#happy deserves tons of credit

[psychoticwillgraham]

trying to subtly manipulate dad into giving me more money by using the excuse of my near two years of sobriety as a reason to get money, and I know it’ll work eventually bc he has a thing about giving me whatever I want as a way to ‘make up’ for the childhood abuse and being a horrible father, so I’ve got him wrapped around my finger lmao i used to feel bad about manipulating him, but now I don’t give a fuck bc it’s what he did to me, and if the man has all that money with only me to spend it on, then I might as well abuse that. i may never truly forgive him, but at least i get money out of it :)

[perseephoneee]

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓘𝓘𝓘

In which, you, a lady of the ton, are forced to participate in courting season. Except that courting season comes with one particularly silver tongued Prince who is making it his mission to drive you absolutely insane.

↳ fic masterlist  ↳ ship exchange ↳ taglist

a/n: sorry for the delay!! i'll try and get chapter IV out much faster

“He’s so infuriating,” you groaned, flopping down onto Ivy’s bed as she sat at her vanity, peering at you with amusement. 

“But how was Thor–”

“He insults my wit, my wit,” you huff, rolling your eyes. “My wit is what makes me interesting.”

“I think it’s interesting you’re focused on Loki when his brother is the one that’s courting you,” Ivy mumbles, looking at her nails. You send her a glare, biting the inside of your cheek. You had come home from the races coursing with adrenaline. It was a lot more exhilarating than you expected, even if the company was lackluster. You hated the stares from the rest of the ton as you sat with the two princes. While you appreciated Thor’s company, having a verbal sparring match with Loki was not on your agenda for that day. Which is why the second you got home, you ranted to your sister. 

“This whole courting situation is rather tiresome,” you groan, holding a pillow over your face. Ivy chuckles, grabs the recent gossip column (Lady Valkyrie), and sits beside you on the bed. 

“You’re the talk of the ton,” Ivy sighed, slight envy in her tone. You sat up, looking at her curiously. “Everyone is gossiping about you and Prince Odinson.”

“I don’t want to be the talk of the ton,” you rub your eyes, glancing at the words on the page. Lady Valkyrie talks about your ‘spitfire personality’ in a way that gives you slight satisfaction. “Why can’t you be the talk of the ton?”

“Because I am not as interesting as you,” Ivy says, eyes bright as she looks at you. “And that is alright.”

“You deserve it more than me.”

“It is not a matter of being deserving; it just is.” Sometimes, Ivy could be wiser than you gave her credit for. You wrapped her up in a hug, resting your head on her shoulders as she patted your head. “There’s another dance happening today if you want to come?” Ivy looked at you expectantly, but you just shot her a look. “Or not.”

“Why are there so many events?” you inquired.

“I assume people are desperate to meet the one,” Ivy sighed, getting up and returning to her closet. She held up two different gowns, raising an eyebrow in question. You pointed at the right one and then went back to scowling. “You should go.”

“I’ve done enough socializing for one lifetime,” you curled into a ball facing the window. “I’m going to stay home and read.”

“Fine, have it your way,” Ivy hummed, already messing with her hair. 

The truth was that you needed more books to read, having already exhausted your collection. Which in and of itself was a feat, considering you seldom ran out of books to read. You decided to take a self-care day, heading to the town and finding a new novel to distract yourself. The town wasn’t that far of a walk, and you needed the space to think critically about your situation.

It wasn’t that you didn’t like Thor; you did. He was kind and courteous and found you attractive and not at all crazy (or he found you crazy but didn’t care). Still, you didn’t feel that spark. That sense of electricity that was described in your romance novels. You just felt…the same. You had never been in love, though; there was no barometer. 

The air was crisp, and you enjoyed feeling the wind tossing your hair around. You gave polite nods to anyone you passed but generally kept to yourself. The bookstore was close ahead, though, and you were anticipating your next novel. Unfortunately, any chance of solace you had was ruined by the sight of a familiar raven-haired prince exiting the shop. You felt yourself glower as you approached, and he shot you a smile that read as anything but happy. 

“All alone?” Loki asked, raising a brow as he looked you up and down. You huffed, rolling your eyes. 

“I’m allowed,” you went to move past him, but he blocked the entrance. “Is there something the matter, your highness?” Loki shook his head, moving out of your way. You pushed into the store, hearing the bell ring above your head as you headed straight for the section in the back left. You felt Loki follow you inside, trailing behind you as you started looking at different titles. 

“I didn’t take you for a romance reader,” he said, voice close to your ear. It made you jump, and you turned to find him directly behind you. 

“Do you have no sense of personal space?” you hissed, but he ignored you. Loki grabbed a book from right above your head, grimacing as he flipped through the pages. 

“Terribly drab.”

“Bold of you to comment on what is romantic,” you snatched the book from his hands, hiding your grimace. It wasn’t a novel you would’ve chosen of your own volition, but you felt insistent on not letting Loki know that. You put the story back on the shelf, grabbing a different title instead from an author you admire. You appreciated that while the book involved romance, other storylines were going on that didn’t make it dreadfully dull. There was adventure, treasure, and more. Loki narrowed his eyes at you as you held the book to your chest. 

“For a lady being courted by a prince, you don’t seem to be excited about the ordeal,” Loki exclaimed, startling you. 

“That’s none of your business–”

“It’s my business when it involves my brother,” Loki leaned against a shelf, arms crossed and head tilted like you were a fascinating creature. You hated how relaxed he seemed, even as there was a split-second thought that he looked good posed against the various hardcovers. 

“You don’t seem that interested in any of this, either,” you shot back. 

“I’m not; people are boring,” Loki chuckled, a dark sound that sent chills down your spine. You fought the urge to shiver. “Let me help you.” You narrowed your eyes, unsure what he was getting at. “Whatever reason you are participating in the season, it’s not because of personal want. My father is eager for one of us to get married, and it won’t be me,” Loki sighed at this point, turning so his back was against the shelf and looking up at the ceiling. “I’ll help you secure my brother, and in turn, you help me get out of my familial expectations.”

“I don’t need your help with your brother,” you scoffed. 

“Sure you do,” Loki smiled like he knew a joke you weren’t a part of. “Considering he could be courting another lady at any moment, your obstinance won’t get you anywhere. You’re also the…best choice.” He had to spit out his words at that like it pained him. 

“Best choice?” Your words caught in your throat when Loki stepped closer, towering over you with the haughty air of someone who knew they held all the power. 

“I don’t like you,” Loki murmured, close enough for you to hear every word. “But you’re more interesting than the rest of the ton. If anyone will join this family, I would hate for it to be one of them.”

“It sounds like you do like me,” you replied, heart beating slightly faster. 

“Careful what you say, pet,” Loki stepped back, taking the heat from the air with him. Clutching the book to your chest like a shield, you carefully observed the prince before you. You didn’t need help, or at least, you didn’t think you did. You were under no illusions that you’d experience a love match. Still, perhaps Thor was your best option. It would satiate your grandmother, and you wouldn’t have to see her disapproving gaze daily.

“If I say yes…what do I have to do?” You whispered, eyes looking down. You could almost feel Loki’s satisfaction in a way that made you grit your teeth. 

“Just wait,” he hummed. “You’ll know soon enough.”

“You’re terribly ominous.”

“Perhaps,” he grinned, his smile half-cocked and a serpentine glint in his eyes. It felt like making a deal with a demon, a promise that would only do more hurt in the long run than good. You can’t help thinking about your grandmother and this ridiculous expectation she put on you. You didn’t want to get married; you didn’t care. But the woman was more impatient than not, and you hated how she beat down Ivy for her inability to secure a match. It took you several seconds to meet Loki’s green eyes and even more before you could steel your mind into an impenetrable fortress. 

“Then yes,” you mutter, eyes narrowed. “I say yes.”

Loki just chuckled. “Then let the games begin.”

taglist:: @gruftiela @eleniblue @iwrite-things @youneedanap @huntress-artemiss @linaax @pisces-celeste @marygoddessofmischief @saay-karani @choki.laufeyson

[dreaminrainbows]

Happy August! I've decided to start a monthly fic rec and what a better way than with all the lovely fics I've read in July!

Victorian Boy by audreyhheart / @audreyhheart [101k]

Victorian AU. Harry the virgin Duke of Somerset knows little of love, while Louis the sly Duke of Warwick knows too much. When the two dukes come together for the Bilsdale fox hunt in York, Harry finds himself drawn into Louis' bed. But when secrets from Louis' dark past come to light, Harry fears that the fox isn't the only one being hunted.

you are my destiny (you are the reason that i still believe) by alwaysxlarrie / @alwaysxlarrie [98k]

Being a new employee at a company means that you have to learn to brush off the shitty bosses, shitty coworkers, and not getting the credit you actually deserve for things. At least, that's been Harry Styles' experience. Coworkers who steal his ideas in pursuit of getting praise and a raise, and a boss who's indifferent at best and condescending at worst. Harry has learned to expect this reality for the foreseeable future. He's accepted it. What he hadn't expected was for Louis Tomlinson to waltz into their company, and his life, and change around everything he thought he knew about fate. A Cinderella AU.

fondre ton absence by scrunchyharry / @scrunchyharry [41k]

Harry had never really given much thought to the future. He preferred to let life steer him forward and to follow in the footsteps of Louis, his best friend from as far as his memory went, his lover, his everything. Louis knew better than he did what was good for him. It changed drastically when Louis was ripped away from him, drafted and sent to the front to fight in a war that Harry had always been sure would never reach him. Too young and too sickly to follow, Harry was left on his own for the first time in his life. When he thought things could not possibly get worse, Louis went missing at the Somme and was declared dead. While everyone buried and mourned him, Harry never moved on. If Louis were dead, he was sure that he would know it. Their lives were too entwined, he would know if half of his heart had died. Determined to find Louis, Harry did everything he could in his quest to be reunited with him, except prepare for the state Louis might be in. He did not prepare for the harsh truth he would have to face: was love possible without memories?

The Haunting of Louis Tomlinson by HelloAmHere / @helloamhere [31k]

“I'm not afraid of ghosts,” Louis said. Every single magnet unstuck itself from the fridge and fell to the floor in a clattering cascade. “I'm only a little afraid of ghosts,” Louis said. OR: Louis is a plucky Gothic Heroine, Harry is a Mournful Spirit, and Big Country Houses are full of mystery and suspense, as Big Country Houses ever are!

come on jump out at me by yoursongonmyheart / @yoursongonmyheart [28k]

“you know, i offered for you to fake out me, but, i don’t know anything about you other than you being my biggest celebrity crush probably since posh spice.” louis almost chokes on his chicken, “jesus christ,” he sputters. harry takes a swig of his beer with a smirk. “i was very disappointed when you didn’t say i was your celebrity crush after you came out.” louis almost cries. “you know i did plan on it. then i ran into you narrating taking a piss and talking about my ass and i thought ‘wow this kid does talk some shit’ and decided against it.” harry barks out a laugh, his ears tinged red. he takes a bite of his pizza. “i suppose i do have no filter while high.” louis rolls his eyes, “bit of an understatement, mate.” harry giggles, “whatever pal,” louis screams internally. Or, the one where actor louis tomlinson and one direction superstar harry styles try to fake a sex tape to help harry get out of the closet and they both get more than they bargained for.

