#default is still she-cat and cat just because i'm so used to using she-cat even if it is a little stupid

[cicadagaze]

hey check this out, there's been an expansion to the family section on the cat generator 👀

[oh-no-its-bird]

Some Cardcaptor Sakura stuff ended up on my dash and now I'm thinking about a classic magical girl au. Magical girl Izuna my beloved,,

Has anyone done that yet? Am I going to have to be the one to do that? I'm totally going to have to be that guy aren't I. You know what tho, I think I'm ok with that

Alright;

✨️ Magical girl Izuna time ✨️

I think one or the biiju should be his animal mascot / contractor. Kurama is the obvious choice but Matatabi could be fun, and also like, cmon, fire cat.

Alternatively though in a totally different direction, maybe Amaterasu can be the contractor. It could both play into Uchiha lore and also have some shit about his power coming from the rising sun with his magical girl transformation. Maybe he gets stronger the higher the sun is in the sky, and then weaker at night to the point that he can barley even transform. Maybe the villain of this hypothetical magical girl show could be contracted by Kaguya, and get stronger with the moon in contrast.

Fun scene where despite it being night, he's able to transform because of sun lamps or some conviniently placed solar pannels or smthn.

Maybe the villain of that episode was depending on tech or something, so he gets to shout some quippy line about how "Oh yeah don't you just LOVE the wonders of modern technology!" Before fucking bludgeoning them to death with a magical girl staff or whatever his weapon is

Anyways, set it in vaguely highschool because this shit is always set in a school and I wanna have fun hitting all the tropes.

It acts on a "monster/villain of the week" system with some big shadowy bad guy apparently pulling the strings behind the curtains. The monsters are all existing people or animals, "corrupted by the shadow of the moon" or something along those lines. The moon promises them power to fulfill their wishes but then the wish will inevitably go wrong or the power will be too much for the person, corrupting them.

Izuna uses the power of Amaterasu's light and violence to purify whatever person/animal and return them to normal. Only some people are harder and sometimes require some good old power of friendship yelling to get through to them (this does not stop Izuna from usually just defaulting to violence tho)

Amaterasu lore dumps on him that they must be being corrupted by the power of Kaguya-hime, who was sealed away over a thousand years ago. And that with each monster made, she must grow closer to fully escaping. Which is why it's important that Izuna purify these people as fast as possible, to make sure that Kaguya doesn't receive power from their contratracts with her.

In the meanwhile, they need to brainstorm a way to put Kaguya back in her prison if she escapes. Because if she continues corrupting people for their energy, unless Izuna finds out how she's able to communicate with them from her prison, she will escape.

I want Hikaku as the token best friend who's let in on the magical girl secret (maybe by accident at first) and helps from the sidelines despite having no real power (he's the one who would have pulled in clutch with those solar pannels / sun lamps)

Tobirama can be the classic "ice prince" character who Izuna kind of hates and has a stupid rivalry with that usually seems one sided; Till he manages to rile up Tobirama enough to bite back

Touka as a foil to Hikaku but for Tobirama, acting as his best friend and occasional pain in the ass for both him and Izuna (she thinks Izuna is hilarious and that the stress migraine he causes Tobirama is good for him)

Seemingly clueless Madara and Hashirama, who turn out to be the reincarnations of the guys who originally sealed Kaguya away. They've both just graduated and seem to be too busy entering the adult world to notice Izuna getting caught up in magic shenanigans

School princess and shrine maiden Mito, who's ancestor was someone who helped to seal Kaguya, and who's family shrine still contains some hints at how they did it.

Itama as that one specific trope of a really sickly guy who everyone at school is always gossiping about, and who Tobirama is wayyy overprotective of.

Izuna, Hikaku, Touka and Tobirama are all in the kendo club. Hashirama and Madara were kendo champions and rivals before they graduated and now Izuna and Tobirama seem to be taking up their mantles.

So, Izuna is defeating new moon-mad monsters every week. A lot of them seem to pop up in conviniently nearby places, but he's no closer to finding out how Kaguya supposedly gets in contact with them.

As his adventures progress, he sometimes catches the coat tails of a mysterious other magical girl, but magic prevents him from remembering their face. But they'll appear and help out when he's in a really bad situation, and he sometimes catches them just watching. Suspicious!! But they're too fast for him to ever pin down for a real conversation.

Anyways; Eventually it seems like the monster of this week is going to be a steadily growing tense and unstable Tobirama. Izuna had started to learn the signs of oncoming moon-madness, and he can sense Kaguya's power eating away at him. He swoops in just in time as he sees the power start to consume Tobirama, only to watch as he's somehow able to fight back and regain control.

Still, Izuna will do his due diligence and burn the power away before it can turn him!

Tobirama does not seem to appreciate this. At all.

Queue identity reveal! Only not on Izuna's end.

So, the first twist in our story is that Tobirama ends up being the bad guy.

Flashback some months ago to when this all started:

Tobirama somehow stumbled on Kaguya where she was sealed away. Just like how Amaterasu can only interact with the real world through Izuna, without a magical girl contracted to her to act as her hands, Kaguya could do nothing to escape. So when Tobirama found her, she was immediatley readying her pitch; promising him power, knowledge, all sorts of things if he just helped to set her free. Even offering to bring back his dead brothers.

Though... well, Kaguya's power was fickle. All gods powers are. Amaterasu was only able to contract Izuna without exploding him with the heat of the sun because he was already born one of her children. And Tobirama isn't Kaguya's to claim, which means he ran the risk of getting fucking vaporized or corrupted or going crazy if he accepted the contract.

But with the promise of bringing his brothers back on the table, he wasn't about to say no. And maybe it was through sheer fucking stubbornness, but he was able to handle it. Kind of. He's managing.

(Which is why Izuna can't just purify him with Amaterasu's light or by talking him down, like he does with every moon-mad monster he fights. He's not possessed like they are, he's a proper countracted magical girl, just like Izuna)

Tobirama was able to bring back Itama and give Kaguya some more freedom behind her seal, but still mostly locked away as she was, Kaguya didn't have the power to bring back Kawarama as well, and Itama was brought back weaker than he'd died as.

Which is when Tobirama took matters into his own hands.

He began approaching other people, much like Kaguya had approached him. Offering them contracts with Kaguya on her behalf— only they turned out to not be able to hold on to the contracts like he could. Being corrupted or going mad and becoming moon-posessed. Still, each contract he made added to Kaguya's power and brought her a little closer to escaping her seal. (And closer to giving Tobirama his last brother back)

(And hey, with Izuna keeping the damage to a minimum and helping purify the people after, Tobirama didn't have to feel as guilty about the damage he was causing)

(Still though, when it looked like Izuna was struggling, he'd try to pitch in. Or when a person made an especially desperate wish or had a specific goal to fulfill with their contract, he'd try his best to help with that. If only as an apology)

But stubbornness wasn't enough to keep him safe from the sharp edges of Kaguya's power forever, and as time passed and the more contracts he made and power he gathered for Kaguya, the more he began to risk being consumed himself.

Which leads back to the here and now, with Tobirama assuming that since Izuna attacked, he'd been made. And Izuna first being really fucking confused, then really fucking concerned, then really fucking mad.

They fight, Tobirama gets away, and the next day Izuna gets to experience the most painful school day of his fucking life. Starting with the realization that, while he can recognize Tobirama since he saw him transform, Tobirama doesn't actually know Izuna is the magical girl

Interlude:

Izuna: What the fuck why did he get a wish when he became a magical girl, I want a wish why the fuck didn't I get one

Amaterasu: :3

Izuna: AND PANTS?? WHY DOES HE GET PANTS???

Amaterasu: teehee <3

Izuna: Don't you fucking teehee me right now

Tobirama, knowing he's going to lose himself to Kaguya's power and aware that a) he's come too far there's no backing out now, and b) he's ok with losing himself if it means he can at least bring Kawarama back, decides to go full throttle. Skips all his classes and dissapears to go do shady shit behind the scenes as he massively moves up the time table for setting Kaguya free

He's already losing himself, might as well pump more power into people to create bigger, badder monsters— getting Kaguya even more power and putting even more strain on himself

This is about when Touka finds out what's happening with him, and decides she's ok with embracing the morally gray lifestyle for her bestie. She gets Tobirama to agree that once Kawarama is back, hes ending this shit for good. But till then, well, she always did tell him she'd have his back no matter what. Now she gets to parallel Hikaku even more!!! Yay!!!

Queue final battle time! Kaguya is on the very edge of escape and funneling more power into Tobirama than ever! Tobirama is either about to explode from the inside out or turn into a whole moon monster, it's unclear but he is this fucking close to losing it all. Quite literally, actually.

