#he does something a lot more standard and digestible

[sleepdepravity]

The thing about typical Uchikoshi twists is that they’re extremely contrived in order to trick you, the player. They make sense in the end, but only by his own bullshit rules and after a LOT of explanation, and also the explanation sounds bonkers because they HAVE to be to facilitate his tricks. It’s technically fair play—but only if you share his sick and twisted mind. (“You’re all infected with a virus that makes the world seem 6 times faster so to make sure you don’t notice we put you on the moon because it has 1/6 gravity. That’s why Phi could jump high, and also why for a short time she seemed to talk like really fast for some reason” like cmon man.)

But it’s sooooo endearing to me how stupid it is, and I think it’s because how he just unapologetically goes all in on the bullshit and doesn’t even try to ground anything (compare to professor layton) and also, it doesn’t feel like he’s being smug about it. He’s just having fun. And so I’m just like, “awwww, that’s so cute”

[understandableparadox]

a comprehensive list of everything wrong with hazbin hotel.

quick note before i lose myself in madness, my standards for helluvaboss are non existent because its a free show on youtube. also i kinda like helluvaboss and i will indulge in any bias i damn well please.

oh and spoilers. i guess.

the greater narrative of the entire season is "White lady civilize inner city hoodlum". ex: The blind side. rich girl, affluent family yadda yadda.

the story is set up to be like amphibia, owl house, svtfoe, steven universe, that being starting as something episodic then transforming into story driven narrative. why? because we know the benefits and drawbacks, episodic starts allows us to wander the world, it allows us to understand the dynamics, we are not forced to reckon with anything because there is no deadline. characters are allowed to bloom and shine and the audience can actually get attached.

the source material is Vary Clearly formed from remnants of something out of a middle school edgelord narrative. the usage of transformation, the big spooky grins, the "and then i smile as my eyes glow and-"-isms which in most cases i don't mind because in some instances but in a vary Particular case its astoundingly annoying and that annoyance is like a mold, shit spreads quick.

the color Red. as a lover of homestuck cherubs and karkat and aradia, as someone who fucking loves the color red, it is so painful to say but holy shit tone it the fuck down, i know its hell but their are so many other colors that you can use, its everywhere, the streets, the air, the windows, the screens, the characters, i know the pride ring is represented with red but change up the palates every so often for backgrounds

the rush, this ties into the second point made but i think the story itself is rushed. we know everything way to early. i know way to much and it makes it hard to care about anything because im still trying to digest the last chunk of info. "oh ok, so they clear out hell once a year. oh hell has a heaven embassy? ok. oh that adam the angel, i though he wou- oh its every 6 months now. wait the exterminators die a lot? then why is everyone sca- people in hell already have weapons that can kill angels? w- oh we are in heaven now, ok ma- no one in heaven except for the elites know the exterminations occur? how do-" and its that, just this incessant rush to explain everything to you. notably that's just the god damn spark notes, we need to know everything about the characters now, every single bit of their story, their insecurities, what charlie needs to fix, how she can fix them, the major bad guys, everything. you are never allowed to dwell on a character because we need to rush towards something else. it almost feels like this should have been like... season three, it would have been a fantastic season three if you dropped the introductions honestly.

the concept of redemption. for a story of redemption to work you need to look at three things. What is there crime, Do they want to change, What is preventing them from changeing? there is only one single character that has a notable path of redemption, angel dust, but if you look through their story it feels off. What Exactly is he guilty of? he has sex, does drugs and drinks. his apparent nymphomania is tied to his sad backstory as someone forced into the sex industry so how is that their fault? then if you think about it you start to spiral and notice "hey why are most of these people in hell?" like sure some of them may deserve punishment but then you see the fucking dichotomy and its like "I was a inventor in england and died of the fucking plague, i may have made evil little contraption hoohoohoo" vs "I was a cannibal, a full on cannibal, i fucking killed people and ate them and then someone shot me". ONE OF THESE THINGS ARE A LITTLE MORE FUCKING EXTREME. i'm going to go fucking nuts, the thing they went to heaven with when presenting a case to angels on the idea that redemption and becoming a better person is actually real was angel dust not drinking at a party and not having sex with consenting adults and i want to go fucking insane. WHAT IS THE CRIME, WHO IS THROWING THE BOOK, WHAT DOES THE BOOK INTEL, ARE WE ON GOOD PLACE RULES?! half the cast dont Need redemption they need fucking help, and the other half of the cast do need redemption but they do not seek it making the point moot. sir pentious acts like he has the brain of a hyper intelligent toddler tossing about toys, its almost like he did his one bad thing of spying and then got caught, sank his little diddy about forgiveness and second chances and become a null point through out the rest of the series, sure their was Some weight to him sacrificing himself, he was a decently funny character and he had good moments but him popping up in heaven felt like a fore gone conclusion, he didn't deserve to be in hell so why do i care that he is suddenly in heaven? because its working on the concept the good place already made. no one actually deserves eternal punishment they just need help processing what makes them a dick, but instead of looking at all the parts of the afterlife that make it bad, inefficient and then creating and trying ideas to see if it work instead over a few seasons, we crash dick first into all the major plot points in regards to that and say "tada, we fixed it.".

having a sub-plot about sexual assault and its victims then having multiple sexual assault related gag ruins your point.

don't make a bunch of stereotypically jewish characters into cannibals, that was a big thing, really shouldn't have to say it.

if you are going to make a character black, make them black, you can say alastor was black but sweet seren-fucking-dippity that's not a black man.

pot meet kettle but yeah the cursing could be a little less liberal. maybe just blue hair or the pronouns, not both.

there is a very distinctive art deco/jazz aesthetic which normally i love but i feel as though it is not used to its full extent and in some cases really hurts the character design in and of itself.

this is a vary obvious bit but the story is a million times more interested in gay men then it is of lesbians, which culminates in this insane thing where the writers clearly have more talent or perhaps it would be more abt to say practice writing male gay pining then they are with lesbian pining. which i personally think is hilarious because i did not know you could min max fujoshi-ism that hard.

this next section is more to do with each character on a fundamental level, for the sake of brevity whatever there is left, i'm just doing ones with speaking roles.

13. Charlie:

(see what i mean about that red thing?)

as originally stated charlie fits rather comfortably into every white saviour narrative, though that seems to be part of her joke. though i'm not entirely sure how much of a joke it can be when its rewarded and expected to advance the plot.

her character design says nothing, it has the motif of old puppets or dolls, she wears something vaguely similar to service suits, her demonic form is just some extra horns.not to say every character needs to have their life on a clothes rack but some more snake and goat imagery would be nice

its not the chol design of charlie with snake hair, not an actual problem but its a problem to me, damn you @cholvoq for ruining my ability to look at any of the characters without wishing i was seeing your designs instead.

character wise aside from the white savoir bit, i'm having a bit of trouble understanding what the arc of the character is. she is shown to be naive, someone who doesn't understand how the world works but everytime she says something its something astoundingly clear like "people can actually get better". and its treated like someone demanded faygo in every water fountain. is the joke that the world around her to cynical or is so to naive? please pick one or the other.

now if you know me, you know i fucking hate overpowered characters with a blinding passion, one that would set alit the god damn abyss but in this one special instance, i feel like its warranted, she's the direct descendant of fucking God, she can swing her weight around a little, i mean god damn. she in so many instances looks like shes cowering so often, why would the daughter of lucifer get backed down by some rando pimp? why wasn't she the one to fight adam? sure you can say she is young but how young? her parents were there since pre-abrahamic times, most of the characters showed up in hell in the 1900s, some of them showed up in the 1600s, how old is charlie??? how long does it take for her to learn how to be strong? The story does not suffer if charlie is strong and knows she is strong. it can easily be a case of "i don't believe in violence to a weird degree". fit it into her apparent naivety about the world to believe that violence is never the answer even when dealing with a being that is unilaterally horrible and abusive and monstrous.

she ga- no im kidding, i do think her romance was waysided a bit, it would have been fine to have more scenes of them togather and in love you know?

14. Vaggie

why did you name the lesbian vaggie...? Don't do that maybe?

I like how her design is almost moth like but again i feel as though you could have amped that up.

she feels as though someone tried to combine undyne and pearl from steven universe, same story beats and design elements. it makes it hard to really distinguish her as a character.

i honestly dont have much to say about her. she is fine.

christ kill me, lets just get the big one out of the way

15. Alastor.

God Damn

where to start.

"alastor is mixed race" mixed with fucking what? concrete? there is not a single black feature on that creature, now im not saying you have to make him a png of louie armstrong but it wouldn't hurt to add a curl to the hair maybe? make it a tiny bit more wavy? Something? a crumb i beg of thee?

his symbolism is all over the god damn place, native american monsters (you know the one), voodoo, radio, puppets, stitches, circuses??? and Tentacles i guess. two of those are from closed religions so if you dumped those you would actually get a more concise character focused on the concept of vox populi as a means of societal control and influence as we see in his first song. but again that gets drowned out repeatedly by all the other random toy box bits shoved into him.

tumblr sexy man bait

he serves no purpose in the story. he does spooky stuff, pretends to do things and then goes back to sitting around looking spooky. i understand that his motif is supposed to be aloof mastermind but maybe have him do more mastermindy things? if you remove most of alastors scenes, bar the songs, it doesn't change all to much. husk and nifity can still be at the hotel, they could be looking for outs in their contracts the same as angel dust. hell it even helps with the one scene where he dose some spooky shit, asking charlie for a favor in exchange for his help in the fight with the angels instead of asking him about angel weapons which should have remained a strictly vaggie scene.

his presence in a way delegitimize the story, as I noted in in the section regarding redemption, the three parts are "what is the crime, do they want to change, what is stopping them?" and alastor kinda just spits in the face of that. he is a serial killer cannibal that has no qualms about how evil he is and apparently must continue being evil due to being under the control under someone legitimately called the Root Of All Evil. show him take a slight interest in the idea that maybe shit for him could be better, make him Want Change at the bare fucking minimum or dont have him at the hotel.

his stupid little fucking horns, big shot the troll liker wants characters to have big fucking horns, make them noticeable or dont have them.

he looks more like a dog boy, which could have been an interesting thing with the collar motif but fuck me i guess.

personal pet peeve but i fucking hate characters that have a million plus powers, stick to a set number, be creative.

im getting more petty as i go on so last point: he could have been in less episodes, he didn't need to be in dad beat dad, that should have been just a lucifer and charlie episode. inverse the red and black and i think he would be fucking great color wise, his body type is the same as ten different characters, he isnt radio enough, aside from the voice and and staff if you told me he was the fucking Cat Demon i would have been just as convinced.

16. Angel Dust

what the fuck, gay spider? its hard to actully articulate all the thoughts i have on angel dust, not in the sense that he is a deeply thought provoking character but in the fact that there is not much meat on the bones.

all around i think angel dust is kinda middling. he has a decent enough romance with husk, he has a decent enough story line that revolves around battling addiction and removing yourself from an abuser (which the story tries to brand as "Redemption???")

I dont like that most of his jokes would qualify as sexual harassment, i don't mind him being sexual as a character but continuing on when clearly someone doesn't like the jokes hurts the character.

not a critique but he is pink, which honestly ill fucking take at point, as long as its not more fucking red.

i think his design is an improvement over some of the old vivzie designs but it feels like it could have done with going a few more rounds of design changes.

same thing with alastor, charlie and vaggie, there is not enough of the animal that they are supposed to be. You could have told me angel dust was a fucking bee or something and i would have had to believe you. nothing about angel dust initially says spider, hell he dosent even have enough limps to be a fucking spider.

17. Carmilla carmine

are... are you supposed to be a rabbit...?

Big Yoai Hands

ballet fighting style, could have been cool, wish she fought more like sanji or chun li.

A single mom that works to hard, who loves her kids and never stops-

her song was decent, not great, decent. it feels as though the actress has experience singing but not in the way they tried to make her sing during her two songs. they have a obvious mexican influence, honestly just let her sing in spanish in the english dub. go listen to the spanish dub, "out for love" sounds great in spanish.

i wish i had more thoughts on them, fucking rip.

18. cherri bomb

that's not a punk aesthetic that's 2010s alt

decent character, they showed up once or twice i guess, no real thoughts.

19. egg boiz

absolutely perfect, i have not notes on them, these are perfect creatures.

20. Emily

im so fucking happy to see a singular blue character

does the naive dreamer bit better then charlie

We really shouldnt have seen her until the end of season two or middle of three.

good contrast with the other angels on screen.

Wait she is supposed to be black??? Where???

21. Husk

keith david you absolute delight, Why on gods green earth did they only give you one singing part?

one of the few charecters where its clear husk is a cat, i do like the kinda... marquee design, he is a magic cat, thats neat. i still think you can toss the wings and eyebrows and still have just as good of a charecter.

has a deeply intresting story of someone who died as a nobody, became the fat cat of hell and then was forced back to the bottom by their own vices, not used at fucking all.

huge potential, little pay off.

22. lillith

I know nothing about her except she ditched her kid and husband to vacation in heaven and i think thats kinda funny.

alot of werid things floating around her, again she shouldnt have been shown in the show at all until next season.

23. lucifer morningstar

no notes, funniest charecter, did a song based on friend like me.

few notes: i do like the idea that the immortal symbol of pride is a constant emotional wreckage constantly seeking approval through grand showmanship and manic energy that threatens to take over anything they touch.

would have liked more snake stuff on him, maybe some more goat things like horns.

that is such a stupid fucking staff lmao.