Unbonded by jacaranda_bloom / @jacaranda-bloom [24k]

“Look,” Louis says firmly. “Last time I checked, I’m still the pack leader, so you damn well better listen to me. It was Harry who worked out what I’d been poisoned with, then nursed me back to health. And it was Harry who thwarted the plan for my second assassination attempt by literally throwing himself in front of an arrow intended for me, nearly dying in the process, which is why we’re even having this argument in the first place. So if you think I’m going to set foot outside of this hut until he’s fully healed, you’ve all seriously misread the situation, and even more importantly, you’ve all seriously misread me.” OR the one where Harry is an omega who has been cast out from his pack, Louis is the alpha leader of the pack where Harry finds a new home, Liam is an alpha with heart of gold, and Niall is a cook who can't seem to stop setting himself on fire.

The Capillaries In My Eyes Are Bursting by 5secsoflarry [14k]

Two armoured palace guards stand there, speaking with the old, widowed beta. Harry watches curiously from the space in the back, ducking down a little in an attempt to hide. There have been whispers through the town of omegas being gathered and forced to the castle all week long - something about the King being ill - but Harry had thought they were only rumours….. OR Medieval times where King Louis is in a near death accident and enters a coma. The royal doctor says they have two weeks to find Louis’ true soulmate (omega) or he dies.

oh so familiar by InsightfulInsomniac / @insightfulinsomniac [13k]

When Harry transferred to the University of Mestonwood, he hoped that he'd finally fit in. As a witch, he's much less likely to feel isolated on an entirely supernatural campus, right? Wrong. Thanks to the cold-shoulder efforts of Louis Tomlinson, president of the vampire Coven, Harry still feels the sting of rejection from the most gorgeous boy on campus. It's doubly frustrating that everyone else, even Harry's only close friend, Niall, seems to think Louis is a great guy. Harry vows to actively ignore Louis in return, but his plans are foiled when his familiar, Oli, starts turning off their telepathic connection during Harry's classes. It doesn't take long for Harry to find out where Oli is disappearing to - or, rather, who he is disappearing to. A story of misguided enemies to lovers brought together by a stubborn orange tabby.

Little Dove (Series) by littleroverlouis / @littleroverlouis [11k]

I Can Be Your Vice (Pt.1) It could be his innate flight or fight instincts kicking in. His predator is closing in and he is the prey. Fear would be a rational response. After all, there is a centuries old vampire standing directly behind him. “You’re ahead of schedule, Louis.” Or Harry and Louis are FWBB (friends with bloodsucking benefits)

With Just One Look (Pt.2 prequel to Pt.1) There is no way Harry is over twenty-one. Louis would bet his right fang on it. He has an air of purity and exuberance towards strangers that is generally worn away with age and life experience. Louis has not received such a sunny greeting, bar from some golden retrievers in his neighborhood, in decades. Harry is a precious little dove. Louis feels guilty. Almost. Or Louis meets Harry at a club and wants to suck him dry.

This Is Not the End (Pt.3) “Little dove, could you please come here for a moment? You gotta help me, I’m losing my mind.” It is hard being a ‘little dove’ when you’re fifty-eight years old. Harry will always be Louis’ little dove, but it makes him chuckle as he swallows down his daily Centrum Silver multivitamin. The nickname came into his life as a wide eyed, innocent eighteen year old, along with the love of his life. He wonders, could he still refer to Louis as the love of his life when he joins him as the undead? Or Louis finally turns Harry into a vampire.

so pull me closer, why don’t you pull me close? by alwaysxlarrie / @alwaysxlarrie [9.9k]

If you ask Harry, baking and soccer go together like chocolate and cheese -- which is to say, they really, really don't. But maybe that's just because he’s less than thrilled about the lousy sous-chef partner he got paired with, Simon. If the captain of the soccer team wants to substitute players and be Harry's partner instead... well, Harry's lemons just turned into lemon meringue pie. Who is he to argue with fate?

Standing On the Edge of Falling by therogueskimo / @bravetemptation [5.8k]

“There’s a bit of a situation in one of the tenting areas, and you two are the perfect people to handle it.” “Get on with it, then.” “Some fucker’s brought a whole TV in and is streaming the England/Slovakia game. A whole crowd’s gathered, over a hundred people, at least, and it’s blocking walkways between the tents. I need you two to go shut it down.” ~~~ It’s Harry’s first security gig, and somehow, he landed Glastonbury. Unfortunately, he’s been tasked with telling a very gorgeous man that he can’t stream the football match. Things go … much better than expected.

Scared That My Worst is the Best That I’ve Got by LetTheMusicMoveYou / @letthemusicmoveyou28 [5k]

So while Louis’ proposition is preposterous, it’s also the only compromise his brain seems willing to make at the moment. Harry slowly raises his head to look at Louis. He’s standing on the other side of the kitchen, elbow resting casually on the edge of the counter next to the sink. His expression is soft and patient, and there’s delicate morning sunlight streaming through the kitchen windows behind him, setting his outlined silhouette aglow. He looks like an angel. An angel in an old oversized adidas jumper with tattoos on his knuckles, but an angel all the same. Harry’s voice comes out mumbled and much smaller than he’d like, but it is what it is. As Louis always says. “Just shampoo?” (Or five times Louis saves Harry from himself, and one time when Louis is the one that needs the saving).

we could be enough by HelloLovers13 / @hellolovers13 [5k]

“You know I am flirting with you, right?” Louis freezes mid-bite. Just manages not to choke on his steak. Harry laughs a bit too loudly, almost like he’s nervous. “Yeah, should’ve known you weren’t the observant kind. You think I get this dressed up for a random dinner with a mate on a Tuesday night?” or Louis never imagined anyone could love him for who he truly is. Then he meets Harry.

Rapture by allwaswell16 / @allwaswell16 [3.2k]

It was New Year's Eve in Victorian London, and a lonely vampire could no longer resist the stunning lamplighter he watched night after night. Or, a vampire Harry fic because what says the holidays like Victorian vampires?

Lights Are So Bright by QuickedWeen /@becomeawendybird [2.1k]

Newly first-string quarterback Louis Tomlinson mentions enough times in interviews that he's a fan of mega-famous popstar Harry Styles that people start to notice. At least one person does...

This was really fun to make and I'll do my best to keep monthly recs on some kind of a schedule, probably will be the first week of the next month.

Happy reading everyone!

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Undertale Yellow: An amazing fangame with one glaring thing I hate about it (that I need to rant about or else I'm going to go insane).

As the title says, Undertale Yellow was a game I really enjoyed playing. Lots of fun dialogue and designs, utterly fantastic art and animation (holy hell that Flowey fight! <3 <3 <3), great music and feels, etc. Seriously it deserves a ton of praise, not only as a fully completed fangame that took years of development, but as genuinely amazing prequel to one of my favorite games of all time.

...Unfortunately. Much as I truly enjoyed playing through the majority of the game, when I finished the True Pacifist route I was intensely unhappy with how that went and while the credits scenes and funeral for Cover helped ease some of the worst of it, I cannot help but wonder who the flipping f$%& in the development team thought presenting Clover's suicide as the 'just and happy' ending that all the friend characters accept with barely any argument was a good idea?!

Now to clarify: I went into Undertale Yellow knowing that Clover was going to die and that there were good odds their death was going to be self sacrificial or involve suicide. Undertale Yellow is a prequel to Undertale after all and children being murdered and/or sacrificing themselves for the greater good of lovable monster kind is an established part of the setting.

I came in knowing this game was bound to end tragically. I was excited to see how this game would pull that inevitable tragedy off while exploring the Yellow soul's theme of Justice and staying true to Undertale's established canon.

And all the way right up to the end of the True Pacifist ending I truly thought they'd nailed it: The constant pressure of the monsters suffering and being trapped in the Underground despite their sweet and earnest natures, Dalv's clear issues regarding a human, Starlow's unintentional reinforcement of the 'one sacrifice for the greater good' idea with his trolley problem reenactment, the repeated back to back betrayals from characters who should be friends (the Feisty Five, Starlow, Ceraba) hurting Clover instead, the dull realization in universe for Clover that all their efforts to find the missing human children were all for nothing...

It was fantastic. There was a real sense of looming dread for me, seeing all those moments and just knowing in my gut that after the desperate struggle with the agonized and grieving Ceraba, ranting about how monster kind is doomed as it stands, that Clover would start thinking of sacrificing their life for monster kind, especially when their 'sense of Justice' at the start of the game had them willingly jump into a gaping pit they couldn't have possibly have known the height of, for the sake of mission they (according to Flowey) easily abandon when offered a loving home instead. (aka implying not so great things about how much they value their own life)

So. With all that 'hyped for tragedy' in mind, there I am at the True Pacifist ending. I've just spared Ceraba, the friends are all arguing as to how to keep Clover (and possibly any future humans who fall) safe and Clover begins to go into something of a zone out, thinking about all the things they've heard and seen over the course of their adventure.

This is it! I think to myself as I watch it play out. This is where Clover, after everything they've been through, makes the tragic yet understandable mistake of running away from their friends and confronting Asgore just as Flowey kept encouraging them to! Not to fight and bring Asgore to justice but to try talking him down and when they fail that, offering up their life to help and 'save' their friends even as the narrative will (matching Undertale) will make it clear that this is a mistake and only hurts everyone involved, just like every suicide and child murder in Undertale hurts everyone involved until Frisk is able to end the cycle of pain by rejecting the Kill or be Killed premise and setting the monsters free! Wow, I can't believe it, they set it up so well, what a perfect way to tie into Undertale's greater narrative via tragic prequel, I love this eeeeee!

Except of course that's not what happens.

My first hint something is off is when the quotes Clover's 'remembering' in their little bubble start being way too positive for the set up (also there's nothing from the trolley problem section). The second is when the music shifts from quiet to holy and then outright happy.

And third is when Clover snaps out of it and point blank tells their friends they choose to die. Now, I'm getting a little confused and wary at this but alright, this is a pretty long sequence already but I guess we get to have one final hope moment before Clover somehow gets away from their friends to die (maybe Flowey if not Asgore?)-

-and then I am left absolutely flabbergasted as the friends who just spent the last huge chunk of the game trying to protect Clover/getting talked out of killing them because 'its not right' end up agreeing with Clover's decision after a pitiful amount of arguing against it (where the utterly stupid 'there's no other option' reasoning is used as the primary reasoning despite all the other options being very clearly stated just moments ago), before the woman who's entire massive trauma arc that is centered around her accidentally killing her own child out of blind faith for 'the greater good', proceeds to assist Clover with their suicide (who she clearly views as a surrogate child despite her best attempts not to) while the other characters meekly say goodbye, give hugs and leave all while bittersweet but mostly sweet 'great job honey, this sucks but we're proud of you' music plays (also Flowey says stuff but like, its Flowey so frankly he could say anything and it'd be fine. He's not the issue here).

...Wow.

What a screwed up way for that to end. Like, I clearly get the 'idea' that Clover is meant to be noble and good and such but like, really? A fan game of Undertale (where one of the main ending messages was 'Don't kill and don't be killed', where a child's suicidal attempts to free monster kind lead to every major tragedy in the game, and where suicide was repeatedly shown to only make things worse through Asgore and Alphys in numerous neutral endings) is the game that decides having its protagonist's pointless self sacrifice should be honored and treated as a good ending by the narrative?????

How did none of the otherwise clearly brilliant people working on this miss the very bad, no good implications of Clover's friends being talked into letting them kill themselves and having the narrative frame it as anything but the worst end?????

I have many, many questions. And concerns. And...

