#him. it also consequently explained to me why i like him so much. whenever i see him in his kindest form i see a mirror looking back

[starry-bi-sky]

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 424: Detroit Tears

Previously on BnHA: You know what, fandom is way too heated about this still so we’re just going to leave that be that for now and not get involved. I have some conflicted feelings about it, but this is not the place or time. This is a happy post.

Today on BnHA: Oh right, Horikoshi still owns the rights to my soul. And I’ve just been reminded of why I willingly signed them over to him so freely.

Quick heads up that this isn’t going to be my usual style of chapter reaction post, in that it’s really just going to be a ton of rambling about That One Scene. Partly because I’m only halfway caught up with stuff, but mostly because tbh, this is the only thing that matters to me right at this moment.

Also this is your friendly neighborhood spoiler warning that I’m posting about a chapter which hasn’t officially been released yet! So proceed at your own discretion. This reaction is based on @pikahlua’s excellent spoiler translation writeup here. I’ve officially lost all of my fucks about spoilers and it’s extremely liberating.

I’m glad that Kacchan’s arm isn’t just magically better and that he’s never going to be 100% again. and also that the doctor mentions him needing to rest his heart as well. because I did feel like there needed to be at least a few lasting consequences from him LITERALLY DYING AND UNDERGOING OPEN-HEART SURGERY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLEFIELD. but I’m also glad they established that it wasn’t career-ending or anything. he’ll probably have some chronic pain and occasionally aggravate his old injuries while fighting, all of which is great for angst purposes. but it was good to see him being calmly accepting of that while also being determined to put the work in to rehab it as much as possible.

also enjoyed the doctor summing up Kacchan’s highly improbable main character resurrection and subsequent antics as basically being some wild bullshit that nobody can explain. lampshaded the shit out of it. “I don’t really understand” lol. nobody understands. in truth it’s that his secondary quirk is bending reality to his will in order to kick ass.

moving on to the main event now! so Kacchan and Izuku’s reunion was obviously the highlight of this chapter and of my life, probably. I’m not gonna sit here and pretend like it wasn’t. y’all know how it is.

what really made this scene for me was Kacchan being more upset at Izuku’s loss than Izuku himself. all those callbacks and all that guilt. that careful selection of flashback panels. the fact that Kacchan’s past bullying of the quirkless Izuku wasn’t glossed over or forgotten, and in fact is the emotional core that fuels Kacchan’s reaction here. Horikoshi didn't have to cut that deep, but he knows what he's about.

and then the crying. I need to write a lot of words about this right the fuck now. first off, having Kacchan just flat out sob while Izuku for once is the calm one (at least until All Might goes in for the emotional kill later on), is such a beautiful reversal and really shows how far they’ve come. even better is that none of it was even remotely out of character. I’m always appreciative when an author can produce top tier emotional hurt/comfort like this and have it feel earned and authentic rather than forced. well done.

also, “Na--cchan!!” fuck yeah Izuku. we’ll never let him live this down. (but also, him later trying to reconcile his forever-tough image of Kacchan with the crying, hiccupping version standing in front of him, by blaming it on Kacchan’s weakened physical state... oh, Izuku.)

also the fact that Kacchan so easily reverts to this smol crying boy even after defeating the world’s greatest evil pretty much activated every protective instinct that I have. he’s seventeen. he’s practically a man now. he’s objectively one of the strongest and toughest people in the entire world. and yet his eyes still go so wide and his face is still so young and Horikoshi still draws him so tiny and vulnerable whenever he’s like this. goddamn gets me EVERY single time. let’s be real, it’s been this way ever since the “you looked like you needed saving” scene back in the literal first chapter. just, omg. he’s still just a kid and he’s too small to contain all these feelings SOMEONE HELP HIM.

anyway so NEEDLESS TO SAY, Kacchan full on mourning in between sobs because he wanted to keep being rivals with Izuku cut me to my core. I cried too, goddammit. because in Katsuki’s mind it’s like. he wasted a dozen years of potential friendship by being a giant asshole. and they were only able to start getting things back on track less than a year ago. and that was probably the best year of both of their lives. and that rivalry meant so much to both of them. pursuing their dreams together as equals. and he wanted it to continue!! he missed out on so much, and it was his own damn fault, and now it’s all being taken away again maybe!!

and I think it’s especially devastating to Katsuki because he was trying so hard to make up for how he treated Izuku, and then this comes along and now he’s worried it was all for nothing. he’s scared that Izuku will maybe have to quit being a hero. (we know that won’t happen, obviously, but Katsuki is living this and not just reading it. he’s never met narrator!Deku and doesn’t have the benefit of all that foreshadowing and stuff.) but even more than that, I think he’s scared that it will undo all of their progress toward mending their relationship. not because Katsuki thinks any less of Izuku now, quirk or no quirk; but because of how Izuku might feel about being quirkless again, and because of the memories it might bring flooding back to the surface. I don’t think Katsuki fully believes that Izuku has forgiven him. so that’s a major fear potentially rearing its ugly head once more now.

and of course, he’s also just sad and upset on Izuku’s behalf, because he knows Izuku is sad about it too, even if he’ll never show it and will just downplay it because of his selfless nature. it’s a major loss, and one deserving of tears being shed, even if Izuku won’t shed any of his.

so yeah. it’s a lot. in Katsuki’s mind it’s the potential loss of a partner (if Izuku quits heroics), and a friend (if Izuku does cool toward Katsuki as a result of being quirkless again), and a dream (of them reaching the highest heights together), and his friend’s dream. so it makes perfect sense that all of that would overwhelm him. all of this is stuff that’s broken him down on past occasions as well.

so anyway it’s going be very cathartic when all those fears prove to be unfounded (because they better be unfounded lol). but in the meantime it’s a very moving reminder of how much he really does care and how far the both of them have come.

also Horikoshi really couldn’t resist giving Nobu one last chance to destroy everyone when this scene rolls up in the anime. that’s so reckless of him. there will be no survivors.

All Might telling both of them they’d become the greatest heroes was also the perfect chef’s kiss moment on top of everything else. we already knew it, of course. but it was good to hear him say it. and they needed him to say it. they needed and deserved to hear it.

and I really love that the qualities he specifically praised them for were the same things that each of them had struggled with the most in their respective journeys. he tells Izuku, who had such a difficult time learning how to tell the world “I am here!!”, that he inspires everyone and has become everyone’s hero. and he reminds Katsuki, who struggled with learning how to save people, and has especially struggled with his guilt over what happened to All Might at Kamino, that he saved All Might’s life and is the reason he’s able to still be there with them. both of them just really needed to hear that acknowledgement and encouragement, and it was such a powerful passing of the torch moment. All Might gets so much shit from the fandom, but he really is a phenomenal mentor when he’s in the zone, and I’ll die on that hill.

also a nice touch keeping the focus of those panels on the two boys and their reactions. even though I would have liked to see All Might’s face when he thanked them at the end, it definitely felt deliberate. this is their moment. their soft little tearful smiles afterwards punted my heart off a cliff and then picked it up and held it gently.

lastly, let it be known that I’m still convinced Katsuki has OFA (All Might vestige explanation when??), and it’s not lost on me that that would be a mighty convenient way for Izuku to potentially still go on a-quirkin’ in the end, if that’s how Horikoshi wants to play it. I'm just saying.

also before I forget, just a quick shoutout to Horikoshi for FINALLY showing all three members of the Bakufam in a scene together in which they finally managed to not be completely dysfunctional lol. my deepest darkest BnHA secret is that Mitsuki is secretly super high up on my list of favorite characters. and she was great in this chapter, and I love how she was just “WHAT THE FUCK” aghast at Katsuki using his main character powers to continuously ignore his injuries. and then she and Masaru kind of silently agreeing to step outside the room and let the boys and All Might have their moment. while still secretly listening in. because you know they were. good for them.

lastly for reals, I just want you all to remember that as great as this chapter was, the one thing that it was STILL missing which we have STILL not gotten is a HUG. we demand HUGS. I’m not leaving this manga till I get a bkdk hug goddammit. I will stay here all night if I have to.

[bsverryin]

: ̗̀➛ Sending genshin men the wrong message.

part 1

Who?

╰┈➤ Ayato, diluc , alhaitham

situation?

╰┈➤ you sent the wrong message to your boss which was supposed to be for your brother.

✎ this is an au (diluc still has the wine Business)!! Characters is your boss who likes you secretly. ⚠️ Use of cuss words... I'm trying my best to make them character like so be nice jk <3 they are just my genshin top 3 so I made this then I can also read it myself 😭 anyways enjoy <3 cannot assure you of perfect grammar !! I like to keep it simple

: ̗̀➛ AYATO

You accidentally sent those to Ayato, your boss because you kept thinking about him and how you hate his strict side. He doesn't smile and he always looks mad whenever you don't finish on time, it was his fault for giving you so much work. If there's a time where he's good to you it's the time when you finish all the work that he assigned for you to do fast. The next day after that, he'll assign you more and more and it gets annoying knowing you have to work overtime again.

