#doesn't do much to set itself apart from the original

[kung-fu-cutbug]

Jackbox Party Pack 10 kinda sucks overall but it gave me this screenshot

so I'd say it's worth it

[covetyou]

no shortage of sordid

ao3 ⋆ main masterlist ⋆ series masterlist

pairing: Joel Miller x f!reader, Joel Miller x m!OC (unnamed) rating: Explicit (18+ only!) warnings: very dubious consent (not from reader), oral sex (m receiving from m), voyeurism/exhibitionism, degradation, brief mention of food and allusion to hunger, unnamed m!OC, m/m, Joel is not exactly gay he's just a domineering asshole, drug reference word count: 3.1k summary: Your deal with Joel has changed into something else, something different to when you first came to his door asking for help months ago. But, when you try to take him up on your new arrangement, you're met with something you never expected.

A/N: this was originally a much shorter deleted scene from the start of the dark caress of someone else. I took it out because it was too much and after writing that chapter I told myself I would avoid writing threesomes for as long as possible, because god damn it there's too many body parts. well, me, fuck you, this is threesome adjacent and not technically a threesome at all.

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Six days. That's how long it takes for you to cave and admit you want him. It takes you another two to do anything about it.

The first time you make the trip to Joel's apartment, no pills necessary, you're faced with silence and a door that won't open.

With an hour break between your jobs the next day, you make another attempt. But, you barely make it through the market when you see him trailing behind Tess, hulking figure parting the crowd with ease. You don't stop to see where they're going, instead choosing to turn on your heel and head back the way you came. The less you know, the better. Using the cards he handed back to you nine days ago, you stop by a street food vendor on your way to your next job, eating your first hot meal not only of that day, but that week, the warm food soothing more than just the emptiness in your stomach.

It takes you much longer to convince yourself to try on the third day. Your thoughts hadn't immediately gone to Joel Miller that morning. You had toyed with going for a walk, with seeing if you could pick up more work. But soon your hands ache, bones creaking in their joints as you clench them once again, trying to stave off the want in your belly with the pinch of nails digging into your palms.

Fuck it. You're going. Whether he's there or not, the need to get out of this apartment far outweighs the desire to stay warm inside it.

So, one gray trudge across a gray Boston to a gray apartment block later, you're at his door. Again.

Only this time there's not silence on the other side.

You can hear a murmur - undoubtedly Joel by the heavy rasp of a wry laugh that follows it - and a garbled whimper.

And, of course, you could leave. You could turn your back and leave Joel up to whatever it is, whoever it is, he's doing in there, but you don't. You knock, wanting him to know that even if he's occupied, you showed up. You came to him, not for pills, but for sex. For want, for desire, for the ease of the ache between your legs and the itch in your palms that just won't quit no matter how much you make yourself come.

Even with company, he doesn't make you wait long.

So it's not that you're not expecting the shuffle of two sets of feet. Or the thud on the door, heavy and dull like something big had caught itself before falling down. You knew he wasn't alone and, after all, the only thing you could really expect when visiting Joel was that nothing would be as expected.

No, that's not what surprises you at all.

What surprises you is when the door drifts open a fraction, a disembodied hand reaching through and pulling you through the gap, dragging you inside. What surprises you is tripping over his shoes, only they're not his shoes, the feet turned the wrong way up to belong to the all too familiar man standing before you.

What surprises you is seeing a man on his knees in front of Joel Miller.

It surprises you so much, you don't even notice as the door clicks shut and the hand that dragged you inside pulls you once again to stand at his side.

From here you can get a full view. There's a man on his knees in front of Joel. Joel's pants are unbuckled and pulled low on his hips. And then, the entire scene becomes very, very clear.

There is a man on his knees in front of Joel with his cock in his mouth.

So, when Joel looks at you with a glint in his eye, you're suddenly rooted to the spot, staring between him and the man beneath him. A smirk from Joel tells you you've been looking a little too long so, embarrassed and not quite sure what to do with yourself, you spin around, turning to inspect the back of a chair as if it was the most interesting thing in the room, not the man currently bobbing his head up and down on Joel's length.

"Eyes on me, sweetheart," he drawls from behind you. "Ain't no fun for me if you ain't lookin'."

As you always do where Joel is concerned, you do as you're told, taking a deep breath as you turn back to watch the man swallow down Joel's cock. You'd seen this kind of thing before - turned down the wrong street at the wrong time more than once only to see someone on their knees for someone else, earning yourself a wink or an insult for the privilege. But you never stayed to watch. Yet, here you are, staying and watching either because it was Joel, or because he asked, you weren't too sure.

The why doesn't exactly matter, you figure, not when your cheeks were rapidly heating and the wet patch in your panties was doing nothing but grow.

"Think he likes the audience too," Joel is saying, nodding down to the guy on his knees. "Don't you?"

You can see that he does. There's a hard bulge in the front of his pants, a bulge that looks much harder than the cock currently in his mouth.

"Dick always so hard for a straight guy. Think you like being a cocksucker." Joel gives the man an awkward pat on the head and huffs out a laugh, looking away from him to look back at you.

"Likin' what you see, sweetheart?" he jokes, casting dark eyes up and down your body. He can't see much. It's still fucking freezing, which is no surprise for a February in Boston, and you're still wrapped up against the elements because of it. But you know his gaze is looking through all of it, seeing through the layers straight down to your flesh, to your hard nipples and the wetness between your legs. He raises that infuriating, knowing, eyebrow at you and you roll your eyes.

"'m serious, you gotta keep lookin' or I'm never gonna come," he says then, and you drag your eyes back in an instant. You briefly wonder why - how - he would never come from this until it hits you.

Having a man suck his dick isn't Joel Miller's idea of a good time. Whoever the man on his knees is, he owes Joel. Maybe just like you did, or maybe worse. It doesn't matter, because you're not witnessing a blow job, you're witnessing a fucking business transaction.

And so you laugh - not at Joel, or the man, not really, but at the entire fucked situation and the world that brought you to this place.

"Y'hear that?" Joel growls down at the man. "She's laughin' at you."

Pinching his eyes shut, the man groans, and you swear you can see a dark patch starting to form on the front of his pants. It almost feels wrong, looking at another mans bulge like this when Joel's cock is right there, disappearing in and out of the strangers mouth at a languid pace. You can't even ask his name - his mouth too full to get out more than a garbled moan. Maybe names don't matter either.

Joel's eyes haven't left you, and yours haven't left the thatch of hair at the base of his cock. He's harder now, softness completely gone now that you're here to witness it. Giving and watching a blow job are so much different to what you expected. There's a wet sound in the air, for one. That rhythmic, wet noise of a throat being fucked was usually masked by your own moans, made easy to ignore by the distraction filling your mouth. But here, several steps away, it is loud.

"That's it. Keep your eyes right there," Joel murmurs before pointing to your outer layer. "Unzip your coat, lemme see. Get those pretty tits out for me, sweetheart. Don't mind him. He ain't gonna look. Are you?"

The man groans again, keeping his eyes shut as his head bobs on Joel's cock, taking an impressive amount of him down his throat with each movement. There's a small shake of his head, and while you don't believe him, you find you don't care either. You don't know the man on the floor any more than he knows you, and you have a feeling he's likely to keep his mouth shut once he leaves Joel's apartment today anyway.

A fraction of a second later, you're pulling your jacket open and yanking your sweater up above your tits, baring them to Joel. He murmurs something to himself, fisting his shirt tightly as he holds it up, exposing his belly. It strikes you then how damn distracted you had been every time before now - Joel's fingers, or tongue, or cock working you in such a way that you were brainless and oblivious to the physical affects you had on him. Now, its obvious. Like a man possessed, he watches you with blown eyes, his cock in full hardness now as the man below him works him over with his mouth and tongue.

Dragging cool fingers down your exposed chest, you meet your already pebbled nipples, pinching them and holding back a soft gasp. It's as much for you as it is to get a reaction from Joel, and if he didn't know you were wet before, he does now.

"That's it, play with 'em. And keep watching, sweetheart. Want you to watch when I come down his throat."

It's a struggle to keep your eyes open, but certainly not a chore. The man has picked up his pace, sucking and moaning around Joel's length as he slurps it down. He holds back a splutter when Joel's hips buck forward just as you pinch your nipples harder again, squeezing the flesh of your tits in cold palms.

"Fuuck, that's it, keep watchin'. You like that? Bet you want a taste of this dick too, huh?"

You nod, words stuck in your throat as Joel presses the mans head further into his crotch, rocking his hips to fuck lightly into his mouth.

"You needy and dripping over there ain't you?" he growls. He doesn't wait for you to nod, he doesn't need to. "Yeah you fuckin' are. Dirty fuckin' girl, watching my dick gettin' sucked. You like watching, don't you? Say it. Wanna hear it."

"I like it. I like watching, Joel," you say, barely more than a whisper as you become more and more entranced by Joel's cock in the mans mouth.

"Shit. Keep watchin'. Gonna come. Need you to watch."

It's all you can do to hold back a moan, your panties now probably ruined by your dripping, neglected cunt. This was not what you came here for, but watching Joel mumble obscenities and growl filth to you and the man on his knees as he gets his cock sucked was something you never knew you wanted before now. Sure, you want to touch, to play with him yourself. But watching is getting you wetter and wetter without even a finger or the press of your thighs to help you along the way.

"That's it. You keep suckin'. Fuck. Gonna bet you want this load in you not in him, right?"

Nodding frantically, you move a hand to your waistband, a soft plea on your lips, ready to pull your pants down any second. "Please - "

"Fuck - shit - well too bad, sweetheart. You look at that dick gettin' sucked. Shit - gonna come. Look at me. I said look at me."

Your eyes meet his just as they flutter closed. Joel groans a curse, his balls starting to empty into the throat of the man in front of him until he's suddenly tugging the mans hair, pulling his mouth off of his cock. The man gasps, swallowing down what he can as Joel rapidly strokes his spit soaked length, jerking the remains of his spend over the mans face and mouth. His eyes immediately flick to yours, a soft moan having left your own lips the moment Joel started to come, and he groans again, a final spurt coating the mans chin, soaking his facial hair. It's filthy. Not the most filthy thing you know Joel's done, but the most filthy thing you've ever seen him do from the outside. You can't help but stare on in silence, too captivated by the spurts of milky white dripping over the mans face, his eyes still screwed tight. You're aching and desperate to stick a hand down your pants, to feel how wet you are, to touch your clit and make yourself come as you try to hold yourself upright on shaky legs.

Through syrupy blood pulsing in your ears you hear Joel growl down at the man, removing his hand from his hair like it's burned his palm. Then, he's looking to you again, deep brown eyes searching your own before falling down, down to where your hand cups your breast and your other fists the waistband of your pants in a tight grip. He knows - knows that even if you came here already wet and wanting, you were even more so now.

And it's with a smirk and a sharp snap of his fingers that he pulls you back into the room. The man's eyes are open now, avoiding yours as he wipes cum from his face with his sleeve, covertly licking his lips for any remnant taste of Joel. You can't blame him, fuck knows you'd done the same when Joel had swiped a taste of himself over your own lips, but you can't help the jealousy at wanting to taste again too.

It's then you remember your exposed chest, and you yank your sweater back down without another glance to the man on his knees. Joel shakes his head, a shit eating grin spreading across his face as he strides across the room. He goes to the cupboard where you know he keeps a small amount of his stock, rifling through for a second before coming back with a baggy and tossing it down on the floor at the mans knees. He scrambles for it immediately, climbing to his feet and grabbing the door. Joel doesn't look at him again.

"Say hello to your wife for me," Joel calls over his shoulder, and the man scurries away without a word.

Now it's just you and him, his unbuttoned pants the only remaining evidence of what just happened.

You hesitate, partly in stunned silence, partly your brain having turned to liquid between your ears, all coherent thought lost the moment Joel's cum spurted across the mans face. But there's still that unsatisfied ache between your legs, throbbing and making your hand twitch, willing you to reach for him now that he's so close.

Joel sees it, he knows, knows what you came here for and knows what you won't be getting.

"Not today, sweetheart. Couldn't even if I tried," he says gesturing to his spent already dick tucked back into his pants. "Gotta head out again too, so whatever you got goin' on in those panties, you gotta deal with it yourself." He finishes with a wink and a tap to your chin before grabbing a small gym bag from the couch. You hadn't even seen it there, brain too occupied by more interesting things happening in this room at the time.

So it's no surprise, really, when your mouth starts running before your mind can process what it's doing. There's only one thing you're thinking of. One thing, aside from the throb in your core, that you can't stop thinking about, that envy won't let you give up.

"Would you - " your mouth gapes, opening and closing like a fish while your mind stutters and stops. You shouldn't even ask. There's no answer that can satisfy that particular itch. Not as quickly as you'd want it, at least. If he said yes, he'd already said nothing could happen right now, and if he said no, well... there was something about the thought of him denying you that did something to you too. There was no winning.

"Would I what?"

