#but it certainly means the source had the capability

[whetstonefires]

Second thing is Wei Wuxian's self worth issues, the extent to which he does view himself as disposable.

I've seen a lot, and a few times already in the notes on this post, that the main reason he's like this is the Jiang family. They raised him, they had some serious toxicity in there, one of them hated him, etc. Obvious! We can all relate!

And I mean. That didn't help. The issues in that family certainly can be considered a major reason he didn't get past that idea as much as might be hoped!

But I really, really don't think they're the source of it--of his compulsion to be useful; of his deep seated belief that relationships and homes are things that can always be taken away if you fail to deserve them, and so forth.

I think that's because he had a formative experience of being disposable.

Of being a trash person. Someone already thrown away b society. Of knowing for a fact that he was the only person in the world who cared if he lived or died; that no one had any use for him and therefore he, a small child, had no value. Of living on anyway.

He internalized at a profoundly formative age that he was owed nothing, that being alive was something to work for and earn moment by moment.

And that most people placed in that position would die before long, and that he was unusually capable of surviving.

He was six tops when he was orphaned. Lan Wangji, whose life was otherwise stable if somewhat oppressive, was fucked up a bit for life just by losing his mom at that age and not being given the support he needed to process it.

Being homeless is not like. A self-contained Trauma Event. It's not separate from, or to the side of his life. It's foundational. It was formative. It was his life, at the exact age when people are learning to have abstract thoughts about the world in a systematic way.

He developed his identity to a considerable degree in the context of being given nothing without earning it, and having to seek out the opportunities even to do the earning, because no one was interested in offering them.

The Dogs Thing is not a traumatic event. It's part of the outcome of an entire lifestyle that was fundamentally traumatic. Years as a small child of contriving to get by in a world that was hostile to his existence, by default. Of having to earn every mouthful.

The thing about Wei Wuxian when we see him as a teenager is that he doesn't take this shit seriously because he knows it's not that serious. Not worth stressing about. Everything in his life as a prominent disciple of a major sect is fantastic.

Especially because his master spoils him! He doesn't have to earn his food. They just give it to him. They just...give it to him.

There aren't no strings, and on some level he takes those strings deadly seriously even more than is actually necessary, but his understanding of his position in the Jiang, after a certain point we don't see him arrive at because the time between the first night and the Cloud Recesses is not given to us in detail, is that he is safe.

And that this is an unbelievable luxury worth indulging in.

Having a problem like 'someone who isn't allowed to maim him trying to make him feel bad' might piss him off if he thinks they're being unjust about it, but for the most part it's a fun problem to have.

(This is a huge part of his and lwj's initial failure to connect; he seems as though he's frivolous because he's shallow, but he's actually like this because he thinks most of this surface-level stuff the cultivation world takes so seriously is what's frivolous.)

He's like this because, even after half a lifetime with the Jiang, his baseline for 'a problem' is set so high. The Abyss sequence in Caiyi isn't a serious situation because they could always just leave.

Sure they could die here, sure something has to be done about this by somebody, but they are all on flying swords and the problem is localized to a lake. If they wanted they could just leave, which means it's...not that bad.

A dangerous night hunt is like. It's a play-pretend at a traumatic situation, to him. It's like...it's almost exactly like how kink is rendered safe by the existence of safewords, of being able to stop, of the fact that you are in this situation on an ongoing basis of your own free will.

This is a huge part of why he's such a larger-than-life figure who's able to act so forcefully, and so on. But it is also the result of trauma, and if triggered correctly results in counterproductive behaviors, which is in some ways what gets him killed.

Madam Yu is being given way too much credit when centered in interpretations of Wei Wuxian's issues. She had a definite influence on him, but as a stressor she had nothing on just, like. Being alive in a world that was aggressively and unanimously indifferent to your desire for basic necessities, at the age of seven.

Jiang Cheng is the one she traumatized.

Post I just saw made me think of this again: Wei Wuxian does not have self-esteem issues.

He thinks he's amazing, because he is.

His sense of his own value is a little fucked up, and tied up in demonstrating how amazing he is by fixing all serious problems and mocking all stupid ones, and when his methods stop working and he can no longer prove this to his own satisfaction he has a profound crisis about it, which he's still shaking off when we meet him.

But self-esteem is super very much not a thing he struggles with. He is a genius who received regular validation about his excellence in a form that satisfied him both as very a small child and from the ages of ~8 to ~17. He has a clear system of ethics which he is most of the time able and willing to act on; he feels really good about himself as a person whenever severe trauma is not actively making that very hard to do.

His default state is obnoxiously high self-esteem.

In-story accusations of arrogance are strictly speaking correct, it's just that most of the inferences about the rest of his character people draw from this trait are deeply wrong.

His willingness to self-destruct is at least as heavily wrapped up in his conviction that because he's so awesome and tough and clever he can handle things other people can't, as it is in the idea that he's disposable.

So yeah the thing is. He really genuinely actually did sacrifice himself for Jiang Cheng in part because he thinks he's better than Jiang Cheng. Stronger, braver, smarter. More adaptable.

And he was right! And Jiang Cheng knows he was right!

Which I love because like. That's not a relationship conflict you can fix, exactly. You really do have to just...get over it, or don't. And one of the things Wei Wuxian was demonstrating his (well-founded) lack of faith in Jiang Cheng's ability to do was. Getting Over Things.

[erynalasse]

If Morgoth is a Thought of Eru Ilúvatar, and Morgoth is the original corruption of Arda, then I don’t think Eru is as omnibenevolent as Tolkien would want us to think.

[gay-dorito-dust]

*Shuffles in* Prehaps, I could request John Walker with dark magic witch user dating hcs, please and thank you 🥹👉👈 If not, than maybe this prompt with Jaoquin!!

i just wrote joaquin as a bonus as i can't pass up writing him.

you probably didn't get off on the right foot, but that's neither here nor there, and after saving his ass on multiple occassions with your magic and the growing tension between the two of you a relationship was inevitable to happen. Even if it was in an unconventional way but no one is perfect and certainly neither were you or john.

John’s not so much a believer in magic, seeing as it’s not something he’s seen a lot in his life nor was exposed to, so needless to say he thought your magic was nothing more then parlour tricks for kids.

That was until he saw your dark magic in full display as you manipulated the shadows, shaping them into hellish demonic beings to hunt down and hurt your enemies on your behalf, or the time you had manipulated reality so that when someone tries to run away from you, they’d ultimately be warped into running into you time and time again until they cave in.

Your magic wasn’t pretty and he knew that, it was demented, forbidden, looked down upon and vowed to be eradicated for good by those who thought all who wielded dark magic were destined to be harbingers of destruction and evil.

However your personality shone brightly in a room where your magic had darkened it, the contrast between you as a person and your magic was so jarring that it in of itself was dangerously deceptive, and something that you could use to your advantages should you so wish.

Yet while John might not be a firm believer in magic or the mystic arts or whatever you wanna call it, but that doesn’t mean he’s no less impressed with the feet’s you are able to accomplish in due to your magic and control over it as well as execution as though it’s become second nature to you. Yet you do have days where your magic did act out and people got hurt, which resulted in you being publicly scrutinised for your seemingly ‘lack of control’

John had seen you scowl down at your phone multiple times, reading the same articles over and over again, so much that he had to take your phone off of you -something you did to him whenever he did the exact same thing- and sit down next to you and hold your hand within his own, his thumb rubbing the pulse in your wrist in a manner he hopes is soothing.

‘Why are you listening to the public opinion of others when you know what you’re capable of?’ He’d start. ‘You can fly, control shadows, manipulate reality and perception, absorb light and generate darkness from it, and so much more. They-’ he raises your phone in his hand. ‘-Can’t even leave the keyboard alone for a single second?' he's been where you've been, hell he still is but he didn't want some keyboard warriors words to get in your own head, make you think lesser of yourself becuase everyone was scared that you'd do when unleashed.

'don't give them power over you becuase you will spend your life appeasing people who's oppinons on you will never change, no matter how much you yourself have changed.' John finishes as you look at the way he held your hand, strong, firm and says all the words he couldn't dislodge from his throat, it was grounding and reminded you that the only opinion you should ahere by was your own and his.

for someone who considered himself a broken toy, John was all too well put together and a source of reassurance for you, a shoulder to lean on even if he did stiffen before relaxing afterwards, you were both learning and overcoming the hardships your relationship would undergo together, hands clamped tightly.

you even use your magic to tease john, whether it'd be by making his shadow tap him on the shoulder, or stealing his shield by making it seem as though it was waddeling away from him. forcing him into following after it until you have the shield in your posession , smirking at him while he looked at you unamused. 'you and your parlour tricks.' john would say as you shrug.

'you still fell for my parlour tricks regardless john. you're dating me remeber.' you replied as you kissed him on the cheek before giving him back his shield and walking away. John swears you'd be the death of him.

nightime is the when the worst swarms john's mind, leaving him restless and incapable of sleeping after waking up once and this is when your magic works it's...well magic. sure your magic is rooted in dark magic and it's fuled by your anger and hatred but you could still use it to manipulate John's dreams to ones that were more pleasent for him, to have him unlcench his jaw and lossen his shoulders and have his eyelids droopy enough for him to fall asleep for the rest of the night.

you always ask him if you could as you never wanted to use your magic without his conset, john would only hum and bring your hands up to his temples while resting his head agaisnt them, silently displaying his trust in you and allowing you into his mind to help him in a way he's never asked for before. you always make sure to never delve too deep within his mind, there was alot to unpack there and most of it wasn't anything that you should make your own buissness, and instead focus on reminding him of the good times you shared together and how you see him.

it might not be enough but it would do until you both decide to have a deeper conversation about it. There was a mutal understanding between the two of you that didn't need any words and never would as you understood each other on a deeper level then most, which often lead into bouts of over protectivness from one another on most occasions. not unexpected and not unwelcomed either.

if you ever were to overexert yourself in due to your magic -especially on a mission- he's stubborn in making sure you were okay as he made you food, make sure you were comfortable by fluffing your pillow and even insiting on endurance training so that it wouldn't happen again, for the betterment of yourself and him as well as future missions.

john was a secret worrier and thought the worse at the time as he hovered over you, checking your pulse but still being worried as he kept you safe until the rest of the team joined up with the both of you. he's a feral man on a mission to make sure nothing happened to you while you were in such a vulnerable state, wide eyes and his shield wielded like a weapon instead of something made to defend and protect.

he didn't care, he just needed you safe and would go to many lengths to ensue it.

he honestly loves whenever you used your magic, seriously you swear you've never seen a man's eyes become as wide as his as you manilpuated shadows to do your bidding with a flick of your wrist or using simple tricks to complete mundane tasks when you're feeling a little lazy to do so yourself.

he finds every bit of your magic fasinating even if it's origins aren't so favourable in the eyes of your fellow magic users. he's your reminder that your magic could never be evil if Joaquin is looking at you as though your had light emmiting from your palms instead of darkness and destruction.

‘Is there anything you can’t do?’ He would ask when you told him about how you could walk through shadows, trap people within prisons of utter darkness and audial illusions of their worst fears and memories, minor reality manipulation, consume light and even generate it into dark magic, teleport, telepathy, flight amongst many other abilities you have honed overtime and with experience.

You shrug. ‘I’m sure there’s somethings I can’t do but I won’t know until I get there.’ You tell him before adding. ‘But having such…power is draining and I don’t mean when it’s in terms of overexerting myself.’ You tried to joke but from the way Joaquin fell silent told you that it didn’t land how you’d wanted it to.

'you're doing your best.' is what he says in response.

'people still fear me joaquin,' you tell him, 'it'd been months and i'm still seeing no change in how people see me.'

joaquin's jaw clenched as he brings you into his arms, kissing your forhead as he rubs your back soothingly, not liking how you resented your magic because people didn't understand. joaquin understood you, admired you and sees you as a fountain of strength and power. 'then don't look at them, look at me when you feel lost, i'll always be there for you no matter what.'

'even if it means going agaisnt everyone that sees me as a disaster waiting to happen?' you asked him, burrowing your head against his neck, nosing his pulse.

'especially then.' joaquin promised as he continued to cuddle you against him in hopes it would give you comfort, give you something to remind you is real whenever you felt lost amidst your own power at times.

you swore he had magic within him aswell with how effortlessly he brought warmth and comfort to your life unlike anyone else in your life. he was bright, smart, warm, a sense of peace and hilarity that your life oh so desperately needed right now.

