#but also what keeps the same / similar ppl from opening up a similar kind of thing???

[javic-piotr-thane]

HE WANTS TO MOVE A PREGNANT WOMAN TO WHAT

"ZERO HOURS"

EXCUSE ME

just catch me up real quick - is this still meant to be a code for "turn them to ash before they generate any cost whatsoever"

[inchidentally]

About teammate relationships being pr. Do you think this pr teammate relationships are also a part of football?

I'm so sorry I'm a fake sports fan so apart from F1 and hockey I don't know anything about other sports!

and like just to say honestly the PR thing is SO overblown about F1 bc the teams actually love a rivalry so long as the cars don't end up in the wall. it's great PR and usually is great for pushing and motivating their drivers. I think recency bias has made ppl think that DTS/DR/Liberty Media basically post-Bernie F1 has had some major overhaul in wanting friendly personalities and friendships etc but it's just not the case. F1 is inherently not a "friendly" looking sport bc it's incredibly elitist, woven deep into extremely uhhhh not PC and human rights-violating political establishments and public as well as private business - and to simply gain entrance to F1 requires millions poured into just one driver's career at each stage of their racing career. and tbh even the drivers who've gone for sponsorships outside of racing are choosing luxury brands etc so they're not needing to appeal to the general public.

there are maybe three drivers who are wanting an image that appeals to the wider public but the rest are absolutely fine with for the most part being openly remote and private or strategically showing just enough to the public to seem open but actually remaining very private. it's absolutely nothing like team sports and honestly not even similar to most other racing bc up until Liberty it was a walled city of a sport. PR is truly optional and scandals/salaciousness/fighting will always generates way more engagement and press attention than friendships and wholesomeness. F1 is entirely finance-driven (even moreso than other sports where public affection is any kind of priority) and if PR friendships or a friendly image meant literally anything then you wouldn't have drivers getting dropped from the sport mid-season or PR-darlings waiting in the wings after F2 in favor of F1 nepo hires and drivers who bring major regional or corporate sway with them.

backmarker teams like St-ke and W-lliams utilize PR more simply bc they need to keep sponsors happy and it's easier for drivers who are barely even aiming for points to have no tensions or public scrutiny to make it uncomfortable.

it's why I always point to how - regardless of what their private relationship is - CS and CL have always been fully on the same wavelength about their image as teammates in terms of managing what the public sees and how to negotiate periods of tension. weirdly enough they're the only case of two teammates actually utilizing their joint PR skillfully and intentionally BUT that being the case because a genuine friendship and respect runs through it. if they fully disliked or were even just disinterested in each other then they wouldn't bother and would run with the rivalry with the occasional bit of social media thrown in. Ferrari especially doesn't give a fuck if the public think they're "friendly" or "relatable" as a brand lsdfgsljafgljsagfsaljf. the C2 stuff has been a great unexpected little addition but they'd have been just as happy if they agreed to do a few stiff little challenges and the occasional ad but otherwise hated each other.

which is what's funny abt seeing the wild sht going on bc ppl can't grasp LN and OP having a solid and respectful working relationship but totally different approaches to PR. LN is open about how he's wanted to build his brand and his own company and the double edged sword of being such a public and accessible figure - PR for him is both a nightmare and savior bc the more extreme and blindly devoted of his fans are actually the biggest threat to his peace of mind and public identity. they start to take over his public perception w their opinions being so amplified by sheer numbers and insane devotion.

which is why someone like OP who represents a much more typical F1 driver who sees this as his career for as long as he can have it and PR as just a necessary evil that you hire a person for, ends up making those insane fans misinterpret THAT approach as some kind of devious Machiavellian PR... instead of literally being the opposite. he's literally said that he's ok or at least resigned to having to be a public figure as a part of the job and therefore also public about certain other people/things in his private life, but he draws the lines firm and very very reserved even from his own fans. esp when compared to someone like DR and LN and CS who at least appear extremely accessible to fans.

which is why in a totally different way, the LN/OP partnership works just as strongly as CS/CL one - bc OP doesn't care about publicity beyond Mark's advice and his sm person's requests and LN is already having to perform an extremely precarious PR dance w too many of his fans feeling v comfortable and entitled to him to the point where they make bold statements and opinions about his innermost thoughts and mental health as if speaking on his behalf. poor MaxF regularly has to help him run that gauntlet by subtly reminding fans about boundaries and that yes LN is indeed capable of experiencing emotions in rational ways !! and that he's fully capable of gaining perspective after the heat of a race !! and that fans deciding to run hate campaigns against people on Lando's behalf is not healthy or sane behavior !! (again, said much more subtly and skillfully than that)

then you've got OP who was hated the second he arrived in F1 on behalf of fan-favorite DR, got a brief respite while he was still notably behind LN, and now has gone back to being hated on behalf of fan-favorite LN. his mom is a fully random bit of fan popularity but even there, she's not consistent with it and doesn't go to races or otherwise make her life or feelings known publicly. there's zero "strategy". she doesn't defend him or coddle him and is known for lovingly roasting him. even choosing the RFP for an interview was hilarious bc she went w an outlet that makes gags about her son and favors the drivers she also likes and apart from saying how she raises her kids to be decent and kind she didn't say anything that particularly "sold" OP bc she just admitted he's weird (in a good way!!) but not naturally super emotive or sentimental. it's not the kind of stuff a mum who was PR-instructed or trying to make the public blindly adore her son would say. it's a very Aussie down-to-earth not-the-end-of-the-world approach to her son chasing an insane career that frankly stresses her out most of the time bc it's so dangerous.

whereas LN has had publicity following his life since he was small and it was decided that his dad would represent the family publicly but everyone else would be visible but otherwise private. the same strategy was applied to all of LN's friendships bc some were like MaxF who didn't mind being public facing and then a lot of them are visible but not known beyond their names. but it's so easy to see what a non-stop crazy dance LN has to do with his PR bc just when it feels like it's within his control, the delulu over intense fans latch onto smth and start flooding comment sections and crossing lines and assuming they have his blessing w all of it.

which is why it's perfect that OP is so inaccessible and relatively remote/uninvested in a public image bc having the hivemind of a rabid fanbase against him can never strike too deep or too personal since fans have never been permitted to any of those parts of OP's life. (I mean, technically they could ofc get even worse than this but then we're into legal action and race ban territory)

and it's also why they've both been so smart to adopt OP's methods when it comes to their relationship as teammates and pull all of their downtime and private conversations out of the public eye and and only mention them in passing. bc in the same way, whatever insanity fans project onto their relationship will never hit too personal bc they don't have access to any of it. CS/CL choose to make a lot available to fans bc they both know how to control and work that into being beneficial but not damaging. LN/OP choose to keep a lot private bc a large part of LN's fanbase is extremely unwieldy and OP has no interest in pandering to PR beyond strictly necessary. if they had to negotiate both of their images throughout all of this it would be complete chao.

and it's ironic bc the fans currently engaged in the online warfare against OP don't at all see the parallel w how LN was treated by DR's fanbase when they were teammates - and how those two were friends at the same time as frequently being at odds within the team etc. but I mean to be that kind of fan you're not capable of seeing that kind of behavior pattern ig ?? idk I couldn't fathom gunning so hard for men let alone rich men so I'll never understand !

aaaaaanyway tl;dr the notion of PR in F1 is negligible and a lot of fans are very very confused about when they're actually being blatantly pandered to and when a relationship or driver is being genuine lasfgsjlagfljg

[alluraaaa]

i am once again expanding on my ideas of how i’d write voltron but this time it’s thanks to @iveofficiallygonemad’s encouragement to hear about the galra generals

so first off, lotor + the generals should have been foils to the paladins, minus shiro cuz he’s missing when they’re introduced. the paladins being everyone in their OG lion + allura in black for reasons i’ve explored a buncha times already. the foils would be: lotor and allura, acxa and keith, narti and pidge, ezor and lance, and hunk and zethrid.

each one of these pairs has some surface level traits that are extremely similar if not identical, while having deeper traits that are completely opposite. allura and lotor are both royalty and their team’s leader, but with completely different moralities and approaches to ruling/leading. keith and acxa are both the right hands (and look so similar that ppl thought they were secret twins lmaooo) but where acxa is cold and calculating, keith is impulsive and hot-headed. both pidge and narti are very agile and keep secrets, but pidge hacks computers and narti hacks people’s minds. lance and ezor are both adaptable and outgoing, but ezor has a cruelty to her that lance doesn’t, instead being very kind. similar to them, hunk and zethrid are both powerhouses, but hunk knows to use his power responsibly while zethrid loves fighting for the sake of it. there could have been an excellent showcase here of how the team with more kindness and compassion are always beating the team that’s more cruel and uncaring.

now i don’t like the narti died, and i maintain that lotor should have been redeemed— not because i particularly like his character in canon, but because he could’ve had a much better one. he was clearly shown to have shitty parents, and it would’ve been so much more satisfying to see him rebel against them and break the cycle as it were. and with the blade of marmora being an organization of galra working against the empire, it’s clear where they could go.

i’m imagining a plotline of zarkon being resurrected or whatever happened in those seasons, and lotor being told him + his team now have no use, they were just a stand-in for zarkon while he was down and out. it’d be the final straw for him, and he’d storm off, his parents assuming his just throwing a tantrum. in reality, he’s convincing the generals— who are really the closest thing he has to friends— to just defect from the empire.

acxa has an undying loyalty to lotor, so she’s open to whatever he wants to do. ezor and zethrid are very chaotic neutral, down for whatever strikes their fancy in the moment and in this moment the idea sounds exhilarating and fun. they aren’t outright villains anymore but they’re still quite fucked up and tbh. good for them!

as for narti, she was killed in canon before she got any sort of personality, so i’m gonna hang onto the foil concept and base some personality and backstory on pidge’s. narti is very curious about life outside the empire, because the empire is all she’s known. she was a child soldier from day one. she also wants to get more knowledge about her powers and non-galran heritage, because it’s as much a mystery to her as it is to everyone else. she’s kind of always wanted to defect, but didn’t have the bravery to do so alone.

so they run away with no real plan of what to do. lotor wants a life outside of his father, but his father is ever expanding the empire, so he keeps losing places that are just his. that, plus his first hand witness of what the empire actually does, opens his eyes to the cruelty of his father’s colonization. that drives him to wanting to outright fight back against his father and the generals, who have been watching the same things, are right there with him.

acxa is watching the empire from an outsider’s position, and she’s seeing the real danger of being a mindless follower. she’s watching countless soldiers follow the orders of a handful of generals, and watching those generals not care when the soldiers get hurt or even die, because they’re just numbers and forces to the generals. she realizes that she should be making her own decisions and that even if she trusts lotor, he shouldn’t be the one in charge of her life.

narti is at first one track minded in finding her other parent’s home planet, but time and time again she watches a similar devastation happen on other planets. families get separated, important cultural artifacts are damaged, history documentation is destroyed. she learns she isn’t the only one dealing with this, and she doesn’t want any more people to suffer the same fate she has.

ezor and zethrid have been spending this time like a vacation from work, doing whatever seems most fun and rewarding. but they eventually start to see the empire repeatedly ruining their fun, and they don’t like it. they’d tell the others they don’t want zarkon interrupting them anymore and they don’t, but a large part of it is also seeing the hurt on their friends’ faces whenever they get caught in a firefight again. they love each other, and they love their friends, and they don’t want any of them getting hurt.

now obviously team voltron and their various allies wouldn’t trust lotor and co. but time and time again they’d see them helping voltron and hurting the empire how they can. eventually, there’s be tentative teamwork and down the line, they’d be invited to join the blade of marmora.

immediately all five of them would notice the familiarity between the blades and the empire. there’s basically no difference between their mottos; the blade is uncomfortably okay with letting soldiers die if it means getting the mission done.

the generals want to say something, but lotor doesn’t want to stir the pot too much. their position is very weak, there’s still very little trust in them. to come out the gate opposing how everything is done wouldn’t be good.

but the blade trusts voltron, doesn’t it? and one of the paladins is also a blade. so… they find keith and talk to him, telling him that while the blade has a good cause unlike the empire, both are a little too cool with letting people die, and it’s more than kind of upsetting.

keith, who is way too self sacrificial, doesn’t see a problem with this, but brings it up next time he’s with voltron. everyone is surprised by lotor + co’s behavior and ideals, and start to trust them more

i’m starting to lose steam here but um. lotor + co being good guys and the five of them co-leading the blade and making it better than the empire :-) they all get their own mini character arcs within this collective group arc and no one is killed for shock factor and no one is pushing the narrative of abused kids turning out just like their parents and continuing the cycle <3

[ayuventi]

So I’m taking a very small break from my tumblr hiatus to literally talk about the new opening and my thoughts about it bc I HAVE A LOT!!!

