the table, they separate and she intentionally steps away from conrad when jere walks into the room, he tells conrad to "warn him" when belly is literally just going to be there

road trip to brown — he is passive aggressive in the car ("we don't talk about you"), he gives her the biggest eye roll/side-eye when trusky mentions conrad being depressed over the break up, he makes her feel terrible about "not being there for him" even though he was literally the one ignoring her when she said she had been reaching out multiple times. i understand that they are best friends and he was also struggling, there's no doubt about that, but she is ONE PERSON (who is also struggling, mind you) and OF COURSE she is going to be there for her BOYFRIEND

everything since then — multiple times throughout the rest of the season, he gives belly dirty looks any time she merely breathes in the direction of conrad, he interrupts them anytime they're talking (like in the party store) with a nasty look/tone, he goes to belly after her fight with laurel to be "supportive" and then shuts her down when she tries to talk about her feelings simply because she brings up conrad (which was very relevant to the conversation so like??), he gives belly a dirty look when conrad GIVES HER A SWEATSHIRT BECAUSE SHE WAS CHILLY. she is immediately uncomfortable and self-conscious of her actions every single time, even when SHE'S NOT EVEN DATING CONRAD ANYMORE and none of the interactions were explicitly "romantic"

playing the victim: again, goes hand-in-hand with my previous points. not only did he know that belly has always had a crush on conrad, but he literally watched them almost kiss. then the next night, he tells belly he likes her and they kiss. then when she later tells him that she kissed conrad, he acts like he had no idea that she liked conrad and was completely deceived (this is not me saying that belly didn't do him dirty — she did!! and i DO truly feel bad for him, but they weren't dating and he knew full well that she was rejected by conrad immediately before they proceeded to get together) and throws the fact that his "mom has cancer" in her face to make her feel like a bad person. i get that he was upset, rightfully so, but that was still messed up. conrad also did NOTHING WRONG here!! he had no idea that jeremiah liked belly or that they kissed when he kissed her, was not angry when belly told him about kissing jere, asked her who she wanted to be with, and then respected her decision to not date in order to spare jere's feelings. jeremiah acting all pissy towards conrad was not deserved. i understand him being annoyed when conrad asked him for his blessing, but if he truly cared about them, he would want them to be happy together instead of spending the next few months pouting and ignoring them

jealousy: all of this comes back to the fact that he is extremely jealous of conrad. having an older sister, i get it — i sympathize with always being compared, feeling like they're better at everything, and trying to live up to that. he feels like conrad is better at everything and is everyone's first choice (which... he is 😬) but like... that's a YOU problem. conrad didn't do anything to him!!

the conrad of it all: he constantly talks shit about conrad and doesn't even try to understand where he's coming from, which i understand to an extent because he is justifiably hurt, but calling conrad the selfish one is literally LAUGHABLE. even though he may have been misguided, everything conrad did was to try to protect jeremiah from pain. he has had an immense amount of pressure put on him by his father (and others) to be the perfect one that is always looking out for and protecting the younger ones. he suffered in silence for months after finding out about susannah's cancer/adam cheating, both to give susannah the last perfect summer she wanted and to protect jere from everything. same thing with the house — he thought that he could handle it by himself and that it would be protecting the rest of them to do it by himself. he had to deal with all of the guilt of not being able to be there for susannah as much as he wanted because of college, and he literally had a panic attack at the thought of leaving jeremiah to go to stanford. jeremiah constantly bringing up that belly and conrad broke up (when it's none of his damn business and he even admitted he didn't know what happened between them) ESPECIALLY in regard to conrad not being around when susannah was sick because HE WAS AT SCHOOL and "always with belly" is so fucked up. everyone was struggling and doing their best, including jeremiah, and that was just not cool. belly's actions ("not being there for jeremiah") are not conrad's fault.

because of his jealousy towards literally every single thing conrad says or does, he doesn't care that belly makes conrad happy (and vice versa), he gives absolutely zero consideration to conrad's feelings when deciding to go after belly (also neither does belly but that's a whole other post). conrad has now apologized to both belly and jeremiah on multiple occasions and started doing some serious self-reflection. jeremiah has not apologized ONCE for the shit he’s said and done.

