#i have a decent chunk but i also want other opinions

[that-was-anticlimactic]

friends!!! what is a writing skill you wish you learned in school? like... it could be something specific in grammar/grammar-related, maybe about how to revise, maybe you wish you learned about different/specific genres, maybe how to write setting... whatever it may be!!! i'm doing a thing on tuesdays and would LOVE y'all's opinions on what kind of stuff to find to add for them to choose!

[alyssa-the-witch]

Offerings and their Removal

Disclosure, this may not apply to everyone! Cherry pick it if that works for you, or take none at all. Just no hate or arguments in the comments!

Definition- Offering - Something given to an entity or deity to show appreciation. This can also be something done or said to show appreciation.

~~~~~Types of Offerings~~~~~

Food- In ancient tradition, specifically Greek, the first bites of food were thrown into the fire to be sent through the gods by smoke. However, this isn't an option for many people these days. Alternative methods are favored.

Fire - The old methods are still applicable if available. If one has a bon fire or fire-place/hearth, the first bite of food can still be "smoked" , per-say.

Prayer - A small prayer can be said over food before the first bite is taken. Just a simple "Entity/spirit, please accept this offering, Blessed Be" or something similar can suffice. This, for some deities like Hestia can be done at the end too. This is more convenient for a hidden practice and for those who can't afford to waste food.

Altar- If you have an altar, or ever a small bowl, they can place the first bite of food there for the deity entity too.

Objects and Trinkets- Just like us, deities/entities love little trinkets. Whether it be a few coins you find nice to a statue or an engraved candle. Whatever it my be, it can be given to an entity with a prayer and/or on an altar in their honor.

Removables - There are some things that can be placed on altar and taken off. I like to call them removables. When placed on an altar, one could say "Entity/Deity, bless this object, with your energy and blessings." let it sit for a moment or cleanse with incense. If a clothing item, accessory, or perfume, you can take it off and use/wear it. Just remember to put it back to refresh the energy and discuss before taking it off for the first time.

Actions - There are also things that one can do in offer of a deity or entity. They can be small things, like prayers, to full-on rituals.

Prayer- This is probably the easiest in my opinion. It can be a small "Hey entity/deity, I appreciate you." on the go, or reciting a hymn or a prayer by the altar. It's incredibly diverse and can meld to any practice.

Chores - This can apply more to some deities than others, but just Keeping your room and house tidy can be done in honor of a deity. Altars specifically can be cleaned or re-arranged as an offering

Art-In ancient times, arts of every kind were offered to deities ant spirits. And it can fit most anyone's style.

Music- written specifically or just a song you think reminds you of them. Drawings/Paintings- try thing that reminds you of the deity or how you see them can be drawn or painted. Others- Pottery, Dance, Crocheting or handy crafts, or even more. All can be done in offering to a deity. Specifics - If you have done research into who you're offering to, you can offer specific things. Sleep for Hypnos, Baking bread for Hestia, Rehearsing if in the arts for Dionysus, etc. Self Care- This not a lot of people think applies, however the gas most want you to be kind to your self. whether it be a bath with oils, flower petals, and all the works to just brushing your teeth at night. All would make the gods/entities very proud of you!!

~~~~~Disposal~~~~~

This is something a bit more difficult; You did the thing, you think it's time, now what do you do? A decent chunk of this section was taken from @khaire-traveler. Obviously, actions cannot be "removed" Once the action is complete, the offering is sent.

Food- khaire narrowed it into 4 options that I really like. Just remember, when on an alter, don't let it sit too long for health concerns (rotting, bugs, etc.)

Consume - After praying aver the food like I had mentioned before.

Bum - Also mentioned before, but can be done after sitting at an altar for awhile.

Bury- Food offerings. if safe for local wildlife, can be buried. "My logic in burying them (only if environmentally safe) is returning the offering to the earth in a sense." (khair-3) (Yes its MLA cited, AP capstone has rotted my brain) If that fits Your practice, it is a good option.

Dispose, - This, like everything else here, must be done with respect. Clarify with the entity/deity that you aren't doing so out of disrespect, rather because this is your preferred disposal style or your only option

Objects/Art Pieces- If you have this ability, talk to your entity/deity about it, clarify there is no disrespect in the removal, and give the deity some time to de-attach to it. Slowly, the energy will fade from the object when kept away from the altar. This doesn't need to a ritual, but can be if that's what you prefer

Thank you for reading! This is my first fore into the pagan-sphere, so if this is something a lot of people like, I'll continue! Blessed Be, Alyssa the Witch!

[felassan]

Snippets from shinobi602, cut for length.

Comment made after the character trailer, before the gameplay reveal:

"I know I sound like a broken record at this point but I'd really wait for the gameplay footage before writing it off. I agree that the tone of the trailer isn't how I would have personally revealed the game lol. But it's definitely a mature story...(with classic DA humor of course) I think people will come around when they see it in motion." [source]

Comment made before the gameplay reveal:

"I just got a sneak peak at the gameplay being shown on Tuesday. A small sample, but enough to get a good taste. It feels like a much better Inquisition to me. Absolutely not Fortnite or Overwatch." [source]

Comment made before the gameplay reveal:

User: "Maybe this gameplay showcase is going to show us all the character creator options, the RPG mechanics and skill trees, the expansive dialogue choices you can make, the minute to minute gameplay and how the world works." Shinobi: "You won't get all of that. But it's a solid chunk. This is just the first step in a long several months ahead. They have to save stuff for more beats down the road too or else you run out of gas lol." [source]

Comment made before the gameplay reveal:

User: "Very excited to see a glimpse into that for the gameplay reveal, hoping the game's beginning is as memorable as the other entries" Shinobi: "It is a massive boost in quality for the series. I'm not talking art style or anything, but just in terms of sheer quality and technical fidelity. Really hard to keep my tongue bitten lol, but I'm excited to see what everyone thinks tomorrow." [source]

Comment made after the gameplay reveal was teased:

"Yup, that's what it looks like, but there's so much more goodness. Looks amazing imo." [source]

Comment made before the gameplay reveal:

"it feels like the ME2 of Dragon Age." [source]

Comment made before the gameplay reveal:

"Oh just wait. The hair tech is phenomenal in this. Even I was thinking "aye is this a Bioware game!?" lol." [source]

Comment made before the gameplay reveal:

"They look different but to be honest the more you see them, the more you get used to it. I love the way Harding looks now. It's more stylized, but also a huge boost in technical fidelity in Frostbite." [source]

Comment made after the gameplay reveal, before the press who saw the demos at SGF shared about what they saw:

"Pretty much every person I've talked to across a dozen different media outlets, ~95%'ish, has walked out of the private demo sessions with glowing praise." [source]

-

"I don't mean there aren't any open ended areas to explore. But it's a tight game, with a focus on not wasting the player's time with bloat. They took a lot of that feedback from Inquisition." [source] [re: the game not being open world in design]

-

One preview from a large outlet basically boils down to 'Bioware is back'. [source]

-

"I'm optimistic. From conversations I've had, they are genuinely serious in trying to make a Bioware classic here. They do not want a repeat of Andromeda or Anthem. I can only go based off what I've heard obviously - haven't played it. We all have our opinions on the combat, but they learned a lot of hard lessons since Inquisition, taken a lot of feedback to heart, and want this to feel like that tight, structured high quality experience we used to get from them. Andromeda and Anthem came in hot at launch. I felt some warning signs before those came out, but here? Right now they're just polishing. It's all polish from here to release. I'm really hoping this is the start of their return to form. That team's been through a lot, I hope it works out for the best." [source]

-

User: "I think there certainly is a decent contingent of legitimate dissatisfaction or concern around the game, but I'm not sure that that's an overwhelming segment, but I do think it's something BioWare in EA should not and cannot ignore." Shinobi: "They've definitely taken notice. There's a lot more to show between now and launch." [source]

-

"One thing I'm particularly happy about and can't get over is how much better the hair rendering is. It might be a small thing to some but it looks incredible. It's in another stratosphere compared to DAI." [source]

-

"Everyone in the previews was gushing about how robust the CC is in Veilguard so there might be a decent chance to make some wild Qunari designs." [source]

On the Next Mass Effect:

"ME will look very, very good. Don't worry." [source]

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

Alastor Redesign! (5/7)

For as much as I hate his guys hair. God that bob. It really is iconic.

