#but also in universe their reaction makes little sense here. at least for me

[hopeswriting]

[ID: Three panels from the manga Katekyo Hitman Reborn, showing Gokudera Hayato, Sasagawa Ryohei and Yamamoto Takeshi. They say "Woah—!!", with bright and happy faces while smiling widely. /End ID]

this is their reaction to reborn letting them know about the upcoming inheritance ceremony, and it made me think of that ask i got about how frustrating it can be that the 10th gen seemingly has no problem being/becoming mafia even if it's the last thing tsuna wants. and i actually didn't remember this scene, but seeing this it's only fair to wonder if they do, in fact, even care about tsuna not wanting to become mafia, yeah.

but honestly this reaction feels kind of off to me? and a bit--well, not necessarily ooc, but also not the type of reaction the natural progression of the story should have led to, because they're literally right out of the future arc here, and we all know how that one went. tho gokudera is one thing because being mafia is all he's ever known, and becoming vongola, let alone the leaders of vongola and all that it implies, is the best thing and happiest ending that can happen to him, and he still projects that on tsuna and assumes he must feel the same, but yamamoto? whose dad was killed in the future because he was mafia? who was forced to give up on baseball (i.e. his civilian life), even if it was only temporary, so he could give his best trying to make things right again? and ryohei who was so mad (and scared) about tsuna involving kyoko in the mafia any more than she had to to the point he punched him?

like, even putting aside tsuna altogether and how they should care to take into account his wishes on the matter, why would they be happy with the prospect of officially becoming mafia? tho the way the scene is framed they're solely being happy for tsuna here, and still the question remains because why would they be? don't they know tsuna at all??

(and not quite relevant, but it's interesting that hibari's reaction isn't shown, and in fact he disappears from the conversion entirely from this point onwards. and i know it's likely just hibari being hibari and not considering himself part of the group and so not considering himself concerned by any of this but like... interesting.)

[ghost-proofbaby]

DO YOU WANNA BE FRIENDS? (a barista!eddie x barista!reader au)

summary: eddie really hates being on bar. Especially during morning rush. When you not only notice his impending breakdown, but do something about it, he realizes that the two of you might be capable of being more than just coworkers.

warnings: ONE use of "y/n", fem!reader (use of she/her pronouns), description of being overstimulated/extremely anxious

wc: 4.5k

a/n: shoutout to all the friends that let me make them fellow victims of the siren <3 also thank you to everyone who showed love the first one shot! i didn't expect that at all so it means the world. hopefully with this part, it makes more sense what i meant by little slices of life! the masterlist will always have the individual one shots listed chronologically.

the full menu

Bar was Eddie’s own personal Hell when he first started. It was chaotic, it was fast paced, and it was simply too much to deal with first thing in the morning (especially on the sparse few hours of sleep he functioned off of). 

He was much better put to use on DTO. Taking orders, stalling perfectly so that whoever was on food could get a jump start, cracking plenty of jokes all while still always perfectly reciting back the customer’s drinks. He thrived on DTO. Even when he would be assigned to “one-manning” drive, which simply meant he handled both taking orders and handing them out the window, he was clearly one of the best.

Nicole knew this. Meg knew this. All the shifts knew this — except the newest shift, Gale, apparently.

Because this morning, a major fuck up had occurred. 

Gale was going over his floor plan for the peak rush, explaining who would be in which position, and Eddie knew something was up the moment you shot him a concerned look from across the room. Initially, it was actually funny, the way your eyes so quickly found his and your nose scrunched microscopically. But by the time Gale had made his rounds to Eddie, he understood that the reaction you’d given him the privilege to witness had not been just something cute – it had been a siren going off from across the store, your attempt to forewarn him of the impending chaos and doom. 

Since that first opening, Eddie has been lucky. Just as he had hoped for, that morning wasn’t the last time he saw you. In fact, he sees so much of you on a weekly basis, he’s sure the Universe is playing a sick joke. It was bound to happen; there’s only so many people who are willingly to be openers (for obvious reasons), and you were one of those brave soldiers. He took Nicole’s advice to heart, he decided to let you slip into pace beside him on the front lines, and he’d been reaping the benefits. 

You’re kind, you’re funny, you make the time pass. You make Eddie feel like the two of you might be friends, or at least could be. And it wasn’t the fake kind of niceties that some of the other baristas would extend only from the moment they clocked in to the moment they clocked out. Your sweetness towards him lasted long past being on the clock. In the parking lot in the early mornings, in the lobby after your shift as the two of you solicited just to get a few more jokes in with Nicole. You’d wait for him and walk out to his car with him. You learned how he likes his coffee, and sometimes made him his preferred drink amidst your opening tasks, only handing it over with a smile and charming, “Drink up, Munson. You’re gonna need it to keep up with me today.” 

God, he fucking liked you. 

A month of openings all tallied up to this moment now, in which you’d just opened him up to the possibility of private, silent conversations in a crowded room. He’d never been on the receiving end of that before. Usually, he was the outsider as glances in a secret language were exchanged. 

Not anymore. Not now that you had your sights set on him. 

“Hey, Eddie,” Gale approaches him slowly, a friendly enough smile on his face. He’d transferred here from another store a few weeks ago, “So, game plan for today’s peak.”

The words lay it on me are on the tip of Eddie’s tongue, but they stick to the roof of his mouth instead. He wasn’t that quick on his toes with most people at work. Half the time, he’s lucky he’s managed any banter with you. 

Blandly, Gale explains how Marissa will be on cafe bar. “And then, I’m going to put myself over on front and warming, try to keep myself flexible for you guys. I’ll have you, Y/N, and Ash run drive today.” 

Eddie pales a little, and just as your eyes had immediately sought out his, he’s looking right over Gale’s shoulder to find you peeking out from around the corner, already in position. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah!” Gale is oblivious to Eddie’s nerves, “I’ll have you bar, she’ll be your DTO. It’ll be great, you guys are going to kill it.” 

The only thing dying will be our drive times. 

Gale leaves with a quick, encouraging smack to Eddie’s shoulder, telling him to go ahead and head over to the small nook that’s designated for the drive thru as he ‘splits the bars’ – changing the system so that tickets for cafe and mobile orders will expel out from the printer that sits atop the bar facing the front of the store, while any drive thru orders print on the bar hidden there. 

Eddie is in his own personal Hell. Actually, he’s in his own worst conundrum. 

On one hand, he’s thrilled to be able to spend the day in this corner with you. Plenty of times, Nicole will assign you to bar and Eddie to take orders or greet customers on the window, and it’s wonderful. Forced proximity due to the set up of the store, easy conversation during lulls, and abundance of inside jokes shouted between customers. He loves it. But he only loves it because he’s not the one busting out those drinks, already starting on the next iced caramel macchiato as the customer at the speaker box has hardly finished announcing it as their drink of choice. He loves seeing you in your element; you’re quick, fast and always on your own rhythm that keeps those damn drive times that corporate care about so much under a minute. Eddie could never do that – he could never average thirty second wait times, especially when so many customers order so many drinks. 

Today is not his ideal situation. He will be the one trying to juggle all those drinks, trying to find a pace that works for both him and the customers and fucking corporate. 

“You good?” you whisper the moment he steps up around the corner and up to the bar, turning and facing you. Your mirror images of one another – both of you have your lower backs pressed to sticky counters, leaning with arms crossed and already looking defeated before the rush has even begun. 

“I’m gonna fuck it all up,” he blurts out quietly, the girl who will be on window - Ashleigh, Ash for short – not quite joining you two in the corner yet. “Our times are going to suck so badly.” 

If it were anyone else, he would have just shrugged the question off. He would have smiled politely. But it’s you, still bleeding sunshine even after being back from vacation for a full month, and still offering him a reassuring smile even as his pessimism hangs around the space like a dark cloud. 

“Fuck the times,” you immediately say, and he laughs a little, eyes widening in shock at how serious you look right now, “You know what? I think our store has been doing a little too good. I’ve always wanted to see if we could get it up to a five minute window time. Are you down to test my theory today?” 

He can’t help but fully throw his head back at that, smile wide, no laughter audibly escaping him but he can feel it fizzing in his chest. He used to hate that, especially during his first shift with you – the way you could seemingly make him feel so much better about this entire situation. Now he’s just grateful. If he has to stand on the deck of a sinking ship on this terrible Tuesday morning, he’s so glad he’s going down with you. 

It’s the worst moment for Ash to appear between the two of you, looking wildly confused as she asks, “Did you just say five minute window times?” 

You throw your head back, and the laugh that leaves you is the prettiest sound Eddie has ever heard. The fizzling chuckles in his chest burst, and Ash only looks at the two of you as if you were certifiably insane. 

Oh, yeah. He’s very glad that this is the ship he will go down in. 

—

Famous last words. Not even an hour into peak, Eddie is biting down on every positive thought you had fooled him into entertaining. His jaw aches with both stress and regret as his knuckles sting from burning himself again with the steam wand. Honestly, he thinks he burnt himself less his first time on warming, and he still has a scar on his pinky from those damned ovens. 

“We’re just waiting on a-” Ash starts to say to him when she turns and lets the window close, effectively sealing them off from the customer. 

“A grande hot americano, I know,” Eddie cuts her off. He didn’t mean to snap, but his irritation is getting the better of him. An impending meltdown is already crawling beneath his skin due to overstimulation and stress. 

Yeah, he really hates bar. 

When the newest green bean meekly adds on, “With cream and two sugar,” Eddie prepares himself to scream into oblivion. 

Until you interfere. 