You sent it accidentally because, you weren't focused enough. You are focused trying to guess the time what time you can come home. The first person on your chats list was always your brother so you just got used to it and clicked it without looking. Now you're standing there, in his office expecting him to scream and fire you after sending him such ridiculous messages.

"So..Y/N did I really assign you a ton of work?" It was the first thing he said before firing you, or that's what you thought.

You shook your head.

"No, sir. It's not that..it's just umm, my girl days are acting up I didn't mean those I'm sorry! It won't happen again. I promise."

It was a lie but you were desperate. You didn't want to lose this job because it would be too hard to find another.

"Girl days? You could simply tell me if I'm giving you too much work, I can work on that and I understand if you're tired, but you didn't have to-" He was cutted of by you apologizing to him.

"No it's not that! I'm really sorry. I apologize. I'll take the consequences of my reckless actions." You said as you bowed to him to show your sincerity.

You took the consequences of your actions, it was just your boss giving you work but your work gets easier and less time by time, you didn't understand why of course but people are gossiping about how your boss likes you which you didn't believe at first but he becomes more gentle and gentle to you. You fell for him and when you started dating him, you found out your boss likes you for so long and was actually hurt by the wrong messages you sent, but it's alright now because you kept kissing him and telling him how much you love him.

: ̗̀➛ DILUC

When you saw that reply from Diluc, your boss. You really tried to run away and hide yourself forever. You're using your phone while working? He'll probably scream at you and fire you. That's what you thought. The only reason why you sent that message to him instead of your brother was because you're WORKING. You had to focus on making a drink first while using your phone, it wasn't allowed when your boss was there and one day he just wasn't and you thought it's okay for you to do that.

That's why, it happened. You thought your job was over and you can't do anything about it. Just by thinking what your boss would do to you when you meet him the next day scares the shit of you, well you did compliment him so you hope he'll let it slide but at the same time you also said that it was a loss. You had to go to the tavern, sleepless who looks hopeless at the same time, now you're just standing in front of your boss, diluc while he's at his chair looking really fresh and cool.

"Care to explain?, Y/N" He said, he wasn't looking at you. He's doing his work while waiting for you to speak for yourself.

"I won't do it again, it's really wrong for me to speak bad things about you when you're the one who's helping me to earn money, I'm really sorry. Sir." You said as you bowed to him, when you tried to look at him, he looked confused and stressed by just what you said.

"I'm not talking about that, Y/N. I'm telling you to explain why were you using your phone while doing your work? It's forbidden, you know that right?" Now you felt more embarrassed than you did before. You apologized for speaking bad about him but not using your phone in the middle of your work.

"It was reckless behavior that I did, sir. I'm really sorry. I won't do it ever again. I will do everything I can to assure you that."

He didn't fire you and just told you to do your work, however you couldn't focus for months because of what you did. Diluc was the one who REALLY assured you that it's fine just don't do it again. He's straight up being sweet towards you. You didn't think about it at first but you completely fell in love with him. You may have told him that you loved him when you were drunk and magically out of nowhere, you both started dating after getting drunk that night.

: ̗̀➛ ALHAITHAM

Alhaitham was flabbergasted when you sent those messages and the fact that you didn't realize it because you're that BUSY typing was something else. You just didn't mind it and waited for your iced coffee that was paid by your brother patiently, I mean you always ask your brother to deliver coffee to you so he knows what to do so you just continued your work like nothing.

How did you realize it, you ask? It was when your iced coffee was delivered by your co-workers saying that it was for you, and when you're about to thank your brother through chats you realized your boss, alhaitham was the one you messaged to deliver you coffee. It was so embarrassing but you're thankful at the same time because your boss really did buy you COFFEE but still it was straight up embarrassing making your boss buy you a coffee, so when you finished typing the files that your boss assigned you to, you immediately went to his office, he was the one who started the conversation.

"How was the coffee, Y/N?" He asked while you hand him the files he asked for. He sounded sarcastic that you didn't know what to answer.

"It was a wrong sent message sir, I'm really sorry. I can pay you right now. I'm just really sorry." It was so embarrassing for you, that you couldn't even move your body, you looked at the floor the whole time not bothering to look at him.

"It's alright, you said it yourself. I should pay more respect to my employees especially you."

You avoided your boss after that talk. You'd go the other way around whenever you see him in the office and when you give him the files he needs, you'll immediately leave. You thought you were doing very well avoiding him but destiny had other plans. Whenever you're down and alone, you just see him. You see him everywhere you go, anywhere you lay your eyes too. He just can't be avoided whatever you do. He knows what you're doing he looks like he's unbothered but he's really bothered by you avoiding him all the time, like did he look that scary to you?

Well, he found a way to talk to you and tell you that it's okay it's not a big deal and when you had that talk with him everything felt better. You felt relieved and happy because you felt like you had a beef with your boss, Now whenever you hand him the files he needs, you stay for a little talk and it becomes a hobby for the both of you, he was cold and sweet but you realized he's all that you ever wanted. When you both started dating he may have given you a new office that's very close to his so that he can see and talk to you everyday and anytime he wants.

[saruslumber-01]

Quick take on Jiaoqiu’s trailer

As always, I love to take screenshots whenever there’s some images flashing and this time, I did the same thing.

Before I actually talk about the trailer, I want to point out how (to me at least), the theme/ost doesn’t really match him. Or rather, how he appears to be.

(Imo it’s a similar case to jade’s trailer, you’d think she’d have something more… idk tempting in a unsuspecting way, like when you believe you made an amazing deal, only to later meet the terrible consequences.

Well anyway, the thing that I noticed is that both in jade’s trailer [or at least splash art and references/motifs] and in jiaoqiu’s, they hold an apple in their hand. I get why in jade, but in jiaoqiu’s? That very weird to me)

(Here you go, the moment, I’m talking about ^)

What I ACTUALLY wanna talk about that caught my attention, is the eyes we see all over the trailer.

I get it, he always keeps them closed, but from the trailer it seems it was not just a stylistic choice to make him this way, but actual lore behind it. (Ofc I might be wrong since we still know NOTHING about his backstory, and I’ll probably talk more when I’ll read his char stories after his release)

Idk, to me this feels kinda weird to get his eye to pop out like that (and it reminds me of firefly’s trailer). Not only that, but we get a moment where we see a fox spirit (?) made out of fire which is oddly similar to Tail’s ‘true’ form (huohuo ult). AND then from the fox’s eye it smoothly transitions into jiaoqiu’s eye. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

To me, it might foreshadow that the “eye thing” that is going on with jiaoqiu is becase those are not his natural eyes. Rather, they’d ‘changed’ (idk how to explain that) into the golden ones, as if he got possessed by that fox spirit (or maybe I’m just reading into things too much, who knows).

More eyes screenshots (which kinda remind me of sunday AND bring us to my next point)

What I want to talk about is the placement of those eyes.

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one who didn’t think it looked somehow familiar…

Rings a bell now?

I also ‘circled’ the flower she has on her ‘crown’ as it resembled the anise jiaoqiu uses in his skill, and ALSO popped up a few times in the trailer.

I know I might be digging too deep, but I feel there something very eerie and off about jiaoqiu as a character in story, and as a playable character.

I’m sure everyone remember how jiaoqiu’s a cook, a healer, right? Then why on earth is he a nihility unit? I’ve seen sooo many people being confused about it, and I’m sure HoYo wouldn’t mention it that much, unless it was important to the story.

And before anyone goes and says “wdym phantylia got a new victim?” NO. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m trying to prove that jiaoqiu isn’t probably just some random foxian who knows how to cook (and take care of feixiao). That there’s connections that all come back to the word “possessed”.

Tingyun? Possessed by phantylia (and spexulated to return in later versions)

Huohuo? Got her tail ‘possessed’ (I don’t remember too well, sorry) by Tail, AND in her trailer (which has a lot of flashing images and yin yang in there [I’ve got screenshots for both trailers to prove]) she is possessed by Tail, a heliobus. And what is a heliobus? Some kind of fox spirit! (Or at least I think so…)

What I’m trying to say is that there’s some kind of ‘possession’ when it comes to jiaoqiu.

(And another character that got flashing images and got possessed [outside of jade and huohuo] is sparkle! And don’t you agree that in terms of the overall vibes, their trailers does seem quite similar?)

So uh, yeah! That’s all I wanted to share.

