#but i do think it hits a lot harder if you've read the manga

[pipiezexal]

I think it's really important that soon after the reveal that Toshiro hated Laios the entire time they were adventuring together and just never said so, Kabru makes clear, in a way that Laois understands, that he intends to meet Laios again. He's crafting his words very carefully (in the English "I'm glad that we met. I got so much out of talking to you.") but by god he means them and he's not just being polite.

Laios has just learned someone he thought was a dear friend couldn't stand him, which is painful to watch and has resonated with lots of neurodivergent viewers, but that realization is followed with proof that there are and will be people that care about Laios as he is: here's another character, one who's great with people, making the effort to know Laios and establishing that he wants to continue knowing Laios.

[atinysunbaby]

Request from : @ateezluvv

⌛Ateez Maknae line having a crush on you⌛

Hyung line

🖤Choi San🖤

You have been working at KQ for a few months now, as a songwriter and you were assigned a personal space with a desk, computer and everything needed for the process of your job. During the first few weeks, the manager wanted to test your capacities and see how well you work in a group project. He sent you through days of endless work and you managed all the pressure quite well.

Your coworkers helped in making your integration easier by being nice and friendly and you adapted better than you would've expected, and the atmosphere in the workplace is always pleasant. Up till now you've participated in the writing of a few songs and small projects for both ateez and xikers, meeting ateez only briefly during a meeting.

You're first impression is that they are polite and hardworking boys and although you were aware of their beauty, you weren't ready to be hit by such powerful visuals.

Later, you were told about a project coming up and you were proposed to work with San on his solo. You meet for the first time in your studio, San's dimple popping out and greeting you early in the morning and it instantly warms your insides.

"Good morning~ I brought you a coffee, I don't know if that's alright?" He asks, sleep lingering in his voice, you can tell by the deep and raspy tone that makes goosebumps rise on your skin the moment it hits your eardrums. "Oh yes that's perfect! Thank you, really."

Your answer seems to please him, as his teeth make an appearance and his eyes almost close from the strain. He sits next to you on the extra chair you bought a few days beforehand, preparing for this day and maybe future tasks. "Let's begin!"

Now over two weeks working together with San and you can't help but feel a bit sad that the song is almost ready, having spent a lot of alone time with him made you grow attached to the kind hearted and endlessly charming man. "I think we might be done."

Those words hit you harder than you thought, it feels like a train ran you over. You don't like the way your heart aches, but it is what it is. "I enjoyed working with you San, thank you."

He smiles for the nth time, but something's different about this one, it doesn't reach ihs eyes and the dimples aren't as defined. "Yeah, uhm.. me too! I hope we can do this again in the future."

The next few minutes are filled with a tense atmosphere, the only sound heard being the shuffling around as you both clean up and gather your things. "Actually."

You almost jump at the unpredicted sound of his voice, turning your full attention to him and it shocks you to find him fumbling with his lyrics sheets, ears and cheeks red, lips pressing together making his cute dimple face unresistible. "I was wondering if you'd be interested t-to go on a date with.. me?"

You freeze for a second, being surprised and absolutely pleased from the unexpected request. "I'd be happy to, of course San."

💚Song Mingi💚

The boys decided to go out tonight and blow off some steam, drinking and dancing through the night. Mingi wasn't really up for it at first, his perfect night would have consisted of reading mangas or watching animes while eating some snacks before going to bed early, but the others convinced him and he ended up not regretting listening to them.

He's been watching you for a while now, having caught his eye almost immediately after he sat down in one of the booths, telling the others he would start the night by staying back for a bit. Now he has the perfect excuse to analyse every single details about you and he finds you absolutely stunning, you might just be the most beautiful girl he's ever seen.

He notices your smile first, so bright and full of grace, it makes his heart flutter uncontrollably and he loves it. Then his gaze trails over all of your features, your lightly made-up eyes sparkling under the dimmed lights and the way they hold so many emotions at the same time, your adorable button nose that moves whenever you talk and your lips, round and plumpy with a coat of rosy gloss for an even more seducing appearance.

He swears your hair probably smells like heaven and he wants to run his fingers through it, massaging your scalp to feel you relax under is touch. "Yo Mingi! Min- Guys we lost him, poor dude."

Your black lacy bustier, revealing just the right amount of skin to leave more to the imagination, your cropped blazer hugging your frame perfectly, the short leather skirt with a small slit on the left side, tight around your juicy thighs making him lose his mind and cute little boots to contradict the rest of your sexy look.

"What the hell dude, what even is this?" Wooyoung shrieks in disgust, elbowing San in the ribs while watching one of his best friend drooling over some bartender he's never met before. "I don't know, might wanna wake him out of his fantasies though."

"Yeah, that shit's on another level of creepiness." Yeosang states while bitting his nails in concern, his eyebrows scrunched and a judgy stare directed at Mingi. "You troublemakers leave Mingi alone, it looks like he just fell in love."

"Seonghwa. If Mingi wasn't handsome, everybody would find it creepy and don't try to deny it." Seonghwa looks at Yeosang, defeated. "Yeah, maybe you're right."

"Ok enough of this." Yunho grabs his friend by the shoulders and briskly shakes him out of his daze. Said boy looks puzzled for a minute, no clue as to why he's being disturbed. "What?"

"Are you serious? You have no idea why I had to intervene from whatever delusion was going on inside your head, like you haven't been checking that girl out for the last hour?" Mingi instantly flushes red, his thoughts having cut out most of his rationality and he had no idea it had been that long. "Just go talk to her."

"No. I can't." Mingi refuses without a second thought, feeling anxiety creep up inside of him and being powerless against it, his limbs paralyzed with fear. There's nothing he wants more than to run over to you and strike a conversation to hear your most likely angelic voice and be blessed by your beauty up close, but unfortunately for him, his body had another plan. "Hello there~ Did you guys need anything?"

"Oh yes! I think my friend here had something he wanted to ask you?" Said friend being Mingi, is ogling you and seems to have lost all of his brain cells. You're even more perfect than he imagined, your features are enhanced and the aura that surrounds you is enough to enlight his senses. The distance between you both is so short that he can smell your sweet, fruity perfume and it calms his nerves a little bit. "Umm yeah. Hi I'm Mingi."

"Y/N~" You say with a smile, waiting for him to continue with intrigue. With a sudden boost of confidence, Mingi speaks up in hopes to be rewarded for his effort. "You're absolutely gorgeous and seem nice so I'd like to take you out on a date sometime- if you want to of course! Would you mind if I gave you my number?"

❤️Jung Wooyoung❤️

"I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but I think this step is wrong." Wooyoung speaks up with uncertainty in his voice, it looks like he doesn't want to offend you, which is not the case. You've been teaching him a choreography for a new dance cover and have been at it all day, somehow you're tiredness must have taken control over your body, because you're usually fully focused. "Yeah you're right sorry."

"No that's ok, don't worry about it. Hey do you need a break- or we can stop for the day?" He's genuinely so sweet, you're supposed to be the one taking care of him, but he's taken that part very seriously. Making sure you stay hydrated every once in a while, getting you some snacks in order for you to have enough energy, checking the time to make sure you take breaks over the span of a few hours and whenever there's a slightly sudden movement in the routine, he checks up on you through the mirror, making sure you didn't hurt yourself. "No need, all good- Well, do you want us to stop though?"

You turn around, facing away from your reflexion to look at the boy, only to find his concerned stare already on you, searching for any sign of discomfort through your features. "We can keep going for a bit, but let's finish up soon."

"Alright then, let's start from here." You press play on your phone, the music coming through the speakers and you immediately get to dancing, Wooyoung following suit.

He did notice how exhausted you look and it doesn't help that he 'accidentally' heard the conversation you had with your best friend over the phone while on your lunch pause. You were whispering, but he couldn't help being nosy as usual and found out that you've had a bad recent break up, barely sleeping and eating, your nerves hard to control at times.

For the rest of the day, he felt a foreign sentiment in the pit of his stomach, there's also a familiar anger. One thing he's sure of, it's that he wants to pay a visit to the person who hurt you this badly and do much worse to them. "Wooyoung? Hey, are you ok?"

You wave your hand in front of his face, heart beating rapidly because of fear and worry, he's been standing still for over a minute, eyes fixed on the floor and filled with an emotion you can't quite make out. "Wooyoung!"

You try to step back, as he suddenly grabs your wrist. You seen to have woken him up, out of his weird trance, but you end up almost bringing the both of you on the hard ground as a result. "Shit! Are you alright?"

You can't focus on any word he's saying, the muscular arm that's wrapped around your waist and the feeling of his strong fingers squeezing your hip making you feel a bit dizzy. "Y/N?"

You look up at the soft call of your name, liking the way it came out of his mouth. For the following moment, you just look into each other's eyes, no words needing to be said, until Wooyoung breaks the silence. "Can I kiss you?"

