#i guess dare i say

[dykeomania]

as hockey season approaches:

an extended headcanon that's been in my head for a year. character-analysis-y. ellie. abby. messiness. this was just in my notes app, it's mid, y'all can have it.

i have this scene that I've written and rewritten in my head a million times where it's hockey!ellie (college athlete) and all of her friends/exes/lol? who are on the team (cat, riley, and dina) sitting in the farthest back row of a solemn team meeting.

ellie's a stellar forward. abby's a stellar goalie. they play for the same team, but the friction is crazy. and see what had happened was -- everyone knows that ellie and abby's friend groups don't like each other. and alright, fine, coach marlene has worked to create an environment where that can simply be at lax. but anyone with a set of eyes and basic common sense can tell that what happened was simply six years worth of whispers behind hands and shit-talking in group chats brought to fruition, and it's curious how it didn't happen sooner. the explosion, to put it lightly, in which during both of their sophomore seasons at BC when ellie checked abby's shoulder on the ice after a failed near-goal-face-off, which turned into expletives flying through the plexiglass like bullets, which turned into helmets flying and both of them being on the ground of the ice wailing at each other, was clearly an overdue manifestation of eachother's frustrations and presumptions. it was unclear who shoved who first but, alas, it was irrelevant.

and as entertaining as it was to watch, no one won. because let's really get into it: ellie can't help that she's trailer park trash. she can't help that she grew up in bumfuck, wyoming and moved to fucking dorchester / haverhill / wherever the fuck while abby got to spend the summers with her family on the cape. she can't help that abby is daddy's-money-fuck-you-rich and they get to go their winter cabin over christmas break, and ellie doesn't want to go home because she hasn't really faced her father figure since she left for college and frankly, she doesn't know if she wants to.

she can't help that she's the first one in her family to do this and she had to work for everything -- her scholarship to the prep school that both her and abby went to, her athletic scholarship to BU -- whereas abby is a third-generation-doctor in the making who could simply just afford to be anywhere. she can't help that the end of the day, despite all of the work she's put in, she still has to be here. and look at the back of abby's fuckass fishtail braid.

abby on the other hand, can't help that when everytime she searches the stands for her dad's face during games, she only sees most of ellie's family waving banners and flags. she can't help that that's how it's always been. she can't help that her dad doesn't have time to care about the work she's putting in to school and to hockey, and she can't help that ellie gets to be normal -- gets to sleep, gets to party, gets to hang out and fuck whoever she wants with no consequence, and never, ever invites her to the fucking pregame.

she can't help that ellie doesn't spend as much time thinking -- about working out, about watching what she's eating, about socializing; seriously, how the fuck does she socialize so effortlessly despite being the dimmest fucking person she's ever seen--

like, it's six years in the making. from boarding school, to now.

all those punches, all that yelling, all that cussing, all that spitting,

and yet, no one won.

and you know what? maybe if they knew about how much they actually had in common, things would've turned out differently. they would be pleasantly surprised to find out that they could have conversations about their relationships with their father figures, and how thanksgiving is typically the worst holiday of the year. how to some extent, at the end of the day, it's all for a photo op. ellie is naturally good at hockey and is having a great time in college, but has a degree to bring home to her family, and to her demise, she wants that degree to have "astrophysics" on it. abby doesn't even know if she wants to go to medical school. but she knows that if she doesn't get in, despite everything that advantages her (which is a real fucking possibility according to her, given that she got a C-in orgo) it'd just be another reason for her dad to not look at her. and really, that's all she wants. just to fucking be seen.

but unfortunately, no gives a fuck about that.

so ellie will continue to keke in the group chat with her friends and abby will continue to openly talk shit with hers, and who knows? if shit doesn't hit the fan, then maybe they can get to a point in the conversation where they can finally agree to just let shit slide. maybe ellie will finally agree to start inviting abby to their fucking pregames.

but as of rn, ellie's gonna keke in her group chat.

because no way abby just tried to call out ellie's dating habits when she's fucking one of their coaches on the low--

[mai-col]

Hey hey, long time no see !

Since I was working on "Les Songes du Roi Griffu", these pages have been on the back burner for a while (and the english version for even longer). They're done now.

If you want to read the rest of Molly-l'Iris, here it is. New pages should come in the near-ish future. It's about a big city, magic, and some other stuff like, for example, the power of friendship (ew gross yeah I know)

[tapakah0]

Okay! I don't know where you got the idea from and my best guess is that your brain is connected to mine via bluetooth but.