Joaquin was beautiful, calming and grounding for you as you wordlessly cling to him, safely knowing that you wouldn't be pushed away and instead brought into his embrace and melting into him as you felt yourself able to breath.

he might think your made out of magic but you thought he was the embodiment of magic even if it was small acts he did, he just radiated something beyond describing as it wouldn't do him justice.

joaquin would also ask if there was anything else that you haven't tried with your magic before pulling out a whole list as you both spent going through together, taking it as an oppertunity to spend time together however you could and treasuring it and the way he spoke as though he was on a time limit, how animated he is when talking about your magic and his over usage of hand gesutres of how he seen you use magic.

he was also your hype man too, whenever you did something cool with your powers, or just did anything in general, he's smiling widely and giddy as he possibly could. 'that's my baby!' he'd exclaim. 'looking good honey!' he'd add when he noticed that you had heard him.

sam finds the interactions between you and joaquin funny as he watched joaquin grab your hands and rub your palms where your magic resided, speaking sweet nothings to you, displaying an exciment when you made a bit of your magic weave between yours and his fingers.

joaquin even asks if you could fly with your magic, if you could then expect flight dates to be a very common thing between the two of you, even becoming healthy competition between you and him to see who could get to the rooftop of a building first, where waiting was a picnic blanket, fairy lights and food that was set up by joaquin hours prior. it's cute and you loved every second of it as it was just another thing about joaquin that you very deeply loved.

you even use flight competition to see who had to do what. ie; who had to do the dishes, who got to cook, who got more kisses and cuddles, who's the big spoon, and other things that many would probably be viewed as silly or unnecessary but neither of you cared, it was something that was yours and yours alone.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Oooh I'm so glad folks are engaging with this post because it's stuff I've been thinking about for a while!

I think it's clear that magic will continue to play a role in any further stories in the Arcane universe, now that it's been "woken up" in the course of the events of the show. Whether Hextech itself continues to exist...I'm not sure. I tend to think that the arcane was never going to successfully industrialized in the way the Hexgates work--forcing magic to do one ordered, repetitive task over and over and over again. Something like the anomaly was always going to occur, because the order of the Hexgates has to be balanced out with chaos generated somewhere else within the system. But there are lots of other ways of using magic in Runeterra so I could see the Hextech crystals and gemstones being used in other ways.

I would argue that it's not the case that Jayce and Viktor are the only people capable of understanding Hextech. They're certainly the experts, but Jinx is able to construct working Hextech devices with one gemstone and a notebook. When given some time to mess around, Ekko and AU Powder invent time travel. Yes, they have Heimerdinger's mentorship, but he seems not to know this is even possible in advance. So I think the Council keeping a lock on Hextech is not just about controlling Jayce and Viktor's labor power as scientists (although it is that) but also about preventing the proliferation of Hextech in ways they can't control. Because if anyone can build or use or reverse-engineer a Hextech device then that's a formidable source of power that the Council no longer has a monopoly on.

@kettleninth I am also gonna pull out some ideas from your first set of tags cause there's some really interesting stuff in there.

(1) The Kirammans having a monopoly on the hexcrystals/gemstones is a really interesting idea because I've had the idea for a while that at least part of their wealth comes from mining. (Vi being the daughter of miners and Caitlyn being the daughter of mine owners just seems very juicy and like it fits well thematically.) If this were true then it would make sense that they would have the means to both extract and refine the crystals, and that they either found them through their own companies' prospecting, or that Jayce convinced Cassandra it was academically useful for him to go along on a Kiramman prospecting expedition where he thought the crystals might be found.

I initially had a whole tangent about the Kiramman-funded ventilation system but I decided it really needs its own post. Tl;dr I see it as kind of in the same vein as, like, wealthy social reformers of the Industrial Revolution era who invested in public health measures because they'd had the revelation that maybe their entire workforce dying before thirty was not gonna be sustainable. There's a mix of noblesse oblige and self-interest at work. They have an interest in conditions in the fissures because that's where their workers live, and possibly because their own enterprises are contributing to the pollution.

(2) Houses being corporations makes a lot of sense too. This is basically how the ultra-rich operate now, creating trusts, investment vehicles, holding companies etc. to manage inherited family wealth (and avoid taxes). I have also thought that in a society that has inherited family wealth but also seems relatively chill about same-sex relationships, there must be some structure to formally and indisputably designate heirs who are not your biological children, and if bringing someone into your House is seen as more of a business relationship, that could fill that role.

(3) The idea that the Council has possibly carved out a legal exception just for the Hexgates because they benefit Piltover's ruling class, and that other forms of Hextech are not automatically legal...yeah that feels very on brand and interesting to explore.

who decides the future of hextech?

Hot take: I don't think Hextech functions like a scrappy tech startup at all. I know the Arcane writers have made this comparison themselves, but it doesn't really track with what we see in the show.

It's made pretty clear that Jayce and Viktor have at best limited control over what direction Hextech goes in. In a city that's hostile to and suspicious of magic, they need the continued goodwill of the Council, and the wealthy families who sit on the Council, for their work to continue to exist at all. And that shapes how Hextech develops.

For the first 6-10 years of its existence (however long you think the S1 timeskip is), Hextech consists of one (1) project: the Hexgates. A major piece of international transit infrastructure, utilizing a brand-new technology that no one knew was even possible a few years earlier, and requiring a massive financial outlay for construction years before seeing any profits. Frankly, taking that from the very first shaky proof of concept to a fully functioning piece of infrastructure in less than 10 years is astonishing. This isn't like inventing Facebook; this is equivalent to creating the internet itself.

An infrastructure project on the scale of the Hexgates could be entirely state-funded (and therefore state-controlled, answering to the Council). But from the dialogue and visual storytelling, I think it's reasonable to infer that Hextech functions more like a public-private partnership.

In the modern era, PPPs have come to be associated with privatization and neoliberal capitalism. But funding infrastructure development this way was common in the 19th century too, closer to the time period from which Arcane draws its steampunk-ish inspiration.

So who's picking up the tab? I think it's some combination of government funding from the Council and private funding from Mel Medarda and the Kirammans.

We see one other Kiramman-funded infrastructure project in the show: the Undercity ventilation system.

And, as we see in that case, what may seem like a purely benevolent investment for the good of the city as a whole comes with a very high potential for control. (And where do the Hexgate plans end up at the end of the show? In the Kiramman family vault, accessible only with the Kiramman key.)

The Kiramman family crest is all over Hextech at Progress Day. It's prominent on the stage when Jayce speaks, positioned as equal to his own House.

Cassandra Kiramman introduces Jayce's speech, and Jayce gets trotted around the Kiramman family tent like a show pony beforehand.

The Kiramman crest is also on the box containing the hexgems, which makes me suspect that the facility needed to process the gemstones is either owned or financed by the Kirammans.

Mel's influence is more subtle. There's no Medarda crest on anything associated with Hextech; once you learn a bit about Mel's relationship with her family, that is not surprising. But clearly Mel feels comfortable speaking to other investors on behalf of Hextech, without feeling the need to run it by Jayce or Viktor first.

I think this exchange implies that (1) getting additional, outside investors is something new that they haven't done to finance earlier rounds of Hextech development, and (2) Mel is planning ahead in case the Council doesn't like the direction Hextech is going next and they need to secure additional funding.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mel was the one who steered them toward shipping and long-distance trade as a marketable use for Hextech in the first place, something many of the councillors seem to have an economic stake in.

Throughout this whole scene with Jayce and Mel, the Hexgate model sitting on her desk is very prominent. It's the first thing we see in the scene; the color and lighting make it stand out; and it appears in the frame in multiple shots. It's the thing that's always there between them.

Mel and Cassandra Kiramman are also councilors, and along with Heimerdinger they are Hextech's main allies on the Council--3 out of 7. Jayce and Viktor really can't afford to piss off any of them...which gets complicated when they want opposite things.

At the time of Progress Day, Hextech is at a turning point.

This conversation implies that they have not had a lot of freedom to develop and build whatever they wanted in the years during the timeskip. It's an interesting reversal of the dynamic we saw from them in 1.02 and 1.03. This time Jayce is the one forging ahead, confident they can get what they want, while Viktor is the one pointing out obstacles. (This is also the first time we see Viktor's face post-timeskip and register how much sicker he's become, which...oof.)

Regardless of how much they talk about "bringing magic to the people," I think it's notable that both their little spiels focus on how these inventions would increase worker productivity. This is a presentation designed for people who are thinking about their bottom line. And they seem to expect that any new developments with Hextech will have to be given Council approval before they can proceed.

(I think all of this puts the Hexcore in a slightly different light, too. It's quite possibly the first Hextech device since Jayce's original prototype that they've built without thinking about the pitch meeting. It's not a single-purpose object with an immediate, obvious use. In the beginning, it seems to recapture some of that original sense of wonder and discovery. And Viktor built it. I can see how he would be protective of his creation even before things Got Weird with it.)

And then, of course, everything goes off the rails. The gemstone gets stolen; Jayce gets pulled onto the Council. And after that point, every new Hextech object that Jayce makes is a weapon.

Jayce and Viktor's arc can be read as a story about the hubris of scientists thinking they can control forces they don't understand and anticipate every possible consequence, or a story about their naivete in thinking they could keep their research somehow above politics in a world full of conflict. And it's not not about those things. But it can also be read as a story about how discovery, creativity, and people's natural altruistic impulses get constrained by capitalism, and how often innovation is only valued if it can be made to serve war or profit.

(As for who controls the future of Hextech after the end of the show? With Viktor, Jayce, Mel and Heimerdinger all gone from Piltover...Caitlyn, probably. A detail I would love to see someone use in a fic.)

[dgttwisted]

Kin!

(all of the art is from @mellosdrawings thank your for drawing my boi!)

Name: Kin Vanrouge formerlym0000984626

Birthday: June 26

Age:????

species:????

Hight: 5'10

childhood

Kin was created in a lab he was one of many that came before him the blood of the fallen dragon queen a star fea an the blood of a long forgotten creation made from none other then the fabled Jumba Jookiba that these scientists can only hope there creations will be half as good as his.

experiment after experiment most died before the age of 7 there bodies couldn't contain the magic they tried to use. they feared that Kin would be the same they would inject their drugs an magic enhancers in the same place's on his neck day in an day our before an after every test. thus leaving a mark on his neck permanently scarred.

on one of these tests they wanted to see his physical capabilities they had set a obstacle rigorous course. the wall that was there was 20 feet they thought that it would contain him Kin scaled that wall like a spider an ran.

Ran as fast an as far as his little legs would carry him, which was for two days an nights straight until he smelt something yummy an ran to the source it was a basket on a blanket he tore threw it like scrap paper an ate the source of the smell it was a tuna sandwich. his ears shot up he heard movement an tried to run for it thinking it was the scientist's.

Only to be grabbed by the scruff of his shirt "whats this? the little thing that stole our food that Silver lovingly prepared tries to run for it!?"

undenounced to Kin Lilia an Silver were on a picnic together an Silver made the food an was very happy how they turned out. well whatever Silver an Lilia were expecting him to say it certainly wasn't-

"I WAS FUCKING HUNGRY OK!!! I HADN'T EATEN IN TWO FUCKING DAYS!!" Lilia almost laughed but he was trying to be a decent role model...he did put him in time out an by time out a bath because he stunk which Kin hated he cried the whole time.

Lilia didn't know what he would do about him an decided he'd figure it out the tomorrow they had tucked him in the guest bedroom only to hear screaming not to long after Lilia an Silver went to check on him an Kin was on the ceiling eyes glowing green frightened.

"N-No more!!! NO MORE SHOTS!!"

"we don't have shots" Silver said calmly

"but the ones that do will come for me, they'll hold me down an if i don't listen they use the hose!!"

"my dad is the strongest he won't let that happen an neither will i" little silver walked over an out reached his hand "promise"

Kin detached him self from the ceiling "p-promise?"

"promise"

Silver slept with Kin that night an for the first time in Kin's life he had a good sleep.

during the following morning Lilia was already hatching a plan he just had to do a few things first.

"tell me what's your name?"

"0000984626"

"yea no your name is Kin from now on!"

"Kin?" he looked confused

"yup that you, your name is Kin an Silver over here is your brother from now on you have a family!"

Silver held his hand an gave him a gentle smile

Kin started crying "f-fuck.....why won't they stop" Silver hugged him to let him know it was all going to be ok now.