Touka gets to have a teeny bit of Kaguya's power for this battle, knowing the fight would be short enough and that she has enough self discipline to not immediatley go moon-mad.

She gets to face off with Hikaku, who gets his kendo sword blessed by Amaterasu so he can fight back against her moon powers.

It's all very dramatic and Tobirama gets to fully break out of his ice prince shell as he and Izuna scream and beat the shit out of eachother.

Im thinking that no matter what happens, Kaguya still gets free in the end and it's revealed that actually she and Amaterasu are like, bitter exes and this whole thing was a fucking lovers spat

Season 2 is just 20 episodes of Izuna being mad at Amaterasu as she and Kaguya make out passionately in the bg

Kidding. Probably. Idk I'm having a lot of thoughts rn, there's a shape of something to continue the magical girl train but I need to go do work shit so I'll leave this here for now and come back to it later

[maleyanderecafe]

Honey Hotline (Visual Novel)

Created by: chuiipon

Genre: Horror

Phew, I was really happy to see this game come out since I've been following this artist for a while. It's always really fun seeing people create ocs that are in games, especially now that there's this trend of yandere vns (which I appreciate). Anyways, this is an r18 game and it's a good introduction to the story of this game. If you are interested, you can learn more at @ringringringbananafone.

Honey is the default name, so I'll just be calling them as such.

Honey wakes up after a strange dream in the middle of their college class. They find out that they're going to be part of a group project and Amesy asks them to join their group. Their group consists of her, a guy named Fone and Seon. Fone is a quiet guy who has trouble communicating and writes on a notebook, while Seon seems to be a tidy guy. Amesy suggests that Honey and Fone work together on the slideshow and the two head to Honey's house to finish. The two work on the project together, getting closer with one another until Fone has to go home. Honey fiddles with the slides more until they get a strange recording of someone moaning their name and seemingly masturbating to them. This person sends message after message apologizing and stating that they love honey, asking them to not block them. Honey realizes that with this new phone, the only people who could have sent this message are the three classmates that they're working on the project with. With this, they set out to investigate which one it is. The next day, Honey can go to Amesy, Fone or Seon's place.

Going to Fone's place makes Fone very excited. In his house, Fone reveals that he has a cat named Mallow (Marshmallow), which Honey (and I) enjoy very much. Honey can ask Fone about a lot of different topics like hobbies, what his family is like and why he has a hard time speaking. After hanging out, Honey returns hom.

Going to Seon's place, there is a chance to reveal that Seon is really into anime, which makes him really happy and blurt out a thousand facts about anime. Seon even invites Honey to a convention later before walking them home. Otherwise, Seon and Honey will still have a good time, but won't find out that he's really into anime.

Going to Amesy's house, she offers Honey some cookies and the two talk about various things. We find out that Amesy and Fone are actually cousins and that Fone used to be a very cheerful and extroverted child, but isn't sure what happened to make him the way he is now. Thus the reason why Amesy was trying to help Fone and Honey talk to each other. Afterwards, Amesy offers to bring Honey home on her motorcycle.

After all of that, Honey gets another voice recording stating that they enjoyed their time together today and wishes them a good night. Honey deduces it must be someone who they've hung out with today.

For an introduction, it does a good job of showing off all the different characters, and sets up the mystery of who the person stalking Honey is, though if you follow the creator's blog, you'll find out pretty quickly that it's Fone who is the one sending these messages. It's hinted at as well when Honey mentions that the person sounds raspy as if they haven't talked in a while, as well as when talking to Fone there's the chance to talk about the neighbors, and the recent murders happening, which is awfully suspicious and likely related to Fone. Still, there are other mysteries such as what kind of childhood Fone had to have changed from a cheerful child to how he is now. The artwork in this is very nice, though I'm biased because I really love the art style of the characters.

As for yandere behavior from Fone, there is several that goes on. The first one and most obvious is the message sent to Honey on the first and second day. Based on what Honey mentions about the neighbors, likely is also next door to hear what Honey is saying. There's also the aforementioned murders which are likely tied to Fone, and if Honey refuses to work on the project with Amesy in the beginning, the game will sort of reset, forcing them to be in that team. Ominous messages at the beginning and end of the game also play out, as well as some text files that will spawn inside of the folder depending on what options are chosen. I'm not sure how these breaking the fourth wall things will come to play later as a lot of yandere vns are using them these days, but hopefully it will be a unique idea.

Overall, for a demo, I thought it was an interesting premise. Even though I believe we already know who is the one sending these messages to Honey, I am curious about other aspects of the game. If you enjoy these types of games, please feel free to try it out.

[journey-to-the-attic]

Well that’s terrifying, glad you came out of it alright!

For au distraction, with pet zoo, do you think when entering the Devildom the brothers carried over any behaviors? Like you mentioned Lucifer once almost attempted to intimidate his reflection—would that still be an impulse for a time?

Also for creatures class, would Professor Elderflower still classify IK as a rabbit? …would she even be expected to turn in a school work as a sheep?

oh i LOVE imagining the troubles the brothers have getting used to being bipedal again and defaulting to their animal behaviours, so yes i'm absolutely making that a thing! lucifer catches himself glaring at his own reflection several times - one time it's while he's in demon form, and he instinctively flares his wings the same way he did while he was a peacock. he is very glad no one was around to see that

satan still impulsively shoves things off tables, so they will be sitting around the dinner table, then hear a loud CRASH, and everyone slowly turns to look at him sitting innocently next to a shattered plate. it keeps happening for so long that they've convinced he's just using the cat thing as an excuse now

levi is so used to only needing to eat once a week as a snake that he nearly passes out from hunger the first month back, and even after that he has this weird impulse to just. swallow his food whole. sometimes he misses being able to do that unhinging thing with his jaw, because dang did it feel good to yawn and reset it

also there is something so funny about professor elderflower looking at this little sheep and STILL going "ah yes……. you are a rabbit" (though for lore reasons, since they go based off of souls and weird spirit stuff, ik would still get assigned the same thing!)

in terms of schoolwork... diavolo and lucifer would attempt to set something up, but it's all so fiddly that they just sort of give up and assign ik the role of teaching assistant instead. they give her these little enchanted saddlebags plus a ribbon for identification, and within a week she is beloved by the whole r.a.d. faculty for her fluffy charm and helpful document-fetching

[randomidiocyncrazies]

(this post assumes that Kazui is gay, or some flavor of LGBTQ)

The thing is, I think Kazui's depiction of himself in Cat as a monstrous murderer is exaggerated by his self-loathing, but I also think it was probably a very abrasive conversation when he came out to Hinako. (tbh I actually kind of think he didn't intend to come out to her, and it just kinda happened in the heat of the moment*? But I don't have concrete evidence of this theory beyond his inability to talk about what's going on with him without several layers of indirect inferences + begging Es to claw past his lies/free him from them, and his overwhelming shame at the immutable truth about himself that he's hiding.)

*That said, his distorted line for T1 is "I'm such an idiot, why did I have to dream?" so that could imply he told the truth (dreamed of being accepted as his true self?) of his own volition

I interpreted the sequence of events in his MVs as him asking for a divorce without actually telling her why, which leads to her trying to save their marriage:

Coupled with the lyrics in half, I think at this point Hinako doesn't know Kazui's truth, so she's trying to comfort him without knowing what the underlying issue is. She is depicted as supportive in half, so I think she might be saying stuff like "tell me what's bothering you honey; we can fix this together as husband and wife, I'll always love you" without knowing that it's actually NOT something that could be 'fixed' despite Kazui's efforts all these years. The apple (a symbol of Kazui being someone/wanting something "outside of the norm"**) is in the spotlight because it's the looming specter in this conversation that Kazui cannot escape from—he's asking for a divorce because he's a green apple (or desires a green apple) instead of a red apple; it's the underlying cause of why they're having this conversation in the first place, even if Hinako isn't aware of it yet.

**while green apples certainly exist, most people think of red apples as the default

If Hinako tried to console her husband without understanding the root of his turmoil, imo it's not unlikely that she might've inadvertently said something that set Kazui off. She either said something that he perceived as naively optimistic/innocently cruel in her attempts at consolation (e.g. "whatever it is, we can fix it together as loving husband and wife"), or something that made him feel even guiltier (e.g. "I'm not doing enough to share your burdens, I'm sorry" or "I'll always love you")—most likely both. At this point Kazui had been lying for the vast majority of his life; he is excruciatingly aware that he cannot change his nature, even though he's ashamed of it and desperately wished he could change and "be normal". The fact that he's asking for a divorce now despite the aforementioned factors means he's been pushed to a point that he cannot abide by maintaining the lie anymore. So Hinako's empty reassurances would be aggravating, because it's something Kazui already KNOWS he cannot change, and they cannot overcome his sexuality (that he already hates himself for) "as husband and wife."