I’ll probably do one more post for just the similarities in the trailers of jiaoqiu, jade, huohuo and maybe sparkle

Thanks for reading my ramblings and getting through to whole thing, I appreciate it a lot!

[junipernight]

Yangvik Week Day 1: Injured

@yangvikweek2024

Yangchen enveloped Kavik’s hands in water and took them in her own.

“Explain to me again where the mission went wrong?”

“It didn’t go wrong,” Kavik protested. “We got the information, and no one got caught!”

Yangchen pursed her lips. Kavik was pretty sure she’d be glaring at him if her eyes weren’t already fixed on the delicate work of healing burns. He sat very still, knee to knee with the Avatar, and let her work. 

For a moment, all was quiet, except for the muted sounds of customers drinking tea and chatting on the other side of the wall. It was crowded in the backroom of the little teahouse that Akuudan and Tayagum had opened in Ba Sing Se, especially with all seven members of the team in it (nine if you counted Pik and Pak, who were perched on Boma’s shoulders.) It would almost be cozy, having the whole team back together, if his hands didn’t feel like literal fire.

Akuudan clapped one enormous hand on Kavik’s shoulder. “We made it into the records office without any problems. But then Feishan’s guards came making the rounds, and our lookout here saw they were opening doors as they passed, which we hadn’t expected them to do. So Kavik stuck his hands into a nearby torch, and then made up a story about a rogue firebender who’d attacked him.”

The guards hadn’t even questioned the unfamiliar servant boy’s presence; he’d been dressed in the right uniform, and there was a high turnover rate in Feishan’s palace. The horrific burns had also been very convincing.

Yangchen sighed. “Was that really necessary?” 

“It was. You know what the consequences would have been if we were caught.”

“I meant, what happened to using the signal?”

Tayagum answered for him. “Our backup exit was blocked by a gaggle of court ladies shortly after we broke in. And anyway, we hadn’t had enough time yet to locate the correct documents. The whole mission would have been compromised if not for Kavik’s quick thinking.”

“I sent them on a wild pinegoose chase,” Kavik said. “I told them I was attacked by a fire bender who was 5 feet tall and one-eyed and had a shaved head. And then I said he ran towards the throne room and they booked it.”

“Do you ever come up with plans that don’t result in you injuring yourself on purpose?” Jujinta asked snidely. 

Even though Kavik and Jujinta were on much better terms these days, his old Association partner couldn’t resist getting in a jab whenever the opportunity presented itself. At least these days his weapon of choice was sarcasm instead of blades. Mostly.

“Why?” Yingsu asked. “What has he done before this?”

“When we needed to extract information about Unanimity out of his lousy brother, I stabbed Kavik, and we pretended to torture him until we got Kalyaan to talk.”

“Wow,” Yingsu said, raising an eyebrow. “That’s dark. And here I thought you were the good guys.”

Kavik and Yangchen kept their faces carefully still. Neither said anything, each still feeling guilty about the ploy for different reasons, even if it had been necessary. 

“It was his own idea,” Tayagum said, shrugging. “When we first met, I was smuggling him into Jonduri under an old crewmate's identity, but there was a last-minute change in the dock guard. We would’ve gotten caught, if this guy hadn’t purposefully ‘slipped’ and bashed his own nose in.”

“Is that why your face used to look like that?” Jujinta asked. 

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t know about that one,” Yangchen said. She stopped what she was doing so she could look Kavik in the eye. 

“The night we first met…” she began.

Kavik rolled his eyes. “I genuinely had frostbite that night, and I most definitely wasn’t aiming to get beat up by your guards. I’m not a one trick platy-pony, you guys. I don’t hurt myself everytime I run an errand. Believe it or not, I usually make a clean exit.”

“Hmmm.” Yangchen made a troubled hum in the back of her throat, and went back to healing him.

“… What kind of waterbender gets frostbite?” asked Jujinta.

Kavik’s hands were occupied, but his mouth wasn’t, and he was so incredibly tempted to spit icicles at Juji. See how he liked being subjected to surprise daggers for once.

Luckily, Akkudan spoke first. “Leave him alone, Jujinta. Frostbite is no joke. Even a firebender can get burned, even an earthbender can be crushed, and even a waterbender can succumb to the cold.” Not for the first time, Kavik wondered if there was a story behind Akuudan’s missing arm, or if he had simply been born without it. Kavik had never asked, in case it was a sore subject.

While they had been talking, the swelling in Kavik’s hands had gone down significantly, though his skin still bubbled and blistered in ways he did not like to look at. Yangchen gently set one of his hands down in her lap, so she could focus on one hand at a time for this next, more intense stage of the healing process.

“It’s always your hands,” she muttered in absent-minded annoyance. “You have such nice hands, why are you always damaging them?”

Tayagum made a strangled noise. “Nice hands?”

The question was addressed to Yangchen, but Tayagum’s expression made it clear that it was a threat towards Kavik. Any warmth the older water tribe man had cultivated for Kavik seemed to have been immediately replaced with suspicion.

The Avatar looked up in confusion. Kavik saw the moment she realized the possible implications of what she’d just said.

Boma smiled good-humoredly, “Anything we should know about?”

“I’d actually rather not hear about this, thanks,” said Yingsu.

Kavik’s face burned. Everyone noticed him turn beet red, and he noticed everyone noticing.

Yangchen spluttered. “I meant that his hands are very skillful!" Nope, that wasn’t any better. “—at sleight of hand! And- cheating at sparrow bones, and climbing, and things like that!”

Getting beat up, and cheating at tile games. Truly, Kavik had great skills that made him worthy of serving the Avatar.

Boma and Akuudan were laughing at them.

“Can we just focus on the info we stole?” Kavik snapped.

Still chortling to himself, Boma took the papers out of their folder and spread them out on the table.

The rest of the team began to read. Yangchen switched hands.

***

“Ohhh,” Jujinta said suddenly, much later. “You were implying they had sex.”

The burst of laughter and teasing and general noise that followed this statement was enough to send Pik and Pak flying.

Yangchen supposed that hiding her face in Kavik’s tunic would not help her beat the allegations.

[factual-fantasy]

23 asks! Thank you!! :}} 🎀

what

Originally I added the bandages to mirror my real hands being covered in Band-Aids when I made my sona. :0 (It was due to cat scratches and dry skin don't worry-)

Now they represent my "artist hands".... and my still really dry skin XDD

Oh yeah absolutely. His crab arm is so heavy that if he falls into the water he'll sink 😬 he cant move it fast enough to help him swim to the surface.. good thing Blue Beauty is always nearby! <XD

It also takes a lot of energy to move and he deals with sore back/shoulder muscles a lot. The way the crab arm formed, its like all the muscles in his back are used to lift and operate it. When he walks around he kind'a uses it as a crutch or a third leg. His legs each take a step and then his crab arm lifts forward and clunks on the ground.

"tap tap.. CLUNK. tap tap.. CLUNK."

Despite all this though, Louis still really likes his new arm and isn't bothered much by all the hardships it brings :)

@neo-metalscottic

Thank you so much!!! :DD I'm hoping I get over this soon 🥺

As for Grim's eyes, I mention that coloring mistake in the tags of this post. It was simply a matter of me misremembering what Gengar looks like :// But I'm thinking I'll keep his white eyes anyways. He looks a lot more friendly that way :}}

THEY HAVE SPARKS?? THEY'RE INDIVIDUALS?? I thought they were just mindless clones! Man.. That makes things in the show even darker-- <XDD

And ohhh, yeah I can see it. I wonder why they decided to add him of all characters? He does have cool shades tho XDD

@holly-opal

Yeah, that's the idea. <:/ I have yet to plan out how she died tho-

@glitchhayden418

There she is!! :DD She looks great!! :}}

And thank you, I'm hoping I get well soon too 🙂💔

She never has to stop! I've decided that my characters can eat as much as they want, whenever they want, however they want, and suffer absolutely no consequences what so ever.

Cici just seems to be taking advantage of this ability more than the others <XDD

@artblock200322022

:DD Thank you!! I'm so glad you like my interpretation of the Octonauts! :}}

@possibly-astraeus

Oof. Always disappointing to hear people finding me through stolen artwork..