🧡Choi Jongho🧡

"Cut! Jongho you need to look into her eyes, got it?" Jongho nods his head in agreement, saying a soft 'understood' to further show his understanding, but from next to him you can easily make out the faint blush spreading from the tip of his nose, all the way to his ears and the side of his neck.

For this scene, his character has to gaze into your eyes while confessing and keep a confident front, but Jongho keeps failing, not being able to keep eye contact with you for more than a few seconds. "Don't be nervous, just look at me and you'll be fine."

You try reassuring him, ignorant to the fact that you just made him even more of a nervous wreck and no matter how much he wants to be able to calm down from the sound of your voice, he can't. The truth is that he's started to develop the biggest crush on you and it's the first time he can't hide his feelings.

Everybody knows how good of an actor Jongho is, ense the reason why the staff and even you, are pretty surprise at his lack of self-control. "Why don't you guys take a ten minutes break? Maybe, go over a few lines together."

"Thank you!" You bow to the director and grab your co-actor's hand, unconsciously interlacing your fingers and the boy follows without fussing. With no doubts, he cherishes the moment, especially as you're the one who initiated the skin contact. Although he knows there isn't any another motive behind it, other than bringing him with you to a specific destination.

You find a quiet and slightly closed space, in hopes to make him feel more comfortable, but he actually appears to have the opposite reaction. Having for mission to keep a big distance between you two, Jongho almost rams into the wall behind him when you step forward to start a conversation.

His heart aches the moment he has a glimpse of the hurt expression on your face, you're quick to mask it, but it's already too late. You glance at him through your lashes when you hear a deep sigh coming out of him, followed by a nervous laugh with a hint of pain in it.

You watch curiously as he runs his hands over his face and he straight up looks at you without flinching away this time. "I like you. I did for a while now, but it's too much for me to keep hiding my feeling anymore."

"Wow you did it! I knew you could, but you know that's not exactly your line right? You're supposed-" He gasps like a fish out of water, trying to comprehend the situation. Only to painfully realise that you thought this was him acting and he suddenly feels like throwing himself off a building. "N- No wait that's not- I wasn't practicing.."

"Oh.." You immediately shut your rambling mouth, confused more than anything, but eventually, grasping the seriousness in his demeanor and hoping to make the poor guy's life a little easier, you speak up. And he's almost on the verge of imploding at the time your voice rings in his awaiting ears. "Well then, you probably wouldn't mind practicing the kiss scene?"

[hollow-lime-green]

you've mentioned in 2sorcs that your interpretation of yuki's technique is different from canon, right? (I agree...the physics is not. physics-ing.) would you mind explaining your interpretation or would we have to wait for further chapters of 2sorcs/installations of the verse?

Oh yes, thank you for this ask, I would love to talk about this!

My interpretation of Yuki's powers is what I think they should be in a balanced universe where a.) Gege understands physics, and b.) Yuki is undeniably special grade.

I do really like Yuki's canon arc, but I think Gege copped out in how they got there due to him not really vibing with the math/science involved. Luckily, I am a STEM girlie here to womansplain. Since I'll mention about manga-only Yuki stuff, I'll put it under a cut.

(Side Note: I really hope some of the anime-onlies that I know have read this verse go back and reread if/once they catch up on the manga. There's a lot of easter eggs!)

Yuki's Canon Powers:

Yuki can use cursed energy to add virtual mass* to herself or her shikigami, Garuda.

*This mass only affects how hard she hits**.

**Until she adds enough mass to turn herself into a black hole, wherein it now does affect everything else.

Now, I think this is really stupid, because it is so limiting to say mass = power (force), and the black hole threshold is arbitrary. It is stupid on its own, and it is stupid in the context of the Kenjaku fight because if you let Yuki be cool, the fight can be way cooler. Kaori's anti-grav actually could have been an amazing counter and led to an interesting fight.

(Of course, the point of Yuki's fight is that she lets go of herself/her agency, and by not being selfish and arrogant, she loses the fight. The strongest need to be a little crazy, and they need to have unlimited faith in themselves/insane egotism. By doing what Tengen wants, she has to lose. I like it. But Greg still could've made her cool.)

Yuki's Powers (Taylor's My Version):

So, science: if the size of something stays the same, but the mass changes, the density has increased. So my interpretation of Yuki's powers is technically based on density.

Yuki can used cursed energy to add mass/increase density to anything she can touch (including other sorcs), and Garuda at a distance (familiar mechanics, baybee).

Yuki's cursed technique reversal is taking away mass/decreasing density.

All things are affected, not just 'power'. When things are heavier, they are harder to move and generally more durable, so she gets defensive buffs when heavy and speed buffs when light.

Yeah the black hole still works. But Yuki's relationship with mass is linear; there's no 'threshold' where suddenly Greg changes things.

These changes are relatively minimal in terms of the actual powers, but I think they would make a world of difference. When Yuki's powers interact with real world physics, she can have a lot more strategic options for changing her own mass, which you see in her spar with Geto. It's great for hand to hand. I have Satoru change his weight in the fic essentially by using a Blue behind him to lift himself up like a momma cat might lift their kittens up lmao. But Yuki could just directly target herself.

She could probably be special grade with *just* that change, especially since we know she has a DE and she has RCT. But I think it's balanced (whatever that even means in jjk) for her to also be able to apply her CT to unwilling targets, like Projection Sorcery. (By the way, Projection Sorcery is busted, and we will get into it 👀). With enemy/ally targeting, I think she'd be definitively special grade.

The Kenjaku/Kaori fight could have been an absolute masterpiece with the interaction between density/mass and gravitational pull. Both have both CT and RCT, so if you expanded on Kaori's antigrav and let her set a source point for gravitational pulls (similar to Blue), or at least a direction, she could reaaaaally fuck with Yuki. And then you've got the setting with Tengen's barriers falling apart. Kaorijaku could hover/fly, Yuki could go light to jump around on them. I mean - Greg, I just wanna talk Greg open up Greg-

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk <3

[verilly]

Flowers of Insanity / LAS / EFoT ✶

Aqua Hoshino x Reader

This is PART TWO, check out the other parts below!

REQUIEM: Sixth New Genesis

What's to come: [Lovenow], [Aqua Hoshino x Reader], [Akane Kurokawa plot points], [Reader likes both genders], & [mentions of suicide (Akane)]

[Songs of the chapter: "Marshmary" by MIMI, "Nonbreath Oblige" by PinnocchioP, "I hope you can be an adult someday" by TUYU]

[5,937 words]

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

All the time you spent with Eruru Osawa made her remind you more of Hanae, but soon you realized they were nothing alike. They were both kind to you, but that was pretty much it. You soon found out that her family business was one in the entertainment industry, if you squint. Her family owns a somewhat-famous original amusement park here in Japan. You'd really like to go there with her one day.

Aquamarine Hoshino on the other hand was a lot harder to grasp because unlike Eruru, he doesn't speak as much, and he doesn't say what's on his mind either. What you find special about him though are his eyes, it's one just like Ai's... he must be really special. You don't think you've ever gotten close to anyone like him before, so you don't know what to expect from him.

You heard that he's an actor, he appeared in a Drama, an adaptation for a hit manga. Not that you've read it before though, romance never tingled your brain as much as an action pact filled one did. However, you kept seeing horrible reviews about the Drama on social media, so you decided to give it a watch.

Yeah, it sucked ass. Though, the last episode really shot the ratings up. That was the episode Aqua was in, it was kind of hot. The girl was quite a good actor as well, you felt bad for her throughout the entire Drama because you felt like her talent was being wasted away. Come to think of it, you saw that girl talking to Aqua before, so she might also be attending this school, interesting.

No matter what happens though, whenever you see Aqua, or hear anyone mention him, images of Ai flash into your brain. You know it's not probable for him to be anywhat related to her, but it's fun to see that her life still lives on in your head years after she passed away. You did wish for her eyes after all.

This year, you've already made two whole friends, maybe you'd have more if you considered people your friends other than acquaintances more easily, not that that's ever going to happen.

You spend most of my time at school on your phone, which sounds bad and anti-social, and it is. Most of Eruru's time is spent socializing with every person imaginable, and if she's talking to everyone, she's talking to everyone but you. Aqua on the other hand barely shows up to class, you saw him hanging around a girl who looked exactly like him though. A sibling relationship in school, that's cute.

That's okay with you, you don't need friends to survive until March 9th or find Hanae— Well, maybe you do need connections to find her again, but you doubt anyone here would know her, but then...

That's when you met someone special!

Matsuyo Mochizuki. He has the same last name as Hanae, so you should get closer to him to get more information out of him. Then again, the surnames of this world don't mean that they are inherently related but... you could still try. After all, Hanae did live in Tokyo back then, and we're in Tokyo right now. Maybe Matusyo is her... cousin?

He's really quiet, he first entered Yoto High School a few weeks later than the average student, he skips school all the time, and when he does show up, he's never on time. His hair is dark and short, but at some points, it's long... how strange, almost like he cuts his own hair. His eyes were like the opposite of mine, dark and darker. Not a single shine of light was seen in them. Oh, and his teeth. They're quite special too, he had sharp teeth all over, not just his canines.

