#but that doesnt mean there isnt intention and control you know

[dallonwrites]

reblogs off bc i dont want to start Conversations based on other peoples posts but re the whole "who is in control you or the character" question, i find it SO interesting because it's by letting myself discovery write that I (for me personally disclaimer) found the perfect balance between intuition and intention. which to preface "intution" is the easiest way to describe how the inside of my writers brain feels bc often i just get vivid characters/stories/images/scenes with little control at first and i have to figure out what they mean. anyway discovery writing is what works for my brain to make intentional decisions because i need to be amidst a draft to get the Story Cogs working, whenever i try to outline before a draft it's always been just throwing things at a wall bc it feels too far away, but because im also using the discovery element to do that it's like. that's where i think the whole i feel like my characters reveal themselves to me comes from. because im always discovering small bits about them even if i've written them for years just but because discovery writing is also what prompts me to be intentional about writing as i write something it's like both are happening at the same time. so the whole "who's in control" it's like...i don't think control is the right word for me at all because its not Me or the Character it's me trying to understand the character to understand + then write my intentions. like neither me or the character are in the drivers seat because there's no car we are in the middle of the story forest and at first i won't know what it means at all except that it is a Story. and my character will start going one way and sometimes i'll follow and pay attention to where they're taking me to figure out if this is the right path/where to go next. and sometimes i'll figure out how to read the compass first and realise i need to drag their ass in another direction

[mamayura]

Okay but what's crazy is that the episode does subtly reveal that Adrien did keep it a secret from Marinette that he's more than silent jogging buddies with Sublime

In the beginning, Marinette says that when she asked Adrien if he and Sublime talk when they go running he always says "no". This is factually correct as we find out in the end through Sublime:

But there is obviously something not adding up here. Sublime literally says "Outside of running, of course Adrien and I talk". They just arent talking in any of their morning runs because Sublime in particular is doing it as serious training. So no talking because that would impact their breathing, but outside of that? Well, yeah, duh.

And that makes sense

Adrien and Sublime are in the same ancient Greek class, of course they would talk. I'm gonna go with the assumption that this is why Sublime started running by his side, because they vaguely knew each other from Greek class and when they crossed each others running paths one morning they were familiar enough to just run together in silence

Look, I- I dont know how to put this more elegantly, so I'll rip off the bandaid. The vibes I'm getting from this episode are that Adrien was more than cool with not talking anyway because he deliberately keep his friendship with Sublime a secret from Marinette because he knew Marinette would be weird about it and that made him uncomfortable.

He knows his girlfriend and she's peanut-butter-and-jealous.

And the thing is, as much as this certainly is a complicated topic with a lot of factors to consider for both sides, the way the episode had Marinette go about all this...

... the episode proved him RIGHT. He was right to be too uncomfortable with letting Marinette know about being friends with Sublime. She merely found out that they were running together in silence and proceeded to not only keep watching them each morning and taking photos, Marinette even proceeded to stalk the hell out Sublime:

No, this isnt normal. This isnt a "quirky girlfriend" thing to do, or "funny haha". Its one of the reason why Adrien didnt feel comfortable letting her know.

And, I mean, yeah. I can't blame him for it, can I? :I

Later on, Sublime is very quick to piece together that the girl hiding behind them is Adrien's girlfriend. Not the thing I would immediately go with, unless of course Adrien did already vaguely mention having a girlfriend to Sublime at one point. Then yes, her coming to this conclusion after Marinette followed her all day makes a lot more sense. Even if those are not.. nice implications. The episode does go on playing it straight at first that Marinette is the weird and a bit alarming girlfriend.

Look, you can pretty this up if you like, but for me, Adrien is clearly a solid bit uncomfortable and very apologetic here to Sublime because of Marinette's behavior. Sublime too is being nice about it to a degree you shouldnt take for granted. She would have had been perfectly justified in saying something else entirely. Adrien is trying to be a good boyfriend about this, but Marinette is out here proving him right in having struggled with wanting her to know about Sublime. Marinette has been following her around all day, Sublime noticed, and Adrien is doing good faith damage control here by telling Sublime that Marinette has good intentions and only wants to be her friend.

Something, though, that the episode clarified 3 times wasnt really the case:

It is so weird that at the core of the problem for both sides of Adrinette WAS Marinette being peanut-butter-and-jealous.

Marinette did NOT try to befriend Sublime out of some pure-hearted desire to know her. She did so because she feared that Adrien could end up not loving her anymore if she doesnt gain some control over the Sublime situation real quick

And Adrien DID keep his friendship with Sublime a secret from Marinette because, well, was he wrong?

And thats the thing. The episode just DROPS this in favor of saying that Marinette only had these pure-hearted intentions to know her when that isnt true. The episode proved Adrien alarmingly RIGHT in his gut feeling to keep Sublime a secret from Marinette, they just-

They just didnt let him know about any of it as if that makes it any less true. I would understand it if this episode had been entirely about tackling this issue for good. Adrien not being wrong for feeling uncomfortable with letting Marinette know about any new female friends and then Adrien gets proven right, but the situation is saved by Marinette's secondary desire of befriending Sublime.

Sure, not the plot of my choice, but I would GET IT because it would actually cover the given problem. Here it is... they didnt do it. Adrien was proven right, Marinette did everything wrong to Sublime that was possible and ended up breaking her prosthetic and ruined the sponsorship with a combo of Marinette's and Ladybug's harmful inconsideration.

Marinette did exactly what Adrien was afraid of... and they just DON'T resolve the initial Adrinette core of this issue. It's still ongoing. Marinette didnt even get to react in the end to finding out that Adrien did keep her in the dark about talking to Sublime:

I guess for now the explanation for that will be that Adrinette switched positions in this for once and now it's Marinette who isnt questioning it enough that Adrien only said the truth to her going by the technicality of "She only ask him if they talk while running".

Obviously, this is not how it works. He kept her in the dark. And whether he was right to doing so or not isnt important for the feeling I'm getting that this is just the beginning of a streak of similar problems like this. The postponed resolution to this will happen at a later point, and knowing Miraculous, they'll do it after it escalates to hell.

We already saw it in "Illustrhater" and the synopsis for "Werepapas" for example also sounds like Marinette will not stop here being a questionable girlfriend

I just dont understand why they would keep on DOING that?

[p5-apotelesma]

and ANOTHER THING. sojiro says hes 'already been paid for it' in regards to taking ren in. but then later. when ren answers a quiz show question. the answer is 'probation officers arent paid' and morgana comments on how 'the chief is doing all this for free.'

BUT sojiro isnt really ren's probation officer, though, i think? hes. more like a probationary guardian? since im pretty sure he says he has to report to the actual probation officer twice a month?? but the localization has weird line choices and shit all over the place so without looking into the original japanese im. not 100% on the technicalities of that

BUT REGARDLESS. sojiro straight up just lied to ren at the start when ren asked why sojiro agreed to take him in (likely part of his tough act he has around ren for a while) so sojiro is doing this as a civil duty and isnt being paid, as a gesture of good faith to both parties and to aid rens rehabilitation. so ren doesnt end up with someone whos just in it for the money and could. have bad intentions

but it also means that sojiro. could have expected rens parents to send him to tokyo with some money. yanno. like... a fucking food budget

for the first month or so. ren was honest to god like. afraid to take anything from the kitchen in the cafe when he was hungry because sojiro told him if anything went missing that ren would be in trouble. and also rens own dysfunctional eating habits and assumptions from his HOME LIFE. CARRIED OVER. so of course as soon as sojiro told ren that if anything went missing that he would throw ren out or call the cops, ren assumed sojiro was someone who would lock the fridge or the cabinets and generally be very controlling over what ren took to feed himself.

ren also wasnt sure if sojiro would let him get a job because for the first few weeks sojiro wouldnt let him leave the cafe at night. but he also wasnt letting them make money working at the cafe for him. where he would be supervised. so he just. didnt know what to do. or how he was supposed to eat

he often squirrels food away like an animal cause he doesnt know when hell be able to eat again and also he often eats too fast and gives himself tummy aches. these are. actual habits he formed in childhood and not the result of Accidental Child Neglect on sojiros part. (of course sojiro feels mortified when he realizes whats been going on)

ren had food in his luggage. the whole top layer of that carboard box was stuff from the pantry at home that hed previously bought for himself. so for a while he had snacks and cup noodles. but that was it, minus the times sojiro would make him curry in the mornings.