(Keep this Enso in mind from the opening and how the trail of the Enso continues onwards)

Under the cut for spoiler talks (for both anime and manga)

Okay so I apologize if this is a bit all over the place but please bear with me.

Something I noticed about Wano as that in a whole, is that it brings up circular natures of each character’s arcs and the story of finding as a whole as we saw through the flashback of what started 20 years prior with Gol D. Roger and his crew.

Every character got something depicted in their character arc that circles back to something in their past in Wano. Obviously the red scabbards doesn’t need much introspection I’m this regard outside of momonosuke, so I’m going to be focusing here on The Strawhats, Law, Kid, Yamato, and Momonosuke.

I’m going to start off with Yamato because of a key factor that I think really was subtle but adds so much to it. As we all know, Yamato when we were introduced to him, had chains on his hands. He was chained to Onigashima (a lone island which is important) at a young age. Now obviously, Yamato was meant to continue that theme of wanting to carry on Oden’s will but he was forcibly shackled there and to the past. Even when you see him with Ace, he’s still shackled and can’t break free of it until after Ace’s death when Luffy comes in and breaks those chains.

Luffy breaking those chains, and Luffy as a whole, was meant to be, of course, the symbolism of of freedom by him breaking the chains of what has bound ppl to their pasts and strive for the freedom to do as they please or move forward from the circular cycle or bonds of the past. This, along with Wano, is where the small trail from the Enzo I believe is impactful. Because every single character got some kind of development in their character that breaks them free from something that limited them or chained them to their past in Wano.

Zoro reaffirming his promises by becoming the King of Hell to better protect and carry out the promises that he made. Not only to his best friend, his captain, but also now to himself and his crew.

Sanji coming to terms with his past and moving forward with the knowledge that he may still have been modified as well but that will never define him, but rather have him tools to fight better to protect his loved ones.

Chopper with combating a virus while on the verge of becoming an ice oni (much in the same way Hiriluk was fighting against time to come up with a way to save people) and then find a cure with the chopperphage nebulizer that also was a pink cloud similar to the Sakura cloud that was set off when he left, formerly drum island.

Robin being entrusted by her friends and helping Sanji who called out for her, and thereby unlocking Demonia Fleure by also facing her past and breaking through the thoughts that her life doesn’t matter.

Brook with seeing the ppl of okobore town weren’t allowed to mourn for ppl that were lost but also being forced to face his past and know he’s got new friends to rely on and fight for.

Jinbei confronting Who’s Who and the battle where the Sun god Nika becomes a focus and him literally breaking Who’s Who with the visage of Fisher Tiger when he activated his own armament haki in regards to his past as a slave.

Usopp confronting his fears and becoming more and more brave and choosing to fight when he saves Kin’emon and Kiku, saying he hates the old traditions of simply laying down your life but rather you should fight to live.

Nami with saving Otama but also standing her ground in the face of potential death (much in the same way that Bellemere had for her and Nojiko) along with the declaration that Luffy will be king of the pirates when she formerly hated pirates.

I will get to Franky more in a moment, but the trust his friends had in his creations being something to save them rather than just being used as a weapon when Usopp and Chopper battled Big Mom.

Law not only made the decision that he wants to now live on and find out why he had to live his checkered life but also gave a very stunning tribute to Corazon who fought for him to live and be free.

Kid was forced to face the consequences of making the alliance with Apoo and Hawkins but broke from that by also developing a trust in the Strawhats and Law by fighting alongside them as allied rivals.

Momonosuke of course being the son of Oden and now finding his own will to live on and continue to carry on his father’s will by choosing to live and eventually, in the future, opening the land of Wano.

Now, here’s the biggest thing. Onigashima started on its own separate island, but has now moved onto the main landmass of Wano. What else lies on Wano, or rather below it?

Pluton.

I said I would elaborate more on Franky later but I’m also going to touch upon Law in this part as well. Franky as we know completely ripped up the documents regarding Pluton way back in water 7. I also wouldn’t be surprised perhaps if the Water in Law’s name holds some relevance to that and Water 7 as he is the surgeon of Death. Reason for this connection I’m proposing is because of this shot here in the opening which I don’t feel is coincidental if the them of the opening is anything to go off.

Now that the circular shackles have been broken, we are now moving away from the past cycles and forward into the new paths for each character and the story itself. I think the opening did a beautiful job of showcasing that this is the completion of what was started 20 years ago by Gol D. Roger and is now gearing us up for the path we’ll get to watch as the Strawhats move to find the One Piece.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

[notthestarwar]

for the WIP game, can you tell me more about ‘Fox gets a job- quin/ Fox’ 👀👀

thank you for asking!

OK so i know i've talked about this on here before but i love this au so i'm gonna repeat myself a bit probably.

so its set post war, no order 66. The idea is that the war opened everyones eyes to cloning, in a very bad way. loads of half bit criminals are like. free labour? people we can raise to do whatever we want? why don't we give it a try. theres a background of a lot of shitty gangs going about trying out cloning in a way that would horrify the kaminoans really. this is not good science, this is comic book-esque backstreet cloning in order to take advantage of people.

they are largely not successful. the problem isnt that there are loads of gang owned clones around. the problem is that they keep trying even tho they dont know shit about cloning and so vulnerable ppl are getting kidnapped off the streets for gennetic material and in a baby farm type way to grow clones in. its bad.

enter fox. he's drifting after the war. he doesnt really know what too do with his life. he is looking for a job and he says he wants a job but everytime he gets an interview he's overly honest and tells them things like 'yeah i killed my last boss' (palpatine) and 'my greatest flaw? i'm too competent. it makes my bosses feel inferior' and so understandably nobody will give him a job

he doesnt actually need a job. quin is paying all his bills cause theyre in a weird not relationship and wont admit they care about eachother. fox is deadly embarrased about whatever quin funding him and spending all his days off in fox's apartment might signify and so it is a MASSIVE SECRET that must be kept from fox's brothers.

so fox at this point in his life, stumbles on to one of these cloning ops and ends up helping someone. and it becomes kind of addictive. he wont admit it but helping these people, who are being hurt by cloning, settles something in him. maybe it settles the thing in him that he wont admit is so hurt by the cards he and his brothers have been dealt, by what was done to them.

so fox sets up as a private investigator. but because he's a weirdo who runs from intimacy he kind of. doesnt tell anyone (he cant. this is important to him) but of course, his brothers find out anyway and they also find out that he's running the worst business ever because he's not taking money from his clients. because he doesnt feel right doing it.

now where this is building to (and this is the part that i kinda got stuck on) is he stumbles on to a BIG criminall gang cloning conspiracy. one where they are actually succeeding in cloning people. he ends up investigating this one with Boba! which pretty much happens cause at the start before he knows how big this is, he walks in to this lab, and who has also broken in to the lab and is investigating the same conspiracy? BOBA. and its just like. fox and boba stood on either side of this illegal lab like. spiderman meme pointing. looking out of the window of a car as they drive past each other. that vibe.

and the rest of the story is boba and fox on this unwilling team up. neither of them wanting to admit to feelings but having to kind of both admit. yeah. bad things happened to us and i dont like the idea of anyone else being out there with similar stuff happening to them. they also unwillingly get close. then theres the side plot of fox having to admit his feelings when it comes too quin and admit that theyre kinda living like theyre in a committed relationship without the words. and then the other thing thats going on in the background is cody and obi wan, who are living together, in a happy relationship apart from the fact that they never have an empty house becuase one of them is aways inviting some wayward sibling or other to stay with them. cody and obi wan respectively have no shortage of family so its just constant and both of them act like theyre annoyed each time the others do it, but really, its why they love each other and theyre both so big brother coded and yeah.

so i know i've alread shared some bits of this here and here (and possibly theres a third one floating around here as welll? cant find it)

so here are some other snippets from other parts of the au:

and from a bit later on, a quin/fox bit

later on, fox being uncharactaristially honest (it's easier when the person doesnt matter to him)

and finally, fox's thoughts on the cloning problem

and i've shared loads sorry so i'll stop now, but yeah. this is an idea i am very excited about and i am very frustrated that i havent been able to form a conspiracy that fits right for him and boba to investigate

[odysseys-blood]

then, can you give us a list of games you recommend?

i sure can thank u for asking! i'll try to make it a bit more brief but under my top 4 i'll add a readmore with a longer list in case u wana read that and not the like. Odysseys Blood Introductory Game Pack.

so starting with the top picks:

1. The World Ends With You

i think a lot of people have a similar feeling about this game. you play as neku, recently deceased kid with no memories no friends and a whole lot of attitude and your main goal is to survive the reaper's game for 7 days to get a chance at living again. he trusts no one and believes in nothing but himself and being an extremely depressed middle schooler, i related to him but watching the way he changes over time and learns to open himself up. its kind of an eye-opener and i've seen the same though echoed through a lot of different people like me who wanted to really give up but this game does take you by the hand and oush you to try again. make connections. live and whileit may be a struggle its alright because you always have the option to keep going. also the ost is AMAZING and the art style is very unique and the story and characters captivate you so well. idk where id be without this game honestly. preferably if you do want to play its best to play the og on a ds (can be done w/ a hacked one) but if not its on switch and theres a sequel! which is ok but its not as great as original twewy

2. Tales of the Abyss

ToA (or tota as most ppl tag it but i stick with toa to match the tags for other tales games. which are also good esp vesperia i just wont add it to this list bc its already gonna be a long one). what stood out to me a lot with this game besides the main cast who i love to bits, is its theme on religion actually. when i first played toa i was still in the church and the main theme of religion in toa can be boiled down to devotion is all fine and good, but don't let it rule your life. the fate that is written out for you doesn't rule you, you make your own choices. even if they seem futile, you still don't have to take your fate sitting down you can kick and scream and fight as much as you want towards another path if that truly is what you desire. and that resonated with me heavily. this one's a little more crunchy looking from its age but i still really like the graphics (and i played on 3ds lol) and the environments in tales games are all so stellar its such a good game. and oh my GOD the party interactions. tales games usually do really good at having main casts that are "6-8 people who have no business being stuck together but they are anyways" and i think the part for this one will always be my favorite. also last little bit but theres so much about identity in toa as well and the way the main character, luke, is written with his own struggles about feeling like his own person has gripped me to this day. ive heard this one is hard to find a physical copy of but like. again shoot me a message if u have a hacked 3ds

3. AI: The Somnium Files

i've been here since day ONE (not exactly but theres a youtube page for one of the characters they were using to drop some info before the game released and i was watching while that was still going so. close enough). i am obsessed with aitsf. my icon is even the main character (edited a bit and w/ stickers). this game doesn't have combat like the first to and is strictly a visual novel and i adore the way it explores the central theme of love, especially familial love and its many shapes and forms and how sometimes even through blood it just doesnt. exist. but that doesnt mean you dont deserve love. someone will be there to give it to you and if not you take it however you can. this is much more apparent in the left half of the game which to this day has made the mizuki route my favorite. this one's eveywhere (playstation, steam, switch) and goes on sale frequently on steam for like $7. this one also has a sequel which is pretty good but again i think the original is much better

4. Heaven Will Be Mine

honestly with how many people i see daily gushing over poetry and writing im surprised more dont play hwbm. its a space mecha visual novel set in the aftermath of a war where earth sent children to go fight an existential threat which may not have even existed and now all of those kids are adults who have grown up without the shackles of society on the earth which js funny enough, finally calling for them to come back. the writing is beautiful and fun to pick apart and if you're a fan of prose i definitely think you should give this one a try. double of you're lgbt in any way this game is good for its writing about queerness especially if you're trans. please play hwbm. this one's on steam and doesnt have a sequel game but the devs, worst girl games, also made We Know The Devil which i like less than hwbm but its still pretty good! that ones got gay religious trauma

continuing is just a list of more i like in no specific order. some of these may be a bit cringey but i like fun

Witch's Heart

listen i know theres some strange bias some ppl have gainst rpgmaker pixel games but like. 1) odd but ok 2) witch's heart is such a beatiful story i need you to throw whatever biases you may have abt pixel games RIGHT NOW. my header text comes from this game. it means everything to me. do you have a wish you would kill for? does your wish mean more to you than another's? how much will you let your selfishness control you. for a game that looks so silly it made me cry a lot. this one's free on vgperson's translated game list and theres still MORE BEING MADE. SO MUCH GAME. FOR FREE. LOOK AT ME. ITS FREE. and heartwrenching.