Look, I do get it. Undertale Yellow is still a fangame. There are going to be weird notes in the tone due to different writers and such, and I should just be happy that the game was finished it at all, and accept that this god awful scene is probably just the result of its creators really, really wanting their beloved characters to go out as kindly (and beautifully drawn/animated) as possible with all the hugs and feels of canon Undertale without taking into account how much the very different context might warp the tone and the characterizations of everyone in the entire scene.

But like. God damn. There is something very off putting about not letting brave kind Martlet refuse to take this as an answer and then finding she actually can't stop it happening (and no her saying that after like two sentences from 'Ceraba who's judgement about the human sucks' doesn't count). About Starlow not recognising he and his posse might've had something to do with why Clover is thinking this. About Ceraba not on some level going 'IF THIS IS YOUR CHOICE THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME USE YOU TO SAVE KANAKO?!' Edit: Also a totally waste of prequel opportunity not to let Asgore visibly make the worst choices we canonly know he made on screen. Yes, he gets to stab Clover in the Flawed!Pacist route but Clover's trying to shoot him in that one; the fact we don't get to see him stab a 'far too willing to die for their friends and not defending themselves' Clover as the friend trio can do nothing to stop it from happening feels like such a cop out I swear XD

I'm all for 'Clover dies willingly' at the end of the True Pacifist but they way they did it was just... Really ugh in a way I'm finding tricky to word and I'm honestly shocked I haven't seen more people point it out (though admittedly that might be because I haven't really looked around much). ...So yeah. I know its too late to change said ending but really kinda hoping at some point one of the Undertale Yellow team realizes this might be an issue and thinks to add a content warning in the game's opening or something because it could really use one of those. Also that for any future projects they do, they happen to do a little more research into how to avoid accidentally glorify suicide as opposed to having it as a tragedy because damn they did not manage that here whatsoever.

---

ANYWAY, with all that rant finally out of my head some other stuff about Undertale Yellow I be feeling strongly:

Flowey's boss battle and the lead up to it is incredible and without a doubt makes the neutral route the most amazing well crafted route in the game. 10/10 may have already mentioned this in the massive rant above but if so gonna repeat it anyway because it's just that damn good.

Genocide route being a deconstruction of the 'disproportionate revenge is justice' 90s Anti Hero is very cool theme wise but the lack of the lack of stuff like notes in shops saying 'please don't kill my family' and monsters with less screen time getting more fleshed out drags it down a little, as does Clover not actually choking on dust or getting attacked by the human souls or something at the very end. Really do love the Martlet battle flashback moments and Axel's horrifically timed confession scene though.

The general uselessness of the ACT menu in big 'endurance' fights as well as the lack of 'alternative sparing ACTS' makes fights a lot less fun than they could be and I found myself a lot less willing to use them in general as a result despite them being my favorite thing about Undertale. Did still adore what fun stuff was in them though so I think it's just a case of them being a tad too out of focus compared to the bullet hell gameplay (which I'm not that good at) for my tastes.

Pacifist route could've really used some more optional hangouts and/or letters from the main friends. As is, the peak 'hang out' part of the game for me was the nap room I spent maybe two minutes in, and Dalv especially could've benefitted a ton from a bit more presence (I got more interaction from Mo and the rabbit who's tongue was stuck to a pole and I'm not happy about that? If nothing else not getting to see the inside of Martlet's house or help Dalv build his new home feel like lost opportunities).

Personal pet peeve and nothing too serious but not a fan of Asgore not getting the kill on Clover outside of Flawed Pacifist. Makes sense on most routes (glares at T!Pacifist again) given the way the plot is set up and all but given Toby Fox has repeatedly stated Asgore killed all the humans who fell post Chara it just drives me nuts XD (As does the poor Blue Soul getting treated as a killer/evil but like, I can see where people are coming on that one and Undertale Yellow uses that to amp up Chujin's nightmare fuel vibes fantastically so I shall reluctantly congratulate that theory's use there and steel myself for the inevitable 'wait you're using Undertale Yellow lore but Axis didn't kill Integrity?' questions that will be posted on my 'will eventually be posted' Undertale fanfics XDDDD)

Love all the main cast, especially Martlet, and I am way too hyped for the day Undertale Yellow and its main cast get their own fandom tags on AO3.

...Kanako's death was incredibly stupid and avoidable but like, that's kind of what I like about it? I really also wanna know which Amalgamite she became (I'm thinking probably the one that tucks Frisk in to sleep and pats them on the head because of her and Ceraba's little 'going to sleep' game but like, I could see a very heart wrenching case for her being part of So Cold as well).

Anyone reading this who somehow hasn't played Undertale Yellow should really stop reading this and go play the game. It's free, its (one major thematic issue I have moral objections to aside) pretty decently written, and hey, more Undertale stuff to have fun making fanworks with <3

Goddamn has Undertale Yellow kicked my drive to write Undertale fanfic into overload XD Thank you Undertale Yellow team for helping me get all fired up again and sorry about all the grr but dang it, it needed to be said and now that it's out of my system I can throw myself into finding ways to incorporate your settings and characters into fanworks of my own (admittedly the AU elements might make things kinda tricky -Asgore having to kill EVERY human child even more so- but that nifty little detail of early Royal Guard Martlet having and being willing to abuse her access to the Hotland Lab allows me so many ways to have Chujin be a well meaning awful person and I am living for it!) <3 <3 <3

[heliza24]

I'm kind of confused about how you feel about Lydia, I didn't think there was anything negative about the portrayal. You say she was just there for a lore dump but the way I see it, she was talking about her own life, an adventure she'd been on before. I didn't see it as dismissing her as a character

The short answer is that there isn’t anything hugely wrong with that scene. But because it’s the only real scene we’ve gotten with her so far, and because she is the most developed physically disabled character in all of D20, it is not enough.

To expand on that: Sure, she was telling the Bad Kids about her life and her previous adventures. But let’s think about why she was doing that in that moment. She was there because the Bad Kids needed to know more about her embedded crystal/metaphorical chronic illness in order to solve their own personal mysteries. She is a (very) supporting character in their narrative. We don’t get to see her go on a character arc, or change, or learn more about her desires as a character. Her disability story, which is very interesting, is in the show only because it serves the story needs of the nondisabled PCs.

Now of course all stories need supporting characters/npcs, and I am happy some of them are disabled. The problem arises when there has never been a physically disabled PC in Dimension 20. So the only disability narrative we see is in service of nondisabled characters. The problem is not Lydia; the problem is that she is alone.

You might recognize this problem with other media and other marginalized groups. To use a kind of simple example, I spent a lot of my childhood frustrated that the only women seemingly allowed in fantasy or action movies were the romantic interests of male protagonists. These love interests existed to serve the story of their male counterpart (often by dying dramatically and sending the male protagonist on some kind of revenge quest). There are still plenty of movies and shows that follow these tropes, but it bothers me way less now in 2024 because we also have a ton of tv and movies with complex female protagonists. The abundance of representation is what has changed.

I think this problem is extra clear on Dimension 20 because they have gotten SO many chances to center a disabled narrative and have not. They get up to six protagonists every season, which is way more than most tv or movies get.

Compared to a lot of other pieces of media that try to add in disabled characters, Dimension 20 is doing a good job with Lydia. They haven’t hired a nondisabled actor to play her (super common in tv and movies unfortunately) and they’ve clearly worked with consultants on her. I really like, for instance, that her persistence with the crystal prevents her being magically cured, which is one of my least favorite tropes. However, there is a huge trend in Hollywood of hiring disabled consultants when they want to tell a disabled story but never actually hiring a disabled writer for a full time, credited writing gig in a writers room. The players on D20 are the writing room. Why has a disabled person never been invited there?

Imagine, for a second, that we got a Fantasy High prequel season. All the adults we know in Fantasy High are teens, and they’re PCs. Imagine a really talented performer, who uses a wheelchair, playing Lydia. Imagine the emotional scenes we would see! Imagine the insight into her psyche we would get, the way her relationship to the Crystal would be developed. That’s what the scene with Lydia in Junior Year made me long for.

(I do have some frustration about the way Kristen reacted to Lydia, and the way that fandom reacted to Kristen. I did find Kristen offering empathy to Lydia in the form of the help action sweet, but being nice to a disabled person doesn’t deserve outsized praise, because we are not objects of pity. I also think the way that Kristen touched Lydia’s neck without permission is reminiscent of the way many wheelchair users are touched and pushed without permission, which is very violating. I don’t think Kristen would have had that same reaction to Sandra Lynn, for instance. Kristen is really Going Through It right now, so I’m not particularly mad at her for doing that. But it is irritating to see fandom singing the praises of the help action without acknowledging the touching without consent that followed).

Thank you for the question! I appreciate the opportunity to have a dialogue about this.

[tangledinink]

Heya! First off I’m around halfway through teenage mutant what now and it is the funniest fic I have ever read - Beautifully written and overall brilliant but the jokes get me every time

And second, is it okay if I reference a pose from one of your gemini artworks for my own work? I’ll credit the inspiration if I post it anywhere ^^

whew we're overdue for an ask dump,,, OKAY ALRIGHT.

THANK YOU ; w ; I'm really glad you like it hehehehe. also yeah sure feel free! I don't mind! ^^

HEHEHE THIS MAKES ME VERY HAPPY THANK YOU

oh he DEFINITELY freaked out at first. there was a lot of panicking and confusion and "how could this even happen?!" ("you think i'd genetically engineer a creature that's not capable of reproducing? all of you should be genetically compatible with practically any yokai," draxum said. "AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO, I DUNNO, TELL US THAT?!" donnie said.) but eventually, he did calm down, and he and his partner talked about it (a bunch, multiple times), and eventually some of the panic gave way to... curiosity, first of all... and then maybe kind of excitement? and some fondness? i mean, he was still pretty scared, and sure, he doesn't really consider himself a 'kid' person, but it's not like he never thought about EVENTUALLY having kids, just maybe... not so soon? but. i mean.

well. if they're already cooking...

THANK YOU ; w ; i'm glad you like them! @kiwi-smug-silvalina

oh gosh, that's a good question. i'm not entirely sure... uhmmm... i would say perhaps... details about how gemini!donnie's witchcraft looks and acts, VS how venus's witchcraft looks and acts...

it is very shiny. i like that people call it "the bean" instead of its actual title coz it pisses anish kapoor off.

ah ; w ; THANK YOU SO MUCH,,, thats so sweet and this made me very happy,,, <3 im glad you liked it!!!! @allegedllama

HEHEHE thank you. yes im aware that i am deranged.

omg same hat!!! i was a lifeguard and it was.... uh.... INTERESTING to say the least... (sometimes lovely, sometimes AWFUL...) @datfearlesschick

if by games you mean 'messed up deals that she can manipulate to her own advantage,' then yes! @frogonamelon

@beannary @spectralsleuth @heckitall @livsinpjs and the sep council as a whole!!! y'all's support has definitely meant so much and there's no way i'd have gotten as far with any of my projects as i have without them... or without literally ANY of the people who take the time to do things like reblog with tags, leave commentary in the tags, send in asks about my stories, etc etc etc! that's definitely one of my main motivators to create more!!! <3 thank y'all!