But yeah, you're at the source now! :} Just remember, if you find my artwork anywhere else other than here? Its stolen ://

@shallow-isles

I simply misremembered what Gengar looks like and colored his eyes wrong :/// (I talk about it in the tags of this post) But I think I'll keep them white. He just looks so friendly and soft with white eyes.. 🥺

As for Sylveon, I like to think that tying his ribbons around others like that is his way of giving them a hug :}} Since Grim is so r o u n d, there's not many places the ribbons can comfortably tie and not be in Grim's way. His ears are the perfect spot! :}

@tallchest13-blog

THANK YOU! :D WOULD YOU BE UPSET IF I GAVE THIS TEA TO CICI THO? SHE REALLY WANTS TO TRY IT :((

@aishutoon

Ohh! They look so round and cozy!! :333

@yourstrulylightstar283 (Referencing this post)

Thank you! :}}}

@circadiananomaly (24k post in question)

Thank you! I'm hoping this is all over soon as well. :'(((

@candyglumboy

Like, my Pokémon Violet team? :0 There will not be any new members no.. you can only have 6 Pokémon in your party at a time!

...Then again there's Patty.. the Hoppip that Anastasia replaced.. I miss her.. 🥺💔💔💔

I hope I feel good too.. 😔😔😔

@graminos

:DD Thank you! I'm glad you like them!! :}}}}

(Post in question)

Me reading this ask ksjnakjn 🥺🥺💞💞💞 that was all basically on point!! :DDD

@youlikwjazz004

I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea how to explain that :'(( 💔💔

The very best I can explain my art process is; "I just.. draw it. And if it doesn't feel right, I just draw it differently until it does feel right." Its all down to muscle memory and drawing what "feels" right. I don't think I'm able to explain that-- 😭😭😭 I'm very sorry! <:'(((

@askladyinwhiteandfam

Woah! What a critter! :00 ✨✨It looks great! :DD

@square-the-cyan-idiot542

WAAAHGG THANK YIU!!!- Oh crap you ok tho--

@littlelightfish (Post in question)

:DD Thank you! I'm so glad you like him!! :}}}

@beryl-shade

He'd be amazed! :00

[soullessjack]

something i was thinking about at work is jacks insecurity about being a burden to the Winchesters + Cas and how much that fits into the autistic lens of his character. obviously it starts with the fact that Sam and Dean were essentially forced into taking care of him at first because of the circumstances surrounding. Literally everything. but it goes beyond that all the way to jack just being what he is and that being inherently dangerous.

for one thing, the bunker (Jack’s only beloved home ever)

initially, the only reason sam and dean agreed to take Jack back to the bunker at all was to safeguard the public from his then-uncontrolled powers, and in last holiday mrs butters also suggests that they’re only keeping him there so he can’t destroy anyone else like he did mary (which jack doesn’t even fight against so.. maybe he’s fine with it being that way?)

then when you come to jacks powers themselves:

they are fundamentally [part of] what makes him different. they’re part of what makes jack dangerous. he can’t have public meltdowns or show extreme anger (or even any frustration, really) without there being consequences — the consequences of someone else getting hurt-or-worse by him, and him being perceived more negatively & fearfully each time it happens. those consequences are just added to the burden jack feels he brings to his family, which breeds guilt and frustration in jack for how he feels he’s affecting them and disappointing their expectations.

this in turn is why jack is so abrasive whenever the guys try to comfort or reassure him. it’s rejection sensitive dysphoria with a little more C4 to it, basically. and speaking from my own experiences, when you’re constantly in a state of low self image or rejection sensitivity, it creates a cycle of eggshell walking and people pleasing—putting all of your focus and energy into managing the feelings of others because you assume the slightest slip-up will make them upset or disappointed or even hate you.

you react to the idea of being rejected before it even happens, and even if it doesn’t happen, because at the core of it all you already perceive yourself in a rejective way.

and that’s exactly what happened between jack and mary after he tortured Nick.

after he’s done, jack turns to mary, ‘flushed with pride’ and grinning about what he did. it was cathartic and sickeningly enjoyable to do. but when he sees the horror on her face as she just says “what did you do?” his pride ‘curdles to shame.’ he’s already sensing rejection for what he’s done, and tries to justify it to mary, and somewhat console her; Nick was a killer who deserved it, and Sam and Dean would’ve been grateful for his death. if Mary thinks something is wrong with him for what he did then she’s the one who’s wrong, actually.

mary (honestly god bless her for still being sympathetic & patient with jack after that) just gently tries to tell him: “something’s wrong. it’s not your fault. you just need help and we’ll help you because you’re family and we love you,” but all jack hears is “something is wrong with you and it scares me. YOU scare me. I’m going to tell the others that something is wrong with you and they’ll be scared of you, too.” **

I don’t think i need to explain in-depth how jack loves his family a very normal and healthy amount, but suffice it to say that he’s established to have a deep fear of, and inability/unwillingness to accept, losing them. he can’t think about it because he hates thinking about it. he’d do anything for them (like self sacrifice or slowly burning a man alive) and to be with them again (like necromancy and unleashing biblical plagues upon nonbelievers).

so when jack perceives that the Winchesters would reject/hate/fear him because of what he did to nick—because there’s something wrong with him—he starts spiraling right there, and he can’t accept that Mary still loves him and wants to help him; he doesn’t even think he can be helped. he can’t deal with any of the rejections he’s perceiving and just wants to be left alone…..

I was going to try and reroute this post back to the whole burden thing, but it’s 3am and I’m losing my train of thought. TLDR i just think it’s very autistic for jacks nature to be narratively framed as both a burden and a threat and also something that just wants to be loved for what it is even though it knows it’s difficult ……. yeagj

**additionally i think he does the same when Rowena refuses to help but I’m getting too sleepy to write that in

Goodnight everypony (<__>)

[kiriwiwii]

i REALLY need to rant about eichi right now.. cuz im soo tired of people not understanding him at all.

i hate how this fandom acts like he is the ONLY bad person in this game. i mean, he is not a "bad" person but he made a lot of mistakes in his school years and his methods were cruel, i know. but,, most of the enstars characters did bad things. it's just how the game goes.

as the story progresses we can clearly see eichi regretting his actions. and even if he did NOT regret it, we can still like his character since it's fictional and i believe it's okay as long as we don't support his actions.

shu and kaoru also had a bad reputation during the ! era, but they both had good character development afterwards. most people do the same thing to them as well. acting like shu never changed etc. or kaoru even mentions this IN THE GAME how he feels upset when people still care about his past actions.

well- the topic was eichi so let's get back at that... in my opinion, he is one of the best-written characters in the game. his inner thoughts and conflicts within himself are reflected very well. almost all of his motives make sense. people literally have no empathy for him which makes me upset. he grew up in a hospital and tried to live with the stress that he could die at any moment. none of his parents cared about him that much and he was so socially awkward that even if he managed to get out of the hospital he had a hard time making friends. him not understanding people and having a hard time feeling empathy comes from this. he grew up all alone, in a literal hospital room😭

and his intentions were always good. i don't recall a moment when eichi hurt someone just because he wanted to. it was always because he had lots of goals in his mind and since he could die at any moment, he wanted to succeed as soon as possible. that's why he tried to destroy everyone who got in his way. and that totally makes sense, adding that he's also not good with social stuff.

I KNOW he hurt a lot of people. i don't support him. i'm just trying to explain why i think he's well-written. actually, while reading the stories there were soooo many times i hated him and his way of doing things but i believe thats what makes his character so "human". he's very flawed and this makes him interesting, i love that.

also, he did get the consequences of his actions. whenever he did something bad he was aware of it and it led him to depression and hating himself. there are so many quotes of him saying he believes he deserves to die etc... and i remember in ! era, he kept having nightmares about the war and the things he did. so, he did suffer just like the people he made suffer.

we don't see this kind of regret in keito and tsumugi. and another thing- people always bash eichi for the whole "capitalism" thing and the stuff i talked about above, but they never do this to ibara?? I LOVE ibara, but i never saw someone blaming him for some of the bad things he did?? and bro is literally capitalism itself but no one even jokes about it that much😭 im sure there are other characters we can add here. some of them get treated like a baby and no one cares about the mistakes they did, but when it comes to eichi (or shu, kaoru, any other character you might wanna add) they despise him.

sure, everything eichi did was more visible, and it's easier to hate on him. but i believe he deserves recognition and love just like the other characters in this game.

this is it. sorry for yapping can't believe i'm defending this guy out here🙏🏻

[merrivia]

I feel like one of the things I enjoy most about the Captive Prince trilogy is where you really glimpse the hidden complexity of the books, those flashes of the engineering under the bonnet which Pacat only allows us glimpses of, here and there. There’s so many moments like that, but I feel like the idea of Auguste as a protector and Laurent’s hero-worship of his brother, has particularly stuck with me and made me want to delve into it more today.