To The Moon/Finding Paradise/ Impostor Factory

this description is short but similarly a pixel game like the previous rec. its more understandably heavy considering you play as eva and neil who fulfill the wishes of the dying in their dreams. its sad. i cried. i cry a lot dont i? these r on steam

Just Shapes and Beats

a rhythm game this time! it's got a cute little story mode but it is just a dubstep rhythm bullet hell i like playing. did you know i was a dubstep fan in middle school well now you do and im sad skrillex is mid now. its on steam and switch. not a good pick however if you are sensitive to flashing lights or have epilepsy im sorry. i believe there are safe modes but i havent tested them myself to see how well they work

Paranormasight

paranormasight is a horror visual novel illustrated by gen kobayashi who, if you can tell from the linework on the sprites and in the portraits and what have you, illustrated for twewy. i'll be real i was ready to screan and cry 30 minutes in but its not actually that scary im just a wimp. this one could be seen in a similar vein with witch's heart in the idea of: what would you do to fulfill your greatest wish. how many people would you kill. because you will be killing. on steam and switch.

Bustafellows

for being an otome bustafellows rly got me. while being an otome it is still plenty silly but heavy with fun characters. also i think this is the first time ive really liked an otome mc they tend to be very waify and kinda annoyingly written tbh but teuta is a VERY fun character and not at all a stand in for a self insert. or at least she isnt good at being a self insert which is fine to me because i love a main character that has their own personality. a guy dies like 10 minutes in. this ones on steam

Mamiya

i seem to like a lot of visual novel games with time loops and dead main characters and this is another one. very dark but i love it to bits. also this one requires a warning list i haven't seen anywhere but i made one myself here. its on steam

IVE RUN OUT OF PICTURES. SO I CANT ADD ANYMORE BUT QUICK LIST YOU'LL HAVE TO LOOK UP MORE OR JUST ASK ME ABT ANY OF THESE:

Lethal League Blaze

Hatoful Boyfriend

Fallen Hero: Rebirth (and its sequel Retribution)

Code Vein

shout out also to What in Hell is Bad. not for kids at all this one is explicitly 18+ but for being a goofy eroge otome it has. gripped my by the nuts and it has not let go. ive only been playing like a month help.

[dearweirdme]

https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/727203098446168064/i-sent-you-an-ask-weeks-ago-about-there-not-being?source=share

it seems like you and anon are still yet to figure out that tae has dug this hold for himself. he's not dating jungkook, he's dating jennie, and he messed up when he cared too much about ppl knowing that he's dating her by throwing her under the bus (when he pretended that the insta follow was accidental—which it was, but not bc she showed up in his recommendations, he was lurking on her account shortly after opening his own—and had armys ganging up on her in the comments) and he tried deflecting the fandom by mentioning jk a lot since he knows "armys would like that" (his own words but about him doing fan service with seokjin).

taehyung monitors army and he knows how popular taekook is in the fandom, and since it won't take much to distract tkkrs/army he started name dropping jungkook often when the taennie rumors were at their peak. he REALLY didn't want ppl to know he's been sleeping with the enemy. but alas.

also idk who decided on that paris date because it did look like a pr stunt but the relationship itself is not fake. imo i think it was either jennie who hired the pap bc she wants ppl to know she's dating V of BTS (who could blame her) or she managed to convince tae to soft launch their relationship but he was hesitant and backtracked after he saw the backlash. relationships are not perfect and no offense but jennie seems like a selfish person and a show-off and i hate that tae likes her but this is none of my business anyway. they've some really similar characteristics though (not necessarily bad things just stuff that i've observed over time after the rumors began) so it makes sense that they would date. i really hope they don't last though cause tae deserves someone with a better personality, someone nicer.

now that tae knows what kind of hole he had dug for himself, and he knows that name-dropping jungkook had blinks, kpoppies, and even jkkrs jumping him and calling him a coward he had to stop. he can still hang out with jungkook (and does!) since it doesn't translate badly to most people (except for insecure shippers) because taekook are friends. them hanging out or spending time together will never be the proof tkkrs want it to be, because there's nothing weird or out of the ordinary about their hang outs, especially when they've been consistently hanging within a friend group aka the wooga squad.

yeah yeah, tkkrs might be right about "the woogas adopted jk" thing or whatever, but who cares? it still means nothing romantic-wise for taekook. even all the name-dropping tae did had no romantic undertones to it but that pissed people off because jk was always singled out and constantly mentioned out of the blue on two minute lives for no clear reason AND it wasn't mutual on jk's end. it's the same situation with jk getting hated on by pjms because he keeps mentioning jimin when jimin seemingly doesn't care. but ofc jimin cares about jk, just like jk cares about tae, but the one-sided-ness of it all is causing issues between their groups of solos and shippers because "taehyung is obsessed with jungkook" but "jungkook is obsessed with jimin" and all the bs their solos spew.

taehyung's case is complicated because he now has blinks watching him and one wrong move from him that could potentially set jennie up will get him dragged to hell by her fans, and he doesn't want that especially now that he's promoting his album.

sometimes i feel like a lot of yall are really dense, and have no intuition at all. because what tae's has been up to this year is obvious as hell, he's actually pretty calculated and it showed especially this year and this is why all the jk mentions left a bad taste in my mouth midst the taennie fiasco, but only tkkrs and some armys (mainly army twitter) were in denial about it because they hate blackpink and their fans. but what we want isn't always what goes on in those celebrities lives and yall need to understand that they KNOW their audience and they know how to control it when things get out of control, and tae is no exception. he tried controlling his audience with the way he thought will work but it backfired on him because not all of his audience are gullible tkkrs, and now he's not trying anymore because it's risky when he's promoting (at least for now).

and i hate that people consider anyone who acknowledges that tae did wrong as an anti. we're not fucking antis for acknowledging things when our faves fuck up. they're humans, they make mistakes without thinking sometimes, taehyung fucked up when he ignored all the rumors about him and jennie and even actively tried to divert attention from it thinking that ALL who cared about the rumors were tkkrs who'll eat up his few jk mentions and move on with their lives. but there were armys, blinks, and kpop stans who didn't fall for this shit bc they don't care about some jk mentions, we noticed his pattern of singling out jk and as non-tkkrs it all clicked into place quick and the conclusion wasn't pretty. this is why i hope after his album promo ends he doesn't mess things up again because it will really cause issues.

Hi anon!

Tae singling out Jk isn't exactly new. A lot of people are looking at this like you are, like it was some masterplan Tae formed to hide his relationshi with Jennie. When actually, Tae and Jk just did what they always do. They just see each other a lot, and that shows. Whether it is through mentions in lives, through meeting, through being physically close in official footage... Jk and Tae just have a special bond. What has been new though, is that we are in a different era. Before chapter2, Tae and Jk's 'singling each other out' was obscured by the other members and by them also interacting wih other members a lot. Now though, both Tae and Jk have hung out with each other obviously more than they have with the other members (especcialy during the first part of the year. So for them mentioning each other like they normally would wasn't on purpose, it just was normal. If they'd hung out with Jin, or Jimin, or Hobi just as much, they would have mentioned them as well. You can also see this in with Jimin who kept seeing Hobi and Yoongi most, those were the members mentioned by him most. It's not something they came up with, it's just what they do. Jk isn't obsessed with Jimin. Although they obviously care about each other a lot, the interactions that are magnified atm (like Jk's live dedicated to Jimin, the recent live with Jk in bed) are all more or less sett of by something. It's just Jk spotting something about Jimin and going along with it in the moment. This is also how they have always been. It's banter and friendship.

Mentioning Jk to divert attention from Jennie is also very non-effevtive and management would have known that and advised him otherwise. It only means much to Tkkrs, and we are very much not the whole of army and Blinks. So only if Tae would've wanted just Tkkrs to not know about him and Jennie that might've been a thing, but that just doesn't make sense in any way. If they wanted to keep Tae and Jennie a secret they wouldn't have walked around Paris like that (which yes was obvious pr). Tae posted Jk on his insta right before that, so whas that also still him trying to divert attention right before soft landing his relationship? Please, they have a whole team behind them who advises them about how to deal with situations like this. No company would let things run wild the way they have unless that was the intention. If they were actually together, there would have been a confirmation straight after Paris to calm things down.

I think the things that are considered 'members doing something wrong' are rarely actually members doing something wrong. Things get magnified to an unreasonable extent. Members mentioning each other is never 'doing something wrong' if you think that in any capacity you don't fully realize the respect and love members have for each other. I see people (tkkrs) say that Jimin is showing that pic of him and Jk together is him not asking for consent from Jk... what flip? Those men (all members) know exactly what they can and cannot do regarding the others.

[justbringtherain]

Ted Lasso finale, my very late and random and long thoughts

I saw the episode and then it took me like 5 years to write this post but I'd like to post it anyway. Some stuff problably won't be accurate bc I've not re-watched it.

Also I'm ignoring the reddit thingy for Brendan Hunt. It's my brain and I'll cover my ears and tra-la-la around if I want to.

Also, a lot of thought abt Roy and Jaime and Keely as an ot3, as Roy/Keeley, as Roy&Jaime and as the characters in general.

I don't know how to put stuff under read more, I'm so so sorry.

So I've decided that the part from when Beard leaves to when Ted opens his eyes on the plane is a dream of a possible, probable future for everybody.

I'm ok with most of the stuff shown but even some of those are too rushed and/or too optimistic and/or too over-simplyfied. Like many ppl have already said the season suffered from too many plots who obvs did not get developed properly due to not having the time.

The one thing I fully refuse is the Jane/Beard wedding. I won't speak of the Jaime-and-James stuff bc for many different and personal reasons I just can't. The other thing I'm not really ok with is Rebecca/Dutch Guy bc I thought we established that Rebecca had finally found her family and it wasn't what she expected but it was right for her and then the dude appears and it kind of cheapens that. I loved the Dutch Guy in the Amsterdam ep. but I think that plot should have ended there.

Everything else I can see happening the same or very similar. It's just a matter of when it happens related to Ted's departure.

Re: Jaime/Keeley/Roy stuff.

I was a ride or die Keeley/Roy shipper untill I saw 3x11. Then I was hooked by the ot3 and now I will die on this hill. But talking abt Roy/Keeley: already in 3x10 after K/R hooked up it seemed very clear that Keeley had doubts abt getting back together with Roy and the next ep proved they didn't which I was fine with. They needed at least to have a much bigger convo abt what lead Roy to break up with her and the fact that he asked who the sex tape was for needed to be addressed imo bc he had absolutely no right to do it. Also Keeley can definetly use some time on her own and focus on KJPR/KBPR (we can keep the name change).

Jaime&Roy. ooooh boy do I want to write a way longer post abt these 2 starting from s2 and maybe one day I will. But to keep it short their fight was bullshit. It especially sucked the way Roy asked Jaime out like for a night between buddies and started the convo talking abt how proud he was of Jaime and then he just told him to back off from Keeley so that he could get back together with her. Yeah Roy no need to talk to Keeley -who said she wanted them to be just friends- abt that. Honestly I'm glad Jaime pushed back bc one thing is to learn to be a team player, another is to be a push over. Jaime hadn't addressed still having feelings for Keeley since 2x07 and for all we know he could have just been waiting for the right time to ask her to give it another try. Back to Roy: the way he acted kinda cheapened the moment between him and Jaime and like I said it sucks. Jaime seemed so touched and then Roy fucked it. Woah I'm being harsh on Roy.... They were both idiots (thank God they aknowledged right away) both to fight physically and then to think they had this genius idea to let Keeley choose. Like... bitches??? It was always going to be her choice!!!! At least they understand right away (kinda) that what they did was bullshit and finish the night off going for a bite togther. I understand that this was their "closure" as it was the finale, I'll leave the conversation they should have had to the fanfics.

