#is that really too damn much to ask

[bixels]

Taking the current topic as an excuse to ask you to tell me all the reasons you love Rarijack. Your art for the ship is so sweet and intimate I'd love to hear any in depth thoughts you have.

Breathes in.

I think what makes their dynamic really strong is that they have opposing personalities but aligned values. It's deeper than just "opposites attract." Rarity's fancy, prissy, and femme while Applejack's modest, rough, and "masculine." But both value hard work (to the point of being workaholics), their families (both have guardianship over their little sisters), running successful businesses, and eventually each other. Their relationship can be boiled down to, "Despite our differences/disagreements, I still like you because we value the same things."

We see their relationship develop so much. In the first season, they can't stop bickering about surface-level differences. By season four, they still bicker, but will mend their relationship because they can't help but do nice things for each other. In Trade Ya, they start off arguing over personality differences (Applejack likes old junk and Rarity likes useless crap). Then they pivot and start arguing that they value their relationship more than the other. In the end, they mend things by sacrificing their needs and buying each other a gift. Even if they don't understand it, they know it'd make the other happy. And that's all that really matters. It's a genuinely sweet moment that shows how arguing can be healthy and necessary for relationships to strengthen.

We even see them dropping their hang-ups about each others' personalities. In Made in Manehattan, when Rarity runs off in dramatics about someone's fashion, AJ doesn't roll her eyes or scoff, she smiles. Oftentimes, their conflicts are very common domestic conflicts romantic couples face. Applejack's Day Off is about a woman's inability to balance work and life and find time to properly spend with her partner, causing her partner to feel neglected.

By season seven, they're actively participating in each others' interests. Any problems or conflicts that arise are dealt with, and they come out the other end stronger and closer. In Honest Apple, AJ pretty much spells out why their relationship works so well: even though she doesn't understand fashion, she can recognize and appreciate how much work it takes and wants to respect that. When she realizes her mistake in the episode, AJ goes above and beyond to fix things and apologize to Rarity. They care about each other so much.

The two go out of their way, sacrificing their personal desires and beliefs and doing things they normally wouldn't, to make the other happy. That's just love.

There's Simple Ways, where AJ gets stuck in an unwanted love triangle between Rarity and her hipster crush. And her frustration and anger can be so easily interpreted as AJ finding herself in a terrible position; the girl she loves wants another man, and that man wants her.

I dunno. I've always had a preference for opposites attract ships, but Rarijack's stuck with me like a brain worm because they have the perfect chemistry. The way they show they care, or do things for each other, I've always read it as the truest representation of romance in the show.

[willowser]

HMMMMMM interesting to think about arranged marriage with prince shouto...............

i think he wouldn't know. what to expect with you. i think he'd have an idea, as in, what his father, the king, has taught him; the duties of a wife, where your importance ranks in relation to his duties. what he's not meant to discuss with you, like politics and matters at court and foreign relations. how you will speak to him. what to buy in the event that you become...unhappy. a nuisance.

("and she will," enji had muttered, briefly glancing up from the parchment on his desk to fix shouto with a look he didn't understand. "they always do.")

you don't meet until the royal wedding, when you're coming down the long aisle of the grand cathedral, dressed up in a swathe of silk and lace. a thin, gossamer veil hides you from him, but he can feel the ardor in your eyes, the intensity burning through the material. it doesn't seem real until your bare face is only a breath from his own, until he has to see the earnestness in your stare, too.

your kiss is simple and chaste, nothing spectacular, something that leaves his mind as soon as it's over. ever a todoroki, a hundred other things enter his mind, all regarding his now iron-laid obligations: it's vital he meet with advisor keigo to reiterate the plan to establish his authority among the council; general aizawa is in attendance to the wedding, and shouto has not yet received word on his opinion of the new king's ideas to modernize their armed forces; midoriya is somewhere, no doubt wanting to go over state affairs again.