Me and Hoddie have a royal au and your animation made me think of it again.

Nothing crazy special, but...ah...I should probably give a little context yeah...hmm.

Uh, okay. There's a kingdom. whose king and queen have died, leaving behind several possible heirs who are not their direct children. Right now, the king's first general is sitting on the throne, because the power of the army is, you know, a pretty powerful argument in a fight for the throne, right? This creepy regent is Cass. And Cass came to power thanks to Hoddie, who's basically the king's heir too, but she's pretty distant and her chances of the throne are quite slim. This has made her a professional rat and back stabber. The whole palace is busy weaving intrigue and destroying each other in a competition for power. Contests in cunning and sneakiness. A maximally intellectually uncomfortable environment in general.

Until Hoddie finds the true heiress. The king's blood daughter, to whom the throne should rightfully belong.

Problem? The problem is that the heiress needs to be two years older to be old enough to rule. And Hoddie and Cass' goal is to make sure she lives to that age in an environment where every other person wants to frame or kill her.

That heiress is you, Tap. But we couldn't think of what you'd look like in this au ahaha.

MHHMMM I SEE ONCE IN A WHILE BRAIN BLUETOOTH IS A GOOD THING you left me a window for my part and I grabbed this opportunity with sharp teeth Since there was no mention of my part, I have the audacity to add my own version. Did I understand correctly that my existence as an heiress was not known? It would be strange if the king was not looking for me, if I was the only heir (by blood), which means they were hoping for a new child, or already had plans for an indirect heir, or wanted to hide me. What other power is there, besides the king and the army, that holds the common people? Church. The king could have sent me to be trained as a priestess in order to gain support from them (either I was not considered worthy of receiving the throne in the future, which is why they preferred to hide me, or the king so badly needed their support that he was ready to sacrifice his only blood daughter) . Thus, from a young age, the beauty of a non-existent world somewhere beyond the heavens was drummed into my head and, in general, “God speaks all our actions.” I have an inconspicuous appearance, a position above a simple servant, but such priests are usually considered to be the daughters of high nobles, but not the king himself, which is why not everyone could know who I really was. Thus, they forgot about my existence ~ After the death of the king and all the heirs, the church quickly realized what to do next, and crushed me to itself, hiding me from the world until I reached the age of succession to the throne. (But children could take the throne under a regent. Could Hoodi become my regent as one of the older contenders for the throne?) So, back to the turmoil. Hoodie found me at church. Since childhood, my worldview could have changed greatly under the influence of the church, so, well, you will have to hammer a lot into my head, in addition to the throne’s education (You know... it's bit complicated to make a human sona not as a stupid little ball XDD... it literally can't get a shape at this point... maybe you will place a real bunny as the new king? It will be eating cabbage 24/7 and everyone will be happy)

[noahmullariii]

the way Percy's friend group is literally -

4 monsters:

half-goat who's technically twice his age

one-eyed brother who's technically half his age

surprisingly lovely giant dog from hell

strangely devoted flying horse who can talk

and an odd assortment of people:

his mama

immortal lesbian who was a tree for a few years

scary buff girl who bullied him a little

autistic kid who radiates death and had a crush on him

nicest demigod ever whom he had a crush on before he... died

allegedly normal girl who now randomly tells the future

autistic girl who tried her absolute hardest to hate him then promptly fell in love with him. now they're soulmates

goddess of hearth

[moreaugriffins]

IDK who needs to hear this, but Egon and Ray aren't the only autistic og ghostbusters

Peter is too

Your telling me this man with two PhDs related to psychology, who always has the exact right thing to say to manipulate a situation to his favour (when it's a planned/known situation), but cocks up massively when it's an unknown situation, who has a massive reaction to getting slimed (more so than the others), who would rather joke all the time than take a situation seriously because wtf should he say

you're telling me this man is neurotypical?

nah

Winston's the only NT in this group (idk how he deals with these weirdos (affectionate))