24. Adam.

alex brightman you absolute fucking delight, you should have had more songs.

I wish his design was more focused on the idea of him being a glam rock wash up

I fucking hate his mask

We shouldn't have met him until the end of the season.

25. Niffty

again she is supposed to be a bug or cockroach but nothing about her points to that.

token straight

keeps rocketing back and fourth between sexulization and infantilization

you had kimiko glenn but didnt give her a single fucking song?

26. Sir Pentious

the secret season one redeemed.

the pilot version of him felt more like someone that could do a season one redemption arc, a megalomaniac constantly attempting territory grabs, there is something you can work with, actual character flaws to work through.

essentially a child after the first episode.

actually a snake which i appreciate.

no where near steampunky enough.

27. the villians of the show dont make much sense, each one feels like they should be season long deals on their own instead of a bunch of team rocket esque idiots that show up on occasion, do a bad thing and then leave.

28. Valentino

gOD THERE IS SO MUCH RED

only a moth some of the time.

sucks as a villain, maybe they need more screen time to show why they suck in a more substantial way aside from being told that he sucks.

it is interesting that angel dust is only under his magical control when in the studio, it shows that angel dust has to make a conscious choice to return, which in turn can be made to show how abusers can draw back their victims. I do not think it was done well in this circumstance as it shows him to be cartoonishly evil, constantly flying back and fourth between sweet and utter psycho, there is no actual reason for angel dust to ever actually go back to the studio, he just does so every so often.

29. Vox

legit who cares? the only thing about him that is in any way substantial is all the dope ass fan art we get.

propaganda machine angle that is not explored at all, just hinted at. no actual barring on the story whatsoever.

why didn't he try to do the same shit as alastor by the way? he knows its bad if alastor gets in good with charlie so shouldn't it be a ass kissing race?

same body shape as literally every other male character.

tumblr sexy man version of pyrocynicals fursona.

30. Valvette

the actual poster child of the shows huge problem of "Show me, don't tell me".

apparently the glue that holds the villains together. never shown.

apparently the one that makes the love potions that valentino is famous for. had to learn about that in the fuckin wiki trivias

we know so much about her from things outside of the show.

was there to call carmilla a coward, that's her plot contribution. she shows up every now and again but its never anything substantial and serves to more around take up run time for people We Don't Need To Know Yet.

im not trying to be mean, animation is animation, we need smaller studios to have success in the industry so that other indie studios can have that success, felling a tree makes it easier for others to follow. showing that its possible to number brain rot exacs helps all animators.

but this show has so much bullshit attached to it, it has so much fucking potential that it fries my brain with unyielding frustration.

this took a bit to write, im tired, thanks for reading.

[gengor]

I think my most unpopular takes among people who have a more sympathetic view on Edelgard, but enjoy the blue lions characters, is that I don’t think it’s very likely any of them would defect.

While it might be in some of their best interest to defy the kingdom, the blue lions were specifically written as the characters who are inclined to uphold the system.

I just think that a person who chooses to serve an institution that they know is flawed or is actively hurting them is a very real type of person, and is, in fact, the average person irl. I think I’m gonna start doing breakdowns of all the blue lions one by one to explain what I mean by this. I’m gonna go ahead and start with one of my favorite examples— Ingrid.

Part 1: chivalry

“Knights, I suppose. I do what I can to live like one. And I hope to die like one too…when the time comes.” - one of Ingrid’s expedition quotes

Chivalry and Knighthood are very important themes to the azure moon route. And their politics are woven into the fabric of the monarchy. It’s no mistake that Felix is to Dimitri what Ferdinand is to Edelgard, and Lorenz is to Claude.

But while Felix serves as the oppositional character to chivalry, Ingrid foils this by being an embodiment of it.

Ingrid is a character who is hurt by the system as a woman whose family values her solely for her ability to have a richer man’s child. She understands that her life is made worse by her place as a woman, and although she wants to break free of that, she can’t envision anything that isn’t just subjugating herself to a different set of rules. Ingrid strives to be disposable in a male gender role rather than a female one.

She reveres knighthood and the code of honor in death—which is often propped up as an ideal for non royal men. So while her endings where she conforms to gendered expectations are tragic, I would argue that any ending that sees her knighted is also far from a feminist tale.

And I think what a lot of people miss about this aspiration of hers is how glued it is to her grief for Glenn and the subsequent romanticization of Dimitri.

Ingrid is one of the few characters who cannot engage with criticism of Dimitri’s excessive violence. If you seek her during the exploration time within the heights of Dimitri’s recklessness she will never once acknowledge the sinking ship they are all on. For many characters, it’s common that they only retroactively acknowledge Dimitri’s instability after he apologizes and says he wants to do better. Most of the army will give you some sort of acknowledgment that Dimitri hasn’t been a perfect leader during the “kings triumphant return” chapter.

Yet Ingrid never does.

And while she does argue with Dimitri within their supports, it is only because Dimitri expresses discomfort at the rationale that places him on this pedestal to begin with. It is the only thing he can say that she cannot affirm. And toward the end of the support chain, she’s rationalized his aversion to knight codes to fit a more digestible narrative for herself. If Glenn’s death for Dimitri was the gold standard, then it means Dimitri has to be the perfect heir worth protecting with her life. She *has* to figure out how his disagreements with her can fit neatly into the narrative of Glenn’s heroic death. If she doesn’t do this, she would be forced to grapple with the possibility that someone she cared for died tragically without meaning.

I would argue Ingrid is an unreliable narrator to herself here when she claims she has moved on. If her requirements to process death involve retroactively deeming death to be good, then she is still rationalizing a random tragedy.

And this is something we see her do in her last support with Felix. I think there’s a subtle kind of horror in the conclusion of her Felix supports. She could be very well justified in lashing out at him over his repeated misogyny, but what she sees as the most important issue to correct is his aversion to chivalry.

She positions herself in a way that’s hard to combat because she is simultaneously arguing that she is *not* falling in line with any propaganda while also pushing the idea that Glenn died honorably in a way that’s worth imitating. Instead of framing this as a lesson in obedience to authority, she gives more a ‘friendship is magic’ vibe.

But the thing is, Glenn likely *was* influenced by the culture surrounding chivalry. The only characterization we have of him is that he adhered deeply to the ideals of chivalry (Dimitri claims Glenn and she are ‘very alike’ in that regard and Felix tells us that Glenn used to read him knight tales) Glenn was also child soldier, specified to have been around 15 at the time of his death. The man who raised Glenn will also state outright that he would have held his son responsible had he survived.

And it doesn’t appear to just be an isolated instance with Ingrid and Rodrigue. This kind of rhetoric is very common in the kingdom, popping up within npcs as well.

All that’s to say that Ingrid’s desire to become a knight is steeped in her baggage surrounding Glenn and cannot be copy pasted to another country so easily without breaking her character.

Being a knight under a different banner wouldn’t be the same because Ingrid doesn’t want to do many of the questionable things military personal are ordered to do on a regular basis, in fact she has an active aversion to it.

But she views her inclinations to disobey Faerghus authority as the wrong choice, a weakness she ought to instruct out of herself in order to be an ideal knight.

Part 2: Gender

So I see a some criticisms leveled at Ingrid’s character in relation to Glenn that I want to acknowledge.

I think it’s very fair to criticize the idea that she is defined through her grief for a boy she was in an arranged engagement to. I can see why some would write off her character as being just another misogynistic portrayal of a woman and move on.

But I think what saves this plot line (to me) is the implication that she idealized Glenn as someone she wanted to *be* more than marry. I really appreciate that when asked directly about whether she would have married him, she implied that she wouldn’t have.

I think there’s something to be said about the interpretation that Ingrid is an incredibly repressed sapphic or possible aromantic.

The only man she expresses romantic interest in is Dimitri, which is likely an extension of her reverence for him as a royal ideal, more so than it is a genuine interest in him. To me, her expressed interest in him undermines her claim that she has let go of her past idealization of being his knight. She is still prioritizing him first and foremost before herself, which is the heart of the issue.

I think Ingrid as a person is just very susceptible to the idea that she should fulfill some kind of established roll within the existing system instead of breaking free from all of it. This is why she only sees her life as only having two paths forward— knighthood or motherhood.

And even within the latter, which is more widely understood to be regressive, Ingrid will still make excuses for the people who attempt to reduce her to her ability to bear a nobleman’s child.

There’s a lot to be said about her hesitation to condemn her father for putting her within an arranged marriage. And within Houses, I think her Byleth supports, combined with her paralogue, communicate this well. But I think the most blunt example of this can be found in her Mercedes Hope's support

In response to Mercedes asserting that Ingrid’s family loved her unconditionally Ingrid says, “I wouldn’t go that far.”

I think it’s important to assume Ingrid’s perspective on her family is the most reliable account of them. If she says they didn’t love her. They didn’t love her.

She is a woman enduring objectification at the hands of her father. And even if she herself hesitates to name it as abuse that is textually what this was. Mercedes is projecting her own love for her brother onto these men who she has never met before.

Yet even still, her conclusions within many support chains end with her reaffirming a gendered status quo on herself. The same is true of support chains that end in her performing an expectation of femininity.

Part 3: Xenophobia/Racism

So I think Ingrid's racism is not an isolated, uncomfortable trait of hers. It is an extension of her patriotism.

When Glenn died, racism was just one of the multiple propaganda pieces that Ingrid fed herself to create a more digestible narrative.

Within her Dedue supports Ingrid seems to be grappling with the possibility that she was wrong to buy into this narrative. I think it's notable that the only thing that pushes her to reconsider her bigotry against Dedue is that he shares an unhealthy reverence for Dimitri. And within this flawed start-up, she is still expecting a victim to engage with her in an open discussion on whether or not he is a person.

Ingrid seeks to hold him somewhat responsible for not educating her on racism enough. And yeah, I don't have a lot to say on this, it just sucks.

I don't think Ingrid ever fully moves past this bigotry, which is in part due to the creators not actually knowing what an anti racist narrative would look like.

I've said this before, but it's worth stating here too.

Ingrid is far from the only racist person in Fe3h. Most of the narratives around racism end up with the characters reaffirming racism.

But within Ingrid's case, I think it makes narrative sense that she would still show signs of bigotry. Because within all aspects of her life, she doesn't escape the system.

And I know that within her gender, this is the writers themselves doing misogyny. I don't think they intended Ingrid's arc to be a tragic one. And I wouldn't fault anyone for disregarding the narrative value of this on the basis that it's not meant to be tragic. I've personally just come to love the blue lions as accidental tragedies because, regardless of intent, it just feels real. I think Ingrid is one of the few that I could see potentially realizing the flaw in her thinking someday, but it does her writing a disservice to imply that this could be a quick and seamless transition for her.

[verysium]

need more of your sae for scientific reasons. very important

here you go lovely:

sae has zero taste in fashion unfortunately. if it covers his body and does not get in the way of football, then it works for him. that's also the reason why he accepts christmas sweaters with the most atrocious color combinations. he genuinely doesn't know that they're ugly (and also doesn't want to upset his mother and elderly aunties.) still has a pair of bright turquoise swim trunks from when he was a preteen with "i ♡ seagulls" printed all over them. he never threw them out and still wears them on summer trips. did not understand why half the beachgoers were side-eyeing him.

sae cannot comprehend internet slang. if you send him any acronym, he will read it out loud in the literal sense. would flick you on the forehead if you said he was becoming too millennial. he was born in the 2000s but cannot relate to anyone in the same generation.

sae would adopt a cat, but it would be a reverse adoption. the cat would choose him and not the other way around. he would not bother with it other than the required feeding and grooming. tried to play with it once, but it hissed and scratched at him. both of them just exist simultaneously in the same residence. sometimes the kitty jumps on his bed at midnight in order to cuddle. he would also name it something like "neko" or "el gato" or literally "the cat" because he is so unoriginal.

sae gives himself the whole patrick bateman monologue every morning when he does his skincare routine. he peels his face mask off in slow motion too. when you pointed out the similarities, he got mildly upset because he does not like being compared to anyone.

sae secretly hates the fact that rin is taller than him. he thinks about it a lot when he sees the family photos. sometimes wishes he grew just a little more during puberty. that way he would be taller than 180 cm.

sae cannot sing for the life of him. but if you are sick or having nightmares, he will hum you the lullaby his mother used to sing for him. gets shy when you compliment his voice, but his emotions do not manifest physically on his facial features. sometimes when he thinks you're finally asleep in his lap, he will brush your hair back and kiss your forehead.

sae sometimes feels a stirring in his chest whenever he spots a child in the park or an old couple on the benches near the boardwalk. he left for spain at a young age, so he inevitably gets the feeling that his childhood was stolen from him. if he ever matured to the point where he could see beyond his own ambitions, he would want to start a family.

sae loves it when he comes home from practice and sees you dancing around in the kitchen. he will watch silently as you prance around with a spatula and belt out the lyrics. sometimes he just wants to capture the moment and tuck it into his breast pocket and treasure it forever.

sae feels touched when you actually listen to what he says. because he is a man of few words, he usually has to be the one who listens, digests information, and offers sound advice. however, if you grant him the time of day to hear him out or gift him something that he once mentioned off-hand, he will feel strange tingles of the emotion he tries so desperately to deny.

sae is a skeptic. no scam, ploy, or false pretense will ever make it past him. he despises people-pleasers and does not understand why he has to conform to other people's standards. will not trust news outlets unless he personally was there as an eyewitness account or there is sufficient research backing up the claims.