Hence lashing out, both to be self-destructive (he's so torn up about being "not normal" that he hates himself for it and feels like he's a villain) and also to express his frustration at the situation/at her. "Oh, you said you'll always love me no matter what? Well guess what, I never actually loved you! You said we can 'fix' this as 'husband and wife'? I tried to 'fix' myself for YEARS and I still can't make myself love you; in fact, I'm in so much pain being in this farce of a marriage and playing the role of a Good Husband for you that I need to leave. I am not attracted to you—never had been, never will be—so spare me the empty platitudes of us 'overcoming this as a couple' when you don't know ANYTHING about how I feel" etc.

The combined shock of 1) the ideal husband she loves had been lying the entire time during their courtship and marriage, 2) the ideal husband she loves seemingly*** being so hurt by her love and so contemptuously dismissive of the life they have together, and 3) that she's oblivious to all of this even though she thought she knew him better than anyone would've been devastating. And they might very well have been drinking (in celebration???) before this conversation, since they had the same clothes they wore in the champagne scene (though I think it's also possible that these are just their 'default' domestic clothing). If they had been drinking and/or celebrating beforehand, it's plausible that impulsive decisions that would've never been made sober were acted upon—Hinako might not have committed suicide**** (i think it was very spontaneous/not premeditated), and maybe Kazui wouldn't have came out (or would've been more in control of his emotions and/or circumstances when doing so).

***only seemingly, because we do see that he cares about her, just not as a romantic partner

****heavily implied that's how she died, though there is speculation that it was an accident, or that Kazui had pushed her (I personally don't find the pushing theory convincing/plausible with the evidence we have so far)

anyway. brb crying about the mukuharas forever.

[olderthannetfic]

You know since I see this constantly brought up when anyone talks about Chinese novels, especially danmei and the tropes used, and one of the asks brought this back to the forefront again.

It's great that some of you have read MXTX's works, but you do realize that you're allowed to read danmei novels from other Chinese authors. And you're also allowed to talk about them. Just because MXTX's novels have the biggest fandoms out there in the West, doesn't mean that literally every vague mention of Chinese tropes or any mention of danmei is by default and exclusively about MXTX.

I love MXTX's novels as well, I enjoy rereading them, but I've also read and am reading novels from other Chinese danmei authors. Recently I'm reading the official Priest and Meatbun translations, and it's getting ridiculous with how many people take any vague mention of a danmei novel, or even just a mention of Chinese novels and common tropes in general and with full conviction claim it must be about MXTX instead of some of the hundreds of fan translated danmei or some of the tens of officially translated novels you can find. Especially when trying to avoid spoilers by being a bit vague.

There are actually small fandoms for these other novels as well, yeah maybe there are only a few hundred or thousand fics for them instead of like 100k+ combined, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

I completely get that if you mention something that also happened in MXTX's work that most people will probably immediately point towards her works. But that doesn't mean that her works are 100% the answer just because in the West she has the biggest following. MXTX's works also have several common tropes that you can find in the works of other authors, that doesn't mean every time one of those tropes is mentioned it's about her works, or at least not JUST about her works. I think the main reason this irks me so much is because people start building a huge strawman because they've convinced themselves that it must be MXTX no matter what you say and there's just no way that it could be anything but MXTX, because they just don't read anything else. Don't get me started on show-series only people, they often don't even seem to realize that other Chinese danmei authors and stories exist period.

Spoilers used as an example: If I say "Shizun fucker pining after his dead Shizun." Of course people are gonna point at SVSSS first because it's a bigger fandom. Well but maybe this was about Mo Ran and Chu Wanning from Husky and his white cat Shizun instead, a smaller but still comparatively big fandom. But you have even smaller fandoms around novels with that premise. You'd actually be surprised about how many Shizun fuckers pining for their dead Shizun novels there are out there tbh. You can do the exact same thing for transmigration btw.

--

[redux-iterum]

Which cat in each Clan would you say is the most highly respected/most popular amongst the other Clans? Using RiverClan as an example: I'm pretty sure Crookedstar is well-liked in the other Clans for being a barrel of laughs (and for holding a position of power, in spite of his disability). I'mma hazard a guess that Fireheart is the most respected ThunderClan cat amongst the other three Clans (which would be hilarious if that came as a shock to the rest of his Clanmates).

We'll go for the spot of time at the end of BH, to make things simple, because the answer radically changes during book 3. It should also be noted that these cats are all in positions of power, because those are the cats everyone knows.

In ThunderClan, it's a tie between Tigerclaw and Bluestar. She's been a very skilled and respectable leader in her time, and is exceptionally eloquent when it comes to serious matters that other leaders may have a hard time responding to as quickly and efficiently as she does. There's a reason they had her take control of Brokenstar's trial! Tigerclaw, meanwhile, is seen as an all around upstanding tom (as far as they know) that an outsider could look at and immediately see him as the ultimate ThunderClan warrior: big, strong, an excellent fighter, and direct in his speech. No one was surprised when he became deputy; rather, they were surprised it took as long as it did.

Fireheart...I wouldn't call him the most respected, so much as the most liked. He's a good kid that makes friends wherever he goes, but his kittypet background and refusal to humor physical conflict keeps him from being seen on the same level as his leader. Any warrior should be ready to fight at a moment's notice, after all!

I would say that for RiverClan, you're right - it's Crookedstar. He's not exactly the most classically leaderlike cat in the world, but he's good-natured and has a charisma to him that makes his jokey attitude feel natural and respectable instead of classic RiverClan refusal to take things seriously.

For ShadowClan, when she was still there, Yellowfang took the throne. Even now, she's the most well-known cat from ShadowClan and everyone who meets her has to admit, she's pretty entertaining to talk with. As for a cat who lives in the marshes in current day... maybe Russetfur? She's in the nursery now, but once she returns to her duties, she's a kickass deputy. Blackstar is respected too, but he's hard to get a read on and doesn't do a lot of talking to the other Clans, so no one really knows enough about him to make a judgement call with certainty.

As for WindClan, it has to be their deputy, Deadfoot. Disabled cats who made it to a position of authority are always highly respected by default, but the fact that the Clan of runners saw the cat who can't run as someone to listen to and obey is remarkable - enough so that the other Clan assume he's a secret badass of some kind and easily bow their heads to him. He doesn't say much, and perhaps he doesn't need to in the first place. He just curtly returns the nod and hobbles on after Rookstar.

[definitelynotthedarklord]

Talking About It

A Silent Knight Fanfic

It was a cold night in the city, but Neo had always like taking her moonlit strolls when it was cold, and though the streets were empty save for the occasional alley cat, she knew better than to go out without a disguise on. The current default was one she liked to call Cheri Cordial, with dark red hair pulled into a high ponytail and chocolate brown eyes. Roman had once asked her why she based all her alter egos on flavors of ice cream, to which Neo had responded with a playful "go fuck yourself."

"Roman," she thought, his name reminding her of the emptiness she felt at his absence. He had died so long ago that she had become used to the feeling, hardly even noticing it anymore, but not so long ago that the pain wasn't there.

A bitterly cold wind forced Neo to tighten the scarf around her neck, and flung a piece of paper into her face. Annoyed, she was about to shred the sheet to pieces, but what was on the piece of paper caught her attention. It was an advertisement for an online therapy service, one that specialized in helping people deal with the loss of a loved one. Neo scoffed, she could understand the need for such a service after all that had happened in Beacon and Atlas, but still thought it ridiculous that anyone would use it. "That's what alcohol is for." She thought. The wind started picking up, lowering the temperature to a point Neo decided was not fit for strolling, and signaled that it was time she go home.

A few nights later, Neo was lounging in her hideout, it wad an apartment in the nicer part of town that would be considered shabby be those who lives there, though Neo thought that said more about the locals than the apartment. It was mostly bare save for a few pieces of furniture, food wrappers Neo had been too lazy to clean up, and a plant she had stolen a month ago because she was bored but had let die. "No point in decorating, it's a safe house, not a safe home." Roman used to say.

Again, Neo felt a deep yet muted pain at the memory. Neo shifted from laying down on the couch to sitting up, wherein she felt something crinkle in her pocket, it was the advertisement from a few days ago, Neo had absent-mindedly put the paper in her pocket when she went home, and she was about to throw it in the trash...but she didn't, she just stood over the trashcan, staring at the paper in her hand.

"This is so stupid." Neo thought as she typed the advertised website onto her laptop. She didn't know what compelled her to investigate the online service, she wasn't stubborn enough to dismiss the entire concept of therapy, but she was sure enough that it couldn't help her, "not that I need help," she thought as the page loaded.