truthfully, shouto doesn't spend long "celebrating". there's already too much that's required of him, hardly enough time to even scarf down a few bites of the banquet laid out before he's being chartered off into discussions on foreign relations and infrastructure development. maybe once or twice does he look back to check on you, chatting pleasantly with his mother and sister at the front of the great hall, and that's satisfying enough.

it's not until much later that he sees you again; freshly bathed and wearing something sheer and long and white, atop his bed.

or his marriage bed, he must remind himself.

enji didn't spend long going over consummation, with him or either of his brothers—natsuo, red-faced and annoyed at the very subject, always storming off, and touya had seemed well-aware of the process, at the time (back before he'd been ex-communicated). it had sounded simple: strip off your dress, get his cock out and into you, and only retreat once he was sure his seed had been spilled.

—so he's not exactly sure what to do or think or how to feel, when you're laid bare and reaching up to hold his face.

it's so startling that he sits back on his knees, to frown where he's looming over you.

you stare at him quietly, like you're expecting him to say something, and he only has a moment to wonder if this is you becoming an unhappy nuisance—what had been the answer, to solve this, anyway?—before you let out a soft laugh.

"c'mere," you tell him, sitting up, too, when he keeps his distance. "i want you to kiss me."

"i already have."

"yes," you laugh again, amusement glowing in your eyes, like the warmth off the fireplace, as you reach for the ties on his trousers. "but you're meant to do it again."

and up until then, he'd felt confident in his achievements, his executions; he'd managed a lot today, in one evening, and he had a lifetime to manage more. it was a good a start as any, he'd thought, but now—

shouto almost can't get the words out when he feels your hands ghosting up the inside of his shirt, nails tickling over his ribs. "a-am i?"

you wrap your arms around his waist in what could be a hug, scooting forward to look up at him with your chin against his chest. "yes," you smile and—it's familiar in a way, how touya would whenever he was teasing. "you're my husband, you're meant to kiss me whenever i want."

that—was not something his father had ever said, he was sure, and it was a too-rare exchange between his own parents. now that he thinks about it—and he does, then, because he's faced with the reality that he doesn't know as much as he should—he's not sure the former king and queen even sleep in the same room, much less the same bed.

much less hug and touch and even smile, the way you do now.

there's no argument he can make against it, aside from finding keigo to find his father to verify the truth to such a statement, and he's only meant to retreat from this bed on one condition.

and if this is what it takes to meet that—then shouto supposes he'll have to do it, for now. he's a brand new king, after all, and it would seem he still has much to learn.

[mysicklove]

guys has a man ever made you orgasm pls let me know if it’s a myth bc i have never experienced it

[phoenixkaptain]

Tim proving himself through facing Scarecrow is so good. You don't understand: it's the setup, it's the layout, it's everything.

Of course Tim has to go against Bruce to prove he's ready to be Robin, that's a staple, every Robin doe sthat, but Tim specifically facing Scarecrow is the nail in the coffin, the significance is magnificent, it's Tim overcoming the fear because he isn't like Bruce

That's the whole thing, that's the detraction of Tim's character, you hear it all the time, "Tim's just like Bruce" and you aren't wrong but you're missing the fundamental part, the little piece that keeps Tim separate so dramatically and that makes him and Bruce a dynamic duo:

Bruce was crushed by his parents' deaths. In a way, he never overcomes the fear that gripped him. Scarecrow is his biggest threat in this and just about every other issue precisely because Bruce knows what he's most scared of and he can't just walk it off. He's so emotionally entangled that it's almost impossible for him to walk it off. It's almost impossible for anyone to walk it off.

Except for Tim.

Because Tim's greatest fear isn't his parents dying. Even at his mother's funeral, he's mostly apathetic. I doubt he came to terms with it was he said he did, but he was more upset by the lack of trust Bruce was putting in him by assuming that Tim would be so emotionally unbalanced he wouldn't be able to handle being Robin. Tim's greatest fear isn't his parents' death or his own death or anything else along those lines; his biggest fear is disappointing Robin. As in, he fears misusing the name, misrepresenting the colours, misunderstanding the role.