Roy. I've been such a bitch to him but in the end he does the right thing and asks for help. And his admission to the Diamond Dogs was fucking heartbreaking bc he was so disappointed in himself. He really thought he had changed for the best and then he makes the same mistakes all over again. Which is of course perfectly normal but also not the easiest thing to understand. Both getting better and bettering ourselves are not linear and we're going to fuck up. Which is actually what also happened between Roy and Jaime bc they fell back to getting aggressive and violent with each other even though they were at a point where they could have talked it out. They regressed but it happens. And now this paragraph sort of negates what I've written above but not really. Their fight was bullshit bc they could have been able to avoid it but it can also make sense that they didn't bc they are humans. Emotions were running high and Keely is a bit of a sore topic for them. Back to Roy, but really to Brett. Kudos to the man bc Roy might be aggressive but he never made me unconfortable until the sex tape episode. When he asks Keely who was it for and then repeats the question when she goes "What?" his whole demeanor was fucking scary to me. Cold, calm but u can see it's a farcade. And it's the same demeanor we see when he tells Jaime to leave Keeley alone. And I'm probably wrong but it felt like a conscious choice, as if to say "ur feeling uncomfortable bc u're supposed to be". Who knows.

Final Roy/Keely/Jaime scene. Like I've said, I'm taking most of that scene as a "this might happen". Regarding these 3, I'm fine with it. We don't know who's with who and that I'm cool with that. But we know they're in a good place with each others and that's all that matters.

Other stuff:

Colin/Michael: no need to say anything except fuck yeah it happened! Colin just wanted to kiss his fella and he did!!! I wonder if it means he's out or if no photographer caught it so it's just something Colin finally managed/felt ready to do. And both scenarios are fine! They kissed! I screamed! I had already teared up for everything else and it got worst!

Wait if Sam actually (hopefully!) goes to play for Nigeria it's only for national games right??? The rest of the year he's still with Richmond right??? I don't want any of them to leave!!! Richmond 'till they die!!!

Last thoughts: I know I might have been kinda negative here, but I honestly liked how it ended. I smiled, I laughed, I screamed, I teared up and downright cried. Mostly, I feel like the season needed a couple more episode to expand on some stuff, but you cannot have perfection. I'm satisfied. I understand how Ted's choice can feel so disappointing and I do wish he could have stayed and maybe have Henry move to England but I also understand why the writers decided to have him move back to the US. I don't think it cancel all of his development. He needed Richmond to become a better dad and he went back feeling ready to be it.

[nfumbewalk]

More Muerteria

I've got Muerteria & it's great! There is no similarities between Muerteria and African paths or paganism. Believing in God is preferred. Can you be a pagan and practice Muerteria? If you please, but know that some beliefs in Muerteria may not fit with your pagan beliefs. We're more monotheistic. Meaning one God. Some of us like Saints and angels too. For instance, my favorite Saint/Archangel is Michael. P

What can you do to tap into Muerteria? Set a small table with a two glasses of water, three white candles, incense, a vase of white flowers, and a small mirror that can sit upright on the table. All of these items create a powerful surge of energy. The mirror is the catalyst for the muertos to come into our world for a visit. It can be creepy with the mirror. If its that bothers you, try a dark mirror or obsidian. If you want a muerto to stay, you'll have to use a vessel.

I have to screen ppl who come who come to me for Muerteria, but it's not a test or background check. I interview you via email or phone and consult my divination. I just want to see your motivations and goals for this path. After you go through the introductory reading on Muerteria. Keep in mind that this practice is still being channeled, so it's not complete.

Muerteria is not secretive, but we do keep our practice quiet. I don't think the general public would understand it. Though it seems like ppl are interested in muertos nowadays. My old coven mate loves what I've sent him. I can tell that he may possibly start practicing Muerteria when he gets the chance! He just needs the information from me. Muerteria is going to change necromancy! It won't just be for weirdos and high magicians. It will be accessible to those with sincere interest. And Muerteria has built in faults to trip up dabblers. Seriously!!! 💀

I have also looked at the term "Sciomancy" to see if I want to use it. While not a bad term, I will not use it because it muddies up the waters. And a person from my past used it interchangeably in her necromancy books. Along with stupid misspellings of the word necromancy itself! Nygromancye? Come on!! Durrr, I have a wooden spoon! Durr! (Waterboy - Adam Sandler?!!) Don't misspell necromancy, it's fucking stupid!! 😂 Thought she was smart. Apparently, not as much as I thought!

So, when I refer to the word necromancy, it means a bit more than just talking or divining with the muertos. To me, it's also practicing with them. There's really no other word for this either. There may be some secrets but I don't lock people out of getting knowledge. If you're sincere about this practice & really want to learn & grow within it - I won't hold anything back. I don't believe in rank but I do believe that the student has to be ready for the knowledge & the tasks.

When I train someone, it's not rote or mechanical. If they learn better this way, I'll do it, but it's not my preference. I did that myself when I studied medicine, but this is not the same. There's no big words with Greek combining forms. Muerteria is, shall I say - spiritual in nature. When you put faith inside this practice, it changes the dynamic quite a lot. Why haven't I mentioned some kind of religion with Muerteria? Because it's for you to decide, not me.

I don't practice a religion. I'm monotheistic in nature, not polytheistic. I'm definitely not pagan or pantheistic either. As I've aged, I realized that I cannot handle all those gods anymore. My Muerteria practice is plenty for me. I do believe in God, but no church for me. Other believers can suck it. Lol!!

I am open to helping a few ppl learn basics of Muerteria, but there's a few requirements: 1. You need to be serious & want to learn. 2. It's nose to the grindstone or nothing. 3. You need to be available often for email and text messages. All lessons are emailed. 4. My material must not be reposted, it needs to be kept to yourself. There is a privacy agreement.

That's about it if a few ppl want to contact me. I am available by E-MAIL ONLY. I don't do tumblr messages. My address is stick.priestess@gmail.com. Put "Muerteria" in the subject section, please. Please, be over the age of 21. Thanks!

[servamp-musings]

I have a theory! Sry if this is long, and pls tell me if this has already been theorized before.

So we all know about the Envy pair's connection to Christianity, and I just wanted to speculate about Jeje's past. (Might be gruesome) so many ppl theorize that jeje used to be a clergy/priest (idk). I imagined his death to be a bit gruesome as the origins of a snake (according to the Bible I think) was that a lizard's limbs were cut off in punishment. I don't remember if this is the same snake as in Adam and eve, but I think so. What if Jeje's death had something to do with his limbs being removed? That would kind of explain why he likes being covered, and probably explain why he shot a gun out of his knee when he shot Nicco.

If in this regard, jeje represents the snake, would his eves be the Edens? Jeje mentions in one of the flashback chapters that he contracted many eves, but they all succumbed to jealousy. If all the eves are Edens, what is the apple? And is the "adam" out of the picture?

In addition, where do you think Abel came from? I thought that similar to Kuro, Jeje asked Gear to seal a part of himself within an object (the doll) and so Abel carries most of his malice in hanging people. I thought that, but then it was revealed that Youtarou also makes those dolls. Unless the dolls are like an old ritual, i no longer have an hc for explanations. What do think of this?

Don’t worry, thank you for sharing this with me ☺️ I have heard that a lot of people theorise that Jeje used to be a priest/part of the clergy (me and my sister included) but that’s the first time I’ve heard loss of limbs being a possibly attributed to his death. I think it makes sense. I’ll be honest, seeing that he can summon a gun out of his knee kinda reminded me of the people considered Weapons in Soul Eater 😂 All jokes aside, it’s possible that it was done against his will either as a punishment of some kind, similar to the story or as a sacrifice for something. Another theory both me and my sister thought was that he could have been a soldier at some point as well, having died fighting in a war but then that doesn’t really explain how he apparently asked to be brought back to life (if I read that right).

Now, if Jeje did represent the snake, I think it wouldn’t be far off to consider his Eves to be Edens. The story of Adam and Eve took part in the Garden of Eden, and with each Eve, there are endless possibilities of what could happen. They could have all been considered “ideal” or “good and virtuous” people but within all that, there’s always a little bit of darkness deep down, sometimes disguised, sometimes simply hidden away and surpressed. That would be the theoretical “apple”; jealousy, insecurity, being scared etc and being more aware/conscious of it.

With Jeje, I truly believe that he never intentionally lead them to that but it just became easier to access the longer they stayed with him and the fact that he was the first Servamp stable with his demon, but how stable was that really? As a result, it ends up building and building until it gets too much and consuming them. This could be seen in Mikuni’s mother, she tried her best to atone for making a contract with Jeje and killing Misono’s mother by taking Misono in and raising him, but that darkness remained a part of her and as Misono grew up and began looking like his mother, she ended up being reminded of Mikado’s infidelity and couldn’t handle it anymore. People are often afraid of others seeing that side of them, so keep it to themselves. However in Mikuni’s case, he’s not afraid, or at least shows he’s not. He’s fully aware of what he did, and has stated himself that he is not a good person. He’s fairly open about his jealousy as if he’s accepted that it was a part of him. That’s probably why Jeje is ok with sticking by him (other than as Servamp and Eve), because it is probably unlikely for him to be consumed by Envy. For this reason, I think I agree with there being no “Adam”, as in they don’t have someone to share that “apple” with. On the flip side, “Adam” could be those they have shared it with, but only temporarily so that status doesn’t fully stay, if that makes sense.

With regards to Abel, I really like your idea. Before the latest chapter showed that Abel was made by Youtarou using Gear’s fur, and I’m assuming Mikuni’s able to use magic because of that, me and my sister did have a few ideas about her. Even though they’re disproven, I’ll share them anyway:

Abel holds a part of Mikuni that is considered to be “rational”. By keeping her with him, he was able to maintain his sanity and think clearly about what he wants to do, being “himself”. Without her, he becomes rather child-like and unstable. We originally thought that Mikuni had went to Gear to “remove” the side of him that he wants to forget (killing his mother) and the doll was used as a medium. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, it ended up being split into two; “Abel” and “Cain”, Abel housing “positivity” and Cain, “negativity”. Because Cain was the one who held the memories Mikuni wanted to forget, he left her behind with Gear. I know Gear’s ritual thing was to seal power into an object, but we thought maybe it could work for memories too.

Abel could be considered having part of Mikuni’s mother’s consciousness within her. One thing we had always thought is that Abel either was, or contained Mikuni and Jeje’s contract item. Therefore, similar to my mum’s theory on how maybe Mikuni is influenced by his mother’s jealousy through Jeje since Servamps and Eves are connected, it may have some play in Mikuni’s actions.

She was a gift to Mikuni from his mother. I like to think that Mikuni grew up rather open-minded and enjoyed a lot of different activities, including playing with dolls and being taught how to sew by his mother. Because she was special to him, he took her with him when he left the Alicein Manor. This somehow later became incorporated with his Lead. Speaking of his Lead, with the information from the new chapter, I’m now thinking that Mikuni’s “My Fair Lady” is the spell/technique that he uses to make Abel heavier and summon the statue, his Lead is only acting as the pivot. This makes it slightly different from the “team attacks” the other Servamps and Eves have.

However, if Abel meant so much to Mikuni, I was wondering why he allowed her to be beheaded in his technique (other than it can be seen as “killing” his mother once again as Abel was hers) but then realised that one of the properties of Gear’s fur was to repair matter so I’m assuming he didn’t really mind (and we saw that black wispy smoke from her).

As for now, I’m not really sure. In one of the events in the Land of Nod, I think Youtarou mentioned that he often makes dolls, clothes and other accessories to sell online although not all of it was made using Gear’s fur. I am curious as to how Abel got confiscated and ended up with the Aliceins. Also in why Youtarou thought about making dolls with Gear’s fur. Perhaps it was for some old ritual as an medium like you said, or to hold parts of Gear’s power in his attempt to still maintain his form of self when full moon comes. In that case, does that mean anyone with a doll can use magic with it as a catalyst as long as you know the method?

Overall, thanks again for this and I’m sorry for the long rambling, Jeje’s one of my favourite characters and I’m looking forward to finding out more about him 😂

Hope you have a nice day, and thanks for reading ☺️

[wa-kaizen]

ARE THESE SIGNS COMPATIBLE? | AQUARIUS AND ARIES

I said I will deliver, so I am delivering!! It's not like I need more exposure after I self sabotaged /sarcasm This is like, the second post I make on this and I hope it will be received well! Tbh I love Aquariuses and Aries together like yess go <33 I personally don't know any celebrity pairs with this pairings but rather look at my irls & internet ppl when observing these!! If you do tho lmk! I'm also more than happy to take requests/suggestions! <3 Also please remember a whole relationship can't be determined by only one sign, this is for fun!