He's not ugly though, you could most definitely use him to find her. Your stars darkened as you hid your smile with your right hand, your eyes shut as you started planning. You could feel Aqua staring again. Awkward. You opened them soon after, giving the boy next to you a quick glance, you locked eyes. He looked away quickly, do you have that kind of power with these eyes now? Your smile widens as you quietly giggle to yourself.

*"★Hi there, my name is [name] [last-name]. What's yours?" You ask as you smile, giving him a hand. He didn't respond. "Hehe, that's okay. I'll just stay here until you talk to me!" The anxiety that usually grew in my stomach has gotten smaller and smaller throughout your experience in high school. You guess that Eruru is really starting to rub off on you.

"C'mon, Matsuyo Mochizuki, I totally just lied. I already know your name, just talk to me! You look lonely.★" I lean on my hand, "You can't be silent forever!~"

*Aqua's eyes widened, he's staring at you again. 'Have you always acted this way?' His eyes didn't make you feel uncomfortable this time, you kind of felt like a star, Matsuyo on the other hand still hasn't said anything to you.

"...What do you want from me?" Matsuyo sighed, his dark eyes glaring deep into your soul. You close your eyes to get away, but keep a smile on your face. He's going to be a hard one to crack.

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

You really do want to sound cool and everything, but you don't really know what to expect from anyone. That's why you were a shut-in. So, when you were invited to do a reality TV show, you were shocked.

Why would they need a faceless internet celebrity? Then the thoughts connected. Ah yes, your follower count. That would boost their ratings, wouldn't it? However, this show doesn't suit you at all.

Lovenow?

Another romance show? What would you even gain from this other than maybe a slip of the unwanted reveal of your face? You went over it all with the managers you hired for yourself to discuss the pros and cons. They came to the conclusion of 'If you join, it may boost your views by growing connections with the other members and their fans.'

Therefore, you sent the producers a message that reads something along the lines of "I'll join your show if and only if you sign this contract stating that you will never release my true identity to the public and blur my face in all the scenes I'm in."

It took a while for them to read the full contract, but they allowed it, making himself and all the other workers sign as well. You were happy with the product, but took extra precautions by *wearing a mask at all times.

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

Today is the first day of filming for 'Lovenow', you wouldn't have guessed who showed up on set, Aquamarine Hoshino. Of course he didn't know it was you behind this cute [animal] mask of yours, and there's no way he'd know it's you from your voice since you haven't spoken yet... you decided to change your voice and tone to how you usually do when you stream.

Not to mention that you came extra early on set for someone on the makeup team to style your hair in a way you could never do on your own, plus you requested they add colorful highlights to show off the person you are on the inside! You've never felt prettier. You gave yourself so much personality with the way you looked, even your mask had colorful stickers on it.

The school uniform you were wearing was a lot more dull than the ones they had you wear in Yoto High School, but it still looked quite cute on you. Your new coworkers are all really cute as well!

The hit internet celebrity Memcho, 18, the new star Yuki Sumi, 16, the special dancer Nobuyuki Kumano, 17, the guitarist of a band Kengo Morimoto, 17, Aqua Hoshino, 16, and this other really pretty girl... Akane Kurokawa, 17.

Out of everyone in the cast, Akane was the girl who caught your eye. She's beautiful. Her hair falls to her shoulders, you think that if you wanted to get a partner out of this show, you'd choose her. Your plan for this is that you'll play along with the rest of the cast for entertainment, and then sit on the sidelines when people start confessing their 'feelings' for one another.

You watch as the first scene starts playing out, people walk into an empty classroom and start introducing themselves to each other, but most importantly, they're introducing themselves to the cameras set all over the classroom. Aqua goes right before you, from the way you're seeing this, he's acting like a more piped up version of the one you interact with at school.

You took a deep breath as you walked into the classroom, all eyes were on you, including the crews. With a slightly higher tone than you usually speak in, words start to leave your mouth, *"✧Hi everyone, my name is [alias], it's a pleasure to meet you!" you clap your hands together as you smile behind your mask.

"Woah! [alias]? Really?" Memcho bursts out, "I didn't know you were a highschooler!" She grinned as she put a finger to her chin, "We should totally collab together on my channel sometime!"

"Hmm... I've heard of you before," The band member pulled his phone out, "W-Wait..! You have over a-"

"A million!?" Yoto screamed out, "What in the world?! That's so cool!! I can't believe that I'm sitting next to a real celebrity!"

"Woah, calm down! You all are celebrities too!✧" You laugh as you sit down in a chair next to the rest of them, I rest my head on my hand, "Well, I saw that you played someone in 'I'll have it Sweet Today', Aqua!"

"Yeah, I sure did. It was only for one episode though." Aqua stared straight into your masks eyes, you sweat, does he know that you're...??

"Well because of that one episode, you single handedly lifted up that show to success!" Nouyuki grinned, you could tell that he's going to be a popular fan choice.

-End of Flowers_of_Insanity

After a few weeks of filming, you noticed the cast's quirks. Akane spends more of her time with the crew than the actual people on the screen, and she always has a notepad with her. Yoto and Nouyuki are the actual romance in Lovenow, and it really looks like they have something going on together. You and Memcho are more of the comedy relief of the show, it must be something about hanging around on the internet for so long. Last but not least, Kengo and Aqua tend to hang out on their own. You felt bad that you didn't talk to Aqua more often since the two of you were friends in real life, but you suppose it's better to keep a low profile.

It's so nice to meet all these people. To your suprise, they're all genuine and kind, even if some of it's an act. Even though it's only been a month of recording, you feel that you've really grown to connect with these people. Each episode focuses on one person in particular, so when it landed on you for the second time, you dropped the mask for the first time in front of the cast and the cast only, but the camera didn't know that you were wearing another mask underneath.

The reactions from the cast were nothing to laugh at, compliments were thrown at you, words couldn't describe it other than a little phony, but in a good way. Honestly, you didn't feel much for it, but after that episode aired, the fans seemed to have loved it. Though, there were a lot of people on Twitter and a few blogs asking your co-stars to reveal your face to them, but they had nothing to say to those people, you felt really grateful for that.

There were a lot of events that happened during the show to keep things spicy, you think that the producers really want you to end up with someone here because they made you and Kengo play together for a mini concert. It was one of your original songs, but they still had to make a deal and pay you to use it, oh, and Kengo had to learn the music in very a short amount of time. It really made you look up to him, so whatever the producers are trying to do is working, but Akane still owns your heart.

Speaking of, you've been trying to talk to her, but she's been so focused on other things. Almost like she's been having a tough time, "Hey Akane, are you feeling alright?"

"Hm! Oh... [alias], I'm doing okay... I just..." Akane sighed, sitting down at the table next to her, "I need to stand out more, I've been on the sidelines for this entire show and... I think that people are starting to forget who I am." She hid her face in her arms.

"No way!! No one would forget a face as beautiful as yours!" You shout unexpectedly, a little too loud, cameras start rolling, "I- What I mean is... all you have to do is apply yourself some more, let loose!☆" You grab her hands and hold them warmly, "And whatever you do, I swear I'll follow."

"W-wha... [alias]..." Akane's face grew red, "t-thank you."

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

Akane acted differently today while on set, she was putting herself out there more often, but it didn't really scream at her. It was an awful experience to watch, but you didn't want to pop her bubble by pushing yourself too far into her business.

She was trying to make a role for herself by trying to separate Yuki from Kengo and that dancer guy, but of course, Yuki was still fighting back.

"Oh? Looks like Akane's finally playing her cards!" Memcho said, leaning against the rooftops railing, "I saw her talking to you the other day, [alias], d'ya know anything about it?"

"Hm? Oh, well I did hear her talk about needing to stick out to the fans more, but I don't know if this is the best suit for her. I mean, maybe if she started a other side love story it'd be cute but...★" You mumble, you didn't know what you were really talking about. 'Side love story', what a joke! The only other people available were you and Aqua.

"Hmmm? What does that mean, [alias-nickname]?~ Do you like Akane Kurokawa?~" Memcho giggles, as she smirks and punches my arms gently, "What about you, Aqua, do you think that [alias] and Aka-nene would end up looking good together?"

"Ah well, I wouldn't say I'm against it in any way... I suppose the two of you would end up looking cute together." Aqua forced out a chuckle as you stare at the both of them, deadpanned, though they couldn't see it, "But if that did happen, there wouldn't be anyone left for me."

"Hey! I'm still here ya know!" Memcho screeched out, grabbing Aqua's shoulders in a playful manner, you point and laugh for the camera you just noticed.

"★Me and Akane..." you turn around to look at Akane talking to Kengo and sigh, "Well if she likes me then I guess I'll like her back." You turned back around to Memcho and Aqua, you don't think they actually listened to what you said, but you're sure that the camera did. "☆What about you, Aqua? Who do you like?"