He’s just taken his first breath, shallow and vapid as he glares at Ash, when one of your hands comes down on his shoulder, the other carefully slipping the cup that only needs to have hot water added to it from  his grasp and into yours. 

“I can finish this off for you,” you sweetly insist, leaning forward so that your face fills the minimal space between him and Ash, “That okay?”

Something flashes in your eyes. It isn’t the same look any of your other coworkers send him when he’s falling behind, when he feels like he’s drowning in this position. It doesn’t feel as though you’re insisting on finishing the drink out of impatience, a desperate last call to speed Eddie along like some sort of machine, but instead as though you’re genuinely trying to help him. 

And your hand. It’s still on his shoulder, curling carefully as he finally can feel the way your thumb is sweeping back and forth over his shoulder blade. Such a soothing motion, it nearly makes him cry. Between your thumb and hand, your gentle eyes, your sweet perfume that cuts through the nauseating smell of coffee – all of it makes him just want to throw in the towel, step off the bar, and let you hug him while he’s a giant crybaby. He knows you’re the only one here who wouldn’t judge him. He’s witnessed first hand several other coworkers do almost exactly that, as a matter of fact. 

He was still secretly jealous of your coworker Sam and the day that she’d been on the verge of her own breakdown, still had the image of the way you’d softened when you caught sight of her genuine tears and just pulled her into your arms. 

He swears he isn’t down bad as some of the kids would call it. He wasn’t special – everyone wanted hugs from you. 

“That’s fine,” he answers after far too many precious seconds have slipped away between you two, the customer at the window momentarily forgotten. His voice is thick with emotion and he has to blink several times just to eat away at that impending breakdown once more. 

Just make it another few hours. Another few hours, and you can scream and cry all you want in the van. You can lose your damn mind if you so please, if you make it another few hours.

He has to remind himself of this over and over as he lets you finish off that fucking americano, and he takes a few consecutive stickers of nothing but frappucinos. He doesn’t even know the time, but it might be better that way. 

He doesn’t even realize the way you’re still watching him so carefully, and so full of concern. 

Suddenly, though, your voice sounds over the headsets — this time, without a car at the speaker box. You’ve clicked for the private channel, meant just for communication between any of the baristas wearing a headset.

“Hey, Gale?” you sweetly say. 

Eddie finishes the drink he’s working on with shaking hands.

Gale takes several seconds until he finally answers you from where he is in the back, “What’s up?”

“Can we switch up the floor a little bit?” Eddie’s stomach twists immediately, the burn of betrayal causing his shoulders to tense without facing you. Cool. Great. She noticed. She’s doing something about it. She’s about to throw me under the bus. Whatever. “I’m getting tired of DTO, starting to kind of stutter and I can’t hear the customers clearly anymore because my brain is melted.” 

That he didn’t expect. It’s subtle, and a little white lie. You hadn’t been stuttering. Any mishearings were laughed off easily. You were constantly buying Eddie more time to get a head start on the drinks.

You weren’t requesting a switch for your sake.

Gale sighs over the channel, mumbling your name before saying, “It’s the middle of peak, we can’t-“

“What if me and Eddie just switch?” he finally turns to face you at your suggestion. You’re not quite looking at him with pity, but understanding. You’d been there before — overwhelmed and panicked on bar, left out to sea without anyone to throw you an anchor. And you could recognize an anxiety attack from a mile away. “The customers always like him better anyways. And he has better suggestions for drinks-“ 

You’re blatantly lying. You knew Eddie was more comfortable on DTO. You knew he could handle that, even on his bad days. He almost gives in to his urge to hug you out of sheer relief.

“I- Fine. Yeah, that’s fine.” 

Once Gale agrees, you’re instantly logging out of your partner number and sweeping your arm out dramatically for Eddie to take your place at the order screen with a small smile. He moves forward slowly, finally feeling like he can breathe as you walk up to the bar. 

You didn’t need a break from DTO. You’d thrown yourself under the bus to offer him some relief. 

Wordlessly, the two of you transition into your new positions, and it immediately becomes obvious that it was more ideal. You barrel through drinks all while wearing a smile, and although Eddie stays a bit reserved in his interactions with customers as his anxiety settles, he still shows off all his strong suits. Stalling customers with idle chat, lying about checking to see if something was in stock so you could pull extra shots, repeating back drinks multiple times to make sure you heard it correctly. 

It’s seamless. The times that corporate cares about dwindle down to better match the day’s goal, and Eddie’s chest finally loosens. 

You didn’t have to do that. Anyone else wouldn’t have done that.

When the rush has finally passed, both you and Eddie finally in the final stretch of an hour until your shifts end, he finds the nerve to bring it up.

You’re wiping down counters, humming under your breath, when he clears his throat awkwardly, “Uh, thank you. For earlier.” 

“Why are you thanking me?” you ask nonchalantly, shrugging as you stop pretending to be busy, “I really was tired of DTO-“ 

“No, you weren’t,” he stops you from defending your lie, “You… you’re amazing at DTO. Better than me by a landslide.” 

Your entire expression softens from that constant joy and constant reassurance. But the glow of your kindness doesn’t erase with the relaxing of your cheeks. If anything, it simmers and only reaches Eddie even more potently.

You relay your next words with careful consideration, “I’m really not, Eddie. It’s not a competition. I.. do enjoy DTO, but you were stressed. And Gale wasn’t about to change his floor without someone saying something.” 

“If it had been anyone else, they would have told me to suck it up,” he points out.

“But it wasn’t anyone else. It was me, and I don’t think any of us should have to spend our shifts suffering.” 

You leave off a very important detail that you aren’t quite ready for Eddie to be privy to yet — if it had been anyone else, you wouldn’t have caved so quickly. You actually probably also would have told anyone else to suck it up, albeit still in a light-hearted and encouraging tone. You would have offered extra help, you would have tried to make jokes to ease the anxiety, but you wouldn’t have just thrown yourself under the bus. 

And yet, when it comes to him, you find yourself going soft. Any affirmativeness that you use during your training, that you usually persist with having with new hires, has melted. 

You hated seeing him so stressed. 

“You know,” Eddie’s nervous to say his next words, but they’re true, “You’re probably my favorite coworker.” 

Your smile is back, radiant and comforting. Eddie’s pride swells that it was his hand that ignited that bit of flame back into you. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” 

You’re like a child, looking down bashfully and fiddling with the edges of your apron. He’s sure that any second now, you might start swaying side to side, that your pupils might form into absolute hearts. You visualize exactly how it feels every time he sees that yellow Jeep parked in the lot. 

You bite your lip to break from your shy spell, leaning towards him with a summer glint to your eyes, “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m starting to think you’re my favorite too, Munson.” 

A conglomeration of the past month – it feels as though it all comes to a rise in this moment, hitting an unimaginable peak, and he isn’t scared of a sudden drop. There will be no veering or falling down from these heights, no sudden lack of friendliness. He knows it surely the longer he stares into your eyes. If anything, maybe this is actually just a beginning. 

“Yeah, sure,” he snorts, unable to contain himself, “I doubt that, Sunshine.” 

The nickname slips out without much thought, but he doesn’t even have time to panic – your grin is painfully wide as you lift a brow. “Wanna bet?”

“Never took you as a gambler.”

“John rubbed off on me.” 

He twists his face, holding back any sexual innuendos, and that’s when it happens. Your mouth falls open, realizing the dirty joke he’s biting down on, and you gasp dramatically. Your hand flies out without second thought, smacking him on his shoulder. 

A smack. That’s what breaks the seal between the two of you. A joking smack on the shoulder at a crude innuendo, and suddenly the unspoken and terribly awkward boundary that should always exist between coworkers is shattered. 

“I lied,” you try to deadpan, but you can’t stop smiling at Eddie’s withheld laughter, “Oh my God, fuck you. That’s gross! You’re officially my least favorite coworker.”

“Yeah, but I bet John’s your favorite customer, right?” 

He’s able to block your second attempt at a slap this time, now close enough that he smells your perfume and sweet shampoo. Smells whatever lotion you use, that lingering and stubborn fragrant chai syrup that’s dried on your arms. You’re giggling shamelessly as you wrestle your wrist out of his grip. He swears, if you’d let him, his fingertips would stay pressed there on your pulse until the two of you conjoined in some twisted way. Like overgrown roots taking back control of abandoned buildings, you’d wrap around him and his ridiculous insinuations. He’d die a happy man. He’s already about to die a happy man as he feels your heart racing, and he almost convinces himself that you feel it too. 

God, Eddie really liked you. He doesn’t care anymore, he’s willing to admit it to himself at the very least. He fucking likes you. He’d be a fool not to. 

His fingers are still wrapped around soft skin when suddenly, Gale rounds the corner, and clears his throat. 

“I, um-” his eyes zero in on the space left behind as Eddie drops your wrist, and you’re quick to tuck it behind your back. It’s as if the two of you are children who have been caught doing something you shouldn’t have been. Eddie shoves his own burning fingertips into the pocket of his apron, “I just wanted to say you guys did good today. It’s- uh, you’re both off. So… yeah. Um, good job today.” 

Eddie gets second hand embarrassment from Gale’s stuttering, but you look like you might burst into laughter at any moment. Not teasing chuckles or cruel mockery, but the kind of laughter that occurs when two friends are in trouble, and they avoid each other’s gazes during their scolding in the fear of laughing at an inopportune moment. 

You won’t look his way. It’s exactly that. 

“Thanks,” Eddie forces out, seemingly satisfying Gale as he just nods and scurries off. 

Once you two are left alone in the corner again, you finally look at him and burst into that building laughter. 

Sunshine is fitting for you, he decides, as your laughter fills his lungs with the sun and more. 