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PAID TAROT READINGS | PAID ASTRO READINGS

Okay, so. I genuinely can't think of any down sides with this one.

Not to say there isn't any, I do think there are some. However, I do think these would be very minor. - Yes, you can argue on this one, this is a discussion not facts! -

Air and Fire compliment each other a lot, and are a great combination together.

Keeping each other alive, lowkey. /j

No, but seriously, it's better than fire and earth, or earth and fire.

While Aquarius often don't know how to handle their emotions causing themselves and other's around them often to be overwhelmed Aries will be understanding and have extreme sympathy because they themselves know how does that feel like.

They will know how to calm down the Aquarius in question because they know what the person will need rather than want.

Their care also wouldn't stay unreturned. Aquariuses are extremely supportive and realistic in views, so they would always support the Aries in fileds they are certain to suit the person in question.

They compliment each other like green and blue. You wouldn't think it works, but they are amazing together.

These signs are also very misunderstood in similar ways! They are both thought to be cold and distant people when in reality they are very playful and smart.

It's just that they both might need time opening up, which could make any connection awkward at first.

I do think that would settle tho, because they are both very intelligent signs.

They might both like space, science and nature. So they could bond over their love for animals.

I do not think interest wise these two signs have a lot in common by what I noticed? Their styles seem the same, but hobbies and generic interest might differ from each other.

Which could be a blockage for some, but I personally find it interesting! It will allow both parties to expand each others horizons and have a lot to talk about.

These signs both suffer from 'my heart is too big' syndrome. So, if there is already a shared interest - or multiple - that they have both bonded over and formed an attachment on they will gladly hear one another out on what they have to say about their interest even if they might not like it.

Honestly? They are both extremely supportive people, I do not see two people with these signs hating each other deeply.

Opposite actually.

I noticed that one thing they have in common is noticing bad people around people, expect when it comes to themselves. So these two will be able to help one another avoid negative people and have a level headed conversation about it.

The only con I could think of is that Aries might get easily irritated in fights and provoke the Aquarius. I do think it's something they could both find humour in later since I don't think serious topics are anything the two normally argue about.

Honestly, this feels like a little rambling lmao, but I truly don't think these two are a bad pair.

Many will not agree with this, but these are both signs that are very humble. They do have egos when it comes to intelligence, other than that, they are really chill.

The type of 'we are all humans' kind of you know? They won't treat you differently because of your status, money, interests ect. Only if you are a bad person in their eye.

This allows them to not only connect through hating people - it sounds bad, but it works for them so - but also get close to each other without any kind of judgement.

Nothing is too tmi, yet they have very healthy boundaries! Although, Aquariuses are more easy going and willing to try out more things than Aries, so keep that in mind.

It's kinda like these;

Tbh go make the move on your crush or the person you want as your best friend if you are this kind of duo. Soulmates fr /hj

[kazuwhora]

hello hello, i see your requests are open now and can i request izana, wakasa, chifuyu and kazutora with an akutagawa!s/o? hope you have a great day/noon/night! ✨🤗

hi anon! sure! I will try my best with izana and wakasa since there's not tons to work with personality wise so forgive me if theirs are a little shorter heh. im gonna include a little blurb from the bsd fandom wiki for anyone not familiar with his character! I like these kinds of headcanon requests so if anyone wants to see more please feel free to request!

"Akutagawa has a black and white "survival of the fittest" view of the world, claiming that weak people should die and give way to the stronger ones. He is not afraid of pain and defeat His ruthless, vicious nature makes him one of the Port Mafia's most dangerous members, feared by both ally and foe. As violent as he is, Akutagawa maintains a generally composed and detached approach. Towards subordinates and superiors alike, he acts aloof, distancing himself from social interactions however possible. Nonetheless, his composure is fragile. Akutagawa is quick to lash out, ridiculing him for risking the bounty by acting recklessly. This quick temper often gets in his way, fuelling his actions to the core of his very being."

SUMMARY: izana, wakasa, chifuyu, && kazutora with an akutagawa!so

CW: hints of toxicity and violence, mentions of sex but not really all that nsfw-ish so otherwise not much else!

IZANA

- this is an interesting one because from what we know about izana, he is very similar in personality to akutagawa in terms of ruthlessness that stems from childhood trauma and isolation.

- in the case of a s/o with this personality, I think it would be a troubling relationship. lots of bitter fights fuelled by nothing but an inability to express vulnerability, while leaving both of you torn up inside and begging for someone to nurture the trauma and allow space for emotions.

- that being said, with toxicity and trauma also comes intense passion and desire. this relationship brings a lot of fire both in the bedroom and outside of the bedroom, with simple arguments often spawning into intense desperate (and lengthy might I add) sex. like, intense. it's almost like sex is the only safe outlet of these pent up emotions, providing a sort of comfort and also distraction for both parties.

- however as I said in general, this is definitely a toxic relationship. one where neither can help the other when it comes to growth and improvement on a personal level. it's unhealthy and enabling, but for a short lived fling it is hot as fuck im not even gonna lie. lots of hate sex too.

WAKASA

- so wakasa is another interesting one alongside izana given the lack of information and content we have about his character so please excuse the slight kc fanon version I have in my head of wakasa lol

- wakasa has a "don't fuck with me because I do not fucking care" type of vibe to him. I definitely think he's the type to completely disengage from the type of behaviours an akutagawa-type s/o might display. this leads to sort of a sense of competitiveness in trying to get some kind of reaction from him, and it has the potential (much like izana) to become toxic in nature

- any attempts to get under his skin are failed attempts, and the way he looks at you with that half bored expression is something that only triggers more of a somewhat emotional response from you.

- with that being said, my fanon version of wakasa is someone who while cold and aloof, is also quite a rational person. he's been typed by the fandom as INTJ which is quite a quick thinker, and I think he probably (despite not showing it very well) has a soft spot for you. but your passion and intensity (as well as your easily triggered dynamic) keeps him from completely being able to express this care in any way other than not engaging with your antics

- as much as there are some similarities with the type of toxicity in this relationship with both wakasa and izana, the intense passion isn't quite the same as it is with izana. instead, feelings of passion are more to the point and driven by pure instinct and desire rather than toxic passion. wakasa seeming like a very literal person, is actually quite mysterious deep down and has a lot (I mean a lot) of hidden desires and kinks that begin to emerge with time. it's rarely a conversation, and more often just something that happens that surprises you. you just have to go with the flow here, and let him take the reigns for once. it might actually be a good opportunity to allow for vulnerability to take the spotlight for once, which is something wakasa is surprisingly in tune with and quite to the point about.

CHIFUYU

- this is something much healthier than the last two. chifuyu, being an enfp is someone that's able to handle this level of intensity in a person while still being able to understand what's really going on.

- call him the trauma counsellor king. he values each and every response to a trigger that you might have. he notices patterns, he makes mental notes of things, and he does this all without making it seem like he's analyzing.

- to be honest he actually loves the spunk you bring on a day to day level. even though most of the time it's driven by bitterness or hate (not always towards him just in general) he is still able to see beyond that and appreciate you for what you are.

- with that being said, chifuyu will not stand for any toxic behaviour towards him. no sir he will not. threats and pushes for fights wont be tolerated, and he will either disengage or try to expose your vulnerabilities in an attempt at forced submission. this can be hard to get used to, especially with having a personality characterized by the inability to accept being vulnerable. but with time chifuyu is one to create a safe space for you to allow yourself to feel emotions beyond anger and resentment, and he encourages this.

- because of this very feelings based approach, intimacy with chifuyu is just that: intimate. he's extremely loving and doting, hoping that his sweetness can rub off on you a little bit. however he's also very accepting of your need for power over him (especially during sex) and will absolutely submit to your needs in order to please you.

- he really likes to put you in a place of pleasure though, so however that may come to you chifuyu is the one to deliver it.

KAZUTORA

- oh boy. this one is a doozy. listen. if we're talking about timeskip kazutora (as is the case with all characters i write about but I feel it especially important to remind ppl of here given his history), we're talking about someone who is quite literally walking on eggshells in terms of his trauma and emotional vulnerability.

- he's pretty good at being emotionally aware of his needs and struggles as well as the needs and struggles of those around him, but that doesn't mean that he's entirely healed or capable of managing toxicity or his triggers. he still slips up from time to time especially when things get hard, and sometimes finds himself falling into his old patterns. after all, he's only human. but this is where things could get messy in a relationship.

- for the most part, like I said, he's pretty good. so let's focus on that part first since I want to give him credit where it's due. he is very desperate for love and dedicated to providing something to his partner. in this case, he will seek to tap into his emotional vulnerability to provide some sort of comfort for you. he wants to see you happy, and calm, because he sees so much of his old self in you that it gets to him sometimes. but at the same time, he struggles with your relentlessness and can become emotionally drained when things get tough. he'll beat himself up for not being good enough to help you, and this is when he'll isolate and fall into old patterns.

- however, akutagawa's personality type isn't all bad. with a s/o like akutagawa, comes an immense amount of protection and loyalty for their loved ones no matter how tough things might be. in this case it might be hard to communicate this, but there will be times when it's needed in order for kazutora to restrain from old habits and ways of dealing with hardships. but he wants to share his healing with you, he wants you to be happy, and more than anything he understands the struggle of wanting to be happy and healthy but being afraid of losing the one thing that makes you you: your attitude and relentlessness. nobody understands this better than kazutora, which is why things between you can get frustrating and very personal for him.

- much like chifuyu, sex is driven towards pleasing you and only you. chifuyu leans more into switch territory however, while kazutora is 100% submissive. in this case it works out well, however he has a lot of boundaries and limitations when it comes to the way in which you function. he doesn't like degradation. instead, he thrives from praise and any sign of love and care. this might be tough for you to execute 100% of the time, but when it comes down to it the way his eyes twinkle for you is enough to make the ice around your heart melt just a little more each time.

[tamelee]

Damn I read some of previous ask/answers and I can't help but wonder why Naruto fandom is so unfortunate and at each other's throats so often. I mean, one thing is disliking a ship of something specific about it, but another haressing fic writers, artists and even original anime staff. I'm not a die hard fan so I'm mostly outside fandom thus I never had any bad experience myself, but from what I saw almost everyone who makes content or metas got harressed at some point. It's basical principle of fandoms: my kink isn't your kink and that's fine + dont like? Don't interact principles

Yes, the more popular the fandom the more this and that people would it attract; one cannot invite sheep without expecting wolves to appear too. But idk what made ppl feel such degree of entitlement and self-righteousness to police others... I honestly hope they're under 16 and would know better when grow up.

On separate note your art is top notch! It's so beautiful :D and I agree about your post how Kishimoto might have planned for Hinata to die at some point bc it'd fill in the gaps of Hyuga slavery thing and Naruto never doing anything regarding her confession

Hi @noa-ciharu !!

lol

“my kink isn't your kink and that's fine”

No, but imagine everyone having the same hand-kink like me. I’d feel sorry for all of you. Also let's keep this a secret.

Half-jokes aside, you’re right! Naruto has such a huge fandom and it never ceased to be even when they robbed us from a satisfying ending or seeing them grow up in their twenties in a way that makes sense. And instead of seeing Naruto work towards becoming Hokage, as there was a lot more to it, we get this bullshit… and yet a lot of us can’t help but read/watch/secretly side-eye his demolished, adult self to see what’ll happen. 

That in itself already says a lot. 

Naruto.. if it had stopped at Chapter 699 or if they left it open-ended in another, similar way, then nothing of the sort would’ve happened. The SNS fandom would’ve been satisfied with the nested story within Naruto as we picked up on it already, SS and NH never happened anyway and for sure the War Arc would’ve turned out differently.  

Right now Naruto and Sasuke are dumbed down only to fit two girls who are in love with them, which means a guy should reciprocate otherwise he’s an asshole, right? Also.. babies. NH aren’t satisfied because Naruto is “a bad father, never at home, doesn’t show love for Hinata” which makes him an asshole anyway they say. SS aren’t satisfied because Sasuke is “a bad father, never at home, doesn’t show love for Sakura” but he isn’t an asshole he’s just Tsundere. (I’m being sarcastic). And non-shippers aren’t satisfied because: what the fuck. 

So I absolutely agree with everything you say! I’m just not surprised that the separation within the fandom has always been so prominent.