"Oh." Memcho stops attacking Aqua to listen for his answer, Aqua looks around before opening his mouth again, "I guess you could say that I like..." Aqua looked at you before smiling again, "Nah, it's a secret."

"WHAAAT!!? No way! You can't just say that! You have to tell us!! Or at least, you should come and tell me! Whisper it into my ear!!" Memcho whined as she began pulling at Aqua's uniform begging him to spill his secret, "Please please please please! [alias] told us!"

"[alias] barely said anything, all you did was mention Akane. They didn't even say anything about liking her back" Aqua sighed, his hand on Memcho's face, trying his best to push her away, "Plus, you haven't told us who you like either."

"Well all of you are too young for me! I'm 18, and all you younglings are just too much like babies compared to me! Especially you two, y'all are 16 still, aren't you?" Memcho asked. You and Aqua agree simultaneously, "See! Ah, and if I were to get into a relationship, it would totally mess up my streams, I think."

"Well I'm with you there, being an internet celebrity does have its downsides." You laugh, "But Aqua, you should totally tell me who you like! Don't worry, ☆I'm great at keeping secrets~"

"No way." Aqua sighed, keeping both me and Memcho away from him simultaneously, I laughed some more. I guess Aqua can be more cute and chill when he's outside of school, though it's probably not genuine at all.

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

Last night, Yuki did your nails. She made yours really pretty, they had two colors, [color] and black with these shiny gems or what not. While Yuki was working on your nails you had a talk with Akane. You gave her your suggestion of trying to make a side plot love story instead of trying to push herself into one that already existed. You tried my best to convince her, even Yuki chimed in at some point, but to no avail. She was dead set on doing it this way.

"Well, it's game on then." Yuki smiled, focusing her attention on Akane's nails this time, "Give it your all, Akane. 'Cuz I won't be holding back at all!"

"Yeah." Akane smiled back, "Let's make this fair."

Fair, what a fun word. The world is never fair, and it shows. You saw it with your very own two eyes, the scene was set, Akane didn't mean to hurt Yuki at all-

So why was this happening to her?

Akane accidentally scraped Yuki's cheek with the nails that Yuki made her the other night. The media started to swarm against her. You saw that too, you even got questions from strangers on the internet yelling at you, asking for more information on it, though as per contract, you weren't allowed to say anything. Not a word, not even in her defense.

Akane didn't show up for the next few days of filming, you couldn't feel anything but dread for the days she didn't talk to the group. Even during school, you couldn't focus on anything else. Aqua looked fine, you really hoped he didn't notice your paranoia.

Then the calendar marked a faithful day other than March 9th, the day when a hurricane warning popped up on everyone's screens. The day Akane sent a message for the first time in days in the Lovenow group chat.

'I'm going to go out to get a few snacks from the convenience store.'

Yuki: 'Right now?? Akane! Don't go!'

Memcho: 'Akane there's a hurricane coming out.'

Kengo: 'Akane pick up your phone'

Nobuyuki: 'Akane are you home?'

Aqua: 'Akane?'

You audibly wince as you grab a thin jacket from your closet and run out of your apartment. Even though Akane wasn't answering any text messages or calls, she still had her location finder on her phone. You followed it as fast and as accurately as you could. Luckily for you, it wasn't too far away from where your apartment was.

It led you to a bridge... a bridge?

Then you saw the figure, you weren't sure if it was Akane, all you knew was that they were standing on the ledge, arms spread. You couldn't think, you ran as fast as you could. It was later than what you would've wanted to though, the figure had already jumped. You grabbed them, their body was still in the air, a little heavier than what you'd normally be able to carry, but the thrill was driving you on.

"No! No! Let go of me, please, just let me die!" The voice screamed, squirming her body around to get away from my grasp. It was Akane. Your eyes widened as the rain continued to pour down on the two of you.

"Akane! Listen to me! It's me, it's me, [alias]!" You yell out, grabbing her tighter, trying your best to pull her back onto the bridge.

"[alias]..? Just listen to me, let go... save yourself. You don't want to be seen with someone like me." Akane sobs out some more, "Let go [alias]!"

"No! Akane, stop fighting me! J-Just let me pull you up!" You start to tear up as well, your grip loosens as you get pulled over the edge. The only thing holding you up was the ledge Akane had just recently just jumped off from and your horrible back strength which was slowly dying out.

Before you could fall, however, someone from behind pulled both you and Akane back. You winced, the force of your body falling onto the concrete floor with Akane on top of you filled your body with a sharp and stinging pain. Though, it probably didn't hurt as much as the pain as the person underneath the two of you felt.

Akane turned around into your chest, sobbing. You comfort her to the best of your ability but start sobbing with her at some point. You didn't bother to look at the person sitting next to you, from the slight tone of his huffs you could tell that it was Aqua. The fact that you weren't wearing your mask formed a bubble of worry in your head, yet you hoped it was too dark so that nobody could make out who you were. 

Your vision was blurry from the tears you were shedding. You stroke her head as you whisper to her about how everything'll be alright.

"...Who?" You were right, it was Aqua.

You try to cover your face with your hand as you quickly look away. Pulling the collar of your top over your nose, you then even tried to position Akane to cover yourself, even though you knew it was incredibly uncomfortable for the both of you

"[name], is that you?" Aqua repeats himself, this time, he gets closer.

"What? [name]? N-never heard of whoever that is before, nope! Not at all..." You stutter out, it's of no use anyway, he knew you were there. All you could hope was that no one else would find out.

"[alias], you got here before me?" Aqua asked.

"..." You couldn't say anything, not anything you'd admit to at least. Aqua should have never found out.

Another loud pair of footsteps ran over towards us, before they fully got to the three of you, Aqua covered you and Akane with his rain jacket. Your face grew red.

-End of Looking_All_Sad

It wasn't long before the rest of Lovenow's cast showed up, however, the first person to show up was Akane's mother. Aqua caught her all up on what happened as you sat back and watched as everything unfolded before you. The last people to show up was, who you guessed were, Aqua's mom and mother.

No one came for you though, not that you minded too much—

"Aqua! Isn't that your rain jacket?" A girl with sparkling red eyes asked as she pointed directly at you.

"Ah that's..."

"Is that the person you're going to end up with at the end of Lovenow?!" She giggled as she punched his arm, Aqua let out a disgruntled curse in response. You laugh at their antics.

Soon Akane left the room, walking out with her mother. She looked at you with her puffy eyes as she left the building. Not before Yuki ran her way towards Akane and slapped her directly across the face, you gasp and you clench your hands that lie on your lap. She was crying too, crying as she rested her head against Akane's shoulders sobbing as her yells turned into quiet murmurs.

The room fell silent when Akane officially left the building. Aqua's mom sighed and patted his back as she left with her daughter, telling him to "stay safe", how cute!

Right, Akane. This is a problem. You and the rest of the cast know that she really didn't mean any harm, however, people online don't. How could you fix this? A million thoughts ran around in your head. Aqua suggested that for Akane's safety she could leave Lovenow as a whole. Which is a viable option, but she shouldn't have to quit something she enjoys just because of strangers on the internet.

One by one, the people crowded in the hallway slipped out and went back home. Again, leaving only you and Aqua together. You thought about giving him his raincoat back, you wouldn't really need it anymore if he was the only one left. You were already found out. You bit your bottom lip before you spoke, but no words slipped past your lips.

"So you're [name]?" Aqua asked, turning back to look at your sweating figure, he didn't need to say your name out load again.

"Don't say it so loud! And... yeah. I am, uhm. Sorry you had to find out this way..?" You murmur, the hood was still covering your face, you liked that. It made you feel like you still had a barrier between your persona and the real you, even if you still felt phony

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Aqua slowly got closer to you. Weird.

"Why would I do that? It's totally unprofessional..! And... and...!" Why was he so close?? "You shouldn't even focus on this at all, what you— what we should be focusing on is to help Akane!"

"Right. Akane. The internet is horrible, not to mention that this show is just..." Aqua continued to mutter on and on about the recent news and the media's reactions. You zoned out for the most of it, "Reality TV... Ah, what about this?"

"Huh?"

"We're going to make a video to save her, real reality TV."

The media caught onto Akane's attempt at taking her life and went on a roll with it, word spread around like wildfire. Whether it be people talking about how this was just a sleazy attempt to get attention, people feeling sorry and making apologies, or what their opinions are about the situation. People just didn't shut up. Not to mention, Akane's taking a break from Lovenow until who knows when. There isn't anyone else to really look at other than her, Aqua's there but it's just uncomfortable now that he knows who you really are.

On the bright side, the video's production is going well. All of the cast members opted to help. For example: Memcho tried teaching Aqua more about Social Media and how to get people's attention quickly and Kengo offered background music with his guitar. You also offered music from a band you had connections with, 2You, and your voice as vocals. Aqua didn't mind, in fact, he appreciated it. To what you could tell at least.

The last, and more important, part of the plan is getting unused recordings from Lovenow's staff members. There wasn't anything you could do, it was all Aqua. He had the brains to figure something out, weasel his way to get the information out of the producer.