[frenchfriedgiraffe]

from all-new hawkeye #5

this comic is so sad but this one line is too funny not to draw

[muirmarie]

honestly the funniest thing is coming across ppl who are like "bones is so mean to spock 😡😡😡" like spock doesn't go out of his way to be just as big a cunt to mccoy??? it's their LOVE LANGUAGE!!! some of y'all didn't grow up watching tv shows with old broads and old queen-coded men being as cunty as possible to each other OUT OF LOVE. spock spends half his shift on the bridge coming up with mean things to say to his dr the moment mccoy flounce onto the bridge to flirt with jim (affectionate) and spock (derogatory and bloody, there will be no survivors except for them, THEY'RE having a BLAST).

listen when the cards are down they will be thoughtful and worried and touch each other SO gently and fight over who gets to die for each other. all of that is the floor they're standing on. they KNOW that. but GOSH in the meantime they're BOTH having an absolute blast bullying the shit out of each other, bless <3

[stbot]

the new norm of studios not only cancelling shows with diverse casts and characters after a single shortened season but then immediately removing them entirely from their platforms so no one can ever legally watch them again is gross and frustrating enough on its own, but there’s something really insidious about the fact that so many of these shows were the recipients of targeted hate campaigns before they even aired just because they were deemed to be “too woke” or “too gay” and how that plays into the larger sociopolitical landscape rn.

like tv shows are not nearly as important as the very real actual human people being hurt and affected by current and proposed legislation, but we as a community and as individuals are being told on all fronts that we can’t exist; not in real life, and not even in the escapist fantasy of television shows

[azulock]

hi Maria, how are you?🙂 good night, by the way. Have you seen the leaks for chapter 260?? Kaiser's story is so sad and realistic🫠, I saw many bllk fans saying that they remembered his past☹️

Holy shit nonnie, I just went to check after you mentioned and yeah woah my man, I expected bad cause of that one spread of Isagi and Kaiser on a fancy sofa. Like Isagi's stuff was all nice and clean and Kaiser just had the ball, a very fucked up, old and patched together ball. But I did know expect 'physically abused child-thief thrown in juvenile detention' bad.

Also how the hell would football save nobody preteen from jail time??? He wasn't even an actual child player by then!!!! Jesus blue lock really makes no sense what so ever huh? Is this still about football even?

Anyways now I side with Kaiser even more, kicking a pig in the face is hard as fuck. The emperor says acab, we all must hear. Kaiser is a real one, that's it, steal from the rich, kick cops, kick your abusive parents. Kaiser truly stands at the top, now I hate Isagi's middle class Japanese boy ass even more. He had a loving family and a nice home, never knew suffering in his life, guy could never imagine what Kaiser went through.

Also, know what's even funnier: if I had a nickel every time an anime character raised in poverty was sent to jail and then freed by the power of a national sport I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's strange it happened twice.

[dawnthefluffyduck]

Last week a friend of mine dragged me into to watching him play a game while I worked on homework, saying "it's like undertale so you HAVE to watch me play it" (which is not wrong)

I uhh, have a new favorite character

[hauntinglyghostie]

I don't want to be the one to tell you that the world is broke, but you're so innocent, you cannot separate fire from the smoke. [Up To No Good - The Hoosiers] shoutout to Bo (@//rainbowpufflez) for showing me this song. because it has NOT left my brain, and here we are.

[neotomiccccc]

tiktok stardew valley fans when they find out that you can be mentally ill or an addict or both and STILL be deserving of love and human affection: 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

[dollypopup]

look i get bton has set up some seeds (ba dum tiss?) that polin will be the pairing in the Featherington Family to have a male heir first (and it's popular in the fandom as an endgame for them) and thus will inherit the estate but

consider the following:

they find out about it and go 'ahahahah NOPE' and thus become co-conspirators to get Pru or Phillipa preggo before them. because with inheriting the estate. . .what they really inherit is the debt. and neither of them are eager for that anytime soon

so one storyline is that they're on a mission to get Prudence there first so they're always out here making very thinly veiled insinuations at PruDank and make up excuses and schemes so they're alone with each other. Penelope takes the lead for this particular side of the scheme, but they're definitely in kahoots. like Colin will lead Dankworth to places and Penelope will do the same for Prudence and whoops, look at that, what a good time for the two of you to make an heir and Penelope's there in Prudence's ear like it should be you, you're the oldest, it's your right, wouldn't you want to lord it over Phillipa forever? like the devil on her shoulder and constantly hyping her sister up because please, god, don't let it be her, she doesn't want it to be her, she is a grand total of 19 years old and she wants to fuck her husband consequence free, and she can't do this chastity shit, it's not reasonable, so Prudence, time to hop on that horse! let's up and at 'em, sis