We know Auguste is quite a bit older than Laurent; Laurent was 13, and Auguste 25, when he died at Marlas (Pacat loves her doubling and mirroring; it’s no coincidence to Laurent’s developing feelings for him, that Damen is a mirror image of Auguste in many ways, and symbolically 25 at the start of Captive Prince, like a dark resurrection, living the life Auguste should have had in Laurent’s eyes). We know that Auguste is a doting older brother; allowing Laurent to win against him when they horse raced, that they had brotherly discussions over sexuality and relationships, August giving Laurent advice (sweetly, we can assume Auguste also gave him The Talk, and that Laurent no doubt explained primly that thank you but he had already read all about That). We know that Laurent idolised Auguste, and that it was common knowledge that the two were “devoted” to each other. Even in the mind of the reader, Auguste seems special and golden; we know so little about him, and yet we love him too, especially for how much he loved Laurent. We know that tragically, Damen’s killing of Auguste, metaphorically killed Laurent also- his heart broken by the loss of Auguste compounded with the killing off of his childhood, all of his innocence, and the locking away of all the softer sides of himself, as he is abused and manipulated by his uncle.

I think a particularly heartbreaking part of it all is the rumour of Laurent having unnatural feelings for his brother.

Obviously, the source of this was the Regent, and it goes without saying that the Regent’s corruption is so malignant, that he invented this rumour to take the cleanest, purest love in Laurent’s life and turn it into something disgusting, to undermine Laurent psychologically, to disrupt his grieving process and to manipulate the political landscape. As soon as that rumour was floated, whenever it was, to grieve too much too openly, to try to honour his brother’s memory in any public way, would feed into the rumours of incest (and I am sure the Regent liked the neatly villainous irony of the fact that it is he who had the incestuous desires, and he gets to displace that onto the innocent Laurent). That’s perhaps one of the reasons why Laurent’s grief turns into such rage; firstly, there is the loss, secondly, his grief is manipulated into sexual abuse but thirdly, he was never allowed to openly grieve as he would have liked. Like a wound that festers, Laurent cannot heal as a consequence.

The really tragic thing here is that the Regent got to have Auguste; he took him so completely away from Laurent, that even in death, Laurent was denied his brotherly relationship to him, to completely and utterly emotionally isolate him. The Regent in doing so, got complete control- he could subtly destabilise any hold the memory of Auguste had over the Council and court which would transfer to Laurent, and instead cleave himself to the image of Auguste. He became the only one who gets to mention the perfect golden prince, weaponising him against Laurent, using him to highlight Laurent’s shortcomings, and his own strengths. 

And poor, poor Laurent is just not completely isolated in general, which is bad enough- he also has no-one to even talk to about his brother, it seems (especially someone who he can confide in, who might be the same or similar rank as him, which is what he needs). Even before the incest rumours, that would be a fine piece of manipulation against Laurent- boys are weak and grieve and need to talk about how they feel, where men are strong and keep hold of their emotions. And so any sign of his grieving too much, would weaken Laurent further politically. The only thing that he has then, is revenge. Revenge is his grief. I think in a way, one of the reasons why Laurent could never quite beat his uncle at his own game, was not just because he always underestimated how evil he was, but also how he was always split in two- to revenge himself on Damianos is his only way of holding onto the memory of Auguste, and yet he also needs to beat his uncle, which divided his goals. Yet I also think his rage sustained him, gave him a goal to keep living, to keep training his body hard, when he must have felt so worn out and afraid and helpless against the power of The Regent. In a way, Damen has always kept Laurent alive, whether as a shadowy figure of hate that motivated him, or as a warrior guardian, powerful enough to throw a two handed sword and impale a fellow Akielon to save him or, finally, as the man who loves him and will kill to protect him.

So Laurent’s mother died, and his father paid no real attention to him, and it is clear in the novels, that Auguste’s presence was the one barrier that stood between him and the Regent. Who guarded Laurent’s bedroom door? The Prince’s Guard under Auguste? At first I wondered whether Laurent noticed his uncle’s attentions previous to Marlas; whether in subtle ways, he went to his brother for protection. But that doesn’t fit with the phrasing Laurent uses about himself as a young teenager (”think of the greenest innocent you have ever tumbled”). Incidentally, it is heartbreaking that he cannot see the idea of a youthful boy and/or himself at that age unless it’s on sexual terms; it is a reminder of how to be young for Laurent means to be sexually exploited and how the abuse traumatised him, took away his childhood, and shaped him into this razor-sharp blade of a man in the form of a beautiful prince (it also shows how insidious it is that the Regent keeps calling him a boy, to try and reduce him over and over to the abused child he controlled). So I don’t think Laurent did see it; was too young to see it. In fact, I don’t think Laurent saw what was going to happen, until the first time he was forced onto his knees by the Regent. But I wonder whether Auguste did.

Laurent does mention that Auguste is like Damen-  as Laurent says ”“He had no instinct for deception; it meant he couldn’t recognise it in other people.”. But as I have discussed before, being an honourable warrior doesn’t mean you’re stupid, and the sexual proclivities of the Veretians doesn’t quite fall into the same category as political machinations to me. Even Laurent can recognise that yes, his uncle is a paedophile, a predator, but he can’t seem to believe that the Regent would kill his own brother or kill him till there is stark evidence to prove it. It stands to reason then that Auguste may have never thought the Regent would do as he did, but that he could see the signs of his prurient interest in Laurent. 

This also might tie into Laurent being so beautiful, and how Veretian beauty standards glorify young males (from pre-pubescent onwards). He tells Damen that he has been the recipient of offers for “as long as he could remember”- a highly disturbing statement, which suggests as a minor, Laurent was sexually propositioned over and over. Auguste must have stood in the way of that, silenced the mouths of any man who dared speak about his brother like that. Perhaps just knowing that Auguste would cut the hand off of the man who touched his brother was enough to keep Laurent safe. Did Auguste actually explicitly stop the Regent abusing him, though?

If the Regent’s victims start as young as 11, then that was a few years of sexual interest he may have had in Laurent, which Auguste may have thwarted. And just like Damen wouldn’t hear of a word against Kastor, I wonder whether Auguste knew his father wouldn’t hear a word against the Regent- after all, Aleron trusted his brother’s word so much, he marched his army on to the field at Marlas instead of keeping to the security of his fortress, a tactic that made no sense and led to his assassination. We only see the court of Vere as the Regent’s court too- was he ever so open about his child pets before the death of Aleron? We know he had them, as Paschal was the Regent’s physician and tended to them (and the medical attention they might need to their too-young bodies is another layer of quiet horror), so perhaps we can assume that it was something that everyone knew about, but simply turned a blind eye to. 

My feelings are it could be either way- Auguste may have seen the Regent’s paedophilia and kept him away from Laurent instinctively, or he may have seen him openly display sexual interest and thwarted him deliberately, or he may have simply stood in the way of anyone who tried to get to Laurent and the Regent steered clear as a consequence. We will obviously never get a clear answer on this, so I think what’s more important is simply that Auguste was a barrier and how that feeds into Laurent’s beliefs. The reader can imagine that Auguste would perhaps never have said anything too openly to him about such things (beyond advice...I can picture him sternly telling Laurent to never go anywhere alone with an older man at court or to tell him if anyone said anything inappropriate him or tried to touch him), but Laurent can see that no-one dared harass him before Auguste’s death and then after...well. Abuse at night, we assume, and at Chastillon, and any number of attempts at ‘seductions’ in the day. All Laurent knows is that the abuse wouldn’t have happened had Damen not killed his brother, so in his mind, Auguste as the shining golden protector-hero is so sacrosanct that he cannot, even after all this time, truly believe or accept that Damen beat him. It’s why, when they fight in King’s Rising, Laurent says the “ludicrous” words that Auguste would have “stopped” Damen, when we all know he didn’t (yes there is the argument that 19 year old Damen had not been fighting for hours, was fresh from the sidelines, and that played into his victory, but the point is moot...). Laurent knows what he’s saying is absurd, but Auguste is perhaps semi-mythical to him at this point, this lodestar of an ideal to live up to, the ultimate white knight, brightly alive still in his mind, who would/could/should have saved him.

The Regent’s plan to kill his brother, King Aleron, must have included a secondary plan to kill Auguste, as an obstacle to the throne, even though we don’t know what that was. Damen coming along to kill him, neatly did this for him. I wonder if it added another layer to the victory over his brother and nephew killed, to finally have access to Laurent at, horrifyingly, just the right time, less than a year before true puberty would hit and the Regent’s sexual desire in him would fade. Very little of the inner life of The Regent is revealed to us, everything being layer upon layer of machinations, facade after facade, to hide his utter cruelty, but you do wonder whether this abuse of Laurent made him feel particularly gleeful. Or whether it was simply to kill two birds with one stone- to get a man (boy) underneath you is the ultimate power play, and thus the Regents gets to both enjoy Laurent’s beauty sexually, and set up a dynamic which will ruin Laurent in the present and future and allow the Regent to have a power over him that fits in very nicely to him getting the throne. It is breathtakingly cruel I think, that the ruination of Laurent on a personal level was probably secondary, a mere byproduct of a wider plan.

