#but the other path... i can't.

[noxtivagus]

sorry

[hedgehog-moss]

These days Poldine gets to go out for a little walk every day at apéritif time, because she's a good llama who doesn't bother my guests (too much) (she does ask for baby carrots and kisses) and she always returns to her pasture without a fuss. It's become a nice little summer evening ritual.

And it happened several times that Pampérigouste didn't see me open the gate for her daughter, and, when she realised Poldine was out, became genuinely puzzled as to how her prim and proper kid found a way out that she hadn't.

Pampelune would be allowed to go out too, but most of the time she's content to stay in the pasture with Pirlouit; it's only Pampe who (once she realises her daughter can't possibly have escaped on her own and I must have facilitated it) is like

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

I said I wasn't going to get started on the topic of Aveline ruining Carver's chances with the guard but I lied okay, it's Carver Hawke defense hours.

Here's the thing; it doesn't matter if you believe Carver was or wasn't fit for the guard. That's a different debate that I'll get to. What matters is Aveline's in no position to tell the guard not to accept his application. Why does she think that's her right to judge whether or not he's fit?

Carver should've had the chance to prove himself one way or another. If it turns out he's not a good fit, then let him fail. Let him learn from it.

"Oh but failure could mean lost lives-"

Aveline doesn't get to talk shit about failure and the people. Plenty have died on her watch yet she still believes she's a good guard and Guard-Captain.

"maybe Aveline's protecting him, Carver could die while on patrol-"

Carver could die working in the Bone Pit, or serving as a templar, or when he's running around with Hawke. Carver could trip and fall down a set of stairs and die. In fact, he can die in the Deep Roads, somewhere he wouldn't have to go if the Hawke's weren't desperate.

Either Carver fails as a guard, or more likely, he succeeds and proves himself worthy of it.

But let's be real, Carver probably kept getting rejected due to being a Fereldan with a past of smuggling/mercenary work and Aveline only reaffirmed the decision, either because they asked her what she thought or she stuck her nose in unprompted.

But what irritates me is that she admits to telling them not to accept his application, and then has the balls to call Carver too proud to take up a trade or find another line of work.

Carver tells her, "And who would take on a Fereldan apprentice? Maybe in another year I could work my way up to pissboy." He has a good point here. Aside from the guard, the only other place Carver could work and use his skillset is with the Templars. Or go back to mercenary/smuggling work.

And Aveline doesn't even have a real answer for him. No suggestions, no encouragement, nothing. Just "Fine, let's crawl down some holes. Good bloody luck for your sake."

Also, if you do the Mark of the Assassin DLC in Act 1-

Aveline: You should see if any of the noblemen are looking for new men-at-arms. Carver: Are you trying to get rid of me? Aveline: It's a role with some autonomy. A good fit with your training and... tendencies. Carver: After serving King Cailan? You want me to suffer some poncy git who needs two servants to wipe his own ass? I'll find my own way, thanks. Aveline: I wish you would.

You wish he would?? Aveline, he was trying to find his way into the guard, a position he'd make a good fit for, and you helped deny him of it because YOU didn't think he would be good enough, I just-

If I haven't made it clear yet, I firmly believe that Carver would've made a great guard. He wants to help people, to be a protector. He's loyal, and despite what Aveline claims, he can follow orders and take his duty seriously. We see him do incredibly well with the Grey Wardens, after all. If he were a guard, he wouldn't have to go down into the Deep Roads with Hawke, and I think he would've been okay with that! He's so hurt and bitter when you leave him behind because that effectively tells him, "I don't need you." Carver's spent the whole first act telling you he wants to go on the expedition aka that he wants to be needed.

But if he were a guard, he would be needed elsewhere. He'd be in training as a recruit. He'd look after Leandra while you go. He wouldn't be backed into a corner with no income and only the templars left as his chance at forging his own path and providing for his family.

He doesn't get that opportunity, though.

By the way, if he becomes a warden, you can get this banter:

Aveline: I'm glad you found a place with the Wardens. Carver: Well, it's not the city guard, but it'll do. Aveline: Carver... it wasn't the place for you. Carver: No, it's all right. It is. It cost a lot, but I get it. I really was a bit of a tit those days, wasn't I? Aveline: Well...