By spoon-feeding every single “group” a little bit of ‘content’ here and there with phenomenal timing from the marketing team, that is literally what they’re creating as that is what has been a huge source of income for so long. And the dissatisfaction is what eventually makes them go to Twitter and harass the company for more content.

That’s never okay, but they’re also kind of asking for it since they’re giving it to them easily too and they know it. Soon they’ll come back for more. *Sigh*   

That’s why I never really blame the fandom, not even the wolves. 

 “But idk what made ppl feel such degree of entitlement and self-righteousness to police others…”

Admittedly this is annoying though 😂

“On separate note your art is top notch! It's so beautiful :D” 

Thankyouuuuu so much! 🥰 Drawing wasn’t working out today, but reading this helped me finish my next post (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و💕💕

“and I agree about your post how Kishimoto might have planned for Hinata to die at some point bc it'd fill in the gaps of Hyuga slavery thing and Naruto never doing anything regarding her confession”

I swear, the more I think about it, the more it starts to make sense. Especially when you take out ‘Boruto’ and then go from the beginning. It’s almost perfectly set up.. aaah, I want to make a post about it.

I still think the Naruto fandom is laid-back compared to other fandoms I've been in and really, really quickly left 😂 (I've been in Korea for a few months, I'll take anime over kpop anyday.)

Hope you have a nice day! 🧡~

[makiema]

finally finished writing about how much stormbringer enhances the skk dynamic which was at a nascent stage in Fifteen and anticipates the developments which happen later and culminate in Dead Apple where the faith they have in each other is absolutely remarkable! the fact that i said i’d do this in a few hours yesterday but it took me like 24 hrs to finish i have an attention span of a whole 2 minutes 💀

my favorite thing about stormbringer is that it actually builds up on the concepts/themes introduced in Fifteen so it's a glimpse into what has changed in dazai and dazai & dhuuya after one year of being together. As much as it's about chuuya confronting his past and his identity this is also about dazai’s development from who he was in fifteen. chuuya and rimbaud both left their marks on dazai and in Stormbringer we see him, actually trying to emulate or follow in a sense a way of life, that chuuya and rimbaud represented. Stormbringer is not just about chuuya, abt his test of humanity, or he coming in terms with who or what he is. it's about dazai too. it's about dazai developing or at least attempting to develop what he calls “boyish”/ “ordinary” in Fifteen. its not about chuya having an identity crisis. in fact what we understand from Code 04's last section is that chuuya never considered it as his crisis and neither did dazai. so to dazai “saving chuuya is important, human or not doesn't matter” and when dazai gives chuuya time to think abt what the operation will cost him chuuya doesnt so much as flinch form his purpose. This goes on to show unlike verlaine he doesnt care about memory and certainly doesnt consider it as the only determinant of someone being human. He cares more abt yokohama and his friends and in that, in caring abt his “family”, he is just as human as the next person. whether he’s factually human or not comes secondary to his desire to save people. This is a message that the quality of being human has more to do with embodying human qualities or humanity than having memories and lineage. so yeah stormbringer is essentially about embracing humanity but this happens on 2 levels: both chuuya and dazai embrace humanity. Going back to the boyish or ordinary bit, im talking abt this segment:

here dazai is shocked because he assumed everyone “gangsta” and everyone crazy powerful delighted in homicide, in deliberately indulging in the macabre. but he is proved wrong. He logically concluded that anyone with power more than average and belonging to the underground would kill people and delight in that because it’s a given they lack any kind of moral understanding. To that end, they’d be exalted at the prospect of relentlessly shooting a dead body, mutilating it and dishonoring it. The mafia code (any general mafia code) works in a way where honor and death goes hand in hand. So only the lowest of the low would do that to a dying person, who even when faced with certain death is loyal to his own organisation. This really shows that even within the mafia dazai is the only person whos like the devil incarnate. So yeah dazai at this sate far lower than even a mafia member. But chuuya who actually embodiess the mafia code and is incredibly loyal to his organisation and “family” [ putting family in quotes bc he himself calls his friends family 🥺] ofc kicks the gun away. From dazai’s pov chuuya being as insanely powerful as he is should also do the same. But chuuya comes along and suggests that even enemies should be shown respect where it’s due. And that is what an ordinary person, oblivious to mafia life (mafia life as in waht dazai makes of it) thinks. So in undermining the binary between “ordinary” and “mafia” chuuya proves that being mafia doesnt necessarily mean selling your soul to the devil and giving up the last smidge of humanity. In fact by embodying qualities like compassion and kindness and mutual respect, you can make the mafia a better place for yourself and for the other members. Now in Stormbringer, we see how this affected dazai. here dazai is introduced as someone mercilessly killing to set up the channel. 

Now to expand the channel one would need to keep doing it right? To mercilessly kill ppl and stuff but instead what he does is hand the channel over to chuuya bc he knows chuuya wouldnt handle it like him. im not suggesting that dazai miraculously becomes v good or anything with dazai the key words is “try” or “to some extent” like in Fifteen when Chuuya asks “do u wanna live” he’s like “ not to that extent”. similarly its not to say he doesnt kill people anymore. it is that he tries to lessen the number of casualties by handing over one of the most troublesome channels to chuuya who would manage it in a much more humane way. That dazai draws from his friends/at least tries to is smth we’ll see again later on when he deals with akutagawa. He talks about odasaku and ofc its baffling to him that a mafia member as powerful as him would be taking acre of orphans. and dazai says but he cant afford to be that kind and proceeds to shoot akutagswa but again does so in a calculated way such that he doesnt end up killing him ( im NOT justifying dazai’s abuse not at all im just saying that its hard to believe he coincidentally knew the exact no of bullets that aku could block. and had odasaku’s words and his way of life not been in the back of his mind he could’ve ended up killing aku) coming back to chuuya and dazai we also see him avoiding further conversation on the jewelry channel thing as he says “leave that for now”. He does a similar thing again when mori brings up the concept of double suiciding with chuuya.

 Its a HUGE thing for him to digest that him suiciding would inevitably spell the doom for chuuya. this puts an unimaginable responsibility on him. And he avoids further discussion on this. Now we know dazai is the rambly type. Even in the most dire moments he goe son with his LOONG monologues so really he is the last person who’d avoid a conversation but he deliberately does it in these 2 instances because its hard for him to grasp these things. That he can go against his nature and do a conscientious thing by handing over one of the most grisly channels to chuuya (i dont think dazai’s nature is evil. Or even if it is, its a a social construct keeping in mind the war ravaged times or its mori’s construct because he does exploit dazai to the hilt. but dazai ofc thinks of himself as non-human, devious. perfectly devilish...etc.) And also the fact that someone as suicidal as him is actually responsible for the life of someone else is really too much to take in. a whole 10 seconds pause indicates just how much he was thrown off when mori opened his eyes to the reality of things: if he dies, chuuya inexorably dies as a consequence. also i dont think the “wow” here or the next bit :

is something jokey. if it was like haha double suicide with chuuya is the worst haha wanna do it w pretty lady kind of a deal. that pause would have been unnecessary. dazai’s immediate reaction would’ve been whining and shit. the use of “froze” too implies the gravity of the situation. so ofc what is “wow” is how much meaning his life has for someone else. and for some so much....better than him. and what is unacceptable is this sad, sad truth that his life (to which he ascribes no value) would be so inextricably linked with someone else’s and hold so much meaning to them. it is like when a suicidal person at the brink of suicide understanding his life is not his own. his life and death holds consequences for ppl surrounding him. so both of these are huge things to grasp and at both these times dazai is visibly shaken up so much so that he doesnt want to do his favorite thing- ramble in a condescending tone. smth he does in so many instances. this really is a testimony to the fact that things are changing in him. the redemption process has begun. he’s no longer the kind of maniac he was before he encountered chuuya. when zuko underwent his transition in atla he was so shaken up after one (1) right decision he had a fever. i think this is true for anyone who’s trying to change. change is after all a huge thing for everyone. ofc he’ll be unsettled. so anyways this is proof that he has indeed come a long way from being someone who revelled at the prospect of meaningless bloodshed.

now coming to the concept of love he assumes he’d get sick of love and die:

and that death is the singular goal worth chasing after because it makes you feel more alive/get a fuller picture of what living entails. but here he is erring by supposing love is something that’ll bore him/have no meaning. and it cant provide him that “something” he’s looking for. at this point he hasn’t loved so he doesnt know whether he’ll be sick of it or if it'll have no impact. And yet he’s morose and regretful. this is a kind of self-imposed constraint hes putting on himself. he cancels out the v idea of love because hes convinced it isnt worth it. he hasnt even been in love okay scratch being in love that sounds romantic and i really dont mean love in a romantic sense here...its just love. in general. any form is cool. anyway so dazai is not familiar with any kind of love. He is entirely alien to the concept. he doesnt even know what a friend/partner is so he doesnt know what love is. this is cleared out here when rimbaud confesses he did everything for paul and dazai is unconvinced:

chuuya ofc admonishes him and shuts him up for good, he says dazai has no right lookind down upon smth he doesnt understand. he doesnt understand friendship, love. or loyalty. or how important those feelings are at this point. now this situation is turned on its head in stormbringer. but before we go into that let’s look at the message rimbaud had for both of them. ik he specifically asks for chuuya to “live” but there’s purpose behind including both of them in the frame. it’s a message they should both take to heart. and at the end of it its implied both are changed after hearing it:

and in this message the first bit is for chuuya. what he says is basically memory doesn’t make u human... ”you are you” just a frame or not doesnt matter. and even if hes just a frame, he is still beautiful. beauty actually is a v important concept in literature starting right from Plato to Shakespeare. i’d not bring this here but because bsd is so deeply rooted in literature i feel like the reference to beauty, and later on to soul and even warmth and also the universal tone of this message carries some meaning. so the thing is  both Plato and Shakespeare were endorsed the idea of love as a force awakened in the world by beauty which then leads the soul to perfection. so humans and by extension, all life are beautiful frames that can inspire love. this concept is also there in Romantic poetry like Keats and Wordsworth all of them talked about loving beauty in nature and how that can elevate the body mind and soul. so essentially in telling this to chuuya what ehe basically means is that chuuya just by being him, by being a beautiful framework can inspire love and warmth in others and thats a great purpose! how much chuuya understands of this purpose with his one (1) braincell and his low self esteem is questionable but he gets some sense of belonging. now this is a two way relationship so ofc dazai has to be factored in. he comes in the next part: 

these are from 2 different translation so the disparity im sorry ;-; but anyway,  this last part abt the world being a cold place. then paul. then “warmth” is a message to dazai who’s been introduced to us as cold-hearted and having like no bearings of a human being. this is the reason why its important for both o f them to be there. now going back to chuuya being a beautiful framework, the framework can be beautiful in so far as its beauty is appreciate by someone and inspires warmth and love in someone. this again is the whole beauty/beholder nature/the romantic concept that is there in shakespeare and in Romantic poetry where both are a part of a codependent relationship. so what rimbaud implies here is that dazai can have that kind of a relationship with another person (chuuya) just like rimbaud had with paul which makes him warm and the world doesnt feel cold anymore. rimbaud has no regrets about what he did because. so the idea is that dazai and chuuya can share the same dynamic. also after this, the narrative says that their hearts are now changed and wont return to what they were before....and even their souls are refined in a way. but in Fifteen we dont have a concrete proof of how this happened bc the novel ends at this point. Instead, Stormbringer shows exactly how deep the impact of those words is: 

this is the third instance of dazai showing hesitation and once again this has to do with chuuya. the seed of the dynamic that rimbaud was talking about  is already germinating in him. his reactions, his fidgeting, his hesitancy, in response to chuuya’s situation is such a big contrast to his cocksure self when he’s conversing with adam and verlaine. after this of course we have: 

not only does he clearly express his concern but he gives chuuya 2 whole mins to make a decision and based on that he’s prepared to overturn the operation. the success rate of an alternative plan will ofc be lesser than the og one but that doesnt faze dazai. he’s ready to turn the tide for chuuya’s sake and if this is not development idk what is. just a year ago, he was someone to whom the concept of rimbaud going thru all that trouble for his friend was a lost concept. ironically enough, now he finds himself doing something that is along the same lines. he puts chuuya above his mission. to him, chuuya is more important than getting a satisfactory result. another bit that i wanna talk abt is that one controversial section where dazai says he’ll save chuuya, human or not, and then the justification is: 