Of course, Joel had already heard. Even as he potters about the apartment, dumping stuff into the bag from places you've not been paying attention to. He stops, prompting you to go on.

"Would you... Would you come in my mouth like that? One time?"

He stares at you with his mouth open in disbelief. "You want me to come in your mouth?"

You nod, your mouth suddenly so fucking dry you can't speak anymore. You'd been salivating, able to practically taste the phantom flavor of Joel's cum on your tongue just a moment ago. Now, it was like you'd been chewing on bricks, tongue sticky and dry and your teeth feeling like an awkward jumble in your mouth.

"Well, shit. Call the press. Respectable good girl wants to be my little cocksucker -"

"Fine, if you're going to make fun, I don't -"

"Woah, hold on, I'm fuckin' with you. I ain't gonna turn down shutting that pretty mouth up with my dick. Gotta do it more than one time though, sweetheart. You around tomorrow?"

Between jobs and your dad having a day off, it would be a few days before you could come back. Shaking your head, you offer up Thursday instead. It's only three days away. You can make it three more days. Right?

"Thursday works for me. Come by in the afternoon. I'll come in that mouth, and then I'll play with that pussy while I get worked up again," he says before adding, with a cock of his head, "Then I'll come in that too."

And you're dumbstruck - the fantasy you concocted in your own head far surpassed by Joel's own, seemingly thought up right on the spot as he maneuvers you out into the hallway.

"See you then, sweetheart."

He pushes you out of the door, fingers electrified where they touch your shoulder. You expect the door to snap shut behind you, like it has so many times before, but he follows you out into the hallway, locking the door behind him. With a wink, he stalks off down the corridor, legs carrying him out of the apartment block too quick for you to keep up.

Later that night, alone in bed and wondering how the hell you're going to last two more days like this, you rub yourself stupid to thoughts of Joel's cock in a mouth that isn't yours.

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[paragonrobits]

There’s a phrase I like to use when people question why, in fantasy series, people don’t just take the most efficient and ruthless option. I say, “This isn’t Game of Thrones.” Bluntly put, apart from having a very unsatisfying ending to its character arcs due to a realistic but very abrupt swing from the character arcs it had been building up (and in one notable case, a character arc that WAS built up the whole time, but not in a way people anticipated), Game of Thrones is most notorious for a very realpolitick approach to how the characters make their decisions.

Efficiency, immediate needs and ruthlessness regardless of personal qualms comes up a lot in what people seem to have taken from that show’s success, and you see a LOT of people thinking that pragmatic ruthlessness is the most basic and standard solution to any story’s problems, regardless of whether or not its consistent with a story’s given themes and morals.

The Avatar setting is NOT one of those. In this setting, spirituality is vitally important; the reason WHY things are done, as well as HOW they done, are just as important as the actual end result, if not more.

So, one thing I see a LOT in fandom circles (usually in bad takes floating around and being mocked by the circles I am adjacent to, or ideas popular among Big Name Fans who are kind of sheltered from the actual themes of the show itself and have distanced themselves from what the show is actually like in favor of what is functionally a completely original series that appeals to their own preferences) comes down to discussions arguing that AtLA would be better if Aang just took down every one he fought and killed them all without hesitation; there is a popular implication among these ideas that Aang is considered weak to them BECAUSE he doesn't want to kill. Because killing is anathema to his people, because the deliberate taking of life is a HUGE deal to both the Air Nomads and the real life religions that they are based on.

These takes conclude that none of that matters; that his morals and compunctions should just be immediately tossed aside in order to achieve his goals. There's usually something like 'who cares about spirituality when the world is so bad' or the ends justifying the means. And the thing is that we DO see characters in AtLA saying that, quite often. Characters who don't care about the spiritual consequences of their actions, who do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals.

They're the villains.

In AtLA, ruthlessness, pragmatism and 'whatever it takes to get what I want' is SPECIFICALLY and EXCLUSIVELY associated with the antagonists. General Fong; Azula, Ozai, the entirety of the Fire Nation... one thing they all have in common, besides opposing Aang, is that they're not just willing to be ruthless, they have no interest in achieving their goals or really doing anything at all without being ruthless and amoral about it. There's a common point in the narrative here, and I think the episode the Avatar State neatly sums it up through its story, as we are presented with Fong, who is seemingly an ally, demanding that they ignore the spiritual demands in favor of just weaponizing a force of nature no one involved really understands.

His emphasis on the people dying in the meantime does make for a potent image, but he is ultimately and frequently established as a ruthless jackass who cares more about trying to weaponize the Avatar State (and mere mortals do not get to have a say in its decisions or what the World Spirit, in its fullest power, wants to do). Apart from this indicating a more or less full departure from a strict moral binary within the series, there's also an emphasis on Katara growing increasingly uncomfortable with the non-spiritual plan they're taking, to the point that she won't have anything to do with it, and she is very much the show's heart. If she disapproves of something with plot relevance, its usually a bad sign.

So this whole THING you have with people going 'everything would be better if Aang killed everyone immediately except for the secret Good Guys even though he has absolutely no way of knowing them out of context'... its genuinely really bewildering and I think its kind of proof of people not engaging with the show's themes or ethics, but assuming that ruthlessness and efficiency are the default way of handling everything. AtLA is not subtle about this and if you think that the show at any point suggests that this is a likely outcome, I don't think you're really engaging with it, or you're misunderstanding the context (such as the Ocean Spirit rampaging being framed as a last second moment of hope; I think people conflate its destruction as generally a Cool Thing, rather than the world itself protecting a dying culture from near certain destruction as the moon itself is... well, dead.)

(There's also a protagonist-centered morality in that they seem to want their characters to BE rather amoral, being all about love and acceptance and tolerance but also brutally and remorselessly kill everyone in their way without hesitation, and the people making these statements don't see any kind of logical flaw. I dunno but that's WEIRD to me.)

[bedlamsbard]

Did you like the Blue Beetle movie?

I thought it was fine -- like, I get why people who really, really liked it loved it, it's very fun, I'm impressed with how much the filmmakers were willing to subtitle. (Or even not subtitle, since I think there was a fair amount of Spanish that wasn't subtitled.) Most of the characters felt really clearly drawn; I feel like the characters are where the movie shines.

For me personally, it didn't really do it for me, and that's partially a feature of how DC in general doesn't tend to work for me and partially due to the fact that it's in a couple of different subgenres of superhero stories that aren't my favorite -- I don't tend to like younger hero stories and I don't tend to like "these superpowers just happened to me and now I have to deal with them" stories, which the MCU didn't do until Phase 3.

Like, it's fun! It's a fun movie. It's very clearly in conversation with other superhero films from the last twenty years, almost to the extent that sometimes I felt like its actual story got hampered by it. (Like the Kord missile in Carapax's flashback, which may or may not be from the original comics, but today is inescapably a reference to Tony seeing the SI missile in IM1 and Wanda and Pietro seeing it in the WV flashback. Because I'm a Marvel person, that visual threw me out of the story.) I also felt like there were a lot of gaps in the movie, which is usually due to cut scenes; I don't know if that was the reason in this particular case, but that's what it felt like to me. Why was Jenny suddenly getting chased out of her apartment by people with guns? Who knows, now it's happening. There are a few places like that in the film. The movie also very much set off my embarrassment squick in the first twenty minutes, half hour or so, and that was rough for me to deal with.

But again, like, it's a fun movie, it's a beautiful film, the characters are great, the story itself is basically...whatever...but I recommend it, I'd watch a sequel.

[darklinaforever]

"If you love the character for their personality their assigned sex or gender doesn't matter."

Except that a character's personality and story can be tied to their gender. Let's take an example of GOT. With some modifications, you could have a story where Bran was a girl, because his path doesn't tie in with his gender much (except at the very beginning). However, you can't have Dany or Sansa or Cersei being men since their arcs and personalities are very much dependent on them being women. This goes the other way round too, it wouldn't make sense for Robb Stark to be a woman (since his role is the Heir of Winterfell).

People like to behave as if gender/sex of a character doesn't matter, and that's true only in certain conditions- mostly modern stories (for instance if Bridgerton was a modern story), or stories set in some world where men and women have a similar upbringing and freedoms (something like the Grisha side of the Grishaverse, for instance- Alina is raised the same as Mal, and Zoya is raised similarly to the men). This idea falls apart in historical scenarios where men and women have different roles in the society and their roles affect their personality. Bridgerton is no exception, since we have already seen how different the expectations were from Anthony and Daphne in S1.

Plus, as I said before, part of me is happy to have a central romance coming between two women.

Like I already said, representation is always nice when you're part of the LGBTQ+ community.

But I'm still mainly disappointed not to have Michael Stirling and Franchael as I had more or less imagined.

If there is one book from which I expected the adaptation with the most fidelity / nod to the original book, it was for When he was Wicked.

And I don't think Bridgerton is the show made for central lgbtq+ romances since there are the central couples of each book to adapt who are all, well, a man and a woman.

They can create excellent subplots for queer couples (like with Reynold & Brimsley in Queen Chaotte who were great for me, but for Bridgerton. Or they can even invent spin-offs if they absolutely want central LGBTQ+ romances for this universe.

Frankly, since the Bridgerton books aren't crazy, I agree with Netflix's free adaptation.

But the adaptation still has problems in itself with too much boring subplot sometimes instead of spending more time on the central couple and... well just the Bridgerton family dynamic ?

But there were still things that were good in the books. (for example, if we could have kept the intelligent Edwina of the books instead of going too far into the delirium of the engagement and marriage with Anthony in season 2...)

And if there is one Bridgerton book that is really objectively good it was When he was Wicked. So I still find it a shame.

And then, yes, even if the books are not crazy they have a community of fans and these books are the reason why the Netflix show exists.

So the least we could do would perhaps be not to touch the central couples ?

The heart of Bridgerton is the Bridgerton family and their romances.

So for me the show should not touch on the genders of the original couples and also have more moments within the Bridgerton family.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Killing Time" review

Novel from 1985, by Della Van Hise. Published right after Ishmael, it involves again time-tampering. Only this time, the villains (here Romulans) are successful in their attempts to rewrite history, so most of the novel is set in an alternate universe. The basic difference is that, in this new universe, the Federation was founded by Vulcans instead of humans, so Spock is the starship captain, while Kirk is a mere Ensign with a troubled past.

The story presents some interesting concepts, like the flow of time and history being somehow ingrained in the very fabric of the universe, so no matter the alterations, it tends to revert to its original course, or rip itself apart (a concept which, in some shape or another, was also present in The Entropy Effect and the previous novel). There's also much discussion about "alternate selves", paths not taken in life, and whether these versions of ourselves still exist somewhere and can be reached through dreams. Sometimes, the "mechanics" of time-alteration are a bit iffy, or poorly explained. For example, it seems very unlikely that people like Uhura or Scotty would have the same exact post in the alternate universe (shouldn't they be replaced by Vulcans?). And since it's explained that travelling at warp drive makes one immune to the time alterations, why aren't more starships (the Enterprise included) spared from the effects? Anyway, this is just to be nitpicky; after all, the story doesn't require much more suspension of disbelief than other TOS novels.

Other than a bit of purple prose here and there, I didn't find the writing bad. And characterization is pretty fine. The portrait of Kirk as a rebellious Ensign is a curious precedent for the 2009 movie Kirk, and his grief is quite moving. Spock and McCoy's interactions are spot-on. And so far, this novel has the best, most complex portrayal of the Romulan Commander (from "The Enterprise Incident"), as a cunning, powerful woman, and yet vulnerable in her love/hate for Spock. It's perhaps the latter who comes off most out-of-character; at times Spock seems a bit too emotional and soft, though not to the point of being unrecognizable.

On the other hand, the structure is a bit clumsy. A good chunk of the book keeps going over and over the effects that history alteration has on the mind, turning people crazy, or inducing dreams about the original reality. Since the Romulan scheme is fully revealed quite early on, these chapters don't have all that much interest: we already know what's happening, we already know why people are having those dreams... (So no, I'm not interested in the content of Ensign Kirk's dreams, since I already know what's there; stop trying to put him in that vid-scan thing, McCoy). However, the plot takes off once the characters finally decide to do something about all this mess, and get involved in further Romulan schemes. The later chapters, thus, are more interesting, and there are some pretty emotive scenes towards the ending.

In conclusion, this isn't one of the best novels, though it has its high points. It would have been rather unremarkable among the long string of TOS novels, were it not for the controversies surrounding its publication. For those, see the "Spirk Meter" at the end.

Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise is patrolling the Romulan Neutral Zone, when several crewmembers start experiencing disturbing dreams. A common theme in those, is seeing Spock as the Captain, in a somehow changed Enterprise. While Kirk sees himself as a mere Ensign. There are also some rumors about an experiment going on in the Romulan Empire...