Tim walks off his fear because he isn't as emotionally attached to his mother as Bruce was his parents. He seems almost apathetic because he is apathetic. Does that mean it doesn't affect him? Of course not! Of course it affects him! They were his parents after all.

But Tim's only connection to his parents is that blood connection. While Bruce has blood, he also has memories of his parents genuinely loving and caring for him. He has fond memories of his parents. He never doubts that his parents loved him. He had an emotional connection, and when they died, it crushed him emotionally, physically, mentally...

Tim just doesn't have that same connection. His mom dying hurts him, but it's just that. It doesn't crush him. It can't crush him, because there was no real weight behind their relationship.

Where Bruce and Tim are similar, they are very similar. But in this, in the face of fear, Tim can overcome it when Bruce finds it difficult. Tim isn't afraid of loss. He never had it to begin with.

But he fears losing Bruce. He fears losing the connection he's built with Bruce. Bruce told him that coming out meant he would never be Robin and Tim wants so desperately to be Robin that he tries to convince himself that Bruce'll be fine, Batman is always fine, but he can't convince himself because he's too scared of losing Bruce.

Tim is scared of letting down Robin's legacy because Tim views Robin's legacy as protecting Batman. In his mind, it's Robin's main role: keep Batman safe. That's why he's so adamant that Batman needs a Robin in the first place - he wants Bruce to be safe, even from Bruce himself.

Tim doesn't go in the Robin suit. And this too is how scared he is of losing Bruce. As if even if he is wrong and Bruce is fine or if he's right and Bruce isn't fine, Bruce only told him not to go out as Robin, and he didn't go out as Robin, so even though Bruce will lose trust in him, surely he'll be able to see that Tim made an attempt to follow the rule, that Tim tried not to upset him?

And Bruce obviously is like "??? Why aren't you dressed as Robin?" Because bro knows his ass was so totally grass before Tim got there like-

I've said it time and again that Tim and Bruce are so similar yet so different and this proves it, this is all the proof, this is so good the way they are because-!

Bruce plays with the rules. Vigilante justice is a crime? Okay. See if he can't pay bail. See if he can't afford a fancy mob lawyer. If you even catch him in the first place.

Tim sidles along right next to the rules. "You said not to go out tonight, but I'm inside a car, so it can't really count."

And while the comic proves their differences, it still goes out of its way to prove their likeness because Tim uses fear to lure guards into traps and Tim ultimately smashes Scarecrow into Scarecrow's own fear gases, implying that Tim really just scared Scarecrow out of his own game. Scarecrow's gonna have nightmares about short people in red ski masks for weeks after this.

Tim uses fear as part of his strategy like Bruce and he disappears from the scene before the cops can catch him like Bruce.

And even as Tim assumes he blew his whole chance to ever even think about being Robin, he still went through with it because his biggest fear is always going to be losing Bruce over anything else. Whether that be losing Bruce's trust or Bruce losing his life.

I guess it can be summarized thusly.

Bruce became Batman because his parents died in front of him and he knew he would probably never catch the actual murderer, so he tries to make up for that by catching every other criminal in the city. And he knows that it will never really make up for it, but he has to do something because he felt powerless then, and he doesn't want to feel powerless ever again. Which is also why he takes in both Dick and Jason, two boys who are powerless but still try to fight back despite their situations. He teaches them power to keep them from feeling powerless again.

Tim became Robin because he saw a boy's parents die, he had nightmares about it for months, nightmares that he never shared with his parents, and the part that stuck out was that when the boy was at his lowest, his saddest, Batman saved him. And watching Batman became caring about Batman became wanting to be there when Batman was at his lowest, his saddest, to provide the same comfort to Batman that Batman provides to everyone else.

TLDR: Batman #455-457 are pretty good issues and I would recommend them to any Timmer fans. Personally a fan of how Tim thanks Dick for being at his mother's funeral, and while Dick and Bruce are thinking about how depressed and torn apart Tim must be, Tim is casually talking to a random guy in the background. I don't think I can ever emphasize enough how much Tim just. Feels nothing. It is both amazingly depressing and funny only to me. 10/10. Coulda used more Dick.