One of the beautiful things about Damen and Laurent’s relationship is he can talk about Auguste again, even with the memory of his death at Damen’s hands casting a long shadow between them. Laurent does this naturally, almost unthinkingly, before he even admits to himself that they’re in love. I think the reason why is Damen’s sense of morality, his pure, uprightness. As he awkwardly says in response to Laurent trying to make clear that what Govart said was a lie, he never believed that to be true. This is a man to whom incest is unfathomable, where there is no suspicion, no cynicism, no reading into Laurent’s words to try and find the incest that isn’t there because there is no smoke without fire. Laurent finally can talk about how much he loved his brother, without being dragged in the mud for it, restoring it back, openly, in words spoken out loud, to the purity it had.

[moonlightdancer26]

What know what other character I love who gets paid dust? Fleur frickin Delacour. My girl was a Triwizard champion and a war hero. She was an extremely talented witch and a very smart (BILINGUAL!!!) person, not to mention badass and tough as nails, and yet other characters treat her like some kind of floozy. Ginny and Molly are allowed to antagonize and make fun of her with zero consequences, and the text validates it. What is it about Fleur that makes her so awful in their eyes? That she’s French? That she’s quarter Veela? That she’s pretty? That Bill is marrying her and not some demure English girl his parents picked out for him? Like the twins do with Percy, they constantly antagonize her and then act like SHE’S the terrible one when she defends herself. My girl put up with being objectified her entire life. Pay her some respect.

I CAN’T EVEN EXPLAIN HOW MUCH I LOVE FLEUR

She literally deserves the world. She wasn’t even from Britain, yet she permanently moved there for Bill and was still getting accustomed to learning English. She also quite literally had NOTHING to do with the war besides Bill. She could’ve fled, but willingly stays and risked her life for the man she loved. She may have been “aRrOgAnT” (are people not allowed to complain about things they aren’t used to??) but she was also brave, loving, kind, strong, loyal, and protective. Molly was a grown ass woman and should’ve given Fleur more recognition for moving countries and making an effort to form a good relationship with Bill’s family. She should have also scolded Mione and Ginny whenever they’d mock her. She also tried to pair Bill up with Dora despite the fact that both of them were in love with someone else. And shouldn’t she have made an effort to be nice to Fleur? Bill clearly loved her, did Molly not trust her own son’s judgement?

If Fleur had not been a traditionally feminine French woman, I’m sure as hell they wouldn’t have antagonised her.

And, like you said, she was literally objectified by everyone all her life. That dinner scene in the Yule Ball where Roger Davis literally wasn’t listening to a word she said, like holy shit imagine that kind of shit happening to you everyday. And the phrase “Just look at her! She was asking for it!” must’ve been used on her a billion times, it’s literally so gross I feel so bad for my girl. She deserves all the respect

Also I was writing my tags and my sister asked me why I was so invested 💀 I’m out rn but I still wanted to answer this

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Most Horrible DBZ Fight?

Whenever I watch the Videl vs Spopovich fight, I see all these comments about how it is the most brutal fight in DBZ. I think people only say that because Videl is a girl. Because this fight

Can't be compared to this fight

As much as I feel sorry for Videl and as much as Vegeta was still a selfish jerk in the namek/frieza saga, the comparison is not even close.

Let me explain!

History between combatants

Videl has no history with Spopovich. He is almost a nobody to her. The dude hates her dad because Mr. Satan beat him in a fight. He hurt her to get sick revenge on her dad. Nothing deeper than that.

Frieza and Vegeta have a rich and terrible history. Frieza is the monster who destroyed Vegeta's planet when he was 5. Still a kid. He worked in Frieza's planet trade organization, believing the lie that his home was destroyed by a meteor or asteroid or something like that. While Frieza humiliated him, he also had a kind of sick fondness for Vegeta. You can interpret this fight as Vegeta's attempt to overcome his abuser, in addition to proving himself as the super saiyan of legend. This gives the fight way more emotion and meaning compared to the Videl fight which basically just had shock value going for it.

Power Imbalance

Vegeta was doomed from the start, even with his Zenkai boost. Frieza toyed with him from beginning to end. Towards the end of the fight, Frieza drops all pretence of a battle and just wails on Vegeta like a punching bag.

With Videl, Spopovich was the underdog in the fight at the start. She was holding her own and she even landed a killing blow. She began to lose due to stamina. If Videl had fought smarter and tried to end the fight with a ring out, she would have won. If it was not for his Majin powers, he would be dead. But as the fight continued, she lost steam and Spopvich gained the upper hand and began pummelling her.

Stakes

Pretty obvious. The fight with Frieza had galactic consequences. Kami, King Kai and Guru were involved. Planet Namek was destroyed. The fight with Frieza was life and death. Most people in the battle died or nearly died.

Videl's fight was an inconsequential tournament fight. Not even the semi-finals or finals. You can say that's why Spopovich's brutality is so horrible because the context has lower stakes. Which leads me to my final and most important point!

Escaping the Fight

There was no escaping Frieza unless you died or he died. Once Vegeta confronted Frieza, he had no avenue of escape. You can't simply tap out of this fight. Even if he ran away using a space pod before the enraged Frieza showed up, he would be on the run for the rest of his life. Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin literally watched Frieza play with Vegeta because they were totally powerless. All they could do was watch Vegeta's humiliation.

Ultimately, it is Videl's fault that she was beaten so badly. Yeah, I said it! All she had to do was say "I give up" and the fight would be over! But because of her stubbornness and pride, she willingly stayed in a losing fight. Even when Spopovich is literally crushing her skull, she won't give up.

I can admire her resolve but this reason alone is enough for me to say that Videl should not be pitied. And why this fight is NOT the most brutal DBZ fight. It only feels that way because Videl is a human girl and people naturally hate seeing men abuse women. But there are DBZ fights that outclass this one in brutality any day of the week (most Kid Gohan fights should top Videl vs Spopovich just on the basis that Gohan is a literal child!).

The Vegeta vs Frieza fight played a major role in Vegeta's arc. It helped Vegeta respect Goku and motivated him to achieve super saiyan. It also gave Vegeta emotional depth.

Can't say the same for Videl. Her personality did a total 180 after her fight. Almost like Spopovich beat the tomboy out of her. We also never see her confront her dad about all his lies, which partly influenced her somewhat unmerited pride as a fighter which led to her attitude in her fight. What a total waste of potential character development.

[ryan-the-dark]

Claire McCallister knows Becky Botsford is WordGirl.

I know! I know! Give me a second to explain and break this down.

In the very first episode of the series "Tobey or Consequences", Claire is shown to be intelligent enough to craft together devices to counter her son's robots.

This shows she's just as if not more intelligent than Tobey! There's the argument that could be made that Tobey made those devices but why would she make him? He would be able to program ways to short-wire them.

In the same episode, it was referenced that WordGirl calls Mrs. McCallister whenever Tobey commits crimes. Now I know this isn't much evidence, but let's say for this theory, she met Becky by now. This could be when she was suspicious because of how similar "Becky" and "WordGirl's" voice was.

If that ain't enough to convince you, maybe this will. In "By Jove You've Wrecked My Robot", Tobey tells Becky and I quote:

"And if you try to run off and turn into WordGirl, I'll use all the robots to destroy the city."

Now, if Claire's as smart as Tobey and we're using that for this theory, I'm pretty sure when she sees Becky, she'll put the pieces together in similar reasons. "The same hair color, the same skin tone, the same lips" as Tobey points out: "You and WordGirl are the same height, the same hair style and color... The same sparkingly smile. The same ruby lips..."

Now if Tobey put these pieces together, I think Claire, through enough time, could do so as well. I think the reason why she doesn't say anything is because one she has to make sure her son is punished for his crimes. And two, she respects WordGirl enough to not risk anyone who would use that information incorrectly to find out. The only reason she doesn't say anything to Sally who is her friend is because she either found out she doesn't know, think she knows and just playing an act and so acts none the wiser, or just don't want to ruin the current dynamic with the possibility that the Botsfords doesn't know. Another reason, she knows Tobey's happier around WordGirl and doesn't want him to be bothering Becky in her private life.

This is "Robo Camp", a fairly early episode, being season 2 episode 11. At this point, she was trying to push him to cease doing robot activities:

Claire: This is going to be an important trip for you, Tobey, because you’re going to learn to appreciate nature. And hopefully grow out of this silly robot phase.