This banter makes me want to scream.

Aveline's just... she's so insistent that she's right. She's someone who will double down rather than entertain the idea that she's wrong and it's not just with Carver and the guard, it's with everything. The "my beef with Aveline" list gets longer and longer every time I replay da2, I swear.

Say what you will about Carver, whether you think he would've been a good fit or if Aveline's right and it wasn't for him, he was denied a chance and it cost him so much in the end. He either dies, or he joins the templars where he deals with Chantry's bullshit trying to brainwash him with "mages aren't people" and "magic is a cancer in this world", or he's infected with the blight and becomes a Grey Warden, forced to serve the rest of his life fighting darkspawn, tormented by voices and nightmares.

I will never not be bitter about this.

[aq2003]

see normally i try to avoid and dislike using "they're ooc" as a criticism bc it's been historically used to flatten out a character's flaws. i want to use any possible in universe route to explain what's going on regardless of whether it aligns w authorial intent or not. anyway i think ten is ooc in girl in the fireplace

[coquelicoq]

what i love about the Famous Actor Natori Shuuichi of it all is that...it's not just that he's famous and therefore widely recognizable wherever he goes. like yes that is very funny because he was an exorcist before he became a famous actor, which means he CHOSE, on purpose, a day job that would make it harder to hide his double life/secret identity from the hordes of his adoring public, but it's more than that. it's not just that he's famous, it's that he's famous specifically for being an ACTOR, aka a person whose job it is to dissimulate, to make believe, to inhabit roles and emotions other than his own. like he decided he was going to become as visible as possible (which again was literally not necessary! he could have gone into any other career for his day job!!) but in such a way that everyone would see him but no one would see him - they would just see his various made-up personas, including the Famous Actor Natori Shuuichi persona. i can't decide if he's a genius or if he just made so many absurd decisions that they canceled each other out and circled back around to working out. he's either playing 9-dimensional chess or he's eating the pieces. too soon to say.

[lunarharp]

"Found out" set in kind of a made-up chapter where the girls are in trouble, or something.

[chocoenvy]

SAGAU!Vampire reader x various

uhhhh.. y-yeah... while i was sick i had two fic ideas, this being one of them. I could barely write them bc i had a massive headache. So fuck you inspiration, coming at the worst time >:(

Warnings: Completely SFW, slightly comical, all of the characters mentioned act like simps

You had given them everything, weapons and artifacts they could only dream of. Shown them things they never would've gotten the chance to otherwise. Taken their monotonous lives and turned them on their heads, traveling every corner of the world with them and holding their hand along the way so loving and tight.

You were so real in their world of fake skies, staring fondly at them from beyond the stars and abyss.

So, naturally, the moment your gaze became concrete and close, they'd treat it as a divine gift. They'd treat you like a divine gift.

You were a nervous wreck entering this world, much unlike the statues they'd carved in your image, all of which were poised and graceful. Then again, nothing about the statues they'd made reflected how you actually appeared nor acted.

The mostly glaringly obvious issue was... well...

"Please suck my blood, your grace!" Venti was already all over you, his arms wrapped around yours and his head tilted to the side to fully expose his neck, "You can take as much as you want."

With a completely serious expression, Ei grasped the bard's shoulder with unrelenting strength, "Your grace," She didn't even spare him a glance, her striking purple gaze completely settled onto you, "Ignore him. Please, take my blood instead. I won't feel a thing due to my new body."

Zhongli was very obviously gritting his teeth at the other two archons, he grabbed both of them by the collar of their shirts and tugged them away from you, "Both of you need to calm down. This is very unflattering behavior to be displaying in front of their grace."

The glares the two gave him looked as though they were ready to start another archon war.

"It's-it's fine... I just..." You fumbled with your words, admittedly flustered at how willingly they were to give up their blood to you. "Do-" You coughed into your hand to get rid of some of your embarrassment, "Do you... even have blood, Ei?"