Anyway it’s Mr. Hazbin Hotel himself! He’s been growing on me a lot recently (my version, hes boring in the show im so sorry alastor fans)

I think most of my follow have seen my Alastor design so this post may be a bit shorter than the others; still I hope you like seeing him full body

I’ve always thought this guy looked nothing like a deer so I have attempted to fix that. Not sure if it looks the best but you can tell he’s a deer! Alastor is also biomechanical so he has a few technological pieces of his body like his mouth and antlers that are meant to look like those tiny radio tower thingies.

The scar and stitching around his neck is from a fight with Vox. Alastor isn’t able to just design and replace body parts so he has a decent chunk of scars under the suit. I placed it on the neck for vulnerability sake, and also like how you mount deer heads on the wall, I wanted to be like that a little.

For his colours, I did focus a bit on wrath and greed, but his dumb magic stuff is still green to represent envy. Also red and yellow are meant to evoke feelings of hunger and I thought that would be fun because he eats deer and all that :)

The microphone staff Vivzie gave him was stupid so I gave him one more inspired by the 1930’s. The red crescent and gold barings are meant to look like a blood moon and the sun a little bit, I thought that was cool.

Most of his interesting bits are through character interactions rather than how he looks in my opinion, but I think he still looks pretty spiffy. He’s funny, absolutely hate him though! 🥃

[staghunters]

The case for an ND reading of Jackie Taylor, a decently-sized post.

I got a lot of scrambled thoughts on this, and they need a space for coherence. Maybe this is more for my own headcanon-ing, but feel free to take this if you want to. A lot of this comes down to a certain reading of text that I do with a certain kind of lens that may not be there for everyone. And that's fine! This is just silly analysis stuff that I wanted to do.

Am I an "authority figure" on this? Probably not by some standards! I consider myself to be on some spectrum, but only my brother has a diagnosis (tm), so do with that what you will.

This a mix of new thoughts and some copy-pasted from messages i sent on discord once.

SO, where to start. The first proper introduction of Jackie with other people is that gruelling opening sequence, but I think the more interesting is her first scene with Shauna where we get the big chunk of what the history is between these two and on what dynamic they interact with each other.

Jackie's got the whole thing color-coded and planned out. She likes that, but from all the other things later in the episode -- and the season -- it becomes very clear that she likes to have some input that ranges from voicing her opinion to micro-managing in order to feel in control and somewhat safe in her position as (social) captain of the Yellowjackets.

That Shauna is going to Rutgers with Jackie is taken as a given by her. One interpretation is that Jackie thinks that Shauna, obviously, will go with her to Rutgers on the basis of their friendship. However, I would like to propose a lil switch in that maybe Jackie hopes that Shauna will go with her to Rutgers. Getting into Brown isn't nothing, and there's gotta be some pointers at High School that Shauna would be/feel overqualified for Rutgers.

High school is a game of social credits. Jackie knows what to wear, what to say, what to do. Coach points out her "influence", and she demonstrates some skills at conflict-resolution during the kegger. Soccer is a game, one that she's very passionate about, as is her supposedly on-and-off-ish thing with Jeff. The funny thing is that Jackie seems way more interested in calling out how her boyfriend's team has been doing at baseball, rather than stuff that concerns him (or the both of them) personally.

To segway back a bit: Everything is a game with rules. Jackie knows them, but is shown to be really out of her element in the wilderness and trying to bring back normal societal rules into it (this will be a surprise tool that will help us later). Is Shauna going with her to Rutgers a naive wish on the basis of their friendship, or is it also so Jackie can have someone to scout and feel out all the social conventions for her? College means that a new playbook needs to be made, and it saves embarassment if you can base it on someone else.

Jackie assuming that Shauna would go along to Rutgers to be her roommate can very well be an expression of "this is my best friend and my sole, kind, understanding constant in my life, and I need her there with me in this unknown territory." College means starting over from scratch, and if we assume the manual-based functioning to be true, then Shauna's presence there to take cues from could help a lot to smooth out this transition.

On the other hand, this is of course the opportunity to drop some masking that Jackie might've been doing. Shauna being there could then very well work against her

My greatest argument, I think, is that you can see the entirety of Jackie's lil subplot of going after Travis as an example of how such a process backfires tremendously against her.

A little step-by-step:

Jackie is shown to give Shauna multiple chances to come clean about the Jeff Thing. Shauna doesn't, but Jackie still sticks around her.

Jackie proposes the plan to have some fun with Travis to Shauna. Shauna voices her thoughts about it, underlining that it would be a bad thing to do to Natalie.

This notion is repeated throughout the episode. Travis himself brings it up, the high group of hunters brings it up, Nat herself looks not too pleased at Jackie and Travis slow-dancing at doomcoming.

There's an interesting reverse happening once the hunter girls confront Jackie about having had sex with Travis. Everyone is out of their minds, so idk how well we can factor in that almost all of them proceed to go after Travis despite mentioning once again that "he's Natalie's".

Doomcoming is post journal discovery, yet quite some time has passed between that and the episode. Jackie makes some very obvious comments at Shauna to signal that She Knows, and the Travis plan is set up after that. Hooking up with Travis can serve the plainly stated "I'm not gonna die a virgin :/", but over the course of the episode, it also creates this whole new catalogue of reactions from the others. And all of these, in their defence of Natalie, would speak in favor of Jackie if the news would break that Shauna had sex with Jeff.

So at the end of Doomcoming, we can get some sort of list of "rules" that would apply out here in the wilderness appendix for the section on CHEATING

People can call dibs on someone, and those are to be respected

Acting like the "bigger person" by calling everyone out on how little value it has out here is not going to do you any favors

The group will react badly if you crossed a line in their eyes. Taking someone's boyfriend falls under that.

It's how she plays the fight with Shauna! Shauna wants to bring up that most problems were caused by Jackie hooking up with Travis, which Jackie follows with an uno-reverse card she now (thinks) she has in her hands

If I (Jackie) hook up with Nat's boyfriend (Travis), then the group takes Natalie's side. Therefore, if Shauna hooked up with my boyfriend, then they should take my side.

And it goes so bad! Shauna outplays her by making the whole fight not about the cheating, but about their friendship as a whole, which Jackie has been viewing way differently and blinded than Shauna and the others. There's plenty of moments of Jackie "not reading the room" and either waving it off as the others being party-poopers or a lil mishap of her own.

Of course the big difference is that Jackie isn't really awkward in the highschool setting. She won homecoming queen for a reason, has many people looking up to her, and Coach Martinez probably made her captain for similar reasons. I guess what I'm going for with what's provided in Doomcoming is that Jackie lacks that "reading the room" skill (we can see it a number of times with Shauna in the pilot. In particular I'd say the Rutgers discussion, the boob dress, and telling Jeff to drop her off first) but makes up for it a lot by having a sort of manual of how to act in certain situations.

She's not seeing how Shauna might feel about her constant input on things. She's not seeing that others might orchestrate stuff outside of her knowledge. Nobody ever outright goes head-to-head with Jackie until the wilderness, and on good grounds there. If rescue isn't coming, we go to the body of water that's just been discovered. But the crash site is (ironically) safe. Whatever might happen if we leave it behind for something we're not even sure of?