—

“So, you don’t live near the store?” you ask, scrunching up your nose cutely as you walk side by side with Eddie across the parking lot towards your cars. Both of you had been eager to get out of the store after Gale’s fiddly dismissal. 

Eddie shakes his head, pulling the straw of his free drink from his mouth, “Nah, twenty minutes out.” 

He’d gotten a caramel frappuccino, emphasis on a blasphemous amount of drizzle, and Ash had nearly castrated him with a glare as she had bustled away on bar. You’d only snorted under your breath and asked for a water. 

“Really?” you stop dead in your tracks, in the center of the parking lot. Eddie can’t lie – it makes him nervous. If any of the usual asshole drivers that usually speed through here decided to arrive, they’d hit you. He has half the mind to reach out and grab your hand, to tug you over to the safe space between the two of your cars, “No way – I live twenty minutes away.” 

He swears his stomach falls to the pavement below, “You live in Hawkins?” 

No. It can’t be possible. He refuses to believe that you could live so close, that you would have been residing so near him this entire time and it took a miserable opening job at some out-of-the-way coffeeshop for him to meet you. You cannot be in Hawkins. Not fucking possible.

“Oh, no,” you shake your head, finally walking over to that space Eddie had deemed safe. The shade from your Jeep stretches only about half way to his van as the sun gets closer to settling into the center of the sky, “Opposite direction.”

“Damn.” 

He can’t help the disappointment; yes, his stomach had dropped at the prospect of having spent years already circling around meeting you, but it’s his heart that sinks as you reveal the actual distance between the two of you. 

At least this means you don’t know anything about his reputation in his hometown. 

“That would’ve been cool, though, right?” you stop and turn to him, kicking as a few of the pebbles on the ground, “If I just so happened to live, like, next door to you or something.”

It would have been Eddie’s innocent crush’s dream come true. To find out his sunny coworker was also his goddamn neighbor.

“Yeah,” he tries to hide his disappointment, continuing on with a shrug, “But if we’re gonna be neighbors, it’s probably better that I live next door to you.” 

You look up at him questioning, “Can I… ask why?” 

“I live in a trailer park.” 

He shouldn’t be handing this information over so easily. He’s one step away from dumping all his childhood traumas onto you. 

And he knows that the others joke that it’s normal, and that there've been many heartfelt conversations on the floor between rushes. But something about this feels more personal – it doesn’t feel like two coworkers just comparing old wounds or exchanging living situations. It feels like two friends just getting to know each other. 

He never would have admitted that to anyone else that works with the two of you. 

You don’t even react, just shrugging as he had to brush off his disappointment. There’s no pity, no disgust. No judgment. It’s just a new piece of the puzzle that is Eddie. 

“Fair enough,” you settle on replying before it looks as if you’ve had a sudden revelation. Eddie swears he sees the lightbulb go off over your head, “You know, no one else knows where I live.”

He finds that hard to believe. They all adore you too much, surely your coworkers would be fumbling over themselves to find out as much about you as they can.

“Really?”

“Really. No one’s ever asked me. And it’s… never really come up.” 

Something about holding this rare piece of information about you makes Eddie want to jump for joy. He wants to hold it close to his chest, tuck it away for safe keepings. He doesn’t really know why. 

But he’s on his way to figuring it out as he says, “I guess it’s not something coworkers really talk about, huh? Probably more friends territory.” 

A slight fib, because plenty of the other baristas have overshared that type of information. The ones that talk too much, that never seem to take a breath or leave a space for people like yourself or Eddie to really insert yourselves into the conversations.

He’d noticed that. You talk quite a bit too, but never about yourself. Always encouraging information out of other people, remembering the little details they share, but it’s never an even exchange. He used to think it was a choice you made, but he’s suddenly wondering if it’s because no one ever cared to listen. 

“I guess so,” you hum. You two should part ways. You climb into your Jeep, Eddie hop into his van. And maybe you’d sit in your respective idle vehicles for a second, even look at each other through tinted windows and make silly faces. But this should be the beginning of the end of your day together. Someone has to leave; one of you should leave. Instead, you just tilt your head curiously at Eddie, and he knows why now he wants to hold you so near and dear and safely as you ask him, “Well, in that case, do you wanna be friends?” 

And – yeah. Eddie does want to be friends. As a matter of fact, he might want to even be more than friends eventually. But for now, this offering is enough. 

He thinks you’ve rubbed off a little on him, because he must be bleeding a little bit of sunshine as he says, “Absolutely.”

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[vaguely-concerned]

BEHOLD! The list of evidence for my bold claim that Pan and Freddie dislike each other ferociously on sight because they are, in some key ways and despite appearances, very similar people: 

- First instinct upon seeing Grace sad is to try to make her laugh to cheer her up. (See: Freddie’s very first lines in the game starting off as she means to go on, and about half the things Pan ever says or does lol. In the last scene with him before The Trial you can even tell him you’re there just because you wanted to talk to him and have something cheer you up.) General sources of levity and fun and play in Grace’s life if you seek them out. 

- They react with similar anxiety to the idea of Grace being really angry with them (Freddie’s surprised/dismayed “Why are you angry at me?!” in the red route of ‘I Can Teach You’, the millenia-old god of the wild hiding behind a tree for ten minutes because he thinks Grace might be about to yell at him lmao <3)

- Both of them seem to have similar interpersonal insecurities in general, judging by the enforced choice between them in ‘I Can Teach You’ (I love you both so much but oh my god. is this a constructive use of time or energy under the circumstances lol), softened and alleviated by the fact that at the end of the day the most important thing to either of them is that Grace is happy. It isn’t possessiveness, but there is an element of underlying ‘Hey. Hey I am your favorite right?? 🥺’ insecurity there that trips them both up to begin with. Once you play the game and go back to look at this scene again knowing everyone’s real motivations, they’re even coming from the same place deep down — genuine fear for Grace’s safety and wanting to help her. (Freddie uncomplicatedly out of love🥹, and Pan at that stage probably more out of a guilty sense of responsibility, though he does seem to take a shine to Grace herself pretty quickly as well. Also he demonstrably isn’t, uh. Completely wrong in saying Freddie’s involvement in this whole mess is likely to end in tears, even if he is being a real dick about it) 

- If you don’t choose either in ‘I Can Teach You’, they both show up within minutes of each other to watch Grace’s back in the Medusa quest anyway. One brain cell ping pong and no one notices because they keep trying to swat each other with the racquets whenever Grace glances away for a second

Sidenote but flirting with both of them one after the other in that quest is fucking hilarious, they’re just taking turns ‘Really? Right in front of my salad?’-ing directly at the camera (...listen I feel that there is a chance that as long as they kept Grace between them the whole time there could be a thing here. I think a possible universe out there where it happens at least once does exist if one cared to go seek it out. That’s all I’m saying.) 

- Seems a bit obvious but what else am I here for: both very drawn to Grace no matter what main trait you choose. Whether this is true vice versa is of course player-dependent, but it is one way you can play the game. 

- Incredibly similar defensive reactions to being picked on or sniped at (and no hesitation whatsoever in subjecting each other to exactly that immediately anyway haha) 

- A bit dark when you think about it, but they both express the sentiment that it would be better for them to step in and die if it means Grace lives. (Freddie very directly of course ;______; and then in ‘It’s time’, Pan in ‘The Trial’ and the little talk you have with him later in Athena’s office.)  

Matching ‘ride or die’ instincts once awoken, is what I’m getting at. Freddie gets extra points for sheer longevity and constancy, Pan gets extra points for getting there in a week. You’re both unhinged (affectionate) 

- They’re the only ones among the main cast wearing green, right? I think I’ve got that right? Well, Charon does too, I suppose, but he’s a bit more peripheral. (Persephone and Aphrodite wear blue-green, but that seems more associated with death and the underworld and the river of grief everyone keeps using as a metaphor throughout the game.) Somehow I find the idea/metaphor that once you get Pan out from under like three layers of bullshit he’s the same colour as Freddie (who is inarguably The symbol of devotion and steadfastness in this game no matter your choices) quite sweet. 

- Nerds. You know I am right. Slightly different kinds of nerd (Freddie is distinctly geek-flavoured and Pan collects rare books for sport sort of distinction), but still. Oh my god. Freddie should get the whole cast together to play D&D in the Reliquary post-game. It would be absolute carnage. It would be glorious hilarity. *GASP* no wait not the Reliquary, let’s go to the Underworld so Charon gets to play too. For the love of all that is good give this to me now please I need it 

- The only two people who think Freddie losing control of her powers and causing a dance number at a funeral is hilarious

In short this is a recognition of the self through the other (derogatory) situation for both of them and neither of them decides to take that with any dignity or grace (ahaha) in the slightest, I love them very much,  thank you and goodnight 

[telomeke-bbs]

BAD BUDDY – WHO ARE YOU REALLY, NONG NAO?

I had never thought much about Nong Nao in Bad Buddy, dismissing Pat's favorite comfort object – a puppet of undefined genealogy and gender – as just another prop/device to highlight Pat's kid-at-heart nature.

But now I think there's just a tiny bit more to Nong Nao than meets the eye, if you look a little closer. What we learn also tells us more about Nong Nao's owner Pat (and it's not all light-hearted fun when it comes to the fore).

The Thai words for Nong Nao (I got this from the GMMTV online shop, linked here) are น้องเน่า, and running this through the online dictionaries turns up some interesting information.

The word nong (น้อง), as everybody knows now, is a term of address for someone younger than you (that also carries connotations of familiarity and informality). Most often employed for younger siblings, it can also be used in relationships where there is an older + younger sibling dynamic (e.g., between friends, seniors and juniors in school and university, sometimes at work too). And of course it can also be used as a term of endearment between two romantic partners, especially when the nong is younger and gives off babygirl energy.