and honestly, if rens parents DID send him to tokyo with a food budget, i would honestly go off of the money bonus you get if you got the dlc. which is 100,000 yen. which in..... april of 2016 would only be like.... just under 900 usd. for the whole year. and at the start ren would try and save most of their money for phantom thievery.

so a lot of the time ren ONLY ATE WHEN HE WAS OUT WITH ANN OR RYUJI. THEY WOULD TAKE HIM OUT TO EAT... HE APPRECIATES RYUJI AND ANN SO SO SO MUCH…. they feed himb

LITERALLY ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS RYUJI DID FOR REN WAS TAKE HIM OUT TO EAT AND PAY FOR EVERYTHING…. also ann took ren out shopping, since he came to tokyo with the barest of necessities. ren was only able to take a few things of sentimental importance with him

[herbologyprofessor]

my collected thoughts on the magic system of harry potter and what I would change to make it better.

i think that the harry potter magic system sucks!!

i mean, im sure this isnt a hot take but like...how is it that students at hogwarts school of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY graduate knowing how to use maybe a handfull of spells in combat? and they're the same spells that all the aurors and all the older members of the order and all the death eaters and even voldemort use?

and im especially talking about how weak it makes people who are supposed to be really powerful and dangerous seem. including the titular character Harry Potter himself. Harry uses spells in a unique way, dont get me wrong, but to me its all just so boring.

and im not saying it doesnt have to work like other fantasy stories, but if the main mechanism behind magic in harry potter is that you are either born with it or not, you dont need a wand but its exponentially more challenging without one (unless you have a unique skillset or education), intention matters, and there are spells that can grant magical abilities to objects. there is so much more possibility than just expelliarmus and expecto patronum. There has to be, or else why tf would hogwarts take 7 years of schooling to graduate from?

so here are some of my headcanons:

families have bloodline abilities

so, in the case of wizarding britan, there are families that want to stay pure such as the sacred 28 (or is it 27 i cant remember), and pure as in their blood and bloodline must stay pure (going so far as to marry your cousins, e.g. Orion and Walburga Black). If this is the case, and they wan't to preserve their magical bloodline so bad, they'd have to have something more than just "magic" to preserve.

I feel like its almost there in canon but falls short of being fully realized. I think of it kinda like how it works in naruto. Theres those who have a bloodline ability and then those that dont. You dont have to have one to be powerful, if you have one it dosent mean you will be powerful automatically.

The black family seems to carry the gene for metamorphmagus, but i wouldnt consder this a bloodline ability and think of it more like a random mutation passed on to teddy, which could occur in any magical person, (theres also the possibility that this was a more common ability in the black family but because of the lack of genetic diversity and inbreeding it was lost until Andromeda had Remadora with Ted, who was not pureblood. I think abilities have to do with the energy of magic that is either created or inherited, not so much genetics. Therefore, families dont pass on the same exact ability but something that is novel or slightly different from person to person.

The Lupins, for example, could be Beast Speakers. Maybe, a long time ago in the Lupin familiy, they kept wolves or something (explaining the surname which would have had something to do with occupation) and they learned from them how to speak with animals?Lyall, who canonically worked in the Department for the Control and Regulation of Dark Creatures, can speak to dark creatures, even werewolves who are transformed. Remus can speak to domesticated animals like cats and dogs, fancy mice, toads, etc. Remus is like Hogwarts' unofficial vet tech, and if you like atyd Remus, this fits in nicely as he specialized in Care of Magical Creatures.

The Potters, canonically, are linked to the Peverell family. The invisibility cloak has been passed down through generations and is still being passed down to Harry's children. I think a common headcanon, and one that i truly love, is that they use Death Magic. But, thats assuming the potters are the exact same family as the Peverells, which they are not. I think, in going along with the Peverell brothers creating the deathly hallows (using advanced death magic), the potters have a Sorcerer's Craft ability. What was the Potter family's source of new money? Fleamont's invention, Sleekeazey's. I know its a "potion", but what if its just like...coconut oil imbued with magical enchantments that make your hair perfect. James could have played a major hand in the creation of the Marauder's Map, an Extremely powerful magical object made to do the impossible task of mapping Hogwarts. And he did this in school. at like 14-15. Harry doesn't do anything that has to do with magic item creation, that I can remember (i haven't read the books in years), however he also had no connection to his family and likely wouldn't be able to learn without another Potter teaching him. BUT! Harry Potter is the master of death, meaning he can use all 3 of the deathly hallows without being corrupted, maybe this could be a side effect of how his Sorcerer's Craft manifests itself.

side tangent, but the reason I think this is an ability even though others have been known to make magical objects, is because the potters are able to do it very creatively, and early on in their lives. They are involved in every aspect of item creation, and they can enchant things in a way no other wizard could replicate, meaning their objects could not be mass produced without their explicit involvement. Maybe Sleekeasy's stops working so well once Fleamont dies, hence why Hermione says its too much hassle to use every day.

The Blacks, you might think, would be something to do with offensive, powerful, and deadly magic. While, yes, this is something that some members of the black family are gifted in, it is not their bloodline ability. I think that the Blacks are Seers. It's no coincidence their families long standing tradition of astrological names are prophetical for their lives. Walburga Black, for example, has the power of Augery. She asks the universe questions and receives omens as answers. She saw a black dog when asking the universe to tell her about her newborn son, hence the name Sirius. For Regulus, well, she saw water. Not knowing what to make of it, she refused to let Regulus near it for his entire childhood. Regulus, as an empath, has the ability of psychometry. The ability to gain information from an object by touching it, including humans ( he cant read minds, but can tell what someone has experienced in their life). This comes in great handiness when he goes to destroy the locket. Sirius, I believe, would have a mastery over tarot cards or oracle cards. He can glean deadly accurate readings, and has a keen ability to interpret meanings unknown to even the most practiced tarot readers. He has a special deck, one that his uncle Alphard gave to him when he found out Sirius could read tarot from Walburga (who, at the time, was very pleased with her Heir's ability). This comes with an emotional expense to Sirius, though, and at times, gives him answers he doesnt want to hear. The girls loved it though, and asked him to teach them. He tried but couldn't explain how he did it, since it's innate to his bloodline. Of course, you could obviously imagine this adding to the piles of angst surrounding the war, as Sirius had to have seen signs that his loved ones would die, making him think he could outsmart fate by changing the secret keeper...

I think this is getting too long, but I'm already thinking about part 2 because I have alot of thoughts about this...especially things that anyone could learn not just inheritied abilities.

[pokemon-ash-aus]

Your Dead AU gives me brain rot. I dunno if this was asked yet or not, but I wanted to know your thoughts on Ash’s other rivals finding out about his status as deceased. Hypothetical what-it’s if you don’t honestly see them finding out for one reason or another in canon to the AU, but I’m curious as to your thoughts on how they’d find out.

I guess I should better specify Barry, Paul, Trip, and Alain, how they’d react to Ash’s being dead?

OKAY!;

Barry doesn't believe it at all. Even when given hard definitive truth, he's under the assumption that all of this? All this deadness? It's just a cruel prank that needs to be fined for!

Paul... I imagine Paul is the one to outright calling him pathetic for dying so soon. It's both malicious in intent and not.

He wants to call Ash Pathetic, he wants to make him hurt and make him feel inferior. He wants to revel that Ash will never succeed with the methods he's going by.

But Paul isnt a cruel person by nature. The moment he says it, he's filled wih so much dread and disgust. He just called a dead person pathetic for... For DYING, nothing on his actions or movements. He's just pathetic for dying.

He avoids Ash for awhile after that. Even when Ash instigates. It's just that much level of disgust with himself. Eventually he does apologize. I can see it being at the league. When he walks up to Ash after loosing their battle and apologizes without any eyes or ears around. He's not good at it.

"That really hurt me." Ash grimaces. "Ive never been called Pathetic for Dying..."

"Im sorry you felt that way." Paul tries. "I didnt mean to say it the way i did."

Its a lot of awkward dancing before Ash realizes Paul is really Socially inept and has to clarify. It's a shitty apology for a Shitty action, but Paul is absolutely trying and Ash cannot fault him for that.

Trip. See my bias shows here because I absolutely believe Trip is 100% an asshole Racist.

But would Trip insult Ash's dead status? I think so. I think he'd sprinkle it in with all his other racists remarks. Never outright outing him, but also never letting him forget that Trip KNOWS.

And fuck if that doesnt wear Ash down. And When Iris and Cilan find out, they back Ash up without a thought but it doesnt erase how much Trip taunts how Ash died. Doesnt erase that Trip continuously makes snide remarks about it.