You kept trying to contact Akane, half of the time she didn't respond, she hasn't been going to school either. You threw your phone across the room and groaned into your bedsheets. All the pent up worry hasn't been doing too good for you, you barely show up to your classes either. Which as a consequence means your *relationship points with your classmates have slowly been decreasing ever so slightly, besides Aqua.

Eruru texts you ever so often about school events, you respond fairly quickly, but that's as far as it gets. You miss being around people again, not to mention you've been on hiatus for all streaming activities until you say otherwise. Matsuyo doesn't even try to reach out to you, which is a major bummer. You wonder how he's doing, you wonder how Hanae is doing. At this point, that's the only thing keeping you going besides Akane's well being.

Matsuyo Mochizuki, there's this slight chance that they could be related. You will stand strong and make sure you see her again in this life, even if you don't have much time left—

Beep!

"Hm...?" You wander to your phone, a new notification, this time it was from Aqua. You sigh as you open your phone. He's the only one who's actively talking to you. The other members in Lovenow didn't know you haven't been showing up to your classes, you're really grateful for that. Though whenever he does text you, it never brings you any joy. It's usually about something negative. Maybe it'll be different this time?

The text read: "Get ready and come to my place, everyone else is already here." You thought it was funny how Aqua talks all professionally even when it's through a text.

Quickly putting a hoodie on with sunglasses and a mask to hide your identity, you rush over to Aqua's place...

His place... where does he live again?

˚⋆୨ ✶ ୧⋆˚

You rushed over to find that all the other cast members of Lovenow were huddled in front of a screen with, you can only assume, Aqua in the middle. They didn't notice your entrance so you carefully walked over to see what it was all about. The video. Right, that's what this was all about. Aqua looked as if he was on the verge of death as he compiled pictures and videos of all of Lovenow's time together. The video, so far, was very nice. Like eye candy!

"Hm? Oh! [name] is here!!" Memcho brightly said after turning around, "Your aura reminds me of Aqutan! Dead! What have you been up to?"

"Nothing other than worrying to death about Akane." You sigh, putting your hand to your face, "Why did you call me here, Aqua?"

"Because I'm worried about you too. Everyone else here can tell that you look horrible" Aqua murmured, not looking away from his screen. That pissed you off, how could he say you looked horrible if he hadn't even glanced in your direction?? Before you could verbally react, Yuki had already punched him in the back, causing Aqua to bite his tongue, "And the plan is almost done."

"What Aqua's trying to say is that he wants everyone from Lovenow to be here when the video is all done!" Memcho says, clasping her hands together and smiling. You smile back under your mask, Akane will finally be free!

"Well? When are you gonna be finished, Aqua?" One of the boys asked.

"I'll finish quicker if you guys stop bothering me." Aqua murmured, to giggle to yourself about Aqua's comment.

"Well you heard him! Get out.★" You took your sunglasses off and glared at them, "I know he wants you here when he's all done, but saving Akane faster means no distractions!" You placed your sunglasses in your pocket as you watched all four of them slowly leave the office. You turned your head to look at Aqua's screen. He's so close... just a little more and Akane will get to show her face to the public again.

Half an hour of silence and hard clicks on the mouse, Aqua was still glued onto the screen. A few more dragging from his mouth passed by before he opened his mouth again, "Bring the others in."

You ran over and hugged him tight, "Thank you so much for doing this for her." You let go just as quickly as you latched onto him and skipped out the the room to go and get the others back. As you re-opened the door, Yuki rushed in before you could say anything.

"So?! Are you ready to post it??" She asks impatiently, holding onto her sweater tight.

"It's prime time to post it right now actually, my data shows that tons of people are online right now!" Memcho chimes in, pointing to a poorly drawn graph on her phone.

"Mm, yeah." Aqua mutters, "This has to work..."

"It better!" You say, bouncing on the back of Aqua's chair, waiting for him to finally click the export button.

"C'mon man, don't keep us waiting!" One of the boys said, putting their hand on Yuki's shoulder. With an annoyed sigh, Aqua clicked the export button while you hovered over him. When the final pixel reached the end of the loading bar, Aqua switched tabs and opened a popular blog site.

"Let's go Aqua! When I said it was prime time, I meant it! It only lasts a little white, so post it already!!" Memcho shouted, hurling herself on top of you, which consequently meant she hurled herself on top of Aqua. With one glance towards your masked face, Aqua added the professionally made video with a caption and finally clicked post.

With impatient eyes, everyone stared at the screen before them, waiting for the numbers to roll in. Did it not work? Why isn't anything happening? Aqua worked so hard— before another cruel thought entered your head, Aqua refreshed and the likes and comments started to bombard his inbox.

A few minutes passed as the cast watched in shock as everyone's opinions started to morph something in the favor of Akane. You were ecstatic that it worked, rushing over to grab your phone off the desk to check the post itself and to message Akane about it. The girls started jumping around with joy, the boys joined them after some time for the celebration while Aqua's head hit his desk in exhaustion. You slowly put your phone back down and laid your jacket on Aqua just as he did for you. Crouching down to be at eye level with him, you tell him thank you right before you call it a night and go back home.

You slipped past the *crowd of people with a smile on your face and went down the stairwell, but before you could make it out, you saw the same girl as you did the other day. The one that looked exactly like Aqua, she seemed to be in her pajamas and was quite caught off guard when she saw you.

"Ah!! You! It's you! [alias]!" The blonde, in what seemed like a millisecond, ran towards you, her face barely an inch away from yours. *"Ohmigosh, what's it like in Lovenow?! What do you think of my brother? Are you guys going to become a couple?!! How is Akane!?"

"☆Oh, uhm... Akane is... she's going to be okay. And Aqua is a really nice guy! He's done a lot for Akane and I'm really grateful for that." The girl in front of you asked a few more questions before you got the chance to slip off and excuse yourself to go back home. 

-End of Eyes_Full_of_Tears

Check out the other chapters! {CLICK ME}

[aparticularbandit]

Still thinking about Ryoko Otonashi in DR2.

Because like. If you haven't read DR0, there's still the same weight as all the Hajime stuff, just extra because Hajime at least still has a body he can download back into. Ryoko's got nothing.

But then there's like. the additional layer if you've read DR0. And you know who Ryoko Otonashi is. And you're like I know what's going on here I've figured it out, particularly when Monokuma shows up again and you just, oh it's just Junko being Junko, this bitch, we have to kill her!

Except.

Except while you are right, in a sense, you are very wrong.

Junko's still the mastermind because Junko's always the mastermind, and Ryoko's the traitor, even though she doesn't know it or doesn't intend to be.

But Ryoko is not the mastermind because even though she's Junko, she's not Junko.

And it hits harder after spending an entire game hating on Ryoko and wanting to get rid of her and expecting that she's the traitor and the mastermind (you are wrong and you are right) and thinking you see through everything she's doing only to find out that, no. Ryoko's just. Ryoko. She's still Junko, in a sense, but she's not Junko. She never was.

And the hit of the idea that what Junko did to all of the Remnants she did to herself first - taking the Ryoko that she was and turning her into herself.

Like.

Ryoko in DR2 hits SO much harder.

(And then that white noise line of Ryoko Otonashi never existed in the first place hurts in a way that it doesn't in the main game if you haven't read DR0. Because she DOES exist. You met her! You spent time with her! Perhaps you are even still playing as her! And you know that you exist! But you do not exist separate from this horrible evil thing that you've become!)

((Add to that with Nagito's murder. If Ryoko doesn't know that she's the traitor. If they choose wrong. If everyone else dies and it's just Ryoko, alone, piecing everything together, finding all of the manga Monokuma made about who she is and what's happened and what's been the truth with everyone else, and getting to the end and just.

Ryoko, alone, staring down Junko.

Ryoko, alone, with Future Foundation members coming in so that they can override her decision to save herself or destroy Junko.

Ryoko, alone, being reminded that she doesn't matter, in the end.

(Junko giving Ryoko the power to kill the others because they're one and the same, aren't they? Doesn't she want to live? Because Junko controls the world, and she can wrap these people up and keep them from voting. She can keep them from coming in.)

Or the idea that it's just Makoto who joins Ryoko in NWP. Because the rest of them can't upload for whatever reason (Junko). And then you still get that stand-off and that choice.))

IDK I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ABOUT RYOKO IN DR2.

[yurisorcerer]

For the second time this week, I tried to turn my notes on an anime episode into an actual article for my site but couldn't get it to cohere well enough. So you guys get it instead, hopefully you enjoy it regardless.

Usually when I talk about the inherent pacing differences between an anime and a manga, it's to complain, but this episode is a pretty astounding example of an anime production intentionally exploiting those differences to make certain emotional beats hit harder.

