#it just feels better if i do have those little details

[in-class-daydreams]

Imagine ex-husband Gojo doing things for his new love interests that you begged him for while you were married.

After a joint meeting between the sister schools, you overheard Suguru asking him who he was texting during the meeting.

Satoru replied, "Just letting my date know I'll be a bit late tonight since we ran long here. Todo can yap, huh?"

"Seriously!" Their voices faded as they walked down the hall.

You stood just outside the meeting room watching the corner the disappeared around. If you had to pinpoint the number one reason your marriage failed - more than clan pressure, more than the strain of being young parents, more than back to back to back missions - it would be the fact that Satoru can't communicate for shit.

Part of it wasn't his fault. His brain just didn't work like that. An inconvenient side effect of limitless is that everything makes sense in your head, but it's hard for a person with the gift to explain their thoughts to others.

So the no-call, no-shows to dinners was technically a side effect of limitless, as was his inability to articulate his feelings like an adult or the fact that he would just do things without even telling you there was a problem in the first place.

"Quit doing that with your face, brat." Sukuna emerges from the meeting room. He's out of his Ryomen form at the moment, as he usually is during meetings so that he can actually fit in his chair. "How long are you gonna let what he does affect you?"

"It doesn't!" you insist.

Sukuna rolls his eyes. "If that helps you sleep at night."

Imagine reminding yourself that you can't be mad at him.

You're seeing other people now, too. Hell, you've been divorced for over a decade, it's insanity that you care at all.

It's just. You never doubted his love for you. Not for a second, not even now that your marriage failed and you largely raised your son on your own.

"Mom?"

Maybe your divorce was his motivation to be better. You're not sure. But if he's capable of change, capable of being attentive and communicative, why couldn't he change for you all those years ago?

"Mom."

Could it be that you were his childhood companion and he loved you, but he was never in love with you? Was his love for you less than your love for him?

You hardly notice your son calling out to you until he springs into action. "Mom!" Sen nudges you away from the stove to turn of the burner. When did smoke fill the kitchen? The roux you were trying to make was burnt to a crisp, stuck to the pan and emanating an unpleasant smell.

Sen gently pries your hands off the handle and drops the ruined pan in the sink to soak. Then he makes sure the burner's off before turning to you with a conflicted expression.

He may have inherited a hybrid of both your and Satoru's personal brands of emotional stuntedness, but he could put two and two together between how distracted you've been and the rumors of Satoru dating again - What with it being huge news among jujutsu society (aka power hungry clans with eligible daughters.) Your son had his own complicated feelings regarding his father and as much as he'd prefer Satoru stay away from you, it hurt him to see you like this.

Though, watching you try to keep a stiff upper lip for his sake during the divorce is the reason he doesn't want his father anywhere near you.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." You wipe your hands on a dish towel. "I wasn't paying attention. Hang tight while I make you something else."

He could kill Satoru right now. But you wouldn't like that, so he won't.

"Mama, I--" He shuts his mouth. You've been protecting him from the details of the divorce his whole life. What did he know about comforting you? But while he may not have been able to protect you then, he can sure as hell try now.

"Mama, why don't I take you out to dinner? My treat."

Imagine that Sen decides he needs to stop having ideas.

He brought you to a local okonomiyaki that you've been going to since he was little to the point where the owners knew you well and liked to give you little extras from the kitchen. Today's treat was a side of pickled radish.

It was your happy little hideaway. Away from jujutsu and clans and curses and your broken home.

Sen insisted on cooking the okonomiyaki for you, saying that, "My treats means I'll take care of everything!" The weak smile you gave him made his heart soar.

You giggle while he jokes around and tells you about school like how Hikari fell asleep for 45 minutes out of an hour long test and still got a better score than him. Hearing about your son and his happy school days always made you feel better.

Sen was ready to give himself a pat on the back for cheering you up when he hears the front bell jungle and a woman's laughter carries over.

"Fancy places are like that, though!" the woman laughs. "They give a bite of food per plate."

Then a familiar voice replies, "Yeah, but it was good, wasn't it? And now we get to fill up at a cute place like this."

Even though he's the one facing the door and not you, the look on your face tells Sen all he needs to know. What breaks his heart is that you've sunk lower into your seat to make yourself smaller.

Sen could kill his father right now.

Hooray, angst!

Click [here] to keep up with ex-husband Gojo and his estranged family | Ask stuff about Sen and the fam [here]

[grandline-fics]

Immune To Your Charms

DESCRIPTION: Soulmates are incapable of harming the other in any way. Normally that would be a good thing but not when you're meant to be enemies.

WARNINGS: It's Doflamingo so it features mentions of killing/ description of injury/ general violence. Some minor fluff and minor suggestiveness(maybe?) Soulmate! AU, Enemies to Lovers

CHARACTERS: Doflamingo

WORDS: 3,922

A/N: Part of the Good For Your Soul Series. I'd gotten sick there for a couple weeks so here's a longer chapter to make up for it all. Things are happening now even just a little but hopefully you all like how it's going.