and the other is Colin coming to Albion like 'soooooooo. . .I have to ask. . .how have you managed it?' and he's like 'managed what?' 'to be married for two years and not have a baby. I mean, I'm a newly married man and I'd like to. . .enjoy my wife before we start a family. I have to know your secret' and Albion is just there going 'huh? what secret? we've just being doing it normal?' so Colin's very concerned like 'oh no, what if i've offended him? what if they can't have kids???' and Albion and him keep talking until it becomes clear that, wait, hang on, what do you mean by normal and it finally comes out that the reason Phillipa always seems like she's got a stick up her bum is because she does so he's like 'oh fuck, oh no, oh no no no, i can't be the one to inform him that's not the way to make a baby' ala: 'you are putting it in the right place?' and he's white as a ghost like 'so very sorry, i think i left my cat on the stove, i have to go'

and Colin and Penelope come together at the end of all their schemes like 'well. . .there goes Plan A. . .and B. . .and C through G' as Penelope frantically wonders if she can get Gen to pull Prudence aside and Colin is contemplating which of his brothers he can bribe enough to have the 'So, women have multiple holes' discussion w/' Albion because he refuses to be the one to do it

meanwhile, Portia is out here making potions to try to get one of her daughters to have a baby because thus far, she's batting 0 for 3, and Polin's schemes somehow always end up in direct opposition to her schemes, thus canceling out each time

tell me that wouldn't be the funniest shit you've ever watched on this show

[randomnameless]

Genuine question, not trying to start a fight, why do you get so upset about gods and churches being presented in a negative light in fictional works?

No pbs!

I guess it's a mix of being too common, too forced and having, in general, the cast use common tropish arguments to fight /defeat them.

I rant a lot about this game, but take TS where we have three sort of factions opposing each other, and each are supposed to suck. Who is the faction who never receives any "positive traits" or "pet the dog" moment?

The game force fed us a scene where an Aesfroti soldier - when Aesfrost is depicted as a highly militarised nation with a cult of personality towards their current ruler, that invaded the protag's home and slaughtered several civilians and NPCs in the process - say goodbye to his wife and kids before going to "war" to defend his land against, well, the protags who are invading it to kill their warmongering leader.

As force-fed as this scene was, it, I believe at least, tried to tell us that even the Aesfrosti who pillaged villages and killed their inhabitants are humans, and care about their loved ones, sure it's corny, but it's all about not deshumanising any party.

When we attack Hyzante? Niet, zilch, nothing. No similar scene where random soldiers, or NPCs, worry about what is going on and if they're going to die when their wall has been breached. They just, don't exist in this context.

I think the cherry on the cake is the Golden Route scene, where, apparently, nationalists Aesfrosti decide to turn back against their ultra charismatic leader because, uh, he "lied" when he declared the war and used a false pretense, so the soldiers and people who were butchering babies and invading a city where people were preparing a marriage apparently now have morals and rebel.

There's no similar scene for Hyzante when the cast reveals that the teachings of their Goddess were made up and salt wasn't exclusively given to them by divine intervention, because rock salt exists everywhere. Sure it would be a bit weird and forced that people thinking they're chosen ones and looking down on everyone else suddenly, hm, don't break down when their entire system of belief is shattered, but hey, if the Aesfrostian Gregor can have morals after washing his hands of all this Glenbrookian blood, why shouldn't religious npc #55 not make the same heel face turn?

And then, we have the slavery/human experimentation plot - in general, when TS tries to give nuance, they more or less explain/justify why something that "sucks" is done, it's basically Silvio's character.

Aesfrost' Gustadolph manages to push his "freedom" mentality because his land is a harsh place where people are desperate to survive, salt smuggling is reprehensible, but it's the only way to give some to the ones who cannot afford it. Of course is everyone is free, no one is because, as Gustadolph puts it, they're basically free to die for his ambitions.

Hyzante? Follows a racist creed where Rozellians have to pay for some great sin, and are slaved away in a lake to recover salt until they die. It's, later, justified by Hyzante wanting to keep its salt monopoly else they don't have anything, and wanting to curb down the Rozelle people because they know about the exitence of rock salt (and I guess getting free workers to harvest salt from the lake + having state enemies make his own population docile/not willing to rebel ?).