Lilia had Malleus an Matilda watch them while he went on a errand an by errand i mean tracking Kins trail to find where he came from sneak into the building find Kin's files to see what he is an what horrible things they have done to him before killing every one in the lab an setting it on fire only keeping the medical file to help with Kin's development.

living/growing up with Silver Lilia an Sebek was the perfect environment for him to thrive in. he wasn't scared for his life an living with Lilia taught Kin to cook really early in life...among other such things.

he wants to help others but doesn't realize just how monsterly strong he is compared to most kids around his age. not that Lilia didn't know how to deal with it if anyone could teach a youngster how to control is strength its him. now for the language an his need to be a gremlin on the other hand? Lilia quite enjoyed his mischief an nothing made him laugh more then hearing Kin swear he wondered if those bastard scientist's were the reason for his fowl language but decided not to worry about it.

school life

Kin has very good grades in both academics an in physical activates at school but he also has the most detentions for reasons that are pretty obvious to most.

even now his cursing streak remains its engraved in him at this point. that hasn't stopped certain prefects from trying to stop it an on that note.

Heartslabyul

Riddle hates his languge posture an deminer would collar him more if he wasn't in someone else's dorm. despite how much Riddle loaths Kin, Kin thinks that Riddle is a cool guy a second year like him became a prefect just from excellent grades alone. he only wishes thats how it worked at his dorm.

Catar has tried to get a selfie with Kin but to no avail

"are you camera shy?"

"if i say yes will you leave me the fuck alone?"

this is what Kin looks like with his hair back he has always found his eyes scarry an so assumes that no one would want to see them either.

despite Catars an Trey's warning Ace did try to mess with Kin once what did he get for his troubles? all of his left side shoes are gone he bought a new pair an the left shoe was gone the next day after Trey had Ace apologize were the shoes magically returned though with way more dirt on them then before.

Deuce actually gets along with Kin ok an Kin on more then one occasion has tried tutoring Deuce because he can tell he is trying to be better at his studies.

Savanaclaw

the dorm he was placed in which makes him Leona's problem strong an smart as he is Kins social skills seem to be lacking not that he is much better only when he needs to be. Leona will be his role model an by that Leona actually means put him into a headlock an make him do push ups when he fucks up.

Ruggie finds Kin very useful because he can make what looks like junk to most into useful items an machinery in the blink of an eye.

"you ever think you have been placed in the wrong dorm?"

Kin lifts the stadium bench seats to help some students look for the disk that flung underneath it "why you think this dorm isn't a fit for you" Kin assumes Ruggie was referring to himself when he said that.

"....never mind"

Jack an Kin exercise a lot together

"you seem to be naturally strong but you keep up with a routine anyway?"

"well fuck yea? my pops would kill me if i slacked off!" pops being lilia

Octavinelle

Azul has been trying to be Kin's "friend" sense year one for the benefits of course Kin has made computers but also electric cars an bikes an he just hands them out for free to his friends think of the profit he could be making Azul wants to make that profit. but Kin doesn't like his vibe or how he talks to him so he usually avoids him like the plague.

Floyd is an interesting case on how they met an became "best buddy's" one day they had class at the school pool so of course Floyd was transformed into his merfolk form but Kin was only sitting on the edge he wouldn't even put his feet in the pool he heard some of the students say he got a note so he doesn't need to actually go in the pool to pass the grade.

he swam up to him "hmm shrimp, coral ,seaweed?" he mumbled to himself trying to figure out what to call at the time he though was some dead weight

"the fuck you mumbling about?"

Floyd grinned, oh yea he was just asking to be messed with "can't swim?"

"none of your fucking business-" Floyd used his tail an dragged him him into the pool he expected some flailing an perhaps he be yelled at by the teacher.

instead one of Kin's hands grabbed Floyd into place despite how slippery his body is in water didn't seem to matter much to Kin. Kin upper cutted him threw the water an sent Floyd flying out of the pool an Kin sinking on the deep end on his side.

vargus had to pull Kin out of the pool before scolding him for fighting him he scolded Floyd later after he woke up in the nurses office with the biggest welt on his chin.

"Jade i met a mantis shrimp today!"

"oh? must be pretty big if he sent you flying"

"mantis shrimp!! he's only a head taller the goldfish he is so funny!"

after this incident is how Jade got familiar with Kin an how hilarious he is as a person normally not one to keep notes unless its good blackmail material he got some rather great moments he's witnessed.

"𝓉𝑜𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝒦𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝑜𝓇𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒾𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝓉𝑒𝓍𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝒽𝒾𝓂 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝓈𝓉"

"𝓈𝒶𝓌 𝒦𝒾𝓃 𝒷𝓊𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝒷𝓊𝓃𝒸𝒽 𝑜𝒻 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝑜𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝑜𝓃 𝒸𝓁𝑜𝓈𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒾𝑔𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒹𝒾𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓈𝒾𝓏𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓃 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝒹𝒾𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓇𝓈 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓂𝑜𝓃 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝑒𝒻𝓉 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓈"

"𝒾 𝑜𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒦𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝒽𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝒶𝓃 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒶 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝒸𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒾 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝑒 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒹, 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶 𝒹𝑜𝑔 𝑜𝓌𝓃𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒾 𝓌𝑜𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇?"

"𝒾 𝒶𝓈𝓀𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝒾𝓂 𝓉𝑜𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝒾𝒻 𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒽𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝑜𝒻 𝓊𝓈 𝒶𝓃 𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂𝑒𝒹 𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝒾𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝒹𝑒𝒶 𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝓃𝑜 𝓈𝒾𝑔𝓃𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝓇 𝒻𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝓉𝑜𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈 𝓂𝑒 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝓃𝑔𝓉𝒽 𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉 𝒽𝒾𝓂"

"𝒹𝓊𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒶 𝓉𝓇𝒾𝒶𝓁 𝒾 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝑜𝓃 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝑜𝓊𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝑔𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃𝒿𝓊𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝑒𝓂𝒷𝒶𝓇𝓇𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝓌𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝓀𝓁𝑒, 𝒦𝒾𝓃 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓂𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝓅𝓁𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑒 𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝑒 𝒾 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓃𝓀𝓎 𝒷𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝑒𝓎𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝒽𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒾 𝒶𝓈𝓀𝑒𝒹 𝒦𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓅𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝒾𝓏𝑒𝒹 𝓈𝒶𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎 𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝑜 𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶 𝒻𝓊𝓃𝓃𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝒶𝓎"

"𝒦𝒾𝓃 𝒷𝓊𝒾𝓁𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝑒𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝓇𝒾𝒸 𝒷𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝐹𝓁𝑜𝓎𝒹 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓂𝒾𝒻𝒻𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾 𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒽𝒾𝓂 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝒦𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈 𝒾 𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒾 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒷𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑜𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝑒 𝓈𝑜 𝒽𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓁𝓎…𝒾 𝒶𝒹𝓂𝒾𝓉 𝒾 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹"

Scarabia

Kalim wants Kin to hang out with him more often an invite him to all the parties he hold but Jamil usually tells him no thinking Kin is a bad influence just from his language. Kalim will usually invite him anyway

"thank you for teaching Jamil's bullies some lessons without violence"

"you don't need to mention it, i did it because i wanted to...you didn't have to throw me a party"

"well i did it because i wanted to" hugs his arm

"fuck can't argue you with you there kehe"

they are friends Jamil can't fathom it an didn't know that Kin was harassing his bullies to get them to stop until Leona told him because he has caught Kin in the act of burying peoples shoes.

Pomefiore

Vil despises Kin he badly wants to give him much needed skin an hair care an for him to stop covering his eyes. he hates his langue most of all he swears like a sailor an how Epel wants to be more like him. he has on many occasions told Leona to keep his underclassmen in check.

Rook thinks hes very neat wants to know why he is the way he is but much like when he tried to egg Lilia on Malleus an Matilda stop him from doing so. he will just have to watch him from afar.

Epel admires him so much his strength the fact he says whatever hes about to say regardless of who he is talking to. he thinks he so manly like Leona, Kin doesn't Epel or anyone looking up to him he knows he's a mess an doesn't want anyone catching that from him.

Ignihyde

Idia is curious on why Kin seems to be incapable of getting blot whenever he over uses magic he bleeds from his eyes an nose but no blot. he seems to have two unique magic's one that deals incredible amounts of elemental an physical damage which in turn causes him to bleed an the other which seems to heal him of all his injuries as if none of it happened. one thing is clear Kin is added to the list of people he doesn't want to be stuck in a room with.

Ortho wants Kin to join there dorm he thinks he would be an excellent addition Idia disagrees. Kin thinks that Ortho is really neat but doesn't want to bring up the question on how he is made because he is afraid that might be rude to ask a robot.

Diasomnia

what all of his family is in another dorm that doesn't sting him emotionally that he wasn't chosen to be in the same dorm why would you ask?

Malleus as well as Matilda have always treated Kin like there little cousin whenever he did any achievement regardless of how minor they would give him head pats an praise him. Matilda used to carry him in her arms when he was little whenever he had nightmares she would do this to sooth him sense unlike Malleus she's never had much of a singing voice. Matilda has tried to do this now but Kin insists he doesn't need them anymore.

This makes Sebek extremely jealous of that treatment an would try to outdo him an Silver at every turn. Kin is stronger not becuse he wants to be but beucse of how he was made so small things that would be easy for most kids were hard for Kin like holding a fork without breaking it which would lead him to swear more which lead Sebek to try an scold an brade him about it "Knights don't swear!" Kin had to cover his ears his yelling hurt his ears an still does today.

Silver an Kin have always gotten along an still do to this day Kin helps him study for all the classes he fell asleep in which is usually all of them. an Silver tries to help Kin swear less as well as remember not to call Lilia pops in front of people.

Lilia is very proud of his angry gremlin child he has come a long way sense when he first found him stealing his food to get by. he doesn't care what people say about his language he knows it was way worse as a kid.

ramshackle

Kin accsidently yelled at Lilith by mistake an is to ashamed to even look at her. she hasn't told anyone an if Leona or Vil found out they would skin him alive.

[lets-try-some-writing]

I don’t mean to pester but all the question I’ve seen about how something seems to be a mild inconvenience or just a thing that for humans it’s just whatever but for the bots it’s life ending or extremely dangerous.

ex- Adrenaline for humans is whatever extra energy but for bots to they’re final energy source that will be they’re last stand.

Do you have any head cannons that might be in reverse? Something at is mild to bots but severely life ending for a human?

I mean, a lot of things that are mild to a bot are probably lethal to a human. But if we are going the comedic route, this is one thing I see being pretty normal for the bots, at least during the war, that would automatically mean problems for a human.

Cybertronians are capable of operating with a surprising lack of limbs and internal organs when pressed. It entirely depends on what organs and limbs are taken of course, but they can continue living in very unfortunate states. Humans can also take a beating, but not to the same level as their autonomous robotic organism visitors. That said, generally the bots only received injuries that matched human ones in outward appearance. The humans weren't too disturbed since a broken arm or a busted plate mimicked human injuries. But when things got real? Yeah, it was a little disconcerting.

Bumblebee came back to base on one occasion with his legs partially detached from his body at the waist. He still had all the wiring, he was just strung out a bit. He didn't seem all that concerned once he had a painkiller, and Ratchet was more annoyed than truly afraid. But the humans? They saw it as terrifying, especially whenever Bumblebee moved and his internals moved around in a mechanical and yet far too organic manner.

Another situation that left the humans grossed out came in the form of Ratchet casually tending to a hit to the helm Optimus received. It was bad enough that something internally was knocked out of place, so the doctor simply got out his tools and removed part of Optimus's helm to work on his processor. The whole affair was reminiscent of brain surgery for the humans... at least until Ratchet straight up removed a few bits, fixed them, and put them back in place. All while having a casual conversation with the mech on his table. Optimus didn't appear very concerned, but there was something about watching Ratchet perform a surgery while chatting that left the humans unsettled. Similar surgeries weren't unheard of, but removing bit? Yeah no. If it happened, it didn't happen often and certainly not so casually.

In the third most terrifying incident, Arcee was brought back to base with part of her spine pulled out. The humans all but threw up on the spot, but Arcee appeared more annoyed than actually in pain as Ratchet laid her out and calmly began putting struts back into place. According to him, the injury was only a mild case of spinal disconnection and due to the swiftness of the team's response in getting her back to base, it was a quick fix. June however never really got over the scene of Arcee curled up in a weird position with bits of her spine clearly visible.

The bots can take a beating. And while injuries to the finer processes are dangerous, so long as they are addressed quickly, a bot can survive just about anything.

[kagaintheskywithdiamonds]

I'm feeling inspired this morning so here's part 2 of what if a monster showed up to steal Ford's eyes.

"Ford?" Stan called again from behind the front door.

"Um... coming." Ford called back, trying to focus on where Stan's voice was coming from (and straining to hear it over the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears). Just walk towards the sound. You can do that. Easy.

With his arms held out in front of him in a sad attempt to sense any incoming obstacles, Ford made a few hesitant steps forward—and then tripped over something, probably a stack of books judging by the sound it made.

Ford held his arms out to catch himself, and he turned his face to the side in time to prevent his still-fresh wounds from being pressed against the clutter on the floor, but he still couldn't hold back a pained yelp as he fell. After all, his whole body was still covered in smaller wounds at various stages of healing.