I think this is the one and only time Ash truly uses his own abilities and powers to make Trip HURT.

And it doesnt even give him any satisfaction! Cause Trip had successfully made him feel disgusted by his own dead status. Something mind you, he had been over for fucking YEARS, by that point!

So yeah I think Trip is the worst one and my bias will not falter.

Alain. I imagine he finds out at the BRINK of Ash getting mind controlled. And he's fucking horrified. He truly does believe that He led Ash to his death and then his partner Pikachu as well.

Just fully goes into Shock after everything calms down.

He killed someone he considered a friend.

He killed them.

And Even through soft reassurances from everyone else, it weighs so heavily on his mind. It takes Ash slapping him for him to come back to a reality where he can actually understand what their saying.

And Then Ash explains it all, how he died, how long its been, and NO Alain did not kill him, but the backstabbing was painful as shit and that would take time for Ash to get over.

Alain both believes it and doesnt, but he's still horrified his friend is fucking DEAD.

[lion-buddy]

Something endlessly fascinating to me is Prims unspoken thoughts on Puka throughout the movie. There is so much there that just isnt addressed, and i feel a little bonkers pointing and talking about nothing but i need someone to hear me out. At the start of the timeline, shorty after Pukas creation, Prim is pretty blunt about their opinion towards Puka. Useless, weak. Incapable. It’s made clear they have no problem destroying the things they create. Citing the Ark minion they destroyed moments before without a second thought, and several times again later in the movie. So why would they not destroy Puka? They said it themself, Puka is not of use to them. So why. Why did they let them leave. They had all the intention of destroying them, and yet they did not. i dont think they know why. i dont think they forget this decision either.

During the soup scene with Team Sky around the fire, they stare at kome-kome for an uncomfortably long period of time. They were definitely thinking about something during that interaction. It was probably Puka. This is the first interaction theyve had with an actual fairy, and it would be hard not to be reminded of the one you just abandoned. But they don’t feel regret, but rather confusion as they compare kome-komes character to Pukas. Did they even know fairies could talk before kome-kome? There is something uniquely messed up about Prim making a partner for themself that they could not communicate with. They do not understand Precure, let alone the dynamic they have with their fairies. Prim only sees fairies as an extension of Precure, another asset to be used, and when Puka could not demonstrate their desired purpose, they are simply deemed useless and discarded.

You can see Prim questioning this dynamic further as Team Sky progresses. Judging every action from a distance, and not understanding a single element of it. What basis would they even have to go off. There is an unfathomable amount of distance between the lives of the Precure of Earth and the existence of what is essentially an eldritch space god.

The scene where they reunite in the town is very chilling. Puka is clearly nervous beforehand, nervous about being so close to the center of it all. They know Prim will be here, and they dont want to reunite. Its been made obvious time and time again, even if the rest of the cast does not realize this. When Pukas group is noticed, Prim doesnt attack, or seemed upset in any way. Just confused. Why would this failed fairy dare to cross paths with them again. Dont they know that theyre lucky to be alive? Its foolish to re approach an enemy you cannot beat. Even the Ark minions are scared of Prim, what is this fairies deal. Puka deliberately destroying the street shows just how much they understand this. Their powers are controlled by their emotions, and are activated by the fear they feel seeing Prim again, but theyre used purposefully to create an escape route. Prim only stares as they fall, despite being met with another chance to destroy Puka. And yet they dont, it’s clear they dont think of them as a threat whatsoever. I do not think that means they stop thinking about them. There is something about Puka that Prim cannot acknowledge, because they can’t even recognize it in the first place When the others are concerned after the street collapse, Prim cant comprehend why the Precure care about their friends. Its such a foreign emotion to them, they could not recognize it even when faced with it. I dont believe anything Prim has done up to this point was out of a desire to harm people with the purpose of making them upset, and this includes Puka too. Sure, the things they do are upsetting, but they dont understand that. They just Do. They want an outcome, and emotions are not even considered nor felt by them. But Pukas creation has lead to them questioning things they had never thought to consider before. Something is changing, and Prim has yet to notice.

The reveal scene in the castle is just Prim reiterating what they already thought of Puka, and the thought process behind their creation. I believe its by this point in the movie Prim has more ill intent behind their actions. They dont understand the emotional weight behind their words and actions, but, they are going out of their way to point Puka out, and show off their strength to the Precure. I could go into a whole separate ramble about how i think Prims emotions have evolved by this point, but that is a separate topic, this is just focusing on their thoughts on Puka. The first time Puka stands up to Prim is fun. Up until now, Prim hasnt seen them do a single thing other than destroy the road. That is nothing compared to their own abilities, there isnt anything Puka could possibly do to defeat them. Prim has separated themself so much from Puka, they seem to forget about the power they went out of their way to share during their creation. Its the intent behind that power that matters, and what they cannot understand about Puka. Why they are so different. Because Puka embodies all the aspects of Precure Prim cannot understand. There are a lot of thoughts that I could go into as to what Puka symbolizes in the wider scope of their their dynamic, and their relation to Supreme Origin, but ill touch more on that later.

Prim underestimates and doubts Pukas abilities over and over again, even as they scales start to tilt out of their favor. To Prim, these new developments and the Precure reviving is unexpected and surprising. But interesting, and fun? This is the first time theyve ever felt this way about any opponent theyve faced. Its what makes the Precure unique and interesting to them. They cannot sense how much they’ve already changed due to this intrigue alone, and how they are starting to loose. How Puka is stronger than they think, forgetting about their presence again as the battle intensifies. Prim finally acknowledges their feelings when Puka stands in their way and intercepts an attack. Feelings from all the way back during their initial confrontation. They knew they should have destroyed Puka back then. They did not forget that decision, it blatantly went against everything they stand for. It continued to linger with every interaction that reminded them of Puka. why didnt they do it. They don’t know why they let them go. Theyve been excusing this choice by downplaying Puka and pushing their doubts onto Pukas incapability. But Prim is wrong about Puka and their potential, and letting them live is the biggest “mistake” Supreme ever made. And while they try to correct that mistake, its too late, and Prim is forced to learn the hard way through defeat. They are incapable of predicting anything Puka does due to their fundamental misunderstanding of Precure. There is again, a lot to be said about how Pukas Precure transformation highlights all of Prims shortcomings, but I’m stopping myself. Im not really sure what Prim is feeling by the end of the movie. Probably very confused, to put it lightly. You know that dazed feeling you get when you wake up from a very intense fever dream? What is interesting about where the two of them are by the end of the movie, is that it feels like Puka had a very satisfying character arc, while Prim just got redeemed suddenly? It seems like the wrong way to conclude the story of a villain who caused this much destruction. It was actually the original intent of the writers to kill Prim off at the end, but they realized it went against the message of the movie.

Prims development is unspoken. The state of their character by the end of the movie is more of an awakening, and its now their turn to start their second chance. Puka sees themself in Prim in a way Prim has failed to realize every time theyve crossed paths. Puka now sees a confused, lost person in a world they dont understand, with no one to turn to who was suddenly given a second chance. This mirrors where Puka was left at the beginning of the movie. Prim realizes by now that something within them is different, they recognize their goals were not what they thought they were. Pukas creation and Prims inability to destroy them was the start of both Prim and Pukas emotional journeys. Puka represents the insecurities Prim feels about their own abilities that they never bothered to acknowledge existed. Seeing something they created as an extension of themself turn out so different would be shocking. They did not realize this at the time, but they mostly likely saw themself in Puka, and they hesitated at this. I don’t know what feeling may have caused this, but it shocked Prim enough for them to pause and change their mind. And as much as they try to justify the choice, it was an unusual one for them to make, and Prim knows that. It’s what haunts them throughout the whole movie. And to see what you previously thought of as useless transform into the very thing youve been desiring to attain before your eyes must be incredible.

With a new perspective, they accept the words of the fairy that beat them at their own game. It was the only way Puka could have gotten through to them, and its clear Prim is not upset about loosing to the Precure or the fairy they regarded as weak up until this point. Because if Prim can recognize anything, its strength, and seeing it on full display gives them a new respect for Puka. They now realize exactly how little they seem to understand about any of this Precure stuff, and Puka seems to have figured out what they could not. Prim has a lot of pride, but they can accept being wrong if it means learning the answer. All theyve been trying to do this whole movie is understand. And while this development in their new life was, unexpected, accepting Pukas invitation to start over seems like the first correct step towards learning about themself.