The word nao (เน่า) actually means rotten or decayed. So one way to read Nong Nao is Rotten Little One, which helps to explain the doll's jumbled, Frankensteinishly patchworked appearance. But remembering that nong is also used for friends – another way to read Nong Nao is Rotten Little Pal. And tell me now, doesn't that sound more than just a little coincidentally like… Bad Buddy?

What this seems to be telling us is that Nong Nao must be the doll-pillow counterpart for the real bad buddy in Pat's life – Pran Parakul Siridechawat. Although you wouldn't really have needed to know this to have worked out that Nong Nao can easily be seen as a Pran-substitute in BBS.

Pat refers to Pran as the Nong to his Phi or Hia a couple of times in Bad Buddy (e.g., at Ep.10 [3I4] 18.50 and 19.56) and they themselves joke about Pran being Nong Nao/Nong Noo at Ep.8 [3I4] 6.30. Also, when Pran manages to fend off Pat's romantic thrusts during their Ep.7 courtship competition with gigil/geram-inducing parries, Pat's instinctive reaction is to vent his frustrations out on none other than poor little Nong Nao, his stand-in for Pran (see Ep.7 [1I4] 17.11).

But I think Nong Nao's significance goes deeper than just reminding Pat of Pran. We're also allowed a look into Pat's psychological interior, especially when we contrast his relationship to Nong Nao against what we know about Pran.

If I'm reading this right, I think Pat's comfort object Nong Nao is also the parallel to Pran's comfort object – his PP hobo bag.

The double P on Pran's faithful tote can be seen as a single P hiding a smaller one at its center, just the way Pran was nursing an unseen, unspoken crush on Pat in his heart for years (written up here).

And we saw how Pran, when out and about, would rarely be seen without this emotional crutch that he would clasp to his person as some sort of psychological armor against the external world.

This makes sense, especially when we see how introverted Pran put in so much effort to build up walls against the outside, much preferring the solitude and psychological stillness of his own inner world, desolate as it might have been (see this write-up here for more analysis).

But Pat in many ways is the opposite of Pran, and nowhere is this more immediately visible than in his extroversion. Pat's energy is directed outward and (after Ep.1 and Pran's return) he is often, if not always, full of sunshine and jovial smiles in the company of others (not when the situation is sad or threatening of course, but definitely when it is at least neutral, if not happy).

A clear example of this would be the scene at the Jae Si Curry House starting at Ep.2 [2/4] 0.18 – Pran's demeanor at the Archi boys' table is so serious and buttoned-up, compared to Pat's hearty laughs and unguarded body language at the Engine boys' table (and BBS also takes a highlighter pen to this with Pran inside under shelter while Pat is outside in the open). 🤩

So for extrovert Pat, being out in the world is his comfort zone, and is also why in Ep.8 he couldn't stop himself from posting little photos on Instagram hinting at their love affair with the hashtag #JustFriends (see Ep.8 [4/4] 0.56), much to secretive Pran's chagrin.

However, what BBS only quietly suggests (without showing it to us directly) is that Pat doesn't seem to do so well when it's just him alone. He says at Ep.7 [2/4] 5.46 "I can’t sleep if I don’t have Nong Nao in my arms", which at first I took to be solely a ruse to get Pran over to his apartment. But now I think it hints of more, that extrovert Pat's inner world is not really a place he likes to inhabit, unlike introvert Pran who takes refuge in his internal sanctuary.

With regard to Nong Nao's age, Pran refers to the doll-pillow as neither new nor old, but "oldish" (see Ep.7 [2/4] 5.43). So it's not a relic from Pat's early childhood, which would be about a decade and a half prior (and Nong Nao's appearance also aligns with this).

I'm only guessing, but it would seem that Pat took to needing Nong Nao to help him fall asleep maybe in his early teens or just before? This would be around the time when an individual starts questioning their identity and how it relates to their sense of self.

I think what BBS shows us is that Pran has a pretty strong grip on his own mindset and identity. His inner world can't have been the most comfortable, but it was comfortable enough for him because it was the single source of truth about himself and reassuring in its unchanging nature (see this write-up here).

On the other hand Pat's innermost self, at least before he coupled up with Pran, must have been quite a different environment. From childhood Ming had pushed his son to be a proxy in his battle with the Siridechawats, and the naturally-open and loving Pat was taught, maybe even forced against his better instincts, to "hate" Pran next door (using own word from Ep.10 [4/4] 10.32).

So when in the world outside, Pat was fully sure of himself and his role there. But when it was just him alone, his outside self wouldn't have gelled with his internal reality and must have caused him all sorts of unease and uncertainty.

For how can you be comfortable and secure in your own company, when you are in some ways a stranger to yourself, and you don't truly recognize who you are? Within his inner confines, Pat would have been seeing diverse versions of himself juxtaposed and jostling for centerstage, and to have had these different, seemingly-familiar faces haunting your (sub- or semi-) consciousness would likely have been a scarily disorientating scenario in one so young.

And when Pran was sent away, teen Pat no longer had Pran's company and counsel, and no more tin-can phone calls right before bedtime to comfort him and keep him safe from whatever demons lurked in the darkness whenever it was just him alone in his world.

It's not surprising that Nong Nao would have been a tremendous comfort to Pat, because this reminder of his unadulterated friendship with Pran, borne from his true self and unpolluted by Ming's influence, was also a reminder of his true nature and identity in his head, where other renderings of Pat planted by Ming also had to co-exist like various ghostly beings, animated but not true to life.

What terrors must plague your night-time dreams, that you have to clutch a little stand-in babyghoul, appropriately monsterish as a shield against the monsters haunting your loneliest moments – and the horror only multiplies when you realize that the monsters are various versions of you?

How tragic is that, not to know your own heart, or to feel safe alone with it?

Maybe this is why for most of BBS, Pat is shown to us as being out of touch with his inner self (e.g., he could not tell that his incipient romantic feelings were for Pran and not Ink). I can see him escaping into the day as much as he could, fleeing from the darkness within – and when he had no choice at night, he had to have Nong Nao/Bad Buddy/Pran clutched to his front as armor. (But it appears that he could not escape things entirely, and the darkly-frowning Pat of Ep.1 [1I4] 1.08, devoid of Pran and beset by demons, is our first view of him before Pran comes back into his life.)

Pran was the original savior in BBS, when he saved Pa from drowning in Ep.1. He may not have known it, but I think he saved Pat too – from himself and the monster he had become. For it was Pran who helped Pat to see who he really was inside – someone open-hearted and capable of loving truly, not just some ghostly shell programmed only to hate the boy next door.

But just as Pran remained loyal to his PP bag throughout BBS, Pat never abandoned Nong Nao either, even when the little stitched-up imp no longer had to understudy for Pran in Pat's life after they became a couple, and even after Pat settled into knowing himself for who he truly was.

And I think this is because – even with Pran in his life as partner, soulmate and protector of his heart – our big-hearted boy with so much love to give isn't ever going to forsake any reminder of Pran Parakul Siridechawat, and will hold him tightly to his heart physically and figuratively, for all the rest of his life. 💖‌

[leohtttbriar]

i think the biggest mistake an audience can make (i.e. me) with a time-paradox story is to try to make sense of it. like there's the surface-level logic here that sisko can be a "chosen one" of sorts because, well, he always was. if you can look down on the fourth dimension of time and see it all laid out in the same way we can look down a two-dimensional square, then everything always is and verb-tenses mean nothing and the layout of What Is is. but that's just so so abstract. (!)

what ends up being implied by the idea of extra-dimensional beings like the prophets is determinism. which doesn't. like. make sense. not from our perspective at least. the universe is just too much for us to be able to see a character like sisko able to interpret the space between what the prophets say and what he should then decide. the prophet above is saying "you need to rest now" and the prophets said that sisko has a path he is "meant" to walk--so was he always going to decide to both marry kasidy and "learn" among the prophets in the wormhole? if his decision-making has no power, why would the prophets tell him what to do to begin with? he says he's already done all the things he is going to do, sort of, so what is his relationship with spacetime? how can someone exist in between non-linear beings and linear time? what makes sisko special--is it his decision-making or his determined life?

i get the feeling this ending for the character was supposed to provoke these sorts of questions but i can't get past how it makes very little sense to me. which i guess is my own reaction to time-paradox stories: arrival and interstellar and even the "children of time" episode of ds9, none successfully convince me of the know-ability of time. even kasidy asking in the prophet vision "is anyone here?" makes my brain hurt, because, like, yeah is anyone there? where do these creatures exist? where and when and how? and in what ways can they contribute to the fabric of a mutable and constantly morphing or expanding and evolving universe?

obviously, it's not like a few sci-fi writers are going to do what only theoretical physicists can only imagine, but something about the tone of this episode, the design and the dialogue, suggests something answer-able. "meant to" and "alone" and "rest" and "ben? is that you?" are temporal and, in the logic of this story, are determined? there are ways to suggest more ambiguity, to lean into the logic of paradoxes--using color and music to imply that nothing here is figured out, that sisko is just a man invited into a perspective that we haven't yet been able to understand. a star trek-y "how mysterious, how weird" sort of answer that emphasizes that tying-up loose ends isn't the best narrative resolution sometimes.

this conclusion for sisko is a bit ambiguous but also not. and i sort of wish kasidy had gone with him. what does pregnancy look like where everything already was and is and yet to come? what is a romance undefined by the progressive beats of relationships and intimacy? what would their relationship say about the ongoing-ness of love?