It also doesn't look like Jackie has any (good) friends outside of Shauna. Might come with their years long codependence that nobody even wants to put themselves into, but also that with a captain position/being a generally popular high school student, she might not seem as approachable on a personal level. Jackie does make herself very open, and she's shown to be able to set up brief but very attentive conversations (Allie, Mari, Misty) but beyond that on a superficial level, there's not someone who she turns to when she suspects Shauna of something. Shauna's very obvious other friend is of course Taissa, but there's nobody out in the wilderness like that for Jackie.

and for some random bits:

Verbal stuff! The Beaches quote is peak, because who else would drop a line like that in such a moment. If Jackie's lying about not quoting it, then it does really speak of it being a hyper-focus movie (and we can also discuss why Shauna can recognize the movie from just the one line). But I think the possibility of it just being one of those phrases that you whip out like a vine quote, even if you've forgotten the origins of it

Presentation and maybe textures! Her luggage lacking skirts/dresses is… yeah. She wears a dress at the party in the woods and going to school with Shauna in the pilot episode, but besides the doomcoming dress, that's it. The article that says that while the others are already sharing clothes, Jackie sticks to her own wardrobe OR borrows some thing from Shauna (shoutout to the Doomcoming flannel!)

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

You know what? Even though they depicted Aemond as an absolute cartoonish villain, I'm actually on his side because no matter how hard they try to ruin him (and are succeeding) the fact is that he's the only one who actually wants to fight. He is basically everything that's left of TG. Also, that scene on the balcony with Helaena made me feel bad for him because I think he genuinely cares about her, sees her value and acknowledges their bond (come with me to Harrenhal, help me destroy Daemon's army) . And it looked like he had a tear in the eye? It's much more than manipulation, there is something deep age genuine between them. I'm just sad they didn't have more scenes together and that they used Helaena only to make him look worse. The actors at least tried to save something of all that mess so there's that. Also, I really hate how the fans, especially TG fans, are justifying Aegon and even Alicent to some extent, but Aemond is to blame for everything?! How about no? Moreover, I hate what they did to Aegond in the Rook's Rest, but the thing is, even with Aegon and Sunfyre, the greens would be in a great disadvantage (we saw that Sunfyre is no match for Meleys, let alone vermithor, silverwing or caraxes, and Aegon is not much of a fighter either) so they would still need Dreamfyre and Helaena. That's why his request isn't about him being a crazy monster trying to force Helaena to fight (also, would people stop infantilize her), not is actually reasonable.

I won't talk about Daemon's vision and his and Rhaenyra's scene because it's stupid and corny af, but I must say that what deeply pains me is Alicent's character assassination. They literally made her betray her side twice (in ep 3 and now,) coz she practically agrees to Aemond's (and Aegon's) death and promises to open the city gates?? . And for some reason a big chunk of TG think that her actions are more justifiable than Aemond's?? She literally killed TG. And it pains me since she, Aemond and Aegon were my faves.

Anyway, sorry if this was too long. Always love to read your opinions so I had to vent. This is also my farewell to this horrible excuse of the show.

Hello!

As for Alicent - I do love her, and I try my best to keep my frustration about the things the script had her do this season directed at the writers. But damn. The "men bad, women good" agenda destroyed her character - but looks like that's not the main things the wokes care about. To them Alicent remains a decent person as long as she is not siding with her sons (especially Aemond). And the worst thing is that basically since the beginning of this season the writers have been hammering home the idea that there is no such thing as "team Green" (marketing be damned) as a unit. In the words of TB actors (I believe it was Bethany who said it first, though I might be mistaken) "They all hate each other".

And I am totally with you on the matter of Aemond remaining the only one among TG (at least those we know as we haven't met Daeron yet) who is still willing to fight. Rhaenyra literally tells Alicent she will have to eliminate all competition for the throne - and that includes not only Aegon but Aemond and Daeron as well. And people are still claiming that Aemond is wrong for trying to make his mother understand that her actions (or inaction) put all of their family into danger.

Aemond's scenes with Helaena became just a couple of tools used to make Aemond look bad, indeed. It's literally visible through Ewan and Phia's acting that they tried to show there's more to it - but it's nigh impossible to fight against the script in such cases. Ewan utters "I could have you killed" in the most vulnerable way possible - but it's still a death threat towards his sister, and many people will see it as nothing more than that.

I mean, Phia literally said that Helaena feels safer with Aemond than with Aegon and from each and every Ewan's interview where he mentioned Helaena it was clear that he likes and cherishes her character. But writers just had to ruin this relationship as well - and in such a dumb way.

Aemond's request about her joining the war might be questionable - but, once again, to me it felt like it was not even about Helaena potentially being endangered or her trauma as much as it was about her, a woman, not wanting to fight in a "men's war".

Thank you for showing your appreciation! May your next viewing experience be much better that what we had with HoTD👿

[seeminglyseph]

Every now and then I'll see a critique like "they sure just shout their feelings at each other"

And it's like... a shounen fight anime for teenagers.

Which is not to say that the genre is not *capable* of subtly but like. Also, sometimes, when your target audience is teenage boys who are specifically looking for punches, like... sometimes, you put the text in the text on purpose. Sometimes, you consciously choose to have the hero geadbutt the power of friendship into a guy, and they talk about loneliness and fun and leadership.

And also sometimes. Characters don't have the vocabulary to describe their emotions in a way that sounds "valid." Sometimes that's characterization in itself, the lack of vocabulary to describe emotions and motivation. Honestly, it's wild how often people will just take characters at their word when they describe their feelings in a shallow way when like... all the imagery is like... clearly depicting something else. Like, say.... Sometimes, a character just says their bored, but like... literally, all the imagery involved clearly depicts a pretty deep depression or personal crisis. But that character has no words or frame of reference for how to discuss those feelings, so he just says he's bored and lashes out in increasingly erratic ways?

Yeah I might be talking about Wind Breaker again Tomiyama Choji gets done so fucking dirty by people what the fuck is up with so many videos I have seen just fucking going "what he did all this because he was bored???"

Like. No. Did you pay attention??? He lost his purpose, and he lost his way, and none of his friends were willing to stand up to him or stand with him, so even though he was the leader and he had a gang, he was entirely alone. But he didn't have the ability to find what he was missing, or name what he was feeling. So he didn't know how to ask for help.

He's as much a feral child as Sakura and so works as a first arc foil for him, a character who seeks power and leadership without any goals or intentions behind it besides "Freedom." Especially since Choji is shown not fully knowing for himself what freedom is or would represent. But for the types of people who end up in feral street gangs? And for a character that is a foil to Sakura and is also... very speed based in his fighting style. Freedom makes sense for something that Choji would want.

But it seems like a promise he was given without much intention of him receiving it. I don't really think he was supposed to overthrow the boss of his gang and become the leader... though that's some rampant speculation.

I dunno man. I know part of it is like. O ly one season is out, so everyone is still not sure what to think about it. And that's fair. I'm still like... confused about multiple angles of the series. I've read... a decent chunk of the manga, and I'm still like. Pretty curious about how the universe works, honestly. Maybe the fact that I clocked how Choji held his chopsticks and like. Multiple puzzle pieces fell into place because I have been loving the weird little details Wind Breaker will throw in. Either this series tells a very intense story through background details and character designs, or one day, I will be made a very large fool of.

None of this is an organised enough thought to be worth anything but like. I know this is probably not controversial among Wind Breaker *fans*, but like. I keep like... seeing people with this opinion in videos and stuff talking about Wind Breaker that seemed to have not connected and not understood.

Which does make me feel a little like a "you just don't *understand* man." But like. If you really felt like Choji acted the way he acted because he was bored and wanted to have more fun you like... *didn't get it* or were being purposefully disingenuous because you personally disliked the portrayal.