*REQUESTS ARE OPEN*

DIRECTORY | PROMPT LIST

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five (here) | Chapter Six (coming soon)

——————

Doflamingo felt a rush of triumph flood his body as he grinned widely at the sight of you falling to the ground under the impact of his hand striking you sharply across the face. He relished the yelp of pain and the thud as you slumped against the wall. Even better was the sight of your cheek already bruising from his strike and the trickle of blood slowly dripping from your trembling lips. Your defiant gaze and furious glare remained in place, only heightened now by the shine of unshed tears. With a building chuckle Doflamingo raised his hand with exaggerated slowness and arched his fingers, summoning his strings to attach themselves to your wrists, wrapping so tightly that faint red lines appears against your previously unmarked skin and dragged you against your will until you stood. Adding insult to injury, you were pulled higher until you were dangling in the air and eye-level with him. Another flick and twitch of his fingers and new strings began to slide around your throat, getting tighter and tighter and-

The sound of footsteps against the polished floors outside his office made Doflamingo snap out of his daydream and he glared heavily at the disruption. Whoever that was was going to pay severely for their inability to walk quietly. Slamming his hand on the desk he rose sharply and stormed towards the door, throwing it open and freezing to see you walk by at the right moment. You stopped and tilted your head at him, turning to face him properly as you slowly analysed his tense body and abrupt appearance. Condescendingly you pouted at him. “Aww what’s wrong? Were you hoping I was a defenceless servant to attack?” You asked, the mock concern in your voice thick and smug. “Really my heart’s breaking for your troubles.”

“Yeah, you really look it.” Doflamingo grinned, lowering his arm from its coiled position that had been ready to attack. “And what have you planned for today? Besides strutting about my palace?”

“Oh well I do have a large block of strutting scheduled for today, can’t be avoided.” You explained in false severity. “In between I have a packed diary of meetings and galas. You know how it is.” Doflamingo chuckled at your casual sarcasm. You’d been here for a week already and he still found it a strange mix of aggravating and refreshing to be spoken to the way you did. Even those in his family restrained their tongue in some capacity with him or they regarded him with a small flicker of fear combined with their undying adoration for him. Not you though, you held no fear for him. He watched as you slowly craned your head to look beyond him and into the office, in search of something or someone only to see it was empty. “Well what got you so homicidal this time?”

“You.” Doflamingo answered smoothly. He didn’t feel any need to hold back, instead he waited until you straightened and met his gaze once more before going into further detail. “Your footsteps interrupted the enjoyable daydream I was having about being able to hurt you.”

“Aww had I known I would have interrupted you sooner.” You grinned, not at all surprised. “Was I crying? Begging?”

“No, you were too busy being strangled by my strings to make a noise.” You eyed Doflamingo as he took a step closer towards you, his fingers reaching out to lightly move across your throat, the image of the thin deep red lines digging into your soft skin still fresh in his mind. 

“Fun.” You chimed in, lightly swatting his hand away with ease. “In my daydreams your drowning very slowly.” Doflamingo’s grinned widened significantly at your own confession. How strange to think that other soulmates in their existences must have had sweeter or more intimate daydreams about the other half of their pair, not the ways they’d harm the other like you and he did. 

Behind his red tinted glasses he watched you walk away from him, only turning to step into his office again when you’d disappeared around the corner. As he did so he paused to see Violet a few feet away, watching him intently. He knew that look and rolled his eyes, silently signalling for her to enter his office and even left his door open while he moved lazily to his desk. Doflamingo waited for the sound of Violet closing the door behind her before he looked up to see her approach. “What’s troubling you?”

“It’s not going to work out the way you’re hoping it is.”

“What isn’t?” He asked, leaning back in his seat and propping up one of his feet onto his knee. “I have a lot of things going on. You’re going to have to be specific.”

“You won’t be able to harm them. Ever.” Violet statement was firm and it made him cock his head slightly to the side, grin dropping just a fraction. “Nothing you’ve tried has worked so far and nothing you try in the future will work. Soulmates can’t harm one another regardless of their feelings for each other.”

“There’s a first for everything Violet and you know better than anyone that I always succeed once I set my mind to it.”

“Then perhaps this is the first time that you fail?” She suggested, her eyes steeling slightly as the true nature of the former Princess began to draw itself out from under her pretence of being his loyal officer. “I peered at your souls just now as you conversed. The connection has deepened since that first day you learned the truth. In spite of the cruel words and murder attempts the longer you two are in proximity the stronger that bond is getting.”

“Why are you telling me that, Violet?”

“Just letting you know what to expect so that down the line you can remember that I told you so. You should do the right thing for once and distance yourself from them now. Let them go and have some semblance of a life instead of being stuck here because you refuse to accept they are the one person you can’t kill.”

“They aren’t going anywhere Violet.” Doflamingo all but growled, his expression darkening. 

“Getting possessive?” Violet asked unable to hide the small smile twitching at her lips as she turned and headed for the door. “Fine. Just remember I warned you.”

———-

Doflamingo had intended to not let Violet’s words strike a nerve but it did. He’d declared from day one that you weren’t going anywhere because he refused to let you be at risk of meeting your end by any other means than his hands. Her assessment that the the longer you two were in each other’s direct presence ensured the bond as soulmates would strengthen also annoyed him. Would new ‘side effects’ occur over time too? Would he be incapable of saying an insult in case it technically counted as hurting your feelings? Angrily he ran his hand through his hair and glared out the window, watching the lights of the streets and houses in the city below break up some of the night’s darkness. Doflamingo scowled at the complication of it all and his mind began to drift back to his intention to draw out stronger emotions from you, to at least make you break in some capacity. If even that possibility was at risk of being taken from him, he became resolved to do that now.