sae is rather extreme when it comes to getting hurt. it is all or nothing with him. if he feels like you somehow penetrated through his walls and hurt him even in the slightest way, he will make the situation worse by hurting you back tenfold. usually he tries to justify pushing you away, and that just ends up driving him even further from you. tbh he really needs to work on his communication skills. rather than shutting down after an issue arises, he has to learn to put his own opinions aside and hear out the other party.

sae gets bored easily, but he is hesitant to try out new things in fear of not being immediately good at them. as the eldest child of his family and a hailed prodigy in his nation, there is the expectation that he must naturally excel at everything to set a good example. football is where he first found his talent and where he feels the most comfortable even if it isn't as inspiring and exciting as it once was. unfortunately, it leads to the onset of burnt-out-gifted-kid syndrome. that's also why he is seeking out a strong striker who can meet his demands and generate the impossible plays he is looking for. essentially sae needs someone to rekindle his original love for the sport.

sae gets defensive when he lets other people down, except this isn't immediately apparent. usually you would have to read between the lines with him. he bases his self-worth off both his own ambitions and the people close to him. if he disappoints someone important to him, he will be stuck in this sinkhole of internal turmoil. that's also why he lashes out at rin when rin reminds him of their shared dream he gave up on. he doesn't like his mistakes being pointed out, much less when his stoic image crumbles. he might also push you away and try to convince himself that you aren't worth that much to him in order to lessen his guilt.

sae needs someone highly intuitive and patient in his life. you need to be able to understand his emotions intrinsically because even he cannot grasp his own feelings. you also need to teach him how to connect himself with the outside world. because sae has primarily fended for himself ever since he was born, you have to convince him that it is okay to rely on others. his mentality is that if he reaches the top, no one will be able to touch him, much less hurt him. however, he sometimes fails to see how that simultaneously isolates himself from others.

sae is relatively straightforward when it comes to getting what he wants. if he somehow miraculously realizes and comes to terms with the fact that he loves you, he will confess it directly to your face. "date me or don't." it's not even a question. it's a factual statement.

sae is not as emotionally mature as the rest of the fandom makes him out to be. just because he does not show emotions in a traditional sense doesn't mean he necessarily has better control or understanding over them. for example, he gets jealous but would not know that the emotion he is feeling is actually called jealousy. rather than tease him about it, i think he would sincerely appreciate if you reassured him both verbally and physically through your actions. he is a man who relies on substance, so you need to prove that you'll be the one who stays with him through thick and thin.

sae oscillates between caring too little about others and caring too much. on one hand, he is more than willing to drop someone or something if his end goal has already been met. the ends always justify the means in his mind. however, he also feels doubt and uncertainty at times. like rin said, he hates losing. he objects to the blue lock program at first largely because he doesn't like the idea of a newcomer. he's already written off japan as a substandard country for football, so the idea of it being changed essentially challenges him directly. but again, this is a delicate line of balance. he is alright when it comes to being challenged mentally in football and seeking out a creative out-of-box solution. for instance, he is more than willing to accept rin's progress, shidou's unpredictability, and isagi's breakthrough talent. however, he is not okay with having his preconceptions destroyed as evidenced by his disillusionment in spain.

sae and ego would actually get along pretty well because they both have this one-track mind when it comes to football. players are reduced to numbers and metrics, and everything is evaluated as an advantage or disadvantage. ego is also ruthless when it comes to the elimination of the weak, and sae wouldn't disagree with that.

sae sometimes wakes up on the weekends and sees you in his bed, the sunlight raining down on your face. it is in this sort of domesticity that he wonders what life would be like if he wasn't a football prodigy. he craves normality not in the sense that he wants to be like everyone else but rather the idea that he needs to feel some sort of attachment or sense of belonging between you two. he could care less about the rest of the world but so long as you accept him, he would feel validated.

sae gives you free reign over his heart when he finally gives out and you're still there to pick him up. in his mind, he is worth nothing if he fails. if you're still there to reassure him and put him back together, he will first look at you like you're stupid for even wanting to stay with him. but once he realizes you stay only because you love him, you have his unconditional commitment. he would put a ring on your finger right then and there.

lmao that was long but that concludes my psychoanalysis on sae. hope that cures your insatiable need.

[channiebelly]

outie

tropes: belly kink, weight gain, belly button stuff

ship: jeongcheol

wordcount: 1k

Seungcheol wakes up in the morning after a stuffing still feeling very full. Jeonghan had pushed him further than he ever had before, and clearly his body still hasn't had time to digest the massive amount of food he had consumed. He places his hands on his belly and rubs the taut side.

Seungcheol has what Jeonghan lovingly refers to as a beer belly. Almost all of his weight goes towards growing it, and even when empty, it's firm to the touch. It's moveable, and you could press your fingers into it slightly, but it's much like a beach ball. When Seungcheol gets full it goes completely solid, completely immovable with no give to it at all. That's what it's like now.

Seungcheol wants to stay in bed, but he wants a shower even more, so he struggles to pull himself into a sitting position, something that is getting harder and harder these days. He groans and cracks his back, before rocking backwards and then forwards so he can stand up. The weight of his belly throws him off balance slightly, and he stumbles a bit. This happens to Seungcheol a lot. He'd been gaining so quickly, and his centre of gravity had moved so much that he wasn't yet used to the new ways his body worked.

He turns around and looks at Jeonghan, who's still in bed and is still asleep. He must have really knocked himself out after last night. Seungcheol smiles and head off to the bathroom.

Every time Seungcheol is in the bathroom before a shower he takes the chance to examine himself. He loves his new body and will take any chance to admire himself. He rubs his hands over his belly and massages slightly, before he feels something different.

There's a lump right at the centre of his belly, where his belly button is. Seungcheol looks closer and almost gasps. His belly button, which the previous day was a slight indent on his bloated gut, is now sticking out. He brushes his fingers over it again to confirm, and yes, his belly button has become an outie.

He almost freezes thinking about the implications of it. He'd eaten so much last night that there had been no room in his stomach for even his belly button. He's gotten so fat that his belly button, which before all of this was a standard innie belly button, had reversed itself and was now a small nub on his stomach.

Jeonghan is going to love this.

After his shower, Seungcheol returns to the bedroom to get changed. When he gets there, Jeonghan has woken up and is sitting up in bed to watch. Jeonghan's favourite thing is to just watch Seungcheol. He says he likes seeing his belly in motion. Seungcheol tells him to stop, but secretly he likes the attention.

He pulls on a pair of sweatpants and then a white t-shirt that isn't tight on him, but isn't exactly lose on him either. When he looks at himself in the mirror on the closet door, he sees how his shirt highlights the nub of his belly button. The fabric was no longer smooth over his rounded gut, now there was a belly button under there, pushing out the fabric even more. The fact that the shirt was only one colour made it even more obvious.

Everyone who looked at Seungcheol would now be able to see that he had become so fat that he had pushed his belly button out. Seungcheol could feel himself getting turned on just from the thought.

He sits on the bed with Jeonghan, hoping that Jeonghan will notice what's happened and find it just as hot as he does.

"What are we doing today?" Seungcheol asks.

"I dunno," Jeonghan says, clearly not paying attention as his eyes trace Seungcheol's body.

Seungcheol can almost see the exact moment when Jeonghan notices his belly button.

He frowns slightly. "What's this?" he asks. Seungcheol lets him push his t-shirt up so it's sitting on the shelf of his belly. Then Jeonghan stares.

He reaches out to brush his fingers against Seungcheol's belly button. Seungcheol suppresses the urge to shiver.

"This is your belly button," Jeonghan says.

Seungcheol nods.

"You ate so much last night that you pushed your belly button out?"

"Yeah."

Jeonghan's eyes go dark. "Fuck, that's the hottest thing I've ever heard."

Jeonghan directs Seungcheol to lean back against the headboard. Then he leans down to press kisses and lick the sensitive underside of Seungcheol's belly before traveling towards his belly button. Jeonghan licks it gently, and then scrapes his teeth along it and then sucks it slightly.

"Are you giving my belly button a blowjob?" Seungcheol asks.

"No. I'm just giving it the attention it deserves."

"What if you made me breakfast instead?"

"In a moment." Jeonghan goes back to ravishing Seungcheol's belly with his tongue and then his fingers.

When he comes back in with breakfast, they sit in bed to eat it.

"Do you think your belly button will go back to how it was before?" Jeonghan asks.

"I don't know," Seungcheol says. He hopes not.

"I hope not," Jeonghan says. Seungcheol smiles at him. They were thinking the exact same thing.

His belly button doesn't go back in. It remains a permanent fixture on his gut, showing just how big Seungcheol has gotten. He starts wearing tight t-shirts more often so that he can show off his new feature.

Jeonghan is even more obsessed with it than Seungcheol is. He likes to rub his fingers over it and flicks it and pokes it whenever he feels like it. It's quite dangerous, though, as it reminds Seungcheol of what he's done to himself, how much his body has grown, that it always turns him on. Jeonghan starts referring to it as his horny button.

Seungcheol loves gaining. He can't wait to see what his next development will be.

[theseventhoffrostfall]

Hi. First, let me butter you up with dumb formal compliments. I think you're one of the smartest individuals i had the luck of gazing upon online. Truly, I wish i could make your acquaintance and have a conversation with you. Hope your ego feels properly buttered.

Second. Do you have any tips for someone that has been reading a lot but mainly trashy low-brow books how to breach towards actually good content? I like reading more than any form of content consumption but i feel like I'm doing the same thing as marvel slop marathons but with paper instead. I know i could read something with actual meaningful content but just like someone who's been eating Chick-fil-A for lunch everyday it's hard to bring oneself to consume actual decent meals at first, y'know?

Well, consider me thoroughly greased up

Anyway, sorry for the wait; saw this earlier just as I was heading to work

So my go-to for high-density brain candy is Gene Wolfe's bibliography, but you did ask for not getting thrown into the deep end. To the best of my recollection, his short story anthologies are a lot more digestible; his novels you should probably work your way up to.

Jack Vance's novels (I've gushed about the Demon Princes before) tend to be pretty fun and engaging without the, uh, proclivities that certain classic Fritz Lieber-esque authors of classic genre fiction tend to indulge in. Lovecraft and Howard likewise, if you don't mind purplier prose and the occasional bout of astounding racism (in Howard's defense, the biggest example was from a rough draft novel he never published in his lifetime).

The Hyperion Cantos does a great job of easing you into a really dense and interesting setting, via a first-book structure built to evoke the Canterbury Tales in space. It's a really fantastic read, the author's evident desire to take 19th-century English poet John Keats to pound-town notwithstanding, but as always I have to advise you to never, ever read the second duology. There are two books in the series, and that is how it should be.

I also think the Spiral Arm series has a good interplay of character building and worldbuilding in a vast, alien setting, and this one I can actually recommend the whole series. Unfortunately I didn't really click with any of the author's other work, but that might not be the case for you.

Dune is a step between, say, Book of the New Sun and a modern work in terms of having a bit more action and more digestible prose and pacing, but it's still a very slow, dense and weird read about alien and somewhat repellent characters in an alien and somewhat repellant setting by most standards. The same is true of what I'd characterize as its fantasy counterpart, the Second Apocalypse series by R Scott Bakker. The Sun Eater series by Christopher Roucchio, in that respect, can be thought of as another step down from the Tower of Weirdness and should go on your "sooner but not immediately" list.

Whom Gods Would Destroy and Bathwater are both trippy Weird Fiction works that I take the chance to shill whenever I can, but the former in particular goes up on your "work your way up to it" list

David Drake's works are more conventional sci-fi and fantasy tales, but there's more to bite into than you can expect from typical pulp or modern works. These might be a good starting point. Likewise for Eric Nylund's (yeah, the guy who wrote the good Halo books) A Game Of Universe, a Grail Quest story in a sprawling sci-fantasy setting starring a mind-stealing assassin.

I'll probably self-reblog a half dozen times as more suggestions spring to mind

[ultramaga]

"Autism" AND ASD are ill-defined. They do not tell you the severity. If someone has Down's Syndrome, there's a lot you can predict immediately about them. With Autism? It's far too vague. The term needs to be tossed and something else, based on objective measurements, needs to take its place. Are some autistic people in need of a cure? Yes. Because they are unable to be independent enough to work, and because that condition denies them a full experience as a human.

Here's a man with no arms and legs. In his case, he does pretty well. Is that typical? Of course not, most people would go under in that situation. What about a cure?

I think most people would try one if it was an option. "Capitalism is inherently ableist." No, that's called reality. Cripples were culled under communism. It's only been in recent years, thanks to the huge surplus of capitalism, that we have been able to care well for many people who cannot work, and that largesse is totally dependent on a healthy economy.

You cannot conceive of the horrors of life as a cripple outside of a wealthy capitalist society.

"If you cannot generate labor or revenue for the system, then you have no inherent worth as a citizen or a person and will be classified as a burden." This is how socialist states like Canada view you, and why they push for euthanasia, yes. If you are able to work, you can fight against the State. Being so disabled you can't work means they can and will crush you. Now I went to college with an autistic man who was competent as a programmer but he couldn't so much as travel there without a parent to drive him. It was fully accessible through public transport, but he couldn't cope with it. As soon as those parents are too old, or if they die, he's lost. It is a major problem even in a moderately wealthy country if you cannot travel without aid. Yes, there are assistance programs. No, they are not good. Some people will get some care. Most get nothing. And this is a socialist state I am living in. Now imagine there's a cure, something that will help with the physical difficulties of autism, the inability to cope with noise or communicate with others.