After an abrupt change, the next chapter presents a totally different reality. Kirk is now an Ensign recently assigned to the "VSS ShiKahr", commanded by Spock. Having been in prison for the murder of an Academy teacher (of which he has no recollection), Kirk was subjected to the Talos Device, which left him having frequent nightmares and addicted to drugs. He was given the choice between a rehabilitation colony, or forceful draft into the Fleet. Anyway, he has little interest in serving in a starship, or life in general, since he knows he'll never get his own command due to his past. His life is made even more miserable by his bully roomate Donner. Soon thereafter, strange phenomena are experienced by some crewmembers. Spock gets fleeting glimpses of another reality, that leave him dizzy. And one crewman succumbs to madness, and tries to blow up the entire ship, after sabotaging the matter/antimatter valves. After performing some scans on the insane man, McCoy discovers that his brain has two separate sets of brain waves, as if they belonged to two different persons altogether. Further cases of insanity throughout the galaxy are suspected, when a Vulcan Admiral orders the ShiKahr to invade the Romulan Empire in a suicidal mission. Spock, of course, stalls the order as long as he can.

The narrative changes focus then, to present what's going on in the Romulan ship "Ravon", where Commander Tazol remembers his recent confrontation with her wife Sarela. She was strongly opposed to the Praetor's plans to interfere in Earth's past, and assassinate three key figures in the founding of the Federation, so it never comes to be. Sarela is afraid the plan will be a total failure, like all the other plans of the Praetor to tamper with timelines. Nonetheless, Tazol is a complete blockhead, and proceeds with the plan. The idea is receiving the Praetor aboard (a mysterious, hooded figure that only his close advisors have ever seen face to face), and then enter warp drive to avoid the history-altering effects. That way, everyone aboard the Ravon will keep intact their memories of the so-called First History, along with its records, to later compare them with the situation in the Second History (the altered timeline). It turns out that, as Sarela expected, Second History isn't all it's cracked up to be... The Federation wasn't founded on Earth, true, but in its place, a similar Alliance of planets was started in Vulcan. The Romulan Empire has hardly benefitted from this, and now its enemies are mostly the tough Vulcans, instead of humans. The Praetor orders Sarela to his quarters, for a private discussion of the situation, much to Tazol's chagrin.

Meanwhile in the ShiKahr, McCoy has been performing vid-scans (a kind of visual recording of people's dreams) on several persons. Some of them show dreams of a "golden-haired Captain". While others show disturbing "negative scans". McCoy is a complete genius, because from this flimsy evidence he concludes, correctly, that reality has been shifted. And those that have ended in different positions in life, will become maladjusted to the changes, and eventually turn mad. Also, those showing negative scans now, are persons who are already dead in the original timeline (and this opens up an interesting ethical dilemma when reverting the changes, since it will mean instant death for those persons; sadly, this isn't further explored). For his part, crazy Admiral is still doing his crazy thing, and now orders the ShiKahr on a diplomatic mission, on a planet of savages that weren't expecting diplomats at all. The landing party is attacked, Donner is killed (good for him) and Spock is injured.

Cutting back to the Ravon, Sarela discovers that the Praetor is actually... a woman! Something that's not allowed in the Romulan Empire, thus the need for the permanent hood in public (and it also explains why all the Praetor slaves are now pretty boys...). Automatically, Sarela's respect for the Praetor goes up tenfold (huh, wasn't the Praetor a complete idiot a second ago, with all those stupid plans? The fact she's a woman should change nothing!). Well, as it turns out, the stupid plans weren't hers, but came from her father. She just went ahead with them because it was too late to back out, and also because she still expects some good to come out of it. Thea (the Praetor) explains that she's going to use Spock to sign a peace treaty with the Alliance, and introduce Surak's teachings among Romulans, to further the cause of peace (doesn't sound like a very evil plan, if you ask me). By kidnapping Kirk, she'll blackmail Spock into doing all this, while disguised with the hood as if he were the real Praetor. She still holds a grudge towards Kirk and Spock, since in First History, those two stole a cloaking device from her, revealing thus that she's the Romulan Commander from the series. Thea suspects that the Vulcans will, sooner or later, discover the time tampering and revert it, but some effects of Second History (like the peace treaty) will be indelibly embedded in the universe, anyway. Sarela agrees to help her, specially after she receives her own pretty boy slave.

For his part, Spock instructs Christopher Pike (here still a happy captain of a ship) to stop the crazy Admiral, before he causes all-out war. After this, the ShiKahr intercepts a Romulan shuttle, apparently crippled and adrift, and takes it aboard. The only passengers, apparently, are Thea and Sarela, and they're taken into custody. However, hibernating inside the shuttle, and thus not detected as life forms, were Thea's slaves. They wake up a while later, disguise themselves as Vulcan guards, and order Kirk to the briefing room. Sensing a trap, Kirk attacks them, but the Romulans subdue and kidnap both Kirk and his new roomate: Richardson. They depart in the Ravon, and leave the two hostages stranded in a desolate planet, with just basic survival gear. Spock learns about this too late, so he has no alternative but cooperating with Thea. Secretly, though, he plans to infiltrate the Romulan Empire to get the secret of time travel (unknown to the Alliance), and the details to revert the timeline.

Spock, dressed as the Praetor, McCoy, half-dressed as his...slave, and S'Parva, some kind of dog-girl with telepathic powers, accompany Thea back to the Ravon. Spock, as many other people, is also succumbing to madness, which in his case manifests as pon farr. He covers it up as a simple infection, and requests the medical assistance of slave-McCoy to create a distraction. The moment is seized by S'Parva to get inside the computer system. Later, Spock reviews the data, learning about the slingshot effect to travel through time. Both Spock and S'Parva receive also telepathic transmissions from Kirk and Richardson, respectively (S'Parva having formed previously a mind link with Richardson through an experiment). This way, they learn the location of the hostages. Nonetheless, Spock ends up losing consciousness due to the worsening of his symptons. Thea, who still loves Spock in some way, forms a temporary bond with him, and helps him out of pon farr (that is, they fuck).

Once in the Praetor's palace in Romulus, Thea learns about all the incidents of madness happening in the Empire. And finally, after a lengthy conversation, Spock manages to convince her of the necessity of reversing the changes. If this goes on, soon half the galaxy will be destroyed by madness. Spock regrets that he can't stay with her, as his present persona will disappear along Second History. Nonetheless, he will bring Kirk along to the past, to restore the timeline; that way, both of them will keep some remembrance of this alternate history, and will later use their influence to realize Thea's plans for peace. Thea relents, and after rescuing Kirk and Richardson, they make a slingshot maneuver in the shuttle, arriving in Earth's past. However, Thea leaves them to their own devices from now onwards.

Having arrived in San Francisco a while before the assassination, Kirk, Spock and Richardson enter the conference room, where the three politicians are due to make a speech. Kirk creates a distraction by revealing Spock's alien features to the surprised humans, and this prompts the assassins to reveal themselves. In the commotion, everyone escapes to safety (including the politicians), while Kirk and Spock confront the assassins. These are actually human-looking androids, and after a difficult fight, they destroy them, though Richardson is killed in the process. Then Spock takes out a disruptor to destroy the android remains (his excuse for not using the disruptor earlier being that Kirk needed to reassert himself as Captain by getting into a fist-fight, which is... a bullshit excuse, really). After this, Kirk and Spock (also mortally wounded in the fight) go to the rooftop. And there's a pretty sad scene, where both wait for their current selves to disappear in the reality shift, thus dying in a sense.

Everything is back to normal, though Kirk, Spock and Richardson keep having dreams about their alternate lives. Kirk also finds a ring that belonged to his other self, and reflects with melancholy about the fate of "Ensign Kirk". After a mind-meld with Spock, both of them get a clearer view about the events of Second History, and decide to cooperate with Thea to achieve peace. In the end, Kirk leaves the ring behind, knowing it will disappear and return to its real owner, somewhere.

Spirk Meter: 10/10*. Now, this novel is generally regarded as the K/S novel par excellence. Is it very slashy? Yes. But is it something completely in a different league? Well, no. Most of the Marshak & Culbreath novels are as slashy as this one (and The Price of the Phoenix definitely more). Hell, a good deal of this stuff is just taken from TOS episodes, and while in "Amok Time" Spock got out of pon farr by rolling around with Kirk, here he uses the more conservative approach of sex with a woman (and Kirk is totally okay with that, not showing the slightest jealousy). I suspect that most of this fame is simply due to the novel's publication history, and not to the actual content. I've encountered two versions of this incident. The most popular one tells of readers being so scandalized by the novel's first edition, that some higher-up (even Roddenberry himself) had to intervene, and censor the novel for subsequent printings. Della Van Hise's version (presented in several fanzine articles, that you can read in sites like Fanlore) tells a much less exciting story: Basically, the editor made some cuts here and there, she approved of the changes, and then sent the novel for printing. There was an error, and the unedited version was printed instead. When the publishing house noticed it, they corrected the mistake in the second edition, which was the one supposed to see the light from the beginning. In my opinion, Van Hise's version sounds more realistic. I have difficulty believing that the same public who received Triangle a couple years before without batting an eyelid, would start a riot for this. Let alone that Gene-t'hy'la-means-lover-Roddenberry would give two shits about it (was he even that involved in the franchise by 1985?). Apart from this, the edits seem very cursorily: a slight toning-down of some affectionate scenes, cutting curse words here and there, removal of partial nudity (even in medical settings that have absolutely nothing to do with K/S), etc. They really don't look like the kind of heavy censorship of someone set against K/S after a scandal.

Now, for the slash elements (I read the first edition, so this is based on that version): Kirk and Spock are quite affectionate, often reassuring each other with a touch on the shoulder or the hand, or confiding things that they wouldn't trust to anybody else. The mental link between them (which is a staple in many novels and comics, and thus not that remarkable) is given, however, a special relevance, with them often using it to transmit warm feelings, and even communicating over great distances. The link is so strong, that some effects of Spock's pon farr start affecting Kirk. And when the reality first shifts into the alternate universe, Kirk experiences great anguish, upon feeling the link broken. It's also noteworthy that other characters that share this kind of link (Spock and Thea; Richardson and S'Parva) are in romantic relationships of sorts. Apart from the permanent link, Spock performs several mind-melds with Kirk. The first time, when he finds the Ensign sleeping in the garden and suffering nightmares, he attempts a meld to soothe his mind (similar to "Requiem for Methuselah") but Kirk rejects it. Spock, who's already starting to go crazy, attacks Jim then, and forces a mind-meld with him. The fight and Kirk's submission are vaguely homoerotic, and this was by far the most censored passage in the book. The second meld happens when they're both waiting for "death", Spock resting his head on Kirk's shoulder, and the Vulcan uses it to bring Kirk to the other reality along him. The third meld was already covered in the plot summary. Apart from this, when Spock receives glimpses of his previous life, he misses a companion by his side, once wondering if the man he sees there is his t'hy'la. And when Kirk visits his quarters at night to get his medication, Spock interviews him while still shirtless, and understands that he can't keep secrets from him. But perhaps the most blatant examples aren't what Kirk and Spock actually do, but what other characters think about them. Thea is unreasonably jealous of Kirk, and kidnaps him with the belief that Spock will do anything to rescue him, since he's his treasured human and dearest to him in all the combined universes. Actually, this isn't the real reason why Spock complies with Thea, but he agrees with her assessment that "James Kirk is even deeper in your blood than Vulcan". Richardson, as well, has the impression that Kirk and Spock belong together in any universe.

Although this is definitely a K/S novel, there's also a bit of Spones, and it's kind of hilarious that it went totally unnoticed by censors, considering the sexual element is more blatant, compared with the rather spiritual relationship of Kirk and Spock. For starters, when Kirk is first having dreams about Spock as a Captain, McCoy dismisses it as just a typical fantasy of wanting to be under Spock's authority (which totally seems like McCoy projecting there, since that's not the real cause at all). Once Spock gets the first symptoms of pon farr, McCoy is very stubborn about going with him to Romulus to treat his illness, even if he has to be his slave to do so (and as previously seen, those slaves are also the Praetor's lovers). And when Spock gets worse, McCoy confronts him about being so proud and rejecting something that should be pleasurable, pointing out that many people would want to sleep with him... while blushing himself. Finally, McCoy refuses to leave Thea alone with Spock to do her thing, and has to be brought out basically by force (like, what was his alternate plan?). It doesn't help either that McCoy is said to care for Spock more than professional ethics should have permitted.

Also incredibly explicit is Kirk's relationship with Richardson. Kirk comes out from the shower totally naked in front of him. And later they both swim naked in a pond, while Kirk experiences the heat of pon farr through his link. Not enough? Well, Richardson often calls Jim "Juliet", while Kirk calls him "Romeo". Yup.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[improbable-implosions]

This one's kinda funny, I went into affixing that patch SO sure that the design of that sword of mine, Arma, would be plenty for that patch, but the longer I stared at it doing other mends for these pants, the longer I felt it needed _something_ else, you know?

First up, we've got to stitch on the patch itself! I did some nice even straight stitches, because initially, I was planning on a little area of sashiko mending.

But, in looking at the size of the chunk of dissolvable backing I had cut, there wasn't really any patterns immediately springing to mind that'd work at a scale that small, or, so I thought after seeing how that basketweave pattern came together on an earlier piece. For context, the whole patch is roughly the size of the palm of my hand, at 3.5 inches square.