[red-elric]

i hear yall on 'girls can wear pants just bc jane does doesnt mean shes a trans guy' but homestuck is a deeply symbolic webcomic. its different! the skirt in homestuck is used as a signifier that a character is a girl more than it is as a genuine fashion choice in the early days of the comic; with the sprite as the only representation we have to go on, rose in particular with her shorter hair becomes more obviously feminine with the skirt, eyelashes, and lipstick at a glance. the need for the skirt as a visual distinction decreases as the readers become more familiar with the comic and the art style advances, but the original motive still remains! and is turned on its head when we are introduced to the trolls; while aradia, kanaya, and feferi wear skirts, nepeta, kanaya, and vriska decidedly DONT. this choice is intentional; we are told explicitly that in troll society the differences between men and women are arbitrary, with fewer rigid rules and distinctions than in human society. the extent to which that is actually TRUE is a little bit up for debate, but it definitely has some truth to it, and nepeta, terezi, and vriska all have a level of gender fuckery about them that aradia, kanaya, and feferi dont quite have in the same way. (kanaya of course has a DIFFERENT kind of gender fuckery about her, but its a different vibe and not really relevant here.)

then we meet the alpha kids. the skirt as a signifier is irrelevant at this point; we already know which characters are boys vs girls because we have the background of their adult counterparts. you can argue that jane is introduced wearing a skirt to make it clear that it is her and not jake in her first teaser panel, since she also has short hair! and thats about it. janes narrative is all about her own agency and her lack of control in her own life. she is brainwashed, she is locked in her own home for her own protection, she is kept in the dark from her friends' true feelings and secrets because they dont know how shell react. every choice she makes for herself prior to entering the medium is framed as a mistake that ruins things for everyone; her dad, roxy, dirk. and yet, when she does enter the medium, she is alone and free from other influences for the first time. her dad is missing, condy cant (or, more accurately, currently isnt interested in) access her, and she is outside the realm of societal pressure from earth, with her three friends who have never met another person in real life before. and with her newfound freedom, she chooses to wear pants; the first human female character in homestuck to do so. she has a hands free computer headset that gives her a faux moustache. and i think thats relevant!

of course, when she becomes god tier and immediately crockertiered, all her agency and control is lost in a way that doesnt ever return to her, even in post canon content. from that moment on, she is the maid or the heiress only, and cannot express her own desires in the narrative; she has been reduced to a caricature of what condy and aranea believed of her, and in this narrative she is grossly feminized in the worst possible way. just. food for thought.

[a-certain-romance]

it is i house wife annon here to talk abt teacher reader with miko!!

teacher reader is an amazing teacher, Her students love the way she teachs as she always asks for feedback or help on what she should explain or teach to the kids

this one particular day a kid confesses to teacher reader she honestly would be very flattered but she rejects them 1. Because shes a teacher and older than the kid 2. she already has the perfect lover at home

yet her perfect lover or miko in this case really has this habbit of being jealous and possesive, She says she isnt pouting and excusing that thought but you two underneath the bed that night makes you wish that the kid never confessed at all

she starts pounding away at you she wants to fill you up with her cum indefinite she hates the fact that you treat thoose kids their already spoiled enough from their parents and she doesnt need HER lover being their second parent or if that kid was old enough. Their lover shes yours and will make you hers if you ever try to run

the next morning your wobbly legs and aching pelvis means alot when your lazily wearing her shirt and her panties with hickies all over

maybe you should call in sick for atleast a week since miko would get annoyed if she were to ever find that kid afterall a trip to the shrine is coming up for your class….

A/N: Oo I love this AU!! Love your ideas anon!!

Warnings: Smut written by a minor, possessive tendencies, riding, creampies, marking

Your perfect lover and your perfect dominant. Miko’s a patient one. It’s become a game between the two of you; how long it’ll take before she snaps. She can be lenient, but her tolerance for the brattier side of you can only stretch for so far. It’s usually her jealousy that makes her hold you closer, grip your hips tighter and lead you in the direction of the nearest secluded area so she can have your way with you.

You can’t help it, it’s always just so fun to see her loose control. This time though, it was never your intention. The confession was beyond your knowledge and archons knows how Miko caught wind of it. Something possessive was in the air when you came home that day.

You found Miko on the bed with her back against the headboard waiting for you. She smiled sweetly at your return, beckoning you to sit on her lap. The second you touch the bed she pulls you down to straddle her. You’re in the position to ride her, yet she’s the one doing all the work. Tonight is not one for foreplay as she starts thrusting inside you with an intense speed. It’s her own way of taking her frustrations out on your body.

“How dare they” she’ll mutter as your body rocks back and forth. Miko might as well cum inside you for extra measure. She takes this opportunity to mark you up. Whether it’s with hickies dotting your skin, bite indents on your shoulder, or scratch marks that will turn your back red, she’ll do whatever it takes to prove her “ownership”

The trip to the shrine goes perfectly to plan. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she was able to steal you away into one of the buildings for a bit of private time everyone else was occupied.

[cajunfoxnight]

Hi really interested in this reconstruct Au!! Do you have more information about the story?

Oh Anon.. I hope you are ready for the can of worms you have just opened 😬

I should warn you tho, I am not the best at telling a story, and im worse at explaining one. However I also want to share this AU as its been something ive been working on for 8+ years, and while it is mostly a self indulgent Monster AU, full of stereotypical troupes and cliches, its also very important to me. I made this AU when I was not in a good place mentally and was using it as a way to cope with and express the feelings I was having at the time. Its changed a lot and truth be told its actually 2 story lines that combine to become 1 down the line. But for the sake of this ask, I will focus on talking about the Reconstruct backstory.

Anyway if youre still interested in what the story is about, then please continue reading! I will do my best to try not to babble too much but.. its going to happen anyway 😅

TW: So I should probably start off with mentioning that this AU does contain emotional and physical abuse, manipulation, and mention of body mutilation. Not that im going to go into the details of that here but thats just me covering my own ass :v At the point the story is at now, Gladion is much older than he is in the games/manga/anime. His actual age isnt fully known as the theme with this AU deals with time and interdimensional travel, so its hard to keep track of, but he appears to be in his early 20s. But for all intents and purposes he is an adult.

���The story ✨ So the Reconstruct AU is something of a "bad ending" storyline.

So this story follows that of the canon for the beginning. Mohn disappeared when he fell through an Ultra Space worm hole that was opened, and his whereabouts are unknown. Lusamine still went into her crazy and Ultra Beast obsessed self, only concerned with youth, beauty, and keeping things as under her control as much as she can. Gladion steals TYPE:NULL and Lillie taking Nebby and running away. Lillie going to live with Kukui and Gladion joining Team Skull as their enforcer.

In this timeline, Lusamine, in her desperate need to have control of everything around her, decides that she will create her "perfect world" where she will surround herself with all of the things that she loves. A place where everything will be kept exactly the way she wants them, preserved for all of time, and where she wont ever be alone again. However she knows that she can not do this on her own, but knows who can. Someone younger, stronger, and already has knowledge about the UBs and Aether. Now the hard part is getting him to join her, but she has a plan for that.

Lusamine gets in contact with Guzma (as in this story he still "works" for her) and with the help of some choice words, a good sob story, and probably a fat check, she's able to convince him that she has changed and she wants help from him to convince Gladion of these things as well. Being that he and Gladion are so close, and obviously he trusts him so much, it shouldnt be hard for him to talk some sense into him, right? She does an amazing job at getting Guzma on her side, having him think that Gladion is just being a bratty, rebellious, edgy teen. After all, he comes from some nice rich family, could have anything he wants, and yet still chose to ran away, how bad could it have possibly been? Does he even realize how bad some of these kids have it? How badly HE had it?? So generally he thinks that Gladion is just over reacting/being dramatic. He doesnt know how good he's had it, obviously!

Guzma sets up this whole "ambush". He has Gladion come back to the shady house, getting him inside and cornering him in his room, where he is confronted by Lusamine. She puts on this big show of being the sorry mother just wanting her son back, going on about how she's changed and she didnt mean to do all of those horrible things and so on and so on. All she wants is them to be a family again, like they used to be, is that really so much to ask for? Gladion is already seeing right through this, he knows all of this is bs, but he cant seem to get anyone on his side. After all, the members of Team Skull never really liked him anyway and were only going along with it bc Guzma said so. Now with Guzma against him, he has no real back up. He cant fight back and he cant even escape. Despite his stubborn nature, he still cant overcome the hold his mother has on him after all those years. She very much has him between a rock and a hard place. So not having any other option, he is forced to go back home with her.