[carica-ficus]

"Gideon the Ninth"

07/12/2023

Reading progress: 443/443 (100%)

Read through since last update: 167

So... It seems I'm at the last reading update... I actually didn't plan to cram so much into one post, but I got really into reading for a day or two, and then managed to get to the last 50ish pages and said fuck it. I'm not gonna say much except that I didn't expect for it to be that bloody, then at the end got so used to it that I had no other choice to just close the book and think to myself "Well. This happened." I will be writing a concise review as I do with each book I read, but I'm just gonna say I loved it very much. (This is, of course, a big understatement, but yeah... I'll gush about it in my review.) SPOILER WARNING! (Like always.)

Without further ado, my thoughts:

I might have been unbothered by the first two deaths, but I sure as hell am not ok after the end of Act 3. Was all that really necessary?? 😭😭

Yooo that scene when Gideon forces Harrow to siphon from her again is??? Hhhhhh... Made me feel a few things. Here's a graphic rendition:

I'm glad Harrow is banning Gideon from seeing Dulcinea. And the thing she mentions about the keys - she's right, it really doesn't make sense. It stuck out to me before, but I just forgot to comment on it. In any case, it's extremely suspicious. Protesilaus is also probably missing because of a distinct reason, related to his adept. Wouldn't be surprised if the Seventh is the one going around killing people.

Of course Silas turned out to be a little weasel. But at least Colum has some dignity.

Oh yeah, Corona is definitely not a necromancer.

Ok, but why am I not surprised that Harrow is the one who had her fingers in Protesilaus's disappearance? Honestly, she's the second most suspicious person in the mansion, but I love her, so I don't care.

HELLOOOOOOOO???? HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO????

First plot twist I have not expected. At all. I'm shooketh, as one might say.

Aww man. False alarm. >:( (This was about Gideon't claim that she murdered Harrow's parents.)

Oooh, but the big revelation was good! It was just a matter of time, so my reaction was more like "Ah! Finally!", than :O (Future me talking here: I'm not entirely sure what this is referring to? I'd guess it was about the Locked Tomb.)

Not Dulcinea doing the King Harold from Shrek dying scene 💀

"I had reason to believe," said Harrow, "that you would trust her more than you trusted me."

"You are my only friend. I am undone without you "

Stuff just kept happening and people just kept dying. Didn't even get the chance to write it all out, and another one was on the floor. Anyway... WHAT THE FUCK.

Honestly, I thought stuff would get all tangled up and I would lose my footing, as I heard most people do. (Or will, in the next book.) So I'm just glad I could follow along quite nicely. It all made sense in the end, even the stuff about Dulcinea. I wasn't too surprised she's the culprit, I'm just surprised how she's the culprit.

PALAMEDES!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!

"I can't conceive of a universe without you in it." Again, Muir going straight for the jugular. I know she likes to kill off her characters, but she doesn't need to kill of her readers as well.

Ok, you know what. I knew there would be no happy ending. We all knew Harrow couldn't become Lyctor without Gideon dying. So, I am not surprised it happened. But I am also NOT OKAY.

Man, I love Harrow. I love her in the epilogue. I love her in the last chapter. I love how much she cares, how much she always cared. And I love how her relationship with Gideon evolved over time. Ugh. Uuughhh!

Ok, yeah... This was an experience. I'll be ordering Harrow soon and.... Yeah. I'm (not) prepared for more heartbreak.

[rraaarr]

I think Aziraphale should at least get a little credit that the Only Line Crowley couldn't, and most ppl seem to agree(including me) Shouldn't have crossed to be with Aziraphale is the Same Line Aziraphale was Constantly risking by socializing/making heart eyes at/associating with Crowley for 6000 years

And I want to be clear, it seems pretty obvious that Crowley most likely suffered very real and terrible consequences from hell bc of his relationship with Aziraphale. We see a very concrete example with the Wee Morag and Elspeth situation (though we don't actually see what happens, but I feel that it's implied that it's very awful). And Crowley Should and often Does get credit for this. So, this isn't a "who risked more" post, because the Whole Point is that they both risked basically everything to just...hang out together. This is more about What Exactly Aziraphale Was risking in light of the S2 breakup scene, and that thing is Identity.

Because the S2 breakup scene, and really the audience's reaction to it, shows us that Aziraphale is out of pocket for offering Crowley to become an Angel because (whether or not Aziraphale realizes-I say not- but that's another post) it Fundamentally Changes Who Crowley IS. And this heavily suggests that Angel and Demon function as a kind of identity (as opposed to a job, which is, in my opinion, slightly more the book's take). And if we are looking at Demon and Angel as at least Some Kind of form of identity, then I think it is relevant to recognize that Aziraphale was Always risking his identity for the better part of 6000 years. {And It is very important to Also recognize that it is Crowley who spares him this in the Job episode (perhaps in a way Aziraphale Doesn't in the breakup scene. But here is where I would like to point out that Aziraphale was possibly Excited about being together as Angels with Crowley, but he never actually made that decision for her, as Aziraphale never actually made a decision at all. Crowley is possibly upset that Aziraphale didn't know them well enough to understand that Demon is a functionality of their identity and to say No Immediately.....and this is another post,lol)}

The worst that could happen to Aziraphale is Fall, to have his identity stripped from him. (which, arguably, Crowley did have their identity stripped from them when they fell, though Probably not because of Aziraphale-or who knows-,but I feel this really convolutes things, OR clarifies, because, I guess it makes a lot of sense if you view Angel as an identity that Crowley had stripped from him, then it would Make Sense that Aziraphale would Want to Restore that, but then it also means that Aziraphale is losing sight of the 6000 years of identity as Demon, so restoring would perhaps Erase those 6000 years, as opposed to what Aziraphale is possibly thinking, which is that he can give a piece of Crowley's identity Back to them, not really realizing that having that piece of identity Removed is Part of their identity now...and it gets complicated)

I just think that if in the Good Omens show universe, If Heaven and Hell are The Same (as the show frequently points out), and If Angel and Demon are viewed as forms of identity, then I don't think Aziraphale falling is any better than Crowley becoming an Angel. And I just think Aziraphale should get Some credit for risking his very identity this whole time.

[sweet-hearts-and-destiny-knots]

(/playful tone)

oh no! what couldve happened to set the Drayster spiralling?

The short answer is: Drayton came to the harsh and heavy conclusion his best wasn't and would never be good enough.

To elaborate, it's well established that Drayton has repeated the same year of school not once, not even twice, but thrice. Given his seemingly rather flippant attitude towards his education, I wouldn't have seen any need to reflect on this further were it not for the fact he's stated to be a second-year student.

I feel there could be a story hidden somewhere behind that little detail. It's entirely possible to me he could have spent his first year at Blueberry Academy attending classes and making an honest attempt to succeed in his studies.

At the very least, he managed to advance to the next year, something Drayton undoubtedly could not have accomplished if he didn't extend some amount of effort.

So, what could have occurred his second year to make him stop trying? His first second year, that is.

Sisterhood operates under a different timeline than the "canon" one, so for the moment we'll scoot what happens exclusively here in this universe to the side.

Drayton has two special conversations in The League Clubroom with Hassel and Geeta. The former provides the information the two know one another to some extent, and confirms all suspicions that Drayton is the grandson of Drayden.

Drayton himself tells Juliana/the protagonist he's been held back three years in a row, and says so quite calmly! However, he's not nearly as relaxed when Hassel brings up the topic. He's even decidedly defensive about it.

His conversation with Geeta goes a similar direction. His demeanor appears to instantly shift when she mentions him originating from a long line of esteemed Dragon-type users.

So, from both of these discussions I gathered that being held back is actually an issue Drayton does feel sensitive about, and that his reaction to the mentioning of his familial ties could suggest some significant strain in that area.

He also confessed that classroom learning is difficult for him, so my hypothesis is this: Drayton did try his absolute best his first year in school, but ultimately his best was more or less a D student when battling wasn't involved.

And it was embarrassing. It was an embarrassment for someone with such a prestigious background to be in possession of such abominable marks.

Drayton tried his best, but it wasn't good enough. So he stopped trying at all.

(Am I reading much too deeply into these moments? Possibly! But I will continue to believe they are that deep.)

Now we step into Sisterhood's alternate timeline and will delve into the specific event that made this universe's incarnation of Drayton dive headfirst into his downward spiral.

His grandfather Drayden speaks glowingly of Iris, his adoptive sister. Drayton doesn't resent her in the slightest for this; he's treated her as family since day one.

However, the fact remains that Drayden searched the world over for a successor after apparently deeming his still young grandson unsuitable, and eventually returned to Unova with an even younger girl from The Village of Dragons in tow. The favoritism he displayed towards Iris was impossible to overlook, and it frequently left Drayton struggling with feelings of inadequacy.

But one fateful day during his second year at the academy, he conquered The Blueberry League and was crowned its new Champion! He finally felt a sense of accomplishment!

Unfortunately, his achievement was overshadowed entirely by Iris claiming the title 'Champion of Unova'.

So Drayton smiled for his adoptive sister. He smiled as though his heart wasn't slowly shattering.

And then, he began to spiral.

(Does Drayton Pokémon know that I'm proud of him and that his best IS good enough? I need him to know.)

[lovingdabeessss]

i have to ask ur thoughts on this bcs i saw it from someone also crying abt in on twitter. so, yangs reaction to missing rubys birthday bcs she was super depressed + ruby leaving

🥺🥺🥺

Why would you do this to me!!!!!!!!!