EEEE this made me smile, hehehehe. thank you :3c @thejavavoid

AAAAAA THANK YOU THIS GENUINELY MADE ME SO HAPPY COZ I WAS SO GODDAMN PROUD OF THOSE HANDS AND HOW THEY CAME OUT ; w ; THANK YOU @onejellyfishplease

thank you!!! u w u @fanrulerjynx

THANK YOU ; w ; I REALLY APPRECIATE THIS,,, it made me very very very happy and HEHEHE IM GLAD YOU LIKE YASSIFIED DRAXUM,,, i just think he DESERVES it, y'know? also thats just my favorite way to draw characters lmao I think it's fun so I decided for this comic I just get to indulge...

not necessarily-- this was mostly just a coincidence! @breezehurricane

oh gosh. i'm not sure, but i know it definitely WILL affect their parenting... i think at first donnie will find himself just... deferring to his partner a LOT in almost any situation because he's afraid that he'll fuck it up, because he DOESN'T feel like he understands proper boundaries or what parenting is supposed to look like, etc etc etc, and he's afraid he'll mess up. he probably reads a TON of parenting books as well because RESEARCH and will often try to pull directly from them in any situation he can, and is confused when things don't go exactly the way they were described in the text... leo i think kind of tends to flounder between being overprotective and feeling the desire to protect his son from everything and anything and wanting to overcorrect this tendency by pulling back and trying to give him as much freedom and space as possible, which sometimes leads to some... inconsistencies. there's definitely a learning curve for both of them, but they both get the hang of it eventually. they both have lovely partners and a very loving and supportive family to help them and they'll figure it out with a bit of practice.

ahhh thank you! :D im so delighted that my silly stories actually inspired something for you!!! hell yeah!!! MAKING THINGS IS GREAT!!! THANK YOU!!! @can-elope

i like to imagine them all staying very close, especially coz i'm loosely planning on them all going through the kraang-apocalypse together (and then coming through to the other side!) so i can't imagine them ever drifting too far from each other, emotionally or geographically. there's a bit of a rocky start for a lot of them, but all of the siblings end up a very tight-knit bunch.

[imagine-silk]

My birthday is tomorrow (not asking for it to be on time, it simply inspired my request /gen ) but what would the companions like to do with sole for their birthday? How would they celebrate it with them?

》No. I'm going to get this on time if it kills me. This was written with the idea they are the closest person to you but not necessarily romanced so it can go either way.

Cait says she wants to do what you want to do. She's never celebrated her birthday so you should take the wheel. It's not rocket science. But that gave you the idea to make it her birthday too. You spend the day setting up the party, balloons, cake, a banner, and at the end you enjoy it alone together. It's all just for the two of you.

Codsworth knows exactly what you like and how to do it. He does it all by himself other than asking the others to talk to you. He doesn't tell them what he's doing, he doesn't want to celebrate with them. When you go home for the day, or rather the night, everything is set up. "Happy birthday, sir/mum." It's just like 200 years ago.

Curie knows what to do in theory. You walk up to her and she grabs your hand and runs with you in tow. Puts you in front of people to have them say happy birthday to you and that they should give you a present at the end of the day. When she's done she gives you a present. It's a little figurine of the comic you like.

Pre-BB Danse would tell you happy birthday and move on. He does care but you don't have the time or luxury to stop so best not to bring much attention to it. Post-BB Danse feels selfish. He goes to the party but he didn't make it in his mind he just put things up and can't help thinking he wants to just have a few moments alone with you. With enough liquid courage he does go over to you and say he loves you and your the best thing that's happened to him.

Deacon snatches you from the party with no one noticing by literally plucking you away onto the roof. After laughing at you he puts his hand up to his mouth and shushes you. "I've kidnapped you so you need to be quiet." You talk while drinking beer and looking out on the Commonwealth about everything and nothing. When people realize you're gone he lays on you to hide and lowers you down when the coast it clear, can't have you expose his hiding places.

Dogmeat doesn't get out of your sight ever, he's always next to you. How he knows it's your birthday is beyond knowing.

Goodneighbor is celebrating. It's very tight-nit town, it's not uncommon to throw a town party for a birthday. It's actually weird if they don't and that's because that person has to go around saying they want to have a small party for that to happen. Hancock is going to parade you on his shoulders and run around celebrating. He doesn't really do many chems wanting to be here and remember. And it is a night to remember.

MacCready fully admits to being selfish and stays home with you. He wants to keep your actual birthday to himself, the others can have you tomorrow. It's not particularly eventful, it's a normal day with more affection. Come up behind you and lift up to revel in your scream. Lays on you on the couch while one of you rants. At the end of the day he gives you a new jacket and tells you to be grateful. There's a note inside about much he cares about you.

You asked to spend the day alone with Nick he just said yes. He himself didn't think that was best but it wasn't his birthday and you deserved whatever you wanted. A lot of the day is playing cards and telling epic tales. Ellie thanks you for getting him to take a break. He laughs when you ask for his coat and says you can rent it for a day.

Piper and Nat tackle you as soon as your through the door. You are not going to leave. They do a bunch of 'birthday things' like hit the donkey and pop the balloons. To their credit they also give you a fuck ton of sugar and food. All the things they give you are old trinkets but it's a ploy for you to tell them what it is.

Preston gets everyone to throw a surprise party. It is a surprise, so surprising it almost shot them. The exact quote after you put it down was, "I didn't want to die the same day I was born." It doesn't feel like you're the center of attention but it feels nice to have everyone happy. Preston seemed to know that was going to happen because he took you inside to your room and had a little party there with just the two of you, giving you a few practical items, stims, a gun, a blanket, a backpack, and a sweet smile.

X6 promises to get you whatever you want. It doesn't matter what you want, a ragstag head, a new gun, some trash you seem so keen on getting for your projects, a hug. You give him a list of things you want as a ploy to run around the Commonwealth with him for a few days.

[sophisticatedaiphos]

✧ Weekly TWST Reblog Replies! - #1 ✧

idk if i'll make this a consistent thing, mainly because i'm inconsistent- but I do like replying to other people's opinions on my posts, so yeah! expect these every week for the most part, unless there's no reblogs..

credits : @cafekitsune for the dividers

reply to @usurper-of-heavens - No, you're absolutely not underestimating them. I wholly believe that that the characters in-game mischaracterize Kalim just as much as the fandom does. I will argue that for the characters, it's actually reasonable, since not all of them know him all that well. Even so, the fact that a ton of them don't think about what it means to be an heir to a throne, minus the pampering and luxurious life, is kinda crazy to me..

I'm more so disappointed that the princes don't recognize this, and although Malleus was probably fine his whole life, why does Leona not acknowledge this idea? If I had to guess, it's mainly because some of Leona's trauma stems from his being born second and being outcast from the throne. Maybe seeing Kalim so oblivious and happy makes him forget the idea that Kalim could also go through anything similar to the rejection he faced during childhood.

reply to @magimerlyn - This is a wonderful statement that I totally agree with, Kalim is mindful enough to continue working with Jamil even after discovering Jamil's feelings about him, opting to try and become less dependent on him while not throwing him to the side, considering that he has the power to get rid of Jamil. Yes, some of his emotional stability relies on Jamil being around, but that's exactly why he's trying to grow more as a person, and be more mindful of the choices he makes involving Jamil. Chances are, Jamil wouldn't magically outgrow his habits of taking care of Kalim even if Kalim did immediately grant his freedom and close off their relationship. Either way, Kalim would probably be granted some reprieve from his grievances if someone as helpful and dedicated as Jamil came along that he could trust trust. Now whether this would affect Kalim and Jamil's relationship?.. we'll leave that to the fanfic writers..

reply to @flying-mochis - Yeah, Kalim has several moments where he openly shows his innovation in attempts to develop more personally by not relying on Jamil all the time. Book 5 - Chapter 10 is a great example of Jamil's development, because he's willing to continue aiding Kalim despite probably being able to prove himself as better than him. Of course, this is partially because of his ruined reputation, but you can't deny that he isn't being super spiteful despite the fact that his plan to overthrow Kalim didn't work.

reply to @tinisprout - Exactly, like my poor boy!!! We'll listen!! 😭😭😭 In reality, I don't think Kalim would ever willingly vent if it wasn't in private like that moment, because of his fear of ruining his reputation as the happy go-lucky housewarden who's always oblivious and naive yet kind. It's a standard he needs to uphold, and maybe Kalim is afraid of getting help from others because he might be a burden to them, in the same way he limited Jamil from ever showing his full potential. This is more of a theory, but still.. Our sweet boy doesn't deserve this.. 😭😭

reply to @twsted-canvas - Yeah, I can't blame you... Twst's put 0 development into Grim's character in regards to caring for others, which is so lame- Give us student Grim who secretly cares for his first year friends and Yuu, but denies it!! In all aspects, if he didn't have a bad personality, he would be a very cute lil kitty. (still don't forgive you for changing the topic while kalim was venting you asshat)

[emmyrosee]

…that being said, I have a new thought for today and I’m so sorry for it but I NEEEEEEDDDD to get it out of my system I just wanna be pampered a bit ☹️☹️

okokok so today I went shopping and I got a ton of clothes and I was so happy cause usually clothes shopping and dressing rooms aren’t fun experiences but it actually went really well!! So!!! Fashion show/try on haul when you get back home for your favourite hq guy :) whoever it is, he’d definitely hype you up ask for a spin, overall just keep the high of having a successful shopping experience going with all the attention he’s giving you. (…maybe he insisted on paying for everything before you left, maybe you also threw in an outfit you knew he’d really like on you 👀)… that’s all!! just a funky little thought I had after shopping 😋

anon <3

*deep inhale* AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

No because listen. LISTEN TO ME. gonna do atsumu bc we’re married but just so we’re clear, there were several other candidates just begging to be picked- also this got a hair suggestive bc I am a slore so proceed with caution

Like bdosnsoSNISNEOSNSOSNSOSN-

Okay. I’m good.

Like the morning you decide to go out, he’s leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee and his credit card in his thick fingers, sweatpants low on his hips and lips in a smirk as you hustle around the kitchen to get ready. He taps it against the counter for your attention. You give him a playful glare and sigh, “I don’t need it.”

“It’s not about needing it,” he mimics back. “I can’t go with ya, so I want you to pick out things you think I’ll like too.” He lowers his head to peer at you through his brows, “and I know you know what I like.”

“Behave!” Regardless of your scold, you take his card from his fingers and lean in for a sweet, quick kiss which you allow to turn into a more strong, loving one. You nip at his lip when you pull away, “you’ll have fun; the boys need you.”

“They don’t need anything,” he chuckles, taking another sip of his coffee. “They can survive one day without their handsome, sophisticated leader.”

“There is not one thing in that sentence that’s true.”

He snarls and lunges at you while you cackle, clearly deadset on turning him feral and working up his playfulness just before leaving- asshole. “Don’t be a brat, ‘s not fair to do that to me.”

“You know I can’t make any promises!”

And with that, you blow him a kiss and scurry out of the house, leaving him pouty until he has to get ready for the boys.

It isn’t until hours later that you finally come home, arms full of shopping bags and panting with effort; he makes his way over to give you a hand (which ultimately just means he’s left carrying all the bags), and you’re quick to bring him up to the bedroom, only prompted with the words “fashion show.”

“Sit,” you command, and he does so eagerly. He folds his hands in his lap and lets his eyes glaze over your form as they’ve done so many times before. You sink your teeth into your lip to hide away a grin, “I went crazy.”

“Oh thank god, I was getting used to having a foot of closet to myself.”