Neo was annoyed to find that the website in question wasn't one of those talk-to-a-therapist-online websites that seemed to be popping up everywhere these days, but rather, it was a chat room website, where if she were to have a conversation with someone about her nonexistent problems, that person would be some rando and not a trained professional. "Because that makes sense. Why talk to someone who knows how to deal with your issues when you can talk to losers asking for nudes?" Neo thought as she made her profile, going with the screen name Cheri_on_Top. "Huh, maybe I do need to cool it with the ice cream personas, and just when thought of Rochelle Rhodes for rocky road." Neo scowled.

It didn't take long for her to get a response, a simple "Hi." from someone with the username Chevalier234. Neo was already disinterested, but she had come this far. "Hello." she messaged back, quickly following it with "So I'm not the only one who thinks this is dumb, right? The advertisement said this was a therapy service, not a chatroom." She saw the icon that said Chevalier234 was responding. "I dunno, I think it could help." They said. "And how is that?" Neo asked, "I think the idea is that it's easier talking to people who have gone through similar stuff than it is talking to a therapist, like it feels less like there's something wrong with you and more like you're just letting it out and being heard." Neo was taken aback by the message, not really expecting this sort of insight from some rando on the internet. "Isn't that what friends are for?" Neo typed, not that she would know, she only ever had one friend, everyone else she knew were just henchmen. "I think the anonymity helps people feel safe to talk about stuff. I love my friends, but sometimes it feels like I can't talk about this kind of stuff, like if they knew they would look at me differently, like I might break." Neo understood that feeling, if any of her henchmen saw her like this they'd either try to take over or kill her. She knew it wasn't the same as what Chevalier234 was talking about, but it was close enough.

After that their conversation drifted towards those they'd lost. "So who did you lose?" Chevalier234 asked, quickly followed by a polite "If that's not too rude to ask." Neo responded "My best friend, my only friend, really. They were my world and then one day they were just gone." She knew it was smarter, and safer to not reveal too much, no names or information that could expose her, but still, she found it easy to type the words and talk to this person she didn't even know. "We're the two of you...together?" Chevalier234 asked, the idea made Neo snort. "No, no, he was more like an older brother to me, also I think he might have been gay? He loved wearing guy liner. Lol"

Wait, did Neo seriously just use "lol" in a completely unironic way? She quickly shut the laptop and tried to process. She had never been an "lol" person, never wanted to be one, she thought it was a dumb internet thing that would fade as quickly as it appeared, like "talk to the hand," or "all that and a bag of chips." What was this person doing to her?

The next day, Neo had curiously and cautiously opened her laptop, as though it were a bomb. The chatroom was still open, and Chevalier234 had responded to her last message with "I'm sorry to hear that, I know losing someone can be hard. I lost someone too, we were friends, though I think she wanted to be more. She was the only one who truly believed in me when even I didn't, and when she was gone it felt like a piece of me was gone too. Sorry to dump all that onto you, but I just wanted you to know if you want to talk I want to listen." Then they had sent a message asking if she was still there. Neo felt a twinge of guilt, a feeling she had hardly ever felt because guilt was for people dumb enough to believe it was wrong to do whatever the hell they want, that's what Roman taught her, at least. She had considered messaging back, making up some excuse like she had fallen asleep or her laptop died, but oddly she didn't want to lie to this person she didn't even know. She moved her cursor to close the window, but her finger just hovered over the touchpad before falling by Neo's side. Neo sat down on the couch and let out a heavy sigh, her head hanging low. What was happening to her, she thought, a feeling of defeat washing over her.

Eventually she looked up at the screen, and gave in to the guilt, typing a reply to Chevalier234's last message. "Sorry, I closed my laptop last night after my last message because it felt too weird to talk to you." She sat and stared at the screen, waiting for a reply, but when none came she began to worry she had burned this bridge. A few hours later, while slurping some ramen and watching Atlas After Dark, a drama about cops in Atlas doing whatever it took to get the job done and occasionally sleeping together, her laptop showed she had gotten a message from Chevalier234. Neo had moved so quickly to open the message she almost spilled her dinner. The message said "Sorry for the late reply, I just got home." Then a second message popped up, "And I'm sorry me saying all that stuff made you feel weird." The message pulled at her heart. "It wasn't you," she began, "it just felt weird talking about all this to someone, and about laughing at the things he did." Chevalier234 messaged back, "I know the feeling, like it feels wrong to think about the good times, like their being gone means we should only ever feel sad anymore, but I think it should be the opposite, we should want to feel happy, not that they're gone but that they were here when they were. There's always going to be that feeling of her being gone, but I want to remember her how she was in life, brave and happy, I want to remember the way she made me feel when I stood next to her, because then she's never really gone, you know?"

As Neo read the message, she felt her heart tighten and hot tears running down her cheeks. She tried to stop but she couldn't, the tears turned to sobbing and her body shook, she couldn't remember the last time she cried, but she had never cried as hard as she did that night.

After that night, Neo had opened up to Chevalier234, little by little, but more than she had with anyone else. They talked about those they had lost, the good times and the bad, never anything incriminating, but enough that she felt lighter than she had in ages. One day Chevalier234 reached our to her in a surprising way. "Listen, I know this is all supposed to be anonymous, and I don't want to come across like a creep, but would you want to meet irl?" This had surprised Neo, she would have imagined this sort of thing was against some unwritten rule about internet etiquette, but she felt comfortable enough with Chevalier234, and she did like breaking rules, plus if things went south she could always kill him, and with a smile she typed "When and where?"

Neo sat alone at a table in the café she and Chevalier234 had agreed to meet, disguised as Cheri Cordial and patiently stirring her coffee as she waited. She began to wonder what kind of person Chevalier234 was in real life, would they be some hideous thing that lived in their parent's basement and smelled like stale pizza? They had given her a brief description of what they looked like, a guy with scruffy blond hair, though that was much too vague for her liking. "Mad about someone being vague? Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black..." she mused as she sipped her coffee. She turned to look out the window and almost choked on her drink when she saw none other than Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR and friend to Ruby Rose. Neo had stopped trying to get revenge on Ruby a while ago, though she still hated her on principle, the same went for all hunters and huntresses. As she watched the hunter walk outside she realized something she should have a while ago. "Wait, a guy with scruffy blond hair, who calls himself Chevalier...it can't be." Neo thought as she turned to look at the door to the café. The door opened and the hunter entered, scanning the area until his eyes landed on her. "Cheri?" He asked with a smile. "It is! Oh gods, it is." Neo thought as Jaune approached.

How could she be so stupid, and so unlucky? Agreeing to meet some rando she met on the internet and it being one of her worst enemies? "Why couldn't it have been the basement dweller?" Neo lamented before snapping out of it. "Okay Neo, think, there's got to be a way out, he's already seen you so you can't run. Maybe say you don't feel well? No he'd probably want to make sure you're okay. Wait! I know..." Neo thought with a mischievous grin.

Jaune sat in the chair across from her, greeting her with a warm, genuine smile. "Its so nice to finally meet you, Cheri." Neo responded by signing "Its nice to meet you as well." She smiled at how clever she felt, knowing once the hunter realized they couldn't carry on a conversation without a computer she could escape, Jaune looked surprised for a moment before smiling again and signing as he spoke. "You never mentioned you knew sign. Are you deaf, or maybe mute?" Neo maintained her smile despite the revelation. "He knows sign? Crap, that was my trump card!" Neo thought, starting to panic. She knew if he figured her out it would all be over, she had managed to evade the police and hunters for months, and the heat had cooled down, but if this sign knowing himbo put 2 and 2 together, thinking there can't be that many mutes who were named after ice cream, she'll have the whole city looking for her.

"I'm mute." She finally signed, then tried to shift attention off of her by asking how he knew sign. "I have an older sister who's deaf, Daisy, she taught me sign when I was young, though she taught me the sign for "broccoli" and told me it meant "cookie" which led to some pretty heated temper tantrums." Jaune laughed. Neo let out a nervous chuckle, still on edge, she studied Jaune's face, looking for any indication that he knew who she was, but as far as she could tell he was clueless. "So," Neo began, "would I be right to assume the person you lost, the one you told me about was Pyrrha Nickos?" Jaune looked surprised and asked"Yeah, how'd you know?" "I remember seeing the two of you fight together in that tournament." Neo answered. Jaune looked down at his coffee, an expression of sorrow on his face. "I remember that day, hard to imagine how normal that day felt." Neo's nervousness turned to concern, was that how she looked when she thought of Roman? Jaune's expression shifted as he looked back up at Neo, smiling again. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring the mood down. I know i said I prefer thinking about the good times, but its hard not to remember the bad, you know?" Jaune's smile was different than before, before it was a warm, friendly smile, now it was one that felt a little forced, the kind one wore when they weren't alright but needed others to think they were. "Is that the smile you wear for your teammates?" Neo asked, causing the smile to drop. "Yeah." Jaune answered, looking back down at his drink. Neo didn't know what compelled her to do what she did, but before she knew it she had reached across the table and took a hold of Jaune's hand, drawing his eyes to hers. Neo put on a smile like his and signed "What was she like? I know what I've seen on TV, but what was she really like?" Jaune perked up a little and started talking, his real smile returning as he did.