GOD

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa

Ok well

I think they’d both be really really upset about it

Yang and Ruby have never spent so long apart and they’ve definitely spent all their birthdays together and I can imagine Yang tried to make Ruby’s birthdays extra special

I personally believe when they were kids after summer died birthdays became kinda forgotten about like most celebrations

But i think Yang would try and keep it alive for Ruby

I think maybe ruby’s birthday was the first thing the two of them genuinely tried to celebrate after summer died and so it’s special for them

I’m personally not sure If Halloween is truly celebrated in remnant or not I know it was in Chebi but that’s not cannon and they don’t exactly have like and of the possible origins but if they do actually have it or their own stand in (because it makes sense for them to have something similar a holiday to be happy and dress up as grim to try and scare them off) then it’d make rubys birthday something easy to remember even if qrows on a mission so he can get home in time to celebrate and while ruby’s gone on a her own mission it’s a painful reminder she’s without Yang and yangs without Ruby

If it’s not a real holiday in the Ruby universe then there’s a possibility ruby missed her own birthday

Stressed out and without someone to remind her or celebrate it it slips her mind

Yang wouldn’t miss it tho

Maybe she sits in rubys room and spirals into herself because she can’t be there to celebrate her sister’s birthday

Maybe she gets up that day seeing the date and for a second being excited to celebrate her sisters birthday deciding to make her cookies or something before she wakes up and then remembering that she can’t do that

That ruby’s not here and even if she was Yang couldn’t make her anything because she’s not used to only having one arm which would make it almost impossible for her

Yang being disabled in a way that makes her unable to possibly ever do her job again after the disaster that caused it also shut down communications with the place that could give her a prosthetic she’s been abandoned by everyone she was friends with or they’ve died and she can’t even blame them cause she couldn’t even make sure her sister got her birthday celebrated properly

And ruby so deserves a nice celebration after everything

Maybe she hopes qrow will celebrate it in yangs absence

She probably doesn’t have a lot of hope for him though

I think Yang makes sure they celebrate it when they reunite maybe she gets the whole crew into it and they make a day of it

Maybe Blake tells ruby happy birthday when she comes back or gets her a little trinket and that’s one of the things that makes Yang trust her a little bit more

Bonus

I think Weiss celebrates it too she wishes ruby a happy birthday from her house shaped prison and imagines how that’d go down if everything hadn’t gone wrong with Yang making a huge deal out of everything and Blake helping her out laughing at yang being so over the top and spending the day together and so Weiss would be really excited about them deciding to celebrate it after being reunited even if its without the full family team

Also hc Yangs birthdays were often forgotten by everyone because Yang and ruby were a little young to constantly remember the date and tai was busy with his crippling depression and qrow was busy going on his long missions for ozpin so she’d probably celebrate it whenever qrow next came back if he remembered it or they’d just realize it had past and Yang would say she’s that old and when they got old enough to remember the dates and everything Yang still didn’t care much but ruby did and would try and make sure they celebrated it at least a little

[aihoshiino]

chapter 129 thoughts

Takamine confirmed! She's the B-Komachi member with the dog pin, which confirms that Watanabe is the girl with the frog pin. I honestly think I felt a bigger sense of closure over that than anything else in this chapter......................

Takamine's open hostility as portrayed in the movie is also interesting, though it does make me raise an eyebrow. It contrasts Kyun's description of B-Komachi from Viewpoint B where she explicitly says there was no bullying - even in 45510, the narrator only ever mentions one of the girls starting shit with Ai and never any internal nastiness. If the 45510 narrator is Takamine, this makes sense given that she's quick to insist she's just giving Nino some tough love and that hostility framed as reverence matches the 45510 narrator's entanglement of desire and spite directed towards Ai.

Still, it does feel like a nod that we should be taking the framing of the movie with a grain of salt - this is a fictionalized, dramatized version of events filtered through at least two very pissed off people, after all. Aqua, if nothing else, has good reason to make the people who were cruel to his mother look particularly bad and the screenplay has been described as a particularly malicious one.

Akane interacting with characters who aren't Aqua!!! Blessed be!!! Honestly, the Akane & Kana interactions this chapter got a good chuckle out of me, moreso than I was expecting. Akane's "i'm not having fun bullying her :)" [internally: i'm having the time of my life] made me do a solid out loud Sensible Chuckle. That said, I really do hope the movie arc takes this chance to progress their dynamic past this sniping, because as funny as it is... man, they've been doing this shit since before Tokyo Blade and I've said before that it feels so weird to me that the end of that arc ends on what should feel like a big change in the status quo of their relationship but it's largely just been the same hostility over and over and over again.

On that note, it feels odd we didn't get a reaction of any kind from him to Ruby's portrayal of Ai given how uncanny the similarity is, down to Mengo basically just drawing her as Ai with one hoshigan this entire chapter lol.

Speaking of Ai... I think the best way to nail down how this chapter made me feel was uneasy.

I'm hoping this is me focusing too much on something that's ultimately not important, but the idea that Ai's 'hidden feelings' were those of anger really doesn't sit right with me - especially with the implication that this anger was fundamental enough to Ai's person that Ruby needed to tap into it to properly portray her.

I'm not at all against OnK diving into the idea that Ai had darker, messier feelings than the ones we've been privy to. In fact, I think it would be a good way of resolving a trap it threatens to fall into sometimes, where Ai is a bit of a 'perfect' victim as far as storytelling is concerned and letting her having some blemishes would be interesting.

My issue here is more that this characterization of Ai hiding anger specifically is what feels weird to me - it doesn't feel like it coheres with the Ai we get such a clear view of in volume 1 and Viewpoint B. The impression I get much, much more strongly there is of deep sadness and loneliness, desperation and fear. If there is anger, it's pointed inwards at herself in frustration and self-blame, so the idea that Ruby needs to Be Angry to properly get across Ai's feelings on camera makes me more than a little worried for where the movie arc is going to go in terms of characterizing Ai lol.

Basically, I don't necessarily mind the story deciding to recontexualize Ai and add this new layer of hidden bitterness so long as it's actually consistent and additive characterization and not just replacing and retconning what we've been given before.

Again, though, this is in-universe fiction that has been dramatized and warped to suit a very pissed off person's malicious purposes, so I think there's some wiggle room in terms of how accurate it can be assumed to be in its portrayal of Ai herself.

I also have mixed feelings about the way Gotanda's directing is being portrayed, but that's something I'll be able to dig into and talk about more the more we see of it.

[dailycass-cain]

My Thoughts on Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 (aka the Cass portion)

An hour past noon. Enough time for some thoughts on one story, Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1. Some thoughts to keep us warm until Spirit World #1 arrives...

The thing that always interests me with Alyssa Wong when they tackle Cassandra Cain is they take the character and use stuff Cass has faced and then spin something new.

Cass has only encountered magic a handful of times. Only once in her entire series (ironically near the tail end with Lazara).

In truth, Cass has encountered magic outside her own comic more (Young Justice, the Zee arc in Tec Knights, and just recently the big battle in “Dark Crisis” where she literally was dodging attacks from Spectre) and--

JL: Elite with her and Coldcast being in the "world of shadows" and they encountered some Lovecraftian creatures.

Literally, outside the main universe, Cass encountering mystic stuff seems more common. We have Cass getting Shazam powers in DCeased, her fighting vampires (and teaming up with Frankenstein briefly) in DC vs. Vampires--

-- and another place in an animated adaptation of a comic she was never in originally (Batman: the Doom that Came to Gotham).

So all of this is a nice treat to see Wong take the character outside their "comfort" area and into something that's an open area for the character to explore, magic.

We get the perfect gateway character for that with Cass in the newly introduced character Xanthe.

Though I have to admit this brief little tease Wong gives introducing Cass maybe hints at what she's been up to during the Batman vs. Robin mini prior. Not jobbing, but making the city safe while everyone else was occupied.

Which kind of makes sense truthfully for someone of Cass's skillset. Nezha couldn't incapacitate or maybe twist her like everyone else. So the next best thing is to keep her so busy that she doesn't have any time to do anything else.

At least what I'm going with by reading this.

The thing that fascinates me early on in Cass and Xanthe's team-up is how Cass calls the vampires one thing and Xanthe calls them and I love the editor's note here because I'm utterly clueless with it comes to Chinese mythology (save a few things).

I also love that Wong showing their knowledge of Cass knowing what to do due to being such a movie junkie (and I liked that this was brought up. The nod made me smirk cause it's been A WHILE since someone referenced Cass's old habits).

I also just love that this isn't the end of the story and that Xanthe, Cass, and John Constantine (a character Cass has barely any meetings of in canon, but had one out of it in DCeased).

There was SOOOO much of this story and the art by Haining gives us a nice expressive Cass. Again, I don't mind the white eyes when an artist makes them so expressive and Haining gives Cass some nice reactions throughout this tale.

Not to mention some nice fluidity in her move set too. Literally, the only negative I can say is how quickly the story ended and make me hunger for more. Thankfully we only have two more months before we get just that in Spirit World #1.

The premise in that, Xanthe/John in a quest to save Cass. I'm game for. Though I do hope we just see a character like Cass see the Spirt World thru her eyes. Cause body language and also for new readers this be a nice treat.

Plus the chance to see Cass actually struggle not have it be ooc? To learn something new? Yeah, I'm game for that.

The side bonus to all of this is we get a full-on tale by Alyssa Wong. No one part (ala Batman: Urban Legends #8) and a short (but amazing story in DC: Doomed & the Damned #1).  Just a full-on story Wong has with Cass and I'm all for that.

Though I am hopeful that maybe Batgirls can deal with this issue's fallout? I'm game for Babs/Steph to have an issue or more with them wondering where Cass is at? Or maybe Cass show up and have an editor's note (read Spirit World #1).