So, instead, I decided to try something a bit more complex to render than I'd really tried out before, this art of Arma! (Despite the sword's design being my work, the art in question is by @razzmatazic, who I did ask if I tried to trace, and she had no problems!) And so trace I did, tracing the outlines of the major features of the piece, namely, the outer lines, and the shapes of the gemstones.

Unfortunately, in my haste (and, admittedly, my focus, since this was much higher detail than I normally tackle around here), I didn't grab any in-progress shots of this. Still, I actually really enjoy how this came out looking, even if it doesn't perfectly evoke the design or detail of the original piece, it certainly emulates the look of Arma well enough I recognize it, and very visibly reads Cool Sword, y'know?

Next up were a few colorful rims around the edges of the front pockets! They were fraying pretty significantly, so not only does this add a fun splash of color, but it keeps me from picking the edges of these seams apart while I'm not thinking about my hands. Initially, I was going to pick a different set of colors than that turquoise and purple, based on a fun fact about my hometown, but that color scheme was just calling out to me! I decided to lean into the somewhat royal vibes and went for a different, lighter purple, with two little bits of yellow thread, which, fun fact, I actually dyed with some yellow flowers I foraged back in the boston area!

As for these two little spot-mends, they were really more an exercise in frustration. Really, I'm mostly miffed the thread broke on the original patch in the one place the hole kept trying to expand through, but hopefully that little bit of randa stitching (which looks MUCH more like randa stitching should than my previous efforts, namely on my wallet and that previous pair of pants that we detailed, the ones with the segaihana sashiko) alongside some additional reinforcement along the edge of that original yellow patch, made from some thread I scavenged from a fraying bit of denim, should keep this particular pair of shorts from getting any more fixes right on the edge of the patch that has misbehaved TWICE now!

Last but not least, while I was wrangling those pocket rims and the spot mends, I really just had the feeling that Arma would look kinda... lonely, I suppose? Centered in the framing straight stitches like that, so I improvised a little open book next to her! (She's not a sword-girl, promise, it's she/her like you'd she/her a boat) There's actually some really nice dimensionality to the book, too, with some looser stitches to emulate ruffle-able pages, and those two knots along the spine make for a pleasant, crinkled texture to the cover lines! Can you tell I'm pleased with myself for getting that just so, without any guides?

All that said, hopefully that's all the mends my poor poor jean shorts need, I swear, just as I get one set fixed, the other winds up with another hole! Don't get me wrong, I'm starting to enjoy the whole almost boro-like vibe they're developing, with all these overlapping mends, but I'd like them to develop it slower, thanks! (And yes, I do plan to wear these at LEAST until they look like I've quilted them back together, they're comfy!)

[pinkeoni]

Will Byers: The Final Girl

Looking more at Will through Carol J. Clover's Men, Women, and Chain Saws

After making this post about Will's gender expression in which I referenced and was inspired by Carol J. Clover's book Men, Women, and Chain Saws, a book which was mentioned in this article, an article which brought to my attention my Mori motherthroat, I have since made it through the books introduction and have gotten all the way to the end... of the first chapter. Like I said, I'm a slow reader.

But it's within this first chapter that Clover actually talks about the Final Girl trope, something that I, and others, have suggested that Will falls into.

And to be honest, I didn't quite get the Final Girl labelling of Will until I started reading Clover's book and made my analysis. But now, it all makes sense. So I wanted to do a deeper dive into Will as the Final Girl of the show, how he embodies this trope, and how he subverts it.

Defining Will as a "Final Girl"

The idea of Will being the Final Girl is a way to allow Will to have the masculine hero role that the creators seem to be teasing for him, without sacrificing his more feminine role of victim. The term victim-hero that I used in my original post is one that I got from Clover herself, which she uses in reference to final girls. Final girls spend the majority of their film suffering at the hands of the killer (victim) before eventually turning the tables and getting revenge (hero) or is saved by an outside force, typically (but not always) a male one.

The Final Girl idea for Will doesn't come out of nowhere either, as the show itself plays with slasher tropes. Season one opens with a culling from the killer with the initial lab sequence, and dialogue from Brenner suggests that there were other victims, with only Will being left as the lone survivor. Season four feels more slasher-y, with the kills being on screen and the killer actually given a name and a face (making Max somewhat effectively the Final Girl for that season) and the season ends with the idea that the killer is still on the loose, with emphasis given to his connection with Will.

Carol J. Clover describes Final Girls as follows:

“The Final Girl is boyish, in a word. Just as the killer is not fully masculine, she is not fully feminine—not, in any case, feminine in the ways of her friends. Her smartness, gravity, competence in mechanical and other practical matters, and sexual reluctance set her apart from the other girls and ally her, ironically, with the very boys she fears or rejects, not to speak of the killer himself.”

Where Final Girls are often boyish girls, Will is a girlish boy. So it's not just the narrative that aligns him with other Final Girls, it's his characterization as well. His non-conformity to gender norms, as well as his romantic reluctancy, is part of the trope.

This is most notably exemplified in season three, when Will is unable to relate to the heterosexual-romance drama that his other male friends seem to be intertwined with. Even Dustin, who doesn't share much time with the main crew this season, had a girlfriend, something that allied him to Mike and Lucas and set Will apart.

In season one Will feels more Sally at the end of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, after being tortured for the last chunk of the film by the slaughterhouse family, Sally makes her escape on the back of a pickup truck. Will spends most of the season evading the killer (who we later learn to be Vecna) until he is rescued by Hopper and Joyce. Will and Sally never turn a weapon against the killer, but they endure, out last, and survive long enough to be rescued.

But Sally's case is just one way that the Final Girl story can end, and you're more likely to find a different kind of ending— with the Final Girl turning the tables on the killer and getting back at him. Sometimes, but not always, by brandishing the killers own type of weapon against him.

So now we're in a post-vol. 2 world where the killer is still at large, Will has been confirmed several times now to be the center of the final season, it's said to be Will's "coming-of-age" story and the killer's reign can't last forever.

Clover talks about "phallicization" when describing the journey of the Final Girl.

"The tale is no less one of maleness. If the experience of childhood can be—is perhaps ideally—enacted in female form, the breaking away requires the assumption of a phallus. The helpless child is gendered feminine; the autonomous adult of subject is gendered masculine; the passage from childhood to adulthood entails a shift from feminine to masculine."

But is that really the answer? For Will to wield a weapon against Vecna and brutally kill him? For Will's femininity to be framed as something that needs to be overcome?

To go in the opposite direction (castration) hardly seems like a solution either, especially considering that the phallus belongs to gay man. To castrate would be to suggest that the phallus��� sexuality— is one that is dangerous and needs to be removed.

So how do we find a middle ground, one that maintains the phallus without eliminating Will's feminine character traits? And is there a solution suggested in the text?

Oh rod motif, you never get old

In episode one the phallus is represented as something destructive, the rifle, which Will puts down and arguably because so, was afforded more time than if he had used it.

As the series marches on, the phallus never goes away— it just transforms.

The phallus has gone from something of fear and destruction to a representation of love and creation. But Will has yet to self actualize because the above scene is also an act of castration because Will doesn't claim proper ownership over the painting. The phallus is a beautiful display of love, but only if it belongs to someone else.

The show may have (unsubtly) foreshadowed this self actualization as it relates to the phallus and the defeat of Vecna.

And I don't really think that people at this point want to spend the rest of the post reading about Will with powers theoretics so I'll just leave the suggestion there for now and allow you to come to your own conclusions.

Final (Girl) Thoughts

The idea that heroism is male and victimization is female is an idea that is as old as and older than Odysseus, but that isn't to necessarily say that heroism and self-actualization is a purely male idea, something that may have been contended by the existence of Final Girl herself.

"At the moment that the Final Girl becomes her own savior, she becomes a hero; and the moment that she becomes a hero is the moment that the male viewer gives up the last pretense of male identification. Abject terror may still be gendered feminine, but the willingness of one immensely popular current genre to re-represent the hero as an anatomical female would seem to suggest that at least one of the traditional marks of heroism, triumphant self-rescue, is no longer strictly gendered masculine."

[summeridols]

How to make icons like these:

Flags: Idol system, Bubblegender, Musicstar

Warning: This tutorial relies on the idea that you have some understanding of how to use photoediting software like photoshop, however if something that doesn't make sense then feel free to ask and I will explain it as best as I can.

All the icons we made for this can be found here! Thank you for reading, please consider reblogging this post and the icons because this took forever to write up and the icons take a LONG time to make.

In this tutorial I will make DID/OSDD Aoi Miyake icons.

Anyway let's get into it!

Step one, choose what you're going to make (and gathering resources)

This may seem obvious, but going in with a plan makes these so much easier.

In this stage we consider three things:

The flag and/or colors we want to use in the icon, this is important as it can affect the images used or even the character depending on how similar their colors are

Character and the general colors associated with them, this is important as it can makes the filtering stage easier (or harder) and can make an icon look 'wrong' or 'right' sadly

The border of the icon and how that will affect the icon itself, sometimes they're easy to work with, others not so much. Our method differs from a lot of other peoples so we take more time with them than most others

In this case I will be making DID icons of Aoi Miyake from D4DJ, however due to how most of her cards have a blue tint I will be using the plural peafowl flag by m0dem0n than the original DID flag- This is to save time and make th icons look more harmonious.

We will also be using this mask by i'mjustchillinghere as the icon base

Step two, coloring the middle image (optional step)

This is a lot of guess work and everyone has a different process for this. Essentially we're going to make a PSD that makes the image look better with the colors of the flag.

As shown above we have the flag and the character image, but they don't match completely. The rose and other blue accents are too saturated compared to the flag and the black is too black and the wrong blue hue, the eye could also be a bit greener and saturated imo.

What I like to do is open the image with the flag behind or infront, so I can see the colors I'm working with.

Then I open the hue editor layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation). It's very important to clip the hue layer to the image so it doesn't start messing with the colors of the flag (we've had this happen many times before it's very awkward trying to match a color that keeps changing) to clip right click 'Clipping Mask'.

Your screen should then look like this:

Okay so if you need to adjust the screen to get the icon in the center so you can see everything do this now.

Next where the box with the hue options says master, click it.

These are all the color options you can change, in this we'll mostly be using, yellow, green and blue. For other projects blue and cyan sometimes get 'mixed up' and can control both shades so be careful with that.

Other color settings we personally use are: Vibrance and Selective Color (both are located under the Layer option), but in this case I'm happy to just use Hue and Vibrance.

This is what the icons look like:

No color editing | Just Hue and Saturation | Hue and Saturation + Vibrance

Now your middle icon is ready turn off the background layer and save the image as a transparent png!

Step three, preparing the mask for use

So the mask is the base of your icon, however if you clip all aspects of your icon to the mask it looks like this and you can't see the flag.

So what you need to do is layer the mask. This will vary in difficulty, it can depend on how far apart the pieces of the mask are and how they interlink. You could erase the border parts but that takes a lot of time.

This icon is simple because to me there's three clear sections, the middle part, the border and the rose. What you need to do is copy the layer three times and get the wand- I would reccomend having the wand strengh over 100 or else black lines may remain, but this will depend on how close the black parts are.

Hide the top two layers and work from the bottom up. Select all the areas you want to delete, in this case I can only delete the rose (the border is too close to the middle part and would delete that as well) and then hit delete.

In this case, I will just erase the border by hand, and then BOOM, you have a base!

Hide this layer and move to the next, for this one I'm removing the middle and the rose.

For the next layer you can select what's in the layer below and delete it without it impacting the border, which makes the icon process easier, however in this case I'm going to give out the border layers for you here!

Step four, using the mask

NOW you can clip the flag to the layers! We always clip it to the base and border layer.

As for the rose... We make a seperate layer and clip it to those rose. Then (using the eye dropper tool) pick colors from the flag to use to color it in! As shown:

Next step is to add the image you colored!

Go to File > Open and Place and then choose the PNG from your gallery and place it in the icon. Once it's there fiddle around with it until you get the image you want and then BOOM!

Now you have a singlar icon!

Feel free to repeat this as many times as you want and make as many icons as you want.

-

All the icons we made for this can be found here! Thank you for reading, once again please consider reblogging this post and the icons because this took forever to write up and the icons take a LONG time to make.

[n-fblog]

Reo, Nagi, and Differences from the Main Manga

Thoughts from Episode: Nagi, chapter 17

Reo:

This chapter was kind of needed for him to "abandon" his ego of becoming the best with Nagi (and we can see it sort of fading in the textbox) -- and simultaneously get rid of that growing attachment he has to Nagi. Really sad to see him say, "thank you" as if he doesn't even have the strength to break them apart himself (and he didn't)

The chameleon makes its first chronological appearance so we can clearly see him start to 'adapt' his thinking and playing even though it's not fully fleshed out yet, which is exciting! I wasn't sure if that was something he made up with Shidou before, but it's hilarious to know it all started with Nagi, AGAIN. Or maybe this is the manga trying to convey that he's changing himself to help Nagi walk away lol

His inferiority complex with Nagi makes itself kind of known here, with the monologue- "Those are the words *I* wanted to say,," but was unable to...