“You wear a jersey, you don’t need a foot of the closet. Anyways.” Your hand reaches into the bag and pulls out armfuls of clothes, and he beams because he knows the absolute trials you go through sometimes with outfits, so the idea that you were able to completely stock up on things that are going to make you feel as confident as you deserve to feel makes his heart skip.

The outfits you got, too, are amazing.

There’s a few for more important things, like meetings for work or outings with him at sponsor events, then more casual things, like when Rintaro comes around or hanging out at Osamu’s shop. There’s some sleepwear and a dope new hoodie he’s gonna steal from you, all of which he hoots and wolf-whistles at, but it all comes together when you come out in this goddamned dress.

His jaw slacks when you come out in it, eyes settling on the way it squeezes the meat of your hips a little too tight, and he swallows to combat his cotton mouth and shifts his sweats to conceal anything that might give him away. The color makes the undertones in your skin pop, it’s on the shorter side and it shows off the sexy thighs he loves to mark up, and you look exactly like a picture he would’ve kept under his mattress as a kid.

“This one was a tossup,” you confess, turning to look at yourself in the full-length mirror. Your hands smooth out the fabric, “because like. The color is absolutely divine, but like… I don’t know, it looks kinda tight-“

“Is it comfortable to wear?”

“Yeah but I feel like it looks tight-“

“I feel like I want to toss you on this bed.”

“Atsumu!” You gasp, immediately turning towards him. He shrugs cockily and stands back up wrapping his arms loosely around your waist.

“I’m a simple, perverted man; I like you in tight clothes. Is that wrong?”

“Of course not, but…” you fiddle with your fingers, “this isn’t the thing I bought for you; I bought this just for a night out, you weren’t supposed to… reach to this.”

“Guess that says more about me than it does about the things you wear,” he says simply, and when you open your mouth to speak, he quickly crouches to grab the back of your thighs, pulling you up and wrapping around his waist with ease, threads popping on the dress and his own wide grin spreading over his face as you giggle and toss your arms around his neck.

“You’re so annoying!” You scold around some giggles, and he chuckles before, indeed, dropping you onto the bed and silencing your squeals with a kiss.

“Tell your girlfriends ‘tough luck,’” he purrs, sponging kisses down your neck while you lace your fingers into his hair.

“This outfit’s for me, now.”

[icrypop]

Ask~~~ Hiiii i have a writing request if you don't mind! Could you write something about the banner family? Specifically the parents? I love them so much and there is a genuine lacking of content for them! Thank you! :)

Eeee yes I love this family, they definitely need more content on it all and I'm so excited to write about this!

-Writer Icy♡

General HC's for The Banner Family♡

Mike, Emma, Ashlynn

School Bus Graveyard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Both former military people, I feel like the nickname Mike gives Ashlynn "Soldier" is just something that happened naturally which honestly is super cute and makes the family feel healthy and domestic ❤️

Emma, being the sweet anti-social woman she is, is very understanding of her daughters emotions towards not wanting to have friends, I feel like she might've had trouble with that when she was younger or even in bootcamp.

I hc that Emma and Mike met in the military, finding such a beautiful peace among so much chaos. Their love holds alot of respect and understanding because they are quite different from each other.

Emma is more quiet and collected, Mike is more of the sporty, outgoing type of guy and I feel they clicked kinda fast. Mike has a ton of energy, he drinks coffee with like...two shots of espresso and Emma has hers just black. Or she drinks tea- I can see that too..

EMMA IS A BOOK WORM- now hear me out- She enjoys reading alot into either the survival fiction books or like...the dystopia books like Hunger Games or The Giver because she can picture it more in her mind.

I also hc before Ashlynn was born, Emma either read to Mike before bed or in quiet time or read to her baby belly :,)

Ashlynn, when she was little, would ask Mike and Emma to tell stories from the military but like...the funny ones about all the crazy stupid stuff that happens in the barracks. Mike being like "Yeah and Johnny almost got caught by our Unit Commander and blah blah blah slipped and landed right into the mud on the other side of the fence" or something like that

Emma had some creativity with her quietness, I feel like she sang or danced in private, maybe was in a high-school choir or something before enlisting.

I feel like they had alot of trouble overcoming the 'Phantoms' along with after being in the military for a while. Like....that has to come with a certain amount of trauma or mental health that lessened from it. They had to rely on one another to pick each other up on especially hard days and now they work together to do said thing for Ashlynn.

They are definitely a pretty healthy family from what is given from them, they want the best for Ash and to keep her happy and safe. They're loving parents and have alot of things they carry but they manage it in healthy ways.

Ugghhh I love them, they deserve extra credit, they're so precious 💖

Send More Requests! Inbox is empty ♡♡♡

[cheese1616]

suzuka wrap-up

well i was very late to do this since i forgot lol

Red Bull : well what the hell guys you did it again. props to checo for absolutely killing it in quali and not being ten minutes off his teammate which is what everyone else is doing. absolute 10/10 for max verstappen for winning probably the first of 20 races this season in a row.

Ferrari: kind of exactly where i expected. carlos crushed it, amazing job from him although not as good as his previous result in australia, what do you expect from a man without an appendix and a job- podium every time he’s raced. Bad quali from charles although he very much made it up in the race very well deserved driver of the day great finish from both nothing better to be done really.

Mercedes: guys please come on you can do better than this. george had a terrible quali then came back and did probably some of the best racing on the track and i’m not even glazing it especially with that battle with piastri. hamilton shockingly out qualifying george which was a little bit sad cause i thought george could do a sweep of the season tbh but good race overall i suppose. not amazing finish but come on you’re in like the 5th best car what do you expect.

Mclaren: solid. not much to say. piastri not his best race, suzuka doesn’t seem to be a good track for him so i expected it. norris pretty solid finish amazing qualifying deserves tons of credit for that. couldn’t hang onto third but hey it’s a mclaren not a red bull.

Aston: Fernando i love you so much you are an amazing king who may or may not be the greatest to ever touch the sport i hope the Taylor Swift dating rumours are true because you deserve that much credit. Lance Stroll i think is scum of the earth who is somehow fighting in formula b even though he’s in like the 4/5th best car on track. absolutely unacceptable to lose positions to tsunoda and hulkenberg in that car.

Minardi: idk what Ricciardo has been doing lately but i hope it’s just one realllyyy long april fools prank because what is this. the crash was kinda his fault tbh. very very sad and i hoped he could turn it around since he got a very good quali result. Yuki tsunoda absolutely crushed it and gets my second 10/10 for his home race. overtakes were insane. so so happy to see you thriving and getting points.

Haas: kind of a quiet race. no points for either so not much to say, both drives are 6/10s for me.

Williams: Absolutely terrible. Excited to see if they will even have a car by the end of the season from the progress they are making. Albon out immediately Sargeant not managing anything good. Hope they can turn this around soon because my fantasy team is suffering hard. Although sargeant very good turn around in the dirt have to compliment that.

Steak F1 Team: The amount of times this season i have been CONVINCED of the points possibilities only for them to be taken away by the kindergarten class that is their pit crew is insane. this really should not be tolerated at all. feel very bad for zhou as it was an unfair way to end.

Alpine: I mean there were some parts of the race where the cars didn’t even look like they were moving.

[iridescentoracle]

okay so. potentially controversial opinion i guess but apollo justice (the game, though actually also the character) was kind of a mess. i wanted to like it, there was a ton of potential, but the execution just did not work for me at all. but it’s been haunting me for weeks and (unlike dual destinies, which also didn’t really work for me but i cannot for the life of me figure out why) i know exactly what i didn’t like about apollo justice and how i would fix it if capcom decided remake AA4–AA6 and inexplicably put me in charge. fair warning this is at least 80% complaining by volume about what they didn’t do/what they did do that i hated though.

like, okay, here’s the thing. it’s a new story. phoenix has had his arc, we’re moving on to a new main character, he isn’t the protagonist anymore. it makes sense to move him into a mentor/boss role while our new protagonist takes over as the plucky young newbie who doesn’t really know what he’s doing. the problem is that everything about how the game does that kind of sucks.

like. AJ phoenix gets totally shafted for the sake of not letting him be a good mentor, so that apollo has to figure things out on his own, but apollo isn’t really treated right by the narrative either, because the plot is so much about phoenix that apollo is like. weirdly peripheral to the whole thing even though he’s nominally the protagonist. like it’s super obvious that the whole reason phoenix isn’t an attorney anymore and is all ✨ mysterious✨ and ✨secretive✨ is literally just so that apollo doesn’t actually like. have a good mentor who can teach him things? like the entire plot/backstory is just a post-hoc excuse bc the starting point of the game was clearly someone going “well we’re not allowed to not have phoenix in the game, but we can’t let him be someone apollo can actually rely on, so we have to find some excuse to make him weird and mysterious and uncommunicative and also not a lawyer just for good measure bc otherwise he wouldn’t leave a kid hanging like that” and everything else was built up to justify that.

but as if it’s not bad enough that it all requires shattering phoenix’s perfectly good reasonably-happy-ending from the previous game, by extension everyone else gets screwed over too?? like, maya was very explicitly traumatized by the kurain channeling legacy to the point of briefly not wanting to identify herself as a spirit medium. pearl was sheltered from some of the worst of it but was aware of enough to blame herself for bad things happening to the point of trying to run away. the credits definitely made it seem like they both bounced right back after all but frankly i was not convinced they weren’t going to both collapse as soon as the figurative camera looked away again and the most plausible short-term outcome to me was that they would wind up both moving in with phoenix for a while in the near future like maya all but said she wanted to do!! she called herself “the assistant manager at Wright & Co. Law Offices” and said she “[didn’t] want any more to do with [the Fey clan],” that is IN the TEXT i am not reading too much into things here those are her words! i’m fine with her potentially changing her mind again and resuming her training again and moving back to kurain after all when she’s had some time to recover from everything but like. when she’s had some time. she deserved more than two months and i hate so much that she didn’t get it.

on the flip side, again, i get the choice to deliberately not-include edgeworth in this one but i swear to god it should have taken him and phoenix like. maybe four months to finish getting their act together and that’s being generous and counting the month it takes him to wrap things up in europe and move back to japanifornia. i’m pretty sure edgeworth figured out how he felt when he got the phone call from larry about the bridge if he hadn’t already by then and i think phoenix simultaneously realized and refused to realize how he felt during the year he thought edgeworth is dead, bc neither of them can just be normal about feeling things ever, so give them a second for phoenix to stop repressing shit and also mention that he’s absolutely not going to get back together with iris when she gets out of jail and they Will sort themselves out and they Will kiss and i give it like a year tops before they get married. they have a courthouse wedding obviously and get the judge to officiate. 50/50 chance they wind up proposing in the middle of a trial and get married during the next recess.

and in canon there’s not time for all that to have happened bc the next game requires phoenix to have promptly turned into an arrogant asshole and then gotten royally fucked over by the universe and become a totally different person (again, at that, because he’s already a completely different person in the flashback to his last case, why does he act like the paynes that whole time i hate it), but like. this is what i’m saying. phoenix getting screwed over by the universe/writing also screws all his friends over too.

so i just. this game does such a disservice to phoenix’s entire character, and all of his friends, and also the entire first three games and anyone who loved them. it’s not all bad and the person phoenix has been turned into—“has been turned into,” not “has turned into,” because the hand of the writers is so visible, i can’t engage with this game on a fully watsonian level for the life of me because phoenix’s hoodie might as well say DOYLE CHOSE TO DO THIS TO ME. this is a fictional character being written by real people and the real people wrote him in a manner entirely incompatible with his original characterization and i cannot get past it—is fascinating but it isn’t phoenix. i love the plot but i hate the execution. i like the ingredients but the recipe sucks.