[bifronse]

The Outsiders social media headcanons except they’re still boomers

Since Pony is writer, he has multiple platforms but primarily uses twitter. Pre-Musk, he’s verified and is relatively active on it. He’s used the internet since the advent of it so he’s the most familiar with internet culture and lingo. He migrates to Bluesky after the Musk takeover

Pony’s fanbase skews young because of his heavily character-driven novels, so he has a hoard of teenagers that always bug him

Darry makes a Twitter to follow Pony. Rarely updates and is the most dad twitter you can think of. Posting pictures of his grills and family, as well as occasional updates about his construction company. A chunk of Pony’s followers found him and jokingly hype up all his tweets, no matter how mundane. He doesn’t know how to feel about that

Two-Bit is on Facebook and follows all sorts of humor groups, and he is blissfully unaware that over half the content farm shit that shows up on his feed is AI. If you tried to tell him about AI, he’d just laugh it off because “I don’t get that stuff”

After Pony leaves twitter Darry vows to stop using socmed entirely because he doesn’t want to bother learning how to use another one, Twitter was bad enough. He fails miserably once Pony sends him a Bluesky invite because he’s still The Worrier and Needs to know what Pony’s up to

Steve has a Facebook and most of what he posts is either just reposts of articles he finds (being a retired drug counselor he’s always keeping tabs on drug-related research), simple life updates, or strong opinions about current day cars

Steve eventually mutes Two-Bit because the reposts of content farm slop became too incessant. He swears up and down that it’s nothing personal

Steve and Pony have a constant tension over politics. They both like and hate the same things but Steve is significantly more apolitical. As an example: Pony hates Musk for being a scumbag billionaire, Steve hates Musk because he hates Teslas. So whenever they talk IRL, afterwards they take to their respective platforms to throw vagues at each other. Thankfully they’re on separate platforms otherwise it’d be a nightmare

The Curtises are, eventually, pushed into making a Facebook so they can all keep up with each other. Pony’s page collects dust but Darry ends up using it more than he ever did Twitter because, well, his posting style was made for Facebook. He’s also able to properly promote his construction company on there

Pony had a tumblr that he had to stop using ~2017 because the asks got too aggressive. Why that happened is up to your imagination

Bonus resurrections:

Johnny is one of those older guys that somehow gets sucked into streaming video games. You know the ones. He’s decently popular despite not actually talking much

I’m a Dally Optimist so he’d be one of those guys that goes around on different platforms to spread awareness about the dangers of gang life and prison conditions

Soda may be in his late 60s/early 70s but that will NOT stop him from fucking it up on Instagram and TikTok!!! He’s handsome so that obviously makes the old man fuckers go crazy

Soda would catch wind of the “hyping up Darry’s boring tweets” and join in on it, so Soda’s crazy thirsty followers would find Darry. It is Darry’s personal hell but he secretly finds it hilarious. Get it grandpa!

[digitaldoeslmk]

I apologize if you're not the right person to ask but I've been wondering this for a while and since you both enjoy (but are critical of) lmk and also enjoy/know a lot about jttw I figure you may be a decent person to ask. And I mean this is as an entirely genuine question.

Jttw has so many different adaptations and parodies and, for lack of a better term, spinoffs, why is it that LMK in particular seems to get so much more criticism? How is it different from any other story that uses jttw as a base?

I was under the impression that while a lot of events and chatacters have been changed or tweaked in some ways (looking at red son in particular, as well as seemingly replacing Buddha with the jade emperor, I could go on) it was still relatively faithful at least in spirit. It has a lot of callbacks and mentions to the book, even if it's more or less an AU of the original story.

So why is it that its adaptation in particular seems so...disliked I suppose? Or at least takes a lot more criticism than other adaptations. I could take a few guesses (fandom (and its lack of knowledge of the source material) being a big one, or otherwise being more western than the story probably should be) but as someone who was introduced to jttw by lmk (reading the book now and having a blast with it) I'm curious and confused as to why it seems to be disliked when there are so many other jttw adaptations that also change fair chunks of the story, and those don't seem to garner the same level of criticism.

And I apologize again if you're maybe the wrong person to ask, but I wasn't sure where else to start, if you know anyone who can maybe answer this better I'd love to hear from any of them as well, I've been so curious about this for a while.

no worries at all, and i appreciate the ask!

i do wanna preface this by saying that i have very little interaction with the LMK fandom, and mostly heard the horror stories through the grapevine or by others telling me their own experience with it. and make no mistake, this sideblog is very much me laser focusing on the few stuff i enjoy of the show and expanding on those and filling in the rest with a lot of plaster and spite ajdhawjhbdh

i will keep most of my vitriol to myself though, and that the opinion i'm giving is my own. there's a lot of good folks who are more than welcome to pitch in with their own criticisms here, for a larger poll of voices.

read more cus this is long xvx

as you have said, JTTW has an overwhelming amount of retelling, rewrites, sequels, prequels, adaptations, what have you. trust me, there is a JTTW adaptation for everyone out there and it's part of the beauty and appeal of it. and equally, everyone has their pros and cons for each of them.

one major point to keep in mind is that LMK has a very online fanbase, and it's an abnormally large one. it also has fans on the west and in china, and the language barrier tends to keep both rather separate, for better or worse. so a larger fanbase means a larger pool of criticism simply by law of averages.

another thing to keep in mind is that, because it is so large, a lot of people are getting into JTTW thanks to it, and it's exactly those changes that make it even more of a hurdle for people to meet JTTW where it's at. and by that i mean, a very different worldview and belief system than known in the west.

i've been in the JTTW fandom properly for, three months now?? three and a half lol and the amount of reading and studying i've been doing to just scratch at the depth of centuries of cultural context is not insignificant. and i'm only just starting! it's a wonderful experience, but not many in the LMK fandom are as eager or willing to learn all that, much less listen when people correct them on things that they believe, that are factually false. and that can be deeply frustrating for those who simply want to share in the joy of learning.

it's incredibly demeaning and patronizing, to have such an old and rich culture reduced to a single adaptation that rly lambasts the roots of its entire premise for existing. no other fans of other adaptations have that kind of attitude that i've come across; those are all understood as AUs and not to be taken as gospel, but some of the fandom treat LMK as the end all be all of JTTW media and it's, infuriating.

beyond the fandom leaving one hell of a bitter taste, there's the fact that LMK is a very westernized view and parody of JTTW. it breaks not only with the lore of it, but with the very fundamentals of Buddhist and Daoist cosmology. those changes you mentioned, like the JE replacing Buddha and then the guy getting killed, the absence of several concepts and deities, and sometimes the very change of them, are incredibly disrespectful on their own. it's very hard to remove JTTW from its religious roots (it can be done but those usually read more as "inspired by" rather than proper adaptations), and to do so by filling the empty space with a Greco-Christian view of cosmology is... A Big Ol Yikes.

while we in the west might be okay turning stuff like Christian, Norse, Greek, etc. mythology upside down for our stories, it comes off as disrespectful to do the same for an overall dismissed and ignored religion in the west like Daoism, and even more so for such a sprawling one as Buddhism. that attitude does not translate well at all, and to be faithful only in spirit is simply not enough. you wouldn't (i hope) say that about people who appropriate Indigenous or closed faith beliefs for their own use; it's 2023 surely we don't need to revive the W-nd-ig- debate again, or the Lilith one. (i can for further context but i'd rather not, but you're than welcome to google it)

at the end of the day, an AU is just an AU until you're using it to sell toys and it has turned into a massive entry window for many western fans into a foundational piece of literature for an entire country that has been and still is routinely degraded and discriminated against.

i hope this hasn't come off as too harsh, but this is smth that rly grinds my gears and i tend to be a bit stern when discussing it. none of it was aimed at you anon, i know you're just trying to understand the situation and i do appreciate the effort you're making!!