Just to give that nice bridge to both comics that Cass is in. Besides it gives us that moment with Steph to see her own thoughts when Cass is out of the picture (will she read Cass's letter?).

Not to mention see Babs' thoughts on handling what occurred with Steph in #15 and now Cass going on a crazy Spirit Adventure with others.

If you can't tell I really REALLY dug this story and can't wait for May for more of this.  It truly is a nice surprise to not only get a bonus mini that has Cass in it but is written by Alyssa Wong?

[sang8262]

JP rambles: default outfit and character design edition

cause i asked about his character design and now I'M thinking about it, also im procrastinating so i have thoughts here goes

mostly about his default outfit, with a tiny bit about outfit 2 at the end. I already know this is going to be a needlessly long post lmao

TL;DR - JP is inspired by playing cards, bartitsu, and vampires/bats. he's a poker faced gentleman through n through

~~also minor spoiler warning for World Tour things, such as having JP as a Master and getting to max level skills/ bond with him~~

This is a safe space and I will be HONEST: I didn't like his default look a lot at first, but I've since warmed up to it!! I still use his outfit 2 (color 10) online tho. I speed ran World Tour for that, I have suffered, and I WILL enjoy it.

Anyway, it was once I realized he has thematic ties to playing cards that really made his default design make sense to me. First, some proof that he takes inspiration from playing cards to begin with.

Once you get Master Skill level in World Tour mode, everyone gets a little cutscene movie featuring their skills, archetypes/ titles, and ends with a quote commemorating your achievements as their student.

JP's starts off like this, with a bunch of playing cards with his name on them falling down the screen:

(also, btw, where we get more of that bat imagery, but i'll get back to that later)

This is what made it click for me and made it really obvious why his name is stylized the way it is, using the font it uses. His name reads the same way right side up as it is upside down, and looks very much like how the values are printed on these cards.

Then, the video includes several 'titles' for each character. Some of these get used in other promotional material too, but JP's are as follows:

King of No Country

High-Rolling Pretender

Gentlemanly Tyrant

In which, again, the poker/ gambling references show up with the phrase "high-rolling", or "king" of no country.

And final proof, is that each Master in World Tour can be given gifts that they will react to in unique ways, and also receive extra bond points for. Sometimes they're things the character likes, or really hates: it's just what gets an interesting reaction out of them.

JP (unfortunately) only has one such gift item he has special dialogue for: antique playing cards.

Although his reaction to them are... less than positive (he literally calls them 'trash'), he also points out how old cards can't be used to play actual games, as it is against the rules.

Within the game's universe, it shows that he cares, or at least knows enough about cards to even have these notable responses to them. Considering it outside the game, the devs specifically decided to make his special World Tour gift a set of Antique Playing Cards, instead of any other item. They wanted to make this connection between him and cards for a reason.

So to me, I think this is a lot of evidence that shows a clear and intentional relationship between JP's character design and playing cards.

In retrospect, I honestly think he does look like the face cards quite a bit lmao. The white hair and beard + mustache, the cravat, the colors too (really strong orange/ red, paired with gold and that bit of marble on his cane), and the cane paralleling a scepter/ sword.

Speaking of, more about the cane: the devs had an interview answering fan questions, and at one point they explain the inspiration for JP. I'll link the video here with the timestamp for this question:

https://youtu.be/ORw3_BK7o70?t=146

But basically they say they wanted to have a character use a cane, and cites bartitsu/ Sherlock Holmes as well. So, even if they worked backwards from 'cane', all the way to 'gentlemanly tyrant who likes chess puzzles and launders money through fighting game tournaments', I think they made it work well with the playing cards aesthetic too!

Finally, I'll go back to the bat imagery that I think is pretty interesting.

Parts of his design subtly incorporate bats, such as his brooch on the default costume:

And more directly in his alt costume 2, seen on his buttons and coat pattern:

And I have to imagine the brooch on his default outfit is somewhat invoking of a bat (with wings and large ears) because of his WT skill Mastery video having a giant BAT in the middle of the screen. I also thought it might be in reference to the Shadaloo organization symbol, which is a skull with wings.

Then even further from the comics, Kalima-- his assistant while organizing the fighting tournament in Nayshall-- warns Luke that JP is like a "vampire who will suck this country dry". The vampire analogy just works so beautifully with how he works as a criminal, not to mention the other aesthetic associations with it.

All in all, I really REALLY love JP's personality and whole modus operandi as a character and villain so greatly in his design. I definitely also feel that his outfit 2 isn't nearly as symbolism laden as his default one, but I am a sucker for formal wear and suits, so I am just, in love. Plus the subtler nods to his bat/vampire-ness is there, if only very minimally.

Edit: noticing this as I literally posted this AH. But also on the playing cards from his WT skill video, it has two different faces, it has both the Jack (or possibly King...) and the Joker:

It continues to add to his duality/ hidden true nature/ deceiver type character so much, it's perfect. And of course, with his name, or pseudonyms starting with "J". So either Jack or Joker works perfectly. I mean literally, he isn't the king of any country... but he'll still bring it to ruin all the same.

Edit #2: omg i keep remembering things i meant to add thank you adhd very cool

BUT, in the original Japanese version of the Mastery skill video, his titles are SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. As is the Korean translation, which is a more direct translation of the Japanese one than the English is.

'So "King of No Country" was originally also: "No-Life King of a Ruined Country"

And turns out, doing some good ol' googling, that 'no-life king' has some established meanings to it:

Basically, it's related to other media including vampires, undead, monsters, so I'm guessing 'no-life' is closer in meaning to 'immortal', having no natural lifespan rather.

So yeah, even more references to vampirism for ya

but aNYWAY,, Thanks for reading my silly observations!!

I think I got pretty much everything but if there's anything I didn't mention or something to add please please do, I love reading replies and the tags (this site's so much better for this kinda stuff lmao)

[cr4ggy]

bismuth ilysm you dont deserve the way rose treated you im so sorry

i will forever be mad at su for framing it like bismuth was unruly/out of line. it was a WAR. they were ridiculously outnumbered and if she had a way to make things fairer then they should've used it. more people were gonna die. and i'm sure they would've saved more people with her help.

to clarify: rose and steven's reactions made perfect sense, i'm sure rose was still attached to the diamonds, plus she was a top 1% disconnected pacifist. not that pacifism is a bad thing but here it was definitely to the detriment of the rebellion, as sometimes you do have to get your hands dirty in a crazy situation like this. steven is just a very good wholesome boy so his reaction makes sense too! i get it. he's a really good person & also a kid. kids have very hopeful worldviews, at least most of the time.

my issue is more with how the show framed her as 'violent' and 'out of line' and 'uh oh ive got a bad feeling about her.' as if bismuth is like, a naturally violent and dangerous person. it just rubs me the wrong way. she had good ideas. the show should've at least acknowledged that.

edit: okay yes i realize this show is for kids but steven universe hasn't been particularly afraid of nuance before. and they didn't NEED to do this, either. they didn't need the conflict to be about pacifism vs righteous violence if they didn't want to yk? i still absolutely adore su and it's a huge inspiration for me, this is just one of the choices that weirds me out a little.

[watchingblsnowandforever]

I was rewarded for my faith. Forget being disappointed, I LOVED every single second of today's episode. And I'm gonna take you for a swim to the deep end today, so get ready.

Ep. 1 1/4

From the very beginning, it's clear that there is a role reversal. (Loved the cute little doll in Gun's room.)

The selection of the school president is a satire, as explained in this post. I think it's also a representation of those schools where the teachers choose the council (i speak from personal experience), but I don't know if that is practised in any Thai school. I liked it nonetheless.

What really got me was that they actually created an Alternate Universe and didn't simply make a reflection of the original world just with roles reversed.

Ep. 1 2/4

That's twice I've heard "I'm not like the mothers in those drama series" in a BL drama series, and I enjoyed the context both times. [tell me in the tags if you know what's the other series I'm talking about ;)]

Jokes aside, this is also a reality check. Gun's mother in the original universe is not only forgiving but helps them escape as well. Unfortunately, not everyone is that lucky. Most mothers would scold the hell out of their children (ehm.. also from personal experience; just different contexts)

In this universe, the conflict is similar but not the same. While that universe focused more on the long term conflict of not being able to win (or even participate) in Hot Wave, here it focuses on the more immediate problem of their club closing down. Which makes sense considering the original had more time to cover and now they only have two episodes.

Also noticed the subtle reference to The Gifted series (most probably cause I'm watching it).

Poor Gun whining about his well-laid plans to get laid (read that as cuddle I just wanted to make a pun) with Tinn going down the drain in one surprising swoop.

To no one's surprise, the Umbrella™ (whether held by Tiw or Por) is well-loved in any universe.

I also liked the small little additions to their first meeting :D

And I'm sure I wasn't the only person with a mile wide yim (smile) during Imagi-Tinn and Gun's conversations with Gun's mom.

If I thought Tinn's reaction was funny, well, Gun just secured the permanent place on the top of my list :D

Nong Chinzhilla. Need I say more?

Nice to see Por's lack of filter and exquisite fashion sense exists in every universe. "Don't mind us, we're just nosy..." <- this is a reference to the original universe; this scene:

And don't think I missed that little smile when Gun said to submit a love request when they were fighting for that pamphlet.

Ep. 1 3/4

"I didn't mean to kiss you." I was laughing so hard I had to pause the video, and mom looked at me weird like, 'she's finally lost that last little thread. It was about time.'

"I can ride this since I was born." And can't even wear the helmet.

Gun is flirty in every universe and Tinn is weak for it in every universe too.