She blinked and a soft dust of blush appeared on her face, "Ah... Well, I suppose there's only one way to find out." She nodded self-assuringly.

"A-ah," You chuckled, your face red, "Do- do any of you understand how... uhm... intimate drinking directly from someone's neck is..?"

They all blinked at you owlishly, even their attendants (representatives from each nation, all of which you recognized as characters you knew) stared at you.

A startled laugh escaped your throat, "Oh you-you don't..." Your eyes flickered between the archons and their attendants, all of which were looking at you expectantly. It was odd that you felt like the prey in this situation, "Well, uhm... sucking blood directly from someone - especially their neck - is often seen as a... romantic gesture..."

"So..." Lady Ningguang put her clawed hand up to her mouth in thought, her red eyes peering at you, "Whoever you decide to be your blood bag, is essentially your consort?"

At that Venti's eyes lit up and Zhongli had to physically restrain him from jumping to hug you again. Ei, on the other hand, slightly deflated. If you were right about her not having any blood would she become the least favored? It's a thought that shook her to her core after all these years of being loved by you, your gentle hands taking care of her, would you finally drop her?

"I-I," You stuttered, all the attention on you activating your innate fight or flight. Usually, in these types of situations, you were being hunted. This... was definitely not something you'd ever predicted to happen, "I wouldn't go there yet." You nervously chuckled, "Usually I just drink animal blood and such and even then I drain it out into a container before drinking it. It's been... hm, it's been years since I've had human blood. Maybe since I was a child just cause I was growing a bunch during that time."

You glanced around and noticed their sympathetic gazes, Jean had opened her mouth and you knew what she was about to offer so you beat her to it, waving your hands dismissively, "All that is to say, I don't need human blood. Much less drinking straight from the source."

"But..." Venti pouted, "You deserve some luxuries don't you, your grace?"

You huffed, "Luxuries, Venti, that's what human blood is. Not a regular meal." A dark look overcast your eyes, "I don't want to hurt any of you."

Their hearts clenched as the corners of your mouth tugged down.

"Apologies then, your grace," Jean bowed her head to you, "Just know that if you ever require anything be human blood, animal blood, or anything at all, we'll get it for you." Her smile was warm and comforting, like a vanilla coffee.

A dark part of you salivated at the thought of her blood, whispering in your ear that if you thought she was like vanilla coffee then why don't you take the opportunity presented to you and prove it.

You pushed the thought aside, forcing a smile on your lips, "Thank you, Jean. I appreciate it." Your fangs flashed through your smile, a natural predatory gleam in your eyes as the thoughts of them so willingly offering themselves to you never left the recesses of your mind.

Your fangs unconsciously elongated. It was obvious that you were hungry from the look in your eyes and now protruding fangs.

"Would you like to eat something?" Zhongli offered with a small smile - though there was a glint in his eyes showing what he'd like to really offer - "Anything you want, we'll get it for you."

You smiled, "Just animal blood is fine-"

As soon as those words left your lips an arrow whizzed in the air and landed on an unsuspecting nearby animal. Venti held a proud grin on his face, prancing over to the animal, his bow disappearing just as fast as it had appeared.

You blinked owlishly as he presented to you, "Here you go, your grace!" He grinned widely, "Completely fresh!" A giggle escaped his throat and - considering the circumstances - it felt a little intimidating.

"Ah- I-" You gingerly took the animal from his hands, "Thank you."

Perhaps it was from the fact you had just been torn away from everything and everyone you'd ever known and called home. Or the fact that you were under quite some stress and you weren't sure when the last time you ate was.

Either way you quite embarrassingly sunk your teeth deep into the small animal. Greedily sucking all of the blood out of it. Under normal circumstances you'd be a lot neater about it, more careful and definitely not eating like this with an audience. But you were under high stress and running low on food so you, quite animalistically, sucked the animal dry.

Once you had gotten your fill, your brain was a lot calmer and clearer. You pulled away, licking any excess from your lips, "Ah, sorry about that. I'm not usually this messy."

You diverted your eyes away from them as you cleaned the blood from off your face and hands. Though, they didn't have the same decency to look away as you did. In fact they were all staring quite unabashedly at you licking away the blood. Jean and Venti were even blushing quite obviously at the scene.