"Ford??" Stan called again, and Ford heard the rattling of the doorknob as Stan attempted to let himself in. "Are you okay??"

"I said I'm coming!" Ford hollered, pointedly ignoring Stan's question (he hadn't been okay in quite some time). Shakily, he pulled himself to his feet, and, relying on his ears to guide him, made his way to the front door without tripping over anything else. He heard the crunch of papers under his shoes, and he could only hope that whatever he was trampling over wasn't too important.

His heart sank when he realized he'd never be able to read any of them again, anyway.

No time to mourn the loss of his vision, Ford forced himself to focus on the task at hand. Continuing to stumble forward, he eventually felt his fingertips make contact with the front door. He ran his fingers along the wood, over to the left side of the door, until he felt the series of locks he'd installed. He had opened and re-secured each of these locks so many times by now it was fairly easy to undo each of them by touch—until his hands felt the familiar shape of a combination lock.

That's when Ford remembered that there were two combination locks on the door. And of course he remembered the numbers needed to unlock each of them, but that wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't read the digits.

"I... I can't open the door." Ford admitted sadly, feeling pathetic and ashamed and helpless all at once.

There was a beat of silence.

"What do you mean you can't open the door?" an incredulous Stanley asked.

"I mean I am physically incapable of unlocking the door in my current state!" Ford shouted back, his voice breaking. He wasn't sure if he was physically capable of crying anymore, but he certainly felt himself on the verge of it.

"Wait. Holy shit, Ford, are you hurt?"

"...Yes." he whimpered in response. It hurt to admit it out loud. Stubbornness ran in the Pines family, it seemed. Pines didn't ask for help like this unless they were truly desperate. But Ford was. And even though it hurt his pride, part of him was so very glad he had reached out to Stanley when he had, because he couldn't imagine trying to navigate this situation alone.

There was another brief moment of silence before Stan spoke up again. "Wait there. I'm gonna break a window."

"What?!" Ford pressed his ear to the door, but all he heard was Stan's retreating footsteps back down the porch steps followed by the crunching of snow. And then he heard what sounded like Stan quietly talking to himself about finding a large rock.

Minutes later, Ford was startled by the sound of breaking glass. It sounded like it came from... the kitchen? It was a lot harder to form a mental map of his surroundings without his eyesight. He then heard grunts of effort as Stanley climbed through the broken window, followed by a thud as he presumably landed on the floor.

"Stanley? Are you alright?" Ford called towards the source of the sound. Had Stanley climbed over broken glass to get through that window? Ford winced at the mental image of his 17-year-old brother cutting himself on jagged shards of glass. Realistically, he knew Stanley probably didn't look like his 17-year-old self anymore, but that memory of him was all Ford had to work with.

"I'm okay." he heard Stan reply, accompanied by the sound of approaching footsteps. "Now what-"

He heard the footsteps stop.

And if he had eyesight, he would've seen the way Stan turned deathly pale at the sight of his brother's mutilated face.

"Holy fucking shit." He heard Stan rush towards him, and then felt Stan's arms on his, gently turning his body away from the door. He felt Stan cupping his hands around his face. "What the fuck happened?!"

"They... took my eyes." Ford choked out between tearless sobs. Ford reached up and gently wrapped his hands around Stanley's wrists, feeling at least a little more secure with his brother at his side.

"Jesus Christ. I'm taking you to a hospital."

"NO!!" Ford tightened his grasp, holding onto Stanley like his only lifeline. "I can't! Wh-what if they put me under? Then... then Bill..." and even if Bill didn't possess him, the hospital simply contained too many unknown variables. He couldn't trust the doctors and the other staff. Trust no one, trust no one!

"I have a first aid kit." Ford continued. "You can clean and dress the wounds, I'll walk you through it. It's in the bathroom. Which is, uh, this way, I think..."

"Ford." Stan said sternly. "I've packed a lot of nasty wounds over the years, but this, I mean... fuck, I'm scared I might touch your brain if I mess around in there!"

Had Ford been in a clearer mental state, he might have thought to ask why Stan was suddenly so experienced with wound care. Instead he focused on convincing Stan to treat him at home. "I have magical remedies that the hospital won't have. Although I'm... running low on that particular compound... and getting more will be difficult, especially now... but, there should be enough to treat the wounds in my face. I think." I hope.

If only Ford could've seen the look of skepticism that crossed Stan's face at the mention of magic. "Ford, what the fuck are you talking about." He said it more like a statement than a question.

"I said I have magical compounds!" Ford really did not have time to explain all the magic and cryptids and inter-dimensional dream demons that had become part of his everyday life. It didn't matter if Stanley believed him, yet. Just so long as he did what Ford asked of him. "This particular compound, well, I'm not sure what to call it." That was a lie. Ford just didn't want to say what it was called. "But it's an all-in-one disinfectant, healing agent, and topical anesthetic. We don't need a hospital. Now if you would please help me, I'm blind and I have two gory holes in my face and I need your help to clean and bandage them before infection sets in. Not to mention the pain is quite unbearable."

Ford couldn't see Stan's face. He didn't know if Stan wore an expression of annoyance, or more skepticism, or, God help him, pity, but he could hear Stan's voice, at least. "Shit, okay, I'll help you." And in that voice he could hear genuine concern and a desire to help. "So, um... which way is the bathroom?"

It took a bit of teamwork for the two of them to find it, with Ford trying to guide Stan with his mental map of the house and Stan guiding Ford like a service dog. The entire time, Ford clung tight to Stan as if his brother was a security blanket. "Is this it?" he heard Stan ask, followed by the flick of a light switch.

Ford sighed. "Stanley, I can't see anything. You tell me if we've found the right room."

There was another beat of silence.

"Ford, what the living fuck happened in here." Again, it didn't sound so much like a question.

Ford tensed up, holding Stan even tighter. "Wh-what do you mean?! What do you see?!"

"It looks like a fucking murder scene in here."

It took Ford a moment to connect the dots. "...Oh, right, the blood. That's... normal."

"Normal?! What the hell do you mean, normal?!"

Well, no, it wasn't normal. But it also wasn't new. Ford relaxed a bit as he realized Stan wasn't face-to-face with some new and unknown threat.

"Stanley, please, just... get the first aid kit out of the medicine cabinet." Ford instructed, feeling his way around until he could find the toilet. He put the lid down. "And also the uh, brown paste I have in a mason jar."

Ford heard the creak of the medicine cabinet door opening. Stanley could see that it was mostly empty, containing almost nothing but the mostly spent first aid kit and what looked like a mason jar of mud, both covered in bloody six-fingered hand prints.

"The mason jar first, please." Ford continued, sitting down on the toilet lid. Perhaps his mood would improve a bit once the searing pain was dulled.

Stan took the mason jar out of the cabinet and inspected the hand-written label on it. Ford's obnoxious cursive was as hard to read as ever, and it didn't help that the label had faded over time. But if Stan didn't know any better, he'd swore the label said "unicorn something." The jar looked like it used to be filled with mud, but only about a small amount remained at the bottom of the jar. Stan still wasn't sure what medical use there would be for a jar of mud.

Stan took the lid off, and immediately winced at the smell that hit his nostrils. "Ugh, what is this stuff?" Stan asked. "It smells like shit." It literally did.

"Like I said, it's a painkiller, antiseptic, and healing agent. Now, please, rub it on my eyes. ...Sockets."

Ford couldn't see the way that Stan physically cringed as he coated his fingers in the brown goop and smushed it into the gory holes in Ford's face. "Don't be shy. Really get in there." Ford instructed, already feeling the relief as the pain began to ebb.

"I'm still worried I'm gonna poke your brain or something." Stan remarked, dipping his bloodied hand back into the jar for another scoop of the stuff. "And you're almost out."

"Use as much as you need. Use the last of it if you need to."

Things were quiet for a few moments as Stan, trying his damnedest not to think about the grossness of the situation, smothered the inside of Ford's eye sockets with the last of the brown goop. Stan was skeptical of course that this smelly mud was actually doing anything, and he worried that perhaps he was doing more harm than good by dirtying the wounds. But he could see the relief on Ford's face as the pain apparently ebbed, and the wounds, amazingly, did look less gory just a few minutes after Stan applied the stuff. And they didn't seem to be bleeding anymore.

Finished with the brown sludge (seriously, that stuff looked and smelled like sewage), Stan set the jar aside, washed the grime off his hands, then reached for a wash cloth to clean Ford's face. Stan figured he probably should've started with that, to clean the wounds, but Ford was insistent that Stan apply the gross shit ointment first. And now that the brown stuff was in place and apparently doing its thing, Stan didn't want to wash it back out. He sure hoped Ford knew what he was talking about when he said that stuff was an antiseptic.

Stan could at least wash the blood off the rest of his brother's face. It looked as if Ford had spent hours crying blood.

With the adrenaline levels in both of them steadily going down, and with Ford no longer in terrible pain, Stanley's head finally cleared enough to ask the question he wished he'd started with. "Ford, what happened? Who did this to you?"

"I already told you." Ford said quietly. And even though he literally did not have eyes anymore, Stan swore it still looked like Ford was trying to look away. "They took my eyes."

"Okay but who's 'they'? And how, I mean- you were locked in! And there's no one else, so..." Stan began stammering. He certainly didn't want to believe Ford had lost his mind and mutilated himself. But unfortunately, with his brother talking about magic mud (God he really hoped it was just mud and not what it smelled like), and living in a horror set of a house, there was enough evidence to make that a serious possibility.

Ford sighed. "That is... a long story."

Ford heard the sound of running water as Stan rinsed off the wash cloth, wringing out the blood. "Yeah, well... I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." Stan said, opening up the first aid kit. "Go ahead and tell it."

[muffinsin]

Hiii Muffin! This idea came to me while I was cooking shrimp alfredo lmao. G!P Cassandra and Fem reader are in a relationship, and reader has never had an orgasm before in any of her previous relationships. When reader and Cassandra finally get to doing it, reader is nervous and confesses to Cassandra that no one has ever made her climax before, and Cassandra takes that as a challenge and strives to make reader see the black god by the end of the night by giving her multiple orgasms >:)

Hey there, hon! :) My my, some good top! and relentless Cassie for the soul!😙 bit of HCs and a bit of a little snippet blow!

Let's get into it!🙌

Masterlists

You love Cassandra, and you love being with her

You trust her, in every aspect of your life

You trust, she loves you, too

But still, as you become increasingly more teasing around one another, as you make out longer and begin feeling lingering touches along your sides, you can't help but feel a certain kind of anxiety

She doesn't know you've never had an orgasm- not brought upon by someone else, anyway

Ideally, you wouldn't tell, your cheeks flushing with shame and embarrassment at the thought

Are you too difficult to please?

Is something wrong when someone else touches you?

Is it you?

What if you're intimate with her and can't cum, too? What if you take too long? What if she becomes bored or fed up?

What if she takes insult to it?

You spiral easily, lost in thoughts of what might happen

At the same time you lean into every one of her touches, giggling when you teasingly nip at her throat and ear and you feel and hear her flies buzz loudly, betraying just how good the action has her feel

A little tease, yes. You haven't dared more yet, haven't allowed her to continue more just yet

Ah, but you do want it

You want to be in her arms, below her, want to feel her inside of you, despite how terrifyingly large the bulge in her dress looks

Then, one day, one thing just leads to another far too comfortably and naturally for you to want to break it off

It starts out easily enough with a comfortable morning in bed, you dressed in nothing but underwear and a shirt previously worn by her, her in nothing but boxers for the night and a light blouse to cover her up

Starting out as wandering hands and lips crashing hungrily against one another, you soon find yourself laying on your back with her above you, her beautiful eyes set on you, her hand slowly sliding up the shirt and pausing at your hip

Oh, you want it

And before you can stop yourself and second guess your choice, you blurt the source of your hesitation, embarrassment and shame out, turning your head slightly as though not looking at her would help...

"No one's ever made you cum?"

You feel your cheeks heat up at her words. Her voice is low, a dangerous purr by your cheeks. When you open your eyes again, you find her beautiful, dark golden ones glowing in the dimly lit room, set entirely on you. She leans closer, her breath ticklish as it brushes against your cheek, then your neck.

You shiver, shrinking slightly under the weight of her stare and her bold choice of words. She's never been one to sugarcoat things, certainly, nor the type to beat around the bush.

Eventually, you nod, your blush intensifying as its heat crawls down your cheeks and to your throat. "No...not others...ever, I mean-...", you answer quietly, your cheeks flaring with heat when her gaze hardens for a moment at the mention of someone being with you prior to her.