As the two of them sat and talked, drinking coffee and munching on pastries, all of Neo's concerns about Jaune finding her out vanished, not because she thought he wouldn't turn her in if he did find put, but because she genuinely enjoyed talking with him. She loved listening to his stories, about fighting Grimm, about traveling Remnant, though she did get a bit uncomfortable when he talked about fighting her and Roman. They had talked for so long that the café staff had asked them to leave. Neo found it annoying but Jaune just laughed. "I guess we have been here a while, huh?" He asked. Neo felt a little disheartened at this development, wanting to talk more with the hunter, but then he heald his hand out to her. "You wanna take a walk with me?"

They walked side by side through the park in silence, from this point Neo could see how much taller Jaune was, as well as how broad his chest and shoulders were. "No, bad Neo, none of that!" She thought to herself, feeling the heat of embarrassment in her cheeks. "So," Jaune began, "I notice you keep asking about me, but you haven't really said anything about yourself." Neo looked away, not sure what to say. There was only so much she could say without giving herself away, and she didn't want to lie to Jaune. "But I'm lying right now, aren't i?" She asked herself. "Its okay if it's hard to talk about, it actually took me a while to be this open, I just feel like I can talk to you." The way he looked at her pulled at her heartstrings like someone was trying to open a parachute. "What would you like to know?" She asked hesitantly. "Well, tell me about your family, your mom and dad, do you have any siblings?" Of course the first thing he wanted to ask her was the one thing she wanted to talk about less than her life of crime. "I have no parents, I lived on the streets." It wasn't a total lie, she did live on the streets for a while, and she stopped thinking of her parents as her parents long before that. Jaune looked at her with a heartbroken expression. "I'm so sorry," he said, "we don't have to talk if you don't want." He was trying to backpeddle, not because what she said made him uncomfortable, but because he didn't want her to be uncomfortable. "It's fine." Neo responded. "Living on the streets is how I met..." She knew better than to use his real name, "Reggie, the guy I told you about." "The older brother with a thing for guy liner." Jaune said, showing her he paid attention, that made her smile, but the smile faded as she stopped walking. Jaune stopped and looked at her curiously. "Jaune, if you want to know more about me, you should know I've done things, not exactly legal things." There was no going back now, she didn't think Jaune would start yelling at her and threatening to call the cops, but she seriously doubted he would be accepting.

Jaune was quiet for a minute, his expression unreadable, not that Neo could look him in the eyes at that moment. "And are you still doing "not exactly legal things?"" He asked. Neo nodded, signing "When I have to." "But you don't have to, do you?" Jaune said in an accusatory voice, which made Neo flinch. Jaune sighed, looking almost defeated. "Listen Cheri, I'm not going to call the cops on you or anything like that, but I can't be near you if i know you're breaking the law, at some point I'm going to have to do something, so please, don't make me do something." There was a look in Jaune's eyes, something between determination and pleading that worried Neo, she could tell he meant every word, and that doing so hurt him.

Neo couldn't remember a time she felt more conflicted, she had been a criminal her whole life, it was all she knew, and now this hunter was telling her she had to stop or else? He hadn't been the first, but the way he looked at her made her want him to be the last. Neo took a deep breath, signed "Okay." and watched him for his response. Jaune looked at her for a moment before letting out a shaky breath, and said "Okay, good, thank you." "I guess he was as worried as I was." Neo thought.

They resumed their walk as Neo told him about her life, even the parts she was worried he would hate her for, but she could tell there was nothing to worry about, the way he looked at her and listened, she knew he understood, and before she knew it the sun had set. Neo told Jaune that it was getting late and that she should head home, and he offered to walk her there, Neo accepted. It was so strange, she had just revealed her criminal past to a hunter, someone sworn to protect others from people like her, but all he did was listen and accept her. Being in Jaune's presence gave her a sense of ease she wasn't sure she had ever felt before, as well as other feelings, ones that she really didn't want to acknowledge.

When they got to Neo's apartment, they stood on the doorstep for a minute before one of them said something. "So I guess this is goodbye, and goodnight. I had a really great time with you today, and listen, I was serious about not calling the cops on you. Everyone has a past, but that shouldn't stop you from having a future." Jaune said, it wasn't the best thing he could have said, Neo thought, but she appreciated it nonetheless. He turned to leave, but Neo's hand shot out and grabbed his sleeve without thinking. Jaune turned back and looked surprised, Neo had no idea why she did that, okay she had some idea, but she really wish she didn't. "Is something wrong?" Jaune asked sincerely. Yes, there was, there very much was something wrong, she thought, wishing she wasn't about to do what she so desperately wanted to do. "No, I just needed to tell you something." Neo answered, trying not to seem nervous. "Okay." Jaune nodded, giving her his full attention, Neo motioned for him to bend down and get closer to her, Jaune obliged, and Neo dove in, connecting her lips to his. It was a half second of contact, but it sent electricity all throughout her body. She could see Jaune's shocked expression for a split second as she turned to run inside as fast as she could, but she was stopped when Jaune grabbed her hand and pulled her into him, spinning her to face him and planting his lips onto hers. Now she was the one wearing a shocked expression, but as the kiss deepened her shock melted away, and she wrapped her arms around his craned neck as she gave in to the feel of his hands on her hips and the taste of coffee on his lips. The night has gotten cold, but that didn't stop the wave of warmth that washed over her.

They disconnected when they needed to breathe, slowly opening their eyes to look at each other, but Jaune's eyes widened and he quickly backed away from her. Neo wanted to ask what was wrong, but she figured it out when he said her name, her real name, "Neo Politan?" Jaune asked, completely dumbfounded. Neo had let her semblance fall when they were kissing, and without thinking Neo ran inside, slamming the door to her apartment and locking the door.

Her heart was beating so fast she thought it might just burst, and a thousand thoughts whirled through her mind. "How could I have let my guard down? Maybe he didn't notice. Oh who am I kidding he said my whole name, of course he noticed. Any minute now he's going to call the cops and they're going to break down my door! I need to run! But what about Jaune? What ABOUT Jaune? He's a hunter and a do-gooder and-and...and he kissed me! Oh gods, I KISSED HIM! And I liked it, I really, really liked it, and I like him, but dammit why did my semblance have to fail?"

Neo's mind went quiet when she heard a knock on her door. "Are you there?" She heard Jaune say from the other side. "Be quiet, maybe he'll go away!" A voice inside told her, though she tiptoed to the door regardless, peering through the peep hole. She saw Jaune's face, distorted by the hole, but she could tell he looked like he was in pain. She lightly tapped the door, hoping he would understand that that meant yes. Jaune didn't say anything for a long while before asking "Was any of it real?" The question squeezed her heart, she realized they had been enemies for a long time in the past, but right now the last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. "Just say it wasn't, tell me this was some kind of joke, some kind of sick plan to get close to me and make me fall for you just so you could break my heart, because...because I have, fallen for you, I mean, or at least for the version of you you pretended to be. So if it was all a lie please tell me, I deserve that much." Neo's hand shook as she undid the locks and opened the door, just enough that he could see her. "It wasn't a lie, not really. I may have used a different name, but everything I said was true." Neo signed. Jaune let out a sigh, though she couldn't tell if it was out of relief or frustration, or maybe both.

"So...what happens now?" Jaune asked, Neo opened the door wider and signed "You could come inside, and we could talk about it." Jaune smiled that smile Neo loved, and accepted her invitation.

[regallibellbright]

"Equipment stats tied to clothes are an in-universe thing that characters are at least loosely aware of, even if they don't understand it mechanically the way we do" is the TWEWY headcanon I will die for because you can get SO MUCH out of it. Like, for humor, if you want to treat any given character as actually dressing in the completely uncoordinated equipment you've put them in for stats, it's very easy to do it with "yeah, they know these clothes make them stronger somehow and they decided to put that above 'not looking ridiculous'." Fun as hell. But it's also really interesting when you think about it with Shiki, especially in the context of Neo and Gatto Nero as the replacement brand for Gatito.

Gatto Nero is a really interesting brand mechanically for two reasons. The first, obvious one is how it's the mechanical successor to Gatito, not just filling the same zodiac role - both brands’ pins come exclusively in sets. Gatito's the only brand that uses sets in the original DS version, along with the unbranded Crimson Kingdoms set added in Final Remix. In Neo, quite a few other brands make two-pin sets, but the only bigger ensembles are the Unbranded Stop and Go ensemble and Gatto Nero's Year-round and Black Cat sets. This is something we can just assume characters know and understand by default - pins are special, pin sets are super strong and good.