Turning sharply he left his bedroom and made his way down to the corridor your living quarters were at. Grinning, he pulled out his gun and unloaded the full chamber into the ceiling, the gunshots echoing loudly just outside your door. He chuckled at the sound of movement from inside your door. The door to the bedroom opened and you appeared, your face scrunched in sleepy confusion. A long yawn built in your chest as you looked around only to groan at the sight of Doflamingo grinning at you. “Guns again?” You asked with another yawn, trying to rub the sleep out of your eyes to focus on him properly. Slowly you looked at your door to see there weren’t even any bullet holes. “Where did you aim?” You followed Doflamingo’s finger as he pointed up and now you were really confused. “What are you planning?”

“I decided you don’t need to sleep.” He explained with a shrug.

“You’re trying to see if you can kill me through sleep deprivation?” You asked groggily, leaning against your doorframe. Honestly Doflamingo hadn’t considered that, he was just set on seeing if he could torment you. Still he said nothing, now liking this possible solution to the problem. “A little unconventional but I guess it could work? But you know I’m not going to go along with that willingly? I like my sleep too much. So how do you plan on ensuring I don’t sleep without putting your own at risk of your own rest?”

“Oh I have my ways.”

“Without using servants or your fan club?”

“Family”

“Fanclub.” You repeated with a sleepy grin. “Because if they have a hand in keeping me awake then isn’t that the same as my idea of just getting someone to kill me on your behalf?”

“Like I said, I’ll find a way.” Doflamingo chuckled before turning and walking away, now having to start planning. The sound of gunfire tore through the air once more and Doflamingo stopped and looked at the floor. The bullets meant for him lying at his feet. Slowly he turned to see you pointing your own pistol at him. “Now where did you get that?”

“I have my ways too.” You answered before going back into your room. Doflamingo laughed and continued down the corridor. He’d let you have tonight to actually rest.

———-

For the next three days Doflamingo was true to his word and found a way to be responsible for keeping you awake. During the day when you had left your room he’d infiltrated a countless amount of alarm clocks into your quarters all set at specific times so you would woken and have no choice but to get out of bed to find the right one and turn it off. Then when he realised you were starting to find places to sneak off to and nap during the day he intervened by finding you and waking you. This time he found you in one of the libraries, curled up on one of the sofas and sleeping. With a curious tilt of his head he hummed to himself and grabbed the nearest vase of flowers, dumping the flowers and cold water onto your face. While he couldn’t drown you, the shock of the water hitting your face was enough to startle you awake. 

“You’re an asshole, you know that right?” You asked, voice thick with exhaustion and holding none of its usual edge that he’d been used to. With a groan you pulled yourself up to a sitting position and brush the flowers off of your soaked body. Doflamingo observed you silently, unable to stop himself from noting the way your clothes now clung just a little tighter against your skin. “I’m awake you can go now. Go do your criminal King duties.”

“Would love to but I’m just passing time while waiting on a call.” He explained. “Remember your little island you’d been stationed on? We’re going to finalise the deal.”

“Right. Weapons and foot soldiers in exchange for profit and resources.” You nodded slumping back and rubbing your stiff neck. 

“Exactly. I think I’m going to be kind and send them extra men to ensure every Marine is wiped off that island for good measure.” Doflamingo mused and grinned widely when you paused. There was the flicker in your eyes again. Only this time because of your lack of sleep you weren’t able to hide your emotions as clearly. You knew something about the island.

“This group doesn’t know you’re the one they’re working with do they?” You asked, a smile fighting to pull at your lips. ”You’re using an alias?”

“Still an alias they’re familiar with.”

“When your pirate friend calls, ask them if the Midnight Lake is as nice as it sounds.”

“And why would I do that?” Doflamingo asked while you got to your feet and tiredly stretched out your limbs. “What is it you know?”

“Ask him. Don’t ask him. Quite honestly I don’t care.” You shrugged, taking a step passed Doflamingo’s larger frame only to be grabbed sharply and in seconds you were pinned on the closest surface which was a desk, staring at him as he bore down, his face dangerously close. Tiredly your mind began to catch up with your position on the desk surface, your hands were captured in his larger ones, on either side of your head. His grip was like a vice, you could only really tell from the way the veins rose agains this skin but as always you felt no harm in the hold. You glanced away from his hand and returned your delayed attention back to his face. “What now?”

“I asked you what it is you know about the island.” Doflamingo repeated, his grin gone and his tone deeper and calmer which should have made him seem more sinister but still your body felt no fear. You had no need to be. You also had no need to give him an answer, at least not the one he wanted.

“Ask your friend first and then I’ll tell you.”

“Tell me now.”

“God this must frustrate you so much.” You laughed up at him. “I’m not your servant or part of your King Doffy fan club. I’m not going to just do something because you tell me to.” You lifted your foot and set it squarely against his chest, pushing him back so you could sit up. Just at that moment the library door burst open and you both looked to see one of the pirates under Doflamingo’s command freeze immediately at the sight. 