Zhongli sent a dirty glare at the two - Venti mostly - to tell them to calm down and not make you uncomfortable. Jean cleared her throat and forced her blush down, but Venti merely rolled his eyes at Zhongli and continued to enjoy the scene in front of him.

"You're so unprofessional, Venti." Zhongli frowned down at the archon, "Your grace, if you wish, we could provide you a feast back in Liyue."

"Or Mondstadt!" Venti cut in.

"Or Inazuma." Ei frowned at the other two, a dark look in her eyes.

There was tension between those from the three nations as they all glared at you, "So?" Zhongli tore his eyes away from the other two archons, "Which will you choose?"

[roadtripwitch]

Dream telling Hob about all his names when they meet again is sweet, but I think it would be funnier if he just didn't. Showed up 33 years late, immediately admitted they're friends, sits down, asks Hob about what he's been up to, forwards absolutely no information of his own until Hob tentatively asks him what happened, and the Stranger just goes "oh I was detained. It wasn't because of you that I didn't show up. I'm sorry" and doesn't elaborate. Hob thinks the friendship isn't actually solid enough to pry past the guy's very much too guarded eyes, so they keep on this charade of Hob Gadling and his Very Strange Friend. Dream doesn't even tell him he's not the one allowing him to keep living.

I have feelings about this I don't actually think the persevering anonimity is funnier, I think Dream cherishing Hob's willingness to call him friend just because he wants to and not because he knows him as Dream of the Endless with Hob actually just liking him as the Stranger and being distraught he didn't show up and then happy he did, is actually the sweetest scenario.

[sbd-laytall]

They 👏 are 👏 character 👏 foils 👏 and 👏 I 👏 will 👏 die 👏 on 👏 this 👏 hill.

Batman/Spider-Man (1997) #1

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Homage - expression of high regard | something that shows respect or attests to the worth or influence of another.

Bad Buddy Series ep 6 | My School President ep 6

Bonus: #tune in next week for boys not really dating and also performing a tragic romance in ep 7! - @grapejuicegay

[torchickentacos]

Anyways here's to all the people who are technically adults but feel as if they are behind for whatever reason. Be it because the pandemic interrupted the usual milestones of late teens/early 20's (or any age), or because of chronic illness that, by nature, doesn't conform to society's standard ideas of what independence looks like, or because the housing market means they will be living with parents for the foreseeable future, or any wide variety of reasons.

[maddy-ferguson]

i don't like j0pper either but when people say joyce should've stayed with bob they always lose me because i have a hard time believing she even liked the man

[silver-horse]

Astarion alone meets the other spawn and again, the scene is different. He immediately tells them Cazador intends to sacrifice them.

[ikemenomegas]

Omega!Gojo Satoru x Alpha!Reader

I believe we are fated to do the things we choose anyway*

gege akutami is the kind of mangaka who makes fun of almost all their characters. with utmost affection, gojo deserves to be bullied a bit. we love that he's a little heartless, a little frivolous, that he's powerful as a fact, that he cares a little bit strangely, so doing him a bit of justice, here's the mirror to Getou's youth story

tw: canon character death, spoilers for the manga, gojo's emotional constipation and egotism

Toji Zenin cut so many threads the day he arrived on the Tokyo school grounds, but the one between you and Satoru survived. It's already a miracle that Riko was the only one who died that day. The miracle of surviving should have been enough, but now you've lived long enough to find out how much you could love someone too. You get to see how afraid someone is of loving you. Gojo Satoru had one friend. Gojo Satoru had one mate. That was it, that was all he could let himself have.

Springtime Tokyo is still cold. Not as cold as up north in the mountains, but the winter uniforms are blessedly warm. An assistant manager drops you off at Tokyo Jujutsu Technical School on a milky March morning where you are met by Yaga-sensei, the first year teacher.

This teacher has some kind of idea about building community, which is why he's clustered the four of you first-years in the same building, around a loud blue-eyed boy who barely takes one look at you, squinting around a pair of blackout sunglasses, at your purposeful non-expression, before he is grinning, far too wide and it feels like he gets even louder, movements expansive to pull you into the range of an argument he's having with a tall slim boy with long hair tied at the back of his head.