i think a lot of people got mad bc of this and honestly at first glance i was peeved too. as a chuuya stan some of the shit dazai has done so far did rub me the wrong way. i love skk obv but still those were moments that kind of left a bad taste in the mouth. i’ll discuss them later on bc stormbringer helps allay that feeling. coming back to the “i wanna see chuuya suffer” part firstly context is important. ofc someone like dazai cant be expected to be upfront about his feelings with ppl (or AI) he barely knows. so what be relays to adam, is only partly true and its actually a kind of a twist in concept. the things is, and this is  smth dazai knows all too well is that ppl suffer simply on account of being human. human suffering is brought on because humans, by virtue of being humans, feel. so when he says he’s willing to acknowledge chuuya as human despite what N and Verlaine said he’s already admitting that chuuya suffers. so there is really nothing “new” to see for him. he knows chuuya suffers already and he does too because they’re both humans trying to make it thru their messed up lives. also chuuya “ceasing to be human” is a p huge concern for him bc he himself is like that. just like with the suicide thing, it bothers dazai when someone else shares his situation/his fate like as long as his life is his own, he has no problem ending it whenever but the situation is complicated when someone else’s life span is determined by that decision. and similarly, as long as he is “no longer human” its not that much of an issue because he’s like resigned to a doomed fate but someone like chuuya ceasing to be human or worse yet never getting to know if hes human or not are pressing matters. so anyways what he actually means here is that in saving chuuya, he saves someone who suffers just like he does and in their case, even the cause of suffering boils down to a shared psychological conflict: what essentially constitutes being human and if im human or not. now this sharing of pain and suffering is the foundation of forming a connection with someone, which makes life a little better. here again, what rimaud imparted to dazai and chuuya is driven home. also dazai’s key anxiety is not finding meaning/anything. this “anything” can be assumed to be something that justifies life. so all his anxiety and frustration stems from the fact that there really is no discernible meaning to be found in the mechanism of life. so it is an empty pursuit because it is true that nothing can explain why feelings of pain and suffering are exponentially heavier than feelings of happiness or why after getting to experience one (1) free day we’re back to square one where life is grueling. these are questions that really dont have an answer so every time dazai like gazes into the abyss and says he didnt  find anything, he is not so much asking if he’ll ever find anything as swallowing the hard truth that there is nothing to be found, no singular entity exists that can magically justify everything. again drawing upon literature or philosophy more specifically, there’s a concept called Absurdism which says the only philosophical truth so to say is this that life is absurd and looking for meaning is futile. instead what we can do is accept that it is absurd and deal with it in the best way possible, by finding little sources and moments of happiness, and strewing them together so we feel somewhat content. even if it is just for a fleeting second. and this happiness/contentment amidst a wretched life (altho temporal) can be found in friendship, in sharing, and even in having fun with people you’re comfortable with! this is actually why dazai wants to save chuuya and now it may seem like im interpreting his words through the shipping lens but thats not so and it can be corroborated by looking into dazai’s words to odasaku. after chuuya, dazai’s next attempt at friendship was odasaku who he found “interesting”. now when odasaku sort of like threw hands and chose death over having to live a life without the orphans, dazai tried to stop him not by saying stuff like life is good. and things will def change for the better. but instead he admits that living is hard and the sense of void is ubiquitous and yet he doesnt want him to  up and die because then he would be sad. because the little comfort that he got from odasaku and something he probably assumed odasaku also got from him would be gone. [how much odasaku considered dazai a source of comfort remains unclear. in fact the reason odasaku gave up and died was because he did not have this. this feeling of sharing in someone else’s suffering and seeking comfort in friends in the real world. instead he was too vested in his ideal world. his over reliance on an entirely idealistic concept is actually what pushed him over the edge. and this would have been the case for dazai too had he not encountered and sought comfort and companionship in chuuya and eventually in odasaku ] so this again goes on to show how rimbaud’s words changed dazai’s heart. and in a way dazai really has been doing this unconsciously form the v beginning like by teasing chuuya continually in Fifteen. you dont expect someone as cold as him to indulge in friendly bickering and taunting so often but he does. that there is significance and even happiness in that is something he learns over time, after rimbaud’s words to him. although these things seem futile on the surface they give a moment’s respite. so although chuuya spinning dazai on a rope in stormbringer might seem weird to everyone, they still serve a purpose:  

what shirase puts forward is particularly relevant here because neither dazai nor chuuya is fully aware of the extent of their feelings (or even what those feelings are like they dont know what label to put. so typical oblivious lovers) for each other or what they stand to gain just by driving each other nuts but there is something intangible but satisfying to be felt. a kind of contentment that helps him continue. one day at a time. there is no one great “thing” that can make him like wake up one day feeling like he doesnt want to die ever again. but again like i said before, the key word for dazai is “extent” so, these little things to some extent contribute to a sense of fulfilment which helps him keep death at bay. thats why he’s bent on saving chuuya bc he knows they can share in their suffering and make life better for each other. its not like he wants chuuya to suffer. chuuya will suffer nonetheless like every other human. but in suffering together there is something to be found so he doesnt want him to cease being human. 

this covers more or less the intertextuality between Stormbringer and Fifteen. i just wanna talk a bit more about a couple other moments in Stormbringer that i feel are p important because they put some things in the series in perspective and also made the dead apple moment 10x more emotional 🥺 one thing that really strikes me is the absolute fanon level of comfort that dazai and chuuya share in Strombringer. its like scenes form k-drama lol. 

so yeah this stuff. compare this with dazai’s reaction @atsushi when he drops im not saying that its not just a joke and that what im saying should be the right way to look at this contrast. its not like that at all. but what this does is give an estimate to the readers just how close and comfortable dazai feels when its chuuya. and this plus everything i rambling on abt for so long also gives us an estimate about the sincerity of dazais feelings. now 2 things always bothered me : the fact that dazai actually left chuuya and the fact that after the fight against lovecraft he actualy deserted him (this again can ofc be construed as just a humorous bit but still it did leave a bad taste in my mouth) dazai leaving the mafia is ofc something he had to do to fulfil oda’s dying wish but it still dint sit right with me that he would abandon chuuya. just like oda levaing is harder on dazai, dazai leaving is harder on chuuya. its always harder on the one left behind. so anyway, these sorts of things sometimes made me doubt dazai’s feelings but now that stormbringer clears it all up i do think there is a larger motif at work here. when mori offers dazai to come back to the mafia in s2 we see him saying that it was mori who kicked him out and that he did so because he was afraid dazai would usurp his position. so he set it up in a way that dazai would be forced to leave but on his own accord. now more than usurpation i believe what mori really did fear is that dazai had no allegiance to the mafia (which is actually true) bc he doesnt have that sense of loyalty and that to him his friends were more important than swearing allegiance to mori. (which again is true). so by getting oda killed, the message that mori seemed to be giving out was if dazai didnt leave he would do it again. and if we consider ango’s betrayal which had already transpired at that point, the one mori would next target to sort of get at dazai would inevitably be chuuya. this is only conjecture but still, i do believe this might as well be true because then it would explain why dazai didnt carry chuuya back to the base after their fight [something he was v comfortable doing in Stormbringer. in fact in the first case he carries chuuya back to the billiards bar and not to the mafia’s base so he could hear albatross’ last words 🥺] its because mori needs to know unlike dazai, chuuya is absolutely loyal to him which regrettably he is. it kinda becomes imperative therefore on part of dazai to make it seem that way to mori. that they really are at each others throats and that dazai is insignificant to chuuya. and that the mafia comes before dazai. (which is not true bc we see chuuya protecting his friend [shirase] while also staying loyal to the mafia in Stormbringer) 

mori also in his own way tries to provoke hostility b/w them like in Dead Dpple when he was all like yeah so dazai is the star and chuuya is merely bait. so it kinda makes sense if dazai left the mafia not only to like do good work but also to protect chuuya from mori. also the fact that chuuya did the same thing— left the Sheep and joined PM to protect Shirase from the mafia makes be believe that my speculation is plausible given all the parallels we find between dazai and chuuya. 

and the last bit is about the brilliant Dead Apple scene and how much added context it gets in light of Stormbringer. 

in this scene dazai first says: “you used Corruption believing in me?” and then the translation is “how beautiful” which is an okay translation but the exact thing dazai said was “nakasetekurerune” which literally is : youre gonna make me cry you know? now my knowledge of japanese is like duolingo level but i do know “nakasete” has to do with crying and “kureru” is used by the receiver to indicate he’s receiving a feeling/object from someone close. so basically chuuya trusting him is something so beautiful that it could almost move him to tears. now lets look at dazai’s intro in Stormbringer:

dazai, being dazai, ofc would be able to tell genuine trust from fealty out of fear so ofc the fact that chuuya has this kind of blind faith in him is overwhelming for him. also stormbringer really expands on the sight effects of Corruption in full detail. its so PAINFUL and to think that chuuya would jump into it right away for dazai’s sake.....no wonder he is so soft when deactivating him. and then he proceeds to flirt for a little bit with the Snow White and the kiss of life reference. but this flirting doesnt seem even a little out of place now. it doesn't feel like smth meaningless or smth that dazai is just saying as a joke. that there is absoluetly no subtext to making a statement like that. instead that kind of flirting feels like smth inspired from a deep, deep familiarity with someone who really shares his heart and soul. when he talks to chuuya abt the problem of not knowing whether he is human or not, it is a problem that is as central to him as it’s to chuuya. not feeling fully reconciled to a human identity is a problem thats fundamental to both of them. I don’t think familiarity gets any deeper than this where you share the exact same psychological problem. so its really wonderful how we can trace the skk development now: what starts out as a crush on part of dazai or not a crush exactly rather, a feeling of perplexed admiration because chuuya is breathtakingly beautiful inside out, eventually gain all these layers and develops into something meaningful where they have so much faith in each other and where they literally help each other live. knowing someone out there shares your exact issue so you’re really not alone in this is perhaps the greatest comfort in the world. also now its clear how both of them would have turned out had they not met each other and had they not taken in rimbaud’s advice. chuuya in his desire to learn about himself and frustration at not being able to do the same would have perhaps spiralled downward and ended up becoming like verlaine. he is his double here after all. and had dazai not seen chuuya up close being the wonderful person he is, he too would have probably ended up developing a god complex and becoming like fyodor. dazai is there to save chuuya literally from dying a monster and chuuya is there to remind him he too can try and mend his ways and embrace his human side. after all chuuya has so much trust him in! (despite him having questionable methods) for both of them, it starts out as an attempt to be more human, then establishing a fruitful partnership, and finally coming in terms with their feelings to some extent. for dazai, he’s comfortable enough to engage in occasional flirting at this point and for chuuya it’s playing along with dazai’s antics (well with the ones he get 💀 pretty boy has half a functional braincell) and openly showing his concern for him. so really by confirming their feelings what strombringer does is enhance the skk development in a way that Dead Apple doesnt seem like fan service anymore. the fact that dazai would casually flirt or be comfortable with chuuya landing on his crotch 💀 all that isnt as ridiculous as it first seemed because stormbringer lays the groundwork and anticipates all the intimate/flirty skk moments that have happened till now and ig will happen again soon. 

[kuronekonerochan]

Hi...how are you? If you don't mind me asking what are your top 5 favorite danmei novels (until now)? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....

Hi, sorry for being slow at answering!

In no particular order:

Ok, so I liked the 3 from MXTX:

 - Grandmaster of Diabolic Cultivation/ Mo Dao Zu Shi 

This one I loved but it has a particular style that ppl might not like in that it feels jumpy, confusing and with information gaps while reading, even though eventually everything that matters does end up being explained...in other works this would probably be just lazy writing, but here it is clearly an intentional choice bc 1) she doesn’t do this in her other novels 2) this is in WWX’s pov and dude has heavy ptsd and adhd, plus he tends to pretend to take everything lightly as a coping mechanisms...all this put together and it’s easy to understand why the story has such an unreliable narrator that even the other characters constantly point it out. I ended up loving this extra layer of storytelling.

 - Heaven Official’s Blessings/ Tian Guan Ci Fu

If you’re in the mood for a saga type long ass novel with a ton of interesting side stories and side characters with a main character who is a true cinnamon bun in sweet romance with a side dish of sweet sweet aaaangst.