i have said it before and i stand by it: conrad wants belly to be happy while jeremiah only wants belly to be happy if it's with him

(and no, his conversation with conrad in the finale doesn't change my mind because i simply didn't believe him)

IN CONCLUSION, people are entitled to their wrong opinions but conrad fisher remains superior now and forever and he deserves so much better and no i don't take questions or criticism because i'm right

[jasmineiros]

Of course people expect pop stars to be entertainers as the King of Pop was basically one of the greatest and regardes as the most successful entertainers of all time in guiness.

If I pay 200$ more or less to a concert I expect to be entertained. And the excuse she can't dance is kinda lazy. I mean I get if it may be harder for her to learn. But atleast put more effort into it. Jesus.

And they way some of these Swifties compare MJ with the amount of fame she has to him. They don't even care if she's actually like that talented to be deserving that type of fame ( she doesn't and isn't that famous lbr). It's just how much Spotify streams she has, how many tickets she has sold. It's not how much of a great artist they think she is. They compliment her just basically on her popularity and not on her artistry. She can sing, she's not the best. 3 octaves isn't bad. There are other who can sing better. She writes most of her own songs. Which okay, I can respect that. But most of her songs are break up songs, Revenge songs, Songs about her haters. And she does play the guitar and the piano and she can't dance. So her most talent is her songwriting.

There is also a different between popularity, impact and being a legend. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's legendary or it has left and impact. Taylor Swifts songs are mostly just being streamed by her fans. This doesn't make her have a long lasting impact. Just a month ago Billboard realeased the Hot 100 on Twitter and Taylor was occupying most spots and most people who weren't fans of her only heard of like 2 songs on the list. Even the Number one Hit which was also hers was unknown.

Also having a number one Hit just doesn't hold that much weight like back then. It's literally easier nowadays to mass stream a song in fandoms. Also people just don't really care that much. Because it's not that impressive.

For example everyone knows Thriller the single. It never hit number one. But it's has way more impact than all Taylor Swifts number Ones combined as it is basically the Halloween song for people and most people recgonize the zombie dance.

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

[here2bbtstrash]

bts at a drag show/gay bar

i was already babbling abt how much i wanted to do this with my bias line and then y'all made me realize i should just make it a whole damn headcanons post so. welcome! here we are! here is my brainrot on how the boys would turn up on drag night at the gay bar 🏳️‍🌈✨ if this content is not for you, it costs $0 to just keep scrolling ✌️

knj: everyone expected that joonie bby would be flooded with attention from the people who came out tonight specifically in search of a tall, built daddy, but there's a group nobody saw coming that ends up swarming him first: the lesbians. they fucking love him, and he finds himself getting sucked into an hour-long conversation on the back patio about roni horn and rha hyeseok. he'll probably end up agreeing to start a book club with his new sapphic friends before the night is over (and he'll run into them all again the following weekend when he goes to support soyoon at one of her gigs lmao) 👭

ksj: entirely oblivious to what it looks like when a person is flirting with him, despite that being exactly what happens to him for quite literally the entire night. each time someone new walks away from the table, he'll turn back to yoongi and jimin with the same question: "okay, now surely that wasn't flirting, was it?!" only to be immediately told that yes, yes it was and no, nobody would sit through a 20 minute ted talk on the lore of maplestory if they didn't also want to sit on his dick. he'll argue til til he's half-hoarse from screaming over the music that there's no way everyone in the club could possibly be flirting with him - but frankly, he's not mad at the ego boost 🍆

myg: putting the suga in suga daddy, he's breaking hundreds at the bar to make sure everyone has a stack of singles to tip the queens, and alllllll the drinks are going on his black card. other than that he's pretty lowkey, mostly just sipping steadily at his whiskey and looking at his phone. when somebody finally gets nosy enough to lean over his shoulder and snoop, they realize that he's actively scrolling through his rotation of hookup apps and trying to match up people in the room to their profiles. might slip away for a sneaky link in the bathroom oop, but he'll be back in time to close his tab out 💳