Blankly you blinked at the flustered subordinate as their mouth rapidly opened and shut as they tried to work out if they should apologise, say what they came in to say, kneel down and accept his punishment or just leave. You resumed sitting up and pulled out of Doflamingo’s hold while he straightened. Now back on your feet and walking you felt a fresh wave of exhaustion crash over your body. Your vision blurred briefly and your body staggered in the middle of your step but you managed to recover in time to avoid falling over. Knowing Doflamingo would be busy with his criminal call meant you could quickly change into dry clothes and sleep without interruption. 

———-

“Joker to hear you’re going to send more weapons than originally discussed is such a relief. Truly you’re a godsend. You-” Doflamingo began to zone out of fully listening to the adoring voice at the end of the phone, the overly appreciative words beginning to rub him the wrong way. He was too busy thinking about your suggestion to mention this ‘midnight lake’ and how it was clear you knew something. Even asking if this pirate knew who he was truly dealing with brought more irritation. He wouldn’t treat a betrayal kindly. “Joker?” Doflamingo blinked, his eyes on the map as he sharpened his mind once more. 

“Yes?”

“Sorry, you’re a busy man so I hope I’m not cutting into your valuable time.”

“No, no. I should apologise. I was distracted.” Doflamingo began, sitting back in his seat as he quickly thought of how to subtly bring up the subject without causing suspicion. “My new lover spotted the map you sent. They thought Midnight Lake sounded romantic, it’s made me curious.”

“Midnight Lake?” The voice on the end of the den den mushi repeated, their tone holding some degree of tension. So there was something. “Oh well you can tell them it’s a sight to behold. One of the gems of the island.”

“Good to know…” Doflamingo mused, fingers lightly drumming on his desk. Quickly he summoned a string to slam his office door open, the loud impact echoing through to the man at the other end of the call. “Something urgent’s come up. You’ll have to call me back, give me half an hour.” Without waiting for the only acceptable answer to sound, Doflamingo ended the call and left his office, heading straight to your room. Approaching your door he caught sight of the mountain of broken alarm clocks set outside. He chuckled, not entirely surprised to find you’d managed to find them all. The level of destruction you’d caused on them was a surprise though. Not able to stay and appreciate it fully, he entered your room and approached your bed where you lay, completely unconscious and breathing deeply. 

“Wake up.” He ordered, eye twitching when you didn’t even twitch. Doflamingo drew closer and called out your name, watching your finger twitch but still you remained sleeping. Clicking his tongue he climbed onto the bed and for the second time today he found himself poised over your relaxed form. 

At the added weight onto the mattress you finally stirred. Blearily your eyes cracked open and your heavy head lifted off of the pillows just enough to make out who was in front of you. When you saw it was Doflamingo you made a nonsensical grumble and flopped back down already asleep. You were only partly aware of his hands finding your shoulders but then let out a growl of frustration when you were shaken. “Whaaaat?” You drew out the word as you managed to summon the faintest resource of energy to waken and glare at the man who was unfortunately your soulmate and greatest annoyance in life. “What now?”

“Midnight Lake.” Doflamingo stated. “Tell me what it is and what you know.”

“What’s in it for me?” You asked with a yawn, sitting up and gathering the pillows behind you to at least prop you up since clearly you weren’t going back to sleep yet. 

“I’ll never interfere with your sleep again.” Doflamingo propositioned, catching your attention.

“Deal.” You agreed and gestured for him to start talking. “What did he say about it first?”

“He said it was a sight to behold, certainly one of the island’s gems.” He stated and waited for your response. What he hadn’t been expecting was for your burst of laughter. This was unlike any laugh he’d heard from you. This was not the hysterical laugh you’d made when you learned you were soulmates or the cold, scathing, mocking laughs you threw his way at times. This was genuine warmth and amusement. Finally you let your joy settle and you grinned at him.

“Oh you’re going to love this.” You began. “Well maybe not…Show me the map.”

“It’s in my office.”

“So go get it.” You instructed with a roll of your eyes. Doflamingo glared. It was bad enough you once again getting the upper hand but he wasn’t going to see to your whims. 

Swiftly he hooked his arm around your waist and lifted you out of the bed, carrying you down the corridor while you were too tired to really protest being dragged out of bed once again. If Doflamingo was to keep his word then this would be the last time he could do so. Plus you didn’t want to admit but being held against his chest and feeling the warmth of his body was oddly comfortable but you just reasoned it was because you were so sleep deprived. Before you knew it you were in Doflamingo’s office and sat at his desk, perched on his lap as he pulled the map you asked for into view. Yawning you rubbed your eyes and grabbed a pencil to begin indicating the areas for Doflamingo to pay attention to. 

“Okay firstly you’ve been given an old map.” You explained and Doflamingo’s jaw clenched. “I’d guess at least a year’s difference. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue but given all that’s happened here your little pirate friend is withholding information on purpose.”

“What happened?”

“Well for one there’s no more civilians living there.” You began, your pencil scoring out the names of the towns from the map. “The biggest mine is completely depleted of resources.” Your pencil slowly drew the border of the land that the mine had once occupied. “And sadly for you, there’s no Marine on that island. We left when all civilians had been evacuated and knew there was nothing left of value there.”

“It’s abandoned?” Doflamingo asked with a low snarl as the reality of the deception that was being attempted on him. 