To recap; in a manga, you are able to read at your own pace. Some people breeze through manga, some people go out of their way to savor every page, but because you're restricted to your visual senses and their interpretation of ink-on-paper, there's a lot of imaginative work going on on your end. Anime, just by its nature, inherently eases that burden a little bit. You've got an aural component to soak in (not present in a manga), and the visuals move with motion and color, something also absent in the still page. This is the entire artistic reason that anime adaptations of manga exist at all. Done well, they can selectively enhance certain emotional currents of the work. If done very well, they can do so without displacing the original work itself. That's what the Dungeon Meshi anime accomplishes here. Anything else aside, that's pretty impressive.

Seeing Marcille and Laios assemble the grim puzzle of Falin's blood-soaked and half-digested skeleton is one thing on the printed page. Those pages are very effective in their original format, but the scene is transformed here, because we really have no choice but to stew in it. The medium forces us to slow down and really focus on what they're doing; clicking bones together piece by piece, soaking their hands in dragonblood and gore. In Marcille's case, her actual spellcasting is brought into a deep crimson technicolor. The anime's presentation really makes it hit home; she is bleeding onto the ground, chanting ancient, forbidden magic in a desperate bid to bring Falin back from the grave. Laios' emotional state shouldn't be undersold either, as fascinated as he is by the actual act of assembling the skeletons, the moment Falin finally does return to life, she and her older brother share a genuinely very sweet embrace, even as Falin herself is still quite confused as to what's going on.

About that; in the area of scenes altered by the simple fact of being in an anime, we have to talk about the bath scene. In the manga, the bath scene is full of a fair amount of ambiguity, something I'm far from the first person to take note of. The anime, of course, can't replicate that precisely, so it has to pick and choose what emotional undertones to access and which to discard. All told, I'd say the scene is adapted pretty fantastically; it's tender, full of soft colors, and it preserves the push-and-pull dynamic of Marcille and Falin's conversation pretty well. About all that can't be said is that it's a straight improvement, which, really, when you're working with source material as good as Dungeon Meshi, is not a bad thing. I think the bath scene in particular is a good locus for what works about this episode; managing such a delicate scene so well is unimaginably tough, but the team working on the series pulled it off admirably. (As a Lesbian Side Note; both Marcille and Falin look amazing here, as you'd probably expect.) There are a few notable differences; things that seem obvious but pop out if you know what you're looking for. I'm mostly thinking how Marcille's facial expressions are a lot more obviously-flustered here as opposed to the somewhat more ambiguous ones in the manga. But again, an anime has to pick what emotional currents it's going to emphasize.

There are other points to hit on; the obligate dragon-cooking scene is as great as you'd expect, and there are some great character moments between Falin and the rest of the cast. Obviously, with her brother (where he does a very Elder Brother thing by mussing her hair), but also Marcille and even Senshi. (The only one who doesn't really get in on the action is unfortunately Chilchuck.)

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

not sure if you've mentioned it before, but which do you prefer - robot detective k or kikaider? i've read the K manga and your posts about the kikaider anime's got me intrigued. would you say it tackles the "robot with feelings" themes better?

admittedly I'm only a little over halfway into Robot Detective's manga - which I do feel is handling the themes a lot better than the show - but going just by what I've seen yeah I do absolutely love Kikaider a lot more. Robot Detective as a show is one I think is really cute and fun but not a personal favourite but Kikaider is honestly probably S-tier for me up there with shit like Kuuga and Toqger. It certainly effected me a lot more and hit me right in the heart.

I'm hesitant to say either manga handles "robots with feelings" better because a cool thing about Ishinomori's work is that while it's often tackling similar questions about what it means to live it's often tackling them from very different angles; so you get works that for sure have overlapping similarities but which end up being quite different in their thesis statement, so it's harder to directly compare them in terms of one being directly superior or inferior to the other. One thing for instance is that Robot Detective as a manga is constantly having K surrounded with suspicion and contrasted with heavily advancing technology, while Kikaider treats those questions either as a given or something that doesn't matter as much as focusing on his questions of identity as a person. I'll probably have much more developed thoughts on this once I actually finish K's manga but I think both are very good and worth a read (or watch in the case of Kikaider's anime)

[suckishima]

oikawa for the character ask!

Oh boy haha, hope i don't cause any controversy with this one

First impression: didn't like him. at all. well, i think i was pretty neutral until end of season one with the flashback scene where he tries to hit kageyama, that put a bad taste in my mouth for a very long time. and the fact that he still teases kageyama even after iwaizumi knocks some sense into him—it's like he learned a lesson and that lesson just doesn't apply to the people he doesn't like lol

Impression now: this is verrrry hard to talk about without mentioning spoilers lol, but i will attempt. he's grown on me. even when i didn't enjoy him as a person, i always respected him as a player and a teammate. as the series goes on (s2 for example) you can tell his pettiness has evened out some, and i appreciate that. i think his drive, his hunger and the insane levels he will go to for volleyball are admirable. he's hinata&kageyama-level of volleyball obsessed and i think there's some nice parallels there. his role in the narrative is pretty fascinating and i like him from that perspective immensely. i definitely think he's interesting as a character and i don't actively dislike him anymore, but i'm not sure i would go so far as to say i'm fond of him either lol. i'm neutral

Favorite moment: if you know me at all and you've read the manga i hope you know what it is lmao, furudate is an absolute fucking genius and anime-onlys are in for a treat (oikawa stans and neutral people like me both). BUT for of what's been animated, it's gotta be that insane cross-court set to iwaizumi at the end of seijoh 2. it's their connection and effort together over the years come to it's ultimate peak and culmination and it's really stunning tbh

Idea for a story: i actually wrote an iwaoi fic last year, surprisingly, but i'm not sure if i really have any more ideas for them or oikawa specifically. if i did it would probably be a gen fic about when oikawa meets [redacted] in [redacted].

Unpopular opinion: this is gonna sound so weird i'm sure, but, my unpopular opinion for oikawa is that he is talented. i think all that stuff about him "not being as good as a genuis" is bs lmao, he just thinks he's not as good as kageyama because they have different skillsets. he's six feet tall, has a naturally athletic body, has one of the strongest serves in the series and as far as we know he's never actually struggled with any specific volleyball skill. sure, he can't do pinpoint accuracy like kageyama can, he's not a "genius" or w/e in that way, but oikawa is a natural born setter, easy. his entire attitude and demeanor reeks of setter aura—the way he can understand a person's playstyle almost immediately, the way he can subtly manipulate both his teammates and the opponents to dance to his tune—those are talents. i see a lot of rhetoric surrounding oikawa about how he had to work harder than everyone else because he "wasn't as talented" and tbh i just find that to be untrue in canon lol. i mean, he absolutely works hard—harder than almost everyone in the entire series—but, he does also have a ton of talents. his downfall comes in when he thinks that just because he can't be great in the same way someone else can, that that means he's lacking something—he can't see himself from the outside, he doesn't know how great he actually is. (tbh i think all of this is a good thing and makes him a really interesting character and a great temporary unreliable narrator. i just get kinda peeved when i see people talking about how 'hard' oikawa has it and how 'the world is against him' when he's one of the most naturally talented athletes we've seen lmao)

Favorite relationship: iwaizumi! god does oikawa need a balance check and iwaizumi is that for him haha. i wish we got to see more interactions between them in canon in terms of pushing each other even more. it's a good foundation rn, but i'd love to see it expanded on even further.

Favorite headcanon: his teammates roast him constantly, he cannot catch a break. like 10x what we see in canon lol. also, his hair product is really crunchy and crusty but he refuses to buy a new one bc he "likes the way this one shines" or something

send me a hq!! character 🏐💖

[randowwriter]

Hello! I used to be really into anime until I got exposed to some scandalizing stuff. I would like to give it another shot, though. I was wondering if you have some wholesome suggestions? :)