[jellybeanium124]

woke up and the "DON'T POINT OUT MY TYPOS IT'S UNSOLICITED CRITIQUE YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE IF YOU DO THIS!!" people found my "mentioning typos in comments okay?" poll. and it's fascinating to me how, to me at least, these people's comments seem pretty entitled and rude, and also act like they're the majority opinion when the poll is currently 70-30 split the other way. like ok a decent chunk of people agree with you, but the clear majority does not! and maybe that's just how I'm reading their responses, and the fact that I'm in the 70% who thinks it's fine, but to me there is a clear tone difference in the responses of people who said no and people who said yes. there's like, a level of humility and openness to collaboration in the responses of the people who said yes, and there's this staunch pridefulness to the answers of people who said no.

and like, I think that makes sense, really, when you think about it. saying yes requires 1 ounce of humility. it's basically saying "I'm not perfect, and I will make typos." it also requires genuine care for their work. they want their fic to be good and they recognize they might not make it as good as they could be on their own.

considering a typo unsolicited crit is something that requires such a big ego imo! one person said "If it's posted, it's because I am done working on fixing it" and another compared getting a comment about a typo between positive things to getting shit in a sandwich. multiple people said it would be like receiving a hand-made gift and immediately finding something to criticize. multiple people said it's like pretending to be their english teacher, which you're not. another person said "#leaving critique in a comment even if you loved it is going WOW i read this thing you wrote and decided to share and all i noticed was#that you misspelled this word and thats all that matters really!"

let me break this down one at a time.

I'm done with the fic: so if you caught the typo while rereading your fic you wouldn't edit it away? maybe you don't reread your own fics but like for the sake of argument if you did and you found a typo you wouldn't edit it because you're done with the fic?

being told about a typo is like being handed shit to eat? isn't that a bit dramatic? I even said in the poll that it was a polite comment, just to be totally clear about what I mean. idk how a polite comment could be telling you to eat shit.

well, unless a fic is literally gifted to me, it's not a hand-made gift for me. I don't see fics as hand-made gifts for my followers. like yes, on the one hand, I am making you entertainment for free, and I expect readers to understand that and understand how that makes it different than a published novel, but I don't write for my readers (in general), I write because it's what I want to see in the world. second, a hand-made gift is you're handing over is something that it's too late to fix. inherent in the premise of my poll is the fact that the fic is something hosted online, not printed in a zine, and therefore is editable and fixable. if you make your friend a scarf and fuck up one of the stitches, that's just gonna be how it is for all time, and your friend totally would be an asshole for immediately pointing that out. but fics online don't have to have typos forever. the commenter is trying to help you so you don't have a typo in there forever. other people pointed this out in the tags of my poll. one person mentioned being a comics writer and being glad that people caught typos before their comics went to print. ao3 is forever man. that's what an archive is for.

you are conferring a maliciousness onto english teachers that fascinates me. now, yes, some teachers can be malicious, but in general, they are not. english teachers didn't criticize your essays in school because they wanted to upset you (again, barring unique circumstances where your english teacher really was an asshole out to get you, idk your specific past), they were criticizing to help you become a better writer. now, yes, it is an english teacher's job to criticize the essays you handed in, and none of us random readers have the job of pointing out typos to you, but we're theoretically doing it for the same reason. to help. we just want to help your fic be the best it can.

the last comment really gets to the root of the problem, I think. that people who feel this way feel personally attacked by something as small as "hey you wrote helo instead of hello" or something. the people who feel this way take this stuff very seriously, and, like, idk man, I think maybe you should work on that? I've gotten actual mean comments on fics (and maybe they have too, again I don't know everything about your life). comments about how izzy is out of character or the moral I wrote is terrible and I'm probably being abused if I think this way or ed is a complete entitled asshole in this fic and expects izzy to apologize to him??? (if you know me and the our flag fandom you know that's not what happened) or "wow I hate the ship you wrote, but you did a good job with it though!" I've gotten others I've forgotten about because I deleted them because they were mean enough to make me cry. I'm a sensitive person, all things considered. if a mutual unfollows me and then shows up in my notes with the green "following" badge instead of the purple "mutual" badge I will feel like a piece of shit who must've done something really wrong and they hate me now when like... that's probably not the case. but my ego isn't as sensitive as all that that I can't handle a stranger telling me I made a typo.

these aren't all the arguments people made against politely pointing out typos. some people felt like the comment being there publicly forever is the bigger problem, and would be okay with a friend dm'ing them about it. but even that is like... why is the comment shameful? why is it a problem that it's there forever? why are you concerned that someone might read it and judge you for normal human error?

anyways yeah that's the post. I made a new one bc I'm not trying to pick a fight with anyone. I didn't mean to be mean in this post either. like if you don't want people pointing out typos to you that's fine. I just think it's kind of silly that you're demanding that the majority opinion should be the one who has to say "typo comments are ok" in the beginning notes, instead of you, the minority opinion, having to say "typo comments are not okay" in the beginning notes. because the majority is okay with polite typo comments.

[e-adlirez]

The last question you answer about violet having a grasshopper pet being stereotypical make me realize that the girls do be kinda stereotypical in the very first book…(which fortunately isn’t there anymore as the series progress). Though, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I would love to hear your take on the cultural aspect of the thea sisters books. In your personal opinion, do you think the books do a decent job in cultural representation?

It started out with a decent chunk of stereotypes, but what allows me to look past them and love them is the fact that they show the girls growing out of them. For example, Vi (the only one I can actually speak on) is very much the smart and shy Asian kid stereotype (and the occasional esoteric proverb or two), but I love her because she grew into the role of being the group braincell. She's the group braincell, the straight man, the nanny holding four leashes at once, the anxiety-riddled bean who wants to move out of her comfort zone but is scared to do so on her own and thus leans on her friends for support ohmygodshe'sjustlikemefr--

For a series made in the early 2000s, the representation is pretty good! Definitely not perfect (stares at the Chinese proverb thing and Pam being a sasslord with weird-ass slang), but it was very much ahead of its time! The girls did start out stereotypical, yes, but one thing that it did was expand the girls beyond the stereotypes they initially started out with. Violet started as the Asian smart kid, but her character was expanded (if I described how we'd be here all day); Colette started out as a diva, but grew out of it and became a proud girly girl who gets along with Pam even though their tastes in fashion are different; Nicky does have that crazy Aussie in her (which I love), but she's also a goofball and passionate nature advocate a la Steve Irwin (still crazy tho, see that one time she crawled on the roof of a moving train); Pam I think changed the most, seeing she started off as the sassy one with weird slang but is now more the comedic relief who takes charge of the girls culinary itineraries and keeps them grounded; and Paulina's stayed the most consistent, but I dunno if that's saying a lot because she doesn't get that much screentime compared to the others.

One thing I will also appreciate is the extra bit of character building that the girls have that tie the little bits together. Vi has many things she's into and is good at? She is a curious type open to new learning experiences and is also a perfectionist (with anxiety coding), said wumbo combo means she's pretty good at a lot of nerd-flavored things like art and strategy and attention to detail. Pam likes pizza? Her family runs a pizzeria. Nicky is crazy? Yeah she's crazy, she's really good at thinking on her feet even if it means jumping off the outstretched ladder of a speeding firetruck to catch a perp. Colette is a fashionista? She likes looking good and has a good eye for different fashion styles and how to elevate them (and is most likely the reason Pam doesn't just have the most basic of clothes to wear everyday). Paulina is an IT kid? She is also chronically online :D (:'D) and she uses technology to try to improve her corner of the world and remain in contact with her family, mainly her little sister.

Oh yeah and the plots of the books were not that stereotypical, either! Tho take my statements with a grain of salt because I'm not part of any of these cultures, their trip to Japan didn't involve a single ounce of sushi or origami or samurai-- it involved bunraku and a theme on tradition versus passion. Their trip to Hawai'i did involve hula, but that was because they were there to compete in totallynottheMerrieMonarchFestivalweswearsincerelyScholastic, and they do mention the whole volcanic eruption thing without having to talk about Hawai'i religion beyond the white dog superstition, with a little side comment of how business corporates can be more than willing to pull all the strings they can to exploit the natural beauty and the people of Hawai'i. They went to New York and the plot was intertwined very much with the NYC housing crisis in such a way that was easy to digest, even for kids! They went to India and not only set it in an underrated part of the country (Tamil Nadu), they didn't lean into mainstream media stereotypes about India and let the story tell itself as it deserved to! They went to Italy multiple times and, get this, they didn't make a single pasta joke. (Because it's an Italian series that'd be weird if they did.)