“Not abandoned. Last I heard the Revolutionary Army occupied it to act as a small base of operations or something.” You shrugged, your stinging eyes getting heavier. Doflamingo’s anger was building, the Revolutionary Army hadn’t even been mentioned during the talks. “My guess is your friend is looking to just take your weapons and sell them on after killing your men and making it seem like they died ‘taking over the island’ and fighting the Revolutionaries. They were never intending on setting foot on that island. Plus you can’t give a share of resources if there are none to give. Someone tried to get the better of you.”

“So what was Midnight Lake?” Doflamingo asked, his teeth grinding together while you let out another sleepy laugh.

“Midnight Lake was man-made.” You explained managing to lift the pencil to indicate to its name on the map just beside where the mine was. “It was the waste water from the refinery and smelt atrocious. Certainly not a gem.” With another long heavy yawn you sat back, your eyes falling closed. Doflamingo looked down at the feeling of your body settling against his chest, asleep once again. His fingers twitched at the sight, part of him toyed with the idea of just setting you down on the sofa or taking you back to your room but stopped himself. After all he’d promised he wouldn’t interfere with your sleep ever again and this was just him keeping his word.  

Suddenly the den den mushi began to ring and you slightly stirred, causing Doflamingo’s hand to settle against your head while the other lifted the receiver to answer before you could wake. Immediately you settled and a small sigh broke from your lips. “Joker? Is now a good time?”

“Yes, everything is fine. The previous situation was dealt with but I’ll have to keep this brief.” Doflamingo began, managing to contain his rage against this disgusting weasel who thought they could ever succeed in getting the better of him and steal from him. “Given the amount of weapons and manpower I’ll be now giving you, you’ll have to come to me to collect it. The last thing I want is for my precious cargo to be at risk without ample protection and your ships will be more than enough.”

“O-oh well if you think that’d be best, Joker then who am I to argue?”

“Indeed..” Doflamingo grinned. “Give me your location and I’ll send my closest representative to escort you to the island I’m staying at. I promise you and your men will be given the best welcome.”

“Joker, your kindness is truly great. There’s no need for pirates as lowly as us.”

“Nonsense, you all deserve it.” Doflamingo chuckled. “We’ll see you soon.” 

----------------------------------------------

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[soscarlett1twas]

Been thinking about Andrew and Luca.

There’s something so special to me about these two men — outwardly, very different people, but they’re just so alike internally: both having a pretty isolated upbringing with little to no friends, then being thrust into college life and discovering love… and that’s where we see a rift. The outcome of that relationship diverts the course of their emotional journeys. That is, until they meet eachother.

Luca found success where Andrew did not. Luca’s college relationship landed him a fiancé, while Andrew’s was the first in a long chain of loneliness. Isaac left him, then his brother did, and all Andrew had was the choice to either drown in his feelings, or drown in work. He chose work. And that pivoted them to meet, as without Andrew’s drive, he never would have become the young professor Luca TA’d for. He built himself wax wings to soar; but we all know the end of that myth.

Luca, meanwhile, was with the love of his life. Someone who supported him relentlessly for simply being him. It’s pretty clear they have a set-in-stone happily ever after, for as much as even I don’t believe in them. But what’s interesting about this is that Luca is the abandoner. He left his family back in the US. He is happy without them, but he is also not the person who stayed. And we know he was going to — he admits to having planned returning to the States after uni. But he didn’t, because he found love. Love he figured was worth (physically) leaving his family and life for.

Sound familiar? Takes a similar bent to a certain twin’s, doesn’t it.

So it’s those choices which force them to meet. Andrew’s delve into work and Luca’s “running away.” Luca is initially terrified of Andrew while Andrew just sees Luca as his new TA. Both completely fair POVs.

That works for like a week, then Andrew and Darling’s scandal breaks. (An affair which I will say only happened because of Andrew’s crippling loneliness. Andrew wouldn’t have broken his morals so deeply if it weren’t for that fact he literally had nobody else, so desperate for some form of love that he turned to a damn student.) Darling, in the heat of their argument, pins some blame on Luca, accusing Andrew of having a fling with Luca. It’s ludicrous, and I doubt even Darling actually believed that, but it strikes a nerve with Andrew.

Something similar happens with Luca and Babe later. While it’s not as severe an accusation, Babe is jealous of the blooming friendship between our dear Marston and Pearce. Luca assures them that there is nothing going on because literally nothing is, except for the fact that both of their listeners have only observed these two lacking in something, which can be described in a lump sum as friendship.

It’s a rare moment of almost… misunderstanding? For the listeners? Luca and Andrew are both made better by their listeners. ‘Better’ in little, esoteric ways — parallel to the nature of love itself, because is love if not for the little things? — but better nonetheless. So I think to see that little spark of fulfillment in your partner fueled by another person was a moment of yes, misunderstanding.

Because they do begin to fulfill eachother.

Luca calls Andrew more of a ‘big brother’ than anything else. Andrew is the family Luca left behind. And Luca is Andrew’s friend, a role once taken by the people who left him, and it is not a job that can be taken up by a partner — romantic and platonic love are not the same, after all.

This all comes to a head when Andrew and Luca have their talk. The details are a little obscure, but from what I’ve picked up, it seems they spoke about engagement. Luca’s proposal to Babe, specifically.

This is the climax of two things: first, the building of a friendship between two people who spent their lives pretty devoid of that and two, their crossroads. Luca wants to have his family again, only this time, with the person he loves more than anything. Andrew is going steady with Darling and is in the position to have a heart-to-heart with someone who is coming to him as a friend, as a brother, even if Luca never fully expressed that to Andrew.