[potato-lord-but-not]

I offer to you the ship of Roland Cummings, Delphine Cummings, and Charlie Dowd that has been absolutely rotting my brain and is ripe for Charlie angst. I talk about them a bit here in which I discuss multiple Charlie ships but I must spread the propaganda of them o7

Ohhhhhh despite not really being Roland/Noel girlie I can indeed see the appeal 👀

[sjweminem]

saw V is about a man with the wettest most twinkliest kitty cat eyes and princess lashes there ever were

[somegrumpynerd]

This is gonna sound random, and I apologize if I sound annoying, but how would your boys react if they were swapped by Swapper (A Sans OC of mine) (Plus he can't affect Nightmare)

Short answer: chaos lol

[buwheal]

I'm sorry, Spamton. I know you won't believe me, but I'm sorry we hurt you.

[lxlqzy]

everybody shut up

I am not well

[wolfwarrior142]

Callum has asked Rayla twice now to kill him if he's ever corrupted again. This time as like a barter. And this time, despite looking devastated, she finally (begrudgingly) agrees. And later this season, Callum is cleared of his dark magic corruption, but it also warned that if he does dark magic again it'll overwhelm him.

Man my dreams have already been haunted enough by death foreshadowing I can't take much more of it for these two.

[music4soul]

no back to ur Greek god thing w price and nik.. bonus points if they are in a lovers position that once held each other now separate far apart..

This.. is a different perspective that I haven’t thought about(and I love it.)

In my mind I was thinking they’d kind of be like The Creation of Adam and instead of their fingers touching they’d be reaching out with full force, one trying to protect the other from whatever wicked curse Zeus was about to cast on them. But now I really wanna scrap that original image and replace it with this one:

Before they were cursed they held onto each other feverishly, Nik holding John to his chest and cradling the back of his head while John wrapped his strong arms around Nik, one hand splayed across his back trying to keep him close while the other gripped his hair in a gentle yet powerful hold.

When they’re found, it takes every bit of mortal strength to pry the two off each other and put them in different locations, but eventually it was done and now the two are so close yet so far from being together.

[goldensakuma]

i am in. Immense Pain

[halfbaked00q]

Q trying to lure 007 out of HIS nap nook (of @cicerfics's Q's nap nook fame) except all it's doing is this:

[yuwuta]

went to a lunch with a lot of family friends and aunts today and i did a lot of the decorating and setting up and planning and everyone was very nice about it and thanked me, but a handful did note that they weren’t surprised at how much i did because it’s me and i always managed to pull off grand things/do nice things. and somewhere along the way they all got to reminiscing about when we (my siblings, cousins, etc) were younger and whenever i was brought up they all mentioned how looking back i was so mature all the time and handled things well and how easily i learned even if i wasn’t taught and i believe wholeheartedly they meant this kindly, and they were true in their words and fond in their memories but man it made me kinda sad to know that even so young everyone expected me to punch well above my weight class and that everything great i did was just something i did to them yk like. idk it feels like i’m complaining about nothing and i don’t mean to complain but hearing it all today made me realize i don’t think i was ever a kid and i don’t think anyone ever expected me to be

[seyaryminamoto]

Fic-to-Art #39: Gladiator's ELEVENTH Anniversary! (+ BONUS: Fic-to-Art #36...)

And here we are! March 26th arrived and I did not forget about it, but I paid for my ambitious madness with my wrist and forearm. Somehow, I finished my intended pieces on time, but I do not advise that you ever try to make 9 artworks in 3 days. No, sir. Bad life decisions, that's what that was... but this fic, as anyone knows, moves me to do things I never thought possible, starting with writing the fic itself!

It's really crazy every time it hits me that I've been doing this for as long as I have. It's been a complicated, chaotic journey, with its many ups and downs, but ultimately, it has been our journey. For some people, this is just one more fic in the pile: for me, it's been the best adventure of my life so far. Everyone who has ever been touched by Gladiator, who has ever cherished this story, who's looking forward to the big conclusion, who wants to see how the chaotic war is going to end... you're all part of this crazy adventure along with me, and I can only thank you for joining me.