Momentarily, this has you smile.

There's silence, at first, as though she's thinking over your words. Then, she laughs, a dark, breathy sound full of disbelief and something far more primal, capable of making your thighs clench and push together beneath her. She chuckles, a low sound again. Your feel a shiver run down your spine, your head spinning and stomach curling with want.

She hums, her hand coming up to cup your hot cheek. You close your eyes briefly, feeling her thumb stroke along your heated flesh. A predator taking in its prey? Perhaps, but more so than that, this time. A lover, comforting a storm of worries.

Then, she speaks, the words low; "Mpf...pathetic, little mouse"

You gasp as she tilts your head up, her lips lightly dragging against your throat as she mutters; "That ends tonight"

As her hands travel down your body, you realize she pauses at your hips yet again- waiting. Ah, but her patience can only go so far, for the second you nod and hum in agreement she all but yanks the shirt from you, her hands then sliding down and gripping your thighs with just the right amount of force. No bruises, no, but she is certain to leave her mark on you nonetheless. She hovers above you, hunger, strength, heat and lust all in one. You giggle as she grabs your wrists and pins them above your head with a single one of hers, the other teasing the inside of your thigh. Looking down, you bite your lip at the sight of the bulge growing and hardening between her legs, straining against the underwear still, albeit barely, containing it.

She leans down again, dragging her tongue hotly across your throat. She isn't fast, isn't rushing it to make you cum as fast as possible as you've tried on your own. Cassandra takes her time, her lips dragging across your throat, her teeth grazing the skin just enough for your breath to hitch and for you to shiver pleasantly below her.

"You've been so good for me, little lamb...", she praises, her voice low and raspy, her words, despite praising you, sounding rough. "....and they couldn't even give you this?", she chuckles, her tongue darting out to lick across you again, as though barely capable of holding back from biting down on you. You love it. You love her. You love what she does to you so effortlessly, how her words and few actions are enough for you to squirm, your nipples hard as little rocks, your clit aching and pussy slowly drooling against your panties.

"Mhmmmmm...but you're mine now", she practically growls, hungry, passionate, the words breathy against your hot skin. You gasp as she parts your thighs boldly and hooks her sharp, claw-like nails into your panties. Again, you find her waiting for you to nod, even as the speed in which she rips the garment from you betrays her usual impatience and hunger.

Your breath hitches as you feel her press her palm against your bare pussy, the touch easily making you buck your hips and gasp as if electrified. You feel her against your folds, feel your wetness smear against her hard palm. You flush bright pink, your breath stuttering and heart beating quickly as you feel a single finger drag between your folds. Your heart skips a beat as she chuckles, her tongue darting out to lick across your neck, up, up, until you feel her sharp teeth and hot breath by your ear.

"Already wet, little mouse...", she hums hungrily, her teeth biting gently at your earlobe. You shiver, your hands coming up to grab at her clothing almost desperately. She's so close, so intense, and you love every second of it. You shiver as she leans in a little, her blouse sliding away as she moves and leaving you cupping her large breasts instead. If she minds or finds it particularly pleasuring, she doesn't show it. Instead, she continues on like a predator stalking its prey, chuckling lowly as she drags her finger through your slit and up to your pearly clit, dragging a sharp gasp and another buck of your hips from you.

"I haven't even fucked you yet, little mouse, and you're already trying to squirm your way out of my grasp...", she chuckles. You're certain your face must be close to exploding, your cheeks so very hot and pink, your eyes wide and pussy throbbing at her words. "Don't make me restrain you, morsel", she tsks, though the glint in her eyes easily gives her desire away. You're sure, given this was not your first time with her, you'd already find yourself tied and below her, completely at the sadist's mercy.

The thought makes your pussy ache and thighs clench again.

You watch hungrily as she sits up, her hands elegant and fast at the same time as she moves on stripping herself as bare as you. You take in her large chest and smooth, semi-muscular stomach, her strong hips, the way her lower stomach dips down a little. As your eyes land on her erect cock, you almost instinctively push your legs together to help with the ache between your legs. Alas, with her sat in between them now, she only laughs, loud, confident, amused, and easily pries them back open for her. Your mouth waters and eyes widen as your eyes dip back down again. Her cock is thigh, certainly, a veined length hard and twitching already, much like how her fingers twitch by your hips, betraying her utter need to claim already.

Your heart skips a beat as you're caught staring and she grins, her fingers tracing your hips almost gently.

"Don't worry, morsel. I won't break you", she hums, and you can't help but feel as though there is an unspoken yet hanging in the air between you, dripping from her words of reassurance. No, you're sure the sadist will break you eventually, even as she is more likely to take her time today.

You bite your lip as she leans down, kissing her way from your neck to your chest, nibbling lightly as though experimenting how different parts of your body might taste. You wonder whether she can feel and hear your racing heart, whether she can smell your arousal, whether she knows how utterly needy she has you. Her smirk tells you; she does.

You moan softly with every lingering kiss, your body heating up easily below her lips. You're trembling, her kisses giving a small insight on just how obsessed she can be. She isn't even past kissing down your stomach when you feel her grip your hips to keep you still, firm, but not painful. Not with you, not like this, not at a time like this at least.

You feel her breath between your thighs before you hear her chuckle again, a low, growl-like sound full of utter possessiveness. Your head spins. Again, you try to squirm, to maybe roll your hips forwards to get her to touch you. Instead, she merely chuckles and holds you down harder, her voice hot, breathy, and laced with adoration as she hums;

"Look at this mess...is that all for me, little mouse?"

Ah, but you aren't given the time to answer, her patience apparently at its limit and hunger at last unable to be contained. Quite literally so, it seems. You groan and whimper hotly at the first touch of her tongue, slow and deliberate. She doesn't tease, doesn't lick around you before diving in- she devours.

You moan as she pushes her tongue inside hungrily, curling it immediately as though to lick all the slick arousal from you. She's lapping at you easily, twisting the wet muscle deeper into you, until she's flush between your thighs and her the bridge of her nose brushes up against your sensitive clit, sending one shockwave of arousal after the other through you.

"Mnhmmmm...! A-AH Ca-a-ah!"

Again, she only chuckles, the vibrations of it against your most private and sensitive parts enough to have you throw your head back against the pillows below it.

Your hips twitch against her as she feasts, her tongue dragging up against your insides and curling hotly against your inner walls. You feel your stomach tighten and loosen at the same time, a light, almost ticklish feeling of relief slowly building up within you.

You gasp as she moves deeper, her tongue warm inside of you, your clit hot and sensitive against her face. She's moaning hotly, the vibrations of it enough for you to begin seeing stars. You moan and whimper, your fingers tangling and grasping onto brunette strands of hair. She allows you to move just enough for you to whine and rut your hips against her face, your own entirely flushed with heat and a pink hue. You know, you must look desperate like this- moaning, whimpering, gasping for her, thighs trembling, pussy squelching around her tongue and drooling arousal onto her lips.

As you become more and more sensitive, your toes curling and hips bucking wildly, you whimper at her grip tightening again, your body held down easily by her strength, her tongue eagerly lapping up and pushing in and out of you in feral frenzy.

Then, a feeling you did not think to experience with anyone else; pleasure, so much it nearly overwhelms you. You scream as you cum, your body trembling and tears of happiness and overstimulation forming at your eyes as she keeps lapping at you, humming, growling, her pupils blown wide as she drinks in all you give her- no, all she takes from your trembling, shivering body.

You're panting as she pulls back, smirking, her face covered in wetness. She licks up your slit again, her dark golden eyes set entirely on you as though to let you know just how pleased she is with you, and herself.

Your body aches, hips twitching weakly with overstimulation, only to be pushed back down onto the bed by strong hands. She drags herself back up your body, slow and languid like a lioness after a grand feast, like a wolf after it just caught its prey. Her fingers are the first to brush against your jaw, forcing a sweet, soft gasp from you when they tighten and pull you forwards, your lips crashing against hers.

"Mhmm...you taste well, little mouse", she whispers, licking her lips as she eyes yours.

You can't respond, not really. Of course, you were hoping for this in the back of your mind. Still, after so many failed attempts...it's almost overwhelming to bask in the aftermaths of your orgasm now, her cock flush against your inner thigh making your soaked pussy ache again, your chest heaving, her lips occasionally pressing against yours again. You smile as you kiss her back, barely aware of the world around the two of you. She's everything, now. Her scent, the heat coming off your legs and hitting her, her voice, her touch.

You gasp when she moves a little closer, the tip of her cock pressing against your wet folds. She groans lowly beneath her breath, her strikingly beautiful, dark golden eyes pressing shut for a moment. You cling onto her tightly, eying the monstrosity between her legs again. Of course, you've explored in the past, tried this and that. Still, nothing compares to her, to another person, to the cock she so comfortably manages. Noticing this, she chuckles, her lips hot against your own.

"I'll go slow, morsel", she whispers. Again, you're sure there's an unsaid At first attached in the way she kisses you after, though you appreciate her patience nonetheless. She kisses you another moment or so, her cock steadily dragging through your soaked folds and against your clit. Clearly, she knows what she's doing to make it easier for you, and likely knows just how to do the opposite should she wish, too- you wouldn't have expected anything less from a sadist.

When she at last slides inside, you gasp, your nails digging into her shoulders. She's large, easily stretches you open and filling you wide. The burn of it has you whimper, your body on fire as she kisses you hotly and whispers praise and filth equally against your lips.

"Ca-A-Ahh-a-ahssan-!", you gasp, though immediately your breath hitches and words are lost to hot moans and little, needy whines as she begins to move. What starts out as slow thrusts quickly turns into deep ones, her hips grinding hotly against you to make you feel every little inch she pushes into you.

Your nails curl against her back and your heart beats wildly, your tight pussy enough for her to groan and drop her face to your throat again, seemingly barely capable of restraining herself and biting down on you.

Instead, she turns her head just enough to watch you. Every little twitch of your beautiful face, every sweet moan she tears from you.

She thrusts a little faster, her heavy balls slapping against you as she takes you, her cock stretching your tight walls and rubbing up against your G-spot perfectly, just as her tongue had.

You tremble around her as you feel her lick at your throat again, her nose brushing against you as she inhales your scent. You're sure, she feels how close you're getting embarrassingly fast already. She groans each time she thrusts harder and your pussy squeezes her cock in turn, moans every time your hips twitch helplessly against her and it allows her to go even deeper into you. What started out as a slow, deep pace quickly turns into a faster, rougher one the moment she noticed you're ready to take more.

"There it is, little mouse...", she husks out roughly, a growl to her voice that has you gasp and has your thighs tremble. You're close again already, your pussy drooling hungrily around her cock and massaging it at every opportunity. She slams into you roughly, hitting the spots inside you that have you cry out and cling to her as tight as you can.

She doesn't tease you, doesn't edge you as you sometimes thought of doing to yourself. She's hungry, insatiable, and when you do cum, she continues on, Groaning hotly, her sharp teeth right by your throat as she fucks you through your orgasm, her cock leaking precum as you clench tightly around her. You're squealing below her, your pussy full and tight, your body overstimulated in the best way.

Perhaps, you ought to have considered what being with a huntress, a predator, is like, for she now only looks at you like prey, adoring how you squirm and gasp, breathless, helpless, utterly needy and stuffed to the brim.

"Sssh, a little more, little mouse, you can take it", she groans, chuckling lowly. "You'll cum again, and again, and again. You're..mgnmmm...mine, morsel...", she moans against your neck. Your cries are quickly muffled when you lean against her, your moans muffled. Ah, but she hears every little sound you make, sees every shiver, moans at every sob of pleasure she tears from you.

You quickly lose track of time, your throat raw from moaning her name, your legs too weak to even wrap around her body. Ah, but she is insatiable, ruined by the feel of you tightly wrapped around her, obsessed with the power she has over you. You're lost in the wet sounds of her cock thrusting in and out of you, each time seemingly going just a little deeper, just enough for you to see stars all over again.

When you come a third time, she finally does too, her hips pressed flush to yours as she growls. Your breath hitches as you feel her cum drool deep inside of you, warm, wet, claiming every little inch of you. She doesn't pull out, doesn't move away. Instead, she holds you close to her, a lover, closer than she has held any of her playthings in the past.

You smile tiredly as she kisses your temple, her voice lower now and rough with affection;

"Next time, I won't stop until you shake, morsel"

A threat? Ah, but only one of the most delicious kind. You don't point out that you are shaking, your body limp on the bed, your legs aching and trembling, your hips twitching weakly every few seconds. Instead, you only giggle and wrap your arms around her weakly, smiling into her neck when she leans down to kiss yours.