And it works out. Even if hidden in the vibrant hues of an Icarian crash and burn from Andrew (him losing his job), there are still strokes of bliss. Babe says yes. Luca and Andrew’s friendship grows. Darling and Andrew living peacefully, above all else, together.

Luca and Andrew aren’t even amazing friends, but still, they’re parallels and foils all at once.

They are eachothers closure and openings to a new life. They are brief moments, those passing friends who you see only so often, but still the shifting in a current. Because you don’t need some big, romantic love affair to be changed — you don’t even need a really good friend, you just need a friend.

Somebody.

And I think that’s neat.

[py-dreamer]

Yea!!! Can you tell I have favorites lol

so since it's the 20th in my time, it is officially my birthday today!

But I wanted to get this out regardless so kinda count it as the previous day's ig

I will be posting something later today probably but it will most likely just be a compilation of all the cakes I've done thus far.

Ok but um on with the cake!

It's like a cheesecake and I basically copied Tengen's cake with like a jelly filling with fruit suspended in it, peaches (obviously), strawberries and blueberries cause I like them and sod it I'll put them on this goddamn cake!

The thing Wukong's sitting on is one of those peach ice creams that's gotten so popular lately with the sprinkle of pink dust thingy on top.

On either side of the cake is the fillet from the journey and the hat from the brotherhood era, one from his reckless past and one from his redemption and I just think that's neat.

The blue puffy stuff is meant to be his nimbus clouds represented as cotton candy.

I have the baiju jar in there as reference to Wukong becoming immortal again due to the all the wine made from the peaches of immortality at the festival.

The staff as a little candle was so fun! And I like pocky so I chucked them on there to fill space and it looks good so sue me

The grey thing behind the staff and balloon is meant to be the Buddha's hand that trapped him under the mountain and a reference to his imprisonment under 5 phases mountain.

Peach popsicle! Of course I had too! A lil something from the present for our (shadow) peachy friend

Mk's stone as well, had to add his son in there too. The baby ever.

(probably just a cookie but it's the thought that counts)

The two sugar cookies are meant to be his logo (aka the lmk logo) and fireworks, again taken from Tengen's cake.

The sun is a candied/tanghulu esque orange thing. Like an orange slice coated in yellow melted sugar shaped like a sun and the phoenix feather cap since I consider it iconic enough to put in here. I didn't want to put it on him, blocking a lot of the decorations so I just hung it to the side and I think I'm happy with that.

A lot more monkeys here! It was very fun popping them in! I know I only gave Mac 1 but I mean Wukong's the monkey king for a reason. Let him be a loving grandpa and invite his subjects on the cake with him. He granted them immortality by ripping their names out the book of dead, let them have a place on the cake too

Also, yes that is the origami pilgims in the bottom left, I couldn't leave them alone could I?

Now the elephant in the room (or at least in my head), yes I did use @maplesleep's matcha pancake design for flower fruit mountain.

Cake on cake. Bit much but hey, I like cake and pastries better than candy normally so win for me.

And I couldn't just make cake about Sun Wukong without mentioning his home/origins of ffm. I do genuinely love the inginuity and adorableness factor of the pancake design and hope they don't mind me slapping it on my...cheesecake? Jelly cake? Jelly-cheesecake?

(also I have to ask @maplesleep, did you watch the 3rd emirichu anime cafe video, specifically the urusei yatsura cafe as inspiration for the 'sun wukong's strawberry sponge cake punishment' parfait thingy, gorgeously drawn btw I used those drawings as inspiration quite a bit for these cakes, or saw the urusei yatsura collab anime cafe

cause I couldn't help but notice the similarities between that and the 'shinobu's maiden strength parfait' cause if you didn't that be a pretty funny coincidence lol)

So what do you think? You think I could make it as another lmk food chef for lego? Can I join the club lmao?

I do realize in retrospect the disrespect I did Mk by making his cake so plain by comparison to his mentor's. But I think that's a testament to my improvement and attention to detail when making these cakes as the days have progressed!

I consider Mk's in particular to be the most lacking and I lowkey feel so bad for my boi for not giving him the main character status he deserves.

I might draw him again, idk. Not anytime soon though, like I said, I'm quite busy now more than before and I need a break, still glad I could serve y'all another slice of cake though!

[mama-qwerty]

Okay, so I'm working on the next chapter of Lost and Found, and rewatched the little Master Emerald backstory scene for details.

I just noticed something.

Tails said that with the Master Emerald, "a single warrior could defeat entire armies".

Could.

That's not the same as did.

I know it's speculated that this version of what happened wasn't the full truth, as history is written by the victors and all that. So it's very likely that the owls aren't the benevolent heroes that Sonic and Tails were led to believe. And they read this account in an owl temple, which would of course make the owls out to be the good guys, and the echidna out to be the bad guys, with no gray area in between.

Now, based on game lore, we know that the echidna did go after the Master Emerald with the intention of using its power for themselves. But movie lore isn't the same, or at least isn't following the same beat-for-beat game story. So there could be some play there.

Another thing that pokes at me is the masks the echidna from all those years ago wear. They look suspiciously bird-like to me, in much the same vein as the ones Knuckles' tribe wore more recently. With the latter, you could see that as an "I'll wear the skin of my enemies to scare them in battle" kinda thing, but why would echidna from ages ago wear bird masks, if they didn't already have a beef with the owls?