Yaga-sensei just shakes his head and introduces you to Ieri Shoko, who is physically leaning away from the noise as if to escape some blast radius and has the most distant smile you've ever seen in your life on her face.

It's unsettling is what it is. The dark haired boy is just rolling his eyes at the one who had somehow both dismissed you and pulled you into his orbit. The automatic response is to try and get that attention back, but you have at least a little more self respect than that. You climb the stairs to take a room on the same floor to Shoko-san's and leave them to their snipping. You don't see Gojo fall silent for half a second before carrying on bickering, Yaga now stepping in to separate them.

School hasn't quite started yet. It's a boarding school so everyone is just around, getting the lay of the school, setting up their rooms, exploring Tokyo, running into one another and trying to figure out how their pieces fit together.

Satoru has already sorted you all into neat little piles of adjectives

Polite: the boy with the long dark hair, Getou Suguru, although this doesn't necessarily mean nice he notes gleefully. Self righteous and reactive, as in he can be baited into a no holds barred fight, which is new for him. He hasn't been able to fight someone who could hold their ground for more than a minute since he was thirteen. Subversively irreverent.

Morbid: the shortie with the short hair, Shoko Ieri. She discovered her abilities somewhere and even Satoru has to admit some of the diagrams she pulls up are admirably disgusting. Neutral. Satoru has never met someone else who sticks so close to their own whims before but she isn't like anything he expected, dismissive, meandering, goading. And she can't explain how she does what she does, which is aggravating because he can't do it.

And you, the new one. The last to arrive. Fresh meat. Quiet, wary.

You catch him not following you, but showing up near where you are a little too frequently to feel coincidental while you're making a point to meet the upperclassmen. He adds opportunistic and watchful to the list when he notices you do this, but some of the older students seem to find it vaguely endearing - the clan ones like a small animal they can toss treats, the recruited students who aren't trying to suck up to the clan kids with the cautious familiarity of greeting another outsider.

He tries tossing you a treat, granting you some offhanded attention in the common space of what is now the first years' block. Suguru laughs at him when you mostly look confused and apologetically tell him you've never seen either of the movies he wants to debate before refilling your water bottle and wandering back out onto the school grounds with your umbrella.

School starts regardless with some tentative unspoken agreement between the four of you to try and be friends, or at least classmates. There is after all, no one else to be friends with.

Class is boring, so Satoru watches his classmates. Where Shoko is passive and watchful and Satoru is staring into the air, you're openly attentive and Suguru more casually mirrors your attention. Which makes him want to call you another boring small-town bumpkin

Except you are in the same the advanced mechanics elective he is, and you and Shoko become animated discussing the curse anatomy lectures. Yaga takes you away to practice hand-to-hand with his dolls while he lets Satoru and Suguru pummel each other, which makes him think you must be too fragile to handle the two of them. Most people are, so he doesn't think much on it.

Satoru sometimes goes out alone to train when he can't sleep. He lashes out at the wooden dummies on the practice field, ducking under wooden arms and lashing out to see sections of it spin faster. On one of these nights, a week or two into the first year, he sees you standing outside the track, leaning on a railing, face buried in a thick scarf. He's aware of your vague attention, watching him without any particular interest, like how one might watch water sliding under a bridge, but when he sneaks a glance around the practice dummy, you're just as often more fixated on the sky. The moon is full and you're watching the clouds chase across the deep blue expanse, listening to Gojo Satoru's knuckles impacting on wood. And then at some point, he looks over and you're gone, your weird cursed energy signature fading in the dark.

Satoru only sees your technique the first time a substitute makes you spar with everyone else during training while Yaga is away. Apparently the teacher is someone you know because you get into the first argument he's ever seen before you send a spear flying so fast it hits the center of a target and topples it over.

The same teacher makes you fight Satoru, to already defeated attempts at appalled refusal. He'd usually help you push back just on principle, but he hasn't gotten to go on a mission with you yet and his sometimes oppressive curiosity has settled on whether you actually can keep up with him after all.