jhs: full-send GAGGING at the queens and their dancing. he can't even stay in his seat because song after song he's jumping to his feet just so he can dramatically collapse to the floor with a gay scream, getting his life entirely with every new kick, flip, spin, and death drop. the word slaaaaaaaay! has never been shouted with more enthusiasm than it is tonight by this man, and he does not give a fuck that he won't have a voice tomorrow. once the show is over, he is the absolute center of the dancefloor, popping and locking and showing off his footwork like he was born to do it-- and the boys will definitely catch him practicing his duck walk at some point in the next week 🕺

pjm: without a doubt, he is the LIFE of the mf party, lost in the lights and outta his mind u kno?? it's literally just the like crazy MV, actually. will make everyone do shots as soon as they get in the door and then at least once an hour the rest of the night, if only because he really likes flirting (and by flirting i mean making out) with the shot boys. lbr he probably gets several shots poured or spat into his mouth, and if anyone's hopping up on the bar to get tequila sucked out of their belly button, it is absolutely this demon. and ofc he's bringing at least one person home with him - "it's gon' be a good night" indeed~ 😈

kth: disappears into the crowd a few songs into the set, but he texts the group chat that he's fine and just made some friends, so the night carries on without him. it isn't until the next performer is called to the stage - miss tata mic! - that everyone realizes he's befriended the queens, and they've done him up right: cinched for the gods, face beat to make his eyes even more smoldering than usual (...wait, did he bring his colored contacts from home?!), and moving fearlessly in borrowed six-inch heels. and of course, his choreo is flawless. he easily earns enough tips to pay yoongi back in full and then some 👠

jjk: the definition of 'happy to be here'. loves the lights, the music, the ~vibes~, all of it. he somehow knows every word to every single song, and the more drinks he has, the louder he's singing along. and the queens love him for being easy to fluster, the way even his ears flush with color when he blushes, so he gets a whole lot of ass and tiddies in his lap and his face (rewarded with generous tips, naturally). when the lights finally come on and everyone stumbles outside, he's a drunchies king, and he thinks the food from the truck in the parking lot is quite literally the best thing he's ever tasted. he repeatedly shouts 'DAMN!' up to the night sky, one fist swinging as he eats, until someone pours him into the car so they can all head back home 🍗

[yuridovewing]

this is in no way pro-terf, their ideology is absolutely vile, but a lot of people have begun using “terfy” as a replacement for whining about misandry & associating being a terf w any kind of hate on men. which arguably feels more transmisogynistic, considering that it’s mostly trans women who are terf’s victims? i guess the argument is that the sisters are bioessentialist or whatever but i don’t think it’s fair for us to fault them for that assumption. we don’t know how they would treat a trans cat when trans cats *do not exist* in warrior cats bc the WRITERS refuse to write them in. take it up with them! you’re making things up and getting mad about them! enjoying the sqh readthrough ^-^

(gonna preface this with saying i am tme for clarity's sake)

yeah. just yeah. thats what bugs me about the terf argument, it feels like its coming from people who's definition of "terf" means "woman who's kinda mean to men" and not "political ideology that wants to eradicate trans women". i do think its important to be able to distinguish when someone is talking bioessentialist ideals and using "men" when they really mean "trans women"... but some people have taken that to mean "anyone who criticizes misogyny and how some men uphold it are actually closet terfs". which leads to actual trans women getting called terfs for talking about their own oppression (bc yknow. they're affected by misogyny), which is unacceptable to me. it also ignores how terfs actually ally themselves with cis men more often if it means abusing trans women.

anyways, the sisters have issues. but i think holding them accountable like they're real people and not poorly written writing devices is a little disingenuous. i find it hard to get angry over the exile thing when in this very book, squilf is demeaned and abused and treated like dogshit compared to her male love interest. when squilf's idea of being "useful" is having more children, which isn't really challenged by the narrative and really just gets resolved with "she shuts up and learns to be a grandma". when in the main series, its literally a trope for there to be a male protagonist that shits all over his "perfect" sister. when even in this no men society people are upset about, the women cannot fathom not having children (line said by moonlight in this book). the writers cannot entice me with the "in this world, men are oppressed" premise here.

i think applying a queer lens to what we consume is a valuable thing to do, and there is something to say about how the sisters are presented. but we also have to acknowledge author's intent, and lbr, the sisters do not exist to say anything about trans people at all. they're like that because they're based on irl cat colonies, and are formed by the author's strange views on women.