So maybe the owls and echidna were already beefing, and in an attempt to either defend themselves, or end the war before more blood was shed, the echidna formed the Master Emerald. This scared the owls shitless, and they decided nuh uh, that ain't fair, and decided to remove the ME from the echidna and just hide it away, thereby doing an about face and making themselves out to be such kindly and good-hearted folks to have 'saved the galaxy' from the 'horrible danger' that the echidna presented.

Or

The owls were the ones who coerced the echidna into forming the Master Emerald in the first place.

Maybe the two species coexisted in peace for the most part, but there was a faction of the owls that wanted more. Maybe the echidna at the time were more pacifists, and content with guarding or protecting the island and gems more than anything.

Maybe there was an order of echidna that trained under the owls as warriors, under the guise of becoming better guardians for those they protected. They didn't seek power or want to conquer, they simply wanted to keep their loved ones and home safe.

But the owls took advantage of this desire, and convinced them to form the seven chaos emeralds into a single gem, one that held unimaginable power. One the owls hoped to use as a weapon, perhaps against the echidna themselves.

Once the ME was formed, it grew too powerful, too tempting for the echidna to resist, and one single echidna warrior became fused with it, possibly by accident, becoming more powerful than any before.

The owls, not wanting to fess up to being the ones who planted the idea for the echidna to do this, stepped up as the heroes of the galaxy, bravely fighting this power mad echidna for the good of all.

The echidna, feeling betrayed, now have a royal beef with the owls, and vow to retrieve what they'd been tricked into creating, and then had stolen away from them. So they truly were looking to restore their honor, because the owls had taken advantage of them, and pushed them to do something that went against their very nature and code.

I hope this makes sense, I'm just spitballing off the top of my head.

I don't know if we'll ever discover the whole truth to what happened when the ME was formed, but am certain that there's no clear good and bad in this.

[boneyardbob]

Whoops I said I’d post this like three days ago my bad. Head canons for the masks in Marble Hornets! I may post a bunch of shorter stuff that are general headcanons soon. Also if you want more details on this lmk I’d love to dive deeper @forgottenporkbun @monszsterz

Here's my headcanons for the masks. Honestly I could go on like a huge, rambling essay about why I think these things, my inspo for these ideas, down to the details of what they feel like and how they work but Imma try and keep this short. I plan to put all that other stuff in my fics anyway and if you're reading this you'll probably wanna read my MH fics so you'll figure it out eventually. The idea that Tim and Brian made their mask with stuff from Hobby Lobby is REALLY funny but I have to stick with the idea the masks are gifts from The Operator (TO). Tim got his in college because if he was given it at any point while in the hospital, it would probably be found and taken away. TO waited until Tim was free before gifting it. Its when their "relationship" begun. TO switched from this unfamiliar, constantly looming monster into this warped guardian angel. This is obviously very fleeting because by the time Jay runs into Tim in MH, he's forgotten this entirely, or repressed it, and is back to viewing TO how he did his entire childhood.

During the tail end of college, while filming Alex's project, is when this Masked Era began and it ended for an unknown reason a quarter of the way into MH. My timeline isn't great but roughly that's the situation we're talking about. This is when we get all those videos of Masky and Hoody stalking Jay and Alex. I don't think I could fully call Tim and TO's relationship that of worship but that's the closest I can get. Tim knew what he was dealing with was some kind of unimaginable creature, but it could feel human emotions FOR HIM. At least if he listened. If Tim did what TO wanted, then in return he got benefits. At some point he understood TO needed him-either to keep living or to stay grounded to earth, and things got a little extra toxic. I imagine its a LOT like the Fears and their respective Avatars in TMA. I use you to get food, I give you powers that make it easier for you to get food, win win.

These benefits were really only accessed when wearing his mask. The more he wore it and the more work he put in for TO, the better things got. At the very least it instantly cleared up his lungs so he could breathe easily, he no longer suffered from migraines, he didn't have any hallucinations that weren't purposeful messages from TO, and most debilitating affects from mental disorders were gone so he wouldn't feel depressed or anxious. Fuck if I had a magical mask that made me neurotypical and took away my chronic illness I'd kill people in the woods too/j. More benefits were added on with time like growing stronger, healing faster, its kinda giving the vampires from Twilight ngl. My RP partner and I make a LOT of Twilight vampire jokes about them. It also spiraled Tim into a euphoric mania, giving him the energy and desire to sprint around the woods all hours of the night. This was an addictive sensation that had him craving his mask. He had to share it with someone.

His closest (and really only) friend at the time was Brian so he opened up to him about it and eventually got him involved. Because of Tim's medication and natural resilience to TO he eventually got OUT of this cult-like situation but Brian couldn't. He got to the point he was constantly under that mask and if he took it off for long enough, he'd probably suffocate and die. This explains why he ends up homeless, constantly in his mask state, and seems to have uncanny abilities. He just disappears into thin air, he seems to be doing physically GREAT despite living on a mattress in the woods with no source of food or money, and we only ever hear him cough. That ties back into my idea their vocal cords melt due to the TO disease. He can take the mask off for short bits of time. Its not like an astronauts helmet, more so an oxygen tank while hiking a tall mountain.