But yeah, they treated these cultures with a surprising amount of respect. Like I said, not perfect, but it is a relief how a good chunk of the books still stand up to the test of time.

If you're from any of the cultures they explored in any of the books, feel free to let me know ^^

[generalluxun]

I think the reason why Chloe is so controversial in the fandom is that both sides can be toxic. Some Chloe stans are toxic and jerks, but some of the toxic Chloe haters are no better. They act like toxic Chloe stans by shaming, harassing and bullying people who do like her. They also cannot respect opinions as well. These are just my thoughts.

There are several reasons I think.

Clearly there are people who project themselves onto Marinette and then project their own personal bully experiences onto Chloé. Without actual therapy or time+healing on their own, these people will never accept any reasoned argument about Chloé as a character, because to them she isn't a character, she is their personal bully. The transference supplants the actual narrative.

There are definitely toxic behaviors among some of the people who claim to like Chloé too. I do think there's value in breaking down the who and why though.

There are the pot stirrers: These people actually don't care about Chloé per-se they just see a hot take and jump on it, hoping to cause as much trouble as they can. These folks aren't really 'Chloé stans' heck, they probably aren't even ML fans. They're instigators. It's important to recognize one when you see them and simply pitch their noise into the bin 'Chloé did nothing wrong!' is such a silly and clearly wrong take that it can only be from one of these folks.

There are those who are frustrated: I lay the blame for this segment squarely at Thomas Astruc's feet. He makes bold, dismissive, and authoritative statements, escalating all the way to open gaslighting when confronted, or even just lightly questioned in regards to Chloé's character.

'Chloé is not abused' -SIR, please consult someone with even the rudiments of child development education and review what has actually been put on screen. I know whether I am going to believe you, or my lying eyes. Thank you.

His antics and the narrative in general ignoring what has already been put on screen frustrates a LOT of people, and deeply so. Child abuse isn't a light topic, people have *feelings* about it. TA is unreachable and unengagable though, and so a chunk of people turn their frustrations elsewhere. They lash out at other characters, and by proxy their stans, and you get this whole negative feedback loop in the fandom while I presume TA just sits back with a drink in hand, throwing darts at pictures of blond girls, and laughing.

There are those who can't express themselves well: Remember this is a kids show so a large chunk of the fandom is well, unsurprisingly, kids! Kids without the raw learning to necessarily articulate their arguments with nuance. This is how you get a dozen tweets to Ta asking 'When is Chloé going to get some development?' to which he can derisively reply 'She has, you just don't like it!' and durr hurr hurr isn't he so clever.

If the fan had instead put forth clear concise examples of the abuse on screen, how it ties into actual child development practices, how they want this *child* to be shown growing and overcoming these huge hurdles because you know, they're decent human beings, and their confusion as to why a show about superheroes/Magical girls hasn't done that.... well, it would be harder to dismiss.

Take that exchange, and now instead shift it to folks among the fandom themselves. Short, sweeping statements that don't really express what they are feeling effectively. This happens between Adrien/Mari stans when they fight too. Not every 13yr old should be expected to know college level Psyche, but it can lead to miscommunication and then acrimony when they engage without it.

I want to point out this also works for things not involving Chloé at all.

Marinette stans trying to explain why they feel Marinette is so put upon while others argue that she gets everything and *Adrien* is the put upon one, all getting into protracted battles while shouting half-formed ideas and confused impressions from an inconsistent and poorly framed narrative at each other.

Is Marinette a Mary Sue who is handed things in a silver platter? *YES*

Is she ALSO an emotional damage magnet, abused by the narrative relentlessly and blamed for things not her fault? *YES*

These two ideas can both exist at the same time, but a lot of people have a hard time juggling that, so we get arguments and toxicity because this is the internet and too much is never enough of anything.

[clarabowmp3]

You forget that ttpd's streak was broken and then it re-entered number 1. why do you have something to always complain about? is it affecting you? no! are you affecting her in any shape or form? no! am i affecting her? no! so like, stfu for fucks sake

oh….oh my god??? I wouldn’t call my tags on that post complaining ??? That was just my opinion. And I dont know if it’s considered ‘forgetting’ if I never even knew that its streak was broken in the first place. Like you said, it’s not rlly smth that affects me, so the only times I’d hear abt its streak etc would be with the occasional variant drops. Also, Im very serious when I say I don’t care. I’m not celebrating every week it stays #1, and I’m not crowing over her “failing” ie dropping out of #1, I rlly dont care abt chart sales records etc etc

The reason why I talk abt it is cuz my feelings surrounding her differ from day to day. Some days I’m more apathetic so I don’t rlly care, but other days I miss the years when I rlly looked up to her and feel upset/betrayed (yes I know the parasocial is showing) because of how frequently I disagree with her actions these days, in comparison to pre-midnights era. For example, I’m not going to get into it here but I feel like she’s pretty unsportsmanlike with respect to the charts etc, and I think I made a post abt it a while back. Yes, it doesn’t affect me, but my brother in Christ you and I are on tumblr dot com what else would u expect?? this is pretty much my online diary/running internal monologue (like I post abt a lot of my thoughts, a decent chunk of them happening to be about taylor)

On a broader issue, you say that I “always have something to complain about.” In case it wasn’t clear before, I personally am not a cupcake swiftie. I’m mutuals with a few ppl who could be considered cupcake swifties i suppose, but that’s mostly cuz I’m too close to them to want to unfollow them etc. Sometimes taylor does things that warrant criticism imo, and sometimes I feel like talking abt it on my blog, which some ppl agree or disagree with - that’s pretty much the basis of tumblr esp when it comes to discourse. If you don’t like seeing it, you could always unfollow/block me/my #discourse tag (and I’m rlly not being sarcastic here; curating ur online experience to your tastes rlly helps in my experience)

[catgirl-kaiju]

How is tme/tma more inclusive than afab/amab? They both equate something to a binary that makes an assumption about someone’s genitalia. In a personal level, I dislike either set of labels, which makes it hard for me to see how one is more inclusive. I have Klinefelter syndrome and consider myself leaning toward a more feminine nonbinary identity. But because of living circumstances, I can’t change anything about my presentation. This to me makes it seem like I’d be labeled as tme and amab under those labeling systems because I’m not in a position where people clock me as trans fem. I have been mistaken as trans masc a couple times because of my gynecomastia, but im not. This is just a personal opinion but the labeling systems seem reductive to me and don’t seem to do much good. Not to mention how many times I’ve seen labels used to drive a wedge between the trans community. Not trying to be rude here, I am genuinely curious as to why you think the one set is more inclusive than the other? Sorry for this chunk of text, have a good day or night

-Dee

hi there, Dee

you're welcome to disagree with me, but here's my thoughts:

firstly, the agab model is still a pretty decent way of talking about trans identities, but it certainly has some problems for intersex folks. overtly, there's nothing actually tying amab or afab labels to genitals as we're just talking about the arbitrary gender label some doctor slapped on you at birth. and the ways that your experiences were shaped by that labeling are important in discussing the dynamics of gender even in the realm of cisgender people. i'm intersex, but i'm also amab. my body was close enough to the arbitrary grouping of "male" when i was born that some doctor saw fit to assign that label to me. the reality is that people are expected to fit in one of two boxes and if your body deviates from that, usually doctors will try and squeeze you into the box that's "closest enough" in hopes that you'll eventually fit in there.

however, since all of us have grown up in a society where intersex people are stigmatized and the perisex sex binary is normalized, the terms "female" and "male" are pretty loaded and carry a lot of assumptions about people's bodies. someone who is afab wasn't necessarily born with a uterus, and someone who is amab might not at all resemble a "male" as an adult. the complexities of biological sex therefore make the agab model useful in some contexts, but not in others. it can be useful when talking about gender, but it is less useful when talking about biology.