You can't, but this is Gojo Satoru at fifteen, not fully realized, and the first time he fights you he amends how he feels about "opportunistic". He flies right at your face and swears he makes contact, but you step back at the last minute and he feels an impending impact from his left that is almost the same strength as his own attack. He tries again and you twist out of the way much faster than he had expected. He tries to throw you and you end up descending slowly to the ground, trying to get the teacher to end the bout. Eventually Satoru overwhelms you and breaks your arm when you try to block too many hits in rapid succession. Shoko fixes it, and you wince with gritted teeth and tears in your eyes but don't cry or sob or glare at him with the kind of face that is calling him names you can't say out loud. The demonstration has him, fortunately or unfortunately, folding you into the energy of your little first year group like you'd been there all along.

He's a shaman clan kid, so it's interesting to see you now as not necessarily opportunistic but curious about the other sorcerers, about other people. What a novelty, to be inconsequentially curious. If he'd been too curious as a child he would be either lectured on responsibility or nearly drowned in related gifts meant to appease his moods

You don't appease his moods and the attention of him, one of the strongest sorcerer of the generation, doesn't appease you.

Satoru tries to bait you and things go right over your head. He tries to disrupt your silent, invisible schedule and you let him drag you away with minimal fussing, especially when Shoko or Suguru is involved, but will wander to the side on outings and either find some accidental trouble or something that makes him a little surprised at the intensity of your focus.

He forces you into a combat-determined wager that demands you stop using honorifics with his name and Suguru's name and Shoko's name (without asking the other two) and there's no way for you to get out of it or win so that forces some artificial closeness that becomes real. Language is very important for creating distance, for creating hierarchy and Satoru somehow isn't interested in a hierarchy between you.

He is however far more self conscious of his omega status than Suguru is. He won't say it, but it's a relief when none of you make a big deal out of it when you find out and also a surprising comfort when you and Shoko who don't have to suffer through the literal additional headache of heats try and make them comfortable

For Satoru this involves distracting him by playing video games with him, watching movies, or tossing balls of paper at him while he tries to stop it with his technique. Mostly he's with Suguru, especially if they sync up, but Satoru doesn't have the same heat symptoms as him. During first year even though he sleeps more than he does as an adult, it's typically less than the rest of you might want. Where Suguru gets tired, Satoru will get cranky and mean because he's bored and feverish and Suguru is too tired to entertain him. His family also was never very comforting during his heats so he knows what to do as far as nesting, but having people around is new for him.

He likes to call and text you if you're on missions during these times, which is typical given his clan's sensitivity to him being around alphas at these times.

So even when you're on campus, you and Shoko only spend a few hours with him at a time. Sometimes you play games and the heat makes him almost slow enough to beat on a DS link game. Sometimes he makes you do his homework. Sometimes he likes to throw throwing things at you to see how you use your technique to deal with it.

He adds "sentimental" to the list of adjectives when he realizes he can so easily pressure you in these times into revealing more of yourself to him than you usually do. He's bored and there's only so many things to talk about before you start telling him about an encounter with one of the rare cats that will tolerate living around the cursed energy of the campus, when you grimace and tell him about a terrible noodle stand in Yamanashi province that you still crave somehow, when you tell him about saving fallen leaves in a heavy dictionary you use for that purpose, or the one time you reveal that you've kept every pair of shoes your parents bought you to wear on the first day of school. You tell him these things and it makes him feel like maybe, someday, he might want to tell you things too.

It's not soft but there's a softness to it. A genuineness in the four of you together, in Satoru's and Suguru's growing strength and self surety. Satoru tries to make himself the center of the world, because it's fact that is where he has been all along. But he's not so easily the center of your world. You didn't come from his world.