A promise.

[muses-with-afp]

Musings Mushy Brain Style

So, my brain has been absolute trash lately. It has hit capacity. Too much is happening all at once. But, between life and the occasional and often much-regretted look at the news, I muse. My most recent Bleach musing is: Kuchiki heirs!

And, oh, boy, prepare for mushy brain time!

[Warning: As mentioned, the brain is too full, so pardon me for rambling from my increasingly porous memory on this one!]

A n y w a y...

As my particular niche interest in an already niche interest focuses mainly on the Kuchiki characters and their immediate loved ones, my what-ifs constantly poking at what even is this family? Based on what I can remember and the few snippets I can easily find, we know the following "things" about the family and family dynamics:

🌸Thing the First: Byakuya is the 28th Head of the Kuchiki Family and the captain of the Sixth🌸

I don't have a scan at my fingertips for this particular factoid. The Wikipedia (not always a source of truth, I know) cites the Souls databook, which certainly feels correct. However, I remembered it being in Color Bleach. Either way, this information is interesting for purposes of this musing because, well, if Byakuya is the 28th Head of the Family, that means there were likely at least 27 other heads of the Family.

Which also means....

There must be a process for Head-dom! 🤸

🌸Thing the Second: Ginrei, Byakuya's granddad, was the 27th Head of the Kuchiki Family and was captain of the Sixth 🌸

So, I got the snippets for the "granddad" and "captain of the sixth" parts of this factoid. I don't think there is a scene in the manga proper that explicitly spells out that Ginrei is the 27th Head; although, my porous brain may be kicking in, so perhaps there is. I remember the Masked Q&A pages, where during Kubo's explanation of WTF happened to Byakuya's dad, Soujun, he revealed that Soujun was the next family head, but died in battle. I am presuming, then, that Soujun died before taking over the family and the squad.

This was all a long preamble to the next point that I find interesting, which is: It seems the captainship of Squad 6 is inherited to an extent, and this brings us to....

🌸Thing the Third: Soujun Kuchiki is Byakuya's father, who was Vice Captain/Lieutenant of the Sixth🌸

So, there isn't much about Soujun in the manga. What I remember about him comes from the Masked databook. Specifically, a Q&A with Kubo:

Q: Who is Sojun Kuchiki?

KUBO: Byakuya's late father.

Q: Was he killed in action?

KUBO: Yes. He was never cut out to fight, but since he's from the Kuchiki family he has the talent. Ginrei was concerned about his health, but he was the next family head so that's why he was appointed as assistant captain. But he dies in battle in the end.

Q: Was he talented though?

KUBO: He had the talent, but he was too quiet and too nice.

So... it would seem: (i) most Kuchiki have "talent," (ii) the titles of Head of the Family and Captain of the Sixth appear to follow a patrilineal line of inheritence, but (iii) Soujun was, indeed, "talented," which could be inferred to mean that he was capable (although the note of him being too quiet and nice is a knee-slapper given who we know for sure has helmed the Sixth).

On the last point, it isn't explicitly clear to me whether Soujun's capability was an important factor in his being next in line to lead the family and the Sixth. At the very least, the statement that Soujun "was never cut out to fight," would seem to bar him from leadership in a fighting manga organization, so... maybe "competence" (in the traditional sense) isn't as important for these roles or he had other skills to make up for the fact that he wasn't really "cut out to fight."

Either way, Kubo spells out that since Soujun was the next to head the family, he was appointed as assistant captain. This, too, is something to ponder over because... well... what does this mean in practice?

Based on Rukia's treatment, it doesn't seem that Kuchiki necessarily go to the Academy; although, it's unclear to me if this was just a special thing for Rukia--i.e., a byproduct of Byakuya being very literal about the "keep her safe" part of the vow he made to his wife--or if all Kuchiki or main-family Kuchiki skip out on the Academy. Maybe Soujun had private tutors and didn't slum it with the "public school" shinigami before heading into the ranks. Or, maybe Soujun was appointed straight to assistant-captain status after his super-duper Kuchiki training. Given just how hierarchical the Seireitei is, it's possible that Soujun never served as a lowly grunt under another ranked officer, especially since he wasn't very good at that whole fighting thing.

Who can say?

Stepping past Soujun for a second, though, I am assuming we are to believe the Kuchiki inheriting the Sixth's top officer roles wasn't always the case. Why? Well....

Because this person was the first captain of the Sixth:

And that person is Furoufushi Saitou... whose name is suspiciously not Kuchiki. But, hey, her hair is the same color as the Kuchiki guards so... put on your tinfoil hats and best believe there is a connection, baby!

🌸Thing the Fourth: Soujun Kuchiki died🌸

As mentioned in the Q&A excerpt above, Kubo confirmed that Soujun perished during battle. When? What battle? Who was there?

Great questions! And, at least from my recollection, they remain a mystery. Maybe this is the set-up to the mystery of who Byakuya showed his bankai to?

🌸Thing the Fifth: Ginrei Kuchiki is... Alive? Dead? Unclear🌸

Unlike with Soujun, Kubo hasn't been as explicit about Ginrei's fate, as I recall it. I think with Byakuya being both the Kuchiki Head and the Captain of the Sixth, one could assume that Ginrei might not be among the "living" in Soul Society, especially since there's a sense that the Gotei 13's retirement plan is likely til death do you part. But, while I prefer to think of the Gotei 13 as an organization operating on The Godfather style rules, we do know at least one lieutenant who effectively retired canonically, and that is the Sixth's lieutenant prior to Renji.

So....

Maybe Ginrei's retired, hanging out at the Kuchiki cabin on the lake fishing into his... twilight years? (Midnight years, really....)

There is perhaps some support for the "Ginrei Is Alive" theory in CFYOW (a source that is certainly there):

This happens in the Third Book (I think???) during a scene where Kyoraku is battling Temu Urahara with an Opioid Addiction this guy:

Now, I'm not going to pretend to understand CFYOW. The more I try to understand it, the more brain cells I actively lose, which is probably more a function of time than what I will charitably blame on the translation of this story. One could take the above excerpt to mean that Kyouraku plans to offer up his gratitude to Ginrei after all the battling stops, which implies that Ginrei is, y'know, actually around to receive such gratitude. Although, maybe Kyouraku is being cheeky and plans to dumb a cup of sake on the geezer's memorial. Or maybe he means that he'll have to remember to be nice to Ginrei when they reunite in hell or something.

It is Kyouraku after all.

So, why does it matter? Well, assuming Ginrei is indeed alive, it means the Kuchiki Lord can abdicate power to the next in line, which is...something??? Maybe??? If you squint -_-

🌸Thing the Sixth: Byakuya married Rukia's sister, Hisana, a pauper from Rukongai🌸

I'll pin that factoid here since it's interesting in the sense that we learn that Byakuya was given a choice as to his bride. That choice, as noted below, seemed to go over like a lead balloon with the fam.

Digging deeper, it is an odd choice for Mr. Law-and-Order Byakuya Kuchiki to fall in love with a peasant. Also, how the hell did L&O Kuchiki come across a peasant from Rukongai, anyway? We are given some details about the state of How Nobles and Peasants Interact from Renji's memories of the Academy days and the years that followed, so it doesn't seem like something that would have happened without some shenanigans. Kubo, however, has never shed light on this to my knowledge, which makes sense since it keeps Rukia's past mysterious, and mystery allows things to be open-ended should he want to take some random direction with Bleach at a later point in time.

🌸Thing the Seventh: Byakuya's marriage--or, more specifically, marrying someone from Rukongai--was against somebody's laws🌸

I say "somebody's laws" because it is unclear to me whose laws are being violated based on the English translation of the manga. I am assuming that it is the nobility's/Seireitei's laws and not clan-specific laws, but maybe the Kuchiki have their own black-letter laws and regulations along with the necessary guidance materials for interpretive and procedural purposes. (You just know this family has an Employee Handbook if you join along with a week-long orientation process with a test you must pass before you are allowed to do anything.) To support that assumption is another scene from CFYOW, also between Kyouraku and Tokinada:

I would assume that if a noble family could raise objections to what another noble family was up to re: marriage, that whatever Byakuya was doing here was a violation of the Law, law and not the Kuchiki Handbook for Good Little Heirs and Their Noble Consorts.

Digressing, the phrasing of "marrying someone from Rukongai" is interesting. Literally taken, this phrasing means even spiritually gifted folks who were born outside Seireitei would be precluded from marrying a high noble or, more narrowly, a Kuchiki. Which means that souls going through the soul cycle would be precluded, along with souls born in Rukongai. This is interesting since we learn that Vice Captains can mingle with high nobles, thus explaining Renji's dogged motivation to become a Vice Captain so that he could reunite with Rukia. It's possible that: (i) Byakuya is speaking imprecisely here or the translation is imprecise; (ii) socializing and marrying have different standards (i.e., Renji can share the same air as Rukia but they can't marry per the law/Kuchiki custom); and/or (iii) the laws/customs for an heir/current head of a Great Noble family are different from the laws/customs for members of that same family who are not in the direct or immediate line of succession.

🌸Thing the Eighth: Byakuya adopted Rukia as a sibling, which was also against The Rules🌸

Okay, so, here is where I want to talk about family.

The credited response whenever thinking about fictional families.

Specifically, the Kuchiki family presumably consists of more than just Byakuya, Ginrei, Soujun, Hisana, and Rukia. There are these--quite literally--faceless "family" members (see: the black panel above full of absolutely no one). How many other Kuchiki are there? Who can say? How influential are they? Well, Kubo makes it sound in his Q&A that the family is generally regarded as talented, so, probably somewhat. They are also members of one of the Great Noble Families, so... they have that going for them.

It doesn't seem as if these nameless, faceless "family" have much of a vote on what the Head chooses to do. What did resistance even look like, here? A strongly worded letter? A drive-by "I disagree!" in the corridors of Kuchiki Manor? Pearl clutching in the halls? I suppose there could have been defections. Perhaps some branch families decided to align themselves with another Great Noble Family to avoid the "sullying" of being associated with Rukon girls. We know the Tsunayashiro objected, but... in what forum? How did that look? Was it a public debate? A congressional hearing? A strong finger wagging at the Seireitei Convention Center?

A n y w a y....

These fistfuls of fun little factoids sort of bring me to the conundrum of what's next for this family?

Based on what I've read and retained, I get the sense that Byakuya hasn't remarried. (However, this, too, may be an assumption since Bleach isn't really about the nobility aside from Ichigo's curious place in it.) We also don't have any sense of who would be the next in line for the Kuchiki. It doesn't appear that Byakuya and Hisana's marriage produced a viable heir (although... this, also, is an assumption), and we don't have a next-in-line Vice Captain holding the water for Byakuya.

Perhaps Byakuya would marry again and produce an heir. However, given how the marriages in Bleach tend to go, though, perhaps not.

The sibling adoption angle is an interesting one, and one that I sort of wish Bleach had stuck with when it came to "families" (i.e., the better-funded families snatching up powerful prospects elsewhere to groom to be the next in line). This may have been the direction Kubo was heading from the very beginning, when Byakuya and Renji were introduced. And, there's historical precedent in the Edo period and earlier eras in Japan where families would adopt young men to groom and later run the family.

Perhaps, if ever revisited, this question is answered solely for the sake of parsimony/everything getting wrapped up in a pretty red bow, and Ichika becomes the next in line.

[inchidentally]

okay this is fucking weird and... fully factually wrong asfgasjlfgal

I'm obv removing the source and blog name etc so pls do not go try to find who it is and I dnw to be a part of any in-fighting etc

but also I rarely see anti shit since I'm fine w ppl being competitive over drivers and teams since ~sports~ and I stick to my dash so it's wild to me when someone puts it where they know I'll see it and I realize how insane the hate can get like it's fully leaving reality and creating a new one lahfljsafhafhl and ofc I love making a good stupid parasocial essay

also if someone else is actually interested in learning more about Oscar other than the caricature villain the anti tags have cultivated about him/seeing info from a balanced Lando and Oscar fan then why not

I know I’m a rare fully equal Lando and Oscar enjoyer till I d!e and I don’t mind hateuration when it’s not super serious and it’s part of sport culture etc etc. I follow blogs for half the grid and my dash is fully civil war every race weekend. it doesn’t bother me! even when ppl go super biased and delu like this bc of their hatred I don't mind either if it's just done in a non-deep way or if it's done where I don't have to see it. and I would NEVER rb someone's own post and get shitty with them in the tags.

so it’s not that someone has chosen to hate a driver that’s an issue it’s when someone takes it way too far and too personal and wrong - but even then I wouldn’t take notice if it weren’t yknow left for me to see on my own post.