The second is less obvious: Gatto Nero has a LOT of items that have character-specific abilities, relative to the other brands. There are obvious reasons why Shoka and Neku both have items there (and Rindo and Minamimoto both have aesthetics that fit well with the brand,) but it's still interesting. Adding up all of Gatto Nero's items, eight out of nineteen are character-specific, or about 42%. The second is Hog Fang, with seven out of twenty three items, and third is Monocrow with five of seventeen, both just under a third. Other brands have three, maybe four character-specific items. It suggests Gatto Nero’s a brand where the people who like it LOVE it, and connect hard to specific pieces in particular. (Just look at Shoka’s love of her hoodie.)

So. Taking my headcanon that the characters know clothes have power, I don't think they'd recognize it the same way the players do, with numbers and stats and knowing various status effects. But they could in-universe notice something like HP Drain, and they might recognize "oh I never get stunned when I'm wearing this," or "this feels like attacks hurt less," or "it seems easier to sync in this for whatever reason." I also think they'd notice when something they like seems to work better on them than their Partner, especially when Neku played for three weeks with three different people and could compare.

In other words, the aspiring fashion designer could realize that clothes that people LOVE, things they connect to specifically and deeply, would be particularly valuable in the UG. And I can’t imagine Shiki wouldn’t keep that knowledge in mind while designing once she gets back, and try to impress that knowledge on Eri, because “the thing I love and want to do with my life is psychically vital to people fighting to come back to life in a purgatorial death game” is uh. Probably the most validating thing one could ever learn about their chosen vocation. This is something she’d probably be thinking about no matter what.

And then A New Day happens. For most of the time between games, one of Shiki’s most important people is missing, and they have no idea where Neku is beyond "probably the UG." But maybe she can still help him, if her clothes can get his way. Maybe, if she tries to make pins that are especially useful to him, he’ll find them. (This also gives an easy way for Shiki and Joshua to know each other come Neo if you like that headcanon - Shiki doesn't have any special knowledge of pins, Joshua as Composer has to know at least a few things about how they work. Cue grudging alliance-turned-eventual-friendship as Shiki grits her teeth and asks him for help for Neku's sake.)

There's just SO MUCH room to play with the game's equipment system being something that characters know about and try to work with in-universe, especially with Shiki.

[hughiecampbelle]

hello hello!! hope you're doing well <3 so i saw ships were open again... and i did get one as an anon a while ago, but the format has changed for the 10k so back i am for your amazing writing <3

i'd love to be shipped with someone from the boys!! (i do feel bad requesting for specific characters even though it's incredibly easy to see who i want to smooch in this show. i love them all though and above all love to see authors get creative. go crazy go bonkers. ok with any character but the deep, homelander, stormfront, and firecracker.)

i'm a bi & ace jewish brazilian girl, 1.72m tall, with long, straight, brown hair (that i've always thought about dying but always chickened out of). no tattoos, even though i have a list of which ones i'd get and what do they mean. i'm from brazil but currently go to college in new york, majoring in theatre and minoring in translation. i'm fluent in portuguese and english, learning french, and have the life objective of becoming a polyglot.

i'm in love with theatre, literary analysis, linguistics, music, writing, and art in general — will absolutely ramble about anything i am interested in, and also might have strong opinions on stuff that maybe i didn't need to have a strong opinion on 💀 i can get a bit combative about that at times... i definitely take as my biggest skill, besides singing and acting which are quite literally my intended job (i want to be a musical theatre actress), eloquence and just my way with words (toxic trait is believing i'd talk my way out of a murder fr fr). friends that know me more recently would even say i'm an extrovert because of that, but honestly i am a pile of nerves of an introvert with social anxiety that simply loves yapping and putting on a show. most notable quirk/habit might be how precise i always am with finding the right words because i simply cannot leave an opening for misinterpretation (and that's on anxiety and a suspicion of undiagnosed adhd oops); that might lead me to be a bit picky (for the lack of a better word), specific, and/or literal with the words other people use as well.

other tidbits: i can't cook for shit, i love cats (i have a rescue named lily) but also like dogs a lot, i love kids and have been told i'm good with them. i'm crazy lucky for some reason and i love crime comedy movies. i'm almost always writing or thinking about writing but i can't ever finish a project (and you may have realized by now i write too much). i love arts & crafts & other manual activities, i do knot friendship bracelets to de-stress. my default hangout with anyone ever is grabbing coffee. i'm also pretty proud of my music taste — from alt rock to 40s-50s music, love curating the vibes and i'm a bit of a playlist freak. also i would 100% show brazilian music (mostly rock and mpb, brazilian popular music) to whoever i'm paired with 💥🇧🇷

when it comes to love life oh boy i am a disaster — the two situations i have ever gotten myself into were the objective hottest girl i know and the weirdest guy i've ever come across (and both are my good friends atm). for me doing something creative, like a project together, is the quickest way to bond; and being in cahoots with someone is the deepest form of connection. let's ramble about our interests, be weird together, cause a diplomatic crisis, watch a movie, write something, idk.

this was LOOONG but i hope it's not too much and it gives you plenty of material to write with!! thank you so much for carrying the the boys fandom on your back enna <3

Annie is actually blown away by both your love of and intelligence with languages. She's always trying to learn both Portuguese and French sayings (mostly nicknames/"I love you") to surprise you. She loves the look of joy on your face when you realize what she's trying to say. Her pronunciation could use some work, but it's still very adorable

It melts Annie's heart when she sees you around children. She knows it can be a lot, with kids and their parents running up to her, asking her for pictures, showing off their Starlight costumes. She would understand it got a little exhausting. But you have never minded, instead you ask them questions and make them laugh, telling them they're little superheroes, too

Annie feels like she can truly be herself around you. After all those years with the religious conventions and the time she spent with Vought, she was never allowed to be herself. She couldn't show off her real laugh that's squeaky and high-pitched. She couldn't swear as a teenager or say all the crude jokes she thought of. With you, though, she can let loose. She doesn't have to uphold this image like she's had to her whole life

You and Annie are as equally terrible at cooking. You make a plan to cook together, learning recipes and measurements. Sometimes the food gets burned, or worse, under cooked, and a few times you've had to split it out, wondering where you went wrong? But, overall, it builds your skills together and it makes you feel better about your lack of skills

Annie comes to every show you're in at least three times. She'll bring Hughie and Kimiko first, then M.M. and Frenchie, and the third time she goes along, wanting to see you in your glory, feeling like this moment belongs to her. She shows up with flowers every time and tells you parts and songs she's loved as if you hadn't spent weeks practicing lines and songs with her. She's so proud of you, she can't contain herself. She definitely happy cries at the end when you take your bows!

Want to request a ship?

My love!!!! I hope you like it!!!! :D Xoxoxo💜💜💜💜

[bonefall]

Same anon- wasnt trying to imply that with blossom either! Just wanted to say that it could've been read that way and could be triggering to some, and the fact that no one speaks up felt off, even if its against the code. I've never read the more recent books either, so by the way the posts were spaced it felt like the series goes Df battle > Tempest > Ashfur in the span of a few moons, meaning blossom went from one horrible event to another and was still feeling isolated and shameful. Sorry if anything came off as confrontational or mean!

As for the 'why dont they leave?' thing, I think we all default to how Ravenpaw actually DOES leave and we just apply the same logic. As humans we naturally draw connections, and if we see a situation where a whole clan turns on one cat, we ask why didn't they just do what Ravenpaw (or Dovewing iirc) did and decide they can't deal with this and it's better to move on. It's a pattern that we itch to see fulfilled: Tigerclaw turns everyone on Ravenpaw so he leaves, Dovewing gets her whole clan telling her to do better so she leaves, Blossomfall gets named as a traitor and repeatedly gets dishonor titles to remind her of all her faults- why do cat not leave???

But yeah, if Blossom got to heal, i retract my statement entirely. I just was going off the logic that she felt isolated/cut off and that being told she's better off invisible would just shove her further into that belief. I do wanna ask, do you know what the thing Blossom spoke up about that got her slapped with the title?

Ah, I see! Let me clear up the order of events so far;

ThunderClan's Tempest, shortly after the Great Battle, dealing with the Clan moving on. Contains some parts of the canonical Dovewing's Silence but mostly Bramblestar's Storm

AVOS, with Blossomfall joining the Kin and being rescued sometime towards the end. Still working out some kind of incident where her kits are either stolen, or have to be retrieved-- the sire is not known

Squirrelflight’s Horror, a book about how Bramblestar turns a tense political situation into an excuse to leverage his power to abuse his deputy after feeling slighted.