and here's the thing about tma/tme: it's not at all about your genitals in any way. it's barely even about your body. i really don't understand where this notion that tme/tma are "just another binary grouping based on genitalia" comes from, as there's nothing in the language to indicate that. all the tme/tma system is meant to describe is whether you are affected by transmisogyny or not. that's it. you can absolutely make an argument that some people might be affected by transmisogyny more, or less, or in different ways, or in some contexts but not others. but none of that has anything to do with genitals. i have seen no convincing argument that these labels reinforce sex binaries or gender binaries, as these are labels intended purely for the purposes of discussing the dynamics of transmisogyny and how different groups of people are and aren't affected by it.

like the only thing we're talking abt here is if your experiences are in any way affected by transmisogyny or not. that's it. what exactly does that have to do with what genitals someone has or was born with??? i'm intersex, i have a micropenis and have since birth, and i think you'd be fighting an uphill battle to try and argue that i am not affected by transmisogyny. if you want to critique the system's utility in discussing transmisogyny, i'm perfectly willing to engage with you on that. if you're arguing that whether or not someone is tme or tma is sometimes contextual, i'm totally willing to hear you out. if you want to talk about the possibility of an afab intersex person being tma, we can talk about that. but trying to claim that tme and tma are just a reproduction of the binary sex and/or binary gender paradigms is just not backed up by anything, imo.

i hope you're also having a good day or night, genuinely. i don't want you to think i have anything against you personally, but it's also very important to me to voice my honest disagreement here.

[jess-the-vampire]

what's your opinion on miraculous ladybug?

i consider ML to be kinda a hot mess of a show, it's a show with a lot of cool ideas, but for one reason or another, never quite makes a lot of them work

it's desire to be story focused gets held down a lot because it also needs to be mostly episodic, so events feel like they happen at a snail's pace until s5 where they clearly slammed on the gas because they thought the show was over.

you can tell stuff gets retconned as they go along and that some elements are underdeveloped. Not to mention the elements that are dropped entirely or never touched on.

the show is basically at a constant war with itself, it's got potential but doesn't seem to have the best priorities, especially when it gets more story focused. You can only drag out the romance for so long before it stops being fun, meanwhile you want lila to be your next big bad but she basically vanishes for a decent chunk of the show for example so there's not nearly as much setup as they could of given to make people more compelled in her as one.

and there's more then that, putting what happened with chloe aside, Zoe could be a potentially interesting character if they explored her relationship with her sister more or even with other cast members to get to know her better.

But she's in very little episodes, there's not nearly as much to say about her, and she's given a miraculous so quickly that it all feels like it's there to be a slap to chloe rather then building up a new fleshed out superhero character . That's just an example of not handled well ideas.

so many ideas are good on paper, not handled well in execution.

now that's not to say there's nothing good in it, on occasion, this show can make some good episodes, i loved the paris special, the movie was decent, and the premise of the show is genuinely pretty cool with the kwamis and animal superpowers.

i like a lot of the cast members, kagami, felix, luka, juleka, Nathanial, ect ect

the show can make some great villain and hero costumes

but the show as a whole is still mostly a mess, that even it's highlights aren't enough to save it if you watch it as a complete picture.

HOWEVER, i find the show to usually be an enjoyable hot mess, i didn't go into the show expecting a serious show akin to something like owl house or gravity falls, i came in expecting a ridiculous show that went off the rails more and more as time went on and at this point i watch just to see how bad and crazy it can get. I just don't take it as seriously.

It would be cool if this show had a serious story and handled it that well but i'm in it more for the ride then i am here to be seriously invested in the plot. Even if the show does make me genuinely mad in quite a few places.

Cause this show has a lot of the same problems as like, star vs, like a LOT of the same issues. But star's downfall felt like a betrayal because it felt like the crew cared about handling these things well when you joined that it was more insulting to the audience about how little they did care.

At least ML has the benefit of not being a show i ever took too seriously, and i think that prevented me from being as angry as i could be. Doesn't mean i don't get mad at it, just means my expectations were always a bit lower from the beginning.

i'm here to see how crazy the show can and will get, and hey, maybe on occasion, get to see the team make some good stuff

[sugarfluffandallthatgoodstuff]

The Façade will always fall (Tendou x shy!reader)

Y/N=your name

L/N-last name

T/N=teacher’s name

F/C=favorite color

Background: you are a first year at Shiratorizawa who struggles (quite) a bit with certain aspects of school (essay writing, presentations, being taken advantage of for projects, etc.) and Tendou is a 3rd year and was assigned to be your tutor by the school after the first one had transferred schools for a better basketball program. And you’re in a dance club.

With all of that out of the way let’s get started:

3 MONTHS AGO…

YOUR POV(1st person):

Today felt harder than usual. And by that I mean everything in my day from the small mundane things like getting out of bed and eating breakfast (which spoiler alert I did not do like usual honestly) all the way to the big test I had been grinding study hours for which made me worry I was going to have to get more help from my new tutor that I still haven’t met yet.

We weren’t even halfway through the day when I knew what the outcome of my worst classes would be. Even though I know I’m meeting my new tutor after this class I’m heading to. At least I’m supposed to meet them during lunch which gives me a decent chunk of time to work.

English

The class where I constantly had issues being the one who was too shy to make groups myself and was the one who always ended up doing all the work. Even at some points having to stutter through 90% of the presentation because my groupmates didn’t feel like contributing. 

I thought about what sadistic plans my teacher had for our class while I was walking to English whether it was an essay, popcorn reading, or worst of all: group project. 

I arrived at my class 2 minutes early as usual and slid unceremoniously into my seat in the middle of the room and took out my book as my peers steadily entered the classroom and also took their seats.

The first 5 minutes of class were normal with us having to write a 2 paragraph composition based on a thought provoking question and us sharing with the class what our answers were. I never wanted to share my opinions out of fear that my opinions and answers would differ from my classmates’ answers. 

But right as the teacher was about to call on another student to share when the class phone rang. The teacher sighed as she walked over and answered the phone only conversing for a measly 15 seconds with her only answer being “ok I’ll send her over there now”. The murmurs spread through the class with assumptions of who it could possibly be.

When the teacher finally quenched our need to know who this lucky soul was to be able to leave:

“Ms.L/N you are needed in the office”

“Mrs.T/N may I please return here to retrieve the work later?”

“I’ll see about that, the assignment may be waived entirely” I walked hurriedly and anxiously towards the office mulling over what the reason could be for me needing to be there.

As I sat and waited in the office I finally heard my name be called by the counselor

I walked in and there was the counselor and sitting across from her is a boy with venetian red hair and a pleasant aura surrounding him.

“Ms.L/N I know you were supposed to meet your tutor during lunch but I thought it would be most beneficial for you to meet him now. Y/N L/N meet your tutor 3rd year Satori Tendou. He will be assisting you for the rest of the year.”

“N-nice t-to meet y-you T-Tendou-san.” I say as I shakily bring my hand out for a shake knowing what’s what I was trained to do. “Well it’s nice to meet you too Y/N-chan! I look forward to helping you out!”

I liked this guy already. Which was rare because 90% of the time people’s first impressions for me were not positive as people thought timid=needs to be infantilized. And he didn’t do that. All he did was show genuine interest in a genuine fashion. 

“Great! Feel free to use any empty study rooms in the library. Oh and you will both be excused from your classes for the rest of the day to get acquainted with each other!”

And as they say the rest was history…

PRESENT DAY

“Alrighty Y/N-chan you can do this! I believe in you!”

“I-I don’t know a-about that what if I fail?!?!”

“With research that good it won’t matter how you choose to present it! But if the actual presentation aspect is what’s scaring you, then we can work on that! Besides, I know how excited you’ve been about this topic! You can’t give up now!”

He wasn’t wrong. I had been looking forward to researching and debating the efficacy of certain media types in regards to Ethos, Pathos, Logos in the form of persuasion.

“Why don’t we practice the wording and style of your presentation? I think practicing will help calm your nerves.”