[findafight]

I think it comes out that Steve is Eddie's Steve and Stobjargyle's (It is both painstaking and fun to type that out) Steve when Eddie is invited to perform at one of Stobjargyle's concerts as a guest performer and he just blatantly flirts with Steve and they're (CC fans) worried that Eddie's cheating until someone points out the guy that he's flirting with is named Steve and from the same place and they dress similarly and oh! They're probably the same person. Also is this au modern or set in the 80s/90s?

Okay I didn't really think about a time period and kept it neutral but now because you are so galaxy brained with this idea I want them at a festival in the late nineties and Eddie is on stage with them, because everybody knows both bands are from Hawkins it's a little reunion for them aww.

And obv the bands have Rapport. Because they're friends irl (Argyle and Gareth get on like a house on fire do to mutual passions of making pizza with pineapple and putting up with nonsense from the rest of the band, and Steve and Jeff are baseball buds, which mostly consists of Jeff dragging the absolute hell out of Steve for being a Cubs fan which no one in the group but them understands) which is even more fun to watch than their individual back and forths.

Jon and Gareth do a fun drum battle, Argyle and Jeff Vibe together, Robin whips out her trumpet, and Eddie. Well. Eddie takes the opportunity to flirt like the world is ending (he would know) with Steve. Who flirts back, grinning and laughing and tilting his chin up so he can look Eddie in the eye from where he sits behind the keyboard.

And the audience is kinda like huh? Isn't. Wait a second. Isn't Eddie Munson married or something? To that Steve guy? Whomst is this keyboardist!! How dare he!

And then. And THEN. Eddie is introducing a Steve Song (lbr most of his songs are Steve Songs but this one is a Confirmed In Public Steve Song) and leaning all in Steve's space. Robin is rolling her eyes so hard they may get stuck. Jeff is giggling with Argyle, Gareth and Jon are gossiping because their mics are off and it's like oh we should not do this again those to are so annoying together. Jonathan and Argyle at least wait to get to the green room to make out. But the Corroded Coffin fans who pay attention to the personal lives of the band are like how dare Eddie introduce a song for his lover while flirting with JUST SOME MAN.

So finally Steve is like "Eddie, you gonna sing or flirt? Because they're not here to watch us to flirt."

And Eddie, grinning and pulling his hair in front of his mouth (as he does) just goes "well technically if I sing I'll be doing boOoth~"

"then get on with it"

"but steeeeeeviiiieeeee" as Steve loudly plays the opening cords to the song with a dry look.

And then it clicks for some people like ohhhhhhhhh. Oh. The keyboardist is Steve. Steve is the keyboardist. Eddie Steve. Yeah. Maybe should've picked that up a bit faster.

[aihoshiino]

hey please do tell us about those ai hoshino crossover ships please i too want to see my girl happy and well and loved and doted on please

i need you to know that I've been holding onto this (& another related ask) as the motivation to power through the Oshi no Anons that were sitting in my inbox and I am so incredibly delighted to finally get to answer it lol. Before I turn off my cringe inhibitors tho I thought it would be fun to talk about my Ai romance headcanons and what I like in an Ai ship because lbr when am I ever really gonna get an opportunity to ramble about that again with the way this manga is going……….

Anyway! Ai, as I write her, primarily gravitates towards being attracted to men mostly just as a result of being socialized in a cisheteronormative society but I certainly don't read her as straight! That said, I also hesitate to label her and I don't think she would be able to put a label on herself either, for a whole lot of reasons! But from my perspective as a writer, this is primarily because what Ai looks for in other people, above and beyond anything else, is acceptance. She says herself in 45510;

"I want [people] to know about the dirty parts, my rough edges, and all the rest, and I want them to say that it’s okay. That they accept me."