Once back home, Gladion's life is turned upside down as Lusamine does everything she can to keep him on a short leash. All freedom that he had is now gone, and he is constantly watched and monitored, its suffocating. Much like before, he's told how to dress, how to act, what to eat and how much, he cant even so much as get near a computer or phone without someone questioning him. He cant even bring out any of his pokemon bc Lusamine has deemed most of them "too dangerous" to have out all under the pretense of doing it for his safety. The only pokemon he's able to have around him is his Umbreon, and even then, she's given a electric collar that keeps her within the property of the house, so no chance of her running off in the middle of the night or anything. While Lusamine insists that shes not keeping him there against his will, she assures him that he's allowed to leave whenever he'd like. Tho she also warns him that if he leaves, then Lillie will be taking his place. She will not be left with an empty nest. Truth be told Lillie probably would have been the easier choice between the two, she also knows that Gladion would do anything to keep her safe. So using her as leverage is how she keeps control over Gladion.

One day Lusamine casually brings up about the "Reconstruct Project" to Gladion (keeping its details very vague), mentioning its something he could help her with, as she thinks he would be interested, He shuts it down saying that he wants no part of whatever she's doing. Lusamine doesnt prese the issue, only expressing disappointment that he wont even consider her offer, but she wont force him. Rather she doesnt want to force him as she wants him to join her willingly. (Even if "willingly" means she'll force his hand) She needs him for this Project. Gladion may be stubborn, but she is so much worse.

After their initial conversation, things only got a lot worse. While he had few freedoms since all of this has started, those are gone now. He becomes cut off from his Pokemon, from the outside, he hardly has a moment of peace where he doesnt feel like he's being questioned or ordered to do something. He really is like a prisoner in his own home (well, a place he once called that). His sanity is being chipped away at, and it comes down to 2 options. -He can either join onto this Reconstruct project, whatever it is. Not knowing what fate could await him or what Lusamine as planned, but at least he'd have a chance at having some sense of a life back and limited freedom.. -Or he can live the rest of his life as Lusamine's puppet, having no freedom or will of his own (<-which is also another story of its own). His life will practically be on auto pilot, forever chained to Aether but never having a say in anything.

It takes some time but eventually Gladion does break, and asks to join the Reconstruct Project, even tho he still has no idea what it is, but anything is better than the life he is living now.

Lusamine is absolutely delighted by this news! And almost instantly, life then turns around for Gladion. He finally is given back some freedom, if not more than what he had before. He is able to move around his home without question. He gets to eat more and better than he did before, putting on some much needed muscle. He's even getting a chance to walk around outside and around the property without having some kind of chaperone. Lusamine even invites him to join her at Aether to over see some projects that they are working on as well as helping with pokemon there. She lets him join her in outings in town, taking him to eat and so on. She's essentially love bombing him, and he hesitantly accepts. All the while this is going on, he still does not know what this Reconstruct Project is bc he cant seem to find any information on it, like it almost doesnt even exist. Whenever he asks about it, Lusamine either skirts around the question or tells him that then only thing he should be concerned about is being in his best physical condition as possible. She assures him that it'll all be worth it, and shes going to give him what he's always wanted: To be stronger. But in order to that, he's going to need some "upgrades. None of this does well to ease any concerns or fears he has, but he's already gotten this far, and he doesnt want to risk going to how things were before so.. whatever it is, he's in it for better or worse. Gladion undergoes a very extensive surgery, with about 80% of his body being "Reconstructed" (hence the name) from the ground up. Its some time later that he wakes up from a induced coma and when he does the reality of what has happened to him is made clear. He is no longer human, or rather, not completely. His body a patch worked mess, a terrible jigsaw amalgamation of human and (shiny) Silvally. Lusamine delivered on her promise to make him stronger, even if she left out the finer details of it.. So that is the Reconstruct story line, or the start of it anyway. From here the story follows along with Gladion changing his name to "Reconstruct" as he has convinced himself that who he once was is no longer him. That part of him died long before it got to this point. His job is that of a glorified errand boy and protector of Aether. He mostly travels through Ultra Space and to different worlds/time to gather up UBs for Lusamine so that she can create her "perfect world". He travels through the worm holes with the aid of an altered Dusk Mane Solgaleo who has been fitted with pieces of Necrozma Armor, that acts a lot like NULL's inhibitor helmet. While its an odd life and something he would have never imagined for himself. He is still very much tied to Aether, at least in this way he has some sense of purpose and freedom. Tho in his time of traveling he has seen much, including other versions of himself (Gladion) living out lives that he knows he could never have, being with people that he cared about, knowing that he cant ever go back to how things were. He's very lonely, bitter, and jaded at the world and others. He's closed off, quick to anger, and untrusting of others. His only real reason to keep going despite everything thats happened is bc of Lillie, as knowing that at least this way he can still protect her. He is content enough to live the rest of his life like this. Even if he has to do it alone. Trying not to think about what might happened when he finishes his mission.. but, well, life certainly has a way of surprising you. And that is the story! I admit that I am going to be very surprised to know if anyone actually read all of this, but if you did please know you have my many thanks and my apologies 😅

[fictionfixations]

Kalim in RSA (and I get off-topic)

Spoilers for Book 4 and 5 (im sorry jamil enjoyers. but im so biased towards kalim its not even funny)

(this spiraled into me talking all about kalim in the actual game so oops)

imagine how different the story would be if kalim was in RSA

and we just hear from jamil about these snippets about his 'master' (although itd be weird they'd be separated if jamil tended to him often to where he'd prob be like his personal servant? idk what situation would have jamil talk to us anyway but yknow maybe we get close, he's like the other friend who seems cool? he'll basically help us out with knowledge about things, fleshing out the world a bit more, as the only sophomore in the group cause he kind of feels responsible maybe? then BETRAYAL)

and then eventually partway through the school year KALIM IS THERE (we know why though) and he somehow ends up housewarden.

i have a dislike against RSA. its very petty and its kind of because they keep winning (and they dont even mean ill intent which is worse! …but its kind of like kalims kindness. and i like kalim but that might make me biased. SO. thus the existence of this.)

we probably wouldnt like him much right? (and i imagine he'd get his fair share of bullies. we find this out. he laughs it off like 'nah, im used to attempted assassinations and everything. this isnt nearly as bad.')

(id do the clapping between but ppl get annoyed, and i get annoyed) CUE KALIM BEING MORE THAN SMILES AND WE LEARN THAT ABOUT HIM !!

HES aware enough that he can cook food good using JUST magic (which takes precision to use it as good or even better than your hands right??. its in his labwear vignette. ruggies teaching him ofc so ruggie wants it to be good cause hes taking leftovers, BUT CMOONNN he can learn. ..and yeah it took a few years for jamil to teach kalim antidotes to common poisons so he could do it easy but kalims hardly a master at making potions so i call that good)

AND in book 5 he noticed vil had like the same look as jamil to where he knew something was going to go wrong (aka the poisoning)

maybe its to show how much kalim doesnt belong in NRC and thats why they dont pull the 'more than he looks at first glance' like cater with glimpses in vignettes and etc

but like COME ON.

the sultan might be dumb (i recently re-watched aladdin) but at least he knew enough that he didnt want jafar marrying his daughter cause hes OLD and also he doesnt want to force jasmine into anything (good intentions. im sure if they just waited and she didnt find a suitor in time he would've just CHANGED THE LAW like he did IN THE MOVIE because he wants her to be happy!)

ALSo he tried to look through the law jafar claimed to say that would make her have to be married to the vizier or whatever (aka jafar) but then jafar just pulled it away before he could (and then attempted to mind control him when he refused) mans was prepared to spend hours reading over it even if he didnt understand it but he wasnt given the chance

also kalim is worryingly nonchalant about stuff. i mean. you can get used to horrible things to where they just feel so normal and uninmportant i guess? but poor bby. hes been like 'i want to keep myself alive because if i die then someone else will get punished.' or like about poisoning, if someone has a change of mind and hes already dead, then he cant do something to help them, so he has to make sure he'll live.

..i really doubt that hes just. so oblivious. maybe in denial, but still.

anyway i got very off topic. my bad. and to be fair we do get to see more of him at some parts. but hhh

okay listen. denial. (i am also a believer that if when kalim confronted jamil, if he said he didnt do anything kalim wouldve believed him. bruh gave him excuses like '..i just got tired, right?')