TBC, which is at least a year after AVOS, with all of Blossomfall's children now being young warriors and her life coming back into order

So Blossomfall is having a pretty long journey here! Her life has been rocky and she can be a really nasty person, but she was brought back into ThunderClan because she is still loved. There are people who really want to see her get better.

And as for when she gets Clearface'd, I'm torn on it either being the first sign and SUPER shocking because it was just the normal amount of Blossom-sass, OR it coming right after the death of Bristlefrost and she argued that

"Bristlefrost was a codebreaker but who cares! She was a warrior of ThunderClan! There's no way that StarClan--"

And then interrupted and quashed with the title.

So, first option, to demonstrate Bramblefake's new level of malice at the earliest possible point and use Bristlefrost's death as the "turning point" of the arc where cruelty becomes violence,

Or, as a direct response to Bristlefrost's death, and the moment where there begins to be suspicion, because Bramblestar is NOT this good at naming.

[contentment-of-cats]

Just give me the coffee, I will do the rest.

Loki is settling in. Mostly, he wants to eat and sleep. The few times I have let him out of the Borg Cube, he's been out for 10 minutes, gets overstimulated, and runs back to his Safe Place. Right now he is learning how to play with toys, and loves his scratching posts and pads. He's been through so much. I have asked that the ex get a visit from his karma.

Unpleasant Subject Ahead

Another thing that this whole thing has driven home is how important it is to get your affairs in order - even if you don't have cancer. Loki's mom was getting a divorce and fell so ill so fast that she was unable to make her own medical decisions within days of admission. Even if you are getting a divorce, even with an actual protective order, your spouse is still the legal default person to make decisions for you. They are your legal heir. If you don't have a legal spouse (marriage certificate), it's your adult children, if you have no kids then your parents make those decisions even if you're a legal adult. If you have no immediate family, then your extended family gets called in.

Power of attorney legal and medical

Will for personal property

Living trust for investments and real estate

Medical orders (supersede those of the POA) such as Do Not Resuscitate

A health care directive like this one.

It's hard to think about, but when your surviving extended family is a mess (like mine) you want these things in order. Hell, have them notarized so that a judge can look at the plaintiff and say, "What the hell is the matter with you?"

Golden Treadmill

I'm strapping myself in with another 'write to spec' contract. Yep, it's more porn. I negotiated for one every six weeks from February to November. I need to visit Amazon and stock up on barf bags and brain bleach. I did say that I won't write noncon or (yes, this is a thing) racist tropes. It's hard for me to write hardcore body horror. I might be writing horrible porn in order to pay off my medical bills that makes my pussy slam shut like an angry clam, but I have standards. That being said, the editor delivered the advance to my freelance bank account and the outline to my inbox.

Whoo boy.

In my defense, I did not know that 'monster fucking' was commercially viable.

Cat in the Kitchen

Rediscovering food has been a wonder. As promised, my rearranged innards make it trial and error, but the errors seem to be self-correcting. Gut flora does come back, but I have not been brave enough to venture into my spicy Indian, Chinese, and Mexican foods.

I've been making casseroles/hotdish because they freeze well and sometimes the fatigue renders me incapable of anything other than pushing a button.

For casseroles/hotdish you need:

Vegetables: Frozen works fine. Canned is saltier, so if you go canned use 'less salt' brands. If you are using mushrooms, frozen, fresh or dried is best. I find canned mushrooms have a very weird metallic taste.

Starch: Potatoes, rice, pasta/noodles, bread. Yes, tater tots count.

Protein: Can be vegetable protein, beans, canned tuna or salmon, or meat. Smoked salmon is delicious in casseroles and soup, so I go to my local deli on Friday to get lox ends and trimmings.

Sauce: Canned soups (cream of ____), jarred or canned pasta sauce, or packaged cooking sauces and gravies.

Topping: Cornflakes, tater tots, cheese, potato chips, stuffing, etc.

Flavor: Dried herbs, onion and celery, garlic, spices.

Slowcooker meals are great, too, and follow the same rules as casseroles/hotdish. But my favorite caserole dish is my Gran's Lancashire hotpot - lamb neck chops, potatoes, onions, and more sliced potatoes on top for a crispy lid.

Back to work.

[eulaliasims]

Sims Tag

Thanks for the tag, @kalux-sims!

1. What’s your favourite sims death? Oh, we're going for big ones right off the bat, huh? Uhhh, I'm gonna go with satellite.

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Yes.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? why would you, tho

4. Do you use move objects? I use moveObjects so much, I have a shortcut for it in my userstartup.cheat file.

5. Favorite mod? I'm going to second @deedee-sims and say Community Time. It's really one I consider essential to the way that I play my game.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? Pets!! Which is funny, because I still have to make a conscious effort to actually add pets to my sims' households.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? It's LIV mode and I will die on this hill. no I won't

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Made? Oh no, I'm not sure. These days I mostly play sims who were born in-game. Probably Original Maria or Jackie.

9. Have you made a simself? Ya; in the last version of Middleground, she was actually a townie.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? Bookworm, cat person, loves the outdoors, neurotic, vegetarian

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? I don't like any of those ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

12. Favorite EA hair? Uhhh, the short Season hair with the little half ponytail.

13. Favorite life stage? Adult? idk!

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? Both; sometimes I like one more than the other, but it's pretty even.

15. Are you a CC creator? Weirdly, I think I have to say yes to this question now. Pretty much just defaults and the odd recolor. I do retextures sometimes, but I have to be in the right mood for it. :p

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? Yes? But I realize I'm not the most vocal/active person, and I'm definitely not on any of the discords around because I have ~~anxiety~~.

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4) *gestures at blog* is it even a contest?

18. Do you have any sims merch? no

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? noooooooooo

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? It's definitely gotten a lot more maxis-match. More detailed too, I think.

21. What’s your Origin ID? haha, like I remember that.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? Too many to name!

23. How long have you had a simblr? *checks archive* At least nine years; I know I lurked a bit before posting, so call it ten even?

24. How do you edit your pictures? Photoshop. I have a crop & resize action that sharpens them very slightly afterward, and then my base lighting action simply boosts the shadows and contrast a bit; I have a copy of that but with brightening added for dim pictures. For posed, "fancy" pictures, I will edit them individually to get whatever effect I want.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? Space EP, space EP! I know we're not actually getting new EPs for TS2, but I can dream.

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? hmmm. Seasons, I think. Love me some gardening and rain.

Tagging @kayleigh-83, @plumbtales, @moocha-muses, @ofmdee, @sushigal007

[harocat]

For the LBFaD Asks: 5, 6, 10

Please and thank you!

(I'm such a weirdo but I love knowing if anyone uses different fonts between writing and editing!)

5: Describe your writing space.

My desk! I have a laptop, mouse pad, and a pink kitty-eared mouse. My desk is pretty messy. I used to have it really nice with lots of enamel pins and decorations, but my cat Chai is addicted to messing with anything on my desk. The enamel pins became hazardous because he'd pull them out with his teeth and they're uh, sharp obviously. So those are being moved upstairs to the desk I work at (I WFH). There's a couple cubbies stuffed with little knickknacks and just random stuff and some mugs with pens et al. There's a little desk lamp, and I also always have slime on my desk. I'm a huge fidgeter, so I keep slime with me whenever I can to combat the nail biting, etc. I may do otherwise.

6: Does font matter to you when you write?

I just use the default font, which on google docs I believe is Calibri. I'd be okay with any standard font like that, arial, times new roman, etc. I wouldn't want to write in something quirky or a script though, of course.

10: What fanon fact/s did you make your mind up on while writing for LBFaD?

I don't have a 'set future' per se for DFQC and XLH like I do some of my other ships. Maybe it's because they'll live so LONG that it seems impossible to do. I do think they'd have children, and I have it in mind what kind of parents they'd be. I've always been of the belief that one of their children would have the capacity to wield hellfire, just so DFQC can have some more anguish and trauma (I'm normally quite nice to him, I swear). Of course they wouldn't pursue it, but the mere idea of it being possible would still tear him up inside.

This is a personal thing, but I don't like when XLH is referred to Xiyun post series unless it's in a professional capacity. Xiyun was sealed when she was a child, and everyone that Xiao Lanhua knows and loves that is alive, knows her by that name. She's been XLH longer than Xiyun. It truly doesn't work in my mind that she would, when its actually revealed she's still herself and she has her memories, want people to call her by another name.

I can see her going by Xiyun in goddess related diplomatic settings (specifically if she's appearing as the Xishan goddess. If she's there in capacity as the Moon Queen, I think she'd use XLH), but outside of that she's XLH to me.