And then, we have the human experimentations, that are just done for, uhh, Idore's lol. When Hyzante is known for its "advanced medicine" and we could have had the usual dilemna of, idk, having those humans experimentations used to develop this medicine that is reknown in the world (idk, sacrificing a Rozellian to save someone else's life?) - it's not the angle the devs picked. Rozellians are sacrificed to power up an idol, Idore wants to control the world through his idol and soft power (compared to Gustadolph's hard power) and manipulates his people (just like Gustadolph) to do so.

The two are very similar, but who is the final boss? Complete with a transformation in an eldritch monster? The war-mongering imperialist or the jaded old man who is leading de facto a religion?

Hopefully there's the entire "human experimentations for no other purpose than the lols" to settle them apart.

---

I recently watched Dune, and even if I have some issues with the adaptation, the Bene Gesserit isn't portrayed as "comically" evil-er than the Harkonen Empire, I reckon the comparison isn't adequate, because Dune is multi book series when I'm mostly talking about video games.

Symphonia's church of Martel is a font for the Big Bad (tm) to put in motion his nefarious plans, and yet, through the game, we see how random clergymen use their, uh, religious buildings to help people around. Ultimately Martel herself is reincarnated through plot device and tells the big bad to stop being an ass and the story is less about "church and gods evil" but "big bad distorts Martel/church's teachings and role for his plans because he has a tragic backstory"

(but then Symphonia ends with the biggest whitewashing from every Tales I've played for its big bad so I'll stop talking about it because otherwise I'm going to be salty).

Abyss' church is more or less the same thing - the Church is supposed to help people deal with the fact their verse has "predestination stones" where the future is already written, and in the course of the game, we see how it has several factions and one opposes the group (who has the pope as a NPC!) - but it's not a story about "gods bad church BaD".

I remember playing Suikoden Tierkreis a long time ago, and while the game seemed to go through familiar "church bad gods bad" route and we end with defeating a god-like entity... I pretty much loved the twist that, in a game that relied on alternate dimensions/universe, the god-like entity was actually the protag if he made different choices!

In those games, if you fight a religious body and someone pretending to be a God or what not - it's not because people fight against an eldritch creature who wants world domination and to erase puny insects, or is the reason why everything goes wrong, but because, at the end, the conflict/fight is ultimately caused by someone, generally a human or at least a non "god like" entity, wanting to destroy the world.

I don't remember if FE was my first JRPG series or not, but I always liked the idea that if the world is doomed in those games and the heroes must prevent said doom, it's not because a god-like being wants to destroy the world, but because people, humans/randoms are the most shitty ones out there.

---

As for the "tropes" often used to deride fictional churchs and religious people, well, I will again point to TS - which did a splendid job in the Benedict Route where you smash Hyzante after allying with Aesfrost.

There's one battle where out protags diss Hyzantese because they worship a goddess and have no free will, listening to Her teachings and Her says (the traditional "religious people have no free will and listen to their churches who tell them how to think!") - which is immediately countered by one of those Hyzantese characters asking Serenor if he's not the same, but instead of blindly listening to a Goddess, blindly follows Benedict. And it ends with the final chapter title referencing automatons/puppets : who is that title talking about ? The fake "idol" Idore created, or the fake "king" Benedict created?

Anyways, the usual "religions people have no free will because their church/religion tells them how to think" trope reeks of r/atheism and the double standard - bar in this route of TS, but I guess, in TS itself in the Roland route! - is never called out, blindly following a charismatic leader is okay, as long as charismatic leader isn't religious?

Regardless of my IRL thoughts about religion, usually those tropes are presented as a "gotcha!" when they are... not at all, but the games/books leave it at that and we're supposed to roll with it.

I'd say it's lazy writing or, as we saw in Naruto, a quick way to end a story without having to dwelve in characters and their motivations : "you're a god/alien/other being and you're bad, so let us do what we want!" - end of the story.

Hopefully some fillers and to an extent, Boruto gave her more meat bar being the 11 hour villain we had to defeat quick and who manipulated the previous sad'n'lonely antagonists - but it still felt rich from Naruto, known for his famous "talk no jutsu" and trying to understand people he's fighting against, to drop the ball with Kaguya, calling her pure malice and ending with some "let us live the way we want" to wrap up the plot so he can wrestle with his boyfriend later on.