Ai is a character so utterly starved of love that I think gender is kind of secondary to the purehearted desire to have someone just... accept her and be kind to her. I think if a person came along and gave her that wholehearted acceptance even after seeing her at her dirtiest most unpolished self, gender would be in no way a barrier to that relationship. In fact, my original read of the HKAI relationship was that Ai threw herself into romance with him specifically because Hikaru had the potential to be that person for her but it sadly just didn't work out… or at least, Ai felt like it didn't work out.

Anyway, that acceptance is pretty foundational to any kind of Ai ship I like to write, but I've found that it's important for that acceptance to be... I guess the word would be informed and it can't come from a person who is just uncomplicatedly, unconditionally accepting of everyone. Ai does not see herself as a 'good' person, so if faced with someone who is (or someone she perceives as such) I think she would struggle a lot with feeling 'safe' in opening up to them and letting them see her true self. Ai's salvation can't ever come from somebody telling her she isn't bad, dirty, impure and all the other awful things she thinks about herself because she will never feel any sense of security that she won't be rejected if that ever changes. Love, for Ai, is a person seeing her most wretched and unacceptable self, her self hate and avoidance and everything about her she thinks is filthy and wrong, and actively choosing to accept her as she is, warts and all.

Related to that, I also really enjoy writing ships for Ai from an angle of like… reclamation of her body & her sexuality. I've talked about this too many times to count in my metas but there's this very strong underlying current in Ai's arc of self-directed shame and self-hate in relation to her sexuality that fuels perception of herself as 'dirty' and 'impure' - all because she is a person who wants and enjoys sex. I really enjoy getting to have Ai work through that specific hangup with a partner who loves her - not from the angle of 'of course you're not dirty' but 'even if you are, I want you anyway'.

I guess what it ultimately comes down to is that any important relationship I would want to write for Ai (romantic or otherwise) would need to center humanization for Ai. So much of her arc in the series, even posthumously, is about her screaming for anybody to recognize her as a human being and the ongoing tragedy of OnK is just how many people not just fail but actively refuse to do so even when it's right in front of their eyes.

Anyway, that's all the Deep, Thematic Stuff (tm) out of the way so for a shotgun round let's go for pure vibes and dynamics I like!!

Iirc I've said this before but a couple's moment to moment chemistry is really important to me when it comes to getting invested in a ship and the stronger of a rapport they have, the more I will go crazy for it. If they can't banter back and forth and relentlessly tease each other, I don't wanna hear about it!!!

This goes triple for Ai because I think her slightly cheeky sense of humor coming out when she's comfortable with someone is soooo cute... having a partner she can banter with while they pick on each other is peak to me.

I think I did lay down a more concrete Thing of dynamics I like for her somewhere, so let's see if I can dig that out...

Ai works well as the lighter, cheerier contrast in a good cheery loves grumpy/silly loves serious dynamic but with the fun oh you're a little bit fucked up actually undercurrent. I particularly like comfy, domestic dynamics (since Ai describes herself as having longed for a family her whole life) but I'm also really into slightly darker takes on this, with Ai's desire for love and companionship leading her into relationships with characters who have obsessive/possessive/yan streaks. I also love playing her against characters who also have facades/fake personas up or who otherwise do a whole lot of lying.

That last point is the one I think really Cooks My Brain over and above any other LOL. Characters who have really strong parallels with/similarities to Ai are like catnip for me. The central rapport and dynamic can vary up a lot but if the hook comes down to "characters who hate themselves encounter a person just like them and through falling in love, the two of them are able to accept & forgive each other and themselves" I will be insane about it until the end of time.

That was A LOT!!! of rambling and this post is getting very long huh…. I didn't even start on the actual part you asked lskfksks. I'll put the rest behind a cut partially because this post is log but mostly because I am a little embarrassed so you guys have to be niceys to me or I'll collapse into dust and particles.

now we're behind the cut I'M NOT TRAPPED IN HERE WITH YOU, YOU'RE TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME!!!!!!