Tobey: Yes, Mother. That would make sense, except that nature is a thing of the past! Technology and robots are--

Claire: TOBEY! No robots! I don’t want a repeat of what happened last summer at basketball camp... Or two summers ago at baseball camp!.. Or last, last, LAST summer at drama camp!... I mean it, Tobey! No giant robots, end of story! You need to be more independent, and learn to do things on your own!

Btw, I think the reason why they're not very close is because they don't understand each other not that she doesn't care about him or vice versa, but I won't get into that into this blog.

I can see Claire having a moment where she realizes: "Wait a minute Tobey's not happy around other kids. He's more lively around WordGirl and enjoys her company..." That type of thing. So she doesn't do much to try to stop him, not that she approves, but because she genuinely loves Tobey and values his feelings, even though she wishes he would stop with the robot attacks.

It would also explain the reason why she doesn't remove his robot privileges permanently. For people who follow abusive Claire, there's so many things to debunk this. Like in the "Talent Show Tobey" episode where she was cheering Tobey on and was genuinely proud of him until his robot destroyed the building. Given Tobey entrapped WordGirl into reading poems in this episode, you would think she wouldn't care about WordGirl. Well, do remember that it's not like Claire knows. She just thought WordGirl agreed, and was happy that Tobey was doing something she'd viewed as productive and WordGirl was kind enough to help him out.

(More happy Claire please! 💯💯💯)

In the "Guess Who's Coming To Thanksgiving Dinner" episode, she was trying to enjoy the holiday, and when he left, she was searching literally everywhere for him. When he came back, she was happy to see him.

(WE NEEDED MORE SCENES WITH THEM JUST BEING 😁)

In "New Year of Doom!" Tobey and Claire smiled at each other on top of a robot throughout the New Year count-probably the most touching moment between the two and shows she supports whenever he builds his robots just in a constructive way.

I think if she wanted to, she would scrap all of his robots. She literally could, but she knows she would end up breaking his heart. He would be broken because he'll be forced to quit similar to when Miss Power threatened to never allow Dr. Two Brains to have cheese again. She always gave me reluctant disciplinarian type of vibes and would never do anything that would break his little heart. Off topic for a bit, that's why I wish there were more fics about Claire redeeming Tobey instead of Becky because, while I'm all for Tobecky, I feel like that makes more sense considering Tobey pressed so many buttons and disrespects her, and Becky's still a child at the end of the day while Claire is an adult so her mind is wiser, he's her son, and has more reasons to redeem him. Most of all, WordGirl's one of the superheroes of the city and don't have any obligation to redeem any of the villains besides maybe Dr. Two Brains with the whole mouse brain dilemma. She could guide them, but I feel like she would be suspicious about Tobey's change at least for a while. One last thing, while I do like redemption stories, the characters themselves have to change. Guidance is different from forcing them to switch sides. Claire redeeming Tobey stories would allow more ground to be given if that makes sense.

That aside, now, let's say Tobecky happens, and they sort out their issues especially with Tobey's (there's plenty of them as Go Gadget Go shows) I can imagine something like this occurring when a teenager or adult Becky inevitably has to tell Claire she's WordGirl because let's be honest it would avoid a lot of awkwardness. I even see her telling her family eventually, but this is how I actually see it going:

"Mrs. McCallister, I'm WordGirl..."

"...I am not blind, Becky. Though I have tried to be, for Tobey's sake. And for yours. I have suspected things about WordGirl a long time ago. I have put the pieces together as he had, though we do not speak of it. I... pretend that I don't know. And I was happy to, because it made him happy. WordGirl made him happy, when nothing else ever truly could."

If a teenage or adult WordGirl series or some other thing that continues the show ever happened where this theory was true, how do you think Becky would react to Claire knowing that she was WordGirl?

This blog was inspired by:

[bhaalble]

I've dug around Act 3 enough times that I think I'm prepared to put in my wishlist for whenever ultimate edition releases. Understand these are all elements that may be present in mild degrees in Act 3 as it currently exists, but I need it expanded on drastically.

-More breakup reactivity in Act 3. I understand keeping it a bit on the minimal side in the early acts since you can flag those on accident/it can be pretty casual in nature. But by Act 3, you've locked in to a committed relationship. That's the kind of thing thats going to impact your dynamic severely if you end things. Having Gale sniffle a little and then immediately jump to Besties dialogue was WILD.

-I get the impulse to keep the team together in Act 3 because by that point there's a lot of story content you could potentially miss out on but I really do wish they'd been a little bolder in what choices let you drive companions away. Karlach, Laezel, Astarion and Wyll especially all have things they REALLY should ditch the player for, or at least require persuasion to stick around (allying with Gortash for Karlach, taking the astral touched tadpole/sleeping with the Emperor for Laezel, fighting Cazador without him for Astarion and hooking up with Mizora for Wyll). The hirelings system ensures the player won't be left mechanically shorthanded, and all of these are choices the player has to know would alienate their companions.

-A GODDAMN TAVERN SCENE. AN INN ROOM SCENE. SOMETHING. Let me party with these people!!! The tiefling party is so goddamn good I need more moments like that in the story!!!

-More content for allying with Gortash/Orin. I'd even accept this as a Durge exclusive, for right now allying with either of them just sort of feels meaningless. Gortash gets a good cutscene or two but it doesn't really feel like a partnership so much as him sitting there waiting for you to do what you were gonna do anyways. A reality where Orin or Gortash offer meaningful aid and interaction with you to help you take down the other would've been so interesting, especially for a Durge, because it can be another avenue through which to understand your dynamic with Bhaal's cult if Orin thinks you're arriving penitent and ready to submit to her authority

-Much as it is a fun surprise to run into the tieflings throughout the city I'd love a quest where if you find Alfira she'll invite a bunch of them over to the Elfsong for a "made it to the city" celebration. Again we really needed more moments of just. Being. in this act.

-Everyone and their mother has said this but Gortash's coronation needed so much more hype and build up around it. Why is the coronation of an Archduke being treated with all the import of just. Electing a new Senator. Why is Gortash just interrupting the proceedings to explain the Evil Plan to you while all the patriars wait in polite silence. Why is the only real pushback on entry you get just a lone Steel Watcher going hey. Dont kill anything >: (. Also considering the implications is that Gortash murdered literally all these people shortly after. Why were there zero consequences to this and zero comment for anyone in the outside world.

[mysticarts]

Hello! I know it's late- But I wanna do some infodump or really just rambling instead.

Firstly remember when I said Lucio and Wick are enemies to lovers kinda thing? They are however is not very toxic.. More like few bickering there and that, it's going to be a slow burn it'll take time for them to admit their feeling each other. They respect eachother a little though.

Did they admit? Nope they both deny it in several reasons which I already have explained later older posts. Wick falls first, then Lucio falls harder (More than how Rocky fell down into the stairs poor Rocky my boi-)

While Lucio dislikes Wick and often gets too blunt at him there's time he actually show kindness although he doesn't want to admit that. No he does not want Wick to see that, his unaware the other thinks the same too.

'Funny' enough he was supposed to get rid of Wick because his boss assigned, to prevent Wick being presuade funding the Lackadaisy which failed.. So after few interrogating, the result became unexpected, it happened when Wick treated him kindness.. Not fake kindness but genuine something he no longer had.

Cause how would Wick love a guy working for a crime boss and had done messed up things to a result of destroying through his childhood? As much he wants to never go near to the posh cat it's nearly impossible because every time Wick appears to the more he grew to slowly fell for him..

Wick is a law abiding man. Lucio? Nothing but a huge disgrace.

Wick at first sees Lucio as a company after having no choice but to atleast helped each other (My Au.) Later on he gain feelings to Lucio also and became confuse and questioning his own Sexuality or attraction.

Until months later the two became close friends no longer 'Aqquaintance' the bickering decrease.. The bond grew close where at the point they started hanging out private places talking their interests, hobbies, many more. Laughing like old times like they were good 'friends.' This is when Lucio ditched supposed mission. Wick continued to be nice to him with added helping Lucio like carrying stuffs, trying his best to heal Lucio wound as possible, giving a friendly gift and etc. So is Lucio doing favors/errands/giving 'friendly gifts' for Wick.

Lucio jokingly calls Wick princy then after months of their 'Aqquaintanceship' started calling him 'Hiyas' (Meaning gem cause Wick likes rocks so why not?.) He had accidentally call Wick 'irog' which means love luckily the other doesn't know Tagalog, it proceeded to stirr Lucio more falling into deep pit of so called 'love'.

Wick slowly he soon saw Lucio's true self not the walking snark and sass self but slowly nice self.. This lead him having a denial to out of fear not how will the public think if the info was exposed, how will it effect his image as a businessman think but everyone he cares including Lucio too.