Satoru doesn't fall. He doesn't think hard about why it becomes so. He barely thinks about it all. He just knows at some point that you're one of his. You're one of his and he wants you to pay him the attention he' accustomed to as center of the world (except he doesn't maybe. He'll be able to say it one day that what he loved was you treating him like he was as human as he could be)

He's terrible at acknowledging whether this possessiveness is anything in particular. After a sparring session, you watch Shoko patch a cut on Suguru's arm with so much longing and a pang of something worms its way in Satoru's chest. He crowds in next to Suguru before Shoko's done, draping over Suguru's shoulders. You don't see the way Satoru's eyes flicker from Shoko's steady hands to your wide-eyed gaze.

He's jealous the way a child is jealous of a favorite toy, hooking his arm around your neck if any omegas outside of school talk to you in the street. If you brush him off when he's trying to use you as a tool for self-affirmation, he sulks around until you acknowledge him in some other way and he will not admit to a single soul why it matters. When he's forced to go home for holidays like oban and returns in a terrible pique, you may fight with him if he lashes out in the worst, most personal ways. You push back and talk to instead of around him or through him and you also don't realize that is why he backs off.

He realizes slowly that he has to be careful with you. He forgets sometimes that you're more fragile that Suguru, that you need help Shoko doesn't need. On what you call the "worst school trip in existence" and Shoko calls "lucky we didn't all die" and Suguru smiles and calls "well we all made it out in the end", even Satoru got injured, yet he feels invincible, like he caught a bullet and threw it back.

When Toji nearly kills him and everyone he ever cared about, he awakens with the power to keep it from happening ever again. He thinks he can carry the world for all of you, for everyone, reveling in his power. He doesn't realize that his presence, the gravity well he made in the monster class's lives, doesn't exist the same way while he's not there because he has a tendency to think everything will be easy for him to fit back into when he returns, or not to think on the fact things could change at all.

Then Suguru leaves and the center of Satoru's world, his reference point, collapses

You're there in Shinjuku the day it happens. It's getting cold again. You're there to meet Shoko. Suguru has gone missing, Satoru is... away. Again. Still. He's been absent whenever he is around anyway. The jujutsu world doesn't have the resources to devote to hunting curse users in particular so the effort to find Suguru has been halfhearted at best and even if he's on your minds, you have jobs to do still.

You're there in Shinjuku and when you don't find the person you're looking for, you find someone else, It shouldn't happen, but it does. You run into Satoru, mind reeling at Suguru's betrayal. You nearly don't see him and he nearly doesn't see you except he sees everything and he's been walking around the district like a ghost.

He appears like a ghost too, tall and pale and ridiculous eyes. You'd tried to see if the world reflected in them once, but now it's more obvious to you than ever that it's just him, nothing more and nothing less.

"Let's go back," he says, and for the first time in months, you return to the college, side by side on the train, feeling like there should be more people in the near-empty car. You get as far as you can before you get to a station that's closed where you can no longer transfer and then you get out and walk in silence.

You walk like there's another person jostling for space between you. When you get to the school, Shoko meets you at the red tori gates. When you get to the mostly empty dormitory building, now a little emptier, Satoru looks at you. And looks and looks and looks. This time, he feels like you might disappear in the pre-dawn light casting your faces in blue.

Maybe it's because he's already lost one precious thing long before he noticed it was gone that he grips your shoulders tight, so tight you almost wince, but turn into it instead, tilting your head as though, were you less careful people, you might brush your cheek against his hand. Just for a little bit of comfort, for a little familiarity.

Then Shoko makes a noise at the top of the stairs, the scuff of her foot, the tap of her palm on the banister. What a terrible day it must be if Shoko is interfering. And you step away.

Satoru doesn't go to bed. For the first time in his life he feels like he doesn't know who he is. He watches your light come on and then go off. He doesn't see you stand at the mouth of the hall leading to Suguru's room with a blanket around your shoulders until eventually you turn away and fall asleep on one of the common room couches, near to where a year of his body in the same spot had left an indent. He doesn't think about the world where you aren't here, where he never sees you again, because he can't quite fathom it.

Because even when he was gone, he never felt like he had let any of you go

It makes him feel sick to his stomach, the closeness of someone else, but it feels worse to push you away so you sit shoulder to shoulder with him some time in the morning. He pretends not to see the new dark shadows in your eyes. You sit and watch the mist burn off and pretend his warmth can hide how the world is a little colder.