“O-okay. Why music can enhance the efficacy of product advertisement…”

I was just winging it honestly as he looked interestingly at me while I was talking. Not speaking. Just all eyes on me flitting between my face and the computer with my slides.

“...so in conclusion contemporary music is most effective at enhancing the efficacy of product advertisement.”

“Ok that was great! You should probably tweak your introductory title to… aha! ‘Why contemporary music is the most effective advertisement enhancement.’ easy!” He said all of this as he swiftly edited the thesis of the title slide.

“Th-thank y-you T-T-Tendou-san”

“It’s no problem really. It is my job after all.” That was true. He was assigned to be with me and probably had no choice in the matter. 

“So just to check again before the end of our session. Are you feeling confident about your presentation?”

“I mean I’m sure it could be better in some way or another but I think I’m ready?”

Now Tendou was NOT an oblivious guy by any stretch of the meaning and was terrifyingly observant. 

“Hmm…ok if you say so” he said while squinting at me as if I was sitting across from him while playing among us and was the imposter. Everything about his facial expression screamed ‘this seems sus’

TENDOU’S POV

And with that we parted ways and went back to our dorm rooms respectively. What I had forgotten was we had dorms in the same directions and she had probably not realized that. So I just opted to tail her at a medium distance.  

I noticed as soon as she thought I was gone she shifted from walking what people would consider normal and just started…trudging?

Wait

That could only mean one thing. I know that trudge as I did that too throughout my school years. That’s the gait of a person who is trying to look tired but is really just super unhappy. 

But that doesn’t make any sense. I never see people harassing or bullying her around the halls or anything. But then again I know nothing about her peers in her classes. At least there’s still daylight and I know her English teacher is still here. 

I quickly sprinted back to the classrooms trying to remember which room was T/N’s room. 

Turns out I caught her just in time as she was just packing up her equipment.  

“Ah good evening Tendou. Can I help you with something?”

“Actually yes! You see the girl I tutor is in your class right before lunch and I know she has a presentation tomorrow. So what I was wondering is if I could come in and watch her present because I know how hard it is for her.”

“Um sure? Which student are you tutoring?”

“Oh. Y/N L/N.”

“Ok fine. I have her presenting 7th overall”

“Sounds great! Thank you so much!”

“You’re very welcome” 

As she was saying that I took off towards my dorm and plotted my before-school-interception mission

NEXT DAY BEFORE SCHOOL. 

YOUR POV

I was going down the stairs of my dorm when I kind of just…stopped and had a wave of fear overcome me knowing my presentation was in just a few hours. 

All I could think about at that point was how everyone was going to laugh at me just like last time and how I’ll fail because it got too overwhelming and I had to go not be bullied and ridiculed again. 

But I kept telling myself that I practiced for this and I wasn’t going to let Tendou-san’s help go to waste because of my cowardice. 

And looking at the time I realized I would have to run to get there with enough time to serve as a buffer in case something happened. 

I got to the hallway where my first class was and sat down to finish up/correct any problems on my math homework since that would be easy. 

So just as I finished checking over the first problem I see a pair of feet stop in front of me 

“Ohayo Y/N-chan! How are you?” Tendou said as he was bending down so his eyes could meet mine 

“O-Ohayo T-Tendou-san. I’m fine just reviewing some math work.”

“Sounds pretty responsible of you. I don’t know many people who just check it over more like doing it for the first time”. 

“I just like to make sure I keep my grades up where I can.”

“That’s still very smart” he said as he poked my side

“Eek!”

“Oh my~is my Y/N-chan ticklish?”

Uh oh. Keep cool. Make it seem like you’re NOT flustered. 

“U-uh no”

“Really? Cause that sounded like a laugh to me~”

Fuck. Busted big time 

“N-no it wasn’t” I was sure this would convince him

But it didn’t 

“Well then I’m sure this should be fine then!” As he proceeded to run his fingers up and down my sides 

But of course a façade can only stay up for so long 

“It’s fine j-just sensitive” 

“While we’re at it why don’t you tell me why you seem so mopey recently”

“I-ihihihim nohohohot mohohohopehehey” fuck. Well I knew it was a matter of time

“Really cause last night you seemed kinda down” he said as he switched from just running his fingers up and down my sides to full on tickling me 

“Nohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho stahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahap” 

“Well well lookie at what we have here~ are you sure you’re not ticklish my little kouhai?”

“Ihihihihihihihihihi hahahahahahahahahave tohohoho keheheheheheheheeheheep workihihihihihing”  I kept trying to squirm free from his grasp and try to stop laughing and regain composure 

He decided this wasn’t enough to get me to crack and let something slip so he decided to slide his fingers down a few inches to my hips and went WILD with the scribbling and squeezing 

“nohoHOHOHO STAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAP PLEAHEHEHEHEHHESE”

“Oh dear it looks like my precious little kouhai can’t handle her tickles to her wittwe hips huh? Are you finally going to tell me why you’re mopey? Or shall I continue?”

“Youhuhuuhuhu cahahahahnt I hahahahahahahahahahave clahahahahahahass”

With that statement he looked up at the wall clock in front of us “oh we have plenty of time~ feel free to keep giggling though it’s like music to my ears. Or you can tell me why you’re sad and gloomy”

“FIHIHIHIHIHIHINE YOHOHOHOHOU WIHIHIHIN I’LL TELL I'LL TELL”

“Well a deal is a deal” and with that he stopped his incursion of tickles but still held on to my midsection for support in case something happened

“S-so l-last night I-I-I started to doubt my work and I had to think about my group mates and their portions of the presentation and if I-I d-don’t th-the b-b-b-bullying wi-will st-start a-again I” and I couldn’t finish as I choked up and started crying 

“It’s ok it makes sense to be nervous and second guess yourself but what’s important to remember is bedtime anxiety decides nothing is good enough and makes everything seem like garbage. As for the other point you brought up about your group; fuck em. They did nothing and therefore deserve the F that is inevitably coming for them. I’m excited to see your hard work payoff and I don’t think they should get any credit.”

“B-b-but what will they think of me!?”

“Who cares because you’re my friend and I’ll be here for you. Just like you’ve been there for me when I was sad. Now the only edit you have to make is take their names off the powerpoint and you’ll be done!” As he said that he slipped my laptop out of my bag and proceeded to do just that. He even was kind enough to put a footnote saying: ‘L/N Y/N’s tutor Tendou Satori has removed the names of the people who contributed nothing to this project (・ω<)’

“Now let’s get your little face cleaned up and get you to math.”

TIMESKIP TO THE PRESENTATION

“Alrighty can L/N’s group please come up?”

And she was interrupted by Tendou slamming the door open and looking at me with something I could only explain as an excited gleam in his eyes and ran to the back of the room. 

He sat at the back of the room attentively looking at me and giving a double thumbs up as well as a smile

My group mates came up with me and just as they were exiting their seats the teacher said rather suddenly “oh you three do not need to go up as L/N-san has been separated due to lack of effort on your part. Whenever you’re ready, L/N.”

And with that I started. And I winged my speech just like the day before. 

Something about Tendou being there helped. Like it was just the 2 of us in that study room again and no cares in the world. 

“…and with that I am happy to leave all of you with the conclusion that contemporary music is the best at enhancing the efficacy in persuading people in advertising.”

There was a dead silence for a second before the room went CRAZY. I heard loud and clear above the crowd Tendou screaming “ENCORE ENCORE! THAT WAS AMAZING”

I wanted to burst into tears from the joy 🥹 

TIMESKIP TO LUNCH

“Well well well look at my perfect little kouhai who aced her presentation~” Tendou had said this as he came up to me when I was sitting alone at lunch  

“H-how do you already know?!?”

“I have my ways” honestly I wasn’t even gonna question it knowing he was like a wizard basically

“Now why don't I introduce you to my friends from volleyball. I think they would really like you!”

And just like that my love story with him begun. 

And that’s how this chapter of my life ended.