This is not always a minor thing, and I keep seeing people saying "I have autism, I have some minor difficulty doing something, wow I am special" and it stuns me. I'm autistic. It sucks. It's not a superpower. Sure there are some autistic people who are superior to normal people at certain things, but the majority are not, and the apex fallacy absolutely applies. Being unable to cope emotionally is not a little quirk, it can be devastating. And it is certainly not just a mental condition.

And yet Leftists treat Autism as if it was a fashion statement, and you are just being mean for not accepting it. No, I think a cure could be terrific. The trouble is that how do you cure something when you don't understand it? I doubt it is just one thing - it's more likely to be a host of things, ranging from genetic disorders to gut biota issues. And the cure has to be defined. What are you curing? Balance issues? Digestive? Compulsive behaviours? Anxiety? Nothing is defined about the cure. So people are fearful of a cure, imagining the worst, and hopeful, because we have had cures or at least improvements for other conditions, conditions once just accepted as normal.

In my lifetime, people have changed from HAVING THEIR TEETH REMOVED to going to old age with their teeth. Mostly people had their teeth removed altogether, because it was assumed they would all be gone soon. And until dentistry improved, that was true!

I know very few old people who have to wear dentures now. When I was a child, it was standard.

Autism doesn’t need a cure. Capitalism does.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Dichotomies

The brain is full of bizarre little dichotomies. Like, not the ADHD "My brain will not shut the fuck UP" ones. But the ones that might ... be ... actually healthy?

Like, "I wonder but I don't really care". This one occurred to me after a pretty standard situation from Scruffman, who has finally remembered that, hey, we were supposed to have a performance review meeting, like, weeks ago. First he organised it for today at 3pm. Which I thought was shitty for me, since I had the usual bullshit amount of work to do. Then he changed it to tomorrow at 3pm, because apparently that's when there's an office free for him to use, because this shit is basically private. And either way, after bath and dinner and current allowing dinner to settle before I attempt Woodside Apartments (this is a requirement; fibromyalgia can be a bitch on the digestive system on top of everything else), it occurred to me in a vague sort of way that once again, Scruffman was going to have a meeting with me while being stared at by three plush goblins and a plush bear with equally plush armour (and pink bows), sitting on a shelf full of sourcebooks.

I mean, honestly, I don't wonder what Scruffman thinks about that. He's known my spheres of interest for a long time now. Hell, there were a few times when he was sat more or less between me and this one consultant who was really into video games - once when he was waiting for his PS5, once when Baldur's Gate 3 hit open access, and a few times on Video Games In General. He also remembers the conversation I had with another one of the consultants about Japanese and Korean horror, and with Sunshine before she left about D&D - her through Stranger Things, me through Critical Role and ... well, playing it.

No, it's Goblin I wonder about. See, when we have staff meetings (they're rare, but they happen), Scruffman kind of has to host two, poor man. One with the people who actually share the same office space with him ... and a separate one for the two of us who don't go anywhere near the place, ever. Now, Goblin generally has a plain wall as a backdrop. Nothing on it, just ... a wall. Pretty shade of blue. Scruffman, of course, has the office. And me? Plush goblins, plush Trinket, and shelves of 5e sourcebooks. And, like, Goblin doesn't seem to like anything. I have never seen her enthusiastic about anything, ever. Hell, I haven't even seen that woman smile. She has the approximate whimsy of bread mould, or so it seems. So it occurred to me to wonder what the hell she thinks of getting stared at by plushies and colourful books?

I did ask myself if I actually cared about what she thinks, and after a moment's thought ... no, I don't, really. I'm not going to torture myself over it, that's for sure. I don't care if she likes me or hates me as long as she does her fucking job (and I'd care a whole lot less if she did her job properly, by taking some of the word salad once in awhile). I don't have to share the office with her anymore. She's not bitching about me behind my back the way she used to. Whatever, y'know?

So I honestly don't care. I'm just ... curious, because it seems so far outside the realm of her experience. Like, it's fun shit. I don't know what she considers fun shit. I don't even know if she considers anything fun. I hope she does. I hope something makes her smile. Everyone deserves to. Even Goblin.

And as for me? I get to grin a little inside as Goblin gets stared at by ... loveable goblins. Because I will never tell her what I call her.

Anyway, point is that I have a performance review meeting tomorrow and Scruffman's going to have Trinket staring right at his face. Yay!

[the-firebird69]

There's a few other things to mention just got to get going it's buggy but really we are in the middle of reporting but it is buggy that's terrible but

-we took over three more companies that are size Arco number 10 we have 53% control share and we are moving on it we have to secure everything also it's a company that was similar to Spags similar to Sam's no it is Sam's also club and really there's some changes to make it's a wholesale club the membership should mean something different memberships should mean something they set it up so you just get some perks and that's it but it should be about sales so this cell phone shopping off or Costco kept going and they almost failed completely and that's why we bought it and how there's about 10 companies to get their stuff there for resale and we don't mention who and they're saying we were going to switch if you don't change it we do volume we should be rewarded and it's true so we're having meetings and we're going to switch we did call them but nowadays everything takes but seems like forever so that pulling on a little but you can't hold on for too long the changes in the structure will help a regular membership is $60 a year you get some discounts it's not that great so he says to get some discounts and they're not bad but he said you should have like a individual membership and make the $60 one like a family membership or it would be like you would call it the head of household or caught the family membership you don't have to have a family but the regular one would be like $25 or something like standard individual and it's just so you can go in there and buy a regular price and people will do that it's a big step for the family would be cheaper rice and you can get meats a little bit cheaper and veggies cereal and that's the way to do things so we're going to try setting that up

-another company that we're looking at it is pretty big accidental petroleum and it is a concern that has multiple companies in it and out of the companies in it and they're about 5:00 this one that is pretty big it's not Arco and it's Cinco and we are going to have that tomorrow and also don't petroleum we have about 49% and we anticipate having it tomorrow there's a few other things too that are for sale but it means that we need people and we need to hire this other things that are rolling pretty quick these are very big companies

-in addition to these industrial companies there's some commercial firms in the retail we have several companies that do logistics one of them is Cisco and they organize trucking for food and other things and they arrange the shipments all over the world and it's so you get your food and stuff on time and in shape and we want that to happen everybody does we are at 49%

-huge company big huge reason to buy it it's agracorp and they do things with agriculture Farmers hire them to fix places we're going to have huge contracts we already have systems we have sales going out and we're going to hire just millions and millions and millions of people a day or probably a lot more than that and to go implement things it's not funny at all this is a disgusting time we need to set up tons of digesters really the design to Tommy Allen is going all over the world and it's a huge tank and that's all it is and he says he wants to design fee and our son says no I want to design fee and yeah is insane that so our son says what you do is you design equipment you probably have it or you relabel it and you say it's A t Allen or something like that or a Tommy truck and he says great and then you say these are the equipment and pieces I use because I designed it and made it and so he's already done that no but he has made new equipment for it and it works great and people want to buy it already so he's going to start selling probably on the island first of course I'm going on shortly

-a couple other things we see animals that are in distress and they're hurt and need help but nobody is attending to them and it's not good it's having to people too but really we need in the hospitals that's what we need he said we'll build a few and renovate them and that's how you get in for girls they have to experience it all day and we have contracts coming that's another thing Turner and training are still only a couple points away and they're holding out so there's some people that want to still work there so we're going to make some deals and we know what to do. Do they have these cards we can make a deal to do a project or two and buy stock and they're probably going to sell it anyways and we're getting phone calls now and no but we probably anticipate them here's some other ideas so you guys probably like

He's going to get up and go we have more to announce and we'll get to it momentarily

Thor Freya

I'm going to the war room right now

..

Good

Olympus

Kind of working on your electric car idea you had with BG and he is dragging his feet and what you said is to make an electric car it looks like one you have the perfect car and it's true these ones look zippy but crappy the normal is awful I know it kind of car that is so we're going to try and find it

Thor Freya

[graycoin]

Okay. Okay, I've got my detective hat with a pink bow on, let's take this panel by panel.

Panels 1 (I know this one is segmented for artistic effect, but let's just pretend it's one panel.) Morpho thinks that something went wrong with whatever process resulted in Starstruck? Specifically, that she's almost unrecognizable from...whatever she was? Whatever she's supposed to be? Was she supposed to look like what she used to be, or...is she just deviating from a standard? Either way, she's not what Morpho expects.

Panel 2

Morpho is equally surprised that he recognizes her, seemingly. He doesn't see many of what Starstruck...is? That is bolded, but I'm not quite sure how to read this dialogue - Morpho's got a lot of thoughts, and isn't expositing in an easily digestible way.

Panel 3

Okay, this is interesting. Popstar is a she? Or...something in Popstar? Something that would make something in their image...and end up with a Waddle Dee, of all things? Or maybe this goes deeper than appearances...

Something that might hope Starstruck could be...a Waddle Dee? Normal? Part of the group...? This entity hoping Starstruck could be what she is implies a...whole lot of things, potentially. A relationship, emotional investment, a desire for Star to be something specific...maybe not be something else?

Panel 4

Or maybe it's just been a long time. Eons since something like Starstruck occurred, apparently. Eons for an immortal being. It must have been a very, very long time indeed since something like Starstruck happened, if this is the case.

Panel 5

By Nova, she's of the Joestar lineage...! (We now know what's under that bow! It's...a star. How apt, really...but is it a birthmark, a scar? It's kinda dark at the tips...)

(Is she the last one? Were there more? Was this...this more frequent, before? Does there being only one now, after so long, imply an ending to...whatever process made Starstruck what she is?)

Panel 6

He can't let himself be afraid. Even if he doesn't know...

...assuming Morpho is referring to Starstruck here, that implies he uh...cares a lot about whatever process made Star. It's a miracle this happened?

(Shoutouts to how splayed out they are. Reminds me of the sleeping animations in Forgotten Land. Also shoutouts to Morpho's menacing shadow...)

Panel 7

...which of course wakes Bandee up. Heroic instinct... T_T (Or maybe he just remembers that one possession AU and isn't about that life, thank you very much)

And Morpho doesn't like not knowing...wonder what he's doing to dip his feet into, to find an answer?

Conclusions!

...man, a ton gets implied about Morpho's relationship with...whatever made Starstruck. It really, really makes me wonder what his emotions are towards Star herself...I imagine they're quite complicated.

Miracle. Phantom. Magic...miracle seems obvious enough, phantom...phantom of the past, for Morpho? Magic...well. All of this surely involves some kind of magic.

But it must involve it in an important way, specifically, to qualify for the prompt. How interesting.

(Shoutouts to the last line. Space for all your phantom limbs, what a raw fuckin' line. Who is that talking to. Star? Does Star have phantom limbs? Is she reduced from what she was? Did she leave space for whatever she lost...)

(...that's a really raw line. Also, most critically of all?)

Bald :)

did you remember to leave space for all your phantom limbs?

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☀︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ˚★⋆｡˚ ┊ ┊ ⋆ ┊ ★⋆ ┊ ◦ kirbytober 2024 #03 ★⋆ miracle // phantom // magic

[stormoftara]

It's time for my anime of the season review! Woo!

Fluffy Paradise: An overworked office worker dies in the entrance of her apartment, which is fairly standard for an isekai. The God grants her a wish for her next life, and this poor woman reminisces about how her parents fluffy cat was the only thing that soothed her soul, wishes for all things fluffy. She is granted this wish when she is reborn in another world into a noble family and all the fuwa fuwa creatures adore her, even a very special tiger. Looks interesting! I like fluffy things 0w0

Sasaki and Peeps: Sasaki is also an overworked office worker. However he doesn't die? He does find himself in a pet store after fantasizing about getting a cat, I mean dog? He really wants that cat. However something calls out to him. He ends up in front of a sparrow, which he buys. This isn't an ordinary bird though, he's actually from another world and got trapped in this world in this bird's body. With Sasaki's help he can travel back to his own world! He's not trapped like most isekai characters, he can travel back and forth. But that's not all and everything gets very chaotic. A strange high school girl with yandere tendencies is his neighbor? He saves a woman and ends up in a strange organization? This show might be good but it feels like it's stretching itself a little thin. I hope that the future episodes slow down a bit! Also this show has a much older protagonist than usual, so I do appreciate that.

Dungeon Meshi: a story that is much like a video game or D&D. (I'm assuming the English name Delicious in Dungeon is playing off the D&D name) There is a mysterious dungeon that holds the One Piece. I mean all the riches. A team of adventurers delve into the dungeon only to be defeated by a red dragon. The reason they did so badly? They were hungry! After going back to rescue one of the character's sister before she can be digested by the dragon, the team decides to (with varying degrees of approval) eat the monsters in the dungeon. A dwarf like man sees them cooking and decides to help out. Mostly because he has way too much info and he really wants to eat a dragon. Ignoring the morals of eating something that's digesting a human, the team sets off. This show is great if you want to learn how to cook completely fictional things. I'm here to learn more about the world building! (I've actually read the manga since I wrote this and there is tons of world-building and all the questions I had were answered!)

Cherry Magic! 30 years of being a Virgin can make you a wizard?!: An actual BL??? If you liked My New Boss is Goofy from last season, you'll like this. Adachi is a virgin who gained a power when he turned 30, he can read people's minds when he touches them. He learns that a coworker likes him, but guess what, that coworker is male! Gasp! I've seen the live action of this and enjoyed it a lot! I do worry because the pacing is at breakneck speed for some reason?

Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp: If you liked Tearmoon Empire from last season and wanted more, this is the anime for you. Elise was killed for her many sins against the empire, along with her whole family. She was reincarnated in our world but decided to amend her ways and become a doctor. However, on her way to an important surgery in Germany, her plane crashes. She is reincarnated again back in her old world. How will she change her fate this time? This show looks great, I enjoy it!

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Life Married to her worst enemy: God these titles are so long. Anyway, very similar to the last anime, Rishe is the Duke's daughter. Her former engagement with the prince is broken off and she's disgraced. Banished from the kingdom, she is forced to travel the world. However, every time she dies she goes back to when her engagement was broken.  In the Sixth Loop she was killed by the prince of an enemy nation. In the Seventh Loop she meets him again, but this time he wants to marry her. What will Rishe do in her new life? Will she be able to survive this time? We'll see!

Mr. Villain's Day Off: The general of an alien army that has invaded Earth is very menacing. But even villains need a day off, and on his days off he loves to go to the zoo. The pandas are just too cute! A slice of life anime about the villains and the rangers who fight them!

Solo Leveling: Jinwoo is the weakest hunter. One day, portals opened around the world with dungeons inside. These dungeons had many dangerous monsters who could escape and wreak havoc. However, at the same time the portals opened, humans gained powers. Those humans are called hunters. Jinwoo goes with a bunch of others into a dungeon that was supposed to be easy. This dungeon has a secret though and its anything but easy. Honestly the first couple episodes should've been combined into one mega episode like how Sasaki and Peeps did. The main point doesn't come until the end of episode 2. I am excited to see more of this and along with Dungeon Meshi I see it being a big hitter of the season.

A Sign of Affection: Yuki is a deaf woman who is attending college. One day on the train, she is having issues communicating with someone who needs directions. A young man named Itsuomi helps her out and she finds herself falling for the world traveling young man. How will their separate worlds collide? I really like this one, it's beautiful and I like the representation!

[baekhvuns]

Hello! No London for me bestie, I'm not going back to the UK, I'll be in Prague actually 😂 then maybe Italy if I have enough money and energy

SM artists truly need to unonise, because Taeyeon now?! SM can't respect their older idols aka those who have been brining money to their table for years, I don't even know what's the newest groups' situation like. AND A NEW GG soon?!?!? Also where are Shotaro and Sungchan, where is their group at..... I'm so tired

CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED SHINEE'S CONCERTS I HATE EVERYTHING. At least I watched the livestream 😭 and everyone was there, Jongin </333 Okay, love my 5th gen rookie Shinee <333 Hard is very "current bgs sound" it does sound like Nctee a little bit, but the vocals!!! Sounds like a banger tbh, it's not too weird so I can digest it quickly lmao. I like when Shinee is having fun, even though it may not be my fave TT from them, I feel like I may like it more than DCM. The MV was very NCT, perhaps not my fave, SM is a hit or miss with their music videos. Anyways, it's very 1st gen, got some Seo Taji and the Boys vibes. BUT THE BSIDEEEEEES!

It's frustrating because KQ can put so much thought and creativity into the lore, the MVs got so much better too, but the photos? And why do they only post one for each concept, Hybe drops 2737272 photos and they're usually really cool.

Shinee's concepts may be simple, but the Thom Browne ones are very aesthetically pleasing and the NCT-esque ones are fun too, because the pics are dynamic despite the boring background. Love all the boards you've prepared! I actually bought some more SM albums, particularly NCT's and Aespa's (I know, fuck SM, but I got a good deal) and the photos?! WOW. The issue is KQ is scared of taking risks, they can't commit fully, even the outfits for this comeback, we thought we'd be getting Yeehawteez, but it's so half-assed and we're back to fucking bikers and bodyguards, lol. And I'll never understand why they had funky hair colours for Halazia and not this. And now Jongho is purple??? A bit late, mate. I genuinely think the hair could add more quirkiness to the concept photos

(I appreciate the idea of combining regular photos with manhwa concept, but not sure about the execution https://twitter.com/zhouang/status/1671524592387596288?t=OtcpMguvP4yo722xCzVnWg&s=19)

I know we're in the cyber post-apo world and they probably won't be back to the sea y'know, like pirates, but if we ever actually get the sea concept. A.C.E are truly the standard https://twitter.com/sehyoonshoney/status/1661359705506164741?t=B4l7FsVLKDdePdTlMwOTlQ&s=19

Seriously??? The man is trying and yet https://twitter.com/hwalilac/status/1672083626736095233?t=7QYMQFWYXUf3LPgcWGdZTw&s=19

Yes, Outlaw just like Movement is very cohesive, but I feel like that kind of cohesiveness is overrated and a bit too much. The songs blend in, I don't know where one ends and another one begins, and they're STACKED with noise and switch ups, so listening to the whole thing from the beginning to the end is a lot. ZFP1 is a cohesive album, it fits the late summer vibe, yet each song is very different. I'd say ZFP3 is similar. I just wish they let Jongho's voice rest, the amount of high notes *sigh* I think it's Wake Up? He straight up yells, and listen I'm an opera lover, but this isn't it ://// Edenary is pissing me off a bit, ngl...

Sorry, everyone's meeting Yuta except you 😭 the same friend of mine met Taeyong twice, once he walked past her on the way to Loewe's show (and girl lost her earring), then gave her his autographs after the show.... 😭 and hold on?! https://twitter.com/mintmag_th/status/1672549191372124170?t=YYeGI5dSL65PF-FbjGREnQ&s=19

Ok but 127's line up I just.... gonna say something possibly controversial, but I don't think it's that unpopular: Haechan should be in Dream only and Mark in 127, they're already overworked. I love TY and I know why he's the center, but putting my bias aside I feel like sometimes his time could be given to someone else, same with lines. Or maybe if they had a proper 3rd rapper, not Jamal, he needs to sing! And not Johnny - bless him, but he's not a rapper, sometimes they make Yuta rap and I can't even... Wait, did you hear this cover Yuta did? https://www.instagram.com/p/Csi1KVEo5_3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== I really like the original and I can't believe he did that 😭 my jrock loving ass was shook

Troye?! https://twitter.com/5ugaring/status/1672121681866014721?t=ZJtmpVafz1VTQsiqupEsdQ&s=19 why are you everywhere jgdhahajshdhahshshs he got Taeyong too 🥴

Uncle Hwaaaa! Oh to be a little kid and paint Hwa's toenails and run around carelessly ajhdhshdhahshsjshsshhaag and what's with all that kids content? Rip to y'alls ovaries or something 🤭 it's just like that one kindergarten teacher Seonghwa fic I once read

HAVE YOU SEEN A MAN SO BEAUTIFUL LIKE I'M SO DAMAGED YET HEALED BECAUSE OF THESE PICTURES LIKE?!?!?! https://twitter.com/pseonghwapics/status/1671800295607730176?t=WK-G9vQ55AbTm_2jkdGUCg&s=19 AND https://twitter.com/nobodylikehwa/status/1671662936652120067?t=rS8KzmH1gZC9GlxamGwjCA&s=19

BITCH THESE PHOTOS I- https://twitter.com/aurorahopee/status/1672552412383531008?t=BUwMKD8sfT3Xcp7IZ9YUfA&s=19

The Titan situation is sad, but at the same time, why do people do that? It didn't sound safe from the beginning, like leave the Titanic alone...and now they shared the same fate, the 19 year old shouldn't have been there... :/ ofc it's an awful thing, if they were even alive up to this point, imagine waiting for your death. But also MONEY TRULY MAKES PEOPLE GO FUCKING DERANGED WTF

Heeeeeey, See You in My 19th Life drama!? I totally missed it. Also started Bloodhounds, it's so sad, but wholesome too and WDH is so good, I missed him

Do the quiz Baek, I got Ricciardo lmao: https://uquiz.com/quiz/V6eoyv?p=983346

????? Wow https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/14imekp/former_miss_a_member_jiaformer_fx_member_amber/

And yet another Min Hee Jin controversy, I hate her so much. But I hate the defendes even more - DV 💖

hello!!!!

Hello! No London for me bestie, I'm not going back to the UK, I'll be in Prague actually 😂 then maybe Italy if I have enough money and energy //// SM artists truly need to unonise, because Taeyeon now?! SM can't respect their older idols aka those who have been brining money to their table for years, I don't even know what's the newest groups' situation like. AND A NEW GG soon?!?!? Also where are Shotaro and Sungchan, where is their group at..... I'm so tired

hello!! u escaping london three times i know why, u don’t wanna see the treble winners celebrations i get it 🤚🏻 OOOOO IN PRAGUE??? ITALY???? PLS FBQKDBWK LIVING THE ACTUAL LIFE !!!!! live ur old money in italy, wine and cheese and fruits (im sorry but what is that combo??) no bc taeyeon and everyone need to unionize??? fifty fifty also suing their company + IU fans sending trucks to her company??? is this truck season 😭😭 sm truly never lets their groups hit their peak and keep hitting it and make them bigger and brighter and better??? A NEW GG W SO MANY MEMBERS??? a girls generation dupe?? 😭😭 im so glad i bought nct’s resonance album bc they had everyone in it like sungchan was like jaejoong’s 4th generation,,, sm couldn’t have two jaejoong’s in one group they had to get him out 😭😭😭

CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED SHINEE'S CONCERTS I HATE EVERYTHING. At least I watched the livestream 😭 and everyone was there, Jongin </333 Okay, love my 5th gen rookie Shinee <333 Hard is very "current bgs sound" it does sound like Nctee a little bit, but the vocals!!! Sounds like a banger tbh, it's not too weird so I can digest it quickly lmao. I like when Shinee is having fun, even though it may not be my fave TT from them, I feel like I may like it more than DCM. The MV was very NCT, perhaps not my fave, SM is a hit or miss with their music videos. Anyways, it's very 1st gen, got some Seo Taji and the Boys vibes. BUT THE BSIDEEEEEES!

NAURURUEUEUO I SAW THE CLIPS AND EVERYONE AND THEIR MAMA WAS AT THE SHOW??? minho is such a dilf. JONGIN IS LIVING HIS LIFE LIKE AFTER HIS 9-5 IS DONE HE IS OUT AND LIVING and pissing armies off fhkwhdkwdk 😭😭😭AND KAI??? like i bet he’s at his 9 to 5 not knowing he gagged everyone,,, my 4th gen kings.. god and the tittle track is a mix of love shot and kokobop, how will they do the sexy without the original sexy.

HARD IS ACTUALLY SO SEO TAJI AND BOYS THEME UR SO SO RIGHT I DID A LIVE REVIEW AND I LOVED IT SO MUCH,, me listening to this all like

— they didn’t sing that much till 1:56?? when the beat went to taemin it made me realize that i didn’t hear them sing enough

— THE BEAT KIND LIKE BIG POPPA’S BEAT THE WEST SIDE SIRENY WHEN IT THEY SAY HARD LIKE MA FLOW AND BOOM ITS THAT SIREN NOISE

— DUCKIGKW EJKQHDKWHD THIS IS HIP HOP FHWKFJWK THE ENDING AT THE “KOOOO” THIS IS HIP HOP !!! WEST SIDE !!!! THIS IS SO GOOD FUCK OFF IM SO INTO THIS IS SEO TAIJI BOYS AND THE GROUP TEDDY PARK WAS IN FUCK OFFFFFF THIS IS SO GOOD RHWKDHKW my only complaint is they sand less in the first majority half aND THAT THIS WAS A VERY SHORT SONG this gotta he put on kdrama edits immediately

also did the bsides :::

juice : FUCK IT UP I LIKE U I LIKE SO MUCH SHINEE U GOT SO MUCH JUICE 😭😭 BASS???? DEM JOINTZ X KENZIE DID THIS??? FUCK IT UPPPP !!!!!!! DEM JOINTZ ILYSM

10x : oh ayo??? so funky retro piano?? WAIT OKAY THIS GOT FLOWYY PHEWW THIS IS TRIPPY current fav,, this is so chill omg a cute funky poppy song that can be played at retail stores

satellite : HARMONIES ??? classic shinee x new sm?? this is so nostalgic like it belongs in a show like stranger things omg their voices blended together is >>>

identity : MOONSHINE FUCK IT UPPPPP THIS IS SO FUN,, NAH THIS ONE WON THIS IS IT THIS IS ITTTTTTT MOONSHINE I LOVE U SO MUCH U NEVER DISAPPOINT ME 😭😭😭OH THIS IS MY FAVOURITE OHH MY DAYSS??? ONEQWW UR VOICE FHWKDHW

the feeling ; so nostalgic 🤚🏻🤚🏻

like it : oh this is kokobop album vibes,,, OHOOOO THE ANGELIC BGM,,, YES YES YES THIS IS SO SUMMERY FHWKDJWK OH GOD THIS IS ALSO SO FX CODED OMG ROADTRIP

sweet misery : oh we slow omg,, nostalgia?? almost like atz’s fever?? MY JAW DROPPED SO HARD OH MY GOD SWEET MEMORIES LINE??? OH GOD OH MY GOD THE BEAT FHKWHDKAHDKADBKADJAKJDKA THIS IS SHINEE’S FEVER,,, OH MY GODD THIS WHEJ UR ON A ROADTRIP IN A CONVERTIBLE UR HANDS OUT THE CAR AND LEANING ON UR ARMS OHHHH MY GODDDD SHINEEEEEE DECZ & BOUTIN I LOVE U FUCK OFFF THIS IS SO GOOOD IM CRYING

insomnia : oUUUUUUU ok ok it’s like ur in those edits “ur in a bathroom while the party is outside” ou key??? oHHHHHHHHH???? BASS IS CRAZY oh my god this is trippy but fun,, so lowkey,, yes. GOD THIS IS SO GOOD THIS BEAT IS BEATING LIKE NEVER BEFORE

gravity : oh ballad?? oHo oUU THE DROP omg the blueee note wowzie yes serve a calming rainy day song,, OH OH FUCK FBQMDHWK GRAVITY GRAVITY YEAH THE VOICES 😭😭😭😭😭 SHINEE I LOVE U SO MUCH 😭😭😭😭😭 this is so chill but playful,, like a kdrama song where they show a montage of them falling in love omg

my current list : sweet misery, gravity, satellite, insomnia, identity and then everyone else