This year, I had no time to make as big a project as I usually go for. Thus, I did a sort of free-for-all edition of Fic-to-Art over at Patreon and challenged myself to draw as many scenes as I could, out of their suggestions. I even sprinkled in a few scenes I impulsively wanted to draw because I loved writing them or because I look forward to writing them... and this is the result!

In order, the scenes are as follow:

Sokka combing Azula's hair, a common occurrence throughout the story.

Azula watching over a convalescing Sokka in the Chase of Jeong Jeong arc.

The outcome of Sokka's final battle in the Superior Gladiator League, namely a moment where Sokka and Azula more or less gave away their relationship's true nature to the public by raising their hands towards each other...

And now, spoiler territory! Some were by my choice, some by Patreon requests:

An important moment shortly after Sokka and Azula reunite.

Azula confronting her father, with a LOT of backup.

Xin Long's long-awaited freedom.

The aftermath of the final battle.

The full-blown confirmation of their relationship to the general Fire Nation populace.

Sokka, Azula and Hotaru's first night together

And the big final one is ACTUALLY Fic-to-Art #36 but hahaha woops I didn't post it here on time because it was super hard to finish since I had a LOT of things going on... but here it is now! :'D it's a glimpse VERY far into the future of this fic's timeline!

Alright, that should be enough talking and explaining. Some things are vague, some things aren't, but ultimately I really hope you guys will be looking forward to the scenes you haven't seen yet, and to Gladiator's eventual outcome.

So now... with all this being said and done, I'm gonna go take a trip down memory lane and watch my Tenth Anniversary video once more! Feel free to do the same thing if you'd like to commemorate the fic, I think it's a good way to experience Gladiator all over again, hahaha.

Thank you if you read all this, and if you read all THAT: 5 million word landmark, here we come! Thanks for hanging out with me across ELEVEN years of Gladiator!

[stygiansauce]

I just finished a readthrough of all the chapters so far and wowee!!! you are so talented !!!! the balance between silly flirting and romantic tension and emotional depth,,,,, jeez I’m swooning all the time.

I also have a southern accent that gets stronger when I get mad or worked up !!! I saw that detail and I was just kickin my feet cause that’s so silly :3333

as for a question for you, what’s your favorite foreshadowing detail that you can share ?? doesn’t gotta be what it alludes to, just you pointing out something that you included that you feel a bit sneaky about >:) and feel free not to answer !!!

much love <333

HI onecent! Thank you so much for the nice words, I am rolling in my tears!

I have a few foreshadowing bits I can point out! I haven't given a lot of context that might lead yall to the answers yet, so I'm happy to share these bits!

In chapter three: Southern Hospitality this paragraph will come back to mean something.

There is a very specific line that means a very specific thing. I will be reavealing this in I think (?) chapter five. Another good bit from this chapter is when Jimmy says "Our mom," he's careful not the say my. He shared her too."

Also in chapter three (so much set up so early on wow) When Jimmy is feeling very preceived I use parentheticals to act as his thoughts both outside of the conversation and intrusive to the conversation. There are two lines in this section that are very important to later chapters.

I think is all I can share right now because Fire line was more of a "make call backs" and "clarify lore" chapter. Where Southern Hospitality was "the setting up lore" chapter. I will say though, for those of us who like to analyze fanfic (me me me!) I set my scenes up to serve three purposes. 1) to supply to new information. 2) to call back on old information. 3) to foreshadow future information.

If you're reading MOE and think you see a connection, you probably do. There are tons of things I've hidden in Fire line that I don't know if anyone noticed yet. I'm waiting for someone to see it and then come scream in my ask box (I even had time to shove simple life jokes in there. I felt like a conspiracy theorist getting all the life series references crammed where I could.)

Thank you so much for sending this ask, I love yapping about MOE. it's a physical illness, June says.