"The real Jamil would never do such things! He's a good guy. He's always helping me, giving me a shoulder to lean on, and—" (Book 4 • Chapter 33)

we just. dont see him really crumble?? he just. keeps being optimistic

we convince him jamil is bad. he resolves to punch him for being a traitor and THATS IT?

he sobs at the end of jamils overblot but then he goes back to being optimistic like 'lets be equals!' (..it feels like he didnt really learn much though as he's still 'I didn't notice--' 'I--' and i wish he couldve gotten more awareness. cause he makes it about himself yknow and blaming himself but COME ON put some blame on jamil PLEASE? or like. ANYONE ELSE. you also cant notice shit if no one ever tells you about it that you dont even know to look for it! he doesnt want to be cautious about who he can trust so like, why would he think to doubt the person who hes known his entire life??? especially if its something that was just always there that it feels natural, how could he know better? hes sheltered! so someone shouldve explained it to him, made him realize things! aghhh)

heres the book 5 one btw

"I got a real bad feeling when I saw the look on your face after Neige's rehearsal. It was practically the same look I saw on Jamil's face when he lost control of himself over holiday break." (Book 5 • Chapter 62)

And I mean maybe he did learn in that he's more aware of this now than others because he knows what people could look like because of Jamil, but I feel like a lot of things were just so unsaid. That the first time blindsided him, but now he's kind of a little more worried about something happening while he's there that he didn't notice so now he's trying to notice things more??? Or like maybe having gut feelings that he'd ignored before because it was Jamil but now knowing better?

So he can be aware. but then the rest of the time he's just thought of as dumb or an idiot or forgetful and it just makes me sad. and i mean i get that he wants to see the best in people but we never really talk about how its more that its denial. a refusal to see it, and i want to understand why

or maybe its because he sees the good in people that he trusts they'll do the right thing. or he believes that the good outweigh the bad (although i dont know if it'd be the same case if it was someone he knew who got hurt)

like. okay back in book 5

"Besides, I would bet there isn't a single person in Scarabia who hasn't gotten help from Jamil at some point. Am I right?"

"See? There you go. He's been a model vice housewarden. In fact, he's put me to shame. He let dark thoughts get the better of him for a brief time. Other than that, he's a perfectly capable guy." (Book 5 • Chapter 10)

He justifies it with that Jamil isn't the only one to blame (he also blames himself), and that Jamil hadn't done anything wrong before then

which. AGAIn. means that in his eyes the good outweigh the bad. jamils better at his duties so jamil should stay as vice housewarden.

this was the first time jamil did anything bad so it'd be fine, it was just an error in judgment

AGHHh

nothing about the fact that his closest friend he views as a brother

"He's grown up with Jamil since a young age, and considers him a brother in all but blood." (from the In-game Album)

who would be the last person he'd expect to do such a thing BETRAYS HIM, planning to make everyone (or well just the people in scarabia) turn against him

like. that has to be a shock right??? AND THEN HE JUST. welcomes him back into his life like it was nothing im just. kALIM. SWEETIE.

and i mean i get its for the best since if anyone knew what actually happened anything could happen to jamil (and jamil has his own reasons i get that but this is about kalim)

but he still hangs around him. has him as his aide. so while something did change, it also feels like nothing changed at the same time.

"I'm always chosen. Always. That's such an obvious truth that I never even consciously processed it. But now I see that was only possible because of Jamil's constant sacrifices. He created that "truth" in my mind by always holding back. By always letting me win. ...It stings. "Galling" doesn't even begin to describe it." (Book 5 • Chapter 30)

also like one of the very few times he expresses how he feels about something (how it hurts not to be chosen for the first time, and/or that he was only chosen because of someone else so he wants to work hard)

and then grim shuts him down with "You wanna talk about galling? Imagine how I feel not even makin' the cut for the audition to start with."

like. COME ON.

Kalim responds with, "Ah, you're right. My bad! I didn't mean to rub it in. Goodness, there I go again! I'm super sorry, honest."

and yeah it can seem kind of spoiled but also. its probably because of that that he doesnt want to share his troubles because he's very privileged so it feels like he might not deserve to act like its anything when everyone else has to work so much harder, right?

AND ITS JUST. REAFFIRMING TO HIM THAT his troubles are nothing compared to anyone elses and im just aghhauihduadhw

he also cares a lot about other people (people like him as housewarden because he listens to their troubles and supports them) so i just. want him to be able to take a moment to care about himself and just admit these things that he usually doesnt get the chance to.

i got a lot more worked up than i meant to

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

Honestly, Im a little disappointed that it wasn't messier. Im disappointed that there wasnt more shouting. That Lauda was providing most of the pushing and everyone else was just kinda... rolling over? I wanted an argument that would have brought the roof down on them 🙄

the reason theres so much constant tension in this party is that they all havent tried hard enough to punch each other in the face - like really smash.

to be totally serious tho, remember when Chetney told Ashton to gtfo and thats what broke the tension? someone finally getting the guts to be mean and to push hard on someone else's reckless bullshit?

the fact that theres no such equivalent here? the fact that chetney hasnt intervened on that level? thats whats keeping this tension.

on one hand, the way some of the party treat laudna is so fucking patronizing, its actively painful - Ashton whispering to Laudna for an apology? wtf? the way they acted like she was a misbehaving toddler set my teeth on edge. Then Imogen... Buddy, pal, you just watched your mother regurgitate Ludinus's lies like they were stone cold facts and youre out here accepting the same thing from Laudna without a second glance. You know she has a problem! You know she's not the most reliable narrator! You know she fails insight checks against herself all the time!!!

Ashton and Imogen both needed to treat Laudna like a threat in that moment bc she attacked someone without provocation during a rest when they were trusting her to not do that and it was clearly premeditated because she covered herself in darkness. The fact that they dont demonstrates that neither are taking her capabilities seriously enough. The fact that they arent addressing the threat she presents - to others and herself - is allowing her to continue hurting herself and others.

Whereas, Fearne is complicit in it all because shes so conflict averse. She was never gonna be the one to hold Laudna over the fire.

Chetney and Orym would have. Orym was trying to but literally only Dorian backed him up. And Dorian doesnt know fuck about all. He joined them two days ago. Hes got no fucking clue whats happening!! Oryms the only one really pointing out the fact that he was attacked unprovoked

and sure laudna was aiming for the sheathe, but thats splitting hairs... i believe we removed targeting each armor piece somewhere in dnd 3.5 or something lol - if youre targeting a piece on someone, the usual call Matt makes is to give this a higher DC. Matt making Marisha roll arcana makes sense bc yes you can control wither and blooms "chosen target", but when the target is attached to something else, and moreover the target is a thing - not a creature like the spell says RAW... it makes sense that a failed arcana check would lead to that failure

for all intents and purposes, laudna was aiming for orym. she didnt mean to hurt him but again, shes operating under the influence (and yes I do mean that connotation). a lot of people do shit they dont mean under the influence. but they still gotta do the repairs when they come back to their senses. harm was still done. Orym attacking laudna bc he was hurt and blinded is also fucking reasonable. he didnt fucking know it was her in the first place.

for laudna to say that orym hurt her when she attacked him - that was grade A manipulation

and heres the thing too, when someone is acting under the influence, people usually call it out. they say stuff like "youre drunk" or "youre high" to acknowledge that hey, this isnt you but also this isnt acceptable either. no one breathed a fucking word about delilah until the very very end. they all treated laudna like she was in a reasonable state of mind, and she wasnt. they werent meeting her where she was at and so they failed to reach her

now to orym... did they all agree that the sword was oryms? bc that was a discussion they did not have... chetney made a one off comment about how theyll need permission for it (possibly implying orym but never explicitly stated)... was the idea that orym gets it because he got hurt first? that wouldve been stupid for sure

to dorian's point, hey its just a sword. swords hurt people. what youre gonna look at every sword with magic geometry and expect to see it cuddling puppies? swords are made to hurt. even when its defending. it can parry but if you need a shield get a shield. sure, this was otohan's sword but the sword is not sentient (laudna girl you need to insight check your patron pls). otohan hurt her not the sword. and to allow her to consume it was more leaning into her trauma - its not setting a good precedent for future healthy coping mechanisms basically

that said, dorian cant just say that without acknowledging the depth of laudnas trauma. the sword actively triggered her. this does reek of a PTSD episode where she went running to a soothing influence. to simply say its just a sword without paying respect to laudna's hurt is also incredibly dismissive - well aimed as it was.

chetney is sus. thats it. thats the take. i dont believe this old man when he said he trusts laudna. i think hes plotting

tl;dr - everyone tried to help laudna, no one tried to stop her which might be the only way to help her now. she needs someone to hold her back and call out when shes under the influence again.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hello, this is your Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™️ I came across this Anon (https://the-bjd-community-confess.tumblr.com/post/757452685040631808/im-surprised-acbjd-isnt-an-official-dealer-for ) and their question-to-the-aether, and I think I know the answer. It’ll most likely answer a few other questions that have been floating around here as well. At least I think so, anyhow… I’ll try!