It's frustrating because KQ can put so much thought and creativity into the lore, the MVs got so much better too, but the photos? And why do they only post one for each concept, Hybe drops 2737272 photos and they're usually really cool.

rIGHT??? they need a new creative director or something bc there’s soOOO much that can be done?? like give us every single penny form ur budget in that photobook,, GIVE US FILTER SOME FACIAL FEATURES need them to hire a sm creative director, i just need to see something,, ur right! hybe has great photos, sm’s 2014 era esp fs’s red tape side, wowzie like let’s get on that bar 😭😭

Shinee's concepts may be simple, but the Thom Browne ones are very aesthetically pleasing and the NCT-esque ones are fun too, because the pics are dynamic despite the boring background. Love all the boards you've prepared! I actually bought some more SM albums, particularly NCT's and Aespa's (I know, fuck SM, but I got a good deal) and the photos?! WOW. The issue is KQ is scared of taking risks, they can't commit fully, even the outfits for this comeback, we thought we'd be getting Yeehawteez, but it's so half-assed and we're back to fucking bikers and bodyguards, lol. And I'll never understand why they had funky hair colours for Halazia and not this. And now Jongho is purple??? A bit late, mate. I genuinely think the hair could add more quirkiness to the concept photos

sEE ITS MY ONE FAVOURITE THING ABT SM,, even if the photos are simple, there’s just so much to look at. like their features, the makeup, the camera angle, the bright outfits and it POPS w the shinee one esp?? LIKE it’s so simple but they make it look so like an editorial from a street fashion magazine???

(I appreciate the idea of combining regular photos with manhwa concept, but not sure about the execution https://twitter.com/zhouang/status/1671524592387596288?t=OtcpMguvP4yo722xCzVnWg&s=19) /// I know we're in the cyber post-apo world and they probably won't be back to the sea y'know, like pirates, but if we ever actually get the sea concept. A.C.E are truly the standard https://twitter.com/sehyoonshoney/status/1661359705506164741?t=B4l7FsVLKDdePdTlMwOTlQ&s=19 /// Seriously??? The man is trying and yet https://twitter.com/hwalilac/status/1672083626736095233?t=7QYMQFWYXUf3LPgcWGdZTw&s=19

when i first saw this, it remained me of exo’s power era where they implemented comic books into their concept but differently than what atz did,, theirs suits it! the green meshes w the comic style im glad there’s no cloud bubble with some random thing written in it 😭😭 UR SO TRUE ACE’S PHOTOS FOR THAT ERA WERE SO MAGICAL IT GAVE ARIEL A RUN FOR HER MONEY?? esp w those hanboks wow???? ateez doing that but in their piratey outfit, in the water like that, w like a little glitter in the water <33 SEONGHWA REALLY IS TRYING WITH THE BARE MINIMUM LIKE GIVE HIM SO SOME METAL ROD OR SOMETHING OR A BROKEN TV HE COULD LEAN ON 😭😭

Yes, Outlaw just like Movement is very cohesive, but I feel like that kind of cohesiveness is overrated and a bit too much. The songs blend in, I don't know where one ends and another one begins, and they're STACKED with noise and switch ups, so listening to the whole thing from the beginning to the end is a lot. ZFP1 is a cohesive album, it fits the late summer vibe, yet each song is very different. I'd say ZFP3 is similar. I just wish they let Jongho's voice rest, the amount of high notes *sigh* I think it's Wake Up? He straight up yells, and listen I'm an opera lover, but this isn't it ://// Edenary is pissing me off a bit, ngl...

everything u said here esp “i don't know where one ends and another one begins,” !!!! THEY ARE STACKED ABSOLUTE TO SOUND THE SAME oh ur spoke so right, zfp1 was so late summer almost autumn, it’s like each song was a different weather or season transitioning into the other,, no ur right some songs he’s just yelling, i wish to hear his softer notes where he completely breaks us,, with those almost whisper like notes OHHH IM WAITING FOR THAT DAYYY SO PATIENTLY LIKE JONGHO BREAK ME!!! sometimes his notes reminds me of winters,, sometimes there’s some similarities may b just me 🤚🏻im with u on that

Sorry, everyone's meeting Yuta except you 😭 the same friend of mine met Taeyong twice, once he walked past her on the way to Loewe's show (and girl lost her earring), then gave her his autographs after the show.... 😭 and hold on?! https://twitter.com/mintmag_th/status/1672549191372124170?t=YYeGI5dSL65PF-FbjGREnQ&s=19

NO BC IM FURIOUS GET THE FUCK OUT YALL OUT HERE MEETING TAEYONF ON THE STREETS??? the most i ever met a idol was svt being 10 mins away from me and me not noticing until they posted pictures w them stripping in the ocean. LOST HER EARRING?? gonna be a delulu and say did taeyong find it and did it become her cinderella momenf,, OH WITH EMRATA??? wait now that i think about it they kinda look alike 🧍🏻‍♀️

Ok but 127's line up I just.... gonna say something possibly controversial, but I don't think it's that unpopular: Haechan should be in Dream only and Mark in 127, they're already overworked. I love TY and I know why he's the center, but putting my bias aside I feel like sometimes his time could be given to someone else, same with lines. Or maybe if they had a proper 3rd rapper, not Jamal, he needs to sing! And not Johnny - bless him, but he's not a rapper, sometimes they make Yuta rap and I can't even... Wait, did you hear this cover Yuta did? https://www.instagram.com/p/Csi1KVEo5_3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== I really like the original and I can't believe he did that 😭 my jrock loving ass was shook

controversial but so damn talented and cohesive,, oUUU UR KINDA SUPER RIGHT i think mark fits that 127 style so much,, he brings so much spice into it and taeil easily can take over,, haechan has such a warm tone and it’s so pretty to listen to it and it somehow fits dream better?? johnny has such a nice voice like it’s so snakey esp when he said “if u happy and u know it clap ur hands” WHEWWWWW THE VOCALS ???? jamal😭😭😭 FHWKDHWK oh yuta. oh yuta that starting nOTE JUST ELEVATED ME TO A DIFF LEVEL???? SO CREEPY BUT SO PERFECT fits his scorpio so much what a talent sm scouted

Troye?! https://twitter.com/5ugaring/status/1672121681866014721?t=ZJtmpVafz1VTQsiqupEsdQ&s=19 why are you everywhere jgdhahajshdhahshshs he got Taeyong too 🥴 /// Uncle Hwaaaa! Oh to be a little kid and paint Hwa's toenails and run around carelessly ajhdhshdhahshsjshsshhaag and what's with all that kids content? Rip to y'alls ovaries or something 🤭 it's just like that one kindergarten teacher Seonghwa fic I once read

wHY IS TROYE EVERYWHERE???? MEETING EVERYONE LIKE WHAT MAGNET IS HE???? UNCLE HWA GOT THE ROWDIEST KID IT MAKES ME LAUGH BC HIS KID GOTTA BE LIKE THAT FBWNDHWKD RIP TO OVARIES SORRY IM ON MY TIME OF MONTH NOT MY OVARIES STAY SAFE THO 😭😭😭

HAVE YOU SEEN A MAN SO BEAUTIFUL LIKE I'M SO DAMAGED YET HEALED BECAUSE OF THESE PICTURES LIKE?!?!?! https://twitter.com/pseonghwapics/status/1671800295607730176?t=WK-G9vQ55AbTm_2jkdGUCg&s=19 AND https://twitter.com/nobodylikehwa/status/1671662936652120067?t=rS8KzmH1gZC9GlxamGwjCA&s=19 /// BITCH THESE PHOTOS I- https://twitter.com/aurorahopee/status/1672552412383531008?t=BUwMKD8sfT3Xcp7IZ9YUfA&s=19

he’S SO FUCKING CYBERCORE ??? LIKE KQ BE DOIKG THE STYLE WRITE ONLY FOR DAYS LIKE THIS BUT NEVER AS A FULL CONCEPT HE WOULD SLAY SO HARD OMG FHANDHKW YEAH THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE NEED

HE IS SO BOBA

The Titan situation is sad, but at the same time, why do people do that? It didn't sound safe from the beginning, like leave the Titanic alone...and now they shared the same fate, the 19 year old shouldn't have been there... :/ ofc it's an awful thing, if they were even alive up to this point, imagine waiting for your death. But also MONEY TRULY MAKES PEOPLE GO FUCKING DERANGED WTF

it really is so extremely sad esp on the 19yo who wanted to please his dad and went with him omg 😭😭😭 saw posts from ppl saying that if your death is written in the depth of the ocean, you'll rent even a submarine to reach there on time. it’s so awful knowing that they can never recover their remains bc they’re probably just nothing now,, i feel for their family especially the man’s wife who said they were having a hard time breathing just thinking about them 🤲🏻🤲🏻 i just know the father’s biggest regret was bringing his son with him,, also saw a video of a man who was supposed to be in that exact ship a week before but didn’t go bc the weather was terrible and it shows the head guy saying what was wrong, and they still went. ill link it here bc it was truly scary to watch,,, makes me think that the guy in the video who brought the wreath for the titanic, titanic took saved him in that way

and this seems very awfully familiar.

Heeeeeey, See You in My 19th Life drama!? I totally missed it. Also started Bloodhounds, it's so sad, but wholesome too and WDH is so good, I missed him /// Do the quiz Baek, I got Ricciardo lmao: https://uquiz.com/quiz/V6eoyv?p=983346

YES IT ISSS !!!! ITS ACTUALLY SO GOOD??? bloodhounds got me crying man 😭😭😭 wdh’s acting just, it’s something about his face that when he cries it PAINS me to watch,, im also vv glad he’s back! hoping he gets some big projects and picks his options wisely!!! I DID AND I FBWNFHSJ I FOT SEBASTIAN 😭😭😭 LMFAOOOO??? NOT U GETTING HIM 😭😭

????? Wow https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/14imekp/former_miss_a_member_jiaformer_fx_member_amber/ /// And yet another Min Hee Jin controversy, I hate her so much. But I hate the defendes even more - DV 💖

OH THE VISUALS??? jia’s visuals are so beautiful like wow wow wow god is a woman.

im actually so appalled by the topic, like there’s absolutely no way she didn’t know what she was doing, either she’s trying to get traction or completely ruining herself….like even the god damn names??? sure they are common but when u put them against that title track and the history??? im convinced she knew what was happening, did it on purpose for the sakes of popularity and didn’t not expect the potential boycott. in the name of art you’re using a t*rrorist aesthetic?? what a new low.

😭😭😭

zayn’s joining exo??? LMFAOOOO

and jongho is so pretty??? this hair suits him so much

i got a uquiz

did we….did we manifest this

[krispycreamcake]

If you guys don't mind me interrupting, I'd like to add onto the fact that the majority of Cordihate™ comes from her abusing Laito as a child to such an extremity and how it directly impacts his character along the way, including the relationships he's had over the years.

In a sense, the fandom hates her because she essentially "ruined" him. Yes, we know DL fans are major hypocrites at times, but I feel like they don't understand what they're inferring when you hate on a character that's an abuser, but then forgive another character that's ALSO an abuser.

Trauma and abuse can never be equal, ever. You can always have similar experiences, but it's never truly the same.

So while it's unfair to pass judgement onto one character and not the other, it's also unfair to hold two characters to the same exact standard in terms of who's worse than who.

An example I can think of would be Christa. I'm drawing reference to her and Laito in this case because they both have similar traumatic experiences.

Lots of people love and often forgive Christa for what she did to Subaru because of the unfortunate circumstances she was put through.

However, personally, and let me say this again, personally, I don't think we should. At least I don't.

Yes, she was mentally gone and physically and emotionally broken, yes none of that was her fault, but like it or not, she raised Subaru to literally hate himself when guess what, none of this was HIS fault either.

Compare this to Laito. Laito suffers everyday because of what happened, and a lot of people forget that being promiscuous can be a form of self harm. Which is exactly what he does.

Now do I think the DL creators were really specific about what implications they made with their characters and how this could represent a real person?

Meh.

I think they did it because it's a backstory that people will use to redeem his character.

Nevertheless, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen irl and that we can't speculate that Laito's character is representative of this specific genre of victims.

Anyways back to my point. Laito and Christa, both very similar trauma, two completely different reactions to it and different reactions from the fandom. Trust me, I know some diehard Laito haters.