I have two favorites right now, so I guess I'll start there? (I thought I saw a lot of anime until I realized my friends have seen way more than I have.) Akagami No Shirayukihime/Snow White With The Red Hair: the anime is super good! It's a Shoujo that definitely focuses on romance, but the romance is pure and genuine, which is amazing! (I feel like few series ever capture that in romance, but this one does!) I haven't gotten that far into the manga yet, but I highly recommend the anime. (The manga, I hear, gets a little more into politics and stuff like that, which I imagine will be quite fun!) I think forgiveness would count as a strong theme in it, because of an arc in Season Two. (They are short seasons; twelve episodes a piece.) Akatsuki No Yona/Yona Of The Dawn: It is a fantasy, technically a Shoujo too. But though it has a different religion has its base, that I'm guessing as something to do with Shinto Buddhism, based off of the fact that some of the translations for the priests in it, call them Shinto Priests, but I say it can be interpreted pretty easily through a Catholic and Christian lens. :) Also, it has a strong emphasis on relying on God as well as a strong emphasis on forgiveness. It has really strong family and friendship themes, and strong romance too, though since that's a slowburn type, it takes a while. Honestly, I'm a sucker for fantasy, and somehow within the deep, very unique characters that feel real and the fantasy themes, it didn't take long to fall in love with it. It does have wars/politics/other themes, so it does have some harder to read/watch stuff. I'm actually all caught up on the manga, and right now, we just hit two hundred and twenty five chapters! The anime though is only twenty four episodes with three awesome OVAs! :) Also, as someone reminded me of and had me think through, this a strong theme of not judging people before you know them? Some characters are definitely bad right from the get go, but other characters, we have to think about more, like get to know basically. Some of this comes through when villagers make hasty judgements on people that the main characters know or when we have to take our time to get to know a character that's a little tough to want to know at first. My Roommate Is A Cat would be a great anime to start off with. It is a slice of life focusing on a mystery writer who ends up adopting a cat, basically. He's never had pets before, let alone a cat, and is a little at a loss as to how to care for said cat. But it happens at a time when he really needs companionship. It's focused on family and friendship, though warning before the series starts, there is some tragedy, so it has sad parts, but it mostly focuses on the happy things. I watched it, because there's a writer and there's a cat, and found that I really liked it! It's only twelve episodes long and is pretty new. 2020 or perhaps 2019 was when the anime came out. I haven't finished even the first chapter of the manga, which is supposedly ongoing. So, can't answer for that yet. I do recommend that you start with My Roommate Is A Cat since it is shorter and also doesn't touch on near as many heavy themes as the other series do. Ooh, FullMetal Alchemist is great, but it's longer and is a Shounen so there is lots of action and hardships. But I recently heard that Brotherhood (especially) was a prolife anime, and when I thought about it that's definitely true. The value and miracle of human life is a common theme within it. Hopefully, I'll start watching some of the recommendations that people have given me for series. (Thinking back on anime, I grew up with, you've probably seen them, and some I wouldn't recommend now.) But I'm still watching the Fruits Basket reboot, and sometimes it makes me want to go back and reread the manga to verify that some of what I'm seeing is from there? But I learned a lot from Fruits Basket when I was younger, primarily from a mom and her daughter in it. :) So, it's a lovely series to me.

(Come to think of it, I think most of the series, I like, involve forgiveness as a prominent theme. Fruits Basket, FullMetal Alchemist, Yona Of The Dawn, Snow White With The Red Hair, etc...) (An argument could be made about self-forgiveness in My Roommate Is A Cat though, so even that one kind of fits.)

Heads up, there can be pretty emotional stuff in these too. So, there are sad moments and stuff like that in either all of these or most of them.

[13eyond13]

For the sleepover ask (and you've probably talked abt this for the 100th time, sorry): What was your first impression of Death Note and how has that impression changed over time? And what was it that made this show 'stick' with you? :3

Ohh that's a good question, thanks for indulging me @trueffelmaiden!

I discovered Death Note way back in like 2007 I think, and it was an extremely random way to find it. I think I just came across an AMV on YouTube or whatever and thought that L looked strangely compelling and liked his energy, so I wanted to know more about his character. I found the anime on a site online and then IMMEDIATELY had L's death spoiled for me by a commenter on the first episode that said he dies in episode 25 ;__; . I had never really seen any anime except for a few episodes of Pokemon and such when I was a kid, so I didn't realize it could be so good! I binge watched the entire thing within about 2 days alone in my room and then couldn't get over the show. I was fascinated and haunted by the characters and the unique world-building and all the possibilities that might have been with little changes to circumstances and everything like that. Nobody else I knew was as obsessed with it as I was either, so I ended up reading a lot of fanfic and leaving rambling comments on the ones I really liked. I hadn't ever been involved in a fandom before either, but I met someone very smart and kind on ff.net ("serria" is the username, you can still find her fic on there now) who taught me a ton about the series and how fandom culture works and everything like that! She was much more involved in it than I was, she had actually read the entire manga and participated a lot in writing thoughtful meta and such on LiveJournal (no Tumblr or AO3 or whatever back then). I attribute her kindness and encouragement toward me back then as the reason I ever felt comfortable participating in the fandom myself, and the reason I have a blog here now!

I was into DN from about 2007 to 2009, then got busy with life stuff for a long while and drifted away from it. I got back into DN in my twenties around 2016 I think? This time I actually read the whole manga, and then I watched the English dub of the anime for the first time too (which wasn't even available to me anywhere back when I was into DN for the first time). I was amazed at how well it held up and how good the entire manga was, better than the anime imo.

Soooo after that long-winded explanation here are the main things I remember about how my impressions changed or didn't change:

-I didn't fully appreciate how beautifully drawn and funny in a dark way the manga was back in the late 2000s, and didn't bother reading the whole thing after L's death, because I figured since I'd already seen the anime I already knew what happened. In a plot sense this is baaaasically true, but I now see that the anime altered the successor arc a lot and made quite a few of the characters from that half of the story more wooden and less interesting and comprehensible than they were in the manga. I was especially surprised by how much I liked Near's character in the manga, because I thought he was boring and unsympathetic in the anime, but he was actually one of my favourites in the manga when I read it all the way through. I also think I liked Mello a bit less this time around because he just came off very violent and repetitive to me in most of the things that he does, and I always sympathize with the characters he is traumatizing more than I sympathize with him (though he's definitely a very cool looking character and I love his design).

-Back in the day my impression of L was based totally on how he came off to me in the Japanese dub of the anime, and I definitely saw him as well-meaning and gentle and a bit naive as well. I remember Serria telling me that she thought he was cruel and I was like ??? Stuff like how he confined the Kira suspects never occurred to me as being shady and I always felt sorry for him because of how Light killed him. Oh yeah and I also hated Light, though I cried a lot when he died. It wasn't until I read some good fanfics that I started appreciating Light's character more and seeing how L was perhaps a bit shadier than I first believed him to be. Back then I was less of a critical thinker and also a bit naive, always assuming people have good intentions deep down no matter what. I also think the anime version of L somewhat alters his character and makes it a bit harder to know how you're supposed to be interpreting him and his actions. I definitely prefer the manga now for everything including L's characterization and dynamic with Light and everything else.

-I finally fully saw what an excellent character Light is when I revisited the series as an adult. I have read a lot more and watched a lot more and learned a lot more about good writing over the last decade so I have a much better appreciation for when a character and a plot are really well done. I think he is the absolute best part of the entire story now and that it wouldn't work at all without his character as the center of everything, he's the whole reason the story is a classic and so interesting and fun to watch or read.

-I think I was also a bit taken aback by how strongly I still got Lawlight vibes when I revisited the story again as an adult. I didn't care about shipping them anymore and set out to just read the story exactly as it was, because I assumed I had just been projecting a lot of wishful thinking onto things back in the day. But the whole time I read and watched it again I was still like... 👀 jeez hahah they're really hitting it off. I think I used to always see it as L being obsessed with Light and Light hating L back in the day, but this time I saw it more as Light being obsessed with L. The way he continues to think about him and compare everyone else to him years after he is gone is the shippiest thing about them to me now. I enjoy the series for way more reasons than just that, and I do think the fandom kinda goes overboard on this ship sometimes in ways that aren't very interesting to me, but their strange chemistry is definitely the heart of the story to me, and that's something that hasn't changed over time.

[askbloatedbellyblog]

I'm not sure if you've watched/read this far, but any headcanons for Josuke in JJBA: Diamond Unbreakable

I read the manga YEARS ago and apparently blocked most of it out of my memory but Diamond is Unbreakable did just finish on Toonami where I was watching it so you’re in luck, I can actually answer this one. Josuke is an interesting target partly because of his stand and others, though I’ll probably ignore some limitations about it as well or I’ve forgotten some of it.

I know that Josuke can’t exactly use his stand on himself but he is able to use it on others and even mix and combine people (like with the rock) so there still might be ways around things, so I’ll still take them where I can get them.

First off with stuffing there are a few different options out there. To start at the VERY beginning and what I think was a significant plot hole that was never resolved and would have made PERFECT SENSE if they used more of Another One Bites the Dust for more extended time travel, is Josuke and his encounter as a child with the person that saved him and his mother in the car with the pompadour (which someone go back and make their hair go down to give Josuke a better hairstyle. Yes I said it. He looks SO much better with his hair down.). If that person happened to have a stuffed belly or burp or something while rescuing them that definitely would have an effect on Josuke and his eating habits as much as it has his hair. There could be a lot of fun dialogue if that was the case, like if he burped and said something like “I think I might have eaten too much before lifting a car” or “Burps are just my manliness escaping to show off” or “Eating more than even you thought you could is a true show of strength!” and that all has an effect on Josuke as he’s growing up where he’s trying to be like that guy, in shape but a big eater.

This doesn’t bring up the alluded to paradox where Josuke IS the person that saved himself in the past! Which could be interesting if he already had a big appetite and had spent the day eating in town and had gotten a rep before then saving himself and then Josuke connects the dots on the stranger and finds out that he has a big appetite and tries to emulate it as well. So then it happens all over again as part of the paradox where he’s destined to always have a huge appetite. (With the side benefit of, say he didn’t have one but he had to make sure that he did have one when he went back and had to keep the timeline consistent and making himself eat even more and thereby compounding the need for capacity for eternity unless the paradox is broken. So goes the flow of time, so goes Josuke’s belt and buttons.