Somehow, Nagi being able to encourage Reo makes him the stronger one mentally -- which is tough for someone who subconsciously already thinks he can't go very far without Nagi skill-wise.

Poor guy... and he still has so far to go before he starts to think he can fight on his own.

Nagi:

Man, this chapter pretty much confirms that their mischaracterization and miscommunication goes both ways lol. Nagi spitefully admonishes that he isn't Reo's 'toy' when Reo flips from "wanting to be the best" to "wanting to stay together"-- These guys have such a hard time acknowledging their friendship outside of football, it's actually painful.

I can't tell if he made any sort of connection betweey 'toy' and being Reo's 'treasure'. But that's almost definitely a metaphor on Reo's part. What a lot of people misuse is that Reo calls Nagi his 'treasured possession' when I really, truly don't think he meant viewing Nagi as a literal object. But how else do you expect a rich boy who's only been shown love through material things to describe something he values? *(see tags for a rant on this lol)

I do wish we'd gotten more insight into how he felt when he heard what Reo said in the moment, but this chapter was already long as it is. I do think Nagi's expressions sort of speak for themselves.

I mean, he straight up looks like he's about to cry here. 

I would argue that part of Nagi's promise to 'stay together' during the entrance actually includes 'believing in each other' like he says here:

 And if that's the case, then what did Reo's claim of abandonment mean to him? Was it that Reo didn't believe in Nagi's newfound drive to win? Or was he mad that Reo didn't believe in himself? I think it's a bit of both, but I really want to see more thoughts in the manga or from the fandom

Blue Lock vs. Episode: Nagi

So... Nagi definitely seems more angry in this chapter, right? When you revisit Ch. 76, you can see that Nagi is a lot more apologetic towards Reo

( Here you see him lament not growing alongside Reo, but fired up and excited to work with Isagi)

vs. what we saw this chapter

(Nagi saying sorry and acknowledging he's changed, but looking less toward the future and more resisting the past)

Maybe this is just a difference in translations, but "I can't [am not able to] go back" feels a little different from "I won't go back" -- the former just feels like an admission (to Reo), while the latter feels a lot more confrontational, a downright refusal to go along with what Reo wants.

And that's fine, but it does reshape how I thought about Nagi, and I think it really emphasizes just how pissed he was at Reo by the end of 2nd Selection.

This reframes their interaction during U-20 tryouts for me. I originally thought it was mostly setting up Reo's chameleon style defense and Reo's internal conflict (which it is) but EpiNagi really just shows that Nagi also has a ways to go before they reunite in Manshine

I think this could be the panel (from Ch. 107, 3rd Selection) where Nagi forgives Reo -- it's the point where Reo sort of shows he understands Nagi's drive to win, and that he doesn't value staying together over improving anymore. After that, they have no issues (in Nagi's eyes) so it was probably easy to imagine walking up to Reo during MC v BM and asking for his help ... but man, we still have a long way til then, and I can't wait for EpiNagi to probably prove me wrong :p

[mach-speed-spin]

Beyblade character design analysis: Kenta Yumiya

Masterpost here. Now let's take a look at Kenta, who somehow went from getting beaten up by the Face Hunters to gaining Ryuga's respect

Starting with the hair, it's green. This has nothing to do with his bey, but the green, and more specifically this shade, make Kenta stand out. The rest of Kenta's design is fairly generic, to the point where some actual background characters have more captivating designs (like Django), so the hair helps set him apart from someone like Osamu. Green is one of the lesser-used hair colors in mfb, and the characters with green hair all have a very dark shade (like Kyoya). Kenta is the exception, which catches our attention when the rest of his design doesn't

Kenta wears a yellow shirt with a blue stripe. The yellow-green-blue color scheme looks like the Brazilian flag (insert joke about the time the Garcias jumped Yu). The design itself is quite plain, but the colors are bright enough to make Kenta not seem like a background character. He's still a generic audience surrogate in design (and character, at least at the start), but without being too generic as to be mistaken for a background character

He lacks gloves or a visible belt, which are accessories used by most bladers. This makes his design seem more generic, and it's on purpose because almost everyone else has at least one of these 2. However, Kenta does have a belt that holds his launcher, which is just not seen very much. He is a strong blader, but doesn't seem like it at first

Kenta wears shorts. There's nothing I can really say about them other than they contribute to his child look (I mean, he is a child, but he looks way younger than almost everyone else)

His shoes are unremarkable, but unlike some other footwear, seems like something a real-life kid would wear, cementing Kenta's role as an audience surrogate for the first few episodes (though he grows out of it fairly quickly)

His hair in Fury is mostly the same, but altered slightly to be a little more detailed. This is still the same Kenta from the previous seasons, but he's older and more mature. He also becomes a lot more important to the plot in Fury. Despite having less screentime than in Fusion, his contributions are a lot bigger

His shirt gets a redesign. The new style makes him look older, which is the primary purpose. The blue stripe is also gone and instead we have a white, vertical stripe. With his redesign being more detailed in general, the blue stripe loses its purpose of making Kenta stand out as an important character. The white gives it just as much detail, if not more, but isn't as flashy. Plus, Flash Sagittario's facebolt has white in the center, unlike Flame's. Subtle foreshadowing maybe?

Kenta wears pants that are rolled up to look kinda like shorts. It makes him look older while retaining most elements from his original design. Despite how much Kenta grew over the course of the series, at his core he's still the same

His shoes are a little more detailed but still essentially the same. Not much I can say about them

[queerprayers]

hello! i had a quick question

so deuteronomy 18:14 mentions practicing magic and divination as not being allowed but, isnt prayer magical in itself? are we not practicing some form of divination when we celebrate our Lord (in our silly rituals and practices)? any thoughts on this?

thats all! have a blessed day!

Good question, beloved!

The differences between prayer and magic and worship and divination and ritual and practice are largely cultural and informed by our associations with a religion/culture/ethnicity. Ancient indigenous religions are often seen as primitive and naive for instance, more aligned with magic than "proper" religion, and newer religious practices are dismissed as "made-up." There's also inter-religious accusations that go on—think about how some Protestants describe Catholic rituals. And then there's people who are anti-religion in general, and see any spirituality as silly magical beliefs.

I would say we can make a distinction, however, between treating prayer as magic and treating prayer as worship and connection. If I believe saying this prayer ten times will heal my illness, this to me seems more of a magic spell than a prayer. Now anyone is welcome to believe in magic spells, but nonetheless I prefer prayer as a purposeful entering into God's presence, perhaps seeking specific blessings, but with no formula or assumption of a specific outcome.

If divination is gaining insight through religious practice, then definitely lots of Christians practice that. When people reduce practice to figuring out the future or interpreting signs or asking God for proof, I see a formulaic religion rather than a connecting one. I think we can definitely look at our practice and ask if we're treating it as a formula/spell. But my definitions of these words (and what I look for in religion) may differ from yours, and obviously a lot of this is cultural. I'm using "magic" to describe things I connect with less than "prayer," but this is arbitrary, and many people would consider my definition of prayer to be magical as well. 

All that said, I'm not sure any of this has much to do with Deuteronomy, so I'll also talk about the verse you brought up. Jewish law is always interesting to bring up in Christian circles, and we should acknowledge that we do not have the history of interpretation/relationship that Judaism has with it. We do have a relational history with it, but it's very different and doesn't align with the people who compiled these laws.  (Is this appropriation? Many would say yes, in the sense that Christianity inherently is. That's a whole nother conversation.) There are many Christian attitudes toward Jewish law—for me, it is a valuing of what I believe God gave to humans, with an acknowledgement that I am not the intended audience and am not called to follow it, but rather to honor it. The law's focus on justice and worship matters to me, albeit in a very different way than both its original audience and current Judaism.

Deuteronomy 18 bans occult practices by specifically referencing the nations/cultures around ancient Israel. It is comparing ancient Jewish practice to its contemporaries. Many biblical laws, in fact, exist as a way of differentiating Israel from other cultures, and many of the moral laws are in response to practices they would have seen around them. There's a huge focus on being set apart, on practicing a religion that doesn't look like anything else. That's not to say they're random—in fact, they're very specific.

I've said the difference between religion and magic is cultural, and Deuteronomy lays this out perfectly. From a modern lens, animal sacrifice to achieve forgiveness may seem primitive, like a magic spell. And yet, magic spells are prohibited. To them, it obviously wasn't sorcery—it was religious practice.

We do have specific practices that are condemned, like interpreting omens or consulting the dead, but there are plenty of those things (or at least things adjacent to those things) in the Bible. The implication is always don't do these things like those other people. You're an Israelite, not a Canaanite. You don't eat those things or dress that way or do those things in your temple because God wants you to commit yourself specifically to a new way of doing things. 

What does this mean to us, though? Canaanite paganism isn't practiced anymore, as far as I know. In our time and place, there's more of an awareness of respecting others' cultures and religions, even when we don't understand them. So what does it mean to honor a law that condemns magic in 2024?

Although you could investigate how you treat prayer/ritual, the relevant question to me in light of Deuteronomy isn't really "Is prayer inherently magical?" but "Am I being purposeful rather than conforming to those around me? Am I honoring the specific ways Christianity exists? Is my practice relevant to my beliefs, or could it be anyone's? Is it obvious through my rituals that I am a follower of Jesus?" I don't mean you have to advertise (Jesus actually specifically taught against that), but why are you Christian and not anything else? Is Jesus at the center of your practice? 

These ideas are very relevant to me in the US, surrounded by conservatism/evangelicalism—I don't want my faith to look like theirs. Maybe both our practices look like magic to an outsider, but I know how mine is different. (I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal here—it's all a journey, and I won't pretend I know the "right way" to do things, but I strive towards a practice that causes less harm than theirs.)

To conclude: whatever your prayers/rituals are like, honor God through them. Don't fall into formulas or assumptions, but allow space for God to change you until you are fundamentally at odds with those who use God for evil. In a world of empire and capitalism and conservatism and violence, find a new way of doing things. Look more like God than the world; set apart your life. Paul tells us (Romans 13:8) that love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. I wouldn't worry about whether your prayer looks like magic, but about whether it looks like love.  

<3 Johanna

[skylermadness]

Welcome to the Rider Side (Iskandar TF)

(Original Date of Upload: July 8, 2023)

Original Description:

I was going to upload this yesterday but forgot to. I know next to nothing about the Fate series, and honestly it seems like it has too many pieces to put together to really be able to get into it safely. Nonetheless, I wrote this while I was bored one set of days and in the mood for Iskandar, who is honestly my only Fate-related mood. What can I say, I like fiery redheads. I tend not to deal with lack of MC in works but I wanted to try something unique and different. Same with the goo trigger here, although I've done quite a few goo triggers so that doesn't really count. Either way, this was a fun story to write and a nice diversion from the usual that I work on! Rated Mature for bulge and implied masturbation.

   Cosplay was an unfamiliar endeavor for Rufus, to say the least. This was both in terms of how it functions and how expensive such a thing can be. But with a convention coming up in his hometown, Rufus had been rather antsy in regards to doing it. It was something new, it was something interesting! He's never tried something like this before, and that only fueled the desire to jump the shark and attempt something like cosplaying. No matter how complicated it may be!

   …then again, that doesn't really bar the fact that he chose what may have been the most complex character possible to try such a thing with, and that was the character Iskandar from the Fate series.

   There were quite a few reasons why such a choice was absurd. First was the fact that he chose a character that was predominantly armored. Second was that he chose a character whose armor pieces were… unique to say the least. So much so that the only way to procure them would be through custom means. And with there being only a month until the convention. But he also really liked the character, so much so that he was willing to do everything in his power to attempt to do this… right?

   Rufus sighed, his foot pressing on the brake of his car as he drove up to an intersection. Eyes lingered for a couple seconds, keeping track of the intersection before his vision drifted to the block ahead. He caught sight of a small building, wooden in material in contrast to the predominantly concrete, stone, and brick of the buildings surrounding it. The sight caused him to perk up a bit.

   He was lucky for a single thing, and that was locating a replica of Iskandar's blade. One that ran for a cheap price. It did have to be procured locally, but that was fine since the store was near his apartment.

   Once past the intersection he drove for a couple more seconds before pulling over to the side in front of the building. Doing all the usual procedures he left his car and locked it before turning to look at the building itself, evidently being a small store judging by the shelves that were noticeably visible through the window. His sight trailed upwards for a moment, catching the store's name that was displayed atop it. 

   Maurice's Exceptional Cosplay Collectibles…

   Although only the name Maurice seemed to be written properly. Everything else after it was rather crude in writing, alongside being written above something that was scribbled out. Peculiar, but not the most worrying thing. Probably a rebrand when this store took over whatever the previous one was.