For starters, let me introduce you to something called the Universal Postal Union (Union postale universelle, UPU. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union). For something so archaic, it is actually the largest reason why a lot of things that we complain about are the way they are. Anything shipped and mailed internationally follows the rate set up by the UPU. According to these international rates, it’s much cheaper to send anything by mail from Asia to Europe or North America. And it’s more expensive to send from South Korea than it is from China. This is why it makes sense that dealers based in China are able to offer free shipping – shipping is cheap enough originating from China that the dealers can absorb that cost. This is also why dealers based in China rarely deal for any company that are not Chinese in origin. It means the dealers will have to eat twice the amount of shipping (from country of origin to China and from China to final destination). It’s usually too cost prohibitive to do something like that, unfortunately.

This also reminds me of the question posted by an exasperated Anon a while back (https://the-bjd-community-confess.tumblr.com/post/748048371225346048/its-hysterical-that-divas-doesnt-understand-how ). Now, here’s a bit of a disclaimer: this specific dealer had shafted yours truly as well. After waiting for 2 years for a body with jointed hands, I was informed earlier this year that it was lost in transit. It’s a most dissatisfying result to a very long wait, and even if I was refunded the whole purchasing price, it was still left me with some distaste. I just wanted to make sure that nobody thinks the OCDA™️ is taking sides or deliberately speaking ill of either side of the conversation. Please understand, that is never the intention.

America-based dealers, like the ones mentioned in these conversations, are dealing with the unenviable position of paying two different shipping fees. They are also at a great disadvantage when it came to the UPU rates – shipping from the US is among one of the most expensive around the world, not to mention tariffs and import taxes. This is why Canadian collectors are usually disadvantaged when buying from US collectors. Even in the case where the overall distance between seller and buyer is shorter, as long as a package crosses national lines, the tariffs become significant.

Commercial shipping is, unfortunately, a little more complicated than someone shipping directly to the end-user after all. Trying to save on shipping becomes something that dealers try to do. One way of doing it is to take in the price difference and defray it on to the buyers, which is another reason why certain dealers have astronomical shipping/handling charges. Using land/water shipping is also a little cheaper than flying. But here is where the other conundrum lies – When a container tilts or falls into the water it’s considered lost. Recovery is a herculean task and it usually means the cargo in there is considered junked anyway (more information here: https://maritime-executive.com/editorials/what-happens-when-containers-are-lost-at-sea ) For smaller companies (BJDs are classified as micro-companies), they need to share containers with other people. This is something that’s actually badly controlled in China due to corrupt bureaucracy (so, once again, without taking sides, the OCDA™️ can vouch for what these guys said in this post to be true: https://www.facebook.com/BJDivas/posts/pfbid02tL96kt9R6vw546CZhe4V8EW7Fx7qqhx9NGzWjozVtbnqadR8yank69spfYjtMkn1l ) What they didn’t mention is what happens when a container falls over. While each container is insured, the value of the cargo is based on “What’s the declared content” and not “everything inside”. Imagine if a container that is filled with mostly clothes and it keels over, the insurance payout is relatively low due to the nature of -most- of its cargo. In that case, both the shipper and the receiver (the Dealer, in this case) incurs huge losses – a loss that cannot be defrayed on the final customer because they never received what they paid for.

As the child of parents who were importers and wholesalers, these intricacies of international shipping were something of a constant nightmare for us. You can imagine my surprise when I realised that the Chinese dealer ships to me for free… I was used the family business ordering enough stock to fill half a 50’ container about 6-12 months prior to it arriving. It’s the part of doing business that folks don’t really spend too much time thinking of, but it can really be at somewhere between 1/10 to 1/4 of the final MSRP. (If everything went well, of course. Because that’s not always possible for many, many reasons.) All of this need money, which means for a micro-company, the shipping is even more expensive. This is why while the labour cost in China is indeed quite low, the reason for the high price is -not- because of that.

Of course, the OCDA™️ would like to stress that while shipping is very difficult, it doesn’t fully absolve the dealer mentioned by the Exasperated Anon. There are a lot more things that could be done in terms of communication and streamlining the process. There’s just nothing for it. I’d like to extend my sympathy to anyone who feels that they are wronged by this dealer; heaven knows, I am one of you, too.

~Anonymous

[vorecommunitywoes]

if tinysuzy didnt block me u guys would have seen this earlier lol

more under the cut

pineapple, the red paste comment was literally on something u posted tht she reblogged. this is violent rhetoric that should never be encouraged. if you have a friend who talks about how they want to harm people who disagree with them, that is dangerous. you know those posts that talk about how you should never talk negatively about yourself because then you become more negative in general and hurt your self worth, especially if youre prone to things like depression and anxiety? thats the same logic here. if you express violent thoughts without any thought or care, or with a tone of genuinely wanting to do it, you are one step closer to being a violent person.

the admitting to reblogging blogs with nsfw on them (THE PERSON TINYSUZY IS TALKING ABOUT PROMOTES THEIR NSFW ON THEIR BLOG WITH MULTIPLE POSTS) because "minors can tell the difference between sfw and nsfw vore" when the line for kinks like vore are blurry. just bcuz theres no dicks in the art or other stuff doesnt mean that its ok for a minor to see. maybe the op intended it to be sexual and just isnt tagging it as nsfw because of the lack of genitals. if you post nsfw fetishes, and then post ab them with no mentions of genitals, that doesnt mean its immediately sfw.

and i am not "accusing things out of your control", suzy. YOU control what you post. YOU control what you reblog. YOU control your ability to do the bare minimum of checking if youre talking to someone who DOESNT WANT YOU TO TALK TO THEM because their content is SEXUAL. and they dont want your CHILDREN FOLLOWING to see their porn. THIS IS INHERENTLY ENDANGERING MINORS YOU SO WISH TO "PROTECT". that should NOT be the baseline of a "well respected person" in a fetish community.

would someone who posts about their feet fetish, or diapers, or pee or masochism/sadism fetishes to minors be ok if it was completely nonsexual? and if they reblog from ppl who post both sexual and nonsexual feet/pee/diaper posts for kids to see be ok? think about it. ppl can experience those kinks nonsexually, would it be ok for them to talk about minors to it? why or why not?

also i literally have evidence of her reblogging from nsfw ppl who didnt want their stuff to be seen to minors, its in my first post. there are screenshots and an archive link. her ignoring these ppls sexual boundaries is DANGEROUS. if you just took a look you would see it , and there are multiple ppl who agree with the ARCHIVED LINKS THAT CANT BE DELETED BY HER. (if u dont know what archiving links are, it means preserving a page forever and even if someone deletes the post it will still be on the internet and searchable). i dont know if you accidentally missed the "read more" part of the post, but you can click on that and it shows:

an archive link of the post (a screenshot that a bot takes and uploads what it sees when the page is loaded. i couldnt archive the page as a webpage for some reason but this is the second best thing)

and a screenshot of the person she reblogged from either saying their content is sexual or they dont want minors seeing it.

also like. cmon. thats an ableist comment, pineapple. dont do that, insulting people based off of characteristics they cant change (like someones intelligence, appearance, gender identity, race, or stuff like calling someone ugly or a slur, etc) hurts your friends more than it will ever hurt the person ur insulting. dont internalize behavior like that, criticize the actions, not the traits a person has.

and to clarify i dont blame anyone for not getting involved in this. i just wanted to spread a message about a very clear example of how easy it can be to expose minors to porn in this community, even if you dont intent it IT STILL HAPPENS.