Tinn's smile when Gun helps him with the helmet... you can not tell me he doesn't already like Gun at least a little bit.

[Unmute :D Do NOT repost; I'll do more than find you]

Winnie the Pooh being in love with Sound already; Tiw and Por flirting to the moon and back... what's new.

"I saw that." with that expression is by far one of my favourite SoundWin moments. Also one of the funniest.

SoundWin caught in the act of PDA: nah, we're just the best of frenemies :)

Gun when Tinn was hugging him: *dreamy look* all my dreams are coming true.

Ep. 1 4/4

Gun getting the perfect moment to confess and trying to do it:

Tinn: *snore*

I liked that dance played quite an important role in this. Also liked the reference To TiwPor in Prom Night: Live On Stage.

Tinn and Gun with matching hairbands >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Do NOT repost; I'll do more than find you]

What really got to me though, is that by doing this, they are validating every single fanfiction and headcanon out there, which is very surprising and nice of them.

The characters are not entirely different, they are just placed in different environments which affects their personalities.

Both Gun and Tinn still have that edge of boldness, but it's more prominent in Tinn while laced with trepidation in Gun.

Tiw still has that soft witty humour, Por still lacks a filter and has great taste and they're still disgustingly cheesy.

Win and Sound still fight, but they still help and love each other.

I also want to say that Fourth and Gemini are amazing actors and have played Gun and Tinn in both universes flawlessly.

What I also liked is that they're both whipped in any universe lol.

All in all, I'm enjoying my ride through the Multiverse of Cuteness to the fullest :D

____

Gods, i just wrote almost 1000 words of review 😭

My fingers are numb and due to all the other restrictions, ya'll will only get two videos and two pics tonight. If you want more, put in a request ;)

[decepti-thots]

how do u think springer is doing in his time travel adventures? also writing that made me remember that verity & springer split and it made me unbearably sad again..

this is always a question that is so... like there are two answers i have for this.

one is that the end of wrequiem is the whole 'when a story ends, the characters are doing what you last saw them doing forever' thing. like. the only reason the end of wrequiem doesn't collapse in under a bunch 'wait, but then-' bits of fridge horror is that. well. the story ends there! it's an ending that makes thematic sense. it works as a kind of emotional end statement to the whole thing, petty logic aside.

but also... i mean... idw is a continuity that has multiple extended stories about time travel. and it establishes really clearly how time travel works. time travel works by default as a closed loop/solving the paradox type deal. and it's really hard to resist the temptation to pull on the thread a little! because the whole thing is so obviously futile from an in-universe perspective when considered more pragmatically; and you run into some messaging too about the entire idea of feeling like you can change the past rather than live with what you've done and experienced. and it would feel very disingenuous, i think, to read the actual story that way. but if i think about the idea of it continuing past that...

anyway. i don't think it necessarily goes well if you take that route, is what i'm saying. i wonder to what extent springer is being honest about his stated motivation being to stop the war, though. like i think he does want to do that, but there's also this whole element you could poke at i think where... springer has never lived in peacetime! springer was built during and as a product of the war, he was handed off to kup as a mentor figure who was explicitly there to teach him how to be a soldier and took him out to fight. he has never interacted with someone outside the framework of war until he meets verity. so do i think springer is going to be able to do what he says he wants and somehow avoid the war? no. but i think he will probably be able to admit to himself, eventually, that he kind of wanted to just see what it would be like to live pre-war at least as much.

but i think that would be hard. imagine going back to before one of the most destructive events in your and many other species' history and trying to live knowing that if you can't change it then everyone's fucked. not that much of an escape really, psychologically speaking. you'd second guess everything. i feel like eventually you would just lose it.

there's a couple routes you could take, i guess.

springer going back in time is a closed time loop that is in some way linked to the start of the war. this is very mean and i don't want to do this to him, even though springer's ultimate goal turning out to be 'oh wow, the fifth dad was ME' is objectively very funny as a capstone. i cannot lie.

springer going back in time is just... it's irrelevant. and he has to try and come to terms with the fact that he cannot Main Character Syndrome his way into making the myth of a single hero saving everyone true. this option feels better to me because it gives Springer an arc that engages with the real problem of a time travel story about fixing things: the degree to which it assumes the course of history is a story, not something we turn into a story later. i think you could do a lot with a Springer who was born into a war going back to a pre-war era and coming to terms with that.

i do like to imagine that maybe one day he would find himself back where he started. i think a Springer who went through all that would have a lot to talk about with Verity, who was the first chance he had to make a friend outside wartime in the here-and-now, no trying to erase old mistakes needed.

(sidenote: i went this WHOLE THING and didn't even mention the obvious. imagine his reaction to young Impactor. man.)

[lorata]

OKAY, this is a long one but I've been mentally playing around with another absolutely ridiculous AU that would ruin the timeline and makes no sense! BUT! I think it's also a fun way to play with the characters so I thought you might like it. Let me know where any of my thoughts here go wrong but here it is:

This all started on two things I remember:

At some point way back, you said tribute!Joseph would be an Adessa boy (your mind, I love it)

 In the injured Creed AU, I noticed when Alec was in full Callista-tribute mode, all vicious and predatory, both Creed and Joseph thought he reminded them of Adora which made me think as a trainee Adora must have been at least a little bit feral

So a few notes of what I imagined this might look like:

Joseph and Adora are back-to-back victors (I aged Adora up a year because I didn’t think it would affect too much)

Adora wins a year earlier so when Joseph wins she sees him as The Village Baby ™ at first even though he thinks she’s ~pretty~. This is simply because I enjoy laughing at Joseph.

Adora, I think, is mentored either by Hera (if you’re willing to also push her age up) or Caius otherwise. This is purely vibes-based.

As I already wrote, Joseph is mentored by Adessa

TBH I think as a mentor-victor pair, Joseph+Adessa  would have a lot fewer problems than Nero+Adessa

Adora mentors Callista, which is deeply funny to me lol good luck

For Victor!Joseph, I grapple with what to do with him. Does he get a victor? Who?

It would be fun to have Adessa pull Nero later but leave Joseph as one of the first to never bring one home. Joseph grappling with that sense of ~faliure~ would be fun to play with + seeing him as Nero’s older victor brother would be deeply funny. Have fun getting buried under a very large, sweater-wearing, cuddle puddle!

Alternatively, Joseph mentors Nero. Both because this plays off Adora and Calli but also, it makes things so interesting to me

Weirdly,  I feel like Joseph is probably better with Nero’s touchiness than Adessa? He’s not cuddly by any means but to me, he’s also never seemed touch-averse? Anyways maybe here Nero gets A Hug more often once it becomes clear he needs one. It does make me a bit sad because I love Adessa + Nero mentor moments.

The big thing that makes this so interesting for me is to see Joseph grapple with his sense of Loyalty and Duty when Nero’s deal gets struck. Like Adessa, he’d be devastated but now you've got the added issue of having his entire worldview/purpose getting thrown in his face

Maybe we don’t get an…entirely loyal Joseph here, at least not to the president.  I imagine that much like Adessa he fantasizes about the things he could do to Snow’s kidneys if he got the chance but alas, district and country before self

Also on a lighter note, it’s 10/10 funny to have Joseph accidentally being the baffled start of the absolutely feral Nero line

All of this may culminate in a crack fic when poor grandpa mentor Joseph gets saddled watching a fresh-out Misha because again, I like bullying him.

Entirely unimportant note, in any Frigga AU I get intense vibes that she could be a Joseph tribute for zero reasons.  This would also probably go better for everyone because say what you will about him (and there are many, many things), when Frigga makes the same offer as she did with Odin the only reaction I can get from Joseph is “Oh Dear™ N O  thank you”

One more thing, I could be entirely wrong here but I wonder:

I feel like both Joseph and Adora are more adjusted in this universe. They would have arena trauma like the other victors but nothing like Joseph’s residential thing + all those years in the force. Here they also have mentors + support + therapy and I imagine they’re better off for it?

Maybe (?) they’d have a chance to be decent parents here? Could be wrong but I feel like a big majority of their Issues, at least in THG universe, stem from a combination of intense trauma with no therapy or support + all the things they witnessed in the peace force of a totalitarian murder government. I don’t think they’d ever be… amazing parents but maybe also not bad ones either? IDK I’d at least like a universe where Alec and Creed get a slightly healthy time.

this is incredible and I want it to exist so bad

i'm only vaguely coherent today so here are some point-form thoughts:

every time I think I have made a decision on Joseph as Nero's mentor or mentor sibling I change my mind AGAIN because they're both so fun thematically and provide different opportunities so I really will have to think about it

Joseph as Frigga's mentor MUST happen because honestly "oh dear. no thank you" has made me laugh for two days

I agree that any universe with Victor Joseph & Adora automatically creates a better parenting environment (sad but true) and I do think a double universe would do the same

everything about Joseph's loyalty is fascinating (I've played with it a bit in a Victor Joseph AU where the powers that be demand Creed as a volunteer after everything he tries to do to keep him out) and I love it, I want to see more of this

the one thing I've been rolling around in my brain is that I don't ... think ... Adora would mentor? I think she'd go back to the Centre (like Frigga in the AU) and work with the Residential kids, help prepare them as much as possible

also re: bb Adora, I think her thing was less out-of-control wild and more ........ ruthless? she saw what she wanted and she went for it, which is what Alec managed to unlock in the Injured Creed AU and Callista highly encouraged before the Arena

so Arena-Adora would have been the same, she's got that sort of wicked charm at first but the longer the Games went on the more the smooth edges start filing away to get to the feral underneath

Joseph would definitely think she's out of his league which I find VERY funny (I also like to bully him)