Now there are some other options. If we keep in mind that Josuke can’t heal himself and he’s injured there may be a problem. And while I don’t agree with how it was depicted in the anime (because it was kind of gross), there is someone who is a solution to the problem. Even though he’s shown basically once and never returns as a stand user or threat, but there is Tonio Trussardi. Thanks to his stand and dishes that violently heal people (though not sure if it’s without their knowledge or its just Okuyasu being dumb. Also keep Okuyasu there until he’s finally both smart and actually handsome), in time of need Josuke could be sent to Tonio’s and have to stuff himself (or have to be force fed if he’s incapacitated) to make sure he’s actually healed of any injuries. So if Josuke did have a buffet/menu’s worth of food he’d for sure be all healed up and ready to go back to whatever fight he’d want to. Plus it would be a good way to force himself to up his capacity because any time he actually hurt himself or stuffed too much for his stomach, then the food would actually end up healing him all over again and make himself even stretchier. (Add that he does it after a hard workout and it might even help make him buffer over time because has to have the golden time for eating protein but also the food would help with muscle repair.

Additional stuffing ideas would be that Okuyasu would be exactly the type that would always pester Josuke with eating bets. He’d already have an affinity for money and with access he’d always be betting Josuke to eat massive amounts of food or giving him his own food. Or as the bully he is, he’d steal lots of other kids food and then give it to Josuke without telling him where he got it. If he was for whatever reason helping to feed Josuke or during a contest, he could use his The Hand power to magically bring the next plate of food closer to him and Josuke without any effort.

Rohan would be interesting because he could easily make things happen with his stand. So either he could find out that Josuke is a secret eater, or if he was a feeder or belly lover for any reason or just wanted to torture Josuke, he could totally write in new eating habits or abilities to Josuke making him eat way more than he usually did and forcing him to binge and up his capacity with either Josuke thinking it was totally normal or having no control over it at all. Heck Josuke in pursuit of an eating contest prize might even ask Rohan to do it to him on purpose.

Koichi would be harder to do anything with his stand other than making it so he could help decrease the weight of Josuke’s belly when he eats too much or slow others down during an eating contest. But truth be told, I think that Koichi in a stuffing scenario would be a feeder. He’d be eager to please and probably be the type that would give Josuke more food everyday. Depending on how big Josuke got, he may even help to carry and support his belly thanks to him being so small. I also think that he’d be a good gopher for Josuke’s requests for food if he’s in the middle of stuff and end up coming back with more.

I won’t go through all the enemy stand users, though I’m sure there are ways to probably incorporate several of them of if I tried hard enough, though I would be remiss to not talk about Yoshikage Kira. The strangest scenario is with his time repeating that he might kidnap Josuke and stuff him for torture and then go back and do it all over again. If his blasts by his stand were less, I would actually think he might make Josuke eat smaller versions of it and make him burp if they went off in his stomach. Mostly it would be interesting if his time travel was used over and over again with some left over consequences like if Josuke had been in the middle of eating each time they went back in time and the food kept compounding in Josuke’s stomach as he became fuller and fuller.

Now the interesting bit might be with Josuke’s own stand. If there was a way for him to heal himself then it brings up a bunch of possibilities of him eating way past his limits but then helping him repair any damage. But it could be used to put back anything he might try to puke up if he got to full and just because it didn’t repair his stomach, I absolutely believe that his stand would give belly rubs like all the time. He could easily use it both with the stand seen or unseen and give him an advantage when he was trying to eat so even if his stomach was upset then he could have Shining Diamond help soothe his own stomach. But this also means any medications he took like tums or pepto could be reconstituted and used again to help settle his stomach. I do think it’s very possible that he might view being a stronger eater than Jotaro as a point of pride and might use the same motivation to up his eating and hit the gym to try to surpass his half nephew. The other options are still having Shining Diamond help feed him when he’s alone and leaning back already very full, his school uniform broken open and basically having his own feeder and belly rubber while he continued to eat. This would totally help him be able to continue eating while he leans back with his own hands on his belly and a smile on his face happily glutted and dreaming of Morio while his buttons break.

(this is why he may end up eating Okuyasu)

When you get into vore related stuff, that’s when things get a little bit interesting. First, nearly all of what I mentioned before could apply in a vore scenario with a few modifications.

First off, I think that Josuke would have two different modes. First off with his usually happier personality, I think he’d be more a safe vore person and not digest unless he had to or wanted to. On the other hand, I think if they made fun of his hair or hurt him or his friends then he’d digest without mercy at all.

So first off on the safe vore side, there is the idea of Josuke using Shining Diamond to make sure that whoever he ate is perfectly fine from any acids. Either could make it so there is no effect at all or only some as a form of mild torture. Now the terrible idea is that Josuke eats someone and then starts to digest them and then uses Shining Diamond to repair any damage to be able to keep them even longer in his stomach. That means he could keep someone in his stomach for a VERY long time, either gently or roughly. This could also solve any swallowing problems since Shining Diamond could basically deconstruct the person and then reconstruct them in his stomach so he’s just suddenly bloated.

Depending on how much digestion took place either with safe (and reconstructed without any pain) or more torture style, the fun idea is that of consequences to that. First off, if long term, it means that Josuke would either have to eat whole meals on his own for them and and then have Shining Diamond reconstruct them back to normal in his stomach or just reconstruct them in his stomach to begin with. Second, is if there is some digestion this would still have some effect on Josuke. Either means he really doesn’t need any food during this time, but it does mean he’s still consuming calories and either he has to work out to keep off extra weight or he starts to gain weight over time which he may not notice until they are out of his stomach. I think in the case of safe vore really any of his friends would be fair game like Okuyasu and definitely Koichi. Rohan gets the more torture treatment.

Koichi would be fun safe or not because of his stand because as a way to fight back it first means that in his regular forms that the stand could amplify the sound of his burps or moans even weaponizing them if he didn’t want to be eaten. Next would be that Koichi could also increase the weight of the belly so it feels much heavier than it really is, making transport and waddling that much worse for Josuke. Now if he was eaten safely and didn’t want to move or was also trying to keep Josuke safe, just means that he could increase the weight of the belly until Josuke couldn’t move and was basically pinned by his own belly despite whatever size it may be.

Rohan using his stand to make Josuke eat would be a fun one here as well. It could be an extension of him stuffing and upping his capacity and easily get to the point of unintended consequences. For example if it was just an instruction of “Josuke kept eating more and more and beating his own records” or something then it’s very possible that Josuke keeps eating bigger and bigger meals until he finally attempted to eat someone and because of the influence of the stand, totally could. Same could be just a direct addition of “eats someone” and then Josuke eats someone and still has to fight Rohan before he can set them free. It’s also easy with Rohan for when Josuke is using Mikitaka as dice when things go wrong that to cover Josuke has to hurry and eat the dice or some other object and swallows them down with then Mikitaka becoming his regular size in his belly, much to Josuke’s surprise. Though then he might have to do his best to actually tell Mikitaka to come out who make end up in his stomach, digesting and regenerating on his own and deciding he likes it in there and Josuke is stuck like that until Mikitaka gets bored.

With Kira, there is again the thought of time travel being used against him. Where he might be forced to eat someone and have them come back repeatedly in his belly or having to swallow them repeatedly. Could even be that is the way that they repeatedly get killed in that timeline before being rolled back. I do think it’s possible that he does eat Kira as a way to be rid of him and that even after he tried to use his bombs it didn’t do anything and only make Josuke burpy.

There are a few other options with him eating as well. First off I think if someone asked/paid him to be eaten, he’d initially look at them incredulously and then be all for it and even excited to be getting money for such a strange but fulfilling thing (I think that Koichi would do this a lot. Even if it’s just to hide from Yukako). I also Josuke could use the power in battle to protect someone and even using Shining Diamond to heal someone in his stomach the entire time he was still fighting. Or if there was a stand after someone, in the gut they go. Even some strange combo attack might work well with that and being able to use them as a sneak attack all from his stomach.

I also think that if someone pisses him off about his hair or maybe gives him crap about his belly size after a stuffing, he’d snap and eat them right up. In those cases, I think he’d have no remorse on digesting and getting revenge. I also think this might be the case with any of the stand users that hurt his friends that don’t end up joining on his side, the best revenge is to just end up in his stomach.

The one person that I think could also be digested (aside from maybe also Koichi but that’s a different idea) would be Rohan just because of how much he hates him and rightfully so even if he’s sorta friendly with them by the end.

Josuke is also one that I think could digest completely and have a plausible way to bring them back to life and reform them. He could in theory digest them and not bring them back until much later if he so desired as a way to teach them a lesson though it might have more effect on his waistline then he would have wanted.

I’m sure there a bunch of other ways that Josuke could eat or use his stand but at least here’s a bunch for him. With all this, I think it’s very possible that Josuke may not be as slim as he usually is and be seen around Morio with a very bloated belly for a variety of reasons.