In the end, we often end up with "religion bad bcs the big bad manipulates people through it", as if those mangas/animes/vg never have other examples of charismatic people not using religion to manipulate their randoms/people or "gods bad they should let humans do what they want" when we've read/seen/played through various, uh, really fucked-up shit humans did - but on their own! and ultimately, but it's more in fandom spaces, with have Projection 101.

TLDR : church/religion/gods are too often used in those works as the ultimate scapegoat to either wrap up a story in a rushed ending or to pretend to have "nuance" but still have a common enemy where all the "nuanced" characters can grow/be whitewashed and side together against that "common enemy".

Just like in all things I guess, I prefer when something isn't painted as purely negative and all of the positive traits are erased because there is a need for a perfect scapegoat - sure, bring out too much "nuance" and writing/designing a game/manga/anime becomes harder because there's no "clear cut" antagonist, and yet, the one who always gets fucked in this scenario is the religious/church side.

Want a generic stock villain who will destroy the world so the heroes have to fight against them? Just create a "religion" in your setting, and have the big bad either hell bent on resurrecting Chtullu to destroy the world because Chtullu BaD, or have them be the most corrupt piece of shit who manipulate everything in the shadows, so the rest of the world, even the ones who slaughter others bcs they feel like they must start a war, can be whitewashed at the end.

I mean, there's a saying about diverting attention from a fire by starting a bigger one near, or a trope of "aliens made them do it" : who cares if Madara started a continental war and targeted a village full of random civilians he swore to protect because he lost the elections? Did y'know he was manipulated by a woman, I mean, an eldritch thing created by a woman, regarded as a God, who ultimately wanted to get out of her fridge to kill everyone?

Roland must get over his hatred for Aesfrost for barging in his kindgom and killing hundred of his people while they were preparing for a wedding, because hey, Idore is evil and plans on ruling the world through his sham religion!

I'll forever be salty at TS for not giving Kamsell the occasion to rise against Idore, or not even have minor NPCs get the same treatment as Sycras suddenly going all "u lied to me gustadolph so i won't listen to u anymore + sad goodbyes to my wife'n'kids".

Extremism of all kinds can lead to wars/tragedy/fucked up shit - Sure I don't want to get my History lessons in video game medium when I play lol, but what I really don't like is how it feels like depicting "they're extremists because they're religious" feels like the default/easy answer : want a bunch of brainwashed people the heroes must fight against and can't talk no justu their way out of this fight/will fight without looking too BaD? Depict those people as "misguided" members of a corrupt church/believers of a religion, no one will givea fig. If they are instead supporters of a charismatic leader who throws them through the meatgrinder to further their goals? Well, there's no automatic loyalty so either you have to show/depict it on screen, else it can be challenged at key points to demonstrate how those people - who follow the charismatic leader - aren't completely "mindlessly listening to their leader" or how their leader "isn't that bad after all".

[anglerflsh]

i feel bad for your mom...

She had me exorcised before, like, twice, so I don't particularly feel bad for her, but I suppose someone has to

[mokutone]

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image desc under readmore:

ID:

Panel one shows Tenzō having turned away from Kakashi. There's tears running down his face again, but his posture hasn't gotten tight and defensive again. "Hah. That's a pretty big drawback," he says, half joking,

Panel two, Kakashi's arms enter the frame and grasp the edges of Tenzō's happuri. Tenzō, seemingly caught off guard, lets him do this, too surprised to even mind that Kakashi can see his tears. "On the bright side, you have a home," Kakashi counters, "people you trust,"

"and a shiftless, good-for-nothing Captain, who's too lazy to fill out the paperwork for hospital-dodging." Kakashi says in panel three. The image shows Kakashi smiling more convincingly, if a little apologetic, gripping Tenzō's happuri in his hand.

Panel four shows him holding Tenzō's happuri out with one hand, and Tenzō grabbing the metal sides of it with both of his own hands. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure you're not a liability or a threat to Konoha," Kakashi says.

In the final panel of the comic, Tenzō ducks his head, looking up with one tearful eye as Kakashi reaches out. Tenzō is still gripping his happuri in his hands, close to his chest. Kakashi's back is drenched in the yellow light of the hall.

"My couch is yours, if you want to stay the night," Kakashi is saying as he ruffles Tenzō's long, now-unbound hair.

/end ID