- basic simple legacy tumblr rule: do NOT directly rb someone else’s content with anti additions on the post or in tags. make your own post so they don’t have to see it and do NOT tag it in ways that would show up for fans of that person or thing. if you wouldn't want to have to see that shit on your own posts then don't do it to someone else ok. esp since you'll probably spread it to even more anti people who will just add more onto it.

- to think Oscar of all people is laughing AT Lando cruelly and meanly is... insane. objectively insane. for one thing their relationship has grown naturally and without the veneer of PR bromance so we actually did see back when Lando wasn’t sure about Oscar and was more reserved with him, so he will NOT hide if he’s ever unhappy with him. in fact Lando can't hide his feelings on his face pretty much ever, but esp when he's upset or angry. in 2021 we got a full on-camera media pen moment where Lando looked daggers at Carlosof all people and stalked away from him. obv everything between them after this was immediately fine the next day but it's a perfect example of Lando not hiding his displeasure or annoyance even with his closest friends on the grid! and with Daniel, Lando rly did mean it when he said Daniel's win overshadowed his podium and despite being very good friends from the very starts - but they very much had tensions when they were teammates alongside being extremely good friends and having so many laughs at the same time. and ofc Max is practically family to Lando and they've said they spend the most downtime together out of their other grid friends and P sees Lando as an uncle, yet once again if Lando's not happy with him then it shows! so no, he’s not going to hide his feelings if he’s mad or upset ahsvshdbjd he certainly won't be belly laughing and pink and staring at Oscar happily if he's in fact hurt and upset by him ??? in fact I can’t actually imagine a Lando who’s capable of hiding his feelings that well bc the poor guy often wishes he could !!

- LANDO BEING SILLY ABOUT HIS NON ACADEMIC BRAIN HAS BEEN GOING ON AS A BIT STARTED BY HIM SINCE FOREVER. like I'm sorry but if you're blogging at all about Lando did you miss every single stream where his closest friends laugh and joke with him about his spelling or not knowing certain facts. I can’t grasp knowing who Lando Norris is and thinking he doesn’t fully embrace and laugh about this like it’s probably top 3 thing in funny Lando moments compilations on social media ??? in this exact clip I screenshotted from Lando makes MULTIPLE jokes about not going to school while cackling and says "see I wouldn't ask me that" when Oscar checks with him that the Pacific is indeed bigger than the Atlantic LIKE I'm so confused at anyone seeing that as Oscar being evil and mean and callous ??????

- actually Oscar is one of the ONLY people who doesn’t always and immediately laugh AT Lando for his academic blocks AND as in this very video he gives Lando full opportunity to try AND “why not explain instead of laughing!” oh yea because he frequently does ??? there’s literally a whole Thing between them that even normal fans have picked up on where Lando’s brain struggles and Oscar has learned to gently help ! he spells words for him, provides race locations, stands off to the side unseen and helps !! again. utterly insane to think Oscar of all ppl as being “superior” and mean when he’s one of the few people who doesn’t just openly laugh every time Lando gets something wrong and notices when Lando is actually insecure and helps him out !! EVERYONE ELSE just laughs at Lando including his closest friends but ironically it’s Oscar who pauses, studies Lando’s reaction and sometimes chooses to not laugh and help him out !! Oscar watching and learning Lando literally over the years - even before knowing him personally - is a whole thing!

- considering Lando’s biggest personal cause is mental health and anti bullying, people like this need to drop the whole “Piastri is evil because he doesn’t express emotions the correct way” therefore he “likes being superior” ???and “Piastri is an evil manipulator because he’s racing Lando and wants to win just like Lando says about his teammates” totally ignoring the fact that the Carlos and Daniel bromances had the benefit of not having a competitive car AND with Carlos there was a huuuuge difference in ability and speed that Lando actually said would make him depressed because he wanted to “beat him for once” (that’s why he said he wanted Carlos there for his win, because he “wanted to look down on him”) oops turns out Lando’s competitive too and he’s not evil! Oscar is very obviously loved and Lando clearly likes him and ironically the fact that they hangs out outside of work but choose not to post photos or video and only mention it means that they want to keep their time together private, which is sweet and not “fake” as ppl randomly decide to call it. the fact that they chose not to do a bromance and hate doing PR work is actually sweet as well bc Lando’s said sometimes he likes doing that kind of work but sometimes he also likes to be quiet and not looked at. it's also very worth knowing that Lando specifically said Oscar is the complete opposite to Daniel (but that they're both lovely guys and he likes them both) but that he sees Oscar as being very similar to himself. so it kind of pulls the rug out from thinking Oscar is cold, evil, etc etc etc because he isn't gregarious or doesn't express himself the way everyone's come to expect from other drivers.

- and everyone REALLY needs to go away w interpreting someone self-admittedly low energy/quiet/private and who has literally said he dislikes that people think he’s cold and calculating and who even recently said to look at his onboards and that he expresses his excitement plenty just not through words AND his longtime gf and all four women in his family adore him AND Abbi Pulling said he seems “too nice to be a racing driver” AND he inspires the same long term loyalty Lando does in people INCLUDING LANDO'S BEST FRIEND. Max literally stands up for Oscar against fans and says his relationship with him is great and was literally there for both Oscar's birthdays the past two years and tweeting at him, eating his cake aslfgsaljfgsa. so just because Oscar isn’t great at PR like so many drivers doesn’t mean he’s evil and cruel or cold. Lando often admits he’s frequently not great at PR and lands himself in hot water sjsvshdbdj

- Oscar’s had to “overcome fewer obstacles” ????? than Lando ???? listen I fully am so here for Lando’s insane work ethic so this is in no way trying to reverse the insult onto him bc I will never do the whole putting these guys against each other. it’s to educate that: Oscar literally couldn’t afford to get beyond F2 which is why Mark Webber stepped in to get him sponsorships. and in order for Oscar to progress in karting at all he had to leave his family behind in Australia and live in the UK. he’s far from working class ofc but despite winning feeder series each year he would’ve had to stop before F1 purely down to money if it weren’t for Mark. whereas Lando’s dad is an actual billionaire. and again FULL kudos to Lando bc he specifically said he didn’t want to rely on his dad's money to buy a seat and he didn’t!! but he’s said himself he’s been extremely lucky that his dad could devote himself completely to Lando’s career and that they’ve never wanted for money at all. AND THE REASON OSCAR FINISHED SCHOOL WAS BC HE NEEDED A BACKUP CAREER. he's never actually said he himself is particularly brainy just that he didn’t know if he could afford to progress so engineering would keep him in the sport. so there's not only no comparing the two of them, it's also hysterical to say Oscar had more opportunities than Lando like Lando would literally laugh at that

like I’m sorry this comes off as intense it’s mostly me just ????? bc these tags are the direct OPPOSITE of reality where Oscar was a very huge fan of Lando’s for years before being his teammate, he then closely watched and learned Lando when they became teammates and he’s now such a trusted and kind friend (yes, ppl are weird enough that we've had to point out it's official lsfgajlfgla) that Lando literally looks over at Oscar for help when his brain is struggling !! like this is not a fandom interpretation or anything it physically actually happens and random F1 fans even notice and comment on it !!

anyway it’s fine to be a hater and it's expected in sports spaced etc but do not do it under someone else’s content or where non hater fans can see ok ???

[elliemulate]

I’m not sure where people are getting the idea that ellie is stupid and has no survival skills. yes, joel taught her how to survive, but she has also been living safely in a commune for 5 years. the year she traveled with joel, he protected her and the one time he was out of commission she barely made it out alive. this isn’t me saying ellie isn’t capable, she is. she’s a fighter and doesn’t freeze when faced with a threat. and she knows how to survive. but shes also human. shes not the terminator. sometimes she may fumble with her gun or fall over when being chased by infected. joel often got into situations that he wouldn’t have gotten out of if ellie wasn’t there to save him (i.e. choked in kansas city, held at gunpoint while sleeping, stabbed at university) does this mean he’s stupid and has 0 survival skills? certainly not. so why isn’t ellie receiving that same grace? and I know in the game ellie seems invincible, but they are clearly going for a more realistic approach like with joel in s1

oh the mischaracterization is soo bad. so bad it’s crazy. despite what all the cold 🥶🥶🐐 🐐 edits think game!ellie wasn’t shooting through seraphites and gunning down WLF soldiers because.. that’s just who she is? because blowing people up with trap mines and shooting explosive arrows into half the population of seattle is just under her belt of expertise? 

she calls out and taunts enemies when you’re low on health and tries to make herself seem menacing because she’s scared. she’s not trying to be badass! she’s trying to convince the people she’s fighting that she’s the one in control and that she’s bigger and scarier than the nineteen year old she really is. when she separates from dina, in seattle and from the farm, she flies off the handle and loses the only grounding focal point she has—and gets sucked into her anger and grief.

but even game!ellie fails at *quietly* sourcing the information from nora, falls through floors, gets impaled by an arrow, gallops through a trap explosion and is captured by the WLF, ultimately fails at interrogating mel and owen for abby’s whereabouts, and only makes it out of santa barbara because of sheer, white-knuckled vengeance and spite.

bellie’s mistakes in the show don’t make her stupid or mean they’re trying to “dumb her character down”. she grew up in the QZ schools with FEDRA’s shitty practices, was on the road for (one) year with joel, (who refused to so much as let her handle a gun until kansas city, gave her the map to read blindly for all but a few days, didn’t let her scout at night, and didn’t teach her about hunting or shooting with the rifle except, for a week on the ride to colorado?—until he was impaled and she had to forage all of the very little information he taught her to fend for the two of them on her own) and lived in jackson for five years with joel’s (presumable) influence and withholdings on her trainings. why should she be an unshaken-fucking-survivalist?  

what ellie and dina left jackson to do is reckless and dangerous and unpredictable—they trekked across states knowing nothing more but abby and the salt lake crew’s names and even less about the two factions they walked straight into. when joel and ellie crossed the country with nothing but an inkling of where the fireflies may be - how many times did they almost die?

in spite of ellie’s mistakes (and admittedly self-sacrificing, suicidal behavior), we see time again and again it’s her strength and resiliency that shines through them. even when she’s dropping her gun or chased by a horde or locked in with the WLF or hit square in the nose she’s relentlessly fast. she finds a way, and moves in times dina would not.

dina didn’t grow up in a QZ, she had to learn cloud forecasting, how to read maps, triangulation, and counting infected by their sound. she’s good at planning, at thinking things through when she has the time. she’s practical, and logical, but when she’s in the moment and under pressure, we see that she freezes when ellie doesn’t. 

the point is, it isn’t that their weakness takes away from their strength. it isn’t that one is smarter than the other. dina’s reasonable, ellie is not. dina knew to stew on the limited information she had about abby and the WLF, while ellie would have not. dina opts to go back to jackson, ellie does not. ellie goes to find nora instead of looking for dina and jesse, when dina wouldn’t have. (dina stays at the farm, ellie does not.)

[airas-story]

could you write drpepperony parenting morgan?

Stephen smiled down at Morgan where she’d finally fallen asleep. She’d somehow finagled an extra two stories out of him tonight. He wasn’t quite sure how she did it—Stephen wasn’t a softie, no matter what Tony said—but she was entirely too persuasive for her own good.

Tony claimed Morgan got it from Pepper, but both Pepper and Stephen agreed Tony the more likely source. Stephen and Pepper might be capable of saying no to Tony—a necessity, really—but it was certainly an exercise in discipline.

Stephen could be honest and admit he didn’t say no nearly as often as he should. Being the reason Tony’s eyes lit up with happiness was a drug all on its own. He turned to the door to find Tony leaning against the door frame, eyes soft and filled with obvious love. Yep, it was a drug, warming Stephen’s chest in a way he never wanted to lose. 

Beside him, Pepper’s expression matched. Stephen flushed under the combined appreciation.

“You’re so good with her,” Tony said quietly. “She loves you, you know?”

It hadn’t been automatic. He and Morgan had had to figure out how to work together. Stephen wasn’t Tony or Pepper, just because he was dating the two of them didn’t make him Morgan’s parent. He still wasn’t quite sure where they fell. He was a part of the Stark family and he was an adult and he did care for and love Morgan, but… 

“She’s precious,” Stephen said. “I’m lucky she wants me around.”

Tony considered him. “Not just wants you,” he said after a moment. “Trusts that you will be.”

“Don’t underestimate what that means,” Pepper added.

The words brought Stephen to a halt. He didn’t need a title. He carried Morgan’s trust. What more could he want?