But a part of me even likes XLH there as well. Something satisfying about Yunzhong in specific having to call her XLH; he can never forget for a moment that this is the woman that he tortured and hunted unjustly. XLH is not as spiteful as me though LOL

And this is not vagueing anyone. Lots of people have a different opinion than me.

At least I haven't seen anyone have DFQC call her Xiyun. I could not read that. She’s XLH to him (or Xiao Huayo of course).

[simaiela]

The BFFs by simaiela

[ BFFs MAKEOVER PART 1 ]

I decided to take on a little makeover slash revamping project and I thought the BFFs would be the perfect first try. It's also my first attempt at doing these lookbook thingies. Obviously the lookbooks are meant to showoff the custom content other simmers make, but in my case, I tend to mix and match items in-game with custom content. So, these are my lookbooks for the trio!

I like color-coding my sims so I just took whichever defining color they had in their default design.

Travis Scott is our red boi. He looks kinda like tom holland, if I'm being honest but that's because of the eyes. the eyes are custom content so he looks real good. I didn't spend a lot of time on him. I, surprisingly, find it easier to speed through dressing up male sims because of how minimalistic men's fashion are and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Because of how categorical men's fashion is, it's also easy to know what to look for when dressing them up. Travis should give off basic white boi vibe, and that's okay!

Liberty Lee gets purple and yellow, mostly purple, tho, which I think is a really mystical color palette and suits how out of the three of them, she probably has the most defining trait. Travis and Summer are pretty straight to the point, and one could argue Liberty is as well, but I kinda revamped her as well and I played her as this Luna Lovegood type of character who surprises you with her hidden depths.

Summer Holiday is your typical cheerleader, popular girl trope but I gave it my own twist and instead of being this Regina George character, I wanted her to be someone who, yes, is a cheerleader and popular, but she's really just friendly and comes from old money, hence the more toned down, but still fancy looks.

I also headcanon that she gets along well with Liberty despite what the game wants for them and even gives Liberty some fashion advice, and Liberty has also grown comfortable in telling Summer about her troubles as a fellow young lady. They both DO love Travis, but I reeeeally wanted to develop it into a more platonic bond.

PACKS USED:

For Rent | Growing Together | High School Years | Cottage Living | Discover University | Get Famous | Seasons | Cats and Dogs | City Living | Get Together | Dream Home Decorator | Spa Day | Parenthood | Fitness Stuff | Vintage Glamor Stuff | Perfect Patio | Incheon Arrivals

All CCs/Mods:

Default Eye Replacement by elysiantrait Lip Presets by lutessasims Male Eye Presets by nothernsiberiawinds Male Hair 1 from Mail Hair Pack 1 by wistfulcastle Violet V-Neck from Greenhouse Collection by greenllamas Leila Hair 1 by aladdinthesimmer BY JIUSSIMS Canvas Platform Sneakers from Flats Collection 04 Star Platform Oxfords from Lollipop Collection 02 Over The Knee Boots 1 and Snow Boots 3 from Winter Collection 3 Velvet Platform Sandals 02 from Crystal Collection 1 Ankle Boots 3 from Martins Collection BY CHIH Lipstick C2 Nails P3 BY TRILLYKE Candy Crush Sandals by trillyke Butterfly Effect Top by trillyke BY TWISTEDCAT Naive Eyebrows & Silk Eyebrows from Brow set No 4 Stardust Outfit Taffy Dress Spiceberry Lipstick Pyrite Makeup Set Eyebags and Eyelids Soft Glam Glitter Overlay from Soft Glam Makeup Set Heatwave Lipstick from Heatwave Makeup Set Sourfruit Blush from Sourfruit Makeup Set Dark Hour Eyeshadow from Dark Hour Makeup Set Frosty Eyeshadow from Frosty Makeup Set Mirage Eyeliner from Mirage Makeup Set Glow Lipstick from Glow Makeup Set Slated Eyebrows from Eyebrow Set No 8 3D Lashes No4 BY SIMSTROUBLE Sybil Female Hair Viola Female Hair BY HUIEN Gem Earrings from Mulani Set Lucy Shirt from Floraful Set Claire Jeans from G!rls Set Ember Dress from Lovito BY MIIKO Eva Hair from Eva Set Peach Hair Fox Hair 2 Emma Hair 2 3D eyelashes Part 3

If any of the links are not working, or if you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message. Please show some love to the cc creators! Again, please read my guides page in case you get confused.

--

I'll be posting the house makeover soon so, stay tuned!

Find me on the gallery! simaiela

[arcplaysgames]

i am mainlining this shit like coke what can i even say, i love a good mirror ANYWAY

Sumire literally begging you to leave her to this fate is agony. This is so much and it's awesome. I felt so goddamn uncomfortable with this traumatized girl sobbing and asking Reverie/Me to just let her fix her pain.

I love when games make be feel like garbage but in an earned way! I have literally been cogitating on the Phantom Thieves and how they alter people's mind for the ENTIRE game! Bring it back in the endgame armed with some teeth! Good!

I actively like that the game is wrestling with this. Like, the Bad End, right? How different are Maruki's methods than the Thieves? Shiho's attempted suicide finally incentized me to roll with the entire idea of stealing Kamoshida's heart, but as evidenced by my unrelenting and endless bitching about Ryuji and Mishima and the Phansite, I never bought into the idea that the Thieves were justified by default.

I love to have all that shit thrown back in my face. Delicious.

HILARIOUSLY I WAS RIGHT, SUMIRE COMES DOWN TO FIGHT US AND DEFEND HER RIGHT TO HAVE MARUKI RE-RIG HER BRAIN.

Akechi: "I mean, I could stay and kill her but then you'd me, like, mad at me and frankly I am too tired of this shit to deal with your pouty face too, so you can fight her solo. I'll stand over here looking smug."

Akechi is a gift.

I have some absolutely batshit bonkers personae at this point and start every fight with all three stat categories boosted, so this wasn't even a fight.

Maruki watches all this and when Sumire starts begging for it all to stop, he comes down to join us.

I could put, uh, 15 screencaps in here but here is a timestamp, you GOTTA see this fucking sequence. Should start at 2:48

okay yeah Maruki is a better villain than Adachi, we are there.

Getting upset at Sumire's pain and so using his fucking weird-ass power to tear the Persona out of her heart and ask it to fight to defend her, I.... holy shit. Holy shit?

SO YOU WANNA FREE SUMIRE FROM THE DELUSION THAT SHE IS HER SISTER? THEN FIGHT HER PERSONA AS IT RAGES AT YOU AND SCREAMS FOR YOU TO LEAVE HER ALONE.

this! this! this is better than the base game! where was this writing the entire game! fuck!

Finally, the gang shows up, all carrying starbucks, and are here to help pacify the blackout rage of Sumire.

Morgana, I love you. Have I mentioned I love Morgana?

This entire game is about a boy and his cat in my heart.

honestly even if I'm cold on Sumire, the Cinderella motif is awesome.

WHAT A FUCKING SHOT! CINNAMON TOPOGRAPHY!

Also through this entire sequence, the whole thing while everyone talks, Maruki never raises his voice, his composure never cracks, his resolution never breaks.

He's even like "okay. come at me." but he wants to talk first. He wants everyone to live in this world until February 3rd, when he will show up to talk this through. And then, if it comes to a fight, they can all fight.

Everyone catches up outside the Palace and decides its time to head home and they'll talk tomorrow, because Oof there's a Lot to think about.

Back at the cafe, things are back to normal for Futaba and Sojiro. Wakaba is gone.

That's the part that really throws a wrench into the ethics for me. Maruki is able to undo the murders of good people, and by resetting everything, they are dead again. The implications of this are a lot. He absolutely should not have the power to restore life like this, but he does and already has.

It makes it all the more interesting that Akechi is here. Because logically, it feels like if you somehow deleted him from the timeline, it would undo the deaths of Wakaba and Okumura. And yet, he's still here.

My theory that Akechi is here because of Reverie's desire is gaining more traction.

Thank god there is a fun moment of levity here int he flashback where Morgana does his usually I Am Not A Cat from pure instinct but then is like oh wait i am a cat lmao nvmd. It's a good chuckle.

Futaba goes home to presumably cry into Sojiro's chest as he awkwardly pats her head and tries to figure out what the fuck is wrong. Just gutting.

Also she confirms that she lowkey knew the whole time something was wrong but ignored it. Oh, Futaba. I'm so sorry.

SCREAM LAUGHING.

ugh yeah OBVIOUSLY i was hot as a human, have you MET me? idiot. moron. dumbass.

i love morgana the most, have i mentioned. just for real, imagine your cat looking in the mirror and going "man if I were a human I would get so much action, it's unreal," with absolute confidence.

that's comedy.