Most of my Ai ships are stuff I've written with friends where we've just kind of thrown characters we already were writing together and a ship happened… tho one of them is an example where I was like "I want to put these characters specifically in a salad spinner and see what happens" and then as it turns out, I was the one who got salad spun…

I think the two big ones that really cooked my brain are Ai with Rinne Amagi from the Ensemble Stars series and then Oberon from Fate/Grand Order. Both of them kind of hit that Brain Cooking Premise for me of being characters who are fundamentally the same type of person as Ai and how those similarities make them clash and conflict and cohere is suuuuuuuch a juicy premise for me to sink my teeth into.

For Ai & Rinne specifically I also will say they just had the baseline important Extremely Good Chemistry And Rapport as me and my friend were writing them… so not only was the juicy emotional stuff really good, they were just relentlessly teasing each other at all times and it was very cute. They also have a HUUUUUUGE difference in height & overall body size - Rinne is pretty tall and muscular and we all know how tiny and dainty Ai is that contrast is like, the ultimate form of moe to me……………… I actually am not really familiar with EnStars outside of just, osmosis of writing against my friends Rinne, so they were such a nice surprise and they are currently cooking my brain <3

Ai & Oberon are a bit different where that was like - because I'm also a huge FGO fan, I was super familiar with Oberon as a character and came out of his story chapter like. oh i NEED to write ai against this mfer. I don't wanna go toooooooooo into the specifics to not just dash LB6 spoilers everywhere but these two are a case where 'they are the same person' is VERY bad for Ai <3 This is definitely one of those ships I talked about where I think her desperation to be accepted can lead her into codependent and unhealthy dynamics and it's sooooooooo fucking good. Their issues and the things they want feed into each other so perfectly, it's one of those surprise crosscanon dynamics where like, I joked to a friend the other day that if this was an actual canon dynamic, I would probably find it a bit heavy handed LMFAO. But the beauty of it being a cross canon dynamic is that every time you find another parallel to mine, it's just fun and rewarding. I was also really shocked as we went through 15 Year Lie in OnK, because it kept paralleling and repeating some really eerily similar beats me & a friend had written between Ai and Oberon but between Ai and Hikaru... truly I felt like I was being pelted by the dodgeball of prophecy...

(Also, sidebar to fellow Grand Order Fuck Freaks: can you believe i was getting my brain juiced by the concept of ai and oberon and specifically ai as titania for like a whole year and then completely fucking forgot until i started rereading lb6 this week that not only is titania referred to with all the same star imagery as ai is in lb6 but she is talked about with the exact same language everyone talks about ai in oshi no ko. can somebody please help me)

Some other ships for Ai I've played and really enjoyed off the top of my head… Shou Tenkuubashi from Tokyo Aliens was like, the first character I bounced her off in a shippy capacity and I am still sooooooo deeply unwell about them. They're actually kind of unique from all my Ai ships because all the others are usually an adult Ai, but with Shou I write teen Ai. They hit on those 'fundamental similarities' I talked about where they're both abused, dehumanized kids who hate their bodies but are able to accept themselves by being accepted by someone else first……………… it's so juicy.

My friend Isa and I have also lightly cooked up a P5 AU for the purposes of playing Ai & Goro Akechi LOL. We haven't done a ton with it in practice just yet but we have a tooooooooooon of ideas and the dynamic we've chatted about them having is really fun. They actually also have a really similar energy to HKAI that predates 15YL lol, more in the specifics of "girl who is bad at articulating her emotions keeps accidentally destroying this fucked up boy w abandonment issues".

THERE'S LIKE A MILLION MORE…… I RP her so much that I end up with so many interesting platonic and romantic dynamics on my plate and I feel soooooooooo well fed as a result but I'll stop myself here otherwise I'll go on all day lol. SORRY THIS WAS SUCH A RAMBLE AND THAT IT TOOK SO LONG… I hope it itched your curiosity at least if nothing else