but it could have been so good. and at this point i’ve mostly worked out how.

you have the exact same scenario with the gramarye trial, is the thing, up through the point where phoenix wins the poker game and shadi enigmar/zak gramarye asks him to be his lawyer, and phoenix accepts—and then phoenix, like, gets a phone call from maya or pearl bc it turns out one of them just got hurt, or they’ve both come down with some kind of stomach bug or food poisoning or something, some temporary emergency that’s just severe enough that they need more help/care for a day or two than phoenix could give while also handling a case, but that won’t actually last all that long.

so he turns down the case apologetically bc oh my god i’m so sorry actually, family emergency, i gotta go right now, best of luck, and shadi/zak moves on to defense attorney number three: a different, brand new character, another rising star defense attorney around the same point in their career as phoenix, and that’s who winds up using the forged diary page and getting disbarred and turning into the bitter jaded inscrutable asshole mentor who years later will manipulate apollo into exposing his own boss as a murderer, and then technically hire apollo but not actually, like, teach him anything or help out in any meaningful way, etc.

but meanwhile, three facts about this series of events:

8yo trucy is still the unwitting catalyst for the lawyer defending her father using forged evidence that destroys his career, and her father still vanishes and leaves her behind

within a couple days, pearl and maya are basically fine

phoenix wright’s best friend was once a kid barely older than trucy is now who suddenly found himself with no family, and as a result was taken in by someone who had a deep and abiding grudge against both him and his father because of what they did, through no real fault of their own, to him/his career.

and since phoenix did meet shadi/zak and turned his case down, he has every reason to be curious about how the trial went, and to pick up either from the general news coverage (which, considering what a big deal phoenix’s disbarment in canon was, i assume there is A Lot Of,) or to realize bc his personal curiosity/almost-connection means he actively looks into things, that there is a kid who has been left behind and who currently has no one to take care of her. and you cannot tell me that phoenix would look at this kid whose best-case scenario is currently getting swept into the foster care system bc god forbid she actually winds up getting taken in by the only adult even vaguely associated with her at this point, bc phoenix has seen that story before, and not decide on the spot to adopt her himself

and so just like that, we have

phoenix accidentally escaping the whole gramarye trial entirely unscathed

but still adopting trucy

pearl and maya still living with phoenix a couple months post-T&T instead of immediately getting packed off back to kurain

no changes that actually significantly impact apollo for most of the game bc all that’s really different for him is the name of his inscrutable jerk mentor and the fact that he’s gotta wind up meeting/being-befriended-by trucy a little differently

so by the time the actual present-day plot of the game kicks off, phoenix and company are still out there doing their thing with phoenix getting to be his best self and living his best life. he still gets his adorable adopted daughter who he loves dearly. we still don’t actually see maya or edgeworth or pearl in this version of the game but there’s allusions to them all being very present in his-and-trucy’s lives—trucy brings us over to their apartment at some point and we see a stack of steel samurai dvds in the corner and a laundry basket with unidentifiable clothes in suspiciously familiar shades of purple/pink/magenta, details like that. we only see phoenix himself for like, maybe five minutes total over the course of the first three and a half cases and it’s a little tantalizing but he gets to be the one who bursts into the courthouse with the decisive evidence that lets our protagonist win the last case.

and meanwhile, apollo’s current boss is shady and inscrutable and used to be a lawyer and can even be involved in some ✨ secret mission ✨ that he won’t talk about that turns out to be the jurist system, so we can hypothetically keep whatever the intended message of that whole thing was (which, argh, what do you DO with the jurist system. what is the intended message. i get that it’s satire of a then-contemporary development in japan’s legal system but i can’t figure out for the life of me what the satire is actually meant to say), and then at the end of the game Apollo’s Shitty Mentor is proven to have been innocent and will be allowed to take the bar again if he wants to but he’s not entirely sure bc at this point it’s been so long that he might just prefer to move on entirely now that his actual disbarment/disgrace isn’t hanging over his head bc he honestly did used to be a pretty stand-up guy but the last seven years have been rough and he doesn’t really like the person he’s turned into and maybe it would be healthier to treat this as a fresh start and try something entirely new so he’s going to take some time away from the whole legal system first to clear his head before he figures out whether or not he actually wants to dive back in.

and apollo’s like “well that’s totally understandable and sounds great for you but goddammit do i really have to go back to the endless nightmare that is job applications, i hate this actually” and phoenix (who is also in the defense lobby where this whole conversation is taking place) is like “why don’t you come work for me?”

you could even have it end on a joke where apollo is shocked about the offer bc he applied to work for phoenix six months ago and phoenix is like ???? i never saw that?? and it turns out apollo applied via email but phoenix still sucks at computers and only checks his work email like once a year.

seriously though i do not understand what we’re supposed to think about the jurist system. is it supposed to be that fucked up? i’m not actually sure how we’re supposed to feel abt that tbh but it sounds like maybe it’s not supposed to seem like an actually better alternative? like it felt to me like it was being framed as a triumph for our belovèd hero, isn’t this great that he was able to arrange things so everything would turn out all right after all etc, but it was so obviously fucked up and unethical—like, oh, yeah, having one guy in charge of assigning the defense attorney, the judge, and the jury sounds totally fine and like it’s actually going to be more reliably ethical than the system that’s already in place, for sure, not to mention the possibility that edgeworth was pulling strings to help phoenix make it happen and be involved, because nepotism and people in law enforcement/the justice system pulling strings to put people they like in positions of authority that they probably shouldn’t have specifically so that they can do things like “rig a jury,” on purpose, is fine bc i like these guys who are doing/benefiting from the nepotism so therefore it’s not wildly unethical and an obviously terrible idea, oh my god—that it feels like it has to be on purpose?

and like in practice it just… the jurist system as it’s actually implemented is worse actually. it’s genuinely worse and less ethical than the established system where the judge was about to let kristoph gavin off scot-free for the crimes he wasn’t already convicted of.

that said it’s like. very funny on a conceptual level. yet another thing that makes sense if the games are set in japan bc sure of course fictional kinda goofy japan has a more ridiculous version of the thing that’s being implemented in real-life japan right now, but when localized the implications are buck-fucking-wild

because. okay. japanifornia exclusively has bench trials or whatever they’re called for some reason. i have questions about why that’s legal given the existence of the sixth amendment but sure fine the japanifornian legal system is deeply fucked up in many new and interesting ways and that is clearly just one of them. but you’re telling me that the entire concept of trial by jury is strange and new to a lawyer? like. did the entire country just. ditch the sixth amendment before apollo was born? why is this a brand new concept instead of, you know, how things work in every other state. i have so many questions that do not need answers. thank god these games are old enough to have gotten localized it’s so much funnier this way.

ANYWAY. SO. yeah. make apollo’s inscrutable asshole so-called mentor someone other than phoenix wright, have way less of phoenix in the game actually bc he’s off living his best life and having a thriving career with very little reason to think about how kristoph gavin exists, and meanwhile write apollo with All That Backstory in mind from the start though 95% of the actual info should still be saved for game 6, we’re just trying to write apollo so he’s not completely flat and frankly pretty forgettable at times and also including foreshadowing so the khura’in thing isn’t a very obvious retcon when we get there, and turn klavier into an actual person, and that’s like. 95% of my frustrations with the game fixed right there (the other 5% is “i still can’t tell what we’re actually supposed to think/feel about the jurist system” but like. i can’t tell what we’re supposed to think/feel so i don’t know how to fix it).

well okay also the like, pacing and focus would need to be fixed so apollo’s incrutable jerk mentor isn’t the protagonist for half the last case to the point i forgot apollo existed, etc, but like. that’s the next level down of problems you know?

AND bonus points: splitting “phoenix” and “apollo’s inscrutable jerk mentor” into two separate characters automatically fixes yet another of the worst He Would Not Fucking Do Thats of the game, i.e. phoenix just. not telling trucy and apollo that they’re siblings and their mom is alive. bc apollo’s shitty mentor is the one who actually interacts with lamiroir offscreen, this phoenix never does, so apollo’s mentor is the one who has the opportunity to figure out who she is and that trucy and apollo are half-siblings, and they’re not his kids, apollo doesn’t even work for him anymore by the end of the game so what does he care whether she tells them, and meanwhile phoenix isn’t inexplicably hiding that information because he also doesn’t know. still relies on her continuing to hide her face professionally in the meantime (instead of being deeply stupid about the fact that she is super famous, twice, and if she goes around being Very Famous And Popular Singer Lamiroir someone will notice that she is very much also Very Famous And Popular Believed-Dead Magician Thalassa Gramarye and between the existence of the news and the existence of the internet her kids will inevitably find out, jesus CHRIST parts of this game are so badly written), but that’s a given

i have a whole bunch of other thoughts—mostly about klavier gavin bc he should be such a good character but he just doesn’t work, but also i think the structure of the last case would have to be pretty significantly modified to fix the pacing/structural/focus issues where our nominal protagonist is basically irrelevant for the bulk of the case, even while the plot would remain basically the same, but i haven’t figured out how the structure would be different bc that requires figuring out how to handle the whole jurist system thing—but that’s like. the coherent parts/the bulk of it, you know?

i think (really this is just a detail, not a major plot point, but it would have a pretty major impact thematically so it feels bigger than it is? so) the other main thing i would change—and this part isn’t actually real criticism bc it’s not, like, bad that they didn’t do this, and if they were going to make any changes there are a lot of things that should be higher on the list, but listen. zak and valant should’ve been brothers.

because like, first of all, the extra complexity of the relationship if they’re not just two random guys who met bc they were functionally coworkers/fellow students, and instead you have these two brothers with the same mentor and who are both in love with the same woman, and they both know that one of them is better at magic and their mentor’s favorite, and he’s also the one who the woman they’re both in love with loves back and has a kid with, etc? a favorite/least favorite child dynamic occurring spontaneously, presumably in adulthood, in their professional lives? like. it makes everything about their relationship with each other, and with magnifi, and zak’s relationship with thalassa, and valant’s relationship with trucy, way more complex and interesting without actually having to change anything else.

but then secondly, on top of all that, suddenly this is a game about siblings. zak & valant, apollo & trucy, and kristoph & klavier. suddenly you have these three different sibling relationships that are all very different but two of them actually get to be siblings but are super fucked up, and the last pair meet entirely by chance without any idea who the other person is or should be to them but wind up with the healthiest happiest relationship of the three? like, the tragedy of it, that apollo and trucy were separated by fate and literally no one knew they both existed except their own mother, who thought apollo was dead before trucy was ever born, and if not for whatever series of coincidences resulted in apollo happening to work for the man who ruined trucy’s father’s life and getting roped into that whole mess they might never have met at all, and as it was they lost however many years they could’ve had each other, etc etc, and yet despite it all they’re the ones who actually manage to be happy and, like, unconditionally positive presences in each other’s lives, while valant spends however long resenting zak for being magnifi-and-thalassa’s favorite and more talented and all that which presumably put a strain on their relationship bc being resented that deeply by someone that close to you for things that you don’t even actually control can’t feel good, and kristoph and klavier… [gestures vaguely] idk whatever they would feel about each other if the writers remembered klavier was supposed to be a person. and aside from the klavier bits all of that is in the game already, implicitly or explicitly, just waiting for someone to rewrite like three lines of dialogue so zak and valant aren’t Just Some Guys to each other.

anyway a lot of the other thoughts i have are like. details. it probably never gets established explicitly but phoenix probably never gets to know kristoph gavin that well, and conversely kristoph doesn’t care about phoenix bc he might not even know he would’ve been passed over for phoenix before the other guy. ema is friendlier bc even though she is still upset about being a detective and does still think klavier’s annoying, she doesn’t actively resent him for getting phoenix disbarred. also she’s already good friends with trucy. the biggest plot-difference that isn’t just a natural result of phoenix not getting disbarred is that i think phoenix has to be the one who gets hit by the car in 4-2 instead of that happening to apollo’s jerk mentor bc no other human being on the planet could get thrown thirty feet by a car and hit a telephone pole with his head and still only wind up with a sprained ankle out of the deal.