[terrarium-of-mistakes]

Don't you just love it when you're trying to find something that does exist. This information is known. But because of googl's inability to understand you aren't starting from zero, all you get is "Oh, you want to know about this? Here's the basic surface level information (that isn't even correct)."

Then you think you finally found a keyword to refine your search and now it's all "hmmm, a interior decorator I see." Or it's "HEY BUY BUY BUY BUY YOUR SHIT YOU STUPID IDIOT"

I JUST WANT TO KNOW THE ACTUAL COLORS OF FIREEEEEEEEEEEE

[stairset]

I think the portrayal of Spider-Man 2099 in Across the Spider-Verse is in-character in that aside from like Shattered Dimensions he's always been portrayed as a bit of an asshole who slips into anti-hero territory at times and generally has a "needs of the many over the needs of the few" mindset and given his specific circumstances in the movie it's not unreasonable to think he could take the actions he does. However it does kinda suck that since like 99% of moviegoers had no idea who he was before the movie came out their first impression of him is when he's in an antagonistic role and people think "antagonist" and "villain" are synonyms so now I'm gonna have to listen to people who've never read a comic saying he's a villain or isn't a real Spider-Man for the rest of time or at least until he inevitably changes his mind in the third one.

[fluffs-n-stuffs]

"Cuhut it out- you guys!" "Nu-uh, not until you're all perked up first! You don't want those gym challengers meetin' with an ol' mopey leader, do ya?" "Whitney's right, dear friend. No need to hide that beautiful smile of yours, alright?~"

What it takes to cheer up Johto's beloved ghost boy 👻💕

[puppyeared]

Atla live action 😐

[sysig]

Red Eyes and Evil Time, practically the same thing right (Patreon)

[skitskatdacat63]

Orb...

+ process kinda

[triglycercule]

i love doodling swapinverse like hello drawing characters aside from the normal mtt is lowkey therapeutic 🧡🧡🧡 anyways i FINALLY FINALLY finished crash's lore!!!! and vice.SER is connected to him,,,, theyre interconnected!!! i forgot how much i liked crash's design (not the design but all the little gimmicks in the design. figuring out all the hanging ribbon bits is annoying but hey it looks good)

[thegirlwholied]

retcons. they're a writing tool. they're not fundamentally a bad tool. though I greet them more often with an "ugh, retcon" than a "nice, retcon"-

and that's often because they're overwrites. sometimes carelessly so, the 'didn't pay enough attention to what came before'/'guess I changed it' route. And sometimes retcons are the 'that's not the story I want to tell now or I can do better than that' route.

Andor is doing the second type of retcon, and interestingly so, because there wasn't a whole lot there to retcon *and yet* they are managing to do that.

When Rogue One came out, Disney dropped a bunch of expanded universe material. The NEW expanded universe, because they'd already ditched the old one, to avoid conflicts; this new one could be consistent (ha, ha, ha).

In those 2016 detail books we got the facts on Cassian Andor's backstory: from the planet Fest (clearly carefully chosen for its old EU history), father killed during a protest against militarization on Imperial Academy planet Carida (another world with EU history), involved with a Separatist cell from age 6 on...

Anddd anyone who'd read those extended materials knew Andor the show was ditching that backstory within seconds of him dropping the name 'Kenari' in context that was immediately clear it was his home planet. I appreciated at least getting a nod to the backstory we had since 2016 with dropping that his 'cover story' planet was Fest. They definitely were aware and chose not to go that route. And that's OK! they have a story they want to tell, they're digging into some interesting themes and meanings and...

Well. Either way it's a retcon. A minor one that 97% of the audience will never notice or care about. And yes they're still keeping to the spirit of that key line in Rogue One-

"I've been in this fight since I was six years old"

- clearly the mining disaster on Kenari presumably happened when Cassian was six years old. So his childhood was ruined by the Empire then and he's been resisting them ever since, it's not that it renders it untrue it's just-

it's just that he's pulling a moral high ground with that line over Jyn whose life was also ruined by the Empire at eight years old and was raised as a child soldier by Saw Gerrera, a character whose very name is designed to evoke guerilla warfare...?

I mean a Cassian who's already been in prison and is scrapping by and sticking it to the Imperials all he can, drawing those character parallels between them even closer then are we, but the whole crux of that (excellently written & filmed I'm still not over it) argument hinges on Cassian's relationship with/committment to the Rebellion above all else. The show's retcon has just... shortened that relationship. By quite quite a bit.

And there is now some unintentional irony, from this retcon, if Jyn was actually (via Saw's cell) part of the Rebellion longer than Cassian.

...it's fine, it's fine, tbh watch them retcon Jyn's backstory soon enough, it's a very minor retcon and maybe future episodes will reveal Cassian has been doing more actual rebelling than it seems and... nonetheless. Ugh retcon.

[medicinemane]

I think it's actually fairly simple to explain why no one wants to hear how exercise or sleep or staying hydrated might help with stuff like mental health

...I think that even when people are receptive to that, and it would help, that usually there's some kind of block in the way or they'd already be doing it

Could be they don't know how and need someone to teach them, could be there's some obstacle like transit in the way, or it could just be a mental block... but regardless, they might even like to do the thing but currently for one reason or another they can't

When you get met with "yeah, but just do it"... that's likely to create some hostility and unwillingness to listen

That's my thoughts anyway

[jvzebel-x]

🦋