   Finishing up his gawking, Rufus finally took the plunge and stepped into the store. A small bell rang above him as he stepped through the door, his arrival being signaled throughout the almost shack-like shop. Although the only acknowledgement of his existence after that was from who he presumed to be the manager, a rotund man with a thick beard and a balding head. The store's titular Maurice, Rufus had presumed.

   "'ey. Ruf's, right?" the man said, his voice deep and gravelly. 

   With a nod Rufus responded with an, "Er, yeah."

   He wasn't surprised that the storekeeper was anticipating his arrival. The site where Rufus found the replica sword just happened to have a section for item reservations. 

   Maurice nodded, then bent down to rummage beneath the counter. After a couple seconds he arose with a rather long and thin box in hand and set it upon the counter. "Take a look-see," he said with a smile. "Rather impress'ly designed!"

   Curious, Rufus stepped up to the counter and opened the box. The object within it was wrapped in red cloth, which he undid in order to look at the object itself. His eyes then widened in surprise. "It's made of metal…?"

   "Yup! An authentic sword ya' gettin' 'ere!"

   Authentic felt like an understatement. Rufus was expecting some plastic mock-up, but this appeared to be a legitimate spatha-type sword. Metallic blade, equally metallic handle and pommel. And yet it had all the makings of Iskandar's blade. Golden emblem on the cross-guard, a lion's head at the pommel's end. 

   "Did… did you make this or something…?" he asked, dumbfounded.

   "Eh, ya could say that."

   And all of this for twenty dollars. It felt practically farcical to him. "Is this like some kind of rental thing, or…?"

   "Nah. We jus' get a lot're items than we know what t' do with."

   Rufus opened his mouth to respond, but was unable to think of one.

   "'s a good sword though. Heard it's owner was quite the beaut as well!"

   "I uh, yeah…" he responded, unsure how to take all of this. This experience was getting more surreal by the second. "I'll just make my payment and be on my way then," Rufus said, beginning to fish out his wallet.

   His eyes still lingered on the spatha. There was something that felt off, but he just couldn't pinpoint it yet…

             ��                          ----------------------------------------------------------

   It's been roughly ten minutes now since Rufus had arrived back to his apartment. He was originally planning on making himself some lunch before resuming his plans to find a suitable way to complete his cosplay, but those plans were thrown out the window rather quickly.

   He sits on the couch, and in front of him is a small table. The sword is splayed atop the table's glass counter, the box it came in disregarding to the side with the cloth it was wrapped in laying beneath it. The man was still awestruck at the realism of the object. He was half convinced that if he poked the tip he'd accidentally cut himself and draw blood. 

   Reaching out a hand he hesitantly grasped the dark blue grip of the blade and picked it up. With both hands he held the blade up to his face as if he were inspecting it. The object was rather lightweight which made picking it up not very challenging. The only real concern was his lack of knowledge when it came to sword etiquette. How do you hold it? Do you have to clean it or something? Where do you even put it once you're finished with it?? 

   "Oh, what will I do with you…" Rufus questioned the blade, not expecting much of an answer. 

   He had slowly come to the realization that there was a small issue now in regards to having such a realistic object. It would likely not work well together with whatever other pieces of the cosplay he'd scope out. He'd have a set of faux armor and whatnot and be wielding some hyperrealistic blade that could probably get him arrested. And it definitely wouldn't fit with the cheaper option of going for a more casual fit.

   He sighed, beginning to mutter to himself. "I did not think this thought much, did I?" There was also a very vocal thought in the forefront of his mind: he really wanted an easier way to complete this cosplay.

   His peripherals then caught onto a glowing below him. Turning his head downwards his gaze caught onto the golden emblem within the middle of the sword's cross-guard. The emblem was looking to be glowing brightly now. "Wha…?"

   He didn't have much time to process it though. He was suddenly startled as a strange fluid-like substance poured down from the emblem and onto his hands, which had then prompted Rufus to panic for a moment and let go of the blade. Luckily, it only fell beside his feet and stabbed into the rug.

   Rufus didn't think much of it though. He was preoccupied, looking down to inspect his hands. Gobs of reddish-brown goo of some kind had found their way onto his hands somehow, flecks of it slowly moving up and towards his arms. "Uhhhh-"

   That wasn't the only weird occurrence either. Rufus felt the fingers of both hands twitching just ever so slightly, this feeling being accompanied by a far stranger sight. A thickness was entering the man's hands, fingers steadily growing larger and denser. His hands were increasing in size as well with both of them appearing to stretch out larger, bulkier. Palms were looking to be swelling and gaining a meatiness to them, and the increase in size to both parts of his body just looked like they had at the very least less than doubled in size.

   The mysterious goo continued to progress its way up and around Rufus' arms. The young man could only watch in a mix of awe and confusion, unable to articulate his feelings. A massive chunk of it was encapsulating his wrists, lengthening further upwards to fully wrap around his forearms. It felt as if the region was being encased in a rubber-like substance, and ementating from that substance was an odd feeling of warmth that coursed through the veins of his lower arms. Much like his hands, the size of both forearms was steadily growing. However, this time it appeared they were accruing muscle mass. The softness that they had originally possessed was being sloughed away and replaced by hard, beefy, and warm muscle. It had even come with a surge of strength that was only progressing further into his body.

   While the rubbery cuffs remained on his forearms, strands and gobs of goo broke from it and trickled up his arms more. This didn't seem to lessen the mass of the arm cuffs, as if all laws of physics did not apply to this substance. As the strands of strange substance inches across his upper arms, the surge of power coursing through himself was moving into the region as well. Thick muscle was packing into the area, arms hardening with it as it formed quickly. Biceps bulged out of them while triceps transformed and matured rapidly. All the softness his arms originally possessed was getting erased, melting away into a firm new form. Heat had filled his arms as they were granted an instant workout, and he could feel the short sleeves of his t-shirt attempt to stretch over his thickening appendages while the goo began moving beneath them and towards his torso. The fabric got filled with creases as his muscles pushed up against them, the thick crevices that divided his newfound musculature  practically etching into the gray cotton. This only got more prominent as his shoulder muscles started to change and his deltoids expanded, the overall region broadening as things were moving up and past his arms.

   With his shoulders bulking out, Rufus could feel his form start to widen out while his skin was stimulated by the rubbery texture of the goo. It was practically phantasmagorical as to how this all felt. Unrealistic, bizarre. He couldn't help but take a moment to snap out his daze and curiously paw at the cuffs encapsulating his forearms. The liquid consistency seemed to have hardened, the marbled reddish-brown having become some kind of long latex-like 'wrist'band that even with his newfound strength he'd be unable to pull off. But then again, this substance was somehow making him muscular…

   He stopped pulling at the cuffs, instead raising an arm up and giving it a good flex. The act as a whole caused the associated sleeve to split across his bicep, unable to contain the now muscled limb. "Woah…" he vocalized in awe. He would be lying if he said he didn't like this feeling of power that was steadily coursing through his entire being.

   Concern was fading into curiosity. He moved his attention downwards, eyes staring at his torso as he felt the transformative substance travel from the left and right sides of his body. It was steadily moving towards the middle of his body, and as it did so it was only inciting more changes. He could feel his very core heat up like some kind of furnace, an almost exponentially enhancing sense of might emanating within his chest.

   Rufus had possessed a rather pudgy build. Soft, fatty, some would even call it a little schlubby. But something, or rather everything about that, was changing. As the goo moved across his chest towards the middle of his body, a firmness was entering the area rather rapidly. The softness of his pecs was hardening, getting packed with powerful muscles. His shirt steadily filled out as his musculature was increased, pectorals pushing forward more and more as they grew and expanded. He was garnering two massive slabs of raw meat on his chest. It was getting so prominent that the newly developing cleavage was indenting into his shirt's fabric. 

   Beneath his shirt the substance that was infusing him with this power continued its coverage of his form. Once it converged beneath the middle of his chest it began to expand outwards again. A portion of it arose, rubber-like goo steadily raising to cup Rufus' thick pecs. A sizable portion in the middle remained visible however, the goo seeming to avoid covering his cleavage. It would eventually rise until it nestled beneath the man's collarbone, which itself still seemed to be widening out. Between the goo and his broadening size, Rufus' t-shirt was just struggling to contain his massive form. And it was evident his form was only going to become even larger.

   The marbled browns and reds of the supposed fluid had also been making its way downwards, the territory it was claiming around his abdominal region being a lot larger than it was on his chest. It has first stretched over his belly, a soft squeezing ensuing as it did so. The fat within his belly was being pressed down into his body, being flattened and molded into a more muscular form instead. Abdominal muscles were being pressed out of his gut, bubbling forward as three rows were being forced to materialize into a six-pack of abs.

   His sides were increasing with heat as his obliques rippled, the lower half of Rufus' torso continuing to get pressurized as the goo started to surround it now. A burning strength being filled in the region, power pushing forward throughout the form as new muscles continued to get molded into him from the mysterious substance. It wasn't long until it went into his back as well, the goo entering the region and closing in on his spinal cord. As it did so, wide portions of goo were beginning to extend from the top of the chest portion of this weird rubbery chest plate of his. It stretched out, snaking over his shoulders and moving onto his upper back. Both segments of substance would meet at the midline, in between his trapeziuses, and then run downwards in a single thick line to converge with the portion of gooey plating that surrounded his lower body. All the while his spine was being massaged by the substance, another soft warmth emanating across his back as inches were now being added to the young man's height.

   The changes in height were getting slightly evident now as Rufus caught onto his shirt riding up his now muscular abdomen. His six-pack was just etched into the gray fabric perfectly, and the shirt's hem was steadily moving towards said six-pack. But he was quickly growing more preoccupied with his chest. His thick pectorals. He couldn't help but slowly bring up a hand and poke a chunky finger into his cleavage. Although the very act of moving a limb seemed to be taboo to the shirt at this point, rips echoing from behind him as his back and shoulder muscles were moved. And somehow this initiated a chain reaction as tears formed down the sides of the tee, and a few finally formed within the front. One especially noticeable rip was right over his pecs, giving Rufus a clear view of the rubber chestplate and the middle of his pecs.

   "Hooh…" he felt warm at that. Everything about this was warming but that very sight moreso. So, so much strength is piled onto him. It was so immense, so powerful. He just couldn't resist going from poking to groping as he cupped a pec with a hand. It was so… stimulating feeling that rubber press up against his flesh, and he could still feel the slight softness that his pectorals possessed. The feeling just made his blood pump faster than before, so much faster.

   He was… enjoying this, wasn't he?

   His thoughts were then broken as he heard another portion of his clothing break, this time with his legwear. Looking down he saw that the button holding his jeans together had snapped open, and in general his jeans were starting to feel tighter. But the tightness in his jeans was the least of his problems as… so much began happening at once.

   The goo had already moved well past the waistline, now beginning to encapsulate Rufus' pelvis and the area beneath that. It was perhaps the most sensual part of the entire change as he could feel the substance squeeze up against his more sensitive areas. He couldn't help but stand up from the couch now, the man feeling a considerable heat erupting in his rear as the region was consumed by the gooey substance. The area was getting so much thicker, becoming round and plump as his glute muscles became even larger. And with his waist already getting wider, this addition to size caused the seat of his pants to just split open, that very sound causing Rufus to moan a bit as his cheeks flushed with red.

   Then he felt his groin stir, and his cheeks flushed even redder.

   A massive hand was moving down to the area as Rufus started to feel an immense, almost erotic emotion well up in him. Sweat was beading on his forehead while he looked down, the zipper of his pants splitting open more and more as he saw his undergarments bulge out more with each passing second. All the while the rubber was stimulating every nerve within his growing groin. Blood was practically shooting down there as he couldn't help but hover his hand above the area for a moment before cupping it. "O-ohhh…" he moaned out again, his voice sounding a bit deeper, but his brain was swimming in erotic ecstasy to care.

   With all this pleasure overtaking Rufus' mind, he was too preoccupied to take full notice of more changes, now continuing to press further down his legs. His thighs were practically burning with heat as they were encapsulated with brownish-red goo, hamstrings and quads being packed with substantial muscle much like his arms were minutes prior. Tears echoed through the air as the stitching on the sides of his jeans was being split open by his thickening legs, and the denim in general was getting creased with his new musculature engraving into it. 

   The goo seemed to end halfway down his thighs however, globs of it instead trickling downwards as it moved past his knees as onto the crus of his legs. Once it reached the mentioned region, it went back to expanding in surface area. Although this time it seemed to be doing so like it did his forearms; circling around his lower legs to form one large rubber bracer. This was especially noticeable with the bottoms of his jeans running up his legs, his height growing yet again with another set of inches being placed into his legs. And while it did so, his calves steadily ballooned, now being grown out into massive bulging muscles that continued to vy for his legwear's attention and rip them up further with each passing moment.