*I didn't fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we'd choose anyway. And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you ― Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars

[yeonban]

I have to say my favorite part about Aha's character is how pivotal they are to the story and how subtly they lead the universe to lean into one direction or the other while everyone mainly continues to see them as a hehe xd lol jester cringefail little havoc creating guy intent solely on trolling everyone

[sherylhooper]

JJK SPOILERS!!!

The new chapter reminded me again why I can no longer be satisfied with Shounen.

Gojo's dead and people think Itadori has a chance to kill both Sukuna and Kenjaku....

"We can now see who's the main character" (ნიშნისმოგებით, თან) cuz Gojo was "in the way of the story" and "story couldn't progress with him in it."

Yeah, if Itadori randomly gets an upgrate out of thin fucking air, when he doesn't even have a innate technique - "but he is gonna develop Sukuna's CT". — How the fuck is he developing anything if Sukuna is no longer in his body but in Megumi's?? You are BORN with innate technique!! Unless Sukuna goes back inhabiting Itadori's body, Yuji isn't developing anything (unless Gege pulls out some residual cursed energy leftover bullshit — i.e. powerup out of blue sky).

As a writer myself, I don't really understand why some people (especially Sukuna's die hard fans) don't get it how killing of Gojo Satoru OFF SCREEN is bad writing so I'm gonna explain (and rant) here.

Okay, pals, sit down, we are having a lecture in basics!

"How to become good at Writing 101" states that the writer can write story in TWO main ways: 1) is called "tell" and 2) is called "show".

Every single writer and critic from centuries ago to today can confidently say that writer using "tell" is one of the weaker writing choice. Let's compare simple examples.

1) "He died." — this here is "tell". Nothing happened, it's boring.

2) "He felt fatigued, he eyes could no longer focuse on the scene in front of him. The sound of blood rushing in his ears was defeating.. To draw air in his lungs was becoming harder and harder as time went on..." etc — this is "show".

Of course death can come instantly but as a doctor (by profession) I can assure you that human brain even after being decapitated can remine "alive" for few seconds/minutes, can understand commans, can open eyes, can look at someone who is talking to them, etc..

Even Gojo looking down at himself, while he was being cut in two, would have been enough "showing".

But to have another character, in this case, Sukuna, explain i.e. "tell" how Gojo died is exactly how it sounds — "tell".

In every literature: classic books, modern books, manga, etc, "tell" is considered weak writing style and it seems even Gege is bound to it for now.

Also, what was the point of unsealing Gojo if he had to still die in the end? Him remining sealed would make no difference in the story - Sukuna vs Kashimo would still happen and now that Sukuna has "adapted" to Infinity means absulutely nothing, cuz nobody is using Infinity in the manga anymore for him to cut "space".

In fact Gege just replaced Gojo with Sukuna as overpowered character and we can see that he hated Gojo solely based on how "strongest" he was (and on his attitude) and how he couldn't kill him.

And how he handled his overpowered character? Killed him off screen. So how's Sukuna dying now? Also getting off screened??

And Gojo died with no regrets, apparently. His pseudo-son has fried brain, his sister and his speudo-dad are dead (at his own hands (even if Sukuna is using them)), most of his shikigami are gone, and Sukuna is parading around using him as "meat suit" — that should, at the very least, still be Gojo's regret (not saving Megumi) but, no, apparently Gojo is selfish bastard who doesn't care about anything and he is glad that he died (even after not acomplishing anything at all), but just mad that Sukuna didn't go all out???

Talk about anti climatic.

Gojo dying like this is kinda giving Madara and Kishimoto and I do not like that (I don't think anybody does)...

This is why I can't deal with Shounen anymore, because no matter what, at some point story telling gets inconstintent and I better stick with Seinen, cuz story there makes more sense.

Thank you for reading this rant and Sukuna-stans don't interact, cuz I'm blocking you all, if I see one word about "coping" or whatever.

(თქვენი თავი ნაღდად არ მაქვს და დიდი ალბათობით, შემდეგი თავის მერე ამ მანგასაც მივაგდებ).