Why is it that Laito and Christa can be forgived, but Cordihate™ is so rampant? All three characters have reasoning to what they did/do. Not saying it's good reasoning, but a reason is a reason no matter the occasion.

If anything, Laito directly inflicts his past traumatic experiences onto his prey as a means of comfort or power since he lacked the two growing up.

Cordelia was groomed at a young age and by then her perception of love was already warped and twisted. The mistreatment of Karl didn't make it any better and in a desperate last cry for attention, she did something horrible to her own son.

Christa, similar to Cordelia was neglected and abused by Karlheinz. Whether it was for his own satisfaction, or in the name if research and power.

These three are ALL victims, so why do we lend an ear to some and not all? How willing are we as a society to accept the fact that there can be no "perfect" victim. They all hurt and abuse others, all three of them.

We sympathize with some characters because "oh no, they've been hurt in the past". But what about the people that THEY'RE hurting? Trauma is a cycle and it doesn't stop with the abuser.

DL is an inherent gateway to controversial and more challenging topics that are hard to digest.

Was Cordelia justified in her ways? No. Was she overlooked as a character and not given a chance to be understood? Yes. You can understand why a character does the things they do, without endorsing it or even agreeing.

Was Laito justified in HIS ways? No. Was his trauma an excuse to hurt others? No.

So someone please tell me, why the HELL do we not think about Cordelia in the same manner.

Yes, I get it, she's not around very much in the game to expand on, but her impact was extremely significant, and that alone should have warranted an equally in depth analysis of her character, the same way we do with others.

Anywhoooo, point being, they're all horrible people whether you like it or not. And while you can't ever hold them to the same standard when defining their actions as good or bad, we can certainly see that it simply doesn't matter. At all. Ever.

So yes, I hate Cordelia, but she's no different to Laito. And while we shouldn't compare them side by side and pick out where their trauma is an indicator of whether or not they should be redeemed (none of them should), it's hurtful to SA victims to say THIS is what makes a valid victim, not THIS.

while we're on the topic of how dl fans like to ignore how actually fucked up their favs are can we also talk about the double standards they have especially with characters like cordelia. like when are ayato and laito stans gonna stop being so scared to talk about how they aren't any better than her?? and i'm saying that as a diehard ayato stan lmfao like laito could literally be a serial rapist and ayato is one of the most physically and emotionally abusive boyfriends you could have 😭 this has always bugged me so much not the hating on cordelia but how people never hold the diaboys to the same standard

[I was gonna answer this yesterday but I forgot 💀 sorry anon]

I think I talked about something like this before on here a few years ago and my opinion hasn't changed much or at all, so basically my thoughts are:

You're obviously correct about how horrible those two are and I personally share your opinion on them not being better than her.

That being said this is an otome game and the focus is on the LIs so I'm not really surprised by the double standards or favoritism, I feel like that's just a standard reaction to any main characters in any fandom (whether those main characters are good or horrible people). The diaboys are basically there to be romanced/thirsted after by the group the game is targeted towards to (masochistic women) so of course the fandom is going to care more for them than cordelia, or any non LI character. Plus all of the other family members of the boys are kinda made to be antagonists in the game (even tho the boys are not any better) so it's really a matter of perspective. The boys are main characters in their respective routes and we find out a lot about them so it's easier to sympathize. Like we see their thoughts and personalities way more than those of the mothers or karl so it's easier to care. It's just that the antagonists are not as complex. [Not that I believe that the LIs themselves are too complex even tho a lot of the fandom would disagree, but rejet has to many changes from game to game for the characters to be completely consistent, plus the plot has more holes than a fucking swiss cheese. But honestly it doesn't matter, this game's in not really a philosophical work on the consequences of child abuse it's just a thrasy otoge about vamps]

What I have a problem with is when they try to pass some sort of moral judgment. Like the LIs are literally not better that most of the antagonist and "they changed" is not a valid argument (and even when they change they're still not really good partners by any normal standards). Plus the only reason they changed is because of yui/mc, so who's to say that the other charas would not change too if they had someone like her?

I think the other reason it's so hard for people to like karl and the moms, specifically cordelia, is cause the bad shit they did was towards their own family, so there's the added factor of "damn they were that horrible to their own blood" and I totally get that, but.....when you remove those feelings and look at it a bit more objectively, the damage they did to the other sacrificial brides is not any better, honestly some may say it's even more cause they straight up murked them. like they're dead, gone bro. no returning lmao.

But I guess my overall opinion on the topic is that I don't care that much.

Like obviously I wish more people would openly talk about how truly morally corrupt and disgusting the boys are and just admit that they like them as that cause this is fiction and it doesn't matter. And obviously I see the fans who refuse to as hypocrites, but also I just don't wanna try to change anyone's opinion. If someone tries to tell me one is way worse than the other and I can't like who I like I'll just tell them to fuck off my blog and keep it pushing.

Sorry for yapping, I just wanted to say as much as I can about this cause I will most likely not be answering anything about this topic again. Not because I minded this ask, but because I think there's no need to repeat myself any further, plus I do feel like the fandom has gotten a bit better now in regards to this matter then it was before. I remember seeing actually insane people in this fandom back in 2015-2019. I'm old (22)

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

So I've read some of your older posts and see that you've mentioned Taemin a few times. I know these are your Bangtan thoughts but could you elaborate on your love for Taemin? If it is love or whatever it is that you have for Taemin.

Anon 2

Hi, BMT!

I don’t really have a BTS-related question, but anyway, I just realized Taemin has only a little over a month until he’s discharged from the military and I’m so looking forward to his comeback ?What are your favorite Taemin songs (Shinee, too, while we’re at it)? I loved ‘Advice,’ it honestly was probably one of, if not his best banger (I might even go out on a limb and suggest it’s one of the best K-pop songs I’ve ever heard), and he dropped it and was out. I can’t wait to see what he does next!

In Taemin's case, I'd say it's more about admiration and appreciation for what he does. Of course I like the personality and entertainment part of his job as an idol but the artistic side is what grabbed my attention and that stuck to me.

It's easy to see how involved he is in his solo career because he has a vision. One that can be observed throughout his albums, and not just once. Yes, different concepts, but there's also an overall theme that encapsulates his entire work. To me, that shows not only his individuality and creativity, but also that there's something of substance there and not just aesthetics. All you have to do is listen to his albums and watch all the music videos and you would be able to observe an evolution as well in terms of complexity and usage of the visual medium. Taemin was in film school and he's also a film buff and that shows as well in his concepts. Criminal is a good example here because he was partly inspired by The Devil's Advocate. I know it sounds biased because I come from a film background as well, but it's not just about that. I like how he takes inspiration from various mediums and arts in order to elevate his concepts. And he's deeply involved in the process making, on a technical level. Not many are doing this.

And lastly, I appreciate the way he is able to talk and articulate the concept behind his albums in terms of music, lyrics, visual elements and detail explanation of his movements in choreography and what each represents and the message he sends out. I think that really set the standard for me when it comes to idols talking about their work because it showed that it's possible. And it's not like Taemin's themes are very easy to digest and just cutesy pop. There's a lot of commentary there on gender, sexuality, relationships, even his catholic background. And still, he is able to talk about it in a way that sounds meaningful. It's not about revealing everything that is inside a person, but about knowing what to say in order for the audience to understand if they are willing to.

As to the second ask, I'm excited for him to be back, it feels like ages, but it's almost there. I think the first comeback will be with SHINee in May so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm going to end this with a list of a few of my favorite songs and my choice here is influenced by the music video as well.

[clairecrive]

Hello beautiful person! Do you take requests which ask you to write a second chapter for your writings? If you do, may I ask a second chapter for "Rare"? And if you don't could you please let me know so I can be careful for another time when I ask a request?

I hope this is not something that disturbes or irritates you. I love your writing, it is beautiful and sometimes I read your pieces over and over again. 😁

Thanks for blessing us with your writing. Have a nice day.💕

A/n: First of all anon, thank you so very much for your sweet words! They mean the world to me <3 Also, your request could never irritate me! I love them and I love the fact that you consider me half a decent writer enough to send me your thoughts <3 I'm sorry it took me so long to get around this but I hope you like this and are still around to read it x

I've decided to pair it with a request for juicy time with Eddie. there's no actual smut but it's suggestive let's say.

Warnings: bit of angst, fluff,

Word count: 2.4K

Tags: @mollybegger-blog, @evelynshelby, @br0ck-eddie, @fandom--0verdose, @shadow-of-wonder, @innerpaperexpertcloud, @sopxhiea, @fuseburner, @for-bebbanburg, @crazyclownchick ( fill in this form to be added to my taglist)

Part 1

TOM HARDY MASTERLIST

You weren't exactly new to heartbreak. You had been a teenager after all but your experience with adult relationships had not been that good either.

You knew that you'd be over Eddie even if it may take you some time. It's true that you had only been dating for a few months but you had really grown attached to him. It was one of the things you hated about yourself: the way you got attached way too soon, way too much.

Especially, in this case, seeing as Eddie hadn't been 100% in it in the beginning you had hoped that the more time you'd spend together, he'd see that you weren't so bad and that he'd grow to care for you. At least a little bit.

Turns out you were wrong.

As much as you hated being wrong, the thing that hurt you the most was that despite your best efforts, Eddie still didn't think you were enough for him. And how could you be when the benchmark was perfect Anne?

You stood no chance. You had been a fool for even trying. And now you were experiencing the burn for your foolishness.

This had happened often enough that you had developed a routine for dealing with heartbreak:

1) crying your heart out and indulging your sadness with whatever helped (mostly comfort food and Friends)

2) enough with indulging, it was time to pick yourself up. No more overeating although you still allowed yourself to cry if you felt like it

3) "I don't need him anyway" phase where you'd make a mental list of how your life was before and after whoever you had broken up with to remind you that they weren't as important as you made them out to be

4)"put yourself out there again" phase where you started going out again with the intention of meeting new people or simply having a good time.

As of this time, you were in phase 3. You noticed that there were some of Eddie's things littering around your apartment. So, you picked up a box and collected them with the intention of returning them to him, effectively closing this chapter. As you did, you made that aforementioned list. This time, with the added reason for your break up, it was a bit easier to remind you why breaking up had been the right decision.

When your hands closed on your favourite hoodie of his though, you couldn't help the pang in your heart as a flood of memories hit you.

You and Eddie doing a Friends marathon every Friday night.

Eddie giving this hoodie when you were sick because he knew how much you liked it.

Eddie taking the hoodie off for a whole other reason almost ripping it...

No.

Shaking your head, you pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on the task at hand.

Enough of that. It was over.

It was only a week later that you finally got the time to come around Eddie's apartment. Sure, you could have called him, he could have come himself to pick them up or you could have dropped them at his job but that would have required you to call him. And recalling how that went last time you tried to reach him you decided you'd spare yourself the humiliation of him not ghosting you again.

Taking a deep breath, you straightened your shoulders and knocked on his door.

"Y/n." You were met with a dishevelled Eddie.

He looked like shit but what's new with him. He also looked very surprised to see you at his door and you also couldn't blame it for that. You would have reacted the same way if the roles were reversed.

"Hi, Eddie," you hated your treacherous voice that wobbled when you spoke. Clearing your voice, you tried again.

"Sorry to come here unannounced. I've found some of your stuff in my apartment and I thought you'd like to have them back." You explained as you handed him the box, his eyes taking it in for the first time.

"Oh," he paused as he considered your words. Was that disappointment in his voice? "Thank you, y/n. You shouldn't have." He smiled weakly as he took the box from you, your fingers touching briefly.

"It's not a problem, Eddie. I was just passing by anyway." You and Eddie actually lived far from each other. The truth is that there was no reason for you to be in this part of town if it wasn't for him. Eddie knew that but he was kind enough not to point that out.

He just nodded, accepting your words as he held the box close to his chest.

You awkwardly stared at each other for a while, you didn't know what to say but neither of you wanted to end this exchange quite yet. When you felt that you had been standing like a fool in front of your ex's door, you went to leave but Eddie beat you to it.

"So how have you been?" Your first reaction was to scoff at this attempt of small talk. Neither of you was very good at it. And truthfully, it was rich coming from someone who had not made any effort to keep in contact with you even before your breakup.

The scroll of your shoulders was the only answer Eddie got. You weren't in the mood to pretend nor did you want him to know how you were still suffering for him.

"I should ask that to you." You reverted the question to him. He really didn't look well.

"yeah, it's been a rough couple of weeks," he confessed scratching the back of his head.

"That, I don't find it hard to believe," you hummed as your eyes took him in, really took him in since you knocked at his door. You could also see behind him that his apartment was a mess.

"Yeah, don't have to worry about me though. I'm fine."

"Of course." You nodded at his dismissal, remembering harshly the situation you were in."Well, I'm going to go now. Take care." Cold but still polite you turn around, ready to put this -Eddie and this exchange- behind you.

"Y/n, wait!" he called when you were about to climb down the staircase. "Do you want to have a drink or something?" Stay for a while? he meant but didn't dare to say.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Eddie." You called over your shoulder, hand still on the railing.

"Please, I owe you an explanation." You didn't know if it was the desperate note in his voice or the fact that he really looked like shit but you turned around almost convinced.

"Don't you think it's too late for that, Eddie?"

"Maybe it won't change anything between us but you deserve to know." You knew Eddie and you knew how much he cared about transparency and honesty. This may not mean that you were going to get back together but he was right, you deserved an explanation.

"Okay," you agreed as you walked back and then into his apartment. Eddie closed the door behind him and set the box he was still holding down behind the coat hanger.