[otomiyaa]

Re: 💌

Finally getting to respond to those who were so kind to me in messages, comments, and reblogs in the past week! @otomiya-tickles was a blog with mainly tickle fics, but you guys definitely made it feel like there was more to it :)

I piled all my answers into one big post and will treasure them for as long as Tumblr decides to keep me online this time 🤭

@lovelymessybubbly: Ahhh I remember sending that ask long ago and always wondered if you received it. I still think the timing (of my leave and your return) is ridiculous hehehe, but I'm also glad to stick around and to see you back! I hope the hiatus has been good^^

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@dokidoki-muffin: absolutely honored to have inspired you and not only that, I think you're a great friend and I love our chats and our recent collab had me filled with joy^^ !! 🧁

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@fluffandgiggles: I love your blog, the fics you write and the fandoms you choose and your kind personality, I'm glad you got to go from anon to your own blog and hope you can have fun with it for as long as you like to!

@skayleay: Sending love back to you, thank youu*w*

@beth-bethar00: Thank you 🥺

@tiredleekaz: Your message made me giggle hehe thank you for the support for the x amount of years, I also realized how easy it is to lose count when I think of all my different 'tumblr eras' 😂

@lilliee0: Sorry you had to find out this way hehe, and thank you! My account is in a good place *dramatic music plays* (no it's actually not lmao)

@rachi-roo: The Real OG 😳 I'm not sure I can accept that compliment but I thank you for it!! :3

@blobbirobbi: Sending love right back, also your tickle stories are always welcome hohoho

Anon #1: Heheh right! I know I"ve once said that even if I would quit my blog, I would never deactivate voluntarily (and definitely not without announcement) so it would have to be Tumblr to take care of that. To think that actually happened :). Hope you have a lovely day too!

Anon #2: Ahh I'm glad I could help introducing you to the tk community! Thank you for enjoying my fics, all the best to you too!^^

@infrequent-creator: Don't miss me yet, I won't be gone entirely :) I'll be here, and I'll be loud. Just my fic production will come to an indefinite stop, or break. Who knows.

@yourgigglebugmaya: Ahhh that flatters me! Thank you so much^^

@shyanon01: Thank you for the sweet message!

@hakurei-k: Hahaha! Well I'm still here too and ready to adore Solomon together.

@dirtpie39: I had to google that lololol ('sike'). Thank you for re-following^^

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@sunstone-smiles: T-T thank you a lot!!

@moongeonight: 4 years ago!! ahhh I'm happy to hear it and hope you're still having fun! :D

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@shy-lee-chu: Love you sweetie, I won't write many new fics so hope you won't be bored by me ;)

@eliankrios: Elian, I'm definitely okay thank you! I'll be mainly here to eat up the content you post ^^

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@flames-tstuff: I DON'T DESERVE YOU! ❤️❤️ Hehe answering all these messages to me feels like an entire ceremony already 🙈 And thank youuu, those 13k posts and 7k followers were from a total of 7 years of active fic writing on Tumblr though for a ton of various fandoms, I don't deserve too much credit for it ^^

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@kusuguricafe: Thank you for staying with me too 😘

@crazy-as-a-jaybird: *hug* thank youuuu T-T

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@ticklystuff: Thank you so much, will do!! I am reviving my animal crossing island (inspired by you and sezzie🤭)

@fantasizes-tickles-daily: I read about so many heartattacks and feel so sorry hehe, thank you for finding me again and for supporting my new one!^^ I can't believe I even considered not making a new blog. Your blog alone gives me the serotonin I need.

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@intheticklecloset: Thank you for the kind words and support!! T-T I look forward to enjoying the community from the sideline hehe:)

@ppystkposts: All these from anon to blogger stories make me kick my feet in delight! It's a chain reaction, I'm sure you will inspire others to start their blog as well. Your art and kindness most surely will do that^^ thank you for the support!

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@giggly-squiggily: waaa that's so sweet, thank youuuu!*0* I'll remember it!^^

@fanfic-chan: Ahhhh thank youu:D I used to call my blog my happy place and am more than happy to turn this one into that as well. Thank you for your message!

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@tickle-panile, @kiwithelee, @ticklish-sidekick, @mai-mei thank you for your concern*w*!

Special thanks to @lovelynim and @wertzunge for their instant share of my update, to @ticklygiggles for dealing with the questions about my absence, even the nasty ones. Sigh, I don't like they were rude to you! ah and also, it was Mia's message I woke up to when my blog was gone x) Never forget.

....and also ofc special speciaaaaal thanks to everyone else who reached out in DMs (I hope I answered you by now but will check soon), and to my dear friends on discord 😘

even though tumblr makes it look like my blog never existed, my evil spirit will live on and I'll keep being annoying 🤣

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If I forgot anyone's message I deeply apologize ToT !!!!

[livmadart]

I think Arsen meeting Anya would quite possibly be the death of Loid, probably.

Also can anyone like, write a fic about the Cain Instinct AU? Should I credit you? I mean I will regardless but I'd rather ask.

Ksjdjdjdjdjd the crossover between these two AUs would be WILDLY CHAOTIC

Also, please feel free for anyone to write or draw for this au!! I am very happy to hear people are inspired by my silly little doodles :) “Kaitou gets shrunk” seems to be a fairly general concept, so I don’t really feel like I deserve a ton of credit for making all these lil jokes, but if you, like, want to directly reference what I’ve been posting or the vague story I’ve been making, I do appreciate any and all tags, cause I would love to see what you make!!

[hyperactively-me]

nice to meet you too

“So help me Maker, if you take me to Mos Eisley, I will personally see to it that I get what I want. Don’t you dare underestimate me. I may have been scared before, but trust me, I have found myself in these kinds of situations one too many times. I know what you’re playing at, sir, and I will not stand for it.” You’ve backed him up near his dashboard, finger still jammed into his chestplate. Your face is pulled tight and flushed, breathless from the sudden bout of anger that surged through you. The Mandalorian is still, save for his steady breathing, his chestplate evenly moving up and down from under your touch. 

just wanted to ask you guys to please read this

(asks are open)

happy reading

warnings: canon typical violence

You wondered what you did to deserve the life you had. A life of terror, living in a constant state of fear, the unknown a constant looming presence. You had no family, except for one brother, but you had no clue where in the galaxy he was. For all you know, he could be dead or the wealthiest man alive. It made no difference to you. In the most recent period of your life, you found yourself held hostage in a crime syndicate. One day, you were walking down the streets, a free woman, next thing you know, you’re thrown in a tiny cell and being accused of scamming a high-ranking criminal within the syndicate. This was true, you had scammed this guy, but it was only for a few credits to get by. You really didn’t think your actions warranted this much of a punishment. 

So here you were now, being forced to fix a ship, rummaging through its electrical wires with deft hands. The task was easy, anyone with basic electrical engineering knowledge could figure it out, but apparently these trolls were too dense to understand simple machinery repair. You huff out in annoyance as you work with the parts. You glance over to the guard surveillancing you. He’s standing against the wall with a bored expression plastered on his face, loosely gripping his weaponry belt that held a blaster. 

You turn back to your work, wondering how much longer of this life you can take before you go off the rails. The next thing you know, you hear a blaster shot emit from the entrance of the room, followed by a cry of pain and a body hitting the floor. You yelped as you flung yourself underneath the ship, hands shaking from the echo of the blaster shot. Your breathing becomes labored, assessing how to escape quickly and discreetly before you feel someone grabbing the sleeve of your shirt. They start to pull you harshly out from under the ship, pulling you along the coarse floor. You attempt to shrug off their grip by flailing around, much to your detriment. The mystery figure yanks you completely out from under the ship. You quickly stand to your feet and whip around, shoving the person off your figure. The person stumbles over with a grunt and you take off running. You didn’t get far, because before you know it, the person jumps on top of you, slamming your body onto the ground.

You groan out in pain from the impact, the person on top of you feeling like a ton of bricks. 

“Get off me–” you grunt out, scrambling to push the body off you.

“Stop moving” a deep, modulated voice crackles out. You immediately still, scared for what he’s about to say, what he’s about to do. 

“I’m here to rescue you. Come with me” he bites out, clearly unamused at your attempt to run away.

“Wha- okay?” you nodded, still slightly untrusting of this random man that just body slammed you to the ground. “How did you find me?”

“I’ll have time to answer questions later. We have to move. Now” he says as he pulls himself off you. You turn around to push yourself up off the floor, to turn and look at who this guy is. When you spin around you’re nearly rendered speechless.

A Mandalorian. Standing in front of you. You thought they were legends, just stories to give people a sense of bravery. Your breath catches in your throat, too stunned to say anything. His beskar chestplate is gleaming in the light, weapons embellishing his belt and chest, his cape hangs from around his neck. To top it off, a pure beskar helmet adorned his head, a single black T-shaped visor breaking the shiny silver. 

He grabs you by the neck of your shirt, pulling you up in one swoop with ease. The moment you were standing up, his tall stature nearly made you shrivel up from pure intimidation. The armor, the height, and the broadness of his figure made his presence feel unavoidable, indomitable. Your heart is racing as you try to take in his form, scared of what he was capable of doing not only to you, but to his enemies.

All of a sudden, he’s holding a blaster in his hand and signaling for you to follow him out the door. You immediately scramble over to him, standing close to him as he navigates through the hallways. 

“Hey Mando, give me a blaster” you demand, attempting to make your voice sound commanding and collected. He turns around and gives you a pointed look, clearly untrusting of you. You narrow your eyes at his visor, hoping you look convincing enough for whatever his standards are. 

“If you shoot me, you’re dead” he says simply, voice piercing the tense air. He unhooks a blaster from his belt and tosses it to you before turning back around, focusing on escaping without any injuries or casualties. 

Suddenly a rain of blaster shots permeates the air, and he shoves you backwards. Three more syndicate members come barreling through the room, shooting at the both of you. You yelp out, jumping backwards, pressing yourself up against the wall. Mando peeks out from behind the wall multiple times, quickly whipping his blaster from behind the wall, pulling the trigger. He manages to shoot down all three men. 

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and continued to move down the narrow hallway. You run straight into the cold armor that dons the Mandalorian as he abruptly stops, knocking your head on the pure beskar. You let out a small groan and rub your forehead. 

He lets out a ragged breath before signaling you towards where his visor was pointed at. There you spot a whole horde of syndicate members armed with blasters of all varieties. They’re scouting the halls, eyeing every nook and cranny for you and your, or what you assume to be, your savior. Not that he didn’t save you, it's just that you don’t know if you can even trust him. You watch as Mando flicks his wrist, rolling out a few explosives from his armor. With a snap of his hand, the explosives are rolling along the floor, skipping over uneven tiles, a scratching sound filling the air. 