[multiplicity-positivity]

Here’s some positivity for villain introjects who are trying to be better!

Life as an introject can often be messy and complicated. Sorting through emotions, memories, and traits inherited by your source while simultaneously trying to forge your own identity can be a difficult task! While it may be challenging, though, it certainly is not impossible. This post goes out to all the introjects of villain characters who are trying to improve or push for positive growth!

✨ Shoutout to introjects who used to act and behave much like their source but have since started trying to change their ways!

🌱 Shoutout to villain introjects whose lives are filled with apologies, reminders, second chances, mistakes, and determination!

💕 Shoutout to villain introjects whose source memories or exomemories make it challenging for them to strive towards positive change!

✨ Shoutout to introjects whose villainous source has a big impact on who they are today!

🌱 Shoutout to villain introjects who have to make conscious efforts and decisions to choose kindness in their lives!

💕 Shoutout to villain introjects who are trying to improve despite their efforts not being noticed or recognized by others around them!

✨ Shoutout to villain introjects who are tired of being distrusted, disrespected, ignored, or avoided by others because of their source!

🌱 Shoutout to villain introjects who have done the work and are now in a much better place than they were when they first formed!

💕 Shoutout to villain introjects in need of lots of support, advice, resources, and guidance in order to develop or properly work on self-improvement!

✨ Shoutout to villain introjects who reject the standards and expectations of others, and aim to improve themselves because that is truly what they want for their lives!

Friends, being an introject of a villain does not mean that you are destined to follow in the footsteps of your source. Change may not come naturally for you. You may find yourself predisposed towards actions and thoughts that your source had. You may sometimes worry that you literally are your source. But please try to remember that you are so capable of positive growth, even when it’s hard or seems impossible. Your hard work and efforts are not going unnoticed. We see you and we want to recognize the strides you’ve made towards progress!

Please do your best to be gentle and compassionate with yourselves today. Recognize that change is a process, and the goals you are striving for likely won’t be achieved overnight. Know that we’re in your corner rooting for you every step of the way. You’ve got this! You have a very bright future ahead of you, and we’re excited to see where your journey takes you. Thank you so much for reading, and take care!

[endeus]

how common are hockey brawls?

this turned into fiddling with numbers about about klim kostin but theres a tl;dr at the very end

not actually that common LMAO fights average out to ~ 0.25 per game or so? during the 1983-84 season fights averaged 1.17 per game, for context. teams figured out that having enforcers who can't score or defend on your roster is bad for winning, and so lower-skill, low-utility enforcers were kind of pushed out of the league.

there are still players who fight--on the sharks roster, givani smith and luke kunin stand out as players who are very willing to drop the gloves, and just recently klim kostin got into it with a seattle player. here's what kostin had to say about it after the fact:

I'm not a big fan of fights just for no reason but yeah. That was one of the moments when that guy, like, asking Granny for a fight. The players like Granny, they never fight. They're-- they play hockey. So I just decide to step up, and then the fight comes in.

source

"granny" here refers to mikael granlund, a sharks player who's only ever fought once, in 2021. granlund got stomped. he never even got a punch in

what's interesting to me is the fact that kostin draws a very clear line between what is ok to ask of a player like granlund vs what is ok to ask of a player like him. kostin's only played 15 of the 27 games the sharks have played so far, and not due to injury--he's been a healthy scratch each time he's missed a game. this season, he's averaged 9 minutes and 13 seconds of time on ice in the games he's played. granlund's averaged 20 minutes and 52 seconds of time on ice, and he's only missed 2 games, both with injury. kostin is a fairly talented bottom-six forward who can be very capable when he's engaged, but he's not granlund. more importantly, he's not an enforcer!

(Rezi: i don't know how much you know about hockey, so i'll take the time to note here: penalties in hockey are usually either "minor" penalties or "major" penalties. a minor penalty puts the offender in the penalty box for 2 minutes, during which their team has one less player on the ice. a major penalty does the same but for 5 minutes. fighting is a major penalty, but both participants go to the penalty box. this means nobody's team is outnumbered.)

if all you looked at was kostin's penalties in minutes, you could be fooled into thinking he was an enforcer. 159 PIMs in 170 career games, or 5.6 penalty minutes per 60 minutes of time on ice (PIM/60) isn't enough to get you on any leaderboards but it's pretty substantial. for reference, granlund has 259 PIMs over 844 career games, which is 0.99 PIM/60. the truth is, kostin just takes a lot of minor penalties. he's only ever been in 10 NHL fights, which is more than most players but certainly not enough to call him an enforcer.

let's put kostin into perspective:

mikael granlund has a career average of 0.678 points and 18 ½ minutes of time on ice per game. he has 0.99 PIM/60. <- these are reliable first-line player stats

fabian zetterlund has a career average of 0.495 points and 16 minutes of time on ice. he also has 0.99 PIM/60. <- reliable second-line player stats

luke kunin has a career average of 0.347 points and 15 minutes of time on ice per game. he has 3.7 PIM/60. <- volatile second- or third-line player stats

ty dellandrea has a career average of 0.264 points and 13 ⅓ minutes of time on ice per game. he has 2.74 PIM/60. <- third-line player stats

nico sturm has a career average of 0.296 points and 13 minutes of time on ice per game. he has 1.09 PIM/60. <- reliable third-line player stats

givani smith has a career average of 0.137 points and 8 minutes of time on ice per game. he has 11.7 PIM/60. <- fourth line enforcer stats

kostin has a career average of 0.294 points and 10 minutes of time on ice per game. he has 5.6 PIM/60. <- :?

kostin's scoring potential (and his play style) are more suited to a third-line role than a fourth-line one, but his batshit PIM/60 keeps his ice time low. what's very very important to remember, too, is that around 50% of givani smith's penalties in minutes are from fighting majors--which don't put your team at a disadvantage. only 30% of klim kostin's PIMs are from fighting majors. he neeeeeeds to stop taking dumbass penalties and start playing more consistently--he could be an absolute nightmare to play against if he tightened up his game.

anyway to answer your question: hockey fights are not as common as they used to be, and most teams no longer have guys who are only there to fight. despite this, there is still an understanding among players that some of them have to step up. some of them don't get to just play hockey.

[randomgirlyoudontknow]

No one will probably read this, but as a long-time fan of ATLA (as in, I literally watched the show as it aired in 2005-2008), I wanted to share my thoughts on the live action. Let it be known that I am far from an ATLA purist––the original certainly had its own flaws and aspects that didn't age well, in retrospect. Despite the generally negative reviews I've seen from the fandom, I was actually very satisfied with this adaptation! But I’ve seen people saying that the characters were butchered, that it’s a soulless and superficial reproduction, and those who liked the live action aren’t capable of thinking/watching critically, which I wanted to push back against (I mean, I’m working on a doctorate in literature…I am quite literally incapable of watching anything uncritically).

The shift in tone to a darker, more mature one was a positive change, imo. It is definitely a much angrier show than the original, even if some of the characters were not as fiery as they should have been (*cough* Katara *cough*). Overall, while there were certainly decisions made that I didn't agree with (mainly related to pacing and narrative), I thought the cast and crew really captured the spirit of the original, and even added depth and nuance to parts I felt were initially lacking.

In general, I really appreciated the added emphasis on the cost and suffering of war and imperialism, as well as the depiction of the physical effects of bending. Now, I realize this is largely a matter of personal preference––for example, I'm very interested in depictions of war in fiction (I mean, my dissertation partially covers the impact of WWI on avant-garde art & literature, so...). But I've seen several claims that the live action glorifies war and violence in a way that is meant to traumatize the viewer, and I simply don't think that's true? While the original handled war, genocide, trauma, etc. in a phenomenal way for a kid's show in the early 2000s, it was also still sanitized when it comes to death and injury, to an extent that I feel like we, the viewers, almost lose sight of the fact that bending KILLS. Sure, we were exposed to its after effects, like the death of Katara and Sokka's mother or Zuko's scar, but there's something to be said actually seeing and acknowledging the very palpable danger that something like firebending presents.

I've even seen someone say that the show's depiction of "gratuitous violence" constitutes a "profound misunderstanding" of the source text, which I think is frankly a bad faith take. The death and violence, though more realistic, is still not a major focus of the show, nor is it glorified in any way. A glorification of violence would look like indiscriminate killing and maiming for the sake of edginess (looking at you GOT). We would see graphic depictions of death and injuries, which simply does not happen in this show (they even joke about the fact that we never see anyone die in Ember Island Players). War and fighting are still treated with the same depth and gravity as the original, only this time, the severity of its consequences isn't obscured from the viewer.

I also thought the show's handling of trauma (especially Katara's) was excellent. The choice to have Katara's mom's death revealed in flashbacks (specifically when around firebending) was something that really stood out to me. And the new characterization of Bumi, which I realize was quite unpopular, was another change I quite appreciated. His bitterness and cynicism seemed more in-line with someone who had endured 100 years of war and the suffering of his people at the hands of a brutal imperial force. Lastly, I was pleased to see the narrative attempt to address the role Iroh played in the Siege of Ba Sing Se (something that was absolutely missing from the original). The Earth Kingdom soldier confronting him and calling him a butcher was a powerful moment, for me. I truly hope the show continues to dive into this aspect of his character in future seasons.

Speaking of characters, I loved that we got extra background and insight into several of the characters. Zhao, for example, was unexpectedly quite funny, and his actor really did a phenomenal job of fleshing him out and making him feel like a real person (as slimy and smarmy as he was) rather than a stock, cartoon villain. And I have to give kudos to the actors who played Sokka and Zuko––they both did an incredible job of embodying their respective characters, in a way that felt highly reminiscent of the original. In particular, I thought the handling of Zuko's backstory was truly outstanding––perhaps even better than the original.

All in all, I felt the live action did a really nice job of balancing the darker sides with the light. While I've seen fans complaining that the show doesn't have the same goofiness and lightheartedness, I actually thought the humor worked really well––it was one of the few times I felt the overly ironic, Joss Whedonesque one-liners actually fit. Sure, the humor was a lot drier and more toned down than the original, but I nonetheless thought it carried the show's spirit well (loved that they let Sokka say “ass” not once, but twice). There were moments when I genuinely laughed out loud! I also appreciated how, despite the more mature tone, hope, friendship, and harmony still remained the most important aspect at the end of each episode.

There's a lot of room for improvement, but I was overall very satisfied with the live action, and I'm very glad that the series has been renewed. I'm very excited to see what the cast and crew does with the rest of the show!

[boreal-sea]

Intent is required for genocide.

Does intent erase effect? No, absolutely not. And sometimes, the effect is so heinous that the intent does not justify what happened.

There are in fact things that have happened so far during the I/P war where the intent does not justify the action or the effects it caused. One example is that Israel very much did temporarily cease delivering aid to Gaza earlier this year in an attempt to force Hamas to surrender.

Link to source (NPR)

This, in my opinion, was not a justified action. The intent was to force Hamas to surrender. The effect was starving civilians. Even if this had resulted in Hamas surrendering (which it did not) it STILL would not have been justified.

Is starving civilians in an attempt to force your enemy to surrender genocide? I consider it borderline, because technically influencing the military is your goal, but you’re doing that by intentionally causing harm to civilians. I think it is a sign they are more than willing to cause needless civilian deaths among Palestinians, and that points to them considering Palestinians as less human. That is a step towards genocidal intent. It’s a big red flag that the far-right government coalition of Israel is capable of more heinous things.

Now, as far as intent behind the war goes, it is very clear the intent is shifting. I think at the start of the war the intent was to rescue the hostages, deal a blow to Hamas, and get out. That was certainly the intent and hopes of Israeli civilians and families whose loved ones were being held hostage.

As the war dragged on, the right-wing branch of the government pushed for the total destruction of Hamas, and refused many peace talks where the disarmament of Hamas was not included. Netanyahu now says he intends for a prolonged occupation of Gaza. That is a change.

Is occupation genocide? No. But it would make genocide or ethnic cleaning easier. It is a red flag.

And in the West Bank, Netanyahu is encouraging Israeli civilians to steal more land from Palestinians. The goal of the far-right in Israel is to completely occupy and annex the West Bank and make it part of Israel.

Is annexing another country genocide? No, unless your next step is to kill all the natives. If they force Palestinians out without killing them, that’s the definition of ethnic cleansing, and there are absolutely calls for that to happen. Again, red flag.

Overall, is the government of Israel handling this war and their relationship with Palestine well? Absolutely not. The far-right coalition in power is Islamophobic and racist towards Palestinians and very much wants them out of the way — and I think they’re coming up on “by any means possible”. Which could include ethnic cleansing and yes, genocide.