The sneak peek you had before was definitely right: Eddie's apartment was even messier than usual.

"Why does it look like a tornado hit your home?" You couldnìt help but point out. You knew Eddie wasn't that bothered by tidiness but this too much even by his standards.

"That would be my fault," a new voice answered you.

At first, you didn't register the difference in tone or accent even though you should have had because Eddieìs voice wasnìt that low or raspy. But then a black tendril entered your vision field catching your attention making you turning your head to better inspect it.

What.the.fuck??

"Eddie?" You asked perplexed, eyes fixed on this thing? even if you were addressing Eddie.

"Y/n meet Venom, Venom meet y/n." He gestured awkwardly with his hands.

"It's so nice to meet you, Eddie's always thinking about you, you know? It's a bit annoying." this time the voice didn't come from a tendril but a face. A fucking alien face with long sharp teeth and wide white eyes.

His words went straight over your head. How the fuck was this true? What were you even seeing? Did this thing come from Eddie's body??

"Fuck, I know I'm heartbroken but now I'm even seeing things?"

"Y/n," Eddie tried to get your attention. You thought you had only thought that but apparently, you had spoken the words. "You're not seeing things, this is part of the explanation I owe you."

"I think it's better if you sit," he said motioning to his couch when you did nothing but stare at Venom. Prompting by Eddie though, you sat down and listened as he spoke.

He told you everything. About Carton Drake about his project with aliens, about Venom and their rather troubled relationship. He even explained how Anne had got involved and how she and Danny had helped him.

It was definitely a lot to take in. But somehow, the thought that he could be lying to you never crossed your mind. The proof was right in front of you, wasn't it? Venom, as he had introduced himself, stood next to Eddie while he spoke. It had never spoken again and you were inwardly thankful for that. That he was giving you space to digest all of this.

"Why didn't you tell me when you came around that day, Eddie?" You asked once you thought you had wrapped your head around it.

"I didn't want you to drag you into this mess," he said with a shrug, head cast down he didn't meet your eyes.

You didn't know how you felt about all of this yet but you nodded anyway. Well, there was nothing you could do anymore, could you? He had already taken care of everything on his own and it wasn't like you had any right to worry about him anymore.

"Thank you for explaining, Eddie. I appreciate your honesty." Did this change anything for you?

"I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you weren't enough of if Anne meant more to me than you did. That's not true but I didn't know how to tell you that without telling you what was happening." He nervously fiddled with his fingers without meeting your eyes.

You could see his point now that you knew what happened. Still, it hurt you that he decided to just keep you out of it without a word. He could have at least told you that something was going on, that he didn't or couldn't tell you anything - not right now. You would have understood and given him space. Did he really act like this to keep you safe or was it a way to dismiss you?

"I don't know if this changes things, Eddie. You still turned up to her when a major life-threatening event happened. I think this tells me everything that I need to know." You point out after a while, eyes fixed on the end of your shoes.

"She has been involved from the moment we broke up, Y/n. Hell, this was the reason we broke up in the first place." Eddie's head snapped up at your words. He looked surprised at your words like he couldn't believe that you thought Anne's involvement had been something he had actively sought out.

"That may as well be true, Eddie but still, you didn't tell me even after everything settled down. If I hadn't come around to give you your stuff I still would be none the wiser."

"I was afraid, y/n. How could I come back to you after how much I had hurt you? 'Sorry if I went m.i.a. for a while, I was infected with a parasite who knows permanently with me?' Come on, y/n, I wouldn't take me back either." Now upset, Eddie started to gesticulate frantically to prove his point. His eyes flickered between yours, he leaned toward you, his hands a touch away from yours as if he wanted to touch you but was preventing himself from doing so.

"I'm not saying I would have believed you straight away but still- aliens are way better than self-loathing you know?" You scoff at him- why was he so upset? He wasn't the one who had been beating himself up since that fight for being a worthless piece of shit, was he?

"I know I've never done a good job at showing you but I do care about you. Deeply." Almost as if he couldn't bear to not be touching you any longer, Eddie now reached for your hands. His hold on them tightening as he spoke the words.

You looked at him for a moment. Aside from that fight, your relationship with him had been good. The start wasn't promising, seeing as he was still taken by Anne but Eddie had treated you good. He was attentive and caring in his own way. Looking back to it now, you realized that the period where you started feeling him pulling back from you was the time when this whole alien thing had started.

But now you had settled this, right? So, could this mean...

"If I give you one more chance to show you," you spoke tentatively, enthralled by the twinkle in his eyes, "do you promise me to be fully transparent with me this time around?"

"What? Why would you do that?" He looked shocked but his eyes were hopeful.

"Are you trying to talk me out of it, Eddie?" You challenged him, arching an eyebrow.

"Like hell I am." He scoffed, a smile on his lips. "Nono, of course I do. I swear, y/n. You'll never feel like you don't matter to me again."

"Good." You gave him a small smile at the gobsmacked expression on his face. Oh, Eddie...

He does nothing but stares at you for a while. Like he hadn't seen you in a while and now that you were in front of him, he wanted to commit to his memory every little detail of your face.

"So," you said after a while, "do you plan to stare at me or would you like to get a head start on your promise?" you provoke him with a suggestive tone.

Eddie's mouth fell a little at that, Venom said something to him but you didn't understand him. Shaking his head, Eddie smirks at you.

"I would like nothing more." And with that, Eddie's lips are on yours making up for the lost time.

[jonroxton]

Clois in the ep. Infamous (sm) , do you understand cloùs conversation in the barn?

it’s the climax of the episode where everything comes to a head. it’s glorious, very fast and very complex (by sv standards, maintext and subtext working over time in all these lines). and we have (literally) no time to digest any of it. not you, or me, and definitely not lois or clark. there was supposed to be a kiss, but! things! are! happening! so!

lois is about to get arrested (as she do) and she says: "without my lawyer, you're not gonna hear me so much as hiccup."

(i HAVE to start with this line bc it leads perfectly into the barn scene also. this? line???? i love it. if you get arrested, don't talk, kids! lois comes off as badass and extremely competent here and I LIKE THE LITTLE THINGS OK)

clark saves her, swooping in after her. this episode is very old school clois, with a great external threat upending their lives. their dialogue runs quickly, adding urgency. we get a lot of gems in this back and forth that first All Plot, beginning right away, but like all great scenes, it becomes about their struggle within it. how they cope with it, how they interact against such forces. scenes like these reveal character, and that’s lois as a loyal hype man a little in love, and clark as, you know, clark, always worried about destroying everything. against any other character, this scene would’ve gone a different way. but lois is all FIGHT ME COME ON, but that’s a little further down this post. 

SO. they swoosh in, back lit, hella romantic. but, you know, ppl r trying to Get Them.

"Nice interception, but you shouldn't be here. All the bloodhounds in the state will be sniffing you out."

prob the best thing about lois-knows what-if episodes is that she never quite gets over her awe in clark, but she does have a nose for reasoning things out. she compliments him AND warns him at the same time.

2. "It's okay. I know this sounds crazy, but in a few moments this will all be over."

THIS is why you barely have friends, clark. this is not an explanation! its just how he has been conditioned to answer, to protect his secret. but my brother in christ, this is lois lane.

3. "Okay, try me. My shock threshold is pretty high right now."

SEEEEeeeeee.

it’s funny that clark goes to his old ways irt explaining, when in this episode he has dumped it all on her. his kryptonian heritage and his powers and that the ppl closest to her already know. PLUS wanting HER to be the one to tell the world carries its own sub textual meaning (trust in her as a person, trust in her as a journalist, her integrity, her ability). there was a lot going on this episode, and lois is ready for more. or rather, she’s unfazed by the continuing madness.

4. “ lois, i have a ring that allows me to go to any moment in time.”

ngl, i’m proud of clark right here. it comes from two places, the old school clark, who knows he won’t have to face the consequences of actually telling the truth about all the weird shit constantly happening, and this clark that totally trusts lois and knows she can handle it. again, things are fast, and clark more easily leans into the absurdity of the truth bc lois has proven all episode she has a knack for it.

5. “i’m gonna go back to when linda lake ever wrote that article”

this little moment within the moment is truly glorious. because clark has walked away from her here, to get the ring, leaving lois speechless. which is rare and a sure sign of the apocalypse. but we get this moment of lois drinking in the new information and adjusting her understanding to just... keep going. to deduce what that actually means and why clark would do it at all. because she quickly understands and WANTS to do something about it. you can seeeeee it in her face even before she opens her arms to start a fight right then and there lol.

6. “the world isn’t ready to accept someone like me.”

man, clark has like no esteem. he has no high self-esteem, no low esteem. just like no esteem at all.

7. (ARMS WIDE) lois responds “then stay and fight back.”

bc BC even with the out of reversing time and fixing it all, lois’s first instinct is to challenge the challengers. it’s glorious GLORIOUS. even her attitude spikes.

8. “give people a chance to see who you really are.”

BC SHE KNOWS HIM AND KNOWS THAT PPL WOULD LOVE THAT PERSON SHE KNOWS. BC SHE LOVES HIM TOO. 

9. “lois, my whole life i’ve seemed different...”

here’s where the dialogue goes into overdrive, where no one is saying exactly what they want to say, but enough is conveyed to warrant a goddamn kiss, *ERICA DAMN YOU! it turns this great climactic moment into something very intimate. it’s confessionals without knowing you’re making a confession. and there’s no time at all to go through any of it!

10. “some people spend their entire lives looking for a way to stand out. to be a person that anybody would call special. when you first told me who you were, my thought was, ‘anyone but clark.’ and not because of the alien thing. i’ve known enough guys to know that you can be born on terra firma and be light years from normal.”

SHE DOESN’T EVEN CONSIDER AT ALL THAT HE’S AN ALIEN. SHE DOESN’T CARE. it’s not a factor into her vision of him. it’s not what informs her decisions about him. like! CLARK’S GREATEST FEAR! completely done away with. not a factor here! so what’s special is not what makes one different, or alien, or superpowered, but what binds one person to another. what makes one person special to another.

11. “lois, you don’t have to explain. i get it.”

DO YOU CLARK? DO YOuuuuu? it’s around right here that clark realizes what he’s losing in a lois that knows.

12. “no, you don’t. how can someone with x-ray vision be so blind? “

BC SHE’S NOT TALKING ABOUT WHAT HE IS. WHERE HE’S FROM. BUT WHAT HE DOES. HIS ACTIONS. WHO HE IS. that’s what she’s talking about, that’s what she loves about him. and it’s reflective of her type lol and those types have tells. BUT Buuuuuuuuuut something is different here.

13. “i’ve been down the hero road before. and every time i made a giant u-turn. but this. this was different.”

tell me you love clark kent without telling me you’re in love with clark kent.

14. “and this time it will be different, lois. when i do this no one’s going to remember who i am.”

 and then everyone will be safe. i want to remind everyone that every single time clark has told someone his secret they’ve either died or been severely hurt and brutalized. he has a legitimate fear. lois was about to be arrested for it. he’s protecting her and protecting the world and all that good stuff, but it’s at the expense of this stunning trust he has with lois that’s just beginning, that’s JUST started to morph into something. BUT THERE’S NO TIME. there’s just no way to explain to lois (and he wouldn’t anyway lol) how everything that’s happening is his greatest fear, how he’s dreaded this, how it’s coming true, how he can lose HER if it keeps going.

15. “and when you hit your reset button, you’re not gonna tell me your secret are you?”

“i’m sorry.”

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MOMENT HERE BC CLARK HAS HAD THIS SCENE PLAY OUT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER A MILLION TIMES BEFORE. A MILLION TIMES HE HAS APOLOGIZED TO HIS FRIENDS WITHOUT EVER FULLY EXPLAINING, COMING OFF AS UNTHINKING AND UNCARING AND EVEN CALLOUS. BUT HE REALLY IS TRYING TO PROTECT HER AND HIS FRIENDS AND HE TRULY IS SORRY. 

and something miraculous happens. something beautiful.

16. “it’s okay. why should i think i’m special? clark. i understand.”

lois is hurt, but she’s also empathetic to clark. and she lets him know. this has been lois’s way since always, she’s always been able to wave off clark weirdness. but this time she has background, this time she has a stake in it, this time she has fully experienced being on the other side of it, part of this other clark’s life. and she GETS IT. he’s hurting her by doing this, it’s hurting her visibly, but she fully gets why clark is doing this and she doesn’t try to stop him or demand more of him.

this is why clark is a little shook here. he can’t explain bc RUNNNNING OUTTT OFFF TIME, but he tries to. 

17. “lois, you don’t understand. it’s because you are special. i have to go.”

HE JUST WANTS TO PROTECT HER AND BE IN A WORLD WHERE U KNOW PEOPLE WITH GUNS WON’T COME AFTER HER JUST BECAUSE SHE’S HIS FRIEND. 

*so per some interview somewhere with an executive producer, they revealed there was a kiss in this scene, but when it came time to shoot it erica thought the kiss was unnecessary because of lois’s resilience and trust in herself and her connection with clark. and she was right. 

a kiss would’ve just made the romance of it all concrete, made all the subtext maintext secure. but what we got made the scene all the more complex on both sides. you get to chew a lot on what the characters mean with what little words and time they get, and that subtext is that they WANT to stay together, they WANT to be able to live in this world where they both know and she’s his confidante and things are good and they COULD FIGHT. it does make it a stronger scene.