“Stand back” he breathes out. 

You quickly shuffle your feet backwards, you grip on your blaster tightening. The bombs explode, taking down the gang of criminals in one blow. The explosion rocks the earth, nearly knocking you both off your feet. You take off, your feet carrying you through the smoke and rubble of the remnants from the explosion. You can’t see where the Mando went and frankly you don’t really care where he went, as long as you make it out alive. 

Suddenly, much to your luck, you run straight into a hard surface. Or what you think is a surface, before a large hand grabs at your upper arm. You shriek, attempting to yank your arm out of the person’s solid grip. He rips the blaster out of your hands and tosses it to the side. 

“Thought you were slick, huh” a deep voice rings out. “Let’s see what the boss will have to say to you–” he says sadistically, a sick smile twisting on his face 

Your face goes pale, heart beating out of your chest at his words and what they mean. You couldn’t see the boss. You couldn’t. You would be a dead woman. Gone. Six feet under. Where is that Mandalorian when you need him? Maker I was stupid for leaving him behind. The criminal begins dragging you away from the exit much to your dismay. You begin thrashing in his grip, hitting him repeatedly with your free arm. 

“Let me go, you big oaf or I swear to the Maker, I will fuck you up–” you grunt out, smacking his hand with a balled fist. Abruptly, a bright gleam appears in the corner of your eye. 

Next thing you know, this bright gleam fills your vision as the figure makes hard contact with your captor, successfully knocking you away from his grip. A single blaster shot notifies you that the captor is dead. And just like that, you feel queasy. Sickened at the realization of how many people were just killed, even if they were all bad. Hell, some of them kinda deserved it for how horribly they treated others. 

Your breathing quickens as you fold in on yourself, backing away from the carnage. A gloved hand touches your shoulder, pulling you towards him slowly. You freeze under the touch, unsure what to do. 

“Just don’t look at it” the voice rings out. You nod your head weakly, dragging your hand down your face with a sigh.

All of your years of combat and immunity to violence comes crashing down, the dam of pent-up experiences breaking with a single event that this is your life. This is what you’ve had to deal with for the majority of your life, death, violence, running away. You’re tired of it. So tired of it. You hate it, you have no one in your life, nothing in your life. No fulfillment, no purpose. Your knees buckle under the weight of the emotion, you feel around for something, anything to hold on to before you fall to the ground. Before you hit the ground, you feel the Mandalorian’s arms catch you, wrapping around your trembling form. He helps you up, arm wrapped under and around your shoulder, supporting your weight. He half-carries you out of the building and towards a ship. 

- - - - - 

He practically drags you up the ramp of his ship, your eyes wet from crying. When did you even start crying? He brings you up towards a wall before slowly letting go of you. You slide down the wall, sniffles permeating the air. You quickly wipe your eyes with the back of your hand and take deep, calming breaths. He’s still standing there in front of you, hands flexing with uncertainty. The leather gloves creak with his movement. 

“Thank you” you say quietly, turning your eyes upwards to the dark T-shape of his visor.

He shifts his weight, bringing a hand up to his helmet and dragging it down slowly, as if to rub his face. A sigh filters through the modulator, a crackling sound filling the air.

“You’re welcome” he says gruffly, and with that, he turns on his heel and climbs up the ladder to what you assume is a cockpit.  You sit there on the cold metal, still sniffling. This man is…interesting.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

You watch as he disappears into what you assume is the cockpit of the ship. You silently look around the ship, taking in its features and belongings. The ship is a dark gray color, dim lights decorate the ceilings. There's a closet with a hefty lock on the handles next to you, which you assume is for weaponry. Across from you is a carbonite chamber. You scrunch your face up at the chamber, a shiver runs up your spine. Your eyes quickly dart away from the chamber, preferring not to even look at it. Farther down the short hallway is an enclave in the wall, maybe a cot of some sort? As your breathing slows, you gather up the courage to climb up the ladder. Just to see what he’s up to. After all, he did just save you from forced labor and…other unspeakable things.

You lean your head back on the wall, taking a few deep breaths to slow your breathing. Your eyes squeeze shut, mentally preparing yourself to climb up the ladder and confront him. Because right now, you’re on a strange ship with a strange man going Maker knows where. Yeah, you have the right to know what’s going on. 

You stand up with a start, suddenly afraid of who this Mandalorian was and how he found you. You make your way over the ladder, grabbing the rungs with steady hands. You hoist yourself up, head peeking up into the cockpit. Your eyes scan the small room until you see him sitting there at the pilot’s seat. He’s flipping some switches, hands deftly moving across the dashboard. 

You fully pull yourself up through the trapdoor, pushing your hands onto your knees as you stand up, straightening your spine. His helmet tilts slightly in your direction but he doesn’t fully turn around. Your jaw ticks at his action, impatient with him. 

He really thinks he can ignore me after he quite literally took me to his ship without saying anything? How do I even know if I can trust him?

You take a breath before opening your mouth. 

“What’s your deal here?” you say, standing awkwardly behind him, voice firm and confident.

This time he turns around from his seat, looking at you. His helmet reflects the dim lights from the ship, looking at you up and down. Your previous demeanor immediately shifted, now feeling small under his gaze. You twist your hands together, waiting for an answer. He continues to look at you, silent and stoic.

“How did you find me?” you say, annoyance bubbling in your chest from his arrogant demeanor. 

“Direct commission” he says simply. 

Your blood runs cold at his words. Who could possibly put out a direct commission for you? 

“Ok well…how do you know who I am?”

“...The direct commission. I was told to find you and bring you back to Mos Eisley. Besides, I don’t know much about you other than what I was told” he says matter of factly, clearly annoyed at your questions. 

“No, I can’t go back to Mos Eisley” you say, your chest constricting at the thought. Past memories begin to resurface, permeating your mind with painful remembrances.

“You can’t take me back there.”

“Look, I’m just doing what I’ve been assigned—”

“No, you don’t understand. The people there want me dead, or worse.” 

He straightens a bit at your words and what they could possibly insinuate. At that, he stands from his seat, walking straight over to you. His form is so broad, so tall, he nearly eclipses your vision from the window of the ship. The armor really does add to the big scary Mandalorian effect. You instinctively take a step back, uncharacteristically afraid of something you’re perceiving as a threat. His body language shows it all. 

“You’re going to Mos Eisley whether you like it or not” he says with a note of finality, the modulator crackling over the dry air of the ship. 

You narrow your eyes at his words, clenching your fists at your side. 

“No. I will not. You will not take me there” you say, anger crawling into your tone. You look up into his dark visor, searching for his covered eyes in the darkness. You hope you’re making eye contact with him only to make your point clear.

This man really thinks he’s all that?

“You–” he starts. 

“No, you listen here, metal man” you interrupt brutally, jabbing a finger into his beskar chestplate.

“So help me Maker, if you take me to Mos Eisley, I will personally see to it that I get what I want. Don’t you dare underestimate me. I may have been scared before, but trust me, I have found myself in these kinds of situations one too many times. I know what you’re playing at, sir, and I will not stand for it.”

You’ve backed him up near his dashboard, finger still jammed into his chestplate. Your face is pulled tight and flushed, breathless from the sudden bout of anger that surged through you. The Mandalorian is still, save for his steady breathing, his chestplate evenly moving up and down from under your touch. 

He suddenly grabs your hand, pushing it away from his chestplate. His touch is firm yet gentle, leather wrapped around your wrist. He lets go of your hand, letting it drop to your side. You don’t break your gaze into his visor, eyebrows knit, eyes narrowed. 

He lets out a defeated sigh, bringing his hand up to his helmet as if to rub his face. 

“Fine” he says quietly, his voice barely crackling through the modulator. 

Your heart skips a beat, silently thanking the Maker for his submission. You back away from the Mandalorian, content with your victory. 

He plops back into the pilot’s seat with a sigh, staring at the dashboard. You take his action as an admission to sit down, hesitantly sitting in the seat right next to him. You keep your hands in your lap as you lean back in the chair. 

He side-eyes you before saying “Don’t touch anything, we’re going into hyperspace” gruffly. 

He pulls a lever, triggering the hyperdrive. As the ship enters hyperspace, the galaxy becomes a beautiful mix of blue and white, shimmering outside the window. 

You smile gently to yourself, settling into your seat. You take a quick glance at the Mando before turning back to the window. 

Thank the Maker for this hunk of beskar.

[neospokenworld]

SPRING ANIME 2024 FINAL THOUGHTS

So just like I did months ago with my first impressions post, here are my final thoughts on every anime I started watching that was ongoing this season. I'm gonna list them as they end to be more organized and not have it jump around, so before we start, here's a quick section about the anime I dropped:

Astro Note: I forgot it existed past the first episode not gonna lie lol, I'll probably resume it in the future since it was a fun first episode but other than that nothing else to say

High Speed Etoilé: I wanted to like this so badly, the story could've been interesting but from what I saw it never hooked me at all, plus the 3d was very rigid so overall it wasn't as good to continue

Spice & Wolf: This is one I'll surely resume in the future, I was liking what I was seeing but one day I just lost track of it and never returned. What I saw left me with a very good taste so this is one that I have to resume someday

Okay, now we can begin:

DUNGEON MESHI

Started watching this one when it was at episode 18 and caught up to it really quickly. I honestly wasn't expecting to like it for some reason but as soon as I started it I knew it was gonna be a fun ride altogether. Nice characters, a good story, excellent animation (I mean it's Trigger but this is like my 2nd anime from them) and food that I would 100% eat if it was real lol. I'm glad it's getting a 2nd season because I really wanna see how it continues

BARTENDER: KAMI NO GLASS

This was beautiful, what else can I say? I mean I knew that this anime would be different after watching the first episode, even joking to myself while watching it ''This is premium anime'' lol. Everything from start to finish had this soothing vibe to it that I absolutely enjoyed and not gonna lie I think from episode 6 onward it knew how to push the right buttons on me to make me more and more emotional, by the time I finished the final episode I was on tears of happiness hearing the credits. I don't know how the original was but I think this is a gem of an anime that surely deserves to be talked about more

YORU NO KURAGE WA OYOGENAI

It never stopped delivering peak, back when the first episode aired I knew it would be something special, and while it felt just a little aimless past the episode of their first concert, I think in the end it wrapped up the main points kinda nicely. This is a show that got me feeling emotional on a near weekly basis and always knew how to share banger episodes. Even if it wasn't yuri in the end it was still a beauty of an anime in my opinion, it only needs to polish a few small things here and there to be basically a masterpiece imo and hopefully the manga that is coming along with it can do it

SHUUMATSU TRAIN DOKO E IKU?

This was such a fun ride overall, I gotta admit back on the first episodes I had a feeling this would be something that would break me when they were close to Ikebukuro, but even if in the end it didn't it was still a really good ride from beginning to end. One thing I liked was how the conversations between the girls were a bit faster than in most anime out there, I don't know but that made them feel more natural to me, it was cool to see all of them interact with the weirdness of the world and ngl this finale actually moved me a little lol. Not the best but still a pretty good one all in all

PS: Both the Opening and Ending here are severely underrated, Ga-Ton Go-Ton is on my top 3 for OPs this season and Eureka is easily my favorite ED for the season, both of them are just so good both visually and musically it's surprising to say the least

Part 2 will come when the other 4 end, so probably early next week