   As Rufus continued rubbing his bulge, he widened his stance a bit. The substance had also finally run beneath his footwear, now having reached the man's feet. The tongue's of his shoes were pressed up as the rubbery material cascaded down the bridge of both feet, the size of his feet seemingly getting stimulated by this and beginning to grow. His footwear was quick in becoming undersized; his heels practically dug into the backs of each shoe while the sides pressed the cloth that was containing them outwards more and more. The toecap of the shoe was beginning to bulge as his toes pressed up against it, the side of the bulging growing even more prominent as his toes got thicker. The overall meatiness of his feet was just increasing rapidly, and it wasn't long until his shoes finally began splitting apart to reveal them. And while his feet grew, the rest of the rubbery goo completed what it set out to do. A small bit of it slipped in between his big toe and the adjacent one before running beneath the soles of his feet. It was at this point that his original footwear finally just burst open.

   Rufus shuddered a bit, hesitantly unclasping his bulge as he let out a rather deep sigh. All of his senses steadily came back to him as the ecstasy slowly wore off. 

   He swallowed a forming lump in his throat, the man feeling his neck thicken in size. "I-I should probably leave that for…"

   His sentence trailed off as he caught note of his voice, realizing the deepness crawling into it with each passing word. It was sounding so commanding, so boisterous! And familiar as well…

   "Woah- I sound exactly like…" his eyes trailed back downwards. The way the rubber had plated his body, especially his torso, was also… "Iskandar…"

   With that very realization, a large grin formed on the man's face. That sword, it was making him a splitting image of its wielder? How was that possible? Why was it possible? Did that weird storekeeper know or-

   "O-ough, itchy…" Rufus' thoughts broke as he felt an itchiness on his face. No doubt a sign of the final physical changes to his body finally ensuing.

   He raised up a hand and casually scratched at the itching, the feeling mainly isolated around his chin. He had already possessed a bit of a beard around the region, but the brown coloration of it was noticeably changing. Starting at the roots, a soft red was steadily expanding across his beard. Alongside that the thickness of it was increasing, the hairs growing thicker and more connected as the visible style of his facial hair looked almost spiky. This look was only exacerbated as a spiky-like stylization was forming from where the hairs met his face. And his beard only moved further to perfection, a well-kempt lustrousness entering into the very hairs. More and more red continued to consume the follicles, dull brown becoming brighter and brighter by the second. The ends of the beard moved up the sides of his jaw to meet his sideburns, and from there the bright red was starting to enter his hair.

   While his beard changed his face was altering at the exact same time. A broadness entered his jawline, chiseled it out more as the softness of his face was getting hardened. His facial structure was being altered, skull shape shifting due to the roundness of it was being lost, becoming a bit more square with the steady widening of it all. The youthful look his young adult face had was also fading, bits of age setting into it with wrinkles etching around his eyes. Although perhaps the most prominent changes occurred within his facial features; his slight mustache sinking into his skin, his eyes getting slightly larger while the irises gained a bright red coloration to them, and his ears pushed out slightly. There was also a change in his nose, it getting larger and the bridge getting wider in size as the broadness of his nose seemed to become an almost defining feature of his face. Lastly were his eyebrows, getting bushier while the bright red coloration formed within them as they did so.

   The final bits of changes came to the rest of his hair. As the flaming red swept across his, the overall style was being altered drastically. While it had originally possessed an almost medium length to it, that length was shortening rather rapidly. This was further proven by his forehead getting more visible as the part of hair flipped over was shrinking into his scalp. After a few seconds it also seemed the way his hair was directed was altering, the centralization of it all being swept back and changed to all of his hair being pushed backwards. A wild, untameness was forming within it as well with bits and pieces spiking out as if the hair were actually lit aflame. Despite it all, with the shortening concluding, his hair had garnered a noticeable denseness to it that it didn't possess in its prior state.

   With that all the strange warmths and newfound power surges started to die down, as if Rufus' body was already getting used to it. A sign that the physical changes seemed to have concluded. Although Rufus felt a bit too preoccupied scratching his beard. Not because it was still itching though, it just felt nice to run his fingers through the dense hairs. "Ooh, that feels good…"

   All of this felt good actually. This thick musculature, this masculine physique. Hearing his deep voice resonate through his ears, just feeling his own strong presence within the room. It was exhilarating! Although his scritching slowly came to a halt as he realized something. His head turned back downwards, eyeing the strange rubbery substance that still clinged to his body. 

   "Are you gonna melt off or something…?" he muttered. He wasn't sure what it had left to change. But after a couple seconds a change in texture drew his attention to his arm. Why did he feel something furry? Wait…

   His eyes now laying upon it, Rufus found that the rubber cuff that encapsulated his forearm was shifting. The top and bottom ends were fluffing up with a soft, white, and dense furry fringe. Meanwhile the material of the rubber itself was shifting to a cold and hard metal that he could feel graze his skin. The featurelessness was lost as crescent-like and ellipsoid shapes formed within the back of the newly changed metal.

   It wasn't the only part that was changing either. His already filled out shirt seemed to fill out more, tears further splitting it as the rubber that divided the fabric from his skin got bulkier. Metal spread amongst the mysterious substance's entirety, the reddish-brown marbling changing to a pure brown while a soft golden coloration formed to outline where his pectorals and abs were. A bronze chestplate seemed to be what it was becoming. Meanwhile the Y-shaped segment of goo that stretched across his back changed to a separate more flexible material that made it more like a set of straps, those straps held together by a triangular buckle on the middle of his back.

   It was at this point that the remainder of his shirt seemed about ready to tear off, much of it seeming to almost burn itself away. But a portion of it around his shoulders and back remained, shifting into something drastically different. A thick white fur emerged from the collar, growing thicker and thicker by the second, while the back portion of the shirt extended and turned from gray to bright red. The furriness of the collar continued to thicken, and a golden design was arising from the bottom of the lengthening back. It wasn't long until the former shirt was the densely furred caped mantle that sat upon Iskandar's shoulders, held there by a single blue leather strap around his chest.

   At the same time, the rubber that was around his thighs shifted to a deep blue, hardening into some kind of short legged under armor. But his jeans still seemed to fill out, a separate layer of fabric seeming to emerge from under the materializing belt that was beneath the first layer of legwear's waistline. This layer of fabric continued to push itself downwards, reds and golds noticeable through the tears in the denim of his jeans. It wasn't long until his former legwear would follow in what his shirt did by mimicking a fire starting and blazing itself away while segments of it were changing, hardening to a bronze like his chestplate possessed. It seemed his jeans were becoming a set of lengthy tassets that stretched down to the length of his knees. All while a golden buckle appeared in front of them, clasped onto Rufus' waist, and manifested a triad of blue straps that snaked around his waist. A sizable weight formed within one of these straps, a scabbard for the very trigger of his transformation appearing from mere nothing.

   The last portion of rubber was on the crus of his legs and his feet. Like the segment around his forearms, fringes of fur grew from the top and bottom portions of the greaves while the rubberiness was hardened to metal. A layered metallicness was also formed within the substance that has covered the bridge of his foot. Meanwhile the portions that had gone between his toes and under his feet became a more leathery consistency instead, his new pair of footwear seeming to be rather sandal-like. 

   Rufus ran a hand above the flat bronze of his chestplate, a sense of finally dawning on the transformed man. This was real armor that had finally graced the man's skin. Authentic, perfect. He could feel every chunk of metal, every bit of fur, even the fabric of his cape grazing the back of his legs.

   His eyes then laid on the sword, the catalyst to this all, currently stabbed in the rug of his apartment. He effortlessly picked the object up, Rufus reveling in hearing the soft shing of the weapon reverberate through his ears as he placed it into his scabbard. 

   "I guess you did give me the perfect cosplay that'd fit you, huh?" Rufus said while patting the scabbard. He then followed the statement up with a deep laugh, letting himself just swim in the pure boisterousness that this form exuded. It just felt so good.

   Quieting down a bit, his gaze then trailed to his arm. Casually raising it, Rufus gave the arm a good flex! Feeling all that raw strength and power coarse through his veins.

   "I am definitely ready for that convention now!~"

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Perfection

This is another Lila episode, so get ready for dumb writing and lies only an infant would find convincing.

Let's get into the twelfth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Perfection

We start off with a sort of funny scene of Ladybug and Cat Noir doing heroic things while casually discussing the new relationships they're both in, unaware that they're talking about each other. It's less the irony that I like, but just the visuals showing how they're so experienced as superheroes at this point, they can casually chat while saving people.

Of course, even though the last scene confirmed that Marinette and Adrien are officially dating after four and a half seasons, the main conflict for the civilian plotline is that Marinette somehow isn't able to simply tell Adrien that she loves him. So basically, even though they're now in a relationship, the show is still going to rely on Marinette stuttering around Adrien like an idiot. Oh, thank God! I thought the writers were actually going to have Marinette and Adrien talk with each other like humans beings for a second there.

We then get a montage of Marinette struggling to get closer to Adrien, stumbling around and breaking stuff as if she was a character in an infomercial, culminating in a scene where Marinette attempts to confess to a picture of a cow, only to say “I love moo” instead. Get used to her saying this, because it's going to be a running gag.

During the aforementioned montage, we get a decent moment where Lila helps Chloe realize she needs to be more discreet when it comes to screwing with Marinette instead of her usual blunt attitude, which does a good job showing the one thing that sets Chloe and Lila apart: Their approaches to dealing with Marinette. It's not much, but it's something.

Meanwhile, the writers remembered Adrien is a musician, as he wrote a song for Marinette. A bunch of their friends come over to the Liberty, including Kagami.

Adrien: It's great to see you here, Kagami. You get to hear the song I wrote for Marinette.

Kagami: You made your feelings clear and you're dealing with them. That's good. I'm very proud of you.

Man, even the characters are glad the Love Square is finally going somewhere.

After another scene where Marinette once again tries to confess to the picture of a cow (the writers are really running with this gag, aren't they?), Adrien starts to perform the song he wrote for Marinette. Fun Fact: Adrien was originally going to sing a cover of that one song from Miami Connection, but Luka helped convince him that it would be better if he used his own song instead.

As for the song itself? Well, the music itself is nice, but the lyrics? They're decent, showing how Adrien doesn't want anything complex from his relationship with Marinette, but I'm just going to say it: I don't like the way Bryce Papenbrook sings. Like, I don't know how to describe it. It's not awful, but I just don't like the way he delivers the lyrics. He just sounds so monotone when he sings, which makes it hard to take this grand romantic gesture seriously.

Marinette once again struggles to tell Adrien she loves him, so we get even more of Marinette blaming other things for her hesitance, but not before we get more jokes about the cow picture.

Marinette: I'm just grabbing the cow to tell Adrien that I love him because I have the "I love" but not the “moo”. I know it's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous.

You know, at least C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, a show full of cow puns, actually did more with the jokes instead of just saying the words “cow” and “moo”.

Kagami tries to talk to Marinette, only for her to essentially be ignored. After Marinette transforms into Ladybug as an excuse to get out of there, Kagami then decides to call Lila about Marinette failing some kind of “friendship test”.

Kagami: You were right, Lila. I checked every box on your friendship test. Marinette doesn't consider me her best friend. I'm not even sure she ever considered me a friend.

Lila: Oh, no, Kagami... I'm so sorry she didn't see all the effort you've been making to get closer to her. Someone as amazing as you deserves a more considerate friend and... I'd be honored to be that friend.

I know I used this clip last time, but this is essentially the same problem I had there. Lila only had a single line in this episode before this scene, and it was her talking to Chloe, and I don't think Lila and Kagami have even shared a scene together before this episode, much less exchange numbers. Yeah, Kagami had been checking off things on a sheet of paper earlier in the episode, but we never got any explanation as to where and when Lila even gave her the friendship test. While we know that Lila's test was obviously fake, it seems out of character for Kagami to be this gullible, given that she was able to easily see through Adrien's lies last season (Lies).

Kagami then decides to just give up on having friends entirely, deleting all of her contacts except her mother's. I'm not sure if it was an animation error, or if the writers forgot, but for some reason, Adrien wasn't listed in there. We then cut to Lila, cutting Marinette's face out of some random pictures she got.

The scene's clearly supposed to be menacing, but I'd be more invested if I actually knew why Lila was so obsessed with Marinette outside of Marinette telling her to stop being a liar.

Kagami goes somewhere so she can be alone where she cries, where Monarch senses this and akumatizes her into Ryukomori through her ring.

Ryukomori's design is simple, but I think the concept behind it and use of Miraculous power makes it work. Monarch gives her the power to make it hard for her to see or hear anyone (insert your own Helen Keller joke here), and thanks to the Dragon Miraculous's Wind/Lightning/Water Dragon, Ryukomori is now a giant cloud person who can shoot lightning. Yeah, you have to wonder why Monarch gave her powers that would make it harder to see people, much less get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous, but this is the kind of stuff I wanted to see from the Miraculous powers used this season: Past heroes getting akumatized and having perverted versions of the powers they're familiar with.

Adrien sees this and transforms into Cat Noir, meeting up with Ladybug and showing her the friendship test he found earlier. Ladybug and Cat Noir try to talk with Ryukomori, but in her current state, it's hard to talk to her, so they'll need to find a different way to communicate. Ladybug and Cat Noir try arranging some cars into a kanji sign.