Imagine Wick knew what Lucio's assigned misson earlier when they meet first. Now after few months Wick started to love him dearly. he didn't react negatively to it instead tells Lucio to do it so he won't have to suffer the consequences, shocking Lucio and left two options either kill Wick or leave.. He picked second option realizing coming in a conclusion.

He LOVE Wick.

•••••••••••

End. The angst is beyond levels (Both but mainly effect Wick.)

Sorry I like this trope so much in some angles. Btw you don't really have to like this ship that's fine by me. Feel free to comment what you think about this! ^^

CEANIWEFLN

I would watch a MOVIE on these to fr

Like, whenever Carmen sees Wick and Lucio together, she just starts rambling in Greek language in excitement. No one really knows what Carmen is saying, but who cares? She looks happy!

Buy yea, never be afraid to show me this ship because I live for the angst.

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

One thing I never got about the TV show or comics is the vortex and while Dream says they are naturally reoccurring and have nothing to do with him in that regard I find that confusing since Unity didn't become the vortex due to the sole reason of Dream being trapped and Rose didn't become the vortex until Dream was free. It feels like a huge plothole to me and also another thing I don't understand is why wasn't Unity's and Desire's family line dream children like Daniel.

to answer the second question first, since that's the one i can give a concrete answer for! daniel was a very unique situation

the show and the comic have two different explanations for what made daniel half dream, i think the show was a lot simpler and easier to grasp, but both are explainable

in show canon, daniel is half dream because his father straight up was a dream - hector was already dead by the time daniel was conceived. lyta is the only physical parent here, the rest is dreamstuff

in comic canon, lyta was pregnant before hector died, but she then spent years and years in that dream, extending her pregnancy far beyond the nine months it should normally take, and that much exposure to the dreaming while being formed (in an unnatural way bc it was so drawn out) made daniel half dream

as far as unity and desire's daughter goes, that's more of a demigod situation? she was conceived in a dream because unity was asleep, but desire isn't just a regular parent, and conception when it concerns the endless is a weird topic altogether (desire doesn't really have dna this is canonically a thought baby sort of situation). given how the endless interact with each others' realms, i'd imagine just desire being part of the equation cancelled out any influence dream might have had here. and aside from that, it was a normal pregnancy that took place in the waking world, for a normal duration of time - the walkers aren't 100% human but they aren't really any % dream

and then we get to the next part of this - being half dream isn't the only thing that made daniel daniel. dream chose daniel for this, appointed him as successor when he visited lyta in season of mists

and daniel as a toddler trailed dream sand behind him and had the ability to walk into the dreaming, but he was still half human, and still not yet a perfect successor to dream of the endless

until kindly ones, when loki stole him and killed him. daniel-dream tells lyta in the wake that that fire burned away his human half, leaving only the immortal dream

and for a final piece, morpheus gave him the emerald. granted, this probably wasn't a necessary step, i think it was a gesture to help him control his powers a bit better when first ascending. but it was yet another thing that made the universe mark him as the person to ascend if the original incarnation of dream died

which are all things that set him apart from miranda walker (or her mother, in show canon)

as far as vortexes go, honestly that's something i wish either the show or the comics told us more about, there's so little lore or explanation on it

but if you want my educated guess - there's a difference between dream not making the vortexes and dream having nothing to do with them

vortexes are naturally occuring, yes, but in a healthy dreaming, a living dreamscape. they are an inevitable consequence of the way the dreaming works - an entire universe of minds, all forming a dimension together, with no knowledge that they are doing it together, the natural push and pull and chaos of such a place, somewhere you're going to find a place where it's the most concentrated, the eye of the storm that everything else is swirling around. part of dream's job is to keep that great ocean relatively level, so you don't end up with whirlpools - and since he doesn't make them and doesn't know how they're formed, sometimes that means you just need to manually get rid of them whenever they show up

but you also won't get whirlpools if you drain the ocean of water

which is what cutting dream off from the dreaming did. the endless and their realms aren't wholly separate entities, a part of dream is the dreaming and a part of the dreaming is dream. when you cut a being in half like that, by keeping dream magically shut out from the realm, they've both lost vital functions, and they'll both be weaker and hurting for it. and we see, in both the comics and the show, the effect that dream's imprisonment for that long had on the dreaming - it's broken and dead. and dream himself is equally lacking in power and life (show dream especially, he is visibly starving)

and the doll's house arc doesn't begin until dream breaks the ruby, and gets back all the power contained within it. even with dream physically back in the dreaming, they both needed time to recover fully before anything like a vortex could form

[definitelynotaminion]

After four solid years of working on this series, here we are! Finally at the finish line! All that's left is Day 31: wildcard, so I'm super stoked and wanting to include my friends in this since they've supported me along this cracky, cracky journey...

I had to write sporadically since even I, prince of porn, must be in a certain headspace to write smut in general, much less kinky, filthy smut.

I started this series on October 02, 2020. On Ao3, the "Kinktober is 20/20" series, where I've been grouping these fics, is 82,269 words. I created a new pseud for this series, so that readers could differentiate my more serious works from the shameless hentai. I tested myself, wrote to the fullest extent of the kink, tested the boundaries of what's hot and what's not, and decided to be utterly shameless. Some pieces I love. Some, I can't believe I wrote, let alone published.

It's been a great, wonderful time.

From what was meant to be a series of unrelated one-shots exploring depravity, a number of actual series emerged.

A crumb or more - Where I joke that someone holding Sasuke down and fucking some sense to him might have prevented him from leaving the village, and then write Time travel!Sakura to do just that-- only it turns out surprisingly wholesome, with ot3 team seven time skip as a sequel. Astonishingly one of my favorite verses

King of the World (if I wanna be)- A series where Izuku gets a sex quirk. Stunningly, this is not a unique phenomenon for kinktober. I wrote more than one universe where Deku gets a DIFFERENT sex quirk. Amazing. In this series, he has a subtle mind control/hypnosis quirk that's like a "notice-me-not" spell, projecting an aura of "nothing to see/be concerned about" that lets him get into all sorts of mischief. It also serves to explain why Kacchan is Like That™-- literal years of being exposed to an uncontrolled "don't worry about it" quirk that prevents him from worrying about the consequences of his actions. It has six fics and is 23,447 words.

Love on top (baby it's you)- A two-part series where Sasuke is actually trans and not just Magically Given a Pussy for my own enjoyment (and yours).

Puppy Plays- Probably one of the most depraved series to come out of this experiment. MIND THE TAGS if you go here. When I wrote the first fic, I had to be cajoled for days to actually post it. When I wrote the sequel the day before yesterday, I posted it without any editing so I could hurry up and do my college homework, utterly unashamed. It's puppy play and it's noncon, Bakudeku (Dark Izuku).

And most recently, Konoha "Omega Verse" (Team Hole), which is not actually alpha/beta/omegaverse. It's just a free use/sex AU where one member of each team is designated as free use/fuck whenever and explores the social reality and worldbuilding of such a dynamic. Naturally, I chose Sasuke. For spice, the team omega uses a jutsu to give them a vagina, and any non-vagina-owners on the team use the reverse to get a dick. This keeps things nice and simple for the "use a member of your team like a flesh light for stress relief" agenda.

Describing these is wild. It's kinktober, though. Kinktober's gonna kink!

Aside from the series that developed, there are a number of one shots that were actually good. My personal favorite is probably the Shikamaru fic where everything actually is safe, sane and consensual-- all the way through a gangbang where he gets to be a pillow princess.

Honorable mentions: the Sakura/Hinata fic where Hinata is jealous of ot3 team seven and Sakura shows her a good time; my first foray into actual omegaverse, with Kiribaku (cute); these two hot wing (dabi/hawks) fics that actually have really nice writing and icarus vibes; an actually wholesome bakudeku fic where they're pro heroes and pass OFA back and forth with bloody kisses after a fight; and some post-canon wholesome team seven ot3 where they'd rather make out then go to a dinner party.

-

Now: the wildcard space. I've considered continuing one of the favorite series. I've considered finding a different kinktober prompt-list and finding one that wasn't represented in my original list. I've considered making a poll of entirely friend/tumblr submissions of ideas.

I want it to be fun! But also a big finale to wrap up this series I've spent four years of my life on. I feel like it has to be so kinky, so ridiculous, and so much fun that it neatly showcases what kinktober's all about-- or at least, what it has been all about, for me.

In light of that, and me still decided, feel free to send in ideas-- ship ideas, opinions, random thoughts, kinks you'd like to see, a kink I already used that you'd like to see more of--- the sky's the limit. I just want to do this with the input of the people who have read and enjoyed the series, and the input of my friends who have supported me along the way. And thrown things at me. And squealed. And blushed. You know who you are.