[ghoulodont]

ok i want to make just one post about my thoughts & intentions from my latest fic. based on the tags/comments you all left it seems that overall everyone understood me. but theres one additional piece that i think i didnt represent well because its confusing, and that maybe would be hard to pick up on anyway because, again, its confusing.

i think dew is both aware and in denial in a way that might seem contradictory. he claims to know something is wrong, and that he knows it more than anyone else, but he rejects rains urging for him to actually address the problem. i suppose you could read it as him being deceptive in some way but i wanted him to be very very honest. he is genuinely struggling to wrap his head around these seemingly contradictory thoughts.

my intention was for this to parallel what i perceive to be an inherently contradictory aspect of psychosis. because what youre experiencing feels real to you, it sort of feels normal. it feels like something happening outside you. compare it to anxiety, for example -- both can be distressing experiences out of your control but anxiety is something that happens inside you (perhaps in reaction to external events, but the anxiety itself is yours), while psychosis, generally speaking, feels like it belongs to the outside world. in reality its an experience that isnt shared by others but it really feels like it is, or that it could be. maybe this is sort of obvious based on the definition of psychosis but i feel like just considering the definition doesnt quite do it justice.

and because it feels like it belongs to the outside world it can be challenging to confidently distinguish between things that are real to everyone and things that are real only to you. some external reality checking logic needs to be applied. again, maybe this is obvious. i guess what i really am trying to lead up to is how in this dichotomy between sensory experience and logic, its so hard to not believe your sensory experience, in a sort of lizard brain screaming at you way. it just makes so much more sense if your experience matches reality than to jump through a bunch of hoops reminding yourself why it doesnt. occams razor says you dont have schizophrenia.

this experience, which at its extreme would mean being unable to tell that you're unwell, is considered a core dimension of schizophrenia. people who get really medical and scientific with it will say its because of something happening in the brain (isnt everything?) but i think what i described above fully explains it. its confusing, so it makes sense to be confused.

honestly i think this adds to the conflict, that providers can be very quick to doubt your description of your own experience because they try to correct for this "blindness". its dehumanizing to be viewed this way. i really think it makes everything worse by playing into the "split" between ones thoughts and reality. i find myself not wanting to share things if i know im going to be argued with, and then by pulling away im losing one more point of contact with the outside world.

but besides all that i do think for dew theres an aspect of just plain denial & avoidance as well. a good 20% of the original blur turns to haze fic was about how miserable it is to take antipsychotics but it was mostly focused on the side effects. in my experience even once you find one where the side effects are tolerable its still unpleasant. in the same way antidepressants might cause you to feel somewhat emotionally blunted antipsychotics are like that x1000. they really do feel like a drug you give someone to make them shut up. maybe thats just me.

anyway, this is something i want to focus on in chapter 4 of you will die again...... which i am totally working on. i would be curious to know if this aligns with how you read the fic or not but no pressure of course

[wormbloggign]

dream sequence babeyy!!

ive heard of people realising theyre dreaming by noticing things that are out of order but combining that with how much taylors fighting style of switching out her knife and baton leads her to instinctually search for her backup tool (even without her explicit weapons she has a lot of preprepared tools to work with in a pinch, like how she selectively readies her insect loadout or the utilities of tissues and coins) really elevates the moment for me

this girl has battle trauma! (not an actual diagnosis)

and she's pulled back in! this dream sequence isnt letting you out without a fight!

damn girl what happened to make you so v- oh yeah i forgot

outside of the child soldier conditioning of it all, this is really funny

if taylor didnt have a horiffic pre-hero cape life, this would be noelle "healing" her of the horrors

ITS THE FLOCKER (FLESH LOCKER)

ah, i had misinterpreted the dreams premise. WORST DAYS WORLD TOUR BABEYYY!!!!

(she might be here a while)

taylors two worst enemies; machines and heat

its good to know ammo doesnt reset when entering a new level (sorry, that one was in poor taste)

that team-up would be devastating, a firework that turns all organisms left in the fall-off carnivorous (and hungry) or a flash-grenade that leaves a slow growing network of skin that links up to people on contact, hooking into their nervous system and pain receptors. wish we couldve seen it

skitters pure tactical sense makes two of her an absolute nightmare to fight against, combining that with the removal of her normal ethical restrictions means one hell of a boss fight

i cant believe evil skitter gets to do quips. well at least a version of taylor gets to achieve her dreams

thats what happens when you keep a bird themed character in a cage, eventually theyre going to fly free

on a side note, how's canary going?

an interesting lineup, i guess hookwolf didnt leave much of an impression

is... is weld immune to echidnas power because of his lack of biomatter?

thematically resonant if true.

i wonder if she can do what panacea did and supply the bugs with interference, shutting down the line of control

nah amy was probably doing horrifically unethical things to those bugs minds and bodies, it's what she does when she isnt restricted by her code

i love it when we get to see a characters actions taken out of context and suddenly our pattern recognition brain starts to construct a false narrative of intent

#justevillawyerthings

ok no yeah that ones exactly what you think it was

(theres no way weld isnt at least suspicious of corruption within his ranks)

i LOVE niche power interactions and their implications

(rachel has, in some way been harming even those she holds closest through her lashing out and her violent tendencies)

dont even worry about it bestiee

they wanted your head long before this

[musubiki]

If Lime is on more equal terms with Mochi being in the m34th what would a battle between the two of them be like? Or would they have like a “battle” cause one of Lime’s missions was to get a read on the cat witch or something of the sort. Or angst battle that’s always steamy👀

I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS THE OTHER DAY!!!!!!!!! a fight between them would just be itching with banter and sexual tension so ofc i would love to see it heheheeh

many things to consider though on that fight.. aside from the fact that theyre in love and could never seriously hurt each other, in an actual serious fight assuming that wasnt an issue, im gonna use this as an excuse to ramble about general strengths and weaknesses (can also be applied to most witches and members of the m34th):

mochi is obviously the cat witch, extremely powerful magic. GREAT magic attacks and environmental control (ie using magic as the means but the end attack isnt actual "magic", like using magic to grab a tree and smashing them with it). she also has essentially unlimited resources in the idea that magic can do or summon anything she needs.

magic attacks alone unfortunately dont mean much against a black canvas. environmental control is still a plus (high res doesnt mean you can survive a boulder to the face), but another thing to consider is that as a witch, she cant kill anyone, and so cant fight with lethal force & has to hold back on all her attacks. another thing to consider is that the magic is limited, so she can always be worn down to exhaustion.

magic is okay (at best) for deflecting/shielding against the m34ths technology weapons (the idea is that the tech is advanced enough to be on par with magic weapons), and shes also okay (at best) at any hand-to-hand fighting (shes not amazing at it since most of her stock goes into magic, and lime is also taller/stronger so she would lose that fight). also dont forget shes very weak to water so if lime could factor that in, thats also something to consider

NOW FOR LIME, the obvious strength is the magic res. magic attacks like mochis magic swords/weapons/blasts dont do much to him. he has the tech weapons to break any magic shields she can use. as already mentioned hes taller (longer reach) and stronger so hand-to-hand is a no brainer, and more importantly hes not a witch so he can fight with the intent to kill (doesnt necessarily apply to them since theyre not trying to kill each other, but applies for a general fight between a witch and an m34th member). another thing to consider is limes running theme of being amazing at everything he does, so hes no run of the mill m34th guy, hes a cut above in terms of strength/strategy/smarts/skill

lime in particular though is cocky by nature, and a bit impatient. hes FAR more likely to do risky attacks and take chances if it MIGHT end the fight quicker, rather than taking a bit more time for a guaranteed success (kinda like in a pokemon battle when you know one more hit from the enemy will down your buddy, but you choose to attack anyway on the off-chance you land a crit and end the fight rather than using the turn to heal). also as mentioned earlier, high res doesnt mean high def so if the witch is smart enough she can still beat you by things like summoning a boat and smashing you with it. the m34th spends so much time fighting magic that they forget they can still be killed by normal things which is hilarious to me

ALL IN ALL THOUGH in a fight between mochi and lime i think lime would win. just from the fact that neither of them would be fighting full strength/trying to kill each other, and it would most likely come down to hand-to-hand since mochi wouldnt drop a building on him, lime would win.

(but in the scenario i was thinking, it was mochis grandma having them spar so she can evaluate mochis skill against an m34th member. mochis grandma is known to be hard on her, so lime held back a little more and let her win so she wouldnt have her family being like "shame...what kinda cat witch loses...."

she realizes this after the fact and when she asks him about it, he tells her something like "I know you were holding back a lot cuz you didn't want to hurt me, and I'm a lot better than a lot of people in the m34th. I'm telling you this right now: you would win against them in an actual fight. You don't need your grandma breathing down your neck for the next 4 months trying to drill more training into you." and thats why she loves him)