Hey, this is a French show! I'm supposed to be seeing french words I don't understand, not Japanese words I don't understand.

Ryukomori ignores the kanji, so now, the two have to come up with another plan while Monarch goads her into trying to kill them so she can finally be alone, whipping up a storm in anger.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a box of ironing beads, and gets an idea. Cat Noir goes to Socqueline's art shop (because I guess the animators really want to get their money's worth out of this character model and set) for supplies while Ladybug assembles a bunch of her friends and shows her a picture she made using the beads, wanting to make a bigger one for Ryukomori to see by holding up these panels to reveal it.

As simplistic as it is, it's a pretty cute visual, and it does the trick, causing Ryukomori to reject the Akuma. While I guess the Akuma was already de-evilized by Kagami, Ladybug hands her a Magical Charm as the students cheer for her.

Marinette apologizes to Kagami about how insensitive she was, but Kagami explains that she feels pressured to be perfect around others, which is meant to parallel Marinette's anxiety around Adrien. The two make up, and Marinette calls Kagami her best friend alongside Alya. Of course, Marinette somehow never asked about the friendship test, because that would actually clear everything up, and then we wouldn't have Kagami and Lila becoming friends again. Marinette and Alya talk about what exactly is keeping her from getting closer to Adrien, something that they'll figure out together. And so the episode ends with Tomoe storming into Gabriel's office that she endangered her daughter's life by akumatizing her... ignoring the last four times she's been akumatized (Riposte, Heroes' Day, Oni-Chan, Lies). In fact, if she's working with Gabriel, shouldn't she know Kagami was also Ryuko, and—okay, forget it, episode's over.

This episode was very hit or miss. The scenes with Ryukomori were well done. I like the way they called back to earlier episodes and how emotional the memories made Ryukomori, and the overall message of friendship was handled pretty well. But while I really like the way Ryukomori was handled, the road there was a pretty bumpy one. The subplot with Marinette wasn't funny, Adrien's song was really forgettable, and the writers just expect us to assume Kagami would fall for Lila's lies when earlier episodes have shown how perceptive she is. I get that the episode's probably setting up Kagami learning the truth in a later episode, it seems very out of character for her.

Overall, this episode just had a great Akuma fight, and a mediocre first half. Nothing too special, but it's still better than “Illusion” or “Determination”.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... KAGAMI

While Marinette came close thanks for her inability to say three basic words, Kagami ended up taking the award home. Not only did she fall for Lila's lies without even questioning her, she assumed that Marinette didn't care for her in the slightest, and after that, decided she had no other friends, not even Adrien, and after everything that happened, she still chose to believe Lila even though her test ended up being false when earlier episodes showed her being able to see through lies.

[mollysunder]

Gilded Jinx Looks Like What I Thought Chembarons Would Look Like.

Look at her, she looks like an 80s punk pirate queen with bolder coloring than both her gilded and chembaron counterparts, complete with bright makeup (by Victorian standards) and big hair. Zaun is supposed to be set apart from Piltover by the unmistakable creativity and innovation expressed through a loud punk aesthetic that it's inhabitants are meant to embody, at least the younger inhabitants do. The higher up the food chain you go in Zaun, the punk aesthetic filters out with only the Victorian base remaining.

(Finn's a bit of the exception but his aesthetic is kind of supposed to coincide with his self-serving nature rather than a reflection of Zaun's culture.)

On one hand you could argue that it's some kind of social commentary where these violent gangleaders are adopting the aesthetic of their oppressors to take on similar roles. But even chembarons that are antagonistic to Piltover, and frankly just hate Piltover for what it's done to them and their families still take on Piltovan aesthetic. If it isn't a straightforward Victorian aesthetic, then it's more of a fusion of modern business clothing and evening wear. This goes for characters like Silco, Renata, and Corina Veraza.

(Shout out to Silco for keeping it real and stitching his pants instead of getting new ones.)

Zaun, at least in League, is it's own city-state with its own distinct culture, but so often these leaders don't really embody that (once again maybe social commentary, but that explanation only goes so far). Honestly their designs are so dedicated to Piltover aesthetics sometimes it doesn't even communicate their wealth! The thing most of them are all about! If someone has to be in rags for me to know they're rich they're not doing it right.

The chembarons don't all have to be like that, but it seems like they're usually designed to just look like evil Piltovans. The only unifying part of their design that doesn't borrow from Piltover and makes them distinct is their asymmetrical styling and the fact they all either have scars or body mods to accommodate their disabilities, or both.

And here's Jinx in her obnoxiously loud outfit ready for the runway! Yeah her money's new, what are you gonna do about it? She's the right mix loud fun 80s mess with her fishnets and and ripped mesh covered in a fancy jacket lined with ermine fur. It would have been so easy to give her hexgem earrings, but no, they're in chemtech green, hooked with actual screws. The coloring alone says to me the designers couldn't let go of Jinx's Zaunite origins because her character defines Zaun as much as Zaun defines her. You'd almost think she was making fun of Piltover if she weren't wearing her look so well, if wasn't so dedicated to playful asymmetry where here shoes are slightly different, her coattails slant in two different style. Her whole look is so customized to be Jinx sans Piltover, it's just so her. The Gilded universe is supposed to be a universe where everybody's living a comfortably ritzy and safe Piltovan lifestyle and Jinx’s missing an arm. The prosthetic looks great!

The chembarons are supposed be a coalition of leaders in Zaun. Sure, they're gangleaders, but a lot of rich people politics is gang politics. At least some of them should understand that to grow past the shadow of Piltover, they need to embrace the strengths of Zaun, not co-opt Piltie patterns. Gilded Jinx's design understands that so well. If you put these pictures in a line up and asked me to find the chembaron, my safest choice would be Jinx.

Tldr: Chembarons in League of Legends and Arcane aren't very distinct from their Piltovan counterparts. The only real difference is their visible disabilities, body mods, and asymmetry (maybe goth vibes too). Gilded Jinx is a great example of what chembarons could be, leaders with loud and eccentric vibes that actually matches the distinct culture of Zaun itself.

[04tenno]

sorry to bother but I saw ya talk about kirin lore and Mine etc? Specifically about kirin and the full moon? Do you have any stuff I could look at about kirin myth that I could look at? (its cool if its a Japanese source I'll force myself to learn to read it) Or just any thoughts on kirin and Mine in general I've been going ham on stupid kirin-Mine AU lately and its relevant fhdkfd

I'm glad you asked! Unfortunately I'm not positive I saved any of my sources... anywhere, but the good news is I do remember most of my findings in detail and have been itching to post about them. So! I'm taking this opportunity to analyze Mine's tattoo top-to-bottom.

And I'm also approaching this as a sort of redemption arc, because a lot of interpretations of Mine's tattoo out there are based on what I wrote on the wiki. It's not that they're incorrect per se, but there is so much more to it than what the wiki currently goes into, and I'd like to share that with you all today.

I'll start off with some official statements, and because it comes up later, establish the original version of the tattoo Horitomo designed is actually this version with green fur (pictured below):

Like the word kirin-ji, this is a design that evokes the image of a genius. To be honest, the majority of depictions give kirins the face of a dragon, but with a composition like this where it's soaring upwards, you risk ending up with a tattoo that looks too much like Kiryu's. So I looked into some older material, and while it's not too common, I went with a type of kirin that more closely resembles a deer. — Horitomo

It wants to rise above, but chooses to put itself second and use its talent and intellect to support the "king"—the kirin suits Mine, doesn't it? So, with that general concept in mind, we went through several designs done in pencil, went back and forth on various aspects, until we settled on the direction we wanted to take. And after that, the detailed version of the design was produced. — Masayoshi Yokoyama

With Yokoyama's comment, it's clear what the core meaning of his tattoo was meant to be from the beginning. Because a Like a Dragon tattoo represents more than just a summation of who the character is as the audience knows them or their role in the narrative, but who they were before joining the yakuza, why they joined the yakuza, what the motivation was behind their choice of subject, how elements of the tattoo reflect on characters who share the same elements (and vice versa), and how the meaning the tattoo evolves over time in relation to the character's fate.

So my main... misgiving, let's say... with popular interpretations of Mine's tattoo is that they focus solely on Daigo without examining how it relates to anything else. Again, partly my fault, I'll cop to that, but this is an issue with a lot of analysis of Mine as a character... and it's a little frustrating, isn't it? It is for me. But enough complaining, it's showtime:

Some notes design-wise: the decision to portray Mine's kirin as deer-like rather than dragon-like specifically to distance him from Kiryu says a lot about their characters to me. Because Mine is, in a lot of ways, "the complete opposite, or antithesis, of Kiryu." (Yokoyama) But the kirin is ultimately in the "dragon" family of mythological creatures; as such, Mine, no matter how much he tries to set himself apart from Kiryu, will always parallel Kiryu. This is exactly what I was talking about with regard to how tattoos come to change in meaning over time; it's not insanely prophetic, it's something that makes complete sense in-universe, makes sense for Mine to get at the time he got it, but it also ends up representing his relationship with Kiryu so well. The fact the kirin is in the "dragon" family of mythological creatures, in combination with the original green coloring, is also notable. Because the dragon depicted in Daigo's tattoo is the same shade of green.

There are multiple "species" of kirin, denoted by the color of their fur, which corresponds to one of the five phases (五行, gogyō), originating from the concept of wuxing in Chinese philosophy. The word "kirin," strictly speaking, refers to kirin with yellow fur and corresponds to Earth, which is associated with stability, hard work, ambition, and stubbornness. Kirin with green fur are known as shoko (聳孤, shōko) and correspond to Wood, which is associated with luxuriant growth, vitality, strength, and co-operation. Speaking of the five phases, that also ties into the concept of the Four Gods, a motif explored with the protagonists of Yakuza 4: Kiryu is the Azure Dragon, Akiyama is the Vermillion Bird, Saejima is the Black Turtle, and Tanimura is the White Tiger, representing Wood, Fire, Water, and Metal respectively. The "Fifth God," representing Earth, is widely considered to be a kirin. This doesn't really relate to anything though, just food for thought for the Protagonist Mine enjoyers (me <3)

A great deal of the meaning behind Mine's tattoo is etymological in nature. The word "qilin" itself represents a duality: "qi" refers to a female kirin, "lin" refers to a male kirin, and "qilin" refers to the species as whole. The kirin is said to embody yin and yang. And I think this aspect works perfectly with who Mine is as a character often torn between two extremes. He, like the kirin, has the capacity for both benevolence and ferocity, and like the kirin, only becomes violent in retaliation to violence or out of a sense of protectiveness. Also, in a very literal sense, Mine has both Yin cards and Yang cards in Ryu Ga Gotoku Online, which very few characters do due to their contradictory nature. As Horitomo mentions, the design has basis in the word "kirin-ji" (麒麟児, child prodigy, lit. "kirin child"). A lot of people already know this (anyone who's read this post certainly does, at any rate), but fewer are familiar with the origin of the term. In Ancient China, there was a belief that the appearance of a kirin heralds the birth (and death) of a gifted son with a promising future, beliefs held around Confucius being a famous example. Of course, this relates to Daigo in terms of the association with leaders, but it also relates to Mine himself, who views his younger self as a sort of diamond-in-the-rough, a "gem shining brilliantly by the wayside." This reinforces that the tattoo is not just a meta representation of him, but directly relates to how he views himself. Additionally, the kanji that comprise "shoko" read as "soar" (聳, shō; as in, to rise above something) and "orphan" (孤, ko) respectively.

On that note, kirin are capable of flight, which can obviously be connected to his ambition ("rising above" his origins), his theme, and his method of suicide. They hover off of the ground so as to not trample blades of grass, and are often depicted as walking on clouds (which are, of course, depicted in Mine's tattoo). Some kirin even have wings!

Circling back to the note about violence to talk about the kirin's ability in battle: kirin are ferocious combatants and known to have a very strong hind kick; Mine mainly uses his legs to fight. I believe his "red heat state," where he's at his most aggressive, also represents the fire surrounding his kirin. Kirin may use flames to attack. Kirin are also thought to be the only creatures who can defeat a dragon, and I would argue Mine is the only final boss who even manages to come close to defeating Kiryu. I actually would even argue he did win, since he had more stamina left.

Just reiterating for the sake of being thorough, but as mentioned in the ask, kirin are thought to be at their most volatile and at their most powerful during a full moon. You only see it in one shot, but the finale of Yakuza 3 does in fact take place under a full moon. Mine is, of course, shown to be both of those things in the finale.

There's also some sort of association between kirin and thunder/lightning, at least in popular media. Mine and his tattoo are depicted surrounded by lightning in one of his cards, and the "Hakuho Clan Pin" item that came out at the same time has an ability called Roaring Thunder. I'm not sure why this is the case. Perhaps it's to do with the kirin's association with the sky, since thunder and lightning are celestial phenomena.

With that, I believe I've covered everything I wanted to touch on. Thank you for reading and for the opportunity, and I hope I've "redeemed myself" adequately!