- Scum Villains Self Saving System

The most entertaining out of all of them. It manages to be a parody of two genres, both danmeis and wuia/jianghu harem het novels (fighter of destiny style) with OP leads, while also being its own cute and funny story with a heart to it.

From other authors:

 - Meatbun’s 2ha/ Dumb Husky and his White Cat Shizun 

What if someone took a look at the parody that is SVSSS and said...”no, you know what? This really deserves to be an epic, long ass, and I mean, topping old classics’ length novel packed with angst, filled with pain and topped with despair...and then we’re sprinkling some funfetti on top to fool y’all”...and you know what? that’s some good cake. (If you’re into cdramas SVSSS is to 2ha what The Romance of Tiger and Rose is to Goodbye My Princess).

- Priest’s Sha Po Lang:

Steampunk China plus creepy voodoo tribal ritual magic, involved in internal and external wars over petrol (with a different name) and with our leads in Iron Man suits, fighting, among other enemies hot young(er) hands on, on the field, western troop General, the Pope, that I can only visualize in my head as Jude Law. I tell you all of this nonsense just to say that instead of the ridiculous fun this should be, it ends up being a very compelling romance with lots of scheming and heavy plot and some heartbreaking scenes.

- The Golden Stage:

This is a court drama type novel with friends-to-rivals-to-lovers that is just the right length and compelling with not too many plot twists but two main characters who are really great both individually and together and this is the one out of all in the list I feel like re reading the most. It really is a solid read and I feel like I’m selling it short, bc it really is good. It is similar to Sha Po Lang and To Rule in a Turbulent World, a simpler version of those but not worse for it.

(Since you said top 5 and I’ve said 6, I regretfully cut down Heaven Official’s Blessing bc even though I love it, unlike MDZS or SVSSS, it didn’t feel like a standalone novel because some of the several storylines of the side characters that I loved were left open ended (although the main characters had a complete story arc), as if this book was supposed to be the first of a series and those characters would have their own spinoff books where I’d know where their story took them...except this really is a standalone, and so the lack of resolution bothers me).

>> Honorable Mentions:

- To Rule in a Turbulent World

This one doesn’t go in the top 5 list yet bc it’s not fully translated, last time I checked (tho it’s very near the end). As an ongoing novel, I adore it. If the ending isn’t terrible it might be in my top 3. It’s similar to the two above in plotlines but it has a quality to it that it takes care to make every character in it multidimensional. There are no good and bad characters, even the ones on the opposite side are given something that makes them relatable and human. Plus, the characters all change throughout the novel, most of all the protagonists and the novel gives itself breathing time between events where you just chill with the characters and learn about random things like agricultural practices. 

- The Wife Is First

This one is just that light fluff feel good one that is great to pick up from time to time since it’s on going. Dumb Jock husband did everything wrong in his first life, gets a re-do and from then on it’s adorable respect the spouse juice and awe of said spouse smarts. Cute. Also, there’s a baby pet tiger.

>> Others I did like, just not in the top 5:

 -Faraway Wanderers and Lord Seventh/Qi Ye by Priest:

Qi Ye is similar to To Rule in A Turbulent World/The Golden Stage/Sha Po Lang. I really liked it still, just a tiny bit less than these. Since it’s the same author as SPL and I think it was written earlier, I have to say, the writing only got better.

Faraway Wanderers is a short read, but you’re only gonna like it if you’re ok with amoral main characters (I guess that is true for many on this list but it’s more obvious in this one bc the novel and the characters are unapologetic about it).

- YuWu by Meatbun - Still reading it, but is isn’t grabbing me like 2ha did.

>> I assumed you only wanted danmeis as in period fantasy bl novels, but if we go modern, fantasy or not:

 - Silent Readings by Priest:

I love crime fiction novels (love Ding Mo’s novels) and this is that type of conspiracy, murder novel with smart criminals and smart investigators. Little romance, but still there.

 - Guardian by Priest: 

Priest is hilarious and except the last part that gets a bit heavy on the lore this is just a joy to read. Also pretty short.

- Advance Bravely:

I read it a long time ago and it’s okayish, with some cute and some weird, problematic characters. 

- Addicted/ Heroin:

Also read it (this is 2 books) ages ago...and this one is NOT cute. It starts out as a pretty normal, but kind of toxic very typical oldschool drama/manga romance right down to the step brothers’ trope....and then it keeps escalating to new levels of WTF am I reading?!! All I have to say for this one is, that while I cannot recommend it per se, nor say it’s good, the title really is fitting, bc it is addictive as f.

[ethernetchord]

lets talk: popular iwwv criticism

(disclaimer: i know criticism is subjective and thats why im doing this, i wanna look at some common points made against iwwv and dissect them just a little bit in the opposite direction. also none of this is directed at any individual- it’s all based on the general talking points i’ve seen surrounding the book.)

SPOILER WARNING !!

lack of exploration into james and oliver (+ gay characters feel performative)

i’ve seen loads of people say that oliver and james’ relationship felt very performative, a way of including the queer romnce which clearly is very important to the plot but not actually giving it any space in the novel, nor developing it to the same extent which meredith/oliver was.

oliver and meredith had a very strictly physical relationship and while he did love her, he wasn’t in love with her the way he was with james. the juxtaposition in the way that oliver/james is delivered and the way meredith/oliver is delivered is, i believe, far too repetitive to not be intentional. i actually realised upon re-reading how much focus there really is on meredith’s sexuality, even in subtleties in the book. meredith and oliver get more blatant sex scenes, get more physical parts because oliver was (to an extent) using his attraction to meredith to distract himself from his infatuation with james.

we also have to remember that oliver and james didn’t get their real moment of honesty about their relationship till extremely late into the book. i’d honestly see it as more ‘performative’ to then after or in the middle of kind lear throwing in some wild sex scene between the two. it wouldn't have fit.

“why didn’t james and oliver get together earlier then >:(((“ because the slow burn between them, the subtext, the subtle-ness, the yearning, they were all crucial to the decision which oliver made at the end. the fact that they burned so bright for each other but (oliver particularly) were so desperately repressed, that was what made this such a tragic romance. yes its tiring to read stories about queer people being repressed, yes its tiring to see the bury your gays trope. but like oliver says, it goes beyond gender.

if oliver’s second love interest was a girl, and treated this way, we’d be a lot more on board with these tropes- but the fact that james is a man, and this therefor becomes a queer relationship, makes it feel performative. i can’t convince you of anything- but i like to believe that their relationship being treated like this not only makes it so much more “heart wrenching because why! why couldn’t it work out, why couldn’t it be better!” - not because its a queer relationship but because they were soulmates.

alexander wasn’t performative. not in the slightest, rio just didn’t make being gay his entire identity. same goes for colin. just because they’re queer doesn’t mean it needs to be the only thing about them. this isn’t a lgbt novel- characters dont have to be gay just for plot. they can just be gay.

i’ve also seen people complain about not just making oliver bisexual. guys. did you read the book? he was bisexual. he was emotionally and physically attracted to both meredith and james. guys that’s literally what bisexual means.

i'm totally on board with the coming out scenes! and realisation of feelings and all that stuff- but again, not an lgbt centric novel and also- these were things oliver probably did and realised far before this book. remember that its set in 4th year, at an art school. he knew he was fruity ok. not every queer character in every queer book have to have these grandious coming out scenes or realisations. the lack there of doesn’t equal performance.

the ending was rushed and bad

believe what you will, but i don’t think james is dead. there’s a little too much ambiguity in that ending, in the extract he leaves oliver, in the “his body was never found.” so if your main quarrel with the ending is that “bury your gays” situation- please know there’s a chance- and that giving it that chance opens up so much more discussion and reader response.

yes, the ending is sad. but it’s not rushed. “but that is how a tragedy like ours or king lears breaks your heart- by making you believe the ending might still be happy until the very last second.” doing king lear, doing macbeth, doing romeo and juliet, the plays are chosen not only for reader convenience (they’re plays readers will most likely be familiar with) but also because they all, so very deeply, foreshadow a “bad” ending. killing james, makes sense. as much as people don’t want to hear it, from an authorial perspective- from the reader’s perspective and as a human being it makes sense. why do keep arguing that he “should’ve stayed alive for oliver” or that “if he really loved oliver he wouldn’t have done it” - why are we limiting a character’s entire existence down to their love interest. yes, they were best friends, yes they were set up as lovers but that doesn’t mean that that would be enough to keep james around. james was a fragile character- he was always checking with oliver if he had upset him, he was always worried, overthinking, james wasn’t strong minded- and he was suffering. the only person he had left to depend on was in prison, he was plagued with the guilt of causing the death of a classmate and letting oliver take the blame, if he did kill himself, it sure as hell doesn’t have any reason to sound forced.

“its not nearly as good as the secret history!!!!”

to be honest here buds, why the fuck do we keep comparing them so insistently. they are not the same book. iwwv wasn’t trying to be tsh 2.0, yes there are similarities because hey! guess what! books in similar genres tend to do that! always comparing it tsh when they have different motives, different plots and vastly different execution makes no sense. the only reason that they are compared is because tumblrtm dark academics like to group the two together. and yea- makes sense, but stop trying to belittle iwwv because it isn't as grandiose as tsh, because it’s a little more literal, because it’s not as intertextual as tsh. half the people saying iwwv isn’t as good as tsh are practically just subtly going “shakespeare isn’t as complicated as ancient greek huehue” stop forcing the two together and let them be separately appreciated.

the characters were flat/archetypes/etc

sigh. okay.

these characters are actors. this book shows us their transition from themselves entirely into a conjunction of the roles they’ve played and the stereotypes they’ve portrayed.

“we were so easily manipulated - confusion made a masterpiece of us.”

“for us, everything was a performance”

“imagine having all your own thoughts and feelings tangled up with all the thoughts and feelings of a whole other person. it can be hard, sometimes, to sort out which is which.”

“far too many times i had asked myself whether art was imitating life or if it was the other way around”

“it’s easier now to be romeo, or macbeth, or brutus, or edmund. someone else.”

are you seeing it now? this focus on their archetypes, this focus on the character they are; the way they see themselves not merely as human but as a walking concoction of every character they have turned into and out of. they depend on their archetypes to give them meaning. rio uses these archetypes to remind us of the submersion of her characters. they weren’t flat, their intentional lack of dimension due to their pasts is what makes them so intricate. furthermore, there's an evident subversion- the tyrant becomes a victim, the hero becomes a villain (they all become villains really), the ingenue becomes corrupted. like mentioned before, i think we forget ourselves easily reading this book but there is a great deal of emphasis on this being their last year- which is so important. the damage has been done and a lot of the issues people have with the content (or lack thereof) in this book has to do with the fact that it’s all things that would have occurred in books focusing on previous years at delletcher.

“it didn't live up to expectation” (also leading on from read tsh to this and being ‘disappointed’)

i cant argue this because its entirely subjective. whatever expectation was created for you, i cannot know that and appropriately respond however- if you liked the secret history and understood the secret history then there's a good chance you also liked and understood this book- even if not to the same extent but you must be able to recognize the authorial approach and its significance. i think a lot of ppl read iwwv (and a lot of “dark academia” texts and films) and hope to be able to romanticize the aesthetic or the concepts and then are disappointed when they are presented with mildly unlikeable and overwhelmingly human characters who aren’t easy to romanticize.

a great majority of these books are criticisms of the very culture you’re trying to romanticize, and the only time you’re willing to admit that is when boasting about the ‘self-awareness’ of the people indulging in them, and then a moment later complain about those same qualities because they don’t serve this idealized expectation.

bad rep for arts/liberal arts/ humanities students as being pretentious/cultish

as a humanities student with a great love for eng lit- all of these things are indeed pretentious and cultish. not all the time and not always and not every person- but it is a common theme. academia is overwhelmingly obsessive and extremely white-washed. people become so fast to believe that they are indulging in finer arts and are therefore a higher standard of person. academia is problematic. and the recent influx of people interested in it is good, very good because hopefully, we’ll be more diverse, more open-minded, more accepting. that's what i hope at least. if you know, as an individual, that you’re not a pretentious academic who places themselves above non-academics then that's wonderful- but there are dangers and negative sides to academia that need to be understood so that we can see to not perpetuating them.

i cant refute all points, mostly because there's a lot of good and well-explained criticism because no book is perfect. and my intentions are not to belittle anyone's opinion. these are merely opposing arguments, food for thought and to be fair- a critical look into why not everything is always going to be what we expect of it and why every ‘problem’ can be assessed.